Chapter 21 – You Own That?!
Just seconds after Ibiki finished his speech, a figure crashed threw one of the windows. A black banner was thrown up – attached to the ceiling by kunai – and a woman in her early to mid-twenties stood in front of it. On the banner written in write was the words "Newly Arrived Second Chief Examiner Officer Mitarashi Anko." The woman was dressed in a fishnet shirt and shorts with a dark orange mini-skirt and a tan overcoat with purple in-seam. "None of you are in any position to celebrate. I am the second chief examiner officer, Mitarashi Anko! Time's a-wastin', people. Let's go! Follow me!"
Miyuki sweat-dropped, She sorta reminds me of Naruto….
Ibiki shuffled out from behind the banner. "Can't you sense the mood in here?" Anko flushed from embarrassment, her arm still high in the air from when she had thrown it up shouting "Follow me!"
Anko looked out at the genin left from the first exam. "Seventy-eight of you are still here?!" She stated incredulously. She turned her head towards Ibiki. "Ibiki! You passed twenty-six teams?! Obviously you went too easy on them."
Ibiki shrugged, "This year…we have applicants of exceptional caliber."
"Yeah, right," Anko scoffed. "I'll cut down the number by half before the next test is done." A smirk made its way across the woman's face. "Oh I get charged up just thinking about it! I'll explain things in detail as soon as we move to our next location…So follow me!"
Doing as she said, all the applicants stood up and began filing out the door after Anko. Miyuki met up with her new team as she was leaving the room. "Hey, did you two have much trouble?"
Akahana shrugged, "Eh, not really…Did you?"
Miyuki shook her head. "No, I managed just fine."
"Y-you know…" Akiha started. Akahana and Miyuki glanced towards her so she knew that she had their attention. "T-that Naruto kid…the one you said is from your other team…..He's rather inspiring…"
Miyuki blinked before smiling brightly at Akiha. "Indeed he is! I can't wait to introduce you two to him and the other two!" Suddenly a serious expression passed over Miyuki's face. "But whatever you do…Don't fall for Sasuke-kun!"
The twins eyes' widened in surprise. "Uh…Why?" Akahana questioned.
Miyuki smiled once again, making the twins wonder if maybe the Tukiko girl suffered from sudden mood swings. "Because Sakura-chan is a major fangirl!" Miyuki's smile faded a little but it was still there. "And…Sasuke-kun doesn't really show much interest in girls, so I don't want to see either of you two get attached to him only to be hurt…"
Akahana and Akiha took in what Miyuki had just told them. Well the second part anyways. They thought it was so sweet how she was already looking out for the two of them even though they still hardly knew each other. The twins smiled, "Thanks, Miyuki-chan! We'll keep that in mind!"
As the group walked along, following Anko on a trail the looked all too familiar, Miyuki felt her arm bump into another. "I'm so-" She turned her head to apologize to the person until she saw it was Kankuro. Funny, she hadn't really noticed him. Then again, she was more focused on talking to her new friends than who was walking beside her. "Oh…It's you," she grumbled.
"What's that supposed to mean?!"
Miyuki gave him an uninterested look. "What do you think?"
Kankuro's eye twitched. "Why, you –"
"Kankuro, calm down," the Suna girl sighed.
Miyuki moved her gaze over to the blonde. "Oh…May ask your name? I don't remember ever hearing it during our last meeting…."
The girl blinked before raising an eyebrow at Miyuki. "Eh? Why do you wanna know?"
"No particular reason," Miyuki shrugged. "I would just rather not keep calling you Suna girl every time I see you."
"Oh…Well, it's Temari," she answered.
