Hi! Should be getting ready for a presentation tomorrow, but I found time to do this too! This will be a rather short chapter, but I hope you'll enjoy it nonetheless.

I also must say I've been disappointed by the reviews for last chapter. Only 4 of them. I also noticed quite a few of my reviewers have gone missing. If you have seen any of the following ff reviewers:

Rickp2006

Ironic Ending

NaruSakuHasYou

Full-metal-Sousuke

Razgriz05

Tell them to get off their asses and give me those damn reviews!! Okay, I'm not that upset, but I can't imagine what I've done to make them abandon this story (assuming they have stopped reading). However small it might be, reviewer appreciation time!!

Mrfipp: Oh. Well, it is not. If you don't believe me, Uncle Joe tried it, and now he's DEAD!! I'm glad you enjoyed Anko's appearance. And I'm sorry that you're not too happy about when Deidra and Tobi are appearing. You do make a good point about Tobi when he's not Madara though. I'll think of something!!

Pirogeth: Lee imitated Gai so much, it was inevitable. I couldn't tell if the comment about his team was sarcastic or not, since it's him leading Jackie Chan, Jet Li (okay, so I did some gender-bending with him!) and Tony Jaa. As for the homages of other anime characters, in all honesty, I just went to the toilet, dissected my shit, ran all the way to Orange County to borrow my roommate's shotgun and load it with the words I found, and try to re-glue the letters together, and THAT is how I come up with names!!

Disclaimer: I owned Naruto once. He's a slippery little devil! (Sakura stares at author madly) Get your mind out of the gutter!!

Iori woke up, not feeling too good. "Uh…my neck." She jumped up in panicked realization. "The scrolls!! Who..!" Her mind froze at what happened the other night. "Takeda-kun…no, he couldn't have!!" But no matter how much she played it out in her mind, it kept coming to the same conclusion: Her first love betrayed her. She looked up to the sky, and saw that it was morning. She hesitated. But she knew no matter what she said, her teammates would still blame her. And they would be right too. "I've no choice. If we're to have any hope of recovering the scrolls, I've got to tell them!!" She ran to her teammates, who were still sleeping. "Guys!! Wake up!!" she shouted.

Yuji and Shiguri shot up. "What is it!?" Shiguri said as he reached his kunai.

Iori looked to the ground. "I…I don't know how to tell you this…but I lost the scrolls!"

Shiguri leaped out of his make-shift bed. "Excuse me!?" Shiguri shouted. "I did NOT hear you say 'I lost the scrolls'!"

Iori looked away and said "It's true. Takeda-kun came by, and we talked. Then he said he got both scrolls, and I got excited and said I had both scrolls as well. He seemed amazed that we got them, so I showed him…and then, I guess his teammates knocked me out."

There was a moment of silence between the three. "I can't believe this." Shiguri hissed. He walked over, looking more than pissed, and grabbed Iori by the collar. "Just what the hell were you thinking!? Broadcasting to another team that we've got the scrolls!?"

"I-I thought that since we were from the same village…"

"Like ninety percent of the examinees!? It doesn't matter where we're from, if we got a scroll another team needs, we're targets!! You better have a real reason to go with you giving the scrolls to that asshole!!"

Iori seemed to struggle with an answer, but Yuji cut in. "It's because you liked Takeda. You wanted him to admire you, and you tried your best to impress him. That is correct, yes?"

Iori's eyes widened, and then she hung her head down in shame. "Yes." She whispered.

Yuji sighed. "Well, I hope you've learned from your mistake there, Iori."

Yuji walked away, and Shiguri was just shocked at how easily he let her off the hook. "Watiaminute, Yuji!! You're just going to let it go like that!? We got one more day until time is up!!"

Yuji walked over to his bed, and lifted the leaves. He then pulled at what appeared to be a tarp, and revealed a hole. Yuji reached down…and then held the heaven and earth scrolls in his hand. Shiguri and Iori were just shocked.

"W-Wait!!" Iori screamed, pointing her finger at Yuji. "If you had both scrolls, then what the hell was I guarding!?"

