Chapter 20: Chunin Exams Arc: Part 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or there would be more fighting than flashbacks in battles.

Playing the Role of the Byakugan Princess

Chunin Exam Arc: Part Two

Chapter twenty

The mummified Oto Shinobi grabs me by my shoulders and yanks me out of my hiding spot. I stumble forward, startled, before I realize what is going on and plant my feet firmly into the ground to prevent him from dragging me any further. I instantly activated my chakra scalpels and swipe my right hand towards his face, but he briskly leaps backwards to create some distance from us. He gazes at me blankly with his visible eye and I take the moment to look around at my surroundings to avoid making eye contact. I see the spiky haired Oto guy staring at Sasuke with the hunger to kill as he stands behind his other teammate, waiting for the signal to pronounce. Sasuke is glaring back at him with his teeth clenched and his kunai raised. Behind me, I hear a racket going on. I spin around and see the Oto female Shinobi pulling out Ino and Sakura by the hair.

Without missing a beat, I charge after the girl and hurl a kunai attached to some wire towards her. Thinking I am aiming it to attack her, she raises her arm up to bat it away. Using my fingers, I manipulate the wire slightly off course and direct it to wrap her. I expect her to drop Sakura and Ino, or at least one of the girls, to avoid being caught in my wire, but a sonic boom blasts out of nowhere and blows the kunai and wire away. Without even looking, I already know that attack came from the spiky-haired Oto Shinobi. The Oto female smirks and continues dragging Sakura and Ino across the ground. Ino drags her nails into the ground while Sakura struggles to move, but the girl is overpowering them.

I wonder now is the right time to tell them to take a kunai and slash their hair off? I think they would rather get killed than cut their own long hair because of Sasuke.

Stupid Sasuke.

Speaking of Sasuke, I am assuming his opponent is going to be the spiky-haired boy, mine is going to be Mummy Man, and Sakura and Ino is going to face off with the female.

What are their damn names again?

"Kin, stop playing around with your toys," Sasuke's opponent says to his teammate. "Just kill them already."

I freeze up at that comment, but all Kin does is laugh. "Awh, but then all the fun would be over. I want to teach these lovely ladies that maybe they should have put more time into their training instead of their appearances." She pulls on their hair harder for good measure.

I shift my eyes back over towards Mummy Man. He seems to be the leader of the group so talking to him will make the most sense.

"I am getting the feeling you want more than just our scrolls. What do you guys want?" I question. As I did so, I activated my Byakugan to make myself look intimidating, but I am really just checking out the traps I set. None of them have went off.

Okay, so either these guys are just very skilled Shinobi or Sasuke and I suck at setting up traps.

"We are here to kill you all and capture Sasuke," Mummy Man replies cooly.

"Capture Sasuke-kun?! What do you guys want with him?" Ino shouts from behind me. "Ow! Let go of me!"

"Capture me, huh?" Sasuke repeats. "I bet that guy we fought set you three up for this."

"Look at you, connecting the dots," the bandaged man taunts. "No wonder he wants you. You're so smart."

Sasuke growls and his eyes turn blood red. "Have fun trying to capture me. You guys will be lucky enough to be breathing when I am through with you."

The Mummy Man shrugs off the threat and lazily looks over at his male teammate. "Zaku, you can deal with Sasuke. I will deal with this girl. Our lord was very adamant about killing her for some reason."

I tense up as Zaku grin eerily. "No complaints here, Dosu." Names! I finally know all of their names! It rings a bell now! An inappropriate time to be excited though!

I take a couple of steps back and assess the situation, which I probably wouldn't even be in if I had not fallen asleep. Why in the world did I fall asleep? I closed my eyes to get rid of the heavy feeling. I guess I was more tired than I thought I was. Ugh, I bet Sasuke is so pissed at me right now. He didn't want to go to sleep and I encouraged him since I promised I would stay awake. This is all my fault…

No! You can wallow in self-pity and blame yourself later. Right now, it is survive or die!

I scan my eyes around. It is obvious that we are going to have to fight our own opponents. It is actually better this way so we can help the other person if we defeat our enemy first. I believe Sasuke can handle his own with Zaku, eve not at full strength, but Sakura, Ino, and I might have some difficulty. Sakura and Ino are immobilized at the moment and I do not think my taijutsu is going to match very well with Dosu's sound attacks that he shoots out of his metal arm. I do not think Shadow Clones will help me out in this fight, and I really want to have access to all of my power, and I will quickly tire out if I just keep avoiding his attacks with Substitution Jutsu. However, Substitution Jutsu might be my best bet and I might just have to suck it up and use some Shadow Clones. If I can just dodge his attacks and try to get him within range, I can perform my Eight Trigrams: Thirty Two Palms on him and have him restrained.

Ugh, I wish I had the ability to create a plan followed by many other backup plans like Shikamaru.

I take another step back as I stand beside of a hidden trap, Dosu watching me carefully the whole time. He cocks his head to the side. "I hope you really don't take me for an idiot," Dosu says as he points at the hidden trap next to me. "It is very obvious that the ground has been dug up. We noticed that in multiple places. You Konoha Genin appear to be not as great as you think you are."

I grit my teeth. To answer my question earlier, it is just Sasuke and I suck at creating traps. Or maybe is it just me? Dosu lifts up his right arm and rolls up his sleeve, revealing his metal amplifier. "Anything you have planned anyways isn't going to work."

Before I can blink, he rushes towards me and throws a punch. Knowing not to dodge the normal away, I make the correct hand signs and replace my body with a log. The soundwaves that projected itself out of Dosu's melody arm easily cut through the log. Appearing a few feet behind him, I keep my distance from him and got into a defensive stance. If we were in a more wooded area, I would have tried to set up a trap to where I could have binded him with some of my wire and then quickly attack his chakra points. However, we are in a small clearing at the moment so my usual tactics of evading and ambushing isn't going to work... Shit! I use Substitution again as Dosu spins around and shoots out another sonicboom towards me. I position myself slightly further away from him and furrow my eyebrows in determination. I don't have much time to think about plans right now it seems. This guys is fast. I am going to have to improvise and end this quick!

I pull a smoke bomb out of my weapons pouch and throw it on the ground, causing it to burst open. A shroud of black mist begins to cover the small area between Dosu and I as it starts to impair his vision. Before he can blow the smoke away with sound jutsu, I create two Shadow Clones. One Shadow Clone stays hidden within the haze while me and the other clone dashes towards Dosu. The Oto Shinobi sees me and my clone emerge out of the smoke and he arches his visible brow.

