*Chapter 15*: Chapter Thirteen: White Rabbit
Foreword: Okie dokie- the properly beta'd version of Chapter thirteen. TY again, G!
Previously: After an encounter with sound nin that turns incredibly violent, team akachi takes the first portion of the chuunin exam. Naruto's Kamigan gains a new strength, and during a moment of desperation Naruto develops an ability unique to the Mangekyou Kamigan to accelerate his experience of time so greatly as to seem to make time stand still. At the end, only fifty eight genin remain, when the second exam proctor arrives: A wood jutsu user by the name of Yamato...
Chapter Thirteen: White Rabbit
Yamato surveyed the room. "Ibiki, I feel compelled to ask. Are you feeling unwell today?"
Ibiki snickered. "Why do you ask?"
"Because there are far too many teams here," replied Yamato in a sort of grey monotone. "There is no logical reason to believe a full thirty-eight percent of the applicants should make it to the second exam, unless you are somehow being handicapped. I should only have to deal with perhaps twenty percent of the original entrants."
Ibiki laughed. "Careful, Yamato. I'm tempted to believe you showed an emotion there. As to the teams, we have applicants of exceptional caliber this year."
Yamato nodded, then turned his unblinking, expressionless eyes on the genin. "For the next portion of the exam, report immediately to training ground forty-four within the next half hour. If you are unfamiliar with the area or the route to it you may follow me. Should all members of your team not report in by the end of the thirty-minute deadline, your team will be disqualified. That is all."
The genin stared after him as he walked for the room, then belatedly realized the creepy unblinking guy was probably their only way to the training ground. The rush to follow was quite comical in Ibiki's eyes.
After the last of them had left, Ibiki began collecting up the test sheets. He paused, looking at the test sheet filled in by — he double-checked the name at the top of the page — Uzumaki. His eyes casually lit on his answer to question Six.
"Henge no Jutsu is the finest of the shinobi arts," Ibiki read out loud to himself. "But its applications are directly limited by the wit and imagination of the user. By careful use and assessment of one's surroundings, Henge may provide a weapon, a diversion, a decoy, or even a means to hide in plain sight. When used in conjunction with more advanced techniques, it can be used to plant misinformation, interfere with enemy intelligence gathering operations, deceive a classroom full of genin into believing they are writing on test sheets, and even... the proctors who are... collecting... them."
All at once the majority of the test sheets changed into Naruto Kage Bunshin, who promptly collapsed in a pile before vanishing in puffs of smoke, save one who remained on the desk. The only test sheets remaining were those of Team Akachi and Team Eight. The bunshin who remained asked thoughtfully, "Say... since we're the only ones who handed in our test sheets, that makes us top scorers, doesn't it?" Then, that bunshin also disappeared, leaving Ibiki to stand alone, staring at the seven remaining test sheets.
After a moment, Ibiki picked up the last of the seven pages, and took them to his desk, where he sealed them in a manila envelope. The Hokage is just going to LOVE this one, he thought to himself.
"Whoa."
That word fairly well summed it up. As the genin passed through the force field illusion, what had at first seemed to be a normal, dull section of isolated woods turned out to be a section of old growth forest of daunting proportions. In either direction, encompassing the area, as far as the eye could see, stretched a thirty-five foot high chain-link fence. Beyond it grew trees so massive that to call them trees was somehow demeaning. A mere 'tree' was trite when set behind these towering, twisting behemoths. Moss patches grew on them, looking like meager spots and splotches, even though, in order to be visible from so high on the trunks, each had to weigh a ton or more of pure, mossy plant material. Massive vines strung themselves between trees and across them, their main stems six or more feet across.
This was a place of primeval, terrifying power... Nature at its wildest and most fearsome.
Naruto could feel the natural wood chakra pulsing at him in waves from this place. The power of the plant life was staggering. There were trees here that could be thousands of years old. How is this possible? wondered Naruto. These trees... this place, what is it? Trees this size are... impossible! They should collapse under their own weight!
THESE CREATURES ARE OLDER THAN YOU CAN COMPREHEND, Kyuubi replied with a hushed respect and... fear? TREES AS YOU KNOW THEM ARE BUT LARVA WHEN SET BESIDE THESE ANCIENTS. THESE ARE NO LONGER TREES.
What? What are they, then?
THERE IS NO NAME FOR WHAT THEY ARE. THEY ARE THE OLDEST AND MOST POWERFUL BEINGS THAT MAY STILL BE CALLED MORTAL, AND THEIR MINDS BEYOND THE COMPREHENSION OF SUCH AS YOU.
