Konoha no Mai

Chapter Six

a/n I own nothing besides my imagination, which I treasure like a golden fork.

In the desert
I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
Who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it.
In the Desert-Steven Crane

It was amazing how much of a deal people made out of the chunin exams. Anko got a whole month to set up just a third of it! A whole month! Seriously, who needed a whole month to do anything? Of course, she forgot about it until she saw a bunch of foreign genin wandering around, but the hardest part was printing off the waivers and setting up the scrolls. Everything else was trusting kids with more knives than brain cells to do what they did almost passably.

"Anko!" an ANBU member in a bear mask called. "I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but bad news."

They always came with bad news. They never came with good news, like that she was getting a raise, or that she was being sent on a mission to the Hidden Village of the World's Most Comfortable Couches, or that her sensei had died a horrible and painful death. Now where did that come from? Anko thought, rubbing the back of her neck. "Can your bad news wait till after lunch?" She was celebrating her last day off for a while the traditional way, with food.

"Can it ever?"

"Fine, fine, lay it on me," she relented as she stuffed some dango into her mouth. "Whump huffumed?" She swallowed. "What happened?"

"We found the corpses of a team of genin."

"Yeah? Well they don't call this place the Forest of Death for tourism. Besides, that's what the waivers were for. The lawyer nin can never touch us."

"Anko, this is serious. You will want to see the bodies for yourself. There's something…odd about them."

"Alright, alright," she muttered. "Man, the corpses always turn up when you're eating."

She followed quickly after the ANBU, stuffing the last few dumplings into her mouth on the way. She was hoping to take a nap after lunch, but by the time she handled whatever nonsense had happened now, she'd have to head over to the tower to greet the genin. On the other hand, odd corpses might be fun.

A small Buda statue stood painted red with blood, and three corpses lay facing it on their bellies as though paying black obeisance in an unholy ritual.

"Well, this is nasty," Anko said. "Let's see, a lot of these cuts haven't bled a whole lot, so they were inflicted posthumously. Not the prettiest form of decoration I've seen, but not the worst. I'd say they were killed somewhere else and dragged over here for display. If they died in the exam, whoever killed them would drag the bodies out in public because they wanted to…they wanted to, I don't know." She kicked over a corpse in frustration. "I'm not an autopsy expert." The corpse had no face.

"Oh…oh no." She dropped down and checked the precision of the cuts of the skin, of the facial muscles, of the—"No!" She stood back, clutching at the scar on her neck, the thrice-cursed memorabilia her sensei left her—tear it out, cut out the poison, a bloody hole could not burn worse—and searched the pockets for identification. "Get some ID's for the other two," she instructed calmly. Why was she so calm? She wanted to vomit, to laugh, to scream, to hunt him down and tear him limb from limb, rip out his heart and burn it to ash, and—she took the ID cards from the ANBU. They all looked familiar. They were all one team, from the exam.

Anko looked off towards the Forest of Death. Death comes for everyone. "Inform the Hokage immediately," she said. "There's something in my forest. He'll know what it is." A laugh fell from her mouth that she didn't feel. "Maybe you'll get him to use his crystal ball for something useful for a change." The ANBU nodded and left.

Anko held no illusions about what would happen. If he was half as strong as he used to be, if he were on his death bed…she had fantasies, yes, but no illusions. On the other hand, Orochimaru wasn't the type to go to the throat when he could have fun instead. Arrogance. He was proud enough to walk off a cliff and be surprised that gravity had the audacity to pull him down. And if she could get him to underestimate her enough to let his guard down…

Anko realized that she was grinning. Or was it a grimace? Get out of my forest. She almost laughed. She wanted to puke. Her scar burned like a snakebite.

WWW

Three Naruto clones darted ahead through the trees, checking for traps the same way a man's shins check for hard objects in the dark. Behind them followed Kimimaro, as silent as a ghost, and the real Naruto, eager to take on the whole world or anyone else he could find. Hinata took up the rear. She didn't know how often a Hyuuga took the rear of anything, but she was…a special case.

The sun flared red in the west on their first day in the Survival Exam. The dwindling sunlight burst through gaps in the trees, and Hinata wasn't sure how much longer they would go before they stopped, or if they were going to stop at all.

