Author's Note: I'm back with more Chunin Exam action. I do apologize if the last chapter seemed similar to any other fanfiction on this site but I can't know every one of them and if I do draw inspiration from one of them I'll announce it here. That being said the second portion of the Exam came straight from the first anime I ever watched. You can try to guess it and I'll announce it at the bottom.

Being the first team back was both good and bad. It was good because it showed us as being worthy of notice and it was bad for the same reason. Being noticed is not really a great thing unless you have the power to defend yourself. I glanced at my teammates who were both resting against the wall like I was. I think we would be okay for now though.

Slowly, passing teams trickled into the starting area. More than a few had injuries and the most common of them seemed to broken bones. I did see some signs of heavy poisoning and some just seemed to be exhausted mentally. The latter I assumed were put through some kind of genjutsu session. One of our teams came in with two of them supporting their teammate who seemed to have broken both legs.

I motioned them over and I had them lay the black haired boy down on the ground. My hands glowed green as I ran them along his body searching for any other physical trauma I might have missed at a glance.

"Did the people who did this to you poison you at all? Is there anything else I should be aware of besides your legs? What's your name?" He shook his head and then gritted his teeth in agony when his legs were jostled.

"My name's Shou."

"Alright then Shou, you're going to feel numb for a little bit just so I can do the next part without you passing out in pain. Just tell me when you can't feel anything and I'll begin." I had to wait about a minute or two before he signaled he couldn't feel anything.

Great. Both of his legs were broken at the knee and his right had fractures on both his tibia and fibula. Lucky both breaks were relatively clean and there were no bone fragments to deal with. Getting him up and moving wouldn't take long but he would need time to fully recover. I started with the fractures as they were easier and then moved on to the main break after the bones had knit back together. I gestured for his male teammate to come closer.

"I need you to hold his leg after I set the bone correctly. Can you do that?" I could see him gulp and his eyes darted between Shou's face to his knee before he nodded. "Great. One second then." Carefully manipulating the knee back into place took a moment and when I had it positioned correctly I had his teammate hold it in place.

Thankfully his hands were rock solid and I was able to knit the bones back together swiftly. "You're doing great. Now the left leg." The process was repeated a second time and Shou tried to sit up before I gently pushed him back down.

"Not just yet. I want to see if there's anything I missed before I let you stand up." I ran my mystical palms all along his body, taking extra time to focus on both break areas, before I considered him to be in reasonable health. "Take it easy for a bit and you should be back in shape in no time. I'm going to clear out the numbing sensation now." As I was saying this I was tapping on his arm to alert him to the fact that his newly healed bones were still weak and needed time to properly settle. No point in announcing it to the entire room.

How long?

A day, maybe two.

He grunted and made a show of standing up and leaning against the wall where I could feel him channeling chakra to stick to it in order to take the pressure off his legs. Good thinking on his part.

I went back to my team ignoring the stares from the surrounding teams. I know I'm supposed to show off but I really don't like to do it in front of a room full of enemy ninja. Just one of the things I'll have to do for Konoha I suppose. Shisui gave me a pat on my shoulder as I got close enough.

"Good work on Shou." Nodding slightly I leaned back against the wall and settled in for Aiko to come back and announce the secondary portion of the Exam. It took about an hour for her to arrive and by the time that she did I could see that 30 teams had passed the first portion of the Exam. Sadly, I didn't see the second genin group from Konoha. I did see Sora's team though.

"Alright you brats listen up." The quiet muttering in the room became silent as she spoke. "Congratulations on passing what must be for some of you your first interrogation even if it wasn't a full on torture session like it usually is." I could see discontent on the faces of some of the more heavily injured people. They seemed to disagree with her strongly but no one spoke up.