"Forgeries." Yuji stated. "I saw Takeda and his team trailing us. When we finally lost them, I figured they would manage to find us again. And I had a feeling that creep would take advantage of you. So, to insure that our scrolls were not taken, I gave you the ones I made, and hid the real ones away."

Both of his teammates were silent. "But wait." Shiguri said. "If they can't tell the difference between your fakes and the real ones, aren't they going to still make it to the tower?"

"Not necessarily. I left a few lines squiggled on purpose. The average genin isn't likely to spot it, but there's no way a jonin could miss it. And even if they don't spot the difference on the outside, I promise you what is inside is not anything close to the originals!!"

Takeda and his team made it to the tower. "Finally." He grinned. He hated being treated as an equal to the rest of the genin. He had the highest grades and could perform any jutsu perfectly well…but he had to go through the same rules. But after this exam, that would be different. He would be recognized as a great ninja. "Of course, if the others pass, I will still be just the same as them, in their view." And that was precisely why he and his team decimated any chances of the other teams they encountered passing. They of course took the one scroll they needed, but when they found a team with the same scroll as them, they didn't leave them alone…they burned those scrolls as well. "That way, I alone will be truly seen as great." The three walked up the stairs, and went into a room. They were both curious about the parchment on the wall, and when they read it, they realized a few passages were missing.

"Boss, I think they want us to open the scrolls." His male teammate said.

"Shut it!! I know that!!" Takeda yelled. Takeda opened their new heaven scroll first…and turned pale as he screamed. Inside was a photo of Yuji mooning the camera. Below the photo was written "If you stole this scroll, congratulations!! You are as intelligent as my ass!!" Takeda just dropped it, speechless.

Takeda turned to his female partner. "Megumi…how much time do we have left?"

Megumi looked at her watch and shrieked. "20 hours!!" With that announcement, Team 1 headed out.

Naruto got up off the couch and yawned. He knew he was expecting a little much from his team making it the first day. But some genins have managed it before. Like Gaara. Still, looking back, he probably should have just shown up when either all of the teams made it or when the deadline was up. He decided to take a walk around the compound. Soon, he saw Shikamaru looking into the forest. Naruto couldn't be sure, but Shikamaru did not have his usual bored expression. In fact, he seemed kind of sad.

Naruto was about to ask him, but Kiba's voice interrupted him. "Temari's team became chunin last year. Which means she's not coming up, especially since no sand nin registered."

Naruto nodded his head in understanding. Then, Genma came up to Naruto.

"Uzumaki…someone from the medical corps wants to see you."

Naruto was a bit confused, but then his eyes lit up. He practically ran to the room where the preliminaries would start. As a matter of fact, he did run. Instead of just jumping down, he also yelled "Sakura-chan!!"

For once, he didn't make a fool of himself. His new girlfriend was standing right there, giggling at his antics. "How've you been, Naruto?" she asked. Instead of the white uniforms of the other medi-nins, Sakura was wearing her red shirt and semi-skirt.

"I've been okay. And how about you?"

"Same as ever."

Naruto then asked "So, did Ba-chan demote you or something? Usually standard medic-nins are brought to the chunin exams."

Sakura smacked his head with her fist. Though she put less power into it, it still gave him a good bump. "I'm here because I REQUESTED to be." She hissed dangerously. "It's been quiet at the hospital, and most everyone is back from major missions."

Naruto rubbed his head. "I'm sorry, I was only joking." Naruto smiled. Sakura just couldn't stay angry at him when he smiled. Naruto then said "So…it's likely to be a while before any of the teams show up. You want to play cards or something?"

Sakura wrapped her arm around Naruto's. "I'd rather do something." She said in a seductive tone.

"Um, okay." Naruto said. "I guess we could also watch the view. Or do a staring contest. Or…"

Sakura then pulled in him and gave him a kiss. They separated, and she said "Or we could continue where we left off the other week."

Naruto eyes widened in realization. "Where we left off. Yeah. That sounds good." They walked right to the lounge at a brisk pace.

Takeda crawled through the pile of kunai. The boy had several scratches on him, and was exhausted. Their team had finally found another that had the scroll they needed. But their opponents were tough. He finally reached the scroll. "G-Got it."

