Team Ay had casually dispatched three other teams to obtain the brooch that Darui now held, and were en-route to their second batch of bonus intel. That was, until Cee called a halt, hands shaped into the rat seal, a technique he used to increase his sensory range.
"I can feel a strong team on the edge of my range, but their signatures are hazy, like there is some kind of disruption..." he said quietly, eyes scrunched closed in a look of concentration.
"Might be some sort of obscurement seal, take us in the general direction and I can see what I can whip up on the way to counteract it," Kay replied, the sealing specialist scribbling on a piece of paper she pulled from her pouch, as Cee lead them towards the cloaked team.
A few moments later Kay finished writing out the seal, and passed it to Cee. It flashed blue as the blond stuck it to the back of his hand, the paper sticking to his skin.
"Ah that was perfect, I can feel them clear as day now. It's the leaf team, seems like they're checking out the same bonus intel we are."
"Oh the one Sensei told us about? The Butcher of Truth's team?" Kay replied as she put her calligraphy supplies away.
"They're definitely a team to watch out for. Do we still want to engage them?" Cee asked, head turning to Darui as they dashed towards the leaf team.
"Yeah sorry, I want to check these guys out. Just test them a little, see if they're something to worry about," the team leader said, " but I don't want to take them out just yet. They'll probably end up drawing a lot of agro 'cause they're the only leaf team. Either they're good enough to survive and eliminate a bunch of weaker teams, or they just get taken out themselves. Either way it's a win for us." His explanation earned a nod from both of his teammates.
A moment later, Cee indicated that their targets were at the edge of the building they just landed on. Darui immediately flew through a string of hand seals, launching a bolt of lightning straight forwards at the slight haze he noticed.
The bolt impacted the distortion, which split into three and then broke away, revealing a trio of ninja with leaf headbands. They didn't waste a moment, leaping towards Team Ay, various jutsu already activated.
The cloud nin met their opponents head on, Darui engaging the Hyuuga in the middle of the group. His cleaver sword flickering with lightning chakra. He brought the large blade down towards the dark haired boy, but his eyes widened in dismay when the Hyuuga batted his sword to the side.
His brows furrowed, and he swung again, only for his blade to be deflected once more. He cursed, confused why his attacks seemed so ineffective, until he saw it - on the hyuuga's hands, a thin veil of quickly vibrating air insulating him from the electricity.
"Huh, I thought Hyuga didn't use elemental jutsu?" Darui said, his tone even and conversational despite the pitched battle surrounding him. His opponent simply scowled and attacked with a particularly nasty triple hit combo, each strike barely deflected by the steel of Darui's sword.
"Well you've certainly got the cool Hyuga attitude down pat," he drawled, his words eliciting an immediate reaction far stronger than his previous taunt. With an immense burst of speed, the leaf nin swept Darui's legs out from underneath him, and without missing a beat, blasted him with a wall of wind.
The cloud nin was sent flying across the rooftop, narrowly missing Kay, who was locked in an intense duel with what seemed to be another sealing expert. Darui barely grabbed the edge of the roof with his left hand as he went sailing over it, pulling himself up and landing in a crouch.
He barely had a second to recover before his adversary was upon him once more, but this time Darui was ready. The crackle of lightning switched to a low hum as it was focused to the edge of the cleaver. He brought it down with an overhead swing, the Hyuga barely shifting out of its path in time. The roof wasn't so lucky however, the huge blade slicing deep into the concrete.
Darui used this to his advantage, taking ahold of the handle of the sword and using it as leverage. He swung around and landed a solid kick to his enemy's face with his left foot, his opponent's head snapping around from the impact.
Darui used this moment of distraction to call for a retreat; he had seen enough of this elemental Hyuga to know he was the real deal. Better to get a clean extraction now than to risk any injury leading into the second round..
Cee cleanly covered their retreat with a quick flash pillar, allowing Team Ay to slip away under the cover of the burning light. Sure the technique would act as a beacon to draw other teams in, but that was the leaf team's problem now, not theirs.
"I'll admit those leaf guys were pretty cool," Darui mused as Team Ay made their way towards the registration building a few minutes later, their second piece of bonus intel secured in his kunai pouch.
"Yep, they had a pretty good sealing expert on their team. Not as good as yours truly of course, but still, definitely impressive for a village who used to import all of their advanced sealing from Whirlpool." Coming from Kay that was a significant compliment, although that didn't stop Cee from rolling his eyes at his teammate's subtle boasting.
They arrived at the registration building without any interference from other teams, and happily took up a comfortable spot in the corner after handing in their broach. Once there, they retrieved their two bonus intel scrolls and unrolled them, curious as to what could be inside.
Somewhat surprisingly, the scrolls were almost blank, save for a set of coordinates and some strange symbols, but Team Ay was still careful to shield their contents from the two other teams that had already finished.
