A labyrinth in the mist

Chünin exams. Stage one. Classroom number 7.

Sakura's forehead hit the desk with such a force that the sound bounced on the walls of the otherwise silent room, the rest of the chünin-wannabes glanced at Sakura's direction with curiosity as did the instructors, and that was the last thing Ino saw before losing consciousness and entering her rival's body. Controlling her former best friend was a pretty simple task, Sakura's mind was not particularly difficult to access, and, for a fleeting moment, Ino felt compelled into looking further inside her. Despite her desire to do so, Inoichi had warned her about not looking for what she wasn't ready to know, so she abstained from picking inside Sakura's thoughts. There was something unsettling inside the girl, Ino felt a slight pinch, like a bug, creeping up her spine when she wondered in Sakura's mind.

When she opened her eyes, she blinked a few times and looked down at her paper. She smiled -or rather, Sakura did-, and licked her lips. There, some questions were neatly replied, cursive handwriting and perfect calligraphy, it was almost annoying how much Sakura tried to be that much book smart when nothing will come out of it. Not if you wanted to be a field shinobi. Regardless, Ino was right thinking that Sakura was the perfect person to control, a smart brain but weak enough to be put under her Jutsu.

She had to admit that she did consider Shikamaru for her purposes -after all, he was called a genius despite Ino's personal belief, and whether she liked it or not, the boy had to do something if he wanted them to pass and not embarrass their sensei-, but Ino didn't fancy being inside him. It will twist their relationship into something more intimate for as long as she was controlling him. She was not ready to do so.

Memorizing what she could as quickly as possible in order not to leave a trail behind that could be linked to her -even if Sakura wasn't smart enough to know what happened, she couldn't risk the proctors noticing-, Ino got back to her body. She replied to the questions she could remember and wasn't able to answer on her own and quickly corrected the few she had had wrong, and put her head on her palms, smiling at her piece of paper. Information gathering. She felt a sudden jolt of electricity through her spine, something close to happiness bloomed inside her chest and made her arms tremble slightly in rejoice. It was a pleasant feeling, a feeling she hasn't experienced in so long she could still bite the sour taste of her past and present frustrations. At least now, in this room surrounded by struggling boys of different nations and looking at Sakura awake, she was the girl she used to be, the one that ended up being the second-best in her class, the one who was not supposed to fail. She allowed herself to sigh contently, sure, Team 10 wasn't particularly her dream team but this was the kind of thing they were born to do, they simply weren't able to fail on this.

She smirked and glanced across the room, looking with a joyful expression at the rest of the gënins trying desperately to come up with the answers on their own, who tried so forcefully to just communicate with their teammates without getting caught. "Number 21, 45, and 108, be kind enough to leave or you will be escorted out." One of the proctors said. The people with such numbers attached to their clothes stood up to leave and were followed by their teammates, faces twisted in a display of an interesting variety of emotions.

She had a glimpse of Naruto pretty practically crying over his test and almost feels bad before she remembered that he was Sakura's teammate, so she didn't really care, although he also was Sasuke's teammate, so she did pursed her lips a little. Out of curiosity and excitement, she looked for the boy she dreamed of kissing, her eyes searching through the room with cautious ferocity, her heart jumping on her chest. When she saw him, there was a storm inside her, he was so pretty it was so unfair for the rest of the world...

And then she saw Chöji and the thunder faltered and guilty arose, there he was, biting his upper lips and shaking like a leaf, writing on his page and erasing everything frantically, scratching his forehead almost desperately, the skin under the nail furiously red. If one of the members of the team fails on his test then the entire team is disqualified. Ibiki Morino had shouted, it was hard to forget the man that once visited her dad when the scars on his face were pinkier, newer.

There was guilt on her chest and she was quick to push it down. It wasn't her fault nor her responsibility, Chöji was chosen to be part of the information gathering team for the same reason as she was, he could -or should-, be able to handle it, but for what she was seeing, he wasn't worthy of the position, should someone be credited for spying abilities on the team apparently built for that same purpose, it was solely her. The dark taste of frustration came back forcefully to her tongue, and she narrowed her eyes, still looking at the back of his head. He was completely on his own because they had designed this for him to be so. Her fingers ached in the table to move in the well-known seal.