"Some of you may wonder why we had such a harsh task and I would tell them to grow up. This sort of thing happens with far more frequency than you expect and if you can't deal with that then you should stay a genin for the rest of your short life. That being said this was also a test on working around restrictions to accomplish your goal without breaking the rules. Some of you managed this better than others." She looked around the room and I could see her gaze stay on me for half a second longer than anyone else.

"Now,' she clapped her hands. 'It is time for a choice. Do you continue on with the Exam or not? I can tell you right now that it will be a two hour long run just to get to the second portion of the Exam. Take five minutes to decide starting now."

Immediately furious whispers filled the room and I could see the teams where one of their member had a broken leg resign themselves to failing. There was no question that my team would go forward but I glanced at them anyways and received nods. Good. My gaze flickered over to Shou's team where they had huddled together around him.

They could continue or not but I would recommend that they not continue. No matter how Shou tried to hide it his bones were still fragile at the moment. I knew that if his teammates helped him for the duration of the run and they found a quiet place to hide for a day or two they could still be competitors. The five minutes passed quickly and Aiko's voice rose over the chatter.

"Five minutes is up. Time to make a choice." There was a moment of hesitation to be the first team to resign but then a hand was raised and then another. In the end there was only 21 teams left with Shou's team being one of them. The nine teams were escorted from the room before Aiko spoke again. "All of you have made your choice. Follow me then. If you can't keep up you will be disqualified."

She set out on a moderately fast pace and guided us out of the village and to the west into the sand dunes. The sun was already hanging in the sky when we had began our run and by the halfway mark it was well into the sky and bearing down on us as we ran. I could see some of the more injured people begin to falter and I glanced back at Shou to see him grimacing in pain. Hmm, to help or to not help?

Both had their benefits and drawbacks. If I helped him his team could be an ally during the coming portion of the Exam. On the other hand if I helped him their team would be marked as weak and targeted by the others before we could meet up. If I didn't help they would fail but they would be alive. My thoughts raced back and forth before I decided that this was something I couldn't decide for him.

I motioned to my teammates to fall back with me and decreased my pace until I was running alongside him. He gave me a strained glance as I dropped beside him and tilted his head.

"Yesss?" His voice dropped into a hiss. That would be the pain from moving around before you're fully healed I wanted to chide him but didn't.

"I need you to make a decision." His eyes narrowed and his teammates moved closer to overhear. "I can carry you the rest of the way without any trouble but I need to know if you want me to do that?"

"Why didn't you offer this at the start?" I glanced back at his female teammate. There had been plenty of anger in her voice and I took a moment before I responded.

"Because it would have made you look like easy prey for the other teams. It will still make you look that way but less so than if I had just carried Shou from the start. We don't know what the second portion will entitle and if we're separated you could be hunted down then killed off." Her mouth opened and no doubt an angry retort was coming my way before Shou cut her off.

"He's right Ayaka." Her mouth clicked closed and she shot a glare at him. "We wouldn't have even been able to participate in the second portion if not for him and now that I'm having trouble going onwards he's giving us the chance to go on or not." There was a mulish look on her face as she turned her head away from him. Shooting me an apologetic look he spoke again, "Would you mind giving us a minute to decide?"

"Of course." Veering off to the right with my team to give them some privacy while they deliberated whilst my teammates ran alongside me for our own discussion.

"Are you sure you can do this without tiring yourself out?" I gave Hina a nod.

"Would you be using the technique you used for the first portion of the Exams? If so could you carry others even if Shou's team decides to drop out?" I sent him an amused look.

"I could if I was so inclined. Why? Are you looking for a free ride?" He had the decency to blush slightly before he rallied.

"I only asked as it would ensure that our team arrived at the location fully fresh and ready to fight." Sending a doubtful look his way I glanced over at Hina to see a hopeful look in her eyes at the prospect of not running through this heat. 'My team is full of lazy people' I lamented mentally.

