This is my first story. Don't hate for no reason. Will take fair criticism though.

I do not own Naruto or anything related. That goes to Masashi Kishimoto


CHAPTER 20


Shino sat guard waiting for everyone to wake up when suddenly some of his bugs that he had spread out to notify him of the incoming team. Quickly waking up everyone else before they arrived they walked outside the hideout to see three oto nins.

One, a boy covered in bandages, shouts to them, "We've come to kill the Uchiha!"

"Well then you've got to go through us!" Kiba shouted back.

Another boy with wild shrugs to his comrades, "Doesn't seem that hard." He was about to run forward when he heard his female teammate shout, "Zaku wait! There's a trap."

Stepping back Zaku looked down and spotted a fine green wire, near unnoticeable unless actively looking for it.

"So close, yet so far." Stepping over it the boy was going to charge again when suddenly a huge log swung down from the canopy and was about to collide with the Oto team.

But with a shout it was blown to smithereens, "Zankuha!" (Decapitating Airwaves)

Springing into action the oto-girl threw senbon straight into the group. Dodging out of the way Team 8 split apart to fight the Oto team while Sakura and Kiba remained behind to guard Sasuke.

-with Naruto-

Naruto charged straight at the bandaged oto-nin as he seemed to be the leader of the group. Naruto threw a punch at the nin's gut but it was blocked by his arms. Naruto attempted to punch the nin's chin when suddenly his ears started ringing and felt extremely off balanced.

The bandaged nin gave a mischievous smirk, "How do you like my melody gauntlet? I can deal damage without even touching you."

Seeing the incoming punch Naruto tried to dodge it but he was so dizzy that when he tried to duck he only moved further into it and was sent tumbling backwards. Naruto coughed up blood and was seeing stars however he could see well enough to see another incoming punch but was able to dodge left. Jumping back as far as he could, Naruto unsealed two slips of paper and a pen and closing his eyes he drew two silencing seals.

Opening his eyes back up Naruto's vision was just clear enough to dash back to the nin and press the two seals to the oto-nin's melody gauntlets. With a malicious grin the oto-nin punched Naruto across the jaw but despite the blow Naruto was much clearer than before. Spitting out some blood, Naruto grinned, "Can I know your name before I beat you to a pulp?"

"No. But you can try."

As Naruto stood up Dosu swung at Naruto but he was able to block it and strike back at the boy. Dosu was able to block it with his gauntlet but the strike pushed him back a few feet. Dosu ripped off the slips of paper hoping that it would undo whatever Naruto did to his gauntlets but Naruto just laughed as he held up a hand sign, "That won't help you any more. Kai!"

As Naruto's restriction seals faded away he sped through some hand seals, "Raiton: Rai Tenohira!"

Naruto's hand crackled with lightning as he charged at Dosu. Surprised by the sudden influx of speed Dosu realized a little too late that he shouldn't have tried to block Naruto's electrified strike with his metal gauntlet. Dosu seized as painful amounts of electricity coursed through his body. When the current ended Dosu was left conscious but unable to move

-with Hinata a few minutes earlier-

As Naruto jumped into action to fight Dosu Hinata charged forth as well. Quickly dodging as the girl threw more senbon at her. Despite missing her target, the girl grinned as her finger made a few slight movements. Hinata heard a jingling of bells then suddenly she couldnt move.

"How do you like my genjutsu? It's auditory so even with your precious byakugan you can't avoid it," The girl taunted.

Hinata inwardly sighed as her opponent told her exactly what she needed to do. As the girl drew closer, she silently focused on her own chakra and stopped it for a split second, allowing for her to break out of the genjutsu easily. Activating her byakugan Hinata was ready to charge but noticing something she began jabbing at random points in the air, heavily worrying her opponent.

"What have you done?"

"I am not allowing you to activate your genjutsu, by severing the chakra string attached to your senbon."

Charging at the girl once more Hinat kept dodging the pitiful attempts to stop her charge. Standing in front of the girl Hinata shouted, "Hakke Rokujuyonsho!" (Eight Trigrams: 64 palms)

Shutting down 64 of her opponent's chakra points left the girl unconscious and unmoving.

-with Shino a few minutes earlier-

Jumping to the side Shino released a swarm of kikaichu that began to rush Zaku. Quickly pointing his arm at the swarm Zaku shouted, "Zankuha!"

All the bugs in the center of the swarm were decimated, as the rest of the swarm dispersed. Shino didn't want more of his insects to die so he let them spread out or return to him. Seeing that Zaku was aiming his arm at him Shino jumped left as Zaku shouted, "Zankuha!" again.

From the back of his pants legs he let out some kikaichu and had them go under the large branch they were fighting on, keeping the bugs completely out of view. Zaku once again aimed towards Shino, but once again he missed.

'Those blasts should require a fair amount of chakra. If my kikaichu can drain his chakra he should eventually exhaust himself,' Shino thought.

