AN: Thank you for the positive reviews! Also, I'm surprised that this story is going along well. Thanks for the follows and favorites. Thanks kani-leek-lover for helping support this story through positive reviews! Also, I'm sorry if the chapters are coming out late. I keep deleting them because I don't think they're good enough. Happy Holidays! I don't own Naruto.
Chapter 12
"Let's take Naruto down," Shikamaru said. Team Ten was currently standing at one of the 44 entrances to the Forest of Death. The Second Exam was held in Training Ground 44 or as Anko called it, "The Forest of Death." Anko was our proctor for the second part of the Chuunin Exams.
The whole point of the second exam was to get both scrolls, Heaven and Earth. The teams started out with one scroll and we had to fight others to get the other scroll. We had a total of 5 days to get both scrolls and arrive at the testing center in the middle of The Forest of Death. We had a Heaven scroll and it was sealed in my hat.
"Did you know that on Naruto's team, is Uchiha Sasuke?" I asked, sarcastically. At Sasuke's name, Ino's eyes turned into hearts and she almost started drooling. Choji and Shikamaru rolled their eyes.
"All the more reason to track them down, right, Ino?" Shikamaru replied. Ino nodded and I sighed. I wouldn't win this round. How smart. To play Ino's weakness against her to get his way.
"Fine," I complied. With a jolt, I realized that this was strangely familiar to the Hunger Games. Fight to win a rank, become known. This is what happened to Katniss Everdeen and it would happen to more than one person. All the more reason to survive.
To win.
A gong sounded and the gates were opened. We rushed forward in a diamond: Ino in front, Shikamaru to the left, Choji to the right, and me in the back. I personally thought that I was in the back because the Ino-Shika-Cho combo was able to be applied if they were side by side. I was probably put in the back by Asuma as backup.
Multiple teams had been sent into a jungle with means to obtain a scroll. A scroll that half of the other teams had. Which meant that half of the teams that entered the Forest of Death wouldn't advance to the next exam. Some of them wouldn't leave the forest at all.
Over the course of 5 days, people would die trying to get to the next level. This is what this world was like and I didn't want to die just yet. Well...
Kakashi was known as the Copy Ninja. Orochimaru, Tsunade and that other guy were known as the Legendary Three. My plan in this world was to be known as the Suicidal Ninja. I honestly didn't care if I achieved this. It was more of a goal that I hoped I would make.
We had traveled for 30 minutes, before we stopped.
"Choji... Really?" Shikamaru asked. Hearing a bag of chips being opened, I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.
"I can't help it. It's my favorite flavor.," he replied, digging in happily. I was on the verge of dubbing Choji as an annoyance in my life. You can't be stupid when you're in a forest named, "The Forest of Death."
"Choji, you're wasting time," Ino said, equally as pissed. I shook my head, disappointed.
After a good minute of waiting for Choji to finish his stupid chips, Shikamaru yanked all of us into a nearby bush. I was about to ask him what his deal was, when I felt three new chakra signatures right where we had been standing. I couldn't see anything, as I was laying flat on the ground, to keep my hat from being seen.
A minute passed and they had left. We all let out a breath of relief and got up, looking around. When I looked at the ground to see if they left any footprints, I saw that Choji had dropped some chips on the ground, right next to where the light footprints were.
"We were very lucky they didn't step on them, Choji," I stated, angrily, pointing at the potato chips littered on the ground. Ino crossed her arms and looked away after seeing what could've happened.
"Troublesome," Shikamaru remarked, glancing at the parts of the sky he could see through the leaves.
After the incident, Choji ditched the bag and we continued on.
It was a tiring journey to find Naruto's team. I didn't like the strategy of hiding from other teams, but I wasn't team leader, so I couldn't change Shikamaru's decision. My legs were aching and tired. Since we traveled through the trees, we didn't get any mud or dirt on us. Throughout the course of 2 days, since we went through Choji's chips quickly, we were forced to eat roots, berries, and nuts that we deemed edible. I had to applaud Choji's will to not complain. We couldn't do anything about it.
