Yah! Here you go… people have been wanting to add stuff to this… I don't know why… but it was something random… I'll tell you at the end of this chapter.
Enjoy!
Chapter 20
Karma
"First of all, before we start, I need you to sign a waver that basically says that if you die from here on out, I am not responsible for your death."
Asuka's jaw slightly gaped. What?
Anko still sounded too... happy about all of this. "Just go to that tent and sign it or else you wont be able to continue any further," She pointed to a tent to her right. "And the goal of this is to get two scrolls. There is the 'earth' and 'heaven' scroll. Each team will have one of the two kinds of scrolls. For those of you who still don't understand, you HAVE to collect both kinds of scrolls to pass."
So, It doesn't matter what you do, the most who will past are seven teams.
"You will have five days to get the scrolls needed and meet up at the checkpoint for the third round, good luck. Oh, and by the way, the people around you, aren't your only enemy when you enter that forest." She flashed us a smile and a peace sign before disappearing in a puff of smoke.
"She sounds too happy for this..." Asuka commented.
"Noted." Neji acknowledged. "Come on, let's go sign and get the scroll, any volunteers to carry it?"
"Lee can't carry it because of lack of packs and his spandex suit is a dead giveaway." Asuka stated.
Lee nodded sadly, knowing that it's true. "Asuka could carry it, she has plenty of packs."
"True, but that would also be also a dead giveaway." Neji replied. "Because there are people who can pickpocket things in a blink of an eye, plus it is the first thing that they would check."
"So it needs to be in the clothing." Asuka commented.
"Exactly, now... since Asuka has the most clothing..." Neji stared at her.
"... If you're thinking what I think you're thinking then it's a no, my cup size as at most a B, I am only twelve." She crossed her arms and glared at him.
Neji face-palmed and sighed. "No, I mean put it under your dress in your tights, can you do that?"
"Oh, yah... yah I can do that." She blushed and scratched the back of her head. "My bad..."
Neji rolled his eyes and entered the tent with his team behind him. They all signed and were handed the heaven scroll and Asuka went into the nearby bathroom. It took her a bit before she could get it into a comfortable place that didn't standout, but looked like it was part of the pack that rested on her butt. She came out and found her team.
"You ok?" Neji asked.
"Yah, it's all good." She gave him a warm smile and put her arms around her teammates' necks. "We can do this!"
"With the power youth!" Lee's eyes filled with fire and fist pumped.
"Yes!" Asuka let go of Neji and fist pumped with him.
"Quit it, we need to go into our gate." Neji stated to them as he started walking.
Asuka and Lee caught up to their leader. "So, what's the plan?" Asuka hushed her voice and asked.
"First, we need to see what were up against; it's not called the 'Forest of Death' for no reason." Asuka and Lee nodded and let him continue. "When we get in, then we will come up with a plan, got it?" They both nodded. "Good, get ready."
They both got into their running stance, not too tense and not too loose, ready for the gates to open now.
Moments past and they heard a 'click' and the gates opened. Their team hopped off and ran to the left. They got in their formation with Neji leading, Asuka to the left and Lee to the right.
Within a few minutes, they found a nice tree to settle on and think of a plan.
"This is far enough." Neji stated.
"So, any updates on the plan?" Lee asked.
"Well, I haven't gotten a good view on the creatures that she mentioned, so..." He paced on the giant branch the team was resting on.
Asuka then spotted something and her eyes filled with horror as she fell to the ground and backed away to the trunk of the tree. Lee saw this and the thing Asuka was looking at; he swiftly got to her side and covered her mouth.
"Don't scream, it's nothing ok? Nothing, absolutely nothing." Lee tried comforting her.
"What's wrong?" Neji queered.
"Look." Lee pointed to the horrible, ugly, dark thing that crawled to them.
"A spider, a tiny tarantula? You have got to be kidding me." He pinched the bridge of his nose and easily killed the spider with his sandals. "See? It's nothing, now about the plan..." He put a hand to his chin and closed his eyes.
Crash!
A giant pair of hairy fangs went to Neji, Asuka saw this and tackled Neji out of the tree and to the ground. Lee jumped out of the tree in time before the tree broke and crashed to the ground.
Asuka's eyes filled with horror again as she choked out a scream and backed away.
It was a giant, hairy, brown tarantula. It's eight eyes were coal black and shiny as day. It looked over to Neji and threw a hairy leg toward him.
