(A/N) The Uzushio teams! The kids were the ones who decided they wanted to see the tigers and stuff, so blame them for the impromptu lesson on what can be found in the forest of death.
"It's just a suspicion of course," Eidoko explained, waving her hands. "But I'd keep a lookout all the same."
"Thanks for the warning Eidoko," Tamako said, nodding to her. "We'll keep an eye on them."
"Well, I will," Jinbei said, shrugging. "I am the sensor here."
"Did you tell Katsu's team?" Miyo asked curiously.
Eidoko nodded. "Well, I have to get back to mine. Good luck!"
"You too." Tamako nodded to Eidoko as she left. "Should we ask Katsu's team to team up?"
"It would probably be in both our best interests," Jinbei agreed, nodding their head to where the other team was heading toward them. "And I believe they have the same idea."
"Hey Hoshiko's team," Hirata said, waving. "You got the same warning I assume?"
"About the Kiri teams? Yeah." Tamako agreed, shaking her head. "You came over to team up?"
"It would be in both our best interests," Hirata agreed.
"What scroll did you get?" Fuji asked, tilting their head. "We have wind."
"Earth," Miyo replied.
"Well, if all else fails, we have the scrolls for one team to pass," Kamisori commented. "We'll just have to collect one more set."
"Shouldn't be overly hard," Jinbei said, straightening their shirt. "Let's go, we have a Forest of Death to see."
"And an exam to pass," Tamako eyed a Kiri team that was getting too close as they got ready to enter the forest, and they backed off quickly.
"But mostly the forest," Hirata joked.
"Do you think we'll see any of those tigers mom keeps talking about?" Miyo wondered as they walked into the forest. "Hey Jinbei, do you think they have enough chakra for you to sense them?"
"If they do, I may not be able to tell them apart from other genin without sitting down and concentrating," Jinbei warned, pulling their hand up into a molding chakra sign as the two groups walked into the forest. Uzushio sensors focused on getting mobile first, then adding precision later.
"You're good dude," Kamisori said, pulling out his trumpet. "I just barely learned how to tree walk while playing this like two days before we left for the chuunin exams." They pulled the trumpet up to their mouths and ran through a couple of scales.
"Don't attract the whole forest," Miyo said teasingly.
Kamisori puffed up. "I'll have you know that my trumpet sound is always used for hiding its own noise, I just let you guys hear."
"Sure," Fuji said, toying with one of the scrolls on their belt. "Could use you as bait though, we do need two more scrolls."
Kamisori gasped, hand on their heart. "Your own teammate! How could you!"
"Dunno, but don't think it was that hard," Hirata said, nudging Kamisori. "Especially considering the amount of times you've woken him up by blasting that trumpet in his ear."
"Yeah, well, he threw kunai and all sorts of pointy weapons at me right after, so we're totally even!"
"But did they hit you," Miyo asked. "That's the important question."
"A lot in the beginning," Kamisori admitted. "But I'm getting better at not being hit."
"At least two weapons hit him on a regular basis," Fuji added quickly. "More if I wait approximately twenty seconds to give him a false sense of security. Then they usually get hit pretty quickly."
"Hey!" Kamisori complained.
"Don't worry," Tamako said patting his shoulder. "As long as you don't wake me up by blaring a trumpet in my ear, you won't be on the receiving end of my chains."
They stared at her. "You have the chains kekkei genkai? When were you going to tell us?"
"Hey, I learned I had it the same time you figured out how to tree walk while playing," Tamako returned, shaking her finger at Kamisori. "So don't you even try."
"Sorry, sorry," Kamisori said, holding his hands up.
"Right, so I located either a bunch of genin, or a pack of wolves," Jinbei said, scratching their head. "I can't tell honestly, it's on the edge of my range though, which admittedly is only like two miles across."
"Let's go see," Miyo suggested. "What way are they?"
Jinbei pointed off to their left. "Just go straight that way, they're heading towards us."
"We should take to the trees," Hirata said quickly. "And higher then we normally would. Just in case. We should try and take whatever it is by surprise."
"She has a point," Fuji leapt up into the trees as they spoke, crouching to look down at their teammates. "Let's go."
"Onward!" Kamisori cheered, hopping up into the trees as well, the others following them swiftly.
"Yeah that's a pack of wolves," Miyo said as they crouched above the pack. "Are they eating a deer or is that deer eating them?"
"Y'know, I really can't tell," Tamako said, frowning down at the animals, a finger tapping her chin. "Possibly both. That deer just took a chunk out of that wolf."
"And didn't spit it out, eww," Kamisori agreed. "And down goes the deer."
