Akai Kami

by Missy the Cat

Since the first time they met, Sasuke has cared for Karin and now enemies and mysterious things started appearing. Will he be enough to protect her?

12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12.

Please review.

No Flames.

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Day time.

Outside one of the Rooms in the Academy.

Shigeri, Hiroki, and Karin, in their usual outfits, were standing outside of the testing rooms. Karin sensed Sasuke, Naruto, Sakura, Hinata, Kiba, Shino, Shikamaru, Ino, and Choji were inside.

"We have to win this Chunin Exams." Hiroki said.

"For the honor of Konohagakure." Shigeri said then turned to Karin on the right. "You better try harder."

"H-hai..." Karin said sadly and shyly.

Shigeri slid one of the shoji doors open with his right hand before he, Hiroki, and Karin went inside and slid it closed behind them. Karin immediately sad and scared at all of the genins participating in the Chunin Exams, which was consistent of Konohagakure, Sunagakure, Otogakure, Amegakure, and Takigakure ninjas, she put her hands together near her chest as they stared at her.

"We're going to wait to over until the Exams starts, you stay right there Karin." Shigeri said before he and Hiroki walking over to the left.

Karin watched as Shigeri and Hiroki walked over to the left and sat down next to the wall, she looked down at the ground sadly and dropping her arms.

"Karin!" a voice yelled out.

Karin stopped looking at the ground and turned to the right to see Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura, in their usual outfits, were standing a few feet away from her.

"Oniisan..." Karin said softly, walking over to them and stopping next to them.

"It's good to see that you're finally here, dattebayo." Naruto said.

"You made it." Sasuke said smiling at Karin.

Sakura glared at Karin.

"You 3 as well..." Karin said softly.

"Sasuke-kun, where have you been?!" Ino yelled smiling.

Karin saw Ino, in her usual outfit, ran up to Sasuke and hugged him from behind, she saw Sasuke glaring at Ino. Naruto and Sakura saw it to but Sakura was now glaring at Ino.

"Boy you have no idea how much I was hoping you show up here. I've missed those bruting good looks of yours." Ino said.

"Hey you porker, back off! He's mine!" Sakura yelled angrily, pointing her right index finger at Ino.

Ino released her grip on Sasuke and now stood on the right side of him but still had her left arm around his neck. "Miss Forehead, they let you in? Still got those big frown lines on your build board brow I see."

"Leave my forehead out of it!" Sakura yelled angrily, her hands near her chest.

Ino placed her right index finger under her right eye and made a face as she sticker her tongue out. Sakura growled at her.

"Will they ever stop fighting...?" Karin thought.

Karin suddenly sensed 2 chakras coming near them.

"Oh it's you guys.." a male voice said.

Sasuke, Naruto, Karin, Ino, and Sakura turned around and saw Shikamaru and Choji, in their usual outfits, and Choji was eating out of a bag of chips with both hands.

"I knew this was gonna be a drag but I didn't know it was gonna be this lame." Shikamaru said lazily, he hands in his pockets.

"So all 3 stooges are here, dattebayo." Naruto said to Shikamaru.

Karin looked at Naruto. "Oniisan..." she said.

"Hey you know what pipsqueak, ah forget it. You're a waste of time." Shikamaru said annoyed.

"Sorry but Sasuke is all mine." Ino said before she placed her right index finger under her right eye and made a face as she sticker her tongue out again.

Karin looked back at Ino holding onto Sasuke, then she she sensed Kiba, Shino, Hinata, and Akamaru heading towards them. Sasuke, Naruto, Karin, Shikamaru, Ino, Choji, and Sakura looked to see Shino, Kiba (with Akamaru on the top of his head), and Hinata, in their usual outfits, were walking towards them. Shino had his hands in his jacket pockets. Ino released her left arm from around Sasuke's neck and stayed a little behind him.

"Well, well what do you know, it looks like the whole gangs back together again." Kiba said smiling.

"Oh, hi Naruto-kun.." Hinata greeted shyly, her left hand near her chest.

"Hm." Naruto asked confused, looking at Hinata.

Karin saw Hinata blushed and looked away shyly smiling when Naruto looked at her. "So... Hinata really does have a crush on Oniisan..." she thought.

"You guys too huh? Man everyone's here for this stupid thing." Shikamaru said annoyed.

"Yep, here we all are the 12 rookies." Kiba said before he laughed. "This is gonna be fun at least for those of us who are good enough to make the cut! Right Sasuke." looking at him.

Karin looked at Sasuke, who was now smirking at Kiba. Ino became angrily as she raised her right fist near her chest.

"Kiba, careful you don't get over confident." Sasuke said to him.

"Just wait, we're gonna blow you guys away. We've been training like crazy." Kiba said smirking.

"What do you think we've been doing sittin' around picking Daisy's?!" Naruto yelled then pointed his right index finger at Kiba. "You don't know what training means!"

Karin stared at Naruto sadly. "Everyone is always trying to start fights..." she thought then looked forward.

"Um, don't mind Kiba.. I'm sure he didn't mean anything by it.." Hinata said shyly, twiddling her 2 index fingers together.

"Huh?!" Naruto asked confused.

Hinata gasped softly before she looked away to the left shyly, blushing.

Kiba looked at Hinata. "Hmph?" he questioned confused.

Akamaru barked.

Choji started to walk over to Kiba and Akamaru, who stared at him confused, until he was stopped by Shino, who stepped in front of him.

"What do you want?" Choji asked.

Shino looked at the ground.

"What's wrong?" Choji asked, looking down at the ground.

Shino and Choji saw a bug crawling on the floor.

"Thought maybe you haven't seen it." Shino said.

Choji looked at Shino confused. "Huh?" he asked.

Shino looked at Choji. "Didn't want you steppin' on it." he said.

"Why, you saving it for lunch?" Choji asked.

Karin looked to the right as she sensed someone walking over to them, a man that looked to be 19 years old had fair skin, black onyx eyes, ash-grey hair that reached a little past his shoulders and was in a ponytail and had bangs, wearing black rimmed circular glasses, a white shirt sleeved shirt with a dark purple high collared sleeveless shirt over it, long dark purple pants with a white clothed waistband and a grey pouch on the back, blue clothed forehead protector wrapped around his forehead, long dark purple fingerless gloves with armoured plates on the back of the hand, white bandages wrapped around the lower half of his leg, and blue sandals.

"That guy... there's something weird about him..." Karin thought.

"Hey you guys!" the man said.

Sasuke, Naruto, Shikamaru, Ino, Kiba, Choji, Shino, Akamaru, Hinata, and Sakura looked at the boy coming towards them.

"You might wanna try keeping it down a little." the man said before he stopped a few feet from them and put his hands on his hips. "I mean no offense but you're the 12 rookies right? Fresh out of the Academy. I wouldn't go making a spectacle of yourselves, just cool it this isn't a class field trip."

"Well who asked you! Who are you!" Ino yelled at him.

"I'm Kabuto Yakushi, but really look around you." Kabuto said.

Sasuke, Naruto, Karin, Shikamaru, Kiba, Akamaru, Ino, Choji, Shino, Hinata, and Sakura turned forward to see all of the genins participating in the Chunin Exams were staring at them.

"You made quite an impression." Kabuto said.

Karin walked backwards a little sad and scared, Sasuke stepped in front of her protectively.

"See those guys, they're from the Rain Village, very touchy. They're all are. This Exam makes everyone tense.. and you don't wanna run them the wrong way right now." Kabuto said.

"So... we're really going to competing with all of them...?" Karin thought sadly.

Sasuke, Naruto, Karin, Shikamaru, Kiba, Shino, Hinata, Akamaru, Ino, Choji, and Sakura looked back at Kabuto again.

Kabuto smiled as he closed his eyes looking down. "You can't help it, I mean how could you know how things work you're just rookies." he said then opened his and stopped looking down. "You remind me of myself awhile back."

"Kabuto, is that your name?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah." Kabuto said.

"This isn't the first time you've taken the Exam?" Sakura asked.

"No it's my seventh." Kabuto said.

"Huh, it really is...?" Karin thought, surprised and confused.

"Huh?" Shikamaru asked.

"Well they're twice a year so this would be my fourth year." Kabuto said.

"Wow, a veteran you must really be an expert by now." Sakura said amazed.

"Yeah sort of." Kabuto said.

"Cool you can give us all the inside tips!" Naruto said.

"Yeah some expert, he's never passed." Shikamaru said.

"Well seventh times the charm that's what they say." Kabuto said, rubbing the back of his head with right hand.

"So I guess all of those rumors about the Exam being tough are true. Oh man I knew this was gonna be a drag." Shikamaru said annoyed, turning his head little to the left.

Kabuto took his right hand off of his right hip. "Hang on, don't give up hope yet. Maybe I can help you kids out a little." he said then reached into his pouch with his right hand and pulled out orange cards that had green outlines with symbols in the middle with his right hand. "With my ninja info cards."

"Those are a lot of cards Kabuto has, he must have lots of information on the Exams and people..." Karin thought.

"What the heck are those?" Sakura asked.

"It's hard to explain." Kabuto said, stacking them neatly with his left hand. "But these cards have been chakra incoded with everything I've learned over the past 4 years." then he crouched down on the ground, his left hand on his left leg and placed the cards on the ground with his right hand and let them go. "I've got more than 200 of them, so you seek haven't been completely wasting my time." then he picked up the top card with his right hand. "They may not look like much to the naked eye, in fact they appear blank." turning it over to other side to see it was completely white and placed his left index on it.

Everyone looked down at the cards.

"Don't won't just anyone seeing this stuff." Kabuto said, spinning the cards around with his left index finger.

"What are you doing?" Sakura asked.

Karin was sensing the chakra coming out of Kabuto on to the card.

"You see I'm using my chakra to reveal their secrets, like this for example." Kabuto said closing his eyes, holding up his right index and middle finger.

Suddenly a puff of smoke appeared around the card and it revealed a map and the number of people from villages participating in the Chunin Exams. Kabuto took his left index finger off of the card and lowered his right hand.

"Awesome, a map of what..?" Sakura said.

"It shows the geographical distribution of all the candidates who come to take the Chunin Exam, what villages they come from and how many from each village." Kabuto said then looked up at them. "Why do you guys think they all come here to take the Exam together at the same time?"

Everyone stayed quiet except Choji, who was eating chips.

"I know the answer but I'll let Kabuto explain it..." Karin thought.

"It's to foster friendship between nations of course, international brotherhood and all that and it's true enough as far as it goes." Kabuto said.

"But there's another reason." Sasuke said.

Karin looked at Sasuke a moment before looking back down at Kabuto.

"Yeah, you see the important thing is that this way they can carefully regulate the total number of shinobi that end up in each village there by maintaining the balance of power." Kabuto said.

"Oh yeah, the balance of power." Naruto said, folding his arms.

"I know don't get it that much, Oniisan.." Karin thought sadly.

"Balance of power big deal it's all a drag." Shikamaru said.

Kabuto placed his right hand over the card and a puff of smoke appeared above it, the card turning completely white again. "If the balance isn't maintaining the one nation could wind up with many more shinobi than it's neighbors and it might be attempting to attack them, so they try to maintain the status quo, makes sense I suppose." he said.

"Hmph." Shikamaru said.

Sasuke stepped forward a little. "Do those cards of yours have any info on the other candidates individually?" he asked.

Karin looked at Sasuke curiously.

"They might.. You have someone special in mind." Kabuto said.

"I might." Sasuke said.

Kabuto put his left hand on the stack of cards and his right hand on the single blank card and put the card back with the other cards, stacking them together with both hands. "Well I can't promise my information is complete or perfect but I've got something on just about everyone." he said. "Including you guys of course.. so which one is it, tell me anything you know about them a description, where they're from, whatever.." then held up a card with his right hand. "Anything at all."

"W-wait.. h-he has information on all of us...?!" Karin thought shocked.

"He's Gaara of the Desert and there's Rock Lee of Konohagakure while you're at it." Sasuke said.

"Man, that's no fun you even know their names, that makes it easy." Kabuto said.

Kabuto quickly swiped 2 cards from the deck of cards with his right hand. Everyone looked at Kabuto. Karin looked up at Sasuke again to see he had a serious look on his face and looked back down. Kabuto held the 2 cards near his face.

"Here they are." Kabuto said.

"Show them to me." Sasuke said.

Kabuto put the deck of cards on the ground with his left hand and the one of the 2 cards on the beside it on the ground, putting his left index finger on top of one of the 2 cards. "Okay, first up is Rock Lee." he said, spinning the card around as he held up 2 fingers of his right hand.

Kabuto stopped spinning the card when there was a puff of smoke and revealed information about Lee, he took his left index finger off of the card.

"Looks like he's about a year older than you guys, mission experience: 11 C ranks and 20 D ranks, his squad leader is Guy, in the last 12 months his taijutsu is radically improved but his other skills are pretty shaky, last year he got a lot of attention as a genin but for some reason he choose not to participate in the Chunin Exam, this would be his first time as a candidate same as you guys. His team mates are Tenten and Neji Hyuga." Kabuto said.

"I know we only knew this team on one mission... but Sasuke would have a lot of information about him now..." Karin thought.

Kabuto placed another one of the 2 cards over it with his right hand as it turned blank. "Okay, now for Gaara of the Desert." he said spinning the card with his left index finger and stopped it as it puffed smoke.

The information about Gaara appeared, Kabuto took his left index finger off of the card. Karin's eyes widened when she recognized the genins from earlier.

"W-wait t-that's them...?" Karin thought shocked.

"Mission experience 8 C ranks and get this 1 B rank as a genin. There's not a lot more information on this guy, he was a rookie from another land originally, but there is this.." Kabuto said then fixed his glasses with his left hand. "His team mates are Temari and Kankuro. He survived every mission without getting a scratch on him." lowering his left hand.

"W-wait... what...? B-but that's impossible...!" Karin thought shocked.

"The dude's done a B rank as a genin.. and has never even been injured..?" Shikamaru asked shocked.

"What's the deal with this guy dattebayo?" Naruto asked shocked.

Sasuke just looked down serious at the card.

