/AN\
Hey!
Poll update:
Genma – 58%
Kakashi – 23%
Itachi – 19%
If you can't vote through my profile, go to and add /r/ V6GFDLM
Also, I did not make the riddle in this one. Found it somewhere on the internet.
Thanks! And enjoy this massive chapter!
xx
SC
"Speaking."
'Thinking'
Jutsus
Chapter 12 - Track
"They coded the initial clue. Seriously?!" Masaru groaned as he sat in front of gate thirteen of the Forest of Death.
"Relax, Masaru. Shizuka and I are already trying to decode it." Kaito said as he and Shizuka stood side by side hunched over a slip of paper in Shizuka's hand. "But the black flag will be annoying to find."
"The other options weren't much better: blue, green or brown." Shizuka glanced up to smirk at Masaru, "Aren't you glad I went on a mission with the tracking team from our year?"
Masaru rolled his eyes before making eye contact with the chūnin at their gate.
"You three might want to get ready. It's about to start." Kotetsu moved to stand to the side of the door.
"Got it!" Shizuka cheered, waving the paper in the air.
'Not surprised tiny got it that quickly.' Kotetsu smirked thinking of his bet with Izumo. 'I hope they do finish in less than four days.'
"IT'S ALSO A BLODDY RIDDLE? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?" Masaru shouts as they run through the trees. "Ow! Shizuka!"
Said Nara had slapped the back of his head as hard as she could, causing the boy to slightly stumble and thus making him fall to the back of their little formation.
"Shut up, you idiot! We're trying not to be found! And pull your chakra closer, I would still be able to sense it." Shizuka scolds him, stopping for a moment so that they could talk, "Besides, I've got an idea of what it is, but not so sure it will be helpful."
"What does it say." Masaru grumbles, stopping on the same branch as Kaito and her. Kaito gives him the slip of paper with the decoded clue.
You will find him in the mountains
And you'll find him in the creek
He has no mouth -
Yet he speaks in every tongue
He has no ears -
And yet will answer every cry
Always having the final word
"What were you thinking, Shizuka?" Kaito turns to their female member who had pulled out a map of the grounds.
"Simple: echoes. There are caves spread through the ground, but lucky for us there is one cave here known to drive people crazy because they think they are hearing things." She points to a small collection of boulders drawn on the map.
"Fun." Masaru sighs and looks around pointing in the direction of the cave. "Let's go then. Also, anyone else annoyed we have to find a black flag in a pitch dark cave?"
"At least Shizuka will have more than enough shadows to terrorize anyone we might run into." Kaito takes the front of their triangle formation again.
"Win some, lose some." Masaru mumbles under his breath.
Team four lept silently from tree to tree, with the two male members occasionally looking back at Shizuka who had her senses extended to the max, making sure no one was within her range. Every now and then she would signal that a team entered or left and whether they were heading towards them and their general position.
They would later agree it was miraculous that they actually made it into the cave without confrontation. Finding the flag inside was another story.
"Kami damn it!" Masaru rips another black cloth from between two rocks. "They are totally fucking with us right now."
"I wish I could see better in the dark, my shadows are pretty useless for the whole 'treasure hunt in the dark' thing." Shizuka groaned before she suddenly stopped and made a thoughtful humming sound, causing both her teammates to snap their head to look at her, that look meant she was up to something and likely could get her and or them killed.
"Shizuka, not the time for a crazy plan. We've been searching for an hour, let's get this done and we might as well camp in here, good shelter and several little nooks to stay hidden." Kaito rubbed his temples, sending the Nara a stern stare.
"But, Kaito-kun! Imagine if I could see through the shadows! I could have eyes everywhere!" She pouted, already pulling out a notebook and pen to write down her newest idea. "Besides all these black cloths will be great to annoy whoever tries to take the flags from us."
"Now, that, is a plan we can work with." Masaru grinned stuffing the cloths into his pouch. "I'm pretty sure we covered every inch of floor in this cave and we've found nothing. You sure there aren't other caves that echo?
Shizuka then facepalms earning herself amused looks which rapidly turned to understanding and annoyance when she pointed upwards.
"We forgot to check the ceilings."
