Well, the lack of reviews for last time got me really down I must admit. As I said, with all the work with collage and, well, other stuff, I have very limited free time and so I'm not too found of writing a story that has a low popularity.
Thanks to everyone who did review, however with the lack of popularity, I'm afraid that this fic might be put on hold in the end. I'll say it like this: IF I DON'T GET REVIEWS, I WON'T UPDATE.
And now, here's another (and perhaps the last) chapter of "Naruto Beyond":
Chapter #35: Second Exam – Sand-nins
Title Page: Urusai is standing out front, dressed like a rock star and behind him are Kai and Chisoku standing back to back with their arms crossed
"Why you little…" began a leaf-nin with spiky, brown hair and green eyes, wearing a black jumpsuit and a green waistcoat on that as he charged toward, throwing several kunai and shuriken at his opponent. To his great disappointment however, every single one of the weapons he just tossed was blocked by a wall of sand that suddenly arose before a blonde Suna shinobi with a gourd on his back.
Kai stood with his arms crossed as if nothing happened. His eyes were slightly narrowed, which was the only sign that he even acknowledged that the trio of Konoha ninja was there fighting him. As the brown-haired one stopped, re-thinking his strategy, his teammate charged in, a girl with long, black hair, clipped in a ponytail and blue eyes, wearing a black jumpsuit, just like her teammate and a red waistcoat on top of that. She also had gloves with metal claws coming out of them.
At an incredible speed she ran pass the blonde sand-nin and in a flash she spun on her foot in an attempt to attack her opponent from behind, but to no vial: the wall of sand was faster and managed to rose behind Kai's back, taking the hit of the kunoichi's glove on itself.
In an instant a small blast of sand shoot from the wall into the leaf-nin, throwing the defenseless kunoichi few meters away from the Sand ninja and in the same moment it began circling around its master, thus stopping more shuriken threw by the other Konoha shinobi.
The last of the leaf-nins, a boy with long, black hair and hazel eyes, also wearing a black jumpsuit and a blue waistcoat on that charged forward and swung his hand at Kai from afar. The blonde's eyes narrowed slightly as he noticed that the sand which rose to protect him got slashed by something. That was not enough to go through his defense, yet the fact itself made the sand-nin wonder.
As he glanced at the last of the three opponents, he realized that he was using thin, metal strings that deflected the sunlight from time to time as they were moved by the soft wind that blew.
"Your attacks are useless…" Kai finally stated calmly, still not moving an inch. "I suggest you give us your scroll and we might let you go alive…" and with that he turned towards Saboten and Nibai, who stood further away, not interfering with the fight. The three leaf-nins looked at each other and then once more charged towards the blonde from every direction.
Seeing this Saboten only sighed: "Big mistake…"
---Some time later, the Tower---
Kyoudai threw another kunai at the target attached to the wall before him as he kept on sitting on the chair. As the knife hit the bull's eye again, the boy yawned irritated: "This is getting really boring… why do we gotta wait those five days in this freakin tower? At least Sasuke-sensei could drop by to give us some training or something…"
"Oh stop whining already…" Hige shoot back as she gave Urufudo another sausage. "This complaining of yours is driving me insane! Can't you just lay down and do absolutely nothing for a day or two?"
"Hey, I just prefer when something interesting is happening…" replied the dreadlocks calmly as he stared at the dog kunoichi. "And what's worse, we're stuck here with that bunch of sand-nins… they're really stiff… nothing to talk about… man, I'll bore myself to death before the next exam starts… we shouldn't have exited the forest so soon…"
"Must I remind you that it was your idea to pass that exam quickly and get here?" asked Hige annoyed as he eye twitched. "If you won't shut up and keep whining about this, I swear that if you won't die of boredom, I'll kill you myself!"
"Guys, stop arguing like that…" begged Dajaku as he came into the room with some snacks. His teammates only send him death glares and then returned to yelling at each other, making him let out a sigh: "They'll never change…" he thought to himself as he placed the snacks on the table and decided to make a tour around the tower.
