Chapter Twenty Six : A Twist in the Exams
WELL HERE IS A PROBLEM! I WILL BE INACTIVE FROM TODAY - APRIL 5TH. A FAMILY MEMBER IS REQUESTING MY HELP AND I WILL BE GONE TO HELP HER OUT. I'LL BE BACK AND WRITING A LITTLE AFTER APRIL 5TH SO NO WORRIES I'LL BE BACK BEFORE YOU KNOW IT AND I DON'T KNOW IF I'LL BE NEAR A COMPUTER TO DO ANY WORK, SO WE'LL HAVE TO WAIT AND SEE. ENJOY THIS CHAPTER!
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* Noon: Iwagakure *
Arashi walked the streets of Iwagakure with his 'fiance' Kurotsuchi. He looked around the village and saw high prices practically everywhere, though the village had an army to rival Konoha their economy was no where near it should be for a village this size.
"Pitying our village Arashi-kun?"
Hearing his name he looked over to Kurotsuchi who was looking directly at him, "Not at all. I'm just wondering how things got this bad after the war? Tou-san told me that before the war this village was thriving, but now I don't see that."
Kurotsuchi looked around at her own village explaining, "After the war things changed. Some of the daimyo saw that with Konoha's victory over Iw who better to get the job done than the victors of that war. We lost a lot of contracts after the war and gramps is trying everything to get the village back on it's feet."
The two started to walk in silence and Kurotsuchi had a thought on her mind that was bugging her, "Arashi-kun, if it isn't to bold of me… Is there someone waiting for you back in Konoha?" She looked at him out of the corner of her eyes and saw that he looked depressed, "Sorry I shouldn't have-"
"It's okay…" Arashi said to her, "Her name is Hana Inuzuka, she's a ninja vet for her clan's ninken."
Kurotsuchi could see a faint smile in the corners of his lips. He really loved that girl in her opinion and here she was about to take that from that kunoichi. Arashi asked her, "What of you? Is there someone here that you like?"
"Like, yes. Actually finding a relationship with any of them… no." she said nonchalantly, "The men here are strong, but none can exactly keep up with me. Gramps always pesters me about finding a husband soon. Who knew that he'd go this far to find one for me." Again the silence rolled in. Arashi took a few more steps ahead of her asking, "How about we get to know each other better. I know I said I'd wait until I spoke with my father about this marriage, but that doesn't mean that we can't have dinner later tonight as friends right?"
Blushing slightly Kurotsuchi nodded and asked, "Well I still have duties in the exams so I own't exactly be available tonight, but how about around two o'clock for lunch?" Arashi agreed and followed her back to where the jounins were waiting for the second phase of the exams.
* Tsuchikage's Office *
Onoki was relaxing inside of his office looking through a list of ninjas. His door opened revealing his secretary who placed another list on his desk and left the room. Scanning over the list he said to himself, "So more of these gennins couldn't take it huh? Let's see theres a lot of teams that died this year round and it seems that we also had a very large bunch of gennins appear this year as well."
He tossed the list aside, "My ANBU searched that wide an area and found that many dead already. Such a waste of talent."
His door swung open revealing a jounin who ran up to the old man shouting, "Tsuchikage-sama! We have a situation!" Onoki told his ninja, "Calm down boy. What's so important that you need to barge into my office without permission?"
"Forgive me Tsuchikage-sama, but we got word from our border patrol! They saw two ninjas with black cloaks and red clouds on them. We've identified one from the book as Kakuzu of Takigakure!"
Onoki eyes widened in shock and he demanded, "From what direction were they coming from?"
"The South mountain range."
He stopped to think about it and then said, "Okay then send a small squadron over there to check it out meanwhile send a larger squad to the East range."
Confused, but didn't question it the ninja ran off to go do as his kage ordered. Onoki snickered thinking, "You really think I'd fall for a trick like that Kakuzu? You let yourself be seen didn't you?" The kage jumped out of his chair and headed out of his office to go handle Kakuzu and his friend.
* Five O'Clock: Iwa Eastern Mountain Range *
Kakuzu and Hidan walked along a slim path through the mountains. They were able to trick ninjas in the south range that they were going to invade from that direction, but instead headed through the path Kakuzu took so long ago when he had to deliver Naruto to the Tsuchikage. Hidan thought that they were in the clear while Kakuzu knew better. He doubted that Onoki would fall for such a trick and kept himself on alert for any Iwa nins ready to fight.
Hidan looked around asking, "Yo, how long till we see the village?" Kakuzu was walking a few feet ahead of Hidan, "Not much longer. Be on guard, just because the exams are going on doesn't mean that they've dropped their guard."
Coming to a kind of clearing and that's when they heard a bird in the sky. Both stopped and looked up seeing the lone bird circle around them.
"We have company." Kakuzu said calmly.
As expected the two Akatsuki nins were surrounded by Iwa ANBU. Hidan already had his scythe out smirkingly saying, "So much for not being seen on your 'secret' passage."
One of the ANBU shouted, "By order of our Tsuchikage you are both to be killed!" Hidan smiled sadistically, "You assholes really think you could kill us? Come and try!"
Kakuzu aimed his hands at a few of the ANBU and let his threads fly from his body catching a few of them. Hidan ran at the ANBU fighting three at the same time deflecting their attacks with his scythe and cable. Kakuzu tightened the threading he had around the ANBU ninjas' necks and snapped them in one quick motion. Hidan kicked one ANBU in the stomach sending him flying into a boulder and he quickly pulled out his retractable spear and tossed it at the downed ninja watching as it pierced his chest killing him.
Dodging another combination attack Hidan felt someone stab him from behind and saw that finally one of the ANBU finally hit him. Hidan smiled, "Finally got me." said the ninja and feigned death falling to the ground. When the two ANBU saw Hidan fall to the ground they turned their attention to Kakuzu who showed his back to them showing no interest in wanting to fight them.
The two ANBU held onto their swords and ran at Kakuzu ready to kill, but then Hidan jumped back up grabbing his cable and whipping his scythe that was attached to it at the two Iwa nins watching as his scythe cut both of their heads off in one clean swoop. The two bodies fell to the ground and two of the heads rolled off in different directions. Hidan chuckled in amusement, "They were a good workout."
"We're leaving this area." said Kakuzu. Hidan looked at him very confused, "What the fuck? We just spent the last few fucking hours climbing these mountains and getting through only for you to say that we are fucking leaving!"
Kakuzu turned and headed back into the opposite direction, "If these ANBU were waiting for us, then chances are that old fart of a kage will be waiting down the line as well." Hidan thought about it and the two couldn't afford to fight a kage and even if they did kill him they'd be putting more pressure on Akatsuki and they didn't need that. Hidan slung his scythe over his shoulder and followed Kakuzu wondering how they were going to get into the village.
