Arc Two, Chapter Four: Night Approaches

"I'll provide support." Ren said. Takehiro took a quick glance at Ren and sighed.

"Emi, I'm going to charge. You help him." He spun the chain faster, his eyes narrowing on the red-head a couple of yards away.

"Oka-"

"No, Emi. Charge with him. Just hand me something." Ren held his hand out impatiently. After a quick second, Emi reached into her shuriken holster and brought out a small container containing ointment inside.

"Rub this on your wound and you'll be good to go." She shook her head.

Takehiro suddenly dashed forward, Emi following beside him. Ren could hear their every footsteps as they went, and he hurriedly tried to put the ointment on his wound.

"Iron Sand," Taro gathered sand around him, "Sporadic Jagged Chain!" A large wall of black sand appeared behind him. The sand hardened into spears, and jutted out at incredible speeds. The spears were still connected to the wall, unlike the last move he used, and they crisscrossed each other, some slamming into the other and stopping the flow of those indiviual spears. They would turn at irregular times, and Ren feared for his teammates as they ventured near the technique's range.

"Emi!" Takehiro yelled over the almost mechanic screech of the sand.

"Right!" She yelled in agreement.

Emi had been much more effective on the field than Ren had thought. Emi went ahead of Takehiro and instantly began to anticipate the attacks; she swerved right as two impaled the dirt her feet had previously been set on. She moved fluidly and swiftly, sliding under three of the thin spears and then pushing off her feet to run on top of four others, jumping from each one cautiously and calmly. She ducked and twisted and leaped and slid along the technique with such expertise Ren wondered if that were actually Emi.

Ren stared at her as she turned, her red eyes alight with—wait, red? Emi's eyes were always a light blue. Ren whipped his head towards Takehiro and saw that he was also shocked. Takehiro didn't have much time to marvel, though, as the technique had finally reached him. He, unlike Emi, wasn't as flexible, but had other means to get through. He spun the chain and threw it, wrapping the weighted part around two spears that had crashed into each other. Taking a running start, he jumped and swung above it, letting the weapon go to fly onto a tree. Upon connecting, he ran to the top, disappearing from Ren's view.

Still progressing towards Taro, Emi flipped and rolled until she reached the highest point of the iron sand, where she broke into a sprint. A spear jutted out from point-blank range, but somehow she spun in time for it just to knick her shirt. Still spinning, Emi reached the wall and free fell into a small opening where Ren could no longer spot her.

. . .

"Kaito?" Aoi gulped. The white-haired genin didn't make a sound as his hair covered his face. Her eyes slowly went down his chin, to his chest, and eventually to his stomach where a giant blade of silver struck out. Kaito didn't move. Aoi don't move. The forest didn't move. Not even a rustle of assurance from the leaves made a sound from anywhere in the mist. Instead, Aoi felt a cold whisper from the wind creep up her spine as a low chuckle rose above Kaito's still body.

"Sorry, water boy," Yoshio's breath seemed to hiss in the mist that was now tainted by a fresh murder, "But if I didn't get rid of you, I would never have gotten to the female."

Aoi's heart began to beat against her chest as she took in everything. Her body couldn't move.

'What had mom said to do in this situation?' her mind screamed, 'I need to focus on here. I need to improvise. I need to save Kaito. The blade is too low to-'

Thump!

Aoi gasped as the blade slid deeper into Kaito, Yoshio made a noise of confusion. Aoi reached to push Yoshio off Kaito when she finally focused on something, or someone, who had jumped onto Yoshio's back.

It was... Kaito?

Aoi's panic had quickly changed from confusion as the Kaito on the pale boy's back grinned directly towards Aoi. He jerked his chin upwards, and Aoi moved from underneath the three ninja.

Aoi turned back to Kaito—wait, that wasn't right; Kaito's clones?—as Yoshio struggled and swung his body around in an attempt to throw the genin on his back off. Kaito wrapped his arms around Yoshio's neck and his crossed his legs across his chest, his tight grip becoming even tighter than before. As if two Kaito's weren't enough, she could see another coming from the air. He was making rapid hand seals, more rapid than Aoi could believe he could make, or remember for that matter. Making a final seal, he spread his hands out and slammed both of his palms onto the clone latched onto Yoshio's back.

"Water Style: Water Prison Jutsu!"

The clones burst into a large amount of water that shaped into a sphere of water, trapping Yoshio in a dense amount of water. Aoi was shocked; she had heard of the technique, but imagined only a jounin could use it. Now, this very day at this very moment, a genin on her team was using the technique. And the way he used it was, Aoi had to admit, stupendously genius!

Yoshio sat in the bubble, stunned as well by the technique that had caught him. Bubbles had rose from the corners of his lips, and Aoi realized that he couldn't breathe in the bubble.

