"What amateurs," one of several shinobi said as he and his team approached the clearing that they had finally tracked the wafting scent of brewing tea to its source. "They must have been brewing tea off and on for the last day or more."
"We're not the only ones that have come looking," one of his partners said.
"And don't forget what we saw on the way here," another noted. "Torino's team was slaughtered and left for dead where they fell not a mile away from here."
"If that was them," the first asked. "Don't you think they'd have left by now?"
"The Konoha brats," a Suna shinobi said from the tree cover at another angle. "Two full teams."
"Looks like one is helping recover from injuries," another noted. "You're not scared of a bunch of twelve and thirteen year old kids from a soft place like the Leaf?"
"Konoha is one of the great villages," a third noted warningly. "But I have to say what I've seen so far doesn't impress."
"We have two teams here," a fourth Suna noted, indicating their own members. "Numbers are even, experience and skill are not, the more experienced and skilled shinobi should prevail. Clearly that is not such brats as these."
"And the other two teams on hand?" someone asked. "The Amegakure and the Takigakure?"
"If they get in the way, they will fall," the fourth added in.
"Juni's team was slaughtered to a man," a Takigakure shinobi noted. "Not more than a day's walk away from here."
"And this our chance to avenge them," a second noted.
"How do we know that Konoha killed them?" the third asked.
"We don't, but now we have more reason than ever to succeed here," the first noted. "We just have to watch for the appropriate opportunity to strike and fade away."
Kashou sat on a perch in a tree and watched what was happening, idly he looked across toward where he'd sent the Musk warriors and then back toward the scene below. Let the animals chase their tails a few times, he didn't particularly want them to interfere in his observations just yet.
He'd been hired to confirm what the Musk claimed, nothing more.
It wasn't like he was foolish enough to try to grab power for himself.
If he did that, then he might actually have to pay for something out of his own funds.
Kabuto watched quietly, it was only the third day of the test, not yet time to interfere and guide Sasuke by the hand. However, the situation at hand was more than a little volatile.
The tension was building below him and at any moment it could erupt into an explosion of chaotic violence.
"Four teams," Neji said quietly. "Two Sand, one Valley and one Rain."
"H..hai," Ryoko said standing up and bowing several times.
Neji frowned as he noted that the girl's body was in much better condition after only the half day of arguing and light work they'd had since seeing her.
"Different villages," Sasuke said. "They'll hold off for now."
Neji nodded solemnly.
"What, why?" Naruto asked. "Why don't they come in?"
"Because the team that moves first will take the initial strike," Neji said. "And be weaker to face the next team. They'll wait to see who loses their patience first."
"If we make a move to leave, however," Sasuke said, "they'll move rather than risk being in the situation we're now in."
"Surrounded," Tenten said grimly. "Monkey in the middle."
"Ano..." Ryoko said as she finished putting everything away. "I..is that bad then?"
"If we know where they are," Naruto said. "Why not just take them and get it over with.
"Idiot, the first team that opens its back gets hit from two or three sides," Neji snapped, "Didn't we just explain that?"
"You just said there were four teams," Naruto said. "But there are six plus of us. That means each of us could take one team."
"Are we actually talking about each of us taking a group on our own?" Tenten asked. "Can we do that?"
"If they're as weak as they look," Neji said. "Are you fine to fight, Uchiha?"
"I'll feel as good as I ever have," Sasuke said firmly with a vicious smile.
He had to admit to being eager to test the feeling he had.
"Takigakure is in the trees behind Naruto," Neji said. "Amegakure is behind me. Sunagakure is between Tenten and Lee. They're the largest concentration so..."
"Rock-san and I shall at..attend to it," Ryoko said.
"Hai, that way we can be sure of each other's score," Lee declared.
"I'll support them," Tenten said to Neji, cutting off his commentary before it could begin.
"Then I'll take Takigakure," Neji said. "And Naruto perhaps should help your overly eager friend."
"Heh, don't worry about where I'll be," Naruto noted with a smirk.
"Then let's get on with this," Sasuke noted.
"KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!" Naruto shouted, raising a cloud of smoke all about the Konoha shinobi which surprised all of the watching teams.
"A smoke bomb and jutsu bluff won't fool us!" the Takigakure team declared as she darted for the smoke. "Get them before they escape!"