"A simple Clone Jutsu isn't going to work on me while you hide behind that smoke," he sneers.

He raises his metal arm up to get rid of my clone, but my Shadow Clone surprises him by leaping ahead of me to strike. He widens his eyes and swiftly evades my clone, but my clone gracefully spins around on her toes and thrusts her palm outward. He raises his arm up and her palm makes contact with his amplifer. He smirks as he releases a soundwave and my Shadow Clone is sent flying from the sudden force. She crashes to the ground and poofs into thin air. Dosu's face drops in confusion, assuming that the clone was the real me, and I would have laughed if this was a more nonthreatening situation. Instead, I activate my chakra scalpels and charge towards him again. Dosu turns around just in time for my palm to greet his cheek, creating a deep gash. Dosu takes a step backward to avoid another strike, but I switch up my methods and drop to the ground to give him a low key. I sweep him off his feet and kick him into the air. My other Shadow Clones takes this opportunity to shoot out of the now dissipating mist to join me in battle as I leap into the air to continue my series of attacks on Dosu.

Observing the brief battle between Sasuke and Lee a couple of days ago is really paying off since I learned that an enemy can be momentarily immobilized in mid-air since there body has to quickly adjust itself. However, unlike Lee, I'm not used to fighting my opponents in the air…

I jump slightly above Dosu and slam both of my palms into his stomach.

… so let's get back to the ground!

Dosu rams into the ground like a falling meteor and I hear him gasp for air. As I drop back to the earth, my Shadow Clone meets up with me and stands by my side. We watch Dosu struggle to get up before we exchange glances, nod, and get into our stances to perform the Eight Trigrams: Thirty-Two Palms together.

Actually, would that mean we are about to perform the Eight Trigrams: Sixty-Four Palms.

No… no no. Don't get ahead of yourself. Just come up with a cool name for this attack instead!

"Um… Clone Eight Trigrams… No! Twin Eight Trigrams: Thirty-Two…" I begin.

However, Dosu rudely cuts me off with a roar. "I have had enough of this nonsense! Resonating Echo Drill!"

As he is saying this, my Shadow Clone has already jumped forward to attack him as I realize what he is doing and weave a handsign to perform the Substitution Jutsu. My clone lands two strikes on his shoulder, but is struck at the exact same time by the largest sound wave that Dosu has produced yet during this battle. My Shadow Clones instantly disappears and the large waves head towards me. By this point, I have finished creating the hand signs and am already switching my body with a log. I land across the clearing and am suddenly overwhelmed by the feeling of nausea. I drop to my knees as my body begins to feel wobbly and my ears starting beat like a bass drum.

This just has to be phantom pains I am experiencing right now because of my Shadow Clone. The attack didn't hit me so this should go away in a few seconds.

But, nothing goes away.

A burning sensation travels up my throw and I open my mouth to vomit. My body is shivering all over at this point and my ears feeling like fireworks are going off inside of them. I try to get back onto my feet, but I collapse to my knees again.

I guess… I guess I hit the aftermath of the attack... or something. I should not be randomly feeling like this.

God, this feels like a really painful hangover.

Weakly, I cast my eyes over to Dosu and see him struggling to stand himself from my most recent attack on him. He tries to move his left shoulder, but I can tell with my vision, even if it is wavering slightly, that those chakra points has been blocked by my Shadow Clone before poofing away. He's going to have to put in extra strength if he wants to use that arm to fight with. Not like he has to anyways since he keeps attacking with his metal gauntlet. If he hits me with another soundwave, I'm finished! There has to be something I can… wait a minute. Is he near…? I squint. He is!

A small bud of hope blooms inside of me.

I have a last resort idea.

Clenching my teeth, I muster all my strength and heave my body upwards. I topple around a little before somewhat regaining my balance and steamroll towards him, ignoring the pounding eardrums and urges to puke again. Dosu notices me coming after him and narrows his eye.

"You are very persistent," he mumbles. "It is starting to get annoying!"

Assuming he is not wanting to waste anymore chakra on me, he hurls a mixture of kunais and shuriken at me. I begin to weave the handsigns for the Substitution Jutsu, but stop halfway when I see his eyes dart around to see where I will be coming from next. Crossing my arms in front of me, I allow the weapons to hit me. As they pierce into me, I wince in pain as blood slowly leak down from the wounds, but I bite my tongue from making any noise and continue on with my plan. I surge an ounce of chakra into my feet and sprint towards him, now focusing a majority of my chakra into my right palm for an all-or-nothing strike! At the last second, Dosu spots my shadow but it is too late.

"Gentle Fist!" I shout.

I slam my palm into his chest. As my palm collides into his chest, many things happen at this moment. All at the same time, I see with my Byakugan Dosu's heart contract and begin to pump abnormally fast, the surrounding chakra points being blocked, and the signs of a him potentially going under cardiac arrest all the while Dosu gets sent flying backwards from the force of my Gentle Fist. Dosu lands just a few feet away from the spot that I want him at and he clenches his chest as he arches his back in pain.

Damn! That isn't where I wanted him to land.

"You… you," Dosu stammers as he starts to cough of blood. "You… bitch!"

I frown. I hate being called that.

I guess that spot he is at will have to do.

I lift up two fingers and the ground beneath Dosu explodes from the trap I just activated. The eruption shoots upwards as the force of it surges outwards, knocking me off feet. I tumble backwards and land weird on my dominant side. Pain instantly stings through my right wrist and I grab it to examine it. It does not appear broken, but it is definitely sprained. Great. I guess I was closer to the trap than I thought I was or I set too many paper bombs last night.

Son of a bitch.

A chilling scream of pain feels the air and I glance over towards Dosu's direction. Through the smoke, I see Dosu lying on the ground with his right arm missing. Blood is pouring out of the now mangled stump and he is grabbing his chest with his left hand as he coughs up more blood. I blink as I just stare at him, not feeling any sort of guilt or remorse at what I just did to him.

He deserved it. He was trying to kill me and my friends.

But… did I really have to go and blow up a limb of his?

He's lucky that I only blew up his melody arm! My main goal was to blow his whole body up to pieces.

