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Nails biting indents, Renri twisted the scroll.

Daiki had gotten caught by the other team. A trap, she had realized too late.

Given the other group lacked a strong taijutsu fighter, the three range and stealth oriented, they concluded ambush would be their most likely tactic. And they had been right. The other team knew their disadvantage but found an unlikely counter strategy.

Mariko continued, words an angry jumble Renri outright ignored. Thick vegetation, crowded trees, area heavy in cover, this was the exact opposite of the path Renri had set.

The other team had been following and waiting for Mariko to disregard Renri's orders. The moment Mariko decided to re-route them to this section of forest, the other team made their move. The cover aided the other team more than them. They all went after Daiki. He struggled to fend off the long and mid-range attacks hitting him from all directions. Renri and Mariko searched to take them on, but two against three, the third took off with tied-up Daiki as the other two threw smoke bombs.

Daiki would undoubtedly give away the plan. They were out-numbered. They were off course. The other team would either pick them off until they got the scroll, wait to ambush them at the drop-off point, or stall long enough that time expired.

They'd failed.

Mariko stepped in front of Renri. Face red, breaths uneven huffs, fists shaking at her sides, she whisper-yelled, "This is your fault! We're going to fail!"

That. That finally snapped Renri's patience. She dropped the scroll on the ground. Quiet forest, the soft thud became thunderous. Mariko stared at the scroll unceremoniously covered in dirt. Renri wanted to stomp on it, grind it into the ground, but tantrums solved nothing.

Renri's voice leveled as she tried to calm down. Mariko was upset, and now deflecting. Yelling back would solve nothing. "We're being graded on teamwork." And Mariko knew that. They may not have figured out how Sensei was monitoring them as he sat at 'base camp,' but he had to be.

That was the opposite of what she should have said.

Mariko pulled back an arm and fist. The pause, she contemplated. Then she dropped down to collect the scroll. "Whatever. I'll go myself. I don't need your help."

"We should give up on the drop-off. If we keep the scroll and recover Daiki-"

"Shut up!"

Renri narrowed her eyes, the scroll back in the dirt, a sting in her cheek. Throwing it at her…

"You don't get to show up and act like you know everything!" Stealth forgotten, Mariko's voice continued to rise into a shrill screech. "I can't stand you!" Finger pointed, foot stamping into the ground, Renri's lacking reactions always seemed to upset her more.

Should she pretend to care? "Why?" she asked instead, fueling the fire. She could never figure out what Mariko expected of her. A burning bridge, flames reigniting, she may as well investigate the cause for future reference. It's the only use she could see Mariko having.

"That! You act like you're better than everyone else! I said I hate you and- And you-" She growled, throwing her hands to her side. Dark brown eyes flitted away, voice lowering a fraction. "Then the second you get a few good grades, Sensei- Everyone is suddenly so impressed by you. Instead of- I have the top grade in class! Have since the start! All by myself!"

Oh. She wanted acknowledgement. Now that, that Renri could understand. Yet her grades had only recently improved so-

Fluttering wings. Shrieks. Birds fled the trees. Conversation silenced, they watched the birds scrambling overhead, alarm calls deafening. Knot in her stomach, something wasn't right. Silence to this…

The ANBU following her wouldn't have caused this.

Birds continued to flee.

The other team, their first attack had scattered the birds in the immediate area. Now, too many were flushed from hiding. A large predator? Wild boar? No, still too many to-

Wood snapped.

Renri whipped her head to the side. Shrieking birds, the harsh wood creak, a twig snap wouldn't be audible. No clear line of sight in heavy forest- Another crash, closer, approaching fast. A curdling howl sliced through air. Her stomach lurched.

Smoke in thick humidity choking, flames devouring wood to collapse houses with brittle snaps, shattering glass sharp shrieks, the agony in dying screeches inhuman-

Not an animal.

Splintering wood, tree exploding in a hail of slivers, it crashed through. Howl morphing to a scream, she didn't understand.

Human. Should have been human.

She stood rooted in place. The creature threw its shoulder into another tree, howls shaking air. Standing on two legs, size of a person underneath a bulk of growths distorting its appearance- Skin warped to something rough and leathery, rutted with raw wounds, pointed with spikes- Clawed hands raked its own skin to shred discolored flesh like it wanted it gone. It only found blood and bone and agony.

She raised her hands.

Chakra spiking, falling, brain a chaotic mess of pain and delusion already, she dropped her hands. They never practiced how to calm. Run. "Genjustu didn't work," she whispered, remembering Mariko at her side.

