Chapter 49:

"Your examination will be a contest between teams." The proctor finally declared as soon as his colleagues finished putting up a large blue tarp to act as a door. It was necessary; seeing how Bee had thoroughly destroyed the previous one.

"The team match-ups and partners will be chosen by random draw." He continued eyes venturing down to his clipboard. "Two teams will be defending, three will be attacking. The defending teams will be guarding a 'client'. How you do so is entirely up to you, your strategies will be taken into account for your final score. If the attacking teams land what would be considered a killing blow on your client, that will also be taken into account. Attacking teams, your objective is infiltration. Not mass destruction. Your effectiveness at the art of stealth will be the primary measure of your success."

"That's not fair!" Someone shouted from one side of the room. Sasuke looked out of the corner of his eye, finding a Kumo kunoichi, dark skinned with red hair. If he recalled correctly, that was actually one of the students belonging to that woman with the eight blades. "The Konoha guys got a freaking Hyuuga." She hissed. "They can see through fucking walls!"

"Tough." The proctor answered without even looking up from his clipboard. "On a mission you don't get to complain about an unfair bloodline, you work around it or you fail the mission." Rebuttal given, he continued addressing the rest of the assembled gennin. "The 'client' will be a chuunin proctor, however, the proctor will do nothing to aid the defending team or hinder the attackers. Attacking teams, you are authorized to attempt lethal blows against the proctor to secure your objective if needed."

"That seems a little brutal." Sakura hissed beside him.

Sasuke nodded in slight agreement. Even though a Chuunin could in theory defend themselves far better than most gennin could manage, mistakes could happen to anyone at any rank. "Guess they just don't want the gennin to hesitate and then cry at an 'unfair loss' or whatever." He theorized, offering a weak shrug in response.

Personally, he hoped that they were on an attacking team. Defense had too much to worry about. Sure, they could rig traps and work a solid plan if they were smart, but with a three man advantage and no need to protect a 'client' the attackers seemed to have a solid edge in his opinion.

It also played to his strengths in stealth. If they were on defense, Sakura is the one the team would have to rely on given her mind for trap making, and truth be told… his pride kinda chafed at that, stupid as it was.

Infact; now that he thought about it, the one that would suit either role, attack or defense was actually Akane. On attack her small size could be an advantage, and on defense, within the tight quarters of a building or some predetermined battleground, her fire attacks could be extremely useful in holding off multiple enemies at once. After all, it was the attackers that had to infiltrate and avoid destructive attacks. The proctor didn't say anything about that being a limitation for the defensive ninja.

"This is gonna eliminate a lot of the other teams." Akane observed just in front of them.

She was right. Either the three attacking teams got eliminated or the two defenders. At the very least it would cut the teams down by forty percent, and if most attackers failed as high as sixty percent.

"Sucks to be them." Sasuke answered, tossing a smirk to the two girls who offered their own smiles in return.

As the proctors began calling genin teams and the numbers started to get rolled out, the coil of anxious anticipation wound its way tighter and tighter in Sasuke's gut, even at this relatively mundane stage of the examination. He mentally chastised himself for it. He should be above simple… butterflies.

He wondered if Naruto, or hell, Itachi had ever been nervous for their exams. The first was a carefree idiot who always seemed ready with a devil may care grin and an easy laugh no matter what problem was infront of him. And the other was his sister who was the youngest Jounin in a generation.

He shook his head to clear the benign, distracting thoughts. Forcing himself to focus.

It seemed like they were called at random, Gai's team, Tenten, Lee and the Hyuuga were the first Konoha team to be called, a little later, Kurenai's team.

By the time the proctor called them, he must have been halfway through his list by Sasuke's count.

Sasuke stepped forward to march up to the proctor and take the number but Sakura half beat him to it, tapping him twice on the shoulder as if to say 'wait here' before she negotiated her way through the crowd, leaving him and Akane behind her.

When she returned, she was wearing a strange sort of smile on her face.

He wondered why; when of course, she held up the orb with their number.

It was a seven.

Sasuke couldn't help it, he laughed.

The laughter made others look at him funny but Sakura joined in a second later, followed by Akane's little smirk as she finally caught sight of the ball and got the joke.

More and more teams were called up, more and more people got their designated spot.

