Chapter 22: Suna Chunin Exams Arc: Five

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

We're approached by Asata-san's team a week before the third test begins. A Nara, an Akimichi, and a Yamanaka. The most famous of Konoha's intel squads. They are older than us by some three years, but at this point, we can say that we stand on even footing with them.

"In the spirit of being fair," the Akimichi girl announces, "We thought you should know that the team from Kumo is gunning for you." Oh god. Knowing that there are people who want to kill us is a different matter from knowing that there are specific people out to kill us.

"Well, thank you." I say, and glance over at Toku and Muta. "We'll keep that in mind." The gaze between us said that we'll have an in depth discussion about this topic after they leave though.

"You're not going to ask for a truce during the brawl?" The Yamanaka boy leans forward with his head resting on his folded hands, his elbows on his knees and his feet tucked in.

"Did you wish to offer one?" Muta readjusts his glasses and surveys the three of them impassively. "We don't know you after all, and you don't know us."

The black eyed Nara boy has said nothing so far, his hands caught in the thinking seal, but he opens his mouth now. "We would be willing to offer these terms: a temporary truce until both the team from Suna and the team from Kumo have been eliminated. After that, the deal's off."

Muta and I share a glance. It's a good deal. Should we take it?

"We'll take it." Toku says and his smile is lazy. They don't know yet, of course, that we won't all be in the ring. The Nara rises and offers Toku a hand. "I'm Nara Kasuga."

"Akimichi Chikai." She tosses her hair over her shoulder and gives me a knowing look. You're a serious kunoichi too, aren't you?

"And Yamanaka Santa." The other boy nods at Muta, but doesn't offer a hand to shake. I'm almost offended, but not everything is about whether or not another person wants to touch an Aburame, thus I let it slide.

They disappear out the door, each step in perfect sync.

I turn back to Toku and Muta. "We need to learn how to do that."

Muta raises an eyebrow. "What, force younger teams to do our bidding like they just did?" That's not exactly what they did, but eh, close enough.

I lightly punch his shoulder. "No! Being in such perfect sync of course." He doesn't respond, so I turn the topic back to the most pressing concern at hand. "Anyway, guys, we need to talk about the team from Kumo that has it out for us."

Toku leans forwards, activates his Byakugan for two seconds, and then reclines back onto his pillows. "There aren't any people watching. Alright. Let's talk." He looks around and grins. "Do we know anything about the team?"

Muta raises a finger. "They are older than us. They're a front line team, so we'll have to deal with a lot of ninjutsu, mostly likely lightning release, and one of them owns a wakizashi." A silence falls over the room as we try to figure out how we are supposed to get out of this one.

"That doesn't sound good." I say when the oppressive air becomes too hard to bear. "Well, it's a good thing that we do have Asata-san's team on a truce right now, otherwise we might actually get ripped apart."

"The other three teams are full teams right?" Toku folds his hands together. "We should take the first opening we see and try to stay alive." What goes unsaid is that Toku wouldn't be fighting with us, but if we died he'd hardly be alive afterwards.

I smile. "Yeah, Sensei's maxim right? Take whatever openings the enemy gives you?"

The third and last test day dawns bright and crisp, but the actual start of the brawl is high noon, when heat waves rise from the sand giving the air a hazy, distorted sort of look and the merciless sun beats down without the cover of a single cloud. Luckily, sand is still earth, and Muta could manage one or two grand fireballs given enough time.

"We should stick together." I murmur to Muta while looking at the nine other people we would have to beat down to survive. "We've got excellent teamwork and if we survive this, it'll be the best day of my life."

Beside me, Ni yips. "We just need to get through today." I scratch behind his ears.

"Yeah." And really, survival is all that I ask of today. Whether or not Muta or I made chunin could wait until later.

Muta nods. "Let's try to avoid the conflict in the beginning to see what we're up against."

I frown. "Are you sure that'll work? The team from Kumo is looking to beat us down first, remember?"

"But we need to consider how truthful the information might be. Besides, we can't take them head on, remember?" Muta slides his hand through San's fur, and takes a deep breath. "Team Six Plan 13c."

I nod. "Yes. Plan 13c it is." Plan 13c is really just personal code, for stay the hell alive and on the defensive. If we had Toku's eyes we'd have almost 360 degrees of vision. He and Muta would be back to back and I would be the spinning blur around them.

It seemed that today I'd be watching Muta's other side. "Can you be the duo in the fang passing fang rotation today?" I crouch slightly so that I can look Ichi and Ni in the eye. "San can be the rotation."

"Yes." Ichi barks once and I smile. Ni whines, but agrees to it anyway, while San is completely distracted by Muta's free petting session.

We'd be okay.

We're accosted by Nara Kasuga not a moment later. "Where's the Hyuga?"