Kabuto pulled out another card from the deck of cards with his right hand and placed it over the 2 cards and put his left index finger then a map appeared and he took his left index finger off of it. "Konohagakure, Sunagakure, Amegakure, Kusagakure, Takigakure, Otogakure, from the looks of it they've all sent exceptional skilled candidates to the Exam this time around." he said, looking to the right before he looked back at them again. "Of course, Otogakure is small, it sprang up recently no one knows anything about it, those guys are a mystery."

"Huh..?" Karin thought confused.

Kabuto quickly put all of the cards together again with both hands. "Well you get the point, the competition's going to be intense this year." he said smiling.

"Can all of us... really survive this...Exam...?" Karin thought worried.

Hinata put her right hand to her face. "So it would seem, it's almost enough to make you lose your confidence." she said worried and shyly.

Ino turned to Hinata. "It's a fine time to start talking like that!" she yelled.

Hinata looked at Ino.

"Do really think it's gonna be tougher this time?" Sakura asked.

"Oh yeah, in the 4 years I've been coming I've never seen a crop of candidates with this much potential as this bunch ." Kabuto said.

Karin looked over at Naruto to see that he was making a face.

"Yep we've got our work cut out for us." Kabuto said.

Karin suddenly saw Naruto shaking. "I wonder what's wrong with Oniisan...? Was it something that Kabuto said...?" she thought worried.

Karin saw Sakura walk up to Naruto on his left side and leaned in towards him.

Sakura placed her left hand up, smiling. "Hey, don't worry Naruto we'll be fine." she said.

Karin and Sakura were suddenly confused by Naruto's attitude and he stopped shaking, he quickly turned towards the many groups of genins and pointed his right index finger yelling then smiling, putting his left hand on his hip.

Everyone looked at Naruto shocked.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki and I'm gonna beat everyone of ya, dattebayo!" Naruto yelled smiling.

"Oniisan... w-why did you have to do this...?!" Karin thought shocked and scared as all of the genins looked at them.

Sasuke, Shikamaru, Shino, Kiba, Akamaru, Choji, Ino, and Sakura looked at Naruto while Karin and Hinata looked at him sadly.

Ino stepped on the right of Sakura, who had her right hand near her chest. "Hey! What's that idiot tryin' to do, get us killed?!" she yelled.

Sakura closed her eyes smirking annoyed, lowering her right hand. "I've should've known he's not smart enough to be scared." she thought then opened her eyes.

"Tell that boyfriend to keep his big fat trap shut!" Ino yelled at Sakura's face.

"Who's boyfriend?!" Sakura asked yelling angrily.

"Oh I forgot you can't get one!" Ino yelled angrily.

"What you say?!" Sakura yelled angrily.

"Yeah!" Naruto yelled smiling, raising his hands in the air then put on the back of his head. "I feel a lot better now!"

Karin looked at Sasuke to see that he was now smirking at Naruto. "Huh..?" she thought confused.

Karin looked back at all of the genins to see that they were still staring at them then looked at Naruto again.

"Ah can you repeat that again a little louder, didn't quite catch it?" Kiba asked, placing his right hand over his mouth.

"You moron. Are you trying to get everybody in the place to hate our guts or what?" Shikamaru questioned.

Naruto laughed until Sakura quickly grabbed him from behind and tried to strangle him.

"Oniisan." Karin said.

"Naruto you idiot! Why'd ya have to go and say something like that, you obnoxious little!" Sakura yelled until stopped strangling him when she saw all of the genins looking at them.

All of the them looked at the other genins.

Sakura raised up her right hand, smiling. "Oh hi everyone, don't mind him sometimes he says these fazzy things he doesn't really mean them it just kinda come out, he's got this condition you know kinda a psychological thing he really should be on medication." she said laughing a little.

Sakura let go of Naruto and faced him. "Now see what you've done Naruto, you hurt everybody's feelings, they think you don't respect them but that isn't true, is it Naruto?! she yelled.

Karin looked into the crowd of genins more and saw the 3 Otogakure genins looking at them. The first one was a boy who looked to be 14 years old had light brown skin, black eyes hunched back, wearing white bandages that covered most of his face except his left eye, a large beige poncho with long sleeves, dark grey forehead protector on his forehead, a snake patterned scarf around his neck, a straw raincoat protruding from the back of his scarf, and a large amplifier on his right arm for most of his attacks, long grey sandals, and long snake like pattern pants. The second was a boy that looked to be 14 had fair skin, spiky black hair that sticked up, black eyes, a short sleeved beige shirt with two black stripes and three prints of the kanji for death (死, shi) down the front, dark grey forehead protector had an attached happuri under the cloth rather than connected to the metal plate, snake like pattern scarf around his neck, long grey sandals, and long snake like pattern pants. And the third and last one was a girl that looked to be 14 years old had fair skin, black eyes, very long black hair, almost reaching down to the ground, tied by a violet ribbon right near the end, wearing a dark grey forehead protector on her forehead, a pale green vest somewhat similar to a flak jacket, and long snake patterned pants and scarf, and long grey sandals.

"What.. are they planning...?" Karin thought.

Karin suddenly saw them scatter and move quickly around the other genins to get to their location.

"What ya just for once in your life think about what you're doing, think about the rest of us!" Sakura yelled, pointing her right index finger at Naruto.

"Fine." Naruto said.

Karin saw the second one of the Otogakure genin climbed on one of the desk and jumped into the air, pulling out 2 kunai and threw them at Kabuto with his left hand. Kabuto immediately dodged them by jumping backwards and the first one of the Otogakure genin suddenly appeared in front of Kabuto lifted his right arm. The 10 genins watched the scene. When the first one of the Otogakure genin tried to punch Kabuto, only for him to dodge it smirking.

"Man he's fast!" Naruto and Sakura thought.

"He's almost as quick as me." Sasuke thought smirking.

"Oh no... He wanted Kabuto to dodge... Kabuto's injured..." Karin thought, immediately sensing his chakra.

Kabuto gritted his teeth as his glasses suddenly cracked and pieces of glasses fell to the ground, he placed his right hand on his glasses. "Oh I get it, so it was that kind of attack." he said smiling then he pulled off glasses with his right hand.

Sasuke stepped forward a little. "Hang on, I saw it all he dodged the attack! How did that happened?!" he said.

"It must've come closer than it looked. Looking at him acting like it was nothing, real tough guy." Shikamaru said.

"That technique is dangerous..." Karin thought sadly.

Karin saw Kabuto look serious and his eyes widened as he fell to the ground on his knees and his hands on the ground as he dropped his glasses. Karin's eyes widened as she saw Kabuto coughed up something on the floor.

Everyone watched the whole scene.

"What did he just?!" Naruto asked.

Sakura placed her right hand near her mouth. "Kabuto, what's wrong?!" she asked. "What is it?!"

"Poor Kabuto..." Karin thought sadly.

"Heh." the second boy from the Otogakure genins.

Kabuto coughed some more.

Naruto and Sakura ran up to Kabuto and kneeled beside him, Naruto was one his right and Sakura was on his left.

"Hey Kabuto, dattebayo!" Naruto yelled.

"Are you okay?!" Sakura asked yelling.

"Yeah.. I'm fine." Kabuto said, lifting himself up a little and looking at the 3 Otogakure genins.

"Are you sure?" Naruto asked.

Naruto and Sakura looked up at the 3 Otogakure genins.

"Not such a tough guy after all I guess. Maybe that's why he's on seventh try." the first Otogakure boy genin said.

"Write this on your little card punk, the genin from Otogakure will be Chunin when this over guaranteed." the second boy from the Otogakure.

Kabuto placed the back of the his left hand on his mouth.

Naruto growled at the 3 Otogakure genins so did Sakura.

Karin looked at the 3 Otogakure sad and scared when they said that. "It has to be those metal devices on his arms that did it to Kabuto... I'm sure of it..." she thought.

"I don't get it he saw their attack in time to evade it. What made him fall apart?" Sasuke thought serious.

Karin looked forward as she suddenly sensed another powerful chakra and many other chakras with it as well. There was suddenly a big puff of smoke appeared.

"All right you baby faced generates, pipe down and listen up!" a man's voice yelled.

Everyone looked forward at the big puff of smoke. The smoke cleared up to reveal a man looked to be 27 years old, had brown skin, black eyes, a long slash under his right eye and another going beside his left eye and through his mouth, wearing a dark grey standard uniform of the Intelligence Division, along with a black trench coat and gloves, a black bandanna wrapped around his head with the forehead protector plate on his forehead, and dark grey sandals. The many shinobi, female and males, behind him wore dark blue forehead protectors and light grey and silver versions of the man, and grey sandals.

"It's time to begin, I'm Ibiki Moroni your protector and from this moment your worst enemy." Ibiki said smirking.

Karin felt her heart stop as she was scared of him. Everyone looked at Ibiki.

Ibiki pointed his right index finger at the 3 Otogakure genins. "First, you candidates from Otogakure knock it off! Who told you, you could fight?! You wanna be failed before we've even begun?!" he asked yelling.

"Sorry it's our first time, guess we were a little jumpy sir." the first boy from Otogakure.

"Hmph. I'll say this once so listen up! There will be no combat between candidates, no attacking each other without the permission of your proctor and even then the use of fatal force is strictly prohibited, anyone who even thinks of messing with me will be disqualified immediately, got it!" Ibiki yelled.

"Ibiki... he really is scary..." Karin thought.

Everyone went silent.

"Hmph. No fatal force, that's no fun." the second boy from Otogakure said smirking.

"Now if we're ready, we'll proceed to the first stage of the Chunin Exam. Hand over your paperwork, in return you'll each be given a number. This number determines where you will sit. We'll start the written test once you're all seated." Ibiki said.

"Wait...?! A written test... Oniisan doesn't like written test..." Karin thought.

"No! Not a written test, no way! Dattebayo!" Naruto yelled.

Karin signed sadly. "I knew that was going to happen..." she thought, closing her eyes.

...

10 minutes later.

The proctor's were sitting in chairs by the windows and walls with clipboards and pencils in their hands. All of the genins were sitting in chairs and desks, everyone had 2 pencils, 1 eraser, and 2 of their numbers stacked neatly on the left side of them while their test was in front of them. Karin was sitting in the seat 102, which was 3 desks behind and 2 away from Sasuke, her team mates Shigeri was sitting in seat 5 and Hiroki was sitting in seat 38. She could see Sasuke, Naruto, Hinata, and Sakura from back here. Her hands were on her lap as she looked forward.

"I know you'll pass the test Oniisan... even if you don't like them..." Karin thought.

Ibiki walked to the front of the room and grabbed a stick of chakra from the board with his right hand and held it near the board, looking at everyone.

"Everyone eyes front! There are a few rules you need to be aware of! And I won't answer any questions, so you better pay attention the time around!" Ibiki said.

"H-hai..." Karin thought.

Ibiki turned towards the board and started writing something on it. "All right, rule number one is this: the written part of the Exam is conducted on a point reduction system, contrary to what some of you are maybe use to, you'll all begin the test with the perfect of 10 points." he said writing and looking at all of the genins. "1 point will be deducted for each answer you get wrong, so if you miss 3 your final score will be 7."

"Oh, I get it..." Karin thought.

"Rule number 2: Teams will pass or fail based on the total scores of all 3 members." Ibiki said.

"Huh?!" Karin thought surprised.

Mostly everyone was shocked at this.

Sakura slammed her head on to the table with both of her hands on the desk, annoyed before raising her head up. "What?! Wait a second! You're saying we all get scored as a team?!" she said.

"I guess.. Sakura doesn't believe in Oniisan..." Karin thought sadly.

"Silence! I have my reasons so shut up and listen!" Ibiki yelled.

"So.. what are his reasons...?" Karin thought.

"Rule number 3: the sentinels you see positioned around the room are there to watch you carefully for any signs of cheating!" Ibiki said.

Karin looked to the left at the sentinels before she looked forward at Ibiki.

"And for every incident they spot they will subtract 2 points from the culprits score." Ibiki said.

Karin continued to stare at Ibiki.

"Huh?" Sakura asked confused.

"Be warned, their eyes are extremely sharp and if they catch you 5 times you'll be dismissed before the test are even scored." Ibiki said.

"Okay..." Karin thought.

"Anyone foolish enough to be caught cheating by the sentinels doesn't deserve to be here." Ibiki said. ".. If you wanna be considered shinobi then show us what exceptional shinobi you can be."

"I'm very good at work like this.. but I don't know about Shigeri and Hiroki.. but I know they will do fine..." Karin thought.

"One more thing if any candidate should get a zero and failed the test then the entire team fails." Ibiki said.

Karin suddenly looked at Sasuke, who was now making an angry and annoyed look on his face, before she looked over at Naruto to see that he had wrapped his arms around himself.

Karin looked forward when Ibiki started talking again.

"The final question won't be given out until 15 minutes before the end of the testing period." Ibiki said.

"Huh...?" Karin thought.

"You'll have 1 hour total... Begin!" Ibiki yelled.

Karin picked up one of her pencils with her left hand before she looked down and read the first question on the test.

"We have to decipher a code.." Karin thought.

Karin looked and read at the first question for a moment before she written her answer down in the first blank box with her left hand.

"That was a really easy question... Now for the second question..." Karin thought then looked at the second question. "Line B in the diagram indicates the trajectory of a shuriken thrown at enemy sees by ninja a seated atop a tree 7 meters tall. Describe and formulate the trajectory required if C were positioned at points D, E, and F also predict the farthest possible range of a shuriken and explain how you arrived at your answer."

Karin thought about the second question for a minute before she her answer down on the second blank with her left hand. She looked up from paper. "I wonder how Oniisan and the others are doing...?" she thought concerned.

...

6 minutes later.

As Karin was working on the ninth question she suddenly stopped writing.

"Even though these problems are easy for me, these must be really advanced for most of the genins... so why did they give us these kind of questions...?" Karin thought before she closed her eyes.

After a minute, Karin suddenly opened her eyes again as she figured it out. "He literally just said we have to cheat but not get caught.. he's testing us to see how can gather information without getting caught..." Karin thought before she looked down and began finishing her ninth answer before putting her pencil down with her left hand. "I hoped the others figure this out soon..."

