Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto in any shape or form. Most of Anko's words and actions are heavily based on the manga, I just tweaked a few things to fit my story.
A/N: You guys are wonderful. Have I told you that recently?
Well, you are.
Your comments and reviews are very encouraging and help me not be quite so hard on myself.
Training Ground 44—more commonly known as the Forest of Death—was Kohnoha's largest training ground, a heavily forested area that provided a home to some of the most dangerous varieties of Hi no Kuni's flora and fauna.
The grounds were known to be used by Jonin to sharpen their skills against the enormous creatures that resided within. According to the Runners assigned outside the Jonin Lounge, the creatures were good practice for facing Summons.
It was certainly not a place anyone in the Genin Corp had ever ventured into, nor did they want to. The maintenance of the fence was left to the Chunin Corp, as was the upkeep of the tower in the middle.
For Noki, Kei, and Deidre, the forest was exceptionally uncomfortable. Having been trained by Aioka, all three had been required to develop some form of chakra sensing. None of them had their Taichō's seemingly omniscient senses, nor was the skill a natural one to them.
"Kami, I do not envy Soutaicho if this is what she deals with," Kei muttered, rolling his shoulders against his ears in a vain attempt to disperse the phantom itching in his ears.
Deidre grunted in agreement, his eyes squinting against a building headache as he tried to simultaneously pay attention to his surroundings and not get lost in clamour.
Noki was beside them, pinching the bridge of his nose and looking as uncomfortable as his teammates.
Usually, they couldn't sense anything unless they deliberately tried to, but the forest had such a dense output of chakra that the three of them could feel it even without trying. It was highly unnerving and extremely distracting. Normally plants didn't even register in their senses.
"It will probably be better if we don't use this particular skill," Deidre sighed, blinking hard as he firmly closed off that portion of his senses. "I'll probably come back after the Exams to build my tolerance."
Kei rubbed behind his ears and shook himself when he finally managed to deafen himself to the Forest. "I'll join you, but damn is that uncomfortable."
Noki sighed as he too closed himself off from his sensing. "That is going to be unpleasant."
Losing the option of using their sensing was unfortunate. None of the corp genin were under the illusion of having significant combat experience. They didn't. Especially not against other shinobi.
Yes, they sparred frequently with each other and other corp members—but they had rarely been in true life or death situations. The members of the Genin Corp rarely left the village, and even on the infrequent occasions they did, they were usually accompanied by chunin.
"Is learning hard?" Izami asked, turning toward the trio of Trainers but not losing sight of the second stages' proctor.
The purple haired examiner stood up on a platform speaking with a nondescript chuunin while the genin milled around in front. A group of about forty five or so chunin were relaxing nearer to the fence line.
"It really depends on the individual," Noki answered, reaching over to adjust the strap securing Chojuro's bedroll to his pack. The oldest of the corp shinobi shifted to better accommodate Noki's fussing.
"You should probably redo your hair, Izami," Kei commented, eyeing the kunoichi's high ponytail critically. "Maybe that upside down braid-bun thing you like? The foliage looks pretty dense and Noki still catches your hair sometimes while sparring."
The kunoichi shrugged and dropped her pack to follow the suggestion. Her hair was a point of pride for her and she liked wearing it in a high-tail to show it off, despite the risk. While her hair wasn't the longest amongst shinobi, it was still enough for an opponent to grab onto.
Izami sighed, rubbing at her face. Suddenly, she was very glad for Kei's suggestion—she forgot to pack her brush. At least with her hair up, she wouldn't have to worry about tangles or knots forming.
"None of us are naturals like Taicho," Noki continued, readdressing the kunoichi's question after patting Chojuro's pack to let the older genin know he was done. "It took me longer than Kei or Deidre to actually feel the chakra, but I was first to be able to hear. Though, Kei is now the best at hearing."
Kei made a face at the impressed looks the Enforcers were giving him. "It's not all it's cracked up to be, guys. It itches."
"He's not joking," Deidre growsed, glowering at the amusement on the Enforcers faces. "You know what it's like to get an itch under the callouses on the balls of your feet? Or your big toe? Well, amplify that by ten and you get what he's talking about."
Izami shuddered at the description as she secured her bun. "What do you mean by hearing and feeling?"
"Just that. It can manifest in either varying pitches or vibrations, and there is a difference," Kei said dryly.
