Yeah, I'm lazy, I'm not writing the forest of death sequence. Sorry.

Chapter II- The Chuunin Exams Part 2

The teams gathered in a large hall, wall to wall of rock, large carved blocks. The only ornamentation were a pair of stone hands making the symbol of power.

Some of the teams were talking to each other, explaining how they had valiantly won and gotten the other scroll they required.

"We had to fight this big snake thing! Then! Then, we were fighting…and…hey, why aren't you listening to me?"

"Shut it Naruto!" Ino was draped on Sasuke. "Does it still hurt?"

"Get away Ino Pig!"

"No you get away Billboard Brow!"

Kiba saw Hinata still blushing and laughed. "Hey Hinata, you ok?"

"Y-yes." She tried to look away from Ino and Sakura only to see Var and Libra arguing.

"You're the idiot, I told you we should have just hidden at the gate on the first day, we could have finished this test so much earlier."

"Shut up! You weren't the one bonked in the head with the scroll, nah-nah!"

"Would you quit it with the stupid 'nah-nahs' already!"

"If it makes me seem smart I'll keep on doing it, nah-NAH!"

Anari side-stepped, right in between Ino and Sakura. "Oh, sorry, I'll just…" She stepped back and bumped into Var.

"Clumsy idiot, nah-nah!"

"Wow," Naruto remarked, "their team is more dysfunctional than ours, nah-nah."

Sakura cracked the back of his head, "Don't you dare start that!"

Rock Lee came over to settle the peace. "Wow, all the rookies survived! It's that fighting spirit of Youth!!"

"Well, Shino used his bugs to capture some Rain village guys on the first day." Kiba said.

"We beat one team to a pulp!" Ino chortled.

"A scroll fell out of the sky and landed on Var's enormous cranium."

"What'd you-"

Everyone turned to Naruto's team. "Well, we beat up this big snake thing, with HUGE teeth and then we-"

"Teams line up for instructions!"

"Aw man, I never get to finish my story…"

"Well I'm impressed, nine teams survived the forest of death." The Third began. "Well, since there are so many of you, for the first time in about five or so years, we're going to have a preliminary round." He turned and nodded to Hayate, the next instructor. "I want to first congratulate all of you for making it thus far, and tell you I see we have impressive ninja before us. Continue to strive for greatness, and it will surely come."

"Alright." coughcough "So I'm Hayate, and we're going to start the prelims in a few cough minutes."

"Should he be proctoring, when he's so sick?" Ino whispered to a snoozing Shikamaru.

"We have nine teams with three members, so 27 people."

"Actually, I'm kind of tired, I'd like to quit right now." Kabuto raised his hand.

"Why Kabuto why?"

"It's alright Naruto, I'm really just too tired, and I haven't been able to hear for awhile."

"Hmm, he's Kabuto, eh?"

"He's given up six times." Anko read from her charts. "And he's the son of doctors."

"Fine." cough "We will have 13 rounds."

"The preliminaries are just simple battles?" Libra questioned.

"Yep. Use whatever you need cough to win." Behind him a large screen appeared. "In five minutes the first two names will appear. You will be fighting here on the floor while your teammates and other watch around the balcony. Use whatever you need to incapacitate or kill your opponent. If they stay down for ten you're done. We will stop the fight only if necessary."

In five minutes, the electronic board came to life, whirring through all the names of the combatants. The first up were the genius Uchiha and one of Kabuto's teammates. Although victorious, Sasuke had to be carried away to the medical corps. Next was Kankuro of Suna, who snapped the neck of Kabuto's other teammate. After him was one of the Sound Ninjas against Shino. Shino filled the sound boy's arms with insects successfully blowing off both his arms. Choji was defeated by the other sound ninja and TenTen by Temari.

"Aright the next names are, Hata Var and Faar Dodge."

"Wish me luck, nah-nah."

Var stood with his back to the poised hands while Dodge grinned madly.

"I've wanted to kill someone for awhile now. I guess you'll do."

Var shivered. "Whatever man. I'm going to be a chuunin."

"Psh."

"Combatants ready? Fight."

Var ran forward and punched Dodge right in the face. "Is that the best you can do?"

It was an afterimage, but the foot that collided with Var's spine was not. He coughed and rolled to the side, narrowly missing another successive punch.

"And here I thought the Leaf village had strong rookies. I guess you don't."

"Shut up!"

"What no nah-nah this time? You tired?" Var threw two kunai at him, one was deflected, one hit in his stomach.

"That hurt!" Dodge turned around and made few hand signs. "Hidden Rain Secret Attack: Pacific Current!"

Var ducked and hid against the ground, sheltering himself from the attack. Nothing came.

"What?"

"Aaah! I forgot I need water for that jutsu to work!"

