Fifteen minutes into the hour they'd been given to complete the test Sakura had answered all nine questions on the exam paper, what had been unnoticeable to all however was that with her none dominant hand Sakura was scribbling down the answers to the test on a separate sheet of paper.
'Now to bide my time until I can unseal the tag' Sakura mused to herself, casting an illusion over her test to make it seem like she hadn't answered a single question as she raised the pencil and pretended to write.
Ten minutes later when it reached the twenty five minute mark, the first team was kicked out of the exam and Sakura saw her chance as everyone was currently distracted so after discreetly making a hand sign she unsealed her tag on the ceiling.
And the room was filled with black smoke "Chishi to Naruto" the pinkette ordered, folding up the cheat sheet so that Chishi could carry it, he took it into his mouth and was gone from her shoulders a second later.
Just a couple rows below her Naruto nearly screamed when something slimy slithered across his foot until he realized that it was Chishi who dropped something into his lap before slithering off back to his mistress.
By the time he was curled back up around her shoulders the smoke had dissipated completely so Naruto decided to see what the black mamba had brought him and almost cussed out loud 'That Sakura-chan I swear' Naruto shook his head.
Suppressing a smile when he unfolded the paper to find the answers to all nine questions for their test on it and so as not to waste her efforts of passing this information to him Naruto sneakily scribbled down the answers from the cheat sheet.
In another row of to the right of him and a few rows up was Sasuke, he had his sharingan activated and was discreetly flashing it around to copy answers from other test takers and before they all knew it, it was the fifty minute mark.
"Put down your pencils I will now give you the tenth question" Ibiki barked, subtly releasing his KI psyching the genin out in hopes of thinning the crowd some before they left the exam room and he collected their papers.
Sakura wasn't the only one who realized what he was doing, Sasuke did to 'Heh guess Anko was right this guy really does like to screw with peoples heads' Sasuke smirked inwardly to himself feeling the killing intent.
Unfortunately after six months of being subjected to Kakashi's, Ibiki's hardly affected him or his teammates at all as Naruto jumped up onto his feet slamming his hand down on the desk as he did so "I don't quit and I don't run, even if I'm a genin for the rest of my life I'll still be Hokage someday" the blonde shouted at the top of his lungs.
Emboldening those who remained in the room to stay in the room "That so well then I guess I have no choice but to…pass you, congratulations you've all made it through the first round of the Chunin Exams" Ibiki clapped.
Grudgingly acknowledging the boys guts though he would like to know who set off the bloody smoke bomb he supposed he could just review the recording to see who did it, before Ibiki could finish his prepared speech however.
Anko burst through the window "Alright you maggots I'm your sexy proctor for the second round Anko Mitarashi" Anko declared looking half crazed until she noticed how many people were left in the exam room.
"Morino you let to many of them pass, well I suppose it doesn't matter by the time I'm through less than half will be on to the final round, so if you lot would follow me I'll show you to where the second round is being held" Anko ordered.
Not seeing them just yet, until she saw something pink out of the corner of her eye "Pinky I knew you'd make it, I'm so proud of you" Anko launched herself at the rosette, hefting the girl off her feet to swing her around like a rag doll.
Garnering many, many disturbed stares "Hi Anko-sensei…mind letting me down now your kinda crushing my spine" Sakura wheezed, the grin on her face told her that she hadn't minded the affection however.
The woman cackled madly "No, no, no, no" the Uchiha shook his head adamantly when Anko turned her attention on him but alas trying to dissuade her from something was utterly pointless as he found himself pulled into a bone crushing hug next anyway.
Last was Naruto who simply accepted the hug with little fuss "Crazy aren't you supposed to be showing us where the second exam is" Sasuke sulked, only getting his hair ruffled as Anko led them out the door.
Cackling maniacally the entire way "Just how the heck do you know that insane person Sasuke" Kiba shuddered, deciding to get a question answered as they headed to where the second round was being hosted.
Sasuke growled under his breath "We met her when we went on a mission outside the village….she's the one who gave Sakura the black mamba, she comes visits us at our apartment sometimes" Sasuke admitted.
Ino grimaced "So she wasn't kidding and saying that to upset me, you really live with Sakura…Naruto to in the same place" Ino asked, still hoping that it was all a huge joke, her hope was dashed a moment later.
When Naruto nodded "Yeah, seeing as none of us have parents, we all decided to help support one another since we were having trouble paying rent individually it pays to pool a collective amount together to have extra money left over" Naruto explained.