"Kaito, where the heck did you learn that!?" Aoi exclaimed incredulously.

He turned his head as a bead of sweat rolled off of his eyebrow, his hand inside the orb of water that imprisoned the pale shinobi. "Mariko taught me water clones, and this. She said for when I'm ready for it."

"And are you ready for it?"

"Ready enough, i think. Going pretty well, right?"

Aoi almost cracked a smile. "Just don't overexert yourself. How long can you keep this up?"

She watched Kaito as he struggled to shrug while focusing on the jutsu. He soon gave up and stated, "Long enough for him to not be a threat."

Aoi nodded her head. While if anyone else had said this Aoi would have been skeptical as to what they meant, Kaito was different. She knew Kaito wouldn't kill Yoshio. He probably said that just to create some fear in him.

..Right?

In truth, Aoi was going on a hunch about all of this. Kaito could be a psychopath in disguise. All she knew about his past was that he came from a poor background, nothing more nothing less. Still, she believed that the Kaito he showed to everyone was the real Kaito.

The mist began to recede, the thickness of the plump gray fog fading slowly.

"Hey Kaito," Aoi called out, but she stopped to look over towards the ground. A shadow was traveling across the ground. The shadow was making its way towards Kaito. Aoi looked up and gasped.

. . .

Hibiki sat on a branch high above the other trees and watched the skies above the gated area, where birds chirped songs of freedom and clouds parted and separated as the day's light began to grow dim. Night time would come soon, he recognized. They couldn't catch that Kirigakure-nin who had escaped. She had to have escaped on foot because of the chakra pathway to her hands being sealed, so Kaori and Jin had gone to search for her while Hibiki was tasked to finding a shelter.

But honestly, sometimes Hibiki just wanted to relax.

He wanted to sit on the roof of his house and just catch the soft and gentle breeze that blew from the East. He loved letting his tense muscles relax, laying on the cool surface of the tree as he stretched his tired legs out, the sun's light warmth sheltering him from the oncoming cold. Ah, yes, these were some of the good times of being a ninja. Opening his mouth for a yawn, he could see a mist far in the distance. He guessed that, if it kept its course, it'd be here by the night.

Peering down below, Hibiki spotted something odd; there was an animal that was completely wrapped in white bandages. The bandages didn't seem to restrict the large salamander's movement at all either. Though as interesting as the specimen was, Hibiki decided to find a hollow tree above ground. This way he could avoid the mist along with that unknown creature.

. . .

"Kaito!" Aoi ran and threw her hands to the sky. The shadow hovered over them as Aoi channeled her chakra into a thin barrier protecting them. Looking above and through the translucent chakra shield, she saw the umbrella followed by raining senbon. Kaito was obviously preoccupied with the high level jutsu he was performing to even offer helping out, but Aoi had less than half of her chakra preserves due to her trying to finish Yoshio off quickly and swiftly. She was too much in a rush, she realized, but she would not let her teammate go down. It would have been her fault if the real Kaito had gotten stabbed, and she wanted no harm to come to her friends.

The rain pelted down fiercely on her small defensive technique, and Aoi soon worried if she could launch a counterattack. There were no openings in the move, so she had to wait until Yoshio passed out. Taking out Yoshio in the bubble was no longer an option, her hands too occupied to send a quick jab to the blue-haired's neck.

She would just wait for the move to dispel to knock the genin out.

She soon regretted thinking that, because not a second later, a feminine voice spoke, "Senbon of a Widow's Passing."

Instead of the senbon going different places, it drove in hard on one spot, that spot being where Kaito was. Aoi quickly figured this out and transferred most of her chakra to defend that area before it burst from the pressure.

Again, that was another mistake made.

The girl must have known Aoi would do this, and pointed the area directly above Aoi yet again. This time she had no time to do anything to change her predicament. She knew she wasn't one for defense, but she should've at least seen this coming.

Crack!

Already the speed and force were taking a toll on this section of the shield. In but a few minutes she would be a new pin cushion for a thousand senbon to rest their tired little heads on. She cursed at their luck. All it took to get Yoshio, and now this. Sweat drenched her face as if she had fell face front into a puddle of it. The weight was overwhelming.

She took a final glance at Kaito and his entrapped inmate, mouthing the words "I'm sorry" to a wide eyed Kaito. Her eyes travelled to Yoshio who, even as he lost consciousness, had that evil in it. She continued to stare in his eyes, and him hers, as she tried to unravel what was underneath those disturbing eyes. Layer by layer she stripped them and found a tiny box labelled... What is it? The words were blurred, but they were on the tip of her tongue. She had never felt this. It was foreign to her.

Suddenly Aoi was shoved to the ground, the shattering of glass the only sound she could describe as her shield finally burst. A blur of black, and suddenly a column of the same color rose, and then darkness.

