Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Naruto whatsoever, except for my fictions.
"Speaking"
'Thinking'
Demon talking
Flashback
A/N: Thanks for your great reviews! They made me so happy I jumped up and down!
Replying to one of them, I know that five OC's are a lot, but you'll be meeting more in this chapter. In total, there will probably be around twelve OC's. Sorry if you get confused! But I need a team from lightning, etc...
Bloodlines and Demons
by chairomori
Chapter Two: Encounters
The journey to Lightning Country will last around five days. We will be traveling near the Sound border so be extra cautious. We won't be able to avoid a fight if we confront them. Kakashi's warning ran across Ikioi's mind as he stared at the four sound shinobi that faced him.
"Well, well. Look what we have here." One of the four walked closer as Ikioi stumbled back. "A dog from Konoha. Orochimaru-sama will be pleased if we send him this head."
"Wait! Shouldn't you think about it first?" He backed away a bit more. 'Which jutsu should I use? None of the ones I know will help me in this situation. I need to stall for time and hope everyone will realize I'm in trouble.' The sound nin suddenly lunged towards him with his fist extended. Ikioi ducked and ran. "Wagh! Can't we all just get along!"
"Heh. Why would Konoha send such a weak coward here? You're not taking the Chuunin exams are you? Because you'll surely fail. Not that you'll ever make it there." The sound nin created several chakra strings and threw them in front of Ikioi. "Looks like you've reached the end of the line."
"Shen, stop playing around, and finish him off already." One of his teammates ordered.
The one called Shen rolled his eyes. "Stop telling me how to kill my prey. I do what I want, got it?" He took out a string of kunai and grinned. "Now let's see how many times I can hit this dog before he dies."
Ikioi gulped. 'If I use genjutsu on him, the others will attack me at once. The only other jutsu I know are those from the academy. I wish Uwayaku or Seirei were here right now.' He pulled out a few explosive tags. 'I knew I should have brought some kunai with me. Why did I leave them all at camp?' He started to dodge the kunai as they were thrown at him. Pain suddenly seared through his arm. A kunai was protruding from it.
"That's one hit." Shen chuckled madly and continued to throw more.
'I need to be more cautious.' Ikioi pulled the kunai out of his arm and ignored the crimson flowing from his wound. He wrapped and explosive note around it while using chakra to run up a tree and threw it at Shen.
"Oh come on! Do you really think you can use my own weapon against me? Eh? What's this?" BOOM. He was sent hurling back as the tag exploded. "Uh. You brat! That's it, no more playing around." He took out a scroll from his sleeve and bit his thumb. "Kuchiyosei no jutsu: Hijinsei!" (Summoning Technique: Living Fire) A stream of fire flew from the scroll and headed towards Ikioi.
"Agghh!" 'This is it! I'm going to die young and all alone in a place far from Konoha. I wonder if my teammates will miss me?' He clenched his teeth and closed his eyes as he felt the heat on his face. His heart pounded against his chest as he waited for what would never come. When he realized he hadn't been bit, he opened his eyes and saw Hane standing in front of him with her arms in front of her.
"Idiot. You can't even get firewood without causing trouble. What kind of a ninja are you?" She shouted at him. Her outstretched arms held the fire and gathered it into a ball. She moved her hands back and then pushed them forward. The ball of fire flew towards Shen and burnt him alive.
"Shen!" The other two sound nin ran towards their fallen comrade. The remaining one turned tail and ran the opposite direction. "Where are you going?"
"I'm going to get the others. I'll be back, just hold them off a bit." He sprinted away. 'I'm not foolish enough to stay in this fight. She incinerated Shen by just barely moving her arms.'
"Coward. Goukakyuu no jutsu." A ball of fire blew out from Hane's mouth. It looked like a regular jutsu, but the heat was immense. Ikioi could feel the heat radiating off the peculiar version of the jutsu.
The two sound nin jumped away before the attack hit them. It flew past and collided with the third member. He screamed as the flesh on his back melted upon impact. A kunai glided into his neck. He was dead before he hit the ground.
"W-what are you?" The two remaining were wide-eyed.
Hane smirked. Her eyes grinning madly. "Your gateway to perpetual sleep." She started to produce a series of seals. Her eyes shifted to vermillion as the seals were near completion.
