Wrath of a Woman Scorned

By: EDelta88

Rated M for: language, violence, adult situations and concepts, lemons, and graphic imagery

[Insert disclaimer here]

Chapter 11: Let the Games Begin, Part I

Streets of Konoha…

"So…" Sakura began awkwardly. "Are we waiting for Aki or meeting her inside?"

"I never asked," Sasuke replied with a disgruntled frown. He really should have thought of that before now.

"She could catch up if we got it wrong, right?" Sakura reasoned, looking more than a little nervous.

"Or she might disembowel us in our sleep for leaving her behind," Sasuke suggested as if he were commenting on the weather.

"I doubt she'll notice so long as you two show up," someone else said from right behind them.

"GAH!" the two gennin yelped.

"Problem?" Kakashi asked, giving his patented eye smile.

"That ASSHOLE!" Inner Sakura raged. "What sort of sadistic, inconsiderate prick sneaks up on his poor unsuspecting students and scares them as they are preparing to walk into a life-threatening situation accompanied by a homicidal sociopath!?"

'…You know, I was just startled before. NOW I'm actually terrified. Thanks for that,' Sakura thought sarcastically as she struggled to control her breathing.

"Fear is wisdom in the face of danger. We are in clear and present danger so being afraid is a damn good thing," Inner Sakura deadpanned. "Suck it up, Buttercup!"

"Was that really necessary?" Sasuke demanded through gritted teeth.

"Not even a little bit, but you two looked so cute! All tense and sweating the minor details… I just couldn't help myself," Kakashi chirped, completely unrepentant.

"Aki vivisecting us for getting the team kicked out of this is hardly a minor detail," Sakura grumbled under her breath.

"Hmm, fair point," Kakashi admitted unapologetically. "In any case, the examiners have all been informed about who you are and, more importantly, about your… special circumstances."

"So, they've been told to let us in with or without a third teammate because Aki will show up when she feels like it and not a moment before," Sasuke translated dully.

"Essentially," Kakashi confirmed with a shrug. "Blatant favoritism and special treatment aside, I doubt it will really be an issue. Aki may be a lot of things but I can't see her passing up an opportunity like this."

"License to kill with reckless abandon and traumatize an entire generation of chunnin hopefuls? Nope! There is no way she's passing that up," Inner Sakura drawled sarcastically, making Sakura wonder when her inner monologue had become so morbidly sarcastic. It hadn't always been like this, had it?

"Now then, despite what the official papers say the exam will actually start as soon as you are on the academy grounds," he explained, ignoring their looks of surprise. "Outside there will be a chunnin and a few gennin creating a few distractions and red herrings to misdirect the less focused teams. I don't see that being a problem but fair warning. Next, on the second floor there will be a pair of chunnin causing a ruckus and maintaining a genjutsu over a door to make it appear as though they are blocking the way to the examination room," he told them, pausing for a moment. "If there are two or fewer Konoha teams in that group, I want you to confront the chunnin and break the genjutsu."

Unable to stop herself, Sakura interrupted. "Um… Kakashi-sensei?"

"Yes Sakura?"

"Isn't this… you know, cheating?" she asked nervous.

Kakashi gave her a very dull look.

Sakura fidgeted nervously. "What?" she finally asked when she couldn't stand it anymore.

"Are you a ninja, or a samurai," her sensei deadpanned.

Sakura blinked. "Oh," she mumbled, embarrassed.

"Yes, oh. But, in all fairness, this is blatantly against the rules and regulations set forth in the treaties that govern the Chunnin Exams," he replied candidly. "And if anyone ever finds out about this the village brass will gut me for garters. That's, of course, if it stays in-house. If someone outside of Konoha were to find out about this it could cause an international incident," he explained, watching Sakura and Sasuke's eyes slowly grow to the size of dinner plates. "But you know something? I don't give half a fuck about what they might do to me and I'll kill any enemy that finds out. You two are my students, my responsibility. So, short of treason, it is my prerogative to act in your best interests when it comes to all things that I have any semblance of control over. As far as I'm concerned, the most dangerous factor in this exam is Aki, especially for you two. Everyone else just has to worry about her finding them. You two? You screw this up and get her disqualified… if she doesn't get to you, the people who want her in the finals will make your lives very difficult."

Neither gennin made any more objections as Kakashi laid out, in vivid detail, every aspect of the exam that he had been able to uncover since it had been announced.

And so it was that, after half an hour of intense lecturing and scheming, two-thirds of Team 7 walked into room 301… and a flying mass of blonde.