"Hmm, these coordinates are for a location around 30 kilometers north of the city, but I have no idea as to what these symbols are, I've never seen anything like them…" Cee mumbled, almost too deep in thought to speak properly, and Darui's own reaction was equally puzzled.
"My guess would be that there is something at those coordinates that relates to the symbols. Perhaps some sort of code?" Kay suggested, eliciting nods from her teammates.
Darui opened his mouth to comment, but was distracted by the leaf team entering the registration building, looking no worse for wear than Team Ay had left them. They marched up to the desk where they gave in their broach, and moved over to a spot on the wall on the other side of the room. Darui thought for a moment, a small smile creeping onto his face.
"Perhaps we should continue scoping out the competition? This event is supposed to be encouraging inter-village co-operation no? Introduce ourselves to our fellow shinobi? Sound cool?" He suggested.
"Eh why not, it's not like we're going to make any progress on this scroll anyway right now," Kay rolled up the parchment and rose to her feet, Team Ay making their way over to where the Leaf Nin were tightly huddled together. As they got closer, the fire country natives exchanged a flurry of hushed words, and Darui's trained ears picked up the slightest sound of crinkling paper.
"Hey there, sorry about earlier, we just wanted to see what you guys were made of, test you out a bit," he smiled along with his words, trying to radiate as much friendliness as possible.
"Well you certainly could have been more gentle about it," the white haired girl laughed, surpassing Darui's aura of affability without any apparent effort. "Heiko Haiiro of Team 3, pleased to make your acquaintance. Glad to see others understanding the point of this event." A warm smile covered her face as she said this, simultaneously extending a hand, which he took in his own.
"And these are my teammates, Shodo Maekawa and Takanome," she said, gesturing to each of her companions. Darui's eyebrow raised slightly at the omitted last name, filing it away for future investigation. Surely she didn't think they were dumb enough to not notice he was a Hyuga? But still, two clan children on one team, and wasn't Maekawa the name of that big shipping corporation? That was, if they were even telling the truth about their names...
"Darui, Cee and Kay, of Team Ay," he answered, noticing their eyes widen slightly at the name of their sensei, or perhaps they thought he meant the Raikage himself? No need to elaborate in any case.
"So did we pass your test?" Heiko said, almost mocking in her tone.
"I'd say so yeah, oh and Shodo was it? Your sealwork is very impressive for a leaf ninja," Kay said, the backhanded nature of the complement not going unnoticed by it's recipient. Shodo was about to reply when the front doors of the building slammed open.
Cee's head shot up, eyes slightly widened at the new entrants. It was a team from the Mist, one they had marked earlier as being a possible problem, two girls and a boy.. The first girl, who was clearly the leader by the way her teammates followed behind her, had an impressive mane of red hair, hued the colour of dried blood. It was her entrance that drew Cee's attention, but Darui's was drawn by her male teammate, whose clothes were stained the same colour as her hair. Evidently they hadn't taken the "killing is frowned upon" rule to heart. The third member had the darkest hair Darui had ever seen, and was clad in more traditional clothes than the other two.
The trio sauntered over to the hand-in desk, the red-haired girl presenting a broach to the attending Samurai. Darui's eyes narrowed as they made their way to the other side of the room. Definitely another team to watch out for, and possibly do some recon on. But right now he needed to focus on the leaf team.
Darui turned back to speak to them, only to be met with a face he had seen staring back at him from the Hidden Cloud bingo book. Fugaku Uchiha, the Butcher of Truth. Darui immediately dropped his gaze from the man's face to his feet, terrified that he may have been placed under a genjutsu without his knowledge.
"If you'll excuse me Team Ay, I need to discuss some classified topics with my students. If you would excuse us for a moment?" Fugaku's tone was measured, and Darui could barely stammer out a "of course sir, sorry," before the leaf nin moved away.
"Sorry to interrupt your making of new friends, but I just wanted to brief you guys on some emergency procedures," Fugaku said after leading Team 3 into a side room.
"Emergency procedures? I thought those were just to stay close and out of your way?" Heiko questioned, eyes quickly darting around their new locale.
"Well yes, but actually no. The first section of the kage summit is going to take me out of the city for a couple days, and I can't bring you three with me. If something goes down while I'm out of town, there is a suspended animation scroll in Lord Third's apartment. It's hidden from enemies by a genjutsu, so you should be safe once you get inside. Just put your hands on the scroll and apply chakra," Fugaku explained to his wide eyed students.
"Do you think that it's likely we'll need it sensei?" Shodo quiered, a slight shake present in her voice.
"I do not, but as you know one of the core tenants of being a shinobi is to expect the unexpected," Fugaku's tone took on a lighter note towards the end of his sentence.
"And in any case, I would like to congratulate the three of you on passing the first stage, although I can't say I am surprised,' Team Three beamed at their sensei's praise, but were distracted by the sudden sound of a bell being rung.
"That will be my cue to leave, seems like they will be informing you as to the nature of the second stage. See you back at the hotel," Fugaku gave a quick wave and disappeared into a body flicker.