When nighttime came, we took turns taking watch. In the morning, we continued our searching.
"Is this... Blood?" I asked. We had been attracted to a battle ground, so we stopped to investigate. Three big blood splotches were splashed on the forest floor, some of it on the trees. Kunai were littered everywhere and strangely enough, there was a light coat of sand everywhere. Why would sand be in the forest?
"Why is there sand here?" Ino questioned. Shikamaru walked behind a tree and picked something up.
"What's that?" Choji asked. Shikamaru held up an Earth scroll.
"What?! Is it a fake?" Shikamaru felt all around it and dug his fingers into the blood splattered scroll, resulting in paper crunching. It was real.
"I'd say that a team from Suna came in and killed this unlucky team. I guess they had enough scrolls, because that's why this one is here," Shikamaru guessed. We accepted the theory, because nobody had a better one.
Dabbing at the blood-covered ground, my fingers came up dusty.
"It isn't fresh," I said. Pushing the same hand against the ground, hard, I saw that my entire hand was now covered lightly in sand. "I don't think this happened today. The blood's dry, even when I push down on it."
"So?" Ino asked, curious as to what I was doing. I showed her my hand.
"This means that the blood has sunk into the ground over a long period of time. I'd say this was done yesterday or maybe the day before that, though I doubt it." Shikamaru nodded, dabbing at the ground himself.
"You're right. Whoever did this is probably long gone, maybe already at the testing center."
"So we don't have to wor-" A yell cut Ino off. Her blue eyes widened.
"That was Sakura," she said quickly and quietly. The three of us looked to Shikamaru for confirmation and he nodded with a serious, yet semi-lazy face.
We wasted no time in getting to Sakura. How did Ino even know it was Sakura? I guess they were lifetime friends or something.
It only took us a couple of minutes to get to her, because we sprinted. Standing on a tree branch, we surveyed the scene quickly, wondering why Sakura had yelled. Sakura only yells for Sasuke, as gross as it may seem, so it was odd for her to be yelling about anything else.
Sasuke and Naruto were laying side by side, eyes closed, behind Sakura. Sasuke was emitting some sort of purple smoke, I don't know what that was about. Sakura, was looking extremely beat up. Her face was dirty and covered in both sweat and dirt and her clothes were extremely crumpled and riddled with tears.
More importantly, her long hair was being grabbed by the Sound-nin I had sat by during the first exam. The Sound-nin's teammates were slowly and leisurely advancing towards her.
"Think you're tough, little kunoichi?" The Sound-non taunted, malice in her voice. Ino clenched her fists and almost jumped down, but was stopped by Shikamaru grabbing her arm.
"She can handle herself, Ino," he whispered quietly, almost to the point where I couldn't hear what he said.
"Kin, stop playing with your food," her teammate said. Looking to the speaker, I recognized him as the one who gave Kabuto a bloody nose before the first exam. The other one was standing and watching, smirking at Sakura getting manhandled by Kin.
A movement from Sakura drew my attention. She had drawn a kunai with a shaky hand, almost unable to even hold it.
"I am not food," Sakura replied with a weak and crackly voice. Kin yanked her hair a little bit more.
"What're you going to do, loser? Stab me?" Kin laughed, her high pitched and scratchy voice irritating me. I tolerated it when I thought we were friends, but now, it was annoying.
Without saying anything, Sakura drew her kunai behind her and sliced the hair that Kin was holding, setting her free.
Not laughing anymore, Kin brought her foot backs and kicked Sakura in the side, knocking her over. It was when Sakura didn't get up, that Shikamaru pointed at the terrible scene. Ino wasted no time dropping down, followed by her team.
Shikamaru threw a kunai at Kin as he landed, causing her to flip back to her shocked team. We landed in front of Sakura.
"What?" Kin asked, shocked at my appearance, "You're with them?"
"Yeah. Didn't you see the Konoha hitai-ate?" Did she not realize we were from the same village?
