-Training Ground 44 Entrance Gate Delta-
Team 7 sat on the grass outside their designated entrance to the Forest of Death, waiting for the exam to start and taking the opportunity to relax while the could. Once in the Forest they'd be constantly on high alert.
As they lounged around waiting for the assistant proctor to open the gate, they discussed strategy as well.
"Naruto, what kind of scroll do we have?"
At Sasuke's question, Naruto opened his eyes, having been lying on the ground resting. "We have a heaven scroll."
"And where is it?" Sakura asked.
"Well sealing is an Uzumaki specialty after all." Naruto perked up a bit at the opportunity to show off. "Our scroll is sealed inside a storage scroll. That scroll is sealed inside yet another storage scroll, and that scroll is sealed inside one of the several different fuinjutsu seals I have on my body and clothes, but I think it's better if you not know which one."
"I agree. If we don't know where it is it will help hide it." Sasuke stated, ending the conversation. When it came to the sealing arts, his teammates had long since learned that Naruto was the expert and authority on the team. They trusted him.
As they spoke three clones of Naruto came out of the foliage behind them, each carrying an exact replica of the heaven seal that Naruto possessed. Each clone approached a member of Team 7 and handed them a scroll.
"Decoys?" Sasuke asked.
"Sakura's idea." Naruto's response and the impressed look that Sasuke gave her caused Sakura to squirm a bit. She had improved in the months since team 7 became a team, but she still considered herself the weakest link. Praise from her teammates was always appreciated.
Taking the initiative again, as she had with the decoys, Sakura spoke.
"I think we have pretty good plans to protect our scroll, now let's figure out how to obtain an Earth scroll."
"The way I see it we have two options." Sasuke said, taking charge of the discussion.
"We can either set a trap and wait for another team to fall in to it, or we can go on the hunt for another team."
"It's a big forest and there are only 10 teams." Sakura responded. "There's every chance that if we just randomly set a trap no team will be near enough to walk into it."
"So we set it close to the tower." Naruto responded. "We know every team has to go there at some point."
"Presumably they wouldn't be going to the tower until they already have two scrolls though, so we'd likely waste a day or two waiting for a team to show up." Sakura countered.
"Trapping should be one of our strengths." Sasuke spoke again. "Sakura and I are both good with Genjutsu, while Naruto is good with seals. That gives us a lot of options for our traps."
"But we'd also be good at hunting." Naruto responded. "I can spam clones to scout, your Sharingan can help us avoid traps, and Sakura can always heal us back up if we get in a scrap."
"Hunting takes a lot more energy, trapping conserves our energy." Sasuke countered.
Knowing their time was running short, Sakura spoke up to try to find a compromise.
"What if we do both? We head to the tower first and set a trap, then Naruto uses his clones to scout. If they find a good team the clones can either herd that team towards our trap or help us pursue them."
Naruto and Sasuke both looked at Sakura, before looking to each other and grinning. It seemed that a plan had been agreed to, and not a moment to soon.
A crow had landed on the fence, prompting the Assistant proctor nearby to go to the gate, unlock it, and open it. Though he also motioned for Team 7 to not enter the forest yet.
In response, Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke stood up and readied themselves.
30 seconds later a firework went off over the forest, prompting the assistant proctor to wish the team good luck and step out of the way, while Team 7 dashed into the forest.
Team 7 formed up in a triangle as they ran. Sasuke took point with Sakura on the left, and Naruto on the right. Making a familiar hand-sign, Naruto created several clones to cover the rear and spread out around them as an extra line of defense while they made a beeline straight to the center of the forest and the tower.
-With Team 8-
Team 8 was waiting for their gate to unlock. Kiba appeared anxious and excitable, with Akamaru mimicking his master's mood.
Shino stood under the shade of a tree, staring at his hand and the small number of his insects that were seated upon it.
Karin sat out in the open, meditating.
Perhaps out of boredom, Kiba spoke up. "So what's the plan once we get going."
"I suggest we locate and defeat weaker teams." Shino responded. "That's because we were created to be a tracking team. This exercise should suit our strengths well."
"I agree." Karin responded, opening her eyes and getting up from her seated position.
"Between my Kekkai genkai, Shino's bugs, and your and Akamaru's noses locating weaker teams should be easy."
"Karin." Shino calmly looked towards his Uzumaki teammate after he spoke her name. "Are Naruto and your other clanswoman able to use your clan's kekkai genkai yet?"
Knowing which Kekkai Genkai Shino was referring to, Karin shook her head as she spoke. "Not to my knowledge. The Mind's Eye of Kagura is a rare kekkai genkai that traditionally only appeared in a small number of Uzumaki each generation. As far as I know only my mother and I possess it, though I suppose that if it is genetic my younger siblings might be able to awaken it as well."
