Naruto flexed his arms and tightened his forehead protector. Kiyomi restrained herself from making a mean-spirited observation about how he shouldn't have tightened that headband any further as the blood flow to his brain was already slim as it was. Naruto performed as well as it could have been expected. In a few tough places his role was invaluable even. He would have been an excellent permanent addition to the Team Hokage if only he didn't have his own life and universe to go back to at the end.

The walls of the cube shuffled and let Team Hokage pass. An unexpected breeze of chill, fresh air tickled Kiyomi's nose making the blonde sniffle. The breeze raised the tiny hairs on her back as she was used to the stuffiness of indoors and the last thing she'd have expected to hit was the backyard of the titanic cube building.

"Huh? Are we outside the cube, you know?" Naruto looked around.

"We didn't get eliminated, did we?" Meiko wondered.

"No… This… This doesn't make sense," Kiyomi opened her hand, trying to see the incomplete cube but nothing manifested in her hand whatsoever. At the other end of the fenced-off area, Ibiki spoke to a pair of ninja. A tall and slender woman with violet hair and a tan overcoat and Momoyu Fuma, a jounin that Kiyomi and Meiko had already met once.

"Look there, you know" Naruto pointed at a handful of ninja standing around. There were some familiar faces, some whose names were known to Kiyomi but most of them known from having seen their faces around the general vicinity of one of several exams Team Hokage participated in.

"Those guys are from Kirigakure…" Meiko noticed a trio with Kirigakure headbands comprised of a middle-aged fellow with a relatively buff build and bare chest and a massive axe that resembled a coral-like pattern and texture, a slender giant of an almost extraterrestrial appearance due to his pale and slimy skin, black eyes and razor-sharp teeth and a girl who appeared to be dressed as what could best be described as a militarized idol.

"Those guys…" Naruto pointed at a trio with Konohagakure headbands. "I think I've seen them before somewhere too… Oh yeah! The goatee guy chickened out from the Chuunin Exams that Ibiki oversaw way back, you know!"

"Those are the Three Senka Brothers…" Meiko pointed at a familiar trio of faces. "What's going on here?"

"Huh? Do you three have a problem?" Ibiki turned around and gave Team Hokage a quick examination with his strict and beady eyes.

"What's going on? What about our final challenge? Did we fail? How could we fail if we won the last challenge and then didn't even get to take the last one?" Kiyomi was beginning to freak out, it was very non-leader-like of her to do but she couldn't help it – the prospect of having to wait at least a year until taking another Chuunin Exam somewhere abroad or several, if she wanted to take one home in Konohagakure, freaked her out.

"What are you guys talking about? Everyone here passed the first stage?" Ibiki scratched the back of his head, making his bandana ruffle and move about, exposing ends to some of the rougher-looking parts of his scarred forehead.

"Passed?" the entirety of Team Hokage took a step back in disbelief.

"Yeah? I think you might have miscalculated there somewhere. If you've got eight cubes, you've passed." Ibiki didn't look all too proud of having to explain this to a team that had just, apparently, passed the stage of the exams meant to test a team's mental capacity and wisdom.

"Wait a sec there…" Naruto extended his hand out almost up into Ibiki's face. "There was… Let's see… Ninja karaoke, ninja chess, ninja murder mystery, ninja courtroom rap battle, ninja quiz show, ninja gadget crafting challenge, and ninja spelling bee… That's seven, you know!"

Kiyomi planted her hand all over her face. "I can't believe we forgot…" she mumbled. "We automatically got one cube the moment we entered into the competition so seven challenges were all that we needed…"

"Hmmm… That's right…" Meiko hummed out, putting pieces together in her mind. "When everybody got talking all about eight cube pieces I just sort of fixed somewhere in my mind we'd need to win eight, meaning eight challenges…"

"Is there a problem?" the purple-haired ponytail woman in an overcoat whom Ibiki was talking to earlier approached the trio.

"None, other than these dolts can't count." Ibiki stuffed his hands inside his pockets and turned around, he looked like he was anxious to get out of there as fast as he could.

"In my defense, my head has been a doozy these last couple of challenges…" Kiyomi shrugged.