After a long string of curses, Masaru glares at the ceiling as they all jumped to stand on it and continued their search this time upside down. Luckily already having an idea of the layout of the cave it only took them fifteen minutes to find the black flag with a Konoha leaf in silvery stitching.
One down, three to go.
Team 4 settled for the night in the caves, it would provide shelter and was out of the way and dark so they could easily hide in the shadows. They agreed with a simple rotation for watches during the night and split some tasks. Masaru went out to hunt, Kaito would stay at camp and set things up, including some trip wires while Shizuka would do some scouting.
"Any teams nearby?" Kaito asked as they ate the fish Masaru had caught.
"Two teams, one half a mile North and the other one mile East. We can scout them but I doubt they will have our flags."
"And even if they didn't they probably won't let us go, so we need to stay out of sight and hopefully they will reveal the colour of theirs." Kaito leaned against the rock wall of the gave and closing his eyes. "You two should get some rest, I'll wake you for your shift later Shizuka."
The other two didn't have to be told twice and after some moving around to get comfortable they were fast asleep.
'Intel gathering without being seen, we can handle that. And although we are all good fighters I still worry. Whenever we've had opponents we knew sensei was always right there, able to help, now we are on our own. No backup.' Kaito rolled his shoulder and reached his senses out.
Shizuka had been giving the team tips for sensing, and although they were nowhere near her range they weren't completely ignorant either. The team had settled in one of the nooks of the cave and so they couldn't be seen from the entrance nor would they be heard considering the echo the place had. Kaito and Masaru could sense anyone just past the entrance of the cave and that was good enough for the moment.
For Shizuka's watch, she pinpointed the location of the two teams she had sensed before. She took note of where they were and if they truly were the people she had sensed before. Her watch went by quickly for her and Masaru took over early morning.
"Wake us up early, hopefully, we can sneak around the team to the North before they start moving."
Masaru nodded and waved her off. Sitting up against the wall his eyes trained on the main part of the cave that would lead up to the exit.
'I wonder if there is any special way they organized the flags around the grounds as to make finding the other teams more likely.' Masaru pulled the map Shizuka had shown them earlier onto his lap so that he could trace his fingers across it. 'We all meet at the main tower and if the other teams want to eliminate some competition before the next round they could hang around the tower. Hopefully, we'll avoid that.'
As Shizuka requested they started moving before sunrise. As they approached the place where the team North of them had been staying they took note that they were from Amegakure. They sat and observed them for a while, luck for once was on their side as they revealed to have a blue flag.
'Let's move to the next one.' Kaito signed over to his team as they stood on different branches.
Shizuka nodded and took started leading them to the team in the east of them. There they found a team from Konoha who had just found their brown flag. Signalling for the team to continue following her, Shizuka led them to the next group she sensed which was further to the East only to find the other team from Amegakure as they started speculation on other team's colours and which ones they would have to fight for a green flag.
'Stop. I have an idea.' Shizuka signed to her team before she jumped to the higher branch of the tree, ensuring they couldn't be seen through the canopy.
"What's up? Don't tell me you think those guys were on to something with the teams?" Masaru asked quietly nodding his head towards the team they had passed not long ago.
"No, they had no concrete evidence." She shook her head while pulling out her map and a pencil. "Sixteen teams were spread across the grounds evenly, with the tower at the centre. We have gone one to the next team to our 'left' and now two teams to the 'right'. We have seen all colours except our own." Her expression was expectant, waiting for them to deduce what she had.
"You think the colours were spread in a pattern. So that no two colours would be next to each other." Kaito was the first to catch up, getting a nod from Shizuka he continued, "That means, following this direction, assuming they haven't already mixed orders with other teams, then we should meet another blue team before possible reaching the next black on."
"Well done, Kaito. If I had a prize I would've given you one."
"Not a dog. But thanks for the sentiment."
"Alright. So how far is the next team?" Masaru piped before Shizuka could respond.
"Not too far, they are actually heading this way, and guess what: six signatures." She smirked before making her way down to the forest floor and calmly walking East.
They didn't have to wait long before Team Rizu appeared above them.
"Please tell me you don't have a blue flag. I only want to fight you guys in the final round." Hana called down to them.
