Please Don't Leave Me

Special Report: Live From the Forest of Death

(Kazumi's P.O.V.)


"Woah, nice place...what is it?" asks Naruto looking behind the forest gates with old and new locks holding the run down fence in place.
"This is the location for the second phase of the exam, it's the 44th battle training zone. But we call it the forest of death" said Anko in a scary voice
"T-the forest of....death?" asks Naruto nervously as I hear shuffling behind us and right behind us was a little box that looked like it was supposed to be fake rocks with two eye holes trying to be sneaky and came up right behind Naruto. Naruto saw it after a couple seconds and looked at the box disappointed before walking away from the box, only for the box to follow right behind him. He starts sprinting away and the box follows again until Naruto made a fast stop turning around pointing his finger at the box.
"That's the worst disguise of all time! There's no such thing as square rocks, it's completely obvious!" he yells. The box gives a muffled reply before exploding in a variety of colors before 3 small kids appeared couching
"I think we used a little too much gun powder you guys" said Konohamaru. They all got up and posed for us
"I'm Moegi, the sexiest kunoichi of preschool. Check me out!"
"I love algebra, call me Udon!"
"I'm the number one ninja in the village, Konohamaru! And when we're all together, we're the Konohamaru ninja squad!" he says with a lot of enthusiasm
"Yeah, I knew it was you guys the whole time. What do you losers want? I'm just about ready to take the 2nd phase of the chunin exam and you're interrupting me. I don't have any time to play around with you guys now" says Naruto
"We didn't come here to play around boss, we are on official business!"
"Yeah, that's right. We came here for an exclusive interview" said Moegi
"An interview huh?"
"We're here on an assignment to interview for the academy newspaper. It's a big time feature story all about the chuunin selection examination" said Konohamaru
"So that's why we want to do an exclusive interview with you. Please tell us you're going to do it" begged Moegi
"It would mean a lot" backed up Udon
"Yeah, but right now..uhh"
"Hey, you over there! What are you doing? You're holding up the exams" said Anko coming over
"Sorry but Konohamaru said he was telling me something about an interview for the academy newspaper"
"Oh yeah I forgot all about that, Lord Hokage had mentioned something about them interviewing me" said Anko rubbing the back of her head sheepishly
"Alright, we're taking a 10 minute break. For those that are scheduled to be interviewed please be courteous and respectful to the reporters form the academy newspaper" said Anko
"I thought I was the only one being interviewed" complained Naruto
"No boss, but you are the most important" says Konohamaru taking out a small note pad
"Oh, well in that case..I'll give you an interview that'll make it clear to your readers why I'm the greatest ninja ever" he says pointing to himself. Not wanting to get a lot of attention I slipped out and blended in with Kiba's group
"What's wrong? Don't you want to be interviewed?" asks Kiba somewhat teasingly
"I don't like giving out too much about me and I really don't want it to be on paper that everyone can read" I said
"Suit yourself but if that was me, I'd show them why I'm even better than Sasuke" he says. Another few minutes pass in silence before Naruto saw me
"Hey! Kazumi! You need to get in this one too ya know!" he yells from his spot. I hang my head in disappointment of having to participate
"You better get going before he comes over here" says Kiba as I drag myself over to them and wait for their questions. They seemed busy talking with Naruto, so I stood off to the side with Sasuke and Sakura
"The other genin in squad 7 are Sasuke, Sakura, and Kazumi. But since I'm really the only one that chose any kind of promise, you don't need to hear about them"
"Well, do it anyway. You know, for the article" says Konohamaru
"Ok, ok. Sasuke Uchiha is a real pretentious guy. All the girls think he's cool but they don't realize how big of a jerk he is. Anyway he's always swooping in at the last minute and make me look bad. But one day, I'll show him, there's also Sakura Haruno. I'll let you in on a little secret, she's madly in love with me. She'd never admit it of course but I think her coyness just makes her even cuter"
"It doesn't sound to me like she's in love with you boss, but anyway why not talk about Kazumi?"
"Oh, her? She's really nice but she's kinda quiet, I think if she's not careful Sasuke is gonna rub off on her. She already has lots of boys who want to be with her, so she has her own group of stalkers and they may be even worse than the girls at the academy about Sasuke, but anyway back to me. Our squad is a well oiled machine and we succeed in any mission no matter how dangerous"
"These are dangerous missions?
"Of course I wasn't always busy on dangerous missions, I still have time to teach the Hokage a thing or two"
"I don't think this material is appropriate for the article"
"Fiiine. What do you wanna talk about?"
"How about the first time you met me? My name is Konohamaru and I'm the grandson of the 3rd Hokage. That means he's the top ninja in town. The 4th Hokage was the greatest hero this village has ever known. He protected our home from the 9 tailed fox and is still honored to this day"