"Zankuuha!" Two blasts of wind headed towards Hane, one on each side. The sound ninja smirked as their jutsu neared its prey. "You can't escape this!"
She jumped in the air at the last minute and formed the final seal. Her palm and index fingers were pressed against each other; the middle fingers were crossed. "Hinote no jutsu!" (Fire Blaze Technique) As she separated her hands, a ball of fire appeared in each palm. Hane gracefully landed on the terrafirma and aimed each palm at one opponent.
The sound nin held his breath in anticipation. The fireballs vanished. Confident in what seemed to be a failed attempt at a jutsu, he smirked. "I guess your pretty little balls were all show." His teammate joined him. "Yes. We'll show- agghh!" They began to twist in pain. "What...did you do...to us?" Another bloodcurdling scream escaped from their lips as a tongue of fire ruptured from their shoulders. Soon, another appeared in their chests. Then another and another, until their entire beings were engulfed in flames.
Ikioi turned away. 'How can she kill so easily?' Fear swelled into his chest as Hane turned towards him; her eyes still crimson. 'What should I do? She's so scary. Maybe she won't notice me if I just hide behind this tree...'
"Why are you cowering behind a tree? How pathetic. Don't tell me you're afraid of a few corpses." Her voice was taunting.
He swallowed. Sure, he'd been caught, but they were both from Konoha. They may not be teammates, but they were still on the same side, which meant he was perfectly safe...right? Right? He left the cover of the trees. "Who's afraid? I-I'm not cowering behind a tree. I was...I was..."Ikioi tried to think of something.
"Well?" Hane crossed her arms. "You were what? Trying to scare away the enemy by turning your back away and quivering like a coward?" She mocked him.
"Exactly." He agreed without listening.
"You fool!" He was startled when she threw a kunai at him. "How did you ever become a shinobi? You are a worthless piece of trash that doesn't even know how to fight. I should exterminate you right now." Hane moved closer to him. "What made you think that someone like you could become anything higher than a genin? If you don't get your act together and train harder, I'll eliminate you from the exams before they start. Understand?"
All he could do was nod. He was too terrified to perform any other type of action. 'Why me? Why did I get chosen to collect firewood with her?' As she walked past, he tried to stop his knees from quivering. 'I'll just try to make as little noise as possible until we get back to camp.'
"Your late! Everyone else has completed their task-" Gai continued to scold Hane and Ikioi when they returned. Ikioi looked around, Gai was right. All the sleeping bags had been laid out. A heap of fish had been set aside and open space, probably for the fire. "-any reasons why you were delayed?"
Hane, who had tuned Gai out during his lecture, was the one to reply. "He," she pointed to Ikioi, "was attacked by for sound shinobi. Good enough?" Then she left and discarded her load of firewood in the space.
Gai's forehead constricted at her rudeness. "You! From Kakashi's cell, Ikioi! What happened?"
"M-me?" He pointed to himself and glanced at Hane, who's back was turned to him.
"Is there anyone else here named Ikioi? Hurry! Before I have you run five hundred laps around the campsite."
"W-well, Hane suggested that we split up to search for firewood. A while had passed when these four shinobi from sound country appeared. We fought, and I was losing. They were going to finish me off when she, she came and slaughtered everyone. It was horrible! How she defeated them was like torture." He paused.
"Amazing, most genin have never and will never kill unless they move up a rank to chuunin; but here, Hane seems like an experienced shinobi in the art of killing." Gai voiced aloud. "Tell me, how did she kill them? What techniques did she use?"
"They were all strange to me except for one-Goukakyuu no jutsu. But there was something different about it; it's heat was intense, and as soon as it hit the sound shinobi, the skin on his back started pouring off..." Ikioi continued to recount the events.
Gai nodded. "Very well. You may go now." He thought to himself. 'I must inform Kakashi of this, though he is my rival. Shikamaru should also know, as he is now a chuunin.' He proceeded to gather them together and inform them while the group of genin started the fire.
Naruto threw the firewood in a pile and tried to light it, but nothing happened. "Huh? What?"
"No! No! You loser! You do it like this!" Kiba took out all the wood and started lining them up.
"What d'you think you're doing? You can't make a fire like that! Give me!" Naruto tried to pry the wood from Kiba.