"Black." Shizuka pulled the flag from her pouch to show them. "We do have information for you guys. A team from Amegakure little more than a mile and a half in that direction has a blue flag."
"Ah great, thanks! That narrows it down." Kenji said. After exchanging some looks with his teammates he looked back down at them, "We tracked a Suna team with the black flag half a mile North from us a while ago, they shouldn't have gone far, but that was the general direction they were in."
Shizuka nodded and looked in the direction he gestured towards before nodding and thanking them for the exchange. The two teams quickly said goodbye and proceeded in the appointed directions, Shizuka taking the lead to track their 'targets'.
Team four took to the trees once more with Shizuka leading, as she reached her senses out to find the Suna team and luckily they hadn't moved much. As they came closer to the team they realised there was a battle going on.
As they hid amongst the leaves, they quickly identified the team from Suna and one from Grass.
"We should wait it out. Let them tire themselves and take Suna's flag once it is over." Masaru whispered to his teammates who all stood on the same branch.
"Yeah. Spread a little, keep within eyesight of each other but hidden from them." Shizuka pointed to a bush for Kaito and a hollow tree trunk for Masaru before gesturing to some tree roots where she would hide.
They broke apart silently and turned to the fight. Each taking note of the other team's weakness and strengths.
'Even split. Suna has a wind user and an earth user, and then a weapons user. I can take the wind user with it being weak against my fire. Shizuka could take the weapons user easy, which leaves Masaru with the earth user for a earth vs. earth battle.' Kaito thought as the two teams battled for what was unlikely to be the same flag.
'So the pattern of flag distribution is still correct. After Suna takes Grass' flag we will need to act quickly, before they have a chance to rest.' Shizuka glances down at her teammates who observed the match intently. 'They probably know who their opponents would be, wouldn't be hard to assume who is best to fight who.' She looked back to the battle to see one of the Grass genin leave an opening in his defence.
'Damn. A costly mistake.' Masaru winced as the weapons specialist dashed forward and slashed the Grass nin, forcing his teammates to come closer. 'The Grass girl is a medic, but no way can that guy fight, and the other one can't fight against three at the same time.'
Team four sent each other a look and some signalling later, they switched positions so that Masaru and Kaito were behind the Suna genin and Shizuka made her way around to be behind Grass' genin.
They waited patiently as Grass offered their flag to Suna who took it. Shizuka narrowed her eyes as one of the Suna ninjutsu users reached for their kunai pouch. With a well-aimed senbon, she hit his wrist and jumped down in front of the Grass team.
"You guys have a brown flag, useless to us. Get out of here, Suna seems to have something we need." Shizuka pulled a black cloth from her pouch fingering the material before pushing it inside her weapon's pouch. "Now, it's getting kind of late so if we could finish this quickly so that I can take a nap, that would be great."
'You wish, kid." The dirty blond earth user rolled her eyes as she stared Shizuka down. "Where are your teammates, did they get tired of babysitting you?"
"I'm tired of babysitting them." The Nara smirked pulling out one of her tantō, "Keep an eye out, our team is kind of a master of last minute plan changes."
And with that, she dashed forward full speed to lock blades with their weapons specialist's katana. The other two ninjutsu users looked around searching for her team that they didn't notice the Grass nin leave the clearing.
"Doton: Shinjū Zanshu no Jutsu!" (Earth Style: Headhunter Jutsu) Masaru yelled as he pulled the earth user down to the ground, leaving only her head above it. "Good luck trying to get out of that." Masaru smiled smugly down at her before turning to the wind user Kaito had just engaged in battle.
"Earth and Fire, your teammates have an advantage against mine." The weapons specialist, Doi, stated as he dodged one of her stabs and struck downwards with his own katana.
"Not to mention you're already one down." Shizuka parried the blow and twirled around him, locking eyes with Masaru for a second before kicking the back of Doi's knee, making him stumble forwards. "Got you!"
Doi turned around, leaning heavily on his uninjured leg and realised too late that he had landed just under the shade of the tree. Before he could take a step away from it, Shizuka had already completed the handsigns and her shadow connected to that of the trees, binding Doi to her.
