Last Time:
"Perfect." Kushina clapped her hands together and checked her Aide once more, "We're seven minutes away from dawn. Once the sun breaches the horizon, you may enter the training grounds. In the meantime, your instructors and I will be headed in and dispersing. I wish you all the best of luck."
With that, Kushina and the Alpha Class instructors headed into the training grounds. When they reached the edge of the woods, Kushina snapped her fingers and the instructors dispersed, but an entirely new group of certified Hunters and Huntresses appear in front of her.
"Great, you're here," Kushina exclaimed. "I'll be counting on all of you to assess my students properly."
"You can count of us, Headmistress Uzumaki," Itachi spoke to the outsourced participants.
Synchronicity: Chapter 33 – The Bell Test (Part 2 of 4)
Time Remaining: 22 Hours & 37 Minutes
Shino typically wasn't one to be caught up in tense situations, but his teammates were Kiba and Hinata. Before, Hinata and Kiba were always friendly with one another, but with the revelation that Hinata and Naruto shared a kiss, things had become complicated.
"Going up against our instructors makes me realize I have a lot to learn before graduation," Hinata thought aloud. "Have you been able to pick up on a straight scent, Inuzuka-san?"
Kiba didn't answer.
"Inuzuka-san?" Hinata called again.
Kiba still didn't answer.
Hinata looked over her shoulder at Shino and pouted. Shino cleared his throat and adjusted his glasses, "Kiba."
"Hm?" Kiba looked over his shoulder at Shino, "What is it?"
"Have you been able to pick up on a scent?" Shino asked.
Kiba shook his head, "Not any noteworthy ones. There are many people around, and it's getting hard to distinguish between students and instructors." He rubbed his nose and huffed, "I guess I should've focused on memorizing their scents before we got in here."
Akamaru barked his sentiments.
Shino looked over at Hinata and was surprised to see that she was visibly annoyed, "Hinata?"
Before Hinata said anything, she stopped and grabbed Kiba's arm. She pulled him back, but she couldn't get to Akamaru in time as he tripped a wire and got caught in a covered trap. Hinata pulled Kiba back towards Shino, and as she triggered her Byakugan. A light blue magic circle erupted beneath them, and a swirling wind barrier kept back the dozens of throwing darts that speed towards them.
"Akamaru!" Kiba called.
"Oh? Hiashi's daughter."
The wind barrier dissipated, and Shino, Hinata, and Kiba saw one of their primary instructors Nohara Rin. The three of them weren't too familiar with her since she just joined Elemental Academy's staff, but they did know she was a member of Grand Marshal Namikaze's guard.
"Nohara-sensei." The three of them got into combat-ready stances.
"Hello," Rin greeted them in a sing-song voice. "I see none of you have bells yet, and I just happen to have three. Do you want them?"
"You're handing them over?" Kiba almost sounded relieved.
Rin giggled, "Of course not."
Hinata noticed something glisten just beside Rin, and her eyes widened, "Move!"
Rin smiled and wiggled her index finger. Kiba, Shino, and Hinata all dodged out of the way of a massive trunk swing that flew by where they stood. Then, several more trunks came hurtling towards them and separated the three of them.
"Yosh," Rin exclaimed. "Let's see what you got, children."
"Akamaru!" Kiba reached into the pouch on his belt and tossed a black pill towards where Akamaru was trapped.
Akamaru caught it and swallowed it, and his fur immediately turned a bright red, and his brown patched turned black. His usual large size doubled, if not tripled, and his claws sharpened and extended. He foamed at the jowls and turned into a rabid dog.
"Kiba, wait!" Shino called as he hung onto a branch and watched as Akamaru began to spin in rapidly in his trap and tear through the ropes.
"Let's go, Akamaru!" Kiba sprinted forward and ran up the side of one tree while Akamaru ran up another.
Rin didn't move, though. She smiled at them, then stepped back off the branch. As she landed, Hinata and Shino heard a clicking noise as if something became unlatched. Then, a massive wooden spear erupted out of the ground and tore through the branch where she just stood.
"There's the trick expert," Hinata breathed. "I can't see them, though."
"Even with the Byakugan?" Shino looked over to Hinata.
"They're faint," Hinata told him. "She's masking them."
