In the previous chapter Itachi was formally betrothed to Sheeta. He also fought and defeated a Cloud nin and triumphed in the first part of the Chuunin exams.
Question of the day: If Lee is unable to use chakra, how does he do the "walk on water" jutsu?
I'm pretty sure the evidence points to the second and third exams having existed since the end of the last war. The first test I'm a little suspicious about. I have a feeling Ibiki has been doing it for a while, but as to whether the test always existed as it is now – I have a suspicion it has changed over the years. Kabuto didn't say anything about it to the "9", but then there was no reason to. Also, none of the "9" specifically asked him. Kabuto is funny that way, if you don't ask him the right question you don't get the right answer (if you know what I mean). I wanted the first test in there though because I thought the idea of Itachi cheating on an exam, then getting the people sitting around him expelled was funny. Now the intermediary fights that took place in the Tower after the second exam were a technicality because too many people passed. However, if you ask me, there were still too many participants at the end. All those fights, if they took place would last days, in my opinion. But maybe that's why they have a festival going on at the same time – to distract people after the daily fights.
Disclaimer: Kishimoto is owned by Naruto.
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Chapter 36 – The Forest of Death
The eighteen Genin stood around, waiting impatiently for the exam proctor to show up. The May morning was clear, but from what everyone could see of the forest they were about to enter, they wouldn't see much of the sky for a while. It was filled with massive trees and extremely thick foliage. What they could see through the trunks was nothing but blackness.
Yurina had met up with her team for a few minutes to wish them luck. She was off on her own mission, but promised she would be back in twenty-four hours, and definitely would be there to greet them in one week.
Itachi, Yuri and Sana passed the remaining time by going through each other's packs to verify they were well stocked. Of course they were. All three were experienced shinobi. Between then they had dried food, soldier pills, medical kits, weapons, weather gear, water purification tablets, matches (in case they couldn't use chakra and needed a fire), and scrolls.
The five other teams were also going over their supplies. Itachi noticed that one team from Stone had actually split their supply collection among the three members and were redistributing them amongst their packs. It was actually a good strategy. Since they were in a strange village they had split up to collect the items they needed to save time. Of course, it also worked in Itachi's favor because he now knew what they were carrying. He and his teammates had reviewed their items by looking into each others packs. Most of the other teams did it by emptying them on the ground. Bad strategy. Itachi smiled as he noticed a couple teams were not properly prepared. He pointed them out to Sana and Yuri and they laughed.
"Attention!" The loud voice reverberated over the area and some of the Genin jumped. A man in his early twenties appeared in a puff of smoke. He was medium height with black hair and extremely pale skin. Itachi figured he had either been very sick lately or he was a vampire. No one could be that pale naturally.
"Welcome to Practice Area 44. Better known as the 'Forest of Death'. It is a high level training ground that will be used as the second stage of the Chuunin exams. Your team will be given a scroll. There are two types of scrolls, a 'Heaven' scroll and an 'Earth' scroll. There are six teams so that mean three teams will have a 'Heaven' scroll and three teams will have an 'Earth' scroll. The object is for your team to get both scrolls." The man moved to a map that was painted on a wooden board attached to the fence. "You will make your way from your assigned gate to this tower in the center. Anyone who does not make it by noon on the seventh day is disqualified."
Everyone moved closer to look at the map. The entire area was only a few miles and could easily be navigated in one day. How could it possibly take them a week? Itachi was curious but decided not to say anything.
The man continued. "You will fill out these consent forms, stating that I'm not responsible for your deaths and take them over to that building. Your team will be given a scroll and a gate you will enter at. Make your way to that gate – you can see them on the map here – and at 10am you will be let into the forest and the exam will begin."
"So only three teams at the most can pass?" A boy from Cloud asked.
The exam proctor smiled. "Yes. This is a survival test, after all."
"What's the third exam?" Another Genin asked.
"You'll find out in one week." The proctor laughed. "Now fill these out and get going."
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Team Yurina stood motionless and silent at their assigned gate waiting for 10am. A Chuunin was standing next to the padlock on the gate staring at his watch. When the appointed hour finally came the gate was unlocked and the boy and two girls ran into the forest. They quickly found a secluded area and crouched together on the ground.
Itachi spoke up, "Yuri, what do you know about this place?"
