Chapter Seven

Pre-Chapter AN: Hey, thanks for reading this. It's literally my favourite thing to write these days. Enjoy the chapter, and let me know how it sticks if you enjoy it. If you're feeling a bit impatient, the next three chapters are up on pat-re-on- same username as up here and link in my profile. 

When he saw Shori stop to scrawl down that seal, he'd known that there was nothing good that would come of it. At least, they were done with the exam. He was proven right when the next team to approach the final tunnel stepped over the seal. It was only Shikahime's observant nature that allowed her to notice the glow on the floor before the seal went off. She activated her shadow jutsu and somehow used it to toss both her teammates out of the tunnel while she sank into the ground. She surfaced outside the tunnel a few seconds later, but no one had any attention to give her. All the attention was on the destroyed exit. Shori's seal had caused the tunnel to implode in on itself, so everyone within the mail was essentially sealed within by the stone that made up the path. Rather, all the attention flickered between the exit and Shori's brightly smiling face. 

He wanted to shrink in on itself as the screen magnified their own feed. His skin looked pasty white on the large display. It was clear that he wanted to be anywhere but here. Uzume glowered right at the receptor. Her glare shot from the screen in a way that showed her clear disdain for everyone watching. Shori, on the other hand, smiled and waved. He was smiling. A bright smile that made it clear he wasn't concerned with the shouts of him being a cheater that came from certain parts of the crowd. Toshiro was beginning to fear that the field would be overrun by pissed of spectators when the commentator's voice rang out. 

"A brilliant tactic from the Konoha Team. Sealing up the entrance to prevent others from making their way through easily" The samurai said with an approving hum, making it clear that nothing Shori had done was against the rules. 

"Even better, he used fuinjutsu, which was never mentioned in the rules, and waited until he was more than done with the exam before allowing his trap to take effect. A brilliant tactic, indeed. But let us not hesitate to give it up for the second team to pass this stage, Team Sixty-Six from Konoha; Yamanaka Inoken, Nara Shikahime, and Akimichi Choni." Jiraiya's words put paid to the whispers as everyone moved to applauding Shikahime's team. Even better, the screen decided to show a replay of them escaping the trap. 

XXXXX 

At the end of the day, it took an hour for someone to finally complete the maze again. It was the team they'd passed from Iwa. They made it to the sealed exit, like multiple other teams had. But instead of taking it as a dead end like the other teams had, the muscular one moved forward to examine the site of the cave in. He exchanged words with his teammates, and then they walked backwards before the one with red hair made a single hand-seal- the tiger seal. Instead of a fireball, he breathed out multiple small balls of lava(?). They slammed into the cave-in and shot through. The blockage on the exit was lifted, and they walked through. 

The fourth team to pass was Izuku's. Only the fourth by a technicality because it seems they had run into Uraume's team at some point in the maze and then chosen to work together to complete the rest of it. Uraume stepped backwards to allow Izuku step through first. Toshiro noted that all four of the genin teams to have graduated with him had been in the top five. 

The next team had the boy with bi-coloured hair that Shori had been staring at for a while. He noticed him watching their feed even before they got to the exit. Subsequently, teams started to pass through at a steady rate. 

All in all, the first stage had taken close to three hours from start to end. Shori's prank had definitely lengthened the task beyond all expectations. 

"Now that we have our first fourteen teams, we can end the task," Jiraiya's voice rang out before the max began to open up. Those still within it were visibly disappointed to find that they had lost and been disqualified. In one fell swoop, they'd gone from hundreds to fourteen teams. 

"I hope you all got your fill of the calmer task. From now, we'll be diving right into the action" Jiraiya said, and the ground began to vibrate again. 

All the genin who passed had been returned to the central platform, while everyone else was made to evacuate the field. Toshiro noted that apart from his genin class, one other team had passed from Konoha. One team each had passed from both Kumo and Iwa. Two teams had passed from Suna. Shockingly, three teams had passed from Kiri. One team had passed from the hidden waterfall village, and the last two teams had come from the Land of Hot Water, and the Land of Grass respectively. All five major villages were represented, but Konoha had the majority. 

