Kakuzu disappears off somewhere to mug a builder and get him to fix the hole in the exam room. Deidara leads the 12 remaining teams to a ruined town just outside the borders of the village. It is an old ruin, Sasuke can tell.
Deidara stops just outside the ruin and pulls out a stack of waivers. "Okay here's the deal. Each team gets a scroll. Half the scrolls are brown and half are white - you know, the standard Earth and Heaven scrolls - get a pair of scrolls and head to the centre tower. And yes, you can beat each other up in this round. Sign these waivers, get your scrolls and a gate number. And so that no one knows who has what scroll, I need you all to turn around and only come over when I call you. Are we clear? Good, turn around, un."
Everyone turns around, and Deidara calls each team one at a time. She sends them back to their places when she has given them their scrolls so they do not see what they others get.
When everyone is done, Deidara says, "Okay, you can all head to your gates now. You have three days to get to the tower, beginning now. No fighting until you are inside the ruins. Go."
The teams start to disperse, heading for their gates.
Then they hear Deidara's voice again. "Oh yeah, the ruin is full of landmines. My art, un!" She laughs crazily.
Sasuke rolls her eyes. She can easily short circuit the landmines with some lightning. It's just earthstyle.
Once they are inside the ruins, Sasuke says, "We're going after Team Kurenai. Hinata is mine. Ino, Choji, you can deal with the other two however you like."
"We're going after our friends?" asks Choji.
"Hinata isn't my friend, and I don't care about Kiba," says Sasuke. "Besides, I don't want to face that lot in the finals."
"Who put you in charge of this team, anyway?" asks Ino, glaring at Sasuke.
"I did," says Sasuke. "And if you complain, I won't lend you my soap."
"Well in that case," says Ino. "You're in charge."
As soon as her team enters the ruins, Hinata says, "We're going after Sasuke."
"Just Sasuke?" says Madoka, raising an eyebrow.
"Well, I suppose we have to go after the rest of her team too, but I need to beat the s*** out of Sasuke, okay."
"Suit yourself," says Madoka, shrugging.
They set off to find Sasuke. They find her after about half an hour.
"There you are," says Sasuke, glaring at Hinata. "Our fathers interrupted our last fight, so let's finish this."
Hinata cracks her knuckles. "Naruto is MINE, and you are not to bully him."
"I'll beat his ass if I want," says Sasuke, cracking her neck.
"Come at me!" says Hinata. "Byakugan!"
"Sharingan," says Sasuke, and attacks.
Karin, Sai and Shin scramble through the ruins looking for someone to pick a fight with. Sai sends his ink animals on ahead to check for landmines. Occasionally one blows up and they stop so Sai can make a new ink animal. After a while, they see the Sand team nearby.
"Hey," says Shin, pointed towards them. "They look like easy pickings. Let's get them. Maybe they have the heaven scroll we need."
Team Shisui heads over to the Sand Team with Sai's ink animals running ahead to find a safe route through the ruins. The Sand team sees them coming and gets into a defensive formation. They look to be a few years older than Team Shisui. That does not mean they will be stronger.
"I'll give you one chance," says Karin. "Hand over your scroll now and we'll let you go."
"Never!" says one of the Sand ninjas, pulling out a kunai and throwing it at Karin.
Karin dodges, pulls out her own kunai and throws it at the Sand ninja. While he is busy dodging out of the way, Karin whips out her chakra chain and bonks him on the head with it. The Sand ninja goes cross eyed and falls to the ground, out cold.
His teammates scream comically loudly and grab onto each other. "SHE HAS A GIANT CHAIN!"
Karin lifts the chain high in the air and aims it at the other two Sand ninjas. The two Sand ninjas dart forward, grab their team mate and run away. Shin and Sai give chase.
BOOM! The Sand ninjas run right into a land mine, which explodes with very little smoke and a lot of air pressure. The Sand ninjas are sent flying into the air and vanish with a twinkle. Team Shisui is sent flying backwards into a ruined wall.
