The rain came down in sheets as the wind kicked up water droplets, tossing them into the face of an oncoming traveller. It was nighttime so the road ahead was extremely dark

He wore a black cloak which had a hood that hid his face. He seemed to be sheltering something under the cloak. He was flanked by two Anbu.

Looking forward, the traveller noticed the destination. It was a rather complex looking facillity, the high defensive walls were large and intimidating. Armed men could be seen manning the tops of the walls and observation towers. One large building towered over the others, lights inside told the traveller that there were people working inside.

As he approached the reenforced front gate, the traveller was approached by a soldier with a small assault rifle. The traveller pulled a badge from his cloak and showed it to the soldier, who nodded and signalled to the nearby observation tower.

With a rather loud clank, the gate unlocked and slid open. The traveller walked in, his Anbu escort followed him into the large building at the center.

After entering th building the traveller noticed a massive machine. It was circular, kind of like a gateway. It was connected to a multitude of tubes and wires. A scientist walked up to the traveller.

"We heard about the attack." He said to the traveller."I was worried you didn't make it out."

"Don't mind me, you be more worried about what I've brought here." The traveller said, pushing back his cloak to reveal a parcel wrapped in bandages.

"Is it..?" The scientist asked, his eyes widening at the parcel.

"The one surviving prototype, yes." The traveller said. "We need to get her to a safe location, where they wont follow."

"I have an idea." The scientist said moving over to a control panel. "But you'll need to place her under our jurisdiction."

The traveller tensed, he was obviously hesitant. "I guess I have no choice, then." He held out the parcel, which was in fact a small child. It was asleep, curled up in the blanket that was hidden by the bandages.

The scientist took the child in his arms. "We'll take good care of her." He said.

The traveller turned to leave his Anbu escort waiting at the door.

"Where are you going?" The scientist asked.

"I need to get back home." The traveller said.

"Fine then." The scientist said. "Good luck, sir."

As the traveller left, the scientist pulled a lever on the control panel. With a noise that sounded like a muffled jet engine starting up, the cricular machine opened a glowing rift. The child began to cry at the noise.

"Don't worry, everything will be alright." The scientist said to the child as he approached the rift. "After all, your about to go home."

The roar of the electric guitar rumbled from the amplifier as I played a few notes to test the tune.

“Yeah, too loud.” I said adjusting the volume on the amp. I tried again and nodded as the rumble came out at an acceptable level. I then just began playing some random tune that I came up with out of nowhere. It’s weird, I can come up with great tunes but I can never come up with lyrics for them, and it seems that the awesome ones I can never remember.

Anyway, I should probably introduce myself. My name’s Krystal O’Connor, I’m fifteen years old and I’m really into stuff like Guitar (duh), video games, random shit on the internet (ArtofTrolling.com…BOOYAH!) and most of all, Naruto. I have an entire side of my closet dedicated to the manga’s I’ve got. No folk, that isn’t even a joke, I swear on my grandfather’s grave that it’s the truth.

Anyway, I kinda lied about my age, today is my official Sixteenth birthday. My sister Carmen and my step-dad, Michael had gone out to, I assume, get my birthday present, leaving me alone with my insanely annoying step-brother, Derek. Good God, do I ever hate that little twelve year old twerp.

Let me give you an example of how annoying he is. Think about how Naruto can be super annoying and mischievous, at least in the first season, and then amplify that by a factor of twelve. Yeah, I can feel the earth shaking were you stand right now.

You know speaking of Naruto; maybe I should continue my re-read of the series. Volume 36 here I co-! I froze when I opened my closet doors. I screamed, clutching the sides of my head. Inside, where my Naruto volumes usually line the shelves, was empty space.

“Lookin’ for somethin’?” I heard a voice say behind me. I whipped around to find Derek standing in my doorway, grinning like that crazy-ass cat from Alice in wonderland (I always forget his name). What he was holding in his right made my eyes widen. Volume 36…the same volume I was re-reading (before that little jack-ass stole it).

“Hand it over.” I said to him, holding my hand out for the book.

“How about no?” He said smiling.

“Hand…it…over!” I said again.

“Alright, but it’ll cost you.” He said, still smiling.

“How much?” I asked, suddenly intrigued.

“About, I dunno, the entire sum of your pay check next week?!” he said mockingly. He knew I would cave, that little…

“What exactly are you planning, you little demon child?” I asked.
“It doesn’t concern you.” He said, narrowing his eyes at me.

“It kinda does, seeing as how I’m usually on the receiving end of your little schemes.” I said, matter-of-factly.

“Not this time!” he said. “So do I get my money?”

“Fine, you’ll get it.” I said reluctantly. That little monster.

“You’re books are under your bed.” He said tossing the book at me over his shoulder as he turned.

“Clever…hiding them in plain sight.” I said after him.

“The people in those books aren’t the only ninja’s around!” He said walking into his room.

I quickly looked under my bed, and found all the books stacked neatly underneath. Now do you see why I hate him so?

(----/***----)

It had been at least a half hour before I could get all the books into my closet and back in order. Right now I was busy downstairs playing Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood. I must say though, I didn’t think it would take this long to get a birthday present. Mike and Carmen had been out for almost two hours now. Maybe they had other things to pick up along the way.

Meh, it doesn’t really matter to me anyway. As long as I get a gift out of this, I’m happy. I know I seem a little selfish, but really it’s cause Christmas and my birthday are the only two days of the year where people buy things for me, every other time, I have to pay for it (hence why I got a job).But still, I was wondering what was taking them so long.

I should probably describe who we are…

Mike is my step-dad, he’s in his late thirties, he’s six foot two, has dark brown hair, black eyes, usually has a thick stubble of a beard. He’s in the U.S. marines, meaning he looks sort of like the Incredible Hulk when he’s in uniform.

Carmen is my older sister, and she’s nineteen. She took over as the Mom of the house when our Mom disappeared. Don’t ask about that. Anyway, she has dark blonde hair, she’s about five foot eleven, she wears glasses and has a fake glass eye. Don’t ask me how she got it. Her eyes are sky blue.

Derek, he’s a bit of a midget in our family at only five foot two. He’s twelve, as I may have mentioned before, and honestly looks like a child version of Mike minus the beard, and the fact that he has blue eyes instead of black.

And now for me… I’m five foot nine. My hair is bright blonde and I have emerald green eyes. I look kinda like my sister why she has her glasses off. Not really much else to say on the matter.

Suddenly the phone rang, and I paused the game. “Hello?” I said, answering the phone.

“Hey, kiddo!” Mikes voice crackled over the phone.

“Sup, mike!” I said, smiling.

“Hey, um, we’re caught in traffic, so we’re gonna be a little late.” He said apologetically.

“Eh, It’s fine, don’t worry about it!” I said.

“Alright, we’re gonna be home in, maybe half an hour.” Mike said before hanging up.

I set the phone down on the charger, and resume my game.

(---/***---)

Mike sighed as he set his cell phone back in his pocket.

“She deserves to know what’s going on.” Carmen said as she merged onto the highway.

“I know, but I don’t want her worried.” Mike said. “I’ll tell her when we get home.”

“Shot though the heart

And you’re to blame

You give love a bad name.” I sang only to the song as I strummed the notes on the guitar. I was lying on my bed, somehow still able to play. (Mike had always said he was amazed at how I could do that). I was extremely bored waiting for Mike and Carmen to come home. Derek had left to go hang out with his friends who, by the way, are about as annoying as he is.

It was just a simple day with me being bored at home. Eventually I stopped playing and shut off the radio. I flopped back down on the bed, and sighed. “THERE’S NOTHING TO DO!!!” I screamed, in sheer annoyance of my predicament.

Suddenly I heard a crash downstairs. “Please tell me that cat hasn’t broken anything.” I said getting up and walking downstairs. I probably forgot to mention that I have a cat named Sasha, making the dudes outnumbered 3 to 2 if you count the cat. She’s usually asleep most of the day but hell when she does get up, it’s like a tornado passed through the house. Things get knocked over, plants get uprooted, and game consoles get smashed.

I got to the bottom of the stairs, but everything was intact, the cat still sleeping on the living room sofa. I heard another crash, and it was coming from behind the basement door. I cautiously walked over and gripped the handle, meanwhile thoughts were coursing through my head like a river dam had just opened its floodgates. ‘What if its burglars? Or worse! Maybe it’s ninjas? No that’s stupid, couldn’t be ninjas.’ I snickered a bit at that last thought. Ninjas, that’s just stupid. I flicked the light switch and opened the door.

Strangely the lights weren’t on. I tested the light switch again over and over, nothing. “Damn it, not again!” I mumbled grabbing a flashlight on a table next to the door. The lights in the basement have a nasty habit of not working at the worst possible times. I flicked the flashlight on and slowly made my way down the stairs. I began looking around for the source of the noises. Suddenly I felt a hand wrap around my waist and another cover my mouth. I began writhing like a fish out of water trying to get away.

“Hey, hey, calm down Shrimpy, it’s just me!” A voice said behind me. I stopped struggling, and pulled the hand from my mouth.

“Uncle Nick?” I asked. “How’d you get in here?”

“I have a key remember?” Nick said, and I could tell he was smiling.

“Right.” I said. “Could you let me go now?”

“Oh, right, sure.” He said letting me go and walking over to the circuit breaker.

“You sneaky bastard!” I said to him as the lights came on. He just turned around and smiled.

“Bro’s gotta have fun somehow.” He said with a shrug.

“Can you try not giving me a heart attack in the process?”

“Sure thing, Shrimpy.” He said, calling me by his nickname for me. He started calling me Shrimpy when I was six. Back then I was the shortest kid in my class so he decided to call me Shrimpy as a little joke. It kind of stuck after that, and he’s been calling me that ever since.

“What are you doing here besides scaring the hell out of me?” I asked crossing my arms over my chest.

“Duh, isn’t it obvious by the date?” He asked.

“I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say because it’s my birthday.” I said matter-of-factly.

“Ding ding ding! We have a winner!” Nick said in his TV-host voice. The guy was a master of impersonations. He was so good it was almost scary. Nick was tall, about six foot four, with medium length black hair and green eyes which looked oddly radioactive. He always wore this grin, and depending on my mood, it would either cheer me up of piss me the fuck off. He’s also the one who taught me how to play guitar.

“Come on lets get out of the basement, and someplace a little warmer.” I said walking up the stairs, Nick following close behind.

“So Shrimpy, how’s life been treating you?” Nick asked as we exited the basement.

“Not too bad, except that Derek is still as much of an annoying twerp as ever.” I said flopping down of the sofa next to the cat, who barely moved.

“He’s your little brother, it’s his job.” Nick said smirking as he closed the basement door.

“He’s actually my step-brother for the record.” I said grabbing the remote and turning the TV on.

“Whatever, you know what I meant.” He said walking over to the kitchen.

“Where are you going?” I asked as I picked up the Xbox controller.

“Kitchen, fridge, beer. That enough info for you?” He said from the kitchen as I heard the clinking as the fridge door opened. I rolled my eyes and started playing Halo: Reach. Nick appeared again just as I started playing on deathmatch.
“How’re you doing?” He asked as he sat down on the sofa opposite mine, setting his beer down on the coffee table.

“I only just started playing dammit!” I said angrily.

“Okay, sorry I mentioned it.” He said and then he shut the hell up for at least fifteen minutes. When the match ended, Nick picked up the second controller and gave me a challenging stare, and I knew what was coming next.

“You, me, Firefight, now.” He said. As you may have noticed Nick REALLY likes to make things show and simple when it comes to facts or demands.

“Ohhoho, you’re so on.” I said selecting the firefight option. Nick and I have a little Firefight rivalry going, and right now the score was 64 for me 63 for him. This is kinda how it works, Nick and I spawn on the same team. Then we go all out on the alien freaks and at the end the one who has the most points wins.

The game started and we let ‘er rip. Bullets and plasma bolts criss-crossing as aliens dropped dead. Every once in a while I would check where the score was at.

“HAH! I’m wining by a long shot sucka!” I cheered as I dropped two more grunts with a DMR.

“Not much longer.” Nick said picking up a nearby Spartan Laser and blasting a hunter who was getting a little to close for comfort. I crouched behind a barricade as he lasered another hunter. The score had tipped in his favour.

“No fair, heavy weapons advantage!” I said.

“It’s called strategy biotch!” He retorted.

The game continued on cycling back and forth like this most of the way. In the end though I wound up winning, girl power assholes!

“Hoo-rah! Your winning streak has been brought to an end!” I said, throwing my fist up.

“I call hax.” Nick said pointing at me accusingly. “I DEMAND A REMACTH!”

“Wow, two victories in one day?” I stated. “It really is my birthday!” I knew I was probably pissing him off but at least I was having fun.

Soon after we began the ever so desired rematch.

“You’re definitely cheating.” Nick said as the scoreboard popped on the screen.

“Oh my god! You’re seriously pulling that excuse out?” I said giving him a cold glare.

“Excuse?”

“Yeah, for my new winning streak.” I said angrily. We’d played two more matches and I had won both.

“It’s definitely hax.” He said looking at the screen.

“Yeah, the hack is called Mad Skillz!” I joked. Now it was his turn to give me a cold stare. He shook his head and mouthed “Really?”

It was comedic on how cool with my juvenile behaviour he was. Mike would have been telling me on how I should act more my age by now. But Nick? Nah, he’s the best friggin’ uncle ever!

Just as Nick was going to challenge me to another rematch, I heard the thrum of Mikes pickup truck as it rolled into the driveway.

“Looks like the whole package is here.” Nick said smirking.

“Except that Derek ain’t here.” I said as the front door opened. “How was the mall?” I said over my shoulder at Mike.”

“We don’t have time for that.” Mike answered sternly.

“Why not?” I asked suddenly concerned. Mike never acted like this unless something bad was about to happen that he knew about. “What’s going on Mike.”

Mike sighed as he dropped a shopping bag on the armchair. “We have reason to believe that there will be an attack on New York…today.” He said flatly.

My eyes widened. “Like another 9-11?!!” I half-shouted.

Mike just shook his head. “We think it’s more like an invasion.” He said. “But the news was so sudden, we don’t have time to set up a viable defensive plan, so it’s going to get ugly.”

“So you want to get everyone out of here.” Nick piped up suddenly.

Mike nodded. “Where’s Derek?” He asked.

“Went over to Daniel’s.” I said.

“I’ll go get him.” Carmen said from the doorway. She shut the door as she left.

All was quiet for the next few minutes, everyone was afraid to do anything. “How long do we have?” I asked staring down at my feet.

“About 45 minutes. I want you to pack as much as you can carry, we’re getting out of here.” Mike answered as he walked quickly over to the kitchen.

I nodded and headed to my room. I have to say, I’ve never been so terrified in my life.

(---/***---)

A couple minutes later I had pretty much packed everything of value, my guitars neck was sticking out of my backpack, I had my Ipod, a change of clothes, and my toothbrush.
I headed back downstairs, and passed Derek about halfway down the stairs. Mike had packed already and Nick had gone home to get his stuff together, we’d be picking him up later at his house. Carmen was busy talking to Mike when I got downstairs. I put my backpack down on the nearest sofa and sat down next to it. I was nervous as hell, and nothing I could think of would calm me down.

“Hey, Kris.” Mike said as he walked over and sat down next to me. I just glanced at him.

“Now might not be the best time with you on edge like this but…” He continued. He pulled something out of the shopping bag. I just stared at it.

‘Is that…?’ I thought as he handed it to me.

“Happy birthday.” He said smiling as I continued to stare at the thing in my hands.

It was large and flat, weighing at least fifteen pounds. It was coloured a bold crimson on the top and black on the bottom, and the word Quosmio was etched in silver on the top.

“B-but this thing costs two and a half grand!” I said tearing my eyes from the laptop, the same one I’ve been begging Mike to buy me for two years.

“You’ve had this thing coming for a long time.” He said simply and got up walking over to Carmen to continue their discussion. I, on the other hand continued to stare at the laptop. This has to be a dream, seriously. There’s no way Mike would ever buy anything this expensive, ever. Well there is the exception of the home theatre system but that’s really for all of us. But this was a 2500 dollar computer all for me. Derek thundered downstairs and his eyes met the computer.

“No WAY!” He exclaimed. “How did you get that?”

I just pointed to Mike, who just said. “Alright, everyone’s packed lets go.” I snapped out of my daze and slid the laptop into my backpack. We headed to Nicks house, since there was no way the pickup could fit all of us in it, we were gonna take a bus.

(---/***---)

I watched the passing scenery as the Greyhound bus rolled along the highway, according to Mike the attack on New York would have begun by now. I couldn’t help but think about all of my friends, hoping that they made it out before the attack.

“Where d’you think were going?” Derek asked next to me.

“I don’t know, where-ever Mike says we’ll go.” I answered looking around the bus cabin. There were lots of people who had the same idea as us, all leaving the city to enjoy some refuge from the threat to New York. Our bus was the first in a three-bus convoy, all packed with people. Derek and I were in the center row. I had the window seat, Derek had the aisle. Carmen was on the aisle seat opposite us and Nick and Mike were in the seat ahead of us Mike having the aisle seat. It had only been fifteen minutes since we boarded the bus and left for god-knows-where, but it felt like an eternity.

Suddenly I heard the thrumming of a helicopter getting louder and louder. Everyone else heard it too and the atmosphere inside became tense. Then finally a small black copter appeared from behind the trees. It flew in front of the convoy, spinning left after it gain its position ahead of us. The side door slid open and my heart lurched as I saw what they were bringing out. One man sat over the edge of the heli’s passenger cabin, holding a rocket launcher, which was aimed straight at the bus. I ducked down behind the Nick’s seat just as the launcher fired.

A loud boom erupted as the bus shook violently. I dared a look over the top of Nick’s seat. The windshield was shattered and on the pieces that remained I could see blood, no doubt that of the driver. Most of the damage was on the left side of the windshield. The gunner had missed, but just barely. The left tired and been blown to bits by the explosion, and even from my position I could see the bust driver struggling to keep the buss going. People were in a panic, everyone was screaming and taking cover against any other attempt to blow up this bus.

For me it was all just so surreal, like a scene from a movie. I looked down to my left and saw Derek huddled up in a ball between the seats, over the screaming I could hear him crying. I began hugging him, don’t ask why. Maybe I was trying to comfort him or myself, I don’t know.

I saw Mike get up and make a mad dash for the front. He was trying to help the bus driver keep the bus on a steady course, which was obviously very hard because the bus kept swerving left and right. The heli moved to the left side of the bus. The passenger door opened again and the gunner brandished a reloaded rocket launcher. I squeezed my eyes shut and waited for what seemed like an eternity for the fiery end that was coming.
Another loud boom and the bus lurched again. I could feel it rolling over and the right side hit the ground, causing me, Derek and Carmen to land on top of each other. The sudden shock made me black out…

My eyes slowly drifted open as I regained consciousness. Everything was a bunch of blurred shapes and muffled noises. Slowly I could make out my sister yelling at me to wake up. I snapped out of the dazed state I was in and began looking around trying to see what had happened while I was out.

“Krystal! Snap out of it!” My sister yelled at me. As I stared at her I recalled what had happened. Helicopter attacked with rocket launcher, bus driver nearly killed, bus flipped on it’s side from second rocket hit. I started shaking.

“Carmen, what’s going on?” I asked, wide eyed.

“Mike says those guys who attacked us are finishing off the rest of the convoy down the road, we need to get out of here before they come back!” She said half yelling. She began crawling over seats towards the front of the bus. I grabbed my backpack which was lying next to me and followed. As we neared the front I could hear the distant drone of the helicopter getting closer. Mike, Nick and Derek were all waiting at the front, the bus driver was long dead by now.

“C’mon we need to go, that helicopters coming back this way.” Mike said getting out through a hole in the windshield. Nick climbed through next, then Carmen, but Derek hesitated.

“Move it, or we’re all gonna die!” I yelled at him and he jumped. He climbed quickly through the window, me following close behind. As soon as we got out we made a bolt for the trees to the right of us, just as the helicopter returned. I don’t think they spotted us at this point because they made a couple passes over the wreckage of the bus as we headed deeper into the forest.

‘Alright calm down, you should be out of the danger zone now.’ I told myself mentally, trying to keep up with the rest of my family. Mike however seemed to be leading us in a specific direction.

“So where are we going now?” I asked him as I ran.

“Someplace safe.” He answered flatly. There he goes again, going all cryptic on us.

(---/***---)

The helicopter descended next to the overturned wreckage of the bus. The other two busses in the convoy were burning husks now, but this one had been left intact for a reason, there was someone onboard that they needed alive. As the helicopter finally touched down the passenger doors opened, and soldiers wearing black uniforms poured out, one of them climbed out casually, while the others check the surround area cautiously for threats.

“Stand down men, the target will be unarmed and unprotected.” He said and the other soldiers relaxed. The Officer made his way into the bus through a hole in the windshield. His eyes adjusted to the darkness as he scanned the interior. ‘Damn’ he though as he turned and exited the bus.

“Any luck sir?” One of the soldiers asked as the Officer exited the bus.

“No, the target’s gone.” The Officer replied. He pressed a button on his earpiece. “HQ, this is captain Snow. We have lost the target, repeat we have lost the target. Attempting to reacquire it’s location.”

“Sir, we’ve found something.” Another soldier said from the roadside. The Captain walked over to the soldier, who was crouching next to the road.

“What is it?” He asked the soldier sternly, crossing his arms over his chest.

“We’ve found tracks, heading into the woods.” The soldier said pointing from the footprint in front of him, to the line of trees just ahead.

The Captain just huffed and said; “Alright then, the four of you are with me…” He said pointing to the nearest soldiers. “The rest of you head to the chopper and provide air support for us.” The soldiers around him nodded and most headed back to the chopper, the four he singled out remained with him. “Move out.” He ordered.

(---/***---)

“Can we stop?” I asked tiredly. It had been two hours of walking in the woods by now, and I was tired as hell.

“No, we need to keep moving.” Mike said not even looking over his shoulder as he climbed over a fallen tree.

“C’mon man, not everyone has military training!” I complained again, man I sound like a five year old!

“Maybe we should stop, everyone’s looking a little beat up.” Nick pointed out. Thank god he’s on my side.

“Oh really?” Mike said stopped and turning around. “I don’t know if you realized this but we’re at war. And every minute we fall behind, that gives time to the enemy to make a move. And time isn’t really on our side, now is it?”

“All were asking for is a short break, only five minutes.” Carmen piped up.

“Yeah dad, please?” Derek added.

Mike sighed and crossed his arms. “Fine, five minutes no more.” Mike said. I sat down on the fallen tree Mike had just climbed over, everyone else found their own spots to sit, except Mike who continued to stand, keeping watch. “You people couldn’t have walked another five minutes, eh?” He said.

“Excuse me?” I asked turning to face him.

“Our destination was about another five minutes walk from here.” He said, and everyone looked up.

“You never mentioned that.” Nick pointed out.

“That’s because I’m not aloud to talk about of destinations location outside its walls.” Mike answered.

I sighed, alight fine let’s go, get on with it, say it.

“You people are so lazy it’s unbelievable.” He added. God it pisses me off when he says that, I don’t know why, it just does.

Everyone including me got up, all of us determined to prove him wrong, and he’d just insulted us to get us going. Man, that’s just cheap.

It had been almost half an hour since Mike had pulled his little stunt. Not only had he tricked us into walking again after we fought so hard for a break, but he’d lied to us too! The dense trees gave way to a large clearing with overgrown grass tall enough to reach my waist.

“We’re here.” Mike piped up suddenly.

“What?” Derek asked giving mike a confused look.

“Yeah, are you sure you have the right place? There’s nothing here!” I added, well more like complained.

“No, this is the place alright.” Mike said pushing into the grass. We all followed him. We quickly came to a, well I guess a clearing where the grass had been cut. Hey, a clearing within a clearing! Clearingception! But one thing about this little clearing caught my attention. In the middle of it was what looked like a fortified man-hole. Mike crouched next to it and pulled it open. It was on hinges so it swung upwards revealing a small dark shaft with a ladder on the side for easy access.

“Ladies first.” Mike said to me.

“What’s with the chivalry all of a sudden?” I asked as I climbed down the ladder. Derek came down after me, followed later by Nick, Carmen and Mike, in that order. I reached the bottom of the shaft, or at least I hoped it was the bottom, it was so dark you couldn’t really tell, pitch darkness and all that…other stuff. I hate talking myself into corners. Everyone else reached the bottom, but I could hear Mike was doing something in the dark. I heard a couple clicks and the lights came on. As my eyes adjusted to the light I noticed we were in a small reinforced hallway. Not really much else besides that.

“This way.” Mike said pushing past us. Of course we followed him…through a freaking maze of tunnels. Good god how my tunnels were there? We finally got to what looked like a train station, but it was exposed to the rocks inside the tunnel, and only one car was on the track. I say track because without a doubt because that little car was definitely a Maglev train, no doubt about it. There were about five armed guards. Strange, I thought this place was deserted.

“Whoa, whoa, hold it guys.” One of the guards said as we approached the train car. “I’m gonna need to see some identification for all five of you to let you pa-“ He stopped when Mike showed him his military ID card. The guards eyes widened as he scanned the card. “Um, right this way sir.” He said as he led us to the train.

“Wait, I though you needed to see our ID also.” Carmen said to the guard.

“It’s no longer necessary.” He said simple pulling a lever on the side of the car and the doors opened. Carmen just shrugged and entered the car after Mike. Nick got in and then me, dragging Derek along behind, who honestly seemed to be in another world at this point.

“Take us to the gate.” Mike order as the doors closed, a guard near a control panel nodded. A few buttons we’re pressed and the car began to accelerate. The only light came from the fluorescent lights inside the car. I could see that judging form the speed at which the rocks were passing by, that we were going pretty damn fast.

“Can’t Maglev’s reach speeds exceeding 500mph?” I asked Mike.

“I’m not familiar with the science behind it.” Mike answered shaking his head. There was an uneasy silence between those in the train.

“So dad, what was all that stuff with your ID card.” Derek piped up. “He just took one look at it and he kinda just froze.” I stared at him. What WAS up with that?

“I can’t really go into much detail about it.” Mike said with a shrug. “But let’s just say the marines wasn’t my first military career.”

“So you mean, you were in a black ops group or something?” I asked.

“You could say that.” Mike said with another shrug. There was a sudden beeping sound inside the car. “We’re getting close.”

The car stopped just in front of another station with armed guards. But this ones entrance was well, practically non-existent, it was just a wide open area. But what REALLY caught my attention was what as in the cavern. An entire research base by the looks of it and at the center, propped up against the far wall of the cavern was a giant Stargate lookalike, except it was more like an arch than a ring. It was flanked on either side by devices that looked like that giant ark-reactor from Iron-man.

As we exited the train, I couldn’t help but say it. “Ho-lee shit!” I said, and rather loud too. I noticed Derek next to me with his mouth hanging open. With one finger I pushed his jaw up and followed the others. Derek followed closely, still awestruck by what was staring him straight in the face. And there were people in white lab coats everywhere!

Mike led us to, what looked like the central control panel. There was one man in a white lab coat (duh) standing near the panel doing…well something at least. As we approached he turned towards us.

“Ah, Michael, long time no see!” he said as he walked over to Mike and shook his hand. The dude had the thickest British accent that I had ever heard in my entire life. “Who are these people with you?” He asked.

“My family.” Mike answered. “This is Carmen, my brother Nick, My son Derek and Krystal.”
“What’s up?” I said to the scientist when Mike introduced me.

“Everyone, this is professor Robert Hall, the head scientist of this facility.” Mike said as the scientist simply waved.

“Okay, professor. What is this thing?” Nick asked pointing to the massive arch. We were only about twenty feet from it and now I could see how truly big it was. It was easily large enough to fit a jumbo jet through it. It had large tubes sticking out of it, three on either side, which were connected to the two ark-reactor lookalikes.

“Oh, this? It’s what we call a rift gate.” Hall said matter-of-factly.

“A what now?” Nick asked.

“A rift gate, my friend. It causes a temporary rift in space-time which we can use to send people to a parallel universe.” That was my cue to let my jaw hang open, and for Derek’s turn to close it.

“Listen, Hall. I need a favour.” Mike said to him. Hall’s face, which had been all smiles before, was now completely serious.

“You want to send them through the gate, is that it?” Hall said, it was almost like his accent changed from British to Irish in a split second. Mike nodded, and my eyes widened.

“Say WHAAAAT!?” I yelled. “Your not serious about that are you?” I added, pointing at the Rift Gate. Mike and Hall’s expressions didn’t change in the slightest. “Oh my god, you’re serious.” I let my arm fall to my side.

“Hall, get the gate up and running.” Mike said as he walked over to the gate, Carmen and Nick following. Derek and I just stood there, our minds reeling. ‘This can’t be happening’ was the one thought that kept repeating itself in my brain.

“This seems like a bit of a stretch, dad.” Derek said suddenly. I admit, the little twerp had a point. Mike was taking this way too far. So there was a terrorist attack on New York, so what? We just needed to move to another city, how bad could it be to just do that. Going to another frickin’ universe was blowing this thing up to a whole other level.

“We’re doing this for reasons you couldn’t understand.” Mike said as he stood in front of the gate. Derek and I exchanged looks of confusion, and rushed over to Mike.

“Alright, Rift Gate charge complete.” The Professor said as he gripped a lever. “Activation in three…two…one.” A split second after he said one, there was a loud whirring sound, like a jumbo jet firing up it’s engines and a large swirling mass of light was enclosed inside the arch of the machine. Everyone except the Professor and Mike froze. Mike tapped both Nick and Carmen on the shoulder.
“You two head through the portal first! Go, we don’t have much time!” I heard Mike shout to them over the machine. Nick and Carmen both nodded and ran through the gate. They vanished, I couldn’t see them anymore through that mass of energy. Then there was another sound that easily louder than the machine. I whipped around to see smoke begin to build up in the entrance, someone had just set off an explosion. Bullets began tearing around the facility. About five of them his the control panel, and another hit the Professor in the back, just below the neck, he would have been dead at the moment of impact. My first instinct was to run.

Mike stopped both me a Derek from doing so. “Listen to me, both of you! I want you two to head through the portal, I’ll buy you some time! GO!” He shouted. I must have taken his orders to heart, because I immediately grabbed Derek by the shoulder and dragged him through the Gate. It fielt like my body was being energized so much that I eventually blacked out.

(---/***---)

Mike pulled the lever on the control panel down to the off position just as the bullets stopped firing around the cavern. There was a substantial amount of smoke, blocking his view. Mike pulled a small black pistol from his back pocket. He saw a group of soldiers in full body armor, armed with assault rifles emerge through the smoke.

“Get down on the ground!” One shouted at him. Mike tensed, ready to pull the gun out from behind his back.

“Stand down soldier.” A voice said from the smoke, for mike that voice was all too familiar.

“Captain Daniel Snow…been a while hasn’t it?” Mike said as the man who he recognized as his old friend and partner emerged from the smoke.

“Michael O’Connor, I know you’re a reasonable man, so I’m going to give you the chance to drop the gun you’ve got behind your back and leave peacefully.” Daniel said calmly, placing both of his hands behind his back.

“Too bad for you I’m not the man I used to be.” Mike said as he whipped the gun out from behind his back and pointed it straight at the first tube from the bottom that connected the gate to the reactors.

Daniel chuckled a bit. “Michael, always so stubborn. What do you plan to do with that tiny little pistol against that huge machine?”

Mike smirked. “It seems a bit odd doesn’t it? But unlike you I studied the entire design of the Rift Gate down to every last nut and bolt. I know for a fact that when you put even the tiniest hole in a limiter tube that the Rift Gate makes a pretty good impression of a thermobearic bomb. And, I don’t know if you noticed, but those tubes are pretty damn big targets.”

“You’re insane!” Daniel said, his smile gone. “You wouldn’t dare try it.”

“That was the plan the whole time.” Mike said, his smirk turning into a wide grin. Daniels eyes widened. “Your life ends here.”

He pulled the trigger…

(---/***---)

My eyes opened slowly, I blinked a couple times to clear the fog from my eyes. I made out that I was lying on my back under a tree. It was sunny, but the forest that I was in was dark from the shade produce by the trees.

“Looks like sleeping beauty decided to wake up.” I heard Nick’s voice say. I shot up to a sitting position and immediately regretted it. My head was spinning like a house in an F5 tornado and I felt like I was about to hurl.

“Take your time Shrimpy, that Rift Gate gives you a mean case of nausea.” Nick added, he was sitting somewhere to the right and behind me. I placed a hand on my stomach, the feeling of ‘I’m gonna hurl’ was starting to wear off.

“Where’s Derek?” I asked as the feeling disappeared, and I rubbed my temples, trying to get my head to stop spinning.

“He’s out like a light over there.” Nick said pointing to Derek with his thumb. Carmen was sitting next to him under a nearby tree. Our bags sat next to that same tree.

“And Mike?” I asked as my head stopped spinning.

Nick didn’t answer and I got the message. He never went through the gate; he stayed behind and shut it off. I decided to stand up and stretch my legs a bit. Just as I stood up, Derek’s eyes opened.

“Where are we?” He asked groggily as he slowly sat up.

“Okay, whoa, calm down a bit, you’ll probably be a bit dizzy from the gate so take it easy, were in no rush.” Carmen said to him.

Carmen and Nick then explained what he’d missed, which wasn’t a heck of a lot. Just we came through the portal, we’re in a forest in god knows where and that, well, we don’t know what happened to Mike. Surprisingly enough, Derek didn’t shed a tear, but I could see he was trying to keep them in, that much was obvious. But I’m still surprised he didn’t break down, I mean his dad is probably dead now.
That was besides the point though. “Right now we have no idea where the hell we are so we need a plan.” Carmen commented.

“We could stay here and wait for someone to come along.” Derek suggested, his voice was shaking a little bit. I sighed.

“Look Derek, we don’t know when that’ll be…it could be never, there might not be anyone out there!” I pointed out. “We might wait here for years and never meet a single other person.”

“How do you know?” He said angrily.

“Look, I’m just trying to think logically here, we don’t know where we are, I’m just trying to point out the possibilities.” I added, the last thing I needed was him flipping out on me for trying to think about this.

“So your saying we’re all alone out there.” He said solemnly, looking down at the ground.

I was about to protest, but someone jumped on it before me. “You know she never said that.” I froze. That voice, there’s no way. I whipped around to look up in the direction the voice came from. Sure enough there was a man crouched up in a high tree branch, he wore a Jonin outfit and was reading an orange book, which he held with his right hand. He had white hair, wore a mask on the lower half of his face and had a headband with a metal plate over his left eye. “Hi there.” He said holding up his left hand to about the same level as his face. I think you can guess by now who I’m talking about. It was none other than the Copy Ninja himself, Kakashi Hatake.

This better damn well be a dream or else I’m gonna kill something.

“And you would be..?” Nick asked Kakashi, cocking an eyebrow at him.

“Who me? I’m no one special.” Kakashi said in his laid back tone.

‘Yeah right! This coming from the guy who copied over a thousand other jutsu!’ I thought to myself. ‘ “No one special” my ass!’

“I meant your name, pal!” Nick retorted calmly. He likes to use the word ‘pal’ around people he doesn’t know too well. He’ll come up with nicknames for them eventually.

“Well that’s an easy one, I’m Kakashi Hatake.” He answered, in his usual laid-back tone.

‘Tell me something I don’t know.’ Was my first thought, then it dawned on me. I’m standing right in front of one of the main characters from my absolute favourite anime series of all time! Cue fangirl syndrome! Inwardly I was freaking out…that is until my sister piped up.

“You know, that name sounds familiar…” She trailed off, an obvious sign that she was thinking about it. My heart lurched. If she so much as mentions my manga collection, we’re all gonna get hauled off to some interrogation room. I turned slowly and gave her a stare of: ‘Please, I’m begging you…don’t mention my Naruto collection! Please, please, PLEEEAAASE!!!’

Either she got the message or she couldn’t find a match for the name in her memory. “Meh, must’ve been thinking of someone else.” She said with a shrug. ‘OH, thank god!’ I sighed mentally. That was way too close for comfort. If this keeps up the way it is, my brain is gonna have a full mental meltdown. The little nuclear reactor inside my head is gonna become unstable and the little men in white lab coats wont be able to stop it from detonating in a massive mushroom cloud.

Okay, so I obviously don’t have a mini-reactor inside my head.

“So what are you doing all the way out here?” Nick asked Kakashi, who just shrugged and said: “Nothing really, I just went out for a stroll.”

“So then you live nearby?” Carmen piped up.

“Well, yeah. It’s only another half-hour’s walk from here.” Kakashi said before jumping down from the tree branch and landing firmly on the ground with both feet, shrugging off the twenty foot drop like it was simply stepping off a sidewalk and onto a street. “And judging by your appearances, you guys don’t really have anywhere to stay, do you?”

Nick shook his head. Kakashi sighed a bit. “I thought as much. It’s not like I can just leave you all out here so I guess I’ll take you back to the Village with me.”

At that point the fangirl syndrome was back in full force. ‘Oh…myeee…gawd! I’m gonna go live with ninjas! Sooooo cool!’ I felt like slapping myself right then and there. I’m not gonna be the typical fangirl here, no way in hell!

…


A little late to be sayin’ that dont’cha think?

(---/***---)

It had been a about twenty minutes since we’d started following Kakashi back to the Hidden Leaf Village. I call it that because that was how he had called it when he told us about it, which also led me to deduce that we were in the English TV show version of the storyline. Terrific, means it’ll be easier understanding people, I’m not to good with Japanese.

Anywho, as we reached the top of the hill I could see the faces of the Hokages spread out on a cliff face. ‘That mountain is such a Mount Rushmore rip off…that ain’t cool bro!’ Yeah, that’s really what I think of the Hokage’s Mountain. Think about it though, you know I’m right!

Kakashi stopped and half turned to look at us. “We should get there in about, I don’t know, five minutes…you guys think you can make it, you look a little worn out.”

“Nah, we’ll make it.” Nick assured him.

“Okay, but don’t blame me if you get too tired.” Kakashi answered simply before continuing on our route. Personally I wouldn’t have minded a little break, but then again, it was only five minutes out. That begged the question though…why would Kakashi ask us if we needed a break when we were only five minutes from the village? Meh, it’s a question I’ll never know the answer to.

Of course after another five minutes of walking we arrived at the Leaf Village Gates, and holy crap in a mosh pit, those things were big. Now where did that saying come from? “Crap in a mosh pit…” pull yourself together Krystal!

“Kakashi!” A voice called out from nowhere, and I nearly jumped two thousand feet straight up in the air. “You’re late again.” The voice continued as someone landed right in front of Kakashi. ‘Oh great…this guy.’ I thought as I took in the man standing in front and slightly to the left of Kakashi.

“Do we really need to do this now Guy?” Kakashi said, sounding almost exhausted. “I’m escorting a group of people right now and I really don’t have time for this.”

“You’re one to talk Kakashi. Your lousy sense of time just made me late for a training exercise with my squad.” Guy retorted in his ‘I’m trying to sound cool even though I’m not’ tone.

“If you knew I was going to be this late, why did you stick around?” Kakashi asked, honestly looking absolutely confused out of his mind.

“I issued myself a challenge!” Guy said, flashing Kakashi a thumbs up and giving him a wide, confident smile, making his teeth shine. I swear, the amount of oral care products this guy must go through in a year, must be enough to cover the entire state of Washington to get his teeth to shine like that! “I told myself that if I could wait here until you came back that it would be fifty one handed push-ups for every hour I was late for my squads training exercise.”

Kakashi sighed. “There you go again, always making up your own rules.”

“Well Kakashi, I better head to the training fields. I’ll have a showdown with you some other time!” Guy said before simply vanishing. I turned and looked back at Carmen, who had a look of ‘what the fuck did we just see?’ plastered on her face. You know come to think of it, Nick had that exact same expression on his face. Derek… well the poor kid looked just downright depressed. ‘Poor guy, he just lost his dad.’ I thought. ‘I just hope we don’t lose him for good.’

“Eh, sorry about all that.” Kakashi said rubbing the back of his head nervously, and giving us one of his stupid eye-smiles. “I guess we should keep going, you guys should probably meet with the Hokage.”

“The who-the-what-now?” Nick asked…man the amount of confusion today!

“He’s the leader of our village…in fact that mountain cliff is carved with the faces of the other Hokage who led our village.” Kakashi started. “Their in order from left to right: The First Hokage, then the Second, Third, and Fourth.” He continued, pointing to each face on the cliff.

“Oh, I get it, so we’ll be meeting the Fourth Hokage then?” Carmen blurted out…if only she’d known.

“Actually no, you’ll be meeting the Third Hokage, the Fourth died about twelve years ago.” Kakashi explained. “Now we really should be going.” He turned and lead us down the main road towards the Hokage’s building. He stopped just in front of the front door when we arrived. “I have some things to take care of so just head to the front desk and ask her for an appointment.”

Nick pushed open the door and Derek and I followed him inside as Carmen thanked Kakashi for all his help, then followed us in. Luckily enough, these guys had AC in here, it was pretty damn hot outside and the cool air was more than welcome. Nick went over to the front desk and began talking to the receptionist as the rest of us found seats and sat down. I pulled off my backpack and set it on the floor next to my seat. I began massaging my left shoulder as I sat down, my shoulders were killing me after carrying that half-ton backpack around all day. That’s what I get for shoving a guitar, a portable amp (which by the way can run on batteries), and a brand new two thousand dollar laptop into it. Should have known better than to do that. Live and learn, I suppose.

As Nick walked over after arranging our appointment with the Hokage and sat down, I decided it would be for the best if I spilled the beans right now and told ‘em where we are.

“Alright guys…” I piped up suddenly. “I think we know where we are.” Everyone’s gaze turned right to me…and no not everyone in the room. I leaned closer, motioning for everyone to do the same, which they did. I took a deep breath and let it out. “I think we might be in one of the settings of one of my *ahem* ‘comic books’.” I said lowly, mocking my sister. She never really could understand that they were “Mangas” not “Comic books”.

“Okay, even I know that that’s pure bullshit.” Nick said trying to keep his voice down.

“No I’m serious! I really think we’re in a setting from one of my books! I’m telling you!” I argued.

“Listen Krystal, I know today’s been stressful, but you can’t star making up stories like that!” Carmen said firmly.

“Actually, I think she might be right.” Derek mumbled suddenly. “I snuck a peak at her comic books when she wasn’t looking and this place seems a lot like the Hidden Leaf Village from her books.”

“They’re called mangas, dipshit.” I hissed.

“Whatever.” Derek grumbled, crossing his arms and looking to his left.

“So, your tell me that not only are we in a different universe altogether, but that we’re in the universe built by some guy from Japan with a little to much time on his hands?” Nick said shocked. I just nodded. Nick mumbled a quick “my god” and leaned back in his seat.

“So then they wouldn’t know if the United States existed?” Carmen jumped in.

“I’m not so sure about that…” I trailed off.

“Come again?” Nick and Carmen both asked simultaneously.

“Well think about it for a second…If that scientist dude hadn’t already found this place, how the hell would have known to send us here?” I pointed out, and that seemed to sink in and get everybody thinking. “…and who’s to say they haven’t already made contact with this village?”

“Okay so what the plan then?” Nick asked nervously. I thought for a moment.

“We’ll say we’re travellers from another continent, displaced by war and we came here to find a new home…or something like that.” I suggested. “…And anyway, it’s mostly true, we did get displaced by war after all, and did sort of come here to find a new home.”

“Okay but what about the country we came from? What’s it going to be called?” Carmen pointed out.

“Ooookay, didn’t think that part through yet…” I trailed off as I began thinking. After a long and slightly awkward silence an idea popped into my head. “The country’ll be called Belka.”

“Isn’t that the enemy country in Ace Combat Zero?” Derek questioned. That little twerp was gonna blow it if he kept this up.

“Yeah, but they don’t know that!” I shot back.

“Okay, that’s a good plan but won’t they be able to do background checks on that country with satellites?” Nick asked.

“And why don’t we just go with country that already exists here?” Derek added.

“First thing, they don’t have satellites… they barely even know there’s other countries out there, they don’t have planes or any type of photo reconnaissance. Second, we don’t exactly fit in too well. In fact, we stick out like a giant laser light show in the middle of downtown Tokyo. We should just play it safe and make up a story from scratch, plus they could do background checks on a us if we go with a country that already exists.” I said, getting both questions out of the way.

“Well it seems like a sound enough plan.” Carmen commented.

“Great! There’s just one teeny tiny problem.” I started, and everyone tensed. I took a minute to clear my thoughts, I was getting way into the moment. “These guys are like human polygraphs, so your gonna have to make it as convincing as possible.”

“Or else?” Nick asked nervously.

“Or else they lock us up and interrogate us with genjutsu, and I doubt that’d be fun.” I answered, a little nervous myself. There was an awkward silence after that, until…

“Excuse me sir, Lord Hokage is ready to see you.” The receptionist called over to us. We all got up, taking our bags with us. “Stick to the plan guys.” I whispered as we made our way to the Hokages office. I’m sure I’m gonna go through a complete mental meltdown after this.

The Hokage’s office was much nicer in person, it was actually kind of cozy and gave of a welcoming feeling. I started to relax, maybe this wasn’t going to be so bad after all. The Hokage was dressed in the usual red and white outfit, you know the one he’s wearing in almost every episode. He seemed laid back, with his pipe in his mouth and his eyes closed.

“Please, all of you, take a seat.” The shinobi to the right of him said. There were enough chairs for all of us to sit, so we did. From left to right of the Hokage, was Carmen, Nick, me and Derek, in that specific order. Then the Hokage’s eyes opened slowly and he raised his left hand to remove the pipe from his mouth.

“Now before we begin, I would like to ask each of you your names.” He said, getting right to the point.

“Oh, um, sure…” Carmen started. “I’m Carmen O’Connor, this is my uncle Nick.” She continued pointing at Nick when she called his name. Nick just nodded and said: “Howyadoin’.” I couldn’t help but glare at him, show some more respect would ya?

“…And this is my sister Krystal.” Carmen continued, a hint of annoyance in her voice. I really couldn’t blame her, Nick was acting like a total doof. I just waved at the Hokage, smiling a bit.

“…And then my step-brother Derek.” Carmen added. Derek remained silent, his arms crossed over his chest and he stared down at his kneecaps. I really hope he’s not gonna be like this for long.

There was a long pause as the Hokage put the pipe back in his mouth, closing his eyes again. “Now, I’ll get right to the point because I am a busy man. Tell me, why did you request a meeting with me?” He asked, the piped still in his mouth with his left hand supporting it.

“Well, y’see…we’re in a bit of stick situation…” Nick began. Never though he would be the guy to beat around the bush in this type of situation.

“…A sticky situation?”

“Yeah, we’re kinda homeless right now.”

“So you need a place to settle, is that it?” The Hokage asked, titling his head forward so that the shadows from the hat hid the top half of his face.

“We were hoping you could hook us up with something.” Nick continued, placing his hands behind his head, and leaning back in his chair.

“Will that be all, then?”

“Yup.” Nick said just before I hooked my right foot on the back leg of his chair and pulled it forward. He toppled backward and the chair hit the ground with a clattering thud, Nick on top of it.

‘Serves ya right.’ I thought as I covered my mouth to muffle the sound of my snickering. The Hokage just stared, blinked a few times, then regained his composure. “If that’s all you’ll be asking for then…” He trailed off.

‘Then…what?’ I mentally asked.

“Then it’s settled, you four shall remain in the Hidden Leaf Village.” The Hokage stated simply.

“Huh?!” Was the reaction from both me and my sister, Nick seemed out cold and Derek was lost in his own little dark world.

The Hokage just sat there staring at us. “I don’t understand, I thought you would be happy that I allowed you residence in the village.”

“Sorry, it’s just we’re a little surprised, we thought it would just be a little harder convincing you to let us stay here.” Carmen said shakily. The Hokage started to chuckle.

“You find it a all a little sudden, am I right?” The Hokage said, smiling his usual smile. Carmen simply nodded. “It’s all right, you four are more than welcome here, but there’s still the subject of paperwork.”

“I got enough of that bullshit back home.” Nick groaned from his position on the floor.

“Well, looks like Garfield here decided to wake up.” I said, turning around partially in my seat and placing my right arm on the backrest. Nick lifted his head up and glared at me.

“Do I look like a fat cat to you?” He asked me, cocking an eyebrow.

“Do you want me to answer that honestly?” I asked him.

“Alright, you guy’s that’s enough!” Carmen snapped at us. “We’re in the middle of a meeting here!” Can’t you tell whose the most mature out of all us?

The Hokage just sighed and shook his head, we have definitely not made a good impression. “I’m going to need one of you to fill out the paperwork required for you to remain here in the Village.” He said, pulling a small bundle of papers. Thank god they were written in English, otherwise we’d be screwed.

“Count me out…” Nick grumbled, raising his hand to give a motion of ‘leave me the fuck alone’.
“I’m too young to do that kind of stuff.” I said crossing my arms. Bonus for being under eighteen, BOO YAH!

(---/***---)

Nick, Derek and I stood outside the Hokage’s office while Carmen took care of all the important stuff. “Well, I can’t stand here anymore, I’m gonna go do a little recon.” I said turning around.

“Fine, but be back here before 6:00pm, otherwise your sister’ll have my head.” Nick said to me as I walked away. I glanced at my watch, it was 4:23pm, an hour and a half was all I needed. And who knows, I might come across some things I might need, the Hokage had been kind enough to give us all some cash to start off with.

I began strolling through, looking around for something that might interest me. I eventually wound up on a road flanked on either side by a wooden fence. As I continued walking down it, I noticed something odd with the fence ahead on the left side. I narrowed my eyes at it, examining the fence for what exactly made it look so odd.

‘Guess who I found!’ I thought to myself as I walked over to the fence and grabbed the corner of a sheet that had the exact same design as that of the wood fence behind it and pulled it off, revealing a quite surprised Naruto.

“Wha-! But, how did you?!” He started rambling.

“Lay off the ice-cream cakes, chubby.” I said to him simply. “Your gut is what gave you away.” I added shrugging. Naruto gave me one of his serious looks, you know the one where he squints his eyes and gives you this big wide frown.

“Who the heck are you? I’ve never seen you around the Leaf village before.” He stated, his face barely moving from its pose.

“I just move in technically, actually my sis is still trying to get everything sorted out with the Hokage.” I explained.

“Huh? The Hokage?” Naruto asked confused, his face finally reverting to normal.

“Yup, name’s Krystal O’Connor.” I said with a nod, a small smile on my lips. Naruto gave me one of his trademark grins, so large it made his eyes go all squinty again.

“Heh, Krystal, that’s a funny name.” He said still grinning, who that little clown does I will never know.

I place both hands on my hips, the smile turning into a smirk. “Oh yeah? Well, I’ll bet your name’s just a funny!”

“Okay then, my name’s Naruto Uzumaki!” He said, still grinning!

“You know, that name’s weird by my standards.” I said mockingly.

“I guess that’s true when you’ve got a weird name, all the normal names sound weird!” Naruto countered.

I snickered a bit. “I like you man!” I held my hand out for a handshake. Naruto seemed to get the message because he soon completed the handshake. “I think you and me are gonna get along just fine, Naruto…”

I dropped my backpack on the ground next to a park bench and sat down. Naruto was sitting next to me, slurping down a soda he got from a vending machine. The two of us were silent, I hate silence. It. Drives. Me. Nuts.

“So, what do you do on a normal day?” I asked him, trying to make conversation.

“Hmm?” He mumbled in the middle of taking a sip from his soda. He lowered the can and then tossed it into a nearby garbage can. “Not much besides going to the academy, the next graduation is almost two weeks from now, and I plan to graduate this time?”

“What do you mean this time?” I asked giving him a confused look, so it looks like he was wearing his white t-shirt because he was still kind of far from graduating. I bet your wondering why I was asking al these questions about the characters…well it’s for two reasons. First, so I can find out in what time frame I’m in, and then to keep my cover.

“Well, I’ve failed the graduation exam three times now.” Naruto said sadly, looking down at the ground. “It’s always the stupid shadow-clone jutsu!”

“Ouch, well maybe you could get lucky and have to do a jutsu your good at!” I said smiling, trying to cheer him up. Too bad for him it wasn’t gonna be that way, poor guy.

“Heh, yeah you’re probably right, I mean they can only pick the shadow-clone jutsu a few times and then they gotta change it, right?” Naruto said, giving me his wide grin.

“Probably, yeah.” I said reaching down and unzipping my backpack. I pulled out my guitar and amp and plugged my guitar into the jack on the amp.

“Uh, don’t you need to plug that in for it to work?” Naruto asked pointing at the amp.

“This one runs on batteries.” I said grinning slightly. I flicked a switch on the top of the amp and a little red light flashed on. I just began strumming out a random tune, which was actually pretty good. Grrrr, curse my terrible musical memory! I just can’t remember the tunes I come up with on the fly, no matter how awesome they sound.

“Hey, you’re pretty good!” Naruto suddenly commented.

“Huh, did you say something?” I asked, snapping back to reality, I can get lost in the beat sometimes, it tends to piss people off.

“I said you’re good at playing the, um…the…” Naruto started.

“It’s called a guitar, Professor Einstein.” I said almost mockingly.

“Who’s Professor Einstein?” Naruto asked confused.

“Some guy who came up with the theory of relativity…” I trailed off as I began to drift back into the Zone.

“What’s that?” Naruto asked, snapping me back to reality again.

“You’re starting to sound like my three-year-old cousin.” I grumbled. Naruto gave me his serious face.

“C’mon just tell me about this theory of relenometry.” He whined.

“It’s re-la-ti-vi-ty, and I think it states that once you hit the speed of light your body basically becomes light energy or something, I’m not too sure.” I explained half-heartedly. I wasn’t really in the mood to explain shit. Naruto nodded, pretending to understand though I could tell he had no idea what I was talking about. There was another period of silence, or as silent as it can get with an electric guitar being played at the same time. I figured I’d break the silence.

“Contrary to popular belief, only 2% of the Milky Way galaxy is comprised of actual milk…the rest is cream.” I said, trying to mimic the fact core from Portal 2.

Naruto just stared at me. “What are you talking about?” He said to me like I was some sort of nut.

“I dunno, I’m just trying to make conversation!” I explained, cracking a wide grin. Naruto began to laugh.

“There you are you little troublemaker!” A voice said behind us, sounding quite annoyed. I stopped playing and Naruto and I turned around to look over our shoulders.

“I-Iruka sensei!” Naruto exclaimed. Yup, it was Iruka alright, and he looked none to happy with the little knucklehead next to me.

“I’ve been looking everywhere for you Naruto!” Iruka began, his arms crossed over his chest. “Thanks to you I had to dismiss class early today.”

“So, not my problem.” Naruto retorted in pouting tone.

“Well it will be your problem because your going to be staying late after class tomorrow!” Iruka snapped.

Naruto got up and pushed past Iruka. “Whatever.” He muttered as he rounded a corner and disappeared behind a building. I couldn’t help but feel a sense of pity for the little guy, then again he only brought it on himself.

“Sorry about that, he tends to be a bit of a handful.” Iruka said to me apologetically, snapping me from my world of little delusions.
“Nah, its cool, I don’t mind.” I said, bringing my hand up in a motion of ‘It’s all good!’

“Your new here aren’t you? I’ve never seen you around the Leaf Village before.” Iruka said tilting his head slightly to one side.

“Yeah, just moved in today.” I said glancing at my watch. “Oh shit, I better go!” I shoved my guitar and amp back in my bag and zipped it up. I slung it over my right shoulder as I got up and ran past Iruka. “Sorry, gotta run!” I called back over my shoulder. Now I’ve got ten minutes to make it back to the Hokage’s office before my sister kills me.

(---/***---)

I skidded to a stop in front of the Hokage building. I placed the palms of my hands on my knees, trying to catch my breath. My sister sighed and held up her watch. “You made it with two minutes to spare.” She said in a half-hearted congrats.

“I…am…out…of…shape.” I said between breaths, standing up straight again.

“C’mon miss couch potato…we’ve got to check in to our new apartment.” Nick said with a yawn. He’s one to talk, he’d been napping! The only time Nick ever yawns is when he’s only just woken up! Derek continued to just stand there like a statue…staring, unblinking into the dirt.

“Alright then lets get it over with.” I sighed. We then set off down random streets trying to find the apartment complex we’d be staying in. Within minutes, we we’re completely fucking lost, god freaking dammit. Carmen started asking random people for directions, first some old lady, then this farmer guy, and then Ino, wait Ino? What the hell was she doing here? Ah who cares, she told us exactly where the apartment complex was. Down the road to our left, then take the third right at the end of the street on the left. Should be easy right?

Wrong, Nick had vanished. No doubt the guy had fallen asleep standing up again somewhere along our route so we’d have to backtrack to find that jerkwad and drag his snoring ass back here. Carmen and Derek went ahead to find the apartment so guess who got stuck with waking up the heaviest sleeper on the face of the earth. Just god damn, mother fucking perfect.

I pushed open the door to apartment 132, dragging the sleeve of a partially unconscious Nick behind me. It had taken me half an hour to find the guy, and another fifteen minutes just getting him conscious enough to drag him back here, and now I was NOT in a good mood. I gazed around the small apartment. There was a complete kitchen to the right of the front door as well, a closet to the left for coats and other shit, a small living room on the far side of the space, and a staircase on the far left. I guess upstairs is where all the bedrooms are, as well as the bathroom cause I didn’t see it anywhere down here.

I kicked off my running shoes and dragged Nicks sorry ass up the stairs and brought him to the last room on the right, looks like we’d each have our own bedroom, kick ass. Nick flopped straight down on the bed in his room and started snoring like a jackhammer on overdrive. I shut the door (with his snoring still audible, by the way) and headed back downstairs. I only just now noticed Carmen sitting alone at the kitchen table.

“Where’s Derek?” I asked, well more like grumbled, but hey I’m frickin’ tired okay?!

“He’s in his room…must be tough for him losing his father and all…”She trailed off.

“Yeah, I hear ya.” I murmured my agreement as I sat down across from her. “Can’t believe I’m saying this but I actually WANT him to start pulling his stupid pranks again!” Carmen laughed a bit at that comment. “You know now that I think about it, him and Naruto would get along well.”

“Who’s Naruto?” Carmen said shooting me a look.

“Oh, just this kid I ran into while I was out on recon duty…” I said. “…And he just so happens to be the main character of the series we seem to have found ourselves in.”

Carmen tilted her head to the left. “What are the odds of that…uhhh, one in a million I guess?”

“Hey just us being here is one in a TRILLION!” I retorted, trying to make a point.

“Yeah, you’re probably right.” She said. Again silence that just wasn’t welcome.

“Well, I think I’m gonna head in early, I’m dying of exhaustion.” I said yawning before getting up.

“Yeah, maybe I will too.” Carmen muttered as I made my way upstairs. I walked down the hallway upstairs an opened the door to the room across from Nick’s, the one room that hadn’t been taken. I looked around the tiny room. A bed on the left wall, a bedside table, and desk on the right wall. There was a small window on the right side of the far wall, just in front of where I stood, My bag was lying just next to the desk. This was much smaller than my room back home, but it was a start at least. I flopped down on the bed and pulled the covers up to my shoulders, not even bothering to change out of my clothes. I was just too damn tired.

(---*!*/---)

The stars swept across the night sky the faint outlines of trees just barely visible in the blackness of the scene. The only light came from fires in the distance, shadows danced across the forest, caused by the light of the fire. Something was moving, deep in the woods just beneath an old maple tree. The shape sat hunched over, its snakelike head scanning the surrounding wood for something, anything that would satisfy it. It’s eyes shone a bright red in the shadows, there was no colour except for those eyes. The eyes never blinked, never ceasing in there search for whatever it was they were searching for.

Suddenly its head turns in your direction, its eyes hold the unblinking stare, they seem to burn into you, though you but still hold you infinitely in their gaze. Its head sways from left to right, sizing you up, judging distance, and possibly more. Then, like a bolt of lightning it charges straight at you, it’s red eyes filled with hate and rage. Long silver teeth line it’s jaws in a malicious grin, it’s intent obvious. To kill you in the most brutally painful manner possible.

Your vision suddenly fades to white before the moment of your death. Various grey shapes begin to cloud your vision, slowly coming into focus. A cloud of numbers, some larger, some smaller, some solid, some clouded. It’s a code, a code written in binary.

(---/***---)

I shot up in a cold sweat, breathing hard. The sunlight had since left the room leaving me in darkness. I thought I saw something moving in the corner of the room near the door, a small rounded body with a long neck and serpentine head. I quickly reached over to the lamp on the bedside table, my heart thumping in my chest with fear. I flicked the light on and I saw what had made the shape in the dark.

It hard just been my backpack making the rounded body, and the neck of my guitar had made the shapes head and neck. I tossed to one side and moved to sit on the side of the bed, burying my face in my hands. I sighed and started to think about the dream I just had.

First thing, what the hell was that thing in the woods? Why was everything colourless except for its eyes? And why just it’s eyes anyway? Then there’s that binary code at the end, what was up with that?

