Chapter 6: Chunin Exams(Part-2)

Training Ground 44 also known as the Forest Of Death. It is Konoha's deadliest training ground reserved only for Jounin and ANBU. The forest itself contains various man-eating plants, monsters and other deadly animals from big spiders to gigantic bears and tigers.

The Forest Of Death is the traditional place for second round of every chunin exam done in the leaf. The chunin exams are hosted in various countries and rotated. Every three years the chunin exams are held in the leaf village.

To everyone in Konoha the Forest Of Death, as the name says, is hell and one place to don't come near. Obviously this doesn't apply to both Naruto and Anko, to them it was a place where they can easily play tag and hide and seek while also getting some training done. It was even more favourite of Anko, this place is her home away from home and the reason she is always in-charge of the second round.

Naruto and Anko arrived together in front of the Forest Of Death and now were chatting with each other while waiting for the Chunin hopefuls to arrive so that they can get on with the exams.

"Well Naruto be careful in the forest, you know as well I do that Kurenai-chan worry so much about you as it is, we don't want to make her even more concern for your well being." Anko said.

"Yes I will be careful beside the animal inside knows who I am and they always stay as far away from me as possible." Naruto said.

"Alright I'll hold you to it but still make sure you are careful, we never know you might meet someone who can match you." she said with a straight face but quickly burst out laughing, she noticed that the Genin were arriving, "Well enough chit-chat everyone is arriving."

Soon enough all of the participants arrived at their destination, some were panting harshly while some were perfectly fine.

"Alright maggots, welcome to my home away from home, training ground 44 better known as the Forest Of Death," Anko pronounced loudly so everyone could hear her and got the desired reactions from a few of the genin, which was fear as they should be. Even chunin can't wander through the forest without getting hurt.

Wanting to scare them even more, she noticed that Naruto was standing there looking completely bored, she knew that the forest doesn't scare Naruto one bit and also knew that he can handle himself easily but still she couldn't pass the opportunity and threw a kunai at the blonde jinchurikki who dodged it by lazily moving his head out of the way as the kunai flew right passed.

Not wanting to loose the perfect opportunity to scare the genin, Anko continued with the attack, this time using a Shunshin to appear behind Naruto kunai in hand ready to slit his throat. But Naruto blocked the kunai with his own while still looking bored.

Seeing Naruto's bored reaction to her attack made her eye twitch in annoyance and developed a tick mark when she noticed that his lips moved upward showing that this whole situation was amusing to him.

"You are supposed to look scared not bored Naruto, you took away my intidimation tactic that I was using to scare these little brats but your reaction ruined it," she said in a hushed tone so that only Naruto could hear her.

"Don't be mad Anko nee-chan, I was just messing around," Naruto said with a small smile on his face.

Anko was about to retort but stopped when she felt a presence just behind her, she turned around and saw a creepy looking girl, Anko was slightly disturbed by the sight of the kunoichi, there was really nothing unique about her appearance. She was tall with long black hair. But her super long tongue made the Snake mistress rather uneasy. It held the kunai out to her and placed it in Anko's hand.

"You kunai proctor-san," the kusa gennin said without even retreating her tongue back, weirding out Anko even more, which was saying something because she was one of the most creepiest person in whole Fire Country.

"Uh thank you," Anko said still unnerved.

"Don't mention it," the Kusa ninja said still not retreating her tongue back.

'Creepy girl' Anko thought, as she watched the Kusa kunoichi walking back to her squad.

"You know nee-chan, I think she might even be more creepy than you," Naruto said suppressing a shiver.

"Hey I'll have you know I can be far more scary," Anko said in mock hurt, while inside she agreeing with the blonde jinchūriki before turning to address the group of waiting genin. "Now in the second task your team will be competing against the others in a simulated real life mission situation. This means that from the moment you enter the forest, anything goes, even killing is allowed! That is why you will all need to fill out these consent forms." Anko said.

"Uh what are the forms for exactly?" a genin from Iwa asked.

"They are so that Konoha will not be able to be held responsible for your death or injury should any occur," Anko replied offhandedly as several chunin arrived to hand out the consent forms.

