Naruto: Dreaming of Sunshine

Expect the best, plan for the worst, and prepare to be surprised.~ Denis Waitley

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The next morning dawned bright and clear as most Konoha mornings do. That was good; taking the test in the rain would have added an unneeded misery bonus that might have just pushed me off the edge.

I was twitchy in a way that was completely clear headed and focused. Because when it came down to it, us surviving Orochimaru was up to him. Him and luck.

There was no way I could stand against him. Hell, the three of us couldn't even touch Kakashi, and when those two had met, Kakashi with chidori already going hadn't even registered as a threat. That was how outclassed we were. There was no way I could stop him marking Sasuke if he was determined to do that.

And if there was nothing we could do, then the only thing to do would be to complete the test as fast and painlessly as possible.

"What the hell is this place?" Naruto muttered, as we gathered in the clearing outside the Training Field. There was a little booth to the side where several of yesterdays sentinels were sitting, and a sunlit clearing big enough for us all to gather. The Training Field itself was surrounded by a wire fence, plastered with all kinds of warning notices. Inside, it was like a different world. The very sun we were basking in, simply didn't reach it. The trees were overgrown and twisted and it even looked dank.

"This is the location for the second phase of the exam. It's Training Ground 44, but we call it… the Forest of Death.," Anko said, smiling.

Anko Mitarashi was one of those people who, I suspected, had a reputation that was completely blown out of proportion. She had a … bombastic personality, that much we'd already seen with her entrance yesterday.

Actually, I was surprised she and Naruto didn't get on better, considering that. And she was wearing an orange skirt.

Regardless, she had a reputation for 'crazy'.

"Forest of Death. Pff. Do your worst!" Naruto shouted. "You're not going to scare me away! I can handle anything!"

"So… looks like we've got ourselves a tough guy." She twisted, palming a kunai and launching it towards Naruto. It scrapped past his cheek, impaling itself in the ground. She vanished in a burst of Body Flicker speed.

"Are you tough enough to handle this? You're not afraid are you?" her voice was only a whisper, as she reappeared behind him. "Tough guys like you usually leave their blood all over this forest." She touched the leaking cut on his cheek. It was a thin slice, nothing worse than a cat scratch.

Naruto looked a little freaked out, but mostly just surprised.

One of the Grass ninja moved behind her. I wasn't at the right angle to see, but it looked like she had palmed another kunai to defend with.

"I was… just returning your knife," the Hidden Grass ninja said, extending an obscenely long purple tongue. I narrowed my eyes. Was that…

Had he disguised himself as a Genin? Or was it coincidence? Stretching limbs had been one of his techniques, hadn't it?

Yes. It was listed in the Bingo Book. The Soft Physique Modification Technique. It wasn't an unknown technique. There were probably many people that could use it.

His, her?, chakra was strangely subdued. Hidden. I made a note of it just in case.

"Why, thank you Grass-nin." Anko said tightly, taking the kunai back. "You know, I only recommend you stand this close behind me if you wish to reach a premature end."

She was still smiling, like the threat meant nothing to her, but there was tension in the set of her shoulders. With Naruto in front of her, and the Grass-nin behind, she was almost trapped, if poorly.

But the fact that her first instinct had been to defend, rather than to move and abandon Naruto… that won her points with me.

"My pardon. With the sight of blood on your blade slicing through my hair, I'm afraid I became a little excited. I meant you no harm," the Grass ninja said, voice syrupy. The implication that a Genin could have hurt her was ludicrous.

But Anko was losing the respect of the crowd, and she probably knew it. The whole point of attacking Naruto would have been to gain fear, since he'd been the one expressing confidence.

"Seems like everyone here today is quick tempered. There must be something in the air," she said blandly, moving back to the front of the group where we could all see her. It looked like she was changing tactics.

"Now before we 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 said, holding up a thick stack of papers.

"What for?" Naruto asked, puzzled.

"Some of you may not come back from this test. And I have to get your consent for that risk. Otherwise it would be my responsibility." She chuckled like the concept was ridiculous.

It was all mental games. The Chunin Exams was like a mission. Once you accepted it, it was up to you to make sure you survived. There were no such things as 'consent forms'. She was just working us up, reminding us of the dangers, the same way Ibiki had. That, and probably using them to create a list of who was participating.

