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Scroll Hunt

Ryuu walked along with his hands behind his head. The second round was just as self-explanatory as the last time he took the exams. Start with one scroll, fight another team for theirs, get to the tower in the center. Find food on your own, if you can, find water on your own, if you can, and anything goes. Ryuu was starting to think that the proctors all had a script they had to read off of. The biggest change was that it only lasted three days rather than five.

"So how are we playing this?" Tayuya asked. "Fly around until we find someone?"

"Nah," Ryuu said. "We'll do this the right way. Besides, I've been meaning to fight Lee again for a while."

"Me too," Fu nodded. "I can find him if you want."

"Nah," Ryuu smiled. "If we meet them, good for us. If not, well, he'll definitely make it to the finals."

Fu nodded, smiling. "Okay, which way are we going?"

"Let's go...that way," Ryuu said, pointing at random.

The other two nodded and they began to walk. It didn't take long for the full scope of their situation to start to set in. It was barely past sunrise and already the sand was baking hot and the sun was broiling. Ryuu tucked his bangs under his headband to try to keep sweat out of his eyes, only for it to form on the rest of his face anyway. Finally, after nearly an hour, he slowed to a stop, activating his Sharingan and looking around. What he saw, was the wall they had left barely five hundred yards from them.

"Shit," Ryuu said. "Genjutsu."

They all formed Seal of Confrontation, breaking it and Ryuu looked around. In the distance and running away from them, there was a group of Hidden Rain shinobi. It wasn't the team he had picked out as being overly strong, so he smirked, pointing.

"Easy target," Ryuu said. "Let's go see what scroll they have, shall we?"

The other two nodded and they all sprinted after the trio, gaining rapidly. Finally, they caught up, each almost instantly taking down one of the three. Ryuu smiled. It looked like Tayuya's Taijutsu had come a long way while he was away. Ryuu quickly retrieved the scroll and smiled. It was the one they needed.

"Will they be okay here?" Fu asked.

"No," Ryuu said, forming hand seals. "Earth Style, Stone Floor!" He placed his hands down, the sand compressing into stone as Ryuu formed more hand seals. "Earth Style, Rock Shelter!"

A massive dome of stone shot out of the ground in two halves, slamming closed around the three unconscious shinobi, a small section missing and forming a door.

"There," Ryuu said. "That aught to do it."

He turned, heading for the tower as Fu and Tayuya followed.

"That was nice," Tayuya said.

"I've got enough blood on my hands already," Ryuu said.

"Fair enough," Tayuya nodded, regretting saying anything.

Suddenly, Ryuu slowed to a stop, looking around carefully.

"What's wrong?" Fu asked.

"I thought I felt something," Ryuu said.

"Chakra?" Tayuya asked, reaching for her flute.

"Killing Intent," Ryuu said.

They all looked around carefully, seeing a massive rock formation to the west. Without a word, they sprinted toward it, climbing to the top and looking around again.

"I don't see anyone," Tayuya said. "You?"

"No," Ryuu said.

"No one," Fu agreed.

"I have a hunch who I sensed," Ryuu said.

"Mhao," Fu guessed.

"He hasn't been heard from since I was caught," Ryuu said. "So it stands to reason that he's been improving himself this whole time."

"Or simply multiplying," Tayuya said. "There may be a lot of him."

"I hope to hell not," Ryuu said. "One's bad enough. That fucking swarm of different ones that he attacked us with our first mission with you sucked even worse."

"I almost forgot about that," Fu said. "So then we have to assume that he can make his own army, if not of just him, then at least with different ones."

"The first time we met him he was one of three," Ryuu reminded Fu.

"Oh yeah," Fu nodded. "They were a pain in the ass."

Ryuu nodded. "I don't like this. I think we need to get to the tower as soon as possible."

"Agreed," Tayuya nodded. "I could keep playing my flute while we run to keep them from reaching us."

"Yeah," Ryuu nodded. "Do that."

Tayuya nodded, pulling her flute out and beginning to play, the three of them dropping back to the sand and beginning to run. After a few minutes, they slowed to a stop as the ground began to shake.

"Now what?" Ryuu growled.

Then, suddenly, the ground lurched and they all fell before the ground began to sink a little ways away, the pit rapidly expanding and catching them all.

"Of for fuck sake!" Ryuu growled. "A fucking antlion pit?"

He looked down, seeing a massive pair of pincers being uncovered at the bottom. It looked like it wasn't entirely a jutsu.

"Fire Style, Fireball Jutsu!" Ryuu shouted, launching the jutsu into the bottom of the pit, a high screeching sound answering the attack as the giant insect burned.

After several seconds, the screaming faded and the pincers burned away. Then, the bottom of the pit began to drop again, a much, much larger pit forming as more and more of the ground began to fall. Within seconds, the new pit had fallen so fast that Ryuu and the others found themselves in free fall, halfway buried in sand. Ryuu extended his wings, grabbing the others and breaking free, hovering and watching as the sand fell, coating the ground at the bottom of a massive underground cavern. He slowly floated to the ground, setting them down and landing lightly beside them.

"Oh man, my flute's filled with sand," Tayuya said, smacking it against her hand, dislodging some sand but not all of it. "The thing's useless until I can take it apart and clean the holes."

Ryuu wasn't listening. He was slowly turning, looking around, Sharingan peering into the darkness carefully.

"What is it?" Fu asked.

"We are definitely not alone," Ryuu said, drawing his tanto and trench knife. "Tayuya, you're going to want something sharper than that flute."

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