Chunin Exam Phase 2 - Part 3

"I want to see her smile again…"

In the background, just right behind Sasuke's cocoon, Helel was trying his best to hold his laughter.

He had killed all of the spiders earlier but just as he was about to free the Uchiha, the guy suddenly starts screaming like a child. He was a bit surprised at first, then Sasuke started to mutter to himself. When he said that last thing, he just couldn't control it anymore.

He released a chuckle, and he heard the young Uchiha yell.

"Who's there!?"

"Calm down. It's me, Ren," he said as he revealed himself to him.

He noticed the raven-haired teen's eyes, which were now blood-red and with 1 tomoe in each pupil.

An almost sigh of relief came from Sasuke's mouth, and he said, "I'm glad that you're here. I would've become that spider's dinner. Speaking of which, where are those spiders? I can't seem to see any of them."

"Oh them?" He said, and just shrugged nonchalantly, "I killed all of them. It's a shame though, that big spider could've been my pet but it was quite feisty, so I had to put it down." And Maha-san would probably not like an insect the same height as her house to stay with them.

Shocked, Sasuke repeated, "All of them…?"

"Yeah. They were pretty pathetic, actually. A bit of fire, and they were all dead. I honestly don't know how you got caught by them, especially because you specialize in fire jutsus," if there was a tone of mocking in his voice, then he hid it very well.

But Sasuke knew that his teammate was right. Why wasn't he able to defeat those things? Was it simply because he was too weak? Or was he too dumb to realize those creatures' weakness?

Who knows? He might've been able to escape if he just went and used a fire jutsu towards the smaller spiders. It was too late when he realized that he was not being chased, but rather being led to their mother spider. If it wasn't for Ren, he would've been spider food by now.

Suddenly, Ren cut the web attached to his cocoon, and he almost fell down but not before the red-headed genin caught him in one hand. Then he jumped down towards the tunnel floor, and laid the Uchiha there.

Annoyed, Sasuke said, "It wouldn't hurt to warn me, y'know?" He saw the red-head's face, and noticed that his eyes had long adjusted to the darkness around him but it was strangely brighter.

Ren merely smirked, and said, "You deserve at least this for being captured. I had to leave Azumi and Sakura behind when I noticed that your chakra was weakening." He lied.

"Wait, how come you were able to find the two of them so fast?" He asked, a bit surprised knowing that they were separated when they were teleported to this hellish place.

"I'm a sensor," he partially lied, "and I can sense chakra from miles away. Azumi was teleported closer to me, so I went to her. You, on the other hand, were in a deeper path than we were."

Sasuke rolled his eyes, gestured to their surroundings, and replied, "As if I didn't know that."

Ren said, "Anyway, congrats on awakening your sharingan. Seems like you were quite traumatized by that spider, huh?"

A look of surprise appeared on the Uchiha's face. He took out a kunai, and looked at his reflection. There it was, 1 tomoe in each eye. He felt a bit relieved, knowing that he's not a failure.

'So that's why I've been seeing everything much more clearly, even though there is only darkness in this place,' he thought as he smiled but frowned when he saw all the remaining corpses of all the spiders around him. He took note of how the mother spider was killed by Ren. All of its limbs were separated from its body, along with it was cut from the very middle, cutting it in two.

"If you're finished getting mesmerized by your eyes, then let's go and meet up with the rest. Kakashi didn't say what the time limit was earlier. So for all we know, we only have a few hours left before the second phase is over," he said to his teammate.

It's probably a trick that they used to stress the participants even more, considering the fact that they not only have to watch out for other genins, they also have to be cautious about giant creatures that tower over them quite easily. Now they know next to nothing when this phase is going to end, making them overthink things and such.

But he knew. Helel knew that even though they said nothing about this, there were anbus stationed throughout the entire underground facility and tunnel. However, they are probably only meant to protect Konoha genins, not genins that were from outside the village. Well, except for important ones, like the Kazekage's trio or those from Kumo.

"So how are we going to meet up with Azumi and Sakura?" Sasuke asked, curious.

Helel shrugged, and said, "Well, it depends on how strong your neck is. Can it survive a few hundred meters per second?"

