To say the forest was scary would be like saying Kakashi had an attitude problem. In other words, an understatement. Obito looked over the forest wondering what was so dangerous that the forest had to be caged. Nothing on the outside was particularly menacing, there was just a presence about the forest the screamed death. Huh, maybe that's where it got its name from. That or people who had actually died there. Not a good train of thought.

Obito looked around at the other genin, each one showing the same fear he felt. The only person that didn't seem afraid was Naruto. Studying Naruto from the corner of his eye, Obito saw no evident signs of distress. In fact, Naruto's mouth was curled upwards in what appeared to be a smile. What he was smiling about, Obito didn't know, but he was thankful to have the one person who wasn't intimidated on his team. Unless Naruto was just being an idiot. Then being teammates wouldn't be a good thing.

Facing the forest once again, Obito listened as the proctor explained the second exam. The rules seemed pretty simple. Each team would get a scroll that was either Earth or Heaven and they could not open the scroll under any circumstances. They would have to battle to get the opposite scroll from their opponent. After they had both scrolls they would make their way to the fort in the center of the forest. They had five days to complete the exam.

"Before you pick up your scroll you need to fill out a consent form." The proctor stated. "All it says is that you know the forest is dangerous and it isn't out fault if you die." Leading his team towards the tents, Obito grabbed three of the forms and passed two back to Rin and Naruto. Reading the paper, Obito hesitated for a moment. He had known the chuunin exams would be hard, but he hadn't thought death was a possibility. Was this test really worth dying for? Was becoming a chuunin important enough to him that he would risk death? It was no wonder Minato had been so worried about them taking the exams while injured.

Ignoring the increasing fear, Obito signed his name before he could find new reasons to doubt. Naruto had already signed his and looked confident of his decision, but Rin was still hesitating. If Rin didn't sign the form then they wouldn't be able to participate in the exam. As much as he wanted to become a chuunin, Obito was going to pressure Rin into signing the form. If she wasn't ready to risk her life in the exam, then he wasn't going to try to force her to. Rin drew in a deep breathe. Her hand was shaking as she signed her form. Heading back into the tent, Obito held his breath as they were handed a Heaven scroll.

The three genin stood in front of the entrance to the Forest of Death alone, the teams having all been sent to different entrances. The next few days were sure to be some of the hardest in their lives, and it started when the gates before them opened. A part of Obito was dreading the gates opening, and another part was a little excited. If they made it through the forest he had only one more step before he became a chuunin, and he couldn't wait.

"We should have a basic plan before the gates open." Naruto said.

Obito nodded. "We don't know what kind of plants or animals are in the forest, which means the only thing we can plan for is our battles against others teams."

"We won't be able to know if a team has Earth or Heaven until after we confront them." Rin was looking at the top of the fence. "We need to be cautious; we can't just go attacking every team we come across. What's the best way to find out what scroll a team has without starting a fight?"

No one answered immediately. After a stretch of silence, Naruto made a suggestion. "As stupid as it sounds, why don't we just ask what scroll they have? If we have the same scroll as the other team, then we both part ways. If we have different scrolls, we battle."

Asking outright seemed crazy, but then so did engaging in battle with every team they came across. "We should try to avoid teams that look stronger than us." Rin said. Obito and Naruto nodded in agreement.

Time dragged on as they waited for the gates to open. When Obito heard the distant clang of the bell signally the start of the exam, he felt relieved. The forest couldn't be worse than what he had been able to conjure up in his imagination in the past few minutes. The gate slid open slowly, giving them only a small glimpse of the forest at first. When the gates were opened completely Obito took a quick survey of the forest. From what he could tell, it didn't look particularly scary, just a little dark. Nothing about it looked anomalous.

Naruto entered the forest first, Obito and Rin on his heels. They were only a few feet into the forest when Obito heard a loud clang! behind him. Turning around he saw that the gate had been shut. They were locked in. "It looks like the only way out is to make it to the center." Rin's voice was a pitch higher than normal. Still not worried, Obito took the lead from Naruto. He didn't know where he was heading, but it only made sense to head into the forest.

"We should have someone keeping an eye out for enemy shinobi." Obito suggested.

Naruto volunteered. While it was nice that Naruto was taking responsibilities and helping their team, it seemed that Naruto was more withdrawn than he had been the first week he was there. Obito didn't know what had happened, but it seemed to have started when Naruto found out about the damage to his arm. The day after they got back he followed Naruto to the training grounds. For hours Naruto tried to use that water shield jutsu, but it never worked properly. A few times he had managed to make a wall appear, but it was never as strong as it had been the first time he did it while training with Minato. Obito felt bad that Naruto's element was water, because from what he could understand the damage to his arm mostly affected his chakra control. If he were to use an element were the control wasn't based in his hands, like fire, wind, and earth, then he would be able to perform jutsu's with only a slight problem.

