A/N: Here is once again, as promised, the third chapter of 'Ridges Between Rice Fields'; this time featuring (as expected) the start of the Chunin exams.
Thank you once again to all of the people that commented, followed, and favourited this story! It means a lot to see that this piece has been enjoyable so far, particularly given how it was gathering metaphorical dust on my computer. Your support is truly appreciated.
They knelt together beneath the roots of a tree once the Ame-nin had run away. Sakura observed her surroundings as she crouched beneath them, unnerved by the sense of safety and secrecy which they seemed to offer. The roots towered over them, far surpassing them in height, and shielded them from the rest of the environment. Around them, the forty-fourth Training Ground was almost completely silent, giving the deceptive impression of being empty.
"Remember this. If we get separated again we can't trust each other blindly," Sasuke said lowly. He alternated between looking at Naruto and Sakura, his expression nothing but calm. "Else, it could end up the way this did."
Sakura pressed her lips together. He's already got a plan, she thought. Swallowing saliva, she leant forwards, towards him. "What are you thinking of doing?" she whispered
It didn't take Sasuke long to reply. "The safest thing is for us to have a secret password," he explained. "That way, we'll know. No matter who they look like or how they sound, if one of us gets it wrong, they're an enemy."
Naruto nodded, looking high strung. "What password should we use?"
Sasuke turned away and looked at the area around them. It was deserted, devoid of any animals or other people, with only leaves and sticks on sight. His eyes briefly fixed on what seemed to be a bamboo stick protruding from the ground behind them.
The sight made Sakura frown. Briefly, the memory of the out-of-place puddle they had encountered on the road to the Land of Waves flashed through her mind. Strange, she thought, that there's only one piece of bamboo growing in the area.
Her eyes darted to Sasuke. Knowing her teammate, it was impossible for him to not have noticed the piece of bamboo's strange location. So why hadn't he said anything?
"Listen very carefully. I'll say it only once, it's a poem called 'Ninki'—'Ninja Opportunity'. When I ask for it, here is what you respond." Sasuke paused and looked at the roots above him briefly before continuing, as if trying to remember the poem's verses. "We thrive in the chaos of the enemy tide. Quiet shinobi don't need dens to hide. Our only concern is to watch and wait until the enemy lowers the gate."
Sakura's eyes widened. Ah—, she thought, so that's it. Smiling, she resisted the impulse to look back at the piece of bamboo. "Alright."
Naruto's face contorted into a scowl. "And how do you expect me to remember that?" he exclaimed. "We need a better password!"
"Don't be an idiot, it's easy to remember," Sasuke quickly bit back. He began to stand up. "Let's get going. I'll take the scroll."
Naruto leaped to his feet, ready to protest. Sakura followed him, intending to calm her teammate down. "Naruto—," she began to say, only to freeze mid-step and frown.
Something had changed.
Suddenly, an explosive gust of wind blew towards them. Sasuke and Sakura leaped away. Landing on a tree branch, she watched as the orange blur that was Naruto was carried briskly away by the wind. She pushed herself further into the canopy and, drawing a kunai, examined the area around them, trying to orient herself.
She bit her lip. It's… empty? she thought frantically. She couldn't see any enemies, nor any sign of Sasuke.
Stepping back into the leaves, Sakura forced herself to look over her surroundings again. Seconds trickled by as she attempted to locate something that would give away her teammate's position. They couldn't be too far off, and neither could the enemy team that had attacked them with the gust of wind.
Her eyes widened. There—!
Sakura jumped off her branch, towards the small clearing where Sasuke now stood, only to have him turn to face her immediately.
"Stay back, don't come near!" he shouted. He pointed his kunai at her. "What's the password?"
Sakura gripped her kunai tighter. Swallowing nervously, she forced herself to repeat the poem. He didn't expect Naruto to remember it, but her situation was a bit different.
Before Sasuke could so much as acknowledge her answer, Naruto leapt to the ground and ran towards them. "Are you both alright?" he asked.
Sakura frowned and tightened her grip on her kunai. She glanced at Sasuke, who, despite doing the same, had chosen to deceitfully lower his arms.
"The password, Naruto," he demanded.
Her blond teammate grinned. "Oh, right. 'Ninki'," he said. "We thrive in the chaos of the enemy tide. Quiet shinobi don't need dens to hide. Our—."
Sasuke threw his kunai at Naruto, interrupting his attempt to finish the poem. The blond darted to his left, dodging the weapon.
"Hey!" he shouted. "What was that for?"
Readying herself, Sakura pointed her kunai at Naruto. "Who are you?" she yelled.
The figure chuckled. Shaking his head, he made single hand seal and transformed into one of the Kusagakure Genin she could remember seeing in the first exam—the tall man with long, black hair and a straw hat.