"It's full of a large number of wildlife including tigers, lions, and giant leaches as well as exotic and deadly plants. We can't let our guard down for a minute. My uncle said he spends a lot of time in here studying some of the plants for the Hokage. The terrain is uneven with no real trails. There is one trail, though, but it is guarded by a jutsu. The instructors are no doubt using it to get to the tower." Yuri was very matter-of-fact as she spoke.
"We need to find another team." Sana said, smiling. "I think we should take them all out."
"No problem." Yuri laughed and sent her chakra into the ground, searching out roots and using them look for competitors.
Itachi smirked. "That would mean only we would be in the last exam. Perfect." He pulled out a scroll and copied the map that they had seen on fence earlier.
Yuri pulled the map closer and used pebbles to mark the current locations of the other five teams. The Training area was circular with a river cutting it in half and a tower located in the center. There were two teams on Team Yurina's side of the river and three teams on the other side.
"We have to get the teams before they enter the tower." Itachi stated.
"So should we go for this one first?" Sana pointed at the closest team. "Or this one?" She pointed to the second closest.
Itachi thought about it for a minute then spoke. "Actually, let's get the two teams to engage each other then take out the winner. The same thing for the other three teams. We can assess their fighting methods then use them against the winners. That will also help after the exams if we ever meet them in battle during a mission."
Yuri and Sana laughed, then Yuri shook her head and spoke in mock sorrow. "We're going to miss you Itachi."
"Huh? What do you mean?" Itachi was a little taken aback.
"You are so going to be recruited into ANBU five minutes after this exam ends. We'll have to get a new teammate!" Yuri said, continuing her "sad" tone.
"It's what I've wanted since I was four." Itachi gave a small smile as he remembered asking Madara and then his father for the mask of recently killed ANBU. They had told him he would have to earn his own mask. His father may have his own reasons for wanting Itachi in ANBU, but really they were just coinciding with his own desires. When this was over, he would have that mask.
"Well, hopefully I'll be joining you there too." Yuri admitted. "The advanced missions sound challenging."
"I agree." Sana also admitted. "But if they don't let you in, Itachi, then they're stupid."
"Thanks." Itachi smiled. "But first, let's go lead this team into the path of the other team. Who are they Yuri?"
"The closer team is Sand and the next team is Cloud. Hmm. Cloud doesn't like you much Itachi, this could be interesting." Yuri laughed again. She was laughing a lot, actually. The second exam was right up her alley. So much plant life, it was almost four times denser than a normal forest, made her information gathering so simple that scouting the entire Forest of Death used much less chakra than usual. She wasn't feeling arrogant, just relieved. Her Kekkei Genkai used a lot of chakra and if she could save some then that was very good.
The three children jumped into the trees and started racing through the forest to find the Sand team. It only took ten minutes.
"Which Cloud team is ahead of us? Describe the members." Itachi asked quietly. They were all masking their chakra and the three shinobi below them had no idea they were being observed.
"Let's see… it's the one that had one adult and two older teen's."
"Ok." Itachi answered.
"Why would someone wait that long to become a Chuunin?" Sana wondered.
"Probably not part of a clan. The three of us are so our elders expect more of us. My friend isn't in a clan and she doesn't care if she becomes a Chuunin or not. My uncle is going to loose it if I fail this exam. He gave me a massively intense lecture on the evils of failing that I think I would run away if I failed instead of facing him. I suspect Itachi would be little black-and-blue if he failed, too." Yuri frowned. Her uncle was always intense and strict, but the lecture was so threatening that he had actually frightened her badly.
"My parents told me to do a good job and they looked forward to my success. My clan doesn't get 'emotional' like your uncle, but they can sure put forth the same message. I don't want to face them either if I loose. I might hide for a couple days before facing them, let them get over it." Sana said, also frowning. "I think it's worse because we are representing all of Konoha in the first multi-village Chuunin exam. None of our clans wants to see their members fail. They don't want the shame. If we were, like, five years younger, things would probably be a lot more relaxed and they wouldn't care as much."
Itachi gave a short laugh. He wondered what the village would be like when Sasuke was old enough to take the Chuunin exam. His father would likely be the Kage by then.
"We won't loose." Itachi said in a stern voice.
"No, we won't." The two girls agreed.
