𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐔𝐑𝐒𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐀 𝐇𝐘𝐔𝐆𝐀 𝐓𝐖𝐈𝐍

Explanations

The journey towards the tower was quite uneventful as everyone's thoughts were occupied with Sasuke's curse mark. Honestly, this would have been the perfect moment for someone to ambush them because no one was paying much attention to their surroundings.

Once Team 10 was at the tower, the entered it and saw a big board on the wall opposite them. It read, "If qualities of Heaven are what you desire, acquire wisdom to take your mind higher. If Earthly qualities are what you lack, train your body and prepare to attack. If Heaven and Earth are opened together, the perilous path will be righteous forever. This ______ is the secret way that guides us on from this place today."

"Huh, what do you think that means?" Ino asked.

"I don't know," Choji responded, chips nowhere in sight for once.

"Wait... it says 'If Heaven and Earth are opened together'" Shikamaru muttered.

"Ooh! We have to open the scrolls!" Hanara said, pulling the Heaven and Earth scrolls from her bag.

Hanara gave one scroll to Shikamaru, "On the count of three we'll open it. One! Two! Three!"

When Hanara's eyes landed on the design written on the scroll, her eyes widened and she threw it onto the floor, "It's a summoning scroll! Drop it, Shikamaru!"

Shikamaru did, and just in time too, because right after he did, there was a 'poof' and a puff of smoke cleared to reveal Asuma-sensei.

"Huh?" Ino asked.

"What?" Choji said.

"Asuma-sensei!" Hanara yelled gleefully as she ran up to him and hugged him.

He laughed, "Good to see you, Hanara."

"What are you here for, sensei?" Shikamaru asked.

"Well, you see that board over there with the quote? I'm here to explain it," Asuma sensei said as Hanara released him, "It's something that our Hokage feels that all Chunin should understand. Basically, what it means is, if you need intelligence on your side, build it up and if you need strength on your side, build that up. Once you have them both, you will succeed."

"...oh," Ino said, before voicing what they were all thinking, "but we already knew that..."

"Not all teams are as smart as you guys are," Asuma said.

"So is that it? Can we go home now?" Shikamaru asked.

"Sadly, no, you need to stay here until the five days are up. They'll give you food and rooms and stuff, don't worry." Asuma-sensei reassured, "After that, they'll come and get you. If there are too many people that passed through, instead of debriefing you on the third exam, they might do some preliminaries, so try not to slack off. Anyway, that's all I can tell you. Congrats on passing the second exam! See ya!"

And then he disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

"Well, that was weird," Hanara commented, "Might as well get used to this place and scope out our competition."

~~~ Three Days Later ~~~

Team 10 and the remaining exam takers were standing in rows facing the Hokage and some Jonin (including the senseis).

"First off, congratulations on making it through the second exam," the Hokage said.

"I'm really hungry," Choji whispered.

"What a drag, there are so many people left... this is going to be such a pain," Shikamaru complained quietly.

Hanara sighed, "There's going to be preliminaries for sure."