Chapter 10- Chūnin Selection Exam: The Forest of Death (Part 2)

(Yugi POV)

We walked through the gate and looked around a moment before jumping onto the trees and taking off toward the deeper end of the forest. Concentrating a small amount of chakra into my feet let me jump from branch to branch.

"So how do we know who has a heaven scroll?" Joey asked and I bit my lip in thought.

"We don't, but we could simply find a team and watch them to see if they show there scroll. If it's what we need we could attack and take it if it's not we could move on to another team."

"Sounds like a plan, one problem. What if they see us? And what if we can't win against them in a fight?" Heba asked and I rolled my eyes at him.

"It doesn't matter if we don't know; no ninja knows if they can take their enemy. It's a risk we have to take." Yami answered and I nodded my head in agreement with him jumping down to the ground. The others followed me and we stood in a circle.

Heba sighed and looked to all of us before voicing his thoughts. "First things first, we need to locate a team."

Atem nodded and sighed. "He's right but how do we do that?"

"We could use Dragon." Joey mentioned motioning to said dog.

I looked over to the black wolf sized pup who was sniffing the air and growling slightly. "Joey, what's wrong with him?"

Joey looked down to him before sniffing the air himself and smirking. "Well, well, we have company already." He reached into his pack pouch and pulled out a Kunai before throwing it at nearby bushes.

The five of us took fighting stances and watched as three ninja from Rain jumped out and stood in front of us. I looked them over before spotting the scroll sticking out of one of their vests. "He has the heaven scroll." I whispered and Heba smirked even more.

"Now who ever said what you needed isn't delivered to you?"

The enemy ninja growled at that and glared at Heba. "You will have to take it from our cold lifeless bodies."

Heba arched a brow at him and laughed before pulling out a kunai and throwing it at the man. "With pleasure!"

The Nin easily avoided the Kunai launched himself at Heba, throwing a punch that he easily ducked.

"What is wrong with your brother?" Atem asked and I gave him a good look over before smirking.

"Nothing."

"What do you mean nothing? He just attacked that Nin as if it was nothing!" Atem yelled and I ignored him as the second ninja ran over to Yami and started to engage in battle with him. I looked over to find the last one and spotted him in battle with Joey and dragon.

"Atem go and help Yami!" I ordered before jumping into the trees and heading a few feet away to a figured hidden behind a tree. I stopped a few inches from them and smirked at my brother.

"When did you make the clone?" I asked and he smirked looking up from the kunai wrapped in string he was working with.

"The second Joey threw the Kunai." He tightened the string one more time before standing up and looking to the direction of the field.

I watched him a moment before asking, "What are you going to do?"

"I am going to use this to grab the scroll from that guys shirt then I am going to use the Great Flower Flame technique to end them." He answered.

"What do you need me to do?" I asked already knowing what it was though.

Heba smirked and looked over to me. "Create a distraction."

I nodded and jumped back toward the field. Stopping on a tree that over looked the fighting and my eyes instantly zeroed in on Yami. He had a few clones surrounding the Nin and was trying to use them as a distraction to land a hit on the man. However the man saw threw it and hit both clones with Kunai before jumping away from Yami and tossing another Kunai at him. Taken off guard Yami tried to jump away at last minute but the kunai landed in his upper arm.

The second it did I saw red. I reached for the small water gourd I carried on my waist for water Jutsus when I needed a lot of water. I unclipped it from my side and tossed it into the air over the fighting. I threw a kunai at it and smashed the bottle sending water into the air. I jumped down from the tree and landed only a few feet from the Nin as I performed the seals for the Jutsu. Ram, horse, bird.

As my hands performed the last seal I yelled out the Jutsu. "A Thousand Needles of Death!" Instantly the water that was falling turned into needles and flew high speed at the Nin that had attacked Yami. I jumped back out of the way as the needles pieced his body in several ways and killed him instantly.

"H-Haru is dead!" The Nin fighting Joey yelled as he instantly froze and started at his companion's body.

