Ah, see! I wasn't kidding.

Welcome to part two of my incredibly long and ridiculously paced chapter. Action, action, action. That's what this chapter is about... OH! and for the first time ever, the story has parts from the perspective of a character who is not Kit, Jira, Fuma, Sasuke, Naruto, or Kakashi. This chapter is pretty much centered around the Shady Trio, so I hope you enjoy getting a look at our current antagonists. Hooray!

Now time for the begging, which I didn't do last time. Review if you like this story even a tiny, tiny bit... please? Cause I live off of criticism and comments. No lie. As always I love all my readers, and I answer/respond to all of my reviews in some form or another. I answer any questions you may have as well. Don't believe me? Ask any of my regulars. I talk their ears off when the let me! (A bit thanks to Kreatyve for listening to my plans for the future. I think I know what's going to happen next!) Till next time!

~Sarai

Naruto: Kurashio
Chapter 9 – Cold Currents p. 2

"Run! Run! Run!" Jira shouted, leaping over a rocky crag, hoping to put something solid between himself and their pursuer.

"What the hell is it?" Chino screeched.

The boy's cry was drowned out by an ear splitting roar, followed by a ground shaking as the huge creature landed between him and Jira. The beast was huge, probably nine feet at the shoulders, and it had a mouth which could easily bite one of them in-two.

"It's Kyoraiyama," Hana shouted from her perch as she launched several kunai at the beast. The metal blades stuck into the beast's hide, but they served as little more than irritation and did nothing to halt its pursuit of Chino.

"A what?" Jira ducked under the beast's front paw and began jabbing senbon into its underbelly, trying to slow it down. The Kyoraiyama was a lot smarter than it looked, and Jira barely made it away before the beast dropped onto its stomach, nearly crushing him.

"A great mountain lion!" Hana shouted, "They originated in myth as the Muteki no raion, or Nemean Lion."

"So we can't kill it?" Chino groaned, ducking under an over-hanging rock. The Kyoraiyama ran into it headfirst, which dazed it for a moment.

"Of course it can be killed," Hana rolled her eyes, "The legend only made it invincible because it's really hard to kill."

"How?" Jira snapped, just as a large back paw kicked him, sending the boy flying through the air.

Hana bit her nails as she tried to remember, "The legend says that it was stabbed in the mouth."

"The mouth?" Jira asked, rolling to the side. The lion was on him quickly and he was forced to leap backwards, in several short jumps, to escape being eviscerated by the huge claws.

"Yeah! Through the mouth and into its brain!"

"Delight…" Jira was about to leap away yet again, when the beast turned and focused its sights on Hana. Apparently it was much smarter than it appeared. "…ful."

With a roar and a spray of saliva, the beast leaped for Hana's perch, slamming into the mountainside with earth-shattering force. Rock and dust rained everywhere as the Kyoraiyama ripped and tore and shredded everything it could get its hands on, but thankfully it only succeeded in destroying more rock. Hana had managed to slide down the side of outcrop, landing on the ground and running before the beast realized she was not in its grasp.

With another ear-splitting roar, the great lion leaped after her again. The force of its landing caused Hana to stumble; she tripped, sprawling to the ground. She hurriedly rolled onto her back, trying to back away… but the beast was upon her in seconds.

"Hana!" Jira shouted, too far away to do any good. In a last ditch effort, he threw a flurry of senbon needles at the beast's head and was rewarded when one caught the monster in the eye. The Kyoraiama roared in pain, tossing its head back as it struggled to swat the annoying barbs away from its face, but it only succeeded in causing more damage.

The brief respite gave Hana enough time to draw a kunai. As the beast returned its focus upon prey, jaws opening widely to come snapping down; Hana rose to her knees and shoved the kunai up into the great beast's open maw. The kunai tore through flesh and then there was the harsh, abrupt pause as it struck bone, which jarred her arm before the blade broke through…

The Kyoraiyama let out a sickening, "slurch" noise as it gurgled and collapsed, almost crushing Hana as she leapt out of the way. Jira and Chino were at her side in a moment, making certain that she was alright. Aside from her sore arm, the girl was untouched... but it was soon apparent Hana was in shock. She looked at the huge monster, realizing how close she almost came to death…

Hana peered down at her hands, covered in thick, crimson blood… her white coat was stained as well. All her mental faculties came rushing back at the site and she screamed, "Ew! Ew ew ew ew! It's disgusting! Get it off! I need water!"

