Chapter 10

The Forest of Death: Day 3

I woke up to the sound and vibrations indicating a fight. I quickly sat up and raised my hands up into the air.

"I'm alive!" I yelled out as I got out a kunai and flung it in the direction of one of the enemy ninja, "Sakura! What village are these guys from?"

"Their from the Hidden Sound village," Sakura yelled back.

Kei barked at me to let me know where he was. I called him over and asked him what's wrong. He barked the information at me, but I knew somehow what he was saying (I seem to have a way with dogs and I am fluent in dog too). He told me that Orochimaru used a silencing jutsu on him that made him unable to speak human languages. Then something hit the back of my neck. I cried out in pain.

"Ow! What the heck?! Who did that?" I objected as I reached behind me to touch the spot were I got hit.

Then, I realized something. Color and light were coming into my eyes. I was starting to get my sight back! I was overjoyed. I turned to see who preformed such a miracle. And sitting on a near-by rock, was a pink ferret who was smiling a blinding smile. The ferret looked in the direction of the fighting that was taking place. I looked too. Sakura looked beaten up and worn out. I stud up and called out to her.

"Sakura!" I yelled out as I ran over to her, "I'll take it from here. You go watch over Naruto and Sasuke."

"Oh, ok," she replied slowly as she got up and walked over to Naruto and Sasuke.

"Kei," I called to him, "Let's do this!"

"Woof," he barked back.

"And who might you be?" a guy with black hair asked calmly.

"My name is Asami Mai Hisoka of the Uchiha and Inuzuka clans. Who are you?" I asked questioningly.

"I am Sai," the black-haired one replied.

"My name is Hoshigaki Saki. My friends and teammates call me Sushi," the female with navy blue hair replied.

"As for me, I am Hyugaa Asiamaru," the ice blue-haired boy replied.

"What do you want?" I asked demandingly.

"We want you to stay out of our way and we want to kill Sasuke Uchiha," Saki answered.

"Well, I'm sorry to be the barer of bad news, but I'm afraid you're going nowhere near my older brother, Sasuke," I told them confidently, "It's time I use my special type of sharingan."

And with that, I closed my eyes and activated my sharingan. Sakura just stared at me with shocked eyes.

"This can't be the Asami we all know," she mumbled to herself, "She's got a lot more self confidence and is a lot more egger to take on any challenge that comes her way. The Asami we knew was shy and was afraid of what was to come. What did Tenma sensei do to Asami to make her change so fast?"

"Well Sakura, I can answer that," I said, over hearing her talking to her self and keeping my eyes sealed shut, "Tenma sensei gave me small missions to start with. And every time I succeed, I got a self confidence boost. Then as the missions got harder and harder, I worked harder and harder not to have the mission be a failure. And the more I succeeded, the more confident of myself I became. So much so, that I have become the Asami Mai Hisoka you see before you."

That's when I opened my eyes and reviled my special sharingan.

"That can't be a sharingan. It's a navy blue color," Sai pointed out.

"Well actually, I have a very rare type of sharingan. I can copy more than the normal three copy able jutsu: genjutsu, ninjutsu, and taijutsu. I can even copy blood-line jutsus," I informed them.

"Let's test that theory, shall we," Asiamaru said confidently, "Let's take this brat down."

"Right!" Sai and Saki replied in unison.

"Fireball jutsu!" Asiamaru yelled out.

"Aqua barrier!" I yelled out as the bright fireball came at me at high speed.

A wall of water came up in between me and the fiery red ball charged at me. As the fireball hit the wall of clear, fresh water, the fireball fizzled into steam.

"Ha! Take that you ninja society, you," I gloated.

"Dang, she's good," Saki said with an impressed tone.

"Thank you. And now for my next trick, I shall disappear," and as I said that, I did the hand signs for a shadow mender jutsu.

Then, my whole body turned into a shadow-like state. I had basically become a deadly moving shadow. I swerved toward the evil ninja for an attack. I attacked them with a triple fireball jutsu and knocked them out cold. I turned back into my normal self as soon as I reached Sakura. I then used a healing jutsu called "serpent healing jutsu." Sakura looked at the back of my neck were my curse mark was. She gasped in surprise.

"What's wrong Sakura?" I asked curiously.

"That mark that was on your neck…it's gone!" she replied in shock.

"Really? Cool," I said with a smile, "By the way Sakura, wasn't your hair longer than that?"

"Yea, it was," Sakura paused, "Wait! How did you know it got shorter?"

"I can see again, but it's for a limited time only," I replied smiling.

"What?! No way!" Sakura said in non-belief.

"Yes way," I told her, "Here, take the evil ninja's scroll. I have both the scrolls I need already."

"Really?" Sakura asked jokingly, "Counting all the times you blacked out, how would you have the time to get one?"

"Ha, ha, ha, very funny Sakura," I replied sarcastically, "Anyway, Gaara gave me one his group didn't need, but one I did."

"Oooo, you like Gaara, don't you?" Sakura asked tauntingly.

"That's for me to know and you to hopefully never find out," I replied with a smirk on my face.

"You think you're so clever don't you?" Sakura asked crossing her arms in frustration.

Then, Kei started to sniff the air.

"What's up Kei?" I asked worried about Orochimaru coming back for round two.

He told me in dog language that it's nothing to worry about and that it was just Kiba, Akamaru, Shino, and Hinata. I sighed a sigh of relief.

"So, what's up?" Sakura asked intrigued.

"Don't sweat it," I assured her, "It's just Hinata, Shino, Kiba, and Akamaru."