Karin looked forward to see Naruto and Hinata were now silently talking to each other and Hinata was blushing. "I wonder what they're talking about...?" she thought .

Karin suddenly saw Naruto smiling as Hinata about to slide Naruto until there was a kunai that flew past their faces and landed on someone else's test. She, Naruto, Hinata, and a few other genins were shocked and scared.

"Oh no...! Are sentinels after Oniisan.. he hasn't even done anything yet...!" Karin thought shocked.

The genin that now has a kunai on his test stood up from his seat and looked at the proctor that threw the kunai. "Wh-what the?! What was that all about?!" he asked.

"5 strikes and you're out. You just failed." the sentinel said.

"What?! It can't be!" the genin asked shocked.

The sentinel pointed his right index finger at the genin. "You and your team mates will leave the room immediately." he said.

Karin saw 2 male genins stood up from their seats and walked towards the exit before the genin left with them out of the room.

"Candidate number 23 failed! Number 27 and 43 failed!" one of the sentinels said.

Karin watched sadly as the 3 genins left.

...

5 minutes later

Karin watched as a genin was being dragged out of the room by 2 sentinels, yelling loudly.

A male Sunagakure genin stood up and slammed his right hand on his desk. "No! No way! Who say I cheated 5 times! Where's your proof?! How can you keep track of all of us?! You got the wrong guy! How do you know I wasn't just-" he yelled but was cut off.

Karin's eyes widened as she watched as the Sunagakure genin was suddenly pinned to one of the walls by one of the sentinels with his left arm.

"Sorry pal we were chosen for this duty we don't make mistakes like that you can't even blink without us seein' it. We're the best of the best and you my friend are history." one of the sentinels said before he released the Sunagakure genin. "Now get out and take your team mates with you."

"Amazing.. the Sunagakure genin was lying .. and one of the sentinels knew it just like I do..." Karin thought shocked.

Karin looked forward to see Naruto and Hinata again before they looked back at their own tests. "So I guess Oniisan, didn't want to copy off of Hinata's anymore because of the incidents..." she thought.

...

15 minutes later.

A few more teams had failed. Karin was looking over her answers to kill time and wait for the tenth question then she looked up at the clock.

"Only 15 minutes left before we get the tenth question..." Karin thought then looked down. "Am I.. really ready for that question...?"

...

15 minutes later.

Almost half of the genins were gone from the room.

Karin was looking forward with her hands in her lap, waiting patiently for the tenth question.

Ibiki smirked. "Hmph. Now we've weeded out most of the hopeless cases, 15 minutes to go. Time for the main event. All right! Listen up, here's the tenth and final question!" he said.

"It's finally... the time..." Karin thought.

"But.. before I give you the question there are some more rules that you need to be aware." Ibiki said.

"Huh...? More rules...?" Karin thought.

As everyone continued to look forward, Kankuro, in his usual outfit, with his crow disguised puppet. Karin sensed that it was a fake.

"Ah, made it just in time." Ibiki said to Kankuro.

The sentinel puppet closed the door. Some of the genins looked at Kankuro.

"I hope you found your trip to the bathroom enlighten." Ibiki said. "Well, take your seat."

Kankuro walked forward to his seat and secretly slipped Temari, in her usual outfit, a tiny scroll before continued to his seat and sat down.

"These rules are unique to question 10. Listen carefully and try not to let them frighten you." Ibiki said.

Karin's eyes widened a little.

"Very well then rule number 1: each of you is free to choose not to be given the final question, it's your decision." Ibiki said.

"Huh?" Karin thought confused.

"Say what? We're free to choose..?" Sasuke thought.

Everyone became confused.

"Woah, what's the catch?! Let's say we decide we don't wanna do it, what happens then?!" Temari asked yelling.

"If you choose not to take the tenth question regardless of your answers to the other 9 you'll get a 0. In other words you fail and that means of course both your team mates fail as well." Ibiki said.

"I can't believe this..." Karin thought.

"Not so fast, you didn't let me finish." Ibiki said.

"... And there's more..." Karin thought.

"If you do except the question but answer it incorrectly, you will not only fail... you will be barred from taking the Chunin Exam ever again!" Ibiki said.

"W-wait... What...?!" Karin thought shocked.

Kiba stood up from his seat and pointed his right index finger at Ibiki. "Hey that's bull man! That's ridiculous, what kind of bogus rule is that?! There's lots of people here who've taken the test before!" he yelled.

Akamaru barked as he was on the top of Kiba's head.

Ibiki started to laugh then stopped. "I guess you're just unlucky. I wasn't making the rules before but I am now. Of course if you don't wanna take it, you don't have to." he said.

Kiba lowered his right hand. "Huh?" he asked.

"If you're not feeling confident then by all means skip it, you can come back and try again next year." Ibiki said then started laughing again.

Kiba sat back down in his seat.

"What is Shigeri and Hiroki going to do... and also the others..?" Karin thought worried.

Karin saw Naruto rise up a little.

"Now then if you're ready, the tenth and final question. Those who don't wanna take it raise your hand. Your number will be recorded and then you're free to go." Ibiki said.

After a few seconds, Karin saw a male genin, that was sitting beside Naruto and Hinata, stood up as he raised his right hand.

"Uh, I'm out. That's it, I'm out." the male genin said. "I just can't do. I'm sorry."

"Number 50 failed. Number 130, Number 110 failed, that means you're out too." one of the sentinels said.

"Gino, Enoho, I'm sorry guys." the male genin said.

2 male genin stood up from their seats and walked to the exit.

Karin watched as more genins stood up from their seats and said they quit before walking out of the room. She looked over at Naruto, sensing that he was sad.

"Oniisan..." Karin thought sadly.

Karin suddenly saw Sakura was about to raise her right hand until she saw Naruto raised his left hand.

"No Oniisan... don't do it...!" Karin thought sadly. "Y-you... you have to put your hand down...!" then she closed her eyes as she lowered her head. "P-please... don't do it..."

Suddenly there was a slam, Karin opened her eyes and lifted her head up to see Naruto had his left hand on the desk now, it surprised Sasuke, Karin, Hinata, Sakura, and some other genins were surprised.

"Don't underestimate me! I don't quit and I don't run! You can act tough all you want, you guys aren't gonna scare me off! No way! I don't care if I do get stuck as a genin for the rest of my life!" Naruto yelled then stood up from his seat. "I'll still be Hokage someday, dattebayo!" then sat down and folded his arms.

Karin stared at Naruto in surprise for a moment before she smiled softly at him. "That's my Oniisan..." she thought.

"This decision is 1 that could change your life, if for any reason you would rather quit now's your last chance." Ibiki said.

"No way I never go back on my word that's the way of the ninja." Naruto said smiling.

Karin saw Ibiki stepped forward a little and looked at all of them before he looked at the sentinels, who nodded at him.

Ibiki to all of the genins. "Well then I admire your determination if nothing else, for those of you remaining there's only 1 thing left to do and that's for me to tell you.. that you've all passed the first Exam." he said.

Everyone looked at Ibiki confused.

"Huh...?" Karin thought confused.

Sakura stood up from her seat, her hands on her desk. "What. Hold on! What just happened?! What do you mean we passed?! Where's the tenth question?!" she asked yelling.

Ibiki smirked. "There never was one, not a written one at least. Actually your decision to stay was the answer to the tenth question." he said.

"So.. the tenth question was whether we stayed or left..." Karin thought.

"Huh?" Sakura asked confused.

"Wait a second!" Temari said.

Karin looked over to the right at Temari.

"So the other 9 questions you have us were just a waste of time! Is that what you're saying?!" Temari asked yelling.

Ibiki put his hands in his trench coat pockets. "No no, not at all, quite the opposite. The first 9 questions had an important overwriting purpose, to test your ability surreptitiously gather strategic intelligence under the most verse circumstances." he said.

"Oh, well that clears up everything." Temari said.

Karin looked back at Ibiki.

"Let me explain, you see my objective was to test you not only as individuals but as a team and how well you function as a part of that team, that's why the test was scored on a team basis so you know that everything you did or fail to do would directly affect your team mates. I wanted to see how you handle the pressure." Ibiki said.

Naruto folded his arms. "Yeah I figured it was something like that. That's why I kept my cool." he said.

"That's not true, Oniisan..." Karin thought, sensing that Naruto was lying.

"The first 9 questions on the test were difficult, in fact as you may have realized too difficult for any genin to be expected to solve. I imagined that most of you quickly came to that conclusion that you'd have to cheat if you'd had any chance of passing the fact is that the test was designed to encourage cheating it almost demanded it." Ibiki said. "Of course it would have done you little good unless you have someone to cheat from so I disguised 2 Chunin who already knew the answers and had them sit in with you."

Karin looked at one of the 2 genins. "So.. they're Chunins... and we didn't even realize it..." she thought.

Naruto put his hands behind his head as he smiled. "Ha ha ha, oh come on I wasn't fooled for a second, you have to be completely stupid not to see it." he said then turned to Hinata. "Isn't that right, Hinata?"

"Please stop lying Oniisan... Everyone can see right through them..." Karin thought sadly.

"Those who were caught at it failed, better not to cheat then to cheat clumsily." Ibiki said taking off of his forehead protector, showing the top of his head. He was now holding his forehead protector in his right hand.

Karin gasped when she saw the scars on the top of Ibiki's head, they were a collection of burn marks, punctures from where screws were used, and long slash marks. "Those scars... they must have really hurt..." she thought.

Almost all of the genins looked at Ibiki shocked.

"Information, it can be the most valuable weapon in battle. How long you gather intelligence can determine whether a mission a failure or success." Ibiki said. "They'll be times you'll have to risk you life to get it."

"Man, what a mess. Scars and puncture sounds, burn marks. What he must've endured." Sasuke said.

Naruto gulped.

Ibiki started putting on his forehead protector again with both hands "Of course you must always consider the source of your information, intelligence gathered from an enemy not necessarily accurate." he said as he was finished putting on his forehead protector. "Always bear this in mind, this information can be worse than no information at all it can lead to the death of comrades or the loss of a village that's why I put you in the position where you had to gather accurate intelligence, cheat in order to survive. And that's why those who weren't good enough were weeded out, leaving the rest of you."

"Okay, but I'm still not getting the tenth question is all about." Temari said.

"You're not, the tenth question was the main point of the whole Exam, surely you see that." Ibiki said.

"Oh, I get it..." Karin thought.

"Uh, sure but explain it anyway." Sakura said.

"As I said before, the goal was to test you not only as individuals but as part of a squad. The final question, gave you 2 choices." Ibiki said then held up 2 fingers from his right hand. "Both difficult, you can choose to play it safe and skip the question though it meant that both you and your team mates will be failing or you could try an answer it, if you got it wrong you would lose your chance of every being Chunin. It was a no win situation." then lowered his right hand.

Everyone continued to stare at Ibiki.

"But just the sort of Chunin to face almost everyday, for example let me give you a hypothetical mission: to steal a document from an enemy strong hold. You have no idea how many ninja the enemy has or heavily armed they are. Further more you have reason to believe that the enemy expects you, that you might very well walking blindly into a trap. Now you have the option of taking a pass on this insane mission or save my comrades or I would rather live to fight another day. Can you choose to avoid danger? No. There will be many missions that will seem almost suicidal if you think about it but they do not think about it you think only of the goal, achieving it through courage and discipline. These are the qualities required of a Chunin Squad leader." Ibiki said.

Karin looked interested in what Ibiki was saying.

"Those who choose to safle of 2 paths, those whose determination falters in the face of diversity, those who put their comrades lives in jeopardy by worrying about their own, those who would save their own necks at the price of sacred honor, we've never be able to call themselves Chunin at least as long as I'm here." Ibiki said. "As for the rest of you, you have successfully answered the tenth question I've put to you. You have earned the right to continue on to the next step. You have passed through the first gate, I hereby declare this part of the Chunin selection Exam completed. There's nothing left but to wish you all good luck."

"All right! We did it! Way to go, dattebayo!" Naruto yelled smiling.

Mostly everyone looked at Naruto, some especially Sakura looked at him annoyed. Karin smiled nervously at Naruto.

"That's Oniisan for you..." Karin thought.

After a few moments, Karin stopped smiling and looked forward as she turned to the left as she suddenly sensed another chakra coming rapidly to the room.

"Huh...?" Karin thought confused.

Someone broke through the glass window and it was flying everywhere, which caused Karin to gasp along with a few other students, a woman with a curtain was revealed and she had one kunai in each hand threw them in the air and the curtain left the woman as it now dangled from the ceiling, as it now was hanging behind her and over Ibiki.

The woman looked to be 24, had fair skin, violet hair in a short spiky fanned ponytail, light brown pupil less eyes, 3 black tomoe on the left side of her neck, large breasts, wearing a fitted mesh body suit that covers her from her neck down to her thighs, dark orange skirt, a tan overcoat with a purple in-seam and a pocket on each side, a dark blue belt, pale grey shin guards, small pendant that looks like a snake on her neck, wrist watch on her left wrist, and dark blue sandals.

"Is this part of the test, dattebayo?!" Naruto asked shocked.

Everyone looked at the mysterious woman.

"Heads up, boys and girls! This is no time to be celebrating!" the woman yelled as she had left hand in her left trench coat pocket and her right hand on the large violet cloth that read 'Here comes the Second Exam's Proctor: Anko Mitarashi.' "I'll be your next proctor! Anko Mitarashi! You ready for the second test?!" then raised her right hand in the air making it a fist and took her left hand out of her left pocket. "Good, let's go! Follow me!"

Everyone stayed silent at Anko's outburst. Sakura had annoyed look on her face.

"Wait... right now...?!" Karin thought confused. "But we just finished the first part of the Exam..."

Ibiki stepped out from behind the violet cloth on the left side. "You're early again." he said as his left hand was on the cloth.

Anko blushed in embarrassment.

Karin closed her eyes as she sighed in relief. "For a second.. I thought the second exam was starting..." she thought then opened her eyes.

Ibiki stepped forward as he let go of the cloth with his left hand.

