Disclaimer: Naruto & Boruto belong to Kishimoto Masashi.
"Boruto, are you sure we're going the right way?" Sarada asked while jumping off a tree branch.
"Hn, you'll be thanking me once we reach there!" The blonde replied excitedly as he leaped towards another.
The three genins continued leaping until the sound of water running and splashing was heard from the light in between the trees. They appeared with dust brushed against their landing spots, finding themselves standing on a land of fewer trees and rocks before a cliff towards a waterfall. The landscape beyond the cliff was astonished enough to capture eveyone's breaths. If it was not for the Chunin Exams, the three would be diving themselves into a pleasing leisure in front of such rare sight.
"Hey guys look!" Boruto shouted while pointing towards the cliff.
There, at the peak of the cliff, rested the sole Earth scroll. The kunoichi was shocked by both the scenery and the frankly easy finding. As she sighed at her own suspicions, the blonde next to her quickly ran towards the scroll. However, it was for nothing when Mitsuki realized the amiss and extended his arm to drag the shocked Boruto back to their sides.
"W-What're you doing, Mitsuki!? The scroll's right there in front!" Boruto yelled at his friend while Sarada's eyes widened at the sudden action.
Mitsuki narrowed his eyes at the scroll and spoke "Don't you think it's weird?"
"Eh?" The two spoke spontaneously.
"The scroll is not on a podium like the ones we saw yesterday. " Mitsuki kept his sight at the odd-looking podium. By the looks of it, the 'podium' was merely a covered up ground with excess level. His teammates stared in shock.
"He's right. Something was not right."
Sarada immediately placed a seal with her hands, knowing that Mitsuki's senses were never wrong. The boys watched her without a movement as her once onyx eyes slowly revealed their scarlet ones behind those lids. Through such rarity, the Uchiha concentrated her eyes around their surroundings to see several small orbs with chakra flowing through threads linking from a certain figure.
"This is…"
"What did you see, Sarada?" Boruto asked.
Just when she was about to relay about the outsider, the figure suddenly launched bursts of chakra within the threads. Receiving the ends of the lines, the orbs began revolving in intense speed and burst into flashes of light.
"EVERYONE, GET AWAY!"
Sarada's yell prompted all to leap towards the safest ground, before their eyes captured the sight of a rain of kunais and shurikens piercing where they were a second ago. The cerulean eyes enlarged at the horrifying sight, with his imaginations running about their potential death under those. The kunoichi was terrified by the trap while the pale genin remained calm under such measures as the blonde first broke the silence.
"O-Oi? What's the meaning of this!? A-Aren't the examiners overdoing it?"
"If it's them, that is…"
Boruto and Sarada turned to MItsuki who stood amongst the bushes. His overly cool attitude to this puzzled the two, as if he knew what was to come.
"Mitsuki, did you know something?" Sarada asked the boy but he instead spoke up to someone else.
"Isn't it time to come out since your trap failed?"
Despite being deafened by the loud waterfall, his call had three figures jumping out of the nearby trees and landed in between the three and the Earth scroll.
The Uchiha was then overwhelmed by the one standing in the middle "Y-You're…"
The one in the middle smirked deviously at Sarada's widened eyes and partially opened mouth. Those were what she wanted to see as the aftereffect of their meeting.
"Good morning, Uchiha Sarada-san." Yuuma greeted like a guilty child smiling with pure innocence.
On the highest floor of the tallest clay building in Sunagakure with the kanji 'Wind/Kaze' painted red on the building, a red-haired man was diligently reading through documents where a fellow blood relative entered the room with a distressed expression, followed by a junior.
"How's the investigation, Kankurou?" Fifth Kazekage Gaara lifted his sight with a straight face.
"Just as you suspected, there's something strange in this Genin team, Gaara."
The junior behind Kankurou handed three sheets to Gaara. Unshaken, the man calmly skimmed through the names of the genins and their home villages, which struck him.
"It appeared that this village has never existed to begin with and the location was nothing but bones everywhere. According to Takigakure's intellects, the previous hidden village in that land was destroyed during the Second Shinobi World War."
"Hidden Village of Scarlet/'Akegakure 'in Land of Bones/'Hone no Kuni'…I remember it being nothing but filled with bones at the south but I don't think any of our shinobis has been deeper into the forest." Gaara deduced.
"Should we inform the Hokage then?"
Gaara closed his eyes for a split second to consolidate all. Suspicion dwelled within the moment he saw the unknown name. His eyelids lifted for Kankurou and the junior to see the stern green eyes glancing at them.
