บท 27: Chūnin Exams (VII).
Anko walked a bit ahead of their group, throwing their newly obtained scroll with the number 12 up into the air and catching it when it came back down before repeating the process again and again.
Their plan had worked just fine; they had handled the two scrolls of the two teams they have beaten as well as their own to the guy under his Genjutsu and then retreated a fair distance away to observe what was going to happen from a save spot. Then, he made him take off the ribbon that held the scrolls together before throwing them into the air where the newly opened scrolls were caught by three of his crows who then brought them to him. It had worked out perfectly as the three instructors were summoned midair; by the time they landed on the ground, his crows were nowhere to be seen, giving them no possible target to pursue.
Their own scroll had been the number 7 while one of the other two had been number 49, so it was good fortune that the last one had included an even number. They would reach the clearing from where they had started any minute now with nearly two hours of time left, meaning they had successfully passed the first exam.
...
"Alright," their proctor called when the time limit was reached. "This concludes the first exam. Congratulations everyone, you are a little bit better than the rest of the rubbish this year. Now, if you feel up to it, follow Akame-san" -he pointed at the kunoichi at his side whose name he had never heard before- "to the location of the second exam."
He looked around as he and his team followed the new woman.
Of the 147 people they had started with, only 69 remained, thus leaving 23 teams in the exam. A bit more than half of those were from Iwa, of which 13 teams had managed to pass the test. Aside from them, there were also five teams from Suna left, as well as one from Taki and the one from Ame. There was also one further team from Konoha aside from themselves.
And, of course, there was Yugito Nii's team from Kumo.
If there was one team that he wasn't surprised to see here, it was hers.
"Listen here, kiddos," their new proctor said loudly once they reached a fence that blocked the way into a vast valley. "This is where the second exam will be held. This training ground is usually used by our shinobi for survival training, which means that the area is filled with traps and wild beasts. Food and water are limited. You are only allowed to participate if you sign this paper in which you agree that you are alone are responsible for your death should you not be able to survive this. I doubt that anyone would refuse to do so, however, as your villages wouldn't have sent you here in the first place if you were such cowards m. So, I expect you to hurry with that after I explained the rules for this exam. We don't have time all day, after all."
She smirked as she said that before clearing her throat. "It's quite simple; every team will receive either a blue or a red pearl. All you need to do is to reach the building in the centre of the valley with one of each. Other than that, everything goes. You're allowed to kill and maim as much as your heart desires and your team doesn't even need to be complete by the time you arrive with the pearls. As long as you have both, you pass. The time limit for this exam is five days. You should also take note that we will not search for you after the time is up. We just assume that you have died if you don't manage to get to the centre by the end of the exam and leave it like that. You will need to find your own way back then, or die trying. Any questions? No? Good, then you can sign the papers now. You have ten minutes."
From there on, everything proceeded very fast. They signed their papers, were given a red pearl, and then followed an Iwa shinobi towards one of the gates that would be their entrance into the valley.
He found it interesting that this exam was a survival test just like back in Konoha, especially after the first exams already showed remarkable similarities. It made sense, he guessed, considering all shinobi, no matter from which village they came, needed to fulfill more or less the same requirements to be successful. Still, it was baffling that the exams were basically the same. He had expected something more in favour of the Iwa Genin, if only because their village would want to show strength after their losses in the last war.
Well, to be fair, the natives still had the advantage of being more familiar with the terrain. He honestly wouldn't be surprised if someone had shown them around the area prior to the exams. Konoha had certainly done so when they held their first exam after the war, or so he had been told. It was unfair, of course, but he could understand the motivations behind it. Besides, the life of a shinobi was hardly ever fair. If anything, this disadvantage was good training.
Itachi was pulled from his thoughts when the whistle that signaled the start of the exam could be heard, making him follow his team through the gate and into the valley.
"Anko," he said after a few minutes when he could be sure that no one was close enough to listen to them. "Can you summon a snake and let it swallow our pearl?"
This way, it would be unlikely that an enemy would be able to get it even in the unlikely case that they were beaten by someone. They could give it to one of his crows as well, but that was a bit riskier. After all, they still used them to scour the area and it wouldn't be impossible for someone to realize what they were doing. In that case, they would probably kill all crows in sight, and if they just so happened to kill the one with their pearl... Well, needless to say, that would be very bad.
Besides, snakes could hide much more easily in this area with all its cracks and gaps than a bird in the open sky.
"Good idea," she agreed before summoning an unremarkable, brown snake to feed the pearl to. "Do you think we could let her vanish? I could just summon her shortly before we reach the building in the centre. In that case, there would be absolutely no way that someone could get it!"