Confused, he said, "What does that have to do with wha—" He didn't get to finish his sentence before he felt a hand pressed against the back of his head, with another touching his shoulder.

And then, the two just disappeared with one of them screaming.

(Scene Change)

Sakura and Azumi sat inside a small cave that the former made with an Earth Jutsu named "Cave in the Wall Jutsu", which is a silly name but whoever made that jutsu probably saved many people from sleeping outside in the dark.

Then with a little bit of genjutsu, Sakura managed to shield themselves from passing genins or monsters. But that took a toll on her reserves, almost a quarter of it was gone. Meanwhile, Azumi didn't have any Earth Style Jutsus, and she's not that good at using genjutsu due to the fact that her chakra control sucks.

Her entire set of skills are focused only in combat since that's what she's good at, unlike Sakura who has to do her best just to keep up with her teammates. The pink haired genin's abilities are not combat oriented like Azumi, instead it's entirely for support. Which she realized was a pretty bad idea after some thinking, so she's training to increase her chakra reserves by doing some exercises and stimulating her body, along with practicing taijutsu with her sensei.

If her reserves at least reach the level of that of Sasuke, she can learn more ninjutsu that can be used to kill or at least incapacitate someone. If she's hoping to become a chunin, then that's something that she needs desperately.

"What do you think happened for him to just run off like that?" Sakura asked, starting a conversation.

She shrugged, and nonchalantly said, "I don't know. He's probably a sensor that could sense things like Dad. It's said in the bingo book that dad could sense someone from miles away just from touching the ground. I don't know if he does that though."

"Mhm, that is true. He must've sensed something wrong with your other teammate, Sasuke. He was probably teleported somewhere dangerous," Sakura said after some thinking.

"Yeah," a bit of quietness filled the air for a bit before Azumi said, "Hey, since you're the smartest out of all of us friends, do you have any idea how I can beat Ren?"

The pink-haired girl knew all about her friend's insecurity towards the red-head, and quite frankly, it's becoming an obsession for her. Azumi always talks about it whenever they hang out, and it's honestly annoying but she's their friend, so what could they do?

Sakura thought about it for some while, and said, "Hmm, no. Unless you have an overpowered secret ability or something like that, you wouldn't be able to defeat someone like him. If I try to estimate your strength, you're around chunin-level, a C-Rank Ninja. But Ren? He's already in the A-Rank, or maybe even S-Rank! He defeated Juzo Biwa, an S-Rank missing-nin, all on his own. I don't really know how someone our age is so strong, to the point that he's probably the greatest prodigy Konoha has ever produced."

Azumi was quiet after that, but soon said, "I see… so he's that strong, huh?" She looked up, and smiled, "If that's what you say about him, then you're probably right. But maybe someday I might be able to beat him. Who knows, right?"

"Well, whatever makes you sleep at night," she joked.

Her friend pouted, "You're so mean!"

Suddenly, a face popped up in front of them, going through the genjutsu Sakura made. It was Ren.

"Hmm, you've become great at genjutsu, Sakura. Although that's only natural, considering that you are Kurenai-sensei's student," he said towards her, complimenting her.

She felt a weird sense of pride rising in her chest due to that but she ignored it, and asked, "So what happened?"

He entered their small cave completely, while dragging Sasuke, whose mouth is already frothing.

"This guy," he pointed at the Uchiha, "got captured by a bunch of spiders and was about to be eaten. Fortunately, I got there just in time to save him. I'll make sure that Itachi hears about this." He smirked at that last part, knowing that Itachi's recognition is something Sasuke cherishes very much.

The Uchiha suddenly woke up, and wiped his mouth, before saying, "You don't have the guts!"

He looked at Sasuke's eyes directly, and said, "Try me."

Seeing this, Sakura interrupted, and said, "Anyhow," the two of them turned to her, "you're a sensor, right? Ren?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Then you can sense where my teammates are. Can you tell me?" She politely asked.

"Hmm, let me see," he stayed still for a moment, and said, "Well, good news is that they were able to meet up with each other."

She heaved a sigh, and said, "That's a relief."

"The bad news is that they are currently fighting genins from Kumo. It seems like they were targeting Hinata."

And as he expected, Sakura reacted almost immediately, "WHAT!?"