"Fine,' I grouched, 'if Shou's team decides to not continue I can carry you guys." Ignoring when they high fived behind my back I looked over to Shou just in time to see his left leg buckle and the distinct snap of his bones breaking again. Muttering under my breath I sent a shadow clone but kept running. Hina sent a curious glance my way but I just pointed back towards Shou's team.

A proctor had stopped next to them and while I was too far away to hear their words the expressions on their faces told me enough. They couldn't keep up so they were disqualified. Her lips thinned into a line at the sight before she looked back at me.

"So about that ride then?" Mentally sighing chakra strings flowed out of me and attached to both of them before they were lifted off the ground to float alongside me. Sure I was showing off but most of the genin here would just see my two teammates floating alongside of me as I ran. Maybe even a few chunin would be stumped at what I was doing but I didn't hold any confidence in that seeing as how Suna was famous for its Puppet Brigade. I could see Sora glancing at me with a calculating gaze and gave him a friendly wave. Even Aiko had glanced back at me before shrugging and continuing onwards.

The rest of the trip was boring and hot. Every so often I could feel the gazes of the enemy teams looking towards us and with practiced ease ignored them. Two more teams were unable to keep up due to injuries received during the first portion of the Exam and were disqualified leaving 18 teams remaining. Our destination came into sight as a large cliff rose up from the horizon and it didn't take long to actually reach the cliff face where I could see numerous holes leading into the interior of it. Aiko stopped at the base of the cliff and turned to face us.

"Listen up now as I explain the rules of the second stage. The Cavern of Despair will be your next Exam location. Each team was assigned a stone tablet with their number on it at the beginning of the Exam and for this portion of the Exam you have to have six points in total to pass. Your team badge will be worth three points." She gestured to the cliff face behind her.

"You will be released into the cave system behind me with the purpose of tracking down your targeted team whose badge will be worth three points as well. For the teams that are unlucky enough not to find their target or lose their own badge each enemy team's badge will be worth one point." Aiko looked around at each of us before she spoke again.

"Once you enter the cave system you cannot leave until 5 days have passed. If you do so you will forfeit the Exam. In addition every member of your team must be alive and conscious upon exiting the caves for you to pass. Once 5 days have passed a series of gongs will ring throughout the entire cave system and you will have half a day to return to the surface. While you are in the cave system anything and everything is allowed so be warned about that." One of the other proctors handed her a large box. "Team Jiraiya passed the first portion first so they get first draw. Then pick a hole in the wall and go on in. For those of you who are wondering, no, you cannot pick the same hole someone else went in."

That's my cue then. I walked up to her and stuck my hand in the box. It felt as though it had simple slips of paper so I simply drew one at random. I purposefully didn't open it and my teammates formed up on me. Choosing a random hole about midway up the cliff face we ran up the cliff and into the dark entrance. It was initially very dark yet further into the cave I could see a steady greenish glow around a bend in the tunnel.

Stopping to create a small flame on my fingertips as my teammates circled up around me I glanced at them and then opened the small slip of paper. It had nothing but the number 35 so I showed it to them and then burned it to ashes. It would seem that Sora has something that we need. Brushing any stray ashes off from my hands I turned to Hina.

"Hina you're going to be invaluable for the duration of this test. If you need to rest then we'll rest, if we need food or water you'll be the first to receive it." She nodded slowly and I could see she didn't like being signaled out of the team this way. Tough for her but she'll just need to deal with it.

"Shisui, I'm sorry to say that I'm going to ban almost all your big fire techniques within the cave. We don't know how well air flow is down there and we could die if one of your techniques burns up all the breathable air." He hesitated for a moment and then conceded the point. "In fact most of my techniques will be useless here as well. I don't want the entire cave to collapse on us so it'll be up close and personal for now."

I took a breath and then continued. "Now team 35 is Sora's team. He's the guy that poisoned me in Suna's marketplace so leave him to me. He also has two male teammates around 15 years of age but we know nothing about them other than that and their physical appearance. The brown haired one has a heavier build suggesting a taijutsu focus most likely so that will be Hina's target. The black haired one didn't have any defining features so I can't help you out there Shisui."