Sana smirked. "The Hokage would probably flay us alive before our parents got to us anyway."
That made Itachi chuckle. The vision of his father standing over his flayed body, disappointed because he didn't get to do it himself.
"Okay, I'll create three clones of the Cloud ninjas and lure them in the direction of the real ones. Sana and Yuri, conserve your chakra for the fight. We won't kill them unless we absolutely have to, but we will be incapacitating them so they won't come after us." Itachi concentrated on his memory of the three ninja, whom he had seen earlier in the day and three clones ran out of the forest directly into the path of the Sand ninja's.
The three Sand ninja's immediately gave chase, running deeper into the forest. The Konoha team stayed where they were. The plan was to wait until the teams met before moving closer. That way they wouldn't risk detection.
"They are almost together! Let's move out!" Yuri stood up and took off in the direction the Sand ninja had disappeared in. Itachi and Sana followed.
As they approached the Sand and Cloud teams they could hear loud voices, and it wasn't good news.
"The team we followed were clones! That means someone lead us here!" A girl, about fourteen yelled. Her headband and brown cloak labeled her as a Sand kunoichi.
"Let's wait for the other team and attack them together." One of the Cloud ninja's, a boy about the same age, responded.
"Great." Itachi sighed. "We've run into the only smart Cloud ninja in the Eastern continent. What kind of bad luck is that?"
Sana looked at the position of the six shinobi. "I can hold four with my jutsu, but there isn't a shadow where the other two are standing. Also, the shadow around the four is week and if it disappears my jutsu will end. There isn't any sun filtering down here so I'm having to rely on daylight creating shadows in a shady condition. It's much harder to control."
"I can get the other two." Yuri said.
"Okay. We'll go with that then. After you immobilize them I'll go down and incapacitate them. I'll do the shadow-bind ninja's first, left to right." Itachi lifted his hand in the air then dropped it. "Now!"
The Cloud and Sand ninja's suddenly found themselves unable to move as shadows and roots bound them in position. All six immediately roared their disapproval as Itachi, a small dark haired boy with a serious face walked calmly into the clearing. He pulled his sword and held it in front of him, looking at the blade.
"It's so much prettier when it's red. Why don't they make swords with red blades, I wonder? I keep having to kill people to dye it, but the color always comes off." He spoke quietly, but the eyes of the six shinobi in front of him went wide in shock.
"You aren't going to kill us!" One of the Cloud ninja's asked, almost pleading.
"But how else will my sword get red?" Itachi asked with an innocent voice.
"Just…just take the scroll and leave!" Another ninja said desperately.
"No. I'm not interested in the scroll." Itachi pouted.
"Please! This isn't a test of killing ability! It's just a stupid scroll!" One of the Sand ninja's pleaded.
"I want a red sword!" Itachi yelled as he plunged the sword into the ground. "And you're going to give it to me!"
"No! Please!" The six ninja's started to beg him to spare them.
Yuri jumped down into the clearing. She walked calmly up to Itachi and stroked his hair. "What's wrong, Itachi?" She was playing the part of an older sister calming the temper tantrum of a younger sibling.
"They don't want my sword to be red."
"Oh?" She looked sternly at the shinobi in front of her. "I wasn't aware you needed the permission of your prey before killing it. Did you take your medication this morning?"
"I don't like those stupid pills. They make me not want to kill."
"Ah! Well then I think we can throw them away. Now go have your fun and we can be on our way. I brought some candy for you as a treat."
Itachi gave a short chuckle and smiled. As he advanced the Cloud and Sand ninja's started to yell and plead for their lives. Itachi sheathed his sword and knocked them all out. After they were released from the jutsus they all fell to the ground. Itachi pulled his sword out again stabbed then all in the thigh, missing major arteries.
Sana jumped down to join them. "Good boy, Itachi!" She teased. Itachi smiled at her joke. The innocent little kid act always worked.
Yuri picked through the backpacks and returned with two scrolls. "They were both 'Heaven' scrolls. So that means there is one more 'Heaven' and three 'Earth' scrolls."
Itachi and Sana caught her hint immediately. She had purposely not mentioned which scroll they had. Something was wrong. The boy and girl glanced down at Yuri's hands. She held up three fingers then made a sign indicating Northeast. Another team had snuck up on them. She made another sign indicating Grass.
