Author Note

Hi there and welcome to another chapter of Cursed Eyes.

Last chapter, Naruto and his team managed to finish yet another C-ranked mission, earning themselves quite a reputation amongst the genin teams for larger number of successful missions. On top of that, Naruto had a rather enjoyable and equally profiting encounter with what appeared to be a lost summoning contract for Tigers. Now, it's time for the Chunnin Exams in Konoha and according to Asuma, he believes his team to be ready for it. Let's check it out how the exam goes. Before starting with the chapter, though, I'll answer the reviews from last chapter.

Laz: Normally I don't bother responding reviews that simply criticize my work without at least justify the criticism. According to you, though, tigers are considered offensive animals, thus they couldn't possess abilities other than physical attacks. If you follow the anime, then you saw that the elder toads were able to use genjutsu, as well as varied ninjutsu. Not to mention that the majority of the toads uses weapons, that being sword or a staff. Take for instance, Itachi's crows. They can cast illusions as well. Now, I believe that you're not criticizing my choice for summon or the tiger's abilities, but rather the entire world created by Kishimoto. Have you ever heard of toads being able to spit oil? Can you imagine how amazing it would be, though? We wouldn't need to worry about mass oil production anymore, just preserve the toad species. Imagine the repercussions! Tigers are indeed suited for battles, but that does not mean that the species can't have other abilities like the toads.

Mordread: Yeah, Naruto won't sign the toad contract. Surely, Jiraiya won't like it, but it's not like he will be able to do something about it. Regarding Sage Mode, it isn't necessarily restricted to toads.

Joao Brasileiro: Naruto only shows a fraction of his abilities to his teammates. You forgot that every morning he trains in secret with an Anbu in Kenjutsu and is secretly training his elemental skills in order to merge both fire and earth, into lava. The blond only tells them when something happens right in front of them. He just doesn't start a conversation with anyone saying…'hey guess what I managed to do today.' He trains every day in order to improve his skills. So far, he's never gone all out against an opponent.

Kmaster: I'm indeed aware of the impossibility of two summoning contracts at the same time. Also, I have some ideas planned for Naruto and his new summoning clan.

9TailedFoxBrat: Not only are tigers strong physically, but they also possess abilities in hunting preys such as high speed and sensitive noses. I won't focus much in tracking, though.

Hellfire44: Naruto isn't fixed on killing Itachi, like Sasuke would be if he was alive. He continues to have the dreams, but so far he understands that what Itachi did wasn't against him, but Sasuke.

Kiyoshi Fox: He'll definitely learn the Rasengan, but I'm still undecided as to when.

Whiteicewolf: The knowledge of the Sharingan being implanted in Naruto is considered an S-ranked secret. I won't reveal what I have planned though, at least not before this chapter.

Garuda 1 Talisman: Wow, lots of questions. 1) Yes, the Eagle Anbu will be Naruto's pairing, but it won't happen for a while. 2) I'm still not sure if Naruto will develop the Mangenkyou. I'm still debating whether or not I would have to put him through intense situations or train his eyes like Kakashi did (Still, don't know how the man evolved his, but still). 3) Naruto won't learn other affinities, just fire and earth. The lava training alone will take too much of his life to use it effectively, not to mention the fact that his style will be focused in using fire for offensive and earth for defensive, though sometimes he'll use earth techniques for attacks. 4) Lastly, regarding the Kyuubi, it will be the same as canon. Though he'll be more submissive, since Naruto has the sharingan and can control the fox. He won't use it, though, just when the fox tries something funny. Eventually, though, he'll learn how to use the fox's chakra.

Chupii: Yes, Itsuko will be his pairing. To me, it's only a plus that she is older than him. The reason, though, is personal. I tend to enjoy being around older women. The young ones, at least, the ones I met so far, are too shallow and too annoying for my taste. Naruto will be paired with Itsuko, but only much…much later. Right now, he focuses only in his training and nothing else. His mind is still not set in finding a romantic partner, even less a wife.

Now that the reviews are answered, here is the chapter.

Enjoy!

Chapter 11 – Fateful encounter and Chunnin Exams

Beta: Kyuubi123

It has been two weeks since the team's mission to Snow Country and since then team 10 had yet to participate in a new one. The lack of missions, by itself, wasn't considered a peculiar occurrence as the Hokage usually granted small vacations after a long term mission or a lot of short term ones. A two week holiday, though, was strange. What was even stranger was that Naruto came across the information that the other teams faced the same situation. Because of the lack of assignments, Asuma's team focused their entire time training. They went through different chakra control exercises, taijutsu practices and teamwork assignments. Both Chouji and Ino practiced their family ninjutsu in order to improve their strength and decrease the time needed to use them. Naruto, for his turn, was busy performing elemental control as well as the ocular abilities of his doujutsu. It turned out that the genin focused more in only one aspect of the Sharingan, which was to anticipate the opponent's moves. Skills such as genjutsu casting just by looking and effectively copying ninjutsu weren't considered a priority.

