The Turning Point

Chunin Exams Part 6

"You'll be battling it out to get a Heaven scroll coloured white and an Earth scroll coloured navy blue. Because there are 26 teams all together, half of you will be after a Heaven scroll and the other half an Earth scroll. Each team will get one kind of scroll and you'll be fighting for the other kind" Anko finished.

"Okay, so how do we pass the exam?" Sasuke asked.

"Simple. Your squad must make it to the tower together and bring with them the Heaven and Earth scrolls.

"So what you're saying is at the very best half of us will fail or more if not every team can get both scrolls" Sakura observed.

"Hey, I didn't say it would be easy. Where's the fun in that? Also the exam has a time limit, you need to finish within five days" Anko said bluntly, tucking the scrolls into her coat.

"5 DAYS!" Ino exclaimed in shock.

"What are we supposed to do for food!?" Choji asked in horror, his stomach grumbling at the very thought.

"The forest has enough to feed you for years chubby boy. Just look around" Anko taunted, fed up with the outbursts of the rookies.

"Yeah, but it also has man-eating beasts and poisonous plants" Kabuto added.

"If we're completely surrounded by enemies, we won't have much chance to rest. We'll be required to keep a constant watch" Sakura thought out loud.

"Right you are. This is an endurance test as well to simulate what you will have to do as a Chunin if you ever get caught behind enemy lines. It's designed to be a gruelling test and I don't care what Ibiki says I know some of you won't be up to it" Anko said.

"So say mid-exam we're not feeling up to it? Can we quit?" Shikamaru asked, raising his hand lazily.

"No you can't, you wouldn't do that in battle would you? Oh sorry I quit. Well you could but you'd probably get killed" Anko replied cheerfully.

Shikamaru sighed and muttered something about it all being a drag, Choji had somehow procured yet another bag of potato chips and began wolfing them down.

"There are some ways you can get disqualified though. If all your team members can't make it to the tower with both scrolls after 5 days, if a team loses a member or if a member is unable to continue and last but most important. Not a single person can look at the contents of the scrolls before you reach the tower" Anko in a serious voice.

"The scroll once again is tools for the future, acting in place of say a secret document that a ninja may have to carry. Okay I'm done talking, each team take your consent forms and exchange them over there for your scrolls. Then each team pick a gate and we'll let you in" Anko instructed.

"And don't die, okay?"

Many of the teams chose to stick together after they had been dismissed. They read over the consent forms in hushed tones, glancing around every once in a while to see who was listening. They attempted to make plans, though what more preparation could be done until they were let in? Sakura thought it odd that Team 7 did not do the same, but Sasuke had walked away on his own clutching the consent form.

Neither Sakura or Naruto pushed it, and Naruto soon departed himself with a cheery wave. Observing that both her teammates were now seated somewhere outside the battle zone, Sakura too walked off in search of somewhere quite to go over the consent form.

Sasuke watched as the sentinels pulled a curtain closed across the desk where they were to go to hand in their consent forms. "I see how it is, we won't know what team has what scroll, or which of the team members has the scroll" Sighing Sasuke leant back, resting his head against the rock he was sitting behind.