Geez, could they be any more predictable?

From all directions, I could hear the kunai knives and shuriken slice through the air towards me. Swiftly, I replaced my body with a log and jumped into the trees to conceal myself. After two months and a half of training, Team 7 finally decided that I was ready for the test. Of course, one final practice wouldn’t hurt.

“You’re gonna have to do better than that.” I sighed and jumped out of the trees when more weapons were thrown at me. As I hid in another section of the forest, I sent out a clone to fight against Sakura, who had appeared in the field. The distraction didn’t last long, but it was enough time for me to relocate once again. The three genin appeared in the field and looked around, wondering where I went. Kakashi-sensei sat this practice session out to observe my uses of the techniques they taught me.

While they searched the area, I transformed myself into a squirrel and scurried off. It wasn’t long before I encountered the Uchiha in another section of the training field. He spun around when I scurried past him but didn’t seem to notice that I was using the Transformation Technique. Just as I released the technique to attack him, he seemed to realize that the ‘squirrel’ he saw was odd and spun around just in time to grab my fist.

“Nice try.” He muttered before throwing my arm across and sweeping his leg under mine to trip me. I landed on my hands and did a front flip onto my feet before turning back around, a kunai in each hand. He jumped back and in a blink of an eye, performed a few hand seals, and inhaled. “Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!”

I was amazed the first time he revealed his fire ninjutsu and impressed by the second time, but after several uses I just started to wonder when I got to learn some elemental jutsus. Turning into rocks and people got boring after a while. To dodge, I pushed off my feet and jumped over the enormous ball of fire. In the air, I spun and threw the two kunai knives in my hand towards him. When he dodged, I followed him by throwing weapons at him, just missing with every step he took. “Damn it, stop moving!” I shouted and landed, grabbing my weapons as I chased after him.

He sprinted into the forest and the moment I entered, he was gone. I frowned and made a one-handed seal with my right hand, adjusted the flow of my chakra, and turned around to face the team. “I thought it was a ninjutsu training session, not genjutsu.” I muttered with an unimpressed look in my eyes.

The jounin laughed and rubbed the back of his neck with a shrug. “I figured I’d see how fast you can catch on, which is apparently rather quickly.”

“It was an easy genjutsu.” I answered with a shrug before pocketing my last weapon. “So, how about that Genin test?

---

“Two months and a half later you come back.” The Hokage spoke with a welcoming smile. “Well, you know how it goes. If you can make two clones of yourself, I will be able to give you your headband.”

“Alright then…here it goes.” I sighed and performed the hand seal while closing my eyes. I could sense Team 7 behind me and the Hokage before me. Gradually, I blocked them out until all my concentration was on my chakra. Let it flow… I told myself while releasing my chakra. With a puff of smoke, I looked to my right to see two copies of myself. I smirked and turned back to the Hokage with a satisfied look. “One Konoha headband, please.”

The Hokage laughed and signalled for me to approach. He pushed forward the hitai-ate and I took it in my hands. “Congratulations, Riku-san. You are now a genin of Konohagakure.”

I tied the hitai-ate around my forehead and turned around to face the team. “Thanks a lot you guys.” They sure did help me a lot since I’ve arrived in Konoha. It really was a stroke of luck that I ran into them on my way. Heck, I guess I could consider them pretty good…companions, but I’ve been on my own for as long as I can remember, so it was a bit odd seeing the same people so often. I would like to think that we got along rather well, though.

“Well, now that you’re a genin, it’s time to find you a team.” The Hokage informed me, causing me to turn around. The old man was going through some sort of roster with what I assumed to the registered teams of genin. “Hm…It doesn’t look like there are any teams available that I could put you with right now.” He announced. I sighed and shook my head. All that just to have no team for me to join. What a letdown.

“Ne, ne! Why doesn’t Riku just join our team?” Naruto asked with a wide grin, taking a step forward. “She’s been training with us from the beginning, anyway, so it should be no problem! Right?”

“The teams don’t work like that, Naruto.” Kakashi-sensei interjected while shaking his head. “As much as I don’t mind having her on the team, the genin are put into three-man cells to compliment each other’s strengths and weaknesses. They’re put into teams to balance each other out or serve as a specific sort of team.”

Sakura seemed to get it pretty quickly and nodded. “Like how Kurenai-sensei’s team specialized in tracking, right? The Genin from Asuma-sensei’s team were put together, too because of their Kekkei Genkais, weren’t they?” Both the Jounin and the Hokage nodded before turning back to me.

“I’m afraid that having a fourth genin will disrupt the balance the team may have already. The platoon would also be at an unfavourable size for several missions.” The Hokage stated with a rather regretful look. I understood their reasoning so I expected something like this to happen, but I'd be lying if I didn't say I was a little disappointed. They've been taking care of me for the past several weeks, after all. I didn’t want to disrupt the balance of the teams, either. Teamwork is crucial to shinobi. Despite never having had companions until now, I’m aware of its importance.

“It’s alright,” I started with a nonchalant expression, “I’m used to working on my own. I can train on my own and stuff or something, no big deal.”

The Hokage shook his head in disagreement, however. “You still have much to learn, Riku. I will find somebody who can help you train. You are no longer a traveller, but a shinobi and citizen of our village. You have a village and friends to protect now. You are no longer alone.”

I swallowed the lump in my throat and looked back at the team. They either smiled or smirked back. I sighed with the faintest smirk of my own. Friend... I thought to myself, but immediately brushed that thought away because it felt so weird. I had nothing against making friends, though. I'm just not used to it at all. “I guess so.” I finally answered with a slight shrug. “I guess I’ll wait until you find somebody, then. Until then, though, I can be found training on my own.”

---

It was on my way home when I passed by the Konoha library. After spending weeks becoming an official shinobi, I guess I got distracted from the reason I came here for. Guess it’s about time to start my research. I thought and entered the enormous building. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I entered.

Rows and rows of books, scrolls, drawings, maps; you name it. I wandered around until I realized something. What was I looking for? I didn’t know anything about my past except that I’m a shinobi,so what was I supposed to be looking for? “I should have thought this through a lot more.” I sighed and let my body fold over lazily. I decided to just pull out some history book about the countries. Maybe something would trigger my memory of something; anything.

“What brings you here?”

I looked up to see Kakashi-sensei towering over me. “Oh, uh…just a little research. Nothing big.” I answered, a bit hostile. They team didn’t know that I knew nothing about my past, so they didn’t know why I decided to come to Konoha in the first place. It seemed unnecessary to bring it up, and I'd rather not grab any more attention by telling them.

He seemed to notice my small pile of scrolls and gave me an odd look. A look of suspicion. “Interested in World History?”

“Hey, it’s some fascinating stuff.” I answered with a shrug, trying not to make him stay any longer. “What brings you to the library, anyway?” For some reason, I felt like he wasn’t there to check out a book or anything.

“Oh, nothing big.” He mimicked with his signature smile. I rolled my eyes and set the books down on a table. He sat down across from me with a slightly more serious look in his eye. “Hokage-sama wanted me to pass a message to you.” He started with a slight shrug. “He wanted you to know that even though you’re not on a team, you’re allowed to join my team or any other team, really, on missions. My team it leaving the village tomorrow for a scouting mission. You can join us, if you wish.”

I nodded in response while unravelling the first scroll. It was about Sunagakure, the Hidden Sand Village. I remember there was a time when I wanted to visit there, but I got had gotten lost and ended up at Tetsu no Kuni instead, the Land of Iron. Now that I think about it, that was a horrible detour that I took back then. On the bright side, I became somewhat acquainted with the samurai there because I helped defend their village when they were attacked by a group of bandits during my visit. Of course, I was nothing compared to their incredible army of samurai, but I think a genjutsu or two made things a little easier for them.

“Where will you four be heading?” I asked, not looking up from the scroll as I read. From what I was reading, there wasn’t anything that would be useful to me. Although it spoke about its contribution towards the Great Ninja Wars, those are clearly before my time and not related to my last of memories.

“Just North-East of Konoha. We’re going to scout the borders along the Hot Springs Country.” I swallowed while calmly moving on to the next scroll about Iwagakure, the Hidden Rock Village. Going back to the village that I kept stealing from. Yeah. Good idea. Kakashi-sensei seemed to notice my hesitation and gave me a suspecting look. “Is there a problem?”

Maybe a bit too quickly, I shook my head and rolled the scroll back up. “Nope. I’ll go along, I suppose.”

---

Naruto and Sakura were excited that I was joining them on a mission so soon. As usual, Sasuke couldn’t seem to care any less about, well, anything. I knew his clan was wiped out and he was all angry about it, but I always believed in living in the present and not having the past haunt me, even though I technically don’t have a past to begin with. Then again, how he decides to face the past is up to him.

It took us a day to get to the border of the Fire Country. The closer we got, the more I got a bit nervous. I wondered what would happen if we came across shinobi from that country. I wondered if they would recognize me. I wondered how Team 7 would react. It’s not like I killed anybody; I just stole to survive. I am – or was – just a low-class thief. If I was caught, I hoped they’d understand. Plus, stealing is in my past now. I don’t need to do that kind of stuff to survive anymore because I get paid from missions. When I’m not joining a team, I sometimes drop by the Mission Room and do some work myself; stuff that doesn’t need two other genin and a jounin.

“Well team, and Riku, start searching the area for any signs of infiltration.” Kakashi-sensei ordered before jumping off on his own. I sighed and headed North, more towards the edge of the Hot Springs Country. It wasn’t as populated there so I probably had a higher chance of not being caught by their shinobi if I looked around over there.

Looking for things that were out of place was something I was pretty good at. I’ve become pretty good with spotting small details during my travels, mainly because there were times when I had to find a place to hide when running from shinobi or guards. The good hideouts were always covered by something that had to be moved or broken down. We were supposed to meet back in two hours, which was plenty of time to scout, so I didn’t rush myself to cover ground.

Everything seemed fine until I saw something shine in my peripheral vision. Slowly and steadily, I approached the general area where I saw it and looked around. Not spotting anything, I removed my headband to shine the sunlight around the area to see if anything would reflect it. I did this for about a minute or so until an incredibly thin line came into view. Narrowing my eyes, I followed it until I reached a small pile of boulders. The string was slipped into a tiny opening of the pile. Carefully, I lifted the stones until I saw what was inside. Explosives? But the string didn’t stop at the three tags it was attached to; it seemed to spread into several directions, like the branches of a tree. “These are still within the Fire Country’s borders, but they don’t look like the ones I’ve seen in Konoha.” I murmured to myself in thought. Looks like the Hot Springs Country set up a little trap for us.

Just as I was about to leave, the leaves rustled from behind. I spun around to come face to face with a certain shinobi that I was rather acquainted with. “Long time no see, Mubou-jiji.” I greeted with a faint smirk. His eye twitched, but it didn’t take him long to pull out his dual swords. “Whoa there, I don’t get a nice ‘Hello?’”

“Who would have thought that our dear little Riku moved to Konoha? I can’t imagine what that Hokage was thinking, letting a thief live there. He even let you become a genin!” He shouted while charging towards me. He had two shinobi behind him as well. The trio chased after me, but I was swift on my feet. Years of running away does that to you.

Horse, dog, hare. “Dei Shoudou.”

I released my chakra and made it seem like they were running in a stream of thick mud. I could tell that my genjutsu worked because they suddenly started to curse at me and slowed down considerably. The ridiculous motions of their legs gave it away, too.

“Well, I’ll be on my way now.” I commented with a smirk before sprinting out of sight. I would have lit the spark bomb Kakashi-sensei gave us to alert the others when we found something, but I didn’t want to give away my location to the Hot Springs shinobi. It didn’t seem like I had to search for long, however, because somebody else threw a spark bomb into the air, creating a small flash of light and the sound similar to a firecracker. Wait, now those guys are going to attack my team, too. I thought, but they were outnumbered anyway. It didn’t matter that much if they followed the spark or not.

Turns out it was the Uchiha who set off the bomb. The Uzumaki had already arrived and soon after, so did Sakura and Kakashi-sensei. Sasuke pointed to a paper bomb he had discovered that was hidden behind a think bush. He seemed to have uprooted to make the bomb visible.

“I found one of those, too.” I stated and took off my hitai-ate again to reveal the strings. “There’s a lot more than just the two.”

“Why didn’t you set off the bomb if you found one?” The jounin asked with a raised eyebrow. Before I could answer, the three shinobi that were chasing me jumped out of the trees and landed before us. Kakashi-sensei looked back down at me with a questioning look.

“Yeah…that’s why.” I answered with a sheepish look, but grabbed a kunai in each hand. “You guys are outnumbered and outmatched, so don’t even try anything.” I growled, glaring one of my darkest glares at them. Mubou seemed to realize this and put away his weapons. The other two shinobi did the same.

That pissed yet smug look on his face didn’t disappear though. He even had the nerve to take a step towards us. “Don’t worry, I won’t try anything fancy.” He commented with a smirk that pissed me off. “I was just wondering if you explained to your comrades here why you have shinobi chasing after you.”

The Konoha shinobi turned their attention to me, but I looked away. “There’s nothing wrong with trying to survive, bastard. I need food and water to live, too. Who do you think I am; some rich princess or something?” I was almost shouting by the end of my sentence. I detested that shinobi, but not because he was trying to punish me. That part made sense. What I hated was that he made me out to be some S-Ranked criminal or something. All I did was steal some loaves of bread and jugs of water, with the occasional pick-pocketing to get some extra change. What’s the big deal? Just slap me on the wrist, wag a finger in my face, and he could be on his merry way.

“I believe there’s something you should tell us, Riku.” Kakashi-sensei suggested, but it sounded more like a demand. I sighed snapped my head back to Mubou and his comrades with a nasty stare. He always caused me trouble, that bastard.

“He’s making it seem like I killed somebody,” I accused, not taking my eyes off the bastard, “but all I did back in their village was steal some food and water; maybe even some money.” I confessed angrily, ready to pummel the guy into a bloody pulp myself. “I had no citizenship anywhere. I was a traveller, so I didn’t have a job or anything. What in the world did you expect me to do; die? I did what I did to survive. It’s in the past now. Let it go and move on with your life, Ojiji. You’re wasting both of our time for being here.”

The suspicious looks on the Konoha shinobi’s faces all turned into a rather unimpressed one as they snapped their heads towards the enemy. “So she stole some stuff to survive. I don’t see the problem.” Sakura started in an almost monotone voice. “Just slap her on the wrist and wag a finger or something, then be on your way.”

“Thank. You.” I nearly cried out. Mubou didn’t seem very happy with the response he was getting from my new comrades, but I knew he could tell they understood why I stole.

“We can just have Riku give back the equivalent of whatever she stole from you.” Kakashi-sensei suggested before looking down at me with a smile. I’m pretty sure he expected me to disagree because when I shrugged, he looked a bit surprised.

“Hey, I’ve got a job as a shinobi now. Paying you guys back wouldn’t be a problem.” I informed, proving a point. “Plus, I’d do nearly anything to get this bastard off my back.”

Mubou growled and was about to complain about the suggestion but before he could utter a sound, I shot a death glare at him. “Take it or leave it!” He backed down, but he wasn’t happy. I tossed a small pouch of change that I had on me in front of him before crossing my arms. “I only stole about 14 000 ryou in cash, but I think it’d be easier to pay off the food I stole instead of being a mini food bank or something. That’s about 90 000 ryou of food in a year for myself.”

“That’s nowhere near eno—“

“I said; take it or leave it.” I threatened this time. He really pisses me off. “That’s 7 500 in that pouch alone. It won’t take me that long to pay off my debt, now get outta my face before I tear you apart.”

He shot a glare at me, grabbed the money, and left. I growled to myself in anger, infuriated by his annoyance. Naruto tried to grab my shoulder but I smacked him away. “Come on; let’s get rid of these bombs so we can go home.” I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose. At least they were considerate enough to know not to bother me about anything right now. I had enough of a headache from that old man.

---

It took about an hour to get rid of the chain of explosives. There weren’t as many as we thought, but it was enough for Konoha not to be very fond of that village. Perhaps it was for their security because the shinobi from that country aren’t that impressive, and I’m not just saying that because of Mubou. They’re the Hot Springs Country. Their name just gives away the fact that they aren’t famous for their shinobi.

“There’s one more that way.” I told the others while pointing to the edge of the country’s borders. I carefully followed the line, stepping over logs and through bushes until suddenly, there were none. The forest was abruptly cut off and became a patch of dead grass. When I looked up, my mouth fell open just slightly and my eyes doubled in size. It was a depressing sight, really.

The terrain was horribly uneven and patches of dead grass spotted it here and there. I dropped the line that I held and slowly walked towards the centre of the terrain. “This place…Ow!” I hissed as a sharp pain suddenly erupted in my head. My team arrived just in time to witness that and I was asked if I was alright. Before I could respond, an image flashed before my eyes.

It was a village, full of life and foliage, but it disappeared in a matter of seconds. I groaned and ignored my teammates while walking into the terrain some more. I heard something metallic under my foot and looked down to pick up a rusty, scratched hitai-ate. On it was a carving of a circle with a dot in the centre. Once again, the pain shot through my head and the image of a shinobi flashed before me. What in the world was going on?

“Riku, are you sure you’re alright?” Sakura asked, her voice dripping in concern. I shook my head clear and looked back at my team with the hitai-ate in my hands. Kakashi-sensei took it from me to examine it. His right eye showed that he was deep in thought, as if he was trying to remember something. Eventually, he looked back at us with an informative look.

“This symbol represents the sun. The hitai-ate must have belonged to a shinobi from the Sun Country.” He told us while handing it back to me. Sun Country… Why was the name so familiar? I winced again and held my head. The jounin didn’t seem as concerned as he did curious. The pain worsened and I gripped my head, dropping the headband onto the ground. “Riku, is there something else you’re not telling us?”

I looked up at the team and slammed my eyes shut. My head was pounding. That symbol flashed in my head, as well as the village and the shinobi. What was happening? Why here…why now?

They were everywhere, the shinobi. Metal hitting metal…the sound pierced my ears. I ran. All I could do was run. Run for my life. Run way. Escape.

“Get away from here!” A shinobi cried out to me. He defended me from another man; the enemy. We were under attack. I didn’t have time to thank him because his shouts were cut short. I nearly screamed when I felt the warm liquid hit my back.

“You’re not going anywhere, little girl.” His voice was menacing. I grabbed an abandoned spear and threw it behind me blindly, hoping to buy me some time. This was no place for a five-year-old to be, that was for sure.

I tripped over a dead body. I screamed. He was behind me. He towered over me. He drew his weapon and sliced.

“Riku, wake up...!”

The pain ripped across my back.

“Get some more water.”

It hurts.

“Come on, Riku.”

It really hurts.

“Wake up!”

I cried – “Gah!” I shot up into a sitting position, nearly hitting Naruto in the head with my own. I winced and gripped the side of my head. The pain lessened, but it was still there. The other shinobi were sitting around me. Sasuke was holding a water bottle. Kakashi-sensei gave an incredibly suspicious look. “I know this is a predictable question, but…what happened?”

“You passed out,” the Uchiha stated simply while handing me the water. I murmured a thanks and took a large gulp of it. “After you saw the hitai-ate, to be more specific.” Sakura added while holding it in front of me. “I think we should should be asking you what happened.”

I looked into the eyes of each shinobi. Even Naruto knew something was up. With the four of them staring me down, I felt like they would beat it out of me if I didn’t speak. With a heavy sigh, I did. “I…didn’t come to Konoha just to find somewhere to stay,” I started, took another drink of the water, and continued, “My past…I don’t remember any of it. All I knew was my name, my age, and the fact that I was a shinobi, in the loosest term possible. I was seven at the time.”

“The five years between that day and two and a half months ago, I travelled around. I snuck into small towns to steal food and water. With the little money I would steal sometimes, I’d find a motel to stay in. Anything to get away from sleeping in a tree or on a rock – sometimes even just the ground – for just one night. Even around these areas, the nights are cold. You shinobi should know.” They nodded in agreement. Another drink, and I continued.

“I’ve been to all sorts of places, hoping to find something that would bring back my memories. The Land of Iron, the Frost Country, the Hot Springs Country…I spent a little time in Iwa, too. There are lots of strong people up North, I learned. I left because it was hard to steal from them.” I stated with a shrug. “Anyway, during my travel time between villages and towns, I would work on my genjutsu and handling weapons. It helped me catch food in the wild, but it wasn’t every night were there was something to hunt. That’s when I would resort to stealing.”

It was dark out and a few crickets were chirping. I only just noticed the fire that was lit to my left. Slowly, I leaned back on my arms to look up at the sky, staring at nothing in particular. “When you travel, you hear all kinds of things. Eventually, I heard that Konoha was the biggest Hidden Village out there. I figured that if it was so big, something there must be able to trigger my memories. That’s why I was in the library with a bunch of historic texts. I haven’t found anything in the village, but…”

My head dropped down and I stared at my feet. This was the part that they really wanted to hear. I held my breath for a bit and letting it out with a sharp sigh before looking back at them. “Seeing that wasteland sorta...triggered something. I saw a village; a beautiful one, too. It was full of life. More images were triggered I saw the symbol on the hitai-ate.” I lowered my voice and pushed my weight forward, brushing my fingers against the metal plate. “I just…saw it in different places. On clothes, signs, and on other headbands that weren’t destroyed. It’s just so familiar. Then, when you mentioned the Sun Country, I…”

The air grew heavier. “You what?” Kakashi-sensei asked calmly. “What did you remember?”

“I remembered the war.” I whispered. The jounin narrowed his eyes but the genin didn’t seem to understand my words. “I remember being chased. I remember that scar on my back. I’ve never seen it, but I know it’s there because I remember the face of the shinobi that gave it to me when I was five.” My voice grew slightly irritated as I remembered him, but I quickly calmed down. “I…I’m from the Sun Country.”

“Are you sure this is what you remember?” Kakashi-sensei asked while gently resting his hand on my shoulder. It seemed like something about my story was troubling him. I nodded slowly, wondering what was wrong. He looked away for a moment, deep in thought. “It’s highly unlikely.”

“What, you think I’d lie about all this?” I growled, glaring at the jounin.

He shook his head and dropped his arm. “Riku, I don’t think you understand.” He looked up at me with a troubled look in his right eye. “The entire village was wiped out in one go. There shouldn't be any survivors at all.”

---

It took a day and a half to get back to the village, but the entire time my mind was focused the memories that I had finally regained. Thing is, after what Kakashi-sensei said, I wasn’t even sure if those were true. If everybody died, then what am I doing here? Did I miraculously survive, like the Uchiha did when his clan was massacred? If it were true, it meant all my friends and family were dead, assuming I had them during the war. At least I remembered something, I guess, but I wasn't sure if I was happy about it or not.

When we got back, the three genin were dismissed. The Hatake asked me to come with him while handed in the mission report. Security around those borders would be strengthened a bit, but I reassured them that the Hot Springs Country wasn’t that big of a threat and that the explosives were most likely just misplaced. Nevertheless, the Hokage didn’t want to take any chances, which I found reasonable.

“Is there a reason you brought Riku back with you, Kakashi?” The old man asked. I could tell he was getting a bit more serious, but he still kept his kind smile and composure. “She hasn’t been causing any trouble, has she?”

“Aside from the business with the shinobi mentioned in the mission report, there’s nothing.” The jounin answered while giving me a quick glance. “I'll let Riku tell her story.”

I explained everything to the Hokage, from the time I woke up, the five years of survival, then the memories I regained from the mission. I mentioned the Sun Country and everything I knew about the war. The Hokage was intrigued and shocked. There was a look of disbelief in his eyes and I could tell he was having a hard time believing me, but for what reason would I be lying? I came here in search for my memories and I got them, but now I’m being told that they’re highly unlikely. Almost damn near impossible, even. I guess it makes sense, but what other explanation could there be?

“It’s almost impossible that this is true…” The Hokage started while crossing his fingers before him, “but if it weren’t, there would be no other explanation for your memories. You must have been in the war if you remember so many details about it. You being a survivor is unlikely, but still a possibility, however small that possibility may be.”

“Then you believe me?” I asked with the slighted bit of hope in my eyes. The old man nodded and I sighed in relief. Perfect. Now I won’t look like I’m a lunatic. Kakashi-sensei and I were dismissed. The jounin disappeared in a puff of smoke again, but I turned around to ask a final question. “Why did they never restore the country or the village?”

Hokage-sama looked up and frowned just slightly. “The war ended because the Yonbi wiped out the entire warzone. It is said that it was sealed away, but nobody knows into what. The entire country has been left untouched in hopes that whatever it was sealed into is still there.”

I thanked him and went home to refresh myself a bit. As soon as I was washed up, I made my way towards the library once more to learn about this Yonbi and the war in Taiyou no Kuni. I could still hardly believe that I finally had a lead on my past, even if it was incredibly far-fetched. The Sun Country must be my homeland. Whether I came from Nareigakure or not, I’m not sure, but I had to have been from that country.

A single scroll was in my hands when I was done searching the library. It was the most reliable one I had seen related to the Yonbi, or better yet, the Bijuu. I opened it to see four pictures of them. I quickly realized that they were the same beasts I had seen in the Hokage’s palace on my first day there. I read about how they were spread across the countries so the power would be divided equally. “So the Kyuubi is in Konoha, eh?” I murmured to myself while reading on. I read about how they could be sealed into humans as well, rather than objects. It made me wonder if what the Yonbi was sealed into was a ‘who’ rather than a ‘what,’ but I decided that it was impossible because the last person standing sealed it away. If whoever sealed it was the last person, then it had to be an object.

“Pardon me; are you Riku-san?” A young woman popped out of nowhere, addressing me. I looked up with a confused expression and nodded. “Hokage-sama would like to see you.” Again? I thought with a slight furrow of my brows.

“What seems to be the problem?”

The woman smiled and shook her head. “There’s no problem. He has found a team for you to join and wishes to see you immediately so that you can meet them.”

“Ah, here she is.” The Hokage spoke with a smile as I entered his office. Before me was a bearded man with a cigarette, a blond girl, a rather chubby guy, and a chuunin with a ponytail. “Riku, I would like you to meet your new teammates. This is Sarutobi Asuma.”

“Nice to meet you.” He greeted kindly. I nodded back but couldn’t but wonder how he managed to keep his cigarette in his mouth when he spoke.

“I’m Akimichi Chouji. Say, do you like eating barbecue?” He asked while munching on a bag of potato chips. I heard about his clan before. They needed a lot of energy to be able to perform their secret technique, Baika no Jutsu, or so I've read.

I tilted my head to the side and shrugged. “I don’t have any dislike towards it. Sure, why not.” He grinned in return, not once stopping to eat his snack.

“Hey, I’m Yamanaka Ino! My family runs the Yamanaka Flower Shop near the market; you should check it out sometime.” I’ve heard of the Yamanaka Clan, too. They’re Shinranshin no Jutsu enabled the clansmen to take control of other people’s bodies and such. They were also a strong part of Konoha’s interrogation team, so I’ve heard from here and there.

Finally, the boy with the uninterested look in his eyes introduces himself after a yawn. “Mendokusai…I’m Nara Shikamaru, the one you’re replacing on this team.” Three clans on one team, and they worked well together. The Nara Clan’s Kekkei Genkai was Kageyose no Jutsu, the technique to possess the shadows of their victims so they could no longer move. I could see rather clearly why these three were put on a team.

I raised an eyebrow and turned to the Hokage, as well as the rest of the team. “Now you’ve lost me.”

“Shikamaru was the only genin to pass the Chuunin Exam earlier this year, so technically he is no longer a part of Team 10. Instead, you will be the third genin on this team.” The Hokage explained with a warm smile. I felt rather odd replacing a friend of theirs, so naturally, I spoke up about it.

“Are you sure about this?” I asked, just a bit hesitant about how the team would act towards me. I expected them to be rather hostile but they all showed great kindness and welcome to my arrival. I shrugged and just accepted this change. “But what about the balance in the team and such?”

“We’ve heard you’re a pretty good genjutsu user.” Shikamaru stated nonchalantly. “They would have the same or similar effects on the opponent as my jutsus. It’ll work out.”

The five of us were dismissed and Asuma-sensei brought us to the first training field. Shikamaru tagged along because he would give me pointers on how to work with Ino and Chouji. No effort was needed to learn that he’s a smart one. Lazy, but smart. Ino was rather hot-headed. In ways, she reminded me of Naruto, but she seemed to be the one that kept the team together, in a sort of menacing kind of way. She liked to have her way and the two males often didn’t complain, probably because it was ‘too troublesome,’ in Shikamaru’s words. Chouji is like this big friendly teddy bear. Although he’s large in size, he's gentle and kind – except when you call him fat. I was told that the word is taboo around him before I had the chance to make the mistake.

“You’re a quick learner,” Asuma-sensei commented while we took a break. “You get along with the team well, too.” My new two teammates, as well as the chuunin, responded with grins. They’re a happy bunch. I like that.

“I can’t thank you guys enough for taking me in.” I breathed while falling onto my back to look at the sky and catching my breath. The sun was starting to set, so there was a beautiful mix of purple, blue, orange, yellow, and red streaming across the sky. “After dealing with shinobi like the ones in the Hot Springs Village, I’m a little surprised from the kindness I’ve been given here. It’s sort of weird in a way, actually.”

There was some light laughter before the jounin rested his hand on my shoulder as I sat up. “You know, every shinobi in the village has the Will of Fire in them.” He started before letting his hand drop. “We all must love, believe, cherish, and fight for the village’s sake. It’s our belief that love is the key to peace. We’re all a part of this village, so we must look out for each other. We’re like one big family.”

“You’re a Konoha shinobi too now, so you’re part of our family.” Chouji added with his mouth full. I let out a relaxed sigh before falling down on my back again when Asuma-sensei released me.

I wasn’t sure what to think. After being alone all my life, so much warmth was thrown at my face. It was all just so weird suddenly feeling…loved, in a family-companion sort of way, not that it was a bad thing. Still, I think I'll need to get used to this kind of relationship.

