Objective: pursue

"Test: start!"

As the smoke dissipated, Naruto and Sakura were both coughing from the unexpected assault on their lungs. Sasuke, having reacted faster than the other two, had managed to cover his mouth and nose with his sleeve and didn't breathe in much of the thick cloud. Needing no time to recover, he quickly looked around. As expected, Tanya was nowhere to be seen. The clearing wasn't small, and despite the fact that they were standing more or less in the center of it, a few seconds had been all the young Jōnin had needed to retreat into the forest.

"Damn it! I'll get you!" Naruto screamed next to him and ran straight ahead into the woods, causing Sasuke to roll his eyes at the idiot. Just because Tanya had stood in front of them didn't mean that she had retreated backward. None of them had been able to see anything, so she could've gone in any direction. Carefully scanning his surroundings, he looked for any traces she might have left behind.

He could see where she had stood, but nothing about the spot gave off any hints of direction. She certainly knew how to mask her trail, but it was hard to leave absolutely nothing behind. It had just taken her a few seconds to leave the clearing, and movement this fast would create an air current. While he assumed that whatever she had done had reduced her air resistance, it was unlikely that she had erased it completely. And indeed, careful observation showed that the majority of the vestiges of the smoke cloud had been blown to the front-left of them. And since a weak wind was blowing eastward, that meant Tanya had moved to the northwest of the area.

"Um, Sasuke?"

Just as he was about to take chase, the other deadweight on his team called out for him.

"Wouldn't, uh, wouldn't we have better chances if we went after her together?"

As if. He needed to pass this test so he could continue to pursue his revenge. What was her weak-ass resolve going to contribute to that? Not to mention that they were obviously competing against each other since only two of them could pass.

"M-maybe we could try to pincer-"

"If you really want to help me," he cut her off, "don't stand in my way."

Not willing to waste any more time, he ran off into the forest as well. The problem was where to go from there. She could have gone left, right, or even straight ahead, since there was still quite a bit of forest to come before the fence.

Shit, I shouldn't have stopped to talk. Well, no point in crying over spilled milk.

He searched the vicinity for broken twigs, scratched bark, or anything like that. Unfortunately, after ten minutes of searching, he had to admit that the young Jōnin had been very careful in her escape. There was nothing that gave him any indicator as to where she might've gone. If he had his Sharingan, then he probably wouldn't have lost track of her. But alas, he hadn't managed to awaken it yet.

He did notice a tripwire though. Right, she only said she wouldn't actively fight, but she didn't say anything about traps.

"Gotcha!" he heard Naruto scream.

Are you kidding me? That idiot went straight ahead and somehow found her through dumb luck?!

He hurriedly followed his voice, hiding behind a tree trunk when he reached his destination. Tanya stood with her back towards him, facing his teammate. While it was annoying that Naruto had been the one to find her first, this situation wasn't all that bad. If he attacked her head-on, she would probably retreat in his direction where he could ambush her. So he just needed to not get spotted until that happened.

"You are quite loud," the girl noted. "You know that the point of an ambush is to surprise your opponent, right? Yet, the only surprising thing about you is your absolute lack of subtlety. Then again, what did I expect from someone who runs through a forest in bright orange colors."

"I'LL SHOW YOU WHO IS LACKING HERE!"

The blonde boy sprinted towards her, pulled back his fist, and threw his weight into a punch to the face. Tanya didn't even try to react. She simply stood there with her arms crossed, as if she was waiting to get hit. Shortly after, the attack connected.

…or not.

Rather than striking his target, Naruto's fist went right through her, causing the blonde to lose balance and nosedive into the ground.

"You certainly did," she said mockingly. "This time you demonstrated your lack of observation. Or just plain common sense. If I was trying to get away, why would I strike up a conversation with you?"

She turned around and hunkered down to him.

"Moron."

And with that, she disappeared.

So that was just a clone, Sasuke scoffed internally. But clones can't act by themselves. Since she reacted to him, the real one has to be close!

"DAMN IT!" he could hear Naruto voice his frustration. "DON'T THINK THIS IS OVER!"

He jumped to his feet and formed a hand sign that Sasuke didn't recognize. I certainly wasn't part of the standard twelve.

'TAJŪ KAGEBUSHIN NO JUTSU!'[Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu]

With a loud poof!, the entire area got enveloped in white smoke. As it disappeared, it revealed dozens, if not hundreds of Narutos on the ground and in the trees.