Itachi opened his mouth to reply, but Yukio was faster. "I doubt we would be disqualified for that if they even noticed, but it's still too risky. What if you're too exhausted and have no chakra left because we got into a fight?"
She grimaced but was forced to concede the point. "Yeah, I guess you're right."
Yukio nodded. "Alright then, what's our plan?"
"First, we should try to find a place where we can rest," he spoke up. "Once we have a relatively safe base, we can decide how we want to continue."
It was obvious that neither of his teammates liked the idea of that, but they were smart enough to understand that it was safer this way. However, that didn't mean they didn't complain about it.
"Great," Anko sighed dramatically. "Digging through dirt to find some stupid cave that will probably be too small for any of us to lay comfortably."
"Nah," Yukio said, "you're forgetting Itachi. No matter how small whatever cave we find is, he will fit just fine."
Wonderful, now they were making fun of his age again. Well, better than actually belittling him, he guessed. At least they knew he was capable enough to take care of himself even in face of his supposed age and didn't cuddle him.
Not that he thought Anko was cable of cuddling anyone, but that wasn't the point.
"Don't worry, Itachi-chan," Anko addressed him with exaggerated sweetness and a bright smile. "If the hard ground gets too uncomfortable for you, I will allow you to use your Nee-chan's tights as a pillow!"
He sighed. That would be a long five days if they continued like that for the entire time.
It made him miss Kisame a bit. For all that he could be quite annoying at times, as well as overly blood-thirsty, at least he understood the value of peace and quiet. Unfortunately, that was something his current team still needed to learn to appreciate.
.....
It was a few hours later, just before sunset, that they saw the first other teams.
The three of them had managed to hide behind a small boulder, cursing their bad luck for meeting others on the one plain field in all of Tsuchi no Kuni that seemed to lack big rock formations, while observing the events that unfold not too far away from them.
They weren't close enough to understand what was being said or to recognize the symbols on their forehead protectors, but the situation itself was easy enough to understand:
There were four teams, three of which wore clothes that were usual for Iwa shinobi and stood over the last team whose origin couldn't be identified from their position. The former three teams had obviously teamed up with each other and ambushed the other one.
"Itachi, can you-"
"Yes," he interrupted Anko before she could finish her sentence and activated his Sharingan to read the lips of their targets.
"-more resistance. How disappointing."
"I wouldn't talk so big if I were you, not after nearly getting gelded because you got too cocky."
"Ah, shut up." There was a short break. "Hey, do you think one of the other teams found some fresh meat? I'm not really in the mood for provisions, they always taste like shit."
"Who cares? Food is food."
"Come on, you can't tell me you enjoy that stuff. It would be much easier if we could simply finish the exam, we even have the damn pearls already…"
"You know why we can't do that, so do us a favour and stop complaining," a third person chimed in.
"But-"
"Enough," a fourth person said, making everyone else visibly tense up. "We have no time for that. Hide the bodies, I don't want to leave any sign of what happened here behind. Once you finished, we will return to the camp and meet up with the others."
No one complained, and after one of them used an earth technique to hide the three bodies underground while the rest kept watch, they started to leave to the north.
"So," Yukio said a few moments after the three teams left their sight. "What exactly did we learn from that?"
"Aside from Itachi's terrible imitation skills?" Anko asked rhetorically before becoming serious. "It seems like there is a group of at least four Iwa teams, probably even more."
"Definitively more," Yukio said. "The one guy said 'one of the other teams', meaning there must be more than one."
"What do you think the odds are that there are only two further teams?" she asked, not sounding convinced at all.
"Well, if those we saw over there are considered one team, it wouldn't be unlikely that three teams make one unit. And if there are several more teams-"
"Then we need to consider that there might be an alliance of nine teams out there," Anko interrupted him with a sigh. "Wonderful."
While his teammates were talking, Itachi thought about what he knew so far.
If nine of the thirteen Iwa teams had really teamed up, the odds were that the other four were also part of that group. That would mean that more than half of the current participants had allied against the rest. Those odds became even worse when you considered the likelihood that several teams could already have been eliminated.
It was a daring move for them to create such a big team, especially because there were only enough pearls for eleven teams. Of course, all they needed to solve this was to draw lots with the losers being the unlucky ones that wouldn't proceed. They might argue, sure, but there was nothing those two losing teams could do against the other eleven.
Still, for them to manage to team up this quickly…
He had found it weird from the very beginning that Iwa sent that many Genin's into the exams this year. There were never more than five or six teams that reached the third exam, and just sending as many teams as possible didn't do much in guaranteeing that one of them would manage it. If they weren't ready, they would be beaten pretty fast, no question asked.
But what if they weren't expected to win from the very beginning? What if they have a different task altogether?
His eyes widened minutely as he finally connected all the dots.
"I think we might have a problem."
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