Let's start this from the beginning

Grand Assembly

- Part 2 -

"Deceptions and Truths"

III

Unfortunately, Naruto did not get to vent his anger before the ground around not only them, but the three Kumo-nins as well explosively rose into the air, the earth turning more and more into sand the higher it got as it surrounded them completely.

A second later, it came all crashing down, trying to bury them alive.

The moment the sand rose around them, Sakura knew that there wasn't anything she could do to defend herself against this attack. Even as her mind began to work on finding a solution, blocking out her teammates' startled gasps and the Kumo-nins exclamations as it considered the one offensive water technique she knew, explosion tags, and anything else that might somehow come in handy, her guts told her that it would ultimately be for nought.

Maybe it was the stress of the exams catching up with her, maybe she just wasn't cut for being a kunoichi after all, or maybe it was because she could actually feel the intense, almost sinister chakra powering the technique that rivalled Naruto's in strength, but whatever the reason, inwardly, she had, much to her shame, already given up.

Then yet another surge of powerful chakra flared up from behind her, and Sakura had less than a second to realize that it belonged to the Kumo-nins' leader–Kurisu, she believed was her name–before lightning flashed above her head, momentarily blinding her with its bright light.

She opened her eyes moments later just in time to see the last vestiges of the first attack harmlessly crumble to the ground in the form of splintered glass.

The entire thing, from the sudden appearance of the sand to its demolition, had taken less than three seconds, but to Sakura, it had felt like half an eternity, and as she looked around, it was almost like awakening from a trance.

"What the…"

At his words, she looked towards Sasuke, hands raised as if he had been about to use some kind of technique, before turning to her right to find Naruto in a similar state. Judging by their wide eyes, neither was in a much better state than her–and wasn't that a relief? If they had been caught off-guard and shocked to their cores by this surprise attack as well, maybe she wasn't a failure after all!

She didn't have very long to be happy about this, however, nor could she look around further to see what the Kumo-nins' reaction was, as it was then that the source of the attack made itself known.

Whirling her head around, she immediately spotted the red-haired boy with a gourd on his back, calmly standing there with his arms crossed and an expressionless look on his face as if he had been there all along instead of having just appeared out of literally thin air.

"Hey," Naruto said, "isn't that the boy from before?"

"He is," she replied with a small nod, brows furrowed in thoughts. This, she knew, wasn't good. Not good at all. Sakura had thought him terrifying the first time they had met him, his chakra making shivers run down her spine, but now that it was actually hostile and actively aimed at them, it was a hundred times worse! However, there was something more pressing about the situation. "But if he's here, then–"

"–then where are his siblings?" Sasuke finished for her before suddenly jumping around.

"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!" (Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique)

One of the Kumo-nins had just opened her mouth, most likely to demand answers from the newcomer, when Sasuke released his technique, momentarily drowning out everything else.

Much more importantly, it also destroyed the sway of needles flying towards them from the right.

Sakura didn't even think about throwing a bunch of kunai with attached explosion tags in the direction the attack had come from before she did it, and it was only when the explosions rang out a few moments later that she realized what she had just done.

Then, she was on the move again, instinctively following after Sasuke and Naruto as they jumped away to dodge another flock of needles flying at them from the exact opposite direction the last one had come from while being vaguely aware of another flash of lighting flaring up in the corner of her eye and the sound of a blade deflecting projectiles that were the result of the Kumo-nins coming under attack as well. She was so distracted by that, in fact, that she had barely enough time to whirl her head around before a third round of needles was upon them and–

"Fūton: Toppa!" (Wind Release: Breakthrough)

The projectiles were blown away by Naruto's technique just in time to protect her from being hit by them.

"We need to get away from here!" Sasuke said, his eyes pinched as he tried to find where their assailant was hiding. "If they want to fight this out, that's fine, but there's no reason for us to stick around!"

Sakura nodded firmly. My thoughts exactly!

She had honestly expected Naruto to argue against a retreat, especially with how fired up he had been earlier, but surprisingly, he nodded in agreement even though he didn't look happy about it.

Unfortunately, they didn't get the chance to turn their plan into reality before another attack nipped it in the bud.

The good news was that the cutting air currents weren't actually aimed at them and that they were only unlucky enough to be caught in its path. The bad news was that while this saved them from injuries, the shockwave was still enough to throw them backwards, right back into the heat of things.

Somehow, Sakura managed to land in a crouch instead of crashing with her back into the ground. She had unconsciously drawn a kunai into her hand, too, which was admittedly not much of an advantage in a fight on a scale liked this but managed to calm her nerves nevertheless.

Upon checking and thankfully noting that both Naruto and Sasuke had landed not far away from her and seemed fine as well, she quickly assessed the battlefield.