After everyone had handed their consent forms in, Anko began to explain the second task in detail. "Alright, now that's taken care of we can move on. Your goal in this task is fairly simple. You need to get to the tower that is located at the center of the forest. However there is a catch. To do so you will need two objects. A Heaven scroll," she held up her left hand to show the genin what they looked like. "And an Earth scroll," she raised her other hand to let everyone compare the difference between the two scrolls. "Now each team will be given one of these two scrolls that can be hidden by whatever means you deem fit. Your goal is to locate and retrieve the opposite scroll so you have the pair and then make your way to the tower. Now that is said if you open your either of the scrolls before you get to the tower you will be disqualified. Finally you will have five days to complete your task." Anko informed the group.

"Five days! What will we eat!" Choji asked desperately.

"The forest is filled with many things that are edible. Although quite a few of those things will also try to eat you as well." Anko chuckled.

Choji paled at the prospect of running out of food and began counting his packets of chips. "Oh no I don't think I have enough!" he whined.

"Okay so, send one person from each team to collect either a Heaven or Earth scroll, along with a gate number for your starting location," Anko said offhandedly before walking off to where she had a waiting plate of dango.

Naruto collected his Heaven scroll and headed for the gate no. 27, he surveyed the neighbouring teams and saw that the team from Iwa was looking at him with anger and hatred, while the team from Ame was looking at him like he was their prey. Feeling uncomfortable under both teams gaze, the blonde jinchūriki looked ahead of himself and got ready for the second round of the exams. When the buzzer rang, the blonde jinchūriki quickly made his way into the forest at a fast pace, when he reached safe distance from the gates, he quickly climbed on a tree and made a sign, "Shadow Clone Jutsu".

An exact copy appeared next to Naruto in a puff of smoke, he made the clone with enough chakra to last more than five days, Naruto turned his attantion to his clone who waiting for his orders, "I want you to spy on Kabuto as long as he is inside the forest, including the tower, after that I want you to dispel yourself and try not to be detected by him." he ordered the clone to which it nodded before it took off toward the direction where Naruto felt Kabuto's chakra.

Naruto then continued on inside the forest, he also knew that he was being followed and judging by the chakra and the amount of hatred he was sensing, he immediately knew that the team from Iwa was following him. He stopped running and stood on a tree while facing toward the direction where he sensed, Iwa ninja's chakra. Not long after the three ninja showed themselves, two of them were males while their third member was a female and judging by the amount of chakra they possessed he knew that they weren't a threat to him but he still remained on guard.

"So you finally stopped running, Konoha scum!" the larger male of the two sneered, he had red hair, black eyes, possessed a bulky body and was wearing standard Iwa outfit minus the flack jacket.

"I wasn't really running from you, I was trying to reach toward the tower as soon as possible and wait for other teams to arrive so that I could ambush but it looks like I don't need to do that. Now give up and hand over your scroll and you guys will leave unscathed from me." Natsu said.

"Give up! No you got it wrong, we can care less for these exams, if we kill you we can easily become chunin maybe even Jounin in our village and will be considered as heroes for killing that bastard, Yellow Flash's spawn." said the other boy before he launched himself at Natsu and engaged him in a Taijustu match, well that was what he thought but his teammates could easily see that Naruto wasn't even trying against him, the blonde was easily dodging all the blows that other genin was trying to inflict on him. Naruto quickly got bored of dodging and decided to end it quickly, he blurred away from their view and appeared behind the one that was attacking him and gave a chop at his neck rendering him unconscious, he then appeared behind his other two teammates and did the same thing to them, then he searched them to find their scroll.

He found the scroll on the larger boy, but to his dismay it was a heaven scroll that he already possessed. But he decided to keep it since it could cut down the competition a bit. After collecting the scroll, Naruto made his way to the tower at a fast pace, it wasn't long before he found his other target and to his relief, they possessed the Earth scroll, of which he got a sight when one of the idiots was waving it in the air. He quickly made two clones and blurred away with his clones following behind him, all of Naruto appeared behind their targets and delivered a chop to their neck, rendering them uncinscious, he then took the scroll from the unconscious form of the one who possessed the scroll while his clones disappeared in a puff of smoke.

He then again took off toward the direction of the tower, when he was on his way to the tower he suddenly sensed an enormous amount of chakra and killing intent from somewhere in the forest, without thinking anything Naruto took off in the direction of the source of the tremendous chakra that he sensed earlier. When he arrived at the place where the source was, he found no one, the only sign that there was someone here once were the signs of a battle that must have took place. He was about to leave and continue his journey to the tower when he again felt same source of chakra but this time it wasn't alone, this there was another chakra that belonged to Anko and judging by the chakra spike, she must be fighting someone.

