NARUTO

Nox Noctis Ingredior

Passing Fancy

Anko stood in front of her students in the middle of one of the many training grounds, checking her nails as the three of them looked around them. It was just a large clearing bordered by a forest of trees, and with three posts standing proud in the center of the field. Naruto and Sakura looked at each other and shrugged, and Sakura shared with Hinata, showing the evidence of all their confusion. They all then looked back at the purple haired Snake Jonin, as she flicked a piece of dirt she found on her trench coat covering a full, upper-body mesh.

"So uhh… A-Anko-sensei," Hinata began, fingers laced together and hands held up to her chest. "W-Why are we here?"

"Yeah! What's the deal?" Sakura blurted out. "Are we, like, supposed to meditate or something? Get in touch with our inner-self?"

Anko snorted. "Yeah, like I'd get you three to do something as boring as that!" she shot back, smirking at them after lowering her hand to her side. "Guess I should tell you why I brought you out here so hastily!"

"Well! Hurry up then! We don't have all day!" Naruto shouted, waving his arms around and jumping on the spot.

The Snake Mistress grin widened. "Alright then! Here it goes. But I warn you, the following information may be of a shock to you!" Anko said, taking in a deep breath to steady herself, and add a little more tension to the moment. To the three, the suspense was killing them, as noted by their nervous expressions, especially on Hinata's face. "Alright. As you may know, you were given exams at the end of your Ninja Academy Training, signifying your graduation from the academy and your ascent to shinobi-hood. This is in part, true. However… the reason you were given these exams at the end of your last semester at the academy was to determine candidates worthy of possibly becoming actual Genin."

Sakura blinked at this. "W-What are you saying? That the end of semester Genin Exams were pointless?"

"No! No! That's not what I'm saying at all!" Anko replied, letting out a sigh. "The exam was just an actual test. The real exams are actually given by the Jonins to the teams they are assigned, which are much more practical, and test all aspects of what you have learnt over the course of your time at the academy…"

"So then… these exams the Jonin are given," Naruto began, folding his arms. "They are just to weed out the weak ones, and see which ones are to become Genin!"

Anko grinned and pointed at Naruto. "You got it!"

"So then wait… "Sakura continued on step. "If we're taking this exam now, then that means only a set number of students are going to make it as Genin. Exactly how many are allowed to make the cut?"

"Glad you asked!" Anko exclaimed, slipping her kunai from her side holster and spinning it on her finger. Snatching it into a single-handed grasp, she ran her tongue along its edge and grinned. "Out of the 27 to graduate, only 9 students will be able to make the cut. To put it more simply, it's a make or break test, with a 60 Percent Success kill off ratio, or more specifically, only three teams can be formed out of the nine!"

Hinata nodded. "So that means, you're going to give the final decision whether or not we make it or not?"

Naruto grinned. "And it's safe to say that the Jonin decide our final fate!"

"Sounds fun, doesn't it?" Anko exclaimed, delightful venom dripping off of the tip of her tongue. "It's the Jonin that administer the final tests. And if you haven't figured it out already, I've already got a test planned for you." Quickly, she reached into her trench coat. Acting as though she were drawing a weapon, the three youngsters leapt back in response, drawing their own kunai and readying for an attack. Anko smirked.

"Good… they're able to catch on pretty quick! Let's put that to the test!"

She snickered and drew three slips of paper from her trench coat. Quickly, she then tossed the three pieces of paper towards them, to be caught by all of them, and analyzed upon being caught. When they saw that they were merely pieces of paper outlined in red with plain, unidentifiable seals on them, the three of them looked up at the Snake Jonin in confusion.

"What are these for?" Sakura asked.

"T-They don't seem like any ordinary seals or tags…" Hinata pointed out.

"Correct!" Anko exclaimed, nodding towards them. "Those are custom made paralyzing tags! I was in a rush, so I had to improvise! Anyway, here is how this is going to work. Since the Genin teams are supposed to be scheduled to be tested tomorrow morning, I have decided to give you three my test now so I can administer my answer later without worry, and not have to be concerned about the other teams getting in our way! Your task is to try and tag me with at least two of these! The first two to tag me win, while the other third team member that doesn't, gets tied up over there!" Anko exclaimed, pointing towards the three posts in the middle of the field. "That person will have to stay there all day until tomorrow as a consequence…any questions?"

