Naruto and Sasuke didn't know how it happened but it did. Their team passed a written exam with a blind girl as their third team member. Like the one they experienced with Ibiki with was meant to mentally test you and to test how you could gather information unnoticed along with the disguised chunin's taking the test. However this one was designed for the genin to give into the pressure and caused many of them to walk out. Once they reached the end of the two hour exam the teams that remained passed. Naruto and Sasuke thought that Sayuri just sat through the two hours, without being able to see the exam she had no reason to be stressed or pressured. When they glanced at her during the exams, she had her head hung and arms folded on the table, making it look like that she was reading but not writing. Either way they counted themselves lucky and began to leave the room to meet up with Kakashi. But the two young men heard on of the cloud ninja they had encountered speaking to the one that had called Sayuri 'babe' and the other member of his group. "I'm telling you Sora! I was sitting next to her the whole exam, she didn't even pick up the pen once and bam! By the end of the exam she had every answer written." On cue, Naruto, Sasuke and the cloud ninja looked to Sayuri who was waiting by the door, looking like she was ready to fall over. The two team 7 members exchanged glances and left the room when they reached Sayuri. As they stepped onto the street they were greeted by Kakashi and Genma.
"So what was it?" Kakashi asked.
"A written exam like the one we had back in Konoha. The answers didn't matter though." Sasuke told him. Immediately Genma and Kakashi's gazes fell to Sayuri.
"It doesn't matter though, we passed!" Naruto gave the two men his trademark fox grin. Sayuri gave a tired smile and another huge yawn, covering her mouth with her sleeve covered hand.
"At least the answers didn't matter." Genma grinned.
"Well that's the thing, apparently Sayuri answered the questions…according to a cloud ninja at least…" Sasuke spoke up.
"Yeah, how did you do that?" Naruto asked with a grin. Sayuri finished yawning and smiled widely.
"Replacement jutsu." Naruto's eyes widened.
"WHAT?"
"I could tell that they had chunin's placed in the room disguised as genin. So in the final moments of the exam I replaced my blank paper with one of their completed tests." Sayuri shrugged.
"You sneaky minx." Genma broke out with a hearty laugh. Sayuri broke out into another yawn and lightly patted Sasuke and Naruto on their shoulder. "I'm going to report to the Kazekage office." she told them.
"You sure? Naruto or I could do it…" Sasuke said eyeing the exhausted female with concern.
"Listen, you two need to stick together. I'll be fine on my own. I'll see you guys tomorrow for the second exam." she said before walking off.
"Why is she going to see Gaara?" Kakashi asked.
"At the end of the exam, Baki said that one member from each team had to report to Gaara's office, it's to do with the second exam." Naruto explained folding his hands behind his head. "Let's go somewhere to eat. I'm starving." he grinned before turning and heading into the town in search of a place that would have ramen.
Sayuri hadn't returned to them. When they went to the Kazekage building that evening there was no trace of her. Thinking she might be in their room trying to catch up on sleep, Kakashi looked into the bedroom to see that she wasn't there. Frowning the masked ninja left to meet up with Genma who was making him go out to a bar. "Still no sign of her?" he asked as he chewed on his senbon.
"Not in the room…must be an exam thing I guess. Good thing is I'll have uninterrupted sleep tonight." he joked with a small laugh. Genma grinned and shook his head.
"I can't believe you fought with her over a side of the bed." he laughed, clapping his masked friend on the back as they headed out to the dark streets of Suna.
"Your team mates have been taken prisoner." Kankuro announced to the group on genin.
"What do you mean?" A grass ninja demanded.
"This situation is not uncommon for ninja. There will come a time when you will lose a member of your team and it will be up to you to regroup in order to make your mission successful. Yesterday after the first exam when one genin from each team arrived to the Kazekage office, they were rendered unconscious with a genjutsu after being briefed on this exam. In a couple of hours they will awaken and will have their own part of the exam to take." the puppet master explained.
"And is their part of the exam in any way similar to ours?" a mist ninja spoke up.
"In a way. They are to escape and find the remainder of their team."
"That sounds far too easy…" one of the leaf genin said suspiciously, everyone watched as Kankuro grinned.
"Of course it does because there is another element to this test. Not just survival and the ability to regroup with your team is being tested." he laughed. "Not only will you have to complete this exam within four days but you have to do this exam with a slight restriction…"
"Restriction?" one of the cloud ninja repeated uneasily, watching as Kankuro lifted a pair of shackles.
"Your team mate." he smirked. "The two members of each team here will be chained together. So teamwork is going to be tested to the extreme. Under no circumstances are you to remove the chains unless you have a key."
"Where is the key?"
