Meiko was quickly moving through the upper levels of the Forest of Death, even while she held Mana carefully on her back the blacksmith moved incredibly fast even without the aid of chakra augmentations as her physical shape was by far the greatest of the three in her team. For a while the girls dashed around in silence.

"You know, you really took your time with returning to your body. If I didn't know any better I'd have thought you just wanted to be a freeloader and enjoyed the free piggyback…" grumpy Meiko complained.

"Me? What? No!" Kiyomi blushed momentarily before switching the topic, a simple verbal riposte that always worked to disarm her simpleton friend, "You of all people should be more ashamed than you are!"

"Yeah, Meiko, we were worried…" Mana gently joined to Kiyomi's side of the argument.

Meiko laughed out loud from the bottom of her heart and only shook her hands defensively once the curious and judgmental stares of her friends turned her way.

"You guys suck at these pep talk things. Mana's too soft in general and Kiyomi isn't too good on letting me have it…" the redhead noted.

"I'm… Fairly decent at… Letting you have it." Kiyomi shrugged before looking away in shame.

"No, in all seriousness, I know that what I did was wrong. I left during my shift keeping guard and I made you guys chase after me like an idiot. I'm sorry, when we were told there's a guy here with a chainsaw sword I just wanted to see it really badly." Meiko looked down clearly showing shame and regret in what she did. It was good that she did realize what she did was wrong because Mana started to suspect that Meiko's remark before about the two being soft on her was sort of right.

"What's important is that you're back…" Mana smiled as she could do little else in her powerless state. She did feel a little dizzy after losing a bit more of blood before, luckily enough Meiko stopped temporarily to apply ointment and some of their remaining medical supplies before continuing their trip. "It kind of makes me wonder why you returned in the first place. Did you even get to see the guy's chainsaw sword?" she wondered.

Meiko nodded. "I did, though when I heard those three discussing coming after us I realized that you guys may have been in trouble. Instead of snagging that sword to check it from the inside and how it's made I'm stuck with just the outer visuals. I'm pretty sure I could replicate it somewhat but it wouldn't be an exact replica until I make it show me some skin inside of it. I'm just good like that…"

"What did you mean by them talking about coming after us?" Kiyomi wondered.

"Well, initially my idea was to steal Faeras' chainsaw sword and see it from the inside, make some blueprints before giving it back to him. Then as I kept watch on them, looking for my chance, I overheard them considering joining in on a hunt for our team. Apparently, a whole bunch of teams don't really like us for a whole bunch of reasons and want us gone, they're even all pooling some resources together to make a "bounty-pool" of sorts to whoever eliminates us." Meiko explained.

"What other teams have you heard about? Surely they should've mentioned some other names for us to look out for…" Kiyomi looked fairly troubled by this revelation.

"Well, Tala and Tiwul got eliminated by Team Fir. Team Fir apparently did express dislike of our team but they didn't join into the pool. That much those three discussed. Then there was a whole bunch of Hoshigakure teams who were friendly to Clarmac's team we've eliminated. They didn't mention any more names." Meiko shrugged.

"That means Yushijin and Budoki know about my betrayal. Tala probably spilled it out after being beaten just to spite me…" Mana bit her lip in anxiety.

Kiyomi just sadly looked at Mana trying to find something to say to comfort her friend but she couldn't really find anything. It was probably tough to comfort someone with actions they did of which the comforter disapproved themselves.

"It wasn't a betrayal. People exchange information in here, remember how Quill-B just out and spilled the beans on his comrades too?" Meiko took initiative in consoling Mana.

"Yeah… On people who went out of their way to hunt down and murder his friend." Mana replied bitterly.

"I, for one, am really glad you returned when you did." Kiyomi smiled. "I was really beginning to sweat about how to pull me and Mana out. She was just sprawled out and completely helpless and I was not strong enough to fight everyone myself. Your help really put the plan together." The Yamanaka changed the subject again with a happy yet deceitful smile that hid the intent of changing the subject for the sole purpose of making Mana forget about what she indirectly stirred.

"Yeah, well… I saw the chainsaw blade, it was pretty cool, I loved it. Not even remotely as much as I love you guys, though!" Meiko grinned with a bright smile. Mana looked up into her friend's bright and goofy grin and, much to her surprise, realized that there was absolutely no regret of her choice. "I was pretty lucky to just stumble into you guys. I just went back all the way I came figuring it'd be the fastest way back…" the redhead shrugged.

