Chapter Twenty Two: A Written Test Wins You a Ticket to the Forest of Death

A/N: This was always one of my favorite episodes in Naruto. It was just hilarious to watch Naruto struggle poor guy. Well, this will be funny as well. So… BE EXCITED!!

Sachiko: oh but I am! I promise!

Author-sama: Good. Since we are all excited… I can start the story!

Sachiko had been nervous the moment she set foot in the awful building where the written part of the Chunin exams was to be taken. She could feel her heart beating too fast for her own body and her palms began to sweat. Sachiko rubbed her hands on the sides of her skirt, hoping no one noticed her palms were sweating. It was embarrassing enough. Gaara, of course, was calm as a cucumber. Kankuro seemed to have taken on a new personality since they had been in Konoha. He was always trying to act like a bad ass and wasn't the kind Kankuro Sachiko had grown to like so much. He was completely different. Sachiko took it as a sign and was relieved that she hadn't ended up being his girlfriend. If he would have changed on her like the way he had done, she would have been very stressed out. Sachiko was stressed enough already. Temari was standing there like she was waiting for "Thee Local Hottie" because he, at any moment, would just take her in his arms and start whispering sweet nothings to her or something farfetched like that. Sachiko scowled. The Sand Siblings had completely changed on her. They had acted one way in the Sand Village and then acted another in the Leaf Village. Kankuro had been nice and now was trying to be some sort of bad guy. Temari didn't seem like much of a flirt back at Suna and now she seemed like she was trying to prove something everywhere she went. The only that hadn't changed was Gaara. He remained the same everywhere he went because unlike Temari, he didn't have anything to prove to anyone. Gaara never tried to be accepted by people. He was just Sabaku no Gaara.

Sachiko looked to Kentaro and Katsura. Kentaro looked like he was about to pull a prank on someone but still had the same friendly look in his eye that he did before they left Suna. Katsura looked like he would fall asleep and then fall over at any moment. The dark bags under his eyes didn't do him justice like Gaara's had. The two barely spoke to Sachiko but they were nice to her when she did speak to them. She was grateful for that.

The three Sand Siblings went ahead to go check in to the exams. Sachiko didn't want to go too early and end up sitting and waiting for a long time. Kentaro agreed with the idea because he said he was full of a lot of energy that morning. Katsura even said he would hang out with them for a few minutes before the exam but he was terribly sleepy and going to nap after he aced it. Sachiko had been stalling for time. She was hoping to run into Naruto or Kiba. Kiba had probably already got there very early because that was the kind of person he was and Shino too. Shino took things very seriously so Sachiko had a feeling they were already sitting in the exam room. Naruto liked to sleep in late though, so she was hoping to catch him. Her eyes lit up when she saw the blonde enter the room.

"I'm going to talk to a friend," Sachiko said to her two teammates, "Pretend to be jealous I'm talking to him… I'll explain later."

Kentaro and Katsura both raised an eyebrow at one another and then shrugged. Whatever story Sachiko had told the blonde boy they had to abide by. If they didn't, it would look a bit suspicious. Being ANBU of Suna, not looking suspicious was part of their job. Both put on jealous faces and stood with arms crossed to wait for Sachiko.

"Naruto-kun," Sachiko said joyfully as she took him in an embrace. After letting go of him she found him to be a little on the pink side.

"Sachiko-chan," Naruto said with a smile as a deeper blush spread across his cheeks.

Sakura was standing behind Naruto and looked quite irritated with him for some reason. "Aren't you going to introduce me to your friend Naruto?!" She seemed like an angry girl.

"Sorry Sakura-chan," Naruto said with squinted eyes, "Sachiko-chan this is Sakura-chan."

"Nice to meet you Sakura-chan! Naruto says nothing but good things about you," Sachiko told the pink haired girl.

"Oh does he," she asked eyeballing the blonde for a moment. He chuckled a rubbed the back of his head nervously. "It's nice to meet you too… You know, Naruto never stops talking about you… He's very fond of you."

