Honestly...I have no excuse. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
Sorry this took so long, I honestly had so much trouble writing this chapter in particular. I have most things planed out after this, but I needed this chapter to go a certain way for it to be good to release. I was talking to someone about beta'ing but I never got back to them. Hopefully they are still interested even thought I went MIA. Still, for the next chapter you can expect slightly higher quality spelling and grammar at the very least. As always please review what you think or if you have any questions. Anyway, please enjoy:
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Murphy's law: Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong, at the most inopportune time possible.
There's no direct equivalency that I've found in Japanese. Kind of like idioms. I can translate the idea and explain the meaning to people, but they wouldn't quite get what I was talking about; not really. Murphy's law was like that but maybe even more difficult considering hadn't even crossed my mind in years.
(As a further aside to my original aside, I didn't think I would ever forget English— it was my native tongue— but I already thought in Japanese, and only ever spoke the one language. Some phrases were beginning to slip out and I couldn't quite force myself to memorize a dead language. Honestly, it was more worthless then Latin had been in my med school application.)
I think it had something to do with my dad's comments. 'Overconfidence kills' and the like. That reminder had replaced the english equivalent, and short simpler phrases hung out in my brain like: hindsight is 20/20. Things that didn't need more explanation. But Murphy's law should have been at the forefront of my mind because Murphy's law tells you to be prepares for the worst possible situation. But of course I wasn't thinking of it. Because, like the law states, it is the most inopportune time and if I had been thinking of it well then it wouldn't have been that inopportune would it?
But I'm rambling. Let me explain what happened:
With the news of a team caught, Naruto and Sasuke looked to me eagerly.
"Here's what I'm thinking…" I began with a meaningful look around me. Naruto and Sasuke got the hint and looked around for opposing teams as well. When Naruto gave us an all clear thumbs up, we continued.
"They're already trapped. We don't know whats coming after this. Let's go to where they are but stay out of sight. Just monitor the situation. Send in some clones henge'd to look like us and have them do all the work. Mock them a bit, grab their scroll, meet up with the clones, give the scroll to someone who wasn't seen holding it, and then sprint as fast as we can to the tower."
Sasuke nodded his head in agreement, his face still passive. Naruto meanwhile looked pretty disappointed.
"No fighting? Kage-chan, we've trained really hard, ya know? And the first part was super boring. Let's go find a team and beat them up, datebayo!" His fairly innocuous whisper raised to a near shout by the end. Sasuke slapped in the back of the head to shut him up but I just sighed indulgently.
"Naruto, I get it, but it's safer this way. When we're chunin, we can go on harder missions that require more fighting. But for the sake of passing this test, we can't afford to make any mistakes."
Naruto didn't look convinced and he swung his head back and forth between his two teammates.
Sasuke Hnng'ed in agreement ( I think) and I scowled at him. (Was it really that hard to speak up and add a few real word to the conversation? I mean I was supposed to be the lazy one after all.)
"Look." I said desperately. "How about I pay for a trip to the ramen stand after this is all over? I'll cover your first three bowls if you just go with the simple, easy plan."
"DEAL, DATEBA-OW" Sasuke came in clutch with another slap to Naruto's head.
We hit no snags on the way there. We ran in the same formation we'd entered the forest, Naruto leading myself and Sasuke, each of us trying to be as quick and silent as possible. I was grateful for Kakashi's tips on foot placement. Because we all ran single file, a tracker might guess that there was just one heavy footed ninja running here. Meanwhile, I could see traces of groups of ninja having run over this same path recently. Probably the same ninjas that were caught in our trap.
When we got closer, we broke off from the path we'd been following and instead dropped to a deserted clearing. Naruto quickly made three clones, that hanged to look like us. A few moments later, they left the circle, and the three of us were alone.
Sasuke signed 'contact made?', but Naruto just shrugged. I signed back as quickly as I could, trying to finger spell as little as possible.
'information received after C-L-O-N-E dead'
Sasuke looked like he wanted to smack his forehead for forgetting, but stopped himself. Internally, I frowned. Before, Sasuke had been the best of all of us at acting rationally. We'd been in the forest for less then 2 full days however and he'd just asked a question that made him seem as clueless as…well Naruto. Maybe his judgement was starting to be affected.
(Which was really really really bad. After all, I thought this plan was a good idea, and so had Sasuke. Maybe it was a terrible idea though, and we should have listened to Naruto.)