I could feel other people's chakra moving past us as we discussed our strategy in the relative safety of our own tunnel. "Alright let's get to it then. Hina, if you would?" The veins around her eyes bulged as her dojutsu activated.

"This tunnel continues further inwards and then splits into three separate sections. There's some kind of plant growing everywhere that's making that glowing green light ahead. I can also see our target moving about 20 meters below us and to the North." Letting out a light hum I considered the information before coming to a decision.

"Right, let me take the lead until we get to the glowing plants so I can see if they're dangerous or not. After that Hina will take the lead and direct us towards Sora's team. Remember we have time on our side right now so there is no need to rush. Any questions?" They had none and I took the lead as we went further into the cave.

As we got closer to the source of the light the air began to smell of molding plants and turning the corner in the sharp bend allowed me to see the actual plants for the first time. Every available surface of the cave was covered in this small moss like growth that for whatever reason seemed to be emitting greenish light. Cautiously sending a clone forward rewarded me as when the clone moved through the moss little puffs of something shot forth from the moss. I had the clone run a diagnostic of the clouds with mystical palms and then dismiss itself. As soon as it popped a message dinged at me.

Ding! Hallucinogenic Spores detected.

'How fun,' I drolly mused. They sent us into a cave to fight each other as we get high. I turned to my teammates as they needed to know about this. "Do either of you have masks capable of allowing you to breath when there's poison in the air?" They both shook their heads negatively but that was fine. I had gotten enough masks for myself and my teammates when I first started practicing my poison mist skill.

I pulled the masks from my inventory while disguising it as though I pulled them from a seal with a puff of smoke. Handing each of them the blank grey mask I also put mine on as well. Giving them a moment to put on their own masks I continued as soon as they were done. "The moss seems to be releasing some kind of hallucinogenic spores so be careful not to breathe them in or eat them when we stop to eat. Other than that I'll let Hina take the lead now." She gave her mask one last adjustment before she set off.

If anything the amount of moss seemed to become thicker the deeper we went into the caves which meant that they released more spores as we passed by. Luckily they didn't seem to be affecting us by direct skin contact so we had that going for us as well as the fact that they provided light which was nice. If they hadn't done so we would have had to have a fire jutsu going at all times which would have made us stick out light sore thumbs to anyone hiding in the dark.

Hina led us to the first three way intersection and then stopped to turn to me. "Sora's team is still moving farther away from us." She motioned to the far right tunnel. "If we follow that one it's the shortest route but I can see two other teams along the way." Pausing she corrected herself. "Never mind they seem to be fighting each other. The left most one will take the longest time to get to Sora but there's no one in our way and the middle path has one team on it."

It wasn't really much of a decision to make. Our mission was to win and kill as many of the chunin hopefuls as possible while leaving Suna relatively unscathed. "We go right." She nodded and led us onwards. After running for a good 5 minutes she gave us an update on the situation ahead.

"4 of the enemies are dead and at least one of them is injured badly." Hmm, we can use that to our advantage then.

"I want to sneak up on them and take them out then. Is there anyone else in the vicinity that could interfere?" She went quiet for a moment before shaking her head.

"No one is near enough to bother us. One of the teams seems to be moving through the ground but they're heading in the opposite direction. We're about two minutes out from the battle site." Both Shisui and I acknowledged her update and kept moving along. When we were about 30 seconds from contact we stopped on more.

Any traps? I signed to Hina.

No, target 1 is tending to target 2. Alright then, time for some orders.

Hina, take target 2, Shisui and I will take target 1.

They acknowledged my orders and I slid my tanto from its sheathe on my back. Shisui did the same and I showed him how the mask could slide to the side to reveal eyeholes if he wanted to use his dojutsu for genjutsu. We quietly moved forward until I could see a kunoichi kneeling over her downed teammate rapping bandages around his chest area. Shisui signaled that he was ready and then we both flickered right next to the kunoichi tantos raised.

