Chapter Thirty-Six: Conflicting Agendas
"Sai, you know things about me that I don't," Naruto said quietly. Lee was already asleep in the large tent they'd been given after checking in for the second round of the Chuunin Exam, and Sai looked up from his book at Naruto's words.
"What makes you say that, Naruto?" Sai asked, closing his book.
"You weren't surprised that I didn't know about Uzushio despite the fact that every other Konoha genin here except Lee does," Naruto replied, "and you knew that the spiral in a circle wasn't just the mark of Uzushio but of the Uzumaki; my ancestors."
"Let's say I did know those things," Sai said. "What of it?"
Naruto's hands curled into fists in frustration. "Why didn't you tell me? We've been teamed together for months now!"
Sai considered that. "If I tried to tell you everything I know that you don't, Naruto, I would be talking for a very long time. We would probably miss the start of the Second Round. Beyond that, the information about your heredity wasn't relevant before we arrived here; prior to that I assumed you knew the relevant details of this place and your connections to it."
Naruto exhaled slowly, forcing down his irritation. He and Lee had almost come to blows with Sai when he first joined the team over the pale boy's blunt statements that could often be taken as insults. He reminded himself that unlike Neji, Sai wasn't actually trying to put them down. "Do you know who my father was?" Naruto asked.
"No," Sai replied immediately. "I don't know everything, Naruto."
"Okay," Naruto sighed.
"Is information about your father something that you found down in that cave?" Sai inquired.
Naruto lay back on his cot with a sigh. "Yeah…"
"Was there actually someone living down there?" Sai asked. "I didn't see any books or scrolls in that cave."
"'Living' is an exaggeration," Naruto replied, "but yes, I met someone down there who told me some things I didn't know. Once I have an opportunity, I'll be going back to learn more."
Sai shrugged. "All right." He leaned back on his own cot. "Well, sunset tonight is the deadline for the first round, so we should rest and be ready for whatever happens." Taking his own advice, Sai closed his eyes, and his breathing slowed.
Once Naruto fell asleep, Sai's eyes snapped open and he rose on silent feet, slipping out of the tent their team had been assigned. He didn't go far; his destination was less than a hundred yards away. Lifting the flap of another tent, he entered without hesitation and was greeted by a trio of older Iwa genin who drew weapons as soon as they saw his hitai-ate. "You're very lost, runt," one of them growled. "Beat it before you get hurt."
Sai didn't respond verbally, only opening his mouth and extending his tongue as far as it would go. What the Iwa genin saw in the flickering light of their lantern made their faces go as pale as Sai's. Their weapons disappeared as quickly as they had been drawn. "Apologies," the same genin muttered. "We weren't briefed on the identity of the primary asset. What do you need?"
"Nothing that will risk your cover," Sai replied calmly. "Only a small task to further our master's interest, to be carried out under the cover of the exam's Second Round." Sai told the three older genin what he needed them to do, and then left. He was back in his bed just minutes after he'd left it, hopefully with no one the wiser.
"All right punks, listen up!" The speaker was a woman with a wild mane of red hair that fell almost to her ankles, twin blades sheathed at her waist, and teeth filed to points like a shark's. "My name's Ringo Ameyuri and my job is to send as many of you sniveling brats home crying to your mommies as I can!"
Naruto glanced around the crowd of genin standing outside of the small tent city that formed the exam camp on Whirlpool Isle. The sun was setting behind the mountains to the west, which meant the assembled were all that had made it before time ran out. It was a much smaller crowd than the one that had listened to Ao's speech two weeks earlier. Four Konoha teams had made it. Naruto, Lee and Sai had arrived by air first. Sasuke, Kiba and Shikamaru's teams had arrived together several days later, aboard the same ship that they had apparently banded together to hijack from a group of Cloud genin.
Four Kiri teams, two Iwa teams, and one team each from Kumo and Kusa had made it in time as well. Oddly, the Suna team that had hijacked their own exam transport was not on the beach, and Sai had quietly noted that the strange team from the new village called Oto was missing as well, even though they'd flown over the ship that the ominous trio of genin had single-handedly captured and set out with.
"I'm looking at twelve genin teams right now and you lot are the sorriest sight I've laid eyes on in a long time. The good news is most of you won't be stinking up Whirlpool Isle with your mediocrity for much longer!" Ringo continued with a vicious grin. Taking a step back, she pulled a cloth off of a table beside her, revealing an orb of glass or crystal about the size of a fist. Its left half shone with an inner light bright enough that it hurt to look at directly, while the right half was pitch black, actively eating the light that touched it.
