Last of the Spider-Clan

by FrivolousThoughts

Pīta Pāka, the last living member of the once great Shukeikō-Clan, has to make his own way in a tough ninja world with the amazing abilities gifted to him by his bloodline. He can do anything a spider can, and holding the wise words of his clan's nindō close to his heart, Pīta knows that with great power there must also come great responsibility.

12. Stand Offs

Author's Note: We're back at it again with Spider-Clan, currently my favorite project to be working on. It's certainly a tough job, especially fleshing things out in this story and trying to differentiate it from canon whilst also staying fairly faithful. Just to let you guys know ahead of time, this update was supposed to be the last update in the Forest of Death sub-arc if you want to call it that. But the content ended up being too large to fit into one chapter, I didn't want to give anyone a case of information overload and by splitting it into two, I can let things breathe much more naturally.

So, this chapter's very talky. There's a lot of conversation, discussion, character interaction. Not much in the way of fighting and the only character who experiences that is Sakura, this chapter and some of the next is where she shines the most. Anyway, I don't want to bore you guys, so I hope you enjoy the chapter.

Disclaimer: Spider-Man and all related characters are owned by Marvel and in turn, Disney. Naruto and all related characters are owned by Masashi Kishimoto, I own nothing.

---

Stand Offs (Forest of Death Arc)

The air was brisk as early morning broke over the 44th Battle Training Zone, unofficially known as the Forest of Death due to its lethal nature. Genin from all four corners of the world had journeyed to Konoha, the Village Hidden in the Leaves, to participate in the competition known as the Chūnin Exams. A series of tests, not always on paper, designed to push young ninja to their limits in the hopes that they could be promoted.

Obviously, this wasn't to be taken lightly. It was not a test for pushovers, not a test for slackers. It was meant to bring out the best in each of its participants, their teamwork, their strategy, their will to survive. Given the forest's many dangers, it didn't take long to sift through the many examinees and determine which were the strongest, which deserved to proceed onward and potentially become Chūnin.

Case in point, a kid that could hold his own against one of the legendary Yonin. Anko Mitarashi wasn't sure; she was just spit-balling. The purple haired woman side-eyed the kid in question, still unconscious and drenched in his own sweat as he lay beside her, propped against the solid aid of one of the many impossibly gigantic trees around them. The Tokubetsu-Jōnin, the designated proctor for the second phase of the exams, had kept vigil watch over him all throughout the night.

He'd been poisoned, quite severely too. Anko didn't know much about the way the body worked, she wasn't a medical-nin and only had basic knowledge and training in the field of first aid. But she knew about snakes, oh man, did she know about snakes. They were among the most venomous creatures on the planet, right up there with certain spiders, ironically enough.

Anko had watched him sweat through the venom in his bloodstream, his skin growing paler yet rising in temperature. It had gotten to the point where she'd had to strip him of his clothes, leaving him lying there in his underwear. His skin was unnaturally hot, almost as hot as a furnace. He'd been burning up, even in the bitter cold of stark black night.

She shook her head with a wistful smile as she noticed him stir slightly, groaning a little with each laboured movement he made. "Rise and shine, kiddo." Anko shortly spoke, patting his bare shoulder before wiping her sweat covered hand on her short orange mini-skirt.

"Ugh… how long was I out?" Pīta Pāka, the last living spider-heir, queried as he held his face in one hand and supported himself with the other.

His shoulder throbbed with every breath he took in, a dull ache reaching up his neck and serving as a reminder of the events that had transpired. "Long enough to get a good night's sleep and believe me; you look like you needed it." Anko answered honestly, her voice devoid of her trademark sass for the moment.

Because she was telling the truth, the kid had looked like crap and that was before he'd even gone several rounds with Orochimaru. "Yeah, felt like it too." The brunette replied with a slight smile, glancing up and around at his surroundings for the first time.

Light immediately bombarded his senses, momentarily blinding him. "Little sensitive there, huh?" Anko posed a question but she was really pointing out the obvious, watching as the lad shielded his eyes for a few seconds.

Pīta let his sight adjust to the bright colours filling his field of vision, vibrant and lush greens painting a picture of a very healthy forest. "It's this whole other thing," he murmured, letting his eyes settle on his elder for a moment.

She was crouched in front of him, missing her tan trench coat and wearing nothing but a rather revealing mesh-shirt. "You know, I don't say this often because… well, this world's full of wusses but… you're a tough little guy, I'll give you that." Anko admitted, watching as the boy immediately averted his eyes elsewhere.

Pīta's cheeks heated up slightly, though he couldn't feel it due to his fever still clinging onto him. "I thought I was gonna die," he too experienced a small moment of honesty, as the thought had crossed his mind many times during his fight with the Yonin.

Anko clicked her tongue, her purple eyebrows flicking up briefly before settling back down. "You and me both," she also recounted the very recent possibility of her former sensei killing her, which could've very easily have happened if it hadn't have been for her companion.

Pīta risked another look at her face, arching an eyebrow as a question laced his lips. "So… I'm still a little unclear on a few things; you said Rochi used to be your teacher?" Thoughts of the pale faced ninja have given way to curiosity, the boy was eager to know the story there.

Anko nodded without hesitation, he'd been through enough with her to deserve to know. "Pretty much," she answered, letting herself fall backwards and out of her crouch.

Pīta continued to prop himself up with an arm as Anko's backside hit the dirt ground; she crossed her long legs and sat opposite him. "Sucks," he also responded shortly, he wasn't really sure what else he could've said.

Anko let a laugh escape her lips, he wasn't wrong. "Big time," she related, it was easy to laugh about something that had happened years ago.

Years before the boy in front of her had been born, before he'd even been a sparkle in his parents' eyes. "Did he say anything? Anything important? What's his M.O? Why's he here?" Pīta pestered the tired woman with a barrage of questions, catching her off-guard.

Anko held her hands up and shut her eyes, smiling as the child's hunger for knowledge resurfaced. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves, junior. One thing at a time, okay? Do you even remember what happened?" She countered his queries with one of her own, giving Pīta time to pause.

He contemplated the question with a furrowed brow, before his free hand slowly rose to instinctively rub his neck. "He… tried to do something to me but I don't remember what, I was pretty out of it by the end of our little hoedown." The brunette recalled, though details were a little vague as he'd been poisoned.

Anko cast her gaze off and away from the Genin, a frown lining her lips. "Yeah, you're not the only one. Orochimaru mentioned he'd done it to someone else, the Uchiha kid." She informed him, earning a look of surprise and concern in return.

"Sasuke? Oh, that's bad. I should try and find him, see if he's okay." Pīta suggested, though a quick subtle buzz of his spider-sense reminded him of his missing teammates.

He was about to climb to his bizarrely bare feet when Anko drew his attention, stopping him in his slow and steady tracks. "That's the bad news, there's a pretty good chance he's already dead. Subjects—that's what we were to him—have a one in ten chance of surviving… I should know, I'm one of 'em." Anko revealed, stunning Pīta as she craned her head and showed her neck to him.

Pīta's excellent eye sight zoned in on the black mark on her smooth neck, but he still felt the need to crawl over to her on all fours. "That is one seriously messed up hickey," he muttered, though Anko gave a quiet chuckle as his voice entered her ear.

She involuntarily flinched as small yet rough digits glided across the skin of her neck, feeling out the three black teardrop shapes that plagued her. "Heaven's Curse Mark, it's supposed to increase Chakra levels and physical capabilities. If you give in and decide to use it anyway," Anko explained as Pīta continued to study the unique marking, clearly foreign but part of her skin in a similar vein to a tattoo.

A metaphorical lightbulb went off over Pīta's head as images of a struggling, clearly injured Anko entered his mind. "During the fight, you kept holding your neck; it was the mark torturing you. He did this to you?" The boy posed, as if he was trying to wrap his head around such a cruel act.

It was kind of sweet, how naïve and innocent he was. "Right when I was around your age," Anko responded, harkening back to days when she was still pure and untainted.

She felt his hands leave her neck and watched as he too set himself down, crossing his legs and sitting in front of her. "He used your trust to further his own agenda, whatever that was." Pīta speculated, earning a slow nod in return.

Orochimaru was right, the kid was pretty sharp. "Bingo, sport." She agreed, noticing him shift uncomfortably.

"Okay… I have two questions," Pīta fixed his chocolate coloured eyes back on her, placing the palms of his hands together.

Anko placed her own hands on her knees, showing a little bit of her teeth as she smiled. "Shoot," she shot back, surprisingly enjoying the little scamp's company.

Pīta nodded his head, trying to gather his thoughts as he opened his mouth. "Where are my clothes and why can I taste dango?" The boy rattled off, the very clear sweetness of the dish present in his mouth for some reason.

Anko paled slightly, giving the kid mouth to mouth had actually slipped her mind. "Your gear's over there, as for the dango… couldn't tell ya." She lied as she pointed to the boy's folded up clothes, neatly sat on a moss covered rock; she didn't think why the taste of her favourite food was in his mouth was worth mentioning.

The brunette stared at her for a solid few seconds before shrugging, though he really couldn't remember the last time he'd visited the Dango Shop. In one quick and rapid movement, the pre-teen spider hopped to his feet, startling the woman in front of him. He was about to push on, ignoring the dull ache pulsing throughout his entire body. He would have, had his knees suddenly not buckled. In a turn of events, contrasting the fight they'd partaken in the previous day, it was Anko's turn to support Pīta.

She arched an eyebrow and smirked, halfway to her feet when he'd collapsed onto her. "You sure you're up for that, soldier?" The tracker-nin mocked, urging a shaky smile out of her comrade.

Pīta distanced himself, gently pushing Anko's lingering hand away from him as his vision danced between razor sharp clarity and blurred shapes. "I've got somewhere to be, need to find my team. I promised them I wouldn't let them down, I feel like that's all I've been doing lately. Besides, I have our scrolls and they can't finish this part of the exams without them." He explained whilst willing himself to stand, his muscles still ached despite the rest they had gotten.

An entire day of constant use had wiped him out; even twelve hours of sleep hadn't completely reset his physical condition. "Wait, you already have both scrolls?" Anko questioned, her mouth slightly ajar as Pīta slowly made his way over to his discarded clothes.

The first piece of gear he put on were his dark blue pants, torn and dirtied in some places but still resembling pants. "Oh… yeah, I do. These guys jumped me; I took care of it… barely." Pīta whispered that last part as his thoughts briefly drifted to Kuentin's team of Suna ninja, though the image of the green-clad Mikio stood out the most.

The boy shook his head, pulling his dark blue undershirt over his head and adjusting it accordingly. "Well… good hustle, short stuff." Anko teased, though was honestly impressed he'd managed to do so much in such a short amount of time.

The second day of a five day time limit had only just started, students had completed the second phase of the exams faster but considering the obstacles he'd tackled, it astonished her how he was able to stand and talk let alone continue with the exams. She picked up her trench coat—she'd thrown it off of her when giving Pīta first aid—and carefully put it on, her movements were slightly laboured as she did not have a superhuman regenerative healing factor.

Which must have come in handy, admittedly.

After sliding her slender arms into the sleeves of her coat, Anko turned and watched as Pīta zipped up his wrecked red flak jacket. "That thing's barely holding itself together, why bother?" She queried, approaching the boy as he side-eyed her.

"My aunt made it for me; she'd kill me if I just left it here." Pīta gave his answer, checking that the makeshift water grenades he'd had on him were still in the compartments of the jacket.

Anko nodded, it was good enough for her. What wasn't good enough for her was what had happened to the lad before her, the curse mark he'd been branded with that simply… wasn't there. The purple haired proctor saw that Pīta was about to pull his mask over his jaw, once again hiding the lower half of his face for some reason unknown to her.

Her voice caught him off-guard; it wasn't the usual smooth slick tone she appropriated. "Pāka?" Anko spoke his last name, a habit she probably wouldn't ever be able to drop.

The Genin lowered his mask for a moment, noticing how honest and if anything, strangely desperate her voice sounded. "Something wrong, Proctor-Anko?" He posed, confusion fraught on those boyish features of his.

