(Now to the exams.)~Kiba-chan
(("speech" 'thought speech''thoughts'))
Shortly after I had made breakfast my teammates Naruto and Sasuke joined me in the kitchen. We ate and left after I had left out extra for anybody who wanted it. We ran to the academy and waited for Sakura to join us. When she got there most of the other teams had already entered the academy and were headed towards the exam room. We headed up the stairs and were stopped before we could enter the exam room. 'This can't be the exam room we've only gone up two flights of stairs.' I thought puzzled as to why so many people thought this was the exam room. My team and I slipped to the front of the group just in time to see TenTen get punched by two guys. I jumped behind her and caught her as she flew backwards.
"Are you alright TenTen?" I whispered in her ear after I checked her face. She nodded her head and stood up pushing me away. I sighed and decoded not to go after her since she was checking on her green clad teammate.
"You guys can drop the genjutsu now we all know that this isn't the exam room. Of course you must have noticed first Sakura after all you are the best at sensing chakra disturbances and jutsus in general," Sasuke said. Sakura looked a little taken aback by what he said and blushed a little.
"You're right Sasuke. I did notice a while ago in fact because we've only climbed up two sets of stairs making this the second floor and not the third one where our exam will begin," Sakura agreed. She was blushing at the compliment that Sasuke had inadvertently given her.
"So you saw through the genjutsu that doesn't mean you can take the test," the guy with bandages on his cheeks said as he tensed up ready to run at Sasuke. Before he could move I was standing in front of them with my regular katanas drawn and at their necks.
"If you value your lives you will let us all pass without trying to attack us. Got it?" I asked pushing the blades closer to their flesh.
"FINE! Let us go and we'll leave you all pass," the other guy said. I removed the blades from their necks and spun around to face my team. As I walked back to my team I heard something whistle through the air and spun around throwing out my left hand to grab the kick that was aimed at my midsection. Before I could make contact the boy clad in green appeared between me and the boy with bandages on his cheeks. He had one hand on the boy's leg blocking the kick and one hand on my wrist stopping my block. 'You've definitely been practicing Lee' I thought as Lee released my arm and turned to scold the other two who had already disappeared in a puff of smoke.
"Thanks," I said and turned to leave with my team.
"What are your names?" someone called out as we walked away. I stiffened and glanced over my shoulder just enough to see a girl with brown eyes and short blonde hair standing behind us. She had a lioness mask on top of her head and a headband that had a cat face with fire in the middle of it on the plate. I didn't dare look her in the eyes afraid she would recognize me. "I asked you a question."
"It is considered good manners to give your name before asking others their own," Neji said as he walked up to stand between my team and her. She seemed a little ticked off that he had the audacity to tell her that, but gave her name nonetheless.
"My name is Honey. Now what are your names?" she called out to us. I kept my body from moving for fear that it would give me away. I was able to keep my fear scent under control enough that she wouldn't know that it was me who was scared.
"I don't think I want to tell you my name. Come on guys let's get out of here," Sasuke said as he started to walk away. I walked at a steady pace beside him and didn't relax until after we had turned the corner and lost sight of her. I shook myself trying to forget her for a moment and focus on my surroundings. When I did I saw Lee challenge Sasuke to a fight for the love of Sakura. When that didn't work he said he wanted to see if the Uchiha clan was as great as it was supposed to be.
"Come on Sasuke you can take him," Sakura encouraged.
"No. I want first crack at him," Naruto butted in. Before I could stop him he had run at Lee and was sent crashing into the wall without any trouble. When he hit the wall he fell unconscious and ended up on the floor. When Naruto stopped sliding down the wall my cousin ran at Lee and started to attack him without any hesitation in his movements. Lee easily overpowered him and sent him back towards us. I snarled when I saw Sasuke activate his Sharingan. Before either of them could move I had pinned Lee to the ground and nocked Sasuke onto his back in one movement. Sasuke seemed surprised that I had interrupted his fight.
"Lee leave my cousin alone. I expect better from one of my apprentices," I said. Lee looked away from my face.
"I know sensei. Please forgive my actions," Lee asked as I got off his chest.
"I will overlook this direct insult to both my position and to my family on one condition."
"What is it?"
"I want you to do five hundred laps around the village when the exams are over as punishment. Understood," I said letting him off easy.
"Only five hundred laps?" he asked.
"For your punishment yes, and you should just add it onto whatever Guy makes you do after the exams for training," I answered.
"Yes mam," Lee said giving me a salute.
"And I never want to see you even think about using that technique on a comrade ever again, got it?" I said as he started to rewrap the bandages around his hands and arms. He paused for a second and dropped to one knee.
"I understand, sensei," he said bowing his head.
"Good. You know that I only have that precaution for my students' protection Lee," I whispered the last part after pulling him into a friendly hug.
"I know, but I just want her so bad," he whispered.
"She isn't ready for that, at least not yet. Let her get to know what it means to be with someone like us," I whispered as I pulled away. He nodded and turned around to go back to his team. I helped Sasuke up and Naruto walked over to us, he regained consciousness shortly after I pinned Lee. We walked away and when we came to the room we found Kakashi waiting for us.
"Good you all showed up that means I can let you all pass by here and enter to take the exam," he said as we stopped in front of him.
"But sensei you said that it was our choice to take the exam. Why would you tell us that if you knew that we all had to show up to be able to take the exam?" Sakura asked.
"If he had would you have decided to take the exam because you thought you were ready or because you didn't want to let the team down?" I asked. It slowly dawned on her face that she understood what I had said and nodded her head in understanding.
"What Kiba-chan said was right. If I had told you that your decision would have been influenced by the fact that your team was relying on you to come and take the test," Kakashi said. We nodded in understanding and Kakashi stepped aside to let us pass with a few words of encouragement. We walked with me at the head and Naruto and Sasuke at my sides and Sakura bringing up the rear. We pushed the doors open and walked into the brightly light room. When our eyes finally adjusted to the light we saw hundreds of heads turned to look at us.
"Wha...What is this?! I mean I knew a lot of people take the exam at once, but I didn't think there would be this many people here," Naruto said. While the other three looked shocked to see the number of the genin, I took the opportunity to scan the crowd for any of my enemies and allies. I saw the Sand Siblings had already arrived and smelt my cousin, Kiba-kun nearby in the crowd.
"Sasuke~3!" a blonde yelled as she latched herself onto his neck. He stumbled forward ever so slightly and glanced at me pleading with me to help him.
"INO YOU PIG! Get off of Sasuke," Sakura yelled at the blonde. I sighed as they started to fight over my cousin.
"Hey can you two not fight for more than three seconds after seeing each other? Or better yet go die in a corner," Shikamaru said walking up to us. I nodded my head at him and Choji as Naruto started to yell at them.
"Well what do you know? It seems that my cousin was telling the truth about us all taking the exams. That means that the whole training gang is here," Kiba-kun called out as he walked over followed by a blushing Hinata and dead silent Shino. I smiled and gave Akamaru a quick pet before smacking my cousin across the back of his head.
"Idiot. Keep your voice down we don't need any more attention than we already have," I said as the others noticed the ninja's glaring at us. I sighed and let things continue sine no one seemed to care. A few seconds later and we had a real uproar in our group.
"Hey you guys. Do us all a favor and shut up," a genin with white hair and glasses asked as he walked over to our group. I recognized him and blended in with the back of our group as he got closer.
"And who are you?" Naruto asked.
"You're all genin fresh out of the academy right? Well here's a news flash this isn't some class field trip and you all need to open your eyes to what's going on around you. Name's Kabuto by the way," he said bringing their attention to the fact that we were being watched. They glanced behind them and saw a group from Amagakure staring at them. I glared at them and they looked away unable to look in my eyes because of the glare that was directed at them. I snorted at their weakness and inability to take a glare from someone stronger than them. "It's alright. I still remember when I was fresh out of the academy and thought I was invincible to anything. But then I came here and I learned what this test is all about. This is the seventh time I've taken this test and I still don't know what to expect from this exam, but at least I'm prepared with knowledge thanks to these," he continued pulling out a set of Shinobi skill cards.
"Who all do you have?" Shikamaru asked sounding mildly interested.
"I have a card for everyone here and more detailed ones on those from Konoha. Give me a name and I'll tell you what I know about them," he said.
"Gaara Subaku from Suna and Honey from Densetsu," Sasuke said.
"Aw. It's no fun if you know their names," Kabuto said pulling out two cards before pushing his chakra into one of them. It started to spin around and a picture of Gaara appeared. It showed what missions he had gone on, what rank they were, and interesting facts about him. In the chakra/jutsu spot there was a question mark indicating that he didn't know anything about his jutsus.
"It seems these cards aren't as good as you said they were," Sasuke said.
"Well that's to be expected from someone who's not from our village and hasn't taken the exam before, but I do know that he has gone on eight C-rank missions and one B-rank. Wow! Not many genin get a B-rank so early in their careers. And get this he's come back from every mission completely unscathed without even a scratch. Next we have Honey of Densetsu. I have more on her because this isn't the first time we've taken the test together. She is from the Village that sits on the border between the demon and light countries, has great chakra control, can fight as a lioness, and she has gone on thirty C-rank missions along with her team. She is also average in Taijutsu and Genjutsu and specializes in Ninjutsus and Ninja weapons. Supposedly her Chijutsu is her ability to change into a lioness, but I heard she has another form she doesn't use," Kabuto said. I scoffed at the small amount of information he had gathered on my former friend I personally knew that she was perfectly balanced when it came down to jutsus, but if it came down to weapons she could easily be defeated because she always gave away when and where she was going to strike next.
"You should all be aware that everyone here is just like those two because if you're not then this test will eat you alive, and I mean that literally," I said speaking up after Kabuto stopped talking. Everyone turned to look at me and I kept my gaze on the window across from me. "There are few people here that aren't as tough as Lee, Gaara, or Honey and the few that are won't even make it passed the first part of the exam, so if I were you I would be really happy that I held those training sessions when we were still in the academy," I finished looking at the people who had actually showed up for those sessions. They all smirked or smiled at me showing their confidence in both my training and their own abilities.
"Although I doubt you need to worry about the ninja from the Sound Village. After all, the Village was established less than a year ago and because they are part of a new small nation there is very little information about it. Otherwise everyone here is just as powerful as your friend there said," Kabuto said. I heard someone move through the crowd as quietly as they could without using a jutsu, so I knew that they were from the sound. I quickly started to do hand signs. The order was tiger, dragon, snake, rat, and tiger.
"Sound barrier," I whispered. I sent the barrier over my cousins, their teams, and anyone who I knew had sensitive hearing like me. I wasn't able to protect myself against the attack because it was a self-sacrificing jutsu that I had developed to protect my clan from people who could use sound as a weapon. As soon as I finished the barrier a boy jumped over the crowd and threw two kunai at Kabuto who dodged them. After he dodged the weapons another boy appeared and threw a punch at Kabuto who dodged that as well. He appeared to be unharmed, but a second after he had dodged the attack his glasses shattered. Then we both heard it and dropped to our knees where we emptied our stomachs onto the floor. I thought that I felt sweat drip down my face, but when I pulled my hand back I saw it covered in blood.
"Sis! Are you all right?" Sasuke asked as he knelt down next to me. I couldn't hear him, but I could read his lips and knew what he was asking. Before I could answer he was pulled off of me by a girl with red hair and a girl with a cream colored lioness mask took my cousin's place and performed the hand signs for a healing jutsu of my own invention before placing her hands over my ears and starting to heal them. I felt the tears in my eardrum and inner ear start to heal and I removed her hands when I knew my ears where healed as much as she could safely heal them without hurting herself. I got up and placed my hand on the other girl's shoulder before leaning in to whisper in her ear," Tell your father and mother that I said hi, would you please?"
"Of course we will I'm sure our parents will be more than happy to hear from their friend," the girl who healed my said as she walked over. I was able to get a good look at both of their masked faces. The one with red hair had a tiger mask that was as red as her hair, but had darker red stripes on it and a bird in flight on the forehead. The one that had healed me had a pale lioness mask on and had a pool of some kind on her forehead. I had just opened my mouth to respond when there was a large poof of smoke at the front of the class and a large group of Jounin appeared along with the proctor.
"EVERYBODY SHUT UP!" the proctor yelled at us. I smirked when I recognized the voice as Ibiki. "You kids from the Sound Village had better settle down before I disqualify you all for attacking someone before the exams even begin."
"We're sorry sir. This is our first time taking the test and we're just a little anxious, sir," the one with a weird arm guard said.
"Is that so? Then I guess it's time I lay down some ground rules. Rule one if you attack another examinee without my permission or with deadly force I will disqualify you without a second thought," Ibiki continued.
"Sir, what if we try to kill them after your part of the exam and may I have your permission to kick someone?" I called out. Ibiki looked a little startled to hear my question, but smirked evilly when he saw my raised hand.
"Excellent questions Miss Fenrisulfur. I don't care what you do once this part of the exam, so long as I or one of the other Jounin catch you doing it. Yes you may kick someone," Ibiki answered. I smirked at his answer and appeared behind the Sound genin that had attacked Kabuto and me with sound waves. I kicked him into his male teammate before he could even try to stop me. I dropped my hand to rest on my hip as I snarled at the genin.
"The next time you attack somebody make sure you know who you attack because otherwise it can come back to kill you," I snarled. At the same time I narrowed my pupils to slits at the last word. I returned to my friends where I was joined by my niece and nephew. Everyone that knew me wined at the hidden meaning behind my words.