She calmly reached down as if to grab a kunai from her right leg, which she didn't have considering she was left-handed, and instead started emptying out Doi's pouch.
"Found it! Masaru, knock him out would you." Shizuka called to her teammate who dashed over and pulled Doi underground with the same jutsu he used before, Shizuka releasing Doi just seconds before he was pulled down.
"Shizuka, present for you." Kaito pushed the wind user backwards until Shizuka could trap him in her shadows, and then allowed Masaru to pull this one down as well. Leaving the three Suna genin with just their heads above the ground.
"Now, we don't want you causing us any trouble, so I have a little gift for you three." Shizuka cheerily reached for her pouch on her lower back and pulled out three small light grey balls.
Without a warning she threw one at each head and pulled the boys a safe distance back, smirking at their wide eyes as smoke enveloped the Suna team.
"They won't wake up until that leaves their system. I'm estimating a little over a day and a half considering just one of those balls would have spread enough to knock all three of them out."
"What the hell have you been up to?" Masaru just stares as the Suna team started coughing before they went silent, the greyish cloud still hung around them, though team four seemed to be just outside the radius.
"After the whole flower incident, I decided to keep a poison and sedatives in my pouch as well as a general antidote." Shizuka shrugged as she stood from the now unconscious Suna team.
"Please tell me you haven't been experimenting." Kaito groans at the mere thought of having Shizuka explore poisons.
"Too troublesome. They have to keep paperwork for everything they do and crosscheck it amongst themselves for new discoveries and combinations. Genma recommended those, so I got my dad to get me some."
"At least we don't have to worry about you experimenting with them... That would just be a nightmare." Kaito relaxed minutely, while Masaru just looked bewildered.
"You find record keeping a nuisance but you don't mind building an entire room-sized mind-maps and sorting connections for any of our cases?" Masaru looks bewildered at her response.
"I'd rather do puzzles over paperwork." Shizuka deadpanned as she folded the second flag neatly before handing it to Kaito for him to keep it,
"Such a Nara." Her teammates intone together, bringing small smiles to all their faces.
'Two down, two to go.' Shizuka sighed as she jumped to a high branch and turning North. With the second day coming to a close they would have to find shelter and discuss their next plan of action since the teams are unlikely to have kept the order of the gates as they fought each other.
"Something's wrong with our luck." Masaru stated as he suspiciously eyed the black flag with silvery stitching of a Konoha symbol, "How the hell did we get here before whatever team was supposed to grab it?"
The black flag was stuck to the underside of a root they had chosen to use as shelter from the storm. It was already noon of the third day and they had counted exactly two teams before coming across it, so the pattern theory was definitely confirmed.
"I guess luck is on our side for once." Shizuka grabbed the flag and once again folded it neatly before giving it to Kaito to put away.
"The other team could have been intercepted by another team." Masaru suggested as he settled down on a dry patch of dirt.
Team four shrugged it off and settled to wait for the storm to pass. None of them were willing to question their streak of good luck. They agreed on a rotation for watches so that they could get some sleep.
It was still early afternoon when the storm stopped and so deeming it worth to get a head start on their last flag, they emerged from the roots once Shizuka had pinpointed a new team to investigate.
"Those are some weird tracks." Shizuka pointed towards the ground where several continuous lines of indents were on the ground. "I wonder what made them."
"I don't." Masaru mumbled but was completely ignored by his teammate as she jumped to the ground to get a closer look at the tracks.
"We've been so lucky lately, I wonder if this would continue that or if it would restore order to our bad luck."
"Kami damn it, Shizuka, don't jinx us." Masaru groaned as his teammate pointed towards a hole in the ground.
Shizuka went to retort but stumbled back as a giant centipede came crawling out of the hole. Masaru and Kaito who had just landed behind her sent her piercing glares as if saying 'are you happy now?'.
"Fuck! I think I spoke to early." Shizuka groaned as she dodged one of many stampeding legs of the giant insect.
"You think?" Kaito's tone dripped of sarcasm as he shifted his stance, preparing for a fight.
"Kaito just burn the damned thing!" Masaru jumped to avoid the creature's head, before jumping onto one of the trees.
