Chapter 10: The Infamous Second Phase
"Alright twerps, now that you are here, I can finally explain the damn rules and then eat my fucking dango in peace."- the examiner, Mitarashi Anko declared to the dozens of Genin that stood in front of her. Old Ibiki is losing his touch. The Forest of Death will thin out the numbers, though.
"Then hurry the hell up and send us in already, I'm getting fed up with waiting !"(Pokemon early games reference here) – a shinobi of Otogakure, named Zaku said. Anko smiled.
"Excellent idea. For this task, you'll have to do intell colecting. There are two types of scrolls, the Heaven scroll and the Earth scroll. Each team is given a scroll and their mission is to get their hands on the opposite one while holding on to the first one, and then make their way to the building in the middle of the forest."- she explained. Ino rose her hand, confused.
"But if each team only has one scroll, how are we supposed to get the other one?"- she asked, very innocently. Kiba chuckled.
"Isn't it obvious? We fucking kill for them!"- he answered. Anko laughed in delight as a bunch of Genin moved uncomfortably, as if they hadn't considered the possibility of killing or dying. Everyone did except for Team 7, the Suna team, the Kumo team and Kiba himself.
"I'm glad some actually understand the purpose of this test. Now, the little shack by my right is where you'll get your scroll. Move it!"- she ordered. Not a second later, Naruto appeared by her side, smiling.
"Alright."- and he simply walked into the shed for a few seconds, everyone's faces shocked at how he simply teleported. He came out with nothing on his hands and no backpack before approaching his team.
"Dobe...please tell me you didn't forget to bring the scroll."- the Uchiha asked with a pleading voice. Naruto smirked.
"We've got the Heaven scroll. I had one of my Kuchyiose guard it before anyone could see. That way, if someone captures us, they don't get the scroll, and we can just kuchyiose it at the end of the challenge."- the jinchuuriki explained. Sasuke thought for a few moments. That is too intelligent for Naruto. But I don't really care, because I am cool and broody and stuff.
"Whatever."-Anko muttered before taking a bite out of the dango and turning around to walk away. She suddenly stopped and turned again.- "Oh right, every team has a designed gate. Consult your instructions sheet to know which is yours."
"Awh, ours is on the other side of the forest! That's like two miles away from here!"- Sakura complained, looking at the sheet on her hands. Naruto's face turned into an annoyed expression.
"Screw that! I'm not walking around all this!"- he threw a kunai close to the fence and teleported to it, kicked it back to where he was, imprinted a seal on the fence and immediately teleported to the kicked kunai right before an explosion was heard.
The smoke quickly dissipated to reveal that the fence had been blown apart. Everyone, including Anko, was shocked.
"What the hell, Naruto? Do something like that again and I'll put you under a genjutsu that'll tear your mind to pieces!"- Sakura threatened. However, Naruto payed her no attention. He simply conteplated his artwork.
"Hm, destructive power has increased. I guess adding a new trigram level actually increases the power."- he muttered, as if he was an expert bomber, trying to evaluate his own work. Sasuke facepalmed.
"Let's just go."
And so they ran through the broken fence, ignoring any complaints from the examiners and students, unsheathing Nuibari, a flute and some stupid kunai (gotta love Sasuke).
They ran for an hour, determined to get at least through half of the trip. While running, they had made up a plan and decided that most people would run around the first area and build up safehouses, but some would head straight for the main building to set up traps, and those were their targets.
"Are you sure this will work?"- Sakura whispered. They were currently spying on a Grass team. They seemed vulnerable and were carrying an Earth scroll with them. Naruto smirked and Sasuke scowled.
"Don't be so insecure. They're obviously vulnerable, they even have their backs to us. A quick attack would be the end of it."- the Uchiha replied. Naruto, however, was not so convinced. He smirked.
"Nah, Sasuke. Things aren't that easy. It's because they're ignoring every shinobi rule that we would fail. They are obviously faking it to reel us in."- the jinchuuriki warned. Sakura gasped and Sasuke gave him a confused look.
"Why do you say so?"- he asked.
"Because they're right behind us."- Sasuke quickly turned around to see the same three Grass ninja they had been stalking moments ago, looking right at them.
"H-how?"- the Uchiha asked. The obvious leader smiled as the other two laughed. She pointed behind him, as the original Grass ninja exploded into clouds of white smoke.
