Naruto Uzumaki and the Chunin Exams (Re-Written) Chapter 5: The Second Exam, a Harry Potter + Naruto Crossover fanfic

"Blah": Talking

'Blah': Demon speaking/Inner Sakura

'Blah': Naruto's thoughts/other people's thoughts

'Blah': Harry talking to Naruto

We're back once more and we have some decent action ahead of us this time!

But before we start, I should note that I have made some corrections to the previous chapter, in which I have made a small introduction to the Otogakure genin and had them well described like I did with a lot of the other characters mentioned, introduced, or re-introduced in that chapter. I corrected some lines from Ibiki, but I don't think those lines are much different from what I had made for him, so that's about it.

Oh! I forgot about this little honorable mention!

Congratulations, Goldenfightergirl for figuring out whom my OC from the final chapter of Book 2, Naruto Uzumaki and the Assassin of the Mist, was based on! A thousand apologies for forgetting to mention that in the second chapter of this book like I promised I would ^^' I hope this makes up for it.

Reviews are welcome and wanted!

Disclaimer: Naruto is the property of Masashi Kishimoto,

Harry Potter is property of JK Rowling,

Chapter 5: The Second Exam

Naruto walked beside his teammates as the three of them marched out of the school and out towards the northeastern trails with the other rookies that survived the first examination. Anko led the students out towards the furthest forests outside the town for what could be assumed was where their next examination would be held. While Naruto followed the excited woman out to the forests with his two teammates distracted with worries and concerns about where the next test would be located, he focused on his link to his older brother. After some time, the two of them discussed what the blonde shinobi had done to his test that concerned the note he left behind.

'You told the proctor?'

'Well, it seemed like a smart move at the time.'

'How so?'

'He didn't seem to hate me like a lot of other shinobi do. He was a little bit feral, but not hatful. He even had a little bit of a charm to him, it made me think I could trust him a little bit.'

'I suppose so…'

'Not to mention, he must have connections to the ANBU if he could scare the others like that. I think he might work with interrogations or something. If not, he could know grandpa and he'll tell him. No matter what, there's no way he'll ignore a message like that and not tell someone about it.'

'You think so?'

'I would. You?'

'I suppose it would be hard to ignore.'

While Naruto focused on the road ahead and the new environment Anko led him and the others towards, he started to remember the trail and the trees as the crowd arrived in the area located between the middle and outer rim of Konoha's central territories. The blonde shinobi soon realized that the current area was near the same forests where he had created his secret meadow. But Naruto was not concerned that it would be discovered, because the charms he had created around it would have hidden it well, unless someone knew about the location in advance.

Anko then led the students into a vast field until all of them were met with an unbelievable but familiar location. It was the outside of a massive fenced-off forest, the same one that Iruka told Naruto about when the two of them had that little vacation to the beach. But Naruto was a whole lot closer to it than before and now he could see one of the reasons Iruka seemed unnerved with its massive size.

Anko summoned the all rookies around her and showed them all the forest with a wide smile on her face, like she wanted to claim that she owned the woods behind her. The woman studied the children and teens that survived the first test once she could take in all their bewildered faces while a lot of them to shiver and stare. She watched as the faces of the students fell and looked a lot more than concerned once it was realized how dense the forest was and how massive the trees inside the fences were. A lot of the trees were more than seventeen feet in diameter and there were other trees that were more than double the size of those trees mentioned and more that were so massive that it was almost ridiculous; like someone had come in and used a Herbivicus Charm on the trees to make them wider than the diameter of the main hall inside the Administration Building. There were also these massive boulders and thick wild roots and branches that surrounded the massive trees, covered with thick dark-emerald moss while this cold and bizarre mist leaked out from the woods, like some ancient or evil omen. The forest was contained within tall steel fences that had various locks and chains that closed it off from the rest of the world. The steel fences towered over the rookies and made them all feel a whole lot smaller as some of them were at a loss for words.

The exotic woman that had led them all to this wild woodland smirked at the rookies and introduced the new area where the second examination would be taken, "This is the arena for the second exam. Welcome to the restricted Training Ground Number 44. Also known as the Forest of Death!"

Naruto looked a little bit nervous at first as he and his older tried to swallow and take in the dark and treacherous environment as both of them sensed a whole mess of dark forces hidden inside it. There must have been wild animals and all sorts of detrimental entities hidden inside. The older wizard watched the forest from inside the mindscape and studied the woods and almost shivered while his memories of another similar woods came to mind.

'Whoa… this woodland here… forget about what I ever said about the Forbidden Forest from Hogwarts, because this place looks a whole lot worse than that…'

'It sure does look dangerous… But I shouldn't let that scare me…'

'I dunno… I can sense a whole lot of weird stuff coming from those woods… the kind of weird stuff that we're both well-experienced with…'

'You don't mean there's something paranormal in there?'

'I don't know… There could be… We've seen phoenixes and made real magical potions in this world… For all we know, there could be unicorns and werewolves in there…'

'If there's a unicorn in those woods, I will find it and then ride on it's back.'

'You wouldn't dare.'

'Oh believe me, man. I will do that even if the unicorn kills me in the process. You'll see.'

'You're ridiculous sometimes, Naruto.'

The blonde shinobi soon smiled as he looked into the Forest of Death, now overcome with excitement that he could discover more supernatural forces here in his world and almost couldn't wait to dive in with his teammates and make some discoveries. He was certain that if the rookies were suppose to fight each other here, then he would be able to conceal himself as well as Sasuke and Sakura so that the three of them could at least be safe and take some time to look around and then finish their exam. But soon, he looked over at his teammates and Sakura looked even more insecure as she held her hands and shivered while she stared into the dark woods.

"That has to be the largest woods I've ever seen," she said.

Anko then chuckled at the students and said with a smirk, "You kids are about to learn first-hand the reason this area has been named the Forest of Death…"

Sakura started to tremble a little bit more, which concerned both Naruto and Sasuke as she started to itch backwards. But then her blonde-haired teammate soon looked over at her and reassured her with a warm smile on his face.

He told her with a clear and relaxed voice, "Relax, Sakura-chan. I'm sure it's not as bad as it sounds. Besides, it could be a bluff for all we know. It sounds a lot like the same stuff Ibiki-sensei tried to scare us with and force us to run when we were back inside the classroom. I'm sure the three of us will be fine."

The callow kunoichi looked over at her teammate and soon felt a whole lot better as he smiled at her but resisted the urge to rest his hand on her shoulder to reassure his teammate. She almost smiled as well, but then Sasuke decided to make a comment on a small issue that started to bother him a small bit.