"Hana calm down!" Jira said urgently, "It'll be okay… we'll find a stream or something!"

"It's so nasty!" She whined.

"I know… but come on! You killed it!" Jira pointed at the beast.

Pausing in her hysteria, Hana looked over at the dead carcass, "Yeah… I did."
"Pretty impressive," Chino said, seeing Jira's strategy for calming their teammate.
"Is the orb ok?" Hana asked timidly.
"Yep," Chino grinned, pulling the blue sphere of glass out of his pocket, "Thanks to you."

"Well… of—of course!" Hana said, putting on a smirk, "What's a little blood? If I have to wear it to show you two how much more skilled and awesome I am?"

"That's the spirit," Jira smiled warmly, "Now let's go find some running water… before you start to smell like that thing."

Hana's jaw dropped in horror at the thought, then she ran after her blond teammate, "Jira Uzumaki, you get back here and let me pound you for that!"

[…]

Sasuke had been following the Shadow Village team for several hours, and it had been no easy task. He'd expected them to be skilled genin, but keeping up with them was proving to be constant work. Of course he wasn't using Sharingan. Sasuke didn't want to alert them to his presence by accessing a large amount of chakra, but for them to be giving him this much of a workout… the Uchiha felt something was indeed odd.

Even more surprising was how quickly the trio of Shadow-nin was able to locate orbs. Their leader, the one Kakashi had pointed out as Cala Warukuto, seemed to have an ability to home in on the location of the orbs. She jumped from one shrine to the next as if she already knew where they were located.

"Does she have a bloodline?" Sasuke wondered.

Byakugan users were able to see hundreds of yards away; Sasuke hadn't heard of another skill such as that, but it could explain why she was able to easily locate the orbs. It wasn't unthinkable. The Sharingan and the Byakugan were closely related skills that flooded chakra into the optic nerves. None of the jonin documents or the bingo books had any information on the Shadow Village ninjas or their skills, so it was possible that this girl had an unknown bloodline trait.

If that was the case, Sasuke would have to be expertly careful not to be spotted.

However, it was far more likely that these girls had cheated. With their performance in the first exam it would be an easy feat for them. They could have easily infiltrated the training area last night and located several shrines, and from the proctor reports Sasuke had read... this seemed like the most plausible case to explain everything.

At his last count the three of them had already collected two pair of orbs, which meant one team would either be eliminated from the end pool, or someone would have to wrest the orbs away from the Shady Trio–an outcome which didn't seem likely in Sasuke's mind.

"Hopefully Kitaka will stay far away from these three," Sasuke mused, "I wouldn't fancy the aftermath they could cause."

After a few minutes, Cala motioned for her companions to stop underneath the shade of a few cedar pines. The trees on this mountain side were rare, appearing in small patches, but they offered a good reprieve from the wind. The girl silently found a place to settle down at, each of them taking a different method of rest.

The tall girl hefted her large blade over her shoulder, resting it against her thigh as she leaned against the trunk of a tree; meanwhile, the doll-like girl was nestled up on a tree branch, giggling silently and engaging her companions in one-sided conversation, or she could have been talking to herself. Sasuke had no way of knowing for certain. Cala was seated cross-legged on a boulder, her eyes closed as she slept, meditated, or did who knew what? All Sasuke knew is that she gave off a weird aura. It wasn't the same unsettling vibe he'd gotten from Orochimaru, that snake was just flat-out creepy, but Cala was unnerving. She acted ancient, collected… almost like a machine rather than a child, which of course was absurd… but the his unease was still there.

[…]

"I can't believe you've been avoiding people," Eira laughed, crooking her head to the side while she grinned like a Cheshire cat, "That's very unlike you, Cala."

The older genin ignored the maniacal doll-girl and continued focusing on her surroundings.

"And you, Mavrí, always so quiet! You're boring!" she swung backwards, dangling from the branch by her legs, "Borrrring!"