The two Kumo-nins she and Naruto had fought against earlier stood the furthest away, positioned back to back next to a tree trunk with their swords held out before them and much more tense than before. There was none of the cockiness to be found on the girl's face left either, and the boy now looked serious instead of merely focused.

The redhead boy had barely moved, standing only a few meters further to the left than earlier, and judging by the large crater in the ground where he had been before, that had probably not been a voluntary decision. Furthermore, there was a cocoon of sand half-formed around him, making it impossible to see most of his body.

Kurisu, on the other hand, was nowhere close to where she had been standing earlier, and gone was her carefully polite, but ultimately uncaring expression of disinterest. Instead, her violet eyes were narrowed in concentration and… was that excitement?

For a few seconds, the world stood still as nobody moved. Then, "You're strong. There are very few people capable of penetrating my defence, and until today, none of those strong enough was below the rank of Jōnin."

The boy's voice was flat, and it was nearly impossible to hear anything out of it, but Sakura thought she recognised something akin to anticipation. Are they both excited to fight a strong opponent? While Kurisu's chakra wasn't as strong as the boy's, it was still ridiculously massive, and the two of them–as well as Naruto, whose reserves were larger than either of theirs–actually dwarfed every adult she knew. I don't want to be anywhere close to them when they let loose!

Kurisu's lips twitched upwards. "Same goes for you," she said. "It has been quite some time since someone my age managed to keep up with me."

Next to Sakura, Sasuke bristled, and she almost felt bad enough to console him before she remembered that he wouldn't appreciate the gesture and that her statement wasn't even necessarily wrong considering the state he and Kurisu had been in after their fight earlier.

The redhead tilted his head in consideration. "So you're the strongest Genin Kumogakure has to offer, then?"

"Yes." No hesitation, no false modesty; as far as Kurisu was concerned, she was clearly stating nothing less than a fact. "I don't think I really have to ask, but for fairness' sake, I assume you're Suna's strongest as well?"

"I am." There was a short pause as the two gauged each other up, completely unaware–or rather, uncaring–of their audience before the boy continued, "My name is Sabaku no Gaara."

Kurisu didn't immediately respond, and if Sakura didn't know better, she would say the other girl almost looked uncertain for a second. The moment was over as soon as it had come, however, and when she finally replied, her grin grew so wide that it almost appeared feral:

"I'm Kurisu Uzumaki. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Next to her, Naruto stiffed. "Uzumaki…?" he muttered, taking an unconscious step forward before she and Sasuke grasped one of his arms each to stop him even though they were just as surprised as he was. Was it possible that Naruto actually had some family in Kumogakure of all places? Sakura did remember from her lessons at the Academy that the surviving Uzumaki had been scattered across the continent after the destruction of Uzushiogakure, of course, but if one had wanted to join a hidden village, wouldn't they have come to Konoha? After all, their two villages had been long-time allies at the time, had they not?

There was unfortunately no time to muse over that as it was then that things turned chaotic once again.

Kurisu flashed through hand seals in the blink of an eye while summoning a frightening amount of chakra. However, a second before she released a charge of lightning, her eyes suddenly glassed over before she turned around and aimed her attack at her own two teammates!

Gaara, who had already fallen into a crouch and started to manipulate his sand with a mere wave of his hands, stopped, visibly caught off-guard by the unexpected move and froze.

Later, Sakura would be convinced that in his surprise, he had not seen the powerful wind blades flying towards him from behind even though his sand had still moved up to protect him.

At the same time as all of this happened, smoke bombs of which she had no idea where they came from exploded all around them, turning the already low visibility in the dark forest into an absolute blind spot.

"Bubun Baika no Jutsu!" (Partial Multi-Size Technique)

Before Sakura or her teammates could react, the three of them were grabbed and pulled away.

Now, the three of them had of course been trained in how to react in such a situation. While it hadn't been a major part of their training–how often did it happen that you weren't only tied up but rendered immobilized by some kind of full-body bind?–by any means, it had been part of it. Every shinobi should know how to free themselves when captured, after all.

However, in light of their exhaustion both mentally and physically, the surprise after the most recent revelation, and the fact that their abductor let them go after just a second or two, Sakura thought it was excusable that they didn't manage to do anything before they were unceremoniously dropped in the dirt.

(Not that Kakashi-sensei would agree with that sentiment, mind you, but Sakura was honestly beyond caring what he might say right now. She could worry about that after they had survived this exam.)

"C'mon, guys, get up and run! We have to get outta here!"

It probably spoke volumes about just how unexpected the sight of the boy in front of them was that Sakura managed to be caught left-footed by it after all they had just gone through, but when she opened her mouth to ask what he was doing here, Naruto beat her to it:

"Chōji? What are you–"

"We have no time for questions! Shikamaru and Ino distract them for the moment, but that won't stop them for long! Just run!"

