Ch. 6 - Rude Awakenings. A sneak attack.

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It was snowing. Why was it snowing? Not five minutes ago Ryu had been in a forest in the middle of spring, he thought. The clouds above were very dark and ominous, snow continued to fall on the open field he found himself standing in. Peaceful, he thought. So peaceful he was about to suffocate.

"Ryu!" Ryu looked up to see a man running towards him in the snow. From here, he couldn't make out the face and couldn't tell who it was. When the figure got closer, he could make out the shoulder length white hair and dark blue eyes. Yugo! A smile crossed his face as his friend met up with him and shoved a clump of snow into his face.

"Hey idiot, what took you so long?" Ryu wiped his face off.

"I just got dragged into this huge mess. You won't believe what happened to me." Yugo smiled at him, but the smile slowly vanished and his eyes became very dark; almost black. Ryu looked into his eyes and took a step back in fear that his friend may do something that he would later regret.

"What's wrong Ryu? Don't be afraid of me. You've always been talking about how you'd like to die so you could be with your mother again. Why don't you let me fulfill your dreams? It'll only hurt for a second." Ryu shook his head absently and fell backwards into the snow.

"You aren't Yugo, where's Yugo!" He tossed one of the shurikens he still carried at him, but Yugo caught it with ease. A dark laughter escaped from Yugo. Yugo tossed the shuriken back at Ryu and he screamed in pain when it stuck deep in his shoulder.

"Quit fighting Ryu! Why do you always have to fight everything anyway? If you had just let your dad murder you, you'd be with your mother already. But no, you just had to run didn't you? He was only trying to help you rejoin her. He had planned on joining her himself." Ryu shook his head, still clutching his shoulder as the blood soaked into the once white snow.

"Why are you doing this Yugo? I thought we were friends, why are you doing this to me!" Yugo laughed again, the sound frightened Ryu more than anything he had ever heard. His friend had never been like this. He was always supportive of Ryu, behind his back through anything.

"Because you're blind to the truth Ryu! Nobody wants you around, your life isn't important. Just admit it; nobody has ever acknowledged you as being there. Do you really think anybody will care if I kill you right now?" Ryu shook his head again; tears were beginning to form in the corners of his eyes. Not in a long time had he been treated this horribly by somebody close.

"You're lying Yugo. There are plenty of people who would notice me if I died. But that doesn't matter." He stood up and pulled the shuriken from his shoulder. Blood dripped onto the snow as he held it in his hand.

"Because you aren't going to do anything to me. And I've found somewhere where I can actually get along with people, and where they accept me. Maybe I'll just forget about you and stay there." Yugo smirked.

"Sure you will, you can't be anywhere on your own. You'll come crying back to me soon enough. I've always been your support if something went wrong. Learn to rely on yourself." Ryu grunted.

"I have, and I don't need your opinions about me! So just shut up!" He lunged forward, his eyes widening and blood trickled from his mouth as something slid easily through his stomach.

"Goodbye, Ryu." The darkness rushed up to meet Ryu as Yugo reached up and snapped his neck.

**********

"No!" Ryu screamed as he sat up. Beads of sweat were trickling down his face. He was still in the forest. He clutched his head in his palms as he leaned forward. Was it just a dream? It felt so real though. And Yugo, what was the meaning of that?

"Ryu-kun?" Ryu looked up to see Hinata sitting beside him.

"Are you alright?" His eyes drifted away from her and back to his hands. He was horrified by what that dream could have meant, or by the possibility that it could become reality.

"I don't know. How long was I out?" She looked at the ground as she tried to figure it right.

"About thirty minutes maybe." Kiba answered as he crouched down beside them. They were high up in a tree. The branch was huge and could easily support at least fifteen people. Ryu looked at him and winced at the pain in his chest. Gaara's attack had been more devastating than he expected.

"You guys saved me?" He nodded. Ryu pulled himself up to his feet.

"Thanks, I owe you." Without warning, Ryu fell back to the ground. Hinata caught him and kept him from falling off the branch. Gaara had been too strong for him; he'd be out of commission for at least another hour.

"You should stay here, where's your team?" Ryu looked up at Kiba.

"I told them to wait for me at gate twenty four, do you think you could tell them what happened and to keep moving before you take off?" Hinata gave him a worried glance.

"Ryu-kun, we can't just leave you here." A nod of agreement came from Kiba.

"It's too dangerous; the forest is filled with Genins that are just waiting for an easy scroll. We'll stick around here with you."

