Disclaimer: I, the author of this story, do not own 'Naruto', in any of its forms, nor do I own it's characters, places, general plot or illustrations. Any character presented here not found in the original Manga or Anime of 'Naruto', was created by this writer and was in no way borrowed or stolen from another person's creation or work. Any similarities with both real people and/or existent fictional characters is purely coincidental, and unintentional.

Warning: Very descriptive violence and course language is present troughout the Chapter.

From Rain To Rust

Chapter Seven

Day Two: 'Somebody Help Me Dig These Graves'

The sight wasn't a welcome one. Thankfully the available agents deployed had taken care of the remains, that way someone made sure that no animals or other beasts defiled the corpse of their comrade until the proctors arrived in the morning…

Not that it hadn't been defiled enough already.

"How's Sai?" Darui asked the Sunagakure Kunoichi beside him. His eyes still fixated straight down.

"One of the Hunters from Kiri knew enough about medical ninjutsu to treat him." Temari replied, eyes stagnant ahead as well. "They said he wasn't in mortal danger or had any critical damage done." Really, it didn't make sense at all. 'They had him…' Temari thought; Sai was presumably unconscious at least at the same the… situation took place. "They took him to the tower in the meantime. We have medical attention there."

Once the body cooled down, the scene became even worse (visually at least, since they didn't have to deal with the smell right now), every ounce of water had long left the body, there was no sizzling, no smoke or vapor; but that only meant the body had shrunken down to a fraction of the size the once mighty Ninja was. And for his teammates—the Kiri Hunters—the experience was far worse…

They had to sit down by what used to be their associate, friend even to some of them. They had to sit there and listen all night at the disgusting whistle of steam leaving a charred body, they listened to every little crack the remaining bones made every fraction of the hour, they sat there and took a bite of food, and slept beside a body that was actively getting more and more deformed by the second, that twisted inside that wretched hole until the one couldn't possibly assume there was ever a spine holding the body straight.

"Will we take any measure?" Darui asked, finally taking his eyes off the body to look over at Temari.

"You know we can't."

"Only we can."

"No we can't." Temari stated, turning to hold Darui's gaze. "We made it pretty clear before the Exams started, everyone knew this could happen. They were all volunteers, their Kages had been preparing them for this for months."

Darui knew what she was saying—she was right afterall—but still, he didn't even feel like forgiving himself for suggesting a twist of the rules. He was a warrior if there ever was one; but perhaps the past War had softened everyone a bit, before that Darui couldn't have cared less for a Nin from another village being blown out of this war… But now? Now he couldn't help but think that this could've been avoided.

"What if we underestimated the teams?" Darui asked promptly.

"What do you mean? We had files, we had-"

"They all survived the War." Darui interrupted Temari. "It hardened us all, maybe they are Chūnin only in name, no one would have survived what we all survived while being a tame Ninja. You saw what I saw back in the Hall… A lot of these teams are looking forward to this encounters. They want to be hunted."

"What do you mean? They are Chūnin, whether that's by name or not that's what they are!" Temari's frown deepened, fed more by thought than anger.

"May I remind you of the 'legitimate' rank those who saved us all had back then?" Darui didn't concede. But he also was humble enough to accept that it had been two Konoha Shinobi that had saved the world, saved him… Two Konoha 'Genins'.

Darui's words were true, and they hit home. Temari knew it, everybody knew it; but evidence didn't lie either, a handful of teams had been eliminated already in the first day! There's always over-achievers in these things, she knew that perfectly, she'd been one of those overachievers as well.

"And may I remind you that these kids didn't even fight in the war, Darui?" Temari's voice was firm. She was a perfectionist, she wasn't a slacker, she didn't meet things halfway, she didn't fail! But even then she was having a hard time trying not to put this body on her conscience.

"Maybe they didn't fight in our war, Temari…" Darui replied, skipping over the part where they were her exact age; He took a last glance at her and at the cadaver before finally jumping away from the scene and back to the tower.

"How are we feeling?" Kurotsuchi asked her team as she stretched her right arm over her chest, a confident but relaxed smile lacing her lips.

"Solid, pretty solid I'd say." Karui replied, yawning deeply as she scratched her neck. "Really that sausage fest felt more like a Genin team than a Chūnin team.