"I'll send a gust of wind to make it larger." Shizuka flipped backwards to stand at Kaito's shoulder. "Now!"
'Well, that's three down, one more to go.' Shizuka groaned as she collapsed next to her team on the river bank some distance away after running to escape any attention the smoke would attract.
Later that afternoon, team four passed the tower and didn't sense any teams nearby, but they passed a Grass team with a green flag and a Konoha team with a blue flag.
"Shizuka, any ideas on what team we're going to face for our last flag?" Kaito asked from the middle of their line. "Or at least a list of possible teams?"
"Sixteen teams passed, eight from Konoha, so likely two for each colour. Three from Suna, so one colour won't have a team. Two from Ame, so two colours won't have a team. Same for Grass. One team from Waterfall so three won't have a team." Shizuka slowed down slightly, the three of them falling into a triangle formation so that they could hear better.
"We passed the two Amegakure teams already, one had a blue flag and the other a green. We also passed a Konoha with Brown. Hana's team has blue. And we got our second flag from a Suna team who was with a Grass team with a brown flag." Kaito listed off the teams they had passed early on in the exam.
"We also passed those other two earlier today, Konoha green and Suna blue." Masaru pitched in, before he went over the list, "So, we have, two black, three blue, two brown and two green. The teams we don't know about are five from Konoha, one from Waterfall and one from Suna."
"That means that we will either fight a Konoha team or the Waterfall team since we already fought a Suna team. It will only depend on who didn't make it to their flag." Shizuka concluded sending a small smile over her shoulder. "We should find a place to rest, we won't be any good in a fight if we're tired. Hopefully by late afternoon tomorrow, we'll be on our way to the tower."
" Three days, maybe four if we don't get to the tower tomorrow afternoon. Not a bad time." Kaito commented as he adjusted the strap of his katana.
The trio lapsed into silence as they approached the river on the other side of the tower. After making sure there weren't any teams in the immediate area around them, they jumped to the forest floor in search of a shelter to settle in.
"We'll leave tomorrow before dawn again, we can skip other teams that aren't from Konoha or Waterfall." Shizuka supplied as they settled under a fallen tree, its foliage providing side coverage.
"Strategy-wise, we sticking with the usual?" Masaru asked as he slid into his sleeping bag.
"Split them up between ranges, but keep an eye out for the styles in case they are more suitable for someone else." Kaito nodded as he too prepared to sleep, "And when possible push them into Shizuka's shadows for a quick end. Shizuka, you have more of those paralyzers?"
"Yup." She stated cheerily patting her leg pouch. "Get some sleep, I have a feeling it'll be a long day tomorrow.
Just as planned they moved out before dawn. Shizuka led them around a Suna and a Grass team which didn't have their colour and continued moving through the training grounds. Shizuka made it a practice of sort to remember what their chakra felt like so that they didn't go after them again and so far it had worked. She sensed Hana's team going in the opposite direction as them, but as they were a mile apart they didn't meet.
It was just past noon when Shizuka identified a team she hadn't before and heading their way they managed to sneak up on the Waterfall team.
Or at least they thought they did.
The girl on their team threw a barrage of shuriken at the trees they were in forcing them to dodge and reveal their locations.
"Look's like we've got company." A boy with sandy blond hair and dark eyes spoke will a dull tone, his eyes flickering between the members of team four.
"As to not waste our time, care to confirm your flag colour?" Kaito spoke up after a minuscule nod from Shizuka.
The other boy, who had dark green hair and eyes pulled a black flag from his pouch, before stuffing it back inside. Masaru pulled a black piece of fabric from his pouch and showed it to them before putting it away.
"Great! Now to the fun part." Shizuka slapped her hand and drew her tanto, spinning it deftly between her fingers.
The girl who had thrown the shuriken before drew a handful of the blades. The green haired boy took a step forward and into a taijutsu stance, while the blond boy remained as he was, his eyes carefully analysing the Konoha genin.
With their targets identified, team four settled into their formation for the fight. Shizuka would take the weapons specialist, Kaito would go for the blond boy for what would likely turn out to be a ninjutsu battle, and Masaru would engage in a taijutsu battle.