"What I don't understand is why you find it necessary to carry a weapon that's way out of your league" a new voice interrupted their conversation and they all looked over to see a bun haired girl, eyeing Sakura's scythe with interest.
Sakura snorted "Trust me I'm more than capable of wielding my tri-bladed scythe, for today however it was simply to comfort me" Sakura informed, mood darkening briefly as the brunette scoffed in disbelief.
Before she could come back with a rebuttal Anko cleared her throat noisily "If I could have your attention maggots, this here is the Forest of Death, the second round of the Chunin Exams will be held here" Anko announced.
Drawing their attention back on to her "So come prepared tomorrow, be here at 0700 hours or be disqualified that is all you may go, I'll explain rules when we meet up again tomorrow" Anko waved shooing the genin off.
Almost all of them were quite glad to skedaddle "Training Grounds 44, shit, we're having our survival round in there" Sakura cursed out loud, upon realizing why they would be led to this particular training ground.
Her teammates acted as if they were simply use to hearing her cuss like a sailor "Okay what's so special about the Forest of Death that you'd be acting like that" Sasuke inquired, not to worried at the moment.
She shook her head indicating public wasn't a good place to have that conversation "Lets go back home then" Naruto said, leading them back to the apartment as quickly as their feet could carry them and seven minutes later they were sat on couches in their house.
Both boys were staring imploringly at Sakura "The Forest of Death, is a special forest filled with extremely deadly animals and insects, people die in there all the time, there's even rumors that it was Shodaime-sama's personal training grounds" Sakura revealed.
Now that they were safe from eavesdroppers "Great…..so what's the plan" Sasuke groaned, absolutely hating his life sometimes, but that didn't mean he could slack off any especially if Sakura wasn't going to.
"My best guess is that we have to get to the old watch tower but I don't expect it to be that easy, we'll probably have to get an item from somewhere in the forest and prove that we have the skill necessary to get things to a certain point" Sakura listed.
Keeping in mind the things a Chunin Exam tested genin on "What I want to know is how the heck you manage to come up with this stuff all the time Sakura-chan" Naruto sighed wearily not understanding his teammate/sister at all.
Sakura snickered unsympathetically "An eidetic memory actually, I have the mental capacity to recall everything I've learned, so say I read a book two years ago with information pertaining the Chunin Exams, yeah now you get it" Sakura explained.
In such a way that Naruto would understand "Your scary, like wholly terrifying and kami am I glad your my teammate because I don't think I'd be able to handle a regular girl at this point" Sasuke shivered, Sakura merely smiled at him indulgently.
"Right with what we know and depending on how long we're going to be in the forest anything could happen, like for instance someone coming after us, I say we use the emergency evacuation tunnel that leads straight to the tower" Sakura intoned seriously.
Accounting for enemies "I can mass produce clones send them all over the forest to cover our trail" Naruto piped in, doing his best to help come up with the best plan for them and as Kakashi had taught them misdirection was everything.
Sasuke nodded his assent at that "But what are we going to do about the object we might possibly need to get" Sasuke frowned, the only thing left to figure out, it appeared Sakura didn't know what to do either.
Considering the furrowed brow "Misdirection…we'll send clones in our place and go in under the chameleon jutsu to observe…so how many clones can you make again Sasuke" Sakura finally suggested as it was all she was able to come up with on short notice.
"Uh I think the last time I was able to create at least eight, far more than I use to when we were first taught the shadow clone jutsu" Sasuke said, wondering what Sakura was plotting in that brain of hers.
Guess he was about to find out as she grinned, emerald orbs gleaming with intent "Perfect, make seven, we'll wake up early tomorrow morning, make seven clones each and seal six clones of each of us into a scroll for the clones going in our place to carry and unleash into the forest" Sakura giggled.
Naruto and Sasuke shared a horrified glance with one another before bursting out laughing "The other contestants have no idea what a monster you are…bwahahaha imagine their faces when they attack us for whatever we have to carry only to find out their clones" Sasuke laughed.
Clutching his stomach, Naruto pretty much in the same predicament while Sakura rolled her eyes at them until they managed to quell their laughing fit a few minutes later "I suppose we should go buy some supplies to take with us" Naruto asked once he'd calmed.
Sasuke and Sakura agreed with him on that front so summoned themselves back to the apartment and prepared to head out to the market to buy what they would need, upon exiting the apartment however they came face to face with a crispy looking Kakashi.