The further they went into the forest, the thicker the trees became. While they didn't encounter any shinobi, they did have to fight a swarm of some kind of hybrid bug. Rin did most of the work, using her knowledge of medical herbs to figure out the bugs weaknesses. Of course their weakness was some kind of gas that stunk and had a lingering smell.

"There's a team about a mile ahead of us." Naruto alerted them. "They aren't moving."

"Should we approach them?" Obito could already feel the excitement of having their first fight. As much as he hated death, there was something thrilling about having a battle.

"We have to start somewhere." Was all Naruto said before picking up his speed. Rin went ahead of Naruto, giving that she was going to be the biggest part of the upcoming battles. Several yards from the other genin team they stopped. Naruto took a moment to look for traps before announcing that it was clear. Keeping their guard up, they entered the small clearing. The other team was on the other side of the clearing, all three ready for battle. Obito recognized them as the Iwa shinobi he had seen sitting on the ground at the first exam. He felt slightly unsettled taking the exam with shinobi from the country they were at war with.

"Heaven or Earth?" The middle Iwa shinobi asked. He was shorter than the other two, with brown hair and brown eyes. The one on the right of him had red hair and black eyes, and the other had black hair with green eyes. From their positioning it appeared that the middle shinobi was regarded as the leader of the team.

Obito didn't appreciate being the one questioned instead of the questioner. Naruto answer the Iwa shinobi. "Heaven."

The middle one grimaced. "Same."

"Aww, no battle! I was looking forward to getting the Earth scroll." Obito complained.

The shinobi on the left stepped forward. "You're lucky we have the same scroll." He spoke in a chilling tone. "If you fought against us you wouldn't have won." A shiver went down Obito's spine.

The Iwa genin paid no heed to them as they turned and left the clearing. "Something's not right about them." Rin whispered. Obito couldn't help buy agree. That one guy had really freaked him out! It wasn't what he said so much as how he said it. Even with them having the same scroll, the Iwa shinobi were a team they needed to be cautious about.

Five hours later Rin suggested they set a trap. It went against their questions first, attacking second plan, but there was a chance they could get lucky. They didn't want to spend the entire five days searching for a good team to battle. It was still early into the exam, but the genin were probably less careful now than they would be in another day. Obito worked with Rin laying down the traps, while Naruto kept guard. After the explosives were set up, Rin cast a genjutsu around the area to make it appear undisturbed. If another shinobi came by, all they would see was shrubbery. Obito hid himself in the branches of one of the trees. With nothing to do but wait, time went by slowly. It was approaching the three hour mark when Obito was able to sense another team.

Ten minutes later Naruto was proudly holding an Earth scroll. The genin team from Shimo easily fell prey to their trap. The team was intellectually smart, which was why they passed the first exam, but the team was lacking in battle skills. Naruto put the Earth scroll into his weapon pouch. Rin was holding the Heaven scroll.

Team Awesome, as Obito had decided to call them, resumed their trek to the center of the forest. It was only a few hours in and they already had both scrolls. Naruto went ahead of them to scout out the area, leaving Rin and Obito alone.

"We still need to be careful." Rin warned. "We can't let anyone know we have both scrolls, because then anyone could fight against us. If someone asks we are going to tell them what are original scroll was. There's no need to fight if we don't have to." Rin's suddenly looked worried. "There's a team heading our way from the left. From their pace I think they're coming here to fight." Not having any time to prepare traps, Rin and Obito did as the Iwa team did to them; they lined up by the tree line and waited for the approaching team. "I think it's the Iwa shinobi from earlier. They must've found out we have both scrolls and are now coming to get the Earth scroll." Rin had barely finished her sentence before a burst of fire shot towards them.

oOoOo

As much as he hated to admit it, Kakashi was bored. He had no missions and no friends. The only people he ever talked to were his teammates and all of them were busy. Even Minato was busy. He didn't say what he was doing, but Kakashi was sure it had to do with his girlfriend. Minato was probably trying to make up for being caught up in work for the past few weeks. From what Kakashi knew of Kushina he knew that she wouldn't be too happy with the lack of time spent with her boyfriend.

Not having anything else to do, Kakashi made his way to the bookstore. Maybe they had something good to read there. He was so bored he could read just about anything.

oOoOo

The fire had come from behind them, not in front of them. Rin gasped as she narrowly avoided the fire. They were being ambushed from behind! Rin took her focus off them Iwa shinobi heading their way, and direct it towards the shinobi in front of them. Their hitai-ate said they were from Shimo, which meant that the team they had won the scroll from had sold them out. Knowing she was an easy target on the ground, Rin made her way into the trees. Looking down she saw that Obito was gone. Dread filled her. Obito wouldn't be able to do much to fight right now. Hopefully the shinobi went after her instead.