Itachi couldn't sense anyone nearby and grew worried. Then he remembered that Grass ninja's could disguise themselves as plants. He started looking for plants with unusual chakra signatures. A few seconds later he found them. He looked at Sana and saw that she still didn't know where they were.
The fact that the other team hadn't attacked yet was disconcerting. It meant they were waiting for something. They had seen the shadow-bind and root-bind jutsus so they knew what they were dealing with. Likely they were aware of Yuri's skills already. They may be having guess how Sana's jutsu worked, and they had only seen Itachi use a bit of Taijutsu and his sword. On the other hand the Konoha ninja's knew almost nothing about them. Itachi did know one thing about them – their packs did not contain enough supplies for the entire week and it was weak on weaponry.
Itachi's black eyes faded into red sharingans and his face became deadly serious. "We attack first. Yuri and I know where they are. Sana you follow us and use your jutsu if you can. Yuri, can you grab them from here?"
"No. They are using a jutsu to block my chakra in the roots around them. I can break it, but it will take a lot of chakra and I would be incapacitated for several hours afterward." She spoke quietly. She had been told of such jutsu's by her uncle but had never run into anyone who could use it. She wondered if someone from her clan was on that team.
"Then we will engage them. Hopefully that will distract them enough to drop their jutsu. Take advantage of the opening when it comes." He took off with Yuri behind him and Sana taking up the rear.
Within minutes they were standing in front of two boys and a girl, all thirteen to fifteen years old. They were all wearing shawls made of grass and Kasa style hats. The girl stepped forward and stared.
"Yuri. Traitor. How dare you stand up for Konoha. Your clan betrayed Grass and here you are, still alive. You should have been executed with your traitor father and mother."
"I don't know you." Yuri said in a strong voice. "I do know our clan was attacked for no reason. We never affiliated ourselves with Grass village and owed them no fealty. The attacks were unprovoked. Of course we left. Konoha took us in and I owe them my life."
"Your very short life. Traitor, prepare to die." She ran at Yuri and tried to hit her, but Yuri dodged and grabbed the girl's arm.
"What's your name?" Yuri asked.
"Youko." She tried to pull her arm out of Yuri's grip but ended up on the ground when the Konoha nin punched her in the stomach.
Yuri's chakra was still being blocked in the nearby roots so she was limited to Taijutsu and non-root jutsus. As soon as Youko hit the ground Yuri made the hand signs for an earth jutsu. The earth opened up and Youko fell into a hole. However, it only took less than a second for the Grass ninja to jump out of the hole before Yuri could close it.
"Good trick. Won't work on me though." Youko performed an earth jutsu of her own and a wall of dirt rose up behind Yuri who in turn ran straight at Youko. The wall collapsed on top of the two girls, but Yuri jumped out of the ground six feet away. Youko was no where to be seen. Yuri waited thirty seconds then dived back into the earth and pulled Youko out of the ground. She was still alive, but unconscious and would likely remain so for several hours. A large bruise was on her forehead and she probably had a concussion.
As soon as Youko had run at Yuri, Itachi had launched himself at the boy closest to him. This caused the remaining boy to become distracted momentarily. He stepped forward into an area that had just enough light for the shadow-bind jutsu and Sana caught him. She then stood holding him and watched Yuri and Itachi fight.
Itachi's opponent was very skilled at Taijutsu, but because wasn't very fast it decreased his effectiveness. The boy kept trying to cast earth jutsus, but because of Itachi's speed they always missed. Itachi finally stopped dodging and quickly cast a genjutsu. The boy fought it off at first but quickly succumbed, screaming in terror as he imagined hands reaching up from the ground to grab him and pull him under. He passed out, falling heavily to the ground.
Looking over at Sana and her captive Itachi pulled out his sword and stabbed the boy in the thigh then knocked him out. Sana sighed and dropped to her knees. "It's going to be a few hours before I can do that again, sorry."
"Yuri, where are the last two teams?" Itachi frowned. His opponent hadn't been much of a challenge. He hadn't even gotten dirty.
Yuri closed her eyes and concentrated. "They are still on the other side of the river. One Cloud and one Stone. They haven't found each other yet and the way they are moving around they won't for a while."
