(A/N) Second Exam! For the record, I wrote this chapter and the next one at the same time. It doesnt have any effect on the plot really, but I did. I figured that since they were going on at the same time, might as well get two birds with one stone.
"Was it just me or were the Kiri teams glaring at us?" Yunikon asked once they were in the forest and away from other teams.
'No, they were glaring at you,' Naruto signed.
"I'm not sure why, but yeah they were glaring at us," Eidoko sighed. "Any of you have any ideas?"
Shikamaru yawned. 'They didn't look like genin. Maybe they're here to eliminate the Uzushio genin."
"It has happened in the past," Umi said, shrugging. "Mom was taken out by Kiri 'genin'" she made air quotes as she spoke, "in her first chuunin exams. Mentioned that they were too skilled to be genin, even Uzushio level genin."
'Does that happen a lot?' Sasuke asked suspiciously.
Eidoko shrugged. "Mist has been very salty ever since the raids we made as retribution after they attacked us in that attempt to wipe out Uzushio. So yeah, it happens any time both of us are in one chuunin exam at the same time. They are really salty, let me tell you."
'I believe it,' Naruto signed.
"Really, they should be grateful," Eidoko said, huffing and crossing her arms. "We only stole two of their islands. We could have stolen a lot more, and I dunno, replaced Kiri as a great nation?"
'That would have been amusing,' Naruto agreed.
'Political fallout probably would have been horrid though,' Sasuke pointed out. 'But I guess they wouldn't really be able to do anything, wasn't that the time you put the scrolling thing into effect?'
"Yeah, actually. We brought the islands in, then put it into effect as soon as we put the seals down on our new islands." Umi said. "It was a pretty quick process."
"Wait what scroll do you guys have? We have wind." Eidoko asked quickly.
'Wind,' Naruto signed, patting his pocket.
'We'll need two earths to pass,' Shikamaru signed, rather redundantly. "Either we ambush teams now, or wait a day or two until others have fought and risk not getting a scroll."
"We should do it now," Yunikon said. "They may not be tired like in later days, but this way we have a better chance of getting the scrolls we need."
Shikamaru conceded the point. "Naruto, you've been working on something for weeks, what is it?"
Naruto blushed, fiddling with his fingers before actually signing. 'Sensing, but I'm not very good at it yet.'
"What can you do?" Umi asked curiously.
Naruto shrugged. 'I can find big things? Might be able to find the general area of a team or two.'
'Should work fine, we'll just have to hunt down the teams,' Sasuke signed, narrowing his eyes at the surrounding forest.
'I have to sit and concentrate to find anything,' Naruto warned.
'Let's get into the trees. For shinobi, people forget to look up all too often.' Shikamaru signed, sighing.
"They do?" Eidoko asked, wrinkling her nose. "I mean, I guess we don't have trees like these in Uzushio, at least not enough to jump through, but if there's a prank, always look up."
'My cousin can tell you that no one bothers looking up 95% of the time,' Sasuke raised a hand. 'Besides, the branches in this forest should be plenty wide and the leaves plenty thick to hide us even if someone does look up.'
Yunikon crouched slightly before springing up, grabbing onto a treebranch, and swinging up to land on top of it. He peered over the side to stare impatiently at them. "Coming?"
Naruto and Sasuke quickly jumped up, followed by the other two Uzushio genin. Shikamaru sighed long sufferingly but followed.
Naruto sat down at the base of the branch, closing his eyes and making the sign to mold chakra. Shikamaru swapped branches for a different one and looked like he'd fallen asleep against the trunk of the tree. The other four settled down to wait, keeping an eye and an ear out for anyone else they could ambush. Or that was trying to ambush them, which was fairly unlikely, but still possible.
Naruto jumped up a while later, throwing his hands skyward in victory. 'Found someone!' He signed happily.
"Yeah? Where?" Umi asked curiously.
He pointed off to his left, in the direction they were heading. 'Not too big signatures, not the Kiri, if Shikamaru's thing about them being jounin is correct.'
"So we should take them fine," Eidoko said, glancing where Naruto had pointed. "Let's go!"
Yunikon sighed, adjusting his glasses. "I guess we'll plan when we get there."
'Well I dunno where exactly the people are, or what they're doing, so we're gonna have to do that anyway.' Naruto pointed out. 'Someone wake up Shikamaru?'
Shikamaru yawned just then, standing up. 'I'm awake just fine, thanks.'
"It's like he knew we were going to splash him with a water jutsu if he wasn't," Eidoko whispered to Umi, clearly intending for Shikamaru to hear it. He glared at the girls. They grinned innocently.
