Chunin Exam: Phase 2 - Part 5

He arrived in front of the small cave with the two girls in his arms, already frothing from their mouths. He almost wanted to sigh, considering the fact that he's been the one saving these guys all this time. But in a way, he's building his political power by doing this, considering the fact that Ino, Hinata, and Sasuke are the children of powerful people.

By having their support, he's building the foundation needed for when he becomes the Hokage. Once these 3 inherit the position of their fathers, then he'll have the support of their respective clans. But once Azumi grows older, he knows that she'll have the support of the same clans, considering that she's friends with the heiresses of Yamanaka and Hyuga.

The Haruno Family is just a bunch of merchants but they're important too, if he wants to fund his fight to become the Hokage… Although, now that he has billions of ryo in his bank account, he won't need their help anymore. Azumi, however, will be needing their backings.

He almost chuckled in mirth. His sister, whether she knows this or not, has already started her path to politics the moment she befriended Ino and Hinata, along with Sakura.

However, Sakura, from what he knows, is just the fourth child in the Haruno Family, and the youngest one at that. Due to rebelling against her parents' wishes, she's now living in an apartment she rented after she became a Genin but even though she's technically an adult now, her parents still have control over her but they haven't done anything… yet.

He'll look into it later, after the exams.

Anyhow, he stepped into the illusionary wall, and entered the cave, where Azumi, Sasuke, and Sakura sat. He noticed that his sister was brooding, and he felt amused by the sight.

Seeing him with her friends, the pink-haired girl ran towards him.

"A-Are they okay? Why are they frothing from their mouths?" Panic and worry were evident in her voice, which made him see a new side of her since she's always calm and collected.

He crouched and gently laid them to the ground, and said, "They're mostly fine. It's just that they couldn't withstand the speed that I was going, making them faint. Why are you asking this though? You've seen this happen with Sasuke earlier."

Realizing that she was losing her cool, she took a deep breath, and calmed herself.

"It's nothing, I was just worried about them. What happened to the team of Kumo shinobi?" She asked, curious.

"I killed them all. But I don't know how they managed to converge with each other so soon. Maybe they have some kind of tool that could let them sense one another?" He said as he shrugged, then stood up.

If she was fazed at the fact that he had just killed two teams of shinobi, she didn't show.

"I see, that is a likely theory. Now that we're all safe, do you have any idea where those jade coins are? The proctor said that they're scattered everywhere in this place but I don't know where to begin searching for them, since this entire area is quite big, and there are many possible hiding places around here."

He thought about it, and smiled at her. Then he rummaged through his pockets, and as he took them out, opened his hand, she saw 10 green coins. Specifically, Jade Coins.

Her eyes widened, and she asked, "B-But how…?"

This caught Azumi, who's already by her friends' side, and Sasuke's, who was playing with his newly awakened Sharingan, attention.

He nonchalantly said, "Well, when I was on my way to rescue Sasuke earlier, I decided to take a detour and see if I could find any jade coins. Turns out they were quite easy to find because they have a bit of chakra in them, and I found six. The other four are the ones that I took from the Kumo team."

Well, he took those coins the moment he decapitated them, which was easier said than done, if he was an ordinary person that is. Back then, there was a period in his life in which he didn't have any money, or anything for that matter. So he resorted to pick-pocketing rich young masters, usually taking their precious Arcane Stones, which are usually used to help a cultivator cultivate.

Then he realized that he had grown so much as a thief, that he managed to steal every item in an auction, not just once, twice, or thrice, but quadruple times!

It's obvious that he was infamous but after getting rich from the items he stole, he stopped doing all of that. It was getting boring, after all.

He was maybe 25 or so at the time, and he got scammed after he invested all of his money in some business, to which he realized now that there were so many red flags he ignored back then. He did massacre 3 generations of that scammer's entire family over the years, and those that lived, became slaves that were worked to the bones.

