Venatori

Summary: Kankuro was a few minutes too late, and Kiba died. Now, Shino and Hinata work to ensure that no more traitors get away alive. Divergence from chapter 212.

The Laughing Phoenix does not own Naruto and makes no profit from this work, other than her sense of accomplishment.

WARNING: Massive spoilers in future chapters. Character death. Blood, gore, and questionable use of medical knowledge and techniques. Some OOC-ness.


Making the Grade

Once inside the Academy, the trio climbed the stairs, heading for the examination room. They saw a group of genin on their right, hassling a pair of chuunin standing guard outside a door, but rather than stop they continued on, heading for the next flight of stairs. Before they reached them, Shino gestured his teammates after him as he stepped inside an empty classroom.

"I am going to tag you," he told them quietly, holding out a hand to each of them, a single kikai on the fingertips of each hand. Hinata accepted the kikai without comment, letting the little insect crawl under her collar and from there under her hitai-ate.

Akai was more skeptical. "Tag?" he asked. "With your bugs?"

Shino made a soft noise of impatience. "I will place a single female kikai on your body. She will stay with you for the duration of the exam, at which point I will summon her back to me. The males of the same species can scent the females from a great distance, but nothing else can, making them undetectable. I can use the females to track you and stay updated on your condition, should things go wrong."

Akai eyed the kikai warily, but took it from Shino and lifted it up to his face for a closer look. "Cool but creepy, man." When Shino and Hinata looked at him in expectant silence, he sighed noisily before placing the insect on his shoulder and trying not to squirm as it crawled under his collar. "Alright, come on," he insisted.

The three of them made their way to the testing room and slipped in quietly, finding a spot near the wall to wait for the exam to begin. While they waited, they watched the other teams, quietly identifying the shinobi they recognized for each other. There were a number of shinobi from Akai's year taking the exam, as well as ones he'd worked with before on missions. Hinata and Shino managed to identify some of the clans represented, and Shino quietly pointed out Team Gai. As the clock on the wall hit the hour, a puff of smoke appeared at the front of the room, and Morino Ibiki stepped out of it, flanked by a phalanx of chuunin in full uniform. "Quiet down, you useless idiots!" the scarred jounin roared.

The room fell silent almost at once.

"Now that I've got your attention," Ibiki rumbled, voice deceptively soft, "I am Morino Ibiki, proctor and administrator of the first test of the Chuunin Exams. While within this room, I am God. Any disobedience, and your entire team fails. Now," he gestured one of the chuunin forward, "Each of you will draw a seat number from this basket. Once you have your number, go and sit down."

A small scrum formed around the chuunin as he passed out numbers, some of the genin shoving the smaller participants out of the way, and Ibiki made an irritated noise. "This is as good a time as any to say this, but there will be no killing during this portion of the exam. In point of fact, there will be no fighting during this portion. Have I made myself clear?"

Things became much more orderly after that. Shino and Hinata held back, surprising Akai. "You want to get the last numbers?" he asked.

Shino shook his head. "It does not matter when we get our numbers. As the numbers are assigned relatively randomly, forcing one's way through a crowd makes no difference."

Eventually, everyone got a number and found their seats. Shino was up at the front of the room, Hinata about midway along on the far left side, and Akai was all the way in the back right corner. The chuunin moved down the rows, passing out sheets of paper.

"While you're getting your tests, I'm going to explain this portion of the exam." Ibiki said. "Do not turn your tests over until I say go." A number of genin who'd been reaching for the papers dropped their hands. "Now, there are a number of rules you have to observe. I'll write them on the board, but I will only say them once, and there will be no questions, so listen closely. Firstly, this is a team test. Whether or not you pass will be determined by your team's combined score. You can earn a maximum of ten points on this exam, so that's a maximum of thirty for each team. Second," and here a smirk crossed Ibiki's face, "if you're caught cheating by the proctors, then two points are subtracted from your final score per offense. So, if you're caught cheating five times, then you're out, and your team goes with you." He surveyed the exam room. "Basically, the pathetic ones among you who get caught cheating will be ruining their own chances. You have one hour. Begin."

