Drifting

by AlphaDelta1001

Naruto is many things; troublesome, wild, unpredictable, adventurous, untamable, unique. But there's a benefit to being wild and unpredictable; no one has the faintest idea what you're going to do next. NarutoHarem

19. Chunin Exam Arc I - Different Levels

NARUTO

Drifting

Different Levels

The very next morning…

Needless to say, it had been a pretty hectic twenty-four hours so far.

Not only had squad seven had to contend with the written portion of the exams and the mental strain that was the result of it, but the physical strain that followed immediately afterwards when they and hundreds of others like them were harried into the acid pool-infested sweat-box that was affectionately named the Boiling Lands. The heat of the place had sapped away all of their strength, not only mellowing all three of the Genin out but also exhausting them to the point of nodding off the moment they each laid down for the night.

The group would change shifts routinely to keep watch every couple of hours so that each of them got their share of rest. With the responsibility of keeping lookout falling back onto the jinchuriki, the blonde was now using his shift to go on a little assignment of his own.

Slipping on his clothes and shinobi gear, Naruto made sure to leave a clone to watch over his still sleeping teammates as he went off to do what he loved doing most in his off-time in a strange place; foraging, which was precisely what he did when he took off into the woods on top of the plateau directly beside the wasteland of acid tides and geysers far below. Now that he and the others were so high up, the heat from the lower parts of the massive valley had thinned out somewhat over the night and made the current hour quite pleasant. But since morning was coming round again, Naruto was certain the temperatures would rise if they decided to stick to the lower countryside.

Moving further up in the still dark forest, the jinchuriki made sure to take stock of every bit of wildlife and flora he came across. He even had an interesting conversation with a family of odd looking possums up in a large fig. There were also some herbs growing in the shrubbery he found rather intriguing and managed to grab his share for later use, while also taking some fruit out of a tree for breakfast.

Filled up and his energy levels back to normal, or as normal as they were going to be for him, the blonde continued jumping through trees and scouting the landscape. He stayed well away from the hotspots and open areas, not really wanting to give away his position just yet. Instead, he climbed even higher onto the cliffs, moving up into safer territory in order to get a better vantage point and, at the same time, try to figure out the best route for his team to take afterwards.

While he was crossing into another patch of forest, the sound of a cascading waterfall caught Naruto's attention. At this height with the conditions he was able to gauge with his senses, it was guaranteed the water wasn't going to be either toxic or acidic, so he decided to go check it out and pick up some flasks for his team. When he eventually broke out into the clearing where a lake sat with a river leading over the cliff further away from it, he saw hiding behind trees and standing under the waterfall a person. Raising an eyebrow as the perspiration was blocking full view of them, Naruto decided to move closer and see who it was.

Maybe it was one of theirs.

Keeping hidden until he came within full sight of the person, the jinchuriki's eyes widened when he pushed the branches blocking his focus out of the way and his eyes landed on the familiar form of the cool kunoichi from Kumogakure he'd met yesterday; Samui.

He had to keep his face from turning flashlight red and his consciousness from letting up because she was currently standing under the falls, naked, and clearly enjoying a nice shower. If this were Tayuya and he'd walked in on her again he would actually have something to worry about, since his roommate would have noticed hi-

The blonde haired girl suddenly turned around when she heard the sounds of bushes rustling and her expression conveyed a sense of surprise when she quickly spotted Naruto looking at her from the brush.

Fuck. Her senses were just as sharp as Tayuya's.

"Shit! Samui-chan! I'm sorry, I-WHOA!" Naruto dodged sharply when a cluster of shuriken was sent hurling his way. Almost instantly after the close call he looked back just in time to see the kunoichi who threw them from the waterfall right in front of him with a tanto in her right hand and her left arm covering her chest. "WAIT! HOLD ON! DON'T DO THAT!" Naruto then leapt straight back when the girl lunged at him stabbing and slashing with knife leading blows.

The kunoichi's furious assault drove Naruto straight onto the grassy clearing from his hiding place, in which she took another jumping lunge at him in order to catch him by surprise. By this point the boy, not wanting to seriously injure her, caught her wrist in mid-swing before twisting and performing an over the shoulder toss with one hand. His flexibility allowed a controlled throw, during which the girl let out a startled yelp when she was suddenly dropped onto the grass, on her back, and found herself pinned when the jinchuriki jumped on top of her. Both arms locked, with Naruto's good hand keeping the arm over her chest pinned where it was, both combatants ended the short feud glaring intensely at one another.

Samui's stare fixed defiantly with the jinchuriki's while the Konoha Genin stared back, the boy's face glowing bright red at this point while the girl's cheeks were flushed with embarrassment. When the struggling subsided, the kunoichi relented and released the blade in the hand she had pinned above her head, but she kept up her firm stare despite her surrendering.

It was safe to say her day wasn't really starting off great.

"Damn, this kid's good," Samui thought, looking him in the eyes, which were trying desperately not to stray anywhere else, lest he be castrated. Thankfully he kept his eyes trained upwards, while the kunoichi crossed her legs over in a protective yet vulnerable manner.

When the tensions ebbed enough for silence to properly fall, Naruto breathed out sharply before speaking, "A shower? In here? Really?"

"My clothes were drenched in sweat from the other day. You'd want a bath too if you spent an entire afternoon wandering those wastelands trying to get across but ended up having to backtrack," Samui responded calmly with the straightest expression she could muster.

"We did. My team chose to go around when we came across thin plates covering an acid pool surrounded by steam vents," Naruto stated quickly, furrowing his brow. "So your group had the same idea to circle around? That's good."

The girl smirked a little in spite of her current position. "It seems that both our squads are able to think more independently than others. Not like those troublemakers from Iwa that got into a fight with some of my own. Both teams ended up taking a dip in the springs when they tried fighting each other out on the flats."

"Oh. You saw that too?" Naruto chuckled a little with an amused grin, "Yeah. We caught sight of them after they'd fallen in and were bobbing around for Kami knows how long. We arrived there just in time to watch them turn over."

"It was their fault for not considering every aspect of the terrain and only focusing solely on the opposition. A rookie mistake," Samui stated before shaking her head. "Shinobi from my own village were involved in that mess, but it's no longer my concern. This whole exam is a contest between teams to see which of us are most suitable for promotion. What happened back there happened and there's no going back."

"Well, I can agree with you on that one."

"Still, it must have been a hell of a sight. That acid is strong," Samui said pointedly. "By my estimate, liquid that corrosive would be able to melt through your skin in mere seconds and turn bone into paste in about an hour."

"Heh. Then it's a good thing we went around, huh?" Naruto replied, only to tense up again when his eyes went a little further downward than he intended and he quickly remembered their predicament. He blushed to the roots of his hair while looking back up at her face. Damn it, even her visage alone was getting him hot under the collar. "Yeah, having that shower was definitely not such a good idea."

Samui, coming around once again, sharply averted her gaze. Her cheeks started to get red again even though it was beginning to get incredibly cold being disrobed the way she was and embraced by the dark morning. "This place is located in an elevated spot, way above the other plateaus and hidden behind dense forest. I still don't know how you were able to find it."

"I was up, it was still dark, and I decided to take a look around. I wanted to scout ahead to see if there was an easier path my team could take and to see if I could pick up anything interesting along the way," Naruto replied quickly while also looking at something else. He didn't want to damage Samui's modesty, nor did he want to have any unnecessary injuries inflicted upon him from being viewed as a pervert. "I saw a cliff and decided to climb it. It's as simple as that. I just happened to stumble upon this area." He then raised an eyebrow and looked back down at her. "Hang on… where's the rest of your team?"

"Asleep in the cave," Samui replied, gesturing towards the falls. "That and the foliage cover the entrance. It's basically a dead spot in this region."

"Ah," Naruto nodded in understanding.

After a long and awkward silence drifted by, in which both parties spent the next minute or so looking edgily at each other while having no idea what to do next in their positions, the jinchuriki then decided to follow up on the most reasonable option to present itself. It was a start, but there was no way he wanted to fight Samui here. Not like this anyway. He liked her a lot and she seemed like a very reasonable person. Hell, she hadn't even tried to beat him over the head for her continued state of undress and the fact that he was on top of her in said undress.

For some reason the universe was playing ball with him today. He didn't know why, because any other time it just didn't. The universe was a real asshole.

Nevertheless, the girl had been caught off guard, she had been unprepared, and it hadn't been a fair fight. Sure, as shinobi they shouldn't really care about fairness, but Naruto was better than that. He was a man of honor as he always said, and would only dispatch enemies with extreme prejudice in the appropriate manner if he had a good enough reason to. Here, he didn't. Samui was a good person and he was going to set this right.

Hopefully his negotiating skills were up to scratch today.

"Truce?" Naruto offered.

Samui nodded immediately, "Truce."

Wow. He really was on a roll this morning.

Getting off of her, Naruto offered her a hand, which she gladly took. Seeing the girl cross her arms and legs immediately upon standing to cover up, the blonde quickly pulled off his jacket and gave it to her as a temporary reliever. The kunoichi gladly accepted his offering as she pulled it over and zipped it up, finding that it covered pretty much all of the essential areas before deciding to face the boy head on.

Samui turned around in time to see the male blonde pull his shirt off and air it out, before slipping it into the waist band of his pants to hang at his side.

It was going to get hot anyway. However, his action did get the girl to blush even more when she got a good look at his build, but she quickly shook out of it.

"I'm… sorry about that," Naruto murmured, looking apologetically at the kunoichi, "Sneaking up on you and everything."

"That's okay," Samui responded, rubbing the back of her hand uneasily. "It was my decision to shower out in the open; therefore it was my fault for not considering my position properly. If it were somebody else that had stumbled upon me I'd be dead right now." She then looked back up at him inquisitively. "That has me quite perplexed. You saw me standing in the water, unarmed and completely defenseless. Why didn't you take the chance presented to you and killed me?" The moment he hesitated but still had her at his mercy, the girl had strongly considered calling out for help. However, had the boy pursued a more malicious path in his disarming of her, he would have killed her and left her where she was lying without a second thought, and any intents she would have had to call for her team would have been shut down completely.

Instead, when he offered her the option of a stand-down instead of breaking her neck to end the whole thing, she was not only shocked by his proposition but immediately leapt at the opportunity. If he had wanted to kill her, he would have. But he didn't.

Why?

Naruto smiled back at her and shrugged, "I don't kill needlessly. You may be a ninja from another hidden village, but I don't kill unless I'm given a good reason to do so, and even then I'd still consider the person I'm about to take down. Sure, it's a shinobi's job to assassinate people, but I have my own way of doing things. Slaying someone while they're vulnerable and can't even fight back, a beautiful girl to boot… I don't do that. That's not my ninja way."

Samui nodded in understanding and lowered her gaze. If the boy was able to read her mind at that moment, he would have felt how stunned she was.

Still overcome with reverberations of her potentially fatal error, but also having the right state of mind to acknowledge both her defeat and the otherworldly mercy and kindness of her 'enemy', the kunoichi then answered him with the most sensible thing she could say at this time, "Th-Thank you…"

"You're welcome," Naruto said with a warm smile. "Hell, I wouldn't want to be attacked while naked and standing underneath a waterfall washing myself either. That would be just embarrassing." He chuckled, his statements also earning an amused smile from the girl.

The Kumo Genin then tilted her head at the jinchuriki curiously as he stood back with his hands in his pockets and allowed the both of them to become accustomed to the setting. After swaying back and forth on the balls of his feet awkwardly as the seconds ticked by, Naruto then pointed over his shoulder and turned away, "I'd… better… get going now." He then started towards the woods he'd come from, intent on heading back.

"Hold on a moment."

Hearing Samui's voice stopped Naruto from taking off.

Still feeling a bit edgy from the event that had just taken place, the jinchuriki turned back anxiously to see the girl step towards him, her attention fixed squarely on his person. A small smile forming on Samui's face as she took all of him in, she then tugged on the jacket wrapped around her and shrugged. "Don't you want this back?"

Naruto remained silent for a moment before giving the girl a grin, "Keep it. It's a cheap thing and I don't really think I'd need it in here anyway. You… probably need it more than I do right now."

"Even so, it would be awfully impertinent of me to just take this from you, especially since you only gave me this jacket to cover myself," Samui replied, turning side on and holding the jacket tighter to keep it from inadvertently hiking up her body. Sure, it covered her well enough, but the fact she wasn't wearing anything underneath it did give her some other things to be concerned about. "Give me a moment to get dressed and I'll return it. Since we've called a truce, I won't wake my team." She then shot him a cool smirk. "When I get back we can take a minute to discuss the matter of you spying on me."

Naruto slumped a little at hearing this, but nevertheless looked at his former opponent with a defeated smile, "I guess there's no getting away from that one, huh?"

Returning his question with a smile and a nod, Samui turned and began making her way back over to the waterfall. For some strange reason that the jinchuriki just could not fathom at that moment was that the girl took a lot longer to walk away from him then he figured she would've, while at the same time making a show of swaying her hips.

Choosing to dismiss this as the Kumo girl just messing around with him, Naruto then waited patiently there in the clearing for Samui to return when she disappeared behind the wall of water. When she emerged shortly afterwards, she was not only fully clothed but dried up as well, a field towel wrapped around her neck and being used to wipe her face. With his jacket in hand, the kunoichi passed it over to him without fuss or hesitation before propping her hands on her hips and gazing at him intently, taking special note of his bare chest.

Finding his muscles quite interesting as he hung his jacket over his shoulder, the girl gave an approving look and tilted up to look her would-be adversary in the eye. "In spite of your rebellious appearance and benevolent character… you are indeed quite strong, Naruto-san."

"Really? Heh. Thanks."

"I bet there have been many people out there who've made the mistake of underestimating you. You're undoubtedly an incredibly skilled shinobi… and one who's good at hiding his abilities."

In return, Naruto gave her one of his more charming grins. "You're not too bad yourself, Samui-chan. Even though you were caught off guard back there and were in no way ready for a fight, you were still able to give me quite the run around. There aren't many people who can chase me away using only taijutsu."

Samui reached up and massaged her neck soothingly, continuing to look the youngster in the eye as they exchanged pleasantries. "From your evasive skills alone, I can tell you'd be quite the troublesome opponent to fight one-on-one. Perhaps, after we get out of this place, we can have a more cordial exchange where we're not inadequately dressed and are in a more battle conscious state of mind."

This proposal had the jinchuriki's spirits lift at the prospect of a fight. "Sure. A rematch sounds great." Rubbing the back of his head anxiously for a moment, he then nodded towards the kunoichi inquisitively. "Hey, maybe afterwards, if you're interested, we can meet up after this exam and hang out. You're a really good person to have a conversation with, Samui-chan."