It surprised him that till this point only his team and one cell from the Suna made it, especially since more then half of the exam has already went by. "I wonder if it's really true what Sasuke-sensei said… that the number of participants who made it out of the forest in time really does circle around ten people at best…" he wondered as he walked down the halls of the tower.
Just then he heard Tenten's voice coming from down the hall. As she yelled, he figured there was trouble and so he rushed to the place the voice came from. As he reached his destination, he noticed the group of six sand-nins, divided into two teams and the Leaf jounin standing between them, throwing the redhead boy and a blonde with a gourd a death glare.
"This is not the time nor the place for you to fight with one another!" Tenten announced loudly as her glare went from Chisoku to Kai and back. "In case you weren't informed, fights outside the exam are not allowed! Try this again and I'll personally disqualify both of you!"
"I don't care…" announced the blonde sand-nin calmly as sand shoot from his gourd and began circling around him as he had his arms crossed. He kept starring at the redhead before him, who remained in his fighting stance. "The only reason I signed up for this exam was to fight him anyway…"
'Then come, unleash that puny sand of yours…" Chisoku shoot back with a confident face. "Lets see how good it'll do against my abilities…" but at this point he was grabbed by Kugutsu and pushed away.
"Calm down already…" his teammate ordered his as he looked into his eyes. "Now's not the time for this… Kankuro-sensei will be pissed if you'll get disqualified like that…" and as he said so, Hagetaka joined him: "Yeah and besides, it's not like either of you can lose to anyone, so sooner or later you'll get your match…"
"How sad…" stated Kai calmly with his arms still crossed and a tiny smirk appearing on his face. "Will you actually allow other people to tell you what to do?" but with that Nibai appeared before him with an angry face: "Kai-kun, stop it already!"
Saboten merely shook his head as he let out a sigh, He stood, propped against the wall nearby and was the only one who seemed to notice Dajaku's appearance: "What do you want?" he asked the leaf-nin with a raised eyebrow.
"I…" began the blonde, unsure what to say. "I heard the screams and figure someone might needed help, so… well…" and with that he began scratching the back of his head. Kai only smirked and without even looking at the leaf-nin, he stated calmly: "A goody-do-gooder, eh? Allow me to give you a piece of advice then: if you're a ninja, always think about yourself first… in our world, those who are honorable and noble… die first…" and with that he headed towards the door with Nibai and Saboten close behind.
"Those two will always cause trouble…" Kugutsu sighed as he glanced after the blonde sand-nin and then towards his redhead teammate: "We should rest a bit… I don't suppose the next test will be even half as easy as this one…"
"Yeah, yeah…" was Chisoku's only response as he headed to the door and once he got close to Dajaku, he threw the leaf-nin a short glance. As their eyes met, the blonde felt shivers running down his spine. Once the trio of Suna shinobi walked pass him, he let out the air that he collected, even though he couldn't tell when he gathered it in his lungs.
"Scary, aren't they?" asked Tenten as she stared after the two Suna teams. Dajaku merely nodded. He felt his mouth got dry. He couldn't point a finger, but there was something about those sand-nins that disturbed him. Especially the blonde one with the gourd and the redhead.
"As an examiner, I shouldn't give advice to the participants, I will tell you this however…" announced the weapon mistress as she glanced at the young gennin. "Those guys aren't your everyday newbies… I can't betray any information about them to you, but I can tell you that they're dangerous… if you'll end up facing either of the two, I suggest surrendering immediately…" and with that she walked her own way.
Dajaku only narrowed his eyes as he looked into the hallway where both Sand teams disappeared to. A single drop of sweat run down his face as the images of Kai and Chisoku appeared in his head: "Those two… their chakra… it's not human…"
---That time, back in the Forest of Death---
"Mist-nins…" Jun whispered to his teammates as they observed a trio of ninja slightly older then themselves from the tree tops. "Too bad we have no idea which scroll they have… but with the little time we have to finish the exam, I suppose this fight is our only chance…"
The other two nodded and glance at the cell that was about to become their opponents. The boy, who seemed like a leader of the group, had spiky, black hair and red eyes. His face was covered by the red, shinobi mask and he was wearing a black t-shirt with a red vest on it and black, baggy pants. His right hand was wrapped in bandages and he had his hitae-ate with the mist symbol on his forehead.
