Both "Naruto" and "A Flash to Naruto" are property of their original owners. GawrBack claims no credit aside from this two-line intro.
Unfortunately, I don't know the original author of this fanfic, but if you know their username - please leave a review so I can credit them.
Well, time for the next chapter. First I'd like to thanks my reviewers, Kibafangirl11 (who is actually my beta-reader), Gravenimage and Mari Ferolla (who is my other beat reader) for their reviews. If it weren't for you guys there's a good chance that I would have probably given up on this story by now. I actually should be typing for 'Drunken Love' now but, the wonderful mistress called Writer's Block has taken a fancy for me. Oh joy.
Best I get started before I forget everything I wanted to put in this chapter.
Well, I was planning on making this the longest chapter ever but I figured I was taking too long to update so I decided to break it down into 2 or 3 chapters. So, here it is.
Am I ever going to get out of this forest?
Chapter 12: Beasts of the Forest Part 2
We settled down still near what used to be a large, beautiful tree, but now thanks to Robin and friends a good chunk of the tree was gone. Robin and her team managed to control and douse out the fire but don't ask me how they did it. My guess would be a jutsu or something, but I didn't bother to ask about it. The smell of burning bark was strong in the air and there was still smoke lingering around. It began to lightly fog the already helplessly dark forest. Now all that was visible was light grey and black beyond it. No more, maybe a little less.
We decided to rest near the tree. Not too near though, we cleared behind some bushes and threw some all around in case Robin's favourite thing in the whole world decided to come for a visit. If it came, we would a least hear the noise, or at least so we hoped. The bushes we cleared left a group or trees to our backs also for protection. The trees would also hopefully stop the cold forest morning breeze form hitting us in our sleep. The last thing I need now is a cold. Then again, I'm a ninja, how badly could a cold affect me in this world?
I stumbled around in the clearing a little looking for a nice spot to rest, with my feet almost always hitting someone as I tried to find a spot. I decided that I would lie with my head to the trees. I slowly sat down and rested my body on the ground.
"Hey! The ground isn't that soft you know!" Flint shouted as a limb of mine hit him in the face.
"Sorry. Man, this forest has zero visibility, plus the smoke's kinda making it difficult to see and breathe." I said as I rearranged myself. "Anyone with my foot in their face?" I called out.
"Thankfully not." I heard Jetta answer.
"Nope."
"No."
"Everyone's good." I heard Robin assure me. "Let's rest up. Morning comes in quicker than you think in the forest."
"Right." I heard one or two people say.
Some rustling followed, and a hand then found itself on my shoulder. I familiar female sat down next to me. "I'm making sure you sleep well personally."
"Why does this remind me of something that isn't appropriate for young children?"
"Tsebe!" Temari and Robin growled.
"What?! If it does, it does."
I felt a palm hit my arm. "You pervert!" Robin. "You dirty, nasty pervert." She leaned towards my face, though I didn't see her, I felt her breathing on my nose.
"OK, this is really starting to sound like something that isn't appropriate for children."
"Someone just say it sounds like a porno, cause the 'not appropriate for children' is starting to annoy me." I'm not really sure who said that. I think it was Flint.
That kind of killed the conversation. OK, not kind of, it did.
I lowered my head and closed my eyes. One more night. Now, let's try this again, and maybe this time we won't get attacked.
A hand then found its way onto my chest. A head then followed. "Good night." I could guess who that was. I could feel the long hair on my chest, and her soft, light breathing.
I slowly began to nod off, to the sounds of the crickets and other inaudible forest sounds.
Sakura's POV
Konoha
I lay awake in my bed, with my eyes opened. I stared at the ceiling which as above me. At time like these I would normally play or stroke my hair but I just remembered, I don't have long hair for that any more. I was supposed to go to sleep a good while ago but something was keeping me up.
Tsebe, where the hell are you? I asked myself. You're not at your home and no one seems to know what happened to you after the exam, not Naruto or anyone else in the other teams…
I turned onto my side and closed my eyes. Sakura, go to sleep. Staying awake won't make him suddenly appear. I tossed again to the other side. Come on… My eyes opened again. "Arrg… Go to sleep Sakura. Go to sleep."
I moved back to my back. I was staring at the ceiling again. I started to count how many small holes it had in it. I think I reached 5898 when I finally started to nod off. My eyelids slowly became heavy and it became a strain to concentrate on counting. I soon found myself with my eyes closed, finally ready to sleep.
Tsebe's POV
Back in the Forest
I stood in a completely white room. No floor, walls, sky, ceiling, nothing. It was like a white void, with no sense of place or direction in it. I slowly walked through the void, turning my head and looking for something. Anything. Anything that could help make sense of this.
"Man, I know how to have to weirdest dreams…" I said to myself as I continued to walk.
Something then came in my way. I didn't run into it but I more stumbled onto it. I placed my hand onto this 'thing'. It was like an invisible wall or something. I moved my hand along the 'thing'.
"What the hell is going on? I know I can have some weird dreams but, c'mon?" I said as I raised an eyebrow. "Huh?"
