"Eek!" In the past year, Ami had seen a lot of killings but it was her first time seeing such horror. Crushing people into meat paste, such ruthlessness, it was the first time she had seen something like this.
Gaara looked at her direction and revealed a crazy smile. "There are a lot more prey for me."
Kankurō kept the scroll in his pocket, turned to Gaara and said, "Gaara, stop! We already got both the scrolls. Let"s go to the tower, fast."
Gaara didn"t listen to him but stretched his hand forward towards Ami and her team"s direction. On his command, the sand rushed towards Konoha"s team direction like unending flow.
"Ami, run!" Gennai dragged Ami, who had closed her mouth and stiffened, started running.
Karu looked back and gulped. Taking a deep breath he muttered, "It"s just sand." A few times under his breath to gain courage.
Then he started going through a couple of hand seals. "Bubble Bomb"
Taking a deep breath in Karu blew through his hands, creating water bubbles as he ran away.
"Gaara! Stop!" Kankurō grabbed Gaara"s shoulder and pulled him back.
"Hm?" Gaara looked back murderously at Kankurō then growled, "I"ll kill you."
Kankurō stiffened then released his hand. As Gaara turned back, Kankurō"s face turned black, wanting to curse but he didn"t dare to. This monster might really kill him…
Then Gaara turned back ready for another round of killing but this time, Temari stood in front of him with a desperate smile.
"Listen to big sister, okay, Gaara?" Temari gave a small smile as she looked at Gaara.
Gaara shifted his eyes towards Temari for a few seconds then he focused back towards Team 11 again.
Karu looked at the sand chasing them and grew anxious. "Science, please don"t fail me now. Explode!"
Karu released his chakra and exploded all the water bubbles between him and Gaara. All the bubbles latching to the sand and drenching it.
Karu looked back and smiled as he saw the sand slowing down and eventually stopping.
"Small tricks," Gaara commanded the sand then on his will water began escaping the sand, returning to lighter and sandy form. "Hehehe… kill you."
Karu"s face immediately turned pale as he tried thinking of ways.
"Gaara! Listen to your older sister, please…. We have both "heaven" and "earth" scroll. We have a mission to complete." Temari gripped Gaara"s hand and said.
"…" Gaara looked at his hand caught by Temari, pulling it back. "Don"t touch me."
"…" He didn"t say anything for a while but withdrew his sand back and put the cork on top of the sand holding gourd.
Kankurō looked at Gaara and gritted his teeth. "…"
The reason they were trying so hard to stop Gaara from killing was that he would go into a frenzy and destroy everything around him. And since Baki wasn"t here controlling Gaara would be near impossible.
Scene change to another Sunninja group who had trapped the other team in their metal strings web.
One SunGenin looked through the pouch of the opponent Genin before throwing. He then turned around and shook his head. "Captain, he doesn"t have the scroll."
"Not here." The other Genin raised his voice after searching the whole body.
"These tree huggers are not that stupid as they look." The captain of the team sighed.
"And I thought it would be an easy one, seeing that they just walked right into our trap." The Suna Genin grabbed on to the jaw of one of the victims.
"Say it! Where"s the scroll?" He shouted and at the same time he started putting pressure on the jaw.
The captain looked at the other two who were struggling. Taking out a dagger from his pouch, he thought of scaring them a bit more. So, he plunged the dagger deep into his captive"s thigh.
But what he didn"t expect was that his prisoner would not bleed but explode into a cloud of chakra smoke.
"What the heck"s that?" the Suna ninja cried and jumped back.
Along with him both of his teammates narrowed their eyes, jumped back, throwing their kunai immediately.
The kunai plunged deep into their bodies but instead of blood, there was a chakra cloud.
"Shadow clone?" the Suna ninja frowned and shouted, "Go! Go! Go!"
With the shout, they began to run away, as fast as they could but it seemed that their reaction was taken in mind by their opponent as they stood frozen after running a distance.
"What happening cap"? Why can"t we move?" the Suna Genin tried to move in distress.
"s.h.i.t!" Suna ninja shouted in anger as he tried moving but his body but he soon understood that he could only move his head.
Looking down after a long struggle, they found Fuinjutsu marks on the ground, right where they were standing.
"Fuinjutsu! d.a.m.n!"
