Chapter 20
Everyone looked at the older man with wide eyes. Naruto was the only one who did not look at him with shock as he has been through the mind games of Morino Ibiki.
"What the hell are you talking about? What about the tenth question?!" Kiba demanded.
"There is no tenth question. I lied." Ibiki said. A lot of people began to shout and rant about what this man put him through. After a while, he got fed up with it and unleashed his killing intent. That shut everybody up and made a couple of them gulp. Ibiki calmed himself and looked at each of them seriously. "Does anyone know what the point of this exam was?"
"You not only tested our ability to cheat but to see if we had the balls to cheat." Naruto answered.
"Close enough. Did you really believe that I and my fellow ninja did not notice the cheating? We wanted to see if you could get the information well enough to escape our notice. Also, we wanted to see if you could manipulate the point system that I placed up. Yes, we may have caught you but we had no reason to kick you out if you stayed within the point limit." Ibiki explained.
"And the tenth question?" asked the Suna kunoichi.
"It was to see if you had it within you to take it." Ibiki said and removed his bandana. Everyone was shocked at the wounds that they saw. Burn marks, punctures from where screws were used and long slash marks decorated his head and some wondered how he survived such a thing. "These are the scars that I received when I refused to give up information to my enemies. That's what it means to be a chūnin. To risk everything for your village and knowing that you're going to die." Ibiki put on back his bandana and faced the group. He was about to say more when something crashed through the window. Some of the genin prepared themselves for an attack when the projectile unraveled to reveal Anko. She stood proudly in front of the banner that said 'Sexy and Single Proctor of the Second Stage, Mitarashi Anko'
"Head's up boys and girls, this is no time to be celebrating! I will be your next proctor, Mitarashi Anko! Are you ready for the second test? Good, so let's go!" Anko said with her arm raised. Everyone looked at the woman like she was insane. Naruto held up a card for her to see, which got her attention. "Oh, that's bullshit! The entrance alone is worth a nine."
"The entrance was an eight at best. If you had used the smoke bombs and flash bombs like I said, then it would be a ten." Naruto said to her.
"What do you know about style? You think orange is a ninja color." Anko mocked.
"Hey, listen bitch," Naruto began but was cut off by Ibiki.
"If you two are done playing around, can you get to the second test?" Ibiki said. Anko looked around the room and was surprised by how many people were in the room. She counted and was even more shocked.
"This can't be right. There's seventy-eight genin left. That's twenty-six teams. Are you telling me that the great and fearful mind bender, Morino Ibiki, couldn't reduce the playing field?" Anko mocked. Ibiki glared at her.
"There are some outstanding examiners this year. Also, you punk-ass project kind of screwed up my aura around the place. You should warn him about who he talks to. It will get him killed." Ibiki said.
"No worries about that. When I'm done with them the herd will be cut in half." Anko said with a grin. Everyone kind of froze when she licked her lips. "I'm getting excited. This should be fun."
"As fun as you stalking Iruka and trying to rape him?" Naruto asked with a fake innocence. Anko glared at him for that comment. Naruto suddenly found himself in a headlock.
"Okay guys, follow me and I'll explain the next test. And you, you need to keep your mouth shut about my personal life." Anko growled and she tightens her grip around Naruto's neck. Everyone just watched the two with awe as they followed Anko to the next stage.
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Free of Anko, Naruto walked with Sakura and Sasuke to the next stage. As they walked, Shikamaru came up beside him. Naruto greeted him and asked him what he wanted.
"Nothing really, I just came to congratulate you on your ploy to get the answers. It was a little classless but it got the job done." Shikamaru said with a bored tone. Naruto grinned as his teammates looked at him with confusion.
"So you noticed that huh? Well, I can't help my genius." Naruto boasted.
"What are you two talking about? Naruto was sweating like pig during the test. He couldn't answer those questions." Sakura said.
"He stole them. The guy he hit in the nuts was a distraction while his Henge'd clone stole someone's paper." Shikamaru explained.
"Clone, what clone?" Sakura asked. Back in the academy, Ibiki was racking his brain as to how that blond brat cheated. That little stunt was a distraction, he knew that it was. The test he checked was filled with the right answers so this had to be from one of the guys that he planted in the room. Ibiki was getting frustrated at the fact that he had been outsmarted.
"Hey Ibiki, are you okay?" asked one of the proctors.
"No, no I am not." Ibiki said and faced the group. That's when he noticed that someone was missing. "Hey, where is that blond haired woman?"
"What blond haired woman?" the man said.
"The woman who caught the eyes of you all and many of the males'." Ibiki said with a growl.
"Oh her," the man said with a funny grin. He quickly wiped it off as Ibiki glared at him. "Well, I don't know where she is. I don't even know why she was there. She wasn't a part the group that was instructors. Truth be told, I don't even know who she is. Trust me, she would be very memorable." He said. Ibiki looked at him like he was crazy and was very concerned about a spy in the village. That's when he remembered Naruto's little 'stupid' jutsu. Going deep in his mind, he recalled the face of the woman. He remembered a beautiful face with three whisker marks on each side of her face.