Asuma wasted a great deal of time in convincing Naruto that copying jutsus from his comrades was forbidden.

Naruto admitted to not focusing much on copying other jutsus, since he believed in limiting his ninjutsu usage to fire and earth techniques. That left him with practicing his genjutsu skills. First, he tried casting illusions against his comrades, one by one. When that was possible, he attempted both at the same time. His last test was against a jounin of Asuma's caliber. The last one was proven to be almost impossible, but that was because Asuma was expecting it to happen. Said jounin confided that in the middle of a fight, Naruto would be able to use the illusion against a chunnin for five seconds and finish the fight before the opponent realizes what happened. Aside from team practices, Naruto and his kenjutsu partner were going at it full force every morning. The blond could feel more strength behind his partner's strikes, but he never dared to complain about it. If the blond were to face stronger enemies in the future, he needed to be stronger. He also used his spare time to summon some tora-nins in order to get to know them and even establish strategies alongside them.

Unfortunately, as far as elemental training was concerned, his chosen affinities aren't much suited for collaboration ninjutsus.

Naruto instead practiced physical strikes with the tigers, focusing on their agility. Because of the summoning tattoo, Naruto was able to create a nice attack sequence and summon the desired animal to finish the attack, surprising the enemy. As far as the lava element, Naruto wasn't even close to being able to create it. He practiced elemental manipulation constantly and improved the techniques efficiency, but as far as mixing the elements, he still didn't know how to do it. He knew it would be tough though, hence why he wasn't deterred by the momentary failure. By the end of today's training, Asuma had gathered his genins on the ground and started speaking.

"I want all three of you to know how proud I am of your improvement ever since graduation. The number of successful assignments is testament to that. And because of this, I've decided to place some more faith in you guys by nominating you three to the Chunnin Exams that will happen in Konoha three days from now." The genins immediately smiled at the vote of confidence, but Asuma wasn't finished. "Now, nomination alone is no guarantee for promotion. The exams are tough and in order to pass, you three must help each other at all times. I have confidence, though, that you three will put on quite a show and even if you don't receive the promotion, the exams will provide a great deal of experience."

After speaking, Asuma decided to leave them to their inner musings for a while.

No doubt, he knew that his team had the qualifications for chunnin. He knew Naruto to be skilled, perhaps even more than a regular chunnin He knew the boy so far showed very little of what he was capable of. Ino and Chouji have progressed nicely as well, learning their clan's abilities and increasing their overall skills like agility and chakra control. Asuma was confident that they would go through the exams without much trouble and learn a lot from it. Asuma gave the forms for the genins and dismissed them for the day. Ino and Chouji said their goodbyes promising to meet with Naruto at the academy, where the first part would take place. Both of them wanted to tell their parents about it, immediately. Naruto didn't understand, but thought nothing of it. The only ones he figured would like to know about it were Kakashi and Kasumi. As a sensei, Kakashi already knew that Asuma nominated him and Kasumi was away on a diplomatic mission for the Hyuuga Clan.

Left with little to do, Naruto remained at the training ground, practicing his taijutsu against the wooden posts.

After two hours of constantly beating the wooden posts, Naruto's hands were already feeling numb. He figured it was enough for the day and decided to head home. The boy stopped, however, when he felt a presence watching him from the shadow. Naruto activated his sharingan almost instantly and flinched upon seeing similar pair of red eyes shining in the darkness. His entire body shook at the sight of the man that was responsible for his current situation, Uchiha Itachi. The older Sharingan user did nothing but bind Naruto with a minor genjutsu. However, he was surprised when the blond released the illusion almost immediately. Itachi saw the three tomes on Naruto's eyes and smirked behind his black robe with red clouds. He came to Konoha in order to investigate how the blond was coming along and was surprised to see that Naruto had surpassed his expectations.

"From the look on your face, you know who I am." It wasn't a question, but Naruto felt inclined to respond.

"Uchiha Itachi…what are you doing here?" It was at least reasonable for Naruto to tremble at his presence, considering that as far as everyone was concerned, he was an S-ranked criminal who murdered his entire clan. Itachi recognized, though, that even in his presence, Naruto stood there, instead of fleeing cowardly. He was observing the blond the entire day and was interested in seeing the boy train until exhaustion. Certainly, he feared that Naruto would become arrogant like many from his family became upon awakening the Sharingan. However, there was another reason to Itachi being in Konoha, aside from observing the blond's improvement so far. If Naruto was to defend himself against the enemies, then Itachi needed to see if the blond was truly ready for them. Right now, he could tell that Naruto was the equivalent of a high level chunnin. While impressive, he was nowhere near the level he should be in order to protect himself.