There was a chorus of rustling paper as the examinees turned their pages over, and then the room fell silent aside from the scratching of pencils on paper.

Shino raised an eyebrow. He knew better than to expect the exam to be exactly like the previous one, but this was a little strange. The test was a single question, a block of text, obviously part of a quotation, with three words above it: Complete and Solve. Sighing to himself, he surreptitiously released a handful of kikai. It was time to see what the other examinees were up to, and to see if he couldn't find someone to steal the answers from. Similarly, Hinata activated her Byakugan, letting the fall of her hair disguise the distended veins.

Akai, meanwhile, was feeling confident. This sounded like something right up his alley. Upon reading closely over his section of text, he realized that he recognized it. It was an excerpt from a child's tale, something a civilian child might have read to them, but a shinobi child would most likely never have heard or seen. He almost laughed as he realized that he'd read it the week previously to his older sister's son, a toddler who demanded the story every day. Bending over his paper, he began to quickly rewrite as much of the passage as he could remember, before slowing to a halt as he realized he had no idea how long the passage was supposed to be. Checking to see who the proctors were paying attention to, he snuck a glance at his neighbor's paper.

All three quickly realized that the passage had in fact been split among the test-takers, and that no two people had the exact same section. Before long, Hinata, Shino, and Akai had largely complete versions of the passage in front of them.

Meanwhile, teams were being evicted right and left. Five teams were kicked out in the first fifteen minutes, but after that the rate went down – or the examinees got smarter. In the back of the room, Akai cheerfully worked out the cipher, while further up Hinata and Shino compared Akai's work to that of the shinobi they'd tentatively identified as the chuunin plants.

Before long the trio were done, and found things to occupy their time with until the end of the exam. Akai made finicky corrections to the cipher and began to design a new one. Shino sent his kikai to collect as much information as he could on the other shinobi. Hinata occupied herself with finding the tenketsu of the shinobi sitting around her. Around them, a further four teams were kicked out.

An hour after the exam began, Ibiki stepped forward. "Pencils down," he called. "It's time for the second part of this test." When he was certain he had everyone's attention, he continued. "Each of you has presumably gotten somewhere with the test. Now, each team only gets to submit one test, but you do not get the chance to talk with your teammates and compare answers beforehand. That single score decides whether you can proceed to the next round or not. If the test scores too low, then you are dismissed, and will not be allowed to test again. Or you can walk out now and test again in six months in Iwa."

Silence reigned for a moment before a number of shinobi stood up and left. Checking their lists, the proctors called the numbers of their teammates and sent them out. After six teams had left, Ibiki let the silence stretch on for a few more minutes before smiling. "Congratulations. Those of you still here have passed the first test."

Muttering broke out across the room. Ignoring the chatter, Ibiki continued. "This is a two-part test, designed to test your information gathering skills and your willingness to trust your teammates. You will be sent on missions where you are required to leave your lives in the hands of a teammate, or you will be responsible for the lives of your team. If you cannot trust them to help you through an exam, then how can you trust them to keep you alive? Someone who cannot trust their team, who hangs back because 'there's always next time' is not ready for the responsibilities of being a chuunin."

"Then what's the point of the whole 'one test per team' bit?" an Iwa genin asked.

Ibiki shrugged. "Incentive."

"Are our tests actually going to be graded, or were they a front?" a Konoha genin wanted to know.

"Oh, we'll grade them." Ibiki assured them. "The judges will get your scores and they'll become part of your assessment." He smiled slightly. "From here on out, the tests only get more difficult. Good luck – you're going to need it."

A cloud of smoke appeared to Ibiki's right, dissipating to reveal Mitarashi Anko, grinning madly. "Alright, maggots! It's my turn now!" If possible, her grin widened. "I'm Mitarashi Anko, and I'll be your proctor for the second part of the exam! You've got half an hour to meet me at training ground 44, by gate number one." She smirked. "If anyone's late, their entire team gets disqualified." There was dead silence. "Well, what are you waiting for? Move it!"

The room turned to chaos as all twenty teams tried to leave. Shino waved Akai and Hinata over to the window, then turned and jumped out himself. The trio landed in the schoolyard, and Shino turned to the others. "Grab your packs, we'll meet up at training ground 44 in twenty-five minutes." The trio scattered, running like mad.

