Notice: I do not own Naruto, and make no claims of copyright on the
characters who are not my property. Original characters, however, are mine.
Author's Notes: Here we go for the second exam! This chapter is really long I admit, but its very important, and all the next few chapters will be long ones as some important stuff happens.
For the reviewers: Orhla: sort of the same, sort of different, you'll find out. There really wasn't that much I could do to change the nature of a survival challenge frankly, though I tried to avoid the same things that happened to Naruto and co.
Silver Dragonfly: Thanks for reading and commenting. I'm glad you appreciated the original characters and some of the moves (I really agonize over coming up with decent moves sometimes). I suppose the phrase dragon ninja is kind of cheesy. But shinobi and ninja are really the same word (just read differently) and I don't think shinobi ryu (which means ninja dragon but also simply 'hiding person school' a term for ninja organizations) quite works.
Upon the Snow
One of the Examiners went over to the doors and opened them, only to be knocked out of the way by the figure that came striding through. The second examiner practically jogged into the center of the room. On his way he tossed a folder full of forms and a small bag to one of the examiners. "Pass those out, and get them signed."
The man then entered the center of the circle of ninja, and finally paused.
This examiner does seem to be in a hurry, Neji noted. The man was otherwise unremarkable; he looked like any of the other examiners in their brown uniforms. "Sixty six remain, good." The man even spoke quickly, in a serviceable and simple voice. "Sign your release forms and take a pendant from one of the examiners. Don't loose the pendant." He admonished. "Rules for the second exam are simple, so I'll cover them quickly and then we can get going. You will be dispersed around the mountains in Secure Area Twelve. The area is dangerous and prone to avalanches, so it is only used for this exam. You will be given a five-day period to complete your objectives, which are as follows, bring four pendants to the shrine at the top of Mt. Kemigari. Your whole team must be present upon completion."
"Wait!" Some spoke up from the Cloud ninja. "We only have to have four pendants? Our team already has three."
"Yes, so you will need to acquire another one." The examiner said impatiently. "Is that not clear?"
"That's way too easy." Somebody muttered.
"Acquiring a pendant is the simple objective, reaching the top of Mt. Kemigari will be far more difficult. Secure Area Twelve has a radius of four kilometers, you will need to travel that distance in under the five day period." The examiner grimaced. "If at any time one of your team members is severely incapacitated or wounded the area will be patrolled by the examiners, who will pick you up and remove you from the premises. This will cause you to fail the exam, but will likely spare your lives. Contesting an examiner's judgment when you are to be removed is not allowed. There are no rules of engagement between you genin except the following: Anyone seen to be using excessive force or pursuing additional combats past the point where you have accomplished your objectives for no reasonable purpose shall be ejected. Again, this cannot be contested." With his speech done he paused to take a breath and look around the room. "It seems that everyone has pendants and has signed the forms. Excellent, let's not waste any more time. Follow me immediately."
The examiner led the sixty-six genin down the stairs and out of the examination hall; the chuunin examiners flanked them to both sides. When the man, who Neji noticed had not even bothered to give his own name, flung open the doors, everyone was blown back.
A blizzard. Neji thought, hardly surprised, but irritated. So, we have to take the exam in this.
Snow fell fast and furious outside, whipped about by a cold wind. The streets were deserted and the white covering was piling up quickly. It was bitingly cold and the furious wind seemed to steal all heat.
"All you examiners, take a team to one of the entrances to the area. We'll start at the appointed time." The jounin called, and then sprinted off in the snow.
One of the chuunin motioned to Neji's team. "All right fifty-eight, let's get moving, I don't want to spend anymore time out in this than I have to."
"Heh. Lucky you." Gosain muttered. "You guys get to start us off in the afternoon in a blizzard."
"That's right." The chuunin answered bitterly. "And I have to patrol the whole damn mountain side with you fools out in it. So why don't you do us all a favor and fail quickly."
"Not likely," was Gosain's reply.
The team followed the Chuunin to the edge of Stone village, and perhaps a kilometer outside it, still in the more sheltered part of the mountainside, but then everything opened up.
A high mountain dominated everything in front of them, with a rough and rugged peak and surroundings hills and valleys that seemed likely to destroy anyone alive. Everything was white or black, snow and ice or hard exposed stone, and all the edges were razor sharp. "That's Secure Area Twelve." The chuunin told them. "Try not to get caught in an avalanche, this blizzard'll surely start several."
The walked a short distance further, all the while Neji's team stared at those peaks, and the tiny hint of a small building at the top of the central spire, Mt. Kemigari. The objective. It's a long way, Neji noted, tracking potential slopes that could be climbed or jumped. No four- kilometer path will lead there, it will be probably eight at least, and fighting on those high slopes would be suicide.
"How long until we begin?" Neji asked.
"Ah, about a half hour, your entrance was pretty close." The chuunin pointed at a high stone post stuck into the ground. No fence or edge marked the boundary of this area.
"Well then," Neji turned to his teammates. "We should come up with a strategy now, before we get inside. Suggestions?"
"Speed." Gosain answered. "We find the first team we can, take one of their pendants, and try to make it to the high slopes at least before night falls, make it all the way if we can."
"Ah." Neji echoed. "It's already far too cold out here, there's no reason to waste time finding worthy opponents." The mountains are the true opponents in this scenario, not the ninja. This isn't like Konoha; a single step could mean death here. "Anything to suggest Shiren?"
"He said the area was only four kilometers in radius right?" She asked Neji.
"Yeah." He answered.
"Then that means the whole edge is only about twenty-four, if the teams are divided equally around the edge there should be team within a kilometer of this spot. Two actually."
"Within a kilometer?" Neji considered. Then he looked out ahead, noting a short, treeless rise only a short distance ahead. "Fine, we'll make for that rise. Once there, I'll use Byakugan to spot the nearest team. We'll move in and grab a pendant and then head up from there."
"Will you be able to see from that far off?" Gosain asked.
"Ah. A kilometer isn't far, and there's not a lot to get in the way."
"I suppose that much is true." He bit off a laugh. "It's a good plan."
Shiren nodded her assent as well.
