Hitoshi was sitting next to the blue-haired girl from Ame, Kona. The large man had explained the test adequately, and it had begun. Hitoshi scanned the absolute bullshit on the paper and sighed. He was sitting near the back, with only one row behind him. Hitoshi had quickly discerned that the whole test was surveillance, but he didn't have a jutsu for that. His parents trained him to be a weapon, not a spy.

'There has to be a person with an answer sheet, otherwise, we wouldn't have people to steal info from...' The ginger reasoned, looking around for someone who had a filled-out sheet. Two rows ahead and to his left was a teen who had a filled answer sheet. 'Now how to... Oh. I have such a good idea.'

The ginger snickered slightly. Under the table, he formed the ram handsign. Instantly, the two papers switched places. The teen who had the correct sheet before glanced down at his now-blank sheet in concern. Hitoshi quickly signed his own name at the top and grinned.

"That was quite clever." Kona whispered to him, and Hitoshi glanced at her.

"Thank you?" He questioned, and she smiled. He glanced at her paper, which was filled with answers too. "You did that pretty quickly too."

She blushed in embarrassment. "I-It wasn't too hard. I'm especially good with surveillance."

Hitoshi gave her a reassuring smile. "It's fine. I'm just glad I figured out something. I suck at spying."

She snickered. "So... What do we do now?" Kona questioned.

Hitoshi shrugged. "I don't know. This is my first time taking the exam."

"Mine too." The blue-haired girl nodded. The two sat in silence for a moment before Hitoshi pulled his card deck out of his shuriken pouch. Kona gave him a questioning look. "What's that for?" She asked.

"I was thinking that we could play cards since there isn't much else to do." Hitoshi explained, shuffling the deck. He dealt them each seven cards. "Do you know how to play eight?"

Kona shook her head. "No, I don't think so."

"Oh, it's simple." He assured her. "You can put down cards with the same number or same coat." He showed her the four coats. "Eights are wild cards, and you can change the coat with them."

Kona nodded. "I think I've got it. Do you want to start?"

Hitoshi shrugged. "Sure." He flipped over the top card of the deck, and the two began playing.

They had been going for a while, when the large man announced the forty-five minute mark. "This is the time for the tenth question!" He shouted. "However, you can choose not to answer. If you do choose not to answer, you and your teammates will be failed and will leave. However, if you answer the question incorrectly, you will be banned from the Chuunin Exams."

The room started buzzing with whispers, and a few people raised their hands to opt out. Them and their teams left, leaving quite a few people still in the class. Hitoshi was shocked when Naruto began to raise his hand.

Then the blonde slammed it down onto the table. "Why the fuck are you even asking us this?! We just went through that bullshit test, you think we're gonna stop now?! I'm gonna be Hokage one day, and if I have to be a genin up until then, so fucking be it! The one thing I'm not gonna be is scared!" Naruto shouted, and many other applicants got a determined look in their eyes. Anyone who was willing to back out before suddenly found their spines.

Hitoshi snickered at his teammates exuberant response. "That's Naruto for you. Always the dramatic one." He muttered, grinning.

"You know him?" Kona asked, and Hitoshi nodded.

"Yeah, he's my teammate." Hitoshi told her. He decided not to tell the girl that he was participating alone. That might've given the blue-haired girl the idea to go after him in whatever may lie ahead.

The large man had been talking while they had, telling them that they had all passed the exam. Apparently the last question was a test of will, or whatever. A purple-haired woman burst through the window and a large banner rolled down. It said 'Anko Mitarashi, 2nd Proctor'.

"Aight- Oi, Ibiki!" She turned to the large man. "Why are there so many of them?! I thought you said that you'd do a good job!"

The man sighed. "Shut up, Anko."

"Eh, whatever." The woman shrugged. "By the time I'm done with them, their numbers will be cut down by at least half."

::

It was the next day, and the lady was having them sign safety waivers. A weird grass-nin was sexually harassing Anko, and the woman was understandably put off by it.

"Oi, you better stop." She told the woman. "Keep this up and I'll kick you out of the exam."

"I'm sorry." The woman apologized, not sounding sincere in the least. She had a hiss-like quality to her voice, that made her draw out the 's' sound.

Yahiko, from Amegakure, stepped forward. "She told you to stop." He spoke with conviction, and a very regal tone. He sounded like someone who was used to giving orders.

The grass nin flinched. "What...?" She whispered to herself, gazing at the shorter boy. He was glaring.

"Do you have a problem?" He questioned, crossing his arms. Kona approached him, placing her hand on his shoulder. She whispered something into his ear and he sighed, uncrossing his arms. "Yeah. I know." He gave the grass-nin one last glare, before returning to stand with the disguised Itachi and Kona.

Anko gave the ginger a weird look before shrugging. She went on to explain the rules of the exam, which were fairly simple. You start with one scroll, and you need to collect the other. The grass-nin and Kona's group kept giving each other distasteful looks, and occasionally they sent glances toward the very-confused Hitoshi.

Some chuuni led them to different entrances to this 'Forest of Death' place that the exam was taking place in. Hitoshi had five days to find an Earth scroll. He loitered by the entrance until it opened. The ginger took off into the forest quickly, coasting through the upper branches of the giant trees.

The ginger stalled when he noticed his teammates below him. Hitoshi decided to follow them from above, while also scanning the forest for opponents. They were teammates for a reason, and if they needed backup, Hitoshi wanted to be there.

After about an hour of scouting around, Naruto ran off into the forest to pee. He was quickly mugged by a few nin, one of which turned into Naruto and returned to the other two. Hitoshi was going to warn them, when Sasuke started attacking the fake Naruto. The doppelganger forgot the cut Naruto had received earlier from the creepy grass-nin.

Hitoshi located the bound Naruto and the two other teammates of the copy. The ginger quickly took them out, stealing their scroll in the process. He cut Naruto loose. "Ah, thanks Hitoshi!" Naruto grinned. "Were you watching us this whole time?" The blonde asked.

"Yeah. I wanted to make sure you guys had some hidden backup if you needed it." Hitoshi explained, and Naruto nodded.

"Well come on! We have to go help Sasuke and Sakura!" Naruto grinned.

"Eh, Sasuke guessed it wasn't you. The guy forgot this scratch." Hitoshi pointed at the small wound on the blonde's face.

"To be honest," Naruto laughed sheepishly, "I would have forgotten it too."

Hitoshi chuckled slightly, and the two ran to go join up with the others. Sasuke and Sakura were pleasantly surprised to see Hitoshi. "Good, now we have a better chance here." The black-haired Uchiha grinned. "Which scroll did you get from those guys?" He questioned Hitoshi. The ginger pulled it out.

"Heaven." Hitoshi sighed, and the other three sighed too.

"We have a Heaven scroll too." Sakura groaned.

"Oh well. We might be able to trade it, if we find someone with an extra Earth scroll and no Heavens." The ginger suggested, placing the scroll back into his shuriken pouch. "Not to mention, having an extra scroll might come in handy."

"Fair enough." Sasuke shrugged. "We should keep moving."

The four continued on, heading towards the center of the forest, while also looking for other teams. It was pretty uneventful. Until...