"You could say that I'm here to test your skills. It has come to my knowledge that you received my little brother's Sharingan." He could see that Naruto was ready for an attack. "However, from what I can tell, against the likes of me, or at least those with similar strengths as my own, you have no chance. It's somewhat disappointing, if you ask me as I expected more." The blond was confused, but it was expected. "I'm here to tell you that there is an organization, my organization, that is after the beast that you contain." Naruto's eyes were widened in realization, but yet Itachi continued. "The members are just as strong, if not stronger, than me. And right now, I wouldn't need half my skills to take you."

"What are you talking about? Who is after the Kyuubi and why would you come here just to warn me?"

"As I said before, I'm here to test whether or not you're worthy of facing either me or one of them in battle. Right now, though, you are barely able to face a jounin in battle, let alone an S-ranked shinobi." Itachi activated his Mangenkyou Sharingan and forced a stronger illusion on Naruto, not allowing him to dispel it this time. "I just hope that when the times comes for us to really come after you, that you can put up more of a fight than this." Naruto saw the man vanishing within a mass of crows and returned breathing soon afterward. Looking around, he couldn't feel the man's presence anymore. Naruto could see how small he was compared to this man. And to believe that there were others stronger than Itachi and after him, was quite troubling. Naruto never thought himself to be weak, but Itachi was on an entirely different level. Naruto doubted if his sensei Asuma would be able to go against Itachi.

Suddenly, Naruto felt his body getting tired and in great need of rest.

As he went to his apartment, though, he wondered how it was possible to increase his strength more rapidly. Naruto was so tired that he didn't realize that Itachi was still observing him from afar. The older Uchiha knew the boy to be considerably skilled for his age, but Naruto didn't have the luxury of growing up at a steady pace. Since Itachi couldn't tutor him properly, he needed to at least motivate the boy into seeking improvement always, using fear and the need for survival. Naruto's trials haven't even start yet and Itachi feared that when the time came, the boy wouldn't be able to prepare in time. The older Uchiha hoped that the scroll he left at Naruto's house would suffice for the moment.

===Naruto's house===

Once Naruto went to bed, he saw a small scroll on top of it, presumably signed by his sensei Kakashi. According to the scroll, Kakashi congratulated him for the chunnin exams and gave him a little edge for the exams. Inside the scroll, were the specifics for a jutsu called Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Technique) and how it could be used as training. Naruto's eyes widened instantly as he considered the possibilities of training with this jutsu. The fact that it was considered a Kinjutsu, intrigued the blond a little bit, but he wasn't about to refuse the gift. He would use tomorrow and the next day in order to learn the jutsu and use it for training. Kami knew he had to take every opportunity before him in order to improve. Right now, though, he was only interested in sleeping.

===With Kakashi===

It was already night time when elite jounin Hatake Kakashi decided to leave his house and head to one of Konoha's many training grounds. Certainly, his movements appeared odd, but Kakashi knew not to arouse suspicion. He wasn't wearing his jounin vest for instance, which as far as appearances meant, it could simply mean that he was out to purchase some groceries or even order something for dinner. Kakashi knew his moves to be followed by the Anbu team that was currently patrolling the village at night. Eventually, though, the Anbu following him got fed up and changed course. Kakashi was counting on that, though, as he purposely walked in circles while reading his favorite book in order to show the man that he wasn't up to anything. What the man intended in doing couldn't be traced. It was a mission that the Hokage couldn't trust to just anyone. The elite jounin knew that he couldn't risk getting caught doing what he intended in doing right now. If there was any risk of being discovered, then the elite jounin had received specific orders to simply abandon the mission and resume later when the coast was clear. Now that he had lost his tail, Kakashi resumed his original path towards one of the most hidden training grounds.

It was close to the Forest of Death and simply no one would go there, not even during the day.

As soon as he arrived, the man closed the book and waited for five seconds, before openly saying that the weather was quite chilly tonight. Out of the blue, though, a voice appeared from his left agreeing with Kakashi. The elite jounin saw the same thing as Naruto did earlier.

"It has been a long time since your last report, Itachi. I was beginning to think you had been caught." Kakashi grabbed his book once more so as to hide his mask. He started walking in circles around the training ground as Itachi began speaking.