ONLY A SINGLE TREE IN A THOUSAND THAT LIVES SO LONG AS THESE EVER AWAKENS. THERE ARE SEVERAL DOZEN BEHIND THE CONFINES OF THAT FENCE. THIS IS A GROVE OF THEM, TO REBUILD THEIR NUMBERS.
Rebuild? What do you—
Yamato had stopped in front of one of the gates. "We will begin the next phase of the exam in ten minutes. Relax yourselves while we wait for stragglers."
Naruto sat down on the grass and renewed his conversation with the Kyuubi. You said rebuild. Rebuild from what?
THEIR WAR.
"War?" Naruto was so startled he spoke out loud. The other genin nearby him shot him strange looks, but he ignored them. Silently he asked, How can trees have a war?
I TOLD YOU. CREATURES SUCH AS THESE MAY NO LONGER BE CALLED TREES. THESE BEINGS HAD —
AND LIKELY, STILL HAVE — POWERS AND KNOWLEDGE BEYOND YOUR CONCEPTION, LET ALONE COMPREHENSION OR GRASP. IT IS THIS VERY KNOWLEDGE AND POWER THAT PERMITS THEM TO SURVIVE THE SIZE TO WHICH THEY HAVE GROWN.
Wait… You said there were several dozen of them. What about the rest of the trees?
THE AWAKENED ONES HAVE KEPT ALIVE THOSE TREES NEAR THEM, IN HOPES THAT SOME OF THEM,
LEFT ALONE LONG ENOUGH, MIGHT AWAKEN ON THEIR OWN. THIS, I IMAGINE, IS ONE OF THE FEW SUCH
GROVES REMAINING IN THE WORLD. THEY HAVE TRADED THE LAND SURROUNDING THEM FOR PEACE WITH THE HUMANS HERE. LIKEWISE, THEY TRADED THE MEREST SLIVERS OF THEIR KNOWLEDGE TO YOUR VILLAGE AT ITS FOUNDING, MAKING KONOHA THE MOST POWERFUL OF THE HIDDEN VILLAGES.
Say what?
The Kyuubi's mental tone held a trace of amusement. WHY ELSE WOULD YOUR VILLAGE BE HIDDEN IN LEAVES, FOOLISH BOY? ALTHOUGH, it added with a thoughtful tone, YOU, WITH YOUR ACQUIRED ABILITY TO USE WOOD JUTSU, MAY ACTUALLY BE ABLE TO COMMUNICATE WITH THEM... AFTER A FASHION.
Speak with them... 'after a fashion'? Naruto asked. What's that supposed to mean?
IMAGINE AN INSECT. ONE THAT, THROUGH SOME MIRACULOUS GIFT, WAS GRANTED THE POWER OF SPEECH, Kyuubi suggested.
You mean, like Shino's bugs? Naruto asked with a mental nod.
NO. NOT LIKE THEM. THE KIKAICHU BEETLES HE USES ARE A TRULY GIFTED SPECIES, ALMOST AS
INTELLIGENT AS HUMANS. AND THESE ANCIENTS ARE THE REASON THAT THE BREED EXISTS. NO, I
MEANT A CREATURE LIKE AN ORDINARY FLY. LET US SAY THAT FOR A FLY, THIS INSECT IS INCREDIBLY
GIFTED, ABLE TO TRULY UNDERSTAND MAYBE TWENTY WORDS AS ABSTRACT CONCEPTS OR PERHAPS — IF IT WAS TRULY TALENTED — THIRTY. HOW WOULD YOU COMMUNICATE WITH SUCH A CREATURE, SPEAKING TO IT IN YOUR LANGUAGE? HOW MUCH YOU KNOW, COMPARED TO THIS FLY?
NEVER MIND GETTING IT TO UNDERSTAND YOU, HOW MUCH CAN YOU RELATE TO SOMETHING SO LIMITED? NOW, NEXT TO THE ANCIENTS, YOU ARE THE FLY. THAT IS WHAT I MEAN BY COMMUNICATION OF A SORT.
Wait, wait, wait. Back up. What do you mean the ancients are the reason the Kikaichu exist?
THE ANCIENTS HAVE THE KNOWLEDGE TO CREATE AND ALTER LIFE. THEY ARE THE ONES WHO IMPARTED THE VERY BASIC KNOWLEDGE TO CREATE BLOODLINES SUCH AS THE SHARINGAN.