---

It’s been three months since I joined Team 10 and I discovered that it was rather easy to get along with them. I noticed that Ino seemed to have some sort of rivalry against Sakura when we encountered Team 7 once. I didn’t really listen but heard something along the lines of “Sasuke’s mine!” Apparently he was rather popular amongst the girls, and I could see why. I admit that he's rather handsome, but I was never familiar with the concept of intimate relationships, or anything remotely romantic.

On the topic of my joining of Team 10, Naruto was incredibly bummed that I joined another team. Sakura voiced her disappointment as well, but I was congratulated for finding a team nevertheless. We all understood why things went as they did, anyway.

After going on several more D-Ranked missions and training sessions, I had mastered several formations with the two other genin. Shikamaru joined us several times when he wasn’t busy with his own work. I’d say I’m rather good comrades with him, as well. Finally, after weeks of getting to know my team and such, my first C-Ranked mission with them is an escorting mission. Our job is to bring this merchant back to the Land of Iron, so I’m somewhat excited to see some old acquaintances again.

“Don’t slack off too much, Shikamaru!” Ino called as we left. The lazy-ass sighed but smirked as he saw us off. From what I've seen during these past few months, he’s a really good friend to them, and perhaps to me as well.

“When we come back, let’s go eat barbecue!” Chouji added with a cheerful grin. With nothing else to shout at him, the chuunin turned to head back into the village while we started for the Land of Iron with our client, Shuuzouhin Ureru.

He was in his mid-thirties and had a rather large bag with him. I assumed he was fit and strong because he travelled a lot and carried several things on his back all the time. Nevertheless, he didn’t want to risk getting robbed on his way back home.

Tetsu no Kuni is a neutral land of samurai. They’re really strong, too, and the shinobi villages respect their neutrality, so nobody challenges their force. My favourite part about that land is the Three Wolves, which are the mountains that the land is formed by. The area is covered in snow, so we all had scarves, gloves, and thicker clothing to wear when we got to the snowy areas, which would be in about six days. Normally, it would take just three or four days if we ran.

“What kind of things do you sell?” Ino asked as the village gates went out of sight. “You seem to have a lot of cool stuff.”

Ureru seemed glad to tell us about his inventory and smiled as he spoke. “I sell all sorts of things, from common items to ancient artefacts, like this one.” The merchant pulled out a small item wrapped in rags. We kept walking but closed in a bit to see the item he was holding in his hands. As he unwrapped it, a small metal plaque was revealed. Imprinted on it seemed to be a bell of some sort. I think it’s a bell, anyway.

Asuma-sensei stood up straight again with a puzzled look in his eyes. “That symbol looks oddly…familiar.” He commented while looking up at the merchant. “Where did you get this from?”

“I found this myself five years ago.” Ureru started, seemingly glad that the Jounin asked about it. “After the war in Nareigakure, I scavenged the area and found this. It’s an original piece from the Shurikane Clan’s compound. This symbol here is their clan symbol.”

“What’s the Shurikane Clan?” The blond kunoichi asked, but I glanced to the side. I heard of them before. At least, I think I have. The name seemed familiar and so did the symbol, but I couldn't quite place it. I assumed I'd seen it while looking through the library as some point or another.

While our client put away his item, he gave us a minor history lesson. It seemed like he really knew his stuff. I suppose he had to if he wanted to sell his items properly. “The shinobi of the Shurikane Clan were capable of performing amazing genjutsu. Those who awakened the kekkei genkai, the Youkugan; their power was even more extraordinary. I find that it's such a tragedy that the entire clan was destroyed during the war.” He murmured at the end with a sigh and a shake of his head. “I'm so fortunate to have such an item in my possession, ahaha!”

---

Everybody’s noses were red by the time we arrived in the village. Although none of us really felt that cold, it affected us physically. Runny noses and rosy cheeks were small side effects of the weather, but it was no big deal. Ureru gave several thanks and invited us to stay for the night. It was almost midnight when we arrived, so Asuma-sensei reluctantly agreed. It was probably safer to accept this offer rather than camping outside in the snow. We had to restock on items, anyway.

The merchant first led us to his house and apologized for its size. Although he lived alone, he had an extra room in his house that we could use. “I’m sorry for the cramped space. I could always take you to a hotel and pay for your stay there, if you wish,” he has offered but we denied the offer. As soon as we dropped off our things, we started for the general’s manor.

“Ah. Welcome back, Ureru-san.” The general, Mifune-sama, greeted with a kind yet strict look. He’s a humble man; calm and level-headed. I respected him quite a bit. “I trust that these shinobi brought you back without a hitch?”

“Of course, Mifune-sama. I hope you don’t mind that I’m letting them stay at my house. I realize that I should have asked you first, but I assumed it wouldn’t be a problem.

“No need to worry, Ureru-san. It will not be a problem, especially since we have an old friend of ours here as well.” Mifune-sama added with a smile directed towards me.

My team looked towards me with confused looks but I just shrugged and smirked ever so slightly. “It's good to see that you're doing well.” It was immediate when Ino nearly shouted how I knew the general of the Land of Iron. “I just helped them fight off a few rogues, but they would've handled the situation easily without my help anyway.”

Mifune let out a hearty laugh and shook his head. “Don’t be so modest, Riku-san. Every ounce of manpower helps in a battle. Feel free to stay as long as you wish.” I looked back at my team with a sheepish look and shrugged. They seemed either confused or slightly impressed with my connections but hey, who was complaining.

The next morning, we started for the market the moment we were ready. When we were ready to leave, it was around noon. Ureru-san and Mifune-sama saw us off at the gates. After a few short goodbyes, we jumped off to begin running back. It was about five hours later when we stopped to rest for a bit. As we passed around the soldier pills, the ground suddenly shook and we jumped onto our feet.

“What’s going on?” Chouji asked while readying himself for anything. “Is it an earthquake?”

The ground began to shake more violently and crack beneath our feet. We stepped back into a circle, all of us facing outwards with weapons drawn. “Doton; Chiyouheishu no Jutsu!” It was in a matter of seconds when five rogues circled us, each one with a different weapon.

I didn’t have to think much to know that I knew these guys. “This mission is just full of reunions, isn’t it?” I sighed while glaring at the large shinobi with a black katana. Asuma-sensei asked if I knew these guys and I nodded. “These guys are some of the rogues who tried to attack the Land of Iron when I was there. I suppose I’m not very friendly with them.”

“Looks like we meet again, kid.” The leader of the bunch smirked, pointing his black katana at me. His name is Kedamono Shinrin, and was once a master swordsman of Tetsu no Kuni. He attacked the land because Mifune-sama banished the guy for dishonoring the samurai code. I think he abandoned a comrade or something, but learning those details wasn't as important as helping them defend the land. He's a pretty heartless guy, but somehow managed to round up so many underlings to fight for him anyway. I guess people with the same sort of asshole-ish personality stick to each other. “Seems like you’ve joined a village. Too bad for your teammates; they’re going to have to go down with you!”

“Alright, I’ll bite; why do you need to pick on me specifically?" I asked while narrowing my eyes.

"That arrogant little air about you is enough to make me want to kill you. Helping out those samurai like you could even compare against us; it pisses me off! Isn't that enough?" He growled back while pointing his katana at me. See? Asshole.

Before I could ask how he got 'arrogant' from my rather neutral expression, the bandits lunged in to attack. Right as the enemy began to move, the four of us put our ninjutsu to action. I first replaced my body with a snowy log as I hid to prepare a genjutsu to stall them. Chouji was already using his kekkei genkai to separate the bandits from each other by rolling into them and having them dodge his attacks. Ino and Asuma-sensei were using taijutsu to fight against the bandits. I assumed Ino wasn’t using her kekkei genkai because with the crowd, it would be far too risky to leave her unconscious body lying around after she took over somebody else.

After a few moments of concentration, I was ready to perform my genjutsu and made the hand seals. I breathed out slowly while letting my chakra mix in with the enemy’s chakra flow. “Oni Akuryoku.” Blurry images appeared in the battle field. The figures I created were shadowy and their proportions were contorted. The bandits seemed rather frightened from the figures I had created, as did my teammates, but they caught on quickly that it was my doing when the figures began to grab onto the bandits to hold them in place.

“We won’t fall for the same trick twice, you little brat!” Shinrin shouted angrily while dispelling the genjutsu a lot sooner than I thought he would. He ran towards me with his weapons drawn as I whipped out a kunai in each hand in defense. “I’ll take you out first and end those annoying genjutsu of yours!”

“Bring it on.” I growled while pushing against his katana when he swung it at me. He sliced the other one at my side but I jumped up and pushed off him just in time to dodge his attacks. I jumped back to get myself away from the bastard and hit a tree. He smirked and jabbed his weapon towards me but only sliced my shoulder, as I managed to spin away just in time to avoid being stabbed. I winced and threw my kunai knives at him for a quick distraction as I climbed up the tree and shook snow down to impair his vision a bit.

It only bought me a few seconds of time, since I'm only a genin and he's an incredibly skilled swordsman. With ease, he located me the moment my feet touched the ground and slashed at my heels. Thankfully, I managed to jump to the side and avoid getting any tendons sliced, but I still felt a shallow cut stinging my left calf.

After tumbling, I fell straight into the snow and struggled to get up. Shinrin was already getting ready to stab me once more, but I bought myself just enough time to get onto my feet by throwing my arms up, which brought snow into his face once more. I could feel my hands going numb from the cold but ignored it while I prepared myself again. It'll be harder to form hand signs, but I figured I would managed somehow.

Left, right, above, right, block, push. His movements were so fast that I could barely keep up. The bandit managed to slice me here and there as he pushed me back towards the other bandits and my teammates. I growled and charged back with my weapons in hand, pushing against his katana. I slipped to the side and let him fall forward a bit before landing a lucky shot into his gut. “Don’t take me for a fool!” I growled while trying to kick him again, but he grabbed my ankle with his left arm and prepared to slice with his katana.

“She’s not your only opponent!” Another voice shouted. My eyes widened when I saw Shinrin get knocked to the side. Asuma-sensei stood in his place before giving me a reassuring look, but turned his attention back to the rogue just as quickly. "I don't appreciate attempted murder on my students."

"I assure you that next time it won't just be an attempt...!" The rogue growled while getting onto his feet. I prepared myself for another round of fending him off - there was no way I could take him down as it is, but at least I could hold out against him, barely - but that confident smirk of his threw me off.

Before I knew it, somebody had grabbed my arms and pinned them behind me. I growled and saw another bandit holding me in place. Damn subordinates. They were just so easy to forget about sometimes.

“Let her go!” Ino shouted while charging towards the bandit with a kunai. It was quite a sight to see, what with the blond charging towards me and Chouji backing her up with enormous hands. As the bandit leaned away to dodge Ino, I took advantage of the slight loosening of his grip and twisted my arms free. Although I managed to get myself free, a cry of pain came shortly after as Ino received a long gash across her arm from her struggles.

"Ino--!" I started, but soon found myself having push Chouji back onto his feet before he toppled over. It was no secret that he was also beaten and worn out. "Chouji, are you okay?" I asked hastily while standing back to back with him.

"We may be genin, but to us, this is nothing...!" My teammate responded while catching his breath, but managed to smile as he said so. Out of the corner my eye, I saw that Ino was struggling against the rogue, and her wounded arm wasn't making things any easier. Chouji had taken on another rogue, but he was reaching his limit as well. Asuma-sensei forced Shinrin to stay put so that he wouldn't charge towards me, but there was another rogue breathing down his neck as well. I was now dealing with the last rogue, but it was clear that we couldn't keep this up for much longer.

As I pushed against the rogue's blades with a kunai, a sharp scream pierced my ears and I saw Ino collapse onto her knees. Before I could even react, another cry of pain came afterwards as Chouji was wounded and knocked down as well. Finally, an irritated roar came from Shinrin as he began to try and force himself past Asuma-sensei.

"Don't get in my way!" He growled while nearly breaking past the jounin. There was little time left, so I knew I had to at least try and make things easier. In a blink of an eye, I ducked down and removed my kunai so that my head wouldn't be sliced off before head butting the rogue right in the stomach. With the few seconds I had, I quickly made several hand signs before casting a genjutsu that would immobilize the rogues, hopefully long enough for us to recollect ourselves. “Senju!” As my chakra flower throughout the clearing, several shadowy hands rose from the ground to grab onto the rogues.

As my genjutsu came into effect, my teammates pushed themselves onto their feet and savored the time to catch their breaths. However, Shinrin broke free of the genjutsu in a matter of seconds, which caught Asuma-sensei off guard. "Your head is mine!" He growled while breaking past the jounin and straight towards me.

I narrowed my eyes He blocked them all with ease and charged towards me, sending me back into a tree once again. I winced from the impact and coughed a bit while trying to push the bastard off. The hands were still trying to slow him down but I knew I needed a stronger genjutsu for him. As I prepared myself to cast a new illusion, he smirked and suddenly spun around, pinning me to the tree by stabbing a kunai into my right shoulder and left thigh. I cried out in pain and watched as he drew his katana, ready to finish me off.

“You’re finished!”

“Riku, no!”

I don't want to die.

I saw the dark blade glistening in the sunlight, ready to take my life.

I've only just started figuring things out...!

His smirk only widened, full of bloodlust.

I need to survive!

Adrenaline rushed through me as he drove his katana towards me. Time seemed to slow down and I felt my breath hitch, but I knew I couldn't let myself die so easily. As terrifying as this was, it was also rather... exhilarating, but that may only be due to the adrenaline. Something feels...off. I found myself realizing as the blade grew closer by the second, but I was soon snapped back to reality where time went back to its regular pace.

Before he struck, I crossed my arms in front of me and let the weapons stab my forearms. I cried out in pain once more, but as long as I could still make hand signs, it didn't matter. I swung my arms to the side, causing the weapon to stretch the wound as they fell out. I breathed heavily while forming another series of hand seals. Before Shinrin could strike again, my genjutsu into action and threw my hands up. Anger came over me as I shoved him away, and the adrenaline numbed the pain that was erupting from my new wounds. “Get away from me!” I shouted as a rain of needles shot down at Shinrin.

Although they weren’t real needles, the pain felt real to him and he groaned from several senbon needles piercing his skin. “Hari no Ichiu.” I gasped for air and removed the two kunai knives lodged into my body, causing more blood to escape. Still high my adrenaline rush, I didn't stop there. No, it was more like I couldn't stop.

“You really shouldn't have hurt my comrades." I growled while beginning to form the hand seals of another genjutsu. "I'll make you experience their pain by tenfold!"

However, before I could finish, the sharp pains from my wounds suddenly returned and my legs grew weak. "What the--" Instead of finishing them off, my genjutsu was dispelled and I fell to my knees. The rush was gone and the aftermath felt terrible, but my heart continued to race and it felt like everything around me was pulsing to its beating.

The rogues got ready to fight against us once more, but stopped when Shinrin steadily got onto his feet. "Tch...We're retreating." He snarled while throwing something to the ground. My eyes widened when I saw that it was the needles I had created with my genjutsu.

"But--" One of the rogues started, but was silenced with a single glare from Shinrin.
"We're in no condition to fight. Retreat." He spoke again, this time in a much more demanding tone. Rather hesitantly, the rogues departed. Shinrin readied himself to retreat as well, but glanced back as us with an enraged glare. "You won't get off so easily next time."
With that, he left.

A few moments of silence passed before it fell like all of us let out the breath we had been holding in. I tried to get back onto my feet, but my knees were shaky and Asuma-sensei had to steady me before I fell over. "Damn it all..." I sighed while giving an apologetic look towards my sensei. He smiled back and was ready to reply with something, but stopped as his eyes narrowed. "Is there something wrong?"
As Ino and Chouji approached me, I glanced over and saw that they had similar expressions as well. "Your eyes..." Ino started, lips slightly parted in shock. I tilted my head to the side in confusion. “They’re…different.”

I blinked in confusion, having no idea what she was talking about. “What do you mean by ‘different?’” I asked while glancing away, not really liking this attention. It was then when I saw the needles Shinrin had left behind as well. Those...I already dispelled the genjutsu, so are they still there? I thought, but just as I thought that, the needles flickered away like a genjutsu would.

Asuma-sensei approached me and gently turned my head to him so he could take a look at my eyes. His eyes suddenly widened in surprise. “Impossible…” He whispered in shock. “These eyes…it’s the Youkugan.”

“What?!” Us genin shouted in unison, but I’m pretty sure I was the most surprised and confused. This makes no sense, I thought while pinching the bridge of my nose in thought. If I had the Youkugan activated...

“Riku, I think...” The jounin started before giving me a serious look. “…I think you’re a Shurikane.”

Since we all got injured to a certain degree, we started to head back to Tetsu no Kuni so we could recover a bit before departing again. My eyes returned to normal after Asuma-sensei claimed that I must be a Shurikane, though that didn't quite mean my mental state was back to normal as well. I didn’t know what to think, and neither did my team. It was silent the entire time we ran back to Tetsu no Kuni, but my mind was as noisy as ever. These discoveries are coming one after another, and although I'm getting some questions answered, it all seems a little far-fetched. I didn't have much time to ponder anything else though, since it wasn't long before we arrived at the entrance once more.

Almost immediately, we encountered a familiar face upon entering. Ureru-san seemed to have been running some daily errands as we started for the hospital, since he was just loading a few items into a small wagon of his before he dropped whatever it was in his hand and rushed over to us. "What in the world happened to you all?! You've only just left, too!" Worry was written all over his face, but my sensei reassured him that we got caught up in an unplanned conflict.

"Ah, but would you mind showing my students to the hospital? I'd like to inform Mifune-sama about what happened." He added with a meek smile.

"But Sensei, you could use a little healing, too." Chouji stated with a slight furrow of his brows. While it was true he could probably handle the beatings more than we could, it wasn't like he got off scot-free.

Asuma-sensei responded with a toothy grin and placed his hand on the genin's head reassuringly. "Don't worry about me. I'll drop by as soon as I'm done. Would that be alright with you, Ureru-san?"

The merchant nodded his head furiously, his eyes still full of worry. "Of course, of course! It's not too far off, and I'm sure Mifune-sama would really like to hear about this. The three of you, please follow me."

Our sensei waved us off as we followed Ureru-san towards the hospital. The short trip was silent, other than the sound of his wagon being pulled along and our feet crunching the snow. Concern seemed to the only expression the merchant could manage under the situation, but it wasn't long before we reached the hospital and a faint smile appeared.

"I'll ask for a nurse immediately." The merchant informed us before heading over towards the front desk.

The moment he was out of earshot, Ino immediately spoke up. "Are you sure you're okay, Riku?" She asked, turning to me with concern in her eyes. "That crazy guy was after you, right?"

Chouji was silently asking the same questions as well, and I responded to both of them with a reassuring nod. "I'm fine. Maybe a little tired, and plenty confused, but I'm not missing an arm or anything."

"O...Okay, but don't be afraid to tell us if anything's wrong, okay?" The blond pressed again, now firmly gripping my shoulders. "It's just-- ...I don't wanna see anybody else trying to deal with all these problems on their own, got it?" This time, her eyes were more fierce. My eyes widened a bit from her slight aggression, but I nodded back nonetheless.

"Y-Yeah, I'll be sure to do that." I answered while momentarily startled, though she released me soon after with a relieved grin. Still, what she said had me a little confused. Anybody else? Does that mean something similar has happened before?

Before I could ask, Ino sheepishly announced that she had to go to the washroom. Within seconds, she was around the corner and out of sight. I glanced back at Chouji, who seemed surprisingly deep in thought as well.

He should know what that was all about. I thought before grabbing my other teammate's attention. "Hey, Chouji." I started, waiting until he was looking over before continuing. "Who was Ino talking about just now?"

"Mm..." His squinted eyes were squinted even more as he brows furrowed before a light bulb seemed to appear above his head. "Oh! She was probably thinking about Sasuke."

"Please don't tell me I remind you all of him." I immediately responded with a slightly unimpressed gaze. It wasn't that I had anything particularly against the Uchiha; it was mostly because he seemed to be incredibly irritable, and I really hope I don't have as many buttons to press as he does.

However, Chouji grinned back in response and gave me a look that told me that I wasn't quite right. "You're a lot nicer than him, so definitely not." Ah, that's a relief. "Last year, during the Chuunin Exams, something happened to Sasuke that got his team all worried and stuff. Then this scary man named Orochimaru got involved and turns out he was going after Sasuke, so I guess Shinrin going after you reminded Ino of that incident."

I furrowed my brows, silently wondering what exactly happened during those Chuunin Exams, but decided not to press into it. If Chouji didn't know that many details about it, then it probably meant it definitely wasn't my business.

"...I see." I eventually answered while staring at the ground before me. A moment of silence passed before I opened my mouth to speak again, but Ino was already jogging back, limping a bit as she did so. I turned my attention to the kunoichi before smirking a bit and gestured towards her bad leg. "If anybody should be taking care of themselves, it's you."

"Oh, this is nothing." She responded with a confident grin. "The Rookie 9 of Konoha has pulled our way through all sorts of things, after all." As she spoke, she flashed a toothy smile and winked, almost as if to confirm the statement.

Chouji was grinning as well by now, and I responded with a faint smirk of my own. "Maa, it sure seems like it." I murmured while scratching the back of my head. The atmosphere became much lighter after Ino's proud claim and a comfortable silence fell over us as we waited for Ureru-san's return.

As I sat in silence, I found myself starting absently at my feet while thinking back on what Ino said, as well as what Chouji had briefly explained to me. I didn't know much about the past events of Konoha, but I was certain that the genin have all been through a number of hardships before my arrival.

What they were exactly is something I may never know, but I figured they'd be sick of the turn of events they've been a part of. The more I thought about it, the more I wondered how they weren't fed up with everything. Then again, I suppose that's what they signed up for once they began genin. Still, for whatever the reason, I found myself feeling a little warm inside. Is this was being grateful feels like? I thought with a faint smirk hidden beneath my mask.

I decided to act upon my instincts and sat up straight before glancing over towards my teammates. "...Thanks." I murmured, receiving two slightly puzzled glances in return. Before they could question anything, Ureru-san had returned with a nurse by his side.

---

After being properly healed and supplied with gauze and bandages, we were ready to depart Tetsu no Kuni once again. Ureru-san cautioned us many times to be careful, to which Asuma-sensei responded with something along the lines of "Your samurai may be tough, but you shouldn't underestimate us shinobi, either" which would be followed by a hearty laugh. Eventually, Ureru-san was convinced that we'd be alright, and we high-tailed out of there before his worry would strike him once again.

The few days of travel needed to get back to Konoha passed by with no further interruptions, which was much appreciated. I was also getting the hang of activating and deactivating the Youkugan at will, but refrained from using its power, since none of us were quite sure how it worked. The last thing we needed was to draw any other shinobi or rogues that may be in the area towards us. Finally, the village gates came into view, and our sense of keeping our guards up gradually washed away as we walked up to it.

"Haa, the warm sun beats that snowy place any time." Ino sighed while hugging herself.

"Don't get too comfortable yet. We still need to hand in our report, after all." Asuma-sensei pointed out, laughing as Ino huffed and silently protested. I guess this would be an appropriate time to use the phrase "So close, yet so far."

Upon arriving in the Hokage's office, Asuma-sensei explained the events that occurred during the mission, though he didn’t mention the Youkugan get. Hokage-sama got a bit concerned with the news about the rogues and the damage they managed to inflict on us, though I told him that while they may have had strength in numbers, Shinrin is the only one we should be really concerned about.

Finally, the jounin pulled me forward. “I believe Riku has something to share with you,” he informed the Hokage.

I looked up at the jounin, who gave me a reassuring smile, before turning back to the Kage, who seemed curious as to what I was going to say. “Well, err…during this mission, we sort of discovered that…” I started and rubbed the back of my neck while glancing away a bit. “Uhh…this.” I murmured and closed my eyes. I still wasn't quite used to activating and deactivating the Youkugan, but I'd been working on it during our trip back to Konoha. When I looked back up at the Hokage, his eyes widened a bit when he saw my changed eyes, but his expression held more curiosity than shock.

“...That's quite an interesting discovery.” He murmured while taking his eyes away from my own. "Though I guess it's not...all-too surprising. You're a rather peculiar young girl, after all." He stated with a faint smile. I'll admit that his reaction was a lot more accepting than I thought it'd be, but it's probably a lot better that way.

My eyes returned to normal as I shrugged. “I guess you're right about that." I agreed with a faint smirk. My team seemed to grin in response, agreeing with the statement as well. This is a little much, though, and it almost feels like some more weight has been put on my shoulders. That's the weird part.

I would've thought that now that I'm learning more about myself, the more relieved I'd be. However, the more I'm discovering, the more responsibilities are being thrown onto me. Maybe it's because I'm not really supposed to be alive. The entire village was destroyed, after all, so why am I here? Why, of all people, did that little seven-year-old girl survive such a disastrous outcome?

I’ve never been so confused about anything in my life, not even when I was learning the difference between a swindler and a merchant. If anything, there may be a small, tiny part of me that wishes I hadn't learned anything about myself at all.

**This chapter contains some light gore.**

A month of training and research about the Youkugan is what it took for me to fully comprehend its uses, though it definitely would've taken much longer if it weren't for my teammates and sensei. Using the eye itself has become pretty natural over the past few weeks, though getting used to its limits and my own abilities with the eyes is still in the works.

The first thing about the Youkugan is that the creations that are made with it fall under a separate category called shinjutsu, which means something along the lines of "the art of reality." This, I learned from an old scroll that Hokage-sama kindly dug up for me. I assumed he got such a thing from the wasteland of Nareigakure, though it only described the eye and said nothing about its secrets. Though I guess it doesn't really matter if there were secrets in the scroll to begin with, since the point of my training was, in a sense, to uncover the secrets of this eye.

The most obvious thing about the Youkugan was how it made my genjutsu a reality. When I create something via shinjutsu, some of the triangles will disappear from my eye and appear on the object that I make. I've assumed that the transfer of the mark acts like a seal or a bond in order to keep the creation intact. The sensation of creating things with the Youkugan is something that's learned through experience, but the best I can explain it as is that it's like holding several objects together with phantom limbs. Although I'm not physically holding onto my creations so that they stay as a form of matter, it feels although I have a sixth sense keeping tabs on these creations. As such, this means I'm consciously aware of what I'm doing with my creations. So, like genjutsu, they don't have a conscious mind. I'm the one manipulating the objects at my will, so the more creations I make, the more I need to focus. However, I'm sure it'll become much easier as I get more used to this kekkei genkai.

Naturally, the fact that the patterns from my eye disappear as I create things limits the amount of objects I can make. Size also matters. For example, a rock the size of my head "costs" one triangle, whereas a rock as big as me will require four triangles to hold together. The marking may not be entirely distinguishable but it's always there, so if what I make is something as small as a senbon needle, a black section will form somewhere on the needle, as if the triangle has wrapped itself around it.

Finally, the properties of shinjutsu are similar to genjutsu. As mentioned before, I need to control the movement of my creations consciously. If I lose focus, my shinjutsu will falter and flicker aware like a genjutsu would. However, while genjutsu leaves the sensation of being injured, shinjutsu will actually leave wounds on the victim, even after the shinjutsu was cancelled. To counter a shinjutsu, it depends on what I created. Whatever I make acts like the real deal, so if I made a fire, my opponent would have to put it out with water. They can't readjust their chakra like they would to get themselves out of a genjutsu, which is what I find to be the greatest part of this kekkei genkai.

"Damn it, Riku! Get those creepy things away from me!" Ino shouted while jumping away from the two shadowy figures that were inching towards her. In the middle of each one's head, where a nose might usually be, was the pointed circle.

"All they want is a hug." I responded with a faint smirk while making the figures reach their arms out in front of them. "Don't tell me you're scared."

With a small yelp, the kunoichi pushed Chouji towards the figures so she could get away. As a result, the make fell into the figures, though I had them push him back onto his feet before cancelling the shinjutsu.

"W-Who wouldn't be a little freaked out by those creepy things?! Geez, they're worse than Shikamaru's Kage-Kubishibari no Jutsu." She muttered while crossing her arms over her chest with a huff.

"That's enough, you three." Asuma-sensei spoke out with an amused grin. "You guys did well today, and you've improved quite a bit with your Youkugan, Riku." He noted with a satisfied nod towards me. "Why don't you guys take the rest of the day off? The Souzou Festival is coming up, so--"

Before the jounin could finish, Ino gasped loudly and clasped her hands together as she smiled brightly. "The Souzou Festival!" She repeated, now wearing a grin amusingly similar to Naruto's. Before I could even ask what that was, she was already going on about it like it was the reason of her existence. "It's an annual event, and maybe the biggest event in Konoha, too! It celebrates the founding of our village, so we pay our respects to the first Hokage such. We all wear a yukata and there’s hundreds of stalls with games where you can win prizes or buy adorable little trinkets—“

"And food, too!” Chouji interjected happily. To my surprise, Ino didn’t seem annoyed by his mention of food. In fact, she nodded excitedly with a grin and went on about what sort of snacks they have, like kebabs, dango, small rice patties, and all that good stuff.

"We'll be sure to show you everything there is to see when the festival comes around." The jounin added with a laugh while lighting another cigarette. "Well, I have some business to attend to. Don't overwhelm Riku too much, got it?" With an exchanged of goodbyes, our sensei was gone.

Despite being in several villages, I’ve never been there for a festival. Ino seemed to be caught in her own fantasies and such while Chouji drooled over the thought of the food, I suppose, but I wasn’t all-too pumped up about it. Maybe it’s because I don’t know what festivals are like, so I don’t know how excited I should be. Or maybe I’m supposed to be excited because it’s something new that’s supposed to be fun, though it doesn't change the fact that I'm rather...indifferent towards it.

Ino seemed to notice my lack of reaction and immediately questioned about it when she snapped out of hey daydream. “It’s nothing. I’m just not very fond of wearing a yukata or anything.” I answered with a shrug and earned a rather dramatic gasp. “…Is there something wrong?”

