Truth: She enjoyed fighting more than she should admit.

The test was explained with famous Morino bluntness. Take your test, sit down, shut up, don't ask questions, and pray your team could support you. Every time you missed a question you lost a point. Proctors lined the room. If you got caught cheating you lost two points. Lose all your points and you were out then and there. If one team member got kicked out the whole team was done, game over. You got the final question 15 minutes before the test ended.

"Begin!"

Miyako turned over her paper and gasped. She could have cried. She had no idea how to do any of this! She knew she shouldn't have come! She was going to drag her team down with her! Miyako glanced around helplessly. There was nothing to help her out, nothing to save her.

Kiyomi just stared at her paper. Contrary to popular belief, she wasn't just a smartass. She was actually pretty smart. She figured out one of the questions and then stared at her paper. This was hard. Way too hard. She may be a rookie, but this was ridiculous. It wasn't possible for any genin to know this kind of stuff.

"Made a big deal about cheating," she muttered, and then smiled. "Ah, of course."

The guy next to her looked up at her in confusion. She gave him a sweet smile in response and turned back to her paper. So the object was to cheat, huh? She glanced around. Sayuri was smiling slightly, her pencil moving with surprising ease across the paper. Sayuri may not be able to read, but she could write, and particularly if she had someone to copy off of. Her eyes were fixed on the guy in front of her, who was writing diligently. Her abilities at sensing chakra extended to movements of the body, which was how she tracked people around her, and right now she was honing in on the movements of his hand and mimicking them.

Kiyomi looked the other way at Miyako, who looked as if she was about to cry. Kiyomi winced in sympathy. Yeah, these questions were rough. It would probably never occur to goody-two-shoes Miyako to even attempt to cheat. It was up to Kiyomi to get the message through. Of course, she had to get the answers too….

Kiyomi glanced around, looking for people who had probably already figured it out and have some answers. Sasuke, sure, but she couldn't see him. Sakura looked like she was about to rip out her hair. The Hyugas probably had it easy, but she didn't have any idea how to copy off of them. However, that Hyuga boy wasn't going to let his team fail. That'd drag him down. So how were they handling it?

Kiyomi's eyes caught on Tenten, whose fingers were twitching oddly. She frowned slightly until she caught a glint of something. She looked up and saw a mirror on the ceiling. Tenten was manipulating the angle of it so that she could see the test of someone in front of her. Kiyomi grinned and started writing. The angle was tough for her to see, but it would be perfect for Miyako.

The question was, how to get her attention without just blatantly standing up and screaming, 'Hey Miyako, that chick's got a mirror you can copy off of?' Well, Sayuri always said she was good at making a scene…

"Achoo!" Kiyomi let out a loud sneeze. Half the room turned to look at her and the other half flinched. "Sorry," she apologized sheepishly. "Allergies."

Miyako was looking at her incredulously. Kiyomi locked eyes with Miyako and very pointedly looked up and over. Miyako followed her gaze and her eyes widened hopefully. Immediately she began scribbling down answers. Kiyomi shook her head. Miyako was so cute sometimes.

She and the rest of the class watched in rapt attention as one of the shinobi taking the test was caught cheating for the fifth time. It was Kotetsu who caught him, and he wasn't kind. He pierced the guy's test with a kunai and sent him out in front of the whole class. Several others got caught, and if they argued, they were forcibly ejected from the room. One was dragged out screaming, another pinned to a wall and then tossed out.

"Alright, listen up! Here's the tenth and final question!"

The tenth question. It was time.

"First though, there are some more rules you need to be aware of specifically for question ten. Pay attention and try not to get scared. Rule Number 1. You can choose not to get the final question. But if you don't, you get a zero. Of course, that goes to the rest of your team's score, and you all fail. If you take the question but miss it, you can't take the chunin exam ever again!"

Protests were met with uncaring laughs from Ibiki.

"Now, the tenth and final question. If you want to bow out, raise your hand and your number will be recorded. Then get out."

One guy raised his hand to leave, and that set off a chain reaction around the room as others raised their hands, giving in. Everyone was surprised by how many people gave up. There was an exodus from the classroom as people's determination floundered.

Miyako's eyes widened in shock as Naruto's hand went up shakily. She thought if anyone gave in on his team, it'd be Sakura.

Naruto's hand slammed down.

