Chapter Ten
The crowd moving towards the arena was enormous; civilians and merchants from a myriad of villages were flooding the streets. The merchants had their wares on display in the street, calling out prices to the eager crowd in an effort to sell their products. There were a lot of shinobi as well, some on guard duty and others just coming to enjoy the last portion of the chunin exams. The masses of people made me uncomfortable and I was glad Rafu, Akari, Okaasan, and I had all come a little early in an effort to avoid them.
"Are you two nervous?" Okaasan asked, eyes flitting anxiously from Akari's face to mine. "It's okay to be nervous, but be confident as well; you two are going to do amazing, you've been training so hard, and I know you'll come out okay."
"Okaasan." I said, tilting my head to the side curiously and looking at the pinched expression on her face, ignoring Akari rolling her eyes. "Are you attempting to reassure us or yourself?"
"A bit of both, I think." She replied, managing a small smile. I grabbed her hands, patting them reassuringly before I let them drop.
"We will be fine." I told her, smiling as wide as I could. "You'll see."
Rafu and Akari were standing a little ways away, talking quietly to each other, and I know that Rafu was giving her last minute pointers; it was his way of being nervous. He always over prepared when he was, ever since we were in the academy; on test days, he would bring five extra pencils just in case something happened to his first one. They announced for all of the competitors to head down to the arena and with good lucks from our friend and Okaasan, we headed down together.
"Nervous?" Akari asked, an anticipatory grin on her face as the adrenaline started to course through her veins.
"You wish." I replied breezily, waving my hand at her words.
"I hope we both make it through to the end, even though I don't want to fight you." Akari said, looking solemn for a moment at the idea.
"One fight at a time, Akari. One fight at a time." I told her, although the prospect of fighting her had crossed my mind as well. It would pretty much come down to a flip of a coin who would win between us; it could go either way.
We lined up with the others in the competition, although a few people were missing which made my eyebrows draw up in surprise; Where were Naruto, Sasuke Uchiha, and the sound genin at? They were supposed to have been here by now and it was almost time for the fights to begin. The crowd was, for the most part, seated and my hands got a little slippery with sweat from having all of the eyes on us. I wiped them off on my shirt casually, hoping no one noticed.
"Don't like crowds, huh?" Shikamaru asked, smirking at me when I turned to him and then looking down at my hands. I casually looked around to see if anyone was paying attention before I gave him the finger. "Oh, classy."
"What can I say, I was born and bred with impeccable manners; some would even mistake me for a Hyuuga." I told him quietly, the bantering between the two of us making me unwind a little bit.
Shikamaru snorted, shaking his head and throwing a surreptitious glance at Neji to see if he had hurt that, before replying flatly. "I don't doubt it."
"Is that sarcasm I hear?" I asked lightly, turning to face him a little more properly. He was dressed in his normal clothes, the leaf hitai-ite gleaming on the left shoulder of his jacket and with his mesh armor shirt beneath it. I looked over his torso, noting how toned he looked on closer inspection instead of just lanky like one might guess he would be on first glance, and then flushed when I saw him watching me give him a once over.
"See anything you like?" Shikamaru teased, and I could tell the sadistic bastard enjoyed the way my cheeks betrayed me by turning a light pink.
"Actually I was checking to make sure you weren't too lazy to put your weapons pouch on." I told him, internally wincing at the weak excuse. "Glad to see you weren't."
"Aw, I knew you liked me." Shikamaru said, his normally raspy, bored drawl being injected with a snarky tone underneath.
"I tolerate you." I reminded him dismissively, waving my hand for the second time today and wondering if that was going to become a habit. As if I needed to pick up another one: I already had the head tilt thing I did and Akari had me rolling my eyes more than ever now a days. He smirked, but didn't reply, and so I remained silent as well while we waited to see if the others showed up on time.
Naruto just barely made it, out of breath and looking for all intents and purposes as though he had just woken up and ran here. The proctor, who I noted was not Hayate (the man who proctored the preliminaries) but a man who introduced himself as Gemna. An Anbu used the body flicker technique to come down and whisper something to Genma, who then announced we would be giving Sasuke Uchiha a little more time to arrive. I had no doubts that the only reason we were waiting was because a lot of people in the crowd were looking forward to seeing the last surviving member of the Uchiha clan fight; it was safe to draw the conclusion because the sound ninja was never mentioned.