"Koushi, send a message to the Hokage about the matter and also send three teams to find this genin team for interrogation."
"Hai, Kazekage-sama!" Koushi, the junior, gave his salute and rushed out of the room.
"Are you sure we shouldn't stop the exam?" Kankurou turned to his brother for further explanation, which he knew of beforehand.
"If what we believe is true, the enemies are possibly the perpetrators behind the destroyed villages. Stopping the exams might alert the enemies about our awareness of them. This might be the chance to capture them. Kankurou, alert all exam invigilators."
"Got it."
"Nanadaime! Urgent message from Kazekage!"
Naruto looked up at the tired, matured Udon who was gasping for air after a long run from somewhere. The bespectacled man fastened his back for a proper announcement of the news he heard in shock.
"T-The…I mean…Sunagakure had found someone as the suspect of the occurring murders, Nanadaime!"
"Gaara did!? Who is it?" Naruto was shocked and amazed by his friend's feat. His body naturally leant against the heavily-loaded desk, pushing the wheeled chair as a result.
"It…is a Genin team that is now in the second round of the ongoing Chunin Exams."
"What!?" Shikamaru and Naruto gasped. They knew that there were suspicious movement near the exam location but not the inside.
The older Uzumaki immediately stood, forcing the chair to fly against the wall with a loud bang. He then gave his order with a quick thought "Inform all invigilators to search for this team and stand-by for any potential attack."
"Hai!" Udon quickly rushed out, leaving the two men in silence.
"Shikamaru…" Naruto spoke before the Nara interrupted.
"I'll inform Sasuke about the matter."
"Thanks." Naruto gave his gratitude before Shikamaru left in a similar manner.
As the last in the white, prestigious room, the man was kept in still as his body slowly turned to the faces of the great imprinted on the wide, rocky mountain. His eyes were fixated at the one face that always gave him courage and will to continue and think further. The fixation eventually helped him, as always.
"Those guys…Jashin…They're after someone in the exam…"
"Y-Y-Yuuma…What's this about?" Sarada stuttered at the name whose owner shocked her.
In front of her dark eyes was a petite girl opposing the one who was friendly and soft-spoken to them a day ago. Yesterday was a girl who was worried about bringing bad intentions to the Uchiha. Now, the girl in front was nothing like that. The Yuuma now stood arrogantly with a smirk devious enough to be despiteful to others.
Yuuma giggled softly behind her hand with her pink eyes glancing at Team Konohamaru maliciously "Ara, did my acting fool you this much? I should really be awarded for that then."
"Y-Yuuma? Is it re-really you?" Boruto questioned in disbelief.
The girl placed her hands on her hips and leant on one leg with such leisure "Does this body look like someone else? Well, my acting didn't seem to fool you there, son of the living Sannin Orochimaru."
The familiar name twisted Sarada's head to face Mitsuki whose face remained the same.
Mitsuki then spoke up "Well, your final act there wasn't that convincing. The one about your village head."
"What're you talking about, Mitsuki?" Sarada asked as Boruto stared in confusion.
"That symbol on the headband…You mentioned once when we were in the train that you're from Akegakure of Hone no Kuni. Sarada, Boruto, have you heard of it?" The pair of golden eyes shifted to the two.
"Now that you mention it, I've never heard of it before."
"Me too."
Yuuma then intervened "Not knowing the smaller hidden villages are common amongst genins."
"That may be true, but there's one major flaw in your acting."
All stared at Mitsuki who stopped for a moment. The Uchiha, at a side-glance, found his hesitation, which then vanished by his next words.
"That so-called village in Hone no Kuni was long destroyed during the second war, way before Uchiha Itachi existed."
Sarada and Boruto were further shocked by such revelation, especially the former.
"Mi-Mitsuki, why…how do you…"
"My parent told me stories of the past, including the great wars and that person." Mitsuki answered like the question was a trivial manner to all. However, the lack of seriousness in his tone infuriated the Uchiha where she wished to punch him on the spot. Only the clapping sound turned the three pairs of ears to the clapper.
"That's enough. There's no fun watching the two of you fight like that. Yeap, no fun at all."
"Oi, enough with that. Why are you here if it's not for the exam?" Boruto said in a cold voice, which did not threaten Yuuma at all.
The girl lazily looked at her nails and blew at them as she talked 'You're right. We're not here for some stupid exam. Hn, this shitty peaceful exam is nothing but a wasteful pile to Jashin-sama."
The Konoha genins pressed their feet against the ground. Yuuma's deeper tone and leisure in action froze the three into offensive stances.
"Well…I guess…Jashin-sama would love to accept your blood as our prayers!"