"Anko-sensei and Ibiki-sensei?" the black-haired shinobi asked his warm but eccentric teammate, "You realize that none of these proctors so far are our teachers, dobe? What's the deal with that?"

Naruto answered him with, "It's a form of respect, Sasuke. You should learn to show some for once… and don't call me dobe. It's not a term of endearment to me, teme."

Sasuke sneered back at his teammate as went back to look at the woods and cross his arms to hide his own intimidation felt towards the darkness of the forest. Naruto smirked while his teammate sulked and went on to reassure his other teammate. He was about to reassure his female teammate one last time when heard his older brother alert him and sensed a blade was thrown and about zoom towards his face.

'Watch out, Naruto!'

It came from Anko Mitarashi. She must have heard the comment Naruto had made earlier when he tried to comfort his female teammate when he mentioned she could have bluffed like her fellow shinobi Ibiki. She wanted to scare him to be differentiated from Ibiki when she threw a small harmless blade at him. All she wanted to do was cut his cheek and scare the blonde shinobi and test to see if he could handle a little bit of what the forest had in store for him and that was it. But she never had the chance to start her theatrics when Naruto reacted in an instant and caught the kunai in his hand almost without effort. She looked shocked while the small rookie examined the kunai she threw at him and checked to see if she had cut him, which was not the case. All the rookies and even several of the chunin that watched held their breath and stared, as Naruto was oblivious to their sudden amazement and secret admiration towards him. He handled the blade with ease and then handed it back to her while she was still a little bit shocked, but then smirked at him for his skills.

"Your kunai, Anko-sensei," the blonde shinobi said with a casual voice.

This shocked a lot of the rookies that went to school with Naruto Uzumaki. Because none of the other students were aware that he was so well coordinated or had become so ever since their time at school. Naruto was known for his weak vision and for his reaction time to be a little bit slow. But he now showed all his former classmates that his reflexes were almost the same as a normal chunin or even someone a little bit more advanced, like his masked sensei. The black-haired Uchiha that stood close to his teammate started to feel a little bit desirous when Naruto had reacted in time and caught that kunai. It didn't feel normal to see his teammate improve so much in such a short amount of time. He felt he should have been the one that looked more skilled and miles ahead of his teammates. At the same time, others like Kiba, Ino, and Shikamaru stared and wondered how on earth their former classmate was able to hone such remarkable skills with a blade in-between the several short months since school and now. Kiba wondered the most since he was still furious about his earlier confrontation and the attitude Naruto had thrown back at him. Meanwhile, others like Hinata smiled and blushed as Naruto handed back the blade to Anko and checked his cheek one more time in case there was blood, but he came out clean.

Anko nodded and said, "Thanks, kid. It looks like this season will be worth the effort with rookies with skills like that."

Naruto stood close to his teammates when Sakura asked out of concern for him, "Are you alright? How did you do that, Naruto?"

"I trained a lot in the last two weeks," he answered back and almost lied.

After about five minutes, Anko Mitarashi carried out consent forms to all of the rookies and told them with a rather relaxed and humorous voice that made most of them feel nervous or alarmed, "Here, we want all the details covered before the first deaths inside that forest commence. Before we start the test, all the rookies here have to read over this standard consent form and then sign it, because some students might not make out of this forest alive. So we must get your consent for the risks that are involved here. It's made so that that Konoha and the woman in charge here is not held accountable for the deaths of rookies from the other shinobi villages."

Anko chuckled but no one seemed to understand her obscene sense of humor.

"Ok then, tough crowd... Now I'm going to go ahead and explain the rules of these exams as soon as these are handed out and read over," she waited until all the rookies each had a sheet and then she told them more about the exam, "This test is going to require all the survival skills you know in order to succeed…" she waited a little bit and then said, "Now about the terrain… The Forest of Death is bordered in a circular perimeter that consists of forty-four locked entrances. Other than the obvious vast and dense forest inside, there are rivers and a locked tower located ten kilometers from each entrance. It is inside this intense terrain that you will undergo the survival test… This test is a holds-no-bar battle scenario. There are almost no rules that apply while the test is conducted. But it isn't about survival alone. The main mission for all the rookies to follow, will be to obtain these two scrolls…"

Anko withdrew two scrolls from her sleeves and showed them to the rookies. One scroll was black and had the word 'earth' on it, while the other scroll was white and had the word 'heaven' written on it.

"You and your team will fight together to obtain both a Heaven scroll and an Earth scroll… So far there are twenty-six teams here, so that means that half of the teams will have one Heaven scroll, and the other half will have an Earth scroll. In order to succeed in this test and move on to the third and final exam, each team is to obtain both of these scrolls by any means necessary."

Sakura soon understood the math and said, "So that means half of us might fail…"

"That's thirteen teams that can make it out alive, or even less," her blonde-haired teammate added while Sasuke scoffed at Naruto's added comment.

Anko hid her two scrolls back inside her sleeves and said, "That's right. But I should also add that there is a time limit to this test. You will all have five days to finish this exam."

"FIVE DAYS?" cried Ino Yamanaka.

Her teammate Choji looked horrified, "What are we supposed to do for food?"

"Just look around the forest," Anko smirked, "There's lots of stuff to eat in there. But there are other things in those woods that are edible that can kill as well. There are also man-eating beasts, poisonous massive insects, and some of the most mysterious and dangerous plants and trees on this earth… I remember this one time; there was this poor kid that was torn into shreds from what his teammates claimed was some wild monster that looked like a tree. It's one of the reasons this area is off-limits… Because there are forces out there in those woods that even some of the most logical shinobi and kunoichi that can't even explain…"

All the rookies stood still as all of them took in their entire situation. No matter what, the teams would be surrounded with enemies. Time would become shorter and more intense as the clock ticked towards the end of their time limit. There would be less time to rest and recover from injuries, mistakes, or even accidents, and sleep would be almost impossible if the rookies wanted to survive, let alone finish their examination.

"So in addition to those who die in attempts to defend or capture a scroll, a lot of rookies are bound to succumb to exhaustion, exposure, starvation, and dehydration…" Anko warned them with an unsuitable smile and blushed a little bit when she continued, "So let's talk about the rules and what offenses can be considered for disentitlement."

She raised one slim finger and said, "The teams that fail to reach the tower within the reasonable time-limit, even if the team has both of the scrolls needed to win, will not advance to the next exam. Even if a teammate dies, those teams will not pass without both the scrolls needed," she raised a second finger and told the rookies, "Under no circumstances can a team be allowed to leave the forest until the end of the time-limit. No recesses and no time-outs are allowed."

