Ch. 4: The Chunin Exams
Ion, Ryou and I had passed the first test easily. We were now at the second part of the Chunin Exam, in the Forest of Death. To be honest, I didn't like it here. It was all dark and spooky.
"Should we split or stay together?" asked Ion as we skipped to a halt. Ryou and I locked eyes with each other for a second before we both looked at Ion.
"Our chances of finding a scroll would be bigger if we splits, but it's much more dangerous." I answered in a monotone voice.
"Yeah, but we got a time-limit!" Ion raised his arms in the air to emphasize his point.
"We have five days. Why in such a hurry, Ion?" Ryou asked annoyed, glaring slightly as Ion whom crossed his arms stubbornly.
"Cause I want to be first, cause that means that we're gonna be the best of the best!" he answered, glaring back at Ryou.
"No, that just means we're the fastest, not the best." Ryou answered in an all knowing voice.
"Argh, why do you always have to be like that, Ryou?!" Ion uncrossed his arms and groaned loudly by Ryou's behavior.
"Not so loud, you idiot! You'll reveal our destination to the enemy!" Ryou whispered in a hiss.
"Too late..." chuckled an unknown voice from the trees. We all looked around to find the source of the intruder, but I couldn't see anyone out there. Considering from the still searching Ryuo and Ion, they couldn't see him either.
"Already?" I asked no one in particular. There's only been 20 minutes or so and we already been found? And I didn't even sensed them. Damn!
"Finally, we get to fight!" said Ion and clenched his fists in excitement. He was even shaking from all the excitement he had in his body.
"Be careful, you two. These guys are strong." I warned and got into my fighting position. While looking around, Ryou, Ion and I had turned our backs to each other, still searching for the enemy. Now the enemy can't at least attack us from behind unless he suddenly comes up from the ground.
"And worthy opponents indeed! I can't wait!!" Ion said and prepared himself with a kunai in hand. He quickly decided against it though and put it back in the weapon pouch.
"Then lets get started." said the unknown voice behind the bushes.
"Where are they, Shinju?" asked Ryou, looking around in the now dead silent forest. Somewhere far from here I could hear a group of birds singing, but otherwise it was silent.
"I don't know. I can't sense them." I told Ryou truthfully.
"Say what?" Ryou sounded annoyed, just like how I felt, but I didn't showed it. A ninja never reveal their emotions to the enemy, no matter what.
"That's why I said to be careful, cause these guys are strong." I told both Ryou and Ion. Ryuo scoffed at me and Ion just whispered something under his breath, sounding excited.
"What use will you be when you can't even sense them?" Ryou whispered in a hiss.
"Shut up, Ryou, and leave her alone! It's not her fault!!" Ion scolded Ryou, his voice now the one being irritated. Then the enemy appeared in front of Ion and was about to strike him with a katana, but Ryou saw this, and since he was the fastest one on our team, he took Ion in his arms and jumped away with him. I myself jumped away too from the enemy and had now added a safe distance between us. I lifted my arms up and let the bug attack the blond haired enemy there had appeared before us.
He simply dodged and was about to strike me down, but Ion had slipped behind him and had used his Mind Transfer Jutsu. We had now "defeated" the enemy.
"Now, where's the scroll?" said Ion in the enemy's body. I called my bugs back.
"Well?" asked the inpatient Ryou, appearing from the woods where he had taken a temporary hide with Ion.
"A second!" said Ion while searching in the mans pocket. He scowled at Ryuo, but his back was showed to Ryuo so Ryuo didn't react to it.
"Ah, here it is. Uh, just the scroll we need." said Ion a minute after with a triumphant smile on his lips. He gave the Earth scroll to me and jumped into the trees to make sure the enemy was as far away as possible. Soon after the real Ion woke up and rise from the ground.
"Ha, piece of cake!" he said cheerfully, proudly placing his hand on the hip while the other were bent to show his non-existent muscles.
"We're not done yet, we still need to get to the tower, fool." said Ryou.
"Then let's go." Ion said, still with the smile on his face. Not even Ryou's mood could bring him down now. And then Ion ran off without the rest of us.
"Wait for us, Ion!" Ryou yelled and took off after the exciting Yamanaka male. I followed next, silent as ever.
We managed to keep up with him, even though he had a head start. Soon the tower came to my view.
