In a waiting room set aside for those that had passed the first exam, Ino peeled off the band-aid on Menma's brow, expecting to have to change it due to it being soaked with blood. What she saw was a severely reduced injury compared to how it had looked on the surface of the band-aid. The cut wasn't even bleeding anymore and it had already begun to quickly heal. It looked like it almost was fully healed.
"That's so weird." Ino muttered as she finished her task of changing Menma's band-aids to actual bandages on his face. He was mostly fine, he had his bell rang a few times but other than that he was okay, "You're so lucky you heal so fast Menma." Twenty minutes... for anyone that took longer to finish it would have to be terrible being the odd man out that wound up being the hostage, especially since pretty much no one else had Menma's healing besides Naruto.
Time was almost expired for the first test and it looked as if the room had as many advancing teams as it was going to get, the first test making the others truly realize that it was them against everyone else. The Konoha genin that they knew personally were pretty much unscathed even though a lot of other teams had at least one member that looked as if they had taken a bit of a beating. Some looked as if their prisoner had gotten free and had attempted to fight their way free. As Ino looked across the room she wondered how a few of the others that had passed, the entire nine Konoha rookies being among them, had gotten through.
(Team 7 Interrogation Test)
Sasuke stood over a beaten up Kusa shinobi, cracking his knuckles. He had a few bruises on his face and blood streaming down his lip, but his injuries were mostly cosmetic. Luckily, these people obviously weren't good at capturing shinobi... or at fighting in general due to how easy it was to get Nawanuke no Jutsu (Rope Escape Jutsu) and subsequently defeat them. One of the two that had him captured didn't even fight.
"Next time you tie someone up you should make sure they can't make hand-seals." He said informatively to the unconscious boy on the ground, not that he could hear him. He turned towards a girl that was sitting against a nearby wall.
She wore glasses and had red hair that looked a little unkempt on one side and straight on the other. The girl looked at Sasuke, seemingly frozen with a blush on her face. Sasuke merely raised his eyebrow, giving her a small smile before he walked out of the door, fully freeing himself from captivity.
"Wow..." The girl said quietly after Sasuke left, "What a guy..."
(Team 8 Interrogation Test)
Kiba sat tied to a chair with a dry, uncaring look on his face, "So you guys obviously want my password huh?" He asked sarcastically. Duh, what else would they want?
"That's right." A genin from Amegakure said as he held what looked like an umbrella in his hands like a club, "You should tell us exactly what it is right now kid. It would be better for you."
"I've got a better idea." Kiba said as something started rustling inside of his coat around the back of his large hood, "How about I just get up and leave?" And with that, from the collar of his jacket sprang Akamaru, who landed on the face of the attacking genin and began to maul them, his small stature not being indicative of his fighting prowess. Kiba smirked until he saw bugs begin to crawl off of his person as well and go over to the downed genin, leeching on their chakra, "That was so nasty Shino... I told you I had this under control..." Kiba said to himself as Akamaru began quickly chewing his ropes loose.
Once he was loose he simply strolled right out of the door past the proctor who began to mark something on his clipboard and went across the hall to knock on the door directly across from his, being greeted with Hinata in the door way. Kiba grinned and looked at the proctor at that door, "So did we pass?"
"Kiba-kun you're free!" Hinata said, happy that he didn't have any significant damage on his person, "Shino-kun and I just got the password as well. What a coincidence.
The proctor at their door nodded and marked something on his clipboard as well before addressing Kiba's question, "You sure do. Move on to the next stage of the exams."
(Sand Siblings Interrogation Test)
A pair of Iwa genin, both a boy and a girl, stood just staring at their 'hostage', not knowing what to do with him. First of all they weren't even able to tie him up, they had to have him tie himself up. This was a problem for another reason as well. They couldn't tie him up because no one could touch him. No one could. They had to get him to tie himself up... and that was only the first problem. They couldn't touch him... and since neither of them knew any genjutsu or any mental techniques to get information out of him that way there wasn't anything they could do.
Every time they tried to work him over by hitting him they would be blocked by sand... and the same sand managed to grind the rope that he had put on his own hands off.
"I'm bored with you both..." Gaara said as his sand grabbed the pair of genin intended to 'interrogate' him. As his sand surrounded them both and slowly constricted them, Gaara narrowed his eyes, "I want to kill you both... but I believe the 'no permanent damage' rule works both ways." He scoffed and lifted his hand, "Weak-minded rules for weak prey of ninja." He said before his sand threw them both with enough force to slam them through the door, throwing it off of the hinges and sending them hard into the door across the hall.
That particular door opened up to reveal Temari, who was glaring until she saw that Gaara was the one that had done that, "Gaara." She said with trepidation.
"It's time to go." Gaara said in his normal tone of voice, turning towards the proctor nearby, "Or do we fail?"
