Arriving at the forest of death, it looked like just a normal forest with some larger than normal trees that had a massive gate around it. Was that a giant centipede?

"Welcome to combat training ground forty-four. Or as we call it, the forest of death." Anko said.

"The forest of… death?" several students asked.

"I can handle that! I'm not afraid of anything!" Naruto said. Causing me, and several others to facepalm.

"Oh really?" Anko said, sprinting behind Naruto at a speed that would look like, to others, that she teleported.

"The bodies of tough guys like you litter this forest. Are you sure you're ready to handle something like that?" she asked him, licking the blood from a scratch she had made from the Kunai she had thrown at him.

As she was talking to Naruto, I saw the same creepy person from yesterday with the large amount of chakra making his way over to them. The same chakra that was embedded into Anko. I still wasn't sure how that worked, but from what I knew about chakra, they had to have done it to her. They still gave me the creeps, especially when they returned Ankos' knife to her via their long ass tongue.

Walking up to the front of the crowd, she began giving out instructions

"Now before we begin this test, I have something to hand to you all." She pulled out what looked like a flier. After showing it to us, it was just a standard consent form.

Made sense, considering we were entering what was called the forest of death. Probably so our relatives couldn't go after the village for reparations if we died in the forest. After handing them to someone to be passed around, we all signed them and she continued her explanation of the exam.

"The forest of death is surrounded with a massive fence all the way around. This is where we will have your survival test, and the only way inside is via 45 locked entrances. All of you will enter a different one. You must navigate the different terrain which include, but are not limited to forest and some rivers. At the center of the forest is a locked tower, which you must enter. The keys to the tower come in the form of two scrolls. A heaven scroll, and an earth scroll. You must have one of each scroll to unlock the tower, so naturally, to get the other one, we will have an anything goes battle. Be careful not to reveal which scroll your team has." she began.

A few people asked some questions, but she ended up just mocking them for their stupid questions. Someone asked what they would do about food, another asked if they could quit in the middle of the exam if they couldn't go on. I was honestly kind of excited for this exam; I hadn't had a chance to really let loose since the land of waves. Even then, I couldn't go all out because of the unknown amount of dangers lurking ahead. Here though, it was an exam, so there wouldn't be anything truly dangerous, nothing we weren't capable of surviving anyway.

"There are also a few ways you can be disqualified, so listen up. One: If for whatever reason all three of your team don't make it to the tower. Two: You lose your scrolls and cannot get them back by the end; you need both scrolls by the end of the mission. Three: There are only so many scrolls to go around, so naturally not everyone is going to pass, therefore if you aren't at the tower by the end, you are disqualified. Fourth: Under no circumstances are you allowed to open the scroll. This is to test your integrity if you ever have to transport confidential documents. That is all." she explained.

"What if you drop it, and it just happens to fall open and you read it?" Naruto asked.

"Let me tell you. You. Don't. Want. To. Know." she said with a wink.

"Go over to that booth and exchange your consent forms with a scroll. After that, pick a gate and head inside." Anko said, before dismissing us.

I had already signed the form while she was talking, so I was the first one to go get my scroll. I ended up getting a heaven scroll. Wonder what Shikamaru and Naruto's team would get. I took a stroll around the area and surveyed the prey. Ahem competition. I had decided not to kill any of the Leaf village ninja, but I would still fight them if I encountered any. I would probably kill those sound ninjas though if I met them. Them and the grass ninja gave me the creeps. Not sure why, since I hadn't had even a single conversation with them. Does combat count as a conversation? I did throw the shuriken at the one dude.

During my stroll I found Shikamaru's group, naturally Ino and Sakura were arguing over some trivial thing.

"Hey Shika, how are you doing?" I asked my brother. If I could, I'd help him out during this test.

"Sup Kari? Been better. Not looking forward to this exercise. It looks like it's going to be a drag. Plus I'm dealing with those two" he said, pointing at Sakura and Ino.

"What are they arguing about anyway?" I asked, mildly curious.

"Either about Sauke, or who's uglier… I think. I don't understand girls." Shikamaru said.

"You know… sometimes I also don't understand girls" I said, and got a random thought. Grinning, I decided to add some fuel to the fire.

"Hey, would you both shut up? You're both ugly, and besides, Sasuke is going to end up with Naruto anyway. Remember how they kissed on the day right before we became ninja?" I yelled over at them.