Anko regarded him for a moment; she knew the answer she was going to get. "Orochimaru, he… he marked you, I saw it. He sunk those fangs of his right into your neck, yet you don't have a curse mark. Can you tell me why?" She asked anyway, clearly craving an explanation for the otherwise impossible.

Pīta's brown eyes wandered for a moment, flickering away from the woman's piercing gaze as he too thought about the unusual situation he found himself in. "I don't know," was all he could say, his mind completely devoid of an explanation or even a theory for the first time in his short life.

Anko nodded, she wasn't satisfied. "Okay, that's… okay." She murmured, she could tell that he was being entirely honest.

She'd spent enough time around him to know what kind of a kid he was; he was the kind of kid that didn't even know how to tell a lie. "I'm sorry I can't do more," he was also the kind of kid that felt the need to apologize for something he had no control over, likely felt responsible for anything that even remotely involved him.

Anko rolled her eyes, playfully punching his arm. "You've done enough, okay? We'll figure it out some other time, no worries. Now, those little pals of yours are probably worried sick about you. Go on, get out of here. You still need to make it to the tower at the centre of the forest with both Heaven and Earth scrolls in order to officially pass the second phase of the Chūnin Exams, can you remember all that?" She reminded him, watching him pull his mask over his jaw and resting the fabric on the bridge of his nose.

Pīta nodded, before throwing up a mock salute at the woman. "Find friends, don't lose scrolls, head to big tower, got it. Are you gonna be okay on your own?" He posed, a faint trace of concern edging his voice.

Anko placed her fists on her hips and glared at him, a little flustered that he'd even bother with such a thing. "Uhh… right, forget I asked." Pīta backed away, his hands held up in defence.

The young Shinobi left without another word, possessing enough energy and effort to leap high into the air and fire off a web-line. "Good luck, kid." Anko let her light brown eyes linger on the shrinking form of her temporary partner-in-crime before she set off; she had some important matters to attend to herself.

First thing was first though; after finding her way in, Anko needed to find her way to the tower at the centre of the Forest of Death. The alarm was supposed to be sounded at the first sign of Orochimaru, the Hokage had to be notified and she intended to do just that. The Yonin was far too powerful for her to defeat alone, even the addition of a spider's helping hand hadn't done much good. She needed to bring the matter to the attention of the most powerful ninja in the Hidden Leaf Village who coincidentally, just so happened to also be the former sensei of Orochimaru.

That seemed to have been a common theme lately…

---

For such a humid, clammy atmosphere at night, the forest was surprisingly cold under the soft blue sky of morning. Wildlife, mostly the prey as the predators often hunted at night, shook themselves out of their dormant stupor and scurried out into the lush green of their little world. Rabbits hopped, squirrels darted and birds fluttered, all the while most of the visitors of the forest still slumbered soundly.

Genin, children that had entered mortal peril of their own free will in order to prove their worth to themselves, their peers, their sensei and their village. One such student was half and half, her emerald green eyes struggling to stay open as exhaustion and fatigue consumed every bone and muscle in her small, petit body. The girl, with her pretty though slightly dirtied long pink hair, had spent the best part of the previous day and the entire night watching over her unconscious friends.

Sakura Haruno, a quarter of the team known as Team 7, felt her head constantly give and wilt under the influence of the sandman. She wanted so desperately to sleep, the dark patches of skin nestled beneath her eyes a testament to that, but she just couldn't bring herself to completely let it happen. Her teammate, Naruto Uzumaki and three of her fellow Leaf Genin, Sasuke Uchiha, Sai Toriyama and Yakumo Kurama, lay still under her watchful yet faltering eye and the cool shade of a towering tree.

While isolated and alone, Sakura's thoughts had gotten the best of her and ran wild. When she wasn't thinking about her soft warm bed back at home, she was forcing herself into a corner of paranoia as she had begun to increasingly suspect that someone or something was watching her. It didn't feel like a bear or a tiger, some of the many alpha predators that roamed the vibrant woods. As terrifying as they were, they were still animals and would've struck already.

No, human beings spied on their targets for hours on end and the feeling was completely different to being stalked by a wild, ferocious beast. There was no panic, but Sakura felt anxiousness in spades. Her little heart was thumping against her sweat covered chest faster than usual, but not out of fear, more so anticipation. Sakura, even despite how tired she was, knew something was coming.

The only mystery to her was… just who was it?

Her thoughts immediately drifted to Orochimaru, the man that had branded Sasuke with that weird, dark mark. Maybe he'd come to finish the job, just outright kill Sasuke right in front of her and then dispose of the rest of them too. But Sakura felt like he would've done so already if he was going to, so instead her stray musings circled around another theory.

Orochimaru had mentioned that he was going to be sending someone after Sasuke, perhaps underlings of some kind. Thug ninja to finish the job and get their hands dirty, which again didn't ring true. Orochimaru certainly had no qualms about doing things himself, he was certainly capable of fighting and beating Sasuke single handed. So… why would he send someone after him?

Yet another thing Sakura didn't understand, just adding to the growing pile of other things that confused her adolescent mind. It was good though, trying to work her way through things, it was at least serving to keep her awake and moderately alert. But even then, Sakura knew that sooner or later, she was just going to collapse out of pure exhaustion. She wasn't superhuman like Pīta, she didn't have the limitless energy of Naruto, she was just… normal.

She used to think that that was a good thing and being different was the bad thing, but her teammates broke the mould and she found herself wanting to do the same. All she needed was a chance, a chance to prove herself their equal. But that chance never came as Pīta and Naruto were always doing the hard work, always doing the saving.

Well, now that she was all by herself, Sakura might've been given that chance… whether she wanted it or not.

"Why don't you just give in to temptation and shut those weary eyes? It'd make things so much easier," a calm yet chilling voice entered Sakura's ears, immediately causing her body to tense up and her eyes to widen.

Unfortunately for her, her suspicions had proved true. "But a lot less fun," another voice mingled with the first, less eloquent and calculated, more brash and obnoxious.

Both of them belonged to males, ninja that the girl instantly recognized upon turning around in her alcove beneath the large tree. "You—you're the ninja from the Sound Village, the same ones that attacked Kabuto." Sakura pointed out, recalling that tense confrontation between Shinobi that were her senior.

Shinobi that were her elders, ninja that were supposed to provide a decent example of what to do and what not to do, not pick a fight with everyone and anyone that happened to look at them the wrong way. Sakura didn't need to personally know these Oto ninja to know what kind of people they were, two vicious looking boys and a particularly scary looking girl.

The one covered in bandages, Dosu Kinuta was his name, once again addressed the young lonely Kunoichi. "He was practically begging for it, can you really blame us?" He cheekily replied, his subtle voice slightly muffled by the mass of bandage covering his mouth.

Sakura didn't engage his idle banter like Pīta would've done, she wasn't about to get all pally with the enemy. "What do you want?" She simply questioned, an ever so slight break in her voice that she tried to force down her throat.

She had no backup, the last thing she needed was to appear weak. "Sasuke," Dosu didn't beat around the bush either, he cared not for the girl and had his beady black pupils locked on the slumbering form of the Uchiha heir, lying in the stark shadows beneath the sheltering tree with several others.

Sakura's hand subconsciously drifted closer and closer to her kunai holster strapped to her thigh, her entire limb twitching with fatigue. "You can't have him," she forced out through gritted pearly whites, defiant in her tone and ushering a look of surprise from the bandaged Sound-nin.

The second boy, standing upright with his arms folded and possessing wild hair like Pīta, scoffed. "That's bold coming from a girl playing second rate ninja, almost sounded like a threat." The insinuation was there clear as day, he just wanted an excuse to engage her physically and most likely kill her.

His name was Zaku Abumi and he considered himself the strongest member of their little team, though Sakura had no clue whether that was true or not. "Don't be so quick to anger, Zaku. She's merely protecting her boyfriend, isn't that right?" Judging by the way Dosu's calm and levelled words halted the boy in his footsteps; she guessed that he was the one actually in charge.

Sakura frowned bitterly at the mention of the word 'boyfriend', months ago it would've sounded flattering being referred to as such but truth be told, it just sounded insulting. "Sasuke is not my boyfriend," she spoke simple and honest fact, the raven haired child she'd been guarding was not her boyfriend.

But he was her friend, whether he acknowledged that or not and Sakura was not going to hand him over to a group of hostile strangers. "Who is? The little blonde brat? Or the mouthy one, the brunette?" Finally, the only female member of the trio deemed it necessary to open her mouth.

Kin Tsuchi's words were spoken in a childish manner, clearly meant to belittle Sakura because of her younger age. "Speaking of the brunette, why isn't he with you? Where is he?" Dosu cut into things before Sakura replied, his interest peaking at the mention of the pink haired girl's missing teammate.

But Sakura recognized more than interest in his voice, no matter how hard he tried to hide it. "He's close," she told him, a smug smile stretching onto her lips as she caught the distinct sound of concern and trepidation in his voice.

All three Sound Genin took a measured step back, cautiously taking in their surroundings and directing their wandering eyes to the many trees around them. Sakura watched them for a moment, how careful they were being, it was only natural for a ninja to be prepared for anything. But as Zaku and Kin continued to survey the area, Dosu's cold eyes once again fell on the ragged form of the girl safely tucked away inside her little shelter.

"I don't believe you," he called her bluff, his tone carrying an edge to it that suggested confidence.

Sakura felt her little heart speed up inside her chest, pounding against her ribcage as she swallowed a lump in her throat. "You don't have to believe me, just believe that you won't know what hit you." She reinforced her little white lie, attempting to make her enemies uneasy.

It seemed to be working for the most part; Dosu was trying to look for even the tiniest hint of deceit in the features of the pink haired ninja. "She's lying, trying to stall for time." Zaku pitched in, hard and abrasive and full of cockiness.

Finally, Dosu nodded. "I agree, but he's still a legitimate concern." He evaluated, he hadn't seen much of the physical variety from the absent ninja but there was still doubt.

Kin picked up on her teammate's incredibly cautious attitude, placing a hand on her developing waist. "What's the big deal? We've fought far tougher ninja before; one kid is not going to be much of an issue… right?" A slight pause and honest query slipped past her lips, genuine doubt was being sown among them.

Dosu tilted his head, something his teammates were accustomed to while Sakura was not. "We've never fought a spider, Kin." He noted, urging a furrowed brown out of the dark haired girl as he pushed her into deep thought.

Zaku unceremoniously cracked his back, once again scoffing at the prospect of a kid being described as the bogeyman. "Don't buy into the hype; I wouldn't even care if he was here." He boasted, standing proud and full of himself.

Dosu listened but didn't pay him any mind; Kin on the other hand, rolled her eyes. "But he's not here, is he? Which begs the question, if you believe in him so much then why did he desert you? Why did he abandon you? Why did he leave you alone to care for your friends?" Instead, Dosu found that it was time to turn the tables.

He wanted to give the little girl a taste of her own medicine, play some mind games with her. "Some friend," Kin mocked, her long, silky black hair hanging low to the ground.

Sakura frowned, having registered his purposefully barbed words. "He'll be here," she chose to ignore them and remained steadfast in her belief, there was no way the boy she knew had abandoned her.

Not Pīta, never Pīta.

Dosu nodded, almost admiring the girl's resolve. "Pity, we might just have to shatter that belief. Nothing personal, of course, just part of the job. Now, wake Sasuke up." He requested, though with the sharp edge to his voice, it sounded more akin to an order.

Sakura answered, both physically and verbally. "No," she shut his request down, steadily climbing to her feet and leaving the sanctuary of the safe tree roots around her.

Flowing pink hair, shimmering emerald eyes and an adolescent face stared down the three visiting Sound ninja. She'd tried to buy some time, tried to stall them as long as she could with empty threats and idle talk but she was well and truly on her own. She had no idea where Pīta was, what he was doing, whether it was more important than helping his teammates but none of it mattered anymore.

Right then and there, Sakura had bigger things to worry about. "Funny… for a second, it sounded like you denied my request." Dosu responded with a cynical laugh, the noise once again being dampened by the bandages covering his mouth.

Kin, standing beside the hunched over unofficial leader of their team, smiled. "Looks like pinkie's grown a spine," she jabbed, eliciting a rather sour look out of the Leaf Genin.

