(The epic Chunin Exam Arc is underway! In the Ninth Chapter Team 10 tries to recover and figure out what to do. At the same time, Sakura must defend her Hyuga Teammate all by herself. What will be the outcome? I love feedback and constructive criticism, so please leave a review so I can improve my writing and storytelling skills. Enjoy!)
Meanwhile Team 10 has made their way into a cave to rest and recover. The opening to the underground cave is well hidden by the various plants growing in the Forest of Lost Souls and the Leaf Ninja have set up traps to prevent anyone else from entering. Inside the cave there is minimal light and the air is damp and cool, even more so than usual due to the weather. Ichimaru starts to re-wrap Yui's broken leg; he did it in a rush earlier because they needed to get out of the area quickly before anyone or anything else came after them. Kenta is also re-bandaging the wounds he received during the encounter with the Hidden Rain siblings. The mood is gloomy to say the least and there is already talk of giving up and pulling out of the exam.
"Don't you remember what the proctor said," Ichimaru reminds his teammates, "We cannot give up. We signed the contract so we have no choice but to stay here and try to stay alive until the time limit has expired. I'm pretty sure when it does they will send somebody to find everyone that didn't pass, both the living and the dead ones. But until then we are stuck out here, on our own."
"I'm sorry, guys," Yui apologizes, "If it wasn't for my leg we could still be in this."
"No, Yui, it isn't your fault. I should have planned better," comments Ichimaru, "All those traps were completely useless. I could have done a lot better. I should have done a lot better."
"No, Ichimaru, if I hadn't pressured you then we wouldn't…"
"Quiet," whispers Kenta, stopping what he is doing, "There is someone outside."
An echo of voices rebounds through the cave, however they must still be a good distance away because the words are unintelligible. Everyone listens closely, hoping the people will pass by, but preparing for another fight. In a few minutes the voices get louder and angrier, and then there is a clear ringing of metal hitting metal followed by a small explosion.
Ichimaru and Kenta carefully make their way out of the cave to investigate and they see that a group of Grass and Rock Ninja are fighting each other. Kenta and Ichimaru stay hidden behind a group of boulders and watch the fight from a distance.
One very angry looking guy from the Hidden Rock is on the ground taking on two of the guys from the Hidden Grass. He does a quick sequence of hand signs and then his body explodes, his muscles grow ten times bigger and he even becomes several feet taller as a result of the Jutsu. His bright-blue hair flows wildly as thrashes around, attacking his opponents with brute force and ferocity. His comrades stand back behind him a few meters, working their hands in sync while they prepare a Jutsu.
The opposing Grass Ninja are barely getting out of the way of the rampaging blue-haired giant, and any counter-attack they manage to land does absolutely nothing to slow the enemy down. The third member of the team is a fairly tall girl standing up in the branches of a tree. She has gold and silver hair that sparkles in the moonlight and her figure is lean and very feminine. She wears a green and black kimono with dragonfly patterns on it, the clothing perfectly accentuates her features and makes her seem like some sort of exotic fairy from a children's bedtime story.
She is supporting her team with a Jutsu that causes vines to shoot out of the ground. They attempt to grab hold of the blue-haired boy and restrain him, but he breaks through every time.
It is starting to look like the Grass Ninja are out matched when the two supporting Rock Ninja activate their Jutsu and a wall of stone erupts from the ground and traps the opponents in a ring with the blue-haired giant. But the fairy girl instantly responds by changing up her own Jutsu and adding in a few new hand signs. This time when the vines rise out of the ground they have roses on the end and thousands of sharp and deadly thorns along the length. The big guy swats a vine out of the way when it comes towards him. He succeeds in deflecting the attack, but ends up with two large gashes on his arm for a reward. The crimson liquid leaking out from his arm only serves to increase his anger. He lets out a howling war cry and charges forward.
Sakura sighs as she watches a small mammal run by with some strange looking fruit clutched in its jaw. The rain has started to let up and the smell of a damp forest becomes more prevalent. She runs her hands through her hair and frowns, irritated that it is already dirty and damaged even though she has barely even run around the creepy forest.
"What am I doing?" she thinks, letting go of her hair in disgust, "How can I be thinking about my hair at a time like this? I'm in the middle of one of the most important events of my ninja career and all I can do is worry about what shampoo I'll have to buy for my hair when I get back to town. What kind of kunoichi am I?"