"Wasn't that your fault?" Shika asked.

"Yes, but they don't know that" I said with a chuckle.

"Hey you take that back Kari. Sasuke would never go for a runt like Naruto!" Ino said.

"I am not ugly!" was all Sakura could say.

"Whatever you two say to get yourselves to sleep at night" I said with a grin.

Waving goodbye to Shikamaru, I headed to a random gate.

"See you at the tower Shikamaru" I said.

"How do you know I'll make it to the tower?" he asked.

"Because you're just as smart as me. You'll find a way to keep your team alive" I said, reassuring him.

Entering the forest through a gate, the outside world seemed to disappear as the forest became unnaturally quiet. With the occasional owl hooting, and the random hiss of a snake. I had five days in this place, I better make the most of it. Quickly summoning my Inquisitor's eye, I sent it up into the sky to find out where I was. Turns out I was at the northern edge of the forest. I quickly found the center indicated by the large tower jutting up from the landscape.

I could do this one of two ways; one I just head straight to the tower, or two; I take my time and try to find other teams to take out, so that the other villages get less ninja.

I would have to fight at least one group… If I ended up fighting Leaf ninja, and they also had a heaven scroll, I'd just give it back to them. If my family was going to live in this village, may as well have it as well defended as possible. If I found an enemy ninja… Depending on the circumstances, I would probably kill them. Nothing against them, but they are enemy ninja; they'd probably do the same in my position.

I was honestly in no rush, so I just took my time enjoying the scenery. Most would consider this forest terrifying, or hideous. I am not most. To me this forest was beautiful, with its massive trees, occasional animal noises. Honestly it reminded me of home. I did my first quest in the Duskwood forest, and it looked a lot like this place. I was interrupted in my musings by a trio of Waterfall ninja.

"Well well, look what we have here. A lone girl around in this dangerous forest. Where's the rest of your team?" He asked, clearly looking down on me.

"Why would I tell you? Enemy nin." I said, glaring back at him.

One of them took a step back as my eyes started to glow again.

"Fine, we'll just beat it out of you" he snarled.

I was curious as to what they could do, so I just crossed my arms and waited.

'Xorrion, don't attack, just defend. I want to see what these ninja wishing to be chunin are made of' I said.

'Understood' he replied.

They didn't make me wait long, with all three rushing at me at the same time. One went low, one went high, and one went about middle. Pretty standard. I supposed they had decent teamwork, as all of their hits landed at the same time. Or they would have if not for Xorrion.

About a foot away from me, he grabbed each one of them by their closest appendage. Guy who went low got his foot grabbed, guy who went middle got his elbow stopped, and the guy who went high was stopped with his hands in the air, a kunai in his hand.

"You guys aren't very strong are you?" I asked.

"What the hell is this? What kind of Jutsu did you use?!" one of them asked.

"Like I would tell you. I wouldn't even tell my allies honestly." I told them.

'Crush them. I've seen what I needed from these guys' I said to Xorrion.

'Yes' he said.

Almost as soon as I finished my thought, he closed his vice-like grip on their appendages. I heard bones snap, and they screamed. I didn't prolong their defeat, after all, they were just enemy ninja. They hadn't done anything to me. To kill them, or not to kill them? They had only seen Xorrion, while no one except the Hokage and some Anbu had seen him, everyone would see him soon enough. I decided to let them live with some broken limbs instead of their lives. I did take their scroll though. A heaven scroll, same as mine.

Moving on I guess.

It wasn't long before I encountered another group. They were a group of Rain Village Ninja wearing what looked like dome shaped hats, and jumpsuits. Each one had several umbrellas hanging on their backs.

"Look at the arrogance of this lone Leaf Ninja. Challenging us head on" one of them said

"Yeah, what a fool" another said.

"Uhm… I wasn't challenging you head on. I was just walking by when you three appeared" I said, slightly confused.

"That may as well be the same thing" the third one said.

"Are you all a bunch of idiots?" I asked, somewhat serious.

"Too bad kid, you should have chosen someone else. Now you're gonna die." he said

"Dude did you even… oh forget it. You won't live long anyway" I said, dropping the innocent kid act. If they were going to threaten to kill a lone kid, they deserved death.

