Chapter 19: The Second Stage
"What are you doing? Keep running you moron!"
"As if! Cryo Blast Justu!"
Three long days had passed since Squad Thirteen emerged victorious from the depths of the Island Turtle's insides. In that time they'd struggled living alone; just staying alive was a two-part tussle that involved fending for themselves whilst at the same time covering their tracks and avoiding the other ninja who'd succeeded. One person had to be awake at all times – even in the darkness of nightfall they could be attacked, so surviving was all about strategy.
Should they light a fire and make themselves comfortable to gain a few extra hours sleep? Or should they spare themselves the risk of an attack and endure a cold night to awake tired and irritated? These kinds of questions were posed to them every other hour. Aside from countless arguments during the first two days they'd just barely managed to get by with little incident, but keeping a low profile became difficult when a samurai was on board.
At first light on the third day Shoryu had gone foraging for whatever looked edible in the close jungle when the sound of a marching army of heavy footfalls splashed across a nearby stream. Closer inspection proved that a great herd of two-headed rhinos migrated east. He'd roused the others and silently they pursued the thirty-strong army of two tonne beasts in the hope that they might lead them back to their Alpha.
Twenty Alpha creatures existed on the island, and each of them possessed a key to open one of the doors to the third stage. In the words of their Jonin advisor, these Alpha creatures were the 'biggest and meanest beasts of their species'. After tracking the rhinos until dusk Squad Thirteen had gotten their wish; they'd ended up in a rocky, airy clearing where the herd made their bed, and at the head of the flock the most colossal being that Shoryu had ever laid eyes on (save of course for the Island Turtle) nestled by the bank of a river.
With its towering height even when laying prone and leathery black hide that looked as tough as gemstone the dangers of facing this thing became all too apparent. This was nothing short of a Jonin's opponent, although if all went to plan they'd never end up facing him in open combat. Flies buzzed around his two horned skulls and he unconsciously swatted them away with his ears. Occasionally one of his four eyes would wink open and look around the clearing.
Squad Thirteen had stayed behind the rocks, avoiding detection and waiting for the right opportunity when everything was asleep to snag the key and run whilst they had the chance. They might have even succeeded if Kazuya hadn't trudged out in front of the pack, drawn his sword and pointed it towards the Alpha.
"You'll be my opponent!" He'd screamed at the thirty metre long quadruped monstrosity.
After seeing that his ancestor's sword did nothing to the solid hide of the two-headed rhino Squad Thirteen bolted back through the jungle at full speed, Ayako and Shoryu wailing into the forest. They leapt from branch to branch, pursued by the rampaging stampede of fearsome creatures that simply ploughed through the trees they'd just jumped from.
They ran for some three miles until the rest of the herd backed away, but still the Alpha gored at full speed after them, uprooting every tree that got in his way with a great heave of his two horns. After Shoryu's manic screams drove Kazuya over the edge he stopped and blasted a column of ice at his foe.
"I told you it wouldn't work! Hurry up or we're dead!" cried Shoryu.
The samurai snarled in bitter resentment as he grudgingly hopped up to the branch of a nearby tree, narrowly avoiding impalement as the first head of the giant rhinoceros ploughed right into the spot he'd previously stood. That giant bony horn, twice as tall as Kazuya himself, ripped apart the earth, showering heavy clumps of soil and grass into the forest. Kazuya turned and was about to jump after his comrades when the second head careered his way.
He fell, attempting to jump from empty air and grabbing hold of nothingness as the branch beneath him was torn from right under his feet. Splinters and fingers of wood cracked into existence around him as if in slow-motion; when he hit the floor on his side the samurai knew right away that he was done for if someone didn't help him. A leg the girth of two tree trunks smashed into his back before he could rise. Being kicked from a leg that strong drove the wind from his lungs in an instant, and the sword in his hand clattered somewhere to the forest floor.
"Kazuya!" Shoryu stopped in his tracks and darted back toward the site of battle. "Idiot!" he cursed aloud. He watched the two-headed giant charge with a horrified stare – even if he pushed his body to the limits there was nothing he could do to get there in time and stop his best friend from being trampled.
"Blue!" cried a voice from below.
Of course – Ayako was still in the game, but her actions scarcely served to make the situation any better. She appeared seemingly out of nowhere, dashing to the ground some twenty paces away from Kazuya and letting rip a powerful javelin of sharp blue chakra. The attack, like all of them, did little good. To Shoryu the chakra spear looked like it had been honed to the sharpest point, yet it merely glanced off the diamond-hard exterior of the Alpha and failed to break even the first layer of skin.
What it did manage to do was catch the attention of the great beast. It slowed to a halt and turned one of its heads in a cold glare at the kunoichi before leading the way and careering towards her instead of the samurai.
"Wind Style: Air Slash Jutsu!"
Just as he expected, Shoryu's attack did even less damage than Ayako's. The second head turned his way and once again the path of the Alpha's rampage was redirected.
Crap! The boy cursed to himself as the beast loomed closer. We're just passing it between one another!
Another blue from Ayako's scroll bounced off the rear of the charging rhinoceros and a second Cryo Blast from the persistent samurai streamed its way, but this time the Alpha's mind was set. It continued to accelerate towards him with greater haste now, leaving Shoryu cowering and defenceless to all one hundred tonnes of storming, two-horned fury.
"Shoryu!" he heard his teammates say.
None of it was any use; as much as they tried Kazuya and Ayako simply could not divert the path of the lumbering rhino. Those twin horns looked less than inviting, and so Shoryu closed his eyes and crossed his swords in front of him, preparing for the worst. If these were to be his last moments at least he'd go out like a warrior, with his blades in his hands and his screaming mouth firmly shut.
"Ninja Art: Castoff!"
A boom accompanied a shockwave in echoing across the forest, sending countless flocks of fleeing birds to the air. When Shoryu finally opened his eyes he wasn't dead – he was still holding his ground with his shaking hands rattling his swords together like cutlery in an earthquake, and he wasn't alone. Someone stood ahead of him – the speaker who had let off a jutsu moments before Shoryu's potential death. Even more interesting was the fact that the weighty drum beat of the rhino's charge had suddenly disappeared. Shoryu took in the situation.