They waited for the time to come.
The chuunin looked at his watch, raised his hand, and waited a moment. The team stretched out their cold limbs. Then, when the watch passed some arbitrary time, the chuunin brought his hand down. "Begin!"
The three ninja dashed forward.
It took only about a minute to reach the rise above, blood flow warming their cold muscles. Neji brought forth the Byakugan and stared out into the distance, approximating where the others would be. He looked east first. Hmm...I don't see anything, no, wait, there are three ninja moving quickly eastward, away from us. Damn! He turned west. Ah. Found it, three ninja, actually moving in and toward us, and on relatively flat ground. From this distance his vision wasn't sharp enough to detect exactly which ninja they were, but their garments weren't brown, so they were not any of the Stone teams.
"There's a team to the west, moving up and toward us. We can intercept them easily. Follow." Neji gave the word.
They dashed onward over the ice and snow.
It was hard going, in that blizzard, and Neji really couldn't see much beyond the feet in front of him and what the Byakugan revealed in the distance. The team made decent time, however, since the slope here was moderate, and the snow well packed. The experience of climbing up to hidden waterfall had proved helpful beyond any expectations as well, since now Neji and Shiren had a sense of how to move in these kinds of conditions.
"The three ninja have fanned out to scout the position!" Neji called over the wind to his teammates. "We'll attack as fast as possible. I'll distract him, Shiren, Gosain, bring him down."
They nodded, not trying to say anything over the wind.
The three ninja came over a rise, not more than fifty meters from the ninja. Neji recognized him now, the ninja as part of the team from Sand. He looked miserable in the cold, the sand ninja were from far to the south, and had obviously not acclimated. His reactions were slow and Neji could tell that his blood and chakra were moving sluggishly.
Neji leapt forward, flying in from above. "Strike!" He called to his Cloud teammates.
The Sand ninja turned in shock at their sudden appearance, but pulled out two kunai and threw them at Neji before leaping backwards.
Neji slapped the weapons aside easily, even as several of Shiren's shuriken flew past him, to stick in the snow past the Sand Nin.
Neji could see Shiren behind him, and Gosain moving up on the right side as he landed, forcing the Sand Nin to jump backward, into the row of shuriken Shiren had launched into the snow.
The Sand Nin pulled loose a kunai and started to charge at Neji, oblivious to the threat from behind.
Even as he stretched out to block the blow, Neji could see Shiren forming the hand seals. "Lightning Element: Charged Spark Missiles!"
Shuriken impacted shuriken, and the electrified bolts of metal flew from the ground. Neji blocked the oncoming attack and shoved the Sand genin backwards.
The unfortunate ninja's eyes went wide as the shuriken bit into his back.
Electricity arched over his body, making every hair stand up and all his muscles spasm at once. He stood twitching for a long moment.
Gosain came in with his pole to the sand ninja's right side.
The genin collapsed to the ground, coughing in pain.
Before the genin had managed to take another breath Gosain had reached into the sand ninja's shirt and pulled the pendant chain loose. He held the small crystal up for the other two to see and then added it to the other chain he wore. "Got it." Gosain said matter-of-factly. "Let's go."
"Ah." Neji replied.
The three had gotten back up to the top of the rise when Neji's all around vision saw the two other sand ninja come running up to their fallen comrade.
"You! Stop!" The called, and raised their kunai to throw.
Neji turned around and stared at them with his cold and frightening Byakugan eyes. "Think before you do something you regret." He said with a toneless voice.
"What? You just took down my teammate! Don't think I'll let you get away with that." The sand ninja called up at them.
"Foolish." Neji said. "The situation is against you, it is three on two, and we took down one member of your team with ridiculous ease. Don't try to fight us, our level is well above yours." He spoke to them sternly. I don't want to hurt ninja like you, and there's no need for another fight. "Let this end here. You retain two pendants and your companion is not too seriously injured, if you can beat another team that will erase this defeat. If you insist on trying to continue this battle you will have no pendants remaining and will not be able to continue the exam."
The other sand ninja tugged on his companion's arm. "It's team fifty- eight, we really shouldn't mess with them, I don't want to freeze out here."
"Fine." The Sand ninja said, lowering his kunai. "But don't think I'll thank you for it."
Neji didn't bother to respond. "Let's go." He told Shiren and Gosain.
"Ah." They replied, and moved out.
They moved inward now, and more slowly, keeping an eye out for possible enemies, and the best path. It was already midway through the afternoon, and with the blizzard, surprisingly dark. They all recognized that there was perhaps two hours of light left, no more. "Gosain," Neji asked. "Can we make it by nightfall?"
"Not in this blizzard." The older ninja spat. "Damn it. We'll have to find some shelter below the treeline."
"There's a long canyon ahead." Shiren spoke up. "It looks to lead most of the way up, probably within a kilometer of the top. I suggest that."
"Canyons are dangerous, we could get trapped within it." Neji said darkly.
"Ah." Gosain told them both. "We could get trapped, but it will be sheltered, and if there's little enough snow we could consider pressing on to the very end of it, and then making the short dash in the morning. It looks as if the path through the canyon's only going to be about six kilometers. The next best choice is probably about ten, and way more exposed. Besides, even though I have mountain experience, I'm no mountaineer. We can't afford to be caught in the open."
"Fine." Neji said, accepting their reasons, though he didn't like having to make the choice. "I suppose every team will have to stop for the night, unless they have some special light source to use."
They took the canyon path, trudging through heights of snow that kept increasing. Gosain led, since he was the strongest, pushing the snow aside. Shiren followed in the middle, with Neji taking the rear.
The conditions did improve once they entered the canyon. The wind was cut down, and the snow accumulation was far less, so they could make better time. It was very dark though, and visibility was minimal. This isn't good. Neji decided. This canyon is too useful under these conditions; other ninja will be funneled into it. "Gosain. We have to make it to the far end for certain." Neji ordered. "Too many ninja will stumble in here after dark."
Gosain grumbled for a bit, but replied. "Probably right, but I'm going as fast as I can, unless you want to blow through all your chakra fighting some snow."
