Disclaimer: I own nothing but the two OCs in this chapter and the plotline.

Last time: Naruto finds out who his two teammates will be for the Chuunin Exam after fighting Gaara and coming out on top, thanks to Kyuubi's strategy. While eating at Ichiraku's Naruto is watched by two kunoichi who seem to have some kind of grudge against him.

This time: The Exams begin! Oh! And Yamato makes an appearance, though a real minor one.

The day of the Chuunin exams dawned cold and windy, with heavy slate gray clouds obscuring the sun from view. Chill winds whipped down streets, enhanced by the tightly packed buildings on either side of the pedestrian byways. Though it was close to noon, there were only a few people out braving the elements today, most of them sporting foreign hirai-ates, or were residents of Konoha out doing shopping that absolutely couldn't wait until better weather. Two of those people were Konohamaru and Moegi, on their way to their first true chuunin exam! The duo was ecstatic because they finally got to take a shot at moving up higher! Well, maybe ecstatic wasn't the right word. More like nervous. Moegi kept tripping over her own feet and Konohamaru seemed to have taken on a delicate shade of green.

A tense silence ruled the air around the pair as they finally reached the building where the exams were to begin. A tall man wearing a black cloak was leaning against the door frame, a bulge in his protective clothes made a little gap, allowing an onlooker to glimpse crossed arms and an orange tee-shirt. He stood upright, his arms uncrossing as the two Leaf genin approached.

"Naruto-aniki?" Konohamaru asked, feeling as though he was about to hurl, his nervousness was so bad. The billowing cloak parted once again as hands reached out and up, throwing back the hood, revealing Naruto's smiling face.

"Hey! About time you two got here! Ready to go?" The blond was clearly psyched to begin the exams and finally catch up to his comrades after almost eight years of trailing behind them. The younger genin gulped and entered into the warmth of the exam building. Together, the trio ascended the stairs, heading for the third floor and the exam room therein.

All too soon for Konohamaru's liking, the three shinobi reached the landing of the third floor. His mouth felt dry as they strode down the long third floor corridor that led to the double doors shielding the room from view. Ebisu was waiting for them at the doors, just as Kakashi had done for Team Seven, so many years ago.

"Well, Konohamaru-kun, Moegi-chan, it's time. Are you sure that you two want to go through with this? You can still back out if you feel you aren't ready." Uncertainty riled beneath Konohamaru's tortured exterior as he questioned whether or not he was really prepared to move past those doors.

Finally, after a tense minute, he grinned and declared, "I'm more than ready! Let's do this!"

"If Konohamaru's ready, then so am I!" Moegi proclaimed, ready to help her boyfriend move on, and pass this exam herself!

Ebisu's sunglasses turned onto the silent blond in the group. The jounin couldn't help but be a little intimidated by the look on Naruto's face. Grim determination had etched itself into every facet of the blonde's visage. His blue eyes seemed to harden into chips of blue granite and his mouth was set in a grim line. The tutor knew there was no point in asking if the Jinchuuriki was ready, it was apparent just from looking at him.

He pushed his glasses up further onto his nose. "Well then, good luck and I will see you after the end of the Second Exam." With that, he stepped aside, and Naruto approached the door and threw it open wide, allowing the light beyond to spill into the hall. Ebisu watched with pride as his two charges and their idol stepped over the threshold and the doors slammed shut with a booming finality.

The two newcomers to the exams gulped as over a hundred pairs of eyes bore down on them, none of them friendly. Naruto met each icy gaze with his equally grim one, and none could hold it. The blond was quickly slipping into his missing-nin persona, the one that radiated confidence to the point of arrogance and had the power to back it up. He knew that the chance of them being hounded for scrolls in the next half of the exams would decrease substantially if the foreigners realized that this team had one powerhouse on it.

"Relax," he said to the two genin trembling behind him. "They're just as nervous as you are." He didn't bother to keep his voice down. "There's nothing they can do to hurt you."

An arrogant female voice changed all of that. "Oh really, Naruto-chan?" Two figures strode out from behind a knot of Iwa nin. "We can hurt them."

