Chapter 27

Sakumo's POV;

"Hi guys," greeted Kenshiro-kun, Ariha and me, with a wave of his hand. He looked calm, too calm. Something had angered him. His expressions are often played, however, whenever his face is as blank as it is now something angered him greatly. He looked around the room, Teams were slowly trickling in, some were from Kumo and his gaze rested on them a moment longer.

I gave Ariha-chan a worried look, she has noticed too. Has he had Genin from Kumo, like us? It would certainly explain his foul mood. Since we were a team he has hated Kumogakure. Over the last six years, we have had a few run-ins with some of them, whenever that happened his plan usually included their death or permanent crippling.

"Everything good, Kenshiro-kun?" Asked Ariha-chan softly. A few close by Genin were eyeing us, probably in hope to get some information against us, a burst of Killing Intent made them quickly look away.

Kenshiro-kun nodded absentmindedly, which caused both of us to frown. He must be thinking really hard or else he would have not ignored her as he did.

He spotted the Genin from Iwa he has hugged, as well as the two from Kiri. He gave them a friendly wave but only received a glare from the redhead, a cold lofty one from the Kaguya and a murderous one from the male Kiri Jinchuriki.

"You're starring Kenshiro-kun," I warned him with a whisper. He looked away from the Kaguya and focused back on us, a small smile on his lips. It wasn't fake, and I am happy to say that I am one of the few who get a real smile from him. As far as I have seen only his immediate family and our team gets real expressions.

Meanwhile, Ariha was looking a little miffed. I couldn't hold back the amused chuckle. The crush Ariha has on Kenshiro is almost too obvious. I don't know if he is aware. And I definitely will not touch that pile of trouble if I have any say in it, love inside teams is frowned upon and almost never works.

"What's with you and her? The moment you saw her you acted strangely. She looks strange," asked Ariha with a brief glance at the Kaguya. I gave the Kiri Genin a quick overlook and nodded to myself. She is close to his ideal, it's too bad that she's from Kiri. Ariha's Sharingan flickered on and off for a brief moment, but whatever she was looking for she didn't tell us.

"Nothing much, she looked lonely. And don't fight her if possible, the markings over her eyes show her as one of the Kaguya clan. A clan of Kiri Ninja with a Bloodline that allows them to control their bones. They can heal themselves rapidly and some of the better ones can even use their bones to harden or form to their wishes. There's more, but I won't tell you here and now," he answered with another look over at the Kaguya. He gave her a friendly smile and a nod. She frowned, yet I couldn't tell if it was from his wave or because she somehow heard us.

We both looked at him, not sure why he was this different to her and the two other Genin. Still, this was not the place to discuss this out, so I changed the conversation back to our exam. "If you say so. How did your interrogation go?"

"It went well until they talked about raping Tsu-chan," he answered quickly. We had planned to take out as many competitors as possible, and yet, they really must have tried to rile him up if he was this angry. For him, it must have only given him an excuse to go one step further. Every day a Kumo Ninja dies is a good day, something I have heard him say more than once.

"And that took them how long?" Asked Ariha with an amused expression. She, like I, are very aware of his extreme dislike for everything Kumo. Rationally he probably knows that those Genin were not responsible for his real anger. Still, there is a simmering hate for Kumo, ever since I know him.

"You know, three or five seconds. From then on it was them trying to fight back, badly, or fleeing the room. I think they were even weaker than the newby Genin team that came with us.

I winced in sympathy while Ariha nodded. "We went in henged as grown men, two men are more threatening. The girl we got was frightened and succumbed to Ariha-chan's first Genjutsu. It was the Hell Viewing Jutsu, she was pleading for us to stop after only a few seconds. Ariha-chan stopped the Jutsu before she had to go through the whole effect of the Genjutsu. She told us the code instantly. What was your code? Ours was 'sleepy, sleepy moss'." I let out that she too was from Kumo, however, he must have noticed. A small displeased frown flickered over his face.

"No wonder that they tried to rile me up like that, makes you wonder what those Kumo Ninja do to each other. Mine was 'To the west, under the three crystal pillars' you think it's something to help us in our next test?"

"It certainly sounds so. We better pack some stuff against poison and also a compass. Our proctor said the next test starts today in five hours. We have two hours time to prepare," agreed Ariha-chan.

"Better also pack a re-breather, we are in Kiri. Some of them will already know the Water Prison, it becomes almost useless when we can breathe underwater," I suggested. We began to make a list of the gear we might need. In the meantime, more and more teams came back. We had to wait for half an hour before the last Genin team was led inside the room.

Tsunade-hime and her team have passed as well. I think they had made Orochimaru their prisoner. He is good enough to withstand Genjutsu and male. That the two Kumo guys gave their girl away was a dick move. No physical harm does not mean that rape is forbidden, they are just forbidden from harming her physically. Put someone under temporary paralysis and then rape them 'gentle' and you get a good interrogation option for this situation.

Add the fact that death by rape is one of the most common ends for a Kunoichi and you get a pretty good tool against women. Men also, but to a lesser extent. Most males are simply tortured to death, way more blood and screaming. We never did rape someone, but know how it is done the most effective. Those were not fun lessons.

At the end of the first test, we gave Tsunade-hime a copy of our list and went shopping. The two hours were passed with buying antidotes against the most common poisons in Kiri and a re-breather for each of us. A compass was standard equipment in our gear. We also re-checked our gear for any needed items, food, tools, weapons and such, not that something was missing. Still, preparations are half of the mission.