* Entrance into Eastern Range *
Onoki stood at the entrance surrounded by his loyal Iwa nins. They all awaited news from the ANBU unit that went in to investigate, but so far no one returned. Becoming very impatient Onoki shouted to some of his ninjas, "I want a unit of four to go in and find out what happened. If you see the intruders than do not I repeat 'Do Not' fight them. Report back immediately if you see them."
Four ninjas ran out from the large group and into the mountains to find their comrades. Onoki knew that the ANBU unit was dead, but it was better to be sure.
* End of the First Part of the Exam *
Haru, Sasuke, and Sakura were brought their food by an Iwa nin and saw that they had a small meal. It wasn't enough to get you full though enough to satisfy your hunger. The three went over plans they could use and what to expect in the next exam and by looking at the time they could see that the first part should be up very soon. Sakura thought about the first part a little and didn't really understand putting them into a situation like that it wasn't very logical to send gennins right off into a life or death situation without proper planning.
Their thoughts cut short by their door opening revealing an Iwa nin who instructed them, "We're leaving. The second phase will begin soon and we're to take you to the next area. Let's go." the ninja moved out of the way of the door to let the three gennins through. Team 7 walked out in time to see Team 8 and Team 10 walk out. The teams greeted each other and followed their escorts down the hall. The hall seemed to go on forever, but finally light was visible and they now found themselves in a meadow.
One Iwa nin pointed to a group of ninja they assumed to be gennins, "Line up with the others and await our Tsuchikage's announcement." Doing as they were told the group walked over to line up with the others and they saw Neji's team, Gaara's team, and two more teams that they couldn't identify. Sasuke looked around and saw that there were a lot of Iwa nins standing around than there should be.
Once lined up they saw the Iwa nin Kitsuchi. He was going down the list looking at each group checking their backgrounds, "Teams 7,8,and 10 are here. As well as Team Guy." Looking at another group he eyed the red head suna gennin thinking, 'Team Baki… So those are the Yondaime Kazekage's kids and the red head must be the jailer.'
Continuing with his work he was happy to see an Iwa team made it, "Team 2 made it." Looking at the three gennins he could see that they didn't look like much but they were a rising hopeful group out of their recent graduates. One of them was a boy with a lime green hair color, purple eyes, a deep purple jacket that was opened up revealing a fishnet shirt, the same colored pants, and his headband wrapped around his forehead.
One of the boy's teammates was a girl. She had long black hair with the top of her head covered by her bandanna headband, black eyes, fair skin and her attire consisted of a dark brown undershirt, with the same colored pants, and a pair of gauntlets on her arms.
The final member of the team was a boy a few inches taller than the green haired one. He had short black braided hair and black eyes. He had on a red vest jacket with his headband imbedded into it, a brown short-sleeved undershirt, fishnet armings for his forearms, red pants, and a scroll strapped to his back.
Glancing down the list he saw that a team from Kiri made it as well, "Team Ooame from Kiri. Not a bad bunch of kids."
The Kiri gennins had on the same attire but with some key differences. They all had on a blue pin-striped shirt and camouflage pattern pants. One boy had a large bandaged weapon strapped to his back with two handles, thick black rimmed glasses attached to headphones, short tufty blue hair, and dark eyes, shark like teeth and his headband attached to the front of his holster.
One female of the gennin team had short curly auburn hair color, light green eyes. Her outfit was the same as her teammates except that her pin-striped shirt was shorter showing her stomach and the sleeves were shorter showing a camouflage pattern mimetic wrist-warmers extending up to her elbows. Her headband was loosely tied around her waist.
The final member of the group was shorter than the other two, brown eyes, he had a baseball cap on with his headband imbedded into it and from what was visible he has a metal gray color hair.
After examining all the gennins he continued with his work and suddenly stopped when a ninja jumped down next to Kitsuchi whispering something into his ear. The larger ninja sighed and said, "I got it." The ninja jumped off again and Kitsuchi stepped up to the gennins.
"Alright listen up. The Tsuchikage won't be able to handle this next phase, so I will instead handle it from here." He stepped up to the gennins saying, "You might be wondering why there are so many Iwa nins here. Well they are here to help with the second phase of the exams." The gennins began talking amongst each other of why the Tsuchikage wasn't going to show.
Kitsuchi put both of his hands behind his back and stood straight saying, "Okay for the second phase of the exams there will be a survival battle." Nine of the Iwa nins standing by jumped behind Kitsuchi and the Iwa ninjas were of various sizes and genders. Some of the gennins became nervous after seeing the ninjas suddenly jump over to Kitsuchi and remained ever cautious.
"Relax runts like I said they will be helping with the second phase. Our Tsuchikage will be back here after this phase has ended to explain the importance of this part of the exam." said Kitsuchi. He looked to his left to two Iwa nins one was holding a box with a hole in the top of it and the other had a clipboard and a pen and quickly both the Iwa nins walked to each of the gennins making them pull out a ball that had a number on it and then one Iwa nin had written the name of the gennin and number on the board. This continued down the line until they had everyone's name and number written down. Once it was done both the ninjas walked up to Kitsuchi handing him the clipboard. He scanned over the paper on the board and looked to the ninjas, "Alright I'm going to call your numbers and then I'll call one of these jounins and you will go with this jounin to start the exam again."
Most of the gennins nodded while the others simply stood there waiting. Kitsuchi first said, "Numbers 1 & 2 step forward!" Rock Lee and the Kiri ninja with the baseball cap walked up first. Lee turned to the ninja shouting, "Hello my name is Rock Lee! Might I have your name?" The Kiri ninja took Lee's hand and shook it answering, "My name is Getsumaru. Nice to meet you Lee."
Kitsuchi called over a Iwa jounin saying, "You two will accompany him to one of our training grounds. I'll explain this now to all of you so you know what to expect. You'll be fighting against our jounins for survival!"
This made almost all the gennins wide eyed and shocked. "How you pass is simple. You have until nightfall to survive against these jounins. Here is how you can pass, you either have to make the jounin submit to you, knock them unconscious…. or kill them and that's how you'll advance to the final phase." Some of the jounins began to snicker and chuckle at the last part. Kitsuchi cleared his throat signaling for the jounin to stop, "How you fail is just as simple… Save for the killing if you submit to our jounin or you are knocked unconscious for the remainder of this phase, then you fail. However this doesn't affect your teammate's chance of passing, simply put if one of you is knocked out then your teammate can still have a chance to pass this is not a teammate fails and you fail. Got it?"
A few gennins looked a little more intimidated, some looked eager to start, while the remaining looked unemotional. Kitsuchi pointed to Lee and Getsumaru for them to follow the jounin to start and everyone watched the three walk off. Continuing where he left off he read the next numbers, "Numbers 3 & 4 step up!"