An electric jolt surged through Naruto as he caught sight of the two kunoichi striding towards him with all the grace of a pair of cats. The jolt awoke Kyuubi who, up until now, had been dozing peacefully in the back of the blond genin's mind. The nine-tailed fox felt his host's discomfort and decided to see what the big deal was. The demon was yawing as he looked out and saw the kunoichi. His massive jaw slammed shut in surprise with the sound of a car door being slammed.

'Them!?'

'Yeah.'

'What the hell are they doing here?'

'Search me. How much you wanna bet that they're here for me?'

The two women were wearing those Chinese dresses that Tenten and Sakura were so fond of wearing, complete with an intricate flower and gold thread embroidery, although whereas the two Konoha kunoichi actually had a sense of decency, these two unknowns seemed to have provocation in mind. The flaps on the dresses were short to the point of barely covering their underwear, hanging to just above mid-thigh, and they wore no shorts underneath to protect their modesty. They also had white leggings on that came up to about halfway up their thighs and were tied off with some colored ribbon, one blue the other red, matching the color of the dresses themselves.

"Ayame and Sasame." Naruto's voice was cold and gave the two Konoha genin behind him the chills. It wasn't the same warm voice he'd been using the day before when the trio had been training together, trying to build as much teamwork as they possibly could.

The one in blue on the left spoke again. "Oh, look, Sasame, he remembers us!" Her chest, stretching the material of the dress covering it to its limits, shook as she laughed. Though her laugh was light and airy, the tone conveyed nothing but derision. The woman, Ayame, tossed her hair over her shoulder. That was what struck Konohamaru the most. The kunoichi's hair was pale lavender, almost the color of a Hyuuga's eyes, and it also had a strong resemblance to a bird's feathers. It was held in check by a blue elastic band.

'She's…beautiful!' Konohamaru thought as he checked out her athletic form, her outfit leaving nothing to the imagination. Her sister clapped joyously at the other's remarks.

"Yay! I thought Naruto-kun would've forgotten us after all this time!" Her voice was warm and bubbly, devoid of any type malice. Her hair was a dark red or light brown and fell in twin braids down to her shoulder blades, ending in yellow bows. The odd thing about her outfit was the sleeves. Unlike her sister's, which had no sleeves at all and exposed her arms to the air, Sasame's sleeves fell until they completely covered her hands, shielding them from view. There was some obvious slack too, because she had to hold her arms a little higher than necessary to use her hands. Konohamaru found both fairly attractive and wondered why Naruto was so tense.

"So what are the Twins doing here in Konoha?" The Jinchuuriki snapped, his voice rough and demanding. "I was under the impression that you two were still…"

"SHHHHHH!" The one in red hissed, her vivid green eyes going wide, arms flapping, making the overlong sleeves snap. "Do you want ANBU to kill us?"

"Honestly? Yes." Naruto replied gruffly. Ayame's crimson eyes narrowed dangerously.

"You might wanna watch what you say, Naruto-chan. Otherwise," her hard red gaze fell on Konohamaru, who was still gawking at them as if he'd never seen a woman in his life. Her lips curled into a sneer. "Your friends might get hurt!" Before anyone could react, her hand shot for the genin's throat, blue colored nails glinting in the lights.

"Konohamaru-chan!" Moegi's cry did nothing for the teen himself, who was frozen with fear as the kunoichi's fingernails sped for his windpipe.

Naruto's hand was suddenly around Ayame's wrist, stopping it cold and locking it in a vise-like grip.

Everyone who'd been watching started at the speed at which the shinobi and kunoichi had moved. Ayame's nails were inches from the Konoha-nin's throat when they'd been stopped. No one had even seen Naruto's reaction. Mentally, many shinobi, both Konoha and foreign, scratched the crazy psycho bitch and the blond off their list of potential targets.

Sasame clapped excitedly, sleeves flopping around her elbows. "Amazing! Sis, Sis, did you see how fast Naruto-kun moved?" Her voice was heavy with her emotion, and it didn't seem like she even cared that her sister had almost killed Konohamaru.