The kunoichi didn't hesitate in beaming, "I think I'd like that very much." She then stepped closer and poked him in the chest, giving it a moment of appraisal. He was certainly built for his age. There was no arguing that. "It will definitely make up for the whole peeping and throwing me to the ground incident. If we don't end up in a fight somewhere down the line, then I'd consider that a square deal." When she saw him return her sly smile with a sheepish grin, she then thumbed over her shoulder. "My team was able to make out a safe route across the plains from here. It weaves between the wastelands through dense forests and rocky tors. Some of the other teams may be using them, but if you're careful enough you'll be able to make it to the gorge before them."

Grinning, Naruto threw his jacket on and zipped it up. Upon which he then faced the girl with a challenging leer, "Thanks a lot. I hope you and your team make it to the end of this. I'd really like to see you in the next round."

"Likewise," Samui responded, resting her weight on one side and gesturing him a nod of good luck, "I'll hold you to it."

Pulling his goggles over his eyes, Naruto returned her gesture with one of his own and disappeared in an orange blur. The speed he moved at made it look to Samui like he shunshined, showing just how fast he really was.

This caused an impressed glint to flash through the intrigued girl's eyes.

Though she didn't admit it openly, the whole scenario where Naruto had fought and tossed her in that brief spar, and she'd suddenly found her attention locked onto his gaze, so full of vigor and intent, had had a very profound effect on her. Picking up her tanto from the ground, which she'd left lying forgotten there for the entirety of her interaction with the boy, Samui pondered over these troubling thoughts that had arose in her mind in the wake of the Konoha shinobi's departure.

The way he'd presented himself to her was cool.

She liked that kind of cool. It was the rare kind…

OOO

When Naruto returned to the camp, he found his clone sitting outside alongside Sasuke and Sakura, all of whom, including Eris who was wandering around and sniffing the surroundings, were waiting for him. With the dark sky starting to light up and warmth starting to return to the region, now was as good a time as any to get going. Apparently their bodies knew this to be the perfect time as well, and had awoken to the occasion.

The original jinchuriki wandered over from his landing spot as all eyes panned across to him, where his friends saw his stupidly grinning face stroll into view.

Due to the intensity of it and the fact that he was positively glowing had Sasuke raise an eyebrow. Even Sakura felt the invisible waves wafting off of the boy and flooding the area. It was almost like the sun itself was approaching them, when in actuality it was just the jinchuriki in an extremely pleasant mood.

"What happened to you?" Sasuke asked.

"Oh," Naruto rolled his arms and sniffed snobbishly, "Nothing much. Just something good. Something very good."

"How good?"

"Look, I'm not telling you either way, so enjoy stewing over it for the next few hours," Naruto smirked back, playing it on before switching it off just to mess with the hawkeyed genius. This of course got the usual, desired action from the Uchiha grunting before he too stepped further out and away from the tree they had used as a safe house for the night.

"Did you find a route that we could use, Naruto?" Sakura asked from her place kneeling beside the large root of their 'tent' fixing up her sandal. When the white fox walked back over to the kunoichi, the pinkette allowed the little animal to climb back up onto her shoulder and sat up. "I assume that was why we noticed you were missing when we woke up and found your clone just sitting here keeping a lookout and playing with Eris." She then blinked in surprise when a large fruit was tossed over to her and she caught it.

After tossing the second one to Sasuke, who gladly took it and rubbed it against his shirt to get rid of any unnecessary grime, the jinchuriki answered the pair quickly, "I journeyed a little further ahead using the cover of the woods. I didn't want to go too far out or risk getting spotted. I didn't want to send out any clones either because anyone sharp enough to spot individual copies moving away from a certain location would be able to track them back to me. Plus I focus better when I don't have so many bodies to worry about." He then pointed upwards. "I climbed up the perimeter cliffs onto the higher plains and managed to get a bead on a road we can take."

"A road?" Sakura murmured.

"A path that can take us through the thick of it, I'm assuming," Sasuke reiterated before lowering his head and tossing the fruit up and down in his hand, "Which way?"

"The route I spotted from up high was right across at the end of this level," Naruto stated while pointing in the direction he had come. "When we reach the first drop, we're going to have to descend into the lowlands again. I'm sure you'll be able to spot it when we get there, so keep a sharp eye out. We'll be able to maneuver around the wasteland areas, but it's still going to be a scorching hot march. I guess that's unavoidable no matter where you go here."

Sakura gave him a dry expression when she looked at the blonde a second time, "Well…at least that explains why you've got your shirt off." Taking a bite out of the fruit out of her hand and ripping a few pieces off for Eris, the kunoichi then took the time to fully recognize that the teen had his jacket now wrapped around his waist and shirt hanging from his pants. When she got a good flash of his bare chest and well refined stomach area, the girl blushed brightly and looked away, "Damn it, when did Naruto look so good?"

He was trickling sweat on top of the fact he was glowing. He looked absolutely hot right now.

Bringing his goggles back down to his neck, Naruto then nodded to them, "You may want to consider changing into the summer variations of your outfits. We want to try and make it to the gorge by noon and beat everybody else there, so it's better that you travel light and easy?"

"Yeah," Sasuke nodded. "I agree on both counts. So…" Popping the fruit he was chewing on in his mouth, he then removed his shirt and tucked it into his side just as Naruto had. Even in this early morning it was still humid, so he had a reasonable amount of sweat too. With that done, the genius took another chomp out of the melon he had and looked around at their kunoichi teammate. "Let's get moving. Sa-…kura?"

He stopped momentarily when he saw the girl was now lying on the ground with an incredibly red face. Both Naruto and Sasuke stared at her oddly as she lay there, on her back, twitching like a person had electric shocks being shot through them.

Seeing her break her composed mood had both boys scratching their heads.

"Sakura-chan? Are you okay?"

While they watched the girl froth at the mouth, bleed from the nose and listen to her mumble incoherent nonsense, the two boys were unable to hear her thoughts or the kunoichi's 'Inner-Sakura' screaming at her.

"Oh Kami, Sasuke-kun looks splendid," Sakura exclaimed shamelessly in her head. Bathed in moisture dripping down his athletic body and pale skin, and the fact she was already crushing hard on him made the sight even more magnificent.

"Whoosha! Two hot guys and both covered in sweat! My lucky day!"

Yep, let it be known throughout the universe that Sakura was just like any other healthy teenager with a massive libido: a pervert.

OOO

Later that day…

With Team Gai…

Tenten groaned as she slogged along behind Neji, both of them also dripping with sweat as they were passing over one of the deeply hated hotspots. Using the arcing bedrock bridge provided, the pair carefully bypassed the treacherous landscape of the wastelands below, while keeping an extra eye out for any enemy teams in the area.

So far their trip across this minefield of a restricted area had been incredibly strenuous as well as taxing. The moment they entered, the squad immediately encountered an opposing team from Kumogakure. Since they'd decided to charge straight forward, they ended up smacking headlong into the other group cutting across to take the lowlands. What ensued was a fierce battle between all six of them, resulting in the individual members of Team Gai literally beating the stuffing out of the team in a close-combat fest. They left them there to nurse their wounds while paying little mind to their 'client'.

They figured the beat down alone would be enough to deter them.

Afterwards the team then proceeded to navigate the woods until they arrived at the first of many wasteland areas in the lower regions. While their journey had been humid up to this point, the whole afternoon saw to them sweating up a storm across a molten wilderness bellowing hot steam straight up at them. They even had one of their causeways taken out by a geyser and ended up tumbling into a soggy marsh.

Thankfully they were able to avoid falling into it, because the top of the water was literally burning in several areas. After picking themselves up, they immediately made their way out of the area and found a tree where they each picked a branch and got some sleep for the night.

Now up bright and early in the morning, it was back to trudging along across unfamiliar territory once again. Thanks to Neji's Byakugan, he was able to single out the best areas of crossing and the group was now following a series of natural bridgeworks across the various craters to the gorge well on the other side. The sight of steam spewing into the air in a thick cloud didn't exactly instill two members of the team with much confidence that that general area was going to be safe.

However, the finish line was on the opposite bank, as well as a massive mountain they were going to have to navigate over as well. All they had to do now was keep other people from getting in their way and not succumb to the intense temperatures coming off of the acid pools and hot ground beneath them.

The only one seemingly not affected by the heat was Lee, who was currently skipping along with wide strides and a huge grin on his face as their tortoise client sat comfortably on his head. The animal just looked around lazily as it was currently moving the fastest it ever would in its lifetime. That was good and all, knowing that they could transport the animal easily this way. It was just that the rest of the team was suffering from the heat while their other member was still giddy as ever.

"My, what a wonderful morning!" Lee cheered, breathing in deeply and letting it out while bathing in the rising sun, "A most glorious day for some much needed exercise to reinvigorate my flames of youth! Come on you guys! We must move faster if we are to reach the other side of the mountain by nightfall!"

"Go on ahead," Neji groaned, his jacket drenched with moisture, "We'll catch up to you."

"Lee… how is it that you can be so cheerful in these conditions?" Tenten asked. With the heat sapping her strength and the smell of brimstone in the air messing up her other senses, the girl felt like she was carrying an extra few kilograms on her shoulders. In actuality, she was really only lagging forward the scrolls that were in her pockets. The kunoichi shook her head and wiped more sweat away as she unbuttoned her top. "It's so hot and steamy, it's not funny. Damn it! If this doesn't ease up soon, I'm going to kill somebody!"

Neji also frowned deeply, "I'm right behind you on that one, Tenten."

"Oh, come on guys. There's no need to harbor such ill will towards others just because the climate isn't fair," Lee stated, walking backwards so that he could smile at his teammates marching along behind him. "Life will always get you down somehow. All you have to do is find confidence and use that feeling to push yourselves back up. It's easy."

"My confidence is on standby at the moment," Neji murmured. While it wasn't really normal for him to break composure, the climate was just ridiculous. He was currently walking along with his jacket unbuttoned and bandages unwrapped from his arms. There was no way he would ever survive with so many layers of clothing, so he had to take drastic measures in removing some of them. "We need to get across quick."

"Agreed," Tenten and Lee replied, with Lee being the loudest before he suddenly broke off into a sprint.

The kunoichi looked up in surprise, "Hey! Don't leave us behind!" She ran after him, with the Hyuuga following shortly thereafter. "Don't! Drop! The turtle! Lee! If you do, I'm going to do something horrible to you!"

"That's not a turtle, Tenten. It's a tortoise…"

"Oh, shut up, Neji!"

OOO

With Team 8…

Kiba dusted his hands down as he stepped over the fallen tree he'd taken part in the pushing-over of during his battle with the massive, armored lizard his team had encountered while passing through the forest of one of the central plateaus. Unlike the others, these three had decided to hopscotch from plateau to plateau, staying as high above the acid wastelands as possible so that neither the Inuzuka nor his partner had to bare the stench of brimstone up close.

While the smell was indeed pretty prominent at this height, they were still able to function as an effective team. It was also still drearily hot at their altitude in spite of their efforts to stay as far above the volcanic landscape as possible. But the heat didn't get to the group as much as it would others since they were already pretty much used to this jungle climate.

Not the giant, dinosaur-like lizard thing. That massive skink freaked the hell out of them.

Good thing Kiba and Shino were there to dispatch it with extreme prejudice. Hinata had stood off to the side with their otter client secured safely in her arms. When she watched her teammates return to their break-off point to continue on, the Inuzuka was looking a little bit testy, whereas his companion sitting on top of his head was appearing disgruntled.

"Damn lizard. It had to get in our way," Kiba growled. He sure hoped he didn't get bit. Who knows what kind of toxins it had, considering even the trees at lower levels were highly poisonous. "It got the drop on us since I couldn't smell it approaching because of the bloody fumes in the air. Stupid sulfuric acid and stupid volcano. Why the hell would they have the test here."

"It is to see whether or not we can cope in the harshest of environments while trying to complete an extremely difficult task," Shino replied in his usual, calm voice as his glasses flashed towards the Inuzuka. "Besides, it was our team that disturbed the lizard, not the other way around. It simply saw us as food and tried to devour us to satisfy its hunger, but underestimated our abilities as prey and fell victim to our tenacity."

"I still think this whole thing is bogus," a grouchy Kiba growled, with Akamaru barking in agreement.

"Would you rather go through the forests in the wastelands below and risk falling through a sinkhole into an acid pit? Or would you prefer traversing the paths, risk exposure, and clench your noses shut for the duration of the journey and be completely useless to us? You can still function effectively as a brute force agent up here, and we can avoid a lot of the other perils below if we maintain this distance from them," Shino replied, before leading the three of them through the forest. It was thick and well-grown here, and the humidity was something else to talk about.

Shino's bugs seemed to love it, which was why he was so much more energetic today.

That kind of viewpoint though was… kind of redundant…

Kiba grumbled, "No need to take jabs at me Shino. Your insect friends wouldn't be able to handle the environment down there either."

"True, which is why I adamantly believe that it is in our best interests to continue at the pace that we have set on this level," the Aburame stated with an affirmative nod.

Hinata smiled as she caressed the otter they were tasked with guarding. "I-It's a good plan. We haven't run into too much trouble and the temperature up here is b-bearable."

Kiba sighed, rubbing his head as he had pulled his hood off. "No arguments there…"

He couldn't imagine what it was really like down there in that hell.

OOO

With Team 10…

"Ugh… what a drag," Shikamaru groaned, now no longer wearing a vest as he had removed it due to the fact that they were in the lowlands, circling around all of the hotspots around the edge of the perimeter line. They were practically hugging the side cliff as they ventured toward the massive gorge they could see in the distance. "I can't stress how annoying this whole thing is."

"It's terrible," Choji whimpered, having removed everything he was wearing as a top and slung the aforementioned articles over his shoulder. Never in his entire life had he ever been subjected to such torture. Sure, the whole written exam portion in the first stage was stressful enough, but thanks to Ino they were able to pull through to the end. This test though… it was just plain murder. Hell, he couldn't even eat because it was so hot. "I'm going to burn off so many calories."

"Isn't that a good thing, Choji?" Ino asked from the center, their client Sloth hanging off of her shoulders like it was a backpack and all her clothes still worn firmly on her person. Due to the fact that under her top all she had were bandages and ninja mesh covering her, there really wasn't anything she could undo about herself that would lead to her other two teammates staring lewdly at her. In order to preserve her modesty, she bit her teeth and trudged through the heat with barely a complaint. "Not that you have anything to lose but, come on. You can shed weight here without even trying! I should be enjoying this more than both of you combined."