Naruto turned bright red and turned to Sakura, whispering loudly in her ear. "Sakura-chan Shhh!" Naruto began to chuckle again and continued to rub the same spot on the back of his head with his hand.

"I'm fond of him too," she said, giving Naruto a wink. She didn't want him to get too excited but he did anyway.

"Sachiko-chan is the greatest," Naruto declared to Sakura with a grin.

"So I've heard," Sakura laughed. Her face fell suddenly for a thought had popped into her head. "I wonder where Sasuke-kun is."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Sasuke this. Sasuke that. When are people going to realize that I'm way cooler than that Sasuke?!"

"Naruto-kun I think you're cooler than Sasuke-kun but don't tell him. He might get jealous," Sachiko whispered to the blue eyed shinobi, causing him to blush twice as much and practically giggle.

"Sachiko-chan," cried Kentaro from upstairs, "Time to check in."

"Those are your teammates," asked Naruto, giving them a good look over, "They seem upset you're over here."

"They get jealous easy," Sachiko said happy they went along with what she had told them to. She turned around and said to her teammates, "Give me one more minute."

Kentaro gave her a nod but Katsura scoffed. Sachiko smiled at them. They were pretty good actors. She directed her attention back to Naruto and Sakura. "Tell Sasuke-kun I said hello. I wish you three the best of luck on the written." Sachiko gave Naruto another hug and said her goodbyes. "Lovely to have met you Sakura-san!" Sakura said the same and Sachiko went back to her teammates.

NARUTARDNARUTARDNARUTARDNARUTARD

Sachiko had been biting her pencil for the past ten minutes. All the questions on the written exam had been incredibly difficult. She had no clue what to write and she could hear the clock ticking away in the background. She was going insane. She looked up and saw Naruto freaking out as well. At least she wasn't the only one suffering. Everyone else seemed to be doing just fine on the exam. But of course they were all cheating. They just weren't getting caught. Sachiko sighed. She was never good at cheating on tests. She leaned into her hand, which was supporting her head up.

Sachiko felt some sand get in her eyes and began to rub at them. She knew that it wasn't possible for sand to get in her eye when she was taking a test. She realized Gaara was watching her with his third eye. Temari, surprisingly, had given Sachiko some juicy information about the redhead. Temari had been very happy one evening, probably because a boy finally flirted back, at least that's what Sachiko thought was the reason. Temari had girl talk with Sachiko for about two hours and then told her all about Gaara's moves and Kankuro's as well. Gaara apparently was very sneaky when he wanted to be. The third eye technique seemed to be a nice asset to have. But Sachiko at the moment felt embarrassed that she had no answer written down whatsoever. She also felt embarrassed because Sachiko had drawn a couple of things on the back of her paper, which was the side that currently faced up. It was a very silly little drawing. It was something a child would draw; a lonely child. It was pictures of Sachiko chibis with her friends.

Gaara's eye went over Sachiko's paper, scanning it for answers but found none. Instead of answers there were a bunch of doodles all over the back sheet of the paper, which was facing up. Gaara allowed the eye to examine each of the drawings. The first drawing was of her and the blonde haired boy she called Naruto. They were both eating ramen and smiling at each other. The next was a wolfish looking boy with a dog poking out of his jacket. He was eating an ice cream with Sachiko. Another drawing was of the boy named Sasuke. He and she were walking somewhere. The last picture surprised him greatly. The last drawing was one of himself and Sachiko. She was handing him a flower and he was glaring at her. Gaara quickly withdrew his third eye. He had seen enough.

Sachiko yawned, waiting for the sand to come out of her eyes. After the sand left her eyes she examined her drawings again. "Hmm, me and Naruto eating ramen… me and Kiba eating ice cream… me and Sasuke walking to Naruto's…me giving Gaara a flower… wait! ACK!" Sachiko slapped her forehead loudly, creating a great smacking sound and causing everyone to gawk at her. She knew Gaara was probably looking at her too and he also probably knew why she smacked her forehead. How embarrassing. Sachiko sighed, this time nearly as loud as the smack on her forehead.

