บท 44: Chapter 44
"That was hands down the most lame fight I have ever seen." Noboru casually says to Sasuke. "Couldn't you have done something showy? I mean come on! All you did was reflect the sun into his eyes to catch him in your genjutsu! How do you expect to get a promotion like that?"
"Because my Kage was watching me." Sasuke eloquently sums up. Orochimaru may have been interested by Sasuke's fight, but he was captivated by mine. "He knows the true value of a genjutsu and I used one so convincing that my opponent surrendered."
"So your saying that the genjutsu you used was impressive?" Hiro asks. He's being a bit more timid after I chewed him and everyone else here out. "It didn't look impressive."
"It was." I insert myself into the conversation. "To be able to convince a target that they're doing actions while they're not is very difficult. Not only that, but every person reacts to things differently. For instance, how someone perceives pain."
Hiro and Noboru at looking at me with blank stares. Even the other gennin around us are intently listening in.
"Here's an example: When Lee broke my arms." I start to explain since these idiots didn't understand what I meant. "Usually that would be excruciating pain, pain so strong that you'd be floored while wailing for your mommy. But to me? That was nothing. The difficulty in genjutsu is accurately fooling the senses. If I didn't know I was caught in a genjutsu and my arm broke but it felt like it was the worst pain in the world I'd know something was up. I'd know I was in a genjutsu simply because that's not what a broken arm should feel like to me."
"That's a... morbid example." Noboru carefully says. I think he doesn't want to get on my bad side. "Couldn't you have done a sight example instead? Like the color blue was off or something?"
I offer up a shrug. "I'm intimately familiar with pain. It's a major part of my training."
"I bet that's why she's so good at healing herself." Leiko tauntingly says. "What? Are you not good enough to dodge your sensei in training?"
"No." I growl out. She's pissing me off, why would she try to belittle me? We're talking about Sasuke of all things! I was explaining how awesome his genjutsu skills are! How did this become about me? "No I am not."
"And neither is anyone here." Sasuke menacingly adds. "Not even Lee at his peak with all the Gates open. Now stop insulting my teammate."
"Whatever." Leiko turns her back to us.
Is... is she jealous of me? Could it be that she thought she was the biggest baddest girl here but my fight is making her feel unsure of that?
"Our next fight will be between Gaara of Sunakagure!" Eito's booming voice interrupts my train of thought.
Gaara rises up and starts walking to the field.
"Win one for Suna, will ya?" Kankuro chipperly says.
"Win the whole thing for Suna is more like it." Temari adds before shooting me a worrisome smirk. "Make sure to put Green in her place. Do it for your big sister."
Well that's not concerning at all.
"And his opponent will be..." Eito's voice drowns out all other. Please be Leiko, please be Leiko! I want her out of this already! "Noboru of Iwagakure!"
"Aw shit!" Noboru hisses out. "I don't want to fight this guy!"
"Just avoid his sand and you'll be fine." Sasuke irritable demands. He makes it sound so simple, just avoiding the sand won't win him the fight. "Now get out there already."
I'm pretty sure Noboru is screwed. Hell I don't even know if I can beat Gaara while I'm handicapped. Pfft who am I kidding, I might not even be able to beat him if I could use everything. There's still a long list of people I can't defeat, but it's rapidly shrinking with each passing day.
Noboru heads out to the field, he's a little paler that usual and his hands have a nervous twitch going on.
At the very least this fight will be quick.
Gaara vs Noboru
Gaara is standing with a look of utter boredom on his face. He would rather be anywhere else, he knows that these Exams are just a formality for him to go through to get a promotion.
Noboru, on the other hand, looks scared out of his mind. It's obvious he's heard stories about Suna's bloodthirsty jinchuriki and I'd even wager that he saw Gaara in action during the first two parts of the Exams.
"Fighters ready?" Eito lazily asks.
"Yes." Gaara drones out.
"Y-yes." Noboru stutters.
"Begin!" Eito leaves in a swirl of grass.
Noboru wastes no time in putting a lot of space between himself and Gaara. "Okay. Okay I can do this. It's just a gennin. I can do this."
Gaara slowly reaches up and uncorks his gourd. Sand billows out and swirls around him. Then he sends a literal wave of it towards Noboru.
There's no hope for him to dodge.
"I really hope this works!" Noboru yells out as he unfurls one of the scrolls on his belt. He holds it out in front of himself to intercept the sand that's flying at him. "SEAL!" He roars.
A large amount of smoke fills the area around Noboru. What could he have possibly unsealed that's that big? A giant wall of metal or some other kind of a defense? A shield maybe?
"Interesting." Gaara monotonously says.
Once the smoke clears we see a peculiar sight. Noboru has his arms fully extended still holding the seal that he whipped out. His eyes are scrunched closed as if he was expecting to be hit with Gaara's attack regardless of his defense. Speaking of the sand, a rather large portion of it is missing. Almost the entire wave that Gaara sent at him is gone.
