Rena's eyes were plastered on the board that held the names of the contestants. Several people had dropped out, leaving just enough for a perfect set of battles; everyone was antsy, some were aggressive and others just wanted the Chuunin exams to end. Most were eager, however, to start their fights, even if a few had already passed by. Gaara was unsettlingly quiet, having never torn his eyes from Sasuke's fight. She turned her head a little to watch his unchanging expression, before looking back to the board, which flickered and starting moving before it came to a grinding halt, everyone watching in obsessive anticipation as they'd see who'd get to fight next.
Ikari and Su stood a little to the left, apart from each other and barely acknowledging one another. Ikari himself didn't seem as interested in the boards as he should be, while Su seemed to be fiddling with some of her webbings.
The arena was quiet enough to hear a kunai drop as the announcer coughed into his fist, looking at the board himself. "Suno Akagari versus Kana Yoru." Suno's name being called caused him to look up, startled. His head swiveled to the left, then the right, as he stood up with urgency and surprise. Kana let out a small chuckle, before grabbing the railing and hoisting herself over it, displaying her fit legs. Suno backed up a little, hesitant, but his face changed from hesitant to suddenly determined as he stepped forward.
"I'm not going to go easy on you, Suno 'Akagari.'" Her hand pointed towards Rena with vigor, her eyes filled with hatred. "I'm going to defeat you and get to the finals, so I can fight that monster!" Her declaration alerted Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro. Gaara's hands gripped the railing, his eyes moving to Rena. There was something he didn't know about her, which meant there was something he didn't trust about her. He wanted to know everything. Everything that Rena kept from him, he wanted to see. He grit his teeth. They were just going in circles again. Every time he thought he knew all there was to know, she surprised him yet again.
Suno's foot slammed on the railing in a cocky manner, causing it to jolt and Gaara to let go of it. In his eyes was a fiery, aggressive stare, one that pierced Kana, but the enemy didn't hesitate. "I will protect Rena. I will put you out of commission."
"Suno..." Rena's worried tone caused him to look back and he saw the look on her face. "You don't have to do this. You don't have to fight that weird girl!"
"Relax, Rena. I won't let Kana get to the finals. You have my word." His smile instilled confidence in the girl, her worries slowly washing away in Suno's confidence. She smiled at him, tilting her head and trying her best to stay positive. As Suno hopped up to the railing, he looked down at Kana with his shitstarter grin, hands in his pockets. "You ready to fight, Kana?"
"I'm ready to do whatever I need to do as long as I can get access to her."
Suno hopped down from the railing and started walking toward the other side of the arena, it was like a staring deathmatch. Neither looked away from one another. "Remember, keep it clean, guys..." As Suno positioned himself to start, so did Kana, readying themselves for battle. Neither responded to the announcer. He rose his hand in the air, sighed at the intensity, and then brought it down. "Go!"
It was like a split-second start; both were equally fast, with equal footing. Suno and Kana blitzed forward and the only thing anyone could see was the flash of sparks as their kunai rang against each other. As Kana paused to make a hand sign, Suno's leg lashed out, breaking her finger lock and her concentration. She growled at him, but there was a cheer. "Yeah! Go Suno! You can do it!" Suno gave a wave and a flamboyant dodge. He narrowly sidestepped a kunai, a small cut forming on his cheek.
"You're not gonna let this smooth cat be smooth?" He put a hand to his chest as if gripping the spot over his heart. "Oh, Kana, if only you'd let me seduce you..."
"Stop fooling around!" She barked, getting more annoyed. She felt like she was being mocked by his extravagant behavior. He seemed to dance around everything that she was trying to do. "You want a damn fight? I'll give you one!" She charged forward, switching up her style. Suddenly, Suno wasn't keeping up so well anymore. Some strikes, he dodged, but others struck his frame. He felt a sharp pinch in his arm and jumped away, noticing she had managed to stick a kunai in it.
Suno ripped it out and it clattered to the ground. It seemed she was using a different style of Taijutsu than she'd been doing before, her fluid moments graceful and encapturing. As both charged in for round two, Kana's strikes had sped up, becoming more precise as time carried on. Soon, Suno couldn't keep up at all, dodging at most less than half of her attacks.