"ALRIGHT!" the original shouted. "LET'S GET HER!"

With that, the Narutos jumped off in any direction, leaving a stumped Sasuke behind. Was that really the same Naruto that, in the academy, hadn't even been able to create one single clone? And now, he had made countless with seemingly no effort? And that wasn't even the biggest surprise: somehow, these clones seemed to be no simple mirages. They acted on their own and also left trails behind. Meaning they were actual, physical beings.

Is that the 'shadow clone' technique she mentioned during the introduction? When did he learn to do that?!

Feeling left behind, Sakura stared at the spot where Sasuke had disappeared into the forest. He hadn't even considered working together. Sure, she wasn't particularly skilled in direct combat like he was, but surely she could've helped him in some way.

She took a deep breath. She couldn't allow herself to be disheartened by just that. If both she and Sasuke managed to become Genin, they would be a team and inevitably spend time together. She could worry about getting close to him then. For now, she needed to focus on getting a bell!

But how was she going to do that? Not only was her combat prowess fairly average, but the academy had never taught them anything about tracking.

Come on! her inner self shouted. You always were top of the class, if nothing else, you know how to use your brain!

While their opponent was a Jōnin, this was still a test. No matter how difficult, it was meant to be doable. There had to be a way she could get this done. With both the introduction and the breakfast, Tanya had always given them some clue hidden in her words. So what exactly had she said about this part of the test?

"I will move around the forest, and you will have to track me down before the time runs out."

… 'move around'. While there was quite a bit of forest surrounding the clearing, it still wasn't that much. Judging by the way they had taken to get here, she could probably get from the clearing to the fence in about two minutes. More than enough space to hide, but not so much if you were on the run. So she could've meant 'move around' literally: moving around the training area, circling the clearing.

A trap! Of course, if she moved in circles, there was no need to chase her! She could just prepare an ambush and wait for her to come by! With her newly found determination, she turned in a direction neither Sasuke nor Naruto had gone and also ran into the forest.

She chose a spot somewhat halfway between the clearing and the fence. Now, how exactly would she do this? One way would simply be to lay in wait until she came by, then jump out and try to grab a bell. The problem with this was that she couldn't cover much space. She would have to hope that her target came past exactly where she was.

The alternative was a trap. While she didn't have any real experience in elaborate trap building, the tools she had with her should at least allow her to do something simple. If she wanted the bells, she needed to restrain her, so something with the wire. She looked around for a while and reached an idea.

First, she took out her wire and cut off a large piece of it. She then tied one end through one of her shurikens. At one of the trees, she dug up a small hole, secured the shuriken between the roots, and buried it. After that, she took the wire and walked a few circles around the tree so it formed a noose with about two feet of space to the trunk in either direction and covered it with leaves. The other end of the wire got drawn to a group of bushes. Lastly, she places some particularly dry leaves in front of the noose.

With that, the trap was done. She just needed to pull the wire, and whoever stood close to the tree would end up tied to it. But that was just the first step. She needed to make sure Tanya would be close to the tree. She wasn't looking for anything, so there wasn't anything she could use as bait. But she also had an idea for that.

First, she walked a couple of dozen feet to the left of her trap, where she threw two shuriken into opposing trees and connected them with another piece of her wire. Next, she walked in the opposite direction, took out her scroll, opened it, and placed it on the ground. There weren't any seals on it, just normal writing, but she hoped someone who rushed by quickly wouldn't realize that.

Once everything was set up, she laid herself in the bushes, making sure she was completely covered. The tripwire and scroll were supposed to look like clumsy attempts of a trap. If Tanya would pass by, she would surely see the dupes and try to avoid them, falling for the actual trap. That was at least Sakura's theory. There was a myriad of things that could go wrong with this, but it was the only idea she had. And again, this exam was meant to be passable, right?

She was lying in the bushes for quite some time, though she had no idea for how long. She also thought about placing a clone as another decoy, making it look like a poorly hidden ambush. But she didn't know how long she had to wait and didn't want to waste chakra.

Finally, she heard the crunching noise of the dry leaves being stepped on. Quickly, she jumped up and pulled the wire with all her strength. The line jumped up from the ground and tightened around the tree. In response, she could hear a grunt. Her trap had worked!

She quickly closed the distance to the tree while making sure the wire stayed taut. While she ran, she could feel a trickle of blood run down her elbow. Had she cut herself on a twig? Well, what was a tiny sting if it meant getting closer to fulfilling her love!

