Standing in front of the fence that surrounded training ground 44, Ino watched as the teams that had made it through the first two exams jumped into the clearing, looking at the purple haired proctor for further instructions. It didn't take long for the rest of the teams to arrive. They still had five minutes when the last team made its way to the meeting spot. Anko took attendance of the teams and smiled, seeing as she could begin early.
"Alright children, quiet down and listen!" She shouted. Jumping on top of the small stall that stood against the fence, she smiled evilly at the group of genin in front of her. Seeing that a team from Iwagakure still whispered amongst themselves, she took out a kunai and threw it at the trio. Ino's eyes widened as she hadn't seen the proctor move. Turning her head she saw the only girl in the trio stare at Anko, her hand on her cheek, blood seeping through her fingers.
"I said listen." The purple haired woman reprimanded smiling. The place grew quiet.
"Great! Now this stage is pretty simple. Each team gets one of two scrolls, you need to obtain a matching set. Afterwards head to the tower in the middle of the forest. You have 5 days. Every team that loses a member, doesn't reach the tower in time or does not have a full set of scrolls is automatically eliminated. In the forest itself you are free to do everything apart from one thing. Under no circumstances are you to open one of the scrolls. If you open the scrolls... Well, let's just say that you don't want to find out." Anko warned, an evil grin showing that she had no good intentions for those who broke her rules.
"What about food?" Someone asked, earning a few laughs.
"You are shinobi, I expect you will be able to feed yourself." Anko replied dryly.
"Anymore stupid questions?" No hands went up as the purple haired woman jumped from the shed.
"Every team chooses one member now. When your team is called, only they will enter. If you enter without being called you are disqualified." She ordered, disappearing through the door.
Ino looked at her teammates. Shikamaru nodded at Sasuke, before both looked at her with questioning eyes. Nodding her agreement, Sasuke stepped a bit forward and waited for their team to be called.
"Don't worry, we will get this done easily." Shikamaru tried to calm her down as Sasuke entered the small building. Ino couldn't help but pray that he was right.
The bang was surely heard all over Konoha as the chunin next to them opened the gate for Ino and her team to run into the forest. The blonde girl's nervousness had only increased since they had left to go to their gate, mainly because Shikamaru and Sasuke had agreed that it would be the best strategy to give her the scroll, since no one would expect her to have it.
"Let's get to the center and try to intercept a team that wants to finish the stage." Shikamaru offered the strategy he had thought of. Ino and Sasuke nodded before they all jumped away, making their way through the thick forest.
They got to the tower without any problems, taking cover in the bushes around the tall building. It took almost a full day before they saw another team. They were from Sunagakure, one girl and two boys. Ino sunk down even deeper into her cover, knowing that they were not going to attack since they had said that they would wait until day four to attack, since it would mean the strong teams were already done and the teams that were coming in would be more exhausted.
What made her shiver however was the fact that the redheaded boy of the team was covered in blood, his satisfied smile showing that it was not his own.
The three genin from Konoha waited patiently as more and more teams passed them on their way into the tower. Ino saw a few familiar faces among them, there was Hinata and her team, there was Hanabi, Hintata's little sister with her team, although it still shocked her, that Hiashi had allowed his younger daughter to participate in these exams, her being fresh out of the academy. After three days of waiting, Sasuke finally gave her the sign that they would attack the next team that would pass them. Fortunately the trio that came into Ino's view seemed to be already exhausted. Two of the three boys were limping, while the other one had a large gash on his temple, staining his whole face and shirt red.
"Halt!" Ino shouted, jumping out of her hiding spot. The three boys took a second before they reacted, but quickly took out their weapons as they realized what the girl had said.
"What do you want?" The tallest of the group asked, his eyes darting around to see where the rest of Ino's team was.
"Give me your scrolls and I will let you go." The blonde replied, slightly lowering the kunai in her hand.
"Why should we? It seems that you are even worse off than we are. At least our team is still complete. You wouldn't even advance if you had both scrolls." The black haired genin stated earning nods from his teammates.