"Hey cutie, I missed you!"

"Ino we all know you're desperate but could you please stop molesting my teammate," Sakura grumbled as she glared at her rival.

"Oh piss off Billboard Brow, you're just bitter that your unfair advantage still hasn't landed you my man, you homewrecker," Ino returned, sticking her tongue out at the other girl.

"What did you call me, you squealing harlot?" Sakura growled.

"You heard me you bubblegum bitch," Ino sneered.

"I see your vocabulary hasn't improved, plebian," Sakura threw back.

"Well, some of us have better things to do than eat a thesaurus, bookworm," Ino reposted.

"You guys are taking this thing too?" Chouji directed at Sasuke. Casually ignoring the girls' antics as he snacked on a bag of fried vegetable chips.

"More like ordered to take it," Sasuke replied, having slipped away from Ino when Sakura provided a more lively target.

"Troublesome…" Shikamaru mumbled.

'Troublesome doesn't even begin to describe it,' Sasuke thought with a scowl.

Noticing Sasuke's expression, Shikamaru raised a brow. "I don't suppose it's just the two of you?" he asked without any real optimism.

Sasuke shook his head.

Shikamaru sighed and glanced knowingly around the room. "Well, that does explain the noticeable lack of Konoha teams," he observed as he started to quietly catalog the competition.

"Whahoo! The bands all here!" Kiba laughed as he and his teammates joined the impromptu gathering.

"Do try to be louder, Kiba," Hinata drawled sarcastically. "I'm not sure they heard you on the ground floor."

"In terms you will understand, Hinata is expressing her dismay that you are drawing so much attention and implying that you are unintelligent," Shino supplied evenly.

"Arf!" Akamaru chipped in.

"You too, boy?!" Kiba moaned. "You guys are so mean to me!"

"Hey, you guys, you should be a little more quiet," someone said from behind the group.

Everyone turned around to find a silver-haired teen in some kind of purple uniform walking toward them.

"You kids are the rookies just out of the academy, right?" the newcomer guessed. "Figures, screaming like schoolyard brats, geez, this isn't a picnic you know."

Shino and Hinata glared pointedly at Kiba while Sakura and Ino did their best to suppress blushes of embarrassment.

"And you are?" Sasuke inquired coolly, obviously not liking the older teen's attitude.

"Name's Kabuto, but that's not too important at the moment. You kids might want to take a look behind you," the rookies did so, finding a good portion of the room glaring daggers at them. "Most of the people here have spent years getting strong enough to take the exams. They've got a lot riding on this, ya know? So, everyone's on edge to begin with but you guys…well, Konoha sending mostly fresh-faced brats is a bit insulting. I'd suggest you guys quiet down before you cause more of a scene. Those guys from Amegakure have especially short tempers from what I can tell," he told them conspiratorially. Then, chuckling quietly at their sheepish expressions, he went on, "Can't really blame you guys I guess, you're just rookies. I was the same way my first time and I'd been a gennin for years. Unfortunately, like I said, not a lot of Konoha teams in this one to back us up so we don't have as much of a home-field advantage as we usually would. We need to be careful, yeah?"

'Which begs the question of why you are here when your sensei should have discouraged you from participating,' Sasuke thought, suspicion creeping into his thoughts as he remembered Kakashi's comments from earlier in the week.

"So this is your second time?" Sakura asked curiously. If even half the rumors about this thing were true, Sakura would take any help she could get and getting advice from someone who had been through this thing before could be invaluable.

"Hm?" Kabuto hummed, turning to Sakura. "Oh, no it's not. This will actually be my seventh."

"You've gone through seven Chunnin Exams?" Ino asked in disbelief. 'Wow, this guy must suck! Then again, he's not dead yet so maybe he's not completely horrible.'

"Every one for the past four years if we count this one, yeah," he answered with an easy smile. "I keep having trouble because I've trained mostly for supporting roles but it's been a great opportunity for collecting useful intel on other gennin."

"What sort of intel?" Sakura asked, trying to hide her excitement. Information? She knew how to use that.

"Skills, mission records, personality traits, general statistics, you name it and I probably have it," Kabuto replied smugly.

Ino blinked, alarmed. "How did you…"

"Ninja are horrible gossips when they think the topic is unimportant," he replied with a knowing smile. "And with the right analysis, you can take useless information and figure out all kinds of things. For example," so pulling out a card Kabuto pushed in some chakra revealing a map of the elemental nations showing how many participants each country had sent that had arrived, "Let's start with overall competition, shall we? Hmm, there are ten teams from Suna, seven from Ame, two from Kusa, two from Taki, only seven from Konoha (which is odd since the home village almost always has a clear majority), and the one from Oto. There were a few more so I'm expecting some late arrivals, but a lot of them got tied up downstairs. People can be so unobservant."