Ino and Sakura walked forward and looked to see that they had a kunoichi jounin. Sakura glanced back at Haru who gave Sakura an encouraging smile it helped Sakura a little bit which was better than not helping at all. The two gennins followed the Iwa ninja to their training ground.
"Numbers 5 & 6 your next!" said Kitsuchi. Kankuro and Kiba walked up with Akamaru still posted on Kiba's head. Kiba attempted to introduce himself with Kankuro, but was snuffed at which infuriated the Inuzuka. Kitsuchi called up one of the jounins and told the two to follow him.
Glancing at the next two numbers he said, "Numbers 7 & 8 let's go!" Hinata and Temari walked from the group, but Haru grabbed Hinata's sleeve whispering 'good luck' to her. Hinata smiled and followed Temari over to Kitsuchi. Hinata looked at Temari saying to her, "My name is Hinata Hyuuga. Nice to meet you." Temari not wanting to come off as a bitch faced Hinata saying, "Like wise. I'm Temari Tanaka." Kitsuchi called over another kunoichi and like before instructed the two to follow.
Kitsuchi called a jounin over then shouted, "Numbers 9 & 10 up front!" Sasuke walked up with an Iwa nin and the two glanced at each other for a moment. The Iwa nin had black braided hair and a scroll strapped to his back. The Iwa nina smiled saying, "My name is Hiroki Miyake. Your name is Sasuke Uchiha am I right?" Sasuke nodded at the Iwa ninja and kept walking. Hiroki smiled saying, "Strong silent type huh? Well this is gonna be bad." He followed Sasuke and Hiroki saw Kitsuchi smile a bit at the ninja telling them to go with their assigned jounin.
Once they left Kitsuchi continued down the list, "Numbers 11 & 12 are next!" Shino and Shikamaru walked forward and saw their jounin they were assigned to fight against. Shikamaru mumbled something about this being troublesome and walked with his partner to get this done so he could relax. Kitsuchi shouted, "Numbers 13 & 14!" Choji and another Kiri ninja walked alongside of him. The Kiri nin had the thick glasses and the large sword. Choji nervously looked at the Kiri ninja saying, "Hey my name's Choji, mind telling me yours?"
"Oh yes… um… my name is Chojuro. It's nice to meet you Choji."
Haru watched the two thinking, 'Somehow their personalities match.' Both boys nervously walked up to see Kitsuchi and one other Iwa ninja. The Iwa nin started walking away and the two silently followed behind him.
"Okay next are numbers 15 & 16!" Kitsuchi shouted. TenTen stepped forward and so did the black haired kunoichi from Iwa. Both girls glanced at one another for a moment before they both introduced themselves.
"Names TenTen."
"Nice to meet you. My name is Yuki."
With their introductions over and like the others they were assigned a Iwa jounin and left to start their exam. Looking at who was left and what numbers were drawn he decided to do the last team, "Okay since there were an odd number of gennins there will be a three manned team and consisting of numbers 19, 20, and 21. You three there is nothing different the standards are the same there's just more of you. Follow this jounin and you can start."
Neji walked forward glancing past Haru who was glaring at him. The green haired Iwa nin walked silently forward and so did the kunoichi from Kiri. The Kiri ninja happily shouted, "My name is Yu! What's your guys' names?" Both Neji and the Iwa ninja remained silent and Yu spoke up again, "Come on if we are on teams we should at least know each other's names."
"Masashi."
Neji and Yu looked at the green haired gennin hearing him speak in a low voice. Yu said, "Nice to meet you Masashi-san." she glanced over at Neji asking his name. Neji crossed his arms and said, "Neji Hyuuga."
"Both of you aren't very talkative are you?"
Kitsuchi called out, "Okay you three that's enough of the chatter! Now hurry up and follow your instructor!" Yu saw their instructor was already some ways away and quickly ran after him while Neji and Masashi walked slowly.
Haru looked around and saw only three Iwa ninjas were left including Kitsuchi and looking to her right she saw that it was only her and Gaara left. Kitsuchi told the two, "Your numbers are 17 & 18 correct?" Both Haru and Gaara nodded, "Alright, then let's get started. I'll be the one you'll have to fight against."
Haru smiled and said, "Okay then let's start!" She looked at her teammate holding out her hand saying, "Let's properly introduce ourselves. My name is Haru Namikaze." Gaara starred at her hand and looked back at Kitsuchi ready to get this event over with. Haru was displeased with his attitude and looked to Kitsuchi as well.
Kitsuchi remained standing saying, "Alright remember you have until nightfall to defeat me." Haru pulled out a scroll and unsealed it's content which was a bisento an orange pole with a curved blade on one end. Gaara grabbed to cork to his gourd and dropped it to the ground ready to fight.
"Begin!"
Haru struck first dashing at the Iwa nin swinging her weapon at his head. Kitsuchi ducked avoiding the attack and punched Haru in the gut making her gasp in pain making her drop her weapon and sending her flying into one direction. He looked at Gaara and saw sand rise out of the gourd and it flew his way, Kitsuchi grabbed Haru's bisento and swung it at the sand knocking it away. Gaara made some hand movements for the sand to collide on him, but Kitsuchi jumped away and swung the bisento again cutting the sand away again.
Gaara looked behind to see Haru get back up and cough for a minute and then turned back to the battle at hand. Haru wiped her mouth with her arm and saw a little bit of blood on her arm, she stood up and did her signature handsign, "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" she summoned out eleven shadow clones and shouted, "Throw your kunais at him!" the Haru clones reached into their ninja pouches and took out six shurikens each and all of them including the real Haru threw them at Kitsuchi.
Kitsuchi avoided Gaara's sand attacks and heard a whizzing sound and looked in time to see a whole lot of shurikens fly his way and again he swung the bisento with enough force to knock all the kunais away. Haru's clones ran at Kitsuchi all wielding kunais in each hand and tried to cut him, but he was ready and cut each one down with with Haru's own weapon. Gaara made his sand slide on the floor and made it engulf Kitsuchi and once he was sure that he had him he aimed one hand at the sand shouting, "Sand Coffin!" The sand squeezed tight and then exploded out shooting body parts everywhere.
Haru watched in horror as Kitsuchi was killed easily by Gaara. The sand ninja turned and looked at Haru saying, "You were of no help at all." Haru could feel the killing intent rolling off of Gaara and couldn't help but think that he planned to do the same to her. Suddenly the ground cracked beneath Gaara, but didn't have enough time to react as a fist made of rocks shot out of the ground hitting him underneath his chin sending him flying into the air.