"You would do well not to waste your energy, Eira," Mavrí cautioned, "You never know when excitement may find us."

"Couldn't find me too soon," the Lolita giggled, "My blade's forgotten what combat tastes like."

"Salt and iron," Mavrí answered her, "And a hint of copper."
"I was talking about fighting," Eira whined, "Not baking!"
"And I was talking about blood," Mavrí grinned wryly.
"Ah, that makes more sense!" Eira giggled again, pulling herself up into a sitting position.

The rest of their conversation Cala ignored, having long lost interest in what they had to say; rather she was more interested in the faint presence she kept sensing at the edge of their clearing. She'd been picking up on it for a while now: someone was following them. She couldn't tell for certain, but whoever it was didn't want them to know. An ambush perhaps?

Cala wished it were so. The chance to eliminate some competition and stretch her muscles would be more than welcome at this point. She felt the tendons in her hand tighten, her instincts ready to strike… it was a struggle not to hunt down one or two of the genin teams for sport. "Death is such an easy solution," She pondered.

If only it weren't so complicated by these rules…

The jonin moderators were definitely something to consider. While she felt confident in taking one or two of them, if she were to start eliminating genin teams for the sheer simplicity of it… the jonin would converge on her in an instant. The exam would be over, and the Majokage would be very displeased.

Cala knew she would have to work within the confines of the rules, so, if she couldn't hunt them down, she would have to make the other genin come to her. The exam proctor clearly stated that the jonin would not interfere with fights started intentionally by the genin… so long as they were strategical skirmishes. What better way to invite a little conflict than to hold someone's key to passing?

The more orbs Cala gathered—the less chance the other groups had of passing—making it far more likely for them to start hunting her down. Of course her team could always complete the exam, they had the necessary pieces for that simplistic puzzle. It would only take them a few hours, at most, to reach the tower and then leave this dismal waste, but they also had another mission to see to.

The Majokage was very interested in this year's genin candidates, and she wanted a very specific selection to reach the final exam. Of course Cala was under specific orders not to help any of these candidates, not that she would have… no, her job was to ascertain that very few unwanted genin made it into the final tournament. Cala was all too pleased to complete such an assignment.

A faint, fluttering chakra pricked her senses, causing her to open on eye.

There is was again, that faint presence… it was beginning to annoy her. Cala focused, pinpointing the location, and she threw out her right hand, forming series of hand signs as she did so. She pointed her index and middle finger at the target spot as she completed the final sign. The air rumbled with the sound of thunder, lit with the smell of ozone, and was followed a mere instant later by an arcing bolt of white lightning.

The lightning scored into the rock and cliff side, exploding in a rain of debris and bright fire. Smoke and rock flew into the air as the chakra signature vanished.

"Whoa ho!" Eira crowed, "Fireworks! Is it my birthday already?"

The three genin focused on the location, waiting to see if there would be any retaliation, but nothing happened. Cala frowned and closed her eyes again. Either she had killed the eavesdropper or they had fled, whatever the scenario was… it ended up being a disappointment.

"Leave it to you to end the fun before it can begin Cala," the goth whined.

"That's quite enough out of you," the black-haired girl snapped.

Eira was silent for a good few minutes, which was all Cala required to get her head focused on the mission ahead. Once the girl began chattering again, Cala stood up and straightened the sash tied at her waist. With a nod to Mavrí, they were ready to go.

With a prod from her weapon's sheath, Mavrí pushed Eira from the tree; the little girl merely grinned and flowed into a back flip, landing effortlessly on her feet. "Time to go, I see?" she tossed her snow, white locks with a giggle and bounded after Mavrí and Cala.

[…]

Sasuke stood looking at the molten, charred remains of the rock where he had been hiding. He would have ended up looking something like that, had he not used substitution jutsu at the very last second. It wasn't like he was in any real danger, but the genin had definitely caught him by surprise. Because of his retreat, the trio of shadow-nin had managed to get away, which unfortunately meant he'd have to track them down again—something he wasn't looking forward to.

He was still having a hard time believing that the Warukuto girl had sensed his location.

"She must have amazing chakra control," Sasuke muttered to himself.