"With your missing team mate, naturally. Only when all three of you are together can the chains be removed. Oh and you have to get to the watch tower as well, its at the very end of this fenced off area." he chuckled, lightly tapping the metal fence behind him. "About this area behind me, it's a mix of terrains; open desert, forest, mountains and so on with a whole lot of obstacles that will make this a whole lot more difficult." he smirked. "Any questions?"
"Apart from regrouping with our missing member, removing the chains with only the key they have and getting to the destination within the time period…are there any rules? I mean are we allowed to engage in battles with the competition to lower the number who pass?" another ninja spoke up.
"Actually we encourage that, get rid of the competition, steal the keys so they can't finish all of that. Although we don't recommend actually killing any teams. Battles are allowed but it might be difficult when you're still chained together. But anyway, I've said enough. When you're ready get chained together and go with one of the chunin to go to a starting point. Once you're all ready the exam will begin." he instructed. Naruto and Sasuke glanced at each other and moved to get ready. Fifteen minutes after being positioned at entrances and chained together, the teams waited, as soon as the gates snapped open, their movements were not the usual graceful, sharp ones associated with ninja. Being chained together was difficult. Naruto and Sasuke had tried to leap to two different trees but were thrown back and ended up on a heap on the ground. Worse than that, Kankuro had seen the two and let out a large bellowing laugh along with the chunin that had opened the gate. Laughs from the other chunin seemed to grow larger; all of the genin seemed to have trouble with this test.
Sora rubbed his head as he pushed himself up unsteadily onto his feet. He loathed genjutsu. Absolutely loathed it. He rubbed the back of his neck and looked around. He seemed to be in some sort of mountain terrain. Thankfully a couple of trees had provided him with some shade. He glared up at the harsh sun. Regardless of the terrain, he was still in the middle of Suna and the unrelenting desert heat. After scanning the area, he decided it would be best to find a river or stream to get water, four days in this place was going to need a hell of a lot of water. He walked down the mountain and when he was at a safe enough height, he leapt down from the different plains until he was on level ground. His pale brown eyes caught a glimpse of scarlet as he rushed through the mountain area. He ground to a halt and ran back a few yards. A slow grin spread across his lips as he spotted the leaf ninja lying on one of the ledges of a steep mountain face. She was still unconscious which made it a lot more easy. Slowly he pulled out a kunai and prepared to throw it. However the ledge she was on was weak and unstable, the ledge began to crumble and give way. Sayuri fell down through the air and landed on top of Sora who had been trying to avoid the falling rocks didn't have time to pay attention on the woman. He let out a winded groan as he was knocked to the ground. A knock to his head left him momentarily dazed, after getting his breath back he rolled onto his stomach and got to his feet. Looking around he found that Sayuri was gone. With an annoyed growl he set off, wanting to get this exam finished as soon as possible. Sayuri sped off through the mountain terrain, slipping and stumbling occasionally, she hadn't been awake for very long and her body was still under the affects of what the proctors had used to knock her out. She winced as she stumbled again and as rocks sliced at her bare shoulder and the exposed fleshed of her legs and knees. Sayuri hissed through the pain as she slowly got to her feet, shakily feeling around and grabbed a tree branch to keep steady. Her hand went to the leaf forehead protector on her thigh and calmed her breathing. Her injuries were mere scratches, she'd be fine…she recalled all of the pain brought with Kosuke's cruel beatings at most the scratched on her body were like little insect bites, easy to ignore. Sayuri ran her thumb over the scratch on her shoulder that produced a little bit of blood and nodded to herself. She'd find Naruto and Sasuke quickly and then they would go to their destination together.
Kakashi sat by the open window in the watch tower, his book in one hand while the other was tucked casually behind his head.
"But Kankuro-san it's strange. Why can't we ask you about it?" a voice piped up.
"Because it isn't all that strange and I told you not to talk about it." the young puppet master snapped as he sat down, narrowing his eyes at the frowning chunin.
"But isn't it unfair…all the others were rendered unconscious through jutsu though…"
"None of us knew that was going to happen but it's done now so drop it, if anything it may give the other teams the advantage. Now get back to work." Kankuro snapped, narrowing his gaze as the chunin hurried out of the room.
"What was that about?" Kakashi asked, glancing over to Kankuro who tensed and slowly looked at the silver haired ninja.
"Well…when the genin came to the office yesterday, we used genjutsu to knock them out…"
"But?" Kakashi pressed.
"It didn't work on someone…so we had to get a medic to inject them to knock them out. The chunin in the room think it might be unfair but we had no other choice since the genjutsu didn't work." he sighed.
"It couldn't be helped I suppose. I take it Temari will be in charge of the final exam."