I was racking my brain trying to make heads or tails of the situation. Maybe it was just a vision my brain had come up with to cope with the stress that today had caused, with the nearly getting blown up, and then getting sent though some random portal by this scientist guy to the world of my favourite anime. That seemed the most logical so I decided to go with that.

But man that scared the shit out of me, I was shaking so much I felt like I was gonna start an earthquake in the middle of the Leaf Village. I began hugging myself, trying to calm down as much as possible. I glanced at the clock on the bedside table, it was one of those classic ones. You know the ones that had the big hand, little hand and the two bells on the top with a tiny hammer in between. It was just after 12:15am, I’d only slept four hours and a half, but I knew I wasn’t going back to sleep after that. I rested my head on the pillow, my feet still touching the floor, my arms still hugging me. It was gonna be a long night…

(---/***---)

My head hit the ground with a thump and instinctively my hands shot up to press onto the place where my head got hit. I opened one eye to see a very cross-looking Nick staring down at me. “What the heck was that for?!” I yelled at him.

“Guess what time it is?” He said crossing his arms and leaning over me.

I rubbed the back of my head with my right hand. “I dunno, eight in the morning?” I guessed.

“Two in the afternoon!” Nick half-yelled. “Now get up, and get ready, your going to go clothes shopping.” He added leaving the room.

“For all four of us?!” I exclaimed. Even though he’s my favourite uncle, Nick had the most fickle sense of fashion, I have ever seen, he wardrobe never seemed to have a particular theme to it. Like take now for example, he was wearing a black shirt with a gothic skull etched on the front and back, a plain black belt with a scorpion on the buckle, a pair of blue jeans and green socks. What exactly was the theme there, huh?

“No, we’ve already done ours, your gonna go buy your clothes.” He called back from the staircase as he thundered down to the main level. I sighed and got up, nearly tripping over the covers as my feet were still tangled in them. I untangled my feet as a question came to mind…when had I fallen asleep? Last time I check I’d woken up from a bad nightmare.

Then the memories from that nightmare began to come back and I started to shiver. I just stood there for a few minutes remembering everything then shook my head a couple times to clear my thoughts. ‘Your not gonna let that dream get to you, no way!’ I told myself at I walked over to my backpack. I unzipped the main pouch and dug out change of clothes and my toothbrush, too bad I forgot to bring toothpaste, oh well, I’ll just borrow someone else’s.

I headed to the bathroom which was next to the stairs to my right. I pushed open the door and stepped in, tossing my clothes on top of the towel rack which was on the left wall, just in front of the shower/bathtub. I turned on the tap as I put some of Nicks toothpaste (which he had left in the bathroom) on my toothbrush. I quickly brushed my teeth then changed into my new clothes which consisted of a black shirt with the words ‘I didn’t do it… and I’ll never do it again’ written on the front in bold white letters, a pair of dark blue jeans and white socks. I then thundered downstairs into the kitchen. Derek was sitting on the couch in the family area playing his DS and Nick was reading a newspaper at the kitchen table.

“Where’s Carmen?” I asked.

“Groceries.” Nick simply state not taking his eye’s off the news paper. If he was reading the newspaper then either he’s been really busy these past few hours or he just got up.

“You got any cash for me to go get the clothes I need?” I asked walking over to the table. Nick pointed with his thumb to a wallet sitting on the kitchen counter. I walked over and snatched it off the counter, stuffing it in my pocket. “See you in a bit!” I said as I slid my feet into my shoes. Nick just waved as I walked out the door, he really likes reading newspapers.

I headed down the side of the apartment complex, the owner sort of believed in everything being as open as possible, so when you walk out of the apartments, your walking onto a balcony type walkway. I kinda like actually. Anyway, I began walking through town, looking for a clothing store, I should probably head to the main road cause that’s where all the shops seemed to be. Obviously I headed in that direction, I’m so predictable aren’t I?

As I rounded a corner I wasn’t really paying attention and ran into someone. I lost my balance and fell backwards onto my butt.

“Oh hey, sorry.” I heard Kiba’s voice say. I looked up and sure enough, there was Kiba, the hood of his jacket up and Akamaru sitting on his head. Akamaru barked twice in a hello. “You okay? Didn’t see you there.”

“Nah, I’m fine. Should’ve paid more attention to where I was going.” I said getting up.

“Hey, your new here aren’t you?” Kiba said suddenly, Akamaru barked in agreement. “My names Kiba, I’m from the Inuzuka clan!” He’s a little quick to the introductions ain’t he?

“Uh, I’m Krystal O’Connor.” I said, semi-nervously. Kiba gave me a weird look.

“That name’s pretty weird.” He said

“Believe me you aren’t the first person to say that.” I said shaking my head.

“Anyway, I better get going, my moms expecting me back home soon for training.” Kiba said walking past me. “See you around sometime!” He called over his shoulder, and Akamaru barked again.

I blinked a couple times, trying to come to terms with the quick encounter. You know when you get down to it Kiba and Naruto are a lot alike. Anyway I continued on my route, walking down the main road to look for a clothing store. Eventually I found one that looked sort of interesting. I walked in and began moving from rack to rack, looking for something that I would wear.

“Hey! Your that girl!” I heard someone say behind me. I turned my head to look over my shoulder…Ino, great. She was wearing the outfit she wore for the Chuunin exams tournament when she and Sakura were sitting in the stands watching. The orange shirt with the green emblem on it, or was that emblem blue? I can’t remember which, anyway this one was green. She also wore a pair of blue jeans. “You’re the girl who was with that family that asked me for directions.

“And your point being?” I asked cracking a small smile.

“Well, I just wanted to ask if you guys just moved in.” She said nervously.

“Yeah we did. Why do you ask?” I replied. Ino straightened a bit.

“Well I just wanted to let you know that if you’ve got anymore questions don’t mind asking me!” She said confidently.

“Okay, cool thanks!” I said and I was about to get back to clothes shopping when she interrupted.

“Just one thing…” She began. “You try making a move on my Sasuke, and I won’t be so friendly.” She pointed one finger at me in a obnoxious fashion.

“YOUR SASUKE?!!” Someone yelled from behind Ino. Ino whirled around just in time to see a very angry Sakura poke her head out from behind a rack of clothes. Oh, boy…here we go.

The two of them just started going at it, talking about how one was gonna outdo the other, and how Sasuke like one of them more than the other, they started calling each other names like ‘Billboard Brow’ and ‘Ino-pig’. I couldn’t stand the arguing anymore. “You guys sound like two walruses fighting over a grape!” I snapped and they both shut up.

“Who the heck is she?” Sakura asked.

“Oh yeah, this is uhhh…” Ino began. “What was your name again?” She asked me whispering.

“Krystal O’Connor, now if you don’t mind taking your argument somewhere else, I’ve got enough of a headache already.” I said, rubbing my temples. Ino and Sakura just left, thank god. Those two were loud in the anime but in real life it was excruciating! I began rummaging through the racks trying to pick out something I liked. Eventually I found a sky blue shirt with a darker blue dragon design on the front. I also found a black jacket and black or navy-blue pants, couldn’t really tell the diference. If I had the choice this would be my ninja outfit. Wait just a sec, I was in the Narutoverse right? Oh, I totally know what I’m gonna do here now! After I bring the new wardrobe home, I’m talking to the Hokage ASAP!

I nudged the front door open as I walked in carrying a full bag of clothes. I dropped it on the kitchen table as Nick continued to read his newspaper, never knew the guy liked to read so much. Hey, he was acting like Kakashi reading his book! No f’cking way!

“I’m heading back out.” I said turning to leave. Nick just waved after me again…okay now he was trying to piss me off! And you know what?...It’s working. I walked out the front door and headed down the stairs to the front when I nearly collided with my sister on the way down.

“Krystal! What are you doing up?” She said surprised.

“Uh, Nick woke me up to get me to go clothes shopping.” I said pointing a thumb over my shoulder in the direction of the apartment.

“So you’re going out now?” She asked tilting her head to one side.

“Um, no I already did that, I’m gonna go speak to the Hokage.” I said walking around her and down the stairs.

“For what?” Carmen asked behind me.

“Well… uh…” I said stopping at the foot of the stairs. To be honest I hadn’t really thought about how I was gonna break it to them about me wanting to be a Ninja. “Okay, I wanna be a Ninja and before you say anything about it I think I’m up for it and that you shouldn’t worry about me at all!” I blurted out. Carmen just stared at me, eyes wide.

“So you want to be a Ninja…” She said trying to follow what I had said before, her facial expression unchanged. I nodded, breathing hard since I’d gotten the bit out in one breath.

“…And you know its going to be dangerous, but you think your up for it…” She continued. I nodded again.

“…and you need to see the Hokage for permission?” She said cocking an eyebrow. I nodded again. Carmen just sighed and said: “You’re being completely idiotic.”

“How is wanting to be a Ninja being idiotic?” I blurted out.

“Oh well, let me think. For starters, we nearly died twice yesterday, and we only just got here.” She said matter-of-factly. “…and secondly, from what you told me in your rants about how good your Naruto books are, I managed to figure out that being a Ninja is about the same as joining the Marine Corps!” I opened my mouth to protest but then realized she had a point. “We’ve only just gotten out of a danger zone, and now you want to dive right back into one!” She added coldly.

“I…I just wanted to do something to help out…” I protested weakly, staring down at my feet. I felt like someone had just shot me. Here I was, thinking that everyone’d happy that I’d chosen to do something worthwhile with my life, and then I came here to find out that they would never let me even try. I felt angry, hell, I felt like I was about to rip someone’s head off. Ever since my thirteenth birthday they’d always said I should start earning my keep around here, and now that I’d found the one thing I’d be good at they think it’s too much for me to handle.

“…and you know something, I’m still going to, even if you want me too or not.” I said turning around and walking away from the apartment building.

“Y-you’re just going to get yourself killed!!” Carmen yelled after me. I stopped in my tracks and couldn’t help but smile.

“We wont know until it happens, now wont we?” I said as I started walking away again. I didn’t hear any protest from my sister. That meant I’d won that argument, not that I was keeping score or anything.

(---/***---)

I sat on one of the chairs in the lobby at the Hokage’s office, It’d been two hours since I’d first asked the receptionist to have a meeting with the Hokage and there were no signs that I’d be seeing him anytime soon. Right now It was just me and my thoughts, all of them being the reaction that my sister had given me, and how the rest of my family would react. Man, I was gonna be Public Enemy Number One in the eyes of my family after this. Well, maybe not Derek, the guy was still broken up about Mike. To be honest, I miss him too…a lot.

I heard the front door open and I turned my head in the direction of the door. Well speak of the pranking devil, there was Derek now, but what was he doing here? He walked over and sat on the seat to my right.

“What the hell are you doing here?” I asked him.

“What are you doing here?” He countered with a question of his own.

“I’m not answering your question ‘till you answer mine!” I said matter-of-factly.

“It doesn’t matter, both our answers are gonna be the same.” He said obnoxiously.

“Whoa, wait a sec, back up the truck, rewind the video.” I would have kept on going but I’d run out of things that go in reverse. “You mean you…”

“…want to be a Ninja? Yeah, you hit it dead center.” He said, still sounding supremely obnoxious.

“Mind telling me why?” I asked. Yeah, at about this very second, I was as fucking curious as I’ve ever been in my life, Derek wasn’t really the type to take things seriously.
“Well, my dad had always called me his little Marine…” He trailed off.

“Yeah, and I’d always take the opportunity to call you his little midget.” I added.

Derek flashed me a death glare. “…well, this is sort of the same type of thing right? I mean it’s kinda like the Marines, at least that’s how Carmen described it.”

“Let me guess…” I started. “You want to do you dad’s title for you some justice, huh?”

Derek nodded…then his eyes brightened and he cracked a smile. “But mostly, It’s cause I don’t wanna get outdone by you!” He said tauntingly.

I glared at him out of the corner of my eye. “When we get home, I’m gonna kill you.”

“I’d like to see you try.” He said crossing his arms. Looks like we hadn’t lost the little bastard in the first place.

(---/***---)

When we were finally called in (which had been another hour of waiting), the Hokage was sitting behind two stacks of paperwork, one on either side of him.

“Ah, it’s you again, please take a seat.” He said, motioning for us to sit on the two chairs in the room. Derek and I both sat down me on the right and him on the left. “I know it’s a bit soon, but how are you and your family adjusting to the village?”

“Well, so far everything’s going fine.” I said, trying to sound less nervous. Why was I nervous, he should be happy that I want to be a Ninja, right? The more the merrier.

“Ah, that’s good to hear, but I take it you came here for more than to give me an update.” Sarutobi said, well I hope I can call him that without unforeseen repercussions.

“Well, I was hoping you could let me and my step-brother become Ninja’s…” I trailed off.

“I must admit, I didn’t expect this, not so soon at least.” He said tilting his head forward and bringing up his left hand to grip his pipe. “This could be a problem.”

“Whaddya mean, ‘this could be a problem?’” Derek blurted out, I was just as surprised as he was.

“Well, to begin, the Academy’s graduation exams are just over two weeks from today, that means very little time for you both to prepare to take the exam, should you choose to do so.” The Hokage explained, and he had a point. “Furthermore, Krystal was it? You can’t be permitted formal entrance into the academy at your age, meaning you would need private tutoring.” He paused for a minute to adjust his pipe. “Finally, the classes have already been set, so your brother will also need private lessons until the exam has been written.”

Derek and I remained silent taking in everything the Hokage had said. “Well, then is there something you can do?”

The Hokage lifted his gaze to us. “The private tutor most capable of this assignment is already tutoring my grandson, and knowing him, he would probably say that this would be a distraction for my grandson…” He trailed off for a second. “…So I will assign one of the instructors at the academy to train the both of you after classes.”

I glanced at Derek, he seemed a bit disappointed but still willing to go ahead with it. I turned my attention back to the Hokage. “We’ve got one more question.”

“Yes, what is it?” The Hokage inquired. Derek looked at me stunned.

“When do we start?” I asked.

The Hokage smiled, tilting his head forward again. “You’ll begin your training after classes tomorrow afternoon, you’ll meet with your instructor at four o’clock in front of this building.”

As we left the Hokage’s office, I felt every nerve in my body itching for the moment that we’d meet our new sensei. I longed for tomorrow afternoon to be here already. They say time fly’s when your having fun, well time also slows when you know fun’s just around the corner…

I sat on a bench next to the front entrance to the Hokage’s office, my elbows resting on my knees, keeping me up. Derek paced around in front of me, eagerly waiting the arrival of our new sensei, personally I wondered who the heck it was. That and I wondered how Carmen was feeling at this very moment.

Shortly after we got back and broke the news to her, she’d raged on us, telling us we were too young for this sort of thing. Nick had just watched the argument but said nothing. When I asked him why he didn’t jump in, he told me he that he didn’t feel like getting involved.

“What the hell’s taking him so long?!” Derek blurted out. He was getting impatient, I guess it could be his ADD.

“Relax, dude. We’ve still got five minutes to wait.” I said glancing at my watch. “Can’t believe that I let you drag me out here half an hour early…”

“I just didn’t want to be late okay!” Derek whined, trying to prove.

“You can arrive early, but half an hour is pushing it a little.” I said matter-of-factly.

“I know that!” Derek snapped. “I just want to get down to training!”

I sighed. “You know this won’t be a walk in the park right?” I asked.

“Whoever said I thought it was gonna be?” He asked, giving me his Innocent/Confused face and throwing his hands behind his head.

“Sorry I’m late, Had a bit of trouble with some of my students.” I heard some say to my right. Both me and Derek looked in the direction the voice had come from, and standing there was none other than Iruka. To be honest I was partially expecting him, though I don’t know why.

“Uh, actually your three minutes early.” I said pointing at my watch.

“Not in my book.” Derek muttered and I kicked him, trying to get him to shut up.

“Okay you two calm down.” Iruka commanded. “Before we head off to the training field, I’d like to start off with introductions. I’m Iruka Umino, I’ll be your Private instructor from here on out.” (Again, tell me something I don’t know.) “Now It’s your turn.” He added motioning to us.

“I’m Krystal O’Connor…” I started. “…and this is my impatient step-brother Derek.”

“I’m not impatient!” Derek snapped at me.

“Who’s the guy who dragged me out here thirty minutes too early!” I snapped back.
“Alright that’s enough, if you two are going to continue on like this, then I won’t even bother training either of you!” Iruka interrupted. Both me and Derek shut up and look at him intently. “Okay not that we’ve gotten that out of the way, follow me to the training area.” Iruka added turning around. Derek and I both followed.

(---/***---)

“Alright then, for your first lesson… we’ll practice marksmanship.” Iruka said as we reached the training field. I noticed there were two logs, each with targets strapped to them. Iruka handed out a bag to each of us containing five Kunai and seven Shuriken each. “We’ll start by throwing Kunai at those targets. Krystal you’ll be on the right, Derek on the left. Once the two of you can get all five of your kunai to hit your target in succession, then we’ll move on to the Shuriken.”

“What? No kick-ass Techniques?” Derek whined.

“The Jutsus come later, you two need to learn the basics first.” Iruka said sternly to Derek, who just opened the bag and peered inside.

“Uh, which ones are the Kunai again?” He asked out loud.

I rolled my eyes. “The knives are the Kunai, doof.” I said standing about ten feet from my target. I noticed that the target was at about the same height as my head, so I’d need to aim up just slightly. I gripped the Kunai and threw it as hard as I could. It flew straight as an arrow, it seemed to be heading straight at the target. ‘Yes, it’s gonna hit!’ I mentally cheered as the Kunai drew closer.

Then what happened next made my heart sink. It flew just above the target, the edge of the blade sank into the top edge of the log, and since it still had momentum, it dislodged itself from the log and tumbled end over end and then dug into the grass behind the log.

“ARGH! I thought it was gonna hit it!” I screamed. I heard Derek laughing and snapped my head around to give him a death glare.

“You missed sucker!” He taunted as he prepared to throw his own Kunai. “Now watch how a pro does it!” He threw his Kunai and it flew to the left of his log, digging into the ground behind.

“So a pro misses every shot?” I asked tauntingly. Derek gave me a death glare of his own. Then, as if on cue, we both brought out another kunai each and threw them simultaneously at the targets. Both hit the edges of our targets.

(---/***---)

I was lying on my back in the grass, arms and legs spread out, breathing hard. We’d spent nearly three solid hours without breaks throwing Kunai and the Shuriken at the targets. The Shuriken exercise was the same as the Kunai: get all seven shuriken to hit the targets in succession. The Kunai bit was hard, I was better with the Shuriken, that much was certain, maybe it’s because they were lighter than the Kunai, and that made them easier to aim.

I dunno, all I know, is that Derek was the exact opposite of me, he was better with the Kunai, having completed that exercise before me. The I’d gotten revenge when I breezed through the Shuriken execise. Now here I was, lying on my back watching the sun set, waiting for Derek to get his Shuriken to stick in the target. He was just two Shuriken away from completing it.

He was reaching his limit, but he still kept on going, kinda reminds me of Naruto. He threw another Shuriken at the Target. Stuck. The he threw another. Missed. Now he had to walk over, pick them all up and start all over. The poor guy just stayed where he was, and flopped flat on his ass. “That’s it, I’m done.” He said breathing hard.

Iruka walked over to us. “Alright, I think that’s enough for today, go home and get some rest, tomorrow we’ll continue on to the next lesson.”

“But I haven’t even completed this one yet!” Derek exclaimed weakly.

“We’ll finish with that tomorrow, in the meantime keep practicing with those, tomorrow I’ll show you two the Transformation Technique.” Iruka said smiling. “We’ll meet back here at four-thirty.” With that he turned and left, meaning it was just me and Derek at the training field.

Derek got up to collect his Shuriken, as I picked up my jacket which was lying next to me. Derek was still busy yanking shuriken out of the log when I finally got up. I walked over to where his last shuriken had dug into the ground and picked it up. He’d finished with the other shuriken when I handed the last one to him. He simply muttered thanks, as we half-dragged ourselves back home.

Even though the walk was only ten minutes, to me it felt like an eternity had passed…twice. When we got home, we realized that in our rush to meet our sensei thirty minutes early we’d both forgotten our keys. To tired to knock on the door, I just rested my head against it with a loud thump. I was about to nod off when the door gave way as Nike opened it. As I felt forward through the doorway, Nick caught me.

“Geez, you two look like you went for a thirty mile hike today!” He commented as he helped my stand straight again (or as straight as I could).

“Arms feel that way.” I said pushing past him, Derek lumbering behind. We made our way to the sitting area at the back of the apartment, too tired to heave ourselves to our rooms. I flopped into an overstuffed armchair, absolutely exhausted. Derek fell face first onto the sofa and, even with his face buried deep in an accent pillow, I could hear him start to snore. Soon after I went out like a light.

Five shadowy figures stood atop a rather tall building inside an apartment complex, the moon full behind them. They surveyed the building directly in front of them, about half the height of the one they stood on. The watched as two people entered the building one taller than the other.

“So that’s our target?” The largest of the shapes muttered in a gruff voice.

“Your sure have a sharp eye there Four.” Said another shape on the far left of the group, this one in a more playful, daredevilish voice.

“Heh, hardly seems worth it, sending us out here to deal with these little kids.” The smallest shape hissed from the inner-right.

“So I guess we just go down there and kill ‘em right?” A female voice sounded from the inner-left preparing to jump down.

“Negative…” The Center shape corrected, holding up his left hand to stop her. “…remember the mission parameters, we only needed to acquire the targets location, and return to base with the required tactical information.”

“If they want those two out of the way so bad, why don’t we just kill them now?” Said the Daredevil.

The Leader silenced him with a flick of his wrist, a sign to be quiet. “That plan would put our primary operation in jeopardy, and HQ command would not allow for that sort of thing, our team would be scrapped, and then replaced by someone they deem more… ‘capable’.”

“So then we can kill them yet, but we will. Is that what you saying?” The Giant grumbled to the Leader.

“That is an answer I don’t have, for now we will carry out our mission, as directed by the mission briefing.” The Leader responded.

“So we just watch and wait is that it? Too bad, and I was looking forward to the hunt…” The Female said kneeling down over the edge as the two beneath them entered their apartment and shut the door.

(---/***---)

The sunlight shone directly into my face and I groaned, scrunching up my eyes to try and blot out the sun, and pulled the covers up over my head. Too bad that by now I was partially awake. I slowly realized that I was in my bed, and then slowly sat up. The last thing I remember was on the armchair in the family area. Someone must’ve carried me up to my room when I nodded off last night.

I grumbled and slowly hauled myself out of bed, barely noticing I was still wearing the same clothes from yesterday. I opened the door to my room, and groggily lumbered down the hallway to the bathroom to get ready. My arms still ached from yesterdays training session, I wasn’t sure If I was ready to tackle the hard stuff yet. I think I’m gonna die tonight.

I quickly fixed up my messy hair as best as I could before heading downstairs. When I got to the bottom I tripped, and because I was still half asleep I stumbled so much I nearly crashed head first into the kitchen table.

“Morning Shrimpy!” Nick said enthusiastically from across the table. He was eating breakfast, which consisted of pancakes, two fried eggs and five pieces of bacon.

“Think I could get some of that culinary action?” I asked tiredly, as I pulled out a chair and flopped down into it.

“Already on the way!” Carmen said, with a hint of frustration in her voice, probably still sore from the part about me and Derek wanting to be ninjas for the Hidden Leaf Village. She really needs to learn how to NOT hold a grudge.

“So where’s the Dynamo?” I asked resting my head on the table.

“Dehek?” Nick said through a mouthful of his eggs. “Ee vent oughd doo drain.” I couldn’t help but laugh at Nick’s hilarious accent. But he shot me a look of confusion as he swallowed his food. “What?” He asked.

“Don’t talk with your mouth full, I might cough up a lung or something.” I said when I finally calmed down. Just them my breakfast arrived, and I started chowing down. I hadn’t realized how hungry I was, but when I started eating…well think Choji and a bag of potato chips and you’ll get the picture.

I finished my breakfast, and by now I was fully awake, so I got up and headed to the front door. “Where the heck are you going?” Nick asked.

“Uh…out?” I said pointing at the door. I made sure I remembered to grab my keys in case Derek forgot his again. I walked out the front door and kicked it shut then headed down the front steps.

As I walked pretty much aimlessly around the village, I came upon a tree…with a foot sticking out underneath the foliage. I walked under the tree to look up at whoever was in the tree.

I’ll give you three quick guesses as to who it was…No, nope, colder than an Iceberg. Okay, I’ll spill it since it’s obvious you guys suck at guessing. It was a rather alert looking Naruto, well it’s obvious he wasn’t alert enough seeing as I snuck right under his defences.
“What are you doing in there?” I asked.

“AUGH!” Naruto yelped, he lost his grip on the tree branch and fell face first on the ground and I flinched. That’s gonna leave a mark in the morning.

“Uh, hey. Are you okay?” I asked a half unconscious Naruto. “D’you have any brain damage?” Suddenly Naruto jumped straight up, in the anime style where the character suddenly turns into a blur and in the next minute he’s staring you in the face.

“WHY’D YOU SCARE ME LIKE THAT?!” Naruto yelled. And I’d though Ino and Sakura were loud, him yelling was like a bomb went off or something.

“Uh, you mind doing that again, I can still hear a bit in this ear.” I said pointing to my left ear. He was about to go again but I shoved a hand over his mouth. “Don’t you know sarcasm when you hear it?”

“Sorry Krystal but, what are you doing here?” He asked. I shrugged.

“Killing time, mostly.” I said. “Why were you hiding in a tree?”

Naruto suddenly looked guilty of something…really guilty. “Well, uh, y’see, I, uh, well…” Naruto muttered.

“Spit it out already! I don’t have all day!” I said in a sarcastically angry tone.

Naruto was doing his nervous finger thing, where he takes both his index fingers and pokes them together repeatedly. “I might have, sorta, done something to the Hokage’s face while he was asleep.”

I facepalmed. “Tell me you didn’t draw on his face with permanent marker.” I pleaded.

“There weren’t any permanent markers around so I had to settle for washable!” Naruto confessed, hoping that would lessen the severity of the situation.

“That doesn’t change the fact that you are in very deep shit.” I mumbled.

“Uh, so do you think you could keep that a secret?” Naruto asked. I just nodded, I knew that they would catch him eventually. “Great, I gotta go to the academy right now!” Naruto said running off, leaving me standing there head hanging. What have I gotten myself into?

When I finally got to the training field, I noticed that Iruka and Derek were already there. Derek was throwing shuriken at his target with Iruka watching him. Derek threw the last shuriken, which hit the log with a mild thunk.

“Boo yah! Take that log!” He yelled in triumph, throwing his fists up in the air. I started laughing at his little comment. Derek turned around and gave me a look of surprise. “Hey, Krystal, when’d you get here?”

After I stopped laughing I just shrugged and said. “Just now, it IS almost four-thirty.” I said nonchalantly.

Iruka stepped in. “Well now that everyone’s here, we can get started on today’s lesson.” He said moving to stand slightly between us. “Now, as promised, today I’m going to be showing you the transformation jutsu. But, before we can begin, can anyone tell me how to perform jutsu?”

I instantly jumped on the subject. “To execute a jutsu you need to build up chakra within you body and then use hand signs to regulate it to perform the right jutsu.”

Iruka gave me a nervous glance. “Well, I didn’t expect anyone to give me answer like that…but you actually got it, though I would have explained it a bit more logically.”

I shrugged again. “Hey, I was just saying what was on my brain at the time.” I said pointing towards the right side of my head.

“Can someone s’plain to me what chakra is?” Derek asked rubbing the back of his head. I glared at him with a look of ‘I thought you read the books!’

“Well to put it simply, chakra is the physical and spiritual life force that’s contained within our bodies.” Iruka explained.

“Uh…m’kay.” Derek muttered. He didn’t get a word of what Iruka had said. With Each day that passed, he was turning more and more into Naruto! That or he was always like this and the longer I stayed in the Narutoverse, the more the similarities stood out for me.

“Now that we have that settled, are you two ready to begin the lesson?” Iruka asked.

“I’m always ready for anything!” Was Derek’s answer.

I just shrugged, AGAIN and said: “Meh, what the hell”

“Alright then, I’ll begin with a demonstration to show you two how to do it.” Iruka said getting into a half-crouching position, feet apart, knees bent to nearly ninety degrees and forming a had sign, which I assumed was the sign for the transformation jutsu. “The first thing you want to do for this jutsu, is visualize who you want to turn into.” He said, closing his eyes. “Then build up your chakra and release it.” He added before disappearing in a puff of white smoke. When it clear there was a second Derek, perfect down to every last detail. Iruka shifted back to himself with another puff of smoke and stood up straight again. “Now would the person I just turned into give it a try.”

“Bring it on fat man!” Derek yelled the assumed the same stance that Iruka had. I saw him trying to build up his chakra. Then unexpectedly he transformed into…a really skinny version of Iruka. And I mean skinny.

“Uh, I can’t tell if that’s supposed to be Iruka or a coat rack.” I teased as Derek transformed back.

“Hey, what do you expect for a first try?” Derek retorted angrily. “I’d like to see you do better!”

“Alright then, you asked for it!” I said, simply forming the handsign, and not assuming the position at all.

“You’re not doing it right.” Derek said, crossing his arms over his chest.

I flashed him a glare that said ‘shut up or I kill you’. I let out a breath, trying to calm myself, I figured I would try the same thing Sakura had mention to Naruto during the tree climbing exercise. I could feel the chakra in my body begin to build up slowly.

“What’re you waiting for?” I heard Derek say, and instantly all the chakra that I had built up retreated. I glared at him.

“Will you shut up? I’m trying to concentrate here!” I snapped at him, then I closed my eyes and tried to concentrate, then a thought crossed my mind just as I was about to transform. Change o’ plans. Then I transformed. The smoke seemed to linger around me, perfection.

(---/***---)

Derek and Iruka both watched the cloud of smoke intently, waiting for Krystal to jump out at any second. What did come out of the smoke was definitely not her. It had a long body, with six heavily armoured legs sticking out the sides, and smaller clawed arms reached out just below its eyeless head that had three hairy antennae sticking out the front of its head in a tripod formation. It’s skin was green and pasty, dotted with bulbous growths all along the length of it’s form. Derek fell on his ass when the creature lunged at him, and made a gurgling growl at him.

Suddenly it disappeared in a puff of white smoke and when it cleared, instead of a horrible monster was Krystal laughing until she cried.

(---/***---)

“You should see the look on your face!” I said to Derek between laughs, holding my stomach.

“What the fuck was that for?!” Derek yelled at me as I fell on my back, still laughing.

“Payback.” I said as I began to calm down, lifting my right arm to wipe the tears that had started streaming from my eyes.

“For what?” He snapped.

“I dunno, maybe it’s the countless pranks you’ve pulled on me in the past!” I snapped back cheerfully.

“What the hell was that anyway?” Derek asked, calming down slightly.

“Uh, well I couldn’t decide between a Zergling or Flood maggot so I figured why not both?” I explained getting up.

“So a Floodling?” Derek suggested.

“Uh, sure we’ll run with that.” I said.

“That’s great that you actually transformed Krystal, but this time could you transform into something that’s actually human?” Iruka interrupted. The poor guy looked like he’d seen a ghost or something.

“Oh, alright.” I sighed. Then I quickly transformed into Iruka. I’ve got to admit, I was a bit shorter than the actual Iruka but I was pretty much bang on other than that.

“Show-off.” Derek huffed, crossing his arms after I transformed back.

“It’s good but it’s not perfect, you could try making your transformations a little taller.” Iruka instructed. “And Derek, try to make your transformations a little more substantial.”

We both nodded and were about to go off to train some more. “But I’ve got to admit that I never expected you guys to come so far in such a short timeframe! If you keep it up like this you’ll graduate for sure!”

High praise indeed…

It had been two weeks since Derek and I started our ninja training and the graduation exams were just around the corner. The Hokage didn’t honestly think we were ready to take it, but after we used the old strategy of ask ‘till they break, plus a good word from Iruka on our behalf, we eventually were allowed to take the exam.

I should probably recap on what’s happened in these past few weeks. Well for starters, we’d gotten really frickin’ far in our training, believe me. The hard part with jutsus isn’t the first try, it’s perfecting it. I tell you, I’ve spent a lot of sleepless nights training out behind the apartment complex training. I also broke the news to Naruto on me becoming a ninja. I was basically flooded with questions throughout the rest of that conversation. It was kinda funny seeing Naruto go all WTF like that. After a while though Naruto started thinking more about what might happen to me if I passed. He even said we might wind up on the same team. Doubt it.

The sad part is that Carmen was still pissed off at me and Derek, never figured her for the type that would hold a grudge. A part of me still wished to be back home, living a simple life and existence, not a care in the world. Now well, my sister hated my guts and I was getting into a line of work which was no walk in the park.

Getting back to reality, tomorrow was the graduation exam, and thus the first time inside the academy building. I already knew I would be taking the exam with Naruto’s class. (he told me) Now it was just me alone in my room, lying on my bed in the middle of the night, wide awake and unable to fall asleep due to nerves and anticipation.

“Lousy god damn piece of…”I mumbled as rolled over, pulling the covers over my head. I hate sleepless nights…

(---/***---)

My eyes slowly fluttered open as the alarm clock on the bedside table started ringing. I muttered a few more curse words then rolled over to face the opposite way and throw a pillow over my head. I felt someone kick me in the thigh and tear the pillow from my head, shutting off the alarm clock in the process.

“Come on step-sis! We’re gonna be late!” Derek said as I rolled to stare up at the ceiling. He left the room shutting the door behind him. I was just lying there pondering weather or not to go back to sleep or get up. Eventually I opted to get up, since Derek would never let me live it down if I missed the graduation exam. I put on my Ninja’s outfit. After that was done, I headed down the hall into the bathroom to fix my hair, which by the way, was sticking out in every possible direction. I hated when it did that.

After about a solid half hour just fixing my hair I ran downstairs and Derek was waiting at the door. I ran over and threw on my shoes, as he kept telling me to hurry up. After that We bolted out the door (I grabbed my keys at the same time) and basically roof jumped to the academy, Ignoring calls from Carmen for me to come back and have breakfast, didn’t have time for that. On another note…Ninja roof jumping is frickin’ awesome!
One we got to the academy, we were totally out of breath, but on time. Naruto suddenly came out of no where and ran up to us. “Hey Krystal you made it!” He said enthusiastically. “You ready for this?”

“You can bet your ass I’m ready!” I responded. I was shaking with excitement. If I failed, well there was always next year!...Check that, I’m not gonna give Derek the chance to show me up!

“Yeah, me too!” Naruto reported happily. “There’s no way I’m failing the exam this year!” Naruto suddenly stared at Derek as if noticing him for the first time. “Uh, who’s this guy?” He asked, giving his serious face and pointing at Derek.

It suddenly dawned on me that I hadn’t introduced them yet. “Oh right, this is Derek, my step-brother.” I said pointing a thumb at him.

“Wassup?” Derek greeted, holding up his hand in the beginning of one of those gangsta-handshakes, you know those handshake where it’s like a normal handshake but you hold your hand up and the handshake is sort of sideways? They’re hard to explain. Nick liked to call them bro-shakes, don’t ask me why.

“Cool…” Naruto said, actually completing the handshake. “My name’s Naruto Uzumaki, and I’m gonna be Hokage!” How the fuck did I know he was going to say that?

(---/***---)

I was sitting near the back in one of the empty seats on the left side of the classroom. Derek was sitting on the other side of the classroom. Students were being called up one my one to perform the Shadowclone Jutsu. I could see pour Naruto in the front acting all distraught. I didn’t blame him, the Shadowclone Jutsu was a tough one. Eventually, he was called up.

Naruto, got ready and I tell he was building up chakra and eventually performed the jutsu. Once the smoke cleared there was one measly shadowclone lying on the floor and everyone burst out laughing leaving poor Naruto a laughing stock. I kept my mouth shut, I felt so bad for him.

“Krystal O’Connor, step forward.” Iruka called from the front of the class. I got up and I felt all eyes on me as I headed to the front of the classroom. I knew everyone didn’t know me so they were all watching intently, trying to guess what would happen. I felt on edge, I have a really bad case of stage fright. I took a deep breath to calm myself, better get this over with. I gathered up all the chakra I could then…BOOM!

I was enveloped in white smoke. ‘I think I over-did it.’ Was the thought that went through my head. When the smoke cleared I was standing amongst a group of five other shadowclones. I know that I only needed two good ones to pass, but I got nervous and well…you know the rest.
“Krystal O’Connor, passed.” Iruka stated simply, but I detected a hint of pride in his voice. I was proud myself, and as I walked back to my seat felt like flipping off the other students just to show them who’s boss.

(---/***---)

I walked out of the academy trying to find Derek, whom I’d lost in crowd of students and excited parents. He’d passed too, while he’d tried outdoing me. Didn’t work out as he’d hoped.

I was still looking around trying to find him until I got tackle hugged from behind. “Krystal that was awesome!” Ino screamed in my ear.

“Yeah, that’s great Ino but could you please let go of me? You’re crushing my lungs.” I wheezed.

“Oh right, sorry.” She said letting go. I turned around and she got up right in my face. “How the heck did you do that? I’ve never seen any student make that many shadowclones!”

“Uh, actually it was just a fluke really.” I said, leaning backwards a bit, personal space was being invaded.

“Ino, I think you should back up a bit, I don’t think she likes you being that close.” Sakura said behind Ino.

“What would you know, billboard brow?” Ino snapped at Sakura leaving the pink haired girl startled.

“Uh, actually you were invading my personal space…” I said. “…just a little.” I added showing a tiny space between my thumb and index finder.

Ino looked confused for a minute. “Heh, sorry about that.” Ino apologized rubbing the back of her head nervously. I saw Derek off to the right, mouthing to me that he was heading home. I shot him a look that said: “Get going then.” I figured I’d stay behind and just chat with people.

(---/***---)

I was at home, finally getting the last things unpacked downstairs for my night off. I forgot to mention earlier that Derek had packed the PS2 and the Xbox in his oversized backpack, and that in the sitting area there was a TV. (an old ass TV, but a TV nonetheless.) I brought them both down with a bag filled to the brim with games. Holy shit, my brother was a game-a-holic. Derek was still up in his room where I left him and he didn’t feel like playing any games right now.

So that left the TV to me, boo yah. I honestly felt like playing one of my first loves in video games. Ace Combat 5…that game not only spawned my uncanny fascination for videogames of all types, but also made me a long-time fan of the series. I felt like just playing it for old times sake. I hooked up the PS2 and popped the game into the disk tray at the top. Yes it was one of those PS2 slims, we got it when our Brick PS2 broke as a replacement.

I got comfy on the couch and was just passed the title screen when there was a knock at the door. Did I mention that Carmen and Nick went out grocery shopping for tomorrow’s breakfast? I put down the controller when the person at the knocked a second time. “Alright, alright, I’m coming already.” I growled as I got up. I walked over and opened the front door. “Naruto?” I asked when I opened the door.

“Uh, yeah I never really got the chance to congratulate you earlier so…” He started.

“Ah, save it.” I said, but Naruto didn’t seem to hear it.

“What the heck is that music?” He asked. I was a bit startled when he mentioned music. It was coming from the main menu on the game, but what really got me is how he could hear it so far away, that shit was quiet as hell.

“Uh, it’s just a video game I’ve got.” I said. Naruto shot me a puzzled look.

“What’s a video game?” He asked, giving me his serious face. I paused and started thinking.

“I think it’s best if I just showed you…” I said turning and walking back over to the couch. Naruto followed, closing the door behind him and sitting down on the armchair, and watched the screen intently as I navigated my way to the save files screen and picked mine. I was currently redoing the story mode, and I was only on the fourth mission.

“Huh, I thought I was farther.” I said as I selected my save file.

“Farther in what?” Naruto asked.

“The game, Einstein.” I said. I had made it habit of calling Naruto Einstein when he was acting stupid. He shut up as I started playing, watching every move I made on the controls and how it affected the images on the screen.

“So you control what goes on in the game?” He asked.

“Yeah, basically.” I said, the evening pretty much went on like that. Eventually I hooked up the Xbox and figured I’d show him Call of Duty: World at War. He seemed to take a liking to blasting shit. Eventually Nick and Carmen got home and Nick made a stupid crack at how Naruto was too young to have a chance at being my boyfriend. I hit him.

Naruto left just as we were starting dinner to head home. Then I remembered that tonight was when Naruto would get convinced into helping a traitor. I quickly ate diner then went out, earning some weird looks from everyone. I didn’t care, I hoped I wasn’t too late to help him.

It was getting dark and still no sign of Naruto. I was starting to worry if I would even make it in time.

“Dammit, where is that little…?” I mumbled to myself as I ran around town, trying to find him. Eventually I found a crowd of Jonin huddled together outside in front of the Hokage.

“Lord Hokage, this isn’t a prank this time, this is a serious offence.” One of the Jonin said.

“If Naruto lets that scroll fall into the wrong hands, it could be used to wipe out our entire village!” Another one said.

‘Shit, he’s already made his move.’ I thought.

“Very well, bring Naruto here at once.” The Hokage ordered and the Jonin split off to go solo, searching for Naruto. I spotted Iruka going off in one direction and decided to follow him, since he would be the one to find Naruto. I followed him across the roof tops until he stopped. I couldn’t stop myself so I collided with him.

I managed to land on the rooftop just below the one he was on. He turned around and looked down at me. “Krystal? What are you doing here?” He asked.

“Looking for Naruto, same as you.” I said. “I needed to tell him something.” Okay, I lied to keep my cover.

“Okay then, you go in that direction, I’ll keep moving this way.” Iruka said motioning for me to go off to the right.

“Alright then.” I said and jumped behind a building to the right as Iruka continued on his way. Then I followed him, making sure to keep far away enough so I could avoid being spotted and close enough that I could see him.

Though after a while I noticed one person I hoped I wouldn’t see tonight. Mizuki. I knew it was pointless to wish it didn’t happen but hell, you can always hope. Mizuki was a far off to the left but I could still tell it was him, and he seemed to be more intent on Iruka. After a bout a half hour we came to a densely forested area of the village and there was Naruto, just next to a building, breathing heavily. Iruka went down to Naruto and I stayed in the trees.

“It’s all over.” Iruka said to Naruto angrily.

Naruto just laughed slightly then got up. “Wow, you got me already, you’re quick sensei. I only had time to learn one technique.” Naruto said. “Listen Iruka sensei, I’m going to show you this amazing new Jutsu, then you’ll let me graduate then everything’ll be okay. That’s the way it works right, anyone who learns a Jutsu from this scroll passes.
“Huh? Where’d you get that idea?” Iruka asked surprised.

Just when Naruto was about to say Mizuki, I heard someone come up behind me. I turned just in time to see Mizuki with a Kunai out rushing right at me. Before I could react he wrapped his left arm around my waist and put the Kunai to my throat. I let out a small yelp as he brought me down to ground level, making me face Naruto and Iruka.

Iruka whipped around to face us. “So it was you Mizuki, I should have known.”

Mizuki snickered. “Naruto give me the scroll, or your friend here dies.” Mizuki said, pressing the kunai a little closer to my throat.

“No Naruto, don’t do it!” I screamed. Mizuki pressed the blade to my throat hard enough to draw some blood. The pain was enough to shut me up.

“If you didn’t notice, I don’t think you’re in a position to talk right now.” Mizuki said in my ear. My mind was racing, trying to think of a way out of this situation. I saw Naruto reaching behind him to take off the scroll. Iruka could only watch, not wanting to do anything that could cause Mizuki to kill me.

Then I thought of something. “Mizuki, I’d let go if I were you…” I said low enough for him to hear.

“Oh yeah?” He said mockingly. “And why is that?”

“Figure it out, smart ass.” I said forming the handsign for the Transformation Jutsu. Mizuki pulled the Kunai away from my neck to stab me with it. I transformed just as it was about to sink into my neck. Mizuki was thrown backwards and I was lost in a veil of smoke yet again.

(---/***---)

Naruto watched as Krystal transformed, he couldn’t tell what was in the smoke but he could tell it was big, and non-human. ‘What the heck is in there?’ He asked himself mentally, narrowing his eyes.

Then the smoke cleared and revealed a green parasite-like creature with an eyeless head and pasty skin. It was the Floodling she’d showed him once after breaking the news to him that she was in training to be ninja. Naruto glanced at Mizuki, who had a look of horror on his face.

“Wha- what the…” Mizuki said shakily.

“Now, this is where the fun begins.” The Floodling grumbled, that was the best word to describe it how it sounded anyway. It lunged at Mizuki, its clawed hands swiping at him as he jumped out of the way and up towards a tree.
‘I don’t know what that thing is…” Mizuki said unhooking one of the huge shuriken on his back. “…but it’s NOTHING!” he yelled, throwing the shuriken at the Floodling as it lunged at him again. The shuriken hit it square in the face as Mizuki landed on a high tree branch. The Floodling disappeared in a cloud of smoke and Krystal fell out, landed on her back with a muffled thump.

“Krystal!” Naruto yelled at her.

(---/***---)

I landed on my back and heard Naruto’s concerned yelled. I stared into the cloud of smoke, which hung at least fifteen feet in the air. ‘Did I really fall that far?’ I asked myself just before four kunai broke through the cloud. I got up and jumped away just as they hit where I was lying a split second ago. Then off to my left I saw four shuriken heading my way. But all four looked like they were going to miss. Then I saw what was laced between them.

‘Wires?!’ I mentally screamed as they hit, carrying me with the shuriken to a nearby tree, pinning me to the trunk in a net.

I watched as a whole barrage of kunai headed for Naruto. “Watch out!” Iruka yelled, pushing Naruto out of the way as he took the brunt of the attack. Something caught in my throat when one of the kunai stuck into Iruka’s thigh. Then came the whole speech about how Naruto had the nine-tails sealed in him, and how Iruka hated Naruto for that and was just trying to get the Scroll of Sealing from him. All I could think of was how much of a dick Mizuki was.

“Naruto run!” Iruka yelled at Naruto. “Take the scroll and get out of here! Don’t let Mizuki have it!” Naruto took off running down the same path as in the show.

“Your not getting away Naruto!” Mizuki yelled throwing the second giant shuriken at Naruto. Iruka pulled out the kunai from his thigh and ran to block the shuriken with his back. I squeezed my eyes shut as it hit. I opened them to see Naruto stop and turn around.

“Iruka sensei!” Naruto yelled. Mizuki dropped down behind Iruka. Naruto’s just like the Nine-tails. He’s just a beast and like a beast he’ll take that scroll and use it to destroy the Leaf Village. That’s just how beasts are.” Mizuki said loud enough for everyone to hear.

“Your right, that is how beasts are.” Iruka said pulling the shuriken from his back and standing up. “But Naruto isn’t a beast, he pours everything he has into what he’s doing, and sure he messes up sometimes, but he keeps going. His suffering is what makes him stronger!” Iruka said throwing the shuriken back at Mizuki, who just side stepped.

“You believe that crap…” Mizuki said, pulling out a kunai. “…THEN I’LL KILL YOU FIRST!!!”

Naruto suddenly jumped in, kneeing Mizuki in the face sending him backwards. Naruto landed in front of a stunned Iruka taking off the scroll and planting one end into the ground, resting his hand on the other end.

“Not bad for a little punk.” Mizuki said getting up.

Naruto glared at Mizuki. “I swear, If you hurt my friends or my sensei…I’ll kill you.

“Ha! I could take you out with one blow!” Mizuki taunted.

“I’d like to see you try, I’ll give it back to you a thousand times stronger.” Naruto said, forming the handsign for the Shadowclone Jutsu.

“Show what you’ve got nine-tailed fox!” Mizuki yelled as he charged Naruto. Then Naruto used the Shadowclone Jutsu, and around two hundred Narutoes appeared.

“Yeah, Naruto! Kick his ass!” I screamed. Mizuki whipped his head around frantically until he fell flat on his ass and basically screamed like a girl as Naruto beat the shit out of him. Afterwards, there was nothing but a bleeding Mizuki lying in front of the original Naruto.

“Sorry, I kinda got carried away.” Naruto said apologetically. “Are you guys okay?”

“Oh, I’ll be great once someone unties me!” I called down.

Naruto rubbed the back of his neck and gave me his signature grin.

“Hey, Naruto, come here a minute…” Iruka said, I watched as Iruka replace Naruto’s goggles with his headband. “Congratulations, you pass!” Naruto stood there stunned for a moment then tackle hugged Iruka.

“Gee, I hate to spoil the moment but…” I said. “…girl stuck up in a tree here! Hell-o!”

“Well today’s the day.” Derek said beside me.

“Yep.” I answered flatly.

“I’m so stoked, are you?”

“Yep.”

“You’re not stoked, are you?”

“Nope.”

“C’mon, we’re meeting our teammates today!”

“Yep.”

“Will you lighten up?”

“Nope.”

“Why?”

“Because.”

To tell you the truth, I wasn’t all that happy to be going today. Last night I was worried that we wouldn’t be able to go out on missions yet because they didn’t have anyone to fill out the third person for me and Derek. SO right now I was worried we’d be Genin without missions…in others words, wasted talent. By the way I was wearing my headband on my left shoulder, in case anyone was wondering, if you weren’t that’s fine too.

Walking up to the academy doors, my anxiety only worsened. Now was the moment of truth.

(---/***---)

I sat with my chin resting on my hands as the teams were announced, my thought of being shut out had since turned into a gut feeling then a near certainty in my mind. I listened for either me or Derek to be called, secretly hoping I was wrong. It got to team number seven.

“Team Seven…” Iruka called. “Naruto Uzumaki…Sakura Haruno…”

Now came my favourite reactions.

“YEAH!” Naruto cheered, while Sakura hung her head and muttered: “I’m doomed.”
“…Sasuke Uchiha…” Iruka added and the roles between Naruto and Sakura reversed. But something about how Iruka had called out Sasuke’s name made me nervous. It sounded like he was going to add another name to Team Seven. “…and Krystal O’Connor.”

My heart skipped two beats, beat once again then stopped completely for what seemed like an eternity. Had he just added my name to Team Seven? “Wait sensei, I thought you said there were going to be only three people on a squad.” Sakura piped up.

“I did, but there were two extra students who passed, so we had to add them randomly to two of the teams.” Iruka explained. In the meantime, I was in a total trance. All the events that Team Seven went through during the show were starting to flash through my head at a stunning speed, and once it was over of course it just started looping over and over. Right from when they first fought Zabuza right up until Sasuke left the Hidden Leaf Village. It continued until all the teams had been chosen and we’d been dismissed for lunch. I left the classroom still partially in a daze.

(---/***---)

I was sitting near the back of the classroom. Kakashi was late, Naruto was getting impatient, Sasuke was still doing his ‘I’m too cool for you’ attitude, and Sakura was being a worry wart. Me…I was convinced I was going to die on the first mission out of the village. Case in point, mother-frickin’ Zabuza. I was seriously going to die a slow, horrible death in which I’d bleed into a gutter of something. I just realized I’m starting to sound like Jason when he’s sick. (Jason’s my cousin, by the way)

“Naruto what are you doing?” I snapped out of my daze as Sakura said that.

“This is what he gets for being late.” Naruto said as he jammed a chalk brush in the top of the door.

“You know our Sensei’s a Jonin, a high level ninja…” Sasuke said ‘coolly’. “…I doubt he’d fall for a trick like that.”

“Yeah, Sasuke’s right.” Sakura chimed in.

Just then Kakashi’s hand gripped the side of the door and slid it open, dislodging the chalk brush, which promptly bopped Kakashi on the head.

Naruto burst out laughing. “Told ya he’d fall for it!” He announced proudly.

‘You never told us anything you little idiot.’ I thought.

“I’m sorry sensei, I told him not to do it.” Sakura said innocently.

Kakashi bent down and picked up the chalk brush and examined it. “How do I put this…My first impression of you guys…” He said. “You’re all a bunch of idiots.”

‘Thanks asshole.’ I thought bitterly.

(---/***---)

I sat on the far left of the group up on top of a building not too far from the academy. In order from right to left were Sasuke, Naruto, Sakura, and then me.

“Alright, I want you to introduce yourselves, one at a time.” Kakashi said suddenly.

“Introduce ourselves, what are we supposed to say?” Sakura asked

“Things you like, things you hate, dreams for the future, hobbies.” Kakashi listed.

“Well maybe you should stay stuff about yourself first so we know how it’s supposed to go.” Naruto said.

“Me?” Kakashi started. “I’m Kakashi Hatake…things I like and things I hate…I don’t feel like telling you that…dreams for the future…never really thought about it…hobbies…I have lots of hobbies.”

“Well that was useless, all he really told us was his name.” Sakura whispered to Naruto.

“Alright your turn, you…the blonde kid on the left.” Kakashi said.

Naruto went through the categories, all his answers were ramen-based.

Next was Sakura, whose answers were all giggles at Sasuke.

And then there was Sasuke, who’s answers we’re all pretty much just him being a dick.

“Alright then, the blonde girl with the jacket.” Kakashi said, looking me in the eye.

“Okay then…”I said. “My name’s Krystal O’Connor, I like playing guitar, video games, my family, and fireworks. I hate selfish, insensitive jerks (*cough* Sasuke *cough) and I’ve never been a big fan of barbeque sauce. I guess I’ll make my dreams up as I go along and that’s about it.”

“Okay, you are each unique and you have your own ideas. Tomorrow we’ll start our first mission.” Kakashi said after I finished.

“So what’s the mission?” I asked.

“A survival exercise.” Kakashi answered.
“Huh? Survival exercise?” Naruto piped up.

“Yeah, I thought we were going on actual missions, not more training…” Sakura complained. “…we already did this stuff at the academy.”

I think you guys can guess where this conversation goes from here, so a let you off the hook. I’ll say this though, I’m definitely not skipping breakfast.

I shook myself awake at around 4 am, trust me it ain’t easy. I groggily made my way to the dining room and put on my Ninja outfit, do I need to go over this list? Well too bad I’m not going to, tough luck. By now I was mostly awake, though I still felt like total shit. I slipped silently back into my room to pack my Ninja gear like Kakashi had asked us to do. However I planned to eat breakfast, I’m no conformist by any means.

I slung my bag over my shoulder and moved as silently down the hall to the stairs. There was only one problem, the stairs. There was no sneaking past those anti-ninja alarms conventionally, so I’d need to be crafty. I decided to slide down the railing, legs lifted enough to miss the stairs. I used my hands to slow my descent as I neared the bottom and hopped off silently. (Boo yah!) I quickly made myself two pieces of toast with strawberry jam. I held one in my mouth and the other in my right hand. I grabbed my keys and slipped out the front door, shutting it as quietly as I could.

I ran through the town to the training field Kakashi told us about yesterday, munching on hastily prepared toast the whole way. Out of the corner of my eye I thought I saw a shape standing on top of a building. I stopped and looked in the direction I’d seen the shape but there was no one there. I rubbed my eyes with the palm of my left hand. “That’s what I get for waking up early.”

I continued heading for the training field, feeling a little more energized now that I had breakfast. When I got there I saw Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke all arriving at the same time. As per the anime, Naruto and Sakura both looked just about half dead, while Sasuke looked just like he always did…“Mister Cool”.

I sat down with the group, Naruto was fighting to stay awake. I silently begged him to fall asleep already, I’d wake him up when Kakashi showed up. Naruto sadly, never gave up in his battle against sleep…

(---/***---)

“Good morning.” Kakashi said suddenly.

“Hey, you’re late!” Naruto and Sakura growled simultaneously.

“Well a black cat crossed my path so I had to take the long way.” Kakashi explained.

‘Talk to someone more gullible, jackass.’ I thought as I got up and stretched.

“Alright, well let’s get started.” Kakashi said clearing his throat. He pulled out a black timer and pressed the button at the top. “Here we go…its set for noon.” Kakashi then pulled out three bells. “Your assignment is very simple, you just have to take these bells from me, that’s all there is too it. If you can’t get ‘em before noon you don’t get lunch.”

“Wha-?” Naruto blurted out.

“You’ll be tied to those posts and you’ll watch while I eat my lunch.” He added. I could just tell by everyone else’s expressions that they were thinking about the true reason behind why Kakashi had asked us not to eat breakfast. I almost burst into hysterical laughter, but I managed to contain myself to avoid looking stupid.

“Wait a minute, there are four of us, how come there are only three bells?” Sakura asked.

“Well, that way one of you ends up getting tied to a post and ultimately disqualified for failing to complete the mission.” Kakashi explained. “That one goes back to the academy. Then again all four of you could flunk out too. You can use any weapons including Shuriken, if you’re not prepared to kill me you wont be able to take these bells from me.”

“Those weapons are too dangerous sensei.” Sakura pointed out.

“Yeah, especially since you couldn’t dodge that eraser!” Naruto mocked.

“Class clowns are usually the weakest links, you can safely ignore them. Lowest scores, losers.” Kakashi retorted calmly.

Something inside Naruto snapped and he charged at Kakashi, Kunai knife drawn. Kakashi suddenly vanished and when he reappeared he was behind Naruto, twisting Naruto’s arm around so the tip of the blade was pointed at the back of Naruto’s head.

“Don’t be in such a hurry, I didn’t say start yet.” Kakashi said. Even I’d been surprised by Kakashi’s speed, and I’d been expecting it! “But, you came at me with the full intention of destroying me.” He added. “How can I put this? I’m actually starting to like you guys.”

He paused. “Get ready…aaaaand…START!” As soon as he said start I jumped away into the trees. I tore through the tree tops, searching for a good hiding spot. ‘I better find one quick or I’m toast!’ I thought

(---/***---)

“Ninja must conceal their movements, and hide effectively.” Kakashi instructed as I crouched on a high tree branch. I was covered enough by the foliage that I was hidden, but it was dispersed enough that I could see Kakashi clearly.

‘Okay, so I need to find some way to convince everyone else to join up as a group and hit Kakashi from all sides.’ I thought as Naruto jumped up on a small rock.

“You and me, right now fair and square…let’s go!” Naruto challenged.

‘Well I’m definitely not asking him first.’ I told myself as Naruto charged Kakashi. Naruto eventually got knocked into the water by Kakashi’s ‘thousand years of death’ technique. ‘Sucker.’

Suddenly two Shuriken flew out of the water aimed right for Kakashi. He didn’t even lift his eyes from his book when he stopped both Shuriken with his fingers. Naruto slowly dragged himself from the water. “This isn’t fair! I haven’t even had breakfast! How can I fight when I’m starving to death?!” He whined.

‘Quit your bitching!’ I exclaimed mentally. Then again, I’d had breakfast today, the others hadn’t. Poor Sakura didn’t even have dinner! I watched as seven Narutoes jumped out behind Kakashi. Kakashi slowly turned around to face them and then Naruto grabbed him from behind.

“Don’t let your opponent get behind you all the time, good advice sensei!” Naruto said proudly. Then as Naruto punched, Kakashi used the substitution jutsu to switch himself for one of Naruto’s clones. Naruto then became confused within his own ranks and they all proceeded to beat the shit out of each other until he undid the jutsu, leaving a badly beat up Naruto in the middle of the field.

I continued to watch as Naruto spotted a bell and proceeded to pick it up, which meant that Kakashi got him with a trap. Naruto struggled, upside down and six feet in the air, to grab the bell before Kakashi himself got to it. “Think before you use a jutsu, or else your opponent might use it against you.” He said as Naruto hung there, saddened by how close he came to the bell. “Also if the bait is obvious, don’t take it. A Ninja must see through deception.”

Naruto flailed around trying to get loose. “I. Get. It!” He growled.

“I’m telling you this because you don’t get it.” Kakashi explained. “You think you get it, which is not the same as actually getting it, get it?” Just then about three Kunai knives and four Shuriken flew at Kakashi from my right and slightly above. They hit Kakashi on his right side knocking him over.

“Aah! He just got blasted by Shuriken! Are you out of your mind Sasuke? You went too far!” Naruto yelled as Kakashi hit the ground and disappeared in a puff of white smoke, leaving a log with the Kunai and Shuriken sticking out of it. I heard the rustle of leaves to my right and some more below me. I knew it was Sasuke and Sakura moving. I knew who my first recruit would be.

I jumped off the tree branch and basically air tackled Sakura. She screamed and fell forward onto her face. When she tried to get up I threw a hand around her mouth to shut her up. “Hold on Sakura! It’s me!” I whispered. She stopped struggling and I let go.

“Krystal what are you doing?!” She asked confused.

“Look, I have a plan but I need people to help me out here.” I explained.

“There’s no time, I have to find Sasuke!” She half-cried.

“Forget Sasuke!” I snapped and she flinched. I sighed and said. “Look, Sasuke’ll be fine on his own for now, who we REALLY need to help is Naruto.”

“Okay, but if we go out there, Kakashi sensei’ll be watching us!” Sakura whimpered.

“Oh for-!” I snapped. “Listen we don’t exactly have a lot of time to worry about ‘what-ifs’! We have about forty-five minutes to get those bells, and we need all the time we can get.” I stepped out into the clearing and walked up to Naruto, who was still hanging in a tree. “Need any help?” I asked.

“No way!” Naruto declared. “I can get out of this no-problem!” He cut the rope with a Kunai and landed on the ground, when he was instantly snapped up by another trap. “AW C’MON!”

