The next day found the close to four dozen teams of shinobi gathered outside the gate to the massive training ground. Everyone, from the oldest, to the youngest, shuffled nervously as they waited for the test to begin, and silence reigned in the middle morning sun. Anko, for her part, was waiting as well, her eyes darting around. Oddly, unlike Ibiki who had several helpers with him, Anko seemed to be alone for her part of the exam, only a tent she was standing beside to keep her company as she waited.

"Nine, and not one complaint out of any of you for the wait. I'm impressed," she said as the sound of an alarm clock could be heard from inside the tent. She then motioned for the team leads to follow her inside, snapping her fingers to close the flaps of the tent behind them. The teams then had to wait in even more silence as whatever was going on inside the canvas tent proceeded to happen without their input. Finally though, after what seemed like an eternity, the tent opened up again, and out of it came their leaders, carrying not only stacks of forms, but also scrolls as large as their torsos.

"Alright, everyone here needs to get the wax out of their ears and listen up," said Anko as she came out at the end of the train of leaders.

"As you can see, this training ground is one of the largest, most extensive ones Konoha has to offer. In here, you'll find some of the nastiest surprises, brutal beats, and tricky terrain that the Fire Nation's got. At the center of this place is a tower, a large structure you can see from a kilometer off. Your test is to get to that tower in five days," she said.

"That's it? Just get to some moldy old tower?" asked one of the Suna-nin in the crowd, and Anko smiled that feral grin of hers.

"Oh, you think it'll be that easy? This place, Training Ground Forty-Four has another name you know. This is the Forest of Death. Most chunin who go in here never come out again, and those that do are often crippled for life," she told them, a mad glint in her eye like she was enjoying the mental image of them dying in there.

"That's not all, kiddies. In addition to making it to the tower, you must have your entire team still combat capable. Anyone who dies in here, or become unable to fight disqualifies their whole team, so they'll know who screwed them over when they get to the underworld with you," she continued, and then held up two of the large scrolls, one in each hand.

"Of course, that's not the only condition. As you may have noticed, I gave every team here one of two scrolls. One scroll has the symbol of Heaven on it, the other the symbol of Earth. In order to pass, you must have one of each of these scrolls in your possession when you make it to the tower. That means that only half of you can actually pass this test, and that's if some of you aren't ruthless enough to destroy your scrolls just to screw the other guys over," she told them, chuckling rather evilly.

"Five days, everyone's alive, two scrolls. Still sounds like a cakewalk," said the blonde Konoha genin from the other day, grinning right back at her, and cutting off her evil laugh. That seemed to annoy her, but she, after a few seconds of looking like she was going to kill the brat, actually laughed again this time with a note of real happiness in her voice.

"Oh, that's rich kid. Let's see you keep that optimism up. Okay, everyone come with me to the gate, and leaders, pass out those papers," she ordered, and led the group towards the gate that was the entrance to the Forest.

"Normally, I'd give each one of you genin your own entrance, and you'd have to find each other in this place. Unfortunately, since there happens to be so many of you, I can't do that just now, and have decided to do something different. Everyone, hold those papers your team leaders gave you up towards me," she ordered, and after looking around nervously, everyone did so. Anko, grinning the whole time, snapped her fingers, and suddenly everyone cried out as the papers flashed blindingly, forcing them to cover their eyes, and then blink away spots.

When they slowly recovered, everyone was startled to find that Anko has somehow made the other teams vanishing, leaving them alone in front of the gate with her. Looking around, obviously disturbed by the turn of events, at least some of them anyway, they began to ask questions all at once, and Anko just held up her hands to ask for silence in the clearing, as everyone had been trying to talk all at once.

"For your information, I just cast a very complex genjutsu, provided by Konoha's very own Mistress of the Mind. For the next hour, you won't be able to see, hear, smell, or even taste each other. That means that I can send each and every one of you in through this one gate, and have you spread yourselves out without having to wait. I'm a genius, right?" she said, laughing evilly again as she snapped her fingers once more, the large chain link gate creaking open behind her.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Get going!" she ordered, and suddenly every shinobi leapt into the woods, no one touching each other despite being blind to their presence. Watching them vanish into those woods, Anko wondered idly how many would never come out of there alive again, but then shrugged. They wanted to be ninja, well, this was how ninja lived. Risking your life was just one more trial on the road. Another snap of her fingers closed the gate behind the genin, seals around the fence activating to contain the chakra of the trainees, and keep anyone from interfering in the test.

OoOoO

"Team Kurenai here, can everyone hear me?" asked a voice from Naruto's collar, a slight buzz to it as the words came out of the wings of the beetle. Everyone in the group could be heard, at least everyone but Heero, as all of them now carried the beatles on their collars, a gift from Shino during their meeting this morning, given without anyone around them being the wiser to what they meant.

"Team Iruka confirms," said Sakura's voice.

"Team Asuma confirms," said Ino in almost the same tone.

"Team Guy confirms," came Neji's voice at last, and the team nodded, Hinata giving a hand sign to Heero.

"I can see a clearing a few hundred meters ahead with my Sharingan. We should meet up there, and see if we can discuss this," said Sasuke's voice, a chorus agreed to his plan, and minutes later the Konoha Thirteen were in that clearing, blindly feeling each other.

