A.N.: I'm soooooooowwwwy! *Bows down in shame* I do not deserve your awesomeness!
So, this was originally much longer... But I decided to cut it because it was taking me weeks to figure out the last bit and I thought you guys had waited long enough... So yeah... On the plus side, next chapter is pretty much done save for that last bit... I'll put it up as soon as I sort that out.
What Doesn't Kill You
Chapter Twenty-Eight
[oblivious: not aware or concerned about what is happening around one.]
Zero days left
Aoi woke up panting, already halfway out of bed with a kunai clutched tightly in one hand.
There was a moment of wild-eyed panic before she registered the empty room and the first rays of the sun innocently streaming through her window. She lowered the kunai.
It's been a while, she thought. The nightmare had been frequent enough in the first months of her second life, often causing her to start wailing for no apparent reason, to Nana's distress. It hadn't been very surprising. Many people had nightmares following near-death experiences - and given she had actually died, and not in a particularly short or painless manner at that, she supposed she was entitled to her share of PTSD. But she hadn't had the nightmare in years and she'd been hoping that meant it was gone. Wrong, apparently.
She walked to the window and pressed her forehead against it, taking a moment to calm down. The cool glass against her skin did nothing to dispel the feeling of intense heat charring her body and smoke suffocating her throat.
There, staring out at the still-slumbering Konoha - silent, innocent Konoha, blissfully unaware of the storm that was coming - self-preservation instincts kicked in with full force and she was overtaken by an extremely powerful urge to leave the village. It wouldn't matter where she went. Just as far away from here as possible. Last chance. I can pack and go, there's still time. Because no matter the extent of her preparations, there was no guarantee that she wouldn't die today.
She barely suppressed it with a long exhale.
Shikaku rested his head in his palm, his eyes unfocused on the world around him.
That warning - it bugged him. There was something he was missing.
Of course Anonymous was referring to the second phase of the Chunin exams - the timing of the letter made that much obvious. But why would Orochimaru return to Konoha, why now? What was his objective? And most importantly, who was Anonymous, and why was he snitching?
He hadn't yet arrived to a conclusion. It could, of course, be a joke, but there was something jarring about the way it had been written that made him reluctant to think it was a simple prank. Too deliberately vague. And regardless, they had to act on it anyway, because they couldn't risk not being prepared in the small chance that the warning was genuine.
But it could also be a distraction to pave the way for a third party while Konoha was focused on a false lead. It could have been planted by Orochimaru himself, to get them to converge on the Forest of Death while he attacked from another angle. The strategic applications of leaking false information were endless.
Shikaku brought the note he'd memorized back to the forefront of his mind. Frustratingly, he was no closer to answers than when the Hokage had summoned him to his office, along with Ibiki and Anko, the first and second test examiners.
Profession: Oracle
"Oracle," he repeated out loud.
He was sitting in the Jounin lounge, observing the Genin arriving to the building on the opposite side of the road with their registration forms clutched tightly in their hands. Many other Jounin watched silently, as he did, - or not so silently in Gai's case, who burst into tears when his team entered the building and cried that he couldn't bear not witnessing this momentous occasion in their lives (blah blah, everyone in the room had learned to tune him out over the years) until he disappeared in a puff of smoke. Gai's loud speech was the reason why in a room full of Jounin only Asuma Sarutobi, who was sitting next to him, heard Shikaku's quiet statement and raised an eyebrow in question, but the Jounin Commander didn't continue his deduction out loud.
Oracle. He couldn't be an actual oracle, of course, but he could be suggesting that he had more information than he was letting on. Why had he leaked so little in the first place, in such a cryptic, deliberately obscure manner? Clearly their mystery ally, even if he intended to help them, also had a hidden agenda - he'd specified the Forest of Death, meaning he didn't want them capturing or killing the Sannin before then. The information he provided was limited precisely for that purpose.
Proposed payment: A secret. Follow the rules if you want it. I'm watching you
Shikaku tapped his fingers on his chin.
