Haruto watched Chouji shift nervously from one foot to the other as the other genin finished signing their liability wavers.
"Don't sweat it. She's probably doing it to scare us," Haruto loudly reassured his friend. On the contrary, Anko probably could not scare them enough about the real death and destruction that would likely follow, but it just would not do for his teammates and friends to be paralyzed by fear.
"Is that so?" Before he could even react, the blond genin smelt the coppery scent of blood as a projectile kunai left a shallow cut on his cheek. Haruto grunted as he felt a weight lean against him.
"Hmm, you taste good, kid." Haruto could not help but shiver as Anko traced her tongue along his cheek. Before he could form a coherent protest, as this definitely was not the information handoff he envisioned, the older female shoved the full length of her tongue into his gaping mouth. The other genin watched in dazed stupors as the crazed female Konoha proctor vigorously molested the mouth of the blond for the better part of two minutes.
"You're pretty damn good. Had a lot of practice, perhaps?" the spiky-haired woman teased with a sadistic glint in her eyes. Anko rose with a satisfied smile on her face.
"What. The. Fuck. Was. That?" Crude as Kiba's words were, he had the right idea. Chouji's bag of chips was on the floor, uneaten and ignored. Shikamaru looked at his fellow teammate as if he was the most troublesome object in the country. Even Shino gave him what appeared to be an odd look by the posture of his body.
"Tell you what, survive and I'll make sure you get the Anko special. How's that for you, short stuff?"
Short stuff?! Screw you! Haruto fumed. He might not have been on the level of a Sannin, but he was confident he could take on some wannabe snake bitch.
It was probably a testament to Anko's ability to get under people's skin or to how ruffled Haruto was that he lost his cool so quickly. Sweaty and red-faced as he was, Haruto ultimately did resist the urge to shout a childish retort or to retaliate in a more forceful manner. Luckily for the embarrassed boy, the crazy proctor's attention was soon distracted by a strange genin who approached her to hand back her kunai… with her tongue!
What the fuck? Haruto thought. Ok, so maybe his plan failed to account for everything.
"If you want to live, don't sneak up on me," Anko warned the other genin. The Grass nin appeared properly contrite, but something was definitely off. Suddenly annoyed, the special jounin turned to face the group, "Enough dallying around! Into the forest, you brats!"
The gates swung open and the swarm of genin poured into the foreboding Forest of Death.
"So what now?" Chouji asked as Team 10 pulled to a temporarily stop. The Akimichi and Nara genin studiously refrained from mentioning the earlier incident, something which Haruto was undoubtedly grateful for.
"Now, I need a restroom break." Ignoring his teammates' questioning looks, Haruto immediately fled for a thicket of bushes. Once out of sight, he coughed up the bunched up parchment the female proctor forced down his throat. Grimacing slightly, the blond unfolded the slimy and wet piece of paper. Instead of a list of names, it contained several lines of numbers denoting the time and coordinates of primary and secondary drop off sites.
Great, Ibiki needs more time to make the list. Haruto silently summoned several clones and ordered them to stealthily make for the rendezvous on the far side of the forest. That done, he quickly took care of his business and returned to his teammates.
"Ah, much better. Can I get a bag of your chips, Chouji?" Having said that coded phrase, the tension around Team 10 loosened. Originally, the Akimichi had wanted a longer and more complex password, but his teammates had overruled him. As far as Haruto was concerned, secret passwords, like most ninja utilities needed to be practical and a twenty-word phrase was anything but. Instead, they went with unique but simple and unassuming phrases for each member of the team. Haruto's was a request for chips.
"So, what now?" Chouji asked again.
"What? What are you looking at me for?" Haruto blurted out as he noticed the enquiring gazes.
"You were the one who suggested that we meet with the other teams. I figured you would have some other ideas. I guess we could ask Shika, but…" Chouji looked at the Nara boy.
"The number of other teams around would make it troublesome to navigate to the tower alone."
"Right. Ok, we might as well meet up with Team 8 first. Since they are a tracking team, they'll probably find us first," Haruto assessed seriously. Since being part of Team 10, the blond had occasionally relaxed his guard, allowing his teammates to catch a glimpse of the more serious side of his personality. While they never commented on his personality juxtaposition, the blond was sure that they were keeping a curious eye on him all the same. Just last week, Shikamaru tried to con him into a game of shougi. Haruto begged off, citing that he did not know how to play, but doubted that the excuse would hold forever.
"Fine then, let's get this troublesome exam over with."
"Do your thing, Haruto," Chouji ordered. Sighing, Haruto summoned several groups of solid clones.
"Got any idea on how we should do this?" the blond asked.
"It would probably be best to use the clones as scouts like on our last mission. Put them into groups of three and have them henge into us. We should also hold an off-center position somewhere on the flanks of the clones. This would mask our location to potential enemies." The Nara boy's advice drew encouraging nods from his teammates. True to his genius reputation, Shikamaru knew his tactics well.
"Alright, you heard the man. Get to it!" Haruto called out enthusiastically.