"They have the scroll to!" The other one yelled and I snapped my head up to the tree where Heba was dangling the scroll in his hand and the string kunai in the other.

"If you don't run you'll end up like your friend over there." Heba warned and instantly the two made a break for it.

I looked over to the Nin I had killed and stared at him, watching his blood run from the puncture wounds. A dark chill ran though me as a few tears ran down my cheeks; I had killed a man, without thinking twice about it.

"Yugi…." Heba called from behind me. I turned to him slowly as more tears ran down my cheeks.

"I-I killed someone." I chocked out and saw the others look to me sympathetically.

"Yug, its part of being a ninja. Some die, sometimes we have to kill, even Anko said not everyone would make it out of here alive." Joey whispered.

I shook my head and tried to wipe my tears away as someone wrapped their arms around my neck and pulled me to their chest. I looked up and Yami down to me as he rubbed my back soothingly. "Yugi there whole objective when they attacked us was to kill us. If we hadn't gotten them, if you hadn't killed that man, he would have tried to kill me. Were ninja and this is a survival test, we are surviving. People will try to kill us, we can't hold back. We never can as ninja. Understand?"

I nodded and Yami let me go, cupping my cheeks with his hands and bushing my tears away. I felt a soft blush dust over my cheeks and Heba tilted his head to the trees, telling us we needed to get out of here. We all instantly agreed and took off for the trees and jumping through them again.

"We have both scrolls now right?" Joey asked.

Heba pulled out the Heaven and I pulled out the Earth.

"Ya we do, here Yugi." I looked over to Heba and he handed me the Heaven scroll. I took it and tucked both into my backpack.

"We got lucky, but we still need to be careful. Who knows who would attack them for the scrolls." Yami advice and we nodded in agreement.

Atem stopped on a branch and we followed his lead, stopping on front of him. "It's getting late out, it looks to be about six at night so we have two choices. We could continue to the building and risk being attacked when it's late and were tired from traveling. Or we could stop, rest, and continue on to the tower tomorrow."

"I vote for resting, and food!" Joey exclaimed.

I laughed before motioning for everyone to jump down. We sat down on the ground once we were in a clearing that seemed relatively safe. Heba and I pulled out our packs and handed some homemade beto boxes to the boys.

Everyone started to eat and I looked to Yami. "So Yami, tell us about Marik and Bakura. Why do they seem to hold a grudge against you guys?"

Yami looked to me and sighed before shrugging. "It's not really a grudge and they don't hate us. Bakura has anger towards members of our family who betrayed the clan. He used to blame us but he doesn't anymore, he just naturally has a bad attitude. Same for Marik, there also completely nuts and love weapons."

Heba swallowed a bite of his food before looking to Yami. "What did the members of the family do to betray you?"

Atem was the one who answered this time. "They committed massacre."

Heba and I stared at him in shock, waiting for him to continue. Atem sighed and ran a hand through his tricolored hair before speaking. "You see Bakura's clan used to be rivals with ours and the Kaiba's. One day our clan thought that they had killed one of our family members. To get revenge a few members of our clan went and massacred his whole family, Bakura is the only remaining member of the clan now."

"Th-that's horrible." I mumbled and Atem nodded his head in agreement. I couldn't imagine watching everyone I knew get massacred before my very eyes. Bakura must be scarred for life, no wonder he is so angry. I looked down to my lap and shook my head sadly. "He must have a lot of pent up rage."

"Oh he does, and he releases it by attacking us." Atem mumbled and Heba looked to him arching a brow.

"What about the others?"

"Marik and Seto?" Yami asked for clarification and Heba nodded.

"Well Marik is an only child who lives with Bakura in the old Ryou Clan compound. His parents were murdered on a mission. He only hates us because of what happened to Bakura's clan. Kaiba's father Aknadin and his mother Shiori passed away from a disease. Only his brother and him are left of the clan."

"Who is his brother?" I asked.

"Mokuba Kaiba, ten twelve years old and a student at the academy." Joey answered and then grabbed a sandwich before stuffing it in his mouth.

