"I thought that went pretty well," Hazō said, silently handing the bowl of dumplings to Akimichi. The fa...big-boned ninja gave him a bright smile and flicked four of the tasty treats onto his plate.

"Yeah," Haruno said, nodding. "Beat the pants off what I thought we were going to have to do. You saw the rest of them while we were waiting for the proctors."

Hazō nodded, eyes flicking momentarily into memory as he reviewed the image of the clearing in which they had picnicked that afternoon; his wilderness-experienced eyes had surveyed the crowd of Exam contestants and noted down the signs of exhaustion here and there, of scrapes and bruises and bite marks, of missing hair from close enounters with flamebushes, of twitchiness from forty-eight hours on constant high alert, of discomfort with one's own skin as a result of being covered in muck and sweat and filth for two days straight. The first thing that Hazō had done after getting back to the barracks had been to get a bath, and there had been a steady stream of people coming in behind him. (Well, the second thing, after talking with Noburi and Keiko about plans for the next event. Well, okay, the third thing, after securing the room and talking with Noburi and Keiko. Okay, one of the first things he'd done had been to take a bath.) The rest of SuperTeam Leaf had been similarly motivated, and it wasn't until now that they'd managed to gather everyone up for more plotting.

"Indeed! I find my apprecation for your most youthful talents swelling until it trembles on the verge of eruption!"

Hazō shuddered. "Lee, do I need to break out the 'words you are not allowed to use' list again?"

"Ah, fear not, my youthful companion! You have made thoroughly clear your desire to restrain me! I must apologize, however; it is most difficult for me to submit to such demands!"

Hazō facepalmed.

"Moving on," Noburi said, thankfully steering the conversation to anywhere that wasn't here, while simultaneously flashing Hazō an only-mostly-discreet 'you owe me' sign. "Working together in the swamp was really effective. We barely had to fight at all, meaning that—as Haruno said—we're fresh and unhurt while everyone else is exhausted and banged up. On the other hand, there's so many of us that we probably only placed in the middle of the pack."

"Indeed. On balance, a win. As well as being far less troublesome."

Neji snorted.

"What do the rest of you think about continuing the alliance?" Hazō asked. "At least in regards to finding where and when events are going to be. We'll need to compete against each other at some point, but it just seems sensible to work together as far as ensuring we all get to the events. The better Leaf looks in the Exams the better all of our chances of getting promoted."

Glances were exchanged; the level of agreement ranged from the enthusiastic ("What a youthful concept!") to the lukewarm ("Makes sense, I guess."), but everyone was clearly onboard...with one exception.

"Hanging with you lot screwed us in the last event," Neji said bitterly. "We barely showed our skills at all and we're probably scoring average at best. With my Byakugan I can find the next event, no problem." His face tightened sourly, but then he grudgingly admitted, "Still, I suppose we're better off working with you to find the thing. No promises once it starts, though. I'm not letting us end up looking mediocre all the way through the Exams."

Tenten coughed, pointedly. Neji rolled his white eyes at her. "No, I don't need to ask your permission to speak up. Do you want to get promoted or not? Hanging with this bunch of...with this bunch isn't the best way to show our skills."

Her eyes narrowed and one eyebrow went up a tiny fraction. For a moment it looked like Neji would argue, but then he deflated.

"...Fine," he grumbled. "We can talk about it."

"Great," Hazō said. "I was thinking about where we go from here. Does anyone mind if I share? Some of these ideas are still pretty half-baked, but Mari-sensei and Jiraiya have both told us that it's useful to get other people's input during the conceptual stage, before you get too attached to your own ideas."

"You've done well by us so far," Akimichi said happily, gulping down his third ball of dango. "What can we help with?"

"Bear with me here. Some of this is going to be obvious, but I'm just thinking out loud."

Haruno snorted, but she had a smile. "Come on, Gōketsu, stop slow-playing us and spit it out. We've all spent enough time around Shikamaru that we don't get offended when people show off how smart they are."

"Um...right. So, here's my thinking: we need to figure out what, when, and where the next event is. We know we've got at least thirty-six hours—thirty-two, now. We know that we can get taken directly to the start of the event if we turn in one of those papers with half of a competitor's word on it. We captured three of those papers, so we could use them to get a jump on things. The one problem is that the word-halves might end up being worth points at the end, so giving them up might or might not be a good move."

"Turning one in does disqualify the creator of the word from the first event," Nara noted. "It is unclear what that means in practice, but it is one way to reduce the competition. Or, at least, to change our relative standing within the field."

