They both processed the information and thought of a battle strategy while the female found a nice soft patch of grass to sleep on.
The clanking of metal on metal woke Chikako up from her slumber. Neji and Sasuke were fighting back-to-back. The other three looked strong. She watched as they fought for a moment before getting up. Making sure to conceal her chakra, Chikako snuck into an area with a few trees just a few meters from where she was previously sleeping.
Just as the only female in the group launched at Sasuke with a kunai covered in poison, Chikako came out of her spot and disarmed the girl. She grabbed the other girl's wrist and twisted. The other girl groaned in pain as she dropped the kunai she was holding. Her teammates glanced at her in worry, but that gave the other two an opportunity to land a hit.
Chikako used her other hand to break the girls nose with the bottom of her palm before kneeing her in the stomach. When the girl bent over to grab her aching stomach, Chikako used a swift chop to the back of her neck to knock her out.
The boys seemed to be having more trouble than she did, but she was well aware of how capable they were.
As they fought Chikako's eyes landed on Sasuke. The curse mark on his neck was getting bigger and began expanding further down his back and up his neck. With a troubling flash of his sharingan, Sasuke used his Chidori to blow his opponent away. The boy landed in a nearby tree in an extremely uncomfortable looking position.
With the boy realizing he was the last one standing, he panicked allowing Neji to use his eight-trigram attack. With that fight over, the three of them ended the day with nine scrolls in total.
Night once again rolled around, and the boys fell asleep. Chikako got up from her spot and gathered all nine scrolls. That only left Ra-Kun's team and one other. The silver haired girl had an inkling that her old friends team had the other six scrolls.
Chikako used a piece of cloth that was on the ground from the earlier fight and wrapped the nine scrolls in it. If she didn't beat the three guarding the winning scroll, at least Sasuke and Neji would have the other scrolls. Neji should be able to find them easily with his byakugon. Chikako hid them in a large bird's nest in a nearby tree before going back to the spot she found the night before.
Unlike the previous night, Chikako made her presence known right away.
"I figured you would come here tonight" Kakashi said she he leaned on a tree to the left of Chikako. She moved her body to face her older brother.
"I'm assume I have to fight you" she said. Kakashi got off of the tree and walked towards the younger girl.
"If you beat me, you need to fight Jiraiya, and if you beat him you need to get through Lady Hokage to get the scroll. Anko did tell you it was in a dangerous spot." He explained. Chikako understood what she had to do to get the scroll.
Her sharingan activated at the same time Kakashi's did. They both jumped apart and began making hand signs. They both sent Justus after jutsu towards the other, but Kakashi would copy his little sister and the attacks would cancel each other out.
Without using hand signs, Chikako created her wind card Justu and threw it towards Kakashi. He could not copy her Justus and instead opted to dodge. It sliced through a tree. Chikako rushed Kakashi until their positions were switched. She used her chakra to make a small plant to rock the tree. It began falling quickly on top of Chikako.
"Watch out!" Kakashi yelled. Chikako fell to the ground, pretending as if she, her ankle. In a panic the male rushed towards his sister to help her. At the last second Chikako moved out of the way and tripped Kakashi. The tree landed on him, and he groaned in pain.
"I win" Chikako said. Kakashi huffed and gave her the victory. She helped get the tree off Kakashi and healed him using her jutsu. He was as good as new when she was done.
"Jiraiya is further that way" The man pointed towards a large gap in the trees. So, the sage was waiting for her there...
Once Chikako was sure that Kakashi was okay and she apologized, she made her way to her next opponent.
When she found the man, Jiraiya was sleeping on the ground with is limbs all strewn about. Her mismatched eyes stared down at the man. After a moment of listening to his loud snores, Chikako kicked him where the sun does not shine. The sage jumped up in pain.
"The pictures" Chikako said two simple words, but they made Jiraiya freeze in fear.
"You know what, I give up. You can go ahead. I'll just wait here" he said nervously.