Kitsuchi climbed out of the hole with his right arm encased in rocks. Haru looked at the body parts and saw that they were rocks and immediately thought, 'Substitution jutsu!' Kitsuchi dusted himself off and looked over at Gaara thinking, 'He has no second thoughts about killing me. Looks like I'll have to take this one down first.'
Haru ran around Kitsuchi and over to Gaara asking, "Hey you okay?" Gaara was on his knees and slowly stood back up and Haru saw to her amazement that there wasn't a scratch on him though she was positive that he was punched. Gaara looked highly irritated and again built up his sand creating a wall and aimed it at Kitsuchi. Taking his time Kitsuchi made the rocks on his arm fall and did a few handsigns and shouted, "Earth Style: Opening Earth Rising Excavation!"
The earth rose up beneath the sand wall and water erupted from it dousing the sand making it fall. Gaara watched as his sand was watered down and fell and was unable to control it. Haru jumped in front of Gaara and unraveled a scroll and unsealed it through the smoke emerged a johyo it's a long rope with a handle on one end and a metal dart on the other. She swung the whip like weapon around and sent the needle flying at Kitsuchi.
Kitsuchi made the rocks surround his arm again and blocked the attack. Haru kept flinging the metal needle around whipping it at Kitsuchi, but he kept blocking it, she looked at Gaara asking, "You have anymore sand?"
Gaara simply replied, "Yes."
She pulled her weeping back and grabbed the needle and whispered to Gaara, "Good I have a plan."
Kitsuchi saw they stopped their attack and ran at them not going to give them a chance to retaliate. Haru finished whispering her plan to Gaara and she did some handsigns shouting, "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" an army of clones appeared and so did a blanket of smoke. Kitsuchi skidded to a stop and stood waiting not to foolishly run into the smoke. Emerging from the smoke were many shurikens and kunais. The Iwa nin did a few handsigns and shouted, "Earth Style: Absolute Earth Defense!" He then stomped on the ground making a wall shoot up that was about fifty feet high and fifty feet wide. He ran up the wall and when he reached the top he saw some of the clones trying to fight him.
Like before he quickly dispatched the clones and saw more clones at the base of the wall throwing more kunais and shurikens at him. He easily avoided them and jumped down the wall ready to engage the clones. Haru was a good distance away and made a handsign shouting, "Got you!" Kitsuchi noticed that the clones were holding kunais with explosive tags on them and he turned around and saw that where the other kunais hit his wall had the tags on them too and was soon engulfed in an explosion.
Haru stood ready watching the smoke rise up from her attack and like she planned she saw Kitsuchi dash out the side of the smoke filled area covered in rocks. His entire body was covered in rocks leaving only eye holes where his eyes were, 'This one is clever. Maybe I should take care of her first.' He was about to step forward and felt he couldn't move and saw sand surrounding his feet it traveled up the length of his body until it engulfed him.
Gaara did as Haru planned and was able to capture the jounin, he looked to Haru and nodded his head. Haru again made the same handsigns. Kitsuchi heard a fuse light from inside the sand and said, "Pretty damn clever kid." The sand exploded shooting rocks and sand everywhere. Haru and Gaara shielded themselves from the explosion wondering if it was over. Haru ran over to Gaara and looked at the explosion asking him, "You think we got him?"
Not answering her he remained silent, he looked over to his mudded up sand thinking, 'I have to wait for the water to dry out of my sand before I can use it again.' He told Haru, "I didn't think my techniques would be reduced to this."
"Well at least your good for something. I did the brute of the work so far." Haru said to him. Gaara remained silent and when they saw the smoke clear they were both shocked to see Kitsuchi standing there without so much as a singe on his body. Haru said out loud, "H-How did he? W-What's going on?"
Kitsuchi started walking to the kids commending them on their teamwork, "You two are doing good for strangers. Normally when we do this exercise the gennins usually turn on each other at this point so that there's less competition in the final round."
Haru's eyes widened asking, "W-What do you mean?"
The Iwa nin explained, "One point of this phase is trust. If you can't trust the ninja your paired with then you are doomed to fail. During this phase most gennins when they feel that they have won they quickly turn on their teammate so they believe that they have an easier victory in the final round, but that's where we Iwa instructors use that to our advantage. You tire yourselves out in fighting each other leaving you helpless to defend against us."
Gaara understood saying, "Like earlier." Haru looked at Gaara wondering what he meant, the sand ninja looked at Haru saying, "Because of what I witnessed when you engaged him first I saw that you weren't fit to move on to the final stage. I was going to kill you."
Haru looked shocked and shouted, "What! You were going to kill me!"
Kitsuchi nodded, "Exactly. You kids get greedy real quick, but I needed to unwind so I decided to step in before that happened. Although now I think I should take out the Namikaze first." Gaara and Haru looked at Kitsuchi as he explained, "I thought the girl wouldn't be a problem, but after her traps she set up I can assume that underneath that blonde hair of hers she'll only plan up another surprise attack like that. It'll be annoying if I have to keep dealing with those." He held his hands out and yet again the rocks surrounded both his hands, "At least with the Kazekage's boy I can predict his sand movements. However you girl are more of a problem than him."
Gaara and Haru got prepared for him to attack. Kitsuchi started running at them and Haru quickly held out her hand making a blue sphere form in the palm of her hand, Gaara looked amazed at the amount of chakra forming in her hand. "Stay back!" Haru shouted at Gaara and ran to meet Kitsuchi head on.
Kitsuchi saw the jutsu and thought, 'That's-' He stopped and avoided Haru's attack, Haru meant to slam her Rasengan into Kitsuchi's stomach, but the attack missed and it crashed into the ground making an explosion. Kitsuchi was amazed that a kid her age knows that jutsu, "Damn that was close. I recognize that jutsu anywhere, that's the Rasengan the Yondaime Hokage's signature jutsu. I've seen enough of it during the war to know it's destructive power." Flashbacks during the Third Shinobi War went through his head as he remembers seeing his comrades brought down by that jutsu.
Kitsuchi banished those images from his head and said, "I definitely have to take her out first now." He didn't get a chance to react as Sand again tried to surround him. Punching the sand with his fists he dispersed the sand and saw Gaara running at him.
Gaara though, 'If I get close enough I can definitely capture him.' Once Gaara got close his gourd cracked and turned into sand and he immediately made it surround both him and Kitsuchi. Haru watched as the sand collected and he was about to encase both of them. Kitsuchi acted quick and did a few handsigns, "Earth Style: Chasm of Despair!"
The earth underneath the two split open, Kitsuchi allowed himself to fall down it, but Gaara's sand grabbed hold of Gaara's right arm preventing him from falling. Gaara moved himself out of the way of the hole and allowed the sand to gather around him. Gaara was taken by surprise when Kitsuchi jumped out of the hole and high into the air swung his fist at Gaara. Gaara's sand quickly came up and stopped Kitsuchi's rock fist.