"How the hell did you get ahold of all that?" Kiba asked, curiously. Never noticing the subtle changes in Hinata and Shino as they shared a suspicious look.

"I counted," Kabuto quipped, smirking winningly as he gestured to the rest of the room. "Though, there are an additional seventeen teams unaccounted for. So, we can expect a few lat arrivals. Figured out the total with a bunch of room service receipts, a round of take-out for some very bored gate guards, and a friendly chat with some maids."

Hinata's normally detached demeanor had acquired a frosty edge to it. Participants weren't allowed any information on other participants or the exams and with the sorts of talent he was talking about... he should have been picked up by the cryptography or infiltration units ages ago. What was going on? Was he here to gather information on the other villages? But if that were the case, why broadcast his ability? Something about this wasn't right.

"Hey, do you have anything on individual participants?" Sasuke asked cautiously as an idea started forming in his head.

"Sure, though my info isn't perfect I should have something on anyone you're worried about."

"Hm," Sasuke hummed thoughtfully. 'I need a test to gauge how good his intel actually is,' he decided as he scanned the room until his eyes fell on the team that he'd seen getting roughed up on the second floor looking as though nothing had happened. 'Now that I think about it. Weren't they a year ahead of us? The girl and the Hyuuga were at the head of the class if I remember right,' he thought, his eyes narrowing he turned to Kabuto and asked, "What do you have on them?" he asked pointing out the team.

Pulling out the appropriate cards Kabuto spoke, "Team 9 of Konoha under Maito Gai, made up of Hyuuga Neji, Rock Lee, and Tenten. Let's see… they're a year older than you guys. They've completed 28 D-ranks and 11 C-ranks and this is their first time taking the exam. Neji is a close-range specialist employing his family's Taijutsu, graduated top of his class and has only improved in the last year. Lee is another close-range specialist, favors the Goken Ryu Taijutsu employed by his sensei and seems to have little to no talent for ninjutsu or genjutsu, graduated last in his year but has improved significantly over the past year. Tenten is a weapons specialist, preferring long range with no other outstanding talents, graduated as the top Kunoichi of her year."

Nodding, Sasuke took a look around before finding exactly what he was looking for. 'He's too young to have participated in the exams before. Let's see how good your intel really is,' he thought before turning back to Kabuto. "What about that redhead from Suna?" he asked pointing out Gaara, purposely leaving out the boy's name. Having information on people from your own village was one thing. Collecting intelligence on enemy ninja was a whole other ball of wax.

"Hm? Red hair, green eyes, about fourteen… and that tattoo. Hmm," he mumbled, shuffling through his cards for a moment as he searched before pulling out another card. "Here we go! Sabaku no Gaara, don't have too much on him as he's a foreigner and new to the exam, unfortunately. Mission history: 8 C-rank and 1 B-rank, wow that's impressive for a gennin, but…" he pause scanning the card. "Huh, says here that he came back from every mission without a scratch."

'Well, that's mildly terrifying,' Sasuke thought despondently. Apparently Konoha wasn't the only village sending a ringer. "That's… impressive," he admitted, trying to formulate the next step in his plan.

"Really? If you think that's bad—One sec, I have it here somewhere," Kabuto said as he shuffled through his cards one more time before pulling one final card from the deck. "Ah, here it is. Aki, no clan name. Mission history—" he started only to stop as clawed fingers reached forward and plucked the card from his hand.

Everyone froze as the all too familiar form of Aki practically materialized as if called into existence by the mere mention of her person.

'Speak of the devil and she shall appear,' Sasuke thought nervously.

"How interesting…" Aki mused as she skimmed over the card before glancing at Kabuto. "What did you say your name was again?"

Kabuto gave a nervous smile before extending his hand in greeting. "Oh, um, I'm Yakushi Kabuto. Pleased to meet-"

Without warning, Aki's hand flashed out, tearing clothes, skin, and muscle as it plunged up and under Kabuto's ribs to grasp his still beating heart.

"Ah-ingrh!" Kabuto gave a strangle gasp, his face twisted in agony as he reflexively grasped at her wrist even as his life's blood slowly soaked into her sleeve.

"Kabuto you say? Very interesting… and sloppy, Kabuto-kun. How very disappointing," Aki chastened with the casual air of a teacher scolding their student.