The chunin, who was coincidentally from Suna started stepping back away from Gaara, "N-No, no you pass! P-Please proceed to the next phase!" He cowered, 'Oh Kami of all the odds of one of us having to directly proctor Gaara's team why me?' He held his breath as Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro walked past him and left. Once they were out of sight he looked at the still captured genin conscious in the Suna team's room and the two unconscious on the floor, "You all have no idea how lucky you are."
As they looked around the room as teams were still filing in, "There are still so many teams left." Ino said absently.
Shikamaru was inclined to agree, "The guy said that there were 158 teams to start with. Even if we lose more than half that would still leave us with less than 79 remaining. That's still a lot of people left." And the competition was only going to get stiffer. How many people were allowed to become chunin? How many tests were there left? Why didn't Asuma tell them any of this crap would happen? Why did he even bother coming all the way to Tetsu no Kuni for this exam anyway? He didn't even want to be there. Ino, Menma, and Naruto were the ones that wanted to go.
"It doesn't really matter does it?" Menma finally chimed in, resisting the urge to peel the bandages from his face lest Ino scold him. He thought that they made him look weak or like a little kid, "We can still beat just about anyone in this thing. It's simple, if we have to go up against anyone else directly then we'll just beat them the way we did in the first test."
Ino's lips quirked into a smile, "You mean by blocking wooden chairs and fists with your face? I don't think that would work for us Menma, and concussions are bad for you. Don't kill your brain cells like you kill your lungs."
"Ha ha." Menma said sarcastically before pulling out a sealing scroll and staring at it, "If I can do what I did earlier and have it work then could I seal myself in this thing?" His eyes then took a glassed look as he remembered what he had gotten from his clones dispelling, confusing and scaring his teammates, "I saw everything... and I still know nothing."
Naruto snapped his fingers and waved his hands in front of the trace-like Naruto's face, "Menma... Menma!" He got nothing from him except for the random muttering of 'everything' and 'nothing', thus forcing a sigh out of the blonde boy until he had an idea of how to get his attention, "Hey, they're giving everyone the latest copy of icha icha paradise as a treat to everyone advancing to the next round."
Menma's eyes went back to normal as he whipped his head around rapidly, trying to locate said latest copy, "Where?" He then gave a deadpan look at Menma, "There's no latest copy is there?" Menma shook his head no, "I should hit you, you know that don't you?"
Cutting in to diffuse a possible righteous Icha Paradise beatdown from Menma, Ino spoke up, "I wonder what the next test is going to be... and how good everyone else here is." She had managed to pick out a few people that she wouldn't want to tangle with, even in the controlled environment that they just got through dealing with. She even managed to spot the team of Kusa genin that they had run across in their first C-rank mission.
A few teams had gotten themselves here even faster than they had and they had made it there after only twenty minutes, enough time for Menma to heal and for Shikamaru to get his expended chakra back and Naruto was practically itching to fight. Now Menma still looked like he had gotten mugged outside of the meeting building, but that was mostly because of the bandages covering his face, not because he was still bleeding or anything.
Shikamaru had long since picked out who he didn't want to fight, which had been far more than Ino's number because he didn't want to fight anyone that would make him have to work, "It doesn't really matter what the next test is, it's going to be troublesome for sure." He commented, "I doubt that the tests are going to get any easier."
Looking around the room, Naruto wound up looking over eventually at Tenten's team only to wind up locking eyes with Neji who scoffed at the sight of the blonde genin, turning away from him as if the sight was unappealing. Naruto just kept staring at him, sick of Neji's attitude having only met him a handful of times, "I just want it to start already." He had something to prove to a lot of people and this was the time to do it.
At this time a sudden banner suddenly flew into the room and in a burst of fireworks and smoke found itself set up to read as a blur jumped in front of it and spoke loudly, "Alright you stupid brats, it's time to meet your sexy proctor for the second exam! Introducing Mitarashi Anko!" The young woman speaking had purple hair clipped back in a short spiky ponytail and had brown pupil-less eyes with a Konoha headband on her forehead. She wore an open tan overcoat, a mesh bodysuit underneath, and an orange miniskirt to go with shin guards over her sandals.
After her introduction another man walked into the room shaking his head, "This is what Konoha sent to help proctor the second exam?" He said to himself. The man looked middle-aged and had blue hair that almost looked like a fin. He had an eyepatch over his right eye and had a Kiri headband on his head and talisman earrings in each ear. He wore a dark striped shirt and pants with a green robe over them. Naruto noted that he looked kind of like Haku in his manner of dress, "Back in my day-."
"Blah, blah, blah." Anko said derisively, cutting him off, "Where's the other old guy so we can get this little show on the road?" She looked for a third proctor, ignoring the horndog male genin leering at her, "I might have to bleed a few of these small-fry dry if they don't find something else more interesting to look at." She then looked herself over and smirked with a pose, "Oh who am I kidding? There's nothing more interesting to look at around here than me."
