The Forest of Death

Shiki was in the waiting room with all other examinees, waiting for the beginning of the first exam. All the rookies were arriving as well and started talking with a certain white haired guy.

Seeing them get chummy with Kabuto, Shiki decided to join and listen in on Kabuto's info. Kabuto was only explaining about Rock Lee as Sasuke didn't ask about Gaara due to Shiki's actions before but as he mentioned Otogakure, the three Oto stooges started moving making Shiki wonder.

'I wonder . . . Don't these idiots know that picking fights with shinobi that are supposedly from the village they are in, outside of the bounds of the chunin exams is liable to end badly.'

'In fact, you're planning on causing problems in the village but you're still drawing unneeded attention to yourselves. It makes me question the existence of brains in your skulls!'

The end result was all three being smashed into the ground by Shiki the moment they jumped out. He did so so fast that no one realized what just happened except for Naruto, Sasuke and Hinata who knew that Shiki must have done something from experience even if they didn't catch it.

Kabuto had also realized something of course. Even though he was posing as a genin, he had the abilities of a jonin so it would be weird if he didn't. Shiki was looking closely at him and seeing if he made any reaction that gave his disguise away.

Shiki was disappointed however.

'Seriously! His skill as a spy is undeniable. Even faced with such an unexpected situation he didn't reveal any flaws. I even let the Oto stooges get close and took them out right in front of him but he still managed to act as if he also didn't know what was going on.'

While Shiki praised Kabuto in his mind, he noticed some particularly intense gazes from Gaara, Temari and Kankuro.

'Guess they managed to draw a connection between what happened to them and what I did just now!' Shiki theorized but responded by merely smiling and winking at Temari while ignoring the other two. After that, he decided to make conversation with his sweet and cute Hinata until the examiners came, something that immensely pleased her.

"So Hinata! Ready for the exams?" Shiki asked.

"Mhm!" She answered with a smile and blush. Although she was still shy, she certainly didn't lack for confidence in her abilities any longer.

"Shiki-kun, Are you taking the exam by yourself? I thought it was required to be in a three man cell to take it." Asked Hinata. This drew the attention of the other rookies that started listening in for the answer.

"That's right! The Hokage made a special exception considering my skills!"

This amazed the rookies who each had their own reactions from fangirling, to disinterest, to "As expected of Shiki-san!" but soon, the examiners came and told the examinees to seat themselves in their assigned spot.

The first exam was about to start. Shiki wondered if there were going to be changes considering that a big part of it had to do with your connection with your team and such but no surprises. He still did his part and smoothly answered all the questions.

He was certainly smart enough to come up with the answers for the test but why would he considering there was a far more effortless option of stealing them?

The proctor of the first exam Ibino still did his whole schtick with the final question and Anko still made her "dramatic" appearance at the end. Shiki was trying to stifle his laughter at her antics and it only made her more embarrassed since she acted in such an uncool way in front of him.

Fast forwarding in time, the second exam was about to start everyone had finished gathering in the vicinity of the dreaded Forest of Death and Anko started to give her explanation.

She spared no effort as he made the place sound like any human's nightmare and how everyone had to sign a pledge due to the very real possibility of death in this next trial. As Anko was wrapping up the explanations, Naruto started his shenanigans which made Shiki facepalm.

'Clearly, Naruto is still not as competent as I wish he'd be . . .' Shiki thought as he bashed him over the head, knocking the blondie onto the ground while saying.

"Please continue Anko-nee!" With a bright smile to which she replied with a thank you before giving out the last of her explanations.

Naruto, who realised that the proctor for the second exam and Shiki seemed to be close or at least in good terms, in a rare moment of wisdom decided to keep quiet about Shiki's treatment of him and pretend nothing had happened.

But in an event that somewhat surprised Shiki, he felt an intense gaze on him. He didn't turn but realized this gaze was coming from a certain snake already disguised as a Kusa-nin.

'I thought I might have to go and save Sasuke's ass from Pedomaru but it seems the snake has his eyes on me instead . . . Well, I do seem like a more desirable vessel so I guess I'll have to teach Orochimaru to not bite off more than he can chew like Itachi did.' Shiki decided in his mind.

Shiki received a Heaven scroll so his target would be an Earth scroll. He planned to recruit Karin in this exam so he would find her first and charm her into joining him before duking it out with Orochimaru. If he was lucky, her team would have the scroll he needed.

When the exam started, Shiki immediately used his White Eye of the Kagura to locate Team Shigeri of which Karin was a part of. He blasted off in their direction with body flicker, his speed far faster than most if not all jonin currently alive even without using his Lightning Style: Godspeed.

Although he knew he might scare Karin a bit, Shiki didn't want to drag things on for too long so when he appeared in front of the Kusa trio, the redhead's companions just dropped to the ground dead, their necks having been broken without them even realizing.

Karin was terrified and closed her eyes in fear but Shiki simply hugged her causing her to freeze. He had noticed multiple bite marks on her and despite the fact that he would do things even more terrible to others he was mad at her treatment.

'Yeah I'm a hypocrite! Sue me!' He though as he hugged the scared girl.

Still, he decided to embellish things a slight bit in order to make Karin more accepting of him. Although she could tell lies apart from the truth with her Mind's Eye of the Kagura which she could already use, since Shiki had that same ability, he could still fool her. And so, he got his Talk-no-Jutsu going to see if he could get a nice result.

"I'm sorry!" Started Shiki without releasing her from a hug. "To think a member of my clan would be facing such treatment in another village . . . I'm truly sorry for not having found you sooner . . ."

"S-Same clan?" Stuttered Karing still a bit scared but not as much. Shiki's powerful and encompassing chakra giving her a comforting feeling.

Shiki then explained about how they came from the same clan and even had similar abilities.

"Please come with me! Kusa doesn't deserve you! You belong by my side!" Shiki didn't mean it romantically but in the mind of a young girl who had been abused since childhood and alone in the world after her mother's death, it certainly sounded so.

As such, with a cute blush and tears of joy, Karin accepted his offer, with no thought given to the lives of her squad mates who had wronged her and so, Shiki decided to send a clone with her to lead her out of the forest. Since it was faster, he even gave her a princess carry which feed into the girl's dreams of romance even more.

Having take care of one of his main objectives in the forest of death, Shiki quickly searched the two Kusa-nin he just killed and found a very nice Earth scroll.

'Great! Now all I have to do is wait for the snake to show up.' Though Shiki as he "slowly" made his way to the central tower. He had to do it far slower than he could or Orochimaru might not catch up before he reached his destination.

He was on the mark as he sensed an approaching Orochimaru trying to keep himself hidden, not knowing he was facing who was most likely the best sensor in the world alive today.

The sanle attempted a sneak attack, appearing from a thick tree branch that Shiki was going to land on but the white haired boy didn't even miss a beat as he smashed a Chakra Burst enhanced kick onto the branch hitting the unsuspecting Orochimaru right in the face blowing his last second guard appart with ease and shattering the tree branch itself too.

Orochimaru simply "hiddenly" did one of his notorious substitutions and appeared on the ground facing Shiki who landed near his position.

"Very nice indeed! Shiki-kun . . ."