"Pull out?" Kabuto asked idly.
"Yes," Orochimaru said calmly. Snake and spy were hidden in the forest, not far from the rest of Kabuto's team who had no reason to listen to these things.
"If you don't mind me asking, Orochimaru-sama, why are you pulling your humble servant out of this pointless exam already?" Kabuto asked in the same bored tones.
"Ahhh Kabuto. What do you know about the loud teammate of Sasuke-kun?"
"Naruto Uzumaki?" Kabuto asked with mild surprise. "Dead last of the rookie genin, inventor of pointless jutsu, jinchuriki of the Nine Tails. Not a threat, unless he learns to tap that last one."
"Uzumaki?" Orochimaru asked. "Well, that explains a great deal. He also has an Ice Release and the Dragon Slayer jutsu."
Kabuto smiled slightly. "So that is what the loud crashes an hour ago was. My master is skilled to not have his head ripped off."
"He even managed to rip apart a curse seal with that kyuubi chakra," Orochimaru said. "He will bear watching. But not by anyone else."
"Oh?" Kabuto asked. "You want to help Konoha keep their little secret?"
Orochimaru smiled. "That secret will be ours soon enough. The fewer people expect it…"
"Ah," Kabuto said, correctly guessing that Orochimaru had a few samples of Uzumaki to study. "So you want to make sure that no other villages get into the exam."
Orochimaru sighed happily. "Ahh Kabuto, you understand so well. It will be a shame that someday I will have to kill you."
"Unless I get to you first," Kabuto said easily, "Orochimaru-sama."
The two traitors smiled at eachother and parted ways…for now.
Kakashi stared at the corpse of Orochimaru. The sannin had been beaten and buried, which then led to him getting stabbed by branches and rocks as the massive weight of the detritus had fallen on him. Apparently fighting with a dragon slayer created undue numbers of hazards from the broken, shattered, and violated countryside.
Kakashi was really quite glad Naruto learned that jutsu after the bell test. He didn't think he could make a body double this good.
Three ANBU appeared around him, eliciting no reaction from Kakashi other than to snap open his book.
"Report," asked the ninja behind the rabbit mask.
"Approximately five minutes ago Konoha Genin Team Seven encountered the S-rank missing nin Orochimaru," Kakashi said.
"And defeated him?" doubted the ANBU in the wallaby mask.
"Unlikely," Rabbit replied. "The body double suggests Orochimaru chose to flee, but I cannot believe he was defeated by genin."
"Perhaps he was afraid of our arrival," Kakashi said reasonably.
"If he departed five minutes ago, we are unlikely to find him," Wallaby muttered. "Perhaps the exam should be canceled."
"That would send a very bad message to the other villages," the remaining ANBU spoke up. She wore an alpaca mask. "It would be a considerable sign of weakness."
"And having a missing-nin terrorizing genin teams isn't?" Wallaby asked.
"Orochimaru's objective has always been collecting and studying exceptional ninja," Kakashi pointed out. "Particularly those with unusual kekkei genkai."
Rabbit gave Kakashi a steady look. "Has Team Seven been compromised?"
"Two of them received curse marks. One was able to undo his."
"Undo…" Alpaca muttered. "The Dragon Slayer?"
"So it would seem."
"Jiraya should be contacted," Wallaby said firmly.
Kakashi turned back to his book. He'd done his job.
"You really should clean that mud off, Kakashi," Rabbit pointed out.
Kakashi looked up, considered that, and nodded. This was also true.
"A great many teams have passed this second exam, and so preliminary matches will now be decided," the ninja named Hayate announced before breaking into a coughing fit.
Naruto looked around. The week of rest in the tower had him feeling energized and ready to go, although the lack of ramen had him feeling listless and deprived. It just wasn't natural to go a full week without ramen, dattebayo! Still, he was in better shape than the last teams to straggle in. They looked like they hadn't had a good night's sleep in a week. Because they hadn't.
"Six teams have made it this far," Hayate continued. "From Konoha, teams Kakashi, Kurenai, Asuma, and Guy. From Suna, Team Gaara. From Oto, Team Dosu."
In the shadows, Kabuto smiled and counted the number of genin he had collected to make sure no other villages interfered with his observations.
In even deeper shadows, Orochimaru smiled and wondered how Sasuke was handling his cursemark. Jiraya was at best two days out still, and no seal anyone else knew could hold the mark down for long.
Kakashi frowned at Sasuke. He was still grimacing in pain every so often and his hand twitched towards his shoulder. Even sealed, the curse mark lived up to its name. If Sasuke kept his chakra high, it was little more than a tingling irritation. But they didn't know what would happen if it was pushed.
Hayate turned towards a large scoreboard. "From this moment forth, you fight for yourselves and your village! The second round preliminaries will begin! Choose the first match!"
Names flashed across the board…
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(Posted Wed, 28 Mar 2012 18:24)
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