All the students had been attentive and nodded their heads as the first two rules were addressed.

"Now for the third rule," she raised one more finger and then told them, "You are forbidden to look into the contents of the scrolls until the team has entered the tower. Is that understood?"

Naruto felt his scar hurt him a little bit as he looked into the forest and decided to ask out of concern, "What happens if we decide to look inside them?"

"That's for the curious cats to find out. You cute little lion," the exotic woman said with a wink as she teased him.

Several males in the crowds behind him snickered at the blonde shinobi when Anko created a new name for Naruto Uzumaki. She must have based on the subtle whisker marks on his cheeks and the obvious lion he had stitched on the back of his survival coat. Not to mention his hair had increased a little bit over the summer and almost made it look like he had a small mane made from his blonde hair. To be honest, Naruto looked a lot like his older brother did back when he was entered in the Triwizard Tournament, back when his hair almost could have reached down and covered his neck.

But as soon as the students were silence, Anko turned a lot more serious than normal.

"When a shinobi or a kunoichi makes it to the chunin level, there will be times where he or she will be entrusted with secret documents and deliver them. So consider this survival test also as a test of trustworthiness and devotion towards the mission and teammates on that mission," she told them as several rookies nodded and then she said, "That's all I can tell about this exam, brats… We'll trade one scroll for three consent forms. Once a team has obtained their scroll, choose whichever entrance there is available. All students will start at the same time once the teams are stationed at the entrances… Oh, and one more bit of advice… Just don't die!"

All of the rookies were allowed a pen and signed their forms without a second's hesitation. Each team then marched to the stands and was entrusted with a white Heaven scroll or black Earth scroll. The students were then escorted to whatever entrances there were available that the other teams had not taken. It took almost an entire hour for all the students to make it to the entrances to the forbidden forest and it took a little bit more time after that to unlock the fenced doors. Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura had obtained a Heaven scroll and were fortunate with luck and saved their breaths at an entrance that was close to where Anko stood and close to where the three of them had sorted out their individual forms. While there, Sasuke stared at all the other rookies that were close to them and tried to determine the best actions he and his teammates could take against them based on what nation the teams were from. At the same time, Sakura checked her pouch and counted several blades she had left from their last mission while her teammate Naruto stared out into the woods and reviewed whatever spells he knew that he could use on their future enemies behind his teammates backs. He made sure to concentrate and reviewed all the best ones he could cast as he felt his wand hidden inside his sleeve. He felt his heart beat a little bit faster than normal and tried to remain levelheaded as his scar started to burn a little bit and that familiar sense that told him to run or flee started to bother him again. It was weird, because it almost felt like he had developed a new sixth sense.

Once the entrances were unlocked, Anko Mitarashi received the cue from the other chunin that administered the exam and announced to all the rookies with a loud and audacious voice as she clicked a countdown clock that stood beside her, "All right, kids! The countdown has started! Best of luck!"

The fenced-doors allowed the students to enter the forest, but none of them moved until the minute-countdown had run out and the students had less than one hundred and nineteen hours to find their scrolls and locate the tower in the center of the massive arena. The countdown almost sounded like a drum as each second counted down to the start with a distinct and identical boom. Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura waited and focused their chakra to their feet so that the three of them would zoom into the darkness while countless other rookies did the same. Some of the other and older rookies looked determined and desired to hunt down their rivals and advance to the next exam. Meanwhile, several other teams looked determined with other missions on their mind as the countdown continued and boom in their ears like war drums.

Back with Naruto and his friends, the countdown had reached the last ten seconds, and their hearts raced inside their chests as the last several seconds boomed. Within the last five seconds, the rookies heard Anko's voice and the countdown had ended with one last loud and distinct boom.

"PART TWO OF THE CHUNIN SELECTION EXAMS HAS NOW BEGUN!"

Naruto and his teammates soared into the forest with determination and chakra that fueled them and a small but subtle sense of cold that almost overwhelmed them at the same time.

Team 7 zoomed into the dense woods and took in their environment when the sun almost seemed to vanish and the rookies were lost in the dark. The air felt moist almost at once and it started to turn cold as the sun was blocked out. There was that same mist seen from earlier and there were insects that crawled and small animals that slithered in the darkest areas on the earth and inside the moistest cracks of the massive trees that surrounded them. Some of insects were massive, almost the same size as a ramen bowl from Ichiraku Ramen while others were normal-sized and scrambled all around the darkness with swarms. Still, the three memorable genin advanced into the woods and ran so fast that the three of them had turned into colored blurs. The team was determined to finish as soon as the three of them could, so it didn't come as much of a shock as the three of them whizzed over roots and soared across into other trees. Naruto was a little bit ahead of Sasuke and Sakura, but then the dark-haired Uchiha ran out further and led his teammates towards the north as Sakura moved faster than her blonde-haired teammate to match her crush and look like she had trained.

The first several seconds of the exam were intense but uneventful until the three of them heard a loud scream come from out in the distance. With that noise as their first distraction, Naruto and his teammates were oblivious as a kunoichi and two shinobi from Kusa came out of nowhere and were about to collide into each other. Naruto soon noticed, as the kunoichi on the team was about to slam into him when his scar burned less than a second before the team had come out from nowhere. Out of instinct, he withdrew his wand and muttered a charm that would throw the Kusa rookie into another direction, while he would continue on with his teammates.

Naruto muttered under his breath and threw the red-haired kunoichi off course, "Protego!"

The blonde shinobi had been slowed down as he and the other kunoichi were almost magnetized towards each other from the use of the charm. But soon, the kunoichi flew out and landed into the darkness between two massive trees while her teammates shouted out and continued to run as the two of them assumed Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura would attack them for their scroll.

"KONOHA-NIN!"

"RUN FOR IT!"

"OUCH! WAIT FOR ME, YOU IDIOTS!"

Naruto and his teammates soon came to a sudden halt and looked over their shoulders for the team the three of them almost slammed into to return and attack them. Naruto stood behind his teammates and slid his wand back into his sleeve, shocked that he had thrown that red-haired kunoichi into the woods without another thought. He could have sworn she wore glasses and her irises were the same color as her vibrant red hair. Naruto soon calmed down as he heard her survive the sudden collision into the woods and ran off to wherever her teammates were as she called out to them and insulted them. Sakura looked so scared from the avoided confrontation while Sasuke looked intense as he waited for the team to return and battle them when he didn't catch what the three of them had shouted out to each other. But while Sasuke would have loved to fight other shinobi from other lands to show his dominance over them, he had to avoid a confrontation, so he ordered his teammates once the three of them waited several moments.