"I did, bu-"
"Kin! Stop talking to the enemy!" The guy who bloodied Kabuto's nose said. Kin glared at him and probably would've flipped him off, if it hadn't been that she was in a battle.
"Same to you, Kabucha," Shikamaru ordered. "Ino-Shika-Cho combo!" He yelled. My three teammates took their stances in from of Sakura, while I stayed behind, looking for an opening to attack.
"Choji!" Shikamaru ordered. Choji nodded and formed a couple of handseals. His body expanded into his family's signature jutsu and his arms, legs and head disappeared in his enlarged shirt, being replaced by jets of fast air. He hurtled himself at the guy with brown hair, who raised his arms.
Were those holes in his arms?
"Double Wind Push!" He yelled. Gusts of wind, from the holes in his arms, intercepted Choji, who was now just a green ball spinning very fast towards the brown haired guy.
"He's actually able to fight it?" The other guy said, awed at the sight. Choji, realizing that his technique wasn't working, aimed his path toward the sky, launching him up. When he reached the peak of his flight, he fell very, very fast towards the brown haired dude, who couldn't move because of shock.
"Move!" The covered guy yelled, starting to sprint towards his teammate. Shikamaru smirked and formed a handseal.
"Oh no you don't." Shikamaru sent his shadows towards the covered man, stopping him when they reached his shadow. The Nara's family style.
"What?!" He yelled, suddenly unable to move, looking at the shadow that connected Shikamaru's to his.
The brown haired guy dodged Choji at the last second, and my teammate landed in his own crater. He got back up with a dizzy look in his eyes. I guess launching yourself at the ground did that to you.
That left Kin, who left herself wide open to Ino.
"Mind-Transfer Jutsu!" Ino yelled, her hands formed into an oval, and her conscious went hurtling towards an unsuspecting Kin, who had been watching with a neutral, yet shocked expression. Ino's body slumped and Shikamaru caught her.
Kin who was upright, also slumped to her knees, hair falling in her face, over her hitai-ate. Her teammates watched with wide eyes, as Kin slowly lifted her head, irises enlarging. Ino's familiar laugh made its way past Kin's lips, as she threw her head back to get the hair out of Kin's face.
From her knees to her feet, Kin now stood, watching everyone with a satisfied smirk.
"Surrender or your teammate gets a slice to the neck," Ino said in Kin's voice. I don't know; she wasn't that bad, was she? Well... They did attack Team 7, so...
To my surprise, the two members of the team started chuckling. The one with holes in his hand pointed a hand at Kin. Team Ten's eyes widened and I started moving from behind Sakura, to Kin. That was my job, wasn't it? Provide backup?
"You'd hurt a teammate like that?" Shikamaru asked, clearly unhappy.
"Yeah, if it means getting a mission done, then I don't mind killing another teammate," the brown haired guy said. Sprinting towards an unmoving Kin, I arrived with no time to spare, taking my hat off and holding it tilted up, so the wind flow wouldn't knock me off my feet.
He fired a strong gust of air in our direction. I misjudged my strength and was pushed backwards into Kin's standing and unmoving body, but I didn't fall down. Couldn't Ino move? Ruthlessly, he fired another blast of air, pushing my body back even more. A tornado of wind hit the shield, before sailing over the top of it. My arms were yelling at me to lower them, stop using them, let go of the shield, give up.
No.
"Ino, move!" Shikamaru yelled, still holding their big teammate captive with his shadow jutsu. Shaken from her daze, Kin ran to Choji and Shikamaru, when the wind died down. My arms were now shaking, just trying to hold onto the straps of the shield, not get blown away.
"I don't get it," I said, panting from battling the wind, "you need all your teammates to fight. Why are you trying to kill one of them?"
"In all honesty," the brown hair guy started, "we don't care about this test." What? Glancing at Shikamaru, I saw that his eyes were wide as well. Taking advantage of my shock, the brown haired shinobi fired wind from both his hands.
My eyes went wide as they turned back to see the sudden wind hurtling towards me. I could barely stop wind from one of his arms; I didn't stand a chance against two of them.
