(A/N): sorry for the delay everyone! I wrote this a few days ago, but didn't have time to edit until now! This semester's (?) classses are ending in like a week, so everything piled up, sorry.

"W-what? What is this place?" Naruto muttered, gulping in apprehension at the sight before them.
Well. This is going to be hard. (Y/N) gulped as she raised her head to look at the thick mass of huge trees that stretched out before them across the fence.

The proctor, Anko, had quickly guided them all here, to a closed off area in the village, some sort of forest. Except that the trees were huge, incredibly thick, and there were so many gathered in one place that the light barely lit the place. Immediately (Y/N) decided she didn't like it at all.

"This is the site of the second exam, the 44th training field... Also known as the Forest of Death." Anko replied to Naruto's question with a slight smirk, as she stood in front of the whole group of genin.

Naruto blinked, swallowing nervously. "Forest of... death?"

The wind howled, swishing their hair and (Y/N) shivered. Well that's not ominous at all! She sighed, as she stood beside Naruto. Yeah, this will surely be tons of fun, she thought sarcastically.

Sakura shivered behind her, clenching her hands. "There's something kind of creepy about this place..."

Anko laughed with a smirk. "This place is called the Forest of Death, you'll soon realize why."

Naruto huffed, "The Forest of Death, you'll soon realize why." He mocked, posing and everything. "That kind of threat won't work on me one bit! I'm not scared!"

Anko looked at him and smiled, "Really?" You've got alot of energy."

In the next second, she had thrown a kunai that whizzed past Naruto and (Y/N), striking the ground. The kunai blade had barely grazed his cheek, but blood seeped from the small slash.
Anko was behind him in a second, hacing distracted him.
"Kids like you die at the very beginning..." Anko said with a smile, as she grabbed Naruto's face and raisnig a finger to his wound. "Dappled with the red blood I like."

(Y/N) was beside Naruto in the next moment, dragging him behind her, just as the weirdest dude she had ever seen had gotten behind the proctor. Anko barely had noticed in time to take out another kunai to defend herself with, having sensed danger.
It was the grass ninja that smelled like death since the start of the Exam, holding out the proctor's kunai with his ridiculously long tongue.

"I'm returning... your kunai."

Anko smiled fakely, "Thank you for taking the trouble."

The tension between them rose and (Y/N) scrunched up her nose at the strong smell coming off of the man. Her hand unconsciously rested on the kunai pouch as she glared at the strange person.

"But don't stand behind me, thirsty for blood." Anko said sharply with a smile. "If you don't want a quick death."
Anko grabbed her kunai back, and the dude (well,  (Y/N) thought it was a dude) retracted his tongue. "Well, it's my nature to act up at the sight of red blood." The dude said, lips curling into a sinister smile. "And my precious hair was cut, so I got excited..."

Lips stretched into a sinister smile, as he slightly stepped back, (Y/N) shivered. I could have sworn that guy just looked straight at my mark.

"I'm sorry..." The strange dude (?) called out, as they walked back to their spot.

(Y/N) panted a bit, having been affected by the exchange and dragging Naruto away before she even knew she was doing it. She had just felt... felt the spike of something dangerous and had immediately made a move to protect him. She couldn't decide which one was weirder; Anko the proctor that acted like a vampire or the grass dude that smelled like death.

"W-what's with that proctor?" Sakura mumbled. She's a psycho! This one too...

Naruto rubbed his cheek as he peeked over (Y/N)'s shoulder, wiping the blood. That person, why's their tongue so long?

Anko stayed a bit tense, smirking, "Evidently, we've got a lot of hot blooded kids this time." This will be fun, she laughed.

Naruto glared at her in annoyance as he rubbed his cheek. You're the most hot blooded, believe it!

"Well, before the start of the second exam I have to pass this out to you!" Anko yelled out as she walked back to the fence, where everyone could see her even from the back of the group. She took out a pile of paper forms and (Y/N) narrowed her eyes at the tiel.
"It's a consent form. Before you can take part in the test you have to sign this."

"Why?" Naruto asked, tilting his head.

"From here on out, corpses are going to come out." Anko explained nonchalantly. "I have to get your consent for that. Or it'll be my responsibility."

(Y/N) stiffened, crossing her arms and a hand itching to cover her mark. Shit just got real.