Once everyone was done eating we sprawled out across the ground planning on getting some sleep. Heba and I were the first ones on watch. After about three hours into the night watch Heba had fallen asleep and I was fighting to stay awake. I pulled out an energy granola bar and started to eat it while the whole time keeping my eyes and ears open for anything that could come out at us.

About twenty minutes later there was the sound of a branch snapping. I jumped to my feet and pulled a Kunai out of my pocket as three figures stumbled out of the bushes. One looked badly injured and was being supported by the other two.

"ATEM, YAMI, HEBA, JOEY!" I yelled startling the four people awake as I ran over to the ninja who I now recognized as Ryou, Malik and Mana.

"What happened to him?" I asked wrapping one arm around Ryou's waist and helping to lead him over to the other guys. I sat him down on the ground and propped him up against the tree as I grabbed the first aid kit.

"We were attacked by some sort of snake; he was bit on his wrist." Malik responded.

I nodded and turned his wrist over looking at the wound. I needed to cut his wrist and drain the venom out of his blood as well as give him an Antibiotic. "Ryou," I called and the boy opened his chocolate eyes tiredly. I offered him a small reassuring smile. "I need to cut your wrist to force the Venom out and," I reached into my bag and pulled out a pill that fought off snake venom. "I need you to take this pill."

Ryou nodded and I popped the pill into his mouth and helped him take some water. Once he swallowed it I took his wrist and pulled out a kunai from my pouch. I raised it to his wrist and applied pressure as I dragged it along his wrist making a clean cut that instantly started to bleed. I squeezed it tightly to drain a lot of blood out so I could make sure the poison was indeed out. Once I was sure he lost enough blood to be clean I cleaned up the wound and then bandaged it.

"How do you feel Ryou?"

"A little better, still weak though." He mumbled sitting up.

I nodded. "You will be weak for a few days, three at the most," I pulled out another bento from my bag and placed it in his lap with chop sticks. "Here eat this it will help you recover some strength if you have food in you."

Ryou smiled and thanked me before opening the bento and starting to eat it. I looked over to the other members of his team and smiled to them.

"He's going to be fine, are you two hungry I have food here if you are."

They shook their heads and sat down amongst us.

"Hey Malik, long time no see. Meet Yugi and Heba Moto, there members of our team." Joey greeted, smiling to his best friend.

"Good to see you to Joey," He looked over to us then and smiled. "Glad to meet you I am Malik, this is my teammates Mana and Ryou. Thank you so much for helping Ryou, I don't know what I would do if I lost one of my best friends."

I smiled to him. "It's no problem at all; a friend of Joey's is a friend of ours."

"Moto?"

I looked over to Ryou and nodded my head.

"How is that possible? My father said that they were all dead." Ryou mumbled and Heba and I exchanged a look before looking back to Ryou.

"Apparently not, I am a Moto, my brother is a Moto, my grandfather is one and my mother was before she died." I answered and Ryou arched a brow before looking deep in thought.

"My father would be interested to hear this."

Heba sighed before looking over to Ryou and tilting his head to the side. "What do you know about the Moto Clan, Ryou?"

Ryou looked to him before looking down at the Bento box in his lap. "Not a lot, as is known the clan existed during the war-torn era."

"What exactly is the war-torn era?" Heba asked.

Ryou took a deep breath before answering him. "Before the village system was established with the founding of Konohagakure by the Senju, Moto and Uchiha, there was a time period known as the War-Torn Era, also referred to as the Era of the Warring States. It was an extremely lengthy and bloody period in history where hundreds of individual shinobi clans fought in constant, bitter rivalry."

Atem then looked to Heba and picked up where Ryou left off to eat. "During this era, conflicts were continuously arising between the various nations as everyone fought for more rights and land. In order to wage these wars, each individual shinobi clan rented its military power to the highest bidder. However because of the merciless violence, the average life-span for a shinobi as well as civilians was very short. Clan numbers were also shrinking because of the continuing slaughter of countless children. Then with the continued loss of their kin, a never ending cycle of death and revenge was born, which ended up shinobi having to even conceal their clan names for fear of revengeful clans."

