A/N: I wanted to wrap up Phase 2 of the Chunin Exams with this update so it came out a bit longer than I thought. Along the way, I even found an opportunity to inject a little humor into the story so I'm pleased with that turn of events (I always thought Konan got the short end of the stick in canon).
My goal for the training break is to include it all in one chapter, which may prove to be a lengthy update. It's mostly formulated so all that remains is clean up and sequencing as threads begin to wind themselves down. While not in the same format, I want to thank the author of one of my favorite stories for what has become my training montage idea - if you've not read it, I highly recommend "A Month as Naruto Uzumaki" by Angel of Snapdragons.
So, a bit longer to release than planned but I hope the wait will be worth it (releasing updates to Nature of the Savage Beast actually helps when you're stuck so hats off to those writers working multiple projects).
As always, enjoy as you will!
~Siva'a-tasi
~III~
Chapter 39: Enter the Chunin Exams – Part IV
~ Konohagakure no Sato, Training Area Forty-Four ~
An enormous surge of wind launched the Akimichi heir, his mallet, the log he was sitting on, and his half-eaten protein bar in different directions.
Chouji cursed the bar's loss mentally as he tumbled through the forest and bounced off of trees big enough to hide a full-grown Akimichi in - he loved the white chocolate ones the most and there was still half a bar left!
With the heavy thud of splintering wood, he slid to the loamy earth and took a second to assess the damage. Ribs were a bit sore but not broken thanks to the miracle of earth chakra. Arms seemed okay… legs also. With a pained grunt, he heaved up to a wobbly stance and glanced around for his hammer.
Whatever sent him ass-over-appetite was still back there and would have to be dealt with. Not seeing it nearby he brought up the thumb of his left hand to bite it only to hear the hiss of something too large to be any snake he was familiar with. 'Waitaminute… Konoha purged snakes from all the training areas after the Traitor fled, didn't it?'
Thumb just inside his lips, Chouji looked up into the eyes, er… eye of the largest snake he'd ever seen.
'Ukemochi's barbequed meatballs!' And today started out so well for the stocky heir.
(A/N: For those that aren't familiar, Ukemochi-no-kami, or the 'Goddess Who Possesses Food,' is the Shinto Goddess – and protector of – food. She is popular with the Akimichi for a reason despite her untimely death at the hands of the Moon God, Tsukiyomi.)
Both beings stood frozen in time as they regarded one another, the smaller eyes of the beefy human blinking twice in surprise as the larger creature blinked one gigantic orb in response. Around them, both the normal sounds of the very vibrant forest seemed to hush both in the presence of the enormous predator and the brief lull before furious combat was about to ensue.
"Hnh, and today started out pretty good to," the amenable Akimichi grumbled softly.
On that note, the constrictor's body tensed briefly right before it shot across their truncated arena, mouth agape as it sought to end the conflict immediately.
Such was not to be the case, however, as Chouji hurled his bulky body to his right managing to roll behind one of the many trees within reach just half a second before the serpent's jaws snapped closed on his former position. Ducking behind another allowed him to narrowly avoid the bark shattering swat of the beast's tail as it tried to relieve him of his fleeing head.
The poor tree did not fall being five meters or so in diameter, but he could feel its shudder transmitted through the ground. The power of that blow convinced the young heir that he did not want to experience such a blow directly, so he kept running even as his body bent low enough to allow his fingers to trail along the moist earth at his feet. Good chunks of that earth seemed to flow up along his forearms forming thick layers of rocky padding even as he picked up the pace of his frantic scramble avoiding snap after vicious snap from the serpent by dodging between more trees just ahead of its lunges.
You see, Chouji, for all his easy-going nature, was not averse to combat, no, not at all. He just knew when a head-on battle with something a hundred times his size was a waste of energy that could end in his immediate extinction.
The Akimichi were, as an entire clan, against anything that needlessly wasted their precious stores of energy so, unless he was going to miraculously learn the full-body expansion techniques of his clan while fleeing this massive serpent, then this entire idea of going face-to-face with an enormous snake that could swallow him whole was one gigantic waste of energy. Besides, he had other tools in his ninja-kit now thanks to his fellow Genin.
So, that meant he needed to come at this whole problem sideways literally and figuratively speaking.
The zigzag meandering of his flight ever so gradually began to open up space as the larger creature was forced to follow suit and readjust.
Both beings would surprisingly remark to themselves how nimble their unusually bulky opponent appeared to be even if only one of them appeared to be on the hunt for a new meal.
The shape of the head and regularly patterned markings along the body identified the beast as part of the Pythonidae family, or more simply a python. Chouji neither knew nor cared that it was not poisonous; any snake with a head big enough to accommodate your larger-than-average body was to be respected and avoided as much as possible. With both adrenaline and chakra surging through his entire body, Choji also managed to get a more than appropriate eye full of teeth since the snake's entire head seemed to be full of them and that by itself was more than enough reason to keep moving. Quickly.
Not even bothering to debate the misconception that all snakes ran around with only two fangs in their mouth, the bulky boy sprung up from his forward roll with two arms covered in rocky earth. Behind him he could hear the creature's hissing, like a large compressor relief valve splitting open the sky, as its body snapped dried wood, saplings and other stationary objects in order to ford a path hot on his trail.
Since endurance was never Chouji's claim to fame, he bobbed and weaved between four trees in an effort to confuse the hunter – an obvious failure – right before seeming to vanish into thin air.
~III~
The snake, one appearing to very much enjoy the chase if its hiccupping bout of hissing was to be mistaken for laughter, froze once it cleared the last leaf laden obstacle, its great head swinging slowly left to right while that great forked tongue flickered in and out, in and out, tasting the air for the boy's sweaty scent.
'Not to the right, no…' the great head swung back to the left towards the last tree where the smell of human sweat and chocolate was stronger – 'wait, now it's weaker again.'
The great head levitated from the earth to cast a quick glance skyward only to see more tree bark, but the scent did go in that direction. It paused for a three-count before scales rasped against the moist bark, the enormous serpent using its sinuous body to slither upwards after its frightened prey.
Oh, this one was clever but by and far not clever enough. Soon enough it would have its meal and would be able to return to Ryūchi Cavern. First and foremost, it needed to feed.
~III~
'Only one chance here,' Chouji kept chanting to himself.
Thick legs pushed off another branch, then another trunk as he angled his next leap even further to the left.