I focused on the 'thing'. Something had caught my eye. Slowly, that something began to materialize. A blurry picture then began to appear. It kind of resembled the position I was in. It began to refine itself. The first thing I made out in it was brown. My shade of brown. A figure was then even more visible. Shape. It now even more resembled me. I simply raised an eyebrow and continued to look. The figure now looked like a censor on TV. All that could be made out was colour and shape, and not even the shape was too clear. Yup, just like a censor on TV. The picture began to clear up. It image was becoming more clear and defined. My eyes widened as I realised what I was looking at. It was showing me. It was showing a reflection of me. Why? It was now focused. It showed an exact reflection of me.
I stared at the reflection. It stared back. I slowly moved my hand along the obstruction. It did the same.
"Who are you?" I asked.
"I… Am… You…"
"Tell me something I don't know."
The image then began to fade and move backwards.
"What's going on?"
"I am…" It was now moving away. The colours were now mostly white, or extremely light. "The other you…"
My eyes widened. "What?! The other me!? What the hell are you talking about? What do you mean?!"
By now it was no longer visible, though the obstruction was still there.
Bam!
I slammed my fist on the obstruction. "What the hell is going on!?" I lowered my head and began to walk away from the obstruction. "Had to have a weird dream tonight didn't I?"
Bam, Bam! My world then began to shake.
Bam, Bam! It began to shake again.
I slowly returned to life. The cold air of the morning forest greeted me with the oh too-familiar forest smells and sounds. I began to feel the maggots and forest carpet underneath me, both of them moving with life. I didn't bother reacting.
"Get up."
I slowly opened one eye. Flint. By the looks of it, he wasn't very happy to have 'wake up' duty.
"I'm up, I'm up."
Something then hit me. There wasn't a force resting on me. I opened my other eye. "Where's Robin?"
Flint's expression got worse. "What the hell is it too you!?" He snapped.
"Flint!" A familiar female voice said. "That wasn't necessary. I'm over here Tsebe."
I then heard a mumble from another direction.
"Good morning Temari!" I quickly said guessing who said it.
A yawn then came from next to me. An arm then stretch over my chest and blonde hair then crawled onto me. "You really have good timing you know…" A face then emerged from that hair, revealing teal eyes and a rather attractive face. "Especially when it comes to me and dreams."
I raised an eyebrow. "Was I in it?"
Temari then crossed both her arms on my chest and rested her head on them. Her eyes still maintained contact with mine. "And what if the answer is yes?"
"So I 'was'." I raised my eyebrows on the 'was'.
Temari giggled. "I never said that you were." She then began to stare into my eyes.
"Am I?"
"Why should I tell you?"
"Because I want to know."
"Why?" She then began to stare into them even more.
I then heard some whispering from behind Temari.
"Flint!" Robin shouted. The sound of someone getting lashed then followed.
Temari turned her head and looked. "What?"
"Flint said that he –." Flint quickly covered her mouth.
"Nothing!"
Temari raised an eyebrow. "If you say so." Her attention then turned back to the dashingly handsome young lad underneath her. "Hey, what's with your eyes?"
"Hm?" I then realized why she was looking at my eyes. Sharingan. "Oh, it's my Kekkei Genkai. It's called The Sharingan."
"So, you have one of those..."
"You know Temari," Another female voice said. "You're a weird woman you know. Last night I gave you the chance to 'do your business' and you declined, but now you want to do it in plain sight?" I knew that joke, or at least who would give that kind of joke. Jetta. "You people are weird."
I glanced over Temari's shoulder to see a smiling Jetta with her hand on her hip standing a little closer to us than Robin and Flint, who stood about 7 feet away from us. They stood close together, each a good bit more than just an arms-reach apart.
Jetta then stepped closer to us. "Come on you rapist, get off the boy. We should get going anyway, don't want old faithful coming and crashing your party."
"Aw come on, five more minutes?" I joked. My Sharingan then went off. Good. Now please, stay off until I tell you to do otherwise. Please?
A serious look came over Temari's face. "You're right. It's best we get moving." She then placed turned back to me and placed her hands on the ground and pushed herself off, quickly sending me a wink before standing up straight. "So, what now?"
"Well," I said getting up. "We still need something to eat. We won't be able to do anything too substantial if we're holding our stomachs in pain."
Almost everyone nodded or made some sort of agreeing comment. Everyone except Flint. I don't know why, but… Anyway, at the time it could wait. He just kept looking at me with a less than happy look on his face. OK, a lot less than happy. The kind that you get from your ex's ex when your ex broke up with your ex's ex for you. (Yeah, I know, a little confusing, but read it again and you'll understand.)
Robin stepped forward out of the others. "Well, you have a point, but we have no choice. We can't stay here and look for food, we need to keep moving."
"Hopefully," Temari said. "We'll run into the river this time so that we can catch some fish."
"Alrighty then." I finalized. "Let's get going."
"One question," Jetta started. "Which way? The last thing we want to do now is to end up back at the tower, only for us to have to go through the forest again."
"Well right now, we don't have a clue of our direction, so there's not much that we can do except go where the wind takes us." Robin said.
"OK then," I said. "The wind tells me this way," I pointed towards the trees we slept near to. "Any objections?"