He watched as the field shifted. Two hills began to rise from the surrounding earth with flags on them; one red and one green. 

"For the second task, we have a new game to play. This one involving all fourteen teams in plain view of you, the viewing audience. It's called King of the flags. As you can see, there are two hills and two flags in the playfield. Your task is simple. Every team is to work on their own to complete one of two objectives — Either take the hill or take the flag. Taking the hill means having the only people on the peak of the hill be members of one's team. For every 30 seconds that a team holds the hill, they get twenty points. If the hill is in contention, meaning that the people on the hill are members of more than one team, then the points are shared between the teams equally. As for the flags, the rule involving the flags is simple. Taking the flag means having possession of the flag at the end of the stage. Each flag is worth 200 points. The top five teams at the end will move on to the final stage of this exhibition." He said, going on a long spell that I tried my best to keep track of. It reminded me of two games from my past, and it also told me that Grandmother Mito had more of a role in designing these than she let on. 

I'd told her about King of the Hill and Capture the Flag before. In fact, it was a game she enjoyed playing with me- with figurines of course-we had these cool puppets powered by fuinjutsu that could move in all sorts of ways. I guess designing this test like this was supposed to give me some sort of advantage. 

"Just to clarify, the flags are not to be removed from their poles, and they must not be hidden at all during the task. Does everyone understand the rules?" He didn't wait for an answer. 

"Good. You have three minutes to strategise among yourselves." Jiraiya finally said, and shut off the feed from his mic. The crowd's buzzing gnawed at me as they chattered about the undoubtedly exciting task to themselves. 

I turned to both Uzume and Toshiro and began to make signs at them. 

'Focus on the flags?' I asked first. 

'Negative. That's what most of them will be thinking as well. Having to keep it openly displayed means we'd sooner end up in a situation like whoever gets the Hill, without the benefit of the high ground' Uzume replied, signing furiously. 

I thought over her words and nodded. It provided one advantage over the hill; mobility. But at the end of the day, we'd have to fight off everyone who wasn't going to scrap over the hills. I tried to come up with a plan, but literally the only other option was scrapping it for the top of the Hill. I knew that was the option Uzume preferred. Both because she was that type of person, and she literally just signed it at us. 

'We'd have to fight at least half the people here by ourselves. And we have to make sure they don't stay on the hill in any large numbers because splitting those points would be terrible.' I signed back. She wanted to sign something back before Toshiro stepped between us. Uzume was no longer antagonistic with me- not as much as she used to be, but we were still far from friends. Teammates maybe, but not friends. 

'I have an idea' His fingers said for him. 

'How long will it take you to make a barrier that rejects outsiders? How long can you keep it up for?' Both questions were addressed to me. 

'Since I already know the script for an excellent one, it'll probably take about three minutes with clones. And as for keeping it up, I can go for hours if it isn't being assaulted. Under heavy assault, maybe 30 minutes, but I'd be dead on my feet afterwards.' I said to him. Being a quarter Senju and a quarter Uzumaki meant I had chakra reserves that put some Jounin to shame. I wasn't Naruto, by any means. At about six shadow clones, I was tapped out. But I wasn't lacking when it came to reserves. 

'Good. My idea is this. Uzume and I buy you the time to make the barrier and once you can get it up, we chill at the top of the hill.' He signed. It was a good idea, I thought. Better than whatever I had. I signed that to both of them, and Uzume signed her willingness soon after. She'd get to fight to her heart's content, so it probably soothed the battle lust in her Uchiha blood. I slapped myself at that thought. I was slipping up more and more. The more time I spent in the clan compound, reading scrolls from previous clan heads, and talking to Granduncle, the more anti-Uchiha propaganda was shoved down my throat. It was a subtle and insidious thing. Like how Senju Benimaru, the seventeenth clan head had written that Uchiha had a natural lust for battle — ignoring that we Senju enjoyed fighting just as much as they did. We started half the conflict between our clans, after all. He even ignored Senju Kenpachi who loved to fight so much that he came close to ending the entire Uchiha Clan, but allowed the survivors to leave simply because he wanted them to get stronger and present him with a good fight. 