'Only saw Naruto pull this off once in the village running from the instructors. Hope I get this right 'cause I won't get another shot at it.'
He pushed more chakra to his legs and lower back angling once again to his left.
One jump then another.
Pause, breathe, eyes flickered to watch the snake as it froze, the large head swinging one way then another. He fought hard not to look down at the meters and meters of snake body now directly below him. He tried not to think about how uncomfortable it would be being digested by stomach acid inside that thing.
'Good, it's moving again. Aaaaahh, it's climbing! Welp, here goes…'
Exhale, push, jump, twist to the left again, run along this branch for just a second… The mental instructions continued because, quite frankly, he was too terrified to consider the alternatives. There was no "Plan B" after this. If this didn't work, it was going to be a knock-down, drag-out between him and a creature that honestly frightened the baked beans out of him.
What happened if he missed it? What happened if it moved?
Shaking off that spiraling line of self-destructive thought, the Akimichi heir snapped his eyes back to the large serpent scaling the tree looking for his fading scent and dug deep.
Another leap cushioned by chakra to his feet. Another push from a branch slightly higher than the head of the snake as he tried to keep the trunk between those four rows of fangs he saw and his chewy middle – I mean really, what snake has a head full of teeth both upper and lower? He was calling "Hax" on that one!
He'd have to thank his dad for the slightly more advanced chakra control lessons allowing him to leap silently from tree to tree, the cushion of energy allowing him to scale and run while making very little noise.
This had to work. Please, Kami, let this work!
'Almost there…'
He pushed off angling his body slightly to his right allowing his feet to plant on the inward side of the nearest tree that gave him a clear line of view to the three revolutions of the snake's odd-patterned body, the large snake's head pausing on the far side of the tree it had climbed.
Then he gave it one last jump for all the Dorayaki (A/N: Dorayaki is a red-bean paste filled pancake confection), the earth still wrapped around his forearms both hardening and narrowing into jagged points.
"BAAAAAAARRBEEEEQUUEEEEEEEEE!"
~III~
The original thrill of the hunt was wearing thin and Keiji was beginning to grow impatient. If the trees had been a bit smaller and less plentiful, he could have snapped up the smaller human by now and been on his merry way. Having to change directions around the ridiculously large behemoths was beyond tiresome. Who wasted chakra growing trees this large to begin with?!
To add further insult to the already humiliating affair, the pitiful human's scent seemed to stop completely partway up the trunk. Now how was poor Keiki going to explain this to his summoner? 'Sorry, Orochimaru-sama but the chunky child gave me the slip?' No, that would not end well to be sure.
'Oh, is that him I hear-.'
SQUELCH
~III~
On the far side of the tree, Chouji smiled to himself as his arms punched through the tough outer scales of the great snake and into the softer meat beneath. He felt rather than saw the muscles along its supple form ripple and convulse, the bark of the tree snapping with a horrendous sound as the chakra-hardened stone coating his arms constricted painfully forcing him to grunt once in pain as he heard something in the left one snap.
Then, quite suddenly, and most unfortunately for him while being suspended many meters in the air, the pressure vanished as the snake's body exploded violently into smoke.
With nothing left holding him aloft, Chouji began to plummet to the unyielding ground below.
~III~
"Ugh!"
Sasuke's groan would be expected after such an attack, and the paranoid nin definitely took it as one.
His eyes snapped open to survey the damage just long enough to confirm their rudimentary camp a complete loss. There was no sign of the meat shield, but he and Sakura appeared to take a glancing blow. Shaking off the snapped branches partially covering his lower body, he rolled to his feet while his right hand snapped a kunai up to the ready.
"Sakura. Sakura!" he hissed a little more insistent the second time to be rewarded by her confused groan. As the group's med nin, the otherwise worthless girl needed to be functional especially given the power behind that attack. They could go looking for the dumb ox once-.
"Kukukukuku!"
For some reason that hissing chuckle made his blood run cold.
~III~
Standing confidently on the other side of the clearing, Orochimaru spent a handful of seconds sweeping the treeline for the three chakra signatures he could feel but could not locate. They hadn't moved a meter in his direction despite making himself known.
'Perfect.' He didn't mind voyeurs so long as they kept their hands to themselves – unless invited.
Sliding his eyes back to the still motionless Genin, one because of uncertainty and the other because of uselessness, he took the opportunity to assess his eventual vessel. At first blush, he was hugely disappointed.
His tumble brought on by the overpowered breakthrough clearly brought on its own issues. The girl was stunned, possibly concussed, while the Uchiha only added to her medical trauma by repeatedly shaking her, most likely in a feeble attempt to wake her.
Didn't they teach basic first aid to Genin in the academy anymore? By the Great Snake Sage, what are they teaching in Konoha these days?
He wasn't even flooding the encampment with KI and the boy was already in tatters. 'Pathetic.'
With a tragic sigh, he drew a kunai in one hand and his hijacked scroll in the other. No better time like the present to get things moving even if the eventual outcome would only greatly disappoint the Sannin and force him to take the boy's eyes before moving on to "Plan B."
Kakashi always seemed to get along fine with a single eye so why couldn't he? At least until he could absorb enough jutsu to simplify taking over Itachi's body.
~III~
Sasuke twitched once the incredibly powerful kunoichi began to move, items appearing in her hand as if by magic.
"Sakura." His call was accompanied by a gentle shake. If she was badly injured, he didn't want to make it worse and cost the team a shot at promotion.
The sight of the crazy woman tilting her head back and swallowing her scroll made him flinch even as the sense of urgency to his shaking of her body increased.
"Sakura!"
The girl moaned something unintelligible about him moving his hands south a bit, his eyes twitching briefly right before the freaky kunoichi started sauntering in their direction.
"SAKURA!" This time he shook her a bit more forcefully, trauma be damned.
"Unh, Sasuke… you know I like… rough stuff…" a lot of it was unintelligible but he could get the gist. The gist frightened him.
He couldn't help it as the kunoichi sociopath had started trotting across the not terribly large campsite. He slapped her hard enough to roll her body over onto her stomach, the girl's groggy eyes fluttering open as the pain finally began to register.
"Wha-what the h-hell?!"
Sasuke jumped up to his feet and drew a kunai in time to block the first lunge, his blood-red eyes flickering to life not a hair before the blades connected. He barely recognized the now terrified scramble of his teammate as she backpedaled on her hands and feet like a human crab.
Then the freaky bitch trying to carve out his eyes picked up the pace and he could spare no more thought for the still groggy medic of Team Seven.