She hated the nickname 'pinkie', she hated it when Pīta used it and she certainly hated it when a complete stranger used it. It wasn't funny, it wasn't even creative. But the way Kin had said it; it'd just been purely spiteful. And for what, Sakura wasn't sure. They'd never met one another before, only briefly before the first phase of the Chūnin Exams.

Sakura had no idea what the girl's problem was, but she did not like the way she was staring at her with hateful eyes and a smirk of ill-intent. "Okay, I'm done with all this talking. If it's okay with you guys, I'm just gonna go ahead and kill her." Zaku breezed by his teammates, his tone oddly nonchalant and casual considering what had just left his mouth.

He set his jaw as Dosu raised his gauntlet wielding arm, pressing it against his chest and halting him in his tracks. "You can't possibly want to spare her," Zaku deadpanned, they'd killed ninja for far less than mouthing off at them.

Dosu shook his head, having to tolerate his peer's dim-witted nature. "You really aren't the brightest star in the sky, are you?" He subtly mocked, earning a lost arch of an eyebrow in response.

The unofficial leader of the trio carefully and cautiously stepped forward, ahead of his companions and crouched low to the ground. He eyed it suspiciously, before flickering his eyes Sakura's way. She was sweating, watching his every calculated and measured move. She wanted to say something, he could tell. But she bit her tongue, anticipation riddling her small adolescent body.

Dosu spied a loose patch of green grass on the dirt ground, tracing it with his fingers whilst being careful not to trigger the trap that lay beneath. "A trap? She set a trap?" Zaku repeated the question as though he was having a hard time believing it; the dark haired lad honestly hadn't even noticed it.

Dosu rose out of his crouch, not quite to his full height as his back remained hunched over. "Yes, she set a trap. A rather poor one at that, still would've worked wonders on you. A word of advice, Zaku." He turned to his boisterous teammate, half-lidded and ready to lecture.

He would have, had Zaku not cut him off with a sharp, impatient tone. "Don't be so quick to anger, I get it." The Sound-nin replied, earning an apt nod from his 'superior'.

Kin had stayed silent as she watched the back and forth, she hadn't spotted the trap either but she wasn't as bloodthirsty as Zaku was. "So… now can we kill her?" Though, she was growing tired of idly standing around and arguing.

Dosu tilted his head towards their pink haired target several yards away, not unlike a curious pup trying to see around their muzzle. "I suppose so, yes." He finally gave the go ahead, eliciting a devious smirk from Zaku and a satisfied nod from Kin.

All three Sound ninja bolted, all three showcasing surprising speed as they sprinted at a stationary Sakura. Though, it was any wonder why she was smirking the way she was. Until they spotted the kunai knife in her hand, cutting a hidden line of strong wire. Wood creaked and groaned as Sakura sprang her back-up trap, torrents of shuriken being launched by hollowed out wooden logs.

They came at the Oto ninja from both right and left, firing from the treelines and forcing them to halt in their momentum. "Look out!" Kin screamed, feeling a shuriken slice by her shin.

She winced as she ducked, doing her best to stay low to the ground as Dosu attempted to weave his way by them. "A second trap! I should've known!" He chastised himself, raising his gauntlet wearing arm to deflect as many metal projectiles as he could.

Zaku clenched his jaw and bit back a howl of pain as cold steel sliced by his cheek, causing the temper within him to flare. "Slicing Sound Wave!" He yelled, cycling through a series of hand signs before throwing his palms up to either side of him.

The effects were instantaneous as streams of pressurized sound and air fired from the open tubes implanted into his palms, some kind of physical body modification meant to enhance his Chakra control of sound and air. The shuriken were immediately deflected, spinning and slicing back into the surrounding forest. The blast of air and sound ceased, leaving Dosu, Zaku and Kin to level glares Sakura's way.

Dosu cracked his neck, loosening up his shoulders as he grew a little more impatient. "So, you're sharper than we thought. Let's see if you can match your intelligence with skill," he wondered, before leading the charge against her once more.

He didn't need to give the go ahead, Zaku was practically seething and Kin was beginning to share in some of that hatred. Sakura's arm shook with fatigue as she raised a kunai, holding the hilt upside down and the blade towards the ground as she prepared to defend herself. Several thoughts raced through her mind as the enemy drew nearer and nearer, concerns and fears leaving her trembling.

Sakura's Taijutsu was nowhere near good enough to deal with three opponents at once, even despite some of the sparring sessions she'd shared with Pīta. Her Ninjutsu was nowhere near good enough to compete with Naruto's, which was something Sakura never thought she'd admit, admittedly. For whatever reason, she'd possessed the mind-set that she was a somewhat capable ninja.

But… thinking back, really giving it some thought, Sakura realized that she'd never actually done anything to prove it. She'd never had to put her money where her mouth was, she'd never had to get her hands dirty. Always stood on the side-lines, letting Pīta and Naruto do most of the work while she… what did she even do? Cheer them on like some disposable fangirl?

That was something Sakura did not want to be, oh no, she did not want to be considered a hindrance to her team. She did not want to be the only one that couldn't fight, that couldn't defend herself. With three against one, three particularly strong ninja she was guessing, it was by no means a fair fight. But the world was never fair, something she recalled Pīta telling both her and Naruto around a week ago.

She remembered Naruto whining as he crashed to the ground, tired and aching. "This isn't fair! You… you have powers! We don't!" He complained, becoming more and more agitated every time Pīta knocked him back to the ground.

She'd already given up at the point, no matter what she did; she just couldn't lay a finger on the lad in red and blue. "You're right, I do have the advantage. But so will a lot of other ninja in the world, nothing's ever fair." The brunette responded, his breathing calm and level, perfectly contrasting their erratic and quick intakes of oxygen.

Sakura hadn't paid his words any mind, not then at least. Now however, was a totally different story. The girl was starting to get a pretty serious picture of how unfair the world really was, how the odds had been stacked against her from the very beginning. Was she even cut out to be a Kunoichi? Or was it all simply a pipedream? How was she supposed to compete with ninja that could control soundwaves? How was she supposed to match Naruto's clones or Pīta's sheer physicality?

Sakura wasn't sure, but she'd never find out if she didn't at least try. "Come on," she whispered through gritted teeth, balling her free hand into an impossibly tight fist.

Suffice to say, Dosu, Zaku and Kin were all a little stunned when Sakura elected to sprint right at them. "Come on already!" She was tired of being afraid, tired of waiting for someone to come and save her.

She was going to die, that was the likeliest outcome to this little scenario. But she wanted to at least meet death with a brandished kunai and war cry on her lips, not cowering in the alcove of a tree and begging for mercy. Dosu was so stunned, so caught off-guard by this little cherry blossom blooming, that he barely had time to throw his gauntlet wielding arm up to guard against the downward slash of her blade.

Steel grazed Chakra enhanced metal, doing absolutely nothing to damage it. "I'm not afraid of you!" Sakura roared, spinning around and flinging the heel of her sandal directly into Dosu's open stomach.

The older boy backed off, the wind having been knocked right out of his lungs by the unexpected attack. "I—ack—I'd believe you... could I not hear your little heart… beating so fiercely against your chest," Dosu replied or did his best to anyway, nursing his winded stomach.

Kin and Zaku had already moved in, barely giving Sakura enough time to contemplate his curious words. "I've got the little brat," the only female of the team spoke confidently, running to tackle the girl in the dirtied red qipao.

Sakura wasted no time, performing a hand sign and channelling a steady amount of Chakra into the soles of her feet. She sailed over Kin, completely avoiding her attack but landing just in time to take the full force of a concussive blast of pressurized air. The girl was thrown like a ragdoll, striking the solid and unyielding trunk of a tree with her back. She hit the ground like deadweight; her back would've most likely snapped clean in two had the force been any greater.

Zaku grinned, bringing the palms of his hands to his mouth before he blew the openings of the air tubes like a smoking gun. "That was satisfying," he admitted, watching Dosu recover from the kick to his gut and Kin get up off of the firm ground.

The three were about to press on with their mission at hand—their real objective—though none of them expected the prone girl lying in the grass to suddenly explode into a small plume of smoke, leaving behind a moss covered wooden log and throwing the trio into full alert mode.

"Substitution! How?! When?!" Kin voiced her disbelief, very loudly too as she whipped around to scan the treelines.

All eyes were on the surrounding forest for any and all signs of the girl, a single girl and nothing more. "Calm down, this is one Genin we're dealing with." Dosu advised, keeping his tone quiet and measured.

He was the only one who seemed in control of himself, Kin was beginning to severely question the girl's supposed rookie status and Zaku was twitching, ready to open fire at the first sign of pink hair and emerald eyes. The group was so busy keeping careful watch of the surrounding forest; none of them paid any mind to a growing shadow above them.

Three shuriken sliced their way through the air, the noise of metal cutting through oxygen enough to tip the scarily acute Dosu off. "Above! Move!" He ordered, leaping clear as Kin followed suit.

The metal projectiles embedded themselves in the grass below, just barely missing their mark as Dosu and Kin backed off safely. "Let's try this again!" Zaku on the other hand, directed his open palms skyward.

It was a shame Sakura was already on top of him, like a bird of prey ready to strike out at their meal of the day. Zaku let a cry escape his lips when solid steel dug deep into one of his arms, blood spattering the green blades of grass below him. Sakura's full weight hit him as she drove her kunai knife deeper and deeper into her target, the bully that had been leaping at the chance to kill her the entire duration of the confrontation.

Zaku hit the ground, a grunt lost somewhere in a scream that evicted birds from their treetop homes overhead. Sakura cursed to herself as she reeled back with her free hand, she'd been aiming for his collar bone. She hesitated for what felt like a second, her shaking fist suspended in the air as thoughts ran through her head at a million miles per hour. It suddenly dawned on her that she'd never actually thrown a punch in a fight, not a real one anyway.

She'd seen Pīta do it a thousand times, watched those small fists crumble and shatter everything in their path. Even Naruto knew how to throw a good punch, and his Taijutsu wasn't exactly the strongest she'd ever seen. Sakura ran through the motions in her head in that split second of hesitation, she remembered the few lessons Pīta had given her during their sparring sessions.

She couldn't have her thumb on the inside of her balled fist, that was a good way to break it upon hitting something. She had to land the punch correctly, hitting something with her pinkie or ring finger was also a good way to break some bones. She needed to keep her fist tight, but not too tight. And even tough Pīta had informed her that hitting someone in the face wasn't always the best way to go, Sakura wasn't in any position to do anything else.

The girl let her fist fly down towards Zaku's face; he attempted to bring an arm up to guard but couldn't react in time. Sakura's knuckles collided with his nose, quick and clean. Her first shot wasn't hard enough to break the bone, her second shot was however. Blood lingered on her balled fist as she raised it a third time, only for one of Zaku's teammates to finally do something.

Sakura felt a foot drive deep into her side as she tumbled off of Zaku, hitting the floor with a thud and a startled cry. "This is getting ridiculous," Kin spat, her voice filled with disdain as she watched the twelve year old girl struggle on the floor of the forest.

Zaku slowly and painfully pulled the kunai knife from his forearm, wincing and hissing as he threw the crimson covered tool to the ground. "She broke my nose! She—agh! She broke my freaking nose!" He repeated, though certain words were a little hard to understand on account of said broken nose.

Dosu eyed the girl in red, a girl that had given them more trouble than they'd expected as she tried to push herself to her feet. "I did tell you to move, what part did you not understand?" He dryly responded, though his little remark went mostly unheard.

Zaku was too focused on glaring daggers at the girl on the floor to pay his teammate any mind, blood staining his wide eyed face. "Kill her! I'm gonna tear her apart for that!" He claimed, steadily making his way to his knees and then eventually, his feet.

Sakura watched groggily as all three ninja approached her, both Dosu and Kin apparently shared the exact same mentality as their teammate. "Leaf Hurricane!" A new but familiar voice broke through the tension, urging startled looks of confusion from all those present.

Three of those looks were wiped clean as a single spinning kick caught each one of them consecutively, throwing them a fair distance away. Sakura winced; she felt the impact of the attack just by watching it happen. A boy garbed in green spandex landed with fluid grace in front of the Leaf Kunoichi, whilst Dosu, Kin and Zaku did their best to go with the momentum of the blows and recover.