Noboru cracks open one eye to take in his surroundings. "Holy shit that worked?!"
He sealed away Gaara's sand in a storage scroll. That's actually a brilliant idea, it's way better than just getting his sand wet to slow it down. If the sand is sealed away how can he attack? There's just one small problem with Noboru's plan.
A deep, low, grinding noise rises up from beneath the field, it's out of the normal hearing range but with my enhanced hearing I can pick up the low tones of stones and earth being ground down. Gaara is making more sand to replace what he lost.
Gaara stares blankly at the surprised Noboru. "This is your one and only chance to surrender."
Noboru laughs. "Why would I do that! I just got rid of your biggest advantage! That was almost all of the sand you had! Now all I have to do is knock you out or get you to surrender!"
Big mistake. Very big mistake.
Noboru charges at Gaara, holding a seal in each hand. I'm going out on a limb and guessing that they're chakra suppression seals. His plan is to block Gaara's access to chakra. It's not a bad idea, but it's not going to work.
"Sand Binding Coffin." Gaara blandly raises his open hand up as sand explodes out of the ground beneath Noboru and instantly encases him completely.
"PROCTOR I SURRENDER!" Noboru instantly shouts with wide terrified eyes. He knows exactly what could happen next. "GET ME OUT OF HERE!"
"Winner by forfeit, Gaara of Sunagakure." Eito shoots Gaara a scathing look. "Release him."
"Of course." Gaara's sand drops Noboru and flies through the air back into his gourd. "I was never going to crush him. I am here representing Suna, my home. I will not bring her dishonor."
"Yeah sure. Where was that attitude six months ago?" Eito mumbles out. "Anyways, back to the tents with you both."
Gaara walks back to the rest of the gennin while maintaining his composure, yet there is still a feeling of angry bloodlust coming off of him. He want to lash out at Eito for his crass and brazen comment but knows that he shouldn't. He's not the Gaara of Shippuden yet, but neither is he the Gaara of the invasion. He's still transitioning between the two.
Noboru, on the other hand, looks incredibly relieved to have lost. He slowly walking back, almost as if he's in shock that he's not horribly disfigured or maimed from the thirty second fight.
"You alright there?" Hiro says as Noboru sits down in his chair while still contemplating howhe's alive.
"Surprisingly yeah?" Noboru squeaks out. That's not embarrassing at all. "I thought for sure this was it for me. Hell even my sensei told me that if I fought Gaara I should just surrender instead of fighting and live to try again."
"Then why did you fight?" I ask. If it was okay with his sensei to just toss in the towel why didn't he?
"Because I needed to show that Iwa is not cowardly. I faced down a jinchuriki as a gennin when I could have just surrendered. It shows that even facing insurmountable odds Iwa is still willing to give it a shot." Noboru explains as he attempts to stop his hands from shaking in the aftermath of his adrenaline rush.
"I can't fault you for that. It is very important to realize that we're a representation of our villages right now. People are going to assume that we embody everything about our villages, they'll think that all the shinobi are like us." I say.
"Yeah, and I'm pretty sure you gave us a bad reputation." Sasuke sarcastically cuts in. "I mean come on, I know that Otogakure is becoming known for it's weird and unique shinobi but you turned a lot of heads with your stunt."
Did Sasuke just make a pun? Holy shit he did! Talk about out of character!
"I blame Lee for that." I sass back to him. "Idiot had five Gates open and he thought it was a good idea to kick me in the jaw. Besides, between you and me we have a pretty strong standing for Oto right now. Who knows, we might be the only village to have two shinobi make it to the second round."
"Depends if the Hyuuga wins or not." Sasuke points out. "The Inuzuka made it, that would make two from Konoha as well."
"Speaking of if the Hyuuga will win, it looks like Eito is about to announce the next match."
"The final match of the first round will be between Hinata Hyuuga of Konohagakure!" Eito bellows to the crowd. It's amazing how someone so lazy can be so loud.
Hinata rises up with the elegance of a clan heir, and with a mask of confidence walks out to the field. I can tell she's actually scared right now, she hates having a crowd watch her.
"And her opponent is our very own Leiko Kazumi of Kusagakure!" The crowd roars in approval. Leiko has already made a name for herself in her home, I'm sure that getting into the Chunin Exams five separate times would do that. Especially if you're skilled enough to bring your brother along with you each time.
Leiko rises up with the world's biggest smile on her face. This is what she lives for, the approval of the masses. She loves that they're all cheering for her, that they all want her to win. She loves that they know her name. It's almost like she wants to be a celebrity.
Interesting, maybe she did feel threatened by me earlier. I definitely wowed the crowd with my moves, given it was less of an approval wow and more of a how-is-that-possible wow.
Hopefully this is a good fight, I'm tired of seeing quick and boring matches.
Hinata vs Leiko
"Hello, Kazumi-san." Hinata dips her head in a respectful acknowledgment of her opponent. "I would wish you luck, but that seems counter productive."