Itachi had been going through the backpacks. "It's the last 'Heaven' scroll. We'll find a place to rest for a few hours then cross the river." Itachi pulled his sword and stabbed the boy he had cast the genjutsu on in the thigh. He walked over to the unconscious girl but Yuri told him she had a concussion and wouldn't be going anywhere. He cleaned off his sword and sheathed it.
"So who was she?" Itachi asked.
"Don't know. She seemed to know me though. I wonder if she was sent here to kill me. No matter. If I see her again outside of the test I'll kill her if she attacks me. I won't be nice again." Yuri started to walk back into the woods in the direction of the river.
Itachi had heard the story of Yuri's clan and how they had been attacked, ambushed, in the middle of the night by Grass village ninja's. Most of the clan was slaughtered. Yuri had said, time and again that the attack was unprovoked. But now… now that he knew what his own father was plotting he wondered if Yuri's father, who had also been the clan leader, had been up to something as well. Yuri wouldn't necessarily know about it. She had been very young.
"Yuri. If your uncle is keeping secrets from you it could get you killed." Itachi spoke quietly but he suddenly stepped back two paces when Yuri stopped and quickly turned around, her hands balled into fists.
"Don't you think I god-damned know that!" She practically screamed the words and tears suddenly streamed down her face.
Sana gasped in shock. Yuri was usually even tempered and only cried when she was sad. This… anger or exasperation… was unheard of. "Yuri… what's wrong?" She asked, trying to keep the surprise out of her voice.
"I know… I know something must of happened. I'm old enough to start figuring things out on my own. Uncle won't tell me anything. He says we were the good guys and they were the bad guys. We were all killed. Do you know what it's like to loose everyone? One day they are talking and happy and walking about and the next day they are corpses waiting to be picked up and burned. She called me a traitor. What was my father doing that would make a village we weren't even a member of consider us traitors?" Yuri's tears were flowing freely and she sat down on the ground and buried her head in her knees. "I wish… I wish Yota was here. He always cheered me up."
'But Yota wanted to destroy the village you love.' Itachi thought to himself, confused. He watched Sana sit next to Yuri then wondered off. Sitting down on an exposed tree root he thought about what his father was doing. His clan was undergoing persecution, but there was no direct threat and they hadn't lost anything. However, his father felt that things were going to get worse if he didn't take action. And his idea of 'action' was to take out the elders and the Hokage and replace them with Uchiha. When that happened… then what? Itachi had no idea. The council and Hokage were only a few people. He wanted to find out what happened to Yuri's clan. It would help Yuri and, for some reason, Itachi felt it was important to him as well.
Returning to the older girls thirty minutes later he saw that Yuri was back to herself. "I'm sorry I blew up at you, Itachi." She said, embarrassed.
"It's okay. I was just… worried I guess. I spoke without thinking." Itachi wondered if there had been a better way to ask the question. He felt so confused sometimes when it came to dealing with other people. He could easily sense their moods, but he couldn't comprehend them. It was easier to just not deal with it at all. The doctor had said it wasn't normal to feel that way, but Itachi didn't know what the doctor meant by that, either.
"Well, let's go. There's a cave a mile up ahead that we can stay in for a while." Yuri said, giving her teammates a fake smile.
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Itachi volunteered to take the first watch since the two girls had used much more chakra than he had. Itachi then relaxed on another exposed tree root and listened to the forest. It was late afternoon and the forest was becoming darker. The insects and various animal sounds were constant. The forest was living entity. Massive, breathing and growing.
Four hours later Yuri wandered out of the small cave and frowned at Itachi, who was still reclining on the large tree root. "You were supposed to wake me two hours ago."
"I'm not tired and you and Sana needed rest to regain your chakra levels. Our effectiveness is reduced if we aren't at or near full capacity." Itachi spoke matter-of-factly.
"Sometimes you sound more like an old man than a ten-year-old boy." She sighed at sat on a large rock. "Sana is still asleep. You know, her jutsu is great and all, but it uses too much chakra. I wonder why she wasn't using the strang-hold jutsu."
"She can't control it perfectly. She can use her shadow to strangle people to death but she doesn't have enough control to just knock them out. That makes it a last defense type of jutsu."