"I'm here you crazy Konoha lady." A tall and brawny Iwa shinobi said as he walked into the room behind the Kiri ninja. He had a large bulbous nose, a strong jaw and beard, and a standard Iwa shinobi uniform, "And it's not 'old guy'... it's Kitsuchi." He noted with some annoyance in his voice at how Anko referred to him before his appearance.
"My bad." Anko said with an apologetic grin on her face, "Let's just forget about that and get to the explaining the test part." She turned to the genin and gave them a predatory look, "I want to see the lot of them squirm."
Over with Team 10, Ino couldn't help but give Anko a distasteful look for how she was representing Konoha as a proctor. Even creepy Ibiki seemed to do a better job, he was a scary guy and made them look intimidating. Anko just unnerved her, "Someone should report her."
"I'll report her." Menma replied before speaking under his breath, "'Report' her 'till she can't walk straight." Ino and Shikamaru both heard him and looked at him in surprise. Even Menma couldn't believe he said that out loud, "I swear, that week hanging out with Jiraiya-sensei messed me up bad."
"That's your excuse?" Ino said, giving Menma a dry look.
A sharp whistle attracted their attention back to Anko who was able to pick them out of the entire room of remaining genin left in the exam, "Welcome back, are you ready to rejoin the group conversation now?" She asked with a smile on her face that didn't bode well for an incorrect answer, thus all of Team 10 nodded slowly, "Good. Maybe now we can explain this. Now listen up because I will not be repeating myself."
"What did you say?" Kiba asked, over with his Team 8, a grin on his face as he did so.
"I said I will not be repeating myself brat!" Anko snapped at him before blinking in realization. She gave Kiba a deadpan look and pulled out a kunai before Ao stopped her from potentially maiming the Inuzuka boy, she still glared at him as she licked the flat of the blade, "You're so lucky kid..." That didn't intimidate Kiba so much as turn him on, and at that moment he had to ask himself just what was wrong with him to be thinking that way.
Ao muttered and let out a sigh before releasing Anko's wrist and beginning his explanation, "This test is fairly simple and straightforward. All you have to do is get to the location of the next stage of the exam. That's it." And he left it at that, a smirk slowly growing on his face as he didn't speak again and the chattering began among the genin.
Shikamaru groaned as he spoke aloud, "I'm getting the feeling that there was supposed to be a 'but' in there somewhere."
Another competing genin spoke up loudly in protest, "Well? Aren't you going to tell us where the place we're supposed to go is? Or do you just expect us to find it ourselves?"
Kitsuchi grinned widely, almost in the manner that Anko did earlier, "Actually punk that's exactly what we expect you to do." He informed the group of potential chunin, "You're going to be asked to locate hidden strongholds for your village, whether to scout it out or to infiltrate it, or to destroy it altogether. We're actually making it easy for you, all you have to do is just find where the next test is supposed to be and get there."
"Yep. That's all." Anko chimed in, enjoying the frazzled nerves of the lot of the genin, "It's just that you don't know where it is... and we're not going to tell you... as a matter of fact no one's going to just tell you, you have to find it yourself within three days." She then chuckled in a sinister manner, "Oh and before I forget to mention only twelve teams can pass."
"What!"
Anko stuck her tongue out after the universal shout from all of the genin, "Yeah, out of the 51 teams left in the exam only 12 of you can go any further, so sorry about your damn luck."
With Team 7, Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the overall information he was getting over what the exam was to be about, "So you're basically telling us that this is pretty much a race to the place where we'll be told about the next test?" He said with a scoff.
Menma thought to himself quietly, 'Normally a test like this would be an advantage to one village's teams in general over another's seeing as how it would be taking place in an area that was one village's home turf, but here there was no such advantage. Knowledge of the terrain and area was at best limited by what one could read in a book on the country. No ninja had in-depth knowledge of Tetsu no Kuni due to the complete lack of interaction that shinobi and samurai had. Tetsu no Kuni was a no-no, untouchable by other shinobi villages for decades. They were all equally in the dark at this point.' But that's when Menma realized this would be easy and quick, Menma knew Testu No Kuni like the back of his hand he had been raised and trained here for years.
"So how are we supposed to find the damn place?" Karui shouted over where she was with her team from Kumogakure.
Ao frowned over at the young genin, "That's not our problem. There's no restriction on what you can do to find out where to go. Treat it as if you're trying to find the stronghold of bandits that are sacking villages in an area and disappearing. No one knows where to look but you have a general area of search. The destination you're all searching for could be anywhere around the Three Wolves Mountains. There will be certain clues in tons of areas, but there will be no solid answers as to where to go."