"No, we can't." Ryu looked up, a few branches up sat Shino. He came down a little closer to the others.

"It seems somebody's already on the way. It would be alright if we just left him and continued to the tower." Hinata looked at him, surprised he would say that. They couldn't just leave him here defenseless! How could Shino even think that? Ryu nodded.

"Yeah, he's right. I don't have a scroll on me anyway, they won't mess with me. Go on, just please get the message to my teammates that I'll catch up later with the second scroll." Kiba stood up and nodded, Akamaru was still in his jacket shaking.

"We will, and be careful." Hinata reluctantly stood up. Maybe it was just him, but it seemed like she had taken a liking to him.

"Be careful Ryu-kun." He nodded and sat up. The trio left soon after.

**********

"Has it been an hour yet?" Lina looked up at the sky and shook her head in reply.

"No, I think he's still got a few minutes. Do you think he's alright Gado?" Gado grunted and continued to stab at the dirt with his dagger. He was bored as hell, he wanted to fight.

"I don't really care. Hopefully he is, because if he isn't we'll fail this exam." Gado heard something moving off to the right and tossed his dagger in that direction. He smirked when he was rewarded with a short cry of surprise. Kiba came out from behind the bushes and handed him his dagger.

"I take it you two are the ones with Ryu?" They nodded.

"Ryu ran into some unexpected trouble. He said to go on ahead without him and that he'll meet up later with the second scroll." Lina hopped off the large boulder she had been sitting on.

"Is he alright? Where is he?" Gado shook his head.

"Don't worry about it Lina. This could work to our advantage anyway. With him moving through the forest in one possible direction and us in the other, it makes the chances of retrieving the second scroll much better." Lina nodded and smiled at Kiba.

"Thank you." Kiba nodded and was gone. Lina looked back at Gado as he raised his head and looked around.

"What's wrong?" Gado sniffed the air and stood.

"Something's not right here. There is somebody nearby, somebody strong." Lina groaned in pain as a shuriken was stuck in her back. Gado spun to see a white-haired young man standing over her when she fell.

"Very impressive, nobody else has managed to notice me yet."

"Kabuto-sama?" Gado asked in surprise, but quickly dismissed that revelation when the young man stepped out of the shadow of the tree he was beneath.

"No, not Kabuto. I'm sure you would be relieved if you could get off that lucky though. Now, can you tell me where Ryu is? I've been trying to catch up with him for hours." Gado growled and pulled Lina away from him, she was bleeding but it wasn't life threatening.

"Do you think I'd tell you if I knew? Not a chance, find him yourself." Yugo smirked and watched as Gado helped Lina away. He left it at that, there was no reason to kill anymore innocents. He would find Ryu soon enough, and then they would be ready to leave. Whether or not they would both be leaving alive though, that was another story entirely.

**********

"We are the dateless losers, lonely until we die. So unappreciated-" Ryu growled and shook his head when he found himself signing again, he felt like such an idiot. Stranded in the woods alone, with no food, and Genins all around him ready to slit his throat. Maybe this wasn't so bad, he had always been manipulative so maybe he could trick somebody out of a scroll. Whatever the case, he was surrounded and needed a way out fast.

"Dateless loser? Kinda surprising considering how cute you are." Ryu look up to see a girl in a pink shirt looking down at him from a branch above. He had seen her before, but couldn't remember her name. Not wanting to be caught off guard he reached for the carrier on his leg.

"Hold on, I'm not here to hurt you." She dropped down to the branch he sat on and extended a palm in greeting.

"I'm Tenten, I just thought you might want to know that you're completely surrounded. There are at least three teams lying in wait. As soon as you move, they'll be all over you." Ryu nodded as he accepted the handshake.

"I am aware of it, but I'm not worried. I don't have a scroll at any rate, so attacking me won't get them anywhere. My name's Ryu."

"Tenten, what are you doing here? We need to get moving, and we don't have time for weaklings like him." Ryu looked over the side of the branch and almost fell off as he strained to see who was speaking. Tenten caught him before he could.

"Neji, I just thought we should warn him. He is the most inexperienced rookie here after all." Neji moved higher up, but said nothing in response. She sighed and stood up, looking back at Ryu once more.

"Sorry, we need to get going. I'll see what I can do about drawing their attention off you." The thought just came to him that Neji looked very much like Hinata, perhaps they were related? He shrugged it off and nodded.