Neji dodged it, the leg left a giant crater. The debris nearly hit the frozen Asuka. Something grabbed the back of her jacket and carried her away from the debris.
She quickly swatted away the 'helper' and saw whom it was.
"Hatsuharu!" She hugged him tightly and quickly let him go. "I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have told you to go home."
He bit her arm and jumped, dodging a hairy leg.
"I'm so sorry, stay with me during the rest of this, please." She looked into his eyes and pleaded silently.
He nodded and licked her face.
I'd never leave your side, even if I'm on the verge of dying, I want to be with you until I die.
She let the warm-happy tears slide down her cheeks.
"Asuka! We need your help!" Lee yelled to her as he dodged a leg.
Her mind snapped back to reality, and the giant spider attacking them.
What do I do?
"Asuka! Snap out of it! We need you now!"
I'm so scared, what do I do?
Hatsuharu bit her hand and tried getting her to stand back up.
I need to do... something, but what do I do?
She took a couple of deep breaths and stood up with weak knees and shaky hands.
I need to end this, time for my secret weapon.
"Neji! Lee! Hatsuharu! Distract the spider, I got a surprise for you guys." She shouted to them as she pulled out her tiny summoning scroll.
"You really think that a 'surprise' is good right now?!" Neji shouted back to her.
"Trust me!" She opened the scroll and sliced her thumb with a kunai; then placed her blood stained hand on the scroll. A puff of smoke covered her whole right arm as she drew it back to reveal her elemental rapier sword.
"Let's do this." She smiled and channeled chakra into it. "Get back!" She struck the sword into the ground as her teammates jumped away and avoided her attack.
The earth rumbled beneath the spider, then the earth erupted with giant stone spikes and pierced the spider all over like a porcupine. She channeled more chakra into her sword and pulled it out of the ground and leaving the spikes into the spider.
The spider was still moving and trying to get out. Asuka wouldn't allow it to live any longer and ran to the spider with her chakra filled sword. She jumped and struck the sword into the spider. Electricity surged through the spider, all of its eyes popped and spewed blood. Its fangs parted and drooled blood. Its struggling soon stopped as most of its blood left the lifeless arachnid. She sheathed her sword in the purple holder that came with the sword and jumped off the spider.
Both Neji and Lee gave her disbelieving looks.
"Where did you... How?" Lee was speechless.
"Kakashi sensei gave it to me, probably for the Chūnin exams." She patted her sheathed sword and smiled.
"You should have told us this, we could have made a new strategy with your new weapon." Neji swiftly told her with a hint of ice.
"I know, but you know how I am." She brushed past him and winked. "I'm full of surprises."
"Quit joking around! We need the scroll." Neji glared at the back of her head, mentally burning a hole through her skull.
"I know, I know, cool it ok? We need to stay calm and collective if we want the other scroll." She looked around and hopped to a tree with the others following.
"I know." Neji told her harshly. "We need to find somebody with the scroll we need, I suggest we split up, cover more ground." He threw a kunai into the tree's thick branch. "We'll meet up in an hour, and whatever you do, don't engage an enemy, just observe."
"In my opinion, that's a terrible idea, we need to gather food and water for night time, the sun is going down." Asuka stated to him.
"How can you tell with all of this thick greenery?" Neji queered coldly.
"Look at the shadows, and it's getting colder." Neji saw that her statements were true, the shadows were stretched and the wind grew colder with every passing minute.
He sighed and massaged his temples. "Your right, fine, we'll set up camp for the night."
"Good, Hatsuharu and I will gather food." She petted her companion's head and smiled.
"I'll find wood." Lee stated.
"And I'll get water, we meet under this tree in one hour, got it?" They all nodded and went their separate ways.
ooOoO0OoOoo
After they gathered back in an hour as promised, they all ate and soon fell asleep. Asuka took the first nightshift and agreed to wake Hatsuharu after three hours, then Lee, and last Neji. It was a cool night, the stars were out and it was a full moon. That tempted her to go above the treetops and sketch the moon. But sadly, she couldn't she had a team to look after. That's the only reason she needed to stay grounded.
She kept her hearing open and eyes sharp for anything, even something as simple as a little soft breath or a squirrel. As the breeze blew past her, she sniffed softly. Even though her sense of smell wasn't as good as Hatsuharu or even Kiba's, she was still able to smell something odd.
