Time marched on for Team Seven, even in the Forest of Death.

"BANZAI!" a blonde-haired boy dove off a cliff into the river below, wearing only a set of dark green shorts with some squiggly yellow vines curling around on them.

This blonde boy, with whisker-like marks on each cheek, was none other than Uzumaki Naruto, or at least he had believed as much for as long as he had conscious thought.

Only a few days earlier, he had been convinced otherwise by memories of a different life popping into his mind.

He had yet to come completely to terms with this, as for all he knew, it could all be part of some elaborate Genjutsu meant to lure him into despair, confusion and madness.

According to his new memories, he was also Saotome Ranma, Master Martial Artist, who apparently died at age nineteen due to his fiancée's horrible cooking skills. After getting these new memories, Naruto had felt sluggish and more aware of how physically slow and weak he was – this was something he had previously ignored, and tried to compensate for by acting brash and confident. Now, he was aware of his faults and knew several ways to remedy them – the only problem was that it would take time, something he didn't have a lot of at the moment.

-Ker-sploosh!-

Though his team mates were aware of his internal conflict, Sasuke, the only survivor of the Uchiha massacre, had commanded him into doing menial tasks as though he was the boss – which he wasn't! The only reason Naruto hadn't outright refused to obey orders, was that he was outvoted by Sakura casting her vote in favour of Sasuke's idea.

That was how Naruto found himself submerged under water, with a small school of plump fish dead ahead.

Doing as instructed, Naruto swam towards them and made violent movements. 'This reminds me somewhat of my training in the Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken,' commented his new self as he loomed ever closer to the aquatic vertebrates. 'Or at least the method I figured it out in the end.'

Images of a veritable stream goldfish being flipped out of the tank with a small hoop covered in flimsy paper popped into his head, and Naruto couldn't help but smile as he managed to slap one fish above the surface while its brethren leaped out to escape the disturbance.

Shadows could be seen through the water as the fish disappeared from where they had been, and very dull thuds could be heard as the fish impacted against trees on the side of the river, likely with a kunai in each to keep them in place and dead.

'I'm so hungry, I could eat a horse!' Naruto thought as he spotted another few fish that had escaped his scare. 'But those will do just fine!'

Sasuke had suggested he use Kage Bunshin to make the job easier, but frankly, Naruto felt that wasting so much energy in a hostile environment such as this was very dangerous, should an observant enemy spot his exhaustion. Besides, he had barely gotten over the stiffness and aches from awaking over the past couple of days, and hadn't gotten much time to try his hand at techniques.

That was another thing that now felt wrong about this place: No one seemed to truly practice their hand-to-hand skills. Sure, a lot of ninja appeared in excellent condition and had good fighting skills, but to his knowledge, no one performed kata to break in a new style or keep an old one alive – No one believed that being skilled in taijutsu required constant work, assuming that if they had a talent for it, the talent would remain a constant, and if they lacked the skill, they avoided fighting with it instead of learning!

After gaining his new memories, Naruto recognised how flawed his fighting style had been – sure, he apparently had stamina enough to outlast several chuunin, and could heal from just about anything with a good night's sleep, but rushing in without thought for anything but trying to get in one strike now and again, while outlasting his opponents was not a sound strategy. Naruto blamed this partly on his instructors at the Ninja Academy – their bias against him because of the demon he contained kept them from teaching him well in any of their lessons, which was why he had likely not passed the two first Exams he had taken before the incident that led to him learning the Kage Bunshin from a scroll.

The incident in question was more than enough proof to Naruto that he was not necessarily at fault for not learning everything he was taught – after all, he had almost mastered a Sealed technique in mere hours with no one around to provide any help or instruction!

However, he recognised that he was partly to blame for not learning, as the cold treatment he got would make him feel more like humiliating them with pranks for being that way. Had he grit his teeth, ignored his treatment and focused, he would have at least have been among the top five of his class, along with Sasuke, Sakura, Shikamaru and Shino, instead of the proclaimed dead-last that everyone made fun of and expected screw-ups from.

Though he didn't show it, Naruto was well aware of the danger they were in simply by being in the Chuunin Exams, and as such, he didn't want to end up in a similar situation to what they did a few days ago when he awoke feeling like someone else.

There had been a brief moment after being struck on the head by Ino that he feared the Fox was trying to break out of the Seal, and was feeding false memories into his head to distract him from those dastardly deeds, but that idea was extinguished when he saw the additional markings around the Seal on his stomach.

-Growl!-

Speaking of his stomach, it was now demanding to be fed, and that coincidentally scared away the fat fish he had been slowly creeping up on.

Damn, two fish each wouldn't be enough to fully sate his hunger, and now he'd scared away the biggest fish he had seen in that river.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura's voice called from the camp only a few metres away from where Sasuke stood by the banks of the river. "Could you light the fire with a fire ball?"

'What did I ever see in her? She's as uncute as Akane.' Naruto found himself thinking before shaking it off. 'Quit doing that! She is not uncute!'

'She's very un-uncute!'

"Oy, dobe, get out of the water and retrieve the fish if you want to eat," Sasuke called in the same, bored tone he normally spoke in.

If that kid wasn't on his team, Naruto would have gladly taken it upon himself to sweep the streets of Konohagakure with him, as well as unclogging a few stopped up toilets with his head – that oh-so-superior attitude was very infuriating.

'But he's got the Sharingan, he could copy and counter everything I do,' Naruto realised as he waded waist-deep in cool water to get the fish he had scared out of the water.

'That's where one of the main tenets of the Anything Goes comes in, adapting to an opponent and figuring out their weaknesses to produce a counter! Those eyes of his has to have some kind of weakness … the most glaring one would be the energy required to maintain the special vision, so while it isn't a good idea, keeping him from needing to shut down his Sharingan would exhaust him much quicker than if he had fought without it.'

"Naruto!" Sakura called, clearly annoyed. "Hurry up! Sasuke-kun already started a fire!"

'And what did she do if she didn't prepare a fire? She's had well over an hour while Sasuke and I got the fish!' Naruto suddenly found himself thinking. 'Hey, stop being mean to Sakura-chan!'

"Hurry, Naruto! Sasuke-kun looks hungry!"

"Witch," Naruto muttered under his breath before slapping his hands to his mouth in shock. He'd just insulted the love of his life! 'At least I censored it …'

'I really need to stop this, I'm starting to lose my mind …'

'What little I had to begin with …'

'HEY!'

Picking the fish up from the ground, where they had fallen from his arms while he berated himself for being mean to Sakura, Naruto sat down next to the fire, where Sakura produced the efforts of her day: Sticks to spear the fish and grill them with. 'Ooooh, what a challenge! I can see why she didn't join us in getting the fish out of the river! All Hail the Mighty Bringer of Sticks! Queen over us lowly mortals!'

'Since when did I start using sarcasm?' Naruto wondered, scratching his head as he tried to decide which fish would best suit his needs for starters. 'And Sakura-chan couldn't help, because she didn't bring a bathing suit!'

'Right, and I'm really the God of War trapped in a human body, forced to live as a mortal to humble myself every now and again so I won't abuse my powers!'

'I am?'

'I thought I'd recognise sarcasm when I heard it … guess I'm not as bright as I thought.'

"HEY!"

"What is it, dobe?" asked Sasuke, annoyed as he bit a crispy chunk out of the finished fish he had just selected.

Realising he had said that aloud, Naruto desperately looked around for something worthy of his exclamation. Finally, after a tense three seconds, he found it. "I wanted that fish," he pouted and tried his best to sound like he was really upset that someone had taken it.

The ruse seemed to work, as suspicion was immediately replaced with resignation. The exclamation and reason appeared to fit his "dobe" persona enough for them to accept it and move on.

Doing his best to appear sulking as he took a fish, making sure to mutter about it being a little smaller than the one he had said he wanted, Naruto listened silently to his team mates discussing their situation.

"We only have around twenty four hours left," Sasuke stated.

There was a tense silence, apart from the rustling of wind in the trees, the rush of the river and the crackle of fire. "You know, there may not be any more Heaven Scrolls," Sakura hesitantly pointed out.

"What do you mean?" asked Sasuke. Naruto kept from inputting his opinion on the statement by biting into his fish. 'Why did I suddenly feel like telling Sakura-chan "Thanks for stating the obvious"?'

"Because it's the fourth day of a five-day test," Sakura explained. "That means that eighty percent of the test is over. There are seventy-eight entrants, twenty-six teams and only thirteen of each scroll … so only thirteen teams could pass, at best. And I assume you guys haven't forgotten what that Orochimaru guy did to our Heaven Scroll … That means that the number of teams to pass went down by one … and we can't be sure that the rest of the scrolls are intact. If one of the scrolls is destroyed, the other half is useless."