"Don't underestimate me! I don't quit and I don't give up! Act tough all you want, you can't scare me off, no way! Don't count me out!" he shouted. "I keep trying, I don't care if I spend the rest of my life a genin. I'll still be Hokage someday!"

Naruto sat down sharply, crossing their arms across his chest proudly.

Ibiki glared at him. "This is a life decision here. This is your last chance to go back."

"I never go back on my word," Naruto said. "That's the way of the ninja!"

"Well said!" Kiyomi called from her seat, smirking slightly as she applauded. Her team joined her for a moment and Naruto grinned at them as he sat down. They grinned back.

"Well then, I admire your determination if nothing else. For those of you remaining, there's only one thing left to do. To tell you… you passed!"

"Hold on!" Sakura demanded from the back of the class. "What about the tenth question?"

Sayuri sighed. She looked up at Ibiki. "You asked if we wanted to stay. That was the tenth question. The other questions… to see if we could gather information…"

"Right on the nose," Ibiki grinned at her. "This was so that we could test how well you'd handle knowing your every action affected your team. The test was created so that cheating was almost required, but just so that you had someone to cheat off of, I had two chunin who knew the answers sit in with you!" Two men waved. "If you got caught, you failed. Better not to cheat than to cheat clumsily." He ripped off his head covering, revealing that he was bald, his scalp blackened and burned, veins bulging under the shrunken skin. "There are times when your ability to gather information will be life or death. You may have to risk your life for it, or it may be to save the life of another." He replaced the covering. "But be aware that disinformation can be more dangerous than no information."

Ibiki was inspiring, if terrifying. He once again reinforced the idea their teachers had pounded into them from day one, that the team was more important than the individual. He also reminded them once more of just how dangerous the life of a shinobi was. However, throughout all that, he said how important it was that someone be there to do these things.

Ibiki had barely finished his speech when a woman broke through the window and pinned a banner to the wall behind her with kunai all in one smooth movement, posing in front of it.

"Head up boys and girls, no time to get complacent! I'm your next proctor, Anko Mitarashi! Are you ready for the second part of the chunin exams? Then let's go!"

In theory, the second part of the chunin exam was simple. They had to enter the – according to Anko, aptly-named - Forest of Death. They had either a Heaven or Earth scroll. It was a no-holds-barred smack down to get whatever scroll you didn't have and then get to the tower in the middle of the forest safety. There were few rules. Don't look at your scroll, don't let your team mates die, and get to the tower within five days.

It got somewhat more unnerving when they were handed a release form saying it wasn't Konoha's fault if they died in there.

Sayuri, Miyako, and Kiyomi signed their forms and stepped into the curtained booth where they turned the forms in and were handed a scroll. They got an Earth scroll.

"Alright, so, we can't just carry the thing around. There's gotta be some kind of trick here," Kiyomi mused. "How're we gonna get tricky?"

"I have a thought," Sayuri said, reaching into her equipment pouch. She pulled out a tiny scroll and unrolled it on the ground, pressing her hand down onto it. Scrolls spilled out, along with ink and a brush.

"You have scrolls holding scrolls?" Kiyomi said blankly. Sayuri shrugged.

"You never know what might come up. Do any of these look like the Earth scroll?"

"These two do," Kiyomi said, holding a pair up.

"This one kind of does," Miyako said, holding up one scroll, the wrapping of which was a shade lighter than the others.

"Perfect. Who's got the steadiest hand?" Sayuri asked. "Write the character on these. We'll each take a fake so that even if we're knocked out we've still got a shot of keeping our scroll."

"I've got it," Kiyomi said, kneeling down. Her hands were steady from hours working on a pottery wheel as a child. Painstakingly, she copied down the character onto all three scrolls, handing them off to Miyako and Sayuri to blow on and dry the ink. When they were dry, they each took one and tucked it into their equipment pouches.

"What do we do with the real one?" Kiyomi asked, holding it up.

"Put it where anyone would hesitate to search," Sayuri said with a surprisingly lewd grin. Kiyomi giggled as she caught on.

"Oh, right," she smiled, pulling out her collar and tucking it into her bra. Miyako flushed.

"Are you sure that's really… uhm… secure?"

"Hey, no one's getting in here," Kiyomi said, crossing her arms over her chest.

They took their place at their assigned gate, waiting for it to grind open. As soon as it did, they stepped inside.

