Authors Notes: Kind of funny that both of my Naruto stories are entering the Chuunin Exams at the same time.
Anyways, last chapter the girls finally made it to Konoha, with poor Morgiana having to deal with Kiba and his 'I'm an alpha, and you will submit to me' attitude. Though it did allow Xion to get a jab in at how their village views loyalty and commitment. Not to mention the initial meeting between Naruto and Aqua, and their coded message to one another, which lead to the final reunion between Naruto and his girls.
We also got to see more of Hiruzen's plot to further torment Naruto, with his latest plan of targeting Sakura during the second phase of the exams in hopes of mentally breaking Naruto.
Now, as for the Blood Clone. I knew that I wanted Naruto to use a blood clone to act as a decoy, but I also didn't want to make it so that he could simply create one on the spot. So, opted for a ritual of sorts to create a blood clone that requires knowledge and understanding of Fuinjutsu. In which Naruto would have to create an array of seals in a circle on the floor, with himself and the blood in the very center.
The amount of blood used is roughly 50ml, give or take.
Not too much, but at the same time, not something he can just do with reckless abandon. Of course the time consuming part comes from chakra being added to the blood to allow it to form into the actual blood clone. Especially for Naruto, since he has to combine his own chakra and Kurama's chakra at the same time.
So there you have it, for those of you who were curious as to my use of the blood clone technique.
Review Corner
HyperA2019 – Hiruzen won't die, but I do have something planned for him, and the others involved with Naruto's kidnapping.
Unlimited Fic Works – Yes, Emily is around. I wanted her in the harem early on, but she didn't get enough votes, sadly. Though she will make an appearance in future chapters as one of the girls friends.
Antex-The Legendary Zoroark – Spoiler Alert, Kiba is going to get paired up against Morgiana during the preliminaries. And it is going to be a one sided fight. As already stated, the girls are well above mere genin.
RonanTheAccuser – No, Orochimaru is on his own side. Kushina is just using his invasion as a distraction to have her own missions carried out. One of course being the extraction of her son, and the second being the special mission she had assigned Corvo.
Pay0505 – Yup, the same Nagato. While they are not active, he does have the Rinnegan still. We'll see a bit more of him during the exams. Though for obvious reasons, he will not like Kakashi.
JintoLin – I loved that part as well, I figured Aqua would be the best choice to be the first to run into Naruto, since she is more in control of her emotions. Though as seen, she does have her limits when she squealed like a school girl once she arrived back at the hotel.
For Aqua's near slip up, no one of note to worry about noticed. As for Sakura, fear not. Naruto will protect her and now that he is no longer being hindered by seals, his skills are more then enough to handle a few rookie ROOT members.
Kiba will survive, but he may have a sudden fear of the color pink for awhile after the match.
Romance Breeding and Story Artist (Guest Reviewers) – Both of you make a fair point that there is a lack of representation of dark skinned girls in the harem, and even in the series. I will see what I can do to remedy this by the next chapter.
Gear's Creed – I have no current plans to add lemon scenes to this particular story. As stated, should that I happen, I will make the proper changes.
Harem – Anko, Aqua, Esdeath, Kairi, Koyuki, Morgiana, Pyrrha, Rory, Sakura, and Xion
Now then, on with the show!
Remember Me
Chapter 7
All five of the girls silently seethed in anger and disgust as their blonde lover had finished his tale of what had exactly happened on his end. How he had two seals placed upon him that blocked his memories and made him loyal to only the Hokage, and by extension, Konoha. Though each silently thankful that Kurama's chakra had finally managed to break the seals that had kept their love subdued. What even infuriated them further was how the old bastard had allowed the village to treat Naruto. Everything from the beatings to being sabotaged in his schooling. Even further, when the girls learned that Hiruzen had lied to Naruto about his parents, playing them off as some poor civilians that died during the Kyuubi attack.
Which begged the question, why did Hiruzen allow Naruto to keep his name?
