Forest of Death (4)

Sasuke perked up, the slight shifting of a branch from a heavy weight stepping on and bending its shape the only indication he received before a hail of kunai and shuriken rocketed towards him from above.

'Finally showing yourselves!' The Uchiha turned his gaze upwards, the scarlet red of his Sharingan already replacing his onyx eyes. The world slowed and amidst the shower of metal, he spotted several gaps that could accommodate his figure. Twisting his body, he gracefully stepped into one of these gaps as the projectiles hit the ground around him. Some with poorer accuracy bounced off the hard earth with a sharp 'Ping!' while others embedded themselves into the soil.

Not a single piece of metal touched him or his clothes, a testament to his enhanced agility and dynamic visual acuity from the activation of his Sharingan.

Without hesitation, even after seeing their initial volley of projectiles failing to even graze their target, the three Ame genin shot off the branches they had been standing on. Each wielded kunai in their hands, either dual wielding or just a single weapon in one arm.

Sasuke turned to the trio flying towards him but held little panic in his gaze.

'You can't dodge in mid-air, idiots.'

The Uchiha flew through six handseals, completing them in just a fraction of a second. Chakra gathered towards his lungs as he kneaded them, turning them into fire. The ease and speed at which he could do so evidence of his Uchiha ancestry; the members of his clan notorious for their expertise in controlling fire.

"Katon: Phoenix Sage Fire!"

With the fire nature chakra gathered in his lungs, he expelled a volley of small fireballs into the air. The many small fiery spheres flew at the Ame genin, meeting them halfway and almost collided with them had it not been for their quick thinking.

Knowing that they could not individually move out of the way, they instead twisted their bodies in mid-air and turned to each other. They extended their legs and used each other as a platform to perform a complicated aerial maneuver that allowed them to dodge the fireballs threatening to scorch them black.

The three Ame genin landed on the ground, caught off guard by the surprising amount of resistance they had not expected from their target, now more cautious with their actions. They surrounded Sasuke in a triangular formation, holding up their weapons.

Now that Sasuke had a better look at his assailants, he could identify them as shinobi from Amegakure based on their forehead protectors. All three wore a similar, beige jumpsuit, rebreather masks that covered the lower half of their face, as well as blindfolds around their eyes. One had two eyeholes cut out; another only had one eye exposed, while the last had both eyes covered for some odd reason.

"Impatient. I thought you would wait a little longer before attacking." Sasuke smirked, reaching back to unsheathe his wakizashi, Satori. His arrogance was only half genuine. Though confident in his skills, Sasuke had learned the virtue of humility from his repeated beat downs delivered by his cousin. He had learned not to underestimate his enemies, for hubris blinded rational thought.

The Ame genin with two eye holes in his blindfold narrowed his eyes and cackled, "False bravado. We will give you one chance. Surrender your scroll and live. Otherwise, resist and perish."

"My scroll? Sure." Sasuke's Sharingan eyes pulsed with chakra as he made eye contact with two of the three foes standing before him. "But if you want it, you are going to have to take it from me!"

The Konoha shinobi's declaration of war was the spark that ignited the fires of war. All three Ame genin moved as one, slipping their finger through the bottom hole of the kunai so that they could form hand seals.

They only formed two hand seals, and ended in the tiger seal in unison. "Suiton: Haze Clone!"

All around them formless masses of chakra materialized, creating dozens, nearly a hundred duplicates of themselves. It didn't take long for Sasuke to be completely surrounded by a large crowd of identical looking duplicates of the Ame genin.

The lead Ame genin chuckled, "Cornered rat. Now you shall pay for your arrogance!"

Sasuke looked at the conjured clones of his enemies with thinly veiled amusement. 'Using illusions in front of me? They have clearly never dealt with an Uchiha before. What's more… they have already fallen into my trap!'

The illusory clones of the Ame genin rushed towards Sasuke, kunai in hand. Their movements were slow, sluggish, but their numbers made up for their ineptitude. The two tomoe Sharingan in his eyes spun slowly as he rushed through the crowd of clones.

The clones swung their weapon at Sasuke but he did not even bother avoiding them, letting the intangible kunai pass harmlessly through his body. After watching Naruto summon corporeal shadow clones for so long, if he still couldn't tell the difference between tangible and intangible clones, that idiot blonde would burst out laughing if he found out.