"How fortuitous. This works in our favor." Shino responded.
"Yeah." Karin nodded in agreement. "But don't underestimate them. Every Uzumaki is a sensor type. While not as good as me, Naruto-sama and Tenten are good sensors. And Ino from Team 10 is a Yamanaka. They tend to be sensors as well."
Karin then looked down to the dirt, and grew suddenly quieter. "I'm not sure I should have told you about how rare my Kekkai Genkai is among my clan. I trust you both, but please don't go speaking out about it."
"You have nothing to worry about. Why? Because Kiba and I both come from clans as well. We understand the need for discretion."
"I'm not sure what discretion means, but if it means what I think it does Shino's right. You don't need to worry about us. Team 8 protects our own."
As they spoke, a crow landed on the fence to the training ground and the proctor began to move towards the gate.
"It would seem the moment is at hand. Are we all in agreement?" Shino asked.
"Let's go hunting." Karin responded.
A feral like grin appeared on Kiba's face. There was no need for him to verbally respond. It was obvious how excited he was. Akamaru did bark a couple times in agreement, speaking for both him and his human.
As soon as the firework exploded and the proctor disappeared Shino held up his arms, causing a huge number of insects to fly from him into the forest, beginning to scout.
After waiting a few seconds to give the bus a head start, Team 8 dove into the forest in a diamond formation with Akamru on point, Karin on the left, Shino on the right, and Kiba bringing up the rear.
-With Team 9-
"So we're in agreement then. I will use my Byakugan to identify a suitable target and we will head towards that team, defeat them, and take their scroll."
"Yosh! I look forward to our youthful pursuit of our competitors! What could be more youthful than rushing towards youtful combat at youthful speed! Just youthfully thinking about it brings me to new levels of Youthfulness! If only our best beloved and most youthful Gai-sensei were here to witness our youthful pursuit!"
Ignoring Lee, the third member of Team 9 spoke up. "Neji, don't forget that I'm a sensor. I can help identify teams as well."
"That is not necessary. The Byakugan is far superior to anything you can do, Tenten."
Tenten sighed in frustration. Her teammates were both strong, and she had grown to consider them both friends over their almost two years as a team, but between Lee's...in public Tenten politely chose to refer to it as enthusiasm, and Neji's arrogance they could quickly get on her nerves.
"Neji, we've gone over this. We work best as a team."
"Hmph. Fine. You want to help, Tenten? Use those sensory abilities to keep track of any creatures or teams that might be tracking us, but only the Byakugan is good enough to track our targets."
When the fireworks went off, Lee immediately burst into the forest at top speed. Tenten and Neji however, remained behind.
"So the plan is still the same, right?"
Neji smirked as he responded. "Of course, once I identify a team I'll send Lee after them. You and I will follow at a more...normal pace. Hopefully that will allow Lee to burn off some of his eccentricities and allow us to have some peace."
"It's a good thing we aren't going for stealth." Tenten responded, "we both know Lee isn't capable of it."
With that, the pair dove into the forest after their hyperactive teammate.
-With Yugao-
Yugao watched the genin team that was assigned to her gate with a mix of mild amusement and disappointment. All three members of Team 10 were destined to lead their clans in the future, yet the team didn't seem to be taking things seriously.
The Nara was napping. I suppose there is some validity in that Yugao mused, he won't be able to rest much once he's in the forest after all.
The Akimichi was already burning through his food supplies. Not unexpected I suppose, the boy is Akimichi after all. But wasn't he the one complaining that he only brought two days worth of food? At the rate he's going it will all be gone before his team even steps into the forest.
Yugao did have to give the Yamanaka Kunoichi some credit. She was at least trying to corral her teammates and come up with some sort of plan. She's going about it the wrong way though. It's clear that her teammates are used to her berating them and have completely tuned her out.
Still, Yugao knew that there was more to this team than met the eye. I suppose I should remember that they are only what 12, 13 years old? I can't expect them to be fully mature yet. And I've seen this team before, when their backs are against the wall they spring in to action with the best of the village's genin.
Turning her thoughts from the team in front of her, Yugao reached out with her senses and tried to locate her three real charges for this exam: The trio of Uzumaki participating.
Yugao's sensory abilities were considerably weaker than an actual sensor type ninja, but like most Uzuki she had some actual Uzumaki blood in her, and had inherited a bit of their sensory abilities. She wasn't quite good enough to be a sensor type, but she had better chakra sensing abilities than the average non-sensor.
As such she was easily able to locate 3 Uzumaki chakra signatures, while another was just barely within her range. One was clearly the Uzumaki ANBU helping to proctor the exam, and Naruto was easy enough to pick out with his massive reserves.