A hint of cinnamon? Forests don't have cinnamon... She quietly pulled out her sword and kept her eyes on the area surrounding her teammates; her ears desperate for even a silent footstep.
Something or someone pulled the silent trigger in her mind, she jumped to her teammate's side and covered their bodies with a shield of earth just by a swish of her rapier. She then channeled wind chakra into her sword that made it expand into a fan as she swung into the direction the sound came from.
Neji busted through the earth shield, followed by Lee and Hatsuharu.
"What happened?" Neji asked.
"There's someone or something here." She replied as she looked around.
"Where? I don't see anything." Lee said as he got up.
Neji activated his Byakugan. After a few moments past, he kept his Byakugan on. "She's right."
Hatsuharu sniffed the air and growled to the left of their campsite.
Lee and Neji got into their fighting stance and slowly advanced to the greenery.
The bushes rustled and weak branches broke as whatever came there way, and out came...
A squirrel.
All of them were embarrassed by their mistaken conception, but Asuka, was mortified.
I actually threw an attack... at a squirrel... I hate myself.
She took a better look at the squirrel and still questioned the smell of cinnamon.
"Asuka, take a better observation next time," Neji pinched the bridge of her nose. "Lee, take her shift, she's been up for way too long."
Lee nodded and took her place.
Asuka narrowed her eyes at the squirrel, then quickly sliced off its head with ease.
Lee's jaw hit the ground and his eyes were completely white and wide. Neji was wide eyed too, but not as bad as Neji.
"Why did you do that?!" Lee asked shockingly. "It was just an innocent squirrel.
"'Innocent squirrel', pft, yah right, just wait." She pointed to the decapitated squirrel. After a quick second, a puff of smoke covered the squirrel and revealed a girl with black hair reaching her shoulders with blue tips.
"A Shinobi!" Lee stated surprisingly.
"And not just any Shinobi, a Shinobi from the hidden waterfall village." Asuka commented as she searched the young girl. "If there's one, there's more somewhere."
"Agreed, lets go, we've spent enough time here." Neji ordered. "Asuka, is there a scroll on her?"
"Yah, but it's the heaven scroll, it's no use to us... but." She took the scroll and gave it to Hatsuharu. "You know what to do."
Hatsuharu nodded happily and pranced away with his tail held high.
"What is he doing?" Lee queered.
"He's going to burry it, make it harder for another team to find it." She smirked as Hatsuharu came back sooner than expected.
"Good idea, ok, lets go." Neji told them as he started to lead the way through the trees.
It seemed like hours have past, their energy was low, but they kept their strength up because they have done things like this before.
"Alright, since Asuka's plan didn't work, let's go with my plan and split up. If we run into trouble, just run back to the checkpoint." Neji threw a kunai into a tree again. "Hatsuharu will be here to warn us if anything goes wrong, got it?"
They all nodded, and this time without a peep from Asuka. They dispersed and left Hatsuharu behind.
They all came back within the hour and waited a few minutes on Lee, after about ten minutes past, they grew more and more suspicious.
"This isn't like him." Asuka commented. "He's never this late, even if he's limping he's not even a second late."
"Let's go find him." Neji told her.
She nodded and took the kunai out of the tree and handed it to Neji. He took it and nodded, and then let Hatsuharu take the lead to find Lee.
"You still have the scroll?" Neji asked.
Asuka slapped her butt and felt the hard cylinder laid horizontally right above her bottom. She nodded and smiled to him.
"Good, are we close to Lee?" Neji queered.
Hatsuharu nodded and muffled a bark. His ears and eyes perked out of nowhere, he then quickened his pace.
"What is it?" Neji asked a bit more frantic.
"He smells blood and Lee's scent." Asuka told him, she lowered her head and quickened her pace.
"Wait! Stay in formation." Neji quickly told her.
She sighed and slowed her pace to match his.
"Don't worry, Lee is fine for now." Asuka told him, "But if we don't get there soon, he might not be alive."
"We need to hurry." Neji complied.
She nodded and nearly tripled her pace, this was far faster than Neji's pace and he knew it. But he let her get ahead anyway for his teammate's sake.