"Yeah. It sure came in handy a couple missions back. I'm glad they put her on our team." Yuri chuckled at the memory. A highly experienced Rain ninja had actually been able to sneak up on her, but Sana had caught and killed him just before he could strike. Yuri was very grateful, of course, and had bought her teammate a gift certificate for a facial, manicure and pedicure at a spa in Konoha.
It was silent for a while then Yuri spoke again, this time in a quiet voice. "Your father has been spending a lot of time with my uncle lately. Uncle goes to the police station to talk to him for hours at a time. They even went to Grass together a few weeks ago." She was quiet for a few minutes as Itachi looked at her, brows creased. "What do you suppose they are up to?"
Itachi returned his gaze to the darkening forest. The sun was going down and the sounds were changing as the day animals went to sleep and the nocturnal animals awoke.
Finally Itachi spoke. "I didn't know your Uncle and my father were meeting. Perhaps your Uncle hired my clan to do something for him?"
"Possible. If they went to Grass it may have been to our old clan village. Maybe something was left behind, although I distinctly remember Uncle burning everything." She paused again. "I'm worried. Something is going on and I want Uncle and my other relatives to be safe but… I have a bad feeling."
Itachi couldn't answer. He suddenly realized that Yuri's nameless Uncle was part of his father's plot. As for why they were in Grass… obviously it was to retrieve some jutsu's of some kind. Scrolls or other jutsu-enhanced items. The Uncle was very paranoid and probably would only travel if Fugaku went himself. He wondered how many other people were also involved. Though, it was probably better if he did have a lot of people outside the clan standing behind him.
"Where are your other relatives?" Itachi finally asked.
"Waterfall and Rice. Uncle keeps asking them to move to Konoha, but frankly, he scares them so they haven't yet."
"What is his name, by the way?"
"He won't let me use it. He's massively paranoid. Everyone just calls him Uncle."
"Yeah. It feels strange to call someone not related to me 'Uncle'. Usually people who do that are being friendly and informal, but he wasn't either of those." Itachi looked around at the dark forest. "We might as well stay here until dawn. Sana can't use her jutsu very well in the dark, especially without a moon. Let's wake her up, though, and have some dinner."
"Those guys aren't going anywhere." Yuri said, referring to the two remaining teams on the other side of the river. "They still haven't found each other and they've stopped moving."
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"Nine shinobi. Amazing." The masked ANBU looked over the Cloud, Sand and Grass ninja's who were currently sitting or lying on the ground in the darkened forest. They had been gathered together and were waiting to be transported to the hospital.
"Itachi Uchiha is on that team. What did you expect?" Another masked ANBU stated.
"We saw him fighting a Cloud ninja recently outside the village. He saved the lives of some Academy students and then took the head to the Hokage instead of his father." A third ANBU spoke in a monotone.
"Is that why Danzou has us watching him?" The second ANBU asked.
"Who knows? All I know is I wouldn't mind him on a mission. He could probably do it himself and I could just sit back, relax, and watch the show." The first ANBU laughed.
"Maybe we should take bets on when the next two teams drop?" The second ANBU also laughed.
"Enough!" The third ANBU said sternly. "Remember your place. We are here as referees not to spread gossip."
"Still," The first ANBU ignored him. "It isn't going to be much of an exam if only one team lasts through the Forest of Death. What do you suppose the Hokage will do? Will he still make them take the third test?"
"Good question." The third ANBU replied hesitantly. "There wouldn't be much point to the whole thing then. Really, making Itachi take any kind of exam is pointless. The boy's such a high level genius he'll probably rival the Hokage someday in power. People like him are few and far between."
"Great." One of the Sand ninja's sighed. "The whole thing was a setup so the Hokage's star pupil could beat his enemies into the ground and then gloat."
The second ANBU kneeled down next to him. "You should lay back down and try to relax. We'll have you in the hospital soon." However, he had trouble disagreeing. Had the whole thing been a setup? If it was, what would the other villages do? He already knew Danzou wanted the boy, did this mean the Hokage wanted him as well? If the test was put in effect as the result of a treaty to replace war, then what would the other countries think? Would they consider it a broken promise?
"What a mess." The first ANBU said quietly, as if reading his partner's mind.
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Well, the second part of the exam is in full swing, but are the ANBU's suspicions just paranoid delusions or logical conclusions? One thing is for sure, though, Itachi is very bored. Tune in next week to see how it concludes.
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