"Well… aren't you?" Shikamaru asked.

"Of course I am!" the girl barked back, grinning when the sloth on her back gave a thumbs-up, as if they shared a special, telekinetic bond of emotion. The sweating Ino gave a confident smirk. "This way I will end up losing enough pounds for a gorgeous, curvy figure that will definitely impress my Sasuke-kun and steal him away from that walking advertisement he calls a teammate! It doesn't matter what I have to go through, I will sacrifice even comfort and luxury to be with my future husband!"

"Future husband?" Shikamaru repeated before chuckling, "Aren't you getting a little ahead of yourself?"

"Nothing's too far ahead! Not in the face of true love!" Ino proclaimed loudly, but was quickly muffled by her teammates jumping on her to clamp her mouth shut to stop her from alerting any nearby teams. It didn't help that two of them were half-naked and all of them were sweating up a storm.

However, what made the two boys jump away sharply wasn't the sweat or the awkwardness of the situation, it was the smell. Ino absolutely reeked.

"God, are you sure you're okay wearing all those clothes?" Shikamaru asked, holding his nose.

Ino developed a tick mark, as did the sloth as they both held a fist threateningly up at the Nara, "If you've got a problem with it, go dive into one of those acid ponds."

Choji blinked as he looked towards the steam rising from over the treetops. "No thanks…"

"That wasn't a suggestion…"

She was certainly stubborn if nothing else.

OOO

With Team 9…

Standing up on the ridge overlooking a massive sink hole like cave formation, Tayuya, Kaede and Shiho were careful to keep their bodies firmly planted where they were while looking down into the dark abyss. The sound of thousands of tons of running water had caught their attention earlier; drawing them out from the forest further away from all of the other teams they were already keeping a good distance from, and towards one of the larger clearings in the forest.

That large clearing they had wound up moving towards turned out to be this massive hole punched into the landscape, leading straight down into an enormous running river.

The amount of steam gushing out as well indicated exactly what was going on down at the bottom of the two-hundred meter diameter hole; running water vaporizing because of the extreme heat. It was probably toxic too from overexposure to those caverns. No telling what exactly was down there.

Yeah, the members of Team 9 definitely wanted to stay well away from this edge. However, since this thing was standing in their way of their intended destination, they needed to get around it.

Exactly what Tayuya intended when she had enough of marveling the scenery and decided to go around. Shiho, who was carrying their squirrel client on top of her head, and Kaede, quickly followed her, the boy keeping his hands in his pockets as he gazed down into the darkness below. The red haired girl made sure to keep her eyes in front of her feet so that she didn't accidentally trip up and fall over the side.

"I wonder if anyone was stupid enough to charge through the woods and go over the side of this thing?" the musician wondered out loud.

"I highly doubt anyone would be," Shiho murmured, adjusting her glasses. "This thing is huge. You'd see it coming a mile away."

"The depth of this thing is unfathomable," Kaede murmured, picking up a stone and chucking it over the side. The three of them had the glory of watching it plummet into the steaming darkness below. "Who in their right of mind would want to live in an area as questionable as this?"

"I'll tell you who; no one," Tayuya replied before hastening her march. "Come on. We need to make up time on the trek around."

The gorge was just across over the next rise. As far as they were concerned they were making great time. The only question though was; how well were they doing, and were they in the lead?

If only they hadn't been stopped by that damn Amegakure team carrying the umbrellas and forced to fight them, because it had probably cost them a few valuable minutes. A quick genjutsu from Tayuya and Kaede trapping them with his ninjutsu settled that score.

OOO

With Team 7…

Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke took the road that their blonde teammate had found and the Uchiha mapped out briefly the other night, and stuck to the shadows. Above the heat, steam, sweat and exhaustion, the trio managed to make the killer dash across no-man's-land and to the other end of the first portion of the valley. They managed to dodge all of the wastelands and hot spots, even a couple of teams they had managed to catch sight of darting in the same direction as they were.

Those guys were sure to be slowed down by everything else. Their path on the other hand followed one forged by nature and concealed by brush. It was the easiest and apparently the quickest road to follow, because soon enough squad seven found themselves ascending the cliffs leading up to one of their greatest obstacles yet. When they eventually arrived at the apex of the climb and looked across at the 'wall' that stood in their way, they were absolutely flabbergasted.

Imagine a canyon, only five hundred meters deep, with visibly bubbling water at the bottom sending plumes of steam into the air. As far as Team 7 could see from their position, the damn thing stretched from one end of the boundary of the Boiling Lands to the other, so there was no getting around it the smart way. What was provided for them however were a handful of causeways; a couple made of bedrock that arced over the gap and a couple of manmade bridges, all of them looking rundown, moldy, and in states of disrepair.

Okay, so summary. They couldn't go around, they weren't taking the stone crossings because it didn't look safe at all, and there was no way they were taking any of the wooden bridges. The bridges alone, despite the massive restraints and support beams, looked like they could give out at any moment and the squad was willing to bet that if there were any other teams in the area, if they were spotted crossing the walkways provided, they were going to get cut down or ambushed.

Every one of the viaducts had warning bells blaring, which prompted the three of them to think up something else.

Hot and covered in sweat from the massive boiling pot sitting in front of them and keeping to the tree line, the three of them moved further down away from one of the bridges they'd come across, where the cover was most pronounced. They relocated to an area where the forest leaned over the side of the cliff and took up a firm position on the largest tree overlooking the gap. Perching themselves in the branches, the group began reassessing their situation.

Both Naruto and Sasuke had their shirts off, and Sakura had ripped her battle dress up so that her midriff was exposed, the lower half was gone, and that she only had the top half and her black spandex leggings. Eris sat comfortably across her shoulders, looking just as puzzled as the rest of them were as they gazed out across the long drop in front of them.

"Hell," Naruto groaned out, earning a supportive nod from Sasuke, "Look at how fucking wide that thing is."

"Judging from the length of the bridges… I'd say it's about three hundred meters across and six hundred meters down," Sasuke murmured. The spot they were on had a pretty wide space, and they weren't going to go for the shortest distance since that was probably where some of the other teams were headed. They just had to deal with what they had here. "The space isn't the only thing to worry about. That heat cloud is also going to be a problem."

The Uchiha pointed towards the massive wall of steam rising up in front of them. They could barely see across from where they were, but what they didn't know was how hot it was. Well, one intrepid member decided to find out for himself.

Creating a shadow clone and sharing a bro-hug of respect with it, Naruto then watched his copy swan dive over the side. The doppelganger fell into the cloud where it dispelled shortly afterwards, getting the blonde to hiss and his teammates to look at him. "It's really hot at our level but down there… yeah." He looked across at the others. "You're guaranteed to burn up before you even reach the water."

"That's comforting," Sakura murmured.

"Hell. I could dive off the side and swim across no problem if we weren't sitting on top of a volcano," Naruto stated while rubbing his head, "But that's not the case here. If we're going to do this, then we're going to need to create our own way across."

"How do we do that though?" Sasuke asked, glancing across at their kunoichi for evaluation. "We can't go around, we can't swim across and we're not taking the bridges. What other options do we have?"

Sakura rubbed her chin thoughtfully. If this was a problem solving case, then it was guaranteed that she could crack it. "Naruto said our skin would practically melt off if we drop too far down, so hooking a line and swinging over using simple physics and gravity is a big no. We won't be able to rig a glider across in time and even if we could I wouldn't really trust a homemade one in a situation like this." She then looked over at the jinchuriki and considered him an option. "We could create our own bridge; but making one from foraged materials would take too long and making one out of Naruto's shadow clones won't work either. I don't think you're strong enough to handle that distance."

"I could, but the sweat and heat makes it difficult to maintain grip and focus my chakra, so I can't guarantee a safe passage," Naruto replied while wiping his brow. His legs were drenched as well, which was an incredibly unpleasant feeling.

The kunoichi nodded again, "We're not splitting the group to provide cover across the bridges, but we can use them as a diversion by sending Naruto's clones across disguised as all three of us."

"Good start," Sasuke nodded, scrunching his brow as he kept his eyes firmly on the objective, "But what about the actual conduit?"

"I think I have an idea," Sakura smiled and looked across at the Uchiha. "How good is your throwing arm, Sasuke-kun?"

The boy raised an eyebrow. "Fair, but I think I can…" He then blinked, "Wait… are you thinking…"

"Yeah." Sakura then looked at the jinchuriki next to them. "The position is good so it will definitely work. Send a Naruto clone across transformed into a kunai with a line attached to him. He'll hook it up on the other end and we can zip line across safely."

Naruto smirked, "Perfect."

They then wasted no time prepping the gear. After Naruto sent a team of shadow clones disguised as each of them over to the nearest bridge to distract anyone who may be watching from afar, Sasuke produced the nano wire they needed and the jinchuriki created the clone necessary for their little scheme to work. Once their end was tied down and the clone was lined up, the Uchiha then leapt into the air and chucked the transformed doppelganger across. The knife arced upwards before beginning a slow descent, with all three Genin watching from the tree with baited breath.

The knife disappeared through the cloud of steam, with the line feeding to the other side wherever it landed. After several minutes of waiting and watching the wire jitter, the group then felt a tug indicating that the clone had tied it off. The flash of memory hit the original Naruto moments later when the copy dispelled to provide feedback, making the blonde smirk.

"It's on."

"Okay, let's do this thing!" Sakura exclaimed, petting the fox on her shoulder as she looked down the cable leading to the opposite cliff. Upon glancing at the distance and then the unquestionably lethal fall below, the kunoichi then nervously looked back at the boys. "Umm… who gets to go first?"

Naruto and Sasuke looked at each other, both turning to the line at the exact same time before looking back at the kunoichi, "I'll go." They then glowered when they realized a familiar argument was once again in the making.

Sighing, Sakura pointed at Naruto before pulling out a ryo coin. "This will decide it then." Showing it to the blonde, she then prepped it across her thumb and finger, "Heads you go first, tails I go second." She then flipped it and caught it, doing the customary turnover before smiling at the results. "Heads! Looks like you're up Naruto."

The jinchuriki raised a finger in a bid to point out the obvious flaw in his friend's logic, but then scowled at the amused look on Sasuke and Sakura's faces. "Fine. It's not like I had a choice to begin with." Picking up the cables provided and wrapping them around him and the line, he then wasted no time setting himself up for a swing before zip-lining right across the chasm. There wasn't even any hesitation whatsoever, he just went. Within seconds he slid right to the other end, landing on hard ground before looking back.

Assured that it was safe and that their teammate had the other end covered, Sakura with her passenger in tow went next. Eris yipped happily when they set off and enjoyed the wild flight through the sauna steam moments until they reached the other cliff, where they were caught by Naruto and steadied from the ride. The Uchiha followed shortly thereafter, immediately blasting into view through the cloud and landing amongst them. As soon as he was off, he wasted no time cutting the wire and watching it fall away.

He glanced back at the other two staring at him inquisitively, "Just making sure no one else follows us."

Naruto nodded before frowning when he felt his copies sent to the bridge dispel. He looked across in the direction the memories had flown from, drawing his friends' focus with him. "It's good that you did that too. My shadow clones were just ambushed on the other side by another team." All four of his creations had been cut down by a kunai trap. They tripped it on purpose to throw off whoever was watching them, but while it did give them an opening it was still a discomforting thought.

The rest of the competition was right behind them.

Nodding in understanding, Sakura looked between her teammates again with a firm gaze, "We need to keep moving and put as much distance between us and the others."

"Yeah," Naruto replied before all of them turned to glare at the mountain that lay ahead, the fox across Sakura's shoulders whimpering at the sight of the monolithic natural formation. The jinchuriki wiped his brow clean, as he was still sweating from the intense heat, "Come on. Let's get this over with."

The three then dispersed, wanting to get out of the open as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately, unbeknownst to the wily team, their arrival did not go unnoticed. Hiding up in the trees of a nearby brush on the same side, a pair of sharp eyes glared after the group when they quickly departed from the area. Short black hair framing a fair face, with black eyes, and sporting the garb of an Iwagakure Genin, the kunoichi hiding in the shadows smirked when she took stock of the competition that just breezed on past.

"So that's the team with the Uchiha in it?" Kurotsuchi exclaimed brightly. She then grinned excitedly, "They look like fun…"

OOO

Meanwhile…

Far ahead…

Sitting on a giant stone riding up the massive mountain on the other side of the gorge, the Kiri Team had decided to take a little break to catch their breath and 'listen to the sounds.' Well… one of them was, the others were just sitting around her doing their own things, while at the same time watching the orange haired girl meditate with her cheek in her hand and elbow propped on her crossed leg. Though it didn't look like she was in deep contemplation, she most definitely was, and had all her senses trained on the wind.

For a team that was miles ahead of everyone else and having busted through obstacles and wastelands at breakneck speed, they all appeared perfectly fine. There wasn't even a single scratch or smidge of dirt on them.

They looked as clean as the day they arrived, which was both puzzling and terrifying.

After about half-an-hour of nothing leading up to the present, Utakata and Kiyoko were suddenly interrupted from their activities by their teammate's eyes opening. They looked at her to see a happy smile of an incredibly collected individual cross her lips, leading to one of them inquiring into her good mood.

"What is it?" Utakata asked.

"Some of the teams from the rear are catching us up," Tsubaki exclaimed coolly.

Excitement quickly growing at the prospect of a fight, Kiyoko leapt to her feet. "What should we do?"

"How far are they?" Utakata asked.

Tsubaki smiled at him, "I've been keeping an eye on a few of them. The one with the blonde haired kid stopped far behind the others on the first day, but they've managed to overtake the opposing teams while they were still asleep and are now in third place. There's an Iwa team right behind them. That lone team from Otogakure is in second, heading up the far side of this mountain, and the Sunagakure team with that boy carrying the gourd just crossed the stone bridge. They're practically strolling through this stage."

"What about the others?"

"Still stuck behind the margin," Tsubaki answered her blonde teammate, looking up towards the sky thoughtfully.

Utakata blinked as he stared at her, his brow furrowing momentarily when he got a good look at her eyes and how they were becoming fixed on the clouds above. While it would have been impossible for anyone else, the boy was a natural at reading between the lines. "I know that look…" His exclamation had the kunoichi glance back down at him. "You're getting bored, aren't you?"

Tsubaki grinned at him, "It's scary how well you know me, Utakata-kun."

The teen grunted while bringing his bubble pipe up to his lips, "As much as I'd like to say no and explain to you why that's a really bad idea, you're still going to go either way. There's no way I can stop you, and there's not a single Genin in this competition that poses any kind of a threat to you, so why fight it?"