I frown at him. I don't like your tone. "Toku-kun isn't fighting fit right now. It's just the two of us." He scowls ferociously, but slouches away.

Something about him is disturbingly not Sensei-like and I can't really tell what it is, but there's no time to care. When he gets back to his team, he gestures lazily at us, there aren't any raised voices, but there does seem to be some sort of huddle going on within Team Asata. It looks like we've used up their supply of good will though, so we'd have to be careful.

I turn back to Muta and smile as brightly as I can. If today is the day that everything is doomed to fall apart I want him to remember my smile. He smiles back.

We shared the same sentiments after all.

"As all of you know by now, the third test is a no holds barred free for all brawl." The proctor stands under a shaded area of the fighting pit. "We will be watching to attempt to make sure that no one gets killed, but we can't be certain about that, so do have some sense of self preservation." Each team had been sent to one of each of the four cardinal directions to stand in a box which prevented us from using area affecting jutsu before the proctor announced the start of the match.

And indeed, the team from Kumo is glaring bloody murder at us, especially kunoichi of the team. I do not meet their eyes, despite the fact that they are directly across from us. It's not a cowardly action, I promise. Oh who am I kidding. I'm just afraid.

I look up at the stands. There is Ensui-sensei gripping the back of the chair in front of him. His knuckles must be completely white by now. Poor Sensei. Surrounding him is a great deal of Suna's Shinobi forces, and a few foreign delegates.

And there, in the stands with the Kazekage, the Sandaime sits, puffing on his pipe. Behind him are two ANBU guards, but there's no familiar spiky silver hair. Wherever Kakashi is, it isn't here. Seeing the two figures sit together in a private box reminds me of Konoha Crush, and I have to remind myself that Orochimaru, wherever he is, is not up there in that box. This isn't Naruto's first chunin exams. Pull yourself together.

I feed Ichi a soldier pill, and do the same with Ni. "You guys be careful, alright?"

"At any rate, whenever you'd like to start." The proctor leaps back from the center of the pit. "Begin."

Muta and I move forward just enough so that Ichi and Ni can start spinning. I flash through four hand signs. "Doton: Earth Ring." I whisper as I set my hands on the ground. A ring rises around us, about knee height, so we could still see over the top, but enough that any enemy trying to reach us would at least slow down.

We stand back to back as the team from Kumo races towards us at impossible speeds, and I palm two kunai.

The first strike of the other Kunoichi's wakizashi sends tremors down my arm, but it's no worse than trying to wrestle Ichi nowadays. She opens her mouth to gloat, but I move under the blade to strike with my other hand cursing my short arms all the while as the screeching of metal on metal sounded right next to my ear.

She disengages and I pull back as well. My ears are still ringing, but I can deal with that.

I withdraw the chakra that I normally kept circulating around my ears and the feeling lessens. I'll need it more anyway.

Muta and San are holding off one of the two shinobi with her, and Ichi and Ni are mobbing the other one.

I am the only one alone. I shift into beast mimicry, settling onto four feet instead of two.

I have fangs and claws. We clash again, and I forget any semblance of being a girl. Why use a kunai when I have claws that'll work just as well?

When we disengage for the second time she has long scratches down her side, but I hadn't managed to bite her, or seriously injure her in any way.

I pant, sweat trickling down my face and into my split lip and cut cheek. She is fast, but when I'm really moving I could manage to be faster. Unfortunately, she has larger chakra reserves and more stamina than I do, because she, although breathing heavily looks better than I feel.

Not enough chakra. Should not have made the wall earlier. It deterred no one.

Shakily I straighten to just two feet again. Should make the next jutsu count. She sheathes her sword, and starts flashing through hand signs.

Tiredly, I do the same, half a beat too slow. "Raiton: Earth Shock." "Doton: Mud Wall." Too late, I remember that earth is weak against lightning when the barely formed wall is blown to bits and the pain from the shock wave travels up my arm. I fall to my knees, chest heaving, cradling my now useless left arm. Breath. Breath and get up, Blossom. You're stronger than this.

I get back on my feet. The kunoichi from Kumo didn't look so great now either. Must not be a strong ninjutsu type. That's why she carries the wakizashi. She unsheathes her sword once more, and rushes forward.

This time, when I bring a kunai up to parry her strike I crumple like paper, every muscle screaming with protest. "Not so strong anymore are you? Not without those dogs of yours." She whispers in my ear, and my mind nearly short circuits.

She stopped to gloat? She's standing over me with her wakizashi still raised in the air, pausing to take a deep breath. The first thing Sensei had taught us was to keep quiet while making a kill. His specific words had been 'talking during a fight that you're winning will be the death of you.' Of course, talking when you're losing could also be the death of you, but I'm not about to begin the habit of victorious gloating. Maybe she hasn't killed anyone before. I don't have time to consider the thought.

