AN: Blessings upon my two watchers! I promise it's gonna get smexyer. I like Suzuki's little spazzness, but I'm not sure I went into it as deeply as I could. Ah dunno. Using the bra to hide your scroll probably belongs to someone else, so kudos to them. No sueing, kthankz.
Special offer for the first few lucky reviewers; I need the practice, so give me some suggestions. I won't do yaoi or yuri, but any pairing or character is fine, even for other fandoms. I'll dedicate it to you, my kind supporter, and we'll all be happy. Yay.
"BRAAAAAAAAPPPP-"
"Gai, you are absolutely-"
Kakashi was cut off, as Asuma leaned forward and belched with twice Gai's fervor.
Thus defeated, the masked Jonin simply regarded his tattered book and tried not to know either of them.
There was plenty for Konoha's elite Shinobi to be doing, since their usual occupations were locked for three days in confined combat- but in their typical manner, three male Shinobi were not going to accomplish anything other than bragging about their accomplishments to one another and having burping contests.
Asuma slammed back the rest of his cola as though it were a shot of lighter fluid, and then smashed the can into the table at his side; the weak bit of outdoor furniture shattered into a million plastic shards, and for a while Asuma simply sat with fist aloft, staring at what he had done.
Kurenai sighed. "Why do you have to make a mess everywhere you go?" Asuma only grinned in response, and began kicking the evidence over the side of the public sitting area.
"So, Kakashi- what compelled you to stick those three in the Forest of Death?" he asked, with a good-natured chortle. "Did they impress you that much?"
"Not so much…" the mop-topped man replied without looking up. "I just think that they need a swift kick in the ass from reality. That's what's going to make them capable Shinobi."
"Now, you see, that's precisely why I want Ino and Chouji in there. Shikamaru- he's there to prove to everyone how smart he is. He'll get all three of them through, just fine. Kid's a genius, but he's gotta apply himself..."
"I wondered if Hinata was ready for this," Kurenai said in a distracted manner; her voice had a luscious and gentle quality, and it was easy to understand why Asuma looked at her the way he did. "But then I realized that she's been protected too long. Kiba and Shino will lead, and what she learns is up to her."
"My kids are ready! No doubts here. Neji is more than Chunin level by now, and Lee-"
"I think you've bragged enough about them, Gai…" Kakashi hinted, still reading.
"I saw a couple of the cells from Kusagakure and Otokuni- plus this one cell from Amegakure. They looked, uh… interesting."
"Interesting is just a simile for dicey." Kakashi purported. "What I want to know is, who would you all put money on, right now, to survive the Forest?"
The three other entities were quiet for a moment, in consideration. Before Gai could say anything about his team, Kurenai and Asuma answered in synchronization: "Minami's kids."
Everyone knew what these teacherless pair already realized about the Shinobi life, and they'd each placed their own students in the exam so that they might learn it as well. They weren't the strongest or the best known, but those kids had It; that thing that transformed children into Shinobi, children into hollow-eyed tools of war.
-----
We join Team 14 at sunrise of the second day.
After their initial fiasco, Suzuki and Kazeki had silently focused on making it through for the time which remained until they could get a scroll; they could tell it wasn't going to be easy. The efficiency with which they worked was more impressive than most of the three-man teams, and definitely more effective.
Sleeping in quick shifts throughout the night, Kazeki and Suzuki stayed moving. Suzuki, as you know, always carried an exhaustive supply of steamed buns on her; but Kazeki hadn't eaten since they had entered the Forest. On top of his blood loss, the ripping pain in his gut was actively threatening to cripple him. As they paused that morning (atop a huge, weather-polished rock, which afforded a foggy view of the Forest's central tower), Kazeki felt his body curl involuntarily; he winced from the top of his head to the tips of his toes, and broke. He knew what the answer would be, but was beyond caring. He had to try.
"Suzuki, can I have one?"
She paused, mouth full of cold, floury dumpling skin; a bit of meat trickled from her lip.
"You know what I'm gonna say." she replied in a matter-of-fact voice.
"Look, Suzuki- I'm gonna pass out here. Please, I really need some food-"
"No!" she interjected, with as much forcefulness as a judge in the Spanish Inquisition. Face furrowed, the dower girl continued eating, with a jaw set that guaranteed that she didn't want to share another word on the subject.