Neji didn't bother to reply. He's right of course, we could burn through chakra and just run atop the snow, even Gosain has enough skill to make that work, if just barely, but it would take too much, there's too much distance. If we had one hour more this wouldn't be a problem, Neji knew. Still, he was well aware that a nighttime ascent of the final peak was not an option.
Darkness came tumbling down suddenly, as the sun passed fully under the horizon, not that it could be seen anyway. "That pretty much does it Neji." Gosain called from up front.
"Ah." The dragon ninja replied. "Let's make a shelter before the cold sets in."
This was something all three had experience in, since Xi had forced them to practice it three times on the road to stone, making snow shelters. So they piled up great mounds of snow next to a small space between rocks, and then, in the dark they dug out enough space between the walls for them all to pile into, they froze the walls in place with Gosain's chains, which formed a sort of cage to hold the snow up. To think that such a seemingly impractical weapon would prove so useful off the battlefield. Neji remarked to himself about the chains. Probably why he uses them. The weapons fit him very well.
"There's no way to keep watch," Neji told them as they huddled in darkness. "Still, we have a few explosion notes set, and anyone trying to rip this snow off will probably be surprised, so we can at least attempt some sleep. We'll have to do without food."
"Heh." Gosain muttered. "I've slept in worse spaces."
Shiren said nothing.
Crawling inside that tiny hole in the snow was viscous, and sleeping inside it, still wearing their cold weather gear, the only thing they had to prevent from becoming soaked, was torturous. They three were stuck together in a single mass, Shiren, Neji and Gosain, with nothing to see, no light whatsoever penetrated within, and everything the same. They twitched and contorted through the night, drifting in and out of some semblance of sleep, and feeling the energy loss that came from a day outside in the cold, trying to fight against exhaustion to come the next day.
Still it was warm enough, with three bodies inside that snow shelter, and Neji found himself uncomfortably aware of Shiren, lying next to him. As bad as this is for Gosain and I, it has to be far worse for her, Neji realized in one of his waking periods during the night. She is an attractive girl, something that Neji had always noticed but tried to avoid thinking about, and here she is pressed together with the two of us. We are a team, but this is far more than she could have expected when this began. Neji was surprised at himself, feeling bad about this for Shiren; it wasn't something he really ever did. It was not something he had grown up sensitive to, the misery of others, always thinking his own the greatest. Naruto might have disproved that, but Neji knew he was still hardly a compassionate person. I am cold and unlikable, and a dragon ninja with blood on his hands. What can Shiren think? Huddled next to me like this?
He wondered, but he realized Shiren had not complained, and had not contested the course they had taken. She had known they would be stuck together like this, and had said nothing. Does she not mind? She did sometimes say little, but she was usually outspoken. It made Neji think deeply, in that space the mind goes to between sleep and wakefulness, a space punctured by the cold and the still audible howling of the wind outside in the canyon. He thought about Shiren there, thought for some nebulous period of endless time where moments stretched out and spun.
In that dark night Neji realized that he thought of Shiren as his friend. It was a startling revelation to discover. He was never open with people, and he was not familiar with what most people considered friends. Tenten perhaps, though I still treated her harshly. He recalled, but beyond that, there was no one else he trusted as openly as Shiren, no one he wanted to fight with him. He might respect others, like Gosain, or Naruto, and admire the strength of someone like Xi, but they were not his friends. Shiren is different, all that time I spent working with her, practicing, talking, and working together as ninja. When this is over, I don't want to have to tell her to go. That was a lightning bolt of a revelation to Neji, that he liked his team, and would be disappointed to lose it as he had lost the last. His mind found the thought of losing this team wretched.
Gosain I cannot preserve, he is a strong man, but he will go back to Cloud when this is done. It was the irrevocable truth, and Neji knew that fact was as solid as the chains the older ninja bore. Shiren though, Shiren is not the same thing. "Yes, Shiren has the potential to be a Dragon Ninja." Xi's words slipped into Neji's dreaming mind, and they embedded themselves there. Neji latched onto those words, and all their implications, and made certain that in the morning he would remember them, even as the rest of this strange night slipped away.
* * *
It was the first glimmer of light, the barest bit of gray to be caught by the eyes and reveal and outline, peaking through their tunneled entrance, that brought Gosain fully awake with a start. His hand reached over and grasped the pole that served as the center of his chains. He held that pole and channeled his chakra, letting it surge through. The chains clinked and shook like a fence in the wind.
Gosain spun his wrist.
Chains rose like a flock of metal birds, shedding false feathers and leaping into the sky as the snow was shaken off.
That brought Neji and Shiren fully awake. It also found them with their right arms linked together. They looked at each other for a moment, and then Shiren smiled gently. "Small space indeed." She in an everyday voice, and made nothing of it.
The three were up and moving within moments, shaking snow out of their clothes, and restoring stiff limbs to movement. Gosain quickly rewound the chains about his body, shivering from the cold of them, but he went through a series of exercises and did his best to warm up. "There probably isn't more than two hundred meters before we lose these canyon walls slowly to open rock," Gosain said, pointing out the influx of light from above them.
It was still quite dark though, for the snow continued to fall lightly, though it was nothing compared to the madness that had taken the mountainside yesterday. "Perhaps we can make it to the top before it is even fully dawn." Neji said. "Though there is still a good deal of snow. Let's get out of this canyon and consider our options."
"I bet the chuunin hauled a bunch of teams off in the night, or they got otherwise removed. There can't be much more than twelve or so teams on the mountainside." Shiren told the others. "But we should be careful in this canyon."
"Ah." Neji and Gosain answered, and they moved back into line.
Gosain took the lead, and they passed around the curve in the canyon ahead. There was a slight dip in front of them, where the stream bed had plunged downward over a set of large boulders, but then the walls started to lower and the canyon faded.
In the gray light of morning they advanced, walking observantly and paying attention to whatever might be closely, Neji still tense and alert for other ninja.
That provided them only the barest moment of warning.
There was a large cracking noise just before Gosain readied to jump up over the blocking boulders. "Shiren! Gosain! Ambush!" Neji shouted the words as the Byakugan took his eyes and his vision snapped wide open.