I shook my head to get rid of this crazy talk. Now isn't the time for that. I need to get over their and "question" him before he possibly dies. Even though I know what is going on, maybe he can tell me some useful information that I do not know about.

I slowly get up once more and cringe in pain. Ugh, my body is sore! I hobble over towards him, bend down next to Dosu, and pull out a kunai to place on his neck. Even though I am pretty sure he doesn't have any fight in him left, he is still one of Orochimaru's minions and they can be very tricky. I scan over Dosu's body with my Byakugan before starting my Q&A session with him.

"You have about five minutes before you go under cardiac arrest," I inform him in a low voice. "I suggest you just comply with me and answer any question I ask of you."

Despite the predicament he is in, Dosu has the nerve to laugh in my face. "Heh! Why… why should I-I do that?"

"I'm the only person who can give you the proper medical treatment if you do," I lied. "I can easily undo my attack just as quick as I hit you with it."

"I don't need your assistance!" Dosu snaps and then coughs loudly. I pull my head back so he doesn't spatters blood on my face. "Besides… I-I failed my mission. I don't deserve to live anymore. I am of no use anymore."

I resist the urge to roll my eyes at his melodramatic comments. "You were never of no use to him."

"What are you-"

"You know who I am talking about," I say, lowering my voice to a whisper now so no one can hear me. "I'm talking about your Lord Orochimaru." Dosu's eye widens in surprise and is about to say something, but I continue. "I don't know if you know this or not, but he confronted us yesterday. He obviously toyed with us, seeming to have no attention to kill us, but more to see what Sasuke is made of. As if to test his powers. And then, strangely, he tried to bite Sasuke's neck."

I stop talking to let him process what I had just said to see if he will admit to anything. He doesn't say anything for a few seconds, but I can tell by the conflicted look on his face that he is thinking had about something. "He was trying to give him that?" Dosu mumbles to himself. "Why would he do that when he ordered us to capture Sasuke ourselves?"

I shrug and answer his question anyways. "It seems like your lord was trying to brand him. I'm not an expert on the subject, though I have some experience and knowledge of it, but I think he was trying to give him some sort of Cursed Mark."

In the anime/manga, when he learned that Sasuke had received the Cursed Mark from Orochimaru he vowed to ruined the snakeman's plans and tried to betray him. Right now, I am hoping that enough betrayal will set into Dosu so he can possibly give me some dirty secrets about Orochimaru or maybe even where some of his lairs are. It is a long shot, but such information can possibly change the course of things for the better.

But, my hopes flicker away when Dosu shakes his head and strains himself to speak louder. "I don't know how you got all of that from just one fight, but I'm not telling you anything! Even if Lord Orochimaru was just using us to test out that brat's strength, you are still just the bitch who just put me in this condition! I don't owe you any answers!"

My eyebrow twitches at the insult. This isn't going the way I wanted it to go. I need to shut him up before he starts blabbing what I just said to him outloud.

I bring the kunai closer to his neck and hesitate.

Is it wrong of me for wanting to kill him without batting an eye? Without feeling bad about it at all? Not even just a little?

One part of me is feeling like this while the other part of me is telling me that I have every right to do what I am about to do. It isn't like I get a thrill when I kill someone. I didn't technically kill Hidan, but any other normal person would've died if I sliced their head off. And, I only did that because my life and the people that I cared about lives were in danger. Just like now.

I grip the kunai together.

This is just one of the jobs of being a Shinobi. Sometimes, I am going to have to kill others. Only enemies, though! Dosu is the bad guy, not me so I have a good enough reason. Plus, he's going to die anyways from either blood loss or cardiac arrest. At least I'm sparing him from a painful death.

Dosu senses my conflicted demeanor and smirks from underneath his bandages. "Thinking over if you should just kill me or not, huh? Konoha Shinobi are so emotionally weak. You should be able to do this without a second glance!"

He stares deep into my eyes with a strange look, almost a pleading one. Does he want me to end his life? Heck, I would if I were in his situation. Maybe I should grant his final unspoken wish….

Before I can change my mind, I dig my kunai into the side of his neck and quickly slit Dosu's throat. I roll his body away from and watch as blood begins to gush out like a small waterfall. The Oto Shinobi widens his eye for a moment before slipping into unconscious. Panting heavily now, I drop my kunai and collapse onto my bottom. I just stare at the now dead teen as I run a hand through my hair.

The first time that I "killed" someone, I wanted to freak out and vomit. This time, I feel nothing. Why do I feel so emotionless right now? I did want to repress the freaked out feelings the first time around so I can stay focused on the mission. I guess my mind did what I wanted for it to do and created some kind of emotional barrier to protect me. Though, I feel like this happened way too fast. This is only my second kill. Should I feel this "used" to it already? Is it because I have an adult mind and have already mentally prepared myself for situations like these because of my knowledge of the future?

I shake my head. I can wonder about these things later. I need to check on the others right now. At least I feel nothing over this whole thing. Better than getting a thrill or enjoying slitting his throat. Now, that would really worry me.

I turn around to see if I need to join in with helping anybody in their battles and stop. Over to my right, I can see a fallen Kin and Sakura standing beside of her with a kunai in her hand, as if to stand guard over her in case she gets up. Kin's body has some burn makes and her eyes are freakishly wide open and she has a look of pure terror resting on her face as her mouth hangs slightly open, causing a little bit of drool to escape. On Sakura's other side, Ino is propped up against a tree with her eyes closed. Did Ino use her Mind Transfer Jutsu on someone? And, why the hell does Kin look like that? Did Sakura do something to her? I study my teammate even harder. Her hair is still long and she doesn't seem beat up or anything. Ino's hair is still long as well and looks perfectly fine also.

I have to hear what happened.

I let my eyes scan over towards my left and notice Sasuke standing really close to Zaku as he holds a thick layer of wire. They seem to be conversing about something. As they talk, I realize with my visual powers that Zaku looks pretty beaten up while Sasuke only has a few bruises on his body. In fact, both of Zaku's hands appear to be broken! How in the world is that boy just standing their causally alongside Sasuke? He should be roaring in pain and acting pissed! His teammate just got killed and, I am assuming, Sasuke just broke his hands!

Feeling confused, I am about to make my way over towards Sasuke, to see if he needs any assistance, when Zaku presses his hands together and says loudly, "Mind Transfer Jutsu… Release!"