But Kazeki persisted in a shrill, ragged voice.
"DAMMIT, SUZUKI! I know you have your 'issues' about this kind of thing, but I'm your teammate! Sharing is part of working together!-"
"Please, Kazeki, regale me-" Suzuki responded, tone flat and expression unwavering, "tell me why I shouldn't fill my own stomach, just so you won't be distracted?"
"Because it's basic human compassion-"
"I have no responsibility to be compassionate to others."
"YES, YOU DO. You can't avoid it!" Deviating from reason, in the knowledge that it would not penetrate his teammate's thick skull, Kazeki shook his head and calmed his voice. "Please, Suzuki- stop your insanity for two seconds, so I can live long enough to get us out of this forest. If I die, you can't go on in the Exams."
His bloodless face contorted with hatred; he would fight her for a meat bun. Rather, he would fight her ridiculous self-image if it meant his life.
Suzuki just looked at him for the longest time; swallows called from the tree canopy, greedily, hungrily as Suzuki apathetically jammed the last of the fist-sized dumpling into her mouth. "These are mine. Go dig up some roots, if you didn't plan ahead."
Ryuuichi would have given him one- but that went without saying. Somedays Kazeki wished that it was Suzuki who had disappeared that day, instead of his best friend.
----
Hirako gulped down the morning air, and exhaled gratefully. He hadn't been so sure he would see this morning come, and he could afford to enjoy it.
He had been attempting to walk around looking purposeful, and had strolled right into the clearing before the stench of death hit him; it was clear that someone had just been killed, from the slick ground to the complete silence of wildlife within the surrounding trees; nothing in his blood told him that this was a good place to be. He was about to turn around and flee, when he saw the three other Genin huddling in the bush near a red-haired Sand Shinobi.
He could only make out the features of one of them: a young girl, her diminutive slump as she shuddered between her two teammates. He had never seen a kunoichi with such flagrant fear in her mannerisms; and thinking only of her, he had summoned his strength from his bones.
He sent a single javelin, arcing, to land near the Suna-nin's sandals, and bolted away before it even hit the earth; but in a few second's scope the catlike gaze of the fearsome redhead, who's very posture radiated something Hirako knew but couldn't name, had slid to his direction.
There is only one sensation he could relate to the sound of massive flows of the boy's sand rushing after him: that moment between when your hand touches something boiling hot, and your brain realizes how damn much it hurts.
Kaguya Hirako ran, dragging his useless left arm behind him; through the baby-blue shafts of intermarried dawn light, he fled with the grace and desperation only a deadman can possess. He had no plan, and yet regret did not yet enter into Hirako's mind; it just wasn't the way he was wired, and he had no time for it right now anyway.
His back was screaming; ducking into a gully lined by sharp stones, he concentrated every muscle upon being as invisible in the forest carpet.
But then Gaara came slamming into the area, and the lost-eyed boy felt chakra explode within his chest, like the back of one of those rockets when it disengages from it's main body.
"Come out, come out wherever you are!" Gaara trilled, laughing as he surveyed the pristine wilderness; then, roaring, the insomniac bearer of the Ichibi lifted his arms and spun with the light grace of a small girl dancing on her tiptoes; utter destruction followed him, as sand whirled from the vessel across his shoudlerblades and uprooted everything in it's path. With deafening sound, the virgin forest was being peeled away as though it were no more than old wallpaper, trees spinning through the air at the will of the now-grinning Gaara. Unsure of his opponent's location, he simply smiled wider and threw out his arms at the forest before them.
The sand which had wrought this destruction then skittered back at his gesturing, hovering just above the earth like a gritty fog. This would have been impressive to watch- but you would soon have had no eyes, as every grain suddenly shot in all directions, literally sand-blasting everything for a major radius. A bird's nest within the vicinity was shredded, the eggs within splattered lifeless and the tending mother bird instantly killed.
Nature seemed to weep as Gaara surveyed his work; tattered leaves from nude tree branches fell as if an early autumn had come. Huge hunks of wood were impaled into the ground. It appeared as though a bomb had gone off, leaving no natural thing in place in a fifty foot circle.
Satisfied, Gaara had lunged back to his stunned siblings. It was no longer about scrolls or becoming Chunin. Mommy was hungry, and still not sated.