That left Karin and Tenten unidentified. One well within her range, the other just on the edge.
I suppose it doesn't matter which is which. Yugao though. The priority is Naruto-sama. As long as I stick close to him and monitor the other two signatures it doesn't really matter which is Karin and which is Tenten.
Pulled from her pondering by a crow landing on the fence, Yugao jumped down from the tree she had been seated in and unlocked the gate.
To their credit, the sound of the lock opening caused Choji to put away his food, Shikamaru to wake up and stand, and Ino to quiet down.
By the time the firework went off it was almost like Yugao was looking at a completely different Team 10. They'd gone from looking almost comically incompetent to being composed, serious, primed, and ready.
Yugao watched as they dove into the forest, sparing just a moment to reflect on Team 10: I think they'll be just fine.
Waiting the 5 minutes she had been instructed, Yugao tracked the movements of the three Uzumaki genin before it was time for her to enter the forest as well, running across the tree tops as she raced to the tower.
First, she had to check in with Itachi and all the other assistant proctors, best not to arouse suspicion after all. After that she'd locate her Lord and keep watch.
-With Team 7-
The tower at the center of the forest was a sight to behold. Surrounded by a clearing, the large red structure towered above the surrounding forest.
Looking upon it from his hiding place in some thick shrubbery on the other side of the clearing, Naruto couldn't help but be impressed.
"Does that work for you, Naruto?"
"Huh?" Naruto was pulled from his thoughts by the question he had been asked, and sheepishly had to admit he had not been paying attention. "Sorry, Sakura. I got distracted. Can you run that by me one more time please?"
"If you can write a fuinjutsu seal on the ground that will paralyze things, I can cover it with a genjutsu. After that we can try to steer passing teams into the trap. Once that happens Sasuke can use his sharingan to put a member of the captured team into a trance and learn the location of their scroll."
"Sounds good to me," Naruto grinned. "How big of an area can you cover with your genjutsu?"
"I'm just a genin and I've been focusing more on medical ninjutsu than genjutsu, but maybe 2 square meters. Still, at that size my chakra would be spread pretty thin and it would probably be pretty easy to detect."
"I see." Naruto mentally went through the various fuinjutsu seals that he knew, seeing if he had one in his arsenal that would meet the team's needs. After a few moments, he turned his attention back to his teammate and asked another question. "What if I put down seals in multiple spots, can you cover them all?"
Sakura's response solidified Naruto's choice of seal: "If they're small enough than yes."
"Ok then. I know a paralysis seal that starts small, but expands to a greater area and traps everything caught within it. In it's dormant state it's roughly 20 centimeters by 10."
"I should be able to cover a few of those."
"Perfect."
While Naruto and Sakura had been discussing the requirements of the fuinjutsu and genjutsu, Sasuke had been identifying places for the team to lay their traps. With a plan agreed, he lead the team to the first location.
A pattern quickly emerged. Once Sasuke led the team to a location he and Sakura would assume guard duty while Naruto focused on writing the formula for the paralysis seal that was the base of their trap. When he was finished he swapped places with Sakura, taking guard duty while she laid a genjutsu over Naruto's work, blending it in to the ground around them.
Finally, Sasuke would lead the team to the next spot he had identified and the process would repeat itself again.
A couple hours later 5 traps surrounded the tower and it was time for Team 7 to settle in and wait.
As Naruto created a small army of shadow clones and sent them into the forest to scout, Sasuke pulled a set of radio communicators and headsets from his pack. Team 7 would each set up in their own spot so as to maximize their field of vision and keep an eye on the traps from multiple angles.
Sasuke hid himself in some bushes while Sakura took to a tree. Naruto had originally wanted to call upon his Uzumaki heritage and hide in the nearby stream, but unfortunately the stream hadn't quite been deep enough for him to hide.
Oh well. It would have been pretty cold anyways.
Plan B. Naruto unsealed a gully suit, put it on, and hid himself in a patch of tall grass right at the edge of the forest. He made sure to find a comfortable position. If his clones failed to identify a suitable target it could be several days of waiting in the exact same spot.
-With Team 8-
Karin, Kiba, and Shino sat huddled in a small clearing in the forest, taking a quick breather after several hours of unsuccessful hunting. As they rested, Karin was meditating and using the Mind's Eye of Kagura, while Shino's insects were constantly coming in and out, returning to their master to inform him of their discoveries and to rest while fresh members of the hive headed out to scout.
When the last insects had arrived and passed on their information, Shino spoke.
"It seems that only 8 teams now possess a scroll. One team has none, while another team has finished the exam and successfully entered the tower."
"What? That's so fast!" Kiba said, momentarily speaking loudly before recovering and returning to the hushed tones the team was using to help remain undiscovered.