Miyuki nodded before trailing her eyes over to the red head that was one the opposite side of Kankuro. She had felt his cold eyes on her ever since she started talking. The two locked gazes just like the last time they met. And just like last time, neither one seemed willing enough to be the first one to back down and look away. That was until someone cleared their throat, "Uh, what are you two doing?" Akahana questioned. Simultaneously, the two switched their gazes from each other to Akahana. This seemed to freak the maroon haired girl out a bit as she laughed nervously under their intense stare. Gaara's much colder than Miyuki's though. "Er…never mind….continue with whatever it was you were doing…."
Miyuki sweat-dropped, "Why are you acting so weird?" The Suna nin and the Konoha nin, except for Miyuki and Gaara, fell to the ground.
Akiha – being the first to recover - smiled shyly at Miyuki, "Don't worry about it, Miyuki-chan…Akahana is always a bit weird."
Akahana quickly stood back up at her sister's comment. "Hey! I am not weird!" With that, the two sisters started to bicker with one another.
Miyuki sighed as she watched the twins. Looking over at the Suna shinobi, she said, "I don't know about you three, but I'm just going to walk away now…" And she really did with Gaara and his teammates following close behind.
From a little ways behind them, they all heard the twins shout, "Hey! Wait for us!"
Anko and the twenty-six teams of genin stopped outside the large towering fence belonging to the Forest of Death. Most of the people stared at the forest with fear, excluding those from the Tukiko clan and a few others, such as Gaara. Anko turned to face the genin with a wide – and slightly creepy – grin on her face. "This is the arena for the second exam: Training ground 44. Also known as…The Forest of Death!"
Sakura stared into the forest. Worry was evident on her face and in her voice. "It looks like a pretty creepy place."
Miyuki, who was standing only a few feet away, turned to Sakura with a smile. "Oh, it's not as bad as it seems!" Everyone turned to Miyuki and looked at her as if her were crazy.
Anko narrowed her eyes at Miyuki as she observed her. As she was taking in her appearance, Anko noticed that under her fishnet shirt, just above her left breast was the marking found on her Tukiko member. "Oh! You're a Tukiko! No wonder you don't think it's scary!"
Miyuki laughed, "Yeah! It's kinda hard too when you've been going in there for most of your life!"
"Eh! You've been in there before?!" Akahana, Sakura, and Naruto shouted in surprise.
Miyuki blinked as she nodded. "Well…yeah. This training ground does belong to my clan after all….I go in there often enough…."
Everyone was silent for a moment, until everyone who knew Miyuki –save for but a few- screamed, "YOU OWN THAT?!"
Miyuki and Kaminari winced at the volume that her friends had shouted at. She rubbed her ringing ears with a pout on her face. "You don't have to be so louder!" she whined. Kaminari on the other hand was growling several colorful words at those who had nearly given her and Miyuki hearing damage.
"Hey, Miyuki-chan…What's Kaminari saying?" Naruto questioned.
Miyuki sweat-dropped. "Er….Nothing anyone needs to know….." She then flashed a bright smile, hoping he would let the subject drop.
From behind her, she heard Kiba laugh. "She's cursing everyone out for yelling!"
Miyuki whipped around with a smile that seemed almost a little too sweet. "Kiba-kun~!" Kiba paled slightly and started to sweat under Miyuki's gaze. From around them, everyone watched in amusement, but at the same time they were thankful it was not them. "I thought I said it was nothing anyone needs to know….Did I not?" Kiba nodded. Miyuki titled her head, giving her an almost innocent appearance. Her smile never once wavered. "Then, please explain to me why you told them that?"
Kiba swallowed nervously as he answered, "W-well, you know me, Miyuki-chan! I sometimes say the stupidest things! I'm sorry!"
"Hmmm…." She kept her gaze on him for a moment longer before shrugging. Her smile was much more easy-going now. "Eh, well, I can't say that it was stupid considering it was true!" With that, just about everyone fell to the ground in incredulity. It's so fun to mess with people! Miyuki thought as she and Kaminari laughed.
A few moments after everyone was able to recover, Anko started to speak, "Anyways…You're about to find out firsthand why they call this the 'Forest of Death'!"