"Good point. Which actually brings me to my second idea: we could put some time in on getting people's papers. Right now everyone else is tired and low on chakra, so this would be the best time to go after them. Conning or tricking people into giving us their paper would show good infiltration skills, stealing them would show good stealth, and just mugging people for them would demonstrate combat ability. No matter which approach we took we would also be demonstrating proactivity and planning skills."

"Seems like the kind of things we want to show in order to get promoted," Yamanka said, giving Neji a sly glance. No cat alive could have done a better job of seeming more disdainfully unconcerned than Hyūga Neji managed in reply to the glance.

"Would it be a good idea to mug people?" Yamanaka continued doubtfully. "Seems like attacking another contestant between events would get us disqualified."

"The Mizukage has created an interesting situation in that regard," Keiko said. "The 'first' event is ongoing throughout the entire Exams. We are therefore, technically speaking, in the middle of an event right now."

Everyone digested that for a moment.

"It's open to interpretation," Keiko granted. "Our victims could still file a complaint against us for fighting outside of an event. Depending on how it was handled, the complaint could end up in front of the Hokage himself." She paused, waiting until the wolfish grins had spread all the way around the room before adding, in a voice as dry as dust, "I doubt he would be overly bothered."

"So long as we don't kill or maim them," Noburi hurried to add. His adoptive sister gave him a nod of acknowledgement.

"So we get a bunch of these papers and then one of us turns one in so that we can find out where the next event starts," Yamamoto summarized. "Then everyone else follows them. That's the part that needs work—I'm positive we can beat plenty of these brats down, and we might be able to con them as well. We could get enough papers that each of us had one, but it would be more efficient if we didn't need to. How do we pass the information back?"

"Akamaru and I could try to track whoever turns it in," Inuzuka said doubtfully. "Especially if Akamaru marked their sandals beforehand to make it easier. It depends on what countermeasures the proctors are taking, though. If they make you waterwalk across a river or lake, it's going to break the trail. If they make you treehop then there's no trail to follow in the first place."

"They made little effort to conceal the location of the swamp event," Haruno noted. "Actually I bet the proctors were ordered to discuss it, repeatedly and in kinda-public areas, just so that everyone who wasn't completely clueless would be able to find it."

"They'll probably get more tight-lipped as the events go on," Akane said. "That proctor told Hazō that there were five events—four and then the tournament. The first event is the ongoing spycraft test, the second was the swamp, so we're already up to the second to last that isn't the tournament. I'd think it would start to get hard at this point."

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"There are unlikely to be only five events," Nara said. "There are certain standard rules that are part of the Chūnin Exams accords—proctors must score fairly, cannot physically harm or unfairly disqualify contestants, that sort of thing. There's nothing that says they can't lie to us, although truly egregious lies would be grounds for a complaint and are therefore unlikely.

"My father warned me that the Exams typically take five to six weeks, with four of those being a break before the final tournament event. In that case, five events is about right—one to two days for each one, then a break to heal and train, then the final tournament. Some Exams, however, have been noticeably longer or shorter. This will be one of the long ones, and therefore will probably have more events." He stopped talking, then seemed to remember something. Turning to Neji, he said, "Given the weak military position that Mist finds itself in, it would be to their advantage to keep the Exams going as long as possible. Most or all of the Kage and senior jōnin from the entire Elemental Nations are in Mist right now and there is a peace accord in place. That means that Mist is safe against military assault because the attendees act as an ersatz defense force—no single nation will start a battle when all of the other nations are here and obligated by treaty to defend Mist. It also means that all of those Kage and senior ninja are not on the mainland, running their espionage and economic networks. While they are here the other nations have extra communication lag in their command loops, providing Mist an advantage. It would not surprise me at all if Mist tried to drag this out to eight weeks, or even more if they think they can get away with it."

Hazō exchanged nervous looks with Keiko and Noburi while Neji growled something inconsequential at Nara. Two months of Jiraiya's three-month temporary Hokageship had already elapsed. He had built up a lot of ill will among the major clans as a result of the way he had taken the hat, and that ill will would come home to roost if he had to step down without finding Naruto or producing some other, equally significant, rabbit from said hat. If the Exams kept him pinned down for a full month beyond the agreed-upon end of his term...Hazō had no idea what would happen. The clans certainly wouldn't evict Jiraiya from the role while he was actively in the middle of negotiations—it would be far too great a show of weakness—but the delay would only make them angrier. Either way, it would give them more unsupervised time back in Leaf to scheme and plot. Given that Team Uplift's political and economic future was strongly tied to Jiraiya's, and their former missing-nin status made them unpalatable to many senior Leaf ninja....

