"Hey," Chouji nervously yelled out.
"You guys okay?"
"Ino, you look after Lee. We'll look at that kid."
"Right!"
"Sakura's in danger!" Naruto muttered in his sleep, grinning.
"Don't worry Sakura, I've save you, don't you worry..."
"Woah. Someone outta kick him and wake him up. This is embarrassing."
"Can I kick him first?" Chouji volunteered.
"Nah, I got a better idea."
Shikamaru handed Chouji a large stick, almost as thick as a plank of wood.
"W-wait, don't--!!" Yuri tried to reason.
But her efforts fell on deaf ears.
"Gwaaaahhhh!!!" Naruto cried, clutching his head as he came to.
His eyes bolted around the clearing, then flung himself to the ground.
"The Grass Ninja!! Everybody hide!! Get down! That ninja... Where could she be hiding?"
Chouji poked Naruto in the back of the head with the stick. Shikamaru spectated with an amused grin, hands in his pockets.
"You really are one of a kind, that's for sure. And I mean, you're the kind that gets on my nerves."
"Mhmm," Chouji agreed, bringing the stick up to his shoulders.
"Oh, Sakura!! Sakura Sakura!!"
Naruto sprinted over to said girl, skidding on his knees.
"What's going on here?"
"Explaining things to you is going to be such a pain," Shikamaru groaned.
"Everyone... Just showed up to help."
Tenten jumped down from her perch in the trees.
"I'll take Lee from here, Ino."
"Uh... Okay."
She handed him over to her, who shook Lee violently until he awoke. Tenten then scolded him about how he was a fool for rushing into battle to rashly.
"Oi! Bushy brow!!"
"Naruto, you better not say anything bad about Lee!"
Sakura balled her hand into a fist, and laid into Naruto. Shikamaru sighed, scratching his head.
"That Naruto is completely out of the loop."
"So far out of the loop, he doesn't even know there's a loop," Chouji agreed.
"Hey Sakura!" Ino called.
"Come over here. I want to fix your hair for you, okay?"
Sakura nodded haphazardly, as Ino pulled out a kunai, and cut at Sakura's hair cautiously. Cracking her knuckles, Yuri flexed her arms over her head. She hadn't been much of a help at all over the course of this exam, and it irritated her. Even though Lee and the others had tried and failed, at least they'd done something. She fixed her sight on a cloud in the sky.
"We should get going," Yuri murmured.
"You say something, Yuri?" Chouji asked, cupping a hand around his ear.
"I said, we should get going."
"Oh, right. Yeah, we should."
He turned to Shikamaru, tilting his head in question, who nodded.
"If you two girls are done playing dress-up, we need to head to the tower."
Chouji reached into his bag, pulling out another bag of chips.
"I still... munch... don't... munch... get it..." He muttered between crunches.
"What are they doing?"
Ino rolled her eyes, ignoring the oblivious ninja.
"Hurry up!"
Ino and Chouji ran back inside. Yuri squirmed in Shikamaru's arms.
"I can walk on my own, Shika-kun..." She assured him.
Shikamaru shook his head.
"I don't know... after the graceful stumble you took out there fighting those Collectors, I'm not so sure," He responded.
Yuri frowned, pushing him away from her. Shikamaru tensed in agony.
"Not there," He snapped.
"Get comfortable somewhere else."
"Sorry, Shikamaru-kun, but if you'd let me go, I'd kindly oblige."
The two entered the room. Ino and Chouji sat across from one another. Catching sight of her other two comrades, Ino called out to them.
"Hey, hey, what are we supposed to do?"
Shikamaru's gaze traveled up the walls and ceiling as he gently set Yuri down onto the tiled floor.
"Hey, check that out," He said, pointing to a poster on the wall.
Yuri looked up.
" 'If you do not possess Heaven...' "
Her voice trailed off.
"I don't understand. 'If you do not possess knowledge then be prepared. If you do not possess Earth, run through the fields and seek strength. If you open both Heaven and Earth scrolls, dangerous paths turn into safe paths. This is the secret of '... ummm... something, something...'It shall lead you on your way.' "
Ino tutted.
"What's all that garbage supposed to mean?" She demanded.
"Secret of something something..." Shikamaru repeated, scanning the poster.
"There's a part of the message missing."
He gazed down at the scrolls.
"Maybe we're supposed to figure out the rest of that puzzle, and the missing part is inside of them..."
"Then what are we waiting for?" Ino asked, peeling at the edge of the scroll.
"Don't!" Shikamaru commanded, snatching the scroll away from Ino.
She glared up at him.
"We don't have any clue what to expect once we open these scrolls," Shikamaru explained dully.
"For all we know, these scrolls could be- "
"Boobytrapped," Yuri finished, catching on.
Shikamaru nodded.
"But then again, if we don't open them, then what do we do?"
Yuri swallowed, plucking the Heaven scroll from Shikamaru's grasp. She gingerly peeled at the corner of the scoll.
"Well... it doesn't look like we have much of a choice..."
Shikamaru took the Earth scroll from Chouji. He started peeling at his scroll. Glancing at Yuri, she gave a nod of encouragement. The two tore open the scroll in unison. Shikamaru's eye twitched.
" 'Person'? 'Jin'?"
Smoke slowly started to rise from the scrolls, Yuri staring at it curiously. Shikamaru's eyes widened in realization. He threw his scroll against the wall opposite of him as if it had been a blowtorch.
"Yuri, drop that scroll!" He commanded.
"That's a summoning inscription!!"
