Chapter Four
We trudged along in silence for a long time. I took the lead and could feel Akari and Rafu both burning a hole in the back of my skull with their concerned looks. If I was being honest, the Iwa ninja had shaken me; I had never felt a genjutsu that was so intense and I still did not understand how he had known about the Asylum I had almost been put into as a child. I knew I had reacted poorly when I snapped his neck, but I was consumed by rage at that point. After journeying for most of the day, I knew we should be close to the tower. After resting tonight, we could be there by tomorrow; we probably could have made it today in only a few hours but we had taken it slowly and cautiously. I heard a river nearby and so veered towards it, knowing we needed to get a little more water just in case we had to take the long way to avoid another team. We stopped and filled the canteens up with water, no words had been exchanged between us since we had left earlier in the day, and so I was surprised when Rafu spoke up.
"Ren.." Rafu said, trailing off uncertainly
"What?" I asked, sounding far more harsh than I had intended. I sighed, rolling my shoulder, before turning to face him and asking again in a kinder tone.
"Let me heal you." Rafu almost demanded, gripping my shoulder tight. "Please."
"I'm fine." I said, shaking him off and stepping a little bit away. A moment later, Akari appeared in front of me to prevent me from going any further.
"That isn't the point." Akari said firmly, crossing her arms over her chest. "What happened back there?"
"I'll let you heal me, if you want." I told Rafu, my eyes never leaving Akari's as I spoke. Rafu's hands lit up with the green glow of medical chakra instantly. He slowly began to run the his chakra infused hand along my throat, repairing the damage done to it earlier, and I could feel as my throat warmed. The sensation was like tiny pins and needles, similar to when a limb falls asleep and you are trying to wake it up. I looked back at Akari when I noticed my eyes had drifted to watch Rafu as he worked, and her eyes had never left my face. "We need to stay focused. Don't worry about me, I just.. I can't talk about it now. Not in this forest."
"Don't speak." Rafu murmured, running his hand along the column of my throat and I wanted to groan as the sensation went away at the base of my throat. His face was set into one of intense concentration, it was not easy to repair the throat because of all the vocal cords, so I settled for staying silent as he worked.
"You are safe." Akari said gently, patting me on the shoulder. My jaw clenched, holding back any emotion like we were taught in the academy, and I nodded sharply to let her know I had heard her loud and clear. Rafu finally stepped away after a moment, wiping the perspiration from his face, and gave a satisfied nod at my appearance.
"It's not completely gone, but it doesn't look like a boa constrictor wrapped around your neck and tried to strangle you anymore, so it will have to do." Rafu said smiling thinly, trying for a light hearted joke but falling flat.
"Let's just rest and then get to the tower." I said, huffing out a breath. The other two nodded and began to unpack their bedrolls. I started to do the same, but stopped and said Rafu's name. When he looked at me, I gave the warmest smile I could muster. "Thank you. It feels a lot better."
"Anytime." Rafu replied, his eyes lighting up just a little bit. We all settled down for the night, taking turns keeping watch once again, and thankfully nothing out of the ordinary happened his time. When morning came, we let out a collective breath as the anticipation the night had brought was released. I felt better after getting a little bit of sleep and knowing we would be getting out of the forest today. When we were all packed up, we took off with renewed vigor. After only a couple of minutes traveling, something felt off in the air; there was a clearing ahead and something didn't feel right about it. I looked at Rafu and could tell he felt the same as I did.
"I have a bad feeling about this." Rafu said darkly, on high alert with his head swiveling.
"Me too, but I think this is the fastest way." I responded lowly, and as a unit we stopped at the edge of the clearing. It looked peaceful enough and at first I wasn't sure what felt so off about it - until I noticed the bodies.
"Are those Genin from Kusagakure?" Akari asked, bewildered
"Judging from the hitai-ites, I would so so." Rafu surmised, glancing around the clearing to see if there were any signs of a trap. I switched on my dojutsu briefly so I did not use much chakra, looking to see if there would be any trouble if we went to check out the bodies for ourselves to see if they were alive or dead.