"All right now I want you all to form a single line and come up here to receive a number and you will find the corresponding seat and once you are all seated we will begin the written part of the exam," Ibiki ordered. I heard a lot of people groan and I shrugged since I knew that the written part was the easiest part of the exam. When I took my seat I was seated between a Leaf Genin I had never seen before, but who looked to be a few years older than me, and the pale lioness that had healed my ears. I tuned out what Ibiki was saying about the rules of the test and just stared out the window. When he said we could begin I sighed and continued to stare out the window. I knew that the whole point of this part of the test was to see if we could gather information and not get caught.
Half way into the test I heard something open one of the windows in the room and something climbed up my leg. I smiled at the little midnight blue dragon that had followed me to the exam. I gently patted his head and let him climb onto my shoulder after I disguised him to look like a cat. He cooed at the air when the boy next to me said he had something in his eyes. I smiled when I saw Gaara's third eye appear and start to transmit the answers back to him. A few minutes later and there were still over a hundred of us left and there was only fifteen minutes left for the test.
"All right everybody listen up. I will now give you the last question," Ibiki called. At about the same time Kankuro came back from the bathroom led by Crow. "I hope your trip to the bathroom was enlightening. You got back just in time for the last question. Take a seat." I saw Kankuro gulp when he mentioned his bathroom trip. As he walked by Temari he slipped her a piece of paper. "Now with this last question there is also another rule and let me be perfectly clear...this rule is absolute." I almost burst from containing my laughter, but only succeeded in placing a cocky grin on my face. I always loved how the Konoha Black Ops leader used his knowledge of interrogation and torture when I was a test or in everyday life. I looked around and noticed that many of the other Genin were starting to freak out. "First you must choose whether you want to accept the question"
"WHAT!? Why wouldn't we accept the question?" Temari yelled outraged by the new rule.
"Because if you refuse the question you automatically fail the first exam and that will disqualify your team from this exam. Also if you choose to accept the question and get it wrong then you may NEVER retake the exam to become a Chuunin. You will be stuck as a Genin for the rest of your life." I smirked at the lie he told.
"YOU'RE LIEYING! THERE ARE PEOPLE HERE WHO HAVE TAKEN THE EXAM MORE THAN ONCE! HOW CAN THAT BE IF THEY WOULD HAVE BECOME INELIGABLE THE MOMENT THEY MISSED THE LAST QUESTION!?" Kiba-kun yelled. Ibiki smiled and started to laugh like a mad man.
"Because you lot just got unlucky enough to have me give your exam this year," Ibiki answered. He still had the creepy smile on his face. "Now which of you will not accept the question?" A few seconds passed and shuffling could be heard as people started to give up in favor of having a chance to take the exams again instead of risking everything to become stronger. I scoffed at how easy it was for Ibiki to use his interrogation and torture training on the first timers, yet when it came to my group of rookies all but Naruto looked confident about passing the exam. I kept my eyes trained on him like he was a buck that had been separated from the herd waiting for him to do something. A few more people raised their hands and left before Naruto shakily raised his hand into the air before slamming it down on the desk in front of him and stood up to glare at Ibiki.
"DON'T YOU EVER UNDERESTIMATE ME! I DON'T QUIT AND I NEVER GO BACK ON MY WORD! SO WHAT IF I FAIL YOUR BUMB TEST? I'LL STILL MAKE MY DREAMSCOME TRUE EVEN IF I'M A GENIN WHEN THAT HAPPENS!" he yelled before sitting back down in his chair with a determined look on his face. A few seconds passed and no one else raised their hand to reject the last question.
"Is there anyone else who wishes to leave now? This is your last chance," Ibiki said as he looked around the room. This time there was complete silence instead of the nervous shuffling from before. After a few more moments Ibiki repeated his question and when no one left his face broke out into a smile. "Well, then since it appears that no one else is going to quit I can say that you have all passed the first exam." I smirked at all the confused looks and started to laugh at how dumb some of these people had been in assuming that there was actually a tenth question and that the written test mattered to whether or not we passed the first exam. "It seems that Miss Fenrisulfur finds it funny that you have all passed the first exam. Would you mind telling us what exactly you find amusing in the situation?" Ibiki asked as he locked his gaze with mine.
"Of course sir. I just find very funny that I'm the only person who bothered to learn who our proctors for the exams are. I even took the time to study what they do for their respective villages or in this case the Leaf Village. Also how no one recognized the famous head of Interrogation and Torture squad let alone recognize one of the simplest torture tactics out there. I just find the stupidity of the other participates very amusing, that's all," I replied with a straight face. We looked at each other for a few more seconds before we both laughed at the situation. As we were laughing a black tarp burst through the window and kunai shot out from within it burying themselves in the ceiling and floor. Out of the tarp burst a woman with purple hair, a full body fish net suit, a light brown skirt, and a light brown cloak. I smirked as I instantly recognized her.
"ALL RIGHT YOU MAGGOTS LISTEN UP! NONE OF YOU ARE IN ANY POSITION TO CELEBRATE! MY NAME IS ANKO MITARASHI AND TIME'S A-WASTIN, SO EVERYBODY FOLLOW ME!" the brown eyed woman yelled at us. I covered my mouth with my hand as I started to quietly laugh at her antics.
"Can't you sense the mood in here?" Ibiki asked her. Anko looked around the room before she spun around to face Ibiki and pointed a finger at him.
"You let eighty-six people pass?! Obviously you went too easy on them, but it doesn't matter I'll reduce their numbers by more than half in the next part of the exam. ALRIGHT WHO'S LAUGHING? WELL COME ON. OWN UP OR ARE YOU SCARED?" she asked as I started to laugh really hard. Instead of answering her I teleported to stand behind her and had a smirk on my face as the other students looked shocked that I was bold enough to stand anywhere near the woman. I placed my hand on her shoulder and she spun around ready to attack me, but stopped when she saw who it was behind her. "Well if it isn't Kiba. Long time since we last saw each other, huh?"
"You bet it has although I bet I could still kick your butt in a fight even though the last fight I was in was nothing more than a dragon problem," I answered returning her smile.
"Of course it was. I really don't understand why you train against them when they have such a huge advantage and I mean that literally. I mean come on the dragons you fight are usually larger than the Hokage's building and you still come out on top every time. So I guess you were telling the truth about being on Kakashi's team since you're here and all," she answered. I just smiled and nodded my head to her question. "ALL RIGHT YOU MAGGOTS! FOLLOW ME AND KIBA TO THE NEXT AREA SO THE SECOND PART OF THE EXAMS CAN BEGIN!" She pulled me towards the door as the others stood up and started to follow us out the door. We walked a good distance ahead of the others and when we were far enough away that she thought it was safe to talk without being overheard she whispered," Are you sure this is a good idea? Taking the test I mean. After all there are a lot of people here from Densetsu and they might recognize you if you're not careful."
"It doesn't matter anymore because I'm tired of all the lies. If my real identity is found out then so be it. Besides I plan on telling them all who really am before this exam is over and when that happens maybe the person I've been searching for will finally show his damn face," I whispered back. She shot me a look of sympathy since she knew exactly who I was talking about, she even knew what he looked like because she had once caught me savagely ripping apart a training dummy with his picture where the face would have been. She gave my shoulder a slight squeeze and didn't try to push the subject. We arrived at the next area a few minutes later and I stood beside her as the other students arrived. The little dragon squeaked at me as he caught sight of Gaara and Sasuke and I told him he could go to either one, but to be careful and not to interfere in whatever was going to happen. He churred at me before jumping off my shoulder and running over to Sasuke who lifted the little guy onto his shoulder where the hatchling wound his tail around his arm to steady himself.
"Welcome to the area of the second exam. We call this place the 44th training ground better known as...," Anko started.
"The Forest of Death," I finished as I heard a rustling in the trees behind us. Out jumped a large group of wolves followed by a group of tigers. They all gathered near the chain link fence and started to talk amongst themselves. I would occasionally catch a few words like, "Master brought friends this time," or "Master finally brought her teammates to meet us," of even, "I can't wait to fight with her again," as the two groups talked to each other. I ignored them for the most part and focused on the other students, many of whom looked nervous because of the presence of the wild animals.
"See even the animals know that there is about to be a blood bath and can't wait to get their paws on some fresh meat. Every single one of you is going to find out first hand why we all this the Forest of Death," Anko yelled out. I saw a few of the student's with weaker stomachs bend over and empty them onto the ground in front of them at the hidden implication of what was going to happen in the forest. I smirked at their weakness, but it faded quickly as Naruto started to mock Anko about what was going to happen in the forest. "You're pretty cocky. Aren't you?" she asked smiling sweetly. Before Naruto could move Anko had thrown a kunai at him and it had sliced open his cheek. In the next second she was standing behind him with one hand on his uninjured cheek and her chin almost resting on his shoulder. "People like you are always the first to go and spill all that rich, red, lovely, luscious blood," she continued as she licked some of the blood off his cheek. I saw Sasuke tense up like he was going to attack her, but the hatchling tightened his hold on his arm and caused him to stop moving for fear of the little one's scales digging into his flesh. In the next second I heard someone moving from within the crowd and I teleported to stand behind Anko a second before a female grass ninja appeared in front of me. I had pulled out my black blade moments before she appeared and had the point directly under her chin. I felt her tongue behind my back and could sense the kunai blade that she held in her tongue.
"If you value your life you will remove your tongue from behind me and leave right now," I growled out.
"I'm sorry. I just wanted to return the proctor's kunai. I believe she dropped it," the girl said. I heard howls and roars of outrage coming from on the other side of the fence as the two groups showed their anger at the woman's actions. I ignored them and focused all my attention on the girl in front of me.
"If I were you I would do as she says the last person who didn't listen to her ended up as a blood stain on the floor when she was finished with them. If her cousin hadn't been there to confirm the story about someone trying to kill them we would have thought that she had killed some innocent person on the streets," Anko said with a sigh as she glanced over her shoulder at the Grass Ninja. I growled deep in my throat to emphasize what she had said. Before the girl could respond she was tackled to the ground by a dark brown streak where she was pinned to the ground. A second later and I recognized a large tiger on top of the girl who had lightly placed his jaws around her neck.
"Don't kill her," I said with a sigh as I put my sword away. The tiger looked at me and a soft growl rumbled in his throat as his jaws stopped trying to kill the girl. "Yes I know that she was radiating bloodlust towards me, but it was weak compared to the rage I have reserved for a select few people," I answered. He growled at me again and removed his jaws from the girl's neck, but continued to stand on her. "Leave her be if she really wants to try to attack me I seriously doubt that she will try anything while you are here with me. If she has any sense at all she will make sure to avoid us in the future because I'm not nearly as forgiving the second time around," I answered the tiger's finally question. He looked down at the girl one last time before he jumped off of her and wound himself around me as the girl shakily got back to her feet and returned to her team. I mentally marked the group as enemies the moment the girl returned to them. "Anko let him go. I really don't feel like prying you off of my teammate at the moment."
"Kami you're never any fun after people do that. I really wish that you didn't have to always be so serious, but I guess that's the price you pay for being so strong," she said as she released Naruto and walked back to the front of the group. I noticed how all eyes remained on me as Anko started to talk again. I reached up a hand and placed it on my collar as I felt a pain in my neck that I had only felt when I was extremely irritated or angered. I gently rubbed the area and felt the pain fade away just as Anko finished speaking. I walked over to my team and told Sasuke that I was going to talk to the tiger in a more private place before taking a consent form and walking towards a nearby clearing surrounded by trees and underbrush.
"Alright this should be far enough away from the others that we can talk in peace. Now tell me why you jumped the fence and tell your friend to come out of hiding while you're at it," I said as I sat down on a rock. The tiger seemed a little surprised before he dipped his head towards me and growling over his left shoulder. A few seconds later and we were joined by a white wolf that had light gray patches under her paws and on her lower muzzle. She quickly took up a defensive position in front of the tiger in a way that showed she was afraid for him.
"Please spare him. He was only trying to help," the wolf whimpered. I gazed at her with a softness I usually reserved for my cousins or boyfriend.
"Don't worry I would never harm someone who was doing what their heart told them to do. Besides if I hurt him I would be wasting a great chance to have two new additions to my team and I wouldn't want to do that. Only if you both want to join me of course," I answered her. She seemed a little taken aback by what I had said and the tiger looked very excited at the idea of being allowed to join my clan.
"You mean we can join your clan?" he asked in disbelief.
"Of course you can. Both of you can if you want to, but I won't make you do anything you don't want to, but before I can let you join I need you to answer my question and tell me your names," I answered smiling at the two. They looked at each other before the tiger said," I jumped over the fence because I thought you needed help and I couldn't stand to see you in danger even though I know that you can take care of yourself. And neither of us have names, at least to our knowledge we don't have names. My friend here has been with me since my mother died and both of her parents are dead as well." I nodded my head in understanding and began to think up names for the both of them.
"What he says is true. I don't really remember my parents, but I know that I don't have a name and I would be honored to join your great pack," she growled softly at me.
"Alright then how about I give you both names and then you can decide for yourself if you like them or not. How about Kyo for you big guy and Snow for you?" I asked. The tiger nodded his head saying that he liked the name and the wolf gave a slight nod as well. "Now I can welcome the both of you into the clan as full members now that you both have names. Kyo and Snow you shall both make great warriors in time, but for now I want you both to return to the forest and trail my team so you can see what you will be doing once this part of the exams is over. Alright?" They both nodded at me and walked towards the fence as I returned to my teammates and the other participates.
"You ready Kiba?" Sakura asked as I joined her and the others. I nodded my head and we headed towards the shed were they were giving the teams their scrolls and right before I could follow them in I felt a hand placed on my shoulder and Anko was standing next to me. She leaned in close to my face and stayed very still with her back to my teammates who were watching the scene.
"Be careful out there. I know you say I shouldn't worry about you, but I can't help it. You don't deserve to live in fear and secret and I sincerely hope that you make it out of there in one piece. Be careful you little maggot," she whispered in my ear.