I have to give credit to the downed shinobi from Kawa. Even heavily injured and missing an arm he still had enough presence of mind to shove his teammate to the side reducing what would have been fatal blows into merely deadly ones. My strike had missed taking off her head but it still cut a line in her throat while Shisui's thrust hadn't been able to penetrate too deeply into her chest.

Trying to stem the flow from her neck the kunoichi leapt away from us and we pursued, leaving her downed teammate to Hina. Several kunai and shurikens flew towards us but not seeing any seals on them I merely swatted them from the air with a clang or dodged slightly allowing them to fly past me. Perhaps realizing that both of us attacking head on would be detrimental Shisui shot off to the left and following his lead I went to the right splitting the attention of the kunoichi two ways.

Her gaze flickered between us and she seemed to reach the decision that Shisui was the greater threat as she slightly turned towards him. Her hands started to form signs before she let out a loud cry. "NOOOOO!" Behind me I could feel her teammate's chakra flicker briefly and then vanish as Hina killed him.

"You BASTARDS I'll KILL YOU!" Hand signs forgotten she charged in a blind rage towards Shisui or it would be better to say she charged about a meter to the left of Shisui. 'Genjutsu' I thought as I raced towards her unguarded back tanto poised. Shisui did the same from her right side and both of us plunged our tantos into her chest at the same time.

Having two swords thrust into her broke whatever genjutsu she was under and she let out a wet sounding cough. "Fuck you," she managed to wheeze out before her head bobbed downwards. I withdrew my blade as her body became dead weight and without the support from either of our blades the body collapsed to the ground dead. Bending slightly I cleaned off my blade of excess blood with her shirt before sheathing it. Shisui did the same and then I glanced over to Hina to see if she was alright.

She seemed to be fine if her looting of the person she just killed was any indication. Letting out a grunt and motioning for Shisui to search the body as I went to one of the other 4 corpses scattered around the area. Looting the bodies of anything essential didn't take long and we were able to find the team badge numbers 19 and 37 on their bodies. I put them in my pocket and allowed them to disappear into my inventory for the time being.

The entire time that we had been looting the bodies screams of pain had echoed through the cavern along with the sounds of battle. It would seem that even with moss everywhere the tunnels were still a natural noise amplifier but there was something else below the sounds of battle. I channeled more chakra into my ears and listened. The noise resembled a waterfall, perhaps, or was it something else?

"Do you guys hear something besides the screaming?" Both of them cocked their heads to listen and then Shisui nodded while Hina shook her head. They both looked at each other and then Shisui spoke up.

"I heard it. I'm not quite sure what it is but it's low and steady so it's probably natural." Having someone else confirm it satisfied my curiosity for now.

"Great, I just wanted to confirm that it was there. We should really get away from this battlefield though, so Hina take us away." She nodded and after a couple of seconds started to head out once more. We ran through tunnel after tunnel never really getting much closer to Sora's team as sometimes we had to head in the opposite direction to continue getting closer to him.

At about the three hour mark Hina slowed down and then stopped. Her hands came up to her face as though to rub at her eyes but they were stopped by her mask. Letting out a grunt of irritation she made as though to take off the mask before my hand grabbed hers stopping her. I could tell even through the mask that she was glaring at me but I spoke calmly nevertheless.

"The hallucinogens haven't been able to be absorbed through skin contact but I don't want you to try rubbing your hands that are filled with spores onto your eyes." She kept up the glare for a moment before her body language relaxed.

"You're right I was just using my byakugan for so long my eyes were starting to hurt." I lightly chopped the top of her head.

"I told you at the start that if you need to rest we'll rest. Why didn't you stop sooner if your eyes were starting to bother you?"

"You-you actually hit me." There was a note of incredulousness in her voice as she said that. I just gave her a shrug in return.

