INSOMNIA ~ 31

Three genin slowly stalked into the area, horror written all over their faces. Shikamaru looked throughout the clearing, counting the bodies, and seeing where their affiliation lied. He looked back at Choji and Ino with a frown on his face, "Six teams, eighteen people. That's a good portion of the entrants that aren't making it out," He grimaced at the thought of dying in the forest. "I wonder what caused all this."

Choji placed his hand over his stomach and his face started to get blue, "I think I'm going to throw up," He had never seen that many dead bodies before, and it was making him wildly uncomfortable. It almost made him not want to eat, but- it wasn't that bad.

"Stop being a baby, Choji," Ino said as she led the group into the area. There was bead of sweat rolling down her forehead as she did so, because she was kind of worried what she might find.

Shikamaru sighed, mumbling something about how 'troublesome' Ino was acting, but still followed after her, because he was curious too. He veered off and started examining bodies, while Choji was over his shoulder staring at the bodies nervously, "This is too much for me." Shikamaru said as he going through the dead guy's equipment and restocking his own.

"I thought being a ninja was about being discreet, hiding in the shadows," Choji mused aloud as he looked at the trail of bodies. "It's almost like someone wants to be found."

"Some people like the challenge," Shikamaru told his fat friend and sighed as he stood up. He found enough to weapons, hunting tools, and foreign currency to last them for a while, so now he wanted the exam to be over. They still hadn't got the scroll they needed, "Whoever did this wants to be found."

"That's uncomfortable.." Choji mumbled as he now rubbed at his stomach, his hunger getting the best of him. "We should go catch some fish, I'm hungry."

"Yeah, I guess you're right, Choji," Shikamaru was glad that he suggested the easiest method of getting food. They tried catching a wild boar earlier and it didn't end well. "You're catching it though, fishing sounds too troublesome."

"G-G-Guys!"

The two boys sprung up and ran in the direction they heard Ino's voice, ready to fight, but they skidded to a halt when they saw the blonde haired girl with wide eyes, "Holy.." Shikamaru looked Ino over, she was perfectly fine, but what she held in her grasp made his heart race. "This can't be real."

"WE HIT THE FUCKING LOTTERY," Ino cheered, in her arms was three Heaven scrolls, and two Earth scrolls. She threw a scroll to Choji and Shikamaru, dancing as she did so. "Now we can go straight to the tower!"

Shikamaru examined the scroll over, it was just like the one he had. There was no doubt it was real, "That might be the best plan you've ever come up with." He stored the extra scroll on his person and folded his arms over each other. "I don't want to look this gift horse in the mouth for too long, let's leave before something happens."

Choji agreed and they were beginning to leave the area, "I wonder if they have food in that big tower." The boy wondered as they three left, but there was a whisper making his ear ring. He turned around and scratched his head in confusion, "Did you guys hear that?"

"Come on fat ass, you're just hungry," Ino poked at Choji's ego, and the boy's head swiveled back around quicker than she anticipated.

"I'M NOT FAT, I'M PLEASANTLY PLUMP," Choji pointed a shaking finger at Ino and she laughed.

"Help me," the call of distress rang in all three of their ears now. "I'm not hostile."

Shikamaru asked hastily, "Where are you?"

"In the clearing."

The trio looked at each other, "This could be a trap." Ino reasoned with Shikamaru, but the boy looked too intrigued to be stopped. He walked off in the direction they found the scrolls in. The rest of the team had no choice but to follow.

In the clearing, Mao was sitting up right against a tree, but her whole body was battered. She coughed up a bit of blood and continued breathing raggedly, "Please, help me." The girl pleaded once more, "Any medicine you have, please, I'll do anything."

Ino was normally a composed kunoichi, but seeing Mao in that condition pulled on her heart strings. She obviously wasn't the enemy, "I have something that can help." She admitted, but it didn't come without a cost. "But you have to promise not to tell anyone about it."

Shikamaru looked at her with a confused expression, "What are you hinting at?"

The blonde's face got surprisingly serious, "That goes for you two, this is a secret." She reached into her equipment pouch and pulled out a small bag that was normally used to hold buttons for knitting. It was filled with green powder, "Allegedly, it can cure anything."