From what he gathered; the way it was broken up was through intervals of five. Teams one two and three were the attacking teams of the first group, four and five the defending teams. Six, seven and eight the attackers of the next group, with nine and ten defending and so on and so forth. There were forty three teams here by his count. He guessed that the last group would be divided into two attackers and one defender or something.

Tenten showed off her team's designated number four a little to his left and he offered her a show of fingers for the seven. Kiba's team was a little too far to communicate for now.

He tried to look at other teams around them to see if he could find any teams on their 'cluster' but no such luck. A twelve, a sixteen and a five were his rewards before he decided to give up.

Besides, finding out early wouldn't change anything.

Soon enough, the random draw was over.

"Teams one through five, announce yourselves and step forward!" The proctor called, pen and pad in hand.

"Team three here!"

"Team one!"

"Four over here."

Sasuke tossed his eyes over to Gai's team, finding Tenten holding up the ball with the four clearly visible on it; feeling a frown on his face.

They had an Iwa team as an opponent.

There was a risk of dying in every chuunin exam but personally, he'd rather not increase that possibility by needing to fight an enemy that might have a vendetta.

And those Iwa guys looked like they had a vendetta.

Even so; not his problem, and nothing they could-

"Team Five here"

Now he winced.

The one holding up a clear five was another Iwa team.

He wasn't the only one to notice judging by the silence that had settled over the room.

All eyes were suddenly on the proctor, wondering if he was gonna break this up or order a random draw again.

The man didn't even bat an eye, and just kept going with the process.

Tenten, Lee and Neji were *literally* on their own.

"Teams six through ten- in order this time." He added at the end, apparently wanting to make his job easier.

To Sasuke's immense surprise, Hinata's hand rose up, and Kiba obediently called out just a few feet away. "Team six here!"

Sakura held up her hand. "Seven here!"

Sasuke felt a smirk tugging at his lips. With another Konoha team things were going to be much easier. Especially as an offensive team. Hinata's Byakugan was basically gonna win this thing on its own.

Then again, if she'd been on defense, she'd have made things similarly difficult. You couldn't exactly sneak up on a Hyuuga.

Suppose he should count his blessings.

"Team eight, here!" Sasuke turned, trying to crane his neck to look over the crowd and finding a team from Takigakure. The only team from Takigakure.

Nominally, Taki wasn't an ally, but they weren't hostile either.

They could work with this.

Then, all that good fortune decided to come crashing down as he heard the next team.

"Nine, here."

Apparently, Naruto's little request that they stay away from that Suna team… just got a hell of alot harder.

The Uchiha tossed a look across the room, where he saw the blond Kunoichi with the four pig-tails still gripping the ball with her teams number emblazoned across it in bright yellow.

Yup. There was the nine. And it wasn't going anywhere...

Well… shit.

(X)(X)(X)

This was not Naruto's first chunin exam.

It was however, the first chuunin exam he'd ever had to endure from the other side of the proverbial fence.

The "helpless anxiety" was an entirely new, and entirely detested feeling.

He knew that Sasuke, Sakura and Akane were a hell of alot more prepared for this exam than he, Sasuke and Sakura had ever been for the exam he took the first time around, and maybe even better prepared than Ryoko, Kyofu and he had been for the exam he took this time around.

Those self assurances however, did very little to actually help him in any way.

He wanted to see them, and make sure they'd be fine. Without him they were in danger. If he was there, nothing could happen to them. He wouldn't let it.

But out here… out here all he could do was… wait.

At least he had Bee to take his mind off of things.

"So why eight swords?" He already knew the answer of course, but he wanted to see what answer she'd give him regardless.

"Why don't you have eight swords?" She asked, frowning as she narrowed her eyes behind those glasses an accusation in her tone.

"Uhhh… because I don't know how to use em?"

"Why didn't you learn?"

Somehow he felt like this had been turned back around on him. "Practicality?"

"Practical is boring." She dismissed.

"Practical keeps you alive." He shot back; then did a mental evaluation of the hypocrisy of that statement coming from him.

He tried not to wince.

"I'm still breathing." She smiled, chuckling. Then she got a twinkle in her eye leaning forward onto the table. "Alright… now I get to ask you a question. Is he single?"

The sound of Naruto's head thunking against the table was her answer.

(X)(X)(X)

As soon as the teams were called and sorted, they were split up.