"Well, I'm going to start the explanation for the second exam." Ankh announced. "In a word, the limits of your survival will be challenged. First, i'll give you step-by-step instruction on the terrain of this Training Field. " Anko declared, taking out a map of the area and showing it to them. "Training Field number 44 is surrounded by 44 locked entrance gates, there are rivers, and a forest and a tower in the middle. It's about 10 km from the tower to the gates. In this confined area, you will go through a certain survival program."

"The contents of which are..." Anko paused, putting away the map and taking out a pair of scrolls in different colors. "Anything goes scroll battle!"

"Scroll?" Shikamaru asked.

"Yes. I want you to fight for two scrolls, the Heaven Scroll and the Earth scroll. All together, 26 teams got through the first test." She explained, showing them the black and white scrolls with the earth and heaven characters. "Half of them.. 13 teams get the Heaven Scroll, the otehr half get the Earth scroll. I'll hand over one scroll to each team."

(Y/N)'s eyes widened, having already realized quickly what it meant. She stiffened and immediately started taking mental note of everyone around them, their scents, their sounds, their gait. Shit. This will turn into a blood bath battle for the scrolls, with only about half the teams left.

"To put it simply, that's what you're vying for." Anko said.

"And the conditions to pass?" Sasuke cut in.

"Three of you bring both the Heaven and Earth scrolls to the tower in the center, or well, four of you in some cases. " Anko explained.

"That means that of the 13 teams, half of them will fail for sure..." Sakura mused.

"Except, it has to be in time." Anko added. "For this second exam the time limit is 120 hours. Do it in exactly five days."

"Five days!" Ino exclaimed incredulously, as Chouji panicked beside her.
"What do we do about food?!"

"Be self-sufficient! It's a treasure trove in the wilderness. There's more than enough food." ANko said in an obvious tone.

"However... it's teeming with fierce people eating animals. Poison bugs, poisonous weeds and more." Kabuto cut in with a sly look.

(Y/N)'s eyebrows twitched and she sighed. Chouji is only worrying about food of course, and sus Kabuto is just making himself look more suspicious.

"No way.." Chouji groaned.
"Fool, that's why it's called survival!" Ino told him.

"Besides, it's improbable that 40 people, 13 teams will pass." Neji addded with a cold look.
"The interval for this activity gets longer with each passing day, while the time for recovery gets shorter... Seems pretty grueling" Lee grinned excitedly despite the stakes presented.

"On top of that, you're surrounded by nothing but enemies, even falling asleep will be a problem." Sasuke added with annoyance.

"And besides, those injured during attempts to capture scrolls.. there will definitely be people unable to endure the rigors of the course." Anko added, hands on her hips.

"Uhm, so can you quit in the middle of it?" Shikamaru asked.

"According to the rules, you cannot give up in the middle fo it! I want you to spend five days in the forest." Anko smirked.

Shikamaru sighed. "Just as i thought.. this is going to be a pain!"

"You got that right.." (Y/N) muttered in agreement, sighing and crossing her arms. If someone doesn't die, I'll be extremely surprised.

Anko nodded. "Moving on, conditions of disqualification; one, if all members of the team can't make it to the tower with both scrolls within the time limit. Two, if a team loses a member or if a member becomes incapacitated. There's that and this is a supplement... absolutely do not look at the contents of the scrolls until you have reached the tower!"

"W-what happens if we look at it halfway through?" Naruto asked hesitantly.

"When you look at it you'll find out." Anko smirked smugly. "There are times when a Chuunin must deal with a super secret text, this is to test your reliability." She added seriously. "That's all the explanation! I'll exchange your three consent forms for the scrolls in that hut over there." She pointed at the well, more of a tent looking thing. " After that, pick your entrance, and all the gates will open simultaneously!"

She sighed exasperatedly. "Finally, a word of advice.. don't die!"

(Y/N) facepalmed. Obviously!

~~~><><><~~~

As they all signed their forms, (Y/N) stood close to Naruto but took glances at everything. She observed as they closed a curtain over the hut and bit her lip. Dammit. Would have made it easier if we could have seen the scrolls everyone got. But that's the point exactly.

She sighed tense, biting her nails. This test is on a whole other level from the last one. It's recon, an espionage, and theft, and battle and stealth skills. It's everything a shinobi must be, comprised into a deathly test! Ideally, we should avoid anyone until it's the last two days, though that could be a bit risky if others reach the tower sooner and if the only team left for us to hunt is one with the same scroll as us. Ideally really, avoiding anyone until the last two days and then going for the ones that seem most tired would be the smart thing, but I doubt that's going to be possible. Everyone's gonna be out for each other... It'll be almost impossible to stay out of sight.

Naruto hummed as they walked, mumbling at the paper. "It's just my name, why does everyone take so long to sign it?"

(Y/N) smiled a bit, the tension seeping out of her. Oh Naru. She squeezed Naruto's hand with a soft smile. "Never change hey."

"Huh, what do you mean?"

(Y/N) shook her head and chuckled. Of course, Naruto doesn't think about that stuff, for him it's as easy as writing it down. But for others here, they're seriously thinking about the life and death prospects.

