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Title: New Wind Nation: Alliance

Chapter 9: Chunin Exams ~ First Round (part 2)

Notes: Eh. My excuse is that this entire exam was thrown together at the last minute. That's why it's so questionable. Really, it's not because I'm terrible at planning or anything.

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The gathering place for the chunin hopefuls that had been chosen to attend the exams in Hidden Sand was an open plaza deep in the village. With the desert sun mercilessly beating down on them, those that had arrived early were deeply regretting it and even those that there were only just arriving, with bare minutes to spare, were already panting and slick with sweat.

Last to arrive, a team from Hidden Leaf, was not exempt. Sasuke, in the lead of the three genin, gave no outward sign of his discomfort, but the red flush across his face and neck, either sunburn or overheating, said it all. The even paler boy on his left was smiling blandly, but his short dark hair was completely plastered to his head with sweat, and the girl on his right, bringing up last, was struggling for breath - her heavy jacket was probably half the problem.

All three of them easily accepted the cups of water handed to them by a Sand kunoichi standing at the plaza entrance. "Welcome to the Chunin Exam first round," she said brightly. "We'll begin shortly."

Kakashi's temporary team made their way into the courtyard cautiously, eyeing the gathered foreign shinobi with an eye out for competition. The Sand teams dominated, naturally, and they were easy to spot, since they were the only ones unaffected by the heat - a subtle way of undercutting the competition?

It seemed an unnecessary measure. Attendance from other villages was low; it seemed many had been unsettled by the sudden change in location. There were only a couple teams each from the smaller villages, plus the two teams from Hidden Leaf. Still, Sasuke eyed the genin around them with suspicion. Somewhere among the sparse crowd, there was the single team from Hidden Sound - Orochimaru's team.

A single genin made his way toward them. Despite the leaf on his headband, none of the three relaxed.

"You took your time," Neji noted coldly as he drew up next to Sasuke's team. "The exams are about to begin. Try not to embarrass our village any further." His eyes lingered on the girl - his cousin, Hinata.

Sasuke sneered in return, but Hinata seemed to curl inward, biting her lip. "You watch yourself first, before you start sticking your nose into our business," Sasuke bit back. 'You don't even know what's really at stake,' he thought derisively. The other Hidden Leaf team in the exams - Gai's team - had been left in the dark regarding the secret operation. The fewer knew, the better, it was decided.

"Yo, Sasuke!" Naruto's loud voice cut off any comeback Neji might have made. The blond pushed his way past the few milling genin between them, grinning.

Gaara trailed after Naruto, and Tenten and Kankuro appeared a moment later, having broken off their quiet conversation.

"So this is your team?" Sasuke asked, eyeing the redhead and the puppeteer with interest.

"Yup, these guys are my teammates," Naruto said happily. "And this is my hometown. Pretty cool, huh?"

"Cool is the opposite of how I would describe it," Sasuke said, scowling a little as he took a sip of the water. "How much longer are we going to have to stand out here, baking?"

"Don't be like that, Sasuke-kun!" the last member of Gai's team exclaimed, making his way over to the other Leaf genin - upside down. Lee had been spending his time walking laps around the courtyard, on his hands, and he had finally completed the 100th lap. "This is a wonderful opportunity to go to our limits and beyond!"

Flipping back right side up, Lee posed and made a thumbs-up.

"Lee, this isn't the time for that," Tenten sighed, facepalming. "Save your strength for the exam, you know?"

As Team Gai dissolved into their usual arguments and disagreements - Neji letting off a scornful remark, Lee insistently denying it, Tenten trying to be the voice of reason - Naruto and Sasuke exchanged a look and a nod. They and their teammates knew there was much more at stake than a promotion or even honoring their village.

Having fallen back into Sasuke's shadow, his two teammates were silent.

Looking over the plaza from the roof of one of the buildings, one of the Hidden Sand proctors made a hand sign to the head examiner. Everything was set; it was time to begin.

"Everyone! May I have your attention please!" a tall man called out, standing at the edge of the roof and waving to the genin assembled below. "We will now begin the Chunin Exams! I am Yura, the head proctor for the first round. To start with, let me thank all of you for coming here, despite the short notice. We will make every effort to ensure your time in Hidden Sand is well-spent."

Several shinobi in the crowd muttered something derogatory regarding the efforts so far, but Yura ignored them, continuing to smile. 'They're having a councilor proctor? Not taking any chances...' Kankuro thought.

