Once everyone calmed down, Ibiki explained the purpose of the exam and the tenth question. Naruto was surprised he'd managed to bumble his way through answering both secret tests correctly, he hadn't even been consciously aware he was supposed to cheat.

"Of course," Ibiki continued again, reaching up for his hitai-ate to begin untying it, "anyone who cheated in a clumy or obvious way failed." he reminded as he pulled down the cloth covering the top of his head, revealing even more scars, burn marks, and even puncture marks where screws had been used, "Because there may be circumstances where being caught in the act of espionage can cost more than just your life." he warned, using his own scars as a grisly example, "You pay in ways that can be taken from you little by little, time and time again, when many lives hang in the balance." he explained.

This display had mixed reactions, mostly disgust and fear, some like the Oto genin with the bandaged face thought it looked cool and that the man deserved it for getting caught. Naruto felt bad for the guy, but also he didn't think his skin even could scar.

"You've all passed the first hurdle." Ibiki told the twenty-six genin cells who had passed his test as he covered the top of his head back up, "Part one of the Chunin Selection Exams is now concluded. I'll pray you all fight the good fight!" he finished with a proud smile.

Suddenly the window was shattered, startling the genin who has passed the first phase of the Chunin Exams. The source of the damage was a blur of movement and cloth, a pair of kunai embedding in the ceiling to hang a banner that stated, 'Newly Arrived Second Chief Examining Officer Anko Mitarashi'.

Standing in front of this banner was a slender woman with light brown eyes, violet hair styled in a short spiky fanned out ponytail with bangs framing her face, wearing a practically indecently form fitting metal mesh armor that went from neck to thigh under a dark orange miniskirt with a blue belt, hitai-ate on her forehead, a necklace with a charm that resembled a snake fang, a tan overcoat with purple in-seam, and grey shin guards.

Ibiki sighed from behind the banner at the antics as the woman started speaking, "None of you are in any position to celebrate. I am the second chief examining officer, Anko Mitarashi!" she introduced, "Time's a-wastin' people. Let's go! Follow me!" she declared loudly, throwing her right arm up in the way. When everyone just stared at her in shock she blushed a bit in embarrassment.

The banner rustled as Ibiki moved it aside to give her an exasperated look, "Can't you sense the mood in here?" he scolded in a flat tone.

"This new proctor," Sakura muttered to herself with an annoyed expression, "she almost reminds me of Naruto..." or at least more how he'd been before something changed him before graduation.

Anko seemed to suddenly realize just how many people were still in the room, "Seventy-eight?" she said in surprise, "You let twenty-six teams pass!?" she questioned as she rounded on Ibiki, "Obviously you went too easy on them." she scolded.

Ibiki sighed as only Anko would think he ever went easy on anyone, "We've got some exceptional applicants this time around." he answered with a smirk.

"Yeah right." Anko shot back with a sarcastic and disbelieving tone, "I'll cut the number down by half before the next test is done." she announced, concerning a few of the younger genin, "Ooh I get charged up just thinking about it!" she continued with a sadistic grin and a tremble to her body, "I'll explain things in detail once we move to our next location, so follow me!" she ordered.


Anko lead the twenty-six teams of genin who aspired to become chunin to a large fenced off forest, the fence was covered in signs warning of danger and not to trespass while the visible gate was locked up with multiple padlocked chains. There were even Fuin tags slapped into the gate.

"This is the arena for the second phase of the exams," Anko began with a cruel smirk, "training ground forty-four. Also known as, the Forest of Death!" she explained in a sadistic but oddly giddy tone of voice.

"It looks like a pretty creepy place." Sakura murmured nervously, intimidated by the attitude of the woman and the look of the forest. She couldn't even see very far into it for how thick the massive trees were.

Anko chuckled, "You're about to find out first hand why we call this the Forest of Death!" she said with a cruel smirk.

Naruto huffed at the name, "What? We going into a cemetery forest now?" he asked sarcastically.

Anko narrowed her eyes at the blonde genin, "I hope your blade is sharper than your wit, or it'll become your grave." she warned with a predatory grin and a cheerful tone.

"I doubt it."

