I know, and I'm sorry!
I haven't updated in a while...I guess I was busy, but that not an exuse, so SORRY!!!
Anyway, here's the next chapter of The Way of the Sky!
Hope you like it!
Disclaimer- Δεν είμαι κύριος Inuyasha! (Try to guess what language this is in! I will make the next two chappies for the first one to get it!)
Well, on with the story!
...What in the seven hells is taking Itachi so long... Kisame grumbled silently to himself, ... there isn't even anyone to kill... how boring...
Kisame had been standing out in the front of the archives for at least 45 minutes, and he still felt no movement that Itachi would be coming out soon. In addition to that, no one seemed to want to come within a 30 meter radius of him, causing his anger to boil up.
"... He'd better almost me done..." Kisame muttered while watching a leaf float gently by, being blown carelessly across the pavement in front of him.
The scent of blood suddenly invaded Kisame's senses, causing him to growl ferally, without any thought. His eyes shifted unnoticeably and immediately, he found the cause of the blood: Itachi.
Itachi strode out with a monotone expression; a sure sign he was in a better mood then he was for the last few days. In his right hand, he held a thin scroll and in the other, he held a calligraphy brush, stained with blood. Itachi momentarily glanced up at Kisame, and although Kisame had originally planned on asking him what the hell he was doing, he instantly figured out that he would find out soon enough, therefore he kept his mouth shut. ...damn.. he never tells me anything...
"...We're going to the festival..." Itachi commanded lowly, causing Kisame's blood-lusted eyes to narrow slightly, "Why the hell should we go to that gay festival?!"
Instead of snapping back at Kisame, Itachi merely rose his head slightly as if to gesture to Kisame to turn around. Kisame growl lowly, but turned reluctantly to be faced with a dozen or so of the villagers. A small smirk crept onto his lips and his hand found it's way to the sheath of his blade.
"...why hello there..."
And those were the last words those villagers heard. Kisame's pupils regained normal size, and he carefully chose his words before speaking to Itachi.
"...The nameless shinobi." It wasn't exactly a question, but nor was it a statement. Merely a phrase that stated what was on both of their minds.
"Yes."
That was all that was needed to be said, but the only thing that might have been debatable in Kisame's eyes was whether or not to inform the Akatsuki of the new information that Itachi must have found. Although it was usually a strict unspoken rule that every pair traveled with their own affairs, there often times were occurrences when they needed to come together and accomplish something. Personally, Kisame considered taking down the nameless shinobi an important matter, but to take the rest of the Akatsuki members in?
...No.. That would be idiotic and completely uncalled for...
So it was left at that; they would not attempt anything else until the Spring Festival. Hey, a week of dead time was just what the doctor ordered, Kisame felt drained beyond comprehension and even though Itachi might not have shown it, Kisame was sure that Itachi was mentally drained.
As the pair crossed the road and into the darkness of the forest, Kisame couldn't stop himself from glancing at the thin scroll and debating whether or not to take it to see what it was. Inevitably, he decided the latter.
...Heh heh heh... those lousy suckers won't know what hit 'em...
Konoha:
Naruto rubbed his hands together in an oddly maniacal fashion, there was supposed to be another chuunin who would come and help him with the unofficial first test, but alas, nobody had shown up yet.
...Guess I'm all by myself... no problem...
Naruto readjusted himself and impatiently awaited for someone, anyone to show up in the hallway.
There was a sudden shuffling of feet from the northern entrance and Naruto's face gleamed with hope.
"Oi, Naruto! You in here?"
"Eh? What're you doing here Thick Brows?!"
Rock Lee leaned up against a wall and frowned slightly at Naruto, his arms crossed almost lazily across his chest giving the impression of being bored.
"I thought you and I were assigned to do the unofficial testing together?"
"No duh! I've been waiting for them to get here!"
At this remark, Lee let out a rolling laugh, leaving Naruto extremely confused.
"Hey! Hey what's so funny Thick-brows?!"
"Y-You!! Y-You waited in-in this hallway?!"
"And what's wrong with this hallway?!"
Lee straightened himself and arranged his features into his normal, happy expression. "I'd be glad to explain, but we'd better hurry to the West building unless we want to miss the first official testing."
"W-Wha?! What about our unofficial testing?!"
Lee started walking quickly down the hall and then made a gesture for Naruto to follow, which of course, he did. "I thought they told you that for the unofficial testing this year, we were supposed to be waiting up front."
"EH?!"