Twenty-four minutes and thirty-six seconds later, Akai skidded to a halt in front of his teammates. Each of them carried a small pack, in addition to their usual weapons pouches. Looking both the boys over, Hinata nodded, then led the way to the group congregating outside the gate, where Anko was waiting flanked by a handful of chuunin.

One of them was holding a stopwatch. "It's been thirty minutes, Anko-san."

Anko smirked. "A couple of you go ahead and head off any stragglers. And make sure they leave, they had their chance." A couple of the chuunin separated off from the group and headed out towards the trail leading back into the village.

"Right!" Anko turned to the group at large. "Listen up, I'm only saying this once!" She paused once to make sure she had everyone's attention. "Welcome to training ground 44, the site of the second part of the Chuunin Exams, better known as the Forest of Death! My lovely assistants," she nodded at the chuunin standing next to her, "have waivers for you to fill out and sign. While they're passing those out, I'm gonna tell you about the exam." She pulled out a scroll and unrolled it to reveal a map of the area. "Training ground 44 is a circular area approximately 20 km in diameter, with a tower in the exact middle. The tower is surrounded by the forest, except for where the river cuts through it. Now, in the forest we've erected five buildings. Each building has a bunch of scrolls hidden inside. Your job is to collect at least three scrolls, each from a separate building! Each building's got a different set, so don't try to fool us with three from the same building, it won't work. Then, you'll bring your scrolls to the tower."

She rolled up the map, smirking, and returned it to her pouch. "You'll be able to tell if you're in the right place by the mark on the door – it'll look like this." Anko held up a piece of paper with the Konoha leaf drawn on it in red. "A couple of rules: One, you aren't allowed to damage the buildings, one of our ANBU designed them and he's very proud of them. If you do, I can't guarantee he won't go and hunt you down. Two, there's a time limit, you've got 120 hours – that's five days – to get your scrolls and get to the center. You aren't allowed to quit during that time. You either pass, or you fail. Three, you've got to get through together. If you lose a teammate, the entire team is disqualified and you all fail the exam. And finally, number four: You aren't allowed to open the scrolls while you're in the forest. Remember, as chuunin you'll have to handle classified information. Part of this test is to determine if your trustworthy enough to handle that kind of mission."

Anko scanned the crowd, watching the faces of the chuunin hopefuls. "Right, fill out your paperwork and then come to the desk to turn it in and get a gate assignment."

"Um, Proctor-san?" a Kumo ninja had raised a hand. "You never did say what these forms were for."

Anko turned, allowing one of her manic grins to cross her face. "Oh, that? Well, the odds of there being deaths in this part of the exam are pretty high, and if I don't get you to sign those then it means a lot of paperwork for me when you die."

There were some quiet mutterings of 'she's nuts' as the genin filled out their paperwork. Hinata, Shino, and Akai were one of the first teams to approach the desk. Hinata handed in the paperwork, and one of the chuunin offered Akai a basket filled with strips of paper. Pulling one out, Akai read off the number. "We've got gate number 36."

One of the chuunin recorded their gate number, and the three headed off around the training ground to their gate. As soon as they went out of sight of the crowd at the desk, a low whistle caught their attention. Akai twitched, looking at his two teammates only to see them looking up at the fence. He followed their gaze to see the proctor standing on the top of the fence, arms crossed.

Grinning, she jumped down to land in front of the trio. "Alright, kohai mine," she said, hands on her hips. "I've got money riding on you two, so make it good."

Thoroughly confused, Akai watched as his teammates bowed their heads. "But of course, Anko-senpai," Shino said, a smile evident behind his collar.

"We won't disappoint you, senpai." Hinata said quietly.

Anko's grin widened. "Good. See you on the other side!" With a handseal, the grinning figure dissolved into a pile of dirt.

"Tsuchi bunshin again," Hinata sighed.

Shino was frowning. "After the exam, remind me to see if Anko-senpai would be willing to help me refine mine."