Izami opened her mouth to ask another question but closed it when she saw movement on the platform. The genin watched as the purple-haired examiner—Mitarashi Anko—stepped up and planted her hands on his hips with a wide grin.
"Welcome to the arena for the second stage of the Chunin Exam: Training Ground 44, also known as The Forest of Death."
Eerily, feral snarling punctuated the proctor's declaration, causing more than one genin to eye the fence separating them all from the wildness beyond with tripedition.
The kunoichi grinned wider at the reaction. "You'll soon figure out why it earned its monicker."
The corp genin exchanged exasperated glances when a newly-familiar voice, accompanied by a high-pitched bark, snapped something foolish at the Proctor. Really, what was it with that kid and doing stupid stuff? Perhaps more to the point, why hadn't the kid's jonin-sensei trained it out of him, yet?
Gan let out a low whistle when the kunoichi vanished from sight, only to reappear in the crowd of genin. Close to the Inuzuka brat, if the indignant yelp was to go by.
"She's fast," he commented. He had been a shinobi for 6 years, but the kind of speed people could reach with chakra still stunned him at times.
There was more commotion that the genin couldn't see from their position behind the crowd, but they still could see when the Proctor's hand rose up holding a stack of papers.
"Before the exam can continue, there's something I need to pass out," Mitarashi-san's voice rang out. The hand fell back down, out of sight, and the group decided to move closer for a better look.
The six drifted through the crowd without disturbing anyone, years of patrolling through civilian crowds aiding them in slipping mostly unnoticed between the other genin. The few that noticed the career genin, eyed them and pegged them for the infiltrators they could be.
"People are going to die in this stage." The matter-of-fact statement was filled with the kunoichi's amusement. "So, everyone needs to sign these consent forms, so I won't be held responsible when you get yourselves killed for whatever reason."
Gan stepped out into the front ranks and dipped his head in greeting to a team from Ame. He was soon joined by Izami and Chojuro. Meanwhile, the Trainer trio stepped out a bit to the right, closer to Team 7 and the other Rookie teams.
The Proctor's eyes rested on them briefly as she continued her speech.
"I'll explain the second stage while you pass these out." The kunoichi handed the pile to the Inuzuka brat who, strangely, had a long slice across one cheek. "Take one and pass it on, gaki," she explained with a glare when the boy stood there dumbly.
Gan glanced over his shoulder when someone let out a low growl—an older Inuzuka with a whip-thin hound was glaring toward the embarrassing genin—but easily returned his attention to the Proctor.
"Once you sign the forms, find your teammates and check in with the booth behind me," the Proctor jerked her thumb over her shoulder without looking. "In simple terms, this stage is a survival drill. Training Ground 44 is completely fenced in and has forty-four equally spaced gates all around the perimeter. At the center of the Training Ground is a tower that is roughly 10 kilometers from each gate. There is a river that runs through the training ground."
Gan squinted at the scroll the Proctor was holding up and pointing at different locations. That was a crappy map. Hopefully there would be a chance to examine it up close.
The map was rolled up and hidden away with one hand while another reached, presumably, for an inner pocket of her trench coat. "While attempting to survive the forest and its inhabitants, you will also be surviving each other." Two more scrolls were pulled out and displayed with the kanji for either Heaven or Earth. "Making use of what you are carrying on your person you will compete in a no-holds-barred battle for these scrolls. Half of the 26 teams present will start with a Heaven scroll, the other half with an Earth scroll. The goal is to get to the tower with one of each."
"So that's what she meant by cutting us in half," Izami mused. She had been wondering.
"Once you pass through your assigned gate, the countdown will begin. You will have 120 hours, five days, to complete this task."
"Five days?!"
"What about dinner?"
From their place near Team 7, Deidre and Kei turned to take in the alarmed faces of the Yamanaka heiress and the Akimichi heir. The Nara heir with them looked resigned compared to his teammates dismay.
Mitarashi shrugged carelessly, suddenly looking bored. "You're on your own. The forest is full of food. Just watch out for man-eating beasts, poisonous plants and insects, and the 13 teams out for your scroll." She shrugged again. "It's unlikely that all 13 teams will pass. Not only will some fail due to losing scrolls, the course itself will kill you if you aren't careful. Now," the Proctor's demeanor became cheerful, giving more than one person present whiplash, "I'll talk about what will disqualify you!"