Shizuka pushed all her focus to the dark haired girl in front of her. Just as she noticed a twitch of the girl's fingers she also heard the sound of running. The green haired boy and Masaru started trading blows while Kaito and his opponent simply watched each other.
"Masaru, projectiles, watch out." Shizuka ran closer to the boys and parried some of the projectiles sent their way, while Masaru and the boy jumped out of range. Just as they were about to land the ninjutsu user weaved through handsigns and launched a water bullet towards Masaru, who had no way of dodging.
'Well, shit. Water user.' Kaito ran backwards and caught Masaru after he was hit by the water.
"Masaru we need to switch opponents. In ninjutsu, I'm no good against a water user." Kaito whispered to his teammate before nodding to Shizuka who took a stance between the weapons girl and them, ensuring she could knock the projectiles off before they reached them.
"Ninjutsu got it." Masaru glared at the water user who just cocked an eyebrow at the two Konoha boys. "Let's start that again, shall we?"
This time, they were prepared for the weapons user to use her projectiles to push the boys off balance allowing her teammates to attack. Shizuka kept using small gusts of wind to protect her teammates when she couldn't physically knock the projectiles away with her tantō. She could see the brown haired girl getting annoyed at the lack of her success, even when her teammates tried to catch Shizuka off balance, Kaito and Masaru would interfere.
Kaito who ended up against the taijutsu guy had to rely on speed because the other guy was obviously stronger. Knowing he wouldn't have to worry about stray projectiles and water bullets allowed him to focus completely on his opponent.
Masaru, on the other hand, was struggling to keep up with the water user. His advantage was that he was an earth type and thus strong against water. However, ninjutsu still was his weak point and in a battle totally focus on it was way out of his comfort zone.
After making an earth wall to protect himself from a water attack, Masaru took a moment to take stock of his chakra and glance over his teammates. Shizuka was fine, several scratches from weapons he hadn't seen hit her, but she wasn't showing any signs of slowing down. Kaito was panting but he too seemed alright, covered in bruises more likely but otherwise fine. Himself, on the other hand, was reaching uncomfortably low levels of chakra.
"Masaru, not the time to slack!" He heard Shizuka growl from his side, he glanced up to see her standing in front of him palm outwards after blowing a gust to keep the weapons from him. "You're low on chakra, this girl is showing no signs of slowing down with the damned projectiles. Take the taijutsu guy, I'll handle the ninjutsu user."
"But Kaito..."
"He'll know to go over to the girl." She smiled down at him and gestured towards the wall he had created, "Let's get back to it. Oh, and give this to Kaito, he'll know what to do."
After the second switch of opponents, the battle seemed to become even more vicious.
Masaru took on the taijutsu user. He wasn't as fast as Kaito but still faster than his opponent and managed to land some heavy blows to the green haired boy. However, he could feel the bruises forming all over his body. He was pretty sure he cracked a rib, and his ankle was slightly swollen. 'This needs to end quickly, this guy is already getting the upper hand.'
Kaito ended up engaging the girl with his katana, forcing her to pull out a sword of her own. While she was faster than Kaito, he was stronger a reversal of the conditions of his last fight. Luckily he was rather used to fighting someone faster than him, as he often sparred with Shizuka who would dodge his blows and not even seem like she had moved at all. He jumped apart from the girl as she tried to stab him with a kunai she had pulled from her pouch.
Shizuka was blowing holes through the water attacks, just wide enough for her to slip through unscathed. She glanced over to see Kaito reach for his pouch and smirked. 'Time to cut this short.'
At the same moment, Masaru gave a shout of pain as he was sent rolling across the clearing after getting kicked in the ribs. With a slight curse, Shizuka jumped over to block a follow-up punch that was probably to knock him out.
Landing in front of the green haired boy she blocked the punch and twisted around him, clenching her jaw as the boy shifted his hand to grip her wrist and twisted. She turned her torso around and kneed the boy in the small of his back causing him to stumble only to be gripped by Masaru so that he couldn't stand up again. Weaving through handsigns she trapped him in her shadow possession.
"Masaru, reach inside my pouch. I should have some of those balls." Shizuka whispered her eyes darting between the other two opponents who were being kept away by Kaito.
