Disclaimer: I do not own NARUTO.

WILL OF STONE

THE FIRST TRIAL: "Tower of Ghosts"

"Mizuho!" shrieked Misain Sebi.

At his side, his older sister Misain Rei made a hand seal. "Water Release: Hiding in Mist!"

A cloud of fine mist materialized all around them, shrouding the courtyard in a fog of darkness.

Then the mist lit on fire.

Fuck!

Sakura spun chakra out from her tenketsu, making a chakra field around herself, the Sand Siblings, and Team Narumi. The chakra bubble was enough to push the Mizuho mist back, barely. Beyond the bubble, it seemed the entire courtyard was afire. Mizuho, one of the most powerful bloodlines in the world.

"They're coming!" said Temari.

Misain Sebi appeared from the fog of fire, his entire body covered in an armor of burning water. Burning Skin. He leaped toward Temari, intending to burn her to death with his embrace.

Temari opened her Giant War Fan just enough that one of the three purple eyes was showing. She was still disguised as Sebi, and the sight of a little boy holding the fan was most incongruous. "Wind Release: Wind Scythe!"

A burst of cleaving wind exploded from the War Fan. Sebi was blown back violently, disappearing into the Mizuho mist. He screamed in rage.

"Careful, sister!" said Kankuro. "If we're caught fighting like this, we'll be ejected from the exam."

"Better ejected than dead."

As if to prove the truth of Temari's words, the waterfall-nin Onira Kawai now appeared, a web of black tentacles slithering from his patchwork body. Kawai cackled. "Team Tsunade, is it? Finally, an opponent worthy of my abilities."

"You killed the sand-nins," accused Sakura.

"So I did. They died screaming for mercy, just like you will."

Beside Sakura, the wave-nin Unchiku Nonou stared at Kawai's tentacles with wide eyes. "What is he?"

"An inhuman monster," replied Sakura.

In truth, Onira Kawai was a bloodline. Shokushu, it was called. Black Thread. Shokushu was infamous for being the world's only known artificial bloodline, a product of genetic experimentation by the founders of the Onira clan. Shokushu users were less human than they were chimeras of surgical medicine, with hundreds of thick black threads woven throughout their flesh. This body structure made them highly resistant to physical attacks; and even, or so it was rumored, immortal.

"A monster?" asked Kawai. "Why, thank you."

A dozen tentacles shot out from Kawai's body at them.

Fast!

Kankuro used his puppets Karasu and Kuroari as mechanical shields, blocking most of the tentacles. Sakura dodged one that got through the puppet defense, and Nonou did as well.

But the other wave-nins on Team Narumi froze up. They watched the tentacles come for them helplessly, and would have died if Temari had not intervened at the final second, slicing through the tentacles with her War Fan.

"Fight, damn it!" Temari told them.

"We only know how to use water jutsu!" said Nonou. "We can't fight against Mizuho."

"Then run."

While Kawai continued to attack with his tentacles, Misain Sebi ambushed them from behind. This time his older sister Rei joined him. Rei was not as strong a ninja as Sebi, but her Mizuho bloodline was just as dangerous, and both of them knew how to use it. "Mizuho: Water Shark Missile!" they shouted.

Twin spears of burning water shaped like sharks exploded out toward the leaf-nins and wave-nins.

Sakura just had time to press her hands to the ground. "Earth Release: Earth Wall!"

A wall of mud and stone shot up from the courtyard floor. The burning Mizuho missiles slammed into the wall, blowing it to pieces. Chunks of rock and waterfire rained across Sakura's head. Where the center of the courtyard had been, there was now a smoking crater, filled with blazing demon fire.

"You idiots!" Kankuro was shouting. "The chuunin examiners will see us. You'll be kicked out of the exam, too."

Misain Rei pursed her lips. "I suppose the weasel has a point."