Sunlight was more bright in the clearing than any other part of the forest we had been in so far, and it did not feel so gloomy from this vantage point. I watched as Akari kicked one of the bodies gently, flipping it over with her feet, and as Rafu bent down to inspect one of them. He put two of his fingers against their neck to check for a pulse point, looking back up at me, and in a confused voice announced they were dead.
"It should be safe." I said quietly, creeping forward "Let's check out the bodies."
"Maybe we should just leave?" Akari said, clearly having reservations about going into a space so open like that one.
"Something isn't right about this and I want to find out what's bugging me so much." I responded, walking towards them with controlled movements.
"You're curiosity is going to get us killed." Akari told me in a flat tone of voice
"You don't have to come." I replied, scanning the trees around us constantly for any sign of movement or a trap.
"As if." Akari huffed, and I smiled inwardly as I felt her moving along just slightly behind me. I could always count on her, and Rafu as well, to have my back; no matter how stupid of an idea it might seem to be.
As we approached the bodies, I stopped a little ways off and my teammates moved forward just like in the vision. Akari rolled one of the bodies over and Rafu felt for a pulse. Rafu looked up from where he was knelt next to the shinobi from the Village Hidden in the Grass.
"He's dead." Rafu said, obviously perplexed, before going to the other body and confirming that he was also deceased. "What the heck happened here, I wonder?"
"This is strange." I muttered, my eyes roving the clearing and evaluating everything within sight to see if their were any clues as to what might have happened. There was no evidence of a battle at all; No damage to the grass, none of the bark in the tree's were messed up. It was as though they had just dropped dead on the spot.
"If you think that is strange, look at this." Akari declared, straightening up from where she had been diggin in the robes of one of the fallen shinobi. In her hand was an earth scroll, undamaged and seeing it put me on edge instantly.
"Who would kill them and not take their scroll?" Rafu asked, bewilderment and uncertainty thick in his voice. His eyes were almost nervously darting around the edges of the clearing now, his hand straying to the weapons pouch strapped to his right upper thigh.
"Someone who is here for another reason than taking the exam." I said, speaking so low they must have had to strain their hearing to make it out. My mind was racing as I thought of the possible scenarios that would fit the scene in front of us.
"Where is the third body?" Akari asked, looking around as though it would pop out at us any second.
"Teams of three." I muttered, cocking my head to the side in the way that I normally do when I was thinking hard about something. "I can think of three scenarios: One, whoever killed these two was after the third shinobi in their group and took them alive. Two, the third shinobi got away and is either still running or was chased down and killed somewhere else in the forest."
"And the third option?" Rafu asked, trepidation clearly written on his face.
"The third member from Kusagakure killed these two and left them to rot in order to complete another mission they viewed as more important." I told them, pausing for a moment as I let what I had said sink in. Who would kill their own comrades like this though? "Out of the three, I honestly think the third option is most likely despite how despicable it is."
"Why do you say that?" Akari asked, a frown tugging at the corner of her lips as she observed the bodies in front of us.
"Hardly any defensive wounds on the bodies and lack of evidence that a fight took place." I said, pointing to the fallen shinobi and gesturing around the clearing we were standing in. "They were taken by surprise, most likely from behind, which could be an indication of an ally turning into a hostile."
"That could be right." Rafu concurred thoughtfully "The one on the left has no defensive wounds at all and there are only a minimal amount on the body to the right. The left was killed first, and the second was taken out right after with very little effort. I find it hard to believe any shinobi would walk into an open clearing like this relaxed enough to get that surprised, so an ally would make sense."
"We should take the scroll and leave." Akari said, shifting uncomfortably.
"What is wrong?" I asked, frowning at the sudden display
"You were from Kusagakure originally, weren't you?" Akari asked quietly, looking around for anyone lurking in the foliage. "What if you were the mission? Because of your eyes?"
