Chapter 19

Last time

And just as Ibiki finished it suddenly four blurs fly in trough the window, one male and one female, though which was which wasn't entirely certain and just like last time, though now done by each only throwing one, threw out twin kunai with a spanner between them that said….

The spanner said in big letters 'The amazing, single sexy Dendou twins'. with below it in smaller letters 'Buy one, get one for free.'

Naruto slapped his forehead, he just knew that Anko was behind this and apparently Ibiki too though he actually said something," You're early! And what's with the spanner?" before sighing and finishing, "Anko put you up to this right?" Only getting nods from the twins, both of them wearing big smiles, before they turned back towards the genin.

"Okay you runts, stop celebrating and act like goddamn ninja. For Christ's sake!" screamed the sister, " We're the Dendou twins and we'll be the second examiners!" continued the brother.

The two of them then turned towards the class and did a headcount," You left 69 shinobi?" asked the elder sister to Ibiki before the brother continued, "In this case we had a message from Anko: "What the fuck you left 69, you're getting soft!"

The sister continued on hitting Ibiki where it hurts, " It seems the test was too easy for you to pass 23 teams."

To which Ibiki only shrugged and just told them," It's just an exceptionable bunch of brats, besides the more fun for you guys right?"

The two twins smirked and turned back to the , before the brother began again," You're right and by the time we're done with them they'll be cut in half," before the sister continued "at least that is, if they're lucky."

The brother then exclaimed as he jumped out of the window," Let's go runts, I'm getting excited."

The sister then further explained "Anybody who arrives 5 minutes behind us at training ground 44, doesn't need to show up anymore." before she too sped off after her brother.

The genin were first stunned, before quickly getting over it and jumping after them, except of course team 8, Shino had already placed two female bugs onto them.

So as they knew just where the twins would be when they finally stopped, and seeing as they would still be in the surrounding of the villages and so they could jsut shunshin to them in an instance when the twins finally stopped after their merry chase through the village.

So they waited for everybody to leave, until only our trio and Ibiki remained, Naruto picked out the card he stole from Kabuto and threw it at Ibiki who swiftly plucked it out of the air. " You should put a tail on Kabuto, no one should have that much info on me or another jinchuuriki like Gaara, only the Hokage should. Especially since one of those missions isn't even in my file, I suspect Orochimaru seeing as he smells like snake and the only one who would know about Mizuki would be Orochimaru or one of his men." said Naruto, before quickly shunshiing away with the rest of his team towards training ground 44 as the twins had finally stopped there.

Arriving at training ground 44 they were pleasantly surprised to see that they weren't even close to being late. It seemed that the others had only just gotten there so them arriving by shunshin didn't even get noticed as nearly all the other teams landed making a very handy dust cloud.

Coughing slightly from the unexpected arrival in a dust cloud, the trio turned towards the twins who waiting just before the menacing training ground 44. Getting a good idea for a prank that would double as scaring the other teams Naruto asked Kura for a tiny bit of her chakra without the malicious feeling that accompanied it normally.

As all the teams had arrived the twins coughed, getting everyones attention, they started their explanation. "Okay you lot, pay attention cause we're not going to repeat ourselves." started the sister, before the brother continued," Yeah like sis says, pay attention cause we're not going to repeat ourselves…." causing all the teams to sweatdrop. Not paying any attention to the increase in liquid with the teams the sister picked up again.

"So welcome all to the location of the second exam training ground 44 also know as the forest of death." dropping her voice to a low creepy whisper that surprisingly carried over the entire clearing, at the same time a spectre of what one could only call a shinigami appeared above the forest, it's gaze directed at the small groups of genin.

"yep, the forest of deeeatttthhhh!" repeated the brother, trying for it to be even more scary and failing miserably at it, at least it would have been had the figure of death not suddenly started smiling showing it's putrid and very pointy teeth, making everybody gulp a bit.

The sister than continued," Now everybody will momentarily receive a piece of paper. If you want to continue in this next exam you will have to sign it. These are waivers that say quite simply that you know you could be killed and that Konoha nor any of its affiliates aren't responsible but only in more fancy words."