Even with the predictive abilities of his grand total of three tomoes Sasuke was having a hell of a time staying one step ahead of the blade slicing through the air, it's high-pitched whine shaving threads from his duck-shaped coiffure.
Stumbling backwards over a tree root, the Uchiha heir pushed chakra to his hands and feet propelling his body upwards and to the right of his current position just in time to avoid a kunai enema, the whole time wondering where the hell his fat body shield was!
~III~
'Reflexes, poor without the Sharingan.' Each thought was punctuated by a stabbing kunai thrust slow enough for the Genin to block.
'Speed, substandard.' CLANG!
'Form, lackadaisical.' CLANG!
'Strength, pathetic!' CLANG!
Orochimaru ran down his mental list as he continued to push the focus driving the last three years of his life, all the effort and meticulous planning amounting to an increasingly disappointing realization. As he tallied up the potential benefits against what he spent following years of borrowing – without ever planning to repay - stealing, blackmailing, and extorting, it all added up to one colossal realization of frustration.
He'd chosen very, very poorly.
Not to mention that nagging feeling in the back of his mind that he'd done this before, perhaps not this exact sequence of events but that he'd created a similar pattern of occurrences leading to a very similar outcome. High-functioning sociopath that he was, Orochimaru gave one Herculean mental shake of his brilliant mind and pushed past the mental time loop to something he could control: young Sasuke's rather lackluster evaluation.
He was moving at mid-Chunin speeds without a need for more because the boy's fear had thoroughly handicapped him. Could he egg him on? Certainly, however, a true shinobi was in control of their emotions, their minds, and every other weapon in their capacity. He shouldn't have to manipulate the boy in order to make him perform.
On one hand, an easy manipulatable mind is a boon, one a master gamesman like Orochimaru could easily tweak and steer into doing whatever he needed. It would be child's play to infect the child with his Cursed Seal of Heaven, the lure of easy power more than enough to draw him into Orochimaru's clutches. That would be child's play, should he survive.
But did he want such an easy target?
History had not been to kind to the Uchiha, the family's curse all too well known among its constantly dwindling membership long before the Kyūbi ransacked Konoha. Such a weakness made easy tools difficult to manage, their mercurial mentalities prone to fracturing at the worst of times.
What was once your loyal henchman-henchperson?- could just as easily turn on you in a moment of weakness and slit your throat. His much-needed ability to switch bodies every few years had the unfortunate side effect of creating such opportunities making him far too vulnerable for such a temperamental lackey.
No, he'd much rather take his eyes and implant them into a true chakra powerhouse, like the Kyūbi jinchuuriki. Now there was an appealing idea!
Oh wait, there was that small problem of the demon itself melting his mind into goo…
Bah, he loved a challenge and there was nothing that Fūinjutsu couldn't fix given enough time.
With that in mind, Orochimaru slipped the young Uchiha's defenses as quick as you please to plant a boot into his sternum. All of the air in young Sasuke's lungs evacuated and the boy flopped helplessly along the ground like a limp ragdoll before slamming violently into a tree. Before said Genin could regain either his senses or control of his breathing, he was subject to a piercing pain on the left side of his neck. That pain quickly shifted from an acute localized one to a slow-burning sensation that began to spread all throughout his body.
Once the pain seized hold of his heart, the screaming began in earnest.
~III~
It was hard for Chouji to watch the foreign kunoichi pummel his teammates even with the now healed arm he sported. Once again, he looked to his left on the branch that he shared with four other figures and nodded his thanks to the redheaded Kusa kunoichi sharing the high perch with him.
She was pretty in an exotic-reserved sort of fashion, but her healing skills definitely outclassed his pink-haired teammate and for that he was grateful. It would be tender for a few days, but he could use it with enough earth to bulwark the arm.
It was unfortunate that most of her womanly curves were nonexistent – her hips were slightly curvier than his teammates and that about covered it, something the Akimichis would doggedly try to correct through enormous amounts of food if they got their hands on her. She had a gorgeous smile though, even when she pierced his soul with those burning eyes of hers.
Tearing his eyes away from her attractive smirk, he nearly jumped from his hidden perch to join the fight. Only the iron grip on his right shoulder by the stern-faced clone kept him from doing so and he was once again shocked by the surprising strength of the blond Genin he used to share the occasional laugh and bag of chips with.
It was the same strength that caught him mid free fall before the ground could snap his legs in half.
Beneath them, the fight was picking up and even Chouji could see that the kunoichi with the crazy smile stretching her face to inhuman levels couldn't mean anything good for this team. If this kept up, he'd have to break free somehow and try to save them otherwise it was game over for Team Kakashi.
Oddly enough, he never understood why Sasuke fought so hard against the new team name. It wasn't bad sporting the name of Konoha's premier ANBU elite. It even came with a kick-ass theme song!
At any rate, things were getting ugly and, yup, the Uchiha just went down. 'What the hell? Did she just bite Sasuke?!'
Before he knew it, the iron grip let go and Chouji was charging to the ground below even as the long-haired killer tore off in the opposite direction into the trees. He paused enough to bite his thumb and reverse summon his hammer back into his hand courtesy of the seal Naruto grafted to his palm back in the academy.
No sense fighting already at a disadvantage.
A quick look showed Sakura fussing over the convulsing Uchiha. Yeah, she could help him out and, if she couldn't, he could get them to the tower in a hurry, exam or not.
Turning his eyes outward to sweep the camp, they came to rest upon a brown-ringed scroll, and he couldn't help a chuckle. Careful not to drop his guard, Chouji scooped up the Earth scroll with his left hand tucking the object into his battle kimono.
They now had what they needed to pass the test so long as Sasuke survived whatever it was that crazy girl did to him.
Maybe they could do this after all.
~III~
Up in the tree their big-boned, and now well-muscled friend, left not thirty seconds before, four pairs of eyes were having an interesting conversation.
"That was a bit cruel don't you think?" Karin had one eyebrow raised as she interrogated the triplet offshoots of her cousin.
"How do you figure?" the nearest one asked.
"You three have plenty of chakra left. You could have easily distracted that kunoichi long enough for them to get away."
All three copies shared a brief look before turning back to her and laughing. One laughed hard enough that he fell backwards off the branch to – with a quick application of chakra - end up hanging upside down from the limb by the soles of his sandals. It took a while before another gained enough oxygen to answer her now angrily twitching eyebrow.