I just sighed and jumped up to the tree branch Naruto was hanging from, using the trunk as a springboard to get higher in order to reach the branch. I seriously need to work on my Chakra jumping. “Hold still.” I said to Naruto and he went limp. I cut the rope and he landed on his back.

“What the heck was that for?!” He yelled as I landed on the ground.

“Hey, you’re out of the tree.” I pointed out. Sakura ran up to us.

“Are you okay Naruto?” She asked him.

“Yeah, thanks Sakura.” He said happily.

“What’re you thanking her for? I’m the one who got you out of the damn tree!” I said.

“I never asked for it!” Naruto shot back.

“Whatever…right now we need to find Sasuke.” I said walking off in the direction Sasuke had gone.

“I hope Sasuke’s alright.” Sakura said nervously. Naruto just huffed his annoyance.

(---/***---)

Eventually we found Sasuke buried up to his neck in the ground. “Coming to bail me out?” He asked as we got closer. Sakura nearly flipped out.

“Maybe, only if you agree to help me out with a plan I have in mind.” I said kneeling down in front of him.

“Depends, what’s the plan exactly?” Sasuke asked.

I shrugged. “I haven’t worked out the specifics yet but I’m pretty sure it’ll get us those bells.”

“Whatever, I touched one earlier…I will get one next time.” He huffed.

I leaned forward so I was right up in his face. “Which would be when exactly? Need I remind you that we have about twenty minutes before we run out of time and we all head back to the academy.”

I could tell he got the message. “Fine.” He mumbled, looking away.

“Alright, Naruto help me with this.” I said and I began digging out Sasuke’s right shoulder and Naruto got his left. When they were sufficiently unearthed, I hooked one of my arms under his shoulder and lifted him up, Naruto reluctantly did the same on his side. Sasuke freed his arms and lifted himself the rest of the way out.

“Okay, so what’s your plan?” Sasuke asked, brushing dust and dirt off his clothes.

I motioned for everyone to come closer. “Alright, It goes a little something like this…”

(---/***---)

Kakashi Hatake sat on top of a tree overlooking a clearing. ‘I wonder where they are.’ He thought to himself as he scanned the edges of the clearing.

“Looking for someone?” A voice said behind him. Kakashi barely had time to react before Sasuke hit him from behind. Kakashi dodged backwards as Sasuke touched one of the bells.

“Close but no banana.” Kakashi said as he landed.

“But this time he’s not alone!” Naruto’s voice cheered from the left and right. Kakashi glanced left and right as eight Narutoes charged in at him.

‘What the-?’ Kakashi thought as he jumped out of the pincer manoeuvre made by Naruto. ‘Is it possible? No, there’s no way!’

Suddenly Sakura popped out to his left wielding a Kunai knife. Kakashi easily pushed her off to his right. Suddenly he saw someone under his left arm. “What?” He blurted out as I brought my hand up to snatch one of the bells. Kakashi tried to move out of the way and spun in the air before landing.

I landed with the rest of the team, in my hand was the bell. “Naruto, heads up!” I said and threw the bell at Naruto who quickly caught it and shoved it in his pocket.

‘There’s no way they could’ve figured out my trick!... unless they’ve decided that they’d sacrifice one of themselves for the good of the others…’ Kakashi thought. “Well this is surprising. I never expected you guys to use teamwork.” He said.

“…And your point?” I asked.

“My point is that things finally became interesting. Looks like I won’t have the option of reading Make-out Paradise.” He said. “…and just for that, I’m thinking of giving you until sunset to get the other two bells.”

I was surprised. Extra time? I’d thought he was just going to pass us for using teamwork like in the show. Oh well…guess things don’t always go according to plan…

I sat with the rest of Team 7 amongst a group of trees. It was almost four in the afternoon, which left us with about three hours to get the bells. We were all exhausted, even Sasuke was showing the signs of fatigue.

“Man, Kakashi sensei’s tough.” Naruto piped up suddenly.

“Tell me about it.” Sakura groaned.

“So what’s the plan now?” Sasuke asked me.

“How the hell should I know? I’m not Brainzilla!” I pointed out. Sasuke just shot me a look of: “What the hell are you on?”

I heard Sakura and Naruto’s stomachs growl. “I’m starving.” Sakura whined. “Worst possible time to go on a diet…”

“Hey, hey!” Naruto said cheerfully. “While I was hanging in the tree I saw some boxed lunches! If we get those we can get something to eat to replenish our strength!”

“Forget it!” I said. “It’s too risky, we could get caught and get the snot beaten out of us.”

“What choice do we have?” Sasuke pointed out. “We’re all getting hungry and weak from fighting. We need to get something to eat or we’re never going to get those last two bells.”

“I bet that’s what he was planning from the start.” Sakura said with despair.

“If that’s the case then he’s probably either since removed those boxed lunches…” I said. “Or he’s booby trapped them, in hopes we’ll try to go after them to keep in the game and wind up getting caught.”

“Agh, man!” Naruto growled. “What are we supposed to do?!”

“Well one things for sure. If we keep fighting like this we’ll never have the strength to take those bells.” Sasuke said.

“So I guess that leaves us the one option.” I sighed. “Despite the risk, we need to go after those boxed lunches.”

“Okay!” Naruto said happily, adjusting his headband. “ Let’s get going!”

“Just be careful Naruto!” Sakura scolded. “our last plan fail because you screwed up!”

“Actually it wasn’t his fault Sakura, Kakashi found him and the plan fell apart.” Sasuke pointed out as he got up.

“Let’s just go already!” I groaned. We all took off, following Naruto quietly through the trees as he led us to the location of the boxed lunches. We stopped when we came to the stone monument that the lunches were place on.

“They’re right down there.” Naruto said pointing as we landed on various tree branches near the target.

“Alright, everybody be careful.” I said, making the signal for everyone to move in. Over the last few hours we’d gotten used to communicating with quick hand-movements. We descended and landed carefully, avoiding any suspicious looking objects. Naruto was the first to go for the lunches. He was quickly snatched up in a net.

“Hey, what the-?!” He exclaimed.

“This is exactly why I said to be careful.” I sighed.

“Grabbing a bite to eat?” I heard Kakashi say for above me. I snapped my head upwards and there was Kakashi, standing on a branch and leaning on the trunk, his arms crossed.

“How did I know this would happen?” I murmured to myself. Suddenly Kakashi vanished and we scattered. Kakashi reappeared right where I had been a split second before. I pulled out a Kunai and threw it at the ropes holding net up. It sliced through and let Naruto fall out. He landed on his face his legs bent over his head.

“Good aim…” He groaned, still in the same position. He moved like a bullet when Kakashi came at him. We had basically formed a half-circle around Kakashi’s front, which meant he couldn’t move for one of us without being jumped by the others from behind.

“Good reaction time…you guys are learning well.” He complimented. He suddenly created three shadowclones, which meant one Kakashi for each of us. Now shouldn’t I have thought about that possibility?

“Two can play that game!” Naruto burst out. He created bout nine shadowclones. The Four Kakashies and Nine Narutoes charged at each other. I knew the Narutoes would lose, but it was a delaying tactic, meant simply to give us time to scram. We slipped away, Sasuke had grabbed the lunches without Kakashi even noticing.

“That was close, way to close!” I said as we all formed up to head back to our hideout. I was surprised that Kakashi hadn’t found it yet.

When we got back we could still hear the Narutoes dukeing it out with the Kakashies. We were all out of breath. “We dropped our guard to concentrate on searching for traps, we let him sneak up behind us.” Sasuke informed.

“Wouldn’t be the first time.” I said leaning against a tree and I slid down and sat.

“We need to be even more careful.” Sakura said.

“How can all of us concentrate on finding traps and looking out for Kakashi sensei at the same time?” Naruto asked angrily.

“We don’t need to do it at the same time.” I said. “We can split the workload. Two of us can check for traps and the other two can keep look out.”

“The best combo I can think of is Me and Krystal on trap duty and Naruto and Sakura on look out.” Sasuke said.

“Wait, why am I on look-out?” Naruto protested.

“Face it Naruto, you’re the one who’s fallen into more of the sensei’s traps than the rest of us!” Sakura pointed out.

“Look can we save it until we eat lunch?” I asked.

Sasuke just nodded and opened one of the boxed lunches. A look of surprise spread across his face and he threw away both lunches. “Everybody down!” He shouted.

Immediately we hit the deck and a huge explosion rocked the place, and it left my ears ringing. When we were sure it was over the entire place was covered with a thin veil of grey smoke. “An explosive tag? Is he seriously trying to kill us?!” I snapped.

“We need to move! He definitely heard that!” Sakura said. We grouped up and headed towards the river. Everyone was covered in dust and soot, definite signs that we’d been near the explosion.

“Guys! We need a decisive plan or we won’t live ‘till sunset!” I said.

(---/***---)

We were group up under some bushes, trying to hide from Kakashi. It was getting late and not a single plan over ours had worked.

“C’mon think…” I whispered to myself.

“How are we supposed to beat him?” Sakura whined. “It’s like he’s one step ahead of us every single time.”

“Yeah, and those traps of his are really a pain!” Naruto said.

“Wait a minute.” I thought out loud. “If we can turn his traps against him the maybe…”

“What? Maybe what?” Naruto pried, getting agitated

I smirked. “Ever heard of the saying ‘fight fire with fire’?”

“Hold on.” Sakura butt in. “You’re not thinking of using his own traps against him?”

“Not his own traps against him.” I said. “We set our own traps to catch him.”

Sasuke slowly shook his head. “Not going to work. He’ll spot the trap before he falls into it.”

“That’s why we’ll force him into it…”

(---/***---)

I landed silently on top of a tree, I could hear the rest of the team turn in a different direction to lay the trap. I’d volunteered to be the bait and lure Kakashi to the trap, now I just had to find him. I started jumping through the trees as quickly and silently as I could, hoping to get the jump on Kakashi. Eventually I found him setting a trap. ‘This is so easy, too easy.’ I thought as I quickly scanned for any sign of traps or another Kakashi sitting around.

“Looking for someone?” Kakashi said behind me. I glanced down at the trap, unset but Kakashi was gone. I jumped away onto another branch, whirling around to face Kakashi. “Looks like you got separated from your team…”

“We split up, the teamwork thing wasn’t working out.” I said, obvious lie. I saw Kakashi disappear and I jumped for the ground. When I landed I looked up and on the tree branch had been on was Kakashi. ‘Trying to get behind me, eh?’

I took off running as fast I could towards the ambush point. I looked back and there was Kakashi. A mischievous smile kept across my face when I jumped into a tree and kept running that way, Kakashi still following. I suddenly saw the clearing where the ambush was set to begin. I dropped down and spun around to face Kakashi who landed a few feet in front of me.

“NOW!!” I shouted and the Team 7 Trio jumped out behind Kakashi, catching the Jonin off guard. Then Naruto landed and was instantly caught in the net that was the trap. “Naruto you idiot!” I screamed at him, badly ticked off.

“Loser.” Sasuke said simply. Then the bell rang, thus ending the test. We’d failed…big time.

(---/***---)

I sat cross-legged on the grass next to the three posts. “Thanks a lot Naruto.” I growled. Naruto looked down at the ground shamefully.

“Okay…” Kakashi said standing in front of the whole of Team 7. “I’ve made my decision…” He walked up to us and leaned forward. “You all pass.”

Confusion took hold of the other three. “Wait a minute, you said only three of us could pass and only if we got the bells!” Sakura pointed out.

“Yes, I did say that.” Kakashi said. “But you guys used teamwork to overcome my traps and even managed to get one of the bells. That was good teamwork.”

“So we actually passed?” Sasuke asked.

“Yes, you actually passed.”

Cheers went up, everybody happy that we’d passed. Even I have to admit it was good feeling, then another thought crossed my mind…

…Momochi Zabuza…

I sat cross-legged on the floor in front of the couch, X-box controller in my hands. Naruto sat to the right, on the sofa behind me, in his hands was another controller.

“AGH! WHAT THE FU-!” Naruto exclaimed, luckily he stopped himself before saying that last bit. I could tell he was furious because this was like the fifth time in a row that I’d shot him in the forehead on Call of Duty multiplayer.

“Oh, pipe down already!” I said as I stared at the screen, thumbs dancing gracefully over the controls. “This is only a game…jeesh!”

“It’s not fair!” He whined, and I could feel him giving me his serious glare to my back. His style on the controls was more haphazard and guesswork than skill, no wonder he was having a tough time keeping up with me. “How come you’re so good at this?”

I sighed, eyes still glued to the screen. “I told you already!” I said in frustration. I lined up another shot and blew his legs clean out from under him.

“D’aw, come on!” He screamed, almost throwing the controller across the room. I paused the game with a sigh and shut off the console. “Why’d you turn it off?” He asked with both confusion and anger in his tone.

“I turned it off ‘cause you look like your about to flip out on someone.” I explained spinning on my butt to face him, still sitting cross legged on the floor. “…And I don’t feel like being that someone.”

Naruto huffed, and crossed his arms over his chest. He was obviously unhappy, but did you guys really need me to tell you that.

“What’s got you so worked up anyway?” I asked running a hand through my hair. He’s been acting like this for almost a week now. In other words, about two weeks after we graduated.

“It’s these stupid missions.” Naruto grumbled. “I mean, what kind of a mission is cutting somebody’s lawn?!”

I almost snickered at his little burst. He was getting tired of the missions already, though you had to admit he had a point. Even I was getting bored to the point of actually wishing that the mission to the Land of Waves would come sooner.

I glanced at the clock that was sitting on the table next to the sofa. 8:30 am. “Whoa, looks like we have to go!” I said getting up. Yeah, in the last few weeks Naruto and I would hang out almost daily, he’d come over sometimes on mornings before missions. But don’t go thinking that we’re an item or anything, we’re just good friends. Plus I could tell Naruto still had a major crush on Sakura.

I grabbed my jacket near the front door and headed out the front door, Naruto following close behind. We bolted towards the new team rally point, the little bridge over the creek.

==== COOL TRANSITION ====

Naruto stood in the mission room as we waited for our next mission, his face red with scratches from the cat’s claws. I watched as the poor kitty was practically crushed to death by over-affection. “No wonder he ran away.” Sakura commented softly.

“Stupid kitty, he deserves to be crushed!” Naruto said with a laugh placing his hands on his hips. Wait just a gosh darn second here, I know what happens next…

“Alright for Team 7’s next assignment, we have a variety of options.” The Hokage said dully behind his desk. “Among them we have babysitting the Chief Counsellors child, helping his wife do the shopping, digging up potatoes an-.”

“NO NO NO!” Naruto complained, crossing his arms in front of him in an X. “I’m done with that stuff, I wanna go on a real mission!”

“HOW DARE YOU!” Iruka burst out, I had only just noticed was sitting to the Hokage’s left. “You’re just a brand new Genin with no experience!”

I stopped paying attention a soon as the Hokage began explaining how the missions were ranked. I only tuned it out because I’d heard all this crap before. Then Naruto stated talking about Ramen and the Hokage didn’t seem to notice for a while.

“Silence!” He said suddenly. Everyone turned to look at him.

“Sorry about that.” Kakashi said rubbing the back of his head nervously.

“Well I don’t care!” Naruto said angrily. “I’m a ninja now and I want a ninja mission!” He added before turning around and crossing his arms over his chest and puffing out his cheeks.

“He’s got a point though, the D-rank missions are getting boring.” I said, taking Naruto’s side. I knew it was stupid to do that, I mean chances are that with my luck, we’ll be heading to the Land of Waves. Enter the Psychotic Demon of the Mist: Zabuza.

Iruka and the Hokage started to chuckled at us, well mostly Naruto I suppose. “Well then since your all so eager, I’ll give you a C-ranked mission.” The Hokage said.

“What, what!” Naruto said enthusiastically as he whirled around.

“You’ll be escorts to a traveller.” The Hokage explained. Putting his pipe in his mouth.

“Who?! Is it some counsellor? Or a lost princess?” Naruto rambled as he bolted up on his two feet. I rolled my eyes, even though I knew it was coming it surprised me how cliché minded Naruto really was.

“I’ll send him in now.” The Hokage said and as if on cue the door slid open behind us. I turned around and my heart lurched. I had really hoped that it hadn’t been him but it was. Tazuna the bridge builder.

“Wha-? A bunch of little snot nosed kids?!” He said with surprise. I immediately wanted to slug him one, I seriously hated it when people called me a kid. I was a freaking teenager, hell a ‘young lady’ by other people’s standards. “And you the short one with the idiotic look on his face, d’you really expect me to believe you’re a ninja?” Tazuna grumbled pointing at our group.

Naruto laughed a bit. “Who’s the short one with the idiotic look on his face?” Naruto asked and instinctively I joined Sasuke and Sakura at Naruto’s side and saw his face go from joy to that of anger at the realization that Tazuna had just insulted him. Me…well, duh! I found it hilarious when Naruto tried to demolish Tazuna with Kakashi hanging on to his shirt collar.

“You can’t destroy the client Naruto. It doesn’t work that way.” Kakashi said to Naruto. I started to laugh and everyone gave me a look like I was insane.

I ignored them…

==== COOL TRANSITON ====

I stared up, looking at the arch that would have stood above the Gates of the Leaf Village. “Those are some damn big doors.” I said to myself, I looked back down at the group. Naruto was proclaiming proudly that he had never been out of the village before and that he was a traveller now…believe it.

“Am I really supposed to trust my life to this runt? He’s a joke!” Tazuna said to Kakashi while pointing to Naruto. Naruto stopped Moving and stood there looking like he was going to maul Tazuna.

“Well he’s with me and I’m a Jonin so there’s really no need to worry.” Kakashi said, rubbing the back of his head.

Naruto suddenly worried around and pointed a finger at Tazuna. “Hey! Never insult a ninja it’s a big mistake! And I’m one of the greatest ninja ever! I’m going to be Hokage one day and you’ll look up to me! My name’s Naruto Uzumaki, believe it.” Naruto said in a rant.

Tazuna took a sip out of his canteen. “Hokage are powerful and wise, you are puny and brainless. The day you become Hokage I’ll sprout wings and fly.” Jeez, talk about a dick move.

“I told you already Naruto, your supposed to protect the client not demolish him.” Kakashi said holding onto Naruto’s collar as he tried to get close enough to the passing Tazuna to get a few hits in. I couldn’t help but facepalm at Naruto’s idiocy.

==== COOL TRANSITION ====

Team 7 walked through the forest following the Bridge Builder closely. I was looking at the road, trying to spot the puddle where I knew the Demon Brothers would show up. Eventually I spotted it, about three meters ahead to the left. As we got closer I reached for a Kunai knife. But when I was right next to the puddle I noticed something was off about it. I had a synthetic look to it, then again it could be that the demon brothers are in there and that’s why it looked weird. I continued walking, knowing that Kakashi had seen it too.

Then I heard movement behind me and I whiled around ready to throw the Kunai knife, until I saw what was there. It wasn’t the Demon Brothers at all, instead it was four guys dressed in hooded ninja capes that were red near the top and got progressively greyer as it went down to their knees. Sticking out from under the hoods were these red masks that covered their entire faces, they had what looked to be night vision goggles built in to the masks, hiding their eyes. On the forehead of the mask was a symbol, but not that for the Village of the Mist, but one I didn’t recognize.

They all charged simultaneously. Two of them split off to strike at Kakashi, another to attack the other three Genin and one headed right for me. They didn’t really seem to notice the attack.

“Guys! Watch out!” I yelled and they all whirled around to see the four red ninja head for us. I pulled out another Kunai as the first three darted past me to attack the others, the last one heading for me. He parted the front of his cape and revealed two bladed shields strapped to his forearms.

“Come on, come to papa!” He said tauntingly as he approached. I threw one of the Kunai and quickly drew another. He simply held up the shields in and X in front of his face an blocked the Kunai, which simply bounced off. “Not good enough!” he said as he brought the right shield over his head, ready to bring the bladed edge down on me. I raised both Kunai and stopped it. He quickly pulled back his left hand to punch me. I slipped out from under his arm and avoided the punch. I quickly spun around to give him a roundhouse kick to the face. He pulled he head backward just enough to dodge it.

I suddenly heard the rustling of clothes below and looked down in time to see his foot coming up at me. But I was too slow to react. His heel hit me in the chin, knocking me high in the air. I was about to try and land when I felt him on my right. I looked over and saw him with his left shield raised up, the blade primed and ready. “It’s over for you!” He said triumphantly. I closed my eyes shut, waiting for the end. Then I heard the guy yelp in surprise, heard a thump and felt someone grab my shoulders with one arm. I opened my eyes to see that I was up in a tree. The guy who was attacking me was lying on the ground on his back, a shallow dent in the forehead of his mask. Even though he still had it on, I could tell he was out cold.

“You okay?” I heard Kakashi ask, and I looked at him. He was to one who had caught me, and must have also been the guy to knock the other guy out.

“Y-yeah.” I stuttered, I was still a bit shaken from the near death experience. Kakashi left me go and I dropped out of the tree, landing clumsily on both feet. Kakashi jump down too and we rejoined the group, all the other guys were out cold. Naruto was sitting on the ground, clutching his right and as blood leaked through the gaps in his fingers. ‘one of those guy’s blades must have cut him.’ I thought.

“Naruto…” Kakashi said, crouching in front of Naruto. “Give me your hand, I need to bandage it up before you lose too much blood.” Naruto’s face started to go all blue and he slowly uncovered his hand and held it out to Kakashi. Kakashi examined it for a while until Naruto spoke. “Uh, you have a very serious look on your face, your scaring me. Am I gonna be okay?” Naruto asked nervously.

“Oh…ahem, yeah, you should be fine.” Kakashi said reassuringly. I on the other hand, was still trying to come to grips with what had just happened. The Demon brothers were the guys who were supposed to show up, but then we wound up with these other guys. “Krystal.” Kakashi’s voice jolted me back to reality.

“Umm, yeah?” I asked, turning to face Kakashi.

“That was well done but, next time, try to be a little bit more careful when fighting that kind of opponent.” Kakashi said, rubbing his head. I looked down at the ground, my first taste of real action and I screwed up big time. “Sasuke, Sakura. That was some smooth execution. Naruto try to be a little more precise in your attacks.” Well at least I wasn’t the only one to screw up. “Mr. Tazuna…” Kakashi added turning to Tazuna.

“Yeah what?” Tazuna asked nervously.

“We need to talk…Now.”

==== COOL TRANSITION ====

“These four appear to be Shinobi, either rogue or from a village we haven’t encountered yet.” Kakashi explained to us as we stared at the four attackers who were now tied to a tree by strong rope. “Their skills are that of Chuunin level ninja.”

“Hold on a minute.” Sakura said suddenly. “A village we haven’t encountered yet, does that mean there could be a new hidden village out there somewhere?”

“I never said with certainty that these guys were from a new village, they could just be rogue ninja from an existing village.” Kakashi corrected. “They could have easily ditched their headbands and made those masks with a fake symbol to throw people off.” Kakashi paused. “However something’s bothering me.” He added turning to Tazuna. “When two of them split off to attack me they were only faking a tag-team attack on me, one stayed behind to fight me, and the other one headed straight for the Bridge Builder.”

“So you me the two guys who split off were also a distraction, to keep us from helping you.” Sasuke jumped in.

“It’s a good thing you took them down then.” I pointed out.

“I suppose.” Kakashi said coolly, turning to look back at the four rogues. “By the way guys, you might wanna change the costume a bit, the red gives you away too much.” My heart lurched. ‘He knew where they were there the whole time?!’ I exclaimed mentally.

“Tazuna, I need to know something.” Kakashi said. “When you put in your request, you asked for protection from robbers and other thugs, you never mentioned the possibility of enemy ninja attacking you.” Tazuna was silent, he was staring at the ground, obviously in deep thought.

“If you promise to keep guarding me, I’ll explain on the way.” I knew what that meant right away.

I glanced around slowly, taking a good look at anything I stared at. If there was anything to look at! We were stuck out in the middle of a small channel between the Land of Waves and the mainland, in dense fog, on a tiny wooden boat that barely had enough room to hold all of us. And guess what, I hate water. I especially hate it when your clothes stick to you when you get out, it makes me feel weird.

But right now I wasn’t thinking about that. I still couldn’t get over it was the dudes in red who’d attacked us, and not the Demon Brothers. I was actually starting to get nervous, up until now I had relied on my knowledge of the events in the Naruto series to help me out, but now with that massive switch in characters, all that was thrown out the window. Check that, out the window and over a cliff into a never ending abyss of despair and destruction. Yeah that seemed about right.

“We’re nearing our destination, the Land of Waves.” The boat driver said, and just then the shape of the bridge began to appear out of the dense mist. I gotta say it did look impressive, still not the biggest bridge I’ve seen.

“Whoa! It’s huge!” Naruto exclaimed and immediately I cringed just a bit, like a missile was gonna hit the boat and blow it up.

“Wha-! I told you to be quiet!” The Driver snapped at Naruto. “Why d’you think we’re travelling like this huh? Turning off the engine and rowing…so they don’t see us!” Well at least the dialogue is still the same.

“Mr.Tazuna…the men who are after you, I need to know why, otherwise I’ll terminate this mission once we drop you ashore.” Kakashi said to Tazuna. Tazuna sighed, as if bracing himself for the news.

“Well you bought me this far so figure you should know.” He said finally. “The man who seeks my life is a very short man who cast a long and deadly shadow.”

“A deadly shadow, huh? Who is it?” Kakashi prompted.

“You know him, or least you’ve heard his name before.” Tazuna said. ‘He’s the shipping magnet Gato.”

Kakashi visible eye widened visibly. “Gato? Of Gato Transport? He’s a business leader, everyone knows him!”

“Who who? What what?” Naruto pried.

“Gato is a very powerful tycoon from a famous company that’s true, but beneath the surface, with the same ruthless tactics he uses to take over countries and businesses, he sells drugs and contraband, using gangs and ninja.” Tazuna explained. “It was a year ago when Gato first set his sights on the Land of Waves. He came here and used his vast wealth to take over the peoples shipping businesses.”
“If you knew he was dangerous, and knew he would send Ninja to eliminate you, why did you hide that from us.” Kakashi pointed out. “If we had known sooner we would have staffed differently and charged for the cost of a B-ranked mission.”

“…Because the Land of Waves is a small impoverished nation, even our nobles have little money.” Tazuna said, lowering his gaze to the deck of the boat. “If you end the mission when you drop me off, I’ll never make it. They’ll assassinate me before I even reach my front door.” He paused and looked up at us.

“But hey don’t feel bad, of course my sweet little grandson’ll be sad he’ll cry: Granddad! I want my Granddad!” Tazuna said, mimicking the voice a little boy. Sakura and Naruto groaned with guilt. “Oh, and my daughter will condemn the Village hidden in the Leaves, denouncing and blaming them for the loss of her father and living her life in sorrow.” Another whimper escaped Sakura and Naruto. “Eh, it’s not your fault, don’t worry about it.”

Kakashi scratched his head with one finger. “Well I guess we don’t have a choice, we’ll have to keep guarding you.”

“Oh, I’m very grateful!” Tazuna said, faking his relief.

I couldn’t help but crack and angry smile, and I felt one of my veins pop. “Tricky old bastard, pulling a guilt trip like that.” I grumbled to myself. I hate it when people do shit like that. On another note, did you guys know that Gato’s name means ‘cat’ in Spanish?

==== COOL TRANSITION ====

We’d thanked the boat driver and had gone off on our merry way. Which is code for: ‘I THINK I’M GONNA DIE!!!’ Naruto suddenly burst out in front of the group and made a sad attempt at being a look out. “Over there!” He said as he threw a Kunai into the woods to his right, surprising everyone except me. “It was just a mouse.” Naruto said standing up, trying to brush off his obvious failure.

“Yeah right Naruto! Your so obvious its pathetic!” Sakura snapped at him.

“Naruto those are Kunai knives, their dangerous!” Kakashi said angrily.

“YOU LITTLE PUNK! ARE YOU TRYING TO SCARE ME TO DEATH?!!” Tazuna snapped and I had to cover my ears to block out most of the noise. I knew this was about the time when Zabuza would show up, but now I wasn’t certain.

“Krystal?” Sakura’s concerned voice jolted me from my thoughts.

“Huh?” I said, coming back to reality.

“Are you okay?” She asked again, looking worried.
“Oh, yeah I’m fine, I was just thinking of stuff.” I said rubbing the back of my head and cracking a nervous grin. There was an awkward silence that hung over the group as we continued walking towards Tazuna’s house.

“Does anyone else notice that it’s been getting darker?” Sasuke suddenly mentioned stopping in his tracks.

Naruto gave Sasuke a look of scrutiny. “Have you been losing it Sasuke? It seems just fine out here to me.” He commented.

Sasuke suddenly snapped. “Wha-? I’m telling you it’s getting darker out!” He blurted out, losing his cool.

“He’s right…” Kakashi added, and everyone stopped. I glanced around and I could see shadows disappearing. It was getting dark! I glanced up at the sun, and it looked like it was hooked up to one of those dimmer switches, because it was progressively getting darker.

“This is starting to get really creepy.” I muttered. I started shaking and glancing around nervously. On instinct I grabbed a Kunai from my holster and gripped it with both hands.

“Everyone, Manji formation!” Kakashi ordered and we immediately surrounded the Bridge Builder, I was behind him, Naruto on his right, Sakura on his left, and Sasuke in front, so we could cover him on both sides. What was creepiest about it was that as the sun darkened further it was like color was being sucked from the world, everything faded to grey, then to black and white.

“Ninja Art: Day of a Black Sun.” Two young voices hissed from the shadows, and I flinched. I glanced around but I couldn’t see anything except for the rest of the team and the bridge builder, every other trace of reality was gone.

“W-what kind of Jutsu is this?” Sakura stammered she was glancing around frantically trying to spot the casters in the infinite darkness that surrounded us. Suddenly two figures emerged from the shadows, directly in front of Kakashi.

The two boys weren’t much older then me, maybe seventeen. They seemed to wear the same capes that those others guys wore, based on the design. Since there was no color except black and white, all I saw was that the one on left would have had darker hair and clothing while the one on the right had the opposite.

“It seems we’ve got a great catch today, brother.” The one on the left said with a smirk.

“Looks like it, we’ve caught Kakashi Hatake…copy ninja of the Hidden Leaves.” The one on the right concurred.

“Huh? Copy Ninja?” Naruto said confused, giving his serious face and looking at Kakashi as if waiting for an answer.

The pair ahead chuckled. “Of course we can’t forget about his lackeys.” The left one added, as if ignoring Naruto’s question.

“Hey! Don’t call me anything like that! I’m the ninja who’ll become the next Hokage!” Naruto yelled pointing and over-dramatic finger at the pair.

The pair just laughed, in cold blooded fashion. “Hokage, eh?” The one on the right began. “…we doubt it…”

“…because to days the day you die!” The left one finished, and they both brought their hands up in a handsign I’d never seen before.

“Ninja Art: Nightstalker Jutsu.” They said in unison, and it was like their bodies simply vanished into oblivion. I could feel them, moving around out there in the darkness, but I didn’t know where they were.

“If anyone here had a shot at being Hokage…”

“…It’d be us.”

My heart was thudding in my chest with fear. Although these two didn’t give off the aura of ruthless, cold-blooded murderers, (like Zabuza), they were terrifying. I felt like they were stalking me right now, and waiting for a good chance to attack.

“Aw look this one’s afraid!” The voice of the light haired one cooed behind me. I spun and saw him standing behind Sakura with a Kunai drawn and ready to strike.

“Sakura! Watch out!” I warned and threw a Kunai at the guy behind her. A black void opened up where the Kunai hit and expanded until the guy had faded from existence and the kunai sailed past harmlessly. Sakura hadn’t moved, she was paralyzed with fear and was shaking like she’d walked off the world’s most intense rollercoaster for the first time.

“Sakura snap out of it!” Sasuke snapped, and she seemed to jolt back to reality. I pulled out a Kunai and waited, watching for any sign of their attack, remembering to check behind me now and again.

“Aw, she was paralyzed with fear! How cute.” The Dark haired one’s voice mocked.

“Darn it! Come out here and fight us fair and square!” Naruto yelled in frustration, earning and amused laugh from the pair.

“What? And ruin all our fun?” The light haired one’s voice echoed. Naruto growled and pulled out a Kunai, getting ready to charge out and attack something.
“Naruto!” Kakashi warned. “Stay in formation, remember your mission!” Naruto reluctantly calmed down a bit. I heard laughter emanating from the darkness.

“This is starting to become boring.” The Dark haired ones voice echoed.

“I agree, let’s turn up the heat.” The other one added. I immediately tensed and began to search frantically, my heart beating faster with each passing second. My eyes came to a stop on Naruto and what I saw made my heart stop. He was slowly fading away, the shadows engulfing his body. I glanced at the rest of my team as they too began to disappear.

“Guys?” I called out in fear, my grip tightened on the Kunai in my hand. I heard a voice behind me.

“They can’t hear you.” One of the two said.

“But we can.” The other one hissed. It was like a sixth sense as I felt them move up behind me. I glanced over my shoulder and my eyes looked straight into those of the dark haired one. “Hi…” He said, grinning like a madman. Fear aggressively grabbed at my heart with icy claws. He pulled up a Kunai and was about to bring the blade to the back of my skull. I whipped around to stab him with my own Kunai out of fear.

He shifted his weight and jumped back into the shadows avoiding my Kunai and vanishing into the blackness. I could hear the other of them laughing, and I sensed another one off to my right and I spun around swinging the Kunai wildly at a disappearing form. I was on the brink of hyperventilating.

Suddenly I felt a wave of Chakra fly past me, and the darkness seemed to shatter into oblivion and color returned to the world. I turned my head to the left and saw Kakashi there, with his hands forming a handsign for Genjutsu release.

“Well looks like the Jonin broke our Jutsu.” One of the pair said. I turned my head left and I saw the two of them standing on the path we’d just come from. Now with the light I could see the two of them clearly, one had spiky jet black hair and wore a metallic grey cape with a single red bar on the right side that ran around from the front to his back, it was wide enough that it covered the area between his shoulder and where his elbow would have been. He had dark pants that were bunched up with bandages near the bottom.

“Looks like it.” The other one said smirking. He had loose white hair that went down to his shoulders, however the bangs were spiked to match those of his companion. He wore the same Cape but the red bar was on the left instead of the right, and he wore beige shorts, his shins were protected by some type of armor plating.

“So there you guys are!” Naruto yelled behind me and in seconds he was charging at the pair, Kunai drawn. “I’ll demolish y-!” Kakashi was suddenly in front of Naruto in a flash.
“Save it Naruto!” Kakashi ordered, glancing over his shoulder at Naruto, with his arm in front of Naruto’s path. “These guys are much more skilled than the guy’s we fought before.” Naruto Growled in frustration. I could tell he wanted to take a crack at ‘em. I on the other hand was content to get the fuck outta here!

“You might want to listen to your sensei.” The black hair one said, parting the folds of his cape to reveal he had three daggers sticking out between his fingers on each hand and that he had arm guards on. “I’ll show you just how different we are in strength.”

“You’re seriously pulling out that already?” The white haired boy said in tone that said: ‘You’re so stupid, it’s not even funny’.

“Huh? Pulling what out?” Naruto asked, completely clueless. I pulled out a second Kunai, preparing for the fight, my pulse getting quicker and quicker.

Dagger boy lifted his hands in front of him so that the daggers crossed over his face. Then they suddenly changed shape into six short blades, three in each hand. They were a metallic black color with the blades curving downwards. His arm guards also changed shape, turning into what looked like armored gloves. He did some trick with his hands and in a split second the two blades on the top and bottom of each hand quickly spun out to frame his wrists.

His companion closed his eyes and sighed. “Well I suppose there’s no hiding it now.” He said pulling two silver objects from behind his back, which would have also been concealed by that weird cape. He spun them in the same style that cowboys do to guns in old westerns except at a much faster speed and they changed shape into, guess what? Jet black gun-blades. He was obviously dual wielding pistols with two barrels each, one on top of the other, with small slightly curved blades at the top. His shin guards had turned into armored boots, with attachments on the sides of his feet.

Both of their weapons had blue bar lights on various points and on the edges of the blades, the guns on the white haired guy had circular canisters above the hand grips and the six daggers of the other guy seemed to be distinguished into the two groups of three swords by chains which were wrapped around loops in the hilts. The chains continued on towards the guys back.

Naruto, Sakura and Tazuna all gasped in surprise and slight horror. Sasuke and Kakashi remained silent and I was about ready to have a heart attack. The black hair one smirked. “I’ll handle the Jonin. Brother, you can handle the brats.” He said to his partner. The other one simple nodded his agreement.

I swear to god I’m gonna die.

The air was growing tense as the twins ahead of us just stood there nonchalantly, as if waiting for a cue to attack. It was nerve wracking, just standing here waiting to see how they would strike. It was bad enough that their weapons changed shape and shit, but other than that terrifying genjutsu trick they pulled we had no idea what their capabilities are, which is what terrified me the most.

What if Kakashi’s sharingan wasn’t enough to bring these guys down? What would happen to us? My pulse was slowly climbing, but my breath was getting slower, if it kept up like this, I was going to faint, seriously.

Then the dark haired one simply smirked. “Well this is beginning to get boring.” He said to his brother. “I’m going to fix that!” He added before bringing his left arm up in an underhand throw. The three blades spun around each other like a three bladed shuriken attached to a chain. Kakashi quickly whipped out a kunai to block the oncoming attack.

“You’re going to have to do better than that.” Kakashi said threateningly. The black haired boy smirked again.

“Then how’s this?” He asked at the blades suddenly changed shape to wrap around Kakashi’s kunai. I could see Kakashi jump in surprise. The boy simply grabbed the chain attacked to the blades and lifted it upwards and over his head. Kakashi was carried upwards, keeping a grip on the Kunai in surprise. Kakashi sailed through the air as Chain boy spun around to put his back to us and brought Kakashi crashing down to the earth. “That good enough for you?” He said playfully.

“Not really.” I heard Kakashi say, then suddenly he was there between them, his back to us. He had his right arm extended, with a kunai point straight at the neck of the white haired one. His other arm probably held a kunai to the throat of the black haired guy but his arm was bent so that his elbow was behind the guys head.

“Way to go Kakashi sensei!” I Naruto yelled, throwing his fists up in the air in triumph. Sakura squealed in relief and joy, and I heard Sasuke huff in uninterest. I on the other hand was still tense. I’d played enough video games and watched enough TV to know that this wouldn’t be all these guys had. ‘C’mon you bastards what are you waiting for?’ I thought to myself.

Sure enough I saw the expression on the white haired ones face change from surprise to a wide, menacing grin. “D’you really think we’d actually be stopped by a cheap trick like that?” He said. “Yakan, you know what to do, right?”

“Damn straight.” The other guy, Yakan stated like it was the most obvious thing in the world. The he vanished and so did his weapon which was lying on the ground. A split second later, the white haired guy also vanished. Kakashi whirled around stunned. Suddenly on the two trees next to Kakashi on the side of the road were Yakan’s six blades. Three on each tree, one on the top of the trunk, one on the bottom and one in the middle on each tree, each blade with its own chain attached to the loop on the hilt. Yakan also seemed to appear out of nowhere, crouching in front of Kakashi, facing us, holding six chains in between his fingers, his arms crossed over his chest. “Ninja art: Six blade prison!” He said pulling the chains across his chest, in a flash Kakashi was wrapped from his shoulders to his knees in silver chains. “Alright Hiruma, I’ll let you take out the Bridge Builder and the brats!” Yakan said to his brother. “After all I’ve got to let you have some fun.”

“Fine then.” The white haired guy, Hiruma, said with a sigh. “I guess I’ll just help you finish off Kakashi later.” I began shaking with raw fear. They’d turned the tables so fast! Like it was child’s play! And now we’re stuck fighting a guy with pistols?! Check that, pistols with blades on them! “Now, you four brats better make it interesting, or else I’ll kill you.” Hiruma said menacingly at us. I started shaking worse and Sakura screamed before clamping her hands over her mouth to stop herself. Naruto stood there shaking just about as bad as I was.

“Quick! The four of you! Take the Bridge Builder and run! If you get going now you can outrun him! Go! You’re only going to get yourselves killed fighting him!” Kakashi yelled from behind Yakan. We didn’t move, either we were too frightened, or we…yeah we were just scared to fucking death. Then a thought occurred to me. This fight was beginning to play out just like in the show, just with different characters! The part where Kakashi had held kunai’s to the twins’ throats was just like when he tricked Zabuza and held a knife to his throat! And then when Zabuza traps Kakashi in the water prison is just like how this Yakan guy bound Kakashi in those chains! They only caught Kakashi off guard, but if we could free him, he could fight them off!

“Alright then, I think I’ll start with you!” Hiruma said moving quickly towards Naruto and giving him a high kick to the face, knocking off his headband. Naruto flew backwards though the air. He hit the ground and bounced, then rolled until he came to a stop. Hiruma lowered his foot slowly to the ground. “Aw, c’mon is that it?” he whined. “At this rate I won’t need my guns!” He quickly began to western spin them again and even I could tell they had reverted to their original forms. He stopped spinning them and slid them back into their cases behind his back.

Sasuke obviously found this a good time to strike because he charged at Hiruma, throwing four shuriken. Hiruma just seemed to phase out of reality for a split second, long enough for the shuriken to sail past harmlessly. Sasuke jumped in the air and pulled out a kunai. As he came down he held the kunai to drive it into Hiruma, who didn’t even look at Sasuke.

Hiruma was like the fucking Flash! In the last few milliseconds I took for Sasuke’s kunai to make contact with Hiruma’s forehead, the dude had already moved! Sasuke’s kunai drove into the ground as Hiruma reappeared behind him. Sasuke didn’t have any time to react before Hiruma backhanded Sasuke in the side of the head, sending him flying into a tree on his right.

“That symbol on your back…it’s the Uchiha clan symbol isn’t it?” Hiruma said as Sasuke pushed himself up, using the tree for support. “That must mean you’re an Uchiha right?” Sasuke grit his teeth. If Hiruma kept it up, Sasuke was going to loose it. “I thought the Uchiha were an elite family in Konoha…that is until their massacre.” Sasuke leaned his head forward, shadows covering his eyes.

“Shut up…” Sasuke growled.

“Looks like you’re not living up to the family name…” Hiruma taunted.

“Shut up…” Sasuke growled again, this time louder.

“You’re just a wimp, not an Uchiha.” Hiruma added.

“SHUT UP!!!” Sasuke yelled, whipping his head up and yanking out a kunai, which he gripped in his right hand. He’d just lost it. Sasuke charged at Hiruma, who didn’t even move. Sasuke got close enough that he tried to swipe Kiruma across the face with his kunai. Hiruma ducked under Sasuke’s defences, leaving the Uchiha stunned.

“You’re attack is too blunt.” Hiruma stated simply. He bought his fist up and slugged Sasuke in the chin. Sasuke stumbled backwards, dropping his kunai. Kiruma brought his leg up to kick Sasuke so quickly I wasn’t sure if it was his leg or if it was his arm at first. Hiruma’s shin made contact with Sasuke’s stomach, forcing Sasuke to cough up blood before being sent though the air like a kite.

Sasuke landed in the lake with a great splash, and I heard Sakura gasp in horror. Sasuke’s head eventually appeared above the surface of the water, pushing himself up on his hands and knees. The water was just above his elbows, meaning he was in shallow water. Suddenly Hiruma was standing behind him on the surface of the water, kunai above his head and ready to bury itself into Sasuke’s back.

I don’t know what happened but I just reacted, I pulled out a shuriken and threw it at Hiruma’s brother. It flew at him straight an true, for a second I thought it would hit. Then out of nowhere a kunai hit the shuriken, knocking it to the ground. I whipped around to look back at Sasuke. Sasuke was fine, but he looked like he saw a ghost.

“Hello.” Hiruma’s voice sounded right next to my ear. It was almost like life had gone slow mo as I whipped my head around to come face to face with Hiruma’s fist. It made contact with my left cheek, I fell backwards onto my back and I felt myself skid along the ground a ways. When I pushed myself up I saw Hiruma standing there, his head hanging. At first he started chuckling which then turned into hysterical laughter.

“Hey, what the heck’s so funny?” Naruto growled at him. Hiruma’s laughter died down until it stopped.

He raised his head and stared at Naruto like he’d just seen Jeff Dunham live. “Oh nothing really, except I can’t believe how easy this is turning out to be.” Hiruma said. “I’ve only been toying with you so far, and yet I’ve already gotten you guys on the ropes!” Forget what I said earlier, there’s no way in hell Kakashi could beat these guys. One of ‘em maybe, but both of them? Not a fucking chance. This is one fight we couldn’t win, no matter what we did.

“Now, who should I kill first?” Hiruma asked bluntly, pulling out a kunai. His eyes slowly drifted across the five of us. From Tazuna, to Sakura, to Naruto, to Sasuke, and then to me. “How about you first?” He said to me, giving me a bloodthirsty smile. It would take nothing short of a fucking miracle to get me out of this. Hiruma was spinning the kunai around his index finger nonchalantly.

Suddenly he gripped it and threw it at me. I shut my eyes, waiting for the moment when my life would finally end, until I heard the familiar sound of metal striking metal. I was still afraid to open my eyes until I heard a voice I would never mistake in a thousand years, times twelve. “Looks like we found those two rats, Haku.”

I think you can guess who I meant. My eyes shot open, at first I saw the kunai sticking in the ground about halfway between me and Hiruma, and to my right of it was a single solitary senbon needle. I gazed up at the trees and to my right was the sight that I both wished and dreaded to ever see in my life. The two shinobi of the Mist: Zabuza Momochi and Haku. Haku had the same costume from the anime, and Zabuza had the same thing up until the bandages that were covering his chest and arms.

Hiruma and Yakan obviously saw them. “Brother, we didn’t come here to fight them.” Yakan said from his position in front of Kakashi.

“You’re right Yakan, their being here only worsens our situation.” Hiruma agreed. “Lets leave.” Soon after he said that, the two vanished, the chains binding Kakashi were also gone. I noticed Haku getting ready to give chase until Zabuza stopped him.

“You go after them Haku, and you’ll just wind up dead.” Zabuza pointed out and Haku relaxed a bit. I wasn’t sure what to think, should I be grateful or mortified? I mean, Zabuza’s the bad guy in the show right? Who says he’s not a bad guy, even if he did just chase off the twins?

Haku jumped off the tree and landed next to me. “Are you alright?” He asked, kneeling down. I only nodded unable to speak. Zabuza jumped down next to Kakashi.

“Well, Copy Ninja Kakashi…” Zabuza said. “How does a ninja of your calibre get caught by those two brats?” He added almost mockingly.

“I underestimated them, a mistake I don’t plan on making twice.” Kakashi stated simply, shoving his hands in his pockets.

Zabuza stared of into space. “Looks like you made the same mistake I did.”

==== COOL TRANSITION ====

We were at Tazuna’s house, Team 7 was sitting on the left side of the table from the door, Haku and Zabuza on the right. Tsunami and Tazuna were standing near the kitchen area, facing us. The air was tense as people stared each other down, it was almost unbearable. “So those two kids…” Kakashi spoke up suddenly. “Who are they?”

Zabuza leaned back in his chair a bit, crossing his arms over his chest. “Their names are Yakan and Hiruma Hinode, two ninja from a terrorist organization…” Zabuza said. “…or at least that’s what we thought.”

“Huh? What do you mean?” Sakura asked worriedly. I was starting to get a little nervous myself.

“We think that they might be from another Hidden Village, one who’s been created recently.” Zabuza stated simply. Shocked gazes ripple around the room excluding Haku and Zabuza. He couldn’t be serious could he?

“A-another Hidden village? But that’s impossible right? Villages just down spring up out of the ground like that!” Tazuna said in surprise.

“Actually no, sometimes Rogue Ninja can band together and conquer a lesser land for themselves and create their own Hidden village.” Kakashi explained. “But those are usually destroyed quickly by wars.” Zabuza nodded his agreement.

“You’re right on that Kakashi.” He said. “But then again, we believe that their village might have existed for a lot longer than you’d think, and only surfaced recently.” Another round of shocked glances tore around the room.

“So what’s this village called?” Sasuke asked bluntly.

“We’re not sure right now.” Haku said simply. “Nor do we know its location or who’s leading it. In fact it’s still debatable if it actually exists or not.”

“So were facing a big unknown then.” Kakashi said.

“Which is why you should train those four kids to fight the Hinode brothers.” Zabuza pointed out. “Otherwise their liable to get themselves killed.” I just wanted to slug him across the face, I really hate it when people call me a kid.

“Right.” Kakashi agreed. “I’ll start their training in the morning, right now it’s getting late and we should rest up.”

“Fine then. Haku and I’ll head to our hideout.” Zabuza said as he and Haku stood up. “If you Leaf Ninja can’t handle things on your own, come find us.” Naruto looked like he was about to burst as he watched Haku walk out the door.

“Don’t insult a Leaf ninja, we can handle anything!” Naruto said proudly after Zabuza, who stopped in the door. He turned his head to glare at Naruto over his shoulder.

“Is that why you guys nearly died fighting those two?” Zabuza pointed out, then exited the door.

As the door slammed shut, part of me was still saying: ‘This isn’t happening’. Zabuza was a good guy now? Even that was alone was a scary thought!

I was lying in bed, awake on the second floor of Tazuna’s house. I knew it was almost midnight, but I just couldn’t fall asleep. I was still leafing over the days events in my brain. What really didn’t make sense was why things had changed so much from the storyline! What had I done to make things change so much, not only to change the characters, but to make two of the villains into good guys! Was it me just being here? Was it something I did back in the Leaf Village? Or did it have anything to do with me in the first place?! These questions kept spinning around and around in my brain, keeping my mind in state of perpetual confusion, and that was keeping me awake.

I rolled over so I was lying on my side, my back facing the wall that the bed was shoved up against. I was staring at the small dresser on the opposite wall, the light from the window on the far wall from the door cut across my vision. I closed my eyes and rolled onto my back again.

I hate sleepless nights…

==== COOL TRANSITION ====

I yawned and stretched, I had probably slept four hours tops last night, hell I’m amazed I even slept at all! Right now though, I was standing in full ninja gear in front of Kakashi standing on the far right of the group of Genin. I was probably going to fail this next exercise horribly because of my lack of sleep.

“Alright…” Kakashi piped up. “…Training begins now.” He shoved his hands in his pockets. “We’ll start with a review of chakra.”

“We already know that.” Sasuke said in his ‘I’m to cool for you’ tone.

“He’s right, a while ago we learned about…uh…Katra.” Naruto said.

“Chakra.” Kakashi corrected, sounding positively annoyed with Naruto. Naruto looked stunned as he realized he just sounded like and idiot. I began snickering.

“Alright Naruto, I’ll explain it so you can understand it.” Sakura said, I started tuning stuff out, looking around for a place to nap after I failed miserably. By the time Kakashi was partway through explaining how mastering chakra would help, I had basically tuned everything out.

That is until Kakashi started climbing the tree with his hands still in his pockets, even I had to admit that that was badass, which made me want to learn it even more. Kakashi suddenly took out four Kunai and tossed them at the ground in front of us. I bent down and pulled the kunai in front of me from the ground.

“Use the kunai knife to mark the point where you are at the highest point of your climb, then try to get past that mark the next time, and the next.” Kakashi instructed.

“Hang on, that’s a neat trick but how does it help us fight the twins?” Sakura asked. The only thought that when through my mind was: ‘Who said they were twins?’.

“It’s the only way to fight them Sakura!” Kakashi pointed out. “First you’ll learn to focus chakra in specific amount to a specific point on your body, and the bottoms of the feet are the hardest points to focus chakra. Do you get it? If you can master this, you’ll be able to master any jutsu.”

“Alright this’ll be no sweat all the way!” Naruto said as if he’d already done the exercise. Then we all concentrated and brought our hands up in a handsign. I felt the chakra begin to well up and I forced it down into my feet. It was a lot harder than you’d think just to get it down to my knees!

“At first you’ll need to run at the tree so your momentum can carry you up, until you get used to it.” Kakashi said as I finally managed to get my chakra to my feet.

“Here we go!” Naruto suddenly piped up. “Charge!” He began running at the tree and the rest of us began running at our own trees. I began to run off the trunk as I heard Naruto hit the ground. I kept running up the side of the trunk and just as I was about a foot from the first branch my chakra gave out and I slipped. I quickly carved a line into the trunk with my kunai as I kicked off. I did a black flip and landed on both feet.

‘Damn, it’s harder than it looks!’ I thought to myself. ‘Not only do you need to get the balance right, but you also need to keep it that way. Any little misstep in that balance and you fall back down.’

“Hey this is fun!” I heard Sakura yell from up high. I glance up and couldn’t help but smile at her. It was great that she could do that on her first try.

“Well, it looks like the female members of the squad are the best chakra controllers.” Kakashi pointed out. Hold up, members? As in with and “S”? I looked at Sasuke’s tree at the mark he made on the trunk, then back to mine. Mine was about five feet above Sasuke’s. No fucking way, dude, no fucking way.

==== COOL TRANSITION ====

I was totally exhausted by the time Naruto and Sasuke had gone up the tree like, twenty times. Naruto, like Sakura says in the show wasn’t getting far at all.

“I’m totally worn out, how do they do it?” Sakura said beside me.

“Huh? How do they do what?” I asked back, turning my head in her direction.

“How do they keep going like that? Seriously, where do they get all the energy?” She said, well more like whined.

I just shrugged. “Ya got me!” I said simply. Naruto suddenly stomped his foot in frustration. This was the part where Naruto asks Sakura for advice. Naruto turned around and started walking towards…me?

“Hey, your good at this! How ‘bout some advice.” He asked, crouching down in front of me. I blinked a few times in confusion.

“You really want advice?” I asked him.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah!” Naruto said excitedly.

“Okay then…” I started, crossing my arms over my chest. “You’ve got to stay calm, otherwise your just gonna keep fall flat on your ass all the time.”

“Like I’ve been doing up until now.” He added sadly, hanging his head.

“Look, you need to concentrate on what you’re doing, forget everything else.” I said.

“YOU MEAN I HAVE TO FORGET HOW TO DO THE SHADOWCLONE JUTSU?!!” Naruto exclaimed.

I sat up and palmed his forehead, like in the V8 commercials. “I didn’t mean it like that ya doof!” I said as he began rubbing his forehead with both hands. “You’ve just got to forget about the unimportant things, like beating Sasuke.”

“What?! But I gotta beat him! It’s the only way I’ll be Hokage!” Naruto protested.

I sighed. “Then think about it this way; the only way you’ll be Hokage is if you IGNORE Sasuke.” I pointed out. Naruto looked confused for a moment.

“Okay, I’ll give it a shot.” He said getting up and walking over to the spot where he left his kunai. I couldn’t help but feel like this was gonna end badly, either for him or for me.

Suddenly Kakashi walked out of nowhere and stood in front of me and Sakura. “Alright you two seem to have gotten the hang of this, so I’m giving you a mission.”

“Huh? A mission? What kind of mission?” Sakura asked. I was a little curious myself.

“Accompany Tazuna and protect him from enemy ninja or other assailants.” Kakashi said. I sort of knew what that meant.

==== COOL TRANSITION ====

I watched as men scurried back and forth across the bridge, carrying tools and materials to worksites. Tazuna walked past with a small I-beam on his shoulder. “What are you two doing here?” He asked as he walked by. “And where’s the blonde kid with the stupid look on his face and the one with the attitude?”

“Meh, they’re off training.” I said, pitching my head back to stare up at the clouds out of sheer boredom.

“Too tough for you two?” Tazuna asked.

“Actually no, we were the best so Kakashi sensei sent us here to guard you.” Sakura pointed out.

“You’re joking.” Tazuna stated simply. Sakura began growling and I slowly lowered my gaze in a death glare. Tazuna either didn’t see it or ignored it. I leaned backwards again and began staring upside down at the water. There was a dense fog on top of the water which didn’t reach high enough to cover the bridge. Through the fog, I swear I saw something down there. A shape, maybe a log, or a person standing on the water? Then I saw it move, and I sat up and spun around to look down at it right side up.

“Huh?” Sakura said at my sudden reaction. “Is something wrong Krystal?” I peered into the fog, but there was nothing there.

“Uhhh, never mind.” I said, and I pushed myself up. “I need to go take a nap, I’m starting to lose it.” I added as I rubbed my eyes and walked in the direction of Tazuna’s house.

“Well, um, okay then…” Sakura said as I kept walking. I was starting to feel more exhausted with every step, thank god Tazuna’s place wasn’t too far.

==== COOL TRANSITION ====

I awake to a light tapping on my window.

I stared out my window for a few minutes, noticing that it was nightfall already, the sun sinking behind the trees, turning the clouds on the horizon to an orange-red hue. I got up, I had changed into my pyjamas, or at least what I used for pyjamas, which was a black BON JOVI t-shirt with baggy, dark-blue shorts. I opened the window and I saw a small bird, whose feathers were the color of silver! How the heck does a bird get silver feathers?

It looked up at me and blinked once. “Hey little buddy!” I said quietly so I wouldn’t scare it, and brought my right hand out with index finger extended so he could jump on if he wanted. Instead he flew up and away down towards the ground. He began flying around a figure. It was a woman, I could see that right away. She was dressed in what honestly looked to be an oversized white lab coat with a hood on it, with black pants and black shirt underneath. The hood was up so I could only see the bottom half of her face. She brought he finger up and the little bird landed on it, and it just seemed to vanish as she turned and walked off into a nearby forest.

I got the irresistible urge to follow her, I quickly snatched up my Kunai holster and attached it to my thigh. I jumped out the window and down to the grass below. I saw the vanishing white of her lab coat and I took off after it.

==== DUN DUN DUNNNNN ====

Sakura watched with a slight bit of nausea as Sasuke and Naruto wolfed down their food at lightning speed, before finishing their bowls of rice. The two finished at the exact same time and held up their bowls.

“I want some more!” They said at the same time, glared at each other, then bent under the table and began puking up the food they’d just eaten.

“Don’t eat so much If your gonna puke it up!” Sakura snapped at them. She wasn’t in a really good mood, seeing as how she’d just watched her crush puke up a bowl full of rice.

“I don’t care, I need to eat more than him…” Sasuke said glaring knives at Naruto.

“…It’s the only way I’ll get stronger.” Naruto finished, returning Sasuke’s glare.

“That’s true but puking won’t help.” Kakashi pointed out.

Naruto sat up wiping his mouth. “Hey, when the heck is Krystal gonna come to dinner!” Naruto asked suddenly.

“Yeah, she’s taking an awfully long nap.” Sasuke pointed out.

“I’ll go wake her up…” Sakura said getting up and heading upstairs to Krystal’s bedroom door. When Sakura opened the door she screamed.

Naruto, Sasuke and Kakashi all came running upstairs to find Sakura standing in the doorway. “Sakura, what happened?” Sasuke asked, grabbing her and pulling her out fo the doorway.

“It’s Krystal…She’s gone!” Sakura said shakily. Naruto and Kakashi both darted in the room. There were bed sheets partially piled on the floor, some were still on the bed. Krystal’s backpack and shuriken holster were both resting on the desk neatly.

“No sign of a struggle.” Kakashi reported solemnly.

“Those two guys we fought earlier must’ve taken her while she was asleep.” Sasuke guessed.

“This isn’t happening…” Naruto said leaning against the wall next to Kakashi and sliding down until he was sitting.
“I don’t think so Sasuke.” Kakashi said simply. The three Genin looked at him shocked. “Take another look, where do you see Krystal’s kunai holster?”

Sasuke took another good look. “Your right, I don’t see it anywhere.”

“Exactly, that means she must have gone out alone.” Kakashi concluded.

“Why the heck would she do that?!” Naruto blurted out.

“I’m not sure, all we can do now is look for her, hope something turns up.” Kakashi said grimly. He didn’t like it, what if those two had used Genjutsu to trick Krystal into leaving on her own. Then again, why just her? Why not lure out the other genin too. There were tons of times during that afternoon that they could have gotten to the three of them easily with Kakashi noticing, especially Sasuke and Naruto. So why just her? I didn’t make any sense.

“I hope she’s alright.” Sakura said shakily.

Kakashi wished for the same thing…

Naruto jumped from branch to branch, searching the forest floor for any sign of his teammate. It had been almost four hours since Krystal’s disappearance, and no one had turned up anything that was hers. Absolutely nothing, It was like she vanished or something.

After the first hour of searching, (which obviously turned up nothing) Kakashi had reluctantly asked for the aid of the two Mist Ninja from earlier, the big guy was less than happy to be out looking for someone he barely knew, but Kakashi said that he would help track down those two Ninja with the fancy weapons and rogue attitudes.

“I’m going to have to call it guys.” Kakashi’s voice crackled over Naruto’s headset.

“What do you mean “Call it”? Krystal’s still out there somewhere!” Sakura’s voice protested.

“Yeah, Sakura’s got a point sensei!” Naruto added into his mouthpiece, kicking off another branch and jumping to the next.