Kitsuchi spoke up once more with a warning, "Remember though; the samurai will have a no-tolerance policy when it comes to fighting or any violence at all within the village. They will step in to stop you or detain you in whatever way they see necessary if you are caught doing such. You will not have the protection of your village or your sensei, we were warned about causing trouble in the village upon arrival, all of us."
"If you still want to do this..." Anko said as she made her way to a table where a few chunin were standing near stacks of paper, "Then you'll need to sign a waver saying that we are not responsible for you walking off the face of the cliff at the edge of town or something else that ends up with you maggots losing your nubile little lives."
Ao held up three fingers, "Starting at noon you have exactly 72 hours, three days. You have three days to find out where to go in the vicinity of Three Wolves Mountain... and you have to get there before all of the others by any means necessary. Only 12 teams can make it there at a maximum, and the teams must have all three members at the time of their arrival or they will not be granted advancement to the next round. Good luck."
Anko leered at the genin as they started to line up and take their places to get their wavers to sign, "You brats are going to need all the luck you can get... This mountain is no joke if you haven't realized it yet. There isn't going to be anyone coming to keep you kiddies safe and warm if you're really serious about this."
XxX
(Minutes Before the Start of the 2nd Exam)
Ino was pacing around in the little area of the waiting room that her team had taken up occupation of, "How the hell are we going to pull this one off? None of us know anything about this village let alone the mountain the village is on!"
All teams were forced to go straight to their hotels upon their arrival in the host village and were told that leaving was not an option. They thought it was so that no fighting between teams and villages would break out, now they knew it was so no one would have the faintest idea of what was to happen during this exam, no one would be able to set up a rapport with any locals in the time it would take from their arrival for the testing to begin, everyone would be in the dark.
So they were all going in cold trying to get their own information on how to find a place that none of them knew anything about. A place that could be anywhere. And to ask around to the already suspicious local citizenry would only result in others doing the same. Hundreds of ninja running around your village asking for information on a single place in your home area... yeah nobody would be getting anything done working like that.
They really weren't messing around with this test.
"Calm down Ino..." Menma said to her, grabbing her by the hand to stop her pacing before he pointed at Shikamaru who was sitting down with his hands locked in his thinking pose, "We can do this, don't worry about it I know this place like the back of my hand I was raised here. You're going to get all tired just freaking out about it."
"Three days Menma!" Ino exclaimed, "We're going to be out in the cold for three days looking for a place that could be anywhere! Do you know how cold it could get out there at night?" She turned her blue eyes into full puppy-dog mode, "Please Menma-kun?" If her lip had started to quiver he probably would have fallen to pieces on the spot.
Averting his gaze as quickly as he could as when it really came down to it he couldn't and wouldn't say no,
Naruto then started to speak up, "Well... they never said that we couldn't go back to the hotel to rest if we needed to." That was the best way out of the awkward situation he was in that he had, and an actual fact.
They never said that they couldn't do a couple of things, they just gave them a bunch of warnings. They definitely wouldn't be trying to capture and slow down any other competitors... at least not in the village, because none of them really wanted to see what those samurai were made of. There were way more samurai than ninja here and no one would be helping them if they got on the bad side of the local warriors.
Shikamaru looked up at Naruto, finished with his thinking, "That's not really a good idea Naruto. Coming back would just set us back. We're going to find something on where to go before nightfall and this is a race, plus if Menma knows this place like he says he does we'll follow him. We can't go back to the starting line just because we're uncomfortable."
Ino got off of her kick of teasing Menma to look at Shikamaru, "Wow, I didn't think I'd hear that out of you. I thought you would be all for coming back and crashing in a bed the second night fell."
"Normally yeah, I probably would." Shikamaru admitted freely to his teammates, "But the guy just said that all three of us need to be there and it would be too troublesome for you three to gripe and complain when I do it. Besides, the faster we finish the faster I cansleep in an actual bed without having to worry about getting my head kicked in."
"Alright everyone outside!" Anko ordered loudly once the time had come for the test to begin, "It's time to light this firecracker!"
XxX
"Remember the rules!" Kitsuchi's voice boomed once everyone competing in the next round of tests were outside and ready to begin, "You have three days. In three days at noon the test will end, twelve teams or not." Everyone paid rapt attention to the man, all dressed in their winter equipment, mostly cloaks for the bulk of them, "And don't do anything stupid!" He looked around and noticed the looks of total seriousness on all of their faces, "Get out of my sight!"
With that, the teams all immediately set out with the exception of one, Team 10, mostly because of Shikamaru holding onto Menma, Ino, and Naruto just as all of the others took off to begin. Instead of beginning their search, Shikamaru simply walked up to Kitsuchi, Anko, and Ao, dragging the other three with him until he stood before them, "So... is this the place we have to get to for the next exam?"
Anko started laughing and even Ao had to smile in amusement as Kitsuchi answered, "No, good try though. That would have been too easy. Now go, you just wasted about a minute. Tick-tock kid." He shooed Shikamaru away as Naruto and Ino followed and glared at him.
