Chūnin Exams (V).

The proctor of the first stage was the same man that had greeted them when they had arrived in Iwa; Kitsuchi, the son of the current Tsuchikage.

Currently, every Genin that was to participate in the exams was standing in the centre of one of Iwa's training grounds. Itachi had used this opportunity to count the number of them and compare the result to the number he and the other Genin from Konoha had gathered since their arrival, so he knew that there were altogether 49 teams with a total of 147 people in the exams. There were three teams from Konoha, nine teams from Suna, three teams from Kumo, two teams from Kusa, two teams from Taki, one team from Ame, and a total of twenty-nine teams from Iwa itself.

"Okay, listen closely, because I will not repeat myself," Kitsuchi started, speaking loud enough to reach even those standing far away from him. "My name is Kitsuchi and I will be your protector for the duration of the first exam. I don't accept questions, so don't even try.

This exam will be held on the training grounds 16 to 42. All of you will be lead to a random position in this area by one of our Chūnin. Every team will get a scroll with a number between 1 and 49 written on it; your task is to return to this clearing with a scroll that has an even number. The rules are as follows:

You're not allowed to open the scroll to look at which number you have. In fact, if you open any scroll, be it your own or the one of another team, you will be disqualified.

If you're caught exchanging scrolls with another team, you will be disqualified. Also, if you attack another team and are caught by one of the Chūnin patrolling the area, you will be disqualified as well.

You're not allowed to team up with other teams.

You're not allowed to possess more than one scroll at any given time.

You have three hours to finish this exam. If you're not here by the time the exam is over, you will not pass even if you own a scroll with an even number. That's it, now please follow your assigned Chūnin."

Having finished what he wanted to say, the man turned around and began to walk away from the clearing, ignoring the confused and angry calls of those Genin who found this test too unfair or unfeasible.

Shortly afterwards, an Iwa Chūnin appeared and motioned them to follow him before leading them to their assigned position.

"Well," Yukio said a few seconds after the foreign shinobi had left them. "That sounds annoying. Any ideas?"

This exam was surprisingly similar to one of the more common first exams they held in Konoha, Itachi thought. The written exam that was supposed to force the participants to cheat without being noticed was meant to bring the Genins to think outside the box, to prove their information gathering and stealth skills. This exam, as far as he could see, had a similar approach; they were supposed to break the rules to solve this exam, and the real obstacle was to do so without being caught. Of course, it also tested their problem-solving abilities by imposing that many rules. There was no way to solve this exam without cheating, but if you were creative, you could come out on top of this.

"You two understand the real purpose of this exam, do you?" Anko asked rhetorically.

Yukio snorted. "Of course; cheat, but don't get caught while doing so."

"Good. Itachi, tell your crows to fly around and look for other people. They are to caw when they find an Iwa Chūnin and then circle above them, and only circle above them without making a sound if they find another Genin team."

He nodded and did as he was told, deciding to let his team take the lead for now. He had already a pretty good idea of how to get through this exam, but it would be good for Anko and Yukio to manage it on their own as well. Not that he thought that would be too hard for them considering how they instantly looked through the rules and started to take measures against them.

"Alright," Anko continued. "Now we need to have a plan for how we are gonna find out which scroll has which number. Simply opening them seems a bit too risky."

"There are probably seals on them that summon an instructor if opened," Yukio agreed. "I heard from one of my cousins that they do that back in Konoha, so Iwa likely does it as well."

"I guess we could force other teams to open their scroll," Anko mused with furrowed brows. "But that's pretty risky as well. If an instructor is summoned and sees their condition while we're close by, it would become apparent that we cheated. It wouldn't be real proof, but they might decide that it's enough to disqualify us."

"If we manage to destroy the ribbon that keeps the scroll together during the fight and then quickly retreat, it might appear as if they opened it themselves," Yukio said without sounding very convinced.

"Maybe, but then there is the risk that the instructor takes the scroll with him when he disqualifies the team…" Suddenly she brightened up. "Itachi, you can make other teams open their scroll by casting a Genjutsu on them, right?"

He smiled, satisfied with how fast they have come to that conclusion. "That shouldn't be much of a problem. I doubt there are many participants in this exam that would be able to notice when I catch them in a Genjutsu from some hidden position. As long as we avoid those that are attentive enough to stay alert of their senses even when they're not in a confrontation, we should be fine." He certainly planned to avoid Yugito Nii specifically at all costs.