"It was more of a tap and that was for making silly decisions. When you're tired you make stupid mistakes like trying to take your mask off to rub your eyes or leading us into an ambush." Not that I felt I could miss feeling any genin's chakra. If any entire genin team knew how to dampen their chakra I would eat my underwear, but better safe then sorry. "Like I said before you're critical for our success for this portion of the Exam. If I have to make Shisui carry you on his back I will."

"Hey,' he cried out indignantly, 'why would I have to carry her?"

"Because I carried you two through the desert so it's your turn." I could hear him mutter something but I didn't really pay it much attention to him. Time to pull out the big guns and maybe mess with their minds a little for fun. "How about I make it up to you for hitting you? Think of any food you could get back in Konoha and I'll get it for you. It's about time to eat anyway."

She let out a snort at that. "Yeah right, and how are you going to do that?" I felt a smile grow on my face since she couldn't see it.

"Ninja magic, now just humor me." I said as I wiggled my fingers at her. I had about 6 months' worth of various food stuffed into my inventory because I have a horrible hoarding addiction and an infinite pocket dimension to fill with junk.

"Fine, I want chicken barbeque from the Akimichi." I gave her a bow and then looked over to Shisui.

"Is chicken bbq alright with you?"

"Sure, why not?" He seemed to just be humoring me for now but that's fine. I stood as straight as possible and raised my hands to the air as though beseeching some greater power.

"Oh, Lords of Darkness-"

"Haha, lords of darkness, haha." Giving her a glare from behind my mask I started over again,

"Oh, Lords of Darkness hear my plea, bring to me, chicken for three." As I said the last part I pulled three plates of chicken barbeque from my inventory along with sides of rice all steaming hot and ready to eat. There was a moment of silence and then I could feel their chakra surge as they tried to dispel any foreign chakra that could be causing a genjutsu. I even saw Hina pinch herself before she turned to Shisui.

"I think my mask failed to keep the spores out because I just saw Shiro pull food from nowhere."

"We seem to be having the same delusion then." There was a hint of humor in his voice as he said it though making me think he was having fun with this as well. Pouting slightly at their denial of reality I waved the plates under their noses. It would be better if I could see their faces when I did this.

"We haven't moved for a while and the spores should have settled back down by now so it should be safe to eat the food just don't eat with your hands." Cautiously they both had their masks slide to the side to reveal their mouths and took the plates from me. I did the same and started eating my food as well.

There was silence between us except for the ever present rumbling from further within the caves and the sound of eating. We all finished at around the same time and I gathered the plates before making them vanish again. Hina's mouth portion of her mask slide back in place and she pointed at a spot far away from me on the other side of the cave we were in.

"I'm going to go over there and go to sleep so I can try to erase this from my memory. Don't either of you dare try to disturb me." Her piece said she marched to where she pointed and took out a scroll which spewed smoke as she unsealed whatever was in it. I glanced over at Shisui who shrugged at me.

"I guess we'll set up some traps along both paths." He left to go take the right most path leaving me with the other one. I spent about an hour setting up as many traps as possible before heading back to where Hina had decided to set up camp. While I would have liked to press on she had been using her Byakugan on and off for hours and I didn't begrudge her the chance to rest. When I had said she was vital for this portion of the Exam I meant it.

Shisui was already settling in as well and I sat down near them as our first day in the cave came to an end.

Age: 6 years - 0 months

Title: Rookie Root Shinobi

LVL: 19 - 15% to next LVL

HP: 1,230/1,230

Chakra: 34,648/34,648

Elemental Affinity: Water

STR: 130(156)

VIT: 123

END: 111

DEX: 141(155)

INT: 115(121.9)

WIS: 100(106)

LCK: 20

Points: 29

Money: 221,546

This was drawn from Hunter X Hunter and the first main arc where Gon takes the Hunter Exam.