A shadow moved and Ino opened her eyes wide with surprise, quickly glancing at the proctors in the room. One of them seemed to be looking at the black figure moving across the floor, a smirk on his pale lips, moving the pen on his hand on the notebook he held. Was this considered as a single foul? Will he kick them out? She tensed momentarily until nothing happened so she forced herself to breathe. This might work, Shikamaru could actually help Chöji and she would have to do nothing and still profit from the action by not being kicked out of the test, they both had each other's backs, she was the one left to her own devices, and she still turned things in her favor. They will work this out as they did, without her, and that was just as fine. Ino Yamanaka refused to depend on them, she refused to depend on anybody.

"Change of plans," Itachi announced, his crow-summon dispersing in a puff of smoke, he shut his eyelids forcefully until the smoke that the bird left behind dispersed enough not to dry his eyes and, for a moment, Itachi forgot about the state of his vision. It was when the smoke cleared that he noticed the purple spot again, smaller, but still in existence, preying. Itachi was forced to turn on his Sharingan to see as perfectly as he needed, it was annoying, but it didn't entail much chakra for as long as he wasn't using it to perform any technique. Kisame hadn't said anything about his now perpetual red gaze.

"What?" Kisame narrowed his eyes, "what do you mean by change of plans?"

"We have a new mission." He said, showing his partner the scroll he received and putting it in the sleeve of his robe.

"No. You're fuc- you're kidding me. We're practically there!" He complained. They had to detour from his path three times, wasting two weeks worth of their time, for the sole purpose to disperse their scent and footprints through as many places as possible so no shinobi smart enough to pick up on their trail could find their hideout. It was an exhausting way to preserve one of the only places they could live for more than a couple of nights, but the idea of sacrificing it for the sole purpose of walking less was a notion stupid enough to make him snort. "Where?" Kisame asked, aware that his tantrum would get him nowhere when the decision was made.

"Iwagakure."

"What?!" Kisame slapped his forehead, "we have to go all the way there?"

"Yes." Itachi blinked and tugged on the sleeve of his robe to secure the scroll trapped inside.

"What's the mission?" Kisame asked again, he will get no sympathy from his teammate.

"Apparently and not surprisingly enough, Iwagakure's economy isn't growing in the same amount their population is. It's the Tsuchikage's wish to expand the village territories up north."

Kisame bit with his molars, the movement all too noticeable on his jaw, "that's fucking convenient, isn't it?"

Itachi understood his partner's distaste for the Tsuchikage. It wasn't the first time Akatsuki worked for him and not the first time they performed a mission of similar actions. It wasn't a secret how Iwagakure struggled on the economic aspect. During its first years of foundation, the village encouraged the reproduction of its population in order to grow the numbers in its ranks, but what began as a tactic to have more military power became a cultural aspect of its people. Consequently, as years passed, their numbers grew to a point where the income couldn't cover the costs of maintaining such a large community, and thus, they tried more and more to expand their territories as to both not overpopulate the village's capital and exploit the mines that were scattered around the country.

The first problem was, mines were exploited by the country's civilian-government to sustain their own bureaucracy and shinobi villages were supposed to self-maintain in order to stay independent enough to decide their own courses of action. If the Tsuchikage asked for help from the Earth Daimyo, then in retaliation he will have to give up that independence, which was out of question. The second problem was, mines were surrounded by civilians establishments that were in charge of exploring and extracting.

The Tsuchikage was not a stupid man, take over the mines will suppose a direct conflict with his country's governor, and while shinobi were usually stronger than common military forces, these were not to be underestimated. If the conflict lengthened long enough or caused significant damage, that would weaken the village enough for another shinobi-village to be tempted to attack. His preferred course of action was as simple as hire mercenaries strong enough to wipe off the civilians, pretend surprise and worry when the Earth Daimyo asked him to investigate the incident, and send a large group of shinobi to work in the mines and establish there to protect them from smugglers. They'll send a large portion to the Daimyo to prevent any suspicions, and will steal the rest.

"I guess it is," Itachi replied, shrugging.

"Why can't he send Deidara? He is from Iwa, he knows better than us the place."

"I don't think Iwa would appreciate us sending their own missing-nin."

"Fuck them," Kisame spat on the floor. "At least he could have sent Hidan and Kakuzu, they would love something like this," he said, "bet Hashin and Jeepers Creepers will be content enough."

Itachi pursed his lips, the prospect of innocent civilians dying at the hands of Hidan was not something he felt quite comfortable with, a quick, painless death would be fairer for them. Fairer, Itachi almost snorts. "Pein believes this to be a good opportunity for you to learn more about the Yonbi."