Although Sunagakure had some foundation on Fuinjutsu they were, after all, Genins and were not learned about Fuinjutsu more than they needed. Other than the explosion seal and storage seal, most Genins would not have more knowledge than that.
Team seven stood on the tree branches waiting for the Sunninja to exhaust all their methods.
"They have hidden weapons." Hinata a.n.a.lyzed and commented.
"The one in the middle has the scroll." She added and let out a breath of relief after deactivating Byakugan.
With that Hinata dropped from the tree along with Naruto and Raito.
"Tree huggers! I knew it." The Sunninja struggled for a while and gave up.
Hinata walked forward at the middle Sunnin and jabbed at a few of his tenketsu. Deactivating her Byakugan, she grabbed the shuriken pouch and took out the scroll.
She threw back the scroll to Raito and waited.
[Earth Scroll]
"It"s the earth scroll." Raito gave a small nod and smiled.
Naruto already believed that Raito knew a lot of things. He never questioned Raito much about it but on the other side, Hinata got to know about this in the past few months when missions started becoming tougher and challenging. Without Raito"s mystical ability they would have taken a lot of time to complete those mission. There were times when Kakashi gave them group missions in finding people or things or finding reals and fakes, Raito would know what was what even though that item was not known by anyone, whether it was poison or not and even who the item belonged to. He would know everything. She had already stopped questioning about it. The most difficult thing about it… was how they would explain it in the mission reports.
Thank Kami-sama that the leader of the village, Sarutobi Hiruzen, had chummy relations with Naruto and Raito, mostly Naruto, who gave them "suggestions" in editing the reports. Although he was the final person to see the report, it would not remain like that forever.
Raito walked to the Sunninjas with the scroll in his hands.
"The seal will go off in six hours. I hope we will meet again at the tower." He said it with a "small" smile making them red with anger.
"It"s just the first day. So, you still have a chance." Raito patted their shoulder then jumped disappearing into the woods.
"See ya." Naruto smiled and jumped together with Hinata.
After running a dozen meters, Raito stopped on a branch and took out two scrolls, one in each hand and said, "Heaven and Earth."
"Now to the tower." Raito stood straight and pointed towards the direction of the tower. If there was a cape, it would definitely flutter.
"Raito-kun, we have to gather with everyone," Hinata said with a bit of hesitation. She felt like Raito was just saying it but it was good to stop him before it gets worse. Things could go really bad if he wasn"t stopped.
How could Raito have forgotten? He was just trying to make his life easier.
"Ah, I forgot about them." Raito scratched his hand and sighed. His grand plan "to leave them be" sunk before even starting.
"Raito-kun, Naruto-kun, Team 8 are fighting against someone," Hinata reported. She and Raito divided the duty to look for the Konoha ninja and report it from time to time in fixed intervals. So that they could act on it when time comes
"Someone as an individual?" Raito asked as he checked his pouch, a suspicion growing in his mind.
"Hai, someone from Kusagakure," Hinata answered. When she said "Kusa" worry began to grow in her heart. Just before Raito had asked her to check on KusGenins specifically.
"Well if he loses… (Sigh) we have to help them." Raito replied with the expression as if he has eaten flies.
"It"s not like Sasuke will lose, right?" Naruto raised his voice. Sasuke losing to Raito was normal but losing to some to the same generation was… He felt abnormal about it. Of course, Naruto wouldn"t keep him in that loser group. After training lots, he would challenge Sasuke for the second strongest then may be ask Raito to fight but that would be later… far into the future.
"And Kibkun and Shino-kun are strong too." Hinata also chipped in.
Taking out a picture from his inventory, Raito showed it to Hinata and asked, "Does that Kusnin look like this?" Raito took out this picture to jolt her memory
"Mm." Hinata immediately nodded her head looking at the picture but then she stiffened.
"Raito-kun… that is…" Hinata began to worry now.
"Yup, it looks like I was right. They are here for Sasuke and because I asked Anko-nee to place them directly opposite to Sasuke"s group." Raito sighed, he then took out a scroll from his storage seal in his forearm.
"They just traveled somewhere around less than 20 km in just a few hours. That means they are definitely strong…" Raito sighed thinking about various little things. Raito would definitely try his best but his team was his priority.
"Since spiking chakra has no use here so, I will use this. Look at this, you may need to use this in the future." Raito opened the scroll which had three geometrical shaped one inside another. Raito was trying to make them learn now but it seemed that Naruto was not in the mood at all. Naruto was constantly looking at his back, like someone was patting him on the back, calling him.