A girl stood on his branch two steps ahead, using a single hand to stop the charging leviathan in its tracks. No doubt as a side-effect of that strange jutsu she used, the girl's stopping arm had swelled into a grotesque, muscular form thicker than her own body, ripped with throbbing veins and a hand that resembled a giant's.
"Transfer!"
Suddenly her left arm shrank down to a normal size, with the right arm taking its place as the hulking monstrosity. She pushed it forward to the horn of the rhino.
"Displace!"
Both arms returned to normal this time, but the effects of doing so were severe indeed. Shoryu felt a huge force almost knock him off his feet as an impact erupted from the girl's right hand, tearing a bloody gash into the face of the rhino and forcing its first head to recoil with a rumbling noise that Shoryu could only assume was reserved for pain.
"Jinga!" she called out suddenly.
The rhino reared its ugly second head for another attempt at goring the two until its battered first head veered it away in another direction. Another ninja, this one a stout male, had appeared by the left hind leg of the Alpha, swatting the essential key in an instant and attracting the attention of the furious beast. It reared up and bolted for him with a scream when the mysterious girl shouted again.
"Yuudai!"
"Got it!" Only when he responded did Shoryu notice a third and final newcomer perched in a nearby tree. He dropped to the ground in an instant before weaving together a multitude of hand signs and slapping the forest floor with a chant of his personal jutsu.
"Water Style: Flash Flood Jutsu!"
"Come on!" Before Shoryu could question it, the girl tugged him by the sleeve of his jacket and pulled him off the branch to plummet twenty feet to the ground below. He barely managed to land on both feet; his soles stung uncomfortably and his left ankle gave a jolt of pain as he twisted it slightly, but this was nothing compared to the following event.
He turned to bark a comment at his kunoichi saviour when three feet of rushing water suddenly knocked him off his feet and sent him whirling through the flat jungle at speeds faster than he'd liked. Instantly he was reminded of the sickening rollercoaster of the Island Turtle's stomach. Now wasn't the time to compare queasy sensations though; it came down to either this or being rammed to death by the Alpha rhino – he'd take his chances with the flood any day.
The two flew down white water rapids, bouncing and hitting themselves against stationary trees for a mile or so before the ninja's 'Flash Flood Jutsu' washed them into a natural stream that flowed down the turtle's spine. They'd travelled so far in such a short space of time that the Alpha was out of sight; six individual hundred pound ninja might have been swept away by the rapids, but a mere metre of rushing water had barely made the rhino lose its balance.
It was only when Shoryu's pace began to decelerate in the natural river that he regained enough sense of direction to look around. Kazuya and Ayako had also been washed into the sudden stream, along with his saviour's two teammates, who rode the torrent far more comfortably than the bumbling Squad Thirteen. The flood's conjurer by the name of 'Yuudai' seemed to be the most at ease; he surfed at the head of the wave with both feet atop the water, making a childlike scream as if he was part of the wave itself.
Eventually, after five long minutes of bruising himself constantly against trees and then the rocks of the rapids, both teams finally reached at a bank. Yuudai arrived first, casually stepping off the surf as one would a treadmill. The chunky, key-snagging 'Jinga' followed, along with Ayako and lastly Kazuya, who spent a good few moments coughing up the excess water that had flooded his lungs. Finally Shoryu and the nameless heroine found themselves washed up there too.
Even the gloopy slush of wet sand was comfortable to Shoryu now. Pulled in by the tide, he skidded a good three steps onto dry land before moaning and rubbing his aching sides. The exhausted Squad Thirteen remained half-buried in the bank whilst they caught their breath. The other team meanwhile formed up and brushed themselves off as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.
Shoryu was the first to get to his feet. Regardless of the wet brush of sand smeared across his face he regained footing and turned back to his new friends, giving himself the chance to look at them properly now that he wasn't being bounced down a rapid by a sudden tsunami. One thing he thanked the heavens for became clear in an instant: as evidenced by the forehead protectors they wore, these were Cloud ninja – his own kind.
His saviour came in the form of a tall girl, tightly fitted in a standard uniform with her chestnut hair tied up a bun. The strict frown of her eyebrows told him that she was clearly the unspoken leader of this cell; and not without good reason either. If her previous display of incredible strength wasn't a good indicator of her ability then her expression gave it away. She was mature beyond her years, physically as well as mentally, standing as tall as Kazuya with the cool exterior of a fractious sensei.
If anything, the water user Yuudai was a stark contrast to her. Everything about him looked messy and uncaring; his clothes were creased and worn, his posture was slack and his scruffy clumps of blonde hair poked out at odd angles from his lime-green bandanna. Without even hearing them converse Shoryu sensed just from his body language that this boy was the total antithesis to his female rescuer, annoying her with his lax attitude in a way not so dissimilar from him and Kazuya.
Jinga on the other hand looked like the odd one out. Small, clunky steps and a fleeting glance at Squad Thirteen revealed his personality right away. He was shy, submissive and awkward around new people. He fidgeted with his hands and pushed a square pair of spectacles back up to the ridge of his nose; then he whistled a tune and ran a hand through short spiky hair, looking away in apparent disinterest after meeting the harsh gaze of Squad Thirteen's resident samurai.
"Jinga!" called the girl, startling him with her strict and sudden voice. "Do you have the key?"
"Ye-yes," stammered the boy, retrieving the hand-sized key he'd swiped from the Alpha and throwing it to her immediately.
Shoryu cracked his jaw loudly and rubbed the water out of his ear before approaching her.
"Stop right there! Did I say you could come any closer?" she warned.
As the girl drew a shuriken Shoryu stopped in his tracks and lifted his hands above his head, already feeling warm and embarrassed. Yuudai laughed and took a seat as he ruffed up his hair through his bandanna.
"Come on leave it out Hoshi – after all if these guys hadn't come blundering through the jungle with that thing on their tail we never would've gotten ourselves a key," he said.
"This isn't the time for your idiocy Yuudai," snapped the girl – apparently named Hoshi. "We can't afford to drop our guard in this test."
"Hang on." Shoryu dropped his hands and pitched an eyebrow in confusion. "You actually think we'd try to steal your key? Even without seeing you go berserk and repel that rhino – which was brilliant by the way – you really think we'd stoop so low as to try and rob you after you just saved us? We're on the same side!" He motioned to the forehead protectors that each ninja wore, all displaying the symbol of the Village Hidden in the Clouds.
Hoshi narrowed her eyes as she replied, "This is the Chunin exams – there aren't any 'sides' here."
