(A/N) Shisui's team, finally. Kakashi's team got chatty, didn't they… So, yeah, poll is going down a few hours or so after I post this, to be replaced with the options of what you picked. If you wanted another update, it'll have the options that can be updated again, if you want a new story, there'll be the options of stories I have available to start updating.
"I mean, it's not that scary," Naruto said, looking around as they hopped through the branches.
"We're just desensitized," Shino noted. "Why? Because you two dealt with a puppeteer that uses human corpses since you were kids, and I am dealing with you two."
"We're not that scary!" Naruto protested.
"For most people, I would disagree," Gaara said, raising an eyebrow.
Naruto pouted. "We aren't that scary, are we?"
"We've been trained by several S-class missing ninja," Gaara deadpanned. "If we aren't even remotely scary, we clearly didn't learn anything.
Shino clearly agreed, but got distracted. "Incoming, from the left."
Three Ame nin leapt out from the treetops, the leader's kunai countered by Naruto's tanto. Naruto threw him back, settling into a proper stance.
Next to him, Gaara similarly threw his opponent backwards with his sand, and Shino had simply avoided the nin, jumping up to a higher branch, recalling some of his kikaichu, and drawing more out to hover around him in a dark cloud.
They faced each other for a moment longer, before lunging, separating onto different levels of branches. The nin shot up to battle Shino, the other two lunging at Naruto and Gaara.
"You are worthless," Gaara decided after a taijutsu exchange where he purposely didn't let his stand intervene. Now his sand flowed up, catching the Ame nin and holding him tightly. "Do you have the scroll?"
"Yes!" The nin squeaked, apparently realizing that if he had the scroll, he would live, at least a little longer.
Gaara raised an unimpressed eyebrow. He was lying, it was clear on his face. Just in case, he only crushed the Ame nin's neck, letting the remains of the body fall down to the forest floor below.
"I got the scroll!" Naruto shouted.
Gaara debated whether it was worth it to actually crush the nin, and decided against it. He'd get blood later anyway.
A second body fell past him to rest on the ground next to the one he killed, swiftly followed by a third. That must have been the extra training Shisui took Shino aside for, merciless killing. It was a useful skill to have, the ability to kill without remorse.
Gaara jumped up to join his teammates on the higher branches, to find Shino looking mildly queasy, probably from killing the nin, and Naruto cleaning his tanto.
"Scroll?" Gaara asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Scroll!" Naruto chirped, holding up a copy of the one they already had.
"Great, now we have to hunt down another team," Gaara muttered. "That's a copy of the scroll we have, Naruto."
"I will attempt to locate another scroll," Shino said, his kikaichu bugs spreading out again.
"In the meantime, we should continue towards the tower." Gaara said.
Naruto sheathed his tanto, and hopped up. "Let's go!"
"Can we walk for a while?" Shino requested politely.
Naruto and Gaara both nodded, hopping down to the forest floor.
"Just warn us of giant leeches!" Naruto said, grinning. "And tigers!"
Shino inclined his head. "That will not be very difficult, why? Because there are no carnivorous animals in the area."
"If there isn't much competition, we'll have to find a tiger to even appear challenged," Gaara deadpanned.
"And let it get a few hits in?" Naruto asked, raising an amused eyebrow.
"Or not," Shino said, frowning.
Gaara rolled his eyes and walked off.
"I found a team."
"Where?" Naruto asked Shino, his tanto already half drawn.
"Straight ahead. We'll come upon their camp in another minute or two."
"Do you know who they are?" Gaara asked. "Are they a non-leaf team?"
Shino paused, and they stopped with him. "Unknown. I do not recognize their chakra, and my kikaichu do not recognize their scents. If they are leaf-nin, I do not know them."
Naruto created a Kurama shadow clone. "Hey, Kurama, could you go check the team that's ahead? We're worried they're leaf ninja."
Kurama sniffed the air. "Probably are, but I'll check anyway. Be right back."
He bounded off into the undergrowth, avoiding the sharp things that could pop him. He stuck his head out of the bushes, tilting his head at the three nin. They were leaf nin, one was a Hyuuga, and the other male was wearing a green... thing. The sole female had twin buns on her head. He bounded out of the undergrowth to test them slightly. A kunai would have impaled him if he hadn't leapt aside at a vital moment.