Sakura asked in a panic, "What should we do, Sasuke-kun?"

"We run. Run now," he told both his teammates in an intense voice.

Naruto turned his head back and forth from where the Kusa team had run to back to his teammates that had turned their heads at the Kusa shinobi and ran. He soon came to and followed his friends as he used his chakra to follow them as fast as he could.

"Sasuke-teme! Sakura-chan! WAIT FOR ME!" he shouted out towards them.

Once he had reached his teammates, the three of them decided to hide out underneath some unearthed roots from a fallen tree that made some suitable cover. The three students moved under the roots and checked for insects and small animals. Once it was cleared out, the three rookies sat down, huddled in small circle, and started to discuss their ideas for their next move.

Sasuke looked to his teammates and told them, "We have to think of a plan to obtain that Earth scroll we need-"

But then the team was distracted when the three of them heard the shrill screams of several other rookies echo out from the trees. It almost sounded inhuman as the three of them heard the voices shriek in terror and then start to moan, almost like the students that had screamed started to suffer until their voices were faint and then there was an unsettled silence as Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura shivered and felt a little bit more cold as their heads turned towards the source of the voices that reached their ears.

"What was that?" the terrified kunoichi asked her teammates.

Naruto considered, "It must be another two teams that found each other…"

"It doesn't sound like there was much of a fight," she answered back to him.

Sasuke then added and then he asked out loud, "Yeah… that sounded a lot worse than a battle… What could have caused someone to scream like that?"

"If it wasn't another team, it could've been the environment…" the blonde shinobi said as his teammates looked at him.

Sasuke asked him, "What?"

"It's like what Anko-sensei said… She told us that this area was closed and there were rumors of monsters in these woods…" he told them and then he shared some of his little wisdom to his teammate, "You know, I remember this one time I read a text book in school about a woods a lot like this one… It must have been the same one when I think about it… This whole forest has been isolated for decades. For all we know, there could be ancient fauna or even dark creatures in these woods that evolved over time and now feed on shinobi or animals that are the same size as a shinobi… Whoever those voices were, that lot must have found some trouble…"

Sakura asked her blonde-haired teammate, "What text book was this, Naruto?"

"I think it was An Unbiased History of the Hidden Leaf Village," he said and nodded, as he was about to admit with a sense of humor to break the tension, "I borrowed it once when I was little… But when I use the word borrowed-"

Sasuke then insisted, "It doesn't matter. We should move soon to a higher location and then later find some water to drink. If we do that, we could attack another team from above and take their scroll. We can remain in the trees for the whole exam if we have to and move on to a new location closer to the tower and wait for more teams to ambush until we find the scroll we need."

"Yeah," the blonde-haired shinobi nodded but then noted, "But we have to make sure we're careful while underneath the trees in these woods. You remember back in Iruka-aniki's class when he told us about the white-skinned tree-leeches? He told us those leeches are massive enough to suck someone dead in minutes. We should watch out for them while we're in the trees. I remember he said those sick creatures tend to stick to higher locations and then fall down on their victims in swarms and suck their blood."

Both the blonde shinobi's teammates nodded to him and were shocked once more that Naruto had remembered a lesson from their class and used it to their benefit.

"Not a bad idea," nodded the black-haired shinobi as he shivered at the idea of massive leeches snack on his blood, "Not a bad idea at all, Naruto… Now let's move."

Sasuke led his teammates as the three of them soared above the trees and waited for an unfortunate team to come around to be attacked. The three students waited and waited but no one came around. There was this one team that did show, but Sasuke held his teammates back and told them not to attack, because the distance was too dramatic and none of them would be able to ambush them all in time and lose the element of surprise. So, the team remained in the trees and waited until another team would arrive but there was no such luck on their side. The three of them heard more shouts and screams from various locations around them, but none of them dared to investigate or be thrown in a battle none of them could come out from unscratched.

After several hours and no active teams came around, Sakura looked over to her crush and shouted over to him, "Sasuke-kun, we should rest for a little bit. It's been hours."

The Uchiha nodded to her and led his teammates down towards another location where the three of them were hidden in between two trees. Once the area had been cleared and Naruto killed several venomous insects under his feet, the team sat down and discussed their next move as the forest started to darken a little bit more than usual, which meant sun had started its descent towards the western horizon over the distant mountains.

Sasuke looked bitter while he admitted, "No luck so far… We'll need to think of another idea to find that scroll…"

"We also need food…" the blonde-haired shinobi mentioned as he touched his stomach, "I'm starved…"

The dark-haired Uchiha then said after he reviewed their current situation, "Ok… I think there's a river close to here. We could find some fish and cook them here to eat."

"Cook them here?" asked Sakura, "Won't a fire let the other shinobi out there know where we are? The smoke from the fire will almost be like a beacon to our location and then the fire itself once it's dark out."

Sasuke mumbled under his breath in irritation and then he said out loud, "Fine then… We'll have to find some shelter to hide the flames, wait until it's dark, and we can eat and rest for several hours and move on. At dawn we'll make a smaller fire, cook some food fast, eat it, and then we'll move to another location as fast as we can before someone can see the smoke…"

"I think that we could do that," commented Naruto, "But we'll have to find some serious shelter to make sure we're not seen at all."

Sakura blushed and then she said, "Nice idea, Sasuke-kun!"

"Then we'll have to move fast," he said after he took in and relish in the comments, "It'll be dark soon. Not to mention, we need to think of how we'll obtain those fish if there are fish in there."

Naruto then reminded him, "And we still have to obtain that Earth scroll."

"Let's concentrate on the food and shelter for now," his dark-haired teammate told both his teammate, "We'll be useless without some nourishment. We have to eat."

Within seventeen minutes, the trio found the river mentioned earlier and started to fish for their food. Sasuke told Naruto to make some shadow clones and have them dive into the water to blast the fish out of the riverbed when his clones blasted into white smoke. It was an excellent idea and it worked while Sasuke and Sakura used their kunai to obtain the fish that were blasted out of the water and stuck them to the trees across the river. Naruto tried to assist but he missed a fish once or twice and was told to concentrate on his shadow clones. The blonde-haired shinobi mumbled at Sasuke in irritation when he ordered him to focus on his clones, but still did what he needed to do and created more shadow clones.

"Yeah… Yeah… I'll make some shadow clones…"

While Naruto waddled into the water to his ankles and commanded his clones, he felt some weird substances in the river touch his feet and toes. He looked down when some clones blasted more fish into the air and examined a weird waterweed that looked a lot like tentacles stuck inside his shoes. He reached out and removed some of the substance from his toes and could have sworn he knew what it was. But if he was correct then the waterweed he found was not from the world he was born in.