"You, be quiet," ordered Ibiki angrily.

"Gomen nasai," Sachiko replied to him earnestly.

"NO TALKING!"

Sachiko cringed. She was most likely having the hardest time with this test out of all the genin there. Sometimes Kentaro or Katsura would give her an encouraging look but they sat too far away from her to do anything to help her. "Well Sachiko-san," she thought to herself, "You should probably turn the paper over and have a crack at the questions…" She flipped the paper over, examined number one, and groaned inwardly. "This is awful… all that studying I did back home and nothing I studied is on here… I would have bad luck like this…Gahhh…"

"Cheat."

"Nani?"

"Cheat… all the other genin are. They want you to cheat… just without getting caught. That was the point of the test… Cheat!"

"Chihoko you and I both know I'm no good at cheating! Remember kindergarten? I couldn't even cheat on the spelling test… It was a disaster! And then I got beat like a dog when I got home. Father never let me go to public school again. He said I shamed the family. I was five!"

"Shut up! Listen to me… You have two options… the first is very risky though… you could use the Inazuma Strike and destroy the electricity by the time they get it back on you'll have got the test done and even the extra credit—"

"—They'll probably cancel the test if I do that and then postpone it… or fail everyone…"

"That's why it's risky… Don't interrupt. Your second option is using your speed to your advantage. You have speedy hands. Swap your paper with your neighbors without them noticing, memorize the answers, then swap them back."

"Chihoko, I'll get nervous and then get caught! I might end up swapping my paper with their pencil… How obvious will that be?!"

"Hopeless girl! Oh look your friend is trying to give you something… Good thing you have a corner seat."

Sachiko looked up to see Kankuro walk by. He flicked a tiny scroll toward her. She thought she had heard someone ask to go to the bathroom. Had it been him? Sachiko wasn't sure were he got the answers from and currently, she didn't care. All she had to do now was write the answers down and be on her way to a good grade. Sachiko smiled to herself and began to daydream for a while. She felt sleepy suddenly. She felt herself nod off.

"PENCILS DOWN AND EVERYONE SLEEPING WAKE UP!"

Sachiko's head flew up. She stared at her paper. She knew she hadn't written the answers down before she nodded off but when she stared back at her paper all the answers were there. She stared in awe. At first she thought maybe she did write the answers and forgotten or she 'slept wrote' or something but the strangest thing was that the answers were not in her handwriting. "What the shinobi?!"

"Your pencil started moving on its own…"

"On its own?! You did it right?"

"I think that brat did it… with his sand…"

"Gaara-sama? Why would he do that for me?"

"Who cares? Just shut up and pay attention. They're asking the final question. If you answer it wrong you can't be a ninja anymore… I think he's bluffing. Just stay in your seat and stay quiet. Don't raise your hand… Oh and your friend is having a little outburst."

Sachiko shook her head a bit to clear her thoughts and tuned her ears in. Chihoko had been right, Naruto was yelling at Ibiki. Sachiko would have liked to have caught all of his little speech but she only caught the ending.

"Bring on the question now and stop torturing us!"

The whole room was dead silent after Naruto's speech. Sachiko could tell the rest of the ninja wanted to clap. Naruto had a way with raising spirits and public speaking. It was at that moment Sachiko knew Naruto would be the best Hokage like he said he would. Everyone would respect him that day. Sachiko smiled brilliantly and secretly cheered for Naruto in her head.

"Are there any more ninja that don't want to try to answer the question?" When no ninja raised their hand or hesitated not to, Ibiki knew it was the time to continue. "All of you passed."

All the ninja breathed out heavily and didn't question Ibiki. All except Naruto, of course. "Nando?! Just like that we're all passed? I don't get it."