Had she died?

. . .

Takehiro swung from tree to tree, using another kusarigama, like an ape swinging from vine to vine as he tried to make his way around the deadly technique. Takehiro was adept at using this weapon, and swinging from trees was only another plus added to the list of things he could accomplish with it. Even in the forest, he had to watch out for random sticks of iron that jutted out. The technique's range was wide, he had to admit, but he didn't think it could branch off into the forest.

Takehiro couldn't shake the feeling that something changed in Emi when she began to climb the colossal amount of spears. He wasn't sure if Ren had noticed it, but she moved differently than before, almost as if she knew where they would go before they even hit.

The large wall of black sand was in sight, so Takehiro jumped left and stopped at a branch nearby it. He saw a flash of yellow fall from the apex of the monstrous assortment of spikes and black knots. Another flash of yellow and Takehiro realized that it was Emi's blond hair.

'Emi!'

He leaped forward and ran along a branch of hardened black soil, his feet making loud tapping noises along the cold, bare chakra-coursed thing. His eyes zoomed in on Emi as she made her quick descent to the ground, and then they scanned where she would land. It would be right on their enemy.

Wait, right on Taro? Takehiro skidded to a halt and stared. Emi wasn't just falling, she was free-falling, on purpose, to get to Taro. Not only was this tactic unexpected, but it should be completely alien to Emi.

He watched as she put her forearms in front of her and slammed into Taro, causing a small dust cloud to rise from the impact.

Almost instantly the iron sand turned into powder, floating along in the forest air. Takehiro coughed and swatted at it, all the powder leaving a bad taste in his mouth.

When his vision cleared, Emi was on top of Taro, pinning him down by his neck with her arm. Emi's eyes were red, which threw Takehiro for a loop. Since when can her eyes change color?

"Give us the scroll." Emi demanded, the sweetness and timidness of her voice gone and replaced by strength and calmness.

Taro glared, but reached into his pocket obediently. He pulled something out and tried to stab Emi with it, but she quickly grabbed and twisted his wrist. The shuriken fell followed by a low groan of pain.

"Scroll, not shuriken. I can't see how that can be confusing." Takehiro stepped near them, eyeing Emi more cautiously than Taro.

"Heh." Taro muttered.

Takehiro's eyes shot open, and he threw the weighted end of the chain, wrapped it around Emi, and threw her to the side just as shuriken flew over Taro's body.

Emi was disoriented at first, but she quickly recovered her senses and slammed her hands on the ground, stopping her roll. Taro leaned on his back and kicked up, iron sand swarming around him like bugs. Takehiro yanked the sickle part off of the kusarigama and spun the chain quickly. He channeled chakra to the bottom of his feet and jumped as high as he was able.

He made a hand seal and his chain was covered in smoke.

He screamed with all his might as he brought the heavy chain down, a giant ball made from steel speeding towards Taro. Every muscle in Takehiro's arms and upper body screamed at him. He brought the chain down with a mighty tug, sending the ball the size of a boulder crashing onto Taro.

A large wind followed by the attack swept the forest, a large thunderous noise going off.

Takehiro landed on his feet and glanced for his teammates. Ren held Emi up by her waist to support her, but reluctantly let her go as her red eyes flared with anger.

"Emi, what happened to you?"

"Shut up," she said abruptly, "We haven't even finished him off and you're already interrogating me. You're such a nuisance."

Ren blinked in disbelief. "What?"

Emi didn't respond as she jumped into the air, narrowly avoiding a hand that sprung out of the ground. Ren moved to the side just as iron sand erupted from the ground, making it crack and implode at the spot. Takehiro was about to jump backwards before he took one last look at Emi.

"Dynamic," She pushed off a tree branch and flung herself towards the shinobi in the middle of the black ground splitting chaos, "Entry!" She twisted her body and threw her foot out. Taro, who's hands were in the earth controlling the sand that swarmed through the ground, had no time to dodge and was left utterly defenseless as her foot slammed into his face. There was a loud smack! sound before she plunged him into the ground. The tremor and implosion ceased, steam rising from the ground and producing an almost charred odor.

Emi soon came out dragging the red head by his collar. Takehiro noticed she was limping on the leg she used to land the final blow.

"Now we're done." She sighed irritably.

. . .

Aoi looked up and swore she had never been as happy to see a person with her same hair color in her life; Hayato had his palms buried into the ground, a black crystalized pillar rising and crashed into the girl on the umbrella, sending them flying farther into the air. Hayato chucked his right arm back and slammed it into the black pillar.

"Black Pine Style: Needles!" Needles shot out from the black structure and pierced the umbrella. As if it were a kite, it sank in the air, plummeting to its eventual fall. A blue-haired individual jumped from the umbrella before it landed on the ground and quickly fled from sight.