Masaru did as she asked and within moments the guy was surrounded by a plume of smoke. Shizuka helped Masaru to his feet and they lept out of range of the smoke. She put him by one of his walls and whispered her plan to him.
Moments later the remaining two waterfall faced off against Kaito and Shizuka. Kaito was the least injured but he wouldn't do well against the water user so they continued with their normal opponents.
Kaito pulled out the kunai Shizuka had gave him along with several others. With a quick glance at his female teammate, he threw them a followed right behind them. Weaving the same handsigns as before Shizuka latched her shadows onto the wire attached to her kunai and followed them until it's shadow connected to that of the girl. As soon as they did she trapped the girl in the shadows and Kaito who was just beside her threw a paralytic bomb at her before putting himself out of the range of the smoke.
Before she fully released the shadows she had the wind knocked out of her as she was slammed into a tree by a water bullet she hadn't seen coming.
She stood up and swayed slightly, her back was one big bruise and her head pounded where it knocked into the tree. Kaito was positioned defensively over Masaru who was having trouble standing up.
On the other side of the clearing, the green haired boy had gotten his teammate out of the smoke cloud, but Shizuka knew that as long as she got one breath of it she would be out for an hour or so.
She stumbled over to her teammates as they watched the green haired boy put his female teammate beside the other unconscious boy. Team four stood still, watching carefully their bodies tensed and ready to dodge anything the waterfall genin threw their way.
"Shizuka, one guy left but I can't do it on my own. You think you can pull off another jutsu or two?" Kaito asked quietly his eyes trained on the water user who was the only one still awake.
"It's three against one. You should give your flag up." Masaru called once Shizuka didn't answer.
"That would never happen," Greenie said his face set in a scowl. "Two if you can barely stand and the other has been avoiding a fight with me like the plague. Let me guess fire type?"
Team four scowled back. No one should doubt them. They were advanced for genin this battle simply wasn't the best conditions they could have had. From where Shizuka knelt on the ground, she took a moment to look around the clearing, analysing the location.
There were projectiles all around, some crumbling earth walls and several puddles from the water jutsus. Some trees had cuts across their barks from her wind gusts. The waterfall team was smack middle of the clearing, far from any of the walls and away from any shadows she could use.
And by the way, the guy was looking at the kunai she was sure he figured out what they did, which meant they needed a new tactic. The question was if she should pull out a trump card this early on. Sure no one was around, but they weren't going to kill these genin so they could tell what happened. And she knew if someone was good enough at concealing their chakra they could still sneak up on her, especially if she was to focus on the battle completely.
"Shizuka, looks like you have the first move." Kaito murmured, his eyes darting to the side towards his teammate who was still silently observing the field.
"Use a fire jutsu, I'll amplify it with the wind." She stumbled to her feet, stepping slightly in front of Masaru to stand by Kaito's left shoulder. "He'll use water to counter, I need steam and a lot of it. Masaru you think you can pull off one more wall?"
"You want me to block the steam from being carried with the wind?" Masaru shifted so that he had both his arms free instead of supporting him and scoffed at his teammates raised eyebrows, "Kind of common sense, besides I've learnt a lot from you two. Your smarts are rubbing off."
"I'm glad." Shizuka's replied dryly, before nodding over to Kaito who started his handsigns soon following with her own.
"Katon: Hiuchi Yagura" (Fire Release: Flint Yagura)
"Fūton: Senpūken" (Wind Release: Whirlwind Fist)
Immediately after greenie, as Shizuka started calling him, sent a wave of water their way, and right where they met: steam.
'We need more, but we need a plan B too.' Shizuka exchanged a look with Kaito who seemed to have come to the same conclusion because a moment later we weaved the same handsigns, Shizuka noticing the immediately stronger pull on his chakra, 'Hm, I wonder if I could identify release styles as they prepare to launch it...'
Masaru who had already created a curved wall of earth to keep the steam from blowing away because of the wind gave a harsh pinch to Shizuka's shin, startling her out of her thoughts.
Shizuka looked down to see Masaru holding her kunai that was attached to the wire, 'Since when has he been pulling that towards us?' She smiled in thanks and promptly threw the kunai towards the greenie and by the sound of his curse and the sound of someone landing on the ground meant he dodged instead of blocking.