"Heh, you thought there was one more challenge, didn't you? That's so goddamn hilarious!" the woman started laughing so hard that she had to clutch at her stomach so that she didn't fall over. Almost like he knew it was coming, Naruto swiped his hand at the side, picking up a kunai flung right in between his cheek and that of Meiko's.

"Your tricks are getting old, lady," he stated. "You did the same thing last time, you know."

"Hey, Kiyomi, Meiko, I'm glad to see you've passed. I had a feeling you two would but… Those brain teasers can be deceptively deadly to even the best-prepared teams." Momoyu waved at the pair after approaching, intrigued to see what had made his co-proctor this cracked up.

"Yeah, I'm actually a bit relieved to know they're over…" Kiyomi admitted. "Survival drills and sparring we can do just fine. Ninja chess - not so much… Every challenge felt like we skimmed through by the skin of our teeth."

"Well, all that brain juice shit's all over now. You'll be getting down to some real hardcore stuff now!" the purple-haired woman smiled with a thumb up. She looked quite energetic, like a feminine, more amped up Naruto, in a way. "Plus, I don't know what you're on about, blondie, I've never met you in my entire life."

"This Anko-san might be one from a different point in time than the one you've met, contestant," Momoyu explained as Naruto started bending fingers up and down, trying to make sense of things.

"So what's this next stage gonna be about? Are we free to go now or…" Meiko shrugged and scanned over the quickly filling up backyard.

"What? Hell no! We're going right in this! There won't be no cooldown before the next stage!" Anko shook her head. "We're going in and we're going in hard but it'd be just peachy if the rest of the slowpokes filled this damn place already 'cause we ain't explaining things to 'em twice!"

"Lucky for us, due to the nature of the cube, we will not need to wait too long as all challenges will conclude relatively at a similar time," Momoyu said in a tone that perfectly contrasted Anko's vibrant flares. "Just go and socialize a bit before everyone gets together."

Kiyomi nodded and turned for a free space in the yard, one of few that were already beginning to dwindle as more and more teams emerged from the cubical structure. Naruto looked almost as displeased with having to wait around, even if it was for just a little bit, as he was with the first stage of the exams when he found out it would be all about mental challenges.

"Oh, Naruto-kun and the others have passed, not bad…" a familiar, sleazy voice reached Kiyomi's ears and made the Yamanaka heiress clench her fists and imagine a bloody puddle underneath her that, despite the pointless nature of the action, invited her to keep bashing at it.

However, when Kiyomi turned to confront the four-eyed weasel, the nasty words she meant to say got stuck in her mouth as her eyes fixed on a much younger version of the unpleasant nerd, surrounded by comrades that most definitely weren't Sasuke and Orochimaru.

"You can can it with the fake politeness, Kabuto, I know who you are and who you're working for, you know," Naruto replied to the faux compliments with a relative sense of cool.

"Oh, I see…" Kabuto fixed his glasses. "Well, there's no reason why we have to get all up in each other's throats. We can still act like civilized human beings and congratulate each other on their respective successes."

"Are you gonna back out of the real challenges this time too, you know?" Naruto wondered aloud right after Kabuto finished speaking, just an inch shy from interrupting the young man.

"No, I don't think I will… I have a wonderful opportunity to gather much more intelligence for Orochimaru-sama this way. In addition to this exam not being part of his plans, I can grant him information on not only the present ninja but also ones from the future, not to mention this wonderful power-up that just being in this universe provides and, I suspect, we'll be able to bring back home…" Kabuto's glasses shimmered with a white light that contrasted his rotten smirk.

"Hey, seeing you guys here takes us way back!" a voice that Kiyomi could somewhat recall though couldn't quite pin down came from a cluster of folks on her right.

"You're the asshole that incased Mana in crystal last time!" Meiko took a step towards the weasel of the Guren clan from Iwagakure. "Do you have any idea how much trouble that got us in!?"

"That's all you got from our meeting last time?" Tolkre Guren looked disappointed though, given his nature, all of it was likely just a game to him anyway. "I thought you'd be more focused on you guys helping us get our elimination by sticking two fingers up that freaky beetle-guy's butt."

"You know the Thousand Years of Death?" Naruto looked at Kiyomi who felt heat pulsing through her body in more embarrassed than proud of having anything to do with that technique. "That jutsu pulled me through a few tough spots as well, you know."

