Time was crucial at this point. Only a few hours remained and they still had to make it to the tower in one piece.

"Where's Naruto?" Sasuke asked, kicking the Oto shinobi one last time, making him whine in pain.

"I'll go get him." Kana volunteered, wanting to help him through all this.

She stalked into the bushes, following Naruto's scent, which led her to the river where the blonde sat. He stared into the water, his feet soaking in the water. Kana walked up to him and sat beside him, crossing her legs.

"Hey, Naruto," She greeted. "How are you holding up."

"I think I'm fine," He replied, then wincing. "But also not fine."

He looked at Kana, his eye was still red.

"And I don't know how to turn this off." He added.

"Just try to not think of it, think of your original eye colour." She suggested. "Are you hungry?"

Naruto placed a hand over his stomach and frowned. "No..."

"Good, then it'll be much easier to control yourself." Kana smiled. "Now shut your eyes and think about your original eye colour; focus on that."

Naruto did what she instructed and soon opened his eyes, revealing a familiar blue.

"You got it in one go!" Kana cheered.

"Yeah..." Naruto chucked.

"Now let's head back, we have an exam to finish." Kana grinned.

Naruto grinned back. "Yeah!"

~~~~~

Naruto and Kana returned to camp and helped everyone get ready to go. Both teams had the scrolls they needed to pass and one extra heaven scroll, and all they had to do was make it to the tower in the next three hours.

"We need to leave now," Azumi called out to the group. "If we run at full speed and take short breaks we should make it in time. If you start to get left behind yell, someone can make a clone and carry them."

"Is everyone ready to go?" Kana asked.

Everyone nodded.

"Great," Azumi said. "Let's go."

~~~~~

They came up with a quick formation to travel in, a triangle that had Naruto in the middle, Kaneki upfront, Kana and Sasuke at the sides, and Haku, Sakura and Azumi bringing up the rear. It was a simple formation that kept front line fighters and people with minor sensing or tracking capabilities at the front to warn the group of danger. The people in the middle were supposed to support the first line of attack and defend the long-range fighters. So far everything was going well, they faced no interruptions and were making excellent time; they'd reach the tower in no time.

"Most of the teams left are probably waiting near the tower to ambush teams making their way to the tower!" Kaneki called back. "I'm just warning you all because there are several scents scattered up ahead!"

"We should avoid them!" Azumi yelled forward. "Worst case scenario we toss the extra scroll at them and move on! We don't have much time! Also, pulse your chakra, someone is trying to catch us in a genjutsu!"

"Aw fuck!" Naruto exclaimed. "I hate genjutsu!"

The genjutsu faded to reveal that they were indeed getting nowhere. The tower was no closer and they were circling a tree.

"I barely noticed," Kana said, her eyes narrowed. "Genjutsu doesn't affect me, but I don't notice it."

"Same." Kaneki said.

"Well where's there's genjutsu there's shinobi, someone had to cast it." Azumi said, slowly drawing her sword.

Everyone followed her example.

"We've noticed your genjutsu, show yourselves!" Sakura yelled, putting on a brave face.

A group of Amegakure genin slipped out of the bushes, facing the group with a smirk.

"Azumi?" One of them scoffed. "What's a loner like you doing with such a big group?"

"Passing the exam." Azumi scoffed back. "You three clearly don't have enough scrolls to pass or you wouldn't attack us."

"Look, we don't have time for this, get the hell out of our way." Kana growled.

Their eyes landed on the girl with white hair, an Ame headband tied around her arm. They flinched when they finally clued into who she was.

"Okami-hime!" They screeched in fear.

Kana rolled her eyes and turned to Azumi, holding out a hand. "Give me the earth scroll."

Azumi scrunched her face up in confusion but placed the scroll in Kana's waiting hand.

"Ame is a small village, and we need to prove that we are strong, the only way to do that is to have more of her genin pass the Chunin Exams." Kana explained, walking towards the frozen genin from her village. "Take this scroll and get your asses to the tower, now!"

Their leader fumbled to catch the scroll and then saluted stiffly, trying to mask how nervous he was.