Ryou nodded at this and swallowed the food in his mouth before picking up after Atem. "Amongst the warring clans, only three came to be feared as the strongest: the Senju clan, the Moto Clan, and the Uchiha clan, who developed a deep hostility for each other as they were often hired to oppose one another due to their rivaling strength." He took a deep breath before continuing. "However, after decades of conflict, most of the clans under the Uchiha, Moto and Senju were growing weary of the continued bloodshed. Some time before Konoha's founding, some members of the Uchiha and Moto clan's began to willingly surrender, realizing that they were outclassed by the Senju. They were later urged to form a lasting truce by Sugoroku Moto the leader of the Moto Clan."

Ryou took a break to eat again and Joey was the one to speak after him, looking to me and Heba seriously. "Soon after, a pact was formed with the Land of Fire and thus, Konohagakure was formed. This set a precedence which others soon followed, creating the Five Great Shinobi Countries. However, peace didn't last. The villages began to compete with each other for resources such and control of the tailed beasts and this competition eventually grew into the First Shinobi World War. The rest you should know."

I nodded and looked back over to Ryou. "What happened to the Moto clan?"

Ryou shrugged his shoulder. "Don't know, they disappeared between the making of Konohagakure and the first shinobi war." He paused and seemed lost in thought before he continued. "However I do know this, my father had discovered some old scrolls in the Moto compound that may suggest they had a Kekkei Genkai, you wouldn't know anything would you? You did say your grandfather was a Moto."

I shook my head and looked to Heba for help. He sighed and looked to Ryou shrugging his shoulders. "Don't know our family never said anything about this. However my grandfathers middle name is Sugoroku. His full name is Solomon Sugoroku Moto, he is 71."

Ryou's eyes widened and he looked up to Heba in shock. "That's almost as old asHiruzen Sarutobi the third Hokage. The third was around during the time of the first shinobi was and before it."

"What are you getting out?" Heba asked.

My eyes were as wide as possible as I started to piece what he was saying together. "He's saying… that he thinks that Jii-chan could be the Sugoroku from back then, the one who was responsible for urging the lasting truce."

Heba looked to me like I was insane, he laughed slightly before shaking his head. "Impossible."

I shook my head and started to add everything up for him. "Not really if we add up the times to back when the truce was made, Jii-chan would have been eighteen. When the first Shinobi war broke out he would have been twenty. Then up to right now he would have been a few years older than Sarutobi which he is. It would also explain how Jii-chan is 71 and acts like he's still forty, being a ninja would certainly strength him and keep him fit."

"Yugi. It's not possible." Heba said emphasizing the word not.

I knew he was saying it because we were from a different dimension but no matter how much I added all of this up in my head, it was the only thing that made sense. How could we come to another dimension, already have Chakra, be this good at being a ninja, and have the same last name as a clan that vanished around the time our grandfather came to live in Domino and open up the Kame Game Shop! "But it adds up Heba!"

"Maybe you should talk to your grandfather once we get out of here." Malik advised and I nodded my head, thought wasn't sure how we were going to do that when we didn't even know how to get back to our dimension.

"Speaking of that," Joey spoke looking over to Malik. "You got both scrolls?"

Malik nodded and reached into his bag and held them up. "Got the earth scroll off of a few ninja that fell victim to this giant spider. How about you guys?"

I nodded and reached into our bag and pulled out both scrolls, holding them up for Malik to see. "Got ours off of a team of Ninja that attacked us the second we arrived."

Malik arched a brow at that. "That's pretty bold considering you have Yami and Atem Sennen on your team."

"Actually, it was thanks to Yugi we won." Yami said looking over to me. I tried to ignore the images of that ninja's dead body flashing through my head. I shook my head to tried to rid myself of the images as Malik slapped me on the shoulder grinning.

"Great job man, not many people our age can keep up with them!"

"How about in the morning we head to the tower together?" Joey asked and I shook my head.

"Not a good idea Joey, with that snake bite Ryou is going to need at least three days to recover. And if we move him to soon if there is any poison left in his body, if could get to his heart and kill him."