"Just remember… you chose this…." I said, letting loose my control over my chakra. I also let Xorrion have free reign. Violet-black shadows started creeping up from beneath my feet and encircling my body as they rose.

"Well what do we have here? Is there more room for this party?" I heard a voice.

I looked over to see another trio of people approaching. One was the red haired kid with the gourd on his back, one was the blonde girl from the test, and the third was that guy who had left to go to the bathroom.

"I suppose, what do you want?" I asked.

"Gaara here wants to fight something apparently. We don't even know what scroll you guys have, and he just insisted on coming." the guy in the black jumpsuit with fake ears on his head said.

"Shut up Kankuro, these four must die" the redhead said.

"Kankuro, you know better than to argue when he's like this" the blonde said.

"If you want to fight, you'll have to wait until I'm done with these three. They wanted a fight first" I said, gesturing to the idiots beside me.

"How dare you ignore us! We'll kill you all" he yelled.

"That's okay, I didn't need ears anyway. Could you at least try to keep your voice to a dull roar?" I asked.

"Insolence!" he yelled again before attacking. He drew his umbrella from his back, and opened them up all at once. As he threw them all into the sky, he made a couple seals with his hands.

"This is gonna be annoying, better watch out" I said to the newcomers.

"Die! 'Ninja Art: Senbon Rainstorm!' " the guy yelled. That was getting old.

His umbrellas ominously hanging in the air started to spin rapidly, generating a bit of a wind current and picking up some dust. Then thousands upon thousands of needles came flying out of his umbrella, and quickly picking up speed. From the way his hands were positioned, I could tell he was controlling them himself. As he started bragging about the accuracy of his spell, all I could think was that he was leaving himself pretty open.

And like I thought, he directed all of them to hit the two of us. Kankuro and the blond girl apparently forgotten. I honestly expected more from the attack, considering how many needles there were, but Xorrion dealt with it easily enough. I was nearly completely enclosed with shadows, about a thousand needles sticking out of them. Upon receding back into my shadow, all senbon fell to the ground in a cacophony of sound, small metal things hitting stone. Looking over to the redhead, he had his own defense. His made of sand, mine made of shadow. Interesting. His didn't appear to vanish like mine though.

"What? Impossible! How are neither of you damaged at all?" he said in disbelief.

"Your attack was just pathetic" I said, ignoring him in favor of checking out redheads sand.

Now that it was out in the open, I could smell the stench of blood coming from it. How many people had he killed with that sand? Sheesh, I'm glad my shadows couldn't retain smell. His sand shield wasn't perfectly smooth, similar to mine. Where his had cracks in it, mine was a constantly shifting mass of dark purple shadows. I definitely liked my shadows better. I couldn't imagine all the annoying places the sand would get into.

"Alright then, here take this!" the same guy screamed.

Making another hand gesture, he sent some more needles at us, aiming for the weak spots he perceived we had. The senbon were sent to the one opening in the redheads sand, and just vaguely aimed at me. Shadows leapt from the ground to intercept the needles before they could hit me, before vanishing not long after they had been stopped in their tracks. The other needles struck sand that hadn't been there before as it grew out of the sand that was already there.

"Rain of Senbon huh? How about I make it rain blood?" the kid asked.

Uh oh.

Kankuro had gone on about how the redhead, now dubbed Gaara's sand worked. Apparently he would infuse it with chakra, and use it to defend himself. It sounded a lot like how Xorrion had been defending me, but the difference was, his sand had no intelligence. Xorrion was superior in every way. He didn't use my chakra, I didn't need to carry around a heavy ass gourd of sand with me either. As far as I could tell, the reaction time of the two were similar as well. In my case, Xorrion would become faster as he got stronger.

While Kankuro was talking, I took the chance to start Backing away from Gaara a bit. I used my shadows to go over to one of the guys and snare them. Redhead wasn't idle either as he sent his sand at the four of us. I guess I was his enemy too. I saw him make a seal with his hands and knew he was about to attack. I also had killed the guy I had snared with shadow stitching, but it didn't matter as Gaara had still sent some sand his way.

