Ch. 13: The Forest of Death
Dawn broke. I yawned and stretched out, then jumped off of the branch I was sitting on.
Hn… That was a good rest. I think I'll go back to the inn now.
I began running in the direction of the town. I arrived at the room to find Kazu running around, calling my name.
"Where the fuck were you?" I heard Deki demand from behind me. I suddenly remembered the night before.
I was walking through the forest, becoming acquainted with the native plants when I sensed an unknown chakra signature. "Who's there?" I called out.
Miki suddenly appeared in front of me, but this Miki had a deranged smile. "You," she snarled. "You ruined my life." I looked at her in confusion. "I should have been the heir. But no, you were discovered to be my elder, so they sent you off to a peasant family to keep you safe. I was also sent off. I was the new Mizukage's closest relative, and Kohei was my legal younger twin brother. You, on the other hand, were the illegitimate daughter of the old Mizukage who died. But you were conceived before me. I was forced to be born prematurely to become your elder, but you still were in existence in the womb before I. You were sent away until your time of leadership came. But no one even knew of you—you were not a legal child. So I was the one they came after, and my foster mother took up my image to protect me. So my twin and foster brother were sent to the somewhat safer village of Suna with me. But once you're out of the way, I'm next in line. I'll make it happen." With a maniacal laugh, she sprung into the trees and raced away. I slept in the forest after that, pondering over what she said.
"Tomoko!" Deki's voice brought me back to the present. "Wait—you weren't sexually violated, were you?"
"You mean raped?" Washi said bluntly.
"What the fuck! Why would you ask her that?" Yumi exclaimed.
"What? NO! OF COURSE NOT!" I yelled.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes! What the fudge! I should know! I'm a frickin' ninja!"
"Okay! But you better have a good excuse, because you're making us late," Deki said in annoyance.
"Sorry."
"Bye!" Washi said as he, Yumi, and Kaida ran off. I rushed into my room and threw the few things I needed into three piles. I stored them all in three scrolls, then I packed up my ninja tool pouch, threaded my headband through the straps, secured it behind my back, then settled it on my waist. I strapped my pre-packed shuriken, kunai, notebook, and seed pouch onto my right thigh.
"Alright! Let's go." Kazu nodded and Deki immediately took off from the balcony. We followed him immediately, and after overtaking him, I led the way to the forest.
We barely made it in time, but an unseen woman named Anko gathered us all around a large fence. A slim, dark figure suddenly leapt from a tree, and I caught a glimpse of a spiky ponytail, a tan trench coat and a fishnet ninja-mail top. But as soon as she landed on the ground, she was hidden from view by a sea of taller people.
"All right, people!" a low husky, yet feminine voice bellowed. "If you've been here before, step back. Newbies to the front. NOW!"
"That's us." Kazu, Deki, and I pushed our way to the front, where we were practically touching this Anko lady, then found Yumi and the others, as well as some of my friends who were not from the Mist Village.
"All right, so the objective of this stage is… and most of you are aware that this is the only stage… ARE allowed to kill…" The buzz of quiet chattering drowned out the sound of her voice. "SHUT UP!" She launched a slew of kunai into the crowd, which immediately fell silent. She smiled wickedly, then continued as if she had just finished giving the instructions. "Now GO!" I immediately followed Deki from our 'front row seat', ignoring the strange looks the three of us received, while I couldn't help but smirk mischievously. No one else moved and Anko looked at us confusedly. As we made our way to the entrance that was the correct one, according to Deki, and I was handed a black scroll, Anko continued to bellow at the rest of the testers. After we went through the large entrance and we were in the safety of a tree, Deki filled us in.
"This forest is filled with deadly animals and will soon also contain deadly shinobi. To pass, we need both a heaven and an earth scroll, meaning a white and a black scroll. Then, we bring them to the tower in the center of the forest for the next stage. But, we cannot open the scrolls or some unspecified bad thing will happen to us. We have an earth scroll, so we need to get a heaven scroll."
I nodded and pulled out a chunky black scroll from the ninja tool pouch that was situated on Kazu's waistband in the back.