“Oh, but we can make you look so pretty!” She nearly cooed while grabbing my hands and holding them up below her chin. There was an incredibly hopeful look in her eyes that I wasn’t sure how to respond to. “I can put your hair in a really cute bun and we can decorate it with really pretty hair accessories-- oh, I can already see it now! Let’s bring the other girls, too. We can all pick out a yukata for you! It’ll be a girl’s night out!”

“I, uh...it's alright. I can find a yukata myself. I wouldn't want to cut into your own preparation time, after all.” I managed to say while trying to resist the urge to pull away. Dressing up or looking nice was never really anything that I've want to do. Though I'm pretty neutral about wearing a yukata - as unfitting as I find it to be - I liked to steer away from any "pretty hair accessories" or, let's say, make-up. I find that I'm rather unsuited for such things and as a shinobi, they shouldn't really be things I should be worrying about to begin with.

The disappointed look in my teammate's eyes almost made me want to say that I would gladly let her do whatever it was she wanted to do, but Ino seemed to understand where I was coming from and gave a faint smile. "I'll let you go this time, but I'll get you to change your mind some time or another." Huh. I suppose I'll need to practise differentiating an understanding look from a devious look. This should count as harassment.

---

After washing up and eater dinner, I decided to spend the rest of the evening finding more information in the library. It was only about seven, so I had a good number of hours to read. Although I didn’t have any specific questions I wanted answered anymore, I’ve taken a liking to the atmosphere there. It’s calm and relaxing, which makes it easy to sort through my thoughts. I pulled out another old book on Nareigakure and flipped through it until I came across a section on my clan. There weren't many scrolls or books regarding my country, village, or clan, but I guess Konoha got a hold of some common information, since the Fire and Sun country were on pretty good terms, so I've heard.

The first few paragraphs spoke of the Youkugan, and some of its common uses in battle, though I've already read and dissected this section down to every single character. The rest of the section spoke about the ancestry of the clan. This, I've only skimmed. As I went through the text, I came across the latest generation of the Shurikane Clan’s descendants. Before I could really absorb any of the text, however, I was interrupted.

“You seem to come by quite often, Riku.” A familiar voice called from behind. I glanced back to see Kakashi-sensei approach me with a couple of scrolls in his possession as well. “What brings you back here?”

“Nothing really,” I answered while staring blankly at the pages before me, but still didn’t exactly read any of the words. “And you?”

The jounin took a seat before me and set the scrolls down before answering. “Hokage-sama wanted me to bring him a few scrolls, but that can wait. Let’s chat for a bit.” He suggested with his usual kind smile, though I felt like he wouldn’t give me a choice in the matter. At least this wasn't starting to feel like an interrogation, or I may have come up with some ridiculous excuse to get out of there.

“How are you holding up with your new team? I hope you get along with them.” My reply was a simple nod. “My genin like to tell me that they miss having you around. If you have time, they’d love to have you join us for a training session or two.”

This time, I looked up with a faint smirk. “Even the Uchiha?” I asked with a doubtful look, earning a soft laugh from him.

“I’m sure he’d miss a decent sparring partner, though it would be nice if he could just simply get along with Naruto.” Kakashi-sensei answered with a slight shrug.

"I'm having a hard time deciding whether that was an insult to my skills are a shinobi or not." I murmured in response, which earned me a soft chuckle from the jounin. I got no clear answer and decided that he was just being difficult.

He seemed to just notice what I was reading and shifted his gaze back to me. His eyes were just slightly more serious than before, but there was no tension rising. “You know, we were rather shocked when we heard about your last mission out in Tetsu no Kuni.” He murmured while resting his chin in the palm of his hand. “I’m sure you were, too.”

“Discovering that you’re the descendant of a supposedly-extinct clan tends to shock oneself.” I answered nonchalantly while playing with the edge of the page. “It’s earned me a few stares and whispers when I walk around, though. Especially from other shinobi. I suppose it's lessened over time, but I'd rather it stopped completely. I guess this is what it's like to be Sasuke.”

Another faint laugh came from Kakashi-sensei, but didn't make any notable comment in return. “Are you learning about your clan’s history?” He asked, somewhat changing the topic while gesturing towards the book. I shrugged and stared down at the page, this time scanning through the page.

“I suppose so.” I murmured and paused when I came across a certain name. My gaze froze upon it as I read it over and over, wondering why it seemed so familiar. Well, I suppose it’s because it’s the name of the last Head of the clan, but there was something else about it that was so…nostalgic.

The jounin seemed to notice how I grew silent and asked if I was alright. I nearly jolted up as I was snapped out of my thoughts before shaking my head to clear them. “Shurikane...Misaki.” I murmured to myself while glancing back to Kakashi-sensei. I could've sworn his right eye widened just the tiniest bit in reaction to the name. I narrowed my eyes just slightly, wondering if it was just my imagination or if he had some sort of twitch. “I feel like I know her, aside from her being the Head and all.” I clarified before closing the book.

When I looked back at the jounin, he still seemed to be in his own little world. “Kakashi-sensei?” I called out, bringing him back to reality. He looked back at me with a distant look in his eyes before it was blinked away. Hesitantly, I asked, “Is there something wrong?”

“Hm? Maa...no, it’s nothing.” He answered with an odd smile, fumbled a bit when grabbing the scrolls he was supposed to take to the Hokage, and stood up in a way that seemed subtly unnatural. “If you have any concerns, feel free to come find me.” The jounin was gone in a heartbeat.

---

That night, I had another dream. It started off with several hazy images of a familiar house. No, it was more like a manor of some sort. There were a few voices around but I couldn't seem to hear them. I felt myself being lifted and set onto my feet. I realized that I had been crawling. I was a toddler until the scene changed and I was standing in the middle of a grassy field. Sitting next to me was a young woman, roughly into her mid-twenties or early thirties. She had dark brown hair that reached just past her shoulder blades. The light of the sun blinded me from seeing a portion of her face, the only thing visible being a warm smile.

Before I could move to see who the woman was, a sharp pain struck my chest. I looked down to see a kunai sticking out of it. I was older now and the bright scenery shattered, leaving me in an empty dark space. There was nothing around me until a figure began to appear before me. It was the woman from before, but her back was turned to me. I approached her slowly before realizing she seemed to be taking to a little girl. I could hear the woman’s voice, but her words were a mess. Both her voice and the little girl seemed familiar.

“Riku, you must promise me you will always stay strong.”

I stopped walking and found myself staring at the woman and the little girl. That little girl was…me? No wonder she seemed familiar. If that little girl was me, then did that mean...?

“Wha--...Mommy, where are you going?"

That woman is my mother? I stepped forward and tried to reach out for her. She gave the younger me a hug and stood up to leave, a regretful look in her eyes. I looked down at the younger me. She was on the verge of tears, but fought back while saying, “No...Mommy told me that I have to be strong. I can’t cry...!”

“Misaki-sama, you must hurry!” A distant voice called. My mother responded and disappeared into the darkness. Misaki... It didn’t take me long to put the pieces together. My mother was the Head of the Shurikane Clan.

When I looked back to where the younger me was supposed to be, I almost jumped back to find that she was replaced by a distorted figure. It was a dead body, with half its head blown off. I could see its bare teeth and its right eye hanging out, resting on the ground in a small pool of blood. The darkness around the corpse seemed to disappear, spreading across my field of vision. It was replaced by a terrain that’s been chewed up from battles. I was in the middle of the war once again.

I found myself wandering around the place, seeing faceless shinobi fighting against each other, though none paid any attention to me. Suddenly, I was almost knocked off the ground from what felt like an earthquake, but I heard the loud crashing sound from behind. As I turned around, a large shadow loomed over me. I looked up to see a large red, hairy beast. I was right under it, so I couldn’t tell what it was. I rushed out of its way and in front of it to see what it was. When I finally saw its face, I was once again in shock. It was the Yonbi.

The beast noticed me and looked down, its white pupils staring right at me. It seemed to hold much hatred in its eyes and raised its arm to smash me, probably, but I didn’t react. This is a dream, after all. "Seeing you in my dreams isn't exactly something I imagined, Yonbi." I commented nonchalantly, but was almost knocked off my feet from the bijuu's response.

"Don't call me by that wretched moniker!" It roared, looming over me in a manner that would definitely make me run for my life if this wasn't a dream. "I have a proper, honourable name, bestowed upon me by the Sage of Six Paths himself!"

Before I could utter a sound, the Yonbi was introducing itself - if this could even count as an introduction - in a rather prideful manner.

"I am ---! I am the ---! You address his holiness of all heavens, ---! Ho haa haa!" Its voice ripped across the battlefield and I had to steady myself as the ground shook from the sheer volume of his bellowing. Unfortunately, as most dreams tend to be hazy, I couldn't quite catch his name, or whatever else it was he was saying.

"I'm sorry, could you repeat that?" I asked in a slightly hesitant manner, though the Yonbi threw a bit of a fit anyway.

"Damn brat, use your ears! Stupid human, my name is ---! ---!" It roared while glowering at me. Although I still didn't catch his name, I decided to nod and refrain from asking once more.

As the echoes of its roaring died away, its eyes went back to staring right at me. The bijuu was now crouched down enough so that its nose was right above me. I wasn't even as tall as one of his elongated canines. "Hmph. So you ended up here, huh? I take it you're going to try and enslave me now, eh?!"

My brows were now furrowed in confusion. "Why would I try to do that?" I responded, causing the Yonbi to give me a curious look. "I can barely use ninjutsu. What makes you think I'm capable of controlling a bijuu?"

"You...You're sensible, for a human at least." It huffed while straightening up, though its intimidating eyes remained fixated on me. "If you're not here for my power, then what the hell are you here for?" It spoke with a growl in its voice, almost as if I was being threatened into a somewhat uncomfortable conversation of some sort.

"I--" I stopped myself immediately after uttering that one sound.

I was going to say that this wasn't by choice since this is a dream, and that everything around me, including the Yonbi, was just a product of my subconscious imagination, but that didn't seem like a good thing to say right now. Telling such a prideful being that they don't really exist, whether they be real or not, didn't seem like the greatest idea.

After clearing my throat, I gave it another shot. "Why are you destroying the village?" That seemed like a good start. I was pretty curious about that, anyway. I'm pretty sure my clan used the Yonbi to win the war, so why was it simply going on a rampage?

"Hrmph. Those selfish humans dare to enslave me, the Great ---! Fools, the lot of you stupid humans, enslaving me like this! Us intelligent apes should be the ones enslaving humans! Hoo haah!"

Although I knew why he was so angry, I didn’t fail to realize that the selfish humans he was talking about was my clan. I kindly informed him of this fact. His fit of raged died down and he lowered his glare to me. “Odd. You’re not quite like the rest of your clan, but you're still just as stupid, ignorant brat.”

I woke up after that.

For the past couple of days, the genin took turns decorating the village for the festival. Putting up stands and decorations that stretched across the buildings were just two of the several things we had to do. By the time we were done, it was just a bit passed noon on the day of the festival, so the Hokage let us take the afternoon off to rest and get ready for the festival. I tried to sneak away so I could go home to sleep but when I was a mere eight feet away, my body froze.

“Kage Mane no Jutsu; success.” I sighed and glared in front of me, being unable to turn around to direct it at Shikamaru. “Sorry for being troublesome, but Ino just won’t give me a rest. Just go with them and get it over with.”

“Are you serious?” I sighed again. Ino cheered and grabbed my wrist rather tightly so I couldn’t escape. Since the first day she mentioned the festival to me, the blond has wanted to take me for that girl’s night out thing. Shikamaru released the jutsu as Sakura and two other kunoichi I had met a few days ago; Hyuuga Hinata and Tenten, the older kunoichi I had met that one time with her crazy spandex-wearing sensei, approached me as well. “...Fine. But let me go.”

“Yes! Meet back here in an hour. Riku, if you ditch, I’ll send my entire clan after you.” Ino threatened with a victorious grin. For some reason, I couldn’t help but think she wasn’t kidding. I decided that it was about time to give in, anyway. It was much better than having her pester me about it every day. Plus, if I didn’t go, who knows how much longer she’s cry about it after the festival. I think I'm decently patient, but I know I have my limits.

I spent the hour washing up and changing into a new set of clothes. After washing my face and drying it, I tied my mask around my nose and mouth, grabbed my wallet and keys, and then left the house to meet the others. I still didn’t see why I had to buy a yukata with them. It wasn’t that hard to get one myself. Maybe this was one of those ‘team bonding’ things Kakashi-sensei used to always tell me when I was with Team 7. I guess I still have to get the hang of it.

Being the last to arrive, I was immediately dragged to a shop, since Ino didn't want to waste any more time. The shop was filled with a large assortment of hair accessories, earrings, and several rows where I could pick out a yukata. It literally took two minutes of being in the shop for me to have a dozen of them in my arms. I twitched at the sight and immediately dropped them. “If you’re going to drag me around, let me pick out my own yukata.” I almost growled, stepping over the pile of pink cloth. Ah, there's the limit.

Hinata and Tenten seemed saner than Sakura and Ino, however. Actually, Ino was the worst. Sakura just tried to convince me to try on what Ino had given me to wear but didn’t try to force me into a pink yukata like my teammate did. The Hyuuga was incredibly shy but mustered up courage to show me a black yukata with a few sakura blossoms crawling up the bottom of the yukata and its sleeves. “H-how about th-th-this o-one?” Although I wasn’t very fond anything too flowered, I thanked the shy kunoichi. I didn’t mind just having a simple black yukata, but this store seemed a bit too extravagant for just a solid color.

While the others looked for their own things – I think they were looking for accessories or something – I walked up and down the aisle, picking out any black or dark-coloured yukata I could find. I didn’t mind the ones that were a dark red or white either, though the white ones were usually littered with flowers or something and the dark red ones were either far too big or far too expensive. I sighed and turned to the right to walk down the next aisle. A black yukata seemingly misplaced in a row of green ones caught my eye.

“This will do.” I murmured while giving it a good look-over. It was plain with a simple red design. Nothing to special, yet still decently appealing, I guess.

“Riku!” Ino exclaimed and ran over to see the yukata I was holding. She gasped and began pushing me towards a change room. “It’s a little boring, but it suits you!” I decided not to think to deeply into that comment and went to try it on as Ino pushed me along.

I sighed as the curtain was thrown shut behind me. I stared at my unimpressed eyes in the mirror before giving in. I hadn’t planned on trying it on because it seemed fine to me, but since I was already there, I gave in and changed. Somewhat hesitantly, I slowly pulled the curtain to the side to see the other four kunoichi waiting. My teammate was rather impatient and pulled me out by the wrist and squealed.

“It even matches your hair!” She exclaimed while clapping her hands together. “Here, put this obi on.” Ino demanded while strapping it onto me. It was red with a black line going through it, matching the yukata. “Perfect!”

“R-Riku-chan, you l-look v-v-very...p-pretty...!” Hinata complimented with a soft smile. Sakura and Tenten nodded in agreement. It was very nice of them to say so, but I wasn’t sure how to take the comment. Now that I think about it, I don’t remember ever being called pretty. I thought with a slight smirk and sigh. They don’t know what I look like with my mask on all the time. Heh, what gives them the right to say something like that? What an odd bunch of kunoichi.

“You guys...” I sighed with a slight shake of my head. They seemed to listen rather intently to my words. “No, all you shinobi...Konoha's shinobi sure are weird.” A slight chuckle escaped my lips and surprised not only the four kunoichi, but myself.

I paused for a moment but was immediately jerked forward when Ino and Sakura attacked me from behind. “Do that again!” Sakura laughed with her arm around my shoulders. “You laughed, didn’t you? I’ve never heard you laugh before.”

My attempts to get out of their grip failed and it was only harder to move when Tenten joined in. “I knew this would be fun, even for you!” Ino announced with a satisfied grin. I rolled my eyes as the three released me. Although Hinata didn’t join the ‘attack,’ she laughed quietly at the scene with her hand covering her mouth rather timidly. Fun? I thought while glancing at the others.

“…Yeah.” I murmured mainly to myself, seeing as they were already back to browsing the store. “I suppose this is pretty fun.”

---

The village was beautiful at night. All the lights were turned on and decorated the buildings. Villagers were everywhere, eating kebabs or playing small games at the stands. I couldn’t find a single person who wasn’t enjoying themselves and smiling. The atmosphere put me in a relaxed, content mood.

In record time, my team found me wandering around the streets with no particular place to go. There was something about a meeting place, but I wasn’t paying attention and never found out where to go. Ino scolded me for not knowing where to meet up, but I ended up finding them, anyway. Shikamaru was there, too, and we greeted each other with a nod.

The first place we were off to was a barbecue restaurant, of course. Chouji insisted that we went there for the festival as our main meal and Asuma-sensei offered to pay. When we arrived, the Akimichi immediately began placing orders while Ino carefully chose dishes that had less fat in them, or something along those lines. She wanted to watch her figure. Asuma-sensei asked if I would like anything in particular. “Uhh...lamb, I suppose.” I answered, deciding that since he asked, I’d might as well order something. Shikamaru was sleeping as we ordered and when he woke up, he sighed, complaining about how he didn’t order anything.

“You can take some of my dish,” I offered, “I’m not very hungry, anyway.”

“Eh...it’s alright.”

Despite his subtle rejection, Asuma-sensei nearly forced some meat onto the lazy-ass’ plate. I smirked a bit as he complained about getting somebody else’s food, which then led me to reassure him about a dozen times that it was alright. As I reached out to take some slices of lamb, I realized the tension at our table seemed to rise. I looked up at the others and noticed that they all paused. I shrugged, not thinking much of it, and began to pull my mask down to eat.

The moment I did, the fire of our grill seemed to go berserk and black smoke didn’t let us see each other anymore. “What the--!” I heard Ino shout. I almost got hit from her flailing her arms about. Not being very affected by the sudden chaos, I continued to eat my lamb as an employee came over and quickly dealt with the situation. The moment I was pulling up my mask, the smoke cleared. For some reason, the others looked incredibly disappointed, but I just couldn't figure out know why. After all, the meat was still edible and Ino's yukata wasn't ruined.

I shrugged and set my chopsticks down. I didn’t plan on stuffing myself too much in the restaurant because I wanted to try the festival foods. There’s this sort of rice patty called a mochi that would be filled with red bean paste and such. I've only heard of it during my travels, but never got to try it before.

When we began to enter the heart of the festival, I noticed rather quickly that it shouldn’t be so hard to find mochi. There had to be over a thousand different choices of food and snacks to chose from, as well as several games and stands that sold souvenirs and trinkets.

“O—i!” A loud, obnoxious voice called. We turned around to see none other than Naruto running towards us with his team behind him. It looked like they were pretending that they didn’t know him. I chuckled a bit to myself when I noticed it. “Whoa, Riku looks great in a yukata!”

“Hey, what about me?!” Ino shouted, shaking a fist in his face. In a split second, however, she was all over the Uchiha. “How do you think I look, Sasuke-kun?” She cooed, throwing herself on her. I smirked to myself, but remained uninvolved as Sasuke tried to get away from an angry Sakura and Ino, who were now fighting over him.

“Troublesome women...” Shikamaru sighed. I could only nod in agreement.

“Have you been enjoying yourself, Kakashi-san?” Asuma-sensei asked with a hearty laugh while lighting a new cigarette.

The grey-haired jounin laughed meekly in response. “Maa...it’s been..interesting.” He answered while looking back at the chaos that seemed to appear so suddenly. He soon redirected his attention to me. “Are you having fun, Riku?” His one-eyed smile seems to be the thing that defines him, as it was present once again.

For some reason, the chaos over Sasuke seemed to end at those words and Sakura released Ino’s hair and the Uchiha’s arm. “Oh yeah, this is Riku’s first festival, right?”

“It is!” Naruto shouted, suddenly closing in on me and grinning widely. I quickly took a step back and nearly punched him away as a reflex. “Hey, hey! Let’s do what she wants to do for the night!”

“But I don’t—“ I started, but the others were already agreeing on this idea, one way or another. “I don’t have anything in mind.” I blurted out the moment they calmed down.

“Nonsense, there’s plenty to do tonight.” Asuma-sensei announced with his cigarette clenched between his teeth. “Just let them take you around; you can’t escape them once they get excited.” He added in a lower murmur. I sighed heavily. He was probably right.

They began by gracefully – and by that I mean chaotically – tugging me along from stall to stall, picking up snacks and showing me several popular items of Konoha, like a fan made of special preserved leaves. Although I didn’t buy anything, I’d be lying if I said that the festival wasn’t amusing. Yeah, maybe even fun.

It wasn’t long before Naruto was pointing out a fishing stall. There was a long box made of wood that was full of water. Inside were dozens of goldfish and on the stall counter there were several plastic hoops with a thin sheet of paper over it. Chouji explained to me that if I took too long trying to get a fish, the paper would get too wet and would tear. Despite not really wanting to try, Kakashi-sensei took my hand and slipped a net into it the others took one as well. I looked up at the masked jounin with slightly furrowed brows, but he simply urged me on with a gentle gesture towards the bin. With a sigh, I knelt before it to give it a go.

Naruto was the first to rip his net and he cried out despair when he did. I think he really wanted a goldfish. It was a few minutes later and only Shikamaru, Sasuke, and I still had our nets intact. I found it sort of amusing in its own way, seeing as we were the ones who were least interested in this game. Despite the fact, I kept my eye on the smallest goldfish in the wooden tank. Couching next to the tank, I brought my hand closer to the tank, somewhat following the fish with the hoop. With a swift motion, I slipped it in and pulled up underneath the fish, surprising myself when I felt the weight of it as I brought my hand up.

“Riku caught a fish!” Sakura exclaimed cheerily. The old man manning the stall congratulated me as he caught the fish in a small bowl of water when the paper finally tore. “Aww, it’s so cute!”

“No fair! I wanted to fish.” Naruto pouted while crossing his arms.

I smirked a bit and thanked the old man when he handed me the fish in a small plastic bag. Our time at the stall finished with Shikamaru getting a fish as well, but he gave it to Naruto, claiming that taking care of a fish would be too troublesome for him. I considered giving my fish to the blond idiot as well, but figured that I’d might as well keep something from the festival.

Our next stop was the Amenoukihashi River. I noticed that it was much quieter around this area. I spotted a few small boats made of leaves floating down the river, each with a straw doll inside, a piece of paper, and the kanji character for 'oku' painted on the boat.

“This is an old tradition in Konoha.” Ino started as we approached the river. “It’s a way for the villagers to send a message to those who've passed on. The straw dolls are supposed to be like the messengers.”

“You have to make everything yourself, too, so then whoever you’re sending the message to won’t think it’s something foreign.” Sakura added with an informative look. “They say that spirits can tell by traces of ourselves left on the boat and such if it was really us who sent the message or not.”

I noticed Kakashi-sensei at the small altar making one of them. He seemed rather experienced because it took about two minutes for him to be done. I didn’t want to question to whom he was sending it to, so I turned back to the small boats flowing down the river. There were also some lanterns floating along as well to light up the way, I assumed. It was a calming sight.

“Do you send one as well?” I asked in a hushed tone to the Uchiha, purely out of curiosity. He answered with a slight glare, but answered, nonetheless.

“This is just a superstition.” He nearly growled. I stopped the conversation at that, not really wanting to continue anyway.

I thought about sending one for my clan and village, but decided against it. It just felt odd because I still felt like strangers to them. My dream showed me that Misaki is my mother and though I believe the visions I had, I just still couldn’t feel any emotional bond. I know enough to lay the foundation of my identity, but what I actually experienced during my childhood is still unknown.

After Kakashi-sensei set his boat in the water, we left. I glanced back just a bit to see that there were three names written on the boat. I couldn’t read the names, however, but decided that I would probably be getting to nosy with his personal life if I were to see them and then have the urge to question him about it.

It was nearing midnight by now. As we neared the centre of the festival once more, the music grew louder and the crowd grew thicker. I could hear several hand-drums as well as woodwinds and string instruments here and there. The streets even had some performers, like dancers and jugglers to entertain the pedestrians.

“Can we get something to eat? I’m hungry.” Chouji announced while holding his belly. We wondered how he could possibly be hungry seeing as he got something to eat at nearly every food stand we passed by, but decided that it was a good time to get a snack, anyway.

“There’re so many to choose from...what should we get?” Sakura asked while looking around. I could smell the sauce used on takoyaki and the scent of barbecued meat was overwhelming. We continued to make our way down the stands, gradually eliminating some of the choices before us. Then, I noticed a rather quaint stand with trays filled with colourful rows of small buns.

I guess I subconsciously slowed down because Asuma-sensei was asking me if I was alright. Ino caught on to what I was eyeing rather quickly and a huge smile spread across her face. “Riku wants to eat mochi!” She announced and grabbed my wrist. I was a bit worried that I was used to being tugged around now. Clearly it’s something that happens a bit too much.

“Wha—no, it’s alright, I was just—” I spluttered and nearly tripped over my own foot. Oh, forget it. I couldn’t get away, and I did sort of want to try the mochi. I just didn’t want it to be such a bit deal or anything. Nevertheless, I began to scan the trays of confectionery. There were signs in front of them saying what was in the mochi. The more I read the list of flavours, the more it seemed like it was endless. Finally, I decided on four different flavours and got one of each. “I’ll take a red bean paste, green tea, ice cream, and soybean.” I ordered, pointing to each one as I did.

“Try them now!” Naruto urged when the lady behind the counter handed us our orders in small boxes. I had to lean back once again to stay at a comfortable distance from him.

“I think I can wait until I get home.” I answered while tucking the box into my sleeve. For some reason, some of them had that disappointed look in their eyes again.

The festive atmosphere returned and excited chatter spread across some of the genin. However, a sudden loud whistling pierced my ears and it was followed by a loud bang, scaring me half to death. I jumped and nearly prepared myself to counter an ambush or something while cautiously staring at the lights falling in the sky.

I soon noticed how villagers were looking up at the sky with delightful expressions and that my teammates were hardly fazed at all. Seeing as they didn't have their guards up, I lowered mine as well and looked up in awe. Finally, I asked rather stupidly, “Why isn't anybody else reacting to bombs in the sky?” Everybody just paused, stared at me, and gave me the most disbelieving look I have ever seen. “...What?”

“Riku,” Asuma-sensei asked cautiously while gently holding me by the shoulders, “...Have you ever seen a firework before?”

“Maa...I'm guessing it's something with fire that was...worked with.” I inferred, having no idea what they were getting at. Another round of surprised and shocked expressions occurred. I narrowed my eyes impatiently. “Stop that.”

“Fireworks, Riku!” Naruto shouted while throwing his arms into the air. “This thing goes into the air and it’s all ‘boom!’ and then these lights appear and it’s like a giant flower in the sky and it’s super awesome and cool and colourful!” He explained quickly while using incredibly large arm gestures to empathise everything.

I slowly shook my head, giving everybody a confused look. Something that explodes in the sky and sends things falling to the ground didn’t sound very safe. “You guys...that explosion just now must've been a bomb of some sort. I can't understand why nobody is in a panic.”

I just wasn’t grasping the concept of the fireworks because this time, Sakura tried to explain it to me after shaking away her disbelieving expression. “Riku, trust us on this. That explosion was a firework, and it's harmless.”

"...Alright." I spoke hesitantly, still doubting that something with the potential of being so dangerous could be harmless. "Just don't come running back to me when we're fighting off an ambush."

They all fell silent for a brief moment, though it was broken when Kakashi-sensei laughed nervously and rested his hand on my head. I formed a line with my lips ever-so-slightly from this action that made me feel rather insignificant. “Why don’t we just get a better view for Riku? Sounds like she’s never seem them before.”

All the excitement returned to the group, more or less, and Shikamaru brought us to a rooftop. There was a bench with a wooden roof above it for shade. Naruto asked how in the world he knew about this place and the chuunin explained how it’s his favourite spot to take a nap and watch the clouds, so it had a great view of the sky.

“They’re so loud.” I murmured when more of the fireworks exploded, lighting up the sky over and over. “Are you guys sure they aren’t weapons?”

“It’d be pretty troublesome if they were.” The lazy brunette answered while yawning. I suppose that made sense, but the concept of them still baffled me. Weapon or not, though, fireworks are sort of...pretty. I’ve almost never used that word to describe something before, so I wasn’t sure if it was appropriate. Whether or not it is, they're visually appealing nonetheless.

As the loud explosions lit up the sky one after another, I rested on my back and stared blankly at the sky. I wondered why I couldn't remember such a vibrant thing, yet that barren wasteland triggered so many memories. I sighed, wondering if I had even been to a festival during my childhood but have simply forgotten. That seemed to be plausible. I must have at some point or another. I don't even remember my time with my mother, let alone a festival or two.

I suppose my expression was become too solemn for the festive atmosphere because Ino was soon pulling at my cheek, which immediately made me wince and swat my hand at her. "What the hell was that for?" I snapped, though my tone remained generally calm.

The blond kunoichi smiled back before using her two index fingers to push my cheeks up so that my eyes were slightly squinted. "See? Now you're smiling." She laughed before removing her hands before I smacked them.

"...Don't do that." I finally muttered back while looking back up at the sky. Was that her way of cheering me up? I didn't really think I was in a slump to begin with, but I guess I subconsciously began to show it.

When I looked back at the plastic bag with my goldfish, I began to recall the events from the very beginning until this moment. A thought began to crawl its way to the surface of my thoughts as I remembered being placed on Team 10 or our encounter in Tetsu no Kuni. It was then when that thought began to take shape and I gradually came to realize something as I watched the sky light up with my new comrades.

I may have lost my previous memories, but that doesn't stop me from making new ones.

“It’s really time for them again?” Ino asked with a surprised yet somewhat exhausted look. Asuma-sensei nodded happily with three sheets of paper in his hands. “Man, I almost don’t wanna go because of what happened during the last Chuunin Exams.” She shuddered a bit, but took one of the forms anyway.

“Won’t it be easier now, since you’ve already done it once?” I asked, scanning the sheet. It asked for the usual stuff, like our name and birthday, date of graduation from the Academy, and all that good stuff. “I don’t see a problem in taking it again.”