"No."
"None here."
"…"
"OK then, let's go."
We walked around the trees and continued in that general direction.
We continued through the forest, which was now starting to feel like an obstacle course. The forest trees grew and the roots became wild and completely untamed, bursting out of the ground and intertwining themselves leaving holes gaping in between the conjoined roots. The roots were also covered with moss which almost seemed to be alive, moving with every slight tug of the wind, which was sometimes was too delicate for us humans to feel. Unfortunately, this almost made me wet myself when as I lunged through some roots to see the moss around me moving.
Aside from the moss, there were small spaces between trees which forced us to squeeze to get past them. These stretched for longer than most people's comfort zone of being squeezed but then again, how many people would like to feel their entire body get squeezed through 10 or 12 not so small trees? I went through first, then Robin, Temari, Jetta, Flint and Robin's other team-mate. I hadn't really noticed him before; he was there when they attacked and fought Jetta but Jetta said he didn't really put up a fight and just dodged and moved around. Then a slanted tree came across our path, which made it seem as if our trip would be taken to the trees.
"Seems like home is upstairs." I said as we came to the tree. "Going up anyone?"
"No way." Temari said. "Remember where we were that last time it attacked us? Above the trees, far less for it if we're in them. You saw how fast it moved, we can't risk it."
"Great…" Robin said. "So what now? We go back?"
"I knew this was the wrong way." Flint said at the back, glaring at me.
"Then why didn't you say anything?" I said. "What is your problem anyway?" I began to advance towards him. "Ever since last night you've been sending me shakin' glares and-!" Someone stopped me.
"Shaking? Why don't you just say f-!?"
"Tsebe, Flint, calm down." Robin placed her hand on my and Flint's chest. "We can just go up the tree till where it passed where the roots are and jump down. OK."
Flint looked at her for a couple of seconds. He then looked away and scowled. "Oh alright."
"Works with me." I said as I backed off.
"Come on, let's continue, we're burning daylight."
We proceeded as Robin suggested and partially climbed up the tree and jumped down, though it was more like a walk up the tree than a climb. From there the obstacle course continued. From the jump we then had to climb up some more entangled roots, which this time, along with moss, there were also vines hanging down and some were also tangled with the roots. The vines, which even from just looking at one you could see that they were strong, hung down from overhead trees, and were a sharp and dark shade of green, obviously because very little light penetrated through the forest skyline down to this depth.
This forest fence was not extremely challenging to climb - though because of the moss, the vines in your face and the weird feeling I got as the moss grazed my stomach - it was a bit of a challenge. Well, at least it was to me. After all, I am a noob in this ninja thing. I only started a week ago. My foot slipped many a time before making it to the top of the fence and then came the hard part - getting down. Eventually I was pushed down by Robin who was a bit anxious to get moving. You can't blame her - after all, her brother did die here. I would have been anxious too. After that, we came across a pit, with one log going across it. No bottom was visible in the pit, though it wasn't too wide or long.
"This looks fresh." Jetta announced as she saw it. "It still has some form of sawdust around the bottom and the tree itself has not begun to rot or deform yet."
"Well then, we're not here to watch it start. You at the front, get moving." Flint added.
"Fine, fine." I said.
The log was a little slippery, but easy to cross. From there, we continued along a somewhat beaten path. As much of a beaten path as 'The Forest of Death' with show you. From this path, was one more obstacle. A tunnel. This tunnel passed though a tree and it seemed to be caused by man, forged through the exam but quickly, kunai marks were visible around the entrance and some burn marks were visible also.
"It seems that the next obstacle will be to swim underneath a tree, or what?" Jetta said. "I mean come on, a tunnel!?"
"Well, I'm not turning back now." I said as I entered the tunnel.
"Yeah I agree." Robin said behind me.
The tunnel was a little bigger than necessary for me but, I'm not complaining, though, as you still had to crawl your way through, it could have been worse. Upon entering the tunnel, one thing became apparent. This was no pathway. It was an escape route or secret entrance route. The tunnel seems to span through a lot more than one tree and was built big enough for a grown man. The idea of the tunnel was actually genius. It was one way to get through the forest without being recognized or attacked. There was only one problem, it was hopelessly dark, except for the small gaps between a few trees which were obviously left to ventilate the tunnel, but these where not often. In fact, they were quite rare, maybe just enough to count altogether on both hands.
"Hey Tsebe," Robin called out from behind me as I passed though one of the gaps. "I'm enjoying the view."
"And women will can men perverts…" I muttered.
Finally, a small light became visible at the end of the tunnel.
"Finally!" I said as I began to speed up towards the end. "I better get something like 69 agility when I'm done with this!"
I slowly emerged from the tunnel, with the sun's light blinking my eyes. They hadn't adjusted yet. I fell out of the tunnel and rolled a couple of feet before stopping.
I raised my arm to the sun. "Ah, dang sun in my eyes." Wait, sun!? I said to myself. That means that-! I sprung to life, opening my eyes wide to see the fences of the forest. Or, at least, that's what I expected. Instead, more trees greeted me, but these trees were further away than usual.