He pulled a communicator out of his vest, sticking the bud into his ear, and he dialed in Kakashi's frequencies, "Hey. Kakashi…"

"Yes, Sasuke-kun?"
"Grow up," Sasuke snapped.
"Careful, or they'll hear you," Kakashi warned.
"Too late for that," Sasuke sighed, "They caught me without your help."

"Really?"

"Well, that one girl did."
"Cala Warukuto?"
"That's the one," Sasuke admitted with distaste.
"Hmm… that's impressive."
"That's not the only thing about her that's impressive."

"Oh?"

"She managed to pull off a single handed jutsu."
"What kind?" Kakashi was obviously intrigued.
"Lighting based, but very powerful."
"We haven't seen a singled hand user since…"

"Haku and the battle in the Land of the Waves," Sasuke answered for him.

"Ah, you are forgetting Gaara…" Kakashi chided.
"Yes," Sasuke snarled, "How could I forget?"
"Yes, shame on you, Sasuke."
"Again, Kakashi, grow up!"

"Not going to happen I'm afraid," Kakashi teased, "It's too much fun seeing your frustration."

"You can't see my frustration."
"True, but it sounds delightful."
"I'm ending this conversation," Sasuke went to cut off the communicator, when Kakashi interrupted him.

"Are you going to be able to locate them again, or do I need to send you a partner?"

Sasuke pondered how easy it would be to trick Kakashi into sending Naruto, but the Uchiha decided against it. He'd been embarrassed by a fourteen year-old girl, and he didn't need Naruto knowing about that.

"No," Sasuke said sternly, "It won't be difficult to find her."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes," Sasuke growled, "For one they aren't making any attempt to cover their trail, and secondly… that girl can access a monstrous reserve of chakra."

"What are you implying?"

"What I'm saying," Sasuke offered bluntly, "Is that she scares me more than Gaara ever did…"

"That's saying quite a bit," Kakashi was obviously serious, "Are you certain you don't need back-up?"

"It's not for me," Sasuke snapped, "I'm scared for any of these kids that piss her off."

[…]

Kit and his team had been making good time. By Kira's estimation they would reach the tower by mid-morning tomorrow, well ahead of the other groups who were scouring the mountainous terrain for orbs. Even if there were other groups hoping to use the same tactics they were, Kit felt certain his team would be able to collect a pair, even if they needed to bump-off some of the other competition waiting around the tower, not that there would be very many.

Kira had figured many of the front running teams would try to hoard orbs, gathering as many as they could. The middle teams would attempt to catch the front runners and steal their orbs, hoping to remove some competition and gain a spot in the final exam. Finally, she suggested that the last teams through the gate would either attempt to ambush the front runners as they made their way to the tower, or they would attempt to overtake the other teams before they made it there.

By his understanding, Kit figured there would only be two or three other teams poaching the area around the tower. In all likelihood these genin teams would be weaker than theirs, meaning they would have full pick of whom to ambush, especially since most teams wouldn't be reaching the tower until day three.

That gave them nearly a full day to prepare necessary strategy and traps… and three full days to nab two orbs. Kit felt confident they would be able to complete their goal in that amount of time.

Their path took them from a series of rocky ledges to a wide open plateau. Covering the plateau were several groves of evergreen trees, gnarly bushes, and jutting crags of stone. Plenty of places for an ambush, and Kit's instincts were blazing. They took to the new terrain quickly and quietly, their eyes wide for any sudden movement.

"Hey, you!"

The three of them vanished behind rock, tree, and bush, hoping to avoid whomever had seen them, or at least get a drop on them if possible.

"Yeah, I'm talking to you girly!"

Kit snuck around the large rock he was hiding behind, hoping to get nearer to the voices. Has he was about to peak his head around for a better look, but thought against it. He motioned for Kira and Sainō to say put, and focused chakra into his hand. One of the small gourds on his belt popped open with a silent "hiss" and sand poured into his palm to create a "third eye"… a much safer way to get a much closer look at what was going on.

Holding his right hand over its corresponding eye, Kit eased the sand-eye around the rock with his chakra, and, as it came into focus, the scene he saw petrified him to the spot.