The screaming started almost immediately as the strongest stamped out the weakest the moment they saw them. You had to be the best of the best to get to the tower, and there were some people that just weren't going to cut it. They may have been able to pass the first part of the exam, but that was the easy bit. This was where things got tricky, and some people just weren't meant for this. On the other hand, some people were born for this sort of thing.

"Alright, so how do we handle this?" Kiyomi asked, her shoulders tense. The screams were putting all of them on edge. "What kind of tactic are we going to use?"

"We should get away from the gate soon so that the others don't know where to find us," Miyako pointed out, eyes darting around worriedly. They took off in the trees, getting a decent distance from the gate before they settled on a large branch to talk strategy.

"So we have Miyako in the trees doing genjutsu on anyone who comes near us…" Kiyomi mused. "Nah, it'd be obvious she was lying in wait."

"Then I'll walk alone with you both in the trees," Sayuri suggested. "With my defenses even if someone catches me by surprise they won't be able to hurt me badly."

"But why would you be alone?" Miyako asked, picking a hole in the plan.

"I can act scared and mumble about being separated from my team. If I feel people coming, I'll give you a signal."

"What's the signal?" Miyako asked.

"I'll scratch my cheek," Sayuri said, raising a hand and scratching in demonstration.

"That's not bad," Kiyomi nodded thoughtfully. "Miyako, that okay with you?"

"Yeah," Miyako nodded, biting her lip. "Just… be safe, okay?"

"Got it," Sayuri said with a smile. She grabbed Miyako's hand. "Miyako, don't be afraid to use Saiketsu."

Miyako's eyes widened, but she nodded shakily. Sayuri squeezed her hand encouragingly and dropped from the tree. She removed her hitai-ate from her eyes and tied it around her throat instead. It would be easier for people to believe she was scared if they could see her eyes. Sayuri took a deep breath and remembered Kimimaro, and the fear she felt when he didn't come home. She drew on that and when she was sure she looked suitably terrified, she started staggering around, jerking this way and that and looking around frantically.

Sayuri actually did flinch when she felt three chakra signatures coming towards her. She raised a hand and scratched her cheek.

"W-Who's there?" she stammered out fearfully, taking a step back.

"Sayuri?"

It was Kiba's voice, but it wasn't Kiba.

"K-Kiba," she sighed in relief. "Oh, you're a sight for sore eyes."

'Kiba' swaggered forwards with 'Shino' and 'Hinata' behind him.

"What happened to your team?" 'Kiba' asked. Sayuri lowered her face.

"I-I don't know," she said softly. "I lost them. We got attacked right at the gate. I-I thought they were behind me, b-but…" She shrugged helplessly. "I just really hope they're okay."

"They're a lot better off that you," 'Hinata' said, and it was incredibly disturbing to hear Hinata's voice sound that malicious.

Sayuri's eyes fixed on her. "No, they're really not."

"Fireball Jutsu!"

"Great Breakthrough!"

Fire rolled from the tree branches, bolstered by a burst of wind, senbon flying in the middle of it all. Sayuri leapt and rolled out of the way. The fake team shouted and scrambled out of the way. In their distraction they let the disguises drop. Their hitai-ate showed them to be from the Grass Village. There were two women, a blonde and a red-head, and a man.

Kiyomi jumped from the trees, a hail of kunai leading thanks to Miyako.

"Aya, you take the scared one," the man snapped as Kiyomi landed by Sayuri. "I want her. Mai, get the one in the tree."

The blonde grinned. "Got it Toshiro," she said as she leapt into the trees.

"You shouldn't have sent her off. You're going to need her to take me," Kiyomi boasted.

Toshiro scoffed. "If I need her to best you, I'll personally hand over my scroll to you."

"Summoning Jutsu!" cried Aya, making a series of hand signs. She slammed a palm to the ground. A huge bear burst out of the smoke, rising up on its back feet and roaring. It dropped back to all fours so hard the ground shook. Kiyomi paled.

"Oh my," she said faintly.

"You were saying?" Toshiro smirked as he lunged at her.

"Focus Kiyomi!" Sayuri snapped as she ran past, going for the bear as she stripped her shirt from her shoulders. The bear rose up again, baring its claws. Bones burst from all over Sayuri. "Larch Dance!"

The bear roared as Sayuri slammed into it and started spinning, digging into its torso again and again. The bear vanished in a burst of smoke.

Kiyomi wasn't sure if she should be scared or pleased that it seemed Toshiro was also a taijutsu type. She knew how to fight this. She spun and ducked and dodged, getting a feel for his style. He seemed to rely more on punches than kicks, which was fine with her.