Ayame looked at her wrist, held fast in an unbreakable grip. She looked at Naruto with crafty and seductive eyes. "Well, well." She said in a tone that attested to unwilling surprise. "Someone's been training. You've improved a lot if you could see that coming and react in time to stop me."

Naruto shoved her wrist back as if just touching it disgusted him before his hand retreated into his cloak. Somehow, Konohamaru and Moegi were sure that one of his fingers was through the ring of a kunai. "Spare me." Both of the kunoichi's eyes widened when Naruto's pupils slitted and the color bled from sky blue to a sinister crimson. "Tell me why you're here. Now."

Sasame recovered first as she giggled and threw her arms over Ayame's shoulders. "Aww, we can't do that, Naruto-kun! It would spoil the surprise!" The blue kunoichi sighed, exasperated with her sister's behavior and shook her off.

"Sasame, really, can't you be serious for two seconds?" Sasame bounced a little and held a finger to the corner of her mouth as she stared up at the ceiling, wonder in her gaze.

"Uhhh. Why would I do that? It'd take all the fun out of life!" She giggled and flounced off to find a seat. Ayame shook her head, annoyed, and trailed off after her sister, throwing a sultry 'Bye Naruto-chan' over her shoulder.

The blond watched them go, letting off a feral growl as his eyes returned to their normal color. "Bitches." He hissed venomously. "Why the hell are they here!?"

"Uh…Naruto-aniki?" Konohamaru asked cautiously, not knowing how to deal with his idol when he was like this. "Who were they?"

"Ayame and Sasame Kusajishi. Don't worry about them; they're too strong for you. If we come across them in the Second Exam, run. Don't hesitate, don't question, just run."

"But Sasame doesn't seem that dangerous," Moegi protested to which Naruto snorted in a surprisingly derisive tone.

"Looks can be deceiving. Frankly, I can't say for certain which one's more dangerous, Ayame or Sasame." There was an explosion of smoke at the front of the room, near the chalkboard. When it cleared, Morino Ibiki, the scarred head of the ANBU Interrogation Squad, stood at the front of the room with all the proctors for the exam. Naruto listened until he was sure that Ibiki would be using the same rules as last time around. The blond had to admit, he was surprised that the first exam would be the same as it had been for him during his first exam.

'Konoha must have a lot of faith in Ibiki's ability to weed out the weak ones.'

'No surprise. Sometimes I wonder if that man isn't a Jinchuuriki.' Naruto shuddered as he remembered the immense pressure the proctor had put them through the first time.

'Either that or he's dating that Anko chick.' The blond outright shivered at the mere memory of the jounin and prayed to whatever Kami was out there that she wouldn't be the proctor of the second exam. He only hoped that the sadist jounin wouldn't feel too attracted to the Kusajishi sisters. Even Kyuubi shuddered at that scenario. He took a seat and watched as Ibiki began explaining the exam.

The blond took the rest of Ibiki's blabbing as a time to size up both the proctors and the chuunin hopefuls. He was trying to single out threats and the chuunins retaking the exam as a way of testing the genin's intelligence gathering and observational skills.

There were a couple surprises among the proctors. Just behind and to the left of Ibiki was Hyuuga Neji, scowling at them all with the supreme arrogance of the Hyuuga clan. The prodigy caught the blonde's gaze and nodded almost invisibly. Naruto sincerely hoped that the jounin wouldn't be watching his row. Hidden at the back of the group of proctors was another face Naruto knew all too well. The man was doing a good job not calling attention to himself, but the Jinchuuriki was still able to pick him out.

It was the Shodai Hokage experiment, known to Naruto as Yamato. The ANBU also noticed Naruto's look and gave the blond his 'creepy look' as a way of greeting. The genin broke out in a cold sweat and really hoped that his former interim captain wouldn't be watching him. The Byakugan Naruto could put up with, that creepy gaze was another thing all together.