With a sinking feeling in my stomach, I mulled over that idea. Maybe I had misinterpreted the point of the second exam. Perhaps we were supposed to fight. Why else throw enemy ninja into a remote location for a few days? Oh no this was supposed to be a battle royale , and I was over here trying to be a suave James Bond.
'Okay?' Sasuke signed at me, interrupting my wild thoughts. I shook my head mournfully at him, making Naruto look between us panicked. I was having an existential crisis because part of me realized I couldn't even compare myself to James Bond in a world that he didn't exist in.
'Not okay' I signed back and sighed. I'd never be okay. God, why did I have to have a crush on the James Bond actor in my past life. I was 100% blaming my forever genin status on him.
While Naruto and Sasuke clumsily signed back and forth, I dropped to a crouch and put my head in my arms, my elbow on my knees. The two of them were urgently signing, probably worried about how much I had flubbed the second exam. I leaned my head back and tried to catch a glimpse of the clouds above me. While the sunlight trickled in, there were no large gaps in the tree line—just a canopy of green.
I wondered how Naruto's clones would do with the battle royale. After all Naruto had picked up on the true nature of the exam before I did. Perhaps he wouldn't try talking to the other team at all. Maybe he had already planned on ignoring my directions and instead pulled a typical Naruto—bursting in and charging at them with no plan.
I brightened. Naruto had henge'd to look like us. We might still have a chance at passing!
'Okay! I'm okay!' I signed to Sasuke. The two looked unconvinced, which was a terribly odd expression to see on Naruto's face considering his gullible nature, but I rose from my crouch and flashed them a bright grin. That made them look more worried, so I toned down the cheer.
(The smile's I gave out ranged from the 'yea it is nice outside today' smile to the 'If you say another word, I'm going to kill you' smile. This one was probably the same one I had given to Ibiki during the first part of the exam. So definitely a no-no for intra-team interaction. But it wasn't on purpose. There was such a fine line between God, writing is annoying and bloodthirsty interaction.)
We stood in a slightly awkward silence for another few minutes while we waited for the clones. When they arrived, all of them had Naruto's grin on their face. It was weird to see such a pleasant smile on emo boy's face (and mine admittedly but at least I did smile occasionally, even if it was usually a tool to unsettle people out.)
All together they had been gone for less then 10 minutes. They all flashed us a thumbs up, then dispersed, leaving a single scroll behind. And it was the same scroll we needed. I wanted to let out a cheer.
We were halfway there. We had two scrolls. We were within the time limit. We had managed to get close to the tower. We hadn't let the forest mess with our thinking too much either. At least I don't think I did. Minus the slight freakouts. If anything, Naruto and Sasuke had been really weird earlier with the signing.
Things couldn't get any better.
I walked over and snatched up the stolen scroll, turning it over in my hands. It looked the exact same as the other one we had, except it was different Kanji on the outside. 'Heaven and Earth' I wondered what the meaning was.
Sasuke motioned for me to put the scroll away and I looked back with raised eyebrows. I comically pointed at myself and had to stop myself from looking over my shoulder. Because I genuinely couldn't believe he was telling me to hold on to the scroll.
Personally I thought Naruto should get them both. But then again, I also really didn't want to make myself a target by holding on to this. I was pretty biased.
I shrugged while Naruto snickered. I uncaringly shoved the scroll into my upper thigh pouch, where I also kept my shuriken and some medicinal sachets.
Naruto was bouncing with excitement and Sasuke couldn't even hold back a grin. I straightened up from the crouch and adjusted my clothing. I was standing at attention in my eager pose, uncharacteristic of my normal slouch. I didn't want it to be obvious I was holding the scroll, but I was so excited at our good fortune. My lips turned up again into anticipatory smile, which my teammates matched before I gestured to Naruto and motioned for him to lead back up to the tree tops. He eagerly jumped to the nearest tree, racing up it. I followed him, trying to match his quick pace. Sasuke followed right behind me, close on my heels. Naruto took us all the way to the top of the trees, till our heads almost brushed above the canopy. I enjoyed that there was more sunlight up here, but despaired how obvious we could be up high compared to down below.
Still being up high gave us an advantage watching for other teams. We made good time running to the tower and burst out of the trees just as the sun was beginning to set on the second day in the forest.
We'd evaded two other teams on our hasty journey, in part to Naruto's sensing, but also thanks to Sasuke's sharp eyes. Out here by the tower there was no sign of any teams, but I was still hesitant. Someone might have trapped the door after all.
