It's no use saying, ''We are doing our best.'' You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.
- Winston Churchill

Chapter 5: Clues

Inoichi stood beside the other jonin senseis in the center of a small semi-circle. He couldn't help but notice how tired the other jonin looked. Kakashi looked like he had at least taken on another year in age since he had gotten his group. The man's face was worn and frown lines creased his face. He couldn't even will himself to read his book. The man just looked so dead. Inoichi couldn't remember seeing his friend look that way since his two teammates died so long ago.

Kurenai honestly did not look much better. The black haired woman had acquired a nonverbal tic of rubbing her forehead intermittently. She also tended to lash out at her genin and correct even the smallest things, such as their posture. It was surprising how responsibility could change a person. Change was not always a good thing.

Asuma seemed best off out of the three of them. Albeit, he seemed rather noncommittal to his troop. Occasionally he murmured something to his students, but other than that he remained off in his own world. Asuma had never wanted to become a sensei, but after a few years jonin automatically were put in line for teams of their own. It was a bloody nuisance in Asuma's opinion.

Inoichi looked expectantly at the other jonin before sighing. Apparently he'd be stuck with the introductions again. "As you have all probably heard from your senseis, we are going to have a group examination. This test will see how well you know your basic shinobi skills and it will tell us what we need to change in your training regimens."

"Your goals will be to find four different artifacts placed around the village. Each jonin hid a different item for you all to find. The jonin that hid each artifact will give you a single clue. This clue will only be said one time and no hints will be given other than that clue. Understood?" A few heads bobbed up in down while others remained completely indifferent to the blonde. Children these days were so rebellious.

"Alright then. Asuma-san, will you be first?"

The senbon chewing jonin stepped forward and pulled the senbon from his mouth. "Is it an honor or a curse? That's all." He stuffed the dull end back between his teeth and stepped back into line. The cryptic clue rung in all of their minds. It was a simple clue, but something about it cued that there had to be some sort of symbolism to the thing.

Kakashi stepped forth next. "There is happiness in sadness. There is joy and fear. Worlds collapse while others come together. Good luck." Inoichi blinked slowly. It appeared that all of the jonin were presenting rather morbid hints.

"Sweet." Kurenai said shortly. She looked pointedly at Inoichi before turning to the side. The woman would say no more. There would be no encouragements or paltry well wishes.

"Well, I suppose that leaves me last." He cleared his throat before proclaiming, "In it there is love. No one can deny it. One more thing, good luck." Inoichi winked at the genin before shunshining away along with the other jonin.

-TSUME-

"So? Now what?" Kiba looked at his fellow genin with a bemused expression. This was such a simple task. With twelve of them, he was completely sure they could scour Konohagakure without even understanding the clues. They had a full six hours so there would be plenty of time.

"We need a mode of communication. We should also group ourselves in to new team formations considering that our jonin grouped us all together for a reason. Deciphering the clues should also be top priority so we don't waste time and energy needlessly. Did you any of you take down what the clues were?" Shikamaru looked at the baffled genin and sighed. He looked over towards Kei and was calmed when he got a nod in response.

"Who made you leader?" Sasuke glared at the Nara venomously. If anyone was worthy of leading it would be himself, not a lazy kid who was barely passable.

"I agree! I should be leading since my clan has always been known for its tracking techniques." Kiba added haughtily.

"With all due respect," Teru drawled out sarcastically, "You two are both doofuses with no real talent. You two probably haven't learnt anything new since graduation now have you?" The two boys fell silent and sent the boy a vicious glare. "See? Now I on the other hand have actually learned things. And anyways, dog boy, these are artifacts. They don't walk, talk, and breathe. And how would you know what to smell anyways? You're thinking with your nose instead of that peanut sized thing in your head." For emphasis he tapped the side of his head. "I vote for Hinata-chan to help search."

"E-eh? Teru-kun, I couldn't do that... I mean, I can help, but not lead." The purplette shook her head vigorously as a light red dusted her cheeks. It was an honor to be put up for vote, but she was completely unready to accept the position. She would hardly even know where to start!

"Can't we all just agree that the ideas themselves are sound?" Shino grunted out. He was started to get irritated with all of the needless banter. Time was ticking. A few of his beetles had already been sent out to scour the town for items carrying the fresh scent of their senseis. It was assuming that all four of them would have travelled together to deposit the items, but it was a start. Something was better than nothing.

"I agree." Sakura mumbled softly. She didn't belong here anymore. What was the point in her even mentioning anything when all that would come out of it was that she'd be ignored? It was slightly depressing to think about.

"Sheesh. Working in large teams really stinks. How about we all finally admit that no matter how long we take someone is going to be unhappy? So let's just shut up and get some good ideas out like Aburame-san and Haruno-san said?" Naruto twitched his brow slightly. With Shikamaru and Kei it was never like this. These people were so... irritating.