Yuudai hissed to distil the tension and gave Shoryu an apologetic look. "Girl's got a point," he observed.
"That won't be necessary," said Kazuya. Having taken the most damage it took him a while to stagger back to his feet, but he managed it all the same. His long white hair was matted and ropey with the drowning of water and he still coughed his throat out with all he'd swallowed. As he drew his sword the other squad shrank back in preparation for an attack, until he pointed to the symbol etched onto both tangs. "See this?" he carried on, gesturing to the same mark on his wristbands. "You must recognise it – it's the symbol of the Takashi clan – I'm a samurai from the west. My honour dictates that I'm in your debt. I offer my services to whatever tasks you require, and if either of these two try to turn on you they'll become my enemies."
"Geez, thanks Kazuya," muttered Ayako, rising steadily to join the fray. "But he's got a point – we owe you big time and it'd be safer if we stuck together. If we escort you towards the neck then there's a decent chance we'll find another Alpha on the way there."
Hoshi shook her head without pausing for thought. "No thanks, I'd rather not. We'll be leaving now unless you're injured – we can't exactly leave in good conscience if you're wounded. Yuudai's methods can be a little rough."
"Well. . ." Shoryu nursed his head and looked himself up and down. "I've got about a hundred new bruises, I'm tired, I've got one massive concussion and my arm feels like it's ON FIRE. But other than that? Oh yeah, I'm just peachy."
Hoshi clucked her tongue at the boy's arrogance and turned her back, although her comrades didn't. Yuudai seemed to think that getting up after such a long ride was too much trouble, but Jinga on the other hand dropped his pack and waltzed over to Shoryu. He made no eye contact as he pulled up the sleeve of the ninja's jacket and inspected his hastily bandaged wound through the thick lenses of his glasses.
A feminine yelp escaped Shoryu when Jinga seized the bandage and tore it off without warning. Ayako laughed aloud and Kazuya chuckled, but for Shoryu it was no laughing matter – the already blazing wound ignited with an even greater heat as pain surged down every inch of his lower muscle. The shuriken had gone deeper than he'd first expected. Even after three days the pain had only gotten more severe.
"Hey watch it! What are you doing?" he demanded.
"You're too sympathetic Jinga," said Hoshi, barely turning her head. "Just leave him, we're going."
After pulling out what appeared to be a first aid kit Jinga finally said his first full sentence. He withdrew a frighteningly large needle and pushed black thread through its eye. "He's took a direct hit from a shuriken. Honestly I'm surprised he didn't notice he's been bleeding this entire time."
"I figured it was normal," Shoryu replied with a shrug.
Jinga continued to act as if Shoryu wasn't there and resumed his chatter, "If he doesn't get stitches and new bandages it'll get infected, then he'll get a fever and he could eventually die."
"It's not our problem," said Hoshi.
"He's from our village – the least we can do is help him out. This'll sting."
Jinga had already pressed a sanitised bud of cotton to Shoryu's triceps when he gave his redundant warning. The boy's tongue fizzed as he fought through the pain as the ninja cleaned his wound. Whoever these people were, he knew he liked his chances with them far more than he did with Kouta and his band of Mist tearaways. Hoshi seemed to finally allow Jinga to work his magic, so at least that was a start.
"You knew it was a shuriken wound just by looking at it? Let me guess: medical ninja?"
Jinga nodded and pressed his glasses further up his nose. A few hand signs later and his palms began to radiate a cool glow of lime chakra that numbed the pain of the wound for the first time in days; Shoryu finally exhaled and released his breath after that, relaxing his stiff shoulders that had been tensed ever since that day. He didn't even feel the subsequent stitching that took place or the touch of Jinga's ability that reduced the severity of the wound. Rather than taking a month to close up, his pain would be gone in under a week – the only thing remaining as evidence of it would be a tiny scar on his arm.
"You." The chestnut haired girl, Hoshi, turned around and strode forward, rudely addressing the boy. "How did you get that?"
"Cut myself shaving. My pits are like a gorilla's this time of year." Shoryu had only just managed to finish his sentence when a giant slap across the back of his head notified him of Ayako's presence. Jinga almost tore his stitching and nearly slit an artery from the sudden jolt.
"Be a little more grateful!" she cussed.
Shoryu pouted. "Well she should've asked nicely then!"
"No," said Hoshi, shaking her head. "You're right, I'm sorry – it's none of my business. . . How much longer Jinga?"
"Just a few minutes."
"Well hurry it up – the light's fading fast."
Jinga nodded and resumed his work, although Shoryu couldn't help but notice that his fingers actually moved slower this time. As the last wink of golden sunlight shrank back over the horizon Yuudai finally got to his feet. Clearly he was the only one in this group with the bottle to stand up to Hoshi; when something like this wasn't right he made his feelings clear.
"Hoshi," he said, "I think we should reconsider letting them join us."
The taller girl rounded on her partner and met him with an accusing stare. "You what?" she snapped. Even the tone of her voice made Shoryu cringe in fear of Yuudai's safety, but to the water user's credit he held his ground firmly.
"Think about it: other nations will probably be joining up with teams of from their own village. This way we'll be able to compete with them and totally outclass any other three-man squads that come after our key; they seem trustworthy enough. Besides, the sun's going down like you said; if they wanted to follow us there'd be no way for us to stop them – they'll see our fire from miles away. And I don't know about you but I'm not too hot on the idea of insulting our good friend Mr. Bushido over there by not taking him up on his offer."
Kazuya said nothing in reply as Hoshi put a hand to her chin and wrestled with her thoughts for a while. Clearly she was the kind of person who wanted everything to go according to plan; if anything seemed off she'd back away and refuse to progress, but there was wisdom in Yuudai's words. She still didn't trust them in the slightest and joining forces went against everything her gut told her; the consequences of not doing so however were potentially far more severe. They had a key now – if any other teams caught wind of this knowledge it would spell bad news for them.
"Alright we'll give it a trial period – one night only. You can stop with us for tonight and if there are no hiccups we can progress together. But if you pull anything then we're gone; none of that 'oh you three can all go to sleep while we keep watch' crap. This key doesn't leave our sight. The person carrying it in our group should be awake and on guard duty within twenty feet of the others."
"That's a lot to memorise," Shoryu muttered, grinning. "Got a pen?"