While they were training together Jiraiya found some obscure pictures of Tsunade and kept them. He would stare at them with a gorilla-like blush on his face as she breathed heavily. Once day Chikako caught him and he freaked out. By coincidence, they ran into the woman a few days after. Jiraiya begged Chikako not to tell her, but she would not agree. In the end, Chikako stayed away from the woman as the two of them talked. She had never met the blonde sannin until she came to the village. Although she knew her strength, Chikako figured she best save her chakra for Tsunade. The pictures were her trump card, and she decided to use it.
It was not a one-time thing. If Chikako ever needed something else, she would only have to say those two words and she would get it.
Finally, Chikako found Tsunade. She was sitting on a log with a bottle of sake in her hand. Her face was a bit blushed, but she seemed coherent still.
"I've come for the scroll" She announced. Tsunade looked Chikako up and down before downing the rest of the sake in one shot and throwing the bottle to the side.
"Why do you even need this scroll? You already have enough to go to the next round" Tsunade pointed out. Chikako thought for a moment.
"Because I want my team to win a perfect victory" She spoke. Tsunade was taken aback by Chikako's sudden show of passion, but it comforted her to know that Chikako had people to work hard for.
With a laugh, Tsunade got up and cracked her neck, and the fight began.
Tsunade was very skilled in taijutsu. Although Chikako was fairly good at it as well, she knew she could not defeat the older woman with just taijutsu alone. The Hokage didn't give Chikako time to think of a strategy, and attacked the genin right away. The two of them fought in a rather epic battle. Trading blow after blow. Chikako tried to defend with taijutsu, but attacked with her wind card jutsu.
"You won't win using the same trick over and over again!" Tsunade yelled at her. The blonde punched the ground where Chikako was only second ago. The silver haired girl managed to dodge with minimal damage to herself. A bone or two might have broken in her arm from the last attack, other than that, she was holding up pretty well.
Chikako propelled herself off of the tree she jumped to and shot her body at Tsunade as she sent a two cards of wind at the woman. Neither of them hit Tsunade and instead landed in the trees and surrounding area around them.
The younger female moved her body oddly through the air as she threw herself at the Hokage. For a split second Tsunade let herself be shocked at how she could chnage direction midair like that, but had to defend herself less than a second later from Chikako's kick. She raised her arms in and X shape to protect her face. When the girls foot came into contact with Tsunade's arms, the woman flinched before grabbing her foot and throwing her body harshly to the ground.
They had been at it for a few hours, if the rising sun was anything to go on. The sun would be a problem, thought Chikako.
"You won't win Chikako. Your team needs all three members to pass or everyone fails. It's not worth it" Tsunade warned. The girl was panting from getting the wind knocked out of her moments before. She weakly lifted one of her hands and threw on more wind card at the woman. Tsunade scoffed and leaned her head to the side and let the card whiz past her.
"Got you" Chikako mumbled. Tsunade was confused. What was she talking about?
Flexing her fingers, Chikako made fists with both hands and pulled them towards her body. Tsunade's breath got caught in her throat.
"I understand now. You beat me" Tsunade said impressed. Her body was pulled to itself like she was tied up, which she was. As the sun rose it shone down on them, causing the see-through threads Chikako was using to glint.
"The whole time, you were never aiming for me. That's why it was too easy to dodge your attacks, and why you kept using the same jutsu" Tsunade remarked. Chikako grasped her cut and broken arm as she stood up.
During the night the two of them fought with only taijutsu with Chikako attacking with her wind card jutsu every now and again. Tsunade was easily able to dodge them because instead of attacking, Chikako was really setting a trap. Inside each attack was a sebon needle attached to thread that was knotted around her fingers. The darkness of the night hid both of those things. When she would 'miss' it was really her aiming at the object behind the woman so the needle would create a line between the area and Chikako's hands. Every time Tsunade would move she would get tied up in the threads. but she didn't feel them until Chikako tightened them, successfully restricting the woman.
"I thought that last movement was odd. It was you using the threads to maneuver yourself out of the trap." Tsunade added.
