Sorry for the long delay and the short chapter here. This last week was hell becasue of mid terms. I know you were probably all wondering where I was. I figured I'd get something in to sate your appitites. I will have a longer chapter for you hopefully by the end of the week. You know the line by now, i don't own it.
Anko accompanied the obviously disturbed examiner to a small field near Konoha. Two other examiners were there already, along with three bodies. The lead chuunin examiner spoke as Anko stopped over the bodies. "From their possessions and ID's we've found that they were ninja from the Hidden Village of Grass here to take the Chuunin exam. But as you can see..."
Anko's face twitched. The scene spread out before her was gruesome enough to make even her flinch in revulsion. "Their faces are gone." she said almost causually.
The examiner who had spoken before nodded. "Yes. Their faces are gone as if they were melted off."
Almost out of habit Anko's hand came up and touched a spot on the left side of her neck. 'No doubt about it,' she thought. 'This technique is...his. But why is he at the exam?'
She glanced at the identifications one of the examiners handed to her. One of the faces jumped out at her. 'He must have taken this one's face,' she thought. She had gotten a weird feeling when she'd been looking over the assembled genin before the second exam started. There were several people that seemed to radiate a killer intent in the group but Anko hadn't paid much attention. This was going to be a test where people died so she passed it off as excitement. But one had seemed more intent then the others. 'Yes, this face for sure.'
She turned abruptly to the three other examiners. "This is serious. You three let Hokage-sama know about this right away. And request that he mobilize at least two ANBU squads and send them to the Forest at once! I will go after these guys now. Got that?"
The three chuunin acknowledged her orders and disappeared leaving Anko alone with the bodies.
After a few more moments of thought her face hardened. "Damn it!"
A second later only the three bodies remained in the field.
Team Seven had spent the night in their little cave and passed most of that morning there as well. The sounds of battle had kept them alert for most of the first day but as evening had come the sounds had faded off into the distance. Sleep had come easily after that. The team had woken late and spent the next hour or so preparing to leave. They checked weapons and equipment again and finalized their plans.
Sasuke turned back to his teammates and nodded. The area was clear. As one they darted out of the cave and shot up the tree trunk till they reached the first big branch. After a moments thought Sakura pointed out a direction. The two boys nodded and they took off again, flying through the upper branches on a course slightly to the right of a direct line to the tower.
The signs of recent battle was everywhere. Discarded shuriken, kunai, and senbon were everywhere. Burn marks on trees, ripped bark, and torn ground were common, as were blood marks. Team Seven moved quickly through the forest, making five kilometers in less then an hour. The fact that no one appeared anywhere near their path was slightly alarming but they guessed that by now most teams had moved fairly deep into the woods and were concentrated around the tower.
When they had gone six kilometers by Sasuke's count they finally detected a presence ahead of them. A hand signal from Sasuke brought the team to a halt. Before the group could even jump to a branch to converse the person ahead of them had jetted towards them at incredible speed. The opponent appeared as a brown and gray dust trailing streak on the ground below. Just as quickly the person scaled a tree and stopped about a hundred feet ahead of a startled Team Seven.
'He's fast and alert. It was almost like he was waiting for us,' Sasuke thought as he eyed their potential opponent. The man, or woman, he couldn't quite tell, was dressed in a strange brown and black outfit with a purple rope tied around the waist.
Naruto produced two kunai and brandished them at their opponent. "He's only one, lets get him," Naruto called to Sasuke and Sakura. His voice was full of confidence. 'And why shouldn't it be? There is only one. But that could be a trap,' Sakura thought.
"Watch out, there may be others," Sakura stated as she too drew a kunai.
Their opponent laughed. It was an evil laugh, totally devoid of humor or mirth. It had an edge to it that Team Seven had never heard before.
"You want our scroll of earth, don't you?" Their opponent said as he produced a scroll. Definitely a man, Sasuke thought. Sakura gasped at his bluntness and willingness to show his scroll to them. Naruto huffed loudly and Sasuke gave a tight smile.
The man continued. "Since you three have the scroll of heaven."
A long serpentine like tongue slithered out of the man's mouth and wrapped itself around his scroll, which he proceeded to push into his mouth.
The team's bravado began to slip as they saw it happen. Sakura grimaced at the sight. Naruto and Sasuke both glared and tightened their jaws. Once their opponent had managed to swallow the scroll he spoke again. "Now, let's begin the fight over our scrolls...by putting our lives on the line!"
All three of them suddenly felt a presence invade their minds. It overwhelmed their mind's defenses and delivered a stunning mental blow. Images of their blood being splattered across trees, images of their cloths being ripped to bits by unseen blows, images of their bodies engulfed in flames, and of kunai striking them between the eyes, blasted through their brains in a second. Then suddenly the presence was gone, leaving them stunned and helpless, totally immobilized. Their bodies refused to function. Legs gave way and Team Seven dropped to their knees and hands. Sakura began to cry, Naruto twitched and shuddered horribly, and Sasuke lost his breakfast.
Sasuke was the first to recover enough for coherent thought. He dropped to his rear and took a few shuddering breaths. 'Genjutsu? No... it was just an intent to kill! Incredible!' He glanced at their opponent again. 'Who is this guy?' He wondered.
His head jerked around to look at Sakura who was on another branch. She was on her knees, tears were running rampant down her cheeks while her wide eyes stared off into oblivion. Shit, this isn't good, Sasuke thought as he turned to look at Naruto.
Naruto had stopped twitching and was apparently out cold. Sasuke couldn't see his face but his body language told him all he needed. 'We need to run...if we don't...,' his eyes flicked back to their opponent's face, 'only death awaits us!'
"Sigh" thoughts will now have only one quote mark around them since my former method apparently doesn't work anymore.