"Ahhaa! This is my chance for victory!!" Var jumped up and ran forward. "Repeated Fist!" He punched Dodge fifteen times in three seconds.

"Var stop! It's not working!" Aaron, his, Libra and Anari's jounin yelled. But he didn't, and just kept on punching.

"You know, kid, there's a reason they call me "Dodge." I turn my body into water." He turned around and kicked Var.

Var's body flew across the floor and skidded into the statue of hands.

"This fight is over, Faar Dodge, you are the winner."

"Var's not going to be happy when he wakes up, will he?" Anari and Aaron shook their heads.

Once Var was cleaned off the floor, deemed unconscious and allowed to lie down, passed out, next to Anari, the next fight was called. "Ino and Sakura." That fight lasted nearly fifteen minutes though in the end, it was a draw. After that was Rock Lee and Gaara followed by Hinata and Neji. Naruto fought against Kiba and then an intermission was called before the last three fights.

"Next fight, Harper Rampo and Saicho Libra."

Libra hit Var's drooling head with a fwack. "Hey you awake to see me fight?"

Var groaned. "What the hell?"

"Wake up dolt, I'm fighting now." Var looked away and pretended not to care.

"You better win."

Var stood still prepared for the Stone nin's attack. They had been standing there for nearly a minute, gauging each other and prepared for the other to strike.

"If neither of you attack within the minute, I'm declaring this fight a draw."

Rampo disappeared, only to be next standing behind Libra. "You're not afraid boy? You should be." Four huge boulders rained down landing around Libra.

Rampo landed to the side and made to walk back up the stairs.

"Where are you going?" Libra called from atop the rocks. "I have not even begun with you."

"You shouldn't have said that. I was going easy on you before." Libra pulled out his kunai and jumped down throwing them into Rampo's face. Rampo dodged it but found his chin bloodied by Libra holding one.

"Boo."

"Woohoo! Way to go Libra!"

"Var, behave."

"Yes, Aaron-sensei."

Down on the floor, Libra dug the kunai a little deeper into Rampo's throat. "Give up, or I'll slice you open."

"You won't." Libra went to to rebuke that point. "No, no need to fight against me. This is my second time taking the Chuunin exams, and so, I refuse to fail." A rock flew up and smacked Libra in the head, causing him to jerk forward.

"Rock style, boulder barrage!" More rocks flew from the floor and walls, hitting into Libra. He fell to the floor, his headband landing near him with a clink. "You know what they told me? They said I was too kind to my enemy. So, now, my enemy, I will show you, no mercy." He cried out with a deadly ice in the undertones of his voice. Libra tried to move but felt as if his entire body was broken.

"Stop the fight!" Anari yelled from her spot. Eyes went to look at her. She gripped the banister. "Can't you see he's had enough?" She turned to her sensei. "Please, make them stop the fight, he'll die if you don't." Var and Aaron looked away, they knew the laws of shinobi and that, even though the jounin had stepped in to protect Hinata-chan, they would not do the same for Libra.

Finally Rampo stopped, heaving. "That felt good." He turned to the judge, gave a quick gleaming sneer, and returned to his teammates. Aaron and Var jumped down and helped uncover Libra. The medics came and carried him away, his headband bloodied near his feet.

"Alright. Rampo of the Stone village is the winner." No one clapped. "cough The next fight is between Tokiji and Hashemi Anari."

"What kind of weird kid doesn't have a last name?"

"Shut up Naruto, he looks almost as scary as that Gaara kid!" Aaron looked from Anari to Tokiji and back again. He knew he was sending her to her demise but he didn't really care anymore. He was embaressed that none of his students had made it past the preliminaries.

"Well, go down there Anari-chan."

She made no sound of recognition. "Get down there Anari. No one gives a shit about you anymore."

"Var."

They looked at each other but turned when they saw Anari walk down the steps with such deliberate sloth.

"Finally. I was starting to get bored." Anari didn't even look up at him. Her brown eyes were at the ground and red around the corners. "You mute now? Ah well, it'll make it ever the more fun to kill you."

"You may begin." Tokiji walked up to Anari and looked into her face.

"Freak." He whispered as he punched her in the face. She tumbled backward and hit the wall. Blood coughed out of her mouth. She sat there. Tokiji jumped and landed before her. "You know, I was hoping to show off my amazing jutsus but to someone like you I find it unnecassry." He grabbed her by her hair and dragged her backward to the center of the ring. "I want everyone to see your blood splash on the floor." He lifted her to a standing position.

"You are so weak, so pathetic, and when I heard about you, I got a bit excited. But I guess, what can I expect from a little girl who ran away and couldn't even save her own parents."

The air thickened, sensing it, Tokiji jumped to the side of the ring. A swirling vortex of chakra seeped through the tiles and into the air. Anari spit off to her right and wiped her cheek. It healed instantly.