Yuri quickly obeyed, chucking the scroll beside Shikamaru's. The smoke thickened as the silhouette of a person became visable. Gradually, the smoke finally subsided, and a Konoha ninja stood on top of the scrolls, his left hand on his hip.
"Yo," He greeted lazily, raising his right hand in awknowledgment.
"Alright, what the heck's goin' on here?" Shikamaru demanded.
The Chuunin's long black hair fell over his shoulders as he leaned forward. He had tanned skin, and was tall and slender. He kept his eyes closed.
"From the looks of it, the four of you went through a bunch of trouble."
"Huh?" Ino asked.
"Who are you, and why'd you appear through that summoning jutsu?"
The Chuunin rocked back and forth on his heels.
"We Chuunin are to welcome you Genin at the end of the Second Exam," He explained.
"The name's Oboro. I was the oh-so fortunate one selected to pass a message to the four of you."
Ino proped her hands on her hips.
"Well, he sure sounds thrilled to be here."
Oboro pulled a watch from his pocket, ingnoring Ino's remark. He cracked open one eye ever so slighty.
"You guys still have an entire day until the end of the exam. A day, twleve hours, thirty-four minutes, seven seconds, to be precise."
He snapped his watch shut, closing his eyes again.
"Alright, I'll only say this once, so listen up."
He leaned his back against the wall.
"Obviously, you've pased the Second Exam, or else you wouldn't be here now-"
"So, just out of curiousity, what would you have done if we had opened the scrolls during the Exam?" Shikamaru interjected.
Oboro opened his eye long enough to glare at the lazy Genin for interrupting him, before closing it again.
"I would have had to put all three of you out of commisioning," He replied flatly.
"Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to continue with the explaination of the Third and Final Exam."
He waved his hand at the Large wall scroll beside him.
"This is the principal that Hokage-sama wrote that he advises all Chuunin should keep firmly in mind. Heaven stands for a person's mind, and Earth signifys a person's body. So, in other words, if you don't possess Heaven, gain knowledge and be prepared, and vice versus for Earth."
He lowered his hand, placing it back on his hip.
"Basically, if you're an idiot, start studying so you won't be. If your body is weak and slow, train it so you won't be."
Shikamaru tutted.
"He really has a way with words."
Yuri giggled. Oboro peered at Shikamaru dangerously.
"With both Heaven and Earth, any mission will become safer, and overall easier."
"Alright, but that still doesn't explain the missing letters on the scroll," Shikamaru retorted.
"It symbolizes the traits of a Chuunin," He answered, picking up the Earth scroll.
"The "person" character that was in here,"
He pointed to the scroll,
"...goes in there."
He guestured to the scroll on the wall.
"The Second Exam you just finished put the basic abilities of Konoha Chuunin to the test. And you guys have passed. The Chuunin leads mission. He is a commander, a leader. If you forget everything I tell you today, remember this: All Chuunin must possess Heaven and Earth. Without them, you will never reach Chuunin level, let alone Jounin. Now, that's all I was told to tell you, so..."
Oboro yawned, stretching his arms above his head.
"What are we supposed to do for an entire day?" Shikamaru demanded.
Oboro shrugged.
"Hang out here, sleep, eat... That's for you to figure out."
He vanished in a puff of smoke. Ino groaned.
"He was a big help," She griped.
"How will we know when the Third Exams begin?!"
Shikamaru sighed.
"What a troublesome person..."
"Who?" Ino demanded.
"Me or the Oboro guy?"
"Both," He replied.
Yuri giggled again. Ino glared daggers.
"Why you..."
Ino growled, then lunged. But Shikamaru had been expecting that, and did a back roll out of the way.
"Stay away from me, woman."
Ino began yelling, but Yuri tuned them out. He attention was on a red head across the hall. It was the same, teal, black-rimmed eyed boy she had sat beside of in the first Chuunin exam.
"Isn't his name..."
She couldn't put her finger on his name. Curiousity overwhelmed her, and she slowly got to her feet to follow the boy. He rounded a corner at the end of a hall. Yuri persued him, but as she turned down the corridor, she was greeted by a wall. She had hit a dead end. Her eyebrows furrowed.
"Where did he...?"
As her eyes darted around the walls, sand flowed about her feet. Yuri glanced from side to side. It wasn't until she glanced at the floor that she noticed the sand. She was caught inbetween fright, and more curiousity.
"How in the world- ?"
"What do you think you're doing, following me around?" A cold voice demanded.
Yuri's body froze over. Sand crunched behind her as the boy moved closer to her.
"I said, what do you think you're doing?" He repeated.
The boy, whoever he was, was right behind Yuri. She could feel his body heat he was so close.
"Why don't you answer me?" He hissed.
"Are you, perhaps... afraid of me?"
The sand coiled around her ankles, slowly snaking its way up her legs.
"You'd like to run now, wouldn't you?" He seethed.
Yuri swallowed, gradually cranimg her neck around to see who it was behind her. She was greeted by black-rimmed teal orbs filled with a lust for blood. Her eyes widened. It was the boy that had sat beside of her during the First Exam.
"...Gaara!!"
Gaara's eyes hardened.
"You're not running away from me... You'll never run again... You'll never breathe again!!"
The sand tightened around Yuri, now up to her waist. Her wounded leg throbbed furiously. Her lips parted in a blood-curdling scream. Gaara's lips twisted into an insane smile. His sand quickly reacted to muffle Yuri's screams. He began to drag her down into the sea of sand below her, merciless. Yuri writhed and against her opponent, but to no avail. The sand was impossibly strong. She fell to her knees, the sand lacing up her neck.
"You shouldn't have strayed... And now you'll die!!"