His eyes widened further as he saw the icy cliffside above him break apart, and great blocks of ice came crashing down, it was as if the whole canyon was being ripped apart from within and thrown down at them. There was nothing Neji could see to do to avoid that wall of crushing white, and he simply stared as death fell down toward him as thousands of pounds of ice.
"Damn you all!" The violent cry came from Gosain. His pole ripped through the bottom and top of his shirt in his haste, and the chains came flying free. "Chain Style: Whirling Stormfront!"
The chains rose up as Gosain spun the pole above his head, and they crashed into the falling blocks of ice and stone with tremendous force. A thunderclap shook the enclosed canyon, deafening everyone.
Neji braced himself against the crushing death to come.
It did not come, shocks of thunder continued to shake the canyon as Gosain's chains formed a spinning barrier of charka suspended steel above them. Blocks of ice continued to crash down though, and there seemed to be no stopping it. Gosain's hands spun madly and every muscle on his face stood clenched.
"Neji!" He croaked. "Do something! I can't keep this up!"
Neji looked upwards, his focus returned, and his sight pierced the blocks of ice and stone. Above them he saw two ninja, tall smiling forms in blue, fervently making hand seals to send more of the canyon walls breaking down upon them. He recognized the coloration, and he recognized the forehead protectors they wore. "Waterfall ninja!" Neji spoke the word like a curse, but it was easily heard.
"There's no way through those blocks, they're coming too fast, you'd be crushed before you got a chance to move aside, I can't jump fast enough to get a shot at them!" Shiren called to Neji nervously.
Looking up again he saw that the words were true. There is no way to move fast enough to prevent getting crushed when passing beyond Gosain's chains, anyone who goes up there would be at the extent of their jump, and utterly vulnerable.
Gosain grunted again, but did not speak.
He's saving his strength, but he can't use up this much chakra for an extended period of time. The Waterfall ninja have us outmaneuvered! How do we escape?
"Neji, is there anyway to send someone upward faster? Shiren asked him, standing only a few feet away, clenching a kunai, but knowing the weapon was useless. "That aerial jutsu you know?"
"No. That wouldn't work. Dammit!" He replied. I'd have to get above them first, but there must be some way! Some way to launch someone upwards. Neji thought furiously, of all his techniques and any of Shiren's that could work, trying to find a combination that would provide just what was needed. He knew both of their jutsus and skills intimately from their many practices, and because of that he hit upon an idea that could work. "Kaiten!"
"What?" Shiren looked at Neji.
"Shiren, you recall the Kaiten?" She nodded quickly. "That move focuses its strength against a point of impact, and the spin even stops and releases all its remaining energy against a suitably strong attack."
Shiren's eyes widened as she realized what Neji wanted her to do. "That will hurt." She said darkly.
"Yes. There's no other way." He said quickly. "Do it."
"Right." She tensed to spring.
"Kaiten!" Neji began the spin at the moment Shiren jumped, her motion carrying her body directly into him.
Shiren's left foot came in first, skimming the edge of Neji's spin, gripping chakra with chakra, all so she could pour her chakra directly into her right foot and bring it down hard, right where Neji's head was.
Foot met spin with tremendous force, and Neji stopped the spin and channeled all the energy into a single burst, just as he had done when Naruto charged him months ago.
They felt the impact, and Neji winced as he saw the tenkenstu struck on Shiren's foot, darkening the boot with blood, but she bit down against the pain and shot upward.
Gosain's chains whipped around to avoid his fellow cloud ninja, and Shiren came streaking by, her left foot banked off one block and her body slammed up and past the screen, her kunai raised high above her head, supported by both hands.
Neji watched the eyes of the Waterfall ninja spread wide open in shock as he saw Shiren appear, and he saw the man recognize that death had come for him.
The kunai took the Waterfall ninja in the lower chest. Blood burst from his mouth, as Shiren removed the blade and stabbed down again. She arched onward to land on the canyon side, the Waterfall ninja's body already falling down into the canyon, light gone from his eyes.
"Bitch!" The other waterfall ninja shouted, and brought his hands up to form seals, but it was already to late.
The moment Shiren had stabbed the one ninja the fall of stone and ice had ceased, and Neji leaped up, hands reaching down to grab the deadliest of his weapons, the nekode. He rose up to face the Waterfall ninja and did not hesitate at all. He had already made the choice; indeed it had been made the moment the stone and ice came crashing down. If you fight like this, then you will meet the dragon ninja.
The Waterfall ninja had no time to scream as Neji's hands came down in the characteristic cross, and then slid back up to his face. "Rend!"
Hot blood burst over and onto Neji as he closed his eyes at the shock of it, seeing again what the viscous powers of rend did to a living being. The hot and sticky liquid coated every part of his face, and all across him clothes were instantly stained dark and red. Only his eyes were untouched, and they burned with the cruel whiteness of the Byakugan.
Neji landed on the side of the canyon and turned around, to see exactly what he had expected. Gosain and Shiren stood on the other side of the canyon, staring at his blood-covered body. They avoided looking at the body that had fallen to the floor of the canyon.
Gosain gave Neji a dark look, but his face emptied before he spoke. "Thanks for getting them off me." He said stonily.
"Thanks for acting as you did, you saved the three of us." Neji said as warmly as he could manage with the shock of his most recent action still in him.
Gosain avoided meeting his gaze.
Despairing, Neji looked at Shiren, dreading what he would see in her eyes. Instead he saw something he didn't expect. She raised her blood streaked kunai to her face. "It's not any different, is it?" She said sadly.
"No." Neji muttered, but her reaction somehow made him feel a little better. "Let's get going."
He leapt over to their side of the canyon, but as he landed Shiren pointed up the slope with her kunai. Her hand trembled.
Neji and Gosain both turned their heads to examine the wide and shear ice field above them.
There, spread out all across the distance above them, stood the six remaining teams of Waterfall ninja. With the Byakugan still present Neji could look into the one at the very center, and he saw the blue hair and red eyes. "Mizain Seve." He said beneath his breath. To his companions he spoke. "It seems we are now part of a war."
