just becuse we are Shinobi, doesn't mean that you can't have emotions. I mean, come on. I love Shiro's mom like a sister, and we are strong enough to be considered S-ranked Nin. ~Shiba Uzumaki explaining emotions to the children.

"Forest of death?" Shiro asked in a curious, if not nervous, tone.

Anko smiled at Shiro in a creepy sort of way as she said "Yup. You'll find out why it's called at soon enough. For now let me explain the rules for the second part of the exams. First I need you all to take one of these." She stated this while pulling out a bunch of paper from Kami knows where "I need you all to sign these."

When she gained questioning looks she gained an almost childish look as she said "There will be deaths in is one, and if I don't have you sign see then they will be my responsibility. I'm going to explain the second test, and the. You can sign it afterwards. Once you sign is waver, you will go to check in at the booth behind me."

She handed the wavers to Naruto, who was the closest to her, and she waited until everyone had one before she continued "Ok, as for what the second test of the exams is, simply put, it's a Survival test. First I'll explain the area. Around area 44 there are 44 locked gates, in which you all will enter from as teams. Thought the forest, are trees caves, rivers, etc. You know, this in a normal forest. In the center though is a tower, which is about 10Km from each gate. During the test you will be surviving the environment, as well as other Shinobi that will attack you for one of these."

She held up two scrolls. The first was mostly white and it had the Kanji for 'heaven' on it. The other scroll on her possession was mostly blue and it had the Kanji for 'Earth' on it. Once everyone saw them she said "There are no rules when this test begins, and it is encouraged to you use every means to complete your goal. Half the teams will get one scroll, while the other half will get the other scroll. To pass this stage, however, you must have both scrolls in your possession, as well as make it to the tower in a five day time limit."

"What should we do about food then?" Kira asked in a even tone.

"Well I'm sure a skilled swordswoman like you can find something to cut up and eat." Anko stated with a smirk showing that she meant they would get no help when it came to this test, and that they had to find food on their own "Also, thirteen teams passing is extremely unlikely. As the days go on, things will be more difficult as to you it will seem that the distance is getting father and father away. that added with the fact that you will have less and less time to rest if you want to make it to the tower in time. The area is crawling with things that would love nothing more then to turn you into mincemeat. You won't get much sleep. That said, you will either fail because you lose your scroll, or you die by various different ways, including the flora and fauna."

She gave everyone a sweet smile once again that creeped everyone out. Kira didn't seem affected by it, and nether did her two teammates. Everything was really not that difficult when you lived on the road for a good portion of your life. That and the fact at all three of them had been born on the road, and didn't know what the comforts of an actual home was like until they arrived here. In all this test was going to be easy for the three, despite the fact that it was a lot larger then a normal forest.

"Now I'll talk about what will disqualify you." Anko stated with a smile "The first, is if you don't make it to the tower within the time limit with both scrolls. The second would be if you lose a teammate, or one of you dies. As a rule, there will be no quitting in the middle of the exams. You will be in the forest for five days no matter what. Oh, one more rule. You can't look inside of the scroll until you make it into the forest. For those who do, there is a little surprise. The reason for this is because a chūnin will be asked to handle important documents. This is to test your trustworthiness. That's it for the explanations. Exchange three wavers for one scroll, then choose a gate to get started in. The exam will start in one hour. Oh, and a final word of advice, don't die."

Kira gave a soft sigh towards the proclamation before she turned towards her two teammates "Should we try and help Naruto and his group at all? I'm slightly worried about him. Did you see those Kusa-Nin? They were eyeing his group."

Karin shook her head "As much as I want to, we can't. Naruto needs to grow on his own Kira. We can't dot on him like a mother."

Shiro gave a nod as well "W-we should be m-more w-worried about o-ourselves. I-I want t-to help n-Naruto. As well b-but, w-we need to p-pass to."

Kira gave a deep, and annoyed, sigh at that before she said "I understand. I just didn't want to do anything that you two didn't agree on. We are a team after all. If you think we should worry about ourselves, then I'm not going to argue with you guys. I'll take the three forms, while you guys plan something. I'll add my two cents when I get back."