A murder of crows, the size of a large mammal, lifted off the trees rushing through and outside the upper thick layer of leafage and into the bright sky as the ground wildly shook in a tremendous quake that sent ripples of its awesome might to at least fifty kilometers in each direction. Meiko just stopped in her tracks and grabbed firmly to Mana's thighs so that her friend didn't fall off her back. Mana yelled out in pain as in her weakened state her friend's grasp seemed almost like two mountains crushing her leg in between and after her expression of pain the redhead loosened her grip quite extensively in her apology.

"I vote we check it out." Meiko grinned after looking at Kiyomi.

"Oh, yeah, our sabotage, distraction and escape expert is weakened and almost completely paralyzed on your back, who knows how many teams are after our necks… What's the worst that could happen?" Kiyomi shrugged.

"It's fine. Stay quiet and stay down. Whatever's causing it is probably making a lot of noise which will make detecting us almost impossible." Mana softly tapped Meiko's shoulder.

The magician thought to herself what caused her encouragement. It was so many things that ran through her head that making out a singular, most important reason was quite impossible. On one hand, Meiko was quite likely to slip away and still look for whatever caused that shock, regardless of what the popular decision was. Maybe the recent events shook the blacksmith off this independency, maybe not. On another – it could've been genuinely useful seeing what they could find. Maybe it was another team, more intelligence to add into their quite rich package of information?

Meiko and Kiyomi carefully leaped down a pair of jumps, descending a good twenty meters lower before hiding in the thick branches that hid them from a large and more open field with a large swampy pond lurking further away. Only after they've safely positioned themselves to observe the ground shaking events did the trio dare to peek and analyze the transpiring situation below.

"Whoa! It's Pagu the Asshole!" Meiko shouted out quite loudly, yet her yells were very effectively drowned out by the noise that the situation below made. Situation being the colossal centipede at least a good six times larger than any that Mana had ever seen in this area, almost matching in size that enormous snake that she saw in this forest previously when the Rabbit Contract was rescued.

"I vaguely remember that guy…" Kiyomi shrugged her shoulders. "That is a Konohagakure team below us then? Friendlies?" she curiously inquired.

"He was in a class one year below me in the Academy. His reputation as a troublemaker was well known to me though… Even if he was younger than me I still was a bit wary of him and tried avoiding him for a long time. Not because he was aggressive or a bully, because he was just outright disgusting with the stunts he pulled." Mana recalled her experiences with the young short boy of dark chestnut colored hair and flashy azure eyes, murky green jumpsuit and silver rimmed glasses.

"When I failed the graduation exam once, I was transferred to his class. I can assure you that he is a complete ass-hat. He rarely ever won a fight he picked but he always scared everyone decent away and pulled anyone remotely as messed up as him closer." Meiko nodded looking at the team fighting below with genuine discontent that Mana had rarely seen in her friend. Then again, having in mind how much anxiety and stress the stories of the boy's behavior drove into Mana's own young mind, it was not overly surprising to see such vibrant reaction from someone in the same class as him.

"Is it true that Pagu Aphonei once peed all over the swings in the Academy yard in public view?" Kiyomi wondered in disgust.

"Is it true that he salvaged all of his ninja tools from a disposables container and then actually missed his targets on purpose, trying to infect his friends during target practice?" Mana's face shriveled in discontent.

"You don't even know the half of it… Like that time he rubbed himself in feces during sparring training so that his opponent freaked out and couldn't hit him." Meiko nodded.

"Please stop…" Kiyomi grimaced with her tongue in disgust.

"His poor team…" Mana shook her head.

Meanwhile the battle below raged on. The massive centipede let out some strange crackling sounds as his mandibles cracked together in hunger and anticipation of cracking some bones, letting out small spits of acidic goo that weren't intended to hit his prey of three but instead just trickling down his titan-hard shell without leaving as much as a scratch on its surface. The massive insectoid smashed two of its seemingly endless limbs somewhere in the general direction of the three ninja but all three of them jumped aside in an instant. They moved quite fast for ninja of their experience and rank. Even in her weakened state, Mana could tell that if she ever had to fight these three she'd be dodging their blows through reads and prediction as she'd have little chance of seeing them actually move.

Pagu had grown a nice fistful of hair since Mana last saw him. They ran carelessly all over his face which must've further inhibited his limited vision which required the silver rimmed glasses he wore. The young freak smiled sadistically as he swiped his hand tossing a bunch of empty syringes at the centipede's softer mouth parts before lunging in to its shell, using two others to take in some of the massive insectoid's secretion.

