Her--I mean His Biggest Secret [ABANDONED]

Chapter 14: The Forest Of Death--AND UNICORNS AND CUPCAKES AND RAINBOWS!!!

As soon as the first exam ended, the room was shocked by a practically naked, busty woman barging into the room via the window, a huge banner behind her, allowing a hundred shards of glass to fly around the room. Mitarashi Anko quickly counted the number of teams in the room before confronting her colleague. "27 teams, Ibiki? You let 27 teams pass?! The test was too easy this time!"

Ibiki countered, "There are a lot of talented ones this year."

"Bah!" Anko said. "I'll at least cut them by half in the next test!"

Naruto swallowed. "HALF?!"

Anko's attention was pulled towards the blonde, her lips suddenly stretching into a grin. "OH! It's the gaki that embarrassed you, Ibiki!"

The blonde wasn't sure if she should be insulted for the gaki comment, or grin with pride at her achievement. She settled for a thumbs up. "Gaki, you're a genius!" Anko laughed aloud. "I like you already!"

Sasuke rubbed his temple stressfully. "Naruto..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As the remaining shinobi trailed behind Anko to their next destination, Naruto took that opportunity to create a shadow clone. The clone hurriedly lost herself in the crowd and rushed back to the apartment, waiting for orders from the original.

Naruto was familiar with Training Grounds 44. When she was younger, still a student in the Academy, Kyuu would occasionally make her train there against all the wild animals. She knew how to get to where, but she doubted that was all there was to this test. She had her clone on standby for emergencies, so whatever the challenge was, she would have an outsider's help, without it actually being an outsider. It was the perfect loophole, really.

The forest's gigantic trees loomed over them with the shadows of their wide trunks and branching leaves. The wire fences which surrounded the perimeters stood tall at more than ten meters in height, and on nearly every possible entrance to the forest, chains and locks, accompanied by paper signs warning those near to stay out.

"Welcome to the stage for the second test. Training Ground 44. Also known as the Forest of Death."

Naruto leaned closer to her two teammates. "I hear that unicorns and rainbows live in there," she joked, only to get smacked upside the head by the pink haired kunoichi. "Don't joke, Baka!"

"ITAI! SAKURA!"

"Shut up, gakis!"

Anko threw a kunai which barely missed Naruto's cheek. "WHAT THE HELL, LADY?!"

"It's brats like you who usually get killed the quickest!"

Naruto growled at the woman. Just because she was hyperactive, doesn't mean she couldn't be stealthy. It was part of being a shinobi after all. "I'm not even gonna grace her with a comeback," she mumbled to herself. 

Sasuke snorted at the blonde's mostly unheard comment. Anko then explained what the second task entailed. Apparently, they had to take either a Heaven or Earth Scroll from the stands next to the proctor and have a set of both scrolls to bring to the Tower. Rules included not opening the scrolls before reaching the tower, but killing maiming was fair game.

"So long as we don't have to kill Unicorns," Naruto muttered, earning herself a smack upside the head from her pink haired teammate. "Sakura, I swear to Kami. Stop abusing me, you child abuser."

Sakura opened her mouth to retort but saw the look Sasuke was giving her. It basically said: Shut up or I'll gag you. She shut up immediately, but kept glaring at Naruto, thinking that the blonde was consistently in the way of her romance with Sasuke. 

Anko directed all the participants to the booths to sign a permission slip recognising the risks and consequences of the exam, therefore prepared to die in the exam. Naruto swallowed as she signed her paper. "You'll have five days! A final word of advice, don't die!"

Sasuke held their scroll as they approached their designated entrance, gate 12. They got a Heaven scroll. "We need a plan," Sasuke said. 

"Way ahead of you!" Naruto smirked. "When we left the first exam, I made a Kagebushin and it's on standby at my apartment. It's packing us food and supplies in scrolls as we speak."

"That's cheating!" Sakura hissed.

The blonde glared at her. "Sakura, this is life and death! Do you really want to sweat about rules. Besides, technically, this isn't cheating since the exam hasn't officially begun."

Sasuke sighed in relief at Naruto's words. "It's times like this when I'm grateful you're in the team, dobe."

Naruto gaped at Sasuke in shock. Did the Uchiha Sasuke just both show emotion and thank her all at once?! What had the world come to?! "Who are you and what have you done to our teme?!" she gasped dramatically, clutching at her chest. 

"Shut up, dobe."

"There he is!" Naruto grinned. "Oh, here comes the kagebushin." 

The clone jumped from a nearby tree with two scrolls. "I've filled the red with food and pills and the blue with tools, weapons, books, and sealing anchors, boss!"

Naruto smirked as she pocketed both scrolls in her backpack. "Thanks. You're dismissed." The clone disappeared immediately.

We have to be careful, kit. We don't know how skilled these other humans are. Since all three of you are still Genin, you'll be quick targets.

I know that, Kyuu. I'm honestly not too worried about them. It's Gaara that worries me.

That too. We need to make sure the kid shuts up about your gender.

That. Also, if we were to encounter him, I might be able to hold my ground still, since I have you. But he'll easily kill Sasuke and Sakura.

I know. We'll just have to make sure that if we encounter him, we find a way to escape death. 

Well, scary or not, he's still hot.

...No, kit. Just...no. 

Why not? He's scary, but I could be into that...

No. I will not have Shukaku's Jiinchuriki have the upper hand over you.

So it's just your rivalry with Shukaku, eh? And here I thought you actually cared for me.

Shut the hell up, kit. Snap out of it before the Uchiha and pink banshee snap you out of it themselves.

I love you, Kyuu.

......I love you too...unfortunately.

The Jiinchuriki turned to face her two teammates. "You guys ready?"

"As ready as we'll ever be, I suppose," Sasuke muttered. "Considering the fangirl."

Anko's voice declaring the start of the exam echoed throughout the forest. 

"ALRIGHT, LET'S GO FIND US SOME UNICORNS AND RAINBOWS!" 

A/N: Sorry for taking so long with this update. I had a bit of a writer's block. Rest assured, the next few chapters won't take this long to update. I'll probably be updating weekly from now on. Thanks for all your support, I love you guys! Votes and comments are love!