And with that, the boy she remembered from the academy but didn't think she had ever even interacted with turned around and followed his own advice without as much as a glance backwards.

She, Naruto, and Sasuke shared a short look. Then, she snapped her mouth shut, jumped to her feet, and rushed after Chōji without any further ado. Her teammates were right behind her.

Questions could come later. She wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth.

She didn't know how long they ran. What she did know, though, was that the sound of fighting quickly vanished in the distance. Not as in it just stopping from one moment to the next, but as in it becoming quieter and quieter until it disappeared completely, indicating that those Genin from Suna and Kumo hadn't put their differences aside to pursue them.

At least something seemed to work in their favour after all, then.

Not that this stopped their group from continuing to run as fast as they could, of course. They would have to be stupid to risk another confrontation after what just happened, even with Chōji's team as support.

Ino and Shikamaru joined them at some point without so much as a word, and while Sakura might have been annoyed by that any another time, she couldn't bring herself to care right now. Other than sharing a small smile that was honestly more of a grimace than anything else with Ino, she didn't acknowledge them either, and both Sasuke and Naruto followed suit.

However, they did have to stop at some point, and it wasn't until Shikamaru, who had silently taken the lead shortly after his arrival, announced that they were far enough away that she noticed just how tired she was.

Her legs felt like jelly, so she let herself sink to the ground while trying to even out her breath even as she brought her sensory skills to their limit by sheer force of habit–thankfully without results.

They had actually gotten away.

"I'm so glad this is over…"

Sakura didn't even realize she had said that out loud until Ino sank down to sit next to her and replied, "So am I, and we didn't even have to fight them! Seriously, that Kumo girl managed to throw me out of her head after barely a second, and the mental rebound was hard enough to make me nauseous! I haven't felt like that since I started training with my father when I was still a child!"

"And did you see the jutsu she and that boy with the sand threw around?" asked Chōji in an incredulous voice. "Man, don't understand me wrong, I'm glad we helped you out, but I never want to do that again."

Using that opening, Sakura grabbed Ino's hand with her own before giving her and the two boys of her team a grateful smile. "Thank you for your help. I don't know what we would have done without you."

Absently, she mused that she would probably have been too proud to admit something like this so openly without feeling even the slightest bit of shame about it just a few short years ago.

"Well," Ino said with a grin, "I would like to say it was no big deal 'cause we're all from the same village and all that, but honestly, you can be glad we're friends, because we sure as hell would not have done the same for just anyone."

"Ino!" Chōji exclaimed. "Don't say–"

"Ah, c'mon, you know I'm right! Don't pretend you would have done that for some older Konoha team we don't even know!"

Judging by the fact that he grimaced and looked away without refuting her words, Ino probably had a point.

Surprisingly, the next person to speak up was Sasuke:

"Regardless, Sakura is right. We would have been in trouble without your help. Dealing with one of those teams was one thing, but getting caught in-between two of them was a bit much."

Sakura thought he underplayed the danger of even just one of those two teams a bit too much, but in the end, she didn't really want to admit that to Ino and the others despite her genuine gratitude, and it was technically true that they had somehow managed to hold out until the Suna team joined the fray, so she stayed silent on the matter.

Pride was really a funny thing sometimes.

"How did you even end in that situation?" Shikamaru asked from where he was leaning against a nearby tree with his arms crossed. "I doubt you would have run into a fight of such proportions by accident, so I assume you were probably already fighting one of those teams before the second one arrived, right?" He sighed. "What are the odds of ending up fighting not only someone with ridiculously strong lightning techniques, but someone who has control over some kind of auto-reacting sand as well?"

Sakura frowned. "Auto-reacting sand?"

"Yeah," Shikamaru said with a wave of his hand. "I controlled that female teammate of his when she was about to use a wind technique to change her aim towards his back. I'm sure he didn't notice it at all, but his sand still moved to protect him.

"But how is that possible?"

"How would I know? It's probably some technique that makes the sand rise if anything approaches him at a certain speed. He might be a sensor, too, to make this possible. Never heard of something like that, but that's the only thing I can think of with the information I have right now." Then, he sighed. "Anyway, you didn't answer my question. How did you end in that situation in the first place?"

Sakura had already opened her mouth and was ready to explain that the Kumo-team had somehow managed to get past the precautions they had taken with Naruto's help to avoid getting ambushed when she noticed the absent look on her teammate's face, the sight making her mouth snap shut again. Then, after hesitating for a moment, she opened it again and addressed him instead:

"Naruto, are you alright?"