"Tricking nine S-ranked criminals is certainly no easy feat, Kakashi-sempai. I couldn't risk leaving the place every time I receive private information from the group. I've hidden the scroll at the same spot as usual." Kakashi nodded and was about to leave the training ground, knowing that he had less than two minutes for an Anbu to appear. However, Itachi figured it was high time to let Kakashi know of what happened earlier. "I met Naruto-kun a few hours ago, Kakashi-sempai. It pleases me in knowing that he hasn't become arrogant with the Sharingan." Kakashi stopped suddenly and looked at Itachi's direction. He couldn't ask any more questions from fear of overextending his stay without alerting suspicion. "I performed a small test on him and I have to say Kakashi, he is good, but nowhere near as good as he should be. I gave him the scroll for Kage Bunshin in your behalf. The organization is on the move and it won't take long before they start hunting the bijuus. Naruto needs to be ready for them."

"I'm sure of the merit behind your intentions, Itachi. But it was no doubt risky in exposing yourself to him, considering that he isn't aware of your position. Now, we must end this conversation." The hidden mole nodded and left just as swiftly as he appeared.

===Chunnin Exams===

When the date of the chunnin exams came, Naruto had awakened with a small headache from training so much with the Kage bunshins.

The technique wasn't that hard, since it only required a huge amount of chakra to perform. After mastering it, he summoned quite a few clones and asked them to do nothing but elemental manipulation and chakra control. Naruto had taken what Itachi said to heart and focused everything he had in training. With the clones busy with chakra conditioning, the original was left with physical training regarding both taijutsu and kenjutsu. He even summoned another clone to be his sparring partner, which worked wonders for him. The clone also had the Sharingan, so it turned out to be quite an eye opener for the boy. By doing this, he could see how he fights and the kinds of openings he leaves when fighting. Of course, Tora-sensei was always able to capitalize on them, but he preferred not to pinpoint Naruto's mistakes in front of him, leaving the blond to figure it out which was damn frustrating. When he released the clones, though, the boy passed out immediately, since he had yet to understand what would happen if he did that. After awakening, he understood what needed to be done and repeated the same training on the second day. According to the scroll, he had trained the equivalent of one month in only two days.

He needed to find Kakashi-sensei and thank him for the amazing gift.

After leaving his home, Naruto took less than ten minutes to arrive at the academy only to see a great number of genins from all over the place entering the building.

So far, his team had yet to arrive so he needed to wait. Given his situation, the blond genin figured it would be best to scout the opposition a bit. He could see ninjas from all of the great hidden villages as well as some minor villages like Takigakure, Amegakure and even a team whose insignia Naruto couldn't recognize which consisted of a musical note, it appeared. Obscuring his eyes from the opponents, he briefly activated his sharingan and observed the genins a bit. His eyes eventually landed on a genin from Suna, a redhead male wearing what appeared to be a gourd on his back. Out of all the genins in this place, his chakra capacity was by far the largest and, quite surprisingly, close to Naruto's. The blond narrowed his eyes upon feeling another chakra supply within the boy. He knew where this feeling came from. He learned what demonic chakra was because of sometimes trying to feel his own.

Naruto believed himself to be insane in actually wanting to talk to the beast inside of him.

Kakashi-sensei always advised against talking to the beast, but Naruto believed that in doing so, he could attempt to get access to its vile chakra. Perhaps, with a greater amount of chakra, his techniques' power would increase. Not only that, but eventually he could augment his own strength and speed if he was able to focus the chakra throughout his arms and legs. Of course, his ambition in using the Kyuubi's chakra wasn't shared by those he cherished and he in fact understood why. Both Kakashi and Kasumi were alive when the fox attacked the village and both of them remembered how helpless they were if it weren't for the Yondaime being able to defeat the fox. That being said, it would be his second pet project, next to being able to mix fire and earth techniques and using lava release. Naruto's wonderings were short lived when he saw Ino and Chouji approaching his position.

"Are you guys ready?" Naruto asked, earning confident nods from both his teammates. "Let's go then."

As soon as they entered the building, they found directions towards the Chunnin Exams' location as being held at room number 301. Quickly climbing the stairs, the team saw a commotion on the second floor and what appeared to be two ninjas blocking the room 301. Naruto was immediately on alert, before quickly activating his eyes for a brief moment. He sighed in dismay and ushered his teammates to follow him. Ino and Chouji were not aware of what Naruto saw, but they trusted him to do the right thing. As they walked, though, Ino couldn't help but voice her curiosity since room number 301 was downstairs. As they climbed to the third floor and saw another room with the same number, Naruto turned to Ino and explained.

"We were on the second floor, yet the number of the room downstairs was 301. That number was actually a small genjutsu. The real one was 201. It was probably done in order to test the genins."