“Maybe it’ll be a bit different this time, though.” Chouji pointing out, already halfway down the form. “I mean, there must be dozens of genin who retake the test. They can’t make it the same, can they?”

We all looked at each other and shrugged. Whatever it was, Asuma-sensei believed we were ready for it, or he wouldn’t be giving us the forms. “The Exams are two weeks from now, in Kumogakure. We leave in two days.” He mentioned before waving goodbye. “That’s all for today. Meet back tomorrow!”

Kumogakure, as in the village that declared war against mine? Swell. I suppose it shouldn't be a problem as long as I don't use my Youkugan recklessly. I pushed away the thought for now and went back to filling out the form. Once I was done, I slipped the pen into my pocket and looked at the others. “What happened during the last Chuunin Exams?” I questioned with a raised brow.

“So much.” Ino stated simply before huffing. “This creepy snake bastard that hurt Sasuke-kun attacked Konoha and tricked Suna into working with the Sound shinobi. Can you believe that? He tried to kill our Hokage!”

“What did that guy have against the Hokage?” I asked out of curiosity.

The two of them shrugged, so I let it slide. It was probably one of those things that the genin aren’t exactly supposed to know about. At least, nothing I really needed to know, anyway. We parted ways and I stayed in the training field to work on my genjutsu and taijutsu a bit, as well as some of the ninjutsu I’ve learned. I wondered if I would be okay in the Exams without any elemental ninjutsu but hey, I’ve got some decent genjutsu up my sleeve. I decided I’d be just fine.

I approached one of the training posts and let out a deep breath before sending a combo of strikes against it. After a series of punches and kicks, I slid around the post and jumped up, kicking it from the side, then from the other as I twisted my body in the air. I repeated the same pattern several times before flipping back and threw weapons at it until I was out. I got them back as I caught my breath, noting that my aim was getting much better and my hits were a lot stronger now.

It was when I started to practice some simple genjutsu that I sensed something in the trees. I glanced over but didn’t react just yet to see if something was really there or if I’m just going crazy. “Senju.” I opened my eyes, using the genjutsu on a passing butterfly and trapped it in the fist of one of the hands. I wasn’t using the Youkugan, so in reality, the butterfly was simply stuck in the air.

As I released the genjutsu, the presence from the trees became more noticeable. With a slight frown, I looked towards the area the presence was coming from and waited silently. Moments past and I got a little irritated, so I called out to the space. "Your presence is starting to annoy me." I spoke indifferently to show that I was bothered, but not necessarily angry at whoever it was. "If you're not going to show yourself, leave."

"A-Ano..."

For some reason a pang of guilt struck me when I heard that familiar timid voice.

"Oh, Hinata-san." I noted with a more welcoming expression. "Is there something wrong?"

Now poking out from behind the trees, I saw her face turn red as she poked her fingers together. "N-No...W-well, u-u-uhm..." As usual, she stuttered and refused to make eye contact. I waited patiently for her to form a sentence. "S-Since the Ch-Chuunin Exams are c-c-coming up, Ino-chan and S-Sakura-chan thought that w-we should r-relax a little bit in the hot s-springs..."

She now smiled gently at me, the rest of her body no longer hidden by the tree. I thought about the offer for a brief moment. I saw no reason to deny the offer, and it seemed like a good idea. Why not? "Alright." I answered, immediately seeing relief in her eyes. Am I that scary, or is this a natural reaction for Hinata-san? I told myself it was the latter, maybe to make myself feel a little better. "When did they want to go?"

"T-Tonight...after dinner, around e-eight."

"That's fine. I'll try not to be late." I responded while offering the faintest of smiles, though I wasn't quite sure if it was visible through my eyes. "Thanks for the invitation."

The timid Hyuuga left with a slight bow of her head. I still had time to kill so until then, I continued polishing off my genjutsu and later on worked on my taijutsu.

---

"So this is a hot springs, eh?" I murmured while approaching the building. The other kunoichi had already arrived and seemed excited to go. Having been in the Hot Springs country for a while, I at least knew how they worked. Perhaps surprisingly enough, however, I've never actually been in one before. "Looks relaxing."

"How in the world did you never bathe in one after spending an entire year in the Hot Springs country?" Sakura asked as we entered the building, still in a bit of disbelief.

I smirked a bit in response and shrugged. "I guess I was more concerned about stealing food rather than bathes. The rivers were fine, anyway."

There was a brief moment of silence before Tenten broke it with a sheepish laugh. "W-Well, it's never too late for a first time, aha!"

With that said, the five of us went into the women's bath and got ready to enter. I noticed that the others were throwing glances towards me every now and then, though I wasn't sure why. Since there were some other people in the bath as well, we were a little separated from each other and I found myself the furthest away from the others. A young woman stood in between me and the other kunoichi, so I assumed they were just making sure I was alright. With a shrug, I headed off to the bath, as I was the first one ready.

As I opened the door, a large cloud of steam rose into my face and I had to cover my face with the towel a bit so I could filter the moisture a little bit. It didn't last long though and I soon made my way in the bath as carefully as possible. Soon, the other kunoichi entered as well and immediately made their way over to where I was.

"A~h! This is the best way to relax before the Exams." Sakura-san sighed while sinking into the water. "But what the hell is with this steam?! I can't see your face at all, Riku!"

"Eh, just mine?" I asked with a slight tilt of my head. "I can't really see any of yours, either. Does this mean that there's something wrong with the bath?"

"Well, it's not normal, but there's nothing really wrong." Tenten-san commented, though I'm almost certain I heard her mutter something along the lines of something being unfair under her breath. I'm not quite sure what she meant by it though.

The five of us sat in the bath for several minutes while chatting about a variety of things. They would tell me about the types of genin they fought last year, such as Sabaku no Gaara and his siblings or the Sound shinobi. They also told me about the proctors, such as Morino Ibiki and Mitarashi Anko, who both sounded like interesting jounin as well. It seemed like we'd more or less be in the same boat since it's a new exam in another village, but I could at least expect the unexpected when it comes to these Exams.

After a few more minutes of sitting in the incredibly steamy water, we decided to get out before we got dizzy. Out of habit, the first thing I did when I reached my basket was to tie on my mask. As I glanced over my shoulder to locate the others, I furrowed my brows in confusion as they seemed to be a little disappointed about something. "Did we get out too early? We could bathe for a little longer if you wanna."

"A-Ah, n-n-no, it's o-okay, R-R-Riku-chan...!" Hinata-san reassured with a meek smile, though I couldn't help but shake the feeling that there was something else to those looks. Deciding to shrug it off, I turned around, only to hear a faint gasp come from the Hyuuga.

"Is there something wrong?" I inquired, turning around almost immediately as I wrapped a towel around myself.

The others seemed to notice whatever it was Hinata-san noticed and immediately came over, now wrapped in towels as well. "There's something on your back." Ino stated while pressing gently in between my shoulder blades. "It's like a spiral."

Confused and a little concerned, I tried to crane my head back to see it, but to no avail. "I was never aware of this. I know I have a scar, but this spiral mark is a first."

Did this have something to do with my past? Maybe it was put there by my clan for some reason. An identification mark, maybe? Or did I get it for a different reason entirely? I didn't want to start thinking too deeply into it, since it probably wasn't a big deal, anyway. Still, I couldn't recall any sort of spirals from any of the books I've read about my clan, so it still worried me a little bit.

"Does it hurt?" Tenten-san asked while gently poking at it, but stopped when I shook my head. "Hm...Maybe it's some sort of seal. Hopefully not anything like Sasuke's, though..." Her voice trailed off and the other kunoichi grew a little more concerned as well.

"Tell us if you feel anything weird on your back, alright?" Sakura-san spoke with a soft smile, and I nodded in return.

We dried up and got out pretty quickly out of that. It was getting late and Ino and I were leaving tomorrow morning for Kumo, so we wanted to get a good night's rest. The teams were departing at different times so we didn't have to travel as one giant group, and our team was the first to depart. The others would be departing tomorrow as well, but at different intervals.

I thanked the others for taking me to the hot springs and we parted ways after that. It really was relaxing, the hot springs, but the marking on my back still puzzled me. I only recalled the basics of my life when I saw the ruins of my village. I know who my mother was and I know a bit of what my village looked like. I can't recall the faces of my other relatives, however, nor do I remember any friends that I may or may not have had. This marking on my back, however, is something that I've never even read about, which is what puzzled me.

Still, it shouldn't be anything too serious. At most, it must be some identification mark of some sort, or perhaps even just a very strange birth mark.

A few days of calm travelling was all it took to get to Kumogakure. Although I couldn't remember which village it was that was at war with my home village, I read from a number of sources that it was Kumo who was after the Youkugan. I didn't know if they believed there were any survivors, but I decided that even though I've been honing my shinjutsu for the past few weeks, I'd only use it if absolutely necessary, preferably when there aren't any witnesses.

I sighed to myself and frowned. This is probably the most dangerous place I’ve ever been in. I have every right to be the least bit scared. I didn't want to cause any trouble with my true identity, so I event went ahead and used the fake surname Mumeishi for the Chuunin Exam registration forms.

Once we arrived in the village, the sun had just begun setting. Alerting the village that we had arrived didn't take long and within an hour, we were settled in. Since it was getting late, we decided it was time to get something to eat. After a few days of nutrition pills, we wanted to have a decent meal. Plus, Chouji looked like he was at Death's door. We took this time to plan out strategies and mentally prepare ourselves for what was to come. Naturally, my team headed for a barbecue restaurant and after getting a seat, orders were placed instinctively. So instinctively that it worried me just a little, since it made me wonder just how many times they've eaten at a barbecue together.

"We already took the Exams once, but what if that experience doesn't help us at all?" Ino sighed while resting her chin in her hands.

“Don’t worry. All Chuunin Exams follow the same format; a written test, a survival test, and then a tournament.” Asuma-sensei explained as our food arrived. We began to place the meat across the grill as he explained the gist of it. “You two have experience already, so I’m not so worried about you. Riku, on the other hand; you should know that this exam is held for all the countries. There’re genin from most, if not all, villages coming to take this exam and without a doubt, you’ll be meeting several people with their own unique backgrounds and abilities.”

“Yeah! Last time, there was this insane sand guy named Gaara. He was absolutely horrifying. Come to think of it, isn’t he also a jinchuuriki?”

"Also?" I repeated with a confused look. "I didn't know we knew of any others."

My team gave me a puzzled expression in return, almost silently wondering if I was serious.

"Riku, did nobody ever tell you about Naruto?" My sensei asked while lighting a cigarette. I shook my head once, to which he shrugged in return. "Well, he's the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi; the Nine-Tailed fox, but that's not the point here."

I guess having that extra bit of information is useful to know for future reference, so I nodded and stored it at the back of my mind. I knew the Kyuubi was in Konoha, but I never would have suspected its jinchuuriki to be Naruto. To be honest, he doesn't really come off as the demon vessel type.

Before our conversation could continue, the waitress arrived with some tea and by then the meat was ready, so I pulled down my mask to eat. As I did so, the waitress leaned across the table to set some tea and other plates of raw meat down. I had to lean out of the way to give her some room, which sort of separated me from the others momentarily. By the time she was gone, my mask was back up and I noticed that the others had somewhat of a disappointed look. It looked oddly like the one time our grill overheated the first time we went to a barbecue. I shrugged it off, though I felt like I've gotten that kind of look more than once already. Did the air grow more tense for a moment there, too? I decided it was just my imagination.

"So Naruto's the jinchuuriki." I murmured while setting some lamb on the grill. "I guess he can't be that much of an idiot, if he's got that much power inside him."

“You’ve been reading up on the bijuu?” Asuma-sensei asked. I smirked slightly and nodded once. “Heh. I encourage self-teaching, but Kakashi tells me you spend a lot of your free time at the library.”

I shrugged while gently swishing my tea around in the small cup. “I can't help it if something catches my interest. There's no harm in knowing too many things, after all.”

“Yeah, or you could spend some quality girl time with me.” Ino chimed and I scoffed. She huffed. “Oh, come on. Once in a while wouldn’t hurt.”

“It hurts me a lot more than you think.” I answered smugly, causing the two males to laugh and her to pout. A faint smirk was hidden beneath my mask once more but from the twitching of Ino's eyebrow, it was probably evident in my eyes.

During the rest of the meal, they shared more stories about what happened during the last Chuunin Exams and how there were preliminary matches because there were so many genin who passed. I was told about the Forest of Death, as well as Morino Ibiki, Mitarashi Anko, Gekkou Hayate, and Shiranui Genma. I found Anko to be the most interesting of a bunch, especially after I heard about her early entrance. It seemed like a lot of jounin in Konoha had a quirk of some sorts. It made me wonder if it was a common thing, or if the village is just a little eccentric in general.

After our stomachs were satisfied, conversation about the Exams faded and we called for the bill. It was time to get a little more relaxed and out of the Chuunin Exam mindset so we could at least get one decent night's worth of sleep before the Exams.

“Make sure to sleep well for the next few days. But of course, keep up with your training. Oh, but don’t strain yourselves.” Asuma-sensei listed as the bill came. “I want you three to be in shape but not exhausted, alright?”

The three of us nodded in unison, each exchanging looks. “You think we’ll be put in something like the Forest of Death again?” Chouji asked, his mouth full of the last of the pork. “That place was pretty scary.”

We all shrugged as we left the restaurant, imagining what the Chuunin Exams had in store for us. I decided that I’d prepare myself for the worst so everything will seem easier when I actually encounter it. Unless things actually are that bad, in which case I'd be at least be prepared to a certain extent. Nevertheless, whatever it is this Exam decides to throw at us, I knew we'd be ready for it.

---

“I can only tell you three to give it your all. Don’t be reckless now, you hear?” Our sensei warned with a grin before we entered the first testing room. "Alright, now go show those kids your Will of Fire."

The three of us nodded and we opened the doors to see a room full of genin. I glanced back and Asuma-sensei waved once. I responded with a two-fingered salute and followed my teammates into the room.

Shinobi of all villages were here. To the left, there were a few desks with chuunin behind them. I noticed the two piles of strips of paper next to them and assumed they had something to do with the test. Before I could take in more of my surroundings, I heard a familiar bark and a smug greeting.

“Looks like you guys finally made it!” A genin by the name of Inuzuka Kiba smirked, his arms folded across his chest. “Sure brings back memories, eh?” He directed the question to Ino and Chouji. They both agreed with a nod. “Don’t worry. This time, we’ll all pass for sure! Maybe not Riku though, since it’s her first time.”

“Shut it, mutt.” I growled, glaring at him. He glared back at me and Ino laughed sheepishly, pulling us apart. I didn’t really have anything against him personally. I just have a thing with being underestimated. Inuzuka-san just happens to do that. A lot.

In the middle of greeting all the others, the doors suddenly swung open, causing everybody to fall silent and turn to see who it was. A tall man with short blond hair walked in. He wore a one-strap flak jacket with a black tee underneath, as well as black arm guards covering his forearms.

“Everybody listen up! I’m C, the first examiner for this exam!” He shouted with his arms crossed. “Each team will head on over to a chuunin over there.” He nodded his head towards the tables I saw on our way in. “You will each grab a number and a slip of paper. The slip of paper will be folded. Do not open it until you are told to do so. If anybody is caught taking a peak, you and your team will automatically” Seeing as it was a rhetorical question, he continued in a loud voice. “You will then take your designated seat and await further instructions, now get a move on; we don’t have all day!”

The genin began to make their way towards the table and we did the same. As my team shuffled over – it’s really crowded with all the genin piled into one area of the room – I was shoved and bumped into someone by mistake. I looked over my shoulder and saw that it was the examiner that I bumped into.

“My bad,” I half-apologized while regaining my balance.

“It’s alrigh–” he paused and seemed to spot my hitai-ate. His eyes immediately narrowed and I swallowed. Damn, am I caught already? “Oh, a Konoha Dog.” I frowned beneath my mask, though I was relieved that he’s just being rude, rather than claiming that I’m a Shurikane or something. What’s up with him? “Just watch where you’re going next time, Dog.”

C nudged me out of his way a little bit, though his actions weren't left unseen. Ino was just about ready to pummel he guy and Chouji was saying something about waking up on wrong side of the bed. “Geez, who took a shit in his corn flakes today?” I heard Inuzuka-san grumble from behind me. I shrugged and told them to let it go, though I still wondered if he had something against Konoha.

When we finally got to the desk, the chuunin handed us each a number as well as the slip of paper. We looked at our numbers and noticed that we were all next to each other. I exchanged confused looks with Ino and Chouji but they simply shrugged. After getting away from the crowd, Naruto came up to us and showed us his team’s numbers, too.

“Oi, do you think this is a mistake?” He asked loudly, shoving the numbers in our faces. His team was also all grouped together. Soon enough, Inuzuka-san's team and Hyuuga Neji-senpai's team approached us with the same results. We decided that it was no coincidence and took out seats with no further questions.

“I have a few things to say before we start!” C announced from the front of the room. “You may have noticed that you've been placed with your teammates. That is no mistake! Secondly, you and your teammates are allowed to work together to complete this test!”

The murmuring began immediately and I looked to my sides, giving my teammates a sceptical look.

“Hey, quiet down!” He ordered before clearing his throat a bit. “Each question answered correctly is worth five points. If, by the end of the exam, your team has a total score less than fifteen, you and your entire team will be disqualified. There is only one rule for this exam; any sort of interaction with other teams is absolutely prohibited! Any questions?” Silence. “You have two hours to complete the test. Begin!”

Everybody started reading through the questions first as the atmosphere quickly grew heavy. The moment I began to scan the sheet, I raised an eyebrow and flipped the page. It didn’t solve my problem. Did I get a misprint? Five questions, five points each. If I answered all of them I’d get twenty-five points, which is more than enough for the team to pass. Problem is, my sheet just has numbered boxes. The questions are supposed to be there, but they aren’t.

Although I tried to remain calm, I could feel my heartbeat speeding up. I didn't want to panic, but what was I supposed to do? Was there some sort of seal on the page? I swallowed hard and from the corner of my eyes, saw that the other genin were confused and stressing out as well, some more obviously than others.

So it's not just me, or may other people have questions and just can't figure it out. I glanced up at the instructor and saw that he was staring at the room as a whole. There were other chuunin proctors lining the sides to watch for anybody cheating as well, so it'd be hard to do much of anything except silently freak out.

Keep your cool. I told myself while closing my eyes, paying attention to the others around me and imagining the sheet of paper in front of me. Think, Riku. There's a reason behind all of this.

Gears started to turn in my head as I tried to find out what the purpose of this was. I breathed in deeply and let it out slowly, counting the seconds as I did so. Soon enough, my heartbeats returned to a calm pace and I opened my eyes. I went through the facts of this exam once more.

We were placed next to our teammates. That immediately strikes as odd. There had to be a reason behind this. We need fifteen points to pass, collectively. That means all of us only had to answer at least one question correctly in order to advance. There is one rule to exam, and that is to not interact with the other teams.

There is only one rule for this exam. C's words repeated in my head.

My eyes widened slightly at the realization and I scanned the room once more. As I did so, my gaze was accidentally caught with the examiner's. He gave me an indifferent gaze, but for some reason I could still feel some irritation coming from it. I couldn't help but smirk, almost mockingly. I noticed that other people either already got it as well, or were in the process of understanding the point of the exam's set up. I saw C raise an eyebrow, almost as if he was expecting me to do something, so I did.

Putting my head back down, I glanced over to Ino's sheet on my left and saw that she had information, but no questions. If I was right, then that meant Chouji would have the questions. When I looked to my right, where Chouji was, I smirked to myself when I saw that my speculation was on the dot. Their sheets had absolutely no space to write. Both sides were full of text, which I got a glimpse of at the beginning while everybody was still trying to figure out the exam.

I didn't want to attract much attention. I could write messages to them on my paper and nudge it towards them, but event that isn't subtle enough. A small spark when off at the back of my mind. Carefully, I nudged the feet of my teammates with my own under the table to get their attentions. Their arms were rested on the desk in a way that some of their forearm was off the desk, so I used that section of their arms to start writing characters.

First, at different times, I would tell them to lower their arms so that I could write in the palms of their hands so what I was doing was mode hidden. Since they did this at different times, it didn't seem all-too suspicious. I then began to give them the intended message.

The only rule of this exam is not to interact with other teams. He said nothing about talking to our own teammates. None of us can complete the exam without the other two parts. You have the information, Chouji has the questions, and I have the space to write the answers down on. It was made to make us rely on our teammates to get us through tight situations. This is a test of teamwork.

I rested my hands by my sides and leaned back to give the appearance that I was struggling to understand the exam while my teammates agreed. The problem now was figuring out the questions without really talking to each other. I furrowed my brows to myself while writing down this problem, showing it to my teammates so they could think of a solution as well.

It wasn't long before Ino tapped on my slightly closed hand. After opening my palm to her, she began to write. At the same time, I would pass the message to Chouji, from my right hand onto his left.

We need fifteen points to pass, so that means we need to answer three questions. I have the information needed to solve the questions, so Riku should start by passing my information to you, Chouji, and vice versa.

An exchange of information and questions began between Ino and Chouji,with me acting as the median. Of course, I was jotting down the key points next to the question boxes as well. Once all five questions were dealt with, we decided to start with the easiest one, which was a cryptogram.

I eyed each character carefully. It was all written in kanji. Well, it seemed like that’s what it was supposed to be. Although it looked like kanji characters, none of the characters were actual words. They seemed like hybrids, if that was appropriate to use.

I'm not good at stuff like this, but it looks like it has something to do with the different parts of kanji. Chouji wrote onto my hand, which I also passed onto Ino.

There's gotta be a pattern somewhere. Each character is made by combining parts of kanji characters, but they don’t make any actual words. It probably has something to do with switching them with another character.

My teammates nodded and we went back to staring at the cryptogram. Every now and then we'd shift about so that our stillness wouldn't seem too unnatural.Soon enough, Ino's eyes widened slightly and grabbed her pencil before circling certain parts of the cryptogram. After she was done, she brought her arm to her side, so I did the same and opened my palm to her.

I think I get it. It’s almost like my kekkei genkai. When I use my kekkei genkai, I push my mind into the target's and their mind gets pushed away while I intrude. The same thing happens here. Each character has one part written in the character in front of it but keeps part of its original form. Part of the last word intrudes on the first word.

She then proceeded to translate the part of the cryptogram she had and I sent the results to Chouji. In turn, he would do the same and piece by piece, the cryptogram was decoded.

Whoa, I didn't know Ino could be this smart. Chouji commented contently. Subconsciously, I passed the message along. I didn't realize how it could be taken until after the kunoichi pinched my hand, causing me to wince a bit.

Hey, it was Chouji who said that. I wrote in my defence. I passed on Ino's death threat to my other teammate after that, to which he apologized with a hint of a nervous grin. Focus. You can hit him after we pass this test.

Our serious intent came back and throughout the hours that we were given to work, bit by bit, we passed messages along and answered the questions in near silence.

---

When our time was up, my team had managed to answer four and a half questions. There shouldn't be any problems in passing, but I saw the slip of paper we were told to get before we were seated and a bit of worry came over me. There was a point to that, too, but what? I wasn't given much time to think about it, however, as C began to explain the purpose of them.

“Alright, get those slips of paper and open them up. Don’t you dare show it to anybody else!” He ordered and we did as we were told. I raised my eyebrow then I saw that it was just an empty slip of paper. I glanced around the room and noticed a few similar looks and folded the paper once more, remaining silent.

“Here’s the second part of the test. Only two genin from each team may continue!” In a matter of seconds, confused murmurs grew louder across the room. My teammates and I glanced at each other with shocked expressions. I could hear the loud ones like Inuzuka-san and Naruto from across the room, crying out objections. They were shushed quickly by C's loud voice. “No matter what’s on your slip of paper, you will not tell your teammates. Those who have a red dot on their slip of paper will be the member to stay behind! However, the team has a choice. They may either move on without one of their teammates or drop out now and try again next time!”

The genin stirred up again and I eyed my teammates. Which one had the red dot? I frowned and shook my head. It didn’t matter who had the dot. Without a full team, it’d basically be pointless to proceed with the exam. What about the survival test? It’d be much easier to pass with all three members rather than just too. Yeah, it doesn’t matter who has the red dot. I don’t care if I have to take the exam again next time; having just part of the team just won’t cut it.

Soon, the murmuring came to a stop and C spoke again. “It’s time for you to decide. Those who wish to take the exam next year, leave this room at once!”

Several teams got up and left the room, including mine. The three of us remained silent as we exited the room and entered a sort of waiting room, where many of the jounin stayed. I looked around and saw that the teams from Konoha all exited the room. Though some of us were upset with the need to take it again next time, all of us knew the importance of having the entire team during the exam.

“You all made a wise decision,” Asuma-sensei greeted as he approached us. The other three Konoha jounin approached us with him. “We’re all very proud.”

“Well, you guys drill the idea of teamwork into our heads nearly every day.” Ino commented with a slight smirk. “How could we possibly go in there with somebody missing?”

The jounin shared a laughed but was soon cut off when a certain blond began to complain.

“Man, this stinks!” Naruto whined, crossed his arms. “I don’t wanna wait another half a year for the exams!”

“Don’t worry. You all made good choice.” Kakashi-sensei commented flatly with his signature smile. The door to the testing room opened and C walked out. We all turned to face him and he stood before us, arms crossed.

He spotted me almost immediately and frowned. I narrowed my eyes slightly but for the most part, pretended I didn’t see him glaring at me for a brief moment. The others didn’t seem to notice and if they did, didn’t show that they saw. I sighed and blinked, relaxing my eyes as C cleared his throat before speaking. “Would all of you please show your slips of paper to your teammates,” he ordered.

Ino, Chouji, and I faced each other, opening our slips of paper. In a matter of seconds, a chorus of gasps and confused murmurs filled the room. The examiner silenced us and told us to look back at him.

“As you have noticed,” he started, unfolding his arms, “nobody in your team has the red dot.” I found myself biting my bottom lip a bit. So, it was a trick of some sort. “Let me begin from the beginning. What’s the point of taking a test if you don’t learn anything, after all?”

“What’s not secret is that the written part of the test depended on your teamwork. If the three of you didn’t work together, it would be impossible to complete the test at all. Teamwork must be valued to even think of completing the test. You could also say that we were also testing your stealth; your methods of giving your fellow teammates information, per say."

“Then came the test with the red dot.” His lips began to form a smirk. “You were all given the choice of leaving a teammate behind or all dropping out of the Exam as a team. I’m sure you were all thinking similar things; what’s the point of continuing on with the test with only two members? If the next test requires more team effort, you’d fail if there was a member missing. The same thing applies to missions. Say the mission was a success. However, you lost three of the five comrades that went on the mission with you because you left them behind. So the mission was successful, sure, but what about next time? You now have less shinobi to complete the next mission and thus, a higher rate of failure.”

He paused briefly, his expression becoming fiercer. “Look around you! This room holds the future and success to your villages. What would happen if you continuously lost teammates along the way? One success is not worth the dozens of failures that follow it!” C's frown turned back into a confident smirk once more. “You, however, saw the true value of your teammates. Because of this, you all pass!”

Fists were pumped into the air and a wave of relief crashed down on us. Everybody was grinning or smirking in satisfaction as the senseis congratulated us. I have never seen or heard a happier group of genin in my life.

“Not bad for Konoha Dogs.” I turned around and looked up to see the examiner standing before me. We eyed each other briefly before I left to meet up with my team silently.

---

Relief was all around us. Our senseis congratulated us on passing the first round, and we congratulated one another. I could still remember how my heart was racing from C's last three words. Heh, so this is what the Chuunin Exams are like. Look underneath the underneath, I thought to myself while joining the others in the clearing of the room. It was only a few minutes after we passed the first test that the second examiner came by. I thought Konoha’s jounin were a bit odd, but this guy proved to me that Kumo is similar in that way.

“How’s it shakin’ lil’ genins?” Oh no, he doesn’t talk. He raps. “I’m you’re next examiner, the name’s Killer B! Now we’ve got that covered, so y’all follow me!”

“Is this guy insane?” Ino whispered in to me, but the remaining teams followed nevertheless.

We were brought to the docks of Kumogakure and loaded onto a rather large boat that took us across. We were told to stay below decks because it was a secret area of their country that’s restricted to other villages. For the sake of the Chuunin Exams, however, they only brought the genin taking the test.

In about an hour or two, we arrived at our destination and Killer B called us off the boat. I followed the others off the boat and we were all immediately in awe. From what it looked like, we were on a really large island littered with wild life and what looked like stone spikes.

“There here is where y’all be hangin’, yeah!” Killer B announced once we were all gathered in a clearing near the edge of the island. He placed his thumb and index finger in his mouth, letting out a sharp whistle. Suddenly, the island seemed to shake a bit and a shadow loomed over us. We turned around and were in shock from what we saw. Our eyes grew wide as we all stared at the giant turtle head looking at us. “Just ‘nother hurdle; welcome to our badass Island Turtle!”

“Fill out these sheets, don’t make me repeat!” Killer B announced as the said sheets of paper were being passed around. I was told that we need to fill these out so that if we die, the villages don’t blame Kumo. A waiver is what they're called, I think. Sounds like fun. All of the genin from Konoha survived last time though, so I wasn’t exactly worried about dying on a giant turtle’s back.

“Listen up, a’ight? This here’s no fight! Island Turtle’s got tons of animals and all of them’re way bigger than y’all!” I began to wonder if understanding him was part of the test. Perhaps they were testing our deciphering abilities as well. “So here’s what you’ll do; pay attention, it’s yer cue! These animals are my bros, but I ain't one t'brag. And on each one of ‘em, they've got a little tag!”