Rei was tall where her little brother was short, thin of body and thin of face, with prominent ears, a sharp nose, and a mustache that grew on her upper lip. Her red-blue hair was wispy and brittle, her mouth stern, a voice a whip. She cracked it now, stroking her nails across Sebi's boyish cheek. "Sweetling, what say we try some… less destructive jutsu?"

"I want them to burn!" Sebi whined.

"Now, now. Doesn't your big sister always know what's best? Besides, there are ways to kill that are… unseen. Remember?"

Evidently Sebi had forgotten. His face lit up with sadistic happiness at the thought. "The bad lady hurt me." He pointed at Temari. "I'll make her pay. I'll turn her heart into a pile of ash." His fingers were a blur of hand seals. "Mizuho: Burning Blood!"

Suddenly Temari flipped backward, clutching at her chest. "It's the same attack we saw before!" she shouted. "He's trying to use Mizuho to light our blood on fire. But he's got to aim it. If we keep on moving—"

"Easier said than done," said Onira Kawai. His head was a dozen feet high in the air, extended on black threads slithering from the rest of his body. His limbs had been detached in the same way, encircling Sakura and her teammates from every direction. Kawai laughed. "You can't escape."

His head down dove toward Temari, tentacles spilling from his lips.

"Don't let him touch you!" Kankuro shouted. "Those black threads, there's some kind of poison on them—"

Unchiku Nonou stepped in front of Temari. The wave-nin met Kawai's attack bravely, determination and defiance in her face. "Water Release: Rising Water Slicer!"

Hundreds of blades of water flew out toward Kawai, sharp as knives. They sliced through the threads that attached his head to his neck, and then Kawai's severed head was rolling on the ground, helpless to do anything. The tentacle boy shrieked in frustration, cursing.

Temari smirked. "I thought you were going to run."

"Me? What would Inari-kun think?"

Now's my chance, Sakura thought. With Kawai temporarily down and Sebi distracted by Temari, that left only Rei.

She threw both of her chakra-cast kunai at the waterfall-nin girl.

Rei dodged. Her thin, proud face twisted into a sneer. "Pathetic—"

Sakura flicked the kunai in mid-air, the chakra strings she'd attached to the handles allowing her to control them from a distance. Using the kunai like whips, she swept them toward Rei again.

Rei did not dodge a second time. Fiery water flowed down her body, covering her in a protective Mizuho armor. Burning Skin. The flames of the Mizuho were so bright it was hard even to look at Rei directly. She caught one kunai in her burning hand. "Truly pitiful—"

Sakura cycled earth chakra through her hand and blasted as much as she could through the attached chakra string. The resulting explosion hit Rei at point-blank range, flinging her back into the fog of blazing fire.

"Rei!" Sebi's voice was shrill.

Rei emerged from the Mizuho mist in a disheveled state. Her palm was a bloody ruin, her hair sticking up like a tree. "How dare you! You ape bitch, I'll—"

Now for the finishing blow.

"Amnesia," said Sakura.

The genjutsu took Rei by surprise. Not prepared for it, her mind gave way in an instant. Sakura immediately followed with another genjutsu, Sleep, which knocked Rei unconscious. The waterfall-nin's body crumpled to the ground.

"Rei!" Sebi shrieked again. "Sister!"

The little boy forgot all about Temari now, rushing to his older sister's side. His blue eyes were lit with a wild light, his young face contorted in fury.

Onira Kawai laughed. Somehow he'd managed to reattached his head, black threads slithering across his neck to stitch the scar. "Now you've done it. You've pissed him off."

"You hurt my sister! I'll kill you!" Sebi raised his hands.

A massive tide of water appeared above his head.

"Uh oh," said Nonou.

"Mizuho: Water Dragon Bullet!"

The water turned into a dragon, all aflame and breathing fire. It flew at them, a torrent of demon fire that flooded the whole courtyard.

Temari spun her metal War Fan. "Wind Release: Storm Shield!" A funnel of wind swirled around them, keeping the Mizuho back. But the pressure of the water was too much. Rivers of flame broke through through Temari's defense, spraying out waves of Mizuho water. Each drop, a blazing flame. A shower of fire splashed Nonou's teammate Unchiku Ouji. Ouji screamed, fainting, and fell over the corpse of the Iwa ANBU that still lay in the gutter of the courtyard. It was all Sakura could do to put the fire out before it killed him.