The Nara felt like he had seen that green powder before, "Don't people get high using that shit?" During some of their missions, they were stopping small time drug operations for villages who wanted to keep their community safe, and they had come across the green powder before. "Ino what were you keeping that for?"

"Look, I don't need it anymore," Ino avoided the question, "It's called Senzu Powder, it should heal our new friend right up."

"Why are we helping her, guys?" Choji asked with a hint of curiosity in his voice.

"She let me cheat off of her exam during the written test," Ino admitted, "She's good people."

"Thank you so much," Mao was truly grateful for Ino's actions.

Choji tilted his head, "Really? I cheated off of that Goku guy."

. . .

(Forest Of Death ~ With Kin)

Kin's flames were burning even hotter now. He had lost track of Son Goku, and his own team wasn't helping him look for the boy. He had at least tracked the boy back to the river, but no one was to be found. His flaming head was constantly twitching around trying to pinpoint the boy's location.

He cursed under his breath, on the brink of giving up and just returning to his unhelpful teammates, but when he turned around; something smacked him in the back. His armor of fire flickered out of life for a moment, and he instantly turned around when he almost dropped to the ground. The fire ignited back to the life, and his angry eyes were looking around once again.

The Iwa-genin looked at the ground and saw a fish out of water flopping. While he was staring at the fish in confusion, another fish shot out of the water and hit him directly in the face. His fiery armor subsided once more and plummeted onto the ground.

He hit the ground with a thud, and rubbed at his soaking wet face in discomfort. Even the slightest amount of water would disrupt his cloak, and now he was at a disadvantage. The boy shot up and instantly charged into the river, "I'm going to fucking kill you!" The moment he jumped into the raging river, he was tackled by none other than Son Goku.

The boy had been holding his breath under water, waiting for Kin to arrive, so he was more than ready to strike. He had wrapped around the taller boy's waist, but quickly moved his hand to Kin's throat, as he forcefully swam them to the bottom of the river.

The choking boy clutched at Goku's wrist, but he was far stronger than he appeared. He was running out of time before he ingested too much water, and moved his hand from Goku's wrist. Kin whipped out a kunai with one swift movement and stabbed it into Goku's forearm.

Goku let go of Kin and screamed out, which was silent since they were underwater, and the older boy started to swim back to the surface, while Goku's blood was starting to saturate that part of the river.

It was during times like these where Goku became a quick thinker. He used the time Kin was using to regain his breath to gather his chakra. 'How can I end this?' The boy asked himself over and over, and finally something clicked in his brain.

During his brief time training with Shidō, he learned about the basics of chakra, and nature transformation. The robotic learning system explained to him that chakra was a catalyst, and it made the earth react in many different ways. The same way he was able to spark a fire within his body, he figured he should be able to do something equally awesome to the outside world.

On the surface, Kin was breathing heavily, but finally came to a stand. He looked down at the water, "Either he drowned or he's a fucking fis-" As he stared the water, it started to bubble, and the boy instantly jumped into the air. He was expecting Goku to shoot balls of fire out, or at least shoot out of the water himself, but he was sorely mistaken.

The water shot out in an upward spiral, spinning like a vortex, and started to take shape. It exploded at the top and water splashed in the Iwa-genin's face. Kin looked up to see a large tidal wave rising faster than he could move, and riding the wave was Goku with a childish grin on his face. The saiyan boy threw the kunai Kin had used to stab him right back at him and it connected with his side. The follow up to that was the wave Goku had created swallowing him back into the merciless river.

Goku skid across the surface of the water, using his chakra to stick to it, and turned around quickly in anticipation of another attack, "Haha, that was awesome!" He couldn't help but scream out when he found a way to slow down the fire-type user. He tensed up when he saw Kin weakly climbing out the water, and ran forward to kick him in the face so he could finally knock him unconscious.

The boy's body went flying and sunk back into the river once more. Goku took a deep breath, the adrenaline beginning to wear off, and the stab wound in his forearm was starting to register with his brain, "I've gotta get that scroll ba-"

He turned his head to see Kin's teammates rushing to the river, and had to narrowly avoid being stabbed all over by precisely thrown shuriken. Goku watched as Airi broke off to retrieve Kin's body, and he was being charged at head on by Isamu who had a sword made of pure gold drawn. His eyes couldn't help but be drawn to the flashy weapon, which had diamonds encrusted across the length of the blade.