A huffing chuckle escaped Kurotsuchi's lips. Karui was right, they all were blowing this whole thing out of proportion, the first other participating team they'd faced didn't even make them sweat. If the rest was to be like this then they might as well just lie around and wait for their promotions altogether.

Hinata had a smile on her face, she'd never been a self-assured person… Courageous yes! Without question—not that she acknowledged it anyway—but self-assured never. Even after deciding she would participate in the Exams she had doubts about her skills, she doubted she'd be on par with everyone else, most people believed it had been Naruto who convinced her to take the Exams; but they'd be wrong, that decision had been a personal one, a decision that no one could have made her change her mind about… She might have doubts, she might be insecure, but she wasn't going to run away now, she wasn't going to fall short once again. She had something to prove to herself, she had to make herself proud.

And Hinata was doing just that.

"You were sick back there, Hinata!" Kurotsuchi uttered, she didn't make compliments often, the few times she did they were as honest as ever; and this time wasn't an exception.

Karui was still quite amused that Kurotsuchi had next to no tact even while being a member of Iwagakure's most Legendary Clan… but she had to agree, Hinata had kicked some serious ass back there.

"I-I like to think I did alright." Hinata replied, subtle smile growing just a bit at on corner. It wasn't that often she got compliments aimed at her skills.

"Are you joking?" Karui couldn't stop herself from replying. "You took two at a time head-on for a few while and they didn't even know what hit them."

"I suppose I did more than alright…" Hinata giggled a little, more of a nervous tick than anything else, her cheeks were reddening a little around the edges.

"That's the way!" Kurotsuchi exclaimed, she knew that as a leader she had to do more than just fighting, directing them, and taking care of morale was an important role as well.

"Let's head out and see what else we can get our hands on." Karui proposed, feeling her blood start running alive once again.

"I agree!" Kurotsuchi punched her fists together. "Let's blow some more of these teams out of the water." But she was shook out of her trance when a fist came into view before her.

Hinata (cheeks blushing) had her right arm extended, fist closed and presumably ready for some 'bumping'.

This elicited smiles from both of her teammates.

"We're so gonna win these exams."

The morning after wasn't easy on anyone.

"I'm tired of listening to your stupid charade again and again!" Kaori replied bitingly, her nostrils flared and her teeth gritted together after every word.

"I don't care if you're tired or not!" Runa responded right back, taking a step forward to tower over her teammate. "I am your leader whether you want it or not! You had orders! You had directions! We weren't to execute anyone just for a whimp of frustration!"

Yoa tried to keep to himself for the moment, he'd pretty much done so the night before. Ugly words had been said last night—and he knew he was capable of saying them just as well as his teammates did—which was the main reason he chose not to intervene unless it was necessary.

Kaori listened to Runa… Over and over she'd listened to Runa. 'What happened out there? Who told you to do that? Why didn't you stop? You acted recklessly out there! You acted like a common thug!...' Runa's words were severe, but this wasn't the first time she got chastised by her leader—God knew their first days as a team were laced with quite open hostility—it wasn't even the worse one…

But this particular time Kaori knew she was in the wrong… Only she wasn't?
It was easy to accept punishment and discipline when you acted without thought, when your acts endangered the mission; hell, Kaori would rather get insulted for screwing up than getting a pat on the back.

Only it wasn't Kaori who acted this time… 'It was-' She didn't even want to think what it was. But it wasn't a someone; that wasn't Kaori's brain taking the lead, it wasn't her heart thumping in her chest, it wasn't her hands running through seals, not her eyes locking down a prey, not her mind… not her decisions.

"-You're supposed to be an Elite Ninja! We've gone through worse than that! Where's your discipline? Where's your poise? Where's your-"

"SHUT UP!" Kaori screamed, certainly loud enough that it was heard through the forest.

Yoa's eyes widened, he blinked a couple of times; it wasn't that often that either of them talked back to Runa when they were handling business. They did have a hierarchy, a structure, everyone knows that no unit could ever work without a leader, and the base to all of that structure is respect. At least respect for their leader.

"Shut the Hell up!" Kaori repeated instantly. "Shut your damn mouth already!" Her volume was much lower than her first response, but it was still clear she wasn't exactly whispering.

"What did you-" Runa leaned over, jaw locking down as she stared down Kaori.