The other two nodded before Kira walked off. Once she walked off Karin asked "Is it really a smart idea? That Kura Nin, the female one, she had a chakra that was extremely disturbing. It was like a snake that was also extremely bloodthirsty."

Shiro just nodded his head "If your right... Then we need to at least Inform the Hokage. If he isn't informed, things could very easily go down hill fast."

It surprised karin slightly that Shiro didn't stutter once, but when she saw his dark look she understood right away. Shiro's analytical abilities rivaled that of a Nara, and in some cases it surpassed a Nara's because of how his upbringing was. It was honestly confusing when it came to the group. Kira was an incredible seal master and swords-woman, but she was even more adapt at combining Ninjutsu discreetly into her swordplay, something that her mother was terrible at. Karin was training to be an incredible medic, in both seals, and regular medical ninjutsu, but finally, the weirdest of all, was Shiro. His more was the best medic the Uzumaki had, but he was trying to become the top Uzumaki strategist, and he also wanted to be involved in the T&I department when he was older, something his mother didn't want any part of, yet despite this she supported Shiro's dream.

Speaking of Kunia, she hadn't been around Konoha for awhile, as she was given a S-rank mission that was supposed to be finished the day after this part of the exams was scheduled to end. It honestly saddened Shiro, that his mother wasn't there to see him in the chūnin exams, but, he had promised his mother that he wouldn't get down about it if she wasn't able to.

Kira came back not to long later, and she said "We need to be at gate 1. Let's go guys."

The other two nodded before they got up and walked towards their gate. On the way the three started to say that the needed to make sure they didn't attack any of the people they knew well. Despite the fact that they knew that the ones they knew would most likely have a scroll they needed, as they had an earth scroll, but they didn't want to attack one of their friends. It would be counter productive as it was also against Uzumaki family values.

After the team waited in front of the gate for nearly a minute Nako's voice came from what sounded like a loud speaker and she said " The second part of the chūnin exams begin now!"

The gates threw themselves open and in an instant the three Uzumaki disappeared leaving only a small upset spot in the grass behind. Anyone watching, which happened to be three Ame-Nin, looked in surprise before they to want into their gate.

Back of the Uzumaki, Shiro snapped his head to the right almost right away as he said "We have three teams coming straight towards us. Two smell terribly of water, the last is a familiar sent, though there is a hint of bleach."

Another little known fact about Shiro, he had senses that outclassed most summons, including the Ninken that Kakashi could summon, so when they heard that he had smelled water and bleach Kira knew who they were. The two that smelled of water, we're obviously Ame-Nin teams, while the last one had to be a team with a Hyuga in it. Most of their clothes were white, so it didn't come as a surprise that bleach was the most prominent smell. He probably wasn't willing to go into details however, when it came to other smells.

Getting into a defensive stance, the three looked I. The directions that the teams were coming from, with Shiro looking towards the leaf genin, as he was the least compulsive. As it turned out, it was a smart idea, as the leaf team was the first out of the leaves, and it showed team 9 of all people. Shiro, who didn't drop out of his stance, but instead turned toward the other two areas where the teams where, said "Two Ame teams will be here in T, minus 5 seconds."

Neji, stopped next to Kira, while Tenten stayed by Shiro. Finally Lee stood next to Karin in his normal stance, and when the two Ame teams came out of the woods, they didn't expect to see two Leaf teams, instead of just one, and the one that Kira was facing, didn't expect to be hit in several places with them consisting of both Tenketsu points, and Slashes over muscles and joints. With the other team, however, it was just as bad. One of the three from that team, was like a pincushion, who also had a lot of bruises on his body, the other seemed to be perfectly fine on the outside, but he was knocked out due to chakra scalpels on Karin's part, with the final one being knocked out with nothing else showing except a large lump on his head.

