When Rain Falls: Chapter 3 – The Second Test is Difficult
Disclaimer: Everything, other than my own characters, belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.
Kotone panted and collapsed to one knee. Takumi eyed her from the tree he was leaning against. His grip on his chest tightened and he coughed violently.
"Kotone, we have to keep moving," Takumi rasped. His dark brown hair covered his eyes from his now crouched position. The air was heavy between them, but Kotone nodded and adjusted Kaori's unconscious body on her back.
"Let's get going then."
The two jumped through the trees, but Kotone could tell their pursuers were still actively on the hunt. She grip on Kaori's thighs tightened as she increased her jumping speed.
"Kotone!" Takumi called out from behind, "Don't do anything rash!"
Kotone turned back to her teammate and grinned before releasing Kaori from her back. Her teammate fell into a cluster of wires set up between branches. A swift move of Kotone's arm and the wires pulled her under the cover of some leaves while Takumi jumped down to join his dark haired teammated.
"Be careful, Kotone!"
Kotone's white hair glimmered in a spot of sunlight and she nodded before focusing her olive eyes to the area they ran from. Three opponents from Amegakure stood before her and laughed.
"Ohhhh? Is the Ueno brat going to take a stand?" One of their voices broke the otherwise silent area.
"With the injuries her teammates had they can't be far away."
"So what are we waiting for then?" The third member started a series of signs but Kotone darted to the right. Her speed was unrivaled on her team, with the exception of Kaori's justu to help her, so when she rapidly appeared to the right of the trio it was a surprise to the all-male Ame team.
"You really should know your opponents better than that. Your luck is really low if you ask me," Kotone sneered before she disappeared again. She quickly reappeared where she had started, right in front of them.
"Tsk. It's just you against all of us! Don't underestimate us!"
"Calm down, Ren!" One of the members went to stop his teammate, but he was too late. Ren took a step forward to start his approach, but was immediately stopped.
Kotone grinned and moved her right hand from beneath her sleeve. It was clear Ren was trying to move, but couldn't.
"Ren?! What are you doing?!"
"She must've activated it! Her eye jutsu! We didn't even notice!"
"I did that a long time ago. You see my eye isn't what you need to worry about right now. If only you could see what I can, you'd know you're in a minefield of wires," Kotone explained. She remained still, but she twiddled her right fingers and Ren was forced to turn towards his teammates.
"Ren?"
"It's not me!" Ren cried out as his teammates watched him in confusion.
"Thanks to Ren being a rather easy target standing far off to the right like he was, I was able to get to him first. I had already laid the area with wires while we were "escaping," but this chance was too good. You picked on my cute teammate so I have to return the favor!"
With a slow motion, Kotone lifted her right arm until it was perpendicular to her body. The wires around Ren became apparent as they shred through his clothing and dug into his skin. His scream of pain made his teammates cower, but they refused to move knowing that Kotone had set up wire traps everywhere.
"All of this… It was a trap!" Ren's teammate with light brown hair realized.
"Bingo!" Kotone exclaimed.
"Wait, what about your teammates!? Why are they hiding?"
Kotone sighed before she explain, "Sadly, Kaori was honestly injured so I knocked her out until we can properly look at it. She's the type to fight with a badly broken arm. Takumi is simply watching over her. He was quick to realize that I was enough to handle your team. Though, if I didn't have the upper hand of the setting right now, you would have much better odds!"
"What do you expect me to do? Just give you our scroll in exchange for Ren?!"
Kotone's face scrunched like she had smelled something unpleasant. "You don't value your teammate's life?" A flick of her wrist and the wires dug in further. Ren cried out again and started to beg his teammates for release.
"They're just wires right?! Cut them!" his teammate gripped a kunai and swung, but when it connected, the strand didn't cut.
"Don't you know? Kotone Ueno uses wires made by her father. They're thin like hair so that they can't be spotted easily, but tougher than others," the light haired teammate explained as he tried to figure out a way through the situation.
"You're half right, but I give you credit. You know more than I would've initially thought! So what are you going to do? Fight or flee?" Kotone offered.
The two looked at each other before nodding, "Fight!"
They jumped different directions in the hopes to catch Kotone off guard, but she simply lifted her left arm to match her right. The movement in her fingers was subtle through the fabric, but it was the only indication that she was doing anything.
The lighter haired teammate stopped his approach as a glint of light bounced off a wire that moved up in front of him. The way it moved made it clear that she had intended to catch him like Ren. He looked for his other teammate only to see he was caught already with only one free arm.