"Don't worry about me. It's not like I'm going to be alone during this test. I have more allies here than you realize, besides if I get in trouble I always have my secret weapon and my special training spot here. My team and I will get through this test without much difficulty and I'll see you at the tower soon enough, old friend," I answered as I brushed her hand off my shoulder. I joined my team and we gave our consent forms to the Ninja in the shed and Sasuke took the scroll for safe keeping. A few minutes later and we were standing outside of the Twelfth gate. I pulled my cloak out of my bag and put it on pulling the hood over my head hiding my eyes from my teammates. Once the hood was in place I activated my Byakugan and found my allies at their respective gates as well as the two teams I had marked as enemies. Hinata's team was at Gate 16, Shikamaru's team was at Gate 27, Kabuto's team was at Gate 38, the Grass Ninja's team was at Gate 15, Team Guy was at Gate 41, and Gaara's team was at Gate 6. I was about to find the Sound team when the proctor let us through the gate and the exam began. 'Damn it' I thought as I quickly deactivated my Byakugan and followed my teammates through the gate and into the forest.
"All right guys let's stop here and come up with a plan," Sasuke said shortly after we had entered the forest. We stopped and shortly after I heard a scream pierce the air as the first team was taken out of the exam.
"It seems that the first team has already fallen to the hands of our comrades," I stated as Naruto walked around a tree to go to the bathroom.
"How can you tell?" Sakura asked.
"Which of our allies has succeeded already?" Sasuke asked at the same time.
"Hinata's team has taken out one of the unimportant groups and I know that because I could hear them scream as the chakra eating leeches attacked them and killed them when they were under Shino's control," I answered. Sakura shivered at the thought of leeches and Sasuke just nodded his head in acceptance.
'Kiba don't head to the tower yet. I have a bad feeling about that Grass Ninja from before she was hiding something and I think she is going to come after my team, so try and stay in the forest if you can. Alright?' I asked my cousin through our mind link.
'We weren't going to head towards the tower yet anyways because Shino needs to rest after using his power on those leeches. I'll keep in touch with you and our other allies'he answered. Shortly after he answered I sensed an unfamiliar Chakra heading our way and it was aimed at Naruto. I snarled and launched myself into the treetops and caught the person unawares as he tried to attack Naruto. I pulled out my white blade and stabbed him deep in the shoulder almost going through his collar bone with the amount of force I had put in the strike.
"GAAAAHHHH," he yelled out as he crashed to the forest floor in front of Sasuke. Sasuke quickly pulled out a kunai and buried it in the same wound that I had already created as he reacted without thinking about it. As I fell back to the ground I saw Naruto tied up on the ground and I threw a kunai at the ropes slicing them in half and releasing him at the same time.
"Where are your teammates?" I asked as I took Sasuke's place holding the kunai knife in his shoulder.
"Like I would tell you that," he responded. I didn't bother answering him with words and instead I twisted the kunai knife in his shoulder and made him scream in agony and pain before I released him. He jumped away from me and took off into the woods as soon as he was out of my grasp. I snorted at his retreating figure and wiped the kunai clean on my cloak before I returned it to my cousin.
"Why did you let him go we could have gotten a scroll from him if we had kept him as a prisoner," Sasuke said as he returned his kunai to his weapons pouch.
"I let him go because he has the same scroll we do and because his teammates don't really care about passing they just want to collect as many scrolls as they can. Besides if we had kept an injured person as a prisoner we would have been tracked by the blood from his wound this way he puts his team in danger and we don't have to worry about someone tracking us or feeding another person," I answered. Sasuke appeared satisfied with my answer and when Naruto rejoined our group he relaxed just a little before he made us memorize a poem about when a Ninja should strike. I listened and knew that the real purpose of the poem was so that the next time someone impersonated Naruto we would know they were a fake because they would give us the correct answer instead of the Naruto answer.
"Alright let's get moving. We've wasted enough time here as it is," Sasuke said as he stood up. As soon as he stood up I felt something sting my cheek and I recognized the attack instantly and cursed myself for dropping my guard at a time like this. I grabbed my cloak and pulled it off and revealed a powerful and muscular tail along with a set of wings and my body beginning to be covered in black scales.
"GET DOWN!" I shouted as I swung my tail and knocked Sasuke and Sakura out of the way of the attack. I launched myself towards Naruto, but just as I was about to grab him there was a loud boom and he was blown away. I spun in midair and turned to face the attack and expanded my lungs to their full extent and released a mighty roar that canceled out the attack moments before it could hit me. As the dust settled I was tackled from behind and I found Sasuke on top of me.
"Why didn't you grab him!?" he yelled at me.
"I tried. You think I would let him get attacked when I know what he means to you?" I answered turning my head to look away from him. He didn't get off of me and pulled out a kunai as Sakura appeared from the bushes.
"Sasuke, Kiba. Thank goodness you guys weren't blown away by that attack as well," she said as she took a step towards us. I took the opportunity to flip my position so that instead of Sasuke being on top he was on bottom and I placed one clawed hand on his chest pinning him to the ground. "Kiba, what are you doing?" Sakura asked as she came to stand behind me. She had enough sense to stay far enough away so that my swishing tail wouldn't knock her off her feet. I ignored her question and used my other hand to make my cousin look me in the eyes as I saw the emotions swirling in his eyes. I saw worry, anger, and love all at once as well as confusion at my actions. I sighed and slowly stood up offering my hand to help him up. He took it and I pulled him to his feet before I pulled him into a quick hug to apologize for my actions.
"Thanks," he mumbled as I released him. I gave him a toothy grin and returned to a human form.
"Sure thing. Don't worry about Sakura she's the real one and not an imposter," I said loud enough for them both to hear. Sakura looked a little surprised when Sasuke didn't question my statement and just nodded his head in acceptance. As soon as I had said that I heard a rustling in the bushes and out stepped Naruto looking relatively unharmed except for the cut on his cheek.
"What's the password," I snarled at him sending the hatchling to Sasuke's arm an order to make sure that Sasuke got away if this was who I thought it was.
"Right. 'Ninki.' "We thrive in the chaos of the enemy tide. Quiet Shinobi don't need dens to hide. Our only concern is to watch and wait until the enemy lowers the gate"," he answered perfectly. I smirked at him and Sasuke and I both threw a kunai at the imposter the moment he got it right. He quickly dodged out of the way seconds before Sasuke's kunai could hit him and I pulled on the string I attached to my kunai and it dug into his shoulder.
"Nice try, but the real Naruto would never have said the correct answer to that question. Which was the whole point of choosing such a question to begin with," Sasuke sneered at the imposter. The imposter looked up and smirked at us before there was a large puff of smoke and the grass ninja from before was standing in front of us.
"Well done. I guess I should have done my research," she said.
"I knew you were underground listening to our conversation, so I deliberately chose the kind of password that Naruto wouldn't bother to memorize because he wouldn't want to," Sasuke sneered at the girl.
"I see...watch and wait for the enemy to appear and then use the information they gathered against them. This is going to be much more fun than I originally thought," she sneered. I took the chance to check on Naruto through our mind link and I found him thinking about how disgusting this snake's insides were as he was swallowed by a very large snake. I narrowed my eyes as I searched through my mind to try and find anyone who used snakes when they were fighting, but stopped when I saw the girl pull out an earth scroll. "I bet you want this scroll don't you? Especially because you already have a heaven scroll," she hissed before swallowing the scroll whole. "Now what do you three say to finding out who here is the better ninja?" I saw Sasuke and Sakura paralyzed with surprise at the sight of her eating the scroll. "We'll fight to the death!" she said as she made eye contact with us. I saw my death and Sasuke's flash before my eyes the moment she made eye contact with us. Sasuke doubled over and threw up at his feet as Sakura just slumped to the ground. I was the only one who stayed on their feet and who was unfazed by the attack.
'Sasuke you have to snap out of it! It's just an illusion of death,' I tried to tell him through his panicked mind.
'Wh-who the heck is he?' was the only response I got out of him and then I realized who my enemy really was. A second later and the enemy had pulled out three kunai assuming that we were all paralyzed.
"Now!" I yelled as he released the weapons. The hatchling took the point of his tail and stabbed my cousin in the leg snapping him out of the illusion as I launched myself towards him and Sakura. I grabbed them by the collars on their shirts before my wings sprouted out of my back and I flew into the sky at a speed that only a trained eye could follow. I landed in a tree a few meters away from the enemy and quickly healed the wound the young dragon had created in Sasuke's leg.
"Thanks," he shakily whispered to me. I nodded my head and looked over at Sakura and saw that she was still in the illusion.
"It's just you and me. Sakura won't be able to break out of that jutsu anytime soon," I said as I grabbed the hatchling off Sasuke's shoulder. I jumped out of the tree and landed on the forest floor and gave the hatchling to Kyo and Snow before I teleported back into the tree beside my cousin. When I reappeared I saw my cousin with his hand over Sakura's mouth and he hadn't noticed the snake right between them. I roared and tackled the snake away from the two of them before I jumped to stand beside my cousin.
"Thanks," he panted. I kept my focus on the snake and when it launched itself at us again Sasuke overreacted and threw ten shuriken at the snake and every single one of them connected with the snake. I noticed how the snake was focused on my cousin and was ignoring me for the most part and realized that my cousin was the target of these attacks. I snarled as the snake burst apart and the grass ninja stepped out of the snake's body.
"Shame on you for letting your guard down! You should stay on your toes like a good piece of prey should! It makes the catch that much more rewarding for me," she hissed before slithering like a snake towards my cousin. Sasuke didn't even try to get away and thankfully seconds before the enemy could attack him the enemy was stopped in his tracks by a few shuriken and kunai landing inches away from him.
"Sorry, Sasuke, Kiba. I can't remember that stupid password," Naruto yelled from a few feet away. Sasuke looked terrified that Naruto had shown up at that exact moment.
"Naruto to the rescue, huh? I bet you're pretty happy to see me struggling with an opponent and needing you to save me, but...I really wish you would grab Sakura and run for your lives! This guy is way out of our league!" Sasuke yelled at Naruto looking terrified for Naruto's life.
"Well done defeating his giant snake, Naruto!" I yelled out encouragingly. Sasuke spun around to glare at me, but I ignored him because at that point he wasn't my cousin, but a terrified child who was way out of his league instead of the cousin I had trained for this kind of situation.
"So you were the one who sent that snake after me! Well why don't you go and pick on someone your own size!" Naruto yelled at the enemy. I saw Sasuke looking uncertain for a second and noticed that he had activated his Sharingan, but stopped it a few seconds after I noticed it. He pulled out our scroll and turned towards the enemy and I snarled when I realized what he was going to do.
"If you want our scroll then take it just take it and leave us be," Sasuke yelled at our enemy. I was stunned for a second before it registered what he had said and when it did I realized just how much this person had been able to get under his skin.
"It seems that you are natural born prey that knows it's only chance to escape is to lure the predator's attention away with something that is more appetizing to it," the enemy said as he gazed at my cousin with a hunger that I had only seen twice before. I saw Sasuke throw the only scroll we had towards him, but before it could get to him there was a flash and Naruto caught the scroll and landed beside my cousin.
"You idiot you'll ruin our only chance to escape by interfering," Sasuke yelled at Naruto. Naruto didn't respond with words and instead punched my cousin hard enough to send him off of the branch they were both standing on and crashing into another branch. The second my cousin got back to his feet I was crouched down onto all fours and was by Naruto's side waiting for the next move to be made. "What do you think you're doing you idiot? Are you trying to ruin our only chance of escape?" Sasuke yelled at Naruto.
"I may not know what the stupid password is or who our enemy really is, but I do know one thing and that's that you're NOT the real Sasuke," Naruto answered him. Sasuke looked a little taken aback for a second before he opened his mouth to respond, but I cut him off by saying," Don't try and deny it. The Sasuke I trained wouldn't freeze up when the people he cares for are in danger of being hurt. He would keep fighting until he found a weakness in his opponent's defense before he used it to his advantage, but you just tried to give our scroll to the enemy. Besides even if we gave him the scroll he would still have killed us."
"That's ridiculous I'm the real me and you idiots I'm the real me," Sasuke responded after my little rant.
"That's bull and you're the idiot, you idiot. Everything Kiba-chan has said is true and so is the fact that you're a coward instead of the person who would continue to fight no matter what the odds against him. I'm not really all that sure that we need to be afraid of this guy, I mean he hasn't been able to hurt Kiba yet and besides that she's right he wouldn't spare us just because we gave him our scroll if anything that would mean that he no longer has any reason to keep us alive. So even if you're the real Sasuke I would be telling you this only I would probably be calling you a chicken and an idiot because of how stupid you're being," Naruto finished with a fire burning in his eyes I had only seen a few other times.
"Oh, Naruto and Kiba! This is just rich especially because you're both right. Even if you gave me the scroll I would still try to kill you, and besides why would I bargain when I can simply kill you and take what I want?," he asked as he pulled up his sleeve and revealed a summoning mark tattooed onto his skin. He bit his finger at the last sentence before he swiped the mark completing the summoning requirement in one single move. Naruto and I whipped around and charged at him with rage the only emotion visible on our faces.
"SHUT UP!" we yelled as we closed the distance between us and our enemy.
"Don't do it Naruto, Kiba!" Sasuke yelled as we were almost on top of the enemy.
'My faith in Sasuke is totally shot and that means I can only rely on myself and Kiba during this fight!' Naruto thought using the mind link between us without noticing it.