"I realize the heat has been a difficult for some of you, but I know everyone has enjoyed a taste of the beverages provided," Yura went on. "That's good. Well, not for you. After all, that water was unfortunately poisoned."

There was a moment of silence, then...

"WHAT?!"

Several - many - voices joined together in protest, including Naruto, Lee and Tenten. "I knew that goatee was suspicious!" Naruto hissed, pointing at the proctor accusingly.

"You realize he's one of ours, right?" Kankuro muttered under his breath.

"The symptoms should begin shortly," Yura continued meanwhile, utterly unruffled by the angry yelling from below. "This is the task of our first round - determine the nature of your condition and find where treatment can be obtained within the village. You have until sunset. That's about the time when you'll probably start passing out."

"What the hell?! That's taking favoritism too far! You're tilting it totally in your favor!" one of the Hidden Waterfall genin protested. "You're the poison specialists!"

"Hey, we're not all poison guys! I don't know anything about this either!" a Sand genin yelled in return.

"Remember, this is a team test, so all of you need to get treatment," Yuura said. "Any method is acceptable, but if you are caught breaking the village laws or disturbing the peace, our shinobi have the right to detain you. Best of luck to all of you!"

He waved with a smile, then stepped away from the edge, vanishing from sight despite the continued protests of the genin.

"Come on, let's get going," Kankuro said quietly, his voice almost drowned out by the shouting around them. Holding up his own half-full cup, he added, "I want to analyze this somewhere a bit quieter."

"Is this really going to be okay?" Naruto asked, hurrying after him as Kankuro made his way out of the plaza.

"You get what the point is, right? It's information gathering. Most of them will wait until the symptoms start up, but it'll probably be pretty easy to tell from there," Kankuro said, shrugging. "They can ask around the village, or check the library, or go to a clinic. Since it's just a test for genin, I doubt it's going to be all that hard…"

Naruto hummed thoughtfully, squinting his eyes shut and tilting his head. "Well, I guess that's fine," he decided finally. Beaming, he slapped Kankuro's back. "Just think, this is your big chance to actually do something useful!"

"Screw you, you brat!" Kankuro shot back, elbowing Naruto in the side.

Even as he cringed away, laughing, Naruto threw one last glance over his shoulder. 'I hope those guys'll be able to figure it out,' he thought. 'I wonder what those symptoms or whatever are about. I don't feel different at all...'

/~/~

Sasuke watched Naruto and his team slip away, and turned to follow their example. "Come on," he told his temporary teammates. As they moved out onto the streets, he asked, "Do either of you feel anything? What are the symptoms?"

"Uh… um," Hinata stammered. "It's n-not something you feel. Um, Sasuke, your tongue…"

That seeming non-sequitur made Sasuke stop in his tracks and turn to stare at her. Blushing and fidgeting, Hinata slowly stuck out her tongue, enough for the two boys to see that it was beginning to turn bright orange.

"...That's definitely a unique symptom," Sasuke noted dryly. "It's a start. We can ask around to see if anyone in the village knows what causes it. I doubt it'll be as easy as checking into a clinic, but…"

"There's no need for that," the last member of their team spoke up. "I recognize this symptom. This is Vulture's Folly - a sickness that is caused by drinking water from certain springs in Land of Wind, which have been polluted with a rare mineral. There are not many cases because the stones around the springs will also be colored in the same shade, which is enough to caution most against drinking the water. Other symptoms include lightheadedness, hallucinations, severe diarrhea, and sometimes vomiting."

Despite the unhappy picture he was painting, he continued to smile blandly. The expression had remained fixed since he had introduced himself just before the team left Leaf Village - Sai, he had said he was called. Despite being in their age group, neither Hinata nor Sasuke remembered ever seeing him before.

"And? What is the treatment?" Sasuke asked, unimpressed.

"I don't know," Sai admitted without an ounce of hesitation or shame. "You see, the symptoms pass after a week, even without treatment, and are unpleasant, but not fatal. And this is a very rare sickness, no doubt why it was chosen. Not many genin would have heard of it."

'But you have,' Sasuke thought, frowning faintly. 'Then again, you're not an ordinary genin, are you? You're probably not a genin at all.'

"We can't wait for it to pass," Sasuke said shortly. "We need to find out the treatment. We have a headstart since we know the cause, but we still need to gather information. We'll split up and meet in… three hours back here. That should be before any of the more severe symptoms kick in. Let's go."

Neither of his teammates disagreed.

/~/~

"I don't get it, they're not doing anything," Naruto complained, narrowing his eyes as he glared at the three "genin" of the Hidden Sound team. Next to him, Kankuro frowned but had to agree.