Eventually, he got tired of them and just decided to end their bloodline right then and there. Some kid told him that he'll get revenge and yada yada yada, but he didn't have that much confidence after he ripped his body to shreds.

In any case, now they have enough jade coins to leave this place, and now this entire thing can finally be over. It's just so boring here, even though he's been able to stretch his body for a little bit.

Sasuke suddenly threw his arm around his shoulder, and gave him a thumbs up.

He stared at him strangely.

"What are you doing?"

"Well, I thought this was appropriate. But still, now we can finally leave this hell hole! I don't even know why the village has something like this!" Sasuke smiled.

"You're acting weird, y'know that?" Azumi said, also looking at him strangely.

"Oh c'mon, It's not weird. It's just a friendly thing to do with your friends," he said, defending his actions, but then had a mischievous idea, "Come here!"

He reached out to her, and pulled her towards the two of them. Now he was hugging the two of them like an idiot, and Helel sighed.

As weird as the guy is, he couldn't hate something like this.

Sakura, seeing this strange occurrence in front of her, merely blinked in confusion but snapped out of it. She noticed that her friends were waking up, and both of them sat up.

"Owie," Ino moaned in pain as she rubbed her head, "This headache is killing me. Do you guys have any painkillers?"

Hinata observed her location, and said, "So you used that new jutsu of yours, Sakura. At least now we won't have to worry about shelter during missions."

"Yeah, it was hard at first but I managed to shape its size to my liking. Anyhow, are you two okay now?" She asked, a bit concerned.

The Yamanaka heiress then said, "What do you think? Maybe if you let me hug your soft, plushy body, maybe I'll be a bit better."

Hinata sighed, "There's a time and place for everything, Ino, and your perverseness is not something we need at the moment."

"Aww, you're such a meanie," Ino pouted but understood their current situation.

Sakura rolled her eyes, and said, "We'll do that later but for now, we need to find the exit to this place. Ren has already acquired the necessary jade coins for all of us but first, tell us what happened before you two encountered those shinobi from Kumo."

Taking notice of their conversation, the other 3 also went to their side and listened to their story.

Hinata explained that before all that, she was alone somewhere in an office-like room. It was ruined and stuff. Her first reaction when she realized that she's been separated from her team was to use her Byakugan, and through her dojutsu, she managed to pinpoint the exact location of both Ino and Sakura. However, Ino was much closer and was already fighting a chunin-level insect-like creature, and she needed help immediately.

So she rushed to her friend's aid, and after some time, they managed to defeat the giant insect. And she explained, while glancing at Ino a bit annoyed, that the Yamanaka tried groping her almost immediately after they defeated the insect.

Of course, she was used to this but she didn't know that her friend would do this after such a close encounter with death.

After taking a break, she said, she decided to use her byakugan to see where Sakura was again but saw that she was with Azumi. She told Ino this, and they both agreed to complete the team before hunting for the jade coins but things soon got worse when the shinobi from kumo attacked them out of nowhere.

Thankfully, with her dojutsu, Hinata managed to see this coming and dodged their combined attacks. If the battle had continued on, and had Ren not saved them, then there was no doubt that they would've been able to capture her.

"The thought of the things they could've done to me, sickens me. That's why," she said as she turned her eyes to the red-head, "I'll never forget what you've done for me. I promise that I'll repay this debt someday."

Ino turned to her friend, and said, "What!? No! Are you crazy!? What if he demands something crazy, like having a one-night stand or a marriage contract with you!? I don't want my cute and pure Hinata-chan to be defiled by such a dirty boy!"

She would've continued, if it weren't for Sakura covering her mouth.

"Hmppfh!! Hmppfh!!" (Translation: I will not stand for this!)

Flatly, Ren said, "Well, that was amusing."

She sighed again, and the Hyuga princess felt like she's sighing a lot this day.

"I apologize for that. She's rather… unhinged, as you can see. I think she shook a few screws off when she hit her head as a child."

He chuckled, and said, "I take no offense. In any case, get prepared, everyone, because we're leaving now."