HEAVEN, HELL, AND THE FALLEN ANGELS ~ 30
Everything was easy, as far as Goku was concerned. While other teams were panicking, and rushing into the battle to try and find a scroll, Team K/Roshi was currently setting up camp. They decided to find a safe spot for now, and hit the forest at night when the other genin let their guard down for the day. The trio felt safe enough to split up and find materials, which Goku had been given the task of getting food.
The group set up camp in a secluded area that wasn't far from the river that passed through the forest. The plan was to move along the stream, which would carry them all the way to the tower. He was currently throwing bait into the water and waiting for an unlucky fish to bite on. He was sitting on the coast of the river quietly, whistling a jaunty tune while doing so.
Thanks to Mao's sensor abilities, they were able to navigate around any possible enemies, and find the safest spot. She had shuffled off back into the forest to find wood to use for fire, while Chi-Chi was setting up traps around their camp, and other potential camp sites. As long as they communicated, they would avoid any unwanted trouble, and would be able to execute their plan without hassle.
After sitting there for close to a half-hour, a fish finally bit onto the hook of his make-shift device. Using a stick, ninja wire, some loose hooks and bait he found lying around; he made his own fishing rod. He pulled back on his rod and had a surprising battle for supremacy on the end of his hook. The boy threw his arm back in frustration, and a giant bass landed on the ground.
He cheered out loud and set his fishing rod on the ground, watching the fish flap around for it's last moments, and grinned when it went limp. The boy looked away for one moment to get out his kunai, so he could gut it and get rid of the bones, but when he turned back to look at the fish it was... running away?
He knew his alien eyes had to be mistaking reality. The boy realized that it might actually get away if he just stood in awe, "HEY!" He dashed after the shockingly fast fish with tiny feet. He ran and grabbed the rod, which it was still attached to, and pulled back on the ninja wire.
Goku showed his expertise with the wire, and managed to work his hands like a puppet master to tie the fish by the 'ankles.' He pulled it back to his feet, and moved the body of the fish to the side, to reveal the wily baby chimp that was grinning at Goku.
Before the boy could pounce on the small primate, it crawled up Goku's body quickly and perched on top of his head. It went through his hair and let out a laugh when he tried to grab it off of his head, but crawled down to his waist and removed his equipment pouch with its tail, "Ha-ha, sucker!" The animal laughed at Goku.
The chimp jumped off of Goku and took off across the river, revealing its ability to use chakra and walk on water. Goku's eye went wide and instantly took off behind the deceptively fast chimp and bounced across the river with amazing speed, which was leading to the other side of the forest.
His mind was in jumbles now. Not only had the animal talked to him, but it showed the ability to manipulate its chakra and walk on water. He had seen some things in his limited days a shinobi, but talking animals? The alien from a different part of the galaxy couldn't believe such a thing existed.
The boy was slapped back into reality when he realized he could be running into an elaborate trap. It was too late to make a plan, because as soon as he touched down on the other side of the river; he looked up and saw an enemy trio of genin. He watched as the chimp climbed up the tree they were standing on and return to his owner, "Got the scroll cap', this sucker didn't even see it coming!"
The leader of the small pack of genin was a boy with deep tan skin, and spiky hair that had two elevated tufts on each side of his head. He grinned upon seeing Goku tumble out of the water, his sharp teeth gritting together as he did so, "This is the kid that gave Vegeta a run for his money?" He asked, looking at his teammates and they nodded. He rubbed at the large birth mark on cheek and then shrugged his shoulders, "I bet I can beat him without turning."
"As long as I don't have to," His male teammate voiced off, running a hand through his curly silver hair. He sighed and crouched down on the branch, looking down on Goku now, "If he kills you, we'll get disqualified, and that'll be kind of cool."
"Yeah, I want to go home," The final teammate added to the conversation, her hair put up into two adorable buns. Her brown eyes complimented her sun-kissed desert skin and burgundy jumpsuit. She too was looking at the aloof Goku, who just wanted his equipment pouch back.
The boy with the spiky hair reached into the equipment pouch and found the Heaven scroll that his team needed. He held it up for Goku to see, grinning at the boy as he did so, "What are you going to do, kid? We have your scroll." He flung the remains of the equipment pouch and all of Goku's weapons fell onto the ground. He started laughing, while his teammates looked at him with bored expressions, "Your best bet is running back to your team."
Goku's eyes scanned the three genin over, and took in all the major details about them. They were all draped in shades of burgundy and brown, and had their headbands tied around their right arms. The leader had mentioned Vegeta, so they were obviously from Iwagakure, "I'm not running anywhere." Goku smiled cheekily and smashed his fist into his open palm, "I'll fight to get my scroll back!"