They tumbled and rolled backwards, eventually finding their balance and coming face to face with—

"Lee…?" Sakura realized just who had stepped in to protect her, the older boy with shiny black dome-like hair and a blinding set of pearly whites.

---

"Come on, Gaara, isn't this a little… unnecessary?" The shaky albeit familiar voice of a teenage Genin attempted to appeal to his brother, for whatever good it would do anyway.

Over on the other side of the Forest of Death, away from all of the petty commotion of Sound and Leaf ninja, a completely different battle was being waged. A severely one-sided battle, judging by the way Gaara of the Desert held three helpless Rain ninja aloft in what could only be described as floating tombs made completely out of dense sand.

Flanking him on either side was an uneasy Kankurō and a meekly quiet Temari, the redheaded child's dear brother and sister. They witnessed three admittedly cocky Shinobi struggle and gasp for air, fighting for their life as their brother held his open hand out in front of him. Temari glanced away as she knew what was coming, Kankurō shifted uncomfortably as Gaara swiftly closed his hand.

Muffled screams of pure agony managed to break through the airborne mounds of sand, a fine rain of crimson blood certainly did as it coated the surrounding area, dotting the natural greens and browns of the forest with speckled red. Gaara smirked as he let his arm fall back by his side, watching sand travel back to the gourd on his back almost as if it had a mind of its own.

Lifeless and mangled bodies fell to the soft soil beneath them, landing with a dull thud. Temari refused to look at the sight, despite all of her big talk and bravado; she was still squeamish when it came to certain things. Dead bodies were definitely one of those things, though her brother didn't seem to take that into account or really, didn't seem to care at all.

Gaara spared a dead eyed glance his older brother's way, jerking his head in the direction of the dead bodies. "Uh… right," Kankurō replied to the wordless request, not asking but telling him to go and search the recently deceased.

The purple face-painted Sand-nin didn't waste any time, quickly making his way over to the enemy ninja's corpses. He sort of felt bad for them, that they'd had such bad luck in order to run into Gaara in such a large forest. Of course, the trio of Rain boys had been arrogant, over-confident and straight up insulting. But did that really justify such a brutal and harsh death?

Kankurō didn't think so, but he wasn't about to air his thoughts to Gaara lest he end up exactly like the corpses he was pillaging. "Huh… so they did have a Heaven scroll… wow, these guys just couldn't catch a break." The black bodysuit wearing Shinobi murmured to himself, taking the item and giving it a once over.

The boy then rose to his full height, spinning on his heels to show the scroll to his siblings. Wearing a forced smile, Kankurō made the short trip back to Gaara and Temari's side, offering the prized possession to the latter. The sandy blonde haired teenager nodded gratefully as she took the item and placed it in within the confines of the red sash tied around her waist, Gaara didn't seem to care as he stood there indifferently.

"Well, at least this wasn't for nothing. Now we just need to head to the tower in the centre of the forest, ready to move, Gaara?" Temari's teal eyes gazed expectedly at her stoic brother, stood with his arms folded and back facing her.

The last born child of Suna's Kage didn't turn to face her; instead he narrowed his black-ringed eyes. "Shut up, both of you. It's… it's not enough, it's still not enough." He spoke quietly, betraying a silent rage which weathered within him.

Temari immediately shut her mouth; Kankurō didn't have to be told twice either. They knew what their brother was talking about; they knew what he meant when he said 'it wasn't enough'. The pint-sized bringer of death was referring to his bloodlust, such a strong and overwhelming need to just… kill anything and everything that happened to get in his way.

This was the real Gaara… well, maybe not the real Gaara, but it was certainly the Gaara the siblings were used to. A boy that rarely spoke but when he did, uttered threats and meant them. He'd been unusually reserved back in the Leaf Village; he couldn't have very well begun murdering every person he came across, that would've been grounds to start some kind of war between Suna and Konoha… which wasn't that far off from why they were actually there.

But out in the wilderness, with nobody watching him, nobody keeping an eye on him and nobody to tell him what he could and could not do, Gaara was in his element. He was in charge, he told his brother and sister, his elders, what to do and what not to do. They complied out of sheer fear, afraid that they'd bring out that twitchy look in his cold pupil-less green eyes.

Gaara slowly turned towards a gathering of bushes in the distance, his tanuki-like eyes narrowing in suspicion. The fiery headed boy suddenly got the feeling that he was being watched, that someone or something had witnessed his little bloodbath. Unbeknownst to Gaara and his Sand siblings, somebody had indeed seen what he'd done.

Team 8, a Leaf Genin squad that specialized in tracking, was lying in wait for an opportunity to leave after watching Gaara slaughter a trio of ninja. Their unofficial leader—or so he liked to think—Kiba Inuzuka, had rushed on ahead and stumbled upon the sight when Hinata Hyūga, their resident Byakugan user, had detected a strong Chakra presence in their area of the forest.

She and Shino Aburame, the team's insect user, had made themselves very clear when they'd wanted to ignore the presence and proceed to the tower in the centre of the Forest of Death. They possessed both Heaven and Earth scrolls; there was no need for them to waste any more time in this natural death trap of a place.

Naturally, their headstrong and rather brash leader had rushed on ahead and landed them in serious trouble. Akamaru, Kiba's small white Ninja Hound, had also detected Gaara. Unlike his master, Akamaru was smart enough to know that the boy from a foreign land was dangerous. Hiding inside Kiba's grey hooded fur-lined coat, the pup was shaking in fear.

Kiba, Hinata and Shino all stayed perfectly still as Gaara's piercing stare was directed their way. Sweat had begun to amass on their foreheads, slowly rolling down their faces and dripping from their chins. The self-appointed leader of the trio painstakingly turned his attention towards his companions, unable to see the terrified look in Shino's eyes beneath his sunglasses. Though, he recognized the clear fear decorating Hinata's fair, pale face.

Her large lavender eyes were wider than saucers; she'd gritted her teeth out of fear of making some sort of startled sound. She appeared as though she was about to throw up and Kiba honestly couldn't blame her, he did not want to end up just like those Rain-nin. Kiba made the small mistake of swallowing the lump in his throat but just when Gaara was about to confirm his suspicions, a new voice entered the fray and dragged his attention away from the bushes.

"Well, that was certainly dramatic." Dressed predominantly in green, with slight flourishes of purple, Kuentin Bekku ventured out from the opposing treeline.

Another ninja followed suit, a bald kid garbed in green and yellow. "Bloody too," Saidai Diron remarked with a grin, inspecting the blood spattered grass around them with his electric blue eyes.

The last of the trio finally joined them, standing considerably taller than anybody present. "But like your brother said, unnecessary." Mikio Goto growled, the last living scorpion's dark brown eyes settled on the shortest child present.

Gaara folded his arms as the big green brute of a Shinobi shot daggers at him, the redhead simply stared right back. "What do you want?" He stoically queried, though it sounded more like a demand than a simple request with the way it had been phrased.

The sandy blonde and messy haired brunette standing behind Gaara exchanged concerned glances; it always spelled trouble whenever the two most abrasive personalities in all of Sunagakure clashed. Their dear brother, Gaara and the predator of the desert, Mikio. Two incredibly powerful opposing forces, housed within the same isolated village. They were bound to have had a problem with one another, especially given their equally aggressive nature.

Kuentin picked up on the tension just as Temari and Kankurō had, stepping into Gaara's field of view and offering a slight bow. "There's no need to be so abrasive, Gaara. We are fellow Suna ninja after all; would it be too much to ask for a kinder greeting?" The dark haired self-acclaimed master of Genjutsu arched an eyebrow as he peaked over his shoulder, wordlessly urging both Saidai and Mikio to pay their respects.

The former rolled his eyes before bowing, Gaara was the Kazekage's son and Saidai didn't want to get into trouble. The latter on the other hand, did not bow. Judging by his lifelong grudge against a race of deceased ninja, Mikio was far too proud to bow to anyone. Gaara didn't particularly care, he didn't crave respect, he craved fear.

The deathly pale boy let Mikio's little show of defiance slide, it ultimately amounted to nothing in the long run. "I won't ask again," he reaffirmed his order, watching Kuentin rise out of the bow and chuckle lightly.

"We were just in the area when we noticed your uh… thing going on over here, they must have had it coming. Anyway, we thought we'd drop in and see how our brothers and sister-in-arms were doing." The unofficial leader of his little team, Kuentin flicked his eyebrows up and smiled candidly.

Temari quirked an eyebrow in response, there was always some kind of angle where Kuentin was concerned. "Seriously?" She lightly laughed as the word slipped past her lips, placing both of her hands on her shapely hips.

The trickster shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck as he replied. "Well… not entirely, no. Saidai just wanted to see you," he admitted, gesturing to his all too eager friend.

The cockiest member of their squad brushed his non-existent hair back, doing his best to direct a smouldering look Temari's way. "Hey, hot stuff." He bravely greeted, considering her notoriously murderous brother was standing right there.

It didn't matter though; everybody knew Gaara treated his siblings like dirt. It was kind of sad really, how the trio lacked any sort of familial bond. Temari and Kankurō were close, which was probably why the latter's purple painted expression had soured at the mere sound of Saidai's voice. But their brotherly relationship with Gaara was practically non-existent; they were viewed as lackeys more than blood relatives.

As such, nobody outside of Kankurō was going to stand up for the girl. "Not interested, Saidai. I've only told you like a thousand times," though Temari was perfectly capable of fighting her own battles.

The smitten boy didn't let her numerous number of rejections get him down, there was always tomorrow. "We're young, still got plenty of time for you to change your mind." He optimistically stated, throwing a wink her way.

Temari rolled her teal coloured eyes, folding her arms beneath her chest as she averted her gaze away from the teenager. "Don't hold your breath," the only Kunoichi present hit back, prompting him to turn beat red in embarrassment.

Saidai still persisted, attempting to save face in front of his teammates. "Baby, don't be like that." He pleaded with her, causing nothing but rolls of the eyes all around.

Mikio finally spoke up; throwing the blankest look he'd ever worn the smaller boy's way. "Saidai," he shortly said, urging his ally to pull his gaze away from the Sand beauty opposite him.

"Yeah?" A curious reply came from the bald lad, staring up at his taller companion.

Mikio didn't lower his voice; he didn't grant him the common courtesy of privacy among friends. "Be quiet, before I rip your spine out through your chest." He made the threat very clear, it would've been astronomically difficult to mistake his words for anything else.

Both Temari and Kankurō's eyebrows shot up at the show of brutal bluntness, though they weren't really surprised in all honesty. "Wouldn't that be harder? You'd have to go through my ribcage and everything," Saidai innocently responded, tilting his head downwards to look at his chest.

Mikio blinked, it was astonishing just how vacant the kid was. "I yanked a tree from the ground yesterday, I'm sure I could manage." He reasoned, pulling Saidai's attention back up to fall squarely on him.

"I'm convinced," he meekly replied, drawing a sigh from Kuentin as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

Sometimes, it was seriously hard work just surviving the day to day with an idiot and a walking death sentence. "Enough with your babbling… you're here because you need a scroll, more specifically the scroll we just recovered." Gaara cut through the childish back and forth with a knife-sharp no-nonsense tone, demanding everyone's attention fall back on him.

Kuentin laughed awkwardly, the Suna heir wasn't entirely wrong. "Good guess, points for trying. But no, we did lose our scroll—" he began to explain but was interrupted by a straight-faced Mikio, deathly serious eyes poking out of that mask of his.

The resentment was not lost on those present; clearly something had happened to the three ninja that they wouldn't talk about openly. "You lost our scroll," Mikio barged into the conversation, recalling the brutal fight he'd shared with a certain red and blue pest.

Kuentin swallowed, slightly embarrassed as he had to admit to his own shortcomings in front of such a large audience. "As I was saying, I lost our scroll. And while this would have been an opportune moment to regain said stolen item, we recovered both scrolls needed to advance last night." The usually confident lad rambled, throwing up a nervous grin to hide his shame on the matter.

Mikio folded his large arms over his wide chest, scowling specifically at Gaara. "Consider yourselves lucky," he remarked, his words clearly intended as some form of verbal attack.

