A/N: I think I'm gonna be updating this a little less often from here on out. Not because of burnout or whatever. I like doing this a lot. But I've received a lot of messages in criticism of my ability to make this story still feel like Jack. I'm really trying. I'm doing my best. But I'm not him, and I'm sorry for that. Believe me, I am.

I will still finish this story. I'm doing this for myself just as much as for all of you. But I think I'm gonna tone it down. Thank you to those who still show up and enjoy this story. And give feedback. You're the reason I update.

Time for Chapter 23

Enjoy!


Anko Mitarashi loved her job.

It was hardly even a job, for the most part. The Chunin Exams were very hands-off in terms of administrative intervention for the most part. Once the rules of each individual phase were explained, the genin were largely left to their own devices to solve problems themselves. The written portion of the exam was by far the most monitored, and even then, it hardly required much beyond a decent attention span and a quick verbal trigger. Better still, Anko wasn't even assigned to the first phase. Her duties lay with the second.

Occasionally, the Jonin questioned the morality of her phase of the exam. The Forest of Death had been given its title for a reason. More children had died within its confines than perhaps any other place on earth. Within legal justification, at least. The old adage of 'kids are cruel' rang truer than ever in the forest. Part of Anko's job description was to assist the cleanup crew once the phase was over, and she had come across enough adolescent corpses for ten lifetimes. Desperation had a way of drawing out greater violence than one would suspect a person capable of at a glance.

But then, that was the point of the phase. To test the prospective genin's ability to evade conflict all together, or to be ruthless when it counted. Should they choose to be elusive and pick their spots to steal what they needed, they could escape the forest unscathed. Most genin, fortunately or unfortunately, lacked that subtly. Confrontation was a given, and along with it came bloodshed.

Despite its bleakness, those exact details were why Anko volunteered year after year. It was utterly human. It drew out natural tendencies in a way few other things could. And despite the better angels of her own nature fighting against it, Anko found it all fascinating. She hardly knew the current crop of genin, but she would know their deepest convictions by the end. Taking a glance down at her watch as she stood before the entrance to the forest, the Jonin nodded to herself. It was time.

It appeared that all who had been present for the written exam were present once again. Thirty-odd genin was a large batch when compared to the average of less than twenty-five. Depending on how many died, or failed to complete the conditions of the second phase, a preliminary round of matches was a possible necessity.

"Looks like you all made it. We're going to jump right into the details, because this trial is extremely time-sensitive." she decreed loudly. Hearteningly, the genin all gave a curt nod. They appeared to be quite attentive and sharp despite the relatively early hour.

"What you have in front of you right now is the Forest of Death. It's the largest wooded area in Konoha, and the most dangerous. It'll be the site of your next phase, as I'm sure you've all figured out." Anko said, sweeping her gaze across the group.

"This phase of the Exam will be testing your ability to survive a hostile environment on your own, alongside your ability to gather resources behind enemy lines." she informed them, pacing back and forth across her space as she spoke. She then reached into the pocket of her jack and produced two scrolls. One was marked with the symbol for 'Earth', the other with the symbol for 'Heaven'.

"Your objective will be to get your hands on one of each of these scrolls. You'll be starting off with one or the other. Some will have an earth scroll, others will have a heaven scroll. It's on you to do what's necessary to get both. Once you have both, head to the tower in the center of the forest. The time limit is five days." Anko concluded with intentional vagueness. Silently assessing the group's reaction to her explanation, she could sense the question on their minds.

"And, before you ask, murder isn't encouraged, but it is permitted." she added. A few hushed gasps choked out from the genin. The individual reactions to the knowledge that some of them would likely die were mixed. Most, understandably, looked somewhere between horrified and terrified, while a few notable exceptions wore looks of satisfaction.

'Every batch has a few sociopaths. Every single time.' the Jonin thought to herself darkly. She then made a sign with her hands and slammed it down to the ground. A puff of smoke then erupted around her. When it cleared, distribution of scrolls, each labeled for a specific team, was laying out in the space between Anko and the genin.

"Find the scroll marked for your cell. Try to steal another team's scroll before you enter the forest, and I'll throw you out." Anko announced. She then took a few steps back to allow the genin to sort out their hardware. As the process began, Anko took the time to assess the line up of young ninja before her.