Noki bit back a snicker as the team with the annoying Inuzuka slowly inched away from the now alarmingly-chipperProctor.
Mitarashi held up a finger. "First: those who don't make it to the Tower with both scrolls within the time limit, will be disqualified." A second finger joined the first. "Second: those who get to the tower missing a teammate (even if they have both scrolls) or a teammate dies, will be disqualified." Mitarashi dropped her hand, stuffing it in a pocket of the trench cloak.
"There is no quitting in the middle, either you make it to the Tower with both scrolls and all three of your teammates, or you spend a full five days in the forest. Final rule," her other hand raised to show the two scrolls again, "you must not open the scrolls until you reach the tower."
"What happens if you do?" Naruto inquired, hands folded behind his head and an expression of gullible curiosity splashed across his face.
"That'll be a surprise for whoever does," the kunoichi winked.
Naruto squinted at her. "Huh?"
Mitarashi rolled her eyes. "A Chunin will be asked to handle classified information. This is a test of your trustworthiness."
With that, the kunoichi told them they would receive their scroll and their gate number when they turned their forms in and wandered back toward the platform she had hardly used.
"Neh, Noki-sempai."
Noki looked up from his form. In the five minutes that had passed since the end of Mitarashi's speech, five teams had already gone through the booth. Either those teams had read the forms while the Proctor had been speaking, or they hadn't bothered to read it. Both actions were potentially fatal.
"Yes, Naruto?" he asked. The boy had altered his henge from the first stage already. The jumpsuit was less of a neon orange and more burnt orange.
"Could you check our forms for your specialty, please? Sasuke sees something with his swirlies but doesn't know what it is."
Noki cracked a smile at the indignant huff from the Uchiha at the undignified description of the Sharingan but was thoroughly distracted in searching the consent form for the suspected genjutsu. It took him a moment, but he found something lingering along the line they were supposed to sign on. There was a genjutsu, but the true danger lay in the seal the genjutsu was disguising.
"There is a genjutsu, but it's what's under it that you should be aware of. Excellent catch, Uchiha-san," Noki congratulated. Causing the boy to grumble and look away in pleased embarrassment.
"What is it, sempai?" the Haruno girl asked, eyes gleaming with curiosity.
Noki pulled a pen from his vest—he always carried one, never knew when they might be handy—and signed his document beneath the signature line as he explained. "This is called an Absorption Line. When someone signs, the seals pull minimal traces of the signer's chakra signature and store it."
Noki went on to explain that Clerks saw this all the time in the archives. The signature line itself was tiny seals that absorbed and trapped chakra signatures that were emitted from signers' finger tip tenketsu points. It was used for shinobi documents so Konoha always had a sample of its shinobi's chakra signature to test against when needed.
In this case it would be a stealthy way of taking samples of foriegn shinobi's signatures to add to a possible database in Intelligence. Of course, it only worked if the signature was actually signed on the line; hence him signing below it.
It was possible to sign on the line and keep the seal from stealing a sample, but one needed Tsunade-hime levels of chakra control for that.
Team 7 bore different expressions of amazement at the explanation.
"Seals are terrifying," Uchiha said.
Noki grinned while Kei barked a laugh—the taijutsu specialist using Deidre's back to sign his waver—at the Uchiha's disturbed awe. The boy likely saw more dangers in the seals' supposed harmlessness than his teammates.
"Yes, they can be," Noki agreed, accepting his teammates' papers and glancing at them to ensure their signatures were placed appropriately. "You three should get a move on."
Naruto nodded as he signed his form at the top of the page. "Thank you, Sempai. Safe hunting, and see you on the other side!"
Noki waited for his teammates to finish signing their forms before moving to join the Enforcer team, who were doing a final gear check while they waited for the crowd to thin out.
"Uchiha-san caught something interesting on the forms. Did you notice?" Noki asked the three while taking up a flank guard position between the Enforcers and a watchful Oto team. Neither of the two Corp teams had managed to make productive conversation with any of the three teams from Oto. All they knew for sure is that the older team was not one they wanted anything to do with. It was gut feelings more than a tangible warning, but it was enough.
"No, is something wrong?" Izami asked, resettling her pack on her shoulders.
"Forms have an Absorption Line on them," Noki informed.
The Enforcer team grumbled about their miss but shrugged it off. It was harmless but still something they should have looked for.
"Right. How do we want to do this?" Gan jerked a nod toward the curtained-off booth. "The teams are led away right after they come out."