With the ferret draped across her shoulders, Kiyoko leapt up and down like a frivolous school girl. She giggled excitedly when she jogged over to Tsubaki. "So we're actually going to fight someone this time? Who? Who?"

The still seated and more mature of the two glanced at her energetic companion warmly, "I'll let you have fun with the team from the sound village." She pointed in the direction they were in. "Go say hello to them."

Kiyoko saluted, "Okey-dokey, captain!" Setting the otter down beside Utakata, who looked at the animal curiously, the pair then watched the blonde haired bundle of energy sprint off into the jagged, forest surrounding the mountain they were currently hiking up. Her laughter and exclamations of joy could be heard echoing all around as she vanished from sight, "Fight! Fight! Fight! I'm going to get to fight! Yay! Fight! Fight! Fight!"

The boy member of the team chuckled as he watched her vanish over the rise, "She's certainly in high spirits today… though I don't think I've ever really seen her down before. Who are you going to go after then if not the runner-ups?"

Tsubaki smirked as she lowered her head, setting her sights on the gorge behind them. "I think I'll have some fun with one of the teams from Konohagakure. I won't kill them… I'll just beat them up enough so that they can tell their friends not to mess with us comes the third stage."

That sounded reasonable enough. Even though it was just his two teammates wanting to blow off some steam from lack of anything remotely interesting happening during this stage of the exams, at least they were thinking ahead. Intimidation and knowledge were powerful weapons when used right, and Tsubaki certainly knew how to use them.

She was the master of unnerving.

"Good luck with that." Utakata sighed and looked over his shoulder, "How long will you… be?" When his eyes landed on the log his teammate had previously been on, the teen saw she was no longer there. Seeing she'd already taken flight, the boy sighed and returned to blowing bubbles, at the same time petting the ferret lying beside him on the head. The Genin breathed in dismay as he set the mouthpiece between his lips, "I hate it when she does that…"

Guess he was waiting here for them to get back… again…

OOO

Meanwhile…

On the unseen side of the mountain, the Sound Team had stopped to take a little breather. After plowing through an entire field of acid pools and beating up a couple of no-name Kumo teams and a team fromYugakure, the trio was a little bit worn for wear.

It was a good thing they were taking a rest too, as it was allowing them to assess their collective damages. As well as the exhaustion brought on by the heat and the fatigue of traveling so fast, the group's physical appearances were also ragged. Dosu was filthy from having mud splattered all over him from an exploding pool, Zaku's clothes were ripped and torn from his fights, as he may have gotten a little carried away, and Kin had a bruise on her cheek and had wrapped up a scar on her arm. On top of this, all of their clothes looked a little eaten away from being caught under an acid geyser.

Some of it got onto their skin and left them with a few burns, but nothing a little water from the upper levels couldn't wash away. It neutralized the acids and soothed the burns. Now all they had to focus on was recovering from all their running and hiking. They managed to get across the bridges alright, but the team waiting for them at the other end really didn't want them going any further and attempted to cut it.

Zaku managed to knock them away using his sonic tubes, but the fight still turned into a mess.

"This environment is close to unbearable," Dosu murmured from his log, arms resting on his legs.

"You're moaning like that matters," Zaku replied, watching as their summon client was wandering circles in the middle and eating seeds off of the ground. "The setting for this exam isn't our problem. What I can't stand are the annoying obstacles in our way and this damn bird."

They were stuck with a flightless chicken, and while it had behaved itself for most of the journey it had tried to run away from them a few times. Since they would fail if they harmed the client in any way, all they could do to get it to stop was scold it and keep a closer watch over the animal.

"Don't blame the bird, Zaku," Kin shot back with a cocky smirk towards her teammate. "Blame the one that was tasked with watching him last night."

"Hey! That was totally not my fault!" the boy barked, appearing flustered while pointing across at the animal. "It jumped out of the tree and ran out into the acid fields! We were just lucky it didn't commit suicide and run into one of the pools or down that massive sink hole!"

"What happened the other night, happened because we got careless," Dosu spoke up from his spot as he looked around at his teammates. "We cannot underestimate these tests or the people in it. While the first stage proved to be tricky, this second stage is not only filled with a large assortment of mortal perils meant to test us physically, but people going at each other's throats to make it to the finish line. If we want a shot at taking out the Uchiha and his band, we either have to cut them off close to the end, or beat him in the third stage."

Kin frowned and folded her arms. "We're on a time limit here. I vote we try and get to him in the next stage, since we already have so many other problems to worry about." She then looked up towards the peak of the mountain they were on. "Plus we have their whole team to deal with. Putting the Uchiha aside, that blonde kid in their squad is going to be a handful alone."

"You seriously believe he's going to be a problem for us?" Zaku asked, raising an eyebrow at the kunoichi.

"He's good," Kin murmured, looking ahead of her with a distant, thoughtful visage. "You saw it. The tension of the exams didn't affect him at all, and his attitude towards it as well as his agility staggered me…" She then furrowed her brow when she remembered standing close to the kid when he surprised both Dosu and Zaku, and caused them to bowl themselves over. The proximity and his interest in her came as a mild concern, but then when his handsome face came flush up to hers, the girl couldn't keep the red down from her cheeks when she recalled his open and honest compliments. "He's also an idiot…"

Dosu noticed her change in tone and smirked, "You seem to be getting a little bit flustered, Kin. Care to tell us why?"

Stiffening, the girl glared at the mummy with a foul look, "Shut the hell up, Dosu! This is nothing!" It was a shame her face was red, otherwise she would have been able to shoot the guy down rather than get him to laugh. "If you're implying what I think you are, I'll beat you up and leave you here to rot."

Zaku shook his head toward the kunoichi, hands on his hips as he read the sounds of embarrassment filling the air. "Hot under the collar, Kin? If anything, I'd say you're getting a tad bit soft."

The girl then jabbed a finger in his direction, "You're next on my list, chicken little!"

Before things could get even more hair raising for the group, a shadow dashing out from behind one of the nearby trees put them on immediate alert. Forming a circle around their client, the team fromOtogakure looked up in surprise when they saw the girl with extremely long, blonde hair and the spandex uniform from Kirigakure smiling down at them from a tree branch.

Arm dangling like a monkey's, the girl grinned ecstatically before swinging down and hanging off of the tree with one arm, swaying from side to side, "Hello! Would you guys happen to be the team from the hidden sound village?"

Zaku glared back harshly, "Depends on who's asking."

The girl grinned and saluted, "Kiyoko from Kiri at your service!" She then dropped to the floor with a loud thud, landing in a kneeling position with her head dipped. Unable to see her expression, the sound team could only watch as she rose to her feet before looking back up at them, this time with an excited smirk in play as she cracked her knuckles. "Tsubaki-chan told me to beat you guys up enough so that you won't be able to go any further! Can we fight?"

Not liking how easy she seemed to be taking it, Dosu held up his arm and pulled back the sleeve, revealing the gauntlet he had hidden underneath. Seeing the boy ready his primary weapon as well as slide out into a firmer stance had both Kin and Zaku also prepare for battle, drawing their respective tools to bring the new arrival down in one go.

"Do you need to ask us?" the boy in bandages replied.

Kiyoko giggled and took a fighting stance as well, hands and fingers extended and held forward and backward like she was surfing. It was an odd stance, but it was a part of her signature fighting style, which greatly baffled the Oto Genin.

"No, I guess not," the blonde chirped before giggling excitedly. "Let's have some fun!"

OOO

Not too far from the gorge…

Pushing their way through the brush of the last plateau, Team 8 came just within sight of the ledge that would lead them down to the bridges across the massive chasm that stood in their way. In just a few minutes they would be on the mountain, if they didn't have to deal with anyone intent on stopping them at the causeways. That would be just annoying.

Shino looked up as he gazed through the gap in the canopy of the clearing they'd just strolled into. His team quickly headed him up, with Kiba walking around and looking bored and Hinata still carrying their passenger in her arms. It was a lovely area and the humidity had died down somewhat. This told them they were far away from the nearest hot spots, the last one being the massive hole in the land waiting for them.

"Not much further now," Shino murmured in his monotone voice.

"Good," Kiba exclaimed, wiping a finger under his nose. "I'm getting sick of the smell of acid in the air. When we get over that thing, it's a straight shot up the mountain and down the other side. This survival stuff is a piece of cake!"

"W-We must move quickly," Hinata said with a bright smile, "If we want to beat the other groups there and not get caught up in a fight. That will waste valuable time."

"We'll shoot straight past the opposition," Shino replied firmly. "Ignore the obstacles and make a dash across the nearest bridge."

"I'll race you to the top then!" Kiba exclaimed, preparing to run off. However, before he could get several paces across the clearing, the sound of Akamaru growling had him skid to a dead stop. All three Genin looked at the top of the boy's head where the puppy was sitting in puzzlement, before seeing how aggravated he was. "What's wrong boy?"

The noise he was making and the sight of his hair standing on end… neither of those were good signs.

"You guys seem to be having it a little bit too easy back here…" a soft voice suddenly filled their ears.

Startled, the three Genin looked left and leapt a good distance back when they suddenly saw the orange haired girl from the Kirigakure team sitting comfortably on the boulder in the center of the clearing, in the exact same manner as she had been on the mountain (not that they knew). Head tilted and resting in her hand, the girl smirked across at the bewildered members of Kurenai's team as she took stock of each of them.

Her gaze quickly taking in the entire group, the teen then giggled playfully in a surprisingly mature manner, befitting her gorgeous outlook and personality, "Your team is coming in seventh. Maybe I should make this exam a little more interesting and give someone else a chance to graze the cutoff."

"What the fuck?" Kiba murmured, blinking as he stared wide-eyed at the kunoichi smiling playfully at them. "Where the hell did she come from?"

"Did she shunshin here?" Shino murmured, his bugs just now honing in on her signal. "I should have sensed her the moment she entered the area. How did she get here?" If she got here by the trees, she must have gotten here super fast. Not just anyone could circumvent his senses.

Hinata backed away worryingly, having not even heard, smelled or saw the girl arrive. It came as such a surprise that even the otter in her arms had started whimpering.

Akamaru was growling at the orange haired girl, finding her presence most discomforting until he got a good whiff of her. His growling ceasing, the dog started shivering as he yipped in warning, alerting Kiba to the danger. The Inuzuka's eyes bugged and he looked up at his partner, who was now starting to appear as small as possible on top of his head.

"Seriously? She's that strong?" Kiba looked up at the girl smiling smugly at them. The sight of the kunoichi around the same age as them and appearing so calm, even when faced with an entire team, unnerved the usually crasser boy. The fact that Akamaru was now starting to shake and whimper so much didn't exactly fill him with his usual hot air. "That's crazy. How can chakra register at that level? Maybe you're reading it wrong, bud." There was no way it could be that high.

By this time Shino had also gotten a proper bead on the person facing them down, which had him recoil in shock when he too got an accurate analysis of her energy level. "I haven't sensed that much chakra standing in one place since Naruto. What the hell is she?"

Tsubaki grinned at them, "I'm not really sure myself. Want to help me find out…?"

OOO

Arriving at a fork in the road, Team 7 stopped and considered both ways leading up the mountain that they now found themselves traversing. In order to get a proper bead on their location, Naruto sent two shadow clones down both roads, leaving the squad to wait until they sent the information back to the original once they dispelled wherever they came from. What with everything they'd been through so far, moving up this forest covered prominence surrounded by jagged rock formations on all sides and teams of shinobi not too far behind, it made sense that they had to proceed with more caution.

Eris yipped cheerfully as she wagged her one tail behind her, earning a pet on the head from Sasuke, whose shoulder she was now riding on.

"I think she likes you, Sasuke-kun," Sakura exclaimed, noticing the fox nuzzle his cheek.

The raven haired boy grunted, but smiled nonetheless at the show of affection. "I think she likes all of us."

Also seeing the cheerfulness of the animal they were tasked with guarding, Naruto grinned. "She may be the strangest client we've had, but she's definitely the best. I think she enjoys hanging out with us." He saw the white fox glance in his direction and bark, getting him to laugh. "I'm not sure about that," he replied before turning to Sakura. "Do you think we can take her home after this is all over?"

The pink haired girl looked at Naruto curiously, "Did she say she wanted to come with us?"

Naruto nodded, "Yeah. She said she really likes hanging out with us too… not like those guys that trained her for this assignment."

Hands behind her, Sakura smiled across at the fox as it clambered over onto Sasuke's other shoulder, who followed her with his eyes. "Well… if we get through this okay and the proctors let us, then I see no problem. Who would she want to stay with?"

Hearing the fox bark again, Naruto looked over at Sakura, "She'd like to stay with you."

"Me?"

"Yeah. She likes the aura you give off, Sakura-chan," Naruto grinned. "I'm not surprised. You're really kind to her and you carried her most of the way out here."

Blushing, Sakura panned to the jinchuriki with an amused look on her face, "Sometimes I wonder what it's like to live with the ability to speak with animals."

"It's pretty cool. You can have conversations with just about anyone." Before he could really start breaking down the convenience of being bilingual, his head snapped up when his clones' memories eventually flew back to him and he looked up the roads. His teammates focused back onto him completely when they noticed his snapping attentiveness. "They've reached the end of the roads."

"What did they find?" Sakura asked.

Naruto pointed up one of the routes. "To the left there's a cave that leads into the mountain. To the right… well…" The blonde folded his arms with a frown, "That's not really a path I want to follow."

"Why's that?" Sasuke asked, curious when he saw the grim look on Naruto's face.

"We picked a really shitty area to start from you guys," Naruto said, referring to when they crossed the gorge away from the bridges with actual paths leading out from them. Right now they were following roads created through the thick woods by animals that lived on this side of the testing grounds, most likely the deer with plants growing from their antlers they saw walking around. It was a strange place no doubt, but it was presenting them a massive problem. "The other road leads to another drop off… a MASSIVE drop off. There's lava at the bottom of it and I don't think we'll be able to cross it this time."

"How come?" Sakura queried, wondering what could have been worse than their last one.

"Because the soil in that direction is scorching," Naruto informed, shivering at the memory of the numbness of his feet. "My shadow clone tried jumping onto the ledge across, but it caught fire and fell to its death. It tried getting around before, but the climbs were impossible. The area surrounding it has serrated stalagmites acting as heat vents, so if you try climbing or jumping, you're going to get skewered by hot knives. Yeah… we're going to need to find another way."