"Well done!" he jeered. "What gave me away?"
Smirking, Sasuke glanced at Sakura and readied his posture. "We knew you were underground, eavesdropping on everything we said," he explained. "That's why I chose that kind of password. The kind that the real Naruto would never be able to memorise something like that that quickly."
The Genin's smile grew. "I see. Watch and wait, eh?" He lowered his straw hat. "This is going to be more fun than I thought."
Pressing her lips together, Sakura kept her gaze on the strange-looking man, not daring to look away. A shiver ran through her spine. Naruto—the real Naruto—was nowhere to be seen. What had happened to him?
The enemy shinobi chuckled and drew an earth scroll from his robes. "I suppose you'd like to steal my earth scroll, then, wouldn't you?"
He lifted the scroll up into the air. Amazed, Sakura observed as the Genin opened his mouth and wrapped a long, disgusting tongue around it. Straightening his posture, swallowed it and glared at Sasuke and Sasuke.
"We'll fight to the death for it, then!"
The man lunged at them with a sword before Sasuke or her could react. Raising it, he cut Sasuke's torso open. Barely a moment later, as if with the same moment, he threw a kunai at Sakura. It lodged itself into her head almost immediately, before she could so much as register the blood that had sprouted out of her teammate's torso.
Her eyes widened. A genjutsu!
Trembling from the pain, Sakura drew her hands together and disrupted her chakra's flow. "Kai!" she shouted.
Her vision cleared. Dimly, she felt herself collapse onto her knees. Grasping at the ground besides her in an attempt to reach her fallen kunai, she heard Sasuke stab his own leg, only to vomit once he had freed himself from the genjutsu.
A cold terror made its way through her as she discreetly looked at the enemy Genin, who was observing them silently from his position a few metres away. A glance, she thought, breathing shakily. He cast the illusion with a glance.
Just what sort of monster was this?
This wasn't a Genin trying to become a Chunin. She and Sasuke would have to retreat if they wanted to make it; evade him, somehow, and find Naruto. Otherwise, they wouldn't stand a chance.
Gathering her resolve, she pulled herself up and grabbed Sasuke's arm. Seeming to understand what she wanted to do, he nodded and began to run towards a nearby tree. The tell-tale sound of kunai hitting wood rang behind them as they ran up the large tree trunk, towards the canopy up above.
"Sasuke. We need to find Naruto and—."
The dark-haired boy glared at her. "Stay quiet! We don't know when—!"
A flash of purple and yellow burst from the shadows of the canopy. Sakura and Sasuke leapt away as its wake rushed past them. Sakura's widened at the sight. It was a snake; a huge, monstrous animal that was too agile for its size.
It didn't take long before it lunged at them again. Leaping further ahead, they dodged the white flash that were its fangs. Twisting in the air, Sasuke aimed three shuriken at its head. They hit the beast in full, nailing it to a nearby tree branch. Sakura's lips parted in shock as, somehow, the Kusagakure Genin then emerged from the snake. Glaring at them, killing intent clear, he dashed towards them.
Her eyes darted to Sasuke's. A plan, we need a plan, she thought desperately. They wouldn't be making it otherwise. "Sasuke!"
No flash of chakra or warning of any sort came. Suddenly, in the empty space before them, an ANBU stood between them and the strange-looking man. A single hand seal later he was blowing a wall of fire. The Kusagakure Genin, hit in full, retreated to a branch further below; his face melting away into unrecognisable, pale features marked by purple.
Sakura's hands trembled as she looked at the unknown shinobi. He was wearing the standard ANBU gear and armour, alongside a tanto sword strapped at the right side of his back. A porcelain mask hid away any distinguishing feature or expression she could have hoped to see, leaving only short, tousled, dark hair in the open.
Sasuke's posture tensed in recognition. He knew who the ANBU was. "Shisui, what are you doing here?" he asked.
The ANBU didn't reply. Instead, he focused on the Kusagakure Genin below. "Orochimaru," he said tonelessly. "I thought you'd know better than to approach my little cousin."
Sakura tightened her grip on her kunai and lowered herself into a defensive posture. Narrowing her eyes, she kept her sight fixed on the strange shinobi, not quite understanding just what was going on. Why would a missing-nin like Orochimaru be inside the forty-fourth training ground?
The enemy shinobi laughed. "I was having marvellous fun, having him show me his tricks." He hunched forwards, his arms loose at his sides despite the tautness evident in his posture. "Still, he doesn't seem to be much compared to his brother, does he? He hasn't even used his sharingan yet."
Sasuke's jaw clenched shut. His grip on his shuriken tightened painfully, drawing blood from the palm of his hand.
"Don't think I didn't hear about that little fight you had with him a few years back," Shisui said easily. "What made you think you'd be successful here?"