That worry didn't seem to plague Naruto, who moved forward with purpose, shoving the heavy door open and stepping right in to the old tower.
The inside reminded me of a gymnasium from my old life. The floor was tiled, and clearly worn from over the years, however the large room was fairly clean for being an abandoned tower, In the back corner were doors, most likely to other rooms and stairs to get to the top of the tower. On either side of the room were stands built in like a shelf to the wall. And directly in front of us was a large tower with word written on it.
"Which is stronger: The powers of heaven or the powers of earth?" Naruto read aloud for us.
I tilted my head. Powers of earth was most likely physical prowess. Taijutsu and the like. The powers of heaven…was that supposed to be heaven as in the opposite of earth, in this case everything not taijutsu such as ninjutsu or genjutsu? Or was I misreading it and perhaps earth was all encompassing in what it meant to be a ninja… which would mean that heaven was talking about the authority above us—the village, its elders, the hokage.
Or maybe I was over thinking it. Perhaps it was a question that didn't matter. Most likely, which ever you chose you opened a scroll for. It seemed pretty subjective to me. Maybe it didn't matter which scroll you picked, and either one was the correct answer.
Or maybe neither one was the right answer. We'd been told not to open the scrolls in the forest.
But this wasn't the forest, this was the tower. Although a pedant could argue that the tower was in the forest.
"Ma, this is hard." I complained as I dropped to the floor sitting cross legged in my thinking pose. Sasuke scoffed.
"This isn't hard. A ninja need the powers of heaven and earth to be a true shinobi. An over balance of one will lead to failure. "
I tilted my head the other way thinking about it. Naruto looked at us cluelessly. I ignored him. This would be so bothersome to explain considering me and Sasuke hadn't even come to the same conclusion.
"You're thinking of it as yin and yang, spiritual and physical energy then. Which makes sense; you cant use a jutsu with an imbalance in one or the other. I guess… that makes sense." I tested it out loud. "Yin and yang…Heaven and earth. Okay, I guess I can see it. It's not what I thought of at all really, but your guess is as good as mine."
He nodded importantly and I rolled my eyes, pulling the scroll I had out of my pocket and tossing it to Naruto. He caught it, barely.
"EH? Whats this? Why arn't you hiding it anymore Kage-chan?" Sasuke took his turn to roll his eyes.
"Pay attention Dobe. We're going to open the scrolls now. Both of them." Naruto turned to me for confirmation, but I just shrugged helplessly. I could only hope that the officials weren't as pedantic as I would be. (This tower was totally still in the forest. There were loopholes and then there were loopholes. I didn't want to lose on a technicality. I liked wining on technicalities, not the other way around. )
Naruto took no more convincing then that, reaching to his oversized pack and pulling out his own scroll. With both in hand, he popped them open. Instantly, they began to smoke.
"What the—" My question was interrupted by Naruto flinging the scrolls across the room with a small squee.
Just in time as well. A ninja popped out of the smoke, (A reverse summing scroll. I hoped we could keep the scrolls after this. While I wasn't interested in studying sealing, I could probably—maybe— copy this seal. And how cool would that be? I'd be a teleporter)
The ninja looked super bored.
"Congrats on finishing the second round of the chunin exam. You have seen the question, although it is more a riddle then a question. Which is more important? Heaven and earth are both traits expected of chunin. Can you use your physical and your spiritual talent in purpose to you village? They need to be used in tandem to avoid mistakes. Think of it like a jutsu. If you don't have enough stamina, or enough physical energy, there will be no jutsu. A ninja without heaven however has no chance at succeeding either. Balance is key to the chunin. Now, you've made it to the tower and I see you have both required scrolls.
"You'll have to wait here in the tower for the time limit to expire. There are rooms off to the side you can use. There will be no fighting with other teams while you wait for the time to expire." He waved a lazy hand to the door I noticed when we entered. His voice never changed from the bored monotone he'd started with. There was no inflection of excitement from his dry "congrats" to the rest of his speech. I felt my eyes drifting closed.
(Maybe the test wasn't actually over. Maybe we had to stay alive through his dead boring speech. The thought woke me up a little.)
"Depending on how many participants make it here within the time frame, there may be a preliminary round at the conclusion of the time expiring." (I twitched when he said expiring again. It was such an odd word to use…but he kept saying it, even when it didn't fit. Was he doing it on purpose? Was this how he messed with people? I preferred sensei and his tardiness to his monster. Although maybe I was just tired and nitpicking.)
The chunin shifted from one leg to the other.