"You deserve the scroll" Chikako let Tsunade loose and collected her threads and needles before pocketing them once again. Tsunade grabbed the scroll from inside her jacket and handed it to Chikako.
Slow clapping met her ears. Chikako turned around only to see Kakashi and Jiraiya coming up tot he females.
"That was impressive Chikako. I never knew you were this strong" Kakashi commented. The girl didn't know he was watching. If she knew, she would have acted weaker. They didn't need to know the extent of her power yet. It was quite overwhelming, even to her sometimes.
"That's the Chikako I know!" Jiraiya shouted. Said girl gripped the scroll tightly in her hands.
"Thank you. I must be going now" Chikako bowed politely to the three shinobi before speeding off.
"She never fails to surprise me, even when she took the genin test. She created a clone of every known type of chakra" Tsunade crossed her arms as she looked at where the girl disappeared to.
"She what?" Kakashi asked.
"I thought she would use one of her summons to take the scroll from you. She obviously knew where it was from the start." Jiraiya added. Kakashi was shocked at the things they were saying. She can use more than one type of chakra? She had summons?
His heart throbbed as he thought about how little he still knows about her even after all they've been through.
Chikako returned to her team only to find the boys searching for her. There was only a few days left and they had enough scrolls so neither of them could figure out where she went.
"I'm back" she said. Both males came over to her.
"Where were you?" Sasuke yelled at her. Anger flared in his eyes, and that worried her.
"I got the winnign scroll." She said.
"Where was it?" Neji asked. Chikako explained everything that happened with the least amount of words possible.
"I see" Neji pondered.
"You did all of that without us?" the black haired boy raged. Chikako tried to calm Sasuke down with Neji, but he just got angrier and stormed off.
"We'll go look around. You can stay here if you want" Neji offered. Chikako nodded. When both of them were out of sight, she rushed back over to where the three older ninja were. Thankfully she found Kakashi and Tsunade still there.
"We need to end this test now" Chikako stated. They both looked at her curiously.
"Sasuke is acting odd. It's only my team and Ra-kun's team anyway. If you ask them, I'm sure they'll agree to it." She explained.
"Kakashi, go ask the other remaining team if they would be find ending the second test a bit early" Tsunade ordered. The male nodded and took off.
Chikako bowed in thanks. Kakashi came back soon enough with Ra-kuns team. They had agreed. She asked them to wait there for a few minutes while she gathered Neji and Sasuke as well.
It took her no time to find Neji and approach him.
"The test is ending a bit early. We are supposed to meet up with The Hokage and other team." Without asking many questions, Neji agreed and told her that he would get Sasuke as well. She gathered the rest of the scrolls and the three of them met up at their camp. Sasuke was all but screeching in anger. Chikako stared at him from behind her veil as he grabbed Neji's collar. In a singular swift movement, Chikako hit the Uchiha in the back of the head and knocked him out.
"We need to get going. I'll carry him" Neji nodded and the two of them went to the meeting spot.
The group walked out of the forest and were told that they passed. Tsunade gave them simple instructions for the rest of the test. They would have a team battle to decide the winner in three days time. Once Tsunade dismissed them, Chikako told Neji to head home and they would talk the next day. Although he was hesitant, Neji listened to Chikako.
"I'm going to take him home" Chikako told Kakashi. The man agreed that letting Sasuke rest would be the best course of action.
Chikako picked Sasuke up and carried him on her back like a child. She walked through the village and into the Uchiha compound. Once they were inside the males house, she gently rested him on his bed.
"I'm sorry. I have to do this" Chikako grabbed a sebon needle and pricked Sasuke's finger. Blood dripped from his fingertip as she caught it in a drinking glass she found in his kitchen. If she was going to remove his curse mark she would need to make sure her method was solid.
The next two days Sasuke avoided both of his teammates, so they decided to train without him. Chikako and Neji had quite a few mock battles.
Chikako poked Neji in a certain spot on his chest and he doubled over coughing.
"How did you do that?" He asked. Neji was well aware that Chikako had just disabled his chakra momentarily by using a gentle fist technique.