Naruto was about to ask his older brother what it was that he had found when Sasuke shouted at him when he noticed his teammate was distracted.

"Concentrate on the shadow clones, Naruto!" he ordered.

The blonde shinobi returned to earth and slid the familiar substance into a container on his trousers and made the seal to create more shadow clones. All the while, he mumbled unkind comments about his arrogant teammate as he continued to throw him more and more orders.

Once the team had obtained their food, the trio reached an excellent old hideout located between two massive trees. It almost looked like an abandoned house that was stuck in the middle of the woods that must have been condemned. There were walls that started to deteriorate and there were holes all over the floor that led into an old cellar that must have caved in decades ago. There was still a roof over their heads, but there were holes all over it and would allow the smoke from their fire that could leak out into the air and alert the other rookies of their location, had the trio decided not to cook out at night. With luck on their side, no one would be able to see them with the walls, the trees, and caved-in floor around to cover them and their fire. So the trio decided to create a fire in the center of the old house, down in a ditch in the floor so that the flames wouldn't be seen in the darkness.

It was an hour before dusk, so Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura had to work fast and cook their meal to obtain the nourishment needed to survive the night. Sakura received some firewood and made a makeshift fire fan while Sasuke found some rocks to use to contain the fire. At the same time, Naruto found some dirt to dowse the flames with so that there wouldn't be too much smoke once the team decided to extinguish it. It took the team about seven minutes to set the fire and then remove the skin and innards from the fish to eat them.

Once all that hard work had been finished, Sasuke was about to use his chakra to start the fire, when Naruto decided to share a small but brilliant idea so that the team had time to discuss their ideas to find the scroll or even rest for several extra hours.

He told them out loud, "I have an idea!"

"What is it?" the Uchiha asked.

The blonde shinobi then told him and Sakura, "I can create some shadow clones to watch over us while we eat. I'll know at once if we're under attack if I station them outside this house and hide them well. We could take turns so that I can rest and save chakra and then make more clones to watch out for us once I have to watch."

"That's brilliant, Naruto," the kunoichi admitted and could almost kiss her teammate.

Meanwhile, Sasuke nodded and said with a miniscule smile, "Again, that's not a bad idea."

"Next time, tell me I'm brilliant too, Uchiha-teme," he said as he formed the seals and then announced with a muttered voice, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Five shadow clones came into existence from the familiar blasts of concentrated white smoke and marched outside the abandoned foundations. Naruto's shadow clones were stationed outside while the real Naruto and his friends discussed their ideas and started a small fire. Once the clones were outside, the real Naruto had them work on another idea he had in mind that could aid him and his teammates in the exam. He also wanted one of the clones to set out and investigate the river from earlier when the real Naruto removed the waterweed he had taken and tried to determine what it was for a moment but soon looked back to his teammates and stuffed it back into his trousers as his attention was focus on his friends.

Back outside the house, the clones soon nodded to each other and started to circle the area around the old abandoned hideout and made it turn invisible. The shadow clones went all around the area and waved their wands to create enchantments that would defend against all the shinobi and kunoichi that were left in the exam that could or wanted to attack them. The clones encircled the area and waved their wands to create an invisible barrier that could fend off the animals and shinobi that were out there in the darkness. The shadow clones made it so that not even Anko Mitarashi or even someone like Hiruzen Sarutobi would be able to find Team 7 once Naruto commanded his clones to conceal their location. The clones made sure not to make too much noise and alert the others as the enchantments encircled the area and the hideout started to fade out of existence as well as the rookies that were hidden inside it.

"Protego Totalum!"

"Salvio Hexia!"

"Protego Totalum!"

Once it had been done in about seven minutes, four of the five shadow clones remained inside the invisible barrier while one of them marched outside the line of the unseen barrier. The lone shadow clone marched outside and then looked back to see that the hideout had been erased from existence. He then forced his head back into the dome-like enchanted barrier, blinked, and then noticed that the old foundations were restored with the shadow clones and the rookies hidden behind them with their fire. As soon as the enchantments had been secured, the clone went back outside and watched as the area vanished one more time and was surrounded with darkness. Once he was sure that the team would not be found or the rookies would not be able to hear him, Naruto's fifth shadow clone created another shadow clone and told that clone to search for the Heaven scroll so the team could leave the forest and advance to the next level. As soon as the sixth clone had run, the fifth clone set out into the woods to search for the same river where he had seen that familiar waterweed.

The fifth shadow clone (the one that set out to check on the river) zoomed towards the same area from earlier and made sure not to be seen as he soared over trees and earth. He ran down close to the forest floor and made sure he avoided bushes and trees so that he wouldn't make loud noises and alert other shinobi teams that he was out and about. He also had to make sure that he was well preserved in order to check out that river and the weeds he had found in it. Otherwise, he would be a wasted shadow clone.

After about ten minutes on the run, the fifth clone was certain he had heard a noise come from his left and ducked down a cliff for cover. The Naruto clone held onto a massive root with his chakra and listened as he heard three sets of feet come out of nowhere and halt about three meters from where the clone would have stood, had he not clenched onto the underside of the root he was now attached to. The clone waited and listened as he heard some frustrated breaths and then listened in on two unfamiliar voices from two shinobi that sounded like the two of them were in their late-teens or a little bit older.

"You're sure those three were around here?" one asked.

The other answered, "Positive. The rookie team from Kusa we sent out to search said the three of them ran into three shinobi from Konoha and one of them was blonde. If that was true, than that team could have and should have run close to this river. With no food or water at the start, those idiots would have stuck around here for shelter. It's a common rookie mistake."

"Yeah, but these rookies are different than the others," the first one stated back at the second voice, "that Uchiha on the team is smart… So the team could have been here but sheltered somewhere else. The Uchiha has some serious intellect and the blonde one can be unpredictable. That's what it said on that card, Kabuto?"

The Naruto clone twitched in shock as he heard the third set of feet walk close to his location and onto the thick root he was attached to underneath. It sounded like the older shinobi from the classroom strut onto the massive five-foot-wide root as he looked out towards the rest of the forest in search of Naruto Uzumaki's team. While the clone heard him come closer, his scar started to burn and that horrid stench from earlier was back and worse than it was back when he first ran into Kabuto and the Otogakure rookies. While the clone endured the smell, he tried his best not to make another noise or even breath, as the clone tried to stick his feet onto the root so that the older rookie that now stood above him couldn't see him. The shadow clone waited and listened as that familiar voice reached his ears and sounded a lot more sinister and serious than he remembered it sounded like back when the rookies were about to take their first exam.

