Chapter 28

Kenshiro's POV;

We arrived at the designated starting point for the second part of the exam half of an hour early. The place was rather empty. There was a lake with an island in the middle. A large building stood on the island and a small bridge led to and off the island. A few hut-like houses were around the island but other than that there was nothing of interest.

I tried to memories the Chakra signatures of each team. Tsu-chan's was easy, I already knew theirs. The three Jinchuriki were the same, the foul feeling Chakra of their Bijuu made it easy to track them. The rest was memorized and the feel of their Chakra written down on a note.

The proctor for the second exam came punctually. It was a Jonin of the Yuki clan, he was nibbling on an ice Senbon and glared at every none Kiri Ninja. "Alright, the second exam is a survival test." Began the proctor, he was immediately interrupted by a Genin from Suna.

"But where? Here's only water." The proctor spits his ice Senbon at the Genin, who only narrowly dodged the lethal self-made weapon. It surely was not because the Genin was this good at dodging.

"Quiet Stupid! Now, this is a survival training test. Each team will get half of a stone tablet and will have to find the missing half of the tablet. To get your hands on the other tablet you have to find a different Genin team with the correct tablet.

The admission papers you all handed in before you even went on your way to the Chunin exam are also agreeing to not causing trouble in case you die during one of the tests. This way we won't get any paperwork in case you die. For all I care, please stop listening and drop dead once the exam starts," he looked at the loud mouth from Suna. The normally rather dark skinned Genin was now almost white coloured in the face and was hastily gesturing that he understood.

"Great, so each of you will now get your half of the stone tablet. You will then be led to one of the houses that are surrounding our fine lake. Inside you will find a ladder, it will bring you down into a cave system. We call it the Grotto of the Drowned, don't think too much about the fitting name.

Your goal is to find the second part of your tablet and then cross the labyrinth-like grotto. The exit is hidden under the sea. You all get three days to finish." The Jonin left in a splash of water and Chunin assistants began to hand out the tablets.

Every team got a bag with their tablet and was then locked into a house. It became dark with the closing of the door and the last thing we heard from the outside was the click of the locked door.

"Okay, good thing we bought the flashlights and glow sticks," spoke Sakumo through the darkness. His clothes rustled briefly before he broke a glow stick. Green light began to shine out of his stick and we could see each other again.

Ariha had taken the tablet from the Chunin and was now taking it out of the bag. "Let's have a look at our tablet, before sealing it into one of our seals." She held it into the light, it glowed in a bright blue.

"So we got a yellow tablet, any idea how we can find the other ones?" I asked while she gave me the tablet to seal away.

"We can set a trap somewhere and wait," suggested Ariha, before correcting herself, "or better yet, we first go to the lake and then set the trap. They will need to go there anyway."

"Yeah and we will also be the only ones who have the same brilliant idea," remarked Sakumo sarcastically. "Still, it is something. And at one point or another, we have to go there anyway. Any idea how we can find it fast enough to catch some other Genin?" He then added.

Ariha snapped her fingers and looked at us smugly, before telling us what she remembered. "The codes from the first exam! I guess there is some kind of moss that makes you sleepy and that we need to go to the west to reach our goal. It should be somewhere under three crystals." I did not point out that this was obvious, you couldn't 'hide' a hint any worse.

"Let's start then, I want to finish this as fast as possible. I don't like to be under the ground or in enclosed rooms," I said and began to climb down the ladder. I don't know how Iwa Ninja can stomach their tunnels and valleys. I like forests and open plains.

We had to climb for a good fifteen minutes until something happened. It was a slight green glow that shone up from the bottom. "Guys, there is something glowing down on the ground," I informed the other two above me.

"Good, I don't think we have enough glow sticks for three whole days," laughed Sakumo. We continued and finally reached the ground. The green glow came from the moss that grew on the walls. It was illuminating the area around with its soft green glow. I really liked its colour.

"Let's put our masks on, I don't want to risk this being the moss that makes us sleepy," suggested Ariha while placing her re-breather over her face. I did the same and gave the moss a quick Observation afterwards. It was indeed the moss we were warned about.