"Okay, well, we know that there's at least one more event before the tournament," Hazō said. "The Mizukage said that there would be forty-eight hours' notice before the tournament, but this next event starts in thirty-six—well, thirty-two now. I think Yamamoto nailed it: one of us should turn in a paper in order to get shown the target location, and then we follow them or they send word back. The question is how to make that work. Inuzuka, it sounded like you thought that tracking would be difficult?"

The boy nodded. "Yeah. Like Sakura said, I'd be amazed if they didn't have some sensible precautions in place to keep it from being too easy. Akamaru and I are good, but the watery terrain doesn't favor us and it's too easy for a ninja to break trail if they suspect they're being tracked, especially if they've had months to prepare."

"My insect allies can be used for tracking, but I too am uncertain of their reliability in these conditions," Aburame said. "Why? Because this area is covered in swamps and marshes, all of which have enormous insect populations. The pheromones are distinguishable from the ones my allies emit but they are so prevalent that they mask the scent. And, again, a skilled and prepared ninja could use water or air jutsu to periodically clear the air."

"Neji and I could follow at a distance, using our Byakugan," Hyūga said. "Our range is not long, though. If we wanted to maintain actual visual contact we would need to be closer than I would like. Better if the person being escorted dropped markers for us to follow. Something small but very distinctive."

"It would need to be something that the proctor wouldn't notice," her cousin added doubtfully. "I'm sure they aren't going to let us leave an obvious trail. They'll be watching for that."

"What about seals?" Hazō asked. "They glow to your eyes, right?"

The elder Hyūga looked at his younger cousin for confirmation before nodding. "Yes?"

"Well, I can make some that are very small. We wrap them around a pebble, waterproof them, and then you drop them as you go. If the proctors take you over water, all the better—the pebble sinks and is only visible to someone who can see the bottom of the water as easily as the top."

Everyone paused. More than a few blinks were blinked.

"That might be a lot of seals," Yamanaka said carefully. "You've been up for almost two days straight. I wouldn't want to be carrying any seal that you made before you got some sleep. I don't know how many you've already got that you're willing to sacrifice, but they took us two miles from the main group when we got our words. Dropping one seal every...thirty yards, maybe?" She glanced at Hinata and, after a moment, got a nod. "That would be, what, a couple hundred seals?"

"One hundred and eighteen," Nara said. "Although it would be wise to use more, in order to avoid breaks in the trail if one seal were damaged or lost. Regardless, the previous event demonstrated that Mist has seals for sale. We could simply buy them."

A look of combined rage and contempt flickered across Yamamoto's face so briefly that Hazō almost missed it. It left behind only the reserved-yet-friendly attentiveness that the other boy had shown every time Hazō had interacted with him.

"Seems doable," Noburi said. "I don't remember where those Night Light seals come from, but I'm sure I could ask around and get the name. We can pick up a few and see if it works, then get more if we think we'll need them. In the meantime, let's talk about how we get the papers. Like Hazō said, different approaches will show different skillsets. I'm thinking we should try to have at least one of our teams use each approach—stealth, infiltration, straight combat—to demonstrate that Leaf has versatility as well as power. That seem sensible to you guys?"

"Our team has a half-and-half option," Yamanaka pointed out. "Shikamaru and I can paralyze the enemy and make them cover their eyes. Then Chōji goes up to them and rifles through their pockets. Unless they have some special senses, there's no way for them to know for sure who did it to them."

"Nice!" Noburi said, offering a hand for a high five, which Yamanaka delivered with a laugh.

"Okay, who wants to take the stealth option?" Hazō asked, reminding himself to look around the group in general. Things were moving in the right direction but this whole inter-team alliance was still too new and fragile. It wouldn't do to let on that he'd already mentally categorized who should get which plan, as well as planned out with Keiko and Noburi how they would chivvy everyone into the appropriate roles.

It would be so nice not to need to go through this bullshit. To simply lay out his thinking and have people judge it on its merits instead of through the lens of their clan loyalties or hatreds, their personal pride, or whatever other bias ran their particular life. He'd actually floated the idea of trying Clear Communication no Jutsu with this group but both Keiko and Noburi had shot the idea down. CCnJ had only made things worse when he tried it with Minami, and none of the Gōketsu kids were willing to see that happen again. Especially not here, with this group of clan heirs and important people who were taking their first step towards the idea of active cooperation between groups larger than three people.

It was a long way from 'SuperTeam Leaf' to Hazō's dreamed-of 'Grand Unified Alliance of the Elemental Nations', but every journey began with a first step.