The boy opened his mouth confidently, "Ha! It's three-on-on-"
"No it's not," The silver haired boy alerted his eager teammate. "Kin, we have the scroll, there's no reason to fight."
"Isamu is right."
The boy instantly got flustered with his team and began turning red. His whole head was engulfed in flames like Hades and he stomped his foot on the branch, "SHUT THE FUCK UP! I SAID WE'RE GOING TO FIGHT AND THAT'S FINAL!" Kin took a deep breath and his face returned to normal. His teammates rolled their eyes and he smiled, "See, now I'm cool."
"You're still on your own," His female teammate, Airi repeated and sat down on the branch. She shooed him away, "Have fun."
While they continued to argue amongst themselves, Goku ran forward and gathered his scattered equipment. He grabbed a decent length of ninja wire, a kunai, and an explosive tag. The boy tied the wire around the kunai, and then threw it forward, stabbing it into the branch all three of them were standing on.
When they came to realize what he was doing, it was already too late. The boy gained some momentum by running and used the wire to swing himself up to their position and kick Kin out of the tree. He landed perfectly on the branch and dropped the explosive tag, before jumping off to follow Kin's body. He knew better than to fight three people alone, so he would spread them out for the moment.
Kin was the person holding his Heaven scroll that he was desperately trying to recover. If Chi-Chi and Mao found out that he lost it, he'd probably be beaten to a pulp by Chi-Chi who had trusted him not lose it. He would focus his energy on the hot-headed Iwa-genin and then tried to make a run for it, since his teammates didn't seem like the confrontational type.
The black-haired Iwa native was disgruntled by the not-so-surprise attack. If he and his teammates weren't bickering, that would have never happened. His summon animal had long since disappeared when he no longer needed him, and he planned on fighting Goku alone to prove his strength. He rolled backward and bounced to a stand, "Bring it on, runt!"
As much as Goku wanted to test his new technique in battle, that his was trump card, and took too much to prepare. He settled by dashing across the forest floor, picking some more of his loose kunai off of the ground and threw them at Kin. As his enemy moved, he flew through hand seals and decided to test another technique he picked up learning under Shido in Iwagakure.
Using the kunai throwing as a feint, Kin had moved right into the position Goku wanted him to be in, and he fired off shapeless blasts of fire that ended up engulfing the whole area. The blasts were too wide for anyone to straight dodge, so he knew Kin would at least leave that attack being badly burnt.
Goku wasn't quick enough to react to Kin flying through the flames, his whole body engulfed in fire, but he wasn't burning. The boy planted his flaming foot into Goku's chest and sent him flying across the forest floor.
The saiyan smashed into the base of a tree, and the large tree threatened to abandon its roots and fall over after the impact. Goku's whole body ached, and his shirt had been singed by the kick. There would be a foot-shaped burn on his chest for the rest of the exam and he groaned out in pain after the quick attack. He tried to push himself to stand, and caught glimpse of Kin walking toward him.
The Iwa-genin was definitely on fire, but he wasn't screaming in pain. He had complete control over it and grinned at the downed Goku, "Come on, kid, I am fire!" His hair was now standing on end and flowing like an actual flame, "That was your biggest mistake!"
He dashed forward and tried to smash Goku's head in, but the boy rolled out of the way and swept low. Kin nearly tumbled to the floor, and Goku used that as his chance to put some distance between him and the living fire standing before him. He backed up a bit, and saw his teammates slowly strolling onto the scene to watch the fight.
Goku didn't have any equipment left to fight Kin at range, and just coming in contact with him burned like hell, so he needed a new way to fight him. The boy had no time to think, since Kin was dashing at him once more, and backed into the tree. Goku did a backwards cart-wheel, sticking to the wood, and shifted his body so he could run up the base of the tree. He got up to the branches and bounced away from branch to branch. Goku knew the hot-headed genin would give chase.
Kin cursed under his breath, "He's running away?"
"KIN, HE'S RUNNING AWAY!" Isamu yelled out at Kin, as if his teammate didn't just see the saiyan run away.
"Don't let him get away, Kin," Airi added in.
The flames burned even stronger when he turned his head to look at his team, "SHUT UP, I KNOW THAT HE FUCKING RAN OFF. LET'S GO FIND HIM!" The boy shot into the air, using his flames to propel him, and took off in the direction that Goku went.
"I think I'm going to stay here," Isamu sat down and crossed his legs, "We already got the scroll."
"Yeah, I am too," Airi sat down next to Isamu and the two sat there in silence.
Team work was over rated anyway
. . .