"Is he going to show up?" Shikamaru asked me quietly, and I knew what he meant by asking me. I glanced around before looking down at the ground, quietly telling Shikamaru to cover me, and after he had shifted in front of me slightly to block anyone from seeing my eyes, I activated the Sakimonagan and had a vision of Sasuke arriving with his sensei in just a few moments.
"Yeah, he'll be here. Late, but at least we aren't waiting for nothing." I told Shikamaru
"What a drag." Shikamaru complained, cocking his hip and placing one hand on it in his normal stance, shoulders slumped. I glanced between us, noting how my head came up to just a tiny bit above his nose, and then watched as Naruto fidgeted. I decided it would be polite to say something, considering we had officially met yesterday and I thought he seemed nice enough.
"Hey Naruto. You okay?" I asked, smiling at him. The blonde looked up in surprise, appearing to not know what to say, before nodding firmly and putting a huge grin on his face.
"Yeah! I'm going to wipe the floor with Neji, dattebayo!" Naruto exclaimed, giving me a thumbs up to go along with his blinding smile. "I've been training hard!"
I cast a glance at aforementioned Hyuuga and noticed he was looking a us disdainfully. I shook my head, I had heard what he had done to Hinata in the preliminaries and so I was not one of his biggest fans currently, not that I ever was. Neji had always been kind of an ass with a stick shoved too far up his rear, but he had taken it too far with the Hyuuga heiress. It would do him good to be taken down a peg by someone like Naruto, so I returned the blonde's grin and wished him luck.
I had been thinking a lot about Naruto lately, actually, ever since his comment to Gaara about how he may act like a demon, but he had the real thing inside him. Was it true? Did Naruto have a demon sealed inside of him, and if so, how did that come to happen? Even though I was insatiably curious about the matter, I resigned myself to waiting until I knew him better to discuss it with him. Even though he had said that so casually, it was a heated moment and I'm sure he had not meant to say it; It would not be fair to push him on such a delicate matter.
My attention was brought back to Genma as a sheepish Kakashi and an indifferent Sasuke finally arrived and the tournament was officially kicked off. The first fight was going to be Naruto vs Neji, and so the contestants who were not fighting were allowed to go to the upper level where we could watch the match progress. I was interested to see the fight between the two, so Akari and I jumped up to where Rafu and Takeshi-sensei were standing and turned to watch the match.
"I bet Neji wins." Takeshi said, eyes never leaving the two shinobi as they prepared to start the match.
"I'll take that bet." I said cheerfully, extending my hand for him to shake. "I think Naruto will, through sheer determination if nothing else."
"Deal." Takeshi-sensei agreed, shaking my hand.
"Do they always make bets?" Shikamaru asked Akari, making me glance at him in surprise; I hadn't noticed he had joined us, yet there he was casually leaning against the railing and looking at Takeshi-sensei and I.
"Yeah, Takeshi has that problem and he got Ren in it as well." Akari sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose before grinning a little. "Never bet against Ren though, he almost always wins. I don't know why Takeshi-sensei still does. I figure he's just a glutton for punishment."
"I can hear you!" Takeshi exclaimed, smacking Akari upside the head with his hand. Akari rolled her eyes, he had barely used any force so it was just a friendly tap.
"Yes, I suppose he has an unfair advantage." Shikamaru mused, looking over at me. I closed my eyes, preparing for the reaction I knew was coming.
"You told him!" Akari and Rafu whisper yelled, whirling on me together.
"Yeah.." I said, rubbing my neck and smiling at my two friends. "I'm actually really glad I did, want to hear the badass name he came up with for the dojutsu?"
The two were having one of their famous silent conversations; it involved only using their eyebrows, noses, and whatever freaky mental connection they had. I say it was freakish but I had absolutely done the same thing with both of them at one time or another. They looked back at me and nodded, so I turned to Shikamaru and beat my fingers on the railing with my eyebrows raised.