"Think again." Sasuke's voice came from behind them, as he and Shikamaru jumped out of the bushes with their weapons drawn. The six genin looked at each other with narrowed eyes, not moving as the three exhausted genin realized that they were standing in between a team that had yet to fight at all. Looking at themselves, Ino almost hoped that they understood that they had no chance, but was quickly brought back to reality as two of the trio raised their weapons to attack her while the other one tried to step forward to stop Sasuke and Shikamaru from coming to Ino's help.
She took a step back, but smiled when she saw them stop in their tracks, not having moved an inch from their starting positions. Looking past them she spotted Shikamaru, his signature hand sign up, smirking.
"It would have been easier to just give us your scrolls." Sasuke muttered, as Ino quickly sat down and put her hands in her own clan's signature position.
Transferring her mind into that of the group's leader she quickly found out that he had the scroll in his left pocket.
Loosely scanning over his remaining memories if he had anything useful in his head, she nodded to herself before ending her jutsu and reopening her eyes back in the real world.
"Left pocket." She stated as Sasuke walked over to the genin and took the scrolls out of his pants.
"Good." He muttered before chopping the boy in the neck. Ino saw his eyes roll back into his head, but Shikamaru's jutsu kept him standing upright.
Quickly disabling the other two shinobi, Sasuke nodded to the other boy in their team who canceled his jutsu, letting the three opposing shinobi drop to the ground unconscious.
"Alright, let's go." Sasuke ordered, as they jogged towards the tower.
The water felt like heaven, after spending the better part of four days in the brush. Sighing, Ino sunk into the bath. Shikamaru had easily cracked the riddle when they had gotten into the tower, throwing the two matching scrolls onto the ground, making Kakashi appear. Their sensei gratulating them for passing the third stage and told them to be in the big arena inside the tower's basement at midday the next day. Afterwards the team had split up, the two boys in search of the food that the gray haired man had mentioned while Ino looked for a bath and bed. She had found both and quickly claimed one of the rooms for herself. It had taken way too long for the bath to fill up, but the wait was definitely worth it as she felt her muscles relax.
She briefly wondered what the next part of the exam was going to entail but didn't dwell too long on the thought as the darkness of sleep claimed her mind.
"Good, congratulations to everyone here. You have passed my part of the exams." She announced. A group of jonin rushed out of the tower to gather everyone that had not passed the exams as Anko ended the current stage with a smile on her face. There were 18 genin that had made it in time to the tower. Curiously there were almost exclusively teams from Konoha, other than Ino's own team, there was team 8 with Hinata and her teammates, team 9 with Hanabi and her two teammates and also team ten with Neji and his teammates. Looking over the teams she noticed how almost every team from Konoha that had passed this stage had a Hyuuga and if you expanded a bit, every team had some kind of Doujutsu considering Sasuke's Sharingan. It never occurred to her how similar the teams were.
Looking past the teams from her own village only two teams had managed to make it through the forest of death. The team from Sunagakure that they had seen on the second day, although they had washed up and the red haired boy wasn't smiling anymore and one team from Kusagakure. They hadn't caught Ino's eye at all before showing up here, which kind of scared her, since they obviously were skilled enough to reach this room but had the knowledge and abilities to go completely unnoticed as well.
"Let me introduce the proctors for the final stage." Anko's voice drew her mind back to the purple haired woman in front of them. Next to her stood two masked shinobi. Ino almost did a double take, she was absolutely sure that there had not been anyone next to the previous stage's proctor before she had let her eyes wander over the other teams.
"This is Wolf." The red haired boy on her right bowed slightly, not saying a word.
"And this is Eagle." The girl on her left bowed as well, remaining as silent as the other masked ninja.
"I will let them take it from here. Good Luck." With that Anko disappeared.
"You will fight one against one. Be in Konoha's arena in 30 days. You are allowed to use Konoha's training grounds until then. Do not attack each other or you will be disqualified." The girl's voice gave off no emotions as she said that. Then the masked shinobi vanished.