"Says a lot more about you, than me…" Kiyomi snapped back feeling attacked from all sides.

"Well, I had hoped we'd be able to form an alliance or something, cause… Seriously, helped us out a whole lot back there, even if it mostly benefited Jekleifer in the end…" Tolkre shrugged. "Though, if you're so obsessed with me encasing your friend in crystal while she had her guard down, as any self-respecting ninja would have…"

"Just scram, you know." Naruto waved his hand at the Guren clansman. Kiyomi was not entirely sure but this sort of animosity only came from unpleasant memories of one's own related to a particular clan so it was more than likely Naruto has had his own fair share of baggage with the Guren clan.

A murky, black blur attracted everyone's attention as Anko took it to a nearby oak and posed atop of a thick branch she had positioned herself onto. It seemed that everyone of any import had already gathered in the backyard. Kiyomi looked around, something fell off about this entire place. There was plenty of hustle and bustle due to the bunch of ninja that have gathered here but there didn't seem to be any of the usual sounds from the outside world coming in: no cackling children, no wayward balls flying over the fence or salesmen making the boisterous pitches for all to hear. Despite being surrounded by other people, Kiyomi had a curious feeling of being inside a ghost town.

"Yo, so all of you nerds have finally gathered, awesome!" Anko smirked. "We can begin the second stage of the exams then… Oh boy, will we be having some fun!"

"Before Anko-san gets overly excited," Momoyu interrupted from the position of using his feet to stick to the bark midway up the tree's surface, "There's something we'd like to emphasize. When we planned the exams out initially, we intended to give you guys a breather. You've just been through some rough challenges and, surprisingly enough, we've heard of cases of injuries even if the first stage was designed to be perfectly safe: we've heard there were cases of migraine, fainting and the like…"

"Did they have to list everything that happened to us specifically?" Kiyomi hissed. "It makes me feel like we're the only ones this has happened to…"

"I hate to be that person but… There's no "us" in it, everything Momoyu-san said happened to you," Meiko pointed out.

"However, once we list to you the rules of the second stage, we are sure you will understand why time is of great importance and why we could not risk letting this stage get pushed back even a few days longer." Momoyu continued before looking up and passing the word back to Anko.

"Alright, now that he's done, you better listen well 'cause this here's a Great Konoha Race!" Anko declared. "Your point is to get from here to the temple inside Forest of Death, located by the northern watchtower. From there, you will extract a white cube from the altar of the temple and bring it back here. The cube will allow you passage into the preliminary stage for the finals."

A tanned young man in an outfit that seemed like he had come from the vast deserts of the Wind Country raised his hand. "I assume time of importance here? Will there be any limit to how many cubes the temple shall provide?"

"None. Take as long as you want, the temple's altar will give you all the cubes you want, you can even take multiples, if you feel like dragging them around with you." Anko shrugged.

"We haven't left the cube." Kiyomi signaled to her team on the mental link. "That's why time is of no concern, that's why this entire place feels like a ghost town – this Konoha is simulated inside the cube."

"Makes sense, I suppose." Meiko seconded. "That's why they're asking us to retrieve another cube and that's why it will give us passage to the preliminaries that will take place inside the cube as well."

"That means we won't get a breather after this challenge again? Man, what hokey exams, you know…" Naruto sighed.

"Indeed, what Anko-san said is true," Momoyu added, "Time is not your main obstacle in this challenge."

"So we can expect our peers to attack us and claim the cubes, if they feel like it?" Minato raised his hand with a question of his own. "Is that going to be the main threat of this challenge?"

"Of course, if you feel like it's a good idea, you can wait around for somebody else to retrieve a cube from the altar and then engage them. That is up to you and your team entirely." Momoyu nodded.

"Though if you little shits bothered to sit tight and listen, because I was just about to get to the good part, you'd have known that there will be another challenge in play – the Hunters." Anko smirked, hoping that the genin would reel back and feel threatened by her enigmatic declaration.

"So one half of us will be hunters and we will have to claim the cubes of our peers by eliminating them?" a raspy voice coming from a young man further in the crowd, one belonging to a pale snake-man with violet face paint though a much younger version of Orochimaru than the one anyone in the Team Hokage had met up to that point.

