Chapter 36
Tenna, Naruto, and Kiroko excavated through the forest silently. Luckily for the trio they found an Earth scroll really quickly. They continued searching through the forest for a Heaven scroll, but Naruto knew that it wasn't going to be easy. It started to get dark so they camped out near a huge tree and made a warm bed-like mattress out of leaves.
This whole time none of them said a word, unless it had something to do with something they were doing at the moment. Kiroko and Naruto fell asleep pretty quickly, but Tenna stayed awake for a little bit longer. "I wonder what Gaara's doing right now…" Tenna said as she looked up at the shining stars.
"Oh boy, this isn't good…" a voice came from behind a bush. Tenna stood up and grabbed a kunai just incase it was another enemy. She approached the bush and threw a shuriken to get whatever was in there. An "Ow" was heard and out came Konohamaru.
"Konohamaru, what're you doing out here alone? Where's your team?" Tenna asked. Konohamaru was shivering, since it was chilly out, then he looked up at Tenna, "We were close to getting a Heaven scroll but then these other guys battled us for it, and me and my team lost and then there was like smoke and stuff and everyone ran in different directions and we all just ended up losing each other." Konohamaru explained.
Tenna placed her arms around him so he could warm up. "Come sleep with us. There's plenty of room." Tenna smiled and lead him to the tree trunk. "You're in Naruto's team, right?" Konohamaru asked half asleep. "Yup" Tenna replied as she laid him down on the warm leaves. Tenna smiled as she saw Konohamaru curl into a ball and fall fast asleep. "He's even a cutie when he's sleeping." Tenna said to herself.
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The next morning Kiroko scratched the tip of her nose and snuggled closer to what seemed like a warm plushie like thing. Kiroko slowly opened her eyes to see where the warmness what coming from, and once she saw who it was her eyes went wide.
"It's that boy!" she said surprisingly in her head, noticing that it was Konohamaru. "Hmm he's pretty cute…" she said smiling to herself. Everyone else was still asleep, so she played the innocent act, and cuddled up next to Konohamaru and pretended that she didn't notice what she was doing. Then unexpectedly Konohamaru put his arm over her. Three words described this young girl ninja at the moment: Kiroko-Was-Ecstatic
After about another hour Naruto sat up and stretched his arms and yawned. "Good morning guys" he said as he scratched his back. He turned his head and saw Konohamaru, then he smiled and looked away, but then he looked back suddenly and saw that Konohamaru had his arm over Kiroko.
Naruto was confused at this point. "Isn't she going with Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked himself. Naruto didn't know what to do. Should he separate Konohamaru and Kiroko? Leave them alone and continue sleeping? So he did the next best thing and woke up Tenna.
"Tenna? Hey Tenna, wake up" Naruto said as he shook his friend. "Naruto…stop it" Tenna said slapping Naruto's arm. "But look!" Naruto said anxiously. Tenna knew that Naruto wouldn't shut up until she did what he told her, so she sat up and rubbed her eye while the other followed where Naruto was pointing to. Suddenly her eyes went wide, but then she had a smile on her face.
"Aww that's cute!" She squealed quietly as she saw Kiroko and Konohamaru cuddling with each other. "But Tenna, isn't Kiroko with Kakashi?" Naruto asked confusingly. Tenna then looked at Naruto worriedly, "Yeah, she is…"
Tenna and Naruto both got up and went to the nearest river to splash some water in their faces. In a couple of minutes it ended up being a water fight between them. One splash led to another and there began their water fight. "Let's go see if those two love birds woke up" Naruto said trying to dry his hair by combing his fingers through it. Tenna nodded and both ninjas walked to their campout.
Then suddenly there was a loud shriek. "I think that was Kiroko!" Tenna said aloud. They both ran as fast as they could to the noise. And as they suspected it was Kiroko. Konohamaru and two of his shadow clones were standing in front of Kiroko defending her from the trouble.
"Seems like Konohamaru is like the mini you" Tenna said to Naruto once she saw Konohamaru's shadow clones. Naruto grinned, "That's Konohamaru for ya…"
Tenna looked at who they were about to face, and of course it was Iyashii. "Iyashii! What are you doing here?" Tenna shouted angrily. "I thought you said you were going to face me during the fighting part of the exams!"
"Yes, I know but I needed an Earth scroll" Iyashii said with an evil grin as she held up Tenna and her team's Earth scroll in his grimy hands. "I thought you guys were watching over that scroll!" Naruto shouted at Konohamaru and Kiroko. "Naruto-baka, we were sleeping! How do you expect us to watch over it! You guys should've taken it with you, wherever you two went." Kiroko snapped back.
"You know what Tenna. Why wait to kill you later. I'll just kill you hear and now so I can have that deed done." Iyashii said. Then in a flash he charged at Tenna. Luckily Konohamaru's clones shot shurikens from behind and delayed Iyashii's sudden attack. "Argh! You brat!" Iyashii shouted as he glared at Konohamaru. Then one of Iyashii's teammates grabbed Konohamaru in a neck hold and held a kunai near his neck.
Kiroko got frightened at first, but she remembered that her sensei once told her back in Suna to never let the opponent sense your fear. So Kiroko toughened up and did a jutsu that summoned her sand that pulled the teammate that had Konohamaru in a choke hold, and buried the teammate in her sand and crushed his body with the pressure of her sand.
"Thanks" Konohamaru said. Then he ran and stood back to back with Kiroko, and held out a kunai while Kiroko did the same thing. "I know this is a bad time, but what's your name?" Konohamaru asked standing his ground from the enemies. Even though they were standing back to back Kiroko smiled hoping he would notice, "Kiroko" she said.