Author's Notes: Here we go for the second exam! This chapter is really long I admit, but its very important, and all the next few chapters will be long ones as some important stuff happens.
For the reviewers: Orhla: sort of the same, sort of different, you'll find out. There really wasn't that much I could do to change the nature of a survival challenge frankly, though I tried to avoid the same things that happened to Naruto and co.
Silver Dragonfly: Thanks for reading and commenting. I'm glad you appreciated the original characters and some of the moves (I really agonize over coming up with decent moves sometimes). I suppose the phrase dragon ninja is kind of cheesy. But shinobi and ninja are really the same word (just read differently) and I don't think shinobi ryu (which means ninja dragon but also simply 'hiding person school' a term for ninja organizations) quite works.
Upon the Snow
One of the Examiners went over to the doors and opened them, only to be knocked out of the way by the figure that came striding through. The second examiner practically jogged into the center of the room. On his way he tossed a folder full of forms and a small bag to one of the examiners. "Pass those out, and get them signed."
The man then entered the center of the circle of ninja, and finally paused.
This examiner does seem to be in a hurry, Neji noted. The man was otherwise unremarkable; he looked like any of the other examiners in their brown uniforms. "Sixty six remain, good." The man even spoke quickly, in a serviceable and simple voice. "Sign your release forms and take a pendant from one of the examiners. Don't loose the pendant." He admonished. "Rules for the second exam are simple, so I'll cover them quickly and then we can get going. You will be dispersed around the mountains in Secure Area Twelve. The area is dangerous and prone to avalanches, so it is only used for this exam. You will be given a five-day period to complete your objectives, which are as follows, bring four pendants to the shrine at the top of Mt. Kemigari. Your whole team must be present upon completion."
"Wait!" Some spoke up from the Cloud ninja. "We only have to have four pendants? Our team already has three."
"Yes, so you will need to acquire another one." The examiner said impatiently. "Is that not clear?"
"That's way too easy." Somebody muttered.
"Acquiring a pendant is the simple objective, reaching the top of Mt. Kemigari will be far more difficult. Secure Area Twelve has a radius of four kilometers, you will need to travel that distance in under the five day period." The examiner grimaced. "If at any time one of your team members is severely incapacitated or wounded the area will be patrolled by the examiners, who will pick you up and remove you from the premises. This will cause you to fail the exam, but will likely spare your lives. Contesting an examiner's judgment when you are to be removed is not allowed. There are no rules of engagement between you genin except the following: Anyone seen to be using excessive force or pursuing additional combats past the point where you have accomplished your objectives for no reasonable purpose shall be ejected. Again, this cannot be contested." With his speech done he paused to take a breath and look around the room. "It seems that everyone has pendants and has signed the forms. Excellent, let's not waste any more time. Follow me immediately."
The examiner led the sixty-six genin down the stairs and out of the examination hall; the chuunin examiners flanked them to both sides. When the man, who Neji noticed had not even bothered to give his own name, flung open the doors, everyone was blown back.
A blizzard. Neji thought, hardly surprised, but irritated. So, we have to take the exam in this.
Snow fell fast and furious outside, whipped about by a cold wind. The streets were deserted and the white covering was piling up quickly. It was bitingly cold and the furious wind seemed to steal all heat.
"All you examiners, take a team to one of the entrances to the area. We'll start at the appointed time." The jounin called, and then sprinted off in the snow.
One of the chuunin motioned to Neji's team. "All right fifty-eight, let's get moving, I don't want to spend anymore time out in this than I have to."
"Heh. Lucky you." Gosain muttered. "You guys get to start us off in the afternoon in a blizzard."
"That's right." The chuunin answered bitterly. "And I have to patrol the whole damn mountain side with you fools out in it. So why don't you do us all a favor and fail quickly."
"Not likely," was Gosain's reply.
The team followed the Chuunin to the edge of Stone village, and perhaps a kilometer outside it, still in the more sheltered part of the mountainside, but then everything opened up.
A high mountain dominated everything in front of them, with a rough and rugged peak and surroundings hills and valleys that seemed likely to destroy anyone alive. Everything was white or black, snow and ice or hard exposed stone, and all the edges were razor sharp. "That's Secure Area Twelve." The chuunin told them. "Try not to get caught in an avalanche, this blizzard'll surely start several."
The walked a short distance further, all the while Neji's team stared at those peaks, and the tiny hint of a small building at the top of the central spire, Mt. Kemigari. The objective. It's a long way, Neji noted, tracking potential slopes that could be climbed or jumped. No four- kilometer path will lead there, it will be probably eight at least, and fighting on those high slopes would be suicide.
"How long until we begin?" Neji asked.
"Ah, about a half hour, your entrance was pretty close." The chuunin pointed at a high stone post stuck into the ground. No fence or edge marked the boundary of this area.
"Well then," Neji turned to his teammates. "We should come up with a strategy now, before we get inside. Suggestions?"
"Speed." Gosain answered. "We find the first team we can, take one of their pendants, and try to make it to the high slopes at least before night falls, make it all the way if we can."
"Ah." Neji echoed. "It's already far too cold out here, there's no reason to waste time finding worthy opponents." The mountains are the true opponents in this scenario, not the ninja. This isn't like Konoha; a single step could mean death here. "Anything to suggest Shiren?"
"He said the area was only four kilometers in radius right?" She asked Neji.
"Yeah." He answered.
"Then that means the whole edge is only about twenty-four, if the teams are divided equally around the edge there should be team within a kilometer of this spot. Two actually."
"Within a kilometer?" Neji considered. Then he looked out ahead, noting a short, treeless rise only a short distance ahead. "Fine, we'll make for that rise. Once there, I'll use Byakugan to spot the nearest team. We'll move in and grab a pendant and then head up from there."
"Will you be able to see from that far off?" Gosain asked.
"Ah. A kilometer isn't far, and there's not a lot to get in the way."
"I suppose that much is true." He bit off a laugh. "It's a good plan."
Shiren nodded her assent as well.
They waited for the time to come.
