CHAPTER TWELVE
"Hello again, (Y/n)." A familiar voice calls to me. I slowly open my eyes and blankly stare at the red head in front of me. On his face was a small smile, but it didn't reach his eyes. This boy was hurt, damaged severely.
"Gaara, Shukaku." I reply, greeting them both. Gaara's eyes flicker like they had the day I met him. He seems to relax as he sighs in what seems to be relief, before claiming the empty spot on the wall next to me.
"Why are you near me? I don't like people." I ask dryly, looking directly at the boy next to me, continuing to analyze him. He looks weak, no muscle mass, no scars, like he'd never battled or sparred a day in his life.
"You calm Shukaku. He says that your demon is an old friend. They seem to like each other, he's talking to her now." Gaara explains. My gaze snaps up from his body and attire to his face, which seems to be just as stoic as mine. It's obvious that this boy has been through a lot, but what jinchuriki hasn't?
"You can hear him?" I ask quickly, now averting my gaze forward to look at all of the people before me. The air is tense, very thick.
"Always. Can you hear yours?" Gaara replied after a few moments, turning his gaze to me. I keep my face forward and tilt my gaze to the ground, imagining what it would be like to have a demon keeping me up all hours of the day and night.
"Not unless she wants me to, I suppose." I reply, slightly grateful that Mother Darkness wasn't like the demon inside of Gaara. Rather than give me insomnia, she brought me back to life and gave me life advice that I tried to ignore.
"Oh, that's-" Gaara began, but Naruto and Sasuke burst through the doors. Sasuke looked angry, while Naruto's eyes were wide, looking at all of the competition. As soon as the tension in the air hit the two, they shivered, but Sasuke's eyes quickly scanned the crowd. When his eyes landed on me, a look of relief crossed his face, but then sheer anger replaced it when he seen Gaara. Sasuke came storming over, leaving Naruto. A white haired teen came up to Naruto instead, and began talking, as well as the rest of the Konoha genin.
"What in the hell are you doing next to her, (Y/n) why the hell are you allowing it?!?" Sasuke yells as soon as he gets close to us, glaring at Gaara, who completely ignored it. I sigh heavily and push myself off of the wall to glare at Sasuke for interrupting the peace.
"It's none of your business. He hasn't done anything to me, and I haven't seen him do anything to you." I reply harshly, but blandly. Sasuke's eyes go wide with surprise because I had just defended the sand ninja, but he quickly replaces it with anger.
"Yes he has!" Sasuke yells accusingly as he crosses his arms over his chest. I mimic his posture, placing my arms over my ribcage, and scowling at him.
"Like what?" I seethe, getting agitated at his childish antics. Gaara makes a sound, that is kind of like a chuckle, but it never finished. Sasuke panics momentarily as he tries to come up with something.
"He... he uh, it doesn't matter, he's a bad influence, let's go!" Sasuke yells once more. He quickly releases his arms from his chest and reaches out to grab one of mine. Once Sasuke had my wrist, he quickly pulled me away from Gaara, dragging me behind him, back to Naruto and the other Konoha genin.
"Sasuke, if you don't let me go, I'm going to knock you out." I say monotonously, but Sasuke seemed to ignore me completely. I one handedly cracked my knuckles and reared back, about to punch him in the back of the head, but the white haired boy cut in.
"Hey hey hey, no need for fighting. Your idiotic teammate has already made a bad impression on the regulars." He explains while pointing at Naruto. Sasuke turned around and seen my raised fist. His eyes widened but he never released my wrist. I look to the white haired boy who had a disgusting smile on his face. I already hated him.
"And when exactly did I say I wanted to talk to you? You interrupted me." I partially growl and the boy's eyes widened, a nervous smile came onto his face. He sheepishly chuckled and raised his hands and began to wave them.
"I apologize. My name is Kabuto and I'm competing as well." He explains, his voice wavering slightly at the deadly aura coming off of me. The leaf genin eyed the man, Kabuto, with what looks like sympathy, and he notices. He takes a step back from me quickly. I jerk out of Sasuke's grasp and take a step forward.
"Again, when did I ask you that?" I ask while cracking the knuckles on my other hand. He seemed to gain a bit of confidence from somewhere because he relaxed slightly.