Naruto, Hinata and Sakura stared at her dumbfounded.

The impact of what she had just told them was unbelievable, making it a rather comical sight to the purple haired Jonin. It was until their brains registered did they eventually react.

"WHAT!" Sakura yelled.

"T-This is insane!" Hinata blurted out, but her voice didn't carry out with as much ferocity as intended.

"That means at least one of us will end up tied up and humiliated!" Naruto roared out. "It's basically just a race to see who can tag you first! And the loser is prosecuted! What a sick joke!"

"It's no joke!" Anko exclaimed, grinning while twirling her kunai again. "It's to make things more fun and interesting. This way, at least one of you will end up tied to a post, and I get to laugh at you! Simple as that!" She looked down at her watch and nodded. "You have five hours! After that, we will take a break! Then we can continue till seven! That sounds fair?"

She looked over at them, seeing their freaked out and dismayed expressions. She grinned and clapped her hands together!

"Excellent! You may begin!"

Snapping out of it, the three students crouched low and leapt away, vanishing into the surrounding forests…

Two hours later…

Anko was sitting on top of one of the posts comfortably, a box of dango opened up in front of her and an I-pod in hand. With both ear-pieces in her ears, she listened to her favorite rock music while eating out, smiling happily, as if oblivious to everything else around her. She bobbed her head slightly when a good chorus came on, the earphones blazing.

"Oh yeah… mm-mm… that's the stuff!"

In the trees of the surrounding forests, three sets of eyes were watching her closely from afar. Perched on a tree to Anko's right, but too in deep for her to see them, Naruto, Sakura and Hinata were watching their sensei closely, observing her, summarizing her up with their eyes. They knew they had to remain hidden, and come up with a plan to overcome her. Sakura's eye twitched as she watched the woman aimlessly listen to her music, bopping her head to the music and enjoying a nice snack of dango.

"The nerve of her!" Sakura growled. "How can she listen to music, and at the same time, ask us to tag her, when she's clearly not interested in this test at all?! We can just go in there and take her now!"

"Not just yet!" Naruto said, grabbing her shoulder to keep the girl from going in.

Sakura growled and turned to him. "Come on! Are you stupid or something? If she's not paying attention, then we've got a chance of taking her!" She tried to jerk her shoulder out of his grip, but the look in his eyes as he glared out towards their sensei stopped her. For the first time ever, Sakura saw a look of a dead man glaring ahead of him, his once kind, bright blue eyes now a dull shade of blue, with rings under them, showing fatigue and exhaustion from years of suffering. She immediately placed them from just one look, and she was shocked none to say the least.

"N-Naruto…" Sakura whispered, blinking as she stared slightly wide-eyed and almost fearfully at him. Hinata looked too, and also saw the look. She had a similar reaction, only she gasped audibly upon seeing the change in Naruto's eyes. In fact, to them, he didn't look like Naruto at all. He looked like a completely, different, broken man.

He looked at them, seeing them staring at him in shock and fear. Knowing what they were looking at, his look softened a bit and he reached into his back pouch. From it, he drew a white and red mask, slipping it over his face easily and raising his hood.

"I know…" Naruto said, his voice slightly muffled by the mask. He then glanced round at them and nodded towards them, seeing a change in expressions. "I've got a plan. But first, Hinata, can you use your Byakugan and see if there is anything out of the ordinary going on. If I know Anko, she is not going to make this easy for us, even though we're just Genin…"

Hinata, returning to the real world with Sakura, nodded her head and looked ahead of her, slapping her hands together into a hand-sign. Sakura looked at her in surprise.

"Byakugan? You mean the Hyuuga family's infamous doejutsu?"

"Yes," Hinata replied, opening her eyes, with veins suddenly appearing on the outer side of both eyes. "Byakugan!" Her vision expanded, and she immediately zoomed in on their target. She looked around through her enhanced field of view, trying to look for any traps, or anything out of the ordinary. It was then, through her field of view, she spotted something a little bit strange; a trail of chakra leading out of the woman's headsets, something she knew was off. She followed it, careful not to strain her head too far, and spotted something in the bushes, something long with an animal chakra make-up.