Naruto's head was spinning. Glancing around, trying to find a small distraction, he noticed that most of the genin were there already. Apparently one team was still lagging behind. Finally, Naruto said, You know, it's true I may not be able to understand, at first, what they're talking about. But... You could understand them, right?
. . . The Kyuubi let this hang for several seconds, before asking, WHAT ARE YOU DRIVING AT, KID?
You can explain stuff to me better than they can because you've known me my whole life. And since you can understand them better than I can...
INTERESTING... YOU TRANSLATE THEIR WORDS TO ME, THEN I TRANSLATE THEIR MEANING TO YOU. IS THIS WHAT YOU MEAN?
Yeah! Naruto said. You always put things better than I do.
KID, THOSE EYES OF YOURS ARE MESSING WITH YOUR BRAIN. AND I SHOULD KNOW, BECAUSE I AM THE ONE ALWAYS REPAIRING THE DAMAGE.
Damage? What damage?
THE DAMAGE YOUR KAMIGAN IS DOING TO YOUR BRAIN, AND THE DAMAGE YOUR MANGEKYOU
SHARINGAN IS DOING TO YOUR EYES. WITHOUT ME, YOU'D HAVE GONE BLIND FROM THE MANGEKYOU
BY NOW. AND DISREGARDING THAT YOU SOULD ALREADY BE DEAD BECAUSE THE COMBINATION OF
SHARINGAN AND BYAKUGAN SLOWLY BURNING OUT THE NERVE CELLS IN YOUR BRAIN OVER THE COURSE OF ABOUT TWELVE HOURS, IF LEFT UNCHECKED. TOO MANY CHAKRA CONNECTIONS. The Kyuubi gave a mental chuckle. SO… WHAT'S IN IT FOR ME?
Knowledge, duh! Naruto replied. Not only do you learn everything I do from all this, but you're smarter than I am, right? So when you finally go free, you'll gain more benefit out of it than I ever did. Besides, how often is a fire spirit gonna get to talk to an all-knowing tree being? I mean, it's not like you can just walk up and say hello to them, after all. Fire and wood don't exactly mix in their favor, you know?
. . . The kyuubi seemed to mull this over.
Hey, Bii-san... Naruto asked. How is it that you know all this stuff, anyhow?
The Kyuubi's mental tone shifted immediately dangerous. I DO NOT WISH TO TALK ABOUT IT.
Huh? Naruto asked. Why not?
Naruto never got his answer; Yamato's voice interrupted his mental conversation. "Nineteen teams. You three came close to disqualification."
"Our apologies," replied the long-haired nin of the approaching team from Kusagakure. "We ran across... a light snack."
The huskiest of the three, dressed in heavy robes, was eating a rabbit, the blood running down his chin. The rabbit's white fur was stained with its own blood; a hind leg still jerked spasmodically but its complete lack of any other motion indicated the creature was quite dead.
Naruto's mind froze like a crystal lake. His mind's eye flashed to another white rabbit, so long ago… was it really only six weeks? Shikamaru had called it a decoy rabbit. Something welled up in his mind, drowning out all other thought.
I saved that rabbit... these guys killed it! I comforted it but they're eating it, I saved it, they killed it, I loved it but they killed it they're-
KID?
-they'reeatingitthey'reeatingitEATINGITEATINGIT-
OH, SHIT.
Sasuke and Shikamaru knew the signs as Naruto slipped into his killer mode, although they'd never quite seen it this bad. Naruto's eyes focused on one of the late arriving Kusa nin. His chakra spiked, but almost immediately a second chakra welled up... in opposition? Neither of them questioned their good fortune; they were just thankful the second chakra had bought them enough time to subdue Naruto. Shikamaru's shadow held Naruto pinned in place, while Sasuke blocked Naruto's line of sight with his hands and began speaking in soothing tones, not relaxing until Naruto's trembling stopped.
Yamato eyed the group with a detached sort of curiosity, before turning back to face the group as a whole. "Each team will be given one scroll, either an earth scroll, or a heaven scroll. You must reach the tower with one each earth and heaven scrolls. This is a team event so should you not reach the tower with all members of your team alive and in at least fighting shape, you will be disqualified. It has been decided that since there is an extra team, and that team has an extra member, that team will receive one of each scroll. To offset this unfair advantage, that team will not be able to enter the tower until the fifth day. You may now hand in your consent forms to receive your scroll. After you have done so, you may choose a gate. You will be informed when to begin. That is all."
