The next morning Aceso stood at the Forest of Death with the Chunin exam testees and some others including Anko. She always hated going in there, but she loved the Chunin exams. Out of all the things in the world, centipedes were her biggest fear, it didn't help they were gigantic in the Forest of Death.

" Whoa, nice place," Naruto complimented. " What is it?"

" This is the location for the second phase of the exam," Anko explained. " It's the 44th Battle Training Zone. But we call it the Forest of Death."

" Forest of Death?" Naruto gasped. He then looked to the side to see fake rocks creeping up to him, he then started running, the rocks followed, he then stopped and faced it, and the fake square rocks stopped as well.

" That's the worst disguise of all time!" Naruto shouted pointing at the rocks. " There's no such thing as square rocks. It's completely obvious."

" You saw through my camouflage again!" Konohamaru shouted. " You're slick boss. Just what I'd expect from my greatest rival. " The box shined greatly, it came with some explosions, and smoke, three kids were coughing from it. " I think we used a little too much gunpowder, you guys." They looked up questionably at Naruto.

" I'm Moegi, the sassiest kunoichi in preschool," Moegi announced. " Check me out!"

" I love Algebra," Udon announced. " Call me Udon."

" And I'm the number one ninja in the village," Konohamaru announced. " Konohamaru! And when we're all together..."

" We're the Konohamaru Ninja Squad!" the three announced.

" Yeah, I knew it was you guys the whole time," Naruto said, Aceso shook her head. " What do you losers want? I'm getting ready to take the second phase of the Chunin Exam, and you're interrupting me. I don't have time to be playing around with you guys now."

" We didn't come to play around, boss," Konohamaru stated. " We're on official business."

" Yeah, that's right," Moegi declared. " We came here for an exclusive interview."

" Uh-huh," Udon nodded. " Uh-huh."

" An interview, huh?" Naruto asked.

" We're here on an assignment to write an article for the academy's newspaper," Konohamaru explained. " It's a bigtime feature story, all about the Chunin Selection Examinations.

" So that's why we want to do an exclusive interview with you," Moegi added. " Please tell us you're going to do it?"

" It would mean a lot," Udon pleaded befoe sniffing up snot.

" Yeah, but right now?" Naruto asked. " Ugh."

" Hey, you over there!" Anko shouted as she walked over.

" Huh?" Naruto asked as Aceso followed her.

" What are you doing?" Anko demanded. " You're holding up the exams."

" Uh, sorry," Naruto apologized. " But Konohamaru was telling me something about an interview for the academy newspaper." Anko let out a gasp and her eyes went wide.

" Oh, yeah, I forgot all about it," Anko laughed as she put a hand behind her head. " Lord Hokage had mentioned something about them interviewing me.

" Uh, interviewing you?" Naruto asked.

" All right, we're taking a 10-minute break," Anko announced. " For those that are scheduled to be interviewed, please be courteous and respectful to the reporters from the academy newspaper."

" I thought I was the only one being interviewed," Naruto said.

" No, boss," Konohamaru denied as he held out a pen and paper. " But you are the most important."

" Oh, well, in that case, I'll give you an interview, that'll make it clear to your readers why I'm the greatest ninja ever!" Naruto agreed with a smile. Everyone began to take the 10-minute break as some got an interview.

" Excuse me," a voice said, Aceso turned around to see the guy in the green jumpsuit yesterday. He had extremely bushy eyebrows.

" Did you need something?" Aceso asked, his cheeks growing red.

" I'm am Rock Lee from the Leaf Village," He introduced himself.

" I'm aware, Gai-sensei talks about your team a lot," Aceso said. Lee's face became very happy." Did you need something Rock Lee?" 

" I wanted to ask about your chakra medicine," Lee requested as he twiddled his thumbs.

" What about it?" Aceso asked.

" How did you make it?" Lee asked.

" I used my own chakra to make it," Aceso asked. Lee's eyes began to sparkle.

" That is so cool!" Lee squealed as he jumped around. " Use it on me!"

" Only if you really need it," Aceso informed. " If it's not serious, I will just use regular ointment." In the distance, Naruto was just finishing up his interview and he glanced over at the two.

" I see that bushy brows wasted no time to talk to my sister," Naruto noticed, Sasuke looked over.

" We should save her from him," Sasuke suggested. "Shouldn't be talking to someone that weird." Back over by the two of them.