"Hey!" he protested.
"What?" I said annoyedly. "We need it, and obviously you weren't pulling it out. I'll disguise it as a fake one, put it in your pouch, then put the real one in my pouch!" Don't let him say anything! I thought as 'loudly' as I could. Deki nodded and clamped his hand over Kazu's mouth before he could make any noise. I did a transformation jutsu and put the real scroll in Kazu's pouch, and the fake one in the pouch at the back of my own waist. "Come on, let's get moving before the others enter the forest. I think I already hear some of them."
We sprinted until we were deep in the forest. We began searching around for teams with heaven scrolls. We encountered one team of eighteen and nineteen-year-olds, but they had obviously overheard our 'conversation' from earlier. One of the two boys in the group appeared behind me. He spoke in what was supposed to be a seductive tone, so I played along.
"Hey, babe, do you have an earth scroll?"
"I might," I purred back, rubbing my shoulders against his chest. "Why don't you check for me?" I asked with an innocent expression and an oh-so-innocent voice. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the guy's male teammate fall over with a nosebleed. Disgusting…
"Okay," the boy said slowly as he reached for the pouch where the scroll was. He pulled it out with one swift motion and threw it into the air, yelling, "HA! Idiot! Can't believe you fell for it!"
The missing female team member swung out of a tree and grabbed the scroll in midair. "What is this?" she cried, slicing it in half with a kunai, dispelling the transformation jutsu with a 'poof'. As the scroll halves fell to the ground, I sank to my knees, sobbing.
"NOOOO! That was our real one disguised as a fake one! Now we're gonna die out here!" My voice cracked as I continued to wail. "I don't want to die! Why did you do that! Waahhhhh!" I collapsed into an emotional wreck.
"Now I feel bad," the guy who had 'tricked' me said. Then I heard the girl gasp sharply, followed by the light thud of three bodies falling to the ground. I stood up jerkily, shakily wiping away imaginary tears. I sniffled a few times.
"Idiot. Can't believe you fell for it," I said with contempt to the male body closest to me.
"Nice acting," Deki said, "but they don't even have a scroll at all."
"Thanks. That's just too bad," I answered. Then I grimaced as we stumbled upon a gruesome scene. Hitoshi and the Twin Terrors were both dead and strewn all over a small clearing. Literally. Stepping over Kagami's severed lower leg, I stuck my tongue out in disgust. "Well, let's hope we don't stumble upon whoever or whatever did this. Though I would have to thank them," I joked as we quickly left, the smell of blood following.
We continued to search until I heard a familiar voice. Three, actually.
"Come on Kaida, do I HAVE TO?" it whined. "Yumi, back me up!"
"Nope. Sorrrrry!" Yumi sang from the same grove of trees. I put my index finger to my lips in the classic 'shut up' sign, then half-spoke, half-sang in a low, bumbling voice.
"Hum-dee-dum-dee-dum. We have a white scroll, what does it mean? Hum-dee-dum-dee-dee!" I nicknamed this voice the 'idiot' voice. Then I used a thin, wheedling, nasally male voice.
"Shaddup! We can't let anyone know where we are!"
"You both are idiots. Now let me do my work," I said in a low, melodic, feminine voice.
"Oh, okay." I used the idiot voice. "Hum-dee-doo, we DON'T have a white scroll. La-di-da-di-da. Oh, hello Miss Spider. Do you have a black scroll?"
Cue the wheedler. "Not that we need one!"
"You do realize that you just talked to a spider?"
I motioned for my two real teammates to hide while using the melodic, syrupy voice. I heard snickering from the two girls before I jumped up into a tree and masked my chakra.
A high, timid voice spoke up. "I have a black scroll. Would you like to give me yours?" I stared in shock as Washi stepped out into the clearing. Except this Washi had long, down his back, wavy hair, a thin willowy body, feminine features, and a short dress. All in all, he, or should I say, SHE, was a very small figure, one that guys would call 'cute'.
"Henge," Deki muttered from next to me.