"Nice name. Mines Konohamaru" the young genin said. Kiroko giggled, "Yeah I heard about you. You're like Naruto's mini-me." Konohamaru smirked, "He's my idol. Let's put it that way"
Kiroko giggled, and suddenly the other teammate threw a kunai at her. Luckily, Naruto ran in front of her and countered the hit with his own kunai. "Don't get distracted Kiroko" Naruto said and then ran to attack Iyashii.
"You think I'm that easy to hit" Iyashii said as Naruto charged at him. Iyashii jumped, dodging Naruto's attack, and then bonked Naruto on the head really hard that his face left an indent on the ground. Then Iyashii turned to Tenna and charged at her. Tenna was about to dodge the attack but a clone came from behind her and held her tight. Iyashii got his chance and grabbed Tenna by the throat and slammed her to a tree trunk.
"Get ready to die!" Iyashii shouted insanely. Then Kiroko summoned her sand and shot sand shots at Iyashii, and Konohamaru threw clones of hundreds of shurikens at Iyashii. Iyashii got hit directly, but he bizarrely recovered his wounds.
"You're a monster" Tenna stammered. Iyashii roughly pushed Tenna's face against the tree's bark and chuckled evilly as he scraped her face. Then two clones came out of Iyashii's back and went to attack Kiroko, Konohamaru, and Naruto. Tenna began to tear, thinking that her life was going to end like this.
"I never even got to say good-bye to Gaara…" Tenna said softly to herself as a tear streamed down her cheek slowly. Then in bright flash, a sudden strike slashed Iyashii on the back. Iyashii yelled in pain as blood gushed out of his back. He turned swiftly around and saw an unpredictable guest.
"Estuko" Naruto smiled to himself.
The girl that Tenna argued with earlier had just saved her life. She was in the elf form and had her unusually long ears, with her sword grasped tightly in her hands dripping with Iyashii's blood. Then a fox like animal with 6 tails jumped from a branch. "Emi, flame wheel!" The girl shouted, and just like that, the fox ran as fast as it could and started to be covered in flames. Then it rolled into a ball and crushed Iyashii's clones and injured his teammate with severe 3rd degree burns.
Iyashii, Tenna, and the gang were equally astonished by the attack. The girl then started walking to Iyashii with no emotion. Iyashii started throwing kunais at the girl, but her sword would counter all the attacks. Iyashii stood still trying to show no fear, waiting for the girl's sword to slash him again, but this time he was ready.
Unexpectedly, the girl threw her sword on the floor. Everyone widened their eyes while Iyashii laughed evilly, "Chickened out eh?" he shouted ruthlessly.
The girl took out her ocarina slowly from her pocket. "Are you crazy? Pick up your sword! You can't defeat Iyashii with your damn flute!" Tenna yelled angrily, but winced in pain as she said so. Even though the girl saved Tenna's life, Tenna still didn't like her.
"Tenna, leave her alone!" Naruto shouted. Tenna looked at Naruto surprisingly and then looked at the girl, curious to see what she had planned.
The girl cleared her throat and blow into her ocarina. She played a tune that was familiar to Naruto. Iyashii thought this was ridiculous and started to charge at the girl. When the girl was done, the winds started to blow harder and harder and in a matter of seconds gusts of dangerous, hard, wind strikes sliced Iyashii. The girl just killed Iyashii.
Tenna gasped and looked back at the girl. "It seems she stronger then she seems…" Tenna said in her head. The girl picked up her sword, then turned to the injured teammate, and slowly walked towards him, dragging her sword on the ground.
Tenna watched as the girl dragged her sword leaving a dirt line as she walked. "No, don't! He already got what he deserved!" Tenna said a loud as the girl walked up the wounded teammate. The girl didn't stop; she kept on walking until she shadowed Iyashii's teammate. Naruto shut his eyes as the girl lifted her sword and cut the guy in half.
Kiroko clung onto Konohamaru in fright. "How could she just kill him like that" Kiroko said, looking at the guy the girl just cut in half. Tenna plopped to the ground and fell on her knees in disgust on what the girl just did. "Why did you do that?! He was already injured! He could've lived, he wasn't doing us anymore harm!" Tenna shouted as the girl slowly approached her.
The girl stood over Tenna and unpredictably slapped Tenna on the face. "Shut it, will ya!" the girl said. Tenna's cheek was turned the other way since the girl had just slapped her, then Tenna slowly turned to look up at the girl. "Don't think we're friends now that I saved you. I only killed that guy 'cause I'm the one who's going to kill you at the third exam." The girl said dramatically.
Tenna and everyone else's eyes went big and Naruto's mouth hung open. "Estuko…no…" Naruto said as he heard what the girl just said. Kiroko gasped and ran to Tenna's side. The girl gave a dirty look at Kiroko and then turned around. In a sudden poof the girl's fox friend disappeared, then the girl looked at Naruto and gave him a nod. Naruto nodded back in acknowledgement. Then in a second, the girl jumped on a tree branch and left.
"At least we got your Earth scroll back" Konohmaru chimed in cheerfully picking up a bloody scroll and then wiping it on the grass. "Eww Konohamaru! That's disgusting" Kiroko said as she saw Konohamaru pick up the drenched scroll covered with Iyashii's blood.
Tenna couldn't help but smile at Konohamaru, then her face went solemn as she thought about how the third exam.