True Bonds

The Second Stage

'Hello, those who passed. I am Temari, for those of you who don't know me.' Temari said, next to Shikamaru on the platform. 'We will be doing preliminaries to minimise the amount of teams participating in the Second Stage. The preliminaries will be a race to Demon Desert! The first 30 teams there will be admitted, but come a second too late, and you will not be able to enter! The timer begins now!'

At the moment that the word "now" left Temari's lips, Team 7 took off into the forest, Team Gai hot on their tail.

'To be expected from Gai-sensei's eternal rival's team!' Rock Lee shouted "youthfully". 'Neji, Tenten, we must beat them to the Demon Desert!'

Neji and Tenten groaned, reluctantly following Lee at a higher speed. Gai and Lee were always a bit too much. The master and student and youth...

'Then we should also speed up! We can't let Team Gai beat us, can we?' Naruto excitedly exclaimed, fired up by the challenge from Rock Lee. 'Bushy Brows, watch out!'

Sasuke muttered a word of complaint, unhappy that Naruto was forcing them to unnecessarily speed up. After all, they had to conserve their energy for the next stage, no doubt one like the one that they did in the Forest of Death. 

That dreaded place brought back bad memories, when Orochimaru branded Sasuke with the Curse Mark. He was lucky that Kakashi's seal had been able to suppress it for so long.

Sasuke and Ino followed through the forest, holding a conversation with each other and their teammate.

'Since the goal of this test is to weed out the weak candidates, shouldn't we lay traps so the people who are too weak will be delayed?' Ino suggested, quite intelligent due to her clan's skill in mental warfare and her time with the Nara Clan's genius, Shikamaru.

'Hn.' Sasuke nodded, replying with the Uchiha grunt. His eyes shifted to see Naruto's eyes droop, upset at the fact that they couldn't race Team Gai. 'Hey, dobe. Do you want to increase your chance of passing the exams so that you have a higher chance of becoming Hokage, or do you want to have a higher chance of dying?'

Naruto nodded, Sasuke convincing him to help them lay traps. 'Maybe next time, Bushy Brows.'

'Wait!' Ino exclaimed, her eyes lighting up with an idea. 'Naruto, you can have your race, but only to the edge of the forest. We need to be ahead to have the time to set traps without the other teams noticing.'

'Alright, dattebayo!' Naruto exclaimed loudly, his limitless stamina ready to be used. The two teams with eternal rivals as teachers sped off into the sunset, excitedly picking up the pace.

Behind them, Team Kurenai sighed at how far ahead their friends were, and they too began running.

🔥

The strong winds of the Land of Wind beat against Sasuke's face, blowing sand along with it. Sasuke rubbed his eyes in irritation, the sand annoying him severely.

Covering her face with a cloak, Ino followed her team on the trek towards the Demon Desert. They were unlucky that they had arrived in the Land of Wind during a sandstorm, but Ino supposed that they had picked such a time so that more candidates would fail. After all, ninja were trained to look underneath the underneath.

'I hate this sand! It's so annoying, dattebayo!' Naruto complained, to be met with a "shh" from Sasuke.

The team continued their "hike" through the desert, a map in Sasuke's hand. Naruto looked confusedly at Sasuke's hands, unsure as to why Sasuke had a map in his possession, only to be met with a quick and concise reply.

'A ninja always has to be prepared.' Sasuke stated blatantly, pissing Naruto off slightly.

The team continued the trip to the Demon Desert in silence, knowing in their hearts that they were miles ahead of most participants, with the exception of Team Gai and Team Kurenai. After all, their traps had been triggered, and they had sped through the forest with ease due to physical training with Kakashi.