"My lord," said Mika, the 'Kusa nin' in the sewn leather face mask. "I urge caution. T'would be best we lure Sasuke, all unwitting, from his comrades, that thou mayest strike at him undisturbed. Shouldst it be thy will, both Ukame and myself wouldst gladly give our lives that they be distracted and thusly grant thee thy chance to take the Uchiha."
"Mika, I'm wounded," said his long-haired companion and master, the Sannin Orochimaru. "You speak as if you believe I should be concerned over a handful of genin. Do you truly believe me so weak?"
A look of panic overcame Mika as he stammered, "N-no, milord, o-of course not! I merely meant that my companion and I couldst save thee the trouble of dealing with the others whilst thou finishest Sasuke."
"Ah, Mika, do you forget? Half the fun in it for me is to play with my food. Perhaps you need a personal reminder of this?"
Mika bowed his head. "Milord. I hath spoken in haste. Shouldst it be thy will, I humbly accept thy disapprobation, and stand ready for thy chastisement, though I dost beseech thee to grant thy forgiveness unto me."
"Always such pretty words leave your mouth," replied Orochimaru. "But I guess this is why I keep you around. That, and your unswerving devotion to anything I say." He smiled, his tongue licking his lips. "I'll take the team myself. You may amuse yourselves by killing any other Konoha teams you like."
Mika felt a sinking sensation as he knew his protestations for caution had fallen on deaf ears. Numbly, he said, "An' it please thee, milord, so shall I be guided by thee in this."
"...That is all."
Shikamaru frowned. The real message to Team Akachi was that they were a prime target. Even though nobody knew what scroll any other team had, they knew that this was one team in the exam who could be counted on to have the scroll anyone needed. And if two teams confided in one another having opposite scrolls, all six team members could join forces and take out Team Akachi in one shot, providing both teams passage to the next phase of the exam. And they would be forced to stay out in the forest until at least the beginning of the fifth day of the advantage, my ass. They deliberately painted a big, fat bulls-eye on our asses and are leaving us to dangle over the piranhas for five days. They WANT us to be targeted by everybody in the exam. But why?
Shikamaru wondered.
Meanwhile, a few yards away, Sasuke was having worries of his own. This is... this can't be good, he thought, eyeing Naruto warily. He usually comes out of it by now.
Naruto had calmed somewhat, but for some reason, it was as though he hadn't really come back at all from wherever he went when his killing persona took over. Naruto simply stood there, staring off into space in the general direction of the forest.
Shikamaru moved close to Sasuke. "We've got a really bad problem," he said softly. "In case you haven't figured it out, they're giving us a handicap again for this exam. It's like they either want us dead, or for us to slaughter our way through the other examinees. And then, there's Naruto..." he added, trailing off.
"What is it?" asked Sasuke. "What's going on with him?" Shikamaru grimaced. "Have you ever heard of combat fatigue?"
Haku moved closer as well. "What is that?" he asked.
"It's a group of mental disorders, usually brought about by prolonged exposure to threats, and compounded in intensity by deep, constant feelings of isolation or an inability to find anywhere safe. The symptoms are vary wildly from person to person, usually influenced by the conditions they received it under and the fundamental personality of the person suffering from it. It was a real common injury during the first and second shinobi wars."
"Injury?" Sasuke scoffed. "But he's not hurt… I mean, it's all in his head… right?"
Shikamaru sighed. "I never would have thought I'd be saying this to you of all people, Sasuke, but... You're an idiot." He ignored Sasuke's scowl. "The brain is meant to learn from fear and danger. But the brain is like a muscle in that, if you work it too hard in one fashion, if you strain it and keep working it through the strain, you can tear it completely. But since the brain is so vital, there's really no way to shut off the fear response. The only solution is to remove the person from the situation.
"Adrenaline enhances the fear response; it operates on generally the same sections of the brain. And when it keeps happening, damage starts to occur to the rest of the logical functions the brain has to keep using. Naruto has been taking the forefront of every fight we've had since we started out as Team Seven. I'm pretty sure he's been in a constant state of adrenaline flood. He doesn't relax, have you noticed? Remember when you've tried to wake him — and that's only if you catch him asleep anymore. I haven't in the last two weeks. I haven't seen him more than pick at food in almost ten days, and it's starting to show on his face. Some of the biggest warning signs of combat fatigue are a heightened threat response, erratic behavior, mistrust of others… Any of these sound familiar?" Shikamaru didn't wait for them to respond. "But now he's doing the thousand-yard stare, a sort of state of hyper-vigilance. A state where anything that impinges on his threat meter will attract his attention as thought he'd been directly and imminently threatened, even if it is only vaguely connected to whatever he perceives as a threat and may even have nothing at all to do with him. And as powerful as he is, anything that crosses his path like that is likely gonna die. And that could just as easily be one of us."