The shield straps ripped from the sheer force of the element and the shield was sent hurtling from my arms, embedding itself within a nearby tree. I was rocketed backwards, time slowing down and an odd feeling of tranquility sweeping over me. I would hit a tree and die from a broken neck or spine; that's what usually happened.
Looking at Shikamaru, I watched him watching me with wide eyes, slowly calling my name, holding Ino's body and the enemy-nin with his shadow jutsu, at the same time. How talented. Choji was wide eyed as well, reaching forwards and running. Wait, Choji running? I would've laughed if I had time to. Finally, I looked at Kin, knowing it was actually Ino. She was calling my name, too. Even though she wasn't in her own body, she was still prettier than me, not that it mattered.
Now that I was in the air, I also saw Sasuke getting up. He was covered in some black, ancient runes and was still giving off that purple smoke.
I wonder if this is what it's like to actually be the center of attention? Everybody calling your name and being worried about your well-being. That was something I had never had before; attention. I was always cast out as the smart one, while my only line to the rest of society was helping others with homework. Mom told me my time would come in college, where smart people like me were worshipped and never left alone.
While I was hurtling through the air, not a care in the world, my chakra, surprisingly had other plans. Molding itself along my bones and joints, my genin-sized chakra braced for impact, while I did not. I was self-aware of this, because your chakra was a part of you that never went away.
I thought my chakra hated me? I should look on the bright side. Maybe now I would be known as the Suicidal Ninja.
That was my last thought before I collided with a tree and the world went dark.
.
.
.
.
.
Was this what it was like to be dead? Darkness? Just darkness? No Heaven or Hell, just darkness? Was this Limbo? I had only heard of it through movies or rumors, but I now discovered that it was boring.
Looking around, I saw I was floating in nothing. To my disbelief, I had my hat and clothes on, and nothing hurt. I guess breaking your neck was an instant kill. I wonder if I could control where I was, like in my dreams. I closed my eyes.
Concentrating on bring myself to a volleyball court, I opened my eyes to see that it didn't work. Instead, there was a white silhouette of me, without the details.
"Who do you think you are, trying to kill yourself like that?" Someone said. I suspected it was the being in front of me.
"Who are you?" I asked. I didn't like this thing's attitude.
"Your chakra."
"Nonsense," I replied, waving my hand, dismissively, "chakra can't take a human shape." It didn't move or show any signs of being offended; it just floated with me.
"You ever wonder why your chakra systems are messed up? That's me," it said.
"Oh." I wasn't surprised by much anymore.
"I don't have a lot of time, so I'll get right to the point. Quit risking your life when you don't have to. If you die, I die. I know that you're still depressed about being away from your real world. I am, too, because as I said before, I am your chakra; a part of you. I have your memories, your habits, and your fears. I am you," it finished. Whatever. I was probably getting brainwashed or something.
"Yeah, yeah... Okay," I replied, looking at my nails and then back at my 'chakra,' "but what's in it for me?"
"What?"
"You've been really jacked up lately. I haven't been able to use my chakra because it's messed up. Can you knock it off?" I asked.
"You inhabited someone else's body and you have never felt chakra before until then. I cannot help how I am. The only reason I helped you, was because I, myself, didn't want to die. I had to force myself to help you."
Before I could ask anymore questions, the silhouette faded away. The blackness was replaced by grey and a large monster appeared in front of me. It had a skull for a head and was made of bones. Around its body, were rags of what looked to once be magnificent and royal, red robes. In its mouth was a scythe.
Was I finally meeting Death?
Outsider.
Sighing, I looked the skull in the eyes, which required me to look up. Time to meet my fate.
Yes?
The reason I am not yet taking your life, is because you are not of this world. You do not deserve death, for I will not give it to you.
How do I not deserve it? I made the choice of protecting my teammate. Shouldn't it be my choice on whether or not I want to die?
No and it never will be. As the Shinigami of Death, I am in charge of all the souls that enter my belly. You may never enter, Outsider.
Never?
Never.