"So… this mountain is filtering lava out of it at a low level to keep the pressure down on one side?" Sasuke murmured. Yeah, they were standing on volcanic ground, but from the way all of the heat was escaping the crust on this land, slowly relieving the pressure, it meant that the place they were standing on wasn't likely to erupt for another few years or so. Nevertheless, it made every possible route available to them treacherous. How the heck were they going to get around like the other teams were going to? Surely no one was going to have it easy. The Uchiha then looked down the road they came. "Back tracking will only waste time. It took us an hour to climb this far, and I'm sure more teams have already crossed that gorge."

"We're going to have to go through the cave then," Sakura said, looking over at Naruto. "How's the passage that way? What're the conditions like?"

"I think it's safe," Naruto said with a nod. "There's a lot of cool air coming through that way."

"That's good then. It means that all of the heat is breaking through the earth in a very specific area," Sakura nodded, before turning toward Sasuke. She watched him step over to her and allow Eris to clamber onto her shoulder. Securing the animal, she then looked at both boys. "We'll try getting through using the cave. If it's a straight shot, we'll be able to cut this journey down by half."

"Alright," Sasuke nodded. "We'll take the tunnels. Maybe we can avoid all of the other squads and keep Eris safe." He was about to take the lead when he felt two sets of eyes on him, and turned to see Sakura and Naruto staring at him. "What?"

Naruto grinned mischievously and pointed at the fox, "You actually called her by her name."

Realizing his little blunder, the Uchiha stiffened before marching off quickly. His teammates couldn't even remember seeing him walk that fast before, which had them snicker. "Let's go, you idiots."

"Aww, teme-chan. You're such a softie. Remind me to buy you a packet of tampons when we get back home," Naruto teased, getting the kunoichi he was now walking beside to giggle under her breath.

Pulling the shirt he had shoved into his belt out and slipping it on, Sasuke grumbled, "If we come to an acid pool I'm going to throw you straight into it."

This didn't really stop Sakura and Naruto from laughing, since they finally made some sort of a breakthrough with their less sociable teammate. The kunoichi saw it as a big opportunity to get a little closer to him and bask in his presence, but the genius was still looking flustered at being called out. However, he didn't move away from Sakura when she decided to walk a little closer to him, and so continued on marching up the mountain at a comfortable pace. Naruto even had the time to pull his jacket back on, but left the shirt off and the front unzipped. At least the heat had let up a bit where they were.

The three of them made sure to keep an eye open for anything dangerous in the woods surrounding him, but all they ended up spotting were a few deer, all of them turning to watch them pass without any trouble or concern.

Eventually, after several minutes of walking, the whole group arrived at the cave entrance and began surveying the area more properly. There wasn't really anywhere else they could go to move around it. The trees growing on both sides and above were so big and ascended in such a congested manner that it would take even longer to sail through them like they normally did with other trees than taking the tunnel.

This exam really was making life a whole lot more difficult for all of them; producing the most impassable obstacles as well as the most mind numbing challenges.

Sakura shivered when she looked at the entrance to the cavern, "Now that I think about it, maybe it isn't such a good idea to use the caves." She looked across at Sasuke who broke off two branches and wrapped medical gauze he had in his pouch around them. "Should we go back and find another way?"

"No," Sasuke replied, igniting both with a small fire jutsu before handing them over to Sakura and Naruto. "Time is a factor and I don't want to even try skipping across the canopy through these twisting figs." He then activated his Sharingan and faced the blackness of the cave. "We'll take it step by step. Come on."

Seeing no one was going for it, the kunoichi made sure the fox across her shoulders was comfortable before following after both boys. Eris blinked as darkness overcame the trio when they entered the labyrinth, with Naruto and Sakura both holding up the torches to help light their way.

The group felt the tunnel steepen as they started to climb, hiking up a path laid out for them made by heaven knew who. If someone was crazy enough to tunnel straight through into a potentially unstable volcano, then there must have been some sort of objective to this. It was a hell of a path they'd set up too, as everyone soon found themselves weaving through a seemingly random winding road taking all three of them right into the heart of the colossal structure.

It would be about half an hour of walking later that they didn't really need the light when the group suddenly entered an area lit by crystals. Looking around in astonishment, Team 7 counted all of the gems they could see carved into the stones providing natural light for the narrow corridors, like stars decorating the cloak of night. Naruto tried picking one out of curiosity, but just as he tapped it he was slapped on the wrist by Sakura.

"Don't touch them," the girl warned, glancing warily at the walls. "These were sealed into the earth and if they are weight bearing in any way I wouldn't want to take them out." This got an understanding nod from the jinchuriki, who then proceeded to move on after Sasuke, who led the way with his finely tuned eyesight.

What they ended up missing when they disappeared down the corridor while extinguishing their torches was the red crystal that Naruto had touched flashing brightly before sinking into the ground.

After several minutes of more walking, with all three members of the squad wondering where the heck the new route was taking them, the group then stumbled upon something worrisome. It was something that had the jinchuriki glare.

"Damn."

Three tunnels leading in different directions.

Looking between them and down their glowing pits lit by the crystals, Sasuke attempted to gauge where each of them led. Deciding to help him out, Naruto produced several clones and sent them down the various paths, leaving the trio to wait.

Being the more memorable of them, Sakura decided to mark their stopping point so that they knew they'd proceeded forward from this break off. If this turned out to be a gerbil in a maze sort of deal, then she needed to be prepared to guide them down the right paths, even with the help of Naruto's clones. The white fox seated on the kunoichi's shoulder let out a yawn at how eventless things were becoming for them, with both Naruto and Sakura finding a place up against a different wall while their Uchiha teammate remained standing at the junction, hands in his pockets and glaring down each route.

Eventually, after another half an hour of waiting and Sakura drawing various pictures in the ground with a stick, Naruto's head perked up and he looked towards the tunnels. Rising to his feet he then stopped beside his still standing teammate and pointed down each channel in turn.

"That one leads us out on the far side, basically taking us back the way we came, with several more branching out and leading to dead ends," the jinchuriki informed before pointing towards the one on the right. "That one leads us further down and out another way… and there's a sheer drop into a molten pit. There is a path around it, but it basically takes us back in the opposite direction. Not good enough." By this time Sakura had joined them, and she listened to Naruto point up the middle. "This one will take us forward down several routes. I think we may want to go that way…"

"Why?" Sasuke asked.

"There's something you've got to see," Naruto said, immediately taking point.

When they watched the blonde swagger down the path ahead of them, Sakura and Sasuke looked at one another with concerned expressions in play before shortly afterwards following him. They knew full well their more excitable teammate was more than easily sidetracked, even by the smallest of things. However, they learned a while back that out of any real situation that required logic and reason, they could always trust his gut. The teen had this peculiar way of ending up in either the most impossible situation imaginable or a situation where he wound up solving everything and ending up on the other side victorious. Whether it was by luck or sheer skill they had no idea. In Naruto's case, that line was extremely blurred.

They weren't going to be able to stop him anyway, so they decided to go along with his instinct.

Eventually the rest of squad seven quickly found out what had had their jinchuriki teammate so excited when they suddenly stumbled upon the mother of all chambers. Exiting the tunnel they were following into what could only be described as the central hub of the anthill, the trio discovered a massive room filled with crystals, stalactites and various other entrances to tunnels leading to different parts of the mountain. There was even a huge Buddha statue sitting right in the middle, with four heads and extra sets of arms, with fingers pointing down varying lines of sight. It was chipped and falling to pieces, but it was still a magnificent showpiece.

"I think it's safe to say that's not a natural cave formation," Naruto said while nodding toward the Buddha lamely.

"No duh," Sakura murmured, the team moving forward while looking over the various tunnel exits dotting the chamber around them. There were dozens of cavern entrances, all of them on different levels and all of them leading to different parts of the mountain. It was a miracle that they even made it this far with such an enormous and randomized network making up the underground structure. "I'm assuming the one we want is straight ahead."

"Just to be safe," Sasuke spoke, looking back at the one they'd come from, "We'd better check all of them. Naruto…"

"Right on it," the jinchuriki exclaimed before forming his trademark hand seal.

However, before Naruto or the others could do anything to follow up on their investigation, the group suddenly heard the sound of rocks being kicked and the telltale scraping of feet along a hard surface. The sound echoing around the chamber had the trio look over their shoulder toward the giant Buddha statue. When they did, the team's eyes widened when they suddenly saw a shadow step out from behind the construct, the hand of the silhouette pressed up against the cold rock and their form slumped over. It took one hard look and Sakura preparing a weapon to throw in case it turned out to be something hostile that the group saw it was a kunoichi from one of the other teams.

It wasn't any kunoichi either. The snake pattern pants, green vest, and long black hair now no longer tied by a ribbon were identifiable traits of the girl from the Otogakure team. However, unlike the perfect condition she'd started the test out with, she was now not only covered in dirt, serious cuts and bruises, she was also riddled with what looked like spear wounds, like she had been shot repeatedly but the attacks hadn't gone straight through, except for one large hole in her right shoulder. She was covered in blood, some trickling down her face and blinding her right eye. Not only was she trying to support herself on shaky legs, but she was also breathing heavily and wore an expression that conveyed nothing but fear.

Naruto blinked in shock when he caught the look she wore. She was absolutely terrified.

Through a blurry vision, the raven haired girl saw the team turn to her and staggered forward, hand dragging along the statue's side and leaving bloody prints. "H-Help me… please…" Stumbling several steps more, she let out a pained groan before suddenly keeling forward.

In the blink of an eye Naruto caught her, allowing her form to rest in his arms. Checking her wounds, the jinchuriki looked up at his teammates to also see them looking down at them in shock. "She's hurt bad guys."

"What told you that? The fact that she was limping? That she's covered in puncture wounds? That she's soaked in blood?" Sasuke asked, walking forward before he was quickly overtaken by Sakura rushing over to kneel next to them.

Placing a hand over the huge gap in her shoulder, the pink haired kunoichi glanced across at Naruto, startled, "What the hell could have done this to her? I've never seen injuries like this before." She eased a finger around one of them, and found to her surprise that the size was a perfect fit for a finger through it.

But… that was impossible…

Was she nearly stabbed to death by a finger?

Just as Naruto and Sakura were beginning to tend to her wounds, Naruto's head snapped up when he sensed something suddenly emerge from the dead spots of the volcano and into the very room.

A second later, a flicker of light caught Sasuke's eye from his peripherals and the Uchiha acted in alarm. "GUYS, MOVE!" He leapt straight into the air while the other two dove to the sides, moving just in time to avoid the barrage of kunai that impaled the ground. The Uchiha slid to a stop in the direction his team had previously been moving, with his companions quickly coming to flank him and face the tunnel that the attack had come from.

In the blink of an eye, three shadows leapt out of the darkness and landed in front of them. Eris let out a growl in alarm at the sight of the enemy, who rose to their feet in sync to glare back at the Konoha rookies.

Sakura frowned, "Who the hell are you?" From the looks of their garb and the headbands they were wearing, they were Genin from Iwagakure.

The kunoichi in the center was a girl with short black hair, dark eyes, and a firm, athletic figure, wearing a dark red top with a long sleeve covering her left arm, same color pants, sandals, and a grey vest with a pouch at her side. She was about the same height as Sakura. On her left stood a big, burly boy with a bandana and headband, bulbous nose, wearing an armor brown vest with no top underneath, dark red pants, with a long yellow scarf wrapped around his neck and trailing behind him. The other person was a kunoichi as well, wearing a long robe similar in material and color to the tops worn by her partners, with two extra long sleeves stretching down past her waist, white armor vest, and a wide straw hat with a wooden lantern similar to one you'd find in a garden on top. It was lit, casting a shadow over a fair face framed by short, dark blue hair.

The lead kunoichi with black hair smirked as she placed a hand on her hip, "We're the competition girl, or did you forget that you're still in the Chunin Selection Exams?"

Sasuke, glancing back at the fox on Sakura's shoulder as well as the girl Naruto was carrying in his arms, took stock of their condition before focusing back on the trio. "Listen, we don't want any trouble…"

That was a first.

The big boy carrying their client on his own shoulder, a possum, smiled, "Neither do we."

"Which is why we've decided to take you guys down before running the rest of the way to the finish line," the black haired girl replied, before pointing straight at the genius, who flinched when her eyes fixed onto him. "You're Sasuke, right; the last surviving member of the Uchiha clan?"

The boy in question frowned as he activated his Sharingan, tomoes spinning into view, "So what if I am?"

"Oh, this is going to be sweet," the girl exclaimed while cracking her knuckles. "I've been looking for an interesting challenge in this game and you're just the one who's going to give it to me." She then smirked at the entire team. "My name's Kurotsuchi. The big guy is Akatsuchi and the girl with the lantern on her head is Shirotsuchi. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Charmed," Sasuke murmured rather distastefully. After all this time trying to avoid getting into a serious fight, it was no surprise to see how unenthusiastic he was about confronting a team so close to the finish line. "Unfortunately, we don't have time to be dealing with you three. We have a client to escort safely and a girl who's badly injured, so I'm afraid I'm going to have to pass up on this challenge."

Kurotsuchi grinned, "You're acting like you don't want to do this."

"Yeah," Sasuke nodded, "Because I don't."

"Neither do I," Naruto murmured. Seriously, the kunoichi he was holding needed help. He didn't care if he wanted to fight them or not, he just wanted to get the hell out of there.

Hell he was actually more worried about the thing that did this to the poor girl than anything else, and they were being challenged by what he assumed was a strong team. This was saying something.

"Sorry kid, but you don't get a choice here," Kurotsuchi snapped her fingers to her right, "Shiro!"

The girl she shouted at smirked and threw both arms out. Sleeves flying back, she then slapped her hands together and flipped through hand seals, before suddenly slamming them into the ground, "One party favor coming right up, chief! Yoton: Tokudai Numa Kyandoru!" (Lava Release: Huge Candle Swamp) The moment she spoke the incantation, jets of thick white sludge suddenly burst out from the ground beside her and flooded towards Team 7 in the form of approaching waves.

Not knowing what the hell that was, all three teens bailed out by leaping straight into the air and onto the statue, dodging the thick substance stretching up to grab them but watching it miss them by a few feet. When they landed on the arms of the statue, they saw the sea of what they judged from the smell was wax crawl to a stop around the Buddha, where they then saw bumps stick out with candle ends burning.

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "That's a nice trick."

Not waiting for them to make another move, Sakura pitched a cluster of kunai with explosive tags attached to the ends down at the team.

Kurotsuchi immediately responded by slamming her fist into the ground, which erected massive slabs of stone that suddenly encompassed all three of them. The knives struck one after the other before detonating simultaneously with concussive force. When the smoke and fire eventually died down, the cracked earth barriers then sunk back into the earth from whence they'd came, with Kurotsuchi holding her ground and her kunoichi partner finishing flying through another combination of seals.