"Let's get the hell out of here!" Kankuro shouted.

Sakura could not have agreed more.

Using Temari's Storm Shield jutsu to protect them, they waded through the sea of burning water, Nonou carrying Ouji in her arms. Then, as soon as they reached the edge, they began to run. It was only when Sakura was far away that she looked back. Sebi was still in the center of the courtyard, blasting out more Mizuho in a blind rage.

"Ah," said a wry voice. "That's a lot of property damage."

Sakura looked up. It was Shikamaru.

"It wasn't us!" Kankuro protested. "That little pyromanic is nuts. You need to kick him out of the exam."

Shikamaru stroked his chin. "True… but then I'd have to kick you out as well. A battle has two sides, after all. Now, did you have to disguise yourselves as Team Dayu? Didn't I tell you to watch out for them?"

Temari poked Shikamaru in the chest. "Seems both of us have a talent for cross-dressing."

"Right, well." He coughed.

Meanwhile, Sakura was using Mystical Palm to examine the injured Unchiku Ouji. "His burns are superficial," she told Nonou. "I can heal most of it now…. he'll be okay."

"Can Ouji still fight?"

"If he wakes up in time."

Nonou looked at her other teammate Kabure. "We won't slow you down, then. Go."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Another fight against those freaks in Team Dayu, and we'll be deadweight." The wave-nin smiled, freckled face tired but friendly. "I'll take Ouji someplace safe until he recovers. Still got a whole day to finish the exam, right?"

Sakura nodded. "Take care, then."

"Thanks, Sakura. For all your help."

"So," said Kankuro, "what's the plan now? We were gonna look for the mist-nins, right?"

Shikamaru grinned. "Team Gai already took care of that. They tried to kidnap a mist-nin genin, who turned out to be chuunin examiner in disguise… suffice to say, misadventures followed. Neji says their Lock is outside Mannen House in the Sakaicho district."

Kankuro relayed this information to Team Asuma and Team Ranka through their radio transmitters. Team Asuma was also attempting to kidnap somebody, but had not yet succeeded. Team Ranka had joined with Team Wekku of Sand. The sand-nin's fake Lock was located in Shitamachi, in an alleyway behind the Street of Beggars.

"That's eight," said Sakura.

She pulled out the map of Iwagakure. Eight coordinates. Plotting each of the fake Locks upon the map like a grid, she could triangulate a central common point. It would be child's play with all fifteen different variables, but with only eight…

Closing her eyes, Sakura tried to visualize the whole of Iwa as she'd seen it before. The village was an island shaped like an eyeball, the Yellow River to the north and the White River to the south. In between were the four districts of Kuramae, Shitamachi, Aoyama, and Onden. The real Lock was somewhere on the main island, that was clear. But where? There were so many missing variables. No, I need to find the pattern.

"Do you see?" the smoky voice of Sougon Sosano whispered in her head. Then Sakura remembered. Like an earth garden. Iwa was a garden, each part of it pregnant with symbolism. Kuramae, like an open courtyard. Shitamachi, a bamboo grove. Aoyama, a shadowed house, and Onden a prayer pond. The four corners of one island garden, as the four organs of the body, as the four seasons.

Then she saw.

"There." Sakura pointed at the map, her finger tracing the grid of coordinates. "Haghira Tower."

The Tower of Ghosts.

Biding goodbye to the wave-nins, they started across the rooftops of Aoyama to Haghira Tower. The journey was remarkably uneventful. Soon the tower loomed above them, a huge thing of crumbling gray stone, rising over the surrounding buildings.