~~~

"It's about time for the scroll exchange!" A Chuunin called out.

And so teams started to exchange their forms for scrolls. When their turn came, Team 7 handed their forms and Naruto took the Heaven Scroll handed to them.
He looked at it and grinned.

"Teams who have taken the scroll stay with the representative and move to the gate!  We'll all start simultaneously in 3o minutes!"

(Y/N) sighed at that. Let's rest while we can. The exhaustion from the concentration state she had sunk into was almost completely gone, having had already around 40 minutes of rest, but her sense of hearing still felt slightly dampened. She tried not to panic about it and keep calm, a hand fidgeting with the clasp of her weapon holster. Trust yourself, (Y/N). If a threat comes towards us, you're the one who'll notice in time. You can't afford to feel tired.

Team 7's four members stood at the 12 gate. Sakura looked at the gate slightly apprehensively, while Sasuke stood calmly with a nonchalant look. Naruto was fired up, like usual, practicing punching the air.
"I'll bring down whoever comes near me!"
"Yes." Sakura nodded in agreement, lips pursed. Cha!

Sasuke furrowed his brows, staring intensely at the gloomy forest.
(Y/N) grinned, a wide and mischievous thing with fangs out. She understood Naruto's excitement, but she was also just as tense as Sakura and Sasuke, if not more. She grinned at ther teammates, raising a fist in front of her. "Let's do our best. We'll take care of each other."

That worked to cut the tension a bit and Sakura deflated a bit, takign a breath and smiling, raising her fist to meet hers. "Got it."

Naruto whooped and rose his fist too.

The three turned to Sasuke expectantly, (Y/N) staring intensely at him, even as Sasuke huffed, tense and looked away.

"Come on Duckbutt, you know you got to." (Y/N) teased, grinning and raising her brows.

Sasuke clicked his tongue, huffing but raising his fist to meet theirs. "Let's not die." He grumbled, not too happy about doing something as childish as a team salute.

(Y/N) laughed, whooping as she jumped up and down excitedly. "Not exactly positive encouragement, but it'll do!"

The representative unlocked the padlock, and the chains dropped from the gate.
The four members stood at the ready.

There was a moment of quiet tension, as (Y/N) rolled her shoulders and took a deep breath. Focus (Y/N).

"We now start the second test of the second exam!" Anko's voice yelled out.

The gates slammed open and then everyone was running full speed. Team 7 walked in briskly, but calmly, taking in the sight of the forest.
Sasuke walked at the front and the other three followed slightly behind, not exactly too eager to go first.
As they went deeper into the forest, the sunlight dimmed under the branches and leaves, and then the green was swallowing them, the gate no longer visible.

(Y/N) squirmed nervously, walking close to Naruto and Sasuke, staying right in the middle of the two. She walked quietly, with soft agile steps and payed attention as the scenery changed and they were engulfed by green on every side. In any other occasion, she would have been calm about this, but hearing the slithering and squirming of creatures in the trees and the bushes, didn't exactly comfort her. There was something about this place that was giving her a bad feeling.
(Y/N) maxed her senses' input as much as she could, concentrating on trying to exactly the opposite of what she did for the last exam. If we are to survive this, my senses will have to be at their top performance. Ignore the headache (Y/N), it will vanish soon enough.

With an unsure heart, and a still slightly tired mind, (Y/N) and her teammates entered the forest, unaware of what dangers they'd find in its deep corners.

EXTRA SCENE:

The proctor, Anko, had quickly guided them all here, to a closed off area in the village, some sort of forest. Except that the trees were huge, incredibly thick, and there were so many gathered in one place that the light barely lit the place. Immediately (Y/N) decided she didn't like it at all.

"This is the site of the second exam, the 44th training field... Also known as the Forest of Death." Anko replied to Naruto's question with a slight smirk, as she stood in front of the whole group of genin.