"SON OF A BITCH!" Ibiki exclaimed. Back with the group of genin, Naruto had a huge grin on his face. Anko had to pause as she was laughing so hard. She couldn't believe that Ibiki fell for that stupid jutsu of her little brother. She could only image the rage on Ibiki's face as he was fooled by a genin. Naruto mentally patted himself on the back until he felt a decent amount of killing intent that was directed toward him. He turned and gulped as he saw the rage on Sakura's face.
"N-Now Sakura, let's calm down and talk about this." Naruto said nervously. Sakura wasn't listening and charged at Naruto. Anko just chuckled as the pink haired teammate of Naruto beat the living hell out of him. She just enjoyed the show just for a little while.
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Naruto groaned and sat up. He rubbed his head and cracked his neck to work out the stiffness. He stood and faced Anko who had just finished her food. She saw Naruto stand up and smirked.
"Ah, sleeping beauty has finally awakened." Anko joked.
"You could have stopped her you know. Sakura punches are like iron weights." Naruto complained.
"I've told you before that your Oiroke no Jutsu (Sexy Technique) is going to get you killed. While I have no issue with it, the female population views it as offensive. If you're going to ignore that, they you have to face the consequence. Besides, it could have been much worse if she added a bit more hip movement in her punches." Anko said. Naruto gave her a 'WTF' look as Sakura began to think about what Anko said. The tokubetsu jōnin ignored him and faced the group.
"Alright, listen up because I'm only going to explain this once! Behind me is Daiyonjūyon Enshūjō (Forty-Fourth Training Ground), also known as Shi no Mori (Forest of Death). The radius of the forest is ten kilometers with a tower in the middle. Your objective is to arrive at that tower with both of these scrolls." Anko pulled out two scrolls, one with the symbol 'Heaven' and one with the symbol 'Earth'. "Each team will be given one of these scrolls and you will be let loose in the forest." Anko said.
"So, we'll be fighting in the forest?" asked Kiba.
"Well I figured that was self-explanatory considering I just said you had to get to the tower with both scrolls. As a chūnin, you will have to keep and get information in hostile territory. You will have to fight, sometimes to the death, to keep it. Before I go into it more, my friends here," Pointing to the group of chūnin. "Will be giving you a form. It is a release form as there will be killing in this exam. I'd rather not be responsible when you die and your village comes bitchin'" Anko said.
"Way to show concern onee-san." Naruto joked. Anko just shrugged and continued to speak.
"Anyway, the exam last for five days,"
"What about food!" Chōji exclaimed. Anko narrowed her eyes at him, making the chubby genin hide behind Ino.
"There are a lot of things in the forest that you can hunt and eat. Beware though because there are things inside the forest that like to eat plump little kids like you." Anko said with a grin, making Chōji shiver more. "Well, that's the second stage in a nutshell. I do have one bit of advice for everyone."
"What is it?" Naruto asked.
"Don't die!" Anko exclaimed. She watched as everyone signed their forms and gave them back to the chūnin. Looking around to see that everyone was busy, she quickly moved to grab Naruto. She took him away from the group and brought him somewhere private. Naruto was a little confused about why Anko looked so nervous.
"Sorry brat, I still a rep to protect. Anyway, I wanted to wish you luck and tell you to be careful in the forest. It isn't the place to be showboating." Anko said.
"Hey, I might be awesome but I know when to be serious. I'll be okay." Naruto said. Anko smiled at him and then embraced him in a hug. While surprised, Naruto returned the hug and told her that everything would be okay. Anko let him go and he ran back to his team. Anko looked at him with a smile and made her way back to overlook the genin. Unknown to her and Naruto, a sinister presence saw the whole scene. It amused them and bad plans began to form within their head.
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Naruto was pinching the bridge of his nose. He just couldn't understand why he was placed on this team with Sasuke. It was just too frustrating to deal with him.
"So that's the plan? We're just going to walk around the forest until we find someone and attack them? Wow, those are some really great lesson Kakashi has been teaching you." Naruto said.
"You got a better idea?" Sasuke demanded.
"Yes, I do. We find a place and make a base camp. After we situate the camp, then we can go and search for a scroll. With the base camp, we have a place to return to rest and plan." Naruto said.
"That isn't a bad idea. We should do that and you probably know a spot we can use, right Naruto?" Sakura asked.
"Look, we need to finish the exam quickly and easily. We don't have time to be making camps and coming up with plans. We are doing it my way and that's that." Sasuke said.
"Listen asshole, this is a team, which means that this is a team decision. Running around aimlessly, finding someone with a different scroll than ours is a waste of time and energy. If you want to do this plan of yours, then you are giving up the scroll because I'll be damned if you lose our scroll because you got in over in your head!" Naruto said loudly and held out his hand. Sasuke glared at Naruto who did not look scared of him. That's when Sakura stepped in.
"Sasuke, I agree with Naruto. I think that we should do his plan since he might know a safe area in the forest. I'm sorry but I can agree with your plan." Sakura said with regret. Sasuke looked at the two with defiance. He scoffed at the two and pocketed the scroll.
"Just lead us to a safe area so we can get our scroll as soon as possible." Sasuke stated with anger. Naruto sucked his teeth at him and nodded at Sakura who nodded back. After a few minutes, a chūnin opened their gate. All three genin dashed into the forest as the second stage of the Chūnin Exams began.
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Author's Notes: Here's a new chapter. I hope you enjoy.