"I studied anatomy and chakra points while learning medical jutsu. I memorized where the few important ones where" She flatly explained. This left Neji shocked. Especially the way she said it so causally.
"How can you know exactly where the points are and accurately hit them without any error? How do you know about the gentle fist?" He asked. Chikako stared at him with an uncaring expression from under her veil.
"I read about it in a book" Came her simple answer. Neji shook his head. It didn't seem like he would get much information out of the girl. The two of them resumed their mock battles.
After a few Neji attacked Chikako's face and managed to cut her veil in half. Chikako's eyes widened a fraction. She thought she had more room to dodge. The lack of sleep was getting to her as well as the stress from Sasuke's situation.
The two jumped apart and they watched as the think fabric sashayed to the ground. The male took in the girls features, seeing them for the first time.
Her skin was fair and smooth like Hinata's, but her eyes were narrow and sharp similar to Tsunade's. Her face was long and her features were extremely attractive. It made his heart skip a beat. Chikako was the most attractive person he'd ever seen in his whole life, despite the numerous scars around her eyes. However he was too busy studying her lips. They were heart shaped with a heavy lower lip. Her neutral expression caused them to be slightly down turned.
The female took the remnants of her veil off and replaced the torn veil with a black silk one she was given from Kakashi. It was a very nice material and she only planned on using it for when she knew for sure she wouldn't be fighting s it wouldn't get ruined.
"Why do you hide your face?" Neji blurted out. He tried to calm his wildly beating heart. On the outside he seemed perfectly normal, so no matter how observant Chikako was, she didn't know in the slightest what was going on inside the boys head. Chikako remembered that she never actually told anyone the reason she hides her face.
"I was being hunted by the Kogarashi clan since I was five. I used transformation jutsu to change my appearance, but it didn't always work because of my bad chakra control I had as a child. So I hid my face." Neji nodded remembering what he was told from Lee about that mission.
Chikako and Lee were close and talked very often. He was worried sick when he heard what happened and made Chikako tell him everything. Neji could remember how annoyed he was when Lee wouldn't stop talking about it.
"Also my face, specifically my eyes, attract a lot of attention and I like to avoid that" Neji seemed to nod along this time. He knew what it was like to have a power in the eyes.
"We should end training here for now." Chikako suggested. Neji agreed and the two of them went their separate ways. Neji rested his hand on his heart as it finally began to slow.
The next morning the six remaining genin gathered in the battle grounds. Numerous people were gathered in the stands including lords, important figures from ninja villages, and other ninja.
"The last round will be a team battle. A three-on-three if you will. There won't be a time limit. The match ends when everyone on one team is either unable to fight anymore or they admit defeat. There are a few other rules that limit injuries, but other than that here aren't any restrictions" An older ninja announced as he addressed the crowd.
The three of them stood facing Gaara's team members. Chikako and Gaara, Neji and Kankuro, and Sasuke and Temari. They all shook hands before stepping back to create some distance between them.
"You may begin" A loud pop signaled the beginning of the start of the final test.
Neji attacked Kankuro first. The two of them fought hand to hand. Neji quickly broke his wooden puppets and disabled his chakra.
Meanwhile, Sasuke and Temari were fighting near them. Sasuke started out strong with his fire breath jutsu to which Temari countered with her fan. The two of them were fighting from a distance. Sasuke quickly realized that he needed to close the gap, because at the moment Temari had the advantage. He completely destroyed her fan with his Chidori as soon as he got the chance. It only took a few moves after that to get her out of the fight.
This whole time Gaara and Chikako faced one another.
"I training hard during the test to be able to face you. I knew it would be our two teams in the end" Ra-kun said, Chikako nodded.
"As did I. However you will not be winning. I need to end this quickly" Chikako spoke.
Right off of the bat, Gaara used his sand coffin but created a second layer, so if she broke through another attack would be waiting. Chikako instead of standing there like before, covered her body in wind chakra and broke free from the sand coffin by pushing the wind outward.
The two of them stood still for a few seconds before charging forwards. Let the match begin.