Zaku's body falls to the ground and Sasuke takes the opportunity to tightly restrain the Oto Shinobi before he wakes up. After doing so, he drags Zaku closer to where Sakura and Ino standing and tossed him to the ground. At that same moment, Ino body stirs and her eyes flutter open.

Okay… I am obviously out of the loop. What happened?

I carefully hobble over towards my friend. I could have walked faster, but my ears are still killing me and I don't want to trigger anymore more nausea. When they sense me coming, my friends all look over at my direction and I playfully wave with my injured hand, forgetting it is sprained. Feeling like an idiot, I clench my teeth through the pain as I hold onto my wrist to nurture it.

"Okay, why am I the only one that looks like crap?" I ask as I join the group, attempting to break the tension.

Sakura opens her mouth to respond to me, but Ino beats her to speaking first. "W-was it really necessary for you to kill him?"

I give her a puzzled look. Why is she asking me that? "Oh, don't worry. I made sure to try to get any information out of him before I did." She's asking me because she is worried about that, right?

Wrong. "No… I just mean in general," she says to me and I widen my eyes. She seems like she wants to say more, but her voice trails off as she lowers her eyes.

Woah, woah, woah! Is she seriously questioning why I just killed somebody who had every intention to kill us? She is not going to make me out as some heartless monster!

Trying to keep my cool, I take a deep breathe and look over at Sasuke. He's more level headed than Ino. He will know where I am coming from. "I followed proper procedures and tried to get some information out of him before I killed him." Those last three words sound strange coming out of my mouth. "He was going to die anyways from blood loss so I just spared him a painful death."

Sasuke nods. It wasn't in understanding or comfort. Just a simple nod as if to only acknowledge what I'm saying. "You don't have to explain yourself. I get it," he tells me with a blankless expression written on his face.

Does he? Does he really get it? I hope so. I thought I had every right to kill Dosu, but now I am starting to second guess myself if my friends are reacting like this. Did I just make a mistake? Should I have just left him to slowly die? I was afraid he might start questioning my "observations" and they would've overheard. I am seen as smart, but no one is that intelligent enough to gather the information I told to Dosu from just one fight. So, I had no choice but to kill him! All of them know that killing is part of being a Shinobi so I don't know why they appear so cautious of me right now. Maybe I can talk to Sasuke about this later to see what he is truly thinking.

Why can't Shikamaru be awake right now? He would totally understand my actions and logically explain something to everyone else, even if he didn't agree with me killing Dosu. Sasuke can probably do the same, but he's not the type to discuss his inner thoughts unless he deems necessary.

Trying to change the subject, I glance over at Kin and Zaku. "So, what happened with them?"

Sakura decides to speak first this time around. "Well, as soon as you and Sasuke started your battles, the girl told us she was going to make us watch as her teammates killed you two. Which, she was stupid to think we were going to just sit around and allow that to happen. After a few moments of being helpless, an idea pops into my mind…"

Sakura pulls out a kunai. Behind her, Kin sneers and pulls her hair even tighter. "Whatever you are planning to do, it is pointless. It is not going to work on me!"

Sakura ignores her words and pretends to struggle, attempting to adjust her body to a better position so she can attack Kin. As she does so, Ino stares at her rival from the corners of her eyes.

What is she trying to do? Ino thinks to herself.

Suddenly, Sakura averts her eye upwards at her target hidden in the trees and hurls her weapon at it. The kunai strikes the hidden trap and immediately a shower of shurikens and kunais are unleashed.

"What the hell?!" Kin shouts as she let's go of her prey's hair. She leaps backwards to avoid being impaled as Sakura and Ino does the same.

Not letting this opportunity to attack slid, Sakura starts weaving hand signs and two illusionary clones appear by her side. Sakura quickly places a few paper tags on one of her clones and her and her clones rush towards Kin.

"A simple attack like this isn't going to fool me!" Kin taunts as she pulls out a handful of senbons. I just have to concentrate on which one is the real girl! she adds to herself.

But, Sakura doesn't allow that to happen. Sakura waves her hand forward to order her clones to run faster as she sends chakra into her own feet to almost match their speed, just lagging slightly behind. As they on ahead of her, all three Sakura's raise their fist to strike. Kin gets on the defensive when Sakura uses her other hand to lift up two fingers. The clone jumps towards Kin's face and combusts into an explosion of cherry blossoms. Kin blinks in confusion for a second before regaining her senses and hurls a round of senbons towards the second clone coming her way. The senbons pierce into the clone and the clone poofs away, like Kin expected. What Kin didn't expect to happen is for said clone to have explosive tags attached to herself.

Kin realizes this at the last moment and crosses her arms to shield her face as Sakura's clone explodes. The smoke impairs Kin's vision and she coughs as some of it enters her lungs. As the she approaches the smoke, Sakura begins weaves handsigns for her new genjutsu.

Now is the perfect time to test this out! Sakura thinks to herself as she finishes the sequence and runs into the smoke.

"So, I used my new genjutsu on her and she ended up like that," Sakura finishes, pointing at the unconscious Kin.

"A new genjutsu?!" I repeat, a little too excitedly. I haven't seen her practice any of her genjutsu when we all train together! She must have been practicing on her time.

Sakura nods. "Yeah, but I don't want to tell anybody what it is yet. Well, at least until the Chunin Exams are over with."

Well, shit. Now, I want to know what it is! Maybe she will reveal it during the preliminary matches if we make it to the Tower.

"You better at least tell me and Shikamaru about it," I say to her. "Whatever you did will surely benefit our formations perfectly."

"I will!" Sakura promises and then flickers her eyes over at Ino. "At least I did something during the battle. Ino just stood on the sidelines and watched."

Ino breaks out of whatever daze she was in and crosses her arms. "Shut it, Billboard Brow! You didn't give me a chance! It's like you had this whole thing planned from the start! Which, your little stunt could've killed us by the way if that girl hadn't let go of us!"

Sakura shrugs. "I knew she was going to let go anyways. When Hinata first attacked her, I felt her grip release slightly before her friend stepped in to blow Hinata's wire away. That is when I realized we were underneath the trap that either you or Sasuke set up right in front of the entrance as protection."