He quickly took off toward the direction while praying that he was not late to save his surrogate sister. When he arrived at the scene, what he saw made him very angry, he saw Anko shivering on the ground with a look of pure hatred and fear in her eyes, while the snake sannin, whose photo he saw in the bingo book, standing over her with a kunai in his hand that he was about use to kill his surrogate sister. He quickly released the Gravity Seals and Resistance Seals that he placed on himself, activated his Sharingan and hid it with a Genjutsu and took off at the snake sannin at tremendous speed. When he reached Orochimaru, he kicked the snake sannin away with a tremendous force and stood protectively over a shocked Anko.

Orochimaru was having the best of his life, he was able to test the Uchiha before giving him the cursed seal, and was about to kill his former student but instead was kicked away from her. When he looked at the source of the kick, he was initially surprised before a sick smile appeared on his face.

"My, my if it isn't the prince of Konoha, the son of the Fourth Hokage and the Red Death of Konoha," Orochimaru said in a silky tone, "How nice of you to join us in the party, Naruto-kun."

"Naruto run, you can't defeat him. He's too strong," Anko said to him, when he looked at her he saw her pleading gaze while shivering in fright. Naruto took his coat off and drapped it over her shoulders before he faced the snake sannin, his face devoid of any expression, his eyes were cold that were staring into the very soul of Orochimaru. If not for the whisker marks, Orochimaru could have sworn that he was looking at the Fourth Hokage with the way Naruto was looking at him.

Naruto for his part was very angry, this was the man who caused his nee-chan so much suffering and seeing her like this like a frightened child made him even more angry, that expression shouldn't be on her face, she was always a sadistic and mischevious woman not this scared one.

He didn't gave any reply to Orochimaru, instead he blurred from his position and appeared right in front of Orochimaru, who was caught off guard by the speed at which Naruto moved. Naruto punched Orochimaru in the stomach, causing the snake sannin to feel as if all of the air was knocked out of his lungs, and hunch over. Naruto didn't gave him anytime to recover and punched his opponent in the face sending him flying away from the blonde.

Orochimaru corrected himself in the air and landed gracefully, he couldn't believe the speed and strength the jinchūriki possessed, he underestimated the blonde a lot. Anko was shocked as well, she couldn't believe the speed at which her surrogate little brother moved, she couldn't even follow his movements and she was Jounin.

Naruto got into the stance of his Taijutsu style, while Orochimaru got into Snake style stance, they both stared at each other, before at an unspoken agreement they shot at each other with blinding speed and got into a fierce Taijutsu battle. Whenever Orochimaru launch a blow at the blonde, Naruto would easily dodge it, due to the pridiction his Sharingan made, and then launch his own blows at his opponent, who also easily dodged each attack by bending his body at impossible angles.

They separated from each other but Naruto didn't gave Orochimaru anytime and did a single hand seal, "Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu", Natsu gathered chakra and pulled water out of the moisture present in the air and formed a strong dragon from it. The dragon launched itself at Orochimaru who was stunned.

Orochimaru had never seen anyone do the water dragon jutsu with just a single hand seal, which required more than thirty hand seals in actuality, and what was even more surprising was the fact that the blonde pulled water out of the air, it must mean that Naruto have a very strong affinity for water, even stronger than the second Hokage, who used to do four hand seals for the same jutsu. He quickly came out of his stupor and barely dodged the water dragon. But he didn't had any rest because Naruto was already upon him, the blonde gave a sharp kick to the snake which sent him flying, Orochimaru corrected himself and blurred through hand seals, "Wind Style: Great Breakthrough", he expelled a huge gust of wind from his mouth.

Naruto seeing this, molded the fire in his lungs and expelled it from his mouth without using any hand seals, "Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu", the fireball collided with Orochimaru's wind jutsu and only got stronger and faster and continued travelling toward a stunned Orochimaru, he had never seen anyone doing a fireball jutsu without using any hand seals, but he somehow still managed to dodge it. Orochimaru jumped from his position and landed on a tree, 'This brat is too strong for his age and will only get stronger, I need to kill him now before he becomes a threat to me.' Orochimaru thought to himself.