Team Shisui picks themselves up off the ground and brushes off the dust.
"They should've just given us the scroll," says Shin, shaking his head in disappointment.
"What a waste," says Karin. "Now we have to find another scroll."
"Bummer," says Sai. "...they were pussies."
Deidara is sitting on a half-caved-in roof waiting for some explosions. The genins are doing a good job of avoiding them so far. There are a few here and there, possibly from the genins testing the land, but nothing major. After all, Deidara set up some of her landmines to only explode when an actual person steps on them. Well, they are triggered by a weight equal or greater to that of an average 10 year old, which should prevent them from being set off by a thrown stone or a jutsu of some kind.
Boom! One of Deidara's weight activated air bombs goes off, ending the three Sand genins flying. "Team Rocket is blasting off again!" says Deidara, watching them fly through the air, far out of bounds. "Oh wait, wrong anime. I better go and catch those three before they hit the ground and die." Deidara jumps on her clay bird, which she made after she sent the genins into the forest so she can chase down the ones who go flying, and flies over to the Sand genins. This is going to be a fun round.
Namiko, Haku and Suigetsu proceed through the ruins with caution. Knowing deidara, there will be many landmines littered throughout the ruins and some of them will be weight activated. Suigetsu sends a water clone ahead to find the safest path through the landmines. After a few hours, they run into the Mist team.
"YOU!" yells one as soon as he sees them. "Team Akatsuki!"
"Yes?" says Haku. "How can we help?"
"You three…" says another one of the Mist ninjas. "How could you?"
"I'm sorry," says Haku. "I don't recall doing anything to anger you."
"You could've entered these exams as Mist ninjas!" says the third Mist ninja. "But you came as Akatsuki! How dare you! And YOU!" she points at Namiko. "The Mizukage's daughter! We graduated together, and you turned your back on us to train with other villages! How could you!"
"That's mean," says Namiko, her eyes filling with tears. "Why can't I train with my people? I'm a descendant of the founders of the Hidden Whirlpool."
"You're what?" says the Mist kunoichi, shocked.
"Oops," says Namiko, clapping her hands over her mouth. "That's a secret. If you tell anyone, I'll kill you!" her face darkens as she says the last three words. Then she smiles and says, "What scroll do you have?"
"The Earth Scroll," says one of the Mist ninja boys.
"May we have it, or shall we kick your asses?" asks Haku.
"Can we kick their asses anyway?" asks Suigetsu, drawing the Executioner's Blade with a grin.
"You should be in the Mist, ninja swordsman!" says the Mist kunoichi.
"I got kidnapped as a kid," says Suigetsu. "And you know who came after me to rescue me? No one. I'd rather hang out with Akatsuki."
"And I never went to the Mist Academy," says Haku. "I had to flee from the bloodline purges, so I have no reason to be a Mist Ninja, except that Zabuza sensei was."
"That's not the point…!" protests one of the Mist genin.
"Can we fight now?" asks Suigetsu. "Cool." He doesn't even wait for an answer. Suigetsu attacks the Mist genins with the Executioner's Blade.
"Oh, are we fighting now?" says Namiko, pulling out her fans. Then she joins in the attack, using her fans to manipulate fire and water instead of using hand signs.
"Let's not kill them," says Haku. "Let's just knock them out and take their scroll." She pulls out her needles and joins the attack.
Suigetsu smacks one genin into a ruined wall with the flat side of his sword. Namiko knocks the kunai out of the kunoichi's hand and hits her on one side with water and on the other side with fire. Haku throws needles into certain pressure points in the third genin's body, knocking him out cold.
"That was too easy," says Namiko, pouting. She sighs. "Let's find someone more interesting. Maybe the Rain team?"
Haku starts going through the Mist genins' pockets and weapons pouches looking for the scroll. "Here it is. Now we have a pair," she says, pulling it out of the kunoichi's kunai pouch. "I would like to fight the Waterfall team."
"Why not both?" says Suigetsu. "Maybe we'll get two sets of scrolls."