He backed up, getting some distance. The fight wasn't going in his favor, and Kana didn't seem to have any stamina loss. "Fine?! You wanna get serious? Black Cat Release!" His ears flipped up, tail unwinding from his leg as his chakra spiked. He got back on all fours, leaving the crowd in awe as they watched him speed forward.
"Gai-sensei! Have you ever seen such a thing!?"
"No, Lee! No, I haven't! This is a first for me too!"
"A kekkei Genkai, maybe?" Neji asked, puzzling over how the existence of such a release could be supported otherwise.
Rena stepped up onto the railing. "Go, go, go! Do your best, Suno! Show them you're not a kitty cat to be messed with or I'll make you eat kitty kibble for the rest of your life!"
Suddenly, the tides had turned. Suno's assault was relentless, blow after blow combining into a flurry of combos, getting Kana on the defensive. She couldn't fight back with tools because of his change in ability; however, he looked back to Rena. "HEY! Don't threaten me with that shit, I hate it!" In his moment of distraction, Kana gained traction, a few shuriken thudding into his leg. "Damn it, ow! I'm gonna be filled with holes by the end of this!"
"That's the point!" She snapped, delivering a kick to his chest. As he slid back he changed course, running in a circle around her, darting in for a blow and then out for a pause. This continued for a minute before it seemed like Kana got tired of it. "I've had enough of your games! Tsubasa!" The cracking of bones filled the air as something white slammed into Suno, stopping him dead in his tracks and sending him flying until he hit a wall on the other side of the room. It was gone as soon as it had been seen, though. Nothing but feathers remained, gently floating down to the ground. Suno twitched, careening his head upwards.
"Dammit... what was... that?"
"Tricks of the trade!" She replied, but she was already in front of him. She gave him an uppercut, getting him in the air before grabbing him by his shirt and slamming him face-first into the ground. Drawing her leg back, she gave him a swift kick in the ribs. He slid across the floor, struggling to get up, but he wasn't nearly fast enough. She descended on him like a hungry wolf, tearing into him any way she could.
This continued until it was clear Suno was no longer able to stand. After he'd stopped moving for a second. Kana stood over his body and gave him a kick to the face. At this point, he was an unresponsive ragdoll. "Suno!" Rena yelled, "Get up, dammit! You were doing so well!"
He made no move to stir, staying on the ground as Kana dug the heel of her shoe into his hand. There was the cracking sound of bones as she applied pressure. In a split flash, Rena was there, aiming a punch at her. She quickly sidestepped.
"Through intervention, Kana Yoru wins."
"That's ridiculous!" Rena snapped, checking Suno over. "He's out cold! You can't just say that after watching him get beat up!" She tried waking him, but he wouldn't. It would probably take a few minutes.
"Remember the fate of your pet, Rena Hikari, because that's how you're going to end up next," Kana said, walking past her with a cocky smile. "It's just going to be much slower." They swapped glares, Rena picking up Suno and supporting him back up to the second-floor balconies, where Sansa began to tend to him. The show still had to go on, so they couldn't just stop here.
All attention was back on the board after the gripping fight between Suno and Kana Yoru. Only a few people had paid attention toward the end, because of what Kana did to Suno. The next set of names that flashed on the board didn't seem too promising; it was clear that some expected nothing from this fight as a few shinobi broke off to go get some food or go to the bathroom. "Shinji Yoru versus Rena Hikari." He was useful if you couldn't read. No offense to Su. As Rena began to go, Su grabbed her arm, stopping her.
"Good luck. And don't be too noisy." Su, although not able to see, could tell that Kana and Shinji were exchanging an object thanks to her special hearing abilities. One must, after all, adapt when they are blind. "Be careful of that one. He has something."
"Well, Rena Hikari?" Shinji was grandstanding, walking down the stairs to the middle of the room. "Are you gonna fight me, or are you gonna waste my time?" He rose his hands in the air, making a gesture for her to come towards him. She began to snicker, putting her hands on her hips.
"I wouldn't dare waste your time!" She did seem to take her sweet time getting down the stairs, though, much to Shinji's annoyance. She waved to Su, Sansa and the sand siblings as Sansa finished tending to Suno.