"There's something…" Hinata said, catching the pair's attention. "Chakra streams… faint, but its there…and there's a… animal… like a reptile or something…"

"Hmm…" Naruto glanced behind him, not moving his head much towards the trees below. He smirked when he spotted the problem and jabbed Sakura's attention in the direction with a slight hand movement. She followed it, and also saw the problem a story below them. She gritted her teeth and looked back at their opponent.

"Great, she found us and she knows we're here!" Sakura said.

"Told you she was tricky," Naruto stated. "She would have known you were going to attack her before, and she would have easily finished you. That's why we've got to come up with a plan of attack before moving in!"

Sakura nodded, drawing a shuriken and, without turning her head, tossed it straight down at the snake hiding in the bushes below. There was a hiss, as the snake was struck, and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Anko's ear twitched, causing her to glance around and smirk.

"About time something happened…"

Naruto glanced at Sakura, the girls turning to him for further instructions, while Hinata kept a close watch on Anko out of the corner of her still active Byakugan.

"So what do we do?"

Naruto rubbed his chin in thought. "It's a risky wager, but can you use Genjutsu, Sakura?"

Sakura shrugged. "It's not an affinity of mine, but I've experimented with some. What kind do you want me to use?"

The boy glanced at her, and stared at her through his mask. "Alright, here's what I need you to do…"

A few minutes later, Anko waited and continued listening to her music, tapping her fingers and clicking at the rhythm. It was at this time of anxious waiting, the awaited attack finally came, and Anko picked up on the sounds of shuriken and kunai heading her way. A cluster of them shot from the trees to her left and she grinned, catching the first four between her fingers, and quickly throwing those back at the other four headed her way, knocking them out of the air easily.

"Too slow!" she exclaimed, only to get a mighty shock when the ground behind her exploded, and out jumped a masked Naruto with his hood pulled over. He came down at her quickly, right arm drawn back and blade emerging with a slice. Anko smirked and threw her left arm behind her, tossing a cluster of shuriken at him. They struck head on just as he was three feet from her, and he disappeared in a puff of white smoke.

"Like I said… too…huh?" Anko looked ahead of her now, craning her neck back to do so to see another cluster of four kunai flying straight at her. She back-flipped, throwing her legs up to avoid getting hit by the first two that thunked loudly against the log's side where her legs used to be hanging, and crouched low atop of the stump, low enough to avoid the last two, which shot just over her head.

Anko smirked. "Not bad, pinky!" the woman exclaimed, spotting the ruffling in the trees ahead of her. She held up her right arm, the sleeves shuffling and her arm twitching as she pumped chakra into it. "Ninja Art: Shadow Snake Hands!" she shouted, throwing her right arm forward, the four familiar snake lengths shooting out and flying directly for the place he knew where the little girl was hiding.

They struck the bushes head on, a light cry emerging forth and making Anko grin. She tugged on them, drawing back her snakes, and when they emerged, they pulled along with them a familiar pink-haired student. Upon with drawing them fully, Sakura flew right into her hand, and Anko grabbed her by the ring of her shirt collar, holding her up to see the girl staring fearfully at her.

"Gottcha, pinky!" Anko grinned at her.

Sakura stared at her through fearful eyes for the next few seconds, but then, a grin suddenly appeared on her face, and the girl exploded into a cloud of cherry blossom petals. Anko blinked in shock, watching as the petals blew around her.

"A Cherry Blossom Clone?" she asked. "No… it can't be… it doesn't feel like it!"

Suddenly, the cherry blossom petals overcame her, becoming a really thick cloud, and the woman suddenly found her hands grabbed and held down by a pair of invisible, strong hands. She spat on the blossom petals swarming around her mouth, and tried to get a better look to see who was doing it. It was then the purple-haired girl was able to grasp the full seriousness of her situation. Her eyes widened in surprise.

"Genjutsu? How can they…?" it was then, a smirk appeared on her face. "Oh, Sakura! Heh… she has quite the talent in producing illusions…"

Realizing she didn't have much time left, Anko bit on the corner of her mouth, drawing blood, the pain quickly forcing her out of her stupor. Her eyes widening, she realized that her hands and arms were being held down by both Naruto and Sakura, and Hinata was coming at her from in front, tag in hand and ready to slap on.

Gritting her teeth, Anko's arms jerked slightly and she managed to aim her hands upwards, catching the attention of the two students holding her arms down.