He brought his sword, the Kusanagi, from his mouth, that had poison on its tip, grasped the handle and launched himself at Naruto with tremendous speed. Naruto quickly unsealed his own sword and blocked the strike from the snake sannin's sword, Orochimaru didn't falter in his attack and again attacked Naruto with a flurry of strikes which Naruto was able to parry. Naruto kicked Orochimaru away from himself and used earth manipulation to create a boulder and threw it at Orochimaru, who stopped getting shocked by what Naruto could do, when the boulder reached the snake sannin, he easily cut through it and was about to taunt the blonde jinchūriki but Naruto was already upon and delivered a horizontal strike to the snake and was able to cut him through the midsection in two, but Naruto was shocked when both of the body parts of Orochimaru attached themselves.

Naruto quickly got over his shock and tried to kill Ororchimaru by aiming his sword at the snake sannin's heart but Orochimaru dodged it and kicked Naruto away from himself, he again launched himself at Naruto and tried to cut the blonde in half with his sword but Naruto eaily parried the attack and punched Orochimaru, by using the trick taught to him by Tsunade to use the super strength just like her, sending Orochimaru flying at high speed.

Orochimaru felt like he had been punched by Tsunade just now, he tried to compose himself in mid air but couldn't, he then heard a swirling sound from above him, he turned his head to look at the source and he found that just above him was Naruto with a white swirling ball of chakra in his hands and he instantly knew what jutsu it was.

"Rasengan", Naruto cried out and slammed the swirling white ball of chakra into snake sannin's gut, causing Orochimaru to scream in pain and cough up blood. Just as Orochimaru was about to hit the ground, the Naruto that attacked him disappeared in a puff of smoke indicating that it was a Shadow Clone of the blonde jinchūriki.

The original Naruto walked upto Orochimaru just in time to see a pair of arms sprout out from the snake sannin's mouth before slowly but surely, Orochimaru's whole body came out of it completed regenerated. Seeing the scene before him completely disgusted not only Naruto but Anko as well, who was watching all of this with wide eyes, she had no idea that Naruto was this strong, sure she knew that Naruto was strong, stronger than some Jounin of the village but this, this was unreal.

Orochimaru had a sick smile on his face but internally he was seething, he couldn't believe that a genin was thrashing him around like he was an academy student, sure he was not going all out but he also knew that Naruto was holding back as well, but how much that he didn't know. 'I cannot even go all out otherwise sensei will sense me and will come here with that idiot Jiraiya and Tsunade.' he needed a distraction and get away from the forest, he had overstayed his stay in the forest, just as he was about to attack the blonde once again, his gaze fell on Anko, smirking inwardly, he attacked her, "Hidden Shadow Snake Hands", he sent some snakes, that came out of his sleeves, toward Anko, but it was instantly intercepted by Naruto, who appeared in front of her and cut all of the snakes with his sword, which was coated with wind chakra, before they even reched Anko. He then turned toward where Orochimaru was standing and found no one, he then extended his sesory abilities to sense Orochimaru again but found nothing, he sighed, deactivated his Sharingan and looked at Anko.

He walked upto her and healed her, "Are you okay nee-chan?" he asked as he was healing her.

"Yes I'm okay, just a little shaken but damn that was a good fight, you were playing with that bastard Orochimaru," she said as Naruto finished healing her, she handed him his coat back.

Naruto shook his head, "No he just underestimated me, had he not underestimated me the fight could have gone longer and it would have been a lot more destructive than this," he replied, "You should go and tell jiji what happened here, while I complete the task." he said and without waiting for a reply he took of toward the tower. While on his way, the blonde jinchūriki reactivated his Gravity Seals and Resistance Seals. When he reached the tower he examined the scrolls for a moment before he threw them on the ground and with an explosion of smoke Iruka was summoned and looked surprised.

"Wow Naruto you came here fast, you are the second one to arrive today, before the team from Suna arrived, good job." he informed Naruto, and looked at Naruto with nothing but pride.

"Thanks Iruka-sensei." Naruto said.

"Come on let me show you your resting quarters while you are here." Iruka said and left with Naruto to show the blonde his recuprating room.

After resting for an hour, Naruto decided to eat something so he left his room and went to the cafeteria but on the way he met Gaara and his team. When Gaara saw him, he released his KI and sand started to swirl around him, "I will prove my existance in these exams by killing you Namikaze," he said with a maniacal smile on his face.

