Don't Fear The Reaper

~Chapter 8~

The Second Exam Begins: Kumiko's Risky Strategy!

I don't own naruto.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL! My new years resolution is to write more because I am lazy.

The forest of death was...interesting.

The three Kirigakure genin stood before it, glaring up at the extremely tall trees and deep thick undergrowth. A snake, that Kumiko almost mistook for a demon because of its size, snapped up an innocent bird. She heard a light snicker behind her and glanced curiously at her two teammates. "Wow Kyoia. A family reunion. A crazy sister and your mother, I can see where you get your looks from." Kyoia growled a quick 'shut up!' in response, her large black pupils growing smaller with rage. Kumiko sighed and glanced back over to the proctor with a bored expression.

She couldn't believe she trusted those two, whom she had only known for 1 day and a couple hours, with her inner most secrets.

She supposed it wasn't a big deal; it wasn't a law that humans couldn't know you existed and anyone that wanted to find her probably could, as demonstrated by Jashin earlier. But she would have preferred that it had been a secret, as now she would be a target to be challenged by any other Matsurian or Jashinist in this dimension, should word get out of course. The two weren't acting that different around her though, which made her...content.

Still, she would have preferred that everyone think she was just a normal human being like everyone else...Stupid Jashin, he ruins everything. He had already ruined her life once and then he sends that fiend to find her only to deliver a stupid undecipherable message, and when it got seen she had to reveal everything. It's all Jashin's fault.

The team from earlier, the one with the blond idiot on it, was standing a few feet in front of her. The blond idiot, as usual, was shouting obnoxiously and causing a scene. A kunai suddenly landed between herself and the grass ninja who was standing beside her only a few inches away, as they happened to be standing in one of the most crowded areas. She surveyed the damage the blade had done. It had grazed the arrogant blond's cheek and had affectively slit a lock from a strange looking grass ninja's hair. Something was off about that grass ninja...it was a female, but the soul energy was that of a male.

Transvestite?

No...that concept didn't really exist in this dimension, or from what she had seen it didn't. Slightly freaked out with the transvestite she turned her attention back to the blond to find the proctor was now behind him, threatening him and bringing a finger up to slyly brush the blood from his cheek.

Great! A transvestite, a plum haired snake in disguise, the king of obnoxiousness and the freaky forest. She began to think of the 'Old McDonald had a Farm' song except substituted it with 'Old Hokage had a Village'. It fit quite nicely and had quite the ring to it, she decided. She couldn't hear the hushed words shared between Anko and Naruto and once again cursed herself for not training her hearing better.

"Tough guys like you usually leave their blood all over this forest!" Anko sang a little louder as if to warn against anyone else becoming a smart ass. She could tell the proctor meant him no harm other than that minor scratch but when the grass ninja was on the move she stiffened. She felt a need to slightly assist the poor leaf rookie and so she took a couple steps closer, much faster and much more obviously than the grass ninja, who had paused at her movements.

Kumiko bent down and walked around the proctor and the orange clad wonder holding the kunai in the proctors face, distracting her from tormenting him any further. "Why thank you Mist ninja~" She sang happily. "Hm." Kumiko hummed, hoping to appear like she was thinking. "What was it you were saying Mitarashi-san before you were interrupted? My teammates and I are growing slightly impatient. Kyoia tends to get touchy when that happens." She whispered to the proctor, leaning down and resting an elbow on the slightly hunched over blonds head while the proctor took the same leisurely position on his upper back.

"Of course!" Anko said heartily standing up straight soon after. She walked back towards the front and all eyes followed her. Kumiko then removed her elbow from the blonds head and walked back to her spot next to her teammates, her fingernail gently caressing the boy's bloodied cheek. She then stuck the bloodied finger in her mouth as she silently walked away.

Kyoia twitched when Kumiko returned and smiled at the sight of her new teammate sucking the blood from her pointer finger. Something they had in common!

"Did you have to draw attention to us Kumiko? Or is this a part of one of your twisted plans...?" Toshi asked while smirking, not bothering to lower his voice.

"Smart idea Toshi." Kumiko thought. "Make everyone think we're a force to be reckoned with by making subtle comments like that...we'll repel the weaklings and attract those that are worthy. That'll make this test a lot more interesting."Her response was a simple 'hn' while crossing her arms and lowering her head, although she couldn't hide the Cheshire grin that grew on her face.

