I'd like to thank my TWO (yeah, only two, pathetic, isn't it?) reviewers for the previous chapter.
For Sand Tessen, I'm glad you get the whole connecting the plot between characters thing. That's what I was going for. and, For Matahari, thanks for reviewing!
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, b/c if I did, Sasuke would be MINE!!
Chapter Six
The excitement from the Chunnin exams was overbearing as last-minute travelers from various countries filed in though the Konoha gates, hoping they were not too late. The guards stationed at the front had, due to an excessive amount of people, become lax about who entered the stadium. Shinobi or not, the guards didn't really care anymore; there were big guys, little guys, fat guys, skinny guys… (oh boy, Dr. Seuss!) No one looked too suspicious anyways, especially since there were people from pretty much all over the world.
Thus, it didn't seem too uncommon for two shinobi, who looked harmless despite their extra arms, to enter the stadium as well. Leiko had deduced that since all sorts of people would be present, there was no need to hide or be disguised. All she and Kanaye had to do was keep a low profile and sit around until Hyuuga Neji had his turn to fight. She figured they could easily lean his style of fighting by watching, and that this information would surely come in handy very soon.
It seemed that today, luck was on their side, for once the fighting began, Neji was called to the arena along with a mist-nin, the same one that had been Sakura's partner in the previous fight. That's right, the gay-ish looking one. They took their spots on the opposing sides and looked at each other, neither refusing to come across as the weaker one.
The examiner this time was a new jounin, who had apparently picked up on the toothpick habit and now had one in his mouth, wiggling occasionally as he talked. The rules were then briefly explained because, really, there weren't many restrictions.
"Begin!"
On the examiner's call, both Neji and the mist-nin jumped back, lengthening the distance between them.
That very same morning in Konoha Hospital, Tenten was pacing back and forth in her room, feeling more impatient than she'd even felt in all her life. She was especially irritated that after bursting out of the room without a warning, Neji had never returned again. And today, he was supposed to be fighting.
Her gaze continuously traveled to the small clock beside her bed, then to the door, then to a wide-eyed, nervous looking Hinata sitting timidly in the corner of the room. After her cousin's lack of presence, Hinata had decided to spend more time with Tenten, in hopes of cheering the girl up.
"Where is she?!" Tenten growled, quickening her pace.
"Don't- don't worry. I'm sure she'll be here soon", Hinata replied. Tenten just shook her head and continued pacing. She had long gotten up and, for the first time in two weeks, dressed in her normal clothes and wore her hair in its usual style. She was supposed to be let out of the hospital today, and she had specifically requested for Tsunade to check her out as early as possible. But, as the current situation stood, no one seemed to be coming and it was simply driving Tenten nuts.
"You know what? I'm not waiting anymore. We're going!" Tenten grabbed Hinata's arm and yanked her towards the window, ignoring the squeals of protest from the younger girl. She jumped out and landed softly on the grass; two stories down was no problem for a kunoichi like her.
Hinata followed reluctantly, worried that the nurses would panic. "It doesn't matter", Tenten assured her, "I'm already healed".
The two girls managed to squeeze into the stadium, but the fight had already began and there were no seats left. "It's fine. C'mon", Tenten smiled. There was no way Hinata could argue with her, so they settled for a spot near one of the large poles holding up the ceiling of the stands and each leaned on one side, turning their attention to the commencing fight.
The atmosphere was quite different from what Tenten remembered; for some reason, last year's fight didn't make her quite so anxious. There was a disquieting tension in the air and she had the feeling something awful was going to happen. She tried to make herself believe that it was just the opponents, because, really, when Naruto was paired up against Neji last year, she had thought of it as all a joke. Actually, pretty much everyone had. How could that kid, who failed all his exams in the academy and came in dead last, have a chance against Neji?
But, as much as Tenten wanted to believe that was the reason this year felt so much more… scarier, she knew it had to be something else. Call it intuition, if you will, but she just knew something bad would happen very soon. As if to prove her theory correct, Tenten noticed at this moment that Neji's opponent was a mist-nin. If she had learned anything from her previous fight, it was that having far-ranged opponents sucked. Well, it did for Neji, anyways.
"What's wrong?" Hinata's transparent eyes, so similar to Neji's that it shocked Tenten for a moment, bore questioningly into hers.