"I don't care for your words anymore! Stop already! I'm tired of listening to your stupid soft words over and over!" Kaori stared right up at Runa, closing the distance between them and not taking a step back from the taller woman.

"What are we here for?" Kaori continued. "Did you come here to lick some boots and look pretty?" Kaori's intrusions were flowing out of her mouth, yes Runa's continuous rant got to her nerves; but most of all (not that Kaori would ever say so, ever) her words were fueled by fear, by the sheer terror of what could signify for her and her friends if she ever lost control of herself again. By knowing it was herself that was wrong; she was just letting her mind make excuses for herself, and she was letting her mouth say all those words.

No. She'd rather fight against them than letting the truth be known; she'd lash out, punch and kick, scratch and bite, but she'd never tell them that she'd finally lost it. Anything but that.

"You've become soft! I'm tired of you! You're gonna get all of us killed if you keep tip-toeing around because you're scared of the consequences!" Kaori stabbed her finger on Runa's chest. "What's next? Dropping to your knees in front of the Kages and-"

"Kaori!" Yoa walked over to his friends, separating them with each arm and scowling at both. "Enough, what's wrong with you? Quiet down already."

"Don't even talk to me right now." Kaori slapped Yoa's arm away, directing her gaze to him.

"What about you? Talking about soft—" Kaori's enraged eyes were something Yoa had never been on the receiving end of. "—how about defending that fucking Naruto guy and his little princess? Now you've forgotten about it all? They throw a bone at you and suddenly everything's okay?"

Yoa wasn't about to let her talk to him like that… She knew that he knew what was War's cost better than most. And the fact that it was Kaori spouting those words made them hurt even more.

"The hell's your problem? Look at yourself! Get a hold of yourself!" Yoa replied.

"And you grow a spine! What kind of man defends the guy that sent his village to shit?" Kaori barked. "What? You defend Naruto for killing Pain?" Kaori's next words would haunt her until her dying day, she was grasping at straws, she knew so; everyone did it sooner or later, everyone defended themselves even after knowing they were in the wrong, everyone dug their own hole wider and wider… But not like this. Not to… Not to a loved one.

"What's next, Yoa? What's next? What other piece of shit are you going to defend next? Are you going to mourn Pain now? Are you gonna defend him now?" Kaori chukled mockingly. "Maybe him murdering your parents made sense after all. Right?"

Runa's fury died instantly. It was like someone took the life out of her. And she could see Kaori saw right through her own mistake right away; the woman's face shifted from petty fury to the self-realization of what she'd said. There wasn't any take backs now.

"Yoa…" Runa reached over for Yoa's wrist.

Yoa slapped it away hard enough Runa felt actual pain run up her arm.

"Let's get a move on." Yoa spoke dryly, the scowl from before was gone. All expression on his face was gone now. His eyes were vacant and his jaw was set. The man jumped ahead without giving the two girls so much as a glance.

"People can't see this, Temari." Shikamaru's voice reached her ears just a fraction of a second after the image on her screen uttered them.

This was far from the ideal interaction she wished they'd be having after the last time they saw each other. But since Shikamaru was the Chief Coordinator ('Who came up with that title anyway?') of the entire Exams; that meant he needed to get informed when anything notable happened.

Which meant Shikamaru had a cadaver on his hands and the need to come up with an explanation for the Mizukage.

"How can people have seen what happened?" Darui—who sat beside Temari—asked with a raised eyebrow.

Temari turned her head over to Darui, as did the screen-version of Shikamaru.

"You think that giant screen Konoha embedded right on the center of it's main street was just to look pretty or what?" Temari barked to her partner, which in turn gave Shikamaru a small headache; no one needed more hostility amongst villages.

"Sorry. That makes sense." Was all Darui replied, not even acknowledging Temari's temper.

By now Temari was well aware of Darui's particular… 'approach' to life. Which meant she knew perfectly well Darui wasn't the kind to get offended by pretty much anything.
Really they were the ideal pair when it came to work, she'd lash out at him, he'd say sorry, and then they'd do their job. That was sharp thinking from Shikamaru.

"We don't even know if people saw it, Shikamaru." Temari went back to argue with Shikamaru. This past couple of years technology had made frightening advances, advances the Shinobi Union decided to use in its favor. That's how they managed to hide cameras throughout the forest, how they managed to get the live feed to the tower, and to Konoha's screen. But new technology always had flaws, flaws that could prove helpful this particular time.