Yamanaka Ino nodded at the explanation, but wondered if she wouldn't fall for such a trick as the others apparently did. Since the exams hadn't started yet, her attention was solely focused in walking towards the exam's location. After walking between hallways, Naruto and his team had finally reached the room where the chunnin exam was supposed to be held. However, all three genins were surprised that standing close to the door was none other than their sensei Sarutobi Asuma busy lighting up one of his cigarettes. Asuma was already aware of his team's presence as well as the fact that said genins were looking at him. After placing his lighter back inside his pocket, he inhaled, savoring the addictive aroma of nicotine, enjoying every second of the intoxicating smoke inside his lungs before exhaling it with a long relaxing sigh. He then smirked and turned to his genins.

"Asuma-sensei, what are you doing here?" Ino asked.

"Only to see whether or not all three of you would show up and it turns out you did. If for instance anyone chose not to participate, then the entire team wouldn't be able to." Something about that explanation didn't seem right to the genins. After all, if such a concern existed, then Asuma no doubt could have simply informed them when he mentioned the team's nomination to the exams. Asuma, though, was already expecting his genins to conclude this exact thing, so he answered the unasked question. "These exams are serious business, not some D or even C-ranked mission that we faced so far. A genin needs to be able to choose for him or herself it he or she is effectively ready to face the dangers. A team decision would hinder that personal decision." Naruto knew that the complete answer wasn't necessarily spoken as he saw that Asuma-sensei was looking directly at Ino when he explained his reasons.

Despite the growing number of kunoichi in the world, men couldn't help but underestimate the other sex and Ino didn't need to be that good in observation to catch on what her sensei was saying.

"I understand. That is also to say that without a full-fledged team, the genins cannot participate in the exam." Asuma smiled and nodded at the perceptive Sharingan user. He was beginning to realize that perhaps Kakashi had infused his quick wits into this boy somehow. Not to mention that Naruto's conclusion managed to dissuade Ino from stomping towards her sensei for calling her weak, just because she was a kunoichi. Eventually, the team and their sensei parted ways and the team entered inside the classroom, only to be shocked upon seeing the room packed with genins from all over the elemental nations. Surely, the number must be over three hundred genins. Naruto quickly spotted the genin from Sand and focused a bit of chakra through his eyes in order to memorize the boy's chakra in case they faced each other later on. Naruto wasn't sure if he could beat him, but at least he felt confident in holding his own against high level chunnin shinobi. Ino and Chouji, though, he wasn't sure.

The blond briefly wondered why some of the Iwa teams were looking at him with looks of hatred, but he shrugged it off just as the other teams from the academy arrived. Shikamaru immediately went into conversation with Chouji and Sakura with Ino and Yakumo. Inuzuka Kiba, Aburame Shino and Hyuuga Hinata, team 8, arrived later on, but neither had much proximity to Naruto, so he was left with nothing to do until the exams had started. The Sharingan user wasn't in the least affected by being left out. The only people he could more than comrades and less than friends were his teammates and remotely Shikamaru when he and Chouji asked Naruto to have lunch with them.

Naruto heard a gray haired glass wearing genin suddenly addressing the genins to pipe the conversation down, explaining that the competition this exam is pretty fierce.

From what Naruto was able to gather, this man's name was Kabuto and he said that this was his seventh exam overall. That alone immediately set him on high alert. It didn't take much time observing this Kabuto to see that he wasn't as poorly skilled as he led everyone to believe. His chakra levels weren't to laugh at and his posture indicated how, despite acting nonchalantly in front of the genins, Kabuto was actually very much aware of his surroundings. The blond couldn't figure out what the guy was hiding, so he just created a mental note to watch out for him in case he shows up in the middle of the exams. Naruto wasn't even surprised when three genins carrying that same weird insignia he saw before, attacked Kabuto from behind. He caught the subtleness of Kabuto's actions. Whatever technique the other genin used on Kabuto, the older genin didn't even feel it. The glass breaking was a nice touch, though.

"Do not underestimate the genins from Otogakure."

The genin who attacked Kabuto earlier threatened, who appeared to suffer from a chronic osteoporosis because of his posture. No sooner had he said that, smoke erupted at the front of the classroom before a great number of ninja from Konoha appeared. The all looked pretty much the same wearing gray uniforms. The only exception was the man in front of them who simply added a black trench coat on top of his gray uniform and a black bandanna.

"Okay everyone be seated and let's start the Chunnin Exams." The man waited before everyone chose their seats, before continuing. "In front of you, is the first part of the exam composed of a written test." Ibiki ignored the few murmurs of people complaining and continued. "You will have an hour and a half to complete all the nine answers. These shinobi seated around you will pick up any attempt at cheating and each time you're caught, you'll lose two points. After a total of ten points for cheating, you and your team is automatically disqualified, no matter if only one of your team is caught. You may begin the test at once. You all have one hour and a half. Make the time count." After Ibiki finished explaining, the entire room was filled with paper turning noises, before the genins started reading the questions. Fifteen minutes later, pretty much all the genins in the classroom realized the difficulty of more than half the questions. Naruto, in particular, did and was only able to answer four questions out of the nine in the test. Even those he didn't believe it was completely right. Naruto began to pounder on the test's difficulty.