They were interrupted soon after leaving their hiding spot by a figure in grey clothes stepping out of nowhere.
"You're in the range of divination," Neji said calmly.
"Scatter!" the apparent leader shouted, rolling backwards as Neji started to move.
His teammates were slow to respond, screaming as Neji's jyuuken tore into them, but he gritted his teeth and pulled out a pair of kunai for a retaliation.
"Uh uh!" Naruto called out loudly, dropping down on the leader from above and slamming him into the nearest tree.
As Neji looked up from the two he'd eliminated and over toward Naruto, he frowned slightly at the the thought that the blonde had thought he'd need assistance.
"Those fools are trying to run," an Amegakure shinobi said with sneer. "Let's give them the chase they obviously expect."
Darting forward, one of them called out.
"Run down the cowards like the weak of the herd," another snapped eagerly.
"Who's a coward," a cool calm voice asked.
Sasuke stepped forward and slammed a fist into the face of the center shinobi before twisting about with his foot and slamming into the next. Quietly he triggered his sharingan, not to watch his opponent's chakra, but to track the flow of something else.
Chi was hard to track, even with the sharingan, and from watching the blind woman, it seemed obvious that he wasn't getting the same picture she was, but he had enough practice now to at least partially note the way the chi was flowing already through and immediately close to him.
It wasn't truly chi channeling yet, merely following its path. It was something a good taijutsu-ka already did without realizing it. It was a further experimentation and observation, however.
The third blow struck into the last of the Amegakure solidly, and Sasuke watched the rippling of energy through the man's body as the physical impact and chi both insisted on traveling through the body in specific ways and the body resisted.
Sasuke smirked a bit in victory. This was something he couldn't watch in observing that woman. And now that he could recognize the faint trace of chi his sharingan allowed him to see, it was something he could remember for later and analyze.
Sasuke was looking up toward the first shinobi that he had struck, seeing the man standing up determinedly much to Sasuke's amusement.
Which was when a driving pain twisted outward from his neck throughout his whole body. It pulled a surprised cry out of him, driving him down toward the ground as he clutched at his neck.
"Heh, looks like you should have spent a little longer recovering," the Amegakure noted. "Or at least shouldn't have attacked alone."
"Who says he's alone?" a loud voice declared as an orange blur kicked the last shinobi's feet out from under him, followed by slamming into his face.
Sasuke grimaced, trying to catch his breath as Naruto, or one of his clones, finished off the last Amegakure ninja. He reached up to grab his neck and took a deep breath. Was it the chi or the sharingan that had triggered that, he wondered.
Ryoko and Lee appeared almost simultaneously in the midst of the six sand genin.
Tenten watched from a distance as Ryoko rose one leg in a curious hooking fashion to avoid a sweeping strike and then coming down again atop the sweeping leg inside the attacker's guard and slamming an elegant and graceful strike into the man's kidney and following up to pull the leg she'd hooked over far out of place.
At the same time Lee slashed out one roundhouse. His foot slammed into the jaw of the first of his targets even as he twisted in mid-air to avoid the slashing strike of a kunai from a second and slamming his knee into the second opponent's head.
Almost simultaneously, cries went up from each of the fighters.
"Ichi! Ni!"
From her position, Tenten tossed out her weapons, nailing the supporting numbers into tree bark while the two taijutsu specialists enjoyed free-reign in close fights.
One of the Sunagakure listened as the counting ranged higher and higher as he and his fellows were being literally mowed down. And it became apparent watching the reactions of the two, that he and the other Suna were being placed as the pieces of a game...a competition between the Konoha taijutsu specialist and the girl who wore no headband.
When the counts first reached double digits, he took a deep breath and turned to run, only to find himself facing a pair of identical orange-clad ninja that proceeded to knock him unconscious.
"Naruto!" "Uzumaki-san!"
"What, what?" Naruto asked, confused as he stood over the last ninja.
"You just incapacitated the tie-breaker," Tenten informed him with a tolerant shrug and a shake of the head.
"Ano..." Ryoko said nervously. "How do we decide who won now?"
"A draw," Lee said. "Most unfortunate. We shall have to attempt a new challenge at a later time."
Naruto gawked for a moment before rolling his eyes.
See other episodes by Thrythlind
(Posted Sun, 19 Sep 2010 04:11)
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