- Buckcherry: "Time Bomb" (Time Bomb)

46. Rin's Story: The Second Stage

For some reason, the forest seemed colder and darker than any other forest Rin had ever been in. Remembering what her sensei had said about them only making the forest seem scary, she shook the chills off her back and followed Obito down a narrow path.

"We should stop and see what we've got," she suggested, comforted by her own, clear voice. "Before we go any further, I mean – most teams are probably doing the same so we shouldn't go too far."

"You're probably right," Obito said, and Rin couldn't help but notice that his voice was sort of shaky. Deciding to not make any comment on it (for his own good; he'd probably be embarrassed and run off trying to prove his bravery if she asked if he was scared) she pointed towards a large tree with tall roots sticking up from the ground. They hid behind an especially green root, and Obito unrolled the scroll.

"So ..." he said, looking at the weird markings on the yellow paper. "Come to think about it, I've never really done any seals ..."

"Don't worry, it's pretty basic," Rin said happily, starting to make a few hand seals. She placed her palms on two marks on the paper, and between her hands, several objects showed up.

"Who taught you that?" Obito asked.

"Sensei, when we had individual trainings," Rin replied and picked up two bottles. "They're empty ... We'll have to search for a river, I guess."

"They said we'd have enough food for half a day, but there's more than that here," Obito said. There were dumplings and boxes with pork and rice, but it was more than one lunch and one dinner.

"They probably packed for three-man cells," Rin said. "I guess that's the benefit for us. But there's little food for three persons, so it'll only last the day."

Along with the empty bottles and the food, they were given three small blankets, a compass, a magnifying glass, an empty sheet of paper and pencil and ink. They spent a few minutes contemplating aloud what on earth they were going to use the paper and pencil for, before deciding to leave the matter for later and check their route. Obito held up the compass and found the path they had walked more or less straight from the fence on.

"So we should be heading ... south."

"All right, let's go find water," Rin said.

And so they made their first mistake. They were right about everyone having checked their scroll's content, and everyone had apparently noticed that their bottles were empty. While some (among them Rin and Obito) went straight to find a river to fill their bottles, some decided to take advantage of the situation and lay hiding in the bushes waiting for someone to come and pull out their scroll.

"There, I see a river," Obito said after half an hour of walking, pointing somewhere between the trees to the west. They stopped by the bank, and Rin pulled out the scroll she had resealed the contents in, crouched on the ground and was making the necessary seals when a kunai hit dangerously close to her feet. She jumped back of surprise, leaving the scroll unopened on the ground.

"Dammit, Muro, you should have waited!" they heard from the bushes. Obito looked at Rin somewhat curiously before he ran and picked up the scroll and put it safely in a pocket. He then pulled the kunai out of the dirt and held it defensively in front of himself.

"Obito, we should go," Rin hissed.

"Wait," he hissed back.

A tall, thin boy, somewhere around fifteen years old, stood up from the bushes with his hands held up.

"Not gonna hurt ya," he said.

"Then what was this for?" Obito asked (Rin guessed he didn't act as brave as he felt), gesturing towards the kunai he was holding.

"All right, we wanted your scroll, but we can let you go if you show us how to open them," the boy replied. Two more shinobi around the same age stood up at each side of them, both with their hands up. Rin suddenly felt much less prepared for this than she had thought she was.

"All right," she said, and Obito gave her an incredulous look. "But don't come any closer."

The boy chuckled.

"All right," he said. "Can I at least come out of this bush?"

Rin looked carefully at the boy before she nodded.

"How old are they?" the girl a few meters away from Obito asked her companions.

"Doesn't matter," Muro, the one who had thrown the kunai, said. "If they can show us how to open these we'll be on our way."

"If pretty over there doesn't lower that kunai any time soon, I'm starting to think he'll attack me," the tall boy said.

"You're three, we're two," Obito said. "I feel a bit more safe if I can defend myself."

"Doesn't matter, I guess," the tall boy sighed and turned back to Rin. "So, those hand seals."

"Hey, wait," the girl said. "If they're two, they won't need all their food. We don't have enough, they have too much. Maybe they even have more."

"And how do you know how much food you've got?" Rin asked sharply. "I thought you couldn't open this."

The tall boy groaned and the colour in the girl's face faded.

