And after the impact, a stirring within him. An unfamiliar one. It took him some time to fully put a name to it, as it was something that had been missing from his life. Something he'd thought had died and been buried.
Hope.
"Gaara? Are you... okay?" asked Temari as Gaara was NOT acting in any manner like she would have come to expect.
"This 'Pink Hannya' is," Gaara paused as he tried to find the right word.
"Infuriating? Frustrating? Marked for a painful death?" asked Kankuro.
"Someone easily underestimated," tried Temari. "Going from simple appearance, she seems a barely-trained girl playing at being a ninja. From what I've seen and heard though - that's just an act and she's a much more serious ninja under that."
"Interesting," finished Gaara. "She interests me."
"Well, if she interests you, go take her on a date or something," jested Kankuro, who turned pale under his makeup when Gaara brought a particularly cold gaze towards him. "Sorry."
They were crossing a boggy section two minutes later when Gaara spoke again. "What is actually involved in a 'date'?"
SPLURCH!
Kankuro and Gaara both stared at where the normally-more-graceful Temari had just slipped and fallen into the mud.
Kankuro shook his head as Temari spat up mud and tried to scrape less identifiable gunk off of herself. "Gaara's getting a sense of humor. I think the world is coming to an end."
Gaara perked up at the thought. If the world came to an end, there would be plenty of opportunities for blood to be spilled on his sand.
After he'd had a chance to indulge his curiosity about the Pink Hannya though.
"Uhm, Naruto." Sasuke, hefted the two scrolls briefly before putting them away. "We have BOTH scrolls."
"Right," agreed Naruto.
"The objective of the test is to try and get the two scrolls to the tower, right?" continued Sasuke.
"Yup!" Naruto nodded.
"So, why are you still sending dozens of Sakura out there into the forest?" asked Sasuke.
"Ah, Sasuke, Sasuke, Sasuke," said Naruto, shaking his head.
"Keep that up, and I'm going to hit you, Naruto," threatened Sakura. "Why are you sending DOZENS of ME out there?"
"Also a few of me. Even a few Sasuke," said Naruto. "Why? This is a MASSIVE opportunity to prank a lot of people, ain't it?"
"Idiot," said Sasuke.
"You're missing the point," said Naruto with a sigh. "Okay. How many of those OTHER ninja are out there looking for our scrolls?"
"All of..." Sasuke's voice trailed off and he looked startled for a moment. "All of them. Ah."
"Wha?" asked Sakura. "Back up. I missed something."
"It's so simple I missed it. At least some of them will be laying ambushes, others will be hunting us - the most rookie of the genin in the test," said Sasuke, nodding. "So Dobe here-"
"HEY!" protested Naruto.
"-has sent copies of us every which way in the forest." Sasuke glanced at Naruto. "They're the new more durable clones, right?"
"Of course," said Naruto.
"So someone hits them with a kunai, the clone survives long enough to hide and then dispel?" asked Sasuke.
"It was one of the ways I had Zabuza running around in circles at one point," admitted Naruto.
"My kami," breathed Sakura. "That means-"
"That we are much more likely to be able to make a straight run to the tower in the confusion?" asked Naruto, trying to look innocent and not getting anywhere near that goal.
Sakura switched to looking at Sasuke.
"I know," said Sasuke to Sakura. "Scary, isn't it?"
"Why do I get the feeling I'm being insulted?" asked Naruto.
"No idea," lied Sasuke. "But as long as you've got this plan going, we might as well see how it works."
"Huh," said Sakura, deciding to go through the packs for anything they might be able to use. "As long as you're not having my clones do anything weird."
Silence.
"Na-ru-to?" asked Sakura slowly, an awful suspicion forming.
"Define 'weird'," suggested Naruto.
"We're wasting time, discuss this AFTER we reach the tower," suggested Sasuke.
"Something interesting?" asked Tonbo.
Ibiki Morino slid a piece of paper forward on his desk.
Tonbo cocked his bandaged head as he looked over the scrawled lines of script covering the paper. "This is the written portion of the Chunin Exam. These answers though."
"The shuriken question gives ranges that allow for wind speed, gravitic anomalies, and changes in air density," noted Ibiki. "It also gives suggestions on using vectors or ninja wires to make the paths less predictable."