As soon as she said this the shinigami started to retreat back into the forest while seeming to rub its hand gleefully, freaking out the genin even more. However their attention was once more forced back to the twins when they started to thrust the waivers into their hands, seeing as no one except Orochimaru disguised as a genin and team 8 seemed to be paying much attention, seeming to be more focused on the top of the trees.

"Okay, now that everybody has stopped daydreaming about the nice upcoming trip, we'll explain in detail. At the end of our little explanation, each and every one of you will sign these waivers and the one person will collect them per team. That one will then go into the tent over there." began the sister while pointing towards the tent to their right.

The brother than seemingly without even thinking about it, continued on," At the tent you will have to choose a number between 1 and 23, as such you will get the corresponding scroll Inside each scroll you will find either one, two or three stars. These stars are what you will later exchange for one of the scrolls on the other side of this forest, at the gate furthest to the north right here" said the brother pulling out a map.

The sister than once more continued on the duologue that they seemed to be having," You can see that the forest is a nice circle and the gate furthest north is this one" pointing to the aforementioned gate." There you will also have to once more choose a number there between 1 and 23. After that the scroll battle starts. The object of the scroll battle is actually to get one Heaven and one earth scroll. After getting these two scrolls either by getting them trough exchanging your stars or stealing them from other teams you will have to get to the tower that stands in the middle of the forest." Finished the sister, before the brother remembered one final piece of the exam," By the way you've only got 5 days to get the necessary scrolls so I'd hurry up if I were you."

"But what about dinner! Don't even mention breakfast and lunch!" shouted Choji.

'Ahhh choji still thinking with his stomach, the more the things change the more they stay the same thought' Naruto.

" It's a forest, plenty of food inside, but do watch out for the man eating beasts, the poisonous insects and the poisonous plants, wouldn't want anything to happen now would we." replied the sister with a smirk.

The brother then continued," Now that you know what will qualify you, I'll mention the rules that will disqualify you. First of, Not getting to the tower within five days will get you disqualified, if you're still alive some Anbu will come and get you then and lead you back out. "

"Secondly," picked up the sister, "Those who lose a teammate will automatically fail. So your entire team has to survive."

The brother the explained rule number three," Should you or your team for any reason at all, chose to exit the forest before the time is up, you will automatically fail."

"And last but not least. Do not under any circumstance open the scrolls before you complete your mission." finished the sister.

Of course there just had to be an idiot who questioned this," And just what will happen should we not comply with that rule." asked Kankouro.

"We'll let that be a surprise." said the twins together all the while smirking evilly. Before the sister explained,

"As chuunin there will be missions were you are to handle classified information and as said before information is power. But not all information is for your eyes so this will also test your trustworthiness."

"That's it for the explanations, go exchange your 3 waivers for your stars and go to your assigned gate." finished the twins.

"Oh one last thing, HAVE FUÜUNNN!" smirked the twins together again.

Letting Naruto's infamous luck decide they had just waited until everyone else had gone and then just sent Naruto in. Coming out he just held up scroll number 13 and the three went off towards their assigned gate. Luck would have it that their gate had one of the quickest routes towards the tent and their scroll contained four stars thus leaving them only two stars to collect before they could exchange two scrolls and hopefully thus getting them two scrolls, best one of both or even if they have two of the same, they could just wait near the tent and steal another team's scroll. But the same luck would then also have the surrounding gates be filled with enemies that for one reason of the other had it in for them.

Getting to their gate they didn't have to wait long before the signal for the begin of the second part of the exam. Immediately dashing through the open gate the three of them rushed forward and they were making good time until Shino made a sudden signal to make them stop. And luckily Naruto and Hinata did cause not a second after they stopped three spiders the size of small cars dropped were they would have been without the signal.