Rin watched as Kiba and Akamaru tumbled to the ground and recovered, "Are you okay?"
Kiba sneered, "What the hell?" He glared over at Hinata and Shino, "What kind of Hyuuga are you if you can't even sense the traps, huh?"
"Kiba!" Shino looked over at Hinata and saw the pained expression in his eyes. Then he saw Kiba's regretful face.
"Shino, can I depend on you to support me?" Hinata asked.
"Huh? Ah, of course," Shino assured her.
Hinata nodded, "Good. We're going."
Then, Hinata was off. She darted towards Rin, and Rin smiled. Just like before, she wiggled her fingers and pulled more clear wires, and triggered more traps. As she moved, Hinata eased her breathing and narrowed her focus, and then she saw more of everything.
She moved, ducked, and dodged the incoming traps with just a few hiccups, and Rin was impressed. Then, Rin braced herself. Though her specialty was traps, she wasn't a member of the Grand Marshal's Guard for no reason.
Hinata ducked beneath a wide blade and came up in front of Rin. She swept her leg underneath Rin, and as Rin leaped in the air, Hinata projected a light green magic circle above her and blew Rin back with a powerful gust of wind.
Rin flipped and slid back a bit, then dusted off her clothes, "I had heard you had a Chakra Deficiency before, but Naruto-kun mended it. I'm glad. You're very strong, Hinata."
"Thank you." Hinata appreciated Rin's acknowledgment, "Shino!"
"Got them!" Shino called.
"Huh?" Rin looked down and saw all three of her bells were missing. "What the? When did you get them?"
Shino landed on the ground beside Hinata. He leaned down and moved aside some leaves to reveal a large spider, and behind it, its webs were connected to the bells on from Rin's belt.
"Eek!" Rin turned pale.
"Thank you, my friend," Shino praised the spider before taking the bells from the spider and watching it scurry away. "Our main objective is to get the bells, so we did just that."
"Cheeky, cheeky," Rin murmured. "Well, congratulations, I'm out of the game. Make sure you hold onto those."
"Yes, ma'am." Hinata bowed respectfully towards Rin before taking a bell from Shino and attaching it to her belt. "Let's go."
"Come on, Kiba!" Shino called as he followed after Hinata.
"Huh? Wait, don't leave us!" Kiba shouted as he ran after them with Akamaru.
Rin watched as they headed off, and as soon as they were out of sight, she looked up towards the treetops, "Loving husband."
"Darling wife." Obito sat on a branch overhead. He pushed himself off and landed on the ground beside Rin, "I can't believe you didn't see the spider."
"If you saw it, why didn't you do anything?" Rin whined.
Obito chuckled, "They wouldn't have been able to take both of us. I wanted to give them a chance."
"Headmistress Uzumaki is going to scold you for that."
"Let her." Obito removed two belts off his belt and handed them to Rin, "Here. I have a few extra bells from Namikaze-sensei."
"Really? How many does he have left then?" Rin asked.
"Just one," Obito answered. "He's hoping one of his sons goes after him."
"I think they're more worried about Headmistress Uzumaki, though." Rin attached the bells to her belt, "Do you think they've noticed the outsourced participants yet?"
"Probably not."
Time Remaining: 20 Hours & 5 Minutes
"Are you sure we shouldn't have picked up some bells earlier?" Shion questioned as she strolled alongside Naruto. "I understand that we don't want to make things more difficult for our classmates, but limiting ourselves like this may prove more problematic."
"We'll be fine, Shion," Naruto assured her. "The thing is, I'm just wondering why we haven't come across that many instructors. We've been in here for almost five hours, and we've only run across about two or three instructors."
"Well, the Genesis Training Grounds are considerably larger than the main academy training grounds," Sakura reminded him. "But you're right, with the number of instructors, we should've seen more than a few of them."
"So," Sai walked alongside Sasuke, "what do you think it is?"
"I'm starting to think that the instructors weren't just sitting around," Sasuke muttered.
They walked for a bit longer before Sasuke suddenly stopped.
"Hm? Sasuke," Sakura stopped and looked back at him, "what's going on?"
"Something's not right." Sasuke looked around; then, he noticed the leaves rustle. Before he could call out to the rest, the unexpected happened: the Akatsuki.