Team 3 quickly made their way back to the main room of the building, finding the other 15 passing teams gathering in front of Okisuke.
"Congratulations to all of you for making it through the first stage of exams. However, your trials will only grow harder from here. The second stage will be a test of survival and tracking skills. Five days from now, you will need to climb Skybreak Mountain, the highest peak in the Land of Iron. Those who make it to the top will progress to the third and final stage. You will be allowed to bring any amount of supplies you can carry," there was a number of low murmurs in response to that.
"We should probably acquire some extreme cold weather gear," Takanome whispered to Heiko, but she shushed him as Okisuke's monotone voice started up again.
"However, those who collected bonus intel in the first stage will find supply caches at the encoded coordinates. Other than that, there are no other rules. You cannot back out once you are on the mountain. You either reach the summit…" Okisuke's eyes glinted with an emotion that Takanome couldn't quite decode.
"...or you die."
And with that ominous declaration, the genin were ushered out of the building.
The next morning Team 3 awoke to an empty apartment, and when they exited after to breakfast to locate the rest of their party, they were met with a member of the hotel staff.
"Honoured Genin, the Lord Hokage has requested I take you to him. Please follow me," she said, bowing and then spinning around to walk at a brisk pace. The group arrived at a large training room a few minutes later, finding Minato and Fugaku sparring in one of the corners while the Hokage circled around them, dressed in his combat attire. He turned to face them as they entered, the staff member quickly departing.
"Ah Team 3, congratulations on passing the first stage," the man smiled as he received the Genin's reciprocation of gratitude, then held his hand up to silence them.
"However, you mustn't become overconfident. Take these next few days as more time to prepare for the challenges ahead of you. As much as I would like to train you personally, I will be deeply engaged with diplomatic endeavours starting this evening. In fact, Heiko, I need you to accompany me and Fugaku to a formal dinner tonight with the Kazekage. He has requested that I bring one of you three along, and since he will have a clan heir with him, I would like to respond in kind."
"I would be honoured," Heiko bowed, externally composed but internally terrified. Formality had never been her strong suit, but even if it had been, a meeting between kage was on a whole different level than she had experienced! Hiruzen evidently noticed her inner turmoil, as he offered her a warm smile and a pat on the shoulder.
"Do not worry Heiko, you will do just fine. In any case however, in absence of extensive training I would like to watch each of you spar close up a few times, and then I will give each of you some individual instruction. He turned to Fugaku and Minato, the pair still locked in combat.
"Continue as you two are," he said, before turning and beckoning Team 3 to follow him to the other side of the training room which held another sparring ring.
Team 3 then faced off against each other in a little round robin.
The first match was Takanome vs Heiko, with the latter barely triumphing through some creative use of Yang Release to blind Takanome from a fast rushdown.
Heiko also won against Shodo. Although she started to slow down by the end of the round, Heiko's physical prowess denied the other girl the chance to set up the intricate traps and plans she favoured.
Hiruzen gave them a short rest after that, but that wasn't enough to allow Shodo to beat Takanome, who was even more dangerous up close than Heiko, despite being slower.
Hiruzen observed all three matches in silence, his eyes transfixed on the action unfolding in front of him. At some points he would summon a pair of shadow clones to observe the fight from another angle, or ask the combatants to rewind and repeat what they had just done.
At the end of it. Hiruzen once more created a pair of shadow clones, each version of him taking a different member of Team 3 to a corner of the room, with Fugaku and Minato occupying the fourth.
"Takanome, the first thing that I would like to tell you is that I do not support Himura's decision to remove you from the clan. However, as I'm sure you know, one of the only limits on the Hokage's power as set forth in the founding charter of the village is their inability to interfere in internal clan affairs, provided it does not severely impact the function of the village," Hiruzen's tone was one of sincerity, but the same couldn't be said about Takanome's curt reply of "Thank you".
Hiruzen elected to ignore the slight insubordination, and opted to begin the lesson. He started by pointing out a couple of flaws in Takanome's execution of both wind style and the gentle fist. Not large mistakes, just safer or more economical ways of executing the same moves, as well as some extra tips. A twist of the hand to add more rotation to a blade of wind, a bending of the knee to sneak just under an opponent's guard. The kind of minute tricks that one picked up from a lifetime of being a ninja, but small as they may be, they could be the difference between life and death.
Hiruzen concluded the lesson by putting up an obscurement seal, which Takanome found quite perplexing. What exactly did the Professor have to hide from the rest of their party?
All became obvious when the Hokage dropped into a highly distinctive stance.
Hey everyone, sorry for the big delay between updates! Once again uni and wisdom teeth surgery kicking my ass + a lack of inspiration. Hope everyone enjoyed the chapter anyway. Also we passed the 1st anniversary of the posting of the fic! So that's sweet. Anyway thanks for reading, and thanks to TheMasterDoughnut for Betaing. Stay safe and keep your eyes peeled for the next installment of BEV!
Unicorn out!