"I really don't like the idea of killing anyone for this purpose. We're not enemies at war, just students trying to rank up. Is that really worth life and death?" Kotone asked as she eyed the loud mouth teammate that was struggling a distance in the air.
"I have to agree," Takumi added from behind the light haired Ame genin. With a quick whack to his neck the guy was rendered unconscious.
"Takumi! What are you doing?" Kotone asked, manipulating the wires to bring Ren's loud teammate down closer to their eye level.
Takumi jumped between them and swiftly knocked them out, "They were beginners, but you were taking so long I thought maybe I misread them. Instead I see you playing with them."
"When you phrase it that way it seems sick. I was just giving them the opportunity to give us their scroll and run. They have plenty of other targets they could go for and catch up, but they were being persistent. One of them knew my method a bit though," Kotone nodded to the light haired one as Takumi dug through his bag.
"How much did he know?"
"Not much, just enough for him to realize that it wasn't smart to fight me here. With all these trees I can set up as many wires as I need without being too obvious. He wasn't aware of how they move though, nor how I lay them out."
"Good. It's hard to fight you even with that knowledge, but it's in our best interest to keep your fighting style as much of a secret as possible," Takumi let out a small 'ah-ha' when he found their scroll. The Earth scroll was the pair to their Heaven scroll.
Kotone and Takumi jumped down to where Kaori was sitting up on her wire-hammock. She was wincing with a tender touch to her right arm.
"Did I really mess up the plan that much?" Kaori asked sheepishly, her dark blue eyes peeking out from under her black hair.
Kotone and Takumi shared a look while the former knelt down to examine her young teammate's arm. As Takumi explained their options, Kotone thought back to how this all started.
They had been in the forest for only a few minutes before Takumi had them stop to strategize.
"There were teams at entrances approximately this far from ours. Those are our best bets for a scroll, but we can only pick one. If we mess up we'll have to risk getting caught in fights closer to the tower. Teams caught this far out are likelier to be weaker."
"What makes you say that, Takumi-kun?" Kaori asked curiously as she practiced her punches and stances.
Kotone was seated on the ground in a meditative pose. She cracked an eye open to look at Takumi. He sighed an explained, "The teams that will wait close to the tower in a day or so will be desperate and likely cocky. They might even be teams that have their scrolls, but opt to whittle down the amount of opposing teams and continue to fight until the last second. I'm assuming their stronger because even a know it all beginner team wouldn't risk losing everything if they managed to get their second scroll. They would head straight to the tower and enter it."
Kaori nodded before she clapped in realization, "So teams right at the start are likely to be easier because the beginners will be looking for the first team they see! They might not have the skills to see their opponent's level of skill and judge it against their own!"
Takumi nodded, "That, and teams that stick around the edge might also be waiting for the stronger teams to get their scrolls, or for the environment to pick off the weakest ones, that way they can play scavengers without risk."
"Takumi, you do realize what teams are probably going to be that naïve right?" Kotone asked.
Kaori glanced between the two in confusion. Takumi sighed and nodded, "Amegakure teams. I can think of maybe one that would wait close to the tower because they like genjutsu, but otherwise most of them are going to base strength on appearance and dive right in."
"Really?" Kaori asked.
"Yep, we're notorious for not thinking before we act, right Takumi?" Kotone asked as she stood up and dusted herself off.
"Sadly, our village isn't like Konoha or Sand. It's small and has no Kage to lead it, because of that most teams are more concerned with results than quality performance. Amegakure tries so hard to develop new jutsu and stand strong in comparison to the other villages, but it makes a lot of mistakes that way," Takumi tightened his ponytail before tucking some of his bangs behind his right ear.
"Takumi-kun, you look like a girl when you do that," Kaori giggled.
Takumi blushed immediately and turned to scold her only to see Kotone trying not to laugh, "Not you too!"
"It's the way you did it, Takumi! It was kind of effeminate," Kotone held a hand over her mouth to suppress the noise.
Takumi fumed and began to plan silently. It wasn't long before they headed off after deciding which direction to go. Since it was randomized, they figured it was just a matter of picking a direction. They realized really quickly that they had gotten incredibly lucky as they spotted a team of Ame genin from their hiding spot. It didn't take long for Takumi to pick up on their chakra and Kotone was able to spot them with her kekke genkai. It was Kaori that would help them enact their plan though.
Kotone assumed her meditation pose again and subdued her chakra presence while releasing wires into the nearby tree line. That way she could estimate their closeness based on which wires were tripped.
Takumi and Kaori pretended to spar though Kaori would occasionally release a chakra filled punch in order to send out waves of her chakra to lure them.