"Summoning Jutsu!" the enemy called out as we were almost on top of him. When the smoke cleared our enemy was standing on top of a giant snake head instead of the tree branch from before. I saw the snake's tail fly through the air and when it connected with me and Naruto I grabbed my friend and spun us so that I would be cushioning his body when we landed instead of him cushioning my body. We flew through a solid oak tree branch before we were stopped by the second one a few feet above our enemy and allies. We both groaned in pain as the impact sent shock waves of pain throughout our bodies. I coughed up blood and started to fall towards my enemy along with Naruto who hadn't coughed up nearly as much blood as I had since my plan had worked and he had avoided serious internal damage from the blow. I felt eyes on us as we fell and heard the enemy order his summon to eat us both to make sure that we were out of his way this time.
'Please lend me your strength my friends. Show me how strong we can be if we work together as one'I thought as I free fell through the air alongside Naruto. Time seemed to slow down as three forms appeared in front of me. There was a white tiger, a dragon, and a thirteen tailed wolf and they all looked at me with a fury that showed just how mad they were to see me and my teammates hurt in such a way by this man.
'We hear you Master! We will lend you all the strength and power we have so you can protect the people you love and to kill your enemy!' the three said in complete unison. As soon as they finished speaking all three of them started to fade away and I felt a great power that I had only felt one before surge throughout my body. I curled up into myself as I fell and spun to the right as the giant snake got punched by a Kyuubi powered Naruto. I shot passed them and continued to fall farther away as a pain shot through my body.
"KIBA!" Sasuke yelled as I plummeted towards the ground. The snake fell with me and stopped shortly after it went through three tree limbs before the enemy ordered it to attack Sasuke. I snapped my eyes open when the snake went to attack Sasuke and shot out a clawed hand and pierced the snake's flesh as I slowed my decent. As soon as I had slowed down enough I launched myself back up the snake leaving long gouge marks on it as I morphed into a true white tiger. As I ran I felt my soft fur recede to be replaced with a coarse fur and my arm and leg muscles grew larger so I could jump farther with each push off I performed upwards. Seconds before the snake could touch Sasuke it stopped like something had forced it to stay put.
"Hey kid...are you alright? You big chicken!" Naruto asked and I realized that he had stopped the snake from harming my cousin. As I got closer to the head I saw the man wrap his tongue around Naruto and lift him up into the air before he pulled up his shirt revealing the seal that kept the Kyuubi's power from corrupting Naruto. I saw the enemy's right fingers become shrouded in chakra before he struck at Naruto's midsection hoping to keep the Kyuubi and Naruto from achieving complete harmony with his tailed beast. I forced my body to move faster as the hand struck at my friend, but before I could get there Sasuke jumped in front of the attack and was struck in his midsection. He doubled over and coughed up blood before I forced my body to enter the final stage of the wolf, tiger, and dragon formation and took on the form of a weredragon. I roared with rage as I pushed my wings to their very limit in my rush to save my cousin and the person he cared for.
"OROCHIMARU!" I yelled as I grabbed my sword and pulled it out of its' sheath. I swung the now black blade at his tongue as I grabbed Sasuke and Naruto before I teleported to stand beside Sakura. She was shaking uncontrollably because the chakra I was giving off was one of murderous intent and it was so strong that it permeated the very air around me. I gently set my cousin down along with an unconscious Naruto, who had passed out when Sasuke's body smacked into him. Sasuke wasn't about to let me fight this guy on my own and tried to stand up, but I glared at him and he passed out from pain and exhaustion as the fight caught up with him. I heard something coming toward my unprotected back and struck out with my left hand and closed it around Orochimaru's tongue. I dug my claws into the muscle and wrapped it around my arm before I lifted my wings and took off into the air dragging him with me. He looked surprised that I had the power to do that after all the damage I had taken from his attacks, and when I suddenly changed directions I was able to land a very solid punch in his midsection that made him cough up blood. I let the momentum from the fall drag us back down to the tree limb below us where we crashed through it before leaving a large crater in the second limb. He groaned in pain and before he could get his strength back I flew to the trunk of the tree and tied him up with his own tongue before I jumped to stand a good distance away from him.
"Well done, Kiba. But I expected no less from someone who has fought me before. However, I had hoped to get your cousin with one of my curse marks, but I guess you'll have to do," Orochimaru chuckled as he melted into a puddle of mud. I sensed the attack coming from behind me, but I wasn't fast enough to get out of the way in time and felt his fangs pierce my skin.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! You idiot you can't curse someone who already has a curse mark," I snarled as I morphed back into a human as my black and white stripes started to appear on my skin. Orochimaru looked shocked that I had already been marked and could only watch in horror as the heaven cursed seal he put on me was destroyed by my stripes. I laughed in an evil way as the marks started to recede from my body to be hidden under my collar once again. I dropped to one knee as I felt the after affects from changing forms so quickly start to damage my body. Orochimaru got an evil smirk when I dropped to one knee and stared to advance on me before there were several rage filled roars from directly above us. When he looked up I took the chance to get back to Sakura and the rest of my team who were directly behind me at that point. As soon as I was beside Sakura five fairly large objects shot through the sky and bathed the tree inflames as a midnight blue one landed next to us.
"Get on!" Bramble yelled as he looked over the angry dragon's neck. I grunted relieved to see an ally at a time like this and grabbed Naruto by the collar of his suit as I threw him up to be caught by Tawny and the red tiger masked girl from before. I turned around to grab Sasuke, but saw that Sakura had already grabbed him and was waiting for somebody to help her get onto the dragon. Before I could help her the dragon had grabbed her and pulled her onto his back before he did the same for me. As soon as I was on his back and the two unconscious boys were safely secured in someone's arms he took off into the sky were he bathed a very large area in dark blue flames before taking off in the direction I had given him. Shortly after we were a little ways away I saw the five other dragons fly out of the fire before bathing it in a multitude of different colored flames and taking off in the direction of the fence.
"Stay still so I can heal your wounds," someone said drawing my attention back to the dragon I was on. I shook my head as the girl came over to me as a way to say don't worry about me.
"Leaf don't try to help her. She'll be fine we really need to worry about Sasuke and Naruto first. Make sure they don't have any extremely outrageous wounds before you try to heal their minor injuries," Tawny said to the pale lioness masked girl. I smiled gratefully at her and motioned for Sakura to give me Sasuke since I still had enough energy to check him out giving Leaf enough time to work on Naruto. I looked for anything serious first and finding nothing to bad let out a sigh of relief before I checked to see just what kind of seal had been placed on him. I cursed as I saw that it was a five pronged seal that I couldn't break in my current state of low chakra and decided to wait until the exams were over before I helped him. It was when I pulled his shirt down that I noticed the marks on his neck. I bent closer and studied them as I realized that they were his naming marks and not the curse marks of Orochimaru. I hung my head as I realized that he was truly a warrior now and that meant that he had not only found his mate, but his reason for living. I felt something slip down my face as I knew that the life I had fought so hard to keep my cousin from following was probably going to be the very path he chose since he only appeared to have the dark mark and was completely devoid of any white marks. I stared at my cousin for a few minutes and as I stared I saw the white marks of a balanced person slowly start to appear opposite his black marks, but they were so light that unless you knew that they were there you could easily over look them. I felt a small smile pull at my lips as I gently ruffled my cousin's hair before I started to lose consciousness only to be caught by Bramble.
"We're almost there, Kiba. Your cousin is a very lucky person to have both marks and not be born as one of us," he whispered as my world was surrounded by blackness. When next I woke I was lying under a dark blue wing as the dragon from before over me, Naruto, and Sasuke from losing to much warmth in our weak states. I smiled at the sight as it brought back memories of when I was on the run with Nightpitch and the others shortly after I had fled my village. I quietly got up and slipped out from under the wing to find Sakura asleep in front of the opening where she had been keeping guard. She couldn't have been out for very long because her breathing and heart rate were still to uneven for someone who had been asleep for a long time. I gently laid her down and pulled out a pink cloak I had thought to bring and wrapped it around her after I pulled my cloak around my own body. I turned so that I was sitting against the right back leg of the dragon where I could see the entrance, but where it was harder for anyone outside of the little area to see me.
'I'm happy to see you're not as badly hurt as I thought' the blue dragon said as he lifted his head to look at me.
"Yeah, me too. Now tell me how you were able to get so big in the short amount of time I was fighting that man," I whispered back to him.
'When you set me down on the ground with the two new recruits I could sense the strength of the man you were fighting and I was scared that someone was going to get seriously hurt, so I started to run as fast as I could and as I ran I felt something well up inside me the same way when you draw upon the power of your dragon beast. I had jumped over a fallen tree and when I didn't hit the ground I thought that I had been snared in a trap, but when I looked around I saw that I was gliding and that I was much larger than I was when I had started running. When I realized that if I lifted my wings I could go higher I pushed myself above the trees and found mother and the others along with that purple haired woman and told them what was happening before we took off towards your location. You should have seen mom's face when she heard that you were fighting Orochimaru after what he did to you the last time you saw him. I launched myself after her and as we flew in attack formation Alpha I spotted your niece and nephew's team heading in the same direction and grabbed them before we hurried to you position and you know the rest'he said as he focused one large dark blue eye on me. I nodded my head and leaned back against his leg. 'Also I figured out what I want to be called form now on.' I cocked an eyebrow at him waiting for him to continue. 'I wish to be known as Nova.'
"A fitting name young one. If you really like it I will announce it to the clan as soon as this is all over," I whispered to him. He extended his neck and gently butted his head against my shoulder in gratitude and I smiled at him. A few minutes later I got up and checked on Sasuke and Naruto who were still unconscious from the battle. When I checked Naruto I noticed that the fox spirit within him was trying to heal the boy's body as quickly as he could and I felt Difenda give off an approving aura towards her old friend. When I checked Sasuke I found that he had a very high fever and that both of his marks were trying to balance each other out and at the same time trying to gain the upper hand in their fight. I winced at the sight that brought back memories of my own marking and dampened a rag that we had with us before placing it back on his forehead. Nothing really happened for the rest of that night and as the sun came up Sakura awoke and the ninja from the sound village made their presence known to us.
"What do you want?" I snarled at them. They ignored me and continued to watch us in silence almost like they were waiting for something to happen. I heard something heading towards our location and realized that there were four enemy ninja from the sound instead of three. I quickly slipped over to Sakura's side as the fourth enemy appeared from the underbrush. I made sure that my hood was covering my face as he stepped into the light of the rising sun.
"Can one of you wake up Sasuke for us?" asked the boy with the weird arm guard thing on. I kept my focus on the boy who had just joined the others as Sakura and the boy with the arm guard started to argue.
"Listen I promise that if you give us Sasuke the rest of you may go as you please and none of my team will try to go after you," the boy I was studying said without taking his dark green eyes off me.
"YOU LYING BASTARD! DO YOU REALLY THINK THAT I WOULD GIVE HIM TO YOU AFTER WHAT YOU DID TO ME?" I yelled at the boy.
"Now there's no reason to get feisty when I'm trying to keep you from throwing your life away for someone as weak as Sasuke. And as much as I would like to end your miserable life I would much rather see you suffering just as you would rather see me dead by your own claws. Don't you agree...Whitetigerstar?" the boy snarled.
"YOU WORTHLESS PIECE OF FOX DUNG! I'LL NEVER LET YOU HARM MY COUSIN THE WAY YOU HARMED ME!" I snarled right back at him.
"What a shame I thought that you would still have some sense left after all these years, but I guess I'll just have to remind you why I hunted you down and killed your mate and parents," he replied looking bored.
"BASTARD! I don't care what you do to me, but I will NEVER let you do to anyone else what you did to me, least of all my cousin. And you would do well to remember who it was that killed your associates after you all turned on me, Bone "Crusher" Uragirimono."
"Well it seems you do remember me and here I was thinking that I was going to be able to kill you and that orange jumpsuit wearing reject all in one go, but I guess it wasn't meant to be," Bone replied with a wicked smile on his face.
"Sakura I need you to take on the other three while I take Naruto and try to lure that fourth member away from here. Do you think you can do it?" I asked turning towards the girl.
"I think so, but why aren't you taking Sasuke instead of Naruto?" she replied.
"I'll have to tell you later for now just protect my cousin with your life and don't worry you won't be alone like I will," I replied as the two new recruits stepped out of their hiding places and took up defensive positions around the opening. Nova wrapped his tail tightly around the two unconscious boys as I walked over to his side and explained my plan to him. He eventually let me take Naruto out of his protective huddle as I got ready to make a run for it the second I had a chance to.
"And just where do you think you're going with my prey?" Bone asked as he caught sight of who was on my back.
"I'm going to make sure that you never have the chance to touch this boy. If you want him then come and get him," I hissed as I jumped towards the nearest tree.
"EHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE! Just like old times eh, Whitetigerstar?" Bone called out as he gave chase to me. I ignored him in favor of focusing on what was ahead of me and not dropping Naruto at the same time. Every few seconds a kunai would come towards us and I would drop down a branch causing the weapon to imbed itself in the wood of the branch above me before I would continue running. I knew that there was a large clearing up ahead and that was my target, but before I could get there I was knocked out of the tree by something from above me. As I fell I lost my grip on Naruto's unconscious body for a second and had to dive forward to catch him before he hit the ground. When I grabbed him we were too close to the ground for me to pull us out of the dive in time to avoid injury, so I pivoted so that his fall would be cushioned by my body moments before we impacted with the ground. "NOW YOU DIE!" Bone yelled as hundreds of senbon flew at us from every direction. They were seconds away from hitting us and I hadn't yet caught my breath from impact, but I forced my pained body to move so that I was above Naruto's body and his was sheltered from any kind of blow that could come at him. I felt some of the weapons go through my thin wing membranes only to stab my body keeping the boy out of harm's way.