Sai nudged Naruto and Lee, pointing away from Ringo. Following Sai's gaze Naruto noticed points of white light at different locations in the distance. "They appeared as soon as she pulled back that sheet on the table," Sai whispered.
"What you miserable little pukes are looking at is the objective of the second round," Ringo informed them. "This is a Tide Stone. A full genin team with all three members ambulatory must present an intact Tide Stone to me to pass this round. There are six Tide Stones scattered across the island; not enough for everyone, you might notice. Well tough! First six teams to complete the objective get to advance. The rest of you get to go home; so kind of a win-win situation for me."
Abruptly, one of the Kusa genin threw out her hands toward the table. Strands of grass shot from her sleeves, wrapping around the orb and yanking it into toward waiting hands. The movement was fast, but Ringo was much faster. Naruto didn't even see her draw the swords at her hips, but they blurred through the air with a 'crack' of thunder, shredding the grass tendrils and shattering the Tide Stone. The pieces fell to the ground, light and dark fading from the halves. The Kusa genin staggered back, shaking arms that appeared to have gone numb from electrical feedback.
"Nice try kid, and fast thinking," Ringo said as she sheathed her blades, "but that was just the demonstration model. You're all going to have to work for this test. Now, beyond presenting your Tide Stone with a full team in tow there's only one rule for this round. This camp and the area immediately surrounding it are 'safe' ground. The perimeter is marked by the fences you can see ringing the area. Inside the fence, no stealing and no fighting; if you make it back here with a Tide Stone you're home free. Outside the fence, anything goes. If someone beats you to a stone or you see someone heading back here with one? Fight them and take what's theirs. Oh, and since we're on this little island, after… hmm… three days? Yeah, three days is how long you get to get back here with a Tide Stone. After that everyone's disqualified." Ringo paused for a moment, and when no one moved, she made a shooing gesture with her hands. "Well? Get lost. Clock's ticking!"
Most of the assembled teams headed inland toward the three points of light visible in that direction. One was on top of a distant mountain, one coming from deep in the jungle, and one from atop a half-collapsed tower in the city ruins. Two teams – both from Kiri – headed for the water, where a fourth shining stone was visible on the bottom of the bay. The last two Tide Stone's locations weren't immediately obvious.
"We should put our speed to use and head for the stone in the mountains or jungle," Lee said to Naruto and Sai as they paused just short of the fence. The other teams had halted as well, realizing that the first past the fence would be risking an attack from behind.
"A workable plan," Sai agreed, "but it will have to be foot speed. My birds are not resilient, and if they were dispelled by an attack from below we would fall to our deaths."
"Okay, let's do it. On three: go!" Naruto, Lee and Sai broke past the fence, heading for the trees. Naruto tensed for an attack, but instead the dam broke and all the other teams started running as well, some heading for the mountains or ruins. Naruto noted from the corner of his eye that Sasuke and Kiba's teams were heading into the forest as well. Shikamaru's team was the only one heading for the orb in the city – probably because it was the closest, knowing Shikamaru. Sasuke's older teammates weren't as fast as he was, however, and Kiba was limited by Shino and Hinata's slower foot speed. Naruto's team soon outpaced the others and made it into the jungle ahead of anyone else.
Reaching the Tide Stone turned out to be fairly easy from there. Naruto, Lee and Sai kept up a full run all the way to the source of the light, what appeared to be a ruined temple deep in the jungle. The shining orb itself was located in an open chamber atop the highest tower. "Sai, you're the best at wall climbing," Naruto said. "Lee and I will keep an eye out."
Sai nodded and headed up the outer walls of the temple while Naruto and Lee watched the jungle. It was noisy with nighttime predators and very dark, only the moon's light illuminating the clearing around the temple. Sai was still climbing when three foreign genin burst from the trees and charged Naruto. They were from Kumo, and all three had blades bared crackling with electricity. One of them broke off to intercept Lee when he moved to assist Naruto, while the other two attacked together.
Naruto drew a pair of kunai and ran wind chakra down the blades, using them to block the first strikes. The Cloud genin appeared surprised that Naruto wasn't electrocuted by meeting their charged steel with his, but they adapted quickly, and even if they couldn't shock him their longer blades and numbers gave them an undeniable advantage.
