"That's posionness." Neji said, watching as Lee reached for a berry. His hand quickly shifted to another bush - only to get the same result. Neji had his Byakugan activated, although it wasn't often to used it for things such as.. Food, it was still something he could do with it.
"This entire forest is posionness!" Lee whined, throwing his head back in defeat before he turned his head toward you as you walked up to them, you were already chewing on something.
"These are safe to eat." You greeted, lifting up your hands to show them what you had gathered. "I used to eat these all the time in a forest, actually, I think it was someone's garden." You explained, watching Nejis face burst into a million shades of red once he realized what you had picked - any suspicions that you weren't truly his teammate flew out the window.
"A Habanero? Where'd you find things like those in this forest?!" He asked loudly, you looked around you - thinking somehow he had seen Kushina around, but you came to realize he was talking about the plants you ate.
He deactivated his Byakugan, looking away. But Lee was quick to stand next to you, starry-eyed. "Please! May I have some?" He asked, smiling at you as he closed his eyes. You stared down at him, considering it for a second before you nodded. It had already been a few hours since you all entered the forest, searching for food first so that you could all begin to search for the scrolls you needed. Lee had a strong reaction to the pepper - a step back, a forced gulp and a red face. Once that was over, he turned toward Neji. "It is delicious, do you want one, rival Neji?" He asked, dangling one in front of Neji. Lee began to walk, which made Neji walk backward.
"Not a chance! If you could hardly stand it, I'll pass out!" Neji eventually gave up on trying to hide his intolerance of spice. The teasing was already bad enough, but it was over the top once Lee had the confirmation. You stood by, eating another of the peppers you had picked as you watched Neji reel his arm back as Lee kept on pressing forward.
"You cannot fight on an empty stomach!" Lee said.
"Air palm!" Neji called out, knocking Lee away into the tree next to you. That was the first time you had seen Neji use that move; it looked like desperation really had people acting out. Lee groaned, pepper still in hand as he slid onto the floor.
"Of course my eternal rival can fight on an empty stomach." He whined.
"This isn't the time to fool around, Lee." Neji sighed. "I'll go find us something actually edible..." Neji sighed, looking up at you. "Oh right, we'll make something up.. A passcode to secure the one we see in front of us is our actual teammate." He activated his Byakugan in search for any jutsus planted to listen in to the conversations around it. He had caught one a distance away in the process of being planted, so he leaned in to whisper into your ear - the phrase was short. Then he whispered one to Lee, a little bit longer. He had given the two of you a different code, then made one up for himself. He was going all out on the security.
"You two stay here, I won't be long." He instructed with a nod before jumping away. You looked down at Lee, offering him another pepper as you sat down next to him - sitting in that silence is what had your nerves flaring. You wished you had stayed home that morning, let your teammates down because they were simply looking forward to showing what they were made of - but at least you wouldn't be risking your life for a title you frankly had no interest in. Somewhere throughout your moping, you noticed Neji come back in a different direction than the way he left from. Both you and Lee stared, glancing at eachother for a second before looking back at him.
"How did it go?" Lee asked, face curious as he sat up just a bit, on guard.
"No luck, I wasn't able to find anything." Neji seemed tense, but loosened as Lee spoke.
"Hmm... I see. But it seems you have forgotten something. What is the code?" He asked, if there was one thing Lee was good at; it was acting coy. Neji obviously tensed at the question, but answered anyway. The code he had said was the code Neji had assigned as yours. Lee knew it; as did you, but the both of you went along with it.
"I see. It is you," Lee smiled, lifting up his hand and directing his palm toward you. "It is okay... You can have the peppers [Firstname] picked, there is more than enough to share!" He offered, you nodded, lifting up your hand. "It is not much, but we know how much you love spicy foods."
Neji nodded, walking toward you to pick a pepper out of your hand. "Yes, thank you." You and Lee stared at him, he lifted his hand to eat it - but before he could, you kicked your leg up, aiming for the crotch. He yelled out in pain as you moved out from beneath him, he had fallen over face first into the tree you laid against before smoke surrounded him. You and Lee stood next to each other, ready to go on the defensive as the man's real identity was shown.