"Are you an Uchiha or not, man? Stop standing around and do something!"- the Uzumaki shouted as Kunai scattered all around and became a dark blur, teleporting from one to another. Sasuke quickly woke up from the trance. The leading Grass ninja smiled.
"This is going to be fun. You two handle the girl, do whatever you like. But leave me and these two alone. I'm going to hunt."- at her command, the two guys jumped at Sakura who began to play her genjutsu melody, and they disappeared into the woods. When Sasuke looked back, the Grass ninja's tongue was slithering around her kunai. Her pupil turned into a slit, as if she was a snake!
What the fuck? I can feel something pressing down on me! An unbearable pressure crushed his shoulders as he saw his own death, a vision that terrified him to no end. B ut as suddenly as it came to him, it disappeared. The Grass nin was flying against a tree, Naruto in a fighting stance while gripping his fist. The Grass nin stood up and smiled.
"That's quite a right jab. I couldn't even see you. It's impressive that you escaped my genjutsu."- she commented, gripping her kunai again. Naruto smirked as he cracked his knuckles before taking out and opening his Fuma Shuriken.
"Genjutsu do not work on me. I have the Kyuubi inside me, and she frees me from any illusion."- he threw the Shuriken as hard as he could, sending it flying like a buzzsaw directly at the nin's torso. She, however, simply jumped over it like Zabuza had done. Naruto teleported to the seal that was placed on the shuriken and managed to place a seal on the enemy's back, before hanging on to the shuriken again, flying away.
"That's it? You tapped my back? Was that your crazy plan? I admit, it was a well thought strategy, but that wasn't very effective."- she commented again. Naruto smirked and she knew it was not a good sign.
"The first move is always a fake!"- she looked behind to see a barrage of fire balls that Sasuke had spat. The nin managed to dodge one or two before being completely thrashed around by five consecutive ones that blasted her away, sending her crashing through a tree and falling to another branch. A second later, she dissolved into mud.
"You think she's gone?"- the Uchiha asked. Naruto approached and placed his hand on the mud, sensing through it.
"No. This was a stupid Kawarimi."- he replied, looking back at his partner. Something above Sasuke moved.
"DIE!"- the Grass ninja fell on Sasuke, ready to stab him with a sword that was coming out of her mouth. Naruto formed the Conciliation handseal.
"KATSU!"- the nin's back exploded violently, making him drop to the side, not even laying a finger on Sasuke. The Uchiha seemed surprised, looking at the dead nin's body and then back at the gasping Naruto, who clutched his heart as if he were in pain before coughing out blood. His teammate quickly hurried over.
"Shit, are you ok, man? What the hell happened? I didn't see you getting hit!"- he asked, worry in his voice.
"I'm sorry, this seal I used on the *cough * nin, is a kinjutsu of my family. It drains a massive ammount of chakra, but it had to be done. It's going to take a bit to recover, so I'll have to be dragged by you and Sakura."- he muttered before passing out on the ground. Sasuke managed to catch him again, but something moved below them. The Grass nin's body was recomposing itself! The insides were made of serpents!
"Sorry, I don't die that easily. Extremely great strategy though, it was enough to deceive me until the very end."- the sword came out of his mouth and he wielded it. Sasuke got pissed and a sharingan showed in his eyes, aimed at the nin. He ran through handseals.
"KATON: GOUKAKYU NO JUTSU!"- he spat a gigantic fireball that seemingly cooked his enemy, but when it dissipated there was only a puddle of mud (yeah, that's a band) on the branch. He sensed something behind me.
He turned around with a rotating backfist and engaged on a one-on-one taijutsu battle with his hatred's new target. In those following five minutes, Sasuke gave his enemy a full demonstration on why he was considered Konoha's top Genin and a genius. Shuriken with ninja wire followed with Katon: Ryuuka, or entire booby traps placed in seconds. Everything ended with Sasuke piledriving the nin to the ground with a headfirst twenty meter fall.
"Final-fucking-ly."- the Uchiha offspring muttered as he turned his back on the motionless body, heading for his teammate. Suddenly, a sharp pain was felt on his left shoulder. He looked back to see that the nin had extended his neck like a snake and bit him. The pain hurt so bad that he fell to his knees as the nin's neck turned back to normal.
"For that beautiful fight, I give you this gift of power. We will meet again."- and he went into the ground, disappearing. Sasuke faintly heard Sakura's yells as he passed out.
(Classes almost ending guys, please be patient. New chapter tomorrow.)