One of the boys and the girl followed her into the trees, but the third ran into the forest, probably after Obito. The Shimo male shinobi sent a wave of water at her. She jumped to a higher branch to avoid the attack. She wasn't good elemental justu's yet, but she could use genjutsu's. She formed the hand seals, and concentrated. Her goal was to cast an illusion on the forest and have the shinobi wander in the wrong direction. Then she would go after Obito. No luck. One of the shinobi fell under the illusion, but the other released him.

Jumping to another tree branch, Rin tried a small earth jutsu to shake the earth, trying to through the genin's balance off enough for her to be able to hit them using taijutsu. The girl, the stronger of the two, sent another wave of water towards her, this time with the boy adding his own electricity to it. Knowing the danger of the elemental mix, Rin tried to jump higher, but got caught in her own jutsu. The rumbling earth threw her towards the ground. Gasping in pain, Rin looked up to see the genin jumping down to approach her. The male was almost at the bottom of the tree when bolt of lightning set the tree on fire. Rin looked behind her and saw the three Iwa shinobi from earlier.

While the red haired one helped her to her feet, the other two fought against the Shimo shinobi. Rin watched, amazed at their skill. The Iwa genin left the Shimo genin unconscious, but alive. Reaching into their pouch, the Iwa genin leader pulled out an Earth scroll. "Eureka!" The middle shinobi grinned.

Rin looked at them, confused. They weren't giving off the same attitude they had earlier. The leader put the scroll in his poach and walked over to her. "Are you okay?" He sounded like he was actually concerned.

"Y-y-yes" Rin stuttered out.

The leader cocked his head to the side. The black haired shinobi that had frightened her took a step toward her. "Are you sure, because you don't sound it."

Why were they acting concerned about her? A few hours ago these very same people had spoken to her in a scary way, not to mention they were Iwa shinobi! Yet here they were asking if she was okay. "Why did you help me after practically threatening my team earlier?" Rin found her courage.

The leader looked confused for a second. Hid face brightening in realization, then his expression turned sheepish. "Oh, sorry 'bout that." He rubbed the back of his neck. "See you were the third team we encountered and you all had the Heaven scroll. Daisuke was getting tired of it all and thought it would be more entertaining if he frightened the other teams."

The one called Daisuke smiled at her. "I was frustrated that we were only finding Heaven scrolls. I mean, what are the odds of finding three teams with the Heaven scroll and none with the Earth?"

The leader turned back to the unconscious Shimo genin. "We didn't see where the third and you teammate headed off to. Do you have any idea where your friend would go first?"

She had almost forgotten about Obito! And Naruto was still out there in the woods somewhere to.

oOoOo

There weren't any signs of shinobi on the path in front of them, but Naruto laid a few traps anyway. The traps weren't to stop anyone more than to alert their own team to their presence. Turning around, Naruto headed back to where he left his team. There was a small presence to his left, which slowly grew bigger. He knew the feel of the person, it was Obito. Changing course, Naruto hurried over to where he knew Obito was heading. Naruto used his ability to feel chakra to see the condition Obito was in. He was being followed by someone.

Obito came into his view. Naruto saw Obito make the hand seals for a fire jutsu. The fire was weak, but it had the desired effect of giving Obito a chance to run. The other shinobi shot a blast of fire back at Obito. He dodged, but it was clear that Obito was exhausted. He had probably been doing the weak fire jutsu repeatedly for a while now.

Naruto was still a bit of a distance away, the trees being thicker and more difficult to run through. Obito barely dodged the next attack from the enemy shinobi. Naruto saw the panicked look on his face when he realized he had been backed into a tree. The enemy shinobi made the hand signs for another fire jutsu. Naruto acted without thinking. He jumped in front of Obito and made the hand signs for a water justu. He allowed his hands to go at their normal pace, which gave him the edge. As the water wall formed in front of him, pain shot down his arm and the water fell. Gasping for air, Naruto saw the fire coming towards him. Without the ability to use water justu, and with the speed that the jutsu was coming towards them, he had no choice. Ignoring the pain in his arm, Naruto made the hand seals for Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu. Fire met fire in enough time to save Naruto and Obito from the attack.

Naruto moved into the smoke from the fire and attacked the shinobi with taijustu. The shinobi had been well trained in ninjutsu, but his taijutsu was lacking. Naruto hit him with an upper cut to his jaw that left the shinobi gasping for air on the ground. A jab to the face and the shinobi was knocked out. Naruto went back to the tree he had left Obito on, hoping the kid was okay.

Naruto was met with a wide eyed, gaping Uchiha. Not only was Obito okay, but he had witnessed Naruto use a fire jutsu.

A/N: Sorry for the lack of updated lately. College applications take priority over my writing, though. The past few weeks have been so busy, every time I sat down to write I would get called to do something or another. Thank you for having patience with me (well, you could've gotten frustrated with me, but I choose to believe you were patient.)

This chapter and the next are the two I've been looking forward to writing the most! Thank you for reading and please review.