The trio set off for their gate, arriving with a few minutes to spare before the exam officially began. A chuunin was waiting beside the gate, dangling a ring of keys in his hand. Upon seeing them, he wordlessly turned to unlock the gate and unwound the chain. Not two minutes later, the P.A. system crackled into life. "Alright, everybody. The gates will be opening in one minute. You have 120 hours from the minute I say go. Any last requests, make 'em now." Anko's voice died away, presumably to allow said last requests.

"The second test in the Chuunin Exams begins now!"

The chuunin swung the gate wide, and the three took off into the forest, taking to the trees. Once out of sight of the fence, the trio found a spot in the trees where a number of branches grew close together. Quickly setting a few simple traps, they huddled together for a hasty conference.

"We've got under five days, limited rations. Our targets are the scrolls in any three of five buildings. Once we get them, we have to make it to the tower without losing them." Shino summarized.

Akai shook his head, ticking off points on his fingers. "We have no idea what any of these buildings look like, or where they are. The older teams just as often prey off of the younger ones in these things, so we'll be dodging them as well. Of course, that's not mentioning the Forest of Death's regular beasts."

Frowning slightly, Hinata activated her Byakugan. This was the difficult part – while the Byakugan allowed her to see nearly 360 degrees, the amount of information it provided could be overwhelming. As her eyes adjusted to the influx of chakra, she nearly fell over. She'd forgotten the presence the forest had.

Chakra is a funny thing. As a mix of two energies, physical and spiritual, all living things have it in some form. In humans, chakra is usually a fairly even mix of the two, but in animals and plants, physical energy predominates. The different gradations of physical to spiritual ratios appeared as different shades to the Byakugan, and every so often an older member of the Hyuuga would spend time adding to the clan's bank of information on their dojutsu, trying to quantify the differences. Hinata knew of some treatises in which the author had argued that the intelligence of an organism could be quantified by the ratio, declaring that those with a higher percentage of spiritual energy were more intelligent.

Hinata had no way of knowing if this was true or not. What she did know was that there were a lot of living things in the area, and if she didn't watch it she'd get overwhelmed.

"Hinata?" Akai asked. Shino looked concerned, reaching out to steady her in case she fell.

"I'm fine," she said, quickly. "There's just so much in here, it'll take me a while to sort through it all."

Shino nodded. "We'll find a secure area and stand lookout, so that you can have time to start searching."

After some discussion it was decided that their current location was actually pretty safe, and they upgraded their traps. Shino managed to get his hands on a colony of jumping leeches and coaxed them into a position that covered one of their flanks. Akai got creative with wire, kunai, and explosives. Hinata kept her traps simple, but loaded them with poisoned weapons.

Once the area had been rigged to their satisfaction, Hinata settled in the middle of the branch and activated her Byakugan. She began sweeping the area around her, looking for anything unusual. She quickly noted the locations of four of the other teams, and passed them on to her teammates, before going deeper.

It took a good minute and a half for her to find the first one. Disregarding her peripheral vision, Hinata focused in on it. It appeared to be some sort of shrine, except it was built halfway up a tree. None of the other teams seemed to have reached it yet. Funnily enough, the structure shimmered oddly in her vision, and it took her a moment to realize that she was seeing chakra traces in the building itself. It took only a little longer to find the second, something that looked like a small palace built into the roots of one of the great trees. Like the shrine, it shimmered oddly.

Deactivating her Byakugan, Hinata made her report. "I found two of the buildings. One is about 35 degrees east of north, and about two kilometers away. It's halfway up the side of a tree, and it looks like a shrine. The other is 20 degrees west of north, and about three and a half kilometers. It's a traditional palace, tucked in the roots of a tree." She paused. "There's something strange about them…there's traces of chakra running through them."

Akai frowned. "Genjutsu?"

Hinata bit her lip. "I don't think so, but I'm not sure."

"We can figure that out when we get there." Shino moved to collect the net snare he'd placed near the leeches. "Let's head for the shrine first. If we can get started on collecting the scrolls today, then we will have a lead on our competition."