At that point, Karin's eyes opened as she exited her meditative position and entered the conversation.
"Tenten's team finished so fast. That Hyuuga and the kid that I can't sense for some reason must be crazy strong."
"It would seem that the rumors around Team 9 are true." Shino added. "Truthfully my insects were tracking them more for us to avoid them than anything else."
"Yeah, I was also trying to keep us as far away from them as possible." Karin admitted.
"What! Why?" Kiba seemed a bit confused.
"Just because the Inuzuka feel the need to fight strong opponents in order to try to show dominance like a dog doesn't mean we should be chasing down the strongest teams." Karin chided. "I've never come anywhere close to beating Tenten in a spar, and according to her she is far and away the weakest member of her team."
"Oh. Ok." Kiba relented. "Can we go after Team 7? I really want to fight Naruto or Sasuke."
"No." Karin and Shino said in unison. Even Akamaru gave Kiba a look that seemed to say "are you serious?"
"We are a bad match-up for Team 7. Why you ask? That's because They are an assault team. Their individual skill sets and teamwork are geared towards direct combat. We are a tracking team. You are the only one who is good at direct combat Kiba, Karin and I are not. We would be at a disadvantage."
"Seriously, are you trying to get our one scroll taken from us?" Karin followed up. "This is not the exam to be fighting strong teams. This is the exam to avoid teams that are stronger than us while picking off teams that are weaker. Focus on getting to the next exam. You can fight Naruto-sama or Sasuke there."
"Fine, fine. So let's find a team that's weaker then." Seeing that it was 3-1, Kiba begrudgingly conceded.
As the Inuzuka spoke, a solitary insect flew towards Shino, who opened his palm to allow it a landing pad. Karin watched with a curious look on her face as the insect and its master silently communicated before it disappeared up Shino's sleeve and the Aburame heir looked towards his teammates.
"There is a team roughly a three hour run from our location. My insects believe their chakra is weaker than ours. Some of my female insects are with them giving off pheromones so I can track them. The team is stationary and resting, so if we leave now we can make up some ground."
Eager to fight someone, anyone really, Kiba quickly agreed. Karin too seemed enthusiastic, and in a matter of moments the clearing was empty as Team 8 was back on the hunt. As she left the clearing, Karin looked up to see an eagle perched on a tree staring down at her.
Something told her that not all was well with the eagle, but unwilling to hold back her teammates, Karin did not use the Minds Eye of Kagura, instead she gave the eagle a glare that conveyed her suspicion and hurried after her teammates.
-Team 10-
Choji and Shikamaru stood with Kunai drawn, on high alert, as they did something that their ancestors had done for generations: guard the vacant body of their Yamanaka colleague.
Ino had used the Shintenshin Jutsu on a squirrel three hours earlier, after the trio had agreed that it would be the best way for them to scout.
Ino was a competent kunoichi who was well versed in her clans arts, and both Shikamaru and Choji new this, still they couldn't help but be concerned. They had agreed on two hours, not three.
The sound of their quasi sister stirring, indicating that her soul had returned to her body, caused great relief in the pair of boys, but following protocol they held their guard. When Ino was fully awake and alert they could relax a bit.
A hand on each of their shoulders told them that Ino was up, and the two boys postures visibly relaxed.
"Troublesome woman, you're late, we were worried."
"Seriously lno, why'd you do that?"
"Sorry guys." Ino at least had the grace to acknowledge the anguish she had caused. Team 10 wasn't just normal teammates. These were her brothers, and they had possibly been imagining their sister captured or killed.
"I was late because I saw team 8 and switched into an eagle to spy on them, but I think Karin caught me so I hung back for a bit and had to pretend to just be a regular bird."
"Sounds like a drag. Get any good info?"
"That team with the other Uzumaki and the Hyuuga is already finished."
"That really is a drag. How the hell did they do that?"
"I don't know."
Choji finally entered into the conversation again to try to keep the team focused on things they could control: "Did you find a team for us to target?"
"Yeah, on my way back from Team 8's camp I saw signs of another team and followed them for a bit. They got attacked by a bear and got injured. If we hurry we can get their scroll while they're down and before they possibly forfeit."
Motivating the boys a bit further, Ino sweetened the pot: "Remember, the sooner we finish the sooner we can sleep in a bed and have home cooked food."
When Shikamaru didn't complain Ino could only smile. She'd grown up with Shika and Choji, she new the right strings to pull to get them to act.
As Team 10 dashed off with Ino on point, she could only think about how there was no one else that she'd rather be stuck in the Forest of Death with than her brothers.
AN: Will all 4 rookie teams pass the exam? Will Yugao need to intervene? Tune in next time to find out! Same bat-website, same bat-story! Ok, that was cheesy, I apologize. Thanks for reading!