The trip back to Konoha and the subsequent weeks were uneventful, Team 7 returned and gave their report to the Hokage before receiving a 3 day vacation to recover from the A-rank mission. During the small break Naruto honored his word and told his comrades along with Hiruzen his entire story and the extent of his powers. The other members of Team 7 were further shocked as Naruto continued his story. Sasuke was a bit upset that his future self defected from the village and ended up dead by Madara's hand, but was kind of exited to know he became almost as strong as Naruto being labled as one of the strongest shinobi ever to live. Hinata was exited and eventually fainted when she discovered that during the war, Naruto confessed his love to her and they became a couple, though she was also disappointed that Naruto 'died' and went back in time before they were able to make anything of the relationship. She was happy that in this timeline Naruto confessed the truth five years before the war. She of course reciprocated the feelings, and they became an official couple once again. Kakashi, like Sasuke, was intrigued by the fact that he was a major asset in the final battle against Madara, also becoming a shinobi of legend. The aged Hokage took the news rather well, as he already knew most of the story. It also helps that over 70 years alive and being hailed as the God of Shinobi meant that he had seen pretty much everything possible.
After the group discussion, everyone left and spent the rest of their vacation relaxing and having a good time, while also throwing in some training to stay fit. After the vacation they resumed their duties and went back to training as a team and doing a couple of missions for the next couple of weeks before finally Hiruzen announced the chunin exams.
All of the rookie genin teams along with Team 9 were nominated and accepted to take the exams. All of the jonin sensei were briefed about the high probability of an invasion during the finals, therefore they trained their students extra hard in the weeks leading up to the exams.
Finally the first part of the exams were upon them, and we find Team 7 meeting at their regular training ground before walking to the academy together. When they arrived they came across the scene of Rock Lee getting beat up in front of the genjutsu room. Naruto knew that he was faking and team 7 calmly made their way past and up to the third floor to take the exam.
It wasn't long in the room before Kabuto approached the group of fresh genin who had all gathered and began talking amongst themselves. Naruto had to restrain himself from killing the traitor on the spot but kept composed as he carried into his speech about taking the exams 7 times and having the information on everyone. As if on cue the Oto genin came and attacked Kabuto, though this time Naruto subtly shifted the gravity around Kabuto, causing him to take a direct hit from Dosu's melody arm. Kabuto was knocked to the ground and began violently throwing up blood. His glasses were completely shattered and there was blood coming from his ears and nose as a result of the sound waves.
"I know I moved in time to dodge that… what the hell happened it's like I tripped or something." Kabuto thought as he finally stopped puking and somewhat recovered. Naruto suppressed a giggle at the results of his tampering, it was so much better than the original.
He didn't get to ponder on his success long before a booming voice erupted over the room. "Shut the hell up you worthless bastards!" the voice yelled as everyone turned to the front of the room to find a tall man in a Konoha Hitai-ate and a long black trench coat. He had several scars on his face, and over all he was a scary looking person. "My name is Morino Ibiki, and I'll be the proctor for the first round of the exams. You there, Oto genin, there is no fighting in this part of the exam, don't piss me off or I'll send you bastards packing before the exam even starts. Now everyone come get a number and sit in the corresponding seat. Once you're all seated we'll hand out the tests. Don't turn them over yet."
All the chunin candidates made their way to the front and got a number before taking their respective seats. The chunin assistants then passed out all of the tests before Ibiki began to speak again. "This exam will be a 10 question written test. Each question is worth 1 point, and it will be a subtraction based system. You start with a total of 10 and each wrong answer will take away 1 point. This is a team exam, and you will pass or fail based on the combined total of your team's points for a total possible 30 points." All of the candidates were looking around at their teammates now wondering how they would do. It was at this point that Naruto noticed he was sitting next to Sakura. "Also, these fine chunin that are here assisting me will be keeping an eye on you, and each time you fuck up, namely by cheating, you will lose 2 points. Get caught 5 times and your point total will be 0, causing you and your team to fail. Now then, good luck, you may begin now and you have 1 hour." Ibiki said as everyone flipped their tests and began. Most of the genin quickly noticed that the questions were very hard, something that may even be difficult for a chunin to answer. Naruto knew the purpose of this exam but still discreetly looked around to check on everyone. He saw how everyone was cheating in their own various ways, except Sakura who was just booksmart enough to answer the questions. He saw that Hinata and Sasuke were using their respective Dojutsu to copy the answers from the placed chunin. During the next 45 minutes several teams were caught cheating too much and disqualified. Finally Ibiki stepped forward and got everyone's attention before speaking again. "Alright maggots it's time for the final question. This is a special question."