"Yoton: Tajuu Doru Chokoku Mori!" (Lava Release: Multiple Wax Sculpture Harpoons) Shirotsuchi then slammed her foot into the ground, in which the swamp of wax she'd laid out on the floor suddenly began shooting up in spears, which began impaling the massive statue straight through to the other sides and forcing Team 7 to move out of the way as their position was reduced to rubble.

While in flight and dodging debris with Kin in his arms, Naruto suddenly felt a shadow come over him and looked up in alarm to see the big member of the enemy team plummeting towards him.

"Look out!" Akatsuchi grinned.

"Shit!" the jinchuriki cursed, realizing the guy must have made a clone under the barrier and sent it up onto a higher level while the smoke from the exploding tags was still in the air.

Just as the still descending Naruto was turning to counter the coming blow with a kick, Sasuke suddenly darted between them and kicked the attacker's fist out of the way first, allowing his teammate to descend safely.

Naruto and Sakura landed together closer to the exit tunnels while Sasuke, still suspended in the air and clashing with his opponent, slammed another kick into the Akatsuchi clone right in the chest, sending it plummeting straight into the wax swamp where it crashed with a loud bang. The Uchiha used the momentum from his blow to fall the rest of the way down and land with a light tap.

"Thanks a lot, teme," Naruto nodded gratefully.

"Just focus on keeping the girl safe," Sasuke shot back, pulling out a kunai and taking it into a firm grip while the Iwa team members circled to face them fully again. "We'll get out of here soon."

Kurotsuchi grinned and flipped through seals, "You're not planning on running away are you?" She finished and brought her hand to hover over her mouth. "Don't insult me. I've worked hard to get this far as a ninja and I'm not letting my best chance for the perfect skill test slip through my fingers."

Sasuke had already worked through his own hand seals to counter the water technique that was coming. "Though I'm flattered at your insistence, I'm afraid I'm going to have to continue to decline your challenge."

However, just before any more techniques could be thrown and just as the clash between the two squads was beginning to escalate, a loud rumbling sound suddenly echoed throughout the great hall the two teams were occupying, followed shortly by a violent tremor. Feeling their foundations tremble and bits of rock start to fall from the ceiling, both squads broke off from their engagement and began looking around in confusion. The feeling of a growing heat followed shortly by an eerie orange light from the tunnels behind the statue had all of them glance in that general direction. When they did, eyes literally bugged out from sockets all around when the six kids unexpectedly saw boiling hot lava suddenly start spilling out of the tunnels and begin crawling towards them… FAST.

REALLY FAST!

"Oh dear," Akatsuchi exclaimed.

"Shit! We need to get out! NOW!" Sakura shrieked, not really caring that the Iwa team that they had been fighting had backed into them.

Now mixed in with one another and retreating from the fast approaching molten rock starting to surround them, the teams then turned to look at the various tunnels not spitting magma.

"Fuck! Which way do we go?" Kurotsuchi asked.

"That one!" Naruto shouted, pointing towards an entrance up a level, "Take that one?"

Shirotsuchi turned to him while sweating profusely, "Are you sure?"

"NO! JUST GO!" Naruto yelled, making sure he had Kin safely secured before jumping straight up. The other teams wasted no time and jumped after him, not even looking back to see the hot wax become consumed in magma and the giant Buddha statue collapse into it. Seconds later, more lava began bubbling out of the tunnels and started filling it like sauce in a bowl at an alarming rate. The chamber was brimmed in seconds.

Well, at least Sasuke and Sakura had been on to something about their teammate's unpredictability…

He really did lead them into shit storms when he didn't want to…

OOO

Meanwhile…

Kiba was baffled.

He and Akamaru had been attacking the orange haired girl who'd just appeared out of nowhere on the rock for the past half hour or so. After assessing her strength from a distance, he and Shino concluded that her chakra level was on a whole other level in contrast to their own. But when she invited them to try and take her down, and literally presented them with an opening by saying she would just sit there until she'd had enough, the Inuzuka leapt at the chance. However, when it seemed like he was going to secure a quick and easy win over a seemingly vulnerable foe, his confidence gradually started to slide.

It was gradual for a simple fact. As a member of the Inuzuka clan, Kiba specialized in close range fighting; utilizing an aggressive fighting style in tandem with his partner to deliver powerful and vicious attacks from two sides. By gauging an opponent's scent and honing in on it, there was no way for a target to escape once a beacon was slapped over them. Despite Akamaru's fear of the individual, Kiba was determined to follow through on his plan and bring the girl down no matter what it took.

However, the moment he started dealing out attacks that would have rendered an ordinary person mauled to the point of bleeding to death, Kiba found that none of his physical attacks were working.

Before anyone started jumping to conclusions, no; he wasn't missing or anything like that. All of his attacks were landing dead on with his target, which was still remaining perfectly stationary on her boulder with her legs crossed and her head resting on her hand and elbow propped up on her leg. The problem wasn't that she was blocking or resisting any of his attacks… it was that every single one of Kiba's blows passed right through her like she wasn't even there. It wasn't an illusion. She was physically there. They knew this because she had a shadow and interacted with every environmental change, not to mention Kiba, Hinata and Shino could all sense she was sitting there. The thing was that nothing physical meant to inflict damage upon her was even touching her.

Her body was phasing through all of the boy's attacks. What's more, she continued to wear that all-knowing smile on her face as she let the Inuzuka have at her.

Kiba stood in front of her looking absolutely bewildered. He'd hit her with everything so far; taijutsu, kunai, shuriken, explosive tags, even both variations of his Gatsuga, but none of them were working. Frustration and exhaustion overcoming him, the boy leapt back and took another stance, his partner continuing to growl across at their stoic foe.

"What the hell is going on?" Kiba asked, shaking his head, "None of my attacks are landing. Why?"

Tsubaki chuckled, "Are you done already?" she asked, seeing the Inuzuka flinch and grit his teeth. The girl grinned pleasantly, "You look a little tired. Want to take a break and try again?"

"Y-You," Kiba growled while his fists tightened.

Looking just as surprised as his teammates, Shino stepped forward in alarm, "Kiba! Don't get frustrated. Step back and reconsider your situation."

"Fuck that!" Kiba growled, pointing at the orange haired girl staring at them, "I've had enough of this bitch! I'm going to wipe that arrogant smirk off her face and stomp all over her!"

"Then by all means, try," Tsubaki chirped.

Taking that as another challenge, Kiba ducked low and charged forward along with Akamaru. His companion leapt onto his shoulder while he lunged straight at the girl, claws bared and his right reared back for a devastating strike. Like a samurai, he ran right through her with his nails cutting like blades through the air. However, when he was sure he would be able to land a hit on her, his attack instead passed right through her for the hundredth time, leaving no signs of damage whatsoever. As he passed her, Kiba looked over his shoulder in shock, where he met the girl's sharp eyes following after him.

"N-No way…"

Tsubaki grinned, "I thought we went through this already. You can't touch me."

Kiba slid to a stop, spinning around across the grass to glare back at his opponent. However, when it appeared he was about to go in for another attack, Tsubaki's eyes were suddenly drawn ahead to see a swarm of insects crawling toward her along the ground and were now beginning to encompass her.

Looking up, the kunoichi saw that it was Shino who was sending them after her, his hand on the ground and thousands of beetles pouring out of his sleeve to attack.

"Oh, an Aburame?" the girl exclaimed brightly. "If I'm not mistaken, you're from that clan of bug users that controls insects capable of feeding off of people's chakra. I see…" She grinned at him, "So you used your friend's attack as an opening to surround me when my attention was focused elsewhere. You would then have your little friends swarm when I had nowhere else to go, and drain me of my energy. That's a good plan and all… but…" Raising her free hand, making it her first actual move the entire fight, Tsubaki then flicked her index finger in the air. When it first seemed like nothing had happened, Shino, Hinata and Kiba then looked on in surprise when the army of beetles encircling the girl suddenly retreated before quickly returning to their host, startling the user. "I'm not someone who would fall prey to an attack of that level so easily."

Shino waited until all of his friends had returned to him before looking up in astonishment, "She chased them away? How did she do that?" Whatever she did, he could feel all of the insects inside of him were skittish. They did not like the chakra signature she was giving off, which had the Aburame worry. "My insects can consume any and all types of chakra, no matter how volatile it may be. What kind of monster is she to be able to force a swarm of my kikaichu away?"

Pondering on it a little more, Shino then realized his bugs had picked up something before retreating to their host.

It was strange, because he hadn't felt a sensation like this before, at least not targeted directly at him. His insects weren't driven off because of the chakra they sensed coming off of their target. No, it had been something else. It was something static, something that was causing the colony dwelling inside of him to jitter and row… something in the air that had scared them.

Whatever it was, it was quite clear that it was the girl responsible for the strange phenomenon.

Hinata, becoming increasingly concerned in the threat posed by their opponent, laid the otter she was carrying on the ground so that it could huddle up at Shino's legs. When she stood back up, she formed a few hand seals before opening her eyes. "Byakugan!" The veins that sprouted on either side of her head signaled the activation of her clan's bloodline ability, allowing her to get a better scope of what they were up against.

Her eyes widened when she saw just how much chakra was radiating off of the girl. "S-So much…" she whispered, getting Shino to look at her.

"What is it?"

"Th-This person's energy is off the charts. She has chakra radiating from every pore on her body like it's on fire. Not only that… but it is fluctuating ad infinitum… like there's a storm sitting inside of her," Hinata informed before narrowing her eyes. While this news didn't surprise Shino too much, it was what came next that had both him and Kiba wearier, "I don't know how to explain it, but it's almost like she's madeout of chakra."

Kiba frowned, glaring back at the girl who had now lowered her arm again, "That's impossible. Wouldn't that make her some kind of monster?"

Tsubaki looked back at him, "Hey. I may be a monster, but I still have feelings." It seemed like a contradiction, but the group wasn't too sure. All they knew was that this girl was just playing around with them.

If she was as strong as she was registering to the team, then she would have done away with them ages ago.

Seizing the opportunity, Hinata dashed forward with her palms held up in an offensive guard. Her tapping footsteps drew Tsubaki's focus ahead of her again, where she saw the dark haired girl rushing right at her with her eyes fixed and an intense look on her face. Gone was the previously timid girl's earlier visage, which was now replaced with one of determination. It was almost like she was responding to the absolute danger the Kiri kunoichi posed, which only served to have the smile on Tsubaki's face widen more in excitement.

"I will not back down!" Hinata thought furiously, her right palm pulled back for a straight. "I must be strong for my team! I-If I want to become as strong as Naruto-kun… to one day walk beside him… I must stand up and move forward!" Her inspiration was her idol, someone whom she cared deeply for.

This gave her all the strength she needed to launch her attack.

Seeing the blow coming, Tsubaki looked at the girl in interest, "A Hyuuga, huh? You're from the clan that is able to attack a person's internal organs and chakra network using the juken style?"

In the blink of an eye, just as Hinata's piercing right was converging on her target and threatening to cut her down, the Hyuuga was suddenly stopped dead in her tracks by an invisibly fast and powerful force. The loud thump that rang out caused the young attacker's eyes to widen as she looked up at the teen in front of her in shock. When she did, Hinata saw that not only had her attack been halted in mid-swing, but the kunoichi she had been targeting had also jumped to her feet and lifted her left foot to plant against her arm, preventing her blow from following-through.

Tsubaki smirked as she effortlessly held the girl's arm back with her leg. Hands in her pockets, she showed just how at ease she was even in the presence of a potentially lethal foe. "Your fighting style might be troublesome for me. Out of everyone in this entire exam, you're the only one who might be able to damage me. I'll be sure to end this quickly." The grin she wore had shivers run down Shino and Hinata's spines, which she then turned on the startled Kiba. "Sorry, but you've used up the last of your strikes."

The Inuzuka growled, "The hell we have!"

However, before any of them could mount any form of defense or attack, Tsubaki suddenly acted.

Using her same foot, the enemy kunoichi push-kicked Hinata away from her, sending the girl tumbling violently back towards Shino, who caught her in his arms. The power of the blow stunned the Hyuuga somewhat and, even though it didn't physically affect her, it did knock her guard down momentarily. Once she was clear of the clan heiress though, the Kiri kunoichi then rose up to full height and trained her attention onto Kiba.

The Inuzuka lowered himself into a wider stance while glaring up at the girl standing on the boulder, his intentions becoming absolutely clear as he prepared for an attack.

His feet readied themselves for a lunge, but just as Kiba was staring his foe down and expressions challenging her to a brawl, she suddenly vanished from his sight. Before either member of the team could even begin to react to her disappearance, the Inuzuka was unable to see the same girl moving in a completely different time frame reappear directly in front of him and swing a kick right into his face.

To Tsubaki, the whole world moved in super slow motion.

So slow in fact that it was practically standing still when she, with her hands still in her pockets, slammed a roundhouse kick with so much power into Kiba's mug that the boy and his companion were sent rocketing into the woods behind them, where they literally snapped several trees in two as they were sent plowing through them.

By the time the dust from the lightning fast blow started to settle, Shino and Hinata quickly realized what had happened and were now looking across at the attacker in bewilderment.

"H-How did she do that?" Hinata murmured.

"She's even faster than Kurenai-sensei," Shino said, absolutely dumbstruck at the display of raw speed.

Knowing she still had two more to deal with, Tsubaki looked across at the startled pair and smiled. She turned to face them completely and pulled her right hand out of her pocket. "It's clear that your friend has never been kicked at the speed of light before. When he wakes up, I'm sure his head will be spinning like a top."

Hinata and Shino took defensive stance when they saw the girl raise her hand. Their client, the small otter, whimpered when it suddenly felt waves of killing intent fall upon them.

Tsubaki grinned widely when she pointed her index finger at the pair. "You two are lucky. You'll be the first ones to ever have this technique used against you and live to tell about it." The tip of her finger suddenly started to glow a bright blue, before a flash of light suddenly shot out and blinded both of the Genin she was aiming at.

The entire area of woods was flooded with blue light, enveloping Shino and Hinata before wiping them out altogether.

"Raiton: Chō-Denjihō!"(Lightning Release: Super Electromagnetic Cannon)

In an instant, everything for Team 8 went black…

OOO

Meanwhile…

Inside the mountain…

"Neji, are you sure you know where we're going?" Tenten asked incredulously as the three found themselves in another junction, with a tunnel leading left and right from the one they'd just exited. "We couldn't get across that smoldering pit and instead of going around the long way you decide to cut across through this place instead? It's like we're trying to get ourselves lost."