A heavy silence fell over the clearing that had become the camp for team seven as they all tried to figure out their standing.

Finally, after several moments, Sasuke spoke up, as though he was the leader of the group.

"Since we left our Leaf comrades, we've needed two days to heal our injuries," at this he glanced at Naruto, who had used much of the time lounging around for no apparent reason, speaking to himself in hushed tones. Sasuke clearly didn't want to admit that he had also suffered some injuries, and that the cursed seal was tempting him to use power, tempting him to gain it, and that it took a great deal of willpower to overcome the desires that came from it. Through Ranma, however, Naruto knew of Sasuke's struggle even if he didn't feel pity for him. "We need to be more active now. Either way, the next enemy is our last chance! I'm going to get some water …"

Groaning in annoyance, Naruto decided to figure out a strategy to fit their task and skills. He knew he had a blank scroll he could use somewhere in his utility pouch … thankfully the container was not far from the spot he had chosen around the fire, and he soon had one of his blank scrolls in hand. For a moment, he noted how remarkably similar this blank scroll was to the Earth scroll, then he started to unpeel the paper from where it was stuck against the side.

However, that was as far as he got, because a larger hand than his own gripped the scroll and the hand that held it.

Somewhat surprised, Naruto followed the arm the hand was attached to, and found a teen boy with silver grey hair and glasses at the end.

It was Kabuto.

This was the young man that had been friendly enough with them, during the moments before the First Exam, to share some information with them regarding one or two of the Genin they were likely to face.

'I don't trust him,' his new part proclaimed. 'He's being too helpful, and there's just something false about him, like Nabiki trying to gain someone's trust by acting hurt and afraid.'

Naruto was by now starting to get used to the random and unknown persons his new self brought up, so he didn't bother asking about the girl whose image flashed in his mind as she was mentioned.

"What are you doing?" asked Naruto, trying to keep the sudden distrust from his voice.

"Did you forget the rules?" asked Kabuto as he stood from the crouch he had been in. "You're not supposed to open your scroll."

"Naruto!" Sakura roared as she reached the same conclusion Kabuto had. "You could have disqualified us all!"

"What are you talking about?" Naruto demanded as Sasuke wandered out from behind a rock. "I was only trying to-"

"-Have a peek to see what the scroll said?" Sasuke suggested, interrupting Naruto's explanation. "Are you really that reckless? Would you put your own curiosity before the good of the team? If so, you don't have what it takes to become a Chuunin."

"Baka!" Sakura added and bonked the blonde boy on the head.

'This almost feels like I'm back in Nerima,' the part of his mind called Ranma commented. 'I had uncute tomboys jump to conclusions and hit me over the head back there as well.'

"I wasn't going to open the Earth Scroll!" Naruto exclaimed, waving everyone away so he could get some breathing space, not realising that he had failed to protest to Ranma's comment about Sakura being an uncute tomboy.

"Then how do you explain the scroll in your hand?" Sasuke asked, raising a brow in doubt.

"This is a blank scroll!" Naruto replied heatedly. "I was going to write down ideas!"

"What for?"

"Er …" 'There's no way they'll buy strategy and summary of resources,' commented the Ranma personality. "Techniques I want Kakashi-sensei to teach me … I've been slacking off a little since I became a Genin …" 'Hey, that's not a bad idea, we should write down techniques we want to learn!' "Besides, the Earth Scroll is still in my utility pouch!"

It was five minutes later that the group of four was found leaping from tree branch to tree branch away from the camp. No one had apologised to Naruto for their mistake, for which Naruto was still miffed about, but Kabuto had pointed out that the smoke and smell of their fire and food would have attracted unwanted guests, so it was high time to leave.

Naruto had since they packed their things felt like he was being watched. Or rather, the Ranma part of him had alerted him to it, and somehow managed to limit his reaction to a slight twitch of his hand instead of the loud, screaming attacks he would normally have reacted with.

While the others were discussing the remaining enemies in the test, Naruto was focusing on their surroundings, as per the urgings of his new self. They were followed by three others – what method his new self used to determine that number and their position remained a mystery to Naruto, but he was grateful for it, as it meant they couldn't perform a sneak attack on him.

So absorbed was he in keeping track of their enemies, that Naruto barely managed to find out the others had stopped on a large branch. He had to employ an instinctual tree-walking technique on the branch to keep his momentum from tripping him up and sending him careening into the underbrush below.

"-We must be careful from here on out," finished Kabuto seriously as they stared at the tower rising in the distance.