"One of us? Stall Orochimaru of the Sannin?"
The shocked full-body twitch of the Uzumaki sensor said it all.
"Yeah, that's not our job. We're just here to keep the rest of the Genin from picking off the weakened Uchiha."
She could hear the obvious dislike in their voices and see it in their posture, especially the one that dismissively gestured to the comatose and twitching boy below. If the clones felt this way about the Uchiha, how did the original feel?
"So much for unity among the Leaf," she quipped.
"Don't let the rumors fool you, cousin-chan." Another picked up the conversation thread almost like creepy twins.
"We've seen him stab through allies in order to kill someone he believed helped to wipe out his clan solely on the unsubstantiated words of another."
None of them pointed out that the person they'd seen him stab through was her and that it would happen in the next two to three years, give or take if she ran off with emo bastard.
"That guy would sell his own sister," one began.
"…if he had one," another continued before the first took over again.
"…just to get a shot of revenge at his older brother."
Karin's jaw dropped as she turned to take one last look at the downed Uchiha scion. 'Why are the cute ones always damaged beyond repair?' It was too bad really. He was kinda cute.
"Get her to the lake. Boss is waiting to link up before they head in the day after tomorrow."
The clone closest to her nodded before offering her his back, which she happily took.
"Wait a minute, what are you two going be doing?"
The unhappy grin they shot back at her query piqued her interest. An equally unhappy, "Our job," was her only explanation as her trusty steed leaped off into the upper foliage.
~III~
Kurotsuchi frowned as she vaulted off of the trunk of another tree, another glob of her Quickslime knocking her Leaf-wearing opponent from the tree branch he was crouching on and into the trunk itself. To add insult to injury, she waited for several minutes before hitting the molten blob with a blast of water solidifying it into cement.
She tried to hide her disappointment as the nin passed out from the pain before the stream of water cooled the molten earth down enough to not kill but permanently cripple instead.
"There's no need to be intentionally cruel, Kuro." The fresh beard fuzz on her teammate's face was wrinkled in displeasure.
Her moment ruined, Kurotsuchi scoffed in response. "Being in this miserable wasteland is reason enough."
Before Yama no Ittan could comment, the kunoichi leader of their squad cut off the surname-less orphan-turned-shinobi with a barking hail.
"Zaji," the brown-haired youth glanced up from the unblinking body held in his grasp, "quit playing with your food and get a move on. Konoha thinks they're slick putting us on the ass-end of nowhere but all they did was make our job easier."
Her confused teammates both wore their frustration openly given the enormous range of the forest they were in.
"It's simple, boys," she smirked back confidently. "All we have to do is keep heading east and we'll eventually find him."
Konoha putting them at the farthest gate to the west limited their picking of the wrong direction from half – if they'd started near the proctor's camp – to zero. After all, they only had one direction they could travel in.
And with that single direction to accompany her single-minded thought of crushing the Uzumaki, Kurotsuchi promised to make the boy pay for every year her Jiji suffered in exile because of his worthless clan. That's what you did for family, after all.
~III~
"No! Temari, for the last time I'm not interested in your suicidal rescue attempt!"
There were certain beliefs held by the oldest Sabaku sibling to be inviolate. The first and foremost of them was that her middle sibling, as her most loyal minion, was never, ever, ever, never to talk back to her whenever she sent him forth to do her bidding. Despite his vehement denial of any such agreement as explicitly outlined in the official Sibling Rules of Engagement, his status as a minion clearly obligates that he should feel honored to lay down his life on her behalf, as required - whenever required.
This is the way. It was known. It was ALWAYS known!
His hissed refusal to boldly rush forward and distract the ninjutsu powerhouse capable of rolling up their homicidal baby brother like fresh tamagoyaki smacked of rank insubordination that she would need to painfully correct once they were free.
Given that one of her other "inviolate laws of nature" was that the jinchūriki-powered crazy she lovingly called her baby brother was unbeatable had just been turned on its head, she was admittedly not having the best of weeks for earth-shattering paradigm shifts. If nothing else, his ability to without fail, crush humans into sand-flavored salsa was, until recently, flawless.
As loathsome as it made her feel, she snuck another look at the comatose carrier of the Ichibi and cringed from pure reflex.
What she was looking at was unnatural, as unnatural as Iwa shinobi sitting down to break bread with Sand nin; laid out on the soft earth with his arms and legs wrapped snugly in ninja wire was the very Ichibi that frightened her so, his soft snores ending in tiny whistling noises. No matter how "cute" it appeared or sounded, every nerve in her body was high strung expecting the beast to seize control of her brother leading to a rampage deep in the Konohan training area without the benefit of her father's gold-laced sand to control and contain him.
When he wasn't asleep, he'd been livid as losing access to both his chakra and the being he only referred to as "Mother" frustrated Gaara to no end. When he wasn't ranting (for the brief windows he'd been coherent) since their capture, he was sleeping – something she once believed in her soul to be an impossibility for her demonically-possessed brother.
A sleeping Gaara meant death to everything in a square kilometer. It was known. It was FACT!
She'd borne witness to several such rampages in Suna before Gaara had been "conditioned" to fight his body's urges and not sleep. Despite the studies proving that years of sleep deprivation was debilitating to a person's mind and humanity, Suna had been ruthlessly monitoring and controlling the boy's sleep cycle to prevent such reoccurrences (using remote-operated Raiton seals bought at unbelievably high prices from Kumo) and, despite how her heart hurt for her little brother, his sleep-deprived insanity was a must to keep innocents alive.
First and foremost among those innocents was herself, naturally, as the Queen of Minions.
At least it was a requirement for now. That was supposed to change in the third stage of this exam when, regardless of her natural aversion to allowing her brother to doze off, they would intentionally allow him to sleep and release the Ichibi in the heart of Konoha.
Until then, they needed Gaara to stay awake – one of the inviolate laws of her singular existence - at least up until now as their captor, one of what she understood to be their appointed tree-hugging teammates for this phase of the exam, sent Gaara unwillingly into the land of slumber while forcibly suppressing the one-tailed force of nature known in Suna as "that bloody Sand Tanuki."
Scores of Suna shinobi had violently died during the early days before Suna figured out that little "keep him awake at all costs" trick and all it took in Konoha was for a single Genin to slap him down like a brand-new Shogi piece.
This was definitely not the way things should be leading to irreparable damage to another inviolate law in her belief system; all shinobi not of Sunagakure no Sato were worthless and weak.
