AN: First Task time! Not gonna lie, I had a bunch of ideas for how Rozu was going to tackle this challenge. I mean, there are just so many options, right? Luckily, I think I've come up with something that appropriately fits Rozu.

Also, a little bit of a response to a comment or two I've received. I understand some of the ships I've alluded to aren't the most popular, Sasuke and Hinata in particular has caught some ire, even with it only going so far as the MC's musing at the minute. I'll say this once, I've no interest in appealing to those who decide to whinge and spout abuse when their OTP isn't in a fic. If you're dead set on NaruHina, NaruSasu or most canon ships, I'm sorry to say that those ships will almost certainly not feature here, certainly not as the endgame ships. Should that be a deal breaker, thank you for reading so far and good luck with the next fic you find.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this newest chapter!

Chapter 11: She's a Rebel! She's a Saint!

"You didn't tell me you were going to be part of the exam!" I accused as I pulled back from the hug, little actual heat in my tone as I looked at the Mist Genin. "I thought for sure you'd get Chunin from the start."

Haku let out a tinkling laugh that had my cheeks heat up slightly. "Your faith in me is very welcome, Rozu-kun. Fortunately, Father thought it advantageous for the village to place myself and my teammates into the exam, to show the other villages that the Hidden Mist is back on the board."

So Haku and whoever he was here with were essentially plants, far beyond the skill set of most teams competing in the Exams. Honestly, the former missing nin was perfect for that role. With them never truly being an official ninja for their village, Mist wouldn't have to lie on any documentation. Haku was, on paper, less vetted than even the Rookie 9.

I let out an impressed whistle. "Gotta admit I'm surprised that big lug came up with that play. Maybe you're a bigger influence on him than anyone thought."

"I'm sure there's several rules in the handbook about cavorting with the enemy, Isōrō." Sasuke piped up from behind me, sliding into place at my side as he looked Haku up and down. "Haku."

"Sasuke-kun." Haku demurred, returning the gesture. "Prickly as always."

I failed to suppress a snort at my teammates glare, no doubt also catching Haku's not-so-subtle reference to how their bout had ended on the bridge. It was amazing how many sendon needles we'd had to pull out of Sasuke in the end, sixty-eight in the end, one off the ideal number in my opinion. It seemed that my dark haired teammate had taken the opportunity to form another rival for him to beat, the prissy bastard he was at times.

"Eh, leave our resident Hedgehog alone Haku. We've only just got him from sulking so much." I huffed lightly, leaning my elbow on Sasuke's shoulder, only for him to jerk away causing me to lose balance. "Asshole." I grumbled as he shot me a dirty look.

"Haku!" Ah, it seems Naruto had finally found his voice, quickly rushing up to the man of the hour with his signature grin. "You made it!" True to form, the blonde quickly pulled the older shinobi into a bone-crushing hug.

Haku let out a chuckle at Naruto's enthusiasm, lightly patting him on the back. "It's nice to see you too, Naruto-kun."

"Hey, you lot must have low survival instincts with how loud you're all being. You're attracting a lot of attention." A familiar voice sounded out, one I'd become quite acquainted with over the past year or so from Kakashi's hellish training. Pivoting around, I was met with the bespectacled visage of one Yakushi Kabuto, talented medi-nin and secret spy.

True to his words, many occupants of the room were now openly glaring at us, as if offended by our mere presence. Seeing as most of those staring came from foreign villages, that was probably right on the mark.

"What? What are you looking at!?" I challenged with a glare. "Like what you see?" That seemed to do the trick as quite a few averted their gaze. "Yeah, that's right. I don't swing that way."

"Swing what way?" Sasuke asked.

"Towards cannon fodder."

Things went as expected from there, Kabuto offering up intel with his little pack of data cards, much to the interest of Sasuke. He asked for stats on Haku rather than Gaara this time though, the Mist ninja quickly destroying the offending card before the spy could reveal its secrets. A look from myself was the only thing to stop him skewering the silver haired boy. If things went truly bad in the forest, we'd need him.

I was a little surprised when Ino pushed forwards, asking for my info. At least she was taking the opportunity to stack the deck, showing a little bit of actual initiative in being a ninja for once. Now if only I could get her head out of her ass about me and Sasuke, she might haverrŕpotential as a strong fighter rather than a crazy fangirl.

Plus, it gave me the opportunity to see her go slightly pale when the record of the Wave mission was brought up. At most, her team would have maybe had a C-Rank or two under their belt. That paled in comparison to myself and my teammates.

The Sound Team didn't have a chance to interrupt before the bandanna clad visage of Ibuki Morino entered the room, beginning the first part of the Exam.