The trio quickly drew their weapons knowing full well that these gigantic eophrynus spiders didn't give up just because their surprise attacks didn't work. Now if these eophrynus spiders actually had any common sense then they would've known that they should have just run of the moment their surprise attack failed even though they did have an advantage over other arachnids with their plated backsides though this did cost them their use of webbing.

So when the three first attacked Naruto, Hinata and Shino jumped over them trying to take them out quick by cutting up their backside, Shino with his swallow blade, Hinata and her yoyos and Naruto with his scythe, however they were in for a rude awakening.

"Oh come on, seriously gigantic armoured spiders, what's next a T-rex? I thought these things were extinct." Exclaimed Naruto.

"And you are quite correct Naruto, these spiders are normally extinct however you never know in this forest." Replied Shino dryly while once more dodging the spiders and once again hitting his spider with a slash this time aiming for the leg only to have the spider quickly dodge away.

"It seems that while their back is plated, their legs are still vulnerable."

Naruto and Hinata just nodded their heads, Shino had always been good at analysing opponents, now while he was no Shikamaru but he was still the second smartest guy of their class. Though when things go to hell, Naruto still was the go-to guy.

So the dance began, with the spiders not really being able to do nothing but duck, it was only a matter of time. Slash, spider evades , duck to slash, spider evades, slash, duck under leg, slash. Really all the spiders were doing was just giving team 8 a nice warm up.

And so it was no surprise that within the next few minutes that all three spiders were rolling around splurting blood from their missing limbs. It had been quite funny how fast the three had dismembered them and it was even funnier when they all then decided to try and use them as a ball to see who could score the trickiest goal when they returned them to their nets. It goes without saying that Hinata won.

But it seemed that even though they didn't waste much time a quarter of on hour on the fight in total, it was apparently still enough for three Kumo teams to catch up. Not knowing if the three of them were working together or they all just pegged them as weak, they deciding to set a trap. So the three of them just continued on like nothing happened and they weren't aware that they were being followed when they spotted a clearing and jumped through the bushes to get into it. So once they were in the middle of the clearing, the three of them each turned their back to each other and looked straight at the hiding spots of the other three teams.

"You know you should just get out here" started Naruto,

"It's not like we don't know you're out there." Complemented Hinata," we've known since the moment you started following us. So come on out. No use hiding anymore, or do we need to get you to come out." Finished Hinata with a creepy smile.

And just as Hinata finished Shino continued," Oh come now Hinata, you know you want them to let you get them to come out. I'm even curious as to just how you guys are going to do that, the last guy didn't even survive that part." Said Shino still with an equally creepy smile as Hinata.

Now just Hinata's creepy smile would normally unnerve any genin, then add to the fact that an Aburame had the same creepy smile, well you can imagine that within seconds all three teams were out of their hide-hols and each team attacking one of the trio. But let's face it they were clearly idiots for coming out of their hiding places, even if the trio knew where they were they still had the cover of the trees to hide behind. The first team, consisting of one guy and two girls, were more of a samurai team than a shinobi team, the ladies both had an o-katana and simple plated armour on their arms and legs. The guy on the other hand was completely decked in samurai armour and was even carrying an nodachi and an wakizashi though it didn't seem to be used a lot. The most noticeable property though seemed to be the fact that all three had a large scar on their face. One girl from the left ear to the mouth, the other from the right ear to the mouth and the guy from one ear to the other making them look like really freaky and creepy clowns, clowns in armour but still clowns.

The second team consisted of two guys and one girl, specializing in a sort of medium range weapon, a corseque for the girl and halberds for the two guys. They all also had rebreathers hanging around their throats.

The last team consisted out of three guys, all equipped with some form of axe, the obvious leader, with his broad shoulders and bulging muscles was equipped with a double headed battle axe, one of the others one could almost say he was from Indian descant was equipped with a tomahawk and last but not least was an even broader fellow that was clearly of Viking descent had a Bearded Axe, at least that would be what Naruto thought except for the fact that Vikings and Indians had never lived in the Elemental Nations. They all wearing rugs of a different animal on their backs. The leader was equipped with something that looked a lot like bear pelt, the Indian had a wolf pelt and the Viking had some kind of scaly pelt on his back.