'Knowledge is an important skill for a chunnin to possess, but it can't be a necessity in the field. Knowledge alone is one thing, but acquiring knowledge, through other means, is another. Perhaps this test didn't involve testing how much a genin knows, but rather how he could acquire the information without getting caught. That proctor did explain that one loses two points every time he or she is caught cheating. If cheating was prohibited, one strike would be enough to be disqualified.' After figuring it out, the blond began scanning the room to see how the others were doing. He could see Neji and Hinata's Byakugan active while looking around, meaning that they were using the doujutsu to get the answers. Shino was looking at a small bug on his finger and Kiba was presumably talking to his dog about something. Both were perhaps using their animals to aid them. Naruto would be damned if he didn't use his own, even if it can't be really be considered as such, doujutsu. He quickly spotted one genin who seemed to be writing the answers and looked at him with the Sharingan active. His hand immediately began to move accordingly as he completed the missing answers. Naruto was about to finish the test when suddenly he felt Ino's technique taking over his body. He expected nothing less of the girl, who must have seen what he did and took the opportunity to memorize the answers. Fifteen minutes later, the boy was back in control of his body and saw Ino from the corner of his eye, now focusing on taking over Chouji's body probably filling out the answers for him.

Throughout the test, Naruto could see many genins leaving the room after being caught for the fifth time cheating. The room at the end was quite empty compared to the beginning of the exam.

When the time was over, Ibiki, the proctor, told everyone to drop their pencils as it was now time for the tenth and final question of the exam.

"Before the final question is given, you all must choose between answering it or quit before. Those who decide to stay must be prepared to get the question right, otherwise you risk losing the chance to do this exams again for the rest of your careers." As soon as he finished talking, he smirked at the terrified looks shown by the majority of the chunnin applicants. Some even complained about the unfairness of said treatment, but Ibiki merely shrugged it off. "I guess you guys are unlucky, then, because I happen to be the proctor this year. In here, everything I say goes. That being said, I repeat. If you want to quit and take the exams another time, you're more than welcome. Should you decide to stay and get the question wrong, then you'll remain a genin for life." The proctor remained his stoic visage as many genins chose the cowardly way out, leaving the room with their teams. The precious few that remained weren't that sure to begin with, Ino in particular. She was half expecting that either Chouji or Naruto got up so that she could attempt the next time, but neither even bothered moving from their chairs. Chouji had his trust in Naruto and the blond just happened to activate his doujutsu briefly to watch Ibiki and realized the man's intentions. He heard about this man from Kakashi, that he runs the Anbu interrogation and torture department and enjoys using psychological warfare on his opponents.

Five minutes later, the proctor saw that those who wanted to leave had left already, leaving only those who decided to risk it.

"This is your last chance to leave without risking your career." When it was clear that no one would leave, Ibiki smirked. "Well for those who decided to stay…you passed." Like stated before, even those who decided to stay weren't very sure of their actions. Ibiki, then, decided to explain his reasons. "A chunnin will sometimes face missions with minimal possibility of survival, not to mention even smaller chances of success. However, he or she can't simply back down from the mission at the first sign of danger. A chunnin must face the situation no matter what the odds are. Those who stayed have proven to be capable in this regard. Now…" Ibiki didn't have much time to explain the rest of the exam when the room window exploded, before a woman entered and extended a sign meant for her introduction. (AN: All of you know what happens, so I won't bother). Mitarashi Anko appeared with an arrogant smile on her face as she counted the number of genins that escaped from Ibiki's little game.

"You're early once again, Anko." The woman sighed sheepishly, before turning to said man.

"Fifty genins, Ibiki? You must be getting soft. No matter, after I'm done with them, the number will at least be cut in half." She even cleared her throat for more emphasis on her next set of words. "ALRIGHT YOU MAGGOTS, BREAK IS OVER, FOLLOW ME TO TRAINING GROUND 44 FOR THE SECOND PART OF THE EXAMS!" Needless to say everyone complied immediately, from fear of the crazy lady. The fact that Anko was playing with a few kunai with her hand, increased the threat level. Ino, though, couldn't help but think little of the woman's choice in clothes, in other words, calling her a slut. The guys, though, were thinking differently.

===Forest of Death===

It took twenty minutes to assemble everyone in front of the forest, before Anko began explaining what the genins have to do now. The special jounin took a minute for the genins to study the heavy forest in front of them, before explaining everything.