"Don't you see Naruto? That was the test," Sakura tried to explain to her friend.

"I still don't get it," Naruto told her, his eyes squinted.

Next thing Sachiko knew was a woman flying in through the building. She introduced herself as Anko. She had her hear in a messy ponytail or maybe it was a bun. Sachiko wasn't exactly sure about it. Her shirt was made up of fishnet but she had a jacket over it. She was a very loud woman and very tomboyish. Sachiko couldn't understand how someone could speak so excitedly about a place called "The Forest of Death." Sachiko was pretty sure that all these proctors were either very scary or really weird.

"I see you kids out there," Anko said in a strong voice, "Falling asleep so wake up and pay attention! And you right there with the blue hair! Don't be giving me the stink eye!"

Sachiko wasn't trying to give her the stink eye, whatever that was. But she was having a hard time looking at her like a normal person. Naruto turned around and waved to her. He was chuckling over the stink eye thing. Sachiko waved back weakly.

"You with the blue hair, pay attention! Don't be waving to your friends," Anko ordered Sachiko, embarrassing her fully. Sachiko blushed furiously as all the other genin stared at her. For the first time, she was glad she wasn't from the Leaf Village just so they wouldn't remind her of this embarrassing moment. Sachiko groaned inwardly, these Chunin Exams were going to drive her stark raving mad.

NARUTARDNARUTARDNARUTARDNARUTARD

All the genin met Anko at six in the morning. Sachiko quivered when she saw that the Forest of Death was actually fenced to keep people out or keep people in. That thought was a little unnerving. Sachiko had spotted the little boy Konohamaru and his little friends interviewing Naruto and all the other Leaf Village Ninja. Anko had declared a ten minute break because of course, she was being interviewed. Sachiko took her time to thank Gaara. She hadn't been able to speak to him last night but this morning was a good opportunity for thanking. Gaara was standing separate from his siblings yet still somewhat close to them. Sachiko went to go stand by him casually. His teal eyes looked up at her but his mouth would not move to speak. Sachiko turned slightly toward him, her nervous hands playing with one of her pigtails.

"Gaara-sama… I wanted to thank you… I know you helped on the written… I fell asleep out of nowhere… I wasn't even sleepy at first and then I knocked out… Arigato Gaara-sama," she whispered to him so the others wouldn't hear. He probably didn't want his siblings to know that he had been charitable toward Sachiko in any way.

He gave her one short nod. This was the signal for her to take it as a 'your welcome' or a 'shut up and leave me alone.' Sachiko took it as both. Sachiko decided to leave Gaara alone for the moment and went off to visit Naruto. He was talking to Konohamaru about Sasuke. Sachiko got a kick out of it, to say the least.

"Sasuke's a real pretentious guy. All the girls think he's cool but they don't know what a jerk he really is! Anyway, he's always swooping in at the last minute and making me look bad… But one day I'll show him! And then there's Haruno Sakura! I'll let you in on a little secret… She's madly in love with me! She'll never admit it of course, but I think her coyness gives it away. Besides, I don't like her that way… There's someone else way better!"

Sachiko couldn't help but laugh at Naruto's little speech. He continued this way for about another five minutes. Sakura's interview was predictable. She said a little about herself, bashed Naruto, and then went on and on about Sasuke. She also described their sensei, which was a nice touch. After her it was Sasuke's turn to get interviewed. Sachiko was certain that Sasuke would have plenty to say about Naruto.

"If you listen to Naruto your article will be more fairy tale than truth," Sasuke told the little ones. Naruto threw in a comment but Sasuke had a rebuttal. "They're here to interview other ninja other than you Naruto… Believe it." Naruto growled at Sasuke and argued with Sasuke. Naruto finally quieted down and resolved to speak with Sachiko, allowing Sasuke to continue his interview; that is until Sasuke said he was better than all the Leaf Village ninja combined.