Anko's eye twitched, "Cocky brat, aren't ya?" she asked rhetorically, then she swiftly palmed a kunai in her right hand and threw it. Naruto grabbed the blade out of the air, then he winced at the cut in his left hand from the action. The purple haired proctor was there a moment later, she lifted his left arm to lick some blood from the blade in his hand, "Your kind are always the first to go." she said with a chuckle as she leaned over his shoulder, left hand wrapped around his left wrist as her right hand caressed his other cheek to hold him in place, "Spilling all that rich, red, lovely, luscious blood..." the woman practically crooned as she licked up some of the blood dripping from the cut in his hand that dripped down his wrist.

Naruto flushed at the positive attention from the older woman, despite the murderous undertones and the blood he was kind of enjoying it, which bothered him a lot. However the way she described blood had his eyes glaze over, the hand on his cheek reminded him of the dream and his eyes fluttered shut as he leaned into the touch.

Sakura and Sasuke were both surprised, Naruto had been a tightly wound ball of stress who never seemed to relax for so long they thought he'd forgotten how. Kiba waved a hand in front of Hinata's face, but as he expected there was no response.

Anko's eyes widened down at the young blonde before she smirked mischievously, "Aw, you sleepy?" she crooned mockingly.

Naruto jolted with a motion that shook him out of her grip, then he adjusted his grip on the kunai and held the handle out to the woman, "No, I'm not tired." he denied, pink in the cheeks.

Anko accepted the kunai with a raised eyebrow and a smirk at the flustered young blonde, but she set it aside for the moment, "Before we begin the second exam, there's something that needs to be handed out." the kunoichi said as she reached into her overcoat, Naruto's eyes widening as his proximity gave him a peak at her mesh covered chest before she pulled out a stack of papers, "They're consent forms. Everyone has to sign one." she explained to the confused genin.

"Consent to what!?" Hinata snapped, Kiba had never heard the girl sound like that.

Anko laughed at the reaction, "We just want to get all the details out of the way before the first deaths occur. Sign before you go in, so we can't be held liable." she explained, "You wouldn't want me to get in trouble, would you?" she finished cheerfully.

Hinata deflated with a sigh of relief, pink in the cheeks herself. A few genin were starting to get the idea that the proctor with purple hair just wanted to mess with them.

"First, I'll explain the second exam, then you can sign these forms." Anko said as she waved the forms in her hand for emphasis, "Once they're signed take them with your other two members of your cell to that hut back there." she continued with a gesture towards a hut that looked new set up by the fence around the forest, "Got that?" she questioned as she handed the stack of papers to Naruto who nodded at the rhetorical question and took one as he handed the rest on, "Now about the exam, to put this simply it's a no-holds barred survival test." she began to explain.

The fact it would be a survival test surprised a few genin, while others became interested in the prospect of it being no-holds barred. Shikamaru just thought the whole thing sounded like a drag, a real pain in the neck as far as he could tell.

Anko pulled a scroll out of her overcoat, "Let's start with the topography of this training ground." she continued as she unfurled the scroll to reveal a very basic and bare bones map, showing the forest had a large river going through the middle with a tower in the center and four bridges spread out at different parts of the river, "Training ground number forty-four is bordered by a circular perimeter fence, interrupted at regular intervals by forty-four locked gates. Approximately ten kilometers from the perimeter, in the center, is a tower." she explained for those who couldn't see the map properly, "Within the confines of this area, you're all going to undergo a survival test. During the test you may use any ninja arts or tools you have at your disposal."

Naruto wondered if using his advantages with the old blood was cheating, but others had Kekkei Genkai anyway so he decided it was fair. Well, it definitely wasn't fair, but he wasn't about to quit or give away what he was.

"This is a fight to the death situation," she continued instead with a serious expression, "a life or death version of capture-the-flag, although in this case it's capture-the-scroll." she explained as she furled up the scroll of the map.

"Scroll?" A genin from Takigakure no Sato asked, confused by that detail.