"Do you agree or not?" said Hoshi, her tolerance thinning.
"Yes-yes! Of course we agree!" Ayako flapped her arms around and came between the two of them, determined to stop the fight that could easily ensue. She turned to Kazuya for confirmation. "Right?"
With a hum the samurai nodded.
"Well at any rate you've got us at a disadvantage," said Yuudai. "You know our names."
"Oh, well I'm Ayako. The samurai over there is Kazuya." She slapped the back of Shoryu's head one more time. "And this mouthy jerk is Shoryu."
By the time the two teams set up camp in a suitable clearing the sun was already long gone. Jinga, Shoryu and Ayako volunteered to take the first shift whilst the remaining three received some much needed sleep upon a bed of palms that Kazuya had quickly chopped down.
The trio awake strayed around nearby to pick up whatever firewood they could find. Above the jungle canopy every star was alight, illuminating the sky in a serene blue glow whilst the crickets sang from the trees. A cool wind rushed in through the trees and rustled the vines and scattered the leaves of the jungle floor, yet the temperature here was already so humid that a breeze was more than welcome for the stifling teens.
They'd pitched up next to a small brook, one that branched out from the river they'd been thrown down and ended at the base of a large tree. Dry wood was easy to come by in the light of the full moon and refilling water flasks was easy with a freshwater stream running right through the camp. Shoryu retrieved a rock from the shore of the river and planted it firmly on the ground as a makeshift seat whilst he dropped his bundle of wood to the ground.
Jinga and Ayako did the same, huddling around their mountain of brittle sticks and supple branches in a small circle some ten paces away from their sleeping comrades. Jinga pulled out a handy flint and a shuriken from his pouch and began to strike the two against each other; the only problem was that he wasn't very good. Shoryu got the impression that Hoshi and Yuudai did most of the fire lighting in 'Squad Five', so Jinga was left to try by himself. He must've struck the metal two dozen times and gotten only a few sparks before he eventually sighed and turned to the other two.
"I don't suppose either of you two know how to do this?"
Ayako smiled and looked to Shoryu. "Nope," she said.
Hopeful, Jinga followed the girl's gaze and looked up to the sitting boy.
"Sorry – I'm no good at that either," Shoryu revealed.
Jinga sighed again and hung his head before going back to the monotonous striking of flint on steel. After another few tries he dropped both the stone and the shuriken and began to rub two pieces of wood together. With his bespectacled eyes to the ground he was completely oblivious to Shoryu cracking his knuckles before easing his hands into five distinct signs.
"Summoning Jutsu."
When Jinga turned around the staple ink splatter of a summoning preceded an explosion of smoke that startled him with a jolt away from the bundle of wood. Kyoh emerged, clicking his ferocious claws as he bounded out of the mist. The ninja shrank back in fear when the reptilian beast closed in on him; he was about to scream for the others when Kyoh simply began to nip at the sleeve of his shirt, begging him to play with a squeal of joy.
"He's gotten bigger since I last saw him," noted Ayako.
"He has? Huh. Guess I never noticed," said Shoryu.
Ayako was certainly right – Shoryu just hadn't realised his summon's growth spurt since he trained with the creature every other day. The dragon that once stood lower than Shoryu's shins had now grown all the way up to his waist whenever he decided to walk on both legs. Those had become rare occurrences though, as with Kyoh's lengthening body he'd began to crawl on all fours more often than not, allowing him to stalk his prey like a cat now that he could fend for himself.
His wings that had once been tiny, useless appendages had bloomed into a bigger size in relation to the rest of his body; when he stretched them out he could fly comfortably for a good few minutes. Shoryu remembered how excited he'd been when Kyoh first took flight around the village during a training session just a week or so ago.
"Is that. . .?" Jinga began, though for him the reality was too unbelievable to put into words.
"Dragon, yeah," said Shoryu. He turned to the beast and said, "Kyoh, could you make us a fire?"
"Fire!" Kyoh agreed, serving up a fresh blaze that lit up the wood in an instant. After that he prowled around the camp, blue scales gleaming in the fire and moonlight as Shoryu and Ayako shared a moment of confusion. The boy's expression confirmed to Ayako that the creature had never spoken a single word before. Shoryu looked ecstatic – as far as he was concerned, his baby was all grown up.
"You heard that right? His first word was fire! Good boy Kyoh!"
"Kyoh!" barked the dragon, giving a nod of his scaly neck and bounding over to Ayako. He curled himself up and rested his head on the foot of the kunoichi, forbidding her to move as she scratched him behind the twin growing fins on his head; a contented squeak proved that he liked it.
"Where did you get it?" Jinga asked; he still pressed up his glasses to make sure his eyes didn't deceive him.
Shoryu threw his summon a hunk of rabbit meat and replied, "Long story – basically our first C-rank mission turned out to be the most eventful thing in our lives, save of course for these Chunin exams."
"How many C-ranks have you guys done?"
"Just two, what about you?"
"Six," Jinga revealed. "The three of us recently turned fourteen within a few weeks of each other. We've been Genin for just over a year now."
"Looks like you're a year our senior then," observed Ayako. "You guys must be pretty close to have been together for that long."
"We're a pretty unlikely squad I'll admit. I've never been the most confrontational or exciting guy; then you compare that with Yuudai who seems unfazed by almost anything along with Hoshi. . . Well you've seen how she gets."
"Yeah I've been meaning to ask;" Shoryu rocked forward on his seat and gave the fire another few twigs from the ground. "What's her deal anyway? She seems awfully annoyed about something."
"Maybe that's because you wouldn't stop acting fly with her?" suggested Ayako.
Shoryu pouted once again and turned his head. "She started it."
Jinga lowered his head and let out a sigh. He seemed to be silently debating whether or not to let Squad Thirteen in on Hoshi's personal life, but after a few moments' thought he decided he could trust them. "Hoshi's always been wound up pretty tight," he said. "But lately it's been a little worse. A few weeks ago her older sister died – she was on a mission transporting one of the Seven Swords of the Mist when something attacked them. She was killed in the initial battle; the worst part is that the Cloud is unwilling to say anything about what happened for now. I'm sure they have their reasons, but it's hard on the families of those who didn't make it. Take it easy on her if you can manage it; Yuudai and myself are just doing what we can for right now."
