Hello, everyone, I'm back with a new chapter! Enjoy!

* Review response:
eclipseX, Umm... As Hakkyou no Yami said about dominating the exams, the Forest of death won't be... canonical. Like what I've come up with, or hate it, but their time in the forest will be 6 hours and 17 minutes.
nobother, OBSERVER01, Clemerl, Elemental Dragon Swordman, Hanzo of the Salamander, Sephieroth, thank you!
Reishin Amara, the grin is rather small now, compared to what it will be in 'several months'... *wink*
ChaosLord SilverLink310, Sai isn't the strongest fighter of the team, true, but even in "Naruto" ninjas aren't only about being machines of large-scale destruction. As for Iruka-Kakashi rivalry... I'll try to think of something.
Still Not Dead Yet, you are right. I based Naruto's precognition on spider sense ( (c) Marvel) somewhat. But I gave my version somewhat plausible explanation, instead of the ability 'just being there'. And I like Ino (she won't be included in any of the main pairings (if there will be more than Naruto/Sachiko)), so I'm breaking her off being fangirl earlier.
Hakkyou no Yami, I've answered your ...question via review reply.

* Jutsu list:
Kage bushin - (A-rank) Shadow clone - creates solid chakra-made copy of user (to be destroyed shadow clone must get moderate damage). Shadow clones have perfect copy of user's mind and memory. When dispelled, shadow clones return experience of their 'life' to user. Shadow clones split user's chakra by clones number +1 (if you create 3 clones you'll have only 1/4 of chakra left (minus chakra needed to create clones)) that's why they are mostly used for information gathering.
Doton: toge ryudou - (B-rank) Earth style: spiked land - My original ninjutsu. Does exactly what its name suggests: turn a big patch of land in front of the user into stone spikes.
Kawarimi - (E-rank) Change of body stance - substitutes user with nearby object.
Jinton: jinryuukamu - (bloodline jutsu) Dust style: dust dragon bite - creates a dragon head from the dust. the head will fly forward and byte the first thing in its way.
Chouju giga: doragon - (B-rank) Super beast imitation drawing: dragon - allows to animate ink drawings, specifically dragon in this case.

Disclaimer: I DO NOT own "Naruto" in any shape or form.

"speaking"
'thinking'
"speaking of higher beings / Naruto while using yoki / jutsus / Iruka's 'demon head' speaking"
'thinking of higher beings'

chapter 8: Chuunin selection exams, part I

The training in the last week before the exam was quite productive for the team five. And while Sai concentrated on his general fitness and his skills with ninja-to, Sachiko adapted the 'kaze no yaiba' jutsu, so that she could launch it from her stilettos when the wind chakra was applied to them. This made white-haired kunoichi to be much more dangerous opponent in an armed combat too. She also learned two earth-style attack ninjutsu and a simplest wall from Naruto. The Kyuubi jinchuuriki himself finally managed to successfully use iron skin technique in the fight, thus becoming the real juggernaut now. All this made Iruka be sure that his team will do good at the exams...

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The morning, when chuunin selection exams would start, Naruto woke in a bit unusual way. Sure, he was used to sleeping with his girlfriend together in one bed, and they both enjoyed it, but usually it was Sachiko who slept with her arms around him, pushing him into her front. Today, though, they had their roles reversed, and thus the problem of Naruto's morning wood pressed into her buttocks appeared. The blond shinobi tried to get up without disturbing her, but failed as his movements woke her up too. He fully expected her to yell at him for being pervert, but instead Sachiko rubbed her bum into his erection, purring softly at the sensation, before finally opening her eyes. She saw what time it was now, and almost jumped from the bed, fully concentrated on getting ready to take the exam now.

"Get up, Naru-kun! We don't have time!" She said loudly as she removed the oversized T-shirt she slept in right in front of him. She then threw on smaller white T-shirt that stopped at her belly button; it was followed by her dark-gray shorts, with the kunai and her stilettos' holsters and a pouch already attached to them. The white-haired girl finished dressing by putting black leather jacket, leaving it unzipped though, and fingerless gloves of similar material on – it was one of the widely-known secrets that when earth chakra was channeled through leather, it became a good light armor... Finally, she made most of her hair onto the ponytail, leaving only few locks on each side of her face.

"You are beautiful..." The Kyuubi jinchuuriki breathed out, admiring her new looks. He too had just finished dressing, wearing dark-gray leather waistcoat over blue T-shirt, and black pants. As he didn't use weapons as much as Sachiko did, he only had two holsters for kunai and a pouch on him... He too, as his girlfriend insisted, changed his looks for the exam.