Immediately Sakura knew something wasn't right because the seal on the door should have recognized Kakashi's chakra the moment he pulsed it into the door which meant the Kakashi before them was an impostor.
Discreetly she bumped elbows with her teammates who had already realized something was wrong themselves, her gesture was to indicate to them to play it cool and act normal "Kakashi-sensei what brings you here" Naruto started with a great big grin on his face.
"I just thought I'd check up on you three…what I didn't expect to happen was that I'd get shocked just for trying to turn the doorknob, seals are dangerous so I order you to take it down so that I can access your apartment freely" the fake Kakashi demanded.
A big red flag right there because their actual sensei had encouraged them to experiment and improve the seal on the door "Perhaps after we finish our shopping, it's very important to stock up on food when we can after all" Sakura said slowly.
Edging around the impostor posing as her sensei with Naruto and Sasuke on her heels "No, I meant now" the fake glared down at them but they'd already fled down the steps, he let out a roar of anger before giving chase.
"Where do we go" Sasuke questioned, seeing the fake gaining on them rather quickly to his horror, Sakura bit her lip thinking as they ran doing their best to avoid being caught, because something bad would probably happen if they did.
She wracked her brain "T&I, Anko-sensei and Ibiki-sensei have to be there by now right, surely they'll notice something off just like we did" Sakura snapped her fingers, steering them in the direction of the Torture and Interrogation HQ.
Not without difficulty of course as the Kakashi impersonator was practically breathing down their necks at this point and they had to duck and do a sort of roll when he tried to grab them while they tore off down the road even faster to create distance in his shock.
Upon arriving at their destination Team Seven realized they were going to fast so on either side of her Sasuke and Naruto dug their heels into the ground unfortunately this had the opposite affect as it sent Sakura flying forward.
To slam into Shikaku Nara who'd just emerged from the T&I building, sending them both crashing to the ground "Oooh that sounded painful" Sasuke winced from the crack that had echoed through the air.
While Naruto took a chance to peer over his shoulder only to find the sensei impersonator right behind him now "What a drag, may I ask why you rammed into me like that" Shikaku groaned, peering down at the pinkette sprawled out on his chest.
A dazed look in her eyes it took a couple of seconds before her eyes cleared "Help…that man is not our sensei, he's an impostor" the girl whispered, gaze boring into his intensely as they carefully got back onto their feet.
Shikaku frowned then took note of the way Naruto was leaned away from his sensei "Is everything okay here" Shikaku inquired, dusting his vest free of dirt debris absentmindedly as he tried to figure out what the hell was going on.
The fake Kakashi if he really was an impostor nodded an easy-going smile on his face "Yes, we were just having a training session when these three decided they didn't like how I was teaching them so they decided to try and run but I've caught them now" the fake Kakashi lied.
Shooting a quick look at Sakura only to get an imperceptible shake of the head in response "Liar, you ambushed us outside our apartment" Naruto jumped away from the impostor and now that he was within range Sasuke pulled the blonde closer to him.
Just then Anko exited T&I herself and frowned at the spectacle happening right outside the building "Something going on that I should know about" Anko quirked a violet brow at her favorite genin who were glaring at Kakashi.
When she looked at him however Anko immediately sensed something off about the man and had him tied up in her snakes seconds later "Who the hell are you bastard" the purple haired interrogator snarled, stalking forward to get into the fakes face.
"That's what we'd like to know and the only reason we knew anything was wrong at all was he got shocked by the seal that protects our apartment which shouldn't have happened if he was the real Kakashi" Sasuke scowled.
Relieved that the issue was being taken care of "Outsmarted by a bunch of brats how humiliating" in a puff of smoke the impostor was revealed to be someone they didn't know but before Anko could drag him into T&I he smirked and set off an exploding tag, committing suicide.
Shikaku and Anko only had a second to get themselves and the genin out of the blast range "Bloody hell you three your trouble magnets I swear" Anko cursed once the explosion had died down and she could put the brats she was holding down as well.
"We're sorry we don't mean to cause trouble it just happens" Naruto cried hugging onto his adopted sister for dear life once Shikaku had set her on her feet since she'd been standing nearest to him when that idiot had set the exploding tag off.
Anko's expression softened at seeing blondie tear up like that in all the months she'd known the kids none of them had cried so seeing their tears now made her heart squeeze uncomfortably "Do you know what he wanted" Shikaku asked.
Surprised that no one had come to see what had happened, right as he thought that anbu black ops had surrounded them "Shikaku-san care to explain why it sounds like we're being attacked, what was with that explosion earlier" one of the anbu wearing a fox mask stepped forward.