"Yes…" the clone heard him answered back to his teammates, "We should head close to the tower and check the shadows and hollowed trees. We have to find them and locate them soon should the tide turn against us. Our master should have found them now, so it's in our best interest to locate them as well… Besides, I want to talk to little Naruto-kun about that card of mine he ruined… Once he's finished, I can find out all I want to know about him… Corpses are so much easier to extract information from than a live shinobi…"

The shadow clone clenched the root so hard that his hands almost sank into the wooden base he was attached to while he listened to the older rookie when he must have withdrawn his Ninja Info Cards and shuffled them around as his teammates swallowed at the tone in their teammate's voice. Kabuto slid his cards back where he stored them and walked back to his teammates to set out towards the tower out in the distance. The fifth shadow clone looked towards the tower that was now visible underneath the moonlight and then he saw Kabuto soar across the skies and descent into the darkness across the river, closer towards the tower. His teammates on the other hand, stood still and had a short moment to comment on their sadistic teammate.

The first voice told the second one, "Kabuto will kill that kid…"

"No doubt about that," the second voice chuckled in a dark low voice, "No one touches his shit."

As soon as that had been said, the team vanished and the Naruto shadow clone released his hold on the root and fell down into the darkness below. The blonde-haired clone crashed into the river from earlier and was dowsed from head to toe with cold water. The clone held its breath from the crash when it hit a rock and made sure not to make a scene while he swam onto another rock on the shore and sat back to warm his clothes with his wand. As the clone was about to be dried and then warmed, he noticed that his trousers were laced with what he was sure felt like the exact same weed he found further downstream.

The Naruto clone flicked his wand and announced, "Lumos!"

He then used the charm and checked the substance after he had it torn clean from his clothes. The shadow clone checked the waterweed and was soon able to familiarize it when he flashed-back to a lesson his older brother had taught him when the two of them studied magical water plants. The weed looked a lot like extended, lime-colored, slick rat-tails mixed into a mass that was similar to ramen noodles. The smell and texture was familiar and it all came back to him as he showed the weeds to his invisible older brother.

'This can't be what I think it is… Nii-san, take a look at this!'

Even though it was not the real Naruto Uzumaki that made the telepathic communication to him, Harry was still able to talk back to and communicate with the shadow clone and share his silent shock at what the clone had discovered in the river. The real Naruto was not able to hear their conversation, because the discussion was focused more on the clone. But once the clone was blasted into white smoke, the real blonde shinobi would receive the memories and emotions that that clone had experience, that included the conversation he missed out on as well as what he had listen to in that close call he had with Kabuto and his teammates.

'Merlin shoot me dead. I know what that is, it's Gillyweed, one-hundred percent real Gillyweed…'

'This is awesome! I don't believe it!'

'Incredible… It looks to me that this forest is so untouched and isolated from the rest of the world that magical plants and life forms have manifested inside it or evolved into them… The marshes were reasonable to have magical properties, but this forest is out of this world. Once I have a new vessel, I'll come back here and do some research on this forest… We don't have all the time in the world to look around and discover more, so take some Gillyweed and let's head back to the rest of the team before we can attract attention from the other genin. We have to focus on this exam…'

'Ok, I'll head back and take this with me. What should I do if I run into some Venomous Tentacula?'

'I don't think there will be a Venomous Tentacula in here, Naruto… I would be a little bit more interested in that unicorn mentioned earlier.'

'Go ahead and mock me. We'll see who looks foolish when I ride one back home with one.'

'You're ridiculous.'

The conversation with the older sorcerer and his little brother's shadow clone continued on while the clone searched around when he heard all sorts of noises echo all around him, like the whole world around him inside this massive and wild forest was a alive. The trees almost seemed to move while the moss he walked across was littered with insects and unknown or unseen creatures. When the clone saw one of the massive leeches he had mentioned to his teammates earlier in the exam, he shivered as he saw the creature drain the blood and fluids from a random wild boar as it started to die a slow and cold death. The clone zoomed out of the area as soon as he could before more leeches could fall down on him in mass and extinguish his existence. While he retreated from the area, the Naruto shadow clone heard the swarm fall behind him and wondered how massive the insects in these woods could become, other than the leeches he saw and now avoided.

'Didn't Anko-sensei mention there were massive insects in these woods?'

'Yeah, she did. Just be sure to remember to use the Incendio Charm to scare some off with fire, or use Arania Exumai to knock them out or kill them. That tends to work on all insects, not on arachnids alone.'

'Ok. Got it. Thanks.'

{{Crisis in Asgard by Patrick Doyle + The Cave by James Newton Howard}}

At the same time the fifth clone ran towards the river, the sixth shadow clone zoomed into a random direction to search for a team to steal a scroll from. Naruto soared across from tree to tree and looked down as he search for a random team. When the shadow clone thought about its mission, he smiled and felt it was for the best. If the real version of him decided to set out on his own and leave behind his teammates, it would have been a suicide mission. So with that idea in mind, the shadow clone remain careless and free as it moved from tree to tree and remained hidden from all the creatures and shinobi that could have seen him had he worn his old tracksuit to the exam. He smiled a little bit more as he soared from another tree and ran some scenarios in his head to obtain the scroll. With his wand in hand, Naruto could succeed in his secret little mission to steal the Earth scroll unnoticed from whatever team he found in the wilderness.

The clone checked the darkest and most desolate areas and locations for hidden teams, but found none of them until he found a curious depression in the earth. He slowed down and remained in the trees as he looked down and saw a hill that lead down into a moss-coated meadow with a willow tree in the middle, surrounded with an inch of water. There were tall and dark trees that surrounded the area as well as bushes that created a circle around the meadow, where Naruto identified three shinobi huddled close to the tree in the middle.

The rookies he had discovered three identical shinobi that must have been in their late or mid-teens. One of the rookies that seemed to be the leader had barbed black hair and dark eyes to match. He and his two teammates wore a similar fair-colored jumpsuit that was stitched in the middle and also wore boot-like zori sandals, a rebreather and a sash around his face with eyeholes cut out. His shorter teammate had similar hair, but his was colored brown. He wore the same clothes as his teammates and had a headband that covered his whole head. This one also had a rebreather and a sash that covered his face. The third shinobi on the team was more or less the same as his teammates, but his hair and most of his face was covered for whatever reasons he had to cover them with. Naruto didn't know whether to feel intimidated or snort at the team for their outfits and their excessive need to mask their faces and use rebreathers, unless the team was in the rain or underwater.