As soon as Jinga mentioned the mission Shoryu recognised it right away, along with the culprits responsible. Since he was sworn to an oath of silence he averted his gaze and swallowed a bitter mouthful of guilt. It was the same mission that Ruki Jenbo had been sent on – Ayako's father had only just escaped with his life too. Dozens of clones had assaulted the elite squadron and killed many of them. It sickened Shoryu to think that from the handful of bodies he saw after stepped out of the chute, one of them belonged to Hoshi's sister.
"So that's why. . ." Shoryu mumbled. "Things like that almost make me thankful I don't have much in the way of family. I can't imagine how she must feel – after all none of us have ever had any siblings to lose."
"I don't suppose it's a very pleasant experience," Jinga replied.
Kyoh cocked his head up from Ayako's foot as the medical ninja rose to his feet and announced that he was going to the bathroom. With an awkward exhale Shoryu searched around in his backpack and withdrew a skewered fish he'd caught earlier. The meat began to cook after he suspended it over the fire, allowing for a tasty meal that wouldn't have been possible without Kyoh.
Shoryu deduced quickly that Jinga had gone for a number two based on the fact that he still hadn't returned after a whole minute. Either that or he was just very shy – if he'd been attacked they would've known, so the two members of Squad Thirteen sat quietly around the fire, eating their meal watching the shadows of the fire dance and the stars of the sky twinkle in and out of focus.
"You were wrong you know."
"Hmm?" with a mouthful of fish Shoryu turned to his teammate. Kyoh cocked his head inquisitively.
"What you said about none of us having siblings, you were wrong – I had an older brother once," said Ayako.
Shoryu put down the fish-stick as his attitude sobered immediately. He'd been led to believe that every member of Squad Thirteen knew everything about their teammates now that their training and initial missions had come to an end. He never suspected that Ayako would be the one withholding information about herself – Kazuya and himself had proved to be the most secretive ones. He swallowed his bit of food and continued, "You've never told us about this before." He stated the obvious.
"That's because there isn't much to tell. To be honest I don't really remember him – I must've been only a year old when he died, and he was four at the time."
Instead of offering a comment as per usual, this time Shoryu decided to let Ayako continue. Nothing he could think of would alleviate the tension or show that he somehow sympathised with her; he had no words to comfort her with, yet it didn't seem like she needed any. She wasn't puffy-eyed or choking on her own tears, she just recounted the story and stared into space as though it were a romanticised fable.
"You might have heard about a sky virus that came about twelve years ago, you might have even caught it. It was a kind of small epidemic in our village; well he was one of the unlucky few who died from it. It must've just hit him harder than the others or something." She paused for a while before continuing, "I'm not sure my parents ever really recovered from it. They always told me about how was so full of life – even at four years old he'd be bouncing around announcing that he'd be the future Raikage. After hearing that time and time again growing up, that dream just pretty much became a part of me. It's sort of like I. . ."
"Wanted to live for both of you?" suggested Shoryu.
For the first time since retelling the story Ayako met Shoryu's eyes. His heart fluttered in his chest before she responded with a nod, her voice husky and nostalgic.
"Something like that, yeah. . . You probably think it's foolish."
"No more foolish than thinking you can oppose your entire clan and come out victorious," Shoryu reflected. He smirked and then jerked his head towards the trio of sleeping bodies. "No more foolish than joining the ninja to earn money for your family of samurai."
Ayako broke her serious expression into sweet laughter upon hearing Shoryu's mockery of their samurai comrade.
"I mean who does that anyway?" he added, earning another giggle. "At the end of the day it's your dream now, and no one else can take it away from you. I guess the first step would be to pass these Chunin Exams – if you want to climb your way to being Raikage I suppose we'd better hold nothing back from here on out."
Once the Mizukage arrived tensions really began to soar, and Reizo had already come to false conclusion that they could rise no higher.
Teruo Shijo, the Eleventh Mizukage, was possibly the largest man Reizo had ever laid eyes on. Younger than the Jonin himself and bigger even than the Glacier's Taisho Bishamon Takashi, Teruo strode in like a man who'd arm-wrestled his way to the top of the chain of command. In fact Reizo would've suspected that was exactly the case if the giant sword on his back didn't scream otherwise. A sky blue coat tailor made to suit his build flowed to the ground and swayed with every heavy footfall he took as he made his way into the room.
Where he originally came from no one knew – Teruo Shijo had just arrived at the Village Hidden in the Mist one day from a faraway town and ascended to Mizukage in less than a decade. He was bald with tired eyes and full lips like kippers, not to mention uglier than most with a sluggish, dull personality that matched his brutish appearance. Reizo decided that he must've had some giant's blood flowing through him or something, because at twenty two years old Teruo looked about forty with room for his size seventeen feet to still grow.
Clutching his back, the oddest sword Reizo had ever seen quivered and actually seemed to breathe like a living being. Its giant blade was covered from tang to tip with what appeared to be shark scales, barely sharpened and easily mistakable for a giant feather duster at a first glance. Even in spite of its blunt appearance the Jonin knew that some fearful power laid within the sword, for he'd heard by rumour that this was the Samehada, one of the legendary swords of the Mist. Once upon a time its loyalty was to evil, but now it rested contently in the grasp of Teruo Shijo. He wasn't sure of the difference.
Just half an hour with him in the room had been unbearable to listen to. He'd thrown childish insults and brandished his fists the size of small monitor screens whenever a Kage decided to retaliate. Hiromasa Hyuga was the only one who managed to remain calm, even when Teruo claimed that all four of the other hidden villages had attacked his country in bands of clones. At that point one of his bodyguards decided to lean in closer, apparently to correct him by mentioning that the Village Hidden in the Leaves had done nothing at all, for when Teruo turned back around he noted that the Hokage was "still a white-eyed freak".
If the Eleventh Mizukage's manners were bad then the following Thirteenth Tsuchikage's were decidedly worse. She strutted in late and weighed up the other Kage with opinionated eyes that judged them all from barely acceptable to less than dirt. She huffed and strode towards the roundtable before clearing her throat; this acted as a cue for her first bodyguard to grab her chair and pull it back for her. The second one was still weighed down by a metric tonne of supplies – apparently she'd packed her entire wardrobe.
Once the bodyguard pushed her seat back into place an awkward silence claimed the conference, until eventually the Kazekage decided to speak.
"So do they wipe your ass too?" he chided.