"Hold on," she said weakly as she stopped. The others waited for her as she activated her Byukagan. There were always more leftover traps than she could keep track of, but anything alive outshone knives and tripwires. "I see someone! A kunochi." She had seen her before. "From Konoha."

"Where?" Kimimaro asked. "Is her team with her?"

Hinata shook her head. "She's alone. Right over there." She pointed through the trees. "She's coming towards us."

The kunochi came into normal view and stopped fifteen meters away. To run if she had to? Or was she long ranged? She was a year older than them, and from Neji's team. Hinata repressed a shudder. If it were Neji in front of them, Hinata would be trying to get her team to run.

But she didn't run. She didn't even have any killer intent, like she was going to attack. She just smiled and said, "Hey. Fancy meeting you here."

Kimimaro tensed and his bones shifted beneath his skin, ready to sprout, and Naruto fished a kunai out of his pouch, but Hinata deactivated her Byukagan. If they won or lost, she would not make the difference, and she was wasting her strength staying activated.

"Whoa, hold on a moment!" she called out, holding her hands up to show she was unarmed, but if anything she seemed more amused than frightened. "I don't want to fight you, and you don't want to fight me."

Naruto looked at her, then questioningly at the kunai in his hand. "I don't? I think I kind of do, actually, and we'll have to fight someone sometime this week, so…"

"Sorry, kid, but I don't have a scroll," she said like it was obvious, like they should have already known, and gave Hinata a look.

Hinata cursed herself for not checking, but it matched her stance, neither aggressive nor afraid, and besides, she felt no lie. "She's telling the truth."

"If you are not here to fight," Kimimaro asked, "why are you here?"

"Oh, you know, exploring, looking around, seeing who's doing what." She grinned. "I'm Tenten, by the way."

"My name is Uzimaki Naruto," Naruto declared boldly.

"Kaguya Kimimaro."

"Hinata."

"Hyuuga Hinata, unless I miss my guess," Tenten said.

She nodded. "Neji is my first cousin." She waited for the contempt, the bitterness, or any other expression to show what Neji had said about her.

Instead, Tenten gasped. "No way! I didn't even know he had a cousin." Well, that was not exactly surprising. "You know, I thought he was acting odd when he was talking about the rookies. He was really firm about not attacking anyone younger than us." She laughed. "I just assumed he wanted a challenge."

Wait, Neji was being protective? Neji? Protective? Of her? If she were drowning, she'd be surprised if Neji would do anything besides watch, if even that. That's not what she said. Neji didn't mention her at all, just the rookies in general. Maybe there was some other rookie he was looking out for? No, that wasn't like him either. Maybe he really did just want the challenge. He had enough pride to satisfy any clan.

"Hold on just a second!" Naruto spat. "I didn't join this exam just to be coddled by you upperclassmen! You can tell that to this Neji guy, and send him over here and I'll give him the challenge of his life! I don't need any special treatment!" He pointed his thumb over his shoulder at Hinata. "And she doesn't either!"

Hinata opened her mouth to protest, but shut it quickly. She felt her heart turn to water and her blood to ice. A wave of killer intent washed over her, like hunger, and winter, and the darkness between the stars. She fumbled through her hand seals to activate her bloodline. It wasn't coming from Tenten. She looked through the dark forest. The empty forest. She felt so cold.

"I don't see anything."

A blast erupted from beyond her view. The earth burst open and trees shattered. She screamed.

WWW

Anko didn't know which hurt worse, her burning scar or the open hole in her left hand. The scar pulsed in resonance with the departing Sannin, aching up to her skull and down her spine, but it wouldn't make her bleed to death. She cut a strip from her tan jacket and awkwardly wrapped a bandage around her hand. It sucked.

"I can't thank you enough for staging the exam in a place like this," Orochimaru had said after he trounced her—trounced her! There was no other word for it. After all this time… "I knew you'd end up doing something useful if I let you live long enough."

"What do you even what here? You left! Why can't you just stay gone?"

"My dear little Anko, is that any way to talk to your sensei? Maybe I just wanted to visit you. I see you haven't forgotten the forbidden jutsu I taught you, you naughty girl."

"Sensei?" she snarled. "You are not my sensei. You are a cancer! Just when we thought we were done with you, a rotting tumor comes out of nowhere! I was done with you! Why can't you just die?"

