Chapter 18: Demons of the Desert

"According to Kuoi-san, there are four teams of Suna, two from Konoha, 1 from Iwa, 1 from Kusa and 1 from Ame." Itachi spoke as the tio made their way towards the exam hall. "So 27 in total, that is far fewer than I thought there would be." Shin commented as Atsuki proudly declared, "So what? Makes it easier for us to beat em!" Shin smacked his head, "What did I say about causing trouble!?" "Ouch! But no one is around!" the boy complained while holding his head. Shin looked around, [Jonin of Suna], [Spy of Iwa], [Spy of Konoha(Root)], [Spy of Kusa] the list kept going. 'Still. Fewer than Konoha, probably because Suna doesn't take well to outsiders.' Shin pondered as they moved towards a large colosseum made entirely of earth.

There were many merchants outside that sold souvenirs and local delicacies. Shin had to stop Atsuki from trying anything because he wasn't sure it wasn't poisoned.

Outside the stadium, ninjas sporting different headbands and styles of clothing stood in their own little group, scrutinizing every newcomer. Shin saw the looks of distrust on every face and hate in every eye, 'This is why the fourth shinobi war is so revolutionary. Without it, the constant cycle of hate and war would continue forever. Naruto broke that cycle by trusting his enemies and having a kind heart. Even if peace would not last forever, people would know that it was a possibility! He became an inspiration for many generations to come, a legend greater than that of Hashirama, the one who fulfilled the 1st Hokage's dream.' Shin gave a casual look around, most of the genin were around level 30 with one Iwa genin being 34 and the highest being a 14 year old from Suna at level 37.

 [Name: Akatsuchi Miyake

Level: 34

Title: Genin of Iwagakure]

'Hm, didn't expect to see him here, shouldn't he still be in the Academy?' Shin remembered this chubby guy from Shippuden. 'Guess the closer I get to canon, the more I'll run into famous characters I suppose.'

The genins were ushered into the stadium and the written test started, lasting 4 hours. The test was divided into several portions; math, history, logic, ninja tactics, etc. Shin finished his test early and kept an eye out for any hidden tests like genjutsu or something but even after disrupting his chakra a few times, he found no presence of foreign chakra or influence, 'Is it really just a normal test?' Shin was really surprised when the proctors collected the exam papers and told the genins to wait.

Half an hour later, the proctors came back along with the Jonins from various villages and announced those that failed and removed them from the stadium. The number of genins went from 27 to 12, if 1 person from your team failed then the whole team failed so only 4 teams passed; 2 from Suna, 1 from Konoha and 1 from Iwa. The next part of the exam was to travel through the desert and reach the Demon desert, search for the scroll bearing their Village's symbol and bring it back to Sunagakure. The time limit was 5 days and every team was given a very rough map that depicted the location of the demon desert and highlighted a quarter of the area which was where the team would search for the Scroll.

As soon as the instructions were given, the exam's start was announced as the Genins rushed towards the target location. The first leg of the journey was to reach the demon desert and since it was the start, all the teams avoided each other. It didn't matter even if they stopped all the other teams since they still wouldn't pass if they couldn't find the scroll first and after they had found their own scroll they could even find and destroy their opponent's scrolls too, allowing them to remove the competition without engaging them or they could just camp outside the demon desert and wait for outcoming teams to ambush them. This meant that the first one to reach the demon desert would be the one with an advantage.

The konoha and Suna teams held an advantage, Konoha because all three genins were proficient in Sand walk technique and their slowest person was faster than the slowest person on Iwa, the Suna team had experienced the desert since birth and naturally held an advantage when it came to traversing it. The konoha team rushed to the demon desert non-stop, after they reached it, they started to search for the scroll in the highlighted area and found it rather quickly but getting it was another matter.