A glare of knives from the woman met Peparo the Kazekage as Reizo grinned.
Shining golden hair combed a hundred times over flowed right down the Tsuchikage's waist with a single large lock of her fringe covering half of her face. Aside from a pointed nose that she looked down from at all times she was actually rather striking, but the sad fact was that she seemed to know it. Everyone and everything was beneath her; a person overly concerned with aesthetics did not fit in at the Kage conference at all. Whether it was Peparo's scars and receding hairline, the disconcerting whites of Hiromasa's eyes, the dopy, ogre-like expression of Teruo or the shrewd sea of wrinkles that made Kira Asakura look as though he'd spent his whole life sucking on a lemon – she disapproved of it all without saying a word.
Draped over her shoulders was a gold laced, silk mantle of her country's signature green along with an entire arsenal of toolkits around her belt. From this Reizo deduced that she was a projectile specialist, attacking in the shadows from afar with a tempest of metal that became the last thing her opponents saw. It was a tried and tested fighting style for a shinobi and one that allowed them to ascend quickly, but there was no risk in it. Projectile specialists often came out of missions without a scratch, and if an assignment went wrong they were the only survivors more often than others.
Still, she couldn't have been older than twenty – she'd done exceedingly well for herself despite her young age. However, she seemed to expect praise for this at every turn and for people to constantly acknowledge her triumphs, failing to understand that in the presence of other Kage, age was one factor that lost all meaning. They were equals in status and power – nothing else was supposed to matter.
"Introducing Lady Hisae Kokowa: the Thirteenth Tsuchikage." Kikuchiyo muttered his final announcement with noticeably less enthusiasm than the first.
"I guess this is what the Twelfth gets for not appointing a successor before he kicked the bucket," grumbled the Raikage.
Reizo's hand met his head once again. Look who's talking, he wanted to say. You're over a century old and you still haven't named who's to be the Eleventh Raikage.
Hisae turned to Kira with the same icy stare she'd given Peparo. "I believe you'll find that I was appointed actually," she said.
"Well then perhaps our late friend the Twelfth was out of his right mind?" suggested the old man. "It sure would explain how he was so easily bested in combat by a band of mere clones."
"How dare you speak of him in such a way! Have you no respect for the dead?" she objected.
"This is not the time for idle mockery!" said Kikuchiyo sternly. The young Taisho rose to his feet, commanding the others with a single movement and forcing all eyes to look his way. Whether they approved of him or not was none of his concern; he would not have his first conference be turned into a childish trade of insults from the five leaders of the world. "Lords and lady Kage," he resumed calmly, "I believe you have more important matters to discuss. You may begin the summit conference whenever you desire."
Three days later
How the hell did we get ourselves into this? Shoryu couldn't help but wonder this as he dove away from a bone beak the size of three grown men. It penetrated the ground where he'd once stood and left a drill-shaped impression that would've impaled him into the floor. In a triangle formation Squad Thirteen surrounded and strafed rings around the enormous Alpha creature, a feathered pterosaur even bigger than the last two-headed rhino that Kazuya had managed to annoy.
At the centre of a natural cornfield the battle commenced. The wind bent the stalks down into an odd angle and Shoryu's hair into an untidy perm, but to the north past the scene of a nearby forest the leathery mountain twenty miles wide stretched up before them. It didn't take a genius to work out that this incredible view that rose up beyond the clouds and out of sight was the neck of the Island Turtle. The view of the twenty doors was no doubt obstructed by the forest before them, but to open one Squad Thirteen would need the damned key that hung from the talons of the pterodactyl.
Luckily the two groups had devised a handy plan for dealing with the Alpha creatures. Squad Five, since they already had a key, would divert the attention of the smaller creatures whilst Squad Thirteen dove in to challenge the Alpha. Today was no exception, as some thirty metres behind them Hoshi, Yuudai and Jinga held off a small army of man-sized, feathered reptilians as they duelled across the plane. The giant pterodactyl was in fact the third Alpha they'd discovered since joining Squad Five.
Previously they'd been bested and by a six legged boar the morning after Ayako's revelation to Shoryu. The day after that and they'd gone up against a Cerberus-esque three headed dog; they fought it for a full hour until finally they managed to get in close, only to find to Kazuya's horror that the key had already been taken from someone else. With only one day left on the clock and the neck in clear sight Squad Thirteen was spurred on, knowing that if they failed here then the odds of finding another Alpha with a key so close to the finish weren't exactly high.
Shoryu's adrenaline soared as a last second dodge kept him from the jaws of death once more before the Alpha turned its attention to Ayako. Now was his chance; the kunoichi's evasion skills were as good as any, and with that handy shield to keep herself protected she could occupy their opponent for a while. He bolted for the razor sharp talons that slashed away at the ground, skidding under the swing of its spiny tail and dashing for the visible key that dangled from the first claw.
With his right arm already reaching out in front of him Shoryu closed in on the talon just as he'd done three times already, but this time he'd make it. He knew that whilst the Alpha's attention was divided he'd be able to snag the key and get away in time. Of course that plan relied on nothing going wrong, like for example Kazuya jumping onto the reptilian's tail and running up the length of their giant foe's spine.
Shoryu's hand closed in around the prize; he felt the brush of metal and heard the jingle of the key across his fingers before an agonising squawk filled his ears. In the length of a blink Shoryu was knocked off his feet by the other talon whirling around and bluntly careering into his chest. At first he feared that the pterosaur was onto him and that it would only be a matter of time before it turned the sharp points of its claws to his face. Only after did he realise that the Alpha's thrashing was a knee-jerk reaction to pain caused by Kazuya stabbing two and a half feet of wrought steel into its back.
"Idiot!" he hissed to himself, as his once simple task had grown into a problem. The pterosaur stamped its claws up and down, banging its feet like a petulant baby throwing a tantrum. As a set of pneumatic pumps the two trios of blades hammered into the ground, tearing apart clumps of moss and ripping the earth away. If he got caught under the floor-printing talons even for a second his body would be shredded into a dozen pieces before he realised he was dead.
Ayako had encountered a similar problem too; the winged monstrosity pecked at her with more power at a much faster tempo. Before long she was dancing from place to place expending any colour she could pull out just for a single chance at repelling the beast. She struck it dead in the eye with a fortunate red and caused its rage to increase, though by the time it regained coordination Shoryu had already acted.