The other two quickly broke down their traps as well before they launched themselves into the next tree, bounding quickly through the forest.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

As soon as she'd finished the paperwork involved with the start of the second part of the exams and all of her helpers had reported in, Anko took off across the forest for the tower. Once she arrived, she made a beeline for the surveillance room. Some of the ANBU had installed small cameras in the forest surrounding the buildings, and Anko couldn't wait to see her kohai at work.

Settling down on the couch, Anko yanked a passing chuunin aside long enough to tell him that all her paperwork was to be sent to her, and informed him that "You'd better not call me for anything unless it's a real emergency, or you'll be joining me for target practice."

The chuunin skittered away, wanting to avoid the Wrath of Anko. A chuckle behind her heralded the arrival of her ANBU escort. "You may have been a little too hard on the guy, Anko-san."

Anko shrugged, supremely unconcerned. "He'll get over it."

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

Shino, Hinata, and Akai reached the shrine within fifteen minutes. They stopped when the tree Hinata had identified came within range of sight. Circling around the tree, they checked for guards, traps, and other teams. Finding no other teams, no guards, and only a few traps, they quickly approached the shrine. When they got closer, Shino stiffened.

"What is it?" Hinata whispered.

"My hive senses chakra in the walls…but it's not a genjutsu." He muttered. A crease appeared between his eyebrows and he tilted his head back, looking the structure over. "It's almost like traces of a jutsu."

Hinata bit her lip. "Maybe a jutsu was used in construction?" she whispered.

"Guys?" Akai hissed. "Can we hold the brainstorming session later? Let's get what we need and get out of here."

Hinata flushed and Shino gave a slight cough, but the pair managed to pull their attention from the mystery of chakra traces to examine the building. Via a combination of Byakugan, kikai, and judicious application of pressure on a number of panels, they managed to locate three hiding places, each still containing their scroll. As Akai and Shino worked the first one – a recess above the lintel – open, Hinata began examining the second, a box set into the wall panels. She managed to get the panel halfway open by the time the two boys had finished, and was well on her way to reaching the scroll when they approached her.

"Um, is this a good idea?" Akai whispered. "We've got what we need, let's get out of here."

"A-ah, I kn-know, but," Hinata's stutter came back as she struggled with the wood, "Senpai only said that we need at least three scrolls of different types. She did not say that we couldn't take extras."

Wicked smirks crossed both boy's faces. "Cut down on the competition," Shino muttered.

"And have insurance in case something goes screwy! Hinata, you're a genius." Akai whispered.

"Akai, if you will get the last scroll, I'll keep lookout," Shino whispered. The older genin nodded, then set to work opening the last space, a hollow floorboard covered by the tatami mats.

He was just setting the last mat back into place when Shino tensed. "Incoming team," he hissed.

Hinata was next to him in moments, staring off into the trees. "We need to move."

Akai stood, stowing the scroll in his pouch and checking to see that nothing was out of place. "Which way was the palace?"

"West and north a bit. I can't be more specific without the Byakugan."

"We head west," Shino hissed. "Circle around later."

Akai launched himself out of the tree, Hinata only moments behind him. A second later, Shino followed. A few hundred meters into their dash, Hinata took the lead and began bounding upward, headed for the higher branches. The boys followed, and after about twenty minutes of bouncing madly from branch to branch, the three stopped among the top branches of a tree. Hinata activated her Byakugan. "The palace is about three-quarters of a kilometer due north of here," she reported. "There's a team approaching it from the north-west, though, about a half-kilometer away."

"Do they know it's there, or are they just wandering?" Akai asked.

Hinata frowned, the veins around her eyes pulsing madly as she focused her vision. "It's difficult to say. Their movements are…erratic, almost, but they keep moving in the right direction." She blinked suddenly. "One of them is using some sort of doton jutsu. I can't tell exactly what it does, but every time he casts it, they change their course a few degrees."

"Probably a technique that tells them what the earth around them looks like," Shino said. "My guess is that they are using it to find the palace's foundations."

Akai wasn't quite as interested in the mechanics as his teammates. "Soo…what now? Do we wait for them to finish going through the place and then see if we can find anything, or do we see if we can't find one of the other buildings?"