It was fucking known!
At least it was until today.
Unfortunately, her unshakable belief system couldn't take too many more body blows. They were trapped in the land of tree-huggers, her brother trapped and unconscious at the hands of said tree-huggers, and they were unable to see an easy path to freedom from said huggers of trees.
Were all tree-huggers as powerful as he? A cursory study indicated probably not. While he listened to the spiky-headed Genin on his team when strategizing, he clearly took the lead when it came to action, his teammates automatically placing themselves in supporting roles.
Mr. Pineapple was probably a Nara based on what she remembered from the shared intelligence their ally provided before this mission began. The girl - she flicked her eyes to take in the blonde kunoichi boring holes through her head with her own – could be nothing but the Yamanaka heiress. So, what did that make the blond juggernaut of their group?
His hair was a different shade of blond but that might not have meant much in the greater game of genetics. Despite his eyes being a much prettier-more tactically significant shade of blue, he could-might-possibly be a distant cousin? But weren't they the village brain scramblers? They were cerebral, not physically overpowering.
It made no sense and twisting it over and over again in her mind was giving her a headache. She'd much rather focus on pummeling her bro-minion back into some semblance of submission, which was much more appealing at the moment. He'd been allowed to run free for far too long over the last week and she could plan his punishment while assessing her newest frenemies.
They'd need as much INTEL as they could get going into the final round.
For now, however, she needed to find a way out of the mess they were currently in since Kankurō either wouldn't or couldn't be bothered to participate.
Oh yes, he was due some righteous pain the moment they were away.
~III~
The cat-faced puppeteer tried not to shiver overly much as his sister's angry wave washed over him knowing certain pain beat certain death any day of the week.
And twice on Sundays.
Unfortunately, freedom was not meant to be prior to reaching the gloomy tower located in the "Forest from Hell's" center.
It took the better of two days for Gaara to fully stir for longer than five minutes and the entirety of that second day for the homicidal maniac to remember enough of what happened to calm down at his captivity. During the random cycling between sputtering rage and inconsolable fear, he wore himself out again resulting in another bout of fitful slumber and through it all his siblings sat too dumbfounded to assist him.
Not that they could with their captors-teammates watching their every interaction.
What? The blond male had already proven that he was deadly while the blonde female proved herself to be freakishly insightful. It was almost like she could read minds…
During their forced cohabitation, the Suna squad discovered firsthand just how overpowered their Konoha associates were when their admittedly comfortable camp – the blond seemed to be competent with seals and brought extra just about everything, including extra sleeping bags comfy enough to wrap up in like downy cocoons – was invaded on the third day by an Ame team looking to make a name for themselves.
It was almost surreal as the six of them, even a disturbingly silent and well-rested Gaara, sat around the campfire enjoying a hearty rabbit stew prepared by the same blond uber shinobi without a care in the world. While the six of them sat paused with spoons hovering before partially open mouths, three more copies of their excellent host shimmered into existence and proceeded to trounce their rude visitors.
Without further distraction, Naruto resumed his very tame conversation with Kankuro about how he prepared the rabbits he'd trapped to the background sounds of Amegakure shinobi yelping in pain to a soundtrack of clone fists pummeling human flesh. His entire blasé demeanor about their suffering only cemented Temari's unrealistic impression of him enhancing her pressing need to get as far away from him, his team, and Konoha in general.
As far as she was concerned about Konoha, there be monsters there and where monsters be, she could live quite happily without.
Ninety seconds later and three rather rude visitors found themselves secured in B-grade shinobi wire and hanging by their ankles from the nearest tree branch like bright yellow bats.
The entire Sabaku squad felt their father, er, Kazekage was a fool to tempt the sleeping monster that was Konoha, a belief that remained as another brace of clones made to hoist their guests like self-heating sacks of potatoes. Obviously, this provoked a rather heated exchange between the clone and his suspected passenger.
"Look, I don't have all day to debate this with you," the now eyebrow twitching blond was barking to the makeup-wearing shinobi, "so either you saddle up or we do this the uncomfortable way!"
Kankurō blanched almost immediately.
"Not happening, shortstack!"
Now both eyebrows were going.
"Hey, for what it's worth, we don't think you should fight this as it won't end prettily for ya!"
The war-painted Genin turned on his peanut gallery with gnashing teeth and a snarling, "Hey!" Unfortunately, he paused almost immediately to blink in confusion since he really didn't know which one of the now ten or so bodies hanging upside down said that. 'When did the others show up?'
"See… here you… nevermind! I'm not ridin' bitch and that's all there is to it!" Somehow, he didn't feel very confident with the many flat stares being shot back his way, so he did what any red-blooded male did when backed into a corner – he blustered.
"Just cause he punked you lot doesn't mean he can do the same to me!" The puppeteer folded his arms across his lean chest with authority, punctuation his bravado with a huff of manly air.
"Uncomfortable sack it is then!" someone behind him happily chirped.
Before he could do more than make his eyes open wide in outrage, Kankurō found himself leaning sharply to his left to avoid the hand swiping at his forehead. Proud at his effort to dodge the slim sheet of paper he caught in the speeding palm, he paused to perform another manly feat: "The Dreaded Gloat."
That pause to inhale copious amounts of righteous air to brag is what caused him to miss the second hand zooming by from his left side as it slapped the sticky paper to his forehead with a resounding SCHWACK!
He had all of two seconds to realize his mistake before his entire chakra network seized up tipping him over like a sack of potatoes and onto the shoulder of the waiting clone, which promptly stood up to begin carrying him away.
"We tried to warn you," another upside-down voice catcalled.
"Shut. Up."
Kankurō's face blossomed into a brilliant shade of red from being both partially inverted (without chakra to regulate his blood flow) and being carried like a wounded goat. It did nothing to ease the burn of their laughter as the clone carted him off into the trees to wait for the others to catch up.
Gaara and Temari both snapped their heads to the remaining three blonds, one of which had to be the original, with well-rested acceptance on one of their faces and alarmed shock on the other, despite her claim of being the consummate professional kunoichi.
"Are either of you going to be another pain in my ass today or should I just seal you up like your brother?" Naruto offered with a remarkable amount of calm behind his voice, the last part directed to the blonde Genin on the other team.