"Just Hinata, Shino, Kiba, and Akamaru huh?" a boy with brown hair and a white puppy with brown ears tucked in his shirt said annoyed, "Well, Asami, we'll show you, right guys?"

"Right," Hinata agreed shyly.

"Are you sure you want to go through with this fight Kiba?" I asked, knowing he'd say yes, but checking anyway.

"You bet," he replied, "Bring it on!"

"All right, you asked for the bark, but here comes the bite!" I said while pulling off my right black colored arm guard.

Then, I bit down on my left thumb so that it bled. I ran my bleeding thumb down my right arm where my arm guard was. That's when Kiba started to regret his decision.

"Summoning jutsu!" I cried out as I did the hand signs.

I slammed my right hand onto the hard and crusty brown ground and a big white puffy thing of smoke came up from the ground in front of me. Kiba all of a sudden knew what was coming.

"Oh no… No way… It's not possible…" Kiba muttered in astonishment, "It's just not possible…"

"What's not possible, Kiba?" Shino asked calmly.

"She can't be summoning a shadow wolf. Only people from the Inuzuka clan can do that," Kiba replied, still in shock.

"Shadow wolf? What's that Kiba?" Hinata asked sheepishly.

"There're wolves that can use shadow-based jutsus by using chakra stolen from their previous victims," Kiba replied, " Shadow wolves are extremely dangerous, more dangerous than the nine-tailed fox."

"Oh no…" Hinata said in fear.

"Now!" I yelled out from behind the puffy cloud of smoke.

That's when my summoned shadow wolf leapt from the smoke and landed on top of Kiba and Akamaru.

"Kiba, do you want to reconsider?" I asked calmly, knowing he'd try to fake me into letting Shadow off of him so he could attack, but I wouldn't let him trick me.

"Yes," Kiba replied in a fake disappointed tone.

"Stay on him, Shadow," I commanded.

"Right," Shadow replied.

"Wait, wait, wait," Kiba started, "You're the alpha male of the shadow wolf pack, right?"

"Yes, Kiba, I am," Shadow replied, "And the only reason this young girl can summon me is because she is actually one-forth Inuzuka and three-forth Uchiha."

"Really?" Kiba asked glancing at me.

"Is Shadow known for lying?" I told him.

"Well, Shadow isn't really known for much of anything," Kiba said as Shadow got off of him.

"Sad, but true," I replied.

"Ahem," Shadow objected, "I'm known for being the alpha male of the most feared creature sense the nine-tailed fox."

"Anything else that we don't know?" I asked rhetorically.

"Actually…no," Shadow replied disappointedly.

"Uh-huh. Ok, next on the agenda," I stated, "Sakura! How are those two num-nuts doing?"

"Who are you calling a num-nut, sis?" Sasuke asked slyly and rhetorically.

"What's Naruto's condition?" I asked for Hinata's sake while ignoring Sasuke's comment.

"He'll be ok, he's just sleeping now," she replied kindly.

Hinata sighed in relief. I walked over to Naruto and sat down next to him. Then, I closed my eyes, sighed in an annoyed way, and then…SMACK! I slapped him on his cheek. He immediately woke up.

"Ow!" Naruto said angrily, "What the heck was that for?!"

"Wake up!" I commanded, "Now is not a good time for sleeping. You still have a scroll to find."

"Just one?" Sasuke asked coolly.

"Yea, Asami gave me the enemy ninja's scroll because she already has the two she needs," Sakura answered, showing everyone the scroll.

"Well, if you have both why aren't you headed to the tower?" Shino asked calmly.

"Because, I wanted to fight a little more before our time was up," I replied, "But I was, and still am, on my way there now. Come on Kei!"

"Woof," he replied.

"Oh, and Naruto," I called to him, not turning around, "Before I loose my eyesight once again, no wonder you're an idiot."

"Oh yea? And why's that?" he questioned in anger.

"You're a blond," I told him, "Not that all blonds are dumb, but you're a special blond called a dumb blond."

I ran off into the forest laughing with Nerugui and Kei following close behind. I could tell Naruto wanted to follow, but Sakura stopped him.

Soon, I reached the finish line, surprisingly, alive. Kei sniffed the air and told us to run to our door. As we went in, some one hiding in the forest behind us threw a kunai at Kei and hit him right as I opened the scrolls. He started to limp over to Nerugui & I. I turned to face him to see what was wrong. Then, that's when I saw it…

"What's wrong with Kei?" Tenma sensei asked me as she appeared and the smoke from the opened scrolls cleared.

"Tenma sensei!" I said in shock, "Well, apparently, someone threw a kunai through the crack in the door and hit Kei. Am I able to use my serpent healing jutsu?"

"What did Lord Hokage say about that?" Tenma sensei asked me.

"He said it was fine," I replied in a worried tone.

"Then, I say go for it," Tenma sensei replied.

"Ok," then, I ran over to Kei and pulled the blood-stained kunai out of the deep wound and chanted while doing the matching hand signs.

"Mi, tori, mi, tora, mi, ne, u, tatsu, mi. Mi, tori, mi, tora, mi, ne, u, tatsu, mi…" I chanted over and over again.

As I chanted, a line of green chakra slithered over to the wound and sealed it up. But when I went to check to see if he was all right, I made a heart-shattering discovery as I tried to check for a pulse.

"No… no… I… I can't find a pulse!" I said panicking and franticly trying to find a pulse, "Kei… no!"

I slammed my fist on the dark hard wood floor with tears of despair in my eyes. Tenma sensei tried to comfort me, but in the end we walked out with heavy hearts, or, at least, I did. Sure, I passed the second part of the chuunin exams, but something else passed too, my best friend.