'Plenty of talent. A few surprises, too. I didn't think Kakashi's kids would be here. He's usually more cautious than that.' she thought to herself. Her eyes promptly fell on Team Kakashi, which consisted of Shikamaru Nara, Satsuki Uchiha, and Naruto Uzumaki. Inexperienced though they were, they were certainly a talented trio. Satsuki had been the star of her graduating class, and Shikamaru was apparently brilliant. Naruto was less easily measured. He likely harbored more raw power than any of the other genin present, but according to the report Anko had been given access to, he could hardly control it.

The group standing to the right of Team Kakashi was that of Might Guy, consisting of Neji Hyuga, Rock Lee, and Tenten. They were considered to be, of the genin hailing from Konoha, to be the favorites to 'win' the exams, so to speak. They had over a year and a half of experience, and had an impressive resume to boot. If any group was a near-lock to survive the second phase, it was them. Anko then searched for another group to focus on. In the midst of her search, however, she found something else.

A tall woman, one who appeared quite a bit older than the other genin. Her forehead protector broe the insignia of Otogakure. The Village Hidden in the Sound. As a nation, Oto was fairly new to begin with. Very little was known about it or its structure. The oddity of the country from which she hailed aside, the woman struck Anko as incredibly strange in a way she couldn't quite pin down. Everything about her seemed perfectly normal. Her hair, her eyes, her skin. All of it was milquetoast. Despite that fact, Anko could not shake the urge to recoil when she looked at her.

Choosing to shelve the thought for the time being, Anko took a long look at the group of genin. They had all sorted out their scrolls, it seemed.

"In thirty seconds, I'm going to cut you loose. You're free to get violent right away, but I'd suggest waiting until you have some idea of what your plan of attack is." Anko announced. Once again, the group nodded. They appeared ready. Silence then overtook the small space outside the forest. Fifteen seconds passed. Twenty-five. Then, finally, thirty seconds.

"Have fun, kiddos." Anko said with a smirk, stepping aside to open up an easy path into the forest. Mere seconds after being given the go-ahead to move, the mass of genin all made a break for it into the forest.

Alongside the pounding of feet, Anko could have sworn she heard the hiss of a snake.


If the so-called 'Forest of Death' was anything at all, it was dark. Dark and shockingly cold given the month. As Team Seven leapt from branch to branch, entrenching themselves deeper in the woods by the minute, Naruto couldn't help but occasionally shiver. Had he known that the temperature would be well below sixty degrees fahrenheit, he would have brought his jacket. As he was now, he was dressed in black shorts and a gray, short-sleeved shirt with an orange outline.

"Are either of you cold? Or is it just me?" the blonde asked his teammates, who were running and jumping on either side of him. Shikamaru nodded and rubbed his arms as he pushed off of a branch.

"You know, maybe we should have considered that a lack of sunlight would make it colder in here than out in the open." he said. Satsuki, who was perhaps the worst off of the group in terms of a warm outfit, shivered slightly.

"It was burning hot in the woods when Kakashi had us doing stealth drills. This doesn't make any sense." she complained. Naruto let out a short laugh.

"At least you wore shorts for once." he jeered at her. The Uchiha girl rolled her eyes and pushed ahead of him in the formation.

"As a guy, you'll never understand how liberating it feels to wear a skirt." she shot back. A few more minutes of travel were permeated by short conversations of equally casual nature. They were all nervous, whether they showed it on the surface or not. The banter allowed them to pretend things were as they always were. Deep down, no amount of feigned normalcy could truly distract them from the fact that they were neck-deep in an ongoing deathmatch.

"Let's stop for a little while. I think we've made enough distance between us and everybody else." Shikamaru suggested after around two miles of continuous running and leaping. Naruto nodded in agreement, as did Satsuki. The group then halted on a dense, wide tree branch that was nearly forty feet off the ground. It was a solid resting place. Observation in all directions, elevated, and wide enough for them all to sit on. Though they were far from tired, it felt good to rest.

Once they were all seated in a small triangle, Naruto reached into his kunai pouch and pulled out the scroll they had retrieved during Anko's explanation. They had been given an earth scroll.

"So, what's the plan? We have almost a week to find the other scroll, but I feel like we should get this over with as quickly as we can." the blonde said. Shikamaru, who was leaned up against the broad trunk of the enormous tree, pulled out a flask of water and took a swig.