Not even slightly nervous about the fact that their ambush failed, the three Kumo teams rushed Team 8. Team responded by simply dodging the clearly strong but slow enemy teams. They weren't even all that coordinated, hell, the Viking nearly cut one of the kunoichi with the o-katanas.

After a brief clash in which our trio just evaded their opponents, the three teams backed off a bit and formed a circle around our trio as they remained in the centre of the clearing their back turned to each other in a triangle formation, just staring at three teams without a care in the world, like they weren't surrounded at all.

"So what do you want?" asked Naruto casually, scanning them, trying to get a read on them.

It was the guy with the scar in samurai armour that seemed to think himself the leader so he answered,

"Well you see we heard this rumour about an unmarked Hyuga, not under the protection of its house. And you see this was just too good an opportunity to simply waste. So now just leave the girl and we'll let you live." Said the axe leader.

Now there are many things you could do and say against Naruto, hell you could probably insult him and he could probably laugh it off but try and threaten one of his precious people or besmirch his parents honour and it'd be nicer to just kill yourself.

So instead of trying to reason with them and let them go, after all they might be companions later on, Naruto slowly took a coin out of his kunai pouch. Hinata and Shino soon mimicking his action.

The three Kumo teams just stood and watched, tensing only to stop and stare as the three Konoha ninja brought out 3 golden coins. They were so lost that they didn't take this chance when the Konoha ninja were all clearly unguarded. But they were brought out of their stupor by Naruto's voice.

" It will all come down to your luck, Heads, you die quickly, tails your death will be long and painful."

"What the fuck do you mean!" screamed one of the Kumo nin, followed quickly by the 'boss' screaming," Like we'll let you," not really knowing why he was so scared, after all they outnumbered them three to one and had them surrounded.

But still Team 8 unsettled him, maybe it was the fact that they were so confident and relaxed while they were surrounded, maybe it was because of the creepy smile on their faces or maybe it was the fact that they had already attacked them once and the three of them had simply brushed of their attacks or maybe it was a combination of all of them, so when Naruto told them he would decide how a coin flip would decide how they would die, he threw caution to the wind and screamed, "Get them!", just as Naruto, Shino and Hinata flipped their coins.

And just like that all three teams charged at the still standing team 8. And just as it began it was over in a flash, with all three Kumo teams having their weapons, slice into, chop onto or pierce their adversaries. Only now that they stood so close to them did that the creepy smiles had morphed into smirks adorning their victims faces, before they all spoke at the same time, "Heads" called Naruto, "Tails" called Hinata in a clearly let down voice, she had to keep hers alive to torture for information it seemed, "Heads" called Shino back in the same monotone voice that the Aburame were known for. And just as that they all poofed into smoke.

However the nightmare wasn't over for the three Kumo teams. Before their minds had even processed that they had been tricked with Kage bunshin all the time, the heard three attacks being whispered, but what made it all the more scary was the fact that they still heard them perfectly. Like it didn't matter if they heard or not, which it didn't.

"First tale: chapter one: Wolfs howl." Was heard by the group of rebreathers using Kumo nin,

At the same time, the second group wearing the samurai armour heard, "Alexander's bow: Wax shot "

And the final group in the east, with their pelts heard " Kuro-shi: Symphony of Light and Dark: Aria of the bloodless night."

Using some weird ass time-space manipulation or just good old timing, all three genins of team 8 finished at the same time which was quite odd seeing as they all started at the same time but clearly had different lengths of attack. After which only pandemonium followed. Suddenly three shots came out of the bushes from one side, followed by both Naruto and Shino bursting into the clearing from opposite sides. However before the trio closest to Shino could react and get ready, he stopped and swung his blade quickly three times striking the earth with the tip of his blade. Then from each of his tips the earth started rupturing going straight towards the pole arm users.