They were each led to what seemed like a fairly large seal of some kind on the ground, told to stand still, to not fight and, seconds later, with a lurching in their stomachs that felt like a Kawarimi only much more abrupt they were… somewhere else.

They arrived to another seal matrix at their feet, standing in the middle of the ruins of what must have been a tiny village or hamlet of some kind. Thick grass reached their knees, moss and vines grew over the wooden corpses of houses and barns. It was a rice farming village, you could still see the tell tale remains of the rice paddy fields, all segmented plateaus and shallow pools.

Sakura looked around, immediately recognizing the mountains that were the Kumogakure village proper about a mile or so south of them.

"This will be the location where you will undergo your examination." Their proctor said to them, adjusting his glasses for a moment before he continued. "Numbers nine and ten. You will have approximately twelve hours to fortify yourselves somewhere within these ruins in order to fight off the attacking teams. Attacking teams, you are not allowed to attack or spy on your opponents until the allotted time has passed. If you are caught doing so, you and your respective individual three man cell will be dismissed. Once the allotted time has passed, you may attack the defending teams at your leisure, though you will have a time limit of approximately three days to do so. If three days have passed and you have not made the attempt to attack, all three attacking teams will the exam automatically. Successful defense or elimination of the client will be taken into account to determine the teams that pass but this is not the sole factor. Strategic thinking, planning, adaptability, creativity, teamwork, stealth and many other factors will affect our final decision. Teams that have succeeded in taking out the target have failed, teams that have succeeded in defending the target have failed. Know that this is a stealth based exam. Act accordingly."

Just then another person made their way from where they'd been hiding behind a building. It was a kunoichi, older than them of course, chuunin, hair tied into a bun.

"This is your client. She can protect herself of course from stray attacks, but if she deems anything to be a 'lethal' blow a civilian would not have survived she will declare it as such."

"Proctor." One of the Taki nin raised his hand. "We did not prepare for a multi day assignment. What will we do for rations, or-"

"That is part of the examination." The man said. "If you've come prepared, good. If not you may forage, or you may choose to scavenge for some hidden caches of food we've placed around the area. Be aware however that some have been poisoned. They won't kill you. But you will certainly be feeling their effects. It is likely you will be incapable of participating for the three days." The proctor seemed to stand a little straighter, his clipboard now pressed to his side rather than in his nose. "You will each be under constant supervision by our examiners. Should you ever wish to forfeit, say so. But know that one man's forfeit, is the forfeit of his three man cell."

As though satisfied with his warnings and statements, the man straightened. "Now. Numbers Six, Seven, and Eight. Walk half a mile directly south. Follow the red markers. Allow numbers nine and ten their twelve hours. Good luck to you all."

And he was gone in a puff of smoke. Just like that.

Sakura tossed a look to the Suna team and their would be partners, a Kumo team.

The six of them looked at eachother, then back at them, with the fifteen teenagers seemingly taking each other's measure before they, (the defenders) plus 'client' began marching into the village ruins, preparing themselves to set up the defenses and she went with the others to allow them to have their twelve hours.

(X)(X)(X)

The first thing they did, was forage.

As soon as they'd been out of sight of the defending team Hinata and Sasuke had gotten to talking... well... Sasuke had talked. Hinata had used hand signs- with both of them settling on a rapid fire 'To do' list. And the consideration that they might want to wait nearly the full three days before attacking had come up instantly and as such, the first thing they had to do was find food.

The Takigakure team didn't really like the fact that Hinata and Sasuke were acting as the de-facto leaders of this team so it did take some cajoling, but ultimately, the brains of their team seemed to realize that they were outnumbered and the best way to win would be to go with the flow; seeing as how they ultimately needed to cooperate with each other to win this exam.

Kiba and Shino as it turns out, were worth their weight in gold here.

When you had the nose of a dog, and a million insect 'feelers' sending you back information as they crawled across the fields and forests, finding the 'hidden caches' of food was childsplay. From there, it was just a matter for all of them to help collect it.

Even better was the fact that both of them could identify which ones were poisoned. All Kiba needed to do was smell them, and if he wasn't sure, Shino had some of his kikaichu eat the suspect rations.

Bit by bit, as the clock ticked on they piled the rations together, separating the 'poisoned' bunch, from the ones that were good enough to eat.