I just stare at Sakura in amazement. She faced Kin all alone and without a scratch on her. She has truly improved over the past few months. I always knew she could've been a stronger kunoichi early on if she had just taken her training more seriously. Right now, it is really showing that she has. As Asuma mentioned to Kakashi the other day, our team fights more with our brains than our fists. We might not be stronger than Team Seven or as great with ninjutsu as they are. But, I can bet money that we can outsmart them anyday.

You better watch out, Ino. Sakura is nipping at the back of your feet!

Ino rolls her eyes, but I can tell that she is impressed with Sakura right now. "Whatever. I did help out in someway with Sasuke-kun! If I hadn't used my Mind Transfer Jutsu on his opponent than he would've gotten hurt!"

I turn towards Sasuke with an arched eyebrow. "Did you let your guard down or something?"

Sasuke shakes his head in mild annoyance. "No. After my fight with him, I broke his hands in order for him to stop using them. As I did so, I landed a blow to his head and knocked him out. Or, so I thought. I turned away for a split second to get my wire to tie him up. I sensed him coming at me. Despite me breaking his hands, the guy had enough willpower to overcome the pain in attempt to launch an attack on me. I was too close in range to get out of the way. That's when Ino performed her jutsu and took over his body."

I can tell by the tone of his voice that he is grateful for Ino doing that without having to say it. Ino must have picked up on his tone as well because she begins to blush.

"Well, I was just saving you," she says. "I would do anything for you, Sasuke-kun!"

Sakura grits her teeth in jealousy at Ino's comments as Sasuke ignores them. "Anyways, we should get out of here. Hinata is not in the best of conditions right now, the dobe and your guy's teammate is still knocked out, and our fight has probably attracted some nearby enemies."

As Sasuke says that last part, I hear the slight crunch of a leaf as it sounds like someone is quietly but swiftly trying to get away from the area. I focus my vision on where the noise came from and see Lee jumping away from us into he grows out of view. I wonder if Sasuke saying what he said scared Lee off? Neji and Tenten are probably nearby, but for that moment it would've been four against one if he decided to ambush us. If I recall correctly, he came in during the anime/manga to save Sakura. I guess he was just passing by and just decided to observe. I can't believe I didn't notice him. Is the effects of Dosu's jutsu effecting my vision that bad or was I just too engrossed in my conversation?

I deactivate my Byakugan and place my hand to my head as the sudden change in vision cause my headache to pound even harder. My ears continue to ring as I stand still for a second as nausea decides to grace me with its presence before composing myself.

Sakura give me a worries look. "Are you going to be okay, Hinata?"

I give a weak smile. "I'm sure these symptoms will go away soon. I will be fine as long as I don't exert myself too much."

"Which means we are going to have to stay hidden and quiet since we will be traveling at a slower pace than normal," Sasuke adds in. "We are going to have to rest for awhile before targeting another team so our team can get a scroll."

Crap. I totally forgot about gathering scrolls. I guess our team has one now from defeating the Oto Shinobi and I don't have the slightly clue where that Amegakure team is that I singled out to take their scroll. We are going to have to find them or another random team.

"What should we do about those guys?" Ino asks, flicking her eyes over towards Zaku and then to Kin. "We can't just leave them here, can't we?"

I wonder how upset Ino, or really any of them, will get if I suggested that we just kill Zaku like I did Dosu and keep Kin alive to hand over to somebody for questioning?

Woah, where did that thought come from? Thinking about killing Zaku so causally? Killing Dosu was necessary. Killing Zaku will not be…will it? If we didn't kill Zaku and take Kin, Orochimaru would probably just kill Zaku himself so he can help be apart of that jutsu that brings the dead back to life. If we kill Zaku and take Kin, Orochimaru will have no more minions, excluding Kabuto, to do any dirty work for him at the moment and he still could just find two random people to use as sacrifices for his jutsu. Still, Zaku could try to follow us if we take Kin and those two could someone escape from our clutches or try to attack us when we are off guard if we keep him alive...

"The only thing I'm going to suggest is that we take the girl with us to turn her over to a higher official for questioning after this Exam is over," I tell everyone. I take a deep breathe and chose my next few words cautiously. "Before my opponent died, I try to coax any information out of him but he wouldn't budge. The only things he did mention though was a name and something about a Cursed Mark. Apparently, the guy we fought yesterday is referred to as Lord Orochimaru."

I decided to lie and give this sort of information out it is really the only thing that makes sense at the moment. Many people know the name Orochimaru from him being one of the three legendary Sannin. Plus, I can say that when I was describing our fight with Orochimaru to Dosu that he mentioned something about the Cursed Mark after I talked about how it looked like he was about to bite Sasuke. I could have taken the opportunity and exposed more about what I know but most Shinobi take their secrets to the grave with them and he was still loyal to Orochimaru until his death so it would be strange for him to just ramble on his deathbed. That's why we take Kin along with us and have somebody probe her mind.

Sakura widens her eyes. "You mean as the Sannin? That Orochimaru?"

I shrug. "Unless you know of anybody else with that name than sure."

Sakura bites her lip. "I never really studied about him, but I do know that he left the village for some reason and is considered a S-rank criminal."

"I can see why. He was dangerous as hell during that fight!" Ino remarks. "I wonder what he wants with Sauske-kun? He needs to leave him alone!"

Sasuke gathers the scroll from Zaku and hands it to Sakura. "Here, you should hang on to this since you are the most capable right now."

Ouch, that didn't hurt or nothing.

Sakura flushes red and grabs the scroll from Sasuke. "Thanks, Sasuke-kun!"

"Hn."

"Wait. Can you hand me that for a second?" I ask, reaching out my hand. I have an idea that I've been wanting to do.

"Uh, sure," Sakura replies as I take the scroll from her.

I make my way over to the hideout to retrieve my bag, and everyone's else, and walk back to my friends. I drop all of our bags down and open my up to pull out several blank scrolls and a pen. As I do so, I take out our team's Earth Scroll and Team Seven's Heaven scroll and spread them out. Quickly, I roll up the blank scrolls and begin to copy the seals from the Earth or Heaven Scrolls onto them.

"That's actually a good idea," Sasuke mumbles as he watches me scribble.

"I wanted to do this earlier, but I forgot," I admit to him as I draw. "This trick can buy us time with enemies if we get overpowered or something." I finish the last blank scroll. "What do you think? They are not perfect and I know that the Earth Scroll is purple while my scrolls are white, but a little Transformation Jutsu can fix that."