"Obito, let's go," Rin said, pulled out a kunai, grabbed Obito's arm and started backing off.

But not before Obito was swept off the ground and hang by a rope from a tree.

"Red, go get the scroll!" Muro shouted, and the tall boy whose name had been revealed shot forward. Rin acted quickly; she reached out for Obito's pocket, pulled out the scroll and pocketed it in her own jacket before a piece of wood replaced her.

"Guess you'll be hanging there for a while," Red sighed, but gave Obito a cheerful smile. "Unless your girl abandoned you." They grabbed Obito's weapon pouches so he couldn't cut himself free and sat down beneath him.

Damn it, Rin thought from the tree she was sitting in. Had she been smarter, she would have used the Kawarimi on the same tree Obito was hanging from.

And then Obito did something that couldn't surprise her more.

His hands went into a rush of hand seals, and the three older genin backed off quickly – apparently not a second late, because the ground beneath Obito was suddenly filled with warm flames.

Rin acted as quickly as she could – her sensei had after all taught her something about speed – and cut Obito loose as soon as the flames had erupted. Obito had barely gotten up before she grabbed his arm and dragged him with her, running away from the older genin and into hiding.

"They're not following us," Obito said as he looked back and saw the three older genin standing by the bank, hopefully with frustrated faces – they were so far away facial expressions weren't visible to them – and they slowed down as they hid behind a large tree to catch their breaths.

"That was close," Rin said. "Let's get out of here before we fall into another trap."

Their sensei was right. There were several other things the older genin could have done to get the scroll. It seemed that in this large forest, Rin and Obito were both the youngest and among the most experienced genin.

They avoided the river as long as they could, trying to ignore the thirst crawling in their throats. Noon passed and turned into three o'clock; only then did they figure they had no choice but to seek water. Deciding to make sure they were alone first, they sneaked around the trees, listening for footsteps and voices.

"I've always wanted to learn how sensei can sense the people around him using only his finger," Rin said. "Could have come in handy now."

"Damn," Obito said bitterly. "Have you ever noticed how easy it must be to be Minato-sensei?"

"That doesn't really help us -"

"I mean, he can find out where everybody are, who they are, and he doesn't even have to walk through his own front door to get home – he can just do some seal and disappear."

"Not now, Obito," Rin said a little more sternly. "We need water."

"All right, all right ..."

In the end, filling their bottles turned out to be a small task. They were completely alone – the only tracks they found led out of there – and they stayed there for a whole hour without disturbance. As they moved on, they were completely alone for hours.

"We must be in some sort of genjutsu," Obito said dramatically.

"I don't think so," Rin replied with a hand wave just as her stomach grumbled. "Let's just eat."

This year's chuunin exam was different than before. Sure, they had the usual written exam, team battle and individual battles, but with a twist.

They wandered the forest in boring relaxation. Jiraiya had complained about this year's team battle set-up: wander the forest until you meet your first opponents. This was supposed to give you the opportunity to show how well you either ambushed someone else or became ambushed yourself. Jiraiya had said it wasn't going to last more than this one exam – though it was just an attempt to do something different.

"We've been noticed," one of Minato's temporary team members whispered. Minato himself had noticed the other team lurking before them a long time ago, but had in bitterness tried to ignore them and see if they could find someone else.

It had to be on purpose, he was sure of it. This must have been Jiraiya's way of making sure Minato was going to fail his chuunin exams.

"Who are they?" Minato's other temporary team member whispered back.

"I don't -"

"Allen's team."

The two older boys turned to look at Minato. They had to look down, but their expressions seemed impressed despite the blonde twelve-year-old's height.

"How did you do that?" The brown-haired boy glared eagerly down at Minato.

"I'm just analysing their chakra signatures," Minato mumbled.

"D'you know who they are?" The other boy had black hair but a glare as eager as the other boy's. They were both seventeen, and had at first seemed a little perplexed and annoyed at being teamed up with a twelve-year-old.

Jiraiya had told them Minato could have beaten their asses twice before noon.

"Yeah, I -"

Minato stopped in his tracks. At the tree before them, a sign was hung up.

"What the hell?" the black-haired boy said slowly.

"They're messing with us," the brown-haired boy said dramatically.

The sign was simple: an arrow pointing left.

Minato sighed and closed his eyes. Kushina and her pranks ...