"Ninja Art: Hidden Mamba Technique!" Anko exclaimed. Suddenly, two grey snakes shot out of her sleeves, forcing Naruto and Sakura to release her in surprise. The long grey snakes coiled around their victims, and their heads protruded upwards, mouths becoming agape, showing the black gum underneath of the most dangerous and venomous, small snake in the Land of Fire. They hissed loudly and plunged down at their victims, biting into their necks.

Anko intended to knock them out with poison, and administer the antidote as soon as she dealt with Hinata, but got quite a shock when the two students disappeared into puffs of smoke, both of their places replaced by logs. The woman blinked and glared ahead of her, seeing Hinata lunge at her with a tag.

Holding her mouth open, a snake quickly shot out of her mouth, intending to strike the girl. Hinata, though surprised, quickly acted and leapt into the air, flipping over Anko and landing behind the woman. Anko's Hidden Cobra Tongue missed her target and struck the ground instead, but retracted quickly when she realized she had missed.

Spinning around and rising to her feet, Anko smiled and placed her hands on her hips, watching as Hinata lunged at her again, tag pocketed and Byakugan blazing. She struck out at her with an easily identifiable Gentle Fist style of fighting, unleashing devastating combinations at Anko, who easily dodged and backed away from the girl's assault, smiling.

"Not bad, Hinata!" Anko exclaimed, slipping around the girl when she struck at her with a straight jab, only to stumble forwards when she missed her mark. But her Byakugan was able to keep track and her, and she managed to pivot out of her stumble, quickly setting her sights back on her mark. "But you'll need the help of your teammates to help subdue me!"

Suddenly, a pair of hands shot out of the ground and grabbed Anko by her ankles, surprising the woman and causing her to look down, where she saw the face of a masked Naruto pop out of the ground. Were it not for the mask, you could see the grin plastered on her face.

"Who says she doesn't?"

Anko growled and was about to throw a punch down at him, but couldn't when she heard the sounds of rushing footsteps coming at her from behind. She glanced behind her, seeing Sakura rushing at her with a tag in hand. Grinning the girl leapt at the woman at full-speed. Anko tried to turn around and move to counter, but couldn't since Naruto was holding onto her legs firmly. She wasn't able to do anything in time when Sakura landed on her and slapped her tag onto her back, immediately jumping off as son as it was on.

The woman tried to reach back to remove it, but was soon overcome with a hot, electric effect. Small streams of purple electricity coursed over her body from where the tag was placed and she growled in pain, nearly collapsing to her knees.

This was a sign that she had been hit!

Looking up, she saw Hinata coming at her again with another strike, her palm glowing with chakra. Not wanting to be hit by that, Anko reached up with her thumb and ran it over the trail of blood running from her lip, where she had bitten to awaken her out of the Genjutsu. Once padding her hand with the blood, she placed it on top of Naruto's face still protruding out of the ground and shouted.

"Summoning Jutsu!" she yelled.

Hinata was halted from her attack by a blast of white smoke, with Naruto's yell of shock accompanying her little cry when the entire area was filled with blinding smoke. Sakura had managed to back away just far enough to be within shuriken range, and also far enough to watch what was unfolding. The three students watched from their positions, and Hinata and Sakura backed away slightly in shock when they saw a giant snake appeared where Anko once stood.

The massive serpent leered down at the two girls it could see, while it was on top of Naruto. Its tongue flickered out, tasting the air, and once getting a good whiff of its targets, let out a loud hiss. Sakura backed away in fear, and Hinata, trembling from head to toe, also backed off.

Anko sat atop of her summon's head, smirking as she looked down at her opponents.

"That was good, you three!" she exclaimed, running her tongue over her upper lip. "But let's up the test a little!"

"Hey! No fair!" Sakura shouted, but immediately had to jump away when the snake's tail swiped at the pink-haired girl. She commando rolled along the ground, before assuming a crouched fighting stance upon stopping.

"Everything's fair in the midst of battle, pinky!" Anko stated. "There is no mercy, sympathy or chivalry in our line of work! You must understand that!"

Not too far from the snake's position, the ground cracked, and following the fist that punched out of it crawled a dirt covered Naruto. The yellow haired Gaki growled and shook his head of any excess debris, and glared behind him at the towering snake leering over his two girl teammates. He knew he had emerged behind Anko, and had the jump on her.