Orochimaru pulled off the skin-mask he had stolen from a hapless genin and revealed his own ageless face. "I will never die, child. And how can I stay away, when there is such sweet harvest here?" He reached out and caressed her curse seal with a touch that made her want to scream. "Already I found a child who has shown more promise than you ever have. If he's very lucky, he might even be alive tomorrow."

Memories of pain flashed through her. Pain, screaming in a nightmare, trying to wake up if she wasn't already dead, and a frigid tundra of betrayal. And Orochimaru had bitten someone else. "You sick degenerate piece of—"

"Of course, even if he dies, I still have two faces left, and the night's still young."

"No," she whispered.

He laughed, a depraved crackle like someone was dying. Or about to. "Maybe I'll get lucky, and I'll get all three. They are the future, you know, the rising generation. And I do like having…options."

"No."

Orochimaru pulled another flap of skin out of his pocket and pressed it against his face. This one was a kunochi, with long black hair and skin like wet paper. "I owe you oh, so much. This would have been slightly more difficult if the children were…supervised."

And then he left. She could feel him gone by the way her scar throbbed less. She could find him with her eyes closed if she wanted to, for all the good it would do. Anko knew of only three people in the world who could take Orochimaru one to one, and two of them haven't been seen in years and the other was the Hokage himself. She'd need a team of at least twenty ANBU for him to even take them seriously, and by the time she got enough people together, he'd be done and gone.

No, there was nothing she could do to stop him. If there was, she'd be dead. She could only hope that whoever he was after would get lucky. They had a pretty good chance of that, actually, nine in ten of getting lucky, and only one in ten of surviving.

WWW

I'm…alive.

Kimimaro sat up. Of course I'm alive. He looked around at the wanton destruction. The ancient trees lay in pieces like broken porcelain, and whatever had hit them had gouged out the earth like an open wound. He jumped out of the way as a large snake lunged at him. It looked large enough to swallow him whole.

"In the face of such deafening ruin," he said aloud, "any intelligent dumb animal would have fled. What are you still doing here?" A bone spear sprouted from his palm. The snake lunged again with its fangs bared. Kimimaro jumped up, pushed himself downward from an overhanging branch, and plunged his spear into the snake's brain. "A question for another time, I suppose."

He noted with disgust the blood and brain fluid that dripped from his spear. He scanned the trees for his team and heard someone screaming. Another snake—about the same size as the one that had tried to eat him—pursued that other kunochi, Tenten.

Kimimaro hesitated. His team was hit by a powerful ninjutsu, long ranged too, if Hinata couldn't see it. It probably took a lot of time to get it ready, and their enemy couldn't have been able to hit them if Tenten hadn't stalled them. On the other hand, Kimimaro knew nothing about long ranged ninjutsu, Tenten got hit too, and if her teammate had attacked them, he'd be helping her instead of letting her get eaten by a snake.

He stabbed the snake and pinned it to a tree. Tenten turned around in midair and threw four metal disks through the snakes head. "Snakes," she panted. "Why snakes? I would have been fine with giant scorpions, or flying sharks again, but…snakes?" She noticed Kimimaro as he pulled his spear out of the creature's tail. "Thanks, by the way."

"Do you know what hit us?" Kimimaro asked.

She shrugged. "Some long ranged ninjutsu. Beyond that, I'm a taijutsu specialist, so I can't help you."

Kimimaro examined the animal. "I was attacked by one just like this moments ago."

"Yeah? They make'em big here apparently. Half an hour ago I ran into a tiger the size of a house."

"Yes, but"—a scream in the distance. Kimimaro bolted towards it.

Naruto had a snake coiled around him. "You'll let me go if you know what's good for you!" he threatened. The snake opened its mouth. "No one, and I mean no one, eats Naruto!" The mouth closed around him. "I hope you choke!"

Too late! Kimimaro frowned. He couldn't just kill the snake now. He'd need to eviscerate it. He'd need his sword. Where was Hinata? Protect them all.

A blur smashed into him, a blur with arms and legs, punching him, behind him, in front of him. Before he could as much as get a decent look at his foe, a kick knocked him off his feet and into the trunk of a tree. Several of his ribs had cracked and one of his arms.