"Relax Tenten," Neji replied, his Byakugan blazing as Lee, the kunoichi and himself entered the next passageway, where he directed them left and down. "I was able to see the entire network and where each of the entrances led from outside, so we should be able to get through this no problem."

"That's my eternal rival for you!" Lee exclaimed brightly as he balanced the tortoise on his head while grinning at the two beside him. He held up a fist in confidence, "Diligent and sharp-eyed as always. Neji's mighty doejutsu will lead us through this maze of deception and ensure our safe passage through it."

"I hope you're right Lee," the girl murmured.

"Do not worry Tenten. If anything should try to divert us or attempt to block our way, I shall defeat it with my own two hands," the taijutsu wonder added while pumping a clenched fist in front of him.

The kunoichi smiled towards the positively sparkling boy. She didn't know whether it was the crystals surrounding them or not, but there was no way that that could be considered a normal occurrence in and around a person. "I'm sure you will."

"I know I will," the teen replied while thumping his chest, "I just need to be focused."

Tenten giggled before shaking her head at him as they trudged along unimpeded, "It's simply astonishing how you can be so psyched twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. It makes me wish that I could have your level of confidence." There were two other people she knew who were exactly like that; their sensei Gai and Naruto. What was it about these people that made them so enthusiastic?

"I'm positive that you can, Tenten. All you have to do is embrace your passions and allow your flames of youth to take hold of you," the boy stated while clutching his hands together firmly. "It's really quite simple. I'll show you how to do it once we get out of here."

"Uhh… no thanks," Tenten exclaimed nervously. She'd seen what Gai and Lee did on a daily basis, so there was no way she was touching that offer even with one of her eight foot staffs. "I think I'll stick to my own way of mentally preparing myself for the day ahead. If I want to do this the right way, I want to do this on my own." Please buy it.

"Then I will do my best to support you," Lee cheered while making yet another pact; one which had Neji and Tenten groan silently to themselves, "If I fail in that mission to help my dearest comrade in building up her fervor, then I shall do two-thousand kicks to increase my own mental presence to help me succeed in my endeavor. If I am unable to do two-thousand kicks, then I will do three-thousand punches to inspire your development!"

Neji chuckled and shook his head. "It's an endless cycle with this guy." He remembered not too long ago he would have chastised his teammate for his exuberance and constant need to improve his skills in a heartbeat, but the genius learned recently to just accept his friend's weirdness at face value and to support him as a friend. After all, he'd had the privilege of fighting against someone who believed in the same thing as Lee did. It's what allowed him to question the idea of a fixed destiny and instead believe that a person could change their fates by facing it head on instead of allowing oneself to be dictated by it. He only had one person to thank for that. "Keep at it Lee. Just… try not to overindulge yourself. It could be more detrimental to your health than something that's meant to be beneficial…"

Lee nodded before saluting, "Roger!"

Processing Neji's words of wisdom, Tenten grinned and nudged him in the arm, "Good one."

He was able to quell the raging storm. Thank Kami…

However, just as they were continuing to slug down the tunnel at a comfortable pace, a low rumbling followed by the sound of fast approaching footsteps from behind caught the trio's attention. Stopping, the three turned around, only to quickly hug the walls when six teenagers suddenly came charging right at them screaming their heads off.

"Run! RUN!" Naruto shouted, being the first to pass Team Gai, all of whom stared after him with owlish expressions as he was also carrying another person with him.

"What?" Tenten exclaimed, shaking her head.

"Didn't you hear the bastard? RUN!" Kurotsuchi shouted, seconds until all of them had passed them, leaving a cloud of dust and a stunned group of kids behind.

"From what?" Neji asked, before he and the other two also looked down the tunnel they'd just come from.

When their eyes locked onto the far corner, they suddenly realized why they were running so fast when a bright orange glow followed by a wave of lava came charging down the corridor. The sight of the molten rock flooding towards them had all eyes of the older team widen before they turned heel and sprinted after the other squads freaking the fuck out.

"RUN!" Tenten yelled.

"Right!" Lee cried out, making sure to hang on tightly to the tortoise now secured in his arms. "WAIT FOR US, NARUTO-KUN!"

Within seconds Team Gai was right behind the other two, who were now ducking and weaving through the one tunnel, while avoiding moving off down another. It was a good thing they did too, because as soon as they ran past those tunnels, more lava started spewing out. The fumes and the magma basically funneled them out down the linear path as they shot straight down the crystal lined hallways, searching for the exit… ANY exit!

The last thing all of them wanted to become was a petrified corpse encased in magma in the center of the earth.

After darting down corridors as a group one after the other with Naruto in the lead, the signs of light at the end of their tunnel came within sight and, without needing a second glance, went for it. Light meant sky. Sky meant freedom. Freedom meant not having to die in this fucking gerbil maze.

"An exit! There!" Naruto shouted.

"Don't stop! Just go, dobe!" Sasuke yelled, also sounding desperate.

If they were to look back, they could see lava still thundering toward them in waves.

Naruto reached the entrance before anybody else, the darkness opening up to sunlight of a drawing afternoon. It would be a few milliseconds later that the boy realized that the tunnel opened up to nothing but a slab of rock for a ledge and a steep cliff leading down the side of the mountain. It was a straight, vertical drop than a slide, which the blonde didn't feel like doing with his body and hit the brakes. With Kin in his arms, the jinchuriki slid to an abrupt halt right at the edge, yelling in shock when he nearly went over and quickly shifting his momentum back.

His friends were right on his tail, all of them sliding to a stop like he did and sandwiching the ledge. Like dominoes they slammed into Naruto's and each others' backs one after the other. First Sasuke, then Kurotsuchi, then Sakura, then Akatsuchi, Lee, Neji, Shirotsuchi, and Tenten shortly afterwards, all of them grunting when they were forced to a stop and nearly knocked the blonde over. Naruto was actually forced to hang onto the edge with chakra.

Bits of the stone slab crumbled over the side and cascaded down the slope below, leaving the jinchuriki sweating bullets at nearly being sent plummeting to his doom and the animals each of the teams were transporting to stare in awe.

Panting heavily, the sandwiched groups stared over the side silently, frozen, before they all breathed out at once.

"That was close," Akatsuchi exclaimed.

"I can't take much more of this," Shirotsuchi.

"Keep it together everyone. We're almost there," Lee exclaimed, trying to sound positive despite the mass of bodies pressing up against one another.

"Yeah… well, thank Kami blondie up front stopped or we would have all gotten 'there' several seconds early," Kurotsuchi spoke up, earning nods of agreement from Neji and Sasuke.

Tenten, having the sense to look back, widened her eyes when she saw the orange glow radiating out of the tunnel. "Uhh, guys… I don't think we're out of this yet."

Her words of warning and tone had everyone look over their shoulder. When they did, they saw that the lava was still fast approaching, getting all of them to tense up. As if on cue, a loud cracking suddenly drew their attention down to the base of the ledge they were all standing on, where all of them saw a large split take form and run along the face of the rock, causing bits to fall away and the chunk they were on to tremble. When the crack eventually ran around the entire slab and the group felt the ledge they were on jerk downwards violently, they knew right then and there that a fall was eminent, as their foundation was steadily giving way.

Eris whimpered, while the possum wrapped around Akatsuchi's shoulder snapped worryingly.

Kurotsuchi gulped before looking forward again, "Uhh… fellas… we have a bit of a…" With one final crack of large stone breaking away, the entire ledge suddenly dropped and all three teams fell, "PROBLEEEEEEEEEEM!"

Miraculously, the ledge they were on skidded down the steep slope before suddenly flattening out and beginning to careen down the side of the mountain like a toboggan, carrying all three groups down a trail forged by nature at a ridiculous speed. At the exact same time the makeshift sled began sliding down the slant, the tunnel they had previously been standing at began ejecting lava like a geyser spraying boiling water into the air. The molten rock began thundering down the same path they were following as if the liquefied earth was following a slide, sticking right behind them as the stone toboggan carried the groups down towards the bottom of the mountain.

Were the start of the ride a lot smoother and if they weren't so caught off guard, the teams would have seen another gorge sitting right in their path several hundred meters down, as well as the tower that was their finish line sitting far on the other side.

That was not the case unfortunately, and within seconds the three teams started screaming in terror as they slipped and slid down the mountain on a route that would surely lead them to their deaths if this hell didn't kill them first.

They moved so fast down the volcano that they left a cloud of speed dust in their wake, with every individual team member crouching low on the rock and holding on for dear life as stalagmites and woodland on both sides zipped passed them in a blur.

As they skidded around random turns and over various bumps down the rocky slope, the only person out of all the terrified participants who was laughing right now was Naruto, who while holding onto the severely injured Kin, cheered and cried out in excitement as their super fast raft carried them right to the bottom.

At the same time, he provided in-flight commentary that several of the others quickly went along with.

"Ladies and gentlemen, please restore your seats to the upright position!" Naruto shouted as they hop scotched over several more mounds before making a hard turn on a funnel. "Assume the crash position and hope you don't smell your socks!"

Tenten immediately followed up, "Tray tables up!"

"And put away your sandwiches!" Lee shouted.

"TURBULENCE!" Akatsuchi and Shirotsuchi bellowed in unison.

"NARUTO!" Sakura screamed when their ride took another hard turn and sent them flying through the air before beginning to slide at high speed again, "IF WE DIE RIGHT NOW, I WILL FUCKING KILL YOU!"

"We're going to die anyway, Sakura-chan!" Naruto yelled back before letting out another laugh when they flew past stalagmites that chipped away at their ride. They clipped several more before flying down another drop, with everyone on board crying out in terror. "Just go with it! Live in the moment! YEAAAAAAHHH!" He roared at the end.

As they dodged and zipped past obstacle after obstacle, the lava splashing down the same mountain face after them cascaded over the exact same routes they took. The molten rock smothered the land it crossed and burned everything in sight, falling behind as the toboggan the group of teenagers was riding blasted along.

Eventually, the sled came upon the final gorge, the very last obstacle that would be the thinning out of the rest of the competition. Due to the speed the toboggan had built up and the fact that the mountain only leveled out right at the very edge of the damn thing, the squads knew instantly that a short fall and a crash-landing would be their end.

Good bye cruel world and good bye opportunity to become Chunin.

However, this was not to be. Just as it seemed like their fates were sealed and their lives were forfeited, their toboggan suddenly hit a dip right at the edge of the canyon that, instead of sending them plummeting into the ravine, sent them flying right over and onto the other side. They skipped across the ground from there, more and more of their limestone transport filing away before they began sliding down the bumpy road all the way down to the tower at the end of the Boiling Lands.

Hell, the gradient of the valley that remained before them allowed them to see the ocean as the rest of their surroundings were blurred and made out of focus.

Several minutes of bone-rattling hell later, and the toboggan coached to a stop. When the dust settled to the ground, marking the end of their ride, it revealed three whole teams perched on the same raft, frozen in horror with wide eyes and all of them literally clutching at the stone monolith that had carried them a good several kilometers down the most impossible terrain imaginable for dear life.

Not only was everyone completely shaken up, but Neji, Kurotsuchi and Sakura had their nails literally digging into the slab of stone that they'd been holding onto with chakra.

Naruto, being the most composed, looked back up the mountain to see thick, black smoke rising from its side as the lava spewing out of the one face flowed safely down over the gorge they'd just passed. After a minute or so of regaining his bearings, the boy holding the girl to him grinned before looking at the squads that had ventured down the same slope on the same transport with him.

"AWESOME! Let's do that again!" he exclaimed.

He was then pacified by Sakura lifting her right fist up and nailing him right on top of his head, slamming him into the ground with a dull thud. Sasuke, after pushing himself up onto his hands and knees, tried to reestablish proper equilibrium, but then turned a shade of green and puked off camera.

Managing to drop back onto solid ground while holding her head, Tenten looked up to see the tower they were supposed to head to only several meters away. It was a traditionally designed structure with an archway entrance and several smaller buildings surrounding it. Because of how it was isolated, she concluded that it not only acted as a beacon during the exams hosted here but also as an outpost. Truly: multi-purposing at its finest.

Staggering forward, the nauseous girl made her way over to the gate where two Chunin could be seen standing. While everyone else on the stone slab was recovering and stumbling about out what could only be described as jelly thanks to their terrifying fall, Tenten came to a stop in front of the two guards to see them looking up at the erupting volcano in surprise.

Clearly the pair of officials had never expected a whole bunch of kids to suddenly come shooting out of a mountain now spewing volcanic earth out of its side and leap clear over the gorge that was meant to be their final obstacle. In all their years of being Chunin or whatever, Tenten assumed from their expressions that they had never seen such a thing occur before, as it defied all logical sense and reason.

The kunoichi waved weakly at the two men when they looked down at her, "Uhh… hi. Umm…" She looked back at the teams to see Neji fall flat on his face before Sakura and Lee helped hoist him up. Ignoring them, Tenten looked back, "Give it to us straight. How badly did we screw up?"

Looking at each other, the Chunin to her left smiled before pulling out his clipboard, "Actually, you guys are only a few minutes behind the first team to get here. This places your squads in second, third and fourth … if you were able to escort your clients here safely and all of your teammates are intact."

"Oh good," Tenten nodded with a smile.

Well that was a relief. And here she thought they'd all done something wrong by coming in at the same time.

Neji and Lee managed to stagger over, with the latter carrying the tortoise in his arms. Showing them the number on its back, the Chunin with the clipboard marked it off before allowing them to pass before the rookies from Konohagakure stepped forward. Eris was still sitting comfortably on Sakura's shoulders, and judging from the cuts in her clothing from the animal's claws the poor thing had been scared out of her wits. Thankfully they were all in one piece, save for their clothes that had steadily been deteriorating thanks to their trips past the acid fields.

The Chunin counted each of the members before then noticing the girl Naruto was carrying. The one on the left noticed her headband and pointed at her, "Hey. She's not on your team. What happened?"

Naruto stepped forward quickly and held her up a little more, the girl unconsciously resting her head against his shoulder, "We found her inside the tunnels. She's badly wounded. Can you help her?"

The man bent over and checked her condition. Looking at her injuries, the proctor cringed before nodding, "Take her into the waiting room. I'll have a medical team take her up to the sick bay." He then got on the com in his ear and forwarded the information to the next party of interest.

Ticking off their names, the Chunin with the clipboard ushered them in.

While they were going through, Sasuke suddenly felt a tug on his shoulder and turned around, where he saw Kurotsuchi and her team glaring across at him. The rest of Team 7 did the same, and when all eyes turned to face the antagonistic group they'd encountered inside the mountain, they saw the lead kunoichi smirk, "You guys are a good squad. Since you not only had to watch over your client but protect an injured person as well… I can see why you didn't want to fight with us back there."