Searching the bodies of, the group found two heaven scrolls, which the other group took as well, as they had a heaven scroll, but they could choose to trade it out if a situation where they needed to popped up. It was, in all honesty, a smart idea, and the fact that they didn't tell team 9 what scroll they had. They so what trusted the team, but they didn't want to take any chances, especially when the team looked like they were trying to get to the tower as fast as possible. The only difference between the two teams now, though, was the fact that one team had both the scrolls, and they were going to take off as fast as they could towards the tower. They didn't expect to make it by the end of the day, but they were apparently wrong, as they arrived just by nightfall. The only problem, in their opinion, was that they didn't get there first. In fact the only other team there was the team from Suna, consisting of Gaara, who Kira felt was a jinchuriki due to Isobu, and his two siblings.

When they walked through the door to the area they read a sign that said that showed the chūnin motto, but when they opened the scrolls, Shiro knew what it was, as did the others, and they threw them away waiting for whoever it was to pop out of the summoning scroll. As it turned out, the one who popped out, was Mina.

Mina had changed by the time the chūnin exams had started. For one her hair was now shoulder length, even if it was still spiky on the top. She was Currently wearing a standard jōnin uniform flak jacket, that had a blue shirt underneath with a fire symbol. She had plain black pants as well, with some Shinobi sandals. When she popped out of the reverse summon, she had a soft smile on her face.

"It seems you guys got here pretty quickly. How did you manage that?" She asked with genuine curiosity.

Shiro actually blushed a bit under her smile, as he wasn't used to being smiled at, before he said "W-well... W-we got a-attacked e-early o-on..."

"Two groups of Ame Nin. Don't really care why, but they did." Karin stated with a bored tone.

"They probably thought we were weak or something." Kira stated with a frown "Either way, why are you here Mina-sensei?"

Everyone was slightly surprised that she actually used the honorific that most teachers were given, but Mina just smiled and said "I'm here to congratulate you for completing this part of the chūnin exams. Your going to be stuck here for the remainder of the time, so I suggest that you get comfortable and start preparing for the next round, which I'm sure you guys will. It will take place in a month, so you have plenty of time to work on different things, like seals for example."

The three Uzumaki nodded to the Namikaze, as she walked away from them after saying goodbye. They walked farther into the tower at this point, and were surprised to see that there wasn't very many people, including those that were not genin. Not wanting to deal with anything else, however, Kira went to get something to eat while her teammates found a room for them. It honestly didn't take long to get everything she needed, before she started to go towards her room, only to be stopped when Gaara was in front of her.

"Do you need something from me? I'm going to busy for a couple of days, so if you could make this quick, I'd appreciate it." Kira stated in a careful tone, as she could sense his bloodlust underneath his calm exterior.

"Mother is drawn to you... But why is that?" Gaara stated as if he wasn't talking to her.

'Oh kami... It's that sadistic raccoon.' Isobu muttered in her head, causing her eyebrow to twitch.

"Maybe because I have a three tailed demon turtle sealed inside of me?" Kira stated with a nonchalant tone, that actually made Gaara's eyes widen, if only a little.

"So your like me then. Why is it no one fears you? You are strong, but yet you have allies, comrades. Why is that?" Gaara asked in his normal monotone tone.

Kira, finally understanding what he is talking about, said "It's because I treat others like actual people and not as something to kill. My beast is not bloodthirsty, nor psychotic. Strength coming from protecting ones self, is not strength." She ignored his looks after that as she walked into her room. With a small sigh, she went over towards her bed and quickly fell asleep with nothing else going through her mind.

Over the days that they were waiting more and more teams made it, but it was mostly Konoha teams after they arrived. The only other team that wasn't a Konoha team, as it turned out, was the Oto team. They looked over at Kira and her team with a look of interest, but it was soon gone, once their sensei called them over for whatever reason. It was really boring for Kira and her team during the time, at least until it was time for. The main thing they did was develop seals that would help them in combat.

One of the seals that Shiro had created was a seal called shokkushirudo(1), which in essence needed to be charged with some lightning chakra, and if you got touched by anything, it would send a electric shock through the enemy that would temporarily paralyze them. It was a good idea, and it actually worked, but the problem that he was working on was making it so you didn't get shocked as well. Another thing that the Uzumaki worked on, was increasing the weight on their secretly placed jūryoku(2) seals. They didn't tell their teammates about the seals, mainly because they didn't want their teammates to get ahead of themselves by placing the seal on level 5 when they needed to start on level 1. The good thing about the seals, though, was that they affected the whole body, instead of just the arms or legs like training weights did.