As I say that, I perform said jutsu on a couple of my scrolls to make them similar to the original Earth Scroll. I put a fake scroll in my own bag and divided up the rest among everyone else, including putting spare ones in my bag for Naruto and Shikamaru. I hand the real scrolls to Sakura and put the other Earth Scroll back in Sasuke's bag.

"Okay, I'm settled now," I say.

Sasuke nods. "Good. Alright, since Hinata isn't in the best condition right now I think I should carry Shikamaru, since he is heavier and taller than the girl and Naruto, while Sakura you carry the girl and Ino you carry Naruto. We can let nature take care of the other guy."

"If you guys get tired, I can help carry someone for awhile," I quickly comment, not wanting to feel like a burden.

"How can you guys carry me if I'm already awake?" a voice asks, causing us to jump and go on the offensive. Naruto stumbles out of the hideout, rubbing his eyes. "Ugh, I feel weird… Hey, why are you all glaring at me for? Did I say something wrong?"

Ino rushes over to Naruto and collides him. "Naruto! I'm so glad you are awake! You had me worried half to death!"

Naruto gives Ino a confused look as she hugs him. Obviously, he isn't used to her acting like this. "Did something happen to me? I don't remember much from yesterday. I just remember seeing Hinata getting thrown off the tree from that creepy guy and then everything went dark."

Ino pulls back and shoot Sasuke a worried look, but he just sighes. "We can fill him in as we go. We should stick around here much longer."

As Sasuke goes to grab Shikamaru, I make my way over to Naruto and pat his shoulder. "Don't worry. Everything is fine now."

Naruto stares at me up and down and furrows his eyebrows. "You look the opposite of fine. In fact, you look terrible! What happened to you?" He glances behind me at the dismembered Dosu and broken Zaku. "W-wait. Aren't those the guys that attacked Kabuto? Did you guys get in a fight with them?"

I open my mouth to respond, but I hear Sasuke's voice from behind me cut in. "I told you that we would fill you in, dobe. Now's not storytime."

Naruto scowls and crosses his arms. "Whatever. Nobody asked you to butt in, teme."

Sasuke rolls his eyes. "At least you seem fine if you're acting like your normal self." I can tell that's his way of asking Naruto if he's alright.

Naruto points at Sasuke. "This is why I need answers to my questions! Why shouldn't I be fine?!"

Sasuke just stares at Naruto for a long second before shrugging and walking off. Sakura throws Kin over her shoulder and glares at Ino. "Since Naruto is awake, you and I are going to take turns carrying her."

Ino suddenly runs away from Sakura. "Sorry, I didn't quite catch that!" she calls back. "Wait up, Sasuke-kun!"

"Grrrr, Ino-pig! You get back here!" Sakura shouts as she takes off after Ino. Well, so much for going quietly at a slow pace.

As Naruto and I start after them to catch up, we continue our chat. "Well, I would ask why Sakura is carrying that girl around but I guess I will find out later," Naruto says to me.

I give him a reassuring smile. "Yes. I promise we will fill you in at our next rest stop."

We travel silently through the forest floor, making sure we are making our way through the thicker brushes and such. While on the move, I make sure to activate my Byakugan every now and again to avoid any dangerous animals or enemies. Traveling by trees would've been better in a normal circumstance, but this way we can conceal ourselves better and rest in more hidden areas when needed. This makes me feel like I am being a huge burden on the team right now. As promised, we told Naruto what happened at our first break and he wasn't to enthused about the fact that he missed out on some intense fighting… after getting angry about me getting hurt of course.

We stop for our third rest stop and I routinely awaken my Byakugan to check things out. As I expand my vision outwards in all directions, I notice something up ahead. A team of Konoha Shinobi that I've never seen before seems to be sleeping in the treetops. I watch them carefully as they keep their eyes closed and they are breathing slowly in rhythmic patterns. The guys has scratches all of their body and the clothes look slightly tattered. They must be exhausted if they are able to just fall asleep in the middle of an Exam like this. Though, my friends and I just did that so I shouldn't be talking. Surrounding the team were a few poorly set traps. As I focus more on them, I realize that one of the guys, the bald one, obtains a Heaven Scroll. I smirk. Things might be turning around for us.

"Do you guys want to rest or get your hands on a Heaven Scroll?" I ask everyone.

Sasuke raises an eyebrow. "What did you see?"

I tell him what I just saw ahead. "I didn't see anything out of the ordinary. They seem to be stupidity sleeping in the middle of a dangerous forest without anybody taking shifts for lookout and the traps are easily avoidable if you just follow my lead."

Naruto pumps his fist in the air. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

Sasuke shakes his head. "You're not going anywhere."

Naruto shoots his teammate a glare. "What? Why not?"

"It will be better if only a couple of us sneak up ahead to retrieve the scroll while the rest stands behind to stand as backup and watch Shikamaru and the girl," Sasuke explains.

"You're the loudest among us, Naruto," Ino informs Naruto. "That's why you need to stand behind."

Naruto gives me a look to help him out and I just shrug, indicating that I agree with Sasuke. Naruto pouts and crosses his arms. "No way! This isn't fair!"

"Ino, you're staying behind, too," Sasuke tells the blonde.

Ino widens her eyes. "What?! Why?"

"Nyah nyah," Naruto teases and Ino slaps the back of his head. "Ow!"

"It isn't because you guys are the loudest," I tell him, even though it mostly is. "Sakura and I specialize in working from behind the scene and ambushing. Since Sasuke is part of the team that needs the Heaven Scroll, he's gonna come with us. If we need you guys, we will send out a signal."

"I don't want to get stuck on guard duty with her," Naruto mumbles.

Ino's eyebrow twitches. "What was that?"

Sakura rolls her eyes. "Will you guys just shut up? This is why you're standing behind."

Ino opens her mouth to argue against Sakura, but one serious look from Sasuke finally shuts her up.

"Let's go," Sasuke says to me and Sakura. "Hinata, try not to do so much since you are still injured. The only reason you are coming is because of your eyes."

We sneak our way over to the enemies territory. As we do so, we come up with a quick plan while I keep careful watch of them as we avoid their traps. Everything still looks normal so far. There is nothing wrong or strange with their chakra pathways and I don't see any clones or anybody else lurking around. When we are close enough to them, we position ourselves right above the group as they continue to sleep, totally unaware of our presence.

This is easy. Too easy. And, almost always something bad happens if someone thinks such words.

