Start of the Exam

Next day.

I walked into Gato's hideout and killed every bandit that was in there. I wanted to be done as quickly as possible so I let them scream to draw Gato out. He came with some man and stared at me smirking. "What do you think you doing scum? Are you looking to die?"

I looked at him in disgust. People like him made me sick, and I wanted to kill him instantly, but I had to play dumb: "I heard you hired Zabuza to assassinate the bridge builder. As long as he is not here, I will kill you and take the money." Gato started to laugh: "Money?! Ha, this is all my money. Zabuza can die, I don't care about him. He can just perish so I can collect his bounty." I just shook my head. 'Is it only Gato or are most useless characters in Naruto just straight-up dumb? You don't tell your enemy what you want. It makes it easier for them to kill you. Nevermind, he sentenced his death willingly.'

I just sat down, smiling. "You can have him. I can't believe he told it bluntly to some random individual. He sure is confident with his bodyguards. He is all yours." From the shadow, one could see the mist rolling around. Gato and his henchmen started to freak out as the mist surrounded and I heard them scream: "What is this? What is this mist? Where is everyone?" Gato panicked. From the mist came only one word: "Dead." Zabuza swung his sword and took Gato's head.

Outside of the hideout.

Zabuza stood across Ishizu: "You were right. This bastard wanted to double-cross me and now he is dead. I don't like to say it, but you have my gratitude." Ishizu smiled: "Yes, thank you for believing me. I didn't want to fight you and your adopted daughter, so I came up with a strategy." Zabuza just looked annoyed at the comment: "No problem, I didn't go to fight as it would be unnecessary and stop calling Haku my adopted daughter. You have my thanks and that's all, now goodbye." Ishizu waved at the leaving Zabuza and Haku: "I hope you meet Terumi-san so you can have many babies."

Haku giggled and Zabuza just ignored Ishizu. Before leaving Ishizu explained to them that Mei Terumi is looking for more forces to defeat Yagura. Zabuza and Haku believed Ishizu as he stated to them that the war will soon end and with Terumi winning. Zabuza believed Ishizu as his moniker wasn't just for the show. With Zabuza in their team, it would be quicker and fewer people would die. After that, both parties left. Everything went perfect afterward. The mission ended as Zabuza didn't show up and Kakashi relaxed after I mentioned to him about the encounter with Gato. We headed back to Konoha, and it was finally time for my plan to move into play.

1 month until the exams. I used my foreknowledge to apply as the proctor of the second exam because I wanted to observe Orochimaru during his attack on Sasuke and not risk Anko's life.

Using the Hashirama cell I had in me, I tried to create the wood style. It would come in handy as wood clones were very troublesome to distinguish and only Madara knew how, and second it was good to have it if Naruto went berserk. Learning it was difficult, and I had to go through trials and errors to make a few wood clones but that was enough for the moment. I also didn't neglect my Genin team. I focused more on training Hinata as I wanted her to climb in the Chunin exam.

During the month, I observed Naruto as he encountered Gaara. Some things took place like in canon and some different. The encounter with the Suna Team happened without Sakura chasing Konohamaru but with Ino as the young boy called her ugly. Then Konohamaru had an encounter with Kankuro and Hinata protecting him from the Puppeteer. Gaara revealed himself to my team.

I rolled my eyes when Sasuke showed up just to be cool. Gaara asked for only Sasuke's name and that's all. I was angry and leaked some killing intent, which froze Gaara as he tried to find it. 'How dare you not see that the strongest is Naruto! Well, never mind, he also wanted all their blood for his mother. Maybe I should check on his seal later.'

General POV

Training ground 43. Naruto, Hinata, and Ino, after meeting the Suna team, came to the training ground to meet with their sensei to ask about the Chunin exam. "Of course I enlisted you. It is in one week so prepare yourself. What do you think those friendly fights were we did each month?" said Ishizu while reading an Icha-Icha book. The week went by and Ishizu prepared everyone for the Chunin exam.

Many people looked forward, but the most excited was Ishizu because he could have some fun at this time.

Ishizu POV

It started. I wished them good luck in the exam and left for the Jonin lounge. Here I waited for my entrance for the exam while watching how my students did as well as looking at potential threats.