Isamu furrowed his brow at Goku when he saw the boy staring at his weapon instead the person wielding it, but regardless the boy was falling for his feint. All of his enemies were always drawn in by the lure of his weapon, and what it may be capable of, but never watched his other movements. Soon they would learn.

The saiyan was quick to back away, but his footing was compromised when he felt a blade lodge deep into his back, and nearly touched his spine. He fell over, as blood was now flowing freely from his back wound and started to sink to the bottom of the river. His eyes were wide after realizing what had happened, and mentally cursed himself out for being so easily distracted.

From his peripheral, he did see a clone of Isamu standing with more weapons in his hand. He couldn't seem to take his eyes off of the expensive looking katana though, and that's where his problem was. Isamu's golden sword was used to distract him, while the clone delivered the finishing blow when he wasn't looking.

As his injured body slowly dropped to the bottom of the river, things began going black for the boy, and he was going to lose oxygen as long as he was trapped at the bottom of a raging waterway.

"I couldn't let you kill the village's Jinchūriki, sorry kid." Isamu said to the sinking Goku.

. . .

(Forest of Death ~ With Team Deidara)

N and Pepper moved defensively in front of Karin. The blonde haired boy who had just been adopted into the Akatsuki 'bounty hunter' program felt odd guarding Karin with his life on the line. He had his motives within Akatsuki, and he needed to be alive to accomplish his goals, so facing off with one of the strongest shinobi to ever come out of Konoha wasn't in his plans. He balled up his hands into a fist and slightly grinded his teeth together.

He just wanted this to be over with.

Pepper felt the same way as N, but he understood Karin's importance to the organization, and more importantly how her skills could be used against them in the wrong hands. The boy sighed as he adjusted his position, because he currently looking 'the wrong hands' right in the face. If he let Karin back into the hands of Orochimaru, his leader would punish him in more ways than one.

The still air made the trio of genin uncomfortable, while Orochimaru grinned with his sword in his grasp. He looked them over with one good glance and saw everything that was ailing them. All three of them were exhausted, running low on chakra, and his snake's poison was starting to drive to the point of blacking out. This battle was all but over in his mind.

The tension in the air was at an all time high, and the wily snake was the first person to engage them. The tired genin couldn't match his speed, and he managed to get between their defensive positions. The first person Orochimaru targeted was N, and the boy was quick to raise his arm to guard given the time from the slash. The older shinobi's sword drew blood from N's forearm and smiled when the boy didn't back down.

Pain was going to take a moment to register for N, so he would act while he had the chance, and raised his free hand. Orochimaru had seen what the boy was capable of before, so lest he wanted his chest to be blown off by a 13 year old genin; he jumped away.

The battle had gone from zero-to-sixty, and N fired off a small explosive wave in the shape of cone that exploded in the air right before it could hit Orochimaru. The man was about to part his lips and mock the child, but while his eyes were locked on N, Pepper layered his foot with explosive chakra, and shot himself forward at high speeds.

He tried to place his chakra covered hand over Orochimaru's face, but the Sannin started to rear his head back to avoid it completely. At that time, Pepper was far faster than Orochimaru, and his chakra still exploded at near point blank range from his head. The boy was sent flying away, N catching him weakly, while Orochimaru screamed out in pain as his body tumbled across the forest floor, and back into his pit of mud he had created.

After the brief bout, Pepper and N were breathing heavier than they normally would have. The poison was starting shut down their systems and only had a few more moments left before they passed out. N let go of Pepper and cracked his knuckles, "Okay, let's get this thing over with."

Pepper nodded in agreement, "Yeah."

"Hurry up you bastards, I'm running on fumes here!" Karin complained as the two boys gathered their last amounts of chakra.

The two bombers looked back at her with furrowed brows, "Shut up."

The freckle-faced boy crouched down and placed his palms against the forest floor, while N formed a triangle with his index fingers and thumbs. They both took accurate aim, and their thick, explosive chakra began to saturate the area. Pepper's was traveling through the ground and N shot his right into the mud pit.