Naruto would have asked for a summary of what they had been speaking of, if he hadn't felt something move that hadn't done so earlier.

Before he could stop himself, a kunai had been drawn and thrown by his hand.

A wet crunch sounded, followed immediately by the dull thud of metal being buried in wood.

Turning around, the group found the kunai impaled through the head of a twenty metre long centipede that had been crawling up the tree behind them.

"Damn, wasted a kunai on a stinkin' bug," Naruto muttered in disappointment.

"Naruto-kun," Kabuto started sternly. "I'd like us to avoid unnecessary actions and noises from here on. Moving through the forest like an elephant will only tip off our enemies, and they will not have a fun welcome party planned for us."

"Hey, you're the ones making noise," Naruto hissed to limit the amount of noise made. "I just killed a giant bug that was closing in on us! Do you think Sakura-chan would have been quiet if that thing had come close enough to touch her with its feelers? No, she'd have screamed!"

Actually, Naruto had no real reason for throwing his kunai, other than a perceived threat, the fact that it prevented Sakura from having a panic attack and scream was only thought of as Kabuto was lecturing him.

"Regardless," Kabuto sighed, finding no real fault in Naruto's reasoning. "We need to move as slowly and safely as time allows."

"Fine," Naruto huffed. As they started walking, however, he felt something settle over them. He couldn't tell what, just that something was wrong, and that tracking the three enemies had become more difficult, as though they were being masked by something. "What's this?" he asked Kabuto suspiciously, causing the elder teen to falter momentarily. "Feels like someone blanketed my senses with fake ones …"

Kabuto stopped fully, and looked around. What he was looking for, Naruto didn't know, but the three enemies suddenly seemed tense.

"It's nothing," Kabuto brushed off and jumped down to the ground. Naruto's team mates listened to the elder and more experienced ninja and followed him.

Naruto, made to do the same, but used a crude replacement technique with his jacket wrapped around a log to mask his disappearance for a moment.

The enemy was playing unfairly, so it was time he started doing the same, his Ranma personality urged him.

As he slowly crawled along the tree trunks towards the hiding places of the three enemies, Naruto felt his group panic as they discovered that instead of Naruto following them, a log with his bright, orange jacket had fallen to the ground in his place. The enemy was also confused about this, but couldn't find him for some reason.

'The Way of the Sneaky Thief,' Ranma sounded in his head. 'Learned it a few years before I died. It allows me to become insignificant to people's attention, which makes it very difficult to find me unless they are trained in seeking out specific people by the feel of their aura, which I'm willing to bet none of my team and the enemy is capable of. Heck, I can only distinguish some people from others depending on how well I know them.'

'I was a thief?' Naruto wondered as he spotted the ghostly sight of one enemy hiding on a branch. The young man had a cream-white body suit, and a breathing mask covering his face. Over his forehead was a forehead protector with the symbol of Rain on it. And across his face, covering one eye, was a mask of some sort.

'Not really,' corrected Ranma. 'It was only the name of the technique … though I could have been a great one if I tried!'

Sneaking closer, Naruto moved to pull out his kunai, but was stopped by Ranma.

'No need,' he said, and made his hands dart out quickly and silently, striking several points along the Rain-Nin's spine. While Naruto was immensely impressed at his prowess, as the ninja slumped to the branch with a silent scream and in plenty of agony, Ranma complained loudly inside. 'Damn, I'm slow! I remember pulling off two hundred punches in a second before I died … now I only managed three! And our accuracy is exceedingly sloppy! We're just lucky I aimed for pressure spots with wide areas! Man, dying really sucks!'

The information of the past life skill caused Naruto to feel cheated as well, but he didn't complain. He had two more enemies to go.

Before he did, however, he noticed that the breathing mask was on the verge of falling off.

'Should I?' Naruto asked himself.

'Why not?' Ranma replied. 'He would probably have taken something he wanted from us if he had the chance. Hey, check him for the Heaven Scroll, while we're at it!'

'Yeah, why not?' Naruto agreed. There wasn't much of an argument against the voice in his head, so he started rummaging through the Rain-nin's things and supplies.

By the time Naruto slipped away, the Rain-nin was lacking all his kunai and shuriken, the breathing mask, one utility pouch, some exploding notes and soldier pills. Naruto was very satisfied, he had never been able to get good quality items such as the ones he had stolen, because every time he was getting supplies, they had conveniently run out of the good stuff and only had the substandard, cheap ninja tools. And he hadn't ever needed exploding notes or soldier pills, but they covered their use in the Ninja Academy, so he wasn't entirely lost as to what purpose they served.