"Exactly!" Anko continued as she put the map scroll away and pulled out two more, one scroll was white with blue lines around the kanji for heaven, while the other was blue with the kanji for earth, "There's a Ten no Sho, and a Chi no Sho." she explained as she showed the genin crowd the two scrolls, "Your objective is to acquire both scrolls and reach the center tower. Thirteen teams will have the Ten no Sho, while the other thirteen will have the Chi no Sho, the goal is to acquire both by any means necessary and reach the tower at the center within five days." she explained.

Sakura narrowed her eyes, "This is what was meant by cutting the number of teams by half." she realized, "The thirteen teams who have their scrolls stolen will fail." she added.

"Five days!?" Choji had a different concern, "What do we do for food!?" he asked desperately.

"The food situation is your problem, it's a survival test. The forest is full of nature's bounty if you aren't hopeless." Anko responded to the chubby genin coldly, "It's also full of man-eating animals, deadly insects, and poisonous plants." she continued, her words actually making Kiba smirk as Choji slumped with a sigh, "There's no way as many as thirteen teams will pass this." she added, "I imagine not only will a bunch of you die fighting over scrolls, but some will likely die of exhaustion, exposure, starvation, or dehydration." she continued with a cruel grin.

A few genin checked their supplies, checking on their travel rations and tools that could be used for hunting. Choji muttered something about scavenging from his enemies if worse came to worse and everyone hoped he meant scavenging rations.

Anko ignored the plight of the genin, "Now, let's talk about rules and what you can be disqualified for." she continued with a grin to get attention back on her, "Obviously, the teams that fail to reach the tower with all three members of their cell as well as both a Ten no Sho and Chi no Sho, are out." she continued, "So is any team that loses a member, whether to death or serious injury." she added just in case that wasn't obvious from the first rule, no telling who would try to insist they technically passed by dragging the corpses of their team to the tower, "Also, under no circumstances can you leave the forest before the time is up, no recesses or time outs. Finally, you're forbidden to look at the contents of the scroll until you're inside the tower!"

"What happens if we sneak a peak?" Naruto asked curiously, it didn't look like it was trapped after all.

"That's for those who look to know!" Anko said mysteriously with a wink to the blonde, "If any of you make it to chunin, there are times you'll be trusted with top secret documents. So consider this a test of your trustworthiness." she explained more seriously, "That's all the explanation you get. We'll trade one scroll for every three forms. Once you've got your scroll pick a gate you want to start from. Everyone will begin at the same time."

With the explanation done the genin all began filling out the forms, going into the hut one at a time to retrieve their scrolls. The hut had a tarp to hide what scroll each team was given, as well as who was carrying it. Sasuke opted to carry the scroll for cell seven, Naruto didn't feel like arguing.


Naruto understood immediately that the forest that held the second phase of the chunin exams were different, the trees were bigger and the wild life more savage. He wondered idly what had caused such a thing, beneath Konoha was the old blood causing such monstrous traits.

At least the monstrous traits of the denizens of training ground forty-four was limited to gigantism, but they were still actually big enough to be a threat. The blonde went on high alert immediately, at one point he saw a massive bear attacking a girl and he went towards it so fast his team didn't have time to react.

Naruto lifted Nokogiribocho from its holster as he descended from the apex of his jump towards the giant bear, his folding weapon snapped open with a flick and a metallic sound as he lifted it before he slammed the cleaver blade side into the skull of the animal as it looked.

The bear roared as it reared back to its hind legs, but its left eye was destroyed by the damage and a large cut went down to its upper lip from there. Naruto snapped his blade folded closed again and leaped to swing the saw toothed blade to the left and into the bears chest as he tackled it, the bear roared again as it fell back.

Naruto stood on the bear's chest and swung Nokogiribocho to his right, through the neck of the bear to silence it. Blood sprayed over him from the saw blade rending open the throat of his prey and after a moment he saw the haze of the Chi no Isshi enter him.

"Damn it, Naruto," Sasuke complained with a sigh, "can you fight without drenching yourself in blood and making yourself easy to track?" he requested with a raised eyebrow.

Naruto looked down at himself, then down at the corpse of the bear, then at his weapon, "Oh right." he muttered, the forest had sort of reminded him of the depths. Given a target that wasn't a person he could kill he fell into his hunting habits, and seeing someone in danger to said animal had spurred him on.