"What could have done this to him?" asked Haku, tears streaming down his face, which wore an expression of horrified disbelief.
Naruto was still standing, staring off with that same empty look in his eyes. Shikamaru shook his head. "No man is an island," he said. "But Naruto has been alone in all the ways that matter for his entire life; alsone for so long, he doesn't believe he'll ever have or even deserves anything else. That's bad enough, but then when you factor in the combat stress, and what he does between the missions assigned to Team Akachi..."
Sasuke looked puzzled. "What does he do?"
"D-ranked missions. Until he heads home for the night, and hides under his bed," Shikamaru summarized succinctly. "He's done seven of them just since we got back the day before yesterday. And he does them alone, or with Anko-sensei supervising. Endless, tedious work interspersed with life-threatening, kill-or-be-killed situations. And it's constant. He hasn't taken longer than a half-hour break since we formed the team, and that was when we ran into the Sunagakure ninja."
"Hey, it's not like he's the only one working!" Sasuke retorted angrily. "We've killed. We were right there with him! It's not like he did all the fighting."
"Naruto's not like you, Sasuke," Shikamaru replied quietly. "The Uzumaki weren't a ninja clan… and they're not a clan at all anymore. They were medics and doctors. The Uzumaki clan was all but eradicated near the end of the second shinobi war in a mass assassination, similar to what your brother enacted on your clan. When Naruto was born, it made him only the third Uzumaki alive — and the other two are now dead. He used always to try to cheer people up, make them feel better, because that's what's in his blood. No Kekkei Genkai, just an inborn instinct to heal and comfort. His family lived to ease pain and heal hurts, and what he's been forced to become as a ninja is abhorrent to everything his healer's blood cries out for. It wouldn't be so bad if we were a normal team, but we're an assassination team. Killing is what we do. It's tearing Naruto apart, together with everything else, worst of all the fact that he's alone. If it were only one or two things — hell, if he even had somebody he could trust and confide in — maybe he'd be okay. But as things stand now..."
"How can we help him?" pleaded Haku. "How do we heal him?"
"He needs rest; real rest. And he needs to feel safe; needs someone he can trust," Shikamaru sighed. "Which means, none of us."
"Hinata," said Sasuke, nodding. "It has to be her. She's the only one."
Haku felt a white rage at the mention of the pale-eyed Hyuuga heiress. "Why her?" he demanded. "She can't possibly care about him the way—" He stopped short, blushing.
Sasuke wore a look of confusion, while Shikamaru looked at the body-suited genin with disbelief. Finally, Shikamaru said, "Are you... into guys?"
"I..." Haku bit his lip, unsure what to say or even what he felt.
"Part two of the Chuunin exams begins... Now," interrupted the nearby proctor. "You'd better get going. Everybody in the exam is likely to be gunning for you guys, and they've got five days to take their shot."
Naruto, for the first time since the appearance of the tardy Kusa-nin, showed signs of self direction, as he activated the Byakugan, alert for anything from any direction. "Let's go," he mumbled.
The team which had been stalking them was hoisted into the air by the net, leeches, panic, and all. One of them gave out a terrified scream, before all they were left the strength to do was thrash and moan, fighting to rid themselves of the sanguivorean vermin. "One team down," Kiba said with a smirk. Team Eight waited for the struggles in the net to weaken, before cutting them down and detaching the leeches. They were Konoha nin, after all.
Team Eight helped themselves to the other team's scroll. Luckily for them, it was a heaven scroll. With their own earth scroll, it meant all that Team Eight had to do now was traverse the distance to the tower without any further incident and enter. They'd just put the scroll away when a cultured voice rang out from behind them.
"Young miss Hyuuga, young masters Aburame and Inuzuka... I believe thou hast something which my team needs for success in our endeavors. So shall we be taking your scrolls tonight."
Team Akachi had only been in the gate for a couple of minutes when they heard a scream from somewhere not far from them.
"What was that?" asked Shikamaru. At the sarcastic look Sasuke gave him, he snorted. "Okay, then, I know what it was. The question is, who was it?"