Speaking solely to him, Shikaku sighed "Troublesome, we had an impostor posing as Kakashi Hatake a minute ago, caught out he decided to commit suicide to prevent us from extracting information" Shikaku explained.
"As for what he wanted you'd have to ask those three, in fact I think they were just about to tell me either way so just stick around for the explanation" Shikaku admitted, resting his gaze on the kids again.
From where they were crowded around Anko, Sasuke stepped forward "He wanted access to our apartment, practically demanded we take down our protective seal actually" Sasuke announced, inwardly thinking this whole thing could be Danzo's doing.
It seemed like something the Elder would do to get Sakura in Root as Kakashi had so helpfully told them "Okay and what would someone infiltrating the village and impersonating one of our own want out of a genin's apartment" the fox masked Anbu questioned.
"That's what I want to know to because I've been in your apartment before and there's nothing in there, in fact I even suspect you guys aren't even living there anymore and are simply using that place as a cover to hide where your truly living" Anko chimed in
Sakura was hard pressed not to flinch in response not outwardly letting on that Anko was completely right on the mark about things "We don't know, just that he wanted into our place" Naruto shook his head.
The fox masked anbu was quiet for a few minutes "Then I suggest you move and make it so that your address is confidential until we can figure out who would be after you, perhaps even have a Jonin stay with you" the man suggested.
Vanishing in a poof of smoke along with his fellow anbu who'd come to see what the commotion was "Seriously could things get any worse than this" Sakura grumbled, unable to even feel safe in her own village anymore.
"Guess we better get started on the cleanup, Morino's going to have a conniption from the amount of paperwork this is going to cause him" Anko groaned, then remembered Team Seven was still there and turned her attention on them.
They didn't look to happy themselves "Just stay safe for fucks sake I can't be worrying about you like this right now" Anko sighed, ruffling their hair and sending them off, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura waved then hurried up to complete their business in the market.
Before finally heading home "Eventually someones going to figure out that they can still simply body flicker into here so I say we add seals to prevent that" Sasuke commented the moment they were stood in the apartment.
Extra, extra cautious now from the incident of earlier "Yeah I don't want to chance anything else happening either" Sakura agreed solemnly, as she pulled out the inkpot full of chakra ink and her ink brush to begin drawing anti transportation seals everywhere in the apartment.
She left no surface uncovered "Also I'm going to start leaving clones here, it's not safe for us to use this method any longer so I propose we come up with an alternate route" Naruto added, taking the threat they'd experienced seriously.
"We can…..we can make a tunnel under the house leading to the rock on our training grounds, though have it branch off in individual directions while hiding the real tunnel in case any one finds their way in" Sakura suggested.
Brain going at high capacity now "There's also the option of renting a small apartment near our training grounds, rent it under a fake name while using a disguise just for one person, also put a trigger seal on the door should someone knock it activates unsealing clones" Sasuke said.
"Good idea kids….whoa, whoa its me otherwise I wouldn't have been able to get in remember" Kakashi suddenly standing behind them startled the three genin and they all threw various pointy weapons at their sensei since they were already highly on edge.
Fear and wariness were predominant in their gazes as they regarded him "T..True, sorry Kakashi-sensei we just had a really bad time out there earlier" Naruto intoned shakily proving that the encounter had really shaken them up.
Kakashi was pissed not that he'd show it to the already traumatized genin "I know, Shikaku told me what happened, Danzo is the perpetrator of this incident, he kept me in a meeting the entire time you three were in trouble from his Root Agent" Kakashi informed.
Sasuke sneered in response "Figures so he still hasn't given up on getting Sakura, even after Lord Hokage told him to leave her alone" Sasuke curled his lip up into a very intimidating snarl something was becoming more and more normal for Sasuke actually.
Their temperaments had worsened since coming back to the village really "Unfortunately Danzo's most likely to never give up….don't think I'm going to let him get you though Sakura, any of you but this apartment is no longer safe" Kakashi declared.
Patting each of his students on the head "You don't have to tell us that our place was compromised Kakashi-sensei we already know that's why we've been coming up with various ways to create an alternate route to our house" Sakura snorted.
"Though I don't know how we'll be able to do it all before tomorrow…wait actually I do know of a way we can get everything done by tomorrow, multi-shadow clone jutsu" Naruto huffed before realization dawned on him.