As the sand got the other three, his friends seemed to believe the fight was over. Did they even notice my own ability at defense? As Gaara's sand tried to ensnare my ankle, Xorrion was doing his best to block it. The best he could do though was just to coat my body in shadows as the sand covered my whole body. Interesting. So this is why he had yelled 'sand burial' or something like that. As the last of the light vanished, I heard Xorrion mentally grunt. Damn, that sand must pack a punch if it even gave Xorrion issues.

'You okay there buddy?' I asked, kind of worried. There was a first time for everything, and I hoped Xorrion wasn't hurt too badly.

'Yes master, I am fine. I've taken much worse hits than that before. One large hit is easier to take than many small ones' he said, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

'As long as you're sure. You good to keep going? Or should we pull back for now?' I asked him.

'I am fine, if we need to keep fighting' he said. I noticed that wasn't quite an answer to my question.

As the sand fell away, Xorrion kept the shield up for a bit just in case. I could now see the very surprised faces of Gaara's friends. Gaara himself had no expression.

"What?" I asked.

"How are you still alive? No one has ever survived that attack" Kankuro questioned.

"I guess you could say, I have my own ultimate defense. Although, from your faces I'd say mine is superior." I said to them with a grin. At this point I wasn't entirely sure if I should keep fighting them. With our defenses, the fight could drag on forever, and we'd do nothing but make ourselves vulnerable for attack.

"Tell you what though, honestly fighting you seems like it would be a total drag. I've got a heaven scroll, and you destroyed whatever one those three had. You wanna take it and we postpone this until later?" I asked.

"Fine. I've almost gotten my fill. I guess I can wait to kill you until later" Gaara said. I suspect he had a similar thought to me, but with his expressionless face, it was hard to tell.

Reigning in my chakra and tossing the scroll to Kankuro, I waved at them and walked off. Interesting kid. Getting a close up look at how he fought, I got a better feel for that second chakra inside of him. Did he have a creature similar to the one sealed inside Naruto? Had to be, no other chakra felt like that. Probably a good thing not to fight him right now then; I'd heard what happened to Naruto in the land of waves. The last thing I wanted to deal with was Gaara's tailed beast coming out; I was almost certain it would, since the seal on Gaara was weaker than Naruto's.

Unbeknownst to me, there was a trio of people watching our fight.

I still had to find another scroll somewhere, so I decided to keep hunting ninjas until I found the one I needed.

Some time later, I found 6 different teams, and wiped them all out. It was a competition after all. Three of them had been Leaf ninja, so I let them go with their scrolls. There was one with an earth scroll, so I had exchanged one of my extra heaven scrolls for an earth one. After finally finding the scrolls I needed, I decided that was enough excitement for today and made my way to the tower. All in all, I had spent two and a half hours in this forest before I made it to the tower.

Right before I got to the tower, I decided I didn't need the 4 other heaven scrolls I had and tossed them randomly around the tower. Maybe some team that needed one could find them. Or maybe they'd fight over them. Who knows. Entering the tower, I found a room with a message board. It was a riddle. I hate riddles. If I understood it right, I was supposed to open the scrolls.

Opening them, I threw them on the ground, right before Iruka Sensei popped out of the crossed scrolls on the floor.

"Iruka Sensei? What are you doing here?" I asked.

"Kari? I wasn't expecting anyone so soon. It's only been 2 and a half hours! That's impressive. And you don't even look hurt. If you had been just an hour faster, you would have beaten the record by four hours." Iruka said.

"Yeahhhh, I was having trouble finding an Earth Scroll. I found 5 heaven scrolls before I finally found an earth scroll." I said, somewhat annoyed.

"Wow, that's impressive. The group that beat you here got here an hour ago. You guys are the fastest to ever complete this exam" he said, sounding impressed.

"Seriously? The forest wasn't even that dangerous, just some bugs here and there" I said, somewhat confused.

"I can't tell if you are being serious right now, but in case you are, it's called the forest of death for a reason Kari, many ninja have died in it over the years" he explained.

"Wow okay, so what are you doing here anyway?" I asked again, since he didn't answer me the first time.

"I was the one lucky enough to be given the important task of being the messenger to welcome the rookies to the end of the second exam" he said.

"Messenger?" I asked, confused.

"Welcome to the end of the forest of death Kari, the purpose of this mission was to see how well you could see a difficult mission to the end. The temptation to open the documents, or in this case, the scroll, was real. Not everyone resisted that temptation." he said.