Still, the shadow clone took the situation in a more serious manner when he slid down the tree with the aid of his chakra and landed on the floor without a sound. He looked down into the meadow and realized he would have to move around in order to get close to the team from Amegakure no Sato. The shadow clone remained in the shadows as he withdrew his wand and treated it like a silenced handgun. He remained hidden behind the bushes while the team went on to discuss their ideas on how to obtain a scroll. Naruto assumed if he listened in, the team would reveal which scroll the three of them had and would determine if he should knock them out and take their scroll or even their supplies if his own teammates needed them.

"No luck with the rookie team from Konoha, the one with the kid from the Inuzuka clan was a maniac. That other team from Konoha beat us to them had their blood sucked from those freak-leeches," said the leader.

The one that must have been second-in-command said, "We know that, Oboro. We all saw it. That team with the Inuzuka should reach the tower about now, if not tomorrow. Meanwhile, one-fourth of the teams should be dead or failed the exam about now."

"What if we search the bodies of the teams that didn't make it?" asked the middle rookie, "We could search and see if we can mooch off them."

Oboro answered back, "No. There could be other teams out there that think the same and want to use the bodies as bait. We should rest here for a few hours and work on another idea."

"We could stick around the tower and wait for the teams that are done to show. If we do that and if the team is exhausted, we can eliminate them and take their scrolls," the second-in-command recommended.

Oboro must have smirked underneath his rebreather as he nodded, "That's a brilliant idea, Kagari! We can attack them while those little shits are still vulnerable!"

The sixth Naruto shadow clone took note on all these details and made sure that if his mission didn't succeed, then he would have to knock out those shinobi to ensure his teammates would be safe at the end of the exam. The clone soon crawled down low and remained hidden in the bushes while the Ame team discussed what to do with their first victims in some of the sickest details he had ever heard. It took the shadow clone several minutes to sneak close to the team and was soon at an appropriate distance where he could use his wand and summon the scroll he needed without detection. Naruto waited and soon aimed his wand at the rucksack that was located near the base of the willow tree. He made sure his voice was not too loud and he flicked his wand and annunciated the charm to steal the Earth scroll he assumed was inside.

The shadow clone muttered under his breath, "Accio Earth scroll!"

Naruto watched as the rucksack flinched and a black scroll flew out from inside and started to slide towards him as if there were a wire attached to the base. The clone outstretched his hand and snatched the scroll in his hand. He would have shouted out and smiled with success, but was silent as he checked the scroll, but made sure he never unveiled it to check if it was real. The scroll was still sealed and that was more than enough evidence to tell him that it was real. He then tucked the scroll into a zipped pocket and sealed it to make sure it would never fall out once he moved out and headed back towards his teammates. Naruto moved fast and crawled back to where he had come from while he failed to listen to the rookies from Ame and move a little bit faster before he could be seen in the act.

The third unnamed rookie on the team nodded to his teammates and said, "I'm starved. Let me see if we still have some rations left."

"Go ahead, but share some with us, man," said the leader Oboro.

When the third team member searched the rucksack for some food to eat, he noticed that a scroll had been missed. He searched the rucksack and checked to see if he had hidden the Earth scroll under some clothes or the extra rebreather from home, but soon came to the obvious conclusion.

"WE'VE BEEN ROBBED!" he shouted.

Oboro stood on his feet, "What?"

"What the hell is this?" asked Kagari while he fumed.

The third unnamed member of the Ame team would have told his teammates and shown them their rucksack but he looked across the meadow and saw a small rookie with blonde hair scale the hill that led down into their secret little meadow.

The older rookie then shouted, "OVER THERE!"

Naruto looked back for a moment and then moved fast as he heard the leader of the team behind him roar out and storm towards him with the aid of his chakra. The shadow clone was about to stand and run but the leader had a hold on his foot and forced him down as he held him back, about to pull him back down into the meadow and teach him a lesson. Naruto did as his instincts told him to and kicked his restrained foot into the face of the older shinobi. The leader was knocked back while his teammates were a lot slower, but still followed. The blonde-haired shinobi then stood and tried to run and soar back into the trees. He turned around and saw Oboro follow him close and withdraw a weird kunai, which made it obvious he was not from Konoha.

The older rookie then stormed at the blonde-haired wizard and screamed, "GIVE ME BACK THE SCROLL, YOU THIEF!"

In the fraction of a second that it could have taken Oboro to slice Naruto in two, the blonde-haired shinobi used his wand, aimed at the older genin and used a focused version of one of the best spells he could think of to use at the same time Kagari and the other rookie from the meadow arrived to aid their team leader and eliminate the blonde shinobi that had robbed them.

Naruto aimed at Oboro's chest and then shouted out loud, "Stupefy!"

A red blast shot out from the wand and slammed the older rookie in the chest so hard, that he flew backwards and crashed into both his teammates. Naruto smiled and watched as all three rookies tumbled back down into their meadow hideout. The leader had doubled over and was knocked out from the moment the blast struck him in the chest. Naruto ran over to the hill and watched as the rookies rolled back down to their abandoned rucksack and slammed into the base of the willow tree that had once aided them as their salvation and cover.

The blonde-haired shadow clone then removed the scroll he had obtained from them and smiled as he inserted it back into his trousers and secured the scroll. He looked down at the rookies one last time as all three of them moaned and were unable to stand or even so much as chase after the smaller rookie that took their scroll.

"So uncivilized…" he commented.

Naruto turned around and was about to leave them be when he heard the two conscious older rookies let out two identical screams of sheer terror.

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

The alarmed blonde-haired shinobi whirled around and saw that the harmless willow tree that the three Ame rookies had crashed into had come to life. The willow had formed two extensive and thick branches that looked a lot like two muscular arms made of wood and covered with smaller branches and thin narrow leaves that looked like hairs. Naruto watched in horror as the tree thrashed the three shinobi around like a monster in an old movie as the two conscious teens screamed and tried to be release from their wooden confines. The blonde-haired clone covered his mouth in horror and shock as he knew at once what sort of tree this was and even more so, what it was called.

"A FREAKING WHOMPING WILLOW?"

'I am going to make sure I research this place the moment I have a new vessel to live in…'

Naruto watched in shock as the Ame rookies were thrashed and thrown around like a violent child with dolls and hesitated on what to do, as he never learned how to control or immobilize a Whomping Willow. All he had learned about them was that those trees were violent and the best someone could do about them was avoid them at all costs. The blonde-haired shinobi could not even shout or scream as he heard the two of the three shinobi inside the arms of the wooden beast scream and shout. Soon, Naruto was able to talk back to his older brother once the shock over the sight of the tree had vanished.