"Yeah, she loves to watch a good fight. So having her look over the tournament will be best." Kankuro laughed. Kakashi chuckled softly and looked out the window to see the different terrains around them. Already he had heard screams and explosions from battles. The sun was beginning to set now, there was no doubt that the intense heat and being restricted in movements while being chained to another person would make most of the teams irritated. The masked ninja grinned as he thought on how Naruto and Sasuke were doing.
"WOULD YOU QUIT IT!" Naruto yelled as Sasuke kicked him for the fourth time since they settled down to get a few hours of sleep.
"You're far to close, move over."
"I CAN'T!" Naruto snapped, lifting his chained wrist with a scowl.
"Look we might as well get used to this, the sooner we get to Sayuri the better." Sasuke muttered lying on his side awkwardly. This was going to be a long exam. The Uchiha groaned as Naruto's loud snores sounded, drowning out any thoughts he was having. Sighing, Sasuke closed his eyes and tried to block out the noise coming from his team mate.
Sayuri broke into the forest terrain and leapt into the trees. She settled on one of the branches and threw back some river water she had collected earlier. The cold liquid refreshed her as it went down her throat and into her system. Pouring some on her hand she rubbed the back of her neck and face before rubbing some onto the scratches she kept getting. Once the flask of water was closed and placed back into her pouch she set off again, leaping from tree to tree.
"Leaf ninja!" a voice shouted. "Let's get her, she hasn't caught up to her team yet." Sayuri sighed at the voice. Placing more chakra into her feet she pushed off from the branches to get more speed. She wasn't in the mood to fight with two ninja who were now chasing her. With a groan, she dropped, hooked her legs around the branch and dropped to the ground before heading off in another direction. "Come on coward! FIGHT US LITTLE GIRL!" a voice yelled out at her. Glaring, Sayuri ground to a halt and spun around before lifting her hidden hands to make hand-signs.
When Naruto and Sasuke slept, the sounds of screams made them wake. They looked to each other and slowly made moves to get up. They'd slept long enough in terms of the exam and it's harsh environment that left no real time for long periods of rest. When they stepped out from their small shelter a low growling came from the shadows. The immediate feeling of being watched crept across them, giving them chills. This growling and staring was predatory, they looked around, even with their enhanced ninja abilities they couldn't pinpoint where this predator was coming from. It was circling them from the shadows. "This doesn't seem good…" Naruto muttered, slowly drawing out a kunai along with Sasuke. The two stood back to back, ready to defend and attack from either side. They watched as suddenly something burst through the bushes and blinked to se that it was just a rabbit. "I hate this place." Naruto said, relaxing.
"You shouldn't relax at any point of this exam, Naruto." a voice said making the two males spin to see Sayuri leaning against a tree with a smirk.
"Sayuri!" Naruto cheered with a grin. He watched as her deep blue eyes closed into a happy smile. She pushed away from the tree and headed towards them.
"Hold it!" Sasuke snapped, making Sayuri stop and look at him.
"What is it?"
Slowly Sasuke leaned his head over and whispered to Naruto who gasped.
"You're right! SHE'S A FRAUD!" He shouted glaring at a now angry Sayuri.
"H-how exactly am I a fraud?" she asked nervously.
"Sayuri never makes direct eye contact." Sasuke said evasively.
"Plus her eyes are a different colour and she doesn't smile like that." Naruto added. The Sayuri in front of them slowly glared and the transformation fell away to reveal a female mist ninja, slowly she pulled out a key. "And here I was going to let you out of your chains…" she smirked before pulling out a few kunai. "Oh well I guess I'll ju-. " she cut off into a strangled noise. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head before she fell to the ground. Naruto looked to see a scratched, dirtied Sayuri leap down and approach the unconscious form and kneel down. She felt around and grabbed the key from her hand.
"Prove to us you're Sayuri." Sasuke ordered her.
"Naruto, you came to me for advise on how to treat Hinata for your anniversary. Sasuke you carried me part of the way to Konoha and even though you won't fully admit it, you got very jealous when I made a hint that Sakura wasn't a virgin." she sighed, straightening up. "Your teacher and man who brought us here is Kakashi who is a jackass to me most of the time." she continued with a hand on her hip, while she held three keys in her other hand. She walked over and used one of the keys to unlock the chains only for Naruto to pull back. "Aren't you going to ask us to prove who we are?" he asked.
"I don't need to, I know that it's you." Sayuri smiled.
"So what did you do to that girl?" Sasuke asked.
"Simple genjutsu. She won't wake up for a long time." she assured them before smiling. "Let's go we have a long way to go before we reach the tower." she said before the three began to set off through the forest terrain.
"So how did you find us so easily?" Naruto asked, noting that the second day for the exam was only just beginning as the sun was beginning to rise.