"Drum roll…" I said, gesturing for him to be the one to tell them. Akari rolled her eyes again, I will laugh when they get stuck that way, and Rafu looked as exasperated as Shikamaru at my dramatic antics.
"Sakimonagan." Shikamaru said flatly to my friends and Sensei.
"Awesome, isn't it?" I asked, my chest swelling with pride. Shikamaru noticed and quickly averted his onyx colored eyes from mine, rubbing the back of his neck as though he were embarrassed. I could tell how pleased he was that I enjoyed the name so much, it was just buried deep underneath the exterior laziness and bored expression he wore all the time. I just assumed it was too 'troublesome' to project the emotions onto his face at the moment.
"That is pretty good, actually." Rafu admitted, breaking the silence. Akari and Takeshi were both quick to agree and I was going to tell them how exactly the whole conversation had come about when Naruto's match started.
"Finally. You owe me, Sensei." I said with a grin as Naruto burst from the ground and sucker punched Neji, causing him to fall back on the ground. Naruto was declared the victor and I jumped down to the arena before my name was called; I knew my match was up next.
"Kankuro versus Ren." Gemna said, looking up to where the Suna-nin was standing. The Suna genin had paint on his face, much more than the two lines of green that I had, and that puppet was on his back.
"I forfeit the match." Kankuro said loudly, shrugging when he heard the crowd complain loudly because of his surrender. I frowned, wondering what he was playing at, but jumped back up to where my friends were.
"I guess he thought you were scary." Rafu said jokingly, although there was a suspicious look in his eye as well. Why would you get all the way to this point and then just surrender? It didn't make any sense. I could tell by Akari's and Takeshi-sensei's face they were thinking the same thing. My eyes scanned the arena and my eyebrows rose up in surprise when I saw the amount of ANBU operatives in the stands, intermingled with the civilians. True, it was a high profile event, but there was a surprising number of them for something like this. It was as though trouble was expected.
"Be on your guard." I muttered lowly, watching Akari and Rafu nod minutely in understanding. Something wasn't right here, I had a bad feeling about this.
"The next round will be Nara Shikamaru vs Temari." Genma said, and I leaned on the rail eagerly. Shikamaru looked as though he was thinking about pulling out when the Suna girl flew down into the arena on her fan, but Naruto, who was as cheerful and energetic as usual, pushed him into the arena. I stifled a laugh when he landed ungracefully on his back and just laid there staring up at the clouds. I hoped he would not just give up, I was extremely excited to finally see him in action; I was unconscious from chakra exhaustion during the preliminaries and that was the only other chance I'd had.
The girl from Suna was like Shikamaru: she was a strategist. It didn't take her long to figure out how long of a reach his shadow possession jutsu had, and so Shikamaru hid in the shadows of the tree's. My head tilted, wondering what was going on behind those onyx eyes of his, as he closed them and got into what I called his 'planning position'. The girl tried to do a couple of wind releases, making sure to stay out of range of his shadow possession, but Shikamaru got behind a tree in time to not be severely affected; it was a smart move considering the wind sliced the tree all to hell.
"Why is he just hiding?" Akari said out loud as more and more time went by. "He's just sitting there doing nothing."
"He's biding his time." I replied to the brash girl. "Shikamaru has a plan, he's just waiting for the right time. Have you noticed the longer he waits, the lower the sun goes, which means a longer range for his jutsu?"
"Oh." Akari said, comprehending the strategy. It seemed as though Temari had as well, she jumped back to avoid the shadow as it went further than it had previously, and then marked the spot where it landed before having to retreat.
The next thing Shikamaru did was put his jacket tied to a kunai in the air, giving him a small shadow to use as a bridge, extending his range even more. I shook my head, astounded by how the Nara used creativity like that in battle, but it wasn't enough to catch Temari. She hid behind her fan, and just as she was going to stand up and do something, she froze suddenly.
"What happened?" Akari asked, looking at Takeshi, Rafu, and I for an answer. "Why is she stopping?"