"You didn't, but I'm sure your boyfriend wanted to know, since it was interrupting him getting knocked out." Kabuto says. My anger diminishes as I stare at the odd boy with a Konoha headband, and yet, I'd never seen him around the village, not once. I grew wary and started walking away.
"Sasuke, let's go." I say, but he takes a step closer to Kabuto, who was pulling something out of his pocket.
"Wait, what are those?" Sasuke asks, curiosity lacing his voice. I pause to take a look at the blank orange cards. They look to be of no use to me.
"Information cards. I've got info on everyone in this room. Anyone in particular you'd like to see?" Kabuto explains, then asks. Sasuke tells him the names of Gaara, and that other weird kid who challenged him for my hand. Kabuto showed them to Sasuke, but I didn't want to be any part of it. I already knew practically everything about everyone.
"I'm leaving." I say flatly and start walking away. Sasuke ignores me as I walk back to my now empty corner. I place my back against the wall once more and let myself think for a while, until a small fight breaks out between Kabuto and some sound ninja. Kabuto falls to the ground and Naruto races to his aid, just as a new voice screeches out and a cloud of smoke appears.
"Quiet down you maggots! Sorry for keeping you waiting. I am the first examiner of the chunin exams, Ibiki Morino, or in other words, your worst nightmare. This test will be made up of three parts. The written test, the survival test, and the finals. Everyone come up and take a number, this will correspond with the seat you will sit in." Ibiki explains as I scoff at his dramatic entrance. He scolds the sound ninja for making a scene, and then starts handing out small slips of paper. He comes up to me with hard eyes and hands me one. I got 17.
We then exit the room and start filing into a classroom with numbers on the chairs, smallest numbers in the back and largest in the front. I head to the back of the classroom and sit in my seat number. I then began to look out the window, but turn my head when I feel a familiar presence. Gaara, he had 16. I nod in his direction and he returns the gesture. Once everyone is in the room and seated, Ibiki explains the rules.
"You will all be given one hour to complete this test. If you are to be caught cheating any more than five times, you will be terminated and you and your team will leave. The ninja lining the room will be monitoring you all closely. You may begin." Ibiki explains. I quickly find Naruto and Sasuke. Naruto groans and slams his head down on the desk and Sasuke looks as if he understands what's going on. We have to cheat, they want us to, just not get caught. I look down at my paper to see problems that are for a jounin at the least, and start to worry because of Naruto.
I start to answer the questions, but sand caresses my hand, stopping me completely. I side glance at Gaara who has his finger over his eye and is getting answers from and older looking man beside him. He quickly writes the answers on his own paper, then his sand starts to manipulate my hand, writing the answers for me. I relax back into the chair then flick my gaze to Sasuke. He uses his sharingan to copy the hand movements of someone near him. My gaze then lands on Naruto, who is still struggling. I catch the Hyuga girl slide her paper closer to him slightly, which Naruto goes to copy, but he stops when the ninja around the room start yelling.
"Seats 4, 32, 21, 45, take your team members and leave!" A random ninja lining the room yells. My gaze flickers to the front of the classroom to watch as twelve people leave all at once. This continues for the entire hour, until Ibiki stops the test.
"Alright, now. There's one final question. You can either stay and attempt it or leave and try next year. But, if you stay and get it wrong, you will be stuck as a genin for the rest of your shinobi career!" Ibiki yells. Gasps are heard around the room, and soon, at least seven more teams leave. Twenty one more genin gone as quickly as the blink of an eye. Naruto slowly stands and I grit my teeth and activate my Daku, but he slams his hands on the table and gives a speech, which I ignore after I seen that he wasn't leaving.
"You pass." Ibiki says. I sigh in relief, recognizing the last question to be the test entirely. Gaara sighs quietly next to me. We've done it. We've passed the first section of the exam. I allow a bit of confidence to fill me, for I do feel that I am another step closer to having the ability to defeat my sister, but a sudden crash jerks me away from my moment and sends me bounding to the front of the classroom to defeat whatever had intruded on the exams.
"Well, seems we've got a quick one, don't we Ibiki? But what the hell is up with the rest of them, why are there so many? Are you going soft, Ibiki?" A woman who is hardly dressed, with dark spiky hair asks. Audible gasps are heard around the room at my speed. Seeing that this woman is probably supposed to be here, I take my kunai away from her throat and look to Ibiki, whose eyes are wide.