"Team Ten has a heaven scroll. I saw it when we were all scrambling to find ours." he revealed. Satsuki nodded and folded her hands in her cross-legged lap.

"So did Team Eight, from what I remember. I didn't bother scoping out anybody else." she added. Naruto glanced off to his left and right. Despite how quiet it was, he couldn't help but feel as though they were being watched.

"Let's consider them our options, then." he affirmed. Shikamaru put his flask back into his vest pocket and shook his head.

"Of the two, I think Team Ten is our best bet by far. Team Eight has Hinata. She'll see us coming a mile away, and Kiba would probably smell us. I don't think there's much of an opening against them." he said. Naruto smiled inwardly. They had their differences, and it was easy to forget, but Shikamaru Nara was indeed sharp as a tack when he wanted to be.

"Yeah, you're spot on. Team Ten is Sakura, Choji, and Ino. None of them are too threatening." Satsuki admitted. Naruto furrowed his brow a bit.

"Can't Ino's family mind control people? Or was that just a rumor?" he asked, a touch of concern in his voice. Shikamaru shifted in place to make himself more comfortable.

"The Yamanaka clan invented the Mind Transfer Jutsu, but Ino isn't great at it. She used it to prank me a few years back, and I broke out of it just by getting angry. She might be better now, but she also can't use it on more than one person." he explained. Satsuki raised an eyebrow.

"You're just full of info today." she commented. The Nara boy shrugged his shoulders and swatted a bug on his leg.

"My folks liked getting together with other parents, so I had to spend some time with a few of our classmates over the years." he said casually. Naruto gave him a curious look.

"You mentioned that your family goes hunting a lot a few weeks ago." he said. The shadow user nodded and took out his flask of water again.

"Yeah, what about it?" he pressed. Naruto opened his mouth to explain, but then realized just how foolish the truth would make him look. Unfortunately, before he could rescind his question, Satsuki read his mind.

"You forgot to bring food, didn't you?" she asked with a sigh. Naruto began to refute her words, but quickly piped down and stared down at his hands.

"Yeah…" he admitted. The Uchiha girl pursed her lips into a thin line and reached into her own kunai pouch, which was strapped to her thigh. After digging around for a moment, she produced a piece of dried meat and tossed it to him.

"Eat it slowly so it lasts. I'm not gonna share much." she said. Naruto did as he was told, slowly nibbling on the corners of it.

"Was this just sitting in your pouch out in the open?" he asked skeptically as he chewed. Satsuki's face twitched slightly at the question.

"No, but if you're just gonna complain, don't whine about being hungry." she replied. Seeming to sense an argument brewing, Shikamaru stood up to gain their attention.

"We should get moving and find them. The sooner we can get into that tower, the less likely we are to get hurt." he said firmly. Snapping out of their conflict, Naruto and Satsuki both rose to join him. Just as they were about to take off running once again, the Uchiha girl posed a question.

"How badly are we hurting them if they struggle?" she asked. Both the shadow user and the Jinchuuriki stared at her silently. While his initial reaction was to assume that her inquiry was rhetorical, and that she had an answer she wanted to hear, the longer he studied her, the more Naruto realized that this was not the case. She was genuinely asking their opinion. Checking what was and wasn't acceptable in their eyes.

"What? It's worth discussing." the raven-haired girl said when the silence had stretched on for too long.

"Not too bad. Just…enough to make them give it to us." Naruto replied uncertainly. Satsuki nodded and readied herself to begin searching for Team Ten. Shaking off the oddity of the small exchange, Naruto leapt from the branch. His teammates soon followed suit. In their first few bounds from the tree they had been resting on, Naruto glanced back at Satsuki, who was now focused on the task at hand.

'I wish I could read you.'


Satsuki took a deep breath and allowed herself to finally unwind. The day had been long and stressful. On top of the general stress of milling about in a forest filled to the brim with trained killers, Team Seven had been unsuccessful in their quest to locate Team Ten. The forest was far larger than it had appeared from the outside. Finding a specific group of people while lacking any sophisticated means of tracking them was going to be immensely difficult. It wasn't as though the day had been totally without incident, however.