With that said, he held up a small white tag that fit in the palm of his hands. “On each tag as a number and they be numbers one to eight, y'hear? For every number there be ten of each, and yer gonna need at least one per team. There's enough t'go 'round, so yer goal of thirty-six points'll be easy t'reach!” Why...why couldn’t they get an examiner who speaks normally? I like being able to understand the rules to tests that will evaluate my strength as a shinobi. C was a bit of an asshole, but at least he was easy to understand. “With a lower number, your job'll be easier, bro. Y’all be in there for a week, so try not to die and reek! Also, don’tchall forget ma number one rule; no killin’ my bros, f'sho!!” We were then given some time to fill out the forms and hand them in.

“You guys ready?” Ino asked, popping up behind Chouji and I. We nodded in unison and headed over to the desk where they took the forms. They also told us where we should head and wait for the signal to go.

“Is this place anything like the Forest of Death?” I asked once we arrived at our entrance point. There weren’t any man-made gates, really. Just several paths with a numbered block of wood pinned to a tree nearby to number the entrances.

"It looks pretty similar, but I don't think it was crawling with giant animals like this place apparently is." Ino responded with a slight shudder. I guess she wasn't quite sure what to expect, either.

“I hope it has as much food as there was in the Forest.” Chouji murmured, already munching on a bag of potato chips. Ino and I sighed in unison before preparing ourselves to enter the forest.

Soon, there was a loud “Get’cherselves ready, genin!” in the distance. Chouji stuffed the chips into his pocket and readied himself as well. I began to notice that my heart was racing, but I took a deep breath and forced myself to calm down. Survival is no challenge for me. Heck, I’ve been doing it for five years alone. What makes this any more different?

There was an explosion in the distance, followed by the loud voice of Killer B.

“Let's get this show on the road!”

---

After about half a mile of running into the forest, the three of us stopped to formulate a plan. It would be easier if all the teams worked together, but that would defeat the purpose of this test. We need to assess our own strength as a team, not our strength with the others. Although we weren't necessarily going to get into each other's ways, we weren't deliberately helping each other out, either.

"This test is sort of like the Forest of Death, since all the teams are after the same thing." Ino stated as we sat in a small circle. "Since they need to eliminate some teams, I bet there's only enough points to let a maximum of half of us to pass, or something like that."

"So the elimination process is similar to the one from the Forest of Death as well." I murmured, remembering the explanation I got about the scrolls and how it automatically eliminated at least half the teams participating.

We fell into silence as we thought this through. I furrowed my brows and began to draw small circles into the ground before me, each one representing the teams that passed, which was thirty.

"We need at least one of each number to pass." I started while writing out the rows of numbers, ten of each to make an eight by ten grid on the ground. "At most, ten teams can pass out of the thirty that are participating in this round."

"That's only two teams less than last year, even though only eleven ended up passing, but the ratio makes it seem so much more intimidating." Ino sighed with worry in her eyes. "There's bound to be people getting more than they need, though. That way, they'll eliminate more of the competition."

"Maybe that's why we get more time." Chouji noted while finishing off the rest of his chips. "If we can't get the right numbers from the animals, we'll have to track down other teams and take their tags...hnng, this is way worse than last time!"

There was no doubt that at least one team would try to pull a trick like that, which meant that we could count on at least one extra team being cut out of the running.

I felt the air around us grow tense as each of us began to realize the chances we had of passing.

"There's no use sitting around, then." Ino spoke while looking up at us with determination in her eyes. "We didn't come all this way to just sit and calculated our chances of success. We need to catch up to Shikamaru, so let's get going already!"

"Yeah, I bet even Shikamaru would get a little annoyed if we went home and told him we didn't even make it past the second round, right?" Chouji laughed while getting up after the blond.

With a sigh, I got onto my feet as well and gave my teammate the same powerful glint that they had in their eyes. "Well then, what're we waiting for? Let's start collecting some tags."

---

The animals were incredibly unique on this island and when Killer B said they were huge, he wasn't kidding. Some of them were the size of Ichiraku Ramen while others were even larger still. A few hours past noon, we had managed to collect a tag with the number three on it.

"I really hope Konoha doesn't have any bulls that big." Ino shuddered, still shaking off the adrenaline from our encounter with the enormous beast. It had two enormous horns sticking out of its head and towered over us by half a story. In the end, we managed to get the tag from it by having it ram into a cliff side and get its horns stuck.

"Too bad we can't eat the animals." Chouji sighed while opening a new bag of potato chips. "I don't think I have a week's supply of food on me."

"I don't think you should ever had a week's supply on your body." I retorted with a faint smirk, to which Ino sighed and shook her head. Naturally, our content teammate grinned sheepishly in response, his mouth already getting stuffed with chips.

As we carefully made our way through the forest, we still continued to search for any animals. Eventually, Chouji's eating became too much of a distraction and Ino successfully scolded him into putting them away until we took a break. It was a good thing she did that, since an animal came into view not too long afterwards.

"That is one big cheetah." Ino whispered in awe while eyeing the large feline.

It rested on top of a sort of staircase of boulders, each one a few feet taller than the previous one. The tallest one, the one the cheetah was sprawled on, towered over us at at least a height of twenty feet. The three of us exchanged looks before we shifted gears entirely, ready to take on the beast.

"We'll need to locate the tag first." I spoke in a hushed down while getting some hand signs ready. "I'll try slowing it down with a genjutsu. Chouji, you should try using your ninjutsu to grab its legs. Ino, that leaves you to locate it."

The other two nodded and with a single jerk of my hand, we separated.

I made my way around the cheetah as quietly as I could. My eyes were locked onto it to watch its every move, though it didn't do much. This beast seemed to be taking it pretty easy. Soon, I was lined up with its face. I drew myself closer to it and prepared my genjutsu, but my concentration was interrupted when a crack sounded beneath my foot.

I tensed up immediately and cursed at myself for being so reckless. The head of the cheetah jerked up and I refused to breath. I couldn't see either of my teammates, but I'm sure they were just as tense as well. Thankfully, the cheetah simply huffed and rested its head back into its front paws. I let out my breath slowly and after breathing in again, started the small chain of hand signs.

The moment I began to release my chakra, however, the cheetah shot up onto its feet and looked right at my direction. Startled, my chakra wavered and dispersed, but the beast had already located me and was charging towards me.

"Riku--!" I heard Ino's voice shout from several feet away.

"Bubun Baika no Jutsu!"

Large hands shot out of the trees but before they could grab onto the cheetah, it had already dodged out of the way and was now charging towards Chouji. I narrowed my eyes, wondering why it was so inconsistent with its targets.

"Get outta the way!" I shouted towards Chouji hastily while pulling out some wire and shuriken. With a few swift movements, I had the wires attached to the weapons and threw them towards the beasts legs. They didn't wrap very nicely since Chouji had changed his trajectory and caused the cheetah to make a sharp turn as well, but I at least managed to make the large beast stumble.

"I'll see if I can try and take over its body!" Ino shouted while sliding in front of me. After holding out her hands, I felt the chakra she released. The moment she did, the cheetah whipped its head around and targeted Ino. My eyes grew wide from the realization but Ino caught on as well, since it wasn't long before she exclaimed, "It responds to chakra!"

With that knowledge at our disposal, we immediately stopped using any genjutsu or ninjutsu, but the cheetah was already onto us. There was nowhere to run, so we found ourselves stuck in a situation where we could only dodge and avoid the lunges and swipes of the oversized feline.

"It won't leave us alone!" Chouji wailed, just barely dodging another attack from the animal.

"Just try to think of something!" Ino shouted back as we continued to keep ourselves spread out. At least we could take turns catching a bit of a break that way.

This is an animal that reacts to chakra. It already seems to have ours stuck in its senses, so it would probably chase after us even if we tried to get away. It's incredibly fast so there's barely enough time to dodge, let alone set up a trap or two in an attempt to slow it down. My first attempt already didn't go too well.

So then, what was its weakness? I furrowed my brows as I jumped out of the way once more before Ino got its attention so I could catch my breath. It seems sensitive to chakra so we can only use taijutsu against it, but it's too fast for us to do that. I sighed, silently wishing that Lee was here. He seemed to be the perfect opponent for this animal.

"Maa...To be able to lock onto our chakra after being exposed to it once, jut how sensitive is...it...?" My voice trailed off as my eyes grew wide from the realization. That was it.

Without wasting a breath, I immediately let my chakra run wild and tried to make it as obvious as possible. The cheetah began to charge at me once more, but concealing my chakra was the last thing on my list.

"Riku, what're you--?!" Ino started, but a flash in her eyes told me that she understood what I was trying to do almost immediately. A wide grin spread across her face and she was soon shouted across the field at Chouji. "Oi, Chouji! Make your chakra as obvious as possible!"

"Isn't that the exact opposite of what we're trying to do?!" He shouted back, but started to do as he was told nevertheless."

As expected, the cheetah began to stumble over its own feet as it tried to clear focus on one presence. I smirked and distanced myself further from my teammates so that our chakra was more dispersed, causing more confusion to affect the cheetah.

Soon enough, it began to growl in frustration and annoyance before it got dizzy and collapsed onto the ground. Cautiously, we made our way towards it, our chakra still incredibly obvious as we did so. The tag was clipped harmlessly onto its ear and I pulled it off carefully, making sure the cheetah wouldn't suddenly spring back into life.

"What happened to it?" Chouji asked, still keeping a bit of a distance between him and the groaning animal.

"It got overwhelmed." I stated plainly while pocketing the tag.

"Since it's so sensitive to chakra, if it senses too much of it, it must get a massive headache or something." Ino clarified, but our teammate still seemed a little confused. Finally, she sighed and shook her head a bit. "It's like we gave it a chakra brain-freeze."

Unsurprisingly enough, Chouji understood that immediately. With that settled, the three of us resumed our search for the oversized animals. We now had a number three and a number four, so we were off to a pretty good start. I could tell my teammates were feeling good about out progress and of course, so was I. However,I had a feeling there was something wrong. With cautious eyes, I scanned our surroundings and although I couldn't find anything out of the ordinary, I still couldn't shake off that feeling.

Despite all the many interesting things that I’ve had the pleasure of witnessing and experiencing throughout my five years on the road, I can’t say that I’ve ever had to run away from an oversized armadillo whose gender I can’t figure out. Its shell had the kanji character for “male” written all over it, but the way is spoke so mildly seriously throws me off.

After many minutes of running from the armadillo rolling after me, I finally managed to lose it and began to locate myself. Catching my breath, I made my way towards the general direction of my team’s meeting point. I was only a few steps in when suddenly, I felt something catch my feet and I fell over. I winced a bit as I scraped myself against the ground. I rolled onto my back before fumbled about as I got onto me feet, still breathing more heavily than usual as I did so. I froze when I felt movement behind me and began to look back but stopped when I felt the cold metal of a kunai held up to my neck.

“Hand it over.” The person behind me demanded. He was close, and his voice was right next to my ear.

“I’m failing to understand your request.” I answered calmly, not letting my pulse falter the slightest bit. Keeping my cool has become a habit of mind throughout the years of minor crimes.

He pressed the kunai against my neck harder. His two teammates appeared before me. They are shinobi of Kumogakure; one male, one female. They both looked fierce. I didn’t blink.

“You know what I mean,” he growled, getting angry with me. “The tags. We know you have one.”

I didn’t react. “You must be mistaken,” I answered flatly, mentally locating the number four tag in my pouch. I felt him draw blood.

“Don’t make me slice your pretty little neck, girl. This isn’t a game and we all know you have it. It’s either you hand it over now and keep your head, or I kill you and take the tag myself. It’s your choice.” His teammates smirked. I frowned and reached into my back pouch, only to ram my elbow into his gut.

He gasped in pain as he fell to the ground, and I immediately jumped into the air as the other two genin lunged towards me. Out of my haste, I ended up fumbling about as I lit the flare bomb and threw it as high as I could into the air. Just as the light filled the sky, I felt a strike against my back and my vision went black.

---

My head was spinning when I woke up. It looked like I was in a cave of some sort. Ropes kept me held in place. I felt a bit more cold than usual, but at least I wasn’t shivering. I looked down to examine myself. My jacket was gone. I frowned and looked up, but realized that I couldn’t see much because of the dim lighting. They were all smirking. I tried to curse at them, but found that my throat was too dry to make a sound other than one of a dying toad.

“Looks like the lil’ girl is awake.” A female voice spoke tauntingly. I blinked rapidly in attempt to have my eyes adjust to the darkness more quickly. It didn’t take long, and I soon found that all three of them were in the cave as well. “Not feeling too hot, I bet. Sucks to be you.”

I struggled a bit to test the strength of the ropes. They sure didn’t hold back because I could feel the ropes digging into my wrists and ankles. It stung, but I ignored it and looked up at the team, glaring at them. “How long has it been?” I demanded in a harsh tone.

The male who held the kunai to my throat smirked. “Heh, I’ll admit that I’m surprised your loud-mouthed comrades haven’t found you yet. It’s already the second day of the test, after all. I thought they’d at least be better than that.”
My eyes grew wide for a moment before I went back to glaring at them. Knowing my team and how big comradeship in Konoha is, my failure to return would most likely cause the other two to freak out. I prayed that they’d at least have some common sense and not assume that I was mauled to death.

“What the hell to you plan on accomplishing by keeping me here? You think you’ll be able to keep me tied up for the rest of the week?” I scoffed, glowering at them. They were clearing underestimating me if they thought I would stay here for six more days. If worse comes to worst, I’d have to resort to using the Youkugan, though I’d really rather not do that in front of Kumo shinobi.

“Oh, don’t be silly. We’re tough, but we’re not arrogant.” The female of the team sighed, waving her hand nonchalantly. “We’ll just have to make you lead your pesky comrades into a trap for us.”

I raised an eyebrow, not at all satisfied by this idea. “And how do you plan on doing that? Hopefully you don’t believe that I’ll just agree to this idea of yours.”

“Well of course. If you don’t obey, we’ll just have to blow your legs off now, won’t we.” The second male of the team smirked, gesturing towards my tied of legs. I then felt myself being lifted by the back of my jacked and pulled outside until being thrown on the ground. The light blinded me for a moment and I winced, growling as the shinobi who held the kunai to my neck ran his hand up my legs. He pulled the fabric of my pants as he did so. Bastard.

“These here are infused with my chakra, you see?” He smirked, his fingers brushing over what felt like paper bombs. I looked down to see what they put on me, proving myself right. I pulled my head back as far as I could, not liking the intrusion of my personal space at all. “One little hand sign is all it’ll take for your legs to be blow right out from under you. We wouldn’t want you to lose your pretty legs, would we?”

He slid his hands against my skin as he pulled back, clearly amused by my very annoyed reaction. “Oi, Tsura. Quite fooling around; we don’t have all day.” The other male shinobi called. Even his own teammate was annoyed by his ways. I snapped profanities at him, as well as his teammates.

“Lighten up, Ganjou. I’m just messing around.” Tsura responded with that annoying smirk on his face.

“You’re disgusting,” I growled, pulling myself so I sat with my knees up to my chest.
His smirk only grew wider and he nodded to the kunoichi, who then came over and slice the ropes off. I stumbled a bit as I tried to get up, assuming that I’ve been in that position for at least twelve hours and if not, more.

“What a foul mouth you have on you,” he mused, stepping towards me. I shot him a deadly look and he paused, but that smirk never disappeared, “but the rest of you is quite beautiful. It’s a shame we have to be enemies.” That said, he held up my mask before me. My eyes widened and I quickly snatched it from him, hastily tying it around my nose and mouth where it belonged. In my anger and annoyance, I didn’t even notice that it wasn’t on me anymore.

He laughed, enjoying his teasing far too much for my liking. In a split second, however, his sickening grin disappeared and was replaced with a dark one.

“You will find your teammates and tell them that you were ambushed by another team. You managed to take them down and steal the tag that they had on them.” He held out two tags; the one I had, and the other which I noticed was a fake, but I could only tell after examining it closely. I figured they wouldn’t risk giving up the real one. They were dropped into my hands when I held them out to receive them. “You will then lead them back here after three hours. We will be waiting here, of course.” I growled again and he smiled again. “Run along, now.”

“You’re cowards,” I snarled, turning my back to them. “Disgraceful, pathetic cowards.”

I could feel Tsura’s teammates glaring daggers at me, but his voice called out as I left.

“I prefer to be called…smart.”

---

It took me half an hour to arrive at our meeting point, and another hour until my teammates returned. Their faces were ones of shock and relief when they saw me casually sitting by the small springs running down a short cliff. I looked up and greeted them casually, holding out the two tags before me. “I brought you guys a gift.” Two pairs of arms were immediately wrapped around me and I was quickly knocked over by the sudden weight.

“Where have you been?!” Ino asked, finally being the one to actually voice words. “You’ve been gone for an entire day!”

I smirked and rubbed the back of my head sheepishly. “Maa…I was being chased by an armadillo. Then I got ambushed by a team but it’s a good thing they weren’t that impressive, because I just put them in a genjutsu and checked if they had one of these.” I lied perfectly, holding up the number two tag, as well as our own number four. “Turns out they did. Lucky break, eh?”

My teammates only smiled at me, glad to see that I was alright and visually unharmed. Well, no point in telling them about the explosive tags or the threats, unless one of them miraculously knows how to reattach bits and pieces of a pair of blown off legs.

“Speaking of the tags, we just got a number one just now.” Chouji stated proudly, revealing it to me. I nodded once and he slipped it back into his weapon pouch. “We’ll rest for a bit before going out again. Maybe somebody else should hold on to one of the tags. It’s better to lose one than both, right?”

“I’ll take it,” Ino voiced and I tossed the number four to her. “Why didn’t you come back here after you got rid of the other team?” She suddenly asked as we settled down.

I sighed and leaned back on my hands, glancing up at them nonchalantly. “It was a long day. By the time I was safe, I was kilometres away from here and was way too tired to get back, so I waited until the morning. You guys have to know be better than that, though. I won’t get taken down that easily.” I stated reassuringly.

After washing ourselves off a little bit and eating some fruit that grew from nearby bushes and trees, we set of once more to behind out hunt for another over-sized animal. I had two hours until I had to lead them towards the ambush sight. I wanted to tell them badly. Very, very badly, but I had no idea where those Kumo genin were hiding. I wasn’t going to take any chances, either. Although it may seem selfish that I’m following along with their plan because my legs are at risk, these guys love their comrades too much. They’d blame themselves and then it’d seem like I didn’t believe they could handle an ambush, which is like underestimating them and not trusting them. As a shinobi, especially one of Konoha, that’s just plain insulting.

“Man, how hard is it to find a giant-ass animal?” Ino whined as we scanned the area. “You’d think they’d be easy to spot out here.”

“Maybe they overheard Chouji talking about barbecuing them and ran away.” I suggested with a faint smirk, causing Ino to roll her eyes.

“Cut that out, Riku. You’re making him drool.”

Another hour went by in relative silence and no signs of giant animals could be found. When we entered a much more dense area of the forest, there was a sudden rustling in the trees that broke the silence. We all froze and pulled out our weapons, ready to defend ourselves.

“Who’s there?” Ino demanded as we looked around, though I could tell she looked a little frightened. Chouji was definitely getting tense. “Show…Show yourselves!”

I wondered if it was the shinobi from Kumogakure failing to conceal themselves, but they seemed to be much more experienced than us. I then began to wonder if they decided to ambush us a lot sooner. Then again, maybe the rustling is just a small critter roaming about and it’s really just nothing.

All of a sudden, the silence was broken by an orange blur falling from the tree above…and onto me.

“What the--!” I hissed as I pushed myself up, shoving whatever it was that was on my over to the side.

As I got onto my feet, I noticed that the space around me had become dark. My surroundings turned into what looked like a dark room and the ground became a dark liquid. Before me was a cage and in the middle of it was a paper seal.

Cautiously, I made a rotation as I took in the details of my surroundings. Was it a genjutsu? It didn’t feel like one, though. I tried using a dispelling technique anyway, but nothing changed. “Where the hell am I?” I muttered to myself before I felt a presence behind me. “Who’s there?” I demanded immediately, swinging around with fists up.

“Whoa, wait!” The familiar voice called. “I-It’s only me, Riku!”

“What—Naruto?” I gasped, but he seemed to be the one that was the most shocked.

“What are—why are you—” He fumbled over his words before a good few moments before finally getting over his shock enough to put together an audible sentence. “How did you get in here?”

I could only blink in response before finally, I shrugged. “You fell on me, and then I ended up in this place. What, do you know where we are or something?”

Surprisingly, an unfamiliar look of hesitance appeared on Naruto’s expression. He nodded once very slightly before pointing at the enormous cage behind me. “This is sorta inside my head...where the Kyuubi is, or something.”

My voice left me for a moment as I turned around and craned my head back to see the top of the cage. Suddenly, two large eyes snapped open and I jumped back in surprise. “Tch, one brat was already too much.” A voice from behind the cage growled as the eyes narrowed into a glare.

“So that’s…the Kyuubi.” I whispered before looking back at Naruto, who nodded in response. The demon responded with a huff and closed its eyes, disappearing into the darkness. I guess it’d rather not bother with two genin intruding. “And all of this is in your head? You mean like a subconsciousness?”

“I…guess so. I don’t really get it, but I know that nobody else has ever been here before, so it’s really weird that you’re here right now.” He pointed out with a confused expression. “Oh, but don’t worry! It’s not dangerous in here or anything, aha!”

After realizing that I wasn’t corroding or anything, I simply nodded along and offered a faint smile. I wasn’t sure if I was even conscious myself, but it didn’t seem too unbelievable. After all, I know that he really is the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi. I didn’t know that he had a sort of bijuu realm of sorts in his head but hey, I’m no jinchuuriki, so what do I know.

I was about to ask him how to get out of here before I realized that I could use this to my advantage. Well, I wanted to confirm something, first.

“So, this place…” I started while turning to face Naruto completely, seeing as the Kyuubi didn’t even make a sound anymore. “Nobody can see or hear us, or anything like that, right?”

“R-Riku, w-what’re you planning to—”

“Get your head outta the gutter, idiot.” I immediately interrupted while shooting a glare at him. He gulped and laughed embarrassingly. I could’ve sworn I heard a deep chuckled from behind me as well, but chose to ignore it. “I need your help with something, and it looks like you’re the only person I can tell without any risks. Here me out, alright? It’s really important.”

Naruto’s expression became more serious and he nodded furiously. If this really was his subconscious and it really was Naruto that I was talking to, then all this would stay in our memories when we went back to “the real world.” If that was the case, then I could safely explain the situation to him in his subconscious, so I did.
I told him about how I was ambushed and how the Kumo nin put explosive tags on my legs. I told him to tell his team after, since the Kumo nin wouldn’t be watching them. We would then lead our own teams to the same area so Naruto could tell my own teammates about it while I let the Kumo nin away from them.

“They might bring reinforcements so they have a higher chance at beating us down, so make sure you guys are ready, alright?” I finalized, staring directly into his eyes to make sure he wasn’t hesitant about this. Then again, it’s Naruto. I heard he tried to take on an S-Ranked criminal on his first mission outside of the village, so a little task like this shouldn’t be frightening at all.

“Don’t worry, Riku. You can count on me!” He reassured with a toothy grin while pumping his fists into the air.

With a thanks and a fist bump, I said goodbye to the silent demon and was removed from Naruto’s subconscious.

The shinobi of Kumogakure don’t know about Naruto being a jinchuuriki, so there’s no way they’d be able to know that I spoke to him in the way that I did. Hell, I still don’t understand myself how I managed to do it in the first place, but I’m not complaining.

Since it was around lunch time, our teams decided to rest together for a while before separating once more. This worked to the plan’s advantage, since I could leave Naruto with the others so he could spread the news to the others. He offered to get his team involved as well and although I didn’t really want to pull more people into this, it is true that the more backup we had, the safer we’d be when we had to go up against the Kumo shinobi.

“I’ll go see if I can trap some fish in a genjutsu.” I announced after we found a location by a small stream. It’s when we come across small bodies of water like this that I have trouble believing that we’re on the back of a giant turtle.

“We’ll come too, then.” Ino suggested as Chouji stood up with her as well. I was about to object, but the blond was already pushing us downstream.

I glanced over my shoulder and managed to lock eyes with Naruto. He simply shrugged as he watched as Ino pulled me and Chouji along. I planned on having Naruto manage to tell everybody at the same time while I lured the enemy away, but I guess it looks less suspicious this way, too. Well, we’d figure something out.

Catching the fish didn’t take long, what with my team’s kekkei genkais and my genjutsu. When we returned to the already-lit campfire, Naruto shot me a glance and I gave him an appreciative look in return to tell him that I received the silent message. I assumed it meant that his team knew of my situation and he wasn’t caught passing the message along, since my legs haven’t been blown off yet.

Now it was a matter of getting me away from my team and getting somebody from Team 7 to get with my team. As the fish roasted around the fire, I started blankly at the flames in thought. It was then when I mentally kicked myself for being too complicated with all of this.
“I’m gonna go wash up a bit before eating.” I excused myself while getting onto my feet again.
It was a reasonable excuse to leave and one that wasn’t suspicious to go off alone for. I had to wonder how I didn’t think of such an easy solution in the first place. Maybe I’m not as clever as I thought, but I digress.

There was a slight shift in the air when I came back, but it was a subtle shift that lingered just long enough for me to know that my team got the message from Naruto. All that was left now was to “lead” my team towards the ambush area, where Team 7 will also be waiting to back us up. So this must be one of the many reasons why comrades are such an important factor to success.
Minutes ticked by and things to be wary of on Island Turtle were shared, but it was soon time to depart again. It was a little past noon now, which was when most of the activity took place on the island. Plus, the smoke from our fire would probably be attracting attention by now, so we wanted to change locations as soon as possible.

“See you at the end of this test, then. I know you’ll beat everybody up, Sasuke-kun!” Ino squealed while clinging to his arm, which got her a nasty glare from Sakura. Thankfully, Chouji managed to pull our teammate off the poor Uchiha before a cat-fight of sorts could breakout.
“You never know if we’ll run into them again.” I pointed out nonchalantly. “This test seems like it’s full of all sorts of surprises, after all.”

---

We managed to cover a lot of ground between the time we rested with Team 7 and the time I had to lead them to the ambush area, but there were no signs of oversized talking animals during all that time. Eventually, I let out a deep sigh and turned to my teammates.

“We’ve searched through this area pretty thoroughly already. Why don’t we go a bit more East?” I suggested. For the sake of making it look convincing we had a bit of discussion but of course, we ended up agreeing to search out that area in the end.

We arrived and slowed down our pace. I could feel my teammates stay on their guard now as I made up an excuse of there being hints of a creature being around to keep us there. A minute passed and out of the blue, three Kumo genin jumped out of the trees, two of them pinning my teammates to the ground.

“What the—Riku, watch out; there’s still one more!” Chouji shouted, going along with the act. I simply stood over my immobilized teammates as Tsura presented himself before me with a satisfied smirk. The steady pace of his slow applaud was unreasonably irritating.

“I’m glad you could make it, Riku.” He mused, approaching me. I glared at him and he stopped, keeping his smirk on. “Your friends look a bit confused. Why don’t you give them a little explanation, yes?”

“Riku, what the hell is going on?!” Ino demanded, struggling against the shinobi that held her down. All was going according to plan. As the tension built up, my comrades did their part in looking betrayed and insulted.

I feigned guilt and turned to the bastard, holding out the tags that I had in my possession. “The others have some, too.” I murmured as Tsura smirked, taking the tags from my hand and tucking them away into his pouch.

“Don’t worry. We’ll be sure to scavenge them from their dead bodies.” He stated, flicking out a kunai as he approached Chouji, whose eyes held nothing but terror. Although he knew what was going on, for some reason I saw legitimate fear written on the boy guy’s face. Protesting shouts could be heard and I had to keep myself from lunging at him out of turn. I told myself to wait, though my fists clenched as I heard the bastard chuckle.

“How satisfying it is to get so many nuisances out of the way.” I heard him taunt. Right at the click of the kunai, three figures appeared out of the trees and bushes, lunging towards the three enemy genin. “What the--?!” He was startled and was knocked to the side by Naruto and my teammates were free during the chaos. The counter-attack went pretty smoothly, but too bad there was still enough time for Tsura to make that hand seal.

I cursed as I heard the sizzling of the paper bombs on my legs. I quickly tore them off and threw them to the side as fast as I could, but I wasn’t fast enough. The explosion went off and the burning, stinging sensations quickly covered my body. I heard my name being called out as I hit the ground, but there was ringing in my ears and my vision was blurred.

I was numb in numerous places, but was still successful in getting onto my hands and knees, breathing heavily. I felt that my mask was still intact, though it was cut up along the edges. Still trying to catch my break, I looked up with cold eyes pointed towards Tsura. “Now what would you have done…if the tags got caught in the explosion?” I asked between gasps, forcing myself onto my feet. “This all would’ve been…a huge waste…of our time.”

“I must admit that I didn’t think your reflexes would be good enough to remove them before they went off.” He stated with a smug look, though I could tell that he was relieved that the tags that he was after weren’t harmed. “It seems like Lady Luck was with us this time.”

“Think again.” I growled, holding him by the collar once I was close enough. Naruto and Sasuke were now keeping his arms in place, so there was nothing to worry about. With one fluid motion of my right hand, I had a kunai hovering right over his jugular. “This game is a lot more fun on this side of the playing field.”

My blood boiled just by knowing that he was right there in front of me. I don’t even know much about the guy, but I do know that he and his teammates would use these kinds of tricks to get what they want. If that’s how they wanted to play, then I’ll go along with it. I’ve never killed somebody before, but I know that as a shinobi that time will come eventually. I don’t see any problem with starting with one hell of an annoying bastard.

Through the numbing and stinging sensations across my body, I felt a hand gently grab me by the shoulder. After turning around, I saw Ino give me that look. I frowned, knowing already what she was going to say. “Don’t draw unnecessary blood, Riku. There’ll be plenty of time to kick their asses later on.” She advised before smiling a bit at her last statement.

I sighed and lowered my weapon. I never really noticed much of a difference between my values as a kunoichi and their values as trained genin of a hidden village, but it was pretty evident now. “Fine. What should we do with them, then?”