From what both Kurama and Naruto could determine, it was simply because his Uzumaki blood would not allow him to forget his proud heritage. While the memory seal worked to make him forget his mother and those close to him, he always remembered his name. The young blonde had recalled when Hiruzen had attempted to have him be named Menma, only for Naruto to correct him every time that his name was Naruto, not Menma.
After a few days, the elder Hokage had given up on changing the jinchuriki's name and came up with a bullshit cover story that he had given the orphaned boy the name of Kushin'a missing son in honor of the lost boy. If only just to ward off any suspicions from Kushina's close friends that still resided within the village. The civilian families ate it up, as did most of the Shinobi clan heads, with only Tsume of the Inuzuka clan showing any signs of suspicion. If the feral woman did suspect anything, she kept it to herself.
"And that's pretty much it." Naruto finished with a sigh.
"Wait, did that old bastard really try to change your name to Menma?" Rory inquired with a sneer.
"Yeah." The blonde teenage boy sighed. "Son of a bitch wanted to completely erase my identity. There was also several times he tried to take my necklace from me, though thanks to the seals Kaa-chan put on it, it never worked."
"Um, speaking of which." Naruto frowned in confusion. "Why are you girls here, not that I am complaining."
This of course earned a round of giggles from the girls.
"Well, after we felt Kurama-sama's chakra signature, Kushina-sama speculated that it came from Wave Country and sent us to investigate it." Aqua began with a soft smile, as it was the day that hope reignited in all of them.
'Explains why Xion-chan has Zabuza's old sword.' Kurama commented, earning a mental nod from the blonde.
"We missed you by a week." Kairi commented sadly.
"Sorry." Naruto sheepishly rubbed the back of his head.
"But it's okay now." The red haired girl smiled and latched onto the blonde. "After we learned you were here, Kushina-sama sent us here to bring you back home. We can leave tomorrow!"
At this, all of the other girls agreed. However, it didn't go unnoticed that Naruto didn't show the same excitement. Slowly, the blonde shook his head with a sigh, though before the girls could ask him why, he turned his head and looked at a near by tree.
"You can come out now, Anko-chan." He called out, much to the confusion of the girls.
After a few seconds of silence, the lithe form of Konoha's snake mistress came into view as she stepped out from behind the tree that Naruto had been looking at. A mixture of surprise, concern, and a bit of sadness evident on her face as she slowly approached the group. While she knew of the girls and Naruto's connection to them, she was still surprised to see all five of them here within the village. Especially hearing that they were here specifically to find him, and bring him back home.
This was also why the normally confident snake mistress was feeling concerned. Now that the girls from Berukagure were here, more specifically, they were here for him. Not the Chuunin Exams, but for Naruto himself. Despite how ludicrous it seemed, Anko felt a sense of fear fester to life within her that now that Naruto had a means to escape, he would abandon her. However, her musings were cut short when she felt a pair of arms embrace her.
"I know what you're thinking Hebi-hime." The blonde smiled at her. "I will not abandon you. We stick to the plan."
"Umm, Naruto-kun, who is she?" Kairi asked, with the others each looking to their blonde beloved
"Ah, forgive me." Naruto stated with a small bow in apology for the lack of introductions. "Ladies, this is Anko Mitarashi, she will be coming with us back to Berugakure. Anko, these are my fiances I told you about."
"Hey there." Anko greeted cheerfully. Though Naruto could see that it was a front that she was putting on. He knew she was scared. Scared that he would leave her, and scared that the girls would not accept her.
"Nice to meet you, I'm Kairi." Kairi smiled, embracing the snake mistress in a hug, much to Anko's shock.
"I am Aqua." The blue haired young woman introduced herself with a smile. "And on behalf of all of us, I would like to thank you for looking after Naruto-kun."
"It was nothing." Anko tried to wave it off as no big deal. "I didn't do much actually."
"You did more then you can imagine, just for being there for him when we couldn't." Xion stated, before introducing herself. "Name's Xion by the way."
"Xion-chan is right, Anko-chan." Rory commented with her own smile. "I'm Rory, also known as the Reaper."