Naruto huffed before he placed his hands on his hips and started to shake his butt around. What in the word is he doing? Miyuki thought as she watched the knuckle-head. "Ooo, 'you're about to find out first hand why they call this the 'Forest of Death'!'" Naruto stopped what he was doing and pointed dramatically at Anko. "Like that's really gonna scare us. You're trying to psych us out, an I'm not gonna fall for it! Besides, Miyuki-chan said it's not that bad! She wouldn't lie about that!"
"Don't drag me into this," Miyuki muttered.
Anko just smiled at Naruto, much the same way Miyuki had done to Kiba. "Oh, really? You're pretty cocky, huh?" Without warning, Anko slide out a kunai from her coat sleeve and threw it at Naruto. The kunai grazed his cheek, allowing a trail of blood to flow down his face, and then past a grass ninja standing behind Naruto a few feet away. "Heh. Your kind are always the first to go." Anko slide in behind Naruto and grabbed his face, bringing it closer to her as she licked some of the blood off his face. "Spilling all that rich, red, lovely, luscious blood…" A protective growl rose up from deep within Miyuki's chest and her lips started to pull back in a snarl.
Anko spun around with another kunai in hand. Standing behind her was a tall grass nin with one freakishly long tongue. Wrapped at the end of his, or her – Miyuki wasn't very sure since they looked like a girl but smelt like a guy -, tongue was the kunai Anko had previously thrown. "Your kunai knife…I believe you dropped it."
"Gee…thanks…"Anko muttered. The two started at each other for a few seconds before Anko looked away. "Don't just stand behind me radiating bloodlust…unless you're in a hurry to die." By then, Miyuki had already stalked her way to the three and yanked Naruto out of Anko's grasp. The proctor looked at Miyuki in surprise but saw the deadly and protective look in her eyes as the girl pulled Naruto further away from the two blood lusting ninja. Hmph….What an interesting girl that one is, Anko thought before her attention was brought back to the Grass nin.
"I'll try to keep it under control…but the sight of warm fresh blood really makes me crazy…and I was already revved up from losing a strand of my precious hair," the ninja explained.
"Sorry about that," Anko apologized as the shinobi walked back to join his or her team. The proctor then grinned, "Looks like we have a hot-blooded team on our hands this time out! Heh…Should be fun…"
Naruto looks back at where Anko stood. We're hot-blooded and she's blood-thirsty! He thought whiling holding the cheek that had been scratched.
"Before we begin the second exam…there's something I have to hand out." Anko shuffled through a hidden pocket inside her coat before pulling out a stack of papers. "They're consent forms. Everybody has to sign one."
"Why?" Naruto asks as he eyes the papers.
Anko smiled as she laughed. "We want all the details covered before the first deaths occur. Sign before you go in, so we can't be held liable. You wouldn't want me to get in trouble would you? 3" Anko handed the papers to the closest person nearby who happened to be Miyuki. The white haired girl wanted to be sure to have at least one person between that woman and Naruto. Perhaps I'm being a little too protective…? But….I just can't help it! Naruto-kun's a part of my pack now! And I must protect my pack! "First, I'll explain what the second exam entails. Then you can sign the forms. With the other two members of your team, bring the forms to the hut behind you and submit them. Got that?
"Now about the exam. To put it simply…it's a no-holds-barred survival test." Anko held up a map of the forest to show to the genin teams. "Let's start with the topography of this training ground. I'll explain the rest later." Miyuki didn't bother to listen to this part of the explanation. She knew the training ground like the back of her hand. Miyuki knew exactly how long it takes to reach the tower, she knew how large each part divided by the river was, she knew type of plant and animal resided within the fenced grounds. Miyuki knew everything there was to know about Training Ground 44. It was only natural that she did since she had been inside that place once a month ever since her kekkei genkai kicked in at the age of five.