"He got her." I said simply, gesturing to the shadow. I was full on grinning now as he explained that he had been maneuvering the sand shinobi towards the hole Naruto had created the entire time, using the shadows underground to finally capture her in the paralyzing jutsu. I was shocked, however, when Shikamaru forfeited because of how low his chakra was and I knew a good part of it was probably that continuing the tournament would be too troublesome for the lazy ninja.
"Nicely done." I complimented as soon as Shikamaru had joined us once again.
"You're one of the only ones who think so." Shikamaru replied dryly, referring to his teammate, Ino, and the crowd who had not truly appreciated the time consuming battle of wits.
"Fuck them, what do they matter?" I said, causing him to smirk at me. "And Ino will get over it. I trust you know what you were doing, she'll come to see that as well."
"Thanks." He said, a genuine smile on his lips now.
"I especially like that it left you without that jacket on; you should go around in just your mesh shirt more often." I said, winking a little bit and honestly surprised at how brazen I was being. I wasn't sure how he would react to it, considering we were actually friends now and he knew I was attracted to him, but he had never brought it up, so I was unsure of his thoughts on the matter.
"Troublesome." Shikamaru sighed, turning away to hide the red staining his cheeks. I grinned, mentally congratulating myself, and I didn't notice the way Asuma Sarutobi was eyeing me a few paces away.
The crowd was extremely energized now that Sasuke and Gaara were going to be the ones fighting; some people, I'm sure, had only travelled as far as they had to see the last remaining member of the Uchiha clan and his sharingan at work. I had to admit, it was an impressive display; the Uchiha was fast, almost as quick as Lee was, and he had obviously used the time to train well. Gaara was no joke either, and soon the arena was waiting with baited breath as Gaara covered himself in a round shield of sand. Sasuke gathered chakra in his hand and started to run down the wall, his hand breaking concrete where it dragged the chakra that sounded like a thousand birds chirping all at once, and it was silent after he struck the shield. His hand had gone through, and after a couple of seconds had passed, everyone heard Gaara's scream of horror about his blood.
"That was an impressive technique." I commented, wondering why it seemed so familiar to me.
"It's called Chidori." Takeshi-sensei said, looking over to me briefly before returning his gaze to the match. "It's a technique developed by Kakashi Hatake."
That was why it was so familiar. I had made a point to learn as much as I could about Rin Nohara and one of the best sources was Kakashi, though he was loathe to talk about her at all. I had seen him practicing that same technique one day in an extremely secluded training ground.
"What's happening in Gaara's shield, can you 'look' and see?" Akari whispered to me, and I looked around casually before obliging her; it wouldn't do for anyone to see my eyes, after all. It was just Akari, Rafu, Takeshi and I standing here now; Shikamaru had been drug off by Ino to get a better view and Choji and Asuma had both followed with Naruto. I activated my dojutsu, turning my eyes towards the floor to hide them in case anyone was watching me.
Feathers were falling from the sky, languidly falling with the blue sky as a backdrop. The sun was shining brilliantly and I heard light snoring around me. Confused, I looked around, and saw numerous civilians falling to sleep where they sat in the arena. I saw Sand Shinobi appear out of nowhere, Anbu began to engage them, and I quickly went back to back with Rafu and Akari. What was going on?
"We're under attack." Takeshi shouted, launching himself at a nearby sand village ninja. "Protect the civilians and stay safe."
The rest was chaotic; there were shuriken flying around, jutsu's being cast causing gusts of razor sharp wind and roaring fire to meet in air. The entire arena was sleeping; I saw a black barrier being erected by four ninja wearing sound village head gear. I saw houses being set on fire, shinobi lying dead on the street with blood pooling beneath them. The gates of Konoha were destroyed and were haphazardly strewn open, the guards meant to protect it lying dead as well. It was a full scale invasion.
I gasped, snapping out of the horrible vision, and looking up to the sky just as I saw the first feather.
"Genjutsu." I warned Akari and Rafu, not having enough time to explain everything. "Sensei, they are putting the arena to sleep and launching a full scale invasion on the village: Sound and Sand."