Nothing was going to get done like this. This was exactly why Konohagakure only had a small council so things could actually get done. On the other hand, these were all twelve year olds. They mostly had the mental maturity of a peanut at this stage.

Heads turned to look at the blonde before a series of grunts and scoffs came. The interpretation was of vague approval which was good enough for Naruto. He gave an overenthusiastic beam before turning to Shikamaru.

"As I said.." Shikamaru looked at the large clockface in the distance, "fifteen minutes ago, we need a way to communicate with one another as we travel. If one group finds an item before the others we'll need that group to rendezvous with another team to help the search. There are two ways we can do this."

"One, we can have one person play base and receive messages from the field groups. I was thinking of Aburame-san, but once again, it is just a suggestion" He tacked on the end part for the sake of the Uchiha. "Secondly, we could have a person designated to running messages from team to team. If a team completed a mission they would leave a note at the place they said they were looking at. The runner would then read the note and update the other teams. Inuzuka-san would do well for this."

He scanned the eleven forms huddled about him for any signs of disapproval and prompted, "Opinions? We can decide by popular vote." The genin looked amongst one another, silently begging someone else to vote first.

"First plan." Sasuke said shortly. He was soon followed by Hinata, Shino, Teru, Ino, Sakura, Choji, and Kei making it the choice by vote.

Kei looked at the genin for a few moments before walking over to Shikamaru and tapping him on the shoulder. She loathed speaking in front of people, especially people she didn't know. She whispered a few words into his ears before backing off towards the fringe of the circle once more. The boy would be her mouthpiece and speak for her.

"Alright then. We'll try assigning ourselves into three groups with two of them being four man squads and the other one can be a three man. Aburame-san can remain here to communicate with the other groups. A delegate from each group can take on one of the bugs Aburame-san has."

"Shimizu-san had some suggestions for groups if you all are willing to accept them. Group 1: Inuzuka-san, Ino-san, Kimura-san, and Shimizu-san. Group 2: Hyuuga-san, Uzumaki-san, Uchiha-san, and Choji. Group 3: Haruno-san, Hanagaki-san, and myself. Any objections?"

"Che." Sasuke spat out and looked away. It was as close to approval that they would get from the boy. Considering that Ino and Sakura came along with him in practically everything and anything he did, his vote was worth three. Shikamaru looked amongst his teammates for a moment longer before nodding. "Then let's split that way. Shimizu-san wrote down the clues word for word on sheets of paper. Everyone can get one from her and select a group leader to take Aburame-san's bug."

Shikamaru sighed. This organization thing really sucked. It wasn't too bad when there were only two people to lead, but there were just too many now. Thankfully he had gotten stuck with the smallest team. He was deeply appreciative of how the teams were split up.

Each of the three teams had been set up to split Team Tsume amongst all the other groups. It wasn't as if they didn't trust the other genin teams, but they didn't trust them. Kei had also taken into account personalities and had thus put Kiba and Sasuke as far apart as she could. The group with Sasuke and Naruto was practically guaranteed to get little to nothing done so she had to counterbalance those two with Hinata. Her eyes would make her twice as useful if she could active them properly.

He was pulled out of his thoughts when a piece of paper was shoved roughly into his hands. Shikamaru looked up to see Kei staring at him meaningfully. His eyes flickered down to the paper to read the four lines that were neatly jotted onto the note.

The first three were the clues from Asuma, Kakashi, and Kurenai. The last line was a message from Kei.

Let us be honest. Uchiha's team will not be able to complete a clue successfully. I expect you to solve the clues first so I gave you three of the clues to complete in chronological order. I will also work on Kurenai's in conjunction with Inoichi-sensei's, but I may not be able to easily manage my bunch. Hurry up.

-TSUME-

Sasuke immediately stepped up to the Aburame and put out his hand. Shino raised a brow at the cocky boy before shrugging slightly. Their hands met and a small black beetle crawled out of his sleeve. The shiny beetle made a buzzing sound before fluttering onto the Uchiha's hand. It clicked once before burrowing into the clothes of its new carrier. Sasuke looked mildly disgusted at the ritual before stepping away from the boy in the overcoat.

If he had to put up with this cretin to lead then he would, but that didn't mean he had to enjoy it. The maroon haired girl stepped towards him with a piece of paper outstretched. He didn't particularly remember her name, but the Nara had referred to her as Shimizu. She was at least a fast writer if nothing else. The girl looked abysmally weak much like his teammate. The Uchiha couldn't even faintly remember if there was any woman in his life that was a strong shinobi. He thought for a moment before shaking his head slightly. There was none.

