{Later that Night ~ The Senju Estate}

***********************

"Like seriously, I wasn't expecting the first test to determine on one person a team to decide!" I exclaim, while my hands were at work making dinner. "They should've been more specific, but....then again I think I understand the main concept of the test."

Shiro chuckles in response who just came into the kitchen after a shower, finding him wearing a blade turtleneck. Sleeves rolled up to his elbows, and hair slight tousled looking more relaxed.

"Well I was a little taken back too, I never had Ibiki Morino to determine the first test or any test of the matter," he points out, remembering that it was Ibiki's first time running a test for the chunin exams.

"Really, I see.....but you understood your job right?"

He nods while I began pouring the boiling water through a strainer, finishing up with steaming the vegetables.

"Yeah, I noticed how placid you looked," he comments, while I bite my lip nervously. "How did you do it?"

Raising a playful eyebrow, I turn to him.

"That's a secret that I only know," I smirk softly. "Besides, you should know the technique........"

He pouts, while sitting down at our dinner table called the chabudai. He props his elbow upon it, while resting on a pillow seat cross-legged.

"I should, was it a sensory justu...?"

Shaking my head, "It's not a jutsu.......but I could visualise my surroundings," i reply, while placing the meat that I cooked up on a plate. One by one, my eyes trails upon the rice and began serving up dinner. "I actually have never done it before, so....I kind've surprised myself today."

He grins, "I guess it happens when different generations progress,"

Humming in response I finally finished before taking our bowls to the table, setting it before him, along with the chopsticks propped up against a small stand for them.

"Wow, it smells great as usual," he beams brightly, drooling at the sight.

"Well I'm glad, or I won't make any more meals for you," I giggle softly, before nestling down on my knees upon the pillow.

Clasping my hands together slowly, my eyes flutter shut thanking for the meal that was provided. With Shiro doing the same, we both began digging after feeling famished with a lot of brain power today.

"So......tomorrow morning, you're on the next test,"

Nodding in response, "Yeah, that Anko girl.......she's rather.....loud and too abrupt with words," I comment, hearing him chuckle with a mouthful of food.

He swallows thickly, before resuming with a laugh.

"I've never had her before, but she's a character," he comments. "Yet already I find her annoying."

Rolling my eyes while digging into my rice, I fiddle a little.

"No wonder you're still single, when are you gonna get yourself a girlfriend?" I joke softly, when he reaches over and ruffles my snow hair. "Hey....."

He softly smiles.

"It's because I'm always busy, and always on missions than free time," He replies, while I sadden a little knowing it was true. "But.....one day I will find the one, and when the time comes.......you will get a new big sister."

Smiling softly cheering the mood again, I take a mouthful of some meat.

"But what about you.........anyone in particular?" he raises a teasing eyebrow, while I stop mid way while chewing.

"Hmm?"

"A crush.......?"

Swallowing the rest down with a heavy gulp, I sigh deeply. "I'm too young, besides......I have too much going on to find love," I reply softly, yet the thing was I had a more deeper reason why I don't have playful crushes.

I've always felt like I wasn't really girlfriend material, and too be honest I didn't want to take Love lightly.......actually I couldn't understand what love really means....

He seems to notice my change of mood, but quietly remains restrained with his words.

"Alright......I understand, but........no matter what....." he began, meeting my eyes with a warm gaze. "......we're gonna stick together, no matter what....got it?"

The warmth spread within my chest, as I nod discreetly.

"No matter what......"

{Next Morning ~ At 44th battle Training Zone}

******************

We stood before a large forest that was large enough for giants, that was circled with tall barbed wire fencing. The place sent an eery aura all around, hearing the wailing cries of the creatures that lurked within.

"Whoa, w-what's this place?!"

"This is the location for the second phase for the exam, it's the forty fourth battle training zone........" Anko replies, with a wide grin. ".......But we call it, the forest of death."

There grew a chill in the air.

"Forest of death?" Naruto questions, a little intimidated by the name alone.

Not long after Anko addressing the name of the place, a box of cardboard or something began to follow Naruto around. Kiba scoffs a little, before resting an elbow on my shoulder being a little taller than me.