As soon as their boots touched the ground, the Akatsuki were moving. In seconds, each member of Naruto's unit was overwhelmed and found themselves head to head with an individual from Akatsuki. Yahiko and Nagato targeted Naruto, Konan targeted Sakura, Sasori and Deidara targeted Shion, Kisame targeted Sai, and Itachi focused on Sasuke.
"You're the last person I expected to see today," Sasuke admitted as his sword clashed against Itachi's. "Who called you?"
"I'll tell you tomorrow when your exam is over," Itachi announced. "Now then, my job is done."
Before Sasuke could say anything more, Itachi whirled around and kicked Sasuke in the chest and sent him flying across the woods. "Good luck, Sasuke!" He sheathed his sword and bursts into a murder of crows.
Just as quickly as the Akatsuki arrived, they disappeared. Naruto's unit found themselves separated and far away from one another. Naruto let out a frustrated groan as he rubbed the back of his neck and looked around, "I couldn't even do anything."
"Naruto-kun?"
Naruto turned and saw Rock standing on a branch hanging overhead. Neji stood beside him, and the two of them were dirtied and beaten.
"Neji. Rock." Naruto watched as they dropped down to the ground, "Where's Tenten?"
"We got separated pretty early on," Neji answered. "I only recently found Lee."
"I told you to call me by my first name, Neji," Rock proclaimed.
"What happened to your unit?" Neji ignored Rock and looked Naruto over.
Naruto sighed, "We got overwhelmed by the Akatsuki. They appeared out of nowhere and separated us."
Rock and Neji exchanged a look.
"The Akatsuki?" Rock repeated. "So, it's true then."
"What is?" Naruto asked.
Neji folded his arms across his chest, "It looks like Headmistress Uzumaki outsourced a bunch of other Hunters and Huntresses to participate in our exam today. I thought it could've been you I saw earlier, but my hunch was right; it was Grand Marshal Namikaze."
"My dad's here?" Naruto groaned. He buried his face in his hands, "Then there's no way I'm getting a bell from Okaa-chan at this rate. Okaa-chan and Otou-san together are ridiculously strong. It's scary how coordinated the two of them are."
"I thought I heard you," Shikamaru called as he approached with his hands in his pockets and Chouji trailing behind him. "I'm going to assume that you guys were separated from your units too?"
"Geh."
They turned and saw Kiba coming out of the brush with Akamaru just behind him.
"What do you mean 'geh,' Inuzuka?" Naruto scowled.
"Where's Shino and Hinata?" Chouji asked.
"Not sure," Kiba answered. "We got separated not too long ago. They sprinkled something, so my nose can't track them properly. I thought I had gotten Hinata's scent, but it was just Neji."
"I'm not sure how I feel about that," Neji muttered.
"I'm sorry," Shikamaru apologized. "I didn't account for the fact that we'd be fighting licensed Hunters and Huntresses outside of our instructors. It was a gross miscalculation on my part."
Naruto punched Shikamaru's shoulder, "Don't stress yourself out about it."
"Oh?" Kakashi landed on the ground with Asuma and Guy. "My, my, this is quite the interesting setup."
"Just our luck," Shikamaru groaned as he put his hands on his knees and leaned forward.
"You've done your homework," Asuma praised. "I wouldn't expect anything less from you, Shikamaru."
"Yes, yes, thank you for your praise, Asuma," Shikamaru grumbled as Naruto leaned on him. "Asuma was a former member of the Twelve Guardian Hunters for Supreme Kaguya. Kakashi, a born prodigy and nicknamed the 'Copy-Cat Hunter,' and lastly, Might, the 'Eternal Rookie.' That doesn't mean much, though, especially since he's among the ranks of Eden's top Alphas. They were their year's 'Big Three.'"
"Thank you." Guy accepted the praise, "So, Kakashi, do you want to run point?"
"Sure, why not," Kakashi agreed.
"Think we can take them?" Naruto wondered.
Shikamaru shrugged, "The only thing that beats a failure is a try."
"Is that a yes or a no?" Kiba questioned.
"It's a 'let's see and find out,'" Shikamaru grumbled.
To Be Continued…