After Karin transplanted Tsunami's left eye into Sakura, they took some more time to recover. Tsunami used her transformation ability to recover her eye. She made her eyes into Byakugan eyes in her normal blue color. Karin had Sakura bite her so that she would recover from the transplant. Tsunami was not willing to take more than an hour before they set out again.
While they had waited, Hinata had shown Sakura how to activate her Byakugan eye. Sakura figured it out quickly, but like Tsunami, she found the output from the eye confusing. Even without Tsunami and Sakura being able to use their new Byakugan effectively, avoiding the dangers found in the forest and the other contestants was trivial using Tsunami's Shadow Clone scouts with their sensory ability, Karin's much greater sensory abilities, and Hinata's Byakugan. Any one of the three would likely have been sufficient, but after falling for Kabuto's trap, they were thankful to have the redundancy.
They arrived at the tower hours later. The door led to a small, empty room. The only thing inside was a riddle written on the wall. While Naruto was not as stupid as many thought he/she was, riddles were not her strength or interest, so she left the solving of it to Hinata and Sakura.
"I think we need to open our scrolls," Sakura said.
"It makes sense," Hinata said. "They told us at the beginning not to open them until we got here."
"Both at once or one at a time?" Tsunami asked.
"Probably both at once," Sakura said, "since they are both required to pass."
Tsunami removed the two scrolls and handed the Heaven Scroll to Sakura. "Ready?" she asked.
Sakura nodded and they both unfurled the scrolls. Symbols expanded and connected the two scrolls. "Summoning seal!" Tsunami yelled. "Drop them!"
Both girls dropped the ends of the scrolls they were still holding. Iruka appeared in a puff of smoke.
"Iruka-sensei?" Sakura said.
Their old Academy instructor smiled at them. "I'm glad to see the three of you made it. Who is your friend?"
Tsunami put her arm around Karin's shoulders. "This is my cousin, Uzumaki Karin-chan. She got separated from her team after running afoul of the wildlife. Kusa hasn't treated her well and she would like to request asylum from Hokage-sama."
Iruka smile grew. His hand twitched. Naruto thought that if she were in her male form, the teacher would have ruffled her hair. However, Iruka had always paid more attention to "Naruto" than "Tsunami" for both good and ill.
"That's great," he said. "I'm sure Hokage-sama would be happy to talk to you after this part of the Exam is over."
"Actually, Iruka-sensei," Hinata said. "Something else happened in the forest that we need to talk to Hokage-sama about. If Hokage-sama is extremely busy, we could talk to the lead proctor, but I strongly suggest that you send for Hokage-sama."
Iruka looked quite startled, but nodded. He rapped on one of the unmarked walls of the room using a code that Tsunami did not recognize. The wall opened and the five of them stepped through passing one of the chuunin proctors.
"I'll lead you to a room where you can relax and then I'll pass your message up the chain. It may take some time before someone is able to see you."
The four kunoichi acknowledged him as they followed him.
About two hours after the four kunoichi had settled down in their room, there was a knock on their door. Karin had been offered her own room, but after having saved all of their lives, the Konoha kunoichi trusted her. On her part, Karin had not wanted to be all alone and definitely did not want to run into any Kusa shinobi if any of them made it to the tower. Tsunami activated her Mind's Eye Technique and recognized the chakra signature of the person outside their door.
"It's Jiichan!" she exclaimed.
"Jiichan?" Karin asked.
Sakura made sighed with exasperation. "She means Hokage-sama."
"You're the Hokage's granddaughter!?" Karin exclaimed.
"She's not," Sakura answered with a smirk. "He's just too kind to disabuse her of the notion."
Tsunami blew a raspberry at her teammate. "As one of the few who treated my brother with any amount of kindness when he was little, he's more than earned the title. Plus, he likes it when we call him 'Jiichan.'"
"Why would people be mean to your brother?" Karin asked with a frown.
"We'll explain later," Sakura said.
Tsunami opened the door and wrapped the Hokage in a hug.
He chuckled indulgently and said, "I'm happy to see you too, Tsunami-chan."
"Please, come in, Hokage-sama," Hinata invited.
Tsunami let go and allowed the Hokage to enter.
"Iruka-kun said that you needed to tell me about what happened in the forest, Hinata-chan?" he asked. "But first, why don't you introduce your friend."
"This is Uzumaki Karin-chan!" Tsunami exclaimed. "She's from my clan!"
"She certainly looks like an Uzumaki," the Hokage said thoughtfully. "You represent Kusa?"