Takeshi-sensei cursed, looking around and seeing civilians beginning to fall asleep and cursed, turning to us and ordering us into a defensive position before he was engaged by a sand nin. My eyes followed the fight, none of us stepping in because we knew we would just get in the way. My hands were shaking, so I curled them into fists, feeling my black gloves tightening around my hand reassuringly. This wasn't a test, this was a full blown invasion; these were enemy ninja and they were using lethal force, all of them were likely Chunin level or higher. I deflected a shuriken that was thrown at me, reluctantly breaking rank to engage the shinobi who had thrown it. I slid my headband over my eyes, activating my dojutsu, and the battle was on.
I threw a kunai at the same time he threw one at me, the two weapons hitting one another and spinning harmlessly into the distance. I saw the sand nin used the wind technique great breakthrough, sending a gale of wind my way but it was more deadly than I had ever seen it before. I mentally catalogued that he was most likely a wind affinity before I heard him actually use it, quickly using the earth jutsu I had recently learned and phasing into the ground. I traveled to where he was, grabbing his legs and pulling him down to half way between his ankles and knees, before quickly coming out of the ground. I ducked the tanto he tried to use to cut off my head, feinting as though I was going to knock him out with a blow to the head, before dropping down and sweeping my leg out to his. I heard his shins break as they bent unnaturally and he let out a loud cry of pain. In the moment it took him to open his eyes after the initial shock, I was already plunging my own kunai into his jugular, ignoring the blood spilling out and rolling as another shinobi came to engage me.
I used my hand to block his punches, but he was much faster than me, and very quickly I was on the defensive. I was being pushed back towards the wall and I had to deactivate my dojutsu, the guy wasn't thinking before he made the moves so the future was basically in real time. It would serve me better to just conserve the chakra and face him without the dojutsu. I ducked quickly as he lashed out with a hammer fist, followed quickly by a roundhouse kick that left a dent in the wall my back was almost pressed against. I was about to try straight out tackling him to buy some time when he was suddenly screaming in pain, his back suffering from the fireball Akari had sent his way while he was distracted.
I looked up after I kicked the man away from me, his screams dying out when either he passed out from the pain or died, and met Akari's concerned eyes. I gave her a grateful nod before I jumped over to where her and Rafu were, swinging my bow from my back and activating the Sakimonagan once more.
I tried to find Leaf Shinobi who were about to be finished off or were being dealt particularly bad blows and firing my arrows to their enemies. It usually either killed the enemy or bought the leaf shinobi precious seconds to flip the situation to their advantage. I had killed three enemies so far, trusting Akari and Rafu to watch my back.
Akari was a fierce warrior; she was quick and deadly, barely letting anyone through to where Rafu was waiting to finish off anyone who made it through or cover Akari in case she needed it. Her fire jutsu and my arrows made it hard for anyone to approach us; I was constantly scanning for anyone consciously deciding to attack us, giving Akari the warning or dealing with them myself. We worked this way for a few minutes, I barely noticed when Sakura, Naruto, Shikamaru, and someone I didn't know left the arena. What drew my attention was the nine sand nin that jumped out of a hole in the wall of the arena; I activated my dojutsu again, wondering why they appeared to be running and seeing if I could find out.
Shikamaru was using some kind of press to make dog prints and purposefully leaving tracks for someone to follow. I saw him do this for a little while before coming to a rest in front of a tree and patiently waiting. Not long after, eight shinobi wearing Suna hitai-ites appeared ad Shikamaru trapped them in his shadow, smirking a little even as I could see the faint lines of exertion on his face from holding so many enemies. They exchanged words, nothing I could truly make out, and then Shikamaru was hit in both of his knees with a shuriken thrown from a tree. He hadn't accounted for the ninth shinobi; I saw the look of resignation on his face as he prepared himself for the worse.
I snapped out of it when Akari shoved me to the ground, shooting a wave of fire to make the opponent back up as Rafu helped me to my feet. She turned to look at me for a moment, a chastising expression on her face. "This isn't the time to be sucked into your visions."
"It's Shikamaru, I saw him dying." I gasped out, not knowing what to do. I should stay with my team as Takeshi-sensei had ordered but if I didn't go then he would die.