"Thank you." Sachiko said, before giving him a quick kiss and disappearing from the bedroom... After the quick, but filling breakfast, the duo raced to the academy.

They ended arriving there in about twenty five minutes before the exam would start. Sai was already waiting there, drawing something in his notebook. After the members of the team five said 'good morning', to each other, they entered the academy. They reached the second floor when they saw lots of genin trying to enter the room with nameplate reading '301'.

"Correct me if I am wrong, Sachiko-chan, but wasn't room 301 on the third floor?" Naruto asked quietly, so that only she and Sai could hear him. The white-haired kunoichi nodded, as did Sai.

"You are right." She said. "Let's go" And the team continued on their way to the real room 301. When they finally reached it – and it was the biggest auditory of the academy – Iruka-sensei was standing in front of the auditory's doors.

"Good morning." The scarred jounin said. "I'm happy to see you all here. After all, the chuunin exams, first tests at least, can be taken only by a team... Anyway, I'm here to wish you all the best luck as since the moment you enter this room, you will be on your own. Do your best, and remember, that I'm proud that I've taught you."

"Thank you, sensei." Sachiko said.

"Don't worry, we will show everyone what a good teacher you are!" Naruto added. "We will pass these tests!" Iruka shook his head at his blond student's proclamation, as the trio entered the auditory...

The auditory was a giant room with many many desks, most of which were occupied by ninja from the foreign Hidden villages. Out of their batch, only team eight was there, but as none of the team five members had good friends there, they didn't do more than say 'hello'. Sai quickly disappeared into the mass of other genins, finding himself a seat somewhere, and continuing drawing... Naruto leaned against the wall in the corner next to the doors, and Sachiko leaned into him, having her boyfriend wrap his arms around her...

A couple of minutes later Suna trio arrived. Naruto and Gaara nodded to each other, but no words were said... Then team ten arrived. Sachiko noticed that Ino now had extra holsters and bigger pouch on her, meaning that the platinum-blond girl took the advice seriously and was trying to become a strong kunoichi now... Then a team of weirdos in white bodysuits from the Hidden Rain entered the auditory, followed closely by another team from Konoha: a boy with big eyebrows in green spandex suit, a brunette in Chinese-style clothes with her hair made into two buns, and a Hyuuga boy... Finally, just a couple of minutes before the exam would start, team seven arrived... Well, arrived Sasuke, dragging his fan-girls, who were hanging on each on his arms, much to the boy's annoyance... Seeing her crush, Ino calmly walked towards him, trying to show some restrain, as she remembered Sachiko's words about being annoying.

"Already giving up, Ino-pig?" Sakura asked. The platinum-blond kunoichi gave her rival a glare.

"Hello Sasuke-kun, nice to see you at the exam too." She said to the Uchiha boy. Much to Sakura's and Ami's annoyance, Sasuke was more tolerating to Ino now, than he was to them, but, still, the dark-haired boy only nodded as a 'hello'.

"What have you done to my Sasuke-sama?" Sakura yelled, making almost everyone in the auditory look at them.

"No, he is mine, forehead!" Ami inserted as loudly. But before the cat-fight could start, team eight, cleared the air a bit, as Kiba called the reunion of the rookie twelve. Then a gray-haired teen in glasses approached team, asking if it was their first time taking the exam... Neither Naruto nor Sachiko paid much attention to them, until Sasuke called:

"Tell me about Rock Lee, Gaara of the Sand and Uzumaki Naruto." The gray-haired teen, named Yakushi Kabuto, sighed.

"You know their names, it's no fun." He said, before taking three ninja cards from his deck. "Village guests first... Sabaku no Gaara, twelve years old – just like you" The gray-haired teen inserted "Genin of Hidden Sand village, so I can't tell you about his skills anything. He did forty two D-ranks, thirteen C-ranks and a B-rank. It is said that he returned from every mission without even a scratch." Kabuto read from the card. "Now, Rock Lee... He is a year older than you. His jounin-sensei is Maito Gai and his teammates are Hyuuga Neji and Tenten. Lee-san has almost jounin-level taijutsu, speed and strength, but he is absolutely lacking in other areas... He had completed sixty three D-ranks and fifteen C-ranks." Sasuke muttered something under his breath. "Uzumaki Naruto... He is twelve years old, like you. His skills are..." Kabuto had to stop reading as Naruto's kunai pierced the card in his hands, destroying whatever sealing array powered it.