Haghira Tower was more a castle than a tower, in truth. A relic of the Age of Chaos, when different clans had fought for control of Iwa. The Sougon clan seized the Overlook, while other clans like the Haghira clan had dominated different parts of the island. On a hill in Aoyama, near the Yellow River, the ancestors of Haghira Doi had build this stronghold to defend themselves. The walls and ramparts of the castle were covered in stone gargoyles, eroded badly from age. Sakura spied lions and deer, bats and spiders, even Shiva gods, a thousand chimeras of fantastical imagination.

Team Asuma was waiting for them at the base of Haghira Tower.

"What took you?" Ino cried out. "Team Ranka abandoned us for Neji and Rock Lee, of all people, did you know that?"

Beside her, Shimura Anake sighed theatrically. "So, Sakura? Where's the Lock?"

"Inside."

Haghira Tower was even bigger from the inside than it had seemed without. Half of the great entrance hall had collapsed, revealing the night sky beyond. The stars were covered by clouds, but Sakura could just make out the shrouded light of the crescent moon. It was very low on the horizon. The night is almost over. It was so dark that they had to use flashlights in order to see. Debris littered the floor, and fallen gargoyles as well: broken, ghostly creatures of misshapen stone.

"Is it just me, or is this place creepy?" said Ino.

Sakura stepped over the remains of a gargoyle with thirteen arms. "The patriarch of the Haghira clan went insane from living here, or so the story goes."

"You cactus, how do you know?"

"I read it in a book."

"Figures."

"This was hundreds of years ago," Sakura continued, "when the castle was still occupied by the Haghira clan. Except one day, the clan patriarch began to see ghosts. Which maybe isn't surprising, considering Haghira Tower is built over the Catacombs—"

"What?" asked Ino.

"The Catacombs. You know, ancient burial chambers and stuff. There's a whole network under Iwa. Earth-kin used to worship their ancestors as guardian spirits, so they'd build these big expensive shrines underground to honor them. Anyway, so one day the patriarch saw a ghost walk up from the Catacombs into Haghira Tower. It's said the ghost was his own father, and that the patriarch murdered him in order to take over the clan. The father's head hung off his neck and leaked rivers of ghost blood from the hole, cold as ice. The next day the patriarch sealed up the entrance to the Catacombs, but the ghost came back anyway. And it came back every night until everyone in the castle, from the patriarch to the lowest servant, went insane and killed themselves. That's why Haghira Tower is considered haunted, and why nobody lives in it, even to this day."

Ino shuddered. "No wonder Director Doi always looks so depressed."

"There it is," said Anake.

Sakura thought he meant the Lock, but when she followed Anake's flashlight, he was pointing at a big graven door at the rear of Haghira Tower. Stone gargoyles flanked the passageway, hulking sphinx-like beasts with mouths long as swords. The door was broken open, and a flight of stairs led downward into the earth, so deep that no light could penetrate it.

The entrance to the Catacombs.

"Where's the Lock?" Chouji asked, confused. "We walked all the way to the back of the castle."

Ino frowned. "It's hidden somewhere?"

"Or we got the wrong place," pointed out Anake.

"No," said Sakura slowly. "No, it's here. I'm sure of it."

"Maybe the other villages tricked us."

"Look up," said Temari softly.

For a moment Sakura did not see anything. Then she saw the three shadows perched high atop the ruins of Haghira Tower. Chuunin examiners. Temari had found the confirmation they needed. There was no reason for the examiners to be staking out the castle unless it was an important location.

"But where's the Lock?" asked Chouji again.

Suddenly Kankuro started to laugh.

"Sweet brother, are you having a seizure?" asked Temari.

"No, I finally get it. That cock-bastard Haghira Doi has a sense of humor after all." Kankuro pointed down. "We're supposed to look beneath the surface, he said. Get it? Beneath the surface."

Sakura looked down, too. At the stone floor. And then below it.

Far, far, below it.

The Catacombs.

Anake sighed. "Why, you all look like you just stepped in a pile of shit. I can't imagine why, myself. The dead are such peaceful company compared to the lot of you."

Next: THE FIRST TRIAL: "Beneath the Surface"