When the two forces met, the explosion rocked the whole forest, and the trio of genin had to block their eyes from bits of snake, mud, and debris. Karin watched in awe, wanting to let a victorious smirk creep on her face, but she knew it took way more to kill Orochimaru, and that wasn't their end goal.

The red-head girl felt like the next twenty seconds happened in slow motion. Her retelling of the story would definitely be in slow motion. All three of them had agreed on a common goal to get Orochimaru as far away as possible, and run the fuck away. There would be no prolonged battle, where they grinded it out and came out on top, holding Orochimaru's head. Nothing like that. It was to run for the kami forsaken lives.

All three of them imagined their run to be more graceful, but in reality it was three scared genin high-tailing it out of the area with their tail tucked between their legs. They had just gone head-to-head with Orochimaru and got to live to tell the story. It was a good day.

"Kami, I hate you Karin."

Semi-good day.

. . .

(Forest Of Death ~ With Chi-Chi)

Chi-Chi ran as far as away from Neji as humanly possible. The boy was fuming with anger, and her jumbled explanation of how she found them did nothing for him. The only reason he had to believe that she wasn't the enemy was Akamaru, and she thanked kami every second for the dog that saved from having to fight three of Konoha's strongest genin at once.

After seeing the gruesome image of Hinata with bloody tears streaming from her empty eye holes, she just wanted to reunite with her team. She was jumping through the forest, making her way back to the rendezvous point they had all agreed on. Her part of their plan was completed, and it was starting to get dark in the forest.

All the possible camp spots were laced with traps, and it wouldn't be long before genin teams tried to settle down for the night. Their sweep for scrolls should be smooth, and they would be headed to the tower before the sun came back up.

On the path to their meeting point, Chi-Chi dropped down from the branches and landed on the forest floor. She saw foot prints in the dirt and her eyes followed them up to the scene. Her heart nearly stopped when she caught wind of all the dead bodies that was leading her to the rendezvous. She massaged her temple slowly, "What the hell happened here?"

The girl stopped gawking and moved past yet another horrific scene. The Forest of Death truly lived up to its name. She leapt out of the clearing and continued to move to her destination.

As it got darker, the forest started to become more raucous, and she could hear the deadly nocturnal animals waking up. She felt the trees she chose to travel on literally shaking, "Sheesh." Her skin was literally crawling, so she dropped out of the higher grounds of the forest, and landed in another clearing that wasn't far from she had just passed.

She pushed through the bushes, which revealed the raging river. There was bridge connecting the side of forest she was on to the other, and she walked up to the edge of the patch of land. She jumped over it and slid down to the coast of the river.

The girl was instantly wrapped in a bear hug that she expected to be Goku, but looked at her teammate Mao with tears streaming from her eyes. Chi-Chi furrowed her brow, "Mao, what happened to you?"

"I got attacked," She sheepishly backed away from Chi-Chi and wiped the tears of joy away from her eyes. Mao regained her composure and took a deep breath, folding her arms over each other. "There were three shinobi from 'Otogakure' looking for Goku."

"You got attacked alone? But you look fine," Chi-Chi leaned in toward the girl's face and looked her over a few times. She knew Mao wasn't a fighter, but other than a few minor cuts; she looked more refreshed than exhausted. Chi-Chi tilted her head in confusion, "What did they want with Goku?"

"I don't know," Mao held her index finger with a 'but-wait-there's-more' expression written on her face. She reached into her equipment pouch and pulled out a Heaven scroll, and then the Earth scroll that they were searching for. "We need to find Goku-kun and head straight to the tower before morning comes."

Chi-Chi groaned, "That boy should be standing right here!"

"I can't sense him anywhere, he must be in trouble, Chi-Chi," Mao worried.

"Well, only one of us can go search for him, because that idiot could stumble back here at any moment," Chi-Chi reasoned and sighed as she tried to figure out a plan. "You're a good sensor, but if you get attacked we're in trouble. I can't go alone, because I wouldn't know where to start looking."

"If you don't mind, Chi-Chi, I have a plan," Mao said nervously, because she was never officially put in charge. She'd hate for Chi-Chi to assume she thought she was smarter than her, even if she technically was. The bashful girl knew how females thought, "With my Toki Jun no Jutsu and a carefully crafted seal, I can lead you to any possible locations for our friend Son Goku."