When Anko finished explaining the layout of the training grounds, Miyuki began to listen once more seeing as Anko was getting to the objective of the second exam. "Within the confines of this carefully delineated area, you're going to undergo a survival test. During the course of that test, you may use any ninja arts or weapons you have at your disposal." Anko rolled the map back up as she continued speaking. "It's a kind of fight-to-the-death version of 'capture the flag' or, in this case 'capture the scroll.'"
"Scroll?" someone in the crowd asked.
"Exactly!" Anko exclaimed as she put the map away and then pulled out two other scrolls. One was black while the other was white. On the black scroll was the kanji for "earth", while on the white scroll was the kanji for "heaven". "There's a 'scroll of heaven" and a 'scroll of earth'….and your objective is to acquire both scrolls. There are seventy-eight of you here. That's twenty-six three member teams. Thirteen teams will start out with a heaven scroll….and the other thirteen will start with an earth scroll. But you'll need both scrolls to pass. So you objective is to hold on to your own scroll, get your hands on one of the other kind, and then bring them both to the tower at the center."
"In other words, at least half of us – the thirteen teams whose scrolls are stolen – will fail," Sakura concluded.
"You bet! And there's a time limit!" Anko added, "You have 120 hours in which to complete this exam – exactly five days!"
"Five days!" Yamanaka Ino exclaimed.
Akamichi Choji was right beside her, shouting as well, "What are we supposed to do for food?!"
"That's your problem," Anko sighed. "The forests are full of nature's bounty. Of course they're also full of man-eating animals, deadly insects, and poisonous plants. If you really want to know what to look for then talk to the Tukiko girl. I'm sure she can tell you."
Miyuki felt one of her eyes twitch slightly. Just send them all to me, why don't ya! There are others here too! From where she stood, Miyuki heard Choji give out a hefty sigh. She felt a little sorry for him, knowing how he liked to eat a lot, but she knew that after the exam started, food would become the least of his worries.
"There's no way as many as thirteen teams will pass this," Anko continued on. "As the time shortens, the trials will come harder and faster with less recovery time for any mistakes, accidents, or injuries. You'll be surrounds by enemies at all times, so you'll have to sleep to with one eye open. So, in addition to those who die in attempts to defend or capture a scroll, some of you are bound to succumb to exhaustion, exposure, starvation, and dehydration." It appeared that the nervousness for the second exam grew ten times larger after Anko explained the possibilities of what may happen to people within the forest. "Now let's talk about the rules…and what offenses you can be disqualified for!" Anko held up one finger. "Obviously, the teams that fail to reach the tower in time – as a three member cell, carrying both a heaven and earth scroll – are out." She then held up a second finger. "So is any team that loses a member, whether to death or severe injury. And under no circumstances can you leave the forest before the time is up. No recess. No time outs. Also….You're forbidden to look at the contents of the scrolls until you're inside the tower!"
Naruto gave Anko an odd look – one eye was narrowed, the other one wide, and his mouth set into a frown. "What happens if we sneak a peek?"
Anko smirked, "That's for those who look to know! 3" Naruto looked at her questioningly but said nothing as Anko kept talking. "If any of you make it to Chunin level, there will be times when you'll be entrusted with top-secret documents…"
Ah, I see….So they want to see how trustworthy we can be. And also to see if we're capable of protecting our scrolls and if we're capable of taking an enemy scroll if it we were to ever get a mission to do such….Miyuki observed.
"That's all the explanation you get. We'll trade one scroll for every three forms. When you've got yours, choose the gate you want to start from. Everyone will begin at the same time. One final piece of advice…" Anko paused before saying, "Stay alive!"
A/N: Well, there's chapter 21 for ya! Hope it was okay. I know Miyuki and Gaara didn't really talk, but hey, give it some time! They will have an actual conversation eventually. All you Gaara fans should know by now that he's not exactly the most talkative red head around! Well, like always, let me know your thoughts on this chapter! Until next time~!