As he spoke, the team with the Annoying Inuzuka stepped out of the booth and was led away by one of the waiting chunin.
"We could wait until we're last," Noki said out loud but continued in Corps Sign. 'No one forbade more than one team going in at the same time.'
Izami covered her face with a hand. "Hate to break it to you, Noki, but everyone is trying that," she groaned, her other hand adding more dialogue. 'Worth a shot. If it doesn't work I'll leave a note under the table.'
Noki shrugged and dropped his chin in agreement. "Want to play Go while we wait?"
While Noki and Gan faced off across a board, Izami pulled out her cipher book and settled on her stomach to read. Kei practiced his hand seals, trying to work out the fumble he had when changing from Ox to Dog.
Deidre stood watch with Chojuro, cataloguing what they could get from their opponents.
As Izami had noted, most teams were hanging back from getting their scrolls. More than one team was huddled together, frantically going through their gear.
Deidre took note of the teams that were badly prepared for this round. A group from Ame didn't have any packs beyond their weapon pouches, and were whispering furiously with one another and motioning back toward the village—likely to their hotel where they had likely left their gear.
Two teams from Takigakure lacked bedding, but only one of them seemed worried about it.
Overall, every village had a team or two that was visibly unprepared. Except for Oto and Suna.
The Oto teams didn't have any packs he could see, but Deidre had spotted one Oto-nin takinge a large water flask out the small pouch at his side, so they definitely had storage seals.
Storage seals were amazing, but not something a Career Genin could afford for their personal use. Deidre winced as he thought about the one storage seal he had and how much it had cost.
When the less paranoid teams had gone through the remaining teams stalled, reluctant to let their competitors out of their sight. It didn't take long before the chunin became exasperated with the delay and began ordering teams to the booth.
When Gan's team was called up, the Trainer team followed along.
The expressions on the faces of the chunin in the booth were amusing. Silence fell while the two teams waited for the chunin to accept the forms Gan and Noki had placed in front of them.
When the silence stretched passed politeness, Noki sighed. "Neither of us care if the team sees or hears what's happening right now. May we have our scrolls, chunin-san?"
The chunin blink and one laughed while the other shook his head as he examined the forms—his eyes narrowing when he saw how one team had avoided the signature line.
"Sure. You guys are ballsy," the laughing chunin said.
Noki accepted a scroll, passing it back to Kei after glancing at the Kanji to see what they got. Looks like they were looking for a Heaven scroll.
Gan showed the "Earth" kanji to the others before tucking the scroll away in his vest. He would hide it properly once in the forest.
"Right, one of you is going to Gate 35, the other to 22. Good luck," the other chunin said, waving them off.
"One moment," Izami muttered, pulling out a blank scroll and a pen. With quick strokes, she copied the map she spotted hanging on the wall behind the chunin. It was rough, but it would give them a good idea of where to go and what to avoid. Not that they really needed it—all of them had spent time in the library doing research on the training ground after they found out who the proctor was going to be. It was an open secret in Konoha that Mitarashi Anko loved this particular training ground.
"Best meeting place is probably the Tiger Sector, but we probably won't meet up until morning," Izami said as they left the booth, passing another Konoha team that had been called up.
Both teams glanced toward the sky, taking in the fading light. They had left the Academy at 6. It would probably be 7:30 before they opened the gates.
"This is going to suck," Kei muttered.
"Gate 35?"
The career genin looked toward the approaching chunin. Noki clapped Gan on the shoulder, then stepped toward the waiting chunin. "See you tomorrow. Let's meet at the gate." A quick hand-sign by his pockets clarified the gate number.
"Try not to fall into any gas pits," Izami warned as she followed her team to another chunin. "You'll be in the swamp sector."
"Don't get drained by the leeches or paralized by the Arachnid Snapdragons," Deidre caroled back, skipping backward with a manic grin.
The genin still awaiting gate assignment shared uneasy looks. What kind of Snapdragons?!
There were four major sections of the Forest of Death: Swamp, Tiger, Bear, and Leech.
The Bear Section contained Gates 1-11, Gates 12-22 led to the Leech Section, the Tiger Section had Gates 23-33, and Gates 34-44 were the Swamp Section, with an unofficial Fifth Section that existed as the unholy conglomeration of all four, centering on the tower.