Leiko offers up a friendly shrug. "Can't blame you for that. How about we just agree to give it our all and may the best kunoichi win?"
Hinata smiles warmly. "I can accept that."
"Fighters ready?" Eito asks. He seems oddly eager, I think he wants to watch Leiko fight.
"Yes, Eito-san." Hinata courteously replies.
"I am." Leiko adds.
They both smoothly slide into taijutsu stances, Hinata's is obviously the opening stance for the Gentle Fist. Leiko's is unique, she is leading with her left side with her left arm held out protectively in front of her with her fingers open and spread wide apart, like she's planning on catching a ball. Her right arm is eerily reminiscent of Lee's taijutsu stance, it's tucked behind her back and out of sight of Hinata.
"Begin!" Unlike all the other times, Eito only jumps backwards. He plans on staying close for this fight.
Two things happen nearly instantly, Hinata springs forward at Leiko with every intention of blocking her chakra pathways and ending the fight quickly. The second thing that happens is something I never expected, Leiko jumps back a little to avoid Hinata's attack and whips her right arm out from behind her and throws a smoke pellet onto the ground.
Except there's no smoke, nothing happened.
Leiko grins like a predator that found an easy meal, she thinks that she has the upper hand now. But why? Her smoke pellet was a dud.
"What did you do?!" Hinata shouts out in surprise and anger. "What is this? Why can't I see!"
Leiko found a way to block the Byakugan?
"This right here is something I made just for you." Leiko casually says from afar as Hinata whirls around at the sound of her voice. "The Byakugan sees chakra, whether it's in the chakra system or being used for a jutsu. This right here is a special kind of smoke pellet that I've infused with my chakra. It took the better part of three days to fill it full! But oh was it worth it! I've removed your biggest advantage, the one thing you thought could never be taken from you!"
"By using this chakra infused smoke you've removed both of our sight. You know how to navigate in this cloud, while I'm virtually blind." Hinata guesses.
"Nope!" Leiko cheerfully says. "The gas that came out of the pellet is clear. I can see just fine, only you can't see because of your fancy eyes!"
"What?" Hinata barks out.
Leiko wastes no time in sprinting towards Hinata with a kunai in hand. "I wasn't kidding when I said may the best kunoichi win! I've been ready to fight against each opponent for two weeks!"
Hinata turns towards the sound of Leiko's voice and holds her arms out protectively in front of her. She's bracing for a huge hit.
The hit never came.
Leiko ran past Hinata on her left side and lightly grazed her shoulder with a kunai. "Don't worry sweetie, this is just the first cut. I'll give you a chance to at least display some skills, though without being able to see that should be interesting. Plus if I knock you out now I don't get to show off! Can't have that, I need to make an impression."
Leiko starts rushing Hinata again, this time going past her opposite side. Again she lightly grazes Hinata's shoulder. "It's too bad that your incapable of dodging right now. Honestly I feel kind of bad about this."
For a third time, Leiko runs towards Hinata. This time she's aiming for her left leg. "Such a pity, you can't even defend yourself-"
The sound of four quick smacks interrupts Leiko.
"ARGH!" Leiko leaps away from her new plaything while clutching her limp left arm. "What did you do?! You shouldn't be able to see in the cloud! It takes twenty minutes to disperse! There's plenty of time left! How did you do that?"
"I guessed." Hinata pleasantly informs her opponent while happily looking straight at her face. "Throughout my entire life I've had the Byakugan, I've seen countless chakra networks. I've seen deformed ones, broken ones, civilian ones, jonin ones, Kage ones, and even someone who doesn't have one."
"So what!" Leiko spits out as she slowly walks in a circle around Hinata while keeping the same distance from her, like a predator waiting for their prey to bleed out. "What's that have to do with you being able to see me!?"
Hinata's eyes never left Leiko for a moment.
"Like I said already, I've seen countless chakra networks. Do you know what I've discovered after observing so many different varieties?" Hinata pauses, more to give Leiko time to stew in anger than because she expects an answer, "In every normal chakra system the tenketsu are in the same places. They vary per specific body, but all the ratios and locations are almost identical. The only thing that really changes is the amount of chakra."
"You still haven't said how you can see me!" Leiko hisses out while trying to work the feeling back into her arm.
"I observed your network before our fight, yours is completely normal. No deformities, no uniqueness at all. That means that I don't necessarily need to use my Byakugan to know where to strike your tenketsu. My accuracy is now much lower than I'd like, but that only means that you're going to feel each hit even more." Hinata grins at her opponent. "You ask how I can see you? The answer is simple, I deactivated my Byakugan. I'm fighting with normal eyes."
"WHAT?" Leiko roars out. That idea must have never crossed her mind, then again I never thought I would see the day a Hyuuga willingly fought without their Byakugan activated.
Hinata doesn't respond, instead it's her turn to sprint at her opponent. She closes the gap between the two with surprising speed. "Eight Trigrams: One Palm!"