He nearly collapsed when his male teammate came to pick him up. "Easy there." He said.

Takeda pushed him off. "Don't touch me." The pretty boy hissed. "Let's move!!" Finally, they disappeared.

Team 12 hopped onwards through the woods. Finally, the tower came into view.

"Only ten kilometers." Shiguri mumbled. "It's amazing what such a small forest can hide."

Yuji just said. "We don't have time for that! We've got to make it to the tower…" A shuriken came out of nowhere and grazed Yuji's eye, as well as destroying his glasses. The shock to his concentration caused him to fall below. He managed to throw a wire and save himself from a bad fall. Though his eye was safe, at the moment he couldn't see out of it.

"Yuji!!" his teammates shouted. "Are you all right!?"

Yuji said "I'm alright!!"

A strange voice said "But not for long!" More shuriken came, but Yuji saw these coming and rolled out of the way. His teammates jumped in to join him. Iori and Shiguri both drew their kunai, defending their comrade. Suddenly, the three turned their heads to another noise. Some random rain ninja were flung out of another part of the forest.

Shiguri could faintly see rotating chakra. Three more nin appeared, one of them a young girl with black hair. "That's…" Shiguri said.

"…Hyugga Hanabi." Yuji finished.

Iori faintly remembered them talking about the Hyugga, but other than her unusual eyes, she couldn't see anything special about her. Both teams reacted to each other defensively.

However, both of their attention was turned to the other direction, where some rain nin were pummeled by another 3 genin. "Those are the taijutsu specialists." Hanabi noted. Finally, another team, that included a brown dog, landed in the middle. All the teams pulled out their weapons, fearing they were surrounded by enemies. Hanabi, however, knew better. She activated her byakugan, and looked at every one of them. "We each have a pair of scrolls!" she shouted. "And we're all ninja of Konoha!!" At this point, she had the eyes and ears of every team, despite the shuriken being thrown at them constantly. "What say we all work together?" she asked.

Shiguri stepped forward. "Hmm…" A shuriken flew towards him, but he parried it with his kunai. "Sounds like a plan to me." He said. His teammates came up behind him, and soon the other teams joined them as well.

"Well…" Hanabi said. "Charge!" Every leaf ninja went straight for their opponents.

Yuji launched some wires to ensnare the enemy ninja. However, it did little more than stall them. While Yuji was proficient in shurikenjutsu, good ninjas could easily avoid them, since the shuriken was made as a distraction as opposed to an actual weapon. Soon he was knocked to the ground by one of the enemies.

Before the foreign genin could land a killer blow, he was kicked several feet away by Iori. Iori helped her teammate up, and beat several more foes away. "Yuji…" she said, slightly annoyed. "I know I probably don't have the smarts to be a ninja, but you don't have the muscle for it either. When we get out of this, we're going to have you pump some iron. Then, maybe you can explain some ninja-type strategies to me."

Yuji backed up against Iori, and pulled out a kunai as the enemy nin surrounded them. "In all honesty, I couldn't agree more." Yuji said.

Just when it seemed they were finished, one by one, the enemy was pulled underground. Shiguri came out and uppercutted another. The enemies threw their shuriken once more, but Shiguri seemingly vomited mud, which raised a wall and stopped the weapons. The genin jumped to the top of the wall, and made hand signs. "Doton! Doryu Renda!!" Several dragons made of mud and earth erupted from the earth, and breathed fire on their targets. For the few that broke the line, the dragons crashed into them. Finally Shiguri jumped down to check up on his teammates.

"I-I never knew he was that good." Iori thought.

Shiguri walked over and said "Come on. While the others distract them, we make a break for it."

Just as he passed him by, Yuji grabbed hold of his sleeve. "What did you say!?"

"I said leave'em. Perfect opportunity to."

Yuji narrowed his eyes. "They're leaf ninjas, like us." "And all ninjas are nothing but tools for war." Just as Shiguri got Yuji's hand off, Yuji turned and walked the opposite direction. Shiguri sighed, and followed him.