Hinata closed her eyes, straining her Byakugan. She began looking for more buildings, searching by shape and, when that failed, by looking for chakra residue, like the shrine and palace had had. That did get her some results at the edge of her vision, and she concentrated on the shimmer of chakra, ignoring her peripheral vision to zoom in on it. Something that looked like a small office building appeared, tucked between a pair of trees next to the river. "I found one more," she told them. "It looks like an office building, and it's about six kilometers away, around 40 degrees west of south, by the river."

Shino frowned slightly, considering the situation. "I propose that we wait for the team at the palace to move away, then see what we can find. We take as many scrolls as we can, and then start heading towards the office building. We can stop for the night somewhere between the two, then raid the office building in the morning and decide what to do from there."

Akai nodded. "Sounds good to me. I take it we want to avoid the other teams?"

Shino inclined his head. "That would be wise, yes."

The team settled in to wait for the other team to move out of the way, Hinata pulling ration bars from her pack. "We might not have time to have a proper dinner," she told them, passing the bars around.

An hour later, the other team had found the palace, presumably searched it, and left again. With Hinata in the lead, the three approached the palace, alert for any traps. As they were about to approach the doors, Shino's arm shot out in front of his teammates.

"What is it?" Akai hissed.

"Cameras," Shino muttered, pointing to one of the large roots near the door. "It looks like the other team disturbed whatever was hiding them."

Hinata bit her lip. "Then…at the shrine…"

"There may have been cameras we missed," Shino confirmed.

Akai hissed a couple of curses under his breath. "There's nothing for it, we'll just have to avoid these." Shino and Hinata nodded in assent.

Moving carefully around what they guessed to be the camera's line of vision, the trio made their way inside the palace. Once inside, they were surprised to note that the building was entirely bare, without any of the furniture or other items expected of a palace. It was quite frankly eerie. Quickly ducking under an inexpertly-set trap, most likely the work of the previous team, the three began their search for hiding places. Akai found the one the other team had broken into, a panel in the support beams of the roof hanging loose, exposing the space behind it.

Shino found two in the front rooms, while Hinata spotted a third in a room further inside. A brief but furious argument broke out – it would be faster to divide forces, but nobody wanted to leave a team member alone. Hinata finally won out, but with concessions. She could go and attempt to open the hiding space she'd found on her own, but a good portion of Shino's hive would accompany her and if she wasn't back in seven minutes then they'd come after her.

Once Hinata had disappeared into the palace interior, a small swarm of kikai following her overhead, the two boys fell on the hiding places they'd discovered. Five minutes later, Akai was easing a floorboard back into place while Shino coaxed a scroll out of a corner post. Ten seconds before her seven minutes were up, Hinata appeared out of the gloom of the interior.

"Wait," Shino commanded, stopping her before she got close. "Password?"

"Inuzuka Akamaru," Hinata said softly, stepping aside to allow Shino's kikai to return to him. "It was inside a wall," she whispered, showing them the scroll before tucking it inside her coat.

After giving the place a once-over to ensure they'd covered all signs of their ever being there, the three left the palace, making tracks towards the river. By the time they reached it, twilight had come on. Finding a good place among the roots of a tree, the team put together a basic campsite, setting up a few traps and arranging for a place to curl up out of the wind. They decided to set up a watch and take shifts. They agreed on two and a half hour watches, dividing up the night between them. As Hinata had the best twilight vision, and had expended a fair amount of chakra on her Byakugan throughout the day, she got last watch, in the early morning when the sun was just starting to rise. Shino, capable of using his hive to fall asleep quickly and easily, took middle watch, while Akai took first, as he was still energetic from the excitement of the day.

The night passed uneventfully, and when Hinata roused her teammates in the faint light of dawn they were largely rested and ready to go on. Hinata hadn't seen any teams near the office building, so the three of them followed the riverbed downstream to the new target.

They managed to get to the office building an hour and a half later. Like the palace, it was completely empty inside, and like the shrine, it looked like someone had taken the wood of the surrounding trees and pulled it into a building like molding clay. Again, there were echoes of chakra running through the walls, making it shimmer oddly to Hinata's Byakugan and exciting Shino's hive. This time, they only found two scrolls, two of the hiding places already having been looted. They quickly retrieved the scrolls and got out, retreating to the forest and setting up traps to plan out their next move.