“Maybe, but the chances of finding her now are next to none, she could be miles away by now.” Kakashi’s voice explained. “Everyone has to return to Tazuna’s house now, this search is over.” Naruto felt his rage begin to build up, his first mission and he’d lost one of his teammates, and a good friend. He really wanted to keep searching but he knew Kakashi was right, there was no way they were going to find her now.

==== COOL TRANSITION ====

I rushed through the bushes below the treetops, that woman had eluded me for at least four and a half hours and my legs were beginning to give out. She seemed to appear when I stopped to search for her, then vanish in a certain direction and I would follow a ghost until I stopped to pick up the trail again and there she would be again. And she never took off running, she’d just casually walk into the shadows and leave me chasing after her ghost.

I finally stopped, My legs were shaking and barely holding me up. I couldn’t run anymore and I was worried that if I walked that I would just stumble and fall flat on my face. There was no way I was getting back to Tazuna’s now, and it was dark and cold. I sat down next to a tree and pulled my knees up to my chest, shivering with the cold. Why did I not have the foresight to at least bring a damn jacket?

I sat there shivering for a good fifteen minutes, what I wouldn’t give to be back in a nice soft bed right now. I heard a loud rumble over my head and a flash of lightning illuminated the small clearing that I was staring at. It started to rain, and not just a light drizzle, it was like a freaking monsoon! The tree I sat under didn’t offer much protection and in seconds I was soaked.

“God damn perfect.” I mumbled to myself. She crazy lady had led me out to the middle of nowhere and to top it all off, she led me out here to a spot where I would get drenched in five seconds flat. The suddenly I saw her, well more like the faint white shaped of her lab coat. I quickly got up and cupped my hands around my mouth.

“Hey! What’s the big idea?!” I yelled over the roar of the rain and the thunder. She just turned and walked off into the shadows. How the hell does she do that? I just sighed with frustration and ran to catch up with her. At this point I was ignoring the weak feeling in my legs in the hope that at least she was leading me to someplace dry. Eventually I would see her appear out in front of me only to disappear as quickly as she came.

Suddenly I burst out of the forest staring at a massive cliff. “Just great a dead end!” I said angrily. Then I heard whistling to my left, I whirled around and there she was pointing to what looked like the entrance to a fortified tunnel. It had huge blast doors made from concrete that blocked off the entrance. I looked back at where she had been standing and she was gone. I blinked a few times then moved over to the entrance. The doors were at least twelve inches thick, there’s no way I’m opening those things! I sighed in defeat, I was going to be stuck out here for the night, in the cold rain and wind.

I turned my back to the door and sluggishly began walking towards a large oak tree until I heard a muffled clank at the doors’ locking mechanism opened and the heavy doors open slowly. Those things were motorized? Light poured out of the ever expanding gap between the heavy slabs and I ran thought it as they stopped. Glad to finally be out of the rain and wind. I was still shivering though, hey when your drenched head to toe you’d be shivering too!

Then I saw a blue light on either side of the tunnel entrance. I glanced to my left and found small blue running light on the bottoms of the tunnel walls. ‘This keeps getting weirder by the minute!’ I thought as more running lights began to come on one by one getting increasingly deeper into the tunnel. ‘Guess I’m supposed to go that way.’ I thought as I walked though the tunnel. I kept walking down the tunnel for at least thirty minutes before my legs finally gave out. I fell on my knees and just started shivering violently with the cold.

“Glad you could make it.” A voice said from a shadowy part of the tunnel. I heard footsteps coming closer from up ahead. I pulled out a kunai to defend myself. “Do you seriously think I’m actually here to hurt you?” The voice said. I finally saw that woman in the labcoat step out of the shadowy section.

“Maybe I do!” I pointed out trying to push myself up. Pain shot though my legs and I fell back down.

She stopped walking forward, and crossed her arms over her chest. “And your proof?” She asked and visibly leaned her head to one side, even though she was still wearing the stupid hood and I couldn’t see her face.

“Call it a gut feeling…” I said. “I don’t really have a good track record with military bases.”

“Good thing for you this isn’t a military base.” She said matter-of-factly pulling down the hood. I finally got a good look at her. She had jet black hair that went down to her waist and unnaturally blue eyes.

“Gee, you could’ve fooled me.” I said forcing myself to stand.

“Just cuz it’s fortified doesn’t make it military.” She said walking closer to me. I gripped the kunai tighter and held it up. She only gave me and amused laugh.

“Seriously? You’re kidding right?” She said smiling. She flicked her fingers and the kunai tore itself from my hands and stuck to the wall on my left.

“Hey!” I yelled on instinct. I brought up both fists, getting ready for a fight.

“Oh please, I could beat you without having to throw a punch or use a jutsu.” She said simply, rolling her eyes.

“We’ll just see about that!” I said as I mustered all the strength I had left and lunged at her, throwing a wide punch with my right fist. She threw up her left arm and blocked it easily. I brought up my left leg to kick her in the side. She simply let it hit her, and barely flinched.

“Man your legs must be out of it! I barely even felt that kick.” She cooed, she was taunting me and I knew it. I still lost it though, and I pulled back to give her a round house hick to the head. She brought her right hand up and grabbed my ankle. “Really though, this is just sad.” She said as she pushed my foot back, making me fall flat on my butt. “You have no skill in Taijutsu, and your Ninjutsu is nothing but the basics.” She added placing her hands on her hips. “With those skills you won’t last another round against the twins.”

“So what! I’ve got Kakashi and Zabuza to help me out!” I snapped back.

She brought her left hand up in front of her mouth to make it look like she was actually thinking about it. “That’s a good point, but here’s a better one: What if you’re caught out alone, what then? What if Kakashi and Zabuza lose? And what if the rest of your team bite the dust, leaving only you to defend yourself and you can’t, what are you going to do?” The more she went on the more the message sunk in. “You try to fight, Yakan tears you apart. You try to run, Hiruma picks you off before you take five steps. You try hiding, they’ll smell you out before you get to safety.”

I sighed. “So what would have me do?” I asked, forcing myself up again. “And more importantly, why should I trust you?”

She shrugged. “Well for starters, I knew your mother…”

It hit me like a bullet, for a split second I thought she was telling the truth until my skeptic mode took over. “Prove it…” I said glaring daggers.

“Well for starters, her name was Maria Cole, the night she disappeared was the night of her birthday and that she liked horror movies and black coffee…” The woman listed simply. I was awestruck, right on the money, every little things she just said was true. She reached into the pocket of her lab coat and pulled out a picture. She threw it to me. I caught it and looked at it. It was just a simple picture of them at the beach, this woman and my mom.

The lady was on the left of the picture I recognized her, her hair was much shorter, only down to her shoulders. She was holding my mom in a playful headlock, or at least it looked like a headlock, it could have just been a hug. My mom was to the right, her blonde hair was longer, I got that right away but it was tied up in a bun. She had emerald green eyes like mine, we almost looked alike.

“You know I used to visit when you were younger.” The woman piped up. “you used to jump on me and call me Auntie Lo.”

“Sorry I don’t remember.” I said tossing the picture back to her, she caught it and stuffed it back in her pocket.

“I don’t blame you, you were only two years old.” She pointed out. “After that I had to get back to work.”

“So, hang on a sec.” I said a new question tugging at my brain. “Why are you here? I thought me and my family were the only people from our world here right now!” Yeah sure I said America might have made contact with the shinobi nations but that didn’t mean they were still around!

“There’s a lot of things you don’t know.” She said turning and walking back into the darkness. “C’mon, let’s get you dried off.” She stopped. “Oh and by the way, call me The Professor from now on.”

I gazed at the tall ceiling above my head. I knew that outside it was a brand new day. Prof (Yes I’m calling her that!) had been nice enough to let me spend the night on the condition that I let her train me to fight the twins. I obliged, but only because I was just too damn tired to argue, I still didn’t trust her much.

“Alright, right now your in training field six, now I’m going to warn you, some parts of this training WILL be difficult and some parts you might not be so keen on doing.” She said matter-of-factly. “Then again, you already agreed to it yesterday.” She added mockingly. The more I hung around this woman, the more she reminded me of Anko, I swear to god.

I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at her. “You think we could, I don’t know move this to a place I’m a little more familiar with?” I asked, I really didn’t want to worry my team too much about where the hell I was.

“Nope!” She said cheerfully.

“And why not?” I asked.

“Well for starters…” She began then, like a bolt of lightning, grabbed white pistol from beneath her labcoat, levelled it at me and fired. A bolt of blue-white light tore from the barrel and hit dead center of the chest. I felt it pass through me and I instantly felt cold, but not weak. Soon the warmth of my body returned as I grabbed at the spot where she shot me, gripping a bright orange t-shirt that she’d given me. Not wound, no mark, not even a scratch or fibre out of place on the shirt. “…HE might wreck up the place.” She added pointing at me.

I was about to protest until I felt a presence behind me. I whipped around and realized she hadn’t been pointing at me, nut behind me at this…thing. It was a chunk of grey-black metal. It then suddenly began to warp and shiver. It was like it was melting and reforming then building upon itself. What was once something about the size of a small cat was now an eight foot tall mass of boiling metal. I took a few cautious steps back as it started to solidify.

When it was finished, my adrenaline spiked. It looked like a Halo: Reach elite, except with a robust jaw instead of two pairs of mandibles and was almost twice as muscular. Most of its body was the same grey-black color, which looked like a varying pattern of artificial muscle and armoured plates. A few of the armoured plates had golden-yellow outlines and a few of the blue lights that had covered the twins’ weapons. This thing literally was the monster from my nightmares.

I held a sword on its back, which looked like Zabuza’s Executioner blade, except the tip was more sharpened for stabbing and the edges were serrated. One of the edges continued to attach to the hilt of the blade.

Creature brought its massive right arm up and gripped the sword, its fingers protected by the swords odd handguard. It hefted the weapon off its back and spun it and stabbed it into the floor. It crossed its arms over its chest, and slowly opened its eyes. Those eyes reminded my of Orochimaru’s, only it’s were more calm and wizened rather than creepy. One question remained though, what the hell was it?

“Present yourself.” Prof said suddenly.

Its eyes quickly darted towards her. “A name? I have none.” It said calmly. Its voice was deep and it almost sounded like it was growling. It’s eyes darted to me. “Is this the one who must be trained?” It asked as it sized me up.

“Yes. Maybe she can come up with a name for a name for you.” Prof said to it. I whipped around to face her.

“Wait a minute! That thing is going to train me?!” I asked in bewilderment, pointing at it.

“You agreed to it and I did say there were parts of this training that you want to do.” She replied calmly. My jaw dropped.

“Your insane!” I screamed, she only smirked.

“You need to be a little insane in this line of work.” She said turning and striding confidently out of the room. “You kids have fun now!” She said as a blast door closed behind her. I suddenly heard the sword being pulled from the ground and turned to see the edge of the sword swinging for my face. I ducked and the blade brushed past the top of my head. It quickly spun and raised the blade high over it’s head ready to bring it down on me. I jumped away from it as it brought the blade down. I jumped back a bit to get some distance between me and it. It quickly pulled the blade from the ground and charged at me with blinding speed.

I barely had time to dodge to the right as it swung the blade to left. It realized too late that that sword swing was just a distraction. Its three fingered fist made contact with my gut. It was like someone had just fired a plastic ball at me with a compressed air cannon. I flew at least twelve feet before hitting a wall…hard. The impact knocked the air from my lungs and I slid on my back to the floor. In moments a shadow loomed over me and I looked up to see the creature standing over me, its sword resting on its back.

“Your technique, from what I have seen, is to dodge your opponents attacks until you see an opening.” It said. “That technique isn’t bad against an opponent that you are equal to in skill. However, against a stronger opponent, you will die before you get an opening.” It kneeled down to look me in the eyes. “Just like I could have killed you right then and there, and you wouldn’t have landed a single hit.”

“How could I fight back? Your like six times bigger than I am!” I shot back.

“Size, matters not in combat, how you fight and think does.” It responded calmly. It stood up and extended its hand to help me up. I grabbed its hand and it pulled me up. Pain shot through my stomach and I gripped at it as the creature turned and walked away. After about ten steps it turned and brought it’s sword down and stuck it in the floor again.

“What not using the five-ton cleaver?” I asked pulling out two Kunai, ready for whatever it threw at me.

“With your skills, I will not need it.” It said tightening its hands into fists. It charged again and I barely had time to react as its palm slammed into my chin, sending me into the air. I crashed down onto the floor on my back. Its right foot quickly planted down on my chest, its toes curled around my shoulders.

“Your stance is too stiff, you must be open for attack on any side.” It said staring down at me. “Also your choice of weapon is not really effective.” It said as it held up one of my kunai and flipped it around in its hand. It dropped the kunai and removed its foot from my chest allowing me to breathe easier.

“What the hell are you?” I gasped as I sat up. It cocked it’s head to one side.

“Do you wish for me to answer that honestly?” It asked crossing arms. I nodded. It sighed and straightened. “I am the manifestation of your weapon…your true weapon.”

I only shook my head. “That’s complete bullshit.” I said standing up. Whatever this thing is, it was definitely not a weapon. Then It did something completely unexpected. It opened it’s mouth, it’s neck puffed outward, and an ear piercing roar burst out. I would have covered my ears if the blast hadn’t knocked my back into the same damn wall. My ears were ringing as I got up. My vision was blurry and I could barely stand.

“Did that sound familiar at all?” It asked as my hearing cleared up. I thought back a bit, and I realized sounded eerily like my guitars tuning.

“No fucking way.” I whispered as I saw what it was holding. The very guitar. The one I’d had since my mom disappeared, the one I’d been playing for eight years. It tossed the guitar my way and I caught it clumsily.

“Play it.” The creature demanded, crossing it’s arms.

“There’s no way I can play this without an amp! It doesn’t work!” I screamed at it.

It gave me what looked like a smirk. “Then we will have to fix that…”

I sighed. “First though…” I was about to say something he would want to hear. “You’re name…its Gault.”

Gault smiled back at me. “I could get used to it” he said happily. “Now to fix your guitar…”

==== COOL TRANSITION ====
Naruto sat at the kitchen table at Tazuna’s house. The air in the room was grim, they’d been training during the day and searching for Krystal at night for the two days since she disappeared. The two Mist-nin who had been helping them had stopped looking, saying it was a waste of time. Sakura hadn’t gotten over it, she still seemed afraid. Sasuke seemed a bit concerned too, as did Kakashi-sensei.

Naruto just hoped she was alright. Right now though, he had training to do and food to eat. But Naruto couldn’t bring himself to eat the bowl of rice in front of him. “I’m gonna go train a bit.” Naruto said getting up and walking to the front door.

“Naruto, you haven’t eaten anything yet, you should at least try and eat something before training.” Kakashi said.

Naruto slipped on his shoes. “I’m not hungry.” He said opening the door.

“I know your worried about her Naruto, but you should at least try to eat something.” Kakashi said to reinforce his point.

“Hmph! There’s no point in worrying about her anyway!” A little kid said to Naruto. “She’s dead anyway, Gato’s men got to her and soon he’ll get to you guys too!” Inari added as Naruto turned around.

“THAT’S IT!” Naruto yelled spinning around and grabbing Inari by his shirt collar. “Krystal would never die on us, ever! So you can whine and complain all you want! Your just a coward anyway!” Naruto let go of Inari, huffed and stormed out of the house, slamming the door behind him on his way out.

Tears began to cry and ran out of the house quickly. Everyone was shocked at what had just happened. In the back of Naruto’s mind, he had the thought that Inari was right, Krystal was dead and there was noting they could do about it.

Sasuke took one last look at Naruto, sleeping like a rock. Naruto had overdone it in his training earlier. Sasuke couldn’t help but smirk at Naruto’s idiocy. The kid may be determined, but he was still a loser.

“Alright, I’m heading out.” Tazuna announced as he opened the door.

“Guess that would be our cue also.” Kakashi added as he got up from the chair he was sitting on. Sakura didn’t say a thing, she was still distraught over Krystal’s disappearance. It did make Sasuke question his safety as he went to sleep every night.

The three ninja followed the Bridge Builder, they had to escort the old man with everyone available. The Mist-nin Zabuza had warned them that since the bridge could be completed soon that the twins were probably going to make their move today. Sasuke felt a lump in his throat and swallowed.

The closer they got to the bridge the more Sasuke noticed Sakura shaking. “Sakura, you need to calm down, if your tense like that it makes the enemy easier to make you panic.” Sasuke explained to her, in all honesty though, he felt like freaking out a little himself.

“I-it’s just…last time we wouldn’t have survived if those two Mist-nin hadn’t shown up when they had.” Sakura whimpered.

“Don’t worry, they said they would be meeting us at the bridge.” Sasuke pointed out. Zabuza and Haku had met with Kakashi the night before at Tazuna’s, the genin had been out training so Kakashi filled them in. “It was their mission to capture those two and get information from them.”

“Yeah, I forgot…” Sakura mumbled. She didn’t seem to feel any better. Sakura didn’t feel better, in fact she felt even worse. The real reason she didn’t want to be here was cause she dreaded the possibility that Krystal was dead. Although the new arrival didn’t know it yet, Sakura knew her step-brother quite well, she didn’t want to break the news to him about his step-sisters death.

As they approached the bridge two figures stood out from the mist. Sakura’s heart rate picked up, she couldn’t pick them out too well. As she got closer she saw that it was actually the two Mist-nin waiting for them. She managed to let out a sigh of relief.

“I just wanna make one thing clear, we are not here to bodyguard the old man.” Zabuza said, his arms crossed over his chest.

“Fair enough.” Kakashi said, Sakura could still feel a bit of tension between the two. She hoped they wouldn’t start to fight us. The group walked onto the bridge and headed for the worksite.

When they got there they saw workers lying face down on the ground. Kakashi quickly move over to one of the men, and felt his neck for a pulse. “Their alive, but unconscious.” He reported. Sakura was on the verge of hyperventilating, it was the twins again, she knew it.

“Well it looks like we have a few visitors.” The voice of the twin named Yakan said from the veil of mist.

“Looks like it.” Hiruma’s voice answered. Sakura heard chuckling from inside the veil. “Let’s roll out the welcome mat.”

She saw the sun begin to darken again. “Ninja art: Eternal day of a Black Sun!” The twins said in unison. The sun suddenly began to darken faster and colors began to drain. Sakura used her shaking hand to pull out a kunai in any attempt to defend herself and her team.

==== COOL TRANSITION ====

Naruto faced off against two samurai guys after he’d save Inari and his mom. “It’s one of those ninja kids Tazuna hired!” One of them said.

“Take him down!” The other one said, the two charged Naruto. Naruto threw two shuriken at the two of them. They drew their swords and deflected the shuriken.

“Your gonna have to do better than that kid!” One of them said. Naruto smirked as two shadowclones came up behind the samurai. They both whipped their swords under their arms and stabbed the clones. The clones popped and the samurai were getting closer.

“Sorry kid! That wasn’t good enough!” The same one said, raising his sword as he bared down on Naruto.

“Then how’s this?!” A voice yelled to Naruto’s left. Naruto didn’t really understand what happened soon after that. All he knew was there was a loud noise and the two samurai were knocked to the side, off the dock and into the water. Inari stared at the spot the samurai had been moments before.

“Did you boys miss me?” The voice said and Inari and Naruto both turned to see Krystal resting a guitar on her left shoulder.

“K-Krystal!” Naruto exclaimed, he was both shocked and immensely happy.

“Well who’dja expect numbnuts?” I asked letting go of my grip on the guitars neck. It slid down my back and rested there, with nothing holding it up. I was wearing a black t-shirt under a blue hoodie which was open at the front and black pants. The guitar itself looked like a regular silver and blue electric other than the three speakers below the strings.

“We all though were dead!” Inari called over as I jumped to land on the same dock they were on.

“I figured that was gonna happen…” I said with a sigh as I landed. “Where’s everyone else?” I asked Naruto.

“They ditched me to go with the bridge builder so he could work on the bridge.” Naruto explained. “I was gonna go after them until those two clowns showed up. And I coulda handled ‘em y’know!”

“Don’t be such a whiner!” I said punching Naruto lightly in the shoulder. I paused. “C’mon, the others could use our help.” I added I turned to head to the bridge.

“Okay! Then lets go!” Naruto said following me. I knew that the twins would probably have attacked by now, and the others were gonna all the manpower they could get.

==== COOL TRANSITION ====

Sakura felt tears flowing down her face as she watched Sasuke clutching at his chest in agony. Kakashi and Zabuza had broken the genjutsu and Yakan and Hiruma had split up. Yakan was fighting Zabuza and Kakashi sensei. Hiruma had split up to attack her, Sasuke and Haku. Hiruma had used some sort of ability his weapon had to burn Sasuke’s chest badly.

“Sasuke please you have to hold on!” Sakura pleaded as Sasuke continued to scream. The skin where the blue-white bolt had hit Sasuke was charred and blackened. Some smoke was rising from the wound. Sakura couldn’t handle the thought of her crush dying on their first mission. First Krystal, now Sasuke…

Sakura tore her gaze from Sasuke to watch Haku and Kiruma battle it out. Hiruma and flipped his weapons around to use the blades on the top like provisional kunai for defence and attack. Haku seemed to be Hiruma’s equal in speed, and two seemed to be evenly matched. Sakura noted how Haku stayed at close range to keep Hiruma’s weapons from using their ranged ability.

Haku pushed back a bit to dodge and upward kick to his chin. Hiruma spun around to bring one of his weapons in the forward at Haku. He was going to use its ability again. Haku dodged as Kiruma fired, but just barely. Haku’s nose sucked in the scent of singed hair ad he brought his right up with a senbon needle to stab at Hiruma’s arm with the weapon that had just fired. He hoped to hit the pressure point in his arm to disable that arm and render one of his weapons useless.

Hiruma jerked his arm upwards flipping the weapon back around to the backwards position. As Haku’s senbon past harmlessly underneath, Hiruma brought the weapon down, effectively breaking the senbon. Haku drew enough senbon to place on between each of his fingers, like small, sharp, stabbing claws. Haku saw Hiruma lunge forward the other weapon blade pointed at Haku’s chest. Haku blocked with both sets of senbon. Big mistake.

Hiruma brought up the other weapon in the forward position and pointed it at the mask on Haku’s face. Haku tried to dodge to the left, but too late. The weapon fired, The blue-white bolt blinded Haku as he felt backwards from the impact. Haku felt the right side of his face being burned away.

He hit the ground on his back, he heard the girl named Sakura scream something at him, but he couldn’t hear her. The mask felt red hot. Haku quickly gripped the mask, burning the palm of his hand in the process and throwing it away. It clattered on the ground, and into a puddle. Haku heard the hiss of steam and opened his eyes.

His right eye was now completely blind and his left eye’s vision was badly blurred, the pain was excruciating. Haku wouldn’t be fighting anymore, and that meant he was probably going to die here. He wasn’t trained that well in the silent killing technique like Zabuza, so he couldn’t pinpoint his opponent by sound. He could still make out the blurred of Hiruma standing over him, weapon pointed at Haku’s face.

“Looks likes it’s the end of the road for you kid.” Hiruma said. Just then a group of Shuriken came at him. He jumped to get out of the way.

“I’ll destroy you, you rotten-.” The little blonde kid said before his friend held her guitar out in front of him.

“Naruto, this guy’s way out of your league.” I said holding my guitar in front of Naruto.

“Wait a minute, you’re not saying that your gonna take him on alone?!” Naruto asked stunned. “You’re crazy!”

I flashed a sideways glare at him. “I didn’t train for two days, nonstop, without a break for nothing.” I said. Naruto realized that I was telling the truth. I had a bandage on my left cheek and some pressure bandages could be seen on my right shoulder. The rest of my body was a mine field of bruises and non-serious cuts. I returned my gaze to Hiruma, glaring daggers. “Besides, this guy hurt my teammates.”

Hiruma started to laugh. “Whaddya gonna do with that guitar? Serenade me to death?!” He mocked.

I gave him a smirk. “Somethin’ like that.” I said bringing the guitar out in front of me to play it. Hiruma brought up both his guns and pulled both triggers. The blue-white bolts arced right for me. I flipped the guitar around so the strings faced me and brought the body up to shield my face and chest, which was were the bolts seemed to be heading. The both hit the guitar and exploded.

Naruto fell to the right with the shock of the explosion. He looked back at the smoke cloud where Krystal had been a few seconds ago. She couldn’t have survived that! Then the smoke began to clear, and there was Krystal, holding the guitar in the same fashion she had been just before impact. She was unscathed, and the guitar didn’t even have a scratch. The air around the guitar was distorted a bit. Did it have some kind of force field?

“You survived, that’s impossible! This is some sort of trick!” Hiruma said in disbelief.

I smirked again. Lowered the guitar to my right and began to spin it around and around like a baton. “The impossible just became possible!” I declared triumphantly. Hiruma brought the guns up again and started to fire over and over. I charged at him, and dodged most of the bolts, and those I couldn’t I deflected with the guitar. I’d gotten a lot faster since training with Gault. You had to be fast with that guy.

Hiruma’s face was become that of worry when I got closer. He stopped firing, flipped the guns so they were backwards and raised them as I brought the guitar over my right shoulder and swung it down like an axe. Hiruma blocked and I placed my right hand on the opposite edge of the guitar’s body. My left hand gripping the neck, just below where the strings started. Hiruma was keeping the guitar back with his guns, and we were having a stare down.

“Tell me, how did you manage to block my attacks when no one else I’ve ever fought has?” Hiruma asked, amusement in his voice.

“A magician never reveals his tricks.” I said, reflecting the same amusement. “It would ruin the fun of it.”

“Really?” Hiruma said before he pushed back suddenly. He and I both jumped back wards. He began blasting everything in my general direction, and I strafed to the right. I then came back around to the left, the guitar hanging lazily in front of my stomach, I was ready to play something. I hit a note as hard as I could and Hiruma’s face turned from amusement to shock as a sound wave hit him in the chest. He flew backwards, skidding across the ground.

He was starting to push himself up slowly and I saw my chance. I charged at him, holding the guitar neck with both hands, I ran at him preparing to swing the body to his face. When I got close enough he noticed me just before the guitar made contact with his face. I continued smashing him in face with it over and over. With one swing he began to loose his balance and I spun around, using the guitars momentum to power up another strike.

“KISS THIS BITCH!!!” I yelled at him as I hit him one last time. There was a loud thump like a subwoofer in a movie theatre and Hiruma went flying again. He hit the ground and rolled over and over before coming to a stop, lying on his face. “How’d ya like them apples?” I asked resting the guitar, which had some of his blood spattered on it, on my right shoulder.

He slowly began to pick himself up. “You…little…brat…” He said lowly as he picked up his pistols as he got up. “I’M NOT LOSING TO A BRAT LIKE YOU!” He snapped suddenly and brought up both pistols, smashing the side together. Instead of just bouncing apart like they should, they seemed to melt on impact and fuse together. A single, long gun barrel sprouted from the two fused guns. Small motes of light began to stream backwards into the back of the gun and merge to form a glowing mass.

It quickly shot out a break neck speed, the heat from the supercharged blast frying the brickwork underneath and kicking up dust. It would still be a little while before it reached, plenty of time for me to dodge. I sidestepped to the left, it should be about to streak by harmlessly, until it changed course, still heading right for me.

I barely had time to raise the guitar as a shield. It hit the back of the guitars body and exploded. The guitar was wrenched away from my hand and I felt something superhot cut into my right shoulder. I yelp as I flew almost fifteen feet in the air and came crashing back down. When I landed, my head hit the bridge and the wind was knocked out of me. I tumbled slowly losing consciousness until I blacked out.

==== COOL TRANSITION ====

Naruto watched the explosion go off, and the entire bridge shook. The entire bridge from the detonation point on was now hidden by thick black smoke. He heard a whump and saw Krystal lying face first on the ground, either out cold or dead. Her right shoulder was burn and black, grey smoke rising from the injury.

Naruto heard someone laughing hysterically, and turned to see Hiruma stepping out of the smoke down the bridge, a now massive weapon resting on his left shoulder. “You thought you were tough enough to beat me? You were either really brave or really stupid! There’s no way you were anywhere in my league!” He mocked, Krystal didn’t move. His face was covered in his own blood, from multiple gashes on his face. Hiruma began to laugh again.

Naruto’s rage began to build up the more Hiruma laughed. Hiruma had just hurt Krystal and Sasuke, not to mention that Ninja from the most village. Sakura was scared half to death, shaking uncontrollably and unable to move. She could only stare at Sasuke, to afraid to look anywhere else.

“Stop laughing.” Naruto threatened. Hiruma stopped laughing, but still kept an annoying smile on his face.

“Why should I? I’m having a ball!” Hiruma countered.

Naruto’s hands tightened into fists. “You hurt my friends, and for that…” Naruto looked up. “…I kill you.”

Hiruma noticed that the kids pupils had narrowed into slits and his eyes were blood red. The markings on his face had gotten more prominent and his hair and begun to stick up wildly. A red chakra began to pour out of him and whip around like a tornado’ the face of a demonic at the top. “What the hell it that?” Hiruma said in disbelief.

The Chakra suddenly collected around Naruto in a red aura around his body, he felt the need to kill something, his instincts screamed at him to. His eyes locked onto Hiruma and Naruto Charged at him. Hiruma lifted the weapon of his shoulder to try and block Naruto. Naruto managed to punch his left hand clean through the weapon, snapping it in half. Hiruma held onto one piece of it, the other flew skyward. Naruto brought up his right fist and slugged the white haired boy in the face.

Hiruma couldn’t believe what was going on. Were all the kids from the Hidden Leaf Village freaks of nature? Hiruma recovered just as Naruto punched him again. Naruto lined up another punch. Hiruma saw it coming and grabbed Naruto’s wrist with both hands, if he hadn’t Naruto’s fist would have easily connected with his chin. Naruto simply grabbed Hiruma’s ninja cape and held him in place.

Naruto bought his left fist back again and began to pour his chakra into it as if on instinct. Hiruma froze up, who the hell was the kid? Naruto swung a punch. For some reason, Naruto’s mind flashed to something Krystal would have said in that situation. “FALCON PUNCH!!!” He screamed as his fist made contact. Hiruma was sent flying, his nose and left cheekbone were crushed by the impact.

Naruto wasn’t done yet. He was gonna pulverise Hiruma until there was nothing left. Naruto charged at Hiruma again, ready to beat the snot out of the guy before he got up. Suddenly, the blade of a highly oversized sword blocked his path. Naruto stopped and whipped his head to the left to the other Mist-nin staring at him, holding the sword.

“Naruto!” Kakashi sensei’s voice sounded behind him. “That’s enough, you won that fight.” Kakashi added as Naruto turned around.

“But Kakashi sensei, he hur-.” Naruto was cut short.

“Krystal and Sasuke will be fine, they just need rest. As for Sakura, give her a minute to calm down.” Kakashi said as Naruto’s anger began to melt away. “But right now I need your help getting Krystal and Sasuke back to Tazuna’s.”

“Wait a sec! What about the other guy?!” Naruto asked suddenly.

“He got away…” The Mist-nin said behind Naruto. “You two get going, I’ll take care of Haku.”

Kakashi nodded his understanding. Naruto followed his sensei back to the others, Sasuke had since fallen unconscious, and Sakura was kneeling over him, still shaking from shock. She had no idea what was going on at the moment or what had taken place in the last few moments. Naruto felt a pang of worry for his teammates, but worrying wouldn’t help them get better. He walked over to Sakura to try and snap her out of her daze as Kakashi sensei picked up Krystal. It could be a while before they went back to the village.

I was sleeping soundly, enjoying a nice dream, one that I won’t remember the minute I wake up, I never remember the nice ones. I suddenly felt something prodding my left shoulder. It felt like a finger or a stick, and it was annoying enough to get my to partial consciousness.

“Moommmmm! Five more minutes.” I grumbled lowly rolling to my right and immediately pain shot through my shoulder. I bolted upright, clutching my shoulder as it throbbed from the aftermath of the sudden pain, my mouth spewing profanities like a broken hose.

“NARUTO! I TOLD YOU NOT TO POKE HER!!!” Sakura yelled off to my left, and I heard the loud, satisfying thump as Sakura delivered a punch to the top of Naruto’s head.

Naruto brought both his hands up and grabbed at the spot where Sakura had hit. “Owwww! Sakura, I was just trying to see if she’d wake up!” Naruto whined in his defence.

Sasuke just stare at the two, secretly wishing he’d never gotten stuck with these losers. The door slid open and Kakashi stepped in, noticing me sitting there in a black t-shirt grabbing at my shoulder and wincing in pain. “What are you guys doing to this poor girl.” He said to the rest of Team 7.

The pain was starting to pass and I forced my left hand to let go of my shoulder. God damn white haired prick, torched my shoulder. “Krystal, how’re you feeling?” Kakashi asked. I forced a laugh.

“Like someone took a welding torch to my shoulder and them washed it out with acid and nuclear waste.” I answered.

“Oh, then it’s not that bad is it?” Naruto said and I glared at him.

“You’ve seriously got to stop hanging around Nick okay?” I said matter-of-factly. “His sick, twisted sense of humor is beginning to rub off on you.

Naruto looked surprise disgusted and frightened all at the same time when I said that. It was really hard to look at him making that face and not laugh, so I looked away, certain that if I was going to laugh it would make my shoulder act up again.

“You think your ready to go back to the village?” Kakashi asked suddenly, changing the subject.

I nodded. “I’m an O’Connor…stubbornness runs in the family.” I said with a smirk. That’s what everyone said about us, and it held some truth, we don’t tend to change our minds much. Some have even dared say that we border lining insanity.

“Well, It’s about time you woke up!” Tazuna’s voice said from behind Kakashi. I glanced up at the old man, Tsunami was standing next to him smiling. I smiled back until I heard small feet thudding on the floor. I managed to notice Inari in time for him to tackle me in a hug. My shoulder began to feel like it was on fire again.

“AAAAAGH! SHOULDER! SHOULDER! GET OFF!” I screamed as Inari quickly jumped off me a moved as far back from me as possible. I sat up gripping my shoulder again. “Why is everyone picking on me today?” I groaned. “Man my sister’s gonna kill me when I come home in this condition.”

“How bad is she gonna kill you?” Naruto asked. “Like total mutilation or just normal killing?”

I glared daggers at him. “Seriously! Stop hanging around him!” I said angrily. Naruto flinched, I know he was trying to lighten the mood but still, Naruto humor was better than Nick humor any day.

“Alright, everyone get packed, we’re heading home.” Kakashi said and stepped out of the room, everyone following him except Inari.

“Sorry about earlier.” He said sadly.

I smiled. “Eh, it’s okay, mistakes happen.” I said brushing it off. “I’ll live…if my sister doesn’t kill me when I get back.”

“Like mutilate kill or normal kill?” Inari said jokingly.

“Oh god, not you too!” I begged in vain, shoving my face in my hands. Was Nick’s humor like a parasitic life form or something?

==== COOL TRANSITION ====

We were standing at the entrance to the Great Naruto Bridge. Yes it was still gonna be called that, Naruto had been hard at work in my absence. Kakashi was obviously unhappy about me leaving to go train without letting him know, he’d given me a three minute lecture about that, but it seemed more like three hours.

I had one strap of my backpack slung around my left shoulder. My guitars neck was sticking out of the backpack and I was wearing the stuff that had been left in my room when I’d “abandoned” the team to go train. The blue t-shirt with a darker dragon design on the front, a black jacket and black pants, yes I like the color black.

The entire village had come out to see us off, Tazuna’s family out in front. Naruto and Inari had their little cry-off or whatever. I just stood there rolling my eyes at the idiocy.

“Theres nothing I can put into words to express how truly grateful we are for your help.” Tazuna said, dude looked about ready to break into tears himself.

I shrugged my left shoulder, trying to avoid as much pain to my right one as possible, it wasn’t easy. “Well we do our best.” I pointed out.

“I hope your shoulder gets better.” Tsunami said.

“D’you promise to come back and visit?” Inari asked. I ruffled his hair.

“Sure, why not?” I said reassuringly.

“Don’t start that streak. You start making promises like that and you never stop.” Kakashi warned.

“Oh, bite me.” I said rolling my eyes at him.

Tazuna’s family finished saying good-bye to the rest of the squad and we started our walk home. “So what are you guys gonna do when you get back?” Kakashi asked out of the blue.

“I’m gonna head over to Krystal’s and play a few rounds of Call of Duty.” Naruto said.

“I’m not sure what I’m gonna do.” Sakura said nervously.

“Train. I’m not gonna let anyone else get the better of me again.” Sasuke said simply.

“Find a concrete bunker to hole up in to hide from my sister.” I said, I was seriously not looking forward to the welcome home reception. I had stuck my right hand in my pocket to keep it from swinging.

“Aw c’mon, your sisters so nice. It can’t be that bad!” Naruto said, trying to cheer me up.

“You haven’t seen her ugly side yet.” I pointed out.

“D’you mean that metaphorically or physically?” Kakashi asked, looking over his shoulder at us.

“Don’t start…” I both threatened and begged. “…and I meant metaphorically.”

==== COOL TRANSITION ====

A cloaked figure watched from the shadows of a nearby tree. His cloak was visible enough that it’s silver-grey color and faded red accents were somewhat visible, yet the man’s face was completely hidden. A seventeen year old boy landed next to the figure, his spiky black hair draped in front of his face. “What’s up Yakan? I hope you’ve got the goods.” The cloaked figure said in his dare-devilish voice.

“Yes sir, the information you needed is in here.” Yakan said, slipping the figure an envelope.

“Thanks, but your thinking about somethin’ else, aren’tcha?” The figure added. “Your brother right?”

“Yes Commander, I’m worried that he’ll be executed by those two Mist ninja. Especially the big one with the sword.” Yakan said, staring down.

“Trust me they won’t kill him. They’ll try to comb him for info on our village, and they’ll keep him alive until they get everything they need from him.” The figure pointed out. “And Hiruma’s not an easy nut to crack if you get what I’m saying. Right now we just need to focus on getting everything set up for Operation: Golden Axe.”

“Yes sir. I’ll get on that.” Yakan said. But before he could leave, the figure stopped him.

“Don’t worry buddy. We’ll get your brother back.” The figure said.

I sat in my sleeping bag, watching the shadows flicker with the light emanating from the nearby campfire. Because of Sasuke’s chest injury, Kakashi was being nice and letting us take a break on our way back. Everyone except Kakashi and moi we’re asleep. Don’t go thinking that it was because of my shoulder pain, in fact that had been basically been pushed to the back of my mind, my brain trying to disassociate myself from any physical sensation…that or my shoulder was beginning to go numb. The real reason was how the hell was I gonna explain this to the family back home? I’ll be honest, My mind was drawing a big-ass blank.

“Why aren’t you asleep yet?” Kakashi asked with a slight hint of frustration. I snapped my eyes up to look at him. He was sitting on a rock, about six or seven feet from the fire. “You need to rest or that shoulder of yours isn’t going to get any better.”

I sighed, my hand reflexively raised itself to my shoulder and clamped down on it gently. “I was just thinking about how I was gonna explain to my family about the new guitar.” I said glancing down to my right to see the silver and midnight blue guitar shining ever so slightly with the fire light. “I mean, I didn’t bring mine on the trip so when I get back their gonna ask where I got it…”

“…And you don’t know what to say.” Kakashi finished for me. I nodded. It was simply to important for me to toss aside like that. Normally I wasn’t one to accept gifts to readily, (‘cept on my birthday and Christmas) so they were gonna think something was up. And I couldn’t say I bought it ‘cause I don’t have enough money to buy something that would be worth around five grand. If I told them the truth, they’d think I was either lying or the time we’d spent in this universe had made me lose my marbles, and part of me believed that I was actually starting to go a little nutty.

“Sorry but I don’t know your family like you do…your going to have to come up with this on your own.” He said. I felt my brow twitch.

‘Great, thanks a lot you lazy fuck.’ I said mentally.

“Now can you please head off to sleep so we can move tomorrow?” He said almost pleadingly. I just lied down and pulled the covers over my shoulders, making sure I slept on my left side. I closed my eyes willing myself to sleep, but I just couldn’t. My mind was still racing on how to explain everything, and how to brush off the fact that my right shoulder was nearly burnt to cinders.

I was just lying there thinking, I don’t know how long I was doing that but when I glanced at the fire it had been reduced to flickering embers. Then another thought found it’s way into my mind. The Chuunin exams…I had totally forgotten about those, and then there was another thing that sent the biggest chill up my spine. The image of those yellow snakelike eyes.

Just looking into those things made me sweat in fear. Would I have to go toe to toe with Orochimaru? Or would it be someone even more dangerous? The I saw the signature reddish hair and demented face of Gaara, now that’s another person I hoped I wouldn’t run into.

==== PROF ====

The Professor scanned through a multitude of data spread out unevenly across a oversized computer monitor.

“Doctor…” I robotic voice sounded around the room.

“For the thousandth time Hephaestus, it’s Professor. Get it right.” Prof retorted.

“Okay then Professor, how are your fairing in Project: Evolution?” Hephaestus asked.

“You and I both know how it’s going.” Prof countered, obviously fed up with something.

“I just wanted your input Doc-.”

“Professor!” She snapped.

“Sorry, you know what I was programmed to learn, and unfortunately names were not part of them.” Hephaestus asked.

The Professor huffed at her companion AI’s annoying choice of words. Although she was the one who created Hephaestus, he seemed to know himself better than she knew the back of her own hand, yet the Professor knew that the last statement was a complete lie. “I didn’t program you to learn how to lie either.” She said with an amused smirk.

Hephaestus made a noise which could be only described as an aggravated huff. “So how goes the project?” He asked, quickly changing the subject.

“Well, the Nanotech endoskeleton has complete construction and the thermo-reactant coating has begun growing with the assistance of nanobots.” She reported, and then sighed. “I still don’t like how the government cut our funding entirely, this technology could’ve benefitted mankind greatly.”

“It IS unfortunate.” Hephaestus agreed. The Nanotech they’d create almost three decades ago had been too dangerous for the American populace. But so far not a single problem had arisen with the technology. He’d run it through his processors many times but still couldn’t find any reason why it was deemed dangerous. The only thing he could come up with was that something had happened many years before he’d been created that had thrown the government officials into a panic and forced the shut down of the research labs. He wanted to know what had happened, but still respected the Professor’s judgement. If she thought he should know, she’d tell him. It wasn’t his place to ask that question.

“Hephaestus, Prep the lab for transfer.” The Professor said suddenly, as Hephaestus saw her through his cameras shutting off the monitor and standing up from her chair.

Hephaestus’ attempted to process the reasoning behind her orders, but came up with nothing. “Professor?” He prompted.

“Krystal may have bought us some time, but now that she left for the Leaf Village, they’ll be back with an even bigger force to lock me up.” She said simply. “We need to move to another secure location before they get here.”

All of Hephaestus’ functions stopped for a brief moment as he realised what was going on. “But, this was the last secure research base we have! Where else can we continue our research?!” He said in a panic. Truly…what was she thinking? Sure they might find something that could serve as a viable research base for her, but Hephaestus needed certain conditions to use all of his functions.

“I said it a few seconds ago, search your playback.” She said exiting the room through an opened blast door. Hephaestus searched through his memory banks, cross-referencing anything of interest to possible viable locations for continue research. When he came to the Village Hidden in the Leaves, he remembered the Professor saying ‘Leaf Village’. She couldn’t be thinking there, could she?

Sure it was highly secure location but it didn’t have any computer systems at it’s disposal that could sustain him or the Professor’s work, even with material from the base which he and the Professor occupied currently. It would be like trying to design a Saturn 5 rocket with nothing but a wrench and a pickup truck for material. She must have a plan on how to make it work, other wise the two of them were royally screwed.

==== KRYSTAL ====

I yawned and stretched as I lagged behind the group. I had inadvertently taken the trail position, forced to watch everyone’s back. Curse my stupid brain for freaking out until I stayed up ‘till two in the morning. I still hadn’t figured out how I was gonna explain shit about the guitar and the shoulder burn, so I figured I’d just roll with whatever life threw my way.

Right now I was in a mild mental panic. I was heading into the Chuunin exams in a few weeks to possibly face off against Orochimaru and definitely meet up with Gaara. Hell, just Gaara was enough to freak out just a tad. Now just imagine what the hell Orochimaru was doing to my psyche! Seriously, what the hell do his groupies see in him? He tries to destroy the fucking Leaf Village and kills the freaking Hokage! I mean come on! That and I bet his creepy ass smile and demonic eyes are enough to make Kratos from God of War shit his pants.

After a few more hours of walking, which made my feet hurt a bit, we reached the Leaf Village’s gates. I swear, no matter how many times I see those things I’m still amaze by their size.

“Well, I’ve got to go fill out a mission report…” Kakashi said. “See you guys later.” He quickly vanished.

“Hey! YOU SAID YOU’D TREAT ME TO RAMEN!!!” Naruto yelled blindly after him.

Sasuke decided to trudge off without even saying good bye. “Sasuke! Wait up!” Sakura called after him, jogging to catch up. That left just me and Naruto there.

“Please say you’ll be my wingman, if only to help me get past my sister!” I begged, shooting Naruto a pleading look.

Naruto blinked. “Aw c’mon, she can’t be that bad!” Naruto said, his face lighting up.

I sighed. “Just please be my wingman, just this once.” I begged again. Naruto was unfazed and his opinion unchanged. Then…LIGHTBULB! I had an idea. “I’ll even treat you to raaaammmmeeeennnn!” I added slyly.

“Deal!” Naruto half yelled. Score!

“Okay’ then let’s go.” I said, turning towards my house. “We’ll get ramen afterwards.” I just hope we’ll live long enough to actually order it.

==== COOL TRANSITION ====

“I TOLD YOU WHAT WOULD HAPPEN!” Carmen yelled, making Naruto and I both flinch. We were standing outside, she was in the doorway.

“Look, it was an accident okay!” I said, weak comeback, I know.

“I don’t care!” Carmen snapped back. “Your ‘accident’ was your arm nearly getting blown off!”

“It was our first B-rank mission! C’mon cut her some slack.” Naruto said in my defence. Now I was slightly happier I brought him along.

“Stay out of this, dammit!” She snapped again, directing her rage at Naruto for a brief moment before turning back at me. “That’s it, I don’t care anymore. If you go on one more ninja mission and you get hurt like that, you’re DONE as a ninja, got it?!” She then shut the door in our faces.

There was an awkward silence. “You’re sister’s scares me.” Naruto said, breaking the silence.

I shrugged. “To be honest, I expected her to get angrier.” I said. Naruto’s eyes widened to the point I though his eyeballs would pop out of his skull.

“Sh-she gets scarier?!” Naruto asked sacredly as we tuned and headed out of the apartment complex.

I nodded. “It’s too horrific to describe.” I said, I know I was scaring the crap out of poor Naruto, but the opportunity was too good to pass up.

“I’m never going to be your wingman again when it comes to dealing with your sister.” Naruto vowed, shaking his head and sighing.

I rolled my eyes. “Let’s just get the stupid ramen.” I said pulling ahead of him. I regret doing that just a bit. Seconds later I crashed into someone and fell flat on my butt…

I sat up rubbing the back of my head, I’d actually fallen on my back. I finally opened my eyes which had been squeezed shut a few seconds. I saw someone sitting there staring at me in shock. It was Hinata.

“Whoa! Where did you come from, Hinata?!” Naruto exclaimed bluntly. That seemed to snap Hinata from her little three second trance.

“O-oh, N-Naruto, hi. I-I w-was…ummm.” She said nervously. I got up walked the two steps between me and Hinata.

“Need a hand?” I asked giving her a friendly grin and extending an open hand towards her.

“Th-thanks, b-but I’m fine.” She said as she slowly stood up. I let my hand fall to my side, stuffing my left hand in my pocket.

“If you say so.” I said simply with a shrug. One thing I need to say about Hinata is that in the anime, her shyness is just so adorable. In real life, it’s just a major cry for help. I’m sorry, but it’s true, she desperately needs confidence.

“Oh right.” Naruto said silently as if catching on to something he’d missed. “Krystal this is Hinata…Hinata this is Krystal.” He said introducing us, motioning with his hands to represent who he was talking about.

I seriously considered saying, ‘I know who she is you doof!’. Try to imagine how THAT would have made me look.

“H-hi.” Hinata said weakly, giving a small wave and a nervous smile. She kept looking like I was going to lash out at her unexpectedly or something, she wouldn’t even make eye contact.

“Sup.” Was all I said, holding my hand up in greeting. She brought her hands up in front of her chest, prodding her index fingers together nervously.

“S-so N-Naruto, um, w-what are y-you doing r-right now?” Hinata asked nervously. Naruto gave her a wide grin and her face went red. Now I was fighting hard not to laugh, it was starting to become the Hinata I remembered from the show. The cute side was showing through. Also the context of her blushing was absolutely hilarious, at least in my view.

“Well Krystal’s treating me to lunch at Ichiraku’s!” Naruto declared proudly. “I’m starting to think she likes me!” He added completely ignoring the fact that I was there except for a sly smile aimed in my direction. The kid was testing me, but I didn,t realize it until after.

“Bu-! I’m only treating you to lunch to pay for the fact that you had to take heat from my sister!” I snapped pointing at him. “No other damn reason!”

“I was only joking, sheesh.” Naruto said with a serious look on his face. Suddenly a look flashed across his face and he gave me a sneaky grin. Please tell me he wasn’t thinking what I think he was thinking. “Hey Hinata, maybe you come with us since Krystal’s buying!”

I facepalmed, not at Naruto… but at my own stupidity. I should have known he’d try to take advantage given the opportunity. Before I had the chance to say no, Hinata gave her reply. “U-um, th-thanks but m-my f-father’s expecting m-me h-home soon.” She said, her face had become much brighter since Naruto had asked the question. She quickly turned in the opposite direction and hurried off, obviously glad to be getting the hell outta there.

“What was that about?” I asked, still trying to keep my cover as an oblivious teenager. Fact is, the prospect of running into a guy like Orochimaru kept a chill going up and down my spine. I was actually debating fessing up so that the Hokage wasn’t gonna wind up dead with a sword sticking out of his back, and so that the Chuunin exams would be cancelled before they even began. Then I realized something, If I stopped the Chuunin exams and the rest of the team found out, they’d kill me. Well Sakura wouldn’t care much, but Sasuke and Naruto wouldn’t let me live it down as long as I lived! It was a no win situation.

“Ya got me!” Naruto commented. He turned on his heels and headed back in the direction we were walking in. Yeah, That entire paragraph before, I’d thought of in about one and a half seconds. Pretty quick, huh? “Whaddya say we invite Choji and Shikamaru?” Naruto suggested.

“Oh no ya don’t!” I said to him, pushing him along with both hands placed on his shoulder blades. “You are NOT gonna make me go broke today pal!” This is the last time I treat Naruto to ramen…ever.

==== COOL TRANSITION ====

Naruto was busily slurping down the remnants of his second round of ramen at Ichiraku. I on the other hand was still only half way through my first bowl. One thing I’ll never understand is how boys manage to eat so fast. Old man Ichiraku had asked why I was treating Naruto to ramen.

Naruto had given the same answer he’d given Hinata, seriously that kid HAD to stop hanging around Nick. I’d calmly corrected the story to the truth, and Ichiraku had believed me. I say calmly because I secretly felt like decking Naruto right then and there.

Naruto finished his bowl and set it down. “So what jutsu are you going to work on next?” He asked suddenly.

I quickly slurped up some noodles that had been hanging out of my mouth. “You know I haven’t given it much thought.” I answered truthfully.

“Well I know which one I’m gonna work on.” He said. “I’m gonna work on the Shadowclone jutsu!” He raised his hand that was holding his chopsticks in the air as if he had already done it.

“You know, maybe you should work on the jutsu your not doing too great in.” I suggested after shaking my head.

“But the Shadowclone jutsu is my worst!” He countered. That’s when I lost it.

“You can produce, like, twenty Shadowclones in a single shot!” I snapped. “You’re like a Shadowclone Shotgun!”

“Uhhhhh, what’s a shotgun again?” He asked confused. I facepalmed again.

“Think Call of Duty and you’ll remember it.” I added. Naruto looked off into space deep in thought as I turned back to my ramen, determined to finish it. I took one bite, then…

“A shotgun is a firearm capable of firing multiple pellets at deadly velocity at close range, or large slugs with low accuracy at long ranges, depending on the type of ammunition you use.” A familiar voice said behind me. The made me jump and spew my ramen out of my mouth. The girl who worked at the shop had to duck below the counter, to avoid the hail of food produce.

I whirled around to see Nick standing there. Leaning against the side of the entrance way, with a smug grin on his face. “Hello children.” He said in his creeper voice. I just rolled my eyes.

“What do you want?” I asked him over my shoulder, wiping off the excess sauce that was sticking to my lips with a napkin.

“I just wanted to give you a heads-up that the raging inferno of terror known as Carmen has finally settled down.” He said and walked off. I don’t know why but I get this strange feeling that what he said wasn’t what he wanted to say. It was like he wanted to say something important but had chickened out of it at the last minute.

I found out what it was a long time later…

…the hard way.

I leaned against the railing on the bridge, with my guitar propped up against it on my right. Sasuke was on my left leaning on the railing in his usual “too cool for you” fashion. Sakura was standing next me looking quite pissed. Guess what? Kakashi was late…again. Even I was getting a little fed up with him. I heard someone running up to us and I looked to my right to see Naruto running up to us.

“What the hell took you?” I asked as he arrived on the bridge.

“Sorry guys, I-.” Naruto stopped when his eyes landed on Sasuke. They looked at each other, glaring daggers. Sakura and I looked in unison from Sasuke to Naruto and back, until Naruto and Sasuke stared off in opposite directions. Sakura looked a little pissed off and tired when that happened. I sighed closing my eyes.

“This is going to be a long day.”

We were sore bored from waiting we looked like zombies when Kakashi finally showed up. “Hi guys sorry I’m late, ‘fraid I got lost on the road of life.” He said.

“WHAAAA?!!” Sakura and Naruto both screamed at him angrily. I felt one of my veins pop. I’m going to kill him if he makes one more damn excuse, that or I’d get brutal revenge. Either way, it shall be swift.

Kakashi jumped down from his vantage point, landing easily on both feet. Naruto got up in his grill immediately. “I’m ready for today’s Ninja mission sensei, and not this little kids stuff! I want a mission where I can actually show what I’m made of!” He declared proudly to a slightly nervous Kakashi. You guy’s can probably guess what’s gonna happen next.

==== PROF & HEPHAESTUS ====

Two guards were stationed at the Leaf Village gates, one was leaning on the left gate, looking absolutely bored. He had short brown hair and black eyes, his headband tied around his head with a slight tilt to the right, the metal plate with the Leaf Village insignia rotated to the right side of his head. His companion was asleep, his back propped up against the right gate. He had black hair and his forehead protector was fastened to his left shoulder. They both wore the regular Chuunin uniform, a faded green flak jacket, with a blue long sleeved shirt and blue pants and ninja shoes.

The brown haired shinobi stared down the road just appeared over a small hill. The one on the right was definitely a woman. She wore what looked like a white trench-coat white a hood pulled over her head, hiding her face. Under that she had a black shirt and pants. All pretty normal.

The one on the left was another story entirely. It looked like something out of a horror movie. It was a big lumbering giant, covered by an oversized grey-brown cloak. It walked with a hunched over posture. It’s two feet were the only things that showed from under the cloak, which moved slowly in very large, lunging steps. It dragged a large metal cart behind it, loaded with reinforced metal crates.

The guard cautiously stepped over to his sleeping comrade and prodded him awake. “Guhwah?” the black hair guard said as raised his head, his eyes widening as they rested on the two strangers approaching down the road. He shot up in full combat mode.

“Dude, what do we do?” The brown haired one asked frantically. Normally he could handle the odd stranger, but the lumbering giant dragging the cart with one hand, threw him off a little bit. The two Leaf Village ninja stood there, their minds frozen with uncertainty and fright. Finally the two strangers stopped, just feet from the two paralyzed guards.

“Hey boys, what’s up?” The woman asked casually, as if she wasn’t standing next to a lumbering, ten foot giant. It seemed a bit surprised by her unusual greeting, and turned it’s shrouded head to send her an invisible stare. All the brown haired guard could do was think about how easily that thing could simply let go of the cart and crush him with a sweep of it’s hands.

“I’m sorry ma’am, but we can’t let you pass, Hokage’s orders.” The black haired guard said, trying to muster as much authority as he could. “Only candidates for the Chuunin exams can pass.”

“Awww, we’ve been on the road for a while now.” She said, whining like a little kid. “Can’t you make an exception for us?”

The guard shook his head. “Sorry, you’ll just have to find somewhere else.” He said. The woman just reached up and pulled down her hood, revealing long, jet-black hair and icy blue eyes. She stared directly into the guard’s eyes with a small smile plastered on her lips. Looking into her cold, blue orbs, the black haired guard felt as if his body were suddenly free from gravity. Something was happening to him, but he didn’t know what.

The other guard watched his friend tense. He shook his shoulder twice but to no avail. The brown haired guard then made the mistake of looking into her eyes too, and the same feeling his friend was experiencing washed over him, what the hell was going on? It was as if his lips moved on there own. “Go speak to the Hokage, it’s the best we can do.” He said almost robotically.

“Thank you.” The woman said simply, motioning to her monstrous friend to follow her. She patted the brown haired guards shoulder twice. He felt a sudden sense of fear, like he shouldn’t ever mess with this woman. He felt like she could kill him without having to lift a finger. He didn’t dare look back after her and her companion until he knew she was long gone. When he was sure she had left, he finally let out a breathe that he’d been holding for God knows how long. His friend remained paralyzed with fear. “I’ve got a bad feeling about that woman.” He said shakily.

==== KRYSTAL ====

Naruto was being helped along by Sasuke and Sakura as I walked beside them. Naruto had managed to screw up the easiest missions we’d had in a while. One he’d been beaten up by an lady in her mid-forties, nearly fell to his death over a waterfall, and also got blown up repeatedly in a minefield. That kid was lucky to be alive.

“Look at you.” Sakura said to him. “You’re really hopeless Naruto!”

Sasuke huffed. “You’re really just one big problem.”

Naruto snapped and lifted himself off of Sakura and Sasuke, wheeling around to mutilate Sasuke, until Sakura threw her arm out in front of him. “If you keep going like this I’ll finish you off myself!” She said, one fist raised and giving Naruto a death glare.

Kakashi sighed. “I guess were not making progress on the teamwork thing, huh?” He said sadly.

“Gee Sherlock Holmes, what the hell tipped you off?” I asked him, cocking an eyebrow. Kakashi just stared back at me.

“You know, I’m starting to get tired of that smart mouth of yours.” He commented. I shrugged it off. There was an uneasy pause as Sakura tailed Sasuke. “By the way…who’s Sherlock Holmes?” Kakashi asked suddenly.

“Some guy from a book.” I replied. I Noticed Kakashi give me a look of understanding before I shifted my gaze back to Sakura and Sasuke. She was trying to get a date with him.

“Your just as bad as Naruto.” Was his reply. “Instead of flirting why don’t you practice your jutsu and make the team stronger. Face it, your actually worse than Naruto.”

Ouch. Sakura’s shoulders sank and she hung her head. “Now that’s what I call a Soulcrusher.” I mumbled to myself.

“Don’t worry Sakura you and I can practice our teamwork together.” Naruto said waving at Sakura’s back. Just then Kakashi disappeared, and I saw a look of joy creep across Naruto’s face when he realised that, other than me, he was alone with his crush. Just then I saw a box with a rock pattered painted on it sneaking up on Naruto. Naruto noticed it and with me watching, began to run back and forth with the box tailing him. I sighed and let Naruto pass before planting my left foot onto the box. I heard an “oomph” come from inside the box.

“Alright kid, show’s over.” I said taking my foot off and crossing my arms. “Take off the lame-o disguise, you’re just embarrassing yourself.” The box shifted and I saw three kids lift it off and toss it to the side.

“Aw man, why’d you have to get in the way?” A little brown haired kid whined. Take three guesses as to who it was.

“Maybe we should have waited until she left Konohamaru.” A nerdy kid with glasses pointed out as the three of ‘em stood up. Guess that answers the first question ,eh?

“Yeah right, it was just an accident that she noticed it.” A little girl piped up. “Nobody but the boss could have seen our disguise!”

“Actually that disguise was pretty frickin’ obvious.” I pointed out. “You would have better luck if you disguised it as an oversized brick.”

‘Yeah right! What do you know? I’ve never seen you around anyway! Who are you?!” Konohamaru yelled, pointing an over dramatic finger in my face. The kid barely came up to my hip and he was asking questions like he was way above me!

“Hey Konohamaru!” Naruto said, finally jumping in. “This is Krystal, one of my teammates!”

Konohamaru looked sceptical. “She doesn’t look like a ninja, you sure she’s not along for the ride or something?” I felt my brow twitch. Konohamaru’s face suddenly brightened. “Anyway boss, you said you’d play ninja with us today!”

“You’re not busy now, are you?” Moegi chimed in.

Naruto paused to try and look cool. “I have to train! Believe it!” He said, pointing a thumb at himself.

“Aw c’mon boss!” Konohamaru complained.