Anko stopped blushing as she lowered her hands and looked at all of the genins. "How many are there?" she asked then turned to Ibiki. "Ibiki, you let all these guys pass? Your test was too easy, you must be getting soft."

"Or it could be a stronger crop of candidates this year." Ibiki said, putting his hands in trench coat pockets.

Anko put her hands on her hips then turned to the genins again. "Hm, they sure don't look it. Trust me before I'm done with them more than half will be eliminated." she said.

Karin made a scared look on her face. "What...?! She said more than half...?!" she thought.

"Huh, more than half? Really?" Sakura asked confused.

Anko smirked. "This is gonna be fun. All right you maggots had it easy so far but things are gonna be different starting first thing in the morning! I'll let your squad leaders know where you'll meet me, dismissed." she said.

---

Sunset.

All of the genins were walking out of the Academy to go home and prepare for the second part of the test. When Karin made it outside she sensed that Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura were a few feet ahead of her. She saw them walking away, from left to right was Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura quickly walked through the crowd of genins but still managed not to bump into anyone. As Karin was almost near them she called out.

"Oniisan!" Karin yelled.

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura stopped and turned around to see Karin running towards them.

"Karin." Sasuke said.

"Oh hey, Karin!" Naruto said, waving with his right hand.

Karin stopped next to Naruto and looked at him. "Oniisan, are you okay?" she asked worried.

Naruto lowered his right hand. "I am. Why do you ask, dattebayo?" he asked confused.

"I noticed your behavior during the first part of the Exam and you were lying a little.." Karin said.

Naruto smiled nervously. "So, you noticed that?" he asked.

"Hai.." Karin said.

"It wasn't hard to spot, seeing that you're an Usuratonkachi." Sasuke said.

Naruto looked at Sasuke angrily. "What did you say, dattebayo?!" he asked.

"Well everyone noticed it." Sakura said.

"I'm worried.." Karin said sadly.

Naruto turned back to Karin. Karin stepped forward to Naruto and hugged him.

"When you raised your hand Oniisan, I was scared that you were going to quit..." Karin said sadly.

Naruto hugged Karin back, smiling. "No need to worry Karin, I'm not gonna quit in the Chunin Exams, dattebayo." he said.

Karin pulled away a little to look at Naruto. "Are you sure?" she asked.

"Yeah but I'm also worried you." Naruto said. "How did you do on the test?"

"Um.. I answered all of the questions without cheating.." Karin said.

Naruto became shocked. "W-what?!" he asked.

"That's impressive." Sasuke said.

"Hey I answered them without cheating too." Sakura said.

"I don't know about the second part of the test." Karin said.

"Huh, why?" Naruto asked.

"Because the second proctor Anko said that more than half of us will be eliminated.." Karin said.

"Don't worry, we're gonna pass that second part of the test, dattebayo!" Naruto said.

---

Tomorrow.

Day time.

Forest of Death.

Anko and the genins, that were standing with their teams, that passed the first part of the test were standing next to a long metallic fence that had 44 Gates and surrounded a large Forest. 3 male sentinels were sitting at a booth near the gate. Karin now had her light brown medium sized pouch wrapped around her waist again.

"Aunt Kushina told me about the Forest of Death.. What are we doing here...?" Karin thought, a little shocked.

"Woah, nice place. What is it?" Naruto asked, looking at the locks on the gate and the sign that said 'Forest of Death's.

Every genin was looking at the locks and the sign.

"This is a location for the second case of the Exam." Anko said, her left hand on her left hip as she was facing the genins. "It's a 44th battle training zone. But call it the Forest of Death."

"Forest of.. Death..?" Naruto asked.

"Do you really... have to go in there...?" Karin thought.

Naruto had his left hand on his forehead as he looked up at some of the trees.

"This whole place just completely creeps me out." Sakura said, her hands together near her chest.

Anko laughed a little. "It should they call it the Forest of Death, and soon enough you're gonna find out why." she said.

"So.. we are going in there...?" Karin thought scared.

"It's the Forest of Death and soon enough you're gonna find out why." Naruto said, mocking Anko. "Do your worst, you're not gonna scare me away!" then pointed his right index finger at Anko. "I can handle anything!"

"Oniisan..." Karin thought looked at Naruto worried before she looked at Anko, who was still smiling.

Anko closed her eyes, smiling. "So.. looks like we've got ourselves a tough guy." she said before she pulled out a kunai from her right sleeve and threw it at Naruto with her right hand.

Karin quickly turned around to see a scar on Naruto's left cheek and blood was running down from the sound. She saw a shocked look on his face before she sensed and saw Anko appear behind Naruto.

"S-she's fast... almost like Sasuke...!" Karin thought shocked.

"You tough enough to handle this? You're not afraid are you?" Anko asked smiling, placing her right hand on the right side of Naruto's cheek.

Karin watched as Naruto started to look at Anko, who placed her left hand on his neck. "She really is crazy and scary..." she thought shocked.

"Tough guys like you usually leave their blood all over this Forest." Anko said.

Anko put her left hand on Naruto's wound before she placed her left index finger on Naruto's blood. Karin suddenly sensed an unknown man behind Naruto and Anko, he had fair skin, long smooth black hair that reached his waist, black eyes, wearing a straw hat that had a rope tied to his head and a piece of paper that hanging on a string that had the kanji for 'Aku' written 3 times, plain grey garbs with a long sleeved black shirt and long black pants underneath, grey clothed Kusagakure forehead protector on his forehead, white bandages wrapped around his calves, and black sandals. Anko opened her eyes and quickly pulled another kunai from her left sleeve with her left hand and turned to see unknown man genin was holding the kunai Anko threw awhile ago with his tongue. The man was called Shiore.

"I was just returning your knife." Shiore said smiling, his left hand on his straw hat.

"Why thank you Kusagakure ninja." Anko said smiling with her eyes closed.

Karin's eyes widened a little and she became shocked and a little scared because she sensed the unknown man genin's chakra was dark and strange. "What's wrong with this guy's chakra...?! It's dark and.. weird...?!" she thought.

Everyone (especially Naruto) looked at Anko and Shiore in shock and a little horror. Shiore lowered his left hand from his straw hat.

Anko opened her eyes still smiling. "Y'know I really am only recommending that you standing this close behind me, if you wish to reach a premature end." she said then grabbed her kunai from Shiore's tongue with her left hand.

Shiore quickly put his tongue back into his mouth. "My pardon with the sight of blood in your blades slicing through my hand. I'm afraid that I just became a little excited, I meant you no harm." he said.

"This guy is really weird...!" Karin thought shocked.

Hinata put her hands together near her chest. "Naruto..." she said worried.

Anko released Naruto as she continued to look at Shiore, who walked back to his 2 male team mates, the first one had on a mask and sleeveless gloves, and the second one had on straw hat with the Kusagakure metal plate on top of it.

"Like wise." Anko said.

"Uh, I thought this Forest was creepy but these guys are even creepier." Sakura thought before she stepped out of the way so the Shiore could pass.

Naruto placed his left hand on his left cheek.

"Seems like everyone today is quick tempered, it must be something air." Anko said smiling. "This is gonna be fun."

Karin looked at Anko, who walked back to the fence and turned around to look at all of the genins.

"Now before we begin this test, I have something to hand out to you all." Anko said smiling, reaching into her overcoat with her right hand on her left side of the coat and pulled out a stack of papers. "It's just a standard consent form."

Karin's eyes widened in shock and fright. "W-what...?! Is she saying... we could die in there...?!" she thought.

Most of the genins looked at Anko in disbelief.

"Before the test all of you going to have to read over this form and then sign it." Anko said.

"What for?" Naruto asked.

"Some of you may not come back from this test and I have to get your consent to that risk. Otherwise, it will my responsibility." Anko said smiling then laughed.

"I knew it..." Karin thought scared.

Some of the genins started questioning themselves.

"Now I'll explain how you will be doing on this test. Here pass these out." Anko said handing the stack of papers to Naruto with her right hand. "The first thing you need to know is that this test will test everyone of your survival skills.

Naruto grabbed the stack of papers with his right hand and passed them to Yoroi Akado, one of Kabuto's team, who was a man and he looked to be 23, had light brown skin, brown hair, wearing a purple mask around his mouth that hung to around his neck to conceal his face, black sunglasses that obscured his eyes and dark blue clothed Konohagakure forehead protector which he wore like a bandanna, a high-collared, sleeveless, purple shirt with a short-sleeved, short sleeved white shirt underneath, a simple obi around his waist, purple pants, purple fingerless gloves, and blue sandals, which he grabbed with his left hand and took one and gave them to Kabuto, who took one and gave to Misumi Tsurugi, another one of Kabuto's team mates, a man that looks to be 23 years old, had fair skin, spiky black hair, a purple mask around his mouth that hung to around his neck to conceal his face, a pair of round framed glasses and dark blue clothed Konohagakure forehead protector which he wore like a bandanna, a high-collared, sleeveless, purple shirt with a short-sleeved, short sleeved white shirt underneath, a simple obi around his waist, purple pants, purple fingerless gloves, and blue sandals, then he took one and passed the stack of papers to Karin.

Karin grabbed it with her both hands and took one with her left hand then passed it to Sasuke, who grabbed them with his left hand. Karin looked down at the consent form with both hands. "I wonder what we're going to doing in the Forest of Death if we all needed these consent forms...?" she thought.

Anko pulled out a scroll and held it with her right hand and rolled it down to a map of the Forest of Death. "First, I give you all a description of the terrain on the practice field." she said smiling.

Karin looked up at the map Anko was showing.

"The 44th battle training zone has 44 locked entrance gates, there are rivers and a forest the center is a locked tower located 10 kilometers from each gate. It's in this confined area that you'll undergo the survival test. The test consists of.." Anko said then rolled the scroll up with her right hand and placed it back in the left side of her overcoat. "An anything goes battle to get your hands on these scrolls." then held 2 scrolls with her right hand.

One scroll was white scroll that had 2 thin lines that surrounded kanji for Heaven in the middle and the second scroll was blue and had the kanji for earth in the middle.

"Huh...? We're going to battle for them...?" Karin thought.

"Both of them?" Sasuke asked, holding his consent form with his right hand and his left hand in his pocket.

"Yes." Anko said, lowering the 2 scrolls with her right hand and placed the blue scroll in her left hand. "You'll be fighting to get both a Heaven scroll and an Earth scroll.

"But... I'm not good battling... not like Shigeri and Hiroki..." Karin thought sadly.

Everyone stayed silent for a moment.

"All together, 26 teams will be taking part in this test so half of those teams will going after the Heaven scroll and the other half will be trying to get the Earth scroll. She placed both scrolls in her left hand and held them up to her face. "I'll hand over one kind of scroll to each team and that's what you'll be vying for." Anko said then lowered the 2 scrolls.

"Okay, so how do we pass the test?" Sasuke asked.

Sakura turned to the right and looked at Sasuke.

"Your entire squad must bring both a Heaven and an Earth scroll to the tower." Anko said.

"So... only half of us will fail... and other half will pass..." Karin thought.

Sakura turned forward again and looked Anko. "That means that the very best half of us will fail, more if not every team is able to get both scrolls." she said.

"No one ever said it would be easy. Oh and 1 more thing, the test has a time limit." Anko said then placed the 2 scrolls on right side of overcoat with her left hand. "You must finish it within 5 days."

"Huh...?! We're going to in the Forest of Death for 5 days...?!" Karin thought shocked.

Ino stepped forward a little. "5 days out there?!" she questioned.

Choji raised both of his hands. "What are we supposed to do for food?!" he asked yelling.

"Just look around the Forest is full of things to eat, there's plenty to feed all of you." Anko said.

Kabuto turned his head a little to the right. "Yeah but.." he said then looked forward smiling. "That's not all the Forest has plenty of, there are man eating beasts and poisonous plants in there."

"W-wait... man eating beasts... and poisonous plants..." Karin thought, getting scared.

"Oh man." Choji said whining, closing his eyes.

Ino turned to the right to look at Choji. "Quiet down, this is why they call it survival you know!" she said.

"That means.. with these circumstances there's no way the teams will pass the test." Neji, in his usual outfit, said.

"With the days getting longer, the nights are getting shorter, so we will have less time to sleep and less time to recover." Lee said then smiled. "It is a challenge indeed." a sparkle in his teeth.

"Completely surrounded by enemys, there won't be time to rest we'll have to keep a constant watch." Sasuke said.

Things Sasuke and Lee said made Karin even more worried.

Anko placed both of her hands on her hips. "Right. This test also measures endurance behind enemy lines. This is designed to be a grueling test and I'm sure some of you won't be up to the challenge." she said serious.

Shikamaru raised his right hand. "So I'm, let's say mid Exam, can we quit?" he asked.

Anko turned to the left to look at Shikamaru. "Of course not in the middle of a battle you can't say 'Sorry I quit'." she said then smiled closing her eyes. "Well I guess you could but it's probably gonna get ya killed."

"So... that's not an option.. If I don't fight with Shigeri and Hiroki, we'll be killed..." Karin thought sadly.

Shikamaru folded his arms as Choji was now eating a bag of chips.

"Oh just great. This is gonna be a drag." Shikamaru said lazily.

Anko looked forward as she stopped smiling and opened her eyes. "There are also some ways you can get disqualified." she said then raised up her left index finger. "The first is simple: if all 3 members of a team can't make it to the tower with both scrolls after 5 days." then raised up her left middle finger. "Number 2: if a team loses a member or a member comes incapacitated and cannot continue.. but most importantly none of you, absolutely none of may look at the contents of the scroll until you've reached the tower."

"Huh? Why not...?" Karin thought confused then looked at Naruto, who started to speak.

"W-what if it happens to flap open and we'll read it?" Naruto asked.

Karin looked back at Anko.

Anko lowered her left hand and held up her right index finger, smiling. "Let me put it to you this way young man, you don't want to know." she said.

"I trust what she is saying... It could be really dangerous..." Karin thought scared.

Naruto sighed closing his eyes.

Anko lowered her right hand. "There are times when a ninja will be asked to carry secret documents, the scroll rule is test your integrity. Okay we're done, each team take your consent forms and exchange them over there for your scrolls." she said pointing at the 3 sentinels at the curtain booth with her right index finger. "After that, each team will pick a gate and you'll let inside."