The minute stretched, resembling hours; sand trickled, trees collapsed. Silence. And then Hirako exploded from the ground, gasping as the cool morning air shocked through his lungs. There was nothing to breathe once he had sunk them beneath the ground, and it had taken all of his focus to keep from passing out. He was safe- for now.
For a while, it was only his shallow breathing to fill this naked patch of earth. And then a laugh tittered from the greenery, a laugh that made Hirako's blood run cold.
"Your earth-type techniques have improved, but how about the rest of you?"
Breathing heavily, Hirako burst through the shrubbery- and was met by a single set of pearly, lime-colored eyes which stared absolute death in his general direction.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry-" he huffed.
"Shit on toast," the girl replied, making a face at him. "Shuchun just gave up waiting. He's gone after another scroll, and if he gets killed, I'm gonna blast your brains all the way back to Amegakure!"
"Well, I brought good news-" the young Kaguya said slyly, raising a rounded eyebrow at his kunoichi teammate; when her look abated, he sunk to the ground at a crouch; he'd long since wrapped the navy shirt about his waist, and the useless, atrophied limb limp against his side appeared the result of a badly-ended medical procedure.
"I saw Yakushi- and my brother is still alive."
----
Suzuki and Kazeki lifted through the trees, as quiet as tengu spirits. The initial steamed bun disaster had been resolved when Kazeki scared a young applicant so badly that he left his backpack and a shoe behind in escape; the pair were now on the complete other side of where the afore-mentioned Kaguya was now implicating a crippling Shinobi alliance. They found themselves, instead, watching a dramatic scene play out in the clearing before them.
With a simple lift of his arm, the ebony-haired had pulled up the long-buried and gnarled root of an ancient tree; the sound had echoed through the forest, causing his three enemies to pause in irreverent recognition. Knees locked and head high, Rock Lee now squarely faced them all; and Suzuki and Kazeki were close enough to hear him say, to the prone form of Sakura behind him:
"Whenever you need me, I will always protect you!"
This wouldn't have been anything very moving, in happenstance. Kazeki had turned to lead away, when he realized that Suzuki wasn't following him. Her tired face buried in the leaf cover, she was watching the green-clad boy with a concentration that almost unnerved him.
"Suzuki." he quietly prompted; he went over and nudged her, and then took her by the shoulders. This was highly odd.
"Is that boy stupid or something?", she asked, looking plaintively into her teammate's eyes.
Kazeki sighed, and glanced over her shoulders. "No- he's just not going to live very long."
And Suzuki knew that. Kazeki wondered why someone so avowed to be staid and careless would even look on such a passionate person for so long, as though Rock Lee could have something to teach her.
----
Amazed that she still could, Tenten opened her eyes.
The mask of the Kusa-nin who had stared her down from plumbless depths was now grounded beside her; in death he expressed just as little. The blade of a thick tantou emerged from the left eye socket, and the liquid which had once allowed him to see was dribbling out with the speed of watery pudding.
She jumped back, just as her strange savior placed his foot on the deadman's head in order to yank free his sword. Head down, he began to wordlessly polish the blood from the sword's fat sides.
They sat there for some time, Tenten staring, the dead Shinobi sprawled between them. It was the same boy from the testing center; but now she saw that beneath the brim of the hat he had a thin nose that had been broken once, warm eyes the very same shade as hers, and dark hair falling in tufts from beneath the lampshade-like hat. A thick black tattoo scarred his left cheek.
Placing the katana into his sheath, his words were abruptly cut off by Tenten's grateful thanks. She had surely been dead, but for this Samaritan's action.
Tilting his hat down to conceal his expression, Tenten could hear him smiling.
"Sorry, but this service requires a fee."
And before she could even react to slap him, the boy had reached one robed hand down the neck of her shirt, invaded the brassiere beneath, and pulled from it's hiding place the Heaven scroll.
Horrified beyond reason, she watched him tuck the thing back into his pocket; her chest was throbbing, burning with blood and embarrassment, fear and offense. Neji was going to kill her…
"Thank you, Tenten-chan." he said, before forming a seal against his chest and disappearing just as surely as only Shinobi and loved ones could. Once again, he left her standing there; alone, but never really so.
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AN: REVIEW AND RECEIVE ONESHOT. I'm serious. Please.