"Good reflexes for a fox," the female muttered, drawing another kunai.
"Ignore it," the Hyuuga snapped.
"It could be a summon," the female said irritably. "It's far too intelligent to be a normal fox."
"I mean you no harm," Kurama said, startling all three of them. He was nearly impaled by another kunai.
"Who is your summoner?" the Hyuuga growled.
"A leaf nin like yourselves," Kurama said levely. "They didn't want to come in guns blazing and accidentally attack another leaf team."
The green one lit up. "How youthful!"
Kurama backed up slightly, his tail brushing the undergrowth. "I'll get going now, if you don't mind…"
The girl looked mildly exasperated at her green teammate. "Right, well, tell your summoner we appreciate it."
The Hyuuga grunted, not saying anything, but glaring at Kurama.
Kurama sniffed at him, and bounded back into the bushes, hurrying back to the others.
"So?" Gaara asked.
"Leaf nin. Some guy in a green thing, a Hyuuga, and a girl who kept throwing kunai at me."
"Sounds like Gai's team," Naruto said, grinning. "Let's go meet them!"
"Let's not," Gaara said, rolling his eyes. "We have delayed enough. Kakashi's team may already be at the tower."
Naruto gasped. "You're right! Let's go! We can't let them beat us!" With that, he jumped back up into the trees and took off.
Gaara rolled his eyes, and Shino sighed minutely.
Kurama shrugged. "Come on, we can't let him do anything stupid." He followed his jinchuuriki up into the trees, Gaara and Shino following a second later.
"A team is incoming, to our right," Shino said, an hour later. "Also, we are three hours from the tower."
"Nice!" Naruto cheered. He quickly turned to face the new team, and simply blocked the incoming punch from the leader. Like last time, Shino dodged, and Gaara batted his opponent away from him.
"Sound team," Gaara said, grinning maliciously.
Kurama growled, growing in size, three more tails separating from his previous one. "Orochimaru said knock 'em down a few notches, didn't he?"
"He did indeed!" Naruto cheered, ducking another punch. His opponent jumped back, firing off some powerful jutsu at Naruto, who easily substituted with a log.
Gaara noted the activating of his sand armor to protect his ears, and glanced at his opponent, noting the machine on his arm. Get rid of that, get rid of the noise.
Gaara lunged, sand reaching forward to wrap around his opponent's arm. The nin dodged, attempting his jutsu again. When Gaara was unaffected, the nin lunged forward to engage in a taijutsu battle.
From there, it was easy to slip sand into the machine, clogging it something fierce. With it taken out of the picture, Gaara's armor stopped covering his ears, letting him hear.
Gaara finished the taijutsu exchange, making the sand in the machine burst outwards, exploding the machine and severely wounding the nin.
"Do you have the scroll?" Gaara monotoned.
The mostly unconscious nin didn't reply. Gaara sighed, and sent some sand to search his pockets.
"I got the scroll," he called to his teammates.
"Alright," Kurama called back, before ripping off the arm of the nin he and Naruto had been fighting. Naruto quickly dislocated the other one.
Shino's opponent had quickly been sucked dry of chakra, and was currently slumped against the tree.
"Ah good, they're all alive!" Kurama said, nodding as he shrunk and went back to having only one tail.
"Orochimaru would kill us if they were anything else," Naruto said, rolling his eyes. "Or try to, at least."
"He'd fail," Gaara deadpanned. "Now let's go, they had the right scroll."
Three hours later, they arrived at the tower, summoned a random chuunin, passed, and settled in for the night.
(A/N) So, prelims next. Should I just pull out a randomizer and just randomize the matches, or… I could actually just say not enough teams passed. Temari and Kankuro didn't come, the sound nin probably won't survive, they might, but probably not, Kiba and Sakura's team didn't participate, leaving us with three rookie teams and Gai's team. Although there were those random nin that made it to the prelims. So, whadda say? Who should be in the prelims, if there are any? Also, poll goes down tomorrow morning, and the choices go up right afterward.