"What the fuck are you doing!?" Kiba cried, voicing the collective sentiments of the room at large as he turned a very unhealthy green. Frozen in place as he watched Kabuto's blood begin to steadily drip from Aki's jacket onto the floor.

"Hm?" Aki responded absently, as if only just realizing that she had an audience. "Oh, just a little field interrogation," she answered with a pleasant smile. "Now then, Kabuto-kun," she purred, turning back to Kabuto with a pleasant smile stretching across her lips. "Would you like to tell me what a former member of ANBU ROOT is doing in the chunnin exams when your file lists you as K.I.A., hm?"

'ANBU?!' the other rookies wondered as the rest of the room fell into a nervous silence as everyone stopped to watch the gruesome scene.

"I h-have no i-idea what you're talking about," Kabuto choked, struggling to speak.

"Come now, Kabuto-kun. Don't insult my intelligence," Aki scolded, giving her captive an indulgent grin that looked entirely out of sync with the chilling glint in her eyes. "You haven't even bothered to change your appearance or given name, very sloppy. Your mentors would be ashamed of you. Besides, if your carelessness hadn't given you away, your… talent for healing certainly has at this point. Considering you have yet to bleed out after I nicked your aorta a moment ago and you can still talk after I've put my hand through your diaphragm I'd say it's safe to dispense with this charade. Don't you agree?"

Abandoning all pretense, Kabuto's hands began to glow blue a fraction of a second before one of his hands shot out to grasp Aki's throat.

Nothing happened…

Kabuto's eyes went wide in fright and confusion as Aki simply smiled at him. "Th-that should have-"

"Severed the radial and ulnar nerves as well as ruptured my carotid artery and jugular vein?" Aki supplied, a predatory smirk splitting her face as she bared her fangs. "Using a chakra scalpel technique adapted for self-defense… textbook ROOT medic."

"How di-guh!" he started only to gasp in agony, releasing his grip on her throat to clutch at his chest in an attempt to support himself as Aki dug her claws ever so slightly into the meat of his heart and lifted him up onto the tips of his toes.

"Tut tut, Kabuto-kun," Aki chided sweetly. "I killed every medic Danzo ever trained or bought, did you honestly think I wouldn't know how to disrupt such a fragile technique? Shame on you, little infiltrator."

"I'll… I'll never—never tell y-you anything!" Kabuto hissed through gritted teeth, coughing as he struggled to breathe.

Aki just smiled at him. "Oh, but you will, Kabuto-kun," she replied, pulling him slowly closer as she brought her other hand up to grip him by the temple, her claws digging deeply into his scalp. "I'm told this works best if the subject is unconscious but I've found pain makes a worthy substitute," Aki explained, her voice and smile taking on a cruel edge that seemed to send a chill through the room. "So, you see Kabuto-kun, you are going to tell me everything, one way… or another, I'm not picky."

Kabuto's eyes went wide. Whether from pain or fear, none of the examinees could tell.

Poof!

"Oi!" Ibiki barked as he and his assistants appeared in a great plume of smoke. "The instructions very clearly stated that you are not allowed to fight with other participants during this portion of the exam! So, cut that shit out or you're disqualified!"

Aki gave the intimidating man a saccharine sweet smile, the very picture of innocence but for the damning stream of blood dripping steadily from her elbow. "Technically, we're not fighting," she pointed out.

Ibiki rolled his eyes. "Can you play with your food after my exam?" he requested sarcastically.

Aki frowned, giving Kabuto a long, thoughtful look. Then she smiled, a chilling, gleeful smile. "I suppose it is more amusing when they try to run," she allowed, before releasing her grip on Kabuto's head and withdrawing her hand from his chest cavity with a sickening squelch.

"In-gerh!" Kabuto exclaimed through gritted teeth, falling to a knee and clutching at his stomach, hand glowing green.

Leaning over, Aki casually wiped her hand clean on the back of his tunic as angry red chakra scorched the gore from her clothing. "I'll even give you a head start, Ka-bu-to-kun," she purred in Kabuto's ear before sauntering off to join Sasuke and Sakura while Ibiki started barking orders and instructions, leaving the silver haired boy shaken and bleeding on the floor.

"We who are about to die, salute you," Inner Sakura joked weakly. "Let the games begin."

Omake: You Will Hate Yourself in the End

By: EDelta88

Inspired by Wind, the closing song of Naruto English Dubbed Season 1

"She has her mother's voice," Sarutobi sighed appreciatively as he relaxed in the shade of his favorite Sakura tree and listened to the tinkling laughter of his successor's daughter as she chased a butterfly through the tall grass.