He looked at his group with a calculating eye. The Uzumaki was an idiot. Albeit, he had some redeemable qualities as brute force without a brain. It was handy to have the brawn around and as long as the blonde followed orders like a good dog then everything would be fine. Akimichi didn't appear to be too opinionated. He was large around the waist and Sasuke hoped it wouldn't cause him to be slow. Sasuke would not wait for mere plebians to catch their breath. Lastly, there was the Hyuuga. Her only redeemable quality was that she came from the Hyuuga family. The girl was quiet and looked like the wind could knock her right over. It was pathetic.

He looked at the note in his hand. They had been given free reign over Kurenai's clue. It was such an awful clue to say the least. A single word: sweet. There were multiple ways to use the word sweet. It could be that something was cool. It could be that something was literally sweet in taste, though depending on the person different things could be sweet. It could even be an adjective to describe a personality. The possibilities were near to endless.

But he was a leader. Leader's never showed hesitation, nor did they show their confusion. If he had to pretend that he knew what he was doing, then to heck, he was going to pretend that. "We're going to the Dangoya." It was good to start somewhere and a dango shop was at least a beginning. He'd figure out the real meaning of the clue later.

Choji nodded passively and turned towards the road leading away from the clearing. He gave a short wave back to Ino and Shikamaru before breaking into a slow job down the road. The pattering of feet sounded behind him as his new groupmates followed him out. Well, Hinata followed while Naruto and Sasuke immediately began to race each other. "Oi! Aren't you going to even tell us which clue we got, teme?"

That got the boy's attention. Sasuke sent a chilling glare towards the blonde before swinging out a fist towards his insulter's face. Sasuke was the leader now wasn't he? It was his duty to make sure his lowers were kept in line. Fear was definitely an option. "Your question does not dignify a response." He said shortly before turning back to the road.

"E-erm, Uchiha-san. Why are we going to the Dangoya? Did we get Kurenai-sensei's clue?" Hinata stuttered out in between wheezes.

"Hn." He inclined his head slightly in reply. Hinata accepted the response before catching her breath one more and taking off after the boys.

"Why did you reply to her and not me, teme?" Naruto growled out. He understood why Kei had split them all up, but he would definitely not take this from the brat. The boy obviously had no clue how to lead a group. Naruto was itching to teach the boy a lesson, but now was not the time. Soon, soon he would act.

-TSUME-

"Alright, you two. We have Kakashi's clue. Before we walk about I'd like for us to solve this and head directly to the source. Remember the clue? 'There is happiness in sadness. There is joy and fear. Worlds collapse while others come together.' Do any of you have any ideas?" After retrieving the beetle, Shikamaru plopped himself down beside Sakura on the now partially vacant bench. He had gotten lucky. He had no hyperactive loudmouths or bossy brats on his group.

He could vaguely recall his groupmates from the academy, but only because of their rather unique personalities. What struck him was how different Sakura seemed to be from two weeks ago. The girl had always been rambunctious and peppy, but now she seemed to be totally different. It confused him a bit. Ryuu on the hand seemed to be as depressive as ever.

"It's obviously describing the place and not the item. So it will significantly narrow down the suspects then. There are only so many places a genin can go without running into trouble in the lower districts." Hanagaki mumbled softly. It was true that the lower districts of Konoha were anything but safe. Though they were genin, they didn't have the ability to take on street thugs quite yet. Gangs on the streets ran in packs of nearly ten to twenty so it would be hopeless for them.

"Um... Well the beginning mentions happiness in sadness, but the second part is joy and fear. Not joy in fear. Perhaps it has meaning?" Sakura added in. The girl looked nervous at the close proximity of her teammates. After all, she hadn't come within three feet of her own teammates since nearly a week ago. The boys had always neatly avoided her for some reason. Sometimes it was if she didn't exist. Even being asked for her opinion was so alien. She loved Sasuke, but she did wish he was a bit more like Shikamaru.

"Good. So can you two think of any places that have caused you to feel fear? It has to be within the boarder so we should be able to figure it out." Shikamaru had an inkling that he already knew the place which was mentioned in the clue. However, it seemed his teammates could both do with a bit of confidence boosting. For now he would try and prod them in the right direction and hopefully one of them would come up with the answer.

"Eto... The cemetery and the hospital I guess..." She replied hestitantly.

"I don't think a cemetery conventionally causes people to feel happy though. They just bury dead bodies in the dirt you know? People apparently cry a lot at those places. I don't really get why though since everyone is just going to die anyways. Sooner rather than later so you don't get as attached to the person you see." Ryuu ranted hazily on about death as his two teammates looked at him as if he had grown another head. Shikamaru know understood why Ino was getting so irritable.

"Right, Hanagaki-san." Shikamaru coughed for a moment before adding, "So shall we go to the hospital then?" Hanagaki looked up towards the lazy genius with confusion evident in his eyes before muttering, "A-ah. We can go." The blue haired boy turned around in a circle before asking. "Do you happen to know where we are?"