"Yes, she's quite a ninja. And no, we've just got some formidable ones here. They do get better each generation. And Anko, you're early." Ibiki says. Anko chuckles sheepishly as I just stare at her. Somethings up with her chakra. She stops laughing momentarily and places her hands on the back of her head, opening her coat further. This woman has no shame.
"Well, by the time I get done with them, over half will be gone." Anko says with a wicked smirk on her face while facing the odd 26 or 27 teams left. Most of the group's eyes widen while others look indifferent. Naruto happened to be a part of the shocked, and he was sure to make that known.
"Half?!?" Naruto yells angrily. Anko chuckles once more, throwing her head back in the process, and races back to the window, propping one of her legs up on it, then looks back to the crowd of students.
"No time to explain here, let's go maggots!" She yells. Most storm out of the room through the door, but I calmly leap out of the three story window after her. Once she hears me behind her, her gaze snaps back and a small smirk crawls on her face. She focuses her gaze forward once more and heads to the Forest of Death for the survival portion of the test.
~ A Few Minutes Later ~
"They call this the Forest of Death, and pretty soon you're gonna find out why." Anko says. The crowd of teams tense, especially Naruto, but he covers it quickly with his idea of humor.
"Blah blah blah, they call this the Forest of Death, and pretty soon you're gonna find out why! Give me your worst, you're not gonna scare me away!" Naruto mocks Anko as he places his hands on his hips and sways them from side to side. I roll my eyes and cross my arms over my ribcage.
"So, we've got ourselves a tough guy, and on the speedsters team too?" Anko says as a sadistic smirk crosses her face. Anko quickly pulls a kunai from her coat and throws it at Naruto, scraping his cheek as it whizzes past him and cuts a grass ninja's hair. Anko then races to get behind Naruto and grabs him so he can't move.
"Are you tough enough to handle this? You're not afraid are you?" Anko asks darkly as Naruto shakes in fear. Sasuke gasps as Naruto trembles. My teeth grit tightly as I race behind Anko and place a kunai to the back of her neck, making sure she can feel the point at the top of her spine.
"Get off of my teammate before I make you afraid." I growl at her. Anko chuckles lightly, but tenses, then spins around quickly, holding me to her body and pointing a kunai at the same grass ninja that has just had her hair cut.
"I was just returning your knife." The grass ninja purrs. I glare at the woman. Something was off about her and I hated it. She didn't feel right.
"Why, thank you grass ninja." Anko says finally, breaking the tension. She takes the kunai and releases me from her protective grasp. The grass ninja then looks down to me and licks her lips with her long tongue. I keep myself from cringing in disgust, then walk back to Sasuke, dragging Naruto behind me.
"Seems like everyone here today is quick tempered, must be something in the air." Anko says as she chuckles.
"Yeah, blood lust." I reply and resume my position with my arms crossed under my chest. Naruto takes a shaky breath and calms himself before continuing with his tough guy facade.
"Now, before we begin this test, I have something to hand out to you all. It's just a standard consent form. Before we begin, all of you will have to read and sign it. Some of you may not come back from this test, and I have to get your consent, otherwise it'd be my responsibility. Now I'll explain what you'll be doing on this test. This test will take every one of your survival skills. The test consists of an 'anything goes' battle to get your hands on these scrolls. You'll be fighting to get both, a heaven and an earth scroll. 27 teams will be taking part in this test, meaning one half will be trying for heaven, and the other for earth. Half will not make it." Anko explains with that same sadistic smirk spread on her face. We all take a form, some shaking with worry and others trembling with excitement. I bite the tip of my finger and carefully write my name with my blood, using my nail as the tip.
"Okay, so what do we do to pass?" Sasuke asks suddenly. Anko clears her throat and begins speaking in her loud, deep voice.
"To pass, your entire squad must make it to the tower at the center of the forest with both scrolls. Oh, and one more thing, you've only got 5 days." Anko explains, again, with her smirk that now seems to be mocking us.
"5 days out there?!?" Ino screams girlishly, hurting my ears in the process. Shikamaru, I think that's his name, huffs at his two team members.