Shikamaru and the rest of Team 10 then finally took off to begin their search for the hidden location, although he had to deal with the silent glowering of the two blondes for the start of it, "It was worth a shot..." That did nothing to lighten up the harsh looks, "What? It was just a minute or two. In the grand scheme does it really matter? We have 72 hours."
Ino scoffed, it was a race, every second counted as far as she was concerned, "So any other bright ideas about how we're going to do this?" She looked over at Naruto only for him to shake his head, he didn't know.
'Even when you're looking for something like this there's always a way to find it... even with no information we know that it exists somewhere... other people know that it exists somewhere... and to be sent on a mission to find something, someone had to call it in for us to take it in the first place.' Menma pondered as they moved along the rooftops of the village seeing other teams darting around here and there doing the same, all giving the others dirty looks.
'No street fighting...' Naruto had to admit, the no fighting in the village rule was pretty cumbersome for what was supposed to be an anything goes race, but have 150+ shinobi, even genin, going all out just to keep others from reaching the goal first would turn the whole place into a warzone... not good at all, 'Good rule.'
He could see the heavily armed samurai out and watching the streets like hawks, eyes on every ninja moving about to make sure everything stayed as peaceful as it could be, it was still a powder keg though.
"I've got it." Menma said finally, getting Shikamaru's, Ino's, and Naruto's attention as he diverted their path in another direction, "Where's the first place that you go when you have any kind of question about anything that you're doing? Who should have an answer or a clue about what to do most of the time when you don't?"
Shikamaru gave him a squinting look as if it were a trick question, "Um, your superior?" His eyes then shot open as he realized that Menma was heading towards the hotels where the Konoha and Suna teams were staying, "Do you think so?"
Menma shrugged in response, "If I'm wrong about this one too then we'll only have wasted thirty minutes... we have three days."
Ino looked over at Menma with a dry look on her face, "I'm going to get really sick of you saying that by the end of the day."
XxX
(Hotel)
Asuma walked to his hotel door at the behest of frantic knocking and opened the door to find all four of his genin waiting there, "Thank Kami you were smart enough to get here in the first two hours... Kakashi and Kurenai owe me money." He ushered them into his room and shut the door behind them.
"You bet on us to get here in two hours?" Ino asked Asuma incredulously as she took a seat on Asuma's bed while Menma, Naruto and Shikamaru just stood, "Way to set an upstanding example Asuma-sensei."
Asuma gave her a look of annoyance, "It is boring as hell, and we have to wait for you brats to show up to ask us what we know about your test before we can even leave the hotel to go and do anything else for fun. I'd love to see how you'd occupy your time only being able to go down the hall to talk to other jounin."
Hearing Asuma say that they were supposed to come to him for some kind of assistance set his mind at ease but raised another question, "If we were supposed to come to you to ask you for help then why didn't you just give us the clue before this and save us the time?"
"I didn't know I had to tell you anything until we were all told that we did barely even two hours ago after we got wind of our students passing the first exam." Asuma said with a pointed look at the lazy genius boy, "Now do you want the clue or do you want to sleep and get behind in the race?"
"Is that a trick question?" Shikamaru responded before ducking two swings at his head from Naruto and Ino.
Naruto looked towards the bearded jounin and quickly answered for Shikamaru, "Come on and tell us Asuma-sensei. We're ready to get out of here already."
"This is all the help I can give you so listen up. Whatever happens from here on out you're on your own because I can't do anything without getting you disqualified, it's not like I have any more information on the subject than you even if I'll figure it out myself before you." Asuma explained before realizing that they were all giving him their full attention, ready to take down whatever he had to say to them.
Naruto gave a confident smile, "Just go ahead and tell us sensei. We'll make it work, whatever you say."
If that was what the kid wanted then that was what he would get as far as Asuma was concerned, "Okay, the only clue I have to give you is this: To find the target area you'll definitely have to leave the village to get there. Three Wolves mountains will be your playground, your battlefield, and your sanctuary. You will never be able to simply see it, no matter how high your viewpoint, no matter how far you look. You will need to traverse the veins of the countryside to win this little rat race."
The four kids just sat there listening and staring at Asuma until it was clear that he was finished. Ino was the first to speak up, "That's it? That's the big clue we were supposed to come here and get? That didn't explain a damn thing."
"There is one more thing that they told me to tell you to make sure you remembered no matter what." Asuma added at Ino's behest.
Menma was still trying to work out just what Asuma had meant by his first statement, maybe what he had to say next would help, "And that would be?"
"Remember to take the river as far as it goes." Asuma said before scratching his head, "I've got no idea what that means... but hey, it isn't my problem, it's yours. This is your test not mine."