“Well, there are plenty of stone spikes jutting out of the island…” Sakura started, a toothy smirk spreading across her lips from the thought. “...And we’re all capable of walking up walls.”

“Oh? For once I can understand what goes on behind that giant forehead of yours, Sakura.” Ino responded teasingly while matching Sakura’s mischievous expression.

“You’d think you Konoha punks would be smart enough not to mess with us!” The kunoichi of the team snapped while struggling against Chouji’s hold. “We will make you regret this!”

We rolled our eyes simultaneously, already dragging them off towards the spiked stone.

“Don’t waste your breath.” Sasuke muttered with a slight eye-roll. I felt although there was a sort of empathy for the Kumogakure shinobi and their embarrassment. Then again, it was very amusing to see them hang by the back of their shirts, with their hands and feet tied together to make their escape just a little more of a pain in the ass.
Suckers.

It was the morning of the final day, but we had yet to obtain a tag with the number nine. It was worrisome, yes, but we still had until six o’clock in the afternoon to get it. By then, however, we figured that there would be no animals left to get a tag from and that we’d have to start targeting teams. Still, we couldn’t ignore the possibility of there being a beast still around, anyway. Then again, it sounded a lot less intimidating to fight three genin than an oversized beast that could flatten us with their hand alone.

“The test ends at six, right?” Chouji asked, munching on his last bag of potato chips. I really wondered where he managed to carry enough to last him the week. Ino and I nodded in response as he looked up at the sun. “Do you think we’ll really be able to get that last tag?”

“We have to!” Ino immediately snapped, though her voice suggested that she had a bit of doubt as well. “It’s not like we’re the only people in this forest. We can find a team, or maybe we’ll run into another giant animal.”

Her voice trailed off as she began to bite her lip with worry. I was about to offer a few words of encouragement, but a loud shriek ripped across the forest, causing dozens of birds to fly out of the trees. All of us froze in place, eyes wide in shock. “What the hell was that?” Ino exclaimed, panic in her voice. “Was that a genin?!”

We immediately started scanning the area, but I soon picked a direction and nodded towards it. “It doesn’t seem like it’s anywhere near us. We should probably go further ahead.”

“H-Hold it! We’re not going towards the sound!” Ino objected furiously.

“What if it’s one of our friends?” Chouji asked hesitantly. “I…I guess we should go check it out.” He added nervously. His chip-eating had slowed considerably as well, which was never a good sign when it came to him.

Finally, we gulped and exchanged nods before heading off towards the direction of the shriek.

---

Despite the reason for us being here, this forest was actually incredibly beautiful. Sure, there were a lot of foreign plants that we were hesitant to get near, but a lot of them had bright colours and flourished incredibly well. The sun would glisten off the leaves and grass, and just enough sunlight would pass through the large trees to give the entire a place a sort of bright atmosphere.

It was hard to imagine anything terrible happening in this forest and yet, here we were, staring at a large patch of that bright foliage dyed red.

The silence choked us as we approached the scene. Before us lay three bodies of Iwagakure genin, each one bathed in its own blood. Slowly, we made our way closer to them to examine the corpses. They were covered in gashes and had a few joints twisted in impossible angles. I would have mistaken them for a pile of fallen puppets if it weren’t for all the blood they were soaking in.

Just as I knelt down to gently lift a kunoichi, she cough and spewed up blood, startling all of us.
“H…Help…!” She gasped, giving me the most desperate look I’ve even seen. Half of her face was covered in blood and she had to wink one eye shut to avoid getting blood-- …no, that wasn’t it. I could see the subtle flow of the blood seeping from her eye and forced myself not to turn away in disgust.

“I wish I could,” I murmured back before asking a predictable question. “What happened?”

She coughed again, struggling to breath. I looked up at the others, but they made no suggestion of moving her. None of us had any medical experience, so it was risky to move her when we didn’t know what was wrong. “...Mo…K-Kumo…” She whispered and our eyes grew wide. “Eliminate…c-comp…petition…”

Her final breath gone, I shook my head, knowing what everybody was thinking. “Those Kumo nin aren’t to be taken lightly.” I sighed while standing up, wiping the blood on my pants. The image was disturbing and my teammates were a little shaken, but I managed to keep my heart rate relatively steady. Maybe I didn’t feel as disturbed because I’ve gutted enough animals to supply the Akimichi clan for half a year – which is an amount not to be underestimated – but still, seeing humans lying in their own blood like that sent a different chill up my spine.

“We should find the others. Their targets may not just be limited to these three.” I pointed out while turning my back to the corpses. The least we could do for them was close their eyes so the sight was less disturbing, so we did. There was no time to give the fallen genin a proper burial and the world of shinobi is a cruel one, so may Kami have mercy on whoever may come across the corpses later on.

As we walked away from the scene, I could sense the anxiety coming from my teammates. Quietly, I turned around to face them and walked backwards while addressing them. “This can’t be the first time you guys have seen a dead body, right?” I asked cautiously, making sure to keep my voice calm.

There was a moment of silence and they glanced at each other, but eventually they both nodded.
“I don’t think any of them died in such a gruesome way, though.” Ino shuddered while fidgeting with her hands. “There were a lot of kills during last year’s Chuunin Exams, but those were all quick and clean. Most of them wore masks, too, so it wasn’t nearly as disturbing. They especially didn’t try to talk to us when they were on the verge of death.”

“We saw some foreign shinobi get killed during the invasion, but it looked more like they were unconscious and weren't as...mangled.” Chouji pointed out, but seemed to recall the incident and frown. “Urgh...I don’t think I can eat for a while.”

I turned back around so I was walking alongside by teammates once more. “Hm…Well, now we know how serious those bastards are about all of this.” I spoke with anger rising in my voice. “Tch, I’d like to recreate that scene with their bodies.”

Our conversation faded into silence after that. None of us were really in the mood to talk about anything else right now, and I was sure that scene was the only thing we were thinking of at the time. It seemed like I was the most irritated out of all of us, but that may be because those damn Kumo genin targeted me not too long ago as well.

Minutes passed and in the silence, we heard the faint sound of many footsteps coming our way. As we got on our feet, the first person to come into view was Kiba-kun and Akamaru with horrified looks on their faces. “Run run run run run!” He shouted as he cut across the small clearing.

We only became more confused when we saw his teammates sprinting behind him only a second later. Soon, we understood what was going on. The ground began to shake and tearing down the trees before us stood an enormous gorilla, a koala, and a…an ostrich? Well it sure is intimidating when it stands at fifteen feet.

“Well, we’re out of here.” I said quickly. I stumbled a bit while changing directions immediately, but managed to start running in the opposite direction. Ino and Chouji followed me while Kiba and his team broke off in another direction. Unluckily for us, both the gorilla and the ostrich decided to storm after us. The animals going on a rampage didn’t seem like a natural occurrence so ideas of how the Kumogakure shinobi are a part of this began to come into play.

“We need to shake at least one of them off!” Ino shouted while frantically keeping up the pace. “What’re we supposed to do?!”

There was no obvious solution to this dilemma. Judging from their size and the fact that one of them was a gorilla, they weren’t going to be easy to take down. Still, I twisted my body around so I could throw a couple of kunai knives with explosive tags on them, but the gorilla simply caught one and put it out with its fist while the ostrich dodge it with great agility.
“Don’t think you’ll be able to take us down that easily with those scrawny limbs of yours, you little brats!” The ostrich shouted with a smug look in its eyes. I wasn’t sure how I should feel, being smack-talked by a flightless bird.

“Okay, maybe we should try taking them on. There’s no way I’m gonna let some stupid bird insult my strength!” Ino shouted and prepared to stop and turn around, but Chouji and I grabbed her by a shoulder each and pulled her along with us. “Let me go! I need to teach that bird a thing or two about Konoha’s shinobi!”

“Ino, stop upsetting the giant animals.” Chouji said cautiously as we released her.
But it wasn’t like we could run forever. We had to get them off our trails somehow, but these animals were really good at keeping up with us, despite their size. It didn’t seem like we’d be able to have Chouji use his kekkei genkai on them; the gorilla was too strong and the ostrich was too swift. Ino can’t control animals that big, and I really don’t think my genjutsu would be much use, either. I was also still avoiding the usage of my Youkugan, so that was out of the question.

“Guys, any ideas yet? I don’t think I can keep running for much longer!” Ino cried with a desperate look in her eyes.

“Maybe they’ll get bored of chasing us and we can just run to safety.” I suggested half-heartedly, earning unimpressed glances from my teammates. Before I could speak once more, I heard a low growl come from somewhere. I almost froze so I could listen more carefully but that wouldn’t be the greatest idea.

Draw out your chakra. The voice demanded.

I furrowed my brows and looked over towards my teammates with a concerned expression. “Did you guys here that?” I asked cautiously, hoping I hadn’t just gone insane.

“Hear the stupid bird call us sorry excuses for genin?” Ino growled with gritted teeth. I immediately distanced myself away from her, but shook my head.

“N…Never mind, I think I’m just hearing things.” Yeah, because that’s always a good sign.

Stupid human… There was a loud huff followed by the voice. Was…Was it coming from inside my head? I decided not to question it and simply listened to what it had to say. Just draw out your chakra and I’ll take care of the rest. Damn humans can’t even make a proper escape on their own.

Seeing as I didn’t have much else to do, I did as I was told and started to let my chakra flow around me. I was about to question what to do next, but a sudden pulse coursed through my body and I stumbled a little from the sudden sensation. What the hell was that? Instead of an actual answer, I felt my head begin to pound.

“Riku, are you alright?” Ino asked in a panicked voice while supporting me as we jumped through the trees. “You don’t look so good. Are you feeling sick?”

“I…I’m just trying something out…” I answered with a faint smile, though I couldn’t stop myself from holding my head in pain. Hey, growly voice. What the hell did you do? I demanded through my thoughts, wondering if that was how I could even communicate with the voice.

Steer yourself away from your comrades. Tell them to deal with the bird.

I began to question if that was a good idea, but the voice soon growled in a threatening manner.
The only reason I help you now is because this gorilla is acting out of line for reasons unknown. Do as I say if you want to get away unharmed.

Well, I had already come this far. Might as well go through with whatever this awfully suspicious voice had in store for me and my team. After giving Ino a reassuring look, I began to steer away from them gradually. “I’ll take care of the gorilla, you guys deal with the ostrich. Trust me on this.” I spoke with the strongest gaze I could manage with my pounding headache and growing dizziness. Before they could object, I darted off in another direction.

I expect the gorilla to follow me like it did, but I was still surprised that it worked out that smoothly. Was is something about what that voice was doing that drew the gorilla towards me? I assumed it was something of the sort. Nevertheless, I continued to let my chakra run wild until finally, I came to a cliffside and had to slow to a stop.

Steadily, I turned around and faced the gorilla that was at least three times my height. Okay, Voice. Now would be a good time to work some magic. I thought while backing up against the stone wall.

Tch, pathetic! I thought you were better than this, brat. Well, this voice is awfully rude. Close off your senses and focus on your subconscious, human.

With a bit of hesitance, I began to do as I was told and focused on my subconscious. I felt my vision become clouded and is felt although my body was being lifted off the ground, though I still had enough proprioception to tell that my feet were still planted firmly on the ground.

Before I knew it, I heard the gorilla freaking out. Thumps and roars could be heard coming from it and I wanted to move, but my body was no longer under my control. I couldn’t tell what was going on, but the familiar voice soon came back.

“Konoha plans no such thing. You and your friends have been fooled, I’m afraid.” The voice answered calmly, his voice seemingly coming from two places at once; from both inside my mind and from the outside. I didn’t quite understand the context of their conversation, but it seemed like the voice was convincing the gorilla to go away. "Leave the Konoha genin alone and no harm will come to you or the others. You will tell your comrades the same.”

More growls came from the gorilla, but they were a lot calmer this time.

“You have only two choices in who to believe; those pesky little humans or I, your great leader!” The voice roared and soon, I felt myself regain feeling in my body. After blinked to clear my vision once more, I groaned as a sudden wave of dizziness struck me once more.

I stumbled and had t lean against the cliffside to keep myself from falling over. I looked up at the gorilla and froze as it leaned towards me. Its face was much larger than I had thought. It huffed and snorted before holding a tag out towards me. On it was the number nine painted on it. Hesitantly, I reached forward and took the tag from its large fingers. The moment I did, the gorilla spun around and rushed back into the forest.

I stood there absentmindedly for a moment and didn’t even register the fact that my teammates had come back. It took me even longer to noticed that Team 8 had come to join us as well.

“Oi, Riku.” Kiba-kun spoke while approaching me. “You didn’t get too scared by the gorilla, didja?” He laughed with his hands tucked away into his jacket pockets.

“N…No, I just…” I started while looking down at the tag in my hands. With a small huff, I looked up at the offers with a reassuring gaze. “I’m fine. Just a little tired is all. What about you guys? Get rid of that menacing koala?” My voice was a little taunting, sure, but I was still concerned about their well-being.

With an arrogant grin, Kiba-kun smirked in response. “Tch, nothing we can’t handle. Right guys?”
Hyuuga-chan nodded once while poking her two index fingers together, but Shino-kun adjusted his sunglasses while frowning ever so slightly. “You had to leave it me and my insect to immobilize it. Do not take credit for the work of others.”

“Tch, you--!” Kiba-kun started, but he was quickly interrupted by Ino.

“Riku, what’s that you’ve been fiddling around with in your hands?” She asked while approaching me. Her eyes soon grew wide when she saw what is was and before long, her arms were wrapped around me. “You got the last tag! How did you get it on your own?!”

“Maa…a little bird gave me some word of advice.” I answered with a sheepishly and earned a few odd stares, but it didn’t seem to matter, seeing as we no longer had to worry about failing. “If we all have the tags, why don’t we start heading back to the entrance together? It may be safer that way, and Kiba-kun won’t be leading any more giant animals towards us.”

I earned a slight glare from the male, but at least the others seemed to enjoy my light humour.

---

Right when the clock struck five, my team arrived at the gates to hand in the numbered tags we had collected. It was a long week but at last, we made it to the end and passed.

The few teams left were us four teams from Konoha, two Kumogakure teams, one Iwagakure team, and two Kirigakure teams. A maximum of ten teams could pass and we were only one team short of that. More teams than expected managed to pass, so another preliminary match was to be held once we turned to the mainland. I looked at the other teams and although some of them didn’t look like much, I knew this mean that they would all be tough opponents.

Once everything was settled, everybody was led back onto the ship to be taken back to Kumogakure. The jounin happily congratulated their teams and Asuma-sensei promised he would treat us to barbecue when we got back to Konoha, which definitely served as a good motivation for Chouji to keep going.

It was about an hour trip until we arrived in Kumogakure once more. I had found myself thinking about the voice in my head the entire time and even tried calling out to it, but it didn’t respond. I was beginning to doubt myself and that it was all my imagination, but the fact that the rapid gorilla simply gave me a tag out of its own will seemed incredibly farfetched.

After the ship docked, we were led into the village and into a building. It seemed like some sort of academy, but it didn’t seem to be one for aspiring genin or young children. Maybe it was a facility of sorts for higher ranked shinobi, or perhaps for special divisions.

From there, we were let to an indoor stadium-type arena where the first battle was to be held.

To choose who would go up against whom, they made a chart of numbers. One against two, three against four, so on and so forth. After that, the genin were told to draw a number. I looked at my slip of paper. I drew the number two, which meant that I would be the first match.

“Numbers one and two remain in the arena. Would everybody else please head towards the sidelines!” A jounin announced. My comrades wished me luck and I nodded them off. Once I turned around to see who my opponent, I raised a curious eyebrow, though I couldn’t help but smirk a little.

“The match between Mumeishi Riku and Inuzuka Kiba shall now begin!”

“Man, just my luck,” Kiba-kun sighed but spoke with a confident smirk, “I hope you and Ino aren’t that close. I’d hate to be chased down after beating you out of the Exams.”

I raised an eyebrow in response, hands tucked away in my pants. “You speak with much…arrogance.” I stated, smirking a bit myself when he reacted with an annoyed look. “Let’s have a fair match.”

With that, the examiner raised a hand and brought it down before him. “Begin!”

Immediately, Kiba-kun made a hand seal and soon, chakra could be seen rising from his body. I removed my hands from my pockets and just as he lunged towards me, I held out my arms to block him. I began to analyse his attack patterns while trying to keep my distance, but it was a lot easier said than done. He was fast and it was hard to keep up. It was more than once that he almost got me to slip up, but I managed to push him back at once point so I could regain my balance. Without a beat missed, he came at me again with a fast series of kicks and punches. Soon, he was driving me back into the wall.

“Come on, Riku! Take him down!” I heard Ino shout from the sidelines. “Show ‘im how it’s done!”

“Looks like you’re having a hard time keeping up!” He commented with a smirk, not slowing down one bit. I remained silent, completely focused on reading his movements. Once I was a foot away from the wall, I made my first move. “We may have worked together a little during the second test, but now you’re just like every other genin in this room; my opponent!”

At the same moment he punched with his right arm, I leaned away, surprising him with a dodge instead of a block. As his momentum carried him through, I brought my left arm up and drove my elbow right between his shoulder blades, satisfied with the loud thud as I landed the strike successfully. Just as I heard Kiba-kun landing, Akamaru was already jumping towards me, but I easily tossed him towards the genin.

I figured it was time to shift from the defensive to the offensive. I couldn’t just dodge and block forever, after all. Releasing my chakra into the air, the space around me seemed to ripple and soon, four mirages of me appeared.

“Guess we can’t mess around. Let’s go, Akamaru!” In a blink of an eye, he swallowed a food pill and flicked one towards Akamaru, who caught it in his mouth with ease. Curiously, I watched as the pup’s fur began to turn red. The increase in chakra that came from both of them didn’t go unnoticed. “There may be five of you, but just try and keep up now. This pill enhances our sense of smell by tenfold and doubles our chakra!”

Running at each other, I mixed myself up with the mirages and confused them. With all five of me jumping around, I wasn’t the only one having a hard time keeping track of the movement. He struck first, slashing at the mirage next to me. It wavered and disappeared, leaving him with four targets. At the same time, he and Akamaru kept jumping at us as fast as they could, trying their best to land a strike. Another mirage disappeared, then another.

“Only two targets left.” He smirked and the two of them attacked simultaneously. I frowned and pulled out a kunai as I held my arms in front of me, taking a hit to my forearms. My mirage disappeared as I spun to the side, slashing up Kiba-kun’s sleeve and leaving him with a flesh wound. “Damn it…the scent of blood!”

“You know, enhancing your senses isn’t a very good idea when you’re up against a genjutsu user. I mean, I understand why you used this strategy against Naruto during the last Exams, but now you’re just asking to be let out of the game.” I sighed, preparing myself for the next attack.

Ignoring me, Kiba-kun and Akamaru jumped into the air and began spinning rapidly. “Gatsuuga!”

They turned into what looked like gray pillars as they spun towards me. I quickly scanned my surroundings and braced myself, taking the hit with my arms. Still, the force was enough to send me back and I winced as I landed on my back, sliding a bit as I did so. Before I could get up, smoke bombs were thrown at me and a large cloud of smoke blinded me. Well, that’s just lovely.

A series of strikes began to come at me. He definitely wasn’t holding back, but I just had to last a bit longer to position myself. Despite speed being one of my strengths, I still ended up taking a few hits and eventually hightailed out of the smoke all-together. Right as I broke free, I was greeted by another spinning gray figure coming straight at me. The other Kiba-kun was using the same technique from behind.

“Riku, move!” I heard Naruto shout.

“Never thought of doing that before.” I commented sarcastically and jumped to the side, pulling out eight kunais as I did so. I flipped back to gain some more distance and threw my weapons at the two incoming Kiba-kuns, catching them by their jackets and pushing them back. I immediately began to form a new series of hand seals while running towards the two of them.

“Furafura Hitomi.”As I ran up to them, I held out my hands and with chakra focused to the tips of my hands, tapped their foreheads with them. I smirked and slowed down to a stop before turning around to see the two of them struggling as they got up. “Unfortunately, smell is a bit trickier to mess with and I’m not that great. I’m sure you’ll have a fun time trying to get around with warped vision, though.”

The genjutsu I placed on them didn’t blind them, but it did make it seem like they were incredibly dizzy. It was clear that my technique was working because the two of them wobbled about as they tried to regain their balance. With a smirk, I sprinted up to one of them and drew a fist back, ramming it into his stomach. I wasted no time landing a combo that shot him into the air with a strong kick, following by a series of aerial strikes that finished with me kicking him across the room and into the wall with my shin.

“Wait to go, Riku!” Ino cheered, waving her arms about. “Oh! I didn’t know she could do that!” I heard Chouji comment loudly with the usual sound of him eating chips as he spoke.

As Kiba-kun pushed himself off the ground, cursing under his breath, I spun around to fend off the transformed Akamaru. It seemed although I’d just never catch a break. Left, right, right, left, below, left, below again—I was breathing heavily now, knowing that if I slipped up, I’d take a painful hit.

“Gatsuuga!”

Oh, shit. I forgot there were two of them.

I didn’t have enough time to react and before I knew it, a pain exploded across my back and I was launched into the air. Several cuts appeared on my body as I landed, sliding across the ground a bit. Before I could even start getting up, the other Kiba-kun launched towards me and pounded me into the ground. I felt at least a couple of ribs crack from the impact and my mask caught the blood that shot from my mouth. I was still conscious, but the growing numbness and the ringing in my head almost made me want to knock myself out.

“I’d stay down if I were you, Riku.” I heard Kiba-kun warn while standing next to his transformed companion.

I lay on my back for a moment and dared to close my eyes, almost as if I were really unconscious. I had to regain my composure before trying to get up. After making sure my body could still move, I slowly opened my eyes and began to peel my arms out of the small crate that I was lying in.

“That seems like the smart thing to do…” I started while trying my best not to inhale my own blood, “…But this is a really uncomfortable place to lie down.”

I winced and slowly pushed myself up while pulling out the bottom of my mask. A small stream of blood dripped onto the ground and although I was still left with the sticky substance getting smeared all over my face, at least I wasn’t breathing it in. By the time I regained my composure, the two of them were already approaching at their usual above-average speed. Neither of us was in great shape, but it was pretty obvious that I had taken more damage at this point. That wouldn’t be stopping me any time soon though. Right before they hit me, I pushed out a burst of chakra through my feet and propelled myself into the air to dodge.

There was a confident smirk on his face as he drew nearer. “Heh, I see an opening!” Kiba-kun smirked, preparing that spinning technique of his. I was ready for him this time, though.

“Hey Kiba-kun, I’m not limited to just genjutsu.” I murmured to myself as the two of them charged at be again as I landed. “Raiton; Raikouse.” With a few hand seals, I focused chakra to my hands and feet. Much to everybody’s surprise, my hands and feet sparked and quickly erupted into a wild coat of lightning.

“What the—since when do you know ninjutsu?!” Kiba-kun exclaimed with eyes wide in shock.

I offered no explanation and charged towards him. Before either of them could redirect themselves, I reached out and grabbed one of them by the shoulders. The force pushing against me caused me to be pushed back into the wall, but I landed against it with my feet and kicked off with another burst of chakra. At the same time, the lightning cut across his body and caused him to scream out in pain. After a 360-spin in the air, I threw him into the other coming by way, resulting in both of them being shocked by the lightning.

Before they hit the ground, I jumped after them and with two horizontal spins in the air, kicked them into the ground. The room fell silent except for the cracking of the lightning. Once I landed, I had the lightning around my hands disappear. There was a puff of smoke and Akamaru returned to normal, but it seems although Kiba-kun could still stand.

“Tch, that isn’t ninjutsu.” He grumbled while pushing himself onto his feet. “You could at least try to make it feel a little more convincing.”
“Maa…and I thought I could have a little more fun with some faulty Raiton.” I responded with a faint smirk. I could sense the looks of disbelief coming from my comrades as they shot silent messages demanding why I tricked everybody into thinking that actual Raiton. It may have looked like I was using ninjutsu for the past several minutes but sadly, I haven’t quite reached elemental techniques yet. At least it made this match at least remotely more interesting.
“Riku, quit messing around and take him out already!” Ino’s piercing voice shouted from the sidelines.

Now that Akamaru was out of the picture, that shouldn’t take much longer.
Just when I was a few feet away from him and he was ready to counterattack, I released a burst of chakra through my feet to launch myself over him. I flipped over him just enough so that I could reach up and grab him by his shoulders. As I landed, I pulled him over my head and with as much force as I could, threw him into the ground.

“Let me repay you for earlier.” I muttered as his back slammed into the ground. Before his body even settled, I brought my hands together into one fist and from above my head, I brought my hands down to strike him in the solar plexus. This time he was the one who coughed up blood, but I didn’t stop there. If I could still move after strikes more powerful than the ones I just landed on him, then he’d definitely still be able to move after this.

I was just about to land another strike but to my surprise, he grabbed me by my wrists and threw me off to the side. I slid across the ground a bit and winced from the sharp pains coming from my ribs, but managed to stay focused enough to catch Kiba-kun’s fist before it slammed into my jaw. He was now crouching over me and I was pushing up against his fist, but I soon pulled my legs back and into the air to strike at his head.

When he easily dodged that attempt, I released his fist as he pulled back, which gave me enough time and space to kick up and onto my feet. We were now facing each other with only a few feet between us. Both of us had taken significant damage and I was sure we were both dealing with a few cracked ribs and sore limbs, but that wasn’t going to stop us from continuing this match until there was one clear winner.

“Let’s finish this.” I spoke while bringing my fists in front of me.
“I’ll make you regret taking out Akamaru!” He growled back, and the two of us ran towards each other.

He struck first and few moments of taijutsu ensued. He eventually managed to throw a kick to my face, but I managed to block it with my forearms and was only pushed back by a few feet. Before he could prepare another attack, I pulled out the last of my kunai knives, the ones that had explosive tags wrapped around the handles.

As I threw them towards him, he continuously jumped and flipped back to avoid them. However, I had thrown them in a line and the area between him and I were completely clouded, which gave me a chance to catch him by surprise. Without a moment’s notice, I dashed through the expanding line of smoke and the moment I broke through the other side, I leapt into the air and kicked him into the air by his chin.

I jumped up immediately afterwards and with a quick spin in the air, slammed my shin into his side and sent him flying to the opposite end of the arena. He slammed into the wall with a loud crash and another large dust cloud formed while I landed on the ground with a thud. My legs were shaking and my knees were on the verge of giving out, so I had to stay kneeling. If that didn’t finish him off, I probably wouldn’t have been able to continue.

I brushed my hair out of my face as I gasped for air, surprised at how drawn out the battle had become. Silence filled the room as the dust settled. The dust settled and we heard a slight groan come from Kiba-kun, but he didn’t up. I sighed to myself and as I slowly stood up on trembling legs, the announcer made is declaration.

“Winner; Mumeishi Riku!”

After seeing all the battles, I learned a few things.

Firstly, my comrades all have interesting techniques. Shino with his bugs, Tenten with her weapons, the Hyuugas with their Palm Strikes, Lee and his taijutsu, Ino and her body control, Chouji inflating himself, Sasuke and his Sharingan…Naruto and his stupidity…but for some reason he ends up winning, anyway. I must say, he has some weird luck on his side. That aside, I learned much about my comrades during their battles. Of course, I learned much about the other shinobi, as well.

Those from Kumogakure and Kirigakure were a year or two older, so they had that much more experience. The Kumo nin were nothing to overlook. They were powerful and we all knew it. Tsura’s a skilled ninjutsu user. He has a large supply of chakra and had incredible chakra control. We learned that it was a trait from his clan, the Ganbari Clan. All the clansmen are born with a large amount of chakra to begin with and excel in ninjutsu. Most of them use at least two elements, too. Tsura uses katon and fuuton himself.

Tonkachi Kibishii, the kunoichi of his team, is a strategist. Her clan’s technique, Shinkei no Hakai, affects the nerves of the victim and renders the affected parts of their body numb, therefore useless. This technique can only work when the victim is strike with a chakra-enhanced attack, so the clansmen are also good strategists so they come up with ways to get close to their opponent. She seems to use jolts of lightning to help with the numbing. It’s a good thing Tenten is a long-ranged fighter and has a near-unlimited supply of weapons to keep her opponent away or she probably would have lost. It was a close match, but the bun-haired genin came out as the victor in the end, much to our liking.

The third member of their team, Shinayaka Ganjou, is the silent but deadly type. He dealt heavy blows straight from the start. His clan is a clan of blade-wielders, and he’s one of the gifted ones of his clan. He uses twin swords and uses the chakra-blade techniques that the samurais of Tetsu no Kuni use, which is basically swinging ones blade and shooting crescents of chakra like projectiles. His attacks easily cut through flesh and give nasty bruises. One of the Kirigakure genin was the one who fought against him. They were nothing to look down on, either.

All three of the Kiri nin were pretty well-rounded from the looks of it, though one of them was from the Houzuki clan. Houzuki Namida, the kunoichi who was matched against Ganjou, seemed pretty skilled with her kekkei genkai, but her speed wasn’t enough to keep evading all of Ganjou’s attacks. Ryuudou Ekimaru, defeated by Naruto, had graceful water-manipulation techniques. He would often swing his water around like a whip to try and capture the blond, but Naruto’s Kage Bunshin technique really did him some good during that battle. Lee was the one who took down the third member, Kawaguchi Minami, with his speed and taijutsu. Since she was mostly a long-ranged fighter, once the green taijutsu user got close, she was done for. It did take a while to actually get close, however, since most of her ninjutsu and tricks spread across the arena and didn’t give Lee much space to move.

Despite the fact that all the genin are impressive, only eight of us would continue to the final round. Those eight would be the two males of Kumogakure, Naruto, Sasuke, Lee, Neji, Tenten, and I. The match between Hinata and Chouji ended in a draw because they both ended up too exhausted to fight any longer. Since Chouji kept rolling around, Hinata couldn’t land a decent strike and could only evade until eventually, their stamina ran out.