There in a small clearing stood Cala and her genin partners. Facing them was one of the roughest looking teens Kitaka had ever seen. This boy was easily a foot taller than Cala, almost as tall as her tribal companion, and he was covered in vicious, thorn-like tattoo patterns which were created with scars, not ink. In both of his hands he held large, sword-sized kunai blades, and his partners were both armed with bows.

Their strategy, while obviously apparent, looked no less deadly. The big brute would engage opponents up close, probably with taijutsu and ninjutsu, while the archers would stay far away from the actual fighting to pick-off their opponents and fend off projectiles.

Cala didn't look impressed.

"Hey, if you're not going to talk, why not hand over those orbs? I see you have quite a few on that sash of yours… they could help my village's teams make it to the finals."

"No." Cala's tone was blunt and emotionless, but her lips formed into a wicked smirk as the male teen bristled at her defiance.

"I'm not into hurting girls, but you're starting to piss me off," he barked, twirling one of his over-sized kunai.

"Iwagakure is full of blustering buffoons like yourself," Cala said plainly, "The fact that you have six teams in this exam is a marvel of how trivial these proceedings have become, but I won't help any of you insignificants make it past your station."

The burly teen blinked several times, trying to process exactly what she was saying, but, when he finally understood that he was being insulted, a low growl rumbled from his throat. "I don't know who you think you are—"

"I'm standard for which every genin in this exam will be held accountable."
"You're awfully high and mighty… I think I'm gonna enjoy hurting you!"
"No," Cala said, elaborately faking a yawn, "You won't. Eira, he's yours… they all are."

Kit watched in entranced fascination as the doll-like girl popped open her lace parasol and pranced to the front of the excitement. Her heeled boots kicked up little clouds of dust as she came to a stop before the bigger teen that towered over her.

Eira grinned creepily up at him, "Promise me one thing?"

"What?" the boy looked from Eira to Cala, "You want me to fight her?"
"Oh it won't be much of a fight," Eira said cheerfully, "Which is why I want you to promise me something."
"What's that little girl?" The boy said, raising one of his blades, "You want me to give your grave a gothic, little headstone?"

"Oh, he has a wicked sense of humor," Eira giggled, "I hope you make pretty screams."

"I've had enough of you!" The boy shouted, swinging his kunai in a cleaving, sideways strike for Eira's midsection.

The doll girl moved like a blur, leaping up and landing on-top of the blade as it swung by, riding it until the swing stopped. The earth-nin boy looked at her, his eyes widening in shock as the small girl perched on his weapon.

"Oops! Missed me," she giggled.

"Rah!" The boy swung again, and again, but each time Eira leapt nimbly from blade to blade, performing a perfect balancing act. Her game with him was interrupted; however, when the archers both decided to notch arrows to their bows, taking cheap shots at the gothic Lolita while she was performing a pirouette-on-steel.

With a graceful twirl of her parasol, Eira deflected the arrows and spun away from the three earth genin, landing with her shade propped upon her shoulder and striking a rather elegant pose. She bowed to the three genin and then tossed her parasol up into the air.

"I hope you know that it's over now," Eira said, her violet eyes becoming very cold all of a sudden, "You ruined my play time... so now you have to go away."

Throwing up a hands to form a jutsu sign, the doll girl smiled victoriously. The parasol froze in mid-air, blocking the sun and casting the three genin in shadow. The tall brute looked up confused, but, when nothing happened, he cast a haughty look toward Eira, "Looks like your jutsu's a dud, girly! What's a floating umbrella gonna do? Keep us from getting wet?"

The Lolita smirked, "Shadow Lace Jutsu!"

As she formed the second sign, dark tendrils hissed their way from within the shadowy underside of the parasol. The dark, twitching entities looked like black, lace ribbons which snaked outward, wrapping around the wrists, waists, and ankles of the three genin—all who were quite terrified at this point. Kit couldn't blame them; he'd never seen any jutsu like this.

"What… what are you doing?" one of the archers cried out.

"Sever!" Eira's whisper was ominously loud, echoing as she formed the third and final hand sign.