"Oh, hey Ten-Ten." I greeted as I took my assigned seat, right next to the brown haired girl.

"Hi… Rozu, right?" She asked after a few seconds of thought.

"Yep, got it in one, Bun." She rolled her eyes at the impromptu nickname. "Sorry about your teammate, before."

Ten-Ten let out a sigh, shaking her head. "It's fine, Lee's sweet but he can be a little… Okay, he can be a lot sometimes. I don't blame you for being put off."

I gave a small shrug. "Eh, he's not so bad. Just needs to learn that he can't go challenging people for someone's hand. That shit doesn't fly."

The bun haired girl hummed in agreement. "Gotta say though, can't believe you were able to fake an attraction to Gai-sensei." She let out a laugh at that, only to slowly drift off when she saw my incredulous look.

"I wasn't faking." I stated flatly. "That man is… I mean, have you looked at him? He's built like a god. And that smile."

"Gai-sensei, the man running around in the green spandex, him?"

"And don't get me started on the spandex, they show so much that I've little room to imagine his-"

"Please stop talking!"

The first stage of the exam, the written exam that wasn't really about getting the answers on the test right as it was about covert cheating. I'd had a long time to think over my strategy for this, gone through countless plans in the run up. I could let things play out as they were supposed to, with Naruto leading a rallying cry at the end that saw them through. The only problem with that was it would leave an Anko-sama level of teams still in the exam for the second test. I couldn't have that.

No, I needed something that would ensure Team 7 qualifying and assure Naruto he didn't need to worry. Luckily, I had a few plans that would work for just that purpose.

The plan began with me placing my feet up onto my desk and leaning back into my chair casually. Ibiki instantly levelled me with a glare, which I was only able to ignore because of the numerous stories I'd heard from my serpent loving teacher. It was hard to take the man seriously when I knew his true weakness was tickling, after all.

Time slowly wound down, my eyes catching those in the room who were filling out their exams just a little too quickly, like they knew the answers beforehand. Because of course they did, another set of plants to feed answers to cheat off of, as the test truly aimed to gauge. There were at least ten in my eyeline, perhaps more in the wider room, so many opportunities.

When the clock drew close to the "final question" I slowly began to push chakra through my body as I raised my hand. Ibiki seemed to take pleasure in ignoring my hand for a few moments before turning towards me.

"What do you want, Genin? A pillow to rest your head?" He growled.

"Oh no, just a clarification on the rules, that's all." I replied in the best tone of innocence I could muster, keeping my arm held up high.

His glare seemed to lessen slightly at that, a contemplative shine in his eyes for just a second. "Well, out with it."

"Just that, you said we'd lose a point for every time we were caught cheating, right?"

"Yes."

"So… is that measured by the actual cheat or the action that caused it?"

Ibiki blinked. The Chunin around the room blinked, looking towards the T&I head curiously. "The action, I suppose."

I grinned. "Awesome." With that, I twitched my fingers, the chakra strings I'd sprouted fourth responding in kind. Six exam sheets suddenly launched into the air, my team's and those of three plants, spinning in the air before settling in the empty spaces. Only now, my team and I sported completely filled out exam sheets.

"Thanks for the clarification, Ibiki-senpai." I declared with a grin, turning over my newly acquired paper and placing my name at the top. "I believe that's only one point off for my team."

The fact the man didn't try to strangle me was a testament to his restraint, really.

"Hah! You really cleared the house, huh, Morino. This might be better than last time." Anko-sama addressed the Jonin as she took in the remaining teams in the exam, far less than there had been in Canon from the look of it. Naruto's intervention really had been a godsend for many the first time around, able to rally so many in a seemingly hopeless situation. The idea that he wasn't perfect for Hokage was downright absurd with how inspirational he could be.

"Didn't get everyone I'd hoped for though." Ibiki grumbled, sending a glare in my direction, gaining a thumbs up for his trouble.

Anko-sama followed his eyeline, a feral grin spreading across her face as she saw me. "Heh, I knew you kids could do it!" She cheered before clapping her hands together. "Right, you little shits are coming with me for the next stage of the exams. It's my job to cull- I mean test you in a little survival exercise. Come on."

With that, she was rushing out of the window she'd entered, many scrambling to follow after her.

"I can't believe that worked." Ten-Ten breathed, looking at me with wide eyes before slamming her hand on the desk. "I can't believe I didn't think of that."

Patting her shoulder, I gave an encouraging smile. "There's always the next exam."

It was only when my team and I had left the room that I heard her enraged shout after me, finally catching onto my subtle dig.