I looked down, grass leading down until something stopped it, stones.
"Ah, the river!" Robin shouted as she came out of the tunnel.
"The one that runs through the forest?" Temari asked as she climbed out of the tunnel.
"There's only one river." Robin replied.
"The same river that has been eluding Tsebe, Temari and I?" Jetta asked as she fell out of the tunnel after Temari. "You're kidding me…"
"That's not all Temari, look." I said as I pointed up the river.
"What the hell!?" Jetta said. "We're like, a stones-throw away form the tower!"
"Just great, that means that we've been walking in circles while we were in the river…" I said.
"Ha, you guys were. We brought a compass." Robin said as she smiled and reached into her pouch and pulled out a compass. Wasn't too fancy though. "It may not be up-to-date but it gets the job done."
"Oh well," I said as I began stepping towards the river. "That's just water under the bridge now, but luckily we reached here." I stopped walking. "And you know what this river means right?" I started as I turned my head to look at Robin and Temari.
"What?" Robin asked as she stepped forward and placed her hands on her hips.
"Fish!" I rushed towards the river removing my pants (no shirt, remember?). "And that equals…" I leaped into the air over the river. "FOOD!"
I heard Temari and Robin giggle I dived into the water.
Boom! I smashed into the water, displacing some of it on the stone shore.
"AHHH! WHAT THE HELL!?"
More quickly than I entered the water, I blasted out of it. I leaped back onto the stones and stood on all four with my head on the warmer stones. I quickly shook my body in an attempt to dry off. It failed, I only felt colder.
"What's wrong?" Temari asked as she walked towards me. Robin followed behind.
"Th-Th-The w-water…"
"What about it?"
"It-t-ts freaking cold!" I said as I shivered.
Temari walked to the water, knelt down and passed her hand in it. "No it's not you cry-baby!"
"Let me see." Robin said as she also pushed her hand into the water. "She's right. It's actually more of a warmish cool."
"Yeah, something like that."
"Warmish cool?! What do you people bathe in, ice cubes!?" I then knelt and held my body. "Where I come from, this is full fledged cold."
"Oh well then," Temari said as she stood up and began to walk towards the trees.
"Where are you going?" Robin asked.
"Somewhere." She then disappeared into the forest.
Jetta then walked to the stones. "So, what now?" She then held her stomach and some loud growling sounds followed. "Cause I neeeed some fooood. Preferably now."
"Well," Robin said as she put her hands on her hips. "Someone will have to go fishing." I didn't have to look at her to know that she was looking at me.
"In that cold water? Hell no."
"Well then," Some rustling came from the bushes Temari went into. "Why don't I come and warm the water for you, you big baby."
Temari stepped out of the bushes in her underwear, a simple panty and bra. This seemed to do her body a lot more justice than her normal clothes did. It exposed her beautiful curves, perfectly sculpted mid section and it praised her chest area - and I think I'll stop there before I end up saying too much about her beautiful body. Ahh, I could stare at her b-, stop Tsebe, stop… The panty and bra themselves were black with pink trimming around the edges, though the bra did not cover everything... still, I'm not complaining. She had also let down her hair, actually revealing that it is longer than you might think. All I could do is stare in awe. Well, that's not all I did but I had no control over that action. She then walked towards me.
"You know, right now you look absolutely horrible." I said as she approached.
"I was thinking the same thing actually." She then placed her arms behind my back and underneath my legs and easily lifted me up. "Come on, 'let mommy come and warm the cold river for you'" She said in a mocking tone.
"So," I started as I looked up at Temari. "Did you have to go in the bush to change?"
"Yeah," She said as she continued to walk. "I didn't want a cry-baby like you to freak out when you saw me."
"Cry-baby? Who are you calling cry-babyyy!"
Fwapp! Splash!
Temari then tossed me into the river.
"WHAAA! TEMARI WHAT THE HELL!?"
Splash!
Temari dove in the water after me.
I resurfaced. "Th-Th-Thanks a lot T-T-Temari…"
"Aw come here," Temari said as she swam towards me. "Let me help you get warm."
I suddenly felt two arms wrap around me, and blonde hair popped out next to my head. I could her body next to mine underwater, and the warmth radiating off her body. I was starting to wish that I had my pants on.
"Feel better?" She asked still in a mocking tone.
"Actually, I think I feel colder. Maybe I would if you squeezed tighter?" I suggested.
Temari laughed. "Yeah, of course you'd want that."
"Hey!" I heard Jetta shouted. Temari and I turned our heads to look at her. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything but could get some fish there?! That is, if you're not too busy 'Making love in this club'."
"Yeah she's right. I could use some fish in my stomach." I said as I turned to look at Temari.
"Then let's go fishing then shall we?"
"I think you guys could use some help catching those fish."
I looked to the stones to see Robin now stripping down to the bare necessities.
"What is this, a strip club?" Jetta said as she watched Robin.
"Jetta, get ready," Robin said as she struggled to remove her skirt. "We'll either catch the fish ourselves or chase them up out of the water so get your kunai and shuriken ready."
"Umm… Can Flint help too? You know, just to say that he's doing his fair share." Jetta said as she averted her gaze from Robin.
