So sorry for not updating faster! I got kinda sick so I didn't feel like writing. I also seem to have developed writers block. It took snickers, half a box of tea, and a lot of music to get me to write this chapter. This also might have some mild crack-ness in it 'cause I need the laughs. And swearing. Lots and lots of swearing. I hope y'all enjoy, HAPPY LATE FOURTH OF JULY EVERYONE! :D
Chuunin Exam, Part 2
Looking up at the giant trees waiting for us behind the black fence, I could feel extreme anxiety smothering me, and I fiddled with the hem of my shirt for something to do. The Forest of Death? You've got to be kidding me.
"What is it with shinobi and all the dramatics?" I whispered quietly to Roka and Kaito. I saw the scary jounin woman glare at me for a moment, but look away to continue explaining the exam to us. It sounded easy enough, but I knew we were in trouble if we ran into certain teams. We would have to pinpoint the weakest.
She went on trying to intimidate us, and quite frankly, it was working. Roka was fairly anxious as well, it was only Kaito who was relaxed and not worried. Suddenly the woman held up papers and I gasped as I realized what they were.
"Consent forms?" I hissed, and stepped partially behind Kaito. The two boys gave me curious looks, and we all stepped forward so we could actually hear her. Not that I had trouble hearing from where we were, but the boys did.
"It's a consent form, before you can take part in the test you have to sign this." The woman told us, patting the stack of papers.
"Shouldn't our parents have to sign as well?" Kaito grumbled, and I silently agreed.
"Why?" Naruto asked in his trademark loud voice. She looked at him.
"From here on out there will be corpses. I have to get your consent to that or it'll be my responsibility." She told us, giving a fake smile. Roka shuddered, and Kaito and I put him between us. Jun hooted comfortingly at him, and he smiled.
"I'm fine guys. Don't worry about it." He told us, running a hand down Jun's back. We nodded, but stayed where we were. It seemed everyone was uncomfortable with this revelation.
"Well, I'm going to start the explanation for the second test. In a word, the limits of your survival will be challenged." She handed the forms to Naruto, who took one and passed it back. I went and grabbed three, and handed them to the boys, who signed it. I read it briefly and signed my name at the bottom. While doing so, I listened to the instructor woman carefully. I couldn't fuck this up.
"Scrolls?" I whispered, staring at the woman as she explained what the scrolls had to do with the exam.
"14 teams get the heaven scroll, while the other half gets the earth scroll. I'll hand over one scroll to each team. To put it simply, this is what you're vying for." Anko said to all of us, holding the two scrolls up.
"And the conditions to pass?" Sasuke asked from my right. I kept listening, but I was starting to get anxious. When would it start?
"Five whole days? Is it really that difficult? None of these genin's look tough enough to really cause that much trouble." Kaito said matter-of-factly. I rolled my eyes.
"They don't have to be tough as long as they have good jutsu's." I told him quietly, before turning back to Anko. Jun hopped off my shoulder on to my extended arm.
"No matter what, do not eat any suspicious bugs, and stay close. Understood?" I whispered quietly. He gave out a soft scree and nipped my fingers affectionately. I giggled.
"I never have to worry about you do I?" I asked him, before turning back. Everyone had been whispering quietly.
"Do not look at the content of the scrolls until you have reached the tower!" She told us loudly. I stepped forward until she could see me.
"What happens if we do look?" I asked loudly. Was it some sort of genjutsu that would be on them? Would we be tortured? No, they wouldn't do that for just looking. We would just be disqualified. Right?
"When you look at it, you'll find out!" She told me happily. I rolled my eyes.
"That's not very helpful…" I muttered, and stepped back to my team. We were then instructed to turn in our forms and get a scroll. We hurried over and got ours relatively quickly. They handed and earth scroll to Roka, and he put it in his pouch. We all nodded at each other and picked out an entrance. I stared up at the gate, anxious for the exam to start. The sooner the better.
"So I think we should-" I slapped a hand over Kaito's mouth.
"Do you want someone to hear you? We'll talk about it once we're inside." The two boys nodded, and we waited. Jun took off and circled overhead, waiting for the chance to fly as fast as possible.
"Oi! Look who it is!" I groaned, and let my head slump forward. I turned and frowned when I saw Kiba, who had that stupid smirk plastered in his face. But when I saw Hinata and Shino with him, I grinned.
"Hinata!" I shouted and pelted towards her. I was going to hug her, but a hand stopped me. I looked up at Shino confusedly.
"I was just gonna give her a hug." I mumbled as I stepped back. Hinata blushed.
"It's okay Shino-kun, she's my friend." Hinata whispered. Shino shook his head.