(Forest of Death ~ With Mao)
Mao was a smart girl who knew how to work. All of the fire-wood she was finding, she'd seal it into a scroll and keep it moving. With her Toki Jun no Jutsu, she was constantly scanning the area for threats, and so far had come across none. For the most part, she was done with her piece of their setup, having gathered enough fire wood to burn for a couple of nights.
It was approaching the top of the day, and since they were inside the Forest of Death she hadn't broken a sweat. Averting problems was second nature to her, but as she made her way back around the outskirts there was a problem staring her right in the face. She entered the area warily, as a trail of dead bodies was slowly leading her back the camping spot her team had chosen. After seeing three teams worth of genin dead, she stopped, and did a scan of the area.
How could she have possibly missed this much fighting going on? She looked over the scene, and didn't see any blood staining the ground, or cuts on their bodies. The bodies only looked pale and their eyes were lifeless. When her jutsu sent back the data she wanted, there were still no traceable chakras, which made her finally break that sweat, and her heart started racing.
She had no choice but to investigate, because one of her teammates could have returned to the site and gotten attacked along with the other shinobi. Mao paced slowly past the trees that led to another open clearing, and she finally heard voices talking amongst themselves calmly. The girl hid behind a tree and listened in on their conversation.
"So we just sit here and wait?" Lapis asked, sitting on top of a dead shinobi as a cushion. "I think we could be doing something way more fun than this."
"Yes, we wait. Son Goku could be returning at any moment," 19 shot off in his monotone voice and Lapis rolled his eyes in response.
"This whole exam isn't about you, 19; you can't have all the fun!" Lazuli nudged her team mate and he shot a blank stare at her in return.
"Yeah, he and that Hyuga girl seemed to really hit it off," Lapis joked with the drone-like preteen, "What did you do with that girl anyway?"
"We're being watched," 19 cut that conversation short and hit them with some current events. His eyes were locked on a lone tree on the other side of the clearing and started walking toward it, "There's no reason to hide."
Mao swallowed a large wad of spit into her otherwise dry throat. After seeing the trail of bodies that led up to the clearing, she didn't want to see what had caused them anytime soon. She pushed herself off of the tree and took off running back the way she had came. Her best bet was going to be trying to link up with either Chi-Chi or Goku, but her thoughts were cut short when a foot stuck out from the trees and tripped her onto the ground.
It felt like her spine cracked when 19 dropped from the air and landed on her. The foot that had tripped her up happened to be Lapis, who walked out with his arms folded and a wide grin on his face. They caught her by surprise when she let her net-sensing technique down, and used body flicker to catch her off guard. The boy threw his leg back and then swung it forward to kick the downed Mao in the face, her nose instantly breaking and gushing blood down to her chin.
"If this whole ninja thing doesn't work out for you, you could play soccer, Lapis," Lazuli complimented as she pushed her brother out of the way, and took her turn to kick Mao in the face as well. "We'd probably make a good team."
19 lifted her head up by her hair and drew a kunai, placing it at her throat and threatened to drag it across with no remorse.
Mao had blood flowing from her nose and had lost a few teeth, and now tears were streaming from her eyes after being caught by the trio of Oto genin, "Please, let me go! I'll give you my scroll!" She pleaded and the twins looked at each and laughed.
"Ha! I've got like five scrolls already, fuck your scroll," Lapis let her know, pulling out multiple heaven and earth scrolls, dropping them to the ground in his flashy display. "Tell us where Son Goku is."
. . .
(Forest of Death ~ With Chi-Chi)
Chi-Chi dashed away from the scene of another enemy camp, which she laced with ninja wire and enough explosives to draw her enemies out once it sounded off. She was bouncing through the trees with a smile on her face. Her job was to simply cause havoc among the forest and she was enjoying herself. When it became nightfall, and other teams were ready to settle down; they would have no where to go, and would be ripe for the picking.
She was so pleased with herself; she was barely paying attention to her surroundings as she sped through the forest. The girl narrowly missed an already placed ninja wire and jumped down into the clearing to avoid being tripped up. She let out a sigh of relief when she peeped out what she just missed and smiled when she stood up straight.
The weak whimpering of a ninken made her turn her head instantly, and she laid eyes on a bloody Inuzuka propped up against the tree. Not too far from Kiba was Shino, who was equally battered. In good conscience, Chi-Chi couldn't leave them there to die, so she went to check their bodies over and felt better when she saw that they still had a pulse. They were, however, unconscious and wouldn't be waking up any time soon.
The dog at her feet nudged her at the ankle and urged her to follow, as it took off running not too far from where Shino and Kiba's bodies were. She hesitantly followed, drawing a kunai just in case she was being led into a trap, and was frozen in place once she saw what the pup was leading her to. Chi-Chi had to look away for a moment, crouching down to pet Akamaru with a frown, "This is terrible."