He blinked in surprise, looking startled for a moment, but then he composed himself and gave her a bright smile, looking for all the world as if nothing was wrong. "Ah, of course! Sorry, I was kinda distracted. That girl's name was really a surprise, eh? Totally caught me off-guard! Anyway, what was the question again?"

Under different circumstances, she might have pressed further because it was clear that he had been more than just a little surprised, but right now, she, and Sakura supposed Naruto as well, were far too tired to have that discussion. Later, she promised herself while trying not to feel as if she was simply looking for an excuse to put that surely to be emotionally exhausting conversation off a little while longer.

"Shikamaru wanted to know how we ended up in that situation," Sasuke explained before she had the chance to do so herself, having apparently come to the same conclusion as she did. Then, turning towards Team 10, he explained, "Basically, those Kumo-nins managed to sneak up on us even though we took precautions against that, and then those Suna-nins joined the fight a bit later. I assume they might have been following the team from Kumo for a while now, or maybe they were attracted by the sound of us fighting."

"So a double dose of bad luck, huh?" Shikamaru sighed. "How troublesome."

Naruto snorted. "Well, you came to help us, so we obviously had some seriously good luck as well!"

"Be that as it may be, there is something else I would like to clear up as well. You guys already have both scrolls, right?"

Sakura tensed, and from the corner of her eye, she saw Naruto and Sasuke do the same. If Shikamaru and the others decided to attack them now, they would be in deep trouble…

However, Shikamaru raised his hands in mock surrender, only the small smirk on his face betraying his true throughs. "Hey, don't stress out now. I only wanted to confirm it. We haven't found a second one yet ourselves, so if you had been in the same boat, we could have teamed up. That would have certainly made things easier for me– for us, I mean. We don't want to fight, so just let's split up now and each be on our way."

"Sounds good to me," Sasuke was quick to agree, not relaxing in the slightest. "Let's do that."

"Ah, c'mon, but we just met!" Naruto whined.

"Naruto…"

"Yeah, yeah, I know. I'm just joking. Relax."

Ignoring the boys, Ino turned to her and squeezed her hand one more time before getting up. "Be careful, yes? There will probably be teams waiting at the tower to steal scrolls from approaching teams, maybe even one of those two we have just fought. We won't be able to save you a second time, you know."

Sakura rose back to her feet as well, no matter how reluctantly she felt at doing so. "Right back at you. Don't get picked up in an ambush or anything like that. I expect that you join us at the tower soon, you hear me?"

"Heh, you bet!"

There was a short, awkward silence after that, the boys having said their goodbyes as well, but then, as if on some silent command, all six of them jumped into two different directions, slower than during their escape earlier but still fast enough to make her legs protest underneath her.

Here's hoping that things will get better from here...

"Do you think they will be alright?"

Shikamaru almost sighed at Chōji's question, but he managed to restrain himself for his friend's sake. It wouldn't do to be dismissive when the other boy was so obviously worried.

"They will be fine. It's unlikely that there are many other teams as strong as those we just got away from, and the tower shouldn't be very far from here. Even if there are already teams waiting to ambush them, those three should be able to smash right through them and get into the building instead of facing them head-on."

"They better!" Ino said a tad louder than he would have liked. "It would be a shame if they failed after we risked ourselves to save them! I swear, I will never let Sakura forget about it if they fail after all our hard work!"

Shikamaru didn't bother replying to that. Frankly, he was more worried about their own chances than those of Team 7. If they were as smart as they were strong, those Genin from Kumo and Suna would realize that fighting each other wasn't worth the risk when there were much easier targets elsewhere, meaning both of them were still in the running and therefore possible enemies they might have to face at some point.

He didn't think they would get away a second time if they ran into one of them, especially not without the advantage of surprise on their side, and that didn't even begin to address the fact that there were still numerous other teams whose abilities he didn't know spread throughout the forest as well.

This is not even just troublesome anymore, he thought surly. I knew I should have let us be disqualified at the first exam, dammit.

Unfortunately, he couldn't regret his past decision any further, for it was then that Ino let out a scream behind him that fell silent just as quickly as it had come.

Shikamaru didn't even have time to fully turn around before something hit him in the neck, and the last thing he saw before he fell unconsciously were half a dozen people standing over the limp bodies of Ino and Chōji.

"Where did all those people come from all of the sudden?!"

"Cease your whining, Kiba," Shino told him stiffly as they jumped from branch to branch, for once forgoing subtle rebukes and sarcastic replies in favour of a blunt reprimand. "Rather try to focus on finding an escape route."

He felt a snide reply burning in his throat, but in the end, Kiba bit his cheeks and held his tongue–which had nothing to do with the fact that he could feel Hinata's gaze on his back, nothing at all. As creepy as he still found it that she could make her attention be known even though she had her Byakugan activated and therefore her pupilless eyes focused on something else, and as much as he had to admit that it was an effective way to make someone shut up, he had grown used enough to it by now to ignore it for the most part. No, as much as he hated to say this, Shino was right. Now was neither the time to complain, nor to stand their ground and fight. Not when the situation was so much in favour of their enemies.