"What temptation? It was just a scroll. Why would I look at it?" I asked. If clients found out you looked at their documents, they would never hire you again at best, and at worst they'd have you assassinated.

"Well I suppose I don't have to worry about that from you" he said with a smile.

"People are seriously that stupid?" I asked

"Yep. Another duty I was assigned was to explain the message on the board. I'm sure you've read it, so I'll just cut to the meaning. If heavenly qualities are what you lack, ie, your mind, then you need to make sure you work extra hard to learn all the stuff you need to know" he started.

"God forbid I have that kind of trouble…" I muttered, unintentionally interrupting him.

He smiled and continued

"But if earthly qualities are what you lack, train your body and prepare to attack. In other words, if your weakness is your body, you need to train your body harder than anyone else to keep up" he said and paused, apparently waiting for me to interrupt.

"I… may have that issue" I muttered again, not disappointing him.

"The last part basically tells you that if your mind and body work together, even a very dangerous mission can become an easy one" he said.

"Or you could just have more allies" I said, interrupting him again. But I knew what he meant.

"This whole thing was designed to see how you'd do as a chunin. It's a chunins job to be a leader, and a guide. If your leader sucks, your team will probably not make the mission. Worst case, they die. You need to know the strengths and weaknesses of your team, and know how to best make use of them. Personally, while I'm trying to be as non biased as possible, I think you did an excellent job in this test." he said with a big smile.

"Thank you Iruka Sensei. I've been working my ass off to get stronger" I said.

"And it shows. I'm going to be honest with you, and if you say anything I'll deny it" he said, ushering me closer.

"Oh?"

"In a few years, I think you could be a Jounin." he told me, once again smiling at me.

"Alright we're the first ones here!" Kiba said excitedly

"No, I'm sure I sense others here already" Shino said, raining on his parade.

"Hey Akamaru, you okay buddy?" Kiba asked his partner.

"Is he still shaking?" Shio asked.

"I'm not surprised not after what we saw" Kiba said.

"I hope he's okay, he's been scared for so long, come to think of it, what did he say earlier?" Hinata asked.

"I guess he said to watch out. The black haired one was dangerous, and the bigger guy was in trouble. Then the pipsqueak showed up and Akamaru got even more scared, and said that everyone was gonna die" Kiba said.

"I know the black haired girl. She's been friends with Naruto for years" Hinata said.

"The blond runt? Why would she be friends with that annoying guy?" Kiba questioned.

"I don't know, but as long as I've known naruto, she's been friends with him" Hinata explained.

"Have you ever had a real conversation with her?" Shino aked.

"Yes, when we were in the Academy we talked often, but after we graduated I've never talked to her." Hinata answered.

"Was she always that strong? She took that attack like it was nothing, and it completely annihilated those other three into paste" Kiba said, still shaking. Even Akamaru was shaking from the memory.

"I don't know honestly, she's always been strong, but never one to show off." Hinata said.

"Bark Bark" Akamaru said

"What did he say?" Shino asked.

"He said that her chakra was terrifying, but it wasn't evil, not like the shrimp. He would rather encounter her than the other guy" Kiba translated.

"She also doesn't smell like blood" Shino said.

"I'm still gonna avoid her like the plague. To think I was so rude to her back at the testing hall" Kiba said, shivering.

"It's okay Kiba, unless you harm her family, she doesn't hold grudges" Hinata said, trying to comfort him.

"That doesn't help. Her brother was Shikamaru wasn't it? I was kind of rude to her too" he said.

Before they could continue, they heard voices coming down the hallway.

"We've already waited half a day, how much longer are they gonna make us wait?" a woman said as the aforementioned pipsqueak and his squad entered the room.

They didn't cause any trouble as they walked passed, though they did look over at the trio.

'I don't know what the deal with that squirt is, but he's bad news. And way too dangerous to deal with' Kiba thought to himself.

"Creepy little shit, isn't he?" another voice said, nearly giving them a heart attack.

"Who's there?!" Kiba said.

"Kari? Is that you?" Hinata said.

"Yo. How ya doin' Hinata?" the figure asked, exiting the shadows and approaching.