"Justification of your existence huh. You know I was a lot like you, I used to act out to get people to recognize me. Sometimes I even felt some resentment toward the villagers because of the pain they caused me," Naruto said.

"Is that why you are strong enough that even mother would fear you? Because of the hatred you hold for these people and need to justify your own existence. Did the pain that they caused you make you powerful?" Gaara said.

"No I didn't become strong by using my hatred for others, I became strong because I want to protect those who care about me," Naruto replied, and Gaara's expression changed from maniacal to anger.

"No you are wrong, I became strong because I love myself and no one else, I will kill you and prove to everyone that I am strongest and I exist," the red head said.

Naruto seeing the state of his fellow jinchūriki sighed, "Its painful isn't it, being alone, it hurts that you cant be loved like everyone else, I am strong because I fight to protect my precious people, I am strong because I need to be so that I can protect them, I don't want to kill you Gaara, you are like me but I got lucky I met Kure-chan, Kakashi nii-san, jiji, Ero-sennin, Tsunade ba-chan, and many others and they helped me, but you don't have to be alone anymore Gaara I would like to be your friend," Naruto said, "I even know how to cure your insomania," shocking the sand siblings.

"You want become my friend and you can cure my insomania," Gaara said desbelievingly, his siblings weren't fairing that much better than him, they were also shocked.

"Of course I do, we are the same I am a jinchūriki as well and we can understand each other since we are jinchūriki sibling and I would be honored to be your friend Gaara, in fact I even know two more people who care about you," the blond said.

"Really who are they?" the red head asked.

"They both are here right next to you, your brother and sister, I can sense emotions of people and I can sense that they care for you and they are not afraid of you, they are afraid of the demon sealed inside you and the way you are acting right now is because of the faulty seal used on you and if you want I can fix it." Naruto said shocking the three siblings even further.

"I...I would like that," Gaara said.

"Great but lets take this to somewhere else," Naruto said and took them to his room, when the four of them arrived Naruto's room, he asked both Temari and Kankuro to wait outside while they work on it at first they declined his order and demanded to be present in the room it wasn't until Gaara told them to wait outside that they both agreed and stood outside while both jinchūriki went inside the room. As soon as they were in the room, Naruto went through some hand seals and put up the Privacy Seals in the room. Naruto then asked Gaara to lay down on the bed and raise his shirt.

"Lady Chiyo did the seal, but my father was the one who designed the seal, he said it was made to utilize the full power of the demon." stated Gaara as he raised his shirt without question.

Naruto nodded and began to inspect the seal, immediately he began to see the things wrong with the seal, well there wasn't anything truly wrong, just... Missing.

"You're missing any and all blocking seals, there's no evil containment seals and there isn't even a safety layer!" spoke Naruto with disgust, and Gaara was shocked both at the mastery he seemed to have over seals and the tone he was taking. "We have four more days till the second round is over, I can create a new seal and have it on you by the end of the night, your control with sand will get better and you'll be tired for the next two or three days but after that you may feel even stronger than before." Gaara nodded at that and Naruto started working on the seal, it wasn't until late night that Naruto was finished and Gaara was sleeping peacefully for the first time in his life, Naruto left Gaara in his room and went outside to inform the other two sand siblings that he was done and Gaara should be awake by the morning, they asked Naruto to help them getting the red head boy to their room for which he was more than happy to help.

Next Morning

Naruto and the sand siblings waited for Gaara to wake up, when he was up he looked around and saw that his brother and sister as well as his new friend were waiting for him to wake up. When Gaara woke up, he looked at his surrounding and found his brother and sister sitting beside his bed while Naruto was standing behind them.

"How are you feeling Gaara?" Temari asked

"I'm feeling quite well," Gaara replied before he looked at his siblings with a solemn look, "Temari, Kankuro I'm sorry for my behaviour toward both of you."

"Its alright Gaara, there is nothing to forgive and we are just as much guilty for not approaching you sooner." Kankuro said.

Gaara then looked at Naruto who standing at his previous position with a small smile. "Thank you...my friend," Gaara said at which Naruto just beamed at him.

"Its alright Gaara," Naruto said, "and Gaara I will appreciate it if you stop killing anymore," Naruto added jockingly causing the Sand siblings to smile a bit and Gaara nodded at him, "Well I'll leave you guys now," he said left the room.