Hanabi used her gentle fist to disable her opponents. The sparring sessions with her father were beginning to pay off. She could see all around her, and reacted to her opponents attacks just as quickly. Suddenly, shuriken made a bee-line for her. She grinned, and went into rotation. The shuriken were reflected back to their former owners, who fell one by one. Hanabi stopped rotating, with a confident smirk on her face. However, once she stopped completely, vines grew and wrapped around her ankles. "Shit!" She couldn't move. The enemy nin were almost upon her…when suddenly, three of them were hit by arrows. By the time they looked up, a figure with a giant sword cut them down. Uryuu ran to his teammate's side and untied her. "Thanks, Uryuu." She said. More enemies were about to surround them, but a red blur took them all down. Even a sharingan user would've had trouble following Kenshin's movements.

Hige threw a smoke bomb at his opponents. "Genmai! Go!" The brown dog attacked viciously, dragging one opponent towards Hige, who leapt into the air and yelled "Getsuga!!" A tornado blew the one enemy nin away. However, several more shuriken grazed the young Inuzuka.

Just as he was about to collapse, Tsume jumped in and clawed away. He pulled two kunai and brutally made his way through the crowd. One nin snuck up behind him, but the enemy was caught off-guard when a little girl leapt out from behind his jacket and dropped kick the genin. For a little girl of her size, she sure packed power. "Good job, Kagome. Now help that weakling." Kagome ran right over to Hige.

Li fired a rope dart at her opponent, disabling him. Another kunoichi came towards her, but Li leapt out of the way, and landed behind her opponent. She took out her jian, and stabbed the other girl in the leg. Just then, the tree behind her began to fall.

"Crystal!" Chan yelled. Chan was strong, so he was able to support it on his back before she was crushed. Unfortunately for the two of them, more enemy ninja pounced. Crystal managed to hold her own with her weapons, but Chan was in a predicament. He was forced to hold up the tree and fight at the same time. He took some solid hits to the head, but fortunately, no kunai or blade wounds. He was able to fight back by pushing the tree up, and countering with his drunken fist. This went on and on, until finally, he beat away the last attacker, and gently laid the tree down. However, someone ran by and took his scroll! Chan yelled "Shit!! Jaa!!"

As much as Chan hated to admit it, Jaa was better suited for pursuing people. Jaa shouted back "Right!" and took off. He dropped his bones to give him more agility, and told Chan to watch them. He was catching up to the star nin fast.

"Shit!! All right, how about this!!" The star nin made hand signs, and the branches began closing around his pursuer as soon as the star nin passed them. However, Jaa jumped and weaved through the crevices. The star nin panicked, and picked up the pace. Before he could blink, Jaa stood right in front of him. The star nin was rendered speechless, and the next thing he knew, he was sent flying by a powerful round kick. Jaa hopped over to where he was, and took the scroll back.

All of the teams gathered at the center. "Is everyone alright?" Yuji asked. Everyone nodded okay.

"All right then." Hanabi said. "Thank you all for your help. Now, I suggest we all get going. We've only a few hours before the deadline." Everyone nodded, and took to the trees.

As Yuji and Iori caught up, they sensed Shiguri leap behind them. "I thought you left." Yuji said.

"You've got both scrolls, remember?" Shiguri commented back.

Everyone selected a room to enter. Team 12 picked one, and looked around.

"There's nobody here." Iori commented. She then looked up, and noticed the parchment above. "There's words missing there."

"Words missing… That's it! What's inside the scrolls are the missing words!"Shiguri commented. Yuji tossed him the earth scroll, and they read.

"If you lack earth, run through the fields and gain strength. If you lack heaven, turn to the clouds and seek wisdom."

Yuji and Shiguri could only say "WHAT!?"

Suddenly, something erupted from the scrolls. Next thing they knew, a Konoha Chunin appeared before them. He had spikey hair, and a scarf wrapped around his neck. He couldn't be older than 15. "Congratulations." He said. "You made it through the second round."

Yuji thought "He looks familiar. In fact, he looks a lot like the 3rd."

"Who are you?" Shiguri asked.

The Chunin answered "Sarutobi. Sarutobi Konohamaru."