Karin nodded nervously. "Yes, Hokage-sama. My mother took refuge in Kusa when I was quite young, but they never treated us well and worked my mother to death. When I encountered Tsunami-chan, I was hoping that I could switch allegiance to Konoha to be with her and her brother since I have nothing good as a future in Kusa—plus they're the only family I've found since my mother's death."
The Hokage nodded thoughtfully. "It's a possibility we can discuss after this part of the Exam is finished. What happened to your team, Karin-san?"
"They ran afoul of the large bears in the forest. I'm pretty sure they didn't survive. If it's not too much trouble, Hokage-sama, could we just hide that I made it out of the forest from Kusa?"
The Hokage nodded. "We can do that at least until the Exam is over. At that time we'll have an interview and decide if you have a future with Konoha." He looked over at Hinata. "Was there something else you needed to discuss, Hinata-chan? While this is potentially good news for Tsunami-chan and her brother it doesn't strike me as urgent."
"Yes, Hokage-sama," she said seriously. "We ran into a Konoha shinobi who attacked us and claimed that he was Orochimaru's agent."
The Hokage frowned and held up a hand. "Was Karin-san present?"
"She was observing at a distance, Hokage-sama," Hinata said. "We've already discussed what happened with her."
The Hokage nodded and reached into his robes and pulled out a strip of paper and slapped it onto the door. He channeled chakra into the seal on the paper. Tsunami recognized the seal for one of Konoha's more intricate privacy wards.
"It's best that I hear what happened myself before deciding who else should know," he explained.
Hinata explained how Kabuto had ambushed them and what he had said. She ground to a halt, however, when she realized she would have to admit that the traitor had stolen her eye.
Tsunami noticed her reluctance and put a hand on the other girl's shoulder. "It's alright, Nata-chan. Jiichan won't condemn you for that."
Hinata nodded, but could not make herself continue. To help out her friend, Tsunami explained about the stolen eyes and how Karin had saved them with her healing bloodline and she had replaced their eyes with her transformation "bloodline." She also gave him a report on what her clones had learned had happened to Team Seven.
The Hokage brought out his pipe and packed the bowl with tobacco. He lit it with a small burst of Fire Release chakra. He took a pull on the pipe to make sure the tobacco lit and then blew a puff of smoke.
Sakura frowned at the display, but she evidently did not have the guts to tell the Hokage not to smoke.
"This is quite disturbing news," the Hokage said finally. "Do you plan to have your clones stay with Team Seven, Tsunami-chan?"
Tsunami nodded. "I've made an agreement with Shino-san to help protect them, especially against Kabuto's traitorous teammates. I've told him that I won't help them get a scroll, but that my clones would help them otherwise."
"That's reasonable," the Hokage said encouragingly. "I'm happy that you decided to help your comrades."
"Jiichan?" she asked. "Do you recognize the description of the seal on Sasuke-san?"
The Hokage sighed with deep regret, taking another pull on his pipe. "I do. It's a very problematic cursed seal called the Cursed Seal of Heaven. Unfortunately, not even Jiraiya can remove it, but we do know a way to limit its influence."
"The Evil Sealing Technique?" Tsunami asked.
The Hokage nodded. "Do you know it?"
Tsunami nodded. "I do, but it will have little effect if it's applied while he's unconscious since it's linked to willpower. It's best to wait until he wakes up."
"When we first encountered Orochimaru's cursed seal ten years ago, only one of his ten victims survived," The Hokage said. "We don't know what enable her to survive: luck, chakra, strength of will. . ." He trailed off and then shook his head.
Sakura looked horrified. Tsunami felt equally sick inside. As Naruto he had become friends of sorts with the abrasive boy. She definitely wanted him to survive.
"I'm sure he'll survive, Kura-chan," she said. "He's too stubborn to die without avenging his clan."
Sakura gave her a weak smile. "True."
"Hokage-sama?" Hinata asked weakly. "Isn't it best to keep the details of this incident to yourself?"
The Hokage smiled at her indulgently. "Yes, I think so. The parts about the eyes being stolen and Tsunami-chan's ability to recreate and replace doujutsu are S-class secrets of the village. If Kumo, or any of the other hidden villages really, found out. . ." He shuddered. "Because of this, I want any uses of the Byakugan by Sakura-chan or Tsunami-chan to be kept completely hidden. As part of this, you are both forbidden from trying to learn or replicate the Gentle Fist. Kurenai-kun will need to know, but I will inform her myself in order to make sure she understands my decision and the implications."
"Thank you, Hokage-sama," Hinata said with earnest relief.