Anonymous was in Konoha. Probably infiltrated in the exam, in fact, along with Orochimaru. It was the only way either of them could enter the Forest of Death at this time.
Canceling the exam had never been a viable option. All foreign teams had already arrived, and calling it off because of a threat from a missing-nin would be a show of weakness to both their clients and the other nations. Not to mention it might not stop Orochimaru (or Anonymous if he was the true mastermind) at all.
Instead, every ninja ranked Chunin and above had been ordered to prepare for armed conflict, and ANBU had been mobilized, just in case. In the Jounin lounge, the air buzzed with a subtle tension. An outsider would never notice, but every ninja had their tells and Shikaku knew most of them well. Asuma's drags on his cigarette were too deep, Kakashi was taking too long to flip the pages of his book.
Luckily they'd been expecting armed conflict from some time. There was unrest in Sound, Grass and Rain, the Haran fiasco had lowered their lukewarm relations with Cloud and Mist to sub-zero temperatures, and patrols kept finding foreign shinobi on the wrong side of Fire's borders with increasing frequency. The winds of war were once again approaching the elemental nations, drawing patterns in the sands of Suna, whistling between the peaks of Lightning and making the leaves of Fire rustle in anticipation. At least Konoha wasn't caught completely flat-footed, even if the battle came from an unexpected side.
If someone was making a move today, whether it truly was Orochimaru, or Anonymous, or a third unknown enemy, they weren't going to succeed - Shikaku would make sure of it.
Aoi and Daichi met up at the entrance of the exam building. "Where's Aris?" she asked. "He is coming, right?" She'd just assumed he would - Aris wasn't the type to let his team down. But what if he chickened out at the last second, automatically failing her and thus destroying her plans? Though that would mean she wouldn't have to face Orochimaru.
Daichi nodded. "He said he'd be here soon. He had some last-minute preparations to take care of."
Aris arrived a few moments later, dressed in the long burgundy coat he wore to cover up his missing arm. Except, it was no longer missing. Fingers peeked out from the usually empty sleeve.
"Henge?" Aoi questioned, curious.
He nodded. "I thought it was best. I can't actually use it for anything, and it looks kinda rigid when I move it, but at least people won't realize I'm a cripple at first glance," he explained, feeling lame.
Daichi looked away guiltily.
They arrived to the second floor in time to hear the tail end of Sakura's explanation about the genjutsu. The guys guarding the door - two examiners in disguise - smiled thinly. "Not bad," the one with the spiky hair said, shifting slightly. "But seeing through it isn't enough!" Aoi stepped aside to avoid getting caught in the middle when he rushed at Sasuke. Lee did the opposite, whooshing past her to stop both the examiner's kick and Sasuke's counter with his bare hands. In the ensuing silence he glanced at Sakura out of the corner of his eye to make sure she'd seen his cool move.
Aoi was glad to know some things remained predictable.
"Hey," Neji said, irritated. "What happened to the plan? You were the one who said we shouldn't draw attention to ourselves."
Lee ignored him, stalking to Sakura. "Hi, my name is Lee." He blushed, hesitated, and finally seemed to gather his courage with a good guy pose. "Please go out with me! I'll protect you until I die!"
He needs to work on his pick up lines.
Team Shikaku slipped past the gathered Genin and climbed up the stairs while everyone was busy witnessing Lee's humiliating rejection.
There were a dozen teams already inside the real room 301 - the ones not only able to see through the genjutsu but smart enough not to tell everyone else about it. Hinata, Kiba and Shino were there, as well as a few older Leaf genin and a trio of Rain ninja with umbrellas and oxygen tanks. The vast majority were faces Aoi didn't recognize, so she assumed they either didn't pass the first test or were massacred in the second.