He flung himself onto one of the bandy legs of the pterodactyl after steeling himself for a full half a minute. Like a frightened cat he clung to the phone pole sized appendage before he eventually managed to reach down and seize the key beneath him. This time his aim was true and uninterrupted. He stuffed the rusty old thing into the inside pocket of his father's old coat and resumed using both hands to grip the unstoppable leg. With the talons beneath him gleaming sharp and terrifying under the morning sun he daren't move until the pterodactyl had calmed down, even if that meant braving the horrors of the Alpha's next actions.
The flailing stopped momentarily as the creature began to crouch onto its hind legs; Shoryu thought his opportunity might have arrived and gingerly shimmied down until the sudden forceful flap of thirty metre wings forced him to hold on tighter than ever. The legs stretched out and what sounded like the bass beat of a drum sounded around him with every beat of the pterosaur's wings. Forces more powerful than any hurricane he'd ever endured tugged his face into odd angles; the grass beneath him separated until eventually they took off.
Below them the world spun and the field stretched out into an overhead view of the surrounding forest, rising higher and higher towards the sky, until eventually at eighty metres high the shores of the Island Turtle were clearly visible. The field that acted as a site of their battle quickly became measureable from Shoryu's finger to his thumb whilst Squad Five became tiny pinpricks – virtually indistinguishable from the army of smaller pterosaurs.
Shoryu held on for dear life as vertigo overwhelmed him. The talons beneath him had finally stopped their dismembering sequence of stabs, but he was too high up to do take advantage of it. Above him was an entirely new problem; until he saw her every instinct told him to close his eyes and pray, but Ayako was in danger – he couldn't look away just yet.
As straight as an arrow the Alpha creature soared up and up. At its beak lay Ayako, dangling from the mouth of the winged beast by the mere strap of her ninja toolkit. Once it regained vision it would snap at her until it either dropped her from these eagle's heights or claimed its meal. Neither was a desirable outcome.
"Ayako!" Shoryu roared up. For a few moments he was unsure of whether or not she could hear him with the considerable G-force pushing against him, but regardless he persevered. "AYAKO! Cut yourself free!"
Without the slightest glimmer of a second thought the girl whipped out a shuriken from a holster around her thigh and severed the band that held her to the pouch of tools in a single slash. Shoryu remained amazed at how quickly she'd acted as she plummeted down in freefall towards him, and he swore to make her bravery pay off as traced her descent with his arm. Even with perfect tact and timing not everything went to plan though.
Just like their misadventures a week ago Shoryu caught her perfectly, suspending her over a deathly drop. Yet after falling from fifty feet already the strength it took to catch her was incredible in spite of her light weight. The instant Shoryu's hand closed in around hers and absorbed the momentum of her fall he felt the cringing, excruciating pull as his left shoulder came right out of its socket. He didn't doubt that she felt a sense of whiplash either, but that didn't make his dislocation any less painful.
It took every ounce of power and fortitude to keep his grip locked so tightly; even the Alpha itself seemed to be testing his strength as it levelled out from its straight ascent into a flat flight along the clouds, twisting his detached shoulder into an even more uncomfortable position. It grew cold at such altitudes and his hands began to shake, but in spite of the chill his forehead burned with feverish exertion and poured sweat every time he took a breath.
Just when Shoryu figured he could hold on no more his saving grace came. He had no idea how long it had been dangling there, but in the corner of his eye he suddenly became aware of a green cord of supple rope dangling down the side of the Alpha. It could've been a coincidence – the failed attempts of another group – or it could've been Kazuya trying to save them. The last they saw of him the samurai was running along the back of their pterodactyl enemy, and Shoryu didn't recall seeing him escape. Whatever the case, the only way to know was to take a risk.
He let his right hand slip out from around the base of the Alpha's leg, and once the pair started to fall he made a wild reach for the limp piece of rope. Once he grabbed it he half expected the cord to start plummeting with them; sure enough though, it held firmly, and within a few seconds Shoryu noticed them to rising as Kazuya pulled them up.
Kazuya seemed to be right at home on the uneven, bumpy ground of the pterosaur's back. Feathers sat atop a bed of hardened scales, and along the reptile's spine a jagged row of spikes thrust out, some bigger than the samurai himself. At either side them a natural fan propelled light gusts towards them from the wings of the creature, and ahead of them the pterosaur had finally given up on craning its neck to seize them. With the rope in one hand and Ayako in another Shoryu leaned up against one of these until he was finally allowed to let go of both. With his right hand he held onto one of the spines for support, whilst his left dangled limp and unresponsive.
"Kazuya. . ." he muttered, using all his strength to bring the quivering, warped arm up his chin height. "I can see you wanna do the honours – just get it over with."
"My pleasure." No sooner than he'd finished his two word sentence did Kazuya seize his friend's arm, push up and fiercely twist Shoryu's shoulder back into place with a disgusting pop like a giant cracking its knuckles.
"Son of a- Urrrgh!" cried Shoryu, staggering to his knees and nursing his injury with the prolonged hiss of a snake.
"You okay Shoryu?" said Ayako, worried.
"Fantastic," muttered the boy. After another half a dozen gasps he managed slowly to get back to his feet. Within arm's reach above them were the lowest clouds themselves, and over the ledge of the pterosaur's back a frightening drop loomed below, almost three times that which they'd been suspended from a week ago.
Falling from here would turn them into flat mush on the ground, that much was certain; either they had to wait for the Alpha to pass over water and make a jump for it or wait for the creature to land. Neither sounded appealing – the odds of hitting a small target of water at this altitude were slim, not to mention there was no way of knowing whether or not it would be deep enough.
On the other hand waiting for the beast to touch down didn't seem smart either. With the wound Kazuya had dealt it going visibly deep Shoryu doubted it would just let them go without a fight. It would follow them to the edge of the island for the sake of revenge.
Kazuya scratched his head and sat down, cross-legged without bothering to hold onto anything for stability. "So what now?"
"Well that's a great question Kazuya," Shoryu began. "Maybe we wouldn't have had to ask it if you hadn't been a moron and stabbed this thing! We could've just bolted but you had to take it the extra mile!"
"So you managed to get the key?" Ayako eagerly looked to her comrade – her impressed look at his skills at least made Shoryu feel a little better.