"Flint?"
"Yeah sure. No problem."
"OK then." Robin then turned towards the river, now all stripped down. All she wore was a skin tight black tank top and a pair of tight green and red stripped briefs. "Here I come!"
Those pants would have really come in handy now.
Boom! If that wasn't a cannonball, I don't know what is.
Robin cannonballed into the river, throwing a good bit of water out of the river and onto the sides.
"Thanks! I was starting to get thirsty anyway." I heard Jetta say.
"You welcome!" Robin replied happily. "Come on guys, there are fish to catch."
'Yeah." Temari and I replied.
I closed my eyes and dived under the surface, but then quickly resurfaced.
"What's wrong?" Jetta asked.
"I just remembered something,"
"What?"
"I can't see underwater without goggles."
"Trust now to be the time for you to remember that..." Jetta said putting her hands on her hips.
Robin suddenly resurfaced. "Think fast!"
Fwap! A fish leaped out of the water inches in front of Robin.
"Huh?"
Bam! The fish hit a tree on the other side of the river with a kunai in it.
"She said," Flint said. "Think fast you know."
"Yeah yeah, freak accident."
Temari then resurfaced. "Here it comes!"
Fwap! Another fish leaped out of the water.
Bam! This time it was a kunai.
"Let me guess," Flint said with a smirk on his face. "Freak accident?"
"Ah shut up."
"My turn now." I said. I concentrated on the river. I could see some fish swimming beneath me. I needed to find one that was slower than the others or at least not with its guard up. One caught my attention. It was at the bottom of the river, away from the others and it was also moving slower than the others down the river.
"I thought it was your turn?" Temari said.
"It…" I started as I prepared to swim. "Is!"
I lunged into the depths of the river. It dived down to the bottom with my eyes closed. My hands were the first to touch the bottom. There was only one problem, no fish. I moved my hands around the bottom, but my hands still came into contact with anything, anything except the usual river stuff, rocks, the occasional patch of moss and some plant life. I pushed my body deeper into the river, giving me more hand mobility. I pushed my hands further along the riverbed. Something just told me that the fish was still there. I felt fish swim above them, but I couldn't find my fish. That and the other fish swam away before I could do anything.
The underwater sounds of entering and leaving the water were ringing in my ears. I guessed that that meant Robin and Temari were doing their jobs. The only problem was, I wasn't, and I was beginning to run low on oxygen. I still wanted to catch my fish, and my gut still told me that it was still there. I brought my body even lower, so low that it was actually touching the riverbed. I then quickly (well, as quick as you can go underwater) turned around while searching for the fish. Then, the unthinkable happened. I ran out of oxygen.
I coughed underwater. The water rushed into my mouth and somehow I managed to keep it out of my throat and lungs. I twitched underwater; my body was beginning to shut down.
Crap… I thought. Need… To… get… to… the… surface…My Sharingan the came on. You're... not... Helping...!
I placed my feet onto the riverbed. I could feel the muscles tensing up. I pushed off, causing pain in my legs. The legs cramped up and my arms stopped working. My mouth then blasted open without any consultation with my brain and water rushed down into my mouth and then flow down my windpipe. My eyes then slowly began to close and my muscles stopped moving. I could see the surface in the distance, but it was too late, my eyes closed and I stopped moving and lost consciousness.
Back in Konoha
Sakura's POV
I had woken up hours ago, and from since then only one thing had been on my mine. 'Where is Tsebe?' After barely eating anything for breakfast, I rushed down to Naruto's house and asked him again.
I ran up to the door, almost out of breath. I slammed my fists and the door before stopping to catch my breath.
A frantic Naruto burst through the door, with a chopstick in his mouth. "What, what!?" He shouted.
"Haven't seen Tsebe since the exams, have you?"
Naruto almost fell down. "That's what you nearly gave me a heart attack for?!"
"Well… He is our team-mate…"
Naruto stepped out of his doorway and rested his hand on Sakura's shoulder. "He's properly home right now eating breakfast." Naruto said in a somewhat comforting tone. If only it was.
"No he's not…"
Naruto looked at me. "How do you know? It's not like you went to his house last night." He joked.
I blushed and looked away.
"Now way! What are you, his girlfriend!?"
"Naruto! This is serious! Tsebe could be in trouble!"
"OK, OK." Naruto's facial expression changed. "If you want, I'll help you look?"
"Not like dressed like that." I said as I covered my eyes.
Naruto was wearing a simple vest but instead of pants he was wearing a pair of torn boxers, which were a bit too torn.
Naruto growled. "Give me a minute."
He then quickly stepped behind the door and closed it behind him. Some loud sounds then flowed and no sooner than he entered he opened the door to reveal himself in his normal ninja clothes.
"Naruto, I know you're not that good at math but that was nowhere near a minute." I said looking at him.
"Ah, blah blah blah! Details, details, come on let's get going already!" The hyperactive blonde said as he leaped over me and down to the street below. "So, where to first?"
Back in the Forest of Death
"Tsebe!"
"Come on, get up!"