Naruto just stared at the man before grabbing his hair in exasperation, "Gah! That didn't explain anything? What the hell does either of that have to do with anything? None of that sounds like a damn clue or directions for anything!" Shikamaru grunted in agreement. He was no stranger to puzzles, but that one was going to kill him until he figured it out.
Jumping up in agreement to the start of Naruto's rant, Ino nodded her head fervently, "Yeah, there's no river anywhere around this village or on this mountain at all!"
Asuma shrugged his shoulders, "This is the best you've got." He then grabbed Ino's arm and shooed her out of the room along with the others, "Now go and don't lose, because every jounin with teams still in this thing started a pool with a 10000 ryo buy in. If you get all the way to the end of the exam and last longer than the others then winner takes all. Win me some money kids." With that, he shut them out of his room and left them back in the hallway.
With a collective sigh, Team 10 set out to make some sense out of what they were told and possibly find their destination. Menma looked back at Asuma's door and shook his head, "Both of my teachers are bad influences."
XxX
(Several Hours Later)
By now the sun had set on the day and small snow flurries were falling as Team 10 trudged through the snow a few miles outside of the village. A search for more clues or anything else turned up fruitless and a waste of time. The end of the first day was coming and the only thing they seemed to get out of searching for hours for a hint were repeated cold shoulders from the populace and being watched like criminals by the samurai... so there was no espionage going on with that scenario.
Menma formed the ram seal and let out another pulse of his chakra to see if anyone was tailing them, why anyone would be he didn't know, but they weren't in the village anymore, it was a free-for-all out there, "How are you guys holding up?" He asked Naruto, Ino, and Shikamaru as he had his goggles down to protect his eyes and his bandanna up over his mouth and nose to cover them from the cold.
"Ready to go home..." Shikamaru replied tiredly. They could have been getting farther and farther away from their intended goal for all they knew. Asuma's riddle still had them drawing blanks.
Ino let out a groan, "Well we can't just stop out here. Menma you said you felt other teams going back to the village, why don't we just do that too so we can sleep in the hotel? We don't have anything that would make staying out here an advantage."
Naruto didn't like that idea one bit. Doing that was akin to quitting as far as he was concerned, "We can't just do that. Then when we wake up we'll just have this to do all over again. Come on you guys it isn't even that late yet, we can keep going for a bit longer." He wasn't going to fall behind. He hadn't seen Team 7, Team 8, or Tenten and Lee's team. Who knew where they were? They might have finished already, and there were only 12 spots to take.
"We're missing something." Menma said to himself, trying to occupy his time with thinking about where they were supposed to go. If they were supposed to look all around the mountains for this place then who knew how long that could take. The mountains were huge, even the one 'wolf' that they were on was still more than ten miles around. It would take way longer than three days to comb the entire thing just to narrow down places where it might be. That's not to even begin to register the weather that went from harshly cold to sub-zero.
Ino blocked a sniffle and spoke glibly, "Yeah... like warmth, shelter, light, a chance in hell of pulling this off. Stop me if I get the one that you meant we were missing."
This place was morale-draining. There were no sights to take in, all that you could see was dark and snow. There was barely any moonlight out either from behind the clouds. They were pretty much operating and moving forward based off of what Menma knew about Tetsu No Kuni and Menma and Naruto's periodical bursts of their scouting jutsu. Another wave of it from Naruto led to him stopping the others in their tracks, "Wait, stop. We're getting close to the edge of the mountain."
With that, they all walked over to the edge that Naruto had informed them they were near before something dangerous could happen. It was dangerously dark outside, there was a possibility that they could have walked over the edge, thank goodness Naruto was walking sonar. Once they got to the end of the cliff they were able to see the massive landscape of Tetsu no Kuni, "Ugh..." Ino frowned heavily as she scanned the area, "Looking at all of this doesn't make me very confident here. What are we going to do?" She then let out a shriek before her mouth was covered by Menma as he grabbed her and Naruto grabbed Shikamaru and took them over the edge of the cliff.
Ino's shriek was cut short as a minor noise in the quiet night that was followed by nothing. A shadowed set of figures then swiftly made their way to the edge of the cliff where Team 10 had just been, "Come on, where are those stupid kids? We were following their footsteps through the snow, they stop here." The shadows turned out to be the team of Iwa ninja with the member that had targeted Team 10 before the first exam.
"Yeah, they stop here." Another one of the shinobi said with a laugh, "They must have fallen off the cliff. I can barely see my own nose in front of my face. Look at the sliding marks by the edge, the kiddies probably never stayed out this late before. Looks like you aren't going to get to mess with that blonde kid and the one with the sword eh Hisashi?"
The last one there with the shaved head simply didn't speak at all, staring down over the edge with a hard look in his eyes before finally turning and leaving, "Come on. We've got to finish this test. We can't worry about some Yellow Flash runts walking off a cliff." He said spitefully.