Furthermore, his Sharingan could see chakra! He could identify the thin layer of chakra that made up the structure of the illusory clones with just a glance. Though the Sharingan could not match up to the Byakugan in its ability to discern another's chakra capacity or their chakra pathways, something simple like seeing chakra usage on the surface was still within his ability.

Sasuke dash through the crowd of clones, running through them as though it was but air standing in his way and reached one of the original Ame trio rapidly. The person he targeted first was the one who had completely blindfolded himself, unlike his teammates who had one or two eyeholes in their masks.

The foreign shinobi was caught off guard, having been in the middle of performing another jutsu. He was forced to stop the formation of hand seals, letting the chakra within him that had been moving according to the hand seals return its regular circulation. Instead, the kunai he had slipped on his finger rotated and returned to his grip.

Chakra surged into Sasuke's wakizashi, and the two blades clashed. But contact was made only for a moment before the Uchiha's chakra enhanced short sword cut cleanly through the opponent's mundane kunai.

"Wha-!?" An exclamation of surprise barely made its way out of the Ame genin's rebreather before the tip of Sasuke's blade sliced vertically down his torso. A long cut, running down his left collarbone to his hip sprayed blood that splattered on to Sasuke's clothes and face.

The final obstacle was taken down, the Uchiha concluded as another swift stroke carved into the young man's jugular, unleashing another torrent of blood that thankfully gushed out away from him.

Sasuke turned towards his remaining two opponents, who had already completed their jutsu and had sunk halfway into the earth.

However, the reaction to their teammate's death was strangely absent, as if they had not seen or even realized their teammate being cut down ruthlessly despite them not being far from the scene. In fact, their eyes were still glued towards the crowd of Haze Clones, still fighting an imaginary enemy.

'Sharingan Genjutsu is really effective. I did after all pick up some things while helping Shinji with it…' Sasuke thought to himself while he swung his wakizashi in the air, flicking off the blood on his blade.

In the minds of the remaining Ame genin, Sasuke was still tricked by the illusions, fighting tooth and nail against immaterial clones while they themselves were preparing to launch a sneak attack against the distracted genin. All the while their blind folded teammate who Sasuke could not catch with his ocular genjutsu because said blindfold covered both eyes was slain a few metres away.

This was not the first time he had taken a life. His first was in Wave, where Gato's hired mercenaries had charged at the bridge builders weapons in hand. Sasuke, on instinct, unleashed a torrent of fire at them, courtesy of a Grand Fireball, incinerating a large portion of the thugs. While a majority of the rest had been scared off with that display, the few remaining more stubborn mercenaries had to be dealt with by hand.

Shikamaru and Naruto had avoided attacking with deadly intent, but Sasuke aimed to kill. It was mostly motivated by his numerous 'life or death' battles he had with Shinji, where he always fought with the intent to kill. This habit had been carried over, letting him cut through vital spots with little hesitation.

He remembered Naruto being pissed that he had killed the mercenaries. Something about there always being a way to stop them without taking lives, and some nonsense about his nindo. How naïve, he recalled commenting in response. Those he had killed would not have hesitated to return the favour, so why should they grant them any mercy? Especially when doing so might result in unintended, yet unthinkable consequences.

An argument had started brewing between the two, but thankfully the more rational Kakashi and Shikamaru stepped in, even supporting Sasuke's side of the argument. Their sensei shared some of his experiences in the past, where he was forced with no option but to kill. Not just enemy combatants, but even once during an infiltration mission where a nosy civilian had discovered something they should not have seen and he was forced to silence them permanently.

Though Kakashi had also chided Sasuke for his cold indifference towards taking a life, cautioning against bloodlust, Naruto was crestfallen after hearing his entire team take the opposing side of a topic he considered non-negotiable. But the blonde recovered his sunny disposition faster than was normal, returning to his annoying behaviors like nothing had happened.

Sasuke quickly moved towards the one of the two Ame genin who were in the process of sinking completely in the ground. Deciding to end it before they disappeared from sight and made it more troublesome to deal with them, Sasuke brandished his wakizashi in one hand while preparing a shuriken in the other.

But before he could execute his targets, two orange blurs fell from the trees. One landed a devastating axe kick at the top of an Ame genin's cranium while the other struck down with a fist instead. The heavy blows aided by the force of gravity falling on the heads of unprepared targets instantly rendered them unconscious.

"Hah! That's two for me and one for you Sasuke-teme!"