She lets out another sigh and then stands up to go take a look and make sure none of her traps have been disturbed. She would have heard if one of them had been activated, but she needs something to do in order to keep her mind from wandering. Sakura glances at Jando as she passes by, who is still out like a light from Kuroda's deftly placed chop. Sakura notes that he actually looks pretty cute when he is sleeping, but she quickly puts that erroneous thought in the farthest back corner of her mind. As far as she was concerned she belongs to Kuroda and he was the only one she would ever give her heart to.
After seeing that all the traps are still in place she starts walking back over to the spot where she was previously sitting when she hears a rustling in the trees and sees several leaves falling down. She quickly ducks down and extracts a kunai with her left hand. She focuses all her senses and hears the shifting of weight and instantly knows that it is not some innocent animal or a hungry predator. It is, in fact, a human being. She crosses her fingers, hoping that the person doesn't sense her or Jando's presence and they will move on from the area. This hope is quickly shot down when the person decides to call out to her.
"I know you're in there," says a soft, sweet, almost musical voice. The pitch is fairly high, but Sakura still can't tell if it belongs to a male or a female. Sakura doesn't respond, just in case the enemy doesn't know her exact location and is only trying to trick her into revealing it.
"Come on, you can come out. I'm not going to hurt you, I just want to talk," the voice promises.
"All right, Sakura, this is the time to prove yourself," she thinks, trying to psych herself up, "Kuroda and Sensei aren't here to save you this time. You're all on your own. So what is the first move?"
"I just want to have a little chat," the voice calls out, "Who wouldn't want to chat with a cute girl like you?"
"He is definitely trying to draw me out," the Leaf Kunoichi thinks, "That must mean he doesn't think he can get past all of my traps. I guess Sensei really did give me good advice when she told me to perfect those skills. Okay, so if I stay here with Jando I will be safe, but if the enemy keeps calling out like that it will eventually attract some predators and probably other ninja. I need to get rid of him quickly, but how do I attack him from here? I don't have any long-range Jutsu. Plus he may not be the only one out there. His teammates might be hiding or coming from another direction while I have my focus on him."
"I promise I won't bite," sings the voice, "So just come on out."
"There is something I can try," Sakura realizes, "I'll just have to risk the noise." She pricks her finger so a little spot of blood trickles out, and then after a few simple hand signs she presses her palm into the air and activates her Summoning Jutsu. A small puff of smoke pops up and her faithful summoning partner Papilio appears.
The green butterfly flaps its wings in greeting and squeaks, "Hello, Sakura! I didn't think you would call for me again so soon. How can I assist you?"
"I need you to fly around and scout out the surrounding area," Sakura explains as quietly as she can, "I need to know the locations of any enemy units."
"No worries, I can do that easily," Papilio replies.
"Just be careful," Sakura says, "I've heard a lot of creepy noises, so I'm not sure what kind of animals live in this forest. They might try to eat you if you aren't paying attention."
"Thanks for the warning," Papilio responds as she flies off.
A few minutes later the butterfly is back and gracefully lands on Sakura's outstretched finger.
"What's the news?" Sakura asks.
"Just one enemy up in the trees over to the northwest," Papilio informs her, "I didn't find any evidence of anyone else in the area."
"Okay, so at least I'm not outnumbered," Sakura says, mostly to herself, "But I still don't have any Jutsu to attack him with from here. Hey, wait a minute! Papilio would you be able to carry a paper bomb over there drop it on top of him?"
"That would be too heavy for me to lift," replies Papilio, "Sorry."
"It's okay, I figured as much," comments Sakura, "I guess my only option is to go out there and confront him head on."
The Hidden Smoke Ninja waits patiently for the pink-haired Leaf Kunoichi to give in to the requests and finally reveal herself.
"Please, won't you come out?" calls the ninja, the voice flowing as melodically as ever.
"I'm coming out to talk," the girl announces.
"Sooner than I expected," thinks the Smoke Ninja, dropping down from the hiding place in the tree branches.
"You're a girl!" exclaims Sakura once she makes her way through all the traps she set around the tree enclosure where she and Jando are staying.
The Smoke Ninja is indeed a busty young woman with light-purple hair woven into a bun and covered by a small cap. She has one bang sticking out over her headband that reaches nearly to her waist. Her silver top can barely be called that as it leaves a significant portion of her breasts exposed. Her red jean-shorts also leave a ton of skin exposed, but thankfully she has on some black fishnet that cover her legs.
"Course I am, honey," responds the Smoke Ninja with an amused smile, "Did you think this heavenly voice of mine could come from a man?"