In the meantime both the bolts and Naruto were nearly on their teams. However just before Naruto got to his team he started swinging his scythe in ark before him, making a red energy blade follow just before him, of course the three of them quickly brought forth their axes and cut into the red energy blade that was flying towards them, instead of dodging like the smart person would, just like Naruto hoped.

It took all three of them to guard against the red bladed energy and just as the three of them were able to overpower the red bladed energy attack. Naruto, who was still running towards them, seemed to disappear out of their sight. But it was simply him just hiding behind the red glare of his attack. The first his throat was slid from behind him as Naruto was already passed him, his scythe already around the neck of the first nin, a simple tug slit his throat completely. Following his momentum Naruto spun around and slashed trough the stomach of the second nin. The final nin had seen all this, he had seen Naruto appear out of nowhere in the middle of their group with that scythe already cutting through his buddies throat, only for moments later to see his other partner nearly bisected. And as his brain had processed this, he saw Naruto stand behind him. As he was turning he didn't even seem to notice the fact that his left half went one way and the right one the other.

It was quite clear that they were all cut through cleanly, yet there was no blood coming out of them. The only reasonable explanation being fire chakra searing the cuts instantly but no burn damage could be seen, cause you see Kuro-shi was quite an extra-ordinary blade.

This blade was made for the express purpose of fighting against the swords of the swordsmen of the mist. Added to the ability it was made with it also had the ability to copy and replicate any special effect that were shown by other blades it had battled. Be they one of the seven or not. So seeing as Naruto had already battled and lived after going against Kubikiribōchō. This blade now also had the ability to absorb blood, though for activation chakra was required.

At the same time as Naruto was completing his technique, the three bolt had arrived their targets, now seeing as they were shot towards the guy and the two girl with quite a bit of speed, it would make quite a bit of sense that the girls dodged, seeing as they probably couldn't completely redirect the bolts but the guy, who was trying to stroke his massive ego, just tried to hit the bolt away with his nodachi.

Tried cause the moment the bolt impacted with the sword the bolt seemed to explode and encapsulate both the nodachi and the hand that was holding it. The two girls who had dodged seemed surprised but still very serious as the both looked towards where their respective bolts had landed only to now see a wax column in its place. They then turned towards their team member to see him trying to lift his arm only for it to fail miserably, making the column topple onto him. The girls just looked at their teammate with pity, they were sure they heard his other arm break now he couldn't even use his wakizashi.

However they didn't get time to even try and help their teammate because before they were even well and done sighing they were forced to once more dodge projectiles, each forming wax column after wax column. After only a minute they were completely surrounded by wax columns, before they could try and jump up and be swarmed by kikaichu bugs waiting in ambush, they were promptly knocked onto their asses and unconscious as all the columns began falling onto them.

Back with Shino, it had seemed that although this team was smarter and had actually dodged the initial three strikes that Shino had sent to them over the ground. That they had solely focused on dodging these that traveled on the ground that they missed the fact that Shino was using a swallow blade thus had two blades to use on each blade. And so they were quickly taken out by the three mud balls that fell on them just after dodging them.

Shino just shook his head, maybe he was just too used to Naruto and Hinata's level as these seemed to have been no challenge at all. Oh well, always remember kids, a wolf may huff and puff as much as he wants, he can't blow away a stone house.

As the surviving team was waking back up from lala-land that the collapsing columns had sent them to they were confronted by a still pouting Hinata, an indifferent Shino and a smiling Naruto that was trying to get Hinata to stop pouting. So it was Shino that first spotted the fact that they were awake, quickly pointing it out before Hinata would starting to use her puppy eye jutsu as neither Naruto nor Shino were able to fight it long. But seeing as their captives were waking up well he would just focus her ire on them.

"They're up." Was all he said.

And just as quickly as Hinata could start pouting, she was happy again. "Oh goodie!" she screamed happy again.

She then once more did a one-eighty and suddenly very seriously told them: "Now you're going to tell me exactly what you were going to do with me, on whose orders and just why you went after me." Before once more shifting gear and with a happy voice tell them, " Or I just torture it out of you." Before turning back towards Naruto and once more asking with a pout like she had on before "Are you sure we have to give them the option to not be tortured?" now sounding like a whining child.