One of the orange blondes declared triumphantly while the other poofed out of existence upon fulfilment of his raison d'être. Though Naruto acted like his usual loud-mouthed ways, his bright blue irises eyed the shuriken and wakizashi in Sasuke's hands. Clearly, he had only acted to prevent Sasuke from taking even more lives.

His intention was clear as day for the Uchiha, since Naruto couldn't act for nuts. But to prevent any discord and unpleasantness, Sasuke relented and sheathed his wakizashi while returning the shuriken to his weapon pouch. There was no point antagonizing an idiot who would only drag him down to an idiot's level.

Shikamaru strolled out from the edge of the treeline, "Oh good, you took care of them already."

The Nara glanced at the bloody corpse of the dead Ame genin, still twitching slightly, the remnant of death throes made by a person's body still struggling to live even if its remaining lifespan could be measured in the seconds.

Sasuke turned to him and smiled in amusement, "You are unexpectedly a good actor, aren't you? Man was I surprised when you started yelling. I think that was the loudest I have ever heard you speak before."

Shikamaru gave a lazy shrug, "You sensed their presence too, didn't you? Their killing intent was too obvious. I just couldn't pinpoint their location, so I came up with something on the spot to bait them. I was glad you were able to pick up my intentions and play along. Although someone clearly didn't…"

"Hey I realized it in the end, didn't I!?" Naruto protested, pouting and folding his arms.

The Uchiha rolled his eyes, "You almost blew our performance was what you did. Lucky for us those three are even dumber than you. Any other shinobi worth their salt would have realized something was up with you reacting like that."

The blonde blanched, though he couldn't find a proper retort.

"T-that's… Oh hey, why don't we look for their scroll? We could get lucky and pass the exam right away!" He quickly changed the subject, crouching down to look for the scroll in the belongings of the unconscious Ame genin.

His teammates shared a look and shook their heads at the shamelessness of Naruto but followed suit as well. Sasuke took on the responsibility to search through the body of the one he killed - something like that was just courtesy – hoping the scroll would not be ruined by the copious amounts of blood.

"Hmm? Here it is! Ah dang, it's another Heaven Scroll." Naruto exclaimed, fishing out the scroll from the Ame genin called Oboro.

The other two stopped rummaging through the bodies of the other Ame genin upon hearing their teammate had found what they were looking for.

"That's fine; we can keep it as a spare. Or in the worst case scenario, use it to barter our way out of a sticky situation. Since you found it, you can keep that one." Shikamaru advised.

Their original scroll was being held by the team's tactician. It was a satisfactory compromise when both Sasuke and Naruto had debated over who should hold on to it. Obviously they were both petitioning for themselves to be the keeper of the scroll.

Shikamaru had stepped in to mediate with cold logic and rationality, reasoning that anyone who knew their team would figure out at once that either of the two would be the one holding the scroll. Hence, the person who they would not suspect should be the one to keep it with them. Ergo, he should hold on to it.

It had to be said that both Naruto and Sasuke possessed stubborn personalities, even going so far as calling them self-centred. But all three genin of Team Seven also held a healthy respect for each other. And kunai to their throats, if they had to pick someone they listened to the most? Both would choose Shikamaru without hesitation.

The nucleus of Team Seven was not Sasuke, who possessed the highest combat ability amongst them. Neither was it Naruto, with his loud personality and undisguised desire to take the lead. Instead, it was Shikamaru.

Shikamaru was the glue holding Team Seven together; the only one that could balance his teammates' recklessness while at the same time letting their talents shine the most with his tactical mind and calm demeanour. With mere words, he could guide Sasuke's suppressed rage and vengeful spirit, directing them to a more productive purpose. He was also the catalyst that could both cool down or fan the flames of Naruto's boisterous spirit.

It was readily apparent for anyone who spent a prolonged period of time with the trio that it was actually Shikamaru who was the obvious leader of Team Seven, just like how Shinji was the obvious leader of Team Ten.

So when Shikamaru explained why he should be the one holding on their team's Heaven Scroll, his headstrong and at times impulsive teammates relented with only slight protest that concluded with willing capitulation.

As such, when Naruto was given permission to keep the scroll, Sasuke did not object, realizing that Shikamaru had given more thought to his decision than what he chose to reveal.

While Naruto pocketed the scroll with a small celebratory woohoo, a sudden gust of wind led Sasuke to snap his head in the direction of the wind, his Sharingan eyes immediately activating at the unexpected phenomena.

'There's chakra in the wind…!'

"MOVE!"

His warning was barely received from his teammate before a massive tempest tore through the forest.