Naruto blinked, swallowing nervously. "Forest of... death?"

The wind howled, swishing their hair and (Y/N) shivered. Well that's not ominous at all! She sighed, as she stood beside Naruto. Yeah, this will surely be tons of fun, she thought sarcastically.

And then the shuffling a suspiciously rectangular "rock" caught her attention. (Y/N) narrowed her eyes at the rock and snorted. Kids. Naruto quickly noticed too and squinted at the rock with raised brows twitching incredulously.
Is that... supposed to be a rock? Moreover, on top of the grass?

Naruto took a step forward, and the rock followed. Then he started to run side to side, followed closely by the fake rock. Until he skidded to a stop and pointed at the rock, "Hey Konohamaru! What is it that you want?"

"Just what I expect from the man I respect! Good job on figuring it out!" " Konohamaru beamed cheerfully from inside the "rock".

(Y/N) sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. Omg, just plase stop. Next time I should just teach the kids how to disguise properly.

There was a poof and three clouds of colored smoke, and then the three children were crouching right there. The kids coughed loudly from the smoke, shutting their eyes as they grew teary from it.
"Hey! Too much gunpowder used!"

(Y/N)'s brows twitched a bit, as she glanced around embarrassedly. Well, this is weird. And everyone else is just standing around, doing nothing.

The children started their usual introduction, poses and everything and (Y/N) just couldn't bear to look at them, as the rest of the genin seemed awfully confused. She sighed exasperatedly.

"What's going on with you guys?" Naruto groaned in annoyance, as he leaned his head back on his arms. "Hey we're about to take the second exam for the Chuunin Exam. I have no time to be playing around with you guys!"

"We didn't come to play around, hey!" Konohamaru protested, raising his fist in indignation.
"That's right! We came here for an interview!" Moegi piped up.

Naruto blinked at that, interest a bit caught. "Interview?"

"Yeah, we were put in charge of writing the feature article for the Chuunin Exam for the academy's class newspaper." Konohamaru announced, putting his arms on his hips as he pouted a bit.

(Y/N) tilted her head at the children, humming. "With who?"

"With you two of course, (Y/N)-senpai! Please, cooperate with us." Moegi pleaded cutely, raising her hands to her mouth with a smile.
"Please." Udon  added quietly with a bow.

At that (Y/N) flushed a bit and laughed, "Well... haha..."
She was so obvious. Guess the only thing one had to do to befriend her was call her senpai.

Naruto wasn't as impressed or interested and hummed with furrowed brows, "But...."

"Hey over there! What are you doing?"

(Y/N) immediately stiffened and stopped with the smiles and laughs, as Anko neared the group with a scolding look.
Naruto turned to her calmly, "Konohamaru here is asking about an interview for the class newspaper..."

Anko gaped, blinking and then she laughed embarrassedly, rubbing the back of her head. "Oh, I forgot that Lord Hokage was mentioning something like that."

Naruto and (Y/N) deadpanned, sweatdropping. Hey, hey what's with that?

"All right, take a 10 minute break starting now!" Anko yelled after a moment. "For those who will be interviewed, resign yourselves and be courteous!"

"Hey hey, what's this all about?" Naruto groaned in annoyance at the delay of the exam.

"Big brother Naruto, (Y/N)-senpai, I'm counting on you!" Konohamaru turned to the two with furrowed brows and a smile.

Immediately (Y/N) was all smiles and chuckles, seemingly fluffing herself up like a peacock. "Fine fine, but only because it's my cute kouhais."

Naruto chuckled a bit at (Y/N)'s sudden cuteness, not realizing that the sudden fondness he felt at her dorky smile wasn't exactly the friend type. "Alright. In that case I'll show you how attractive I am!"

~~~><><><~~~

"Thank you for cooperating with the interview!" Moegi thanked them with a wide smile, as the three children bowed.
"Thank you.."
"Leader, senpai, do your best!"

(Y/N) laughed, chest puffed up like a proud bird. "No problem for my little kouhais!"
Naruto chuckled and grinned, "Yeah, leave it to us!"

"Good luck!"
"Bye bye!"
"Do your best!"

The children parted with smiles and goodbyes, quickly leaving the exam site.

(Y/N) sighed fondly as she watched them leave, absently touching her ponytail. The break had helped her recover a bit, but she still felt a bit sleepy.
I just hope we get out of this safely and alive.