Naruto arrived at his room and found that an ANBU was waiting for him in front of the room. He quickly made his way toward the ANBU, "How may I help you ANBU-san!" Naruto asked.

"Namikaze-san, Hokage-sama has requested your presence, please follow me," ANBU said and made his way toward the area where the Hokage was waiting for the blonde jinchūriki. When they arrived their destination, the ANBU, who was escorting Naruto, quickly bowed to the old Hokage and left.

"Ah Naruto-kun I have been waiting for you," the old man said with a small smile on his elderly face, before his face got a serious look, "I heard that you had an encounter with my wayward student during your stay in the forest, so I wanted to see if you are alright after your encounter with him."

"Yeah, I fought that disgusting freak and I'm alright, he was holding back quite a lot and so was I because if both of us had gone all out, there would have been a lot destruction due to our confrontation and you would have sensed his presence and I don't think he would have wanted that," the blonde jinchūriki said with a look of disgust on his face.

"I also heard that he gave the Uchiha cursed seal but we will remove it after these exmas are over because if we did it now, he would no doubt try attack someone or worse leave the village, now tell me how is your mission going!"

"It's still in progress Jiji, I have fixed Gaara's seal and right now he is resting," Naruto said.

"That's good, now that child won't have to suffer anymore," the old Hokage said.

"Jiji I also put a Shadow Clone on one of the participant's trail to spy on him because I think he is spy since he had too much information on Lee and not only that but he also knew about my on-going S-rank mission, his name is Kabuto Yakushi and he claimed to have failed these exams for six time in row while from what I sensed his chakra levels are on par with an elite Jounin and he also had a lot of dark emotions," Naruto informed the old man, who had a very troubled look on his face.

"Hmm, this is very troubling, continue to spy on him, we can't do anything against him right now because we don't have any proof against him that can prove that he is a spy," the old man ordered to which Naruto nodded, "Well I will leave you to your rest." and after that the old man left leaving the blonde alone before he too left in the direction of his room.

The next three days went by without any trouble and they were boring as hell for Naruto, the only moments his time passed were whenever he was with the sand siblings. They weren't allowed to leave the tower until the end of second phase of the chunnin exams, so he couldn't meet his Kure-chan or anyone else from his family. During these three days a few more teams arrived to the tower including all of the Konoha teams.

When the five days were over, every competitor was summoned to the arena and filled it while facing the hokage who was on the plateform. The arena room was pretty much empty. The room had a giant statue with a shinobi doing the ram hand seal. There were two balconies, one in each side of the room for the spectators. Behind the statue was a big electric board.

On the platform surrounding the hall were the jonnin sensei's of all of the passing teams while at the front of the hall the Hokage sat with Tsunade, Jiraiya, Kakashi, Asuma and Kurenai standing beside him, Anko and Hayate were standing in front of the genin awaiting the hokage to speak.

"First I must congratulate you all for passing the second round of the chunnin exams and making it through the Forest Of Death, but before we continue I would like to tell you about the true purpose of these exams," the old hokage said, "In years past the chunin exams was a contest and a fight to the death between the best of the rising talent of every nation and was often used to help settle disputes with other villages, this custom has not changed and the final exam is a tournament that is observed by potential clients and dynamo's from all over the elemental countries." Hiruzen continued, "Now onto the exams sin-" he was cut off by a sickly looking Hayate, whose disease had been cured by Tsunade but he continued to act sick to make his opponents underestimate him.

"Do you mind if I continue Hokage-sama?" Hayate asked and the hokage shook his head, "My name is Gekko Hayate and I will be your proctor for the preliminaries," Hayate was cut off by loud complaints from the group of competitors

"What do you mean preliminaries we just got out of that damn forest!" Kiba yelled

"We have far too many competitors at the moment and the preliminary rounds are designed to weed out those who are not worthy of being here or coasted through on your team's strength because whilst strength in a team is important individual skills are needed to become a chunin and to lead missions," the sword weilding jounin ended with a cough. "Now is there anyone who would like to give up for any reason," the proctor stated before once again entering into a coughing fit

Kabuto and Sai both pulled out at this stage "What Sai! What gives, you cant be in that bad shape right!" Sakura asked loudly

"I'm exhausted Sakura, five days in the forest were stressful and I'm low on chakra, it would be unwise for me to compete in any of the fights, we simply didn't make it here on time I will do better next exam." Sai stated giving the pinkette a blank look.