“A ninja PLAYING ninja that is SO twisted.” Sakura said suddenly, walking up to us, looking absolutely crushed.

“Who’s that girl boss?” Konohamaru asked.

Sakura stared at Naruto directly and I saw Naruto’s face beginning to turn red. He let out a nervous laugh as Sakura stared at him. Konohamaru studied Sakura attentively, trying to figure out what was making Naruto act so weird. Then…lightbulb!

“Oh I get it! Your one smooth operator boss!” Konohamaru said slyly to Naruto, and I could only facepalm. Naruto was confused for a second. “Come on boss I know she’s your…” Konohamaru stopped and raised his pinky finger. “…girlfriend!”

Sakura growled when Konohamaru mentioned that.

“Yeah, you can tell she’s really crazy about me, right?” Naruto said. I saw the look in Sakura’s eyes as she finally snapped. I quickly moved out of the way as she punched Naruto in the face. He hit the fence behind us, and Udon and Moegi ran over to him.

“I think she cropped him!” Moegi said.

“Oh no!” Udon said. “We gotta check his pulse!”

“You’re a witch! And your ugly too!” Konohamaru yelled at Sakura. I got out of the line of fire as Sakura cracked her knuckles and moved in on pour Konohamaru. She smacked him on the head and he hit the ground, a welt forming where she hit him. I crouched down next to him as Sakura

“Hey-o! Are you well? Do you have any head trauma of any kind?” I asked him, poking his shoulder repeatedly.

Both Naruto and Konohamaru stood up slowly. “I don’t even think she’s human!” Konohamaru groaned. “Did you see how wide her forehead is?” Sakura stopped and my heart stopped with her, she slowly turned her head and the only thing I thought when she glared at us with soulless, enraged eyes was:

“CHEESE IT!” I screamed. And we turned tail and ran as Sakura chased after us. Konohamaru pulled ahead and smacked into a guy wearing a black suit. Kankuro looked down at Konohamaru, giving him a look of indifference.

“Do you need somethin’?” Kankuro asked, hands shoved in his pockets. Aw crap, this guy. That meant one thing, Gaara was gonna show up, and that meant major chills from my spine.

Kankuro was holding poor little Konohamaru up by his shirt collar, his eyes narrowed with anger and delight. “So, does this hurt punk?” He asked as he tightened his grip on Konohamaru, earning a pained growl from the academy student.

Reflexively my hand went up to grip the guitar on my back by it’s neck. The sad thing was, I couldn’t do anything. If I tried to blow Kankuro away with a sound-wave, Konohamaru would have his eardrums ruptured. If I tried to beat the snot out of him, Kankuro could use his chakra stings to trip me.

“Put him down, dang it!” Naruto yelled at the Sand-nin. Kankuro ignored him as Konohamaru began to hick him repeatedly in the chest.

“Heh, this kids a feisty one! Not for long though!” Kankuro commented.

“C’mon put him down Kankuro!” Temari said, looking away and not really giving a shit.

“We got a few minutes before He gets here, lets mess with these punks!” He shot back. “You know one thing I can’t stand is weak little brats like this one.” He added to us. “It just makes me want to break ‘em in half.”

“PUT HIM DOWN!!!” Naruto screamed as he lost it, charging at Kankuro. A split second later Kankuro used his chakra strings to trip Naruto and make him fall flat on his ass. I flinched. I was actually hoping Sasuke would show up and break this up.

“Looks like your village is full of wimps!” He said smugly. He looked like was gonna go nuts. “First I’ll finish off this little punk, then I’ll waste the other one!” He added triumphantly bringing his arm back to punch Konohamaru I was about to jump into action to try and do something to help Konohamaru. I stopped as I saw a familiar shape suddenly appear behind Kankuro, gripping his arm, keeping him from punching the kid.

“Put the kid down…nice and slow.” A female voice said with authority. I was in a state of shock. Questions began to reverberate around in my skull, but two bounced around the most. Like, A: what was SHE doing here? And B: How the hell did she move that fast?

Prof stood behind Kankuro’ the hood on her labcoat pulled down, as if she were about to deliver a killing blow to the back of his neck, her right hand holding tightly onto his arm. Her left hand had a small, mostly-round object being held up between her middle and index fingers. It was a pebble, like the one Sasuke would have used to knock Konohamaru out of Kankuro’s hand. I stared at the tree where Sasuke should be…and sure enough, there he was, holding an expression of shock on his face.

Kankuro’s face on the other hand was contorted into one of fear and anxiety. You know when your in a situation where someone’s hunting you down and your hiding somewhere and you keep thinking that at any second they’re going to find you and beat the snot out of you? Yeah that’s what Kankuro looked like right now. I’ll admit, it was kinda funny and I would have laughed if not for the possibility of things turning ugly.

“I’ll say again, put the kid down, slowly.” She said, repeating what she said, this time more menacingly. Kankuro flinched slightly, but slowly the hand hanging on to Konohamaru’s shirt slowly dropped until the kid’s feet touched the ground then let go.

Konohamaru turned tail and made a bee-line for our little group. He was scared, that much was obvious. He hid behind a now standing Naruto staring back at the spectacle not right in the center of our vision.

Prof was still hanging on to Kankuro’s arm. Temari, although she was in the perfect position to hit Prof from behind, remained motionless, stunned from the sudden appearance of the mystery woman and possibly fear fo what might happen to Kankuro in the next five seconds.

“Now, I’m gonna ask you to scram, and no funny business.” She said again with a hearty helping of that “I’m gonna kill you” tone. Kankuro didn’t move an inch.

“Kankuro, do what she says.” An all to familiar, half-dead voice said from the tree Sasuke was standing on. My heart stopped and my lungs felt like they were on ice. I slowly turned my head to gaze up at the red-haired boy from the Sand Village. This was one of the very people I dreaded to cross paths with. Gaara of the desert. “Have you already forgotten why we came all the way here?”

Kankuro gulped, dude was scared shitless by this point. “R-right, sorry Gaara.” He stuttered. Prof let go of his arm and kept him locked dead center of her vision as he walked off quickly. Gaara did his little sand thingy and appeared next to Kankuro, Temari reluctantly joined them.

“Wait!” Sakura suddenly piped up. The sand siblings stopped and all eyes, including ours, turned to her. “I can tell from your headband that you come from the Village Hidden in the Sand.” She was trying to keep her voice from cracking. “Now I know the Land of Fire and the Land of Wind are allies, but no ninja can enter another village without permission!”

“They have permission.” Prof sighed, holding up a slip of paper with Kankuro’s picture on it. Kankuro began frantically searching for his access pass. Talk about slick! She’d swiped it without him noticing.

“Can I have that back now?” Kankuro asked when he realised that it wasn’t a trick and that she’d actually swiped it.

Prof shrugged and with a flick of her wrist sent it back to Kankuro. The little slip or paper began doing loop-the-loops through the air until he finally caught it clumsily. This whole ordeal called in question the limited knowledge I had of this woman. I’d first pictured her as lazy, and would make other people (or creatures) do her dirty work. Now I got the feeling that she might be a Jonin level ex-ninja who wasn’t afraid to get her hands dirty in the name of science.

Now that the Sand siblings had gotten the hell outta there, not without a few questions fro Sasuke who had promptly gotten out of the tree his tree, I was free to pop one of the questions that had been buzzing about my brain for the past twenty minutes.

“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?!!” I screamed, pointing an over dramatic finger at her. Everyone gave me repeated blinks of confusion, even Prof.

“Well I felt like a change of scenery that’s all!” She said, flashing me this grin so wide that if it got any wider her head would slide off.

“psst.” I heard Naruto whisper beside me. I glanced at him and he pointed at Prof with his thumb. “You know this lady?” He asked.

“Remember when I went M.I.A. for two days?” I asked.

“What’s M.I.A.?” He asked, cocking an eyebrow in confusion.

“It means Missing In Action.” Was Sakura’s frustrated explanation. Naruto gave a look of “now I get it” and I set about explaining what had happened and how I’d met the mad-scientist, with her adding a few extra, unneeded points.

“So SHE’S the one who trained you?!” Naruto exclaimed in disbelief.

I heard Sasuke huff. “It makes sense, there’s no way that anyone could have found a guitar out in the woods and immediately figured out how to use it in their jutsus.” He pointed out in his “too cool” way.

I flashed Sasuke a look of “my revenge shall be swift” just to mess with him. You know come to think of it, Sasuke needs to learn to laugh a bit. The dude’s too serious for his own good.

Naruto suddenly got up in Prof’s face, hanging on by her shirt collar. “You gotta teach me how to do that stuff too!” He exclaimed his demands, already getting ahead of himself. “That way I’ll make Hokage, no sweat!”

Prof glared at him and simply said: “Get off.”

Konohamaru began to laugh. “Looks like the Boss got rejected by two girls in one day!” He said in between laughs. Poor Naruto looked absolutely crestfallen.

Prof just stood up straight, with the loss of the extra weight hanging onto her as Naruto let go. “I guess I’ll let you guys help out with Krystal’s training if you want.” She said and that made me jump into action.

“Whoa, whoa whoa whoa! I never agreed to that!” I exclaimed, waving my hands in front of me in that “no way in hell” fashion.

“Actually you did in the Land of Waves.” She pointed out. “I never remember specifying how long the training period would last.” She was being smug.

I just hung my head in defeat, She’d suckered me into hell. “I hate you…” Was all I could manage to say before working up the guts to add one more thing. I held up my arm straight in front, my head still hanging and one finger pointed up. “Alright, but no more monster dudes, ‘kay?”

I heard her chuckle and I looked up, everyone else was staring at her now, wondering what was so amusing. “Gault, stop playing mute wouldja?” she said.

“Fine…” Gault’s voice sighed behind me. I jumped, as did everyone other than Prof, and spun around to see nothing. “Try again.” He said again. I finally realized that it was coming from the guitar. I pulled it off and stared at it. The lights began flashing and Gault’s voice crackled through again. “Took you a while didn’t it?” He said. I nearly dropped the damn thing in surprise. Sakura and Moegi yelped in surprise. Everyone else gave looks of shock and awe. Prof was trying to keep herself from laughing.

“The guitar just talked. That’s too creepy.” Sakura commented, obviously weirded out.

“For your information, I can hear you.” Gault said to Sakura as lights flashed on the guitar. She flinched again.

“Wait ‘till you see what he really looks like.” I said, smiling at her.

“You mean he get’s creepier?!” She exclaimed. Gault growled audibly and finally Prof lost it.

“This is by far the most hilarious reaction to this type of thing I’ve ever seen.” She said finally regaining her composure.

I slipped Gault onto my back. “Yeah, that’s great. Can we get this bullshit over with?” I asked. I’ll admit, I was both creeped out, and also slightly eager to get started. I wasn’t about to let Prof have the satisfaction of know about the second one.

“Yeah alright, let’s go.” She said shrugging and walking off in the direction the Sand Siblings had walked off in. I was beginning to wonder if I was loosing my mind.

“Okay so why are we in this training zone?” I asked, sanding next to me in the middle of the field was Naruto on my left and Sasuke, who was only there because Naruto had convinced him that if he didn’t do this then Naruto would technically be better, on my right. Sakura was with Konohamaru, Moegi and Udon near the edge near a large oak tree. Konohamaru was pouting because Prof had made him sit out ‘cause she wouldn’t be blamed for him getting hurt, that alone said millions about how this would turn out, especially since she’d sent Sakura to go get a medkit and get back here.

“Well to summarize…It’s got a pretty good terrain for what we’re gonna be doing and it’s also far from where anyone lives.” She explained as she stood out in front of us. Yeah another reason for me to get even more nervous about what the hell that sick, twisted scientist had in store for us.

“So what exactly are we going to be doing?” Sasuke asked impatiently. He was obviously eager to get started.

Prof just gave him an amused smirk. She then turned and began walking away from us. “I find that people always do well when they train against themselves.” She said and as she walked away three silvery shapes began to rise from the ground. I swear it was like the T-1000 from Terminator. The one in the middle began to mould itself into the form of Naruto, and other than the silvery color, it was a perfect copy. The one on the left side turned out to be a replica of Sasuke and the one on the right was my clone.

“What in the…?” Naruto gasped.

Sasuke tried to blink a few times to confirm what he was seeing.

I didn’t need to do that, I already knew they were very real. I pulled off my guitar off my back and held it like an axe, the body of the guitar dragging close to the ground, behind me slightly. Naruto and Sasuke both got into fighting stances.

“Hey! What the heck is this?!” I Heard Konohamaru screaming. I Stared back at the tree they were supposed to be sitting under and saw them stuck behind a cylindrical wall of interlocking blue hexagons. They were beginning to panic in the…uh, prison.

Naruto glared back at Prof. “Let them go!” he yelled at her.

“Oh relax, Its just so they don’t decide to jump in and help out.” She said rolling her eyes. “I’ll let them out when this is over.” I knew what was coming next. “Have fun kiddies!” She said, giving one of those cutesy finger waves, and promptly pulled her little disappearing act again.

Naruto growled. “Fine then, I’ll just smash through all these weirdo clones!” He said before charging in.

“HOLD ON A-…dammit Naruto” I said, and obviously Naruto wasn’t gonna stop. I ran after him with Sasuke tailing me. The Naruto clone charged in at the same time, head right for the real Naruto.

“Come and get it weirdo!” He screamed as he slugged the clone in the chest. It seemed to suck Naruto’s fist into its chest. It’s right hand seemed to grow razor sharp claws, and was in the perfect position to rake those claws across the real Naruto’s face. And that’s what it did, and it must have had a lot of force behind that slash too because Naruto went flying so far back I had to dodge to right to avoid him.

Sasuke dug out a bunch of kunai and shuriken, throwing them at his clone. Its arms began to grow knife-like spikes. It swung its arms and a bunch of those spikes detached, sailing through the air like the very kunai they were on a collision course with. The two groups collided, but there had been more of the spikes and they kept on going undeterred. Sasuke bent backwards and dodged Matrix-style. His clone charged after him, determined to strike while the iron was hot.

I had been so preoccupied watching the others that I barely had time to block the downward swing from my clone’s guitar. It was a helluva lot stronger than I’d expected because I had to use every once of strength my arms could dish out to keep the instrument up in the air with my own. I shifted my weight backwards and jumped away just as it smashed the guitar on the ground, shifting the earth and making a small crater in the ground with large rocks jutting out of the ground around it.

It picked up the guitar and charged at me, no emotion on its face. I blocked a strike to the left and brought my leg up to strike it in the gut. It dodged to the left. I then brought up my newly freed guitar and smashed it across the head. The clone staggered back to the right. I took that point to come at it guns-a-blazin’ and brought the guitar across my stomach, ready to unleash a wave of ear-splitting headache on my clone. And that’s exactly what I was gonna do.

Due to a little experimenting with the guitar in between training I’d found out that Low notes were better at damaging the opposition and shredding them to pieces (R.I.P target practice log) and the higher you went, the less damage you would do, but the more disorienting it was.

I played the lowest note possible and I hit it hard. The sound wave was so powerful that it actually made the air ripple and pieces of dirt and grass flew everywhere in its wake. The clone took the full force and attempted to block the wave of sonic death with its own guitar. Didn’t work as well as it would have hoped. In the end it eventually lost its footing and flew backwards until it’s shoulder caught the ground and it rolled over and over on the ground before finally coming to a rest, lying face down on the ground.

I couldn’t help but smirk as the clone pushed itself up and coughed up some black sludge, which I guess was supposed to be its blood. It stood up picked up its guitar and charge me. I just stood there ready to hit from any angle that it tried to go in and to block from any angle it tried to him me from. It raised it’s guitar over it’s head and I raised mine to block. It came down on top of mine with a bone jarring thud. It must have hit harder that I thought because immediately after I staggered backwards. It brought its guitar to its left and swung. I brought mine up to block and the two collided. Again I was knocked back by a force that there was no way the guitar could possibly carry. I spun to try and keep my balance. I managed to block another strike which knocked my guitar away, sending it flying up in the air only to land behind me with a whump.

I stared back at my clone just as she hit me in the chin with her guitar causing me to fly off the ground two feet and land flat on my back. I winced but quickly force my eyes open as my clone jammed the guitar downward in an executioner stab aimed at my throat. I blocked with my hands, keeping the guitar from reaching its destination. Sure it wouldn’t kill me on impact but the clone could still cause me to choke to death. Then it dawned on me, these things weren’t trying to beat us down, they were trying to chop us up into teeny tiny genin-chuncks!

I dared a look to see if the others were doing alright. Sasuke was attempting to burn his clone to death with fire-style jutsu and Naruto was using shadowclones to try to beat the hell out of his clone, which was countering by dividing itself like a cell going through mitosis.

Another thing was obvious, Prof wasn’t going to get these things to stop trying to kill us. We were going to have to beat them ourselves and that was easier said then done.

I shifted the guitar which was pressing down towards my neck and let it hit the ground next to my head. I then hooked my left foot around the clone’s right knee and kicked it in the shin. Its knees buckled and it fell backwards and I took that opportunity to get up and make a b-line for my guitar which was lying on the ground some ten feet away.

I picked it up and whirled around just as my clone tried to hit me across the face to the left. Instead of blocking I ducked and smashed my guitar into its stomach.

It was like the clone melted under the force of the impact because after a few seconds the ground was covered in the silvery stuff the clone had been made out of. Some of it was stuck to my clothes, face and was dripping off the body of my guitar.

I looked around and saw Naruto and Sasuke staring disbelievingly at tow more puddles of metallic sludge. “What the heck just happened?” Naruto said as he blinked repeatedly.

I heard a sound that was akin to static coming from the tree and I looked up to see the shield thing around it go down, letting the others out. Sakura, Moegi and Udon ran over to Sasuke to ask if he was alright, Konohamaru went to talk to Naruto.

“That…was…terrible.” Prof said as she reappeared, crossing her arms. “I don’t know where to begin with the faults you kids have.” She sighed and began listing off the problems, one person after the other. “Naruto, you have the attention span of a gerbil and you’re the most reckless kid I’ve ever seen! You wanna be Hokage? Then stop screwing around and concentrate! Sasuke, you may be good with combat skills, but you’re a ticking time-bomb of pent up anger. To top that off, you think your better than everyone so even though you don’t try to be, your lax in the first minutes of the fight. And Krystal, dear god, how the hell did you get such a bad case of tunnel vision? I’ve never seen something so bad in my entire life!”

Talk about brutal. She’d just pointed out some things we needed to fix and she by no means had sugar coated it. I felt hurt and well, slightly depressed now.

“Hey! Don’t talk like that! We’ve only been genin for two months an-.” Sakura started to say.

“That’s not even an excuse. That stuff should have been taught at the academy from day one. And still, in two months you guys should have faced the reality that the faults you have are major handicaps.” Prof said, plain and simple. She just sighed and dropped her arms. “Take five, we’ll start again later.” And once again she did her little vanishing act.

Did I really have tunnel vision? I guess it was true, I did tend to focus on only one person a lot but then again I’d only fought that clone one on one. It just wasn’t making any sense. I shook those thoughts out of my head and tried my best to get ready for the next fight. Sasuke had already announced he as quitting because he wasn’t going to take her crap. Naruto didn’t exactly look like he wanted to stick around either. Looks like might be me all alone against whatever that crazy lady would throw at me.

Yeah, so Naruto had finally quit…he “didn’t feel like dying today”. That had crack Prof up. Now I was stuck with psycho lady and her freaky T-1000’s, who by the way were trying at this very moment to slice my head off. She’d thought it would have been a good idea to get rid of my “tunnel-vision” as she called it by making me learn the hard way not to rely on what I could see right in front of me and to rely more on my peripheral vision.

I still thought she was nuts, too much time working in a lab not enough human contact. Then again I wasn’t gonna say that to her face because she might just decide to sic an army of metal freaks on me to beat my face in with a nine-iron.

I ducked as one that looked like an overly armored knight swung a tow-handed broadsword at my head. I quickly countered with a guitar bash to its gut. Because it was a lot heavier than most of the other clones, it was hard to make it lose its footing. It staggered backwards and raised its massive weapon to bring it down on my head. I dodge-rolled to my right, pulling two kunai out of my weapons pouch.

Yeah, I’d realized that I wasn’t really all that great at using the guitar just yet, so I tried to use a mix of both normal ninja weapons and my special. I threw the kunai who had paper-bombs wrapped around the handles at it as I jumped away into a tree. The knight was too bulky and slow to dodge in time and both kunai sank into its armored body. Soon after the paper-bombs detonated, engulfing the knight in a cloud of fire, smoke and a ton of debris. I had to shield my eyes with one of hands to block out both the light from the bang and the barrage of splinters from mangled trees that were heading my way.

I knew I’d have to get out of here as quickly as possible because an explosion like that would lure the other clones in like vultures to a fresh kill. At the same time though I didn’t want to have a situation like what had happened two hours ago with another one of the clones that I thought I’d killed. Turns out I had only damaged it severely with a sound wave. I’d finished it off quickly after it made its unannounced revisit.

So I stuck around to make sure I’d finished off this guy before scramming. The smoke slowly cleared and I saw the pool of silver gunk that was synonymous with the words: “It’s dead.” I gave myself a nod of approval at my handiwork and booked it out of there. I made sure as I ran through the trees to keep and eye out for any clones that were still alive that might find it fun to tail me.

I might as well give you my score so far in this little exercise. I’ve killed two out of eight, and I ‘aint going home until I beat all of them. This probably won’t be until tomorrow at the earliest since the sun was already turning the clouds to a fiery red as it sank below the horizon. This was basically a survival exercise, to see if I could beat all of the clones before calling it quits…not that it was an option.

Another one of my faults that Prof had oh so kindly pointed out was my lack of stamina. Now that one I couldn’t argue with her on, I’ll admit I get tired real quick. And I swear after this little round of training I’m going to SLEEP all through tomorrow.

So here I am working on my alertness and endurance, while waiting for one of the clones to come up from behind me and bash me with a club. After a while of running I managed to find a tall enough tree that I could use as shelter, and a lookout point. I used my chakra climbing to run up the trunk to a point that was high yet sturdy enough that I could get a little bit of rest. Of course I wasn’t going to fall asleep, I do that and I’m dead.

I’ve been here in this tree at least an hour and there was no sign of the clones at all. I figured a could lay a few traps I knew how to make from one lesson with Kakashi and try to set my watch alarm for a one-hour long nap. If I kept going without sleep at the state I’m in, I won’t last much longer. Battered and bruised from past fights, every time I stop moving I’m gasping for air and my muscles ache from near constant movement.

I decided to climb down from the tree and take the risk to set some defensive traps. Maybe just a few alarms rigged to trip wires. Nah, too noisy. They’d know I was in the area and concentrate around here. The clones might be emotionless freaks, but their smart emotionless freaks. Maybe just some regular traps, rigged with paper bombs. Deadly and they make a good alarm system. Plus since they aren’t really considered alarms the Silver clones as Prof called them, would think it was just something I’d set up to eliminate the competition.

Setting the traps in a one-hundred foot perimeter around the tree took about three hours. Luckily I had my wristwatch around to keep track of time. I headed back to the tree, feeling a little safer knowing that if my watch alarm didn’t go off first then the traps would let me know when to get out of there.

I took shelter on a rather large tree branch near the top, which was covered by foliage from other branches. I could still see out of it though so if a trap went off I could see which one, but the clones couldn’t see me. It didn’t take long for me to nod off and get a good hour of sleep.

======= + /=======/

The Professor watched from a tree, her body translucent from a concealment technique. The six remaining clones were spread out over the training field. They’d tried to pin Krystal down after the explosion which had terminated one of their companions.

She had to admit, Krystal was a lot better at fighting than she’d anticipated. The clones each had the skill level of a veteran Chunin, and one Genin level teen was so far outsmarting eight of them, having eliminated two already and sending the others on a wild goose chase.

Right now the clones were concentrating on the area around the point of detonation of the paper-bombs and Krystal herself was long gone, holed up in a tall spruce tree. The Professor’s student still had a lot to learn though…she was still relying too much on what she could see right in front of her, and that would be a problem.

Another thing that had caused the diagnosis of tunnel-vision was the fact the Krystal had a tendency to concentrate on only one part of the body, the head. She always aimed for that spot, no matter what. In hand to hand combat that was also a handicap.

Krystal had decided to take a break, quickly working on getting some traps together, which the Professor could tell mostly consisted of nets or rope-traps linked to trip-wires. They were obviously there to buy her some time to wake up and get away before the clones showed up at her hideout. Now all the Professor could do was watch and wait.

=======+/=======/

One eye shot open as the alarm on my watch went off quietly enough to not be heard for five miles but still loud enough to wake me up. As the events from an hour ago flashed back into my brain, I realized that if the bombs didn’t go off that meant the clones weren’t around yet. Now I had two options either take the risk to get out there and keep moving, and possibly get done faster. Or play it safe, stay up here and wait for a raging fireball to billow up between the treetops against the night sky. Obviously I chose the second one, I was done with running around trying to stay alive when I could pick them off before they got to close like a sniper.

Then again, I wasn’t as good at aiming with kunai or shuriken as you might think…

Well it was better then nothing, so a waited for one to be stupid and get caught in a trap.

And I waited…

And waited…

And waited…

Etc.

Etc.

Etc.

By the time my watch beeped for twelve o’clock I was bored out of my mind. Things were going a lot slower than I thought. Then FINALLY I got one. There was a loud boom and a fireball poked its head out of the tree tops. Let’s just hope I hadn’t killed a deer or something by accident.

I jumped down from the tree to inspect the damage. I continued to jump from tree to tree until I found the spot where the paper-bomb had gone off, not too hard to miss. Mangled and burnt trees were the biggest give away. Also the silvery substance that had once been the clone stuck to the trucks of all the trees around the detonation point. I was getting better at this.

Now I had to move again, hopefully the explosion will lure in more clones to their deaths in the makeshift minefield. Then again things almost never go according to plan, this one time was a fluke.

=======+/=======/

The Professor nearly fell from her perch when the paper-bomb went off. Was that girl trying to tear apart the whole forest? It didn’t matter right now though, there was no way she had enough ammo to use paper bombs continuously after setting those traps with bombs attached.

Still, the Professor became a little concerned. If the clones had manage to force her to bring out the big guns already, then Krystal was beginning to panic.

=======+/=======/

No, I was NOT panicking!

I was just trying to take out few of them without having to overexert myself. my energy reserves were running thin as it is, even with a hour-long nap! So okay now I was just trying to take a break under a tree. I was waiting for a clone to show up and slice me open like a hot knife through butter. Then one came…and went. It flew through the tree tops like a man…or clone possessed.

I breathed a sigh of relief, I’m not sure I can really fight anymore. I heard another loud boom as another clone stumbled into my traps. Ever since that one clone blew up well the others were falling in to them, looking for me in that area. I was beginning to think this was too easy, and as a result my senses were on high alert.

Suddenly I heard a twig snap off to my right, very close, maybe ten meters. I focused on the spot where the sound had come from, waiting for something to jump out so I could wale on it with a guitar.

My neck hairs went straight up and I spun just as a clone with sharpened claws sprung out from behind the tree. I brought my guitar up to block its attack. The last words that went through my head were: “C’mon ugly, bring it.”

That stupid clone was tougher than it looked because with each attack it was pushing me backwards. I tried to counter it but it would jump away and charge back before I could land a decent hit. I wasn’t sure I’d have enough Chakra left with all the running I’ve been doing so blasting it with a sound wave was out of the question, and I was all out of paper bombs.

I blocked its one clawed hand with the neck of my guitar…leaving it’s other hand free. It swung it’ eight inch claws at my stomach, shredding my shirt and creating three sideways cuts. I jumped backwards clutching at the wounds as blood welled up from them. They weren’t serious, barely more than scratches, but they still hurt. Its arms changed into handless appendages with bladelike spikes sticking out, just like those on the Sasuke clone from earlier.

It swung both arms quickly and about ten of the spikes dislodged and flew right at me. I couldn’t dodge because I was still in midair, so I would have to block them. I threw my arms up in an X in front of me to protect my head and chest. One spike lodged itself in my thigh, another in my shoulder, and a third scratched my cheek.

I landed on a tree branch and winced as I yanked the one out of my thigh. I threw it at the clone which merely sidestepped and then charged. I pulled the other one out and threw it at the clone, this time sinking into its shoulder. I jumped away as it lunged at me like Sabertooth from X-men. As its claws sank into the tree trunk behind where I’d just been a second ago, I readied my guitar preparing to unleash a fuck-ton of lethal, noisy retribution.

“SEE YA FREDDY!!!” I yelled at it before unleashing a pretty weak sound wave, forgetting I was getting low on Chakra. The clone was knocked from its perch and flung fifteen feet backwards. It hit the ground and just lied there on its back, apparently knocked out. I pulled out a kunai and slung the guitar over my shoulder. I took a few cautious steps forward, ready if the clone was faking it. I got close enough that I planted my knee down on its chest. No response.

I quickly stabbed it in the forehead with the kunai. I know that seems a bit evil and twisted to do but hey…their just clones!.. really freaky, T-1000 clones. I stood up as the clone began to melt into a that silvery pool that was then end of their lives.

I really wished I had the med kit right now. Those spike wounds didn’t look too good. I heard another explosion from the last paper-bomb trap I’d set up. Goody only one clone left, almost done. Maybe I’d be able to find that last clone and beat the living tar out of it before sunrise. I figured I’d better get to work.

/======/============

Well apparently Prof had forgotten to mention she’d put a time limit on how long the clones would be active, so the last one had melted before I couldn’t even find it! In other words, I got a big fat F. So here I am with Doctor Insano in the little clearing I’d been in with Naruto and Sasuke earlier. I finally got my injuries patched up, the slash across my stomach still hurt like a bitch though. Prof paced in front of me, hand behind her back, staring up at the starry sky.

“Okay so what’s next? You gonna make me fight Shockwave and his giant worm?” I asked. Transformers 3 reference, you wouldn’t get without seeing the movie. Prof just cocked I eyebrow at me. I was tired, and for me tired means cranky.

“Uhhhh. No I was thinking I was going to teach you something but if you’d rather-.

“NOPE, TEACHING IS FINE!!!” I screamed. I seriously didn’t feel like fighting a giant worm that could chew through a steel beam like I would a chocolate bar.

“Okay then.” Prof was obviously a bit confused by my reactions, and that in itself made no sense. She’d nearly killed me about five times today already! She should understand by now that I wanted to get the hell away from her! “We’ll start on something I like to call Stealth Mode.”

My mind ran through a hundred different possibilities as to what the hell that could be and gave up. “Okay…I’ll bite. What is that?” I asked with a sigh.

Even notice how annoying it is to carry around heavy weapons?” She asked. “Well Stealth Mode is basically to avoid tiring yourself out with useless baggage. For example…”

She lifted a little silver necklace from under her shirt collar and held out her right hand. The necklace glowed purplish-pink colour, shrunk down to a dot the size of the typical LED, flew into the palm of her hand, and expanded around her arm forming three identical silver rings and a metal glove…all in a fraction of a second.

It took a second for it to sink in. The rings we just floating around her arm, like miniature Halo rings. The glove itself was made out of interlocking plates.

“This is Ares… my weapon. Say hi Ares!” She said the last bit in sing-song.

“You know you’re still the strangest woman I have ever met.” Ares sounded a bit like a child to be honest. Now I was picturing Konohamaru as a freak made out of black metal like Gault. Stupid wandering imagination.

“Hey, Krystal be honest…Am I strange?” Prof asked me.

“Uh…do you want me to answer that honestly.” I asked and she nodded. “You’re insane.” Prof’s brow twitch and Ares chuckled a bit.

“I’m liking this girl already!” He said. Prof just sighed.

“Alright let’s get on with practicing how this works, okay?” I nodded and stood up holding my guitar by the neck. “Now then, it may seem simple at first, but in reality it isn’t when you put into practice.”

“So what do I do?” I asked getting ready.

“Well for starters, try to imagine what you want Gault to turn into when he’s in Stealth.” She instructed. “Concentrate on that object, and don’t turn it into something that’s super large, remember we want to downsize.”

I did what she asked and concentrated. I began searching through my brain for something I could turn my guitar into. A necklace? Nah, don’t wanna be a copycat. Bracelet maybe? Nah, too clichéd. Ah a watch is good enough. I concentrated even harder, pouring as much Chakra into it as I could muster, but there was nothing. Gault remained as he was, unchanged. There hadn’t even been a slight bending of warming of the guitar.

“Nothing…” I said sadly.

“Then try again.” She said crossing her arms. I continued trying until my hands hurt from all the Chakra I was forcing into my guitar, again nothing happened.

“That’s it, I’m done. I’ve got nothing left to give.” I said, sliding down along a tree trunk to a sitting position. “I’ve got no Chakra left at all.” I was tired and cranky and well…that’s basically it.

“You were forcing Chakra into it?” She asked, cocking an eyebrow curiously. I nodded. She sighed. “THEN THAT’S WHY IT DIDN’T WORK!” I flinched as she snapped at me. “You don’t use Chakra for this!”

“Then what am I supposed to use?” I half-screamed at her.

She pointed to her right temple. “What’s up here. A whole lot of brainpower, and some positive thinking.”

I blinked. “It’s really that simple?” I asked.

“Yeah, and that’s why most people fail at this on their first try. They always think there’s some sort of trick behind it but there isn’t.” She explained. “Now try it again.”

I simply looked at the guitar, which was resting in my lap, and imagined it turning into a simple Timex watch. I kept doing this for a good six minutes before the guitar began to glow a bright blue color and began to warp and twist.

“Hey it’s working!” I burst out and in that second, my concentration broke. The guitar stopped glowing and solidified into it’s original shape.

“You moron, don’t let anything distract you while your doing this!” Prof snapped.

“Okay, okay! Jeesh!” I said and began concentrating on it again.

===================

Naruto walked back to the training field that he and Krystal had trained in with the psycho lady. It was about eight in the morning, about the same time the team gathered at the bridge to wait for Kakashi-sensei. But Krystal hadn’t shown up and now the other members were searching for her.

Naruto eventually found the training field and noticed her lying in the middle of the small clearing. His normally boring thoughts were quickly overcome by panic. He ran over to her and as he got closer he noticed the insane woman from yesterday, sitting on a fallen tree trunk.

“ ‘bout damn time.” She said to him. “I thought you would have been here by now!”

Naruto became angry. Had she hurt Krystal?

“What did you do to her?!” He demanded pointing at his friend who was lying face up in the grass.

The woman just threw her head back and gazed up at the clouds. “Oh, relax. She’s just tired from training and zonked out. Take a chill pill for god sake.”

“Then what about those injuries she has?”

“Two syllables: Trai-ning.” Was the woman’s reply. “And didn’t I say to calm down? You’re so uptight.”

Naruto made up his mind, he didn’t like this lady…not one bit. Naruto sat down legs crossed, crossed his arms and attempted to burn holes through the lady’s chin with his eyes. Now he wished he could shoot lasers out of his eyes. (Another X-men reference!)

I sat, back propped up against the railing on the side of Team-7’s bridge, more or less half-conscious. I was still exhausted from all the training I had done last night and must have passed out. I hadn’t even performed a Stealth Mode transformation. The next thing I remember is someone shaking me awake and rolling over to see Naruto staring down at me. It took all of my willpower to drag myself here from my comfy spot on the soft grass.

“WHY, WHY, WHY?! IT’S ALWAYS THE SAME!!! HE SETS THE TIME THEN WE HAVE TO WAIT HOURS FOR HIM!!!” Sakura burst out. I must have lost track of time, everything seemed to be a blur to me in the state I was in. Naruto and Sakura began their little rant that border-lined on declaring a full scale revolution against Kakashi’s tyrannical dictatorship…………and I just noticed the Fable III reference.

Finally, Kakashi showed up, standing on top of the little arch that marked the beginning (or end depending on which way you were walking) of the bridge. “Hi guys. Sorry I’m late I got lost on the path of-…what the heck happened to you?” He said.

I managed to lift one hand to motion for Naruto to explain. He did. “She was up all night training with this psycho lady.” Naruto said, arms crossed. “Didn’t really look like it was a piece of cake either.”

Kakashi jumped down off the arch. “Well okay then, as long as she’s still alive and she was training I can’t really complain.” I wanted to tell him that I could bet to differ, but all I managed was a weak groan. This means two things, one that I’m tired as fuck, and two that I’m probably going to wind up sleeping the day away. “Then again, maybe you should try to avoid the night training for a while.” Kakashi decided to add, rubbing the back of his head.

“So, you have any missions for us?” Sasuke asked leaning on the rail across from me. He was still pulling his signature “too cool for you” act. Sometimes I just wanted to hire Derek to prank him until Sasuke had no choice but to drop the act and start behaving like a normal person. Speaking of Derek, he still hasn’t told me what team he’s on (I admit to daydreaming in the middle of the other groups meeting their sensei’s).

“Actually no, I’m giving you guys time to prepare.” Kakashi said. “Now I know this’ll seem a bit sudden but I recommended all four of you for the chunin exams.” I was suddenly overcome by feelings of confusion and anticipation, but the confused part was most of it.

“I thought that a three person max squad was allowed to enter.” I said…well more like groaned.

“Yes, normally that would be the case but Kurenai entered her four-man squad in as well and so to balance it out we needed to enter another four man squad.” That explains who Derek was with. “Now of course this isn’t mandatory that you sign up so if you don,t feel up to it you can decide to skip it and wait for next year. It’s just that if all four members for Kurenai’s show up, one will be sent home.”

Suddenly Naruto launched himself at Kakashi, arms poised to deliver the biggest hug in the history of hugs. “YAAHOO!!! Thanks a ton Kakashi-sensei!” Naruto yelled as he hugged his mentor.

“Would you let go?! You have no idea how hard it is to get drool stains out of this thing!” Kakashi said, practically throwing Naruto off. I snickered at the sudden break from all the seriousness. That’s one thing I hate about Animes, they drag out the serious bits and make the funny parts infinitesimal by comparison! Okay that might be a bit exaggerated. “Alright…all you guys have to do it fill out these release forms and present them to the third floor of the academy.” Kakashi added holding up the four consent forms.

Naruto quickly snatched up the bunch and began to hand them out. Sakura bent down in front of me to hand me mine. I managed to reach up and grab it. “Uh, you sure your gonna be okay?” She asked, generally concerned.

I nodded. “Just need some rest.” I said. I nearly passed out again when I mentioned rest. Time to drag my lazy ass home and get some much deserved sleep. Afterwards, I’ll need to go clothes shopping, last nights training left my last outfit pretty much shredded.

/========/=====/=====/

Yeah so I managed to cram in a good four hour nap. Hell it may not be much but at least it’s better than nothing. Right now I was wearing my black ACDC t-shirt and blue jeans. Hey I had to improvise alright?

Now back to business. I was just walking through the streets of the Leaf Village searching for this one clothing store that Ino had recommended for me. I figured there was no harm in scoping the joint out. The problem…I forgot the name of the place already so it was literally like looking for a needle in haystack. Man was I lucky that all the signs were in English. There were a few that had signs written in Japanese but they all had stuff I wouldn’t be caught dead in.

Eventually I just gave up searching, so I picked the store I thought had the best to offer. I just walked in a browsed around. Nothing really of interest and I just sighed. I left the store, thanking the woman at the cash anyway and heading to the next store that caught my eye. This continued for the next two hours. By now fatigue was beginning to set in and I was considering heading back home for another round of shuteye. I ducked in another store and began searching. Then I found it. A plain-white shirt with two navy-blue bands around the sleeves. Just next to it was a pair of loose-fitting pants with a similar color-scheme. It was white with blue covering the rest from the knees down.

Figured it didn’t hurt to try ‘em on. I grabbed them and headed straight for the changing rooms. The shirt was a bit long on the sleeves, since they ended at my knuckles. I actually liked the getup better when I had my black shirt underneath. In only a few seconds I was sold. They were mine now!
I walked out with the bag of clothes in hand and headed home. I was eager for some rest until a certain rain ninja showed up, snatched the bag, and jumped onto the roof of a nearby building.

“I don’t have time for this.” I mumbled to myself. I jumped after him and he turned and ran for it. Two problems, one I don’t have my weapons pouch and I left Gault at home. Just freaking perfect. He kept running and I was right after him, I didn’t really give a rats ass about being unarmed, I just paid for those clothes an I’m not going to let some impostor get ‘em!

Eventually he led me to a heavily wooded area, there he stopped and turned towards me as I landed. “So, your entering the chunin exams, eh?” He stated.

“What are you? A Canadian?” I said. He gave me a confused look. “Never mind.”

“You know, getting back to the subject, I doubt you’ll make it very far since it was so easy for me to take this from you.” He said mockingly, holding up the shopping bag.

“I’m sleep deprived, okay?!” I said charging at him. As I got closer he brought his fist back and punched me in the jaw. Then I disappeared in a puff of white smoke, revealing that his fist had made contact with a log.

“What the-?” He exclaimed. What he didn’t know was that I was behind him. I jumped up and hooked my foot to the side of his head, sending him flying sideways and skidding across the ground. The shopping bag went right up in the air and fell back down.

“You know if you need to intimidate people into quitting before it even begins, then maybe you shouldn’t enter in the first place.” I added over my shoulder as I walked away. Looks like I had it easier than the others would have…or does that mean I’m just better than them? Meh, I’ll probably never know.

That’s right I still have to fill out that application for m for the exams. I’ll do that after sleepy-time. Then the next phases pop into my groggy brain.

“It’s probably their nap time, and then it’ll be snack time. And then it’ll be snack-nap time! That’s my favourite time.” Caboose, the undisputed king of retards…which is weird because he has his moments of intelligence and at the start of the series he’s not an idiot. Maybe it was some form of brain cancer or something, I don’t know.

“It’s a good thing all four of you came.” Kakashi said as we got closer to where we supposed to hand in our application forms. Just before we got here I’d figured out how to do the transformation to Stealth Mode so now Gault was wrapped around my wrist. You should have seen the look on Naruto’s face when I turned Gault into the guitar and back to the watch. Priceless…

“What are you doing here Kakashi-sensei?” Sakura asked. Here it comes…

“If one of you hadn’t shown up I would have had to disqualify the others, and then some.” Kakashi explained.

“By “and then some” do you mean the fourth member of Kurenai’s team?” Sakura asked.

“That’s right, one of the four members would have been sent home.” Kakashi said in agreement. “The reason I didn’t tell you earlier is because I didn’t want Sasuke or Naruto pressuring the rest of the team into coming.”

“Pff, as if I’d ever do that!” Naruto brushed it off putting his arms behind his head. I punched him lightly on the shoulder.

“Yeah right you little liar!” I said mockingly.

“HEY! WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?!” Naruto said getting pissed off.

“Calm down Naruto…I’m not finished yet.” Kakashi said firmly getting Naruto to shut his trap. Now I was nervous, after that stuff about the peer-pressure he was supposed to let us in, right? “Your all going to want to hear this especially you, Krystal.” I gulped.

‘Say it already! I’m not in the damn mood for cliffhangers!’ I thought as a few seconds felt like eternity.

“There’s been a slight change in the line up of the teams…” Kakashi began. “From here on out Krystal will no longer be part of this squad.”

I nearly jumped out of my skin when he said that. Not part of the squad? Does that mean I’m not going to the chunin exams?

“Say WHAT?!” Naruto and Sakura both exclaimed.

“There’s no way you’ll kick Krystal out of this team!” Naruto added.

“Calm down and let me explain!” Kakashi interrupted before Naruto could say any more. “At the last minute a new candidate was added to the line-up. As a result a new team had to be made and the decision on who would be on the team was only made this morning.”

(Firestar: Oooh! Curveball sucka’s!)

“So I’ll be on a different team because you just needed a few other squad members for this new guy?” I asked shakily, I was still trying to come to grips with the news.

“Yep, unfortunately the only thing I know about him is that he was recently made a genin.” Kakashi went on. “I’m not sure how you’ll get along with him but I’m sure you and your brother Derek will get along just fine.”

“Step-brother…and I’m not so sure about that.” I said rubbing the back of my head nervously.

“What makes you say that?” Naruto asked.

“Let’s just say I’ve been the victim of more than one of his pranks.” I said through clenched teeth.

“Huh? What kind of pranks?” Sakura asked.

“Well there was the “Cling-wrap in the door way” trick.” I mumbled.

“What’s that one?” Naruto asked.

“Can we please drop this conversation so we can get to what we came here for?” I said walking up to the door as Kakashi stepped aside.

“Right.” Sakura agreed following me through with Naruto and Sasuke close behind.

“Can you tell me about it afterwards?” Naruto asked.

//====//===//==//=//

“Well…this is a little intimidating…” I said as all the other contestants glared daggers at us.

“Ya think?” Sakura said both sarcastically and fearfully.

“SASUKE!!” Ino shrieked as she jumped on Sasuke. “Oh thank goodness they let you in here Sasuke! I just know your gonna pass this exam!” She said in total fangirlism.

“Hey back off porker! He’s mine!” Sakura said totally losing it.

‘Oh great, here we go.’ I thought as Sakura and Ino we about to go at it.

“Ah, man you guys are here too? Man this is gonna be such a drag.” Cue the lazy ninja king of the Hidden Leaf…Shikamaru and his sidekick Choji of potato chips.

“You’ve gotta be kidding! They let a lazy shirker like you into this exam?!” Naruto exclaimed.

“Hey you know what pip-squeak?...ah, forget it you a waste of time.” Shikamaru said to Naruto while Choji munched on more chips. I meanwhile was searching for my new team.

“Hey guys have you seen Derek around?” I asked out of the blue.

“How can we? We don’t even know what he looks like.” Sasuke pointed out.

“Yeah Krystal I’d like to help but I don’t know what he looks like, sorry.” Sakura apologized.

“Right…sorry I wasn’t thinking.”

“Uh, I can help with that remember!” Naruto exclaimed. “I’ve seen your brother a bunch of times.

“STEP-brother.” I growled.

“Heh, right…step-brother sorry.” Naruto said nervously.

There was a moment of silence as we scanned the room for any sign of Derek. “Buenos dias companeros!” Derek suddenly exclaimed behind me, making me jump and fall flat on my ass.

“Derek. Don’t sneak up on me like that!” I moaned.

“Sorry but you we such an easy target it was too difficult to resist.” He said. He was wearing a red T-shirt with black around the sleeves collar and shorts with the reverse color scheme from the shirt. Black shorts with red borders.“Hey we’re both on a new team aren’t we?”

“Yeah, I wonder who our new teammate is?” I asked getting up and brushing myself off.

“I think I saw him over there.” Kiba’s voice sounded off, catching everyone’s attention. He was flanked on either side by Hinata and Shino. Kiba was pointing to a wall not too far off to the left.

Leaning on it with his arms crossed over his chest was a boy about my age and height wearing a black jacket with buckles on the sleeves and pants with the same style. There were dark grey accents around where the buckles entered the shirt and some design that looked like wings in the same color on the back. The jacket had a hood on it but it was pulled down so I could see his smoky hair. He also had there piece frost blue eyes. But it was a bit scary because it looked like his pupils were glowing a deep blood red. I shook it off as my mind just playing tricks on my. Man I was trying to psyche myself out!

Suddenly Sasuke was walking over to him. Can we say: “I’ve got a bad feeling about this”? Sasuke got closer to him and the new guy just watched him.

“So you’re the new guy huh?” Sasuke said, someone ought to crown him the king of the opening line.

“Yeah, what’s it to you?” The new guy responded coldly.

I sighed. “Great, I get another Sasuke.” I said.

“Yeah right, that guy is nowhere near as cool as my Sasuke!” Ino said.

“YOUR SASUKE?!!” Sakura exclaimed.

“Hey calm down you two! I wanna see how this turns out.” Kiba said with Akamaru barking his agreement.

“So what’s your name.” Sasuke asked the new guy.

“I could ask you the same question.” The guy retorted.

Sasuke looked like was ready to deck the guy. “I’m Sasuke Uchiha.”

“Logan…” Was the new guy’s replay.

“Come again…” Sasuke said not really getting it.

“My name…it’s Logan.” Logan repeated.

“Hey that guy has a weird name like you guys!” Naruto exclaimed to me a Derek.

I felt a vein pop in my forehead. I looked at Derek. “You wanna deck him or should I?”

Derek shrugged giving a mischievous grin. “Nah, I’ve got better revenge in mind.” Naruto was immediately intimidated. The poor blonde kid had learned the hard way not to mess with Derek a while ago while playing Halo: Reach.

“So your good enough to make the cut for Chunin exams even though you only just became a genin, huh?” Sasuke said.

“And you’re an Uchiha…I heard those guys were tough.” Logan pointed out.

“You heard right.” Sasuke replied.

Logan pushed himself off of the wall. “Well then Sasuke Uchiha…” He brushed past Sasuke. “…consider yourself on the top of my hit-list.” He walked off and seemed to melt into the crowd of Genin.

“That guy smells like trouble.” Kiba pointed out.

“H-he does s-seem to b-be a l-little harsh.” Hinata agreed.

“And that’s our new teammate?” Derek asked. “Man that guy is on track to become the biggest asshole in the history of assholes.

“Hey. You guys mind keep it down, you’re attracting a lot of unwanted attention.” A voice said off to our left. We all turned and saw one person that confirmed my worst fears. Kabuto Yakushi…

//====//===//==//=//

The Hokage stood in the middle of a metal room, scientific equipment seemed to grow out of the walls there was so much of it. “Are you sure Logan will hold up in the Chunin exams?” He asked a woman who sat in a rather comfortable office chair. A white lab-coat hung off the back of the chair.

“That in itself remains to be seen. If he does then he does, if he doesn’t then he doesn’t, simple as that.” She replied.

“Shouldn’t you be a little concerned about him?” The Hokage asked. “After all he is your son.”

Prof sighed. “Just because I used my DNA as a base doesn’t make him my son.” She pointed out. “But still I am worried. He is technically a prototype but if he can make it far enough into these exams for me to conclude a success, he’ll be a scientific breakthrough.”

“What kind of breakthrough do you mean Professor?” One of the ANBU that accompanied the Hokage asked.

“He’ll be the first ever fully test-tube grown clone to survive without adverse effects to his body.” She explained. “But to make that possible I had to make a few ‘modifications’.”

“What kind of modifications?” The Hokage asked.

“Be patient Lord Hokage, you’ll see soon enough...” Prof said in an amused tone. “…besides we wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise would we?” She added looking over her shoulder at the Hokage.

…No…no we wouldn’t.

“You guys might wanna take a look around.” Kabuto said motioning around the room to all the candidates. “You’ve made quite an impression.” The disapproving glares were enough to make me feel like I was gonna puke. I gazed around until I saw a symbol that brought back a ton of memories. A diamond shape that was missing its bottom point, two lines spread down and outward from where the missing point would have been. The same symbol that those two weirdos from the Land of Waves had worn on their capes.

“Hey don’t take it too hard, I mean your just rookies right? Fresh out of the academy? How could you have known how things worked?” Kabuto said brushing away his previous statement. I couldn’t help but glare at him, this was the guy who was supposed to be an inside man for Orochimaru, right?

Wait…if Zabuza had turned out to be a good guy in the Land of Waves could Kabuto be a good guy too? Nah, that’s stupid there’s no way he’d been switched around right? Then again there’s the slim chance…

“You know you guys remind me of myself during my first time.” He continued with a shrug.

“Kabuto…is that your name?... you mean this isn’t the first time you’ve participated in these exam’s?” Sakura asked.

Kabuto looked a little embarrassed. “No it’s…my seventh actually.” He said his tone reflecting his facial expression. ‘Yeah go ahead and act it up while you still can, jackass.’ I thought intensifying my glare…now if only I was like Cyclops I would blast a hole through his chest and that would end it.

“Whoa! A veteran! You must be an expert by now, you can give us all the inside tips!” Naruto said enthusiastically.

“Yeah some expert he hasn’t passed!” Shikamaru stated bluntly.

“Well seventh times the charm that’s what they say!” Kabuto said, nervously rubbing the back of his neck. A nervous smile and laugh completed the package.

“Uh, I’m pretty sure it’s ‘third time’s the charm’ dude.” I pointed out smirking and crossing my arms over my chest.

“Krystal!” Sakura started scolding me.

“Hey! I’m just making a point!” I said in my own defence, throwing my arms behind my head.

“Its okay guy’s I’m not offended.” Kabuto butted in before things degenerated any further. Sakura and I both stopped the argument we’d been ready to start and looked at him. “Anyway…maybe I can help you guys out with my Ninja info cards!”

“Ninja info cards?” Sakura asked confused.

“They’re cards with chakra encoded into them with information on all the things I’ve collected over the years of participating in these exams.” Kabuto explained quickly. I never realized it but the dude talks fast! “To the naked eye they just look like blank pages…don’t want just anybody seeing this stuff!” He pulled out a blank card and showed it too us. He then placed his finger on it and began to spin it on the ground with his finger.

“What the hell are you doing?” Derek asked, lightly pinching his bottom lip and tilting his head to the right. That was a clear sign that he wasn’t getting any of this.

“I’m infusing them with my chakra to reveal their secrets!” Kabuto explained as there was a light puff of smoke from the card. As it dissipated the image of the map from the show began to fade in. Wait a sec, if was off a bit. It was zoomed out a little more than the show and there was an island chain at the bottom, one island was surrounded by three larger islands, the same symbol from before was on the island in the center.

“Cool a map!” Kiba commented, Akamaru barked twice.

“…of what?” Sakura asked continuing on from Kiba’s comment.

“This map shows the geographical distribution of all the candidates that have come to take part in the exams, what lands they come from and how many from each land.” Kabuto said.

“So who the heck are those guys at the bottom?” I asked, sure I didn’t trust Kabuto a heck of a lot but this was a chance to find out about those guys that we ran into.

“Yeah them…those guys are from a hidden village that has only recently surfaced a few weeks ago.” Kabuto started. “They call it the Citadel and apparently, according to rumors, its actually one massive tower sprouting out of the crater of a dormant volcano!”

“Whoa! Are you serious?!” Naruto exclaimed.

Kabuto shook his head. “Those are really nothing more than rumors on the village since none of the other villages have worked up the manpower to send a recon team to the islands.” He pointed. “They’ve only sent one team to the Chunin exams, and as you may have guessed this is the first time they’ve sent a team to participate.”

“Have you got any info on individual contestants?” Sasuke asked. You could tell he was anxious for the answer, so was I, even though I already knew it.

“Yeah….got anyone special in mind?” Kabuto asked.

“Start with the team that the Citadel sent here.” I said before Sasuke could even ask his question. In the back of my mind the events of the mission to the land of waves was still playing out in my mind. If those two, Hiruma and Yakan, were that tough, what about the genin from that village?

Kabuto quickly passed his hand over the deck. Then he held up three cards. “Order up.” He said amused.

“Show ‘em.” Sasuke prompted. Kabuto got to work infusing his chakra with the cards and then--poof! There were the three ninja from the citadel.

“Let’s see…” Kabuto began. “In terms of missions these guys really don’t have much really worth looking into, even though they’ve gotten thirty-five D-ranks and twenty-two C-ranks. Apparently they were slated to receive their first B-rank mission but declined it to enter the Chunin exams.” He paused and placed one card on top of the others.

The picture was of a muscular boy with a heavy build, not exactly ninja-like. His face wore a confident smirk, his short brown hair was spiked lightly in different direction, not unlike a shorter cut version of Naruto’s hair style. He had a darker brown shirt that looked like it was secured around him by pins below the left shoulder. One of the sleeves was colored a deep green. His headband was fitted loosely around his neck.

“The first one of the group is a guy named Katashi. Taking a look at his stats he looks like the one you need to watch out for. His Taijutsu and Ninjutsu are pretty well developed, other than that there’s not much else to look out for.” Kabuto explained before placing another card, this one of a girl with long raven black hair with deep red accents on the left side of her bangs. She had a white zip-up shirt with sleeves that ended just below her elbows and had a high collar. She had a tattoo of a blackbird on her right cheek.

“Keiko, she’s more of a team supporter from what I can see. I think she was being trained as a medical-ninja, though I’m not sure.” Kabuto’s gaze became more serious. “Still I wouldn’t let my guard down fighting her. Apparently she’s an expert marksman with any weapon.” Kabuto placed the final card on top of the others.

Now the last guy looked like a frickin’ Cyborg! He had a black cloak on that had red accents on it. His head was basically just a helmet with a metal visor on it that looked like a pair of movie glasses had been fused onto the helmet. You know, those glasses that have a little wraparound screen on the inside that let you watch a movie without anyone else seeing? I saw a few at an electronics store once. The only part of his face that showed was his mouth, chin, and the lower half of his nose. The Citadels symbol was carved into the front of the visor.

“This is Hayato. Not really much is known about him except that he’s immensely intelligent.” Kabuto said. ‘Figures the Cyborg would be smart!’ I thought before Kabuto continued. “I’m afraid I don’t really have any other info on him, it would be great to figure out how he sees with that helmet on!”

“Yeah, that would be neat to figure out.” Naruto agreed.

“Alright, you have anyone else in mind?” Kabuto asked putting the cards back on top of the deck. This time it was Sasuke’s turn to step up to the plate.

“He’s Gaara of the desert, and then there’s Rock Lee and Logan from the Leaf Village while you’re at it.” Sasuke said. Guess he wanted to know about his competition. Maybe Logan had really gotten him concerned?

“Man you know their names! That’s no fun at all!” Kabuto gave his amused comment. He once again passed his hands over the deck of cards and held out three more cards. “Here you go.”

“Alright let’s see ‘em!” Kiba said, Akamaru barked again. Everybody was getting into this thing. Even I was sort of anxious to see whatever info Kabuto had on Logan, then again chances of that are pretty low.

“Alright let’s start with Rock Lee.” Kabuto said using his chakra to make the information appear. “Looks like he’s about a year older than you guys-“

“Not me, I’m sixteen.” I interjected.

“WHAT?!” Naruto exclaimed whipping around to glare at me.

“I thought I told you that.” I said nervously. Rubbing the back of my neck and grinning

“Uh, no you didn’t.” He pointed out. Funny, I remember telling the team I was about four years older than them.

“Can we please get back on topic?” Sasuke said angrily, glaring at us over his shoulder.

“Right, well, looks like he’s done eleven C-ranks and twenty D-ranks. Although he got a lot of attention last year he was held back during which his Taijutsu has radically improved.” Kabuto went on.

“Alright, now for Gaara.” Kabuto again released the cards information with his chakra. “He’s done eight C-ranks and…get this one B-rank as a Genin! Other than that there’s not much else on him.” Kabuto adjusted his glasses. “Thing is he’s completed every mission without getting a scratch on him.”

“Dudes done a B-rank without getting injured?!” Shikamaru exclaimed.

“Man, what’s this guy’s deal?” Naruto asked no one in general.

“And now Logan…” Kabuto said. “Not much on the guy, he was made a genin only a few days ago and hasn’t even been given a mission yet. As a result they needed to give him a test of his combat skills before entering the Chunin exams. Thing is…” Kabuto stared at the card. ‘C’mon we don’t have time for suspense!’ I thought. Kabuto finally looked up. “…the building that the test was conducted in was quarantined afterward. Apparently he used a jutsu powerful enough to make the building structurally unstable.”

That one hit me like a battering ram. “No fucking way…”

“That’s got to be a mistake!” Ino blurted out.

Kabuto shook his head. “It might be, after all the Leaf Village is a big place so it’ll be tough to confirm, but that’s what I heard.”

“Man whatever jutsu that was I’d hate to be on the receiving end of it!” Shikamaru pointed out.

Kabuto put the cards back in the deck and pulled out the card with the map on it. “Leaf, Sand, Rain, Grass, Waterfall, Sound, and the Citadel. From the looks of things they’ve all sent exceptionally strong candidates this year.”

“D’you think it’ll be tougher this year?” Sakura asked. Kabuto nodded.

“Oh yeah, I’ve never see a crop of candidates like this in the four years I’ve been coming here.” Kabuto said. “This year we’ve go our work cut out for us.” He quickly placed the card back in the deck. “Then again the Sound village is a bit of a mystery. Their small and like the Citadel they only sprang up recently. No one really knows anything about them.”

I glanced into the crowd to see Dosu’s eyes twitch at the comment. ‘Big mistake Kabuto.’ I thought as the Sound Trio began discussing amongst themselves.

“Man so this exam really is as tough as they say huh? This is such a drag.” Shikamaru said a hint of hopelessness in his tone.

“Hey, don’t lose hope yet! Remember there’s always the chance that we pull off a win here!” Kabuto pointed out happily.

Suddenly I heard the sound of someone’s foot hitting the wood of a bench. Everyone heard it too and we whirled around to see Zaku high in the air with two kunai drawn. He tossed them at Kabuto who quickly dodged. Suddenly Dosu was right in front of him taking a swing with that weird device on his arm. Kabuto dodged it quickly and stepped backward. Dosu just stood there as Zaku and Kin showed up next to him. Kabuto looked up at them ready for a fight when his glasses shattered.

“Hold on a sec I saw what happened how did they do that?” Sasuke asked.

“Musta been closer than it looked.” Shikamaru said. “Tch, look at him acting like it was nothing. Real tough guy!”