Coming up from the underside of the branch the kikaichu climbed up Zaku's leg and began to drain his chakra. Not noticing Shino's insects Zaku continued to try and blast away Shino to no avail, however Shino did notice something. He saw a small hollow pole inserted into the palm of Zaku's hand. So seeing that Zaku didn't seem to be getting tired and one lucky hit could end it for him, Shino decided to try something. Sending more insects to drain Zaku's chakra he signaled to some of his kikaichu to stop draining chakra, he ordered them to slowly climb up Zaku's body and all the way down his arm making sure they stayed out of his view. It helped that Shino jumping around distracted Zaku from the tiny bugs. Directly after another blast the kikaichu began climbing inside the pole.

Despite not showing it, Zaku was getting tired and angry. "Stop jumping around you damn bastard!" Zaku shouted.

"I'll get you with this one!" he said. Raising both his arms to aim at Shino, "ZANKUKYOKUHA!!!" (Extreme Decapitating Airwaves)

A blood curdling scream filled the air, "My arms! What have you done to my arms!?!" Zaku looked down to his limp arms to find that at the elbow there were many holes going straight through his flesh close to his elbow, and bugs coming out of the poles in his hands.

"I caused the poles in your arms to burst by plugging the hole that you fired your attacks through with my bugs. That pressure forced all the air and chakra inside to explode outwards, injuring your arm," Shino explained. Appearing behind a broken Zaku, Shino landed a quick strike to the back of his neck, knocking him out.

Finishing up their fights Team 8 dragged their unconscious opponents toward each other. As Naruto tied them all up he asked, "Hinata may you scan for their scroll?"

"I already did, this girl has an earth scroll in her pocket," Hinata says as removed it from the girl's pocket.

Seeing Kiba and Sakura getting closer Naruto unsealed one of the heaven scrolls and sealed away the earth scroll. He saw Hinata's confused look but he just asked her to wait.

Once Kiba and Sakura got close enough Sakura asked, "Hey, um, we know it was you guys who took down this team but could we have their scroll? Orochimaru took our so we don't have any."

Naruto gave a big smile, "Sure! We have a heaven scroll anyway, so another one wouldn't help us."

Handing over the scroll, Naruto's smile slightly faded, "Look, we would love to stay longer, but we really gotta find an earth scroll of our own. We would've loved to work together, but we'd end up fighting over the first earth scroll we find. I'm sorry."

Kiba waved it off, "Don't worry about it guys. We still got three days left, we'll be fine. Besides, you've already helped us so much."

"Yeah!" Sakura nodded along.

After gathering their stuff for a few minutes Team 8 jumped away from Team 7, but once out of sight and earshot Hinata asked, "Why did you do that Naruto? We could have helped them out."

Naruto was about to respond when Shino spoke first, "Yes we could have helped, however remember that this is still a competition that we are trying to win. Helping them while nice, is illogical. Naruto was correct to leave Team 7 after we have both scrolls."

Before Hinata spoke up again Naruto cut in, "I know they're our friends, that's why we made sure to leave them with something. We do want to see them succeed, that's why we made sure they were all ok, even Sasuke. It's also why we left them with a scroll. But not at the cost of our own success, the reason I switched the scrolls around was so that they didn't ask any questions. Now let's get to the tower, I don't want to be in this forest any longer than I have to."

Hinata sighed, "Okay Naruto-kun, I get it." Switching directions Team 8 ran towards the central tower

-45 minutes later-

"Phew! Finally made it!" Naruto sighed. Looking around Team 8 was trying to figure out what to do next. Eventually they came upon some engravings in the wall.

Naruto read them aloud:

If the qualities of Heaven are your desire, acquire knowledge to take your mind to higher. If qualities of Earth are what you lack, train your body in the fields and prepare to attack. When both Heaven and Earth are opened together the path of peril will revert the righteous path forever. This _ is the secret way that guides us from this place today.

"What do you think that means Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked.

"I think we need to open the scrolls. I believe that the heaven and earth that need to be opened together are referring to the scrolls."

"Are you sure?"

"Definitely." Naruto takes both scrolls out of the seals and unrolls them when suddenly smoke begins to appear out of them so he quickly threw them to the ground. After a few more seconds of a smoke a poof was heard and a person appeared.

Activating her byakugan Hinata looked through the smoke and was surprised, "Iruka-sensei? What are you doing here?"

Letting the smoke dissipate he smiled and said, "To congratulate you for passing the second round."

"We made it?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, and in only 32 hours too you have nearly 4 days to rest here in the tower."

Team 8 let out a sigh of relief. But after a second Hinata asked a question, "What was the blank that the riddle was referring to?"

Iruka smiled, "Ah yes, you see that riddle was written by the Sandaime himself. Heaven refers to intelligence. A smart fighter can maneuver himself or his squad to victory against opposing forces much stronger than themselves. Earth means strength. Even though intelligence can help, without power to back it up it won't always be enough. But that blank signifies balance. With great knowledge coupled with a strong fighter creates the best shinobi, and what is necessary for the best chunin."

"I understand," whispered Hinata.

"Good! Now I can see that you are all tired. You have four days to rest here in the tower. You may not leave until told. Use these days wisely and good luck. Now follow me to your rooms." Iruka waved for Team 8 to follow him down a hallway.

To be Continued...


I will post every one to two weeks. Thank you for reading.