"Shunshin no Shisui." Orochimaru's tongue slithered out. Leaning forwards, he licked his lips excitedly. "You may have been great before, but now? After losing one of those eyes of yours?" he mused. The chakra in the area slowly began to thicken, until it was almost difficult to breathe. "I wonder, what would happen if I took the other?"
Shisui's shoulders rose as he huffed. If the words affected him, he didn't show it. Reaching back, he drew his tanto and directed a brief, silent look at them. "Sasuke. Sakura. Naruto's heading here from the East. He's uninjured," he reported. "Go."
He disappeared before Sasuke could reply. A second later the branch Orochimaru had been standing on shattered under the force of his attack. Amazed, Sakura couldn't help but watch as the same person she had first met that day years ago moved faster than her eyes could actually see.
She had never seen anything like it before. He was fast, impossibly so, and try as she might she wasn't able to follow his path or actions. The second she seemed to spot him he was already somewhere else, like a ghost, attacking Orochimaru with what almost seemed to be afterimages of himself.
Standing up, Sakura looked at Sasuke. They couldn't stay here. They had to leave. "Sasuke," she whispered, "we need to find Naruto."
Her teammate nodded and leapt in the direction Shisui had indicated. Sakura glanced at the increasingly chaotic area beneath her before following him. There was nothing they could do—they'd only get in the way.
It didn't take long before they found Naruto. Their blond teammate, visibly unhurt despite looking slightly worse for wear, landed on a nearby tree branch. Grinning, he crossed his arms. "I'm sorry, Sasuke, but I can't remember that stupid password!"
A smile instantly grew on Sakura's face. It really was Naruto.
"Naruto," she said, feeling relieved. She jumped towards him, with Sasuke following after her. "What happened to you? You disappeared after that shinobi attacked us."
"I'm not sure. One second, I was there. The next I was alone with a huge snake; it even ate me." He then paused, seeming to give her words thought. "Who attacked us?" Naruto finally asked. He turned to face Sasuke. "Your cousin appeared all of a sudden, after I managed to burst out of the snake, though he didn't say what he was doing there."
Sasuke crouched down. Glancing back at the area they had just left, from which remnants of thick and oppressive chakra could still be felt, he seemed to relax minutely.
"It was Orochimaru," he said hesitantly. "He was disguised as one of the Kusagakure Genin."
Naruto frowned. "Who?"
Sasuke shook his head, but otherwise said nothing. Pursing her lips, Sakura took it upon herself to explain what little she knew about the strange man who had attacked them. "He's a missing-nin from our village," she said. "Had Shisui not appeared when he did…"
The thought made her grimace. Given how the fight had been progressing and how little they had actually managed to do, it was clear that things would have gone horribly wrong but for Shisui's appearance.
Just what did Orochimaru want from us, anyways? she wondered. There was little reason for a missing-nin like him to appear at the Chunin selection exams. He had to have had a motive or an underlying goal of some sort, but what could have been?
"Should we tell someone?" she said, voicing her concerns. "Someone like Orochimaru shouldn't be in the village at all. There must be something else going on."
"Don't bother," Sasuke said, shaking his head. "Shisui's there now."
She bit her lip. "But Sasuke—."
"No."
"Sakura has a point," Naruto said, glaring at their third teammate. "What if that guy returns?"
"Neither of you understand." Standing back up, he looked at them with an oddly neutral expression. "My cousin is one of the best shinobi my clan ever produced. Yes, he has the sharingan, but that is not why he was added to the bingo book. He was good enough to defeat—."
He cut himself off and looked down, clenching his jaw. His body tensed.
Sakura's expression fell. Something had angered him, that much was clear, but she didn't know what it was that had prompted the uncharacteristic emotion. "Sasuke?" she asked.
"Shisui will be fine," he affirmed. "We should retreat somewhere safe and continue with the exam. We would only get in the way."
Sakura met Naruto's bewildered look. She didn't like the thought of abandoning Shisui should something happen, but he was right.
Naruto reached the same conclusion. "Okay," he said. "Let's go somewhere else, then."
The three of them leapt forwards and began to press on, only coming to a stop once the sounds of battle had faded away completely and the air was easier to breathe. Landing near a particularly large tree, they quickly set about securing the perimeter. They'd need to rest and put together a plan after the two attacks they had suffered if they wanted to continue.
Standing up, Sakura scanned her two teammates from head to toe. Though somehow Naruto was completely uninjured, the same couldn't be said for Sasuke. The cut in his hand was deeper than it had seemed to be at first, and it hadn't even begun to close. It would most likely get in the way of any of the fighting they would have to do.
Opening one of her pouches, she took out her medical kit and walked towards Sasuke, who was leaning against the tree.
He glanced at her medical kit with distaste. "It's only a cut, I'll be okay."