"Hah! You go ahead and make me!" They started brawling and immediately forgot about making the fire.
Neji rolled his eyes and started to arrange the firewood correctly. "Incompetent." he grunted. When it was finished he stepped back.
Hane walked over and threw her hand over the pile. Then she retracted it. A small gleam of fire soon grew.
Lee grew wide-eyed with admiration. "Wow! Hane-chan! You put your hand over the wood and a fire appeared. I didn't even see you do any seals! How did you do it?"
She glared at him. "Idiot, it's called a match." She shook a small box of them in her hand. "And don't call me 'chan'."
"Oh. Don't worry Hane-chan! I won't!"
Naruto and Kiba stepped away from each other to take a breath. Their eyes shone with the fire of determination. A passionate orange glow illuminated them. Wait...a passionate glow? They turned and found they were inches from the fire.
"Agghh! Who was the baka that put that there!"
"Better yet, who made it without us!"
A twig snapped as it was trampled by a pair of feet. "What is this?" On the ground were three scorch marks, its outline similar to that of a human. In front of him, was one of his subordinates, apparently dead. He surveyed the remains of the body. "Fire attacks. A Konoha nin must have done this." 'A perfect excuse to attack them.' "We must avenge our fallen, by eliminating them." 'Orochimaru-sama will be pleased with all the heads we will bring back.'
Behind him stood scores of shadows, crouching, waiting for the onslaught to begin.
"So basically, Konoha has just killed four nins from Sound. The worst that could happen is that they ambush us for revenge." Kakashi folded his arms back.
"But I think we should set up traps around the campsite, just in case. How troublesome." Aside, Shikamaru muttered to himself. "If that guy hadn't gotten caught and that girl hadn't killed them, we wouldn't have to be as cautious. Why is my life so troublesome?"
"Excellent idea, Shikamaru! Why don't you go ahead and have the genin assist you? It will be an excellent exercise to aid you with your leadership skills!" Gai flashed a radiant smile in Shikamaru's direction. 'Of course, being a jounin, I already thought of that. Hah hah! I bet my rival Kakashi doesn't even know what to do!' He blinked and saw Kakashi leaving with Shikamaru. "Kakashi! What are you doing?"
"Uh, suggesting a few trap formations to Shikamaru." Kakashi answered lazily.
'My rival, you have beaten me yet again! Nevertheless, I still lead! Our score is...our score is...' "OH NO!" Gai clutched his head in agony. "I forgot our score!"
"Huh?" Kakashi gave a quick glance to Gai and then decided to ignore him. Turning to Shikamaru, he continued, "As I was saying, we could put some-"
Gai ran in-between Kakashi and Shikamaru. "I also have some ideas! But they are so great that I will let you finish first Kakashi."
"This is too troublesome. Why don't we just split the area into three sectors and each do our own thing?" Shikamaru was beginning to understand why Neji was constantly in a grumpy mood. His sensei was a lunatic.
"What a splendid idea! Wow, Shikamaru! You make a great chuunin! Keep it up and soon, you will be a jounin like Kakashi and me!" Gai gave him another blinding grin, completed with a super thumbs-up fist.
Shikamaru groaned as he felt his sight slowly diminish. He decided to walk asay as quickly as possible before he was subjected to anymore of Gai's unconscious torture and immediately proceeded to gather his cell together and explain the situation. As he feared, Naruto and Kiba jumped at the chance of setting traps.
"This is so cool. I'm gonna show everyone off by making the greatest trap, because I am Uzumaki Naruto! The future Hokage! Yeah!" Due to his excitement, Naruto failed to notice Kiba's fist heading his way until it was too late. It hit him square on his head. "Ow! What was that for dog-breath?"
Kiba grinned. "I'm just stopping you from saying anything else you might regret. I mean, you? Hokage? Don't make me laugh. You're not good enough."
"Whaa?" Naruto's face grew red. Steam began to materialize from his ears. He stomped closer to Kiba. "Take that back dog-breath."
"Make me, loser!" Kiba regretted his choice of words when Naruto obeyed and threw himself onto Kiba.
Seirei sighed. "Not again. They've been quarreling about everything all day." She glared at Shikamaru. "You're the leader. Don't you think it's time you did something about it?"