Those two were all he could recognize, so Naruto turned his attention to the chuunin hopefuls. One person stood out immediately, and he were sitting right next to the blond. Hidden under a wide straw hat and grass cloak was Shikamaru. Figures that the lazy bum would be in the exam, as his brilliant mind was able to figure out all the answers with no effort. If the lazy chuunin had actually put forth the effort to shake a little to feign nervousness, Naruto might have missed him.

"You may begin!" Ibiki's voice echoed in the packed room and all the examinees flipped over their exam papers to begin work. Naruto smirked to himself as he folded his arms and began to wait until the final question.

'Oh shit.' The blond had shot a look out of the corner of his eye and was dismayed to see Yamato sitting in the chair at the end of his row, never once glancing down as his pencil moved, docking points from other genin in his row. His wide eyes never once left Naruto.

'Dammit! Yamato. This is bad.' If Naruto didn't do something, Yamato may start docking him points and that was something that couldn't happen. It would cost him and his team the exam.

'Relax, there won't be anything he can do! Let me have control of your arm.' Naruto let the Kyuubi have the arm, knowing that there was nothing he could do in this situation, and that Kyuubi was old enough to be even smarter than Shika at this kind of thing.

Yamato watched with keen eyes as Naruto's hand began to write, the blonde's eyes following what he was jotting down. The ANBU had been assigned to this exam by the order of the Godaime Hokage, who thought that the Kyuubi might try something during the exam. True, Naruto claimed to have made an alliance with the beast, something that the Godaime Kazekage confirmed, but Tsunade wasn't about to trust this blindly, it was just too big of a chance. Therefore, she'd assigned the one shinobi in Konoha who had a chance at controlling the beast to watch Naruto during the exams. The Shodai clone really did like the son of the Yondaime, which was why he'd accepted the mission. He didn't want to see Naruto get hurt by the fox while he concentrated on the exam. And speaking of the exam, the ANBU sent a hidden signal to Ibiki…

The interrogation specialist saw the other ANBU's gesture and smiled grimly. "Number 25. Take your cheating ass out of the room, and make sure you take your teammates with you!" Number 25, a Waterfall-nin, stood dejectedly and walked out of the room, followed by his less than happy teammates.

That seemed to be the signal for the other proctors that it was now open season on the genin. Shortly after Yamato had scored his first kill, Neji and one of the other proctors sent out two more teams within five minutes of each other. And the pace only began to pick up. Naruto sincerely hoped that Ayame and Sasame would get eliminated and Konohamaru and Moegi didn't get caught. His Kyuubi-possessed arm quit writing and Naruto felt the fox's control withdraw from his limb. The blond looked at Yamato, who quirked an eyebrow when the genin grinned at him. The man's 'creepy' eyes widened a moment later when Naruto held up a completed paper. How? The ANBU hadn't seen him so much as peek at the Nara's paper.

Shikamaru's eye twitched as he watched the showboating genin next to him. Seriously, the blond needed to grow up. Or maybe he was jealous at the speed with which the genin had finished. They still had half and hour left and he was done! But that raised the question of how in the genius' mind. He'd been watching Naruto out of the corner of his eye as he'd written down answers. The Nara had been watching the entire time. He'd memorized the layout and dimensions of the paper the moment Naruto had sat down beside him so Shika could watch the blond at work. The chuunin was certain that the genin had figured out it was him before the exam had even started, but never once did Naruto's eyes leave his own test sheet.

'How'd he do it? Did he just write down some BS or did he actually know the answers?' Shika asked himself. Somehow he doubted both theories. Ah. Forget it, this was too troublesome to deal with.

The half hour passed with the dismissal of close to ten more teams. In other words, thirty people blew their chance at chuunin, and Naruto knew that, if Anko was in charge of the next exam again, the number remaining would drop by half. Ibiki did his little song and dance about being a genin forever and more teams dropped out until there were sixty people left out of close to double that number.

"Any more wanna drop out?" Ibiki asked as he surveyed the room after no one had gotten up for close to five minutes. He'd noticed Uzumaki Naruto from his vivid yellow hair and his resemblance to the Yondaime and hoped against hope that the kid wouldn't ruin it like he did last time. It looked like the kid wasn't as loud as he'd been last time, but it didn't matter. Twenty teams were still left. Damn, Anko was gonna be pissed. "No takers? Okay then. Congratulations, all of you who're still here have passed the first exam." He waited for the inevitable uproar and held up a hand to silence them before launching into his spiel about the whole information-gathering thing. Once he finished, he looked at his watch and noted that Anko was a little late.