"Should we investigate?" asked Haku.
"Could be a trap... On the other hand, we told Kabuto we'd help him. We do kind of owe him for the information earlier, not to mention that he can probably tell us about the skill sets of everybody we're up against," Sasuke commented.
The three of them looked at Naruto nervously, who was saying nothing, instead crouching in the curled root of a tree while scanning the area with the Byakugan.
"We gotta check it out," Sasuke said finally.
Kiba grunted at the impact from a slashing claw he'd blocked at the forearm, an attack he'd not had time or space to dodge. He'd learned quickly that the round faced Kusa nin's robes concealed a body pebbled over in scales and thorny spines. Worse, he seemed to have venomous blood. Akamaru was down after having bitten him, and the Kusa nin had attempted to spit some of his blood at the young Inuzuka. Everything in Kiba's soul screamed at him to attend to Akamaru, but if he stopped fighting now or let himself get distracted from this opponent, they were all dead.
Kiba had eaten a hyorogan already. The soldier pill helped him to recharge his flagging chakra reserves in the face of the lizard shinobi's assault. Ducking a clawed strike that couldn't have missed by more than a fraction of an inch, Kiba was yanked violently to the left as the swipe snagged and then tore through Kiba's furred hood with a rending sound. The sudden motion gave Kiba an unexpected opening, and he planted a foot quickly, converting his sideways motion into extra power for a gatsuuga into the Kusa nin's fractionally exposed ribs.
The Kusa nin flew backwards, spattering Kiba and the ground alike with mauve blood. The heavy shinobi caromed wildly off a nearby tree root, sending splinters, bark, fabric and dirt flying away as the Kusa shinobi's scaled and spiney skin scoured away plant and robes alike.
Kiba spun to face the gangly nin fighting his teammates; with one of the two temporarily out of the fight, the three members of team eight should be able to take down the remaining nin before his ally could rejoin them. As it was, the gangly Kusagakure ninja was fighting them both effectively, and seemed to be able to avoid Hinata's jyuuken strikes while evading Shino's bugs. Kiba charged into the gangly ninja's blindside…
And fell uncoordinated as his senses were overwhelmed by an odor beyond foul. His poise and balance ruined, Kiba's gatsuuga spun off target, ending with a painful sprawl and an unhealthy crunching noise from his left shoulder.
"Wh-what the..." he managed to say woozily as he gagged and reeled from the pain and smell.
"I'm an infiltrator," the kusagakure nin boasted smugly. "My sweat glands hath been altered to permit me to produce any scent. It permitest me to deceiveth the noses of guard dogs, evadeth scent-based trackers, and to sicken and disorient mine foes. And thusly, to members of thy clan, the Inuzuka, dost I be a fell foe indeed, by virtue of thine most excellent noses turned against thee."
Kiba retched again, and the Kusa nin faced off against his teammates, as the lizard ninja recovered from Kiba's solid hit and approached, picking out splinters and bark from the shredded remains of his robe. Kiba struggled to his feet onehanded and took up a fighting stance, his left arm hanging uselessly. Beside him, Hinata and Shino prepared to fight for their lives once more.
Naruto suddenly halted. "Team Eight is up ahead with two Kusagakure shinobi," he reported tersely. "Kiba's hurt, and his dog is down."
Shikamaru nodded and began speaking. "Haku, you stay back here with me. Naruto, support Team Eight in close; Sasuke, cover Naruto with long range jutsu."
"Shikamaru-san... why are we hanging back?" inquired Haku.
"Because you and I are best for disabling opponents; and there's only two of them out there right now," he explained. "If the third one shows up in the middle of the fight he can potentially disable us all with one wide ranged attack… unless we're here watching to ambush him when he shows up. With your speed and my tactical ability, I want us where we can respond from hiding. We stay hidden."
Sasuke nodded to Naruto who still had a distant look in his eyes. "Let's go."
Team Eight and the Kusagakure ninja both stepped back from the fighting, each side taking a small breather. The gangly nin with the spindly arms had lost his mask, and his companion was coughing up blood, as a lucky shot from Hinata's jyuuken had found its mark. Hinata herself, however, was limping, as one of the spiny growths on the lizard nin had caught the side of her right knee. Shino's insects had taken some casualties, as well, from a sudden fire jutsu performed by the spindly one. The heavy one now fitted some sort of plastic bag over his tongue.
"Hast thou prepared thyself for our assault, Ukame?" asked the spindly one.
