Dark Phoenix of Konoha by White Angel of Auralon

Part 26 - The Finalists Stand

The Finalists Stand

Team ten was in hiding in the forest. For some reason this round was much harder than they had thought it would be. In the beginning they had done well and only had had bad luck with finding only a team with another heaven scroll like theirs. They had still pocketed it as having a spare would be smart as Shikamaru pointed out. But now everybody seemed to be after said heaven scrolls. They had listened to three other teams thanks to Ino possessing a mouse and spying on them from under a bush. Shikamaru knew that probably the two that they had were either the last two in the forest or very close to being the last. It was making this whole exercise much more dangerous. They had relied on stealth to stay undetected so far. Now they were really glad that the senseis of the rookie teams had set up so many different challenges to help them develop their skills and had trained them extremely hard. Especially in the weeks following the failed mission to capture Naruto. It had been a major blow but also a much needed wake-up call and Shikamaru rather had it that they had been forced to see reality in a safe training mission than in real life where it would have cost them their lives. The hard training had been the deciding factor in them being able to stay alive. The only way to be safe would be getting an earth scroll and heading to the tower. But at the tower there would be several other teams that would be waiting to intercept them.

Well, in regards to trapping an opponent nobody could compare to a Nara.

"Ino, Choji, we should get to the tower and ambush one of the teams that are waiting there to ambush other teams." Shikamaru declared. "For some reason there are very few heaven scrolls left in the forest, so any team we come by should have an earth scroll if they even have a scroll left. Something happened, even if we can't tell what yet. The longer we stay here, the more dangerous things will become."

"Ok Shikamaru. What's the plan?" Choji asked.

"We will stick to the shadows. I have a technique that will make others overlook us as long as we stay in the shadows. My father taught it to me just before the exams. It's similar to a genjutsu. In this forest are more than enough shadows for us to get to the tower quickly. We sneak up to a team that waits for an un-expecting team to come by and knock them out quickly. While I can't attack while keeping the jutsu going, you and Ino don't have that handicap. Ino, you did some work with paralysing poisons after being hit by Naruto, didn't you?" Shikamaru addressed his blond teammate.

"Yes, I wanted to know how he could paralyse me with a simply senbon hit. Turned out that my mum was an expert in the area and she taught me some of her secret techniques. I have a supply of senbon needles with paralysing poisons with me. That was also the only kind of poison she would let me use until I have built up some resistance to my own poisons." Ino answered.

"Good. We will use them to paralyse any team we come across and take an earth scroll. Then we will go to the tower ASAP without foregoing stealth. If we do this right we will be out of this troublesome forest before dawn." Shikamaru said.

Ino and Choji nodded and the three took off keeping to the shadows. Shikamaru was now very glad that Asuma had also worked on their chakra reserves with them, otherwise using the shadow concealing jutsu wouldn't have been an option at all.

It was finally the fifth day after the second round had started and the last team to have arrived at the tower, team ten, had only made it with one hour to spare. Getting through the lines of teams that had taken to ambush others at the tower had been hard and taxing on Shikamaru's chakra reserves. But they had made it by stealing the scroll that they needed from an Ame team. The last ten metres to the tower had been hard on them as there hadn't been any shadows to hide in anymore, but they had managed by a creative combination of a mass shadow binding jutsu, Choji carrying a log towards the entrance of the tower while Shikamaru kept the other teams bound who tried to intercept them, and a quickly executed replacement technique through the door that Ino held open. Shikamaru only hoped that he could rest a bit now. He was exhausted after using chakra constantly for hours.