"How troublesome." He hated to admit it, but Seirei had a point. At this rate, they'd be unable to fight if there was an ambush.
"Hmm, troublesome. I like that. What a great word." Senshu lazily rested his head upon a tree root, his legs stretched out.
Shikamaru finally decided to take charge. "Seirei, Senshu, after I stop them, I need you to tie them tightly." He formed a seal. "Kagemane no jutsu."
Naruto froze in the middle of his attempt to choke Kiba. "Hey! What gives?" He tried to turn but couldn't move. "Kiba! What did you do?"
Kiba was transfixed in the same situation. "What are you talking about? What did you do? I can't move! Hey, Akamaru! Do you know what happened?"
Akamaru, who had wisely decided to sit the brawl out, was lying near a tree, observing it, when Kiba called. After examining the situation, he proceeded to reply with a "woof woof ruff woof" and returned to his former activity.
"Ah! I see! Shikamaru used his jutsu on us!" Kiba explained. Soon he found ropes being coiled about him. "Eh! Who's there? Stop that!"
"Hold still!" Seirei pulled at the rope before tightly securing it in a knot. "There!"
"I'm all finished here." Senshu announced. "Now what?"
Shikamaru released the jutsu. "Tie them to that tree over there."
"Shikamaru! Why are you betraying us?" Naruto struggled with the bindings.
He shoved his hands into his pockets before explaining. "No offense Naruto, but I don't want you tripping over a wire and setting off all the traps. The same goes for you Kiba. Sorry. You guys will have to sit this one out. He gestured to Seirei and Senshu after they completed their task. "I'm going to tell you the layout now."
Soon after he left, Naruto and Kiba tried to break the rope by pulling their bodies out. After about half and hour, the rope was still intact. "What is this thing made of?
A figure made its way through the trees towards and opening. It quietly slinked into the campsite, its presence unknown. It came upon another figure and knelt down.
"How many?" The figure demanded impatiently.
"Only three teams, a total of fifteen."
"You may go."
After the former figure left, the latter made his way towards a crowd of shinobi. Their hitai-ate presented the symbol of the hidden sound. He called for their attention.
"You all probably know that four of our own were brutally killed earlier today and that it is suspected that the hidden leaf is responsible for it. We have now discovered their campsite and will attack it at once. They have only three teams among them, in comparison to our twenty three, even with four of them away. We will easily defeat them. Now let us all head towards them and-" Two flashes of gold pierced into his neck and spine before he could finish.
A girl with snow-white hair tied in a ponytail appeared from the shadows. She sedately headed towards the dead body and pulled out two golden boomerang rings. Her head carried the forehead protector of sand. Looking up, she gave a slight grin. "What was he saying?"
The silence that had enveloped the camp when their leader fell immediately erupted into a series to war cries and various roars of "kill her" and "attack."
Suddenly, a huge wave of sand towered above them and plummeted down, burying half of the sound shinobi in the process. Silence once again swept over them as they realized what had happened.
The white haired girl turned her head back. "Hey, Gaara! Stop taking away all the fun. We want to fight too."
A thin blue haired boy jumped in front of her. "Hekitei no jutsu." (Air Burst Technique) A barrage of kunai exploded before they hit. "If you want to fight then pay attention!" He had he sand hitai-ate around his neck.
Gaara walked behind another kunoichi with blond hair tied up in four pigtails. "Fuu, Nakuno's right. You're too eager. It's really going to get you in trouble one day."
"Okay, whatever Temari." Fuu backed away a bit. "Now can we do a little something about them?" She pointed down at the approaching sound nin.
Temari pulled out her fan. "You three have already had a turn. Now it's mine. Kamaitachi!" A blast of wind knocked back almost all that was left of the remaining sound shinobi.
"Now we're even so I get to attack again!" Fuu held up her boomerangs and was going to attack, but Nakuno stopped her.
"Hold on, since I only used my jutsu to stop you from getting skewered, I should be able to go again. I mean, I didn't actually get to fight with them."
"A jutsu is a jutsu and you used yours!"
Gaara let out an irritated sigh. They never should have made the agreement to take turns fighting. It seemed the treaty hadn't stopped the quarreling amongst their team, it just heightened it. In fact, it was becoming very annoying. He tried to ignore Shukaku's advice to squish them, which was sounding quite sensible. A vein throbbed on his forehead as he could not stand it any longer.