"There should be no leaving the tower now that you have entered. If you chose to leave, be it for supplies or for fun, you will need both a heaven and an earth scroll to reenter."
I frowned. That meant we couldn't keep these two scrolls. No fair. But at least we'd thought to bring food. No way could I last in a tower for 3 more days with no food. And I had no interest in going back out, hunting for food and then hunting down two more scrolls. As for water…that might be an issue. We'd have to see with they had indoor plumbing here. I could only hope.
"If thats all, than goodbye." He grabbed the two scrolls from the ground while Naruto bounced behind me, unable to calm himself down. Once the ninja had popped away, Naruto raced towards me, pulling me up and towards the doors to the side. Sasuke followed at a much more sedate pace.
After we got settled in a room, we relaxed as much as reasonably possible. The room we picked had 6 beds, all bunkbed style, built out of stone with a simple futon thrown on them. We fortunately had the room to ourselves, and while we wouldn't mind sharing with another Konoha team if required, we preferred not to.
And for now, there was no need. After all, we were the 3rd team to arrive and there were dozens of empty rooms left. The only other teams were team 8—Hinata, Kiba, and Shino— and the sand team with the future kazekage. But the red head wasn't present. When I had dared to ask an angry Temari, she had simply shuddered but announced that Gaara was back in the forest.
"Don't worry. He already has the required scrolls to get back in." Kankuro assured me.
I just raised an eyebrow in silent admiration. I knew Gaara—that was his name— was going to be a strong leader one day, but I would never have guessed his peaceful attitude would let him try so hard in the exams. Then again, you have to prove you're the best if you want to be noticed. And besides, this was probably child's play to him. It was to team 7 after all…we'd arrived with no injuries, unlike team 8 which had a lightly bandaged Kiba and a slightly tired looking Shino. Hinata looked as unflappable as ever.
We spent our time relaxing, but strategizing. We discussed our opponents. A possible preliminary round most likely meant straight fights, so I tried to analyze our opponents and look for Naruto and Sasuke's strengths. Even just a day had cleared my head from the genjutsu in the forest. I had pulled each of my teammates aside and apologized for my behavior in the forest. Naruto had laughed it off and shyly rubbed the back of his head, making him look super adorable and awkward at the same time.
Sasuke, on the other hand, had graciously accepted the apology with a nod and a small, "We're teammates. We covered for you."
Still, I felt bad. Sometimes Sasuke could really piss me off, but more and more often he was proving to be a genuinely awesome teammate that I got along with just as well as Naruto, if not better. He deserved a full explanation:
I expanded on my apology sheepishly, "You know that genjutsu really messed me up. At one point I was convinced that Naruto had the right idea and we should just fight anyone and everyone. I was convinced that Naruto was the voice of reason."
Sasuke looked horrified at the thought and I nodded sagely. "Please, if I'm ever affected by genjutsu—and I suggest taking the Naruto approach— just end my suffering right there."
He promised me. " I swear it."
As we got closer to the expiration of the time limit (fucking chunin guy, couldn't get him out of my head for the life of me, I was even using his phrasing and wasn't that annoying), more ninja teams trickled in. All of the rookie teams, as well as Kabuto's team. Another two leaf team I didn't recognize but looked sightly older then us. Only two sand teams, one of which now included a safely returned Gaara. Two sand teams. Only one grass team, but they looked completely uninjured. A sound team barely made it in, looking like they had suffered pretty bad injuries in the forest.
And it looked like that was it. Although mathematically there was room for at least one more team, no one showed up. I figured Gaara grabbing two scrolls to get back in probably stole their chance, but still, this was really impressive. I expected more people to have failed this stage.
We had another few hours before the time limit completely expired, but by this point, I was getting restless. Team 7 had spent the past 2 days doing nothing. We couldn't spar, not if we didn't want to give up any of our secrets. We also could only strategize so much. I introduced Naruto to yoga, but he didn't take to it like Shisui had. Unsurprisingly Naruto wanted to do something involving more movement.
We spent a lot of time playing cards, just like back in Wave.
I felt like a prisoner in this stupid tower, and inwardly (and outwardly when Naruto and Sasuke didn't tell me to shut up) cursed Kakashi sensei for enrolling us in this bullshit exam and making us do all this work.