"I- That-Uh…" Tenten sputtered; her mind was working so fast, her mouth couldn't keep up. "I mean, it's just that, Neji's opponent is a long-range fighter, and -"
"And that puts him at a disadvantage, doesn't it?" Hinata's soft voice was full of understanding as she watched her cousin. Tenten nodded.
A few minutes into the match, it soon dawned on Tenten that something seemed different. Although she knew there was supposed to be a disadvantage for Neji, she couldn't really see him struggling with the enemy. He seemed to easily dodge the poisoned needles sent at him, and had no problem countering the jutsus of the mist-nin, which, needless to say, were all long-ranged. Maybe he had problems last time because she was there as well. Maybe it was just my fault last time.
"He- he seems to be doing fine", Hinata spoke up, sounding a bit surprised.
"He's defending very well, but he's not getting anywhere like this", Tenten replied. As if he had heard her, Neji quickly repelled the last shower of needles and began.
"Hakke Rokujuu Yonshou!"
He had managed to make his way past the mist-nin's offenses and defenses, and was now releasing a series of taijutsus to seal off his chakra. The cheering from the stands told Neji he was getting somewhere, and he pushed on, beating the mist-nin until he was sure his opponent could barely breath.
During the few seconds or so that he had been attacking, Neji felt as if he had, for lack of better word, "lost" himself. He was immersed in the fight, unable to think about anything except hurting this shinobi in front of him. He knew he wasn't supposed to be like this; you had to be calm, collected, constantly thinking even when you were in a fight, but Neji felt that for those brief moments, he wasn't himself anymore. He couldn't attribute this to anything, and had, for the moment, shoved it aside. Besides, he'd won. Even if that didn't guarantee his becoming a chunnin, it still meant something.
The roar from the crowd was almost earsplitting as the examiner raised his hand to announce Neji the winner. Gai and Lee were especially noisy with their cheers and shouts of encouragement, and even though the two were on opposite sides of the stadium, they could easily spot each other due to the brightness of their green jumpsuits. Neji, however, looked unaffected. He gave the audience a curt nod and walked towards the stairs leading up to the stands. To him, even if he'd won, there was nothing that special about winning a match like this. He had already studied the fighting strategies of the mist-nin in the previous match, and in addition to that, it wasn't like he had really accomplished much. Just winning the fight didn't make you a chunnin; it was based on how you fought.
From their seats in the stands, Leiko watched as the white eyed girl and her bun-bun haired friend jumped up once Neji won the fight. "That's her", she murmured, pointing at Hinata, "That's our cue to go". Kanaye followed.
Up on the stands, both Tenten and Hinata had started scrambling away from their original position, towards the stairs that led to the fighting ground. They weren't exactly sure where Neji was headed, but they figured that going down was probably the right way to go. Tenten took the lead, tearing down flight after flight of stairs, with Hinata in tow. They reached the set of double doors that led to the fighting grounds, but a chunnin that was standing guard blocked their way.
"But, we have to get to Neji!" Tenten protested excitedly. There was excitement in her eyes and she just couldn't wait to get to Neji and congratulate him, then bash him on the head for running out on her. But, the chunnin held firm.
"He probably went to the medical room", he announced, "That's where all examinees are to report to after the match".
"Ok!" Tenten rushed off again, leaving Hinata to murmur a quick "thank you" before running after her. The two girls made their way around the outside of the stadium in search of the medical room, but found themselves ambushed by two enemies instead.
A blur of arms crowded Tenten's vision as she felt something hard come in contact with her back. The … arms… that she'd seen had shoved her heavily against a wall, allowing the rough texture of the concrete slabs to cut wide gashes in her arms. She instinctively responded, pushing away her opponent and reaching for her weapons. But, as she had left the hospital without being checked out or given her belongings, she had nothing on her and was pretty much… well, screwed.
The arms came for her again, but this time, Tenten saw a head and body attached to them. Before he could strike, Tenten caught sight of a twisted, tan face, with sharp eyes and a maniacal smile. She pulled away and aimed a punch at the opponent's stomach, but he had grabbed her arm before she reached him, and now swung her away from him, causing her to hit the same wall again.
Out of the corner of her eye, Tenten could see Hinata struggling with another multi-armed opponent, and in the background, she could faintly hear the examiner call Sakura and Lee to the arena. So, Lee gets to fight "his" Sakura, huh? Her mind seemed amused, even when her body was struggling to get out of the danger.