"I suppose you're the snake charmer," he said calmly as his bones reformed.

The kunochi's black eyes glittered from across the clearing. She wore tan over black and had a thick rope tied around her waist. She bowed with a flourish. "I am indeed. And I suppose you are the leader of this merry band of fools."

The giant snake behind her that had eaten Naruto was joined by another, and the two snakes watched them as an audience. Kimimaro guessed that the second had eaten Hinata. Could the grass nin control large animals? If she had brought them with her, he would have noticed. They could be summoned, he supposed, but could you summon more than one thing at a time? He didn't take his eyes off the woman, but judging by the clink of metal behind him, Tenten had not run away. He respected that.

"Tell me, young leader," the woman said. "How long do you think you can last in a snake's stomach before its stomach acid kills you?" She paused. "I really don't know, to be honest. They usually suffocate first."

Kimimaro pulled out a cloth to clean off his spear before reabsorbing it and pulled out a sword. He couldn't read much in her face that hung to her head like wet paper, and he was much worse than Hinata at reading body language, but she didn't seem surprised at his bloodline. If her stance changed at all, she seemed eager.

If you seek death so earnestly…no, even using only taijutsu, the woman was holding back. Kimimaro could defeat her, but it would take time that he didn't have. And then there was the rest of her team as well, whoever had used that ninjutsu in the beginning, and maybe another shinobi was controlling the snakes, or at least had summoned them. He realized bitterly that he was so certain his own taijutsu would be enough, he hadn't bothered to learn much else. But no, if he couldn't beat him fast enough, he could go around him and…right. I can't defeat him, but I can defeat him and his two snakes. Kabuto-sensei always encouraged the unexpected. That wasn't his strong suit either. He couldn't rely on Tenten too much. He didn't know her abilities, and he could not depend on her to stay. That left only one option.

His opponent waited patiently. She had all the time in the world.

"Would you be interested in a trade, snake charmer?" he asked. "My teammates for my scroll. I can't pass the exam without my team, and the scroll is what you are after, no? Or do you feed people to serpents recreationally?" He prayed that his opponent needed an earth scroll.

"I'd rather do both," she admitted. "And if I let you give me your scroll, I wouldn't be able to pry it from your cold, dead fingers."

Kimimaro held his blade to the scroll. He could shred it in an instant. "You have two options. That's not one of them."

The kunochi spoke slowly, as though to emphasize his advantage. "Tempting, tempting, but you have one scroll and I have two of your teammates. That hardly seems fair, don't you agree?"

Kimimaro shook his head. "I will protect them all or avenge them fully."

"A man of extremes?" she surmised.

"I don't compromise."

She shrugged. "What the heck, it's been a long day. Toss me the scroll and I'll have my pets vomit."

"And I should trust you to keep your word? Besides, if they have already suffocated, they are worthless." Tick, tock. "Fine. Give me one of them, I'll give you the scroll, and then you give me the other." And then I'll kill you and leave your corpse rotting in the sun.

"And I should trust you to keep your word?" she mocked.

"I have given you my word," Kimimaro said firmly. "You will get no better."

Tick, tock. Tick, tock.

"Well, alright then." They may have well been trading cards. "Which do you want first? The little boy or the little girl?"

"The little girl."

"Ladies first, is it?" she sneered. "How…chivalrous." One of the snakes convulsed and regurgitated Hinata. She lay on the ground, covered in slime. She didn't move.

Kimimaro froze. Protect them all. Kabuto told him…Vengeance is a poor substitute for victory, but if I must…

"Odd, they usually last longer than that," the kunochi said. "Don't worry, I'm a professional." She walked over to Hinata's motionless body, and kicked her in the side.

Tenten tensed behind him. Kill him! his blood roared. For the honor of your people and the glory of your clan—Hinata coughed. Kimimaro relaxed slightly. Half way there. Hinata stumbled to her feet, took one look at the snake and it's master, before she wobbled over to Kimimaro.

"Kimimaro, what happened? I was eaten by a snake, and—where's Naruto?"

"He's in the other snake."

"What?"

"Is he still alive?"

She activated her Byukagan. "He's alive, but I don't know how much longer he can last."

"You have the girl, young leader," the snake charmer said. "Will you give me the scroll, or will there be…blood?"