Naruto nearly choked on his saliva when he heard this information! Had someone purposely tried to stop him from his glory moment?! Of course, at the cost of his pride, Naruto stayed silent and pretended he knew the entire time, "Of course.. I just thought you might like to do it yourself."
"Oh! How considerate of you Naruto-kun!"
Naruto's eyebrows furrowed as they walked, not sure to take that as an insult, or if Lee was really so stupid as to believe his fake excuse. However, he never had the time to figure out which one, for they had arrived at the door of the assistants.
They weren't greeted at all by the other Jounin, for all the Jounin were watching seriously through the one-way wall to see how the new incoming genin were handling the exam Ibiki was giving out.
Ibiki was the master of interrogation, and in charge of the first portion of the Chuuin exam. Often times, he could break the genin down psychologically and cause them to leave the room crying; if they were lucky. You'd actually have been one of the few shinobi who were able to look him in the eye and get him to laugh, which wasn't always a good thing.
"...are they almost done?.." Naruto whispered loudly to Lee, who merely continued staring intently at the room that was less then half way full of genin. The test had obviously already been administered, since some of the genin were leaving the room with tears welling up in their eyes. It looked like more of them were going to stand, but of course one little kind stood up and stuck his chest out with his hands on his hips.
"I ain't going anywhere!"
"oi... hey that's Konohamaru!" Naruto whispered with excitement, causing all the Jounin in the room to chuckle, since when Naruto had taken the Chuuin test, he did the exact same thing. His courage caused the rest of the room to stay.
Ibiki chuckled at Konohamaru, no doubt thinking that he was acting just like Naruto, and pretty soon, Ibiki had dismissed the room and allowed them onto the next portion of the examination; and it would not be easy, since Sora was the one in charge of administering that portion.
The Jounin all stood up on cue, and began to exit the room; some with serious thoughtful expressions, and other chattering away happily. Naruto and Lee lingered in the room for a moment longer, but Lee stood up and gestured for Naruto to get up too. "Come on, unless you want to miss the test that Sora-san is administering."
"Oi, I'm coming thick-brows." Naruto and Lee left the room and began walking towards the official grounds for the second portion of the examination; where she was awaiting the genin.
"Okay you everyone! Congratulations on making it past the first portion of the examination," Sora surveyed the small crowd of genin and then continued, "I guess those rumors were right about having a small amount of genin this year. No matter, this portion of the examination is a race to the finish, and a treasure hunt."
"Don't lie to the newbies Sora-san!!" Someone's voice broke through her introduction, no doubt one of the older shinobi.
Sora fake pouted out to the audience of older Jounin and the younger genin, causing a small canned laughter to arise. "Fine, I'll lay the cards in front of you all. This part of the examination will have some deaths, so I don't want you to think that you'll go in there without any problem; there are dangerous things in this course, and hopefully you'll all arrive safely at the finish line. Now, Gai-san will explain the rest..." She had hoped that Gai would take the hint and begin explaining, but he was just smiling warmly at the incoming shinobi.
Letting out a reluctant sigh, Sora smiled out toward the genin. "There are two different scrolls, a heaven scroll, and an earth scroll. Each team will be given one or the other, but none of the other competing teams will know. The object of this part of the examination is to test how well you can work together as a team to retrieve the scrolls, and race into the finish. Obviously the course will get harder the deeper into the forest you get, so caution!"
"Eh, that doesn't sound so hard.." one of the genin replied snottily, but Sora merely smiled even wider. "There is a small catch young genin... As I said before each team will receive a scroll, but there are certain rules that go along with that. Number one: You must not open it up, no matter what. I will not tell you what happens, but it will be painful.. I promise.." Some of the genin shivered at the tone of her voice, but she instantly changed it back to a bright tone. "Also, when you cross the finish line, you are expected to have one of the earth scrolls, and one of the heaven scrolls, so it goes without saying that you must... 'steal' one from another team. The final rule is that no kind of mutilation will be accepted, if we find out you have, you and your team mates will be banned from the rest of the examination."
At this, Gai finally spoke up, "Sora-san is correct, none of you should take this examination lightly. I already know that there aren't many of you left in the examination, so this portion of the examination will most likely be intense. Also, if you lose both of your scrolls, you and your team mates will be escorted out."
"--And just relax and show us what you can do!" Sora exclaimed and grinned almost cheesily at them. This must have relieved some of the tension that was created from the rules, for they all lightened up slightly, "Now, please follow one of the sensei's to your team's starting line. Oh yeah, and dont forget you need to get to the finish line within a specified time, the sensei's will tell you!"