The Hokage gave her a gentle smile. "Think nothing of it, Hinata-chan. It is always pleasing to me when the needs of the individual correspond to the needs of the village. If there's nothing else, I'll see you when this portion of the exam is over. At that point, we can make arrangements for Karin-san's future."
Tsunami gave him another hug as the other girls said farewell to the village leader.
After the Hokage left, Tsunami was forced to endure grilling from Karin about why "her brother" was persecuted.
Naruto pushed aside her guilt once again and told her the same story she had first told the other two.
"So they hate him because of he was born the day the Kyuubi was defeated and he has the whisker birthmarks that remind them of the Fox?" Karin asked, confused and angry.
Tsunami nodded. "I receive some negative attention because he's my brother, but I was ten before I came to the village's attention and I've always hidden my whisker birthmarks."
"People are stupid," Karin said with a growl.
"Peer pressure saps IQ points," Tsunami agreed with a bitter smile. She tried to shift her smile to a more cheerful one and gave her clanswoman a light punch on her shoulder. "Things are a lot better now."
"Can you make yourself look like your brother?" Karin asked.
Tsunami nodded cautiously. She transformed herself mostly into the shape of her male self but carefully kept herself female. She noticed that Sakura had activated her Byakugan—probably to see if her chakra changed.
"Wow," Karin said. "He's cute!"
Naruto blushed and quickly changed back to the other girls' giggles.
The rest of the day was quiet. Only one other team had arrived before they had—the Suna team that contained Gaara. Tsunami and the others were only too happy to avoid them. Karin remained in their room, but the others made quick excursions out—primarily to get food from the cafeteria.
The next morning during breakfast, Tsunami received memories from a clone dispelling. The clone's purpose was to make sure she was aware of what had happened in the early morning. If she was sleeping while her Shadow Clones dispelled, their memories were buried in her subconscious and she had to actively look for them.
Kabuto's teammates—she still did not know their names—had arrived late at night. Her clones had sensed their arrival and had informed Shino and Kiba. Kiba had still been groggy from the concussion he had received, but was otherwise mostly recovered. Shino had sent his kikaichuu to stealthily incapacitate them while they were scoping out Team Seven's hiding spot. They were bound and tagged with some chakra suppression seals her clones made before they knew what was happening.
Tsunami made arrangements with one of the ANBU stationed at the tower to pick them up for questioning after Team Seven moved on.
About an hour after the first Shadow Clone dispelled, anther set of memories hit her. Sasuke had woken up radiating an evil, oppressive chakra. He had attempted to execute their prisoners and had dispelled a couple of her clones in the process. She waited anxiously for the conclusion of the scuffle. Thankfully, more memories hit her and she learned that her clones and Kiba had managed to talk Sasuke down by saying that they would suffer more under Morino's hand in the process of giving up all their secrets. A short while later another clone dispelled letting her know that her clones had talked Sasuke into letting them apply the Evil Sealing Technique after a frank discussion of the consequences of leaving it unopposed.
Unfortunately, sealing the cursed seal used up the last of the chakra that her clones had, but with all three of Team Seven's members awake and mostly healed, she thought they had a good chance of at least making it out of the forest alive.
Hinata and especially Sakura were relieved to hear that Team Seven was back on their feet. Since they did not have a lot of room to train their more active skills, Hinata helped Tsunami and Sakura get used to their new Byakugan eyes. After two days, the two were able to use their new doujutsu to identify all the people they knew in the tower by moving their focus through their field of vision. However, they still had issues with they Byakugan's 360° view and interpreting everything within their field of vision. Sakura had a large blind spot on her right side due to only having one Byakugan. This meant that she had to swivel her head and body to see everything, but being able to see chakra and to see through objects was still useful to her. They made a game of identifying the contestants as they arrived in the tower and introducing their chakra signatures to Karin.
While Karin could not "see" them like Team Eight could, she had incredible accuracy with her sensing ability and could figure out who they were talking about. Karin in return gave Tsunami some tips on using her Mind's Eye Technique.
Tsunami discovered that their were advantages to both the Mind's Eye and the Byakugan. The Byakugan could see what a person was doing physically, while the Mind's Eye could give more indications of a person's character and feelings due to how their chakra felt.
The first team to arrive after them was Hinata's cousin's team. They arrived at midday the day after Team Eight. Team Ten—containing Ino, Chouji, and Shikamaru—arrived early the day after that. Team Seven arrived late the same day as Team Ten. They thought that that might be it until a team from Ame arrived right before the deadline.
The three Konoha kunoichi, who had all become close to Karin during their time together, each gave their new friend a hug before heading off with the proctor who came to get them so they could participate in the end of the second stage.