Walking over to the railing and gripping it, prepared to watch the coming fight, she was not eager to know the results. Her worry infected her to her very core. This was one of Rena's first fights since she got back. Did she have to worry about the seal she had placed on Rena, and if such was the case, how would she replace it in this day and age? Forbidden techniques didn't exactly grow on trees. The way Rena fought this battle would be the difference between life and death; if she was slipping back into the patterns of her old ways, then the seal wouldn't last for much longer. She prayed for Rena and the seal, knowing that if the Yoru were here, it meant that they knew Rena survived... despite all odds.
However, there was a deeper danger than what was on the surface. Everyone she and Rena knew would realize they had been lied to, their entire lives. Maybe saying 'twisted the truth' would be more applicable to the situation, but Baki wouldn't take that as an acceptable response.
But then, the final concern. There were four from the Yoru clan in this room and therefore four messengers. Four people who could report back to Tsukioji Yoru within three days, four people who could ruin their lives. Either way, Sansa had gone over her options and she knew she didn't have many outs. If she killed them all, Tsukioji would smell foul play and the Hidden Leaf may turn on the Sand. If she let them leave, Tsukioji would know anyways.
All or nothing and all was the only option.
The sound of metal clanging against metal broke her from her thoughts. The battle had already begun while she'd been lost in deep thought. If what was already terrible got even worse, she would jump in to stop the battle. Rena had just deflected a kunai with the one she had pulled from her pouch. Shinji was sizing up his opponent before diving into rocky waters. He needed to know whether she was long-range, or close-range. "I want to be the one to kill you."
His sneer as he brandished another kunai almost made Rena roll her eyes as he charged forward, striking at her as she deflected one blow after the other. They progressively sped up and changed patterns, getting harder to defend from. She flipped the kunai to a different position in her hand, one that felt comfortable and struck upwards, tearing Shinji's shirt a little. Rena herself had yet to move more than a few steps, as she was on the defensive. There was no unique Jutsu, so nobody was all that interested.
Knowing that the fact Rena was barely budging was a problem, Shinji decided to give her initiative, making a hand sign. His speed and weaving were done with such ease that it made it look generally easy, even though it meant he was at an advanced level. "Poison Spore Jutsu!" Clouds of dust burst from his mouth, filling the lower level of the room at an alarming speed. Rena had nowhere to go as all exit points were cut off and she was pushed into the circle. The spores covered her in seconds and the crowd was now more invested as they heard her violent coughs.
"Wind Style: Raging Wind Current!"
Wind burst from where Rena was as she broke the last hand sign she made, clearing out and weakening the spores. The tides of battle had turned against Rena's favor, but it wasn't over yet, even if the poison was infecting her system. She threw a smoke grenade at the floor, masking her presence and making eyesight useless. Su, however, could see, as smoke meant nothing to her. While Shinji struggled to find her, Rena came from behind with a roundhouse kick that landed itself straight in Shinji's face. As she planted both feet on the ground while he was falling she raised her other knee, sending it painfully in between his shoulder blades, causing him to sputter out air.
It wasn't over yet. She grabbed the back of his head with her hand and smashed him downwards, onto the ground. Her specialty wasn't heavy-hitting, but maybe this would be enough to make him give up. She needed medical attention and that was becoming more prominent with every cough and wheeze. Still, she pushed through her illness,
"Wind Shuriken!" Chakra formed in between each of her fingers outlining the shuriken she already held, a shape familiar to anyone who claimed themselves any kind of shinobi. An enhancing Jutsu. She whipped them in Shinji's direction, but he moved to the side in time, having recovered from her blows faster than she intended. Everyone saw that both Shinji and Rena were injured, and it was clear the fight would come to a draw if nothing changed.
But something would change. Kana smiled as Shinji tore something from his back pocket and dashed toward Rena. Not expecting it, she raised her arms to shield herself and smacked it right on her chest. "What the hell?! Are you guys trying to blow me up?" As he backed up, she prepared for pain, but nothing came. She dropped her arms, looking around the arena, before taking a look at the tag. It seemed blank. "...Your stupid tag is defective, thankfully."
It was only when she pulled it off that she felt something. Suddenly, her veins were on fire. She dropped to the floor, squirming and writhing and clawing at her flesh to the point where blood dripped from her skin, onto the floor. Red... but something was happening. As she sobbed, it wasn't tears she was crying.
"Make it stop!" She screamed, "Sansa! Sansa!"
"What the heck?! What's that purple stuff?" Naruto pointed at the girl, his voice echoing through the hall.