A quick glance showed Naruto that Lee was having trouble as well. His one opponent appeared to be the most skilled of the trio, his blade flickering and keeping Lee – who had no means to deflect the electrified blade – on the defensive. "Sai, we could use some help down here!" Naruto called out.
Moments later the Cloud ninja attacking Lee jumped back when a shadow fell over him, narrowly escaping the claws of an ink tiger that landed where he had been standing. One of Naruto's opponents wasn't so fast or lucky, and went down screaming with another of the simulacrum beasts' jaws closing around his neck. Naruto's other attacker took one look at that and ran screaming. Lee's opponent looked disgusted at that, but retreated as well.
When Sai's tiger pulled back there was blood coating its black and white jaws, and Naruto swallowed hard. Guess it was necessary… "They were targeting you," Sai said to Naruto clinically as he leapt to the forest floor with the shimmering Tide Stone in hand.
Naruto shrugged. "I've made enemies in Kumo," he replied with a sigh. "It's not unexpected. So we've got a Tide Stone, now how do we get back to the proctor with all the other teams coming up behind us?"
"For starters, we don't stay here," Lee said immediately. "Let's head further north and then loop around to the east or west instead of running into the teeth of potential ambushes?" Noting the looks of surprise on Naruto and Sai's faces he grinned. "I am eager to test my strength against our youthful adversaries from other villages, but there will be time enough for that in the next round. For now, our mission is to protect that orb and get it back to the client along with ourselves."
"Well said," Sai acknowledged.
Lee nodded, and they were off. Cutting north and away from the direction of the beachside camp, counterintuitive as it seemed, paid off. Naruto, Lee and Sai avoided any further contact with other teams, and on finding a secluded grove near a stream got a few hours of rest. The sun was in the sky when they set out again, arcing west and south in the hopes of avoiding any further confrontation.
Naruto was starting to hope that they might make it back to the proctor without any further fights. That, of course, was when the ambush came. It started with a startled yell from Lee, who was running in the rear guard. Naruto and Sai turned to see their teammate sinking into the ground, already past his knees.
Before they could react to that a twin roar like a pair of chainsaws came from the underbrush behind Sai, and a pair of human-sized whirling spears exploded into view. Sai's agile leap barely carried him to safety as the tree he'd been standing next to was shredded into kindling.
Naruto saw a flicker of movement in the corner of his eye, but even as he started moving a finger jabbed into his lower back and he fell to one knee, sudden numbness radiating out from the site of the attack. He staggered back onto his feet in time to bat aside another hand jabbing at his neck, and his eyes widened in surprise at the sight of an apologetic look on Hinata Hyuuga's pretty face. "Ano… sorry about this, Naruto." She attacked in earnest, putting Naruto on the defensive with more testing jabs of the Gentle Fist. His legs were only half listening to him after her opening strike, and if anything she'd gotten faster since their time in the academy.
Trying to stall as feeling slowly returned to his legs, Naruto fell back from Hinata's furious assault. It was really hard, and one tap he didn't avoid entirely numbed his left arm from the elbow down. Recognizing a desperate situation, Naruto concealed his right hand long enough to form a wind bomb – just a little one that would explode and stun Hinata, but wouldn't badly injure her. He threw it at too close a range to dodge, but Hinata – looking slightly guilty – sliced her hand through it, and the chakra forming the bomb dissipated harmlessly. Naruto kicked himself a moment later. Right, she has the byakugan. Of course she saw me doing that.
Understanding that he was going to have to get serious, Naruto shook some feeling back into his left hand and then lashed out with both arms. Half a dozen large wind blades sliced out, each one carving clean through a tree trunk around Naruto and Hinata, angled upward so that all the trees fell inward toward them. Hinata's eyes widened in alarm and she scrambled to dodge as Naruto did the same. He narrowly avoided being crushed, but emerged unscathed, panting on top of the pile of splintered, fallen wood.
Looking around, Naruto didn't see Hinata until something passed between him and the sun above. He looked up just as Hinata completed a graceful flip through the air from the crown of a tree that was still falling… and landed with her feet on his shoulders, sending them both tumbling down the pile of fallen trees. She held on as they rolled and tumbled, her small hands flickering. They were scratched, bruised and muddy when they came to rest, but Hinata climbed to her feet with a wince while Naruto found he couldn't move at all. Then she jabbed a finger into his neck, and everything went black.