When she built up the courage to finally look at the scene again, her eyes fell upon Hinata Hyuga. She recognized the bashful girl from the first part of the exam, but seeing her like this made her stomach turn. The girl's skin was pale and wrinkled beyond belief, and worst of all; her eyes were hollowed out and missing. There were dried up streams of blood coming from her eyes, and someone had pried them out with their fingers from what she could see.
Chi-Chi slowly approached Hinata's body and kneeled down, with Akamaru whimpering around her while she checked Hinata's pulse. It was extremely weak, but it was present, and the Kumogakure native almost felt emotional. She knew that it was the 'Forest of Death' for crying out loud, but what had been done to Hinata Hyuga was down right cruel. She picked her up and carried her back to her team, shutting her eye lids so people wouldn't be forced to stare into her body every time they passed by.
When she returned to the clearing with Akamaru, she felt a chill run down her spine when she locked eyes with the older Hyuga cousin, "I-"
Neji pointed an accusing finger to Chi-Chi with a furrowed brow, "You did this!"
. . .
(Forest of Death ~ With Team Deidara)
"Nothing here belongs to you, fucker!" Karin stuck her middle finger up while yelling her favorite obscenity and both Pepper and N looked at her with a furrowed brow. "Let's get rid of this snake once and for all."
"What exactly belongs to you, Orochimaru?" N questioned, using the stalemate between Pepper and the snake Sannin to his advantage. He could tell that the boy was extremely exhausted in his short bout with the man, so he would build some time for him to rest. From what he could see, Orochimaru liked to run his mouth anyway.
N was right in his assumption and the legendary ninja parted his lips to speak, "Karin, she is mine." He looked at the girl with a twisted smile, his tongue slowly slithering out his mouth. He grinned in his explanation, "Karin and I have a lot of history, you see, dating back since she was a child. Now the Akatsuki has their hands on her," The man complained with a child-like tone. "I'm like a kid, I see someone else playing with my toy, so I want it back."
Pepper looked at Karin with a hint of disgust, "I knew your red-headed ass came with baggage," He stood up and prepared himself for the inevitable battle with Orochimaru. "But she still belongs to the Akatsuki, so I'm afraid I have to fight you to protect her."
N looked between Orochimaru and Pepper, "Wait, we're really going to fight this guy?"
"Yeah," Pepper sighed.
"Damn right you are!" She knocked N on the head, "I'm very important to Nagato-sama, he'll have your head if I went missing."
"She's not lying," Pepper insisted as he drew two kunai and looked toward N, "Cover me, and protect Karin at all costs." He said in lowered voice. The boy forced himself to choke out the next thing, "She's important."
Orochimaru giggled, tilting his head back, opening his mouth wide, and a snake extended from his throat. All three genin looked disturbed, and the snake opened its mouth to reveal the handle of a blade. The man pulled it out the snake's mouth and spun it around in his grip. He grinned as he listened to Pepper talk, "Yes, your leader seems to be quite the family man now. Taking Karin under his wing, oh, Nagato-sama how great of him." The man leapt down from the tree and landed on the forest floor. His killing intent started to rise to crazy levels, and it made Karin cripple in fear.
Pepper and N weren't affected by it, but still took note of how immense it was. The freckle-faced boy crossed his kunai, pouring his explosive chakra into them and both he and Orochimaru dashed at each other. He knew the man's end goal was to sweep Karin away, but he had to keep him at bay no matter what. They clashed blades in the center of the clearing, and small explosions went off every time the blades met.
There was no power struggle or stale mate anymore, and Pepper was actually knocking Orochimaru away. Each time their blades crossed, there was a small explosion happening and it would disgruntle Orochimaru, messing up his footing with every strike. Pepper tried to overpower the older shinobi and put some distance between them with his explosion enhanced slashes.
Orochimaru recognized the threat and broke away from close-range combat and suddenly slipped underground when the boy tried to take another swipe at him. Pepper cursed under his breath and took to the trees, "Get Karin off of the ground!" He yelled out at N, who was a quick thinker just like Pepper, and swept Karin off of the ground. They were both leaping into the trees, trying to gain a higher ground.
"There's only so much we can do against this guy, Pepper," N yelled back at the freckle-face boy. He looked at Karin, who was still latched onto him with a blush on her face, "Are you serious right now?" He asked in disbelief while looking at the flustered girl and set her down on the branch they were standing on. He turned back to Pepper and frowned, "I say we run while we're ahead."