'As I thought.' Kitsuchi thought to himself, 'So it is true, his sand can protect him. Back then it was the same, when I punched him his sand hardened and blocked my attack.' Gaara's sand remained hardened, but he saw his sand begin to dent. Kitsuchi kept pushing forward shouting, "However by pumping my fists full of my nature I can double my strength!" Kitsuchi's fist broke through Gaara's sand and he hit Gaara square in the face and saw Gaara's face crack.
Gaara was sent flying, but his sand flew towards him and stopped him from hitting the ground, he looked up and saw Kitsuchi punch at him again, but his sand came up to block again. Kitsuchi grinned, "It's no use!" His rock fist smashed through the sand again and hit Gaara in the face again and saw the cracks on Gaara's face spread.
The sand grabbed Gaara again and dragged him away. Kitsuchi watched as some of the sand seeped into the cracks on Gaara's face and saw it repairing it. "So you have a thinner, but stronger layer of sand covering your body?" Kitsuchi appeared above Gaara shouting, "It won't save you forever!" Gaara saw the man coming down and feared his sand wouldn't be enough to stop the man. What Gaara saw next shocked him, a flash of orange came standing above him.
Haru stood directly above Gaara and crossed her arms above her head and felt Kitsuchi slam his rock fist right down on Haru's forearms crushing them. Haru winced in pain and shouted, "Move it now!" Gaara acted quickly and sent sand out enough to knock Kitsuchi away from Haru. The blonde kunoichi fell to her knees feeling the pain course through her body. Gaara grabbed Haru and started to run and quickly used all the sand that was just used to attack Kitsuchi as a barrier while they escaped. Haru felt Gaara carry her away and to make sure they got away she pulled out two flash bombs and tossed them behind them and at Kitsuchi. Gaara didn't want to stop to see if Kitsuchi was blinded or not.
Kitsuchi was blinded by the flash bombs, but was able to shield himself at the last minute. He opened his eyes and mostly everything was a blur, "Those kids are strong. This is actually fun." Kitsuchi sat down and was going to wait until his eyesight returned to normal.
Gaara laid Haru down and pulled out a scroll from his ninja pouch cursing, "Damn, I never thought that I'd need to use this." Unsealing the scroll he released the contents of it which was a large pile of sand. Pressing his hand to the sand he injected his sand into it and was able to take control of the sand, "We need to hide for now." Gaara surrounded both himself and Haru with the sand and used a transformation jutsu to make the outside of the sand look like a giant boulder.
Feeling safe for now Gaara leaned against the wall of his sand taking a break. Haru leaned up and looked at her arms seeing massive red marks on her forearms, she tried to reach into her ninja pouch to get her small med kit that she packed, but the pain in her arms made it difficult, 'Dammit! It's going to take a moment before I can heal.'
Gaara reached over and grabbed Haru's ninja pouch from her asking, "What is it you need in here?"
"Why help me out now?" Haru said in a stern tone.
The red head ninja looked at her saying, "I hate to say this, but I can't beat him on my own. I'll need your help." Haru told him, "Okay fine. Inside my ninja pouch is a red scroll labeled supplies I can unseal the contents so just unravel it." Gaara did as she said and unraveled the scroll. Looking at it he saw words above each sealing spots. There were kunais, shurikens, med kits, and other kinds of supplies. Haru placed her hand as best she could above the med kit slot and unsealed it.
Smoke erupted and laying where her hand once was was the small med kit. She tried to open it but the pain coursing through her arms stopped her from trying. Gaara watched her as she kept trying to undue the latch on the small med kit, she was determined that much was certain and if he was to move on then he'd need as much help no matter how much he detested it. Reaching over he popped open the kit and asked, "What exactly am I getting?"
Haru sighed saying, "See that black container there. Get it and open it." Gaara saw the black container and opened it and a smell of herbs invaded his nose a pleasant smell, but strong. Haru reached over with one hand and got as much cream into her hands and forced herself to apply the cream ointment to red mark on her arm. Rubbing it in as best she could and did the same with the other arm.
'It's only a matter of time before the Kyuubi heals my arms although this cream Hinata made is working it's magic.' Thought Haru. She leaned up against the wall to relax saying to Gaara, "We should come up with a plan to survive this."
"We just have to kill him and that's that." Gaara said plainly.
Haru looked at him asking, "Pre tell how do you expect us to pull that off? He has years more experience than both of us combined and he's picking us off with no trouble." Gaara scoffed at her replying, "Then stay out of my way if you're too soft."
"You just said that you can't beat him without my help!" she said to him. Gaara replied in a low tone, "Well then maybe I was wrong. If your any kind of jinchuriki than you'd agree with me."
There was a moment of silence before Haru made an angry expression, "Just because I'm a jinchuriki you expect me to kill anyone? You know I had a hint about what you are and it turns out I was right. We are alike, we both have demons sealed inside of one another."
Gaara gave a sadistic smile, "Yes we are. We're both monsters the difference is that I can accept that I am one, so why don't you just become the monster you need to be to win?"
"Never!" Haru shouted and quickly covered her mouth remembering that they were in hiding. Gaara stared at her unsure of why she shouted, but crossed his arms to ignore her. The small cramped area became silent again. Haru looked down and finally said, "You remind me of someone."
Looking up at the kunoichi he looked at her downed expression. Haru looked up at Gaara with a sad smile, "You remind me of my twin brother Naruto." She let her head lean against the wall as she continued, "You two have a similar view on how fights should be done." She let out a small chuckle and to some it might seem like a happy one, but Gaara knew better. Images of his past ran through his head when he'd come home sad though he put on a smile to convince his uncle that he was fine. Empty smiles and laughter.
"Naruto-nii was very strong and I admired that about him. I always wished I was just as strong as him, but he always was two steps ahead of me and that's how I ended up loosing him." Haru ignored the pain in her arms as she gripped her fists till they turned white, "Monsters, demons, and other hateful names. My brother referred to himself as a monster and I couldn't accept that he'd refer to himself like that." She stopped gripping her fists and looked at her right hand, "I know your name from your sister, but that's all I know… Why Gaara would you refer to yourself as a monster?"
"Why should I tell you? You think that if you'd spill your secrets that I'd do the same?"
Haru stared sternly at him saying, "That's not what I expect. If we are to succeed then we'll need to know about each other, so far we've only gotten by through sheer luck. We need to understand each other if we want to survive. Kitsuchi knows our abilities now and will capitalize on what he's seen."
Gaara eyed her suspiciously not believing anything she was saying, "I refuse. In a short time my chakra should return and I'll be ready to confront him."