"Wait, you're Rory the Reaper!?" Anko exclaimed in shock that someone so young had earned such a reputation throughout the Elemental Nations. Especially since she begun to earn her alias when she was only seven.
"He he, yup." The ruby eyed, black haired girl giggled, scratching the back of her head sheepishly.
"We all took Naruto-kun's disappearance hard. Rory-chan just decided to use every bandit camp she saw to take out her frustration for an entire week." Morgiana explained just how her future sister wife got her title. "By the way, I am Morgiana."
"Well ladies, looks like we got a new future sister-wife." Aqua grinned, teasingly bopping Naruto on the head lightly, which prompted him to nervously chuckle while scratching the back of his head.
Anko however was in tears. Through out her years living in Konoha, she would have never have dreamed of being so easily accepted by the others. Not to say she didn't have any friends within the village, but their number was small. While there was no end to the people who would fake sympathy and concern all for a chance to get into her pants. Of course once they were denied, they always showed their true colors.
Seeing this, the five girls brought the snake mistress in for a comforting hug. Each whispering their own comforting words to the young woman.
"So, what's this about a plan?" Aqua inquired, once Anko had calmed down.
"Well, Anko-chan and I were already planning on leaving the village during the finales." Naruto begun to explain. "As it is customary for there to be a month break in between the second phase of the exam and the finals, and with all the Daimyos, Kage's, and other other foreign visitors, it would be easier to sneak out and be long gone before anyone noticed we were missing. Especially since I am planning on leaving a Blood Clone behind with Kurama's chakra to throw them off the scent for awhile."
"During the finals?" Xion asked, earning a nod from the snake mistress and the blonde.
"That's when Orochimaru is suppose to be invading Konoha." Rory commented.
At the mention of Orochimaru, Anko immediately snapped her attention to the black haired girl.
"Did you say Orochimaru?"
"Yes, he plans to invade Konoha during the final matches." Morgiana answered.
"Yeah, the snake bastard plans on using the Suna shinobi as cannon fodder while he holds his own shinobi back." Rory commented with a sneer. "Not to mention, he will be using Suna's Jinchuriki to spear head the attack."
Naruto could see the anger rising up within the snake mistress at the mention of her former sensei's name, and that he was going to be within the village during the exams. Reaching up, he gently guided Anko's face to his own, allowing him to stare into her eyes.
"I know how you feel about that bastard Anko-chan." He spoke softly. "But don't let your vendetta jeopardize our main goal. I promise you, Hebi-hime, if he survives this invasion of his, we will track him down and kill him ourselves. But first, let's focus on getting out of this hell hole."
"You're right, Naruto-kun." The snake mistress agreed. "I'm sorry for letting my emotions get to me. I just want to see that bastard drown in his own blood for what he did to me, um speaking of which, how do you know so much about his plan?"
"Probably Corvo-oji-san." The blonde chuckled, earning nods from the five girls. "He is my mothers number one spy master and assassin. He never explained how he does it, but he can get into any place without detection."
"Yup." Kairi agreed.
"Well, initially our mission was to find and extract Naruto-kun." Aqua began with a smile. "But we will not leave you behind, Anko-chan. We will report to Kushina-sama our findings, and of the change of plans and continue to partake in the exams as normal."
"However," Naruto sighed. "The hard part will be for us to continue to act like we don't know each other until we leave. Meaning this will be the only time we can really be together."
All five of the girls look disheartened at this, but they knew their blonde beloved had a point. During the exams, he wouldn't be able to keep his blood clone up to run distraction. So they all would have to act as if they didn't recognize him, with the exception of Anko, though even she wouldn't be able to be open with the blonde as she had already been selected to be the proctor of the second phase of the exams.
"If that's the case, let's make this night count." Rory stated as she wrapped her arms around Naruto, planting a firm kiss on the blonde teens lips. Of course this prompted a perverted giggle from the snake mistress.
"Not like that Anko-chan." Morgiana chuckled, sensing the snake mistresses line of thought.