" From here on forward I will always protect you!" Lee promised as he put a thumb out with a smile. ' And my future girlfriend,' Lee thought to himself. That caught him off guard, just yesterday he asked Sakura to be his girlfriend, but that all changed the minute Aceso walked into the written portion. But he couldn't find the words to ask her out loud.

" Huh?" Aceso asked as she had a questioningly look on her face. " Well, on top of that promise, I promise if anything is to happen to you, that I will be the one to heal you."

" Huh?" Lee asked with the same questioning look on his face, he then started laughing and Aceso laughed as well.

" I shouldn't keep you much longer," Aceso admitted. " You are bound to be interviewed very soon." She turned around.

" One more thing," Lee spoke up, she stopped and looked back at him. " Most people wouldn't agree to let somebody with only Tai-"

" If your anything like Gai sensei, you're most likely one of the physically strongest people here," Aceso cut him off. " From what Gai sensei told me, you're kind as well and I admire that, I have no problem if there ever comes a time where I have to put my life in your hands." Lee looked at her and his cheeks turned red. " Good luck Rock Lee." She nodded at him and then walked away.

" What do you think you are doing?" Naruto demanded as he marched over, Lee turned to look at them.

" Talking to Aceso," Lee answered. " Very nice person."

" Somebody as weird as you shouldn't be talking to her," Sasuke growled.

" I was just asking her about the medicine," Lee informed as he put his hands up.

" Well don't," Naruto grunted. " She is my sister and if you want to talk to her, you have to go through me first."

" She's not your sister," Sasuke recalled.

" I adopted her as my sister, therefore she is my sister," Naruto declared. " Got a problem with that?"

" That's not how adoption works you, idiot," Sasuke rolled his eyes.

" I promise I brought no harm to your sister Naruto," Lee promised with a smile and a thumbs up.

Aceso was walking back over to Anko when she got stopped once more.

" How did the surgeries go?" Kankuro asked, Aceso stopped and turned towards the ninjas from the sand ninja.

" Excellent," Aceso answered. " Though it might be a while till the girl can sit down properly, the appendix guy is also in for a rough week."

" So does your medicine really work?" Temari asked.

" Yes," Aceso smiled. " I tested it on Naruto about a week or so ago."

" Was that your first mission?" Gaara asked.

" Out of the hospital, yes," Aceso answered. " All surgeries, in my opinion, are missions, someone's life could be at stake, I want to save them."

" Do you just do surgeries?" Gaara asked.

" No," Aceso answered. " I do about what every nurse and doctor does in a hospital," Aceso answered. " I delivered a baby a few days before you three arrived. I must leave you alone now, interviews are almost over. Good luck to all three of you." She nodded and walked away. Just as she said, minutes later the interviews had ended and Anko was back to explaining about phase two. They all stared into the forest of death.

" This whole place just completely creeps me out," Sakura cried.

" It should," Aceso giggled.

" They call it the forest of Death, and soon enough you're going to find out why," Anko added with a smile.

" They call it the Forest of Death and soon enough you're going find out why," Naruto mocked as he danced around. " Do your worst you're not going to scare me away. I can handle anything."

" So looks like we've got ourselves a tough guy," Anko mocked. She threw a knife, it went right past him, then she appeared right behind him. " Are you tough enough to handle this?" Blood seeped out of his cheek. "You're not afraid, are you?"

" uh," Naruto whimpered as Anko pulled his face to her. " Tough guys like you usually leave their blood all over this forest." She pulled out another knife and turned as someone else handed her a kunai knife with their tongue.

" I was just returning your knife," the girl said.

" Why, thank you, Grass ninja," Anko thanked her. " You know, I really only recommend you stand this close behind if you wish to reach a premature end." She grabbed the knife, and the grass ninja retracted her tongue.

" My pardon," the grass ninja apologized. " With the sight of blood and your blade slicing through my hair, mhm, I'm afraid that I just became a little excited. I meant you no harm."

" Naruto," Hinata gasped.

" Likewise," Anko agreed as the grass ninja walked away.

" It seems like everyone here today is quick-tempered," Aceso noted. " There must be something in the air."

" This is going to be fun," Anko chuckled before walking back over to the fence. " Now before we begin this test, I have something to hand out to you all. " She took a stack of papers out from her trenchcoat. " It's just a standard consent form. " Before the test, all of you are going to have to read over this form, and then sign it."

" What for?" Naruto asked.