Then taking out a paper from his pocket, Raito quickly wrote a report and placed it on top of the scroll.
"Place it on top of the markings and inject some chakra into it." The innermost triangular markings came into life and latched on to the scroll then with a "poof" disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
"Whoever has it"s pair will get the report, simple right? For this scroll, Anko-nee has its pair." Raito explained.
Putting the scroll back, he stood up and faced towards Sasuke"s team"s direction and said, "Let"s go."
"Wait!" Naruto shouted making Raito stop and turn.
"What happened?" Raito frowned. Naruto was facing the direct opposite direction to where they were supposed to go.
Seeing Naruto remain silent, Hinata pulled his jacket and called, "Naruto-kun."
"I feel that guy, Suna ninja, Gaara. I can sense him… he…"
"What? You are a sensor now?" Raito joked but still tried sensing into that direction. After just a moment Raito patted Naruto"s shoulder then jumped to another tree
"And it"s gone… that"s confusing." Naruto scratched his head then turned towards Hinata and nodded, "Let"s go Hinatchan."
Team 8
Sasuke plunged his kunai into his immobilized enemy but to his despair, his enemy turned into mud. It was just a clone, once again he got nothing while his enemy laughs at his face.
"Good, Good." Laughter came from behind, praising Sasuke or teasing him, he couldn"t tell.
Sasuke reacted fast and threw shurikens then grabbed the badly bleeding Shino and the unconscious Kiba then jumped down the tree.
The woman looked with amus.e.m.e.nt at Sasuke who was running with his comrades. The more despair he felt, the wider the smile of the woman became.
"That"s the power of Sharingan…" The KusKunoichi revealed a small smile then silently disappeared from the tree.
Even with the burden of an additional two bodies, Sasuke ran, he ran for his life.
"My chakra is depleting fast and that crazy woman is just behind." Sasuke glanced back with fear.
"Friends… don"t you think they are just a burden?" A question with a giggle came from behind scaring Sasuke. Right now that kunoichi from Kusa was like a demon. She was far stronger than Raito was, no Raito wouldn"t even come in comparison. He was sure about that. That"s why he was running.
Walking back slowly, Sasuke crouched down, looking at Kuskunoichi. The Kuskunoichi didn"t act but waited for Sasuke to put down his teammates.
Taking a deep breath in, Sasuke looked at the Akamaru below and gritted his teeth. "Akamaru, I want you to look after them, okay?"
"Arf!" Akamaru barked in confirmation.
"Just… who are you? What do you want?" Sasuke clutched the kunai in his hand and walked forward.
"You are not here for the scroll or even for the exams. What are you here for? Why?"
"Did you realize it just now? How disappointing…" Kuskunoichi teased
"…"
"…but you have potential, a lot of it… more than your brother, Itachi."
Sasuke"s whole body trembled then muscles began contracting. Gritting his teeth, Sasuke asked, "You know Itachi?"
Equipping both his hands with kunai Sasuke was ready to attack with full force.
"Yes, I have." The Kuskunoichi answered.
"He is so much stronger than you… right now." She laughed.
Taking a deep breath, Sasuke closed his eyes and the next he opened his black eyes turned red with two magatamas circling the pupil.
"That face, how amusing…"
Swish!
Sasuke threw the two kunai towards the kunoichi. Then he made a half ram seal with one hand.
"Too straight forward." She easily dodged the incoming kunai swaying right and left.
"Hah!" jumping from the ground, Sasuke rolled and delivered an overhead kick towards her.
Thump!
She easily blocked Sasuke"s kick with her hand then grabbed his leg hanging him upside down.
"You really are weak-"
Before she could finish talking she was enveloped in fire expelled by Sasuke.
"Sharing can see chakra." Not believing it to be over he threw kunai with explosion talisman towards the fire.
"Explode!"
Boom! Boom! Boom!!!
From his pouch, Sasuke took out two soldier pills and downed it in one go.
"It"s not the clone."
After confirming that there was no chakra signature around, Sasuke looked into the enemy"s direction.
A shadow was starting to get visible and the fire had started to die down, and she still had not decided to move, giving Sasuke enough time to recover his chakra.
"It was fun, Sasuke-kun. But ninjas are starting to gather and its time we end this."