While Sai and Sakura were arguing, Naruto was looking at Kabuto supisciously, and out of the corner of his eyes he noticed that the Hokage, Kurenai, Anko, Kakashi, Tsunade, Jiraiya and Hayate were also looking at him suspisciously, he quickly tried to sense Kabuto's chakra and noticed that it was still on the level it was during the start of the second round, he also noticed that the clone that he had on the silver haired boy's trail was also looking at him suspisciously, it then looked at Naruto who gave him signal to follow Kabuto until it run out of chakra, which the Hokage, Kakashi, Kurenai, Tsunade and Jiraiya noticed as they knew about his mission after the Hokage informed them and knew of the progress he made and they had seen Naruto looking in his clone's direction.

"Anybody else," Hayate waited, "The names will appear on that electric board randomly," Hayate explained as the board started shuffling through names. The board started going through new names until it stopped. "Will Sasuke Uchiha and Yoroi Akado come down in the ring!" Hayate announced.

Both of the competitors arrived in the ring and started their battle. Sasuke's fight was not all that exciting at least until the end where Sasuke had to repress the curse seal from taking over. They only used Taijutsu and even then it was rather basic. But Naruto had to admit Sasuke was probably better than your average genin. At the end of the fight Kakashi arrived to take Sasuke away, to seal away the cursed seal until the end of the exams after that Naruto will remove the seal from Sasuke.

The contestants turned to the board to find out who the next competitor's were, they finally stopped on Shino Aburame Vs Zaku from the sound village, Naruto found the match rather interesting especially as Zaku used what appeared to be a type of wind style used without hand seals but Naruto soon found there were tubes in his arms which became obvious when Shino's bugs blocked the airways and his arms exploded causing his arms to explode with the beetles closing the air pathways and winning the match.

"Winner Shino Aburame," Hayate stated calmly, "The next match is Kankuro Subaku Vs Misumi Tsurugi," he finished as the the two genin made there way down the the ground floor. What followed was a highly amusing match where the elder ninja was completely oblivious to the fact he was fighting a puppet until the very end

"Man he was able to win without actually have to do anything now thats my kind of fight," said Shikamaru.

"Kami your so lazy Shikamaru, don't you want to be cool like Sasuke-kun!" said Ino in a lecturing tone.

"Troublesome" was the lazy Nara's only response.

The next match was Sakura Vs Ino and could only be described as pathetic it was dominated by Ino but by some strange coincidence the blond girls body transfer jutsu was not able to hold and in the end both young kunoichi knocked each other out the match ending in a tie. Naruto had to physically restrain Kurenai from killing the two fangirls, he turned around to see both Iruka and Jiraiya were in the same predicament with Anko and Tsunade.

The next fight was Temari Subaku against Tenten. Naruto felt kind of sorry for Tenten because it was clear that she was a talented kunoichi, but she just had the misfortune of coming up against a Wind user who had access to a large fan to help her manipulate the wind.

The following match was Shikamaru Nara Vs Kin of the sound village, which the lazy Nara won by easily out smarting the sound kunoichi by casting a thin shadow along the thread of her chakra strings, then forced her by the use of his shadow possesion to hit her head on the wall behind knocking her out.

"The next match is Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze Vs Kiba Inuzuka," the proctor called as the names blazed on the screen.

"Ah shit, I have to fight the overpowered freak of nature," Kiba whined, "Come on Akamaru lets get this over with and have our ass handed to us." Kiba said to his whimpering companion.

"Don't be so down Kiba, just give it your all," Kurenai assured but still felt sorry for her student, he would have won against almost anybody else but a fight with Naruto was just a straw of bad luck.

"Yeah Kurenai-sensei and even though I know that I'm going to loose here, I will still give it my all," Kiba said and assended to the fighting ring where Naruto was already waiting for him.

"Good luck Kiba and give this match your all," Naruto said.

"Thank you Naruto and don't worry even though I know that I can't beat you, I will still give it my all."

"Are both fighters ready!" Hayate asked and seeing both of the fighters nod, he signalled the fight to start, "Fight"

As soon as the fight started, Kiba quickly threw a soldier pill toward his companion who caught it and swallowed it, after swallowing the pill Akamaru's fur changed from white to brown.

"Man Beast Clone!" Kiba yelled and Akamaru turned into the perfect copy of Kiba, both Kiba and his copy took their stance by dropping on all four and looked directly at Naruto, "Gatsuga!" the dog trainer yelled and both spun so quickly they looked like a couple of twisters heading straight for the blond.