Sleepy Moss

This only inside caves growing moss produces a sweet neurotoxic scent. The toxic is airborne and lures small animals and insects onto the moss. Once there the animals will succumb to the toxic and fall asleep.

They will die soon after from lung paralysis. The moss will then slowly dissolve its food with a fluorescing acid. This acid is not strong enough to harm skin upon contact but can cause rashes and with prolonged exposure even be corrosive.

The neurotoxic scent this plant produces slows the human's awareness, reaction time and causes its victims to get tired. They too will fall asleep if under longer exposure. It can cause lung paralysis if exposed for too long.

Nasty stuff. "Should we take some of it with us? It's glowing and other teams won't be able to tell the difference between this light source and the normal moss," asked Sakumo.

"We can, but keep your re-breather on at all times. I don't trust this stuff. The code might be something to scare us, but better save than sorry," replied Ariha. I took some moss off of the wall, made a stone spear with earth Chakra control and wrapped the moss around the spear, before giving it to Ariha.

"Here, you have the best eyes. Don't keep your Sharingan activated for the whole time. Only every few minutes or so. We don't want you to tire out too fast. I'll send a few Shadow Clones as scouts as well," I then said and created six shadow clones, they did a Henge into us and then swiftly vanished into the cave system.

"I think we can risk running for some time, the other teams won't be able to set traps this quickly," suggested Sakumo.

"And what about the dangers of this cave itself or already set traps? Who says that the proctors haven't rigged the whole cave with traps?" Countered Ariha.

"My clones will step into them first, anyone watching them will think it is a group of unprepared, rushing and young Genin. The perfect target for those stupid enough to take the seen as face value."

Ariha agreed after a moment and we took off at a mild sprint. Ariha was in the front, Sakumo in the middle to guard her and me in the back to attack anyone that comes at us, as well as assist with Chakra strings. The glowing moss was growing at irregular intervals but the glow was strong enough for us to almost always have at least some light.

Without us running it would have taken hours until we would have come through the first crossing. The clones had left a marker for us to know that they split up. Three to the left and the other three forward.

"Where does our compass says is West?" Asked Sakumo. I fished the compass out of my pocket and pointed at the wall on our right.

"Oh, how great," said Sakumo sarcastically. "You think we should dig?" He then added half jokingly.

"Better not, we might dig into the lake. If our path gets flooded we will have even more trouble getting out," disagreed Ariha.

Sakumo shrugged his shoulders and then pointed at the path to our front. "Let's take the front then." Without any real clue as to which one was the best we agreed and kept running. Soon after I got the memories of the three clones that took the left way.

"My clones walked into a dead end, the tunnel stopped and ended into a small pond," I informed my teammates. "Hopefully this one is the right one then," I added.

Sakumo looked over his shoulder and at me. "Don't count on it, the Jonin called this cave the Grotto of the Drowned, there must be something that drowns you. What better thing than unexpectedly long underwater pathways?"

It made sense and proved to be true, as we found out half an hour later. Our path did not cross again and my clones found it ending into a small pool of water. They dispelled and we found the water a brief moment later.

"Great, I can already see it, we will stay wet for three whole days," groused Ariha darkly. She was starting to hate Kiri for its constant wet weather, wet landscape and mosquitoes.

"Hehe, you mean you will stay wet for three days," I said while making ten new clones.

Ariha glared at me and tried to get my coat off of me. "Fuck you, I want your coat." I sidestepped her 'attack' and laughed. Sakumo was grinning at Ariha before he noticed that he too would stay wet. He then tried to take my coat for himself.

Meanwhile, my clones grabbed some of the moss and jumped into the water. Their mission was to find a good way through the wet grave without suffocating. Not hard for them, as each had a re-breather. Shadow Clones kinda is like Ying-Yang release in which it creates functional stuff, only that it is for a limited time, broken beyond anything.

Two minutes into this my clones began to dispel, after ten minutes the last clone had dispelled itself. Seven of them did not find anything and have dispelled themselves instead of searching an already searched path. Three found a way that led to another tunnel, they looked the same as ours.

And one of them had the awareness to look at his compass while diving. He found a tunnel as well, it was first leading deeper and then upwards again before he got out of the water.