Sansa knew she couldn't intervene. "You fools. Look what you've done... Rena, don't fight it. Just let it happen."
"I think I've freed a beast," Kana replied, giving Sansa a cocky smile. It was clear that the jonin didn't know whether or not to stop the fight. These idiots broke the first seal. The sand siblings were watching, each with worried faces, save for Gaara himself.
"What's happening to her?" Baki asked, his face hard as always. Sansa didn't know how she was going to explain it.
Rena struggled to her knees from the ground, finally looking up. Instead of the preliminary hall, however, she saw elsewhere, a place and memory long gone.
A field of golden wheat, swaying in the breeze as the sun set. Instead of being somewhat blue as it should have been, it was a nightmarish red, one that filled her vision. Standing in the middle of this field was a man covered in the deadly shade of black, back turned to her.
Screams filled her ears, screams of people dying, suffering and burning alive. She became aware of the blood, oh god the blood, that watered the fields red.
Suddenly, the man turned back to perceive her, his eyes the color of the blood that had been shed. His thirst for vengeance and need for retribution, to punish sin, was overwhelming. He rose his hand, and-
She screamed for mercy, for help, for him to stop, that he didn't understand what sin truly was. Not towards Shinji, but open air. "Has she gone insane?" Neji asked, activating his byakugan. Small disturbances swirled in the air around her.
The screaming stopped and the area was silent as Rena's head rose, eyes clear of pain, but it was clear that the person there was not the one that anyone here knew. She stood to her feet. Her gaze was ice-cold, almost queenly, as she looked around. "You said twenty years, Sansa." Chills ran through each Shinobi and Kunoichi she looked at, an alien gaze.
"I apologize, Lady Rena." Sansa's tone snapped from what it had been, usually demeaning, to something oozing with respect and subservience. Baki stared at her like she was insane.
"It wasn't twenty years, Sansa."
"What do you want from me, to put you in a coma?!"
"No." Rena stretched out her hands, but all Shinji could do was stare at her. "That isn't my only qualm. The seal has been broken crudely. I can't remember anything other than details about myself..." A shuriken whizzed past her head as she leaned to the side, ignoring it.
"It's her." Kana's eyes were filled with rage, anger, hatred but most of all glee as she clutched the railing like it was life support. "It's her. We've found her."
She began walking towards Shinji, dropping her other hand to her side as she pointed at him. "Really, this is all quite the rude awakening. I don't... like you. So, you die." Suddenly, she flipped her wrist so it was facing up and taking a kunai, she cut it. Temari gasped, horrified. For a moment, nothing happened, but suddenly, blood flowed from the cut as if it was floating. "Blood... Javelin."
It was like the blink of an eye as several spears of blood penetrated Shinji's flesh from different directions, causing him to scream in agony.
Her eyes were dead. Non-feeling.
The hall was basked in silence, almost everyone who knew her confused and worried. Su didn't sense the same person that she had been before anywhere; it was her voice, but it wasn't her. The strangeness of the situation made many people uncomfortable, but it seemed Ikari's eyes were glazed over as he watched her move to the left, then to the right.
She stretched her palms out, upwards, cracking her neck before placing her arms back at her side. Her shoulders shifted. "Still no wings, huhn?" While her statements to herself were cryptic at best, she absentmindedly ignored the blood dripping from her wrists. People waited to see if Shinji would get back up, but his blood dripped from his body. He didn't seem to be moving, let alone breathing, speared through by the javelins. She finally looked at the corpse before her, cocking her head. "I wonder who told you to screw around with my head. Was it Tsukioji?" Walking up to the boy, she pulled up his head by his hair, revealing his terrified, surprised stare trapped forever on his face in his moment of death. "Tell him... that I send my regards from hell. I'll come for the Undying, for as he is, am I." She planted a kiss on the poor victim's cheek, before stepping away.
She strutted around the floor a little more, taking in the scenery. Her head jerked in a direction. Before her, there was a cat. It was unlike any anyone had ever seen before, seemingly made of wisps of shadows. It dashed towards her, into her body. She fell to her knees, the awareness in her eyes fading as she clutched her stomach. A spike of alienistic chakra hit the more learned shinobi in the room, ones who knew how to detect it.