"Sasuke."
The dark-haired boy sighed and nodded, sitting down. "Fine," he grumbled.
Sakura smiled and kneeled besides him. She placed her medical kit on the floor and, making a hand seal, focused her chakra to the palms of her hands. Though she still hadn't mastered the mystical palm technique Kumadori had showed her, she could perform wound disinfection and other, lesser techniques well enough to use them.
Half a minute went by before she stopped and reached for her medical kit, drawing out a roll of bandages.
"There," she said, securing a thin bandage around her teammate's hand. She smiled as he looked at his hand silently. "That should be fine now," she said, pulling herself up.
"Sasuke."
Despite the voice's audible friendliness, Sakura found herself instinctively pulling herself into a defensive crouch and spinning around despite the voice's apparent friendliness, only to breathe out in relief at the sight Shisui's now-familiar ANBU armour. His posture, loose and relaxed, bore no immediate signs of what had just taken place. Only the dents and scratches on his arm guards gave away the fact that he had just battled against a missing-nin.
Her teammate looked up at his cousin. "What happened to Orochimaru?"
"He ran away. I don't think he'll be back," Shisui said succinctly, not quite managing to keep the note of worry from his otherwise light tone of voice. He began to approach Sasuke. "Did he harm you in any way?"
"No."
Shisui let out a short, relieved breath. Crouching down in front of Sasuke, he reached out and ruffled his hair. "Good. I made it in time, then," he said more cheerfully. "Be careful with him if you ever run into him again. He's dangerous." He turned to face Naruto and Sakura. "Were either of you harmed?"
Naruto shook his head. Sakura quickly did the same, pausing to look—finally—at the shape of the porcelain mask that her friend wore. A hawk; white and clean, with very few red markings around its eyes. Beneath it, she saw a single sharingan spinning, bright in his gaze.
Did he know why someone like Orochimaru had chosen to approach them?
"I'm glad to hear that," Shisui said earnestly. Waving an arm, he looked up, as if searching for something. "I'll go to notify the Hokage of this. Best of luck in this second part of the exam, all of you."
The three watched the older shinobi leapt away, unmoving and silent. It was only a few seconds after his departure that Naruto whirled around and, gaping, pointed a finger at Sasuke.
"What is it, dot?" the dark-haired boy asked indignantly.
Naruto scowled. "The scroll, bastard. Do you still have it?"
o-o-o
The Suna-nin grinned as he walked away from the exam proctor that had been supervising the matches, towards the viewing platform he had been previously waiting at.
Sakura looked on intently, surprised by the sheer expertise that he had demonstrated with his puppetry. Besides her, her teammates wore similar expressions to her own, with Sasuke seeming particularly engrossed at the idea of learning just how the foreign Genin had defeated his opponent.
She frowned as she looked back at the hall where the fight had just taken place. What would have happened had she been the one chosen to fight against him? How well would she have done?
Though the battle had not been as quick as Shino's against the Oto-nin or her teammate's own against one of Kabuto's teammates, it hadn't taken it too long to end. Seeing the puppet master technique from up close had surprised her, particularly given the sheer precision and skill with which it had been used. It had turned the entire fight around, making the Sunagakure Genin win where he had previously been at risk of losing.
"In any event, I think it's time for the fourth match," the exam proctor called.
Naruto grinned eagerly, crossing his arms. "This is like a never-ending freak show!"
"Look who's talking," Kakashi responded lazily. Freezing minutely, he leaned forwards and rested a gloved hand on Sakura's shoulder. "Look," he said, pointing towards the screen hanging from the hall's top.
Tensing, Sakura looked at the screen. A tiny gasp escaped her mouth as she saw the two names that were now displayed on it. "Oh."
Ino. Out of all the remaining Chunin candidates, she would have to fight Ino.
Naruto grinned. Turning towards her, he patted her encouragingly in the back. "You can do it, Sakura!" he exclaimed.
Sakura pressed her lips together and observed as the blonde girl she had once known so well began to descend the staircase that led to the hall's floor. She didn't look cowed at all. Clenching her hands, she turned to look at her teacher. The corner of his only visible eye was crinkling. Besides him, looking at her from his other side, Sasuke was smirking.
Straightening her posture, she began to walk towards the same staircase, keeping a watchful eye on her old friend. She didn't know how far she had come since the last time she had seen her attempt to use her techniques, though it must have been a fair amount for her team to manage to make it through the second part of the Chunin selection exams.
Gathering her resolve, she began to mentally run through the different ways she could choose to fight against her. It would be difficult, and if she wasn't careful Ino would be sure to take her out, but she was sure that she could win.
Smirking slightly, she came to a stop opposite the blonde girl and glanced at one of her pouches. She could do this. She refused to be the first member of her team to lose.