Iori asked "So…are you going to tell us the meaning behind the scrolls, or not?"

Konohamaru's eyes widened. "Oh! Right!" Konohamaru took a moment to clear his throat. " What's written inside the scrolls are essentially pieces of advice. Both of which are things you can improve on. The earth scroll represents strength. The heaven scroll represents knowledge. And if you are lacking in either, it is expected of you to improve upon those if you want to be chunin. The point of the forest of death was for you to experience which qualities you were lacking. While teamwork is by far the most important part of ninjutsu, the fact is there will be situations where you will be on your own. And if you lack strength or smarts, you will die. So, it's all up to you how to improve. As for what would happen if you opened the scrolls while you were still in the forest…" "

We saw a team do that." Yuji said. "You guys could have simply told us 'You're disqualified!'"

Konohamaru scratched the back of his head. "Okay…hehehe…I don't have a very good answer for that honestly. But this was our way of testing you to perform a mission correctly. Anyway, go on ahead to the center. Your sensei will be waiting there. I'm glad I could meet Naruto-ni-chan's team."

The three were confused with his statement, but went on ahead inside.

The lounge wasn't exactly a very private place. That being said, Naruto and Sakura took advantage of the fact that most of the instructors were eagerly awaiting their students. They weren't doing anything taboo at all…just making out. Sakura lay on top of Naruto, looking like she was trying to suck the air out of him. "MMM…" Sakura mumbled. "How much longer do you think, Naruto?"

Naruto checked his watch. "Um, there's two hours left. I don't think they'll make it until the very last minute."

They continued their session for a couple of seconds, when a voice said "You sure about that?" Naruto and Sakura immediately freaked and got off the couch: Team 12 was staring at them with a look that didn't exactly convey surprise. "Well, what do you think sensei?" Yuji asked, grinning.

Naruto clutched his heart and chuckled. "If you made it this far, I'd say excellent." Both were quite embarrassed, but neither one would deny they were a couple. "Anyway, let's go get this show on the road."

All of the genin teams gathered in the main hall. Takeda gave Yuji a nasty glare. Yuji, in turn, bent over and smacked his butt. "Come on, admit it…you LOVED what you saw." Takeda looked like he was about to charge him, but everything stopped when Tsunade appeared.

Naruto didn't think he would ever get used to the sight of her wearing the Hokage hat. "Welcome! And congratulations!! I see we have quite a few of you here…and because of that, this will be the preliminaries! The third stage has nothing to do with teamwork, but individual skills! You will be pitted against each other, one on one. Anyone who looses in the preliminaries is disqualified. A month afterwards, we'll have a tournament, where the victor of one match will face the victor of another."

Shiguri yelled "But wait a minute!! By that logic, only one of us can be chunin!!"

Tsunade grinned "We grade you more on performance than victory. You might still become chunin, even if you loose." Tsunade pointed to Shikamaru. "Shikamaru was the first in his class to become a chunin, and he forfeited his match."

Shikamaru mumbled "Troublesome." while the other genin gave him confused looks.

Tsunade continued "And of course, if we feel none of you have what it takes…you will not be promoted." There was silence. "Now, we will begin the preliminaries as you are. If you feel you are not fit to continue, raise your hand. If only one member of a team wants to withdraw, his teammates will not be affected."

One team raised their hands, and were dismissed. A couple of more individuals…soon, sixteen were left. Team 12, 3, 4, 9, and 1 were to be competing. The only other foreign ninja was one grass nin."This is rare…" Tsunade thought. "The final part of the chunin exam will be made up of members almost entirely of members of our own village." Suddenly, another chunin appeared.

He had flat hair, big glasses, and seemed to have a cold. "Hi. My name is Udon. And I'll be the referee for the preliminaries. Everyone, to the top. Those of you competing will be pitted against one another at random. Best of luck to you all."

Yuji in particular was nervous. He was still in a bit of pain from the last attack. He wasn't sure if he could do it. "No. I will not back down." He thought. "Even if I don't win…I'm going to give it my all." All the genins went up the stairs, eager for their matches to begin…

Next: Let the preliminaries begin!!