"So, think they chose this task because we're competing?" Sasuke whispered as we looked up at the gated treeline of The Forest of Death. To be fair, he had a decent point with that question. We'd spent a lot of time within the dangerous training area since beginning our career, arguably more than most Jonin, let alone Genin or Chunin. If there was any team with a distinct home field advantage here it was ours.

"What, no, that'd be totally unfair." Naruto shook his head.

"That would be the point, Dobe."

"You wanna go, Teme!"

I flicked both of their ears, cutting their argument short. "Sasuke has a point, Naru. Though I honestly don't think that's the case here, the forest is probably the only space inside the village limits that would allow this sort of multi-day test. Just good fortune on our part that Anko-sama trained us here."

"Good fortune?" Sasuke asked.

"Yes, are you denying the genius of Anko-sama?"

"Insanity, more like."

"She is a little crazy." Naruto added.

I paused for a second, horror dawning on my face. "Oh god. It's the end of days!" Panic quickly spread across their faces at my declaration. "You two agreeing with each other, we really are doomed!"

"Piss off Rozu!" They replied in unison.

Okay, so we really are screwed.

"And this is your gate." Anko-sama declared with a grin, coming to a stop beside one of the many fortified gates that sat along the tall fence. Turning towards us, she cast her gaze across the three of us, her eyes slowly softening. Her usual manic grin receding to a more genuine smile. "Good luck in there Team, not that any of you really need it, right?"

"R-Right, Anko-sensei." Naruto replied, cheeks red under her proud watch as he rubbed the back of his head. "We'll make you proud, believe it!" Sasuke and I nodded in agreement.

"I have no doubt. You're gonna do amazing, I can already tell." She continued, eyes going a little misty. "Just don't go forgetting about your sexy, amazing, badass co-sensei when you make the big leagues, alright?"

"As if we could, you… certainly leave an impression." Sasuke commented, gaining a punch in the arm from me.

"That's Sasuke for we appreciate everything you've done for us, Anko-sama." I translated with a smile of my own. "You're part of Team Ohana, that's a lifetime membership I'm afraid."

"I better pull my weight if I'm part of such an illuatrious team, then." Anko laughed, wiping away a tear with her sleeve. "You three are nuts, but all the best people are."

Pulling us all into a quick hug, she drew back and gave a casual salute. "Raise some hell for me." With that, she disappeared in a swirl of leaves, leaving us to wait for the second task to begin.

When the gate finally swung open, we dashed through with practised ease.

The first day was fairly innocuous, well, as innocuous as being in the forest could be anyway. Our familiarity with the area saved us from needing to do much scouting of the terrain, it all pretty much the same as it had been since we'd first entered. Maybe a few more clearings and a wider break along the rivers that passed through the ten mile wide enclosure. From the looks of things, the village had made a few changes to make the forest fairer to those with less skill. That it would no doubt make observing foreign shinobi easier was just a happy accident.

We'd not run into any other teams, allowing us to travel a good third of the way towards the tower in the centre of the forest. Not that we hadn't been looking for other teams, of course. Even though we were guaranteed promotion, the village had only given us the one scroll, just like everyone else. Perhaps they didn't want to ruin the new relationship with Mist with such blatant cheating. Maybe someone was hoping they could deny Naruto a promotion if he didn't make it to the finals. At this point, neither would surprise me in the least.

As far as trips into the forest went, it was an almost pleasant affair.

All that is to say, that when shit eventually hit the fan, it even caught me off guard.

AN: Cliffhanger-no-jutsu!

More Anko in this chapter, with a little bit of a mask slip at the end for her. For me, Anko's brazen attitude is only half true, half a mask to cover her vulnerability. After what happened to her and her subsequent ostracisation she's taken on a similar method to Naruto, only using manic energy and sexuality as her method instead. Team Ohana are some of the few she'll let peek past the mask after being their second sensei and being subjected to Rozu's genuine adoration, hence her getting a little emotional when they're alone.

Speaking of how Rozu has changed the people around him, I've been considering doing a chapter from the POV of the characters around him. Give a bit of an insight into how they are now, what they're feeling about this version of events. This would be an interlude chapter of sorts, perhaps occuring during the timeskip between the second task and the finals. Leave a comment if you'd be interested in such a chapter!

But yeah, I feel like you all know what's coming next! How is our resident slithering antagonist going to react to Rozu? Will our protagonist be able to do anything to him? Will they pants a Sannin? So many questions that will have to wait for the next chapter of Drago-

Wait, this isn't my script!

Any comments/kudos/reviews are appreciated!

MurderousLord!