Everyone looked to me in shock but made it a decision to wait until Ryou was able to move.

(Last day of Second Test) (Heba's POV)

When the last day finally rolled around we instantly started toward the tower after the sun was in the sky. Ryou was doing much better and looked as healthy as a horse. The eight of us were not very well rested. We had for the last four day fought through the tooth and nail to keep our scrolls and keep ourselves alive. I had never seen so many bugs in my entire life. I thought for a second a spider I saw was going to make mince meat out of me. I also believe, I have a new fear of anything with more than four legs.

Needless to say we were tired, agitated, and wanting to get out of this bloody forest the second we all could. Over the days thought Malik, Ryou and Mana had bonded with all of us and we had formed a good friendship. I enjoyed being with them and prayed that in the last test, I didn't have to fight any of them.

Lucky for us we never ran into the members of team 5, though I had to wonder every now and then were they were. Since we couldn't move Ryou till yesterday it had to be known where we were to them and everyone else; however we only ever ended up fighting a few weak ninja. The main thing we fought was bugs. I knew Orochimaru was in the forest and wondered if maybe, he was the one killing of the other ninja; he was after all a killer who enjoyed blood.

I looked around and groaned at everything, had been running for about two hours but it didn't feel like we got any closer to that damn tower. "Mana how far to the tower?"

"Hold on let me check." Mana responded and started a few hand seals to activate her Kekkei Genkai. "Byakugan!" Her eyes turned appearances and looked like they had veins popping out of them. "We are headed the right way and it appears to be a good ten minutes away."

I nodded my head and we continued along the path to the tower being careful to watch out for any people that would try and attack us for the scroll. After a while we came into a large clearing in front of the tower. We grinned to each other before heading to the building and came to a stop in front of the many doors that were labeled for the gates we came through.

"Looks like this is where we split up. Thanks for everything, really without you I probably would have been headed for the afterlife." Ryou mumbled and Yugi shook his head. He walked over to the boy and pulled him into a tight hug.

"It was nothing, really Ryou and I am sure if you needed to you could have taken care of yourself." He pulled back from the boy and smiled at him. "And thank you for everything you told us about our clan, it helped a lot."

Ryou nodded his head and we went our separate ways, looking for the door that had our gate number on it. We eventually found it and Yami opened the door, leading us through into a large room with a banner on the wall.

"What's up, why is there no one here?" Joey asked as the other started to look around.

My eyes were currently attached to the banner on the wall. "If qualities of heaven are your desire, acquire wisdom to take your mind to higher. If earthly qualities are what you lack train your body and prepare to attack. When heaven and earth are open together the parallels path will become righteous forever this… something… is the secret way that guides us from this place today."

"This what or is that a secret to?" Joey asked and I rolled my eyes.

"It's like there is a word missing…." I mumbled and looked to the others. "Anyway it's about the scrolls. I think were supposed to open the heaven and earth scrolls now."

Yugi nodded and took them out of his pack. He tossed the earth scroll to me and we held them in our hands, looking to each other to time this right. We pulled the flap at the same time and pulled them open. We blinked and looked them over seeing a bunch of twist and turns, circles and kanji.

"It's a summoning scroll. Throw it Heba!"

I looked to Yugi before tossing the scroll at the same time he did. They crossed together and formed an X before landing on the ground. There was a pop and a bunch of smoke before a figure finally appeared through it.

"Mom!" Atem and Yami yelled at the same time staring at the woman who was smiled at us.

"Looks like you have gone through a lot." She observed.

"There were bugs, lots and lots of creepy crawly bugs." Joey mumbled shivering at the reminder of all the bugs we had been woken up to slaughter.

"Well it is a forest Joseph." The woman said laughing.

"That's not the point! There were SO many!" He yelled making her laugh even more.

"Anyway, I should introduce myself to the boys who looked like a bunch of confused ninken." She looked over to Yugi and I, smiling even more. "I am glad to meet the boys who are able to rival that of my boys. My name is Amem Sennen, I am a Chūnin and Yami and Atem's mother." She introduced.