Hinata's arm doesn't move from her side, both of them are slightly swinging from the momentum of her crazy sprint to get to her opponent. "What?" Hinata gasps.
Leiko grins deviously, and spits out a senbon that impales itself into Hinata's right thigh.
"Hahaha! HAHAHA!" Leiko lets out a boisterous laugh. "Did you think that those kunai were just normal kunai? They're the same as that senbon! They're all coated in my personal paralytic poison!"
"You poisoned me?" Hinata accuses.
"Of course I did!" Leiko confidently says, they're barely a meter away from each other. "That's my specialty, poisons. With each beat of your heart it moves throughout your bloodstream, spreading through your system. Eventually your entire body will be paralyzed, you won't be able to move!"
Hinata tries to lunge at Leiko, but her leg gives out and she falls down to the ground in a disgraceful heap. She couldn't even catch herself with her arms.
"Tell ya what sweetie, if you surrender and reopen my tenketsu I'll give you the antidote. Otherwise the poison will have to run it's course and that's not fun to go through. Being all helpless like that, not being able to defend yourself."
Hinata grits her teeth. She knows that there's no way for her to win now. "I accept. Proctor I surrender."
"Winner by forfeit, Leiko Kazumi of Kusagakure!" Eito elatedly shouts.
"The antidote?" Hinata prompts from her spot on the ground.
"Of course, I am a lady of my word." Leiko reaches into her pouch and pulls out three syringes filled with a vile looking green liquid. "I'm going to have to put one in near each entry wound, alright?"
"There will be no need for that." Tsunade herself is walking over to the two gennin. "Keep your antidote."
Leiko's eyes widen in fear. "Hokage-sama! But I gave my word, let me keep my honor. Please?"
"You doubt Leiko's skill to craft an antidote?" Eito coldly asks. "She's beyond skilled with her poisons, honestly if it weren't for her brother she'd already be a chunin."
Tsunade sighs, "Look, it's not that I don't trust you. Okay? It's that I'm a world renowned medic nin and I will fix her faster." It's totally because she doesn't trust Leiko, she's not fooling me. "Your antidote, while I'm sure it would cure the poison, would take hours to flush it from her system. That means she wouldn't be able to move for hours. I won't let one of my shinobi be left wide open like that."
"It's against the rules." Eito coolly asserts himself into the conversation again. "No contestant can receive medical attention outside of their own skills, unless another contestant decides to heal them."
"You're correct, but Hinata here is no longer a contestant." Tsunade calmly explains. "Or did you miss the part where she said 'I surrender?'"
"I-I-I- But I just wanted to help!" Leiko stutters out with big wide eyes.
"Doesn't matter." Tsunade ignores the sputters of Leiko and places her hand over Hinata's stomach. "Hinata dear, I'm going to reroute the poison to your stomach. The acids in it will neutralize the toxins but your going to feel queasy for a few hours. It's nothing to worry about."
"Yes, Hokage-sama. Thank you for doing this." Hinata respectfully says. Even when she's literally laying in dirt she still talks politely.
"What the hell are you two still doing here?" Tsunade irritably barks out. "Go do your damn jobs! This isn't part of the show! I don't need some two-bit jonin looking over my shoulder to make sure I don't screw up!"
Eito recoils from Tsunade like he was slapped with a fish. "Er- Right." He walks towards the stadium full of eager onlookers. "That concludes the first round of the tournament! The gennin that are moving onto the next round, in order of appearance, are Green of Otogakure!"
There's a startling amount of claps and cheers for me. Maybe I did make a lasting impression? Okay, of course I did but I didn't think it was a positive impression.
"Hiro of Takigakure!"
He gets a smattering of applause, much less than I did.
"Kiba Inuzuka of Konohagakure!"
Surprisingly the crowd roars their approval of him. They must really not like Yuri at all.
"Red of Otogakure!"
There's a depressingly little applause for Sasuke. His fight was lame from a spectators viewpoint.
"Gaara of Sunagakure!"
He receives average applause, like they're clapping out of formality than out of appreciation.
"And Leiko Kazumi of Kusagakure!"
The crowd thunders their approval of their only gennin to advance to the next round.
Tsunade takes this moment when the crowd is at their loudest to lean in and whisper to Hinata. "Stay with your team at all times. Do not go anywhere alone. Do not trust any Kusa nin."
"T-Tsunade-sama?" Hinata shakily says. "You think they're after... that wasn't an antidote."
"Correct. It was a concoction meant to dilute the poison not remove it. It would let you move around, but all of your skills would be greatly impaired. You'd be less threatening than an Academy student." Tsunade's eyes dart over towards the Kage's gazebo, more specifically her former teammate. "I'd come up with some bullshit reason to keep you by my side but Orochimaru of all people is already there. You're safer with your team than next to him."