Gaara shrugged once, not even turning to share a look with his sister. For his part, he'd had the best three nights of sleep of his entire life and could use another three or four, to be honest. Losing "Mother's" voice was a bit disconcerting, at first, but the peace and quiet, backed by several very hearty meals and the most comfortable sleeping bag he'd ever seen, had done wonders for his disposition (once the blond terror promised that he'd return his mother to him, that is).
If he didn't, he'd be sure to get Baki to undo whatever it was this Naruto had done to him so he could present his warm blood to mother once she returned.
Understanding that causing a disturbance would provide no assistance, he calmly approached one of the clones and clambered onto his back as his bearer prepared to leap up after his male sibling. He did have one question though as he got comfortable.
"Do you have any more of those – I believe you called them biscuits?"
The clone blinked before turning to look at the original, who merely smiled and dug out the sealing scrolls with their rations for the week. With a smile and a quick pulse of chakra, he slapped a clear plastic sleeve holding an entire pack of shortbread cookies into the now smiling jinchūriki's hand right before the clone jumped away.
Apparently, his fellow container had a sweet tooth.
"Oi! Mind sharing a few of those with us?!"
Naruto pointedly ignored his upside-down guests and locked eyes with the sole Sand kunoichi fiddling nervously with the hem of her battle kimono. Yes, Naruto could see hugging her left thigh the mesh poking out from beneath the hem. No, the functionally short length for her garment did not make the prospect of receiving a piggyback ride appealing and he understood her discomfort.
He just didn't care and wanted to see how far he could push her.
"Well?" He seemed almost casual about hoisting her up on his back like it was an everyday event.
"I can travel on my own," she heatedly shot back.
Naruto could see her fingers twitching as if they wanted to fling open her Kyodai Sensu, or giant folding fan. Both Shikamaru and Ino could literally feel the tension building in the air as their showdown dragged on.
"Sack of potatoes number two it is," Naruto sighed out as he prepared to step forward while Temari dropped immediately into a defensive stance.
"Hold on, Naruto!"
Both paused to turn and face the pineapple haired Nara.
"Don't have time for her bullshit or your slick-talking, Nara." Naruto could see her confusion and figured her darting eyes had noticed the Nara's wince of discomfort.
"I'm just thinking there has to be a better way to resolve this other than bundling people up like cordwood."
There was a long, drawn-out pause before the vessel answered with a heavy sigh and a quick, "Two minutes then we're moving with or without her cooperation."
It was a much relieved Temari voluntarily climbing onto the blond's back (Shikamaru liked her but he wasn't enamored enough to haul her through the jungle on his back as that would be too troublesome when clones worked pretty well for that) wearing a spare pair of Ino's battle shorts. She even offered to wash them before returning them, which Ino thought was very considerate of the red-faced girl from the desert.
Both teams made a vision-blurring dash through the forest to their final destination for the second stage. In their wake, at least a dozen Genin from various villages dangled from the large boughs of their campsite tree like a sequential collection of holiday bat ornaments.
"Hey! What about us?!" one raged helplessly.
There was a considerable moment of silence where the only response came from animals and insects prowling the deadly forest.
"Anyone know any good jokes before the retrievers come pick us up?" a sweat-dropped Konoha Genin from Team Iroha asked innocently.
A round of equally embarrassed sweat drops was his only answer.
~III~
Team Ten/ Asuma was conveniently close to their destination, close enough that Gaara was still happily munching on shortbread biscuits by the time the six of them touched down near the entrance. Temari, still shocked at the gentle demeanor from her baby brother, almost hated the fact that he'd need to be returned to his mostly psychotic state before too long.
"It's a piece of crap, you know that don't you?"
His voice snapped her out of her daydream of normal family life, a dream she secretly cherished and indulged in from time to time. Unable to hide the fact that he'd startled her, she defaulted to her normal brusque nature as a defense mechanism.
"What are you talking about? No what, nevermind! It's not like we'd discuss state secrets with you now that our truce is over." She turned her back on the arrogant blond and began stomping up to her sibling to drag him along.
Their "host" had their scrolls and, if the intention of the exam held true, they would all be granted entrance at the same time. If that failed, he'd collected more than enough extras to buy their entrance.
Either way, it was on him now and that more than justified her anger as she bulldozed her way to her brother's side. Then he had to go and ruin it by explaining what he meant…
"His seal is all but worthless."
Now that did get her attention. Immediately. It was also enough to dry out her mouth, not that camping in the woods didn't make morning breath turn into morning-afternoon-and evening breath. This was worry-induced dehydration.
"W-W-What brand of crazy are you talking about now?" Temari tried not to wince at her initial stutter hoping he'd be too busy staring at her ass to notice.
She winced internally when she turned around sharply to see his eyes locked on her face instead. 'Damnit!' The flat look on his face was proof enough that he wasn't buying her innocent act.
"Do you really want to discuss those 'state secrets' out here in the open?"
"I'm not discussing anything with you!" she all but roared back. "Keep your nose out of Suna affairs!" This time it was a hissing snarl as she turned to stalk away deeper into the tower only to realize he hadn't opened it yet.
"Raaarrrrgh! Let's go, fearless leader!" The mocking tone in her voice didn't cover up her uneasiness at his line of inquiry but Naruto complied, commenting as he brushed by her.
"Fight it all you want but someday, one day when you least want it to, that crappy seal is going to break completely and Shukaku is going to be free for good." Tossing down the now open scrolls with the help of a clone, he glanced up from the billowing smoke to lock eyes with her.
"What will you do when you can't put the genie back in the bottle?"
The calm certainty in his voice made her hesitate even as her Jounin sensei took form alongside another Jounin with a burst of harmless smoke.
"H-How do you know? Are you a sensor?" All of her anger was gone the moment he mentioned the one-tail's name.
The half-smile on his face did not ease her conscious as he turned fully to face her, his eyes bleeding from that deep blue she secretly loved past a foreboding purple to an angry red with dark slashes running vertically through them. Both her legs seized up along with her spine as the air began to press down on her lungs.
She knew that feeling. She'd felt it before right before Gaara ground someone into bloody chunks.
"Not really, not yet a decent one anyway." He stepped closer only for her to match it by taking a single step away from him, her Jounin opening his mouth to congratulate them only to pause with the unusual dynamic playing out.
"I just know my brothers and sisters when I meet them."
He held her gaze for another half minute before letting the youki fade from his eyes as he stalked off into the tower leaving a very shaken Sabaku no Temari in his wake, the oppressive, spine-tingling terror fading with him as he walked away.