There was also team from Grass, easily distinguishable thanks to the wide conical hats they wore. One of the members was a tall androgynous man with long dark hair and pale skin. He smiled at Aoi when she entered. She tried to seem uninterested while inwardly suppressing a shiver - it was very hard to act natural knowing that her father was standing in the same room as her and no one there, including the disguised Chunin, would be able to do anything if he spontaneously decided to kill her.
She did spare a glance to his 'teammates'. Despite her best efforts she hadn't been able to recall what they were like from the manga, or if they'd been significant at all. They were both completely bald, and one of them wore a mask covering his face, made out to resemble some kind of monster.
They made their way over to where Team Eight was standing on one corner of the room. "Hi, Hinata," Aoi said, positioning herself so her back was to Orochimaru and he wouldn't be able to read her lips. "These are my teammates, Aris and Daichi."
"U-um, hi," Hinata replied. "This is Shino-kun. And Kiba-kun. G-guys, this is the friend I told you about."
Kiba crossed his arms, his face set in a scowl. He had noticed nearly everyone there was stronger than him, and had adopted a confident attitude to try to blend in. "Yeah, yeah. Hinata, are you sure she isn't just trying to trick us?"
Aoi smiled. "I'm surprised by the little trust you place in her. She's not stupid, you know. Hinata and I have been friends since before you even knew she existed."
Kiba seemed taken aback at that. He glanced at Hinata for confirmation, but she only blushed and started fidgeting with the zipper of her jacket.
"Listen, Kiba," Aoi continued, mockery evident in her tone, "you'd better make sure nothing happens to her. If someone touches a single hair on her head, I'm coming after you," she finished, placing a hand on his shoulder. Kiba made a motion to shake her off, but his eyes widened when he realized he couldn't move his body at all.
Aoi squeezed his shoulder and smiled, still perfectly casual. "See you in the second phase." She withdrew her hand, and with it the paralyzing chakra that had locked his muscles and joints in place. Shino watched the whole exchange without intervening.
Slowly the room filled up with new teams. Aoi was looking for someone in particular: the spy. Because Kabuto wouldn't be here, Orochimaru must have planted another spy among the participants to fill his role. The Sannin needed someone to approach Sasuke, gain his trust and monitor him through the second phase after he got the mark. The spy also had to be a Konoha Genin, since even Team Seven wasn't gullible enough to trust a foreigner.
Finding and eliminating him soon, ideally before the start of the second phase, was her priority at this stage. The less unknown variables there were when she entered that forest the higher her chances of success.
Ino-Shika-Cho entered soon after, so visibly nervous and strung that the word Rookies might as well have been plastered on their foreheads. Aoi waved at Shikamaru. He relaxed slightly and nodded back.
Finally Naruto's team walked in. Like always, they made noise, starting to bicker with the other Rookie Nine. Aoi pretended not to notice how the whole room leaned forwards in anticipation of easy prey. The trio of Sound-nin at the back especially - the way they focused on Sasuke was so obvious she was surprised he couldn't feel their glares on his neck.
Aris sighed. "We could have found stronger teams to ally with."
"They're not that bad," Aoi replied. "Just new." She waited, eyes darting around the room. In the original timeline this was when Kabuto had approached Team Seven for the first time. If there was another spy, she had to identify him now.
No one was moving. She risked a glance to Orochimaru, to find that he was staring at Sasuke too, an abnormally long tongue darting out of his mouth to lick his lips.
Come on, where's your spy...
A pale guy with a mop of dark grey hair suddenly left the sidelines and made his way towards the rookies. He wore a Konoha hitai-ate around his neck. "Jeez, don't be so loud. What are you, Academy students?"
Got you, Aoi thought. Then her smile froze on her face like a bucket of cold water had been dumped on her head.
This guy, there was something familiar about him, and it wasn't just the physical resemblance to Kabuto. She couldn't tell exactly when, but she knew she'd seen him before. He looked a few years older than her, sixteen, or maybe seventeen, but despite his height his frame was very thin, almost fragile-looking. His skin was too pale, with an unhealthy grey undertone; and the beginning of a red rash was visible on his shoulder, peeking out from underneath his dark shirt. But most of all it was the demeanor - a posture too casual to be natural; and a bland, generic smile that made her stomach churn on itself.