Today, however, was the day that everything would be starting. All of the genin that managed to pass this part of the exams were gathered into one room with their sensei's up front. Instead of the Uzumaki having a sensei, however, it was Mina, as well as Ko, up front. Mina had a normal soft smile, while Ko had a proud smirk on his face when looking toward both the Uzumaki team, and Naruto.

After a few seconds of silence Anko yelled "Hokage-sama will now explain the third test so listen carefully!"

The Hokage sat down, and said "For the coming this test, but before I explain that let me tell you the true reason for these exams. Why do we have all the allied villages participating in the exams? It is said that it is to promote friendship among the countries and to raise the level of Shinobi. That is not true. The true meaning to these exams is to replace war. If you were to go back in time, these allied countries would be at war against each other for who would rule the world. To avoid wasteful fighting these exams were created. While it is an exam to decide who should make chūnin, it is also a way for countries Shinobi to protect their own prestige."

The Hokage looked towards the genin with a neutral look before he continued "Watching these exams will be many influential leaders of many countries that are possible clients. If the strength of a country is clear, then that country will receive more job opportunities. On the other side of the coin, if they are seen as weak, they will lose jobs. It also shows to enemy countries how much power each country has. The strength of the country is the strength of the village, just as the strength of the village is the strength of the Shinobi, and a Shinobi's true strength is only shown in life risking battles. This exam is to show off a countries strength as well as your own. It only has meaning because your life is at risk, and that's why those before you have fought in these exams for a dream that is meaningful. As I said in the beginning however, I don't want to confuse you. By losing life, and establishing balance, this is the 'friendship' in the world of Shinobi before we begin the third test, I want to tell you this, this is not just a test. This is a life threatening battle with your life and your countries prestige on the line."

"This doesn't matter. Just explain the third test already." Gaara stated from the crowd.

The Hokage coughed a bit as he said "While I would like to..."

He stopped as a many who coughed a bit as he moved knelt in front of him and asked for himself to be able to explain. When the Hokage gave his ok, the man who was named Hayate Gekkō turned to the group and said "This isn't the *cough* third test just yet. There will *chough* preliminary round first as there are to many *cough* for the third round. Those that want to quit *cough* raise your hand."

No one raised their hands to what they was said Hayate said for them to begin the round. They waited as a screen popped up and it started to blink until two names popped up for the first round.

Kankuro Vs Temari.

Everyone looked at the two sand siblings who actually look pissed at the fact that they had to fight each other. With a deep sigh, kankuro said "I give up. We know each other's weakness and there is no way I'm going to be able to beat her."

Everyone actually understood what kankuro was talking about, as he walked up to the top of the area along side Temari, who frowned at the fact that they had to fight each other. The next match however was sure to be interesting as the next to names popped up.

Shikamaru Nara VS Dosu.

So, what did you guys think?

For those of you curious (not that many) but the Karin of the group, is OOC, but I'm doing to because I wanted to change things up. She is still the Karin from Kusa that joined Orochimaru in the cannon, but I added a couple of abilities to her so that she isn't exactly the same. No one will be exactly the same, got it?

Ok for those of you who don't know, I have another poll. This one for Shiba Uzumaki. I have six votes at the moment and they are like this.

Zabuza Momochi: 3

Kakazhi Hatake: 2

Stays Single: 1

There are more to vote one, but that's for you to decide on who it is. There is also an 'other' option, but that's not important. Have fun voting!

as a last note, I'm going to have a posting schedule now. Every Monday I will be posting this story, so I'll be working on other stories throughout the week as well.

(1): Shokkushirudo= shock shield- A seal that Shiro made while using an affinity for lightning chakra. The idea makes it so that the user has a shield that protects them from physical attacks. It's still under testing due to feedback of electricity.

(2): Jūryoku= gravity- A seal most commonly used for training, as it affects the whole body. It can also be used to trap people with a great amount of weight.