Anko smirked as she looked down at Hinata, who she knew had a tag on her. "You're mine now, bright eyes!" she exclaimed in a simulated, evil voice, although she was technically sort of villain tolerant. Directing her hand, her snake lunged in at her with its jaws wide open. However, just before the snake could attack Hinata, the girl suddenly vanished in a yellow blur, and the snake ended up kissing dirt, literally. Anko blinked and sun around, seeing Hinata appear beside Sakura, accompanied by their teammate Naruto.

"Here, Hinata, take this!" Naruto whispered, giving Hinata his seal behind his back as Hinata assumed a stance. She took it, and blinked in surprise.

"N-Naruto-kun?"

"I trust you know what to do with it! Now… let's go!" Naruto shouted, drawing a kunai and taking a stance.

"Right!" Sakura and Hinata said, also taking their appropriate fighting stances.

Anko's snake turned on them, along with Anko, who was still crouched atop of her giant snake's head. She grinned as she watched the three Genin take their stances and ready themselves for battle! The Jonin had to admit, they made quite a strong team.

"Not a chance, brats!" Anko shouted, drawing her own kunai and grinning. "Do you think you three alone are enough to take on a fully-fledged Jonin?"

"Hell-yeah!" a double, familiar shout sounded from behind and above the purple haired woman, a gasp emerging from Anko's lips. She glanced behind her, shocked to see a pair of Narutos flying down at her, one of them with his right hand held outwards with a swirling, blue ball of chakra pulsating and growing in his hand, and a second Naruto feeding it chakra and giving it shape with his two hands. The ball of chakra grew and spun rapidly, with visible streams of wind entering it as the two attackers flew straight down at Anko and her snake, drawing dangerously close to her. "Hope you're ready for this!"

"Shit!" Anko growled, crouching and leaping off of her snake's head and into the air in time. "Shadow clones! And when in the hell did the gaki learn that technique!?"

"RASENGAN!" Naruto growled, thrusting his attack forward and sending it into the back of the snake's head. The attack was devastating, a blast of swirling wind slicing at the snake's head, the effects of burning from friction and the force of the attack being so great, that it shook the ground, and causing the trees to blow violently in the wind. The snake hissed and screeched loudly in pain as it was driven straight down into the earth, forced into it with a loud, splintering crash and a blast of dust clouds and debris.

Anko gritted her teeth. "Dammit! Huh?" she looked behind her again, straining her neck to look upwards. She had almost forgotten about her other opponents, and got a real big surprise when she saw Sakura flying at her from above. Kunai in hand, and glowing blue with enhanced chakra, the girl let out a yell and lunged at the woman, thrusting to blade in her direction.

"Eat this!" Sakura shouted. Anko growled and maneuvered in mid-air, twirling around with her own kunai in hand and batting Sakura's away, directing it safely to her side and watching Sakura fly past her. It was then she spotted something out of the ordinary about Sakura's weapon.

"What the?" she thought, seeing an unusual, improvised seal carved into the blade's side.

It was when she realized what it was, was it too late. A puff of smoke shot out of the seal followed by a blur, and from that blur, Naruto shot out and straight at the purple haired woman, blade in hand and moving at such a high speed that it would be impossible to avoid him. Anko growled and raised her kunai up, both of their weapons colliding with a clang.

However, it wasn't Naruto's attention to lock blades with her head-to-head, as at his current level of skill he would be beaten in just a few minutes. Instead, he just grabbed her arms with his free hand, holding her in her place and pulled them together tightly. At the same time, both of them were now falling out of the sky. Anko grinned when Naruto wrapped his legs around her waist, further restraining her.

"Aww… I didn't know you felt this way about me, gaki?" Anko exclaimed. "You're pretty good with the ladies. Do you want to make out with me, too?" she teased, recalling Naruto's early experience with Sakura and Ino.

"Tempting, but no," Naruto exclaimed.

Suddenly, Anko caught a whiff of another attacker's movements, and glared behind her, where she saw Hinata leaping at her with two more tags. It took her a split second to reach the two falling ninja, since she got a better jump start from the ground, and was soon upon the purple-haired Jonin, whose eyes widened.