"Don't forget Iruka sensei, he was the only other person besides Kazumi who was nice to me. And I sure did drive him crazy. Me, Naruto, the next Hokage. A ninja legend, then everyone will have to stop disrespecting me and look up to me, believe it"
"The whole article can't be about you boss!"
"Oh, I guess your right Konohamaru. I suppose I can tell you a few stories about how Sasuke screwed up"
"I've already heard that story boss! Can't you talk about anyone but you?" he says impatiently
"I'm sure Naruto is just talking about himself over there to those kids, I bet he never even mentions us!" says Sakura jealously
"Hn, that would be just like him" says Sasuke as I nod my head in agreement.
"Tell us about Sakura Haruno. She's a kunoichi who I really look up to. She's got what it takes to be a top female ninja" Sakura seemed to puff her chest at hearing that happily approaching them
"Moegi, if you want to know the truth about Naruto talk to me, I'll tell you about his 'different' jutsu" said Sakura as I try to not think about his jutsus, in all honesty it's those techniques that give me a headache and it kind of makes me nervous. Naruto likes to use whatever he thinks is cute and I'm pretty sure I almost caught him one time trying to turn into Sakura. One of the biggest worries for me is if we run into someone from the academy in our class what he'll use. Normally his jutsus worked on Iruka sensei but the rest of the boys didn't respond much to it and I caught most of them throwing glances at me. If Naruto caught that too he could use me for his jutsus and that is THE one thing not only would I almost kill him for, but Sasuke would have a huge fit. He still hasn't forgotten about what happened at Tazuna's house.
"Let me tell you about our sensei. Kakashi Hatake, also known as the copy ninja. He uses his sharingan eye to asses the enemy's technique and copy it in an instant, he's copied over a thousand jutsus. But he's always reading that dumb book" she says as I feel my face heat up. I was really hoping no one was going to bring that up. Yes, I know what happens in that story, only a portion, but I still know and every time he opens that book and I'm right next to him I always feel myself blush.
"What the..? Kazumi? Are you feeling ok? Your face is really red" asks Naruto. I try to suppress my blush but I still feel my face heat up.
"Why do you always do that when we talk about his book? Have YOU seen it?!" he asks shaking my shoulders
"Well, come on! If you've seen it you should let all the people in the village know what you know" he says and I blush harder thinking about what people would say if they know I caught a peek at his book and shared it to everyone I know. That would be a story I do not want to have to tell Sasuke.
"Leave it loser, if it makes her blush like that then there's no way she'll tell us" says Sasuke
"Anyway, when he's supposed to meet us early in the morning he's always late, plus like everyone else, Naruto really gets on his nerves. But the biggest mystery of all is his face, hidden under that mask. I wonder what he really looks like? I wonder why does only his left eye have the sharingan power. I thought it was an inherited trait exclusive to the Uchiha clan. There are plenty of ninjutsu others can do as well, in fact there's so many different types of styles that I don't have the time to explain them all in this short interview" says Sakura as Udon goes to Sasuke
"Boy Sasuke you're the coolest, when I look at you I feel like I'm looking at my future self. Do you mind if I get a few quotes from you for our article?" he asks hopefully
"Well, I guess I otta set the record straight. If you listen to Naruto your article will be more fairy tale than true" he says bored
"Oh, no you don't Sasuke! They came here to interview me, not you!" argues Naruto
"They came here to interview everyone, loser. There are other ninja here you know. Believe it" he says mockingly as I nudge him lightly and he drops it.
"The article's about me!" says Naruto
"Nobody cares about you Naruto" he says as I feel my hand being tugged away. I turn around to see Moegi dragging me behind another tree away from them
"There's no way they're gonna stop any time soon so can I ask you a few questions please?" she asks politely and I nod telling her to continue
"First off, what do you think of your team mates?"
"....I care about my team more than anything. I would give my life to protect them and I would do anything to help them with their dreams" I say
"What can you tell us about them individually?"
"Sasuke is my older brother and he's always there to protect and look out for me. He means the world to me, he's the one I would truly give my life for, without him I couldn't have made it past the first year after my family's....accident. Naruto has been my friend for a long time, he also looks out for me and his idiotic ideas and actions make me smile, he was also a big help when I was recovering. Sakura was Sasuke's biggest fan girl and still is, but she is still very smart and sometimes supportive of us when Sasuke isn't around. She doesn't like Naruto but he really likes her, so having to talk to her is hard for him. If it wasn't for Sasuke I'm not even sure she would be in the academy" I say looking away at the trees
"And what is it you want to accomplish as a kunoichi? What is your dream?" she asks and I freeze before I feel myself fiddling with my necklace
"Ohh, and where'd you get your necklace and earrings from? I think I might want to get one" she says as I start thinking back...