-TSUME-

Kei's eyes flicked back and forth between her groupmates. All three of them were not particularly smart or innovative. On the other hand, they were all extremely loud and opinionated. She had a sinking feeling that none of them would take particularly well to any ideas that she brought up. So she would have to try and convince them that they came up with the answer themselves. It would not be easy.

"Ya had the clues written down, right Kei-chan?" Teru smiled innocently at the girl. Kei decided from then that she didn't like him. However, now was not the time to squabble about the fact that he was calling her by her first name.

"Right. We're taking Inoichi-sensei's clue. 'In it there is love. No one can deny it. One more thing, good luck.' Yamanaka-san, you know him best. Do you have any ideas?" Kei said hurriedly. She could act cool and collected in her mind, but when it came to actually talking it was a different thing entirely.

Kiba rolled his eyes, "The last part wasn't part of the clue. He was just wishing us good luck. We should just focus on the main part and be done with it. So we're talking about love. Let's just trash all the bars around Konoha until we find the blasted thing already!"

That was not exactly what Kei was thinking of. She rubbed her forehead before releasing a puff of air. It would take time to get used to people with lower processing speeds than her. Shikamaru could normally keep up and Naruto was perfectly willing to get along with the two of them. These people on the other hand were going to make her dispair.

"Inuzuka-san, my dad isn't as vulgar as to make us all search bars. Trust me, he's a bit more refined than that. I can't say much about your family though." Ino muttered under her breath. She crossed her arms over her chest and tilted her head back to think. It would be just like her dad to do something cruel and put the entire message in a cypher. Unfortunately there were so many possible cyphers. What if he was trying to get them to count the amount of syllables and then average them? Good grief, the possibilities were endless.

No... She bit her lip. It had to be something a bit simpler. He'd want each of his students to have the chance of solving the clue. He would also have no way to know that she was assigned to his clue. Something obvious... "Ugh... Can I look at the paper for a bit, Shimizu-san?" She took the paper that was handed to her and studied the page silently.

"Geez! We should at least start by doing something! I don't care if you girls want to sit about and waste your time, but I won't let you two waste my time. Kimura-san, you agree don't you? We should just dump the girls and start looking for the clue." Kiba complained.

"Eh? Well the thing 'bout teams is that normally they stick together if you catch my drift." Teru gave a sheepish grin and rubbed the back of his head. He didn't particularly think this was a good use of their time, but leaving the girls wouldn't do them any good at all. However, walking around cluelessly wouldn't make much sense either.

"You're being a sissy, Kimura-san." Kiba snorted back.

"Ah." The attention immediately shifted towards Ino who was blinking slowly at the page. "Got it." The girl handed the sheet back to Kei before turning towards the road. "Come." The blonde seemed to be in a daze as she started shuffling through the street.

Her groupmates shared a confused look before hustling after the girl. "Oi! Where are we going? Tell us, why don't you!" Kiba shouted after the girl as she began weaving her way through the streets. He finally caught up to the girl and grabbed her by the arm. "Oi! What is it now? I want to know before I'm dragged off to who knows where!"

Blue eyes stared him down before the girl admitted, "We're going to father's flower shop." Kei gave a hint of a smile. So she had gotten it. It had definitely taken her long enough.

"Why in Kami-sama's name are we going to your flower shop?" Kiba retorted with a scrunched up look on his face.

"You're an idiot." Ino sighed wistfully. Ignoring the splutters of her teammate, she explained, "In it there is love. No one can deny it. One more thing, good luck. The first letter from each sentence spells out my name. So come on already!" The irritated screech was slowly working its way back into her voice. It was almost reassuring that the blonde was turning back to normal.

"Now hurry up! I don't want to have to spend any more time lazing about than I have to." Ino commanded before jerking her arm free from Kiba's grip. She turned and trotted down the street towards her house. A few minutes later, the red paneled sign atop the building signaled that they had arrived.

Teru stood in the doorway hesitantly before saying, "So would I be right in assumin' that we have to turn this place upside down to find the item of which we have no clue what it is?"

Ok. I think after reading this chapter, it's official. I need a beta reader. (weeps in corner) I've been trying to find one through the 'search for beta reader' link, but all the betas have gone inactive and just have never taken themselves down from the list. If one of you is willing to beta for me it would be great. I don't think anyone is going to try and murder me as much for my grammatical errors as they are for my generally crappy writing when it comes to parts I'm completely uninterested in. Like the second part.

I'll wrap up this metso-plot in the next chapter. Soon I'll have Team Tsume deployed out on missions. That'll be where the real interesting stuff happens.

p.s. Thanks to everyone who reviewed my story and added it to alerts! I keep on huddling by my itouch to see if there are any updates. /sweatdrop

And a shoutout to Mzr90. The PMs you sent were extremely helpful for me to decide where the story is going to progress. :D