"Kinda, especially since it seemed like you were trying to flirt with me," the pink-haired girl replies.
"I was flirting with you, cutie," says the Smoke Kunoichi with a wink.
"...but I'm a girl," Sakura replies, slightly confused.
"So, I'm guessing that in your village girls aren't allowed to make out with each other. Want to try?" offers the Smoke Ninja, licking her lips in anticipation.
Sakura's cheeks turn bright red, caught thoroughly off guard with the situation.
It is at this point that the Smoke Ninja senses her chance to strike. She brings her arms forward into a chakra sign with two fingers pointed straight up and activates the Jutsu she had previously prepared. "Ninja Art: Aerial Raid!" she shouts.
There is a loud buzzing noise as some sort of metal device descends from the sky. Before Sakura can even think the device starts spitting out kunai at her. The Leaf Ninja uses every ounce of her speed as she does back-flips and narrowly avoids being pierced by the razor sharp knives. But she quickly runs out of room and crashes into a tree; seconds later ten kunai stab into her body and crimson blood trickles down her body.
"Too easy," comments the Smoke Ninja, as she dispels her Jutsu and the device disappears in a puff of smoke, "Such a waste though. She was really cute. I probably could have gotten her to go all the way with me. Oh, well."
She starts walking towards the tree enclosure where Jando is still lying unconscious when Sakura's corpse suddenly explodes into white smoke. "No way, a clone!" exclaims the girl, but it is already too late. The real Sakura stabs a kunai into her from behind and watches the body fall to the ground.
"Nice talking with you," Sakura mocks, as the enemy bleeds out, "And just so you know, I'm not the kind of girl who gives it up on the first date."
"Well done, Sakura," congratulates Papilio who is sitting atop her head acting like a hair decoration, "Your clone did a very good job distracting her while you snuck around the back."
"Yeah, I'm glad I got the Shadow Clone Jutsu perfected before entering the exams," Sakura says proudly, "Now I have to get rid of this body, we can't have any of her teammates coming this way looking for her or I might really be in trouble. I hope Kuroda gets back soon so we can start heading to the tower."
Back in another area of The Forest of Lost Souls, Kenta and Ichimaru are still observing as two enemy teams duke it out in order to gain control of another scroll. Eventually the blue-haired kid from the Hidden Rock runs out of chakra and when his Jutsu ends he loses all the height and muscle he gained and returns to looking like a normal kid. Without their powerhouse member the Hidden Rock Team is soon outmatched by the opposing Grass Squad.
Once a kunai is in the chests of all the enemies the winners start rummaging through the corpses looking for the well-earned prize. They find that the Rock Team had a Heaven Scroll, but they already have one so they throw the scroll on the ground in frustration and move forward.
Ichimaru watches the stunningly beautiful fairy girl and her team depart and makes a wish that they don't encounter her and her deadly Jutsu again. After waiting a while for them to get a good distance away he steps forward and goes to retrieve the scroll.
"What are you doing, Ichimaru?" whispers Kenta, grabbing hold of his sleeve.
Ichimaru replies, "We probably won't be able to get another scroll with Yui's broken leg, but if someone is just going to leave a scroll lying around I'm not going to just leave it there for someone else to find. We might not be able to finish this exam, but if we prevent another team from passing it still serves to help out all the other ninja from the Hidden Leaf."
"Yeah, you are right," comments Kenta, eyes darting around, hoping nobody is in the area.
The dark-haired boy sprints out into the forest, careful to stay in the shadows. He quickly grabs the scroll and shoves it into the pouch on the side of his hip. He takes one quick glance around and then sprints back to the hiding place, careful not to leave any tracks that can be followed.
They slip back inside the cave, careful to not set off any of the traps they set up for defense.
"So how do you think the others are doing?" Kenta asks, as he takes out a few sandwiches and tosses them to his teammates.
"Knowing them, they are probably already inside the tower," replies Ichimaru, "I am going to set up some more defenses; you stay with Yui and rest."
(That is the end of the chapter, what did you think? Team 10 has recovered a Heaven Scroll, but they still have an injured member. Will they be able to get out of the Forest alive? Also, what is happening with the other Leaf Ninja? As usual, if you want more information on my characters you can see their bios on my profile page. Be warned, there may be some spoilers. Also I'm in the process of getting pictures drawn for the characters, but I have no idea how long that will take. If you're interested in drawing and have a DA account then send me a Message. Enjoy the next chapter, and please review.)