As she rounded the tree, she could see a patch of blonde hair. Unfortunately, it had the wrong length.

"Naruto?!"

"Sakura?! What the hell are you doing?!"

"Right back at you! You ruined my trap, idiot!"

For a few more moments, the two kept shouting without a pause, and therefore not understanding what the other shouted back. In the end, Sakura was fed up and slammed her fist into the blonde's cheek.

In a puff of smoke, Naruto disappeared. Not a body replacement, he was simply gone. No longer having anything to hold, the wire fell to the ground. What had just happened?

And maybe more important, what now? She didn't know how much time she had left, but it should still be quite some considering she hadn't even heard the first alarm yet. She touched the wound on her arm. It was thankfully just a small scratch. And it wasn't like the trap was destroyed; she could easily set it up again. With a bit of luck, Tanya was on the other side of the area right now and hadn't seen them. Then her plan could still work!

Alright, let's get into position again. If I don't see her when the first alarm goes off, I'll try something else. She said that after the first alarm, she would attack us on sight. Maybe that was another clue? Then I could use myself as bait. I mean, even if she said she'd 'attack' us, this is still just a test, right?

Naruto started running as his shadow clones flooded the forest. He didn't know how much time had passed, although it felt like an eternity. Still, the training field was a finite area, so she had to be somewhere. And one clone finding her would already be enough. Then, he could gather all of them around her and just overwhelm her with numbers.

As he ran, he suddenly felt something graze his ankle, followed by a clicking noise. Before he could react, the ground beneath him seemed to rise. Moments later, he found himself dangling in a net, squished beneath three of his clones.

"DAMN IT!" he shouted once more.

He kept struggling for a while, trying to reach for his kunai to cut through the net, but to no avail. With three versions of him stacked on top of him and all getting pushed together by the net, he could barely move at all. Not that it stopped him from trying.

All of a sudden, he could feel something tugging on his mind like an old memory resurfacing. He was standing in front of Sakura, and he was… tied to a tree? She was angry at him about something, but… he couldn't exactly remember what. And why was he remembering something like that? That had never happened! But that seemed to be it. The last thing he could remember was Sakura's fist getting closer, then the jutsu had ended and he had disappeared. Wait, jutsu?

… his clone! That memory, it had happened just now, and not to him, but to one of his shadow clones! But he could remember it as if it had happened to him, how? Wait, could it be..?

Wiggling in the net, he somehow managed to get his hands together, summoning a new shadow clone on the ground. The clone then left, disappearing between the trees. Just a few seconds later, Naruto suddenly remembered seeing a few mushrooms behind a tree.

The excitement about his new discovery made him forget all his frustration. Shadow clones shared what they saw when they disappeared! This jutsu was even more amazing than he had thought! Not only that, but it gave him a new idea. He once again wiggled his hands together and released the technique. He felt the chakra he had spread among them returning as all clones in the forest disappeared. Including the three on top of him, meaning he could finally…

…move.

…Oh wow, I'm so stupid.

Suppressing a facepalm, he used his returned freedom of movement to reach for a kunai and cut the net open. Twisting his body as he fell, he managed to land on both feet. A grin formed on his face as he put his hands together once more.

'KAGEBUSHIN NO JUTSU!' [Shadow Clone Jutsu]

This time, he only created fourteen shadow clones. The fifteen Narutos smirked about their great plan and nodded at each other. In seven pairs, they ran off in different directions. Should either of them find Tanya, one of them would engage her in combat so she couldn't flee, while the other would release the technique, thus telling the original her position. And since the forest was a ring around the clearing, if four pairs went clockwise, the three other pairs plus him counterclockwise, he had to find her eventually.

I'm a genius!

Metal struck wood as Tanya dodged Sasuke's salvo of shuriken, causing most of them to hit a tree. Most. One of them, a slightly larger one, had been thrown a bit more to the side than the rest and kept flying. But that wasn't all. A thin, barely visible string went through its hole, a string which's ends were tied to one of the other shuriken stuck in the tree and Sasuke's hand, respectively. As soon as Tanya's feet touched the ground, he pulled, causing the bigger shuriken to change direction. He wasn't yet able to make it return perfectly like Itachi had shown him, but it wasn't needed now since his target had jumped to the side. Once the weapon was on its new trajectory, he let go of the string and charged at her with his kunai drawn. With both him and the big shuriken coming at her from different angles, the girl escaped in the only direction left. The direction he had hoped she would go.