"Great," Yukio smiled. "Then let's go!"

While the number of training-grounds that were assigned for this exam was pretty high, the grounds themselves didn't tend to be very big –a far cry from the Forest of Death for sure. So, while there was more than enough space to avoid people, you could always feel some chakra signatures at the edge of your senses. As it was a fair assumption that many teams would try to hide their presence, it was also very likely that there were always several teams close that they didn't know about.

Fortunately, his crows did a good job at scouting the area. It wasn't the same as having a Hyūga or even an Inuzuka or Aburame on your team, but it did the job just fine.

For a while, they simply tried to get away from any instructor that might watch them. That turned out to be harder than they initially thought, however, as every time they got away from one, another appeared. In the end, they needed nearly an entire hour to get away from any watchful eyes, only to find that they were suddenly close to not only one but six teams. None of them seemed to have noticed them yet, or if they did they simply chose to ignore them, but the problem stayed the same; there was the danger that another team would interfere with them if they executed their plan right now. It would be a lot of bad luck if that happened, for the likelihood that they would even notice that something was going on was close to zero, but it was a probability they couldn't ignore.

'Well, at least none of these teams includes the Jinchūriki.' he thought. She could still be close if she hid her presence and somehow avoided the eyes of his crows, of course, but the ones he could feel were way too weak to be her.

"Shall we risk it?" Yukio asked.

Anko gave him a wide smile, anticipation clear in her eyes. "Looks like fun," she said before turning toward him. "As long as you're ready?"

"We need to do this before another instructor finds us," he agreed. "So let's do it now that we have the chance.

"Right," she nodded. "Who knows how long we need to get away from them the next time? There is still the time limit to think about."

Yukio opened his mouth to add something, but a loud explosion interrupted him when he was just about to speak. All three of them jumped around and looked towards where the noise had come from, watching a big cloud of smoke rising to the sky.

"Damn," Anko cursed with a low whistle. "Whatever technique did that must have some real punch behind it. Look at the size of the cloud!"

"How risky to pull something like that off when fighting is prohibited," Yukio said. "Every instructor in the area will head over to see what's going on."

Itachi tilted his head in consideration before addressing his two teammates. "That might actually be their intention; one person attracts the attention of all the instructors while their teammates use the commotion to attack another team undetected."

"Smart," Yukio commented with the barest hint of admiration. "But they're not the only ones who can use this opportunity."

"The other teams are heading away from the explosion," Anko said, talking about the six teams that were in their area. "I say we should target the one that was the closest. That way, there will be no other team that accidentally interrupts us as they run away."

He and Yukio nodded in agreement and a second later, the three of them were rushing towards their target while cautiously making sure not to run into anyone else.

"They will probably be more alert now," he spoke up. "That means it would be much harder to catch them unaware with a Genjutsu."

He could still do it, of course, but it would require more chakra to use a sufficient powerful technique from far away, especially from out of sight.

Yukio narrowed his eyes. "They don't feel especially strong. I would say they're somewhere in the middle field strength-wise compared to the other teams. We should be able to take them."

"Rushing in and overwhelming them before they can react," Anko said with a chuckle. "Just as I like it. Formation six sounds good to you, boys?"

"Hai!"

"Hai!"

They needed only a few minutes before they found a more or less even area with enough boulders and rocks for their plan that laid directly on the path of their targets. Yukio instantly went to the right, hiding in a gap between two big boulders, while Anko went to the left and crotched low to hide in the shadow of a big rock. He, on the other hand, went quickly through the necessary hand seals to perform the Moguragakure no Jutsu (Hiding Like a Mole Technique) and vanished beneath the ground.

It was less than a minute after they had successfully hidden themselves that their prey arrived.

He used the vibrations of her steps to position herself so that they would walk right over him and waited until the first two passed him before pushing his hands through the surface to grab the third one's ankles, thus inciting his team's attack.

The Genin whose ankles he had grabbed fell face-first to the ground, the sudden noise making his teammates stop and turn around with surprised squeaks. Not stopping there, he pulled again, pulling his victim –a boy with an Iwa symbol on his forehead protector- into the ground until only his head peered out.