"That comes later." Aqua added with a mischievous grin.
'Hey kit, maybe you should put that seal on them you've been working on.' Kurama reminded his host. 'That way everyone who bares the seal will know when another is in danger, and their location.'
'That's actually a good idea.' Naruto mentally nodded.
"Would you girls mind if I put a seal on you?" Naruto suddenly asked, catching all of the girls attention.
"Um, what does it do, Naruto-kun?" Kairi asked.
"Kurama and I have been working on it for awhile. Anyone who has the seal will be able to feel when another is in danger, and give a rough location of where they are." The blonde replied.
"I trust you Naruto-kun." Xion stated as she stepped forward, volunteering to be the first one to have the seal placed upon her.
Nodding, Naruto took out his fuinjutsu ink and brush and set to work on the seal, which he had decided to put on her right shoulder blade. He really didn't have a fancy name for it, and settled for just calling it a "Lover's Seal", since he only planned on placing it on his loved ones. What made these special and what really linked the seals together, was that each seal was infused with a small amount of Kurama's chakra. Just enough to power the seal, though still too little to cause any damage to the person.
One by one, each of the girls got the seal placed upon them. All in the same location, due to how easy it would be to hide it, and also the fact that it was easier for Naruto to get to without putting his girls in any embarrassing positions. Even Anko got the seal placed upon her, though she had teased the young blonde that she wanted it on her left breast. Though much to her dismay, Naruto had politely refused with a severe blush on his face.
Once done, the girls had decided that if tonight was going to be the only time they were going to be able to be with their beloved, they were going to sleep under the stars and make the most of the little time they had together. Each laying down in a circle with their heads facing the inside of the circle, so that they could all be close to one another.
Hokage's Office, Next Morning
Hiruzen hummed a happy tune to himself as he sat down at his desk and began to sift through the pile of paper work that had already accumulated in the few short hours the village had woken up. Still, he did nothing to sour his mood.
Why?
Because Danzo had agree to send a small team of three freshly trained ROOT recruits to kill the Haruno girl. Though there was a slight disagreement on what village the team should be from. Hiruzen had insisted that they ROOT recruits wear the Berukagure headband, to try and force the jinchuriki to lash out at his former village in anger and implant a sense of hatred towards it.
Danzo however, had argued against it. Stating that it would be best if his ROOT recruits simply posed as a neutral village. Citing that it would help in the long run and make the weapon more open to attacking any target ordered to without question, instead of relying on a grudge against just one village. Reluctantly, Hiruzen had conceded, as the old war hawk had a point. It would do him or the village any good if the weapon was only focused on one target.
However, his cheerful tune quickly ceased when he picked up the previous days sign in sheet from the main gates of the village. Seeing a series of names, as well as the village of their origin. Berugakure. Upon reading the names of the visitors and the name of the village, all the color drained away from his face as he felt a chill go up his spine. All the while cursing himself for calling the council meeting the previous day to go over the major and minor details of the Chuunin Exams, thus making it so that he could not spy on the boy throughout most of the day. And when he did finally check on the boy, he was fast asleep in his apartment.
"Boar!" The elder man called out, immediately a large man bearing the boar masked appeared in a kneeling position in front of the village leader.
"Yes, Hokage-sama?"
"Your team was assigned to follow the Jinchuriki yesterday. Did anyone approach him at any point throughout the day?"
"Not really, sir." The Boar ANBU reported. "He met with his team as instructed and received his slip to enter the Chuunin Exams. The boy did his typical speech about accepting the challenge if he plans to become the Hokage someday. The only event of note was during his visit to the ramen stand, one of the girls from Berukagure entered and ordered six Miso Ramen to go."
"Did it appear that they knew each other?" Hiruzen asked carefully. Knowing full well all of the girls that had come to attend the exams were friends with the boy at some point. Which made him a little suspicious of their arrival.
"No sir." The ANBU replied. "The Jinchuriki had struck up an idle conversation with her and merely wished her luck in the exams before she departed the stand."
