Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.


Bathing in Blood

13. Say It Isn't So

Suddenly

The sounds changed, the Danes started

In new terror, cowering in their beds as the terrible

Screams of the Almighty's enemy sang

In the darkness...

-Beowulf

Sakura listened disjointedly as Ibiki's droning voice recited the rules in a gratingly practiced manner. She looked down at the test in front of her, turned over so its unblemished white back glared in defiance at the writhing wounds of the ceiling. That had been the first rule, only one of an endless ooze of regulations gradually accumulating in the stuffy classroom air.

'Keep your paper face-down until the examiner gives the signal.'

And some good it did.

It was a laughable thought; or an afterthought, perhaps. Did the scowling proctors, sitting so stiffly, like stone demigods lining the walls, really think that such trifles would stump her? It was an oversight. An insult.

So this is a teamwork thing, he says. Yet we are all separated. Her mind quickly put two and two together, then added one more. We aren't being tested on the questions themselves. We're being tested on our ability to cheat, and communicate information secretly.

Without warning, the pale face shadowed by pink hair snapped into a smile.

It was only a matter of guarding her answers...and keeping her teammates' points above zero.


"You may begin."

Ino flipped her test over with hair-trigger tenseness. Its edges grasped with fiendish fervor by sweaty, well-manicured fingers, eyes skimming the columns of text madly. Blue irises framed with bloodshot white drowning in a deluge of numbers and symbols looming between the fast-forming tears.

Breathe, Ino.

Breathe, Ino.

Breathe! BREATHE, FOR GOD'S SAKE!

But the blonde-haired girl couldn't breathe, not for the sake of God, nor any other one of the multiple holy figures whose names were available to use in vain. Because her bewildered vision was focused on one thing. The girl sitting two rows ahead, scribbling like crazy, with a purpose.

Jealousy.

Rage.

Hatred.

Anger.

Frustration...

...a little bit of hurt, too. And slowly, that part of the girl named Ino, that antagonist, that nagging little time bomb with nuclear potential, readied itself to take control.

Somewhere in the distance there was the high-pitched, heart-rending shriek of a young child, pain beyond belief, all because of that troublesome, troublesome memory; two toddlers, one pink-haired, the other golden blonde, sharing a strawberry ice-cream cone, giggling noisily. Silenced forever in the depths of oblivion.

And it hurt, so bad, but not nearly enough. The thing that was once Yamanaka Ino gave a sudden skull-like grin, and Fate was sealed.

My prize technique...my only technique...I've waited so long... Choppy thoughts disentangled themselves from their lifelong bondage, rushing on shaky legs to freedom. ...for the moment I could use it on you, Sakura, youAnd now, I will repay you, for EVERYTHING. I WILL DESTROY YOUR---


Naruto rubbed his pounding temples. Nervous again. Just when he'd thought the green waves of nausea had finally receded.

All because of the quiet, sliced too cleanly by one solitary voice. An unvarying, monotonous black line of a voice, winding like an electrical cord to constrict his consciousness.

He could feel his brain cells floundering as the toneless tone rumbled onward.

The blonde-haired boy looked at the paper on his desk. The questions most likely weren't that hard, not so hard he'd get them all wrong. He only needed one point to pass. One point. He didn't need to cheat.

"You may begin."

Beaming with confidence, Naruto turned over his test.


The black-garbed examiner's stoic glare adjusted to one of mild, masked curiosity. One of the brats in the back row, a particularly whorish-looking blonde, had slumped into her seat as if asleep.

"Probably just some variation on the astral projection concept," he muttered soundlessly. "Predictable piglets."

Just as he was about to look away, Ibiki saw a brief shudder run through the girl's abnormally thin frame. She clutched her head in unspeakable agony, then fell still once again.