No Longer Faceless
Chapter 4
"So where are we headed again?" Shiho asked Atsuki. The pair of Genin was walking through Konoha's red light district in broad daylight and the blonde girl was obviously less than comfortable with this.
The boy nearly sighed in annoyance; this was clearly not the first occurrence of this line of thought. "We're headed to a big, wooden, warehouse. It should be near here, and pretty easy to find since nearly everything else here is closing for the daylight hours."
"Do you think Shin is already there? We never did manage to find him after we found out about this." Atsuki give her a look that clearly stated that he didn't know, but then he sighed when Shiho continued to speak, "This is our one shot to escape the remedial class! This is where they test us to see if we can enter into the apprenticeship program! Think about it, learning under an expert!"
Atsuki cut her off before she could get lost in her fantasies of easy success. "We have to pass the test first, you know."
"I know that!" She then puffed herself up in pride, "I know I have what it takes to get into cryptology!"
"Except actual experience." Atsuki quipped, knowing that they don't teach any major cryptology at the Academy and that any tools to learn about it are above Shiho's security clearance level, or at least it had been back when they were still academy students. "Perhaps you could get apprenticed under a librarian."
By the time Atsuki had finished, Shiho's cheeks were puffed and her face was red with anger. "Stop that! You're so mean!" She began swatting at him with her fists.
The boy blinked in confusion. "Shiho, becoming an aide at the Shinobi Archives would be a very good thing for you."
The girl took off her glasses to clean the lenses; clearly a calming exercise. "I know that, but you say it like it's an insult, Saijo. Besides, I'm trying to pump myself up for this and you just keep cutting me down every time." Her voice wavered here, and it showed just how nervous she really was.
"Sorry," Atsuki apologized in a rather bland tone.
Shiho instantly began swatting at the boy beside her again. "Stop that! You say it like it doesn't mean anything!" Atsuki responded by apologizing again in the same exact tone. The girl sighed in exasperation and the decided to change the subject. "What about you? What does Saijo Atsuki want to be when he grows up?" she asked in an airy, taunting tone.
He shrugged. "I'm not sure. Something that would allow me to learn how to animate my art would be cool, but that's just a hobby. Going into kenjutsu would be good. I've been meaning to start practicing lately."
Shiho cut in. "Oh yeah, I was going to ask you about that sword you keep at your place! You never bring it with you anywhere. So it's just cause you don't actually know how to use it?"
Atsuki resisted the urge to glare at the bespectacled girl as she was merely going out of her way to irritate him now. He continued talking as as though he hadn't been interrupted. "Going into genjutsu would also be interesting…"
"Oh, that's rare. Hardly anyone goes into genjutsu anymore. Something about too many people taking preventive measures against it, I think."
The boy stopped to lean against the wooden wall as they had arrived at their destination. "I don't know I just like the idea of having my foe think he was completely outclassing me, only for me to be choreographing the entire show in reality."
Shiho cringed. "That sounds so evil. " She took a calming breath. "Well, we're here."
"Let's get this over with."
They entered the wooden warehouse only to find themselves in a room that was no larger than a classroom with ornately carved doors in each wall. In the room were fifteen of their former classmates and six Chunin in uniform. Shin was not present.
One of the Chunin spoke; clearly he was annoyed at the absence of a Genin. "The seventeen of you have a chance to enter into an apprenticeship. You do not get to choose who your master will be. Do not complain if you are not selected as an apprentice. This exam will be taken six at a time. One of us will escort you to one of the starting points. Your objective is to take the password given to you at the starting point at take it to one of the six Chunin stationed on the course. You will then be returned here and your performance evaluated. One of the Jounin may then decide to take you on as an apprentice."
Atsuki nodded at Shiho she was escorted to the door opposite to the one that they entered. A Chunin wearing a bandage across his nose, spiked black hair and stubble on his chin introduced himself. "I am Proctor Hagane Kotetsu. Please follow me." He escorted Atsuki to the door on the right.
Beyond the door, there was a hallway outlining the perimeter of the warehouse. Atsuki was led past two corners and was stopped at a door was directly opposite to the one Shiho entered all the way on the other side of the building.
The proctor stood in front of the door and began speaking. "You have one hour once you enter. Find one of us and tell him that 'everything was burned by the midnight sun." Atsuki nodded, and stepped through the door as it was opened.
Hearing the door shut behind him, Atsuki set to examining the area. There were wood, oak, lots of it. All of it was engraved with intricate patterns. At first glance Atsuki found himself in a wooden hallway that lasted for roughly ten meters and then ended with a staircase. At second glance, Atsuki noticed that the patterns were there to obscure the existence of traps, dozens of them.