'It seems my initial fears were unfounded.' Hiruzen thought to himself. 'It's too late to withdraw the weapon from the exams.' The elder man mentally sighed. 'So long as the seals hold, he will have no memory of them and it appears they have forgotten about him. Good, if anything else, I can use this to motivate him against his former home later.'
"Thank you for your report, Boar." The Hokage stated. "You are dismissed."
Nodding, the Boar masked ANBU disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving the village elder to his own thoughts.
'Even if they are here, the weapon should be close to being mentally broken.' Hiruzen grinned to himself at the thought of finally being able to wield the power of the Kyuubi. 'The Haruno girls death should be the last straw. If not, I may have to arrange an accident with Anko Mitarashi.'
Academy
Naruto let out a tired yawn as he approached the academy to meet up with his team. Despite only having a few hours of sleep, the young blonde felt rather refreshed after spending the night with his fiances for the first time in over seven years. He also found out that Anko was a cuddler, much to the other girls amusement, when the blonde had woken up with the snake mistress wrapped around his body. Having bid his farewells to his fiances, Naruto had quickly made a mad dash towards his apartment and dispelled his Blood Clone before quickly taking a cold shower and getting dressed for the days events.
"Morning Naruto." Sakura greeted the blonde as he approached, biting her lip to prevent her from openly using the -kun suffix she desperately wanted to add to his name. Having come to terms with her crush on the blonde.
"About time you got here, dobe." Sasuke stated as he kicked off the wall he had been leaning against.
"Heh, sorry about that, had a few things to take care of before I came here." Naruto chuckled, while scratching the back of his head.
At this, Sasuke merely grunted in response, while Sakura eyed him suspiciously. The pinkette could tell that her blonde friend was not being completely honest, but had decided not to push the issue. At least for now, though she did make a mental note to corner the blonde teen about it later.
"You two ready?" Naruto asked, earning a confident grunt from the Uchiha, which Naruto took as a 'yes', and a nod from Sakura.
With that, the trio made their way inside the academy. As they made their way up a flight of stairs, they were immediately greeted with a swarm of people crowding around a door that was supposedly the room they were required to enter to start the exams. Though two Chuunin ranked Shinobi were blocking any and all from entering. Being exceptionally rough to a young girl with her brown haired tied up into two buns, giving her sort of a panda like appearance.
"Beat it twerps." One of the Chuunin stated. "You're too weak to even attempt this exam."
"Hey!" The girl exclaimed as she hit the floor, glaring up at her assailant.
One of the chuunin smirked as he went to deliver another powerful kick to the downed kunoichi, only for it to be blocked with a loud crack by the blonde jinchuriki, much to the surprise of those present. Naruto on the other hand merely glared at the man before him.
"You alright?" Naruto asked the kunoichi behind him, earning a nod in confirmation.
However, before anything else could be said, Sasuke had approached the duo with an arrogant smirk.
"Drop the pathetic genjutsu, this is only the second floor." He proudly stated.
Hearing this, many whom had gathered all mentally groaned that they had fallen for such an obvious trick, while others silently made their way up the next flight of steps. Naruto meanwhile, mentally slapped his forehead, since he knew the genjutsu was to weed out those who were not observant enough to make it in the exams. Sakura on the other hand, wasn't so keen to bite her tongue.
"Sasuke," She sighed. "That was to weed out those not ready to take this exam."
"You should listen to your team mate." One of the chuunin stated as he dropped the henge, revealing himself to be an ANBU. "You just paved the way for the death of many potential genin."
"If they are that weak, they shouldn't have become shinobi." Was all Sasuke commented with before ascending up the flight of stairs.
Naruto and Sakura were about to follow before they were stopped by the bun haired girl, and what appeared to be her teammates.
"Um, thank you for helping me back there." The girl stated with a slight bow. "My name is Tenten, Tenten Higurashi. Konoha's weapons mistress."
"Nice to meet you Tenten-san." Naruto replied. "I'm Naruto Uzumaki, Konoha's Prankster King."
