A few birds in a clearing were chirping a harmonious tune as seventy-eight genin stood in the northwestern portion of Konohagakure, right near the inner border around the village. The genin squads of three were all shinobi from different villages, and there had been more squads around at the start of the Chuunin Exams. There was originally seventy-two genin from Konohagakure, thirty from Sunagakure, twenty-one from Amegakure, twelve from Kusagakure, twelve from Takigakure, three from Otogakure, and three from Kumogakure. The exams had started out with one hundred and fifty-three students, and now there were seventy-eight. Almost half of the students had failed just from taking the written test.

However, one of the teams that were still in the running to be Chuunin this year was none other than Squad Seven.

The dynamic trio soon walked up to where they were led by some crazy purple-haired proctor for the next step of the Chuunin Exams. The same lady who literally came crashing through the window and gave herself a grand entrance to announce how she's going to be taking over for the next part of the exams. She was what most people considered a total weirdo, as Naruto might say.

The Tokubetsu Jounin wearing fishnet and a trench coat pumped her fist in the air, earning the attention of the genin before her.

"Alright, you snot-nosed brats, welcome to Training Grounds Forty-Four!" Said the woman who introduced herself as Anko Mitarashi, "Otherwise known as The Forest of Death, one of my favorite spots in this village."

Naruto Uzumaki studied his surroundings, noting the barbed wire fence, the large perimeter, and the shadows darkening the inside of the forest, due to the large population of trees occupying the space.

He was sure he even heard a hissing snake somewhere in there.

"This place gives me the creeps." Naruto stated, feeling uneasy.

"I agree." said Sakura Haruno, who was right beside him along with the self-proclaimed avenger, Sasuke Uchiha.

Anko seemed to have heard them and grinned, "You're about to find out just how creepy this place is. It's called The Forest of Death for a reason."

"YOu'Re aBouT To FiND ouT jUsT How CrEePY ThiS plaCE Is. It'S CaLled thE ForEsT oF DeaTH FOr A reaSOn." Naruto mocked, placing his wrists on his hips, and twisting his body on the tips of his toes childishly, "Nice try, lady! I'm not scared of your little forest, and you trying to scare me is only gonna piss me off! I'm gonna win this thing, trust me!"

Anko cocked her head to the side ever so slightly, her grin growing in size and eeriness.

"Looks like we got someone who thinks his balls are bigger than his head." She said with an overly friendly smile, drawing a sharp kunai from out the sleeve of her trench coat. Then, before Naruto could even blink, the kunai zipped right past his face, slicing him deep enough to draw blood immediately.

Then, before the realization of her tossing a kunai had set in, Naruto felt hands on both of his shoulders, as well as someone's breath tickling his ear.

"Your kind is always the first to die." Said Anko, who was now directly behind him, still holding that creepy smile of hers, "I can't wait to see the forest painted red with your precious, rich, warm blood..."

Naruto shuddered when Anko's tongue glided across his cheek, lapping up his leaking blood. The situation freaked him out so much, he was practically frozen in place.

However, Anko's reflexes suddenly kicked in when she felt a presence behind her. She drew another kunai and almost slit the throat of the individual behind her.

"I was returning your kunai." Said the freaky looking Oto-nin with a straw hat behind Anko, who gave her the kunai she threw with her uncomfortably long tongue.

"Hey, thanks." Said Anko politely, "For the record, standing behind me is a quick way to get killed. So why not back up a few feet, huh?"

"My deepest apologies." Said the stranger woman, "I get excited when I see blood. And I already got revved up when the kunai cut a few strands of my hair."

The mysterious woman with long hair and an even longer tongue slowly backed away.

"Whew, we got some real blood-thirsty participants this year." Anko commented, grinning, "Sucks for those who have to clean up the forest after we're done."

Anko then walked back to where she was and proceeded to explain the details of the second exam. Before Naruto could get over the creepy scenario that just played itself out not ten seconds ago, someone walked up next to him. Someone carrying a very subtle aroma of perfume, "Man, there are some real freaks taking this exam..." Mumbled the stranger.

"Tell me about it!" Naruto agreed. He then turned his head to look at the person beside him, and what he saw made him lose focus of everything around him. It was a girl. And not just any girl, but a very pretty girl. Her first noticeable traits were her long and straight blonde hair that was bound in a ponytail by taut bandages. Her eyes were dark and had a prominent shape to them, something similar to a cat's eyes, but not completely. Her face was heart-shaped, and her voice was high pitched, but not overly so. She wore a short-sleeved black and purple blouse and black pants, both with cloud designs on them. On her hands were purple fingerless gloves, as well as a chain of blue beads wrapped around her left hand. She wore the standard Kumogakure hitai-ate, with normal sandals and a kunai holster, which was strapped to her right thigh. She also seemed to wear bandages around her arms and legs as well as a red belt around her waist.