The other two glowered at their teammate before following after him, "You were the one that wanted to head out here after the kid... we just wanted to get to the next stage. Man you've got a real issue with him don't you?" One of the others quipped smarmily. It wasn't their idea to take a detour just to go after some kid.
"Shut up. You don't know anything about it."
With that, the speech between the teammates faded out of earshot until they left the area altogether. Once the coast seemed clear a female sigh could be heard, "That was pretty close... you could have said something before you threw us over the edge though Menma-kun."
"There wasn't any time." Menma explained as the entire team stood upside down underneath the thick cliff separating them from the topside. They had bypassed the jagged stalactites that formed the jagged jaws of the Three Wolves Mountains and were standing on flat, safe positioning, "I didn't know what I was sensing until they were right on top of us. Sorry."
"Better scared than dead or in a useless fight." Shikamaru added in place of Ino's fright at being dragged over the side. Naruto had held onto Shikamaru and stuck himself to the wall until they realized why he did what he did, "That was a quick move Naruto. Are they gone?"
Naruto formed the ram seal and let out another concentrated burst of his jutsu... he really was turning into an early warning radar device for this team, "I can't sense anything up there, the cliff is in the way I can't see-." Naruto suddenly stopped talking about what he could and couldn't sense from where he was and started looking around.
Ino noticed his shift in attitude and addressed it, "What's the matter? Is there something else coming?"
A shake of the head from her fellow blonde gave her the answer, "No, I told you I can't sense things through or around walls." Naruto explained, "But there's something not right about the cliff face under us." He was gesturing to the cliff wall that sat deeper within the maw of one of the 'Three Wolves', around the back of its throat area.
Ino squinted as hard as she could in the indicated direction but other than the rocky outcroppings of the mountain that were near her she couldn't see that far back into the mountain, it was far too dark. She doubted she could see back there if it had even been daytime, "I wish Sasuke-kun was here. He'd be able to light the way back there with a fireball."
Naruto rolled his eyes, "What? A fireball? I can actually look back there, I just need to focus more on what I feel when I do. Give me a second to focus." Naruto wasn't sure if he had actually felt something or if all of the standing upside down was making the blood rush to his head a little too quickly, nevertheless he unleashed another pulse of sonar and waited.
PING.
"I definitely felt something back there that isn't like the rest of this place..." Naruto informed them before he started running upside down on the wall towards the location, wordlessly being followed by Ino and Shikamaru.
Shikamaru, not one to run without a damn good reason to do so, questioned Naruto on just what he was doing and where he was taking them, "What did you feel? Just saying that something isn't like the rest of this place doesn't tell us anything."
Eventually Naruto came to a stop and pointed directly down into the dark below them. Shikamaru and Ino looked where he was guiding their eyes, but couldn't see in the dark, "Down there. There's something iron, I felt it when I used my jutsu."
"You can do that?" Ino asked him in shock. She knew that he could more or less see in bursts but to be able to tell what he was actually feeling when he used the jutsu, that was something else altogether.
Naruto nodded as his eyes didn't pan away from the area directly below them, "Yeah down there. It's pretty far but it's definitely there." To mark the general area he was talking about in case they didn't get exactly where he was pointing, Naruto pulled out a kunai and dropped it to the ground.
They couldn't even see down there. If they climbed down there then they wouldn't be able to get back up so easily, even with wall-walking. They would have to stay the night down there and then possibly fall further behind. Ino didn't particularly like that idea, "We have to stay on the mountain, if we leave then we'll never find where we're supposed to go."
"They said the vicinity of the mountain. They never said we had to stay on the mountain... they just implied that we did, the memories are starting to comeback this has to be the place." Menma said, thinking deeply about the pros and cons of attempting to go down there and see what Naruto was sensing, "We went all over the place today. If Naruto couldn't sense anything up top but he feels something down there then we should try it out."
Shikamaru let off a sigh, "Climbing down there is going to be troublesome though..."
"We could just let go and fall." Menma suggested half-jokingly before getting a glare from Ino, "Fine, we'll climb down. You're no fun Ino."
Ino blocked a loud yell from herself as she felt like pulling her hair, "That fall is hundreds of feet you blockhead!"
"Blah, blah blah." Menma dismissed her as he started to take the long walk over to the inside of the maw so that he could start the climb to the bottom. He noticed that while Shikamaru was for the most part game Ino still didn't like the idea of getting off of the mountain, "Trust me. I know what I felt. I think it's what we're looking for." Ino just looked at him until she accepted that she had to trust him... either that or she was sick of standing upside down because she followed soon thereafter.
XxX
(After Midnight)
Menma navigated a field of dark stalagmites sticking up from the ground from what would be seen as the bottom of the mouth of the mountain. It was like a forest of stone, something that was pretty amazing actually, but there was no time to marvel over natural formations when there was a search to be done, "Just a little bit further you guys." Menma knew that Ino and Shikamaru were exhausted from the climb down.