" Some of you may not come back from this test, and I have to get your consent to that risk," Anko explained. " Otherwise, it would be my responsibility." She laughed as the others whispered amongst each other. " Now, I'll explain what you'll be doing on this test." She handed the papers to Aceso. " Here pass these out." She began to do what she was told. " The first thing you need to know is that this test will tax every one of your survival skills." She opened a scroll. " First, I'll give you all a description of the terrain on the practice field. The 44th Battle Training Zone has 44 locked gate entrance gates. There are rivers and a forest inside. In the center is a locked tower, located 10 kilometers from each gate. Aceso will be located there, waiting for your arrival and treating your wounds as needed. It's also in this confined area that you'll undergo the Survival Test. The test consists of an anything-goes battle to get your hands on these scrolls." She put the map away and pulled out an earth and heaven scroll.

" Both of them?" Sasuke asked.

" Yes," Anko confirmed. " You'll be fighting to get both a Heaven Scroll and an Earth Scroll." They all stared at the two scrolls. "Altogether, 26 teams will be taking part in this test. So half of those teams will be going after the Heaven Scroll and the other half will be trying to get the Earth Scroll. I'll hand over one kind of scroll to each team, and that's what you'll be vying for."

" Ok, so how do we pass the test?" Sasuke asked.

" Your entire squad must bring both the Heaven and Earth scroll to the tower," Anko explained.

" That means at the very best, half of us will fail," Sakura concluded. " More if not every team is able to get both the scrolls"

" No one ever said it would be easy," Aceso informed.

" Oh, and one more thing, the test has a time limit," Anko added. " You must finish it within five days.

" Five days out there?" Ino exclaimed.

" What are we supposed to do for food?" Choji exclaimed.

" Just look around," Aceso advised. " The forest is full of things to eat, and there's plenty to feed all of you."

" Yeah, but that's not all the forest has plenty of," Kabuto informed. " There are man-eating beasts and poisonous plants in there."

" Oh, man!" Choji whined.

" Quiet down," Ino ordered. " This is what you call it ' survival,' you know."

" That means these circumstances there's no way half the teams will pass the test," Neji gathered.

" With the days getting longer, the nights are getting shorter," Lee noted. " So we will have less time to sleep and less time to recover. It is a challenge, indeed." He had a small determined smile on his face.

" Which is why you would want to get to Aceso as soon as possible if you and probably will be injured," Tenten added.

" Completely surrounded by enemies, there won't be time to rest," Sasuke added. " We'll have to keep a constant watch.

" Right," Anko confirmed. " This test also measures endurance behind enemy lines. This is designed to be a grueling test, and I'm sure some of you won't be up to the challenge."

" So um, let's say mid-exam-- can we quit?" Shikamaru asked as he raised his hand.

" Of course, not," Anko answered. " In the middle of a battle, you can't say, 'Sorry, I quit.' Well, I guess you could, but it's probably going to get you killed."

" Oh, just great," Shikamaru groaned as Choji shoved chips into his mouth. " This is going to be a drag."

" There are also some ways you can get disqualified," Anko informed. " The first is simple--if all three members of a team can't make it to the tower with both scrolls after five days. Number two--if a team loses a member or if a member becomes incapacitated and cannot continue. But most importantly, none of you--absolutely none of you--may look at the contents of the scrolls until you've reached the tower."

" W-What if it just happens to flap open and you read it?" Naruto asked.

" Let me put it to you this way, young man, you don't want to know," Anko advised.

" Naa!" Naruto groaned.

" There are times a ninja will be asked to carry secret documents," Anko explained. " The scroll rule is to test your integrity. Ok, we're done."

"Each team, take your consent forms and exchange them over there for your scrolls," Aceso explained as Anko pointed at the booth.

" As that is happening, Aceso will be placed in the tower," Anko added. " After you exchange your consent forms for the scrolls, each team pick a gate, and you'll be let inside" She then let out a sigh. " Oh, and I have one more word of advice--just don't die!"

" Come on Aceso," a ninja said as a group came up to her. " Let's get you up to the tower."

" Yes, sir," Aceso nodded with a smile. They then took off into the forest, and soon enough she was placed in the tower. As soon as she got there, she immediately began to make medicine and gather supplies. She hated being in the tower, in the middle of the forest, but at the same time, she loved it. Soon enough, she heard people yelling and screaming in pain, Aceso shook her head trying to block the screaming out.