"Uh, Gaara, what are you doing?" Temari looked at him quizingly.
"Hn. Shutting them up." He managed to mutter through his clenched teeth.
"Wait! You're not going to..." She shivered. 'I thought he had control. I need to stop him.' "Gaara! You can't do that! "They're-" she clammed up at the deadly glare he gave her.
Gaara walked over to Fuu and Nakuno and held his arm out. Sand snaked out and coiled around their mouths. Then he summoned another wave of sand from the earth. The two started struggling to escape the sand.
"Gaara, stop!" Temari screamed.
He ignored her and commanded the sand to crush the remaining sound nin. Then he released Fuu and Nakuno.
"Huh?" Temari turned her head. "You were planning on getting rid of the sound nin, the whole time?"
"What did you think I was going to do? I told you I was going to shut them up."
"But...you...what?" A variety of expressions appeared on her face before she began to laugh insanely. "I can't believe it! The whole time! Ha ha! You-ha ha ha!"
Gaara blinked, convinced that his sister had gone insane. 'People think I'm weird. They must have never seen my sister.' He thought about what had happened to Kankuro before they left Suna and heaved a sigh. 'Or my idiot brother.'
"I can't believe you Gaara! You didn't leave any Oto nin left for us!" Fuu shook a fist at him.
"At least you got to take down one. I only destroyed a bunch of kunai." Nakuno kicked a piece of metal that remained from his attack.
A deadly glare from Gaara stopped what would have been another verbal battle. Somewhere near them came a muffled noise. Temari stopped laughing as all four realized they had forgotten something. "Baki-sensei!"
They ran to the location where they had left him. When they arrived, they found him exactly as they had left him-a wad of paper was in his mouth and his arms and legs were tied to tree branches, which were encased with hundreds of explosion tags. There fore, even if Baki wasn't tied up, he wouldn't be able t move without setting off the chain of tags.
When he saw them, Baki gave them one of Gaara's signature death glares that sent shivers down their spines. He attempted to say something but the ball of paper was in the way.
"Um, w-why don't we leave him there a bit longer..." Fuu scratched her head. Out of all the pranks she had played on Baki since the start of the journey, this one had received the worst glare. It wasn't her fault, she reasoned. You would think that after all the pranks, the jounin instructor would be more cautious.
"Actually, Fuu, I think I want to live to a nice, old age. With the way you're keeping up, I'm not sure if you do." Nakuno stepped forward and took down a few tags. "You going to help? You're the one who put these up."
"Oh, alright." She started peeling them off various branches and taking down a few lines.
It was dusk by the time they finished. Fuu was just taking down the last tag when she 'accidently' triggered it and jumped away. A large explosion and Baki, though covered in dust, was finally free. "Fuuuuu!" He immediately chased her down.
"Uh oh!"
Everyone jerked awake as the long awaited explosion was heard. They quickly discarded their sleeping bags and stood with all their weapons ready.
"Get into the formation," Kakashi whispered to the genin. Ikioi took front position to easily use genjutsu. Behind him stood Tenten, and on either side of her was Neji and Shino. Everyone else took cover where there were no traps.
"Get ready." Tenten whispered to Ikioi.
Neji crossed his arms unhappily. 'Why do I have to stand here and do nothing? Ikioi gets to cast genjutsu on anyone that appears and Tenten pins them afterwards while Shino and I get stuck guarding them. Everyone else gets to take out whoever dodges the kunai or genjutsu. It's unfair!' He waited for the nest trap to be triggered.
A resounding scream was heard signaling that the genjutsu area had been reached.
Shikamaru smirked a bit. 'They shouldn't have come that way. My cell set a myriad of ambushes. They'll never survive.'
Meanwhile, the victims of the ambush were more than a little vexed.
"Fuu! Stop screaming! It's genjutsu!" Temari yelled. When she didn't listen, Temari angrily grabbed her and shook her roughly until she came to her senses.
"Wah! Temari! I was being chased by giant fireballs with fangs!" She hysterically looked around the canopy to make sure nothing would emerge.
"It was genjutsu!" Temari replied through gritted teeth.