As if summoned by his thoughts, a torrent of flames came suddenly rushing towards them, and it was only Hinata's shouted warning half a second earlier that allowed them to scatter in time to dodge it. Thanks to that, the three of them managed to stay with each other instead of being split apart.

That wasn't the end of it yet, though.

"At six and nine o'clock, one person each!" Hinata shouted, making Shino and Kiba immediately jump around.

While Shino took care of the pursuer from behind that had come close enough to earn Hinata's attention, Kiba turned to the right while simultaneously clasping his hands into seals.

"Doton: Yomi Numa!" (Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld)

He had detected the enemy's scent among the many others all around them as soon as he had turned around and focused on that direction, so it was all too easy to predict where exactly they would come from and prepare accordingly. Consequently, the boy that appeared on the ground below had no opportunity to do more than let out a surprised scream as his next step took him directly into Kiba's newly created swamp.

It was a bit more chakra intensive than he would have liked to active the technique by letting his chakra first flow through the tree he stood on before it reached the ground where he wanted it to be, but as he had kept the affected area relatively small, it was manageable.

He didn't bother to do more than glance at his victim as Akamaru jumped towards the boy and snatched the scroll peeking out from inside his coat before using the boy's face as a springboard to get back to Kiba's side. Similarly, he didn't look back when he heard several small explosions behind them where Shino had taken care of their other pursuer. Instead, he focused on their right where three shadows scattered to escape one of Hinata's Vacuum Palms, creating an opening for them to escape through.

The three of them didn't need to communicate with each other before they simultaneously rushed in that direction.

As successful as their quick defence and escape had been, however, it didn't do anything but make Kiba frown even more.

Things would be different if that attack had been a singular occurrence, but that wasn't the case. Rather, short encounters like this had been happening for about half an hour now, with them being over too quickly to let them take out their enemies for good. They were only delaying the inevitable. Not like we could take them out even if we tried to, he angrily thought to himself. Not when their allies are only a few steps behind and ready to join the fight if we let ourselves be bogged down.

Things had started relatively tame. At first, Kiba had simply noticed a bunch of scents at the edge of his senses during his guard shift as they had camped in a hidden tree crown where they had decided to wait until the Iwa team stopped blocking the path to the central building. Waking Hinata to take a closer look had then revealed a normal team of three from Takigakure moving towards their general position at a casual pace that indicated they were probably not aware of them, so after a short discussion, they had decided to simply move deeper into the undergrowth to hide and let them pass without being any the wiser. It just wasn't worth attracting attention and getting into another fight when they already had both scrolls they needed.

However, another team appeared at the edge of Hinata's sight shortly after from the opposite direction, this time one from Iwagakure, and they also moved towards their general position. Those two were then followed by a third and even a fourth team. At that point, the three of them realized what was going on and immediately began their escape.

It was quite frankly ridiculous. Hinata, Shino, and he all possessed very potent sensory skills. It should be all but impossible to sneak up on them or lure them into a trap. And yet, somehow, those teams had managed to not only find them but surround them as well, all the while staying just outside their range in turn. The only possible explanation he could think of was that they must have at least one actual sensor type with them whose abilities eclipsed theirs, and didn't that realization sting?

Even worse, the fact that those four enemy teams were clearly allied with each other meant that they were outnumbered twelve to three–not exactly the odds you want to face in a fight.

It had become clear very quickly that their best hope to get out of this situation was to rush towards the central building and finish this exam before they could get caught. Of course, this might end terribly if the path was still blocked–by a team from the same village as half their pursuers, no less–as that would only increase the number of enemies even further, but with this being the only thing they could realistically do, they had to take their chances.

Also, they might potentially be able to rush past them before they could react if they were fast enough. If they were indeed still there, that was.

In the end, they never got close enough to the tower to try.

Next to him, Hinata came to an abrupt stop. "One team is preparing a trap ahead of us," she said, and although her voice was steady, Kiba could hear the anxiety he himself felt underneath all his anger in it.

"What about our flanks?" Shino asked.

"There are four enemies on each side."

"And–"

"The one behind us seems to be the strongest of them all, and he has two summons–some kind of moles, I think, although they look a bit off–with him that are at least as strong as the other Genin."

They didn't have much time before their pursuer would reach them. The other enemies were a bit further away, Kiba thought judging by their scents, but they wouldn't need long to reach them as well once the fighting started. However, they still fell silent for a second as the reality of the situation sat in.

"So," he said while simultaneously reaching into his pouch, "what do you say about trying to take out their strongest before help arrives?"