The chuunin looked at his watch, raised his hand, and waited a moment. The team stretched out their cold limbs. Then, when the watch passed some arbitrary time, the chuunin brought his hand down. "Begin!"
The three ninja dashed forward.
It took only about a minute to reach the rise above, blood flow warming their cold muscles. Neji brought forth the Byakugan and stared out into the distance, approximating where the others would be. He looked east first. Hmm...I don't see anything, no, wait, there are three ninja moving quickly eastward, away from us. Damn! He turned west. Ah. Found it, three ninja, actually moving in and toward us, and on relatively flat ground. From this distance his vision wasn't sharp enough to detect exactly which ninja they were, but their garments weren't brown, so they were not any of the Stone teams.
"There's a team to the west, moving up and toward us. We can intercept them easily. Follow." Neji gave the word.
They dashed onward over the ice and snow.
It was hard going, in that blizzard, and Neji really couldn't see much beyond the feet in front of him and what the Byakugan revealed in the distance. The team made decent time, however, since the slope here was moderate, and the snow well packed. The experience of climbing up to hidden waterfall had proved helpful beyond any expectations as well, since now Neji and Shiren had a sense of how to move in these kinds of conditions.
"The three ninja have fanned out to scout the position!" Neji called over the wind to his teammates. "We'll attack as fast as possible. I'll distract him, Shiren, Gosain, bring him down."
They nodded, not trying to say anything over the wind.
The three ninja came over a rise, not more than fifty meters from the ninja. Neji recognized him now, the ninja as part of the team from Sand. He looked miserable in the cold, the sand ninja were from far to the south, and had obviously not acclimated. His reactions were slow and Neji could tell that his blood and chakra were moving sluggishly.
Neji leapt forward, flying in from above. "Strike!" He called to his Cloud teammates.
The Sand ninja turned in shock at their sudden appearance, but pulled out two kunai and threw them at Neji before leaping backwards.
Neji slapped the weapons aside easily, even as several of Shiren's shuriken flew past him, to stick in the snow past the Sand Nin.
Neji could see Shiren behind him, and Gosain moving up on the right side as he landed, forcing the Sand Nin to jump backward, into the row of shuriken Shiren had launched into the snow.
The Sand Nin pulled loose a kunai and started to charge at Neji, oblivious to the threat from behind.
Even as he stretched out to block the blow, Neji could see Shiren forming the hand seals. "Lightning Element: Charged Spark Missiles!"
Shuriken impacted shuriken, and the electrified bolts of metal flew from the ground. Neji blocked the oncoming attack and shoved the Sand genin backwards.
The unfortunate ninja's eyes went wide as the shuriken bit into his back.
Electricity arched over his body, making every hair stand up and all his muscles spasm at once. He stood twitching for a long moment.
Gosain came in with his pole to the sand ninja's right side.
The genin collapsed to the ground, coughing in pain.
Before the genin had managed to take another breath Gosain had reached into the sand ninja's shirt and pulled the pendant chain loose. He held the small crystal up for the other two to see and then added it to the other chain he wore. "Got it." Gosain said matter-of-factly. "Let's go."
"Ah." Neji replied.
The three had gotten back up to the top of the rise when Neji's all around vision saw the two other sand ninja come running up to their fallen comrade.
"You! Stop!" The called, and raised their kunai to throw.
Neji turned around and stared at them with his cold and frightening Byakugan eyes. "Think before you do something you regret." He said with a toneless voice.
"What? You just took down my teammate! Don't think I'll let you get away with that." The sand ninja called up at them.
"Foolish." Neji said. "The situation is against you, it is three on two, and we took down one member of your team with ridiculous ease. Don't try to fight us, our level is well above yours." He spoke to them sternly. I don't want to hurt ninja like you, and there's no need for another fight. "Let this end here. You retain two pendants and your companion is not too seriously injured, if you can beat another team that will erase this defeat. If you insist on trying to continue this battle you will have no pendants remaining and will not be able to continue the exam."
The other sand ninja tugged on his companion's arm. "It's team fifty- eight, we really shouldn't mess with them, I don't want to freeze out here."
"Fine." The Sand ninja said, lowering his kunai. "But don't think I'll thank you for it."
Neji didn't bother to respond. "Let's go." He told Shiren and Gosain.
"Ah." They replied, and moved out.
They moved inward now, and more slowly, keeping an eye out for possible enemies, and the best path. It was already midway through the afternoon, and with the blizzard, surprisingly dark. They all recognized that there was perhaps two hours of light left, no more. "Gosain," Neji asked. "Can we make it by nightfall?"
"Not in this blizzard." The older ninja spat. "Damn it. We'll have to find some shelter below the treeline."
"There's a long canyon ahead." Shiren spoke up. "It looks to lead most of the way up, probably within a kilometer of the top. I suggest that."
"Canyons are dangerous, we could get trapped within it." Neji said darkly.
"Ah." Gosain told them both. "We could get trapped, but it will be sheltered, and if there's little enough snow we could consider pressing on to the very end of it, and then making the short dash in the morning. It looks as if the path through the canyon's only going to be about six kilometers. The next best choice is probably about ten, and way more exposed. Besides, even though I have mountain experience, I'm no mountaineer. We can't afford to be caught in the open."
"Fine." Neji said, accepting their reasons, though he didn't like having to make the choice. "I suppose every team will have to stop for the night, unless they have some special light source to use."
They took the canyon path, trudging through heights of snow that kept increasing. Gosain led, since he was the strongest, pushing the snow aside. Shiren followed in the middle, with Neji taking the rear.
The conditions did improve once they entered the canyon. The wind was cut down, and the snow accumulation was far less, so they could make better time. It was very dark though, and visibility was minimal. This isn't good. Neji decided. This canyon is too useful under these conditions; other ninja will be funneled into it. "Gosain. We have to make it to the far end for certain." Neji ordered. "Too many ninja will stumble in here after dark."
Gosain grumbled for a bit, but replied. "Probably right, but I'm going as fast as I can, unless you want to blow through all your chakra fighting some snow."