"Never," I panted as I grabbed Naruto and one again headed towards my goal. I heard him growl in frustration at the fact that I had once again gotten away from him with only minor wounds that weren't life threatening even if they got infected. I had to push the pain in my body to the back of my mind as I continued to run from my enemy. Every few hundred meters he would do the same thing and it would end with the same results as before because no matter how much pain I was in the beasts were able to heal enough of my wounds between the attacks that I was able to continue to protect the Kyuubi's Jinchuuriki from harm. When I was almost to the clearing Bone jumped me again only this time I ended up landing on my leg breaking the bone enough that it was almost impossible for me to continue.
"It's all over now. I'll make sure to let you live so you can go back and tell that worthless cousin of yours who it was that killed his friend," Bone taunted as he walked towards me pulling out a short sword. I forced myself to stand and the moment I was on my feet I grabbed Naruto and teleported us away from him and into the clearing seconds before his sword would have pierced my friend. I leaned heavily against the trunk of a nearby tree and tried to catch my breath. I gasped as I felt the pain in my leg flare for just a second before it was subdued by the adrenaline and beasts.
'You need to end this the next time you see him. We're at our limit when it comes to your bleeding and if you keep losing it like this we're all going to be too tired to protect you and your friend, Difenda and myself included.' Kira said as I tore off a piece of my cloak and wrapped it around my leg. After I had cut off the circulation to my leg I felt someone enter the clearing and I pulled out a kunai fearing that Bone had already caught up with us. I sighed when I realized that it was just Kiba-kun and his team.
"KIBA!" he yelled as he rushed to my side. He was quickly followed by Hinata and Shino when they saw the state I was in. They surrounded me and Naruto and tried to figure out what was going on when Akamaru started to shake as he sensed what I thought was Bone's chakra signature. Seconds passed slower than they should have and I could see Bone's every movement as he tried to punch Hinata out of the way to get to me and Naruto. I pushed myself up and shoved the girl out of the way a second before his fist would have connected with her jaw. My head snapped to the side as his fist connected with my face and the momentum sent me flying into a tree where my back was smashed into the trunk. I slid down the trunk as blood a trickle of blood ran down from my face.
"Damn you! You took the blow that was meant for that Hyuga girl and here I thought that I would be able to kill two birds with one stone, but I guess it can't be helped seeing as she is one of your new trainees," Bone growled as he stalked over to where Hinata and the others were gathered around Naruto. "I guess I'll kill them all and then I'll let you tell their families that it was your fault they died just like how it was your fault that Scourge died that day," he said as his left hand turned into a werelion's clawed hand. He shot it out to strike the defenseless group and I felt just enough power well up within me to teleport to stand in front of them. I felt his claws big deeply into my back as he swiped at them. I gasped in pain as blood shot out of my wounds and started to run down my back. I fell to my knees in front of my friends and I was able to smile at their horrified faces.
"You...wheeze...guys should...huff...see the look...cough...on your faces," I gasped out. I could see the fear and sadness on their faces as they saw just how badly I was wounded by that last attack. Shino even looked horrified and I couldn't see most of his face or his eyes to know for certain, but I could hear his bugs swarming trying to figure out why he wasn't doing anything to stop the next blow.
'Kiba-kun. When he attacks me again I want you and your team to take Naruto and go back to where the rest of my team is waiting. When you get there tell Sasuke I'm sorry.' I ordered as I heard the next blow flying through the air. I screamed as I felt the claws dig into my flesh and muscles seconds after I had asked Kiba to leave me there. When the claws connected with my back Kiba-kun grabbed Naruto before he dragged Hinata and Shino away with him. As the claws dug deeper into my back my scream rose in volume before it was cut off by him throwing me against the tree that I had crashed into when I took the punch meant for Hinata. My back landed against the tree and I coughed up blood as the trunk was stained red with my blood from my back wound.
"How noble of you, old friend," Bone sneered as he lifted me by my throat. I just stared at him not even trying to break the hold he had on my throat or respond to his remark. "Oh, well at least I get to finally finish what I started all those years ago. I'll kill you and then I'll chase down your friends and kill them before I move on to kill the rest of your family. Maybe I'll even kill those dragons of yours, nasty creatures really so I guess I'll be helping the world and hurting you at the same time." I kicked out with the last of my strength, as soon as he finished speaking, and was able to send him far enough away that he would have to get back over to me before he could kill me. I weakly leaned against the trunk of the tree for support and waited for the next blow to land. I wheezed as I fought just to get enough air into my lungs, so that maybe, just maybe, I would be able to fend off his next attack.
"For that I'll make your death as painful as I possibly can," Bone snarled as he advanced towards me. I felt nothing as I saw him get closer and closer to me, except acceptance at how I was going to die. I felt something sting my eyes as Bone was less than a fox length away from me.
'I'm sorry I wasn't strong enough. Please forgive me great guardians for my failure to do as you asked of me.' I thought as Bone lunged at me. Before he could connect with me a wall of sand appeared in front of me and blocked his attack. Standing in front of me was Gaara Subaku and beside him were Temari and Kankuro Subaku.
"Why did you help me?" I gasped out.
"Because we felt like it, besides we can't let him kill you when we still owe you for letting us stay at your place after I got us kicked out," Kankuro answered. I just nodded my head and tried as hard as I could to stay conscious and to fight the darkness that threatened to take my vision again. I watched as Gaara's sand swarmed around Bone before he could move out of the way. It quickly moved around him and encased his entire body before lifting him into the air where it left him hanging. I moved as quietly as I could from behind them hoping that they wouldn't catch me as I snuck off.
"Sand Coffin," Gaara said as I silently slinked away from him and his siblings. "Imploding Sand Burial," he called out as I fell to my knees a few inches from being hidden from view by the underbrush. I heard the crunch of bones snapping followed shortly after by the sound of blood falling. A small drop landed on me before it disappeared like it was never there to begin with.
'Hold on Master! I'm almost there just hold on!' someone said to me through a mind link. My mind was so muddled that I couldn't tell who was speaking to me let alone respond to them. I started to fall forward as I felt my mind cloud over with pain, exhaustion, and sadness only to be caught by sand that rose out of the ground and cushioned my fall before I hit the ground. There was a large thud and the last thing I saw was Gaara's and Temari's faces and the last thing I heard was an angered roar before I lost the use of my senses and my consciousness.
{Gaara's POV}
'She must hate me if she ran when I was trying to help her.' I thought as I watched her blood red eyes close before she went limp in my arms. I gently lifted her off of the forest floor and carried her back to the clearing where the large female dragon had landed and looked very angry to see her friend unconscious in my arms. She extended her large head and focused me in one of her large onyx colored eyes before she extended her left foreleg towards me. I felt my pulse accelerate when I thought that she was going to attack me, but it slowed when she set it down next to me and waited for me to move.
'Why do you hold my master boy?'she asked. I saw Temari's eyes widen for a fraction of a second before they returned to their normal size.
"Why does it matter who holds her so long as she is safe?" I responded. She growled at me and moved her head to face Kankuro who looked like he was about to attack her.
'Warn your brother that if he so much as thinks of attacking anyone I will shred him.' she growled at me.
"Why should I care what happens to him when he's a complete idiot," I responded to her. She swung her head back to face me and her eye was narrowed to just a slit in her rage.
'I will never understand what she sees in you. You're nothing like the other two and you're nothing like her either, so she must see something in you that I can't. You should care what happens to him because he is your teammate if not your brother because that is what it means to be what you are. Why she won't let us keep you out of her life I don't know and maybe I never will, but I will not stand here and be insulted by someone like you. Have I made myself clear?'she growled at me.
"Fine. I'll relay your message to my brother," I said and turned towards Kankuro. "She says that if you attack or think about attacking anyone she will not hesitate to kill you."
"Y-yes mam," Kankuro stuttered not taking his eyes off me.
"What do you want us to do with her?" Temari asked. She motioned me forward and I stepped forward without any hesitation and stood waiting for her to tell me what to do next. I wasn't ready for when she whipped her head around to my backside and grabbed the collar of my shirt before she threw me onto her back.
'Follow me Temari. I've wasted too much time as it is and her family is terrified that she's with you three because they have lost contact with her. I'm sure she'll explain the situation when she wakes up. Now take to the sky.' she said to me and Temari as she lifted her wings and shot towards the sky followed closely by Temari and Kankuro on Temari's wind fan. 'Hold on my friend. Your deputy sent word for the medic as soon as he awoke. Boy I want you to take good care of her because for some reason she finds you worthy to be protected from her enemies and that means she will give her life for you if she must.'
"Why would it matter she still fled when I was only trying to help her just like she did when she was my only friend. I want to believe you, but I can't and I probably never will," I muttered as she pulled her wings back and dived towards a clearing in the trees. She pulled up a second before we would have hit the ground and landed on her back legs before dropping to all fours. I used my sand to lift myself and the girl off her back and shortly after I was on the ground Temari and Kankuro landed beside me.
"Nightpitch why have you brought these three sand ninja with you?" a boy with a white dog called out as he ran over followed by a small group of other people. I subconsciously tightened my grip on the girl's body as they got closer to us.
'It's is unimportant at the moment. Where is Tigerspirit?' she responded to the boy. Before any of the others could respond a boy with a blue shirt broke away from the group and ran towards me at a much faster speed than before.
"BASTARD! I'LL KILL YOU IF YOU HURT HER!" he yelled as he launched himself at me. The sand made a barrier between me and him as another boy in an orange jumpsuit tackled the boy to the ground. 'That boy was willing to risk his life for this girl. Just who is she to him?' I thought as the blonde boy pinned the black haired boy to the ground.
"Sasuke, you need to calm down. He isn't the one who was chasing us and he defiantly isn't the one who hurt her like that," he yelled at the boy beneath him.
"How the hell would you know? You were unconscious during the entire thing," Sasuke yelled back.
"Listen I don't know how, but I just know that this boy isn't the one who attacked us. If anything it was probably another sound ninja who was ordered to go after me or her by that snake guy from yesterday. So calm down and get it together this isn't the time for her deputy to fall apart when she needs you to lead her clan. If it turns out that he is the one who hurt her then I don't think anyone here is going to stop you, but if you attack him now and it turns out he actually helped her what do you think she'll do when she wakes up?," the blond asked Sasuke.
"Fine. I don't like it, but you're right so for now I'll leave him alone, but if I find out that you're the one who hurt her I will kill you," he said to me as the blonde got off his chest and helped him to his feet. The sand wall disappeared as five more people entered the clearing and headed in my direction. Temari and Kankuro shifted closer to me as they got closer before three of them stopped and two of the girls from the original group joined them. A girl with a lioness mask approached us followed by another younger girl and stopped when they were only a few feet away from us.
"Will you please give us our friend?" the younger one asked as she stepped in front of the one with the mask. She walked closer and I was surprised to find that the sand didn't try to form a shield around myself and the girl in my arms. "Come here Leaf. Temari can you help us lie her on her stomach so that we can work on healing her back first?" the girl asked Temari. Temari just nodded her head and helped the girl carry the wounded girl towards a spot in the clearing that was covered in sand. I watched as the sand moved away from them as they set the injured girl down and started to come towards me. Before it got too far from them I made it return to the area and formed a dome like structure around the five of them hiding them from sight. I solidified the sand so that it wouldn't fall on top of them and leaned against the trunk of a nearby tree.
"Hey kid," someone called out as they approached me. I ignored them and focused on the dome across from me as the person moved to stand in front of me.
"What?" I asked annoyed that he was blocking my view of the sand dome. As he stood in front of me I recognized the blonde boy who had tackled the raven haired boy earlier.
"Why did you help her? I mean I know that you don't really know her and that she hasn't really done anything to warrant you saving her life, so I was just curious as to why you helped her," the blonde asked.
"Why do you people care so much for her?" I responded ignoring his question.
"You didn't answer my question, but we care because at one point we were like her. We were alone and no one really cared what happened to us, but she did and she was always there when one of us needed someone who understood what we were going through or when we just needed someone to listen to us. That's just the kind of person she is and because she was there when we needed her some of us swore that we would be there if she ever needed us and we try our best to help her in any way we can," the boy responded.
"So then you help her because you owe her for something she did for you?" I asked confused by his words.
"No. We help her because she's our friend and someone who is important to us. That's why Sasuke flipped out when he saw her in your arms," he explained.
"Tell me what she means to him," I asked.
"I can tell you what she means to just about every person here because I've known her for such a long time and some of these people I've known for just as long as she has. Kiba-chan is Sasuke's older cousin and the only person he considers family as well as his leader, so he will do anything for her because she is the only person he really has left after all these years. To me she is the first friend I ever had and she's a great teacher. I remember the first time I met her some of the older kids were beating me up and she scared them away before she started taking the beatings that were meant for me, but no matter how many wounds she got or how many times people would beat her up she would still smile and make sure that I was alright before she would heal herself," he explained. I felt a pain in my head and a memory of her flashed through my mind when he mentioned how she took the beatings meant for him. I put a hand to my head as I felt that thing stirring within me as I thought of her. "Hey are you alright?" I looked at the blonde boy and saw he had a look of worry on his face as he gazed at me.
"I'm fine," I responded.
"If you say so. By the way I don't suppose you saw the face of the person who did hurt Kiba-chan?" he asked me.
"You don't think I hurt her?" I questioned surprised that he didn't think I had done that to her after that incident with the boy and my brother.
"Nah. I saw the wounds she has and they couldn't have been made by your sand even if you had made it into a claw and struck her. They were obviously made by some kind of animal claw or possibly a wereanimal's claws. That and I don't think that she would have let your sand harm her even if my life was in danger," he responded giving me a goofy smile and putting his hands behind his head.
"I saw him. He had piercing dark green eyes and short black hair. Also he had a blue spiked collar around his neck that looked a lot like your friends collar right now," I finished. The boy's head snapped around and Nightpitch let loose a terrifying roar shortly after I had finished my description of the boy who had attacked Kiba-chan.