"Go." Rafu commanded, looking at Akari who nodded before going to engage the enemy in front of us before they could approach. I shot a doubtful look at Rafu, wondering if I should really listen to him and abandon Akari and Rafu during the fight. Rafu noticed my hesitation, so he shoved me towards the hole and nodded with a determined look on his face. "We've got this. I'll watch her back; if you can save him, you have to try."
"Alright, I will." I said, nodding in thanks to him. I paused just before I left, watching as he jumped to get behind Akari so nobody could sneak up on her. "Be safe, you two."
"Go!" Akari yelled, rolling her eyes and ducking a blow meant to cut deep into her shoulder.
I left the arena, going as fast as I could through the trees and heading in the direction I had seen the other shinobi go. It was not hard to follow their tracks, they were not being subtle because of how fast they were traveling. I could only hope that Shikamaru would be able to hold them off long enough for me to get there. As I got closer, I slowed down so I could get there without letting any of them know. The best weapon I had was the element of surprise, I couldn't afford to lose it. I approached quietly; I heard Shikamaru telling them that he had just captured them in his shadow and that there was no use fighting it. I knew from my vision where the guy was who threw the shuriken, so I lined myself up where I would be able to shoot him easily with my bow. I pulled two arrows out of the quiver on my back silently, lining up my first shot; I was going to time this perfectly. I had shot much harder targets, it was just about the timing; since I knew when they would be thrown, I already calculated what angle I would need to shoot to be able to stop the attack.
One of the sand nin who were captured by Shikamaru smirked, finally revealing that there was a ninth member who had followed from a small distance just in case of an ambush. I saw his face lose some of its color, his eyes scanning the tree's to try and see where the enemy was hiding. I took a deep breath, holding it for a moment just as the man in the tree threw the shuriken and then I fired it, releasing my breath at the same time. I grabbed the arrow that had been clenched between my teeth to save time, loaded it, and fired directly at the enemy so that i went through his chest and into his heart.
Shikamaru's eyes were wide as he saw the arrow, still quivering and buried in the tree, pinning two shuriken to it as well. I had fired through the hole in the middle of them so that I could get them both and render them useless. His onyx eyes, along with the other ninja who were just as shocked, then moved to the body as it dropped from the tree, dead and with an arrow sticking out of his chest. I could tell when Shikamaru realised it was me because he let out a breathy snort, recognizing the green and white feathers on the arrows that matched the one interwoven in my braid.
"Show off." Shikamaru called out to me, and I jumped down to stand beside him with a smile on my face.
"I like to make an entrance." I told him, smiling in relief that I had made it in time and acting far more brave than I felt. There were still eight other shinobi whose strength us unknown.
"Your timing was impeccable." Shikamaru said, and my eyes were drawn to the bead of sweat gathering on his forehead, the tense way he was holding his shoulders, and the obvious strain he was under from holding this many people in his jutsu.
"Can you release one at a time?" I asked quietly, waiting for him to nod in the affirmative before facing him and pointing to my farthest left. He nodded, and I notched an arrow while I turned the face the group, smiling sadistically.
"Last chance to give up and go back to your desert." I told them calmly, keeping the on in front in my line of fire as I spoke.
"All of you leaf shinobi are going to die." He said back to me, hatred in his voice and I could see he was prepared to see this to the death. I sighed in reluctant acceptance, and aimed my arrow at the guy furthest to the right. As soon as my arrow was on him, Shikamaru released the guy on my left and I shot him through one of his eyes, killing the man before he had a chance to defend himself. The guy on the right's eyes widened: No doubt he had tried moving or rolling away, thinking he would be the one released, and was shocked to see another one of my arrows sticking out of his comrades body.
"Ren." Shikamaru warned, and I watched in abject horror as his shadow retreated back into himself, and the other shinobi grit their teeth in anticipation for their revenge. I saw Shikamaru draw a kunai from his weapons pouch, using a reverse grip to hold it, and I backed up to stand shoulder to shoulder with him, holstering my bow.