Neji didn't bother to reply. He's right of course, we could burn through chakra and just run atop the snow, even Gosain has enough skill to make that work, if just barely, but it would take too much, there's too much distance. If we had one hour more this wouldn't be a problem, Neji knew. Still, he was well aware that a nighttime ascent of the final peak was not an option.
Darkness came tumbling down suddenly, as the sun passed fully under the horizon, not that it could be seen anyway. "That pretty much does it Neji." Gosain called from up front.
"Ah." The dragon ninja replied. "Let's make a shelter before the cold sets in."
This was something all three had experience in, since Xi had forced them to practice it three times on the road to stone, making snow shelters. So they piled up great mounds of snow next to a small space between rocks, and then, in the dark they dug out enough space between the walls for them all to pile into, they froze the walls in place with Gosain's chains, which formed a sort of cage to hold the snow up. To think that such a seemingly impractical weapon would prove so useful off the battlefield. Neji remarked to himself about the chains. Probably why he uses them. The weapons fit him very well.
"There's no way to keep watch," Neji told them as they huddled in darkness. "Still, we have a few explosion notes set, and anyone trying to rip this snow off will probably be surprised, so we can at least attempt some sleep. We'll have to do without food."
"Heh." Gosain muttered. "I've slept in worse spaces."
Shiren said nothing.
Crawling inside that tiny hole in the snow was viscous, and sleeping inside it, still wearing their cold weather gear, the only thing they had to prevent from becoming soaked, was torturous. They three were stuck together in a single mass, Shiren, Neji and Gosain, with nothing to see, no light whatsoever penetrated within, and everything the same. They twitched and contorted through the night, drifting in and out of some semblance of sleep, and feeling the energy loss that came from a day outside in the cold, trying to fight against exhaustion to come the next day.
Still it was warm enough, with three bodies inside that snow shelter, and Neji found himself uncomfortably aware of Shiren, lying next to him. As bad as this is for Gosain and I, it has to be far worse for her, Neji realized in one of his waking periods during the night. She is an attractive girl, something that Neji had always noticed but tried to avoid thinking about, and here she is pressed together with the two of us. We are a team, but this is far more than she could have expected when this began. Neji was surprised at himself, feeling bad about this for Shiren; it wasn't something he really ever did. It was not something he had grown up sensitive to, the misery of others, always thinking his own the greatest. Naruto might have disproved that, but Neji knew he was still hardly a compassionate person. I am cold and unlikable, and a dragon ninja with blood on his hands. What can Shiren think? Huddled next to me like this?
He wondered, but he realized Shiren had not complained, and had not contested the course they had taken. She had known they would be stuck together like this, and had said nothing. Does she not mind? She did sometimes say little, but she was usually outspoken. It made Neji think deeply, in that space the mind goes to between sleep and wakefulness, a space punctured by the cold and the still audible howling of the wind outside in the canyon. He thought about Shiren there, thought for some nebulous period of endless time where moments stretched out and spun.
In that dark night Neji realized that he thought of Shiren as his friend. It was a startling revelation to discover. He was never open with people, and he was not familiar with what most people considered friends. Tenten perhaps, though I still treated her harshly. He recalled, but beyond that, there was no one else he trusted as openly as Shiren, no one he wanted to fight with him. He might respect others, like Gosain, or Naruto, and admire the strength of someone like Xi, but they were not his friends. Shiren is different, all that time I spent working with her, practicing, talking, and working together as ninja. When this is over, I don't want to have to tell her to go. That was a lightning bolt of a revelation to Neji, that he liked his team, and would be disappointed to lose it as he had lost the last. His mind found the thought of losing this team wretched.
Gosain I cannot preserve, he is a strong man, but he will go back to Cloud when this is done. It was the irrevocable truth, and Neji knew that fact was as solid as the chains the older ninja bore. Shiren though, Shiren is not the same thing. "Yes, Shiren has the potential to be a Dragon Ninja." Xi's words slipped into Neji's dreaming mind, and they embedded themselves there. Neji latched onto those words, and all their implications, and made certain that in the morning he would remember them, even as the rest of this strange night slipped away.
* * *
It was the first glimmer of light, the barest bit of gray to be caught by the eyes and reveal and outline, peaking through their tunneled entrance, that brought Gosain fully awake with a start. His hand reached over and grasped the pole that served as the center of his chains. He held that pole and channeled his chakra, letting it surge through. The chains clinked and shook like a fence in the wind.
Gosain spun his wrist.
Chains rose like a flock of metal birds, shedding false feathers and leaping into the sky as the snow was shaken off.
That brought Neji and Shiren fully awake. It also found them with their right arms linked together. They looked at each other for a moment, and then Shiren smiled gently. "Small space indeed." She in an everyday voice, and made nothing of it.
The three were up and moving within moments, shaking snow out of their clothes, and restoring stiff limbs to movement. Gosain quickly rewound the chains about his body, shivering from the cold of them, but he went through a series of exercises and did his best to warm up. "There probably isn't more than two hundred meters before we lose these canyon walls slowly to open rock," Gosain said, pointing out the influx of light from above them.
It was still quite dark though, for the snow continued to fall lightly, though it was nothing compared to the madness that had taken the mountainside yesterday. "Perhaps we can make it to the top before it is even fully dawn." Neji said. "Though there is still a good deal of snow. Let's get out of this canyon and consider our options."
"I bet the chuunin hauled a bunch of teams off in the night, or they got otherwise removed. There can't be much more than twelve or so teams on the mountainside." Shiren told the others. "But we should be careful in this canyon."
"Ah." Neji and Gosain answered, and they moved back into line.
Gosain took the lead, and they passed around the curve in the canyon ahead. There was a slight dip in front of them, where the stream bed had plunged downward over a set of large boulders, but then the walls started to lower and the canyon faded.
In the gray light of morning they advanced, walking observantly and paying attention to whatever might be closely, Neji still tense and alert for other ninja.
That provided them only the barest moment of warning.
There was a large cracking noise just before Gosain readied to jump up over the blocking boulders. "Shiren! Gosain! Ambush!" Neji shouted the words as the Byakugan took his eyes and his vision snapped wide open.