Shino nodded, and only the slight tightening of his grip on his staff gave away his own nerves. "We will proceed with formation four, so you will take point, Kiba."

He grinned, trying to appear confident as much for the sake of his teammates as for his own. "Yeah, got it!"

"The fighting will get very chaotic when his allies arrive," Hinata added softly. "There might be an opening to reassume our escape mid-fighting."

He and Shino nodded at that. Then, on an unspoken signal, the three of them began rushing in the direction they had come from, and as they did that, Kiba took a pill out of his pouch and threw it into the air where Akamaru caught it in his maw.

"Jūjin Bunshin!" (Beast Human Clone)

Akamaru turned into a perfect copy of him mere seconds before their opponent came into view.

He was a boy a few years older than himself with a tall and lanky stature that made him look everything but threatening and a bland face that you would take one look at before moving on with your life and forgetting all about it. Overall, he was not someone Kiba would have taken seriously were it not for the potent chakra he could literally smell in the air emitting from him.

That, and the fact that he was according to Hinata's report not only their strongest enemy, but also valued enough by his village to be trusted with a summoning contract. Kiba knew one didn't get their hands on something like that without the strength to back such trust up, which wasn't good for them.

None of these things stopped Kiba from rushing at him headfirst, though.

A rush of air above his head told him that Akamaru had jumped into action as well, and a moment later, the ninken smashed into the crossed arms of their opponent with a Tsūga that pushed him several feet backwards.

The fact that it didn't do any apparent harm was his first hint that things wouldn't go as smoothly as he had secretly hoped.

Kiba would have liked to join his partner in their clan's traditional attack, but alas, he had another job to do. Namely, protecting Akamaru and making sure their opponent would be in position for his teammates' attacks. The first of those things he did by hardening his skin with his Earth Spear technique and throwing a punch at the empty space between Akamaru and the ground a mere second before the earth exploded, revealing a mole-like creature half his own size whose claws were aimed straight at the ninken above it.

His fist connected with its body before it could achieve its goal.

There were no signs that his attack had hurt it, however, and all he saw when their eyes met for a split-second was annoyance.

That was his second hint that things wouldn't work out as well as he had hoped.

Regardless, the plan seemed to work for the moment; just as Akamaru jumped out of the way, the mole crashed into its partner before he could use the opportunity to counterattack, thus not only making him stumble and defenceless but also putting two of their enemies to the same spot. Now it was Shino's turn to–

The third and final hint– no, proof that things were about to become FUBAR was that Shino never got the chance to do his part because the second mole, the one whose presence Kiba could have sworn he still felt underground a few meters to his left only to suddenly realize that it had vanished from one moment to the next, had emerged from the tree branch Shino had been standing on and caught him by surprise.

Even from afar, Kiba's senses were good enough to hear the boy's pained gasp as the beast's claws ripped through his clothes and into the flesh of his left arm.

The scent of blood in the air was impossible to miss.

Kiba resisted the urge to jump to his friend's side, noticing from the corner of his eye that Hinata was already heading towards the other boy and knowing someone had to keep the enemy Genin away from them.

Speaking of which, the Iwa-nin and his summon were already rushing at him again, the former now holding a kunai in one hand.

"C'mon, Akamaru," he shouted, knowing he wouldn't have to explain what he was planning. "Gatsūga!"

The two rushed at their approaching foes as one. The other Genin and his summon prepared themselves in turn, and Kiba noticed that something unsaid passed between them that spoke of a partnership not unlike his own with Akamaru, but it mattered little. In fact, as the mole rushed back into the supposed safety of the underground, he even allowed himself a satisfied smirk. This makes things much easier.

They waited until they had almost reached their opponent before suddenly swaying upwards, away from their previous target. Simultaneously, nearly two dozen kunai with attached paper and smoke bombs flew in every direction.

Their opponent had barely enough time to stop in his tracks and raise his arms before everything around him exploded.

The mole was even less lucky. Kiba had clearly felt the animal disperse, so there was at least one less enemy to worry about.

Whatever satisfaction he had felt at that revelation faded when the dust settled and he saw the vaguely human-looking remains of an Earth Clone. It was probably a good thing that the shuriken coming at them from above forced him and Akamaru to retreat before he could let that failure get to him.

When he landed on the ground a moment later, Hinata and Shino appeared at his side. He assumed the lack of a pursuer meant the second mole had been dealt with as well. Not that this did much to improve his mood, mind you, considering Shino's state. While not crippling deep, the cut on his left arm was grave enough to guarantee he wouldn't be able to use the limb and, consequently, his staff in the upcoming fight. That was a problem, not the least because things would become much uglier from here on. He didn't need Hinata or Shino to tell him was his nose had already told him, after all:

They were about to get even more company any moment now.