She quickened her pace even more and nearly got ahead of Hatsuharu and jumped out of the trees to a small opening with seven people on the battle field. Three of them she had no idea whom they were, one Lee on the ground and unconscious, and the other three were Sakura taking care of a knocked out Naruto and Sasuke.
Damn... I can do this.
She grinned and landed on the ground and struck her sword into the ground; sending earth shockwaves to the three unknown Shinobi.
"Who are you?!" The sound nin with what looked like a giant fur pelt on his back asked her.
"My name is Asuka, and these are my friends." She turned around to face them with a cocky grin. "If you dare try to hurt my friends," She pulled her sword out of the ground and twirled it in her hands. "I'll kill you."
"You seem so serious, lets see if you can really stay true to your word." the other sound nin with black spiky hair spoke up.
"With pleasure." She picked up Lee by his arm and tossed him into Sakura's arms. "Look after him until I get done playing with these guys."
She didn't say a word, but did as she said and tended to Lee.
Hatsuharu jumped to her side and growled at the sound nins. Asuka petted him and looked at them with sharp eyes. "Now that there are no distractions, I'll be able to kill you easily."
The female sound nin grinned and gave her a challenging look. This was the spark to Asuka.
She took her sword out of the ground and slashed at it, sending earth spikes their way. One of the spikes grazed the spiky black haired nin's arm.
"You'll pay for that." He said angrily as he pointed his palms to her. There was something strange with his palms, he had pitch black holes rimmed with silver in the center of his palms.
These were sound nin, so Asuka knew what was coming next, and what she had to do. Channeling wind chakra into her sword made it expand into a fan, she swung her fan to the boy and blew him back, along with his sound.
"Sound travels it's fastest in water, but is slowed by powerful winds." Asuka chirped, "You have no chance against me if you depend only on sound."
"But what if we got in close?" The guy with the fur pelt on his back stated; he sped off to her and tried punching her. She evaded him and channeled her fire chakra into the sword while it was still a fan and blew it to him.
Hatsuharu barked to her, she knew that Hatsuharu couldn't fight against the sound nin. He is a wolf, and his hearing is far superior than any other human, making him especially weak against the sound nin.
Asuka tilted her head towards Sakura and Lee, making Hatsuharu guard them while she fought off the sound nin. She jumped onto a sturdy tree branch and kept a good eye on the sound nin.
C'mon Neji, I can't face them on my own with three others injured.
She took a deep breath and exhaled, ready to continue on with the fight.
"I suggest you leave now before I have to pull a move that will leave you speechless for hours." Asuka threatened them.
"Ha! What can you possibly do on your own?" The female sound nin teased.
A lot more than you think.
Asuka focused more chakra into her sword and dragged it along the tree as she slowly stepped off the branch and scratched the trunk all the way down with her sword. Her feet finally made contact with the ground with the sword still connected to the tree. A grin curled as she looked at them with teasing eyes; pulling the sword out of the tree swiftly, she brought out all of the old tree's stored water, making the tree weak, frail, and dry. The water formed into a familiar shape of a wolf and threw the water to the sound nin.
It was almost impossible to dodge, the water made contact with the sound nin and pushed them several yards back. She withdrew her sword and held it behind her back, facing downward and started focusing more chakra with her eyes closed.
"Is that all?! Man your pathetic!" The spiky hair nin declared.
"Keep a sharp eye on her you idiot! She's plotting something." The guy with the fur pelt warned his team.
After a moment of silence, Asuka opened her eyes and had a stare down with the apposing team. "I've been working on this move for weeks now, it's only fair to test it on decent opponents such as yourselves." She revealed her sword to them, electricity sparked out of the sword, just itching to make contact with something, or someone. "I'll be sure not to miss." She closed her eyes again and focused more on her taijutsu and whispered, "Gate of Opening, open."
Her eyes shot back up and dashed to them, slicing her sword thru all of them in one go. Sending shockwaves throughout their bodies and their screams silent. She stood yards away from them with her sword sheathed and her face calm.
It actually worked!? Gah! I never thought that would... I wonder though... Did I look badass?... I hope so. On the inside she was practically screaming and crying from joy. In reality, she was calm and collected, not a single hint of emotion showing.
"Asuka," Neji came from the trees, "I saw everything with my Byakugan..." He averted his eyes for a moment and looked into her eyes again. "That was foolish of you to fight all three of them on your own, you should have woken up Lee first, then fight."