Again all the genin looked around slightly anxious about this 'special question'. "Would anyone like to quit before we begin this question?" Ibiki asked with a sadistic smile as he looked over the nervous candidates.
"Why would we quit now? We made it this far of course we won't quit!" one of the random genin yelled out.
Ibiki's smile got bigger as he continued "I'm glad you asked, that's what makes this question special. If you choose to take this question and you get it wrong, you can never take the test again, you'll be genin for life. But if you quit now you fail and can retake the test next time." He finished before looking around noticing the genin contemplating his words. A couple raised their hands and their teams were escorted away. Finally another genin spoke up. "How can you say that, there are people here who have taken the test before and are still here?"
"They never had the misfortune of having me as a proctor. Too bad." Ibiki replied before that genin quit and his team left. A few more quit before finally Ibiki was satisfied that there were no more quitters and he started again. "Is everyone sure that they wish to take the chance?" He looked around the room and saw no one making any effort to leave. "Fine then, you all pass."
Various genin were yelling and cussing at the turn of events, wanting an explanation before Ibiki satisfied their desires. "The purpose of this test was to test your information gathering skills. As a chunin you will be a team leader, expected to figure out missing information necessary to complete the mission. The last question was to test your capability to continue on a mission with poor or no information, even if the odds are against you. Sometimes-"
Ibiki was interrupted by a loud crash as a black ball plowed through the window and expanded into a banner, hung to the roof by kunai with Anko standing in front of the banner. "Hello Maggots! I'm the wonderfully sexy and tragically single Anko Mitarashi and I'll be the-"
"Dammit Anko you're early! I wasn't done yet!" Ibiki yelled as a vein popped up on his forehead.
Anko chuckled and scratched the back of her head. "Heh heh sorry… Damn Ibiki theres a lot of genin left in here, you're slacking."
Ibiki smirked and replied "This year is a promising bunch, what can I say?"
"Oh well, by the end of my test there will be less than half of them left. You heard me maggots! I'm the proctor for the second part of the exam. Meet me tomorrow morning at training ground 44 in 20 minutes, and I'm true to my word there will be less than half of you when I'm done!"
All the genin looked kind of frightened after her description of the second exam before she drove the nail in the coffin. "Now get the hell out of my sight or the second exam will seem like a walk in the park!" She yelled causing all of the genin to jump out of their seats and run away.
"Does my heart good to scare the shit out of the maggots." Anko said with a wink and smile before she jumped out of the window she entered through headed for the Forest of Death.
After 15 minutes all of the chunin hopefuls along with Anko were standing outside the large chain-link fence surrounding a dark looking forest with warning tags all over it.
"Now then, this happy looking place here is Training Ground 44, otherwise known as the Forest of Death, and you'll soon find out why it's called that." Everyone looked nervously at the forest and could hear the vicious sounds of animals roaring and growling from within.
"Now I'll need each of you to sign one of these forms and then bring them back to me." Anko said as some chunin assistants began to pass out some forms to the crowd.
"What are these for?" One of the Suna genin asked.
"They are liability waivers, to release Konoha of any liability if and when you get killed in this forest." Anko replied with a sadistic grin before the Suna genin decided that he was fine being a genin and he and his team were escorted away.
"I want each of you to sign the form and then one member from each team bring the forms to me. I'll trade three signed waivers for one of these scrolls. There are two types of scrolls, a heaven and earth. To pass my test you'll be given five days to make your way to the tower in the center of the forest with one of each of the scrolls."
It suddenly sank in to the genin that only half of them at best could pass this test if they had to steal a scroll from the other teams.
"You're responsible for collecting both scrolls by any means necessary, killing is allowed in this portion of the test. Now look on your scroll for a number, that will be your starting gate. Get there and wait for the signal to start, good luck maggots!" Anko said as all the teams made their way to their gate.
"Alright guys, let's make this quick, there's nothing good in this forest. I've got something to take care of but I'll do that after we have a scroll. Sasuke you take point, Hinata you take the rear, we'll take the first team we find. Naruto said earning nods from his teammates before the gate popped open and a horn sounded through the forest signaling the start of the second exam.