Gan eyed the forest beyond his gate. "Chunin-san, can you confirm whether or not there are safehouses for mock border-patrol drills in there?" he asked, turning away from the darkening scenery.
His team was in the Leech Sector, bordering the Tiger section. Eleven kilometers of treacherous land and deadly creatures lay between them and where they would be meeting their fellow Corp members at Gate 29.
This was going to be exciting.
The woman looked up from her wrist watch, eyes wide with surprise. "Uh, yes," she blinked and composed herself. "I mean. No."
She blushed and looked away with a scowl.
Gan carefully did not allow his amusement to show. The woman was embarrassed and throwing signs of attraction Gan was used to seeing from civilian women; it was a bit bemusing to get a reminder that Chunin are just as human as anyone else.
"Yes there are safehouses but no they aren't there for patrol drills?" he offered before the woman could get too awkward.
The kunoichi looked at him and his teammates warily; giving Gan the feeling she was very used to being mocked for similar fumbles. She was clearly a Chunin but it was very likely not because of her ability to handle people.
"There are safehouses. I didn't know about them until my first session in there," she motioned toward the forest with one hand but quickly started to fiddle with the strap of her watch. "How did you hear about them?"
"The Archive is very useful for research," Gan answered, amused at the unsubtle probe for information. She needed to work on her tone; she hadn't quite managed to pull off curious rather than suspicious. "Any tips on how to find them?"
It took a little while, but eventually the kunoichi gave up the location of three safehouses before settling into easy conversation about her various experiences in the forest. Gan and the others offered stories from their limited repertoire of out-of-village missions and a handful of the more absurd D-ranks they had done in-village. That one mission where a six-year-old had gotten a D-rank mission through and Gan's team had been assigned to officiate a marriage ceremony between a toy rabbit and toy fish under a particular orange tree had the kunoichi in tears.
The four parted on friendly terms, Izami and the kunoichi—Yamanaka Kotori—agreeing to meet up for lunch two days after the Second Stage was concluded, and there were tentative plans for all of them to meet up for a spar.
Half a mile in, as high up in the trees as they could, Gan called for a break. "Shoot for the gate or bunk down for the night?"
Chojuro peered doubtfully into the gloom around them. The evening light wasn't strong enough to filter through the thick ceiling of leaves. He could, theoretically, channel chakra to his eyes to increase his night vision, but he wasn't too keen on doing that without an iryo-nin nearby.
"I could lead us," Izami offered after Chojuro made his thoughts known. "I've been able to read in minimal light for close to a year."
Gan nodded, amused but unsurprised by that random talent the kunoichi had picked up. Izami was a prolific reader, of course she would figure out how to make low lighting a nonissue. "We'll try it for an hour and see how it goes. I'll take the rear," he agreed, pulling the scroll out and handing it to Chojuro.
The older man accepted the scroll and pulled out his pair of dog tags. With a gentle glow, the scroll vanished into the storage seal on one of the tags.
Each shinobi received tags shortly after their registration, a single tag bearing a shinobi's name, registration number, blood type, and clan affiliation, if any. The second tag was a custom piece that all Corp Genin had. The origins of the tags were unknown to the general Corp, but it was heavily speculated that one of the lieutenants had befriended a Seal Master at some point.
The trio traveled in silence. Tree Leeches, relatively harmless if you stayed alert and dodged them, died by the score when encountered but were avoided as much as possible. There was also a moment of frenzied acrobatics to avoid getting caught in a massive spider web they almost missed seeing in the dimming light—and the subsequent spider—and neither of the men commented when Izami lit the thing on fire before they left.
At one point they heard the death cries of the first casualties of the Second Stage, but they didn't pause, even if the sound made them feel uneasy. They had all seen and heard people die during their various C-ranks, occasionally being the cause of those deaths, but they were by no means desensitized to it.
They made it to a safe house halfway to their destination. The treehouse, really just a platform with three walls and a roof, was thankfully free of any unwelcome critters and oddly dry.
"I'll take first watch," Izami murmured, her eyes oddly reflective as she ran chakra through them.
Chojuro looked toward her as he set his pack against the far wall. "You sure? I got the most rest last night."
Izami had stayed up doing some last minute reading on Chunin Protocols—mostly filing related facts and protocol for dealing with missions outside of Hi no Kuni—which all of them were surprised they hadn't been tested on. At all. Weren't those protocols important?