Something Gaara immediately took notice of; it was hard to miss when it was so blatant. "Lucky?" He posed, though it was less a question in need of answering and more him simply repeating what he'd heard.

Because he couldn't believe he'd just heard it, he couldn't believe that somebody had just said such an insulting thing to him. "Ah crap," Kankurō muttered, his eyes darting about as they flickered between a stoic Mikio, a worried Temari and an increasingly angry Gaara.

"This is bad," the sandy blonde, the only female present as far as anyone knew, swallowed in anticipation for what came next.

Naturally, Mikio did not feel that anticipation. "Yes, lucky. As in I won't be ripping you in half and taking your scroll from your cold, lifeless body. If that isn't lucky, I don't know what is." He reasoned, tilting his helmet wearing head inquisitively.

Saidai snickered in the background, finding the entire thing somewhat comical. "It's funny when he's threatening someone else," he side-eyed Kuentin, cocking a thumb towards the most defiant member of their team.

The unofficial leader, the kid who'd been left in charge of a walking force of nature, sighed. "And things were going moderately well," he muttered beneath his breath, he'd been hoping the conversation could have been kept at least civil.

But who was he kidding, there was no such thing as civil when it came to people like Mikio and Gaara. "Thank you for providing me with an excuse, Mikio." The redheaded child of Rasa felt a grin tug at his pale lips, a growing sense of chaos and destruction building within him.

Everyone froze as sand filtered out of Gaara's gourd and into the air, speckling the clearing with glinting grains of naturally occurring mineral. Mikio surveyed the sand, floating in the air around him like suspended droplets of exceedingly fine rain, just smaller and harder. The implication was clear to the scorpion; he was surrounded by clouds of sand on all sides as were his teammates.

Kuentin and Saidai seized up, unsure what they were supposed to do. Luckily, they didn't have to do anything. Mikio did it for them, breaking out of his stilted stance and strolling right up to Gaara. He forced his way through the suspended sand, it doing nothing to impede his progress. Temari and Kankurō exchanged looks of unease, for all they knew it was about to kick off in a very spectacular way.

Mikio halted directly in front of Gaara, towering over the small boy in an almost comical way. "You're making a very dangerous assumption, Gaara. You assume that everyone is afraid of you; you even have your dear brother and sister walking on eggshells around you because they're not quite sure what you'll do next. Let me be perfectly clear, I am not one of those people nor will I ever be." To his credit, the fiery redhead didn't seem phased as he continued to grin manically.

It would've gone further, it should've gone further. But at that moment in time, it didn't go further. Temari, Kankurō, Kuentin and Saidai had taken it upon themselves to separate the pair. The former two did not touch Gaara or move him in any way; they simply stood in front of him. The latter pair did pull Mikio back from the brink of a fight, but only because he let them.

"Gaara, remember why we're here. We have much bigger things to worry about than Mikio or even the exams, right?" Temari appealed to her baby brother, the last of their bloodline born before their mother passed away.

Gaara's ice cold eyes were pulled away from Mikio, momentarily focusing on the female face in front of him. "Unnecessary fighting, Gaara. Besides, he's nothing. There are far more challenging ninja in this little competition than Mikio Goto, you'd only be wasting your time and that's not something you can afford to do." Kankurō cut in, having to lie to his brother's face in order to get through to him.

Gaara was too proud to let anything go, but if he could've span it in such a way that Mikio was not even worth the effort, then they might've had a shot at pulling the boy away from the fight. "We have our orders, sweetie. We can't let dad down," Temari spoke softly, smiling as she employed the use of a pet name.

Over on the other side of the clearing, Kuentin and Saidai had to do something along the same lines. "We really don't have time for this little bout, Mikio. Besides, he's the Kazekage's son. I'm pretty sure killing him would result in a death sentence; don't quote me on that though." The dark haired boy garbed in purple and green jested, easing the tension as Mikio stared down at him.

Saidai nodded, two full rows of pearly whites on show as he beamed. "And you can't forget about that little grudge you've got going on, isn't he the entire reason you agreed to take part in the exams?" The bald lad reminded the arachnid-themed Shinobi, admittedly possessing some resentment for the spider-kid himself after such a swift and embarrassing defeat.

Mikio shrugged, he didn't need any more convincing. "Bizarrely, you're absolutely right. I have a clear goal in mind and no matter how much I want to kill him, Gaara is a necessary evil." He came to a solid conclusion, taking his predatory eyes off of his comrades and gazing across the meadow.

It seemed Gaara had also elected to calm down, which was surprising really, considering his bloodthirsty nature. The jinchūriki glowered at his siblings, prompting them to take a step away from him out of sheer fear. Palpable fear, fear the boy could feel in the very air around him. Speaking of the air around him, the sand he'd scattered swiftly returned to its home in the gourd on his back, neutralizing the lingering threat of a fight altogether.

Gaara didn't like it, not one bit. He'd had to settle for verbally berating the last person who disrespected him, the spider-nin back in the Leaf Village, instead of dealing with him in a way more fitting. If Gaara hadn't been on an extraordinarily important mission, he'd have straight up murdered the boy. Pāka was his name, the redhead vaguely recalled.

"We've wasted enough time here, we should get moving. Temari, Kankurō… for once, you're right. The tower is the main goal, everything else is simply unnecessary. This entire pointless conversation only served to prove that," Gaara shocked both his siblings by turning his back on everyone and stalking away, leaving a bewildered look on their faces.

It seemed the brief reminder of the bigger picture had served to simmer Gaara's insatiable bloodlust; either that or the conduit for a Tailed Beast was employing a very good poker face. "Right behind you, Gaara." Kankurō called out to his brother, not bothering to wave as he left the scene in a hurry.

No words came to mind for Temari, so she simply gave a slight nod of the head to her fellow Suna-nin before departing herself. "Bye, Temari! Bye! We'll see you at—at—you know, the tower and everything! I—I don't think she can hear me," Saidai murmured quietly after seconds of manic waving, drawing dismayed expression from both his companions.

Kuentin held his hand to his forehead, slowly sliding it down his face inch by inch. "Could you be any more desperate?" The most logical of the trio—or so he thought—posed the rhetorical question, his tone one of pity.

Said pity was lost on the most energetic member of their team, shrugging as he didn't see what the big deal was. "I think she's hot, sue me." Saidai flippantly stated, dismissively parting from them as he ventured into the surrounding woods.

Their most annoying teammate's departure left the green duo in complete silence, though Mikio didn't like the way Kuentin was staring at him. "You're going to lecture me, aren't you?" The brute of a boy quizzed, urging a shake of the head from his friend.

The self-touted master of illusions gave a short laugh, placing his hands behind his back and linking his fingers together. "No, no, nothing like that. I'm just… surprised and a little impressed, honestly. You showed a lot of restraint just now—besides the exchange of threats—I know that's never easy for you." Kuentin recognized, just as he'd recognized the tense manner in which his masked wearing ally had addressed Gaara.

Mikio nodded, he was just glad Kuentin wasn't going to talk his ear off for once. "In a perfect world, I'd have ripped his tongue out through his throat and let him choke on his own blood." He claimed, cracking his knuckles as a means to ease some of the anger coursing through his veins.

Kuentin's brow furrowed, an angry Mikio usually spelled trouble for everyone. "I believe you but this isn't a perfect world, man. It's never been one and as far as I know, I'm not a world famous illusionist yet so it likely never will be one. As much as we hate it, he's our future leader." The trickster reminded his friend, the word being used in the loosest of terms.

Mikio scoffed, a rare occurrence as every single thing that left his mouth was usually the promise of a severe beating. "Your future leader, we've discussed this already. Once I restore my clan's honour, I'm leaving the Sand Village." He stated and due to their talks in secrecy, it was a statement Kuentin was positive the boy was going to back up.

Still, it didn't stop him from attempting to appeal to his common sense. "You know that's a crime, right? You must know, I've only had to tell you twelve thousand times. Abandoning your village and its people without any form of permission is a good way to become a missing-nin; Suna would never let you leave anyway. You're one of its strongest ninja, you're invaluable." Kuentin insisted, even going so far as to place a hand on his pal's shoulder.

His taller, stronger and scarier pal, something that seemed all the more apparent as Mikio narrowed his eyes at him. "Are you saying you'd report me?" The edge in his voice was perfectly clear, even despite the slightly muffled volume.

Kuentin opened his mouth to speak, his brain failing him as a wave of fear overcame him. "No... no, no! Good God, no! Of course I wouldn't, I'd never go behind your back like that. I'm just saying, people will eventually find out and when that time comes, you'd best be prepared to make a lot of enemies." The boy instinctively jerked his entire body back, away from the implied danger in front of him.

Mikio seemed satisfied, although he didn't trust anyone; only an idiot would've lied directly to his face. "I don't intend to harm them; I'm not a monster despite what you may think of me. But I have no intention of going back once I'm done here, they'd have to kill me to stop me. Besides, if you really do know me, you know I'd welcome the challenge." He turned his hard and stony gaze away from the shorter but admittedly smarter boy, staring off into dense green forest surrounding the small clearing they were standing in.

Kuentin rapidly nodded, at this point just trying to stay on his good side. "I do know you, Mikio… I do know you. I just—I hope you at least give it some thought, that's all. Come on, we have both scrolls; there's no need to linger here any longer. Don't want Saidai to go and get himself killed, eh?" The boy broke away from the larger framed Shinobi, nervously laughing as he attempted to lighten the mood.

Mikio let him leave, he had nothing else to discuss with him. He still wasn't even sure why he'd shared such information with the Genjutsu user, though he supposed that even closed off individuals such as himself still needed someone to talk to. Human beings, even those that possessed the abilities of arachnids, were social creatures by nature.

In all honesty, despite the implicated threats and subtle undertones of violence, Mikio was going to miss their little talks. Sparing one last fleeting glance at a gathering of bushes teetering on the flat meadow-like edge of the clearing and the thick, jumbled mess of plant life that was the forest, Mikio narrowed his eyes.

Nobody knew of a scorpion's inherent ability to sense vibrations, those that did know were long since dead. Regardless, he could feel the very minute vibrations that someone or something was giving off through the ground. The ever so slight shifts in the Earth that dictated movement, even through the material of his sandals. He didn't particularly care in all honesty, if they were going to attack, they'd have done it at that point.

No, they were hiding.

"It's not polite to eavesdrop," Mikio aired, staring directly at the thicket of greenery that seemed to shake just a little bit more with each word uttered.

He suspected that whoever they were, they'd stumbled upon Gaara's massacre and opted to hide. In his opinion, that was the smartest move they could've made. Unlike him—according to himself at least—Gaara was a monster and most likely wouldn't have spared a second thought in slaughtering them, it was simply how his twisted mind worked.

Mikio turned his back on the bush, they weren't going to come out of their hiding spot and he simply didn't have the patience to stand around. "If you're done here, head for the tower. Sticking your noses into other people's business is a good way to prematurely end your careers as ninja, especially where Gaara of the Desert is concerned." He advised, venturing into the woods shortly after.

He didn't care who it was, just as long as it wasn't the spider-heir.

Kiba, Hinata and Shino remained perfectly still as the big green guy left. They'd been stuck in the same agonizing position for the entire exchange, barely able to breathe as six dangerous ninja conversed mere yards away from them. And judging by the severely annoyed looks of accusation—even from Hinata—it seemed the general consensus was that Kiba was to blame, a sentiment he kind of agreed with.

All three Genin breathed generous sighs of relief as they were left alone with the quietness of the forest, barring the occasional tweet of a bird. "Okay, guys… I messed up." Kiba reluctantly admitted as Akamaru continued to shake within the confines of his fur-lined coat, drawing a worried look from his owner.

Shino narrowed his eyes beneath those beady black sunglasses of his, rising to stand and look down on the dog-user with a tiny fraction of disdain. "That's an understatement; your reckless behaviour could've gotten us all killed." He didn't hold back as Kiba also stood, wiping the stray leaves and pieces of grass from his backside.

Hinata followed suit, her stomach doing loops as she still felt queasy. "As m-much as I prefer to st-stay out of your arguments… Shino's right, K-Kiba." She turned to gaze up at her abrasive team leader, sweat dripping from her purple brow.