"Alright! This, before you, is called training ground number 44 or as we'd like to call it 'The Forest of Death'. A place filled with the most vicious creatures just waiting to devour anyone who believes themselves as tough little bastards. The second phase will consist of a survival mission within these pleasurable woods. Your mission will be to reach a white tower that is located in the middle of the forest. The thing is…in order to receive clearance inside the tower, the team must be in possession of the scrolls I'm holding in my hand, a heaven and earth scroll. Each team will start with one of them and must hunt other teams in order to get the other scroll and reach the tower. You will all have five days to get the other scroll and reach the tower. Remember, though, inside everything goes and when I say everything, I mean specifically killing." Anko finished explaining before seeing the terrified looks on some of the genins. Of course, every exam one genin decides to act like the hero.

"Huh, you doesn't scare me lady, we're going to ace this exam." Kiba said pointing his thumb at himself, never even seeing the sudden kunai that flew towards his face. He had only felt the slight wound on his cheek, before the proctor woman appeared behind him.

"You know, it's tough brats like you that are the first to be killed. This forest is no joke, lots of genin like you thought the same thing and are now dead." Kiba was indeed terrified as the woman intended, before turning to the audience once more. "Each team will grab a scroll and then proceed to one of the gates located around the forest. When you hear the bell, the exam starts and the gates will open. MOVE IT!" The genins complied with the crazy lady once more, before grabbing a scroll and going for the gates. Naruto's team had gotten into position in front of their designated gate already knowing the team that they should avoid, besides obviously the ones from Konoha. Right now, perhaps the team from Suna was the most dangerous one. The other two weren't that much, but the red head genin certainly was. He was a jinchuuriki after all and as such he should be avoided at all costs throughout the exams. Naruto knew for sure that at least one team from Iwagakure would search them out, after seeing how all of the Iwa genins looked at him specially during the first part of the exams. For the life of him, he couldn't figure out what he could possibly have done to infuriate Iwagakure, or anyone from there for that that manner.

He had yet to face one Iwa-nin in battle.

Quickly looking at his team, he smirked once seeing how confident his team was.

As soon as the alarm started, the gates were opened and so it started the second phase of the chunnin exams.

Naruto's team entered the forest with great speed as time was of the essence, not only because of the actual time table, but also because Chouji wasn't very thrilled to be in a forest without food for five days, much to Ino's ire and Naruto's amusement. He indeed expected his teammate to be like this. Chouji's hunger ended up affecting the team dynamics and that was something Naruto could not ignore, hence why he packed more ration bars in order to keep tabs with Chouji's appetite at least until they could reach the tower and have a proper meal. Of course, the Akimichi wasn't too thrilled about eating nothing more than ration bars for five days straight, but he figured it was better than searching throughout the forest for food while being hunted by vicious creatures and other genins as well, in search for their heaven scroll.

After fifteen minutes of travelling, Naruto ushered his teammates to follow him inside a cave, where they could gather without being interrupted.

"Ok, we need a plan here. Mostly, we should avoid that team from Suna, but other than them, we can go against any other team. I believe we can come up with two plans for two situations, offensive and defensive." Naruto started, earning nods from his teammates. "For defensive purposes, I believe I'm most suited to act as support for you two. I can detect the incoming threat and act accordingly. As offensive, I believe that Chouji can start, immobilizing the enemies while you Ino captures one of them with your mind technique. I'll protect your body. I can deal with the rest. Any thoughts?" Ino and Chouji were deep in thought as they at first found it hard for the strategy to work against three opponents at the same time.

"Naruto, we can only bind one enemy at a time, I can't use my mind techniques against two or even three for that manner." Ino said, earning a nod from the blond leader.

"I'm well aware of that, Ino. Capturing one of the opponents will be efficient in order to ruin whatever strategy the enemy is planning, forcing them to change in the middle of the fight. I'm actually counting on the Sharingan to stop their movements before they even consider the next moves with either some well thrown projectiles or even mid to long range ninjutsu. Genjutsu is also a good possibility to use against them, so Chouji can use his partial expansion jutsu and grab two if not three of them and then I can cast an illusion on them all. Either way, I believe it's our best alternative. Since we agreed not to attack any teams from Konoha, it's safe to assume that the enemy won't know about our skills."

After a while, both Ino and Chouji nodded. The Akimichi figured it would be a nice training of his clan abilities. He still had yet to grab Naruto with his jutsu, but others may not be as fast.

"Ok, let's proceed. If we find a team with the earth scroll today, we can proceed to the tower quickly and Chouji may have a nice meal tonight."

At the thought, the Akimichi started drooling with saliva and showed an even more confident smirk on his face.