His companion said, "You may proceed when ready, Mika."
Chakra flared, and the unpleasant smell swelled to all but unbearable levels. The odor hit them like a physical thing, driving back Shino's kikaichu, and throwing Kiba into convulsions.
Shino experienced a first in his life; his Kikaichu would not obey him. None of the tiny creatures would come within six feet of the gangly Mika. "Hinata... Give it to them," Shino said emotionlessly, stepping back defensively, "or they'll kill us all."
Hinata froze, and the one called Ukame smirked. "Oh, but you're mistaken. Tonight, it's not your scroll or your life. No, I'm afraid the conjunction of the day is, quite assuredly, 'and'."
Hinata's eyes widened, and she shoved Shino back, tripping Kiba at the same time, as Naruto came flying in from the tree-line, with Kubikiri Houcho poised for an overhand stroke that promised to split a boulder. For a second it looked as though the Kusa nin were unaware, then Mika took two steps backwards and spun, driving a clawed hand to punch through Naruto's abdomen in an upward thrust, spearing the blond genin and impaling him on the gangly shinobi's forearm. Kubikiri Houcho spun through the air, embedding itself in the ground as the clawed hand emerged from just under his right shoulder blade, blood and torn flesh flying backwards. Naruto vomited blood, and hung, clutching weakly at the shoulder of the gangly, long armed ninja.
"Hast thou any last words, feckless bungler?" asked Mika.
The boy spit blood and nodded. "Katsu."
The explosion was brutal. The force of it drove Mika into the ground hard. Blood and bone rained, and Mika's forearm tumbled, limply bouncing off the handle of Kubikiri Houcho.
Ukame roared in disbelief, as his comrade thrashed for a second, before his face went gray and he passed out. Ukame glanced around in desperation and fury, and screamed, "SHOW YOURSELF, COWARD!"
Naruto's blade vanished in a puff of smoke, and in his place Naruto stood. He pulled a scroll out and unrolled it in midair, before summoning from it Kubikiri Houcho, the real one. His eyes stared through the reptilian Ukame, not at him, as though not even seeing him. After a second, Naruto's eyes focused on the reptilian ninja, and he smiled a smile devoid of any semblance of mercy or humanity. "Rabbit," he whispered.
Ukame was speechless for a second, before he finally managed a, "W-what?"
"You ate him. You ATE HIM! YOU ATE HIM!" Naruto screamed, before charging forward. Ukame raised his arms and slashed at Naruto with one hand as Naruto charged by while trying to deflect the blade with the other. Then a trio of long slashes appeared in Naruto's side, spraying blood, but Ukame fell to the ground in two bloody halves and a welter of blood. The claws were strong and would have blocked most blades. But Kubikiri Houcho was not 'most' blades. In fact, reinforced with Naruto's chakra as it had been during the strike, Ukame may as well have not bothered to block at all.
Team Eight had never seen Naruto wounded before, and watched in amazement as his rent flesh closed back together, sealed up, and left no trace of the wounds but the bloody tears in his shirt.
"So. It would appear that Konoha's dirty little secret is a ninja, after all. At least, after a fashion."
On the edge of the clearing, a third Kusa-nin stood, with long, silky black hair. Hanging limply from his freakishly long tongue were Haku and Shikamaru. Of Sasuke there was no trace.
"Brat, drop the sword."
Naruto's eyes narrowed; his legs tensed.
And then he was engulfed in pain. Shuriken dotted his arms and legs. His hands were slashed from his arms; a red line from his throat began gushing blood. A dozen swords penetrated his body... And then, of its own, the Sharingan activated.
The phantom pain vanished; the images dissolved. Behind it all stood his opponent. The two incapacitated members of Team Akachi dropped to the ground, as the Kusanin drew kunai.
Naruto gave no warning and spared no time for response. Not to Team Eight, still paralyzed behind him. Not to his opponent's shock at his genjutsu being thrown off so easily. And certainly not to the demonic voice in the back of his mind that kept screaming his name.
End Chapter Thirteen
-AN: That is that.
As to why Naruto swapped out all the test sheets- not to mention, when, it was after the Suna nin asked how many of the top ranking teams they intended to pass. With that particular thought in mind, Naruto wished to be certain that Team Akachi and Team eight passed the first exam- by ensuring that they had the top scores. Of course, it was made academic thereafter by the fact that the tests were never actually graded, but it was still a rather dirty trick and a funny mental image, so I included it in the beginning of this chapter.