When she finally saw an opening, Tenten quickly aimed her elbow at her captor's stomach and shoved it in, causing him to back off momentarily. She took this opportunity to slip her hand into his kunai holster and steal a few kunais, jabbing one into his… whatever was closest to her. She heard him let out a stream of curse words, only to be reprimanded by the other ambusher.
"Kanaye! This is the one we want, not her!" the other multi-armed shinobi, who had gotten a hold of Hinata, began dragging the poor girl away. Tenten shoved the shinobi named Kanaye aside and rushed towards her friend, but was fiercely held back. She reached forward with a grunt to grab Hinata, but ended up capturing a handful of Leiko's hair. Oh, gross.
"Just go, then! Go, Leiko. I'll get rid of this one", Kanaye pulled out several shuriken and aimed then at Tenten, but she quickly deflected them with the stolen kunai. Turning her attention to Hinata, Tenten began chasing after the shinobi named Leiko, but they had already disappeared beyond her view.
"Hinata!" Tenten rushed towards the direction she best guessed they would have disappeared to, but Kanaye seemed determined to intercept. He attacked again, and Tenten had no choice but to throw her kunai at him. Her aim was still unchanged; the kunai embedded itself into his stomach, hitting a vital spot. But, Kanaye didn't give up so easily. He managed to grab Tenten as she tried to run off and held her in a blind struggle; by this point, Kanaye had stopped thinking and resorted to brute strength- it was the only thing he was really good at.
Tenten could feel the air around her grow heavy and the arms constricting her neck grow tighter. Her gasping breaths became shorter, until she felt choked and nauseated. I am NOT going to get sent back to the hospital after I just got out! She thought angrily. If there was such a thing as "Inner Tenten", it would be here now. With a newly found burst of strength, Tenten growled and forcefully pushed aside Kanaye, taking the opportunity to jab him a couple of times as well.
She got away this time, but knew it was too late to go after Hinata. Still, she had managed to lose that spider-freak and was now rushing towards… well, anywhere that had people. She caught sight of the medical room and hurried in, a wave of relief washing over her when she saw Neji sitting at one of the tables.
"Neji!" Tenten stumbled over to her teammate in a rush of panic, barely able to find her voice, let alone explain what happened. In between gulps of air and a bit of coughing, Tenten managed to relate to Neji what happened, describing the two enemies and recalling their names.
"Spider?" Neji's eyes narrowed.
"What?"
"Spiders. Kidomaru"
"Neji, what are you –"
Neji hopped off the table and left the room. It seemed to Tenten that, lately, he'd been running out on her quite a bit.
The change of scenery around her was more than obvious, and Hinata watched helplessly as the trees whizzed by her. She was strapped to something and was being carried from one tree to another. Her head hurt slightly and there was a dull ache spreading across her arms and legs, most likely the result of being poisoned by something. Her fingers had lost feeling and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't move. It felt as if her chakra flow had been cut off, but when she used her byakugan to check, her chakra system seemed to be fine.
She felt weak, vulnerable, and above all, angry that she couldn't defend herself well enough. It was true, she hadn't prepared for anything like this, and hadn't been carrying any weapons, but she wished she'd at least put up a bit more of a fight, sort of like Tenten managed to do. The more Hinata thought about it, the angrier she became with herself, and the more she wanted to fight back. However, at the same time, she could feel the numbness in her body grow and the world around her become fuzzier. The trees that flew by them now turned into dark, green and brown blurs, and she found it became harder to concentrate on anything.
Using her last bit of strength and willpower, Hinata came up with a brilliantly bold plan, and hacked up the biggest piece of saliva she could, spitting it against the branch of tree. That seemed like something only Naruto would think of, and, hey, maybe he was rubbing off on her, but if Hinata knew anything about her teammates, it was that Kiba's nose would find her in an instant with that clue she left behind. So, satisfied for the moment, Hinata didn't fight it anymore as her world faded to black and her head to slumped against her shoulder, eyes closed, byakugan turned off.
I don't understand why some people will favorite this story, or put it on update alert, but not leave a review. That doesn't make sense, does it? Plus, it makes me super sad that I have so little reviews. At least tell me what's not to like!