All of the genins looked at the 3 sentinels before they looked back at Anko

Anko closed her eyes, sighing. "Oh and I have one more word of advice." she said then opened her eyes. "Just don't die!"

Karin became even more worried and scared at the thought of it, almost reminding of that day when she was 8 of Itachi.

...

5 minutes later.

Karin was sitting down next to a boulder as she held her consent form. Her team mates, Shigeri and Hiroki, were standing a few feet from her. As she was looking down at her consent form with both hands she started to think.

"I-I don't know about going into the Forest of Death.. I'm not a fighter of our team, Shigeri and Hiroki are... all I can do is heal them... I'll only get in the way..." Karin thought sadly then closed her eyes.

Karin suddenly open her eyes when she sensed Sasuke coming to her, she turned to the right to see Sasuke walking towards her with his consent form in his left hand. When Sasuke stopped in front of her, Karin looked up at him to see that he was looking down at her.

"Hi, Karin." Sasuke greeted smiling at her.

"U-um hello Sasuke.." Karin greeted shyly.

"Do mind if I sit next to you?" Sasuke asked.

"N-no u-um not at all..." Karin said stuttering shyly.

Sasuke sat down next to Karin on the right side of her. "So what were you thinking about?" he asked, looking at her.

"I was thinking about all of us going into the Forest of Death." Karin said then looked down at the ground. "Uncle Minato said that when he was still a Jonin of a team he signed them up for the Chunin Exams and they took it in Forest of Death. But I don't know what's going to happen in there."

"I don't know what's going to happen out there also but I'm gonna worry about you." Sasuke said.

Karin looked at Sasuke again.

"I care about you and I don't want to see you get hurt." Sasuke said.

Karin's eyes widened as she blushed furiously.

"I hope nothing happens to you out there." Sasuke said.

Karin looked away, blushing even more. "W-w-well, I-I d-don't w-want a-any to h-happen to you a-and O-oniisan." she said stuttering shyly.

"We'll probably might see each other during the 5 days we have in there." Sasuke said.

"H-hai." Karin said shyly.

Karin stopped blushing a little as she looked at Sasuke. "I wonder what kind of scroll we will get?" she asked.

"I don't know." Sasuke said.

Sasuke suddenly saw Karin looked moved her head to the left side to look at some, he turned his head in the direction she staring at to see 2 of the sentinels were sliding the curtain closed. "I see how it is, we won't know which team has which scroll and we won't know which of the team members is caring the scroll. Stealing information is really a matter of life and death." he thought then looked down at his consent form with both hands for a moment before he looked around. "It's just like Ibiki said everyone is equally determined to pass." then looked back at his consent form. "And all of them are my enemies."

"Sasuke." Karin said.

Sasuke looked from his consent to look at Karin, who was staring at him concerned.

"Is everything alright?" Karin asked.

"Yeah." Sasuke said. "Well almost all of them are my enemies and some are determined but won't hurt anyone while doing it.." he thought, speaking of Karin.

...

15 minutes later.

Everyone was done filling out their consent forms and received their scrolls and were now standing at the Gates they were assigned too. Shigeri, Hiroki, and Karin were standing next to Gate 25. They had the Earth scroll and Shigeri was carrying it in his small pouch. Shigeri and Hiroki were ready to enter the Forest of Death while Karin was nervous.

"I wonder what will happen when we first enter..." Karin thought worried.

"You have to stay away from them." Hiroki said.

Karin pulled out of her thoughts to see Shigeri and Hiroki were looking at her serious. "Huh?" she asked confused.

"You have to stay away from your brother and that Sasuke guy while we're in the Forest of Death." Hiroki said.

"Yeah, all they're gonna be after is winning." Shigeri said.

"B-but Oniisan and Sasuke aren't like that, they wouldn't do that." Karin said sadly.

"You'll say that now but when we have something they need they'll take it away from us. Face it when it comes to them you're too trusting of them. So stay away from them." Shigeri said.

Karin stared down at the ground sadly. "Oniisan and Sasuke wouldn't do that... would they..?" she thought.

...

2 minutes later.

When all of the Gates opened up everyone quickly ran inside, some of them started hiding while some stopped by trees and bushes. Shigeri, Hiroki, and Karin stopped by a few trees after running for 4 minutes. Karin panted a little, sensing many chakras in the Forest of Death already.

"Okay we need to find a place to hide." Hiroki said.

Suddenly a loud scream was heard, making Shigeri, Hiroki, and Karin look up into the sky.

"H-huh? B-but we just arrived here in the Forest of Death..." Karin thought, getting scared as she sensed some chakras in the Forest of Death were getting weaker.

"We'd better get going before something happens to us." Hiroki said, looking and walking forward.

"Right." Shigeri said, following Hiroki.

Karin looked at the sky for a few more seconds before she followed after Shigeri and Hiroki.

...

Night Time.

Shigeri, Hiroki, and Karin were sleeping inside of a tree. Shigeri and Hiroki were sleeping separately on the floor while Karin sitting against the back wall as her back was against it and her pouch was sitting on the right side of her.

They (except Karin who had to hide and guard the scroll) battled a team today and became exhausted when the team fled. When they went into hiding, Karin had to heal Shigeri and then Hiroki before they decided to call it a night.

As Karin was sleeping she started to dream about being surrounded in darkness, she looked all around and only saw more darkness.

"W-where... where am I now...?" Karin thought confused.

Karin's eyes widened a little as she suddenly froze as she sensed a dark and cold chakra behind her.

"Karin." a very familiar male voice said.

"N-no i-it can't be.." Karin thought before she slowly turned around. Her eyes widened even more as she saw who it was. "S-sasuke." she whispered.

Karin saw that Sasuke was standing a few feet away from her wearing his usual outfit but he didn't have his forehead protector on his forehead, his hair was messy and was covering his forehead, his sharingan was activated and 2 tomoe were in both eyes, black flame-like markings covered his left arm, left leg, and face. He was smirking at her as a dark purple ora covered him.

"S-sasuke... what happened to you...?" Karin asked softly, putting her hands together near her chest.

"Come with me. I need you." Sasuke said.

Karin stepped backwards a little as she became a little scared. "M-me, w-why...?" she asked stuttering, separating and lowering her arms.

Sasuke didn't say anything to her. When Karin looked at Sasuke's sharingan she suddenly couldn't move her body as she continued to stand up.

"I-I I can't move... Sasuke must've done something..." Karin thought, struggling to move again.

Karin became scared when Sasuke started to walk over to her, still smirking at her.

"W-what's... what's he going to do...?" Karin thought.

"I need you." Sasuke said before he stopped right in front of her then he raised his right hand up. "You'll do great." moving his right hand to hold the left side of Karin's face.

Karin's eyes widened as Sasuke was about to touch the left side of her face with his right hand, before he could she scream.

Karin quickly woke up, panting and sweating a little before she stopped panting and looked to see Shigeri and Hiroki were still asleep on the tree floor. "Was that... really a dream... it felt so real..." she thought, looking down then she had an image of Sasuke from her dreams flash into her mind. "Sasuke..."

Karin slowly stood and walked to the small hole in the wall to see the full moon. "I hope.. it was just a dream..." she thought.

3 days later.

Day Time.

Shigeri, Hiroki, and Karin were now under a large tree. Hiroki and Karin were sitting down, Karin was behind Hiroki as she had both of her hands on his back as she was using her Mystical Palm Technique on him. Shigeri was crouching down next to one of the large tree roots with his left elbow on it.

"Damn it... They're all monsters!" Shigeri said, looking at Hiroki. "How can we steal a scroll when defending ours takes everything we've got?"

Hiroki looked at Shigeri. "But we can't back off! The honor of our village rests with us!" he said.

"Then we'll go back to tracking. And we'll definitely get it done this time." Shigeri said.

Karin stopped using her Mystical Palm Technique as she took her hands off of Hiroki's back as she was done healing him. Hiroki stood up and stretched his arms a little.

"U-um, what should I do?" Karin asked shyly and sadly.

Shigeri stood up as he pulled out their Earth scroll from the inside of the left side of his jacket. "You'll only be in the way if you come along." he said running over to Hiroki and Karin then stopped next to them. "Take this and stay hidden."

"H-hai." Karin said, grabbing the Earth scroll with her left hand.

Hiroki stopped stretching before he and Shigeri quickly took off to find a team that has a Heaven scroll. Karin looked up at the large tree beside her, hearing some birds chirping. Karin used her Chakra Suppression Technique so no other sensory types could track her.

After a minute of looking up at the large tree Karin stood up.

"Oh yeah. I have to keep hiding." Karin said.

Karin suddenly heard a loud thud and turned around to see a large brown bear in front of her, growling at her. She started panting as she was scared of the large bear then closed her eyes as she stopped. "Hey! Where is everyone?!" she asked yelling, opening her eyes and her mouth a little.

The large bear came closer to Karin as it continued to growl at her, drooling a little. When the bear tried to bite Karin, she quickly moved to the left and ran away from it only to trip on a small tree root and fell to the ground with a this. Karin grunted in pain as she closed her eyes and her glasses fell a few feet away from her, still holding on to the scroll with her left hand and her right hand was now covering her head.

As the bear was about to go after Karin and eat her, it suddenly stopped when Sasuke came out of nowhere and hit it in the head with his right leg before he did his Lions Barrage on its head.

"Lions Barrage!" Sasuke yelled.

Karin heard the loud before she opened her right eye and gasped a little then she opened her left eye to see a blurry figure on the unconcious large bear.

"Karin, are you alright?!" Sasuke asked worried.

Karin blinked a few times as she recognized the voice, she stopped using the Chakra Suppression Technique. She gasped softly as she completely knew who it was.

"S-sasuke.." Karin said softly.

Karin couldn't see Sasuke clearly because she didn't have her glasses on her. She looked down at the ground before she released the scroll from her left hand and got off of the ground a little so searched the ground with both hands for her glasses.

"My glasses." Karin said as she continued to look for it.

Sasuke jumped off of the large bear's head and walked over to where Karin's glasses landed and picked them up with both of his hands. He walked over to her and crouched down in front of her, who stopped looking for her glasses and looked up at him, seeing his blurry face.

"Here they are, hold still." Sasuke said as carefully put the glasses back on Karin's face.

Karin fixed her glasses with her left hand and started to see Sasuke clearly, she saw him smile warmly at her.

"That's better." Sasuke said.

Karin back a little as she blushed softly at him, but Sasuke moved towards her and hugged her protectively, his head on the right side of her shoulder.

"That was a close, if I haven't heard your voice that bear would have eaten you." Sasuke said worried.

Karin's eyes widened as she blushed even more. "Th-thank you, S-sasuke..." she said shyly.

2 minutes later.

Sasuke and Karin were sitting next to the large tree together, their backs against it, Karin was on the left and Sasuke was on the right. The Earth scroll that Karin had was sitting in between Sasuke and Karin. Karin's pouch was next to her on the left. Karin was looking down at the ground, nervous at sitting next to Sasuke.

"So your team has an Earth scroll... same as us." Sasuke said then looked at Karin.

"Hai." Karin said.

"Have you and your team had an luck finding a Heaven scroll?" Sasuke asked.

"No." Karin said, nodding her head side to side then looked at Sasuke. "These genins from other villages are really strong and we have a lot of trouble defending our Earth scroll. Shigeri and Hiroki went to find a Heaven scroll a few minutes before you saved me."

"I know it was difficult for you 3." Sasuke said.

"Do you have a Heaven scroll?" Karin asked.

"No, we've searched everywhere?" Sasuke said.

"How is Oniisan and Sakura are doing?" Karin asked.

"Fine but we've faced something difficult." Sasuke said.

Karin looked down at the ground again. "U-um S-sasuke.. can I ask you a question...?" she asked shyly.

"What is it?" Sasuke asked.

"I-If I had a Heaven scroll would you take it away...?" Karin asked.

"No I wouldn't." Sasuke said.

Karin looked at Sasuke again.

"I would just find another Heaven scroll." Sasuke said smiling.

"Oh." Karin said softly.

Sasuke slowly stood. "Well I better head back." he said, looking down at Karin. "I'll see you soon."

Karin watched as Sasuke looked away from her and started to walk away, she suddenly remembered something. "P-please.. please wait..." she said softly calling out to Sasuke.

Sasuke stopped and turned around before he looked back down at Karin. "What's the matter?" he asked.

Karin turned towards her pouch before she grabbed the Earth scroll with her left hand and opened up her pouch with her right hand and placed it in. She put both of her hands into her pouch and pulled out something wrapped in a green cloth before she closed her pouch with her right hand and stood up, walking over to Sasuke and stopped next to him. "Here." she said, holding the clothed wrapped out to him.

Sasuke looked down at the clothed wrapped object before he looked at Karin again. "What is it?" he asked.

"It's something some Onigiri I have." Karin said.

"But I can't accept this, you and your team need them." Sasuke said.

"It's okay, I have more with me." Karin said.

"Are you sure?" Sasuke asked.

"H-hai." Karin said.

Sasuke looked down at the clothed wrapped Onigiri before he took them with his right hand. "Thanks." he said.

Karin suddenly noticed 3 black tomoe marks on the left side of Sasuke's neck. "U-um S-sasuke, how did you get those markings...?" she asked, pointing her right index finger at them, then reached for it with her right hand.

Sasuke softly grabbed Karin's right hand with his left hand, making Karin stare at him in confusion.

Sasuke smiled softly at Karin. "I'm sorry, Karin. I'll tell you soon." he said, carefully putting down her right hand with his left hand then he turned around and walked away and stopped before he glanced back at her one more time. "Later, Karin." then jumped up before he disappeared, leaves falling down where he used to be.

Karin stood there as she sensed Sasuke moving away from her location then looked down at the ground. "Okay, next time then." she said to herself.

---

Tomorrow.

Morning.

Tower.