"Why didn't any of us see this coming!? He was underneath the water for way too long anyway!"
What the hell is going on?
"Get up, get up! Can't you do this any faster!?"
"I'm doing my best! And Hello? I live in Suna. There's just enough water there to have someone to practice on everyday."
"Sorry, I just don't want him to die."
Uhhh… What's with all the noise?
"Cough, cough."
"Don't plan his funeral yet!"
"He's coming back!"
"Cough, cough."
I slowly opened my eyes. My vision was blurred intensely. I could tell that my Sharingan was on, since even in the blurred vision, I could still see some form of chakra running through the person above me. Well, I least I thought that it was a person. I could feel water coming out of my lungs and throat, more coming out after each cough. My vision began to clear up. Colours were beginning to become clear, and also shapes. I could hear commotion going on above me, but I couldn't be bothered to listen. My vision then finally cleared, and the first thing I saw was green streaks. Green streaks!?
"Jetta?"
"Yup." Jetta replied.
"You did the mouth to mouth?" I asked as I slowly began to sit upright.
"Yeah," Jetta said as she went back onto her knees.
I suddenly felt two arms lunge onto my mid section and forced me back down to the ground below.
"Tsebe! You're OK!" It was Robin.
"Yeah, yeah. Is the fish ready?" I said as I placed my hand on her back.
"Tsebe! You nearly died and you're wondering about food!?" I then began to feel her body pressing onto mine, mostly her upper body though.
"When you're hungry, you're hungry." I said. I then turned my head to look at her. "Is it your hobby to make me miss my pants?"
"Tsebe!"
"And that goes for you too Temari,"
"Whatever," Temari knelt down next to me and Robin. "By the way, never scare me like that again, ya jackass."
"Come on, come on." Jetta said as she pried Robin off me. "Give him some space to breathe."
"Tsebe, can't you turn your eyes back normal? Or is that permanent?" Temari asked as she pointed to my eyes.
"Actually, I can't really control it..." I closed my eyes and concentrated. "Though, I wish it would just go off. I suddenly felt different. As if I had just reached home and took off a heavy bag pack. I opened my eyes again and looked at Temari.
"It's gone."
I sat up again, this time putting up my knee and resting on it. "Really?!"
"Nah," Jetta said. "The red part just turned black."
I then smiled at the comment. It was off. "So, about those fish…"
We were now sitting in front of a camp fire, with 12 fishes with sticks going directly through them in the fire. Something told me to ask why the sticks themselves weren't burning but… Robin and Temari caught all 12 fish, or at least help the 12 get caught. I on the other hand, nearly drowned…
Conversation around the fire was very little, it seemed that everyone was hungry and just wanted the fish to be ready so they could eat. One or two comments were made but no sustainable conversation took place. The fish were taking long to cook, and when I say long, I mean long. It was almost twice as long as when Sasuke, Sakura, Naruto and I cooked with them during the exam and they weren't even done yet.
My eyes were glued to two particular fish, which I had claimed as mine the second I saw them. They were of middle length compared to others but they were cooking the fastest, which was something I realized that no one really recognized. I slowly began to lean towards the fish as their time was nearing and had it been by my choice, I would have taken them out of the fire a lot sooner than they actually were.
"Tsebe," Temari said as she knelt by the fire (still in her undies). "If you lean any closer to the fire you'll end up cooking along with the fish."
"Anything to make them cook faster." I replied. "Anything."
Suddenly, Jetta leaped up out of her seat. "WHY CAN'T YOU COOK ALREADY!? CAN'T YOU SEE WE'RE HUNGRY!?" She yelled as she pointed towards the fish grilling in the fire.
All heads turned and looked at Jetta, with many different expressions coming from them, some of surprise, wonder, fear and even or two of acceptance and agreement. I sent the one of agreement.
"I'll… Sit down now…"
"Honestly, I agree with Jetta." I finally said. Almost everyone turned to look at me. "I'm actually surprised I didn't break first." I leaned over and sniffed my fish.
"Tsebe, what are you doing? Are you trying to get burned?" Robin asked.
"Checking to see if my fishies are ready yet."
"Whatever."
I looked at the fishes, almost there, maybe a little raw in the center from what I saw, and the skin was a deep brown, unlike the fishes I had during the exam which were kinda black and the skin was burned.
"Ah to hell with this!" I said as I stood up.
"Yeah!" Jetta yelled as she stood up with me.
"I'm hungry now!"
"Preach it!"
"It's lunch time!"
"Finally!"
I then pushed my hand into the fire and grabbed my two fish. I then felt a hand on top of mine. I looked up to see Jetta holding my hand.
"Jetta, you're holding my hand." I said as I looked up at Jetta.
"Tsebe, you're holding my fish." Jetta said with a smile on her face.
"No, these are my fish."
"No way. I saw them first. I even caught them."
"But I said before hand that they were mine. Since you didn't say anything they are mine."
"I have no recollection on the events that you are speculating about." Jetta replied.
"Jetta, just let go." I said as I pulled the fish towards me.
"Tsebe, you let go." Jetta replied as she pulled the fish towards her.
"Let go." I pulled them towards me again, this time with more force than before.