The only female in the team had long, blonde hair, clipped in a ponytail and hazel eyes. She wore a violet jumpsuit that exposed her navel and had a big, black dragon painted on its back. Her pants were in the same color as her top and a little baggy. Her headband was also located on her forehead.
The last of the three, a boy with medium-length, brown hair made into dreadlocks, had blue eyes. He was wearing a white vest on his shirtless torso and had both his hands wrapped in bandages. His pants were white and baggy, just like his other, two companions. His forehead protector was used as a belt.
"Okay, I'll trap them in my genjutsu…" Ayame purposed quietly. "Once they'll get confused, we'll attack them and take the scroll… if everything goes well, we'll get the scroll and lose those guys before they'll even realize what hit them…"
"Sorry…" the masked boy announced as he turned towards his teammates. "But it doesn't seem like we can allow them to follow us anymore…" and with that he suddenly disappeared, only to flash before Urusai's eyes in the next moment.
The blonde only managed to form a block in the way of the mist-nin's leg as the hit connected and send the loud mouth back. The Leaf shinobi flipped in mid-air and landed safely on the ground, only to have the shirtless ninja charge at him.
Meanwhile Jun acted immediately and launched a spin-kick, aimed into the masked boy's face, yet the Kiri ninja managed to duck under it and threw a spin-kick of his own. In an instant the leaf-nin blocked the assault with his hand and using that moment, he grabbed his opponent by the ankle.
With a quick motion Jun jumped into the air, somersaulting and taking the mist-nin with him as his grip on his opponent's leg tightened. Suddenly the young Leaf shinobi tossed the Kiri cell leader downward in hope that he'll crash against a tree, but to his surprise the masked boy instantly pulled out a chain with a scythe blade at its end and used it to grab onto a nearby tree.
In a flash the mist-nin swung on the chain and came right at Jun, who was still in mid-air. As the Kiri ninja aimed both his feet at his opponent's head, the Leaf shinobi suddenly flipped, thus avoiding the assault and delivered his elbow into the masked boy's face, thus sending him flying towards the ground.
The Kiri cell leader manage to land safely on his feet however and glanced out front to see Jun landing few meters away from him on the ground as well. In a flash Ayame appeared next to her teammate, while the Mist kunoichi joined the masked boy.
At that moment the shirtless mist-nin delivered a powerful punch in Urusai's face and jumped back to join his companions. The blonde wiped the blood that came from his lower lip and with a wide smirk, he only glanced at the Mist trio: "Sneak attack is out of the question now… but it doesn't matter, I prefer open fight anyway…"
"Sorry then…" replied the masked boy as he performed a quick set of hands seals. "But you won't get your way… Kirigakure no Jutsu!" and suddenly thick mist covered the entire area.
---mist covers the battlefield… carrying their own, misunderstood emotions, they're about to clash---
And so this chapter ends. Hope you enjoyed it.
And now, perhaps for the last time, here's another character profile:
Name: Uchiha Homura
Name origins: as you probably know 'uchiha' means 'fan', which is also her clan's symbol. As for her first name, Homura can be translated as 'blaze' or 'flame'… I believe the reason behind giving her that name is obvious
Age: currently 13 years old
Birth Date: 22nd of June
Blood Type: 0
Height: 142,2 cm
Weight: 48,7 kg
Favored style of fighting: ninjutsu with the use of taijutsu
Current rank: gennin
Village: Konoha (Hidden Leaf)
Team: cell led by Nara Shikamaru; her teammates are Akimichi Choumura and Hyuuga Isseki
Family: her father is Uchiha Sasuke, one of the strongest ninja in Konoha. Her mother is Sakura, who's thought to be the best medic-nin the Leaf has ever produced. She also has three, younger siblings: Gouka, Enkou and Naraku
Bloodline limit: Sharingan
Techniques: Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu (Grand Fireball Skill, but in some translations, the name "Blaze of Glory" was used in stead)
First appearance: 25th chapter
And this is really the end. If you wanna know what happens next, review.
Cya.