Before Naruto told her with a tone that would've made Iruka proud,," Yes, I'm positive besides I think that while the two females clearly come with a fully functioning brain the same could not be said about scar man over there, probably had his brain surgically removed."

"Nuh uh, he probably was almost scalped by that one guy you killed Shino-kun."

"Or he could just simple think that women like scars, and so…"argumented Shino, leaving them to finish the thought.

However before they could start their banter about just what that scar would mean, they were interrupted by one of the two girls." Stop, we'll talk you just don't hurt us." she pleaded. The other girl nodding her head as well. The guy however wiped his head towards them and glared," You traitors, when He hears about this he'll kill you slowly and painfully."

However the girl just looked from him to Hinata who now had an unholy but clearly hopeful gleam in her eyes. Naruto seeing it just sighed and said," Fine, Hinata go play with dumbo here, while we get the intel from these two here. But don't take too long, we are still in this exam so if we stay in one place too long people will find us and then try an ambush again." After which Hinata just smiled serenely before dragging the man, now dubbed 'dumbo', kicking and screaming out of the clearing behind some trees.

Now once Hinata was gone, Naruto just turned back towards the two girl completely ignoring the scream that were coming from the direction in which Hinata had dragged dumbo in. "Okay start talking or I'm calling her back and letting her play with you as well."

And so they quickly spilled their guts, all the while Naruto and Shino ignored the scream that dumbo was making, about how they were a faction that was still loyal to the late sandaime raikage. And how they were ordered to get Hyuuga eyes by their jonin-senseis no matter what, even going as far as to seduce one of those white eyed freaks and just how much they detested them. And how the leader that Naruto had killed had seen their gate number as he walked out of the tent.

After nearly fifteen minutes of a lot more boring details they were finally out of things to say and so Naruto quickly tied them up before knocking them unconscious, and tucking them in a hollow. They might prove useful later on for extra info. Especially if they needed to convince A.

He then called out to Hinata that playtime was over and just at that moment both of them heard one more sound of a foot crushing flesh, a very girly scream and all was quiet. Just as they were about to go see what was keeping her, Hinata daintily walked back into the clearing with a big satisfied smile on her face.

Naruto however frowned at her and asked," Was it really necessary to kill him like that?"

Hinata however just replied," He called my mother a whore." And that really was all that needed to be said.

Now going through all the loot they had taken from the Kumo teams, they quickly found their enemies stars and like always also sealed away all usable weapons including the axe-like , sword-like and spear-like weapons that they had as main weapon. Even if they didn't use it didn't mean that they couldn't use the steel for something else or even gift them to someone after all who knew they might someday turn out to save their lives.

And so leaving the two woman knocked out high up in a tree so that they wouldn't get eaten by the many dangerous beast of the forest, the three of them set off again, now with a total of 12 stars, giving them enough to get a whopping 4 scrolls.

Even with their fight against the spiders and the Kumo teams, they still had plenty of day time to burn, so they quickly took off again. After that it didn't take them very long to get to the tent from the clearing and when they entered they were in for another surprise, as they found out it was Haku who was there to exchange the stars for scrolls.

Apparently she was there wearing her chuunin vest cause while she was already special jonin in skills she just couldn't move up in the ranks until she had done more missions.

And while not completely public knowledge it was known to Hinata and Naruto that all available chuunin were supposed to help in the exams at some point be it judging, helping or setting up the tasks even something as simple as copying all those tests were done by chuunin.

Haku seeing who it was that entered just smiled at them. She knew full well that team 8 wouldn't have any problems whatsoever with this part of the exam or even anything this exam should throw at them, but still with Naruto's luck she knew something would've happened. "Hey Naruto-kun, Aburame-san, Hinata-chan."

Shino showed surprise with a raised eyebrow, not knowing that his two teammates were so close to this chuunin which he now recognized as the one Naruto brought back with him from the Wave mission he had gone alone on.