"Shh. This whole area is probably littered with traps and genjutsu. We should fly above it." Baki suggested. "Gaara. You can take us there."
Gaara begrudingly created a large cloud of sand and carried them over the canopy.
Shikamaru glanced upwards form where he was and stared at the starless sky. He didn't think that whoever had entered their trap zone had a chance; unless that is, they sprouted wings and flew. That of course was im-. His face paled. How could he have forgotten? Summons. Someone might have had a flying summon, which would explain why everything had been silent since the genjutsu was activated. He searched the sky in the direction of the explosion and saw a shadow approaching. "Hey, everyone! Look over there!"
When they saw it, surprise overtook many of them. Naruto was squinting his eyes to get a glimpse of the 'summon.' When he saw it, his eyes widened and a huge grin crept into his face. He anxiously ran towards it.
"Naruto! What are you doing?" Shikamaru tried to stop him by blocking his path. He noticed Naruto's grin. "Why are you smiling?"
"You'll see!" he gestured for Shikamaru to follow.
Kiba frowned when he saw them leave. 'What are they trying to do? Get themselves killed?' On his head, Akamaru sniffed the air and whispered something to him. "Really? They're here? Wow! Cool!" It never occurred to him that he ought to have shared his newfound information with everyone else.
Gaara heard something below and commanded the sand to stop. Out of nowhere, Naruto's face, followed by the rest of him, popped out of the tree tops and tried to reach the sand.
"Hey. Gaarraaaaa!" He fumbled as he slipped and fell back down. Luckily, Gaara sent a hand of sand to retrieve him before he fell.
"What about me? What ? I'm not worth your time? Troublesome."
Temari rolled her eyes as she recognized the voice. When Gaara finished landing him, she rushed up and grabbed his collar. "What were you trying to do? Kill us! I know that only you could make such a detailed ambush!"
"Yeah. And I forgot to cover the part. I didn't take the flight situation into account." Shikamaru grinned lazily.
"I swear! You are trying to kill us!" Temari shook him until she was sure he was dizzy.
"Stop that, woman! How troublesome. You swear?" Shikamaru couldn't help but anger her further.
Temari clutched her fan and was about to pull it out when Gaara stopped her. He turned to Naruto. "Why were there so many traps?"
Shikamaru stepped in. "I'll answer this one Naruto. You see, we were afraid that we would be attacked by the sound nin because one of our own killed a team of them, so we set traps. The area around our campsite was divided into three thirds and each of our cell teams made their own ambush. What was unexpected was that someone else would come along, and you were the unfortunate ones who walked into my cell's trap, which by the way, none of you , would have escaped from."
"None of us?" Gaara stared at him.
"None. Not even you. You see, one of the members of my cell specializes in fire, and a whole area at the midpoint, had you reached it, was rigged with fire tags. As soon as you step foot in ti, a barrage of very hot fire would have appeared and turned your sand into glass. There's no way you could survive with only sand."
"Hn." Gaara crossed his arms and had his sand continue.
"Hey, who are these people?" Nakuno and Fuu walked forward. Baki sat, uninterested, on the sand.
"This," Temari pointed to Shikamaru, "is Konoha's most laziest ninja, and probably the laziest ninja in all the five countries, Shikamaru. The one over there is Naruto. He's probably the loudest ninja in Konoha."
"Hey!" Naruto protested. "I am not LOUD!"
"Ouch, you're right." Fuu stared the two down. "Now, which one of you made that genjutsu?"
"That would be Senshu, the fire specialist I was telling you about. He thought it would be humorous to scare a few people." Shikamaru sat down.
"First, I'm going to kill him for scaring me. Them I'm going to make him teach me. That is a great genjutsu! My sensei will be so scared!"
"Oh no! Not again!" Nakuno yelled at her. "Last time, sensei made us run an extra one hundred laps around Suna! You're not pulling another prank on her!"
"We're here." Gaara's statement interrupted everyone.
Below them, everyone except those who hadn't met the sand team before dropped their guard as they saw the sand.
"Hey! Where are you going?" Ikioi called to Neji, Shino, and Tenten as they walked away. He looked up and saw the sand closing in on him before he too ran away.
