35 Chunin Exams (2)
[New mission unlocked]
[Chunin Exams (Underground City) - C-Rank Mission
The first stage of the Tanigakure Chunin Exams is a hunting ground. The goal is to gather tokens from summoned beasts or other teams. No rules were given regarding alliances.
Task : Gather 10 tokens (0 / 10)
Hidden task: Gather 100 tokens to skip the next stage
Rewards: 3 000 EXP, +100 Reputation with Sunagakure, +150 Reputation with team 146
Hidden task rewards: 5 000 EXP, +200 Reputation with Sunagakure, +200 Reputation with team 146, -100 Reputation with Konohagakure, -100 Reputation with Tanigakure, -100 Reputation with Amegakure]
Soon enough, chunins from Tanigakure started to guide each team towards a specific spot. Because of the lack of Tanigakure staff and size of the underground city, the process took a couple of hours. However, this gave Kaito plenty of time to evaluate the terrain and understand the goal of this stage.
"Man, they are really going all out...I heard Tanigakure had an underground city which was abandonned due to the risks of flood, but to think it was this developped", Eiji said, impressed by the designs of the buildings and sewer systems
Sunagakure truly was an under-developped hidden village. And this is probably the main reason why it had grown so weak in the series. However, they also happened to be very resilient and innovative. Other villages all boasted strong jutsus and kekkai gekkai, but in reality, none could compare to the creativity of Sunagakure. Puppetry was but one such example, as it was a hidden art capable of turning a civilian shinobi into a fearsome opponent.
If this operation was a success...
There was no telling how much it would change the village.
"Let's focus on the chunin exams first", Kaito said, not willing to let his guard down, "This is a stage where we need to collect tokens by killing summoned beasts or dealing with other teams. However, there is also a hidden clear condition to skip the next stage, and that is to gather even more tokens"
"Why would they create such a condition?", Aki asked, unsure of this decision from the Tanigakure village, "Is there not a risk of complete annihilation of all but one team?"
"That's unlikely. Even if there was a jonin-level team, to search through the whole underground city is pretty much impossible. We all have to gather at the surface by the next three days, and we are disqualified if we fail to do so"
Kaito continued: "The hidden clear condition was made to further thin out the exceptionally high numbers of genins participating in the chunin exams. However, it somehow favours the villages which sent many teams. After all, alliances are bound to be created"
"What? That's unfair!", Eiji said in frustration, "Konoha will be the one winning this, right?"
"Actually, I think it's Tanigakure that will prevail in this stage. They know the terrain, as they probably grew up playing in this underground city. Summoned beasts are also a threat. Their strength was not described, but they are most likely chunin-level. Regular genin teams will have to invest quite a bit of resources into killing them. So two strategies will emerge : stealing tokens from others, or hunting summoned beasts. Depending on your skill assets, one strategy will become easier than the other"
"What's our plan, then?", Eiji asked
"Naturally, we can't let Tanigakure win this stage, right? Let us meet with Kohaku"
Team 146 had become an elite team in the Sungakure corps, and a legend within the third platoon. However, they would have never been able to achieve half as much if it were not for the precision and quantity of information they were given during their mission. Two dozen teams were focusing solely on intel gathering, but none could compare to Kohaku's team, providing live information such as the exact live position of the enemy.
In such a hunting area, the infamous alliance of team 142 and 146 would become deadly.