"A sound Ninja... While I admit you had guts to attack us, you were just as foolish." Lee said, one hand behind his back and the other in front of him - showing his enemy the back of his palm. The boy turned around, still on the floor, his face red in embarrassment.
"That damn teammate of yours threw us off with all those codes... I was really hoping I chose the right one." He mumbled, slowly getting onto his feet.
Lee nodded, "Our 'damn teammate' is a genius. He thinks everything through. He had seen right through your Jutsu the second you planted it thanks to his Byakugan." He smiled, he was always so proud talking about his teammates' Kekkei Genkai, he failed to realize it told the enemy a lot about one's abilities.
The man growled in frustration, rubbing at his nose the suffered the impact of him falling over into a tree. "You brats are more trouble than you're worth, just hand over your scroll and there'll be no trouble." He demanded.
"You made it clear the moment you had tried to imitate our teammate that you wanted trouble." Lee responded, closing his eyes. "It is you who will be handing over their scroll."
The man's teammates came in front behind you, one jumping at you and the other lunging for Lee. Your reaction was immediate - flaming Chakra building at your leg as you twisted your body around on your heel, landing a hit straight to his head to kick him away. Lees reaction was just as quick, he lowered himself on the ground, hands on the floor to support his body as he kicked his leg up, if he got the timing just right, he'd catch the boy as he flew over Lee and kick him straight in the gut - and of course his timing was right, it was Guy Senseis pupil after all. With both of his teammates on the ground, the boy became even more tense.
Even so, he reached to his side, pulling something out of his skin - it was a form of summoning Jutsu; a gross one at that. What he pulled out was a chime, making a melodic noise as he brought it up to full view. Although you and Lee were on guard, you weren't sure how much it would help with their Jutsu - it would only make sense it was sound based. Those weren't exactly avoidable.
"I knew my teammates weren't prepared for this. They're embarassing..." He mumbled out, cheeks red. "This whole thing is embarrassing...! But I can't back down without a fight, that'd be even more embarrassing." He whined, playing the first harsh tune with the wind chimes. There was nothing at first, but the ground began to rumble after a few seconds, catching you and Lee off guard before the two of you jumped back. He was catching his teammates in with the crossfire - you didn't think he'd go as far as to kill them; he needed them to pass and killing one's own teammates was.. Immoral. Another chime, and both you and Lee were knocked out of whatever stability you had in the air, sending you in opposite directions.
The pitch for the ground was harsher, louder in noise and hard in bass. The one for the wind was easier on the ears, smooth and flowy. For chimes to produce all those types of noises seemed impossible - but Jutsus always varied.
You landed on a tree, resting your hand on the trunk to ground yourself, listening in for the next chime. It was scratchy, like the sound of a fork against a plate - there was no reaction around the environment - but from you instead. You were sure your mouth was not bleeding before that attack, whatever attacks he was landing, it was doing internal damage. Lee was no where in sight, you have no idea how far the enemy had sent him; but you assumed he was safe from wherever he was.
You couldn't decide if it was smarter to stand by and wait for a small idea of how his Jutsu worked, or to risk it and jump in for the attack. Hiding wasn't an option, he knew where you were - and if you were to run farther into the distance, you'd lose your team. Your huffed through your nose, wiping the blood at your mouth away before jumping onto another tree - pulling off a sneaky clone jutsu before hoping onto another one, you left a clone on a few nearby trees before you landed on one behind him, hidden from view.
Each chime after that led to faulty results - none of them resulted in the damage he wanted them to. Your clones disappeared one by one, which left him frustrated. It seemed that if the chime wasn't directed toward your person, it didn't do any damage. But staying away from an attack like that would be difficult from a far. You watched closely from the tree you weren in, his teammates that were on the floor were no longer there - they had each gone for one of your teammates in search of the scroll. It just so happened to be that you were the one with the scroll.