"Fuck," Washi swore. "There's no one here." With a white 'poof', he dispelled the transformation jutsu and returned to his normal form. "Yumi, I am going to fucking kill you for making me do that."
"Okay!" Yumi called as Washi went back to what was obviously their campsite. "Right after Tomoko lets Miki date Kazu!"
"That's never gonna happen," Kaida commented.
"Exactly my point."
I quickly led Kazu and Deki through the trees until we were a safe distance away, yet still relatively close to Yumi, Kaida, and Washi's camp. "Shit. They have a black scroll," Kazu stated.
"I know. Well, let's turn in now. If we want to get an early start, we need to sleep early too."
I released the sleeping mats and food supplies from the storage scroll they were in with a bit of chakra in place of the customary drop of blood. "I took the liberty of making a few soldier pills from the plants while in the forest. These will give energy, replenish chakra, and help heal wounds. Oh, and I have some all-purpose antidote pills too, for just in case. Oh, and Deki, remember, we are allowed to kill, but that doesn't mean we should go on killing sprees."
"However will I live?" he commented sarcastically.
"Alright, everyone gets a soldier pill, then we rest. Okay? Let's set up traps so no one can sneak in."
"Okay! I KNEW I packed the wire for a reason!" Kazu exclaimed, immediately beginning to string some up. We set up the ninja wires so that they would be connected to either palm, for Kazu and Deki, and one on each of my fingers, seeing as how I had a uniquely sensitive chakra control. That way, we would know if anything disturbed the wires. I grew brambles for those who made it past the wires. The final defense was a dome, constructed from thick, woven tree roots. We connected the wires, lay down on our sleeping mats, and fell asleep quickly.
I woke to the sound of Yumi speaking dangerously close by. I sighed in relief when I remembered that the dome had a camouflage jutsu, specialty of the Mist Village, cast over it.
"I hate to say it, but I've tried everything! You're my last resort!" That was Yumi's voice.
"Are you friggin' serious? That's the third time this fucking week!" Washi's voice said.
"I know. It's not like I like this anymore than you do. Wait… if what Tomoko said is true, then you must REALLY like th—"
"Just shut the hell up so I can do it and we can get over with it," Washi interrupted.
"Fine!"
I knew what happened next. It was impossible for me not to—Yumi and I exchanged secrets all the time. I tried not to giggle when Washi finally said, "All right, let's get back," signaling that they were finished. I looked behind me to find Kazu looking bewildered. I had to try even harder not to laugh.
I tensed as a chakra presence disturbed the chakra network set up around the dome, then relaxed when I recognized it as Deki's chakra signature. I made an opening in the dome, and sank the whole thing back into the ground, admitting Deki into our view. A pissed off Deki, that is.
"That bastard Warami," he muttered darkly.
"Hey, Deki, I need to tell you—" I wasn't able to finish before Deki walked up to a tree, about three feet in diameter, and punched it. The trunk splintered like a toothpick before the fury-powered blow. I backed up, keeping an eye on my unstable teammate. I nudged Kazu with my elbow. He didn't respond, so I quickly looked back to see him looking at Deki, who was obliterating more trees with chakra-enforced attacks, with anxiety in his eyes. His right hand was clenched around a kunai so hard that his knuckles were white.
"Damn," he swore, "I forgot his meds."
"Oh fuck." It was so bad of a predicament that I didn't even try to cover up the swear I had just uttered that completely went against my no-swearing-ever-I-have-never-cursed-before-except-for-once-which-was-an-accident-(thanks-a-lot-Deki) policy. The reason why? It was simple. Without his pills in the morning, Deki turned into a psychopathic, unstable, homicidal killer. Yeah, ouch.
My thoughts were disturbed by a rustling in the bushes. I jumped into a defensive stance with Kazu covering my back. Deki was still storming around being destructive. I pulled out a kunai, just as I heard a voice speaking.
"Oh, so Washi finally got a girlfriend? Oh, and Hideki's jealous. Hey, Tomoko actually swore, and I don't think Kazuyuki has gotten over his stupid, pointless crush on my sister." The owner of the voice emerged from a clump of shrubs to my right and Kazu's left, followed by his two teammates.
