Next morning Meiko was cheerful and running about like nobody's business. It was like any injury or infection had never happened with the food pills healing all the damage completely. Granted, the green or black ones were quite capable of preventing even more lethal injuries from claiming a life so the potent effect of the pills was not at all surprising.
"So what are we waiting for?" the blacksmith flexed her muscles after treating herself to some powdered soup that revealed its true taste and colour in heated water. "We've not taken down a single target yet…" she pouted.
"It's like she doesn't even remember what caused us this setback in the first place…" Kiyomi sighed after whispering it to Mana's ear.
The magician just sat there with her head down and her hands wrapped around her bent bruised knees. More and more often she snapped out of the chain of deep thought only to discover she's been staring at a blank point and creeping her teammates out but she didn't feel like lightening the mood up at all.
"I feel really great, I call dibs on being the first to get to hunt down her target!" Meiko yelled out energetically, quickly pushing away temporary wondering about why Mana was so down.
"Slow down there, how do you even plan on taking your target out in the first place?" Kiyomi squinted in suspiciously motherly eyes as Meiko was acting overly childish not to deserve a scolding of a more paternal nature.
"We'll just jump at them and kick all their asses, three on three!" the blacksmith grinned with her signature ape-like smile.
"You know it'd be much smarter to somehow separate your target away from their team and take them down that way, that'd save us trouble, chakra and time treating injuries…" Kiyomi once again kept on fighting Meiko's instinctive impulses. Was the blacksmith really to be blamed, she just woke up feeling chipper after a quite scary injury followed by even more terrifying infection taking its place.
Kiyomi's warm hands dragged Mana back to the world at hand instead of the mental one she was exploring. The blonde examined Mana's bruises on her wrists and then without bothering too much about common decency checked the wound on Mana's chest.
"It's still pretty red in there but having in mind the state it was in…" she noted. "We have a whole bunch of normal medical supplies, bandages and ointments, they may ease up the irritation and pain, if you want. Clearly they're no million ryo costing food pills but…"
"I'm fine." Mana turned away.
"Really?" Meiko smacked her forehead against Mana's to check for fever. "You don't really look fine. I mean you look fine but you're not acting fine…"
Even in her grinded to the dirt mood the magician couldn't help but crack a small smile seeing Meiko's rude and careless manner of checking her teammate's temperature. She must've thought that the only suitable way to check someone's temperature was to check with the same place of one's body which was why she almost cracked the magician's skull with that headbutt that was supposed to be a kind and playful gesture.
"Don't dig too deep. While I watched you yesterday Mana ran off and stole some medical food pills from some team, must not be quite up to her almighty moral code or something." Kiyomi shrugged while digging into the instantly prepared food cup she was yet to eat. It was simply too hot right after preparing and the Yamanaka was one of the people who let her instant soup or stew chill the longest, at least she didn't gobble it all down like Meiko and then complain of a scolded mouth…
"Really? Good job!" Meiko commended Mana by smacking her back.
That was the way it always went. Praises for things that should never receive praise, Mana bet if she started killing people she'd be commended for that as well. It was always the best killers, the best thieves that rose above the rest. Those that not only stole the most but also got caught the least. Somehow it wasn't the act of stealing that was a moral stigma but instead the misfortune of being caught. Instead of hurting other people and taking away what was theirs, what they needed and they've earned, what was a crime instead was lacking the skill needed to get away with it.
"You're really overplaying it, you know. There's no need to lose sleep over it, this is a competition where people are allowed to be hurt or even killed. It's not like you took a candy from a baby or anything…" the blonde shrugged with a mouthful of noodles and chicken.
"Come on… Let's go do what we need to do already!" Meiko began smacking about like a baby before deciding to better devote her limitless stamina to working out.
"I agree with Meiko." Mana unexpectedly decided to join into the conversation. "Other teams have already been through one or even two conflicts with the others. The more time passes the higher the chance that someone will have three or two targets by their belt – they'll come here for the northern exit to finish the test. Soon enough this place won't be safe anymore."
"I'm fine with kicking some ass, all I'm saying is that we may not be able to carry out a full out brawl. We'll get injured, it'll need nursing back which'll cost us time. It may be better to find our targets and separate them from their teams before quickly taking them out." The Yamanaka once again suggested.
"We're probably stronger than most people here. We're not ordinary genin, you know!" Meiko roughed out through her painful looking and gravity defying push ups.
"I wouldn't rely on that. While it is true that our overall strength and skill dwarfs that of ordinary genin, we're not dealing with ordinary genin. While I was looking for the medication I saw genin capable of playing with one's perception of time using genjutsu, I saw sensors and people capable of firing blasts of concentrated chakra like they were a Juugo clan member…" Mana lowered her head.
"Yeah… It may just be that we're unfortunate enough to take the Exams the same year the rest of prodigies and people that skipped too many Exams ended up doing it. I still feel confident in my ability to beat anyone in this Forest but that doesn't mean it won't be tough." Kiyomi looked at the dark void of the Forest of Death behind her with worry in her eyes.