My thoughts were knocked out of my head, as someone walked towards us. Izuku. He had both his teammates behind him. I smiled at him, and he smiled back. 

"I saw your plan. We want in." He said. He wasn't talking to me. He was talking to Toshiro. And my ever affable teammate turned to him with a sharp smile on his face- "Fuck off" I choked. I actually choked on air and had to bend over. I missed the next part of the interaction. 

"We could just as easily ruin the entire plan if we wanted to. Let us in. Besides, if you want to cover Mr. Seal Master over there, then the two of you won't be enough" he said. 

"Hold on, how did you even know our plan?" I cut in before Toshiro could reply. 

He flashed his sharingan for a second, and I almost facepalmed. Of course. 

"The point is, we want in. We have the numbers to help you make this thing work" He said, still talking to Toshiro. 

"Fine. But you'll do precisely as I say." 

"Sure thing, Captain" He said with a sincere smile on his face. 

"Now that I'm in on this, I say you should probably stop assuming you're the only ones who speak Anbu code. I saw Uraume peeking at you guys earlier with her eyes, and Shikahime's gaze hasn't left your team since you started your little strategising session" He said. 

I wanted to sink into the floor, embarrassed at making such a rookie mistake. I'd defaulted to standard operations protocol for missions, not computing that we were surrounded by Konoha nin here. If anyone spoke the code in our year group, then Shikahime, Izuku, and Uraume, would be my first guesses outside of my team. 

"Do you think they'll come for us?" I asked him. 

"Only a fool would try to fight both you and Uzume-chan working together. They'll probably work around you guys. But if they get the chance, I doubt they'd hesitate." I nodded at his words. 

"Good. Now, let's complete the plan" He said, switching over to English. I smiled at the confused faces around us. Teaching the language to Izuku so we could plan pranks and pretending that I'd come up with it was reaping dividends even now. 

When he and Izuku hd completed the plan, he turned to his teammates and told them, "Just follow my lead when the buzzer rings. It's going to be a bit like Formation 7, but you'll notice the twist when it happens". Toshiro nodded with a shrug, but Hume looked between Izuku and me for a few tense seconds. Almost like she was deciding whether it would be a good idea to play ball or not. Finally, she signalled her capitulation with a slow nod. I gave her one back, thankful. I wasn't an idiot — this plan would be noticeably more difficult without her cooperating. She was easily one of the strongest genin here, after all. 

I turned to Izuku's team and watched him communicate with both Kizuru and Omoikane. Watching that reminded me that I hadn't seen much of the Kurama heir lately. Omoikane and I were more distant friends so it was understandable that we didn't see as often, but Kizuru was one of my best. I walked forward, moving past Izuku once he was done and placed a hand on Kizuru's shoulder to catch his attention. He looked up at me, startled. I smiled to calm him down, but that didn't work as well as it should have. He still blushed in embarrassment and stepped backwards. 

"How have you been, Kizuru? We missed you at the last gathering." I said to him, silently asking the question. 

"I've been lovely, Shori. I had lessons with some clan elders that couldn't really be skipped. Maybe you'll get to see what I learned in the next stage" he said with a smile that I returned. 

Of course our conversation was brought to a quick end by the sound of the buzzer. I turned to the screen and found that it was beginning a countdown. Seven seconds left. 

"We'll catch up once this is over. I promise" I said, and turned to face the hill we'd chosen to die on. 

The one to the left, which had a higher proximity of foreign shinobi close to it, and crucially had neither of the two foreign teams that had caught my attention. 

