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Chapter Twelve:

Defeat The Hokage?!

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"I hope she'll be okay…" Yume reminded the team for about the sixth time, worried about her new friend wandering the forest on her own. Though the forest was beautiful, especially during the winter. The patches of sunlight that shone through the trees canopy reflected off the white, untouched snow, it was stunning.

"She'll be fine," Diro looked around, again, feeling paranoid, though he had a right to be. The snow would help silence the steps of anyone approaching, they would have to be in their toes, especially in a fight or flight situation. He took a cautious step forward, to trip on a metal wire, landing face first in the snow. "Ow…" He heard Ryou laughing from behind him, though Yume was in a panic, thinking they were under attack.

Ryou had a thin piece of metal stemming from his left palm, which wrapped around several trees in the area. The fact that Ryou caused the wire caused Yume to giggle, "At least it's a natural ice pack!" She mocked, throwing his own words back at him for the time she tripped in the snow herself.

"Haha, very funny, stealing my sarcastic comedic genius." He stood up and shook the snow off his clothes, his skin was a little red from the cold. Though he suddenly had an idea, "First, where'd you learn to do that, second, can you do it again?" If they could set up a bunch of those around them to prevent people from getting in… They would be extremely safe, well as safe as they could be anyway.

"A family thing, that's the first time I figured out how to do it though." He wasn't going to mention that it was on complete accident, but heck, his hand didn't hurt as much as before. "We should go uphill. If we can see everything around us, we'll be better off, I can set traps."
"I don't think there is a uphill. I've seen topography maps for all of the land of fire, the only thing that has height in this region is the trees." She looked up at the massive pines surrounding them, "We could always use those, but we'd get trapped easily up there if something went wrong."

Diro nodded, "She has a point, I guess the best tactic is to keep moving, though what I don't understand is, Why only overnight? The past few years this portion of the test has been so much longer…" He paced a little bit, being careful not to crunch any of the few fallen leaves above the snow. "It doesn't make any sense…"

"Well the past few years the Genin didn't have the Hokage herself after them." The group heard a voice behind them, "I've heard this team is pretty good, individually, but what about your team work?"

Yume was the first to muster the courage to turn around, even though she knew who was behind them, "Tsunade-sama…"

"We're screwed!" Ryou threw his hands in the air, "We can't beat the hokage. That would be suicide!" I knew this path was a bad idea! But Nooooo! Diro insisted that it be this one! Look where that got us now! The last thing we'll ever see is snow! Stupid snow!
Tsunade yawned and allowed the group to discuss their strategy, after all there was practically no way they could beat her. Well, it could be done, if the group suddenly developed the levels of a sanin in the last few months. Which they hadn't, so it was impossible. "I understand that pain you're feeling right now, definite failure, but don't think that just because you're kids I'll go easy on you." That was a lie, she would go easy on them, because one punch would break their fragile underdeveloped little spines. Have they developed their Kekkei Genkai enough to be used in combat? Do they even know what they have? Can they fend of the pursuers they most certainly will have? If they can beat me, they can most likely fend off Orochimaru as a team… Which is where I need them to be, now that Sasuke has gotten away, he'll be needing someone else. It can't be one of these three, it can't be anyone from this village. he whipped out a silver kunai, which looked almost white reflecting the images in the snow. She just couldn't hit any vital spots, how hard could that be?

Yume squinted her left eye shut, she felt as if it were burning. She had felt this feeling before, she hated it. Ryou removed the black leather glove that he had been wearing lately from his left hand, flexing it so it could adjust to the new temperature. Diro mimicked Tsunade's actions, he didn't plan to fail here.

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All the while, Neji and Ino sat in a tree a few meters away, up at the top. Ino watched through her binoculars that Shikamaru lent her, and Neji had his Byakugan activated. Arms crossed, he looked towards Ino, "Think they can actually pull off a single scratch? Just one and she'll let them pass."
"Of course they can. You haven't seen Ryou break out of Shikamaru's Shadow Possession Jutsu, or Diro nearly beat him in shogi. Or Yume walk up trees just to avoid the two of them. Walk, not even run. I have complete faith in them." She smiled, "What about your little Taka? I hear you've been helping to train his Byakugan."
"He's not the subject matter. You know why she's doing this. What if…"
"Sasuke or Orochimaru, I know." She didn't want to think that one of them would turn over to the other side, though Tsunade suspected that it was a possibility. "I can see Diro doing it… And unfortunately Yume if she finds out her parents could have been saved."
"But they weren't, and can't. We don't have Itachi or his little girlfriend. Isn't she Diro's sister?" It was funny how fate worked, he hated it. He was done with fate a long time ago. "I know that we may be able to get them to come back… I don't think he knows Danzo is dead. He caused Itachi to do everything. But… did you say parents?"
"Shut up. Conversation over, let's focus." Ino's hand clenched, and tears began to swell up in her eyes. She gazed down at the battle below them. The team was focused on trying to avoid Tsunade's every move, which made sense given her strength. Though she would occasion knick them with her kunai. "She's holding back."