"Forest of death huh?" He questions to himself.

Suddenly I hear three poofs before noticing that beneath the box was the trio, that were only in preschool. Moegi, Konohamaru and Udon. The three began to grow more noisy when really all i wanted was to understand the basic rules, and get on with it. Noticing the indigo haired female getting slightly irritated by the three children, she places her hands on her hips.

"Hey you over there, what are you doing?!" She demands, angrily. "You're holding up the exams!"

Naruto glances back to her, "Uh sorry, but Konohamaru was telling me something about an interview for academy newspaper," Naruto replies.

She gasps in response, but it was more like she never knew.

"Oh yeah, I forgot all about it," She smiles nervously, scratching the back of her neck. "Lord Hokage had mentioned something about them interviewing me!"

"Interviewing you?" Naruto questions, furrowing his eyebrows.

Folding my arms I scoff softly, knowing this is gonna take some time.

"Alright we are taking a ten minute break!" Anko announces. "For those that are scheduled to be interviewed, please be courteous and respectful to the reporters from the academy newspaper."

**********

After a while of waiting, Naruto begins to get a little too proud, boasting about how great of ninja he was.

"So looks like we got ourselves a tough guy?" Anko smirks, amusement leaves her lips.

She whips out a kunai so sharp, it flies right past him only slicing a small cut clean with blood drawing from the sharp intimidation attack. She disappears from her spot, before appearing right behind him with her voice low and demeaning.

Soon a mysterious grass ninja sneaks from behind our proctor, the kunai curled around by her long lizard like tongue. The aura this ninja gave off felt eery and even intimidating, let alone creepy.

"Seems like everyone here today is quite tempered," Anko comments, getting riled up within.

Shifting my weight to my left side, I fold my arms with Kiba standing beside me and Hinata behind me.

"There must be something in the air. This is gonna be fun. Now...." She began, walking back to the fence. "....before begin this test I have something to hand out to you all. It's just a standard consent form. Before the test, all of you are going to have to read over this form and then sign it."

She whips out the consent forms, from her jacket.

"What for?"

"Someone of you may not come back from this test, and I have to get your consent to that risk," She explains, with a light chuckle. "Otherwise it would be my responsibility."

My eyes glance to the forest, then back to her. Does this mean this is life or death? This is insane, but then again......I don't make the rules...

"Now....I'll explain what you all will be doing on this test, here past these out," passing Naruto the forms, as he begins to pass it on. "The first thing you need to know is that this test will test one of your survival skills, first I'll give you all a description of the terrain on the practice field. The forty fourth battle training zone has forty four locked entrance gates, there are rivers and a forest inside. In the centre is a locked tower, located ten kilometres from each gate. It's in this confined area, that you will undergo the survival test. The test consists of.........anything that goes battle to get your hands on these scrolls."

She holds out two scrolls, one black and the other white.

"Both of them?"

"Yeah, you will be fighting to get both a heaven scroll and an earth scroll," she reveals the kanji written upon the scrolls, symbolising the names. "All together, twenty six teams will be taking part of this test. So half of those teams will be going after the heaven scroll, and the other half will be trying to get the earth scroll.........I'll hand over one scroll to each team and that's what you will be vying for."

"Okay, so how do we pass the test?" Sasuke questions.

"Your entire squad must bring broth a heaven and earth scroll to the tower," Anko replies.

"So that must mean that the very half, best half of us will fail," Sakura comments. "More than if not every team is able to get both scrolls."

Our proctor smirks, enjoying the thrill of this test.

"No one ever said it would be easy, oh and one more thing.....the test has a time limit," Anko adds. "You must finish within five days."

"Five days out there?!" Ino exclaims.

"What are we supposed to do for food?!" Choji exclaims, eyes widening in fear.

"Just look around, the forest is full of things to eat," She replies bluntly, already understanding the basic of survival. "There's plenty to feed all of you."

"Yeah but, that's not all the forest has plenty of," Kabuto spoke up, like he knew what's within the gates. "There are man eating beasts and poisonous plants in there."

"Oh man!" Choji whines.

"Quiet down, this is why they call it survival you know," Ino scolds her teammate.