Then Kabuto fell to his hands and knees and puked. Just the sight of that made me want to throw up too. Sakura, Ino and Hinata all went over to see if Kabuto was okay. Then there was a loud poof and on the other side of the room was a cloud of white smoke. “Alright you baby-faced degenerates! Pipe down and listen up!”

Great, the sadist of the Leaf was here. To be perfectly honest I was hoping we’d get someone else like Anko! Scratch that, Ibiki was a lot better than that psycho lady! “First things first. You from the Sound Village, who allowed you to attack another candidate? Under no circumstances will there be fighting among contestants without permission from your proctor and even then the use of fatal force is strictly prohibited. Unless you want to be disqualified before the test even begins?”

Dosu just stare over his shoulder at Ibiki. “Sorry this is our first year, guess we’re a little jumpy.”

“Well make sure it doesn’t happen again.” Ibiki ordered. “Now to get down to business, I’m Ibiki Morino, your proctor. Now we’ll collect the application forms in the next room and administer the written test.”

Naruto gave his serious face to the proctor. “Did he say ‘written’…?” One of the sentinels picked up a pile of papers and Naruto finally panicked. “NOOO! Not a written test!” I couldn’t help but start snickering. I know it was terrible but I think my nerves were getting to me so I was laughing to calm myself down a bit.

Now I get the feeling that I’m gonna die, even though I know the answer to the tenth question which is really what it boils down too.

I’ll be honest, with the prospect of a make-it or break-it test, I’m not all as stressed as I thought I would be. Then again that could probably be attributed to the fact that I pretty much knew exactly what was going to happen at the end of this thing. I’d taken the liberty of telling Derek not to fuss about the exam and to stay for the final question when it gets handed out. He was the only one who got the message and I just felt like messing with Naruto.

Right now he was freaking out. Poor kid, heh heh! He was about three rows ahead of me and I was on the left seat from the back at the table. Two other guys were sitting at the same table the one on the right I recognized to be one of the Citadel ninja. What was his name again? Katashi?

Sakura was two seats behind him and Sasuke was one seat to the front and another to the left. Logan was at the very left at the front and Derek was five seats behind him and two to the right. I was well apart from my teammates.

“Alright! Everyone eyes front!” Ibiki called from the front of the room. “There are a few rules we need to go over before the test is handed out…and I won’t answer questions so you better pay attention!” Ibiki paused. “The first rule is that this test is conducted on a point-reduction system.”

“Contrary to what most of you are used to, each of you starts with a perfect score of ten points. For every answer you get wrong a point will be deducted from your score.” He pauses again. “Rule number 2: the Sentinels positioned around the room are there to watch for any kind of cheating. If they catch someone cheating, two points will be deducted from the culprit’s score.”

“Rule number 3: Teams are scored on the combined total of the individual scores of its members.” Some gasps of surprise rippled around the room. I heard a thud and looked over my shoulder to see Sakura lift her reddened forehead off the desk.

“What?! You said we all get scored as a team?!” She screamed.

“Silence!” Ibiki yelled back. “I have my reasons!” He paused again, as if gearing himself up for what he was about to say. I leaned forward, propping myself up with my elbows on the desk. I allowed myself an amused smirk. “And finally: If one of the members on a squad receives a zero then the entire team fails!”

‘BOOM! Take that you foolish mortals!’ I thought as the smirk on my face slowly got wider. “The Tenth question will be handed out in fifteen minutes after the test has begun!” Ibiki continued.

I felt eyes on me from my right and I flicked my head left a stared right into Katashi’s brown eyes. Any sign of amusement melted from my face and I stared back with the coldest glare I could. I’ve got a bad feeling about that guy.

I sat back in my seat. Just as Ibiki said: “Begin!” I jumped into action flipping my test over and…well that’s as far as I got. The damn thing was written in Japanese! Why couldn’t they have given me a English test?! Then again, I don’t know why the hell I’m so worried about it! I mean, all I need to do is, sit back, relax and enjoy watching all the others crumble. Then again, Katashi keeps sending me suspicious glances so if I appear to mellow, he’ll think that something was up, and that might mark me as a target later. I began to hunch over my test actually make an effort on trying to answer one. Just one! Come on!

I take a second to glance around the room at the other candidates, everybody looks just about as stressed as the next guy. Even I was getting a little stressed out but not for the same reasons. That Citadel guy at my table keeps staring at me like he has an idea as to what’s going in my head.

Then I get an idea. Maybe he wants my answers! I lean back in my seat as if I’ve given up and sure enough he and the guy next to me both look over at my test, when they realise that my test is blank they both turn back to theirs and Katashi doesn’t so much as glance in my direction. I was right! I guess one thing I don’t have to worry about with that Katashi guy is his brains.

I try to make it look like I’m making a vain attempt at trying to actually pass this so that the Sentinels don’t think I’m up to something. Until I hear Naruto and the guy behind him nearly scream like girls. “W-what the heck was that for?” The guy behind Naruto stuttered as he got up.

“Five strikes and your out, that makes number five for you. You and your teammates are dismissed.” One of the Sentinels replies and immediately his teammates get up and leave, the other guy following shakily behind them.

“Number 50, fail! Numbers 73 and 24 also fail!” One of the Sentinels near Ibiki calls out. Two Sentinels drag a screaming candidate out of the room and another is knocked out by being slammed against a wall and carried out.

“Now’s the time…” I whisper to myself. ‘…to not cheat!’ I add the last part mentally. I mean come on! Do you think I would be so stupid as to cheat when they start kicking people out? I glance at my watch(Gault) out of a nervous habit. Whenever I’ve been stuck on a question in an exam I always glance at my watch to check the time. But of course, Gault doesn’t tell time!

‘Well that’s just frickin’ perfect, I get a damn watch that can’t even tell time!’ I think. I then decide to glance at the clock. Seven minutes in. As time passes, I notice Ten-ten’s ceiling contraption. How the heck did she get up there without even getting caught? Eventually I zone out, staring down at my test and everything becomes a blur. I don’t even hear the numbers being called out of those who failed.

“Alright time’s up, time for the Tenth question!” Ibiki yelled, snapping me from my dazed state. I knew what was coming but for some reason I was nervous, and to this day I don’t know why.

“Now before we hand out the Tenth question, I have a few more rules to go over with you.” He said. “First off, you can choose to take the final question, it’s entirely your choice.”

Shocked murmurs rippled around the room. “WHOA! So what’s the catch? What if we choose not to take the Tenth question” Temari said from the back.

“Well since you asked so nicely, if you choose not to take the final question then your score will be reduced to zero and your team fails.” Ibiki answered.

More murmurs raced around the room. ‘Oh, you poor, foolish mortals!’ I thought. I’m in a bit of a ‘Foolish Mortal’ mood today, can’t you tell?

“However, if you choose to take the test and fail…” Ibiki paused. “…you and your teammates will be barred from taking the Chunin exams ever again!”

If Ibiki was a dog whistle, it’d work every time. Everyone was silent, no one daring to challenge him…funny I thought Kiba was supposed to do that. Finally someone stood up, it was the guy next to Naruto. He left and soon others began to leave. I leaned backwards as the guy between me and Katashi left with the teammate that chickened out.

“You seem pretty confident.” Katashi said smugly. I glanced at him.

“And your point?” I asked. Right now I was missing the entire thing with Naruto and Ibiki.

“Well I’m just saying…are you sure you can answer the question correctly?” He said turning his head slightly to the front of the class, staring back at me out of the corner of his eye.

“I’m smarter than you think.” I said turning away and crossing my arms.

“Really?” He said amused finally looking forward. “We’ll just have to wait and see…”

/====/===/==/=/

“WOOO! I PASSED! WOOHOO!” Naruto yelled as we exited the academy. I hadn’t seen Logan since the test ended. Naruto was going nuts about how he passed and eventually I had to slug him once on the head to get him to shut up when my ears, despite all their training to resist the sound of an electric guitar going at full blast in the confined space of my bedroom for nearly ten years.

“Oh, give it a rest already! Remember this is only the first test. Wait for the next before celebrating.” I said as he clutched his head where I punched him.

“Geez Krystal, if you keep hitting me like that I wont be able to remember it!” Naruto groaned. I rolled my eyes.

“Hey, have you guys seen where Sasuke went?” Sakura asked suddenly. I quickly glanced around looking for the guy, no luck.

“I could have sworn he was here a moment ago.” Naruto said glancing around too.

“He wasn’t really acting like himself today after Kabuto told us about how he got in.” Sakura added scratching her head.

My heart skipped a beat. “Oh that crazy bastard…he wouldn’t…”

/====/===/==/=/Sasuke==========

Sasuke watched from a treetop as the one he was looking for walked into the clearing below him. The sun had already set and it was harder to confirm the features of the smoky haired teen, with a black jacket and pants. This was the same training field that Sasuke had become a Genin in. To him it felt natural that he find out what the rookie among rookies could do.

“Hey, about time you showed up here.” Sasuke called down. Every muscle in his body was screaming at him to start what he was here to do.

“You were waiting for me?” Logan asked, although something in his tone made Sasuke think that he wasn’t actually asking a question.

“Stop stating the obvious, I came here to tell you that you have one of my former teammates on your team, so I want to see what you’re made of.” Sasuke lied.

Logan smirked, and began to laugh. “Cut the crap Uchiha, don’t make excuses as to why you wanna fight me.” Logan suddenly got into a fighting stance. “Just go ahead and attack next time.” Logan swung his arms unleashing a torrent of eight shuriken. Sasuke jumped off the tree as some of the shuriken tore through the leaves.

Sasuke countered his own five shuriken. Logan jumped out of the way of those ones and they stuck in the ground as Sasuke landed. He got up and charged at Logan who just smiled back. Sasuke swung his left fist at Logan’s head. Logan simply caught Sasuke’s fist in the palm of his hand. Sasuke swung his left fist, but that too was caught.

Then before Sasuke could react, Logan grabbed his wrists and lunged forward head-butting Sasuke in the forehead with enough force to make Sasuke think his skull had cracked open. He hit the ground on his back and winced. He quickly pushed himself up as blood from a cut on his forehead clouded his vision in his right eye. Logan seemed unscathed by the strike.

“Come one Uchiha, I expected more!” Logan said suddenly bolting forward. Sasuke couldn’t even react as Logan’s fist made contact with his gut, forcing the air from his lungs and making Sasuke cough up blood. He flew backwards into a tree trunk and slid down. Sasuke got on his hands and knees and coughed up more blood.

“Is that seriously all you’ve got Sasuke?” Logan asked. Sasuke glared daggers at the guy before him. Logan stood a good twelve feet away. Sasuke decided it was time to use his Sharingan. Hi eyes went from onyx black to the red and black of the Uchiha clan’s kekkei genkai. Sasuke stood up and quickly performed some hand-seals.

“I’m just getting started.” Sasuke said. He breathed deeply inward. “Fire style: Phoenix flower jutsu!” Sasuke exhaled in quick bursts, multiple fireballs bursting from inside the ring formed by his finger and thumb around his mouth. Logan evaded as each fireball made contact with the ground he’d been standing on moments before.

Sasuke jumped in the air and performed more hand-seals. “Fireball jutsu!” Sasuke exhaled, all the air in his lungs forming a massive fireball that to those who weren’t familiar with the jutsu could easily mistake for a falling meteor.

Logan could never have gotten out of the way in time before the fireball hit the ground and exploded. Sasuke landed on one of the few trees that had escaped the blast and peered into the smoke for some trace of Logan. Sasuke’s eyes widened, there was something moving in there, something that didn’t look human.

It seemed to get smaller and smaller as the smoke cleared revealing Logan standing there. The top right of his jacket had been completely burnt off and his so were the bottoms of his pant legs. There were a few burn marks on his body but nothing major. Sasuke began trembling. There’s no way he could have survived that with so little damage!

“I have to say Sasuke you’re a lot more skilled than I thought with jutsu. From what I hear Fire jutsus are hard to do.” Logan said simply. “If I hadn’t reacted when I did the damage would have been a lot worse.”

“What the hell are you?!!” Sasuke yelled. He pulled out a kunai and charged Logan. Just as Sasuke was going to stab Logan in the gut, someone wrapped his hand around Sasuke’s wrist.

“What do you two think your doing?” Kakashi said. “This is not the time to be fighting, save that for the exams.” Kakashi pulled Sasuke back, forcing him out of his fighting stance. Logan huffed and walked towards the exit.

“SASUKE!!!” Sakura shrieked, running into the clearing. Naruto and I were running right behind her. As I passed Logan I realized that he’d taken a direct hit, so how did he survive a fire jutsu so massive?

I stopped and watched as Logan walked off, barely hearing Naruto and Kakashi lecturing Sasuke about how foolish he was for doing that to a fellow Leaf ninja. I just took in the state he was in. His clothes were as good as gone now, nearly burnt to ashes, but his body was almost damaged.

My eyes caught the gleam of something on his back and I squinted my eyes to try and help my focus, but I couldn’t make it out. What the hell was this guy made off? Thermo-reactant armor plating?

Standing in the middle of a clearing staring into to the dark cracks between the trees of the Forest of Death, surrounded by the other contestants, many more than in the actual anime, wasn’t exactly what I would call a fun experience. But mostly it was because of what was supposed to be down the road from now was why my nerves were on edge. One freaky-ass snake ninja and his curse mark thingy.

But the other thing that scared the living fuck out of my nerves was Logan. Last night after his fight with Sasuke, I just couldn’t look at him the same way. although his attitude had changed drastically. He was slightly cheerier, not exactly along the lines of Naruto but just enough for him not to be a Sasuke reject.

Speaking of those two dipsticks…they were at the front of the pack with the rest of the rookies from the Leaf, that included us. Logan stood on my right, apparently he’d also received a haircut because his hair had been singed by Sasuke’s fireball. He’d also replaced his previous attire with a black t-shirt with a dagger stitched into the front with wings sticking out of it, and simple dark-blue jeans.

Derek was next to him, giving him nervous glances from time to time. I don’t get why Derek was nervous around him, he hadn’t been at ground-zero last night! Maybe he was just on edge, being with someone he barely knew and all.

“This is the 44th battle training zone…but we call it, the Forest of Death.” Anko started off in front of the group of contestants. Naruto was shocked for a second, still taking the whole scene in.

“Man this place gives me the creeps.” Sakura muttered. Anko obviously picked it up.

“Well it should! They call it the Forest of Death for a reason, and soon enough your going to find out why!” She said, maybe trying to psyche us out or just pointing it out. I can never tell with that woman.

Naruto suddenly puffed smoke out of his nose, put his fists on his hips and stuck his butt out. “They call it the Forest of Death! And soon enough your gonna find out why!” He said, mocking Anko. “Do your worst, your not gonna scare me away!” He suddenly challenged.

I couldn’t help but sigh. ‘Big mistake dipshit.’ I thought. Soon I heard Naruto yelp as a kunai sliced his cheek and Anko appeared behind him. She whispered something in his ear that I couldn’t make out at this distance. Soon the same grass ninja woman from the anime showed up behind Anko. I nearly yelped in surprise. So that snake WAS here!

I shook my head slightly as the other ninja walked off. I couldn’t help but begin backtracking to watching the anime on the internet back home, and just flicking quickly through all the fights with Orochimaru. I was barely even aware of the sheet of paper that was handed to me, and my handing the rest of the packet to the next candidate. To say I was freaking out was an understatement. I swear I was gonna have a heart attack! Eventually Derek shook my shoulder, snapping me from my little world.

“Wha- huh?!” I said, confused a bit for a second.

“Uh…we were gonna go get our scroll and stuff so…y’know.” Derek said, pointing his thumb over shoulder at Logan, who was walking away casually.

“Oh, right. Sorry I kinda spaced out there!” I said nervously rubbing the back of my head. I began walking after Logan with Derek right behind me. In the next few hours I may not be alive so don’t be too disappointed if the story stops here!

/====/===/==/=/

We’d been standing at the starting gate, number thirty-two, or so the sign said. I just stood there waiting for the damned thing to open. But that was only because I knew I couldn’t do what I REALLY wanted to do and that was to turn around GTFO. Think for a second on how that would make me look in front of Derek and Logan!

I exhaled slowly and began kicking my feet in front of me and shaking out my arms in a desperate attempt to calm myself down. Unfortunately I was still fucking scared.

Then I heard the clatter of the gate opening and I stopped sinking into my usual dazed state when I’m scared. I braced myself and I heard Derek half-yell: “Let’s go get ‘em!” Seconds later, we were jumping through the trees, heading deeper and deeper into the forest.

“So what’s the plan?” I asked no one in particular, mostly to give my nerves something to do. Logan, who had taken the lead, just peeked backward over his shoulder.

“Simple, we track down another squad, play tennis with their heads for a bit and take their scroll.” He said.

“And what if they have the same scroll as us?” Derek asked from my right side.

“Then we keep it…each scroll we eliminate from the equation mean one less team that we need to worry about later, and a higher chance of us succeeding in passing this exam. After we get a Heaven Scroll we head for the tower. Take out any enemies we encounter and get out of here alive.” He said pushing off from a tree branch. “Our best bet is to stick together. If we encounter any enemies we’ll have a better chance of winning the fight as a team.”

“Right.” Derek and I both said at the same time. We continued on, hoping to stir up some sort of opposition. Me, well I felt like laying low for a while.

//====//===//==//=//

Katachi watched from a tree as a squad of three passed below. He desperately wanted to pound them into the dirt. He prepared to jump after them when he was stopped by one of his teammates’ hands. “What is it Hayato?” he asked.

“Think about what you do before you do it.” Hayato said emotionlessly. “To charge in right away would jeopardize our mission. After all we aren’t sure of their capabilities, they could be much stronger than us.”

“C’mon, you’re not serious right?” Keiko asked, amused. “They don’t look like much.”

“The girl on their team may not look like it but she nearly beat master Hiruma.” Hayato pointed out.

“Say what?” Keiko exclaimed.

Katachi just smirked with a chuckle. “Yeah, I guess your right.” He said. “So Hayato, what’s the plan?”

The helmeted ninja was silent for a while. “We stick to the mission parameters we were assigned at any cost. Understood?”

/====/===/==/=/

The three of us, Logan, Derek and me, landed in the middle of a small clearing shaded by the overly tall trees of the forest.

“Alright, we’ve been moving for quite some time now, so we’ll stop and rest here.” Logan instructed. Derek just shrugged and obliged by sitting down on a nearby rock. But I wasn’t so sure.

“Okay, so who died and made you team captain?” I asked, crossing my arms.

“Excuse me?” Logan shot back, narrowing his eyes.

“Well, you’ve only been a genin for two days. In reality it should either be me or Derek running this show.” I said.

“Gee you seemed to be ready and willing a few hours ago to follow my lead!” He pointed out.

“That was just nerves talking!” I snapped.

“Exactly! You’re a nervous wreck! Your not qualified to lead on that alone!” Logan retorted.

“And you don’t have the experience yet!” I spat. “That makes YOU unqualified!”

“BOTH OF YOU SHUT UP!” Derek yelled. Logan and I shut up and stared at him. “In case the two of you hadn’t noticed we’re in the middle of a life and death situation, with enemies lurking out there waiting for another team to come along. Your arguing is only gonna drag ‘em in.” He then sighed and got up. “And anyways, none of us are qualified to be team leader, because none of us know each others strengths.”

“So what? Do you want us to share them?” Logan asked.

“If we did that the enemy could hear us.” Derek said and then hooked a thumb over his right shoulder. “Like those morons hiding under those bushes over there.”

Just as he said that three shapes jumped out of the bushes and landed about thirty meters from us. “So you smelled us out, eh?” The one in the middle said. They all wore the symbol of the hidden sand on their forehead protectors.

“Nah, actually you guys made so much noise, I could hear you over the two of them bickering like a married couple!” Derek said, flashing an amused smile at our opponents, while pointing at me and Logan.

“HEY!!!” We both said in unison, and I couldn’t help but hear Derek snickering at his own sick joke.

“So I take it you two are going out?” The one on the left of the first guy said, continuing the joke. Derek’s snickering became louder.

“What the hell makes you think I’d go out with a buzzkill like him!” I yelled in my own defence, pointing at Logan.

“Gee, thanks.” He said sarcastically.

“Well they do say opposites attract!” The guy on the right said and then his team began to laugh, and Derek finally lost it. Pretty soon four genin were rolling on the ground holding their sides and laughing their asses off, exchanging comments at Logan’s and my own expense, every time the laughing would pick up again.

“Well this is embarrassing.” Logan muttered.

“Then how do you think I feel?” I moaned, head hanging so that nobody could see my face in all it’s tomato-red, half-assed glory.

“ALRIGHT THAT’S ENOUGH!!!” Logan yelled at the laughing kids, he even made me jump.

“Very nice…” I said sarcastically, rubbing my left ear. “…you mind doing that again? I don’t think this ear could hear it.” I said pointing to my right ear.

“Hahaha.” Logan mocked, then turned his attention of back to the people he’d just shut up. “Look if you guys aren’t gonna take this seriously, then take a hike.” He said to them, hooking his thumb over his shoulder.

“Alright, alright.” Derek said dismissively getting up and standing next to us.

The other group of genin got up and brushed them off. “Right sorry, we kinda got sidetracked.” The first one said. “But now we’re gonna take you guys down.” On cue he and his team got into fighting stances.

Logan just smirked. He suddenly charged them full on. “You idiot! What the hell are you thinking?!” I yelled after him pulling out shuriken and running after him, Derek backing me up.

Logan was a lot faster than I thought. He charged the leader, gearing up for a punch to the guy’s face. The leader put up both hands to catch the punch and at the last second Logan switched targets, punching him in the gut, making him drop his guard.

I stopped watching him duke it out with the other guy as a grunt escaped Derek’s mouth. I spun around seeing him push off the kunai that another enemy teammate had in his hand with his own.

“Keep you eye on your opponents sweetie!” A voice said behind me. I jumped away as the last member of the enemy team landed right where I’d been a second ago, his Kunai jammed into the ground.

“Who said I wasn’t?” I taunted landing in a tree.

“Heh, I was worried you were thinking about lover-boy over there!” He taunted throwing six shuriken at me. I pulled out four and threw them at those he’d thrown at me. the two that were still heading at me were heading for a fake. When they finally hit, what had looked like me earlier was now a piece of wood with two shuriken stuck in it.

“A substitution?!” The guy said surprised. He whirled around just as a big, green, bulbous monstrosity charged at him. “What the hell?!!” He screamed in shock just before one of its huge clawed hands swatted him away. He skidded for a few feet before coming to a stop. A shadow crept over his body and he looked up to see that same monster looming nearly fifty feet above his head.

He dodged out of the way as it crashed down on his previous location. He quickly got up as it lunged at him again through the dust and debris clouding the air. He jumped away as the Floodling chased after him. ‘What is this thing?’ he thought as he threw four kunai at it. It grumbled as they hit home and it exploded in a puff of white smoke.

The genin landed on a tree branch as the smoke dissipated. He suddenly heard rustling to his right and saw another one of those monsters charging at him. He jumped away as its claws ripped through the tree branch. ‘These things are crawling out of the woodwork!’ He thought. Throwing more kunai at it he landed in the middle of the little clearing, he watched as the monster evaporated in the same white smoke.

He suddenly heard something off to his right. ‘another one of those monsters?’ he thought.

“Lights out fuckass!” I yelled as I brought my guitar down on the side of his head. He hit the ground hard and remained motionless. I stared around the clearing and noticed Derek and Logan had just wrapped up their fights. Logan’s opponent was lying on the ground moaning in pain, and Derek’s was pinned to a tree with wire and was out cold.

“Hey guys!” I said waving to get their attention. Logan only glanced in my direction before crouching down next to his opponents body and going through his supplies. Derek just bounded over.

“Man that was easy!” He said, throwing his arms behind his head. “Nice touch with the two Floodlings!”

I rubbed the back of my head nervously. “Heh, thanks. So how’d you pull off the wire trap?” I said pointing to his opponent.

“Lets say I “convinced” Sasuke to give me few pointers.” Derek said, flashing me the biggest grin I’d ever seen on anyone beside Naruto.

“You blackmailed him didn’t you.” I sighed.

“Mmm, somethin’ like that.” He said averting his eyes, still grinning like the Cheshire cat.

“What’d you do to blackmail him?” I asked, suddenly interested as my guitar turned back into a watch on my wrist.

“Sorry, but part of the deal was that I never mention it to anyone other than him or me.” He said shrugging.

“Hey, C’mon!” I whined.

“A deal’s a deal!” He said waving the question away as Logan walked up to us.

“Did you get anything?” I asked.

“Yeah, but not the right scroll.” He said, tossing me an Earth scroll, which I caught clumsily.

“What are you giving this to me for?” I asked.

“We’ll split up the scrolls we find among the three of us, so that if one of us gets separated from the group and has his or her scrolls taken, then we wouldn’t have to start from scratch.

“Yeah that makes sense.” Derek agreed.

“Okay, but we should keep moving. The fight we just had is definitely going to attract some unwanted attention.” I pointed out.

Logan and Derek nodded and we took to the trees. Well that means that if we run into guys looking for an Earth scroll that are beyond our skill level, we could use it to get out of a fight. The thing I’m worried about though is Orochimaru. I really just hope we don’t run into that freak anytime soon.

//====//===//==//=//

“Well, well, well, fancy running into you guys here.” Katachi said crossing his arms as his teammates landed to his left, making Hayato in the middle.

“I’m just as surprised as you are Katachi, you still looking for that rematch?” Zaku taunted.

“Remember what our objectives are you two.” Hayato butt in. “Remember the coalition that our villages are in at the moment. Besides, I scanned the forest and sent a message to Dosu to meet us here. We have much to discuss.”

“Right. As I recall, your message said that you had a plan to get all of us into the next round so we can easily accomplish our objectives.” Dosu pointed out.

“Correct, but it will involve both of our squads working together on this mission.” Hayato added. “With this strategy we’ll be able to pin-point possible enemy positions with perfect accuracy from a temporary HQ and send a field team to collect enough scrolls for both teams to pass the test.”

“And how the hell are we supposed to do that?” Zaku asked angrily.

“Simple, we’ll use a new jutsu I’ve developed called “Overlord”.” Hayato said. “With it we can track enemy position anywhere inside the forest and hit them with a coordinated attack.”

“I get it, so we waste less energy trying to just use brute force to beat our enemies and take their scrolls.” Kin said, coming to the realization.

“Exactly.” Hayato said with a nod. “Now, we’ll need to set up the temporary HQ so we have a defendable location form me to set up the Overlord jutsu.”

In a dense group of bushes a team of three leaf genin pressed their bodies against the ground, watching the two teams formulate a plan. “I don’t like where their conversation is going.” Shino said.

“Yeah you and me both, Shino.” Kiba said.

“I-if they have a jutsu p-powerful enough to see anything t-that happens inside the Forest of D-Death that would give them an advantage over us, e-even with our combined skills.” Hinata whispered.

“Yeah, we need to get out of here, and quick otherwise they’ll spot us for sure and take us out.” Kiba said. The three quickly crawled out of their hiding place and used the trees to make their escape. ‘I just hope we can make it in time.’ Kiba said.

//====//===//==//=//

We’d spent a few more hours jumping from branch to branch and had managed to swipe a heaven scroll from a trio of unsuspecting morons. We didn’t even have to fight them, the scroll carrier had been stupid enough to leave his weapons pouch away from the group and we just snatched the scroll inside. We were friggin’ lucky that it was a Heaven scroll. We were now on our way to the tower to get the hell out of here, and even though the sun was setting, I thought that we might be able to get there by morning.

That was until I saw a tree that had been burnt in multiple places. I saw every move the combatants had made play out in my mind as the damaged parts scrolled through my vision. One fighter was Sasuke, the other was Orochimaru. “Whaddya think happened here?” Derek asked.

I was just about to reply when I heard a sound that sounded like and oversized flamethrower going off. I spun to see the red jet of fire that I recognized as Sasuke’s Dragonflame jutsu.

Without even saying anything Logan jumped off heading towards the source of the fire. “Logan, hang on!” I called after him before following. That idiot’s gonna get himself killed.

/====/===/==/=/

Sasuke couldn’t stand anymore. It felt like a massive weight was being placed on his shoulders and in his weakened condition of having used the Dragonflame jutsu, it wasn’t long before his legs gave out.

“Such mastery of the Sharingan at such a young age. If anything your eyes are even better than Itachi’s.” Orochimaru commented.

“WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT DO YOU WANT?!!” Sasuke yelled, his anger spiking at the sound of his brother’s name.

“My name is Orochimaru and as for what I want, that will have to wait until we meet again, and that won’t happen unless you pass this test with the best score possible.” Orochimaru explained, as the Heaven scroll in his hand was engulfed in a green flame.

“The scroll!” Sakura gasped.

“First you’ll have to beat the Sound ninja trio who serve me before you can pass this test.” Orochimaru continued.

“Look if you’re done her why don’t you just beat it, If we never meet again it’ll be too soon.” Sakura told him angrily.

“Oh, but he and I will meet again, I assure you.” He said before forming a hand sign. Soon his neck suddenly lengthened and shot straight at Sasuke, who squeezed his eyes shut and prepared for the worst. Sasuke thought he heard someone land in front of him but he didn’t dare open his eyes.

“Hey Sasuke, don’t tell me you’ve given up already!” Sasuke heard someone say. Curiosity forced him to open his eyes and found the last person standing in front of him.

“Logan!” Sakura squealed.

Logan had a hand planted firmly on Orochimaru’s forehead and another was on his lower jaw.

“But…why would you-?” Sasuke started to ask.

“Hell, if you die here, when will I get the chance to kick your ass?” Logan pointed out as Orochimaru’s neck retracted.

The snake Sannin smirked. “Well, this is unexpected, I admit I never expected Sasuke to have his friends come to his rescue.” He shrugged. “Oh well, as they say there’s always next time, no need to strain myself.” He began to melt into the wood of the tree under his feet.

“Oh no you don’t!” Logan said jumping at him, but Orochimaru disappeared before Logan could kick him in the face. “Damn.” Logan muttered as he landed on the tree.

“Hey, you guys okay?!” I called out, jumping over to Sasuke and Sakura.

“Naruto’s hurt!” Sakura called point to Naruto hanging by a kunai pinning his shirt to a tree.

“I’m on it!” Derek said landing on a tree branch below me and heading back to get Naruto unstuck. I kept going towards Sasuke and Sakura.

“Are you two hurt?” I asked.

“No, thanks to Logan.” Sakura replied as I landed. “If he hadn’t shown up when he did…”

“Eh, it was no big deal.” Logan said joining us.

“Still…”Sakura started.

“I said it was no big deal, okay!” He said brushing her off.

“Hey, we’re gonna need to find somewhere to let Naruto recover.” Derek said as he joined us with the little knucklehead ninja on his back.

“Hey, I hate to ask but could you guys maybe stick around and help us out a bit? I mean if you don’t want to…” Sakura asked.

“Eh, might as well, I mean I did just save Sasuke’s sorry ass so I don’t think it’ll be too much trouble.” Logan said, mocking Sasuke.

“Hey, listen you-!” Sasuke said jumping up then suddenly staggering backwards.

“Sasuke!” Sakura screamed catching him. Sasuke was out cold now.

“Dudes out cold.” Derek commented.

“He’s had a hard day.” I said, unintentionally quoting Sarge from Red Vs Blue.

“Let’s get a shelter up, looks like it’s going to rain.” Logan pointed out, looking up at the darkening clouds.

“Right.” The rest of us agreed.

Well, take a guess as to where the fuck we were! The same damn tree that Sakura had used to shelter both Naruto and Sasuke during the chunin exams, good god we’re doing all the shit that’s liable to get us killed! Logan didn’t seem to be giving a rat’s ass about…well, anything! Every since he’d saved Sasuke’s sorry butt, he’d been silent. And I don’t mean says something every half hour, I mean hasn’t said anything since!

Right now though, I’d kill for a bag of Doritos, my X-box and my comfy pyjamas, but I couldn’t have that now could I? I was wiped since the start of the day and now that we were resting up I wanted to nod off for a couple of hours, but Derek had decided to torture me by waking me up every single fucking time.

I just wanted to sleep for fuck’s sake!

I was lying on my back, hands acting like a pillow behind my head, my eyes slowly fluttering closed when Derek kicked me for like the fiftieth time! My side was starting to get sore and my patience was wearing thin. I tried nodding off again, and again he kicked me awake!

“Alright, you kick me one more time and I’m going to bury your head so far in the ground, that it’ll take ‘em a century to dig you back up.” I said menacingly as I pointed a finger in his face. That’s when I realized that he wasn’t even awake! Dude was kicking me in his sleep!

I sighed at my own stupidity as I took one last glance at Naruto and Sasuke, who were both sleeping soundly only feet from where I was, Logan had first watch and I swear this guy had a miniature nuclear reactor in his chest because he never got tired. Sakura, who had been taking watch with him had decided to hit the sack too and was curled up on the opposite side of the entrance from Logan.

I moved out of the range of Derek’s kicks and rolled onto my side so I could see the entrance. That’s when I finally managed to sleep.

//====//===//==//=//

Someone shook my shoulder violently and my eyes shot open. My mind however was still in sleep mode as someone whispered in my ear for me to get up. I sat up slowly and rubbed my eyes. “Looks like somebody had a long night!” A voice said from a distance.

I knew that voice! I slowly turned my head to stare out of the entrance to see the sound Ninja trio standing just thirty feet away. Talk about your bad wake-up calls! Sakura was up and was getting ready for the fight and Derek was the one who’d woken me up, Sasuke and Naruto were still out cold. But I couldn’t see Logan anywhere.

“Where’s Logan?” I whispered to Derek who just shrugged.

Great…just when we needed that fucker!
I sat up watching the bunch of them, Sakura was shaking noticeably. I was a bit scared myself.

“What the hell do you guys want?” Derek said defiantly.

“Isn’t it obvious? We want your scroll!” Zaku said.

“If you want it so bad…” Derek said pulling out two kunai and holding them like combat knives. “…then come and get it!”

I was about to yell at Derek to not be a smartass when Dosu charged, muttering a quick “fine”. He pulled up the sleeve of the arm that had that weird thing on it.

It was almost like an impulse. I transformed Gault from his watch form to guitar form. Just as Dosu was going to take a swing at Derek’s head, I played a chord, sending Dosu flying backwards from the shockwave.

He skidded across the ground on his ass, eventually smacking into a tree. The looks on Kin’s and Zaku’s faces would have been priceless if it had not been for the fact that they could kill me in a second.

Though inexplicably, Zaku began smirking. “Well, that’s unexpected, meeting a fellow sound user!” He stuck out his hands, revealing the windpipes in his arms. “Well then, let’s see who’s got the better jutsu!”

It was almost simultaneous when we unleashed our attacks. On one side was Zaku and his pressure waves, and the other was me trying to keep a note going on the guitar. That was my first problem. The longer I held the note, the less punch it dished out, so Zaku was making progress against me.

Fine, if that’s how it is. I began playing note after note as fast as possible, and unintentionally wound up playing the opening riff to “The Wild Side” by Motley Crue (which is the only part of that song that I know since I don’t particularly like it). It was like a sonic sumo match, with one side trying to push the other out of the ring.

“Come on! Is that the best you got?!” Zaku yelled over the noise and increased the pressure. Slowly his pressure wave began to push mine backwards again. Glancing behind him, I noticed Kin watching the two of us, not really giving a shit. I considered trying to move out of the way of Zaku’s pressure wave and blasting her away, then swatting Zaku off like a leaf, but remembered I had Derek, Sakura, Naruto and Sasuke behind me.

Not exactly the best position to be in.

“Fuck this!” I said to myself and strummed another note, using this one to keep Zaku’s pressure wave back as best as possible as I turned the volume dial. “You want noise! I’ll give you noise!” It was like the mother of all shitstorms was being blasted out of that guitar at once, not enough to blow him away, but enough to make Zaku break a sweat. There’s no way I’m going to beat him like this!

By this point my ears were ringing like crazy, this was the loudest I dared go with this guitar…and it wasn’t even at half yet! Now you’re probably wondering why don’t I just go to max and shred Zaku a new one.

Well two reasons: One, I’ll probably wind up killing everybody’s ears (seeing as how Kin was covering hers now), and the amount of chakra that this guitar consumes to make sound waves like this is directly proportional to the volume I have it set to. If I set it to max, I’ll probably guzzle all my chakra as quick as a Hemi engine would a two-litre milk carton filled with diesel fuel.

In other words, I’d be drained fully in a matter of seconds. Another thing is that I’m surprised that Sasuke and Naruto can sleep through this shitstorm!

Even now I was at my limit for what I could dish out without screwing myself over. But it looked like that was the same case for Zaku, like he couldn’t possibly go over that amount of sound in a sustained burst.

Zaku’s face suddenly became twisted with rage. “That’s it! You’re gonna die right here and now!” He yelled (which was barely audible over the noise). I had a feeling I knew what he was going to do, end it all in one fell swoop. My hand reached for the volume control just as he called out the name of his next jutsu. “SUPER SONIC SLICING WIND!”

I just cranked the volume up to 75% when the sonic wave hit. It was like the sound my guitar was pumping out was an airbag, slowly absorbing the shock of Zaku’s justu until it stopped.

I didn’t even bother with some witty remark, because there was not way you could have heard it over the amount of noise that was bouncing off the trees. I just let the last note fly and that ended it. Zaku went flying fifty feet straight back into the forest, I didn’t hear it but I knew that from how his arms had moved from the shock of my sound wave that they would have broken in fifteen different places.

Although I’d achieved my victory, I’d used up pretty much the last of my chakra. I could barely stand my hands numb from the vibrations of the guitar, which was actually still vibrating even after the noise had died down. My ears were ringing so bad, I swear I could have been going deaf. If Kin or Dosu chose to, I’d be mince meat.

And that’s exactly what Dosu decided to do. I saw him charge me out of the corner of my eye, the arm with the device poised to strike. He brought it forward to swing it just in front of my face, aiming to miss and use his jutsu on me. Then, as if on cue a green blur smashed Dosu in the face, sending him flipping end over end into the ground.

It was Lee, the self proclaimed handsome devil of the Leaf Village. I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy to see any specific person in my life. I wished I could have tuned into their conversation, but by this point the lack of chakra was beginning to set in, and I fell backwards, blacking out before I even hit the ground…

//====//===//==//=//

Derek watched his step-sister keel over and black out. His ears were still ringing from that mother load of distorted guitar chords, though obviously not as bad as hers would have been. He saw this guy in a green jumpsuit with orange leg warmers and a bowel cut, with eyebrows that looked like a forest had grown on his forehead.

“Lee!” Sakura exclaimed.

“You know this guy?!” Derek asked.

“Yeah, we met up with him just before the first test.” Sakura explained to him.

“Indeed.” The guy, Lee agreed with her.

“Okay, so what the hell are you doing here?” Derek asked, cocking an eyebrow.

“Well, before the first test I told Sakura that I would give my life to protect her.” Lee said.

“That still doesn’t answer how you-.”Derek stopped and stared at Krystal lying on the ground. “…y’know what, nevermind.”

Lee turned his attention back to the two sound ninja standing in front of him, getting into a fighting stance. “Now, prepare to be defeated by the handsome devil of the Leaf Village, Rock Lee.”

“Oh hell no!” Derek exclaimed. He got up and stood beside Lee.

“What are you doing?” Lee asked curiously.

“No way in hell am I going to let you have all the fun!” Derek retorted.

Lee smiled. “Very well, then we will take them on together.” He said. “Let’s see who can defeat their opponent first.”

“Your on, meat bag!” Derek said, adding the last part in as a kind of joke. Lee really didn’t seem to notice. He didn’t really have time to, because in seconds, Dosu was back for more…

Derek saw the mummy looking guy with the weird arm-gauntlet thing charge at them again. Derek was going to counter but Lee was at him in seconds. Using his hand to support himself, Lee executed a kick that was almost straight up in the air. Mister Mummy over there was launched into the air and Lee jumped after him. Derek wanted to keep watching until he saw the girl come at him.

He matrix-dodged to avoid her punch, only between her fingers she had needles that looked like ammo for a Brute Spiker in Halo. Derek reacted quickly before she could get out of range. He grabbed her wrist, twisting it off to the left. He brought his leg up and kicked her in the side of the neck. Using his own momentum, he flipped her over his own body and onto the ground. She was pinned, face first into the dirt. Derek was holding her arm behind her head, another hand pressed firmly on her back.

“Ha, betcha didn’t see that one coming, eh?” Derek said mockingly.

She turned her head slightly to glare back at him out of the corner of her eye. “No…no, I didn’t” She said smirking. “But you won’t see this coming either.”

Derek heard bells ringing, and almost immediately he felt dizzy. He only realized after the fact that she took the opportunity to push him off, grab him by the arm and judo flip him over her back to the ground.

“Now, how should I go about killing you?” She said as she stood over him. By this point he was beginning to see double, and her voice was being distorted. What the hell was going on here? He didn’t have the foggiest idea, and if he couldn’t think of something quick…well let’s just say he won’t be playing Call of Duty any time soon.

“Here’s an idea, you could NOT kill me and go help out your pal over there!” Derek said hopefully. He knew she wouldn’t fall for it but, guy’s gotta try right? The dizziness was beginning to pass and he got an idea. Stall for time bro! That’s what he told himself.

“Maybe, I’ll start by punching out the nerves that let you talk. You look like a blabber mouth, so I’ll just shut you up so I won’t have to hear you screaming like a five year old!” She said, leaning over him.

“You’re probably the most fucked up chick I’ve ever met, and I’ve met some pretty insane ones in my life time!” Derek said, actually he had met one that was a little crazier.

“What’d you say punk?!” The girl half-screamed. She pulled back the fist with death spikes between her fingers.

Well shit. Derek reacted as fast he could and quickly pulled a handle with two conical points coming out of either end and held it forward, enough to make her stop in her tracks or impale her own head on one point.

She held her fore head inches from the point, sweating buckets. Had she reacted any slower, she’d have been dead. She jumped away, just wanting to get away from whatever weapon that Derek was pulling out. It was pretty much just a handle that looked like it was taken off of a two-handed sword, with two pointy ends.

Derek rolled and got up, twirling the weapon around like a baton. In hindsight, he’s a very BAD baton twirler, almost dropped the damn thing twice.

“So are you gonna show me what that thing does? Or are you just going to stand there spinning it like a dweeb?” The girl asked him.

Derek held up a finger. “Hang on there, bitchy! I’m getting to it!” Derek scolded, well at least he tried to sound scolding.

He gripped the handle with both hands holding it across his chest at arms length. Chakra began to collect on both ends and they began to glow. The chakra stretched outward to extend the handle into a crude staff.

“Guess what princess? I’m a motherfuckin’ Jedi!” Derek said, spinning the dual-ended “lightsaber” around a couple times just to show off. Much better than when he was dickin’ around with it earlier might I add. Derek charged at her.

Kin started throwing senbon at him but he kept dodging left and right so fast that she could barely keep up. Finally he got close enough and raised the lightsaber over his head to strike. Kin dodged out of the way just as Derek brought it down. He sliced it into the ground, leaving a wide gash in the earth. A small wave of chakra that was released from the weapon upon impact continued on to slice a rock clean in half.

Kin stared at the weapon in shock. That amount of damage from such a small weapon? Note to self, do not get hit by that thing, it’ll lop an arm off easy.

“You know, I’ll admit that I haven’t really used this thing much, but then again it’s sword-staff thing. I mean what’s not to understand about how to use it? It’s a fucking sword dude, not a fighter jet!” Derek mentally cursed himself from quoting Tucker, he’d thought he’d gotten out of that phase.

Derek was about to charge at her again when a certain metal gauntlet was shoved quickly in front of his face. Suddenly the dizziness came back and the lightsaber shut off. Fuckberries, not again. Only this time, he fell to his knees and puked. As he coughed the last bits out of his system he got kicked in the side and thrown against a tree.

“Well, I’ll admit you kids’ve got some skill, but apparently not enough.” The mummy guy said to him. “Too bad you wont get the chance to learn any new tricks.” He began walking up to Derek when suddenly he heard a loud thump and the mummy guy turned around to look over his shoulder.

Logan stood up straighter in the midst of the dust cloud caused by his landing. His eyes scanned the area, taking in the situation. He sighed. “I leave you guys alone for only ten fucking minutes and somehow you find some way to screw everything up.” He said hanging his head.

“Oh yeah? Well maybe if we had you for back up none ‘o’ this shit woulda happened!” Derek yelled at him. “You go off and do your own shit without tellin’ any one else. This is the thanks you get fuckass!”

Logan flashed him the finger. “Shut up, dipshit.”

“Well you guys are quite the dysfunctional family!” Mummy guy said.

“Well there’s your problem!” Derek said nodding in Logan’s direction.

Logan gave him both middle fingers. “The problem’s the guy on the receiving end of these two!” Logan countered.

“Hey, the minute I can actually NOT move like a drunken hobo, I will come over there and kick your sorry ass!” Derek shot back.

“Welllllll, I think I’m going to cut this little argument short!” Kin said and threw three senbon at Logan. All three hit him dead center of the chest, but Logan didn’t flinch. Kin stared as Logan reached up, grabbed the senbon closest to the top of his neck and yanked it out.

“That the best you got?” Logan asked throwing the senbon to the ground, pulling out the other two. ‘Is this dude invincible? There can only be one explanation! Logan is really Chuck Norris! That’s it I gotta stop going on the internet!’ Derek thought as he watched Logan staring down Kin.

“Then I’ll take you down the old fashioned way!” She screamed, charging at him, senbon sticking out between her fingers, Mummy guy yelling at her to stop. She brought her arm back to punch him in the face, if he took a direct hit from that, he’d be dead no question.

Logan used his left and to catch the punch, senbon spearing through his hand. Logan’s fist almost simultaneously caught Kin in the stomach, forcing blood out of her mouth. She was thrown back a good twenty feet, skidding across the ground. Afterward she was just lying there unconscious.

“Who’s next?” Logan asked, staring down Mister Mummy. Dosu froze, instantly terrified. Logan was about to do the same to Dosu as he did to Kin when Dosu held out his right hand.

“Wait!” Dosu said, making Logan stop in his tracks. Dosu reached back and pulled out his scroll. He tossed it to Logan who caught it with his bloody left hand. “Take our scroll, and let us leave peacefully.”

“Try anything funny and I’ll bury you sixty feet into the earths crust.” Logan said, motioning with his head for Dosu to GTFO. Dosu nodded and picked up Kin, jumping towards where Zaku had landed, effectively getting out of the battle zone.

There was a long and uneasy pause after the sound ninja had left. “Were you born without a nervous system or something?” Derek asked. Logan shrugged.

“Guess I just figured out how to disassociate myself from physical pain.” He replied. Derek couldn’t help but this that he wasn’t telling the whole story. There was something realllly off about that guy, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. “So who’s the dipshit in the green jumpsuit?” Logan continued, eyeing Lee’ who was lying face first on the ground.

“He was the backup that replaced your ass during the fight!” Derek practically yelled.

“Not very good backup if you ask me.” Logan mumbled, scratching behind his ear.

Lee suddenly stood up and got right in Logan’s face. “DO NOT INSULT THE HANDSOME DEVIL OF THE LEAF!!!” He shouted.

“Yeah, that’s great.” Logan said cleaning his ear with his finger. “But seriously, handsome devil of the leaf? Word of advice, get a new title.”

“The Handsome Devil of the Leaf is a great title! You do not understand at all!” Lee protested.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” Logan said dismissively.

Derek stood up, shaking any dizziness he had left out of his head. “Well that was fun.” He said sarcastically.

Now to deal with those who are unconscious…

“Come on, hurry up! The tower’s just ahead, dipsticks!” Logan shouted at us from on top of a boulder.

“I can SEE!” I screamed back. I swear, sometimes that guy is just being a dick to try and piss us off! Even Sasuke had admitted that he couldn’t stand the guy after he’d woken up. My question now is how can Sasuke live with himself? He and Logan are practically the same person! Well, Logan does have a sense of humour, albeit a bad one. At least Logan was nice enough to split the Heaven and Earth scrolls we had. The second Heaven scroll came from Dosu.

“You guys aren’t really getting along are you?” Sakura asked, cocking an eyebrow.

“Nope.” Derek and I said in unison. Logan grumbled and jumped down from the boulder as we passed by.

“No wonder, you guys have some like Sasuke on your team.” Naruto grumbled, throwing his arms behind his head.

Sasuke glared at him over his shoulder. “Don’t compare me to that guy.” He growled.

“Alright guys let’s calm down, we’re trying to get to the tower without fighting other contestants.” Sakura said stepping between Naruto and Sasuke. The she matched her pace with Naruto’s and whispered into his ear: “You go off bad mouthing Sasuke again and I,ll deck you myself.”

I had to resist the urge to roll my eyes. ‘Not helping Sakura! Not helping at all!’ I thought as we made our way up the steps to the tower entrances.

“Well this is our door.” Derek said walking up to one of the doors and staring at the tag plastered between the two doors. He was about to open it when Logan suddenly kicked the doors open, making Derek jump back so fast he fell back wards.

“Looks like somebody has anger issues.” Sakura said, staring at Logan as he walked through the doorway.

“Ya think?!” I asked, before following Derek and Logan through the door. I stopped at the doorway and looked back at the members of Team 7. “See you guys in the next round!” I said cheerfully before running through the doors as they shut behind me.

Inside Logan and Derek stared blankly at the poster written in Japanese. “I don’t get it. Are we supposed to read this thing?” Derek asked scratching his head.

“Probably.” I said walking up to them. The big problem was that Me and Derek couldn’t read this, and I’m not sure Logan could-

“Open the scrolls.” Logan said, still staring at the poster.

“You can read that?!!” Derek asked disbelievingly. I’ll admit I was surprised myself.

“Not really but I just have a gut feeling we need to open the scrolls.” Logan said with a shrug. Dammit! He stole the line I was gonna use to get them to open the scrolls!

“Well then let’s get to it!” Derek said, pulling out the scroll he was carrying. Logan took out his own and the two of them unrolled the scrolls.

As the scrolls began to smoke, my “avoid grenade” reflexes kicked in. “TOSS ‘EM!!!” I screamed and they threw the scrolls, Derek adding in a quick “Frag out!”.

The scrolls exploded soon after the they hit the floor, covering up anybody who was at the center of it. The thoughts running through my head were all guesses as to who it could be. Iruka? Nah, he would be with Team 7. Ebisu? He’d be too stuck up to take an assignment like this.

Well my answer came when the smoke cleared…trust me it scared me half to death.

“Hello there children! Did you have fun in the playground?!” Prof asked us with glee. I nearly slapped myself in the face. This HAD to be a dream.

Logan looked a little frightened himself and Derek looked like he had no fucking clue what was going on.

“Why did it have to be you?” I grumbled, slouching forward.

“Aw, you hurt my feelings.” Prof said, trying to make her self look sad, but her joy was leaking out like water from a busted hose.

“You know this lady?” Derek asked me, hooking his thumb over at Prof.

“I’ll explain later.” I said.

“Anywho, congrats on passing the second test!” Prof went on. “The explanation of the next test will fifteen minutes after the time limit is up. Have fun!” Her body began to glow a deep purple and seemed to dissipate into thin air.

“That bitch is downright lazy.” I caught myself mumbling…

//====//===//==//=//

“Damn, this had got to be the biggest room I’ve ever been in during my entire life.” Derek said gazing around the expanse that would be the arena for the preliminaries.

“I think you’re forgetting the hangar at the Air Force base we visited a while back.” I pointed out from behind him.

“Oh yeah! That one was way bigger than this!” He corrected himself. I rolled my eyes.

“I don’t know what you two are talking about back there but can it. I wanna hear what they’re gonna have us do next.” Logan said in front.

“Yeah, whatever.” Derek said dismissively.

“Alright everyone, Lord Hokage is going to explain the details of the third exam to you, so you better listen up maggots.” Anko called out so everyone could hear before passing the stage to the old man.

“Alright then, before we begin I would like to explain something to you all.” The Hokage started. I admit by this point I was tuning everything out as I’d already heard this crap before from the show so…yeah.

I couldn’t help but catch a glance at Logan’s bandaged hand. From what Sakura had told me, three senbon needles and gone straight through his hand. Dude hadn’t even flinched, did this guy have no sense of pain? Hell did he even feel anything, physical or not?

A violent fit of coughing coming from the front, snapped me from my thoughts. I noticed that the proctor for the third exam had made his appearance. What was his name again? Hayate? Immediately my mind flashed to the guy with the weird ass helmet that looked oddly like a unlockable helmet in Halo Reach. Was it called the GUNGNIR?(Look it up if you don’t know what it looks like, search it up, it’ll give you a better idea on what Hayato looks like.)

“Sorry to say this but, we need to hold a special preliminary exam before we can move on to the third exam.” Hayate said from the front before coughing again. A shocked murmur rippled around the genin.

“Just what the hell is this bullshit?! I never knew about any preliminary tests! What the hell is all this!” The guy from the Citadel yelled out, his name was Katachi I still remember. Kabuto said he was the guy to watch out for. Would now be a good time to mention that I’m bad with names I don’t hear often?

“Well to be honest we never expected nine teams to pass the second exam, so we had to set up a preliminary test to see who would move on to the next round.” Hayate explained. “We will begin the preliminary test immediately.”

“What?! We just finished barely surviving the last one, don’t we get a break?” Ino protested.

“Oh, and one more thing, the winners will be determined by one on one combat, so if you don’t fell up to it, now’s the time to quit.” Hayate continued.

‘Well there’s no way I’m chickening out! I’m in this on hundred percent!..unless I’m up against Gaara, Lee or Logan.’ I thought. There was silence for a good few minutes, until Kabuto raised his hand.

“You got me, I’m out.” He said. Hayate dismissed him afterward and I half expected Naruto to try and stop him but I remembered we’d basically skipped the whole arc where they travelled with him so there really wasn’t much point.

“Alright, is there anyone else who’d like to leave?” Hayate asked before coughing again. Jesus, he was worse than I was when I had that bout with bronchitis! When no one replied, he continued. “Very well then, I’ll reveal how we will decide the match-ups for this round.” He turned and nodded to Anko, who ordered an unknown group to open one of the panels on the wall in front of us through her headset.

“The names of the combatants for each round will be chosen at random and displayed on the screen behind me.” Hayate explained. “If there aren’t any questions we’ll begin the first match.”

The screen began to show random names, thankfully written in English this time, scroll through so rapidly that there was no way you could read ‘em fast enough. Unless of course you could control time or some shit like that.

Well it came out as the normal first match up. Sasuke versus Yoroi. Okay, I’ll admit it, I was psyched to see how this battle would play out now that Sasuke wasn’t handicapped by the curse mark.

Would he win by a long shot, or barely? Or what if he just loses this time around? Nah, Sasuke would probably kick this guy’s ass all over the room.

“Alright, would the two combatants who’s names were drawn step forward.” Hayate said, Sasuke and Yoroi stepped forward. “Everyone else please head to the upper level to await your match.” He went on.

As I walked off I stole one last glance at Sasuke, silently wishing him good luck. I mean sure the guy was a bit of an ass but I still considered him a friend…I just realized how cheesy that sounded!

Anyway, we climbed up the stairs and wound up standing next to Team7. Derek and Naruto almost immediately began talking about random things, to be honest I wasn’t paying attention, I was more interested in the match.

Sasuke and Yoroi stared eachother down as Hayate stepped between them. “The first match will be between Sasuke Uchiha and Yoroi Akado. Are the combatants ready?” Hayate asked.

“Born ready.” Sasuke replied.

“Same here.” Yoroi added.

“Alright then…” Hayate said. “BEGIN!!!”

Sasuke hit the ground hard after the proctor announced him as the winner of the first match. To be honest, it really wasn’t that far off from the anime, so I won’t go into much detail on it.

“Hey Sasuke! You won but in such an un-cool way, you came out looking like you’re the one who got beat up!” Naruto taunted cheerfully. Sasuke turned his head and glared at Naruto. I swear I thought I saw Sasuke trying to give Naruto the finger, but that was probably just the light angles.

“That was pathetic.” Logan muttered, arms crossed.

“Hey, give the guy a break!” I said, turning towards him. “Not everyone is a near unstoppable force like you!” Logan flashed me glare.

“For the record, I’m not entirely unstoppable, even I have my limits.” He said. “And secondly, if Sasuke was really that great of a genin, he should have been able to take that guy down easily.”

“Maybe after three fucking days being hunted down by other competitors took its toll on him! You ever think of that?” I countered.

“Why are even defending him? I thought you hated him!” He snapped back.

“I said I did?” I asked. “Oh and you might wanna stop dissing Sasuke cause…” I trailed off and pointed at Ino a bit farther down the line, who was fuming with rage and giving Logan a death glare. Logan glanced at her, returned the glare for about fifteen seconds and then turned his attention back to the screen as new names were being randomized.

I crossed my fingers. ‘Please don’t let it be me, please, please, please!’ I silently begged. It was funny because both Lee and Naruto were arguing with each other over which one of them was going to be next. I feel so out of place. Heck even Derek seemed to be itching for a fight.

There was a beep and two names were displayed:

Logan
VS
Katachi

Logan quickly vaulted over the hand rail and down into the area, not bothering to wait for the proctor to ask him to do so. Katachi did the same from the other side of the room, and within seconds the two were staring each other down. If the proctor wasn’t there to decide when the match would start, they would have been at each others throats right about now.

“Alright-.” Hayate was interrupted by his own coughing. “Sorry about that…Are the combatants ready?”

“Damn straight!” Katachi asked pulling two brass knuckles from his weapons pouch and slipping them onto his fingers.

Logan just nodded ever so slightly, crossing both arms.

“He seems too relaxed, it is as if he knows he is going to win.” Lee commented from my left.

“Yeah, he’s just standing there like nothing’s going on.” Naruto agreed.

“Yeah well, we ARE talking about a guy who has a jutsu powerful enough to quarantine a whole building.” I pointed out.

“Really?! That powerful?!” Lee asked, shocked.

“Well, according to Kabuto.” I admitted. I turned my attention back to two fighters down below.

“Alright then, begin.” Hayate finally announced and jumped back. Almost immediately Katachi lunged at Logan with his right fist. Logan quickly caught the punch so fast his arm had seemingly teleported. Katachi looked surprised at first, but brought his left leg up to kick at Logan’s head, who simply let go of Katachi’s fist and leaned backward under the kick. Katachi landed and spun around, bringing his right fist to try and catch Logan in a sucker punch as he regained his stance. Logan leaned to the left, making Katachi miss, and jumped out of range of Katachi’s punches.

“He is skilled in Taijutsu, I will give him that.” Lee admitted.

“That’s all I’ve seen him use so far.” I said. “That and his apparent immunity to pain.” I added nervously.

Katachi meanwhile pulled out two kunai and flung them at Logan, one after the other. Logan reacted quickly, quickly catching the first by slipping his left ring finger through the loop. He spun it around then grabbed it and used it to deflect the other kunai. Katachi had used the time gained by the kunai to close the distance between himself and Logan and brought his right leg up for a kick to Logan’s side.

Logan had other plans however, and kicked Katachi’s leg away with his foot. Katachi jumped back as Logan took a swipe at him with the kunai. Katachi began performing hand-signs as he moved backward. “Earth Style: Kinetic Shockwave!” He shouted and brought his fist down on one of the huge concrete tiles that lined the floor. A loud boom reverberated around the room and tiles began to lift and fall in a wave heading right for Logan. I kept expecting Logan to jump and get out of the way, but when he didn’t I just panicked.

“Get out of the way Logan! Move your ass!” I screamed at him.

Logan still held his ground until the wave of tiles was under his feet. Somehow he kept his footing and just as he reached the crest of the wave he jumped. He’d just used Katachi’s own jutsu to launch himself almost to the height of the ceiling! Logan quickly gripped the kunai and flung it at Katachi and it tumbled toward its target, flipping end over end.

“That’s not how you throw a kunai!” I heard Sakura mumble.

Katachi jumped back to dodge the tumbling kunai, smirking triumphantly to himself. While he was still in midair the kunai’s blade caught one of the tiles and bounced heading straight for the center of Katachi’s chest. He twisted in the air and managed to get out of lethal range of the kunai’s path before it sank into his shoulder.

“Then again, I’m thinking that was intentional…” Sakura said embarrassed.

“Whoa! He’s gotta teach me how to do that!” Naruto exclaimed. By this point I was becoming a little amazed myself.

Logan ran at Katachi as he landed, the Citadel Ninja yanking the kunai out of his shoulder. Logan bought his fist back and slugged Katachi in the face with enough force to send him flying fifteen feet backwards. Katachi skidded along the ground after he landed, before pulling out a kunai and stabbing it into the ground to stop himself. He got up just as Logan was gearing up for another strike. He managed to lean to the right before Logan’s punch could connect, and jumped backwards three times to get away.

“I have noticed that he fights in much the same way as Sasuke.” Lee pointed out.

“Now that you mention it…” Sakura said before trailing off in thought.

“Meh, I don’t think Sasuke would take risks like with that jutsu earlier.” Naruto pointed out, his eyes all squinty and his mouth twisted into a large frown.

“Then that is where their similarities end.” Lee said.