Now, it was time to see who our opponents would be during the final around. After that, we had a month to prepare, just like the last Exams.

“The matching system will work the same way as the preliminary match-ups,” the examiner explained while showing the tournament chart. He began to pass around the box and we drew numbers once more. One all our names were written onto the sheet, he showed it to us again. “Make sure you take a good look at the matches. You’ll have a month to prepare for the tournament. You are all free to leave now.”

“Maa…” I sighed, placing my thumbs in my pockets. How funny the Heavens were, pairing me up with none other than—
“Looks like things just got interesting, Riku.” His voice was slightly mocking as I turned around to face him, having to look up to meet his gaze. “You’ll need all the luck you can get.” He was smirking cockily, but I remained calm and indifferent to his comments.

With a slight shrug, I began to walk away to meet up with my comrades. “May the best genin win, Tsura.”

---

After washing up back at the inn, my comrades set out for dinner. Once we ordered, conversation about the Chuunin Exams began. We were asked about how it went and what sort of things we learned during the test. Ino and Chouji reflected on how their experience from the last Exams aided them this time around. Soon, it was my turn to speak of the past week.
“It was a pretty interesting experience, to say the least.” I started while gently swirling the tea around in my cup. “I’ve never been kidnapped before, but I guess I got to learn a little bit about Tsura’s team from all of that.”
“Like what?” Ino asked curiously.

“That they’re a bunch of assholes that have close to zero morals.” I muttered with a slightly irritated voice. “But on a more relevant note, they’re tough. As much as I’d like to wipe the floor with Tsura’s smug-ugly face, I honestly don’t think I can. My genjutsu isn’t the best in the world and I can’t use my Youkugan, either.”

There was a moment of silence as my team seemed to mull this over. As much as I’d like to think I can take Tsura out in just a couple of minutes, the reality of it is that I’m probably the one at a disadvantage.

“You still have a month to hone your skills before the match.” Asuma-sensei pointed out while lighting another cigarette. “That, and Kakashi seemed oddly insistent on training you for that month.”

Us genin responded simultaneously with a confused expression. “Kakashi-sensei? I find that hard to believe.”
A light chuckle came from the jounin and he nodded in agreement. “Yeah, I’m pretty confused too, but I gave him the okay. You’ll know why soon enough.”

“I don’t normally like staying in the dark when it comes to learning techniques, but I guess I should trust you on this.” I answered hesitantly. By then, I had forgotten to mention how something happened to me when we were getting chased by large animals at the end of the test. I meant to tell my team about how something seemed to take over my body and calm down the rampaging gorilla, but the conversation had already moved on to how the rest of the month would go.

Now that I thought about it, I figured it would be best not to bring it up. I didn’t want to cause my team any unnecessary worry. It doesn’t really seem like anything they could help me with, anyway. Plus, I should be mentally preparing myself for a month of training with Kakashi-sensei and whatever it is he’s planning on teaching me.

Soon after, our food arrived and our conversation topic switched to the genin of the other villages. “I think they might be stronger this time.” Chouji commented with a mouth full of beef.

“No kidding. Most genin can barely get the hang of one element, but that Tsura guy can already use two types of elemental ninjutsu! Then again, it’s not nearly as impressive as Sasuke-kun’s ninjutsu.” Ino exclaimed, but her eyes soon went into a daydreaming state as she sighed with a smile. I snapped my fingers in front of her face to bring her back to reality. “To be honest, I’m surprised to many of us got through to the finals. Especially you, Riku. No offence, but this is your first time and you still beat us!”

“It’s only because I got lucky,” I commented with a sheepish look. Heh, I’d better hope that they aren’t mad at me. “A lot of us were matched against the older genin who are far more experienced than us. I got off easy, being matched against one of our own.” I didn’t say it in a tone that insulted Kiba-kun’s abilities as a shinobi, however. It was pretty obvious that he’s talented himself and defeating him in the preliminaries wasn’t an easy task. I’m still sore here and there, and I know breathing didn’t always cause my ribs to sting a little.

“Yeah, let’s just hope that luck stays with you.” Ino sighed. Her look told me she was a little worried and while I tried to show that there was nothing to worry about, we all knew that would be a lie. “You’d better learn some hardcore techniques and pay that bastard back for almost blowing up your legs!”

“If you win, we can go eat barbecue to celebrate.” Chouji added happily. Of course; thinking about eating barbecue when he’s already snatching meat off the grill as he speaks.

“Maa, we’ll see how it goes.” I answered, feeling a sense of warmth that my comrades had faith in me.

“Well, that’s enough serious talk for now.” The jounin laughed as he lifted his bowl of rice. “Why don’t we enjoy tonight’s meal before training begins?”

“Yeah, I hate eating when stressed!” Chouji announced before wolfing down the remaining rice in his bowl.
“Oi, slow down or you’ll choke!” Ino snapped, glaring at our teammate. I smirked beneath my mask as I held my cup of tea in hand, realizing that I had lost my appetite after the conversation. Thinking about all the horrible possibilities of how the new future will play out tends to do that sometimes.

---

Weapons, clothes, bandages… I thought as I made sure I had enough of everything for training. Ready. I met up with my team and we went down to the inn’s lobby together to meet up with the other teams. Kurenai-sensei’s team arrived just as we did. As usual, Kakashi-sensei came in late.

“Ah, good to see you’re all here already.” He laughed meekly before resting his hand on my head. I huffed. “Did you forget anything?”

“Better hope not,” I answered plainly before gently brushing his hand away. “Just out of curiosity, why aren’t you training Sasuke this year?”

I saw the eyes of the raven-haired genin narrowed a bit. Kurenai-sensei answered the question for me. “I’ll be helping him with genjutsu. It may seem odd since Kakashi’s the one with the Sharingan, but he already knows how to use it. Same goes for his ninjutsu, as well. What needs to be worked on is his genjutsu technique.”

She smiled and I nodded back. That sounds about right. I heard that even during the last exams, his Chidori was strong enough to puncture the One-Tailed jinchuuriki’s absolute defence. Given the time that’s passed, its power must have increased to some degree. He’s probably gotten better at keeping more chakra in reserve, too.

“Well, no point in hanging around here. Don’t let your guards down, now.” Kakashi-sensei spoke with a smile, but we all knew the seriousness behind his words. With a few goodbyes, I followed him outside and exited the village. I was told that where we were going to train wasn’t too far away. Even so, we wanted to get there before it got dark.

The travel was peaceful and the sun was just beginning to set once we arrived. It was a valley with a series of large waterfalls that fell into a small lake. The water flowed down into a river with fast currents. Behind some of the waterfalls, dark shadows could be seen. They must be caves. I thought as we made our way towards the edge of the water. I assumed that we would be spending the month either camping out or sleeping inside the caves.

“So…” I started once we came to a stop. “What exactly are you going to teach me, anyway?”
“Elemental ninjutsu, of course.” The jounin answered nonchalantly. I looked up with a raised eyebrow as if to ask if he was just messing around with me, but his only visible eye remained calm and lacked any hidden intentions. “From your battle against Kiba, it’s pretty obvious your chakra affinity is Raiton.”

I tilted my head to the side and furrow my brows. “How can you be so sure? I just used that as a front to my genjutsu. I can do the same with the other elements too, if I wanted. I mean, I haven’t actually made any genjutsu for the other elements, but I know I could pull it off…probably.”

“There’s some more proof.” He added while beginning to lead me towards one of the caves. “Although you weren’t actually aware, I’m sure you knew on a more subconscious level what your chakra affinity was. Maybe it’s one of the memories that you’ve lost.”

“Maa…this is a pretty sketchy explanation you’re giving me.” I responded sceptically. Once we entered the cave, I set my bag down and stretched out my back. “Any way you can really prove that Raiton is my affinity?”

With a small sigh, he pulled two slips of paper and handed one to me. “Do you remember these?” He asked as he held his slip of paper between his index and middle finger. “I showed them to you once, but I didn’t think you were ready to use them yet.”

I held the paper in front of me and examined it. It was a single rectangular piece of paper that didn’t seem to have anything special about it, but I knew what he was talking about. “This is that special chakra paper that reacts to a person’s chakra, right?” I questioned while flipping the paper around. “I guess you want me to try and focus my chakra to it. Isn’t that supposed to be pretty hard? I hope you’re not expecting me to spend the rest of the month fooling around with this stuff.”

“This is just the proof that you asked for. If your chakra affinity is really lightning then the paper will wrinkle, like this.” As he spoke, he demonstrated by focusing his chakra to the paper he held. Just like he said, the paper immediately wrinkled up. “Your chakra control is better than most genin, so it shouldn't take you long to get it. Go ahead and give it a try.”

Although I was still a little suspicious about how certain he was about my affinity, I held the piece of paper in my hand and began to focus. I’ve never really tried to focus my chakra into another object so it took a few minutes, but eventually, the crinkling sound of the paper startled me and I opened my hands.

“Well would you look at that.” I murmured, revealing the wrinkled paper in my hands. “You’re not some kind of clairvoyant, are you?”

“Ahaha, if that’s what you want to believe.” Kakashi-sensei responded with a sheepish laugh before leading me out of the cave once more. “Now that all your suspicious are dealt with, let’s get started on your training. You have a lot to learn before you face Tsura, after all.”

For some reason, I was beginning to feel a little anxious. Maybe it was because I could sense some sort of cruel intent coming from the jounin. He’s a nice guy, right? It’s not like he’ll break every bone in my body in the next week…right? I decided not to imagine the grey-haired man as a sadistic asshole and scanned the scene before me.

“Feels like a crime to use such a beautiful place for intensive training.” I commented while looking at the waterfalls. “A little too peaceful, don’t you think?”

“It’s the perfect place to practice Raiton.” Kakashi-sensei answered contently as he stood next to me. “Just try to keep the level of uprooted trees on the downside.”
It’s amusing how he thinks I can do that. That, or he’s hinting at how destructive will be.
Maa…just what did I get myself into?

We set out at dawn to begin my training. It was a bit cold, but Kakashi-sensei told me that dealing with all sorts of weather conditions would be a part of my training. Once we approached the small body of water, he turned around to face me. “We’ll start with a little lesson on chakra control. It’ll help you spend less chakra on ninjutsu and genjutsu.”

Casually, he walked across the water. After he was a few feet in, he faced me once again. “Now, you try. Focus chakra to your feet and emit a constant stream of it. The amount of chakra emitted will always be changing, so keep that in mind.” He took a few steps closer and gave me that one-eyed smile of his. “You may want to take off some of you excess clothes, and your sandals. It’ll make things easier. Try to get over to where I am.”

“Gee, you make it sound so easy.” I commented before stripping down to my shirt and bottoms. After dropping the excess clothing into a small pile next to me, I made the tiger hand seal and focused chakra to my feet. Here we go. I thought before taking the first step on the water. It felt rather…bizarre, as if there was a thin line of air between my foot and the water. I could feel the repellent force pushing against my food. The water rippled and though it felt shaky, it seemed like I wouldn’t fall. I shifted my weight and took the second step.

Splash.

Well, damn it.

I broke the surface and began to shake my head violently in a half-assed attempt to get myself dry. As I wadded back to shore, I removed my mask and wrung it as dry as I could. “I can already tell this is going to be a blast.” I muttered sarcastically while retying my mask.

“The sooner you get the hang of it, the sooner you’ll be able to dry off.” I heard the jounin respond as-a-matter-of-factly.

“I’d have mutated into a fish by then from the looks of it.”

Nevertheless, I began to focus the chakra to my feet once again.

---

It took me until the moon was rising to get the hang of walking on water. By then I had given up on wringing anything out and Kakashi-sensei simply observed from a nearby tree with his book in hand. It was incredibly frustrating and the more irritated I became, the harder it was to focus on the task at hand, but at least I got it at the end. Kakashi-sensei seemed pretty happy about my accomplishment, too.

The next day, we started to train my physical strength. He had me start the day with a rigorous workout that consisted of muscle building. It was just after noon that he started to make things harder for me.
My forearms and hands were wrapped so they wouldn’t get cut up so easily during my training. Although I tried my best to not show any signs of it, I was getting tired from the tasks he put me up to.

“Come on, Riku. I know you can do better than that.”

With a slight glare, I lifted my right foot and placed it against a small ledge in the mountainside. I don’t care if it’s a great view – climbing up a wet cliff without using chakra is hard, what with the wet stones and everything. It involved quick thinking and constant use of strength, as well as focus, which is why I understand why it makes good training. Even so, this must be the twelfth time I’ve ever done this and my arms were pretty sore.

Eventually, I reached the top and with one last pull, I swung myself up and onto the ledge. With a heavy sigh, I shook out my wrists and stretched myself out while Kakashi-sensei gave me a short nod. “Looks like you’re getting the hang of it. Tomorrow, you’ll start climbing with a hand tied behind your back.”

“Wonderful.” I answered sarcastically as I followed him more towards the center of the clearing. It was already a bit worn out from previous days of training. Near the end of the cliff, there was a pool of water that was filled by a small stream and ran over the cliff, which is one of the many reasons it’s wet in the first place. The entire landscape was like a huge water system. Water was everywhere, which probably explains why he chose this place to train in the first place.

“Since you’ve got the hang of walking on water, it’s time to get started on molding your chakra into lightning.” Kakashi-sensei explained as he led me to the pool of water. He held up his hand and after a couple of seconds, it began to spark. “Chakra has vibrations and in order to generate lightning, you need to increase those vibrations. Put your hand in the water when you give it a try. It’ll be easier to see any results that way.”

I nodded and knelt by the water. After concentrating my chakra to my hand with the help of a hand seal, I focused on vibrating my chakra. It was an unusual feeling to say the least, and much different from creating lightning using genjutsu. Well, that’s a given, since they’re just illusions.

There was a faint, buzzing sensation that began to grow stronger in my hand. It almost felt like the pins and needles when a limb falls asleep, but less painful and more ticklish. I furrowed my brows and tried to mold my chakra further. It was much more different than the basic ninjutsu I learned from Sakura. I’m pretty happy with my skill when it comes to chakra control, but I guess it wasn’t as good as I thought it was.

It was discouraging, really, and I felt like taking a break, but I was getting there. I closed my eyes and concentrated more chakra. As I took in another breath and slowly let it out, there was a sudden cracking sound and I immediately pulled my hand out of the water with a short cry.

“Did I just--?” I cut myself off as I saw the small remnants of lightning spark in the water before disappearing. I looked up at the jounin with widened eyes before looking back down at my hand. “So that’s elemental ninjutsu.” I murmured, almost entranced by what I had just done.

“Good work.” He commented before slipping off the boulder he had been sitting on. “I’ll go catch our dinner. Keep at it.”

So I did.

---

The following day was spent perfecting the simple task of generating lightning. It was tedious and incredibly boring, but at least it really helped. By the end of my fourth day of training, I was already pretty efficient when it came to generating lightning. I felt a little pathetic when I realized that many shinobi were already familiar with elemental ninjutsu by this age, and some were even skilled in two elements, but I reminded myself that I had already come a long way since I first arrived in Konoha. I liked to think that I was doing pretty well for a shinobi who’s never learned any sort of ninjutsu before.

Once again, Kakashi-sensei led me to the top of the cliff with the pool of water and everything. It was almost a routine thing to approach the water and run lightning through it, but he instructed me nevertheless.

“Let’s start with a little warm up. Generate some lightning in the water.”

I still needed to use the hand seal to help me concentrate, though. I placed my hands on the surface of the water. With a small release of chakra, my hands sparked and in a matter of seconds, lighting flashed and sparked violent from my hands and through the water around them.

Standing up once more, Kakashi-sensei nodded once in approval. Then, out of nowhere, he shoved me towards the water. “Whoa--!” I gasped and threw my arms out. Though my feet splashed into the water, I caught myself with a stream of chakra flowing from my hands and pushed myself onto the water before turning and glaring at the jounin. “What the hell was that for?” I growled while getting back on land.

He responded with a cheerful laugh while rubbing the back of his head. “Your reaction time could use a little work, but at least you can stay on the water once you get on it. You can work on your speed on your own time. For now, we’ll focus on putting your lightning to use.”

“You think I’m ready for that?” I questioned while shaking off my feet. “I don’t really feel like I am.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll start with the basics.” He reassured while guiding me to he center of the field. After gesturing for me to keep my distance, he formed a short series of hand seals. Almost immediately afterwards, his hands and feet began to spark violently. “Let’s call this Raikou Toumen. Coating your hands and feet will strengthen your attacks and shock your opponents. It’s a simple technique, but practical.”

He taught me the appropriate hand seals and after his lightning dissipated, I attempted to generate my own. I made the hand seals and felt my chakra beginning to flow more quickly. Lightning began to spark around my hands rather easily since that as something I had already gotten the hand off, but generating lightning around my feet at the same time was hard.

I managed to get a few traces of lightning to form but as I did, the lightning around my hands faded away until I completely lost focus and stopped the technique all together. Without a word I gave it another shot, but yielded the same results.

With a small sigh, I looked up at Kakashi-sensei sheepishly.

“This is gonna be a long day.”

It was the beginning of the second week of training. That left three more weeks until the third round of the exams. My Raiton training has been going pretty well now and generating lightning was almost second nature. I guess that’s what I get for spending nearly every waking hour working on it.

After the usual morning exercises, we made our way up the cliff side once more. I think Kakashi-sensei decided I was ready to move on now, since he didn’t stop at the clearing as usual.

“This seems like a good spot.” He murmured while stopping in his tracks. I stood next to him and looked around. All around us were enormous trees that nearly completely blocked the sky. Although the area we were in wasn’t very dense, it still didn’t seem like a favorable training area. I’m sure he has something fancy up his sleeves, though.

Without any words, he began to form a series of hand seals and soon, lightning began to spark around his hand. In a blink of an eye, it shot out and morphed into the form of a hound. A tail of lightning stretched and remained connected to his hand, enabling him to continue controlling it as the lightning hound crashed through a few trees. The end result was a cloud of dust forming and our training space being enlarged.

As the lightning hound disappeared and the dust settled, Kakashi-sensei turned to me with a one-eyed smile. “Raijuu Hashiri no Jutsu. The majority of Raiton involves manipulating the lightning into many forms. It should be easier to figure out after your past training, but don’t expect good results on your first attempt.” He explained before turning me towards intact trees. “Now, you try. Just make sure you direct the attack away from me.”

I just knew this was going to be a strain.

With a heavy sigh, I copied the hand signs and began to draw the chakra to my hand. Slightly taken aback by the sudden surge of power flowing to my arm, I readjusted my footing to get a hang of the jutsu and threw my hand out, launching the lightning along with it. Although it wasn’t as menacing or graceful as Kakashi-sensei’s, the lightning took shape into the hound and cracked one of the trees. As it struck, the lightning hound seemingly crashed and spread apart, disappearing into the air like Kakashi-sensei’s attack did. There was barely a crack in the tree, but at least there was some visible damage. Who am I kidding, though; it was pretty pathetic.

I dropped my arm by my side before looking up at the jounin with an unimpressed gaze.

“Not bad. Focus harder on shaping your chakra and put some force into its movements. You could say the attack is an extension of your body.” After giving me a reassuring pat on the back, I nodded and tried again before facing the cracked tree.

Draw chakra and focus. That’s straightforward enough. Once again, the chakra flowed to my hand and lightning began to spark. In a matter of seconds, it came to life and the lightning was jumping about violently in my hand. With another thrust of my hand, it shot out and expanded, shaping into a less deformed hound this time. A few swift movements of my arm made it lunge at the damaged tree. This time, a loud snap sounded and there was a visible crack in the bark.

“Much better.” Kakashi-sensei commented with a nod. As I dropped my hand once more, he signaled for me to stay as he was already on his way out of the small clearing. “I’ll leave you to it.”

---

There was only a week and a half left until the final round of the Chuunin Exams, but I still had a lot to learn. My Raijuu Hashiri could actually do some decent damage now but of course, it could be a lot better.
Kakashi-sensei drilled me in chakra control and lightning manipulation to the point that I was minutes away from passing out. On the bright side, his no-mercy training method really pays off in the long run. I felt like I had been training for years.

“Take another go at it.” He half-ordered, half-suggested. As the dust settled once more, I sighed and formed the hand seals.

“Raijuu Hashiri no Jutsu.”

This time, Kakashi-sensei made clones to serve as moving targets to I could practice controlling the lightning hound’s movements. Over time, I’ve gotten the hang of starting the jutsu, but my physical control of it was still lacking. With a clenched fist and a hard strike, I had the lightning hound attack the trees, taking out a couple of them in one go.

Soon after catching my breath, a firm hand was placed on my shoulder and Kakashi-sensei gave me his one-eyed smile. I took it as a sign that training was done for the day and followed him back to the cave we set our belongings in. It was getting dark and I didn’t think I could get another lightning hound out of me so either way, training would have ended then.

“You’re doing well, Riku.” He stated once the fire was lit. Skewered and set around the fire were four gutted fish. Though they weren’t as filling, the woods don’t exactly serve meat every night. “There’s another trick or two I want you to learn before your match, but it shouldn’t be much of a problem.”

“Sounds like fun,” I responded plainly while poking at the fire with a stick. Sparks flew into the air as I did and I panned my eyes upward to watch them burn out. “I feel like I’ll need more than new tricks to beat down Tsura’s techniques, though.”

Kakashi-sensei nodded once while turning the skewers so the other sides of the fish would cook as well. “He has incredible stamina, but so do you. You’re pretty agile as well. Making him work while you play it easy is your best bet, but it won’t be easy.”

I sighed, tossing the stick into the fire before leaning back on my hands. “A nice time-manipulation genjutsu would be helpful with that, but I don’t think I’ll be able to learn one in time for the match. I guess I’ll just have to match him when it comes to techniques, or at least be somewhat of a challenge.”

“Why else do you think I’m pushing all these new techniques onto you?” He asked rhetorically with a slight laugh before handing me two of the cooked fish. “Make sure you rest well. Training will only get harder from here.”

---

After a morning of review and polishing my new techniques, Kakashi-sensei took me back to the clearing with the small pool of water that fell over the cliff. Once we reached the center of the clearing, he stopped and faced me as he’s done many times before.

“This technique won’t deal much physical damage to your opponents, but it’ll definitely give you some extra time if you need it. It’s called Genwaku Kurayami.” Soon after, he began to make the hand seals. For merely a second, a bright light shone from his hands and made my vision go white. I winced and slammed my eyes shut, but it didn’t stop me from seeing spots. Although the effect didn’t last long, I could see what he was getting at. “Think of this technique like a flash bomb. You condense the lightning and release all at once, causing a bright flash in your opponent’s face. Of course, I didn’t go full out on you just now. Depending on how well you can use it and when you use it, it can temporarily blind your opponent for at least a minute.”

A minute may not seem like much, but every second counts in a battle. It would definitely be useful in getting Tsura to stay put while I prepare a bigger attack.

Kakashi-sensei first started me off by focusing chakra to my hands and releasing it quickly, to get the feel of it. Although I could see that the lightning was much brighter when I did so, it definitely wasn’t enough to blind somebody temporarily. Soon, he told me to focus more and more chakra into my hands until they were sparking wildly. After learning how to manipulate lightning for the past couple of weeks, this came a lot more natural, which I was thankful for.
When told to, I released the chakra and the light flashed from my hands.

“Simple, isn’t it.” The jounin stated with a one-eyed smile. “Knowing that technique will help you get the hang of this one. It’s a combination between the Raijuu Hashiri and the one I just taught you, but it’s also a little bit of a double-edged sword, if you get what I mean. Watch.”

Soon enough, the lightning hound jumped from Kakashi-sensei’s hand. After distance was put between the lightning hound and us, it was suddenly condensed into a white ball and seemed to explode, causing another bright light to appear. This time, however, the grass around the light was burnt and smoke was rising from them.

“A larger form of Genwaku Kurayami can be used with virtually any lightning technique, but it produces a lot of heat as well. If enough chakra is condensed, it may burn your own hand.”

I nodded in response before trying it out myself. Within a moment’s notice, I formed my own lightning hound and furrowed my brows as I tried to condense the amount of lightning and chakra. It felt like I was trying to crush a rock with my bare hands from the amount of resistance I was feeling. Slowly, the hound-form was lost and grew smaller as the lightning became brighter. The sparks flew about more violently until suddenly, I let it slip and the lightning expanded into a burst of light. I winced from the sudden heat that stung my hand as well, but my gloves seemed to lessen the effect of it. I’d definitely need more control to use this technique.

It was hard to tell what he was thinking, but it didn’t seem like I let him down completely. “You’ll get the feel for it soon. Don’t strain yourself too much, though. Focus, but stay relaxed. You shouldn’t have to strain so much to condense the lightning and chakra. It’s your own chakra, after all.”

With that, he sat himself down on one of the nearby boulders – one of the few that weren’t destroyed yet – to observe my progress. I nodded once and performed the jutsu once more, which got me the same results as last time. I decided then that this technique would probably take up the rest of the week.

After getting the hang of the final technique Kakashi-sensei taught me, the last few days consisted of long hours of sparring that built my endurance and ninjutsu efficiency. Naturally, I was left with bruises and cuts here and there, but nothing that would leave me unable to fight on the day of the Exams. I was always a fast healer anyway, so they probably wouldn’t even be there by the time it’s my turn.

There were times when he would put limits on what I could do, such as only using taijutsu or not using genjutsu. There were a few times where he’s had me stay in one place while he attacked me. In a shinobi battle, just about anything was possible. I was certain that Tsura had many more tricks up his sleeve, too. Thankfully, I have a few new things to surprise him and the other Kumo shinobi with as well.
Kakashi-sensei had taught me a useful trick after I got the hang of Genwaku Kurayami, but whether or not I’d get the chance to use it, I’m not sure. It should definitely make some eyes widen if I even managed to use it, though.

“Don’t let your footwork falter.” He pointed out as I spun to the side, knocking one foot against the other a bit by mistake. “It’s the little things that may change the course of the entire battle.”

Remaining silent, I blocked the series of punches and grabbed his wrist. Leaning in so his elbow bent, I raised my knee to strike him in the gut. He blocked it with ease and with his free hand, grabbed my raised foot and threw it out, causing me to lose balance momentarily. Before he could land a kick, I regained my footing and ducked down while throwing my legs out. The spun in such a way that they attacked Kakashi-sensei’s legs from behind, causing his knees to give out for a brief moment.

As he got up, I flipped back and began the series of hand seals. Just as he began to make the same hand seals, my lightning hound jumped from my hand and towards the jounin, teeth bared and ready to attack. It was no surprise that Kakashi-sensei formed one of his own and sent it after mine, causing the two lightning hounds to clash in the center. I found myself clenching my jaw as I fought against the opposing jutsu, but it was obvious I wouldn’t be able to take his down.

Deciding that I wouldn’t win this battle, I brought my hands together and condensed the chakra, releasing it into the explosive light that burned the grass and caused Kakashi-sensei’s lightning hound to disappear as well. Looking back at him, he gave me a nod of approval and lowered his guard.

“It’s getting late. Let’s head back at get some rest. You need to be ready for tomorrow, after all.” He stated while making his way over to me, hand resting on my shoulder.

I sighed and brought myself low enough to grip the side of the cliff to slide down. “Sounds like a plan.”

Walls at least five stories high surrounded the field. On top of them, a large audience was seated around the arena. Opposite of the arena’s entrance was where the Raikage sat, along with an elite shinobi on each side as guards. Upon arriving, the genin were told to line up facing the Raikage as a new examiner was introduced.

“My name is Darui. I’ll be calling the shots for the tournament.” The man stated rather blandly before holding out a piece of paper. The matches for the tournament were written on it, allowing us to get a quick reminder of how things were going to work. “People didn’t come to see anything dull, so let’s try to keep things interesting.”

With that, the first two shinobi were called to the center of the field while the rest made their way to the audience. The first match was Neji-san against Ganjou. I wasn’t sure who would win, but I knew it was going to be an interesting match. Ganjou is swift and his footwork is phenomenal, but Neji-san has the help of his Byakugan. For both of them, striking one another would be a hard task. After a fight full of the two genin taking turns going on the offensive, an exhausting battle finally ended with Ganjou as the victor. He caught Neji-san at his blind spot and managed to drive his blade through Neji-san’s shoulder. It made the majority of us cringe, but he recovered pretty quickly and is resting in the infirmary.

The second match was between Naruto and Tenten-san. It was no boring match either, but with Naruto being more of a short-range fighter and Tenten-san being a long-range type, the kunoichi beat down the hyperactive blond. Her victory didn’t come easily, however. She has much less stamina than Naruto, but has more brains and managed to conserve her energy while making Naruto jump about and get tired. Her accuracy is also something to be feared and thus, Naruto’s many clones didn’t stand a chance. Naturally, the blond began to cry and flail about, but harsh scolding from Sakura and a punch in the head from Sasuke got him to shut up.

Sasuke and Lee-san faced off in the fourth match. Their battle was so fast-paced, it seemed like only Kakashi was able to keep up, and he had to use his Sharingan to do so. With Lee-san’s weights removed and Sasuke’s Sharingan allowing him to keep up with the older genin, all we could see were blurs and the sounds of rapid strikes being blocked. Occasionally, one or the other would be hit away, or they were pause and push against each other with their shins or forearms. Bursts of flames would come from the Uchiha and Lee-san would be seen jumping in the air several times. In the end, Sasuke won with the help of his Sharingan. Both of them were left with a number of bruises and I’m sure there were some fractured bones here and there.

Finally, it was my turn. It was my turn to beat Tsura down for being the bastard that he is. Once our names were called, I was wished much luck and was told to show him what pain really is. I glanced over to Kakashi-sensei briefly, but he said nothing. He simply gave me a small nod and I returned it before making my way to the arena by taking the stairs. Tsura, on the other hand, decided to put on a little show by flipping over the railing and sliding down the side of the wall. Already, he’s made the audience to think that he would win. Proving them wrong should be fun.