Naruto felt a chakra source speeding towards them just before a blob busted through the window and flared up like some evil shadow.

'How original. She used the same damn entrance as last time.'

'Face it Kit. Some people just aren't as inventive as we are at pulling pranks.' Kyuubi replied. Naruto was sure that if the fox had eyebrows, they would be twitching at the woman's lack of originality.

"Okay! Listen up you worms!! From now on, you're in my hands! Gather up you shinobi gear and meet me at Training Ground 44 in two hours!" The loud jounin glared at the genin when they didn't move. "Well!? What the hell are you waiting for, an invite!? Those who aren't on time will be eliminated!" That got them going and the genin pelted for the double doors in their haste to obey, except for one. A blur shot from the row that Yamato was seated in and flew at Ibiki and Anko. The kunoichi couldn't see who could be so fast until the blur stopped, sinking into a crouch on the wall beside them to absorb his momentum before shooting out the window Anko had broken during her entrance.

"Hey, Morino."

"What Mitarashi?"

"Was that the fox brat?"

Ibiki smiled at the brash jounin. "Yep. Looks a lot like Arashi doesn't he?"

The other sadist ninja grinned malevolently. "Oh I'm gonna have fun with this!" With that, the kunoichi poofed out of existence. It was only after she'd gone that Ibiki shuddered.

"Uzumaki, you'd better watch yourself."

Tsunade and Shizune were eating a quiet late lunch with a guest, Sakura, at the house the Slug Princess lived in a block or two down from the Hokage's Tower. The three kunoichi started when the door opened with a bang, bouncing off the wall with a 'bang', and Naruto sprinted in, up the stairs, followed by the sound of his bedroom door also bouncing off the walls and what sounded like furniture being thrown around.

"Naruto?" Sakura asked. "What's he doing here? Isn't he supposed to be at the exams?"

Tsunade grinned. "He's probably picking up his equipment. He left it here because he didn't think he'd need it for the first exam."

"But now he had to go to the Forest of Death, right?" Tsunade's grin widened.

"Yup."

"But that's on the other side of the village!" Shizune exclaimed. "He'll never make it."

"Shows what you know, Shizune-chan!" Naruto's voice interrupted. The blond was belting on one of his leg holsters as he hopped down the steps on one foot. Finally getting the clasp closed, he rushed over to the table, grabbed a doughnut and raced for the door, his three kunai pouches dangling from a belt in his other hand.

The three women laughed. "Typical Naruto." Sakura said shaking her head. "Never thinks more than three seconds into the future."

The blond sprinted for the forest, which was still some miles away.

'Dammit! I should've gotten Ero-sennin to teach me Hiraishin no Jutsu!' Somehow though, he made it on time. He was also one of the first ones there. Moegi and Konohamaru were there as well, but they'd been there once before, tailing him. The remaining shinobi, foreigners and locals alike, were probably still looking. Not many shinobi, even Konoha shinobi, knew that the training ground was here. They knew it existed, but not the exact spot. It was for good reason as no one wanted some genin looking for a thrill getting killed.

"There you are!" Moegi chastised. "What if you were late?"

"But I'm not." Naruto answered her. He blessed the immense stamina that he had to have been able to run full tilt from Baa-chan's house all the way to the forest and barely be breathing hard.

Anko's two-hour deadline passed at a crawl for everyone involved. Surprisingly, Kakashi showed up at about the half way mark. Naruto was amazed that the jounin had actually made it on time. That was until Anko clobbered him yelling at the top of her lungs about how he should have been there over two hours ago.

"You never change, do you Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked as the silver haired jounin strode over to them, rubbing the place on his head where Anko had smacked him.

"I dunno what you mean, Naruto." The jounin replied with a hidden smile. "I was helping some little old lady with her groceries and…"

"Save it." The former missing-nin interrupted with a dismissive wave. "By the way, what are you doing here?"