Akai was all for heading to the tower. They had their necessary scrolls, it'd be a good idea to get out of the field of battle before a stronger team got to them and stole the scrolls. Hinata and Shino, however, were torn. The thought of finding at least one more base and raiding it was incredibly tempting.

Eventually, they came to a compromise. They'd head for the tower, avoiding the other teams, and if they managed to get a bead on one of the other buildings and could get to it without too much risk, then they'd go for it.

As it turned out, Shino found the next building. About halfway to the tower, he suddenly stopped, dropping to a halt on a branch. Hinata and Akai overshot, but took a quick hop back to join him.

"What is it?" Akai asked impatiently.

"My hive seems to sense another building. Hinata?"

Wordlessly, Hinata activated her Byakugan and began searching. She found a small watchtower growing out of the side of one of the greater trees about half a kilometer away…the only problem was, a team seemed to have set up base there.

Deciding that the chances of losing in a fight with another team were not worth an extra set of scrolls, the three took off as fast as they could, practically sprinting for the tower.

By noon, they'd arrived at the tower. Entering by the closest door, they were confronted by a set of chutes, each labeled with a different color and the kanji for one of the five elements. Pulling the scrolls they'd collected from their hiding places in pouches and pockets, they compared them. The three scrolls they'd collected from the shrine were tan and had the kanji for 'wind', the three from the palace were brown with the kanji for 'earth', and the two from the office building were blue with the kanji for 'water'.

Akai frowned. "Is it really this simple?"

Shino cocked his head to one side. "Only one way to find out." Taking a single set of scrolls, he placed each in the appropriate chute, then jumped back as a cloud of smoke billowed in front of him. The three dropped into fighting stances, only to relax as Kurenai's form appeared through the smoke, a smile on her face.

"Well done you three," she complimented them. "You're the first team to get in."

"Sensei," Hinata breathed. "Are you serious?"

Kurenai smiled. "Completely."

Akai grinned happily, and Shino smiled behind his collar. Hinata held out the other sets of scrolls. "We collected extras," she told her sensei. "J-just in case."

Kurenai's eyebrows went up. "Your senpai is going to be pleased. Come on," she said, turning towards a door that had appeared in the back of the room. "Let's get you inside. I don't know about you, but after time in the Forest of Death I always want to relax for a while."

Anko, who'd been watching the exchange from the surveillance room, was bouncing happily in her chair. Her kohai's team was the first in, had extra scrolls (which, in her opinion, showed good initiative), and no injuries! She had definitely won her bet with Raido and Asuma, and that wasn't even getting into the bragging rights!

Team Kurenai was assigned a room in the tower, and spent the next three and a half days resting, doing some light sparring, and waiting for other teams to come in. In the evening of day three, Team Gai came in, bearing four different scrolls and lightly injured. Late on the fourth day, a team from Kumo stumbled in, three scrolls in hand and with a badly injured teammate. The genin in question was whisked off to the hospital for treatment, his teammates ordered by their sensei to stay in the tower and wait for instructions. Finally, in the 118th hour, a team from Iwa made their way into the tower, with four scrolls of three types. The kunoichi of the team was heavily injured, one of her teammates carrying her on his back. No sooner had the team been signed in than medics were swarming on the scene, and she was quickly removed to the hospital as well.

At the end of the last hour, the teams who'd made it in met up in the indoor arena the preliminary round had been held in during the prior exam. As the 120th hour finished, Anko appeared in front of them.

"Alright, for those of you here, congratulations! You've passed the second test." She smirked at them all. "I'm gonna hand you lot over to the proctor for the next test now, if he can get his ass in here."

A puff of smoke appeared at her side, and a jounin with a senbon in his mouth stepped out of it. "No need to stress out, Anko, I'm not late."

Anko made an irritated noise, but subsided, arms crossed.

"Right," the man said. "My name's Shiruani Genma, and I'll be the proctor for the third part of the exam. Now, the third part's a tournament-style series of battles between you. The victor of each fight will advance to the next round, and there will eventually be a single winner. In previous exams, we've had to have a preliminary round, because sometimes too many teams make it through, but ten of you should be a good number."