And then it hit her.
He was Root.
The more she looked at him, the more certain she was. Only Root agents had that air of calculated behavior around them, making them seem fake; and this guy was even more obvious than Kabuto had been - his words sounded scripted, his expression way too controlled. It was one of the downsides to the training, she supposed. The permanent suppression of emotions would make most agents come across as odd in a social setting. Sai was an extreme example.
She observed him through narrowed eyes as he gave the rookies advice on how to pass the exam, his speech occasionally punctuated by wet-sounding coughs. It made no sense for Orochimaru to recruit a Root agent; while perfectly obedient soldiers, they were too loyal to Danzo, Kabuto being the rare exception. Besides, this guy seemed like he was about to keel over and die any second, she assessed clinically as he coughed yet again. Her father wouldn't have bothered with him.
So, that only left one option: he'd been sent here by Root itself.
Which meant...
Aoi cursed under her breath. Daichi followed her line of sight and shifted his weight. "Something odd about that guy."
"I don't think he's a Genin," she admitted.
On either side of her the boys exchanged glances. "Let's test it," Aris proposed. Daichi nodded and they dashed around the gathered crowd, converging on the Root. Aoi had the initial reflex to stop them but in the end decided not to, as, if he truly was the spy, he wouldn't risk disqualification by harming other participants before the exam even started.
True to her prediction the Root opted to dodge instead of counter, stepping backwards to avoid the kunai. More than the speed, what impressed Aoi was the precision with which he moved. Even that single step had been tailored for maximum efficiency; he'd only stepped far enough to barely avoid the kunai, not a single inch further than he had to. Perfectly calculated, like everything about him. "What's your deal?" he demanded, raising his arms, fists closed.
After their first miss Daichi and Aris retreated, eyeing him warily. The Root glanced around the room, looking for new threats.
Nope, definitely not a Genin. She wasn't the only one who arrived to the conclusion. Across the room Shikamaru frowned and Tenten's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Lee, that move..."
"I saw it," Lee whispered back.
"That's enough, you worthless scum!" An explosion of chakra and smoke made Aoi and everyone else jump. When it dissipated, the imposing figure of Ibiki Morino, plus a dozen examiners dressed in light grey uniforms, stood in the middle of the room. "I'm Ibiki Morino, the examiner of the first test." He grinned, bloodthirsty. "And for the moment, your worst enemy."
His presence was stifling, leaking out killing intent. Some of the Genin audibly gulped.
"You two," he said, pointing at Aris and Daichi. "Do you want to be disqualified? Fighting is forbidden. For now."
"Sorry," Aris apologized smoothly, relaxing out of his stance. "We got a bit carried away."
Ibiki proceeded to insult and terrorize the gathered participants. The death threats and the black billowing coat were overly dramatic, in Aoi's opinion, though she couldn't say it was ineffective. If she hadn't known there was someone far more powerful inside the room, she would have probably been quite intimidated.
When Ibiki judged a suitable percentage was appropriately cowed he ordered them to draw numbers for seats. Aoi slipped in line right behind Hinata. "Hinata, this is important," she whispered urgently. "You need to tell me what number that guy draws, and then draw the seat right behind his." She jerked her head to the Root at the front of the line.
Hinata didn't question it. "Oh, um, okay." She activated the Byakugan. "57." She focused on the contents of the bag, reading the numbers on the chips through the fabric. "So I take 67?"
Doujutsu are just an enormous cheat. "Yes."
Hinata's turn came and she drew. Aoi got number 99. They swapped chips when no one was looking and sat on their respective seats.