"Impossible." I dismissed almost instantaneously, causing Akari to puff up in indignation before I explained. "No one, as far as I know, knew Rin Nohara took me from that bridge except another member of her team who is a leaf Jonin. No one knows about my eyes except you two, Takeshi-sensei, and the Hokage himself. No, if there was another mission, it was more important that me."
"I still agree we should leave." Rafu chimed in, looking between the two of us as Akari calmed down. "We should get to the tower and report what we suspect to Anko-sama. She can do something."
"Alright." I agreed easily, grabbing the scroll and sticking the spare in my bag with the other Earth scroll. On second thought, I threw Akari the spare so that we would each have one to keep. It was always great to have a decoy. "Let's head out."
The three of us sprang out of the clearing, flying through the tree's once again as we hopped from branch to branch. After another hour or so of travel, Akari climbed to the top of a tree and said she saw the tower. We dropped to a lower level of branches and quietly made our way there, more wary of traps now than ever before. It was only a moment or so later that Rafu signalled he felt three chakra signatures nearby. Looking at them both, I held up my fist in a silent command for us to stop. We huddled together on a branch as we discussed what we should do.
"I want to take a look, see if it is a threat." I said, looking at the other two and waiting for the inevitable protest.
"Why?" Akari said, clearly frustrated "We are almost home free. Let's just take the long way."
"What if we run into a trap by going the long way?" I countered, raising an eyebrow. "Look, you two stay here; I'll go check it out. If I'm not back in ten minutes, come get me."
"I don't like it." Akari said, shaking her head and looking to Rafu. "Tell him he's being stupid."
"It's not like they can really catch him in a trap." Rafu said, shrugging apologetically at Akari when she shot him an outraged look. "His eyes see almost everything. Besides, he can hold his own for ten minutes and we'll be right here. Worst comes to worst, they won't expect back up to come so soon and he could always just give them the extra scroll if that is all they want."
"Whatever." Akari grumbled, she always hated when she had been out voted. Grinning a little, I jumped from the tree and towards the lower branches so I could get closer to the three. Rafu pointed me in the right direction and I crept along slowly, wondering what was waiting for me on the other side. After only a couple of minutes, I began to hear voices talking between themselves.
"We used a lot of chakra stepping in and helping them." An oddly familiar voice complained, and I heard something else that sounded suspiciously like the crinkling of a bag of potato chips.
"Well, we just need to rest and wait for Ino to wake up now." Another younger boy's voice replied, and he was clearly eating as he spoke, most likely the aforementioned potato chips if the crunching sound was as distinctive as I thought.
"This test is such a drag." the first voice said, raspy and still young. That's when I remembered when I had heard that voice before and I smirked to myself, shaking my head. This kid was everywhere lately.
"We still have over two days, Shikamaru." The second voice said, and as I parted the foliage in the tree I was hiding in, I could see the two boys sitting down with their blonde-haired teammate passed out between them. The heavy set boy was the one eating the chips, he had red swirls on both of his cheeks, and Nara Shikamaru had his chin resting on one of his hands in a bored position. "We'll find an earth scroll and get to the tower no problem."
"Maybe one will just fall from the sky." Shikamaru said, obviously being sarcastic. The mischievous side of me couldn't help myself, so without pausing to think over whether it was a good idea or not, I jumped down from the tree and landed in front of the two genin.
"Hey." I said cheerfully, smiling wider as I noticed how bad I startled them. They both quickly jumped up, blocking their partner from view, before taking up defensive positions in front of her. I held up my hands placatingly, half as a reassuring gesture and the other so they could see both of my hands. "I just want to talk."
"It's you." Shikamaru said, his dark brown eyes analyzing my appearance. I had to force myself not to wince when I saw them pause on my neck before going to my bow and weapons pouch. He was evaluating how dangerous I was, I realized.