"It's only one screen, more than 20 teams, and about a hundred cameras…!" Temari tried to reason. "We've people working around the clock trying to show anything interesting on the screen—and for the most part we have—but I don't even think anyone was fast enough to show that one on the screen. They were watching Lee's team fight Hyō."

"Even if they didn't—" Shikamaru sneered. "—people can't see that, if you show a death in a fight then… maybe, but we can't show executions in the middle of a Peace Summit." Ideally not at all.

"Sorry, but—" Darui interjected. "—what's the objective of any of this, then?" Darui questioned his coordinator. "If it wasn't the right time to hold an event where people are encouraged to kill each other then why have it at all?"

Darui had actually read Temari's mind, it was beyond annoying how they all were getting these mixed signals from everyone. 'We stand for peace!' The Raikage announces in a ceremony. 'Let them know there's no holding back now. Assure them no death will be punished.' He told them behind closed doors.

Shikamaru sighed and threw his head back. "Troublesome…" The Nara muttered under his breath before massaging his neck and looking back at the camera.

"I wish it was that easy. But thing is; we know what's behind this peace. We know the Kages' words are truthful, we know everyone is complying with the rules, that bonds grew tighter after the war… but there's always renegades. Whether they are civilians or small groups of Shinobis holding grudges there will always be people that hate each other. You two know true peace is impossible to achieve, let's not pretend otherwise."

Temari and Darui looked at each other, silently agreeing with every word Shikamaru was saying, they pretty much knew what he'd say next already.

"We're just trying to not give anyone more reasons to do so..." Shikamaru stated. "Anyway if anything like this happens again we'll have to do something about it." The Nara shut down the communication after that, barely locking eyes with Temari before the screen went black.

It had sounded more like a threat than a warning to Temari's ears. 'Would they even dare to shut this down? Was it really that bad?' Temari groaned and threw her head back. They'd be throwing months and months of hundreds of people's work away if that were to happen; and in a sense it all rested on hers and Darui's shoulders.

"That was so—"

"—Troublesome." Darui deadpanned, finishing Temari's sentence.

"What d'ya think? They seem solid but I say we can do it."

"I don't think that's even a question."

"How would we do it?"

"Hm…"

"Okay, okay, I got it: ..."

"Seriously, Yukata. You don't have to give him your food. I don't think it's wise to be all hungry while fighting." Tenten tried to reason with her teammate.

"I'm alright, really." Yukata assured Tenten. "As much as I like food I don't really have the need to stuff myself like our Captain does."

Yukata then realized that sounded at least a bit rude, so she grinned to her leader in a repentant manner. "No offense!"

"None taken." The grave, raspy voice of the burly Chōji Akimichi replied with a full smile as he eagerly received some of Yukata's food. He engulfed it in a single bite.

"You should at least take your time with it!" Tenten reprimanded her Konoha fellow, agitating the big steel mace she was just polishing.

Yukata huffed chuckingly at Chōji, she really liked the man; he was one of the gentlest persons she'd ever met and almost always had at least the hint of a smile on his lips. If anything his attitude was contagious; and for what she'd heard he was also savagely powerful…

That was a sight she was also eager to see.

"Alright. I think we should start to move a bit—" Chōji announce to his team. He may very well be one of the calmest, most easy going shinobi in Konoha; but that didn't mean he didn't take his job seriously. He'd allow many things, but letting one of his teammates (and friends) getting hurt wasn't one of those, much less while being their leader.

"—we've spent a good amount here and we're open to-" The Akimichi's words were interrupted when his heavy feet suddenly buried to the ground beneath him. The soil reaching just above his knee.

"Wha-" Tenten was about to ask before she was struck on her gut by a spike of rock that shoot out of the ground, knocking the air out of her completely; and lightly piercing her skin with it's tip.

Yukata didn't lose time, she leapt from the ground as high as her legs let her, eyes scanning her surroundings wildly. She wouldn't be caught off guard.

A frontal slash swung right at Yukata's torso, Karui roaring with her lightning-infused Katana, erratic bolts traveling up and down the polished steel.