Karin was walking around the Tower, even though she, Shigeri, and Hiroki didn't win she still wanted to see Naruto fight. Shigeri and Hiroki left Karin there when she entered the Tower. She finally made it to a large grey arena that showed a large statue of 2 hands making a handsign together, stairs that had rails that lead up to a balcony so people could watch fights, a few large windows behind the statue, and a few steps ahead of it. She stepped inside and looked around the arena.

"So.. the people who've pass the second part of the test.. will battle here..." Karin thought.

Karin suddenly sensed her Uncle Minato coming to the room she was in. After 2 minutes, Minato, in his usual outfit, came inside to see Karin.

"I knew you would be here." Minato said.

Karin turned around to see her Uncle Minato looking down at her, she looked sadly up at him. "I'm sorry, Uncle Minato... I know that me and my team didn't win... but I wanted to see the people who passed fight..." she said then looked sadly at the ground.

Minato looked down at Karin to see that she was staring sadly at the ground, he smiled softly as he crouched down in front of her. "You really want to see Naruto fight?" he asked.

"H-hai..." Karin said.

Minato put his right hand on Karin's left shoulder. "I'll let you watch the preliminaries Karin." he said.

Karin looked at her Uncle Minato. "Huh...?" she asked.

"I know you wouldn't interfere in any of the battles and at least you've done a very great job in the first part of the test and you've tried your very best to pass the second part of the test. So I'll allow you to watch." Minato said smiling.

Karin smiled softly at her Uncle. "Thank you, Uncle Minato." she said.

...

20 minutes later.

Karin was standing on the balcony as she looked down below. The Jonins (which included Kakashi, Kurenai, and Guy) of the genins that passed the second part of the test were standing forward of the handsign statue, Minato stood a few feet forward of them. Anko (who now wore a grey headset on her head) and 3 other Konohagakure ninja, wearing the Konohagakure flak jacket uniform stood a few feet away on Minato's left side and Ibiki, Iruka, and 2 other Konohagakure ninja wearing the Konohagakure flak jacket uniform stood a few feet on Minato's right side.

There were 21 genins in a 3 by 7 rows, Naruto stood first in the third row, Sasuke stood in second in the third, Sakura stood third in the third row, Ino stood first in the first row, Shikamaru stood second in the first row, Choji stood third in the first row, Kiba (with Akamaru in his jacket) stood first in the second row, Hinata stood second in the second row, Shino stood third in the second row, Neji stood first in the fourth row, Lee stood second in the fourth row, Tenten stood third in the fourth row, Kabuto stood first in the fifth row, Yoroi stood second in the fifth row, Misumi stood third in the fifth row, Gaara stood first in the sixth row, Kankuro stood second in the sixth row, Temari stood third in the sixth row, the first male from Otogakure stood first in the seventh row, the second male from Otogakure stood second in the seventh row, and the first female from Otogakure stood third in the seventh row.

Karin noticed that most of the genins clothes were dirty and they had scars on their bodies and Sakura's hair was no longer at a waist length instead it was almost a shoulder length now.

"What happened to them...?" Karin thought concerned.

"First of all, congratulations on finishing the second Exam!" Anko said.

"I'm glad Oniisan passed the second part of the test, unlike me..." Karin thought.

Karin saw Shikamaru and Choji talk briefly and Ino had her hands together near her chest and was looking at Sasuke smiling and talking a little then Shikamaru say something. She saw Guy talking talking to Kakashi but she knew he wasn't listening and saw Guy got angry when Kakashi turned to him and said something.

"Are those 2 really rivals ...?" Karin thought confused.

Karin noticed that Naruto and Sakura were talking to each other and Sasuke looked serious as he clutched the left side of his neck with right hand and started talking about something.

"How did Sasuke get that mark...?" Karin thought then looked at the Otogakure Jonin. "His chakra... It's dark and has had feeling to it..."

"Alright, now pay attention! Lord Hokage is going to explain the 3rd Exam to you! You better listen carefully maggots!" Anko said before she turned to Minato. "Lord Hokage, they're all yours."

All of the genins stopped talking and looked forward.

Minato stepped forward a little. "First before I tell you what the third Exam tells, I want to explain something about the test itself. Listen closely now it's something all of you need to understand." he said.

"Understand the test...?" Karin thought confused.

Some of the genins were confused as well. Hinata gasped softly.

"I'm going to tell you true purpose of these Exams." Minato said.

"So there was a true purpose what do you mean Uncle Minato...?" Karin thought.

"Why do you suppose our country holds these Exams in conjunction with our allies?" Minato questioned. "To raise the ability levels of the shinobi and increase friendship between allied nations to be sure but it's important that you understand it's true meaning. The Exams are representations of the battle between allied nations."

"Huh...?" Karin thought confused.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Tenten asked.

"Now if we look at our history, all the countries that we're currently allied with were once neighboring nations that continuously fought each other for power. In order to avoid destroying each other's military strength meaninglessly those nations picked champions to do battle on behalf of their countries at a mutually selected location, that was how the Chunin Selection Exams originally began."

"W-what...?!" Karin thought shocked, her eyes widened.

Some of the genins were shocked as well.

"Well that's great but why do we have to go through these Exams then? I mean it's not? It's not like we're doing this to pick Chunin to go fight, dattebayo." Naruto questioned.

"Well actually there is no question that part of point of these Exams is to select shinobi worthy of becoming Chunin that's just not the whole story. These Exams also allow for a place shinobi can carry the pride of their nation on their backs and fight against other ninja for their very lives." Minato said.

"So that's why..." Karin thought.

"The pride of their nation?" Sakura questioned confused.

"Many leaders and people of prominence from various countries are invited to attend this Exam as guests and also possibly to seek shinobi to work for them. This Exam could determine the course of your ninja work from here on out and more importantly those rulers will watch your battles and take note of the strengths that each ninja and each nation is developing. If there's a gap in power between the countries the strong nations are inundated with job request for their ninja and conversely the request to countries that are deemed weak declined, therefore the stronger our nation is the better our position when it comes to negotiating with neighboring countries so it's important to show how much military strength our village has." Minato said.

"That's the reason..." Karin thought.

"Okay but even so, why is it necessary for us to risk our lives?!" Kiba asked yelling.

Every one stayed silent for a moment.

Minato sighed softly. "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 it's 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 is has meaning and it's 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.." he said.

"But then why did you use the expression of friendship before?" Tenten asked.

"But you've only remembered half of what I said, you also mustn't have the wrong idea of the Exam's meaning. This is a custom in which balance is preserved by fighting and dying, in the world of the shinobi that is friendship. The 3rd Exam is a fight for life with the pride of your village and your own dreams at stake." Minato said.

"Dying..." Karin thought sadly.

"Hm, well he sure convinced me." Naruto said smiling, folding his arms together.

"Any test is fine just tell me what the details of the Exam are already, I could handle anything you throw at me." Gaara said.

"His chakra.. it's really dark cold... and frightening..." Karin thought looking at Gaara scared.

"Okay then listen carefully I'm going to tell exactly what you're all will be doing on the 3rd Exam." Minato said.

A male Jonin appeared a few feet away from Minato bowing down at him, he looked to be 23 years old, had fair skin, brown hair that reached a chin length and a bang in between his eyes, black eyes, dark markings under his eyes, wearing the Konohagakure flak jacket uniform, and a blue bandanna with the grey Konohagakure metal plate on the front of it.

Almost everyone became confused.

"Lord Hokage before you do please allow me, Hayate Gekko, appointed as proctor of the 3rd Exam to speak first." Hayate said.

Minato looked down at Hayate. "Permission granted." he said.

Hayate stood up from the ground. "It's nice to meet you all." he said then started coughing then turned around to face the genins. "There's something I would like all of you." then coughed some more. "to do before the 3rd Exam." then coughed once again.

"I sensed that he's sick... but why did he decided to be the 3rd Proctor...?" Karin thought worried.

Hayate stopped coughing. "Uh, we have to have a preliminary Exam before we can move on to the real one." he said.

"Huh...? A preliminary...?" Karin thought confused.

"Huh?" Naruto asked confused.

Everyone became confused at what Hayate said.

"A what?" Sakura asked confused.

"Preliminary, just what do you mean by that?!" Shikamaru asked yelling.

"I'm sorry, Sensei excuse me but I really don't see the point. What's this preliminary all about? Why can't we just move on to the 3rd Exam?" Sakura asked.

"Uh, well you see the first and second Exams might've been too easy, the fact is we've never expected so many of you to still be here. According to the rules of the Chunin Exams: a preliminary round can be held at any stage, in order to reduce the number of candidates remaining." Hayate said.

"I guess that makes sense..." Karin thought.

"But is that fair?!" Sakura asked.

"It's just that at this stage we have to speed things up a bit. As Lord Hokage said a lot of important guest will be watching, we can't afford to waste their time. They've come to see only the best." Hayate said hold up a clipboard with his right hand and had his left hand on his hip. "So if there are any of you who feel you're not in top physical condition now's your chance-" then started coughing again.

"But... you're not feeling well..." Karin thought worried.

Hayate stopped coughing. "Sorry about that, as I was saying any of you who don't feel up to this now's the time for you to step out. The preliminaries will be starting immediately." he said.

"Immediately...?! No one has taken a break yet..." Karin thought shocked.

"Come on, you mean right now?!" Kiba questioned yelling.

"We just finished barely surviving the last Exam, don't we get a break?!" Ino asked.

"Man what a drag." Shikamaru said.

"Hey, when do we eat?" Choji asked.

Everyone stayed silent for a moment.

"Oh yeah uh, the winners will be determined by one on one combats sudden deaths, so like I said if there's anyone who doesn't feel up to it now's the time to raise your hand." Hayate said.

Karin looked at the genins below. "I hope Oniisan and the others will be okay..." she thought worried.

After a few seconds, Karin suddenly saw Sasuke clutch the left side of his neck with right hand and silently gritted his teeth as he started shaking a little as he looked at the right hand, and Sakura worriedly say something to him while Naruto turned around and looked at Sasuke and Sakura. Then Sakura said something else and Sasuke made a shocked expression before he looked away from Sakura, who continued to say something to him then put her hands together near her chest as she closed her eyes tightly. Naruto and Sasuke looked at Sakura.

"What are they talking about...? W-why is Sasuke in so much pain right now...? Was it with his battle in the Forest of Death...?" Karin thought worriedly.

Karin watched worried as Sakura continued to talk to Sasuke about something, crying and wiping her eyes. She heard Minato, Anko, and Kakashi talking about something but she was too focus on trying to figure out what Sakura was saying to Sasuke, who was getting angry at Sakura and was whispering to her. She saw Sakura was about to raise her right hand until she suddenly saw Kabuto raised his right hand.

"W-why is Kabuto dropping out...?!" Karin thought shocked and confused.

Almost everyone was confused.

Kabuto smiled. "Okay, you got me. I'm out." he said.

"But Kabuto." Naruto said.

Everyone stayed silent for a moment.

"Kabuto Yakushi of Konoha right?" Hayate questioned. "Okay, you can go on and step back."

"Gotcha." Kabuto said before he turned around and started to walk away.

"Kabuto!" Naruto yelled. "Hold on a second, you can't quit! I don't get this, what's going on, dattebayo?!"

Kabuto stopped walking and looked at Naruto. "Oh Naruto, I'm sorry but my body is just too beat up. I can't hack it. The fact is ever since orientation in that dust up with Otogakure team I have no hearing at all in my left ear. And now that I have to put my life on the line to fight again right away without a break. I can't do it." he said.

Karin sensed that Kabuto was lying a little but she looked at Naruto to see that he was staring at the ground. She suddenly saw Kabuto whispering to Yoroi before he turned to Naruto smiling and waving with his left hand before he walked away again.

Everyone watched as Kabuto left the room.

"Now then, does anybody else want to quit?" Hayate asked.

As all of the genins turned to look forward, Karin suddenly saw Sakura was slowly raising her right hand until Sasuke turned around and placed his left hand on it to prevent her from raising it and told her something that made Sakura sadly cry silently as she spoke to him. She watched as Sasuke and Sakura continued to speak to each other.

"What are they talking about...?" Karin thought worried.

Karin saw Sasuke released his left from Sakura's right hand and put removed his right hand from his neck and he told Sakura something serious. When Sasuke was done talking Sakura's eyes welled up with tears again and Naruto started saying something to Sasuke, who turned around and faced him. She watched as Sasuke smirked at Naruto as he said something to him, making Naruto look at him surprised.

"What did Sasuke to make Oniisan like that...?" Karin thought curiously before she looked at Hayate.

"Alright then, we'll now begin the Preliminary round. This round will consist of one on one individual combat at full battle intensity. This is not an exercise. There are 20 of you remaining so that means there will be 10 matches, the surviving candidates from these 10 matches will advance to the 3rd Exam. As for the rules there are none, you will fight until one dies or concedes defeat or is rendered physically incapable of continuing the contest. Naturally those who are losing are urged to concede defeat properly to avoid a fatal outcome. Furthermore, as proctor I'm giving a certain amount of leeway in judging the matches." Hayate said then started coughing again. "I might occasionally intervene if a match seems hopeless to save as many lives as possible. Now it's time to reveal what fate has been chosen for you." then turned around to look at Anko, who nodded and turned around and placed her left hand on the headpiece and started speaking into it.

"Open the panel." Anko said.

Everyone watched as a large black screen started coming out of the wall ahead of them.

"The Names of each pair of opponents are chosen completely at random, before each match these names will on the display behind me. As there's nothing more to say let's begin. In a moment the names of the first 2 opponents will appear." Hayate said.

All of the genins watched the screen.

"I wonder who will fight first...?" Karin thought curiously.

The screen turned on and many of the remaining candidates names were being shuffled in yellow letters until it stopped and read 'Sasuke Uchiha vs Yoroi Akado'.

"Huh?! Sasuke's fighting first...!" Karin thought shocked.

Karin looked down at Sasuke to see that he was smirking and clutching the left side of his neck with right hand again but but still was smirking. "Is he going to be alright...?" she thought worried.

"Alright now those names who have been drawn come forward." Hayate said.

Sasuke and Yoroi walked forward and stopped a few feet from Hayate and faced each other.

"You have been chosen for the first match, Yoroi Akado and Sasuke Uchiha." Hayate said, raising both of his hands up. "Are there any objections?"