"It's a Hundred Kilometer Centipede…" Mana identified the massive creature sticking out of the ground. The astonishing earthquake before must've been caused by its surface from underground where it must've usually resided. Appearing from larger caves and crevices or just bashing through the ground and rock with its immense head to poison and dissolve its prey into mush.

"What!? A whole hundred!?" Meiko yelled out in excitement. "That's like… Whole Forest of Death in length!" she pondered long before the answer to a question she herself raised.

"Less than half of it, actually…" Kiyomi squinted at her silly friend before expressing her own doubts, "I don't think it's that large, really. Looks more like ten, if not less… Judging by the head part."

"It's not really hundred kilometers long, it's just a name. It refers to the insect's limitless potential to grow larger as it doesn't usually die of natural causes and lives underground after it matures. Usual specimen found range from five to ten kilometers in length but they can potentially grow to a full hundred and even more. They don't usually live too long and are commonly found in pieces. Full remains are quite rare." Mana explained. "Unlike another ground-shaking giant I've met around these parts, this one's actually native to the Forest of Death."

"Byakugan!" a loud yell from below forced the magician to stop discussing the native species and focus back on the three genin fighting for their lives below. A young lady with raven dark long hair had just activated her clan's signature ability, the Byakugan which the Hyuuga clan used to observe chakra nodes and intelligence gathering for generations. It was an old, elite and respected clan in the village with the smaller branches in other villages being treated almost as rogue second-rate ninja by the clan members themselves.

"It's Kuren…" Mana identified her past classmate.

"Is she as messed up as Pagu?" Meiko wondered as Kuren proceeded to run around and scale the insectoid's massive body looking for weak spots in its intensely hard shell and the softer flesh inside. Despite Kuren's most genuine attempts to strike at the weaker parts of the insect it appeared to be completely unfazed and what little chakra she inserted into the strikes didn't transfer past the powerful armor of her enemy.

"No, although it's tough to say. She didn't talk to me or play with me when we were kids. She had her own circle of friends she considered equally important as her. She once broke the hand of Chominu – another classmate of mine for touching her sandwich with a single tap of her fingers." Mana shook her head.

"Sounds like she was mean in her own way…" Kiyomi look at Mana with sad eyes, this was possible one of those few moments when the Yamanaka wondered what it was like not to come from any respected ninja clan. While most of the times it didn't make much difference in the social interactions, the more conservative people probably made a big deal out of it. It caused experiences Kiyomi, as a future heiress of the Yamanaka clan, couldn't really relate to but she was quite curious about them. In a way, she even wanted to experience them.

Another young lady with bright violet hair began dancing gracefully holding two sticks in her hands with long strands of silk tied to them. It was a curiously attractive sight to lay one's eyes on but not overly effective fighting technique, or so it seemed looking at it with a naked eye.

"Wind Style: Fifty-Knot Crescent!" the girl chanted out as a powerful shockwave emanated from the silk cloth of her peculiar weaponry hit the insect whose body leaned backwards as if blasted away by a powerful force.

Pagu landed off of the staggering insect down on the ground beside his two kunoichi teammates before teasing Kuren. The young man spat onto his palm before attempting to tap her shoulder in consolation that her attack brought no fruitful results. The freak's attempt was met only by a light lean backwards by Kuren, avoiding Pagu's gross move, and a knee to his gut that made the young man lean down and wheeze out air he had lost.

The monstrous centipede returned to its upwards positioned, straightening out the part of its body that was aboveground before spouting out a whole wave of acidic goo from its mouth that was likely the poison it used to degrade the still living prey to something it could consume.

"Eight Trigram Palms: Revolving Heaven!" Kuren yelled out loud as she released large amounts of chakra from all of her chakra nodes all at once before beginning to spin rapidly to form a rotating sphere of shielding chakra. The technique only covered up the kunoichi herself and didn't bother to encompass her allies. However the powerful force of the rotating shield blasted Pagu away from any harm in a rude and painful yet saving manner.

"Wind Style: Fifty-Knot Full Moon!" Kuren's ally yelled out as she continued her graceful and acrobatic dance with her silk and wood sticks creating a strong defensive pillow of storming winds that blasted a significant portion of acid back onto the centipede's own shell making it wrangle uncomfortably even if its shell didn't appear to be affected in a meaningful way.