Kiba was slightly taken aback; the Hinata he knew was never one to be so confrontational. "Jeez, you too? Look, it was a dumb move. I get that, I know that. I shouldn't have jumped ahead like that; it was… it was a stupid thing to do." He admitted, his usually loud and brash tone taking a turn for the quiet all of a sudden.

Shino kept silent, he knew Kiba meant what he said. "I… I've never been more afraid in my entire life," Hinata on the other hand, she was still feeling the effects of a near clash with a group of murderous ninja.

Kiba frowned, wincing a little as guilt hit him in waves. "Hinata… I'm sorry, okay? Really, I—I just wasn't thinking. I'll try to be more careful, more cautious next time." He promised, though for the young Hyūga heiress—former Hyūga heiress anyway—the wild boy's words weren't good enough.

The petit Kunoichi held out her hand, her pinkie finger extended while the rest were balled. She didn't explain it; both males present knew what it meant. Kiba studied the tiny digit for a moment before ultimately taking a hold of it, wrapping his own pinkie finger around it. They held the lock tightly, nodding at each other before letting go.

Kiba had to stay true to his word now; breaking a pinkie promise was a big no-no among friends. "Right… now that that's settled, we should head towards the tower too. Akamaru's still not himself; I wanna make sure he's okay." He suggested, gazing down into the confines of his coat and frowning at a still quivering puppy.

The bug user with the frizzy brunette hair and the girl born with a kekkei genkai both nodded, Akamaru wasn't their pet but they still cared about the little guy. "We'll leave but perhaps we should hold back a little, if what we heard was true then that means both teams are headed in that direction. We wouldn't want to run into them again, would we?" Shino advised, drawing immediate compliant nods from his companions.

They were tough, they'd seen their fair share of crazy but at the end of the day, they were still just kids. They had no idea what Gaara and that Mikio guy were, whether they were human beings or something else entirely but Team 8 did not want to find out. At least, not any time soon. So they sat in each other's company for a moment, Kiba's attention fully devoted to his startled pup while both Shino and Hinata took a moment to contemplate things.

It was a strange thought to be having, especially in the middle of the second phase of the Chūnin Exams but… a small part of the pair were starting to wonder whether they had been ready for such a competition after all. Kiba, of course, had been all for it ever since Kurenai-Sensei had brought the news to them. Shino had been somewhat on the fence on the matter whilst Hinata—the most timid ninja anyone had ever met—had been straight up apprehensive, constantly worrying and stressing out in the days leading up to sign-up.

Shino had done his best—at least he'd thought so—to reassure the girl but even he felt that they'd both been a little pushed into it by Kiba, he'd been claiming every day of training that they'd show every other team up, prove to them that they were a force to be reckoned with. And while it had been encouraging, doubt still managed to sow itself within their minds.

The usually quiet boy readjusted his sunglasses, not that he needed to, it was simply something to do. He had to force those thoughts out of his mind; second guessing himself and his teammates wasn't going to do anyone any good. They'd committed to the competition, to their sensei; the decision was on them and them alone.

"Kiba," the insect-user disturbed the tranquil albeit tense peace, his sharp tone immediately grabbing both of his companions' attention.

Hinata was anxious; Shino was able to tell simply by the way she was sitting. Completely rigid, unwilling to let go and just let her muscles relax for a moment. The brunette didn't blame her; they were out in the middle of an unfamiliar forest and feeling more than a little on edge. The lad sat opposite Shino, sharp canine fangs just barely managing to poke through the thin line his lips had assumed, jerked his head upwards at the sound of his name.

He was so preoccupied with Akamaru; Shino wouldn't have been surprised had all worry slipped the ninja's mind. "I think it's time we head out," he suggested, something so emotionally withdrawn about his voice and demeanour in general.

Whereas Kiba wore his bravado on his sleeve and Hinata was clearly a shy budding flower that had yet to bloom, Shino was quite the closed book. Half the time, his friends had no idea what he was thinking let alone his enemies. And that was key for a good Shinobi, to never show an opponent any weaknesses. Shino was a blank canvas; Kiba was splattered with vibrant red whilst the only girl of the trio was painted in water colour, made up of sombre purple and sad blue.

Kiba didn't bother to answer, not verbally anyway. He simply nodded, hopping to his feet whilst being careful of the passenger hiding within his coat. Hinata and Shino followed, the former affectionately reaching into Kiba's coat to rub the pup's quivering ears. Akamaru gave a short cry before burying his muzzle into Kiba's chest, earning a sympathetic coo from the short-haired girl.

"Oh, Akamaru. What do you think's the matter with him?" She queried as the trio set off, her large lavender eyes gazing up at Kiba's predatory slit pupils.

The Inuzuka boy knew exactly what was wrong with him, he'd felt it a little himself in all honesty. "Dogs aren't like us, well… like you. They're much more attuned to the world around us, that's even truer for Ninja Hounds. Akamaru caught wind of something he didn't like, clearly freaked the little guy out." He steered clear of flat-out saying it at the risk of sounding like a superstitious idiot, though was surprised when Shino cut in.

He was a member of the Aburame-Clan, one of the five noble families of Konoha—a family specifically defined by their expert use of any and all types of insects—and even he knew full well what was bothering Akamaru. "Make of this what you will but… it's said that dogs can sense evil, not everyone believes in such things but clearly Akamaru picked up on something." Shino bluntly pitched in, earning a perplexed look from Kiba and a worried look from Hinata.

Kiba was a little caught off-guard because Shino was an incredibly sceptical child, constantly asking inconsequential questions that were usually regarded as nit-picking by most kids. "Hey, they aren't man's best friend for nothing." He stated proudly, sporting a grin as the mysterious Genin arched an eyebrow at him.

"Well, that's debatable." Shino shot back in a matter of fact tone, the trio settling into their old roles in light of recent events.

Kiba would claim something, Shino would poke holes in everything he said and Hinata would constantly try to act as a mediator between the two. "We've been over this, insects are not man's best friend. Never have been, never will be." The canine enthusiast—with his red decorated cheeks—shook his head; the very same argument was brought up every other week.

Hinata sighed as she closed her eyes, because she knew that eventually—

"What do you think, Hinata?" Shino turned his black sunglasses down towards her, hands firmly in his light grey jacket pockets.

The Hyūga-Clan member found herself fiddling with her fingers as both parties looked to her to solve their little conundrum, the best she could do was look down at her toes poking through her sandals. "I-I'm not sure… I'm not really f-familiar with either animal, though… dogs are famously loyal." She attempted to skirt the line between both arguments but in the end, she let her bias show.

Her sole exposure to dogs had been through Akamaru and Hinata, bless her little soul, loved the puppy to pieces. "Oh man, what's that? Score one for Kiba?" The loudest boy in their company placed his hand to his ear, mocking Shino with a giant toothy grin.

Shino didn't show any sort of response, not physically anyway. "Everything's always a competition with you," he muttered, turning away from his cocky friend to face front.

Kiba simply gave a hearty laugh in response while Hinata kept quiet; it seemed not much had changed despite the near danger to their lives. In reality, all three children were simply trying to keep their minds off of what they'd seen. Yesterday had been a far simpler day for them, when they hadn't witnessed three young Rain ninja get crushed to death in tombs made up of golden sand.

What was that phrase again? Out of sight, out of mind?

---

Some distance away, blind to the very real danger of overwhelmingly powerful ninja like Gaara and Mikio, two more Konoha Genin were cautiously making their way through the maze-like structure of the 44th Battle Training Zone. Though, they weren't rookies by any means, having just over a year under their belt as fully fledged Leaf ninja. They'd graduated from last year's Academy class, though instead of headed straight for the Chūnin Exams, their sensei had ultimately decided against it in favour of rigorous training.

Neji Hyūga and Tenten Tanaka, two members of Team 3, led by the one and only master of Taijutsu, Might Guy himself. They were missing a member, a boy that fashioned himself after their teacher to almost parody-like levels. For whatever reason, Guy-Sensei encouraged it and the two shared a strong bond because of their many similarities.

Neji didn't understand it, not really. How could two people that weren't even related in any way, through blood or marriage, become so close? It wasn't the case but people would've been forgiven for thinking they were father and son, such was their resemblance, physically and in every other aspect imaginable.

He wasn't envious of the relationship, far from it in fact. It simply perplexed him, his clan—his family—simply did things in a completely different way. They were colder, sterner, less welcoming, less loving. It had clearly rubbed off on him, as he couldn't even muster a shred of feeling for his cousin. Though, that could've been attributed to her standing in the Hyūga's Main House while he was… less revered.

Neji was a member of the Hyūga's Branch House, assigned to protect the Main House at all costs. Well… less assigned and more forced, as members had absolutely no say in it. Due to the circumstances of their birth, these members were automatically subservient to the Main House. They were their lesser in every sense of the word, born to protect and serve them.

They could not escape this fate, as members were branded with a cursed seal at a young age that served two primary purposes. The first was to protect the most treasured technique of the Hyūga-Clan, the famed Byakugan. It was a Dōjutsu technique that—once activated—gave its users a near three hundred and sixty degree field of view, with a single blind spot at the back of the neck, above the third upper thoracic vertebrae.

It enabled Neji and Hinata alike to see targets incredible distances away, though this varied depending on the skill of the user. With this kekkei genkai, they were able to follow high speed movements and even penetrate most solid objects with their vision. Arguably, its greatest trait was the ability to see Chakra, recognizing individual people according to the unique Chakra signature they gave off and also being able to see the Chakra Pathway System that coursed through the body.

Though, extended use of the Byakugan could lead to severe but temporary eye-strain. In some cases, this could fully blind the wielder for a limited amount of time. Like many powerful abilities, there were certain drawbacks. Neji had yet to experience them as he was a child prodigy, even by Hyūga-Clan standards.

Regardless, due to his birth, he'd always play second fiddle to the Main Branch. It was because of this that Neji harboured a silent resentment for them, a strong feeling that burned within him and grew with each passing day. As such, he was a little difficult to be around.

Tenten knew this full well, she'd spent the last year with him and while she had adjusted to his cold personality—especially in comparison to someone like Rock Lee—it still rubbed her the wrong way every now and again.

Especially when the boy couldn't muster the effort to show an ounce of worry over his missing teammate, which was really starting to get on her nerves. "Do you think he's all right?" The brunette—with her hair held in two Chinese-style tight buns—queried as she and her stoic companion landed at the base of a tall tree, concern fraught in her slightly tanned features.

Neji folded his arms and hummed, he was admittedly curious himself. "I'm starting to wonder that myself, though I wouldn't be surprised if trouble found him. Then again, knowing him, he most likely went looking for trouble." He reasoned, his absent teammate had always been the eager one.

Sometimes that meant he didn't know when to fight and when not to, he didn't pick and choose his battles. A lot of people tended to forget that an important part of survival was knowing when to run away, there were some battles that just couldn't be won, no matter how much 'hard work' was put in. Things were predetermined—or so Neji thought anyway—some ninja were just inherently stronger than others and there was no way around that, even Guy-Sensei's intense training wasn't going to change that.

It was possible he could've been killed, Neji had considered it. He just didn't want to say it out loud, especially with Tenten inches away from him. Not because he was taking her feelings into account, simply because he really didn't need her to be a blubbering mess in the middle of a test of survival.

"Can't you use your thingy?" Tenten suggested, arching an eyebrow as she placed a hand on her developing hips.

Neji frowned, he really hated it when she referred to his sacred technique as a 'thingy'. "Why don't you just say Byakugan? You know what it's called, Tenten." He reminded her, a part of him wouldn't have been surprised if she'd done it just to tick him off.

The girl—wearing her pink sleeveless blouse and dark green pants—shrugged, unable to understand why he cared so much about it. "Honestly? It's kind of a mouthful," she lightly reasoned, a brief smile passing over her lips.

It diminished almost immediately as Neji scowled at her, now he was convinced she was simply trying to push his buttons. "Okay, fine. Can you please use your awesome Byakugan, oh great and powerful Neji?" Tenten mocked, her dark brown eyes fixed solely on her teammate's light lavender orbs.

Neji grumbled, turning away from her as he directed his attention to the forest at large. "The sarcasm isn't appreciated but… it's better than nothing, I suppose." He muttered, before preparing himself for the technique.