Are you fucking kidding me? There's a plot by Kusa to try and get the Byakugan? What else can go wrong! First Root made an appearance, then Hidan tried to convert me to Jashinism, then I found out the truth about Tayuya, then Kakuzu scared the shit out of me but only wanted to talk (although learning that I'm in the Bingo Books was kinda cool), then I lost my mask to Lee and stupidly decided to masquerade as a girl, I found out that I'm not the only one with the Jiongu here and now Kusa has plans to make a grab for the Byakugan of all things? What the hell is going on!
I swear if this is Sasuke's jinx finally coming into play I'm going to be pissed.
"The six semi-finalists!" Eito speaks over the crowd. "The first fight will be tomorrow afternoon!"
"Wait what? We're not having the second round now?" I blurt out. I mean come on! That leaves plenty of time for things to go wrong. How am I supposed to help out now? Can I even help out now? Orochimaru is here and I know he's going to keep an eye on both Sasuke and me.
"They probably want to stimulate their economy more." Noboru explains. "The Chunin Exams brings in a lot of tourists and travelers, but spreading out the finals tournament over multiple days the tourists will end up spending more money while they're here. That means more money for Kusa."
"Oh. That's actually pretty smart." It isn't a bad idea.
Eito walks over to the contestant's gazebo. "You're all free to go and do whatever you want, you can rest, train, plan ahead more, whatever. Just make sure you're here by noon tomorrow. We'll have the first match an hour after that."
Each group of gennin go their separate ways.
I turn to Sasuke. "Well Red, do you think we should go meet with our Kage? He did come all the way here just to see us."
He tilts his head slightly, I can tell he's quirking an eyebrow at me beneath his crimson mask. "You sure that's a good idea? You've found out very interesting things recently about him. Will you be able to control yourself?"
"We're going to find out." I say as my eyes are locked onto a specific snake like figure. Orochimaru is seeking us out on his own, looks like I'm not getting a choice in the matter. "He's on his way over."
"Joy." Sasuke sarcastically says.
Orochimaru stops before us with a wide sinister smile. "Red, Midori, how are you both?"
Midori? Who the hell is Midori?
"I am quite well, my fight was easy. Even if I used one of my more complex genjutsu I wasn't overly taxed at all." Sasuke replies like he's having a normal conversation. Then he turns to me and I feel his enjoyment. "And you, Midori?"
Wait I'm Midori?
"Yes Midori, how are you after that fight? Is everything on straight again? That was quite the kick, I want to make sure my precious kunoichi is okay." Orochimaru says with false concern. He knows that I'm fine.
Those assholes. They're getting a sick sense of satisfaction out of this. "Please, I've had worse. Now that I think about it, both Red and my sensei have done worse to me."
Sasuke winces, no doubt he's reliving when he speared me.
Orochimaru, on the other hand, looks contemplative. He's struggling to remember when he did something worse than spinning my head around. "What did your sensei do to you? I can't seem to remember anything like that."
"Technically it was before he was my sensei." I give him a hint. There's no way he's forgotten this.
He blankly looks at me. He doesn't recall this at all.
I place a hand on my gut. It's resting over the first major scar I've ever gotten, it's a large pale circle about the size of an adult male fist. It looks like it's been fused shut rather than medically healed. It is where Orochimaru himself put the Jiongu inside me. "The single most painful experience of my life."
Orochimaru's face lights up like a 100 watt light bulb. "Of course! Marvelous day, simple marvelous!" He and I remember that day very differently. I'm not going to tell him that though. "Let's go back to my hotel, we can discuss your journey here and what your plans are for your next opponents."
"Sure. Don't have anything better to do." I shrug.
"Bet his room is way nicer than ours." Sasuke growls out in anger against our crappy accommodations.
"I am a Kage, you two are just gennin. Of course mine is better." Orochimaru looks around expectantly. "How strange. Where's Tayuya at?"
Sasuke and I freeze.
Orochimaru continues on talking like nothing is out of the ordinary. "I've trained her better than this. She should know I'm here and to present herself to me. I could have need of her skills. This is highly unprofessional. She'll need to be... reeducated." Orochimaru grins evilly. "It's a wonderful process, and one I rarely get to do. The screams are exquisite!"
I mechanically turn my head to Sasuke. Please answer this for me. Please.
"That could be difficult." Sasuke forcefully replies in a calm tone.
Orochimaru turns his gaze onto the red clad gennin and the ambient temperature drops twenty degrees.
"Where is my subordinate?" He's furious, absolutely livid that Tayuya isn't doing what he trained her to, that she has the audacity to go against his orders and not be constantly watching over us both.
"Midori's pocket." Sasuke delicately says. "She was killed on the way here."
Instantly Orochimaru's fury vanishes. It's replaced with frigid indifference. "Oh. Shame."
He turns on his heel and starts walking down the street, most likely to his hotel.
"How unfortunate. She was one of the better subordinates I had." Orochimaru turns and looks over his shoulder at Sasuke and me. We're still frozen in place. "Come, we will continue this conversation in my hotel room instead of in the middle of a street."