He swung at her. She grabbed his wrist in one hand. He punched with his other hand and she seized it as well. His leg came up. Kiyomi twisted, balancing on one leg as she blocked him with her calf. She jerked on his limbs, pulling him down. Her knee slammed into his temple, breaking the skin. He staggered back, dazed, blood leaking down his cheek.

"You're gonna pay for that," he snarled, shaking off his dizziness.

"Put it on my tab," Kiyomi grinned, confidence back now that she'd landed a hit.

"Come out come out, little girl!" Mai called as she rushed through the trees, following the other girl. She gasped in surprise and dropped as kunai flew out of nowhere, nearly killing her.

"Someone likes traps!" Mai grunted as she pushed herself up. She gasped as she saw Toshiro crawling on the ground below. He was scorched and burned, senbon pricking out of him. She dropped down next to him. "Toshiro, what happened?" she asked in shock.

"Those girls…" he gasped. "Monsters…"

"Where's Aya?" she asked fearfully. Toshiro's throat worked, but he said nothing. Mai burst into tears.

"This is why I didn't want to take the exam!" she shouted at him. "I was afraid of this! I was so worried! I didn't want us to… to…"

"I'm very sorry."

Mai whirled at the soft whisper just in time to see the fist slam into the side of her face, throwing her into the tree. Miyako winced as she connected and slid down, unconscious. She didn't like using that technique and turning people's fears against them, but it had been her best option at the time.

The Toshiro at her feet vanished in a puff of smoke as Miyako made her way over to Mai. She quickly tied her up in case the girl woke and started searching her. Miyako checked her pouches before patting her down, wincing when she felt a bump under her shirt. They'd hidden the scroll the same place as her team, apparently. Feeling very much like a pervert, Miyako thrust her hand down Mai's shirt and yanked the scroll out, shoving it into her equipment pouch and turning away hastily.

"I'm sorry for that too," she murmured before sprinting back in the direction of the fight.

"Summoning Jutsu!" the redhead shouted angrily. This time a large lizard burst out of the puff of smoke.

"Does she ever run out of those?" Kiyomi screamed furiously as she ducked a punch from Toshiro. His knee came up and nailed her in the nose. She cursed and staggered back, eyes watering and blood dripped from her nose.

"Digital Shrapnel!" Sayuri shouted angrily, peppering the reptile with bone bullets. It vanished in a puff of smoke.

"Summoning Jutsu! Summoning Jutsu! Summoning Jutsu!"

A trio of cougars burst from the smoke, one lunging for Kiyomi, who dodged frantically, slamming a kunai home in one of its eyes. The beast vanished with a howl and Kiyomi went flying. Toshiro had taken advantage of her distraction and nailed her in the side with a kick.

"How do we stop her?" Kiyomi shouted as she picked herself up, landing a solid hit on Toshiro's shoulder as he came at her. "Don't you need scrolls to summon or something?"

"How would I know?" Sayuri snapped as she dove away from one of the cougars. The other one swiped with a paw, tearing into her shoulder. She shouted in pain and spun around, raising her knee and driving it into the thing's side. A bone skewer shot from her patella, driving into the beast. It vanished in a puff of smoke. Sayuri leapt into the air to avoid the next cougar's lunge and landed behind it, seizing its tail and yanking with all her might. It spun around with a snarl and she punched it right in the nose. It yelped and recoiled. Sayuri used its distraction to scoot forwards. She placed her fingers under the thing's jaw and fired bone bullets up. Blood burst from the top of its head and it vanished.

"Summoning Jutsu!"

"Are you kidding me?" Kiyomi shrieked as a huge crane burst out of the smoke, swooping towards Sayuri, who snarled. She ducked as it flew over her head and leapt, grabbing its wing. The crane cawed its alarm as Sayuri dragged it towards the ground. It clawed into her shoulder, but she grit her teeth, dug her heels in, and spun, hurling the crane into a tree, followed by more bone bullets. It exploded into smoke.

"Summoning Ju-"

"Shut up!" Sayuri roared, hurling kunai at her. Aya jumped aside.

"Would you take her out already?" Kiyomi screamed as she drove Toshiro back with a series of kicks. He grabbed her leg and she seized his wrist, clinging to him as he tried to throw her. She spun around and elbowed him in the stomach. He doubled over, releasing her foot. Kiyomi turned to face him and kicked him square in the nose.