"That is a confidential information." The Kyuubi jinchuuriki stated pulling the kunai back, along with the card, by the wire attached to the blade's handle. Kabuto gave a glare to the blond jinchuuriki, but said nothing, instead giving general information about this year's exam to the rookies. Somehow, gray-haired teen managed to hurt Oto team's pride, but before any real fight could have started, the auditory was flooded with KI, coming from large man in black cloak and bandana on his scarred face, who was standing in front of two dozens of chuunins in gray suits.

"Listen here, maggots!" The man roared. "There will be no fighting without my permission, and even then killing moves are forbidden. Is tat clear?" The team from the Hidden Sound – and everyone else – nodded. "Now. I'm Morino Ibiki, and I'll be your proctor for the first test! Come here one by one and draw a paper from the box..." Ibiki gestured to the box one of the chuunins held. "The number you get will tell where you will sit."

It took some time, but finally everyone was seated. Naruto happened to sit next to the youth in green spandex – Rock Lee – in the third row. Sai somehow ended on the other side of the same row while Sachiko was somewhere in the back, next to Suna kunoichi, Temari. Ibiki went on about the rules of the test, which could be summed up to: you have ten points; for every wrong answer you lose a point; you have to answer at least one question correctly; each member of your team should answer at least one question correctly too; if you get caught cheating, you lose two points.

'Does he want us to cheat?' Naruto, thought. Sachiko, Sai and many others had similar thoughts. 'But he wants us to do it unnoticed. It's like information gathering mission – if you get caught, you lose.' Ibiki gave the signal, and genins turned the paper, finding out what the questions they had to answer were. 'Damn! No normal genin should be able to answer even half of these!' Suddenly Naruto saw a thin stream of ink going onto the desk in front of him. The ink flowed to the paper and 'wrote' the message in the corner: "With this what one writes, all of us will see. You will have to rewrite the answers in pencil, though – they will check it too. I will cancel the jutsu in an hour." Then the ink flowed to the tip of his pencil. It took all of Naruto's willpower not to shout to Sai that he was genius...

By the end of the hour, Sachiko had given three answers to her teammates. Naruto had cheated from a man in front if him another one without being caught. Sai answered one too, meaning that the team five had answers to five questions out of the nine given... Then Sai canceled the jutsu and his ink disappeared from Naruto's and Sachiko's papers, leaving them an hour and a half to write some answers for themselves... The Kyuubi jinchuuriki, not wanting to risk getting caught and losing point, as he was unable to answer any of the questions left himself, thought about what happened just before the test started instead.

'Information about missions completed isn't exactly public knowledge even in Konoha. In villages like Suna this info is guarded much better. How did Kabuto get all that information?' The only answer Naruto could come up with was that the gray-haired teen was hiding some secrets about himself... "Ibiki-san, one of the Leaf genins, Yakushi Kabuto possesses information no normal genin should have access to. He might be not who he seems." The blond shinobi wrote in the corner of his paper...

"Alright, maggots!" The proctor roared to the auditory, which now was missing at least a half of the teams. "It's time for the tenth question!" Indeed, it was only fifteen minutes before the end of the test. "But before I will ask it, some more rules should be announced..." And Ibiki told those rules, which resulted in more teams quitting. "And now... To those who remained in the room, I have only one thing to say... YOU PASS!" The man roared with a small laugh, shocking many genins. The next several minutes Ibiki spent explaining the true purpose of the tenth questions, showing more of his scars along the way... Then, at one moment jounin suddenly jumped back a little, and the next moment something crashed through the window. Four kunai shot from this something pinning it to the floor and ceiling, revealing it to be a purple-haired kunoichi in a brown trench-coat and a banner that read "Meet the proctor of the second test, sexy and deadly Anko Mitarashi." The kunoichi looked at the auditory.

"Sixty six? You passed sixty six? Are you getting soft in you age?" She almost shouted at Ibiki, who didn't even flinch.

"Anko." He said with a small glare. "You are early." The scarred man paused for a moment. "And it seams that this time genins are much more promising." The purple-haired kunoichi shrugged, before looking back at the nineteen teams that passed the first test.

"Now, maggots, you have no time to celebrate this – the second test starts soon, follow me!" And she started waking towards the doors of the auditory.

Anko led twenty two teams that passed Ibiki's test towards the training area 44. Many genin eyed the silent great trees behind the fence with all types of warning signs on it with unease. Which the purple-haired kunoichi immediately noticed. Finally they stopped in front of a small post where two chuunins were sitting. Anko turned to the exam participants.