Naruto was never one to pay much attention to a girl's looks, aside from Sakura, however, he was surely taking note of the beauty that the girl before him was emitting.

"If I'm being honest, you do seem to attract a lot of attention to yourself." Said the girl with a small grin. Her eyes seemed playful, somewhat like a cat's when they find a ball of yarn.

Naruto gave her a big nervous smile, rubbing the back if his head, "Haha, yeah... I tend to do that a lot, actually."

"Seems kind of impractical, considering you're a ninja."

"Being impractical is how I became a ninja!" Responded Naruto with a cheesy grin, pointing at himself with his thumb, "I'm actually one of the best ninjas in my village!"

"Oh, is that so?" She asked with a slight roll of her eyes, still grinning, "You're definitely the loudest. Everyone heard your outburst about wanting to be Hokage when we were in the classroom taking the written exam."

Naruto started chuckling, "What can I say? I guess I'm just really confident!"

"Or you just have a really big mouth."

Naruto deadpanned, while a sweatdrop rolled down the back of his head. The girl then giggled, and Naruto's embarrassment to her teasing was forgotten about immediately when he heard it.

However, a sharp elbow being rammed into his side disrupted any thoughts Naruto had towards wanting to continue the conversation he was having with this girl that was actually being... friendly to him.

"Hey, Knucklehead! Pay attention, she's explaining what's gonna happen once we enter that forest!" Said Sakura in a loud whisper.

Naruto and the girl both blushed and decided to actually pay attention to Anko. Sakura did have a point after all; Anko was giving them important details. But just as Naruto turned his head to look ahead, he was welcomed with dozens of sheets of paper slamming into his left cheekbone, earning light chuckling among the twenty-five other genin squads around him.

"Yo! Jackass! Pay attention and pass these consent forms around!" Anko commanded, shoving the papers in his face.

"Consent forms?" Naruto repeated, taking one form and passing the others to the girl he just met to pass around.

"If you were listening, you'd have heard that you're supposed to read and sign these consent forms before starting this part of the exams. But before you do, allow me to explain what will go down once you enter this forest." Anko then got in Naruto's face, giving him a very eerie smile, "You paying attention now?"

Naruto gulped, "Y-Yes ma'am..."

"Good!" Exclaimed Anko, "Now let me start by describing the topography of this training ground. Training Ground Number Forty-Four is surrounded by this barbed wire fence, containing forty-four entrance gates along the perimeter. Inside, as you can obviously tell, contains a giant forest, filled with rivers, edible and poisonous plants, and animals that you can hunt and be hunted by. Around ten kilometers from the entrance gates lies a tower directly in the center of the training ground."

The Tokubetsu Jounin then grinned, "This training ground is where your exam will take place, where you will be tested on your survival skills. During this test, anything goes. Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, Genjutsu, the use of weapons, deceit, and lethal force are all allowed once you enter these gates."

"You mean... people can die during this exam?" Asked Sakura apprehensively.

"Yuh-huh!" Anko replied entirely way too enthusiastically, "It's basically like a to-the-death version of Capture The Flag." Then, two scrolls, both a white one and a black one, was then drawn out of her pockets, "Or in this case, Capture The Scroll. Your objective is to acquire both of these scrolls and bring them with you to the tower I mentioned earlier that was in the middle of this forest."

"Sounds easy enough." Commented Sasuke, crossing his arms.

"Yeah, if only it were that simple." Anko replied. She then scanned the many genin in front of her, "There are seventy-eight of you left, which is twenty-six teams in total. Ibiki is getting soft, and there are more of you here than I expected there to be. It's unexpected, but I came prepared nonetheless. Thirteen teams will start out with a white heaven scroll, and the other thirteen will have a black earth scroll. And it is up to you to figure out how you and your teammates will obtain whichever other scroll you need from the other competing teams."

"So... in other words, only half of us are actually going to pass." Shikamaru Nara stated with an overly annoyed tone.

"Correct! And if you guys think that it's still easy, just know that you also have a time limit!" She said, holding up five fingers, "Five days; one hundred and twenty hours. That's how much time you all have to complete your objective."