"Thanks, I'm going to be moving out pretty soon myself. Don't worry too much if you can't draw them off, I can handle myself. Good luck to you, and I hope you pass." Neji looked at him with his pale eyes.

"We don't need your luck." Ryu grunted and used the back of his hand to wipe some dirt from his face.

"I'm just trying to be nice okay?" Neji didn't respond. The two left swiftly and silently.

"Okay, here we go." He pulled himself up to his feet and caught himself just before falling from the tree. No sooner had he stood before he found himself caught in the center of a three-way attack. Two Genins leapt from neighboring trees to catch him in a pincer move while a third descended from above to bring a kunai into his head. None of them stood a chance. Ryu fell backwards, grabbed onto the branch, swung down, and flipped back up on the other side. As he came up, he spun to send a kick into one of the attackers. His foot caught one in the side and threw him into the other two. All three toppled from the tree.

"Nice try guys, but that was reckless." He leapt down after them and searched all three for a scroll, growling in disappointment when their scroll turned out to be the same Gado was already carrying.

"Of course, I should have known nothing would be that easy. But, here comes the next group." The whole thing almost seemed coordinated, as if the teams had worked together to bring him down. The next trio was even more careless than the last. They all leapt from the underbrush at once in an attempt to overwhelm him. Ryu fell back again, balancing himself on one hand as he lifted one foot up and planted it solidly on the first attacker's nose. He screamed in pain and fell back, leaving only two in the fight. Ryu flipped back up to his feet, smirking as he sent a fist into the next assailant. He went down just as quickly, followed shortly by the third.

"How about you guys?" He knelt over the unconscious forms and looked through their belongings. Again, it was a Scroll of Earth. Ryu cursed under his breath and continued moving. More were still to come, but he didn't know when. That was when, as he let his mind wander the third team attacked with a bit more strategy. A lone figure emerged from the brush and launched a volley of shurikens at Ryu. Without ample time to dodge, many were embedded in his forearms as he fended off the attack. As he kept his attention on the shurikens, the other two moved behind him and attacked. Ryu cried out in pain as he was thrown forward, a shuriken planted in his chest before he hit the ground.

"We were lucky. It looks like he wasn't expecting us." One of the two that had attacked from behind grabbed his hair and pulled his head up out of the dirt. A grunt of mild discomfort escaped his throat and he growled as cold steel was planted against his temple.

"Give up your scroll and you may just walk away from this. If you don't comply, you're done for." Something moved in the brush, but Ryu kept his attention on the immediate threat.

"Sorry, but it won't do you any good considering I have the Scroll of Earth." The Genin standing over him cursed beneath his breath.

"Then it was for nothing. Oh well, guess we'll just kill you." Ryu squeezed his eyes shut as the dagger was pressed harder against his skin and began to penetrate. Before it could though, his attacker was thrown to the ground, Ryu's face dropped to the earth and he sighed with relief. The relief quickly washed away when he saw who had saved him.

"Sasuke! Nobody asked you to help me! Get out of here, this is my fight!" Sasuke smirked down at him before walking over to the Genin. The other two had run off by now.

"Looks like you needed the help so don't complain." Ryu rubbed his throat and jumped to his feet.

"Damn, he has a Scroll of Earth." Ryu looked over at the scroll in Sasuke's palm and snatched it away.

"Good, I've been looking for one of these." Sasuke locked eyes with him, his glare was lethal.

"Perhaps I should beat you now and take your Scroll of Heaven, and then this won't have been in vain." Ryu crossed his arms, smirking and trying to hold back his amusement.

"Won't do you much good, I don't have my other scroll. Perhaps you should just get lost then." Sasuke growled and looked about ready to attack when his eyes shot open and he fell to his knees. Caught by surprise, Ryu pulled him back up and helped him regain his balance.

"Are you okay?" His eyes moved to the small black bruise on his neck.

"Is that a bruise? What happened?" Sasuke pulled the neck of his shirt over the wound and averted his eyes from Ryu.

"It's not your concern, just get going. I need to find Sakura and Naruto so I can tell them I was unsuccessfully in finding a second scroll." Ryu nodded.

"Well good luck to you guys, I hope to see you when this is all over." Sasuke merely grunted, but a smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. As Ryu waved farewell and walked off, Sasuke vanished once more into the forest.

"This place is crazy, could it get any worse?" As if to prove the worst was still to come, an enormous snake came slithering down the trunk of a tree, bearing its fangs and hissing at him. Ryu took a step back and swallowed a lump in his throat.

"Looks like it just got worse."