She isn't standing too far away. I lunge forward and the kunai finds purchase in one of her legs. She makes a noise halfway between a groan and a strangled sob and the leg is majorly weakened, and I intend to stab her again this time in a major artery instead of just flesh and bone, but I land on my bad arm and I see stars. I attempt to roll away as I feel the swoosh of her sword coming down. This involves rolling onto my useless and slightly charred left arm and I again, see stars blurring my vision.

The sound of pain that makes it's way out of my throat is honestly an embarrassment. I've known worse, I had been hit by a car, I had died. There is no reason for me to think this is painful. But something must have given, because there is suddenly a grey mass above me between me and her downward stabbing sword, and the sound of metal going through flesh and a dog's whimper. "Hana...safe"

The pain disappears, but there's no sound, just the rushing of blood in my ears as I scream. "Ni!" He looks at me through one dark brown eye, his tongue lolling out into the sand with the most heartbreakingly happy expression "Hana safe," and I feel the world fade out.

There's only the rushing sound in my ears, only the one person in front of me that I have to kill. My eyes narrow.

I forget that I am tired. I forget that my left arm is currently useless, that I have no chakra left and that I'm bleeding from half a dozen small cuts and that if I continued to push the limits of chakra exhaustion then the last recourse is death.

I lunge at her and we wrestle together on the ground my teeth snapping less than an inch away from her throat. There's red in my vision, red, red, red everywhere. I don't see anything else. There's only the awful vile object in front of me and my burning desire to make her pay. Hana...safe...

She scrambles in the dirt trying to buck me off of her, but we are in far too close quarters for her short sword to matter much now.

I am finally stronger than her in this test of brute strength and instinct. Ni Ni NI NI NINININI-

My teeth close at last, and this time the blood in my mouth tastes strangely like victory. I protected. I won.

I roll over onto my back with a hand in Ni's fur, as the darkness pulls at the edge of my vision, I see Muta punch his opponent in the throat, and then his hasty retreat towards me.

My eyes slide shut.

I wake up again in a hospital bed, to the sound of beeping monitors. Is this the hell that's reserved for people who can't protect those that are precious to them? My throat is parched, dry, and my eyelids don't want to obey my commands.

I force them open anyway.

"You're awake." Sensei's droll tone of voice hid a curtain of ice. "So glad you could join us again."

"Ni." I croak. "Where's-"

"Your dog is safe." A vein twitches in Sensei's temple and he had a grip so tight on the edge of the bedside table that the skin on his knuckles where akin to transparent rice paper. I could see practically every blood vessel under his skin. "He didn't suffer that many injuries."

I heave a sigh of relief. "Thank Kami."

Sensei glares at me, his jaw tight, but he does not grind his teeth. "You, however, suffered severe chakra exhaustion, major wounds on your sides. Your entrails were quickly leaving your body to become outrails by the time the medics got down into the pit, you suffered major chakra burns in one arm and both hands and a lost a great deal of blood. " He pauses to take a very deep breath, and I try to remember if I actually sustained half the injuries he claimed I did. Well, the arm is true. The chakra exhaustion is true. I might have lost some blood, but I don't remember a cut that deep in my side at all...

But now that I'm conscious, there is a dull and terrible ache on my left side that is completely unaccounted for in my own personal inventory.

"What do you have to say for yourself, Hana?" Sensei runs a hand through his hair, which doesn't look like it's been combed in at least four days. "You ripped her throat out with your teeth. You nearly killed yourself to do it. Why?"

"I-" And here I pause. I'd actually ripped someone's throat out with my teeth? "She hurt Ni." I say at last, and I realize that Sensei, for all his good points and vast intellect, did not understand the connection I had with the Triplets.

They would die for me. And I would die for them. He didn't know about their unconditional love and support. He didn't realize, couldn't understand how much of a constant they were, and always had been. I'd killed her so violently because she had hurt someone every bit as important to me as the people in my life. But he didn't know, and couldn't really understand.

"Can I see him?" I ask and Sensei rises, each movement stiff and painful, as if he is an old man with arthritis. "All of them, I mean."

"Yes, Hana-chan. I'll let your dogs in." He turns to look at me after walking a few steps. "Just don't you dare do that to me again. I never want to bury you." I put Sensei through the ringer. I'm sorry, Sensei. He looks smaller, frailer, standing there with his hand on the door.

"I promise." I say, my voice small and sad and cracked. "You won't have to bury me, honest."

He nods, and opens the door.

A.N. I am not fond of writing fight scenes, but I think I like how this one turned out. Some more character growth and development, and the sun also rises.

Thanks to EverBear01, Born to Sleep (Haha, really love your username, and I'll see what I can do about the slight inconsistency you mentioned), Sis, and Adi (We'll be getting to the Uchiha Arc in time, so I hope you'll be around for the journey.)!

And to everyone who favorited and followed.

~Tavina