"That was rude, Kuren-chan!" Pagu teased his teammate as he crawled back to the battlefield on all fours, clearly injured from being tossed around.

"Shut up or I'll break your spine, lowly trash." Kuren gave his teammate a cold stare. "I apologize I did not protect you, Zephra, I believe you to be able to protect yourself sufficiently."

Kuren's other female teammate just blinked a couple of times in confirmation before resetting the patterns of her dance. This was good. A clear chance of seeing these three in action, surveying their abilities as well as seeing and mapping out their movements for further use. Just seeing her reset her dance made Mana a quite hopeful that she'd be able to read this Zephra girl with more success in the future.

"This Zephra, I think she was one year older in a different class." Mana tried to remember but could only remember vague recollections. Zephra was not really the kind of student to stand out too much, she was more of a textbook grey filler of the classroom. As an older student she was equally admired by everyone in Mana's class but she was certainly no celebrity in the school for her behavior, good and bad things included.

Pagu scratched his messy and greasy hair before pulling out two handfuls of syringes, holding them in a textbook kunai and shuriken throwing position. He must've used syringes instead of normal ninja tools meaning he bothered to modify his arsenal with custom orders, similarly to Mana and her different decks of sealed cards, but also that he was skilled enough to concoct different chemicals to place inside of those syringes. With a jumping and spinning toss, maximizing the momentum and force, Pagu lobbed his syringes to the upper parts of the aboveground centipede's head.

The insect merely shook before placing the top of his head in front of the three and allowing the syringes to bounce off of the forehead toughened section of his shell.

"Oh no…" Pagu lamented in an overly dramatic manner, as if he was just fooling around. "It appears my attacks are completely ineffective against this monster! Maybe I should've acquired greater weaponry than just measly syringes!?" he gripped at his lower jaw as if he was going through a life crisis.

"Stop making excuses for being useless!" Kuren scolded her teammate before turning to Zephra. "It looks sort of pointless but he's definitely taking damage. If we were to kill this thing it'd take more effort than we should spend on it. I advise retreat."

"True. I'm sure if I amped up my ninjutsu I could cut it to pieces but it'd be a hassle. We need to save some chakra for the real enemy." The dancer girl nodded.

The ground beneath began to rumble and shake again. Team Hokage curiously looked down before realizing that a swarm of building sized ants was bursting from a large pile of dirt that was beginning to build up from right below in such quantities that it displaced and threatened to completely topple the tree they were on. Kiyomi and Meiko quickly leaped onto another tree before observing what transpired further. They observed in horror as the swarm rushed right past the three genin and began snapping the centipede's shell open with the gigantic mandibles on their heads shaped, as it appeared, exactly for this function.

Squirting acid and whatever else involuntarily was released from its soft innards the centipede cracked its head part off and twisted into a rolling ball of solid armored shell before rolling away, looking for a quieter spot or a cave that could've lead to its favored hiding spot where it could've restarted its journey of growth to become a ten kilometer centipede once more. Soon the giant ants began burrowing into the ground in search of the massive body that its fleeing prey left behind as its escaping speed was a bit too troubling to pursue.

"Hmmm… I wonder where these Snapper Ants came from!?" Pagu shouted out in surprise in an overly dramatic manner once more as if all of this was just a game. While his kunoichi teammates looked troubled by the swarm's appearance initially, they now observed as the blind in their savagery insects disappeared once more into the same hole from which their previous opponent had surfaced.

"Snapper Ants?" Mana wondered out loud. "It's one of the natural predators of the Hundred Kilometer Centipede."

"I know they're from around these parts but… Wasn't that quite lucky that they surfaced right now and completely ignored the three people right in front of them?" Kiyomi inquired. Something seemed suspicious to her.

"Of course it was the Snapper Ants. A certain cast of females die right after giving birth and decompose especially quickly, their pheromones are incredibly easy to harvest or emulate using the Awashan mushroom." Mana began wrapping her mind around what Pagu's move was exactly.

"He must've known that his syringes would get busted but that's what Pagu wanted. He wanted to spread the food trail pheromone all over the centipede…" Kiyomi followed the trail.

The three girls observed for a while more, even after Pagu's Team Hickory had left in a blurry flash, as the crazed Snapper Ants surfaced only to disappear in the hole where the rest of the centipede's body laid, abandoned by its head part to make a successful escape.

In his teen years, Pagu Aphonei was just as scary as he was during his kid years. Just in whole different ways…