Naruto was easily able to dodge all of Kiba's attack no matter from which direction they came. It wasn't long before both Kiba and his companion stopped their attacks, breathing heavily, Akamaru was already out of the jutsu that Kiba used to turn him into his clone and back to his original color before he lost consciouness due to the fatigue he suffered from attacking Naruto. It was all Kiba who was still standing facing Naruto but he was breathing rather harshly showing that he was tired as well.

Kiba shot toward Naruto and engaged him in a Taijutsu battle but due to being tired his attacks were slow and sloppy which Naruto took full advantage of and delivered a chop to the back of his opponent's neck, rendering him unconscious.

"Winner Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze!" Hayate said loudly after seeing Kiba's state. Naruto quickly healed both Akamaru and Kiba and helped them reach the platform. Kiba was initially disappointed after his loss to Naruto without even landing a single hit on him, even though he knew that he wasn't going to win against Naruto but losing without even landing a hit on Naruto left a bad taste in his mouth but he quickly got over it when Kurenai praised him for giving it his all and when Hinata hugged him, he had a stupid smile on face and forgot about his loss against Naruto.

"The next match is Hinata Hyūga Vs Neji Hyūga," the proctor called out.

Both Neji and Hinata had an excellent Taijutsu match, while Hinata was not on the same level as her cousin, she still did pretty well and Neji was encouraging her in between their match, which gave her some more confidence and she performed even better than she was doing so far, but in the end Neji won the match due him being superior in skills. Hinata congratulated her cousin for the win and he praised her for improving so much in just few months. They both left the arena for the next fight.

The next fight was between Gaara and Lee, "YOSH NOW I CAN SHOW EVERYONE MY FLAMES OF YOUTH," Lee yelled.

"THAT A BOY LEE, SHOW EVERYONE HOW BRIGHTLY YOUR FLAMES OF YOUTH BURN," Guy yelled.

"YES GUY-SENSEI AND IF I CANNOT DO THAT THEN I WILL RUN A HUNDRED LAPS AROUND KONOHA," Lee yelled causing everyone wince at the volume.

"THAT'S MY BOY LEE, LETS SHOW EVERYONE OUR FLAMES OF YOUTH."

"YES GUY-SENSEI!"

"LEE"

"GUY-SENSEI"

"LEE"

"GUY-SENSEI"

"Oh shit everyone close your eyes otherwise you will be mentally scared for the life," Naruto said loudly and all those who knew that Naruto was telling the truth closed there eyes, this included Naruto, Hiruzen, Jiraiya, Kurenai, Kakashi, who just arrived, Asuma, Hayate, Tsunade, Anko and Iruka, but unfortunately other didn't understood what Naruto was talking about got the full brunt of the Genjutsu from hell as Naruto like to call it. Everyone looked like they wanted to burn their eyes and Gaara looked like he was once again having sleeping problems. After several minutes Naruto and the group opened their eyes and were glad that it was over.

"Lee I want you go all out against him from the start," Naruto said to Lee before he looked at Gaara, "Gaara I want you to fight him without holding back," Naruto said to Gaara to which they both nodded.

The fight between the red head and Lee was good, Lee had trouble getting through Gaara's sand defence, while Gaara had trouble kedping up with Lee's speed, in the end Gaara trapped Lee in his sand upto his neck and politley asked him to give up, which Lee did but very reluctantely.

The next match was Choji Akimichi Vs Dosu of sound, the young leaf genin showed he was strong but the last remaining sound villager was able to easily overcome using sound waves from his gauntlet to knock the young Akimichi out and winning the final match.

"The finals for this year chunnin's exam will be held in main arena in one month time. Here it is the tournament grid. Take a good look." Hayate said and showed them the paper.

Naruto Vs Neji

Sasuke Vs Garra

Shino Vs Kankuro

Temari Vs Dosu

"Well what do you know, you got your wish for the rematch against me," Naruto said to Neji with a smirk.

"Yes it would seem so," Neji said with a smirk of his own.

"Congratulations all of you on making it to the finals and good luck for your matches in the finals," the old Hokage said and left with Jiraiya and Tsunade. After that one by one all of the contestants left with their sensei's or in Naruto's case with Kurenai and Kakashi.