"Yeah I got the key." He revealed, fishing around in his pockets before jangling it up to them. "But it won't count for anything if we don't find a way to-"
Shoryu's lips stopped with the momentum of the Alpha creature; in fact everything stopped. The scaly, feathered ground beneath them vanished completely in a giant puff of uninspiring smoke, sending the three of them into a screaming fall. Even Kazuya cried out – this was it. They were dead. Whatever had happened, the Alpha had disappeared, and Shoryu, Kazuya and Ayako found themselves plummeting through empty sky.
The wind's magnitude roared in Shoryu's ears as he dropped with the others, picking up speed by the second with zero traction and hardly any currents to slow them down. They were the one percent – three of the twenty ninja who left the Island in a zipper, provided there was anything left of them. With the speeds they ascended to and the impact their fall would create, Shoryu began to doubt it.
There was no water around for miles away from their future landing point; with no way to divert their flight the trio simply fell like stones. The ground rushed towards them faster and faster until Shoryu closed his eyes and couldn't take it anymore. The skin covering his face felt like it was about to flay away and his hair received the most intense blow dry of its existence.
At least there was one thing he could be thankful for in death – he'd experienced flying. With his heart ready to explode Shoryu's body and mind went haywire; he didn't feel the cold spreading up his fingers or the aches in his arms from spreading himself out to make his surface area as wide as possible. It would achieve little in the long run, but since Ayako and Kazuya did the same he made no effort to change his dying pose.
Once the forest below started to fill his field of vision Shoryu tried in vain to figure out what had gone wrong, minus Kazuya being arrogant and foolhardy. The Alpha vanishing like that was completely unforeseeable – they'd played all their cards right up until now and been defeated by a random act of coincidence. The whole thing still confused him. Just what had happened? If his eyes didn't deceive him it looked as though the creature was actually summoned somewhere.
The trees loomed closer; Shoryu began to wonder how much of a shock the other ninja would get when they found his body skewered down the entire length of one of the sharper pines.
In a last ditch reflection Shoryu briefly went over Squad Thirteen's skills and abilities as the unbelievable wind began to nick his face and cut his clothes at the seams. He had to make sure that if he was to die, he hadn't missed some blatantly obvious act that could've prevented it. None of them had any kind of flying jutsu or even any way to slow them down to lessen the bearing of their fall. Himself, Kazuya, Ayako; all of them were useless here, and yet Shoryu couldn't help but get the distinct impression that he'd missed something that could save their lives.
The idea hit him like the slap she'd given him last week. It wasn't much to go on, but any kind of attempt was better than dying meaninglessly. With the intensity of the wind now at unbearable levels just straining his neck left to look at Ayako took a considerable amount of effort. He focused his vision on her and realised with a start that she was way ahead of him; the girl was already forming hand signs.
"Shading Jutsu!" he heard her shout, although barely. "Yellow!"
This time something physical hit Squad Thirteen. In less than half a second Shoryu burst through five solid yellow walls of glassy chakra, each time receiving a blow like a hammer the point where he smashed through it. Four chaotic, torturous seconds of the worst pain imaginable ensued before Shoryu hit the pine littered floor on his back with a mighty crash, unsure of what exactly had happened and which way was up.
Everything was bruised; his heart rate had never been so high and his vision blurred with the worst headache he'd ever received, threatening to throw him into unconsciousness at any moment it wished. Even though he wouldn't have as much to show for this as Kazuya's initial training, the pain would be far worse for much longer. It didn't take a genius to figure out what had just transpired: Ayako's shields were breakable with enough impact, and the force of three teenagers careering through at a hundred miles an hour was enough to shatter them. He must've smashed through twenty in fewer than five seconds – the stack of so many slowed him down, decelerating them to a point where he could land with his life still intact.
Determined to be the first to rise, Shoryu willed himself to bring up an arm and hopped back onto one knee, using the sheathed end of his sword to support him. Heavy breaths filled the camp as he failed and flopped back to his front.
"Remind-," he gasped. It took him another few moments to get out his sentence, "Remind me to find another way of slowing us down, just for future reference."
"Would you rather be dead?" managed Ayako after a while.
Kazuya started to laugh, and then when his battered chest objected to this he decided against it. "Honestly? Yes, Ayako, yes I would."
Rapid footsteps in quick succession suddenly became audible through the jungle region to the south. Unable to move just yet, Squad Thirteen was left paralysed and waiting in terror for the rival band of enemy ninja that would no doubt burst out of the trees. Shoryu tried again to get to his feet, but wound up standing up too quickly and falling flat on his back as a result.
Words didn't describe their relief when the footsteps turned out to be a flummoxed looking Hoshi, Yuudai and Jinga. No doubt they'd witnessed Squad Thirteen's incredible take-off and feared the worst when three human-sized figures had fallen to the ground. Shoryu chuckled and retrieved the key from his pocket, confidently spinning it around his finger as the three made it into the clearing.
"We're off to the third stage I guess." The lack of enthusiasm was immediately apparent. "Yay. . ."
.
Author's Notes:
Well that was a long one. I kinda feel like I should've split this chapter into two as well but there you go. Three more entries left for this volume, one later in November, one early December and one around Christmas. Honestly any of those three might end up split into two chapters; I've just got a tonne of ground to cover. At the very least volume 2 will be started just after New Year - that I can promise.
There's a bit to talk about here, I guess the obvious bit would be mentioning stage two in itself, which is basically just the Forest of Death except instead of other teams carrying the keys to victory it's the massive creatures. Then there's the new Squad Five. Had a blast making those guys; it's a nice change to just write a bunch characters who for once don't have a hidden agenda, a huge backstory or an ambiguous past. Hoshi was probably my favourite - I showed this chapter to a mate and he said she's 'pretty much every character Michelle Rodriguez has ever played', which I thought was a decent enough description xD
Oh and let's not forget the Kage. They were a real challenge to create. Making them all distinctive was something that took a lot of aimless pacing and frantic brainstorming. We've got the miserable old Raikage, the cool as a cucumber Hyuga for a Hokage, badass Samuel L Jackson-esque Kazekage, Queen bitch the Tsuchikage and Andre the Giant the Mizukage, who also has Kisame's old sword. I think the Kazekage is probably my personal favourite – I don't plan on killing him off anytime soon.
Stay tuned next time for the exam finale of stage two and the beginning of stage three, both of which come with some nice twists :D