"I thought we already agreed that-"

"Kisame," Itachi interrupted him, the swordsman narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms, "we are going to do it."

"I know," Kisame bared his teeth, "I just don't like killing civilians. Ninja? Sure, civilians? Not really my cup of tea."

"Stop complaining." Itachi deadpanned and started to walk the opposite direction they were moving before.

"Right," Kisame mumbled, "I forgot you weren't exactly against killing innocent people either."

Itachi pretended not to hear him.

Chünin exams. Stage two. Forest of death

"I honestly can say, with a hand over my heart and a clean conscience, that I loathe children." She had purple hair and a sandy-colored coat, under it, a mesh bodysuit that practically forced him to look. Shikamaru blinked and watched her, the glimpses of bosom's skin enticed him, this woman was the first one that awoke his desire. Shikaku will laugh if told. Her coat swayed and she licked her lips, breeze carried her scent towards his nose, she smelled of nothing in particular. "To your right," her voice rose, it wasn't very lady-like, her attitude repelled his interest, "a group of shinobi will take your team information and hand you a scroll. Your job is to go through this forest and reach the tower located right in the middle of it with two scrolls, a heaven one and an earth one, but only one will be provided to you. If I'm making things difficult please feel free to ask."

"I…" a boy raised his hand.

"Out!" The woman pointed at the little boy with dark hair and big gray eyes, there was no explanation for her decision, the boy was dragged off the field. He still had the same expression of disbelief when leaving. "Anyone else?" The woman continued with a smirk on her lips, Shikamaru's desire was well in the past at this point. "You have three days to reach the tower, and every single team member must arrive, if you reach later than that stipulation or with one member less, you are disqualified. How you will reach the tower it's your problem, how you will get a scroll of the other type is also your problem. It's forbidden to open the scroll before you reach the tower, and pretty much nothing else. To your right. Now." And she just simply walked away, sinking her right hand on the pocket of her coat and grabbing a Dango that she was quick to consume, her teeth sank on the desert and Shikamaru watched.

"Next!" The man at the table called, gënins moved hastily to form a single line and the team in the front quickly moved towards the proctor sitting on the desk, making him wait for a second could probably throw them off the exam. In the meantime, Shikamaru glanced around, in his mind, he played once more what was asked of them. The woman, meshy bodysuit and awful attitude, had told them that they should reach the tower within three days and with two scrolls, a heaven one and an earth one -which scroll was given to a team meant something or was just random?-, and that they couldn't open those scrolls until they were inside the tower. Three rules, nothing else. Killing was permitted. Confrontations were assured.

He looked down the line, there, a red-haired boy was looking at the front, his arms crossed over his chest, expression neutral with a slight inclination to murderous, he tapped his foot impatiently, their eyes met for a brief second and Shikamaru's heart skipped a beat. He didn't like that boy, he could admit deep within himself that he was likely afraid of that boy, he was too smart to ignore his gut. Further down, he could recognize some of his old classmates, Hinata was nodding to something Kiba was saying, Naruto was nudging Sasuke for some reason while Sakura tried to push him away. From what he could remember, none of them presented a big threat except Sasuke and Shino, no member of team 10 will get a victory against one of the two.

"Next!" The shinobi called and the team in front of them moved.

Shikamaru shook his head and looked around the forest this time, he had heard about this place, he even went as far as trying to enter it once when he was a kid, but Shikaku had been quick to stop him and Chöji from putting a foot on it. He categorically forbade them to enter, and here he was, about to run through it for Konoha's benefit. Still, the place, while ghostly familiar, looked foreign. The borders weren't marked with barbed wire as he remembered being, instead, a gray wall stood as high as a tree, doors with numbers on top were displayed all over the construction.

"I'm sorry," he heard the girl of the team in front of them ask politely to the shinobi, "what did you say our gate was?"

"Oh," the shinobi smiled at her, "Don't worry, I'll have a friend of mine escort you," he said with a flick of his wrist, and one of those ninjas with masks and black bodysuits jumped down, pointedly making them move aside. They disappeared from his line of sight. Shikamaru noticed that they weren't walking towards any door. "Next!"

"Team Asuma from Konoha," Ino was quick to talk, which wasn't an actual surprise, her body close to the table but not resting in any part of it, she was looking at the list the man kept on the desk, not at his face.

"You think you can do a better job?" The man purred, moving the sheet of paper, Ino shook her head and looked at him instead, cheeks slightly pink, the man smirked.

"No, sir," she replied simply.