"Now, I'll explain what you'll be doing on this test. The first thing you need to know is that this test will tax every one of your survival skills. First, I'll give you all a description of the terrain on the practice field."

She unrolled a map. From this distance, I could barely make out the large features of the arena. I nudged Sasuke. "Eyes!" I hissed, hoping he'd get the hint and activate his Sharingan to memorise it. Having a copy of a map could never hurt.

"The 44th Training Ground has 44 locked entrance gates. There are rivers and a forest inside. In the centre is a locked tower, located 10km from each gate."

Shit, It was 20 kilometres across? That meant that the Training Ground covered over 300 square kilometres. That was ridiculously huge. The chances of randomly stumbling across other teams was pretty much nil. I'd known it was a big area, just not how big.

"You'll be fighting to get both a Heaven Scroll and an Earth Scroll," Anko said, holding up both as an example. They weren't large scrolls, about a hands length and about the width of a circled finger and thumb. They'd be easy to hide. "Altogether 26 teams will be taking part in 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 kind of scroll to each team and that's what you'll be fighting for."

"Okay," Sasuke asked. "So how do we pass the test?"

"Your entire squad must bring both a Heaven and Earth Scroll to the central tower within five days."

"Completely surrounded by enemies, we wont have time to rest. We'll have to keep a constant watch," Sasuke said, eyes narrowed as he considered what this was going to be like.

"Right," Anko nodded, looking happy at the observation. "This test also measures endurance behind enemy lines. This is designed to be a gruelling test, and I'm sure some of you wont be up to the challenge."

"So… lets say, mid exam, can we just quit?" Shikamaru asked hopefully. It sounded cowardly, but knowing escape routes or rescue points was one of the first things we were taught to consider before entering unknown territory.

"Of course not. In the middle of a battle you can't just quit. Well, I guess you could but it's probably going to get you killed." She shrugged. "There are also some ways you can get disqualified. First, if all three members cant make it to the tower with both scrolls. Second, if a team loses a member or a member become incapacitated and cannot continue. But most importantly, none of you, absolutely none of you, may look at the contents of the scroll until you reach the tower."

"What if it just happens to flap open and you read it?" Naruto asked. Already, I could feel him itching to have a look at the scroll. Nothing was more tempting than being forbidden.

Given that the purpose of the last test had been for us to cheat, I half contemplated if this was the same kind of order. Except this was expressive denial where that had just punished you for getting caught.

So no, disobeying orders in this situation would not be a good thing.

"Let me put it this way, young man. You. Don't. Want. To. Know." Anko smiled. "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." She pointed at the booth. "After that, you'll be taken to a gate and the Exam can start."

The candidates all dispersed out across the clearing so that we could fill out our forms and discuss things with our team mates in peace. For a second, it looked like Naruto was going to wander off on his own, so I grabbed both the boys and dragged them to the side so that we were in the trees around the clearing.

It wasn't thick cover, but it would have to do.

I quickly read over the form and scribbled my name on it before turning to the boys.

"They're putting a curtain up over the booth," I murmured. There was no one close by, but it was best not to take chances.

"I see how it is," Sasuke said. "We wont know which team has which scroll, and we wont know which member is carrying the scroll. It's just like Ibiki said, stealing information is really a matter of life or death…"

He looked down at his form, lost in thought.

"What are you guys talking about?" Naruto asked, looking from one of us to the other.

"We have to come up with a plan," I explained. "We need to find a way to know which team has what scroll and where they are in the Training Field. Otherwise, we could be wandering around for the whole five days and not find anything…" Well, other than whoever found us, and I would really rather be the ambusher than ambushee.

"Well… we could just watch them get the scrolls?" Naruto suggested.

Sasuke shook his head. "The Chunin wont let us. Look at them, the booth is set up so that no one can peek inside it."

"… unless…" I said slowly, my hands forming a circle. "Naruto… can your clones Transform into say… spiders? Little ones?"

Naruto scratched the back of his head. "Uh, sure, I guess. Why?"