There will be enough blood to drown in, he thought, but his opponent probably thought the same thing. She had said the last word with a grin. With her, the latter was compulsory. She would kill them for the sheer pleasure of it—"Why would I want you to give me your scroll, when I can pry it from your cold, dead fingers?"—Kimimaro was sure of it. He'd known enough bloodthirsty killers to recognize one. He had no reason to keep his word, except his word alone. But then again, it was just a scroll.

"My name is not young leader," Kimimaro said, ready to throw the earth scroll. "My name is Kimimaro."

Tenten leapt in as he threw it, spinning as the arc of her decent took her off-center. A Kunai trailing an explosive tag darted out, so quickly Kimimaro almost missed it. Distracted by the tossed scroll, the grass nin couldn't have had more than a moments warning. But Kimimaro saw the tall ninja blur a moment before the branch was consumed by flames and smoke.

Not that Kimimaro was standing still. He had seconds, perhaps mere moments—he was airborne before the fire died, a projectile flying towards the snake that had stomached Naruto. The blade in his hand twisted—his wrist in an iron grip, he caught a glimpse of the grass nin's eyes as he slammed down onto a branch with all the force of his arrested flight. He had the satisfaction of eliciting a surprised grunt from the Kunoichi as he used this momentum to vault over the restraining arm, bringing a hand that sprouted bony thorns up to slash the wrist that trapped his own.

His vision went white. Then black, then returned and he was flying. He tasted blood—stars danced in front of his eyes from the blow. The Kunoichi was below him now, leg extended from the kick that had launched him skyward.

Kimimaro turned his legs, twisted, and brought his feet under him, landing on the underside of another ancient branch. The Kunoichi moved, throwing kunai and running up the trunk towards him. Tenten stood with Hinata, too far away to do much. Perfect. It meant he was free to fight to his full capacity.

With a shrug, he slipped off his shirt, bone swelling and blossoming across his chest. He pivoted, a pirouette as he threw himself at the Kunoichi—a thorn-covered whirlwind. A blade on his shoulder encountered resistance, the sharp sound of metal against bone. Kimimaro's leg lashed out, growing blades- but it did not connect. He had to lean back as a swipe from the kunoichi aimed for his face connected. The blade glanced off his subcutaneous armor, leaving a line of blood under one eye. Kimimaro had to backpedal and raise his sword to block the follow-up that would have blinded him.

He grimaced, but not because of the pain. The snake charmer was faster than he could see, so fast she made him look like he was standing still. But can you move faster than I can think? There was a pattern to his attacks. She attacked straight, feinted, dove right, swung under the branch, attacked from the left, ducked under the counter, darted clockwise behind his sword arm, and kicked him in the left shoulder before getting some distance to repeat. Do you move faster than you can think? Kimimaro considered. Or was she not bothering to think at all? Either way, as long as he could predict her opponent, he didn't need to be faster.

The kunoichi darted forward, even as Kimimaro spun, using the action to disguise the movement as the blade switched hands.

A meaty thunk as Kimimaro bunched and extended, warm washed over his arm up to the elbow.

A look of shock etched itself across her face. No sound came out, but hot blood flooded out of the wound, spilling over his sword, his hand, and sleeve, leaving a dark…brown trail. The mud clone collapsed and splattered to the forest floor.

Kimimaro whirled around, scanning the trees. The same trick wouldn't work twice, and now she'd take the fight more seriously. But no, the snake charmer wouldn't attack from any position she could be seen. When she struck—but could Kimimaro even be certain that she would? Or would she attack one of the others while he was distracted? No, she had already disregarded the others nonthreatening, so that left—

"From below!" Hinata yelled.

Kimimaro jumped from the thick branch a moment before it shattered like glass.

"Kimimaro, your name was?" the grass nin asked, giving all of them a dismissive glance. "I am God."

The dust and splintered wood floated in the air, and the sun had set entirely.

WWW

a/n Hah! And you thought I'd never update again! Did you see the fight scenes? I have actual fight scenes now, something that I've been avoiding since I realized that I suck at them. That hasn't changed, but Racheakt started writing them for me. Why is Tenten here? Well, in canon, Lee ended up with team seven, and Neji had a brief run in with team ten, so I figured, why not? Also she barely gets any screen time.