"Five days?!" Exclaimed Ino Yamanaka.

"What are we gonna do for food?!" Demanded Chouji Akimichi, who was right next to Ino.

Anko shrugged, "That's a question you're gonna have to ask yourselves, not me. The forest is full of drinkable streams, edible herbs, and huntable animals that you can access to sustain yourselves. But just keep in mind that the forest is also filled will poisonous plants, deadly insects, and killer animals that will probably shit you out by sundown if they get a hold of you."

Most of the genin in the area all started feeling a lot more anxious; most with fear, few with excitement.

"So by that statistic, there's no chance for even half of us to make it." Stated the blonde girl next to Naruto, "Under those circumstances, we'd be lucky if even a quarter of us make it to the next part..."

Naruto didn't respond. All he knew was that these exams weren't going to be as much of a breeze as he thought it'd be.

"All in all," Anko started concluding, "This will give you a taste of what it'd be like to go out on missions that Chuunin are likely to go out on at any given notice. Not only will everyone except your squad be your enemy, but you will have to battle with exposure, exhaustion, dehydration, starvation, infection, and lingering wounds from a potential fight."

Explaining the rundown of this part of the exams was something that probably brought Anko a bit too much satisfaction. A significant amount of genin were looking as though they might even be second-guessing their choice in becoming a shinobi. And it brought Anko all the more joy to explain even more details.

"In addition to that, there are also a number of ways you and your team can get disqualified." She raised one finger, "The first one obviously is if you die. Duh."

She raised a second finger.

"The second one is if you don't make it to the tower in time, if one of your teammates dies, or if you don't obtain both an earth and heaven scroll by the time you arrive at the tower.

She then raised a third finger.

"The third rule is leaving the forest. Once you go in, you can't leave. There are no breaks or recesses until the five days are up. And if you happen to arrive at the tower and succeed in your goal in less than five days, you cannot leave the tower to help out fellow members of your village."

She then placed her hands back in her trench coat pockets, "And the final rule? You are refrained from opening and looking at the contents of your scroll until you complete your objective."

"Well... what if it happens to open on its own or something?" Naruto reluctantly asked.

"If you want to be the only person to find out, then by all means, do so. But I don't think that's something you'd want to risk for yourself or your teammates after I just told you not to, now is it?" Anko said with another entirely too friendly smile, "If any of you manage to make it to Chuunin level, you will be entrusted with important and confidential documents on missions. This will be your test of trustworthiness."

Anko then let out a small huff, "Alright, that's pretty much all you need to know. Once each squad hands in three signed disclaimer forms, you'll receive either an earth or heaven scroll. When you get one, you will be designated to any one of the forty-four entrance gates around the training ground and you will be signaled to go in once everyone is ready. Are there any questions?"

"Yeah!" A kid in the back said, "What if-?"

"NO MORE QUESTIONS!" Anko then gave her sweetest smile and leaned forward, "Also, just as a final piece of advice... try not to die!"

"Great advice." Sighed the blonde Kumo-nin. She then turned to Naruto, "Well, good luck in there, Naruto. I guess we're going to be enemies once we enter that forest."

"I guess so." Naruto nodded. He then blinked and began to wonder about something, "Wait, how did you know my name?"

"You shouted it in the classroom we took our written exam in, remember?" Yugito said with a chuckle, before turning to walk in the other direction, "Well, I gotta go. Hopefully I won't run into you out there!"

"Wait!" Naruto called out, "What's your name?"

The girl stopped walking and brushed a stray strand of hair out of her face gracefully, turning her head ever so slightly to look at him out the corner of her eyes.

"Yugito. Yugito Nii." She then gave him a wink, "See ya around, Naruto!"

Naruto could only admire her walking form as she walked back to her team. For whatever reason, he had butterflies in his stomach, "Yeah... see ya."

Naruto then gathered around his team and all seventy-eight genin started to hand in the consent forms, each team receiving either an earth scroll or heaven scroll one by one. Squad Seven received a heaven scroll, and Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto all agreed that their primary mission would be to get an earth scroll as soon as humanly possible. They were then instructed to stand in front of an entry point and wait until they were signaled to enter.

Then, before they knew it, they had gotten the signal to begin, with the electric gate lock buzzing, signaling that it was unlocked.

"Alright, guys." Said Sasuke, holding up a fist, "Let's do this! Let's show them that Squad Seven is the best team here!"

"Yeah! It's go time!" Shouted Naruto, bursting through the gates with his friends and teammates, excited for the adventures that lie ahead.