This caused the girl now identified as Tenten to giggle as she recalled some of the blondes exploits. While his painting of the Hokage Monument was his most stand out achievement, considering he did it in broad daylight, another incident came to mind for the budding weapon's mistress. One of which involved a fair number of the Hyuuga clan members falling victim of their under garments being laced with itching powder. The only ones spared were most of the branch family, save for Neji, and only a handful from the main branch. Namely Hinata, Hanabi, and surprisingly, Hiashi.
It had been extremely amusing to the bun haired girl to watch her team mate desperately try to now scratch himself during their training sessions. As such an action was not befitting a member of the great Hyuga clan.
"It was very youthful of you to defend Tenten-chan!" An excited teen with a bowl haircut, dressed in a green spandex outfit exclaimed. "I'm Rock Lee, Konoha's Beautiful Green Wild Beast! You must be strong to be able to block such an attack. I would like to spar with you right now!"
"Normally, I would love to take you up on a friendly spar, but we don't want to be late for the exams." Naruto pointed out, earning a nod of agreement from Sakura, as well as Tenten. "But perhaps we can spar later."
"Yosh! You make a great point, Naruto-kun!" Rock Lee exclaimed. "We must hurry to complete this exam. If I fail to complete it, I will do 500 laps around the village on my hands!"
"Is he always like that?" The blonde asked, cocking his head to the side as he watched the excitable young genin dash up the stairs, continuing to rant on about various ludicrous challenges he would do if he failed.
"You have no idea." Tenten sighed. "Good luck in the exams."
With a bow, she departed with her final teammate that had refused to introduce himself.
"Well, shall we?" Naruto asked his pink haired teammate, earning a nod before the two of them departed up the stairs, unaware of a trio of eyes following their movements.
Reaching the top of the stairs, and finally on the floor they were suppose to be on, the two were greeted by the sight of Kakashi waiting for them, with Sasuke leaning against the wall in a bored fashion. The masked jonin eyed the two for a moment, almost as if he wanted to say something about how long it took the two of them to arrive.
"Good, all three of you made it." Kakashi stated with his trade mark eye smile. "Because if even one of you decided not to come, the rest of the team would have been disqualified from the exams."
"Wait, why didn't you warn us about that yesterday?" Sakura asked, a little annoyed that the silver haired man had purposely left out a crucial piece of information.
"Because whether or not you took the exam was up to you." He replied with the same eye smile. "I didn't want anyone to feel they were pressured into taking the exams. But you are here, so, good luck!"
With that, he disappeared into a puff of smoke.
"He's really not the best for pep talk, is he?" Naruto inquired.
"Hn." Was all the Uchiha replied with, while Sakura merely giggled, but agreed none the less.
Nothing left to say, the trio entered the actual exam room.
Jonin Sensei Room
With a small cloud, Kakashi appeared in the room just adjacent to the exam room, separated by a large glass window that was henged to appear like a solid wall from the other side. Allowing all of the Jonin sensei's to monitor their students performance, as well as allowing them to keep an eye out for other things as well.
Looking out the glass window, his eyes immediately locked onto the massive sword on Xion's back. A wave of coldness washing over him as he recognized the five girls who were gathered in the far corner of the room.
'What are they doing here?' He asked himself. 'And that was Zabuza's sword. Why does she have it?'
The only good thing the masked jonin could take away was that neither of the girls seemed to notice Naruto, even when he went on his usual proclamation of passing this exam, just to show everyone he will become Hokage some day. Still, he felt uneasy that five girls who once had a close friendship with the boy was in such close proximity, though he knew there was nothing he could do about it. Kakashi could only imagine the fit the Hokage was having right now. Still, as long as the seals were active, Naruto shouldn't have any memory of his time in his home village.
"It's been awhile, Kakashi-san."
Breaking out of his musing, he lazily turned to the owner of the voice, seeing a fairly tall man with red hair approaching him. A soft smile on his face.
"Nagato-san." Kakashi greeted.
"So you finally decided to become a sensei for a team?" The red haired man inquired.