Hayato removed his hand from the construction and it collapsed to an almost dust form.

A long while passed before Hayato turned around to look at Aoi.

"Finally!" Kaito exclaimed, "I was wondering if you read my note!"

Hayato's lips curved at the corner as he shook his head yes.

Aoi blinked. "Wait, you left him a note? When?"

"When this douche threw me off the tree." Aoi saw that Yoshio's eyes were closed but his lips were pressed together tightly, showing that the boy was still conscious.

"Sorry." Hayato said.

Again, they were quiet; he only spoke so much.

"For what?"

Hayato shook his head again. "I should have been here."

"It's okay," Aoi laughed, "We should have been able to beat him—"

"No," Hayato said, "He was strong. That girl almost killed you because now you're tired. But it's okay. I found you in time." Hayato walked to Kaito and patted Aoi's head lightly as he passed by, "So rest." he said simply. Hayato walked to the bubble and struck Yoshio from the back of his head. Yoshio's mouth parted slowly as his body began to float lightly.

Kaito, realizing that he successfully took him out, removed his hand and the water fell to the ground, Yoshio numbly following its lead.

Aoi was speechless while Kaito flopped to the ground and sighed heavily. That was their first full conversation, and he told them to rest? He obviously cared more about his teammates than he let on.

Aoi smiled and let her tense muscles relax. It was over.

. . .

Kaito felt as if a swamp had landed on Kaito's body and made reservations for a room. His hands were clammy and his shirt drenched with sweat. His hair probably still had leaves in it as he had recently plucked a twig from a hole in his shorts. His shins were stained with dirt and his feet had stepped into some sticky mud.

Wasn't that just great?

Kaito looked at the lake that was only a few feet away wistfully. His body ached from the struggle of using that high level technique. He planned on using that on the last stages of the exam, not this early. Still staring at the surface, Kaito saw a brief movement that sent a shockwave throughout the water.

Kaito quickly brought out a kunai and flung it in the air.

Ding!

Suddenly Hayato and another black-haired boy were clashing in the air, Kaito's kunai flying back to the ground. Hayato briefly looked down at Kaito and smiled. Kaito smiled back and game him a thumbs up.

Hayato and the other genin parted and Hayato took a defensive position in front of his teammates.

Kaito and Aoi struggled to stand up, when Hayato's deep voice yelled a booming "NO!"

The force made both of his teammates fall back on their butts.

"I told you to rest," Hayato glared fiercely at the new enemy, "I will protect you."

. . .

"Emi," Ren said slowly, "What the hell happened to you?"

Emi clicked her tongue in annoyance and turned to Takehiro. "Sometimes I swear you're the only one I can get along with."

Ren looked at the brunette. "What the hell is going on?!"

Takehiro shrugged, a smile playing on his lips.

Ren threw his hand into his hair in frustration. He paced back and forth, trying to assert the situation, when he spotted a small squirrel scuttling around. The squirrel itself wasn't interesting, it was what was on it.

"What the hell is that..?" Ren stared at the animal.

The creature was covered from head to toe in white bandages. Its body should have been restricted, it shouldn't even be able to turn its head, but yet it did. Another squirrel appeared next to it, this one also covered in the strange cloth. They seemed to be searching for something.

"What is that?" Emi took a step closer to it when their heads snapped towards the three genin. Suddenly animals covered in the same material poured from the woods; salamanders, nets and flies, slugs, toads, falcons and birds, snakes, a whole army of them surrounded the ninja.

"What the fuck is going on?!" Takehiro looked around, bewildered.

The three got into a back-to-back formation. The squirrel wasn't looking for a something.

It had found its someone.

"As if one person weren't enough," Takehiro muttered, "Now we have to face a whole armada of stylishly senseless animals."

A giggle echoed in the forest.

"I have a feeling that these animals aren't in control of themselves." Ren said in a nervous tone.

"No shit, genius." Emi retorted.

"White goes along with everything," the giggly voice chirped, "I think it'll look absolutely lovely on you three."

"Come out and fight." Ren looked around and saw no genin anywhere in sight. He had a feeling that they'd have to fight their way out of this one. Looking up, he saw the sky was changing colors a darker blue. At this rate they would be fighting through the night.

"This is easier, though. I feel like if you can't beat a few animals of the forest, how could you ever defeat me?"

"Tsk. You bitch." He swore.

"Call me whatever you want, doll," She seemed to say everywhere within the forest, "I like it when people complain before their death."

AN

Herro! I'm soooo sorry I didn't upload this sooner. Homework's been thrown from all sides, so I'm not as free as i'd like to be :c Don't worry, as soon as the workload decreases I'll be back on here, uploading as soon as I can. But for now? Even if I can upload a chapter, it might be a long time before the next one comes. Until then, cya!