Rock Lee noted the multi-pronged attack, but was focused on his more immediate problem: the quicksand he was sinking into. His fellow Leaf genin had done an admirable job of covering the quicksand bog with leaves and a thin layer of soil to hide it until he was right in it. His training weights were working against him suddenly, pulling him down into the sucking morass at an alarming rate.
Spotting a vine hanging from a branch above Lee grabbed it, but before he could pull himself loose a kunai whistled out of the shadows at the crown of a nearby tree and severed it. Following the trajectory of the throw Lee saw the glint of dark glasses as hidden eyes observed him. "The more you move, the faster you'll sink. Why? Quicksand is much denser than water," Shino Aburame informed him.
Lee didn't waste any energy replying. He opened the first Inner Gate, intending to use it to jump free once his feet met something solid – but no sooner had the chakra filled his body than it was ripped away, leaving him gasping and weak. Hundreds of kikai bugs that had been hiding in the quicksand swarmed over Lee, consuming the Inner Gate chakra as fast as his body produced it until he had to give up.
Sai was peripherally aware of his teammates' troubles, but he had no opportunity to assist them. He'd read Kiba Inuzuka's file, but facing two whirling tornadoes of fangs and claws homing in and trying to tear him apart was very different from a mere description. The whirring noise was both deafening and aggravating, and he had no time to form ink beasts to assist him. Sai relied on nothing more than his native agility and Root training to stay alive.
"You know how to do more than dodge?" Kiba asked at one point when taking a break from his attack.
Sai moved warily, keeping his eyes on both Kiba and Akamaru, who was trying to circle behind him. He didn't bother answering the taunt. He could think of two different ways to deal with the young Inuzuka. Unfortunately both methods involved lethal ninjutsu proprietary to Root. Danzo would not be pleased if he used either openly, especially while under the eyes of a Hyuuga and an Aburame, two clans who already knew more about Root than Danzo would have preferred.
Less than a minute later neither Lee nor Naruto was moving, and Shino had thrown a weighted wire around Lee's arm, holding onto the other end to keep him from sinking further into the quicksand. "You should surrender," Shino said. "Your teammates cannot continue the fight."
Panting, Sai considered his remaining options. He doubted he could defeat all three of the opposing genin, certainly not without killing them, another outcome Danzo would frown on. When it came down to it, keeping Naruto alive and an asset to Konoha was his mission, not making him a chuunin. Sighing, Sai raised his hands. Kiba grinned, and the last thing Sai saw was the Inuzuka's fist heading for his face.
Naruto woke up bound hand and foot. Looking around, he could see Lee and Sai in a similar state. He also spotted a kunai buried in the ground on the far side of the clearing, one with a Hyuuga maker's mark on the hilt. He supposed he should be grateful to Hinata, but mostly he was pissed. Crawling over to it and sawing through the ropes took several minutes. Freeing Lee and Sai took longer. Sai had a black eye and turned out to be slightly concussed, while Lee – who barely had any chakra to start with – was drained and weak from both Shino's bugs and the aftermath of opening an Inner Gate. The Tide Stone was of course gone from Sai's pack.
Tracking down Team Kurenai and taking back the stone was out of the question. Even if they weren't all beat up, they weren't specialists at tracking. While Sai could quickly search a small area, their only hope of following Hinata, Kiba and Shino would be taking to the air, leaving them dangerously exposed.
"We'll rest for now and then see if we can locate one of the hidden Tide Stones," Naruto concluded as night fell. He'd gotten their tents set up, made a fire in a deep pit to hide their location, and heated up some soup for dinner. "Assuming you guys will be okay after a night's rest."
Sai nodded silently. Lee struggled into a sitting position. "Don't worry about me, Naruto. My youthful strength is already returning!" His face fell slightly. "Gai-sensei will be most disappointed by my poor showing. When we return to Konoha I will-"
"Hey," Naruto interrupted. "Don't get down. We all got gob-smacked. Those three set up a hell of an ambush." He sighed. "I'll never hear the end of this from Kiba unless we get another Stone and kick their asses in the final."
"I like that plan, Naruto," Sai said, his dark eyes glittering with something like menace. "I did not enjoy that encounter."
Naruto grinned weakly. "We'll get some payback eventually. For now, sleep; concussions are no joke. I'll keep watch."