"Plan B, then?" he asked under his breath.

Two nods were all the answer he got, and almost immediately after, the undergrowth all around them exploded as more enemies arrived at the scene.

Knowing better than to allow their enemies to bog them down, the three of them moved towards the Genin leading the attack in front of them. In her defence, the girl in question reacted quickly by positioning her sword in front of her in a protective stance. Unfortunately for her, however, that alone wouldn't help. Such tactics meant little when her opponent was Shino. Shortly before his fist would make contact, the Aburame swayed sideways to avoid her entirely while Kiba and Hinata followed suit, leaving behind a swarm of Kikaichū that enveloped her completely.

The three of them ignored her screams as they rushed past her towards their next opponents, not even looking back when a wind technique blew Shino's insect away from the hysterical girl before they could do any real damage.

Unlike their first victim, who had apparently rushed ahead from the rest of her group, the other three Genin who had approached them from that direction had remained together.

This time, it was Hinata who started things off with her Spider Web technique that made surges of paralysing electricity spread across the ground and caught the sole girl of the team before she could follow her teammates into the supposed safety of the air.

'Supposed safety', because Kiba and Akamaru were already rushing at them with two respective Tsūga attacks while Hinata and Shino took care of the earthbound girl.

Neither he nor his ninken had time to react when something shiny flew past the two mid-air Genin from behind and pushed itself between them and their attacks. A loud 'ding' clang out as he and Akamaru crashed into whatever it was that had protected their opponents, and after a few moments of fruitless pushing against it, the two of them simultaneously decided to retreat back to their teammates.

It was only then that Kiba recognized the substance as some kind of shield made of metal. Only, it didn't behave like normal metal, and all he could do was watch in surprise as it began to move in the air like liquid before floating back towards a masked figure standing a bit further away.

A Kekkei Genkai? he thought, feeling somewhere between incredulous and panicked. It's either that or some kind of secret clan technique I never heard of. Damn, why do they have someone like that as well?!

He couldn't curse their fate for long before he landed next to his teammates who hadn't been able to beat the girl either before help had arrived in form of two more enemies. No, he had other things to worry about.

Namely, the five further enemies who were closing in from behind.

Shino was the quickest to react, turning around and rising both his arms even though he visibly struggled to do so with his injured one to weave hand seals:

"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!" (Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique)

The resulting fireball was massive. It was larger than anything he had seen Itachi-sensei do, in fact, and if Shino hadn't explained some of his new tricks to them ahead of the exams, Kiba would have been completely clueless as to how he had managed something of that size.

As it was, it was enough to startle the approaching opponents and make them jump away. Two managed to escape completely unscratched while two others suffered only minor burns that were little more than annoyances, but one unlucky fellow who was just a tad too slow screamed in pain as the right half of his body was caught by the flames. Kiba thought it unlikely that he would be able to participate any further in the fight.

However, much more important than all of that was that Shino's attack had created an opening. And not only that, but it was also in the right direction to the central building, making it the perfect escape route.

That unfortunately turned out to be nothing but wishful thinking as they didn't manage to get far before an earth technique forced them to aboard their latest escape attempt. Under different circumstances, they would have been able to take the trees and continue from there, but with so many enemies to contend with, it was only natural that it wouldn't stay at only one attack.

The combo of a wind and fire technique flying towards them in mid-air proved that. The only saving grace was that Hinata was positioned between them and the attack, as her Rotation technique was powerful enough to block it. Unfortunately, this meant they had no other choice than to fall back to the ground where three enemies were already awaiting them as Hinata couldn't simultaneously block and move.

Akamaru had pushed off from Kiba to get ahead of their falling forms, his Tsūga creating enough space for the tree of them to land safely instead of falling into their enemies' waiting hands. It brought just enough time for Shino, who was attacked first, to raise his good arm to block a kick aimed at his chest. Kiba would have liked to help him, but the other two Genin were focusing on him, so all he could do right now was trust his teammate.

Hardening his skin once again with his Earth Spear technique, he allowed one punch to fly past his defence and hit him harmlessly in the chest. Grabbing the outstretched limb with both hands, he used the surprise caused by his unexpected action to step forward and ram his shoulder against the second boy, briefly stunning him.

Simultaneously, Hinata used the opportunity from where she had been waiting between him and Shino to quickly duck under Kiba's arms and use her Gentle Fist to neutralize the opponent whose arm he had still been holding. He didn't hesitate either, allowing himself a small grin as he pulled at the now-limp arm to throw the Genin towards his teammate.

Unfortunately, the boy reacted in time and ducked to let the body fly over him. He didn't leave it at that, though, and in a smooth motion twisted around and tried to pull their legs out from under them.