Suddenly, the solid javelins of blood burst into liquid, spraying the floor in bizarre patterns. Rena began to tremble, her palms hitting the floor. She began to breathe, heavily, before looking up at the body and scrambling back, panicking. She felt like she was going to scream, but before she could, Suno was there, despite his wounds. His hand and arm covered her eyes, causing her to calm. "Su...no..?"
He didn't care who was in the room. "It's alright, Master. I will always be your faithful servant at your side. It's not yet time for you, so I'll be here." He made a hand sign with his free hand, putting his fingers up to his lips. A low ringing sound, barely detectable, filled the room. "Forget. I bid you to forget everything that troubles you. There's no need to worry. You don't have to understand or know anything just yet. So... please, just forget and let us protect you." He withdrew his hand and she fell to the floor, collapsing. Suno stood. "Hey, judge. You gonna call it, or what? You should've done that when that guy died."
The announcer was wordless, not knowing whether he should report this to the Hokage or let it be. Still, this was hardly something to report in the middle of the exams... Bizarre behavior like this was unusual, for sure. "I'm... not sure."
"Look, she has some kind of trauma, all right? What matters is I've got the Jutsu to calm it down, so get on with it already!" He supposed that would explain her actions, but that jutsu she used with her blood... something didn't sit well with the announcer. Still, he had to call it as it was.
"...Rena Hikari... wins this match."
Dead silence. This added a whole new layer to the Chuunin exams. That Jutsu she showed... it wasn't anything anyone in this room but a few people would know. The way she effortlessly killed that person, people were beginning to see that maybe Gaara wasn't the real monster here after all. Naruto couldn't say anything, because she had always seemed so gentle before the snap in every interaction.
There had been a small break in between fights, giving most of the more injured people a chance to recover. Another fight played through and Rena and Suno were pretty much back to good.
The next fight was about to happen and everyone looked on. It was interesting to study all of the potential opponents. "You failed, huh?" Ikari asked, leaning over the railing next to Suno and Rena. "Should've spent more time fighting than talking."
"Hey! Says you! You're always talking!" Kankuro bitched, ranting and raving in the background as Ikari ignored him.
"I dunno. At least Rena succeeded, these exams don't mean half as much to me. I don't even know what they're for." Suno shrugged.
"Then, wait, why are you here?" Temari asked. "Surely you've heard of how important they are to a shinobi's career. And they're the Chuunin exams! It's in the name!"
"I don't know what a chuunin is and I didn't listen to anyone when it was being explained. All Rena said was that she needed a team of three to participate so Tsukiyomi and I volunteered." He waved her off, leaving everyone else to wonder where exactly Suno had come from if he didn't even know what a Chuunin was.
"I won't make you eat kitty kibble this time, Suno." Rena patted him on the back. "Don't worry!" On the other hand, Rena herself was the biggest mystery here. Nobody was acknowledging the biggest elephant in the room, they didn't even know what to say to her, or if they should ask. The first thing she had asked when she came around was if she had won the battle she fought. Suno had acted normally as if he had no part in it, but it just provided more questions. Still, Temari and Kankuro were terrified to ask her in case what happened then happened again.
Gaara, on the other hand, barely tore his eyes away from her. What secrets did her mind hold, things she wasn't telling him? And that blood...he wanted to imbue his sand with it. No, he wanted to bask in it himself. His sand wouldn't be able to keep the blood; he'd have to absorb it all through his skin. More than anything, he wanted to get his hands on a drop of her blood, to taste it and keep it inside him. It made his stomach feel a little funny thinking about it; he himself had never thought about consuming blood, but hers was such a beautiful color that he couldn't help himself.
He caught his strange behavior before he started breathing heavily, but his fever was still getting worse. He wanted more than just to stand and look at her; he wanted to violate all he could that was Rena and break her thoroughly. Only then would she truly be his… there was never enough blood.
What snapped him out of his obsessive stupor was Rena's fingers grazing against his cheek. He paused, his eyes flicking to them, making no move to stop her from touching him. "Sorry. It seemed like your mind was elsewhere and you were looking at me in a weird way." The urge to break her faded. He could feel his pulse slow to a normal beat. He'd get a chance to consume her blood at some point, even if now wasn't that time.
"The next match is about to begin if you'd all turn your attention to the board.." They both turned their heads to the board, names spinning. People waited, in anticipation, some eagerly gripping the rails. "Huh…?" Silence fell upon the room. "That… is that right..?"