I was in the middle of one of my rants (which were becoming works of art, I'll tell you) when we were walking back to our room. Let me explain the layout of the tower. All the corridors were tucked into the back of the tower, behind the grand atrium we'd first walked in on. All the rooms were to the side of the atrium, but inaccessible unless you entered through the corridors. The corridors had two stairwells, although each was accessed through the same door in the atrium. Basically, you were looking at a u shape where the bottom part of the u was the corridor and the rooms to sleep were the sides of the u.
It was a well thought out layout for a military ready base. For practical everyday use, it was annoying. Walking up the stairs to get to my room was already bothersome, but then I had to trudge further down a hallway to get to it. Thankfully, the corridor had windows because the bedrooms had none, intensifying the prisoner feeling I kept having.
All the Konoha rookies had roomed in the same wing, on the same floor, which was one of two floors open to genin participants. (I assumed that there were more being used by proctors and the like, but really I had nothing to go on and I didn't like making assumptions. You know what they say and all…)
Because the time limit had almost expired, we were returning to our room to grab the rest of our supplies. We weren't stupid enough to leave anything important there, but little things were scattered around the room; Sasuke and I had left out last game of cards unfinished as well as our makeshift chips littered on one of the empty beds.
Naruto had left his crafting supplies in the room as well. (He promised us a giant prank in the upcoming weeks to celebrate our promotion, but refused to tell us what it would be. I only knew that it involved lots of paint and something really smelly. And maybe feathers, but perhaps he'd just ripped the futon when he was working on something.)
(I had also left what I was calling my basic book, something I had taken up reading. It was a lazily written fiction book with a sinfully simple plot. I was addicted. It was just such a feel good kind of story where the hero always prevails and gets the girl. I had glared when Sasuke teased me for it, and when Naruto had joined in, I had laid down the law.
"So help me, if you tease me about this one more time, I'm going to tell sensei that I feel like our teamwork is waning. Let's see how many more lessons he gives us." That had shut them both up. I personally wouldn't mind and I was beginning to think that I was the only one to really appreciate the lessons. After all, Kakashi sensei was a true born genius. His lessons were harsh and imaginatively creative but undeniably effective. A man ahead of his time, I was a devout believer in Kakashi and eery lesson he imparted on us.)
Like I said, we were going back to our room to grab our supplies, safe in our knowledge that we had finished well within the time frame. I continued ranting, relaxed around my comrades. Naruto kept laughing and egging me on, and while Sasuke didn't say anything, from his smirk, I could tell he agreed with my nonsensical rant.
"And another thing! Why would he wear a mask if he wasn't hiding something from us? How can I rely on him if he doesn't rely on me? I don't even know what his face looks like. Maybe that's why he signed us up for the exams so quickly…. it's a village secret and only chunin and above can see it. I guess it makes sense; he's always going on about trust…this is his way of saying it. If we want to see his face, we're going to need to become chunin!"
Naruto cheered, Sasuke gave a cheery Hnng, and a grass nin stepped out from around the corner and stopped our ascent. Our joking stopped abruptly while we eyed the threat. I hadn't even noticed her ahead of me, and while I was relaxed around my teammates, I generally sensed my surroundings without even paying attention. At this point it was second nature. Naruto and Sasuke clearly were just as surprised as me because they looked just as confused as I did.
The kunoichi only had eyes for Sasuke, who looked rather put out by the staring. I took the chance to study her. I tried not to judge, but she was very odd looking. There was no denying that she was striking; tall for a women with sharp planes on her face, making her memorable. Stand out from the crowd. She had a ginormous bow on her back that made her already slim figure stand out. A willowy figure that I would never have in this lifetime, but this wasn't the time to worry about that. More then anything, she looked rather showy, if I was being honest with myself. It reminded me of the two instructors who had dressed to grab our attention.
There was probably a purpose for this kunoichi's outfit. I was curious. But…
But I didn't like that she had confronted us in a dark and lonely hallway, just hours away from the end of the second round. I could ignore curiosity until a more opportune time. For now, I stepped forward, ready to push past this annoyance. I had a prelim match waiting for me.
And then you have Murphy's law, which said that it didn't matter that I had a prelim match waiting for me. Because this was so much more important.
She didn't speak, instead charging us without a single indication on her face that she wanted to fight. She lunged right for Sasuke, and I jumped to the same side he did. Naruto dodged the opposite side. The hallway was only 2 meters wide, not much room for us to fight, but enough to separate us. I began my seals as I dodged again, still following where Sasuke direction. This hallway was not the best location for me to fight in. While there were windows, I was stuck using weak undefined shadows; the forest blocked a good portion of light from getting near the windows.