"We can't trust anyone right now." He said in that deep voice of his. I fiddled with the hem of my shirt embarrassedly. Shino had always frightened me back at the academy. He never talked, and hadn't had friends. The thing that freaked me out though was the fact that he didn't seem to mind that.
"Right. Its okay Hinata, I'll see you after the exam. Do your best, 'kay?" She nodded and smiled at me.
"You too." She said in her soft voice, and I nodded.
"Aww how touching. Bird-brains can actually smile." I frowned and rolled my eyes.
"Wow, you actually came up with a better insult than fowl girl and fatso? I'm shocked." I said, feigning surprise. He scowled.
"It's better than you only having mutt as an insult." He retorted.
"You forgot that you're a hobo too." I reminded, smirking. He pushed his hood off his head, revealing his messy brown hair.
"I'm not a hobo!" He snarled. I giggled.
"You sure as hell look like one." I pointed out. He clenched a fist.
"It's better than being fat!" I clenched a fist too, and stepped closer to him.
"Say it again, I dare you!" I challenged, and he opened his mouth to say it, but Hinata stepped up.
"Please don't fight." She whispered, and we both looked at her. I nodded, and went back over to my team.
Kiba rolled his eyes, and walked off. "Whatever." Hinata gave a small wave, and followed with Shino beside her.
Roka and Kaito grinned at me. I heaved a giant sigh, and gave them a pointed look.
"What?" I asked, as they chuckled.
"It's hilarious to watch you two argue. You sound like an old married couple." Roka told me, patting my shoulder. I fumed.
"That would never, ever happen! I hate him. He's a good for nothing mutt." I huffed, and turned back to the gate with my arms crossed.
A Chuunin walked over to us and leaned against the gate. I frowned at him.
"Who are you?" I asked, with my hands on my hips. He rolled his eyes.
"I'm the one who's gonna let you in. You have thirty minutes until the gate opens." We nodded at him, and I sat down. I pulled my backpack off my back and started to inventory. Everything was nice and organized, and I had everything I would need. The boys did the same, and we sat until it was time.
"Alright you three, get up. It's time." Kaito and I shot up at this, but Roka took his sweet time standing up. The shinobi undid the chains that were wrapped around the gate, and let them fall to the ground. I glanced up, and saw Jun perched on the top of the gate, waiting for my signal to go. The guy stared at his watch, and his eyes would flick over in Anko's direction every so often.
"We now start the second test of the Chuunin Exam!" Anko yelled, and the gates flew open. We were through before the gate was completely open.
We ran, and I was in the lead with Jun swooping in and out of the tree tops above us. We didn't stop for a while, until we figured we were deep enough in. We then stopped on branches that were together.
"What's the plan?" I asked Roka. He was the designated strategist. I was the one who had the speed, and Kaito had strength in the form of ninjutsu. He sighed, and sat down. We followed his lead, and kept quiet so he could think.
When he finally opened his eyes, I smiled at him. "We split up." He said. I gasped, and shot up.
"No way! That's dangerous, how are we supposed to help each other if one of us gets hurt? Or if we get stuck and can't get to each other quickly enough? Or if we're confronted by another team when we're by ourselves? Not a chance." I said decisively, ending my little fit.
"No, I mean you and Jun are together, and Kai and I will be together. Jun can always come get us if there's something wrong." Roka told me, standing up as well. Kaito just leaned back and munched on an apple. Apparently he's indifferent about the whole thing.
"How will you know if it's really Jun?" I asked, crossing my arms. He thought for a moment.
"Have him bring one of your ribbons." He told me, and it was my turn to think. I carry around ribbons for my hair so I can keep it out of my eyes. I nodded.
"So what are we doing? Setting up traps?" He nodded, and explained his plan, while Kaito and I paid rapt attention.
I finished setting up the last wire, and swept my hair out of my eyes as I sat back to admire my handiwork. I stepped carefully until I was in the middle of my clever little trap. I signaled Jun, who started screeching up a storm. I pretended to panic.
"Shh! No! It's okay! Please stop, birdie no! Oh god, what do I do?" I hissed at the bird.
"Does the little birdie want some food?" I asked the little owl, but when I stepped closer he got even louder, if that was even possible.
"Well, well, well. What do we have here boys?" I heard a deep, dark voice ask. I whipped around, and stared nervously at the three boys. They were slightly older than I was, and they were from Konoha too. I backed up, and pulled a kunai.
"S-stay there! Or, I-I'll hurt you!" I shouted, brandishing the kunai wildly. The boy in front, he seemed to be the leader, smirked at me.
"With what? You're all alone. And your pathetic trap didn't work." I could feel the blood drain from my face. They had found it already? What the hell was I supposed to do? I started to panic.
"Please don't hurt me! I'll give you our scroll, just leave me alone!" I begged, backing up against a tree as they came closer, and formed a semi-circle around me.
