To Naruto's surprise, each team was seated together. One of the proctors of the Sand Village set a single sheet of paper, face down, in front of the center of each three-man team, then moved on to the next group to repeat the action.
When the chuunin was through with handing out those sheets, he nodded to the head examiner.
Naruto had met Baki before, just recently in fact, but the jonin hadn't been giving off "killing intent" then.
"You have passed the first hurdle by making it through the genjutsu misdirection," said Baki. "Now the real testing begins. When I give the signal, the test will start. Your test consists of ten stages. Each step leads to another step, with the ninth step giving you your goal. You will bring that goal back to this classroom before the end of the day or you FAIL. If you are stopped by one of the other genin teams in the process - FAIL. If you attack a proctor or physically sabotage one of the clue stations - FAIL. If you ask me any stupid questions - FAIL."
Baki looked around the room. Nobody seemed inclined to give him a question. Good. "Begin."
Kotetsu flipped the paper over quickly. "What the heck?"
"Cipher," said Izumo. "Scrambled alphanumeric. Let's see..."
Naruto blinked as Izumo started jotting things down and then crossing off when it didn't work.
"Oh, got it," said Izumo after a few minutes. "There's garbage characters in between the real words. This is what it says."
At the hawk's perch of the sands, seek the next clue.
"Did you hear about Hinata? She's beaten four people in the branch family now with her jyuuken skills."
"A pity she keeps having to face Neji, and she just doesn't seem to be able to fight well against her younger sister."
"On the other hand, did you see those ramen bowls she made? There were a few wrecks at first, but she turned out some fine pieces at the end."
"It is nice to see artistic skills in one of the main family, it DOES bring a certain prestige," admitted the second. "Quite nice. Though why ramen bowls? It's such a base food."
"She's ten years old," pointed out the first. "You'd kind of expect that sort of thing at that age, wouldn't you?"
"I suppose," said the second, who then brightened. "She's also top of her class now, finally upseating that Uchiha kid. THAT has to bring a smile to her father's face."
"Are we talking about the same Hiashi Hyuga?" asked the first.
"Touche," said the second, sighing. "Well, maybe a slight hint of the barest trace of a ghost of a smile?"
Sasuke Uchiha frowned as his "best in class" was broken AGAIN! He took his anger and wounded pride out on a kunai target, in as much of a snit as a ten year old prodigy and member of a gifted clan could get.
How had "Deadlast" Naruto graduate ahead of him?! How had the quiet little mouse in the last row suddenly sweep ahead academically?
It was bad enough that some rabid fangirl with PINK hair kept dogging his heels academically. How could he avenge his clan and kill his brother if he couldn't even do THIS much?
It was troublesome.
...
And NOW he was beginning to sound like Shikamaru!
Naruto appeared on the roof first. Followed by Naruto and Naruto and Naruto and Naruto.
"Clear," said one of the Naruto as the others checked the rest of the roof. Izumo and Kotetsu quickly made their way to the rooftop, joined by another Naruto.
"You use shadow clones for everything?" asked Kotetsu.
"It's better than getting an explosive tag in the face," said the last Naruto.
"Says you," said one of the Naruto clones.
"So what about the effect on the environment?" asked another Naruto.
"Knock it off guys," said the original Naruto.
"This one's in a different code," said Izumo. "Wait a minute. This isn't a code."
"Oh, I know that one," said Kotetsu. "This is in an old language from before the time of the Sage Of Six Paths."
"Isn't the Sage just a myth?" asked Izumo.
"Depends on what sources you use," said Kotetsu, taking the plaque. "Okay, now we need to find a decent map."
"Topographical, geographical, tour, or nationwide?" asked Naruto, slinging his pack off his back.
"National," said Kotetsu, "we're looking for a specific location. Probably nearby."
"Here we go," said Naruto, rummaging in his pack briefly. "Thought it might be handy."
Kotetsu examined the plaque, then the map, then let the plaque fall back at the end of the chain. "Okay, follow me."
"We are going to lose the guys following us, right?" asked Izumo.
"Naruto?" asked Kotetsu.
"Shadow clones," said Naruto, creating nine clones. "Henge."
Four groups of the temporary Leaf genin team nodded at each other and then went in different directions. All of whom smiled when they heard cursing from a nearby rooftop.
"AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
"Shut up," said Anko. "You wish something had happened."
"I only like cute girls," retaliated Kakashi.
Anko said something unpleasant about cute.
"Regardless, I have some standards," said Jiraiya.
"That's it, you're dead," said Anko, reaching for the legendary shinobi.
"Okay," said Izumo, standing on the mountaintop and examining the obelisk. "Back to code. Numeric, alpha... okay. Got it. We need to get the gizzard of a sandworm and bring it to the next station."
"What's a sandworm, and where's the next station?" asked Naruto, scratching his head.
"What's twelve meters long, tubular, and apparently includes genin on its diet plan?" asked Kotetsu.
"I don't think I've heard this one," said Naruto, still looking at the obelisk along with Izumo. "Uhm? Anko-sensei?"
"She's not tubular," pointed out Izumo, then glanced into the valley that Kotetsu was looking at. "Oh HELL."
"Well, at least we don't have to look far to find one of these 'sandworm' things," reasoned Naruto. "Shadow clone jutsu!"
"Do you HAVE to rely on that so much?" asked Izumo. "Is that a hammer and you see every problem as a nail?"
"I'd prefer not to get eaten myself," said Naruto. "Been there, done that, had to clean stomach acid out of my tee-shirt."
"Got a point," admitted Izumo.
"When did THIS happen?" asked Kotetsu.
"When I was just a kid," said Naruto, neglecting to mention that he'd been two years older than he was now.
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(Posted Mon, 15 Mar 2010 15:46)
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