A/N: Now after two fillers we begin the second stage of the Chunin exams. This is where it gets really interesting.

Chapter 17

Kagome awoke in her bed at sunrise. Last night…she hadn't opened up like that since she'd last spoken to Sango in the feudal era. It was nice. She stood at the window and watched the sun rise over the horizon. Her scars didn't ache and there were no nightmares reminding her how she got them. With a smile she showered and dressed for the next stage of the exams. She hummed as she prepared a breakfast for herself. Before she left she gathered her supplies for their time in forest. She packed her things in a pack and sealed it in a scroll that she could carry in her hip pouch.

She decided to walk to the training ground considering she had time. Most of the village was just waking up. Even her teammates probably weren't awake yet. Sasuke, maybe but she doubted it. As she walked she noticed Asuma just a head of her strolling in the opposite direction. He met her eyes and she could see the worry and the fear inside of him. Her pushing had heart him but she wasn't pushing anyone away anymore. She smiled apologetically at him. His eyes widened in shock before he smiled brightly at her.

"Kagome," he said just as they passed each other. "Good luck and do your best."

"I will." She nodded. "Thank you."

She tried to convey as much of what she meant with her eyes. They parted with quiet goodbyes. It was getting nearer to the time when the others would awaken and begin preparing to leave. The sun was higher but everything was still peaceful, a calm before a storm, she realized. She let it go though. Right now her biggest worry was making it through the training ground with all three of her teammates intact. It would be hard since two of them were likely to kill each other. She sighed. Everyone was obsessed with Sasuke but he had been top of their class and he was an Uchiha. They all expected more from him than any of the others. Kagome was feeling it too. He cast a large shadow.

Deciding to take a detour. With a quick leap she stood atop a water tower facing the sunrise. There was still red in the sky. An old proverb rang in her mind, red skies at dawn were a warning to all. She crouched and watched the sky turn from red to orange and finally settling on clear blue. The four Hokage's stood guard over the village, their stern faces showed the strength of the village. She met the stone eyes of the Yondaime, the man whose ghost had shown her the truth about Naruto.

"Thank you, Minato-san, I will take care of him. I promise." She said.

Finally she stood and headed for the training grounds. The rest of team 7 was there already there among a horde of others. Before them was a monstrous forest that was barely contained by the wire fence that had been built around it. The rest of the teams were focused on it as well and why shouldn't they? It was a truly frightening sight. As they all stared Anko told them they would all find out why it was called the Forest of Death. Kagome couldn't help but wonder if that was Anko's version of a veiled threat. Then again, Kagome had looked into its history and had learned what lay inside its darkness. It made her wonder what type of challenge they would have to complete to make it to the next stage. They would find out soon enough, only a few teams were running late enough that they hadn't shown up yet.

"That's nothing! I'm not afraid! You think that scares me?" Naruto yelled at Anko. He mocked her previous statement in a high pitched voice.

Anko smiled tightly at Naruto's antics. Suddenly she pulled a kunai from her sleev and muttered something to herself. Kagome pushed Naruto to the side so that the blade on cut his cheek rather than do any real damage to her teammate. She tensed when she noticed that the older woman was gone. She tensed when she sensed Anko behind them. The woman was much faster than Kagome had thought. Her right hand inched toward the scroll where her sword was hidden. If Anko made ne wrong move she would be dead.

"Kids like you are killed quickly." She said with a laugh. She moved closer. "Spraying that red blood, I love…." Her tongue crept out and licked the blood from Naruto's cheek.

There was suddenly an even darker presence behind them. "Here's your kunai…" the new ninja said dropping the kunai into Anko's hand.

"Why, thank you."

Kagome couldn't hear a word of it. The presence sent off alarm bells deep in her soul that told her to run. The Ninja, from the Village Hidden in the Grass, must have been some kind of demon to have that kind of presence. Would he really send a demon here? Finally both of them backed off and Kagome felt like she could breathe again. It wouldn't happen again, she wouldn't let it and the villagers were too strong.

Annko returned to the front of the group. "Now, before we start the second test, there's something I have to hand out." She said producing a stack of papers.

Release forms? How bad do they expect this will be? Kagome thought.

"You must sign these agreement forms. There will be deaths in this one and if you don't sign these it will all be my responsibility." She laughed. "I'm going to explain the second test, then you can sign it afterwards. After signing the forms you will check in at that booth behind me." She pointed over her shoulder. "Now, the test. Simply put you will attempt the ultimate survival. The Arena will be practice ground 44 which is surrounded by locked gates. Inside is a dense forest with a river running through it. At the center, about 10 km in is the tower. During your time in there, you will be asked to complete a certain task."