"What did we come all the way down here for?" Ino asked Menma tiredly. They had made the trip down there, making it back up was out of the question after all of the chakra two of the three had expended getting down there. They were there for the night either way.
Naruto growled to himself as he couldn't see what he had been able to locate with his jutsu from the air, "Where's that stupid kunai?"
Shikamaru came around the corner of one of the rock formations holding said weapon, "I think I found something near where I got this." He motioned for the two blonde genin to follow him through the rock forest until he stopped in front of one particular stalagmite, "That's the one."
Ino, Menma, and Naruto both looked at it strangely. In the dark they couldn't really tell the difference between that rock and all of the others. If they saw one dark rock then they had seen them all. Remembering how he had located the point of interest that he figured was important, Naruto formed a ram seal, "Chakura Hankyouteii no Jutsu (Chakra Echolocation Jutsu)!" Naruto's eyes widened as the reverberation from the technique bounced back immediately, "That's the thing. That's what I felt from up there."
"It's a rock..." Ino said in a calm voice, though her eye was twitching, "We came all the way down here to look at a big sharp pointy rock." She turned to Naruto with her hands in a strangling motion, "If I kill you here would anyone find your body?"
In order to keep Ino from attempting to strangle Naruto, Menma rapped on the 'rock' three times to get a small clanging noise, "It's not a rock." The 'rock' started to spin around, making soft sliding noise before revealing a small door that led to a ladder down a tunnel that was pitch black. Naruto turned to Ino and gestured to the passage, "Well... do you still want to kill me?"
"No..." Ino replied as they walked into the chamber that closed behind them. As a low light kicked on in the small compartment she simply stared down the hole, "We still need you to pass the exam..." She tried to joke, but was still in awe over actually finding this thing. Ino nudged Naruto with her elbow, "Can you sense anything down there?"
Naruto was about to attempt it when Shikamaru stopped him from doing so, "People can feel when you do that outside if they pay enough attention." Shikamaru started to explain, "I don't want to tip anything off if there's someone or something down there." With that, Shikamaru took a breath and descended the ladder, "Of course if we're lucky then this is the end and we win..."
Naruto, Menma, and Ino could hear Shikamaru climbing down every rung of the ladder in the dark tunnel before finally there was silence and they waited for some kind of indication from Shikamaru of what he found. In the end however, they heard an echoing groan from down below, "What? What happened Shikamaru? What's down there?" Menma asked frantically.
"It's not over yet..." Shikamaru's voice said back up to the two, sounding extremely dejected about that fact.
XxX
Down in the tunnel with Shikamaru he found himself in a lowly lit cavern set up in a dome-like pattern. All around him were tons of different passages that led to who knew where, 'Ugh... so these are the veins of the countryside... stupid riddle. How was anyone supposed to know about this place?' From what he could see, the tunnels all had light to see through them and whatnot, and he couldn't tell how deep they ran due to an echo running through them all. They looked to be just as sturdy as the best building above ground in the village. The tunnels looked constructed to take a heavy-duty beating which didn't necessarily bode very well for them all things considered.
He looked up at the ladder in the center of the room that he had just dropped down from and talked back up it, "We're not even close to being done yet..." He called up one last time to his teammates, "Get down here already."
Next time he figured that just doing something like the chunin exams seemed like the lesser of two evils compared to staying home and taking a brow beating from his mom and teammates he would have to think about this entire chain of events.
And they weren't alone down there.
"Did you hear a voice somewhere?" Shikamaru heard an unfamiliar voice say down one of the tunnels, "Should we check it out? They might be ahead of us. We ran into two dead ends already since we found the way down here."
And it was a maze too. Beautiful.
"I hate my job..." Shikamaru muttered to himself as he saw Naruto and Ino climbing their way down to join him, "Who's idea was it for me to be a ninja again? And why is there a place like this here at all?"
"Aah snake!" Ino exclaimed, dropping to the ground suddenly and looking up onto the ladder before it fell to the ground headless due to Menma.
"Good." Menma said, dropping to the ground himself and sheathing his katana that he had used to kill the snake, "I was hungry anyway."
One day down, two days to go.
"I see them!" At that point a team of genin from Amegakure came forward from a tunnel all wearing ponchos, two of them wearing rain hats, all of them carrying oxygen tanks and umbrellas on their backs, each varying in height. The lead one was the tallest and had a multitude of scars on his face, one of which seemed to result in him being blinded in one eye, "Would you look at that? The Konoha babies found their way down here. So why don't you all just hand over your directions?"
Naruto and Ino looked at each other before the female Yamanaka spoke up, "What directions?" And from the look on the Ame genin's faces that was apparently the wrong thing to say.
Menma let out another sigh.
This was going to be a long two days... if they even lasted that long.