Dancing orange and red, fire erupted over the ground as Mariko's hand held the final seal and motion. The fire jutsu formed a wall of heat between them and the monster.

The monster that ran blindly through flames.

Renri scrambled to the side. Fast. The monster crashed into another tree, force toppling it. Leaves caught fire. Flames began to spread to the surrounding trees to narrow options. Seared flesh, it scratched deeper at strange skin, blood seeping to stain earth.

She wouldn't be able to outrun it. She glanced to the side. She could use Mariko to distract it, escape while it-

Mariko's foot crunched a stick on her back-step.

Gold set in black, its eyes shot to her. To sound.

Renri flung herself between.

Air forced from her lungs on impact, her world spun. Her foot hit the ground first. Pain shot up her leg, momentum carrying her backwards into a roll over roots. Her head struck ground with a flash of black. The next rotation she managed to finally move, to cover the back of her head but not stop.

She slammed into a tree. A shaky inhale sent her into a coughing fit desperate for air. Her vision swam with shapes and colors. For a blissful moment, she couldn't focus.

The moment she could, while still sputtering for air, she looked to her ankle. Vision blurred, but trying to move it, pain reignited. Sprained if not broken. Beyond the thundering of her heartbeat, she heard snapping wood. Still near. Trembling arms pulled away from the back of her head, she could barely form the seals.

Needed to distract. Needed-

Mariko fell to her knees beside Renri. She held her hands up, panic in eyes darting over her, unsure what to do.

"Go," Renri forced out with a cough. She sucked in a breath when Mariko dared touch her ankle. "Get Sensei."

Get out of my way.

Mariko shook her head, stubborn "No," spat out with venom and fear. Shaking hands were held near Renri's ankle. "No, no, no," she repeated, flickering green glow reflecting how rattled this had her. "I can heal it a bit and- and-"

And the green glow died under pressure. Best in their age group, but Mariko would never have been able to heal it fast enough.

Renri's water clone narrowly dodged a blow that would have spattered it over the ground. The clone tried to reroute the monster. For something large and lumbering in appearance, it was too fast. Even crashing through trees, Renri could only buy moments at a steep price.

Should have run. Intrusive thought- Should have left Mariko.

"Go." Renri finally managed to catch her breath. Mariko hovered as Renri forced herself to stop slouching against the tree despite all the pain flaring with movement. "It's one or both of us." Renri couldn't run. She could now barely walk- assuming she could even do that much. She never would have outrun the creature. She would have been picked off. Still… Her eyes narrowed. "Getting help is my only option."

She needed Mariko out of the way.

Claws spattered water. Another set of seals, water vaporized to mist. Combined with the smoke from burning trees, visibility began dropping to nothing. Mariko needed to go before the fog spread outward.

Renri didn't trust herself to care about collateral damage right now.

Using the tree as support, Renri stumbled to stand. Weight on her ankle immediately forced her to lean into smooth bark. The back of her neck felt wet. Blood had soaked into her sleeve from its short time against her head. She wouldn't have long.

Mariko took a hesitant step back. Renri's eyes shifted in the direction of the monster as it howled its location. Another tree toppled. Mariko stared at her a lingering second before finally running. She quickly disappeared in the haze.

Struggling, Renri turned, hands scratching at bloodstained bark before sticking in place. She listened. The thing continued its rampage without directly charging. It didn't seem to be sensing for chakra. Sound and sight alone, and she'd already killed sight. Pressing her knee into the tree, she managed to shift chakra there in place of her busted foot.

She began to climb. Rotating her hold between hands- A crash too near, her knee slipped. Full force of her weight held by fingertips on slick bark, seconds were exhausting. She needed to stay calm. Focus.

All the reminders failed to actually quell the shaking in her limbs. A combination of dizzy and smoke-irritated, her vision would be next. A freezing breeze on her neck despite the heat of fire beginning to surround… The cut was bad.

Finally hoisted onto a higher branch, seconds an eternity, she made another clone. Then she stabbed her meager kunai collection into wood.

She'd miss them. If she lived.

If she lived ignited more panic. Hands shaking, crinkle of thick paper, she had to slow down. Couldn't risk them ripping…

Her clone gathered the weapons before hopping down to disappear into smoke thickened fog. Trying to concentrate, regain control over the fog, she gave up. The smoke made it feel too different. Two water clones, hidden mist, and several weaker water jutsu used in the clash against the team earlier, she had one shot.