"How long will it take you to make that seal?"

"A few hours, but it will be done before the morning," Mao said as she started to pull out papers and ink to create said seal for Chi-Chi to use. "We should get to work now."

"This better work, Mao."

. . .

(Forest of Death ~ With Raditz and Vegeta)

Vegeta grinded his teeth together, as he and Raditz floated in the air in the midst of a stalemate between them and Gaara. They made light work of his siblings, and now only had to deal with Gaara who seemed impossible to kill off. Normally the Prince wouldn't engage, but after his strength was in question; he would see this through to the very end.

On the ground, Gaara had encased himself in a ball of sand. He was at a disadvantage the entire time. Vegeta and Raditz covered each other extremely well, and were faster than his 'absolute' defense. It was the first time in his life he had been overpowered, and it wasn't an enjoyable feeling. After being attacked from every angle, he shut himself off from the duo.

Raditz folded his arms over each other and stared idly at the ball of condensed sand, "What is the boy doing?" He looked at Vegeta with a raised brow, and the boy was just as crestfallen as he was. They didn't have time to waste, yet they were being forced to watch Gaara's display of 'defense.'

"I don't know what the boy is doing," Vegeta looked up to the sky and watched as the sun began to disappear into the night. His goal was to make Son Goku a smear on the ground, not Gaara. He slowly descended from the air and touched the forest floor, starting to walk forward to the red-haired boy's 'absolute defense' he had made a mess of not too long ago, "But I plan on ending it right now."

He placed his hand out not too far from the ball and tilted his head. A long spike started to jut out from the front, but only far enough to prick a miniscule amount of blood from his palm. It sensed killing intent? Vegeta tilted his head in amusement, because he was retaining his normally monstrous intent for the sake of his human teammate Mai, who was hiding in the bushes not too far from where he was.

Said girl hiding in bushes adjusted her position to see the fight better. One of the perks that came with being an Iwagakure shinobi, was all of the cutting edge technology the Tsuchikage let her test out, since she wasn't as 'naturally gifted' as Vegeta and Raditz. She managed to get her hands on a scouter, and the girl was focused on the condensed ball of sand Vegeta was so fearlessly standing in front of.

Mai clicked a button and started to get a reading. Before he was killed, Dr. Brief imitated the technology, and she could get readings in an identifiable language; instead of the alien characters that popped up on the lens. Her jaw dropped to the ground, "Vegeta, his power level is rising!" The moment she shot her mouth off to Vegeta, the whole area shook like an earthquake hit the forest.

The source of the earthquake level blast was the Prince of All Saiyans. His hand was still steaming after firing off an irritation-fueled ki blast that put a gaping hole through Gaara's defense. The boy's body was thrown across the forest floor, and the large cloud of smoke that was kicked up obscured his vision from seeing what remained of the Sunagakure genin.

He turned to look at Raditz with a confident smile, "What did I tell yo-"

"Don't speak too soon, child!"

Raditz and Vegeta were about to engage in cocky saiyan banter like they always did, but it was cut short by a demonic voice booming through out the area. Two irritated glances turned to face whatever dared cut the self proclaimed 'strongest living beings on earth' off from their conversation. They were not impressed or amused by what was going on.

The thick cloud of dust had yet to settle, but the two saiyans saw a silhouette slowly getting bigger as it approached. There was a hint of Gaara in the energy that was flooding the area, but a new sentient being had entered the fray, and it was slowly starting to match their otherworldly intensity, "Tonight, this forest will not sleep, for Ore-sama has awaken!"

From the cloud, emerged what used to be Gaara. His appearance had drastically changed, sand piled on top of his body to the point that he looked more like the tanuki sealed inside him than himself. There were black curse markings all over its face, body, and long tail. Its yellow eyes were locked on Vegeta and a wild smile was all over its facial features.

"Don't think your extreme makeover means anything to me, fool," Vegeta didn't back down as the partially transformed Gaara slowly walked towards him. Whatever the beast raised its killing intent to, the saiyans matched it. The boy rolled his neck casually as his enemy prepared to attack him, "Now I can give you the proper burial you deserve."

"You will learn not to disrespect me, child!"

. . .

Today's vibes brought to you by Mac Miller: Faces. Excellent album.

Holler at me. ~