The long raven haired genius clasped his hands together—one bandaged and the other not—in front of his pale face, his index and middle finger standing upright. "Byakugan!" Neji yelled, his eyes widening as the veins around his temples bulged.

Suddenly, everything became so clear to him. The boy was able to see the Chakra Pathway System of his female teammate, watching as it moved and flowed within her. He then saw beyond her, scouring every each of the forest for a fifty metre radius. It was all he could manage at such a young age; he was going to train to make it stronger, to give it a far reaching range.

Neji was about to deactivate the technique when he noticed something behind him, ever so slightly above him and Tenten. Whatever it was, it was almost hidden by the Byakugan's blind spot… almost. Tenten seemed oblivious as Neji spun around, moving quite swiftly as he whipped a kunai knife out of the holster on his leg.

Of course, the blade didn't get far as something stopped Neji's arm in its tracks, an impossibly solid grip wrapped around his wrist and refusing to budge one bit. "What in the—wait… Pīta? Pīta Pāka?" Tenten voiced her surprise, noticing the boy hanging upside down with one hand precariously holding onto a web-line and the other holding onto Neji's wrist.

The red and blue spider didn't answer the girl immediately; he was instead involved in a fairly tense staring match with another prodigy student. "Didn't your parents ever teach you not to play with sharp objects? You could've had my eye out, dude." Pīta lectured, the only visible part of his face—his chocolate brown eyes—scowling at the lad slightly below him.

Neji narrowed his own right back, unable to yank himself free. "That was the idea," he snapped back, locked in a tense stand-off with the only other boy for at least fifty metres.

And he just so happened to have been a fellow Leaf ninja, something he didn't particularly care about. "Okay, you, behave. You, get down from there and stop with the creepy spider routine." Tenten on the other hand, really didn't have time for the whole testosterone contest.

She waltzed right up to the pair, urging a quirk of the eyebrow from both of them as she patted Pīta's arm, wordlessly telling him to let go. The boy did just that, blinking a few times as she also physically lowered Neji's arm. The Hyūga-Clan member perfectly mimicked the Shukeikō-Clan heir as he too blinked a few times, feeling his kunai knife slip from his hand.

Neji's eyes settled back down, the veins around them disappearing altogether as he watched Tenten show him his own weapon. "You can have this back when you learn to play nice," Tenten lectured, pocketing the projectile piece of steel.

Pīta rubbed the back of his neck; he hadn't been expecting things to get so awkward. "Tenten, this is the second phase of the exams. This is supposed to be a test of survival, not a test of friendship." Neji folded his arms, frowning—as if his mouth knew to do anything but frown—at the bold girl.

The agile Shinobi above them let go of the strand of silk he'd been holding, landing without a sound and stretching to his full height. "Oh, you're a rules guy! This should be a hoot and a half," he mocked, hiding a grin in plain sight as it was masked perfectly by his… well, mask.

"You're already starting to get on my nerves, how long have you been here? Six seconds?" Neji questioned, though it was clearly rhetorical in nature.

Pīta didn't mind, he actually loved a good back and forth with anyone. "Really? Wow, I'm not even trying. It's Neji, right? Lady Hinata's older and much more abrasive cousin? Last year's number one rookie?" He peppered a few queries the boy's way, though they were in vain.

He knew full well who Neji Hyūga was, as did the rest of the rookie Genin. As Pīta had said, Neji had been the Academy's unchallenged number one rookie the previous year. He was also slightly notorious for treating his soft spoken cousin less like a family member and more like a gnat, annoying and bothersome. Though, it was a family matter so people tended not to get involved.

Pīta didn't know the kid, he'd had no prior experience to him outside of brief eye contact the morning they'd all signed up for the exams. So he really didn't want to judge a book by its cover or buy into any gossip or rumours, they'd just met after all, formally at least.

Neji didn't bother answering any of Pīta's questions; he instead fixed the younger boy with a stern glare. "And I know who you are too, Pāka. You're the end of a bloodline; you're the last living spider." He pointed out, as if Pīta wasn't already aware of this information.

All the web-head could do was shrug, taking it in stride. "No pressure, right?" He calmly responded, a slight laugh escaping his lips.

Though, while Pīta took it on the chin, Tenten felt a little offended for him. "Neji, there's no need to be so hostile. He hasn't attacked us, so why don't we just calm down and talk to each other." She suggested, her eyes flickering from her companion to the friendly newcomer.

Neji didn't respond, he didn't even acknowledge the girl's words with a look her way. "I like her, she's smart." Pīta raised his eyebrows, cocking a thumb Tenten's way as he matched the male Hyūga's penetrating gaze.

"Thank you," she appreciated the compliment, though had to suppress a sigh as the two males were still staring one another down.

Like two stags locked in one-on-one combat, waiting for each other to back off and submit. "Tenten does have a point; you had the element of surprise on your side and the opportunity to attack us. Yet you didn't, which means you're not here to take our scroll. So, Pāka… what doyou want?" The older, more experienced of the two boys posed.

Pīta felt a smile tug at his lips, he didn't mind the bluntness. "I was in the neighbourhood, thought I'd drop by and say hi." It contrasted greatly with his flippant nature; someone had to force things along after all.

Neji wasn't buying his answer; Tenten found it odd too as she quirked an eyebrow. "Pīta, what's wrong? Did something happen?" They barely knew each other after all; he had no rhyme or reason to check in with them.

The only Kunoichi present knew when someone was being evasive, when someone was dancing around a subject because they didn't know how to approach it. "Well, I'm all by my lonesome if you haven't noticed. And I see you're missing a lesser spotted Rock Lee… that's his name, right? Lee?" He had to double check, as easy as the owner of the name was to remember, Pīta had been through quite a lot since meeting him.

Namely repeated blunt force trauma to the head, which was a simple yet effective way to forget a lot of things. "Yes," Neji answered shortly, his quiet yet firm tone carrying a sharpness to it.

A sharpness that was warning Pīta, letting him know that Neji was watching every small and subtle move he made. "Unique name, easy to remember." The brunette remarked, stuffing his fingerless gloved hands into his dark blue pants pockets.

Tenten knew that her teammate wasn't going to comment any further, so she took it upon herself to keep the conversation going. "We split up to scout for another scroll but… that was this morning, we haven't seen him since." She revealed, earning a nod of understanding from the boy garbed in torn red and blue.

Pīta noticed the worry shimmer in those dark brown eyes of hers, she was scared that something had happened to her friend and he couldn't blame her. "I lost Naruto and Sakura yesterday, something happened, something bad and we… we got split up." He levelled with her, avoiding any witticisms or jests for the sake of urgency.

Friends were missing; it wasn't exactly the right time to sit around a campfire telling knock knock jokes. "I hope they're okay," Tenten expressed, offering her fellow brunette a kind smile.

Though she wasn't able to see it, the web-slinger returned it. "Ditto," he muttered, his scattered thoughts shifting to his MIA allies.

Neji on the other hand, wasn't feeling so sentimental. "Let me guess… you want us to help you find your missing teammates and in return—" The stoic boy—not unlike Sasuke in that regard—knew where Pīta was headed, though was interrupted himself when the Genin decided to cut to the chase.

"I'll help you find Lee, sure." He agreed, nodding with complete sincerity as Neji narrowed those pupil-less lavender eyes of his.

Tenten took note of it; Neji was still on alert-mode while Pīta had softened up. "Three heads are better than two, right?" She attempted to play to his logic, his common sense as the advantage couldn't be denied.

Though, Neji being Neji was always full of surprises. "We appreciate the offer… but no," his decline was short and sweet, sour would've been more accurate actually.

Tenten stood slack-jawed as Neji about turned and marched away, not bothering to concern himself with Pīta's trivial troubles. "Neji! Are you kidding me right now?!" She called after him, balling her fists as the unofficial leader of their team paid her no heed.

In all honesty, Pīta was a little stunned by the immediate dismissal as well. "Well, that settles that… I prefer his cousin." He admitted, not bothering to lower his tone in the meantime.

"I heard that," Neji's voice carried back through the dense trees of the forest, out of sight but not out of earshot apparently.

Pīta scoffed, shaking his head. "I didn't exactly whisper," he gave a cheeky response, which was met with nothing but silence.

Neji was most likely done with the entire situation, he had bigger things to worry about than Pīta's little manhunt. "He—he just… takes some time getting used to, I swear." Tenten spoke up, employing an apologetic tone as she rubbed her upper arm awkwardly.

Pīta wasn't sure why she felt sorry, she hadn't been the difficult one. "I don't doubt it," he shortly replied, just getting a taste of the Hyūga had soured his entire non-existent opinion of him.

Though, maybe he'd just caught him on a bad day.

A painfully awkward silence hung between the remaining two Leaf Genin as they stood idle, dwindling in the shade the overhead canopy of the forest had to offer. The last time they'd spoken had been during sign-up for the exams, when Pīta had defended Tenten from two boisterous bullies. She'd appreciated the heck out it, which was a huge part of why she'd sort of defended him from Neji.

It wasn't as if she'd picked him over her teammate, she knew full well when the raven haired Shinobi was being aggressive and there was just something inherently trustworthy about Pīta. Even though she couldn't see his face, his features, his smile… his eyes spoke volumes. They were too kind to hide any ill intent, too exuberant and full of life.

The moment she'd met him she realized he had a good heart, even though it had been a ploy by her team to temper expectations towards them, standing up for the weak was something a good person did. Tenten wasn't willing to write him off just like her friend had done, she wasn't about to repay him by brushing him aside like yesterday's news.

A silly smile decorated her lips as she looked him up and down, taking in just how beaten up and sorry looking he appeared. "You look awful by the way," she told him honestly, furrowing her brow in sympathy as she regarded his torn clothes.

Pīta laughed, he appreciated honesty. "I feel awful," he agreed, still marginally feeling the effects of the snake venom that had once coursed through his veins.

He doubted it was totally out of his system yet, he still felt like he was about to spontaneously combust. "I didn't want to say anything but… you're much paler than I remember, from what I can see anyway… you know, the mask and everything." Tenten rambled, folding her arms underneath her chest and smiling through it.

"Yeah, I'm not feeling so hot. I don't know, must've been something I ate." Pīta lied, with great reluctance on his part.

He didn't want to be dishonest with her, he didn't want to be dishonest with anyone but he wasn't sure he was ready to explain exactly what had happened to him. "Like what?" Tenten bought into his fib; he did seem a little tired to her now that he'd mentioned it.

Pīta shrugged, standing stiff for a moment as sweat was beginning to amass on his forehead. "I'm not sure, berries? People eat berries in the forest, right?" He quizzed, a part of him running with his excuse and another part of him genuinely curious.

Tenten arched a bewildered eyebrow, taking note of his sudden case of the sweats despite his pale complexion. "The poisonous kind? Yeah, that'd be a no." She answered, before feeling comfortable enough to take a step towards him.

Pīta barely noticed Tenten enter his personal space and gently, delicately place her dainty hand on his forehead. "Obviously," he vacantly replied, blinking rapidly as his vision slowly blurred.

Tenten's face was nothing more than a peach and brown blur as he stared right down at her, unable to sharpen the shapes with his usually spectacular eyesight. "You're—Pīta, you're burning up!" She urgently informed him, finding his forehead to be searing hot.

Almost too hot, unnaturally hot for a regular fever. "I'm fine," he shrugged, reaching up with a squinting eye to pull her hand away from his head.

Tenten attempted to resist his grip but found it impossible, he was simply too strong even in his somewhat dazed state. "You must be running some kind of fever," she speculated, concern invading her tone as she took a moment to wipe the damp palm of her hand on her sleeveless pink blouse.

Pīta let a laugh escape his masked mouth; he really didn't have time to be babied. "Tenten," he spoke her voice, a one worded request for her to stop.

In spite of this, she persisted. "If you don't cool down, you're going to collapse." She lectured him, something she really didn't want to do but as he was giving her no choice, she felt compelled to.

Pīta took a step back, raising his hands in front of him as if he were trying to ward her off. "I'm good, really." He insisted, feeling the fringe of his messy brunette hair dampen and mat with sweat.