The second ninja was a little more difficult to approach, as he seemed suspicious about something, likely the lack of proper response from his downed team mate. Using the same method against this one was a little harder, and took longer to get into position, but after the boy was paralysed in pain, Naruto searched his equipment to better his own supply. This one didn't have the Heaven Scroll, either - most disappointing. But that left only one left to carry the scroll, and there was a fifty good chance that this team carried the Heaven Scroll – hopefully, the reason they were following his team, was that they needed the Earth Scroll, and had heard they had it back at the camp where he had first detected their presence.

Contrary to what people may have believed, Naruto wasn't stupid, but he wasn't the brightest either – he simply chose to see the positive side of things, and hope they turned out okay.

The third ninja was very difficult to find, as he had definitely figured out something was afoot.

It took a brief moment of distraction when Sakura defied Kabuto's advice and called for Naruto to make the last Rain-nin loosen his control over his presence, allowing Naruto's new self to track him down.

Deciding to try his hand at variety, Naruto was inspired by a memory from the "survival test" Team Seven had been given.

After a few arrangements, Naruto appeared behind the Rain-nin, and gave the surprised boy a shove that sent him careening towards the ground more than a hundred metres down. Being unprepared for the sudden descent, the Rain-nin could do nothing but brace for impact, something that from that altitude would do very little when landing head first.

-Twang!-

A sudden jerk at the Rain-nin's feet halted his momentum mere inches before his face had a meeting with the ground.

"Hah! You fell for it!" Naruto crowed as he let himself slide down the ninja wire he had tied around the Rain-nin's feet prior to shoving him off the tree. "You should have seen your face when you realised I was behind you!" he added in a laugh as he landed with a thump on the ground. "It was hilarious!"

"You only got lucky," the Rain-nin growled through his breathing mask, adding emphasis to the word "Lucky" as he made to escape his restraints.

Still grinning like a maniac, Naruto uttered an unconvincing "oops!" before letting his hand slip and cut the wire with the kunai he just happened to be holding.

The ninja, unprepared for the force of gravity, landed on his head, leaving him open to an attack, something Naruto capitalised on with a solid kick to the abdomen, sending the Rain-nin crashing into a tree.

Looking down at his leg in surprise, Naruto wondered how on Earth he managed to get that much force behind his kick.

'The advantages of ki control,' Ranma commented. 'It enhances performance and strength … unfortunately, I just spent what little I could build up over the last few days on the sneaking and kick, so we have to rely on Chakra for now. We should really start training to build up a reserve and control …'

'What's the difference between Chakra and ki?' Naruto wondered.

'Chakra is a mix between body energy and spiritual energy,' Ranma recited from what Naruto had been told several times already. 'Ki is pure spiritual energy … something we have surprisingly little of, I might add, considering how much Chakra we use every day of training … no matter, we'll soon build up our reserves, and with any luck, our Chakra control will improve with a more even mix between the two energies!'

"Naruto!" an enraged Sakura bellowed mere moments before a fist hit the addressed boy on the head. "Where did you disappear to? Don't you know there are dangerous people around?"

"Like that one?" Naruto asked, rubbing his sore head with one hand and pointing at the unconscious Rain-nin with the other.

"Wha-"

"I got them all!" Naruto couldn't help but brag, the pain from Sakura's hit forgotten. "And now it's time to restock my supplies!"

With an excited hum, Naruto was rummaging through the Rain-nin's pouches before Sakura could protest, and just as Sasuke and Kabuto came into view.

"Great! I needed more wire!" Naruto cackled as he transferred the mentioned object from the enemy's utility pouch to his own. "And here's the Scroll! It's a Heaven Scroll!" he added with a victorious crow.

-Bonk!-

"Quiet! Do you want the whole world to know?" Sakura demanded, and snatched the scroll from Naruto's hands to verify his claim.

"Very good, Naruto-kun," Kabuto complimented as he examined the downed Rain-nin. "Have you found the others?"

"They don't matter," Naruto brushed off. "We've got the Scrolls, and have enough time to get to the tower, so let's get moving and win this thing!"

After an hour of walking, the group finally arrived at the base of the tower located in the exact centre of the Forest of Death – their destination.