Rat → Tiger → Dog → Ox → Rabbit → Tiger
"Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire"
Sasuke breathe out releasing a volley of small fireball all homing to the Kuskunoichi.
She frowned then waved with one hand, creating blades of wind, instantly destroying the fireb.a.l.l.s.
With one step she walked out from the explosion site then with another she came face to face with Sasuke. Thrusting her hand forward she immediately grabbed Sasuke"s neck and pushed her chakra, immobilizing him.
She pulled Sasuke towards her face then said, "You are weak… Sasuke-kun. You cannot even compare it to Itachi right now. If you want to kill him, you"ll require power, true power. And for this… you must come to me. In this village, you can never achieve true power… you can only gain true power if you follow me."
Sasuke gritted his teeth, still struggling to move.
Licking with her long tongue and she said with a slightly trembling voice, "I"ll give you a parting gift. So you can remember me, Sasuke-kun."
Ripping apart Sasuke"s t-shirt, she gave a wild smile. Mouth slightly open, she exposed her black fangs and bit on the junction of the neck and left shoulder. Very quickly black spots appeared around the two bite marks and formed tomoe.
(Tomoe and magatama are a little different. Magatama is commshaped beads whereas tomoe are commlike swirl symbols used in j.a.panese mon.) (PS: Google, I love you!)
Releasing her hand, she dropped Sasuke then looked at the Shino and Kiba. While Kiba was still unconscious, Shino was awake but both of his arms were exposed and covered with black. It was his hive helping him in healing and repairing his body. Sadly he didn"t have that much chakra.
Kuskunoichi looked at Shino and the black patch covering him and let out a small hum. "You little from Aburame clan are so persistent like your pesky little bugs."
She let out a wide smile then pulled back the sleeves on her left arm where there was a wholesome Summoning Jutsu seal. Biting her thumb, she drew her blood across it pushing chakra on it. "Summoning Jutsu"
Raging winds tore down the trees then a snake appeared out of thin air. A big, big snake, not like those in the fields beyond the gates in the gra.s.ses.
The snake"s eyes focused on the three incapacitated humans and a small puppy. Ignoring Sasuke who was very important to its master, it still had two humans to eat and maybe that small puppy.
Shino tried to move his body but was failing to do so. Kiba and Sasuke were lying unconscious and the only remaining able member of the team was a small puppy with battle power less than 10 due to the absent partner.
"Nii-san, it seems I cannot help you." Shino tried commanding his insect colony to attack the snake or even help them move or run away, they remained silent, only concentrated on healing their host. It seemed that all those attacks had severely affected his colony and now there was the only final thing he could do.
Shino took a deep breath and exhaled loudly. With that heavy exhale, the veins in his forehead dilated then his skin turned slightly red. Using his teeth, Shino made a cut at his own tongue letting blood fill his mouth.
The snake flicked his tail, slapping away Akamaru, who was blocking its way, with huge force, throwing him deep into the woods. Then it raised his heads high and slammed down with vicious intention towards Shino and Kiba.
The red flush on Shino"s face soon covered his whole body. After spitting out blood, he looked at the sky in acceptance and exhaled, "Forbidden technique-"
"No, you don"t." Suddenly Naruto rocketed towards the huge snake with his army of shadow clones.
Whoosh!
A large boulder appeared out of nowhere and hit accurately at the snake"s eye, blinding it. Thus averting the death of Kiba and Shino.
Army of Naruto clones kicked at the huge snake before jumping back to the tree and sticking to them.
"Guys let"s do it."
Injecting large amounts of chakra to their feet, the clones propelled forward, in-process destroying a large number of trees and in the next second, they reached the snake, who was writing and crying in pain. Due to its action, many Naruto clones were destroyed.
The clones rolled before reaching the snake and gave a powerful leg drop, infused with his chakra.
"Shadow Clone version: Uzumaki Drop"
Bam!
"Shino-kun, Kibkun." Hinata ran in worry seeing the unfortunate sight. She hurriedly used her healing jutsu on Shino who looked like had lost a lot of blood; his face was pale and breathing was shallow and fast.
"Sasuke!" Naruto dispelled his clones and looked in shock at Sasuke who had no shirts writhing in unending pain. He hurriedly walked towards him and tried to help him but Naruto couldn"t think of any way to help him. He shook Sasuke a couple of times but Sasuke was not reacting to his callings at all.