Sakura shook her head at the blonde before she turned her attention to the kunoichi he saved, a red haired girl about their age with red eyes, glasses, dressed in fishnets, a skirt, and a short sleeve jacket. She even had her teams scroll with her and no team in sight, unfortunately it was the scroll team seven already had.

It did give Sakura an idea though, "Hey, my name is Sakura Haruno, what's your name?" she asked the girl, they'd need to build a rapport if her idea was to have any merit.

The redhead seemed nervous and stiffened when the two boys turned their attention on her with Sakura, "My name is Karin..." she said hesitantly, her red eyes shifted to Naruto who lowered his gaze to the ground to avoid eye contact.

Sakura supposed she couldn't blame the kunoichi, who was from Kusagakure no Sato judging by her hitai-ate, since Naruto could be surprisingly scary when he got violent. The weapon covering the blonde in blood probably only added to that, the only reason Sakura herself wasn't as intimidated was because she knew the blonde underneath the viscera since the academy.

Even knowing Naruto, the Haruno occasionally found herself startled or shying away from the blonde and she had seen how the hallway of genin had reacted to his presence once that other kunoichi being hit had set him off.

"So, Karin-san," Sakura began, "don't worry, we aren't going to take your scroll, and Naruto is way more harmless than he looks." she assured but the redhead looked at the blonde skeptically, "In fact, maybe we can work together?" she suggested.

Sasuke frowned, "What? Why?" he asked.

"Well, Karin-san has been separated from her team, Sasuke-kun," Sakura pointed out, "but she has their scroll." she added, "The kind we don't need but her team needs her and her scroll and would be grateful for our help enough to help us in turn?" she suggested a bit more quietly and quickly.

"There is absolutely no guarantee her team would go for it." Sasuke retorted dryly.

Karin silently agreed with Sasuke, only she knew her team would not go for it. The red eyed kunoichi shifted her glance between the three Konoha genin, Naruto would not meet her eyes, Sakura looked hopeful, Sasuke looked annoyed.

"I, uh," Karin began, she wanted to be honest but she was a bit scared, "My team would have to be real jerks to not be grateful." she decided eventually as she stood, leaving out that she was pretty sure they were worse than jerks.

"See?" Sakura said happily, "No holds barred survival doesn't mean we have to kill each other, Karin-san wants to survive too and the proctor did say this place was full of nature's bounty." she lectured, "Therefore, the only resources we really need to fight over is the scrolls, we have the same scroll so our goals are compatible." she finished with a firm nod.

Naruto looked down at the bear he was still standing on as he recalled what he'd read about skinning, he had conflicting information unfortunately. He vaguely recalled the academy saying tanning was a process, that he couldn't recall how it worked, but the books in the dream seemed to think you could just skin the pelts down in the depths and wear them.

The blonde decided he better check, "Is tanning a hide necessary?" he asked.

"Naruto we are not lugging around bear hide for five days, tanned or otherwise." Sasuke refused the idea, "Just harvest some of the meat and leave the corpse for carrion." he ordered.

Naruto looked down at the bear and it occurred to him he had not done that since the academy, he wished he had not sarcastically mentioned hunting as an excuse in front of his team because he was probably going to look like an idiot.

Thankfully for the blonde he was already covered in blood, and his lack of expertise was made up for with inhuman dexterity and strength so he was able to get under the hide and remove some cuts of meat from the shoulders. Unfortunately Naruto didn't have much to actually carry it with so he holstered his weapon and wrapped the meat up in gauze.

The other three kept an eye out for other animals or ninja while he worked, and soon the four genin were ready to go. Sasuke immediately lead them to a river and pointed to it, "Give me the bear meat, clean yourself and try to mask that coppery scent that clings to you." he ordered.

Naruto handed over the meat with a pout, then he looked into the river, "If I die in here I'm gonna kick your ass." he told the Uchiha seriously, who rolled his eyes at the seemingly absurd threat. Then the blonde took off his tool pouch and shuriken holster, leaving them with his Nokogiribocho, before he hopped into the water with his bloody clothes still on.