Had another request for lemon scented stuff- sorry, but I won't even have a decent OPPORTUNITY to take a break in the story for anything of the sort, and my earlier statement stands: I am NOT writing lemon for kiddies. If anything happens, it'll be offscreen, and probably alluded to, in the case of the genin, and if something arises between jonin instructors etc it'll MAYBE happen but I've never been an especially effective lemon writer. I hate to burst bubbles, but at the pace it's running right now, not much is likely to happen that I'll explicitly detail before the end of the Chuunin exams.
On the topic of Anko encouraging Naruto to drink. Well, I have a couple reasons for that inclusion in this story- Most notably, Anko isn't exactly a towering example of adult responsibility in canon. Not to mention, having only accompanied team akachi (As team seven, back then) once, she isn't fully aware of the depth of Naruto's issues. Plus, back then, Naruto wasn't nearly so bad is he's gotten to be recently, being that he was able to function more or less normally, outside of combat. Anko also has a bad tendency not to think far enough ahead- case in point, she tries to kill herself and Orochimaru at the same time, not really considering her own safety or even the possibility that Orochimaru wasn't just a clone. Between these factors, it seemed to me she would go for the quick fix herself- and likely, advise Naruto to do the same.
That's about it, I guess, except for the following preview and Omake.
Preview of Chapter Fourteen: The Snake and the Fox
Orochimaru found himself immediately on the defensive as the enormous sword in the blond's hands sheared through the kunai he'd tried to deflect it with. The last two fingers on his hand flopped uselessly; the same stroke had severed the Radius of him left arm and the tendons attached to them- until he could repair the damage he'd be down to forming seals one handed. But Naruto's rapid, relentless assault hadn't left him enough time to do so- or even withdraw enough to catch his breath.
DAMN the Sharingan eye! Orochimaru learned quickly that Naruto had somehow gained a mastery over it much akin to Kakashi the Copycat Ninja. He'd unintentionally taught Naruto the Shunshin jutsu and since that moment, Naruto had been pursuing him relentlessly.
This was not the first time Orochimaru had encountered a berserker. Berserkers were dreadful opponents to the unwary and unprepared; many a good warrior had fallen to berserkers of lesser skill. But to fight berserk was to go all out, leaving nothing in reserve- fighting berserk was an all or nothing affair. Should you survive the first few seconds of combat, chances were good you'd live, and your chances of victory went up with each second that passed thereafter.
Nor was it his first time facing a Jinchuuriki. Jinchuuriki were often a hurricane of destruction but very little finesse; given to overwhelming force to win a fight- after all, they had plenty of it to spare. To defeat a Jinchuuriki was to evade their massive attacks with precision, place yourself in position, and strike out at their weak spot.
It certainly wasn't his first time fighting a skilled shinobi. He'd met many; a large number of them were more skilled than this boy, although his skills were certainly better than those of a genin needed to be to advance to chuunin.
No, the trouble of this fight, was that in this opponent, Orochimaru was facing all three rolled up into one, and wielding a blade of the Seven Swordsmen of Mizugakure. Had he but the split second of space to retrieve Kusanagi, this fight might even out. Unfortunately, he couldn't for the life of him get that split second. Unlike most berserkers, his stamina wasn't falling off. Unlike most Jinchuuriki, his attacks were skilled and aimed. Unlike most shinobi, even a glancing hit from this kid could kill him deader than the Shodaime Hokage.
To his vast surprise (And, deep down, his growing excitement) he was actually going to have to take this fight a little seriously.
Omake:
Kiba spun to face the gangly nin fighting his team mates- with one of the two temporarily out of the fight, the three members of team eight should be able to take down the remaining nin before his ally could rejoin them. As it was, the gangly kusagakure ninja was fighting them both effectively, and seemed to be able to avoid Hinata's jyuuken strikes while evading Shino's bugs. Kiba charged into the gangly ninja's blindside-
-And fell uncoordinated as his senses were overwhelmed by an odor beyond foul. His poise and balance ruined, Kiba's gatsuuga spun off target, ending with a painful sprawl and an unhealthy crunching noise from his left shoulder.
"Wh-what the..." He managed to say woozily as he gagged and reeled from the pain and smell.
The skinny Kusa nin peeled aside his leather face mask to reveal... the face of a chihuahua? "Behold, the most sacred and deadly of Kusagakure arts! Taco Bell no Jutsu!"
And he farted again.
End Omake
-AXENOME