"None here." Sasuke said.

"No." Yoroi said.

"Sasuke... please be careful..." Karin thought sadly and worried, then she saw Sasuke silently gritting his teeth in pain again. "He's in pain again..."

"Uh alright then, let's begin the first match." Hayate said then coughed once in his left hand. "Okay everyone other than the 2 opposing candidates will now clear the area and move to the upper level."

All of the remaining genins except Sasuke and Yoroi walked towards both of the stairs and climbed up and people from other villages walked to another group of stairs. Minato, Anko, Ibiki, and the other Jonins started walking towards the stairs as well. Karin turned to the left to a few other genins were walking towards her before she looked to see Kakashi walking towards Sasuke, Naruto was yelling Kakashi's name and stopped. She saw Kakashi whispering something to Sasuke, who whispered something back, and something else before he walked towards the stairs.

"What did Kakashi whispered to Sasuke...?" Karin thought confused and worried.

Naruto and Sakura walked towards the stairs too. Karin looked to the left again to see Kakashi, Naruto, and Sakura walking towards her. When they made it, Kakashi and Sakura stood on the right side of her and Naruto stood on the left side of her.

"Karin, what are you doing here?" Naruto asked, looking at her.

"I asked Uncle Minato if I could stay." Karin said.

"But why?" Naruto asked.

"Well even though I didn't win the second part of the Exam, I-I still wanted to see you fight Oniisan..." Karin said, looking down on the right.

Naruto smiled at Karin. "That's great, I am going to win so it's nice to want to see me beat someone in battle, dattebayo." he said.

"I know you are..." Karin said then turned to look down at Sasuke. "I hope you win, Sasuke..." she thought.

Everyone looked down at Sasuke and Yoroi. Sakura had her hands together near her chest as she looked down sadly at Sasuke.

"And if you're ready, let the match begin." Hayate said.

"Oh I'm ready." Yoroi said then made hand signs with both of his hands.

"So am I." Sasuke said making a stance.

Yoroi built up his chakra in his right hand and put his left hand in his pouch as Sasuke reached for a kunai with his right hand in his holster and pulled one out. Yoroi pulled out 3 shurikens with his left hand and threw them at Sasuke, who easily deflected them with his kunai. Sasuke fell to the ground from the pain of the mark and when Yoroi was in front of him, he used his right fist to punch Sasuke but he quickly moved out of the way, making him punch the ground. Sasuke used his kunai to stop moving when he got away from Yoroi and he kicked Yoroi's right hand with both legs and flipped him over so that he was on the ground with him and held on to his right arm with both hands.

"Amazing... Even if Sasuke is in pain he's still able to move fast..." Karin thought shocked and astounded.

"Hey he got em, dattebayo!" Naruto yelled smiling.

"Really?" Yoroi said before he put his right hand on Sasuke's chest, gripping his shirt as he built up chakra in his right hand again, making Sasuke surprised.

Karin looked in shock and fright as she sensed that Sasuke's chakra was decreasing. "Wh-what technique is this...?! He's draining Sasuke's chakra...?!" she thought.

Sasuke released Yoroi's right arm as he could barely move. Yoroi raised his right fist before he punched Sasuke in the chest, making him grunt in pain, before he quickly stood up from the ground and jumped a few feet away from him. Sasuke was clutching his chest in pain.

"Oh no, Sasuke...!" Karin thought sadly.

Yoroi ran to Sasuke.

"Sasuke-kun no!" Sakura yelled.

Sasuke upper body stood up from the ground as he stopped clutching his chest to see that Yoroi jumped up into the air as his right hand was built up with chakra again and grabbed on to Sasuke's head, making him yell out in pain as he laid on the ground again. Sasuke tried to use both of his hands to pull Yoroi's right hand on off of his head but he didn't budge as Yoroi laughed and smirked.

"Sasuke... if he doesn't find a way to get away... he will die..." Karin thought sadly as she sensed Sasuke was getting weaker and saw that his struggling was weaker and his left hand fell on the ground.

Most of the people were looking in shock (including Kakashi, Naruto, Karin, and Sakura).

"What the-?! My chakra-! What are you doing?!" Sasuke asked.

Yoroi continued laughing. "You're just noticing it now?!" he asked.

Sasuke closed his eyes as he groaned out in pain. "My chakra, you're stealing it from me!" he yelled, opening his eyes.

Yoroi laughed again as he continued to drain Sasuke of his chakra with his right hand. "You finally caught on huh?" he asked.

Sasuke dropped his right arm on the ground as he tightly closed his eyes.

"Sasuke..." Karin thought sadly, tears forming in her eyes.

Sasuke opened his eyes as he groaned in pain then he made a fist with his right hand. "Get off me!" he yelled kicking Yoroi with his right leg.

Yoroi stopped using his technique as he landed on his back a few feet away from Sasuke. After a few seconds, Yoroi stood up from the ground while Sasuke was slowly getting his upper half up from the ground.

"Thank goodness..." Karin thought relieved but still worried about Sasuke.

"So you've still got some strength left huh? Impressive for a guinea pig." Yoroi said.

Sasuke was panting as he watched Yoroi.

"Don't worry little man. I'll make it short and sweet." Yoroi said, holding up his right hand as he used his technique again and ran to Sasuke.

Sasuke slowly stood up from the ground and moved to the right as he dodged Yoroi's right hand, he kept dodging until Yoroi barely struck the left side of Sasuke's face. Karin sensed that Sasuke had loss a little chakra as Sasuke moved away to the right.

Yoroi turned around to look at Sasuke. "What's the matter? Is that really the best you can do?" he asked.

Sasuke tried to kick Yoroi with his right leg but he dodged it as he jumped up into the air and landed a few feet away from him .

Yoroi laughed again.

Naruto looked to the left to see Karin looking sadly at Sasuke and then to the right at Sakura, who had her hands together near her chest as she closed her eyes and turned her head to the right.

Naruto turned forward as he looked down at Sasuke. "Hey Sasuke!" he yelled.

Karin looked to Naruto surprised.

"Come on man, what was that all you got, dattebayo?! And you call yourself an Uchiha!" Naruto yelled.

Karin looked down sadly again to see Sasuke had turned his head to the left side a little to look at Naruto.

Naruto put both of his hands on the rails. "You're gonna let this goon walk all over you. Come on stop messing around and get it in gear, dattebayo!" he yelled.

Sasuke panted a little from exhaustion then he looked to see Karin staring at him with a sad and worried face. "Karin.. don't worry, I'll think of something.." he thought then his eyes widened. "Wait, that's it!"

Yoroi activated his technique in his right hand again and ran at Sasuke. "I'll teach you to turn your back on me!" he yelled.

Sasuke turned forward to look at Yoroi.

"Big mistake and your last!" Yoroi yelled.

When Yoroi made it he tried to strike Sasuke with his right hand but he kept dodging it. Sasuke stopped dodging as he suddenly disappeared. Karin saw Sasuke was now in front of Yoroi and he kicked him high into the air with his left leg while his right hand and leg were on the ground and his left hand was in the air. Sasuke got down on his hands and feet before he jumped into the air and went behind Yoroi.

"Sasuke's using his Lions Barrage...!" Karin thought shocked, looking up at him.

Most of the Jonins and Genins were shocked at what Sasuke just did.

"Okay, I admit it. I kinda borrowed that move but from here on in it's all original." Sasuke said as he placed his left index and middle finger on Yoroi's back.

"Uh the Dancing Leaf Shadow!" Yoroi yelled.

"Now take this!" Sasuke yelled before he groaned in pain.

Karin suddenly saw orange-red flame like markings spread from the mark on the left side of Sasuke's neck.

"Wh-what's happening to Sasuke...?!" Karin thought shocked as she saw the orange-red markings spread to Sasuke's face.

Sasuke felt like he couldn't move. "No, not again!" he said, closing his eyes. "It keeps getting stronger and stronger." before he yelled out in pain as he opened his eyes and orange-red markings spread to his left eye.

Sasuke suddenly started thinking of Karin again.

Flashback.

"So your team has an Earth scroll... same as us." Sasuke said then looked at Karin.

"Hai." Karin said.

"Have you and your team had an luck finding a Heaven scroll?" Sasuke asked.

"No." Karin said, nodding her head side to side then looked at Sasuke. "These genins from other villages are really strong and we have a lot of trouble defending our Earth scroll. Shigeri and Hiroki went to find a Heaven scroll a few minutes before you saved me."

"I know it was difficult for you 3." Sasuke said.

"Do you have a Heaven scroll?" Karin asked.

"No, we've searched everywhere?" Sasuke said.

"How is Oniisan and Sakura are doing?" Karin asked.

"Fine but we've faced something difficult." Sasuke said.

Karin looked down at the ground again. "U-um S-sasuke.. can I ask you a question...?" she asked shyly.

"What is it?" Sasuke asked.

"I-If I had a Heaven scroll would you take it away...?" Karin asked.

"No I wouldn't." Sasuke said.

Karin looked at Sasuke again.

"I would just find another Heaven scroll." Sasuke said smiling.

"Oh." Karin said softly.

Sasuke slowly stood up. "Well I better head back." he said, looking down at Karin. "I'll see you soon."

Karin watched as Sasuke looked away from her and started to walk away, she suddenly remembered something. "P-please.. please wait..." she said softly calling out to Sasuke.

Sasuke stopped and turned around before he looked back down at Karin. "What's the matter?" he asked.

Karin turned towards her pouch before she grabbed the Earth scroll with her left hand and opened up her pouch with her right hand and placed it in. She put both of her hands into her pouch and pulled out something wrapped in a green cloth before she closed her pouch with her right hand and stood up, walking over to Sasuke and stopped next to him. "Here." she said, holding the clothed wrapped out to him.

Sasuke looked down at the clothed wrapped object before he looked at Karin again. "What is it?" he asked.

"It's something some Onigiri I have." Karin said.

"But I can't accept this, you and your team need them." Sasuke said.

"It's okay, I have more with me." Karin said.

"Are you sure?" Sasuke asked.

"H-hai." Karin said.

Sasuke looked down at the clothed wrapped Onigiri before he took them with his right hand. "Thanks." he said.

Flashback ends.

Sasuke remembered Karin's face, he suddenly remembered what Naruto said to him earlier.

Flashback.

"Come on! What was that all you got, dattebayo?! And you call yourself an Uchiha!" Naruto yelled.

Flashback ends.

Sasuke became angry and annoyed. "Eh, shut up Usuratonkachi. Don't write me off yet." he thought then his eyes widened. "No won't let this thing take over. No way! Karin! I can't let her see me like this..."

Karin suddenly saw the orange-red markings on Sasuke started to disappear until it was just a 3 black tomoe on the left side of his neck. "What's going on...?!" she thought shocked and confused.

Sasuke smirked. "Here we go." he said.

"Huh?" Yoroi asked confused.

Sasuke placed his left hand on the back of Yoroi's shirt and moved him a little as he released him and kicked him with his left leg but was blocked by Yoroi's left arm.

"Heh, you're no match for me." Yoroi said.

Sasuke spinner around in the air and hit Yoroi in the face with his left hand, making Yoroi grunt in pain, and punched him in the stomach with his right hand as they started falling down.

"Come back here! I'm not done yet!" Sasuke yelled before he kicked Yoroi in his stomach with his right leg to the ground hard. "Lions Barrage!"

Mostly everyone looked in shock as Sasuke slid on his back when landed on the in pain. Sasuke was laying on his stomach while Yoroi was laying on his back.

Everyone went quite for a moment.

"Please Sasuke... you have get up before you and Yoroi both lose..." Karin thought sad and worried, looking at Sasuke, who had his face to the ground. "Please..."

Hayate walked over to the now unconscious Yoroi and crouched down beside him. "Well this one's had it." he said.

Karin became instantly relieved when she saw Sasuke slowly getting up from the ground while panting in exhaustion. "Thank goodness that you're okay, Sasuke..." she thought, smiling a little.

Everyone watched as Sasuke crouched on the ground.

Sasuke looked up as he wiped his mouth with his left hand and put it down.

"I'm declaring this match over." Hayate said, standing up again and pointed his left hand at Sasuke. "As the winner of this Preliminary round, Sasuke Uchiha advances to the finals."

"Sasuke.. really did it..." Karin thought.

Sakura smiled at what Hayate said.

"Wait to go, dattebayo!" Naruto yelled.

Karin saw that Sasuke was about to fall on the ground from exhaustion until she sensed Kakashi appeared behind him and held him up with his right leg as he held a red book in his left hand.

"Hm, not bad." Kakashi said.

Sasuke turned to the left to look at Kakashi then smirked.

"Funny before the Lions Barrage your technique was very reminiscent of Guy's taijutsu, you must've used your Sharingan to copy it when you fought with Rock Lee that time." Kakashi said.

"You okay?! Hey Sasuke, you won but in an uncool way! You came out looking like you're the one that got beat up, dattebayo!" Naruto yelled smiling and laughing.

Sasuke looked up to the right at Naruto, annoyed. "Usuratonkachi. Give me a break you little-" he said then closed his eyes, smiling. "Ah well."

"At least.. Oniisan and Sasuke are getting along..." Karin thought.

"Sasuke-kun, thank goodness." Sakura thought smiling.

"I can't wait until it's my turn, dattebayo!" Naruto thought.

Sasuke looked at Lee smirking. "Rock Lee, if I hadn't seen your moves up close when we went head to head this one would've turned out badly." he thought he turned forward and closed his eyes as he placed his right hand on his chest in pain and his left hand was on the ground. "Still.. I think it's a technique I wanna use very often."

Karin stopped smiling. "Sasuke is still in pain..." she thought worried.

"The kid is something else to have already developed his Sharingan to such a level. And to think we haven't seen his full Uchiha ability yet." Kakashi thought.

"I still can't believe it, the way the Curse Mark receded as if he's gained control over it." Anko thought shocked.

"Ah hah! I knew all the time he'd be okay. Ah hah!" Ino said smiling, her hands together near her chest.

Shikamaru was leaning against the wall, his arms folded. "This could be the end of the line for us." he thought.