"Right! Of course! We'll head there now!" He exclaimed. "Come on guys!"

They quickly fled, disappearing into the treeline.

"Are you serious Kana?!" 

Kana turned around, facing her fuming friend with a confused stare. "What's wrong Azumi?"

"I wanted to fight them!" She growled, waving her sword around and making everyone shy away from her.

"You said it yourself, we don't have time." Kana replied, narrowing her eyes. "Now everyone back in line, we have to get moving."

"But-!"

"MOVE!"

Azumi flinched and sheathed her sword, going to the back of their formation. Sakura placed a hand on her shoulder and smiled in what she hoped was a comforting way. They continued their run in silence Kana saying nothing.

~~~~~

"You alright?" Kaneki asked, looking at Kana as they ran.

"I think so," She replied with a sigh. "Was I too hard on Azumi? Was it bad that I yelled?"

"I'm sure she understands, you were just taking control," Kaneki answered. "I think you did fine, and thanks to you we should reach the tower just in time." 

"Really?" Kana asked hopefully, looking up at him.

Kaneki smiled at her and gave her back a quick pat. "Really."

~~~~~

"Finally!" Naruto roared. "We made it!"

"Just in time too," Haku added, looking into the sky, in the general direction of the sun. "It's almost noon."

"So what now?" Sakura asked. "Do we just go inside?"

"I would assume so." Azumi shrugged.

"Then I suppose this is when I say goodbye," Kaneki said. "I wouldn't want to be spotted inside, I am a missing-nin after all."

"When will I see you again?" Kana asked.

"I'll meet up with you soon, I will find you." He replied. "Good luck to all of you."

Kaneki's hands blurred into hand signs and then he vanished, a high pitched static-like noise lingering in the air for a moment.

"Well then," Kana grinned. "What're we waiting for?"

And with that, they stepped inside.

~~~~~

"Just open the scrolls already!" Shrieked Sakura after several minutes of arguing.

Sasuke opened their two scrolls at the same time as Azumi, however, they both quickly dropped the scrolls when they began smoking. Two men appeared, one of the had spikey brown hair tied up in a ponytail, and the other had spikey black hair and bandages across his nose. Both men had green chunin vests and Konohagakure headbands.

"Congratulations!" The man with a ponytail exclaimed. "You six just barely made it!"

"What he said." The other guy added.

"Iruka-sensei?" Naruto said, grinning.

"Everyone else who passed is just through that hallway, head there now, quickly." Iruka smiled, giving Naruto an especially proud smile.

Azumi, Haku and Kana left, leaving team 7 alone to talk more privately, also hoping to get some time to analyze the competition. Kana was first to walk through the dark hallway, with Haku and Azumi right behind her. Several sets of eyes landed on them as they walked in, however, everyone's attention was shifted when Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura walked in.

Remaining teams chatted amongst themselves as they waited for further instructions. Most teams seemed worse for wear, but despite that were in high spirits. Out of the remaining genin, most of them were from Konoha, with two teams from Ame, a team from Oto, a team from Suna, and some shady older Konoha genin.

After waiting for a little while longer, the Third Hokage himself made an appearance, walking into the center of the huge arena-like room. He cleared his throat to speak and everyone leaned forward anticipatingly. 

"I'll say this bluntly," He sighed. "Too many of you passed, so we need to have a preliminary tournament of sorts."

Kana grinned, her hands gravitating to her kodachi without her noticing. Azumi eyed up the other team from Ame, itching for a fight.

"I'm going to kick their asses." Azumi whispered.

Kana pretended she didn't hear her but inwardly was also up for kicking ass. Haku suddenly looked all the more intimidating, his smile more scary than kind.

A/N

Sorry that I haven't updated anything in a while, I've sort of been taking a break. Y'know, kick back, read some fics instead of writing for once. I've been recommended a bunch of books from some followers of mine and so I've been busy binge reading some stuff. On the bright side, that means I'll be reviewing more books so y'all will have a nice long reading list of books for you to check out. Hope your day is wonderful!