The Root didn't suspect anything, his attention focused at the front of the room where Ibiki was explaining the rules of the test. One seat behind him, Aoi tapped her pen on the table impatiently, tac tac tac tac, staring at the back of his head. He could only be here on Danzo's orders. Meaning, the wretched dinosaur and her father were working together in this invasion.
It was so obvious now; Danzo wanted Hiruzen dead, of course he was going to support Orochimaru's plot to assassinate him. In the original invasion, she remembered being shocked by how easily Orochimaru and his agents infiltrated Konoha's ranks, but everything was explained if Danzo was involved.
Selfish monster. You're perfectly fine with plunging Konoha in war if it means you'll come out of it wearing the hat.
Tac tac tac tac. They must have some sort of agreement: Orochimaru kills the Hokage and Danzo lets him have Sasuke. He despised Uchiha - he was probably glad to be free of the last of them once and for all. There would be a lot of double-crossing in an alliance like that. But it didn't change anything: getting rid of the Root was still the first priority, and now was the time to move.
Aoi purposefully dropped her pen. The sound it made as it hit the floor was clearly audible over the scratches of people writing. It rolled, stopping right under the Root's chair. "Ah, sorry, I dropped my pen," she announced.
One of the examiners made a tsk sound. "Go get it then."
But before she could move, a long purple tongue darted over her desk and picked it up from the floor, offering it to her. "Here you go."
Aoi's neck snapped to the side so fast she got whiplash and her eyes widened. She was speechless.
Orochimaru smiled and wiggled his tongue in front of her face.
"Thank you," she replied mechanically, feeling like her jaw was made of wood.
For an instant his pupils contracted to the original body's vertical slits before reverting back to their rounded shape. "Welcome." Aoi spent the rest of the exam trying to stop herself from trembling. Eliminating the spy while her father was watching was impossible, obviously.
Orochimaru getting the seat right next to hers. What were the odds?
Hinata took a while to get over the fact that desk 99 was right next to Naruto's 100, and thanks to exchanging chips with Aoi she was now sitting there. In fact, Naruto's presence within one meter of her personal space blew nearly every other thought out of her mind.
Does he think I'm weird? Every time I try to talk to him I look like a blubbering idiot, of course he does. He must be so happy now that Sakura's in his team. Cue a sigh. Though maybe he's only pretending to like her? Yeah, right, and my father secretly enjoys belly-dancing.
In an uncharacteristic episode of girly frustration, Hinata fiercely wished there was something interesting about her, something remarkable to distinguish her from the faceless crowd. Something like Ino's fantastic hair or Sakura's bright, beautiful normal eyes.
Her brain turned to mush for five minutes when Naruto's elbow accidentally brushed her own, and later she hated herself for being so pathetic. Enough. Naruto's not important right now, the test is.
Being privy to more information than nearly everyone else in the room thanks to her bloodline, she more or less worked out that the questions on the test were too hard to answer for the average Genin, and she was supposed to cheat. So she did. While she might have been reluctant to resort to such cowardly tactics in the past she'd long ago decided that she wouldn't be a burden for her team, even at the cost of her own integrity. Besides, it wasn't really cheating if that was what the test was about.
She decided to copy off Aoi. They'd already agreed that they'd help each other during the exam, so Hinata reasoned she wouldn't get angry. However, when she turned her pupil-less eyes on her friend, she discovered that she hadn't touched her paper at all - in fact, the older Genin was unusually still, a droplet of sweat visible on her neck and her lips pursed, eyes staring straight ahead. Strange. What would make her so tense? Hinata frowned, watching the bead of sweat roll down her neck, and the motion of her throat as she swallowed dryly. It couldn't be the test; these questions were nothing compared to the complex data analysis she performed in her experiments.
Hinata looked at the guy sitting next to her, a Grass nin with a wide conical hat. Must be him, she decided. He was lounging on his chair like it was the sofa in his living-room, untroubled by the glares of the examiners. His paper was blank too. Occasionally he glanced at Aoi and his lips twitched, as if amused by her nervousness.