"If you really did see everything, then you should know that I took care of it, nobody else got hurt, that's all that matters, and..." She went over to the stiff bodies and started searching them. After a short moment, she pulled out a scroll. "We now have the earth scroll, just what we needed, right?" She smiled teasingly at him.
Neji took the scroll and sighed, "Fine, but don't do anything reckless again."
"Reckless?" She queered, "What are you talking about? I planned that out to the end and it happened just as I thought it would, I can do this too Neji." She glared at him with fire in her eyes. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to wake Lee up."
Neji glared at the back of her head as she walked over to their teammate. She picked him up and vigorously shook his shoulders.
"Wake up Lee. Come on, I know you've taken a worse beating than that." She shook him a little less ruff and started lightly slapping his cheeks.
His eyes fluttered open and smiled as he noticed who was holding him. "Hey Asuka... what happened." His voice was tired, and you could tell he was groggy.
"I took care of the sound nin and we have the earth scroll now." She told him.
"Really? That's good... what of Sakura!?" Lee shot up and looked around to find the pink haired girl taking care of her teammates.
"I'm fine Lee, thank you for your help." Sakura flashed him a smile and then went back to her teammates.
Asuka grunted and pulled out a container of ointment then tossed it to Sakura. "Use that on them; they'll heal a lot faster than what you're doing."
Sakura nodded and started using the ointment on them.
"Time for us to go." Neji motioned his teammates to follow and they did as he said and went into the trees.
"I take it were going to the checkpoint now, right?" Asuka asked Neji.
He nodded, "Correct, but it'll be late by the time we even get halfway through this forest."
"So who's doing what?" Lee asked.
"Asuka, Lee, go find a good place to rest for the night. Hatsuharu, you're with me to find Asuka after we get supplies." Neji stated to them. They all nodded in agreement and went their separate ways. Lee and Asuka went to the North while Neji and Asuka headed East.
"So, how did that battle go exactly?" Lee curiously asked her.
"With me and sound nin?" He nodded and let her continue. "Well... I surprised them for sure." She gave him a toothy grin. "And I just paralyzed them for a few hours after I got them soaked to the bone in water."
"Wow Asuka! You sure have gotten stronger after only a few months." Lee smiled back at her. "You sure are a great example of youth in its bloom!" He gave her a thumbs up.
"Ha heh, no way, you're still way more youthful and hot blooded than me for sure." She patted him on the shoulder.
"Thank you Asuka! But you really have gotten stronger."
"Thanks Lee, but you and Neji are still stronger than me." She scratched the back of her head.
"You never know until we have a match." He gave her a competitive look.
"Oh no Lee, I know what you're trying to imply, and now is not a good time."
Lee sighed depressingly and quickly straightened up. "I know, it would be nice though if we could."
Yah... it would. I don't like the idea of fighting ninja from different countries. She shook those thoughts out of her head and focused. These are just enemies, if I think of them anything other than ninja, I might not make it out of this in one piece.
The wind blew a gentle breeze... and a familiar scent.
That scent again?... Where are you at now?
"Lee, keep a sharp eye out, I smell something off again..." Her eyes narrowed and darted her irises to all of her surroundings.
"What is it?" Lee queered.
snap!
Asuka saw what was coming, but Lee had no idea. She quickly stepped in front of Lee and blocked his path. She closed her eyes and braced for the upcoming pain. A large, sharp, cold object sliced through her stomach in went a bit further than expected. She felt it graze her spinal cord and stop to Lee's body.
"ASUKA!" Lee cried out and caught her limp body.
"Lee... Look out." Asuka weakly pointed behind him.
Lee turned around in time to see a nin coming for them. He quickly jumped out of the way and set Asuka near a hollow tree trunk.
"Asuka! Hang in there!" Lee reassured her.
"It's... only a flesh wound." She lightly-weakly laughed.
"No it's not!" Lee told her.
"Lee... you're bleeding." She placed a hand on his stomach; Lee quickly took her hand off of him and held her hand.
"This, is a flesh wound, we need to get Neji and Hatsuharu here fast."
"Use... this." Asuka dug into her jacket and gave him a dog whistle. "Only dogs... should be able to hear it."
Lee nodded and blew into the whistle as hard as he could. He sighed and put the whistle in his pouch just in case anything else goes wrong.
"Lee..."