"Maybe they are friendly?" Shin joked as the 3 hid behind a boulder and observed a scroll that hung at the window of a ruined tower. It Was easy enough to grab but the problem was the small army of giant ants that strutted around like they owned the place. "Those Suna bastards put our a scroll in the middle of the ant nest!" Atsuki cursed as they saw the impossible task in front of him. There were no trees or other buildings high enough to avoid the ants and even if someone did make it to the scroll, getting away would be even more difficult. "What if we move underground?" Atsuki asked. "Won't work, the ants live underground, remember? I won't be surprised if we were standing on top of their colony right now." Shin replied. "Then we only have one choice, we distract it as someone goes to grab the scroll." Atsuki said and the three decided upon giving this duty to their 4th companion. "Are you sure it will be alright?" Itachi asked in slight worry as the cat "Meow! -_-" in offense. "Don't worry, she's as fast as me." Shin assured Itachi. Itachi had volunteered and Shin knew the guy would be able to do this himself but Shin wanted to develop rapport with the guy and what better way to establish camaraderie than to face an army of man eating ants, each the size of a room.

All four got into position and as soon as they saw a black shadow on the ruined tower, the trio of humans attacked the opposite side with a giant ball of fire grabbing the attention of the ants. The fire burned through a couple of ants and grabbed the attention of the rest as they charged at the trio. The exoskeleton of the ants made it difficult to attack them with weapons so they decided to keep their distance and attack with moves that would ensure a take down, getting surrounded by the ants would even make a Jonin sweat. Shin used his Wind Scythe jutsu to cut away the legs while Atsuki used his earth style jutsu to block them and create pitfalls. Itachi was left to his own devices, Shin saw him use Shurikens to blind the ants, making them more aggressive and using genjutsu to make them attack each other. 'Thank the Realm Lords that he's on our team, how would I even fight that guy?' Shin couldn't help but sweat a little at the thought of those red eyes staring down at him.

While fighting, Shin kept an eye on Pineapple, after seeing that she had the scroll, Shin gave his teammates the signal and the trio started to retreat. Getting away was easier than fighting them and they had a plan for that as well. They led the ants towards one of the other zones where they engaged with giant 3 tailed scorpions. As soon as the ants and the scorpions started to tear each other apart, the trio disappeared from the battlefield. Pineapple reunited with them and they picked up another scroll that had an Iwa symbol. "That's one less team to worry about." Shin said as he burned the scroll.

Just as they were about to leave they came face to face with another trio that stumbled out from behind a dilapidated building. The 6 ninjas all seemed surprised, not expecting to see one another. The ninja headbands that they wore declared their identities to one another. The Iwa ninja saw the Konoha and looked down to see a burning scroll. The kid's expression twisted, Shin saw this and knew peace was not an option anymore. He looked at Itachi and spoke while going through hand seals, "Itachi! Fire!" Shin was halfway through the seal as Itachi nodded, "Right." 'Great breakthrough!' Shin spat out a hurricane from his mouth while Itachi spewed a great fire, the two jutsus combined, propelling each other to greater heights. Fire and Wind tore through whatever stood before them.

After a few seconds, the wind settled and the fire died out, the place where Iwa shinobi once stood was now a charred land, the ninjas themselves lay on the ground with Akatsuchi courching on the ground while his heads broke the seal they were holding and he fell back, a ruin of an earth shield showing his quick reflexes and ability that saved his life and the lives of his comrades. Shin walked next to him and stood, the laying boy showed fear and hate in his eyes. Shin threw some bandages and ointments to him, "Sorry, we still have an exam to complete."

The Konoha trio left the place quickly, their jutsu would be attracting a lot of people to that location. The trio moved quickly through the demon desert, it was already the 2nd day of the exam and the journey back would take at least 1 more day. Shin finished the battle quickly because he didn't want to risk lingering. "You are surprisingly silent." Shin asked Atsuki who seemed to be lost in thought, "You ok bro?" Atsuki looked at Shin and asked in a serious tone, "Shin, what was that? I've never seen such a powerful Jutsu. Just where did you learn it?" Shin looked at Atsuki for a second before he started to laugh, making the boy tick, "What are you laughing at!?" Shin didn't reply but instead laughed harder, much to the annoyance of Atsuki. Instead it was Itachi who replied, "It was a combination jutsu. Shin's great breakthrough and my Great fireball jutsus." Atsuki was surprised when he heard it, "But aren't they really hard to pull off? You guys have never tried it before." "We didn't need to, Itachi used his sharingan to match my chakra intensity and bring forth the greatest effects." Shin replied while wiping tears from his eyes. Atsuki looked at Itachi in wonder and his face became complicated.