~III~
The dynamic inside the tower over the next few days was boringly predictable for the blond vessel. What else would he expect after the show he put on in the forest over the last three days? Given that there were several teams in the tower before they arrived, it proved to be a fairly lively place despite his desire to be left alone.
In between dodging the few rookie Genin of his class that made it to the tower first and catching a bite to eat in peace, he had plenty of time to reflect on his performance during the second stage. To be honest, he was more exhausted than he wanted to admit, his chakra control still not back to its pre-summons bonding levels. Overloading his clones so they could put up a decent fight in the forest had been incredibly taxing leaving him closer to real fatigue at the end of his quick bout with Gaara in the forest than he realized. It had taken more acting skills than he thought he possessed to project his bravado and keep them all safe without succumbing to a debilitating slumber by the lake, something he swore not to feel again if he could help it.
Last night's undisturbed rest had made a world of difference as his resident worked to refill his very depleted reserves.
'Deception is a shinobi's strongest tool.'
The next thirty days would see him back in fighting trim otherwise the final rounds would leave him vulnerable and he found that outcome unacceptable.
Temari and her siblings, for the most part, stayed away from him. If he spotted them inside the tower at all, it was as they were frantically trying to pull Gaara away from the "Biscuit Pusher" from Konoha, much to Naruto's continued amusement. The fact that he only saw them around the mealtimes posted in the tower commissary tugging a sleepy-eyed Gaara around by the linked arms of his stuffed Tanuki told him that the insomniatic vessel was still catching up on much-needed sleep. It would be a shame to restore his chakra, and the bijū's toxic access to him, the morning of the fifth day.
It would be an even greater shame to have to kill him knowing the Ichibi would fight tooth and claw to prevent being isolated again. How to fix that? Hmmm...
Dropping off his empty tray at the bussing station, he moved quickly out of the rapidly filling mess hall and made his way to his latest hangout spot – the upper seats of the tower arena. Plopping down into a random seat, Naruto enjoyed the brief moment of silence right before his newest conversationalist slid quietly into the seat beside him, his smile slowly worming its way onto the right side of his face.
"Greetings." Naruto's voice was the sound of serenity.
The lidded eyes of his company sparkled just enough to betray his excitement as his teal orbs darted around the vacant battleground, his head bobbing once with affirmation that he'd heard him.
"The usual?"
Without comment, the small hand slid a neatly wrapped package onto the arm of Naruto's seat before withdrawing to idly tap on the knee of its owner.
Agonizingly slowly did he reach over to lift the object carefully peeling back a corner to inspect the contents.
"Will this cause you problems?"
The patch of spiky auburn hair flipped about as the smaller figure shook his head in the negative. "It's his spare set."
Naruto nodded once approvingly, his mouth wrinkling up to show he was impressed. "I think this deserves a bonus," he casually countered even as he slid two sleeves of fresh biscuits across to the large smile at his side.
"I wonder, Gaara, if you've ever heard of 'Pocky' before?" he asked gently shaking the pink-colored box held aloft in his right hand.
~III~
Itachi was having a hell of a time keeping a straight face, something not normally an issue for the stoic clan murderer to accomplish. Today, however, it was incredibly difficult with his partner ranting and raving in their secret hideout in the northern forests of Hi no Kuni. He tried not to flinch as the still rather excited shark man pulverized another wooden box of supplies in the background.
"What do you mean, 'he ran away,' Itachi?"
Itachi tried not to focus on the deep concern evident in Leader-sama's voice or how Leader-sama's eyes seemed to spear right through him. "I mean just that; he turned and moved at maximum speed for two straight hours until we returned here."
He was trying to ignore the childish giggling coming from the other spectral figures sitting atop the fingers of the Gedō Mazō. Internally he was swearing that if that bloody Deidara snickered at him one more bloody time, just one more bloody…
"I fail to understand why – what is the matter Itachi? Are you under attack?" Leader-sama clearly noticed when Itachi's entire spectral image flickered violently for just a moment. Since every other spectral figure, except for Kisame who was busy trashing another defenseless supply item and swearing like a lunatic in the background, was enjoying his discomfort, that meant they all noticed it as well.
"Oh, it's not important, Leader-sama." Itachi's image actually fidgeted as his eyes looked about nervously.
Itachi Uchiha was never openly nervous. For frack's sake, he yawned as he beat down one of the fraggin' Sannin.
Konan's soothing voice interjected itself into the conversation. "Now, this goes along with what we talked about at our last session, Itachi-kun."
Itachi's spectral cheeks pinked just a bit at the cooing catcalls from his fellow nukenins.
"This goes in part," she continued as her spectral image appeared on the same finger Itachi's inhabited, "to dealing with your reluctance to accepting new bonds with your new peers. You need to let us in. No one here will mock your pain." She cut her eyes at the tittering going on between Hidan and Deidara even as her spectral hand rested on Itachi's forearm.
With a deep breath, Itachi hesitantly confessed to feeling a disturbance in the Pocky-verse, a comment that immediately silenced the childish giggling of his Akatsuki peers and caused both Pein and Konan to glance at each other in concern; it was widely lauded among the Akatsuki rank and file (largely encouraged by Kisame wanting to mess with Deidara) that Itachi's unraveling leading to the slaughter of his entire clan began with their ridicule of his very real Pocky addiction followed by a subsequent lack of the strawberry flavored treat at the end of a "very bad day" for the fugitive.
"Okay then." Itachi looked down to Konan's gently smiling avatar. "I want to schedule another session with you away from group time, Itachi-kun. Is that okay with you?"
The Uchiha exile tried not to groan as he nodded, noticing with his Sharingan that Leader-sama's hand was surreptitiously shooing away his peers as they vanished one at a time.
"This time, Itachi-kun, I want to focus on your relationship with your mother…"
The clan prince's left eye spasmed violently.
Gaara's confusion at why his new favorite future victim would try to impede on his favorite new obsession lasted only until he'd plucked one of the skinny treats from its cardboard container to tentatively nibble on the icing covered end. The blossoming of understanding as his normally lidded eyes expanded to their widest was a sight to behold, one that came with a childish sort of glee for Naruto as his siblings would invariably try to curtail the vessel's latest addiction.
Sometimes corrupting the next generation was a pleasure all on its own.
"Naruto!"
Both sacrifices looked up from their private little interaction to see Naruto's spiky-headed teammate at the lower row of the observation deck waving for him to join him, Gaara frantically – while trying to be inconspicuous and failing horribly – stuffing his ill-gotten-gains into his gourd for safekeeping.