"Sharp" I muttered to myself as I prepared to jet off. The screen counted down to 1 and then there was the sound of a horn. I smiled as I disappeared in a body flicker that took me right to the base of the hill. I quickly began to climb, ignoring most of the obstacles, and noting their presence when both Uzume and Izuku appeared behind me in short order. I crested the top of the hill first. Uzume followed shortly after. Toshiro and Izuku mounted it at the same time. I turned in a swift movement and formed a seal. The next body to jump over was riddled with air bullets. The water clone splattered to the floor, and the Mizu genin with the rebreather jumped right up immediately afterwards, tossing a bunch of shurinken my way. I transitioned from the bird seal to the snake seal and a mud wall caught the projectiles before they hit me. 

She was forced to end her attack as Uzume dove right at her and kicked her back towards the ground. She landed on the hill, and they began to engage in furious taijutsu. One of her teammates crested the hill next, but they found Izuku waiting for them with flashing red eyes. The next people to complete the journey were Kizuru and Omoikane. I nodded at them and got to work. 

First things first, I took my scroll of my back and unrolled it. Much like the scroll my grandfather had carried, this was a complicated sealing matrix that basically stored a bunch of shit. I tapped one of the seals, seemingly at random and funnelled my chakra into it. 

After a massive puff of chakra smoke, I found myself holding a massive sealing brush with an ink-or next to me. I smiled and dipped the brush into the ink and began to paint the ground with my seals. I was no stranger to barrier techniques. No one who had spent years under an Uzumaki sealing master could claim to be unfamiliar with barriers. I knew I was more conversant than most. I knew multiple barriers that would serve our purposes. I also knew a few that would be even easier to set up. I could always set up something like the Four Violet Flames Formation with a few shadow clones, but there was every chance I'd run out of chakra trying to keep such a powerful seal active throughout the task. 

A Suna shinobi appeared in my blindspot with a blade thrust at my neck. I ignored the attack and watched them turn their blade on themself and stab it into their own stomach. Uzume appeared soon after and kicked him down the hill. I nodded at Kizuru with a smile and sent my thanks to Uzume with a nod. The former smiled back, but the latter merely grunted. 

"Get that seal done. We're under a lot of pressure." She said before disappearing towards another Suna genin. Part of my wanted to study the Suna wind release in action, but I couldn't spare the focus. This wasn't a seal I had mastered. I couldn't draw it with my eyes closed So I very much had to remain focused on every brush stroke. Especially since I was drawing directly on the stone surface of the hill top. 

When I completed the seal, I turned to the flag beside me and whistled to draw attention to myself. I picked up the flagpole, and holding it like a javelin, I tossed it right in the direction of the platform we'd come from. A few shinobi broke off to chase the flag, and both teams had an easier time shoving everyone off the hill. Once I was sure only our teams remained, I slammed my palm on the seal and poured my chakra into it. After that, I began to weave seals at a furious pace: Ram → Hare → Snake → Dragon → Rat → Ox → Tiger → Hare → Snake → Dragon → Rat → Ox → Tiger → Snake → Tiger → Ox → Snake → Tiger → Hare → Horse → Dragon → Rat → Snake → Tiger → Snake → Rat → Ox → Tiger → Hare → Snake. "Barrier Gate Five Seals Technique: Castle Closing Eight Gates" I pronounced. 

Five gates rose around us. That was stage one. They then began to spread out red energy in the form of a barrier that linked all of them. 

"Well, that was a success" I said with a smile. 

And then my shadow bulged before a head rose out of it. A head that was quickly followed by a set of hands. If the head hadn't had a very recognisable pineapple hairstyle, then I would have smashed it into the ground Shikahime rose out of my shadow with a smile on her face. 

"That was a superb plan" She said. 

I could tell Uzume wanted to either punch her in the face or roast her to death with a Great Fireball, so I stepped in to stand in front of my cousin. "What are you doing, Shikahime?" I asked her, voice stern. 

"What do you think? I noticed that plan of yours and decided I wanted in" She said. 

"This doesn't work with three teams, Shika. The split isn't profitable like that" I pointed out. 

She smiled. "Not necessarily. I just have to be in the top five teams to make it out of this mess. Choni and Inoken are outside this nifty barrier, working to get points for us any way they can. This is just insurance." 