"Someone did the whole exam like that?" asked Tonbo. "Someone with way too much book-learning and not enough practical?"
"Naruto Uzumaki," said Ibiki. "He will bear watching."
"What exactly IS that?" asked Orochimaru as a snake swallowed another 'Pink Hannya' and looked very uncomfortable for a moment. At any moment he expected, like the last three of the pinkettes that were swallowed whole, that the snake would either sneeze blue sparkly stuff or they would erupt from the other end.
That the first time that had happened, Orochimaru of the Sannin had nearly hurt himself from taking in the snake's expression and the sheer ridiculousness of it - well it was fortunate that no one had been around to see it. He'd gotten himself under control, but frankly he couldn't remember the last time he'd laughed.
This pinked dinner did neither however and the snake simply exploded.
"Oh, that one must have been an explosive shadow clone. How interesting," said Orochimaru as he neatly avoided falling snake-bits. Throwing out a number of these odd clones, shadow clones, and explosive shadow clones? Impressive amounts of chakra and the decision to be as unpredictable as possible. Clearly the Pink Hannya was to be spared if at all possible - such promise was something he'd want to observe himself. She just might make an interesting recruit.
But never as a body-candidate. Too much pink. No, that would never do.
A thought occurred to Orochimaru, putting a smirk back onto his face. Why not confuse the issue FURTHER? A few extra pink-haired clones thrown into the mix would be interesting and allow him some first-hand data from interacting with Konoha ninja.
And with any luck he could infiltrate Sasuke Uchiha's team after finding and neutralizing the pinkette.
"Honestly," said Shikamaru. "Is this really a good idea?"
"You just don't come close," snapped Ino. "Just stay over there and keep watch!"
A grumbling noise might have contained the word "troublesome" from where Shikamaru was standing guard.
Ino Yamanaka thought something very unflattering about her two team-mates, but how the heck was someone supposed to pee around here with potential ambushers at any moment?
It wasn't like there were two girls on the team so one could stand guard while the other took care of necessary biological functions.
"EEP!"
"AAAA!"
Sakura stared at her. Ino stared back.
"Ino?" asked Shikamaru.
"It's just forehead girl," complained Ino, finishing her business. "What are YOU looking at?"
"SORRY!" yelped Sakura, turning three shades of red and turning around as fast as humanly possible.
"Well, you can keep watch at least," allowed Ino. "Throwing us in here without any warning like that. At least if this was a mission I'd get some warning about an overnight."
"Erk," said Sakura.
"What's your problem, Forehead?" asked Ino. "We've gone to the restroom together before."
"We have?!" squeaked Sakura.
"What is wrong with you, anyway?" asked Ino. "Oh, you give up on Sasuke yet?"
"Pfeh. You want Sasuke, you can have him. Bleh." Sakura paused, even from the back Ino could tell she'd just thought of something.
"What is it? You find something out about Sasuke while on his team?" asked Ino.
"Yeah. He's gay."
"WHAT?!" screeched Ino.
"Ino? Are you okay? Sakura's not molesting you or something is she?"
"SHIKAMARU? Get your mind out of the gutter," grumbled Ino. "That wasn't a very funny joke, Forehead."
"I- I'm so sorry, Ino," said Sakura, turning around. "It's just ERKL?!"
"Sakura? Why are you bleeding from the nose?" asked Ino, stopping as she adjusted her top. "Sweat gets under there, I'm just taking a moment to air it out."
Sakura staggered away, red-faced and bleeding from the nose.
"What was that about anyway? It was almost like..." Ino stopped, considered. Waitaminute. She'd never actually seen Sakura try to make a move on Sasuke. Sakura had broken off their friendship after Ino had declared she was interested in Sasuke. That look. That nosebleed. Saying that Sasuke was gay in that irritated tone of voice.
"oh. my. lord." Ino dropped her top, then quickly put it back on. Not Sasuke. It was SAKURA who was gay! It all made sense! And she was after HER!
That this was the plotline of a bodice-ripper romance novel she'd read a few days ago just made it all seem the more likely.