XxX

Kyoia mumbled to herself as she looked over the paper with slight annoyance. How was she supposed to sign the damn thing? She didn't know she was supposed to carry a pen around in her undies...

She dropped to the ground, plunking down anxiously. 15 minutes later, there was a slight cough from above her and she looked up, grunting slightly in surprise when she seen it was the Sunagakure team from earlier. The blood thirsty redhead among them.

She raised an eyebrow, sniffing indignantly before looking back at her page. She was trying to ignore the blood thirsty chills that threatened to make her spine twitch. Something about that damn redhead...made her killing intent go haywire. But in a good way...was that possible? She tried to ignore another cough from the girl and twitched in annoyance when it continued. She peeked up over the paper and narrowed her eyes.

"You really need to do something about that throat...cough drop maybe? I'm fresh out but I bet you the King of Bastards (eheheh...Toshi -_-') has some. Go bother him." She flicked her hand at the girl nonchalantly.

"We want a truce for this part of the exam." It sounded more like a demand coming from the mouth of the hooded guy.

"That sounded like an order..." Kyoia trailed off standing up threateningly, although her shorter height was probably less than intimidating.

"It was. You should be grateful for the opportunity." The girl stated ignorantly. The younger black haired girl ignored her, the next sentence coming out with a slight growl.

"I don't like being ordered around...by people who haven't earned the privilege. Besides I don't know what Kumiko has planned yet, but I'm sure her plans don't involve you guys...unless it's your faces in the dirt. So...no." Enraged the hooded guy spoke again.

"Fine then! We'll just tear you and your little teammates apart in that forest, country alliance or not! It's not like you're needed for the-" He was silenced by a look from the redhead.

"Is that so? Well then...Good luck with that!" Kyoia laughed slightly while walking away and waving back at them, looking over her shoulder once to wink.

XxX

Kumiko hummed slightly to herself, her favourite song. It was a song from her old world called 'Dog and Butterfly' by an old rock band from her parent's era called 'Heart'.

She had already signed her paper and it was folded neatly and securely placed in her kunai pouch. Her hands were shoved carelessly into her pockets, her thumbs peeking out of the black denim. She had finally finished formulating the course of action her team was going to take.

It was risky...but in her opinion effective.

She just hoped that her team had no arguments with it. So now she was just milling about, exploring the outside of the forest and squinting to see anything helpful through the undergrowth. She seen nothing, only a seemingly endless tangled mass of leaves and brush. She frowned before closing her eyes and focusing on the other genins' spirit energy there were a few that seemed strong but there were a few that distinguished themselves.

That Uchiha, Subaku and even that Uzumaki kid...there was a deep inner strength within him...almost the same strength as the Subaku. Her eyes shot open in recognition.

Damn! She was going soft or something! How could she not recognize the spiritual energy of the thing she had been trained almost her entire existence to eliminate?

...Demons.

XxX

Toshi was leaning up against a tree the form in his hands. A small, extremely rare smile lifted the corners of his mouth. Give a form...to a person who cannot read it? That's kind of dumb... He wished he could use his echo location but it only worked on shapes.

He could use it to see the paper...but not what was written on it. It was possible, but Toshi had yet to master that technique as it was the best information gathering resource to have. It would enable him to read an enemies scroll without even being near it. His half brother had been going to teach him but Benjirou had gotten more ill...He heard footsteps and parted his mouth searching the area around himself.

A girl, who he had noticed yesterday.

She had been in that group of Konoha rookies that had the obnoxious kid among them and she had also been sitting on the opposite side of the obnoxious child during the first exam. She was quiet...and timid. She didn't seem to notice him as she stood on the opposite side of the tree trunk, her form studying the page as well.

"Hey what're you doing all the way out here?" Great...it's the obnoxious kid. He listened silently to the conversation and noted the girl's speech matched her disposition. He listened with mild amusment as she offered him some ointment for the cheek Mitarashi-san had cut. But it faded as the idiot ignored her and walked off. Toshi felt a wave of pity for the extremely shy girl.

"I guess...I'll just...save it for later then..." The girl whispered to herself but as she moved to put it away she dropped it. The round container rolled into one of Toshi's feet and he bent to pick it up lazily. He heard the girl start at the realization that he was there.

"U-um th-thank you." She said as he handed it back to her and she quickly pocketed it.

"You're quite welcome." He responded calmly, he thought for a moment before continuing. "Hey, could you do me a favour?" She shifted with slight discomfort.