With that, the two 'genins' beside Yuuma suddenly appeared in front of Boruto. Their huge shadows and speed overwhelmed the blonde as he remained paralysed on his spot. He wanted to move even a finger, but their fist and kunai were the first to meet.
A burst of ground ignited the large cloud of dust into the surroundings. Yuuma was not shaken by the dusty impact. Instead, her eyes quickly turned to the bushes where the mice were.
Gasps were heard behind the roots of a tree, where Team Konohamaru escaped to. Boruto managed to swallow his breath on fours. The dark sight was the first not only for him, but to the rest. He looked up to see Sarada with her Sharingan activated and Mitsuki standing to look out for their new enemies. He then recalled their escape.
Just when Yuuma finished her words, Sarada's Sharingan picked out the tensed muscles from the two male genins and her body automatically moved on its own with her mind coming in second. Her legs gave into the adrenaline rush as she quickly ran to help Boruto. Somehow, she she was instead pulled into with a strange feeling around her waist.
Realizing the feeling to be Mitsuki's arm, Sarada watched another arm of his stretching to pull Boruto out of the death's door. Once the blonde reached them, they then quickly ran into the forest with the dusty impact as a distraction.
"W-What to do now?" Boruto stuttered under his breath.
Sarada looked in worry. She pursed her lips at her first act of running. She pondered that the first should at least be throwing an attack to stop the punch since running will only bring down hers and Boruto's lives instead. Her fists clenched against the grass with her eyes lifted to the blue-haired boy in appreciation to his quick move.
"We have to get out of here and inform the village about these guys."
Mitsuki then countered Sarada "But we can't. There're threads entangling in front of us. If they're the same as just now, we'll be struck by their weapons or worst."
"No. If they really want to kill us, they should have done that from the start. Those threads are probably for detection purposes." Sarada deduced with her Sharingan phasing through the leaves for the blue flickering threads. There appeared to be no catalyst or chakra base linking the threads.
"Sarada, can you see those guys anywhere?"
"No, Boruto. I can't see as well as the Byakugan." Sarada responded while looking through the dark spaces.
"Sarada, you should save your chakra. We might need them later when we fight them."
Sarada nodded and closed her eyes to deactivate them.
"By the way, Mitsuki…" Boruto finally stood to face Mitsuki with the many questions troubling him since the start. "…who exactly is this parent of yours? Seems to me that there's more about this Orochimaru guy."
"What are you saying, Boruto? My parent is merely someone who is affiliated to Konoha."
"In what way?"
Mitsuki's eyes narrowed at the question while Boruto remained unfazed.
"I'm sorry but even I don't know the details deeply."
"Then, tell me, how old is your parent? He can't be in the same age as my dad or Sasuke-occhan if he knows about the second war or he's truly one of those Sannin like Tsuna-baa."
"I'll tell you but now's not the right time, Boruto."
"No, Mitsuki!" Boruto firmly declined the offer.
Mitsuki quietly stared at him with his patience sinking to Boruto's suspicions and disrespect. Unfamiliar to the scene, the kunoichi looked at the two, hoping that they would not break into a fight while ignoring her own suspicions on Mitsuki.
"You're…It's just too weird…Why are you so calm when those guys appeared?! It's as if…you've faced more fights than any of us here."
"Boruto…"
"Mitsuki, we…we are a team right?"
The question took Mitsuki and Sarada out their guard. One expected a question of doubt while the other of misleading trust. Thinking that it was a misheard, the golden eyes then received the stare or actually, a glare of a hopeful trust from the cerulean eyes. The blonde's expression was of one who desires trust from an unexpected comrade, which somewhat pulled Mitsuki into solemn.
"If you really think of us as a team, then tell us. Not knowing someone…is painful..." Boruto reluctantly admitted after his experience with his own father.
"Boruto… thank you for treating me as a teammate…but sometimes…it's best to know less." Mitsuki spoke with a solemn smile.
"Just a teammate…We're friends, right? That's a fact, right dattebase!?" Boruto yelled to confirm the empty loop in his emotions.
Mitsuki then smiled with both his mouth and eyes "Ah."
"I…I'm sorry if what I said put you off. I…just…hate to be left behind…" Boruto held out his hand which Mitsuki accepted without any doubt. The two smirked at the new acclaim.
At the side, Sarada sighed at the result of the two's first fight and slightly smiled without the two noticing. She then realized Mitsuki's words and wondered of its meaning behind.
"…it's best to know less…"
"What does he mean by that?"
Boruto released their hands and turned his body to face the two together "So, how are we getting out of here?"