"Hello Haku-chan, so I take it you are a full-fledged chuunin now?" said and asked Naruto while Hinata returned the greeting as well.

"Almost Naruto-kun, after this exam is over me and the twins will finally be able to be a full- fledged chuunin team."

Naruto smiled at that, "So how are the twins, they seemed to be enjoying themselves?"

"They're quite fun, childish but fun. They're even almost as childish as you Naruto-kun." teased Haku.

Naruto just smiled at that, until he caught the insult in it as well. "Hey I'm not childish!" half screamed Naruto, with a small pout. Making both Hinata and Haku giggle and make even Shino smile a little.

"Alright already, enough with making fun of little old Naruto. We should remember why we're here." making the girls giggle a little before they all turned serious.

"Okay, now how many stars would you like to exchange for scrolls and which number do you want, do take note that scrolls number 15 and 17 are already taken." Said Haku, surprising Naruto who was thinking that they would've been the first ones there.

"Probably Gaara" said Kura over the link, Naruto silently agreed with her.

"Okay then let's get this over with, Hinata favorite number please? Same for you Shino."

"3" said Hinata and "8" was Shino's reply. Naruto nodded and then just dropped the 12 stars and said" Okay so we'll take scroll 3,8, 9 and 13"

Haku seeing the numerous stars, first stared at it with wide eyes before quickly composing herself," You sure about 13 Naruto-kun, it's said to bring bad luck."

Naruto just smirked and nodded.

Lucky for the three of them they had chosen correctly and were now the proud owners of two heaven and earth scrolls, hey they worked for them damnit.

Seeing as it was now nearly evening and they would normally camp out, team 8 decided to stay a little longer and catch up with Haku as well as stay safe during the night seeing as this clearing had been marked as neutral territory.

The following day at the crack of dawn team 8 had already started to make their way to the tower. However they did have to take care as to not run into any traps which other genin had already set. Not that it was very difficult with Shino's bugs detecting the traps, Hinata's Byakugan describing them and Naruto with his expert trap skills, developed over the many pranks, made diffusing or even turning them against their creators easy.

They even managed to get some of the more idiotic genin, cough Ame cough, caught in their own trap, really it was just plain funny seeing someone running away screaming like a little girl after nearly exploding thanks to their own trap or get strung up and made to dangle above a spike pit, especially after Naruto had put a candle net to them that was slowly burning through their rope. Really all they had to do was just blow out the damn candle to get out, instead of screaming their head of.

But even with all their knowledge of the forest, and their experiences there it still took team 8 most of the morning to get to the tower. Though it probably wouldn't have taken so long had Naruto not started laughing each time one of the genin got caught in their own traps.

Entering the tower they came upon a hall with writing on the wall:

'If you lack … seek wisdom, be prepared. If you lack …, run in the fields, seek advantages. '

Naruto and Hinata after reading smirked thinking back to their first time, however snapping out of their funks they both took out their pair of scrolls and threw them to the ground.

Making a small cloud poof out as Iruka appeared with Anko still wrapped around him and they both were clearly not expecting anyone this soon, seeing as how ruffled their clothes were, it might have been best that they hadn't been delayed by even 15 minutes.

Iruka blushed as Anko smirked at them. After regaining from the blushing, Iruka quickly grew wide eyed seeing as it was still only the second day," Wha.. Ho.. whe…" before quickly regained his composure, coughed and turned to the wall behind him to keep team 8 from seeing him blush again.

"If you lack heaven seek wisdom, be prepared. If you lack earth, run in the fields, seek advantages. and if you have both heaven and earth you can succeed in the most dangerous missions. These rules will guide a person's extremes. As I'm sure Shino has already figured it out."

"Oi, I've also figured it out." Shouted Naruto with an upset tone." It means that if you're smart but aren't strong that you should train that strength and that if you're strong but dumb that you need to learn more. And if you have both then all the missions will become easy. Even though now we're just team members as chuunin we might need to lead them as well for that we need both wisdom, strength and knowledge."