"Then what? He knows about your jutsu and there's no way you can take him on like you've been doing. This is a team effort and we need to work as one in order to win." Haru said looking into his eyes. Gaara didn't like this one bit, "Your impossible to work with."
Haru huffed saying, "Says the guy that thinks killing is the solution to everything. What happened to you that made you into a killing machine?" Gaara narrowed his eyes at her and said, "Mind your own business. I trust no one but myself, so why should I trust you with my past?"
The blonde kunoichi held up both her hands showing the wound that was inflicted when she saved Gaara, "Have I given you any reason not to trust me? If anything I shouldn't even be doing this since it was you who thought of killing me." Gaara looked at her arms and saw the swelling went down substantially and the redness was disappearing as well.
Gaara looked at his feet asking her, "Why did you do that?" Haru looked at him confused and heard him say again, "Why did you jump in the way of his attack? My sand would've protected me."
"You seem surprised."
"I am surprised. Most ninjas wouldn't do that for someone from another village." Gaara said looking at her again.
"Well as you can tell I'm not like most ninjas." Haru said proudly. "It's like I said… You remind me of my brother and… nothing never mind."
Gaara asked, "What?"
Haru looked from her feet to Gaara, "I said never mind."
"You said we needed teamwork." Gaara told her. Haru sighed again and decided to tell him, "I'm nosey okay. When I first saw you I saw a pained look in your eyes and… Well maybe I could help you." Gaara looked very surprised at her statement. Haru said again, "I just want to help others and I don't want to see sad eyes. My friend Hinata is already in a depression, she was in love with my brother and I will do anything to see that real smile that Hinata had when I saw her with my brother. If it's within my reach than I'll want to help."
Haru laid on her side facing away from Gaara, "No body can help you Gaara unless your willing to accept it. Like I said I don't know what reason I gave you not to trust me, but everything I said is true. I want to help you, but only if you'll let me." She got comfortable saying over he shoulder, "I'm getting some rest before we have to fight him again." with nothing else to say to him she drifted to a light sleep.
Gaara stared at Haru's form and reached into his pocket pulling out a wrinkled photo of a woman with short tan hair color and light violet eyes. He stared at the photo for a moment and thought, 'Why? Why does she want to help me? A stranger.' He sighed putting the picture back into his pocket and lightly kicked at Haru's back making her turn her head to look at him. "I'll tell you why trusting others is out of the question for me, then maybe you'll realize that fighting for others and helping others is a useless gesture."
Interested Haru sat back down and crossed her legs to listen.
Gaara looked a bit saddened and said, "My mother was used by my father. That man sealed that monster inside of me while my mother was still pregnant with me and slowly her life force was drained away. When I was born I killed my mother." Haru was very shocked at hearing this news and couldn't believe that a man would do that to his own child and wife. "She died and I was forced to live with my uncle Yashamaru. I lived with him thinking I was happy, but everyone in my village avoided me like the plague and all I wanted was a friend. What nonsense." Gaara moved a small bit of sand from their surroundings and made it dance in the palm of his hand, "My uncle. I trusted him and yet by order of the Kazekage… my father… He was ordered to kill me."
If she wasn't shocked before Haru was highly disturbed and pissed off that someone could order something like that and that a family member would actually carry it out. Gaara made a sad smile which was seen by Haru, "Instead I killed my uncle in defense. It was at that moment that love, friendship, and equality was meaningless. Love only yourself and fight only for yourself is how you'll survive." He made the sand stop and watched it fall to the ground, "Since then my father kept sending assassins to kill me, but I always killed them. I've always been alone and I'll always be alone."
Gaara looked in her eyes and didn't see what he thought he'd see. She wasn't afraid of him, she wasn't judging him, it was a look of concern. Haru moved slowly over to him and grabbed his hand, "Gaara… I didn't know your life was like that, but you obviously can trust others… After all you trusted me with your past." She smiled sweetly at him that made him widen his eyes at her. She released his hand saying, "It's sad that you've never had a friend before, so let's change that. We are the same, both given the duty to protect our villages from demons. It's sad that your village and your family don't see you for the hero you truly are. Gaara-kun there's something someone told me some time ago."
She point to Gaara's chest saying, "Your Gaara and not a monster. Remember that you're 'Gaara' and no one and I mean no one can take that away from you." Feeling a slight pull in his chest something he hasn't felt before. Haru felt her cheeks warm up at how close she was to him now she quickly back up and said, "A-A-And if need be, then I'll be your friend."
She scooted away from Gaara and said, "W-We should get some rest, so umm… yeah." She laid on her side facing away from Gaara and closed her eyes tightly trying to get some rest. Gaara was still amazed at her words and he touched his chest where she pointed and looked at her, 'Why does she care so much for someone like me?'
Gaara felt a pain in his chest, but it wasn't of hurt, sorrow, or sadness. This was different something that was foreign to him. Laying down as well though facing her and not away whatever this feeling was he didn't like it… or so he thinks.
* Close to Nightfall *
Kitsuchi was still looking for the two gennins. He wasn't going to put to much effort into finding them since he wanted to give them a chance, but what the Tsuchikage said to him made him wonder if these two were so strong that he'd need to do this and not one of the other jounins. Sure they had talent, but as far as sending a former general during the Third War might've seemed like a bit much. He looked at the setting sun thinking, "I can't let them off that easy."
He did two handsigns and slammed his palm to the ground and closed his eyes focusing on searching for the two. A few seconds went by and his eyes shot open and he said, "Got ya!" the Iwa nin stood up and ran off to where the gennins were hiding.
Gaara and Haru were now wide awake and their strength returned to them. Haru said, "Okay now that we have a plan of attack. We just have to wait for him to find us."
An hour after the two awoke they spent the time coming up with plans on how to survive. Haru was right a direct confrontation with Kitsuchi was suicide and keeping him at a distance was no better. No their plan needed to be one where they keep Kitsuchi on his toes and leave him completely unsure of how they plan to attack. Haru came up with a lot of different kinds of plans and it was decided on what they should do.
Gaara stopped moving and said, "He's close by." Haru grinned and said, "Okay then let's start."
Kitsuchi ran for sometime before he came across where he felt their chakra. He leapt high into the sky and saw both Haru and Gaara standing wide in the open. He landed a few feet across from them saying, "Knowing the girl there I must've walked into some kind of trap. It doesn't matter though." He dropped into a fighting stance ready to take them on.
Haru had her johyo wrapped around her waist and she grabbed the handle and whipped it around a bit, Gaara raised his hands slightly making his sand surround him. Making the first move Gaara shot his sand out at Kitsuchi who easily knocked the sand away. Haru tossed the needled tip at Kitsuchi who grabbed the end and pulled Haru toward him and punched her in the head and watched as Haru's body erupted into sand. Kitsuchi not truly surprised looked to Gaara realizing that he set up the trap, but that Haru was hiding somewhere.