I was silent a second longer, plotting it all out. "Okay, here's what you're going to do. You're going to create 26 clones here, without anyone noticing, either as spiders or then have them use the Transformation Jutsu to become spiders, or some other small insect. Then those spiders are going to go and carefully climb on one member of each team without them noticing. They're going to see what scroll each team gets, where they hide it and what gate they go to. Then, once they're at the gates, they are going to secretly create a clone that can dispel to give you that information. Once we've decided what team we're going to go after, we can use the clones to get updated information. You should try your hardest to not get noticed, okay?"

Naruto stared at me for a second, then tucked his hands behind his head grinning like mad. "This is going to be so awesome! They'll never know what hit them!"

Sasuke smirked. "We're going to ace this test."

I half smiled back at them. I could feel Naruto's chakra fluctuating and splitting, but there were no telltale puffs of chakra and I barely caught glimpses of orange from the corners of my eyes before they were gone. It looked like he was putting the plan into action already and that Sensei's stealth training might have more use than I thought.

"Did you see the map she showed us?" I asked Sasuke. "Do you think you could redraw it?" I got a pencil and empty scroll out of my missions bag. It looked like our team was one of the few who had thought to bring them.

He nodded, taking the items. "It was a pretty basic map," he said. "I don't think it will help us much."

I shrugged philosophically. "Anything is better than nothing."

"Alright, everyone, we're going to start handing out scrolls now," the Chunin announced from the booth. They'd given us a suspiciously long time to fill out a basic form, so I figured we were expected to be plotting and otherwise getting ready.

We weren't in a hurry to get our scroll, waiting till almost everyone else had gone. I'd seen a few unknown passengers on people's clothes and hoped that Naruto was getting some decent information.

The Chunin looked pretty bored as they flicked through our paperwork. We were nearly the last team in.

"Okay, here's your scroll," he said, handing us a white wrapped scroll. Heaven, then, and we needed Earth.

Sasuke took it and weighed it in his hand for a second, before handing it to me. I blinked at him in surprise and he nodded.

Well, then. I opened my jacket and tucked it into the inside pocket before zipping it back up. I was less likely to lose my jacket than my backpack, so it should be safer there. And it would be pretty much impossible to steal without me noticing.

"Listen up!" Anko shouted once the team behind us was done. "All the teams have received their scrolls, so everybody go to your gate and wait there. When the gates open, the test is on!"

It was half past two by the time the gates were open. That gave us maybe five hours of sunlight left, maybe less, given how dark the forest already seemed.

"What are the nearest Genin teams?" I asked Naruto.

He scratched the back of his head. "Well… there was an older Konoha team right next to us, I don't know them but they have Heaven as well."

"Just focus on the ones with Earth, for now," Sasuke cut in.

Naruto nodded. "Uh, well, there's the Rain team with the, y'know, white jumpsuits. They've got Earth. There's a team from Sound and that team from Grass with the crazy tongue lady as well. They've both got Earth, I think, but it sounded like they were looking for someone already."

What to do, attack or run? Attack or run?

We could take on the Sound team, which would mean they couldn't fight us later when we were weakened… but they'd be tricky opponents and could leave us injured. Now was a bad time to be vulnerable.

We could attack the Grass team…

Everything in me balked at the very idea.

If it was Orochimaru… if it was…

We might not be able to escape, but that didn't mean we had to willingly throw ourselves into the snake pit.

If we went for the Rain team, got ourselves a scroll and hightailed it for the tower…

"The Rain team," I said. "If we stick to the trees and use Sensei's lessons, we could probably set up an ambush. Naruto can get an update from his clone when we're closer, and if we scout out the location a bit…"

Sasuke considered it, then nodded. "Alright. Naruto, lead the way."

"Leave it to me!" Naruto assured, jumping up into the twisted branches of the trees.

We followed. "Don't forget to keep an eye out for traps and natural hazards," I reminded. This place was literally crawling with dangerous wildlife.

The Rain team had been two gates away from us, so it didn't take us long to get there at all. We halted in the trees at their last known location, scanning our surroundings.

"Okay, Naruto," Sasuke said. "Get us an update."

"Right!" Naruto formed a cross seal and a Shadow Clone popped briefly into existence. There was a seconds pause as he waited for his other clone to respond back. "Uh, they've split up at the moment to find other teams. My clone isn't on the one with the scroll, so I don't know where it is…"

He looked disheartened at that.

"Where are they planning on meeting?" I asked. If they'd split up, they had to have a meeting point planned.