"Together?" I asked him, raising my fists and preparing myself. It didn't look like we were going to make it out of this alive; even if they were all genin, it was still seven vs two, and Shikamaru had exhausted his chakra. I'll be damned if I wasn't going out without putting up a hell of a fight and taking some of these bastards with me.
"What a drag." Shikamaru complained, tightening the grip on his weapon, before nodding to me reassuringly. "Together."
"Earth: Seismic shock!" I called out, slamming my fists into the ground and watching as one of Shikamaru's kunai flew over my head at the same time. The enemies scattered, Shikamaru's blade only nicking one of them enough to draw blood. One of them came charging towards us, the others more cautious in their approach, and I lifted my fist to meet his, but someone caught it before it ever reached mine. The first thing I noticed was smelling smoke; then I saw him. Asuma Sarutobi, a cigarette dangling from his lips, and the guy's fist bent away at an odd angle. Asuma kicked the guy to the side after knocking him unconscious, putting his cigarette out on the ground and crushing it beneath his heel, then taking out his two infamous chakra blades.
"Sorry I'm late." Asuma said, smirking a little while he eyed our disheveled appearance from the corner of his eye. "You guys can rest now, I've got this."
Asuma wasn't kidding; he cut through them like they were water clones or something. I mean, they honestly didn't stand a chance and it gave me a whole newfound respect for Sarutobi-sensei. I mean, I knew he was a jonin and the Hokage's son, but he didn't even really break a sweat taking out all those guys. I collapsed, laughing a little hysterically at the narrowly escaped death, and felt the exhaustion hit me. I had used way too much chakra between the fight at the arena, my Sakimonagan, and how fast I had gotten here. I was ready to sleep for a couple of days straight, so I was somewhat glad when Asuma told us we could head back with him. He kept the pace relatively easy, especially compared to the one I had set for myself getting there, and we were back in plenty of time. The sounds of battle had ceased; smoke was rising from various parts of the village, but it didn't look as though there were any fires currently raging. I sighed in relief when I saw Takeshi-sensei standing with Kakashi, both of them talking with grim looks on their faces. I sped up just a little bit, with Asuma and Shikamaru not far behind me, and that was when Takeshi turned to face me. I saw his face freeze for a moment, an inordinate look of grief on his face, before he slowly walked up to me. The smile that had been on my face slowly slid off as the worry set in; something wasn't right.
"Ren." Takeshi said, looking at me with his eyes openly displaying the grief he was feeling. I felt my throat start to tighten up. "I'm sorry, Ren. Akari and Rafu.. they.. They're gone."
I let out a wracking sob, one that felt like it took everything I had left in me; my throat closed for a moment and I couldn't swallow. I started shaking my head, trying to will my eyes to stop the tears that were threatening to spill over. "No. No, you're wrong. Sensei, you're wrong. Not Akari and Rafu, you know how good they are; you're mistaken."
"I'm sorry, Ren." Takeshi said sadly, shaking his head and putting his arms out to me for an embrace.
"Sensei, if this.. If this is some kind of fucking test.. You" I broke off for a moment, a hysterical noise coming out of my mouth; it felt like I was dying, like I was being pushed under water with no air in my legs when I could see the sun and the oxygen that was right there above the surface. "You better tell me right now, Sensei because I.."
Takeshi pulled me into his arms and I cried when I felt him wrap them around my back, holding me tight. I clenched the material of his vest, using it as my anchor because the entire world was slipping away in this moment. My family, the family that I had made for myself; the people who were most precious to me, were dead and there was nothing I could do about it.
I remember being guided, it felt as though I were in a daze, and I gasped softly when I saw their bodies in the arena. I ran to them, cradling Akari's head in my lap and wiping the hair off of her forehead; I told her how sorry I was, how much I loved her. I was left alone; grieving for everything that I had lost that day. It was the three of us there, on the floor, Akari's head in my lap. Rafu and Akari's eyes were closed and their hands were reached out between each other, barely touching fingertips, as though they had wanted nothing more than to be together in death as they were in life. It would take me a long time before I found any comfort in that.
A/N: Tell me what you think :(
R.I.P: Akari and Rafu
Review please!
Much love,
~Rache