"No, you let go." Jetta said as she too, pulled the fish towards her with a lot more force than before.
I then began to glare at Jetta, who sent me a glare in return.
"Is it just me or are you actually seeing the sparks flying from those glares?" Robin asked no one in particular.
"Jetta, I'm going to give you till the count of five to let go of my fish." I said as continued to glare at Jetta.
"Funny, I was thinking the same thing."
"Fine then," I replied. "One."
"Two…"
"Three…"
"Ah Forget this I'm hungry!" Jetta yelled as she began to pull the fish.
"I too, was thinking the same thing." I replied as I retaliated.
It turned into a game of tug of war using the fish as the rope, and the fire as the line. I yanked the fish towards me, bringing Jetta close to the fire, only to have to fish yanked back and to be brought right back where I started. This did not stop me. I pulled the fish again, this time bringing Jetta extremely close to the fire. She still did not let go. Instead she retaliated and pulled the fish intensely with left me only inches away from the fire.
"Why don't you just let go, Jetta?" I said as I pulled the fish again. "The other fish will be ready soon."
"Oh hell no! I'm freakin hungry now!" She answered as she pulled it again.
Suddenly, a third hand appeared on the fish. Temari.
"Will you two cut it out?" She said as she got up and grabbed the fish from our hands. "If you two are so hungry, just share the two fish. One per person."
"You know, I had the same idea in my head." I said as I looked at Jetta.
"Liar. You're just agreeing cause it's Temari." Jetta said as she scowled. "Yeah, sure. I'm too hungry to care anyway."
"Good." Temari said as she gave each of us one of the fish. "And I hope you two don't start another fight when the others cook…"
"Well, a fish is better than no fish right?" I said as I began to eat it.
Jetta was already too busy eating to reply.
The other fish didn't take too much longer to cook.
"So," Robin said while everyone was eating except Jetta and me. We had already finished our second fish. "Thanks to Tsebe's little stunt, we've lost a little time." She turned her head up and looked at the sun. "Judging from the sun's position, it's about 10, 11. So eat up so that we can get out of this forest before dark."
"Agreed." Almost everyone said. The only people who didn't say it was those that were eating at the moment, but replied with a nod or an approving look instead.
After we finished eating, Robin and her team did their fire voo-doo to put out the fire. Personally I think that they were just showing off, because we could have just used river water. We then decided to use our common sense and followed the river upstream, and hoped that we wouldn't end up back at the tower. One last thing happened before we started to go up the river.
"Um, guys?" Robin said.
"Yeah,"
"Where are my clothes?"
"Oh yeah, speaking of clothes," Temari said as she turned around and started walking towards the trees which she changed in.
Robin looked around the area, she looked behind some trees, and she even turned over some rocks and looked there. No clothes.
"OK. Ha ha ha, very funny now where are my clothes?" She said as she put her hands on her hips.
I raised my hands with my palms facing Robin, like I was giving up or something. "It wasn't m-."
"JETTA!" Suddenly boomed from the trees. "WHERE THE HELL ARE MY CLOTHES!?"
"What!?" Jetta said as she backed away from Temari. "It wasn't me! It wasn't me… This time at least…"
"This time?" Temari said as she folded her arms and raised an eyebrow.
"Who knows, this may give me some ideas."
Temari just sent a glare to Jetta and then went back into the bushes. I couldn't help but look when she did. Hey, don't look at me like that, you do it too!
I then turned and look at Jetta.
"Hey, I'm telling the truth. We're in the forest of Death, now isn't the time for that kind of joke. Either way, it's no fun to continue a joke like this if the person knows it's you." Jetta finished with a smile.
Temari walked out of the trees again, this time looking a little taller. "Well, I couldn't find anything, except for my sandals. What would take my clothes anyway?" She said as she continued and walked towards me.
"Well, maybe the forest animals did it." I held my hand up to my mouth as if I was telling Temari a secret. "They're naked you know!"
"Thanks for your concern." Temari said as she shifted her weight from one leg to another.
"Well, we can't let this stop us." Robin said as she stepped up. "We need to get moving."
"Right."
"After all, this isn't so bad." She said.
"Yeah," Temari said as she quickly looked at me. "It actually feels quite freeing!" She then reached up and stretched.
I simply raised an eyebrow. Though, I will not lie, that's not all I did.
"Come on folks, it's time we ship off." Robin finally said as she turned and began walking along the river.
We headed up the river. The landscape didn't change much as we proceeded, tree, tree, stones, water, same old, same old. Conversation varied a lot as we walked. We told Robin and her team about the preliminaries and stuff like that. How the day to reach the tower is the last day, so that you don't have to sleep on the crap beds. Which reminds me, I wonder if we come next year, will the beds will still be how we left them? If so, I'm sleeping in another room.
"Hahaha!" Robin laughed. "You broke the beds!?"
"When you say it that way, you make it sound as if it was all my fault." I said as I walked alongside her.
"So that's why Gaara left the room during that last night." Jetta said as she walked with her arms behind her head.
"You're lucky Gaara didn't kill you!" Temari added. "Must have been in a good mood that night."