"Oh yeah that's why you got your butt kicked by Rock Lee," Naruto interjected with a triumphant grin, "Because you're better than him? You shouldn't be talking! Even you screw up from time to time!"

"I'm gonna screw you up if you don't watch it," Sasuke retorted angrily.

"Go for it! Let's settle this once and for all!"

Sachiko put a hand on Naruto's shoulder. "Naruto-kun… calm down please." He nodded and backed away. Sasuke gave a quick, "Hmph," and left it at that.

While Sasuke and Naruto battled it out with death glares Sachiko wandered off to find her other friends. Sachiko saw Shino and Hinata standing over by a tree. Hinata had her eyes on Naruto but shyly looked away. Sachiko had liked Naruto herself but she couldn't help but want Hinata to at least have a chance at him. Sachiko bowed two each of them in greeting. Shino nodded his head and Hinata returned the bow.

"Where is Kiba-kun," asked Sachiko.

"Right behind you," said the dog loving boy.

Sachiko turned around and bowed her head. She looked up to see the boy had his usually charismatic slanted grin. One of his pointy teeth had poked out from the corner. "Hello Kiba-kun… I wanted to wish you and your team good luck," Sachiko said as nicely as she could.

"Don't over do it… you look stupid."

"Eh… shut up… Chihoko…"

"You too," Kiba said, Akamaru barking in agreement, "Be careful out there!"

"I will Kiba-kun," Sachiko promised as she pet Akamaru and allowed him to lick her hand. "Well I must return to my teammates… Bye…"

Akamaru gave three short barks and Kiba blushed a bit saying, "Akamaru behave yourself…"

Anko soon called the break time over and explained the rules of the Forest of Death. Naruto had a close call with a kunai and then an even closer call with a creepy Grass ninja sticking her tongue all over the place with a kunai held in it. Sachiko grimaced from disgust and looked away. Sometimes Naruto put himself in those kinds of awkward situations. It was his own fault.

"I wonder if I could do that with my tongue," Naruto said curiously as he stuck out his tongue and attempted to do so. He looked like a psycho lizard that was trying to catch flies and going about it all wrong.

"Loser," mumbled Sasuke.

After signing a standard consent form, Sachiko was partly sleeping through Anko's instructions and guidelines about the Forest of Death. She still felt sleepy, ever since the written part on the Chunin Exams. She had wondered if someone used some sort of jutsu on her. Chihoko relayed a summation of Anko's speech to Sachiko.

"You must obtain a Heaven scroll and an Earth scroll… but you are forbidden to open them. You and your team must find the tower in the forest and blah… blah… blah."

"Boring… I thought the Chunin Exams would be fun but they're so lame," Sachiko grumbled to the cat.

"Well look alive… You're beginning to make me want to take a cat nap…"

"Hey Sachiko," Kentaro whispered, "Let me and Katsura take care of the scrolls… The faster we get them the better. We just need to get out of the forest as quick as possible. Okay?"

"Sure Kentaro-kun," said Sachiko in a sleepy voice, "You guys take care of it…"

"The goal is to just get you through this forest alive with your scrolls… Kentaro will retrieve scrolls and I will stay with you and protect you in case something happens," Katsura said reassuringly, "One of us will be with you at all times…"

"Thanks guys," Sachiko said with a yawn. The sleepiness was really beginning to take its toll on her and she had no inclination as to why. Sachiko could only hope that she would be able to stay awake in the forest. If she couldn't, there was a big chance that she wouldn't make it out of the Forest of Death alive.

A/N: Sweetness Chapter twenty two. I'm on a roll. This is the third chapter I've written in one day… But of course, I won't post them all at once… You'll get this chapter when you get it.

Sachiko: Author-sama should sleep now… she is sleep deprived… All of a sudden I become sleepy in the story when you started yawning.

Author-sama: -YAWN- I promise… I have a point for that… there is a meaning… -ZZZZzzzzz…-

Sachiko: Well REVIEW, while I put Author-sama to bed!