While travelling, Naruto made good use of his doujutsu in order to spot the faint traces of chakra left by the other teams. His team wasn't meant for tracking, which was considered their only disadvantage compared to other teams like Team 8, which consisted of Kiba, Shino and Hinata. All three of them possessed tracking abilities and could find teams just as easily as escaping from them. It was Naruto's instincts, though, that allowed him to dodge an incoming rain of kunai, before shouting at his teammates to scatter and hide behind the trees. Ino and Chouji responded immediately and Naruto chose a tree closely behind the ones chosen by his teammates. If the enemy decided to attack them first, he would be able to stop it. Quickly summoning two shadow clones, Naruto grabbed his kodashi and blocked what appeared to be a ninjato strike coming from behind. The clones were already dispatched to protect Ino and Chouji.

Naruto saw the Iwa insignia on the girl in front of him. She was slightly taller than him and was quite pretty, even when angered as she appeared to be right now. Despite that, Naruto realized that her strike lacked strength, which allowed him to get the upper hand against her. If she couldn't even land a strike with his back turned, then it was almost impossible for her to get lucky now. Naruto, even without the Sharingan, had both strength and agility in his favor. The kunoichi was on the ground holding her bleeding arm in less than four minutes. Standing in front of her, Naruto could very well see the look of fear on the kunoichis face. It seemed as if he would now kill her without he even showing any killing intent. Something about his appearance must have triggered said fear in her. Ino and Chouji appeared beside him.

"What about the other two?" Naruto asked while staring at the beaten girl in front of him.

"One of them tried attacking Chouji with doton, but your clone managed to stop him before Chouji used his jutsu to beat him until he was unconscious. By the way, it's the first time we've seen clones do that. The other one was also a kunoichi, but Chouji captured her and I used my mind technique to knock her out. Neither of the two had the scroll, but from what I gathered from her mind, this team possess the scroll we need." Naruto smiled and activated his sharingan, before looking at the frightened girl in front of them. Ino and Chouji saw her frightened look for a while before her eyes closed in what appeared to be sleeping. Naruto asked Ino to check her body for the scroll, before finding the scroll they needed. With their mission complete, it was time to finish this assignment as quickly as possible.

Needless to say, Chouji was already imagining the types of food he would get at the tower.

===Inside the Tower===

It took the team a total of an hour to get to the tower. Throughout the trip, as Anko warned beforehand, team 10 had to deal with a great number of creatures, going from giant tigers to spiders. One even almost decapitated Ino, but both Naruto and Chouji saved her. The Akimichi went for her and Naruto attacked the spider with a well-thrown fireball. Because she was so close to Ino, the beast's scream of pain was too much for the girl to bear. Upon arrival at the tower, Ino was still shaking, but was already calming down by staying close to Chouji. After entering the tower, Naruto opened both scrolls and tossed them together on the ground, before Asuma appeared before them.

"Well, I was sure you guys would finish quick, but I didn't expect it so soon." Asuma saw that Ino was shaking and wondered what happened to the girl.

"We got lucky that the first team to attack us actually had the scroll we needed. After dealing with them, we came straight here." Naruto explained, earning a nod followed by a prideful smile.

His team was the first to arrive after all.

"Congratulations all three of you, now why is Ino-chan shaking? Did something happen?" Asuma asked as he approached the little girl, before receiving the answer from Chouji.

"On the way here, we had encountered a group of big spiders. Naruto and I managed to deal with our fair share, but one went after Ino-chan. We managed to save her. She is terrified of them." Asuma nodded in sympathy. While it wasn't common for shinobi to fear animals, Asuma admitted that seeing bugs of that size for the first time could be quite intimidating. Outside of the forest, the biggest spider barely surpassed a man's hand, but the ones found inside the forest surpassed a human's entire body, and quite possibly, an entire house. Unfortunately, Ino would have to deal with this alone as this certainly won't be the last time she encountered said creature. He did meet a couple of ninjas that was never able to overcome the fear of spiders.

"Well, you guys have the rest of the exams to rest and do whatever. Come with me…I will show you where you can rest, take a shower, and in Chouji's case, eat."

His team nodded and followed the bearded jounin as he gave a quick tour of the facilities.

Author Note

And that's it for now.

I, at first, wanted to finish the preliminaries as well, but it would get too long. Next chapter, I'll cover the preliminaries and Naruto's training for the final part.

So, Itachi had finally introduced himself to Naruto and delivered the bomb. According to him, Naruto isn't nearly as powerful as he should have been by now. Thus, he gave Naruto the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, instructing him about the technique and how It can be used to augment his training. Obviously, though, Itachi was assessing the boy without taking the Kyuubi into consideration. Once Naruto learns how to use it, which by the way will happen upon his one month training to the exams, he'll certainly be much stronger. Furthermore, if someone questions why Orochimaru wasn't in the exams to get Naruto, was because he doesn't know that Naruto has the sharingan.

Not to mention the fact that he wouldn't be able to take the boy's body because of the Kyuubi.

See you all next chapter.