"That means.....with these circumstances, there's no way half the teams will pass the test," someone comments.

"With the days getting longer, the nights are getting shorter," Someone else adds. "So we will have less time to sleep, and less time to recover. It is a challenge indeed!"

"Completely surrounded by enemies, there won't be time to rest," I hear Sasuke comment. "We have to keep a constant watch."

"Right this test also measures endurance beyond enemy lines, this is designed to be a great ruling test and I'm sure some of you won't be up to the challenge," Anko assumes, gathering with some pampered ninja here.

"So um let's say I'm at an exam, can we quit?" Shikamaru questions.

To be honest I wanted to laugh with the comment, but restrain myself even though this is a life and death situation.

"Of course not, in a middle of a battle you don't say sorry I quit," She scolds. "Well I guess you could, but it's probably gonna get you killed. There are also some ways you get disqualified, the first is simple. If all three or four members of a team can't make it to the tower with both scrolls after five days, and number two. If a team loses a member or if a member becomes a capacitated and cannot continue. But most importantly, none of you absolutely none of you may look at the contents of the scrolls until you've reached the tower."

"What if it just happens to flap open, and you read?" Naruto questions.

"Let me put it this way young man, you.don't.want.to.know," She replies, as he groans really eager now to know. "There are times when a ninja will be asked to carry secret documents, the scroll rule is to test your integrity.............Okay we're done. Each team take your consent forms and exchange them over there for your scrolls. After that, each team pick a gate and you'll be lead inside.....and I also have one more word of advice.........just don't die!"

Holding the form in hand, my eyes glance over the information and the consent line I was meant to write on. Finally finalize my decision, I took the pen and began writing down my name and signature.

Passing Hinata the pen, she thanks me quietly before writing her signature down.

"You know......if you can do it, then I can," Hinata says softly, making me feel comforted with her encouraging words.

"Thank you Hinata, we've got this," I assure her when she finishes writing it down.

An arm wraps around my shoulder, seeing the crazy boy himself.

"We can do this girls," he reassures us.

Nodding in response with a smile, I hear Anko talking again.

"Alright everyone, we are gonna start handing out scrolls with each group separate at a time!"

Finally arriving to the small tent nearby we grab a scroll, without the others seeing what we've gotten. With that we start heading off to the gate of our choice, but I notice Hinata looking rather nervous.

"Hinata, you okay?" I ask softly, finally arriving to our gate.

"U-Um.....yeah,"

It didn't seem too convincing, making me sigh quietly.

"Hinata, whatever it is.....everything is gonna be fine," i assure her, patting her shoulder gently.

Her eyes widen, almost glassy in response to our nervous she was.

Folding my arms we begin to wait til it was time to burst through, as everything fell silent. With Shino, Kiba and Hinata I knew we will make it out just fine.

Sudden weight rests against me, before feeling someone's hot breath tickle my ear. "I'm stronger," he smirks.

My hand face palms his entire face, shoving him back.

"Well I have more a brain," I remark quietly.

My eyes drift up to see the gate's number, Sixteen. To be honest if it's how to survival and endure with less sleep and less time to recover, I guess I really practiced. My body can endure for a longer time, but soon as I overworked my body I will soon drop.

The older shinobi that stood near the gate remains emotionless, when soon they began unlocking the chains that wrapped around the gates. The anticipation was getting me riled up, ready for anything to be unfolded within the forest.

"Alright heads up you maggots! The second part of the test has begun!" Anko shouts, as the gates snaps wide open.

Soon my team bursts right through the gates, running through straight to action. Getting some good distance from the entrance, I was glad we had a good sensory team.

After putting ourselves at a good distance, we stop for a moment.

"Okay, first thing we gotta do is to find it," Kiba says. "Are you ready Hinata? Cub?"

Nodding with a look of determination, Hinata nods timidly.

"Yeah,"

"Y-yeah,"

Hinata clasps her hands together, "Byakugan!"

Detecting for the bugs that Shino pointed out earlier, our plan was soon gonna be set in concrete. Soon whipping out a net from my small pouch, getting everything in place.

"Found them," Hinata informs us, quietly.