"Here you are. Asuma's brats. Gate five, here's your scroll," he said, and paused for a moment, studying something in the sheet of paper he possessed. A smirk reached his -too- red lips, stretching his covered in acne marks skin, and with the tip of the scroll he patted Ino in the shoulder to make her move aside. When, to her surprise, she stumbled to the right without uttering a word, the man stood from his table and stretched even further, pointing at Shikamaru with the scroll. "There you go," he said, and Shikamaru grabbed what was being offered to him out of reflex. Ino's eyes followed the movements the action entailed with a slight furrow of her eyebrows, and then slowly, pointedly, looked at the man. "Yes?" He smiled at her widely now, as if he did nothing on purpose, but she just blinked, her face reddening, and walked away.

Great. Fucking fantastic.

"Ino?" Chöji called after her while the man yelled in the distance for the other group to approach him.

"Gate five," was her sole response, not acknowledging them further, walking faster to their assigned door.

"Ino," Chöji tried again.

"It's fine," she groaned.

"Listen, Ino, he was just trying to make you snap at him to disqualify you-" Shikamaru tried to explain, "you saw he was reading something in that sheet of paper."

"Oh really?" Ino turned, still red, her eyes big, shiny, of course it would be his voice that set her off, "last time I checked, the scroll is given to the team leader, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised-"

"You're reading too much into this!" Shikamaru replied with a groan, "it's just a scroll, it's not even a mission scroll-"

"Oh, now I'm the one reading too much into things, am I not?" She hissed, her jaw clenching, "it is a mission scroll because exam or not, we are on a mission!"

"This is just an exam they're forcing us to take! We shouldn't even be here, I don't even want to be here!"

"See?! You didn't even want this, you didn't even want to be here, but oh, the great Shikamaru Nara just bats his eyelashes and everyone just follows him, everyone just assumes he's the one in charge, and they push me -literally- aside."

Shikamaru almost laughs at the absurdity of it all because that's exactly what he thinks of her, pretty little Ino just moves her hair and people will just come crashing down to fulfill her wishes. This was not the time to be having this conversation, Shikamaru knew that they were things for them to scream at each other, he knew that at some point Ino would just snap no matter how much he tiptoed around her. Furthermore, some parts of him even wanted the confrontation, he wanted to ask her what the fuck was her problem, but this wasn't the time. "Ino just take the responsibility! Just take it! I really don't care, I don't want to be the team leader-"

"-that doesn't mean you are not, apparently everyone thinks you should, your dad is."

"You're bringing my dad into this?" Shikamaru blinked with barely contained anger, almost spatting on the floor to show his disdain at her words, how dare she? "What does that even have to do with any of this? That's our dads' problem. Do you want to be the team leader? Then behave like a fucking leader, a great way to start is by not letting yourself be all worked up by a stupid thing." He didn't particularly scream, but hell, by that point he could have been.

"Right," Ino roared, "because being worked up by a stupid thing is what stupids do, and I'm such a stupid girl, isn't it Shikamaru?"

"Ino just-"

"You haven't let go of the scroll, by the way."

She turned and her ponytail almost hit him on the face, he saw her walk away, her shadow moving under her in the grass. It was noon. He looked down, and true to her words, he kept the scroll firmly grasped between his hands, the thought of simply giving it to her hadn't even crossed his mind. At the distance, he heard a laugh and when he turned his head to look, there she was, the purple-haired woman was watching them, laughing and eating dangos.

The sentiment had warmed his way up to his neck and arms from the pit of his stomach, reaching his eyebrows and turning them into a scowl, he was a calmed man to the core of his nature, and in a weird way, it made sense that the people who he was supposed to be closest to, pushed him to the point of collapse. Chöji was done. Both of his teammates tended to forget that he was as much part of this group as they were, his name was also carved in their shared stone, and generation after generation of his family had served Konoha alongside both their ancestors.

He thought his cowardness was the biggest obstacle he will have to surpass in order to bring something to the group, but there was no group for him to bring something at all, it was a hard truth that he tried to ignore for as much as he could, for accepting it as a fact will undoubtedly push him to his knees.

Shikamaru was a selfish boy and he will grow up to be a selfish man, Chöji loved him still despite the cracked bones of his best friend's personality, he understood his flaws and grew attached to them because Shikamaru's selfishness meant that he will always protect and be there for him because Chöji was Shikamaru's best friend -a possession, that Shikamaru will never let go and was reluctant to set completely free, and that suited Chöji's aspirations just fine. But Ino did not belong inside their symmetry, their relationship was a drawn line between the two, and Ino arrived to twist their bond into a shape that wasn't a perfect line anymore, her stubbornness made her dig her nails onto her position of the outsider because she wanted to be above them and Shikamaru helped her feel as alone as she was because he didn't want her there either.