The woman reached into her coat. Kagome narrowed her eyes and tensed for whatever Anko had in store.

"Using your many weapons and skills you will compete in a…" she pulled out two scrolls from her coat. "Scroll battle."

"What?"

"Scroll?"

"What does that even mean?"

"You will fight over these two scrolls, the Heaven and Earth Scrolls." Anko said. "There are 79 genin here meaning 26 teams. Half, 13, will get the Heaven scroll while the other half will get the Earth Scroll. To pass this test your team must make it to the tower with both scrolls."

"So 13 teams will definitely lose their scrolls and fail." Sakura said.

Kagome looked her over. Her teammate was more serious than she'd ever been. No doubt that all of them were going over the strengths of their teams and their individual members. With a hot head like Naruto and a weakling like Sakura they were at a serious disadvantage. But their teamwork was exemplary. They had beaten Kakashi and Zabuza by working together. If they could move past the disagreements of who was stronger or better they might survive. The only way to work through this was team work.

Anko was going over the length of the exam. They would have five days to get the second scroll and make it to the tower. A lot of the teams were panicking. They hadn't prepared for any length of time in the arena other than bringing their weapons with them. Anko warned them about how difficult things were going to get as the days wore on. Food wasn't the only problem. Enemies from other teams working to get their scroll, man eating plants and animals, and even the distance to the tower was going to be an obstacle. Not even Kagome was completely prepared for the challenges they would face. She had packed food and energy tablets but the paranoia would get to they if they stayed up too long. They'd have to take shifts, probably two at a tie for safety.

"So not only will some fail by losing the scroll but some will die from the harshness of the course. Anyway, I should tell you about the ways you could be disqualified. First, those who do not make it to the tower in time or without both scrolls will be disqualified. Second, those who lose a teammate or have a teammate killed will be disqualified. As a rule, you can't quit in the middle of the course. And one more rule, you must not look in the scrolls before you make it to the tower."

"What happens if you do?" Naruto asked.

"That's a surprise for anyone who does." Anko said with a wink. A Chunin will be asked to handle classified information, this test your trustworthiness to handle this type of mission. That's it for explanations. Turn in your forms and pick up your scrolls. Then choose a gate to star at. And one final word of advice. Don't die."

Wasn't that the point of the exercise, though? To survive in an area where you are surrounded by enemies while maintaining the security of your information? The woman was just trying to scare them, Kagome realized as she tried to plot their first move once they got into the forest. The first thought she had was to give the scroll to either Sasuke or herself because they were the strongest of the group. Sakura might even be able to handle the scroll. But then every other team knew that they were the best of their team. They would expect them to hold on to the scroll. If Naruto held the scroll it would be less secure but no one would expect it. And if they created a replica of the scroll they would be able to confuse and distract their opponents enough that they would gain an upper hand if it came to a fight. She shared a glance with Sasuke.

"It's time to turn in your release papers." Another Chunin said closing the curtain on the booth.

The group went in and handed over their papers. The two Chunin behind the table handed over the white Heaven Scroll which they were once again warned not to open. Sasuke handed the scroll over to Naruto. When Sakura began to protest Kagome silenced her by explaining what she knew Sasuke was planning. Without any further argument the headed it gate 12 to await the beginning of stage 2. Another instructor waited with them watching a clock and waiting for Anko's signal to let them in. Finally he pulled the chain from the gate and pulled it open as Anko called out for them to begin the second part of the exams.

"Ok. Let's go." Naruto said as they stepped through.

"Wait a minute, Naruto." Kagome said. "Let me see the scroll."

"What?"

"Kagome, what are doing?" Sasuke asked.

"Making it harder for anyone to get ahold of our scroll." Kagome replied taking the scroll and duplicated the scroll. She pocketed the scroll and handed the real scroll to Naruto. "Two scrolls one real, the other fake. If we get beaten I hand over the fake one and we keep moving. If teams believe the stronger members of the team will have the scroll they'll come after us and the others can take them down. Same type of distraction we used on Kakashi."

Sasuke smiled. "Nice plan, Kagome."

He had just called her by her first name. He had never called her that. The name sounded strange coming from him, more personal. Oh, gods, she was falling for him. She shook her head. There was no time for stuff like that. They needed to focus on their survival. Screams echoed from their left snapping her out of her haze. This was dangerous, extremely dangerous and they needed to get moving. She pocketed the scroll with a nod.