"Of course, Orochimaru-sama." I force out and follow. Sasuke is right next to me.
Orochimaru's Hotel Room
Sasuke and I are sitting on a very plush velvet couch. It's a nice deep purple color and contours perfectly to your form. This would be a very nice and relaxing afternoon, especially considering that we went through the first round of the tournament already, but there's one tiny thing that ruins the peacefulness.
Orochimaru is sitting across from us in a luxurious armchair. He's staring intently at me, opting to completely ignore Sasuke. He's studying me, looking for a fracture in my facade. If I didn't know any better, I'd say it's almost as if he's looking to see if I am okay.
"Alvarcus." Orochimaru calls me by my name, in the confines of his room there is need to hide our identities. Even our masks are off. "You have Tayuya?"
"Yes." I reach into a pocket on the inside of my coat and withdraw the scroll.
It looks so innocent. Plain parchment rolled up neatly, smooth crisp black lines obviously put there by an experienced hand and there's not a fold or a tear anywhere on it. Except there's a thick black line all the way around it, completely tarnishing the innocence. That black line means there's a body in here. It means that without a doubt, the person inside is dead.
Tayuya is in it.
"Give her to me." Orochimaru firmly demands as he extends a hand towards me.
No. I will do no such thing. She doesn't deserve to be dissected further, to have her corpse violated on the whims of a madman.
Wait, why should I care about her? Everything she did was a lie. All those interactions were forced. She never really cared about me. She probably even faked being my friend on Orochimaru's orders too.
"Here." I shove the scroll into Orochimaru's waiting hand. I just wish that all of the problems and confusing feelings I have about her could go away that easily.
For a fraction of a second there was a look of surprise on my Kage's face. He didn't expect me to hand her over so easily. He thought I'd fight for her.
"How did she die?" Orochimaru asks us.
"Beheading. One blow." I force out an answer before Sasuke can. I need to get over this.
Orochimaru pockets Tayuya and conversationally asks, "And did her killer escape?"
"No." I curtly respond.
"No? I feel like you're leaving out a great amount of detail."
"We got all twelve of them." Sasuke cuts in for the first time.
"Twelve? You 'got' all twelve of them?" Orochimaru sounds impressed.
"I didn't 'get' any of them." My words bring his yellow gaze back onto me. I boldly stare right back at him. "I slaughtered them. I killed them all, I enjoyed every moment of it. I was elated each time I ripped out one of their hearts, I felt a thrill as their blood flew through the air. I took pleasure as their screams of pain and horror drowned out all other noise. They should have known better than to take something from me."
Orochimaru is teeming with pride. He's proud that I felt that way, that I took pleasure in murder. That's what that was, murder. I didn't kill to defend myself, I didn't kill as part of a mission. I killed because I wanted them to die. No more, no less.
"I take it that the battlefield I passed on the way here was from your... slaughter?" Orochimaru asks with a malicious smile. No doubt he's recalling the site and analyzing it more in-depth. He's trying to figure out what I did. If I'm reading his body language right, he's impressed.
"Yes it was." I shortly sum up.
"And how many did each of you kill?" Orochimaru asks with interest.
"I killed nine. Sasuke got three."
"Wrong, I got five." Sasuke irritably interjects. "I sent two of them to your earth monster with a genjutsu."
I turn to him. "Yeah, but I killed them. That's like saying the guy who made your sword killed everyone who dies to it."
"... Still got five." He huffs in annoyance.
"Amusing." Orochimaru breaks up our argument before it can really take off. "Are you sure there were only twelve?"
Sasuke and I glance at each other.
"No. They found a way to hide from my sensing abilities." I reach into another pocket and pull out the seal that I took off the last shinobi. "They were using this to hide from me. Any chance you know what this is?"
Orochimaru takes the seal from me. "These shinobi were resourceful. This is a chakra suppressing seal, as you know it forcibly suppresses someone's chakra but this one is tailored to a specific person and focuses more on suppressing lightning chakra than anything else. The only times that something like this is used is on very high level prisoners, the kind of prisoners that most villages simply kill because it is safer than keeping them alive. These seals are not easy to make, whoever was backing the shinobi is either a seal master or has one on hand."
"Is there a way to work around it?" I ask. "I don't want to be caught off guard again."
"No. Not for your specific kind of sensing." Orochimaru pockets the seal, no doubt to try and recreate it later. It isn't everyday someone gets access to someone else's high level sealing formula. "You'd have to learn how to sense in another way and these chakra suppression seals would rule out almost all that I can think of."
"But you do know of some ways?" I ask. I want this, I hate that someone knows how to get around me. The fact that said person has an army at his command makes it that much worse.
"They take decades to learn how to use properly." And like that my hopes were shattered.
Orochimaru studies me for a brief moment. "You seem eager to learn, to train."