"Well, your insurance seems to be ruining things for us" Izuku butted in. 

"Consider it revenge for my cute little cousin almost killing us at the end of the first task" 

"I apologised for that already. I had no real way to know that you'd be the ones to make it first. And I had every confidence that anyone in our year group would have been able to escape that with ease" I said. I'd played much worse pranks on the class as a whole during our time at the academy. 

"Well, I accepted your apology. This is just payback. We're even now" She said. 

I turned towards the scoreboard, noticing that our teams were nowhere near the top 5, receiving six and a half points every thirty seconds would add up to about 130 points for the 10-minute task, but that was assuming we had the whole 10 minutes. The seal had taken me two minutes and some change to put up. That meant we lost some points from that period as a result of having so many teams around. 

Calculating it, I figured we'd have about 110 points at the whole task if nothing changed. On the other hill, both the Kumo and Iwa teams were duking it out with a reckless abandon. The kind of abandon that spurred something in me. That hill's flag was currently in the possession of the Kumo team, but they were under consistent pressure from the Iwa team. None of the other teams were even choosing to contest that particular hill. Beyond those wasting their energy against my barrier, the rest were fighting over the other flag for those two hundred points. 

It was a tense standoff as all seven of us stared at each other in the barrier. After a minute, even the Mizu nin had abandoned trying to break the barrier to try their hands at acquiring the flag. 

The fight between the Iwa and Kumo teams remained at a consistent hot point. Every eye was on the exchange. The free for all that had begun on the stage for the other flag was also another source of tension. From the way things looked, at least one Kusa genin had been killed. A Suna genin with some affinity with poisons had incapacitated a whole Kiri team, and the remaining Kiri team was teaming up to launch some devastating combo jutsu to wear down the Suna group. Choni and Inoken weren't easy to find, but I was sure they were waiting and biding their time to snatch that flag at the last moment. It was the kind of thing they'd do. I'd love to see how it would pan out though, since it was clear that Uraume's team was winning the free for all as it stood now. 

I'd always wondered what a Hyuga who took ninjutsu seriously would look like, and Uraume was showing me that. Her wind ninjutsu were punishing. Kuro was a whirlwind as he and Shiro swept through the approaching horde with devastating taijutsu. They never let themselves get bogged down for too long, and they used both the beast-man and man-beast transformations to great effect. The boy you were fighting could become a dog at any second and vice versa. They were almost singlehandedly displaying the power of Konoha's rich tekkie genkai arsenal. Shiba was the one placed in charge of physically keeping hold of the flag, and he was doing that with ease. Whoever managed to make it past either of his teammates would find themself swallowed in a storm of insects. Not just any insects, but bugs bred with a special taste for flesh. One Taki genin had forfeited after having his arm eating down to the bone as he tried to fight through Shiba's cloud. 

Everyone had given him a wide berth since then. 

Another minute passed, and I made up my mind. The barrier would consume way less chakra than predicted since no one was even bothering to attack it. I crossed my fingers, and a clone appeared in a puff of smoke. He sat down in seiza to focus on maintaining and altering the barrier as I needed. 

"I'm leaving." I told my teammates. They'd both clearly been doing the same calculations as me so Toshiro nodded while Uzume stepped up to join me. If there was anyone who understood my battle lust, it would be her. If there was anyone who would support my actions, it would be her. 

The barrier shifted to make a small gap that I wasted no time passing through. I ignored Izuku and Kizuru as they joined Uzume and I in crossing the barrier. For this, it would be every team for themselves. 

"I assume you know what we'll be hunting" I said, turning to her. 

Her smile was sharp. We jumped off the hill as one. 

A/N; Chaos is a ladder. It's also a cage- and a shark-infested pond, and a million other things because that's how chaos works. The next three chapters are up on the place of pa –trons- same username as up here so feel free to check it out if you want to support my journey, but don't stress if you can't. Everything will come up here in its own time.