The plan went well until the other team used clones to surround them. Takumi hadn't expected them to full on attack them, and for that the timing of the plan was off. Kaori went to release another chakra punch at Takumi, but a clone attacked at the same time. In order to not hit her teammate with a full punch, who had jumped closer to her in reaction to the clone, Kaori had to disrupt the flow of chakra in her arm which fractured the bones in her forearm at least. It still looked as though she has hit Takumi in the chest which got Takumi's brain to formulate a back-up plan.
In the chaos, Kotone quickly reacted and upon seeing the pain cross Kaori's eyes, she knocked her out before dragging Takumi out of the fight. She brought all the wires she had released up to create a small wall to slow them down. However, with how fast they created distance between themselves and the other team, Kotone had to release her chakra from the wires. The distance was too great and would wear her down too fast.
It was then that Takumi suggested they pretend to be injured in order to give the other team a false sense of security. Kotone was okay with the plan and began to release wires as they ran, allowing for the other team to get caught in her snare.
"Looks like you broke your arm pretty bad," Kotone finally concluded her examination of Kaori.
The young girl winced as Kotone tried to turn her wrist, "I'll be fine. I just should rest it for a little while."
"Hmmmm," Kotone poked right into the middle of her forearm and Kaori let out of cry of pain and slapped Kotone across the face with her good hand.
Takumi chuckled, "You had that coming."
"I really did."
Takumi determined that Kaori was the deadliest at close range even with her injury so she should be the one to hold the scrolls. "We really should just head for the tower I think."
"I agree, but I'm a little worn out after laying out so many wires. I haven't had to use that many at once in a while either and it should be night time here soon. It would be safest to just go a bit further and make camp."
Kaori nodded, "Even though I didn't do much, I would like the chance to rest my arm properly. I'm likely going to need it soon."
Takumi nodded and they progressed to a safe spot far from the other Ame team. Kotone again set out wires to warn them of an ambush before she relaxed against a tree trunk. Takumi, being the least tired, opted to watch first and would wake one of them up when it was time to trade.
Kaori nestled up to another tree trunk and was quick to doze off.
"Kotone," Takumi whispered, "I know you're not sleeping."
"Ohhhh? I could've been. Maybe I'm just a light sleeper."
"Meditation isn't a good substitute."
"I like to think it's a decent one."
Takumi's voice revealed his growing frustration, "Just get some sleep; for Kaori's sake."
"If I go to sleep I might not feel my wires pull at my fingers, then where would we be?"
"I will keep an eye on any weird movements in your hands. Get some rest and drink some water," Takumi threw the water jug at her, unsurprised when she caught it.
Kotone took a sip of water and glanced at Takumi who was clearly irritated with her over her refusal to sleep. She let out a light chuckle before opting to actually get some rest. She knew that Takumi would keep a good eye on their surroundings.
When morning broke, Takumi was surprised to find Kaori still asleep despite it being her watch. He spotted Kotone only a short distance away in her meditation pose. She cracked an eye open as he walked towards her.
"Good morning," Takumi greeted with a tense tone. Kotone hadn't switched with Kaori like she was supposed to, but he couldn't blame her for that.
"Good morning. It was a very quiet night if you don't count all the screaming from other teams," Kotone stood up and stretched her arms above her head. Her sleeves fell and Takumi watched the metal contraptions on her arms glint in the light that barely broke through the trees.
"Shouldn't you be more careful about those? You never know who is watching."
Kotone pulled her arms down and inspected her accessories, "Honestly, once they realize I use wires I don't think it's too hard to figure out. Obviously I'm controlling them and I have to have them stored somewhere. This just allows for the fast release I need to set up my mid-combat traps and whatnot. It's not that big of a secret."
"I meant that your father hand designed those to suit your fighting style. You wouldn't want anyone to take them and figure out his crafting techniques," Takumi stretched as well before looking back to Kaori.
"She was in pain for the night. She needs healing, but I doubt we'll have that luxury. Even if we get to the tower early there's no telling what awaits there."
Takumi nodded in understanding. Kaori was to avoid fighting if possible, but this was part of the test. He went to wake up their young teammate while Kotone did a last check over the area.
"What's this chakra?" Kotone mumbled as her teammates met up with her.
"Someone is using lots of chakra at once. Takumi-san could it be a jutsu?" Kaori asked curiously as she adjusted the sling her right arm rested in.
He nodded, his brown bangs swayed against his face lightly. He looked toward the source of the chakra, "It would be wiser to avoid it, but I am curious about these opponents. Perhaps we should scout them out?"