"Man I'm hungry." Choji said.

"Wow, he was amazing.." Hinata said, her hands together near her chest.

"Uh, it wasn't anything that special." Kiba said, his right hand on the rail.

...

A few minutes later.

3 Konoha medical ninjas in white suits with a symbol on them came into the room. 2 of them were carrying Yoroi on a stretcher and out of the room.

Karin saw that Sasuke was still panting from exhaustion.

A male medical ninja walked over to Kakashi and Sasuke. "Sasuke Uchiha, maybe you should come along to the infirmary too and let us treat your injuries." he said, stopping next to them.

"I think you're out of your league with this one." Kakashi said.

"Huh?" the male medical ninja asked confused.

"I'll look after him." Kakashi said.

The male medical ninja walked away and out of the room.

Sasuke looked at Kakashi.

Kakashi crouched down beside Sasuke, placing his book in his left hand. "Okay, up you go. You're coming with me." he said then placed his right hand on Sasuke's left shoulder. "We've got to seal that Curse Mark." he whispered.

"Before the Preliminaries are over. I wanna see who gets to go on to the Finals." Sasuke said.

Kakashi stood up again. "Forget it." he said.

"But-" Sasuke said looking up at him but he was cut off.

"And don't even think of arguing if we leave it any longer who knows , it may be too late. I've already cut you enough slack as it is." Kakashi said.

Sasuke turned forward again.

"Come on, let's go." Kakashi said.

Karin saw Sasuke slowly stood up and watched as he and Kakashi left the room, she looked to see that he was now clutching the left side of his neck with his right hand.

"What's with that mark on Sasuke's neck...?" Karin thought worried.

Naruto turned to the right to look at Sakura. "Hey Sakura-chan, maybe I'm just crazy but did you see any weird marks on Sasuke's neck during the fight?" he asked.

Karin looked at Naruto.

Sakura put her hands down as she gasped at what Naruto just asked. "What mark? I didn't see it." she said lying.

"Oh okay, dattebayo." Naruto said.

"She's lying to Oniisan.. She does know something about it..." Karin thought then looked away sadly.

"Okay then, let's move right on to the second match." Hayate said.

Everyone looked at the screen again and the yellow letters shuffled again until it stopped and read 'Shino Aburame vs Zaku Abumi'.

"So.. I guess those 2 are fighting then..." Karin thought.

---

1 hour and 32 minutes later.

Karin was walking down one of the hallways. She watched the matches of 'Shino Aburume vs Zaku Abumi' which resulted in Shino winning, 'Kankuro vs Misumi Tsurugi' which resulted in Kankuro winning, 'Ino Yamanaka vs Sakura Haruno' which resulted in both of them losing, 'Temari vs Tenten' which resulted in Temari winning, 'Shikamaru Nara vs Kin Tsuchi' which resulted in Shikamaru winning, 'Naruto Uzumaki vs Kiba Inuzuka' which resulted in Naruto winning. Karin was scared at what happened in some of the matches but she was also happy that Naruto won his match. She quietly left the room before Hayate could even call the next match.

Karin was looking for Sasuke because he left the room exhausted with Kakashi from Forest of Death and his match with Yoroi. When she was watching the second match, she suddenly sensed Sasuke's chakra had decreased.

"I'm glad Oniisan and Sasuke won their matches but... Why did Sasuke get that mark from...?" Karin thought sad and worried.

When Karin was a few feet away from the room where she sensed Sasuke, she noticed that there were 3 male Anbu, in the Konoha Anbu uniform with swords behind them, one had dark brown hair, one had sandy brown hair, and one had light brown hair, were standing near the closed door. She couldn't see who they were because they had animal masks on their faces.

"Halt." the sandy brown haired anbu said.

Karin stopped next to them.

"Why are you here?" the sandy brown one asked.

"I-I came here to see Sasuke Uchiha.. I know him.." Karin said shyly.

"I'm sure you do. You're not allow to enter." the dark brown one said.

"B-but..." Karin said sadly but was cut off.

"You can't enter." the dark brown one said.

Karin looked down sadly then she suddenly sensed Kakashi coming down the hallway.

"It's okay." Kakashi said.

The 3 male Anbu turned around to see Kakashi coming towards them.

"She can enter after all she's his friend." Kakashi said, stopping next to them.

"You gave us to not let anyone enter." the sandy brown one said.

"She's not going to be doing anything to harm him." Kakashi said. "After all, she's the Fourth Hokage's neice."

The 3 male Anbu looked at Karin again for a moment then looked back at Kakashi.

"She can enter but she has to stay in." the sandy brown one said.

"That's exceptional." Kakashi said.

Karin looked up to see that 2 of the Anbu were back away while the sandy brown one opened the door. When the door was fully opened, Kakashi walked over to Karin and stopped in front of her.

"I'll be right back, you stay in here." Kakashi said.

"H-hai..." Karin said, looking up at Kakashi.

Karin moved away from Kakashi and slowly walked into the room. As she entered in the door closed. She looked forward and gasped in sadness as she saw Sasuke lying on a bed unconscious with the white sheets over him, a hospital machine on the left side of him and a clear mask on his face. She saw that he wasn't wearing his Konoha forehead protector anymore but his forehead was wrapped in white bandages that also covered his eyes.

Karin walked over to Sasuke and stopped on the right side of him, she sensed that his chakra was low and she looked sadly to see that he was sweating a little and he was breathing exhaustedly.

"S-sasuke..." Karin whispered sadly, putting both of her hands.

Karin leaned in a little to see the mark on the left side of Sasuke's neck, she immediately noticed that a black seal circling around the mark.

"Wh-what happened to you while all of us where in the Forest of Death, Sasuke...?" Karin thought worried and sad, looking down at Sasuke's face. "M-maybe I-If I healed you..."

Karin slowly placed both of her hands on Sasuke's chest and started to use the Mystical Palm Technique on him.

...

10 minutes later.

Karin continued to do the Mystical Palm Technique on Sasuke, who still was unconscious, and she sensed that he was gaining a little bit of chakra.

"At least his chakra is increasing..." Karin thought.

Karin suddenly sensed a familiar chakra coming to the room, she looked up and turned her head to the left a little to look at the door. "Could it be...?" she thought.

When the familiar chakra made it to the door, she heard 3 bodies drop a few seconds later but she still sensed their chakras.

Karin's eyes widened. "H-he knocked 3 of the Anbu out...!" she thought.

The door opened up to reveal Kabuto and 3 unconscious Anbu behind him. Karin stopped using her Mystical Palm Technique and she turned around to face Kabuto, putting her hands down.

"Oh, so you're here with him." Kabuto said smirking.

"K-kabuto.. why did you do that to all of the Anbu...?" Karin asked shocked and scared.

"Because they wouldn't let me pass so I can take Sasuke." Kabuto said then pulled a scale from his pouch with his right hand. "Now, are you going to step away or I have to kill?"

Karin gasped in fright at what Kabuto just said, she stepped backwards until her back was against the left side of the bed. "P-please... p-please don't take Sasuke away..." she said tears forming in her eyes, then she sensed Kakashi coming back to the room.

"So I guess you do want to die." Kabuto said then ran over to Karin while raising the scalpel in his right hand.

Karin closed her eyes tightly as she waited for the attack but it never came. She slowly opened her eyes to see Kabuto standing a foot from her without his scalpel and Kakashi standing by the door with the scalpel in his right hand.

"Well, well Kakashi. Foiling my attack on her by striking from my blind spot, huh." Kabuto said smiling. "But now, are you ready to take me on? Next time you should station at least 10 guards and especially don't bring this red haired weakling."

Karin looked down sadly.

Kakashi lowered the scalpel. "You, you're not an ordinary genin are you?" he questioned. "You caught a whiff of me and immediately readied your weapon and even tried to kill Karin." then stepped forward a little. "Quite impressive."

"You over estimate me." Kabuto said.

Kakashi stopped walking. "So what do you want with Sasuke? Finding you like this I oughta hall you in for questioning." he asked.

"What just you?" Kabuto asked then turned around to face Kakashi then walked forward a little before he stopped. "I wonder if you could."

"Are you looking to take me on?" Kakashi asked. "... I know who you are, you're the Konoha Medical Core Chief's son, your name what was it, 'Kabuto Yakushi'. What are you one of Orochimaru's puppets?"

Karin opened her eyes as she looked up at Kabuto. "Orochimaru...?" she thought confused.

Kabuto smirked. "Even if you did take me into custody, you'd never be able to prove I had any connection to him." he said.

"Just answer my question." Kakashi said.

"And if I say 'no'?" Kabuto asked.

"I'm the one asking the questions. Now give me some answers?" Kakashi asked.

"Look you'll have your answers soon enough even if I'm not here." Kabuto said then raised his right hand. "So why don't we skip the middle man and let me go?"

Kakashi put the scalpel in his pouch and pulled out a kunai with his right hand. "You smart alecky little brat. I'll teach you to mess around with grown ups." he said.

Kabuto reached into his pouch and pulled a curved kunai with his left hand. "Come on give me a break, don't be so arrogant. The cards are clearly in my favor here." he said then put the weird kunai in his right hand and pointed it near the left side of Karin's neck.

Karin started to shake in fear as tears were forming in her eyes.

Everyone stayed silent for a moment before Kabuto his kunai more towards Karin's neck, Kakashi quickly ran over to Kabuto, who moved to strike Karin but Kakashi knocked the curved kunai of Kabuto's right hand with his kunai in his right hand. Karin quickly ducked to the floor while Kakashi restrained Kabuto on the floor.

Kakashi and Kabuto saw the sandy brown haired anbu suddenly got up and ran to the door.

"So that was a clone...?!" Karin thought.

Karin sensed Kakashi's clone standing out in the hallway before she looked down at the light brown haired anbu.

"This one is the real Kabuto...?!" Karin thought.

Karin turned to Kakashi and before she could say anything to him the light brown haired anbu got up the upper half of himself and threw 4 kunais at one of the glass windows with his left hand before stood up and crashed through the window. Karin closed her eyes with both of her hands while Kakashi ran towards the broken window and watched as the fall, the light brown haired anbu put his left hand on his mask before he revealed himself to be Kabuto and disappeared into the trees below.

Karin slowly uncovered her eyes as the sandy brown haired anbu fell to the ground. She suddenly didn't sense any chakra in the fake Kabuto and the sandy brown haired anbu. Kakashi's clone disappeared.

"Th-those... th-those 2 were really... d-dead..." Karin thought sadly, tears forming in her eyes again.

Kakashi walked over to the fake Kabuto and crouched down beside it. "Impressive." he said checking the pulse from the fake Kabuto's neck with his left hand. "Just as I suspected the Dead Soul Jutsu: where a ninja temporarily animates and controls a dead body even transforming it's face. Kabuto even stopped his own heart and eliminated all traces of his scent in order to escape by impersonating a murdered Anbu Black Ops ninja, being raised as the adopted son of the chief medical core is a powerful asset of his. If it turns out that someone is good as him is working for Orochimaru I've got to work harder."

Kakashi pulled out of his thoughts as he turned to Karin, who was silently crying on the floor and in shock at what happened. He stood up and walked over to where she was before he crouched down beside her.

"Karin." Kakashi said.

Karin slowly looked up at Kakashi.

"You don't have to cry anymore he's gone for now." Kakashi said, trying to comfort her.

"W-w-why... W-w-why did he wanted to take Sasuke...? A-and w-who's Orochimaru...?" Karin asked.

Kakashi went silent for a moment as he looked down at Karin's sad and scared face knowing that she heard and witness the scenes between him and Kabuto, he couldn't hide it from her because she can easily sense it.

Kakashi sighed. "Orochimaru is an S-rank criminal from Konoha who fled the village because of his experiments on people." he said.

Karin's eyes widened as she gasped in shock.

"And for Sasuke." Kakashi said then turned around to look at the still unconscious Sasuke before turned back to look at Karin again. "He gave him that mark while you all were in the Forest of Death."

Karin looked down at the ground. "So... that's why.. he was really exhausted during his battle.. a-and markings almost spread all over his body... now he's unconscious because of it..." she thought sadly. "I can't believe Sasuke is suffering badly and is in much pain..."

Karin suddenly felt a hand on her left shoulder, she looked up to see Kakashi looking down at her while his right hand was on her left shoulder.

"Don't worry, Sasuke is going to be alright, he just needs some rest, that's all." Kakashi said. "I promise I'll make sure that nothing happens to him while I train him."

Karin continued to stare at Kakashi.

"Until then, don't say anything to anyone about this." Kakashi said.

"B-but Uncle Minato-" Karin said sadly but was cut off.

"He already knows about this, okay." Kakashi said.

Karin looked down sadly again. "H-hai..." she said.

---

A few hours later.

Karin was walking back to her house as she was only a few feet away from it. She would have to see Zosui tomorrow because of her team lost in the Forest of Death. She was really sad about the events that happened during the Chunin Exams.

"I really hope Sasuke gets better soon..." Karin thought sadly.

As Karin was now in front of the main shoji doors, she was about to open one of them with her left hand until she sensed a familiar chakra coming towards her.

"Karin!" a female voice yelled.

Karin turned to the right to see her Aunt Kushina, in her usual outfit, was walking towards her.

"Aunt Kushina..." Karin said.

Kushina stopped right next to Karin, looking down at her. "I've heard you and your team lost in the second part of the Exam, dattebane." she said sadly. "Are you okay?"

"Hai." Karin said.

"Are you sure?" Kushina asked concerned.

"Hai, I'm just glad that Oniisan and Sasuke made it to the third Exam." Karin said smiling softly.

Kushina stared at Karin for a moment before she smiled at her. "Okay then... It's been awhile since I've taught you anything, how about I teach you a new Jutsu." she said.

"Huh, r-really...?" Karin asked.

"Of course." Kushina said.

"Um so what kind of Jutsu will you be teaching me, Aunt Kushina...?" Karin asked.

"The Walk on Water Technique." Kushina said then raised her right fist midway. "Now let's get started, dattebane."

"H-hai..." Karin said, nodding. "But still... I hope Sasuke will be okay..."

---

End of Chapter 12.

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