"Ah shit!" Anko muttered.

"Take this!" Hinata shouted, slapping the two tags onto her back and leaping away, Naruto did so too, kicking off of Anko's stomach and back-flipping away. While Hinata and Naruto landed perfectly, Anko crashed to the ground. As soon as she dead, the three seals combined took effect, and the woman found herself zapped by high-voltages of electricity. Her back arched off the ground as she was overcome by the stunning effects of energy, and with a cry, collapsed to the ground when the seals took their full effect.

Naruto, Sakura and Hinata, amidst the rubble of the clearing, approached the woman and circled her, but were cautious at the same time. Forming a three-man circle around the unconscious woman, they looked down at her and watched her lie there, eyes closed and a clear sleeping expression on her face.

Naruto removed her mask, all three of them blinking down at the woman.

"Umm… is she… dead?" Sakura asked.

"I sure hope not," Hinata voiced, her Byakugan now deactivated and her hands held up to her chest.

"Don't worry, she's alright," Naruto said with a smirk. "She's just unconscious, and judging from the seals, will be for the next hour or so…"

"So, what should we do with her?" Sakura asked, looking up at Naruto who lowered his hood and put his mask away, his eyes and face back to normal. Both Sakura and Hinata were relieved that he was alright, and the childish smile was back on his face.

Naruto grinned, glancing towards the three posts, the girls' eyes following his. "I have an idea…"

The three of them then grinned evilly down at the woman, and they quickly got to work…

An hour later…

Anko's eyes fluttered open as she awakened from her sleep, and she looked up. Trying to move, she found that her arms and legs were stiff, and unable to move, and when she looked down at herself, she found to her bewilderment that she was tied up. Growling, she fought against her restraints to no avail, and eventually gave up when she found that there were chakra restraining seals placed on the rolls and her, courtesy and Sakura and Hinata. The chain and cuffs was of course thanks to Naruto.

"Sorry if it's a little uncomfortable," a voice spoke up in front of the woman, making her look up. When she did, she saw Naruto, Hinata and Sakura sitting around on a picnic blanket with an array of sushi, ramen, dumplings, and other assorted goods, along with some tea, set out in front of them. Anko saw that it was Naruto who was speaking to her. "We didn't know how good you were at escape techniques, so we had to take some extra precautions…"

Sakura, looking up from her plate of sushi, smiled up at the woman. "Those tags you made were specifically designed so they were supposed to knock you down on the second one, but literally knocked you out on the third one!"

"You should consider a different test, Anko-sensei! You underestimated us, and didn't expect us to attack you like that!" Hinata exclaimed, taking a dumpling in her mouth and chewing. "Mmm… delicious!"

"Here you go, Hinata-chan!" Naruto said, taking a pair of chopsticks and a dumpling and holding it up to the purple haired Hyuuga kneeling across from him. "Say, ahh!"

"Ahh," Hinata responded, opening her mouth and being fed by the young ninja. Naruto grinned and turned to Sakura, holding up a piece of sushi for her.

"Hey! Sakura-chan! Open wide!" Naruto exclaimed. Sakura smiled and opened her mouth, saying 'ahh' as well and taking the piece of sushi. She moaned at the delightful taste and swallowed. All three of them shared looks and laughed with each other, before looking towards Anko again. "So, Anko-sensei! How'd we do?!"

The woman, tied up, bound and unable to do anything, smiled at them and nodded, lowering her head humbly. "You guys did exceptionally well. It was a real surprise. You operated as a perfect three-man cell, just as a true Genin team of Konoha would. You used your skills to the best of their abilities, and came up with a perfect strategy to overcome an obviously superior opponent. I could not ask for any other students to be on my team than you three!" She looked up at them with a grin.

The three of them beamed, their faces brightening at this prospect. "So, did we pass?"

"Damn right you did!" Anko exclaimed. "Team 7 will be starting its first real mission tomorrow as the first and latest Genin Team of Konohagakure!"

"Yay!" The three of them cheered, throwing their hands in the air.

"Now, could you three do something for me?" Anko asked sweetly.

"Anything, sensei!" Sakura said.

"UNTIE ME AND LET ME HAVE SOME OF THAT DANGO!" her voice roared, using the infamous 'big-head jutsu' Iruka was famous for.

TO BE CONTINUED…