"Why does Konoha have carnivorous deer?" Fuji asked, rubbing the bridge of their nose.
"Same reason it has carnivorous giant slugs," Jinbei sighed. "They're at the edges of the pack if anyone's curious."
"Eww," Kamisori said again. "They're huge! And so slimy!"
"That is kind of how slugs are," Miyo pointed out.
"Calling them slimy is kind of like calling a fish wet," Hirata agreed, laughing. "They're both stupidly correct and you don't need to say it for it to be true. Or obvious."
"Rude," Kamisori huffed.
"The day you get to legit call someone rude and we'll actually agree is the day you stop blasting your trumpet in people's ears," Tamako said, laughing. "Oh hey look at that, the deer is mostly eaten and now the slugs and wolves are trying to eat each other."
"Let's head out" Miyo said, turning away from the mess. "We still have to collect two scrolls."
"And see a giant tiger," Kamisori agreed quickly.
"And see a giant tiger," Miyo sighed.
"Yes!" Kamisori cheered, pumping their fist. "We're gonna see a giant tiger! I bet it'll be awesome."
"It's a giant tiger," Fuji pointed out reasonably. "Why wouldn't it be very cool."
"Not just cool! Awesome!" Kamisori corrected quickly.
Fuji just rolled their eyes in sync with the rest of the group aside from Jinbei who clearly hadn't been paying attention to anything, their hand in the molding chakra sign.
They were ambushed almost twenty minutes later.
"Kiri nin!" Miyo warned, clapping her hands together to send a gust of wind at the bastards. "Jinbei, you didn't catch them?"
"They were suppressing their chakra well enough I couldn't sense them!" Jinbei shouted back, retreating behind the others. Fuji pulled out two of their scrolls, leaping for one of the Kiri nin, weapons flying.
Miyo and Hirata went after the leader, who attempted to drown them.
"You get a genjutsu running, I'll distract him?" Miyo whispered to Hirata.
"Go nuts," Hirata replied quickly, hands weaving together to make a genjutsu.
Miyo drew from the water the nin had created, summoning up a water dragon, followed by a couple water bullets.
Almost twenty seconds later, she felt a layer of chakra surround the area and quickly returned to Hirata's side, watching the man claw at his own skin.
"So which one was that," Miyo asked.
"The one where ants shove their way under his skin," Hirata replied, grinning.
Fuji and Jinbei were going for the second Kiri nin, Jinbei using what taijutsu he could, Fuji cornering the man with weapons and distracting him from Jinbei anytime the sensor faltered.
"Jinbei, move!" Fuji shouted, grabbing the two scrolls on the back of their belt.
Jinbei's eyes widened and they dove behind Fuji, crouching behind a tree.
Fuji grinned, and opened both scrolls, jumping into the air. "Kaboom." Kunai with explosive tags flew, and the area turned into a fireball.
Fuji landed a moment later, and smirked at his handiwork. The man was a crisp, and he was pretty sure anything in his pockets would still be intact.
"Nice," Jinbei muttered.
"Crispy," Fuji replied smugly.
Kamisori attempted to get out an easy and fairly simple perception altering melody, but the bastard broke his trumpet before he could. Luckily Kamisori had another one for later, but right now, he couldn't pull it out or use it.
"Rude!" He shouted at the nin. "I liked that trumpet!"
"Aren't you due for an upgrade?" Tamako asked, chains erupting from her back and waving wildly before wrapping up the man.
"Yeah but still!" Kamisori complained, drawing a kunai to threaten the man with. "Who has your scrolls? We don't particularly feel like rooting through three dead people's bodies, so please tell."
The kiri nin did not look particularly impressed, so the chains reached up and snapped his neck.
"Check their pockets I guess," Miyo said, shrugging. "Fuji you're getting your crispy one, I ain't touching him."
"Understandable," Fuji said, turning to root through the crispy man's pockets.
"At least they have all the scrolls we need," Kamisori said after a moment of searching through their man's pockets and coming up with two scrolls. "We can just look for giant tigers now!"
"You and your giant tigers," Miyo sighed.
(A/N) If you feel like knowing, Jinbei and Fuji don't have a gender. They decided that themselves, so they don't have a gender. Prefers they/them pronouns, clearly. They are my non-binary children, I've had them for a chapter and a half, but if anything happened to them I'd kill everyone in the room and then myself. Yes I'm being dramatic. My notes on them are seriously Jinbei Sensor Iyashino(No) and Fuji Weapons Difenda(Yes) in reference to their genders. Kamisori's Demiboy for those who caught that, so he uses he/they pronouns.
…I'm not apologizing for the paragraph.