Tokiji licked his lips. "Now, I'm excited!" He ran forward and stuck a kunai straight into Anari's skull. Sakura, Temari and Ino gasped in horror. "How disappointing."

The clone disappeared. "What?" He turned and saw Anari standing off to the left of him. He grabbed the kunai and threw it at her. It stopped in front of her face. She squinted and the kunai flipped around and went straight at Tokiji.

"Now I'm the one disappointed." Anari was standing behind him, finger curled around the kunai grating into Tokiji's throat. "Give up the fight, if you don't you will regret it."

In response he gritted his teeth, blood tearing from his lip, he flipped his arm and drilled it into Anari's stomach.

"Stupid little girl. But you're a one trick kind of person, aren't you?" Anari fell forward, her face cracking on the way down. "Wha-at?" The sand pooled revealing a large albino serpent within it. She snapped at Tokiji, venom leaking from the corners of her mouth hungrily. The hokage in the stands gasped and looked to Anko who motioned to stop the fight. He silenced her but not without some hesitation.

The serpent slithered across the floor to Anari, where it climbed around her body like a scarf. It laid its' head on her shoulder and lazily flicked its tongue against Anari's cheek.

Tokiji let out a short whistle of air. "What's the matter?" A few of the others let out their own noises of fear as they looked to Anari's eyes, which had gone sharingan.

"How?" The snake slithered down Anari's arm and into her right palm.

"Don't ask pointless questions." Anari dashed forward knocking him backward with the sheer force of her run. She made a few signs and activated the byakkugon. She poked two fingers into his abdomen and jumped back, landing near where her sand clone had fallen.

Now Tokiji felt the sweat trickle down his face in torrents. He stood up and tried to shake his fear. He ran forward at her, devoid of rationality. Anari stood motionless. He went to punch her but before it could connect his fist stopped a few inches from her face.

"What's the matter now? Can't punch a girl?" Anari blinked. Tokiji fell to his knees cradling his crushed hand. "There will be no kneeling." She whispered as Tokiji felt himself pulled to his feet.

"How are you doing this?! Stop it!" The panic punched through his voice. Anari looked at him, her two brown eyes determined and full of rage. She reached out a hand to his forehead and let the darkness within her dictate.

Tokiji screamed a long, low wail, penetrating through every sound barrier. Anari let out a breath and dropped the boy to the floor. He shook repeatedly then calmed and seemed to fall asleep. Anari took a step back and looked to Hayate, who declared her the victor. Tokiji was soon cleaned from the field.

"Did she kill him?"

"I don't really know…"

"No I don't think so, they'd be carrying him in a body bag if he were dead. They took him on a stretcher."

Anari walked past Naruto and Shikamaru who quieted as she did.

She stopped and went to stand beside Aaron-sensei.

He turned and slapped her across the face. Her eyes traveled to her feet, unable to look up at her teacher. "What the hell was that?" She didn't answer. "Where the hell did you learn to use the sharingan and the byakkugon, and that sand clone attack!?" He grabbed the front of her shirt. "Why the hell didn't you tell me you could do that?" Realizing the futility of his actions he dropped her, a sneer of disgust playing on his lips.

"You, are no longer my pupil." She looked downward, her long bangs covering her face.

"Hey!" Naruto came running over, surprising everyone. "How'd you use the sharingan like that?"

Anari didn't look up, "I watched Kakashi-sensei during the Gaara vs. Rock Lee fight. It just made sense."

"Could you teach me how to use it?"

"I don't think so, but I could try." Perhaps having the confidence she looked up and smiled at him, enough to make him blush a bit.

Now Kakashi was interested. "Have you ever seen the byakkugon or the sharingan activated before?"

"Not before today." He looked over at the Hokage. While they had been talking the ground had been cleared, the final fight (between two Grass village nins) had finished and they were calling the successful combatants down.

Hayate explained that, like the prelims, the final round of the chuunin exam was also a one on one battle. Only this time, you had to continue onward battling round after round. Anari drew her card, number 11 and found that she was to fight against Faar Dodge. She smirked over at him and made a gun with her hand. Dangerously she raised it to her own temple and then toward him. "Bang." She whispered. He shivered in anticipation.

"Well, good luck to all of you, I hope many of you become chuunin, and if you do not, congrats on making it thus far. Now go home, rest, train, and we will see you all in a month for the finals of the chuunin exams."

One month.

Thirty days.

Before the confluence that would alter the timeline in the history of the leaf village.

Chapter 2, DONE! Woo, finally. We're getting closer to finishing the kinda boring stuff. Once we get into the retrieve Sasuke arc, things really start getting interesting.

Wow fifty hits. Thanks guys! That's my best so far on this site! Please R+R

-Flufferpuf.