"The tower..." I said in a low tone.
"All right, almost there. Come on, let's hurry up!" said Ion and speed up.
"We can't go any faster, you fool, or else Shinju won't be able to keep up." Ryou said and glared at the back of Ion's head.
"Oh, right." Ion said, slowing down again.
Even though Ryou was a fool and didn't care for anyone, he always makes sure his team can keep up with him. Sometimes I wonder why he cares so much about me and Ion. For him we were just losers, people who shouldn't allowed to be a ninja. Maybe because we are his tickets for him to become a chunin. That's probably it.
We now stood at the edge of the tower and we could see doors all the way around. They all had a paper on them, a seal now that I looked closer.
"Do you guys thinks there could be a trap somewhere?" asked Ion, searching for the supposedly trap.
"It is possible." I answered.
"Let's just go in, we don't have any time to waste." said Ryou. So he opened the door and entered. Nothing happened. Ion and I followed shortly after.
"Hey, there's nothing here." said Ion and looked around in the almost empty room.
We were inside a large room with two balcony on each side of the room. There were decorations as well and light. At the end of the room, far off the ground, hang a plate with some writings on.
"Look, there's a plate." said Ryou and pointed to the opposite wall just as I was about to say it.
"Great, what does it say?" asked Ion.
"I think we are supposed to open the scrolls." I answered. I quickly skimmed over the writing and true enough, it says we're supposed to open the scrolls, just in a more discreet way. I didn't expect less from the ways of Konoha.
"What, but the proctor said that if we did, we'll fail!" Ion said frighteningly.
"If we open the scroll, not the scrolls." I said matter-of-factually, emphasizing each word individually.
"You got a point." Ryou agreed with me.
"But -" Ion started, but were interrupted.
"Just open them, you fool." Ryou said and gestured for us to start.
"Argh, fine then." Ion said irritated while accepting the scroll I handed him. We slowly opened the scrolls, sweat beading down Ion's face while I stayed calm, and once opened... nothing happened.
"What now?" Ion asked, lowering his arms, still holding the scroll in his hands.
"Throw them away!" Ryou warned. He sounded... scared.
We quickly did as told and throwed them to the ground, away from us.
Soon after there was a puff of smoke and from the clearing smoke, Daiki sensei appeared.
"Yo." he greeted us while making a hand-sign.
"Daiki sensei, what are you doing here?" Ion asked, taking the words right out of my mourth.
"I'm here to congrats you. So congratulations, you've finished the second part of the exams. And you might even had break the record. It's only 03:04. pm." Daiki sensei said while rolling up his sleeve to look at the watch he had around his wrist.
"We did?!" asked Ion excited.
"I only said maybe. I'm not sure." Daiki sensei answered and lowered his arm again, the sleeve going up his arm again because of the gravity.
"Ah, Daiki-sensei..." Ion said while hanging with his head down and sounded disappointed.
"But enough of that, you can rest now and wait for the other teams to come."
"Hai." we all said in union. He then disappeared in a puff of smoke. We were now all alone.
"Let's check this place out. Maybe they have some training grounds or something." Ion said in excitement.
So we all checked the place, but there weren't anything interesting. Only some bathrooms and changing-rooms. There weren't even food. Guessing you have to go out to the forest to get that.
Some hours later
"Man, I'm bored." Ion groaned and rested his head on the palm of his hand. We all sat in a random room and there was a table with chairs. Funny enough there weren't any doors at this place, so it was all one big room. Outside this "room" though was the hallway connected to the other rooms.
Soon after I heard footsteps out in the hallway and a moment after a figure appeared. It was the enemy from earlier. He had his team-mates with him.
We all stood up and looked at the enemy.
"Well, well, what do we have here?" asked the black haired male there were with the blond man. The other there were with them were a girl with short brown hair and a coat there matched her hair color.
"These are the guys I was talking about." said the blond to his team-mates. "Don't worry, folks, we're not here to hurt you." he told us, showing his hands with a small smile.
My team and I were on our guards. No matter what this guy said, we were not going to believe him. We were enemies until the proctors said otherwise.
"They don't look of much." spoke the girl of the other team.
"What is it you want? If you don't need anything, then beat it." Ryuo growled.
