from Academy to Anbu by theriku260

chapter 28

"That's bull! What about us pursuit teams! We have no chance in hell!" Another kunai in his backpack curtsey of Anko shut him up.

"Tsk tsk, on the contrary my dear Inuzuka, the mice teams have one key disadvantage." Her eyes held a fake (not that the genin…or chunin… could tell) manic gleam.

"…" Everyone waited expectantly.

"This!" As she said that, each mouse team had a teammate shot with snake venom. Instantly the genin felt their chakra drain. "That venom hails from the Land of Bears and is known to seal a person's chakra away for six days on average. And for those with a medic… well there is no antidote since I messed with it." Anko finished sheepishly, not bothering to mention the…side effects that twenty percent of victims experienced from her improved version. What they didn't know couldn't be used to sue her.

"Alright maggots! Mouse teams line up and remember: you have to reach the towers with EVERYONE alive, so I recommend killing the weak competition!" And thus each team prepared to play their roles, nervously discussing their various strategies as Anko cackled at her own callous advice.

Mouse team preparations!

With Team 10…

Shikamaru absently rubbed his arm where he was injected and gave his teammates a hard look.

"This will be troublesome but if we run fast enough we can make it before anyone will bother us." The lazy genius sighed when he noticed Ino being unusually sullen. "What's with you, Ino? You're more troublesome than if you were a loud mouth woman." That got her to grow a tick mark.

"Shut up you lazy baka!" And thus Ino momentarily got out of her funk to slap her teammate in the back of the head.

"Tsk, you're not very youthful, are you?" Shikamaru blurted out.

Silence reigned amongst the teens. Chouji even dropped his potato chip bag in shock and Ino held a hand to her mouth.

"…L-let's just get ready" Shikamaru finally broke the silence with a shaky command.

With Team Oto…

"So we run fast with Kin our backs and this horribly heavy scroll before Gaara gets in, right?" Dosu gulped and his…friends, quickly agreed.

"And our mission?" Zaku asked about their believed orders to help Gaara and kill the Uchiha.

"Screw that, I don't want to die; we'll just kill him during the month." With firm nods the team started a final bag check, completely unaware their master had been listening the whole time.

With the undercover ROOT team…

The three emotionally challenged 'genin'- including Danzo Shimura's pet Uchiha that was hidden with a face mask and contacts to make him look like a different Root agent who switched with him- were calmly double checking their bags. Thankfully their female companion was the one bitten and she was a taijutsu specialist anyways. The team was careful not to look at their targets or Orochimaru; it wouldn't do to cast suspicion on themselves so close to their master's goals.

"Be ready for anything" Takashi Uchiha, the favorite of Danzo Shimura ordered. The two others just nodded mentally prepared themselves.

With The Sand Trio…

"I will kill for you mother, all those foolish to pursue us" Gaara cooed to himself. Temari gulped a bit but stopped herself from commenting. As long as they made it to that blasted tower within the two day time limit, it didn't matter what her psycho of a brother did. Their mission didn't start until the third round, where Gaara would shower the great village of Konoha in its own blood.