CHAPTER 9: SEOND EXAM, A DEADFUL CONCLUSION

-FOREST OF DEATH-

"konohamaru-chan… it's been a day already… i think we should go out and search for him!"
Konohamaru shook his head. "No. He told us not to worry and so I won't. He will be back soon, I believe in him!" Konohamaru lied. To Moegi and to himself. 'Naruto-nii, you better come back soon and alive for that matter.' Saeko's teammates had already left to meet up whit their teammate, Moegi had nagged Konohamaru for the last two hours to do the same thing. But it was futile, Konohamaru kept on saying "he will be back" and "he will be alive, they haven't taken him". They being the Akatsuki.

They heard something rustling in the forest and rapidly sprung to their feet getting in to fighting position. "calm down, it's just me!" a blond ninja covered in blood said. They slid down to the ground when they saw his face. "Naruto-nii!! I knew you would come back!" Konohamaru shouted. When they saw his injuries they instantly stopped their greeting and paled slightly. "what…what happened?" Naruto didn't answer. He turned his eyes to the ground. 'I don't want to drag them into this…'

Naruto looked up and smiled. "Ah, nothing much. I fought another team and you know what, I kicked ass-". The rest of the words was not heard by Moegi and Konohamaru. They looked at him and frowned. "Naruto-nii…stop..". Konohamaru looked at him whit sad sincere eyes. "we know what happened, we know the akatsuki showed up…"
Narutos eyes widened but was immediately turned into innocent eyes ready to make a swift turn in subject. Luckily for naruto, that action went unnoticed to the other two. "huh? Of course they didn't! I wouldn't be here if they did!"
"b-but… Saeko was here and he said th-"
"Konohamaru, Moegi. I wouldn't lie to you. I only think of your welfare." Naruto exclaimed. Looking the two dead in the eyes. She did not decipher the lies in those words. But he could and was pissed about it. "Naruto-nii!!!, the hell whit 'our welfare', you need to think about your own, we are not the ones being targeted by a eerie organization that wants to kill us, dammit!"Konohamaru yelled at a stunned blond ninja. Konohamaru eyes was filled whit tears. "How do you think we would feel if we lost you? Stop being so selfish!" He shouted and to his surprise Narutos face softened.

"I promise… nothing happened." Naruto lied, smiling at them. 'it's better this way. As much as you can't stand to lose me, I can't stand to lose you. One life for twenty is not a bad deal. And I really wish to stop it at that before more lives plays along in this dangerous game. I can't risk the life of my friends or my village for such a trivial thing as my own safety.' Naruto said to himself.

Konohamaru and Moegi eyed him for quite awhile looking for signs of lies but naruto was hiding his resolve really good. Naruto feeling uneasy of the stares broke the silence; "Anyways, I got the earth scroll to complement our Heaven scroll!"
Moegi and Konohamaru eyes widened. "didn't see that coming, huh?!"
Konohamaru and Moegi shook their heads staring at their teammate stunned.
"well why don't we head over to the tower and finish this?" Naruto said exited and revealed he had managed to switch subject. "Hell, yeah!! Konohamaru shouted

(A/N. Naruto got the scroll from Kenji's team.)

-HOKAGE TOWER-

"Ah!, Jiraya, you are back already, how did it go?" Tsunade asked eager to hear a answer.
"…Tsunade. I found nothing." Jiraya said looking worried. This made the Hokage confused. "But isn't that a good thing? Maybe they won't even show their ugly mutts during the entire exam!" Tsunade exclaimed. "Incorrect. Fact is that Akatsuki haven't shown any visible traces throughout the entire exam and none whatsoever around the forest of death."
"Yeah, so what's bugging you?" Tsunade questioned still quite confused over his anxiety.
"Well, of course they have made an appearance; this is a perfect opportunity for them! The fact that their actions have been the exact opposite to what we had expected is what's bugging me!"
"What do you mean?"
"We are playing right into their hands. Itachi is as good a manipulator as Ibiki. He could easily peruse naruto into anything, taking how easy influenced that boy can be if you push the right buttons…"
"ah, and that's the opposite of what we had anticipated since we thought it would be obvious they would use sheer strength to take him down and everyone whom opposed them…"
"exactly… We'll have to discuss this whit Naruto after the second exam, they will be exiting the forest in 3 days, right?" Jiraya said.
"Yes, but I doubt that he is willing to talk if he really did encounter Itachi" Tsunade said frowning.

-Forest of death-

(3 days time skip!)
"pheeeew, we finally reached the tower!" A exhausted Moegi said as she collapsed infotn of the door. "Really, naruto-nii… it's great that you got a scroll so fast but you really shouldn't take your guard down because of you confidence. We fell into almost 50 traps because of that!"
Naruto Grinned sheepishly. "Now, Now… what's whit the harsh words?"
Naruto grabbed the doorknob and walked into a highly lighted light brown room avoiding a troublesome confrontation by his obviously angered teammates.

"so, what do we do now?" Moegi asked
"well duh, we open the scrolls of course, do you not have any imagination?" He asked earning a sharp glare from her. And so he did but to his surprise nothing happened.
"What the hell?, it worked last time!" Konohamaru and Moegi shared each other I meaning look. "so what will the great Uzumaki whit his awesome imagination do now?" They asked sarcastically.
Naruto actually didn't know. "uh… we… well we…".
"Ah, you are finally here!" Ebisu said looking proudly at his two students and glancing little at Naruto.
"we couldn't risk a summoning in your case Uzumaki. It might be fifed whit and well someone worse than me might pop out."

Naruto didn't really care. He had enough of this caution. 'Better to face 'em head on instead. This waiting is killing me. Not to mention it might kill someone else….' He thought.
"Well, I shall escort you directly to Hokage-samas office; she wishes to speak to all three of you."

"huh?, what about the preliminary test's then? Naruto asked
"well, that won't be necessary this year since it wasn't many teams to pass this year…"
"what?, I heard it was at least 30 teams entering the second exam! That's more than my first time."
"yeah… well, not many made it out alive…" Ebisu declared.
Naruto stopped in his tracks. 'Did Itachi cause that? In that case it is my fault. He did search for me after all. Did I cause the deaths of those genin just by existing… 'Naruto's eyes were empty; it was like looking into an endless abyss. "Oi… naruto-nii, are you okay?" Konohamaru said looking as his friend spacing out in his own thought becoming paler and his face expression showing that something was obviously tormenting him. Naruto snapped back to reality though his eyes still filled whit anguish.
"Naruto-nii?"
"yeah, I'm okay!" 'That's it! I will not let anyone else get hurt because of me. Tonight will be my last in Konoha!'
Naruto walked whit strengthened resolve towards the Hokages office.

AUTHORS NOTES: Hastly written chapter. I just wanted to have something out... don't have so much time over to write as i would like :(

Naruto walkes towards his death. mwhoahah! :D

Akatsuki shows up in the next chapter!! Will problably be out soon. (:

Rewiev. If you don't i will eventually stop writing since nobody is reading then? So post a little comment, will ya? D: