Chapter 20: Wait... We Forgot Shino!
Shino, Kiba, and I stood among our fellow Genins in front of Anko, who was before us grinning like a psychopath - which she probably is - in front of a tall forest enclosed by a fence.
"This is Training Area Fourty-four, also known as 'the Forest of Death,'" her grin grew wider as she spoke.
The proctor explained how it'd be a death match with a time limit. Get the other scroll and get to the tower - in five days. I briefly wondered if Konoha wasn't as soft and gentle as I first thought it to be. If there were shinobi like Anko and Ibiki dancing around here... Well, my sense of security just went down a little.
Naruto began mimicking the purple-haired proctor, wagging his butt and dancing like a fish on land. I coughed to hide my laugh.
Anko quickly threw a kunai at Naruto, skimming his cheek.
"Ah, it's kids like you that die first, splattering that red blood I love..." Bye bye, sense of security. I'm going to have trouble sleeping for weeks. A creepy Grass Genin handed (tongued?) Anko's kunai back with his tongue.
I made a mental note to watch him/her. I couldn't tell. He/she had the mannerisms of a man, but the looks of a woman... And his/her voice didn't help me at all.
Eventually, Anko handed out papers to sign. I skimmed it and chuckled. She really didn't want our deaths pinned on her, did she? Smiling, I signed it without a second thought. We received a Heaven scroll, and I grabbed it and stuck it into another scroll. That doesn't make sense, does it? I took another scroll that teleports the Heaven scroll to my room and teleported the Heaven scroll to my room. It was currently sitting on my pillow with a note of 'Do not touch.'
Soon enough, we were standing before a gate. Grinning, I waved to the gate keeper who smiled and waved back.
A shout reverberated through the air. "BEGIN!"
My team and I instantly shot past the gates, running straight for the tower. Why? Well, if we go to the tower, we can set traps. If we set traps, we'll be able to get two scrolls. Most people would think to find other people first and steal their scroll and THEN go to the tower, but we decided on going to the tower first. After all, we don't know who has what kind of scroll. Obviously they're not getting ours since it's outside of the forest. After a few hours of running, Shino and Kiba were starting to lag behind me. So, I stopped.
"We'll rest here for now." I muttered. They happily plopped onto the ground. The image of Shino plopping himself onto the ground was so strange that I stared for a good few seconds then proceeded to act as if I had not seen anything strange of him.
"Hey, you still have the scroll, right?" Shino asked. I froze. Kiba began talking.
"Oh yeah, it's in Saya's scroll thingie, right?" Alright, Kiba is real. Shino is not. I spun around and pinned the imposter to a tree with kunai.
"When?" I asked a simple, one word question. Kiba let out a cry of outrage.
"Saya, what're you doin' to Shino? He didn't insult you THAT bad the other day, did he?"
"Shut up, Mutt. You're so stupid. Since when does Shino talk like that? Or plop himself onto the ground?" I asked him. Kiba froze and his eyes widened. He slapped a hand onto his forehead.
"And he smells different, too!" He finally exclaimed. "I thought something was strange but..." Kiba began muttering things to himself while I approached the imposter.
"When did you replace yourself with Shino? And where is he?" I demanded. The imposter smirked then disappeared into a puddle of water. Clone..! I spun around trying to see if anyone was near, my sensing on high alert. To my relief, there was no one... And then I felt a cold and bloodthirsty presence not too far away. I grabbed Kiba by the arm and Akamaru followed faithfully as I dragged him to investigate.
We peered through the bushes to find Gaara-san and Kon-kun. Kon was bleeding heavily and it looked like he was dying while Gaara-san was grinning maniacally. The red-head lifted his hand, and sand followed his gestures.
"Sand Coffin!" His raspy voice called out. Kon-kun was crushed to death. Blood leaked through and stained the sand. My eyes widened and I froze. I felt sick. Quickly, I whispered a prayer for Jun Konya. I hadn't known him long, but I wish I had known him longer. Sand began trickling our way and my blood ran cold. Kiba shouted in surprise as sand held him upside down in the air. Sand wrapped around me tightly, making it hard to breathe. Gaara turned his angry and thirsty orbs to us. His eyes widened in recognition.
"'Sup, Gaara-san!" I wheezed out. I began taking breaths as deeply as I could with sand as strong as iron squeezing me. "Looks like you're doing wonderful today!"