"Got you!" Yukata shouted happily, a ferocious grin lacing her lips as she caught the blade with a Kunai, she waited a second after locking eyes with her foe before transferring wind to her Kunai, causing the lightning Katana to recoil back enough for Yukata to land a wild kick on Karui's mid-section.

Kurotsuchi watched Karui get hit, not enough to cause damage, but it was enough to send her to the ground. It was now or never; Kurotsuchi leaped out with her enormous rock fist to punch the trapped Akimich with all her might.

An equally gigantic maze smashed right against Kurotsuchi's fist with enough force to deviate the hit.

"Thank you, Tenten." Chōji nodded at her teammate before expanding his lower half enough to break his earth bounds.

Yukata was close to landing right alongside her teammates.

Until she felt a sharp, stinging pain on her innards, a vacuum blast sending her crumbling away from her team.

"Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm—" Hinata came out from her hide, smirking at the corner of her mouth. "Successful."

"Yukata!" Tenten lost her focus right after she saw the pained face of the Suna Kunoichi, her mind tricking her when Yukata's face was replaced by a pair of lavender eyes…

Tenten shook her head, looking back at her foes for long enough to see the Rock-Fist slam right on her right cheek. She felt her jaw slide out of place and her whole spine crack from the violent whiplash. She was slammed right against a rock-wall that protruded out of the ground to violently crush her body with a single blow.

"Human Bullet Tank!" Chōji's massive rolling form blasted with enough force to shake the ground, her target: Kurotsuchi.

Kurotsuchi was barely able to process the attack, 'How can a man that size move that fast?!' Her mind screamed. Her hands moved by pure reflex, trying to come up with enough seals for a jutsu that would save their user.

Too slow.

"Cloud Style: Front Beheading!" Karui came out of seemingly nowhere and clashed against Chōji's speeding boulder with her weapon, swinging against the rolling mass with all the strength her body could muster.

A cloud of smoke blasted higher than the cups of the trees, the expansive wave completely ripping branches from their trees and sending them leaps away from the clash point.

Only Hinata was able to see through the cloud of dust flying about, her Byakugan fully activated and searching for her teammates and enemies alike.

Karui and Chōji were sent flying backwards but both regained their footing as soon as they reached the ground; both were locked-in on each other now, even though they couldn't see through the dust they sprinted in a straight line to defeat the other; the Akimichi flailed his colossal fist forward.

The Kumo Kunoichi, deflected it to the left with a powerful swing of her Katana, the clash once again sending waves through the landscape, this time pushing most of the dark golden dust away.

Kurotsuchi took the message right away, she didn't bother thanking her teammate and went right to the just-recuperating Tenten. Her fist collided right at Tenten's gut; the perforation wound from the stone-spike sent a shock around Tenten's organs, but she wasn't able to completely acknowledge it before Kurotsuchi's other fist connected on her dislocated jaw, sending her backwards to the ground once again.

Hinata had to pretend… Pretend because the Byakugan saw everything she saw the struggling hits Yukata directed her way, she also saw how her Vacuum Palm had done horrors to Yukata's chakra network. The girl would fall down on her own sooner rather than later. That wasn't the issue...

Because her Byakugan also caught how Tenten was getting pummeled by Kurotsuchi, Hinata's leader and teammate.

Tenten, the perky girl that was Hinata's dear friend.
Tenten who accompanied Hinata to her wedding.
Tenten who was assigned in a team with the single two most hardworking Ninjas alive, and with the greatest prodigy the Hyuga clan had ever seen.
Tenten who wasn't even close to being the most hardworking person on her team.
Tenten who couldn't become a Medical Nin, who tried to emulate her biggest idol and missed over and over again.
Tente who worked diligently all her life to become the greatest Kunoichi in all of Konoha…
Tenten who fell short. Very short.

Tenten who grew so close and personal with Hinata's cousin Neji that one could only wonder…
Tenten who lost her best friend, her sparring partner, her toughest critic and biggest admiror…
Tenten who lost everything the day Neji sacrificed his life for Hinata.
Tenten who couldn't even protect the person she'd grown to love the most in the world…

Tenten who always fell short.

Hinata closed her eyes in a completely futile attempt to shut her view from what was happening. Trying to ignore the pain it caused her to know that Tenten had lost before she stepped into the forest, that it was her fault Neji got taken away from Tenten...