"I see many of you are already working their way towards the understanding why this are is also called 'the forest of death'." Several nervous gasps could have been heard. "And this is also where the second test of your exam will be. This is survival test... So, now, let me tell you the rules. Each team will be given a scroll before the test. Eleven will get the 'heaven scroll', eleven – the 'earth scroll'. No one but your team will know which scroll you have. To pass this test, you must bring both scrolls to the tower in the center of the forest within one hundred and twenty hours from the beginning of the test..."

"But that means... Half of the teams will fail?" Sakura asked nervously. Anko gave her a sadistic smirk.

"No. At very least half of the teams will fail. I bet, no more that eight or nine will reach the tower." The pink-haired kunoichi shrank and tried to hide behind Sasuke.

"Five days? What will we eat there?" Now it was Chouji, who asked the question. The proctor looked at him and chuckled.

"There's a lot of food in the forest. Just try not to become food yourself." There was a short pause. "Anyway, back to the rules. You will fail the test if you don't reach the tower with both scrolls within the time limit, one or more of your teammates are wounded or crippled – yes, killing is allowed in this test – or you open your scroll. And before we start, I want everyone to sign there papers." Anko said, gesturing towards a stack of papers of her chuunin assistants was holding. "There are the forms that basically say I'm not responsible if something happens to you in the forest. Those who don't sign will be automatically disqualified." After the forms were signed and collected, each team was given a scroll. Team five happened to get one of the 'heaven scrolls'. In secret from the chuunins, Sai managed to mark each of the five 'earth scrolls' left with his ink... When all teams finally had a scroll, each was led by a chuunin – those form the first test, joined the two were there originally – to a different gate.

The second test started at one past morning, and, thanks to Sai's ink, team five located their 'earth scroll' within first thirty minutes. One of the Konoha teams, none of the team five members knew had it. So they decided to act according to an improvised assault method...

Three genin were surprised, when another team suddenly jumped at the from the bushes.

"Rookies." The leader of the team, Shibire, stated, when he remembered who their opponents were. "They even don't know how to attack those who are stronger than them... Let's show what the real ninja can do!" He said and his two teammates nodded in agreement... They got their first surprise when they found out that all three of their opponents were using absolutely identical fighting style... Those were solid clones of the same person.

"Something's wrong." One of the other two genin said, as if feeling the real attack that was about to happen.

"Jinton: jinryuukamu!" Female voice said from behind the trees, and a dust in a form of a Chinese dragon attacked the unlucky team.

"Chouju giga: doragon!" Two images came alive from Sai's scroll and joined their dust brother in the attack.

"Doton: toge ryoudo!" Naruto created a ring of thick sharp spikes around their target, so that they couldn't dodge the attacks of his teammates easily... One of the tree genin, Minoji, they attacked was fast enough to use kawarimi to get away from the three dragons, but his two teammates weren't as lucky and were brought down.

"W-Who are you? S-Show yourself!" Minoji said, preparing to fight his team's attackers... He was very surprised to see that his team was attacked by exactly that rookie team, the clones were impersonating.

"Give us your scroll and we will leave." Naruto demanded. The genin in front of them happened to be clever enough to understand that he alone stood no chance against these three, and just pointed at the downed team leader... Without any more words the team collected the 'earth scroll' they needed and disappeared into the forest.

Naruto, Sachiko and Sai reached the tower at a little past seven in the evening – they ran into the large snake that was a summon on their way towards the tower, and were delayed for about an hour because of that. Entering the tower, they found themselves in a hall with no visible door and a panel with a riddle across from the door they used to enter this hall.

"I think, we should open the scrolls." The Kyuubi jinchuuriki said.

"But, Anko-san said that we will fail the test if we open them." Interjected Sai.

"Our task was to bring both scrolls to the tower, which we've already done. And since we can't see any other way to continue, opening the scrolls seems to be the best option." Reasoned Naruto.

"I agree with that." Said Sachiko. And so they opened the scrolls... There was a poof of smoke.

"Well done maggots!" Ibiki's voice roared from the smoke. "You'd have beaten the previous record by fifteen minutes if you were the first team to arrive. Congratulations. And nice trick with the ink during my test."

"You saw us and didn't take points?" Sachiko asked in a small surprise.

"It was above chuunin level, so you were counted as those who cheated undetected... It actually took me twenty minutes to understand what it was." The proctor of the first test did a step towards team five. "You are the team under Iruka-san?" Three genins nodded. "Hokage-sama asked me something that concerns you directly. Follow me, I will show you where you will stay until this test finishes, and we will talk there."

That's all, folks. Leave me a review!