"Tokomi Naoya," Deki gritted out with pure hatred.
"In the flesh. Don't you feel lucky that I'm actually talking to you?" Naoya responded. He was flanked by Nekowa Akuma, and his foster-sister Miki, who still wore a deranged smile. "Oh, and thanks for taking out that team. Their white scroll was unnecessary for us, but we took it anyway. After all, we couldn't let someone like you get a hold of it, could we?" Naoya said, backed up by another maniacal laugh from Miki.
"Oh, I finally get to kill you. Goody, I've been waiting to see your blood pouring out while you scream in delicious agony!" She shrieked at me in laughter again to emphasize her point.
"And I get a part in the deal too." I stared at Nekowa-san, who was now obviously just Akuma, as he spoke up. I heard a splintering sound and shuddered at how dangerously close Deki had gotten, a wild look in his eyes as he demolished the trunk of another tree.
Deki snickered evilly before saying, "I've waited for years to do this." With a sickening crunch, he sank his fist into Naoya's unguarded face with a chakra-strengthened attack. Naoya dropped to the ground with a bloody, mangled mess for a face, and Deki also fell back, unconscious from chakra depletion.
"As I was saying," Akuma continued as if nothing had happened, "you, Riku Tomoko, have a trait that only comes about once at a time in the whole world. There is also one being at a time who can get rid of this trait. That person? Me. The trait? Your genjutsu.
"From your expression, I can see that you came in contact with my idiot twin brother. If you haven't guessed yet, then I'll save you the trouble of straining your brain. He was the former keeper of this special skill. Of course, once I got him out of the way, it moved to you."
"You mean you killed your own brother?" I asked in shock.
"No, not at all. I just used the technique I'm about to use on you. I call it the Mangekyou Sharingan."
"Say wha—" I had no time to finish before he began making rapid handsigns.
"Of course, this isn't the original version, but it works, and I liked the name. Now, instead of pointing or locking eyes, I send out a pulse. And thanks to Miki, you are now frozen in place."
It was true. I couldn't move, and I now knew that one, this pulse would take away my genjutsu, and two, from what I learned from Deki, I was about to be put though the worst, most fatal torture genjutsu ever in existence. I was doomed. I closed my eyes and accepted my fate. That is, until I felt my intangible constraints disappear. I opened my eyes to see Miki on the ground, blood soaking into the thirsty dirt from where a kunai stuck out of her neck. I looked to my right to see Kazu with a now empty hand and in a stance that indicated that he had launched the fatal projectile. But Akuma was still gathering energy for the pulse. I pulled out a kunai at the same time as Kazu, and threw it towards Akuma with deadly accuracy, but Akuma smiled as the kunai bounced off an unseen shield.
"Too late."
A black ball formed in front of Akuma's outstretched hands, a sphere of pure darkness.
"Have a tortured sleep."
I was rooted to the spot, watching as if in a frame-by-frame movie. Kazu screamed "NOOO!" and jumped in front of me while flinging his withheld kunai. It struck Akuma in the stomach, and he fell to the ground just as the sphere left his hands. It traveled in a heartbeat, and hit flesh, sinking into it and drawing a cry in agony from the victim. Kazu.
Time returned to its regular speed. I jerked forward and caught Kazu before he hit the ground. His eyes spasmed behind his closed eyelids, and a single pained word fell from his lips before he fell unconscious.
"Tomoko…"
As the shock sank in and I sank to my knees with Kazu still in my arms, five things hit me with shocks like thunderbolts.
Both of my teammates were knocked out.
We were in the middle of a forest filled with man-eating creatures and deadly shinobi.
As soon as he woke up, I would have a dangerous, homicidal teenager on my hands.
My teammate and best friend took the most fatal torture jutsu in existence in place of me, and probably had fallen in love with me, and
I felt the same way towards him.
In other words—I just fell for my best friend.
A/N: Oooh drama!