"Don't speak." Lee told her. He looked over his shoulder to find the nin a few yards behind them.
"I finally found you!" The shinobi stated, "Now I'll kill you, just like you killed my teammate!"
"I'll be back Asuka, I promise." Lee stroked her cheek and blocked the upcoming kunai with another. "You are of the waterfall village, correct?"
The boy nodded, he also had black hair and blue tips, but his hair formed more of a Mohawk, his eyes were a light violet and his skin was fairly tan. "I'll kill you!"
Lee waited for the apposing shinobi to get to him. He was slow, but looked fairly strong as well.
Lee blocked his punch and threw him over his shoulder. He then advanced to him and repeatedly kicked and punched him in vital areas. After a moment or two of kicking, the guy fell to the ground and vomited.
"I give… I give… I'm sorry." The waterfall nin pleaded to Lee.
"Leave! If I ever see you again you will be sorry!" Lee kicked him one last time in the stomach and turned his back on the soaring nin. He went back to Asuka brushed the hair out of her face. "Are you ok?"
"I'll be... fine. I've had worse." She tried reassuring him with a smile. It didn't work.
"You have a Demon Wind Shuriken sticking out of your body!" Lee stated.
"Your not helping."
He sighed. "I'm sorry... what happened?"
"You stepped on a trip wire... I thought it was only going to be... a kunai." She placed her hand on the giant Shuriken. "I was clearly wrong."
"So... what do we do about it? Take it out?" Lee queered.
"No, we'll have to cut it off and leave the remaining blade within me... If we try taking it out, I'll bleed out and die right here."
"Well... how do we cut it? We don't have anything sharp or hot enough to cut through it."
"That's not true..." She pulled out her rapier. "I'm able to make this blade hot enough to cut through the hardest of metal, but I'll need your help."
"I'm not good with my chakra..." He averted his eyes in embarrassment.
She laughed weakly, "I know, I just need your help with moving my hand and keeping me quiet."
His eyes shot wide with his thick eyebrows raised. "What?"
"First though... I need your help with cutting the dress and making a gag." She pulled out a kunai and handed it to him. "Cut it all around my waist and pull off the separated dress... then cut it up more and make a gag."
Lee accepted the kunai hesitantly and looked over her. Her bleeding seemed to be almost done, but cutting the blade would make it worse and easier to move her to a safer location. "Are you sure?"
She nodded and led his hand to her waist. "I trust you won't make my condition worse...cough!" She started coughing up blood, Lee propped her body and helped level her head. "Hurry... this shuriken is really heavy, and is digging deeper and deeper by the minute." She groaned and clinched her fists in pain.
Lee nodded and started to cut away at her dress. It was jagged, but now was not a time to be perfect. He then quickly made the cloth a suitable size for a gag.
"Now, when you see my blade turn red, help me cut the shuriken just about an inch away from my skin." She started channeling the fire chakra into her sword. "Then I need you to put the gag in my mouth and cover it with your other hand, this is gonna hurt." The blade turned red, she looked at Lee's worried eyes. "You ready?"
He took a deep breath and exhaled. "Yes, I am ready." He put an arm around her shoulders and put the gag in her mouth and then placed his hand firmly over her mouth. He then put his other hand over her hand holding the red hot sword. He took another deep breath and started cutting through the shuriken.
Asuka's eyes shot wide for only an instant before her eyes tightly closed from the rest of the world. Her deathly screams were muffled with Lee's hand and gag, even with that.
Her screams would haunt Lee forever.
Every second he spent cutting through the blade, he regretted hurting her for the better. He couldn't stand his beloved friend and teammate in this much pain. The hot blade blistering her skin and making her skin turn red and black with scorch marks.
"Focus your chakra Asuka! You're burning yourself!" Lee warned her.
Her screams stopped only for a moment for her to focus her chakra with her deep breathing. She continued channeling the right amount of chakra for the blade to cut through the giant shuriken.
She tilted her head back and tightened her grip on the helpless plants cushioning her hurt body. Her nails got through the weak weeds and started digging into her palm, leaving crescent moon shaped cuts into her skin.
For what seemed like years, possibly centuries, was only a mere minute to cut through the thick shuriken. Lee let go of her hand and allowed her to drop the blade next to her weak body. He then moved the, now odd shaped, shuriken away from her, and left the blade in her alone. Then he took some powerful ointment out of her bag and started rubbing it into her blister-burned skin and around the edges of the blade embedded skin.