She caught every single move Kurotsuchi made, how relentless the Iwa Warrior was, how every crack and silent plea of mercy from Tenten's body wasn't enough to satiate her hunger for dominance.

Hinata shut her eyes as hard as she could. She could only pretend.

Yoa was still ahead of them, jumping through the last rays of sunshine; and even if Kaori and Runa were interested in shaking him from his solace they knew they wouldn't be able to do it. If he wanted to be caught he'd say so; otherwise they'd have no chance.

All the tension between Kaori and Runa was long gone, both shared pained, timid glances every few minutes. Runa couldn't even muster the strength to hold Kaori guilty for what she'd said, she knew that were Kaori capable of doing or giving anything—ANYTHING—away to do so she'd do it without hesitation. She knew how much pain Kaori was feeling right now; and she felt guilty considering Kaori when Yoa was the one that had been attacked.

Yoa's legs stopped on a high branch, his eyes looking way down ahead.

"What's up?" Kaori spoke in a desperate attempt to get her friend to talk to her or at least acknowledge her in any way.

Yoa nodded ahead, Runa's eyes following the direction of his eyes.

"A team." Runa spoke, and not any team.

"Alright. Here's what we're gonna do." Runa called for her team's attention.

Yoa blasted away and straightforward to the enemy team.

"YOA!" Both his teammates shouted at the speeding man.

Team Shinomoi was taking a breather after their rounds. Night was already falling on them, and they were thinking of making this their place to pass the night on. They hadn't had much action yet, only some beasts and animals.

But all that changed when the loud cry of a familiar name reached their ears.

All of them looked up at the two Kunoichis they've heard scream, standing on the branch… 'But where was-?'

Yoa's knee stabbed right in the center of Omoi's chest, his eyes full of fury and lust.

"Shit!" Runa gritted. The impact had been impressive, the ground literally crattered around Omoi and Yoa. And the tremors broke the branch she and Kaori were standing on.

"Let's go!" Kaori shouted as she moved down to the scene. It took Runa a second to comply, but she did.

Ino and Shino couldn't even take in what had happened, one second everything was perfect; and the other it was pure mayhem, Omoi was nowhere to be seen and two girls were falling down to attack them.

"Ino! Left!" Shino was able to signal to his teammate.

"Got it!" Ino replied, dashing left and throwing a barrage of Throwing Stars at Kaori, who blocked them away by using her Scythes.

Runa slashed at Shino, cutting him in half as his form dissipated into a cloud of bugs.
Bugs that started to lash at Runa aggressively; she immediately counter attacked by quick slashes of her Katana.

Omoi's eyes blurred out the images in front of him, nothing but a purple sky almost completely enveloped by the night, edges of the crattered ground above him and some dust and leaves rustled up. He felt his chest hurt with every thump of his heart, but thankfully he was a tough one, he didn't feel much more than bruised ribs and sternum. That he could handle, but the brief concussion that ailed him was another thing.

His ears were ringing, eyes couldn't focus, light hurt his head. Those were things he couldn't exactly toughen up at the moment.

Shino's bugs were proving very problematic to Runa, she slashed batch after batch but they didn't stop.

"Lightning Style: Lightning Razors!" Runa shouted, letting the bugs envelop her before activating her jutsu. 'Well that did it.' She thought, not seeing the real Shino barely an arm away from her back.

Yoa gripped the front of Omoi's flack jacket with his right hand, carrying him up above the ground.
Omoi felt he was somewhat wrong with his previous assessment, he was telling his body to move but the order was lagging, he'd already reached for his sword and swung if he were one hundred percent right now.

Yoa started to gather his metal debris around his left arm, eyes were locked on Omoi's. He wanted blood and wanted it now; on the corner of his eye he could see the Konoha Kunoichi running circles around Kaori, trying to pierce through her defense while Kaori settled just for deflecting the projectiles…

On the other he saw Runa getting rid of the bugs, but he also saw a figure reappearing behind Runa.

Shino extended a single finger towards Runa, ready to let his Venomous Kikaichū do its job for him. Right until a body literally slammed on his side and knocked him down and away from Runa.

The leader from Amegakure turned around once she heard the hit, Omoi's body was sprawled over Shino's a good few feet away from her. Yoa had gotten her back that time, literally throwing Omoi like a ragdoll towards Shino… It only made her feel more guilty to know that even in his irate state he had her back still.