"Yeah, I had a wake up call." I growl out. "Seeing a friend's head fall to the ground does that to anyone. I'm motivated now, I'm going to take every moment you have to spare and use you to better myself. I'm already working on a list of things I want to learn."
"Finally!" Orochimaru happily claps his hands together in joy. "Now your real training can begin once we're back in Sound."
"Real training?" What the hell is he talking about? "Then what were the past few months for? How was that not real training?"
"All we did was work on your basics. Speed. Strength. Pain tolerance. Chakra control and supply. We would have done stamina, but you didn't need to work on that." Orochimaru pauses for effect. "But when did I teach you something new? The answer is simple, I haven't."
"Why? I thought you were trying to make me into your 'second in command?'"
He shrugs. "You were unmotivated. You lacked the drive to push yourself far, you didn't have the desire to fully commit. Now you do, now you're ready."
"We have to get through the tournament first." Sasuke cuts in again. Orochimaru and I have the habit of excluding him in our conversations.
"Of course." Orochimaru graciously changes the subject. "I assume you both have plans for your next fights?"
"Unless they decide to mix things up, I'll be going against Kiba Inuzuka." Sasuke starts to talk. "I'll be perfectly fine using just genjutsu and kenjutsu. I have the advantage over him because I know what his skills are already, I can expect him to simply be better than I remember with maybe a new move or two. It won't be anything I can't handle."
"Mine... will not be that simple." I take over talking. "I'm fighting Hiro, who I am pretty sure has Taki's version of the Jiongu."
"Good, you did notice that." Orochimaru cuts in to praise me.
"Yep. Anyways, since his isn't like mine I know that he still has major organs and so on. I'm thinking about poisoning him, I'll see if any of my spiders are willing to bite him for me. If that fails, I'll cut off some limbs. I really doubt he's used to that and it should be enough to get him to want to surrender. As a last resort I'll knock some of his hearts out. I know he only has three." That should get him to surrender. "Oh, and I need to make some blood. A lot of blood, he has a wind heart. That means I might get cut and I can't not bleed. Sure everyone might think I'm a medic nin, but there should still be blood if I get hurt. I got lucky with Lee since all of his hits never broke skin, they were all blunt damage."
"You both seem sufficiently prepared." Orochimaru declares. "But, they're not the last fight of the tournament for either of you."
"Yeah, either Gaara or Leiko will advance to the final round too. Then we have the tree way brawl between us." I say. "Hey Sasuke, want to knock out the other one then duke it out between the two of us?"
He shrugs in indifference. "Why not. Doesn't mean I'm going easy on you."
"Same here. I'm in it to win it!"
"I believe you're both underestimating Gaara." Orochimaru interrupts us. "It could take both of you to maybe beat him while limited."
"That depends on if you're okay with an idea I have." I say. My words bring Orochimaru closer to me, he's leaning forward in anticipation. "It'll definitely paint us in a bad light, there's no way around that. It's deplorable, underhanded, and maybe a little bit cheaty. It's exactly what a shinobi would do in the real world. Like I say, if you aren't cheating you aren't trying."
"NO!" Sasuke yells. "No! We're not doing that! I haven't even heard it yet and I'm putting my foot down! Whenever you say those words it goes wrong!"
"Let's not rule it out yet, I haven't even heard the idea." Orochimaru stops Sasuke's rant. "So Alvarcus, what is your plan to defeat a jinchuriki?"
Later That Night
"Summoning Jutsu!" I slam my hand to the floor of Orochimaru's hotel.
Poof
"Sup Al?" Shirokumo cheerfully says as he give me a wave with one of his front legs. "How's things?"
"I won the first round." I brag. It isn't everyday I can say that.
"Yeah, you could say he turned some heads." Sasuke jokes.
"Really?" Shirokumo sounds glad for me. "Did he wow the crowd with a jutsu or something?"
"Nope!" Sasuke is enjoying this way too much. "He got kicked in the jaw so hard his head spun around in front of everyone."
"No way!" Shirokumo glances at me in disbelief. "You can do that? Pfft who am I kidding of course you can. Is there any kind of bodily harm you can't live through?" He asks rhetorically.
"It gets better!" Sasuke I hate you. I hate you so much right now. "The kick caused him to lose his mask, so guess what the idiot did!"
"Uh... no idea! Tell me!" Shirokumo is dying to know.
"He changed his appearance into a girl! Oh it was priceless!"
"BAHAHAHA!" Shirokumo breaks down laughing, he's a tangled mess of limbs rolling around on the floor. "Oh man please say that's true!"
They both look at me expectantly. "Yes."
"HAHAHAHA! Oh this is great! We'll have to call you Lady Summoner now!"
"Midori, Orochimaru-sama calls her Midori."
"Kukukuku, even if it is unorthodox my child is very resourceful." With the sound of that vile laugh alone, all of the fun in the room is instantly killed. Orochimaru is back from whatever it was he went to do. "I don't believe we've met."