"There was an exceptional list of students this year." The silver haired man lied effortlessly. Since the only reason he took on the position of being the sensei of Team 7 was to keep an eye on Naruto and train the last surviving Uchiha to be able to control the Jinchuriki in the future.
"Every student is exceptional once you learn how to motivate them." Nagato replied with a smile. Though he could see right through the masked jonin's lies. It was obvious what Kakashi was really doing as the teams sensei. Especially considering the reports they had received from Tazuna and his family in Wave about the interactions between the masked jonin and his students.
"That sword on Xion-san's back…." Kakashi began, curious as to how the girl acquired the sentient blade.
"Ah yes, during a mission, the girls passed through Wave country." The red haired Uzumaki man responded. "As I recall, Xion-san suddenly broke off from the group and went directly towards two graves. As I understand it, the sword chose her to be it's new wielder."
"I see, it must be a great honor for her." Kakashi replied with an eye smile, though on the inside he was seething. Having lost the chance to claim such a blade. 'Damn it, I knew I should have requested some time off to claim the blade.'
Turning their attention back to the class room, both jonin's watched as the number of teams were slowly dwindled down as more and more were caught cheating to answer the questions written on the test. All of which were way above what any normal genin could hope to answer on their own.
One Hour Later
An hour had passed before the written test was finally over, with the remaining teams that had stuck around for the final tenth question passing the first phase of the exam. Ibuki had given his speech about how not everything was as it seemed, and there would be times in their shinobi careers when they would have to face the dilemma of putting themselves in danger to complete the mission and save their comrades, or retreating to prevent injury to themselves.
"Welcome to the Training Ground 44, otherwise known as the Forest of Death." Anko proudly exclaimed to the gathered genin. A malicious smirk on her face.
"The rules here are simple." The snake mistress continued. "You have five days to reach the tower in the center of the training ground. Killing is allowed, which is why all of you will have to sign these waivers that are full of all that legal shit that Konoha is not responsible for your death."
"What if we don't sign?" A nameless genin asked.
"Then you get disqualified and you and your team can run back home to mommy." The purple haired woman bluntly replied.
"Pfft, I'm not afraid." Came Naruto's reply, only to be met with a kunai grazing his cheek, drawing a thing line of blood.
Next thing the blonde knew, Anko was draped over his shoulder, giving his blood a lick before chuckling.
"You know, it's ones like you that die first." She stated loud enough for all to hear, before lowering her voice so only Naruto could here. "Be careful in there."
Letting the blonde genin go, Anko took her spot in the front of the group of genin once more to finish her instructions. Explaining that each team will be given either a Heaven or Earth scroll, and that in order to pass this phase of the exam, each team would have to have one of each. With the exception of the Berugakure team, since they had more members, would require two of each.
Once everything was explained, and the teams got into position at their designated starting gates, Anko issued the signal for the second phase of the Chuunin Exams to start, prompting all the teams to rush into the forest.
Almost immediately, a scream echoed from the trees, signifying the first death.
"Who the hell dies that fast?" Anko asked herself in disbelief.
Additional Authors Notes: And the Chuunin Exams are officially under way.
I decided to opt out of explaining what was going on within the exam room, instead opting to take a view from the Jonin sensei's point of view. Which also allowed Nagato and Kakashi to talk with one another. Also, figured it would make more sense if there was a one way glass separating the two rooms, to make it easier for the sensei's to monitor their students.
Now, I will say that just because Nagato is being friendly to Kakashi, doesn't mean he likes him in any way. He has a job to do for now, and he is going to do it to prevent any unneeded suspicion on him. Rest assured, when the invasion hits, Nagato will have a few choice words for the masked pervert. Namely, Shinra Tensai.
Next chapter will cover what goes on in the forest, and the attempt on Sakura's life. Too bad for Danzo's ROOT, Naruto is not as weak as they were lead to believe. But will have a bit of a lasting effect on the members of Team 7.
Anyways, I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter, and as always, feel free to leave your thoughts in the reviews or hit me up with a private message.