Around the entire structure, which looked somewhat derelict from the outside, doors could be seen. Many had notes pasted on the middle as a form of seal, with the team numbers of those teams participating in the Chuunin Exam's second part. Others had been broken, a sign that the team corresponding with the note had finished. As luck would have it, the group came out just in front of the door designated for Team Seven of Konoha.

"Thank you for your assistance, Kabuto-kun," Sakura gushed in gratitude, ignoring Naruto who felt insulted at the insinuation that Kabuto had done more than he had. The only thing Kabuto had done, was warn them about the others and tag along!

'It's sad, but true,' commented Ranma. 'Those who deserve praise seldom get it, and true geniuses are never appreciated in their own time …'

Huffing in offence at Sakura's actions and words, Naruto tore open the doors, breaking the seals, and entered, ignoring the silver-haired teen, who was saying his good-byes to Sakura and Sasuke as his own team mates met up with him.

When Sasuke and Sakura finally entered they found Naruto searching the empty room from top to bottom for any sign of someone meeting them to recognise that they were on time.

"Where is he?" Naruto asked. "Someone should have been here to meet us!"

"Maybe they're busy, dobe," Sasuke suggested. "We only broke the seal a few moments ago."

"Hey," Sakura interrupted, pointing to the middle of the wall. "Look at this!"

Hanging on the wall was a verse of some kind.

"What the hell does this mean?" Naruto asked bluntly.

"There are some words missing," Sakura pointed out. "This is probably about the scrolls … I think we're supposed to open them!"

A tense moment passed as Sakura took out the Heaven Scroll, and Naruto took out the Earth Scroll.

Tearing up a corner of each scroll from where it was attached to the mass, Naruto and Sakura opened the scrolls more or less simultaneously.

In the middle of each scroll was the kanji for "person" surrounded by several groups of nearly illegible squiggles that Naruto recognised from the very brief time they covered summoning and sealing at the Academy. It was Ranma, who noticed a gathering of energy within the two scrolls, and in chorus with Sasuke, told Naruto to drop the scroll and step back.

Naruto and Sakura both tossed the scrolls away and the rolls of paper had barely touched the ground before smoke rose from it in a near explosive manner.

In the midst of the cloud of white smoke, a shadow appeared where the scrolls had crossed paper with each other.

Immediately, Naruto was on high alert – it could be another test, and he wasn't about to be taken by surprise!

But, surprised he was when a familiar face showed through the dissipating smoke.

"Iruka-sensei?" Naruto was very confused at seeing his Academy instructor standing before them.

"Hey, Naruto," the man greeted with a nonchalant smile which caused the scar across his nose to crinkle as his cheeks tensed. "Long time no see."

"What's going on?" Sakura asked, shocked at the sudden appearance of a familiar face.

Naruto frowned in thought – Ranma didn't know this man, who had been like an older brother to him since graduating from the Academy. This would have bothered him if Ranma had decided to dislike the man, but he trusted Naruto's judgement in this case and left the matter alone.

"At the end of the Second Test, it is set up so we Chuunin meet up with the Exam takers," Iruka-sensei explained and pulled out what appeared to be a gold pocket-watch. "I was allowed to be the one who greeted you."

"Greet us?" Sakura asked, clearly confused about the whole thing.

"Looks like you made it in time," Iruka answered, consulting the watch. "It's my pleasure to inform you that you have all passed the Second Test. Congratulations, to celebrate your successful completion of the Second Test, I would have liked to buy you all a round of ramen, but-"

"We did it!" exclaimed an excited Naruto and tackled the scarred man about the waist in a hug. Ranma had not felt comfortable with this action, but Naruto was ignoring him at the moment, too thrilled to care about anything other than revelling in the joy of victory and the anticipation of a veritable Ramen Feast that was sure to follow. "We passed! We did it! We did it!"

This was his moment of victory, and nothing could spoil it.

Author's Notes: I know I cut off at the start of the most exciting part, but that'll hopefully only bring more people back for the next chapter.

Translation:

Dobe – dead last / loser.

temee – (vulgar – used by young males) you - (As the more perceptive of you may have noticed, I have deleted most of the use of this word, as I realised the use was incorrect – sorry for offending any Japanese nationals that may have been bothered by the initial mistake)

-chan – (suffix) used after a person's name to express intimacy and affection.

Bunshin – Illusion Clone (basic ninja technique) illusion clone capable of nothing more than copying the caster and is easily revealed through attempts at physical interaction.

Kage Bunshin – Shadow Clone (advanced ninja technique) solid clone capable of independent or hive thought, can take one strong hit before dissolving.