Her Byakugan picked up the erratic pulsing of the artery on the side of Aoi's neck, betraying that actually, she was more than nervous. She was terrified. Hinata's alarm grew exponentially. Anyone who scared Aoi to such an extent couldn't be ordinary.
Finally Aoi seemed to get a hold of herself. The line of her shoulders relaxed and she picked up her pen, exhaling slowly, her pulse returning to normal as she concentrated on the paper. Hinata copied down the answers, then with a last suspicious glance at the Grass nin she switched her Byakugan off, since she needed to conserve chakra for the second phase. She wasn't really worried about Shino and Kiba, they both were good enough to cheat properly.
Naruto, on the other hand, seemed to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Hinata gently kicked him under the desks. "Um... You can copy off me, if you want..." she mouthed, subtly pushing her paper towards him.
Naruto seemed suspicious. "Why would you help me?" he whispered.
"I..." The words wouldn't come out, and in that moment Hinata loathed her stutter and shyness with a passion. It had been improving, but around Naruto it mysteriously reverted back to its original deplorable state. Why couldn't she be articulate like everyone else? "Well, us Rookies have t-to work together, right?"
Naruto seemed tempted, but then he shook his head. "A ninja like me doesn't need to cheat!" He mouthed back, grinning.
Hinata blushed. "But... um..." She didn't know if she should point out that they were half an hour in and he had yet to answer a single question.
Then Ibiki asked the tenth question and Naruto, defying everyone's expectations, slammed down his hand on his desk and declared he'd never turn back, no matter what. That act alone dissipated the tension in the room and people leaned back in their chairs, nodding and smiling to themselves, their confidence restored by his own unshakable drive.
Hinata beamed, all frustrations forgotten. He was amazing; his light never faded, no matter the obstacles in his way. Maybe, if she kept trying and didn't give up, she too would be able to shine like that.
Ibiki had been told to refrain from acting before the enemy revealed themselves. He still overly emphasized the importance of information and false information in his speech at the end of the test. Partly because he was the head of T&I and partly because he was fishing for a particular reaction. But either Anonymous wasn't in the room or - more likely - he was careful in controlling his expression.
"For example," he exposed, "you might let it leak that you'd be infiltrating an enemy base from point A, but actually enter from point B."
Some confusion due to the new tangent his explanation had taken.
"Or imagine the Chuunin we mixed in among you had been instructed to write down wrong answers," he continued. "You'd be pretty screwed then, hm? In many instances false information is more hurtful than no information at all. Be suspicious of unreliable sources."
Some people might be skeptical of Ibiki's ability to identify a spy just by their reaction to verbal jabs, but he knew what made people tick better than a Yamanaka and could read body language as accurately as a Hyuga. Picking up minute shifts in posture or expression was part of his job description. Of course, there were a hundred and fifty people in the room, making it a bit ambitious even for him to pick out a single one out of all of them.
Ibiki just carried on with the speech unperturbed. It had been a long shot anyway.
When the Genin left with Anko, he collected the exam sheets and handed them to one of his assistants. "Take them to the Cryptology team," he instructed.
Shikaku was the one who'd suggested to cross-check the candidates' handwriting with the one in Anonymous's mission request. At first Ibiki was annoyed for not having thought of that himself; then he was a bit skeptical that Anonymous would really have been so careless as to not modify his handwriting. But, it might actually work. If he, a Tokubetsu Jounin who dealt in information, hadn't thought of it, then maybe Anonymous hadn't either.
He approached the window Anko had crashed through and watched the candidates follow her to the Forest of Death. Without realizing it, he rolled one shoulder, then the other, as if warming up for a fight. I guess we'll know soon enough whether that warning was real or not.
A.N.2: Also, I need grammar help! When a singular noun (like Anonymous) ends with S, and you want to add 's at the end of it (to indicate possession), do you write Anonymous's or Anonymous' (as if it were plural)? Sorry if the question is stupid. English isn't my first language.