Ignoring the negative thoughts nagging the back of my mind, I nod towards Sakura and she nods back. She creates a False Surroundings genjutsu to conceal ourselves as I silently create two Shadow Clones. They both appear and immediately crouch down, one in front of the other. One Shadow Clone grabs the other by the ankles and I grab the clone's ankles that is crouching down in front of me. As I did so, pain shoots through my right hand, but I bit my lip to ignore it. A little pain isn't going to stop me from getting this scroll! Sakura bends down to grab my ankles and Sasuke does the same thing to Sakura after tying some wire around a thick branch to hold on to. The pink-haired girl blushes as he touches her. After making sure everyone is holding on tight to one another, the clone in the very front free falls towards the Konoha team as we all begin to fall behind her in an orderly fashion, all hanging on to one another to slow down the clone.

As Sasuke supports our human ladder from the top, my clone finally stops just behind the bald headed guy from the bottom. Double checking to make sure it is not a fake, she carefully reaches out towards the Heaven Scroll that is attached to the guy's hip. As her fingertips brushes against the paper, the guy suddenly sneezes and stretches. We all freeze up as we watch him shift around in his sleep some more before getting comfortable again. The clone waits a few seconds before moving and swiftly swaps the Heaven Scroll from him and replaces it with a fake one. My clone waits another few seconds before moving again to make sure the guy doesn't wake up.

When the coast seems to be cleared, Sasuke uses all of his might to begin pulling us up. When Sakura is on her two feet again, she helps out Sasuke with pulling me and the clones up. As I reach the branch, I exert out some extra energy to help pull up my clones. As I did so, my head starts to pound really hard and my ears behind to ring at the same time. A wave of nausea overwhelms me and I feel my body shaking from all of the side effects. My vision wavers and I lose my balance for a split second so I take a couple of steps back to avoid the falling. My sudden change in movements causes my two clones, that are still suspended in mid-air, to swing back and forth. Weakness overcomes me and I accidently let go of my clone's ankles and they start to fall.

Shit! Shit! Shit!

Thinking quickly on our feet, my Shadow Clones throws the Heaven Scroll our way just as I bring my finger together to get rid of them before they crash into the enemies. The scrolls soars through the air and Sasuke barely catches it with his extended hand before it flies over us. I collapse onto my bottom and start to breathe heavily to get through these symptoms as they continue to make me feel ill and cause me pain.

I shouldn't have exerted myself so much. At least we have the Heaven Scroll now. Now, we need to get away from this team before they wake up and spot us.

Sasuke slides the scroll into his backpack and picks me up bridal style without a word. I do not object since I do not think I can move myself right now without vomiting everywhere. Sakura gives me a jealous glance before she and Sasuke silently leap away and make our way back towards Naruto and Ino.

"I told you not to overdo yourself," Sasuke scolds as he looks straight ahead.

I lower my eyes in guilt and shame. First, I promise Sasuke I would stay awake as watch and end up falling asleep. Now, I am being a huge burden to the team right now. I could have gotten us exposed back there. I am screwing up majorly today. I wouldn't be surprised if he is angry with me.

"I'm sorry," I say to him. I hate apologizing to anybody so you know I screwed up big time when I do.

Sasuke just flickers his eyes down at me for a split second before looking back up and doesn't say anything. We make it back to Naruto and Ino and Sasuke gently sets me down in front of a large rock so I can prompt myself against it. I have never been more glad to be out of Sasuke's arm.

"Did cha get the scroll?" Naruto asks as he breaks away from Ino as she crouches over Shikamaru. What is she doing?

"Lower your voice, dobe," Sasuke replies and shows him the Heaven Scroll as proof.

Naruto grins. "This is great! Now, we can go to the Tower now and complete the Exam!"

Sasuke shoots daggers at his teammate. "I told you to be quite! The enemy is not that far off. We are not in the clear yet until we get moving."

Naruto scratches the back of his head. "Heh, sorry. Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go, then! Shikamaru is awake so that is one less person for us to carry and drag us down."

My ears perk up. Shikamaru is awake?!

"If I recall, you were dragging everyone else down with me since you were knocked out also," Shikamaru comments from behind Ino. As I sit up, I notice that Ino is wrapping a bandage around his head where he had hit it. The wound has slightly healed since yesterday, but it is capable of reopening of he isn't careful.

"Will you stop yapping at Naruto and let me finish on you?" Ino snaps.

Shikamaru rolls his eyes. "Troublesome woman. You're just as bad as my girls."

Sakura and I shift our eyes over towards our teammate as a tick mark appears on top of Ino's head. "What was that?!" we all say in unison, though my voice is more on the playful side so it gets overruled by Sakura's and Ino's loud mouths.

Here I thought he was the intelligent one of the group. Making three females mad at you, Shikamaru, isn't a smart move. He must've hit his head too hard and jumbled up his brain a bit.

"Are you doing okay?" I add in, giving him a concerned look.

Shikamaru nods. "I'll live. You don't look so hot yourself though." He sends me a look that reads "I know of everything. Are you going to be okay?"

I shrug. "I'll live."

Is this going to be the running gag for Team Ten on every dangerous situation we get ourselves in? Shikamaru and I will get hurt in some way, physically, mentally, and/or emotionally, we check up on one another and reply with "I'll live", and Sakura just comes out of every fight without anything wrong with her at all? I sure hope not. If that's the case, Sakura might be better at this whole Shinobi thing better than Shikamaru and I are.

Naruto frowns. "Are you sure? You look very pale and stuff."

I open my mouth to say something, but Sasuke cuts me off. "She is going to be fine. The side effects from that guy's attack are still in her system so she is going to be experiencing little spells for awhile. But, right now, we need to be worrying about leaving and heading to the Tower. We can't afford to fight another team."

Yeah, I agree. We barely got the scrolls we have right now. It would suck if someone fought us and took one away from us.

Sasuke glances over at me. "Do you think you can make it to the Tower?"

I nod. "We are not too far away from it. I will be fine until we get there."