"It's you... Saya, was it?" He asked. Kiba growled as the Sand ninja walked over to me.
"I'm honored you remembered my name, Gaara-san." I'm surprised I spoke coherently, considering I was on the verge of passing out. The sand let go of me suddenly, and Kiba fell on his face next to me.
"Are you not afraid of me? I am a monster." Kiba opened his mouth to speak but I shot him a look.
"You're not a monster. You're human. We're all humans here. We're also shinobi. Well, since we're all shinobi, doesn't that make us all monsters?" Gaara-san cocked his head in confusion. He was like a little kid. "Shinobi are tools, and we're meant to kill people. Even though you've killed one of my friends, that only makes me respect you. I don't fear people. And you, Gaara-san, are a person." Gaara-san's eyes widened and Kiba grinned.
"Saya, the girl who's so annoying and cocky, but knows exactly what to say." He grinned. Akamaru barked in agreement.
"Ah!" I suddenly remembered something extremely important. Everyone looked at me questioningly (including Gaara's team). "We forgot Shino!" Kiba's eyes widened and he made a sound of surprise.
"Normally I wouldn't care, but we need him to pass! Let's go!" He grabbed my hand and dragged me after him.
"See ya, Gaara-san! I hope you pass the Chuunin Exams!" I called out. He nodded in acknowledgement and ran off with his team to the tower.
After running for a while, I found Shino's chakra. "Found him, Kiba!"
"I know," he muttered. "I can smell that bug-boy from anywhere." We kept running for a time before I decided to speak.
"You know, you can let go of my hand now." He nearly tripped in surprise when he realized he was, indeed, still holding my hand from when he dragged me away.
"S-sorry..." He stuttered, instantly letting me go and blushing. I grinned. I was going to say something, but decided on something different.
"Why have you been acting so weird since New Year's?" I asked. He froze and I rammed into him, causing us to tumble into each other. When we landed, I was sitting on top of him and his hood had fallen off. "Why have you been acting so strangely, Kiba?" I whispered. His face began to redden.
"It's because... Y-y'know..." He kept stuttering, but he didn't give me an answer. I laid down on top of him.
"I can sit here all day until you answer my question."
"Well, you're going to be there a while..." He muttered. Fine by me. I actually really enjoyed this position. Saya - the girl who knows how to take advantage of situations like this. I suddenly felt an enemy chakra and I froze. Kiba was about to speak, but I placed my hand over his mouth and told him to be quiet. I slowly got up and brought out my katana, and Kiba stood as well. Three chakra signatures surrounded us. Akamaru quietly whined a warning. The three Genins walked out of the bushes, smirking. They wouldn't be smirking soon anymore. When they were about to speak, I threw my katana and impaled the one closest to me. He gurgled a cry before he fell down dead. The other two froze in surprise as Kiba and Akamaru preformed a Fang over Fang. My hands seemed to blur as I preformed the hand-signs to the greatest Jutsu of all time.
"Chidori!" The remaining Genin died of electrocution. After searching the bodies, I found an Earth scroll.
"How convenient!" I grinned. Kiba turned to me in surprise.
"We killed them without knowing what kind of scroll they had?" He shouted.
I sweatdropped. "Yeah... In my defense, they looked like they wanted to kill us!" Kiba sighed and buried his face with his hands.
"I feel sick... They were our age, and we just killed them... Just like that. They didn't even have a chance to speak and now..." He muttered sadly. Guilt washed over me. I sighed and walked over to him. Gently, I pried his hands from his face and wrapped my arms around his neck. Kiba put his arms around my waist and placed his head on my shoulder. I could feel him crying.
"I'm pathetic, aren't I?" He asked. I shook my head.
"No... We're still kids, after all. It's okay to feel guilty for now."
AN: Phew. To write that much in one sitting was painful. Mmmm snacks... I feel fat ;A; I ate 411 calories while typing this. Well, around that much. I think it was half the bag... Anyway! Hope you enjoyed! I'm still grinning from this chapter. Will Saya ever find out what happened on New Year's? Well, this wouldn't be her story if she didn't.
Review! Or else you'll never find out if Saya and Kiba kiss because I now want two reviews before I start writing! Well, they WILL... In later chapters. Not the next one. Hehe. Wait a minute.. It's snowing! AGAIN! Oh my god. Why?!