The third time, there was no room for Sasuke to move to and he instead engaged. He twirled a kunai into his hand and met the grass ninja in a quick taijutsu battle before they broke apart. And it was quick, more so then I had ever seen a genin move. This grass nin wasn't playing any games. She was fast. Faster then Shisui even, although I could be wrong. And Sasuke was struggling to keep up, moving much quicker then normal. Still, I was proud that Sasuke could keep up even for the short match, but then I grimly noted his Sharingan was already active.
'Not good' I thought. Sasuke should hardly need his sharingan on an average genin. And this opponent seemed much better then just an above average genin. They had managed to split us up and engage Sasuke with just three lunges. And Sasuke was losing, make no doubt about it.
I readied myself, keeping my eyes open for an opening, finding myself at the back of the fight, which was good as I no longer needed to dodge. Naruto, meanwhile was making a few dozen clones, enough to clog the hallway. I approved of blocking the kunoichi's movement, but despaired at the lack of escape room for our team. When the kunoichi next attacked, I reached out with my shadow and snatched at her arm when she swung at Sasuke. Or at least I tried to. I had been aiming for her wrist, but instead gotten her upper arm. She impatiently slashed it away and for a second her attention was on me.
Even though she continued to launch a barrage of attacks at Sasuke, her gaze resting on me for a brief moment had halted my movement. It was absolutely terrifying, and the fear was only enhanced when she began slowly releasing her killer intent. I stuttered through my hand signs trying to ignore the rising tension of the corridor.
By this point, I was realizing that Killer Intent is incredibly subjective to whoever is giving it off. I had thought that the worst I would ever feel was Itachi. Itachi had been terrifying in his apathy—my life and therelackof was meaningless to him; I was another body to cut down if only required. Zabuza on the other hand was ruthless and bloodthirsty, making me feel like I was surrounded on all sides by a vicious animal waiting to tear me apart limb from limb.
This Ki was just as terror inducing, forcing the air out of my lungs. This was just as pressing as Zabuza's intent, but as clinically detached as Itachi. It felt like a cat playing with a mouse, before the predestined kill.
Time seemed meaningless; it couldn't have been more then a minute since the fighting had started, but it already stretched longer then the whole time in the forest had felt. Naruto and I were useless, randomly throwing weapons and shadows in. I winced when one of Naruto's shuriken hit Sasuke's shoulder—we were more then worthless, we were making the situation worse.
And worst of all, this was so short an encounter, I didn't think we'd attract any attention. So far the only noises were the grunts of effort from Sasuke and the clang of metal on metal or metal on stone. Occasionally Naruto and I called out techniques, but the grass nin stayed silent. Her chakra never wavered; my own was fluctuation with fear and adrenaline.
Sasuke was slowing down, having taken too many hits. He tried to sidestep a hit and was spartan kicked into the wall, falling to the ground in a slump. I judged an opening and launched myself at the grass nin in a blind attempt at stopping him. It was pure fear moving me and I don't think I'd ever moved faster. My weights were off and my life was in danger. There was no better motivation. I dragged my kunai up as I moved and slashed at the grass nin.
She laughed as she dodged and struck me back in one smooth motion. I'll admit, I dropped like a stone. It had been a hammer punch, straight to the back of my head, with more force then the kunoichi should have been able to use.
Still laughing, the ninja jumped back. It was a creepy laugh. I'd complained about Anko's cackle, but this was intense. Combined with the still roiling killing intent, I felt like the air was solid. Breathing was impossible and I had to force myself to remember—It's okay, breathe. You need to breathe. BREATHE.
Finally she spoke. She still only focused on Sasuke, and I tried to take advantage of this, rolling to my side and pushing myself upright.
"Pathetic." She had an almost serene smile on her face. If not for the look of pure brutality in her eyes, she would look out of place with her headband. She didn't have a mark on her except for a slightly torn sleeve where an errant shuriken had shredded the hair was unmussed.
Sasuke twitched, and Naruto shouted unintelligibly at the woman, but I stayed frozen. I could only hope that she was just testing us before the preliminary—because maybe if she was just testing us, she would let us go. (maybe there was someway to leave this encounter and still live)
"You know, I searched the forest for you for days. I was worried that you were met by another team—that you were weak enough to just die." She creeped towards Sasuke, her gaze unrelenting. Naruto feel quiet; her words, the way she spoke—it was disconcerting.