"I'm done, let's get moving guys," said Ino, preparing to run when she noticed the pack that Sakura had dropped. "Eh? Sakura dropped something."
That the pack had the symbol of a Rain-nin was quickly discovered. That there were fresh bloodstains on it was also quickly discovered. With the discovery that there was a set of senbon, paralytic poisons, and what looked like a torture kit?
Ino was jumping at shadows for some time after that, not sure at all what had happened to Sakura in the time since their graduation.
"Why does Sakura smell of ramen?" asked Kiba after the Pink Hannya had run past them.
"I am uncertain," noted Shino.
"She took apart that Grass nin like he was an Academy student," noted Kiba. "When she'd get that strong?"
"Considering her performance in the Academy, she must have thrown herself into an intensive exercise program," said Shino.
"Well, whatever, lucky for us cause she left his supplies behind." Kiba quickly started going through the pack.
"Caution might-" began Shino before the purple cloud of gas exploded out of the pack.
"Oh dear," said Hinata, rooting around in her own pack for a general purpose antidote.
Naruto twitched every so often as memories flashed into him as a shadow clone was dissipated.
"You're doing something weird with my clones again," said Sakura, not making it a question.
"I ran across Ino. I gotta apologize or something," said Naruto. "She's totally... why DO girls want another girl around when they go to the bathroom?"
"Ick," was Sakura's predictable response.
Sasuke tried to look like he wasn't listening for an answer when he was curious about that himself.
"You were being a pervert while looking like ME?" asked Sakura, changing the subject.
"I didn't intend to," pointed out Naruto. "I was just kinda running around and practically ran into her."
"Should have run over her," grumbled Sakura. "Doesn't excuse you though."
"And that guy with the sand keeps coming after me," noted Naruto. "You might want to watch out for him."
"'Sand'?" asked Sasuke.
"Yeah, Ring-san said at one point he was moving about four tons of it. When he dispelled one of the clones he was using about that much in pressure against one trapped inside. Squish," said Naruto spreading the fingers of one hand and then clenching that hand into a fist when he gave the sound effect.
"Control of sand, hmmm," said Sasuke, considering what kinds of attacks and defenses such a thing could give a nin. Obviously an Earth Release, probably some clan style with a number of manuevers based on that. Kekkei genkai perhaps?
"Mister Sandman, eh? I'll be careful then," said Sakura. "Who else is out there?"
"Quite a few, but we're only a little ways from the tower," said Naruto.
"Naruto? That 'Veil' technique, can you use it to make us invisible?" asked Sasuke abruptly.
"Uhm, no." Naruto had paused a bit before answering and then paused again with his head cocked to the side. "Veil requires both the user and the target to be more-or-less staying in the same area and it doesn't work so good that you could make something invisible. You could change what someone sees when they look though, so you could maybe shift everything to the right a little so they'd be attacking the wrong spot. Or maybe something like making it look like everyone's asleep when they're all waiting to ambush the attacker. Stuff like that."
Sasuke nodded.
"Or something like this bit now where someone's trying to get us to wander around in circles," said Naruto.
"We're IN one?" asked Sasuke.
"Yeah, but it ain't sticking cause of Ring-san," said Naruto. "I put a shield up. Wouldn't work with us being this far apart if it were a stronger technique, but..."
"It would have been nice if you'd told us about that," said Sakura.
"It didn't hold them at all," noted the Rain-nin. "I'm not sure they even noticed."
"Of course they noticed," said another Rain-nin through his respirator. "That was the Pink Hannya. She probably noticed it and dismissed us as being not worth her time."
"Good," said the third Rain-nin. "We'll get our scroll the old fashioned way. By looting from the corpses of less powerful targets."
"Okay, watch out for the poison trap in the bushes just ahead," said Naruto quietly as the three went along.
"Hmmm?" asked Sakura, going to the bushes in question and examining them. "Oh. I see it. Hmmm. I could use this."
"You're taking apart the trap?" asked Sasuke.
"We know that we've got a third part of the exam to get through," said Sakura. "Plus we're only in the first day. We've got a week for this test to run. If we have to have a camp or room in that tower, I can put some traps around to protect us."
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(Posted Sun, 06 Oct 2013 18:19)
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