Chapter 30
"W-what do you think we should do?" asked Sakaki. She thought something bad was happening, but wasn't sure what they should do. It could be part of the test, and they could run across another team and fail. Or there could be something bad occurring- in which case it would be dangerous to stay here. Then again, she'd never heard of a Chunin exam being called off.
But she didn't know much about the exam either.
"Ah, it's probably just part of the exam" said Tomo, "I bet Yukari and Kimura have decided to play a trick on us."
"I bet they'll pop up and yell surprise" said Osaka. "Or throw things at us." She was quiet for a moment. "Yukari would probably throw things" she said quietly.
An explosion, much louder this time, caught the attention of the trio. They turned and watched in disbelief as a bright flame suddenly shot upwards into the air. The flame quickly vanished, leaving dark sky. Sakaki turned to Tomo who was still busy looking at where the flame had been.
"I-I don't think that was a form of jutsu" said Sakaki quietly. At the very least she was certain it was more powerful then any power the students could possess at the moment. She knew that some students possessed more power without even training, but this seemed strong. And she had a very faint memory of Tomo developing some sort of powerful aura. But she had spoken about it.
"Can we quit now?" asked Osaka. "I've been practising recently but I don't think I could do that type of thing."
"Nope" replied Tomo. "We still have an exam to ace. Of course, I've never aced any exam before, but I always believe our time will come. I mean surely we have to do well at least once right?"
"But what do we do now?" asked Osaka. "I'm too tired to think of anything. I spent too much time trying to practice I think. Also waking up at ten was too early."
"Maybe f-find shelter" said Sakaki. "Find somewhere safe and maybe get sleep?" she suggested. She wanted to propose an idea before Tomo's inevitable suggestion to go and investigate the explosion. She knew Osaka was weary and not concentrating very well now- and Sakaki was in the same condition. And knew it.
"That sounds good" said Tomo yawning loudly. She had yet to master the idea of stealth. "I could do with some sleep. I don't suppose there'd be any chance of finding a bed somewhere in this forest?"
"We might get lucky this time" said Osaka with a gentle yawn. For some reason both Tomo and Osaka had been hanging onto the belief that they might be able to find a comfortable bed somewhere in this deep, dangerous forest. For the sake of morale (and due to her shyness) Sakaki hadn't raised any of the obvious faults with this idea.
A distance away from the trio Zenka ran through the night. The second larger explosion had been closer to him, so he soon found the area. A moderately deep crater was torn into the mud and gravel, deep enough to reach up to his knees if he were to stand in it. A few small trees had been felled, resting on the floor, while debris of other trees that had been caught in the explosion was scattered across the floor.
A ragged piece of clothing with some blood rested on the edge of the crater, the dirt close by. There was no body though and the dirt was disturbed…someone or a group of people had recently been here and had left. He crouched down to look at the ground when he heard a girls yell from close by. He stood back up, running in the direction of the sound. He knew if it was a fight between two students he should stay uninvolved unless it looked like one was deliberately going to kill another. He saw two distinct groups almost immediately. Two students, both girls and one with glasses, and two adults, not part of the exam participant group. Gripping a knife he stepped out into the open.
Yomi watched as the instructor suddenly appeared from nowhere. She was glad to see him. She had been searching with Kagura for Chiyo who had vanished. An explosion had suddenly gone off, and while Yomi was still slightly deafened the men had suddenly appeared. They hadn't been too pleased to see the girls. To be fair, Yomi hadn't been too happy either.
There had originally been three men attacking them. One had gone to strike Yomi while she was disorientated- however Kagura had blocked the attack, with no more damage then a cut to the hand. She returned her own blow- a kick straight to the face. The guy had been knocked out and rolled away down an embankment, through numerous thorn bushes. Yomi hoped it had hurt.
"Who the hell are you?!" yelled one of the men.
"I'm just an instructor" said Zenka. "Girls, these people might be too advanced for you. I notice you're missing one member" he continued, blocking a strike from the loudmouth.
"We've been looking for her" said Yomi. She just hoped Chiyo hadn't come across any of these people.
"Go, find her" said Zenka. "I'm going to try and expel these unauthorized personnel" he added. Yomi and Kagura ran as Zenka grimaced when a knife was dug into his arm. He gripped hold of the loudmouth's arm and in one move snapped it, the arm hanging loose. He punched with a large clenched fist before yanking the knife out from his arm and stabbing it into the loudmouth's chest. A look of shock crossed the mans face as he slumped to the ground.
"You seem very handy with a knife" commented the remaining man, one Mr Takaya. "I am Takaya, I've always wanted to try a straight knife fight. Why don't we try that huh? No jutsu or anything, like people fought way back in the past."
"Fine with me" growled Zenka. He had trained a lot using the knife, he found it a quick and quiet way to kill.
Takaya pulled out his own kunai knife. He'd have to make this quick. The rest of the idiots in his team were out in the forest on their own. They'd probably still be close by, but he knew if he wasn't quick they'd probably get lost forever, or end up as food for some of the wildlife in the forest. Takaya had spent several periods of time in the forest and he knew he'd let to have seen even a quarter of the (usually vicious) wildlife that was present inside the steel fence.
Zenka gripped the knife and charged, fully focused. He too had to be quick. There could be more of these people in the forest, threatening the life of the students. The students under his watch. Takaya was quick, but despite his larger size Zenka was faster. With the blade in a downward position, he sliced into Takaya's arm. Takaya didn't even let out a sigh as the skin and muscle was torn into.
Instead Takaya slashed upwards, blood spilling out as he moved the torn arm. The blade ran along Zenka's chest- but not with great force, merely cutting a line through Zenka's shirt. He grumbled- he liked that shirt. Zenka struck out but Takaya avoided it. Zenka quickly moved to kick Takaya in the knee and as the man jerked back he was able to lacerate his cheek. Blood began trickling down the side of Takaya's face. So far the fight was relatively even, but Takaya was bleeding more.
Both struck at the same time, the kunai knives smacking into one another with a dull dangerous chink. The two knives slashed down one another, digging into the opposing person's hand. The two pulled away, with one of Zenka's fingers hanging loosely. Takaya was missing his little finger. This was beginning to annoy him now. The pain wasn't very strong to him, just annoying.
He held up the knife even as blood from the ragged stump started to spill onto it. He went to charge, Zenka taking a defensive pose when the man suddenly vanished. Zenka was caught by surprise as the man appeared behind him.
"You've become complacent in your instructor days" said Takaya. "Yes, I know very well about the various ninja in the village" he added.
"You said no jutsu" said Zenka. How had he done that?
"I did. And none was used. Truth be told, I don't really know how to. Unfortunately for you I just happen to be very fast when I want to. Too fast for you evidently."
"So what now? Talking about your genius scheme?" asked Zenka, stalling for time, waiting for a chance to strike.
"No" said Takaya slashing the knife across Zenka's throat. He spluttered as blood spurted out; slumping to the floor, blood mixing with mud in the darkness. "I'm working as part of another person's scheme."
Takaya dropped the bloodied knife to the floor and pulled a fresh one from a pouch caked in dry mud. Time to find the rest of his team.
Chiyo continued to run, occasionally looking behind her, worried about being followed. She was running alongside the river, she was certain she would find one of the exits if she continued along this route. She was going to get help, try and tell the instructors to call off the exam and safely retrieve everyone. But she wondered if they would be willing to listen to her. As she recited over what to possibly say she stumbled, crying out as she fell. And to the far left she could see movement.
"Please be Yomi and Kagura" she said quietly.