"Gaara has good moods?" Jetta then asked.
Robin and I were at the front of the group, then Temari and Jetta and finally Flint and the other member of Robin's team, whose name I still didn't know..
"No…" Robin said as she stopped in her tracks. I did too.
"Ha," Jetta laughed. "You make it sound like you know Gaara," She then stopped walking. "Wait, do you?"
Temari then stopped walking. "Hey, what's with the hold up?"
I raised my hand and pointed. "That…"
It was the tower. We were walking towards the tower.
"That the!? How'd we end up walking towards the tower!?" Temari yelled. "We made sure it was towards our backs when we started walking."
"Something's weird…" I said.
"We could have just walked in a circle," Flint said from the back.
"Flint, we're walking up a river that runs right through the forest," Robin started. "How could we walk in circles?"
"Hmm…" Robin's team-mate said. "Genjutsu. It's most likely a Genjutsu."
"You sure Takashi?" Robin asked as she turned around.
"Pretty much."
"Whoa, he can talk?" Jetta asked as she pointed towards Takashi.
"Apparently."
"OK then, you know what to do." Robin then said as she began to walk towards him. Robin walked to Takashi and held up her left hand. Takashi raised his right. They then began to move their hands, away and back together almost identically, coming back in different formations.
Huh? Two person hand signs?! When they tell you 'you learn something new everyday', they don't lie. I thought as I looked at Robin and Takashi.
"OK everyone," Robin said as she closed her eyes. "Prepare yourselves. We're about to break the Genjutsu. You may feel a little sensation during the 'breaking' process."
Robin and Takashi's hands then came together in a hand sign which resembled the one Ino/Sakura did (not this time though) to release her Mind Transfer Jutsu.
"Gen release!" Robin and Takashi yelled together. Their faces then tensed from what could be guessed to be a lot of chakra usage.
A bright white light then engulfed us, and I got a weird tingling sensation in the back my head. Oh, tingly… The light was almost blinding, shutting out everything else from view.
Crrrrr…. The tension and the white abyss began to rise. There was a strong feeling in the air. The brightness then began to lessen, making it less of a strain on your eyes to see.
Crrraaaa… A black line then crept its way onto the walls the abyss. Whoa… It slowly crept its way over the walls, splitting and making more lines to carry out its work.
A loud crashing sound then followed. The black lines on the void widened creating small sections with spaces behind them. Something was visible through the cracked abyss. Hey what is that? I asked myself as I squinted my eyes to see passed them. Blue, green, white? The cracked white abyssal walls then one by one began to fall revealing the forest scenery behind them, the usual trees, bushes and occasional vine.
A light feeling of dizziness came over me as the Genjutsu was broken. I held my head and stumbled around a bit before regaining my balance. "Whoa, that was kinda weird." I said as I slowly moved my hand. "Still," I assumed a battle stance. "This means that we're not alone."
"Maybe, maybe not." Takashi said as he quickly dropped Robin's hands.
"Sheesh, you didn't have to drop them so roughly…" She said quietly.
Takashi then stepped a few paces and bent down. "We tripped a trap." He then lifted up a kunai, with some paper on it. The paper was sizzling. That is, not fully burned, but with a fire still going on it. The only thing was that the fire was purple…
"OK," Jetta asked as she placed her hand on her hips. It seemed like the jutsu had a different effect on her. "So what is that?"
"It's a different kind of paper bomb." Takashi began explaining. "Instead of blowing up, it traps who every crosses two of them in a Genjutsu. When the Genjutsu is triggered, the paper starts to burn, and when it reaches the end, whoever is in the Genjutsu is knocked out, making it easy to take the scrolls from them. My best guess is that it was left back from the exam." He then tossed the kunai into the river.
"I wonder if any fish pass the kunai if they'll be caught in the Genjutsu." I asked no one in particular.
I heard Robin let out a sigh. I then saw her run her hands through her hair. "I wonder what else will go wrong in this forest…" I heard her mutter to herself. "All that's missing is for someone else to die here…"
"Hey, what's that?" Temari said. I then turned around to see her pointing lower down the river. "Is that… Barbed wire?"
"Wait, barbed wire equals fence, and fence equals-!"I cut Jetta off.
"Anywhere but here! That's the end of the forest! Come on; let's get out of the damn forest!" I then suddenly felt my feet begin to move. I was running towards the fence, almost by impulse. I soon heard other footsteps behind mine. I turned my head to see the others running behind me.
"Finally!" I heard Jetta shouted behind me. "I'm getting tired of this forest. There's no bathroom."
Shhhhhhh…. The sound then met my ears. I began to slow down.
Shhhhhhhhhhhhhh…. It came again.
What's that noise…?
Shhhhhhhh!
I've heard that noise somewhere before… But where?
SHHHHHHH!
My eyes widened as I realised what. I came to a screeching halt immediately. "STOOOOP!"
BOOOOM!
"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!?" I heard Flint yell as he managed to stop just in time.
Well folks, that's it! The end of this chapter, and yet, the beginning of another. Hopefully, by the end of the next one I can tell the Forest of Death good bye. Hopefully. Either way, please review if you want.