"Imagine my surprise and delight! You'd made it to the tower with days to spare!" She was right over Sasuke now, leering at him. Her tone changed to one of mocking surprise, "And this is all you have to offer? This is how strong you are?"
Sasuke tensed but gave no other reaction, his gaze just as wary upon the grass ninja.
"You're brother was better than this, you know." her gaze switched to one that was more conversational. "I can make you better than this."
Naruto charged. He launched himself at the grass nin and flung her back into a wall, cracking it into pieces, leaving a hole and allowing some sunshine to peak through.
In that second the feeling in the room changed from the KI of the grass nin to something even worse. I dropped to my knees, actually reaching up to my throat, physically checking to see if something was blocking me from breathing. Sasuke looked as ill as I did and was likewise immobilized. I glanced at my teammate, but his eyes were locked on Naruto.
Naruto had a feral look on his face that didn't look particularly out of place. The feeling of pure ragemaliceangerhatehatehatehATEHATEHATEHATE radiated off of him and his voice vibrated with anger and something more—I wasn't sure with what.
"Leave my team alone."
Even more terrifying then Naruto's transformation was the complete look of annoyance on the grass nin's face. She rose from the ground slowly, brushing dust off of her shirt. Moving like this aura was nothing. Like Naruto was an annoying fly. What confidence he must have in his own skills to be unbothered by this —this monster. And truly the term monster was fitting because then she was ripping off her face and there was pale white skin, skin that looked painted on and it looked more manly, less feminine, but borderline androgynous. And this was not the time to care about the gender or our assailant but I was focused on the fact that he..she..they had just ripped their face off and laughed.
Naruto charged again, swiping at the grass nin, but she dodged. He swung again, but then she was moving, dodging, lunging, rolling. It was a demented dance they were doing, and she seemed to revel in it, even leaning forward to whisper in Naruto's ear. Whatever she said was too quiet for me to hear over the rush of chakra I was feeling, the rush of chakra I was seeing even; Naruto was cloaked in an angry red chakra that seemed to push the air in the room back.
Naruto swung once more and this time the ninja didn't dodge the hit. Instead she grabbed his arm gripping his wrist and laughed as she lifted him off the floor by his forearm. Naruto roared and then whimpered as she squeezed, snapping his wrist.
His hand dangled uselessly at a nauseating angle. I tried to unfreeze to raise myself off of my knees— to do something—those that abandon their teammates are trash; scum; garbage! I couldn't just stand here. But I was moving too slow.
The ninja said something else to Naruto, then socked him right in the stomach. Naruto's eyes bulged. He spit up blood and his momentum knocked him back into the wall. Unlike the kunoichi who had broken the wall, Naruto's perch was thicker and held him up like a demented chair. He slumped over, clearly unconscious, his broken arm hanging out, his wrist bent in numerous unnatural angles, the boone poking almost but not quite through the skin. And all at once the cloying aura had died down and all that was left was the grass ninja's own ki.
And then it was like I was watching everything through someone else eyes because I was reacting to everything, but it all seemed a second too late.
The kunoichi was pulling a sword (shoving it out of his throat with his tongue, in such an inhuman way I couldn't fathom if reality was still working) and it was so gross and sickening and I gagged, but and I saw an opening. I flipped my kunai in my hand and began forming seals as confidently as I could, making the least familiar seals of my family set, stepping forward as quick as I could right between Sasuke and the freak.
And I was quick enough that I was right there, just in time to raise a wall of black shadow, just like I had for Zabuza's attack, a steep angled pillar that would allow the blade to slide up and out of the way with no harm to us.
I knew that behind me, Sasuke was preparing some kind of attack and I half turned to make a passing comment to him, tell him to just run because the ninja was clearly after him and right now we couldn't fight this.
I was going to say something like that but then my shadow shattered at the impact of the blade.
For all my confidence in my speed, I was so slow turning around. So slow—too slow. Just quick enough to whip my head around and see the annoyed flick of the grass nin's head, swiping the sword at me and dismissing me to the side all in one motion. Too slow to block or dodge the swipe, too weak to actually do anything. And even my brain was slow to respond. My only thought; why did it work with Zabuza and not her? Who was this kunoichi, that she was more powerful then that monster mist jonin.
Time caught up with me a second, and I slammed hard into the wall, leaving a slight indentation. I heard more then felt the pops and cracks of my bones sliding into places that they probably shouldn't be. I didn't even try to get up; there was a sword lodged in my side, literally stuck on one of the bones of my ribs.