The trio moved non-stop before they reached the exit of the demon desert. "Finally! I bet we're gonna be the first one's back!" Atsuki exclaimed. "Ground!" Itachi yelled the moment they touched the sand outside, the trio jumped back as wooden planks rose from the place they had just been as it turned into a wooden sphere. "Jump!" The Uchiha exclaimed again and as they did kunis came from the sides. Shin threw a barrage of Kunais in every direction before making a seal. *BOOOM!* an explosion rocked the whole place as sand rose to the sky.

By the time the dust settled the 3 ninjas came to the surface, a few of them were injured but they still held on. 'Level 33, 34 and 37, guess this is their star team huh.' Shin checked their levels before smiling, "Let's thin the competition a bit before going back shall we?" Shin threw 2 sets of shurikens at his opponents who prepared to deflect it but were forced to dodge as they changed directions last second. The Sand trio deflected a few while they dodged the rest, Shin noticed the guy in the middle being protected by the other two. Atsuki took the opportunity to move in and engage one of them in taijutsu while the other was engaged by Itachi, leaving the middle one to Shin.

The guy moved his hands and Shin saw sands shift, the guy was not holding any weapons and was defended by the other two during his shuriken throw. Shin decided to confirm his suspicions and threw a tagged kunai at the guy that exploded and revealed a wooden puppet with sharp knife hands and a spiky haircut. "Hehe, you can't win." The Sand ninja tried to make conversations while sporting a grin but instead Shin unfurled a scroll as it launched a volley of tagged kunai. The sand ninja's face paled as he saw the incoming attack, he moved the puppet in front of him as the big wooden trap that almost got them before, opened up and the sand ninja moved inside it.

*BOOOOM!* The huge explosion got the attention of the other two sand ninja as they looked towards their comrade in worry, this gave the Konoha ninja the chance to end the fight early. "You have got to stop doing that man, I'm gonna go deaf!" Atsuki complained while shoving his finger into the ear. "That might have been an overkill." Itachi commented with a nod. Shin shrugged, he had hundreds of spare explosion tags on him. He didn't have excess to advanced fuinjutsu but that didn't mean that he couldn't experiment with what he had, leading to an excess of explosion tags that were piling up so Shin had started to use them like they were free because they might as well be for him.

The trio left the place and resumed their journey back to Sunagakure. The journey took a turn when they encountered a sand storm and completely lost their sense of direction. Luckily, his system came to aid when he found out its compass function, Shin led the trio safely towards Sunagakure but the storm delayed their arrival by another day. When they did reach the village, they were met with surprised faces of the Suna ninjas and other Jonin in general. "Itachi, what happened? Why are you back already?" The Uchiha joinin asked the boy and the other Jonins listened in, curious because there was still a whole day left till the exam deadline. Itachi took the scroll from Shin and handed it to the man, "Impossible! It has to be a fake!" The suna ninja were shocked but as the proctor checked it he nodded, "It's real, your team had passed the test." "But how did you find your way back in the storm? It's impossible for any genin to make it through such a storm!" another suna ninja couldn't help asking in curiosity but immediately got a death glare from the proctor and shut his mouth, sadly the damage was already done. Shin raised his brow when he checked his status, [Chunin of Sunagakure/Spy of Konoha(Root)]. 'Danzo, just howfar does your influence spread?'

The surrounding Jonins from other nations took the words of the ninja like sharks to blood. "So you Suna ninja never expected to play fair huh? Making a test that was impossible for anyone to complete except for a sand ninja!" a Kusa ninja said loudly while another chimed in, "I wondered why you delayed the written exam for a day, is this why? You were waiting for the storm!" a random ninja soke. "Is this how Sunagakure conducts its Chunin exams? That's it, I'm done with this!" The Iwagakure ninja spoke and left while the others continued to harass the Suna ninja with countless questions and accusations, even bringing the results from the written test into question.

The next day an announcement was made that the test was being canceled and the Konoha teams returned home along with other teams returning as well. "What's going to happen now? Do we not get promoted or not?" Atsuki asked to which the Uchiha jonin replied, "You guys completed a task that was designed to fail you, I think you might just get promoted. Though the final decision lies with the Hokage and the counsel of course."