"Further up ahead," Naruto answered. "They marked it, so it should be pretty easy to find."

"Good," Sasuke said, satisfied. "We find it, and we ambush them when they come back."

"Did you see or hear any of their plans or attacks?" I asked. "Anything about how they might fight?"

"They did say they were going to head closer to the tower if they couldn't find anyone here…" Naruto said slowly. "I don't know if that helps."

I nodded. "Everyone is going to have to head to the tower at some point. So, if you didn't have a scroll, you could trap a team that had either one or both. But it would require a lot of patience, and most people probably wont start heading that way till day three unless they've already got both scrolls."

"And if you get both scrolls before then," Sasuke finished. "You're probably strong enough to defeat an ambush."

"Right," I confirmed. "But if they're planning on setting traps, they'll probably be able to spot anything we do. Keep it basic?"

"Drop and grab?" Sasuke suggested. "They'll probably stick to the ground, so if we drop out of the trees and take them by surprise… You can grab them with your Shadow Possession and Naruto and I will knock them out."

I nodded. "Sounds good to me. I'll give you guys some knockout tags this time." I really did love knockout tags. They were so handy. The only downside was that you had to physically apply them to the enemy before you could activate them; they didn't have a radius like explosive notes.

Naruto scowled. "That wasn't our fault! Stupid sticky web chakra thing!"

We took up position high in the trees above the designated meeting spot. The three of us triangulated the area, able to see each other and hopefully cover the entire space. It was the same as any other watch duty we'd ever done, but more difficult because there were far more dangers to watch out for. At one point, three tigers prowled beneath us for a while, which was strange since tigers are generally solitary animals. They were huge animals, easily taller at the shoulder than a full grown human.

There were other animals, too, that we had to keep an eye out for. A flock of birds burst through the leaves at one point and I caught a glimpse of vicious looking beaks and talons. There were all manner of giant insects, and I had to move branches at one point because an oversize tarantula decided it wanted my spot. I squashed the desire to kill it as a potential give away but I had no idea if it was poisonous and I wasn't about to find out.

Also, giant spider.

I was a girl. I was allowed to freak out.

At three hours into the Second Exam, the rasping of rebreathers below us alerted us to the return of the Rain Genin. They were all fairly identical looking, with white suits, wild brown hair, rebreathers and bandages around their eyes. The only differentiation was how many eyes they had visible. Zero, One or Two.

Potential sensor type, I signed carefully to my team mates. They nodded in comprehension. A shinobi working blind had to have some sort of powerful offset ability, usually either hearing or chakra sense. Trap potentially identified.

"No luck," One said. "The rookies are long gone."

"Such a shame," Two said. "They were bound to be the easiest targets. Now we'll have to work for it."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that," Zero commented, chuckling. "It seems we've got company. Why don't you come down here, kiddies?"

Yeah, they noticed us. We communicated with a quick look, then dropped down to the ground. We didn't regroup, maintaining our triangular formation to surround them.

"Who are you calling 'easy targets'?" Naruto demanded. "We're here to kick your ass and take your scroll!"

Naruto was good at attracting attention, which gave me plenty of opportunity to catch them out in my shadow. Or it would have, normally.

"Mubi! Oboro! Look out!" Zero shouted, darting backwards up a tree trunk as my shadow tried to snare him. Seemed he'd noticed me. Right. Sensor type.

"Shadow Possession Complete!" I said, catching the other two who hadn't been quite as fast. "Pin them, quick!"

Sasuke darted forward, slapping a knockout tag on each of them. They sagged in my jutsu and I released it to let them fall to the floor. It would be best to tie them up as well, but even if the tag was removed they wouldn't wake for ten minutes.

"He's the one with the scroll!" Naruto shouted, darting after the fleeing Zero.

Typical.

Sasuke darted up a separated tree trunk, trying to cut him off. I hurled a brace of shuriken and a kunai with explosive note attached in order to direct him back towards my team mates.

He was fast, I'd give him that. But so were we.

I cut left, throwing another brace of kunai. Zero dodged away, circling to keep a tree trunk between him and me.

And then Sasuke was there, opening with a flying kick straight to his face. Zero catapulted backwards, Sasuke following him like glue, raining down brutal punches. It was damn easy to see how overpowered Zero was. Taijutsu was obviously not his forte.