If Sakura were any judge, she'd say they had more than enough food for all of them to last the three days. Even Kiba. And his appetite was nothing to sneeze at.

Then, it was time to get down to the nitty gritty of it all.

Planning.

They sat together in a loose circle, Shino had to translate for Hinata apparently since none of the Taki nin knew sign language (a fact that Sakura secretly balked at given that it had been standard training at the Konoha academy for silent ops) but other than that minor inconvenience things seemed to be going relatively smoothly.

"You want to wait? Why!?"

Mostly any way.

"Think about it." Sasuke insisted, dark eyes staring at the Taki genin across from him. "We have more food than we know what to do with. We can last here fully stocked while they likely won't even start gathering food until they're done laying down their defenses and traps. And even then they'll always have to leave a group behind to protect the client while the other team scrounges for food."

"Yes but you don't have to wait the full three days." The Taki gennin insisted. "After they make their traps, forage for food, and remain on edge expecting an attack tonight we can go in and try to take them out while they're physically exhausted from everything they had to scramble to do today! We'll not only have a three man advantage but be fully rested and ready to fight by then. The longer you wait, not only do you potentially lose the exhaustion, but give them more time to make more elaborate and thorough traps. By the time we decide to attack we might just be sifting through an entire field of traps and we might never reach the client. You don't win a fight like this by letting your enemies dig in.

Sakura did have to admit… he made a good point.

"No you don't." Sasuke shot back, eyes narrowed in irritation. Apparently her teammate didn't like people questioning him too much. "But neither do you win it going in guns blazing. I'm not saying we let them have two and a half days of rest and leisure. I'm saying we wear them down bit by bit."

"You mean pick them off?"

"No. I said wear them down." She could tell he was trying not to roll his eyes. "Think about it." He insisted again. "If you're on the defensive team, you need a lookout, and that lookout when he sees something is gonna raise an alarm. One or two of us can go in intermittently, have them wake up every few hours which means none of them get sleep. Add to that Hinata being able to watch them as they try to forage food, we can ambush them through that, and if not beat them at least corral them back into their little hole, starving them out. Two and a half days with little food and no sleep would do a hell of a lot more than just being a little tired at the end of the first day."

Also a good point.

Hinata tapped Shino on the shoulder, making a few quick signs.

"Hinata-san says that we can also use the opportunity to poison their collected food supply with our own poisoned rations."

"Why not burn it." Kiba asked, turning to her. "They might have someone that can-"

Hinata made some more signs.

"Oh- right."

"What'd she say?" Another of the Taki genin asked.

"Stealth." Kiba answered with a shrug. "She's right. Lighting a big bonfire won't exactly be subtle."

"If we have the opportunity, we should do that." Sasuke nodded. But I doubt they'd be very far from that food store. I'd keep both the client and the food as close as possible in order to concentrate the defenses."

"But what you're doing is basically sabotaging our score." The Taki nin that had been arguing with Sasuke insisted. The whole point of the excersize isn't to be seen but you want them to keep seeing us every few hours so they wake up and raise an alarm."

At that, Sasuke's lips pursed.

Apparently he hadn't thought of that.

Neither did she truth be told.

Still, Sasuke was nothing if not stubborn. "The value in actually killing the target or the complete elimination of the enemy genin very likely outweighs the stealth score."

"You can't know that."

"Neither can you." Was his easy counter.

They seemed to be at an impasse, a tense silence lay between the two of them until Sasuke finally sighed. "Let's just settle this. We're hardly going to fight to the death so let's just put this up to a vote."

"Yeah." The Taki nin scoffed. "Because that's totally not weighed in your favor."

Sasuke smirked, and Sakura almost wanted to punch him for being a smug idiot when they really needed to keep these guys on their good side. "Unless you see some other way of settling this, This is how it's gonna go."

He didn't.

"All in favor of waiting." Sasuke raised his hand, along with Hinata, Shino, and herself. Surprisingly, so did a Taki nin. His teammate looked at him, incredulous. He shrugged. "Sorry man." He said. "I like his idea more."

Sasuke looked around. Five votes. Kiba wasn't surprising, but Akane's opinion was. Regardless, it wasn't enough to change the result he'd clearly been hoping for.

"Alright." He drawled. "Then it's settled.

(X)(X)(X)

Here ya go. :) Happy New Year/Three kings day :D