"Um...Yes." He smiled at her shyness.

"Could you please point to the place on this paper I'm meant to sign? I can't see it." He used his ultrasound to see the girl glanced at him with a puzzled expression before pointing at the spot on the page. "Thank you. An..." he almost couldn't even use the expression. "An eye for an eye then..."

"U-um. I'm s-sorry but why didn't you just move your headband." Smirking he did so and pointed to his eyes and she heard her gasp. His eyes, he knew as his half-brother had once described his eyes to him, were steel blue, almost white and the black pupil looked slightly foggy, like his pupils were clear glass bulbs that someone had filled with smoke.

"It doesn't do much good." He said, resting his headband back down. In the distance he heard a proctor call everyone and tell them that it was time to collect their scrolls. "You had better get back to your team...I'm sure they'll wonder where you are. Thank you again for your help-"

"Hinata!" She burst out with not even a back tint of shyness. She shifted her head quickly to look at the ground. "I-I'm Hinata Hyuuga." He smirked. She was trying to show him some confidence...she didn't want an enemy ninja thinking she was weak.

"Toshi Nekonasai." He began walking in the direction he knew his teammates were in but stopped turning back to Hinata. He didn't know why but he felt the need to give her some advice.

"Trust no one. Be cautious of everyone and everything, even your teammates. Stay safe and good luck...Hinata."

XxX(Fluff~!...steel fluff since it's not really fluffy...steel wool! That's it...steel wool.)

"Alright," The guy behind the counter said "Who's taking the scroll?" The mist genin stood across from him and when he spoke Kumiko extended her hand expectantly. She was handed an earth scroll and she stuffed it down her shirt, hiding it amidst her cleavage before continuing out towards a free gate. Kyoia gave her a look. "What?"

Kyoia just rolled her eyes and followed her silently until she made it to the gate. "I didn't want to say anything out in the open but...you have a plan right?" They tried to ignore the chuunin standing outside the gate and converse like he was not present.

"Yeah. Are you listening? I'm only going to say this once and I'm going to say it quietly." The two nodded and watched as Kumiko did a few hand signals. Then, 3 cat summons 'poofed' into existence. The three of them were bengal cats (don't know what that is look it up 'Bengal Cat' on google images) only distinguished by the different colour ribbons around their necks.

One of them had a red ribbon, one of them had a navy blue ribbon and one of them sported a green ribbon. The ribbons were all tied behind their necks in big bows and all of the cats had tiny bells on the front, silver for the blue and green ribbons and gold for the red ribbon.

"Toshi, Kyoia meet the Sanbyakushimi triplets. Momo," She gestured to the red ribboned she-cat who gave a Cheshire-like grin. "Tomo" She gestured to the blue ribboned cat who nodded his broad head. "and Yomo." The green ribboned cat flicked its tail irritably.

"All of you listen up here's the plan. We get into the forest, hide the scroll and then split up. When you split up we'll each take a Sanbyakushimi triplet with us, because of their pelt they'll blend in with our surroundings. Not only that but the three of them can use telepathy so no matter what we'll be able to communicate between us. Once one of us obtains a heaven scroll, I'll collect the earth scroll again and we'll all meet outside the tower. Because we'll be meeting at the tower no one that comes across us while we're waiting for each other will want our scroll, seeing as they probably already have both scrolls. Tomo, you go with Toshi and Yomo I want you to go with Kyoia. You are to obey them as you would me. Kyoia, Toshi I trust you can operate on your own. I know this strategy is risky but I believe it will be effective." The gate door swung open and the three genin went in separate directions, the nin-cats beside them.

"I hope we get through this alright..." Kumiko commented to herself, scanning the forest floor.

"Do not worry Mistress, your friends smell intelligent and strong. My brothers trust them as do I. Have more faith in your comrades, even if they are new to you. Remember mistress, the nose knows." Momo, the soul female of the Sanbyakushimi triplets, soothed as she jumped from branch to branch beside her mistress, her golden bell surprisingly making no noise. Kumiko smirked.

"Alright, Momo. I've learned not to doubt your nose!" And with that the two disappeared into the forest above, both with the same excited green cat eyes and wearing the same Cheshire grins.

Sanbyakushimi literally means "Three hundred spots" which makes sense if you know what a 'Bengal Cat' looks like. It happens to be my favourite breed of cat! Yes cats have breeds...

Small tidbit of info, they all have green cat eyes like Kumiko's.