"This is so weird," commented Naruto, as his hand felt something that all the rest of his senses said wasn't there at all.

"I know, right. I can't even smell you," said Kiba, gently pressing his hand against the warmth in front of him, warmth he knew to be one of his fellow Leaf-nin.

"So, what do we do? Should we divide up like they want us to, or stick together?" asked Tenten through the beetles.

"No, we should stick together. We may have a lot of power, but all the other squads in this test are older, and most of them have far more experience than us," responded Ino.

"Isn't that cheating though?" asked Rock Lee.

"Nothing is disallowed in the exam, as long as we can pass it. Sticking together gives us the best chance. It's the same as using contacts in the land your mission is taking place in. That's taking advantage of your resources," explained Neji, and one could hear the bowl headed boy's oh in response.

"So, do we just wait here for an hour for this thing to wear off or what?" asked Kiba.

"No, I think Naruto can fix this with a pulse. If you would be so kind, Mr. Uzumaki," said Sakura's voice, and Naruto himself blushed at it, before standing up and then gathering chakra. It was only for a moment, and he pushed it out as lightly as he could. Despite this, the pulse covered half the clearing, and it still caused most of the Thirteen to swoon a bit, with Kiba falling back onto his bottom as his senses went wild.

"Wow that's a rush," said the canine ninja, holding his hands to his head to try and stop the world from spinning. It took a few minutes for everyone to recover, and when they had, the group showed off their scrolls to each other.

"So, one Heaven, and three Earth. That means we could send one team ahead. Let those who feel the weakest continue on their path for now," said Neji, and Hinata glared at him.

"Cousin, I doubt any of us would take that as any sort of compliment," she told him, and Neji just stared back at her.

"True, but if one team would be less useful, it is an option to consider," he countered. Before the pair could say anything else, Sakura coughed, and drew their attention to her.

"None of us are going to be going ahead without the others. We've agreed to stick together, and that's just what we'll do. We're the Konoha Thirteen, our village's secret weapons," she told them, and everyone nodded.

"So, we just have to find four other teams, beat them up, and take their scrolls. Sounds like an easy job," bragged Kiba, rolling his shoulder to limber it up.

"We shouldn't be overconfident. Our enemies are thought to be able to be chunin now themselves. Even with our advantage in numbers, we should be cautious," advised Shino, before pointing towards Hinata, Neji, and Sasuke.

"You are our dojutsu users. Can your eyes pierce this genjutsu we are under and find our enemies?" asked the kikai-nin, and the three rose. The two Hyuga closed their eyes for a moment, and then veins popped out of the side of their head, their gaze much more intense when they opened them, gazing into the woods around them. Sasuke's was far less dramatic. Between one blink and another, his left eye, the only one active so far, turned red with a single sigil on it, and he scanned about them as well.

"I've got something. It's not a team, but there are some branches moving weirdly about a hundred meters in that direction," said Neji after a few minutes, pointing, and the other two turned to face him.

"I've got them in my sights as well. I can just make out impressions of them. This genjutsu is good," commented Sasuke.

"Our onee is the best," responded Naruto with a note of pride in his voice, before everyone leapt towards the direction the dojutsu users indicated. Following their directions, Naruto began to charge a pulse, throwing it just as they got in sight of the odd limb movement. The pulse, focused into a seemingly harmless ball, exploded outward as it struck a tree, and suddenly three suna-nin faded into being, their bodies seizing up as their minds reeled with the experience of having a genjutsu torn away.

"Grab them!" shouted Heero, suddenly flashing red and vanishing. A moment later, he reappeared with one of the sand shinobi in his grasp, and a few heartbeats after, Kiba and Rock Lee did much the same, the group landing on the forest floor a few moments later.

"That was way too easy," commented Kiba as he landed next to the rest, and Naruto nodded at the statement.

"We have superior intelligence, and a weapon they had no way of countering. Do not expect all our battles in these woods to go as smoothly," countered Shino as he pressed his fingers into pressure points on the bodies of the older genin, watching as their bodies shuddered for a moment, then went limp as they were rended unconscious.

"Yeah, just think if these had been Gaara's Team. I don't know about you, but they looked plenty tough to me, and they might have pulled out of this," added Choji as he helped search the leader's bag, finally producing a Heaven Scroll a moment later.

"Alright, two more of those and an Earth, and we've got this in the bag!" declared Kiba, howling with Akamaru, at least until Sakura smacked him on the back of the head.

"Weren't you listening when we told you not to be overconfident?" she scolded, while the others looked at their prisoners.

"So, what do we do with these three?" asked Shikarmaru after a few seconds.

"We send them back to the gate. Naruto, make a few clones and take them there. Hopefully, the edge of the forest will be safe enough, until the exam ends," said Sasuke, and Naruto, after looking to Shino to confirm the order, did just that. Once the dozen clones carrying the three were out of sight, the team spent the remainder of the morning looking around, trying to find teams to take down easily, but as the sun reached its zenith, they realized the other teams must have already moved on, and made to do the same. That was when all the trouble started.