"Ah! It's young Orochimaru! We need to take him out so that…" Naruto freaked out on the mental link before Kiyomi's soothing mental waves calmed him down.

"For the last time, killing kid Orochimaru won't change anything about your own universe's timeline. Next time you make this mistake, I'm gonna ask you to repeat it a hundred times." Kiyomi thought on the link following her soothing session.

"No," Anko shook her head. Her glare sharpened and her expression turned more serious and sour the moment she laid eyes on the younger version of Orochimaru. Distaste for that fellow must have been unifying feature amongst the Konoha ninja of the universes where the snake-man existed. "All of you will be able to claim the cube from the temple, as many as you want, in fact."

"What Anko-san referred to as hunters are…" Momoyu started to speak before a silver blur rustled up the grass underneath his feet and a lumbering, middle-aged man with a large and rectangular-shaped head, long brown hair and featureless, bland, murky yellow eyes, donning a silver-colored cape over his shoulders appeared in front of the kids. "They're amazing and dangerous ninja from all of your universes and timelines that have been gathered here with the sole purpose of being obstacles in this stage of the exam."

"You know this guy?" Meiko looked at Naruto.

"Yeah," Naruto nodded, "He's ruthless revolutionary that we stopped back in the day with Kakashi-sensei. He tried taking over the Land of Snow once."

"Hmm… So that's what those frightening terrorist guys were doing back then…" Kiyomi noted to herself, recalling the situation of meeting those frightening, high-ranking nukenin back during preparation for the exams. "At least we got an early peek into the guys we'd be meeting…"

A man with brown, curly hair in a Takigakure headband raised his hand with a face soaking in sweat. "Surely you didn't just bring out a bunch of high-ranking rogue ninja to pit them against genin? Some of them are mere children!"

"Of course we weren't about to give these cutthroats and revolutionaries a field day cutting children's throats." Anko flicked her hand through a lock of her hair, looking almost offended this Takigakure ninja accused her of something like that. "Don't you get it? That's why we must have this challenge take place so soon – we've just brought those guys in a couple of days ago, whereas you guys spent almost a month in this universe, some of you even longer. Any weakling from back home would be on those guys' level by just eating an apple in this universe, sure, it will be dangerous still but, if you work together, you might just stand a chance."

"Remember not to get too confident, we did have to feed those guys something during these past couple of days so they've soaked up some extra power too. Still, we've had ample sensory brigades balance this challenge just right. As Anko-san said, it will be dangerous and deaths are still possible. You shouldn't expect these guys pull any punches but, if you're crafty enough, you'll manage to give them the slip and if you work together – you should be able to bring even the mightiest hunter down." Momoyu explained. "Doto-san, that will be all, you can get into position."

Upon being told to disappear, the hunter revolutionary followed orders and blurred away about as promptly as he had appeared.

A fit young man with baggy pants and a white robe hanging on one shoulder raised his hand. His features did seem familiar, Kiyomi recalled seeing this guy at the later stages of the Chuunin Exam though his name did elude her. From what she recalled, the young man had lost his chakra control in the last exams, just like it had once happened to Mana, due to abusing chakra augmentations, for that reason seeing him here felt a bit baffling.

"Excuse me but… How does a team fail, if we can take any time we want and try our luck multiple times?" he wondered.

"If your team gets wiped out or killed – you're out, obviously." Anko snickered before looking back at Momoyu who was sneering at his co-proctor. The woman sighed and decided to give him an alternate route too, "I guess, if you surrender, you're out too."

"We will stay at a remote location with a unit of sensor ninja and track your progress. We will do our best to interject if any dire situations take place or the hunters play dirty but accidents might still happen, you must settle this with your team, if you feel ready for the challenge, that is." Momoyu relayed not only to the young man from Sunagakure asking the question but to the entire cluster of genin participating in the second stage challenge.

"Now, if you're all done holding hands and asking questions, you can begin already!" Anko yelled out and took it back to the ground with hands in her pockets. Looking somewhat disappointed in their collective performance as proctors, Momoyu followed the woman before the two flickered away to their secure observational location.

And just like that, out of nowhere, the second stage of the Intertemporal and Interuniversal Chuunin Exams had begun.