"I agree. I think it would be best to take this opportunity. We have to be rather close, though they were outside the range of my wires."
Kaori nodded happily, "They're that way." With her good arm, she pointed in the same direction Takumi had been looking. "It's not that far, but there's something strange in that direction. It's another chakra, but something's not right about it."
"Not right about it?" Kotone asked.
"I'm not sure what it is, but it's not being used like the other one. It's not intentional; it's leaking."
Kotone and Takumi shared a nervous glance before they lead the way toward the mysterious chakras. As they got closer the felt the strange chakra that Kaori had already sensed, prompting Kotone to note how accurate the description "leaking" was.
Opting to hide in the trees, the team concealed their chakras and observed.
"Isn't that-?"
"The loud genin from Konoha? Yes," Takumi finished Kaori's question with a deadpan tone.
Kotone narrowed her eyes. "Looks like they've taken quite the beating. Kaori, can you pinpoint that odd chakra?"
"Me?"
"You're so observant, I thought you'd notice. Was I wrong?"
Takumi chuckled at Kaori's growing blush in response to Kotone's compliment. He had to admit, Kaori was very good at sensing chakra despite her inability to control her own. It was a natural talent for her.
"It's coming from…Uchiha-san?" Kaori tilted her head in confusion.
"I thought so. Takumi, you're the brains here. What does this mean? Why didn't we notice this before when we met him?"
Takumi sighed and shrugged, "If I had to guess, I'd say something happened between when we last saw them and now. This chakra is literally pouring out of him suggesting it's an adjustment for his body. It's something else entirely."
"You can introduce such changes to chakra?" Kotone's tone was disapproving. Whatever was happening to Sasuke was clearly painful and had put Sakura in a precarious situation as well.
"Kotone-chan, shouldn't we help her?"
Kotone winced as Sakura endured a series of punches to her head and face. She had basic attacks and jutsu down, but against her opponent it wasn't enough. Her tenacity, however, was something to commend.
"She's trying to prove herself."
"To who? Both her idiot teammates are unconscious," Takumi scoffed.
"Takumi-san!"
"To herself, I think. Look at her, Takumi. Is that the skill of someone who should be here? I'm sure Sakura has her merits in other things, but in terms of talent she's lacking."
Takumi nodded and watched as another set of Konoha genin interfered. "Even compared to those three, she doesn't have anything that makes her noteworthy. Kaori has her jutsu even if she's can't yet control it."
"Whatever happened to her team, she ended up being responsible for their safety. She was willing to rise to the occasion and endured that much abuse because of it. I want to step in and end this fight, but I feel like that'd be an insult to her."
"I don't understand, Kotone-chan. I know how Sakura-chan feels, trying to chase after her teammates –
"Kaori," Takumi started to interrupt before Kotone signaled him to stop.
"—but why can't we help her?"
"If you were in her shoes, Kaori, would you want a team from another village to step in to help you? You're welcoming personality aside, if you were tasked with out protection and you ended up in these uneven odds. Would you want someone else to step in, someone that knows nothing of you, to get involved?"
"I guess it would depend…?"
"Exactly. I'm not saying my thoughts are completely accurate, but I imagine Sakura would feel worse if we stepped in. She's already chasing her teammates. Does she really need to see the talent of other teams? It's fortunate that that other Konoha team stepped in. It'd be better if they were all friends who could understand her better than we can," Kotone's tone dropped towards the end. Takumi noticed it with ease, plainly understanding what she meant while Kaori could only gaze at her older teammate.
Kotone rubbed Kaori's head next to her side bun. "We still have a lot to learn about you if you can relate to Sakura so well."
Kaori nodded before she jerked her head to the side. A chill ran through Kotone and Takumi. They both responded like Kaori, turning to see the sudden change in chakra.
"What the…?" Takumi narrowed his eyes at Sasuke who was now standing.
Kaori shivered at the presence of his chakra. Something was very dark and offputting about it, though she seemed more affected than those around her. Even the other Konoha genin didn't seem to notice the negative feeling Sasuke was giving off despite the malicious grin that spread across his face.
"This is unexpected," Kotone mumbled, "and complicated."
"How are you so calm?!" Takumi growled out. He didn't like this rapid change in Sasuke. It turned Sasuke into a threat that might have the ability to beat everyone in his path. Such a disadvantage irritated Takumi to no end.
Kotone sighed, "I am not calm. But you said this is a change to his chakra, right? What are the odds he'll go back to normal after expending it all?"
"I can't say for sure, but this might be temporary I suppose. That's still not comforting. If it's random, then that's almost worse." Kotone sighed at this turn of events. It would be best if they could avoid conflict with Sasuke and his teammates in general, but now if felt necessary to avoid it.