Gaara grinned and jumped away shouting, "Do it now!"
Confused Kitsuchi heard a strange noise and looked around his feet at all the large rocks around him erupted into smoke revealing an army of clones all of them jumping up at him. Haru was hiding behind a large boulder making the ram handsign whispering, "Sacrificial Clone Jutsu!" After she was done the clones erupted engulfing Kitsuchi in a ball of flames. Haru quickly charged a Rasengan in her hand and dashed from behind the boulder toward Gaara. A few feet away Haru slammed the Rasengan a few feet away from where Gaara stood.
When the Rasengan hit the ground it made the earth beneath them shake. Gaara used his sand to keep his balance and to keep Haru suspended in the air so she wasn't affected as well. Haru waited and saw what she knew was to happen, a hole opened up and Kitsuchi jumped out and away from the two a with a few marks on his body and clothes.
'I knew it.' thought Haru.
Kitsuchi landed away saying in a low tone, "They predicted my movements." Before anything else he looked down at the ground and saw a shadow cover the ground and he looked behind himself and saw sand surround him and engulf him in a dome. Gaara enclosed Kitsuchi entirely making sure to not capture any rocks what so ever so he couldn't escape.
Haru grinned shouting, "We did it! We captured him!" She was so pleased that her plan worked and Gaara was amazed by her talents as well, 'Maybe it won't be so bad to fight her.' thought Gaara.
She looked at the sphere asking, "Okay so how long can he stay in there for before he runs out of air?"
Gaara said, "Why can't we kill him?"
"This again? Because-"
She was cut short of her sentence when the dome prison cracked and Kitsuchi darted out running at the two he clotheslined Gaara sending him flying into a boulder. His sand came up to protect him, but Kitsuchi used a lot of strength and speed to bypass Gaara's defense with pure strength. Gaara fell motionless on the ground and Haru was shocked.
Kitsuchi faced Haru and was a little irritated, "You two are a pain. You're both strong and would be valuable ninjas to your village, but this is as far as you go."
Haru thought to herself, 'Time to use TenTen's jutsu.' She grabbed two scrolls from her ninja pouch and jumped into the air shouting at Kitsuchi, "Twin Rising Dragons!" Unraveling the scrolls the two scrolls spun around her making a twisting motion. Watching very amused Kitsuchi saw puffs of smoke appear one after another and Haru grabbed each one and tossed one after another at him. Some of the weapons had explosive tags on them, a large masses of explosions were made as she continued her assault on Kitsuchi.
More and more weapons came from the scrolls as Haru continued her relentless attack on him. After she ran out of weapons she landed a few feet away from where she tossed the weapons. 'That didn't finish him. This guy is to strong to be defeated by that.'
"That it kid?"
Haru froze and slowly turned around and saw Kitsuchi standing behind her with his arms crossed around his chest. He sighed looking at the setting sun saying, "A few minutes left." He disappeared quickly and was next to Haru now, "You did excellent for kids. However this is it for the both of you." Haru smiled and shouted, "I'm not done yet!"
He saw her cross her arms quickly and saw the faint light streams from wires. Realizing what was happening he looked back at all her weapons and saw five fuma shurikens flying his way. Haru twisted her right hand that controlled the five massive shurikens making them fly in awkward directions the wires wrapped around Kitsuchi each fuma shuriken falling into the ground with the five making the points of a pentagon. Haru shouted, "I win! Lightning Style: Nevan!" Lighting erupted from the fingertips of her left hand and she grabbed the metal wire and watched as the lighting traveled down the wire toward Kitsuchi.
What Haru didn't see in time was Kitsuchi activating a substation jutsu right before he was captured by the wire. The lighting hit the rock substation making it crumble away. Haru was shocked and heard footsteps behind her she saw Kitsuchi running toward her his right fist pulled back ready to strike. Haru watched helplessly as Kitsuchi got closer and closer.
She closed her eyes awaiting the pain that was to come, she heard a loud thud sound though she felt nothing. She slowly opened her eyes and saw Gaara standing in front of her Kitsuchi's fist was against Gaara's forehead and large crack marks formed from his forehead down his face and he looked to be in some kind of pain, but didn't move from his spot.
"Gaara-kun?"
Gaara was gritting his teeth, though his sand protected the brute of the attack he could feel some kind of pressure from the fist. Kitsuchi stared the kids down and smiled, "You two are certainly something else." He stepped back from them and watched as Gaara fell to his knees possibly from a headache caused by the attack.
She knelt down beside him asking, "Why did you do that?"
"My body moved on it's own. Don't breathe to much into it." said Gaara. Haru looked up and saw that Kitsuchi wasn't attacking and wondered why. Kitsuchi smiled and said, "Come on. You two passed the second phase." Haru looked at the horizon and saw that the sun was out of sight now and let out a sigh of relief, "Thank Kami!" said Haru.
Kitsuchi was walking away from the two and Haru grabbed Gaara's arm and put it around her shoulder helping him. Gaara stared at her asking, "What are you doing?"
Haru smiled at him saying, "Helping a friend." Those words made him gawk at her as if she had two heads. She ignored his stare saying, "Just rely on me this last time Gaara-kun." He didn't argue with her and let her do as she pleased.
* An Hour Later: Iwa Exam Building *
Inside a large room was the Tsuchikage who was awaiting the surviving gennins. He sent off many gennins and their instructors back to their respective villages and was surrounded by his Iwa nins, the Leaf jounins, and the one Kiri and Suna jounins. The doors opened up and the first ones to walk in was Hinata and Temari, both slightly beat up but in all cases they were okay, their instructor walked in and reported that both kunoichi's passed and took her leave.
Kurenai smiled at Hinata happy that she passed. Hinata blushed and sat down in one of the chairs with Temari sitting on the opposite side.
The doors opened up again one after another with the next ones to walk in were Hiroki and Sasuke, next was Shino who came alone, then was Ino who also came alone, Chojuro entered by himself too. They all to their seats, the jounins observed the gennins most were more beat up than before and looked to be on their last leg. Asuma walked over to the Tsuchikage asking him, "Where are the others?"
Onoki looked at Asuma answering his question, "Taken to our hospital of course. After this is over you can go see them." Asuma, Kurenai, Kakashi, and Baki were a bit nervous for their students who didn't come back yet, but like stated many times before between themselves Iwa wouldn't do an underhanded trick now with how the village is. Arashi was standing next to Kurotsuchi and she saw the nervousness in his eyes for his little sister.
Their attention was back to the door when TenTen and Yuki walked in the room both kunoichi's smiling. Guy gave his student a good guy pose proud of his student and the green clad ninja was happy when the doors burst open and Rock Lee ran in the room as happy as he's ever been along with his partner Getsumaru. Lee took his seat next to his teammate and Getsumaru did the same taking a seat next to Chojuro.