Tenten rolled her eyes before she marched right up to him, getting right up in his half-visible face and even pointing her index finger in there too. "Look, I get that you're trying to be this big tough guy but if you keep being this stubborn, the only thing you're going to accomplish is falling flat on your face. Don't be like Neji; know when someone is offering to help you out." She had his complete and undivided attention as she spoke, unable to not notice the way his pupils were dilating and retracting.

Consistently too, as if they couldn't make up their minds whether they wanted to let light in or shut it out. "I really don't want a stick up my butt," Pīta simply responded, drawing a confused look out of the shorter girl before she realized what he was talking about.

Taking advantage of his momentary cluelessness, Tenten gripped Pīta's wrist and marched off in the direction Neji had departed. "Um… where are we going?" The boy—who Tenten suspected might have been slightly delirious—innocently questioned, his eyes as well as his voice full of curiosity.

Tenten dragged him along with her, navigating over the uneven terrain of the Forest of Death with the added difficulty of a fever ridden spider in her charge. "To the nearest fresh water source, you need to cool off." She didn't turn to address Pīta; she couldn't risk walking head first into the base of a tree.

The wall-crawler was simply along for the ride, he was feeling sluggish as his temperature had begun to soar to dangerous heights. "Then what?" The spider-heir once again posed, feeling more than a little useless as he shook his head in an attempt to regain some idea of his surroundings.

The girl chanced a confident look back at her trailing companion, noticing him manoeuvring his way over the various obstacles they passed with expert precision. "Then we're going to find our missing teammates," she told him, arching an eyebrow as it was as if he was on auto-pilot.

Despite his groggy state—sweating through whatever remained of Orochimaru's snake venom—Pīta didn't miss a beat in his response, focusing on his words as he relied on his spider-sense to guide him physically. "What about bright eyes?" The red and blue ninja questioned, his arm outstretched as Tenten continued to pull him along like a lost child.

She didn't even think about the strange nickname he'd used, only catching herself after having repeated it. "Bright eyes—I mean, Neji's word isn't final. We'd cover much more ground between the three of us; he's just too prideful to ask for any kind of help." Tenten came to the most logical conclusion, something which was obvious to her but not always to her abrasive teammate.

Pīta snorted, apparently coherent enough to still have that dry sense of humour working. "Pride, huh? That's what that is?" He ribbed, before halting for a moment in order to steal himself.

Tenten was almost yanked back and onto the ground as something heavy kept her rooted in place, she turned and realized that Pīta had simply stopped walking. "It's okay, you can rest. Bottom line is… I haven't known Neji long, just over a year actually. We don't always agree on everything—who does?—but trust me when I say that he means well, really." She appealed in favour of the boy she'd known longer, teammates had to stick together after all.

Pīta took his hand back, feeling the light grip around his wrist loosen completely as he steadied his rapidly growing breathing. "I'll reserve the right to be sceptical," he shot back, the non-existent heat was seriously starting to get to him.

Something Tenten took note of as he keeled over, hands on his knees and breathing haggard. "You okay there? Maybe… maybe you should stay put, let Neji and I find Naruto, Sakura and Lee." She checked, crouching down to meet him at eye-level.

Brown stared into brown for a moment; Pīta shook his head before waving her concerns away. "I'm good, seriously. Just gotta… gotta catch my breath is all, really." Pīta assured her, finally standing upright after he felt he'd gotten his oxygen intake under control once again.

Tenten stared up at him, still crouched on the ground as he cracked his back. "If you're sure," she didn't object, slowly reaching her full height just as he'd done, standing noticeably shorter than him.

Pīta took in a deep bout of air, holding it for several long seconds before he eventually released it back into the vibrant forest around them. "Who knows, maybe sunshine and I could become BFFs." The arachnid-themed rookie flashed a grin beneath his dark blue mask, feeling better with each and every word that passed through his lips.

Tenten found herself smirking; he was certainly a weird one with the way he was bouncing back and forth between comical and drowsy. "Okay, I don't know whether that's just you being you or the fever talking. Either way, about as much chance of that happening as there is… the moon falling to the Earth or something." She entertained the humour, joining in herself as the duo set off in search of the Hyūga prodigy and the nearest source of water.

Pīta didn't bother stifling his laughter, disturbing a few birds from their crudely made nests in the rich green trees overhead. "Don't jinx it," he briefly remarked, earning an ear to ear grin in return from his new travel companion.

Of course, it was easy to laugh and joke about in the presence of a friendly face but Pīta had to stay focused and remind himself what he was supposed to have been doing. His spider-sense felt the same way, offering the boy a low buzz every now and again, signalling which general direction Sakura was in, which was a good thing as it meant his spider-tracer was still in effect. Though, the tingle was weak in its severity, meaning that he was still some distance away from her.

For now, Pīta had to reluctantly take Tenten's advice and cool his fever down somewhat. But as soon as he'd drenched his face in a source of crystal clear fresh water, nothing was stopping him from following the tingles in his skull directly to his lost teammates. He just hoped that nothing had happened to them, it'd been so long since he'd seen Naruto and Sakura. Pīta silently prayed that they were still in one piece, which was a big deal actually as Pīta was anything but religious.

Regardless, he just wanted them to be safe. Hopefully, after such a monumentally crappy few days, he'd at least have that going for him. The security of his friends and the certainty that they wouldn't be parted again, that some powerful force wouldn't separate them for a second time and leave all three of them vulnerable.

It was out of his hands for now, which Pīta hated. The feeling of powerlessness, the feeling of helplessness. The feeling that he wasn't doing enough when he could've been doing, when he should've been doing. Not out of obligation or written contract, but out of a simple sense of responsibility. And that was something Pīta took very seriously, above all else. But saying it and thinking it was easy, was all well and good… Pīta needed to show it.

Pīta needed to mean it…

---

Author's Note: So, there we have it. Sakura's facing issues of her own whilst Pīta sort of decompresses. He's still feeling the effects of Orochimaru's snake venom, a single drop of the stuff is potent enough to kill a full-grown man and Pīta received two full doses to the neck, I'd imagine he's not feeling too good.

This chapter is just sort of bouncing back and forth between several different groups of characters, a lot of which we hadn't seen in a while. It was fun to catch up with the Sand Siblings, even more fun to carve out a history between them and Kuentin's team of ninja. Mikio doesn't like Gaara, go figure. I thought it was important to highlight Kiba's team and how they're kind of feeling about this whole exam thing, especially after what they witnessed.

I think the only team we haven't caught up with is Ino's, let's hope that changes next chapter, eh? Thanks for dropping by!

Guest Reviews:

Great Saiyaman54: That is quite the mystery, isn't it? To put it simply, the curse mark failed. Something interrupted the Chakra needed to make it happen, backfiring it. It will be expanded upon but it won't be for quite some time as right now, it's simply not relevant to the story. It's all about that pay-off, right?

Guest829: My intention when writing that fight was that Pīta was fighting a losing battle from start to finish, a fight he didn't have to get involved in but felt compelled to because of Anko. He did well but he's not that good yet and Orochimaru was simply testing him, the bite indicated that Pīta passed that test with flying colors. I enjoy it when Spider-Man gets serious too, he's absolutely no joke when he stops holding back and messing around and I intend to showcase that as the story progresses.

He won't be building his web-shooters for himself, no. But he might think about the practicality of them and how a synthetic alternative could benefit more regular/human ninja but that won't be until he's older and has the materials available. Juria will be coming into the story very soon, will she teach Pīta? It's hard to say, she might be reluctant and he might be reluctant too. But there are important things Pīta needs to know and technically, as an elder member of Pīta's clan, it's her responsibility to teach him those things.

Guest1: Will do, thanks for the support!

LoneWolf4299: Haha, thanks for the compliments, I really appreciate it. Clone Saga's definitely something I've been thinking about, it has a certain charm to it and I think it can be done right in the right hands. Madame Web will be more than a reference, she'll be a very important part of the story moving forward. The thing with Pīta's eyes is the same thing, red color and blue color are linked. Good guess with the Other but it won't be expanded upon for quite some time, it's not important to the story right now.

I wouldn't be able to talk about Spider-Man PS4 without screaming and bursting into tears of joy, so I honestly don't think simple text on a computer screen can do any of that justice. Honestly, I'm hyped as hell and so happy that Peter's finally getting the Arkham treatment, the character deserves it so much. Spider-Verse is a thing I've thought about, I'm even writing about little by little. I think Yuri Lowenthal's an amazing voice actor, so it'd be a nice nod to have him voice one of the many versions of Spider-Man.

Peter Porker and Tonton would hit it off I imagine, Lady Tsunade and the Superior Spider-Man might not.

DocKucCro: Thanks, I'm glad you liked how things played out. A Narutoverse version of any character is always possible but only if they serve a purpose to the overall story or if they can squeeze in somewhere I have need of a character. JJ's such a big part of Spider-Man lore that if I can find somewhere for him, I will but if not, it probably won't happen. Thanks!

Guest2: I do indeed read guest reviews, I try to answer every single one of them too. I'm glad you like the little thing Anko and Pīta have going on, the intention is to build to an older sister/younger brother type dynamic. They're a natural fit, so I like the idea that they'd forge this sort of foster sibling bond. Thanks!

Anon: Action can drag a bit, especially when there's nothing to break up said action. I did use Sakura's small interlude to do just that but if it wasn't enough, I don't know what to tell you. I'm glad you're into the story though, welcome aboard!

Guest3: I have thought about it but not for this story, this story is about Pīta growing up in this crazy ninja world. He happens to be friendly with some of the girls but it won't go any further than friendship, save for the final pairing. Thanks!

Nick T: The Goblin's an enemy for a more experienced/older Spidey, so wait until the time-skip, you might be surprised.

Aztec 13: I do like the idea of adapting iconic Spider-Man story arcs for an alternate setting, even if the Clone Saga is one of the less revered Spider-Man stories. It has it's charm and it can be fixed, so why not, right?

Spidey 4 Lyfe: The thing with Pīta's eyes is deliberate, there is a reason behind it that not even Pīta knows about yet. Good guess with the Sage Mode thing but that's a Naruto/Jiraiya exclusive ability, will Pīta have his own version of that kind of ability? You'll have to wait and see, thanks for the review!

DracoKnight: I think Pīta's the kind of character that can hit it off with anyone and I do like to expand on characters that are sort of forgotten in Naruto canon, so who knows? It's funny you should mention Spider-Verse, I am kind of working on something of my own like that and I immediately thought of Pīta and what he could bring to the story. My mind did drift to alternate versions of anime/manga inspired Spider-Men, so it's a possibility. It's a work in progress, don't expect anything anytime soon as I'm busy with a lot of other stuff.

Will Pīta be involved in the prophecy? To answer shortly, yes. Thanks for the review!

Guest4: So am I, Mcdonald's slogan! Thanks for the review!

coldblue: I'll do my best to answer your questions as always, pal.

1) Anko will be a part of the story moving forward, she'll be on hand to help Pīta in any way she can. Shizune's pretty handy with poisons, perhaps she could lend Pīta a hand.

2) Medical Ninjutsu is Sakura's thing later on in the story, it's a huge advantage to have in a fight and I wouldn't want to take that away from her. Pīta is incredibly intelligent, he understands basic first aid, basic human anatomy and can grasp pretty much any concept but it won't go further than that. Sakura and Pīta will always help each other out, so they can definitely learn things from another but Sakura will remain the authority on Medical Ninjutsu later in the story.

3) I just don't think weapons are his kind of thing, he has a kunai knife like all ninja but he only used that when his back was against the wall with Mikio. Pīta will gain an ability later on in the story that answers both questions about poisons and weapons in one go, wait and see.

4) What happened with the curse mark has nothing to do with Pīta's kekkei genkai, and the curse mark didn't work because whatever happened simply overpowered Orochimaru's Chakra. It'll be expanded upon later in the story, it's simply not relevant right now.

5) Right now, Orochimaru has Pīta's blood stained on his clothes. What he'll do with it, you'll have to wait and see.

I like your theories on last chapter, especially concerning the spider-sense. It's an important part of Spider-Man lore and it will be expanded upon, you won't be waiting long for the conversation between Pīta and Sakura concerning it. I'd say... next chapter, maybe? After everything's blown over? Thanks for the reviews, I appreciate them, man.