She had on a black vest that's currently open, but had buckles along it that would keep it shut. A dark green undershirt with mesh visible underneath. Her Leaf Shinobi headband was tied around her waist like a belt, along with another belt that looked like it could be used to hold more equipment pouches. Around her waist was what looked like a short skirt that was a darker shade of green. It came down to a bit lower than mid thigh and fit close to her legs.

Black leggings that went almost to her ankles, with some more mesh at the bottom. Her ninja holster was on her right thigh, she had black shinobi sandals on her feet, and bandages on her arms similar to Rock Lee. Around her neck was a mask that she could pull up to obscure her identity when needed. Her black hair was tied up in a ponytail with locks that came down to frame her face on either side, highlighting her violet eyes.

"Uhhh, not terrible I suppose, all things considered. When did you get here?" She asked Kari.

"Like here, here?" she asked, pointing to the floor

"Or here as in the tower?"

"Uhhh, yes?" Hinta asked uncertainly

"I got to the tower about an hour after they did" Kari said, thumbing in the direction the trio had gone.

"I got to this room right before I said anything" she continued.

"Wow, you finished so fast" Hinata said.

"Bark Bark" Akamaru said.

"Shh" Kiba hushed him.

"Is that so?" Kari asked Akamaru, apparently oblivious to Kiba.

"Bark Bark!" the dog said

"Oh at the first exam? Sorry, I must have missed it." She said, apparently understanding the dog.

"You can understand Akamaru?" Shino asked, speaking for the first time.

"Yeah, I used to have a friend who had a wolf companion, they would always be together. I partied up with them enough that I had to learn to communicate with his little friend" Kari explained.

"Most people don't see Akamaru as my friend, they only see him as a pet" Kiba said questioningly.

"Well that's stupid of them. Animals are often greater companions than people. You should use that Kiba. Have people underestimate you two, and make them regret it" Kari said to Kiba.

"You said 'used to'"? Hinata asked.

Kari seemed to get quiet before answering, and Kiba elbowed her.

"Yeah… I haven't seen her in years. Anyway, I'll see you guys later" Kari said, somewhat subdued.

"Good job Hinata, her friend obviously died. I wonder if she was from the Inuzuka Clan?" Kiba said.

"Just be Glad Kari was friendly after what we saw her do" Shino said.

"You have a point." Kiba said, shivering at the memory.

In a room somewhere in the tower, Anko was talking with a couple of Anbu.

"We may have to cancel the exams at this rate" She was saying, as someone knocked on the door.

"What?!" she demanded.

"I'm sorry, but there's something you have to see!" the man said, rushing over to the nearby television and putting a tape in.

"What is it?" an Anbu asked.

"Okay, pay special attention to the time." he said.

On the tape were a few people walking inside the tower. The one with the red hair looked at the camera. On the top right of the screen, the clock said 16:07.

"But that means…" Anko said.

"Yes, since this was recorded within the tower, it means they finished the test in an hour and a half" the guy who brought the tape said.

"They shattered the record by four hours…" one of the Anbu said.

"That's impossible" Anko said in disbelief.

"Just wait, there's more." the same dude said.

"How could there be more? This is already insane" Anko said again.

"Look at this" the person by the TV said as he operated the controls.

"Another one?!" the Anbu who hadn't spoken said in shock.

"At least this one is from the Leaf" the first Anbu said.

"Those ninja from the sand village, and the one from our village are way above Genin level" the guy operating the tv said.

"There's more… Something you missed. Take a look at their bodies." Anko said.

"Yeah I see what you mean" The Anbu said.

"Wait I don't see it, what are you… ohh" Tv guy said.

"They don't have a scratch on them. There isn't even any dust on their clothes either. " Anko continued.

'None of the chunin could have made it to the tower without a single scratch on them' TV guy said.

"They both must have some sort of special skill that allowed them to pull it off" one of the Anbu said.

"It's been a while since we've had such a promising candidate, and to get two of them at the same time. It's unheard of" the other said.

It was some time later after I talked with Kiba and his group that we all found ourselves in an arena of sorts. It had balconies on either side for the spectators, and a giant statue at the front making a hand heal. On either side of the statue's head was a screen displaying nothing currently. At the front of the room, stood the Hokage ready to talk. Behind him were a bunch of Jounin. I recognised only four of them, Kurenai, Guy, Asuna, and Kakashi.

"Congratulations on passing the second phase of the Chunin Exams." Anko said first.