A selfish boy and a stubborn girl could never reach a point of understanding because one of them would have to give up in order to advance, and it wasn't in their pores to sacrifice a part within themselves if it meant for the other to win something in return.

He had tried to give them space, he had tried to slightly push Shikamaru to seek for a medium ground and he had tried to reach for her. And while an improvement was barely grasped, since at least Ino didn't look at them with as much disgust as she used to, it quickly smashed itself under the weight of both of their flaws. No one was actually trying except him and none of them thought, for a moment, how much weight his shoulders carried.

"Don't you dare to cross that gate until we told you to," the purple-haired woman sang across the field, he watched the letter V above their gate with his brows still furrowed, adrenaline was running down his veins but it had still nowhere to go, he wanted -he never really wanted it, he never really craved for it, but here he was, wishing- to punch something, someone, he wanted to smash something so hard that this feeling would simply fly away from him through his fists, never to return.

"You okay pal?" Shikamaru asked him, his mouth twisting in discomfort, but he didn't reply to him, he couldn't bear the sight of him, of Ino, of both of them.

"GO!" There came the shout and there came the sound of a battle-horn and he pushed -broke, the gates with enough force to send them flying away, he ran into the maze, mist obscuring his view, his legs begged him to move, to jump, to move, to sprint and he complied.

"Chöji wait!" He heard Ino calling him in the distance but he wanted nothing but to be far, far away from them, from their natures of selfishness and stubbornness, from their arguments and this team. He ran without looking, he ran without thinking, he wasn't scared for the first time since he reached this place and it felt good, he wondered if his dad could see him now, could see him running without fear, without pause, without being on Shikamaru's shadow, without being overshone by Ino's ferocity, without being just the fat one of the group. He could be a clan leader, if his dad could see, he was sure he would think so too.

He tripped with something on the ground and came crashing down with a high-pitched scream, his face ended up covered with mud and his breaths became shallow. He looked at one of his wrists when he noticed he lacked strength, and saw it skinnier than he remembered. He had been wasting chakra, he had expulsed it out of his body without realizing he was doing it, he looked down, to where his ankle was trapped, but all he could see was white.

He twisted his head, everything was covered in a white veil and he couldn't see beyond his hand, mist, he almost slaps his forehead. He tried to free himself by moving but a shot of pain went through his leg, he patted his way towards his foot and felt something -a branch?- around his ankle, trapping him to the ground. "The fatty boy can't get up," someone said from somewhere around him but as much as he tried to look he couldn't place from where the sound came from, "the fatty boy can't get up." It came from behind him, from above him, from his right and his left, it came from everywhere and nowhere, "the fatty boy can't-"

"Shut up you asshole!" He replied and fear ran through his veins, oh what was he thinking, what was he thinking?! How could he run away like that? Now someone was here with him and he couldn't fight because he was trapped, he twisted his foot again, trying to free himself, he reached for the branch and fought hard to break it but the stupid thing wouldn't let go.

"The fatty boy. Can't. Get up." The voice said again, and Chöji's blood ran cold. It was a weird voice, a guttural sound, feral and metallic all at once. Chöji breathed and breathed and sweated and sweated and tried to set himself free.

"I don't have my scroll! I don't have it!" He said on the verge of panic, "my teammates aren't with me! Please!" He swallowed, "I don't have it!" There were footsteps, somewhere, everywhere, Chöji shivered from the cold and the humidity of the mist, for a moment he let himself believe that things could be fine and where did that get him-

"The fatty boy. Can't. Get up." Something -it wasn't human it couldn't be- repeated, and Chöji screamed.

A/N: Canonically, Ino was the only reason why Shikamaru and Chöji were even able to go through the first stage of the Chünin Exams (chapter 42 of the manga for those who want to read it for themselves) -she controlled Sakura in order to obtain the answers of the test (understanding the actual objective of the exam, something Sakura and Naruto -and perhaps Hinata weren't able to do), and later on controlled both Shikamaru and Chöji to copy the answers in their tests. I changed that particular part because it suited the dynamic I made for them, but it's to be noted the importance of Ino in their team -without her, and it's established from the beginning, they're quite literally screwed.