"Her looks too for the most part," Jiraiya added quietly from where he stood hidden in the trees, smiling sadly as he watched his goddaughter play in the meadow.

"Yes, one day she is going to be quite a beauty," the old Hokage agreed. "She has Minato's genius though."

"Oh?"

"She has been progressing so rapidly in her chakra lessons that it is quite literally scary. I had to have her chunnin instructor committed to a closed ward for mandatory therapy," he admitted. "The poor dear seems convinced that the seal is malfunctioning and the Kyuubi had superseded Kaiki-chan's personality in an attempt to subvert Konoha from within or some such."

"No way! You're pulling my leg," Jiraiya whispered as he hid a knowing smirk. He'd seen the reports from his agents, of course. Kaiki had managed to talk clearly with a large vocabulary before she was two, learned read a little early but no one knew who taught her, and had started playing with her chakra before she even entered the academy but… well, he just loved hearing people brag about his goddaughter! The instructor thing was kind of a bummer though.

"Three days in the academy and she can already use Henge better than most of my chunnin," Sarutobi bragged. And why not? He hadn't been this proud since… for a very long time.

"They grow up so fast," Jiraiya murmured with a proud smile.

"That they do," the old Hokage agreed.

Years Later…

"Do you ever… Do you ever wonder if it might have been better if she hadn't survived?" Jiraiya wondered as he and Sarutobi-sensei stared up at the Hokage monument where they could just make out the barest speck of blood-red hair against the ivory white of the stone.

"Often enough to know that I have been in this profession for far too long," the elderly Hokage admitted tiredly. "Alas, if wishes were horses, beggars would ride."

"Wishes were horses?" Jiraiya quoted before he gave a derisive snort. "Getting sentimental in your old age, Sensei?"

"Nonsense, I have always been sentimental, Baka Deshi," Sarutobi replied without hesitation.

Jiraiya gave another snort before returning his forlorn gaze to the distant form of his goddaughter. "You know, I wish this were one of my books."

"Oh?" the old man prompted, curious.

"Yeah, because no matter what she went through, I'd make damn sure she'd eventually get a happy ending," he told his old teacher.

"But this is not one of your stories," the Hokage observed.

"No, no it's not," Jiraiya agreed sadly. "It's hers."

"Then perhaps you should write that story," Sarutobi suggested as he turned to leave.

"W-what?"

"While it is my experience that lessons not learned in blood are soon forgotten. Lessens penned in ink are rarely lost, wouldn't you agree?" Sarutobi asked, giving his student a pointed look before he strolled out of sight.

Almost in a daze, Jiraiya nodded as he pulled out his notepad and started scribbling continuously as he left Aki to her solitary vigil high above the village.

That Night…

"It needs a title," Jiraiya mumbled tiredly as he stared down at the unedited manuscript laid out on the table before him.

All told, this had probably been the easiest and most heartfelt of any novel he had ever written. Once he'd started, he just couldn't stop, everything had just… flowed out, like bleeding puss and poison from a festering wound. True to reality it was not a happy tale. There would be no happy endings for any of the characters; only misery undeserved for the heroine and horror without end for those responsible. It would end with everyone trapped in a living hell.

Jiraiya paused. "Hell…" he mused, bobbing back and forth for a second as though physically rolling the idea around in his head. "How appropriate," he snorted, before picking up the pen once more. "After all, hell hath no fury like…"

The Wrath of a Woman Scorned

A/N

Baka Deshi: Foolish/Idiot Student

The story is alive and so am I! Told you I was never letting go but so few of you seem to believe me. Sure it takes me forever but slow and steady wins the race, right? Not that that's what ANY of us want to hear I'm sure but personally I'd rather have something done right than done fast. Just look at books 6 and 7 of Harry Potter (arguably 5 too but we'll give that a pass for now). A year or two more each would have done them a world of good.

In any case, I wish I had good news for you but I'm afraid you are going to have to expect more of the same. School is crazy, I'm working towards starting a carrier, starting a business, helping my girlfriend with her twitch stream, figuring out where I'm going for my graduate program, and, for those of you who don'…

Drum roll…

I'm a daddy! Well, I've been a daddy for a year now. One of the many reasons why everything has been so slow.

On a lighter note, I have been getting jumped by the usual number of plot bunnies and have had a few ideas for WoaWS AU drabbles but, as my time is increasingly limited, I felt you all deserved a voice in my decision. Poll is up and depending on the results there might be a second poll to narrow things down.

Edited: 11/16/19