"What are we supposed to do for food?!?" The larger male on her team screams. Oh, do I feel for that poor boy and his team.
"Look around, there are plenty of things to eat." Anko chuckles as she waves her hands around for emphasis.
"But that's not the only thing the forest has plenty of, there are also poisonous insects, and man eating beasts." Kabuto explains. My skin practically crawls with every word he speaks. I hate that guy so much.
"So that means, that under these circumstances, not even half of the teams will succeed." The Hyuga boy says, making a lot of people piss themselves.
"Oh just great, this is gonna be a drag." Shikamaru groans out, drooping his shoulders in the process.
"That's not it, there are also some ways you can be disqualified. First, if all three members can't make it in five days with both scrolls, if you loose a team member, or if the team member can't continue, and none of you may look at the scrolls until you've reached the tower." Anko says and then starts to collect everyone's forms.
"Alright everyone, we're gonna start handing out scrolls." A random jounin says from a wooden booth type thing. One by one, the teams go in, including mine, and Sasuke takes the scroll. We then exit and wait.
"Listen up, every team has received their scrolls, so go to your gate and wait there. When the gates open, the test is on!" Anko says. Every team goes to their gate and all goes silent, the only thing being heard are the sounds from the forest. The gates suddenly fly open and all of the other teams go flying in, but I walk in calmy, Sasuke and Naruto following closely.
"Well alright, here we go guys!" Naruto yells as he pumps his fist in the air as we get a few paces into the forest. I roll my eyes as we continue walking, but not even a minute later, shrill screaming is heard. Someone has already made their move.
"That sounded like someone screaming!" Naruto yells. I use my index fingers to rub the temples of my head and stop walking, then slowly turn to Naruto behind me.
"That's because it was, you idiot." I say monotonously, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, which it clearly was at the moment, given the circumstances.
"I do not like this place." Sasuke murmured to himself after taking a step closer to me and Naruto.
"Oh come on Sasuke, this is gonna be a piece of cake! Just give me a second, I really gotta pee." Naruto says as he places his hands over his lower region and bounces back and forth, beginning to unbutton his orange pants. Sasuke's face goes ravenous and he punches Naruto on the back of the head.
"Yeah right, not in front of (Y/n), get the hell away! Find a bush or something!" Sasuke screams, fist still raised in the air. Naruto grumbles curses under his breath before running into the brush, then comes out a minute later while signing in relief. He begins speaking, but I take no heed, and begin attacking. I throw a kunai at the person's head, and then throw a series of punches and kicks.
"Hey (Y/n), wait a minute, he may be disgusting but-" Sasuke begins while trying to stop me from attacking the imposter. This could never be Naruto, he was dodging too accurately, and his chakra is jacked, and his appearance is off.
"Where is Naruto?" I growl as I take an offensive stance in front of Sasuke. Sasuke's eyes widen and he starts looking at Naruto a bit more closely, now fully realizing what's happening.
"What the hell are you talking about, I'm right here!" The imposter exclaims, much too calmly at that.
"You don't deserve to be in these exams. Your transformation jutsu is atrocious. Naruto is right handed, and had an infected cut on his cheek from Anko. Try again, idiot. Now, what have you done with Naruto." I growl and take a step forward. The ninja releases the transformation, a mist ninja.
"Alright you got me, so what. I'm still gonna take your scroll, now hand it over, or else. Now, which one of you has it." The odd looking mist ninja says, but neither Sasuke or I speak up, I'm too busy scanning for Naruto's chakra in a forest full of different signatures.
"Go away weakling, you're wasting my time, unless you want to tell me where Naruto is." I finally reply after the mist ninja takes a kunai from his pouch.
"Fine, I guess I'll take you both out." He growls and charges for us, but Sasuke and I jump apart, making it much more difficult for him to attack.
"Like hell you will. I tried to warn you, now you're going to die." I reply nonchalantly. Sasuke's eyes go wide as I pull my katana off of my back, I desperately needed to train with it.
"Wait, (Y/n) don't. You've already got blood on your hands from the past." Sasuke says. I roll my eyes and race up to the ninja. Before he can even process what was happening, my sword was through his stomach. He obviously came alone, because if he didn't, his team would have come out well before now.
"It doesn't matter, I think I feel Naruto's chakra. Let's go."