I made another clone. He jumped into the water and tried to follow the path of his successful comrade. He needed a bit more time but managed to find the right way. He came out on the other side after five minutes and then swum back while marking his way. He resurfaced on our side ten minutes after his departure and then dispelled itself to give me his knowledge.

"Alright, he marked a way that leads us into a tunnel with the direction towards the West. There are two more tunnels, yet they are leading away from our goal. The way to the West tunnel is already marked, do you want to take it or use one of the other ones?" I explained to my finally calm teammates. They have calmed down once I have told them that grandma Mito has locked my Chakra into the seals, which makes the seals less Chakra consumptive, but also prevents anyone else from using them.

With one last suffering sigh, Ariha jumped into the water, followed by Sakumo and then me. They waited for me to find my orientation and then we followed the markings of my clone. With our re-breather diving wasn't a problem.

We resurfaced and jumped out of the water. I quickly did a Chakra control exercise that is related to my dust gathering exercise and gathered all the water droplets together. With water Chakra control I would be able to do the same, by gathering the water itself and not coating it in my Chakra. But I suck at water manipulation. Water and lightning are my weakest elements. Fire, wind and earth are okay, with fire being the weakest. But weak does not mean unusable, I just have to train harder.

"Hey, can you do the same to me?" Asked Ariha after seeing me gathering a big clutch of water and then moving it off of my body.

"I could, but my Chakra has to touch every part of your body. It will feel as if something is touching you, everywhere," I answered and gave her a pointed look.

She stared at me for a moment, then got beet red and turned around. "On second thought, better not," she then mumbled and began to walk away from us a little stiffly.

"Hahaha, I'll take it. We're both boys," laughed Sakumo. I shrugged and touched his shoulder, my Chakra enveloped him and then moved the water away. Chakra does not give you the feel of touch, so for me, it was not as if I was touching him. I only felt how my Chakra moved and then 'touched' something. It does not feel like touching, more knowing that you are in contact with something.

"That feels strange and I'm concerned that it felt good," said Sakumo once he was dry. He shuddered, gave me a look that told me not to speak about this, and then followed a slightly giggling and very wet Ariha. At least there were no mosquitoes.

Five hours into this wet shit of a labyrinth imitation we had crossed six more of these waterways and found a good dozen crossings. Each time I made a batch of clones that would go the other way and search for any random Genin team.

So far the cave wasn't very dangerous. The most trouble we had was with orientation. It was easy to get lost and everything was looking the same. The underwater ways were also steadily becoming longer and narrower. It was easy to see how this grotto got its name. Still, it wasn't very dangerous, if take out the moss and possible drowning.

The thick stone all around us was making it hard to sense for other Chakra signatures, which meant that tracking someone down was not possible for us. I might be able to sense someone if they are in the same tunnel, but not if they're in the tunnel next to us. My clones did find a single team and were tracking them ever since. But that isn't a team I want to fight with my teammates.

In the end, we decided to end the day and rest. Ariha was also looking tired from the on and off switching of her eyes. I made a larger hole inside the wall with my earth manipulation and then raised a wall to cut our new room off from the tunnel. Only a few holes for air were giving the room away.

"I'll periodically send clones out to search for other teams during my shift. You both know that I need little sleep, so give me half of the night watch. You can share the reaming half," I said while we got ready to eat and then sleep.

"Are you sure? This is more dangerous than our usual missions. You'll need to be in the best possible condition at all times," worried Ariha. After the third waterway, she had relented and wanted one of my drying sessions. Afterwards, she was beet red and wasn't looking me in the eyes.

I assured her that I couldn't feel anything and that she was the only one who had the feeling as if she would touch something. She glared at me but did believe me. It was similar to water walking or tree walking and she knew how both feel.

"Yes, I don't feel tired at all. I will sit and meditate a bit, that should substitute for the lack of sleep," I assured her. She nodded slowly and took a bowl of soup from Sakumo, before sitting down to eat.

"Tell us if you get tired or low on Chakra. You were spamming the Shadow Clones all day and both Ariha and I can only do a single one before feeling tired," requested Sakumo.

That's because you both are bad at the technique and would need a lot of training to lower the costs as much as I have done. Instead of telling him that I simply nodded.