"Now, now, behave, kid." said the black haired man while pulling out one of his katana's.
Are they going to kill us?..
~~~
Shino's POV
Normally I could handle Kiba on a daily basis, but for the past few weeks my mind has changed. I couldn't stand this guy! He kept asking questions about my sister and it was killing me!! If he keep it going like this, I'll kill him, that's for sure.
---
"What is she like?"
"Does she knows some other jutsus, like her Insect-clones Rampage Jutsu? That one was awesome."
"How strong is she? She must be really strong to defeat me."
"What's her team like?"
"Is she just as annoying as you, Shino?"
---
And it went on and on and on and on and on and on and on and... It never had an end.
"If you are so curious about my sister, why don't you talk to her instead?" I asked Kiba one day, interrupting his trail of talk. I've had enough of this guy already...
"I've tried to find her, but it's like she's vanished. Do you know were she is?" Kiba asked with a hopeful tone. I gave him a suspicious look, but it went unnoticed as always.
"For the time being she's at the Chunin Exams." I answered finally.
"What?! You're saying that she's a genin and that she?.. No way..." Kiba said, pointing at me then slumped down by the shoulders, disbelief writing in his face.
"What's wrong?" I asked with a monotone voice.
"The time I trained with her, she defeated me. And she's just a genin..." Kiba answered, sighing. "But that means I have to train more and become stronger!" he said in a determined tone, clenching a hand in the process. Akamaru barked and I didn't need to be an Inuzuka to know that he agreed with Kiba.
Sometimes though I wonder were he got that spirit from...
At the Aburame compound
After today's training I went home and sat down on the couch in deep thoughts.
Flashback
"You are the one who is going to answer me!" she said with a threatening tone, barely hear able if it wasn't for my trained ears.
"About what?" I asked more calmly.
"About why you hadn't told your friends about me!" she half-shouted.
"..." I looked at her while at the same time not looking at her. I went into the deepest creek of my mind to try and find an answer, but nothing came.
"Well?" Her voice sent me out of my thoughts for a moment. She quickened an eyebrow and seemed to be growing inpatient as time went.
"..." I went back into my mind, searching and looking frantic, but couldn't find anything. If just I would come with a good explanation, she would forgive me and everything would be back to the old again.
"Answer me, Shino!" She demanded in a stern voice, sending me out of my thoughts yet again.
"..." I could feel my heart beat faster as time went. No sound escaped my lips as I tried to come with an answer, but I guess this just wasn't my lucky day.
"You don't even know?" She glared at me, eyes burning with such intents I probably would had died. Like all the other times it had happened.
I looked away. "No, I...I don't know..."
End Flashback
I sighed, plumping my chin down on my palm, my elbow resting on the arm courch, and tried to figure out why. Was it because I was afraid to say something wrong? Or was it something else?
"What is wrong, Shino?" asked my father concerned when he saw my distressed look.
"It's about me and Shinju. I don't know what to say to her. She want's a reason to know why I haven't talked about her and I'm not sure what it is." I answered, my voice a little muffled since I spoke with my chin down on my palm. It was kinds hard to talk like this, but I didn't felt like to lift my head at the moment.
"Well, you got five days to find out." Father looked back down at his newspaper and continued reading while listening to me.
"Yeah." I sighed.
I stood up from the couch after a while and then went out to the backyard to think for myself. I looked at the flowers and knelled down to take a closer look at the different plants. A path was snaking it's way from the door over to a port made of a bush and another path was connected to the first one, leading a way around a small circle of plant life. It was here I saw something out of the ordinary, something there frightened me.
I saw one of Shinju's Parasitic Insect's and followed it when it flied it's way to the port. It continued on and landed on the ground. I was now in the main garden. It had a few bushes of a special I can't remember the name of now and the path continued to my right, leading a way between two hurdles to the greenhouse. A few tall flowers grew beside the bushes.
I looked to the right to see the greenhouse and discovered another one of Shinju's beetles on the glass.
I walked closer and wondered why there were so many of her beetles here when she herself was at the Chunin Exams.
The beetle flew inside the greenhouse and I followed it.
I looked at all the butterflies and saw that it all was at its normal. But something felt off. Why is there two of Shinju's beetles here? Normally she would only have one. Something wasn't right and I had to find out what. And quickly.