'What the hell do I do, Nii-san?'

'Run and don't look back! That tree will kill you if you're too close to it! Move!'

'No, Nii-san! I can't just leave and let those three get killed! How do I make the tree freeze or release them? Tell what I have to do!'

'Use the Freezing Charm. The incantation is Immobulus. That should do the trick. As soon as that's done; tie them up, run, and don't look back!'

Naruto nodded and rushed back down into the meadow as the willow thrashed the three rookies over where its head would be if the tree were a monster from an old classic horror movie. Naruto dashed as fast as he could and avoided several roots when those came to life and started to attack him. The shadow clone avoided some narrow thrashes too as he used all his senses and tried to move around the roots and branches that tried to kill him. He flowed like a leaf in the wind and move so fast that he almost turned into a yellow flash, as his blonde hair was the most visible and vibrant feature about him as he moved. Naruto had reached into the recesses of his physical abilities and avoided attacks that would have been resulted in his death, had it not been a shadow clone that was sent out to find the Earth scroll. Naruto moved around and avoided one last violent branch and he aimed at the base of the tree.

He then cried out, "Immobulus!"

The small blonde wizard saw a subtle blue light blast out of his wand and wave over the Whomping Willow as it's movement was halted, like it had been knocked out if it could be considered as a live creature. The blonde-haired shinobi watched as the Ame team's screams started to die down and the tree released them all from their confines. The rookies were rendered unconscious as soon as their bodies had hit the meadow and the braches that could have sliced them all into chunks started to levitate toward the heavens as Naruto moved around the branches and find the unconscious rookies.

He looked down at the Ame team and aimed his wand at them as he encased them with lashes created from the end of his wand, "Incarcerous!"

Naruto then moved fast and aimed his wand at the team while the three of them were immobilized like the tree that had tried to kill them. He made sure he aimed at them so that the trio could land far from the tree, but would not aid them more than that.

The blonde-haired shinobi flicked his wand and shouted, "Depulso!"

The team from Ame was banished far into the distance and landed somewhere far from the tree outside the meadow. As soon as he was finished, Naruto ran as fast as he could before his charm on the Whomping Willow faded and ran back towards the hill. He would have to move fast, in case he attracted the attention of the other teams or even the ones that wanted to hunt him and his teammates down for whatever reasons.

'I'm out of here before the Devil's Snare shows up!'

Back at the hidden hideout where the real Naruto and his teammates were hidden, the team had eaten their fill and decided to rest for a while and take turns. Naruto had the first watch and sat down at the front door in the shadows and stared out into the endless darkness while he waited for his two shadow clones to come back from their missions. Sasuke and Sakura were sound asleep in the corner behind an old table while their teammate stared out and tried to wait for those two clones to return.

He waited for about five more minutes and then he saw the clones return, outside the barrier. Naruto waited and watched as the clones reached out and tried to feel for the shields and soon walked into them once re-discovered. The real Naruto ran over to them and smiled with enthusiasm and excitement.

"What was in the river?" he asked the clone.

The fifth shadow clone removed the weeds from his trousers and handed them over to the real Naruto and then it was blasted back into white smoke. Naruto twitched and then the memories of the secret mission were returned to him and he nodded as he inserted the Gillyweed into his weapons pouch with the new shuriken and kunai he had hidden inside. He then turned to the sixth shadow clone and was handed over the black Earth scroll that was obtained from the Ame rookies.

"Here it is," he said and then blasted into white smoke.

Naruto twitched one more time and the memories of the Whomping Willow were transferred into his mind as well as the fear and excitement his clones had felt while inside the forest, had his smile started to fall as he remembered Kabuto and his teammates. The blonde shinobi and his other shadows clones also felt the same and wondered what it was that Kabuto meant when he mentioned his master. He didn't think he meant his sensei, so it made Naruto and his older brother think as to whom the older rookie talked about. Whatever it was that Kabuto intended or whomever he referred to in his conversation with his teammates, it was all the more reason Naruto and Harry felt to be suspicious of the older rookie and make sure to avoid him in the forest. The two wizards would look into this later, but had to concentrate on the exam and make sure to avoid Kabuto if he had the intention to kill Naruto for the destruction of his card from earlier.

So the blonde shinobi soon stored the scroll into his trousers and retreated back into the hideout while his shadow clones returned to their stations. Naruto held onto his wand and tried to think of how he would show his teammates the scroll and then head to the tower and finish their second exam. But he wanted to avoid telling them the details of his missions with his shadow clones or tell them he had taken down another team on his own and discovered several supernatural phenomenon at the same time. His teammates wouldn't believe him if he told them the truth. While the blonde shinobi mused over these matters, he heard one of his teammates come out of the hideout, so he hid his wand into his sleeve and looked over his shoulder.

In the darkness, he saw that it was Sasuke and turned around while his shadow clones remained still in the shadows. The Uchiha nodded over to his teammate and motioned toward the hideout.

He said, "Naruto, I'll take over from here."

"You're sure?" the blonde-haired shinobi asked.

Sasuke nodded his head once more and answered, "Yeah. You need to rest and conserve chakra. I'll take over for about two hours."

"Ok then," he said back as he stood and marched back to the abandoned house.

When the blonde shinobi was about to hide inside the old house, his teammate raised his voice a little bit but refused to look at his teammate, "Naruto…"

"Yeah?" he asked as he turned around.

There was a hesitation and it almost sounded like Sasuke didn't want to admit this when he said, "You did a brilliant job this time…"

"Thanks…" the blonde shinobi smirked and then he retreated into the abandoned house to rest.

To Be Continued…

I'm going to stop here and continue the second exam next time. I think it's for the best if I hold off the second part of the exam and make it a little bit longer than it was in the original fanfic. That whole exam was one chapter long and took place on the first day in the Forest of Death. This time I want Team 7 to be inside the forest longer and be able to have their moments before the preliminaries start.

Azeroth44: Oh man… I wanted to see the Orochimaru battle!

K: SPOILER ALERT, DUDE!

AZ44: Whatever, man. We all know that battle is inevitable.

K: You don't see me letting other people know what you're doing in your Doctor Who fanfic!

AZ44: Don't bother trying to get to me this time, man. I've updated! The chapter was short this time, but I still posted a chapter!

K: You did?

AZ44: Yeah.

K: Well, I'll be damned.

AZ44: Been there.

K: Whatever, dude.

AZ44: WHATEVER?

Ok, I'm going to end this now before Azeroth44 explodes and goes insane like he did in the last version. Be sure to review the chapter if you liked it! As always, it's appreciated! I'll post the next chapter soon! Later!