I just laid there and watched the neck stretch because she'd attacked with the sword still in her mouth—and it stretched even further then it had to attack me, it was beyond inhuman it was demonic— and the grinning grass nin went and bit Sasuke, right on his upper collar bone, almost his neck, simultaneously striking him in his stomach, causing him to double over.
He dropped and I saw blood trickle out of his mouth.
I was faintly aware that I was in pain, more pain then I had ever felt in this life, perhaps more pain then I'd ever in either life, dying included. Because I wasn't dead (yet) but this feeling sure was similar to the loopy haze I'd fallen into towards the end of my original murder. But even though I knew I was supposed to be incoherent from pain; mentally, I was entirely cognizant. My eyesight had never felt sharper and it was focusing on details. As long as I ignored the black border on the edge of my gaze, I could see details that I probably never would have noticed otherwise. No longer worried about strategies or survival or chakra or anything like that, I laid on the floor and let my brain take in everything going on around me.
Naruto was still in the wall, looking pretty feeble. Sticking out of the wall, he was slumped over and had shown no movement save his wrist which looked straight and unbroken. That was a change that I was blaming on the demon rather then his waking up and magically becoming proficient in medical chakra.
Which speaking of, I should probably try and do something to save my life, maybe try to stabilize myself somehow or at least slow the profuse bleeding I was experiencing.
But… The grass nin was reaching to scoop up a dead to the world Sasuke and I was moving my hands and they should have been forming seals for mystic palm to at least try and hold the remaining blood in my body, but I was reaching for my kunai, the one that I hadn't had a chance to use, it had landed right next to me on the floor and I was trying to force my fingers to listen to me, to respond, to CLOSE AROUND THE KUNAI, TO DO SOMETHING DAMMIT WHY AM I SO USELESS.
But they kept spasming, not closing on the smooth metal and cloth as I was wanted. I watched as the grass nin tossed Sasuke over his shoulder and I couldn't do anything, and what was the point of the literal years I had spent training with Shisui if my shadow was just going to break, if I was just going to be quick but not quick enough, if I was just going to let my teammate get taken away right in front of my eyes?
And then like a dues ex machina from the heavens, a whip of sand struck at the grass nin. One of the sand siblings- no all of the sand siblings were coming down the stairs. They had turned the corner on this gruesome scene.
Kankuro took one look at the situation and nope'd out. He fled further down the stairs. Tamari froze and the Kazekage got the most insane grin on his face. Somehow getting an instant read on the situation, Gaara struck again at the grass nin.
"Confirm my existence." He laughed, squeezing his hand as he directed his sand to lash out at the ninja. While I was worried about Sasuke's safety, injured and here vs uninjured and kidnapped was a much better situation so I stayed quiet. Also the sharp clarity was beginning to fade making way for a more heady experience as I gave into the pain and nearly floated away on my adrenaline. The edges of the room took on an even fuzzier haze, even as I detachedly watched the fight.
Finally getting annoyed at the constant interruptions, the grass nin forced Sasuke off his shoulder, dropping him to the ground. She turned to focus on Gaara but he just grinned more savagely at the creepy grass nin. Tamari on the other hand, eyed the unresponsive body but didn't move to interfere.
"Good idea" I slurred out in a quiet mumble. If Temari tried to snatch up Sasuke, it might distract Gaara.
Tamara whimpered when the ninja turned his full gaze on fighting Gaara rather then escape, but whatever face the ninja was showing them was turned away from me and I couldn't quite see it. She moved as if to stop Gaara and then thought better of it. She glanced behind her, but Kankuro was still missing. She looked like a frightened rabbit who wanted to run. I wondered why she didn't.
Gaara was slammed into by the ninja and he lashed back. I couldn't move to dodge the debris created by his attack, but thankfully it didn't come near me. Their fight was more focused and localized, basically taking place in the stairwell.
Which is why I was surprised to have concrete fall on me. The wall I was leaning on burst open. The force pushed me forward and I let out a groan as the sword dragged along the stone, still sticking straight up in the air, but now with a tilt to the left as I had shifted. Instead of lying on my side and kind of back, now I was on the flat of my back, squinting in the sunshine and in perfect place to watch the off-white masks and bone white armor jump in through the walls and right over me.
I had the vaguely irrational thought of counting sheep to fall asleep and smiled at the thought of counting ANBU.
I got to three, but I might have missed some because there was a few blurs I wasn't sure about. I only reached three before the haze at the edge of my vision finally spread enough that all I saw was black.
It was a blissful nothing that I fell into.