Several hours earlier, they had briefly encountered Team Guy, who also possessed an earth scroll. With that information laid bare, the cells had gone their separate ways rather quickly. That momentary scare aside, little had happened. It was now nearly pitch black, with what little sunlight that had kept the forest lit having dissipated roughly an hour prior. Despite not knowing what time it was exactly, they had decided to take turns sleeping until the sun came back up. Currently, it was the Uchiha girl's turn to keep watch while the boys slept.

It was a fair arrangement, but hardly a fun one for the person unfortunate enough to be on watch duty. The worst aspect was the inability to concretely tell time, as none of them had a watch. They had all agreed to simply use their internal clocks to guess when two hours had passed. Currently, by her own estimate, Satsuki was thirty minutes into her first rotation. It had been utterly silent during that time, save for Naruto's occasional snoring. While Satsuki generally appreciated silence, she found the current brand of it to be unsettling.

Throughout the day, she had been unable to shake the feeling that they were being watched. That they were being hunted. Every time they had stopped to rest, eat, or adjust their plans, it felt as though something malevolent and unseen was closing in on them. Satsuki had seemingly not been alone in this feeling, as Naruto had been hasty to get the cell moving again each time they had settled. She was very much still on edge. She couldn't fully calm down. Her instincts would not permit it. As such, when she heard the sound of shifting weight to her right, she immediately whipped her head in the direction of the noise.

"You're jumpy." came the voice of Shikamaru, who was apparently still awake. Relief washing over her tightly wound frame, Satsuki let out the breath she had been holding.

"Go back to sleep. You need to rest." she said quietly. Though it was faint, she could make out the outline of the Nara boy shaking his head and propping himself up to sit against the tree Satsuki herself was using for support.

"I've been awake this entire time. I'm done trying." he replied. Though her logical side told her to argue, in her heart, the abrasive genin was glad to have company. She did not fear the dark in most cases, but tonight, she very much did.

"You can feel it too, can't you?" Satsuki asked, well aware that clarification was unnecessary. Shikamaru rubbed one of his eyes and nodded.

"Yeah. Something is stalking us. I don't know what, or why, but I've been in this position before. I know the feeling way too well to deny it." he said honestly. Satsuki eyed him with interest.

"Sounds like a story. Care to tell it?" she requested. The Nara boy chuckled in the darkness and shifted his weight around to remove a stick from underneath him.

"My dad and I were out on a hunting trip last year. It was pretty standard stuff. Nothing all that adventurous. We ended up getting separated for around two days. For most of that time, I was being stalked by a mountain lion." he recounted, drawing Satsuki's interest.

"Well, what happened?" the Uchiha girl pressed when her teammate did not continue within what she considered a reasonable timeframe.

"I got careless and it caught up with me. I ended up having to kill it with a kunai. I got about forty stitches in my left arm because of it." he said. An odd look resembling one of regret then passed over his features.

"I still feel a little bad about it. It might have just been a mother defending its cubs." he said, more to himself than to Satsuki. The raven haired girl shrugged her shoulders.

"It was either you or the mountain lion. You chose to live. There's nothing wrong with that." she reasoned. Shikamaru gave a half-nod. The silence then took hold again. It was truly deafening.

"You're afraid, aren't you?" the shadow user finally said after close to ninety seconds had passed. Surprising even herself, Satsuki felt no desire to snap at him for the question, or the assumption that came with it. She lacked the energy.

"I just…feel so small in here." she admitted in a near whisper. Shikamaru exhaled through his nose and craned his neck to look at her.

"Fear is natural. And warranted in this case. There's no shame in feeling the way you do." he said. The Uchiha girl drew her knees up to her chin.

"How do you think he feels?" she asked, gesturing to Naruto's sleeping form as she spoke. The Nara boy studied his unconscious teammate for a time.

"He's as scared as you. Not for his own safety, though. He'd never worry about that. He's concerned for us." he said once he'd concluded his silent analysis of the blonde. Satsuki frowned at her teammate's words.

"What do you mean? Why wouldn't he be concerned for himself?" she asked skeptically. Shikamaru drummed his fingers on his thigh listlessly.

"How much do you remember from when Haku killed you on the bridge?" he asked, seemingly out of the blue. While she found the angle odd, Satsuki answered his question.

