He seeks advice from Kurenai

They day of the second exam arrived earlier than Naruto had wanted it to. He hadn't slept very well last night. In fact, he had gotten too little sleep to be even participating in this. But he knew he had to get going, and after a joyless breakfast, he went over to the designated spot in the yard of the academy, where his teammates were already waiting with the other teams to be led to the next stage.

"Hey Naruto! Wow, what's wrong with you, you don't look too good!", Sakura commented. He didn't carry any visible injuries, but his bad mood was obvious. Now that Naruto wasn't perpetually smiling and grinning, it stood out even more.

Naruto scratched his head, as he tried to find good words to put it. Ultimately though, he decided to be blunt. "Yeah, I, uh... I still found those sound ninja yesterday. They beat the crap out of me...", Naruto admitted as he saw Kurenai-sensei approaching them.

At once, he waved her over. Surprised by the urgency of his wave, Kurenai hurried over to her team, where Naruto was anxiously awaiting her. "Kurenai-sensei, please, I need to talk with you!", he said quickly as she was with them.

So, Naruto told them everything he had witnessed and heard yesterday. About the Sound-nin planning to kill one of their own, about them having some sort of 'mission' in Konoha, everything he could recall. While listening, Kurenai wore a thoughtful face, and it was hard to tell if she believed Naruto after he had ended his tale.

His two teammates unquestioningly did, as they gasped in horror as he had finished recalling yesterdays events. "Are you really alright, Naruto-kun?", Ino asked, concerned for her boyfriend.

Naruto **** a bit of a smile to convince his teammates. "Of course, don't worry about me. It takes a lot more to bring me down!", he responded, and while it was true that his body wasn't injured, his pride had taken the brunt of the beating.

Kurenai nodded as she considered the words Naruto had spoken carefully. "I see. To be honest, I have been told that the teams from Otogakure are somewhat under surveillance already, but these are bad news. I will talk with the Hokage about this, Naruto. But this will not interfere with the normal flow of the Chuunin exam.", she told her team.

"What? But how can we let this go on? We know they're up to something now!", Sakura exclaimed, somewhat furious.

But Kurenai shook her head at this. "These are the Chuunin exams. They're not just a matter that concerns only Konoha, but all great nations. If we stop or interrupt it because of an internal threat like this, we're giving the other nations the impression that we're weak. Don't forget, even though this is a test for you, it also indirectly changes the image of Konoha. If it is for the better or for the worse is up to you.", she reminded her team with a stern expression.

At that moment, a Jounin had arrived and loudly announced to the gathered shinobi to follow him to the stage of the next part of the exam. "Good luck, Team 7. I will wait in the tower for you.", Kurenai bid farewell to her team before vanishing in a swirl of leaves.

As Naruto and his team walked after the Jounin, Naruto couldn't help but look through the gathered crowd of Genin here. He saw his friends, but like him, they were all too anxious to walk over and chat. He caught a glimpse of the team from Sunagakure. The redhead stared into the void, the guy with the facepaint (Kankuro was his name, wasn't it?) noticed his stare and glared right back at him. Only Temari winked at him before returning her attention back to her siblings.

He also saw Haku from yesterday. She also saw him looking at her and smiled at him before mouthing something towards him. Unfortunately, Naruto wasn't good at lipreading, so he had no clue what she had meant to say...

Lastly, Naruto caught sight of the black-haired girl from yesterday. She looked pale and probably hadn't slept much better than he did. She didn't notice him, but her teammates did. They looked at Naruto with disdain, like one would look at an insect before squashing it, before diverting their attention to themselves again.

Just then, Naruto felt a stare that was directed at him. He turned and saw that it was Ino. But it hadn't been a stare of jealousy, because as soon as he looked at her, Ino turned the other direction. That was definitely odd, so he decided to ask his girlfried about it. "Ino-chan, what's wrong with you today? You seem strange, too.", he questioned the blonde.

Ino hesitantly turned to look at him. She looked as if she wanted to said anything, but in the last moment changed her mind. "Well... it's nothing, Naruto.", Ino said, averting her gaze.

Naruto was confused. "If you say so...", he answered. He had learned that if Ino didn't want to talk about it, she just didn't want to talk about it, and he had gotten wise enough not to pressure her.