"That's for breaking my nose, you jerk!" she snapped as he staggered back, clutching his own broken nose.

Sayuri ran at Aya, murder in her eyes as her shoulder burned.

"Summoning Jutsu!"

Something caught Sayuri's ankle and she face-planted into the ground, her forehead smacking into a rock. Blood bloomed over her eyes and she gasped in pain as she saw stars. She wriggled around and saw the long tongue of one of the large lizards from before around her foot before it exploded into smoke.

"Miyako!" Sayuri greeted happily as her teammate flew from the trees in a rain of senbon. "Can you take the animals if I take her?"

"I think so," Miyako nodded.

"Then let's go!" Sayuri said, leaping up from the ground.

"Summoning Jutsu!" Aya screamed worriedly as she saw the two kunoichi coming for her.

"Great Breakthrough!" Miyako shouted in response. The wings of the large crane she'd conjured snapped backwards in the face of the harsh wind and it let out a pained caw before vanishing.

"Summoning Jutsu! Summoning Jutsu!" Aya yelled frantically. Miyako engaged with the bear, shooting up onto a branch and peppering it with weapons from a distance. Kiyomi dispatched Toshiro with a final, vicious roundhouse kick and spun, nailing a surprised tiger right in the butt. It yelped and jumped into the air almost comically. Kiyomi followed it and slit its stomach with a kunai. It exploded into smoke.

"I am so done with you!" Sayuri screamed, slamming her fist into Aya's stomach. The woman doubled over and coughed. Sayuri grabbed her by her shoulders and jerked her knee up into her side three or four times before spinning and kicking her into a tree. Aya hit it and bounced off, right back into Sayuri's fist. She grabbed Aya's arm and spun, hurling her into another tree. She grabbed the woman by her hair and slammed her forehead into the tree until she stopped struggling.

"Holy crap," Kiyomi said, blinking at Sayuri as she dropped Aya's body to the ground. "Uh… working out some issues there, are we Sayuri?"

Sayuri faced the body, tilting her head contemplatively. "I suppose I am a Kaguya after all."

"What do you mean by that?" Miyako asked hesitantly. Sayuri looked up at them and beamed. This was the most vicious fight she'd ever had. Her adrenaline was pounding and her heart was racing and she liked it. The truth was, she enjoyed fighting more than she should admit.

"I enjoyed that far more than I had any right too," she admitted shamelessly as she knelt beside Aya and began pawing through her equipment pouch. Inside was nothing but a few kunai and a single scroll.

"This isn't their scroll, is it?" she asked, holding it up in confusion. It seemed too small.

"No, that's not it," Kiyomi said, shaking her head. "See what's in it though. Might as well."

Sayuri unrolled the scroll and released it. More scrolls spilled out, some of them looking incredibly ancient.

"Whoa," Kiyomi breathed.

"What?" Sayuri asked impatiently. "What is it?"

"Summoning scrolls," Miyako whispered. "A lot of them."

Sayuri smiled and packed the scrolls away back in the smaller one. She tucked it into her equipment pouch.

"Spoils of war," she grinned at her teammates, who smiled back.

"You better share those!" Kiyomi insisted.

"I will," Sayuri assured her. "Meanwhile, look over Toshiro for their scroll."

"I have it!" Miyako perked up, pulling it out of her pouch. She held up a Heaven Scroll. "That Mai woman had it. She was really easy," Miyako admitted.

"Maybe they were trying to bluff, giving it to their weakest person," Kiyomi suggested.

"Either way… we're done," Sayuri said proudly. "We just have to get back to the tower."

"Don't you want me to tend to those first?" Miyako asked, looking at Kiyomi and Sayuri's wounds in concern. Sayuri undoubtedly had it worse off, her shoulder and chest sporting claw marks. Her leg had been smacked into by the tail of an alligator of all things and one crane had taken a small chunk out of her forearm.

Kiyomi didn't look much better. Her right leg was a bit shaky after Toshiro kicked the side of her knee ruthlessly. Her nose was broken and her lip was split, plus there was a cut above her eye. Her forearms were red from repeated impact when she blocked and there would definitely be some serious bruises later on.

"Let's just go," Kiyomi sighed. "They probably have healers at the tower. Wouldn't do for anyone to show up and die of blood loss waiting for the rest of the teams."