It was late afternoon, the shadows having grown long across the village, but the Sound team had yet to make any move except to slowly relocate to keep in the shade. All three of them had moved to opposite ends of the plaza where the first round had been announced and not spoken to each other even once in all the time Naruto, Kankuro and Gaara had been observing them.

"Are they just planning to give up and fail?" Naruto muttered dubiously. "Or do they already know what to do?"

"That can't be right. The only thing I can think of… is they're planning to just follow all the other teams who figure it out," Kankuro said. "There is only one place to go, after all. It's a bit of a blindspot in the exam, but… you'd have to guess who to follow, and if you waited to see where the passing teams gather, it's going to be late and you're going to be feeling the more severe symptoms."

"What symptoms? I still don't feel anything," Naruto said.

"That's because you're a weirdo, and Gaara too," Kankuro said. "And I'm a puppeteer. Having a high resistance to poisons and such is part of the job. Normally, you'd be barely able to see straight by this point, and you'd be too busy with stuff coming out of either end to be sneaky."

"But those guys aren't reacting at all either," Naruto pointed out.

"...Well, they're from Hidden Sound. They're not normal either, I guess," Kankuro admitted.

"I can tell that just by looking at them," Naruto grumbled.

He was right. It was obvious - one of the two males on the team had six arms, the other seemed to have two heads, though one was slumped motionlessly over his back. Only the girl looked normal, though her hair was almost as red as Gaara's.

"If they're just going to sit around, there's no point in watching them," Naruto decided.

"Idiot, we can't just go off because you're bored!" Kankuro scolded.

"Whatever! You agree, right, Gaara?" Naruto said, and they both turned to their other teammate.

Gaara hadn't moved in at least two hours, leaning against the wall in the shade, arms crossed, eyes closed. He didn't respond, and after a few moments, they realized he had simply dozed off.

Exchanging a look, Naruto and Kankuro sighed.

/~/~

"Yes, coming!" a voice called out from within the small domed dwelling Team Kakashi had finally been directed to. The door opened to reveal a young woman in Sand's customary robes and poncho. Her eyes darted up to Sasuke's headband - he had been the one to knock - but her expression showed no surprise.

This was the right place, he judged.

"We're here regarding Vulture's Folly. We were told this is the place to ask for treatment," he said, watching as recognition passed across the woman's face at the name of the illness.

"You're in the right place," she said, smiling - in congratulations. "You're right, we're the only one to bother with rare desert illnesses like that. But the master doesn't accept patients until sundown. You can wait in the yard, and I'll get you something for the symptoms."

Her kind gaze lingered on Hinata, who was slumped across Sasuke's back. She had collapsed shortly after the team reunited, from a combination of the heat and the more severe symptoms setting in. Sasuke was feeling lightheaded himself, and his vision was blurring, but he had stubbornly hauled her onto his back and carried her to their destination - a small clinic on the outskirts, which dealt in traditional medicines.

Sai, who carried Hinata's thick coat, looked annoyingly unbothered, despite being paler than Sasuke and dressed in all black.

'There's no way he's really a genin,' Sasuke thought, rather spitefully, as they moved around to the side of the building, into the small walled yard. A team from Sand was already there, sitting in the shade of a small tree, but they were the only ones.

Using the side door, the healer's assistant returned with a tray of three small bowls. "This will help with the symptoms, but it's not a cure," she explained. "You'll have to wait for the master to return."

Sasuke nodded in thanks, and the three Leaf genin moved to claim a stone bench for themselves. Hinata raised her head weakly as Sasuke set her down on the bench, but she still needed help with holding the wooden bowl and bringing it to her mouth.

The lightly herb-scented mixture seemed to revive her a little, and she breathed easier. Sasuke considered his own bowl, contemplating whether to give it to the girl, until Hinata lightly touched his arm and shook her head.

"Please, drink it," she said quietly. "There's no telling what the next round will be like."

After downing the mixture, there was nothing to do but wait, none of the three inclined to start conversation - Hinata withdrawing into herself the way Sasuke remembered her doing back in Academy, Sai pulling out a sketchbook after taking a seat next to her, her jacket between them, Sasuke content to simply lean against a wall nearby and occupy himself with his thoughts.

'We're in the right place,' Sasuke thought. 'This is the answer all of us got. And we were told to find where treatment can be obtained, not to actually get treated. The time limit was until sunset, when this herbalist master will start accepting patient. Most likely, some announcement will be made then, and if you miss it, you won't be able to advance.'