“Ninja art: Kinetic Impact!” Katachi yelled punching at the air and a loud bang like a sonic boom echoed through the arena. Logan was his with a faded red-orange bolt and was knocked onto his back. Katachi performed more hand-signs. “Earth style: Kinetic Shockwave!” He punched the ground and the same wave from before made it’s way towards Logan. This time though, Logan couldn’t perform the same manoeuvre that he did earlier, because he was still lying on his back when the wave tossed him into the air.

“Ninja art: Kinetic Impact!” Katachi called out and every Leaf genin watched as the bolt hit Logan and tossed him into the ceiling, the impact from him hitting the ceiling creating a large dust cloud. “Earth Style: Stone pillar!” A large pillar made of sandy brown rock shot up from the floor just under where Logan had hit the ceiling. Logan’s body fell out of the cloud and plummeted head first towards the ever expanding pillar. The pillar smashed into him and continued on until it hit the ceiling, crushing Logan in the process.

Katachi stood there staring up at where the pillar connected with the ceiling. “Hah, looks like I win!” Katachi declared triumphantly.

“I’m not so sure…” Neji’s voice sounded, just loud enough for us to hear. I glanced at him and noticed his Byakugan was activated.

“How could he have survived such an attack?!” Lee exclaimed. “Or at least how could he have survived and still be able to fight?”

“I don’t know how he managed it but…” Neji paused longer than I would have liked.

“Well then spit it out already!” I snapped.

“He somehow managed to get inside the pillar!” Neji reported, giving me cold stare. Naruto geared up to protest when suddenly there was a loud explosion that ripped the pillar in half. As the top half fell, I noticed the hole running along its length. Logan had tunnelled his way in!

A shape jumped out of the huge smoke cloud caused by the explosion and immediately it threw a rock at Katachi, who promptly destroyed it with his Kinetic Impact jutsu. The shape seemed to be followed by a trail of smoke as it descended to the floor completely obscured. I could still see the shape as it stood up and began walking out of the cloud.

Now before I go into too much detail as to what walked out of that cloud of dust and grey smoke, well I need to ask…have any of you ever seen that one person at school who acts like a god damn machine and you always think: Oh my god he/she’s a terminator? Well what walked out was that fear made real, because there were fucking metal bones sticking out of Logan’s shoulder!

“I wouldn’t get too excited just yet.” Logan’s skeleton said, it’s jaw moving in time with the words. “You’ve still got me to deal with.”

“What the-!” Derek exclaimed.

“Oh my gosh…” Sakura muttered.

“B-but, that is impossible!” Lee exclaimed.

“What the heck is he?” Guy said, speaking his first words since the start of the fight.

“Are you asking me? Because I haven’t a clue.” Kakashi replied.

I could only stare in disbelief as Logan walked slowly toward Katachi, who looked so terrified that he couldn’t move. The metal was a dark metallic grey, and wires weaved between the ‘bones’, creating a ghost of Logan’s now shredded shoulder, and the shining steel was slick with blood. “You know, I’ll admit this much. The gaping hole in my shoulder hurts like a bitch.” Logan said smirking.

“A hole?!” Ino screamed at Logan. “You call that a hole?! Your entire shoulder’s missing!”

“Pfff! Technicality.” Logan said, amazingly able to wave the arm with the missing shoulder at her dismissively. “Alright, so where were we?...Oh yeah!” Logan smacked a fist into his palm. “I was about to pound your head into the pavement.”

“It’s actually concrete tiles!” Derek pointed out.

“Technicality.” Logan said in frustration.

Just as Logan was going to head over and beat Katachi’s ass, the Citi-nin (Don’t ask, I just made it up) threw his hands up and yelled. “That’s it, I quit!”

A look of shock crossed Logan’s face, as Katachi stared fearfully back at him. Then Logan just shrugged and started heading for the entrance to the arena. “Where are you going?” Hayate asked Logan, who pointed to his shoulder.

“Didn’t I say before that this fucking hurts? I’m going to get some painkillers.” Logan turned and continued walking.

“I think he’s gonna need more than painkillers.” Derek said.

“Oh ya think?” I said sarcastically. “Dude nearly lost his fucking arm!” Frankly I was nearly scared shitless of Logan now. The only thought that was coursing through my head was.

The terminator scenario…it begins July 2nd.

…Aaaaaand I’m right in the middle of it.

Derek’s hand waved in front of my face a few times, partially snapping me from my dazed trance. I kept staring blankly at the spot Logan had been two seconds before he left for the infirmary. “Can somebody explain why there are images of Logan stabbing me in my sleep flashing through my mind right now?” I said, my voice squeaking with mild panic.

“Uh, probably because we just saw metal bones sticking out of our new teammate’s shoulder?” Derek responded. “I mean, it’s only a matter of time before Sky-Net gets created and eventually takes over!”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down for a sec!” Ino butt in. “What the heck are you guys even talking about?”

“Terminator movies…real freaky shit, lemme tell ya!” Derek replied.

“Okay, so spill it! What’re these movies about?” Sakura asked.

“Yes, it would be good to know what this Sky-Net is.” Lee pointed-out.

I shook my head to clear out any fucked up, Terminator related images buzzing around my brain. “Okay, where to start…?” I asked myself bluntly.

“Sky-Net is an Artificial Intelligence that pretty much overthrew modern society in the Terminator movies so that it could replace humans with machines at the top of the pecking order because it considered us a threat.” Derek explained. “In order to keep itself free of being destroyed by the human resistance, it built a variety of mechanical soldiers called Terminators that varied in size and shape. The creepiest ones being the humanoid Terminators, which you pretty much just saw walk out of here like, two minutes ago.”

I stared at him, both surprised and a little weirded out. It seemed like every shared my feelings because we were all wearing the same expression. “That…that was so accurate, yet so non spoiler ridden that it’s almost scary.” I said. Derek just shrugged.

“So does that mean Logan is intricately planning our deaths right this minute?! Ino asked fearfully. I just about backhanded her for saying something so stupid. Then again it’s not like I wasn’t doing the same three minutes before.

“Look, just because Logan could fit the description of a T-800 doesn’t mean he is one.” I stated, giving her a cold stare.

“Well okay, if you’re so sure…” Ino replied shakily.

“I’m not sure, I’m just trying not to jump to conclusions here.” I said.

“So there’s still possibility that he’s trying to mur-.” My fist came down on her head so fast that I must have broke the sound barrier.

“God dammit, my nerves are running high enough as it is! If you keep going on about Logan being the fucking mechanical Grim Reaper I’ll toss you across the room like a javelin!” I screamed as Ino clutched her throbbing head.

“Now I’m starting to think you’re a Terminator.” Derek said.

I spun around. “Look. If I tired that stunt Arnold did with his arm in T-2, I’m liable to slice my whole arm off!” I pointed out.

A small smirk drifted across his face. “That’s just what a Terminator would say.” In seconds I had him lifted off the ground by his shirt collar, giving him a death glare a point blank range. “Okay, okay I was just trying to lighten the mood!” He whimpered. I dropped him and leaned on the railing as the screen began randomizing the names for the next two contestants. I may have over reacted back there, but I get like that when I’m nervous. And right now I’m seriously on the verge of a nervous breakdown, this time I’m not exaggerating.

//====//===//==//=//

“Yeah, yeah, just shut up and give me the damn meds!” Someone yelled, forcing Sasuke partially out of his sleep. He stared up at the ceiling with partially alert eyes, for the moment unsure as to why he’d woken up.

“Let me bandage your shoulder first, you’re loosing a lot of blood!” A female voice countered. Sasuke was shaken further out of sleep when he heard the nurse from earlier talking to someone else.

“Bandage it up AFTER your knock me out! I could die from the pain alone, okay?!” The other voice countered. Sasuke stood up, finally convinced her won’t be getting any sleep with those two bickering. He eyed the door that separated him from the arguing pair.

“But will it even work on you? I mean with your-.” The nurse began. The other voice muttered something under his breath.

“Listen, just think of this arm as a high-tech prosthetic and if it doesn’t knock me out the first dose, then just hit me with another!” It said. Sasuke finally identified the voice as Logan’s. Sasuke got out of bed a glided stealthily over to the door, peeking through the crack between it and the doorframe.

He saw the nurse loading a syringe up with what he guessed was some kind of tranquilizer. When she was finished with that, she moved over to the operating table and basically blocked off all view of Logan’s left side. From what Sasuke could see, the guy looked fine, so why did he need to be put out?

“Hit the other one. Lefty won’t do much good now.” Logan told the nurse, who muttered a quick “okay” and moved to the right side of Logan’s body. Now Sasuke saw the answer to his question. The flesh on Logan’s entire left shoulder was missing, and displayed out in broad daylight was that shiny dark metal of a bone structure. Sasuke tore himself away from the door and was overcome with a wave of dizziness.

He used his hospital bed as support to let the feeling pass. What the hell had he just seen? Was that why Logan seemed to be unstoppable? That would also explain the massive damage that head-butt did. But it didn’t make much sense. What kind of fucked up genes could produce metal bones?

//====//===//==//=//

Well, I’ve just see enough gore to last a lifetime. Zaku had his arms nearly blown off by Shino in the latest match-up. And Kankuro had crushed his opponent’s bones. I know it was partly my fault by breaking his arms with a sound wave in our fight back in the Forest of Death, but to honest I didn’t really give a damn. As far as I was concerned, if things ran their course I was okay with it.

Sakura and Ino were up next, and up until this point the two of them had actually been okay with each other. Now that their names had been called though, they were glaring at each other so hard I swear that the lightning bolts that would have been coming out of their eyes in the anime would have bounced off each other and set me on fire!

Naruto, who didn’t seem to be too freaked out about Logan’s Terminator arm because he was too preoccupied with figuring out how to convince Logan to show him that trick he pulled with the bouncing kunai, Lee and Derek all picked up on it too and the four of us took a few cautious steps back.

“I think it would be best to stay out of their way.” Lee whispered nervously.

“You think I couldn’t figure it out myself?” I whispered.

Sakura and Ino gave each other the cold shoulder as they made their way down to the arena, the four of us tensing reflexively as they walked by. I sighed in relief when they didn’t flip out in front of us.

“Okay I’ll admit that they scare the crap out of me when they get pissed!” Derek admitted.

“Remind me never to get Sakura mad…ever.” Naruto added.

I leaned over the railing, watching Sakura and Ino stare each other down from opposite sides of the arena. This was the one match that would take a while. Logan’s lasted all of one minute, the other two after took a couple seconds. This would last about fifteen minutes. I really didn’t feel like watching this one because I’d already seen it like…eight times…I guess? Aw hell, there might be some new shit in this one, who knows?

//====//===//==//=//

Prof leaned on the wall of a hallway leading to the infirmary, the hood of her lab coat up over her head. She was waiting for someone…an old acquaintance. Then he showed, walking towards the infirmary, as he walked past she finally spoke.

“Wouldn’t go in there if I were you.” She stated.

“Well, I admit I never expected to see you here Professor.” Said the Sound-nin with the slithery voice. “I thought you liked staying away from populate areas.”

“Really Orochimaru? You didn’t think that it was just because the only research bases I could go to finish stage 1 Project: Evolution were outside of populated areas?” She asked him, crossing her arms over her chest. “Plus I’ve always been a city girl.”

“Ah, you and your secret projects.” Orochimaru said, changing the subject. “Is that country you kept going on about still funding your research? Or can I butt in?” He added tauntingly.

“Fat chance, the last thing I’d want is to receive funding from a sick psycho like you.” She countered. “Your experiments have resulted in more deaths than the incident.”

Orochimaru was silent for a few moments. “That boy who fought in the second match…” He began. “He was your creation, yes?”

“Yeah, so? What’s it to you? Prof asked in response.

“I assume you had to sacrifice quite a few souls to create such a specimen, by replacing his bones with a metal doppelganger.” Orochimaru conclude.

Prof smirked. “Unlike you I actually respect human life, so instead of taking a living body and switching out his skeletal structure, I grew a body around the metal skeleton.” She paused and threw the hood back, muttering something about it being too hot in here. “Anyway, even if I’d taken Logan’s body and did the procedure you described, he’d have probably survived anyway.”

Orochimaru smiled. “And why’s that?”

“Because even without those bones, he’s far from normal.” She simply stated before pushing off the wall and heading towards the infirmary. “Take care of yourself Orochimaru…don’t try anything stupid.” She said almost mockingly over her shoulder.

Orochimaru grit his teeth. “Damn that woman.” He muttered before walking in the opposite direction.

//====//===//==//=//

“Damn, that was a long match!” Derek said as Kakashi and Asuma rested Sakura and Ino up against the wall.

“Meh, I just hope it isn’t my turn next.” I said shrugging.

“I just wanna get mine over with to be honest.” He said. I flashed him a surprised look. He threw his hands up in that: “ah, what the heck” fashion and shrugged his shoulders. “Frankly, I can understand if I win or not.” He said.

I was a little surprised by that remark. Derek was the type to whine and bitch if things didn’t go his way, then I figured that this was just his way of trying to be mature and that if he lost he’d be like the Derek I knew.

“Hey Sasuke!” Naruto called out behind us and we turned to see Sasuke walking up to the group.

He eyed Sakura and Ino lying against the wall and hooked his thumb at them. “What happened to them?” He asked.

“They fought each other in the last match, ended in a tie.” Derek explained.

“It was a spectacular match, they both fought well.” Lee added.

“Right, so who’s next up?” Sasuke asked.

I shrugged. “Hell if I know, damn screen hasn’t randomized yet.” Just then I heard the beep that signified that the next match’s contestants had been chosen. I turned around and read the two names displayed. “Fffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu…” I moaned, letting my shoulders sag.

The second name was mine.
The first was that Citadel Kunoichi’s name

“…uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu-.” Derek hit me hard on the back of the head to shut me up.

“C’mon, quite bein’ a spineless bitch and get in there.” He said, before placing both of his hands on my back and shoving me over the side. I screamed as I did a somersault in midair and landed flat on my back. “Get up and kick her sorry ass!” Derek yelled over the side. I gave him the finger, still lying on the floor. I got up and made my way to center of the arena.

“C’mon, I’m not gonna wait here all day!” Keiko said impatiently from the center. I noticed for the first time that she was carrying some gear that hadn’t been in the picture on Kabuto’s cards. First off she had three sets of weapons pouches wrapped around her right thigh. The second was there were two scrolls being held between the pouch sets. I guess it made sense since she was the marksman type.

“Just shove it and let’s get on with it.” I said cracking my neck to relieve any tension.

“Are the combatants ready?” Kayate asked us.

“Do you even NEED to ask?” Keiko responded, her hand hovering over her weapons pouches.

“Meh, why not?” I wished I was as sure as I’d sounded right then. My fight or flight responses started kicking in, and I was seriously considering butting out before the match even started. But imagine how that’d make me look!

“Alright then…” Kayate said. Both Keiko and I shifted into fighting stances. “…BEGIN!!!”

Keiko quickly dug her hand into one of her weapons pouches and pulled out three kunai, throwing them at me. I pilled out my own kunai and blocked all three moving to the left to dodge a fourth she’d thrown afterward. I charged forward, zigzagging left and right to throw off her aim as I approached, all the while she frantically threw shuriken at me. As I got closer she pulled out a kunai of her own to block mine as it came within striking distance.

I swung my left fist toward her head and she clumsily dodged her head to the right. In that instant I figured out that she wasn’t the close range type. Range advantage to me! I quickly pushed her kunai back with mine, catching her off guard. Then as she recovered I jammed the blade of my kunai into the ring of hers and yanked it out of her hands. Throwing both kunai away I swung my right fist in towards her face. She blocked it.

Okay…not what I was expecting.

She tried to punch me in the gut but I sidestepped out of the way, unhooking my fist from her grip in the process. I with my now free right fist, I backhanded the side of her head. Stunned she staggered backwards. I line up another punch with my right and caught her square in the jaw. Again Keiko staggered backwards as I brought my right foot up and kicked her in the side.

Instead of moving away from my kick, she grabbed my leg and spun, tossing me like a ragdoll. I hit the ground and slid. I got up in time to see her jump in the air and pull out of the scrolls. It unravelled and she spun it in a halo beneath her feet. The scroll spewed a cloud of white smoke, concealing her and whatever she had hidden in there.

When the smoke cleared I saw what she had hidden in the scroll. Six ball shaped pods with small wing-like structures sticking out of them floated around her. She had her feet planted firmly on two of them and the other four floated nearby. For some reason she was wearing gloves with small metal plates on them now and had a Bluetooth headset hanging off her right ear. She wore a confident smile on her face like she knew she already won.

“I admit that these guys probably aren’t all that fair to a third-rate washout such as yourself…but who said life was fair?!” She announced gleefully as she motioned to the pods. The part that looked like the mouthpiece actually went over her head rather than her mouth. “Have fun!” She said before jumping off the pods she was on and sailed through the air towards the oversized hands near the screen. Y’know, the ones Lee stood on to take off his ankle weights?

“Oh no you don’t! Get back here!” I yelled, running after her. I’d barely started running when the six pods floated between me and the hands. They were almost like little cameras, with little lenses in the middle of their-.

‘Oh crap, those aren’t lenses!’ I thought as I saw the green glow that was gathering in the lenses. These things were gonna shoot me! I jumped out of the way just as three green lasers fired on where I had been not two seconds before. These things were like Guilty Spark armed with a Spartan Laser! And there were six of ‘em!

I ran from them when I landed evading laser after laser, I could hear Naruto and Lee protesting that they were completely unfair, but no one stepped in. Looks like it was up to me to take these things down. Problem was…I had no idea how to go about doing that. One of them pulled up ahead of me and began charging it’s laser and I ducked as it fired. The five following me veered away from the shot. I pulled out a kunai and threw it at the one who’d taken the shot. The kunai bounced off the pod’s metal frame harmlessly.

I saw a green dot dancing around in front of me and I was granted a brief moment of satisfaction. One weakness of the Spartan Laser was shared with these scrap-heaps, and that was the obvious targeting beam. I jumped as the laser fired and I smelled burnt rubber. Looks like that one had gotten close enough to smoke the soles of my ninja shoes!

I needed to come up with a strategy quick because next time might not me so close. I took off running the minute my feet hit the ground. I wanted to refrain from using Gault until the actual third round and not the prelims, so what could I do to avoid that scenario. Then it hit me. Two could play this little game. I quickly made a hand-sign and immediately five shadowclones popped up around me matching my speed. The clones split up. If Keiko wanted to find me, she’d have to have one of her little bot-pods follow each clone.

I kept running, now only worried about one pod instead of six. I looked over my shoulder to se it hanging in the air motionlessly as the green glow began to collect in its glass eye. I jumped out of the way as it fired, the laser tracing a blackened path along the concrete. I hit the ground and turned, standing my ground as the pod got into position, then hung there again charging its laser.

Then I realized something as I thought back to every time I’d seen a pod charge its laser. Every time they’d remained motionless in mid air! I to the right as the laser fired moving around the pod so that it would only need to turn. It angled around again to aim its laser eye at me. As it began to charge, I pulled out a kunai and threw it, aiming for it’s glowing eye.

The kunai pierced the glass and wedged itself in the lens. As the pod fired the laser it exploded in a green fireball. I covered my face with my arm against the blast. When it was over I let my arm fall and stared at the half destroyed frame of the pod. I’d just killed one!

Then I felt something sharp lodge itself into my left shoulder and I winced. I reached up and pulled the kunai out of my shoulder bringing it around to look at. My heart jumped up into my throat when I noticed the burning paper bomb attached to it. I tossed it away as hard as I could and seconds later it exploded in my face. I flew backwards, landing on my back hard enough to force the air from my lungs.

I rolled over to get up and felt the pointy tip of a kunai pressing gently into the back of my neck. “You know I’ll give this much. Your one of the few people who’ve actually managed to destroy my little toys. To bad your shadowclones got taken out in the explosion caused by my little present.” She whispered into my ear. “Now I’ll give you a chance to give up before I jam this into your spine.”

I remain motionless, trying to think of a way out of this. I didn’t want to die, not here anyway, but I didn’t want to lose either. But if I even twitched the wrong way she’d kill me to fast for me to react!

It was at that moment that I got the boldest and probably stupidest idea ever. “Fat chance.” I whispered back, Gault switching into his guitar form, my right hand holding him down as my left quickly pulled on the strings. I guess Keiko was too surprised by how an electric guitar had suddenly appeared to finish me off before I executed my plan to throw her off.

This is why I say this is the stupidest plan I’ve ever had, because not only is Keiko on the receiving end of this, but so was I…and I was closer to the damn thing than she was when the shockwave erupted from the guitar. It was like being stuck in the middle of the loudest tornado to ever exist. I could barely hear Keiko’s scream as I felt her being picked up and being carried away like a leaf.

I was smart enough to have glued myself to the floor with my chakra so as not to share her fate. The whole time I was fighting to keep my neck from snapping from the rushing air. At first I thought the noise was dying down but then I realized it was me beginning to go deaf. After what felt like an eternity, the wind stopped and I collapsed on the guitar. My ears were ringing like all hell, and all I could here were the muffled yells rebounding across the room. I managed to pick myself up, fighting the dizziness that was threatening to push me back down.

I used Gault for support, as I watched Hayate motion towards me with his arm and say something incomprehensible. I saw Keiko lying motionless on the ground and I couldn’t help but smile in spite of myself. I’d just won the match.

Eventually the dizziness began to pass and my hearing started to come back by the time Sakura, Ino, Naruto, Derek, and Lee had made it down to the arena.

“Yeah! That was awesome!” Naruto yelled cheerfully.

“I can’t believe you got out of that!” Ino declared joyously.

“It was truly an incredible match!” Lee added, giving me a thumbs up.

I smiled again. “Yeah, well I don’t think my ears approve of my methods.” I admitted, rubbing the back of my neck. “Them bastards’re still ringing!”

“I’ll bet! You should probably get checked at the infirmary though.” Sakura pointed out.

“Yeah, probably just to get my shoulder bandaged up.” I admitted. It hurt, I’ll admit that much. But probably not as bad as losing your whole shoulder, like Logan did.

“I’d get my ears checked if I were you!” Derek added. “Look I know you like listening to music in your room at full blast but I think listening to a sonic boom for five seconds is gonna do some damage!”

“Oh right.” I said, suddenly remembering something. I punched him in the face and he fell flat on his ass. “THAT’S FOR PUSHING ME OVER THE SIDE EARLIER!!!” I screamed at him as he rubbed his forehead in pain.

“Okay, sorry, Jesus.” He muttered.

//====//===//==//=//

I pulled my shirt back over my head, the wound still stinging from the disinfectant under the bandages wrapped around my shoulder. The nurse had asked about the scar I’d gotten from that burn back in the land of waves. I’d told her the truth, she didn’t ask any more questions and patched me up. Her curiosity was satisfied, and I got patched up, everybody was happy.

I was just about to head back to the arena to watch the next matches when I ran into someone. “Sorry about-.” I shut up when I saw the person I’d run into. Prof stood there wearing a wide grin across her face.

“Nice job on the match!” She congratulated me out of nowhere.

“Uh…thanks?” I said, slightly confused. “Just out of curiosity, how did you find out?”

“Kakashi told me after you got in here!” She announced.

“You know Kakashi?” I asked.

She shrugged. “We had a run in when he was on a mission with the ANBU black ops. We’ve known each other since then, but only on a few chance encounters. I mean I don’t know the guy all too well but I know him well enough.”

“O…kay…I guess that make sense.” I muttered rubbing the back of my neck.

Suddenly he cheerful attitude became dark and sinister as her face came within inches of mine. “By the way…” She started. “…You even try that move you pulled with the guitar back there and I will beat you into the ground, got that?”

I nodded fearfully. “Y-yes ma’am!” I squeaked.

She smiled cheerfully. “Good, now back to the show!” She announced cheerfully as she turned and left.

…what in gods name is wrong with that woman?!

Well, after the little talk with Prof, we got to see the matches between, Ten-Ten and Temari, Shikamaru and Kin, Naruto and Kiba, which happened to be the most exciting and least scary, Hinata and Neji, after which my feelings were to slug Neji across the face a few times, and now it was time for the eleventh match. The list was narrowing down, and I saw Derek next to me crossing his fingers with a big grin on his face.

“It’s totally gonna be me this time, I know it!” He proclaimed happily.

“No, this time it will be me.” Lee stated simply.

“Pfff, as if! I’m the guy who’s going next!” Derek countered, giving Lee a confident stare and crossing his arms.

“Oh yeah? Well we will see!” Lee said returning the stare and bringing up his right fist in front of him. “And when you lose, you will know that I am the luckier of the two of us!”

“Bring it then!” Derek challenged.

Then the screen beeped with two names on the board, and Lee and Derek whirled around to look at it. Both their eyes widened into shock when the saw the board. Derek was the one chosen, and his opponent was the last of the Citadel ninjas. I found it weird how everyone on my team had been put up against those guys. It was probably just coincidence though.

“What was that you were saying about you being luckier?” Derek said to Lee, smirking happily.

Lee just hung his head, and Derek shrugged before leaping over the handrail and into the arena. The other guy with the face mask was standing there calmly. I don’t even think he was looking at Derek, then again, I’m not sure he can see with that thing on.

“Alright, Derek! Go kick his can! He probably can’t even see you with that thing on!” Naruto cheered beside me, his hands cupped around his mouth. I couldn’t help but smile at the goofball.

“Go on! Show him the power of youth!” Lee yelled.

“That’s the spirit Lee!” Guy chimed in with his pupil. “The power of youth never fails!”

‘Okay, maybe that’s one cheer Derek could do without.’ I thought staring at the two of them.

“Alright, are the combatants ready?” Hayate asked, even though he knew the answer.

“When am I not?” Derek pointed out, pulling out two kunai and getting into a fighting stance.

The weirdo with the helmet just stood there not moving.

“Okay, then begin.” Hayate said before jumping back to give the two of them room to fight.

Derek and that masked guy stared at each other, neither of them making a move. Derek was the one who cracked first. “Alright then.” He said narrowing his eyes at the other guy. “If you won’t make a move then I will!” He tossed the kunai in his right hand at…god dammit, I’m tryin’ to think of his name! Oh, yeah Hayato!

The kunai streaked at Hayato, straight and true, but still he didn’t move. Then at the last second he vanished, the kunai sailing harmlessly past where he’d been just seconds ago.

Suddenly Hayato appeared behind Derek gearing up for an attack. Naruto reacted first, even though I was in a slight panic. “He’s behind you! Look out!” Naruto yelled.

Derek heard and turned just in time to block Hayato’s kunai with his own. The stood there, both locked and dead set on overpowering the other. “You’re real smug, hiding behind that mask of yours!” Derek said to Hayato. Derek pushed Hayato back and moved on the offensive. Derek tossed his kunai as Hayato jumped away.

Again the same thing happened, Hayato disappeared just as the kunai was about to hit. Again he appeared behind Derek who reacted quickly, pulling out a kunai and moving to block Hayato’s. But this time Hayato was one step ahead. When Derek saw the blade of a kunai heading right for his face, he moved backward as the tip of the blade clipped his headband, knocking it from his forehead as he jumped away.

Derek stumbled when he landed. Hayato stood there watching him through the mask. Derek just grinned at him. “No way I’m gonna lose here. You’ll have to try a lot harder than that.” He challenged.

Derek pulled out another kunai, and charged at Hayato. He swung at him repeatedly, Hayato kept moving out of the way. Then Derek tried to put in another hit and that’s when Hayato made his move. Again he pulled that disappearing trick and tried to strike from behind.

Derek dropped the kunai in his left hand and spun around, digging a handle with two spikes on either end. A blade of chakra formed out of one end and Hayato jumped backwards as it came within inches of his mask.

“What the heck is that thing?” Naruto asked.

I shrugged. “Derek bought it a while back and started training with it.” I said. “Too bad he never really got good at it.”

“So you mean he’s suing a jutsu he hasn’t perfected yet?!” Naruto asked, actually shocked.

“Unfortunately, yeah.” I said solemnly. I didn’t like where this match was going at all. I don’t know why, but I had a feeling in the pit of my stomach that this match might wind up killing someone.

Derek ran for Hayato raising the chakra blade to bring it down. This time Hayato didn’t budge as it came down on him and…

…simply passed through him like he was thing air.

Derek stood there, shocked as the body of Hayato dissolved like a piece of paper that was set on fire. When Derek stood up, he was surrounded by six Hayato’s in a circle around him.

“Your little toy won’t be enough to beat me.” They all said in unison. “If that’s the best you’ve got then you won’t win this fight.” Then another ring on ten clones appeared outside of the ring of six.

“Oh yeah? Well we’ll just see about that!” He challenged, and immediately regretted it. A clone moved in from the side and punched him across the face. Derek stumbled and regained his balance just as another clone hit him from the front before he could react. Derek kept getting knocked around like a pinball, by the clones, who didn’t give him any openings.

I felt my hands beginning to squeeze the handrails tighter. He was getting beat up pretty bad, and when he finally went down, the clones stopped attacking. “I told you, you can’t win this fight if that’s the best jutsu you’ve got.” Hayato stated simply.

Derek slowly stood up, and tossed the handle away. It clattered to the ground, and Derek stood there, his head hanging. “You had this battle won from the start, didn’t you?” Derek said, bringing his hand up, straight out in front. “Good match then…you win.”

Shock was on the faces of everyone who knew him. Derek was giving up? All but one of the Hayato’s disappeared. He took Derek’s hand in a handshake and the proctor began to speak.

“Since he concedes-.” He was cut short when Derek judo-flipped Hayato over and onto the floor.

“Did you really think I would give up without putting up a real fight?! You’re a freakin’ idiot!” Derek yelled at him. Hayato stared up at Derek, or at least I though he was. Derek jumped away as Hayato tried to punch him. As Hayato got up, Derek performed handsigns, which ended with the sign of the tiger (one of the only ones whose name I actually know).

“A fire jutsu?” Sasuke asked, now actually showing interest in the match.

Derek sucked in as much air as he could. This was definitely the fireball jutsu, but instead of making a ring around his mouth with his thumb and index finger, he made a first, and blew into that. Forget the fireball, this was more like a flame-thrower. An intense jet of flame spewed out and hit Hayato square in the chest, knocking him into the wall behind.

“Sweet zombie Jesus!” Prof gasped next to me, and for some reason I had the urge to chew her out for the Futurama reference. (By the way, my favourite character is Scruffy, hands down.)

Kakashi tapped me on the shoulder, and I turned around to stare into his single black eye. “Any idea how your brother could have learned a fire jutsu?” He asked coldly.

I shrugged. “Hey, this is a first for me too!” I pointed out. As far as I’d known, Derek didn’t know any jutsu outside of the academy basics! I turned my attention when Sakura suddenly yelled that Hayato was getting back up. Derek then performed more hand-signs, again ending with the sign of the tiger. This time he wasn’t using the Fireball jutsu, this time his hands caught on fire!!!

He didn’t even flinch and when Hayato finally came at him with an awkward charge, Derek gave him a good punch to the face, knocking Hayato’s feet out from under his body, and knocking his metal helmet/mask off. When he landed on his back, I saw why the dude wore that thing. Stretching across his face were fore long scars going from one side of his face to the next. There were four of them, and they made him look like he’d gone toe-to-toe with a polar-bear.

Derek noticeably cringed at the sight, the flames on his hands dying out. By this point it was obvious that Hayato wasn’t getting back up. He was a wreck, most of his body had suffered from the concentrated Fireball jutsu, and he would definitely have a concussion from that punch.

In other news, this was probably the best comeback ever, Hayato had been wiping the floor with Derek a few seconds ago, and then Derek comes back and beats the other guy into the pavement with just two moves.

Derek gave the proctor some space as Hayate checked the unconscious Citi-nin. Eventually he stood up and coughed. “Since his opponent cannot continue the match, Derek O’Connor is the victor.”

I half expected to see Derek do a little victory dance, but then again he’s not one to outright embarrass himself in public. He just calmly walked over to the stairs as the medics loaded Hayato onto a stretcher and carried him off. As I watched them carry him off, I saw his hand twitch. Had he lost the match on purpose?

Now that I thought about it, he hadn’t used any jutsu that I could tell, and he seemed to loose it by the end of the match. And he also could have easily dodged that Fireball earlier…

Naruto and Lee were congratulating Derek on his accomplishment, I wasn’t so sure now. Had Derek really won that match? I was beginning to think he hadn’t.

Though another thing that would succeed in worsening my mood right now, would be the match that came up next. Lee vs. Garra, and we all know how that one will turn out.

I felt terrible as I walked home. I wished I could see the poor guy, but the doctors wouldn’t let me. Then again, who can blame them? Lee got fucked up in the fight. Another thing that made me feel terrible was that I now had no idea what was going to happen. Wanna know how I know that?

Let’s put it this way:

1-Naruto and Neji
2-Gaara and Logan
3-Temari and Shino
4-Sasuke and Kankuro
5-Derek and Shikamaru
6-Krystal and Dosu

Yep, those are the names for the first round matches…totally motheruckin’ fucked up. I might be able to handle Dosu but, hell either way I’ll be screwed when I hit round two. IF WE EVEN MAKE IT TO ROUND TWO!!! I mean, either I’ll have to fight Shikamaru, the master of goddamn strategy, or my own step-brother.

Well at least Naruto still gets to fight Neji in the first match, that didn’t change at all. On the other hand, my being here has basically fucked it up for everybody else.

Okay, so maybe I wasn’t walking home because soon I found myself in a friggin’ park. I don’t know why, but I just wound up there. I plopped down on a bench and just lost myself in my thoughts, not that I wasn’t already in dreamland mind you. I leaned my head back to look up at the clouds as they passed by.

“Thought I might find you out slackin’ off.” Nick’s voice said from my left. I barely raised my head to look at him. He wasn’t wearing his usual grin which was telling me that something was definitely up. He moved over and sat next to me on the bench. “So how’d the test go?” He asked.

“Fine, I’m heading to the finals, if that’s what you mean.” I replied sitting up.

“Well congrats.” He said half-heartedly. Okay, something is definitely going on now, he’d normally be excited as fuck about this. He’s the kind of guy who’d go ape-shit crazy at the opening night of an action flick if he saw the lead actor step out of his or her limo.

“So what’s up?” I asked, trying to find out what has him worked up, while not sounding overly concerned. If you do that he shuts up, and there’s now way to get him to spit it out. Nick sighed and reached into his pocket and pulled out a black flash drive.

“I got this in the mail a few days ago.” He said, holding it out for me to take it. “You’ll never guess who it’s from, took me a while to figure it out.” He added as I took it. I flipped it over in my hands. What would a flash drive be doing in the Narutoverse? These guys barely have the technology for eight-bit computers and somehow a 2-gig flash-drive shows up in an envelope.

Okay, so whoever sent it must live back in our world, and it shouldn’t be too difficult to send it in, seeing as how we went through a Stargate knockoff to get here. Then again that thing was top secret and was probably taken over by those goons who attacked us on the way out. I was tempted to say it was Mike but then again he’s probably dead, one guy versus about ten guys armed with assault rifles, the odds were totally against him.

I thought about it some more as I continued to examine the flash drive. Then again, who do we know who possibly has access to these kinds of devices. It would have to be somebody who would have worked in some way with the government. Well there was Uncle Mitchell, but he lived up in Canada. So he’s off the list, and thus leaves Mike as the only answer.

“How the hell could he have survived that?” I mumbled to myself. Nick obviously picked up on it.

“No idea how but he did it. And now he’s sending us a flash drive.” Nick said, leaning back and placing his hands behind his head.

I sat there thinking, still not bale to tear my eyes from the little piece of plastic in my hand. “Have you looked at this yet?” I asked him.

“You’re the only one who has a computer out of the four of us.” He replied simply.

“Does Derek know?” I said, and when Nick stayed silent I had the feeling I didn’t want to know the answer.

“Not yet, I wanted to tell him first but I couldn’t find him.” He said sadly. “Then I saw you sitting here and thought I’d let you know.”

“So I guess it’s up to me then to tell him.” I said solemnly. I didn’t want to see Derek break down, even if it was out of happiness.

“You don’t have to tell him if you don’t want to.” Nick said finally getting up and walking around to face me. “But do me a favour and find out what’s on that flash drive when you get the chance.” With that he walked off, leaving me to my thoughts.

The more I looked at the tiny device, the more I felt like there was something going on that was much bigger than the attack on the Leaf Village, if that was even going to happen anymore. But the thing that scared me most was that Mike was still alive. I know I should be happy but every time I think about how he’s alive sends chills down my spine.

“Hey Krystal, what’cha doing?” Naruto half yelled behind me, making me jump.

I whipped around and stared at him and his stupid fox grin. I narrowed my eyes at him. “You were trying to scare me weren’t you?”

Believe it or not, his grin actually managed to get wider and he threw his hands behind his head. “So what if I was?” He said tauntingly.

I was about to make a snappy comeback when my thoughts suddenly shifted back to the flash drive. I couldn’t help myself and I stared down at it again. “What the heck is that thing?” Naruto asked quickly moving over.

“It’s a flash drive.” I said. “My uncle just gave it to me, but it’s from my step-dad.” I turned it over again.

“What’s so special about this little piece of plastic?” He asked as I popped the insert out and then popped it back in almost like it was a switch blade.

“It’s special because it’s from somebody who should be dead right now.” I pointed out, and Naruto didn’t say anything. I got up and began walking to the exit, Naruto running to catch up.

“What do you mean ‘should be dead’?” Naruto asked as he matched his pace with mine, which wouldn’t have been easy because I was speed walking.

“I mean there’s no way he could have gone up against ten armed guys on his own.” I snapped. “There’s no way he’d have survived.”

“But apparently he is, right?” Naruto asked.

“Yeah, and that’s what’s got me worried.” I replied, jumping onto a rooftop and running off to find Derek. Naruto wasn’t too far behind.

“Okay that’s all fine and great, but why hasn’t he shown up yet?” Naruto asked, keeping pace.

I shook my head, as I jumped onto another roof. “I don’t know, Naruto. Maybe the flash drive’ll explain stuff.” I said sadly. “Right now I need to find Derek.”

Naruto’s voice brightened up suddenly. “I know where he is, follow me!” He broke off and ran off to the left. I turned and followed him, the whole time I was gearing myself up for what I was about to say, and what the poor guy’s reaction’ll be.

//====//===//==//=//

Derek, Naruto and I were making our way back to the apartment after Derek had finally calmed down from the news. Surprisingly his reaction had been one of utter joy, and not the kind where somebody gets all teary eyed, I mean the jumping for joy and laughing kind of utter joy.

Naruto was still tagging along because, just like us, he wanted to know what was on the flash drive and, to be honest, after we’ve been through together as a teammates, I didn’t want to keep secrets from him.
……….
Okay so maybe it’s because I want to avoid him repeatedly pestering me about it for the next two months every time I see him, and Derek would tell him anyway!

We were making great time considering how far we were from the apartment and how tired we all were since we’d just come out of the god damn preliminaries. That’s when something stopped us dead in our tracks. Sasuke’s voice just saying: “What are you guys up to?”

We all stopped to face him as he stood on the roof across the street from ours. His hands shoved in his pockets, staring at us with that trademark stare he’s always got on. “Get outta here Sasuke! It’s none of your business!” Naruto yelled at him dismissively.

“It kinda is my business, since it involves my teammates.” Sasuke countered. Our group and Sasuke then began a stare down, which was suddenly interrupted by Sakura, who was obviously a little annoyed with Sasuke.

“What are you doing Sasuke? You were supposed to help me look for…” She said before noticing the tension and us at the same time. “W-what’s going on here?”

There was a brief period of silence before Derek snatched the flash drive from my hand so fast I barely felt it and held it up for Sasuke and Sakura to see. “This is what’s going on. My dad sent this flash drive to us and now we’re going to see what’s in it.” He said. I glanced at him, both in shock and in confusion, he looked back at me shrugged. “Hey, he would have followed us anyway!”

I rolled my eyes and we took off back towards the apartment, this time Sasuke and Sakura had decided to join in on the fun. When we reached the apartment I pulled out my keys, unlocked the door, and lead the way inside. “Wait here while I get my computer.” I said running up the stairs two at a time. I quickly entered my room, grabbed my computer and ran back downstairs. Everybody was waiting impatiently at this point except for Sakura, who didn’t seem to have any fucking idea as to what was going on.

I sat down on the couch and Derek handed me the flash drive. Everyone was crowded around me in seconds as I opened up the computer, stuck the flash drive in the dock port and accessed the file folder inside. But the shocker was that there was only one thing, an audio recording.

“That’s it?” I asked, a little stunned.

“What’s what?” Sakura said, trying to push Naruto out of the way to get a better view.

“It’s just an audio recording.” Derek said.

“So it’s just music?” Naruto asked.

“Play it.” Sasuke demanded. So with a shrug, I clicked on it and it opened the media player. About three micro seconds later, Mike’s voice came pouring out of the speaker.

“Okay, I’ll need to make this quick.” He said, then paused. He seemed out of breath and in rush. “Listen, I think there’s more going on here than what meets the eye. The Attack on New York city wasn’t an isolated incident. Twenty major cities in the United States were attacked at the exact same time.” He paused again. “The weird thing is, the military barely had time to mobilise against them before they broke and ran for it. I think they weren’t attacking the cities to capture them, they were looking for information. What information, I don’t know.”

“But there’s one thing you need to understand. What’s happening now is probably a greater threat to America than the Russians during the Cold War. But something seems fishy, like there’s something else going on in the shadows. Right now, everyone who I knew thinks I’m dead…you probably did too until you got this flash drive. I’m going to use this opportunity to try and dig up some more info and I’ll send whatever I find in more of these drives. If I can’t piece together what’s going on, I sure as hell hope you guys can.” He paused, and I could hear him catching his breath as well as shouts off in the distance. “Listen I need to go now, we’re gonna figure this out…whatever it is.” And the audio recording ended.

There was silence for a good five minutes. No one daring to speak a word about what we heard.

“What…the…fuck?” Sasuke mumbled. Okay, him saying that shit is entirely out of character. I’m not talking about the swearing, I’m talking about how he actually sounded astonished about it all!

Then again, there was silence.

“What’s this ‘America’ you’re dad was talking about?” Sakura suddenly asked.

Shit.

“Uh, well…” Derek said rubbing his neck nervously, suddenly all eyes were on us.

“That’s the country we’re from…the United States of America.” I said.

“Whaaaa?! But you told me you were from a country called Belka!” Naruto exclaimed.

“I used a name of a country from a video game, okay?” I admitted.

“But why do that? Are you guys a family of criminals or something?” Sakura asked.

I stared at her. “Are you serious?” I asked. “We’re not criminals, okay.”

“So then why say you’re from a fake country?” Sasuke said. My brain literally went through thousands of possible responses to avoid this topic.

I bit my lip, not sure if I wanted to go through with what I was going to say. “Because we’re actually from a whole other universe entirely.” I said, plain and simple. Jaws dropped among Team 7. Even Sasuke was appalled! “Get why I wanted to keep it a secret now?” I asked.

“You’re joking! You can’t be serious!” Sakura said, though I think she was trying to avoid believing it.

“How the hell do you think we have stuff that you guys have never seen before?” Derek asked. There was awkward silence, which I took upon myself to break.

“Listen, can you three just keep all of this under lock and key for now? I don’t want to risk getting arrested by the ANBU black ops or get us kicked out of the village.” I said.

The all shot us a look that let me know in a millisecond that they didn’t believe a word of what we were saying.

“Nice try guys, but your going to have to do better then that.” Naruto said, flashing me and Derek his grin. I sensed Derek was about to say something stupid but, I flashed him a look that they would have interpreted as ‘the joke’s over’.

“Alright guys, you got us.” I said, trying to give the best smile I could. Afterward, Team 7 left and it was just me and Derek alone.

“I can’t believe that you just ended it there!” Derek snapped suddenly.

I sighed as I sat down in a chair at the kitchen table and rested my head on the table. “It’s best if they don’t believe the truth and believe lie right now.” I said, turning my head so it was resting on the table face down. “Less headaches for us that way.”

I let my eyes open slowly when my alarm clock went off. I wasn’t planning on getting my training started yet, I would wait for my batteries to recharge before getting on with that. I pushed myself up from my bet and sat hunched over, staring blankly at the half open door. I already knew that Derek would be out there training by now. I finally threw the covers away and got up. That’s when I finally heard it. The sound of a hammerhead electric guitar, the kind of sound that Nick’s guitar would put out.

I made my way downstairs to find him sitting on the couch, playing the best looking guitar I’d ever seen in my life. The main color scheme was a dull golden-yellow, the head of a bald eagle was painted on it with meticulous detail. Hell, the eagle looked ready to materialize out of the guitar and fly around the apartment. Then again, it also looked like the paint was chipping off with age, revealing black cracks that were bordered in white primer. It looked a lot older than it actually was, which made it feel like it had been played for a decade before Nick actually got a hold of it. In reality, it was only a few years old, and it was also a custom.

It had been months since I saw him play it, and every time I saw it I felt just a little jealous of it. Then again, I did just get a guitar with the firepower to flip a truck over.

“Hey, Earth to Krystal!” Carmen said, poking me in the shoulder. I was jolted from my little world and I whipped my head around and saw her holding my breakfast in her hand. “C’mon and eat! You’re probably starved seeing as how you didn’t eat anything last night.” She said setting the plate down on the kitchen table.

I was about to say something when my stomach rumbled and I finally realized how hungry I was. “Yeah, your right.” I said sitting down and digging in to the omelette on the plate.

//====//===//==//=//

Hiruzen Sarutobi sat behind his desk, going through a stack of papers that he needed to approve. Suddenly he heard a knock at his door, and he tore his attention from his work and let his eyes drift towards the door.

“Please, enter.” He said to whoever was on the other side. The door opened slowly, and a woman wearing a white lab-coat stepped in.

“You wanted to see me?” Prof said, closing the door behind her.

“Yes, I understand that you have been continuing your research in the village.” He said to her.

“You want to know what I’m doing?” Prof asked, narrowing her eyes at the Hokage, she didn’t like it when people talked about her personal affairs.

“I want to know your reasons for continuing.” He said.

She lowered her gaze to the floor. “Mostly…to keep the mission going from fifteen years ago.” She said.

“To preserve the memory of your unit.” Sarutobi stated. “The one that was taken from a few hundred, down to just three in two months.”

She nodded. Her gaze still fixed on the old man behind the desk.

“Very well, but make sure that you give me any information on any projects you have. I need to know that my village won’t be in danger.” He said, turning his attention back to the stacks of paper on his desk.

Prof took her leave, opening the door and exiting the room. She didn’t like having to tell all of her personal projects to other people. But then again, if she didn’t she wouldn’t be able to continue her research for much longer.

Especially her continuing assessment of Logan. His real capabilities were still an unknown so far. And then there was the matter of Krystal, she still needed to be trained. Prof couldn’t help but smile at that prospect. Krystal needed to be trained, and she had the perfect jutsu to teach her.

//====//===//==//=//

“You know, it would be a good idea to get started on your training.” The watch on my wrist said. I raised it as I walked through town staring at the three blinking lights on the screen.

“Oh so now you’re talking to me?” I asked Gault.

“You’re trying to avoid the question.” He stated.

“No I’m not, I thought that since you can talk, even in that form, you’d talk to me a little more often.” I pointed out.

“I speak only when there is a reason to.” He countered.

“Bull-shit.” I said simply, dropping my arm to my side as I walked.

“I’ll ask again, when are you going to start training?” He said. “A month may seem like a long time, but it will diminish rapidly.”

“I get it okay. But what’s the point of training your ass off when you’re tired?” I said just to shut him up.

“And how long do you plan to rest?” He asked. “Rest too long and you’ll run out of time.”

I couldn’t help think about it for a bit. He had a point, wait too long and I’ll have a hard time to catch up with everyone. “I’ll start training tomorrow.” I said simply. Today was definitely going to be my day off.

“Really? Even then it’ll be too late.” Prof’s voice sounded behind me. I spun around and saw her standing there about ten feet behind me.

I threw my arms up in an X in front of me. “Oh hell no! No way! Not today, I plan to take a day off.” I half-yelled.

“Like Gault just told you, wait too long and it’ll be too late, and right now your border-lining on losing the precious time you have to get to the level you need to be at for the final exam.” She said.

“Is it really that important to get started right away?” I asked, slightly confused.

“Oh yeah, especially in a competition like this one.” She said. “Listen, if you really want to win you’ll follow me.” She added, turning and walking off. “It’s your choice.”

I suddenly felt pissed off. “I hate when people work to your weaknesses.” I muttered under my breath before following her.

It was like she could tell I was following her without even looking over her shoulder. “Oh by the way, we’re going to have to stop by my place and pick up a few supplies before we start the training.” She pointed out as she led me to wherever she was taking me.

//====//===//==//=//

Prof carried a bag over her shoulder as I followed her out into the woods surrounding the village. Eventually the trees that had been surrounding us for the past half-hour suddenly disappeared and revealed a rocky clearing dotted with boulders. “Alright, this should do for a training ground.” She said, walking over to a table-like rock and putting down the bag. Immediately it unravelled and revealed three sets of training weights. One set was marked 50lb, the next set was 100lb, and the last was 150lb.

“Your not planning to strap those to me are you?” I asked worriedly. I wasn’t much for weight lifting, then again I was probably going to get the answer I didn’t like

“Oh hell yeah.” She said turning and facing me.

“I thought as much.” I sighed. “So it’s just going to be fitness training all over again?”

Prof chuckled. “Well yes and no, I’m going to teach you a pretty advanced jutsu. For three whole weeks you’re going to engage silverclones in combat while weighed down with these training weights. Now normally you use these weights to train your body to use Taijutsu. But this time I’m going to use them in such a way to train you how to better control your chakra.” She explained.

“Okay, so how are we gonna do that?” I asked. How could training weights help with chakra control?

“Well normally people would take this stuff slow, go with easy weights and train with those for weeks before going up to heavier weights.” She said pointing her finger up like everyone would while explaining. “I, on the other hand, plan to shorten a training that would a normal person would do over the course of three years down to just three weeks. Adding in the threat of a very real combatant into the equation, to force you to use your chakra to fight your enemy in hand to hand combat.”

My eyes widened. “So your saying that your going to force me to use my chakra the whole time I’m fighting?”

Prof nodded. “You wouldn’t be able to fight the silverclones in combat without using you chakra to boost your strength with a total of 200lb of weight holding you down. The first week, we’ll use the 50lb weights, the next week we’ll use the 100lb-ers, and you can guess what the third week would be. This rapid change of heavy calibre weights will force you to fine tune your chakra control. At the end of this training your chakra control will be at the level of a Jonin…maybe higher.”

If at all possible, my eyes got even wider. Better than a Jonin? In three weeks? “You’re kidding right? There’s no way I can do that!” I exclaimed.

She smirked. “There’s only one way to find out for sure.” She pointed out. He face then turned serious. “But remember that jutsu I mentioned earlier. This training will allow you to master it, without killing yourself in the process.”

“Is it really that dangerous?” I asked.

“Right now, yes. If you were to attempt it now, not only would you fail in the execution. You’d die in seconds.” She said. “It puts so much strain on your chakra network, that to someone with your level of chakra control, it will literally rip your organs apart.”

I stared at her, trying to take this all in. “So…what does this jutsu do exactly?” I asked, both out of curiosity and confusion. Prof’s gauntlet suddenly materialized on her right arm in its purple light. Then on the same side the same light began to collect and began to solidify into a silvery paste, not too different than the kind used for silverclones. Eventually it condensed and solidified into a double-edged battleaxe. As it fell, she quickly reached up with her right hand and grabbed the handle, the axe-head hovering just a few inches off the ground.

I couldn’t even see when she swung it upward, or when the three boulders and two trees directly to her right were cleaved in half. But I did hear the sound of electricity coursing through the air just before it all happened.

“The Vector Blade jutsu, this is the jutsu you’re aiming to perfect.” She said, lowering the axe. “It’s strong enough to reduce any standing structure to a pile of rubble, but it also has a tendency to suck out more chakra than what you put into it. That’s why you need to be able to control your chakra to the highest possible degree. Unfortunately, in the time we have I can only get your chakra control skills to the bare minimum to use this jutsu, so if I teach it to you it’ll be used only as a last resort.”

“Alright…since it’s obvious you don’t take no for an answer, when do we get started?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest.

“As soon as you’re ready, we’ll begin.” She said as the axe and gauntlet vanished. “When that happens, I can safely say, welcome to hell.”

Welcome to hell was a long time ago lady.

I lied on my back on the cold rocks dotted with specks of grass here and there, trying to catch my breath. I was under a starry night sky, one filled with more stars than I’d seen in my life. I could barely hear the sound of crickets chirping over the sound of my heavy breathing. Every muscle and bone in my body was screaming in pain and I could still feel the weights pressing down on my arms and legs.

“Hey, that was pretty good for a first day!” Prof commented cheerfully. I would have shot her a menacing glare, but I was too out of breath to even do that! My chakra was so drained it was almost non-existent at this point.

Prof walked over and began undoing the straps on the weights, unwrapping my limbs one by one. “Come on then, up we go.” She said lifting me up to a sitting position. By this point I’d managed to catch my breath, but I knew that I wouldn’t be walking anywhere tonight. My legs had pretty much gone numb.

“Here.” Prof said, handing me a water bottle. “You’re gonna want to stay hydrated.” I took the bottle and unscrewed the cap, even that was taxing on my arms. Afterwards, even though I hadn’t intended to, I downed the whole thing one shot.

I dropped the bottle and used my hands to keep myself sitting. “You told me it was going to be hard, but I wasn’t expecting this.” I said. “This is nuts.”

“Luckily for you tomorrow’ll be a lot easier than this.” She pointed out. “The first day of the week is always the toughest, and especially for the first week.” She paused, letting her eyes drift towards the stars. “But really the key thing is to not think too hard about this training, that’ll lead to doubts and doubts lead to failure.”

I managed a small tired laugh. “You don’t need to worry about that. Right now I’m too tired to think.” I said, before lying back down. Seconds later I felt a blanket Land on top of me. I didn’t question why it was there, instead I pulled it up to my shoulders and tried to make myself as comfortable as possible on the bare rocks. Seconds later I was out cold. Even though I was out, I still heard Prof’s voice echo in my head, or at least I thought it was her voice. “Sweet dreams kiddo and rest easy, you’ll need it in the morning.”

//====//===//==//=/=\==\===\====\

I yawned and stretched, trying to shake the drowsiness from a long nights sleep. Surprisingly, Prof had let me sleep in, even though we wear pressed for time. I began putting on the weights, one by one. Even though they were heavy as hell yesterday they felt a bit lighter this morning. Maybe the results of the training had kicked in over night?

“Alright, you ready for round two?” Prof asked standing about twenty feet off to the left side of my peripheral vision.

I got up after I finished with the last strap. “Ready as I’ll ever be.” I replied, actively pumping my arms and legs full of chakra to keep myself standing and moving, otherwise I’d be lying on the ground motionless.

“Alright then.” She said while flying through the two hand-signs for the silverclone jutsu so fast it gave new meaning to the term: blink and you’d miss it. Soon after, the silvery slime seemed to ooze out of solid rock to form a small puddle, then stretched upward and formed a generic silverclone. This one was about the size of a typical teenage boy, with the exact same body structure. No giant claws, no armoured plates, just its normal sized fists and feet to fight with.

“You remember how this works. You manage to beat this clone and you can take a break, then we’ll go from there.” She said, to which I could only nod. A small smile crept across her face before she shouted: “BEGIN!”

The clone and I ran for each other, however it didn’t have weights to slow it down. This scenario reminded me of two knights in a jousting tournament, but that was beside the point. At least I had the common sense to know that I could never take this guy down hand to hand with all these weights on. I could have easily blown it away with one shot from Gault, but Prof had prohibited me from using him for this training. So it was up to the good old fashioned ninja tools.

I pulled out four shuriken, two and each hand, and threw them as hard as I could. The clone stopped in its tracks and leapt over them like it was nothing. I then threw two kunai, easily striking the clone as it came down. I’d realize a while ago that these clones took a lot longer to make decisions than other clone jutsus. I guess that’s the price you pay for having clones that can take a lot of hits and still keep fighting.

It jumped to the left, obviously trying in vain to dodge the kunai that had already sunken into its chest and left shoulder. I skirted around it to the right, throwing shuriken and kunai in quick succession. It managed to dodge a few, but the rest stuck into its body. At the end of my barrage (which only ended because I ran out of ammo) it looked like a silver pin cushion. And yet it still came at me, I let it close the gap and sidestepped to the left as it threw a punch at me.

I brought my right leg up and kicked it in the stomach, hearing the sound of metal scraping on metal as the weights made contact with the blades of a shuriken. I managed to jump away before it could counter with another punch. ‘That’s it! Keep dancing around it, don’t let it pin you down!’ I reminded myself. It came at me with a blunt charge which I easily avoided. I quickly got behind it and jumped, planting my foot into its back. I pushed off when it tried to turn around, and I succeeded in both getting some distance between me and it, and I also got it off balance.

It whipped around and came at me again, its right arm poised to deliver a right hook to the side of my head. I ducked down and kicked it in the legs with my left foot, tripping it and causing it to fall. Acting quickly I found a kunai buried in its stomach, the blade conveniently oriented vertically on its body and I grabbed the handle while planting my left foot down on its thigh. I pushed the kunai as hard as I could towards its face, while still keeping it embedded in the silverclone. Seconds later, the clone’s head had been sliced in half, and so had most of its body.

It quickly removed my foot from its leg just as its body became a pool of slime and dissipated into the ground once more. I was out of breath, but not as much as yesterday night. It stared at the ground where the silverclone had disappeared, a pile of my ninja tools lying there uselessly.

Then I heard Prof clapping. “Nice one! You’ve improved you hand to hand combat since the last time I trained you!” She said cheerfully.

I shrugged. “I would have done better if I didn’t have these weights holding me back.” I pointed out.

Prof waved her hand dismissively. “Ah, you’ll get used to it.”

I crossed my arms. “Uh-huh. And the minute that happens you’ll switch these weights out for heavier ones and we’ll be back to square one.” I said.

Prof thought it out a little. “Excellent point.” She said finally.

“I thought so.” I muttered to myself, nodding my head as I said it. Sometimes I wonder about if she still has her sanity.

//====//===//==//=/=\==\===\====\

I stared up at the passing clouds, lounging on a rock that was conveniently shaped like a hammock. I caught myself doing this kind of thing a lot lately, just sitting around staring blankly off into space and not really thinking of much.

Prof had vanished, probably to leave me to my thoughts. That or do some crazy scientist shit. Either way, she wasn’t here, and to be honest I think I preferred it that way. My mind began wandering around, just trying to pass the time.

Thinking about those silverclones, I wonder if Prof’ll teach me how to use that jutsu. From what I’ve seen, it’s really useful and also a pain in the ass for whoever they’re set out against. It’d probably piss Naruto off to see that I have a clone jutsu better than his. Then again if anything, he’d whine and beg for me to teach it to him.

I chuckled as I pictured the look on his face after my silverclones beat the living tar out of his. Eyes as wide as saucers and his jaws hanging open so wide that it was like looking into the maw of a black hole. Can we say priceless?

Then again, the jutsu she was trying to teach me now seemed pretty badass. I just wish there was an easier way to get to the level I need to be at.

“Daydreaming are we?” Prof said, standing over me with her hands behind her back, a wide grin plastered to her face.

I screamed and fell off the rock, and landing on another rocky surface was not what my arm would call a mountain of pillows.

Prof walked over, shaking her head. “You’re going to need to be a bit more alert than that.” She said in a scolding tone.

“Oh shut up.” I retorted pushing myself to a sitting position and rubbing my arm where I’d squashed it between the rocky ground and myself.

Prof lightly kicked me in the shin. “C’mon get up, It’s round two now, and we’re going to step it up a notch.

//====//===//==//=/=\==\===\====\

I stood waiting for what Prof was going to throw at me, the weights holding down my legs and arms as best as they could, chakra flowing through my body in an effort to keep myself standing.

“Okay, seeing as how you managed to beat the silverclone this morning, I’m going to throw two of them at you.” She said, quickly running through the hand symbols.

Crazy scientist! She wasn’t even going to give me time to protest, the nerve of-!

The two clones formed out of the ground, hardening into two of the same type I saw this morning. Immediately they both came at me, as fast as their bodies could carry them.

I’ll tell you guys right now, I think I’m pretty much screwed.

The faster of the two clones brought its leg up in a wide kick. I ducked under it, sweeping my leg across the ground and tripping it just as the other one came around to my right, its fist aimed at the side of my head. I jumped backwards, landing on my hands as the first clone hit the ground. The other clone tried to react with a kick but I sprang off my hands, landing on both feet in a crouch. The clone tried another punch and I sidestepped to the right. It brought its arm around in sweeping motion and I ducked under it, delivering two quick punches to its stomach area.

As it came around fro another punch, I knew I wasn’t in the right position to dodge this one so I had to block with my right arm. Suddenly the other one that had been lying on the ground came up behind me, poised to strike with its left fist. I brought my left arm up and blocked it’s punch. The other one charged forward, aimed to hit me while I was occupied with its friend. What I did next was based solely on instinct. I quickly grabbed the arm of the clone behind my with my free arm while quickly doing the same with the arm that had blocked the punch, and used that clone as leverage. I pushed off with both feet and planted them both dead center of the oncoming clone’s chest and pushed it back.

