Puppeteer

Forest of Death

All in all, the first part of the exam had gone... reasonably well. It obviously hadn't been amazing in any way shape or form, but that was to be expected when both your classmates were bottom of your class. Either way, it was done now and they'd just managed to pass - thanks to Naruto's declaration of his 'awesomeness'.

"I wish you luck in the rest of your exams." Sakura stared at the old man in slight shock. For such an intimidating man, he clearly had a more friendly side. Whether that was reserved only for children about to be sent to their deaths or not, it was still there.

But the remaining examinees didn't have much time to catch their breaths after the first exam. A large bowling ball -or that's what they assumed it was anyway- came flying through the window. Glass shattering under the force as shards fell to the ground, the gentle chimes completely contrasting the obnoxious woman who came flying through the window shortly afterwards.

Kunai were quickly flung around in a roughly rectangular shape, a corner of a banner being tied to each one. The fabric was pulled taut as a woman seemingly appeared in front of it. Now that all movement had ceased, one could make out the scrawl written on the banner, the messy writing revealing the words 'SECOND EXAMINER ANKO MITARASHI IS HERE'. The woman flung her right arm back to indicate her banner before loudly declaring, "I am the second examiner, Anko Mitarashi. Let's go to the next exam." she moved once more, her right arm punching the air above her head, "Follow me!"

Ibiki suddenly appeared from around the side of the banner, his face looking rather unimpressed as he stared at her, "Grasp the atmosphere." the female examiner blushed as she scowled at the man in embarrassment, "78? Ibiki, you let 26 teams pass? The first exam must have been too soft."

"It looks like there are lots of excellent students this time." was all he said to defend himself against the woman's insult. "Oh well, I'm going to make more than half of the teams fail the next exam. I'm getting excited. I will explain the details tomorrow. We will go someplace else, so ask your jounin instructor about the rally point and time. That is all. Dismissed"

As it would turn out, the meeting point was known to most as Training Ground 44, but to those who'd gone inside, it was, more appropriately named, The Forest of Death.

"What is this place?" Naruto asked, his eyes resting on the sign which read 'FORBIDDEN AREA'. The sign itself was firmly attached to a sealed gate with both fuinjutsu locks and regular ones as well as being firmly chained together.

"This is where the second exam will take place. The 44th training ground, also known as the Forest of Death."

"Forest of Death?"

"Hey! Konohamaru! What are you doing here?"Naruto asked the rock which had previously been chasing him around. Kiba, meanwhile, had taken up staring it down hesitantly once more, Sakura frowned, wasn't he over this already? "I should have expected that from the man I look up to. Good job detecting me"

"Hey you used too much gunpowder." the trio looked up at Naruto, as though shocked to see him before reintroducing themselves once more. Naruto, however, was rather unimpressed, arms crossed behind his head as he spoke, "What do you three want? I'm about to take the second exam for the Chuunin selection exam. I don't have time to play with you."

"We didn't come here to play," Konohmaru said before Moegi stepped in to continue the explanation. "Yeah, we came here to get a story!" Naruto's face morphed from one of indifference to confusion within seconds. "A story?" Konohamaru went into a little more detail 

"We were asked to do an exclusive story on the Chuunin selection exam for our school newspaper." He paused for a breath as Moegi completed the sentence for the little boy, "So we came to ask you some questions. Please cooperate." Naruto looked at them hesitantly, as if doubting whether he could or not. "But..."

"Hey there! What are you doing?" They all turned to the now-approaching proctor of the exam before Naruto explained the situation, "Konohamaru wants to do an exclusive for his school newspaper or something." The woman in front of them nervously rubbed the back of her head, a slight fluster of embarrassment on her cheeks, "Oh yes! I forgot that Hokage-sama mentioned something like that. All right, we are going to have a 10 minutes break now. If you are asked any questions, please concede and cooperate quietly."

"Naruto, I'm counting on you." Konohamaru said, instantly sucking up to the older boy who reacted instantly, "Fine, I'll tell you all the good things about me."

Sakura simply sighed, this was going to be a long 10 minutes...

"You will be able to experience why this is called the Forest of Death" Anko continued her speech which had been interrupted by the academy students moments before."You will be able to experience why this is called the Forest of Death" Naruto mimicked, swinging his hips around, hands on his waist. "There's no point trying to scare us like that. I'm not scared at all."

"You sure are energetic" was all the warning Naruto got from the sickeningly-sweetly smiling woman before she threw a kunai at his with incredible accuracy, appearing behind him seconds later. "Boys like you die the fastest. After spilling all that red blood I love all over the place."

She quickly drew another kunai as another woman appeared behind her, "Here's your kunai." the woman said, the weapon held only by her tongue, "Thank you. But don't stand behind me like that. That is unless you want to die young." The two glared at each other in complete silence before Anko reclaimed her weapon, "Well, I get itchy when I see blood. Also, my precious hair got cut, so I got a little excited. I'm sorry." "It looks like there are a lot of hot-headed people here today. This is going to be interesting."

"Before we begin the exams, I'm going to pass these out to everyone." she withdrew a stack of paper from within her trench coat, "These are consent forms. Those taking this exam must sign it. From here on, people will die. Therefore, we need people's consent before we continue. Otherwise, I'll be held responsible." The woman said before laughing to herself as though she'd just said a funny joke. "To be concise, you'll all go through an extreme survival match. First, I'll explain the training grounds of geographical features." 

The woman went on to not only explain its appearance but the rules of the exams. Training Ground 44 was a circular shaped training ground with many gates and a tower in the middle. The aim was to collect your missing scroll(s) to make sure that you had one of each. You would then have to get to the tower in the middle. All this had to be done over the course of 5 days. Sakura frowned in annoyance to herself, this was going to be a pain. Not long after the speech was over, team 7 wandered over to hand in their forms in exchange for their scroll, a Heaven one. Tucking it into one of her many puppets, she selected another one out of her pockets, eyes seeking someone with an Earth scroll. All she needed to do was get it in the puppet now then she'd summon the spider back to her later and they'd be on the home stretch back to the tower before anyone else. The less time they spent in that forest, the better.

The team which they took a scroll from ended up being some team from the sound. The same one which had attacked Kabuto earlier in the exams in fact. Sakura took extreme joy in taking their one, she'd no idea why though.

Both herself and her two teammates found themselves standing in front of one of the many gates surrounding the area. Their current scroll was tucked neatly inside her weapons pouch as she looked at her teammates. "Alright, you two. Whatever happens, go straight to the tower. Do not stray. Do not start any fights. If someone goes missing, they will need to spike their chakra before heading to the tower. You both know how to do that... Don't you? You do it just before doing a jutsu, just, don't actually do one, okay?" she gave them a smile as the chuunin in front of them began to unlock the gates. "Let's do this." the trio had a group hug before the gates creaked open. It had begun.