Sasuke blinked as he looked back before allowing a smirk of his own to cross his face, "Maybe next time we'll be able to fight properly and see how strong you three really are." He had to admit, the Iwa chick could really throw some heavy duty shit.

The girl smirked while looking around at all of them, seeing Sakura's curious gaze and the smile on Naruto's face, which also got her to grin brightly and step back into line to continue jotting her name down with the Chunin. "I'd like that. Guess I'll be seeing you guys in the next round."

With pleasantries made and no hard feelings maintained, Team 7 then moved on into the tower, not knowing what to expect when they got there.

OOO

Some hours later…

The waiting room at the base of the tower the squads found themselves in was, to put it bluntly, just your basic cafeteria really, with some potted plants sitting here and there and a vending machine or two also thrown up against the walls. The teams that did arrive there first had spread themselves out across the room and were basically keeping to themselves. Neither one of them tried to make eye contact with the other for fear of breaking the mood that they had set. Even those from the same village wanted to give each other a little room to breathe after the ordeal they'd been pushed through.

After arriving at the actual tower, the Chunin guarding it informed them that no fighting was to take place there, and that they were to remain in it until the three days had passed. This pretty much gave them all the time they needed to rest and recuperate from the long, grueling, spirit hazing period that saw some of them shaken to the core.

Regardless of their feelings about the whole situation, those groups that arrived here at virtually the same time couldn't help but shoot a few glances towards the one squad that had arrived here before them.

The Kirigakure team, the group that Kabuto warned the rookies earlier to stay the hell away from because of the overwhelming stats he managed to snag about them. It was kind of odd that a mereKonohagakure Genin knew so much about the exams as well as the people in it. The material and information he acquired hinted at an experience level far greater than a senior, low level ninja. Odd.

Anyhow, those three that actually came in first in this competition were sitting over by the table eating. The only member of their group who wasn't was the orange haired girl, who'd taken to leaning against the wall beside a vending machine drinking a soda. While their presence didn't affect the others too much, it was the fact that neither one of them had a single scratch, bruise nor smidge of grime on their person that did. The entire squad from Kiri looked just like how they started this thing; in perfect condition.

What the hell? Even the Iwagakure team from before didn't look as good and they got there at the exact same time as Team 7 and Team Gai. How good were they to avoid even the slightest scuffle?

Worrying too much over it didn't really do anything for Sasuke and Sakura right now. Since they had little to no idea of what they were capable of, they chose to leave them alone afterwards and focused on other, important things. They were starving, and thanks to the circumstances presented there was no way they were passing out on a meal here.

The Uchiha managed to grab some steamed buns from the cafeteria, while Sakura went for some yakisoba. The pair ate across from one another in relative silence, all the while looking around the waiting room for anything of interest. All the while, it didn't escape their notice that their other teammate wasn't there, obviously worrying about the kunoichi from the other village that they knew nothing about but he was especially worried for, and had taken up to the medical bay.

"In one day…" Sakura stated with a smile, looking across at her teammate fondly, "In one day we managed to get to the other side of a landscape that should have killed us… and in third place to boot…"

Sasuke smirked confidently as he took a sip of tea, "It means we're ready to become Chunin."

"Yeah. I wouldn't want to go through this ordeal again," Sakura sighed, rubbing the side of her head as she picked at the noodles on her plate. "This was awful. And to think that there are still teams out there that now need to get past not just that final stretch over the mountain, but now an active, volcanic area still spewing lava out from its side."

"You know what I think," Sasuke said, looking up at the girl to see her focus shift to him again, "I think that the people who designed this year's exam actually set that mountain to erupt when people passed through into the tunnels." The firmness he said this with had the kunoichi in front of him blink in surprise, getting him to shrug and pick up another bun from his plate. "How else were they going to thin out the rest of the competition? They intentionally pushed teams through an impossible wilderness and set up traps along the way to either take them out or to test their nerve. Just like with the tunnels; they wanted to trap teams inside that mountain to either kill them off or force them to think for a way out of there."

"Well… I don't think the proctors expected three of the teams participating to actually link up, run like scared mice through the maze and out the other side to nearly toboggan down the slope to their deaths," Sakura exclaimed, making the motions to emphasize their near suicidal run. She then groaned and rested her head on her hand, "My head is still spinning from that. How the hell did we even survive?"

"Let's just be grateful that we made it here in one piece," Sasuke murmured, taking a bite out of the food in his hand.

"If we don't become Chunin after this, I'm going to murder somebody," Sakura growled, taking noodles up on her fork and devouring it in a fit.

Just like before, the genius could only agree with her wholeheartedly. Together, as a team, squad seven was proving itself to be a force to be reckoned with out there on the field. As jagged as some of their dynamics were and as strange as a lot of its members came off, all their faults and dissimilarities actually made them more complete than any other team out there.

It was a miracle they hadn't fallen apart yet. Perhaps it was their weirdness and personality quirks as a whole that managed to keep the team together.

While she was eating, Sakura then looked down at the seat beside her where she saw the white fox they had escorted all the way here asleep from the day's events. Breathing lightly with her head resting on her arms, the kunoichi smiled sweetly before scratching Eris on the head. Before she could say anything else regarding their tired client, a cold chill suddenly drew both her and Sasuke's attention to the door, where they saw a team from Sunagakure march into their midst.

The pair blinked when they got a good look at the three; a boy with red hair carrying a gourd on his back, a taller, older one wearing black garb with face paint, and a girl with golden hair tied into four pony tails and a massive war fan folded on her back. The trio looked around the room curiously before marching over to a table on the far end.

In doing so, the three of them passed by both Sasuke and Sakura, who froze when they saw the boy with the gourd glance at them and shoot rays of killing intent that nearly had them choking. They shivered and broke out into a sweat through the few seconds they had of being in such close proximity of the Genin, before watching him and his teammates pass them completely and move on to their chosen seats.

Once they were gone and well out of ear shot, Sakura nearly collapsed onto the table in front of her, hands clenched tightly and sweat dripping down her chin, "W-What the hell was that?"

Breathing deeply, Sasuke wiped the sweat from his own face before glancing back at the Suna group, watching them all take a seat, "I don't know."

Whatever the hell that was, it wasn't friendly. Not at all. It almost felt like an entity of fathomless power and presence just strolled past them. What kind of boy or monster was capable of radiating such intensity?

Not only that… but didn't Naruto talk with those guys before?

Shit. Maybe he pissed them off somehow and that kid was onto them.

Sakura gulped when she too spared the group a glance, "Now I'm starting to worry about what this third test is going to be."

"Don't," Sasuke stated, glaring back at her firmly. "If we show these guys even an inch, they'll walk all over us. Don't give them a reason to scare you off." After coming this far, they had to keep it together if they were going to get through to the end. The Uchiha was determined to do this, not just for his own ambition but for the benefit of his team.

Hearing this had the kunoichi nod affirmatively, before trying to return to her meal.

For some obvious reason, she didn't feel hungry anymore…

"Oh… crap," Sakura cursed.

"What?" Sasuke asked.

The girl looked up at the boy with a grimace, "I totally forgot about the race we were having with the other team? They walked through the gates before us."

Remembering the bet as well, Sasuke looked back down at his bowl, "Don't say anything. Maybe they'll have forgotten about it too…"

Doubt it…

TO BE CONTINUED…

---

Author's Note: And that's the second stage done. I hope you guys enjoyed it. I sure as hell did.

Just if you're wondering, I was inspired from the Code Geass episode when everyone was stuck on that island and there was that scene at the waterfall with Kallen in it, which helped me to write the Naruto and Samui segment. Samui has taken much more interest in Naruto for his strengths and skills, and they've developed a strong liking and respect of one another. I've also always wanted to write that last sequence when the three teams were going down the mountain on a makeshift toboggan and I think I pulled it off really well. Try and guess what movie I got that from.

The Kiri Team is sure getting quite a bit of attention, not to mention they're fast in two different ways. Gaara isn't the only threat the participants in the exam have to worry about. It's something that Naruto will later address in the next chapter when he finds out from Kin about the person who fought her team.

However, for all those who are curious about Tsubaki's comment 'Speed of Light', it was an exaggeration. Her abilities are exactly the same as both the Fourth Raikage's, Enel's (One Piece) and Misaka Mikoto's (To Aru Kagaku no Railgun). If you know what her kekkei genkai and affinity actually is, you can beat her. The only ones who can actually beat her in this tournament are Temari and Naruto, since she's only about as strong as one of the members of the Sound Four. I think these are big enough hints as to what her affinity is if her attack didn't clue you in on it.

Oh yeah, and if any of you guys are wondering on the stats, I think I'll give it a go and give you guys the current statistics of the characters that have fought and are relevant in this chapter. You can compare these to the existing stats on Naruto wikia.

---

Character Stats 1: (Out of 5)

Team Seven:

Uzumaki Naruto

Ninjutsu: 2.5
Taijutsu: 4
Genjutsu: 1.5
Intelligence: 3
Strength: 3
Speed: 4
Stamina: 4
Hand Seals: 1

Total: 23

Uchiha Sasuke

Ninjutsu: 3
Taijutsu: 2.5
Genjutsu: 1.5
Intelligence: 3
Strength: 2
Speed: 3
Stamina: 2.5
Hand-Seals: 3

Total Score: 20.5

Haruno Sakura

Ninjutsu: 1.5
Taijutsu: 1.5
Genjutsu: 1.5
Intelligence: 4
Strength: 2.5
Speed: 1
Stamina: 1
Hand-Seals: 2.5

Total Score: 15.5

Team Gai:

Hyuuga Neji

Ninjutsu: 2.5
Taijutsu: 3.5
Genjutsu: 2
Intelligence: 2.5
Strength: 2.5
Speed: 3
Stamina: 2
Hand-Seals: 3

Total Score: 21

Rock Lee

Ninjutsu: 0.5
Taijutsu: 4
Genjutsu: 0.5
Intelligence: 1.5
Strength: 3
Speed: 4
Stamina: 3
Hand-Seals: 1

Total Score: 17.5

Tenten

Ninjutsu: 2.5
Taijutsu: 2.5
Genjutsu: 1.5
Intelligence: 2.5
Strength: 1
Speed: 3
Stamina: 1.5
Hand-Seals: 2

Total Score: 16.5

Team Samui:

Samui

Ninjutsu: 2.5
Taijutsu: 3
Genjutsu: 2
Intelligence: 3.5
Strength: 2
Speed: 2.5
Stamina: 2.5
Hand-Seals: 3

Total Score: 21

Karui

Ninjutsu: 1.5
Taijutsu: 3
Genjutsu: 1
Intelligence: 1.5
Strength: 2.5
Speed: 2.5
Stamina: 2
Hand-Seals: 2

Total Score: 16

Omoi

Ninjutsu: 1.5
Taijutsu: 3
Genjutsu: 1.5
Intelligence: 3
Strength: 2
Speed: 2
Stamina: 2
Hand-Seals: 2

Total Score: 17

Team 8:

Inuzuka Kiba

Ninjutsu: 1.5
Taijutsu: 2.5
Genjutsu: 1
Intelligence: 1.5
Strength: 2.5
Speed: 3.5
Stamina: 2
Hand-Seals: 1.5

Total Score: 16

Aburame Shino

Ninjutsu: 3.5
Taijutsu: 1.5
Genjutsu: 2
Intelligence: 3
Strength: 1.5
Speed: 1.5
Stamina: 2
Hand-Seals: 2

Total Score: 17

Hyuuga Hinata

Ninjutsu: 1.5
Taijutsu: 3
Genjutsu: 2
Intelligence: 2.5
Strength: 1
Speed: 2.5
Stamina: 1.5
Hand-Seals: 2

Total Score: 16

Sound Team:

Kinuta Dosu

Ninjutsu: 2.5
Taijutsu: 2
Genjutsu: 1.5
Intelligence: 2.5
Strength: 1.5
Speed: 3
Stamina: 2
Hand-Seals: 1

Total Score: 16

Abumi Zaku

Ninjutsu: 3
Taijutsu: 2
Genjutsu: 2
Intelligence: 1
Strength: 1
Speed: 2.5
Stamina: 1
Hand-Seals: 1

Total Score: 13.5

Tsuchi Kin

Ninjutsu: 2
Taijutsu: 1.5
Genjutsu: 3
Intelligence: 2
Strength: 1
Speed: 2
Stamina: 1
Hand-Seals: 2

Total Score: 14.5

Team Kurotsuchi:

Kurotsuchi

Ninjutsu: 3.5
Taijutsu: 2
Genjutsu: 1.5
Intelligence: 2.5
Strength: 2
Speed: 2.5
Stamina: 2
Hand-Seals: 3

Total Score: 19

Akatsuchi

Ninjutsu: 1.5
Taijutsu: 2.5
Genjutsu: 1
Intelligence: 1.5
Strength: 2.5
Speed: 2.5
Stamina: 2.5
Hand-Seals: 2

Total Score: 16

Shirotsuchi

Ninjutsu: 3.5
Taijutsu: 1
Genjutsu: 0.5
Intelligence: 2.5
Strength: 1
Speed: 2.5
Stamina: 2
Hand-Seals: 3

Total Score: 16

Sand Siblings:

Gaara

Ninjutsu: 4
Taijutsu: 1
Genjutsu: 2.5
Intelligence: 2.5
Strength: 2
Speed: 2
Stamina: 4
Hand-Seals: 3.5

Total Score: 21.5

Temari

Ninjutsu: 3
Taijutsu: 2.5
Genjutsu: 1.5
Intelligence: 2.5
Strength: 3
Speed: 2.5
Stamina: 2
Hand-Seals: 2

Total Score: 19

Kankuro

Ninjutsu: 3.5
Taijutsu: 1.5
Genjutsu: 1.5
Intelligence: 2
Strength: 2.5
Speed: 2
Stamina: 2.5
Hand-Seals: 3.5

Total Score: 19

Kiri Team:

Tsubaki

Ninjutsu: 3.5
Taijutsu: 2.5
Genjutsu: 1
Intelligence: 3.5
Strength: 2.5
Speed: 5
Stamina: 4.5
Hand Seals: 2

Total: 24.5

Kiyoko

Ninjutsu: 1
Taijutsu: 5
Genjutsu: 1.5
Intelligence: 2
Strength: 4
Speed: 4
Stamina: 3
Hand-Seals: 0.5

Total Score: 21

Utakata

Ninjutsu: 4
Taijutsu: 1.5
Genjutsu: 1.5
Intelligence: 3.5
Strength: 1.5
Speed: 2
Stamina: 4
Hand-Seals: 2.5

Total Score: 20.5