"Orochimaru-sama." Shirokumo gracefully dips his body in a deep formal bow. "It is my pleasure to finally meet you. For the life of me I have no idea why Al didn't introduce us sooner."
Thank Kami, Shirokumo is playing Orochimaru. He's sucking up to him to get in his good graces and is obviously acknowledging him as a superior. That's the best reaction that he could have done.
"Aren't you well behaved." Orochimaru comments offhandedly.
"I do try. My actions reflect on my summoner -in this case Al- and his actions reflect on you. So you could say you're my boss's boss."
"Interesting viewpoint." Orochimaru considers his words for a fleeting moment before realizing that we're still looking at him. "Oh, do carry on. Just pretend I'm not here, I'd love to see how you two work."
"Well... alright then." I turn away from my temporary Kage and towards my summon. "Shirokumo I need a poison specialist, more specifically someone who can paralyze a human. It's how I'm going to beat my next opponent. Hopefully."
"Hopefully? Aren't you just brimming with confidence." Shirokumo scuttles over to a dark corner of the room. "Hm... there are a few spiders that come to mind. Depends on how you want to deliver the poison really."
"I'd prefer to keep the spiders out of harms way. Maybe I could coat a kunai or another weapon in poison?"
"That narrows it down a lot." Shirokumo idly scratches his underbelly with two legs. "Gonna have to be a big one to make that much venom. Since you want a paralytic that leaves us with three options. I'd recommend Dokuso. She's a bit reclusive, but her toxins are some of the best we have to offer."
"Cool." That went surprisingly well. "I'll summon her now."
"Wait!" Shirokumo barks out.
"Uh... okay?" I'm stopped halfway through the required hand seals for the summoning technique.
"Let me talk to her about it in the Nest first. When I said she's a bit reclusive I meant she is crazily reclusive. Randomly summoning her would be a bad idea."
"Well that's not good." Good thing he warned me about that.
"Yeah, I'll talk to her tonight. She'll be ready for a summon tomorrow morning. That work for you?"
"Yeah, fine by me."
"Cool. I'm off then."
Poof
"Now boys, go rest. I want you at your best for tomorrow."
"Of course, Orochimaru-sama." Sasuke and chant in unison.
"Dammit I thought we agreed to not do that again!" I shout.
At a Cafe, With the Konoha Gennin
All sitting at the biggest table the cafe has to offer is not only the gennin that made it into the finals, but every single gennin that was sent to the exams. Kiba and Akamaru, Hinata, Shino, Choji, Ino, Neji, Lee, and Tenten.
They're all talking animatedly, just having a good time in general. Then Tenten says something that brings everyone's talking to an abrupt halt.
"So Lee, how'd things work out with Green?"
A strange choking noise comes from Ino, she inhaled some of her drink. "Sorry, sorry. Don't mind me!"
Lee's whole body sags in defeat. "She doesn't like me back!" He whines loudly. "My beautiful orchid doesn't like me!"
Ino stifles a laugh, forcing it down to just a quiet snicker.
"Dude I'm still surprised she's a she!" Kiba cuts in and Akamaru woofs in agreement with his master. "And I can totally see why Lee likes her. She's hot."
Hinata and Tenten look at Kiba in shock. He did just call their enemy attractive.
"Hehehe." Ino let's out a quiet chuckle, but her face is turning red from the pressure of keeping quiet.
"Shino, Choji, Neji! Back me up on this. You're three cool guys, you can admit that much right?"
"She is aesthetically pleasing." Shino takes a small sip from his glass. "That does not mean anything though. She is still an opponent at the least, and enemy at the worst."
"HA!" One sharp squeak of laughter escapes from Ino drawing everyone's attention. "Sorry? I uh... remembered a good joke. Forget I said anything."
"Choji?" Kiba asks, eager to hear his fellow male's opinion.
Choji shrugs. "Sure she's cute. A little too pale though, that can't be healthy."
A high pitch whine cuts through the air. Ino's suppressing her laughter again.
"Are you okay Ino?" Hinata asks out of concern for her friend. She's acting very strange all of a sudden. She's not even trying to insert herself into the conversation, usually Ino would be criticizing Green about something, like saying her hair is too long or she needs to take better care of her skin.
"Yeah!" She says with slightly watery eyes. "Yeah I'm fine! My head is just elsewhere."
"Oookay." Kiba awkwardly says. "So Neji, what do you think about her?"
"I will refrain from answering." Neji diplomatically says.
"Aw come on man!" Kiba isn't taking that as an answer. "I bet you got the best view in the house!"
"WHAT?!" Neji shouts. "NO! I would never abuse the Byakugan like that!"
"It's okay, we understand. Sometimes it's too tempting to resist." Kiba calmly says. Then a lecherous grins forms on his face. "So, what is she working with? That coat hides a lot. Come on! Spill it!"
"HAHAHAHAHA!" Ino finally breaks down letting out a hearty belly laugh.
"What's her problem?" Kiba barks out.
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