"Heba Moto and this is my twin brother, Yugi Moto." I introduced bowing to the woman.

"Mom what gives why did you come with the Chūnin?" Atem asked. She looked over to him before looking back over to all of us.

"At the end of the second exam we Chūnin are to welcome the test takers back. It's just good luck that I was given the important task of welcoming you guys back." She answered waking over Atem and brushing some dust off of his cheek. "You guys made it in good time, a few hours before the exam is to end. I wouldn't expect anything less from my boys though."

"Mom, knock it off your embarrassing us."Atem groaned and she laughed before nodding and taking a step back from him.

"Congratulations boys you have passed the second exam! I am so proud of you! Your father said if you make it though the final exam were going to throw a big feast for you and of course Yugi, Heba and Joey can come because there part of your team." She ranted and Yami and Atem sighed, shaking their heads.

"Mom! If we had opened the scrolls in the middle of the exam, what would you have done to us?" Yami asked and she froze, putting on a serious face. She walked over to the scrolls and picked up the earth scroll, holding it up for us to see.

"As usual Yami you are as sharp as ever, part of this exam was to test your ability at being able to see a difficult mission all the way through. Simply put you knew not opening the scrolls before you reached here was part of your mission. If a scroll was opened before it reached the tower, we were ordered to knock out whoever opened it, some ninja found that out the hard way."

"It's definitely a good thing we didn't open them then." Yami mumbled and I nodded in agreement with him.

"Hey mom," Atem asked and she looked over to him. "That parchment on the wall, what is it? It's faded in some parts and hard to read."

Amem looked up to the wall and smiled slightly before looking back to Atem. "Explaining that is one of the duties I had been sent here to do actually Atem. You see, there instructions lord Hokage had recorded that are principles he believes all Chūnin should follow."

"Instructions?" Joey question and she nodded her head.

"You see Heaven represents your mind and Earth represents your body. If qualities of heaven are your desire, acquire wisdom to take your mind to higher. Get it?"

Joey swallowed thickly and shook his head. "No not one bit."

"If your weakness lies in your intellect, then you have to make sure you work double hard to acquire all the intellect and skill you need to prepare for you mission." I answered and Amem looked to me in shock before nodding her.

"That's right, and if earthly qualities are what you lack, train your body and prepare to attack. Know that one?"

"If your weakness lies in your physical strength, then you have to make sure you work on your physical condition everyday so that it improves." Yugi answered and Amem nodded her head in acceptance to that.

"When heaven and earth are open together the parallels path will become righteous forever, meaning if your mind and body are working together as one then even a very dangerous mission can become an easy one." She finished and we nodded our heads in understanding.

"What about that missing word?" Heba asked.

Amem smiled. "That part is meant for you all to fill in." She held the scroll out again. "Do you see that symbol on the scroll? It's the Japanese character for person, it represents you Chūnin. You see the five days of survival were to test you all as Chūnin. To see if you would be any good at it and I have got to say, you guys really did magnificently. A Chūnin is a leader, a guide. They have to be aware of the strength and weakness of those serving under him and knowing what those ninja are going to need to serve under him. You did an excellent job on this mission and I want you to follow those instructions for your next one. Well, that all I have to say to you."

"We understand Miss. Sennen." Joey said and we all nodded our head's to that.

"Oh Joseph call me mom! How many times do I have to tell you that! That goes for you boys as well." She added the last part looking over to us.

"Yes… mom." I added the last part looking a little nervous about saying it.

She nodded her head and started to the door. "Come on boys! We have to meet with everyone else in the main room."

Joey groaned and mumbled about wanting a shower and an actual bed. I had to say I agreed with him, I had never felt so dirty in my entire life and I felt like bugs were walking all over me. We soon reached the main room where a few others were with the Hokage. We walked over to the group and joined the other Genin as Amem joined the other Jounin and Chūnin at the front.