Naruto jumped off the cloud. "Hey guys! It's the sand team! And guess what! They killed off almost everyone from sound for us!"
Fuu rushed down. "Which one of you is called Senshu!" He raised his hand, and she rushed over. "How dare you use..."
Kiba ran over and counted the members and realized something was missing. A lightbulb soon clicked in his mind. "Hey! Where's the big weird dude that uses dolls? Kankuro?"
Temari groaned at the mention of Kankuro's name. "Well, he couldn't come because you see...
The temporary Kazekage surveyed the two genin cells. "I want to make it fair and have two members from each cell-"
Gaara glared at the Kazekage. "All three of us are going." He meant Kankuro, Temari, and himself.
"But-"
Gaara glared.
"Very well, whatever." The Kazekage sighed. "Then Fuu, why don't you join them. I can use a break from your pranks."
When they left the Kazekage's office, Kankuro laughed aloud. "Man! I thought I'd be cut for sure!" He turned to Temari. "Hey, want to train a bit?"
"Sure, whatever."
Fuu appeared. "Kankuro, didn't you tell me to-"
"Later."
"But Karasu-"
"I said tell me later."
"Alright, but if anything happens, it's not my fault."
"Hah! What could happen?"
'Well, for one, he doesn't even have Karasu. My fathere left him a marionette that is under testing to make repairs on Karasu, so anything he does will have a different effect.' She took out a scroll with Karasu inside. 'I should go see.'
Temari took out her fan and aimed it at Kankuro. "Kamaitachi!"
Kankuro pulled at one of 'Karasu's' strings to have it move right and dodge. Instead, the head shot backwards and hit Kankuro's shin, shattering it. As if things couldn't get worse for Kankuro, Temari's attack came directly after it and hit him dead on.
"Kankuro!" Temari rushed over to him.
Fuu walked over and clicked her tongue. "He should have listened to me!" She threw Karasu's scroll at him.
and that's what happened." Temari finished. "He deserved it if he couldn't even tell his weapon apart from a fake one. We had to leave the next day and there was no way he could have healed that fast, sop we got Nakuno instead."
Hane leaned her back against a tree, facing away from where everyone was gathered. 'Idiots. Haven't they realized that they're going to be fighting each other in the exams? There's no reason to get acquainted. Even my stupid brother has forgotten.' She felt a presence besides her and looked up. The red haired sand nin was standing in front of her.
"You have one too." He accused her.
She narrowed her eyes. "I have no idea what you're talking about, and if you don't mind, you're invading my space." She wasn't the least bit intimidated by the glare he sent her. "If you're going to glare, glare at someone who cares, freak."
Gaara angrily left before he crushed her with his sand. No one had ever said that to his face before.
The next morning, the leaf and sand team decided to head towards Lightning Country together. They reached it in about two days and then walked to the Hidden Cloud Village. As they neared their destination, they noticed the trees begin to thin and become replaced by boulders. A few hours into their traveling, a light shower came and went. At last, they arrived. A long row of pine trees stood tall, like an edifice of buildings.
They entered after presenting their passports to the guards. Soon a small bundle hurled itself onto Shikamaru. It turned out to be a small girl around nine years of age.
"How troublesome."
"Sorry! I was trying to sharpen my senses by blindfolding myself." She apologized.
As she took off the black cloth around her eyes, they all gasped. The ebony material fell to reveal a pair of creamy white eyes.
Original Jutsus:
1) Hijinsei - Living Fire - A stream of extremely hot fire sealed into a scroll. When summoned, it flies out the direction the scroll is facing.
2) Hinote no jutsu - Fire Blaze Technique - A ball of fire appears in each palm of the user. The user then points the ball to a desired person or object and the fire will transfer to the interior of the person/object and which then will be engulfed in a blaze of fire. The fire itself bursts out from the surface of the person/object.
3) Hekitei no jutsu - Air Burst Technique - Exactly as the name suggest, the technique creates explosions in the air directly in front of the person that uses it.
A/N: Agh! I kept getting writers block in this chapter. I had to stop in the middle of writing it for over a week before I could pick up my pencil again. Anyway, does anyone know how to spell Neji's 64 palms of hakke attack and Tenten's rising twin dragon correctly? It would help a lot when I finally get the chuunin exams started! Thanks for reading & bye!