"That was a human scream, right?" Sakura asked. "I'm getting a little nervous."

"This….this is nothing Sakura." Naruto stuttered.

Suddenly the two were arguing. Kagome rolled her eyes they had bigger problems at the moment. Naruto went off into the woods. After a few moments he returned and began to talk about what ever had been going on before. She rolled her eyes again before she noticed there was something wrong. The injury on Naruto's face. Anko had cut Naruto's face when she threw the kunai at him. He healed fast but there would still be faint traces of a scar. After coming back from his pit stop it was completely gone. Sasuke noticed as well and took the imposter down.

"Sasuke, you didn't have to go that far?" Sakura protested.

"What the hell are you doing?" The imposter said wiping the blood from his mouth.

"Where's the real Naruto?"

"Huh?"

"The scratch that Anko gave him, you missed it. Also you mirrored the location of his shuriken holster therefore putting on the wrong side." Kagome explained pulling a kunai. "Where is Naruto?" She pressed the kunai to his throat.

"How unlucky, you figured it out." The ninja said releasing the transformation. He grabbed Kagome's arm and threw her into a tree. "Now which one of you has the scroll?" The ninja launched himself at Sakura. "Fine, I'll just have to take it by force."

Sasuke fought back with a fire jutsu that caught them all off guard. Kagome staggered to her feet nursing a wounded side. From where she stood she could tell Sasuke had found the really Naruto. She threw a kunai at the imposter catching his attention. She stared him down before going for a scroll. Sensing the danger the enemy began to advance on her. She smirked and pulled out the Heaven scroll replica. Fearing she was about to open it the man flinched giving Sasuke just enough time to free Naruto and return to the fight. He got the guy in the arm as Kagome collapsed. She was positive that her collision with the tree had fractured a rib. She hated letting them down but she needed to heal her rib before she could be of any use. It didn't matter because as soon as Sasuke returned the guy vanished.

"Are you alright?" Sasuke asked.

"I fractured a rib when I hit that tree. I'll be fine but I need some time to heal myself."

He offered her his hand. She took it and winced as she tried to pull herself up. With his help she managed to get up and walk over to the exposed root of one of the large trees. She sat there as still as she could in order to focus. She managed to focus all her energy on her fractured rib but as soon as he touched her shoulder to show his solidarity her focus shattered. An hour ago she would have sworn it was him who had feelings for her but she was wrong, it was her. She was beginning to have feelings for him. She flinched away from his hand and went back to her meditative state. Just as she closed her eyes she noticed the hurt and confusion in his eyes. The others gathered around plotting their next move she could hear them but she wasn't really paying attention.

There was a gust of wind. Kagome opened her eyes to find three more enemies standing in front of her. The one in the middle was the one who had retrieved Anko's kunai and had the dark aura. An explosion sent her flying before she could warn the others about the guy in the middle. She blacked out as soon as she hit a tree. Not again.

(With the rest of Team 7)

The grass nin released his jutsu. "Impressive, how did you know I was a fake?"

"You were listening from underground that's why I made the password that way. Naruto would never be able to remember it. So you had to be a fake." Sasuke said with a smirk.

"I see. Neither tired nor ill prepared are we? This will be more fun than I thought."

(With Naruto)

Naruto groaned. What had happened? He rolled over on to his stomach and began to push himself up. Where was he and what happened to the others? The last thing he remembered was Sasuke taking control of planning while Kagome healed herself. Wait, where was she? What if she was hurt? He struggled to get to his knees as a shadow fell across him. He looked up slowly to find a giant snake staring down at him with hungry eyes. Mentally cursing he fell back on his haunches. He had never seen a snake that size. Before he could move to defend himself the snake lunged and coiled itself around him. In a single shot it swallowed him whole.

(With Kagome)

Her head was ringing as she began to wake up. Hitting the tree had probably given her a concussion. Besides her head her back and side were the most injured areas. She had managed to reduce the injury to her side down to a bruised bone so the collision hadn't done much more damage to the already wounded area. She opened her eyes and moved her head to get a look at where she had ended up. She let her energy flow through her body healing all the damage down since they entered the forest. Kagome was starting to get the point of the nickname Forest of Death and why they'd had to sign all that paper work. It was extremely likely that they would die here if they weren't careful and so far they were doing poorly at sticking together and watching each other's backs.