"It's me." I agreed with my hands still in the air, suddenly feeling awkward. Why did I jump down here? "My name is Ren, if you don't remember."
"Nara Shikamaru." He responded, and I wanted to cheekily tell him I knew very well who he was, but figured that was a little forward. "This is Choji. What do you want to talk about?"
"What happened to your teammate?" I asked, my eyes flicking over to the girl they had called Ino, before locking back onto the dark brown eyes boring into mine. His eyes were hard and analytical now, whereas before during the exam they had been half-lidded as though he was on the verge of sleeping. The change honestly astounded me, I found it interesting.
"Chakra exhaustion." Choji said, looking between the Nara boy and myself curiously. "You know him Shikamaru?"
"Yeah. We sat next to each other during the first exam." Shikamaru explained
"Oh! Is that the guy Ino called.." Choji had started to say, but Shikamaru quickly covered his mouth. His cheeks had both turned red again and he shot Choji a death glare before nodding his head once.
"So what do you want?" Shikamaru said again, ignoring the blush on his cheeks. I grinned at him, wondering what his friend had called me that made him blush like that.
"I can't stop and talk to a cute guy in the middle of the woods?" I teased, flirting a little. It was my turn to be confused when I heard Choji sputter and almost choke on laughter and I saw Shikamaru's eyes widen in shock, the flush creeping up the back of his neck now. He cocked his hip to one side, one hand on said hip and the other on the back of his neck.
"How troublesome.." Shikamaru muttered, looking upwards at the tree. Feeling awkward again, I had never really attempted to flirt with someone and so it honestly felt like I was doing a bad job, I thought about the conversation I had overheard.
"Look, I overheard you guys talking and I think I can help." I told them, smiling uncertainly. "You're looking for an earth scroll, right?"
"Yeah." Choji said, looking at me in near amazement.
"I have an extra one." I said nonchalantly, grabbing it from my bag and showing it to them. "I'll let you guys have it."
"Why?" Shikamaru asked suspiciously, eyes narrowed at me.
"Because it won't do me any good, and the more of our shinobi in the last part of the exam, all the better for our village, right?" I said, my smile slowly fading as they both kept staring at me suspiciously. I knew they probably wouldn't take it outright, so I needed to make them earn it somehow. So I said the first thing that came to my mind. "If you can answer two of my riddles correctly, it's all yours."
"That's it?" Choji gaped, grinning a little
"That's it." I agreed, looking at Shikamaru. "What do you say? It's not like you have anything to lose."
"Alright. Let's hear the first one." Shikamaru responded in his raspy drawl, one hand still planted firmly on his hip as his eyes bored into mine as though he could read me like a book.
"You can see me in water, but I never get wet." I almost sang, cheerfully asking the next part. "What am I?"
The two boys thought it over for a minute. Shikamaru brought Choji close to him so they could basically whisper to one another without me overhearing them, and while they were doing that I wondered why Akari and Rafu had not shown up yet. By my estimation it had been about eleven minutes already, pretty strange.
"A reflection." Shikamaru answered, a smirk playing at the corners of his mouth. "Is that the best one you have?"
I laughed, glad he had gotten it right. I thought for a moment of another one that would take him a bit longer to figure out. "A little cocky, aren't we?"
Shikamaru shrugged, a bored expression on his face, but I could see the gleam of amusement and a little bit of interest in his eyes as he waited for the next riddle.
'So, I have your attention, do I?' I thought to myself, grinning inwardly at having amused the Nara boy. 'Oh kami, since when do I care if someone finds me interesting?'
"You will always find me in the past, I can be created in the present, but the future cannot taint me." I said, smirking a little at the allusion to the future. I couldn't help but let out a soft chuckle at the irony whenever something about the future came up; it might have been immature, but I didn't care. "What am I?"