Sasuke set up a fire and started cooking the bear meat while Sakura and Karin kept watch, the two kunoichi set up some traps. Soon enough Naruto was mostly clean, not quite as clean as he came into the forest but not soaked in blood at least.

The blonde sat near the fire Sasuke had set up to dry while he smelled the cooking bear meat, he closed his eyes and listened to the forest of death. It was nothing like the woods near Tazuna's house, or the other training grounds around Konohagakure no Sato, but after killing that bear and having some time to adjust he was growing a bit more comfortable.

Karin sat down near the fire and looked at Naruto warily, "I have some spare gauze if you used all yours for this." she offered with a gesture to the discarded wrappings that had been used to carry the meat.

"They were just taking up space." Naruto answered, dismissing the offer.

"Oh yeah, Naruto doesn't even need bandages." Sakura remembered, "He's an Uzumaki, I once saw a cut heal before my very eyes." she recalled.

Sasuke sighed, "Sakura, I know she's an ally right now, but could you not give away our abilities like that?" he requested dryly, the girl flushed at the admonishment and nodded meekly.

Karin frowned at Naruto, "Uzumaki have red hair." she said automatically, then she withdrew on herself, "That's what I heard." she muttered as an excuse, she was also pretty sure the vitality of the Uzumaki was not usually a full on healing factor but she kept that to herself.

Naruto looked up as he pulled some blonde hair over his hitai-ate, "Maybe it turns red?" he wondered, "It sort of is." he muttered.

"That's blood." Sakura pointed out.

"Yeah I know." Naruto sighed in response, "I have the vitality and the clan name though, plus this white swirl thing that I think Jiji said had something to do with it." he said as he looked at the white spiral symbol on his left sleeve.

Sakura frowned, "Are you calling Hokage-sama that still?" she asked and the blonde nodded, "I guess he would know." she mused, "You shouldn't call him that though." she scolded.

Naruto rolled his eyes, "Well I am kind of his ward." he grumbled.

Sasuke stopped, "Orphans are normally wards of the village." he said, it was known to him, "As Uchiha I am a ward of my clan so I look after myself mostly, but I've had adults who owed my clan looking after my estate." he explained, "Why are you the Sandaime Hokage's ward?" he asked.

Sakura blinked in confusion, the Hokage would not have any time to actually personally look after Naruto so the distinction between a ward of the village and a ward of the Kage seemed strangely pointless. Karin was curious now, since clearly they'd stumbled on something to do with the Uzumaki.

Naruto frowned, "I don't know," he lied, he was pretty sure it was to do with the Kyuubi, "normal orphans have birth records right? Maybe it's something to do with that." he tried to deflect.

Unfortunately the blonde deflected poorly, "You don't have birth records?" Karin asked wide eyed.

Sakura frowned, "I thought your birthday was in October though?" she asked.

"The tenth." Sasuke recalled, "The night of the kitsune attack." he mused, "That would destroy hospital records, but then just how durable are you?" he asked.

"Even then, I thought all the records ended up getting restored?" Sakura asked, she could have sworn that had happened.

"You must be remembering wrong." Naruto insisted, he did not like the direction the conversation was going, "Uzumaki are just built different." he added to the Uchiha and Karin narrowed her eyes at him, it sounded too much like an excuse to her.

The three genin dropped their inquisition for now and soon enough the four ninja were sharing a meal of grilled bear meat, once they were finished and washed their faces and hands of the greasy meat the Uchiha made sure the fire he'd made wouldn't spread.

"I'll leave the leftovers here with the fire burning, the longer any trackers are watching this place the better for us." Sasuke decided before he crossed the river with a leap, the other three genin followed him as they started looking for other teams.

Karin kept an eye out for her own team with worry, she hoped they didn't run into each other at all actually but she knew that was unlikely. She was probably lucky they hadn't approached the fire Sasuke had started while they were still cooking, but they likely would be one of the teams who would. With any luck they'd be too busy fighting the other teams who checked the place out to do anything like tracking.


It was only the first day still when things went wrong, a wind picked up in the distance and made a howling sound as it went through the trees and leaves, bending them to creak and whine. For a moment the sound reminded Naruto of the depths beneath Konoha and he froze up, then the wind actually hit his team and he realized it was much worse.