"Ah, now that's something for Anko to tell you." The Copy-nin replied, his eye curving. "I have a feeling she'd kill me if I told you now."

Finally, the remaining hour passed and the liability forms, waiving Konoha of all responsibility for 'accidental' deaths, were signed and the scrolls passed out. The genin clustered around Anko at the foot of the fence leading into the forest. Behind the sadist woman were fourteen jounin, Kakashi among them, standing in a formal formation.

"Okay! You have your scrolls and you all already know that you aren't allowed to answer them under any circumstances. Now for the fun part! You will have just five days to retrieve the other scroll and reach the tower at the center of this forest!" Some creature deep in the maze of poisonous bugs and deadly plants, a creature howled in obvious pain. The mournful noise was cut short an instant later as the whatever-it-was was killed by something else. A shiver passed through the collected candidates. "However, a new part has been added to the exam!"

Anko grinned maniacally as all attention focused on her. "You see these fourteen jounin behind me? Well, they're what's been added. To simulate an information retrieval mission more closely, these guys have been recruited to play the part of the bad guys! They'll be coming after your scroll in five teams of three and if they take your scroll from you, you'll have to get it back."

"Uh…" one of the remaining Iwagakure shinobi raised his hand, clearly terrified of Anko. "Ma'am, you said there would five teams of three, but there're only fourteen jounin. Who's the fifteenth?"

Anko's grin widened, if that were possible. "Me." Every genin went pale at her words. This crazy lady would be coming in after them? Oh boy, this wasn't gonna be fun. "Oh yeah, just one more thing. We'll be going all out. I hope you guys or up to snuff, or you'll die." No time was give for protests because the crazy kunoichi yelled at them to choose a gate and get ready to begin the second exam.

Naruto, Konohamaru and Moegi chose a gate that was hopefully far enough from the jounin squads to allow them to get a scroll before they could run into the more powerful shinobi.

"Uh, Naruto-aniki? What do we do with the scroll?" Konohamaru asked, holding up the Earth Scroll.

"I'll take it," Naruto replied. "The jounin will have a tougher time getting it from me than they would with you." The blond genin took the brown roll of paper and slipped it, not into one of his pouches, but into a zippered pocket on his pants. Now they would have to knock him out to get to it.

"Get ready," said the chuunin guarding their gate said to the trio. The three tensed as the man turned around and unlocked the padlock holding the gate closed. The chain to which the lock was attached fell clinking to the ground, coiling there like some kind of metallic snake. The doors flew open all around the circular training area and every shinobi standing at one flew into the Forest of Death to begin the second exam.

Moegi and Konohamaru trailed Naruto by a few steps as he bounded from tree branch to tree branch, his blond head turning every which way looking for any sign of potential targets or attackers. The two younger genin knew that Naruto had all the experience and were more than willing to let the man take the lead.

Even Naruto's tenant was doing his part, monitoring Naruto's other senses, even going as far as to pump a little youki to the organs to enhance them, giving both occupants of the shared body more information to work with.

Close to an hour later, the team finally quit moving as the light, already wan because of the closeness of the gnarled redwoods, couldn't reach them any longer. Naruto realized that this had been Anko's plan, starting the second exam straight off when the first exam had ended with the sun low in the sky.

"Be careful you guys," he said in a low voice that hardly carried past them. "It's getting dark. Now would be the time when the jounin are most active."

"How so?" Moegi asked, puzzled at why this would be the best time.

"Think about it. Most of us are inexperienced genin who've never really had experience fighting at night."

"What about you, Naruto-aniki?" Konohamaru asked. The blonde's head still didn't stop it's ceaseless scanning of the area, even with the deteriorating light.

"I can fight at night, but I'm not fantastic at it." He heaved a sigh. "Kakashi will know that. I'll bet we'll end up taking his squad on at some point."

"How can you be so sure?" the kunoichi of the team asked.

Naruto smiled grimly. "Easy. He knows me, knows how I move, what jutsu I use, the ways to push my buttons, everything."

