The whole room just stared at Anko.
"You're early," said Ibiki.
Anko chuckled sheepishly for a moment and then looked around the room. "What?! So many? You losing your touch, Ibiki-kun?"
"We've got a good bunch this time," he replied.
"Hah!" she said. "I'll cut them in half, at least."
She looked around the room. "Okay, brats. Follow me to Training Ground 44. You have half an hour to get there." She jumped out the window and ran away.
Ibiki sighed. "If you don't know how to get there. See one of my assistants for a map."
Naruto approached her teammates. Sasuke grabbed a map.
"Let's go," he said.
As they jogged to the training ground, Naruto asked Hinata, "Why were you going to give up, Hinata-chan? Don't you have faith in yourself by now?"
Hinata looked down as they ran. "It's not that, Naruto-chan. I just didn't want to ruin your dream of being Hokage."
Naruto lightly hit her in the shoulder. "Thanks for thinking of me, Hinata-chan, but I meant what I said to Ibiki-san. I'll be Hokage, even if I have to be promoted from genin. Life's too short to second guess oneself."
"Okay, Naruto-chan. I'll try and have more faith in you."
"Hey, it's not just me. Have faith in yourself and faith in our team. Remember that the Hokage picked us to invite the Daimyo. We're going to steam roll this thing."
"The Dead Last is right. We're the team to beat," said Sasuke.
"Let's just avoid fighting the other jinchuuriki, if we can help it," said Naruto. "I don't want things to escalate out of control."
At the entrance to the training ground, the chuunin hopefuls clumped up by village. The Konoha rookies all congregated together. Naruto and Hinata smirked as Ino and Sakura mobbed Sasuke again. Kiba was trying not-so-subtly to put the moves on Hinata. This mainly consisted of loud boasting.
Signs were placed on the gates that read:
Training Ground 44
Forest of Death
Keep Out
"Forest of Death, eh?" Kiba said loudly. "More like Forest of Easy Pickings."
A kunai grazed Kiba's cheek. He slapped a hand to the scratch and yipped like a small dog.
"It's always the loud ones that die first," said Anko from right behind Kiba.
The dark-haired, feminine Kusa nin that Naruto thought might be suppressing his chakra, presented the kunai to Anko with his tongue from behind her. "Here's your kunai, proctor-san," he said.
"You ought to be more careful about sneaking up behind me," said Anko. "Shinobi reflexes are dangerous."
"I just got excited due to the blood and the loss of some of my precious hair," said the Kusa nin in a too-sweet tenor.
Anko rolled her eyes. "Okay, tough guy."
Anko projected her voice. "Listen up everyone. I'm going to explain the rules." She told them that each team would get one of two scrolls. The object of the test was to get to the tower in the center of the large training ground with both types of scrolls and your full team. They could use any method they wanted to get the scroll they needed from another team. They had 120 hours (five days exactly) to do it.
"Five days!?" shouted Chouji. "What will we do for food?"
"Are you shinobi or not?" responded Anko. "Find your own food. The forest has plenty of things to hunt for food, if it doesn't get you first.
"Since it's likely that some of you will die in there, I have consent forms that remind you of the dangers and waive Konoha's liability and, more importantly, mine. When everyone on your team has signed one, you can exchange it for a Heaven or an Earth Scroll. A proctor will show you to a gate. The Second Exam will start in half an hour."
Naruto and her teammates retrieved the forms. Naruto skimmed through it and signed it. The three of them exchanged their scrolls for a Heaven Scroll which Naruto stashed inside her vest. A chuunin guided them to one of the many gates on this side of the training ground. The chuunin let them in when his pocket watch got to the appropriate time.
Without words, Team Seven got into their standard formation. Naruto made twelve clones that activated the Byakugan and Disguised themselves as foxes. The clones bracketed them in pairs and ran parallel to them about 50 meters distant. Hinata led, followed by Sasuke and then Naruto.
After they had traveled for about 15 minutes, Naruto whistled the signal to halt. "What's the plan?" she asked.
"Can you see any teams?" asked Sasuke.
Naruto's current Byakugan range was about 2 kilometers on each side. "I can see three teams on each side of us. That Sand team with Gaara is the third team to the North. None of the other five teams are noteworthy. The second team to the South is an Ame team with poor chakra levels and an Earth Scroll. I could probably take them with just clones."
"I think that team is just outside my range, I think," said Hinata.
"Okay, let's head for them," said Sasuke. "I'd like to challenge myself, but it's probably better to get this stage over with. Too many things can go wrong in this kind of place."
"The Third Exam is always a one-on-one fighting tournament," said Hinata.
"Okay, that will satisfy my need for testing myself," he said
"I'll make a clone to lead us," said Naruto
They skirted the team closest to them, which had a Heaven Scroll and approached their victims.
"These guys are barely aware of what's going on," said Naruto as they stopped 200 meters from them.
"I agree," said Hinata.
Sasuke grunted. "Send in your clones." It had taken weeks for Kakashi to beat the pride out of Sasuke and Naruto so that they put the mission before personal glory. They had not really internalized it until Nami.
Naruto formed six Shadow Clones. The real genin followed them in as backup. They were not needed. Naruto's clones launched their bolas at the Ame genin and all three were wrapped up at the shins and chest.
"Pathetic," Sasuke sneered.
Naruto picked up the scroll from the lead Ame genin.
"I'll leave clones here so these guys don't try and follow us," Naruto said.
The Konoha genin took off at a jog. They ran side by side. "I'll send out more clones to see if I can get us back ups and to thin the competition while we head to the tower."
Hinata and Sasuke agreed. Naruto formed 24 clones which took off in groups of six. The three of them fell back into their standard formation.