"Great, and Cub managed to get the trap ready.....now time to look vulnerable," Kiba smirks, clasping his hands together. "And spill out a fake plan in the open."

Soon my head perks up, sensing some ninja's not far.

"I sense them, three 'o' clock," I whisper sharply, as he nods. Once I could tell they were watching from afar, I gave Kiba a few winks to signal his speech.

Kiba clears his throat.

"So the tower is where everyone is gonna be headed in the end, I say we lay a trap near it and just take the scrolls off whoever we catch," Kiba says, but enough for the ninja's to hear from afar.

"That seems pretty risky," I continue, adding on.

"Pfft please, it's the only way to survive!" Kiba laughs, as I smirk knowing the ninja's are taking the bait. Within a few moments, I could hear shrieking and yelling coming from the sneaky ninjas.

Our plan has finally fallen into motion.

The large leeches began to suction upon our enemy, taking them down in a swift motion so clean and looks so unintentional.

"Looks like the leeches worked, they sensed the body temperature in perspiration and then in a group they swoop down on their prey," I comment, smirking lightly. "If they suck your blood for five minutes, it's all over. These predators are smart, we have taken advantage of their instincts to trap our enemies."

Soon my netting trap springs up, gathering them all up in a heap.

"There's one team down," Kiba comments, as we checked if they had one of the scrolls we didn't have. I walk over to rummage through their pouches displayed before us, when my eyes widen seeing an earth scroll.

Taking it, I smirk softly.

"They have it," i say, showing them I pass it to Shino who had a hold on the scrolls.

"Awe yes!!! Kiba smirks.

"Let's get moving,"

"Right,"

************************

Darkness took over the day so fast, we knew that we can be vulnerable. Taking a break after a long time charging through the forest, I stretch my limbs with a groan leaving my lips.

"Let's take a break, Hinata.....you're looking a little over exhausted," Kiba comments, seeing the poor girl looking out of breath.

She shook her head, her flying open.

"I'm f-fine, really!" She exclaims, trying to assure us.

Walking over to her I shove her to the ground gently, making sure she sits down, "Just rest and have some water, we've done enough for now," I assure her, when my eyes keenly flicker over to a certain spot. "Besides.....I will take watch for the night, my body can endure longer than you three."

Kiba scoffs.

"Like hell you will, you're still human," he snaps, a little irritated.

To be honest he was right, my body wasn't like my grandfather. I was only a few generations down, but my body can endure for a while. I'm still trying to endure longer than my usual small battles, so I'm able to take advantage to the enemy.

"Fine, I will watch for the first two hours," I compromise, but he still held a disapproving look. "Kiba......you're not in charge here, none of us are."

Shino holds his hand up, "I thought Kimi was in charge,"

"Shut it Shino, no one asked you," Kiba snaps, not personally towards him but more irritated at me.

Furrowing my eyebrows in annoyance, I flick his nose.

"Say sorry to Shino, he didn't do anything to deserve that tone of yours," I gesture to Shino, who stood there a little unfazed from Kiba's outburst.

His face reddens a little, embarassed how I'm also acting like a mother.

"Why?"

Sighing deeply I fold my arms, "Just do it, we need to build teamwork here,"

Finally he turns to teh silent boy, "Sorry.....Shino, for snapping at you,"

Shino nods, "All is forgiven,"

Finally clearing that up Shino leans against the tree and rests against the base, while I jump high up to the tree to keep watch. Kiba was left down below, with Hinata who timidly talks to him.

Sometimes I hated how Kiba can get a little over the top, and be short-tempered. Yet, he was also the heart of our group, having two non-social people in the group. A fool, but he's our fool.

****

My eyes were straining to realising the lack of sleep I've gotten, realising that Kiba was right. My body felt ragged, less refreshed and uncomfortable. Suddenly I hear a light rustle, only to realise it was just the wind.

Except I jumped, causing me to slap my hand over my mouth.

"Dammit," i whisper, when I find something bright at the corner of my eye. Slowly following the source of light, the moon shone brightly upon us.

The fresh air blows gracefully, giving me a sense of peace.

"Hey,"

My