Ino smirked, she was more than handling her own against this Amegakure girl… 'Really I don't get what the fuss is about with these Ame Team…' Ino threw yet another set of throwing stars, all of them getting deflected by Kaori. 'Hah! I got her on her heels now…'

Then Ino stopped in her tracks, positioning her hands in a triangle, locking Kaori's figure right in the middle of it, Ino smirked wolfishly.

"Mind Body Switch Te-" Ino's words were cut by a Kunai slashing her calf, making her lose balance.

Runa attacked right after her Kunai, slashing her other calf with the Katana, Ino plopped to the ground as small puddles of blood formed under each foot.

"Cloud Style: Crescent Moon Beheading!" Omoi's voice raged through, slashin Runa's face across the chin and nose.

Runa stuttered backwards after she felt the stinging cut of Omoi, she licked the blood that ran down her lip and smirked. "Second Date, right?" She locked eyes with Omoit before clashing swords against him, landing a hard kick on his bruised sternum once their swords were locked.

Ino was actively trying to heal her tendons; she had to get up and help Omoi...!
But just when she felt ready to step up she felt a strong heel smash her ankle completely, breaking the bone under it.

Yoa twisted his foot on the joint, not batting an eye to Ino's wail of pain. He looked over to Kaori and stared her down. Silently communicating more than enough.

"Iron Mountain Leaning!" Two of Shino's bug clones slammed into Yoa, removing him away from Ino. Shino then jumped between his clones and faced the Magnet Release user.

"Spindle Formation!" Shino yelled, his two clones becoming wild spyrals of bugs that lunged right at Yoa. Soon after Shino himself joined the attack, not giving Yoa an inch to attack, keeping him on the defense.

Kaori stood there after Yoa's glare; now she knew what he'd felt when she looked at him that way. How deeply it hurt, and Kaori's feet couldn't move from their place, not even after that; it only served as yet another reminder of what had happened to her control.

Omoi was meeting every swing from Runa, his complete attention was on her and her moves… and her mouth. She was annoyingly talkative when it came to battle.

"Come on, tough guy. That all you got?—" Runa weaved down, hitting Omoi's chin with the butt of her Katana, making him lose his footing for a second. "—Here I was getting all roused up!"

Runa gritted her last words of effort before purposely slamming his blade to Omoi's one, releasing her grip on the weapon and letting it spin mid-air; meanwhile her hands went through her hand-seals.

"Earth Style: Rock Pillar Spears!" Runa shouted before catching her Katana back behind Omoi.

Omoi barely had the presence of mind to stop the spike coming out right between his legs, searching to hit his groin with all its might.

"Oops." Runa taunted the man before giving him a scar of his own after slashing up his back, trickles of blood running down his clothing after his groan of pain.

Shino was proving to be more than capable at Taijutsu, and Yoa was realizing it more by the second, he had to dodge two swarms of flesh-eating-venomous bugs coming his way AND parry the blows from his actual human foe. He was growing tired of it.

Yoa pushed away of Shino after parrying a punch of the Aburame and pushing his heel off of Shino's chest to gain some space.

"Magnet Release: Sandpaper Jutsu!"

A wild flurry of metallic shards manifested almost instantly, every shard minuscule and sharper than any razor. The dark dismantlingly-cutting waves of metal cut right through every single one of Shino's bugs and enveloped him simultaneously.

Shino didn't have time to mourn his bugs, he felt cut after cut open his flesh, completely ripping apart his fingers and toes, arms and legs getting attacked by dozen after dozen of cuts, he could feel his bugs literally dripping out of the gashes opening all over his body; if it was someone else it'd be their guts dripping out and he knew it, it'd be a liver, and kidneys, and a heart.
Shino felt his sight get obscured as more and more of the bugs that lived inside him left his body, he felt his back hit the floor and his consciousness slowly drift away…

Yoa looked down at his victim, taking in the sight for one second before redirecting his gaze to another objective...

Omoi didn't even see the shadow of the man approach.

End of Day Two

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To be continued...

Note: Somehow this one proved very difficult to write. I can't promise Chapter 8 to arrive next week, so enjoy this one! I'll upload the eighth asap.