After an hour of jogging, Naruto saw a huge chakra signature speeding toward them.
"High jounin chakra. Coming right for us," she yelled.
She saw a wave of chakra coming toward them, centered on her. Just as it was about to hit, she felt a contingency clone Replace her. She saw the contingency clone swept away by what looked like a Great Breakthrough. She quickly made ten Shadow Clones which took off into the brush.
She joined Hinata and Sasuke in one of their standard formations: A shallow triangle with Hinata in front.
A clapping sound could be heard. The creepy Kusa shinobi that had been hiding his chakra levels stepped forward. "Very good," he said. "I must say that you surpass your reputation as the 'Dead Last,' Naruto-chan."
"Who are you to call me 'chan,' Kusa nin?" she demanded.
"Ku, ku, ku, ku," he laughed. "You'll find out. . . if you survive!" He released a wave of killing intent that staggered the genin.
The Kusa nin threw a handful of shuriken at them, the genin dodged out of the way. Kakashi had made sure they knew how to handle killing intent after Nami, although this was more extreme than anything Kakashi had exposed them to.
"Run or fight?" asked Sasuke sourly. Naruto knew that Sasuke really hated to run from a fight.
"He's too fast for us to outrun him," said Naruto, "and he has as much chakra as the Hokage. We're probably toast either way, but I'd prefer to go down fighting if I'm going down."
"Agreed," said Sasuke.
"Okay," said Hinata as she moved forward.
Their antagonist continued to throw shuriken at them, but Hinata deflected them with her chakra-coated palms.
"You think you can take me, Hyuuga-chan?" said the Kusa nin. "They say you're more mouse than shinobi."
Hinata ignored him as she got close enough to attack him with her Gentle Fist taijutsu. In recent months she had added moves to expand her personal style past the standard Hyuuga Gentle Fist that enabled her to take advantage of her body type. The added repertoire, which included chakra-laced kicks, and her increased speed enabled her to stay ahead of Sasuke and Naruto in taijutsu. Hinata's Byakugan and her skill in reading moves countered the Sharingan of her teammates—somewhat.
Hinata unleashed a fury of palms and kicks at the Kusa nin, but he dodged them. Hinata was very fast, but this guy was faster!
The antagonist leaped back and thrust a palm toward Hinata. Snakes shot toward her. She whistled the signal to not Replace her as she began to move wildly with thein blades of chakra emitting from her hands and the Eight Trigrams Seal manifested at her feet. The blades remained in place for several seconds after her hands moved, creating a network of chakra in front of her. The snakes crashed into the barrier and erupted into smoke.
"Very good, Hyuuga-chan," he said. "The reports about you are false. You invented that technique yourself, didn't you?"
Hinata simply glared at him as she gathered her second wind.
Sasuke took the opportunity to unleash a Fireball at the enemy shinobi, but he used a simple chakra-powered leap to clear it.
Three of Naruto's clones launched bolas at him while another six launched kunai at him. The Kusa shinobi deflected them, but when he attempted to deflect the bolas, the remaining weights of the three-weight weapon wrapped around his arm and the weight he deflected came back and hit him in the chest. This did not hinder him very much, as he simply leaped over the others. A quick slash from a kunai got rid of the small hindrance on his arm.
"That is an annoying weapon," he said.
Naruto smirked.
"You're Orochimaru, aren't you?" said Sasuke, his two-tomoe Sharingan visible. "No one else, other than Anko-san, uses snakes."
"Very good, Sasuke-kun," he said. "I see the reports of your genius are correct."
Naruto considered swamping the forest with clones as a strategy while they ran, but was not very confident that it would work, since he had homed in on them and not the clones she had out looking for easy scrolls.
Hinata closed in on him again with Sasuke also engaging him in taijutsu. Naruto sent in clones to help or to Replace them in case of trouble. A few times it looked like Hinata or Sasuke got him, but it turned out to be a clone.
Naruto activated her Sharingan, in order to provide better support. With her Sharingan she could safely target Orochimaru with kunai and avoid her teammates.
"What's this?" said Orochimaru. "Naruto-chan has the Sharingan and the Byakugan, both?"
Naruto grimaced. She would have rather he not know, but they needed all the help they could get.
"Ku, ku, ku," he laughed. "How marvelous! You would be perfect, except you already have a passenger, don't you? You three are quite the team! I think I will share my gift with all of you rather than just Sasuke-kun."
He struck both Sasuke and Hinata and sent them flying into trees faster than the contingency clones could respond. Naruto felt her anger and worry building up inside her. Kyuubi, I need help! she sent to the Bijuu.
The Kyuubi's chakra welled up inside her. She made it her own and pushed it out from her. Her hair lengthened and gathered into ten tail-like strands.
"What's this power?" asked Orochimaru. "It's not the Kyuubi. Ku, ku, ku. I can't wait until you're mine."
She sent her hair after him, but he deflected or dodged it. She tried to get him with a pincer move, but he avoided it. Her frustration and anger increased as he avoided her most potent technique. Her Sharingan showed what he was doing, but she wasn't fast enough to benefit from it. Suddenly, his moves became even clearer, as her ability to predict his moves increased, but she still was not fast enough. If she had to guess, she had just obtained her third tomoe. She tried making clones, but none of them had access to the Kyuubi, and so they were easily disposed of by the rogue shinobi.
"This has been fun, Naruto-chan," he said. "But your display of power will bring others coming soon, so I'll have to cut this short. You and your friends should seek me out when you are ready to become even more powerful."
His head shot forward as his neck lengthened. Naruto could see it coming with her Sharingan, but could not move fast enough to block or avoid it. She felt a sharp jab in her neck and then blackness overtook her.
Author's Note: Bwahahahaha!