"Kotone-chan," Kaori tugged on the long maroon sleeves her older teammate wore, "should we check on them?"
The team from Otogakure had retreated and forfeited their scroll to Sasuke. With the conflict resolved, Kotone, Takumi, and Kaori jumped to the forest floor to check in on their new friends.
"Oh, it's the Ame team," Sakura greeted with a weak smile. The bruises on her face must have made smiling painful, but despite that she was trying.
"Sakura, I think you should take this," Kotone rummaged through her sleeves before pulling out a small jar of ointment. "It will help you heal faster."
Sakura's eye widened, "But won't you be needing it?"
Kaori grinned wide and shook her head. "Thanks to Kotone-chan, we can head to the tower!"
Sasuke and Sakura turned their attention to the snow haired girl who was smiling casually.
"Because of Kotone-san?" Sakura finally asked, breaking the surprised silence.
Kaori nodded, "Takumi came up with a plan, but because of my mistake she ended up fighting alone. Still, she managed to get the scroll from the other team!"
"Ah, we should mention that it was another team from Amegakure that Takumi and I knew. Their attack patterns were familiar is all. Don't let Kaori's praise deceive you," Kotone interjected with a shrug.
Sakura settled a little, but Kotone could see the clouding of disappointment in her eyes. She patted Kaori's head and let out a light laugh. "This one managed to break her arm in the process. She's still got a ways to go, but I think she'll improve with practice! How about you Sakura? Don't you agree?"
Sakura's eyes widened at Kotone's implication. Her and Kaori were the same, both getting injured and lagging behind. However, with practice and support they could improve. She nodded and smiled again while Kotone turned her head up toward the trees.
"Kotone?" Takumi asked. He knew the Hyuga boy was in the trees watching as the kunoichi of their team fetched the spandex boy. The trademark pearl toned eyes was obvious to him, however the other teammates' names didn't stick to Takumi's memory.
"I wonder if Hyuga-san would look at Koari's arm. What do you think, Takumi?"
"No," he replied with a turn to leave.
"Oi! Takumi!"
Naruto awoke at that moment with a shout. He reacted to Sakura's beating which drew him to Kotone and her team as well.
"Kotone-chan!" Naruto greeted in surprise. "What are you doing here? Did you do this to Sakura-chan?!"
Kotone held back a laugh while Takumi released an exasperated sigh. Kaori giggled openly at Naruto's accusation causing him great confusion.
"No, Naruto. It wasn't me. We came here when we noticed strong chakras this way, but the opponents were fleeing. I also wouldn't cause such abuse to new friends."
Kotone's polite manners made Naruto blush and he nodded, "Hmm, hmm. I guess that's true. You seem too nice to attack anyone."
It was Takumi's turn to hold back his laughter, though his body trembled with humor. Kaori nodded in agreement, "Kotone-chan does seem that way, but be careful Naruto-san! She's tougher than she looks!"
Kotone chuckled and rubbed the back of her head before glancing towards the Hyuga boy again. She wanted to ask him to look at Kaori's arm, but she felt he would refuse her. The boy had to know she had spotted him, yet he made no move to signal interest in their group or anyone else. He even sent the young woman on their team to fetch their spandex-wearing one.
"Kotone-chan!" Kaori called out as she stood from her position. "What are you looking at?"
"Hmm? Oh, just wondering if there will be any more trouble spots in these woods. We should get to the tower as soon as possible now that we've spent some time on this excursion. How does your arm feel?"
Kaori wiggled her fingers and rolled her shoulder, "I don't feel anything at all thanks to Takumi-san's medicine!"
"Be careful with those crazy concoctions of his. You know they're not completely tested, right?" Kotone grinned at the slight panic that rose up in the young girl's navy eyes.
Takumi chuckled before motioning for his team that it was time to leave. The girls said their farewells with Kotone even taking a moment to wave to the Hyuga boy, before they leaped into the tree line.
The worry Kotone had felt over the exams was beginning to wane.
AN: So, I want to apologize now if I had previously described Kaori and Takumi's hair/eye colors only to change them here. I went through my notes and previous chapters, but I couldn't find it so I went to the original designs I drew up and am going with those. Kaori: Black hair/dark blue eyes. Takumi: Dark Brown hair/hazel eyes. I also want to apologize for how long this took to publish, I recently got a new job and moved so I was trying to get settled and ended up putting a lot of side projects, well, to the side. I hope you enjoyed this chapter! – Awkward Moogle