Looking around and not finding Raito, Naruto rummaged through his pouch and brought out a small vial, which had green liquid.
Grabbing the writhing Sasuke, he carried him towards his group and laid him with them.
"Hinata, use them." Naruto showed Hinata the vial before dumping it into Sasuke"s mouth.
Hinata nodded then took out the vials and helped Shino drink it. Immediately after drinking it, Shino regained some color to his face.
"It"s working." Hinata nodded then fed Kiba the portion then returned after checking that Kiba was fine. But there was his colony who was helping him heal, making Hinata"s job easier.
On the other side, Raito held Akamaru and quickly used a "Heal" on him.
[Akamaru Lvl 13]
HP: 251/2000
"You are really lucky, Akamaru." Raito waited for a while and used "Heal" several times before letting out a sigh of relief.
[Akamaru Lvl 13]
HP: 1990/2000
"I can"t heal that ten points of health."
[Fractures of ribs, femur, tarsus, metatarsus]
"Sorry buddy, I never learned "Bone Setting Technique"." Raito sighed then carrying the small puppy walked out the woods and reached where everyone was.
Raito looked sideways at the big snake and walked towards Kiba. Putting Akamaru down, Raito wanted to go towards the snake but Hinata"s shout called him back.
"Raito-kun!" her hands were covered in green chakra but the rate of healing was not fast at all. Shino was still losing hit points in a slow and steady manner.
[Aburame Shino Lvl 28]
HP: 500/3600
CP: 200/2000
CP: 600/4000 (Colony)
"Shino-kun"s… he is…" Hinata sniffed.
"…" Raito observed for a while then said after some contemplation. "He must be supplying chakra to his hive… I guess."
"Then what should I do." Raito stared at everything around him then took out all the healing vial he had and gave it Hinata.
"Heal". Raito activated his skill, recovering 250 points of health, instantly. With a few "Heal", chino was back to 2,000 hit points.
"Raito-san, Hinatsan." Shino opened his eyes and looked at them. His lips were smeared with his own blood and his clothes were all tattered.
Seeing that he still had the scroll with him, Raito raised a question after giving a glance at Sasuke, "Did you meet some kind of pervert? I mean… why your clothes… ahem, I was just joking."
Hinata gave an angry glare at Raito as he turned in awkward nervousness.
"My colony has suffered greatly, also both my arms have multiple fractures." There was a long silence as Raito looked at Shino.
"…She was from Kusa and… she was strong… too strong for our age… to be in this exam. She dealt with Kiba in seconds then it was me next. Her main focus was…"
Shino looked at the unconscious Sasuke.
Raito took out the picture from his inventory and showed it to Shino, "Is she?"
"Yes, that"s her." Shino nodded and looked at Raito.
"Raito!!" Naruto shouted on top of his voice.
Naruto took a couple of steps back and pointed at Sasuke.
Raito, Hinata, and Shino looked at Naruto then at Sasuke.
"What happened!?" Raito shouted back.
"His neck, he… he… has that mark too."
Neck. Mark.
Raito immediately jumped, rushing to Sasuke and looked at his neck. The tomoe was flashing, appearing and disappearing.
[Cursed Seal of Heaven]
"d.a.m.n!" Raito punched the tree making chips fly. That name, how could he forget?
"Raito-kun, we should probably wait for the examiner," Hinata suggested.
"… No, Anko nee, curse seal. d.a.m.nit!" Raito gritted his teeth then slapped his own forehead.
Raito took out a sword from his inventory which gave a red glow to the people looking at it.
"If they come in contact, he can use the "Curse Seal" to weaken Anko-nee."
"Then… he…"
He didn"t want to come to a conclusion right away. Raito took a deep breath and turned around.
"Hinata, Naruto, can you take care of them?"
Hinata nodded whereas Naruto looked at Raito intensely.
"I will be back… I promise." Raito turned around and walked.
Walking pa.s.s by the purple snake, Raito raised his sword slightly, pushing chakra in it.
"Midori will be a bit sad if I do this… but…" Raising his sword high, Raito drew it down with full force.
"Cleave."
The chakra extended from the sword and matched the diameter of the giant snake.
The sword descended slicing through but the giant snake disappeared in chakra cloud.
"Anko-nee… you have to be fine… otherwise…" Raito gripped his fist and stomped the ground hard, disappearing into the dark forest.