Atsuki threw a handful of shuriken into the darkness in order to prematurely set off several of the wire based traps. This released dozens of senbon, shuriken, and kunai; none of which caused any damaged to Atsuki. Also, several floorboards fell away to reveal a pitfall lined with sharpened bamboo. The Genin took this opportunity to swap out his equipment with that which was used in the trap, seeing as they were made of higher quality material than the cheap stuff that he could afford as a mere academy student.
Just as he finished reorganizing his equipment, Atsuki's instincts went haywire. He grabbed a nearby kunai out of the wall and slashed it at the thing that he did not hear, but knew was behind him. The boy glanced at his victim, half expecting to see the corpse of a fellow Genin. He nearly sighed in relief when all he saw was just a spider.
Atsuki shrugged and turned around only for what he had seen to hit him. That was a spider. A spider big enough to need to be killed by a kunai, and one dangerous enough to attack a human as if it was prey. He looked at the spider again. Yep, the damn thing was larger than a housecat. He stepped over the corpse of the spider to look down into the pitfall trap. The bamboo was no longer there, and trap looked to be nearly twice as deep as it was a few moments ago. Several more spiders were crawling up the walls of the trap.
This is a test, so encountering living resistance is the same as progress, right? Atsuki nodded to himself and threw an explosive note down into the hole. After the boom, Atsuki dropped down, kunai at the ready. Using the debris from the explosion and a flint, he created a small fire so that he could see. Taking in his surroundings, he twitched in surprise. A hand carved, stone tunnel, not dirt like he had been expecting. Assured that he had not entered a place that the proctors did expect him to be able to go to, Atsuki pressed on, torch and kunai in hand. His spider kill count was already in the double digits, not counting those that had died from the explosion.
In an indeterminate distance later, due to constant onslaught of giant spiders, Atsuki ran into a roadblock: a stone wall. Taking a moment to ensure that he had indeed killed all of the spiders in the area, he inspected the wall. It was made of stone and covered in webbing. There was a small hole at about the eye level of an adult male. Atsuki was no longer sure he was supposed to be here as this place looked rather abandoned, but the thought of turning back was even more depressing. He pulled one more explosive tag out of his equipment pouch and made ready to bust through.
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The Observation Deck was in a panic. One of the Genin had broken into the old system of tunnels that had been abandoned shortly after the First Great Shinobi War, when the walls surrounding Konoha had been erected and the tunnel began collapsing in places. Apparently, they had been a nesting ground for the kind of spiders one would usually find in Training Ground 44: the Forest of Death. These spiders have now been unleashed on a warehouse full of unsuspecting Genin all due to the efforts of one overly suspicious Genin.
The kid had made his way into the tunnels, apparently convinced that this was just part of the test. A squad of Chunin were hastily sent after him for his own safety. After all, a queen of this particular breed of spider could grow to be as large as a house, not to mention the corrosive properties of its venom, and its territorial nature. Many other squads of Chunin were assigned to round up the rest of the Genin.
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Atsuki was beginning to grow very worried. If blowing up this last wall didn't lead him to an exit, he would only have one exploding tag left. Also, the constant stream of spiders the he had been beginning to grow used to had suddenly ceased. At least he had managed to avoid being wounded thus far.
Making way through the crater he had put into the wall, Atsuki only just barely managed to throw himself out of the way of something taking a swipe at him. Stumbling to his feet, he hastily threw a brace of shuriken at the thing. Sensing danger, he rolled out of the way of a giant glob of webbing that was shot at him. He heard his weapons clatter to the stone floor, obviously having caused no damage.
Atsuki finally managed to pull himself together so that he could take a look at the creature. He flinched when he saw the mother of all spiders. It had to be at least a full ten meters tall. Its legs had orange hair, and each strand appeared sharp enough to draw blood. It had at least eight milky white eyes, showing its age and blindness. Its fangs were nearly two meters long and as thick as an arm. They dripped with corrosive brown venom. The Spider Queen howled ferociously at the intrusion of its lair, and attempted, of all things, to stomp Atsuki into the dust.
As the Genin scrambled around the chamber, avoiding certain death with every step, he noticed that this room, unlike the tunnel, was lit with torches at about eye level to the monster. The chamber was enormous, easily as big as a coliseum and it was littered with bones, some them human. There was also no exit as the entrance Atsuki had created had been blocked with sticky webbing that would be impossible to break until he could focus his full attention on it.
Atsuki quickly realized that his weapons were no good against this foe as they just bounced right off of its carapace. He only had one shot. His last explosive tag. Atsuki had to place it on the underside of the Spider Queen's abdomen.
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Author's Note
Aaaaand cut! I like this chapter despite the fillerness of it. Inspired by many spider based bosses in video games.
So I suppose this is an attempt to explain the difference between an apprentice and a genin squad. As you might have already guessed, Saijo doesn't have anything in his arsenal outside of things that are taught in the academy. Already, such a toolbox feels woefully inadequate.
Please R&R Eye of the Blizzard, signing out!