The blonde took some notice that Karin had been sent flying as well and tried to keep track of where she was going was in relation to where he was going, since Sasuke and Sakura seemed to have kept their feet okay.

Naruto tucked his chin and shoulders in before he hit the ground and rolled to his feet, his eyes darted around and immediately caught sight of a massive snake. He grabbed his Nokogiribocho and unfolded it with an upwards flick of his arm as quickly as he could, just in time to place the full length of the weapon in the maw of the striking serpent.

The blonde was sent skidding back, he tried to focus his chakra and finally came to a halt. The snake seemed rather confused, and then it tugged at him and the blonde realized it was stuck, so he held firm. As he wrestled with the snake he pulled out his gun, he knew it would give away his position but he doubted a kunai would deal with such a monstrous serpent.

However when Naruto shot the snake it disappeared in a cloud of smoke, some of the mercury inside his bullet dropping from where it had struck the snake. The blonde's eye twitched as he registered he'd wasted a bullet on what was possibly a chakra construct, and now he only had three left.

"What kind of ninja uses a gun?"

Naruto turned to the voice and saw a Kusa shinobi so skinny he could see the bones of his arms, dressed fairly normally, with basic black gi with white trim over a mesh shirt, fingerless black gloves, a thick light colored lavender rope tied around his waist, and a very creepy looking mask that looked like it was supposed to evoke the idea of a zombie. The hitai-ate with his symbol was strapped to a conical straw hat, which had a tag that read 'punishment'.

The blonde considered his answer, "Are you here for Karin?" he asked to stall for time.

"Who?" The man asked as he tilted his head to the side, which technically answered the question in a way.

"Well," Naruto said as he casually slipped his gun back into his tool pouch, "I best be getting back to my team." he said but the man dropped down in front of him.

"Oh, I don't think you'll be doing that." The masked shinobi said menacingly as he began to weave hand signs. Naruto leaped and swung his weapon, but the saw toothed blade reduced his target to a black mist with no resistance.

Then Naruto couldn't see anything, he could still breath and move, but he couldn't smell anything and the only thing he could hear was his own heartbeat. Frantically his eyes darted around uselessly, trying to find a source of darkness.

"Hah, this genjutsu would be superior to the silent killing of Kirigakure," The voice of the enemy echoed around the blonde, "however against more competent shinobi genjutsu tends to be a bit harder to use. You don't seem to have any way to deal with this inability to see, hm?" the voice mocked.

Naruto felt pain, something sharp had cut into his left shoulder. He recalled Zabuza mentioned something was important there, the subclavian artery, he hoped a shallow cut wasn't enough to actually hit it as he tried to figure out how to deal with his current opponent.

"My genjutsu robs the target of all sensation besides touch," The voice spoke again, "some I don't even have to cut, just the threat that I can do whatever I want unimpeded combined with the sensory deprivation is enough for most to go mad." he taunted.

Naruto waited for another attack, he focused and when he felt something rustle his clothing he stepped back on his right foot to feel a blade cut through his clothes and cut his right side. He lifted Nokogiribocho up to his left and swung it open in the direction he'd felt the attack, he felt some resistance and he was pretty sure he hit flesh instead of steel.

"What!?" The voice sounded startled, "How are you able to keep a cool head in this situation!?" he demanded to know, it sounded like being hit had tilted the assassin.

Naruto shifted his stance, "You're hardly the scariest thing to try to kill me." he excused calmly, "Still, a genjutsu that defeats most of my senses is a real pain y'know." he acknowledged, it was weird to talk and still not truly hear anything.

Then the blonde got an idea that he wouldn't try if he wasn't immortal, that he wouldn't risk if it wasn't for Uzumaki vitality and old blood. Instead of dodging when he felt the next attack he braced himself and twisted slightly, the blade was a lot thinner than his, probably a tanto or ninjato, the boy guessed the latter as the length slid through his torso.

Naruto hoped that had not hit any important organs as he lifted his left hand and gripped the hand holding the weapon in his torso, "Got you!" he proclaimed proudly as he brought his Nokogiribocho up and swung it down to the left.