“Are both combatants ready?” Darui asked as we approached one another. Tsura had a smug look on his face. I remained calm and continued to give him an uninterested look. It seemed to amuse him, but I ignored it. After a few moments of silence and a nod from both of us, the examiner lowered his hand before jumping out of arena. “Begin!”

Tsura wasted no time in getting me to move. We both knew he had far more chakra than I, but I liked to think my new techniques would surprise him.

“Fuuton; Shinkuugyoku!” After taking a deep breath, he quickly began to exhale several blasts of wind. The attack had a wide range and I quickly learned the bursts of wind were strong enough to pierce my skin. Wincing from the sharp pains that appeared across my arms and legs as I jumped about to dodge and block, I knew I had to counter his attack quickly or I’d end up defending the entire time.

“It’s a shame that I’m forced to tarnish such beautiful skin.” He chuckled while running towards me, hand seals already being made. I narrowed my eyes in disgust. The last thing I wanted was to deal with his disturbing approach. “Katon; Ranran Tsukami!” Just as he threw his hand out to strike, they erupted into flames. I leaned back just in time to dodge the flaming punch and leaned to the side, slamming my forearm into his side.

As he stumbled, I slid around him and swung my legs into the backs of his knees, causing him to collapse and fall onto the ground. I was not only stronger, but also much faster than before. It was clear he didn’t expect this as his eyes told me he was quite surprised by my swift movements. “You disgust me.” I murmured before getting ready to generate some lightning around my hands. I didn’t want to give these tricks too early, so I made sure to keep my chakra steady enough so that there wouldn’t be any visible signs of lighting.

Before I struck him in the back, he rolled to the side and kicked back up onto his feet. Just as I began to turn around and face him, he was already beginning another jutsu. “Fuuton; Reppuushou!” Upon clapping his hands together, wind was compressed and a powerful gale was formed. Riding the wind were several projectiles, such as shuriken and kunais. Not only was I sliced in several places; his attack knocked me off my feet and into one of the patches of trees that bordered the arena.

Several cheers in the audience could be heard and I could only imagine the looks my comrades had, but I had more than just speed and power on my side. It was time to show them the new techniques Kakashi-sensei taught me.

“That can’t be all, Riku!” I heard Tsura shout as I hid in the trees. “Already resorting to hiding? I thought a woman of your standings would be able to put on a far more interesting performance than that!”

Without him or the audience knowing, I formed a few hand signs and I release a subtle wave of chakra. With a genjutsu in place and his patience running low, my plan was running smoothly. Of course, said genjutsu caused no visible changes as I waited for his next move.

“If you won’t come out, then I’ll just have to smoke you out.” I peeked out from the side and saw him forming a new series of hand seals, this time exhaling a large ball of fire. “Katon; Goukakyuu no Jutsu!”

It didn’t take long for the trees to burst into flames. That was the signal for me to put my strategy into play. Silently, I slipped out from the trees and with my genjutsu, made it appear that I exited in another direction. Once he and the audience had believed that I was caught, I began to manipulate the arena to my liking.

With another burst of chakra, the flames seemed to spread from the trees and towards Tsura at an alarming right, startling him and the audience. Soon, the flames grew and began to spin around him. By letting my chakra flow towards him, I made him believe the flames were real, having him feel the heat of them and all.

“Since when do you have a fire affinity?!” I heard him cry as the cyclone of flames closed in on him. Just as the flames engulfed him and his scream of pain ripped across the stadium, I released the genjutsu to reveal that the trees were still in flames and that Tsura was perfectly fine. As he winced, still feeling the pain of being burnt, I stood before him silently. “You…So you learned a trick or two…!”

“That wasn’t anything new.” I answered bluntly as he pushed himself up shakily, already getting over the pain. As he stumbled a bit, I decided to use one of the new techniques Kakashi-sensei taught me. “This, however, is.” A quick series of hand seals was all it took to hit him with a burst of light, causing him to shout again and cover his eyes in attempt to get rid of the sharp pain. “Raiton; Genwaku Kurayami.”

“What the—augh!” While he fought to overcome the temporary blindness, I charged at him with a kunai in each hand, returning the slices that he dealt on me with his previous jutsus.

“Surprise, surprise. The genjutsu specialist knows some ninjutsu.” I murmured, amused by his stunned and pained expression. “I know a lot more than I let on, don't I.”

Slowly, he began to block more and more as the effect of my jutsu began to fade until finally, he tried to land a strike of his own. I dodged to the side and with the kunai in my right hand, sliced across his shoulder. Blood flew from the wound and splattered across the grass, but he quickly ignored the wound and struck my wrists, causing me to lose my grip on my weapons.

As he winced from his new gash, I formed new hand seals and focused chakra to my right hand. Soon enough, lightning sparked and stretched from my hand, taking the form of a hound. “Raiton; Raijuu Hashiri no Jutsu.” With a swift motion, the lightning hound lunged towards Tsura at great speed and knocked him down, sending a surge of lightning through his body. He cried out in pain once more as I sprinted towards him with lightning-coated hands, ready to take him out.

“Fuuton; Asagao Shougai!” A burst of chakra swirled around him and a strong gust of wind spun around him violently, pushing me back. I cursed under my breath as I flipped back to avoid getting knocked down by it, giving him time to get back onto his feet. “You’d be far more alluring if you weren’t such a nuisance.” He growled, now getting angry. His mocking tone was gone and it was clear he was dead serious now.

“You, on the other hand, just lack any sort of charm at all.” I responded, jumping back as he tried to slice at my stomach with a kunai of his own. Before I knew it, something tightened around my wrists and pulled me towards the bastard. I soon caught a glimpse of wire and quickly registered the fact that he was trying to tie me up. Struggling only caused the wire to dig into my skin, however, so simple tactics was out of the question.

I didn’t have time to plan an escape, as shuriken with wires attached to them were thrown around me, pulling me back and tying me around a tree. I cursed under my breath and began to bite at the wire around my wrists, hastily trying to free myself before Tsura could do whatever he planned to do.

“Katon; Ryuuka no Jutsu!”

Coming from his mouth, flames rode down the several wires that kept me tied to the tree. I couldn’t get my hands free quickly enough. In a matter of seconds, I was engulfed in flames. The heat was enough to make a scream rip from my throat, but the burning sensation afterwards made it that much worse. The wires were burnt off and I fell to the ground, clothes charred and ashes drifting around me.

“Oh, what’s this?” I heard him murmured as he slammed his heal in between my shoulder blades. “You’ve got something interesting on your back. I wonder what that could be?”

My eyes widened in shock. I hadn’t realized that the back of my shirt was torn, but I realized quickly enough that it must have been torn by one of his weapons from earlier in the match. I cursed under my breath but thankfully, he didn’t seem to realize that the mark on my back identified me as a Shurikane.

“Get… off of me…!” I snarled and began pushing back to get off the ground, but soon found that it was unnecessary to do so, as Tsura had already pulled me off the ground by the front of my shirt.

I could only manage a raspy groan and cough. I’ll admit that it wasn’t my post prideful moment.

“I can assure you that real flames hurt a lot more.” He hissed, glaring daggers at me. “I expected something a little more real from a so-called genjutsu specialist!”

“You want something real?” I growled, my voice still raspy from the previous attack. “Here’s something you’d wish was fake.”
It was now or never. At this rate, I’d just continue being tossed around by him and my comrades would be pretty bummed out of all I did was dodge his ninjutsu. Kakashi-sensei surely wouldn’t be too proud of that performance, either. I had to show them that I had improved within the past month; that I’m just as much of a genin as they are.

Before Tsura could try anything else, I grabbed his wrist and dug my nails into his skin. Naturally, he immediately tried to pull away but it was already too late. “Raikousuji!”

My hand was immediately coated in lightning and my coated fingers immediately began to affect his skin, but this technique didn’t stop there. It didn’t take any longer than a heartbeat for his screams to start ripping across the stadium. His entire body began to convulse and his grip around me was released completely, but I kept my grip tight around his wrist.

His body twitched and arched at unnatural angles, almost as if he were possessed. It was only when smoke began to rise from the small wounds around his wrist did I let go. He collapsed on the ground and remnants of my lightning sparked as the silence of the stadium droned on.

“Real enough for you yet?” I spat while wiping my bloodied fingertips on my jacket.

“W… What the hell…?!” His voice was hoarse and his body was trembling. With a heaving chest, he shakily pushed himself into a kneeling position and glared up at me through his bangs. “What the hell did you do?!”

I couldn’t help but smirk, feeling great pride in the fact that I reduced him to such a state. I probably would have looked a lot better if I wasn’t still coughing and charred from his ninjutsu as well. “Blood is a salt and water solution with quite a bit of iron in it.” I started while watching Tsura struggle to get back onto his feet. “That makes it an awfully good electrical conductor, don’t you think?”

Kakashi-sensei only explained to me how this technique works. It wasn’t very complicated, but I had to send a constant stream of lightning and actually have the sort of contact I did with Tsura for it to work. It sure gave some intense results but after being burnt and thrown around, I had little to no remorse.

“Tch… Don’t even think for a moment that I’m through with you…!” Tsura growled while getting onto his feet. I shifted my foot back and readied myself for whatever he may throw at me. We were both in a weakened state, so it has become a battle of efficiency and speed.

With a monstrous shout, he lunged towards me with a kunai in each hand, engaging us in hand-to-hand combat. I blocked and countered as much as I could, but his movements were a mess and unpredictable. There was no form and was more like a crazed frenzy.

I had no time to form any hand seals and focusing on generating lightning while trying to defend myself was above my current skill level, so I had to resort to enduring the assault until I felt the wall of the stadium against my back.

“I’ll shred that pretty little face of yours.” He snarled while slashing one of his kunai at me. I managed to catch his wrist and I could have sworn that I dodged the second swing, but immediately after seeing his satisfied smirk, I felt my cheek and right shoulder beginning to sting and burn.
It was then when I noticed the translucent extension that coated his weapons. He was using his chakra to coat the blades so that they would be longer. I tried to punch him in the gut with my free arm but found myself at a loss when my arm wouldn’t respond properly. His smirk widened.

“How does it feel to have your tendons sliced?” My eyes grew wide and I tried to move my arm again, but to no avail. “Oh? You didn’t even notice? Here, maybe this will help.”

My eyes began to water the moment he slammed me against the wall once more. A scream was caught in my throat and I began to feel my body grow week. I was getting dizzy as the agony coursed through my body, barely lessening as time went on.

When the pain finally began to turn into a dull, numbing sensation, I pulled myself together and matched his gaze. It was too early to back down. I was still breathing and I was still conscious, so I could still fight.

“Don’t make me laugh.” I groaned. I still had chakra in reserve, so I began to generate it into lightning.
In a blink of an eye, my entire body except my right arm began to spark violently. I lurched forward and slammed my head into his jaw. The lightning from my hand began to scratch at his wrist and caused him to let go of the kunai that I stopped. While he was recovering from the strike, I kicked his other wrist as hard as I could to disarm him.

The motions caused my right arm to swing about and the agonizing pain from my wounds came back in sharp bursts, but the adrenaline rush helped numb the pain. I gripped my shoulder with my left arm to help stabilize my limp arm as I faced Tsura. My breathing was still heavy and shaky, but I could still move. I could still win.

“I didn’t think you were a masochist, but I guess everybody’s entitled to their own tastes.” He jeered while preparing another set of hand seals.

The moment he began to move, I charged towards him as well. I sent small bursts of chakra to my feet in order to make myself faster and in a heartbeat, I was only a couple of steps away. If I could just grab a hold of him one more time, I could use Raikousuji and finish him off.
I threw my left arm out and smirked as I grabbed his shoulder. In the time it took for him to form another hand seal, my body was already showing signs lightning. Time seemed to slow down as I began to tighten my grip. The moment I felt my nails dig into his skin, I knew this was it.

“Fuuton; Reppuushou!”

My body felt light. I could no longer feel my hand gripping anything. My entire front felt bruised and I was short of breath. The loud howls of the wind blew past my ears, but I could hear the faint shouts of someone in pain, but they didn’t last long. I was thrown into the wall and the pain that erupted from my shoulder forced a shriek out of my dried throat.

I could feel the blood running down my arm as I gripped it tightly, as if it would reduce the constant throbbing. I heard a loud crack when I hit the wall. I dared not to look at my shoulder to see what further damage had been done.

Through blurred vision, I saw Tsura collapse only a few meters away from me. I could see lighting flashing across his twitching body but before I could determine whether or not he was conscious, I blacked out.

The first thing I was greeted with when I regained consciousness was a searing pain that burned in my shoulder. I groaned and subconsciously began to feel around for my mask with my left arm. My vision was blurry and my mind was too foggy to try and rub my eyes clear, so I continued to blindly swing my hand next to me in hopes of finding a nightstand of some sort where my mask might have been.

Before I could register that there was somebody else in the room with me, somebody grabbed my wrist and I immediately tensed up. “O-Oi, who’s th-there…?!” I demanded, surprised by how torn up and strained my voice sounded.

“Calm down, Riku. It’s just me.” The familiar voice responded while slipping my mask into my hands. Before I could tie it around my face, however, I felt the cool glass of a cup press against my lips for a brief moment. “Drink.”

“Oh…Kakashi-sensei.” I murmured as I took the water. As my vision cleared, I handed the emptied glass back to the jounin and tied covered my face as usual. “Thanks.”

I seemed to be in a medical ward of sorts. There were a few other beds around me, though they were all empty. Kakashi-sensei was too my left. In the middle of the room was a small table with medical supplies. I assumed that’s where my mask was.

As I tried to sit up, the pain shot through my body once more and all I could do was curse under my breath. The jounin gently pressed his hand against my good shoulder and gave me a look that told me to stay down. I didn’t complain, however. My body was too sore and weak to move.

“Don’t strain yourself. They repaired your shoulder, but your body is still weak.” Kakashi-sensei cautioned while giving me a concerned look.

My memory was a bit hazy, but the pain was definitely something I wouldn’t forget. For a moment, I closed my eyes and tried to remember exactly what had happened before I blacked out. I remembered using Raikousuji and getting blown away again by him. I opened my eyes and glared at the ceiling just from thinking of that bastard.

A part of me was scared to ask because I didn’t want to know the results of that battle, but I knew I’d have to learn sooner or later. With a slightly pained expression, I glance over to Kakashi-sensei.

“How did the match turn out?” I asked slowly, with every breath causing my injuries to sting.

For a moment, the jounin looked although he was in thought, as if he were considering whether or not he should tell me. I looked away and prepared myself for the worst.

Finally, he gave me his one-eyed smiles. “You managed to deal a lot of damage--”

“Who won?” I interrupted, knowing that he understood what I was asking the first time around. He was just trying to avoid the question that I wanted answered.

He fell silent again. A few moments passed until finally, he sighed and looked me in the eye. “Tsura.”

Although I expected this answer, I found myself in a bit of shock nevertheless. I cursed under my breath and turned my head away from the jounin so I was looking at one of the far corners of the ceiling. In the end, no matter how hard I trained, I couldn’t even end the battle in a draw. I felt Kakashi-sensei’s gaze still set on me while I lied there, frustrated by the fact that I had let him and my team down.

“There’s no need to get upset. You did incredibly well.” He began to reassure me, though I continued to stare blankly at the ceiling. “Everybody was surprised that you could use so much ninjutsu. I didn’t think you’d be able to use Raikousuji at all against him, let alone twice. I’m proud of you, Riku.”
Those last words took me by surprise. I glanced back at him and saw that he genuinely looked content but before I could say anything in return, another voice sounded from the entrance.

“Riku, you’re awake!” Ino exclaimed happily while rushing to my side.

“Are you hungry? I have snacks,” was the first thing Chouji said as he held up several bags of chips.

“I didn’t know you were here, Kakashi.” Asuma-sensei noted as he entered the room as well. “You didn’t already tell her the good news, did you?”

Naturally, I raised an eyebrow at the mention of this so-called good news and gave them all a confused look. “I just got utterly destroyed by that bastard in front of thousands of people. What could possibly ever serve as good news?”

Ino immediately took the liberty of happily explaining it to me. “The only reason you lost is because you fell unconscious at the end. Tsura may have won, but he was completely destroyed, too. We heard him just down the hall yelling about how he could still participate in the tournament but because of the condition that you put him in, he’s forbidden from continuing!”

I couldn’t help but smile and chuckle, even if it did make my shoulder burn. “Heh… That is pretty good to hear.” I agreed, satisfied with the fact that I rendered him incapable of fighting. I figured it was because of Raikousuji, since that damaged him from the inside out.

“But he was really scary.” Chouji added with his mouth full. “If he could’ve moved, he probably would have tried to hurt you even though the examiner already announced his victory.”

“That’s true.” Asuma-sensei nodded with worry in his voice. “Although he only looked silly, lying there while yelling like a five-year-old, you need to watch out for him. He seemed incredibly annoyed that you managed to render him into such a state.”

“Maa… That all sounded fine and dandy until you told me that.” I commented with a sheepish laugh. “I guess I’ll just have to strike him down harder next time, heh.”

Although I wasn’t too happy that Tsura had been declared the winner, it was definitely satisfying to know that even then, he wouldn’t be able to continue the tournament, so he might as well have lost, too. The fact that it sounded like he was out to get me was still something I’d rather live without, though.

“Why don’t you two head back first?” Asuma-sensei suggested while turning Ino and Chouji towards the door. “I’ll say with Kakashi to make sure she’s all right.”

“Hey, what makes you think she wants to be alone with two creepy old men?!” Ino snapped while trying to push back against our sensei. Oh, how hurt the two jounin looked from that comment.

“I’ll be fine.” I reassured her and before long, there were just three of us in the room. I looked over to my sensei with a questioning look. Something told me that the conversation would get a little more serious from here on out. “Did something happen?”

For a moment, the two jounin simply exchanged glances until eventually, my sensei spoke up. “It’s about that mark on your back.”

My eyes widened for a brief moment as I remembered that the back of my shirt had been torn during the match. The two jounin seemed to have the same concerned expressions. “…I don’t know what it is, if that’s what you’re asking.” I murmured while picturing the glimpse that I got of it during the hot springs. “But I know it must have something to do with me being, well… you know.”

“Maa, that’s what we were afraid of.” Kakashi-sensei sighed with a shrug. “None of us have ever seen it, so I wouldn’t worry too much about it. Just be careful. Being in this village is already dangerous enough for you.”

“There was something else.” I added while staring up at the ceiling, remembering the events of the second test. The jounin fell silent and listened intently. “During the second exam, something weird happened. There was another voice. For a moment, it felt like somebody had taken control of my body.”

This didn’t seem to be anything they wanted to hear, but I should tell them nevertheless. None of the other genin was around at the time, either. Whatever it was that happened, it was apparently small enough so that even they didn’t notice it despite being a lot closer to me at the time.

I proceeded to give them the details about the situation I was in, about how the animals started to chase us and how the voice told me to break off in a separate direction. I tried my best to describe the sensations that I felt when I seemed to lose control of my body and tried to recall the sort of things that the voice said. When I was done, it only seemed to confuse the two jounin even more.

“Some interesting are definitely happening this time around.” Asuma-sensei sighed as he lit a cigarette. “I guess it’s better then having another rampaging bijuu, though.”

“This is still worth being worried about, though.” Kakashi-sensei murmured with a concerned look. “We’ll be sure to keep this all in mind, Riku. For now though, focus on getting better, all right?”

Despite wanting to watch the rest of the fights, even though there was probably only one left at this point, I sighed and nodded. Kakashi-sensei offered to stay to watch over me, but my sensei insisted otherwise. Apparently the final match was between Sasuke and Ganjou, so Kakashi-sensei was told to go observe his student’s fight. I couldn’t help but notice how insistent he was to stay behind, however.

“Geez, that Kakashi…” Asuma-sensei sighed while pulling up a chair. “He probably feels responsible for your current state, which is why he feels obliged to stay.”

“Why would that be? I was the one who wasn’t strong enough.” I responded with a confused look.

“He was the one who taught you those techniques but from the way things turned out, he probably thinks is his fault for teaching you the wrong ones. Of course, that’s not the case. Don’t think that you were too weak, either.” He added quickly while giving me a more serious look before laughing lightly. “You really impressed us with your use of ninjutsu. You’re really coming along nicely.”

As Asuma-sensei ruffled my hair a bit, I could only sit and stare blankly past him. I realized then that I was stuck in a shallow mindset. Deep down, I believed that I could only prove myself by winning, but that wasn’t the case. It was as if a weight had been lifted off my shoulders when Kakashi-sensei told me that he was proud, and I got the same feeling when my sensei commented on my technique as well.

I remember blacking out with a sense of frustration and anger, but I didn’t feel so upset about my loss the more I thought about it. No, my match was far from a loss, and I’m sure that’s what Kakashi-sensei and Asuma-sensei had been trying to tell me through their words. A part of me thought that even Tsura knew that, and it may be why he was so angry.

With a weak smile, I fixed my gaze on my sensei and nodded. “Thank you, Sensei.”

Everybody stayed for a week while we all recovered from our wounds. In the end, Ganjou and Tenten were the only ones to become chuunin. I heard Sasuke performed well during his battle against Ganjou, but it wasn't enough to win. I was told that it was also a factor of his rash behaviour and stubbornness He had to stay under medical care for a few days as well because of his wounds.

Although I didn't get a chance to watch their match, I heard many comments about Ganjou's judgment and ability to remain levelheaded when facing new opponents. I had to admit, he seemed a lot more tolerable than that damned Tsura. Part of me believed that if he wasn't from Kumo, we'd be able to get along pretty well.

When I was free from medical care, Asuma-sensei commented on my match, as well. As it turns out, I had a pretty good chance of becoming a chuunin until I let my emotions overpower my ability to think rationally.

"Fighting with rage isn't necessarily a bad thing," he explained to me, "but you need to make sure you can still think clearly with that head of yours."

I had to admit, I wasn't really proud of letting myself get so riled up. Maybe if I managed to think things through a little more, I could have managed to get away with fewer injuries. Maybe I could've even won, but there's nothing more to say about it now other than that my lesson is learned.

"Your ninjutsu already improved a lot." Asuma-sensei also told me with a proud smile, one that was similar to Kakashi-sensei's. "From here on out it's a matter of being more efficient with them. We'll be sure to focus on them from here on out."

"I won't let you down," was my confident reply.

It was now the morning of our departure. I decided to kill time by walking around the market. Although this village was technically my enemy, it was still a nice place and its style was certainly an interesting change from Konoha. The mountains and the bridges that connected several buildings made the entire place look like a giant tree house of sorts.

As I slowly walked by the stores that were just beginning to open, I found my mind wandering back to my match against Tsura. I began to realize just how angry I was during that time and sighed heavily. I was never one to get riled up so much. I guess that says just how annoying that bastard can be.

"Hey, aren't you that genin that fought Tsura?"

"Hm?" I turned around and say a young man leaning over his stand. He greeted me with a smile and waved me over, so I did. "Maa… I dunno if I'd call it a fight. It was pretty pathetic on my part." I commented with a sheepish laugh.

The man immediately waved his hand in front of his face as if I were speaking nonsense. "No, no, I thought you were amazing! He's a bit cocky, so it's nice to see that somebody put him in his place, chyahaha!"

I hid my snickering with a cough, amused by the fact that a fellow villager was talking about Tsura in such a way. Then again, I can't be judging the entire population of a village by one of their annoying genin, and maybe a certain blond examiner who was a bit of a jerk.

"It's a shame about the results, though, but I'm impressed that you managed to put up such a good fight. He's one of the tough ones of the genin, y'know?" As he spoke, he began to set up signs and pull out his wares. He seemed to sell handmade items such as key chains and figurines. "Oh, how's that shoulder of yours? That looked like a real nasty hit you took."

"The medics fixed me up just fine." I responded while rolling my shoulder as if to prove my point. "I guess it's something I'll have to pay him back for one day."

The man and I shared light chuckle before he gestured for me to come closer. As I did, he gently took my hand and placed something in it.

With a warm smile, he looked back up at me as he closed my hand around the object. "Think of it as a thank you present."

"Eh? I don't think I've done anything to be thanked for, though." I spoke with a confused tone, but the man had already spun me around and gave me a gentle shove away from the stand.

As I stumbled forward, I heard a familiar voice call from the stand behind me.

"Oi, Pops!" I froze in my tracks and dared to glance over my shoulder. My eyes widened slightly from the person who appeared next to the man, groggy from having just woken up. "Geez, I get a day off but still I find myself working."

"Hey, do your old man a favor without complaining for once, chyahaha!" As I walked away with my head tucked low, I continued to listen to the father-son exchange. "Now help me set up the rest of these items, Tsura."

For a guy who's that big of a bastard, I could hardly believe he was the son of a man so gentle. Once I was out of sight, I opened my hand to find a polished stone with the symbol for "wisdom" engraved into it.

---

When the time came around, I met the other genin at the village gates to prepare for our departure. We were heading back to Konoha with Team 7 accompanying us. The other teams had gone back earlier so we wouldn't travel in too large of a group, and also because they healed faster than Sasuke and I.

Although all the genin had already been gathered for a while, the jounin were nowhere in sight.

"Geez, is Kakashi-sensei trying to make some sort of statement by always being late?" Sakura groaned as she looked around for the missing jounin. "We should just leave without him. Honestly!"

I only spent a few months with Team 7, but it was more than enough to know that she wasn't kidding that the jounin was never on time. Collectively, the three genin could count the amount if times he was on time on one hand.

"Tch, he probably got lost." Sasuke muttered with nothing but annoyance in his voice.

"Oi, what if he's eating ramen all on his own?!" Naruto shouted next while peering into the village as if he were using the Byakugan. "That bastard had better not be enjoying miso soup right now!"

"Even Asuma-sensei is keeping us waiting this time." Chouji sighed, though he didn't seem to mind being able to snack on his chips in peace.

Footsteps approaching the gates caused us to fall silent. I turned around expecting to see the grey-haired jounin and our smoke-addict sensei but instead, we were greeted with two faces that I wasn't really intending to see anytime soon.

"What the hell do you guys want?" Naruto immediately snapped while glaring at the shinobi before us.

"Hm! Are all Konoha shinobi this rude when their hosts decide to see them off?"

"It's how we are when we're confronted by the jerks who kidnapped our friend and almost blew her legs off!" Ino snapped while stepping forward as well.

Although I was irritated by their presence, I remained quiet and simply tried to understand why they were here. Ganjou, donning his new chuunin attire, seemed to be keeping his eyes on me. As we exchanged a relatively neutral gaze, Ino and Kibishii, the Kumo kunoichi, continued to bicker at the side.

"Kibishii." Ganjou suddenly spoke while glancing towards his teammate. "You're giving our village a bad name."

"You've already done that during the Exams." Sakura muttered, annoyed by their presence as well.

The other kunoichi was now glaring at Sakura. I took the liberty of standing between them and directing my attention to the shinobi before us. I wasn't too happy to see them, but the Exams were over and the air they gave of was a lot less hostile than it was during the tests. I figured that I should at least hear them out.

"What do you to want?" I asked calmly, but made sure to keep my eyes on their hands. "If you're trying to pick a fight, I hope you realize you're outnumbered."

"We wish to do nothing of the sort." The chuunin replied immediately. "Rather, we would like to leave on more positive terms, which is why Kibishii and I are here before you."

"Yeah, we just wanted to make it clear that even though we were enemies during the Exam, it's not like we're dumb enough to overlook your skills." The kunoichi muttered while glancing away a bit. "You kids are tough, but you've sure got a lot to learn about being mature." She did a bad job of hiding her smug look, but I couldn't really deny her words.

Before Naruto could make some remark to prove her point, I shoved him back into Sakura so she could silence the blond.

"I'm still not too happy over the fact that I had explosive on me, but it's not like I can't say the same." I found myself smirk a bit, though I wasn't sure if it was evident in my eyes. Nevertheless, I tried my best not to seem hostile towards them. They were being reasonable, after all. "Maybe the next time we meet, it can be under friendlier circumstances."

"I would hope so." The male shinobi agreed with a slight nod. Despite being Tsura's teammate, it didn't seem like Ganjou was really a bad guy. I remembered that when I was captured, he was actually telling Tsura to back off a little bit. "Konoha's shinobi are certainly skilled. I would like to spar against you once more, Uchiha-san. You were indeed a very worthy opponent."

"Tch. I'll only be getting stronger." Sasuke muttered, addressing his words to Ganjou. I didn't even have to read his expression to know that he was still cold about his loss. When I glanced over, however, I was a little surprised to see the faint hint of a smirk that played on his lips.

They were about to leave until Kibishii stopped in her tracks and turned around. She seemed to have remembered something and caught my gaze.

"Oh, almost forgot." She spoke while a faint smirk and directed her words to me. "Tsura's really pissed at you, so you'd better watch out if you ever meet again."

"So I've heard. What was that about being mature again?"

She snickered a bit in response and nodded along just slightly. "Yeah, he may be teammate, but he doesn't think much. Then again, neither do you. You've got your limits, kid, but thanks for showing Tsura that he's got 'em, too."

With that, the two of them waved goodbye and disappeared into the village. I repeated her words in my head once more. What she said was true, and it was the same thing Asuma-sensei told me about my match as well. Subconsciously, I stuck my hand in my pocket and brushed my thumb against the small stone that Tsura's father had given me.

"Wisdom, eh…?" I whispered to myself before shaking my had clear.

For a moment, my comrades and I stood at the empty space where Ganjou and Kibishii stood just moments before, as if trying to understand if that really just happened. The silence was finally broken when our senseis finally decided to show up, at least twenty minutes late.

"Oh? Everybody looks so tense. We didn't make you worry too much, did we?" Kakashi-sensei laughed nervously as he approached us. His laugh only became more nervous as we all gave him and Asuma-sensei a scolding glare. "Ahaha… You genin are too young to look so scary."

"I guess we should really get going then." My sensei added with a similar laugh.

"Kakashi-sensei! You owe us ramen when we get back to Konoha!"

"Yosh! Then that means you owe us barbecue, Asuma-sensei!"

With a final glance back at Kumogakure, we were off.