'THAT BASTARD!' the dragon roared in my head as she whipped her head back and forth in anger.
"I want a perimeter set up around here for the next mile in case he comes back to finish what he started," the raven called out. Heads nodded and people started to bustle about as the trees and underbrush started to shake and two very large groups of tigers and wolves appeared from within the forest. As they came in they were quickly dispatched to set up the perimeter around the area as the raven and a lavender eyed boy walked over to me.
"What do you want?" I asked bored with them already.
"I don't want anything to do with you, but you saved my cousin's life when you intervened in that fight and for that I must thank you. Now I want you to move out of here before I make you," Sasuke said. Before I could respond there was a roar and then standing in front of me was a midnight blue dragon.
'You don't get to decide when he leaves, Sasuke. You may be a deputy, but a dragon always outranks you and I say that he can stay.' the dragon snarled at the boy.
"You don't get to decide if he can stay or not since you're still a hatchling," the pale eyed boy said.
'That may be true, but I outrank all three of you and I say he may stay if he wishes. Besides if it wasn't for him my mother would be dead.' a large white dragon said as he landed in the clearing by the sand dome.
"Why do you care Dragonheart? It's not like it would make a difference if he stayed or left, and I think he should leave," Sasuke said glaring at the dragon. Before the white dragon could respond Sasuke was hanging upside down from the jaws of a black and red striped dragon. "Put me down Bloodwings." The dragon ignored Sasuke's demand and lied down next to the dome where he proceeded to set the irritated raven down. The boy tried to get away, but was pinned by the dragon's left forepaw before he could get very far.
"I should probably go deal with that. Come on Naruto. I'm not going to risk the anger of my dragon by perusing this subject," the pale eyed boy said as he turned towards the pinned raven.
"Oh shut it Neji. Go check on Lee while I go and see if I can convince Bloodwings to let Sasuke up," Naruto said to the pale eyed boy before they both took off towards the raven. The blue dragon made no move to leave my side and actually lifted me off the tree trunk before curling himself around me. He swung his head towards Kankuro when my brother tried to silently shift closer to the blonde haired girl, who was watching a pale eyed girl spar with a girl who had a bright red tiger mask covering her face. This caused him to move as far from the dragon as he could without getting to far from me.
'He is weak, but funny to watch. Even though he left you alone when you needed someone the most doesn't mean that you should kill him for it.' the blue dragon said as he focused me in one large dark blue eye. I snorted at the comment and returned my gaze to the white dragon guarding the dome. 'So then you're going to ignore me now or do you just find my mentor more to your liking?' the blue dragon jeered at me.
"So what if I study him?" I asked the dragon.
'Honestly I don't mind, but if you keep watching him he'll come over here and he's in a really bad mood what with his mom hurt as bad as she is. Also think your answers and I'll hear them and that way others can't tell what we're talking about.' he responded. I grunted in response and continued to stare at the dragon.
'Who exactly is his mother? And just who are you?' I thought to the dragon. It was weird because I was used to conversing with myself out loud instead of in my head.
'You know his mother already, so I'll let you put the pieces together. As for myself I don't know how you could have already forgotten me after all I just saw you the night before the exams began.'
'The only dragon I saw before the exams was a hatchling and you can't be the same dragon. You're almost the size of a dragon that I could ride and I doubt you've had any experience in that area.' I scoffed at him. He rolled his large blue eye at me and blew a gently stream of warm air through my hair before he brought his head level with my own.
'I can prove that I'm the same dragon if you want.' I nodded my head still not believing what he said about being the same dragon and waited for him to continue. Instead of words I saw a memory of the first night that I had met the little midnight blue hatchling only instead of it being through my eyes everything was much clearer and I was looking at myself through the dragon's eyes. I watched as the dragon seemed to be interested in me and how he was able to get me to hold him without a lot of effort on his part. When the memory faded the blue dragon lightly rested his head against the kanji tattoo on my forehead before he pulled back suddenly. 'Leave my master be.' he growled focusing on my shadow. I don't know what he saw, but whatever it was spoke through my head as well.
'I couldn't even if I wanted to, so you're stuck with me too dragon.' the voice said.
'I'm sure not even the great Shukaku would be stupid enough to try anything while he's surrounded by people who could easily defeat him.' the dragon retorted.
"Hey Gaara. Those two giving you a headache?" a boy asked as he joined me and the dragon.
"I don't know what you're talking about," I said wincing at the pain in my head.
"Nice try, but as a warrior of Densetsu it's my job to know where the tailed beasts are at all times. Don't try to deny it, but like Nova said he isn't likely to do anything especially with three other beasts nearby. Two of them might be tired from trying to save the life of their friend, but I promise you they still have a nasty bite," he said as he leaned against the trunk of the tree beside me.
'Shut up, Bramble. You know how they get when she's hurt and if I had to guess part of the reason she's still unconscious is because she's trying to reason with their rage filled minds.' Nova said to the boy.
"Or they're trying to keep her from doing something extremely stupid like going full beast mode and tracking him down and all three of them are still tired after that fight yesterday, so I'm not really all that worried about her doing anything stupid or them. Besides thanks to Gaara here her wounds aren't nearly as bad as they looked and with five people working on healing her I'm sure that she'll be up and about before the day ends. So if I was you Nova I wouldn't get to comfy because if I know her she'll make us move the camp and someone will have to give her a sedative before she lets us get anything else done. If you want you and your team can stay here through the night Gaara," Bramble said. I was worried when he offered for us to stay the night because I wasn't sure what would happen, but I decided to stay if the clan agreed to it.
"I wouldn't mind staying here. If that's all right with you Gaara," Kankuro said as he walked over to join us. I grunted in response to the question and silently decided to wait to see if the girl I had saved would be alright with us staying here. Bramble opened his mouth to ask me what I thought, but was interrupted by a roar and the sand dome exploding outwards. Nova shielded me with his wings and an object shot out of the ruined dome at speeds that weren't humanly possible. Shortly after the thing was high above the forest the older dragons took to the air and started chasing the being through the air. It easily dodged them and went into a dive seconds later and the dragons followed it bellowing flames as they dove. The being landed amidst the ruins of the dome and was bathed in flames.
{Kiba-chan's POV}
I flared my wings as the other dragons pulled up and stopped surrounding me in flames. I glanced around the clearing, instantly noticing that the three sand ninja who had helped me were with us, and I spotted Gaara wrapped in Nova's wings. I growled at the hatchling and shot forward as he moved his wings out of my way. Gaara saw me coming and threw his arms up to protect himself and I took the opportunity to grab the scruff of his shirt in my claws. I lifted my wings and launched myself high into the sky and I only glanced down at Gaara when I was high enough in the air that I was certain no one, but those with dragon vision could see us.
"You can open your eyes," I said stifling a laugh at his scared face. He hesitantly opened his eyes and gasped when he saw where we were. "Relax. I'm not going to drop the guy who saved my life. I just wanted to get away from the clan until the rest of my dragon chakra gets burned off," I explained to the stunned boy. I wasn't all that surprised by his reaction, I mean who wouldn't be scared if a dragon like creature charged at you without any explanation. I shifted my tail and wings so that I could turn around and relaxed into the easy flight as Gaara started to relax.
"Why did you take me with you?" he murmured.
"Because you saved my life and I feel like giving you a taste of what it means to be on or with a dragon. Especially now that Nova has decided that you are to be his rider. And this is the only way I can convince Sasuke that you're not the one who hurt me. Besides this is the best spot to see the sunset," I replied to him. I reached down with my other arm and grasped his before I pulled him towards me so that he was cradled in my arms and had less chance of slipping from my grasp. I straightened my flight path and locked my wings in place so I could glide through the skies without much effort. I stayed that way until the sun had fully set and the last rays had faded from our side of the world.
"Thank you," he murmured as the last ray vanished from sight. I turned my head to look at him and gave him a toothy grin before I started to power stroke higher into the air. I felt him grip my torn shirt as I flew through a cloud to the other side and we emerged wet with water droplets clinging to my scales and his hair.
"Hey Gaara do you trust me?" I asked. He looked at me like I was insane for asking the question.
"No more than I would trust a stranger," he responded. I chuckled not expecting anything more from him.
"That's too bad because this next move is a little difficult, but I know I can do it after all I've been doing this for years," I said. His face didn't show any emotion, but his eyes showed fear and excitement at the same time and I smiled at him before I folded my wings and dove towards the earth. I took a deep breath and roared my joy to the skies as I plummeted to the clearing at full speed. I kept a firm grip on Gaara as we fell making sure that he couldn't slip out of my grip. We fell and to me it felt like time stopped for a few seconds and I took in the sight of Gaara clutched in my arms, the way the moonlight reflected off my scales, the way my wings folded so that they encompassed myself and Gaara shielding us from the bugs in the air, and how Gaara's face still showed no emotion even though he could die. Then time was moving faster than before and we had just passed the treetops and were only a few miles from the ground. I felt Gaara's grip tighten on my shirt and from the corner of my eye I could see that he was excited by this rush. I laughed as I opened my wings and extended my legs slamming them onto the ground as I landed. I bent my legs to keep them from snapping on impact and I heard a loud thud as my wings swooped down to shield both me and Gaara from the others. While my wings shielded us Gaara swung himself out of my arms and stood beside me with one arm grasping my arm making it look like he was in control the entire time. My wings folded back before they once again became a part of me.
"What the hell, Kiba-chan?" Naruto yelled as he ran over to us. I gave Gaara a quick smile and returned my attention to Naruto and the others as they ran over to us. I groaned as they got closer to us because I really didn't feel like dealing with them.
'Hey guys. I could really use some claws to climb a tree right about now.' I thought as the others ran over to us. I felt my nails elongate and a rough furred tail sprouted and I turned and fled up a nearby tree. I looked down to see Kiba-kun and Sasuke-kun trying to get me, but they were stopped by Dragonheart winding himself around the tree making a spiky, mad barrier of dragon flesh. I barked down at him telling him if any of the sand ninja followed me to let them past. He snorted in response and I continued up the tree until I was midway up it and I waited there because I could see the sky without the tree limbs blocking the stars. I sighed contentedly and leaned against the trunk as the werewolf parts of me faded away and returned to normal. A few minutes later and I heard the sound of sand gliding through the air and Gaara appeared standing on top of a cloud of sand. He stepped off the sand and it returned to his gourd as he walked over and sat down next to me.
"Why are you here?" I asked him. He ignored me and I didn't really care about why he was there just the fact that he was there was enough for me. I silently moved closer to him and he didn't move away which made me smile even if it was only just for a second. I was surprised when Gaara gripped his head like he was in pain and I saw Shukaku right next to him. I growled at the beast and moved so that I was behind Gaara and pulled him to me snarling at the shadow. "Shukaku. If you continue like this Gaara will go insane if you keep pushing him and I know that you know that. So I'll only ask you once will you let him be for one night?" I snarled at the beast.
"K-Kiba. W-What are you d-doing?" Gaara asked surprised by my actions.
'Why should I let him be? He is nothing to me and I will do as I please.'Shukaku said. I saw Gaara's eyes widen when the beast spoke to me.
'You will do as she says or I will make sure that the next time I'm in control I'll kick your butt got it?' Kira snarled at him. I knew that the same anger showed on my face as was in the dragon's voice. I saw Shukaku flinch at the rage in Kira's voice and he very silently slipped back into Gaara's subconscious as I used my mind to make sure that he was locked there at least until I was able to tell Gaara the truth about who I was.
"Kiba let me go," Gaara said forcefully. I ignored him as I felt the desperation of my actions trigger the more protective side of me.
"Relax and I'll let you go," I practically hissed back. I winced as soon as the words had left my mouth and loosened my grip on his midsection. "Sorry," I mumbled placing a hand on my head. I couldn't believe that I grabbed him when I didn't want him to hate me even more than he would when he found out who I really was. I was more than a little surprised when he leaned back into my chest and ever so slightly turned his head towards me before he closed his eyes.
"Are you alright?" he asked leaning his head onto my chest. I buried my head in his red hair and tried to hide from him.
"No. I'm really not alright. Although I'm pretty sure that I should be asking you that question since you're normally not someone to be all touchy feely usually," I responded as I felt a slight blush touch my cheeks.
"Why aren't you alright? Aren't all the people you care about down there?" he asked again.
"No, they aren't all down there," I whispered so quietly that I didn't think he had heard me.
"Why not?" he asked after a few minutes. I felt the tears gather in my eyes and I took a shaky breath before I answered.
"Because the four people that mean the most to me are dead," I answered as a single tear slid down my cheek. I grimaced as I remembered why they weren't there with me and felt Gaara stiffen for a second before he relaxed again. I slipped my arms around him again, but this time I didn't grip him like I did when Shukaku was trying to control him, this time I just put them there because I needed to know that this was real and not one of my twisted nightmares.
"Oh," he responded. I didn't really expect anything more than that and that was exactly what I needed to pull myself back together. I took a shaky breath and relaxed my body back against the tree trunk. I looked at the night sky and focused on two of the brighter stars as I felt Gaara lean back into my chest. I didn't really mind the contact if anything I enjoyed it especially because I knew that before the third exams began he would probably try to kill me.