As she got up she sensed she was surrounded. "Who are you?" Kagome called out.

"Ohhhhh, she sensed us." A female voice taunted from directly in front of her.

"Do not discount her. Remember our Lord's warning." A male voice stated from her left.

"She is much more powerful than she appears." Another male reminded from her right.

"Again, I'll ask who are you?" Kagome growled.

"I am Masaru of the Village Hidden in the Dusk." The first boy said.

"I am Hibiki also of the Dusk." The other boy said.

"And I am Hitomi of the Dusk." The girl said.

"We know much about you, Kagome Higurashi. So far you have travelled to be here." Masaru said.

She tensed. They were with Naraku, then. Which meant he had aligned himself with a village or had been clever enough to create one using incarnations and puppets. Reading the team's auras she could tell that it was the later. Whatever they were they were his. In her current state she would need a real plan to get out alive. She pulled out a scroll with her set of twin swords sealed in it. Pulling them out she channeled her holy energy into it. Her first thought was to go after each of them directly. She sensed that if one was attacked the others would come to their aid. She would need two distractions. Or they could fight each other. First she would need to draw them out and judge their strengths and weaknesses. She sheathed one sword and pulled out three kunai with explosive tags on them.

Step one, draw them out. She threw all three at once and jumped to a higher branch. Step two, draw attention. She cast a simple fire style jutsu. They turned to look up at her. Their last mistake. Step three, cast genjutsu and turn friend to foe. Soon enough they turned on each other and she had the chance to see what they could do. The boys, twins, were both weapons users. They showed no other abilities besides their enhanced speed and strength. The girl was different. She reminded Kagome of Kanna. Highly perceptive, exceptionally strong, and the ability to manipulate her opponents with her mind. She filed the information away before using the same genjutsu to knock them out.

"Really should not underestimate my resolve." Kagome said jumping down. "Let's see what kind of scroll you've got?" As soon as she retrieved their scroll she turned to try and find out where she was and how to get back to her team.

(With Sasuke and Sakura)

"You want my Earth scroll right?" The grass nin asked. "Considering you have a Heaven scroll." He held his scroll out for them to see and then opened wide and swallowed it whole. "Shall we begin the battle for each other's scrolls? And put our lives on the line?"

The two were completely shocked. Suddenly he attacked them. It was vicious and the wounds they received should have killed him. Both collapsed to their knees. What was going on? Was it a genjutsu? No, Sasuke realized, it was the bloodlust and killing intent the poured off of the grass nin before them. He looked over at Sakura. She was in worse straights than he. She was trembling as she watched the man before her but didn't seem to see anything. Neither could move.

The grass nin laughed. "So you can no longer move."

Sasuke managed to pull out a kunai before the ninja could attack them in anyway. He stabbed himself in the leg and pushed Sakura out of the way before the other ninja threw two more kunai their way.

(With Naruto)

"Damn you! Spit me out!" Naruto growled.

He was stuck. Completely trapped. He needed to get out of there. No matter how much he squirmed the snake didn't seem fazed at all by the annoyance. He would need to use the snake some kind of pain in order to get it to spit him out. Suddenly he had a brilliant idea. He use his shadow lone jutsu to fill the snake's stomach to the bursting point. He stood up as soon as he could and stretched a bit. Now he just needed to find the others.

(With Sasuke and Sakura)

The two were trying to hide. Fear and panic were still pumping through his veins. Sasuke's leg hurt but he would ask Kagome to heal it for him later. If she would touch him. Damn it, he was getting distracted. Sakura started to talk and he immediately covered her mouth. He was so distracted he didn't even notice the snake near the side of his head until Sakura cried out. He jumped away as she continued to scream at him to get away. All he could see was the wide mouth of the oversized snake. He managed to pin it to a tree using his shuriken. Just as he had begun to relax the grass nin came out through the head of the snake. Their stomachs rolled in disgust.

"You shouldn't relax even for a moment." The other ninja warned. "Prey should always be trying their best to run away in the presence of a predator."

The grass nin's body morphed out of the snake and began coiling around the branch going after Sasuke. Before he was even close a myriad of weapons impaled themselves in the branch in front of him. Sasuke turned half expecting to see Kagome. Instead there was Naruto bearing a cocky smirk.

"I'm sorry, Sasuke. I forgot the code word." The blond admitted.

"Great job, Naruto!" Sakura called.

"Naruto!" Sasuke called. "I know you think you're ool and here to save us but forget it! Run away! This one is on a whole 'nother level."