The strands of dark lace suddenly wrapped tight around the limbs to which they were bound; then, with their sudden rigidity they ripped away, slicing open flesh and arteries, leaving behind gory wounds more vicious than any suicide ever performed—wounds far more lethal in their certainty. The three genin collapsed, their moans becoming faint whimpers as the vast blood lost turned them to cold corpses.

Eira held her hand out for the returning parasol. Grabbing it, she twirled into an elegant curtsy and bowed to her fallen opponents, "You weren't much, but you did make some lovely sounds."

She walked over to the tall, brutish boy's corpse and pulled out a blue orb, "And he came with a prize inside the package!"

"I hope they aren't the standard of the competition," Mavrí said with distaste.

"They aren't on the list," Cala dismissed, "Therefore they aren't important. So many genin in this exam talk much… but they leave me wanting."

Kit breathed a sigh of relief, which almost acted as a beacon for the dark haired girl. The moment he relaxed, his third eye caught Cala spin around and look directly at his hiding place.

"Cala?" Eira questioned, "Everything okay?"

"I…" the dark haired girl paused, "Thought I heard something."

"You've been awfully jumpy today."
"I can't help thinking that we are being followed," Cala frowned.
"You're just being paranoid," the doll grinned, prancing off down the way.

"Mavrí?"

"Yes, mistress?"

"I want you to keep your senses open."

"Of course."

Cala nodded in content, "Good… I know that I'm not being paranoid"

"Of course not, Mistress," Mavrí walked over and subtly brought her foot slamming down on Kit's "third eye", cutting off his view of their exit. "If they continue to follow us… they will deal with me."

If anything else was exchanged between the frightening grils—Kit didn't hear it, but he caught the warning clear enough. The redhead had no intention of following Cala and her insane band of murderous girls; in fact he was going to take his team in the opposite direction, even if that cost them some time.

Once he was certain of their safety, Kit moved out from his hiding spot and motioned for Kira and Sainō, "Did either of you see that?" The memories of the recent slaughter left Kitaka shaken, and he did his best to control his limbs to keep them from shuddering. He needed to appear in control of himself.

Kira shook her head, her eyes squinted, "The sounds were so… horrible."

"I know…" Sainō patted her sympathetically, "What are we going to do?"

"The only thing we can do," Kit said grimly, "Keep going… and avoid those three at all cost."

[…]

"That's the third empty shrine…" Ame said bitterly, "I'm afraid this is starting to become a downhill day. We have one orb, three others have been claimed, that leaves only twenty-four left in play and I highly doubt that's the case."

"So what do we do?" Gemma leaned against the shrine as he waited for Ame to give them their next direction.

"It's a catch twenty-two…" the pale boy frowned, brushing a strand of hair out of his eyes. "If we make our way towards the tower… we may find another shrine or we may be attacked."

"We might also find another group with an orb," Gemma pointed out.
"Precisely my point. We have no way to guaranteeing anything."

"We could always set a trap…" Fuma offered.

"Come again, runt?" Gemma raised his eyebrows.
"That's enough, Gemma!" Ame snapped, "We're a team, so stop with the hostility."
"What? It's his nickname…"

"It doesn't bother me," Fuma said quietly.

"Well it stops," Ame's voice was stern, "Now, what were you talking about, Fuma?"

Without explaining himself, Fuma picked up a rock and strapped an explosive tag to it; then, performing a henge jutsu, he camouflaged the rock as a red sphere and placed it into the shrine.

"The boy's got a point," Gemma smirked, "We've had a big headstart. Another team's bound to come to this shrine."

"And we can stake it out for a day or two without much of a loss," Fuma offered.

"It's a good plan," Ame nodded, "Good work, Fuma."

[…]

Sasuke looked soullessly at the set of corpses lying in their own blood. They'd been that way for at least an hour, most of the blood having been absorbed by the parched dirt of the plateau. It had only taken a short time to identify the bodies as Iwagakure's primary genin team. This was definitely going to make the Tsuchikage angry. Sasuke turned away from the grisly sight, not because it upset him in any way, he was used to death, but he could help but feel unsettled by the looks of horror the corpses bore.

Even though their eyes were glassed over, the shock and pain were still evident upon their dead features. Sasuke had been afraid something like this might happen. Switching on his communicator, Sasuke called up Kakashi once more.