Naruto took a running leap, jumping to the next tree. He turned back to sigh 'hurry up!' at them, before continuing onward.
"They weren't moving around, right Naruto?" Yunikon called up, leaping after the other genin.
His headshake was clear enough through the leaves with his bright blond hair, and Yunikon hummed to show he'd seen the gesture.
The other team was clearly set up to ambush a team on the ground, so they paired off to ambush the team themselves. The ambushers getting ambushed. What fun.
Yunikon was paired off with Shikamaru, the Nara paralyzing their target as Yunikon jumped out at him from a tree. And boy was the expression on the Ame nin's face priceless as he spotted an Uzushio genin jumping out of a tree to land on him.
He pinned the other genin to the ground, Shikamaru's shadow releasing him to Yunikon's mercy. He promptly strung him up on a tree branch with some ninja wire and a seal.
"Who has the scroll in your team?" Yunikon asked cooly, staring right at the ninja.
The teammate with the scroll was ratted out instantly, so Yunikon took mercy on him and knocked him out.
He headed for the other two, Shikamaru trailing lazily behind.
"We got the scroll!" Eidoko said cheerfully, waving it at them. "And it's an earth! Now we just have to find one more!"
"Let's get closer to the tower before we hunt anyone else down," Yunikon advised. "Then we can grab it and enter the tower straight away."
'Sounds good to me,' Sasuke signed. 'Maybe the next one will be this easy.' He kicked his fallen enemy to prove a point. They didn't move. He nodded in satisfaction.
'We can't be too cocky though,' Naruto pointed out, glancing around the forest. 'Not with the Kiri teams here.'
"He's right," Yunikon agreed. "It could get us killed. Let's hurry and get close to the tower before hunting down or waiting for a team to wander nearby."
They got almost three-fourths of the way before they were ambushed by canon fodder supposed-genin from Kiri.
They didn't speak, just rushing at them and knocking them out of the trees.
Yunikon landed hard, probably twisting his ankle slightly. He winced as he stood up, not really wanting to put weight on the hurting ankle. Was definitely twisted at least a bit, if not sprained. He'd have to get Umi to look at it afterward. Once they weren't under attack.
At least the Kiri nin were taking the time to dramatically stand above them and laugh. Meant Yunikon had a bit of time to plan. Eidoko couldn't do any of the big things she knew, those were all designed for open ocean or somewhere that wasn't full of trees. Umi was slightly better off, but was their medic. He was hindered somewhat by the leg, but he would survive and use a style that allowed him to not but too much stress on it.
Finally the Kiri nin deigned to remember them, and lunged. They leaped straight for his teammates. Yunikon wondered briefly why they were targeting only his team, before being engaged in combat.
The other nin was more skilled then Yunikon by a long shot, although was outclassed in taijutsu by a long shot.
Unfortunately, the other nin was incorporating ninjutsu into the fight in a truly infuriating way. Yunikon had yet to land a proper hit, too busy dodging water bullets and such to get in close enough. He hadn't managed to learn a weapon yet, so now he moved it up his mental list of priorities.
The others seemed to be faring fine, Yunikon decided as he was thrown into a tree, probably cracking a few ribs. That was good.
A shadow connected with his and his ankle glowed slightly with the healing. Impressively, Yunikon could still move, throwing himself to the side to avoid a water bullet.
His ribs healed soon afterward, and the shadow went for the Kiri nin, not giving away it's owner's position. Yunikon did his best to distract the man from the shadow linking to his shadow and using it as a new focal point to reach even farther. He was faster with his ankle fixed, better able to dodge, and go for the man's personal space.
He managed to get into easy range of one of his styles. He dove around the man to get behind him, sweeping his legs out from under him in one smooth motion.
The shadow lunged off the ground, tying the man to the ground. Yunikon successfully fished out a weight seal, slapping it on the man, effectively pinning him there while Yunikon knocked him out.
He glanced over, finding the others knocking out their own enemies, tying them up.
Shikamaru retracted his shadow, and Yunikon went to work, stringing the man up in a tree like he had for the Ame nin.
"Oh hey they even have the scroll we need," Umi commented. "And four others. We're all good."
"Let's get to the tower then," Shikamaru drawled. "I want a nap."
'Of course, you do.' Sasuke signed, sighing.
(A/N) And Naruto has added sensing to his repertoire. The third round is not next time, But instead, we're following the other two teams we met around the forest. They have their own messy interactions. Did you like the nod to U4GN? Or even notice it? I was looking at my chapter plans and realized. Usually, my Chuunin exams are like 6 chapters, maybe 7. This one will come in at a whopping 14. Probably. Might be more.