She leaned into the tree. Throb of her ankle eclipsed the pain in the back of her head. Closing her eyes, she listened to growls rattling air, to bark shattering as it swung for her clone. It would be close. There would be collateral damage. She'd already experienced being stabbed by wood, and she'd take it to being torn open by claws.

She raised her hand.

Beneath sounds of rage, she heard the struggle drawing this out longer. Metallic ticks like kunai bouncing off stone… The warped skin must be just as hard. Some sort of petrification effect? Stiffness should have slowed it, but the torso and arms were most transformed. Getting kunai to wedge in wounds or unchanged skin-

A cut off yell signaled.

Release.

A flash. Ignition. Deafening explosion cutting through air and her entire body, she bit her lip, held onto the tree best she could. Eyes closed, ears ringing, she could only feel the wind ripping at her clothes with debris.

A small fire had seared skin, changed or not. Several paper bombs had to do something to it. Or, in the least, act as a definite signal to her location.

Paper bombs that she shouldn't be carrying around so casually. Not meant for the exam, or use of any kind, safely tucked into her bag and a storage scroll, she had just been proud of her work. Unsupervised copies, yes, but she knew now. They worked. They worked spectacularly. He said he was impressed.

Screech overtaking the high-pitch whine, her eyes snapped open. Blast dying down, fog cleared, leaves fluttering to scorched ground as burnt tree husks fell over, she saw. It saw.

She scrambled to stand, ankle searing with even slight weight. The creature screamed again, blood running down skin, branches stabbed into flesh, it'd changed. Became something entirely monstrous, anything human about it lost under twisted muscles, spikes, hardened skin.

Yellow set in black, it saw her and only her.

Feet dug in. To bark. To soil.

The tree shattered on impact, crashing down around her. Her heart lodged in her throat. Barely pushed off the branch before it was ripped from under her, she didn't have the momentum. The next tree over, her fingers brushed the branch. She fell. Chakra in her fingers struggled to catch a lower branch. Thinner, it threatened to snap. Leaden arms felt ready to snap under her weight.

Arms burning, she kicked and flailed, desperate for momentum to help pull herself onto the branch. Heartbeat in her ears drowned anything useful. Haphazard glances over her shoulder, she couldn't see it either. The branch wouldn't matter without the tree.

Desperation fueling, she tried to sense it. Brute force became a mass of energy burning brighter than the sun. Had it been using chakra the entire time? How had she missed that?

She never stood a chance against it.

Whatever she had done, the creature howled, sensing her in return. The tree between torn from the ground and tossed aside, Renri watched. She wouldn't be able to pull herself up in time. She wouldn't be able to run if she dropped down.

The thin branch shook with added weight. A creak-

Something clasping her wrist, the branch snapped. Instead of falling, she was pulled horizontal. Another branch in another tree, she heard the monster shriek somewhere behind. Wrist still caught, a harsh pull set her on the branch. She winced as pain ran up her leg. A hand gripping her chin met her eyes to the hollows of a porcelain mask. Cloak hood pulled over their head, shadowing the daruma pattern of the mask, ANBU?

No words exchanged. The ANBU dropped the hand on her chin but not her wrist. Behind, a tree fell with a crash and howl. They looked back at her. She couldn't figure out how to speak.

They released her wrist only to throw her over their shoulder.

Ground falling away as everything blurred, she snapped her eyes shut. The ANBU leapt through several trees. Time between their foot striking branches to propel them forward, they cleared a considerable distance fast. So much so that the monster's wailing began to fade. It continued to follow, but too much happening at once, she quickly lost the control needed to sense it as she had. Yet, feeling saved, the panic settled.

They let her slip from their shoulder, catching her before she could fall. They set her down carefully. Her feet hit solid ground, the wince her own fault as she still put too much weight on her ankle to balance.

She looked to the ANBU as they remained. Angle of their mask blocked their gaze for certain, but it was on her. A tilt of their head to point, hand motioning shoo, she stood dumbly. Wind whipping by as they ran, their hood had fallen off. She lost interest in the mask. Their hair. Stark white, pulled back into a low ponytail- They dropped their hands to their side, exaggerated motion of tilting their head and looking skyward an eyeroll and sigh. They turned around, yanking the hood back into place.

The monster yelled in the not distant enough distance.

They raised their hands to blur through a series of seals, fire erupting in a more refined version of what Mariko had tried to do earlier.

Now stood with their back to her, between her and danger, a silhouette against burning red- It sunk in that this ANBU wasn't an adult. Tall, but thin and lanky. Everything began to feel too familiar. Being set gently on the ground despite pressing danger. The gestures that should have been paired with words.