Sakura grinned "Which leaves purchasing an additional apartment, I'll do it and put it under my fake name, also Anko's pretty much already figured out you three don't live here anymore and I got permission from Hokage-sama so you can tell her about the house" Kakashi offered.
Informing them of one more tidbit of information before exiting the apartment through the doors upon seeing the anti-transportation seals drawn onto nearly every surface of the apartment, while he was gone Naruto sent a literal army of clones to begin making a tunnel.
While Sakura created an additional seal on the door that triggered when someone knocked on it to unseal clones of themselves "Come on you two I want to get started on doing stuff over at the house" Sakura announced.
Kakashi knew where to find them if he needed to so the three of them went through the process of summoning themselves to the house and exited it through the front door which they barely used "So how is this going to work Sakura" Sasuke inquired.
When Sakura heaved the big rock up onto it's side and started drawing seals on the underneath side of it "Basically this will be like one of the secret routes leading into the house, only we will be able to lift it or rather me anyway" Sakura explained.
Drawing a seal that made the boulder fifteen times it's weight unless she had a hold of it that is "Interesting…..oh looks like my clones made it" Naruto mused, before seeing the ground start caving in where the boulder had been.
Then over a hundred Naruto's started emerging from the hole, dispersing in puffs of smoke one by one until only the original remained "That was freaking weird" Sasuke declared not sure how to feel about what he'd just witnessed.
Naruto shrugged as if to say there wasn't anything he could do about it really "Naruto your going to have to make more clones, this is not enough misdirection" Sakura announced finishing up by adding camouflage seals all around the area.
"Wha…are you for real Sakura-chan isn't that overboard…..joking, joking I know how serious this all is" Naruto gaped, holding his hands up when Sakura glared at him unimpressed so he hurriedly made more clones.
The same amount as last time "May I ask what it is your planning anyway" Sasuke asked as they dropped down into the hole, rock shutting behind them with a hand sign, shrouding them in utter darkness until Sakura pulled out a lantern and lit it giving them a bit of light.
Sakura nodded "Various tunnels, I want one leading to underneath the lake to prevent flooding I'm going that way, I want one to go towards the cave we hid in during the bell test and the last will lead to a barrier, I'm adding extra security as well" the pinkette admitted.
By the time the three of them were done they were sweaty and covered in dirt from head to toe and that's how Kakashi found his students after returning from purchasing an additional apartment under his fake name.
"Dare I even ask what happened and what the hell is that on the floor" Kakashi quirked a silver brow at his genin only to notice the new addition to the house, a hatch door that he was mighty curious about.
Sasuke propped himself up on his elbows "Tunnel, thanks to Sakura we now have multiple alternate routes…ugh" the raven then flopped backwards uncaring that he was filthy for the moment because he was so exhausted.
Kakashi chuckled, inwardly proud of the kids who'd taken his teachings to heart "Apartments all rented by the way…I popped over to the other one and made a new summoning seal that leads to it, I about had a heart attack though when I opened the door to Sasuke however" Kakashi said.
Resting in one of the armchairs since the kids had taken up the couches for themselves "Yeah Sakura-chan made a seal that triggers and unseals a clone of us whenever someone knocks or opens the door apparently" the blonde explained.
"Hey you better not be complaining because I used up every iota of fuinjutsu knowledge I had today so give me a break if one of them doesn't work the exact way we intended" the rosette huffed from where she was face down, head buried in a pillow on her favorite couch.
The silence lasted for all of three seconds before Kakashi started laughing "I can't wait to see the looks on people's faces when they really see what you three are like" Kakashi chuckled, imagining the looks of horror and finding it funny.
None of his students knew what to say considering they were all exhausted and not really sure what he was talking about but eventually Kakashi left them for the evening as Naruto sent out a clone to order food from Sushi Palace that night.
And right after, Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura took showers before finally heading to bed after a long chaotic day, at six they were awake and preparing for their day "Okay make the clones" Sakura said once she'd finished making a storage seal on a scroll.
Doing the same as her teammates until seven clones of each of them were stood before them, where only six each were sealed into the enclosing seal "Now for the chameleon jutsu" Sasuke sighed weaving the hand signs necessary.
Cloaking his presence as Naruto and Sakura did the same "Alright lets get a move on" Naruto suggested, Shisha comfortably wrapped around his shoulders since they'd all decided on bringing their snakes into the forest.
With that Team Seven headed out the door on their way to Training Grounds 44, or rather headed through the tunnel that had been made yesterday, with a few hand signs they hurried off their team training field towards the location of the second exam.