"Gaara. You can sleep if you want. I promise I won't let Shukaku take control of your body tonight," I whispered in his ear while resting my head on his shoulder. He didn't respond to my statement and a few seconds later I heard his breathing even out and his heart rate slow down to that of someone sleeping. I smiled to myself and ran my fingers through his red hair making sure not to wake him. 'Oh Gaara. You have no idea how hard it was for me to leave you all those years ago or what I did when I learn of the lies your father told you about me, your uncle, and your mother. There's even a possibility that he lied about how your siblings feel as well, but I can't be sure of that. All that I know is that whether I live or die at the preliminaries in two days' time I know that I at least understand what you mean to me and that I will do whatever it takes to protect you. If that means I die during my fight then I hope that I take the bastard who ruined my life and made yours much harder than it should have been with me to hell.' I thought to myself as I starred at the brightest stars imagining that they were my dead mates and parents watching me even now.
We stayed like this until the sun rose above the treetops and I gently laid Gaara against the trunk as I moved to the end of the tree limb. I waited there until I heard the sound of rushing wind and Temari and Kankuro appeared on Temari's wind fan. I looked over at them and smiled at their uneasy faces as they got off the fan and walked over to stand behind me.
"How long has he been asleep?" Temari asked as she came to a stop behind my left shoulder.
"Most of the night," I replied not taking my eyes off the sunrise. I smelt the fear on them both as they realized that they had let their younger brother sleep the whole night and didn't even know that he had been sleeping until the next day. "Don't worry I locked Shukaku up before he fell asleep, so you shouldn't have to worry about any unexpected transformations at least until the moon is full in a few days' time." I added as an afterthought. I sensed them relax and felt a hand on my shoulder and warm air on my ear.
"Are you going to tell him?" Temari whispered in my ear. I wasn't surprised that she knew my secret what with her having been there when they healed my back and everything.
"Why would I tell him now when he is at peace? Besides in two days I know for a fact that everyone will know who I really am and when that happens I won't expect him to forgive me for what I've done and it may not matter because I'll probably die in my fight to protect the people who mean the most to me anyways," I mumbled. I pulled my knee up and rested my head on it as I felt the familiar sting of tears in my eyes. "When he wakes up I want you three to leave. And tell him that I'm sending everyone on their way now that my back is healed, so you three should head to the tower. I'm sure that my team will see you there in a few days."
"Alright," Temari said giving my shoulder a squeeze before letting go. I heard her walk over to kneel beside Gaara and I stood up and stretched my limbs removing the knots in the muscles. I willed the tail and wings of a dragon to appear and stretched them out as well before I got ready for takeoff. I looked over my shoulder at Gaara's sleeping form and thought 'I wish that you would show this side of you more often Gaara. Maybe then you wouldn't be as alone as you are, but I guess after being treated like a monster that doesn't feel anything you start to act like one.' I turned around and ran the rest of the way off the tree limb. I fell a few feet before I opened my wings and glided to the forest floor where I was greeted by Naruto.
"Hey," I said to him as I folded my wings and they disappeared again.
"Hey. So what was last night about?" he questioned again.
"Naruto. Gaara is like you and me he holds a tailed beast within him only his has been mistreated and abused into thinking that the only way he can prove he exists is by killing others. I was once his friend and you know what I did to him? I left him with his father who tried to kill him because he couldn't control his youngest son because I thought that I was doing the right thing and now I know that I was wrong and that he probably hates the real me. And I really wouldn't blame him if he hated me, but at the same tie I know that I'm willing to do anything for him. Besides I really doubt that it will matter once we get through the second exam because I'm pretty sure that I'm going to die before I get the chance to tell him everything," I said.
"Oh. Well I hope that you get the chance to tell him the truth as well," he said pulling me into a hug.
"I sure hope so," I said hugging him back. We broke apart a second later as the others started to pack everything up and got ready to go their separate ways. I grabbed some jerky out of my bag and packed up the rest of my stuff. When I looked up I saw that most of the others had already packed their stuff and saw the people I had once trained helping each other get their stuff packed. I smiled as I saw TenTen and Ino helping each other get packed. Kiba and Shino were helping each other pack as well as Sasuke and Naruto. I shook my head as a memory of when it was just me, my brothers, the few friends that I still had, and my children on the run together packing things up just like this. I went over to Sakura and helped her get her pack up the rest of one of the first aid kits we had brought with us. We mostly had small bandages and a disinfectant ointment left since we had used the large bandages on my arm and back after my fights with Orochimaru and Bone. I sighed and shoved the kit back into my bag as Gaara and his team appeared. I smiled and walked over to them and wished them good luck on their journey to the tower and in the third round as well before they left. Gaara gave me a nod and a small smile once his siblings had turned their backs on us before he took off after them at a slower pace.
I sighed once they had left and went around making sure that everyone else was ready to leave before I wished everyone good luck and we went our separate ways. I noticed that TenTen and Ino were a little hesitant to leave the other just like how Lee was hesitant to leave Sakura and Neji was hesitant to leave Hinata, but of course Neji hid his emotions behind a blank face the same way Sasuke did. Eventually the clearing was empty except for me and my team.
"So were should we head next?" Sakura asked.
"We should head towards the tower because that's where the other teams will head once they have their scrolls and it would be easy to pick someone off when they were off their guard, but Sasuke and I still need to rest and recover from our wounds so it would be better to leave this place for now and find a new place to spend the night before we head off to the tower tomorrow," I said. Sasuke nodded his head in agreement and Sakura and Naruto were more than happy to let us rest after what had happened. We left the clearing and found a river bank that was well sheltered and decided to stay there for the night as the sun was setting when we found the area. We quickly set up camp and I went and checked my snares for food and on my way back came across a young, injured buck that I quickly killed and carried back to camp along with the two squirrels and brown rabbits I had caught with my snares.
"Alright you found some great food, cousin," Sasuke said as I walked back into the clearing. While I was gone they had set up the tents we had brought with us and Nova had started a small cooking fire.
"The buck was a lucky strike. I came across the injured guy while I was heading back here, so I put him out of his misery. At least we get to eat well tonight," I replied as I started to skin the animals with my hunting knife. Once I had them skinned and gutted I set them over the fire and waited while they cooked. I took the guts and set them on a rock that I had Nova super heat to fry them so I could eat them since I was planning on eating light so that the others could eat their fill. A few hours later and the food was ready and everyone took a portion of all the animals while Nova and I hung back keeping watch in case anyone had seen the fire or smelled the food. Nova nudged me with his head and I heard a liquid swishing around and saw that he was holding a sake bottle.
'Thanks Nova.' I said taking the bottle and downing the contents. He hummed at me and I watched as he changed from a large dragon back into a hatchling. 'So you finally figured out how to change your size at will huh?'
'I sure did, but I didn't get the chance to show you earlier what with that man showing up and then the traitor, so I was hoping that this and the sake would help you get your mind off things for a while.' he said climbing onto my shoulder and wrapping his tail around my neck. I smiled at him and rubbed the scales above his eye and he purred in happiness. I walked back to the others after I disposed of the empty bottle and saw that they were just keeping warm by the fire. I took a seat by Sasuke and Nova churred at everyone when he realized that we were back in the camp.
"When did you get another hatchling?" Sakura asked.
"I didn't this is something that anyone who has dragon chakra can do. If you want I'm sure Nova here won't mind demonstrating after all he could use the practice," I said. Nova churred at me happy to show off to the others. Sakura nodded her head and Nova jumped off my shoulder and change size in midair. By the time he landed he was the size of a teenage dragon which is just big enough to fly, but not yet strong enough for someone to ride. Nova shook his large head as he release the extra chakra that he had created. "Well I know exactly where to start your training when all this is over," I said chuckling. Nova growled at me and lifted me into the air before he curled around me before he set me down leaning against his left foreleg. I sighed at his antics and rubbed his head when he rested his head in my lap causing him to purr again.
"That's pretty cool," Sakura said.
"Yeah. It's one of the reasons I'm always training with Nightpitch and Kira. Although the latter not only makes me extremely mad, but it uses her chakra which keeps her out of my head later. That's what she gets for embarrassing my students," I grumbled trying not to think about the dragon demon.
'Are you talking about me?'Difenda asked.
"Oh don't worry about it Difenda," I muttered to the wolf.
"What was that?" Naruto asked.
"Oh it was just Difenda asking who it was I was talking about. Anyway we should probably head to bed soon after all we'll leave early tomorrow morning so as to avoid the other teams. How does sunup sound?" I asked my teammates. Sakura looked like she was about to object, but stopped when Sasuke said," That sounds like a good idea to me." Sakura quickly nodded her head that she was fine with it and we all turned our attention onto Naruto.
"Sure," he said nodding his head absentmindedly. Sasuke gave him a worried look, but hid it a second later as Sakura looked at him. I watched as Sasuke got up and headed into our tent and was shortly followed by Sakura heading into her tent. I stayed with Nova when Naruto made no move to head to his tent.
"What's up Naruto?" I asked as he walked over to me.
"Is it a good idea to leave here so quickly with you and Sasuke still injured?" he asked as he sat next to me.
"If it was up to me we would stay here for a day or two, but we only have tomorrow to find the other scroll we need and I'm mostly healed and I plan on healing Sasuke's less serious wounds while he sleeps," I replied.
"Okay, but why didn't you heal him earlier?" he asked me.
"Sasuke hates it when I put other's health before my own, so it forces me to do things in a sneaky way when it comes to things like this. Besides when they healed me they not only closed the wounds, but removed any traces of the wounds so it's like they never happened. This makes things easier for me. Why are you so worried about him?"
"Does it matter why I'm worried about him?" He looked worried when I asked him about why he cared about my cousin and I gave a small knowing smile.
"It doesn't I was just curious. Don't let it worry you I'll take care of him." I smiled at him and he gave me a nervous smile as well before he started to head to his tent, but I stopped him a few feet from me. "Hey before you head to bed can I check something out? I want to make sure that you don't have a seal on your chakra like Sasuke." He seemed a little confused, but let me check anyways.
"What do I need to do?"
"Okay lift your shirt and focus your chakra. And you only need to lift it enough so I can see your stomach." He nodded and removed his jacket to reveal a black undershirt which he rolled up enough for me to see his stomach before he started to channel his chakra. I watched as the eight trigram seal appeared on his stomach and as he focused more of his chakra another five dots appeared around the normal seal. I groaned in annoyance as I recognized the Five Element Seal that Orochimaru had placed on Naruto and Sasuke. I noticed that it wasn't as dark as it was on Sasuke so I looked at it with my Sharingan eye and realized that it wasn't distorting his chakra as much as it was on him either. I sighed with relief when I realized that he wasn't someone that I was going to have to worry about when we got in a fight for our other scroll.
"Well how bad is it?" He stopped focusing his chakra when he asked that question. I deactivated my Sharingan and motioned for him to pull his shirt back down before I answered him.
"The bad news is that I can't remove your seal or Sasuke's seal at my current chakra levels. The good news for you is that yours isn't as strong as the one on Sasuke because he took most of the hit, so you won't be completely without chakra unlike him. Meaning he'll only be able to use Taijutsu while you will be able to use any of the three main jutsus only they'll require a little more chakra than normal, but other than that you should be fine." I patted him on the back when I saw his worried face. "And don't worry about Sasuke he'll still be able to use the other two types of jutsus, but they will cost him a lot more than just chakra. I'll make sure to explain everything to him later alright?" I squeezed his arm to reassure him that I wasn't going to let anything happen to Sasuke.
"Alright. Thanks Kiba-chan. I really needed to hear that," he said giving me a smile. I smiled back and watched as he headed to his tent. I sat with Nova for a few minutes until I heard his breathing even out then I slipped into my tent where Sasuke was asleep. I very carefully removed his shirt and started to heal the wounds on his back and removed a couple scars at the same time. I moved to his chest and saw that the same seal Naruto had was showing on his stomach meaning that he was unconsciously using his chakra while he slept. I sighed and finished my work before I slipped his shirt back on. Once it was on I checked his marks and found that they were okay and decided that it was okay to leave him alone until morning. I slipped back outside and sat by the now dead campfire. I pulled my shirt's left shoulder down and looked at the marks on it. It was the same tattoo that Gaara had on his forehead only I had three of them. I looked at them and remembered the day when I got them put on. I sat there through the night just lost in memories and pain as tears were brought up from the memories.
"Morning Kiba-chan," Sakura said as she walked out of her tent. I must have been deep in thought because the next thing I know she was standing in front of me waving her hand in front of my face. I jerked back startled and ended up on my back looking up at the sky. "Hey are you okay?" she asked as she helped me up. I rubbed the back of my head and covered the tattoos up as I pulled my mind back to the present.
"Yeah," I muttered as wiped my bloodshot eyes.
"You sure? You know if you need to talk to someone about it I'm willing to listen."
"Yeah, but this isn't something you can talk about with someone who hasn't been through what I've been through or seen what I've seen. And to be honest with you Sakura I'm pretty sure that if I forged a mind link with you and you ended up seeing some of those things you would be more than scarred for life. I mean look at me and Naruto we've seen the side of the villagers that they hide away and try to drown in sake and alcohol. At least it helps us," I muttered the last part low enough so she couldn't hear it.
"Still I hope that you talk to someone about whatever it is that could make someone like you cry after all it can't be healthy to lock your emotions up and never show them to anyone," she said giving me a worried look. 'You have no idea how right you are.' I thought, but nodded my head to her statement. She nodded as well and walked over to the river where she washed her face before returning to grab the pot we had boiled our water in last night. I turned my back on her and returned my attention to my left shoulder and the tattoos. I sighed and pulled the shirt down a little more and revealed two fresher tattoos that were of the same symbol. I frowned unable to remember when I got them and realized that they were still fresh enough that if I touched them it stung.
'When did you two decide to give me two more tattoos?' I asked Difenda and Kira.
'Last night when you were sitting here thinking about the past. We realized that we had missed two people and decided to place two more tattoos to show that they did exist.'Kira said.
'Correction. She decided that you should have a tattoo for every single person that you've lost.' Difenda clarified.