Iruka smirked he was really proud of these three especially Naruto, Iruka just nodded," You're right, it seems you've grown up more than I would've liked to believe." Said Iruka before smiling and continuing," you guys make a great team, just don't push yourselves too hard."

Naruto just smiled and grabbed him in a flying tackle hug. Before murmuring, "don't worry Iruka-sensei, I'm strong." However it seemed that Anko had heard him and snorted breaking the moment." Kid, for a genin you're not just strong you're a god, there aren't many genin who can have a fight with a jonin the size of Kafu and live to tell the tale, the fact that you beat him just takes the cake."

Iruka hearing that, turned towards Anko surprised, even though he had heard rumors he hadn't put much stock into them, seeing as they were so ludicrous a genin defeating a jonin like Kafu. And so Iruka was surprised for the third time that day, "WHAT! You mean to tell me that rumor was true?" Anko just nodded.

She and Kurenai had been shocked as well when Naruto came with the news, though they really shouldn't have been after all the kid had pulled off during their time with them.

After Iruka once more regained his composure, he just turned towards team 8 and dryly asked, "any more surprises from you?"

Naruto smirked before taking a thinking pose and seemingly started counting out things in his head while using his fingers. After already having reached the end of his hands just in the first few minutes, Naruto just put on an innocent expression after five minutes and just said," Not really no, but just what do we do while we're here?"

Iruka wasn't fooled by the innocent expression on Naruto's face but knew that everybody deserved their secrets, especially ninja.

"Well there are hot springs here, and enough rooms that I'm sure you could train. Other than that not much really." Said Iruka with a shrug." We weren't really expecting anyone to have to stay here for too long. This is normally a command center in case of war and they didn't really expect anyone to have a lot of free time."

The trio just nodded and with a shrug left to go and explore where they would be staying for the remaining four days.

It had taken nearly the entire day before they concluded that really the only thing they could do was relax and keep up with what little training you could do when the enemy could be right around the corner. One other thing of note was that during day 2 of their 4-day stay (day 3 of the 5) at the tower, Naruto and Hinata weren't seen out of their room and that said room had enough security seals and silencing seals to withstand a byuu attack.

The next day neither Naruto nor Hinata did much though they both did have smiles on their faces that would need surgery to remove.

Yes it had seemed that Kura's birthday had fallen just as the chuunin exams were going on. One of the many reasons just why they hadn't gone to help Team 7 with the Orochimau problem. Another might have been that they knew they couldn't do anything as of yet. Even with all their experience, their bodies just could not compete with the snake sannin.

Another surprise came in the form of a team from Kusa instead of the rain team getting to the tower. Though the sand trio, the sound team and Kabuto's team still arrived and luckily all the other rookies did as well, even team 7 finally arrived on the final day though there was something to be said about their state.

Sakura had once again cut her hair with a kunai but seemed to have missed a few times as well, making it look like she had met a grown up Tora. Though with the Tigers in this forest that might just have happened. Kiba seemed to have gone head to head with a wall and the wall had won. And finally Sasuke was still the broody emo king , everyone knew, though he would occasionally grasp his shoulder plus it looked like he hadn't slept in a few days.

Though unfortunately for team 7, not even a full hour after Team 7 had arrived, they all got a summons to the great hall, it seemed it was time for the preliminaries.

Authors note:

Yes people I'm still alive, though life has been pretty messed up for the last year but now I'm back and though I still don't have a lot of time, I will try and update more quickly instead of waiting another year.

Also though I would have loved to write a lemon, I have found that I quite honestly suck at them and with the new more stringent rules of this site I don't want to risk it. If anyone else wants to write it be my guest. I have also updated chapter 1 to 10, adapted some stuff for the future in which I want my story to go but also made them somewhat better I hope and fixed grammatical errors and such thanks to my beta who unfortunately only beta'ed ch 1 to 10.

If anyone wants to give beta-ing ch 11 to 19 a go let me know.

Next up: preliminary fights.