We waited a good few hours before Naruto and the rest finally joined us. Anko looked to her watch and after a few moments looked back up to us. "Alright! First I want to congratulate you on finishing the second part of the exam! Now listen up lord Hokage is going to explain the third exam to you, so you better listen up maggots!" She looked over to Sarutobi and smiled then. "Lord Hokage there all yours."

Sarutobi walked forward and cleared his throat. "First before I tell you what the third exam entails I want to explain something about the test itself. Listen closely now it's something you all must understand. I am going to tell you the true purpose of these tests, why do you suppose we hold these exams in conjunction with our allies?"

Yugi stepped forward and looked to Sarutobi seriously. "To raise the ability levels of the shinobi and increase friendship between allied nations."

"That is correct Yugi, but it is important that you understand the true meaning. These exams are to sort of speak…." He took a puff of his pip and hummed in thought before looking to us and speaking again. "There a representation of the battle between allied nations."

"What does that mean?" Ten-Ten asked.

"Now if we look at our history. All the counties we are currently allied with were once neighboring nations that continuously fought with each other for power. In order to avoid destroying each other's military strength continuously those nations picked warriors that battled on behave of their nations in very selective locations. Those are how the Chūnin selection exams first began." Sarutobi said before taking another puff of his pipe.

"Well that's great in all but why do we have to go through those exams then?" Naruto questioned. "I mean it's not like we're picking Chūnin to go fight."

"Well actually there is no question that part of these exams are to select Shinobi worthy of becoming Chūnin. That's just not the whole story, these exams also create a place where Shinobi can carry the pride of their nation on their backs, and fight against other ninja for their very lives." Sarutobi said and paused to take a breath before speaking again.

"Many leaders and people of prominence from various countries are invited to attend this exam as guest and will possibly seek various ninja to work for them. This exam could determine the future of your ninja work from here on out. And more importantly those rulers will watch your battle and take note of the strengths that each ninja and each nation is developing. If there is a gap in power between the countries the strong nations initiated with job requests for their ninja. And conversely the requests to countries that are deemed weak are declined. Therefore the stronger our nation is the better our position is for negotiating with various countries. So it's important to show how much military strength our village has." Once he was finished Joey took a step forward and growled.

"Okay but even so why is it necessary for us to risk our lives!?" He shouted and Dragon barked in agreement to the question.

Mahad frowned and shook his head, probably disappointed in Joey for yelling at the Hokage. Sarutobi simply shook his head before speaking to Joey. "The countries strength is the village's strength. The village's strength is the shinobi's strength. And the true strength of the shinobi is only achieved when it's pushed to its limits, such as in a life and death battle. This exam is a chance for each nation to display the strength of its shinobi and hence the strength of the nation itself. It's because this is an exam where your life is on the line that it has meaning. And it is for this very reason and for the strength of the nation that your forerunners fought in this exam. It's truly a dream worth striving for."

"When why did you use the word friendship before?!" Ten-Ten exclaimed and Sarutobi sighed, shaking his head.

"You have only remembered half of what I said. You also mustn't have the wrong idea of the exams meaning. This is a costume in which balance is preserved by fighting and dying. In the world of shinobi… that is friendship. The third exam is a fight for life with the pride of your village and your own dreams at stake."

"Humph well he sure convinced me." Naruto grinned.

"Any test is fine. Just tell me the details of the exam already I can handle anything you throw at me." Gaara spoke up then with his same emotionless voice.

"Hmm, very well then! Now listen closely I'll be telling you exactly what you will be doing on the third exam." Sarutobi said.

Just then a ninja jumped down and kneeled before Sarutobi with his fist on the ground and his head hung. "Lord Hokage, before you do please allow me, Hayate Gekkō, Procter of the third exam to speak."

Sarutobi nodded. "So be it."

Hayate stood then and turned around to face us. "It's nice to meet you all." He coughed and honestly it didn't sound too good. "There is something I would like all of you to do," He paused and coughed again before continuing. "Before the third exam."

He started coughing violently making me flinch and worry for his health. After the coughing spell had passed he looked up to us as if it was nether. I seriously wondered if he was going to kill over at any moment. I made a mental note to ask Yugi what his problem was later.