Naruto sighed once before rising out of his chair while motioning for Gaara that everything was okay, the one-tail casually rising to walk down the stairs and past the taller Nara, slowly at first then at a panicked shuffle as he hurriedly scooted by as if he was late for some important meeting. Naruto took the raised eyebrow of his teammate in stride as he joined him by the safety railing.
"Bonding with your favorite psychopath, Naruto?"
"He's a sociopath, big difference," Naruto countered.
Shikamaru didn't appear to be convinced on the merits of that argument so he moved on. "They're calling for us to assemble with our teams."
Naruto's right eyebrow shot upwards, but he shrugged it off walking past his teammate without a word. 'So much for a full recovery.'
A few minutes found both of them lined up with their kunoichi teammate. To his surprise, there must have been three-dozen squads lined up in a half-circle before the Kage's box and suddenly the desire to end the second phase early made more sense. With this many contestants, Konoha would need to hold one hell of a preliminary if they wanted a manageable competition.
From his position at the rear of his squad, Naruto frowned. This many people trying to outdo one another would mean lots of unnecessary bloodshed and, despite his current crappy dynamic, he didn't want to see either of his teammates crippled or killed. Having no solution for the latest crap story of his life, his gaze began to sweep the group waiting for someone of importance to tell them what was going on.
Glancing over the gathered throng of anxious future killers, his eyes caught sight of the flame-haired Ichibi vessel two rows over, oddly enough having surrendered the leader spot at the front to his older, and somewhat confused, sister. Why became readily apparent once he noticed the boy's left hand as it moved ever so slowly up along his torso until a fresh Pocky stick shot into his mouth, his eyes happily crinkling closed as he tried to quietly munch on his new treat.
It was almost enough to ease his concerns until a fresh wave of animosity hit him from his left side. Lazily turning his head that way to see whose panties were in a bunch, he almost snickered out loud when he came eye-to-eye with the Iwa Rock Princess.
With a very dismissive snort, he turned back to the front of the gathering just in time to see the Sandaime Hokage take center stage joined very closely by a scantily-clad hottie.
"Alright brats, listen up!"
The collective sweat drops across the entire group did nothing to make the Tokubetsu Jounin pause.
"Good on ya for not getting deaders in the forest, but don't get cocky! You may be done with this stage but you're not out of the woods yet." Anko's eyes swept the crowd sparkling briefly as she found her favorite Gaki.
With that, she stepped back and bowed to the Hokage before finding a comfy spot off to the side surprisingly close to the Nadeshiko and Yuki rulers, much to Naruto's chagrin. Oddly enough, both of them blowing him a kiss once he recognized their faces only made him more of a target when many of the males realized who they were flirting with within the group of smitten Genin.
He was so embarrassed, he failed to notice the buxom blonde from Kumo hiding just out of sight.
He did, however, reach up to rub the back of his head when he realized not all of the annoying KI being directed his way was coming from males.
"Ah, thank you, Anko-chan." The Sandaime's voice turned outwards to address both the Genin and his group of VIPs.
"Your proctor is right in congratulating you for a job well done. Konoha's forest survival test always ranks fairly high on the casualty list so you should be doubly proud of your achievement in making it this far and in the numbers that you did doing so." He paused to sweep the young faces below enjoying as their nervousness began to bleed away into self-satisfaction. He so enjoyed being able to mess with young minds and still be seen as the "good guy."
"That said, she is right in saying that you cannot rest on your laurels at this point for the most dangerous part of the exam is yet to remain." 'There it is, that first whiff of hesitation.' "I won't bore you with the history of these exams and why they have become the default substitute for the bloody warfare of the Warring Clans Era our modern villages evolved from nor the world wars we all bled under. If your respective academies have not schooled you on those facts, your Jounin senseis can instruct you during this interlude between the second and final stage. No," he paused once more for dramatic effect, "what you should be focusing on his how your team will prepare themselves over the next thirty days for the final test.
"You are of course, free to remain here in Konoha and train. We will afford you every opportunity to do so in our humble village, however, I would imagine you'd like to keep a surprise or two for the final matches." Many of the Jounin leads in the stands chuckled at that.
"We want you all to do well and believe that EVERY Genin deserves the right to compete on the same stage. That is why Konoha has proposed, and it gives me great pleasure to announce that every hidden village - as backed by their respective Daimyos, has agreed to support, what we are calling the Chunin Exam Festival."
Hiruzen continued over their excited murmurs.
"When you return in thirty days, the final phase of this exam will encompass not one but five days of thrills and excitement setting a proper backdrop for your courage and daring. As such, the first two days will be a hosted grand festival showcasing vendors and delights from all of the elemental nations leading up to two days of strife in the Grand Arena where you will battle it out, first as part of challenging team battles on the third day then followed on the fourth day by individual competition. For those that survive, we'll celebrate your successes, and your losses, with a grand feast intended to foster comradery among the nations."
Naruto noticed that the eyes of his future Genin competitors weren't the only ones lighting up in approval.
"Yes, yes, I'm sure you'll be prepared so that is why we won't be announcing brackets for the competition in advance." His eyes swept the Genin squads as cold steel flickered behind the old man's eyes.
"Go and train yourselves to your utmost, Genin. Serve your Kage's well and prepare yourselves for the fight of your lives."
With that, the old man turned away to wrap up conversations with the numerous Daimyo and Kages looking to jockey for position during what would eventually become a week-long opportunity to make substantial profit among the vendor stalls. A lot of horse-trading would be needed to glean the best locations in or around the stadium where most of this would be set up.
None of that, however, prevented two very perturbed voices from crying out among the Genin competitors-to-be in order to make their displeasure known to the object of their future affections.
"NARUTO/ NARUTO-KUN!"
His entire body shot to rigid attention even as several males nearby snickered at his misfortune.
"Oh, would you look at the time?!"
And with that announcement, Naruto Uzumaki made a tactical retreat fleeing from the tower and into the trees of Training Ground Forty-Four barely remembering to dispatch a clone to retrieve his belongings from his team's shared room.
Inside the arena floor, two very annoyed kunoichis shot heated glares at each other before shooting off after their prey, their unspoken agreement being hashed out in the Great Girl Code as one activated her Byakugan, on the run, to better track his chakra trail. The other irate female began preparing two or three dozen pointy implements to help pin him in place for a much-needed conversation.
~III~