He pulled a bag out of his pocket. "To make it fair, you'll be drawing numbers from here. The number you draw will dictate who you face."

Genma held out the bag, letting each of the genin draw a slip of paper with a number on it. Going down the list of numbers, he had each of the genin give their names when he called their number. Shino drew two, Hinata drew three. When he'd gone through all ten, he turned the piece of paper around, allowing them to see the lineup.

"Take a good look at this and remember where you are in the tournament. Now, the tournament will be held in two week's time at the stadium in the village, so that the daimyo and Kages can have time to get here. You've got those two weeks to do some last-minute training and prep for the tournament. The tournament starts at 10.00, and if you're late, you'll be disqualified. Any questions?"

There were none.

"Alright, go ahead and get on out of here."

The sensei moved in to collect their teams. Kurenai beckoned Shino, Hinata, and Akai over to follow her, and they moved into the tunnel joining the tower to the outside world.

"Your sensei has told me he will be taking over your training in the weeks before the tournament, Akai-san." Kurenai told him. "As for you two," she turned to Shino and Hinata, "Your senpai and I will be working together. You will train with us on alternate days, using the days you are not with us to work on your own. This way, we can train both of you without having to worry about jeopardizing your chances."

The pair nodded in silent understanding. When the group exited the tunnel, they were met by Akai's sensei and his two teammates, a serious-looking boy in a chuunin vest and a cheerful-looking girl on crutches.

As the three teammates exchanged greetings, Akai's sensei moved forward to greet Kurenai. As they swapped pleasantries, he noticed the glances of almost-longing Hinata and Shino threw at his team. His complete team. To break the awkwardness of the moment, he turned to the pair.

"So, you're Shino-san and Hinata-san. It's a pleasure to meet you." The pair looked startled, but bowed, returning their own greetings. "Thank you for accepting my student into your team. Akai tells me that you're one of the best teams he's ever had to work with."

The pair glanced at each other, before the little Hyuuga girl looked back at him. "It has been a pleasure to work with Akai-san," she said softly.

Akai, laughingly brushing off the good-natured jibes of his teammates, dragged them over to introduce them to Shino and Hinata. Moving in a cluster, the little group returned to the village.

Akai's sensei took advantage of the walk back to fall into step next to Kurenai. "I've been keeping an eye on their progress through the exam," he said softly, nodding at the group of teenagers ahead. "I'm glad Akai got your kids, Kurenai-san. They're going to be good."

Kurenai smiled fondly at her students, watching as Kaede drew Hinata into chatting about medicines while Akai and Osamu double-teamed Shino, all but forcing him into a discussion of traps. "I have always thought so," she said.

When they got back to the village, Akai's team coaxed team Kurenai into joining them for lunch. After the meal, Shino and Hinata left the group, heading back to their respective houses. They had two weeks, and a lot of work to do.


[A/N] Ummm….Hi? Sorry this took me so long, it's uncomfortably close to my fortnight deadline…On the other hand, this chapter was originally longer than the previous three put together before I decided it was getting unwieldy and broke it into two. Part three of the exam (aka the tournament) will be up in a few days, or when my beta gets done with it.

I have had a couple of questions regarding pairings in this fic, so I'll address them briefly here. Firstly, Shino and Hinata are not going to be a couple. Their relationship is going to be a best friends/siblings relationship, and if anything becoming romantically involved would cheapen what they already have. Or if you want to look at it another way, Shino is going to become the brother Hinata should have had in Neji. In fact, the pair is going to be so wound up in their career that neither starts a romantic relationship during this fic. Any romances involving either of them will be referenced in the (currently loosely planned) epilogue, which will be set about five years post-fic. As to pairings in general, they're going to be largely peripheral. There will be snippets of NejiTen and ShikaTema, and I might toy around with Ino a bit.

Thanks as usual to Pyrozia, my beloved lil'sis and beta. She's requested NejiTen, ShikaTema, and InoCho, so…I'm going to bow to her wishes for Ino before she refuses to beta for me any more.