Lightning Sage

Itachi and Raiden exchanged glances and nodded at each other. They suddenly flickered towards the exit.

The other examinees caught on to their move and also started moving.

~~~

Normally it would take a team three days of nonstop running to reach Sunagakure, but with Raiden's speed and if he used the lightning chakra mode he could reach it in 2 days, but that would be unnecessary as they had four days.

As Itachi didn't have the endurance of Raiden, they used the extra day to be able to take breaks. Four days later, they were at the doors of a building in the Demon Desert.

They still had a couple of hours left for the set time to end, but it looked like most of the teams were there, with some of them looking like they had no rest at all.

A couple of hours later, a loud buzzer was heard and Baki came out.

"Good, it seems everyone made it. We will be taking the rest of the day off and announcing the second stage exam tomorrow."

Raiden looked to Itachi "What do you want to do with today?"

"Let's rest, for now, we'll meet at dinner."

Raiden nodded and they both entered the huge doors and headed to the room prepared for them to rest.

A couple of hours later, at night, a sound came out of the announcing system that dinner was ready. Itachi and Raiden headed towards the dining room.

Inside, they got their food and sat down to eat. The other Genins looked towards them with a cautious look.

A Konoha Genin couldn't understand why most of the room was looking towards them and asked his teammates what's going on.

"They're checking out the biggest threat. That one with black hair is Uchiha Itachi, known as the best Genin of Konoha, graduated after only 4 months in the Academy and his team has been the best Genin squad for two years in a row."

His second teammate continued "I've heard about the other one from some of my younger friends. He graduated a year after Itachi, he has the highest scores ever in the Academy. His doesn't have a squad but is learning directly from Jiraiya the Sannin. He's the one that completed 15 C-ranks in 6 months."

"What the hell? they're monsters."

"Of course. Itachi is the Uchiha clan head's son and the other one is his cousin."

"Then what do we know about them?"

"Absolutely nothing except Itachi being extremely proficient in ninjutsu."

The Genins from Konoha weren't exactly quiet in their conversation and most of the teams in the room heard them.

Itachi and Raiden finished their dinner and headed towards their room immediately.

The room's tension level went down after they left, but all of the other Genin were extremely cautious about the two.

~~~

The following day in the morning, all the teams were assembled in front of the building with Baki, the proctor of this stage, in front of them standing on an elevated stage with multiple high ranking ninja from both Konoha and Sunagakure.

"Before I explain the second stage, all of you will sign this." He took out a piece of paper for them to see.

"This is a waiver that says I have nothing to do with you if you die. Be warned this desert is called the Demon Desert, it's one of the most dangerous places in the land of wind. Even those that are knowledgable about its geography struggle in it.

the desert is home to many hardy types of animals, such as gigantic three-tailed scorpions and colonies of giant ants which prey on anything they can get their mandibles on. So if you're scared of dying you better forfeit right now."

Some of the Genins looked like they were hesitating, but in the end, did nothing.

"Good, the papers will be given to you sign now." After everyone signed he started explaining the Second stage.

"This stage is a team battle where you have to work together to find these." He took out a scroll and showed it to the crowd.

"Every team will start with one scroll, there are more distributed around the desert. To pass you will have to get five scrolls. There are a total of 50 scrolls with 22 of them being with you. That means only 10 teams at most will advance to the final stage."

The Genins started tensing up.

"As I said before, this Desert is a danger zone so with multiple creatures that are able to kill you. You will take care of your own food and water. Each team will use a different entrance to enter the desert. You have 72 hours."

Each team went towards one of the entrances. A loud buzzer was issued and The second stage began!