Out of the forest, into the clearing.

"You're quite the opportunist, aren't you?" she laughed as she landed and came to a sliding halt. Sasuke had no intention of answering. It had taken him half an eternity to finally find her, and he had no plans to let her escape once again. Especially since this time, he seemed to have caught the real one.

His plan had been very simple. While Naruto's brute-force method of searching lacked any semblance of finesse, it was effective. Sasuke had noticed immediately that the strange 'shadow clones' allowed him to comb through the forest rather efficiently, and since their target was moving rather than hiding, it was clear that she would sooner or later end up getting pincered. All Sasuke had to do was wait at the spot where that was most likely to happen, and just as planned, he had found her before Naruto had. Did that make him an opportunist as she said? Maybe. Did he care? Absolutely not. He would do whatever was necessary to pass this test!

He threw his kunai high, making Tanya duck, and used this moment to close the distance. His attack started with a left punch she deflected with little effort, followed by a low swipe which she jumped over. He tried to use the opportunity to hit her in the air where she couldn't dodge, but she just pushed his fist down.

As the exchange went on, it quickly became clear that in terms of Taijutsu, despite being roughly the same age and smaller than him, she outclassed him by leagues. And judging by her smirk, she wasn't even attempting to take him seriously.

No, he couldn't allow her to aggravate him. He didn't need to defeat her, he just needed a bell. Unfortunately, here her height was actually a problem for him. Had she been an adult, the bells would've been within arm's reach. But, small as she was, he had to reach down, which was hard to incorporate into normal fighting moves.

Hard, but not impossible. He swung his leg in a high kick, baiting her to duck. As she did exactly that, he let himself fall back, caught the fall with his hands, and straightened his body, so that both of his feet closed in right at her face. He was sure she could dodge that, but that was exactly what he was aiming for. Once she did, he could use his momentum and reach for the bells.

But to his surprise, she didn't dodge. With just one arm, she blocked, catching one foot with her hand and the other with her forearm.

How did she do that? Even if she is stronger than she looks, simply catching two kicks like that should hurt! But she didn't even budge!

Not only that, but now she was pushing him down. How was just one of her arms stronger than both his legs?

Not willing to fight a losing battle, Sasuke shifted his position so he could push himself backward and create some distance. He slid over the ground but eventually came to his feet. Fed up, he decided to play his trump card and started to weave hand signs. He needed to do quite a lot of them, but ever since his father had taught him the technique years ago, he had trained to form them as fast as he could. Finally ending on the 'tiger' sign, he took a deep breath. As the chakra got directed into his lunges and the air in them, he used his nature transformation to give it the fire nature. Then, he blew, and as the fire chakra left his body, it ignited.

'Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!' [Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu]

In front of him, a massive fireball formed, the roaring flames illuminating the vicinity and incinerating everything in their path. As the jutsu ended, all the grass in a ten feet diameter in front of him was completely burned away and the earth scorched black.

But no trace of Tanya. Seeing movement in the corner of his eye, he instinctively jumped back. Not a moment too soon, as a fist went right past his face. Again needing to create distance, he continued his momentum into a backflip, then jumped high and landed on a bolder close to the border of the forest.

"Fire Ninjutsu are popular among the shinobi of the Hidden Leaf. While it's a bit difficult to handle, it is straightforward and basically always deals damage when it hit. But you need to be careful. Once the jutsu reaches a certain size, it can block off your vision. An opponent who knows that can use that to get into your blind spot."

She crossed her arms and smirked.

"You might catch opponents by surprise that don't expect a Genin to have enough chakra for such a jutsu, but as I said, I've done my homework."

Clicking his tongue in annoyance, Sasuke reached for another Kunai without breaking eye contact. But then, a sound interrupted the staring contest. The sound of the first alarm clock. Half of their time was over. After it was done ringing, it was quiet for a moment. Then, Tanya's smirk grew and twisted into a grin. A mad grin so wide that it practically sliced her face in half.

Surprised by the sudden change in her expression, Sasuke stared into her wide-open blue eyes. Then, she disappeared from his sight.

A/N: I know fanfictions commonly stick with the English name of the Ninjutsu, but in the Manga - at least the version I grew up with - it always was: Japanese name in the speech bubble, translation between panels. So it just doesn't feel right if I don't use that. But regarding the formatting, what do you prefer: translation each time, translation only the first time it is used per chapter, or only Japanese in the text and the translations at the end of the chapter?