After he was done treating her wounds, he took out her blood soaked gag and filled with slight joy of the sight of her gasping for air. Her eyes slowly opened and looked at the wound with tired-hurt eyes. She then looked up at Lee and tried smiling warmly to him.
"You did good Lee..." She placed her fingernail-dug hand on his cheek and stroked his face, leaving four blood streaks on the side of his face. "I feel a lot better now."
He took her hand off of him and held it. "I'm sorry I wasn't watching where I was going Asuka, if I was more careful, this would never have happened." He squeezed her hand and refused to look her in the eye.
"Lee, I'm accident prone." She placed her other hand on his shoulder. "I was bound to get hurt during this, I knew it."
Lee looked her in the eye, he had a serious look on his face. "Quit using that as an excuse!" He raised his voice at her. "I hate seeing you get hurt! I hate it! I wish I could take all the blows for you! I wish-"
"Lee! If I had never taken a single blow that sent me to the hospital, then I would be the weakest Shinobi I know!" She sighed and licked her dry lips. "I would die for our team, I thought you knew that."
"I do... it's just..." Lee was hesitant, not sure what to say.
"Are you two ok?" Hatsuharu hopped out of the trees, followed by Lee. "Hatsuharu was acting crazy a while ago and started running this way..." He saw what condition Asuka was in, his facial expression not soon after they had shown up turned into anger. "What happened?" He gave a cold stare to Lee and Asuka.
Asuka was about to speak, but Lee spoke first. "I messed up and got Asuka hurt, this is all my fault."
"Is this true Asuka?" Neji transferred his icy cold stare to Asuka.
Her eyes were wide and looked up at Lee, his eyes were full of sadness, practically saying this is all my fault, I'm sorry either that or, I hate myself... She looked back to Neji.
"Well?" Neji slightly raised his voice.
She closed her eyes and looked away. "Yes, I warned Lee to watch where he was going, he then set off a tripwire and I stepped in front of him; blocking the Demon Wind Shuriken." She pointed over to the broken shuriken weakly.
Neji pinched the bridge of his nose. "Is the scroll alright?" Asuka nodded and held up the scroll for him to see. "Good, we need to get a move on. But, now we can't afford to go anywhere."
"Not entirely..." Asuka told him. "Did you bring back water?"
"Yes, why?" Neji asked as he pulled out one of the canteens filled with water.
"Let Hatsuharu have it, pour it into his mouth, all of it." Asuka ordered him.
Neji did as she said and filled the wolf's mouth with water. Hatsuharu closed his mouth and let it settle.
After that, he opened his mouth to reveal a floating sphere of water. He then formed the water over Asuka's blade embedded waist and clamped his mouth shut; freezing the water and making the blade unable to move anymore, including her lower torso.
"Nice work, now we can move and get to the checkpoint. We can't afford to stop. Whoever set that trap will soon come back, lets go!" Neji told them. "Lee, carry Asuka, Hatsuharu can't carry her in her condition."
Lee nodded and carried her bridal style. Neji led the way and his team followed closely behind. Hatsuharu had Asuka's sword in his mouth and the scroll in one of his pouches.
A wave of exhaustion finally hit her. Her vision was cloudy and eyelids started to get heavy. "Lee..."
"Go to sleep, don't worry about us." Lee gave her a quick smile and continued on ahead.
As soon as he said that, she fell asleep in his arms as the wind blew through her slightly blood stained hair as some of the stray strains of hair stuck to her face.
Ok, the first thing that was added/deleted was by my friend, he is a major Lady Gaga fan and added this during the fight with the sound nin, "And Lady Gaga saved them all with her Disco Stick…" yah… you see why that was deleted… but that gives me a lot of ideas for some crack story.
The second thing was by y debate partner, he is a creepypasta fan, I forgot where, but he added something about Jeff the Killer when Lee was fighting the waterfall nin.
And for those of you who don't get why I named this chapter "Karma" it's because what comes around goes around... When Asuka killed the female waterfall nin and that trap went off... yah...
I'll see you guys in a few days!
March 18, 2013
*There's No Rest for the Wicked*
Reminder: If I get thirty reviews for this story, I will post the next chapter the next day.
Follow the arrow and review please! It helps me out a lot.
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