"Looks like you successfully defeated that giant snake, Naruto-kun." The grass nin said.

Panic was setting in again. Even with Naruto here they would likely be killed and if they didn't find Kagome they would be out for good anyways. He released his sharigan and relaxed. If they gave up now they would be able to get out with their lives. He took the scroll from his hip pouch and held it out in front of him. He reminded himself this was the only way and that Kagome was injured and alone. This had to be done.

"I will give you the scroll. Please take it and leave us." Sasuke yelled holding the scroll out.

"Don't tell me you're giving up, Sasuke. Are you that much of a coward?" Kagome's voice said right above Sasuke.

He looked up. Hanging from the branch above him was his mysterious teammate. She wasn't a hundred percent he could tell but she had managed to heal her side at least. She smiled and jumped down to land right next to him. Her footing wasn't as perfect as normal but she didn't fall. There was something different about her that had nothing to do with her injuries. On her hips were twin short swords he had never seen before. It didn't surprise him that she would have more tricks up her sleeve. Good, they'd need every one of them.

"So you survived my little friends, eh, Kagome-chan?"

"You should ask if they survived each other. They turned on each other so easily." She smirked. "Were you really going to give up Sasuke? Did you really think he would take it and leave?"

The grass nin laughed. "She's right, you know. Considering I could just kill you and take the scroll." He bit his thumb and dragged it across a tattoo on his arm.

"Shut up!" Naruto yelled running at the enemy.

"No! Run away! Naruto!" Sasuke yelled.

Kagome narrowed her eyes. Obviously, the grass ninja was trying to perform a summoning jutsu. She jumped in and intercepted Naruto and pulled him out of the way. She watched over her shoulder as the form of a snake appeared within the smoke. This was bad. The shock wave hit them and threw them into the tree where they stood. It wasn't as bad as before but her bruises were getting bigger. The others called out to them. Naruto was injured having taken the brunt of the attack when they hit the tree. Suddenly he was up attacking the snake. He was giving off some kind of demonic aura and then she remembered the Nine Tailed Fox, the demon that had attacked the village that the Yondaime's ghost had told her about. Still it was hard to believe that this was Naruto before her. When the enemy turned on Sasuke, the blond stepped in and held the snake at bay.

"Hey…you aright, scaredy-cat?" Naruto asked his shocked teammate.

Sasuke could have sworn he'd heard those words before. He had said them to Naruto in the Land of the Waves. Before he could respond the grass ninja's snake like tongue wrapped around Naruto and pulled him away. Naruto squirmed but the enemy had too tight a grip on him. He was trapped, again.

"So the Nine Tails brat is still alive. When your emotions are heightened the power of the Nine Tails overflows. Very interesting." The ninja pulled up Naruto's shirt. "Oh my, the seal is visible."

A chill ran down Kagome's spine. The ninja pulled his hand back and Kagome could see the chakra flowing in to the tips of his fingers. Whatever this guy was about to do it would put Naruto on the brink. Just as she thought that he rammed his fingers into Naruto's stomach. The demonic aura diminished as quickly as it had come. Kagome went cold. From what she knew of demon vessels, jinshuriki as they were called here, she knew that the demon's aura was a part of the vessel's life force. If the nine tails was suppressed completely Naruto could die. The same thing would happen if the demon was removed. Just as her teammate began to fall, Kagome jumped to his rescue. Above her Sakura called out for Sasuke to get his act together. At the moment the petal haired girl was keeping a more level head than Sasuke. Standing over her fallen comrade Kagome watched Sasuke close his eyes and calm himself before bringing himself back to the moment at hand. She gasped as his eyes turned blood red. He had finally achieved the first release of his sharingan.

A trill of awe ran through her body as Sasuke moved with speed she couldn't imagine from a human. Koga had greater speed but he had a boost from jewel shards. This speed was all Sasuke. Even with his speed, Sasuke was thinking, planning. It took her a little while to see it but then she noticed the strings tied to Sasuke's shuriken and kunai. Their enemy did as well but apparently Sasuke was still prepared for that. He held a single wire between his teeth. A line of fire spread from Sasuke's mouth down the wire. The enemies body was consumed by the flames but as they died down Kagome's blood ran cold.

"No." She whispered.

A/N: Hey guys, remember when I said I was never going to write a long chapter again yeah apparently I lied. Whoops. Anyway, sorry about the cliffly this chapter was just getting way too long for me. I will be posting the next chapter very soon.