"But you're just so pretty. And we already have the scroll we need. I think we'll keep you around for a bit." The leader stepped up and pushed some of my hair behind my ear. I flinched, and they all started laughing evilly.
I let the kunai I was holding fall to the ground, and suddenly there was a whoosh from above, and they all looked up to see Jun had flown over to the other side of the clearing. I used their distraction to my advantage, and reached my hand into my pouch, and slammed a smoke ball into the ground. We were engulfed in smoke, and I dove into the bushes.
"Damnit! Where's that little brat at?" I heard one shout. I smirked, and threw a shuriken at the top of a tree to my right, cutting a thin wire. Suddenly, three branches swung out of nowhere, and crashed into the three boys. Groans erupted from the cloud of smoke, and I proceeded to cut another wire next to me, and about a dozen kunai flew out from the shadows and found their mark.
When the smoke cleared, the three boys were on the ground panting, with several kunai lodged in each. One boy struggled up, but before he was on his feet, I cast my signature jutsu.
"Daga no hane jutsu!" I screamed, and pointed my hand at Jun. His feathers then all fell out, but were replaced just as quickly. The feathers that had fallen out turned sharp and hard, and were practically little knives. They plummeted towards the boys, and they tried to scramble away. But luck was not on their side. Blood flew as the feathers impaled themselves in the boys.
I smirked as I walked over to the leader. He stared up at me in complete surprise and somewhat horror. I leaned down until we were almost face to face. "Don't ever, ever assume I'm weaker than you." I told him, and punched his face. I dug through all of their bags, until I found the scrolls hiding in the bulkiest guy's bag. Yup, there were two of them. I decided to take the second one anyway, just in case. I also got my weapons back, and stole a few of theirs.
"C'mon Jun. Let's get back to the boys. Lead the way please." I called out to him. He hooted and took off. I followed with a big grin on my face.
I smirked at my teammates as I held up the two scrolls I had gotten. They stared at me with their jaws on the floor.
"How did you manage that?" Kaito asked incredulously.
I shrugged. "I tricked some stupid idiots." Was all I said, as Roka made dinner.
It was just some dried meat, an apple each, and water, but it was filling. "Did you guys have any luck?" I asked as I bit into my apple. They shook their heads.
"Kai got stuck in quicksand though. It took me ten minutes to realize he wasn't with me anymore." Roka told me, as Kaito scowled.
"How could you not hear me screaming?" Kaito asked as Roka chuckled and chewed a piece of meat.
"I thought it was some animal mating call." He admitted, and we all stared at each other before erupting into laughter. I yawned as we settled down.
"Should we run ahead to the tower? Other teams could be setting up traps there. We don't want to get stuck if we wait too long." I told them. They sighed and sat up.
"We can't see where we're going." Roka reminded me. "You can, and so can Jun, but we don't have your sight." I pulled out some wire, and crawled over to Roka. I tied it around his belt, connecting it to mine, and from his I tied wire to Kaito's belt. They looked up at me and nodded, understanding.
"Just make sure to keep up." I smirked at them, and they rolled their eyes. We cleaned up camp, and took off at a slow pace. I didn't want to trip them up.
"You know, I thought you would've called all the carnivorous birds out of hiding and used them, instead of setting up an actual trap." Kaito called out from the back. I rolled my eyes.
"Not all birds listen dummy. The only thing they think about is their next food source. They feel no sense of loyalty to me. They would just eat me if I asked them to help. If there was something I could give them in return, they would probably help. But we're best off with just Jun." I told them.
We were quiet for the rest of the journey, and we finally reached the tower at about one in the morning, although I did get caught in a spider web, and had nearly woken up the entire forest. We entered a room, and looked around. There was no one there.
"What's this?" I asked as I saw some sort of tapestry hanging down.
"It seems like it has something to do with the scroll, but we should wait to open it until it's time." Roka told me as he studied it too. I nodded and yawned. We cut the wire that connected us, and sat on the floor. Jun hopped into my lap and snuggled into my arms, before falling asleep. I smiled and stroked his feathers, and looked over at the boys. I barely contained a giggle when I saw they were already asleep, lying on the floor next to each other.
I gently laid down, and felt my eyelids grow heavy as I sighed, and fell asleep, cuddling the little brown bird in my arms.
Thank you all for the reviews! I know it's not that long, but soon we'll be over the exam, and we can get back to the actual story! Yet again, action scenes aren't my forte, so I'm sorry if it's pathetic.
I hope I didn't confuse anyone, 'cause I took this down and redid it.
On your marks! Get ready, set, VOTE!
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Reviews make me happy, and let me know if you like the story!
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WW (supposed to be an owl ^.^)
-Ash