There was another few moments of silence. Choji leaned against a tree, snacking on his chips, and Ino still had not moved since I had dropped from my tree. Both of the boys, I was pleased to see, had were more relaxed than they were when I first appeared. So they obviously weren't as worried it was a trick. That was when Shikamaru did something rather peculiar; he kneeled, with both knees bent and leaning back on his feet, and made a shape with his hands. All the points of his fingers were touching and at the top of the shape his thumbs touched to complete what was basically a circle. He closed his eyes as he though, and I watched his lips as he mouthed the words of the riddle one more time to himself. When I had first heard this riddle, it took me a solid twenty minutes of thinking to figure it out - and I enjoyed solving riddles on a regular basis. I smirked a little to myself, wondering how long it would take before he asked for a hint or if he would solve it o-
"History." Shikamaru said confidently, opening his eyes to meet mine. I was shocked and I could tell by the amused look on his face that he knew he had caught me off guard. It had taken him all of three or maybe four minutes to solve the damn thing, maybe less. Shaking my head and giving a low chuckle, I tossed the earth scroll over to him which he deftly caught.
"Nicely done." I congratulated, giving him an evaluating once over. "Looks like I might have underestimated you."
"I still don't understand why you did this." Shikamaru replied, holding the scroll under his arm after checking to make sure it was authentic. "But thanks anyway, you made this part of the test a lot less troublesome."
"Glad I could help." I said, winking at him again and flushing a little myself at my own antics. I really needed to learn how to control myself around this guy. "See you guys at the tower, I guess. I need to get back to my own teammates."
"See you there." Shikamaru said, nodding at me with his lips twitching but an unreadable expression on his face.
"Thanks again, Ren!" Choji said cheerfully, waving goodbye as I did the same. Without further comment, I jumped up into the trees and made my way back to where I had left Akari and Rafu. I was halfway there when they both appeared beside me, Akari grinning like a maniac.
"Now I know why you wanted to check." She said, giving me a pointed look.
"Oh shut it." I said, rolling my eyes and turning around so she couldn't see my redder than normal cheeks. "I didn't know it was them."
"That flirting was almost painful to watch." Akari told me, turning to the tower to head that way. "We are going to have to work on that later."
"Akari!" I said, exasperatedly throwing my hands up.
"I thought you did well." Rafu commented, a sly grin on his face. "Shikamaru seems quite intelligent as well."
"Yeah, he does." I admitted, thinking about it myself. Intelligence was extremely attractive to me; pairing that up with the boys tanned skin and raspy voice was almost unfair. I was definitely interested in getting to know him a little better than I did now, my interest was piqued now more than ever.
"I can't believe you gave him the scroll for answering two questions." Akari grumbled, rolling her eyes. "More competition for us later on, is what you provided."
"Oh come on, I thought it was sweet." Rafu jumped in, defending me to Akari.
"Of course you did." Akari replied "You would have just given it to them if they would have asked. How I got stuck with two of the sappiest shinobi in the land of fire I will never know."
"You love us." I reminded her, sticking out my tongue. I felt lighter than I had since entering this damned forest, and I was especially glad to see the tower doors only a few meters in front of us. Still keeping a cautious eye open until the end, we breathed out a collective sigh of relief as we approached the doors and then took both of the scrolls out. We looked at one another to confirm we were ready, before pushing the doors to the tower open and finally stepping inside.
A/N: Review please! I was too lazy to find out if it was really an earth scroll Team 10 had needed or if it had been mentioned, so I just winged that part. I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter!
Thank you Sarahgri99 for your wonderful and flattering reviews: ShikaRen is something I want to happen so bad, as you can tell. It will be awhile before it's official or anything, and there will be a few surprises and hurdles for them before they can get together! :)
Thank you Amikotsu for the review: I know! You get to know more about why that was such a bad experience for him a little later on in the chapter, but it was pretty traumatizing and really intense to write.
Thank you Shis23 for being the first, beautiful person to review: I love Shikamaru as a character. He's intelligent but lazy, loyal, and I think just overall adorable. Hopefully you like Ren as a character and think they will be good together! :)