"Wow, look at that! I told you hiding near the northern exit was a good idea! Maybe if we did that Aya-K wouldn't have gotten eliminated!" a voice of a young man scared the three kunoichi who were in the middle of planning out their further actions.
They were so troubled about Meiko's sickness and how much it disturbed their overall game plan that they somehow completely forgot about setting traps or some other alert mechanism. Then again, when there were thousands if not millions of different altitudes and angles they could've been attacked from, such a task would've been difficult without Meiko's sealing jutsu knowledge.
"Shut up, we got our targets, didn't we?" another young man replied. His tone was clearly on the defensive and conflicting, neither of the two was playing a leading role and they were clearly butting heads. Maybe that much could've been exploited…
There Mana went again. After she realized that the first thing she thought about when meeting her peers was thinking about how to take them out more efficiently the magician got even more sorrowful. What if she was starting to lose her own humanity? What if she was losing that sense of naivete which she wanted to guide her through her lifelong desire to change the violent world around her? What would be guiding her instead in that case?
The two young men leaped down from their higher up positions and slowly walked up closer to the girls' camp without coming too close and beginning to feel imposing. They did mention something about having already taken care of all of their targets which was surprising to hear and a little alerting, then again, they clearly only had two members left which meant that they only needed two targets to pass.
The duo was clearly from Kumogakure or even more to the north. Their skin was plenty of shades darker than Mana's and their hair was just as wild as that of Kumogakure ninja. The first impressions after hearing those horrendous nicknames that the young generation made up for themselves in that place couldn't have been strengthened any more after seeing the punky hairstyles and wild exotic colours they donned. The second, larger one was completely bald which also didn't help his case as very few young men his age made that life choice.
"You've already taken out your targets?" Kiyomi wondered in awe. Her voice was a little thorny, Mana started feeling a bit worried about the blonde being a bit too hostile and leading this right into an unnecessary conflict.
The first one, a short but vibrant young man who dressed in a long red and almost feminine looking coat and a modified black coloured forehead protector stepped up closer. Mana noticed that the other, bald fellow also subconsciously took a couple of steps forward, her best guess was that he couldn't stomach the thought of his teammate talking for him or standing ahead of him.
"Yeah. Sadly we lost one of our own too. Got attacked in the middle of the night, she got focused on since she was keeping guard at night and taken out. I'm Kei-J, Team Stratus, Kumogakure, this is Roh-D." he explained before introducing himself.
"Hey, you don't need go around yelling our names out like that!" Roh-D objected, "What if they're gunning for us!? No one yet tried to take me out, my hunter is still in the dark. It could be any one of them!"
"If you were our targets we'd know your name and how you look like anyways, we do have these… Also sorry for your loss." Kiyomi lifted her file up in the air showing it off before hiding it again.
"It's not like she died or anything. She just got injured too bad to continue, that's all. Well, if you ladies have no objections, we'll be passing by and getting the hell out of this Forest." Kei-J smiled. His eyes were still careful and very clearly observing the girls and looking out for any danger from their side.
"Wait a second. How did you find your target? This is awfully fast for locating two right teams out of thirty two in this massive Forest…" Mana raised some thoughts into the clear. If these two were not a threat and they were already lowering their guard and preparing to quit the Forest, they may as well have shared some information. Namely something that'd quite likely raise a lot of trouble.
"Oh, that's quite simple, we traded information. A lot of teams did and still are. When two teams meet up, if they trust each other, often they'll trade the sightings of one team or another for some information." Roh-D shared this insight, it was surprising how he warmed up to the girls just after realizing they had no interest in fighting him.
"You're from Kumogakure. It's more than likely you know the location of Team Cirrus, also from Kumogakure. We've no information to give you in return but you don't need any, seeing how you're already done with it." Kiyomi asked.
Kiyomi's bargaining strategy was remarkably odd. The blonde just said out loud what she needed assuming that it could be provided for her without anything in return. Usually the common bargaining strategy was quite opposite – name a starting suggestion for a fair trade just to establish that trading options are on the table. Mana would've tried offering some supplies in return, Team Hokage had plenty of bandages and simpler medical supplies, also enough food and drinks to last a week even if they all ate like normal civilians and never skipped a meal.
"Sorry, Team Cirrus are our friends, we go back all the way to the Ninja Academy days. We wouldn't sell those guys out…" Kei-J politely shook his head in refusal.
"That being said, there are teams we may want to screw, teams that screwed us over that are too risky to go for at the moment. We'd appreciate if someone would screw them in return, namely: Team Zumurrud, Team Hickory, Team Dunyazad" Roh-D suggested. Judging from his tone he really wanted to screw those teams over and that suggestion was most likely trustworthy. The genuine need to screw someone over was always something to bet on and not question.