Sasuke nods back in response and I slowly get up as we all prepare ourselves to leave. Ino finishes wrapping Shikamaru's head and allows him to get up. He stands up and stumbles around for a second as he holds on to his head, but then he regains his balance. I look over at Naruto. He still seems to be fine, but I know that his chakra system is screwed up at the moment. If we did get into a fight or surrounded, the three of us will not be able to fight with our full power in our conditions. What we need is to get to the Tower as quick as possible so we can properly rest and eat. As I think of food, I feel my stomach rumble and I plac a hand over it. In fact, I don't think none of us has eaten or drank anything since the Exams started. We've been either knocked out or on an adrenaline rush and that rush is starting to fade away so we need to hurry before our survival instincts kick in and forces us to stop traveling to eat and drink.

As soon as we are ready, we head towards the Tower. Shikamaru has us to travel in a straight line uniform mixed with the buddy system. Sasuke and I will be traveling up front so I can use my Byakugan to scan the area and warn Sasuke of any enemies. Naruto and Ino are in the middle since Naruto has quick enough reactions to cover the front or back of the group while Ino has fought with him enough to back him up. Sakura and Shikamaru will be in the back since they can perform longer range jutsus to sneak in and stop the enemy in it's tracks or distort it in someone way. I inform the group every two minutes of our whereabouts and how far away we are from the Tower. At the rate we are traveling, if nobody gets in our way, we should be there in about thirty minutes. About halfway to the Tower, something appears within my telescopic vision. I halt to a complete stop, causing Naruto to almost crash into me

"Stop!" I hiss as I focus.

Two familiar looking people are quickly heading our way. At how fast they are going, they have somehow sensed our presences and are planning on approaching us. I frown. I know who these guys are. They are Kabuto's "teammates". But, where is Kabuto? I have a bad feeling about this.

Great. Probably another attempt to capture Sasuke.

I turn to face the others. "You guys remember Kabuto? Well, he isn't with them, but his teammates are heading in our direction and they look like they are itching for a fight."

Ino sighs. "Awesome! Just when we were this close to the Tower."

"They must have been lurking around the Tower to attack any teams that make their way over to it," Shikamaru explains. "It isn't a bad idea. They don't have to go out and look for people when they can just come to them."

"And, we have both sets of scrolls so they can't just bypass us for another team," Sakura points out with a worried expression resting on her face.

I clench my fist. "Then, we are either going to have to give them a fake one or fight them because they are almost here!"

"We can take them on!" Naruto says, pumping his fist up in the air.

"Hopefully we can," Shikamaru says back. "We don't know their skills, but I may have a plan that can help us out."

As we huddle around Shikamaru as he tells us his plan, I have to admit it is a good idea to come up with one a short notice. He never ceases to amaze me. Suddenly, we hear the rustling over trees behind us as Kabuto's teammates make their appearance.

"Well, I hope everybody understands the plan because it looks like our company has arrived," Shikamaru whispers to everyone as we all tense up.

One of Kabuto's teammates, the one with the cloth covering the majority of his face and is wearing sunglasses, juts his chin out towards us. "Looks like we just hit the jackpot, Misumi."

Misumi chuckles. "Six out of the nine rookie Genin here in one spot? You seem to be right, Yoroi."

Naruto grits his teeth. "You guys are outnumbered six to two! Why are you acting so cocky?"

Misumi's eyes shine through his glasses. "For starters, it doesn't seem like you guys are in the best of shapes."

Sasuke arches an eyebrow. "Looks can be deceiving, you know?"

Misumi shrugs. "I highly doubt that."

"Misumi, stop messing around with these brats," Yoroi tells his teammate. "We are here for one reason only. I would like to complete that reason and get out of this damn forest."

I narrow my eyes. "What is this reason of yours?"

With my Byakugan, I see both men smirk from underneath their cloth masks. "To take a scroll from you, of course. That is the goal of this Exam, right?"

Yeah, that's the thing you want to take from us.

Shikamaru sighs in defeat. "Which one do you need?"

Going along with Shikamaru's plan, we all appear shocked. "Shikamaru! What are you doing?" Sakura questions.

Shikamaru gives her a sharp look. "Surviving. These guys have seen through are bluff. We were just in two back to back fights, we haven't ate anything, and we are injured or exhausted. We can't take on these guys."

Yoroi and Misumi seem a little taken back at Shikamaru for giving in so easily before composing themselves. "We are in need of an Earth Scroll," Yoroi replies back cautiously.

Shikamaru pulls out a fake Earth Scroll. "Like this one?"

Misumi nods. "Yeah. You guys are taking the fun out of this though. What if we want to fight you guys and just take all the scrolls you have?"

Yoroi looks over at his teammate and grins. "Heh, I think I like your idea a lot better."

Shikamaru gives our enemies his best confused look. "So, you guys don't want this?"

"Of course we do, you brat!" Misumi snaps. "Yoroi, these brats are getting on my last damn nerves. Let's just finish them off already."

"Gladly," Yoroi replies as he cracks his knuckles. I watch him quickly send a decent amount of chakra to his hands and they suddenly glow blue.

Before any one of us can react, Misumi suddenly extends his arm out towards us and snatches the scroll out of Shikamaru's hands. Okay, I don't remember him being able to do weird shit to his body like Orochimaru can. He retracts his arm, studies the scroll, and the crumples it up. "Do you take us for idiots?! We knew this was a fake this whole time! A Transformation Jutsu? How pathetic!"

"We will be getting the real scroll this time!" Yoroi promises. "All of them!"

With that, he begins to charge towards us as Misumi breaks his joints and extends both of his arms towards us.

Author's Note: Hey, guys! Sorry that I have not posted in almost a month. I have been really busy with college and the last few weeks of the semester is always the craziest! I passed all of my classes though so that is a plus! Since I made you guys wait, I made this chapter a little long than usual. I hope you all enjoyed it! Since I will be on Winter Break, I will have more time to type now when I am not working. My goal is to have the whole Chunin Exam are completed by the end of this year so expect a lot of chapters to be posted within the next couple of weeks. I feel that will make up for my almost month long hiatus. Next chapter will be the start of the preliminary rounds and I have been waiting to write these chapters! The only hint I am going to give is that I think that Kishimoto could have made some of the fights a little more epic so that is going to be my own for those matches.

Now, about this chapter… OC Hinata seems to have created some strange reactions within herself and the others when she killed Dosu. How will those be handled? Sakura having a new genjutsu up her sleeve? Is she starting to outshine the others or will someone steal her spotlight soon enough? What will happen to Sasuke now that both Orochimaru and his minions have failed to target Sasuke? Why am I asking you all of these questions? Find out next time!