Kiba and Hinata were quick enough to step backwards and avoid that, but by an unfortunate chain of events, it was then that Akamaru fell back to the ground after having jumped to block an incoming kunai and landed exactly in the trajectory of the kick.

Kiba's eyes widened as his partner was kicked away with a yelp. "Akamaru!" he shouted, briefly forgetting everything around him, and that was all it took for an attack to hit him. It was pure instincts that made him raise his arms and activate his Earth Spear technique when a metallic hammer formed in the air next to him, but even that didn't stop the impact of it to feel like a thousand blows at once or the wind from being knocked out of his lungs.

Worse, it made him crash first into Hinata and then Shino as well, throwing all three of them backwards until the hard bark of one of those gigantic trees brought them to an abrupt and painful halt.

They somehow managed to immediately jump back to their feet, but it was only thanks to Hinata pulling him at his sleeves that Kiba managed to avoid the follow-up attack.

Things didn't get better from there, and while they somehow managed to hold out for the moment, Kiba could admit to himself that they would eventually lose as things were now.

Their surprise counterattack might have caught their enemies off-guard for a bit, and the brief timespan in which those Taki and Iwa-nins had just arrived had been chaotic enough for them to take advantage of it, but the moment was over. They hadn't managed to escape early into the fight and consequently gave their enemies enough time to properly coordinate. The only reason they hadn't been overwhelmed yet was that the other group was playing it safe. They knew they had every advantage and would rather wait till they had tired themselves out instead of risking more injuries in a senseless attack.

Well, that and the fact that this group was clearly not used to fighting together. Oh, they were good enough to not get into each other's way, but it was obvious that this group actually consisted of several Genin cells who had probably never much interacted before the exams. Considering the teams were split fifty-fifty between members from two different villages, allies or not, that made a lot of sense.

Nevertheless, there was no doubt that their strategy would eventually work out. Kiba and his team simply couldn't outlast so many enemies in an open fight, and as things stood, they were too busy defending themselves to escape as they had planned.

And he knew that Hinata and Shino knew that, too. He saw it in the tightening of their eyes and increasing franticness in their movements. It was the same thing they saw in him, he was sure, and it was this that convinced him that they were likely considering doing the same thing he did.

After all, this was exactly the kind of situation that warranted the use of one's trump card, wasn't it?

If they wanted to avoid losing, they needed to create an opening, and to do that, they needed to catch their opponents by surprise. No standard move would be able to pull that off. A team technique might do the trick, but they were too busy just staying in the fight to pull something like that off right now. Therefore, it needed to be something one of them could do by themselves.

The obvious problem and likely reason for why none of them had used their trump cards yet–and Kiba knew that his teammates had something like that up their sleeves as well, even if neither had said anything–were the drawbacks.

Trump cards always had some kind of drawback.

But in the end, weren't trump cards there specifically to be used when there was no other option? When their drawbacks were the smaller evil?

Shino was hurt and steadily getting weaker, his wound still bleeding, making Kiba unwilling to risk putting even more strain on his friend. Hinata, on the other hand, was probably in the best condition of them all, but considering she hadn't used her ace yet even though she must have come to the same conclusion as he, Kiba really didn't like the thought of what consequences it would have if she did.

That left only him.

Akamaru still hadn't returned to his side, and while he could feel his friend's chakra pulsing in the distance, he couldn't expect his help any time soon. Thus, their Double-Headed Wolf technique wasn't an option. That, in turn, really left him with only one option.

Almost against his will, his face contorted into a grimace. Man, this sucks. I even promised Nee-san not to use this yet without her supervision. He ignored the pang in his chest at the thought of what his mother would have to say when she inevitably found out about this. She didn't even know that he and Hana had been practising this technique! Well, here goes nothing…

As soon as the opportunity presented itself, Kiba took a step back from the fray, pulled a red pill from a hidden pocket in his pouch, and popped it into his mouth before clasping his hands in front of him, ignoring the sudden surge of chakra coursing through his veins that quickly went from mildly uncomfortable to extraordinarily painful:

"Jūjin Henge: Horkew Retara Kamuy!" (Human Beast Transformation: White Wolf God)

A very belated Happy New Year, everyone!

This chapter took me a while eh? There's admittedly no good reason for that. I just realised that I got way too carried away planning this arc ages ago because there were a lot of scenes in my notes that were ultimately unnecessary and would only drag out the arc. Revising my plans wasn't too hard if I'm honest, but I procrastinated forever because, well... it's a pain. It's as simple as that. Anyone who's ever had to (almost) completely rewrite something that was technically already finished knows how annoying that can be. But now that I'm done with it, things will hopefully go more smoothly from here on out.

On that note: sorry, but not sorry for the long delay! Don't forget to comment if you enjoyed the chapter!