There was a small moment of awkward silence as they were walking outside of the village, right up to a fence around a small forest. The trees were huge here, from the bottom of the forest, Naruto soon got an aching neck from trying to look up to the tip of the closest tree. So this was where the exam would take place...

"Alright, listen up, you sorry brats!", a loud voice called and the attention was drawn to the shapely figure of Mitarashi Anko, who was standing on top of a stall next to the gate that led into the forest.

Like yesterday, she seemed to be in a rather cheerful mood. "THIS! Is the Forest of ****!", Anko explained with a grand gesture towards the obvious forest behind her.

A groan. "Who would've guessed?", Naruto muttered. In an instant, his disinterest got him a retaliation he hadn't expected. A kunai had been flung right at him, and Naruto, only seeing it from the corner of his eye, only just pulled his head away so that it grazed his cheek. It still cut his skin and created a gash, and blood was quickly flowing out of the small wound.

"That's what happens if you don't pay attention to me...", the Special Jounin said as she stepped towards the frightened Naruto. Then, in a move that surprised everyone, she bent over, giving Naruto a good view of her cleavage and let her tongue dart out over the Anko purred as she licked the blood from Narutos cheek. "I've got a taste for blood. Mmm, so young, so fresh... I hope you make it out alive, boy.", she explained as Naruto felt her warm tongue move over his face, until the bleeding had stopped. "If not... we'll give you a proper burial.", the scary lady said nonchalantly while still wearing that same smile she had before.

"Here. You dropped this.", a longhaired ninja from the Grass Country said and handed Anko her kunai. Well, he rather gave it to her with his tongue, but Anko didn't seem to mind.

"Oh. Why, thank you.", she said as she took the kunai and returned to her previous spot on top of the stall.

"Anyways, back to topic.", she announced and held two scrolls aloft. "These two scrolls are called 'Earth scroll' and 'Heaven scroll', respectively. You will start off with one of them, and you'll have to find the other one before you come to the tower in the center of the forest. The time limit is 72 hours to do that!", she said loudly.

"So that means we'll either have to steal it or defeat a team to get their scroll... but we won't know which team has the matching scroll beforehand... man, that sucks.", Naruto heard Shikamaru complain next to him. Naruto chuckled, seeing his friend still complaining even in front of such a task was somewhat of a relief.

"In other words, only half of the teams can advance to the next round?", Sakura asked loudly, getting Ankos attention.

The proctor nodded. "Yup, that's right. But usually, it's far less than that. Other than your opponents, the forest isn't called the 'Forest of ****' for nothing.", she reminded the young Genin with her still unnervingly cheery voice.

She scratched her head a moment in comtemplation. That might've been a normal gesture, hadn't she done the scratching with the very kunai she had used to slice Naruto's cheek open. Thankfully, a small band-aid from Sakura covered the wound now. "Anything I forgot? Oh yeah. Folks, you MUST NOT look into the scroll before you enter the tower. If you open the scroll before you're inside that building, you'll automatically be disqualified. In a pretty uncomfortable manner, if I might add.".

Naruto gritted his teeth. His curiosity over what was inside those scrolls peaked. 'Damn, now I'm even more curious as to what's inside...!!', Naruto thought as Anko seemed about done with the rules.

"Good good, now each team comes here and signs up. You'll be given a scroll and each team will be led to their entrance.", Anko finished her explanation and jumped down from the stall.

Slowly, the teams moved forward to register and receive their scroll, before being led away by the staff that stood ready there.

Some time later, it was Team Sevens turn. After signing up their names, they drew a number and were handed scroll. They got an Earth Scroll. The number, so they were told, corresponded to the gate where they would be entering the forest.

So, as they were brought to the gate by a Chuunin, Ino, for the first time, took control of the team as she was supposed to. "Hey guys, we have to go over our strategy!", she said. Naruto was still wondering what had been bothering Ino before, but now, as a ninja in this team, she didn't let it get to her.

Both her teammates nodded thoughtfully. She was right of course. "Yeah. Like, who's gonna carry our scroll?", Sakura chimed in. "And what are we gonna do once we're inside...", she wondered with a look at the number of the gate they were standing in front of now.

Yup, this would be their starting point. A small clock over the entrance showed the countdown until the gate opened. Only five minutes, and then the second stage of the exam would begin...