That reasoning made sense to him.

Several more teams trickled in as the afternoon moved toward evening, a few from Sand, the team from Hidden Rain, both of the Hidden Grass teams, and eventually the other Leaf team as well. Despite arriving as the sun was drawing close to the horizon, Team Gai was in impressively good shape, Lee even still trying to perform some self-imposed punishment for being so late.

But to Sasuke's surprise, there was no sign of Naruto's team - or the Sound team.

'There's no way he would have just dropped out,' Sasuke thought. 'This kind of exam gives Sand teams a massive advantage. He can't possibly not have found the answer, he did fine gathering information in Land of the Sea. So did he run into some kind of difficulty? Did it have anything to do with…?'

Both the teams arrived just as the sun was setting, neither appearing any worse for wear. Naruto caught Sasuke's gaze as they filed into the side yard, and subtly shook his head. No sign of Orochimaru. Well, that was only to be expected. The exam was only beginning.

The healer's assistant followed after the two teams, having already given them their dozes, and shut the gate into the yard. "Thank you for coming, everyone," she called out. "The master will arrive shortly to see everyone in need of treatment. But… I think we all know what you're here for, yes?"

She held up one hand in a simple seal, and in a puff of smoke, the young woman became Yura, smiling blandly at the gathered genin. He was met with a great number of scowls and glares, especially from those that had proven more susceptible to the poison. Several were still covering their mouths, looking faintly green, or holding their stomachs.

Overall, the already small number of attendees had been reduced more than by half.

The clinic's side door opened, and a tattooed man in a wide-brimmed hat stepped out, his expression of someone who had only just woken up. "Huh? What's with all this?" he drawled, yawning. "Look, how many times do I have to tell you kids, I ain't selling you anything to help you in the sack! I ain't that kind of medicine man."

"Master, this is the Chunin Exam first round," Yura reminded him.

"Oh, that's today?" the medicine mused, scratching at his stubble. "Right, so what was wrong with the lot of them? Sunburn?"

"Poisoning," Yura corrected.

The medicine man shook his head reprovingly, as if it was their own fault. "And the symptoms?"

The collected genin stuck out their tongues, glaring.

"Ah, Vulture's Folly," the herbalist said. "You don't see that often. You know it'll pass after a week, right? Hmm, I suppose I can see why you wouldn't want to put up with a week of having it come out both ends while confessing to your first crush… Well, too bad for you, but the only cure is made from Jofuku flowers, and I've got none of those."

"What?!" a chorus of complaints rose up.

"Yeah, I ran out last week, and I haven't gotten around to gathering more," the medicine man said, unperturbed.

Yura stepped up again. "I'm sure they'll be happy to bring you some. That should be an easy task for a team on the chunin level, wouldn't you say?"

"I suppose. I'll need one per person," the herbalist said, shrugging. "Jofuku flowers only grow at one oasis southwest of the village. I have a map you can look at before you go. It's about a day's travel. Of course, that way's all desert, so I wouldn't recommend traveling in the middle of the day. ...Not that it's any better at night. That's when all the nasty, venomous things come out to hunt."

"There you have it," Yura said. "Completing that mission is the second round of the exam. Very simple, wouldn't you say? The mixture I gave you will wear off within one day. After that, it's going to get very difficult. If you don't make it back by sunset three days from now, we're going to assume you've died." Which was a very real possibility, out in the desert. "By the way, I'll be proctoring this round too."

No one looked particularly happy to hear that. There was some quiet grumbling.

"Um, I have a question!" a girl with a Grass headband called out, raising her hand. When the medicine man gestured toward her, she continued. "What does this flower look like? Are there any special conditions for gathering or transporting it?"

Those were good questions, though Kankuro knew the answers already. A team was sent to gather some flowers for the village common stock regularly. Though he'd never been part of it himself, he had studied the plant, along with most others that grew around the village.

There were other questions after too, but several of the teams were not paying much attention.

'A retrieval and survival mission,' Sasuke thought. 'Out in the desert… there won't be much oversight. I see… That'll be the best time for him to strike.'

'We'll have to be ready,' Naruto thought. 'This is where it really starts… the true test.'

/~/~

Q&A:

Who's Yura? He's actually the guy who got brainwashed by Sasori to be a spy. But he was a sleeper agent, so most of the time he was honestly loyal to Hidden Sand. He's also a council member.

Gaara can't sleep! Kushina adjusted his seal a little in exchange for Naruto being allowed to join Hidden Sand. So he can sleep without consequences. He just doesn't do it often, out of habit.

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