The genin rose to their feet excitedly as they all split up and began chattering happily as they followed the sensei's. Sora let out a silent moan, her feet were killing her! Besides, she was pretty damn tired, but nonetheless, Sora forced on a smile as Gai handed her a scroll listing where and when she was to patrol in the forest. Sighing deeply, Sora stare up to the sky and pray for strength, and that nothing would go wrong on herwatch.
Sora POV:
I took slow and long steps to the entrance of the forest, hoping that time itself would stand still and allow to take a half hour-- no! Even a 10 minute nap would subdue me! Of course, the 'honor' of helping with the Chuuin examination did not allow such casualties, and thus I continued trudging and disappeared into a cloud of smoke, only to reappear in the southern most area of the course, where I saw two of the teams, already battling to get one of the scrolls.
The battle was progressing as a normal genin-level battle should; relatively boring. There weren't many advanced jutsus or taijutsu's being used, rather the two teams seemed to just prefer duking it out fist to fist. I had to stifle a chuckle as one of the guys tried to run at the other team to try and knock them over, but only succeeded in knocking over his own teammates, allowing the other team to grab the scroll and disappear into the forest.
The remaining team seemed shocked to a point that could not be explained in words; however, one had already retained his dignity and sat listlessly below a tree to await his fate. On the contrary to his disposition, his two team members were on the brink of tears, and because of that, reminded me of why I had originally not wanted to become an examinator for the test.
I sympathized too much!
...sigh... well... when in Rome...
I leapted down from the tree I was in and where I watching from, and bowed politely to the genin, and in return, the genin who was in most composure bowed deeply to me. Although his exterior, he looked calm and collected, it was simple to see from the look in his eyes, that even he was disappointed in the defeat.
"Oh please! Don't send us back to our village! We've had such a hard time getting here!"
"Our sensei would be most displeased with us!"
"Fools. Don't listen to them," the genin boy glanced apologetically at me and then snapped at his team mates. "Just shut up, it doesn't matter anymore. We'll just try harder next year."
"--But what if there isn't a next year Yasu-kun?!"
"Hey... You guys need to lighten up!" I finally added in, in an attempt to lighten the situation, but unfortunately it only succeeded in getting one of the other genin to break out into tears. ... Oh Spirits... please give me strength.. I mentally prayed before putting on a reassuring smile and patting the girl on the back. "Truly! It's not the end of the world. Besides, being a shinobi doesn't mean just having to pass this kind of examination, it's from what's inside."
"But we never get to show what's inside if we're sent home!"
"Then what if I said that you didn't have to get sent home?"
Silence. The boy, Yasu, stared at me with confusion written across his face, while the other two blinked blankly (HAH!) at me.
"Y-You'd really do that?"
"--That is to say if you think that's the right choice. I don't think this exam is fair anyway." I winked at Yasu causing a small tint to run over his cheeks.
"I'll give you a minute or two to decide whether you're worthy or not to remain in the exam. Choose wisely." With a nod from Yasu, I turned and furrowed my eyebrows in an almost scowl-like appearance; someone in my quadrant must have just acted upon an illegal rule.
How did I know? Let's just say it isn't hard to notice when there's a huge explosion in a forest and a sudden smell of man-slaughter. I tracked down a team that was from the Hidden Sand village, and it turned out they had used a forbidden jutsu, the sensei's had clearly told them that it was shameful and wrong to perform such justu.
I didn't even bother to say anything to them, but simply walked up behind them and hit them all on the back of their heads with a package given to me by the Hokage. It was a humane way to knock the genin out and transport them back to the beginning, usually the genin lose their memory of what happened, which made it all the more simple to explain.
After bringing them back to the start, and taking their scrolls, I stepped stealthily back into the clearing where the other team was.
"--... Do you really think you're ready to continue Jade? Because if you're not, I'm sure we'd be allowed to leave without any shame to our villa--"
"--No! I want to stay Yasu! We'll try harder than ever! Don't you worry!"
"You guys ready or what?" Yasu glanced up at I and smiled warmly, "So what did you guys decide?"
"We decided to stay!" I smiled at this response and tossed the two scrolls at them. "There you go," Yasu gave me a shocked expression, but I merely shrugged. "Now go out there and prove to me that I didn't just waste my time!"