"But he hasn't seen you in almost five years!" the Sandaime's grandson interjected.

"It doesn't matter. My fighting styled hasn't really changed that much, aside from the fact that I tend to think a little more, and whatever new jutsu I use, he can just use his Sharingan to predict and counter it." The blonde's blue eyes hardened. "But I'm more worried about Ayame and Sasame."

"Naruto-aniki, just who are they?" Konohamaru asked, wondering what his idol's ties to the exotic and deadly kunoichi were.

The Jinchuuriki sighed, running a hand through his long blond hair. "Let's get settled in first, and then I'll explain. No fire though, that'll just lead enemies straight to us." The trio dispersed, setting traps and trying to locate food and water for the long five days they would be spending in this hellhole.

Somewhere else in the depths of Training Ground 44, the very two kunoichi that Naruto was planning to discuss with his teammates bounced from branch to branch of the huge trees of the forest, casually avoiding clumsily laid traps and also the leeches in the area. Finally the two stopped on a branch that would've easily held a decent sized shinobi battle.

"Aww! My outfit's getting ruined!" Sasame whined, holding up her sleeves to show her sister the stains and general wear and tear the dress was receiving from the environment around them. "Can't we hurry up and kill Naruto-kun already? I wanna go home and take a bath!"

"Sasame, shut up." Ayame snapped, her patience with her sister wearing thin. Seriously, the girl needed to quit bitching and grow up! "We'll find Naruto-chan soon and then blow through this measly exam." She brushed her feathery bangs out of her face. 'Just you wait, Naruto-chan. I'll find you and then show you what power's all about!'

"How long will this take?" Sasame asked.

"How ever long is needed, Sasame." Ayame replied snippily. The blue kunoichi was tired, frustrated, and hunting endlessly for her fox-ridden quarry. She thought it would be easy to find the man's immense chakra, which he'd never been great at hiding, but all of the other teams in the area were making him difficult to track. Finally she had to let out the sigh that'd been building in her chest since this damned second exam started. "Alright, Sasame. We'll set up camp here for the night. Maybe we'll have better luck finding Naruto-chan tomorrow." The red kunoichi clapped happily and reach into one of her baggy sleeves, pulling out a scroll. The perky woman unrolled it and bit her thumb, trailing the bloodied digit over a set of seals and made a few hand signs.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

The explosion sent a violent wind ripping around their immediate area and made the flaps on the women's dresses flap wildly, though neither seemed to care. When the smoke cleared, there was a pair of tents set up on the wide branch.

'Ah, the wonders of the Fuuin Jutsu.' Ayame thought happily as she ducked under the flap of one of the tents and pulled the elastic band out of her lavender hair, letting it fall in a feathery cascade down her back. The sisters settled in and fell asleep, not bothering to set a watch, confident enough that no jounin or genin would bother trying to assail them while they slept.

Well, there you go. Chapter eight is done. Sorry that is was mostly talking, but hey, look on the bright side. You've gotten two kunoichi that even Naruto is wary of, and a twist on the Second Exam out of the deal! More on Ayame and Sasame as time goes on. We haven't seen much of their combat capablities, but don't worry. They'll get plenty of time in the spotlight during the Third Exam and possibly the prelims (if I decide to have them. .) Oh yeah, one last thing. Yes, I did rip the Twins surnames from Kusajishi Yachiru from Bleach. If anything that should give you a hint on how dangerous these two are.

Glossary:

Hiraishin no Jutsu (Flying Thunder God Technique/Skill): One of the Yondaime's signature jutsu, along with the Rasengan. Through the use of a special seal, the Fourth was able to teleport anywhere in a flash, hence his nickname, Konoha's Yellow Flash. The jutsu is so dangerous that the Yondaime was able to kill hundreds of enemies instantly which resulted in the other villages slapping him with a flee-on-sight order.

Fuuin Jutsu (Sealing Technique/Skill): The catch-all name for anything involving a seal. Can range from basic storage seals like Naruto, Tenten and Sasame use, all the way to Orochimaru's Cursed Seal.