He desperately tried to pull back and disengage but didn't get a chance until Sasuke's roundhouse kick sent him flying back down to the ground. His chakra fuzzed, but he recovered, even as we leapt down to the ground after him.

"Haze Clone Jutsu!"

Wispy projections started to rise out of the earth. I barely felt it as Zero slipped underground, but I did feel it. Some variation of the Earth Walking Technique, then. I concentrated on keeping track of him and preparing my jutsu, trusting my team mates to keep watch.

"Clones?" Naruto said. "I got this! Shadow Clone Jutsu."

The clearing was suddenly full of orange.

Then a dozen shouts of 'Huh?' and 'What the hell?' and 'I just went straight through him!'

"Illusions," Sasuke said, eyes flicking back and forth.

But I was finally ready.

"Earth Release: Earth Walking Jutsu!" I sank both arms into the ground, grabbed and pulled. He fought, twisting and kicking. I had grabbed an ankle, apparently, which wasn't the most secure hold. His jutsu was more advanced then mine, giving him a much greater force and range of motion underground.

Regardless, I stuck my feet to the ground and heaved, and he slid out of the dirt, kunai poised to stab me. I couldn't block unless I let go. He was using double sided Rain issue kunai that had a second blade instead of a ring attached to the handle. The blades were slightly smaller than Konoha standard kunai but still enough to do me some serious damage.

I didn't let go.

Sasuke had his Sharingan active. There were a dozen Naruto's in the clearing. He was disarmed and pinned down before I even fully had him out of the ground.

"Got him," Sasuke said, sticking the knockout tag on him.

I panted. "Scroll?"

"Got it!" Naruto sing songed, holding up the item in question.

I smiled in relief.

"Now what do we do with them?" Sasuke asked, staring at the unconscious body in front of him. I could tell he was thinking the same things I was.

"Tie them up. We don't want them coming back after us," I said, absently wiping my now very dirty hands on my pants. "We could even net them, which will at least protect them from most of the animals…"

Because even if they were the enemy, I didn't particularly want to leave them tied up and helpless in such a dangerous place.

"If we were closer to the fence I'd suggest throwing them over it," I said.

Sasuke considered and shook his head. "Too far. Let's get back to the others before they wake." He used ninja wire to tie Zero's hands and feet together, taking care to bind the fingers in a professional manner to prevent hand seals.

The other two hadn't woken yet, which was good, since I didn't really want to go to the effort of fighting them. We tied them up the same, and then bundled them in a net trap and hung if from a tree branch like some weird piñata.

It was the best we could do for them.

"Who's taking the scroll?" Naruto asked, when we were done. He was fidgeting it between his hands.

Sasuke and I looked at each other. It wouldn't be a good idea to give it to me, since I already had one, so the choice was between Naruto and Sasuke.

"Does your jacket have an inside pocket?" I asked.

"Huh? Uh… I think so." He unzipped his jacket to check. Most ninja clothing had an excess of pockets. We liked pockets. They were handy. "Yeah, right here!"

"Okay. Put it in there," Sasuke ordered. "And don't take your jacket off for anything."

Naruto blinked.

"And don't hand the scroll over to anyone. Not even me or Sasuke," I added, aware that people would probably try to impersonate us.

"You… want me to keep it?" he asked slowly. A little disbelieving.

"What? You don't think you can handle it?" Sasuke asked, tauntingly.

"You just watch, Sasuke! This will be the safest scroll in the entire forest! Believe it!" Naruto shouted, pointing his finger at Sasuke.

I rolled my eyes. "Just … try not to announce that you have it, or anything," I suggested. "Or people will target you."

"Oh, right," he said sheepishly.

"Right. Scroll sorted. Now do we head for the tower or find a place to hunker down for the night?" I asked. Personally, I wanted to head for the tower and it's assumed safety, but I wasn't sure we'd make it. Being caught out at night would be much worse.

It'd probably take us two hours to cover the ground between here and the tower, and that was at top speed without running into anything. Pushing that fast would leave us weakened if we were attacked and so would be dangerous. On the other hand, moving any slower wouldn't get us there before night fell.

"Find a place to make camp," Sasuke said. "It'd be too dangerous to keep moving once the light fades."

It was the right decision to make.

Yet at the same time…