Gan's neighbour had decided to have a party last night. One that was loud enough that he had to call in the night Enforcer team to quiet them down. He could've gone elsewhere, but he wasn't quite keen on sleeping on someone's couch when his own bed was so very comfortable. He didn't splurge much, but he would never, ever, regret buying that fantastic bed.
Meanwhile, Chojuro? His apartment was on a nice quiet floor close to a retirement home and many gardens. Very peaceful.
Izami waved a hand dismissively as she let her bag slide off her opposite shoulder. "I'm a bit wired right now. This," she motioned toward her eyes, "is strangely not as chakra intensive as you'd think. I'll stop before it gets too much for me to regenerate from my sleep shift."
Gan pulled out a bundle of ninja wire and flashbang tags, his bag resting near Chojuro's. "Be careful, please. This isn't exactly the best time to test new toys."
Izami hummed, settling comfortably against the open side of the tree fort. "I will."
The two men drifted around their chosen resting place, setting rudimentary alarm traps while Izami watched their surroundings. Half an hour later, the two men were sleeping lightly. Dawn would come quickly
A:CG
"Kei?"
The taijutsu user glanced up from where he was leaning with his hands braced on his knees, a mess of sick at his feet.
"Yeah?" he rasped, wincing as his stomach clenched and his mouth watered unpleasantly. The body speared on the log in front of him doing nothing to help him hold his stomach.
The dead man's teammates were unconscious and tied up. Noki and Deidre stripping them of anything useful while keeping an eye on their surroundings and their feverish teammate.
Shakily, Kei wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and moved away from his sick. "I'm fine," he muttered as he turned to study the dead body. The man had fallen from above and for some reason hadn't attempted to save himself with a substitution; resulting in a rather painful death via a branch through the chest and a broken spine.
"Should we move him or leave him?" Kei asked, moving closer to see if there was anything useful in the dead Ame shinobi's bags.
"Leave him," Noki answered, frowning at his friend's sluggish movements. "When we get to the meeting point, I want you to get some rest. Did you put a hydration tablet in your canteen?"
"Yeah, I did," Kei said, keeping his eyes on his work, determined to believe the heat in his cheeks and neck was from exertion and not the fever he was running.
"Well...at least you don't have diarrhea," Deidre offered. "That would've sucked."
Kei huffed tiredly. "Small mercies I suppose," he grumbled.
They had spent the night in the hollow of a tree with layers of genjutsu masking the entrance. Kei had woken half way through the first watch to empty his stomach for the first time. Nobody had slept well after that but they eventually narrowed the cause of the sickness down to a reaction to something that bit him during the night. Noki had been the one to spot the angry red welt on the back of Kei's shoulder when the tai user had changed his shirt from the one that had gotten soiled with sweat during the night. Kei had taken a general anti-venom, but he felt like he was slowly getting worse.
"Found their scroll," Kei called, lifting the Heaven Scroll for the others to see.
"Good," Noki said, checking the bindings on the unconscious Ame shinobi once more. The knots were easy enough to get out of once the shinobi woke up. The binding was more to give Noki and his team a warning that the others were awake than a means of keeping the two prisoners. The Trainers had what they wanted—there was no need to keep them prisoner or to kill them. They would either find a set of scrolls to pass, and hide out the rest of the four days, or nature would claim them. Either way, it had nothing more to do with him.
"Time to go, the Enforcers are probably waiting on us," Noki stated. Kei and Deidre nodded—Kei again storing the scroll in his dog tags—and soon the three were back in the treetops. They had run into the Ame team ten minutes ago. Quite literally. The now-dead shinobi had collided with Kei, lost his footing and fallen to his death while frozen in surprise. The other two had also frozen and hadn't reacted in time to defend themselves from Noki and Deidre—both of whom had landed knockout blows on the bewildered shinobi.
Kei gritted his teeth and pinched his lips together as his empty stomach roiled. The next five days were going to be miserable, but it wasn't going to be an excuse to quit. He had worked too hard to let an inconvenient bug take him down.
He spat up bile, glad he was taking the rear so his friends didn't see him falter. He just hoped they could get the Enforcer Team's scroll before he became a burden. They all had water, but it wouldn't last them five days—not when he needed to double up on how much he drank when his body kept rejecting everything.
Kei blinked hard between jumps, trying to clear his head, and pushed the matter from his mind as best he could. He would worry about it when it started to affect his work.