If only Mana had uncovered her sensory ability much earlier, if only she had trained it enough to where she didn't need to focus on it so extensively for it to work. Now it worked just questionably enough to not even tip her off when she was being approached, granted, she was deep into self-destructive thought processes so noticing the duo would've been difficult. If only she had awakened those abilities earlier and developed them, maybe then she'd not need the help and information from these two. Maybe then she'd have memorized the signatures of everyone as they were gathered by the entrance and found them all when needed…
"Team Hickory? That's Konoha's team…" Kiyomi scratched her chin.
"I bet it's Pagu that screwed you guys over, he's kind of an asshat…" Meiko leaned back before snickering and rubbing her itchy nose.
"A member of Team Hickory tried to feed our sick friend actual supercharged acid just to test how it works. Had we not noticed a fly getting dissolved in it right before our very eyes, Aya-K would be dead or alive with very disintegrated innards right now. Tough to say which fate is worse…" Kei-J looked to the side, his eyes actually squinted in anger and his entire body was shaking. He really looked like regretting not being able to kick this Pagu's ass himself.
"Yeah, typical Pagu…" Meiko shrugged, "We graduated the same year. He was pretty bright but never too shy to let you know he knew it. I'm down with kicking his butt just for fun. He once injected bile of vanillitus cells in my tea."
"I thought vanillitus wasn't contagious…" Mana looked at her friend with a questioning glare. It was certainly a scary disease to develop but it not only never developed in ninja or people capable of controlling chakra, it wasn't contagious at the slightest.
"It isn't, he was like six back then. Smart enough to cut a cat open and into its tumor and extracting it but not to fully understand what he's doing. Doesn't make him less of an asshole." Meiko shrugged.
"No. We don't have the time to waste. None of these teams are teams we are looking for, sorry." Kiyomi cut the conversation short.
Kei-J bowed his head slightly in respect. "I see, I'm sorry we couldn't be of more help. With your permission we'll be on our way."
"Actually… You may just help us out tremendously. Wasn't Team Dunyazad the name of Menna, Tiwul and Tala's team? We may ask them around, offer some supplies, info or food in return." Mana suggested.
Kei-J and Roh-D turned around and looked at each other. "Fine… Just take care around this Tala guy. Him and his team beat us three when Aya-K was still with us, we had to flee but he was Aya-K's target. Once she was eliminated we no longer needed to fight him. The last time we saw them they were in the south-western quadrant of the forest, I'll write down the coordinates for you…" Kei-J removed his backpack and scribbled something on a paper where a rough map of the forest was previously drawn.
"That's a pretty good map…" Kiyomi observed as she twisted and flipped the paper around marvelling at the masterful job done with it.
"Roh-D is quite exceptional with maps and blueprints. Must be his Kirikuzu blood…" Kei-J nodded with a smile. Mana noticed Meiko's fists clench and her teeth firmly shut inside her mouth. The redhead's face shifted to a more firm and serious expression, she mustn't have really fancied seeing a member of the Kirikuzu clan.
For a moment there the magician thought that the blacksmith would just leap at the tall bald member of the Kirikuzu clan but after a gentle tap on her shoulder and redirecting of her attention the blacksmith managed to somehow eschew from lashing out.
Not too long later the duo from Kumogakure had left and Team Hokage was left just with a map with where the clash with a team familiar to them previously took place. It wasn't much, just a tip to where they could find friends that may have had information. Mana had met the team she stole from before, she also encountered that creepy team from Getsugakure again. Neither of the two fancied as information she'd like to disclose, even to friends. Even in return to useful info.
Team Phobos from Getsugakure was dangerous and ridiculously strong. Their abilities were so odd and deadly that even now Mana couldn't entirely comprehend the short battle she had seen between the poor trio taken out by Team Phobos and the Getsugakure competitors. The team from which Mana stole the food pills, on the other hand, was not a team she wanted to expose to danger. The problem with that team was more of the inner variety. It was almost like the magician owed them something, like she had to look out for them just because she left them without their food pills for the duration of this exam.
"Alright. I guess this Team Dunyazad is the best chance at information we've got. If that doesn't work we may as well just blindly wander around and look for teams that are either our targets or have intel on our targets. We've wasted enough time, let's go!" Kiyomi leaped up into the swallowing oblivion of the forest's natural darkness first, Mana and Meiko followed the Yamanaka shortly.
"Can you really give this Team Dunyazad anything they want? Like information on teams? Can we trust this Tala guy to not be a dick?" Kiyomi turned her head at Mana after slowing down a little bit.
The magician wrapped her arms around herself and shrugged uneasily. She felt uncomfortable about disclosing anything about her experience running frantically and looking for the faintest glimmer of hope that her best friend could survive. It was not an overly pleasant experience to look back on.
"I see…" the blonde sighed, "Then let's just hope they either really like you guys or that they really need the supplies we have."