'Remove the two new onesnow.' I snarled at Kira. She muttered about me being unfair and I watched as new skin grew over the tattoos removing them from my body. 'Don't you ever do that again. These aren't to represent those that I've lost, but the ones that I still have you idiot.' She grumbled at me some more before she agreed to my terms. I jumped when I felt a hand placed on my shoulder and turned around to see Sasuke standing there.
"We need to talk," he said before he walked away from the camp site. I was about to follow him when the two newbies stepped in front of me.
"What is it?" I asked. They looked at each other before they looked back at me and Snow walked forward.
"We just wanted to let you know that the sound ninja have made it to the tower along with the sand ninja and most of the leaf genin that helped you yesterday," she growled.
"Good to know. Both of you watch the campsite while I go and talk with my cousin," I said. They nodded before they disappeared into the underbrush and I walked over to my cousin. He turned around and glared at me as I walked up to him and sat on a rock with my hand under my chin.
"What the hell were you thinking last night?" he asked me. I sighed and knew that I had been caught.
"Look it was either heal you or let you become a liability, well more of a liability then you are right now, and I chose to make sure that when we got in a fight you wouldn't be able to get in the way. Besides with you unable to tap into your chakra right now I need to know that you will be able to at least dodge the attacks coming without the Sharingan," I stated in a matter of fact way.
"Why wouldn't I be able to use my Sharingan? I just used it yesterday and nothing happened." He had a confused look on his face as I launched into the explanation of how his Heaven Marks had fueled his normal chakra, but now that they were dormant again the seal on his stomach was going to force him to rely only on his Taijutsu meaning he couldn't access his Sharingan. He took it better than I expected and at the end of the explanation just nodded his head and said we should bring something back for breakfast that way we could say we were just looking for something to eat instead of talking about what I did.
I led the way back to the river and performed the shadow clone jutsu before I sent my clones up a tree. Sasuke and I stood beside the river bank and waited for them to jump down. A few seconds later I saw the clones falling through the air and pulled out a couple kunai while Sasuke copied my stance and number of weapons. The four of them hit the water and created a large splash that sent five fish into the air. We threw the kunai and hit every single fish dead on causing them to fly backwards and the kunai to bury themselves in the trunk of a tree.
"That should be enough," I said as I released the jutsu and crossed the river. Sasuke followed me and we started to remove the fish from the trees and then waded back across the river. He insisted on carrying the fish, so I walked a little ways ahead of him looking around every now and again to see if there was a juicy rabbit or squirrel nearby. We walked in silence and before we rounded the corner to the camp I heard a growl and dashed around the corner followed by Sasuke. I saw Snow and Kyo standing in front of Nova who appeared to be wrapped around my other teammates. I took one glance at them and followed their faces to see Kabuto standing there with his hand outstretched to touch something and realized that it was our scroll.
"Don't even think about moving," I whispered in his ear. He stiffened and when he turned to face me I pulled out my black katana and pressed the steel into his throat while I rested my other hand on my white katana. H watched as the black blade hanged into a red blade that had curved blades sprouting from the main body like they were put there to add an intimidating effect to the blade.
"Kiba don't hurt him. He stopped Naruto from opening the scroll," Sasuke said as he walked over and grabbed our scroll off the ground. I looked over at Naruto who nodded his head in agreement with what Sasuke said.
"Well I guess it's your lucky day Kabuto. You get to live and I'm even going to let you walk away right now, if you don't try to stick around I might even keep my friends from ripping you apart. Now how does that sound?" I purred sweetly.
"Please you couldn't beat me even if you wanted to," he replied with a smirk.
"You want to bet?" I growled menacingly as I pushed the blade forward so that his neck was between the main body of the blade and the top most sickle blade shaped protrusion. "How about this I kill you and take both of the scrolls on you right now."
"Please you wouldn't kill me."
"Then how about you fight me for both of your scrolls?"
"Why would I do that when you owe me for saving your team from being disqualified from the test?" I growled in my throat and reluctantly removed my blade from his throat. The moment that it was no longer being used to attack someone it reverted to its original form. I swung the blade behind me and put it in its sheath letting the jeweled handle show over my right shoulder and the other over my left shoulder.
"Fine now leave," I growled at him.
"Now, now. You shouldn't be so rude to someone who saved you from elimination," he reprimanded.
"And you shouldn't anger someone stronger than yourself," I retorted.
"Whoever said you were stronger than me?" he questioned. I looked at him for a second before I started laughing at his stupidity.
"Please Kabuto I know all about you and you really don't know anything about me. Tell me what exactly do you know about me?" I retorted in between laughs. I walked closer to him and whispered in his ear," Besides someone who works for Orochimaru should know when they're out classed. Especially when Orochimaru failed in his mission so recently against me. Don't you think?" He looked a little shocked that I knew he worked for Orochimaru, but disguised his unease with a laugh and a smile. He still wouldn't leave after that and I decided to let it go on one condition. He agreed to help us get our last scroll and I was happy, so he stuck around for breakfast and once we had all eaten we headed out towards the tower.
We were still a long ways away from the tower when Naruto and I noticed something behind us and threw a kunai without thinking about it. It ended up being a very large centipede that was now stuck to the trunk of the tree. It had startled us, but thankfully no one screamed when they saw the size of the thing and we were able to continue towards the tower. We had to dodge some traps as we moved and at one point I had to jump over Naruto and use the substitution jutsu to keep the both of us from being impaled by thousands of kunai when he accidentally triggered a trap. Kabuto and I took the lead after that and made sure that we avoided the traps before we got to them. As the sun set we found ourselves right back where we had started with the giant centipede from before.
"Damn it," I cursed under my breath and realized that we had been walking in circles all day.
"We got caught in a Genjutsu and now that we're nice and tired they're going to attack us. Aren't they?" Sasuke said.
"Yep and they're going to have an advantage because while we're tired they're going to be at full power," Kabuto said. I looked at Naruto and we both smirked at the situation.
"That's just the sort of handicap I need for a good warm up how about you?" I asked him as we were surrounded by doppelgangers.
"I couldn't agree more, Kiba-chan," he answered as he ran up to one of the doppelgangers and punched it in the gut. The spot that he punched it became a hole in the figure and it threw a kunai at Sasuke. I moved in front of him as Kabuto tackled him to the ground and caught the weapon with ease.
"It seems that we're fighting illusions, but there is someone nearby who is watching us so that they can attack us. Are you alright cousin?" I asked as I watched the illusions close in on Naruto and us. I glanced over my shoulder and saw that he had activated his Sharingan and that was sapping the small amount of chakra he could access at that moment. "Idiot," I muttered as I walked over to him and jabbed at a pressure point that would deactivate the Sharingan.
"Thanks," he said as he leaned on one arm trying to get some of his strength back. I grunted and punched a few of the doppelgangers away from us as we backed up into a tree.
"You ready Naruto?" I asked him. He looked at me lie he was waiting for me to ask that question.
"Alright let's do this," he said as we both built up our chakra to the correct levels needed.
"SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!" we yelled together.
"Alright everybody know the plan?" I asked the clones.
"We got it. Now can we go get down to business?" the clones yelled back. I smirked at their attitudes and knew that Kira had used a little of her chakra to make them more battle hungry. I returned my gaze to the enemy and gave a toothy smile as I ran my tongue over my canines.
"CHAARGE!" we all yelled as both groups of clones ran forward and started to destroy the illusions.
"Those two really don't give us much of a choice do they?" Kabuto asked as he pulled out a kunai.
"No, but at least they're right about this," Sasuke said as he ran in behind us. He was soon followed by Kabuto and Sakura who helped him take down the illusions that the clones, Naruto, and myself didn't take down. We fought until through the night and shortly before dawn we all were out of energy and Naruto and I lost the control on our clones. They disappeared and the two of us lay on the forest floor waiting completely out of breath. As we tried to catch our breath the illusions disappeared and the true enemy showed their faces.
"Now if you will be so kind as to give us the scroll we'll leave you here in one piece," the middle one said. I pushed myself into a sitting position and got a look at their faces for the first time. I smirked as I recognized one of them.
"Why don't you come over here and take it? Maybe I'll stab your other shoulder this time," I said smirking at the one in the middle.
"You! You're the one who almost cut my shoulder off! I guess this is my lucky day because I get to repay you for that wound," he snarled as he pulled out a kunai.
"And just how are you going to do that when I'm over here?" I asked as the real me put a sword to his throat. My wings folded forward and the poisonous spikes on them poked the other two in the neck. I purred in a sweet way as I pushed them closer to breaking their skin.
"Knock it off Kiba. We just need their scroll not their heads" Sakura said as she, Kabuto, and Sasuke stood up from the bush behind me.
"What? But how did? When did you get behind us?" the left one said. Naruto sat up and smirked as we both held up one hand and released the chakra that was keeping two of my clones looking like Sakura and Kabuto as he released the chakra making his other clone look like Sasuke.
"They were never really over there to begin with. Well done with the jutsus Naruto," I called as the clones disappeared in a puff of smoke. "You ready Naruto?" He looked back at me and smiled at me. I chuckled darkly and the three ninja looked at me. The moment everyone was focused on me Naruto moved forward and punched the person on my left sending him into his teammates where I batted them away with my wings giving them some nasty bruises at the same time. They flew back a few feet, but were still able to get back up after they crashed into the trunk of a tree. They disappeared in a puff of smoke and we were surrounded by chakra clones this time. One of them attacked Naruto, but Kabuto tackled him out of the way. While they were down I heard Sakura yell at Sasuke about something, but I ignored her and jumped in front of Kabuto and Naruto as one of the ninja appeared out of the ground and swiped at me. He cut me across the nose and I yelped in pain thankful that he had missed my eyes. I put a hand to my face and when the three of them appeared in front of me my anger got the better of me. The whites of my eyes became the same crimson color as my iris' and my pupils narrowed to slits as I glared at the frozen forms in front of me. Before I could strike them Naruto had kicked them away from me and I was able to push the emotions back down and regain control.
"Are you alright Kiba-chan?" Kabuto asked. I rubbed the back of my neck as I felt a sting from my marks and smiled at him.
"I'm fine thanks to Naruto. He really saved my butt just now," I said. He offered me his hand and I took it letting him pull me to my feet. "Give me the Shinobi skill cards with the data about me, Sasuke, and Naruto right now and I won't say anything to the others agreed?"
"Now why would I do that when you don't know where they are?" he asked me again. I opened my mind and pushed into his as I heard the thoughts that were in his head at that moment. 'She'll never figure out that I hid them in the left pocket inside my shirt.' he thought. I smirked at him and quickly withdrew my mind from his as I looked him in the eye.
"Left pocket inside your shirt. Now give them or I take them. Got it?" I snarled at him. He looked fairly surprised, but pulled out the cards with a grumble. I took the deck from him and set it on fire before his very eyes to make sure that he couldn't do anything with them again. I then stuffed the ashes in a bag I carried that I sealed shut and tied to my wrist before I released the boy. He grumbled at me, but continued to travel with us to the tower where we parted ways and entered the tower. We read a plaque that was about what a Chuunin really was and opened the scrolls. Iruka sensei appeared and told us we passed the second test then explained what would have happened if we had opened the scroll too soon. A few hours later we were told we were going to have a preliminary round because there were too many participates to continue to the third exam. Kabuto dropped out and the proctor disqualified him as Naruto questioned why he was dropping out. I ignored them for the most part because my marks had started burning my neck and I noticed that Sasuke's marks were bothering him as well.
"Sasuke you have to drop out. You don't know what those marks could do. Especially since that Orochimaru guy put them on you they could be a way for him to control you or something," Sakura whispered to my cousin.
"Shut up," he whispered back.
"Fine if you won't drop out then I'll tell them what happened and they'll pull you out of the competition," she said as she started to raise her hand. He slapped her hand down as she started to raise it and glared at her shocked face.
"I said shut up. Now do it besides this is more than a test to see if I'm ready to be a Chuunin this is a test to see if I'm strong enough," he said to her. I turned around and looked him in the eye as he started to say the next sentence.
"Don't say it Sasuke. You don't understand what it means to be an avenger. It doesn't mean you get to kill the person who hurt you or the people you care about. Being an avenger is a path that will bring you nothing but pain, sadness, and loneliness. That path you think you want to walk is one that will destroy you in the end," I whispered my voice full of pain and longing. He froze and my teammates focused on me. "If you want to be alone, hated, uncared for, and unloved for the rest of your life then go down that path. I did and it cost me everything. It cost me the very people that made my miserable life worth living. If I hadn't followed the path of an avenger Nachur-chan would still be here with us today. Instead he's nothing, but ashes and a face that will haunt my dreams for the rest of my life. If you want to have that kind of pain then follow that path otherwise stop acting like someone who lost everything when you still have the most important person in your life right in front of you," I growled at him. He hung his head and we turned to face the teachers. "Sakura a piece of advice. Stay out of my family's business or next time I'll let Nightpitch and the others beat you senseless," I growled over my shoulder at her.
"Alright you maggots listen up," Anko called out. "Your matches will be decided by random match ups. Everyone's names have been entered into the machine and before every match we will display the participant's names on the board above me. If you are not one of the fighters please move to the viewing area above the arena to watch. Now for the first match." I rubbed circles in my neck and looked around the room to see how many people we left. There were twenty-eight of us left, six from Densetsu, the four from Sound, the three from Sunagakure, and the fifteen from Konoha. 'So there's going to be a total of fourteen rounds and that means I have a one in twenty-seven chance of fighting Bone. If someone else gets him then I will have to intervene before he can kill them. I won't watch as another person I know dies.' I thought to myself. I heard a gasp of horror and looked at the board. I smirked when I saw the board and laughed at the good luck I had. It said Whitetigerstar vs. Bone "Crusher" Uragirimono.