His eyes widened further as he saw the icy cliffside above him break apart, and great blocks of ice came crashing down, it was as if the whole canyon was being ripped apart from within and thrown down at them. There was nothing Neji could see to do to avoid that wall of crushing white, and he simply stared as death fell down toward him as thousands of pounds of ice.
"Damn you all!" The violent cry came from Gosain. His pole ripped through the bottom and top of his shirt in his haste, and the chains came flying free. "Chain Style: Whirling Stormfront!"
The chains rose up as Gosain spun the pole above his head, and they crashed into the falling blocks of ice and stone with tremendous force. A thunderclap shook the enclosed canyon, deafening everyone.
Neji braced himself against the crushing death to come.
It did not come, shocks of thunder continued to shake the canyon as Gosain's chains formed a spinning barrier of charka suspended steel above them. Blocks of ice continued to crash down though, and there seemed to be no stopping it. Gosain's hands spun madly and every muscle on his face stood clenched.
"Neji!" He croaked. "Do something! I can't keep this up!"
Neji looked upwards, his focus returned, and his sight pierced the blocks of ice and stone. Above them he saw two ninja, tall smiling forms in blue, fervently making hand seals to send more of the canyon walls breaking down upon them. He recognized the coloration, and he recognized the forehead protectors they wore. "Waterfall ninja!" Neji spoke the word like a curse, but it was easily heard.
"There's no way through those blocks, they're coming too fast, you'd be crushed before you got a chance to move aside, I can't jump fast enough to get a shot at them!" Shiren called to Neji nervously.
Looking up again he saw that the words were true. There is no way to move fast enough to prevent getting crushed when passing beyond Gosain's chains, anyone who goes up there would be at the extent of their jump, and utterly vulnerable.
Gosain grunted again, but did not speak.
He's saving his strength, but he can't use up this much chakra for an extended period of time. The Waterfall ninja have us outmaneuvered! How do we escape?
"Neji, is there anyway to send someone upward faster? Shiren asked him, standing only a few feet away, clenching a kunai, but knowing the weapon was useless. "That aerial jutsu you know?"
"No. That wouldn't work. Dammit!" He replied. I'd have to get above them first, but there must be some way! Some way to launch someone upwards. Neji thought furiously, of all his techniques and any of Shiren's that could work, trying to find a combination that would provide just what was needed. He knew both of their jutsus and skills intimately from their many practices, and because of that he hit upon an idea that could work. "Kaiten!"
"What?" Shiren looked at Neji.
"Shiren, you recall the Kaiten?" She nodded quickly. "That move focuses its strength against a point of impact, and the spin even stops and releases all its remaining energy against a suitably strong attack."
Shiren's eyes widened as she realized what Neji wanted her to do. "That will hurt." She said darkly.
"Yes. There's no other way." He said quickly. "Do it."
"Right." She tensed to spring.
"Kaiten!" Neji began the spin at the moment Shiren jumped, her motion carrying her body directly into him.
Shiren's left foot came in first, skimming the edge of Neji's spin, gripping chakra with chakra, all so she could pour her chakra directly into her right foot and bring it down hard, right where Neji's head was.
Foot met spin with tremendous force, and Neji stopped the spin and channeled all the energy into a single burst, just as he had done when Naruto charged him months ago.
They felt the impact, and Neji winced as he saw the tenkenstu struck on Shiren's foot, darkening the boot with blood, but she bit down against the pain and shot upward.
Gosain's chains whipped around to avoid his fellow cloud ninja, and Shiren came streaking by, her left foot banked off one block and her body slammed up and past the screen, her kunai raised high above her head, supported by both hands.
Neji watched the eyes of the Waterfall ninja spread wide open in shock as he saw Shiren appear, and he saw the man recognize that death had come for him.
The kunai took the Waterfall ninja in the lower chest. Blood burst from his mouth, as Shiren removed the blade and stabbed down again. She arched onward to land on the canyon side, the Waterfall ninja's body already falling down into the canyon, light gone from his eyes.
"Bitch!" The other waterfall ninja shouted, and brought his hands up to form seals, but it was already to late.
The moment Shiren had stabbed the one ninja the fall of stone and ice had ceased, and Neji leaped up, hands reaching down to grab the deadliest of his weapons, the nekode. He rose up to face the Waterfall ninja and did not hesitate at all. He had already made the choice; indeed it had been made the moment the stone and ice came crashing down. If you fight like this, then you will meet the dragon ninja.
The Waterfall ninja had no time to scream as Neji's hands came down in the characteristic cross, and then slid back up to his face. "Rend!"
Hot blood burst over and onto Neji as he closed his eyes at the shock of it, seeing again what the viscous powers of rend did to a living being. The hot and sticky liquid coated every part of his face, and all across him clothes were instantly stained dark and red. Only his eyes were untouched, and they burned with the cruel whiteness of the Byakugan.
Neji landed on the side of the canyon and turned around, to see exactly what he had expected. Gosain and Shiren stood on the other side of the canyon, staring at his blood-covered body. They avoided looking at the body that had fallen to the floor of the canyon.
Gosain gave Neji a dark look, but his face emptied before he spoke. "Thanks for getting them off me." He said stonily.
"Thanks for acting as you did, you saved the three of us." Neji said as warmly as he could manage with the shock of his most recent action still in him.
Gosain avoided meeting his gaze.
Despairing, Neji looked at Shiren, dreading what he would see in her eyes. Instead he saw something he didn't expect. She raised her blood streaked kunai to her face. "It's not any different, is it?" She said sadly.
"No." Neji muttered, but her reaction somehow made him feel a little better. "Let's get going."
He leapt over to their side of the canyon, but as he landed Shiren pointed up the slope with her kunai. Her hand trembled.
Neji and Gosain both turned their heads to examine the wide and shear ice field above them.
There, spread out all across the distance above them, stood the six remaining teams of Waterfall ninja. With the Byakugan still present Neji could look into the one at the very center, and he saw the blue hair and red eyes. "Mizain Seve." He said beneath his breath. To his companions he spoke. "It seems we are now part of a war."