The genjutsu ended in a spray of blood as the cleaving edge of Naruto's weapon sank into the left shoulder of his zombie masked opponent with the sound of cracked bone and rent flesh, the blonde tore his weapon free of the dying man and took the ninjato out of his torso with a wince.

"W-what are you?"

Naruto looked down at the ninja who asked him that, "I'm not sure myself." he confessed before he put the tip of the ninjato through the owners throat and left him there, he had to find Karin and his team. If that guy had teammates just as scary as he was then his team was in danger, for a moment he thought Karin would be fine since they were both Kusa.

Then the blonde heard a scream and bolted in that direction, he was pretty sure that had been Karin's voice and he wondered why he had thought anyone but him would be safe in a forest like the one he was in.

The blonde saw the source of the commotion, a bald shinobi was holding Karin up by the throat. The man had dark purple lipstick, wearing a dark grey tattered cloak over a black jumpsuit, and his own thick white rope hanging around his shoulders. He had a similar hat to the last ninja the blonde fought, but its tag said 'crime'.

Naruto frowned, "Hey!" he called out and the man turned with a surprised expression, "I don't know what your problem is with a member of your own village but-" he began but the man tossed Karin aside and threw handfuls of senbon one hand after the other.

Naruto dodged the first volley and the second, but his new opponent switched up tactics and dropped a smoke bomb. That stalled the blonde a bit as he waited for an attack, but said attack being a hail of single bladed shuriken from above was unexpected.

The blonde narrowly avoided any blades in his head, neck or spine, but the blades digging into his shoulders were concerning. Naruto reached up and pulled two of them out of his right shoulder to give his weapon arm back some mobility as he turned to glare at the bald ninja.

The man seemed on edge, alert and alarmed. Naruto realized why, "Your teammate is dead." he said simply, "The guy with the freaky mask and genjutsu," he clarified, "that was annoying. Is your annoying trick to throw a bunch of blades at me and hope it puts me down?" he asked.

Karin shivered from her position, shifting herself further from the fight as she watched nervously. Naruto when there was nothing to fight seemed nervous, easily startled, and jumpy. With an enemy in front of him however, the blonde was downright disturbing.

The bald, lipstick wearing man leaped as he palmed a pair of kunai, Naruto dashed to meet him and swung his extended Nokogiribocho down into the left shoulder of his airborne opponent. A familiar cracking sound of bones breaking under his weapon and a spray of blood over his face had Naruto sigh in content before he lifted his right foot and kicked the corpse of his opponent off the end of his blade.

Karin flinched at the disrespectful display, sure the guy had been about to kill her, and she hoped that was all, but still seeing a human corpse treated like a sack of meat was a bit disturbing to the young kunoichi. The red eyed girl gulped audibly, which was apparently enough to remind the blonde she was there.

Naruto jolted, looked at the girl wide eyed like he'd been caught doing something wrong and immediately averted his eyes. Karin stared incredulously, his entire demeanor changed and his killing intent was suppressed.

The red haired girl realized immediately that was not normal, killing intent should not blanket an area like that or need to be suppressed. She tried to analyze the situation but it was just too strange, "We should get back to my team, the third member of this team is probably attacking them at this rate." Naruto spoke up finally, "You, uh, know these guys?" he added hesitantly.

Karin realized why, he felt guilty about killing in self defense, "I thought I did, but that wasn't-" she began before she stopped, unsure how to explain it, "It's not a henge." she realized as she approached the corpse of the man.

The face wasn't sitting quite right now that she looked closer, she lifted the face to reveal another underneath that Karin didn't recognize at all, "Wait he was wearing someone else's face?" Naruto asked.

Karin nodded numbly, "I think your team might be in danger." she realized, someone had invaded the chunin exams. The thought occurred to her that the skills to accomplish that were in fact jonin level, yet Naruto had killed two of the three infiltrators.

Karin decided to stick with the blonde Uzumaki for a bit longer, despite the apparent danger he didn't seem to want to hurt her. She'd just have to get used to how wrong his chakra felt, she tried not to think about how it left a coppery aftertaste in her mouth just feeling it or how it filled her with a primal fear.