Chūnin exams stage 2

Hiroto looked at the door to see a white-eyed man enter the room, he immediately identified the newly arrived jonin as a Hyūga clansman based on the signature eyes of the Hyūga clan.

"My name is Hyūga Hizashi and I will be your proctor for the second test, follow me" saying this the twin of the Hyūga clan head left the room.

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Hiroto and his team came to a stop seeing a huge forest that was heavily fenced to prevent unauthorized entry, he saw the name of it as 'Forest of death'.

"In this task, your team will be given a set of scrolls, you need to protect your scrolls and collect another set of scrolls from another team, for example, if you are given earth scrolls then you will need to collect heaven scrolls and vice-versa if you have heaven scrolls, after you collect both sets of scrolls you need to arrive at the control center located at the center of the forest before five days. Anything goes on this round even death it might be because of all the beings that reside in the forest or in the hands of your enemy" Hizashi said with a strict tone.

A few genin voiced out their indignation at the prospect of death, Hizashi shut those people with a look and said "You always have the option to quit so shut up and sign these forms", he handed out forms which basically means Konoha holds no responsibility in case of their death and they are participating in the competition knowing full well the possibility of death exists.

A few teams quit leaving only 12 teams who signed the document and decided to participate, soon each of the teams was given a set of three scrolls with heaven written on half of them and earth on the other half.

Hiroto's team got earth scrolls, and everyone got ready to enter the forest, "A word of advice I don't suggest opening the scroll before you reach your destination if you want to move forward in the chūnin exam" Hizashi cautioned them, and signaled for the doors to be opened.

Soon one by one all the genins made their way in. "Follow me guys, I'm familiar with the forest" Anko said to her teammates and led them to a river.

"It's the only water source" Anko said enlightening her friends.

"I can use my sensor ability to sense any chakra signature nearby" Hiroto told his friends.

"We can then use traps or I can use genjutsu to reduce commotion" Itachi said.

"If it fails I can capture the target and make him giveaway the scroll" Anko said with a sadistic grin.

"Or we can use transformation jutsu to trace their hiding place and complete the task with ease" Hiroto said causing his purple-haired friend to groan.

As the plan was decided they decided on a particular sound to inform their teammates of the arrival of a target, erased all the signs they were here, and hid themselves covering all the sides.

They waited for a few hours and Anko is beginning to lose her patience waiting for her prey luckily for her or the people who are free from Anko's clutches Hiroto gave the signal.

Hiroto sensed a chakra moving towards the river direction soon he saw a Kusa genin with average features, he stayed vigilant for some time but he returned to a nonchalant expression as he didn't notice any human presence or traces in the surrounding area.

Hiroto, Itachi, and Anko jumped at the Kusa ninja from three sides surrounding him, Itachi turned his eyes to sharingan and faced no problem making his target fall under genjutsu.

Anko groaned as she got no chance to fight, Hiroto ignored his friend's antics and knocked out the ninja, he searched if he had the scroll on him and luckily he found a heaven scroll.

Hiroto threw the newly obtained heaven scroll to his snake-summoning friend, stopping her from cursing the Kusa ninja for not putting up a fight.

Anko held the scroll and traced the steps back to find the other two team members of the captured Kusa genin, Hiroto and Itachi kept a lookout incase of an ambush. Sometime later Anko found a cave with traps laced around the entrance of the cave, Itachi and Anko disabled the traps while Hiroto has an eye out for any new enemy.

Team 3 made their way inside the cave stealthily without any hindrances and found the remaining team members with one member dealing with firewood and another cleaning rabbits preparing for their meal. Hiroto signaled for Anko and she hit the Kusa genins with senbons laced with mild poison and knockout medicine. Hiroto and Itachi moved fast and knocked out the two and found the other two heaven scrolls required. Team 3 shared a smile and Anko directed her teammates to the control tower located at the center of the forest through a secret path she found.

Nearly half an hour later team 3 arrived at the tower, each of them held two scrolls and entered the tower to see Hyūga Hizashi waiting inside, he told them to open the scrolls and a clone of a chūnin who stood by Hizashi appeared.

Hizashi nodded and ordered the clone to disappear, he looked at the newly arrived genin and said "Congratulations you've passed the second stage of the chūnin exams and you've also cleared the stage in record time cementing your names in Konoha's history. Good job", he appreciated them and said, "You can take rest in the rooms in control tower till the time designated for the second task is complete". "Hiroko-san will be proud of you if he is here with us" Hizashi said to Hiroto in a low voice and left.

"He knew my father(birth father)" Hiroto said to his friends, as Anko was also let in on Hiroto's family history and she nearly attacked the villagers badmouthing Naruto when she got to know the Yondaime Hokage's relation with these pair of Uzumakis, Itachi and Hiroto had to hold her back.

Like that Team 3 enjoyed the stay like a vacation while the other teams toiled hard to pass the exam during these five days and soon everyone was gathered in the control tower arena.