Fire between them and the monster, they whipped around, half-fisted hands shaking at their side when she still stood there. He pointed behind her. He did everything to not speak. She grabbed his sleeve when her voice could do nothing besides tremble.

"Renki?"

A whisper that should have been lost under the roar of fire, he heard. He froze a second. Then he knelt to look her in the eye, mask shadows no longer obscuring dark gray. The eye color they shared with their mother. "Don't use that sensing ability again," he whispered, hand on her shoulder giving her a light shove, "just run."

He held up a hand. Before she realized his intent, he disappeared with a cloud of smoke. The only evidence left behind was the scrap of fabric ripped from his sleeve. She refused to let go. Even as blood soaked through, tight grip and her nails digging in to disturb cuts she didn't know she had. She refused. Her hand balled into a fist with the fabric safe, she couldn't lose that scrap of a connection.

She'd let go before. She'd let go, and he died.

Except he hadn't. She had never been given a reason to think otherwise, but for him to be Konoha too… He saved her from a monster still rampaging nearby, guttural shrieks piercing. No time to dwell.

She wiped a dirty sleeve across her face. It smeared. The smoke, she convinced herself, round drops soaking into the ground at her feet ignored.

Needed to run. She made herself take a step onto her bad ankle. Then another. Faster.

Her ankle twisted and gave out within ten pathetic steps. Hands planted in dirt, twigs snapping and dead leaves crunching beneath, she sucked in a breath. More drops fell to wet soil. Not allowed. It hurt so much more than bruises. More than needles. More than being smacked across the face. She wanted to scream and wail and cry but that wasn't allowed. Whether because he demanded quiet or because shinobi kept emotions silent and hidden.

She bit her lip as she forced herself back to her feet. If she couldn't run, then she would walk. She had to. If Renki went back to deal with that thing… She'd be in the way. She'd be a distraction. She'd get him killed again.

Walking proved too difficult. The little progress she made was by clinging to trees for support before stumbling to the next.

Familiar thud of a foot hitting a branch above, she stopped. She wiped the back of her hand under her eyes while leaning into the rough bark of another tree. The sound repeated. The person rebounded off that tree to land on the ground in front of her.

"Renri," Takuma-sensei said, between horror and relief, surprise unhidden as his eyes scanned over her. She wiped her sleeve across her face again. His brows pinched as he looked between her and the distance, fire continuing to burn. "Can you make it back yourself?" He quickly shook his head. "What am I saying, of course you can't."

He should leave her to her struggle. Someone needed to investigate what had wandered so near the village. Someone should help Renki.

"How injured are you?" Takuma stepped closer, hands slightly raised like he was afraid to touch her.

"I'm fine." Her fist tightened around torn fabric. The return to silence, had Renki dealt with it on his own? Had backup arrived? The mask… "The ANBU are there." At least one. Somehow. She didn't understand why or how, but one nonetheless.

A pause, she looked back to Takuma only to see his brows tightly furrowed, something pained about his expression as he looked her over another time. He didn't believe her. Head injury, she remembered, that buried beneath the pain of her ankle. Those tended to bleed a lot. She probably looked bad.

He crouched, inspecting her ankle. Even a tap made her flinch. He managed to unzip her shoe to relieve some of the pain, skin peeking through marbled with bruises and swollen. She held her hair to the side when he went to inspect the source of now drying blood. The ends of her hair felt stiff. Some strands stuck to the back of her neck. He made a face as he gently pressed at the back of her head. Prodding a spot that made her wince, he whispered an apology. As he sat back, he caught her hand. Four deep cuts in her palm still oozed blood. She knew her other palm matched, but she wasn't sure why.

"Looks worse than it is," he said with a reassuring, soft pat on her shoulder, "nothing that can't be treated and fixed right up." Face scrunched with something pitying overruling the sternness of his tone, "But far from fine." A pause for a response, she couldn't force herself to agree. She'd seen so much worse. He gave up. "We'll head back since the ANBU are here."

He turned, still crouched. A glance over his shoulder spelled out what she already knew but hesitated too long to do. Renri tentatively stepped closer, putting her arms over his shoulders. The moment he stood, she clung tighter, now afraid to fall from a small height. One hand twisted his shirt in a tight grip made tighter as he jumped back up into the trees.

Her other fist clenched to keep the scrap of fabric safe.

Above the wind, caution loud, "The explosions-"

"I set off paper bombs."

"Hell of a way to get attention, kid." A forced laugh, the disbelief, suspicion crept beneath. "Where did you get them?"