Neji, Masashi, and Yu came in. The Iwa and Kiri ninjas looked beat up, but were by all means fine, but Neji on the other hand didn't have a scratch on him which amazed the jounins there. When they took their seats Hinata looked back at the door wondering if Haru passed. Temari also looked back at the door wondering if Gaara actually failed. Arashi felt a lump in his throat and was ready to just leave to go check on his little sister, but the Tsuchikage's voice caught his attention.
The Tsuchikage waited a while longer and said, "Well it seems that's everyone. Now we can-"
He was cut off when the doors opened and Haru shouted, "Wait! We're here!" Haru walked in followed by Gaara and Kitsuchi. Hinata, Arashi, and Temari let out a sigh of relief knowing that they made it. Tsuchikage looked to Kitsuchi saying, "Cutting it close aren't we?" Kitsuchi shrugged his shoulders in amusement.
Haru saw Sasuke, but not Sakura and that worried her greatly, but was happy to see that Ino and Hinata had made it. Gaara sat behind where Haru sat which surprised his sister and Baki. The three kunoichis sat together and waited for the Tsuchikage.
"Well now this has been a surprise. We went from twenty-one gennins to sixteen. I'm impressed." said the Tsuchikage. He stood in front of the gennins saying "Now the reason for that phase. Like before where you were thrown into an unknown lands with no actual knowledge of what was there or what lurked in that forest. It's like when you are in war with the unknown of what could happen. Well this phase was just the same."
Shino thought to himself, 'Just like Shikamaru suspected.'
"This phase was the account of when war breaks out and you are with allied ninjas. If war does break out then you'll want to know your comrades from other villages." said Onoki.
Neji gazed at the old kage thinking, 'These were war preparations?'
Onoki smiled and said, "War can be a deadly thing, but you can't always count on information of other village's lands, you cannot expect to be with ninjas from your village all the time, most of all you should not expect all your comrades to survive. That is what the first to phases teach you." He put his hands behind his back and said, "Finally for the last stage of the exam… There will be a tournament held in exactly thirty-one days to see who is fit to take the next step. Though understand that all daimyos or your kages will chose if you are worthy enough to become a chunin and that winning the entire tournament doesn't guarantee you a spot as chunin."
This shocked a few ninjas. Haru stood up and shouted, "Wait so we leave it in the hands of others?"
"Exactly right kid. If your old man feels that your up for the next step of being a ninja, then you've got nothing to fear. That goes for everyone, not only your kage, but if the daimyo's think that you should be promoted then that's another way. Impress your piers and you just might make chunin." He paced for a moment before he told his Iwa nina to randomize the names of the gennins who passed into the tournament bracket.
"We'll now see who will be fighting in the final phase of the exam." Onoki announced. His Iwa nin picked random names and started to put them on the bracket list. Arashi watched from the side asking Kurotsuchi, "How do they pick who fights who?"
She leaned in and whispered, "The Iwa nin doesn't know the gennins nor their skill levels. It's like actual randomization he's picking any name and placing it on the bracket. You don't need a computer to set up the fights." Arashi had to agree with that. After the Iwa ninja was done he handed the paper to Onoki who scanned the list saying, "Okay now here's how it will go. There will be eight rounds in the first, then four rounds in the second, two rounds in the third, and finally one round in the final. We have who will fight who in the first rounds of the tournament."
He cleared his throat as he read, "First round will be Gaara vs Rock Lee, second round will be Getsumaru vs Yuki, third round is Hiroki vs Sasuke Uchiha, fourth round is Masashi Kamizuru vs Shino Aburame, fifth round is Hinata Hyuuga vs Neji Hyuuga, sixth round will be Temari Tanaka vs Ino Yamanaka, the seventh round is TenTen Shinoda vs Yu Terumi, and the final round is Chojuro vs Haru Namikaze."
All the gennins started looking at the others who'd they would be fighting in one month. Onoki told everyone, "One month… That's all you get. You will go to the Iwa Stadium for the tournament, if your late then you are disqualified. No exceptions on who you are or who your family is. You want to rank up, then be on time. That's all." Onoki finished and told the jounins to take their students to the hospital to check on their students, but they are to return to their rooms as soon as they see their students.
Kakashi and the other jounins did as instructed and gathered their students to see the ones who were in the hospital. Arashi decided to join Kakashi and his sister to see Sakura to see if she was okay.
X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X
* Unknown Location *
Kakuzu and Hidan were in the next village over to Iwa. A small town for them to hide in and so far no ANBU ninjas have come looking for them. They sat silently waiting for their leader to contact them. Hidan continued sharpening his scythe waiting for the chance to get back on track, Kakuzu was flipping through the recently updated Bingo Book for a list of potential bounties.
They were told about how Naruto came into the possession of one of the Swordsman of the Hidden Mist's swords and the damaged he's caused with it.
"This is taking to fucking long! When is that asshole going to contact us?" Shouted Hidan. Kakuzu kept flipping through his book, "He'll contact us soon. Onoki isn't a push over and since we didn't get much from the outlined area we didn't see any Sound ninjas. With the exams coming close to an end we'll soon have more than one kage to deal with."
Hidan put the whetstone away asking his teammate, "Hey from what we know if three jinchuriki are there then why don't we send a majority of the Akatsuki to capture them?"
"We don't need that kind of exposure right now. Akatsuki doesn't need to be put on the map just yet, just wait it out." said Kakuzu calmly. Hidan spat out at Kakuzu's foot trying to piss him off. Both ninjas froze when they felt that all to familiar connection. A minute went by and Hidan smiled, "So we're going after the Sound ninjas in Rice Country?"
"Orochimaru plans on killing the jinchuriki. We cannot let him do that." said Kakuzu. He stood up and said, "The others will go to Rice Country while the two of us will remain here. Apparently he has his eyes set on the sharingan."
Hidan stood up too and followed Kakuzu out asking how they were going to invade Iwa this time. Kakuzu didn't tell him any specifics, but only that they needed an inside man.
X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X
WELL HERE IS A PROBLEM! I WILL BE INACTIVE FROM TODAY - APRIL 5TH. A FAMILY MEMBER IS REQUESTING MY HELP AND I WILL BE GONE TO HELP HER OUT. I'LL BE BACK AND WRITING A LITTLE AFTER APRIL 5TH SO NO WORRIES I'LL BE BACK BEFORE YOU KNOW IT AND I DON'T KNOW IF I'LL BE NEAR A COMPUTER TO DO ANY WORK, SO WE'LL HAVE TO WAIT AND SEE. I'LL SEEE YOU ALL IN APRIL!
-STAY GOLD