"Right now, the only way out is either through those threads or the waterfall but they're both dangerous. One way to do it is to separate Yuuma from the two guys."
"But then, Yuuma will probably be stay near the scroll…and one of us will have to be the bait." Sarada further expanded Mitsuki's words with her own.
The Uzumaki looked up at the invisible threads that are only visible with the sunlight and sprouted an idea.
"Guys, how bout this…?"
The two male genins slowly approached the forest with great caution embedded in. The tall grasses and bushes were on their way of searching the Konoha genins. Behind their mind was a telepathic link with Yuuma who was sitting at the edge of the cliff. She was playfully tossing the Earth scroll in the air, waiting for her mice to come for the capture.
She has placed her chakra into the threads tied in the forest to alert about the mice. She giggled abit for their reaction to the thread and the eventual appearance of her toys behind them. As per wish, she could feel two separate threads being in contact with two different beings. Telepathically, she ordered the genins into full offense.
One of the toys, a navy blue haired genin rushed to one of the sights to see Mitsuki and Boruto leaping away from him. By Yuuma's command, the genin immediately slashed the two with his long kunai, only to meet two puffs of cloud. Knowing the Kage Bushin as the Uzumaki's specialty, Yuuma remained relaxed by them when she realized her second toy, a brown haired genin to face the same with the Uchiha.
Eventually, there came more to the other threads where they were broken by both living and non-living object, which ignited the broken puzzle in Yuuma.
"What's going on? Are those guys trying to use my toys to find my threads?...Hm…He may be the Hokage's son but he still don't have a Bijuu in him. This won't last long then." Yuuma thought as she gave her command of searching the team to her toys.
Only then, a large bundle of snakes broke the ground beneath Yuuma, shocking her to the core. The snakes immediately wrapped themselves around the body which refrained her from any movement. She gritted her teeth out of disgust by the cold, rough skin of the snakes.
After securing the movement, Boruto, Sarada and Mitsuki jumped out of their hidings, in front of Yuuma. The girl glared at them while the three were merely proudly at their trickery.
"Looks like it's us who got you there, Yuuma." Boruto happily spoke.
"What's the meaning of this?"
"Hehehe…best for you not to know there."
The Uzumaki's joke and Mitsuki's smile left a deep mark onto Yuuma's expression. She struggled to break free but Mitsuki's summons instead contracted against her will.
Meanwhile, Sarada paced quickly towards the Earth scroll that fell during the attack. She held the scroll to her male teammates with a smile.
However, all was a simple guise. Yuuma, under her struggle, gave a devious smirk which Mitsuki noticed and yelled at the clueless Uchiha.
"Sarada, watch out!"
Just when Sarada heard him, the edge where she stood suddenly broke into two. In between the craters was the navy blue haired genin who seemingly cut through the ground. While Boruto called out for his friend, the stunned girl was falling with the debris when Mitsuki extended one arm to grab onto hers and the other holding onto one of the remaining intact rocks onto the destroyed ground.
"Sarada, are you alright!?" MItsuki shouted loudly for her.
"Y-Yeah!" Sarada yelled while holding onto his hand.
She first looked at the Earth scroll that was held by her other hand and then the vast splashes created by the waterfall. The height and sight greatly paralysed her body, unlike the time she and her team were hanging in the air from the ink back in the first exam.
"Just hold on tight. I'll start pulling us up!"
The kunoichi looked up to see the brown haired genin blocking the sunlight above them. The dark shadow gave away his position to her. From the bottom, she could see him standing where Mitsuki was holding onto. While hanging, she overcame her fear and shouted with all she got in her body.
"Mitsuki!"
The boy turned to the other side to see his enemy in a stance of an executioner readying for his next victim. Just when the sword in his hand neared, Mitsuki reluctantly let his hand go to grab another rock. The release and hold had Mitsuki clenching his teeth at the painful pressure and Sarada swinging near the vertical drop, escalating her fear and paralysis.
As his hand began to lose its grip onto the rock, Mitsuki decided to swing Sarada to the nearest tree for her own safety. Just when he was about to do so, the rock suddenly cracked into pieces, releasing the two in mid-air. When they realised the truth in shock, they have already disappeared into the bottom of the rapids.
###
That's the end of the line here hehe^^
Thanx for your supports^^ Always appreciating them every day^^
There u go. The team's first encounter with Jashin's group. Boruto & Mitsuki's 'fight'. Sarada's realization of herself 'again'. Their counterattack. & their fall..,
More to come in the next chap
Hope to see more favs, follows & reviews^^
Enjoy^^