There was a new chime, loud and rhythmic that had the tree you were on rumbling. Every tree in the clearing you were in was coming down, despite the sound being a lesser known village, the jutsus they had were destructive. You hopped off of the tree you hid in the second before it hit the floor, landing far behind him. The next chime he played was the same as the first one - which made you jump up to avoid the rumbling floor. The boy turned around, watching you form your hand signs, you finished on a fitting dragon sign near your lips before you released your Jutsu. He was waiting to see what Jutsu you would perform so his melody would counterattack it - make it do his bidding. But the Fire Dragon Roar was a little different than most, it was always under the complete control of the one who released it.
You landed on the floor once it stopped rumbling, your attack managing to hit. The distraction gave you a second to recollect yourself, to gather your thoughts and to breathe. There was a quiet chime, just the swipe of the boys fingers against the instrument, but it had more blood pouring out of your mouth.
"A sound delay, pretty useful, huh?" The boy said, the smoke clearing from around him. Your attack did good damage, but he had at least braced himself for it. "If I land that attack once, I just trigger it again for a second impact. The second blow is always stronger than the first one." He explained.
You knelt over, a hand on your stomach and the other falling toward your foot. You doubted taking off your weights would help you dodge the speed of sound, but it would do something. It was only a false help.
"Just give me your scroll." He demanded, taking a step forward.
You were silent, reaching into your shoe to loosen your weight. Exposing all of your tricks during this phase of the exam wasn't smart, but you weren't going to let the enemy in front of to advance to the next phase, anyway. You weren't faster than sound, but you were faster than him. Once you removed your weight, you were going in for a hit - flaming chakra building at your arm before you punched him square in the stomach. He was thrown backward, landing on the floor - you made your way up to him as he struggled to sit up. But he was smiling.
"All of those attacks toward your clone were to build up for my second impact... They don't need to hit you directly, you just need to hear it." He explained breathily, reaching his hand up for his chime, but you placed your foot onto his wrist, pressing it against his chest. "They're all aiming for your heart."
You were silent, although your face was stoic, you were internally panicking.
"Who's attack will hit first, I wonder?" He chuckled, his free hand going in for his chime while you built all the chakra you could muster into your arm, lighting itself on fire as you braced yourself for impact. You managed the hit to his face - but his melody managed to float through the air, his second impact hitting your heart ten-fold.
Your body tensed, you hardly noticed the blood you threw up before you fell over. Both of you were unconscious, your body falling onto his - his face was bloody, charred even - in your desperation you hadn't held anything back.
It could have been that the two of you were dead.
Lee and Neji had finished their fights, the people they were fighting were years older than the group of you; but they had landed fights with people noticeably weaker. You had been pitted against their strongest one - noticeable in the damage he had done to environment. They had already struggled enough, but Neji retrieved the scroll from his opponent - his Byakugan had no trouble picking up on your declining Chakra points from a far. Which had him running back toward the opening you had fought in; he noticed the clear deforestation that took place, but it was the least of his concern as he ran toward you with a calling of your name.
He had came to a halt once he got near, your name falling out of his mouth once again as he knelt down. He deactivated his Byakugan - your Chakra points dying down already spoke enough, but he needed to confirm it. He reached his hand out to your neck, pressing his fingers against your pulse.
But there was none. You had died in battle.
Neji knew the risk, he knew what talented freaks of nature were around - but he didn't think it'd all go to hell in a matter of a few minutes. Lee was quick to come onto the scene - shouting about something before the words died in his throat. He stopped a little ways from you.
".. What is wrong?" He asked.
Neji lowered his head, removing his hand. "I..." He started, but whatever he was going to say couldn't come out. He didn't think you were dead, he knew you were dead. "She's dead, Lee."
"We weren't meant to take this exam."
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that escalated kinda fast but we need some drama and action its been to tame 🙄 also doible update waow