"I remember Naruto holding me. I remember him crying and begging me to stop talking. His eyes…turning red. Then it all went black. Next thing I knew, I was alive again, and Naruto was beating her half to death." she replied honestly. Shikamaru nodded along as she recounted her experience.

"When you were unconscious, he snapped a second time. It was when he broke Haku's mask. He accused her of having been out to kill me during our conversations. He got even stronger. He just about killed her." he said, pausing briefly to take a drink from his nearly-empty flask of water.

"Do you see where I'm going with this?" he asked. Satsuki took several moments to organize her thoughts on what she had been told, and to compare them with her own experiences with the blonde.

"Probably, but tell me anyway." she finally said. Shikamaru put his flask down and stared up at the pitch black canopy overhead.

"Being treated the way he has been broke him of any self-concern. It's wired into who he is now. Still, at his core, he cares about people. Even after all they've done to him. He would do anything to protect what little he has, and that's what we are to him now. He'd sooner die than let us get hurt." he said, his tone and expression unreadable. Satsuki felt her chest tighten ever so slightly as she gazed at Naruto.

"That's really sad." she said hollowly. Shikamaru kept his eyes fixed on the trees above, his face devoid of emotion.

"It is. But hey, we're here to worry about him, even if he won't do it himself. All we've gotta do is not get murdered in here." he said, a ghost of humor finally returning to him as his eyes lowered back to the terrain around them. Satsuki shook her head and laughed dryly.

"You're not very comforting." she said only half-seriously. Shikamaru stretched his body, resulting in a prolonged cracking sound.

"Do you want me to comfort you?" he asked. The Uchiha girl glanced at him wordlessly. His eyes were on her, if only the corner of them.

"I wouldn't mind it." she said. The Nara boy sighed and sat up a bit straighter, likely to fight the exhaustion in his mind and body.

"Sometimes, in situations like this, it's good to take a step back and be honest with yourself. It's good to know what kind of person you are when all you have in front of you is the unknown." he began. Satsuki motioned for him to continue, to which he obliged.

"Some people look at a day like today, and they see a miracle. They believe that the fact that they're still alive is a work of fate. A sign that some higher power is watching over them. And that belief fills them with hope." he said, rather surprising his teammate with his ability to articulate.

"Then, there's the other side of that coin. The people who see that survival as nothing more than luck. A happy turn of chance. They feel grateful. But deep down, they feel that they're all on their own. That no one is watching out for them." he continued, shaking the last contents of his water flask into his palm, which he then used to wipe some dirt from his face.

"And that instinct…it fills them with fear." he said.. He then looked Satsuki right in the eyes for the first time that night.

"What you've got to ask yourself is, what kind of person are you? Are you the kind who sees signs? Miracles? Or do you believe that people just get lucky?" he concluded, lapsing into silence so that Satsuki could mull over his words. The raven-haired girl pursed her lips, once again looking upon the sleeping Naruto.

"Tell me what's up. Something's wrong. You can't fool me."

"Please talk to me at least a little."

"I…believe in miracles." she replied quietly. Shikamaru raised an eyebrow, clearly surprised by her answer. Despite his expectations having been elsewhere, the Nara smiled.

"There ya go, then." he said. Satsuki nodded and let a yawn escape her. She was very tired, but her shift was far from done.

"Which kind are you?" she asked. The Nara boy remained silent at her question initially. Eventually, he did speak.

"Why does it matter?" he replied. The Uchiha girl tucked a strand of dark hair behind her left ear and cracked a smile.

"If you had that whole speech in you, then you definitely have an answer to your own question." she said logically. Shikamaru's expression turned to one of thoughtful apathy.

"I think we're on our own." he said bluntly. Satsuki internally wilted just a tad. Before she could reply, the shadow user cut in again.

"Go to bed. You need the rest more than I do. Both mentally and physically." he said. Finally tired enough to have no qualms with taking him up on such an offer, Satsuki quietly crawled across the ground and positioned herself a few feet from Naruto's back.

Within seconds of closing her eyes, she was out cold.


A/N: I know this chapter was very dialogue heavy, even more so than usual, but I thought it would be good to have Shikamaru and Satsuki have an actual conversation. They've literally never had one before that's shown in this fic.

Once again, I don't know if I'll be updating as frequently. Some of the things I've been told have honestly hurt a fair bit.

Regardless, I hope you enjoyed this chapter :)

Read and Review!