"Of course she is, she's the Hokage, she would kill them in an instant." Neji was curious as to Ino's actions, after all, Yume's mother was still alive.

"Not Tsunade, Yume." She whispered, which caused Neji to look back down in surprise to study the girls chakra, "Her left eye, the chakra is… completely invisible. I can't see it." He felt a little bit of fury well up inside of him, was this girl able to hide her chakra even to his Byakugan? It seemed impossible, and yet, she was doing it.

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Diro weaved a hand sign, breathing out balls of glittering fire, which melted the snow underneath them, though missed Tsunade. The freshly melted snow immediately froze, turning into a sheet of polished ice. He nodded towards Yume and threw her a shuriken, which she caught around her pointer finger, and it immediately turned to ice.

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"There." Neji said quizzically, "He chakra nature just changed entirely when she caught the shuriken? That's impossible!"

"That's Yume's Aoigan. Or so we believe that's what it does. Unless that's just an underlying talent… it could be very well what she can do. Ino couldn't hold back a prideful smirk. "Thanks for confirming it, being that you're one of the few people I know that can actually see the change, Shikamaru and I were just speculating about it."

"It's… impossible… That kind of ability would trump the Sharingan!" His mind began to spin with everything that kind of power could be used for. she could learn any kind of jutsu, even if she had never seen it used before. With study… She would be almost invincible… "Her chakra control is good, yes?"
"Better than Sakara's was at her age."
"That… is… insane…" I… feel threatened, by a child? He was sweating a little bit, "You better train her to know how to use that."
"Of course I will! Why do you think she was assigned to me in the first place?"

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The ice shuriken were now practically invisible, Tsunade couldn't see them. They were so clear, and given all the glare the iced floor was creating, and the snow… She slid across the ice. Then, without further warning, she tripped on an extremely thin piece of wire. While she didn't fall, it was enough to make her stumble as a shuriken barely grazed her shoulder, and few drops of blood trickled out.

Ino turned her head to smile mockingly at Neji, "Ha!"

"Very funny, I guess they pass. Though they still have to survive for the rest of the time. I'll go down and read them the scroll, or what I can of it, given the majourity is classified." He smiled, knowing she didn't know the contents, and waved the scroll in her face mockingly.
"Don't make me tell Tenten what a bad boy you've been, I'd hate for her to get out her weapons…" She held back her giggles as Neji jumped down from the tree, blushing brighter than a red rose. "I sooo won that."

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Neji landed, and smiled at Tsunade, the blush faded from his cheeks. "Diro, Yume, Ryou. Congratulations, you may continue with the , just because you landed a scratch here, does not mean that other shinobi will not continue to follow you. Good luck, and try to get a few hundred metres away from here in the next five minutes." The Hyuga nodded to the Genin group, and they ran off.

"What did you see?" Tsunade asked as she dusted the snow off her shins as soon as she was sure that the team was out of earshot.

"Ryou seems to have some sort of implant in his left hand, though it appears to be slowly molding into his body. I think that's where he can create metal, just like the one you and Diro stumbled over. He may just use it for pranks… Which I wouldn't doubt. Diro's chakra is very confused, while his control seems to be excellent back in the academy, I think he's under some sort of emotional turmoil that may be causing it to act up. It is definitely going to have an effect on him later in the test, proverbially, he may just explode. Yume is able to make her chakra disappear from the Byakugan's sight, though has little control of it, and it's most notable behind her left eye. She also seems to be able to change her chakra type in response to stimuli in the environment." He finally deactivated his Byakugan, seeing he didn't need it at the moment, no one other than Ino was around. "I would keep the red flag on all of them."
"Goodness… This year's genin are turning out to be a majour pain. Shall we go on to the next? Or do your eyes need a break? You've been using them all morning." She was concerned for the jonin, sometimes she thought he pushed himself too hard.

"I can continue Lady Hokage. Though… Yume. Her lungs.."
"Don't tell me…" She cursed herself, the one thing she didn't know how to cure. They could end up losing this year's best future shinobi to.

"They're filling up with fluid. Is there anyway…?"
"Not yet… Not for at least another two years… Can she hold off that long?"
"With medicine for sure, though she will be quite uncomfortable in a few months. She'll realize what's happening. Ino will too. Coughing should start soon. Especially if she strains herself, which will be basically the rest of this exam. Should I get her out?" He dug his heel into the snow, feeling uneasy. He knew how much this girl would mean to the village, "Maybe Naruto…"
"I'll send Diro, after this exam. He'll pass." Tsunade cursed her luck, it just had to be her that would have to deal with this situation. "Before you argue that he's only a child, his sister is there. He may be able to convince her to drag Itachi back here, though we lost sighting of them two months ago. It may take him awhile to find them. I cannot send you out, you'll attract too much attention. His clan is from the area where they were last spotted, he'll blend in."
"This could very well become an S-rank mission, and you're going to send him alone!"

"Yes, I will, I don't have much other option. Itachi would kill anyone else who got close to them. This is what we have to do."