"He'll chase us all five days, and I'd rather deal with this right now," Pepper deducted and took a deep breath.
"You sound as delusional as Dei-" N lost his words, and his footing as the ground underneath began to shake. Karin had completely lost her shit, and he looked over to see her hanging from the branch and about to fall back onto the forest floor. As the boy walked across the branch carefully, he tried to grab Karin and pull her back onto the branch, but he lost his grip. The tree fell over, and everything around them was sinking into the ground.
Pepper launched himself from his tree and grabbed Karin out of the air, sticking to the still sinking tree with his chakra. He climbed back up to where N stood and had to stop himself from constantly cursing, "Maybe you're right." He gestured away from the sinking forest around them and jumped from the collapsing tree, onto one that was still attached to its roots. They were going to continue, but a giant snake climbed up the tree quickly and sprung out at them.
The former Kumo-nin shot his hand out when he saw it and sent his explosive chakra down its throat, and blew it to bits before it could bite any of them. Before he could let out a sigh of relief, there were snakes attacking from every direction, varying in size. Pepper did his best to keep them away from himself and Karin, but as threw his hand out, one of the snakes bit down hard on his knuckles and he yelled out.
From the mud pit that they were still slowly sinking into snakes were shooting out by the hundreds like missiles. It became too much for the trio to avoid, and they were soon getting bit all over by the reptilian nuisances. Just when they thought things couldn't get worse, a snake that was ten times the size came slithering out of the mud and opened its maw. The three of the Akatsuki genin couldn't break away quick enough, and were swallowed along with the hundreds of snakes.
They were trapped inside the throat of a giant snake, and its mouth was filled with more snakes. It was like swimming through a sea of snakes, and it was a feeling Karin hoped she would never experience again. They were still lashing out and trying to bite them even more, but Pepper grabbed one by the throat, loading it a lot of explosive chakra, and threw it down the length of the giant snake.
N and Karin continued to fight the snakes away as they slid down the snake's throat nastily. It was N's second time today being in the process of getting digested, and it was disgusting to say the least. His ears perked up when he heard the explosive snake Pepper sent into the giant reptile's stomach, and it exploded quite viciously. It could no longer hold anything else, and the trio was thrown up back on the ground, covered in bodily fluid.
"This is the worst day ever," Karin complained and crawled away from the remains of the snakes, still covered in smaller, dead ones that were killed by them while they were trapped in the bigger one's throat.
She soon found herself digging her hands through the ground, and she turned to see Orochimaru's sticking out the mud, his arms extended to inhuman lengths. The girl swung her head back around to look at Pepper and N who were still disgruntled by being vomited back up by the large snake. She threw her hands behind her head and then thrust them forward, shooting out two chains that flew out from her wrists and tied around the base of a still rooted tree, "Will you fuckers help me for once!"
Pepper had been thrown off by all the things happening to him, but he still caught wind of that comment and frowned, "Are you fucking serious?" He asked the girl, as he turned his head to see Orochimaru trying to pull her into the mud, and take her god knows where; to do only god knows what. He nudged N and got the boy up off of the ground, "Shoot that slimy bastard, now!" N reacted faster than Pepper had anticipated, shooting off an explosive blast that made the boy recoil when he fired it off.
The blast connected with Orochimaru's stomach and shot the man out of the mud. There was a gaping hole in his stomach, leaking blood freely, as he tumbled across the ground, and eventually hit a tree with a thud. The moment he was down, Karin pulled herself up to the tree with her chains and took a deep breath, "We need to go, right now!" She looked over her shoulder, and saw Orochimaru shaking off his damage like nothing had happened, despite the intense stomach wound, "RIGHT NOW!"
"We tried to do that, but he pulled us right back into this shit," Pepper told the girl, and came to a stand. He knew getting rid of Orochimaru was no easy task, but he would have to find a way to do so, so they could walk away from this with no loose ends. "We're handling this now, so we don't have to later. Didn't your parents teach you about that?"
There was an awkward silence.
"We're both orphans," N said with a straight face.
"I am too, but still," Pepper shook his head and disregarded the comment for the time being. "Look, you have to face your problems head on, or else they'll linger on forever, and I can't have this fucker hovering over my head this whole time."
"I'm running out of chakra, so we can't drag this on for too much longer," N alerted Pepper and the boy nodded. He shifted uncomfortably as he looked at the multiple bite marks covering his body, "He mixed in some poisonous snakes in that barrage too, we don't have much longer either."
Pepper understood the circumstances, and looked at Karin, who was just as beaten up as he and N were. He took a deep breath and watched as Orochimaru was getting closer, his slow walk a taunt to the group of genin, "Ok, here's the plan."
. . .