"This isn't the place for that…anyone could hear. Besides I've lessened the amount for teams to pass."
"Yeah you have three keys, ah well that doesn't matter. We're going to pass this exam no problem." he cheered out happily. Sasuke smirked, rubbing his wrist, glad to be free of Naruto and his constant want of going a different way from him.
"Another team was successful in removing the chains." a chunin reported to Kankuro who looked up from fixing one of his puppets.
"Oh? What chain number was it?"
"Thirteen, sir." Grinning, Kankuro looked over to Kakashi.
"That'll be your team. All they have to do is get to the tower." he informed the masked ninja who blinked and looked over to Kankuro.
"Who reached who first?" he asked. He knew that both the chains and keys had tracking devices on them for the chunin to investigate who was following the rules or not.
"The female had a key…well she had three actually and reached the other two first." the chunin reported. The news made Kakashi's eye widen slightly. Sayuri tracked the boys down? He let out a small 'huh' as he thought about how she could have done it.
"Kankuro-san, the three keys that were held by the thirteenth team have disappeared." the chunin reported to him. Kakashi chuckled.
"They've probably destroyed them to lessen the number of teams that can finish." he told the chunin. Kankuro smirked and nodded.
"It'll also lessen the targets on their backs, the only reason people will go after them is if they want to get rid of the competition. But I don't think anyone would last long against them." he chuckled. Kakashi nodded as he thought about those that would go up against Naruto and Sasuke and would definitely fail…he wasn't sure how someone would go against Sayuri though. It looked like he'd finally see her abilities in the final stage of the exam.
"Where are you two going?" Sayuri asked standing next to a stream, her bare feet lightly dipped in the flowing water, enjoying the afternoon heat and cold water. She could here the two males of the team heading on. "We're close to the tower, we just have to go on through the desert terrain that's just ahead." Naruto grinned.
"Naruto, there's nothing out in that desert." Sayuri told him with a frown. Sasuke frowned at her.
"Huh?" Naruto asked. Sayuri sighed.
"That desert terrain is just sand, rocks and unbearable heat. If you see a tower in the distance, it's a genjutsu."
"But Kankuro said it was at the very end of this fenced off area."
"That reinforces your mind's belief that what you're seeing is the real deal. They want to test us and limit the numbers of those that pass. The real watchtower is somewhere else." she informed them. For the first time in the second exam, Sasuke activated his sharingan. "She's right, it is a genjutsu." he said. "But where is the real watchtower?" he asked. Sayuri sighed.
"I don't know that."
"If only Hinata was here, she'd be able to tell us…" Naruto muttered. Sasuke thought for a moment and smirked.
"I may have the next best thing." he said, biting his thumb and using the summoning jutsu. A hawk looked at the Uchiha silently.
"Survey the land and find the tower." he ordered. The bird spread it's wings and took to the sky. After a while a piercing cry sounded. Naruto and Sasuke looked up to see the hawk heading towards the east. "Okay let's go. You two lead the way." Sayuri smiled. Naruto and Sasuke nodded and took off, following the hawk that led them straight to the real watchtower. Once the hawk landed on Sasuke's shoulder it disappeared into a puff of smoke before they opened the doors and walked in.
"Well done you three." Kankuro's voice called to them cheerfully as he approached them. Naruto pointed an accusing finger at him.
"You were going to trick us!"
"But you didn't fall for it. I take it your sharingan stopped you all from tiring yourselves out there in the desert." he smirked to Sasuke.
"Yeah, we couldn't have done it without Sasuke." Sayuri smiled warmly before removing something from behind her leaf headband and held it out in Kankuro's direction. "You'll want this tracker back." she said, the smile leaving her when a puff of smoke appeared and Kakashi stood in between Sasuke and Naruto. "Yo." he said casually, looking at the three, Naruto and Sasuke had dirt on their clothes and no scratches…Sayuri on the other hand had thin red marks on most of her skin that was visible along with dirt on her clothes and face. "Have a hard time?" he asked them casually.
"No, it was actually pretty easy." Sayuri mused.
"I can see that…" the masked man mused.
"Clearly. But I'd love for you to be still partially drugged while you make your way down a steep mountain and engage in battles without gaining a scratch or falling once. Since you're such an expert on everything. " Sayuri snapped back at him before turning towards a stunned Kankuro. "Can you show me where we'll be spending the remainder of these four days. I really want to sleep." she said softly. Kankuro nodded. "Sure, come on you two I'll show you guys as well." he told Sasuke and Naruto who followed him along with Kakashi who was staring at the back of Sayuri's head intently. She said 'partially drugged'…did that mean she was the one that the genjutsu didn't work on?