With an elated expression, the two girls bowed deeply to me, while Yasu smiled and bowed stiffly.
Stone Village:
"That mean we can leave now Kakashi?"
"Yes, I have students in the Chuuin examination and I want to see how they're faring!"
"We've done all we could do--"
"... No... Taro-san... has done all they could do... we might as well leave... Taro-san obviously has other affairs at mind.." Kakashi's eyes wandered over to the corner of the room, where Taro was currently staring blankly off at the wall, "... and I suppose we should go back to see the final moments of the Chuuin exam..."
"FINALLY!" Someone exclaimed, snapping Taro out of his thoughts.
"Eh?"
"Taro-san..." Kakashi approached Taro slowly and methodically as he usually does, "We need to leave now... if your village ever needs help.. you know that Konoha is always here.."
"Beh, sure. I know what Konoha does, just trying to build up your alliances with us weak villages," Taro paused in his statement and then smirked at Kakashi, "And it's working."
Kakashi chuckled softly, his laughter already muffled, and Taro laughed along with him , "It's been good seeing you old friend. Now shoo, I have work to do."
Kakashi nodded and gestured for the rest of the Jounin to follow him for the journey back to Konoha; needless to say it was pretty silent on the way back, and uneventful. That is, until one of the Jounin brought up the lingering thoughts on their minds.
"How was all that work accomplished overnight? Surely Taro-sama couldn't have done it all himself." Kakashi had to think thoughtfully before answering, but luckily for him, another Jounin took the liberty to answer.
"I heard Taro-san speaking to someone, I was outside switchin' shifts, it was a woman!"
At this remark, there was a slight gasp from the younger 19 year old Jounin, but from the older Jounin there was an onslaught of perverted jokes.
"Ahh.. So good ol' Taro's finally found someone?"
"They were down by the hotsprings neh?"
The young Jounin who had originally said he had heard Taro with a woman frowned slightly, and his cheeks were visibly tinted; it was obvious that in shinobi training, sexual education was not one of the highest priority.
"...Oi... put a sock in it you old hentais..."
"Oh come now Kakashi, just poking fun! Besides, you're the one with the largest paradise series in Konoha!"
"...What can I say... I'm a collector.."
"HAH!" The Jounin let out a loud laughter and nearly tripped while the sped along the forest, "That's a laugh and a half Kakashi. You know just as well as the rest of us you're nothing even close to a... what was it you called? ... a collector?"
"Yeah! What is it you're a collector of?
The whole crowd of Jounin laughed uproariously at the comment, allowing Kakashi to roll his eyes at their simple childness. ...If only the Hokage could see our famed team right now... Kakashi mused silently to himself.
All at once, Kakashi froze in his fast paced sprinting, causing the rest of the team to nearly crash right into him. No jokes were cracked, for they could all feel the immediate danger they were in. Kakashi didn't even need to command them to go anywhere, for they all scattered into their routine formation in case of an ambush.
There was silence for more than 10 minutes, but the feeling of danger still had yet to fade. The Jounin near Kakashi glanced questioningly, but Kakashi shook his head, it was obvious that this was some sort of trap, but after an hour of waiting in their crouched positions, the group of Konoha Jounins reassembled a safe distance away from the clearing.
"... I'm not sure... but we'll have to split up from here out... it's obvious that traveling in such a large group draws attention..."
"But if we split up, then the enemy can easily pick us out one by one! "
"No..." Kakashi shook his head and explained patiently, "You see... we can move much faster if we split up anyway... we can defend from attacks, and if we see another one of our members in need, we can reach them much faster..."
Although there was a slight air of uncertainty, they all agreed and group by group began to scatter from each other. Kakashi was left with the younger Jounin who blushed at any sexual remark, his name was Katsuya.
"Kakashi-san... Th-this does not feel right."
"...Eh? ... Don't worry Katsuya... We're just getting back to Konoha.." Kakashi winked reassuringly at Katsuya, but deep down knew that if a silent boy like Katsuya would open his mouth, it did not mean anything good.
Although Katsuya looked slightly resistant to move from their spot, he was a shinobi and knew he needed to act thusly. Kakashi jumped into a tree above him and began jumping from that branch to the branch in front of him, thus beginning the rest of the journey back to Konoha, however, just as Kakashi leapt onto the second tree, Kakashi dropped suddenly to the ground and with fire in his eyes yelled in warning to Katsuya, "AMBUSH!"
Ha! Cliffhanger!!!
End of chapter 9! Please Read and Review!