"Kakashi… this is Sasuke."

"Did you miss me, Sasuke-kun?"
"Not in the slightest."
"Aw," Kakashi whined, "Well, what can I do for you this time?"

Sasuke looked back towards the bodies, "I'm going to need three body bags and a clean-up team."

"Don't tell me you killed the Shadow Village genin?" Kakashi didn't sound too disappointed at the prospect.

"No," Sasuke said bitterly, "They took out Iwa's lead team."
"Kurotsuchi isn't going to be happy when she hears this," Kakashi groaned.
The older jonin's discomfort brought a smirk to Sasuke's lips, "You're the one who has to fill out that report, Mr. Proctor."
"Thank you for the reminder."
"Anytime."

"What's the cause of death?" Kakashi asked. His voice was labored, obviously not wanting to have the conversation.

"Blood loss," Sasuke concluded with ease. He surveyed the bodies closely with Sharingan to gather more information, "It would appear all of the major arteries were severed… death was nearly instantaneous."

"Any indication of the weapon?"

"Not that I can tell…" Sasuke leaned over the nearest body, "The cuts are clean, straight… they could have been made with a razor, or a really sharp sword…"

"Highly unlikely that three, skilled genin would stand around and let someone slice them open," Kakashi muttered.

"They may not have had an option," Sasuke pointed out.

"Was this a legitimate battle?"

"Signs indicate a skirmish. There were arrows fired and scuff marks on the ground lead me think there was a close quarters engagement…" Sasuke sighed, "The Earth genin probably thought three girls would make an easy mark."

"The Shadow genin have an orbs?" Kakashi sounded surprised.

"Last I counted they had four," Sasuke sighed, "Which means they'll be targeted by other genin… especially with the way that Warukuto is displaying them for anyone to see."

"There's nothing you can do about that," Kakashi was giving Sasuke an order, but at the same time it sounded as if the older jonin was regretting that particular rule. "A ninja has to know how to pick their fights. If they die because of bad decisions… it's a consequence of the exam."

"I know."

Sasuke did know. Anything seemed fair game in the Chunin Exams, so long as the genin chose to perform. It was a giant, freaking carnival of chaos—all for the purpose of entertaining the local vassals, lords, and anyone else with money to spend on the Ninja villages. Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto had suffered through their exams, along with plenty other genin… and several genin had died during that year. This was not a surprise, but it was frustrating nonetheless.

"Sometimes I feel it's arrogant to expect children to think like adults," Sasuke muttered.
"You didn't think that way when you were a genin," Kakashi chuckled.
"Yeah, well…" Sasuke huffed, "I was an idiot back then."
"Glad to see you've come to that realization so early in life."

Sasuke frowned, "I didn't need you to confirm that."

"I do it out of the kindness of my heart, Sasuke-kun," Kakashi's voice was almost gleeful.

"Send the clean-up team, Kakashi. We're done here."

"They're already on their way."

[…]

~A/N~

A few things:

1) When Mavri stomps Kit's sand eye, Cala hadn't noticed it. Mavri on the other had DID notice it. Why? Well, Mavri is a little special. You'll find out more later, but I just wanted to let you know that Mavri was basically warning Kit, and covering for him at the same time. I don't know if this is apparent, but I wanted to point it out (it's not a spoiler or anything and I plan making it obvious later on).

2) The explosive tags, like the one which was attached to a rabbit in the Chunin exams of the anime, they are never really explained. Therefore, I just wanted to let you know MY understanding of them. (or at least how Fuma's tags work) Fuma primes the tag with his own chakra and it won't explode until it is disturbed by an outside/foreign chakra—meaning that Fuma could handle it all he wants, but if any other ninja were to touch it: BOOM!

3) Kurotsuchi is the granddaughter of the third Tsuchikage. Now, in my story, she is the Fourth Tsuchikage. Yay! More will be explained later. You now know who four of the Kages are: Mei is still the Mizukage, Tsunade is the Hokage, Gaara is the Kazekage... and now you have Kurotsuchi as the Tsuchikage. That leaves three to go: the Raikage, the Otokage... and who is the Majokage?

DUN! DUN! DUN!

That's all! :)