As she started weaving more handsigns, Kaito reached for a paralytic bomb and dashed into the steam, their training in sensing chakra coming in handy considering he couldn't see a palm in front of him.
It didn't take him long to find greenie, as he couldn't move having been trapped in Shizuka's shadows. With a quick flick of his wrist the bomb went off and he dashed back towards his teammates.
"He's still conscious, holding his breath, I'd guess." Shizuka shrugged as he came out of the steam cloud. "He's the one that has the flag, I'm already low, I'll need to end this faster."
"Do it, we can give them a heavy dose of the paralytic and move on, just enough to recover and get us to the tower. It's only a little over half a day to the tower."
Shizuka stood and walked closer to her target, soon enough the boy had walked closer as well, mirroring her actions.
"I'm glad I'm left handed now," Shizuka smirked, pulling out a senbon, while her opponent simply copied the gesture and came up empty-handed. "Have a nice nap! I know I will."
With a flick of her wrist, the senbon went hurtling towards the boy, hitting him in a non-vital point in the neck. She then bore down on the remaining chakra and kept him in place until she felt his body start to slump.
With the boy unconscious, Kaito dashed over and got the flag, storing it safely with the other one he had. He helped Shizuka and Masaru over to the other two unconscious genin and gave them an extra dose of the paralytic to ensure they would be out for long enough for them to make it to the tower.
With all four flags secured, team four started to make their way to the tower. They didn't go far, with both Masaru and Shizuka too tired to move much. Kaito wrapped Masaru's ankle and ribs, and he took first watch, allowing his teammates to rest but kept checking on Shizuka for her concussion.
Team four arrived at the tower a little after noon of the fourth day, much to Kotetsu's joy and Izumo's disappointment. The genin would later find out from their sensei that the two had a bet going on when they would finish the second phase.
They were the second team to arrive, the first being Team Rizu and mere minutes after they did one of the Suna teams arrived as well.
They weren't really surprised Team Rizu had finished early morning of the fourth, they did, after all, have an advantage of tracking. And team four did lose a couple hours to rest after their battle against the waterfall team, so they were happy with how they came out of the test.
Later that day, a team from Grass showed up completing all four colour teams.
Soon after they called for all the participants to line up with their teammates facing the proctors from the two exams, their senseis, a couple chūnin that helped out and the Hokage.
Shizuka still not being fully recovered from their fight, her head still pounding, 'Having a concussion sucks.' She grimaced as she placed a hand on the spot where she hit the tree. She stood at the front of her team, being the shortest she wouldn't have been able to see anything otherwise.
Much to her dismay, Kaito pinched her shoulder, obviously wanting her to at least try to pay attention. He was however considerate of her bruises and went for a place that wasn't injured.
"The last phase of the exams will be a tournament between the remaining participants. The first round will be a three-way fight from which only one person will move on. The ones who do move on are in a regular one-on-one semi-final, and whoever wins that will compete in the final." The Hokage's voice echoed in the room, which looked like an arena with a balcony all around interrupted only by a stature to one side. "Winning does not mean promotion, and losing does not disqualify you for a promotion either. Now for the proctor of the third stage, here is Namiashi Raidō."
"Thank you, Lord Hokage." Raidō stepped forward after bowing to the Hokage and stood in front of the genin looking between each group as two other chūnin pulled in a large board that was covered by a white sheet. "The selections of your battle groups has already been made, it was done in such a way that none of you is in the same group as your current teammates. These will take place in a month's time, more details will be given to your sensei's to pass on."
Raidō then turned around to the board and pulled the sheet down revealing the first round, three-way matches.
Group A
Matsuda Kenji – Konoha
Hitotose Kaito – Konoha
Akagi Chikaru – Suna
Group B
Inuzuka Hana – Konoha
Ishii Aika – Suna
Mareo – Grass
Group C
Akiyama Masaru – Konoha
Aoki Biro – Suna
Ito Tadaaki - Grass
Group D
Aburame Shun – Konoha
Nara Shizuka – Konoha
Sano Cho - Grass
'Ah, how fun, an Aburame straight off the bat. It's going to be a long, troublesome month.'