The clone I’d been hanging on to didn’t react well to the sudden increase of weight and began tipping forward. As both my feet hit the ground again, I shifted my own weight forward and judo flipped it over my head and into it’s friend. The two of them collided and fell to the ground.

As the two of them tried to pick themselves up, I stood there panting heavily. These weights were taking their toll. But at least I hadn’t taken a hit yet and that was an accomplishment in itself. I pulled out two kunai, but I wasn’t going to toss ‘em away like in the first fight.

The two clones managed to stand up and lunged for me again, the one on the left punching with his left, the one other left punching with his right, a simultaneous strike to my forehead…if I was stupid enough to take it. Instead I ducked underneath it and thrust both kunai into their sides as I got between them. I Took off in a sprint with the kunai still in hand and I heard the ripping sound as it tore a hole in each of them.

Then I made the mistake of stopping when I wasn’t clear and soon after I felt something about the size of a tree branch hit me in the back of the head. I fell flat on my face, and hard. I tried pushing myself up, but a cold hand quickly grabbed the back of my head and smashed my forehead into the rock. It picked me up and in one swift motion threw me into a waiting clone.

It grabbed me below the shoulders, locking my arms out to the side and another clone, which is the one I guessed had smashed my face into the floor, delivered a devastating punch to my gut, knocking the air from my lungs. I coughed and sputtered, trying to refill the air that was lost, when it slugged me across the face. My head snapped to the right from the force of the punch and as I turned my head back around, it delivered another punch. It continued slugging me across the face, taking pauses only to wind me with another punch to the stomach. When it took another break I geared up for another punch to the stomach until I saw where it was aiming.

It was going for the knockout punch.

I seized my chance. Again I used the one hanging on to me shoulders as leverage and I brought my legs up as it swung. I wrapped my right leg around its arm and pulled as hard as I could on it, my other foot planting onto its chin. I continued to pull on its arm with my right leg and push on its jaw with my left leg. I realized that the only way that I was going to get this to end was that either I was going to rip its arm off, or I would soon be seeing its head rolling across the ground.

After a while of pulling its arm wound up in a position that, if it had been a normal human, would have meant that it had broken. I pulled harder and soon I heard an unmistakable ripping noise and its arm came off. I quickly let my legs hit the ground and I quickly snapped my head back into the other clones face, making it lose its grip on me. I whirled around and kicked it in the chest, making it fall backward onto its back. I turned my attention to the one with one arm, and pulled out a kunai and held it with my right hand. It swung it left fist at me and I sidestepped to the left.

I planted the kunai in its arm just below the shoulder and put my left foot down on top of its foot so it couldn’t kick me away. I began to pull on it remaining arm, pouring all the chakra I could get into my arm. Its arm quickly gave out and I tore it off, the silver liquid inside gushed out and spattered onto my face. The other clone had managed to get up by this point, so I grabbed the arm in mind fall and flung it at the far off clone. The arm hit it straight in the face, and down it went again.

Meanwhile the armless clone stumbled off, trying to get to relative safety. Not on my watch it wasn’t. I quickly caught up and raked the kunai across the small of it back, left side to right. It straightened up and turned its head to the right. I reached up and plunged the blade of the kunai into its face and pushed down. It fell backward and hit the ground hard, turning into a pile of slime and retreating into the ground from whence it came.

I heard the sound of its friend coming up behind me and I spun around pulling out three shuriken and throwing them at it. Two dug deep into it’s face, the third burying itself in its throat. The clone made an action of it trying to desperately stop itself from choking on its own non-existent blood. It scared me a bit, it was almost like it was a living human being in how it acted. It fell to its knees, still trying to clear whatever airways it used to breath in vain. Eventually it fell to the left, its arms going limp. It hit the ground and was reduced to the same fate as its comrade.

Prof walked up next me, watching as the sludge slowly retreated into the rock. She didn’t try to congratulate me, so she must have seen that I’d noticed how it acted in its final moments.

“They aren’t living are they?” I asked, I know it was a stupid question, but I needed to ask it.

Prof shook her head. “They aren’t alive, but they do have many of the same survival mechanisms we do.” She said with a sigh. “What you just saw, was it thinking it was choking because of where your shuriken hit it. Those thoughts eventually made it, well, think itself to death.”

“So in other words, they don’t need to breathe, but they can think for themselves?” I said, staring her straight in the face.

She nodded. “On an instinctual level, yes. I doubt that there’ll ever be a silverclone created that has an IQ on par with Albert Einstein.”

‘Sounds a bit like the Geth to me.’ I thought. I don’t know about how those clones functioned, but as far as my gut was concerned, I’d just killed a human being covered in silver goop.

I jumped out of the way, as a hail of silver spikes hit the ground right where I’d been seconds earlier. I spun around and stared back at three silverclones, one of them had arms littered with the same spikes. Prof stood on a large boulder, her arms crossed and the hood of her lab coat up. Behind her, a mass of swirling black clouds collected in the sky. It was definitely going to rain at some point today.

The clones suddenly split up the tow on either side running forward at top speed, leaving their third comrade standing there to play back-up. The two attackers zigzagged around each other as they came forward, trying to confuse me. Not gonna happen on my watch. I raised hands holding them on ether side of my body, my muscles and chakra network straining to lift the 100lb weights strapped to my arms. Yes, we had made the switch to the heavier weights yesterday.

Both clones got into striking distance at about the same time, each throwing an awkward punch in my direction. Acting on reflexes alone, I jumped, grabbed both their wrists and somersaulted over their heads while using their arms as leverage to get extra height. The third clone swung its arms wide arcs, unleashing hail of about twenty spikes from earlier. I reacted with a quick succession of hand signs for the substitution jutsu. When my now fake body was hit in the chest by one of the eight-inch-long, senbon needles of doom, it simply turned in a cloud of puffy white smoke, while a log, impaled with afore mentioned spike, plummeted to the ground.

Meanwhile, I was watching from a tree branch, well concealed from view. The clones seemed a bit confused by my sudden disappearance. Even though they were a little unsettling, looking like melting human beings coated in chrome plating, they still acted like normal people…despite being totally unable to talk, which made it a little hard to kill them sometimes.

I shook my head and shoved everything related to making analyses I’d already known about to the back of my mind and set to work on coming up with a strategy. There are three of them and one of me, and Prof threw in one that was weaponized for long range strikes. I don’t have paper bombs and never did, and kunai and shuriken can’t do enough damage to even take down one, even using up all of the ones in my weapons pouches. I don’t have Gault, Prof confiscated him for the duration of the training. Right now I was not in a good position, with Gault gone I had lost pretty much all of my heavy hitting jutsus. The ones I had were the academy basics and those couldn’t do shit to these things. The only thing I had that could really pack a punch was…well, a punch!

But then there was that jackass with the spike arms. One hit from one of those things and I was dead…and I mean that literally. If I wanted a chance at surviving I had to take him out first, but at the same time I had to stay out of range of the other two who were now searching for me, in entirely the wrong location. They other two clones were off on the opposite side of the rocky clearing scanning the underbrush for any sign of me. One of them jumped up into a tree to search there. The finally clone, which I’m going to call Diamondback just cause he also had what looked to be a giant uncut diamond sticking out of his back, at least shape-wise, was watching the other two from his position dead center of the clearing. If I was going to strike at him, now would have to be the time.

I jumped out of the tree, getting extra kick from the chakra in my legs, and pulled out four kunai. Diamondback turned around obviously alerted to my presence and stuck his arms out forward, firing about seven of his death spikes at me. I threw the kunai at the most immediate threats, deflecting them and saving myself from getting speared. As the other three spikes sailed past I landed on one of the many large boulders littering the clearing and sprang off of it, this time pulling out as many shuriken as I could hold. I threw them at Diamondback, he just blocked them with his arms, and the spikes protecting his arms form any damage.

I landed within two feet of him, easy striking distance, and pulled out a kunai. He swung his arms outward, trying to hit me. I simply ducked under the attack, and plunged the kunai into his side. He brought his arms down trying to make my back look like it had gone through a paper shredder and I rolled out from under his strike, the kunai still stuck in his side. So far Diamondback seemed a lot slower in his attacks than the other two clones were. Speaking of whom…

I leaned backward just as one clones fist sailed past, just inches from my nose. I spun and roundhouse kicked it in the side of the head. That was gonna cause a headache for it in the morning. The other clone decided to use it’s comrade as a spring board to deliver a hammer kick to my head. I worked…sort of. I managed to move my head out of the way, but its foot caught my shoulder, sending me crashing to the ground. I pushed myself off the ground before three death spikes hit the rocks right where I’d been seconds earlier. A clone tried to come up behind me to attack, I ducked under its fist and it stumbled past. I was about to attack it when two spikes shot out of its back.

I stood there as it slowly collapsed to the ground, turning into a puddle of goo and seeping into the ground. I stared at the puddle, a little confused as to what happened…that is until Diamondback tried to pick me off. I leaned into a matrix dodge as a single death spike sailed past. As I stood back up I stared over my shoulder in the direction it’d gone.

That’s when the second clone, the one I’d roundhouse kicked in the head (I could tell cause there was a small indent in his head) decided to strike. I blocked his punch, quickly grabbed his wrist, and threw him out behind me into firing range of Diamondback and moving in behind him. Turns out that Diamondback is a team-killing fucktard, because seconds later spikes impaled this clone too and it died. I guess at about this time Diamond back had decided that maybe spearing people at long ranges was not the best idea and he decided to attack at close range. When he got close enough he swung his arm in a lopsided punch, which I easily dodged by side stepping to the right. I reached down grabbed the kunai and using his momentum to my advantage, pretty much sliced the poor bastard in half.

He collapsed to the ground and turned into a puddle of goo and ending the training round. I fell to my hands and knees, the fatigue setting in from the fight. These weights were killing me, and it didn’t help that I was starving half to death everyday. Prof jumped off of her perch on the boulder and walked over. “What the hell happened today? You were doing so well yesterday!” She said, placing her hands on her hips.

“Shut up.” I said weakly. “I haven’t had a good meal in over a week and I’m dying of hunger.” I added, pushing myself up, which was not easy mind you.

Prof sighed. “Fine then, we’ll head back into town for dinner tonight okay. Happy now?” She said frustratedly.

I could only nod as I made my way over to a nearby boulder and sat on it. “I will be once I get some food.” I added finally.

“Fine then, take a break and we’ll get back to it.” She said, walking off. The more I spent tie training with that woman, the more I hated her. She barely says anything during the training, no moral support, no tips, and no nothing. Makes me wonder if I should even trust her…then again with out her training, I would never have made it this far.

//====//===//==//=/=\==\===\====\

Prof came back about a half hour later. “Alright, let’s get to it.” She announced throwing me a small object. I caught it clumsily, caught off guard be the sudden action. I stared at it, a small black watch with three lights in the middle of the screen. “Miss me?” He asked, the lights blinking in time with his words.

I stared back up at Prof, who waved her hand at me in that “go ahead” fashion. I quickly slipped the watch around me wrist. When the watch was secured around my wrist, I got up and waited for the silver clones to appear. Only this time, they didn’t…and Prof was still standing there facing me.

“Alright, this time I’m going to switch up your opponents.” She explained.

A simple “Huh?” was all that I could say at that.

She grinned, a pointed to herself with her thumb, flashing me a smile that reminded me all too much of Anko. “You’ll be fighting me this time around.”

My jaw dropped. “You’re kidding right?” I asked. She shook her head.

“Right now the Silverclones, aren’t letting you progress fast enough, by the end of yesterday you were half dead, remember?” She said. “From what I can tell, you’ll need something that’ll give you a real challenge.”

“And you’re that challenge?” I asked. She just gave me another grin.

“Gee Sherlock, how’d you guess?” She said tauntingly. One of the veins popped in my forehead.

“Alright fine, let’s go!” I said, turning Gault into his guitar form. Prof stuck her right hand out, the gauntlet forming on her forearm. Light condensed in front of her open palm, and instead of a battleaxe, it condensed into a simple katana, one with a blade that looked like it had a bit of Lapis Lazuli worked into the steel of the blade.

Instead of getting into a fighting stance, she just stood there with the katana resting lazily on her shoulder, her fingers gripping the hilt loosely.

I on the other hand, was determined not to let any openings for her to attack. If she wanted to hit me she’d have to work for it-

“Try loosening up a bit.” She whispered in my ear. I whipped my head around saw her leaning over my shoulder, grinning at me. I glanced back at where she’d been two seconds ago, and sure enough she wasn’t there. “You’re a little too tense, it makes you open to attacks.” She gripped the hilt of the sword tighter and lifted it off her shoulder. I barely had time to block with the guitar.

I jumped back, trying to get some distance between me and her. She just rested the katana back on her shoulder. “That wasn’t fair, how am I supposed to train against an opponent whose speed I can’t match?”

She just shrugged. “I was just trying to prove a point. Now let’s get back to the exercise.” She pulled the sword off her shoulder again and stood there waiting. “Your move.”

She didn’t have to tell me twice. I hit the strings on the guitar, sending a wave of sound at her. The katana disappeared, and an new shape formed on the gauntlet. It solidified into a small disk, with its outer edge split into for segments. She brought between her and the incoming blast wave and the four segments split off, and a large shield opened up in front of the center section and the four segments. The wave was torn apart on impact.

The shield and its parts dissipated, and in both her hands were two pistols, they looked a bit like magnums… you know, those guns in Wild West movies? At this point I’m wondering to myself, what IS her weapon anyway? PICK ONE AND STAY WITH IT GOD DAMMIT!

I hauled ass right when she started shooting, running to the left deflecting shots with Gault where I could. Eventually I saw an opening and I threw three shuriken at her. The simply adjusted her aim and blew them out of the sky with a few well placed shots. I took the chance to get up close and strike at long range. I raised Gault over my head and brought it down as hard as I could on Prof. Only the thing is, Prof used her pistols to block the attack. She held them by the barrels, and the handles acted as the shields.

“That’s not good.” Gault commented, and micro-seconds later Prof had her foot in my gut. I stumbled back coughing, as Profs pistols decided it was time to call it a day and vanished. I regained the ability to breathe and swung at her again with Gault. She simply caught it in her right hand, stopping it almost instantly. Suddenly her fist was right in my forehead, and I’ll admit right now…she’s got a mean left hook. I stumbled back I suddenly felt my legs being swept out from under me and I hit my head on the rocky ground.

Prof stared down at me with that grin on her face. “Loosing our balance are we?” She taunted. At this point I felt really keen on punching this bitch in the face. Then again chances are that I’d end up on the floor, like I am now.

“Oh bite me.” I snapped, sitting up.

Before I could say anything else, Prof told me to get up and try it again. This was going to be a long rest of the day.

This is it, the day that I’d been training for a three weeks for. Today’s the day Prof finally teaches me the Vector Blade, and holy shit am I pumped. The bad news is that I still feel like crap from the pounding Prof’s been giving me for the past week and a half. You wouldn’t think so but Prof can kick ass!

During the course of my training I’d learned the hard way that Prof’s weapon isn’t really a weapon at all. More like a portable weapons factory! Seriously, she has more guns than the U.S. armed forces! And then again that’s not counting the swords, spears, combat knives, shields, axes, war hammers, etc. Hell at one point she used a bazooka! A friggin’ bazooka! I’m starting to wonder if there’s any weapon that this lady can’t conjure up. I’d hate to see her go all Heavy Weapons Specialist on my ass! Mini-guns are NOT my forte.

But that’s enough with the rambling. Prof was sitting on a rock some twenty-odd feet away, sipping on what looked to be an iced tea. “Hey! Are you going to show me how to use the jutsu or was I mistaken?” I yelled.

She didn’t even glance at me as she set the glass down.

“Hey! Yo! Over here!” I called, giving her an overdramatic wave, trying to get her attention.

“I don’t think this is gonna work.” She said finally. I cocked an eyebrow.

“What’s not gonna work?”

“I mean, that you can’t learn this jutsu.” She said finally turning her attention to me.

“What do you mean by that?!!” I snapped. “I’ve just spent three weeks training non-stop so I could learn this stupid jutsu, and now you tell me I’m not ready?!”

Prof smirked. “Oh, your ready all right, you’re not the problem here.” She said getting up. “Gault’s the problem.”

“Say what now?” Gault and I said in unison.

Suddenly the infamous gauntlet appeared on Prof’s arm. “Each of these weapons has a specific trait that sets them apart. Ares’ is his ability to adapt. He can condense, amplify, channel, and convert my chakra into any form. In other words, given enough time, he and I could theoretically learn every jutsu that exists.” She added something under her breath that I didn’t catch. “The problem is that Gault is only able to convert your chakra.”

“Okay, so the problem is that he only converts chakra.” I repeated. “How does this apply to the Vector Blade jutsu?”

“Well for that one, you need a weapon you can use to channel a large burst of chakra and then condense it into a high density wave that can punch through a half meter of reinforced concrete like it was made of paper.” She said.

“Okay and…?” I said, still not quite getting where she was going.

She let out a frustrated sigh. “Didn’t you hear a work I said, Gault can only convert you chakra into sound waves! If you used that jutsu now you’d either turn it into something that you can’t control, or your chakra will be pushed back into your body too fast for your chakra network to keep up and I’ll vent the excess chakra.” She paused and her face twisted into one of disgust. “The result isn’t pretty when that happens.”

A knot formed in the pit of my stomach. “You mean…”

“…That you’ll blow up, yes.” She confirmed.

I started shivering, and Gault started shivering in my hands along with me.

“Good thing you didn’t try it, huh?” He said, his deep and demonic voice wavering. The guy was scared shitless.

“You have not idea how much of a good thing that is.” I said, sounding just as shaken as he’d sounded.

Prof unexpectedly burst out laughing. “Oh you, I’m kidding! You’re not gonna blow up!” She said, grinning like a loon.

Something inside me snapped and in the next second Gault was flying through the air at Prof’s head, who was laughing too hard to notice. The body of his guitar form struck her right in the forehead and then flew straight up before landing on the ground behind her with a loud thud. Prof doubled over, both hands on her forehead.

“Owwwww. What was that for?” She moaned massaging her forehead.

“For scaring the living shit outta me ya crazy bitch!” I screamed at her.

She lift her head up a kept one hand on her forehead while the rest of her face turned into the cute-sad anime girl face that female characters always seem to do in comedic situations. And I would have acknowledged that it surprisingly well done if I hadn’t been so pissed off.

Also, I’ve been thinking, does me being here in the Narutoverse technically mean that I’ve officially broken the Fourth Wall? Nah, probably not…sue me, I’d don’t actually know what “breaking the fourth wall means anyway” I’m just guessing here!

“Aw, come on! You’ve been acting so serious for almost a month I was just trying to cheer you up a bit.” She said, keeping that little cutsie face and speaking in a voice just as cute.

“Scaring someone half to death isn’t my idea of cheering up!” I was fuming at this point. And apparently Prof didn’t care, because seconds later she was rolling around on her back, laughing her ass off. I crossed my arms, turned my back to her and trudged back to the village. I felt something wrap around my left wrist and glanced down. Gault had transformed himself back into watch form and had wrapped himself around my wrist.

Prof was too busy laughing to notice that I’d left. Just as well, I’d had enough of that psycho lady and her crap to last a lifetime. I didn’t care if I was going to pay for it later at the chunin exams, but I was too pissed to acre about that.

//====//===//==//=//Prof\=\==\===\====\

Prof sat cross-legged on the spot where she’d been laughing for what seemed like hours. “Good job asshole.” Ares piped up. Prof angled the gauntlet so that the little camera eye on front looked directly at her. “The one student you managed to keep for longer than fifteen minutes walked out on you!”

“Hey, now that’s not true!” She retorted. “Remember the first one I got?”

“Yeah, well guess what. He walked out on you too when he realized how sadistic you are!” Ares shot back.

Prof stared down at the ground in thought. After a while of silence she looked up at the treetops. “You think I’m a sadist?” She asked him.

“A little bit, yeah.” Ares replied flatly.

“Thanks jackass, way to make a girl feel loved.” Prof said.

“You’re a girl?” Ares asked sarcastically, earning a swift punch from Prof.

//====//===//==//=//Krystal\=\==\===\====\

10:34pm---

I was lying on my bed in my room unable to sleep, Carmen had been pissed about how I’d taken off for three weeks without letting her know. We’d gotten into a huge fight because I’d been angry enough without her butting in. I’d pretty much spent the night in my room. Carmen hadn’t even talked to me once since that fight. I can’t really say I want to talk to her either right now.

“So what are you gonna do about the chunin exams, you still don’t have a new jutsu that you can use.” Gault piped up from his spot on my desk. The digital clock forming two 8-bit eyes that were obviously just there for decoration.

“I dunno, I’ll think of somethin’.” I replied, shrugging.

“Well think of something quick because the finals are less than a week away.” He pointed out.

“What do you want me to do? I’ve got no one to ask for help in training me, and there’s no way I’m gonna go running back to the psycho lady!” I snapped. I heard Derek cheer from downstairs as he and Nick went head to head in some video game that I couldn’t pin down. I concentrated on the noise downstairs for a while, unable to think of anything. The exact same problem Gault seemed to be facing because he was silent.

“Who says you need someone to train you?” Gault said finally.

I huffed. “If you’re thinking about me creating my own jutsu you can forget it. I’ve been a ninja for only three months at this point, and I’ll probably fuck this up royally.” I pointed out.

“Okay…so we start with something simple.” He suggested.

“Like what?” I asked.

“I don’t know, I’m just giving you ideas.” He said and the screen on the watch shut off. Gault had called it a night. I rolled over to look out the window and the night sky. Well at least I’d gotten better at controlling my chakra thanks to Prof, I had that going for me at least.

Now let’s hope I can put it to good use.

I sat on an overturned log in a training field, Gault resting on my lap in guitar form. It had been a few hours since either of us had anything, both of us deep in thought, both trying to think of something, anything, that we could do for a jutsu. So far we’d come up with blanks, blanks, and more blanks.

“You got anything?” I asked Gault.

“No, how ‘bout you?” He asked back.

“Would I have asked you if I had any ideas?” I countered, a note of frustration in my voice.

I was on the verge of snapping and hurling something heavy at an unfortunate passer-by. I only had another five full days to come up with a jutsu and put it together, which I may not be able to do even if I came up with an idea right now.

“Hey, try to calm down, you’re not gonna come up with something when you riled up like that.” Gault pointed out.

“I know, it’s just so annoying being in this position.” I said burying my face in my hands. “Just feeling the pressure you know.” I added, looking up and seeing a log target. “I can’t believe I’m saying this but right now I just want to turn that log into a table so I smack my head against it a few times.”

“THAT’S IT!!!” Gault exclaimed suddenly. I jumped and lost my balance on the log, falling backwards onto my back. Gault got kicked off my lap and into the air, landing a few feet away from my head.

I rolled over, pushed myself up and walked over to him. “Jesus, don’t scare me like that.” I said angrily. “…And what’s got you so excited?”

“I have an idea! Krystal do you think you can use a transformation jutsu on me?” He said quickly.

“‘course, but why do you want me to do that?” I asked a little surprised. “…and more importantly what do you want me to change you into?”

“Listen, all I need is a little help from an outside source, you, but other than that I’ll have full control over what I transform into, so won’t need to worry about that.” He responded. “Secondly, it’s part of an idea I have for a jutsu.”

“Okay, then whatever you say.” I said picking him up. I tossed him up in the air and formed hand signs for the transformation technique, before catching him. I immediately poured all the chakra I needed to perform the jutsu into Gault. He vanished in a cloud of smoke and could feel his weight change as he transformed. When the smoke cleared, I was still holding a guitar. But this one was unlike any custom guitar I’d ever seen.

The main body was a U shape that was cut in half and held together at the neck by a circular bolt. There was a thin metal plate just a little bit lower than halfway down the body where the strings were attached. A silver rope was tied to the top of the neck just before the strings began.

“What the heck is this thing?” I asked, cocking an eyebrow.

“This is phase one of the jutsu development plan.” He said. “Now we just have to work out phase two.”

“So what’s phase two exactly?” I asked, tilting my head to the side.

“I, uh…haven’t figured that one out yet.” He replied.

I sighed. “Good job there Stephen Hawking.” I mumbled. “Okay, time to see what this thing does.” I played a single note and I saw the air ripple and move out the bottom of the guitar. The sound wave coursed through the air and hit a tree trunk. The tree seemed to turn to powder where the wave hit it. The top of the tree turned over and hit the ground with a mighty thump, and so did the tree behind it, as well as the tree behind that one, and the tree after that and a large crater gouged into its trunk.

“Oh, yeah baby!” I cheered, raising a fist in there air. “Now that’s what I call overwhelming firepower!”

“Honestly, I didn’t think this thing could do THAT much damage!” Gault pointed out.

“Who cares? This thing is awesome! It’s like a bazooka, no wait, sound-zooka, wait hold on-.” I was having a hard time coming up with a good name for it.

“How about we just call it the Mach-rocket?” Gault suggested.

“Sick!” I said in agreement. I stuck the guitar’s neck under my arm in a way that I could still reach the strings and aimed it at the ground. I played another note and seconds later the ground was torn open in a condensed burst of air. “Oho, man. I love this thing!”

“Yeah, yeah, but when you think about it, this configuration still does the exact same thing that we’ve been doing with the standard configuration, only this one is more destructive.” He said.

“Okay, so what do you want to do mister big-shot?” I asked before blasting apart a log target with a sound burst.

“Well this thing is essentially a giant pitchfork so I say we use that to our advantage.” He said. “Grab the rope.” He ordered. I did what he told me to do and held him by the rope. “Now spin me.”

“What?” I asked.

“Just do it.” He said.

“Okay then chief.” I said and began to spin the “pitchfork” from the rope. After a bit of spinning it began to hum, which grew into a whine and then finally to an ear-shattering screech in less than a second. My ears felt like they were going to explode and I let go of the rope, driving the guitar into the ground.

I fell to my knees, hands over my ears in a futile attempt to stop the ringing in my ears. I heard Gault’s muffled voice yelling at me, but I couldn’t begin to make out what he was saying. I yelled at him to wait until my ears stopped ringing, struggling to bring my voice louder than the ringing in my ears.

After the ringing stopped I was left with a pounding headache. “Please don’t let me ever do that again.” I told Gault.

“Okay, I admit it was a bad idea.” He replied.

“Yeah, all I need are a good pair of earplugs and a Tylenol and we’re in business.” I pointed out massaging my temples.

“Well maybe we can try something else.” Gault proposed.

“Nah, let’s work on this one a bit more, maybe I’ll get my headphones and see if those help at all.” I said.

I don’t know why, but I had a feeling that, with a little work of course, I could turn this jutsu into a lethal weapon.

It was a lot more intimidating being here than I thought it would be, down here in the arena pit, staring up at the crowd. There were thousands of them up there, including the Hokage himself, soon the Kazekage would be there, if it really was him and not Orochimaru. At least the attention was divided between the ten other people here, the only people missing were Naruto and Logan. Yes, Sasuke had actually arrived on time for this one.

“Where’s Naruto?” Derek asked from where he stood next to me.

“No idea, but he’s definitely not type to miss this.” I replied. “He’ll be here any minute.” I crossed my arms. ‘I hope I’m right about that.’ I added mentally. The sun was beating down on us, and I secretly hoped we wouldn’t have to wait too long. I was looking forward to my match, I wanted to test out my new jutsu in combat. I’d worked hard on it these past few days, and it was written everywhere on me. My face and arms had scratches all over from flying debris over the course of the jutsu’s development. Even the clothes I’d been wearing had been torn up pretty badly.

So now I had to make do with the white t-shirt, baggy black pants, a dark blue jacket which was tied around my waist, and a pair of noise cancelling headphones resting on my shoulders. Originally, my forehead protector had been strapped where it was supposed to be, around my forehead. Later on I’d taken it off and tied around my waist above the jacket.

Then I heard the sound of doors burst open and Naruto’s cry of surprise as he hit the ground. I turned around just as he stopped skidding just inches away from my feet. “‘bout time you got here!” I said, kicking him lightly in the shoulder.

“Hey Krystal when’d you get here?” He asked comically. I rolled my eyes, grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled him up to his feet, earn me a quick yelp of surprise for Naruto.

“Whoa! Have you been working out?” Naruto asked.

“I’ve been training for the past month, so I think it would be obvious that I’d get a little stronger physically.” I said matter-of-factly.

Naruto’s face twisted into a sort of half-pout. “Yeah, well I’ve been training for a month too but I’m haven’t gained that much strength.”

“Psycho scientist lady stuck me in the hurt locker for a few weeks, that’s why.” I replied quickly.

“Cut it out you two.” Genma interrupted. “The final selection tournament is about to begin, present yourselves proudly to the spectators.”

Just then the crowd started cheering, obviously getting the vibe that the exams were about to begin. I’ll admit I was feeling good when that happened. Then the Hokage began to speak.

“Welcome all, and our deepest thanks for coming to the Village Hidden in the Leaves for this year’s chunin selection. We have come to the final competition between the twelve candidates who made it through the preliminaries. We ask that no one leaves until all the matches are over. Now everyone enjoy!” He announced.

“Alright then guys, you heard him, now we’ll get on with the first match.” Genma started. “The first combatants are Naruto Uzumaki and Neji Hyuuga, everyone else whose name has not been called, report to the waiting area until your match begins.” I took that opportunity to head off towards the stairs.

When I got to the waiting area I found a spot in the middle of the window that had a pretty good view of the whole arena. I’ll admit, I never particularly liked this match because Neji is a giant assface.

//====//===//==//=//\=\==\===\====\
-After the match ended-
\====\===\==\=\//=//==//===//====//

My eyes fluttered open when someone poked me in the shoulder. “Wha-? The match over already?” I asked.

“Yeah, and you missed the whole thing.” Shikamaru told me. “And people call me lazy.”

“Oh shut up, I’m allowed to fall asleep.” I said defensively, rubbing my eyes. “Logan’s match is next right?” I asked as I watched Naruto run around the field, basking in the glory of his victory as everyone cheered for him.

“Yeah, but Mr. Invincible isn’t here yet.” Shikamaru said. “I don’t know what he’s trying to pull, but if he waits too long he’s going to get disqualified.”

“Oh well, I’ll at least go and congratulate Naruto.” I said, jumping over the railing and down to the arena floor.

I chased Naruto down as he ran around the ring. “Hey, slow down wouldja?!” I called after Naruto. “I’m trying to congratulate you for your match over here! Slow the fuck down already!”

“Oh hey, thanks! Didja see how I totally wiped the floor with Neji?!” Naruto asked cheerfully when he hit brakes.

“Yeah.” I lied. Technically, I had seen the battle that had taken place here, judging from the changes to the terrain and how Neji was being loaded up on a stretcher and taken out of the ring. Mostly though, I lied just to keep Naruto from going all apeshit on me.

“So Logan’s fight is next, right?” Naruto asked, throwing his hands behind his head and flashing me a wide grin. “Is he here yet?”

“‘Fraid he isn’t here yet.” I replied with a shrug. “I highly doubt he’d miss his fight, though.”

“Yeah, the guy’s kind of unstoppable.” Naruto added, pointing out the obvious. “I don’t think anyone would be stupid enough end a winning streak.”

I nodded in agreement. Logan would definitely be here. I mean, he had his shoulder ripped clean off and kept on truckin’. That’s when it hit me. “You think is shoulder could be the reason he’s late?”

I could see the realization dawn on Naruto. “Yeah, that looked pretty nasty.”

“Uh, I’m pretty sure that if one of us got an injury like that, we’d have bled out before getting to the infirmary.” I pointed out. “It’s amazing the guy is alive.”

“You think he’s gonna show at all?” Naruto asked after a short pause. Wow, and just seconds ago, he’d been certain that Logan would show. Then again so had I, so I can’t really say that I’m any better.

“I hope he does.” I said, scratching the back of my head. In reality, I was bit scared of him. I mean come on, the guy’s a freaking terminator! How can you not be scared of something like that?

I noticed someone entering the arena just as Genma spoke up. “Since one of the contestants is not present, we’re-.” He stopped when I started pointing frantically at the door behind him. Genma turned to look over his shoulder. “So you actually made it.”

Logan stepped into the sunlight, wearing a deep red shirt with a black symbol in middle that looked a bit like the NASA logo, and a pair a black cargo pants. His right shoulder was bandaged up tightly, an obvious indicator that it hadn’t fully healed. Frankly I’m surprised that it healed at all!

“Yeah, do you think I’d honestly miss something like this?” Logan countered, shoving his hands in his pockets. “Now can we please hurry this up a bit?”

“Why? You in a hurry?” Genma asked him.

“I’ve been waiting for this for a month. Sue me, I’m excited.” Logan replied with a grin. Well this is a first, him smiling!

Genma turned to the contestants box. “Gaara! Come down here!” he called up. Gaara turned and left.

“Sometime today would be nice!” Logan added. I shivered, thinking about how Lee got his arm and leg crushed, and here was Logan, actually taunting Gaara! Does this guy have a death wish I should know about?!

I poked Naruto in the shoulder. “Hey, let’s head up to the bleachers! I wanna get a better view.” I told him.

“Uh, okay.” Naruto replied. I won’t lie, even though Logan scares the crap out of me, I kinda want to see this fight.

Naruto and I made our way to the stairs and towards the bleachers overlooking the arena. That’s when we came to the famous bend in the stairs where Gaara kills those two grass ninja, and we were right on time.

I got to see the whole thing go down. The two ninja’s trying to pressure Gaara into losing the match. Gaara losing it and killing the first ninja by crushing him, his friend freaking out and trying to get away. I could only stand here, frozen in fearful awe, as the sand wrapped around the ankle of the second ninja and dragging him back into the dark corridor and here the bloodcurdling scream of terror as the man was crushed to death.

Then there was silence apart from the sound of footsteps getting louder and louder as Gaara made his way down the hall and towards the stairs. As Gaara past us, we didn’t dare move. My heart was beating a mile a minute, knowing that when it came to this guy, it was better to run than fight. My brain knew, however, that you might not be able to run if he decided to do something.

Luckily the little episode of pure terror ended quickly as Gaara exited from view, Naruto and I basically collapsed and quickly sat on the stairs. It was then that it dawned on me that I was replacing Shikamaru in this situation. Apart from that however my mind was completely blank, just trying to get out of instinct mode and back to normal gamer girl mode.

We sat there in silence until the crowd started cheering. “What the heck did we just see?” Naruto asked.

“The guy who Logan’s going to be fighting.” I said matter-of-factly, my voice shaking a bit.

Naruto stood up. “We have to stop the match. I don’t care how tough Logan is, he’s going to get killed out there if we don’t do something.” He said before heading up another flight of stairs towards the bleachers. I already knew he who was going to see, and I already knew that Kakashi wouldn’t stop the match, but I followed anyway for two reasons. One, some part of me hoped that my being in this world would somehow change Kakashi’s mind. Two, another part of me still wanted to see the match.

When I got to the top of the stairs, Naruto was already running over to Kakashi, who wasn’t that hard to pick out among the crowd, standing nonchalantly in between Sakura Ino, Choji, and then Guy and Lee. But there was someone who I didn’t expect to see. Prof, standing next to Kakashi, lab coat hood down and chatting with Kakashi and Guy like she’d known them for years!

I bolted after Naruto, as he started screaming at Kakashi to stop the match, arriving just in time to hear the response. “You think he’ll back down from something like this? He’d sooner pitch you over a cliff than give up the fight.” Was what Prof responded with, earning a few surprised glances from everyone. Personally, I was surprised she’d been the one to reply rather than Kakashi.

“But you don’t get it! That guy he’s fighting is gonna kill him! He doesn’t care about anyone but him-.”

“Lemme just stop you right there kid.” Prof said cutting Naruto off. “What you saw at the prelims was barely scratching the surface of his abilities. Had the other guy not backed down when he did, you might’ve seen more, then you could’ve panicked and had something to base it off of.”

“How can you know? You barely even know the guy anyway!” Naruto shot back.

“I know him a helluva lot more than you do.” She stated simply, staring back towards the arena as the match was about to begin. “Now shut up and watch, you’ll understand what I mean.”

Logan stood across from Gaara, the two combatants staring each other down, Genma caught in between. Gaara looked like he did when he fought Sasuke in the anime, about to go bat-shit insane. Logan on the other hand, looked like he was trying to contain his excitement.

“Begin.” Genma said quickly, then moved out of the way. That’s when a stream of sand shot out from the ground in front of Gaara and headed straight for Logan. Logan quickly darted to the left the sand following him as he ran just fast enough to stay in front, tracing a wide circle around Gaara.

Gaara sent another arm of sand at Logan tracing a path in front of him. When it got closer Logan attempted to jump over it. The sand reached up and grabbed Logan’s ankle dragging him down to the ground before the sand piled on top of him. Before Gaara could crush him however, Logan’s body turned silvery-grey and began melting.

“Hey wait a minute! That’s your jutsu!” I exclaimed, pointing to Prof.

“Duh, you think you’re the only person I teach?” She replied, not taking her eyes off the arena. “Though I’ m surprised he decided to use one as a substitution. Wouldn’t have thought to use ‘em that way.”

Suddenly, a whistle emanated from the far wall of the arena, pointing out Logan’s new location. “You wanna know what my favourite tactic is in a fight?” Logan asked Gaara. “Fighting fire with fire.” He quickly went through more hand signs. Three silver-clones sprung out of the ground, surrounding Gaara at a distance. The clones shifted into their forms and pigments. Soon there were four Gaaras in the arena, earning a shocked gasp from the crowd. Gaara was notably surprised, his gaze switching frantically between each clone. They stood there, holding a emotionless gaze with their arms crossed.

“Wha- bu- how’d he do that?!” Naruto asked in both outrage and confusion.

Prof sighed. “That’s the benefit of the silver-clone jutsu, they can copy a person’s appearance and jutsu.” Just then, the clones shot jets of sand at the real Gaara, who sent up a wall of sand around himself to protect against the attack. “The draw back to that is that the jutsu consumes a very large amount of chakra and they can only mimic the physical appearance of the jutsu.”

“In other words, they can’t copy genjutsu and the jutsu that they do copy doesn’t have any of the underlying strength of the original, right?” Kakashi guessed.

“Damn you’re good.” Prof said with a smirk. “But there’s another drawback, they’re a bit slower to react than other clone jutsus and can only copy high speed jutsu at the command of the caster, and that’s tricky, even I’m still trying to figure out how to do it.”

Logan jumped off the wall performing hand-signs while Gaara was preoccupied with the clones. When he was just over Gaara he finished the hand-signs. “Ninja art:” I imagine Gaara looked up at terminator boy at about this point. “Deep Space Collision!” Logan’s cheeks puffed like he was about to perform the fireball jutsu. Then he opened his mouth wide and a ball of blue, orange and purple energy shot out like a bullet and descended straight down like an orbital strike on Gaara, detonating in an small but powerful explosion.

As Logan landed the black smoke cleared, and by this point Genma had retreated to the safety of the edge of the ring. Gaara stood in the middle of a circle of scorched earth, his sand armour active and cracked.

Lee’s grip tightened on his crutch. “That is the jutsu that I just could not break.” He mumbled angrily. I was about to say something when Logan spoke up.

“I’m not done yet.” He said as the three clones sent up more jets of sand at Gaara crushing him between the three attacks, causing more cracks to form in his sand armour. Gaara on the other hand, wasn’t going to go down without a fight. Sand inched its way across the ground to the three clones and sprung up to grab them. The clones, unable to react quick enough were quickly caught and turned into silver mush, their attacks vanishing with them.

Gaara turned to face Logan but met resistance when his face made contact with Logan’s fist, then sand that normally protected him was to spread out with after destroying the clones. Gaara flew backwards, pieces of sand chipping off the armour. He hit the ground and slid for a few extra feet, the sand racing to catch up. Logan didn’t even bother running after him again, being smart enough to know that the sand would protect Gaara from his attacks.

“You like that? Have some more!” Logan taunted, forming hand-signs and spitting out three more of those exploding bullets at Gaara. I’ll say that I really wouldn’t want to be where Gaara was at the moment. It was like someone had called in an artillery strike on him, and I bet it hurt just as bad.

"Whoa, Logan is kicking butt today!” Naruto cheered.

Prof chuckled. “Well that’s how he fights. Hit hard, hit fast, and hit often. That’s what he does.”

The crowd was going nuts now, cheering the combatants on. And really, who could blame them?

But even though it looked like Logan was going to win, it was still anyone’s match.

When the smoke cleared, Gaara was standing, hunched over and clearly shaken by the force behind the jutsu, the sand armour falling off in chunks. “You had enough yet?” Logan asked him, arms crossed and his face wearing a smirk.

Gaara’s face was twisted into that bloodthirsty and insane smile, his eyes going bloodshot. “Ooh, I don’t like that look.” Prof mumbled.

“I want blood…” Gaara said. “I need more blood, I need to feel that I’m alive!” Gaara started clutching at his head. He was starting to lose it. Sand started to build up around his feet, higher and higher, thrashing around erratically. “Let me feel alive!” He yelled as the sand charged at Logan, faster than before.

Logan didn’t even have time to react before the sand wrapped around him, picked him up and tossed him like a ragdoll into the ground. The sand started to crush him into the dirt, eventually covering Logan’s entire body. Every muscle in my body tensed, and so did everyone else. I could see that Lee’s mind was going through the moment when he lost to Gaara.

“Sand burial!” Gaara’s hand closed and the sand suddenly pushed down with massive force. I squeezed my eyes shut, no way he’d have survived that, even with his metal bones, his organs would have been crushed.

“Wait for it…” Prof suddenly spoke up. “He’s not done yet.”

That’s when an arm thrust out of the ground on the other side of the arena from where Logan had been crushed. Logan pushed himself up out of the ground, looking a little beat up.

“He has not been fighting the same way as he did in the preliminaries. He is not taking the same risks he did then.” Lee pointed out. “Why did he not use these jutsu back then? Why take those risks?”

“He took those risks because he had nothing else to go on.” Prof replied. “What your seeing now is what he learned in a month. Back then, all he had to go on was his taijutsu and the jutsu that he used to get in to the chunin exams.”

That got a surprised glance from both Lee and Guy, the taijutsu thing definitely hit home with them. The others were also stunned, but I think more with how he’d learned all those jutsu in only a month. I felt so insignificant now! Spending all that time toughening up and learning a single jutsu, and Logan learned who knows how many jutsu in that time.

Logan formed hand signs for his Deep Collision jutsu and fired off two shots at Gaara as a wall of sand came up to protect him. The sand caught the jutsu as it detonated, protecting Gaara from the blast. The sand was knocked away from the blast, but more kept forming up and round Gaara, hardening as it went. I knew what he was doing, he was making the Sand Shell.

When the sand hardened, Logan unleashed a full barrage with the Deep Collision jutsu. Multiple explosions detonated across the surface of the shell, making the stadium rumble and shake with the multiple explosions. But the shell didn’t even crack, and hadn’t moved an inch when Logan stopped firing.

“Okay, that didn’t work. Let’s try something else.” Logan mumbled to himself, forming hand signs for a different jutsu. “Ninja art: Deep Space Fission Beam!” Again his cheeks puffed out and his mouth opened and a beam of the same colours as a beam of energy that glowed the same blue, orange and purple as that other Deep Space jutsu. The beam hit the shell dead center, and a wall of heat hit us hard. I threw my arm up in front of my face to protect it from the heat, it was like standing in front of a furnace!

Down in the arena, the jutsu beam kept pushing into the shell, splattering back like liquid the impact burning a bright red. Large droplets spattered onto the ground, glowing red hot. Soon after they touched the ground and began hardening into glass. Was Logan actually?...

Logan’s breath ran out, and the fire-stream cut out with it. The surface of the shell where the stream hit it had turned to glass. Logan had actually turned it to glass! He’d glassed Gaara’s shell!

“Are you kidding me?!” I exclaimed. “What kind of jutsu is that?”

“It’s a jutsu that can cut through anything, at the cost of a massive amount of chakra.” Prof answered. “But he hasn’t mastered it yet, right now he’s just burning things with high heat chakra, instead of using it to slice the enemy in half.”

“Why did you teach him a jutsu so destructive? He could kill innocent people with a jutsu like that.” Guy pointed out.

Prof started laughing. “If you think that’s destructive, then you should see his other one!”

Logan fired off another Deep Collision shot at the glassed over part of the sand then ran after his own shot. The shot hit the glass and exploded, sending shards everywhere. “Come on outta there!” Logan yelled before punching through the weakened glass. He pulled his hand out dragging Gaara out with it by the collar of his shirt and tossing him across the field.

I expected to see Gaara in the process of turning into the Shukaku. Then again, he was probably just trying to stop Logan’s glassing beam from incinerating him the whole time.

That’s when the feathers began to fall. ‘Ah crap, here we go!’ I thought. I didn’t know how to counteract genjutsu with my chakra, so that left only option. ‘Man I hope this works!’ I said to myself before I pinched the back of my hand. The world began to get hazy and I started to lose consciousness. ‘Okay that didn’t work, time for plan B!’ I put my hand on the floor and stomped on it with my foot hard enough to almost break it.

The effects of the genjutsu began to wear off. ‘Disaster averted!’ I told myself mentally. That’s when I heard the smoke bomb go off. And the sand siblings and Dosu moved to either side of Gaara. Sasuke and Derek moved out to cover Logan. “Lord Hokage is in danger!” Guy exclaimed, snapping me back to reality.

A group of ANBU flew past. “Leave it to me!” One of it’s members told us as he went past.

I got up and headed towards the arena, thinking only of one thing: helping out in any way possible. “I’m going to help the others!”

“Krystal, wait!” Kakashi called out and I stopped. “Don’t go charging blindly into a fight when we don’t know the full situation.” Then that’s when Kabuto appeared wearing an ANBU disguise, backed up by a group of sound ninja, and two ninja wearing full black bodysuits with orange red borders and facemasks with binocular like eyeholes with the Citadel symbol stencilled into the foreheads.

“Ah shit.” I said, trying to move back. Then the sound ninja charged, one of them heading right at me with kunai drawn…

The Sound-nin brought the kunai down at my head. I dodged to the right as the kunai whistled past. I gave the sound ninja a right cross to the jaw, making him lose his balance. By this point some of his friends had started to come to give him backup. I turned and bolted up the steps three at a time. I hit the deck as Prof launched a shuriken the size of a steering wheel at me. It flew past, making the same noise as the rotating blades of a helicopter rotor. The sound ninja dodged out of the way, the disguised Kabuto sidestepping to the left to get out of the way.

“WHAT WERE YOU TRYN’A DO. KILL ME?!!” I screamed at Prof.

“I’d get moving if I were you. They’re coming for another go.” She replied nonchalantly. I glanced over my shoulder, and sure enough they were coming after me again. I got up and resumed the mad dash up the steps. Just as I neared Prof she geared up for a punch. Again I ducked. I heard someone gasp in pain and shock and heard the crunching of bone. I glanced back and saw a Sound-nin falling backward from the force of Prof’s punch.

I just kept running up the steps ‘til I reached the top of the steps and tripped. I hit the floor and rolled over to check for what had tripped me, and saw my foot hooked onto Naruto’s unconscious body. I got on my knees and crawled over to him. I may not be able to use any genjutsu yet but I still have an alternative. Pain. I punched him in the side. He jumped, and his hands immediately went to where I’d punched him.

“Ow, what was that for?!” He asked, wincing. Guess I’d punched him a little too hard.

“It was the only way to wake you up.” I told him.

“Couldn’t you have tried something that hurt a little less?” He asked.

“Well I guess I could have punched you less hard.” I said. That’s when Sakura appeared over the edge of the stairs with Pakkun in tow.

“Why does Naruto look like he’s in pain?” She asked.

“That’s ‘cause I punched him.” I said.

“And hard!” Naruto said as he pushed himself up into a sitting position.

“Oh, cry some more.” I said as I sat up, putting on my best Russian accent, which sounded like total shit. As soon as I did that, a shuriken flew past, an inch from my left ear. I froze.

“Y’know, maybe sticking your neck out like that isn’t the best idea right now.” Pakkun pointed out.

“And you’d think I‘d have figured that out by now.” I muttered as I lowered my head down under the cover of the nearest seat.

That’s when I saw a shadow fall over us and glanced to the right. A sound ninja stood over us, kunai drawn. I could tell from the way his nose was deformed that it was probably the same one Prof had punched. I was about to tell everyone to move, when Guy showed up as per the anime and punched the enemy ninja in the gut, driving him against the wall.

“So f-fast.” The Sound-nin croaked.

“Not only fast, but powerful.” Guy pointed out, before driving the ninja through the wall and making a huge hole in it. Despite Shikamaru not being here, we we’re pretty much on par with the story so far. That was good right?

Soon Prof and Kakashi had blocked off all points of attack for the enemy ninja. “Are you three okay?” Kakashi asked. Naruto was about to say something involving me punching him and I placed my hand over his mouth. “Yeah we’re all okay.” I replied.

“Good, then I can explain the mission.” Kakashi began.

“Mission, what mission?” Naruto interrupted and I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Well how was he supposed to know this was coming, he had been unconscious for most of what just happened and he couldn’t have read the books or watched the show, so you can’t really hold it against the guy.

“I’m getting to that Naruto.” Kakashi replied. Okay so the dialogue may be a bit off, but this ain’t exactly a mirror image of the shows events. “After I’ve given you the mission details go through the hole in the wall Guy just made. Sasuke, Derek and Logan have gone after Gaara and his companion sand and sound ninja. You are to follow them and give them backup. Follow Pakkun, he’ll lead you right to them.”

“Also, you might wanna consider staying on the lookout for any enemy ninja, no doubt they’ll be after you.” Prof added in.

“I’ll use my nose to keep a lookout while following Sasuke’s group.” Pakkun said.

“Right, now get going, or you won’t be able to catch up to them.” Prof said. I nodded and headed through the hole following Pakkun. Sakura grabbed Naruto and followed us. I didn’t think it would be that much of a problem. After all Sasuke has Logan and Derek for backup this time, so they had a better chance of catching up to Gaara. Plus with the three of them working together, they could probably take him down. Still you can never be too careful.

//====//===//==//=/=\==\===\====\

“They’re getting away.” One of the Citadel ninja asked Kabuto.

“Should we follow them?” The other asked.

Kabuto took a few minutes to mull it over. “Yes, they shouldn’t be a problem for you two.”

“Damn straight they won’t be. Come on.” The first one said before vanishing.

“Right.” The other one commented before he too disappeared. Kabuto let himself grin under his stolen ANBU mask. One of those two ninja had a bone to pick with those kids.

//====//===//==//=/=\==\===\====\

We hadn’t even been moving more than three minutes when Pakkun spoke up. “Bad news, we’ve got two ninja following us, and from the smell of them their those guys in the black bodysuits we saw earlier.”

“So those Citadel goons are after us. Great.” I said in frustration. Nothing ever goes right, huh?

“So what do we do?” Naruto asked. “How far away are they?”

“Close, and their coming up fast.” Pakkun reported. “They’ll be on us in a few minutes, maybe sooner.”

“Which means running is out of the option.” Sakura pointed out. There was an uneasy silence between us. I knew what we had to do to have any shot at reaching Sasuke’s group. I stopped and Naruto and Sakura stopped soon after. “Krystal what are you doing?” Sakura asked.

“You two get going. I’ll buy you as much time as I can.” I said simply.

“You’re crazy your gonna get yourself killed if you do that!” Naruto exclaimed.

“Naruto, just shut up and get going. Right now your mission is to find Sasuke’s group and give ‘em backup.”I snapped. “Besides, You think I’ve been spending the past month sitting on my ass not doing a damn thing?”

Naruto stood in silence and we had ourselves a staring contest. It seemed like forever had passed. “You better be alive when we get back.” Naruto ordered.

I gave him U.S. army salute. “Count on it.” I replied. Naruto and Pakkun continued on. Sakura hesitated for a second then took off after them.

Okay, before you say it, yes I’m doing the cliché of “one person standing behind in the face of certain death to buy the rest of the group time” thing and yes I’m well aware that I’m probably going to end up dead or something.

But, when you think about it, Naruto and Sakura are actually crucial to the series, if they died, that’d be the end of it. Me, well I hate to admit it but I’m a bit expendable in that regard. If I died, I’d have died doing what I’d dreamed of doing. Heck with it, maybe if I died, I’d wake up again back home in a hospital bed. I’d find out that I’d been in a coma after getting hit by a car or something and that all of this had been some huge dream.

Like that one episode of Futurama where Leela was stuck in a coma after getting stung by a space wasp. Wait, is space wasp or space bee? I can’t remember.

I turned around, Gault turning into his guitar form as I began to hear the sounds of the approaching ninja. “You sure you can take ‘em?” He asked.

“Not in the least.” I replied. Then they showed up. Both of ‘em were facing me and seemed to be waiting for me to make a move. One was skinny, and for some reason he reminded me of someone. The other one was taller and a lot more muscular.

“Well, well, well. One of the brats thinks she’s got what it takes to fight us.” The skinny one said. Man, even his voice was familiar.

“Whaddya think? Should I go after the others?” The larger one asked.

“Yeah, I can handle her.” The other one said reaching into his weapons pouch. What he pulled out made me freeze. The other guy went right past and I didn’t even try to stop him. Those six daggers...It couldn’t be Yakan standing across from me right? “Well now, how about we get this party started?” He said, and the daggers shifted into triple blades connected by chains.

Then he charged. He gripped one of the weapons by the chain linking it to him and began spinning it around his head, the blades spinning wildly around each other like a deranged shuriken. He Pulled the chain down and the triplet of flying disk of death came down almost too fast for me to dodge it.

Almost.

I managed to jump out of the way before it sliced the tree branch in two, sending splinters everywhere. I landed on a branch and saw another one arcing down towards me from the left. I jumped backwards, flipping backwards off the branch and down towards the ground. I ran quickly through the hand signs for the substitution jutsu as I fell, knowing full well I might not be able to reach the ground before he got me with his weapons.

I landed in a crouch, feeling a bit lucky that he didn’t get before I reached bottom. I looked up just as he called out: “Ninja Art: Chain Link Missile!” I saw one of the blades heading straight for me like...well...like a fricken’ Sidewinder! I jumped to the right and it fired past, arcing back up ward before circling around and coming back at me again, dragging the chain it was attached to behind it.

“You might wanna do something!” Gault warned.

“Yeah, I can see that!” I snapped back. I pulled Gault out in front of me and hit a chord, firing a condensed ball of sound at it. Sure enough it hit the blade and knocked it off course into the ground.

“Krystal! Behind you!” Gault warned and I spun around. The Citi-nin threw the three blades in his right hand at me, straight and true like kunai. I had no choice but to use the substitution right now. Activating the jutsu, I reappeared in a tree about ten meters from where I’d been. I heard the sound of steel punching through flesh, and then the poof as the jutsu wore off.

I’d have to think of something to take him down and fast. Otherwise his friend would catch up to Naruto and Sakura. “Gault, I think it’s time to use the jutsu we perfected.” I whispered.

“Trying to take him down quickly?” He replied quietly.

“That, and it may be the only way I’ll survive this to catch up to everyone else.” I told him as I peeked around the tree to see the enemy looking around to find out where I was. He held onto the chains the lay at his feet. I performed the hand signs for the transformation technique, and Gault turned into the new guitar, I might want to name them for future references. Maybe I could call this one Devastator.

I held it under my arm, holding it so I could easily reach the strings with my other arm. I stepped onto the nearest branch to get a clear shot at him. When I had him in my sights, I fired of a round. A super condensed sphere of sound impacted the spot right where he was, and he only managed to dodge my attack by sticking two of his blades in the nearest tree branch and pulling himself up.

Even that was enough to do a bit of damage, the chest and right arm of his outfit had been blown off and so had his mask. Yeah, it was Yakan alright, but at this point I had already guessed that it was probably him. “Well that was close.” He commented.

I fired two more rounds at him, and he pulled on two of the chains dangling from his body with his right arm, using his left to hang on to the chains already imbedded into the branch. He grabbed the blades and threw them at another branch. They dug in and held as he let go of the two he’d been hanging onto and swung under the tree branches. When he found a branch that was low enough he let go and landed on it.

I kept shooting at him as he jumped from branch to branch towards my left, pulling on the chains as he went to regain his blades. Then suddenly, while in the middle of his jump, he threw the blades to his sides sticking three into two tree trunks on either side. It looked almost like an incomplete spider web with the chains connected at the center. I plated both feet on the center of the chains weaving hand signs. “Ninja art: Chain link rampage.” He said, and some links on the chains looked like they were going through mitosis. When the copy was complete it pointed itself and my direction, then shot straight forward, dragging a completely new chain behind it.

I didn’t even have the chance to do something before I felt chains digging into my flesh, one in my right shoulder, two on my left leg, one on my right, one on my left wrist, and one right in my gut just above my right hip. And they didn’t stop with that. Soon I was pushed right through the tree and down into the ground.

Yakan landed on the ground about twenty feet away from where I was lying. The chains had gone limp and I was paralyzed in both pain and shock. Gault was lying on the ground next to me, whispering at me to get up. “You know, they say what goes around comes around.” He said walking over. He crouched down when he got close enough and picked me up by the hair. “This is payback for getting my brother captured, with interest.” He held one of his blades, ready to stab it in my neck and finish it.

I let my left hand move to the frets on the Devastators neck. I grabbed it and quickly placed Yakan’s neck in between the two prongs. Before I could bring my other hand up to play a note, Yakan placed his foot on it. “Now what’re you gonna do without your hand? Can’t play a note can you?” He said.

I led the neck of the Devastator rest on my shoulder and placed one finger on the E string. Yakan didn’t seem to know what I was up to. “I still have the one.” I said. Realization dawned on Yakan’s face just as I played the node. He was thrust backward, ripping his fingers from my hair and sending him tumbling across the ground.

There hadn’t been a whole lot of chakra in that burst. He’d be stunned, but not dead. I took the time I had to yank the chains out and stood up, using Gault as a support. “You going to be okay?” He asked.

“Yeah.” I assured him. I grabbed the rope attached to the Devastators neck with my left hand and pulled my headphones over my ears with the other. There were no words, we both knew what was gonna happen. I raised Gault over my head and began to spin him around and around. The headphones muffled the ever increasing noise as Yakan slowly began to stand. The screaming from Gault’s pitchfork body eventually got to the point of being ear splittingly painful and Yakan eventually succumbed, clutching at his ears and falling to his knees. I kept Gault up in the air, still spinning, still increasing the noise level. Then I heard the noise completely stop. We’d reached the point we needed for phase two of the jutsu.

I let go of the rope and quickly grabbed the neck. Yakan was still stunned from the ringing in his ears and even I could see the blood running down his fingers. Gault was vibrating so bad it made my own teeth chatter. “It’s curtains for you.” I said to Yakan, even though I knew he couldn’t hear me. “Mach Cutter.” I brought Gault down like a hammer to the ground and what followed was a wall of vibrating air that carried the force of a sonic boom. If I had blinked I would have missed it all.

The wave cut towards Yakan, ripping up the ground in its wake as it travelled towards him. I could see the shock on his face as he realised he’d fucked up and gotten too cocky. The wave hit him and carried him away like a leaf, pushing him with it as it tore down trees and ripped apart rocks. It all took less than a second and I was left alone, barely standing and staring at a lone pile of splintered wood and earth. All six of Yakan’s chains were draped over the rocks, eventually disappearing into various cracks.

Using Gault for support, I slowly made my way over to one of the trees still standing and leaned on its trunk before sliding down to a sitting position. “We beat him.” Gault said after an uneasy silence. I was about to reply when I heard stones moving and looked over to see Yakan pushing his way out. He looked even more beat up than I was. He was bleeding from multiple cuts on his face and shoulders. He was still half buried but I couldn’t see the rest of him.

“I’m not...done...yet.” He rasped as he tried to push himself out of the rubble. I tried to stand up but I stopped when pain shot through my body from moving. I started to panic.

That’s when the kunai embedded itself in his forehead and he went limp. Four Leaf shinobi dropped down from the surrounding trees, and if I had to guess, they were all either Chunin or Jonin level. Most of ‘em had dark brown hair and brown, except for the girl of the group who had black hair. Two of them went over to check to see if Yakan was actually dead, the other two came over to me. The girl crouched down next to me.

“Try not to move.” She said. “I’m a medic.” Her hand began to glow green, surrounded by chakra. I pushed her hand aside.

“There’s no time!” I snapped. “One more of those guys is after a group of Genin! You need to go after him and stop him!”

She turned to look at the two who were next to Yakan and they nodded back. “Which way did they go?” She asked me. I winced a little when I pointed in the direction Naruto and Sakura had gone. The two left and the girl placed the palm of her hand across the wound in my gut. I bit my lip, yes it did hurt, but in a good kind of way. You know that pain you get that gives you the feeling that everything’s going to be fine in a few minutes? That’s kinda what it felt like. With it came this sense of relief that this whole thing’s going to blow over like it does in the show now.