I could see Orochimaru using his disguise as a grass shinobi. 'This guy is superb at hiding his chakra. Only with activating the Rinnegan can I see his ugly charka'. My team passed the Genjutsu and watched as Sasuke challenged Lee. With my training, he could hold up against Lee for a while and Lee even considered opening the first gate but was stopped by Gai.

Next, I noticed Kabuto coming in chatting about his cards. Sasuke asked Kabuto to tell him what the cards about Gaara and Naruto said. I listened to Kabuto talking about Naruto and wanted to see what he perceived about me, but it was a disappointment as he didn't talk about it. I am sure this creep knew about me but only a small portion. After I received the Rinnegan I never fought with 100% so that's why I was so excited to fight at least against Orochimaru with some power than ever. All the important people passed the 1 exam, and it was time for my entrance. As Ibiki finished his sentence, the room turned cold and from a black hole a person with a fox mask came out.

'I love this type of entrance.'

"Greetings young Genin. I will be your proctor for the second exam. My name is Fox. Follow me to the training ground 44." I didn't want to say my real identity as you never know what Orochimaru would do. I hopped out of the window and people either jumped or used the long way with the stair.

Training ground 44:

I looked at the Genin: "Welcome to the training ground 44 also known as the Forest of Death. The exam is done as followed:

Each of you will pick up either an Earth or Heaven Scroll and you need to get the other from your opponents.

The how is not important, though killing is not forbidden we do not welcome it.

You have 5 days to secure both scrolls and come to the black tower in the middle of it.

How you collect the scroll from other teams is up to you. Each group goes from one gate. You should find food and water inside but beware the forest has its name because of a reason as people died before, so be careful. Only open the two scrolls at the tower.

If you disobey, I will disqualify you and your team."

I handed each one a scroll, and the exam began. 'Now it is time to make some changes in the exam.' I had to watch out for Sasuke that he didn't die. Me being born could already mess things up, so I had to supervise such an event like the curse seal. Surviving a 1 in 10 death sentence was not a thing I wanted to have up for luck.

Then there were Orochimaru and the sound team. I didn't want to interfere but if worst comes to arise I will. Naruto's team was at the other end of Sasuke's so a meeting wouldn't happen but just to be sure I had a clone on the lookout. There was also another clone I made to have a certain girl watched and helped.

I wanted to strengthen Konoha and weaken Orochimaru even in the future. The best way was to diminish his future minions. One of the being Karin. She was an Uzumaki and had inherited the chakra chains. Such a person was useful for both Konoha and me as well as a family member to Naruto. And that's why I learned the wood style. With that, I made many clones to follow certain people and see if they are all right. The main me followed Sasuke.

Ishizu's POV Team 7

It happens on the 4th day that Orochimaru appeared. Sakura was useless as ever, but Sai did well. Still, Orochimaru knocked Sai out and implanted Sasuke with his cursed seal. I could interfere but fighting a Sannin without showing the Rinnegan was not smart. I made a bet with the devil that I trusted Orochimaru not to kill the other two but it seemed that I gambled well. After he left, I entered disguised with a strong Genjutsu so Sakura wouldn't see me and looked at the cursed seal.

'Bah. Such wasted potential. It is like a Horcrux from Harry Potter. He put a part of his soul into the seal. It functions to corrupts the user slowly and without Orochimaru, the user would die even if he survived the procedure. On the other side, it has Jugo's Senjutsu in it which was precious. I will take some of it to look into it later. Let's use this moment to know how another one of the Paths works.'

I focused my charka into my eyes as they turned into the Rinnegan and muttered: "Ningendo". With that, I placed my hand on the curse mark to feel the soul of the snake. My charka started to drain, and I didn't want Sakura to see me. 'Damm, I need to find it fast or my chakra will be gone.' After a few seconds, I found the foul soul and took it out. It was not over as I made special hand signs:

'Hare>Bird>Tiger' "Fuinjutsu: Nature's Calm."

It was a special Fuinjutsu I created studying Jiraiya's Sage mode. It uses natural energy to clean the body and soul without me interacting with it directly so I wouldn't turn into stone. With that, I could lessen the corruption to some extent but the main purpose was to take some sage charka out of the seal and seal it in a specific scroll for my later study of Senjutsu. During Sasuke's time in Konoha, I needed to apply it one more time to completely transform the mark, but it wasn't the time now. As I finished my work, I hid and waited for Sasuke to wake up and for the sound team to arrive.