Chapter 17

The time for the second stage has come. We gathered at the training ground, around our empty bald spot - remember my performance at the writing exam. We signed papers that our death during the test was solely our fault and so on. And here is the task for the stage - get to the tower in the center of the forest and get a pair to the given scroll, that is, bring "earth" and "sky". On the way, the scroll opened.

So, we have the second gate and the scroll "Earth", one of the most difficult paths, and almost immediately there begins a terrible swamp. Thank you, you did us a favor, although except for our team, it is unlikely that anyone would have passed there at all.

We enter the forest, Sakura leads. We try to advance quietly, quietly with the light. Everyone is dressed in camouflage, bandanas and protectors on their heads, hair is pulled back as much as possible, front masks on their faces. In general, open damage to the body is the bare minimum - there are too many small biting creatures here, not only will they get in, they can be so bad that you can't smoke them, in many species they are also terribly poisonous. I didn't take the antidote quickly - there is no need to bury them, and in half an hour there won't be any bones left, so many creatures will come to a fresh corpse...

We are walking through the swamp, only the counting chakra lies on the surface. Sakura is dodging no worse than a hare, but she knows better, there are no fools to argue.

- Stop! I sense the emotions of the other team. About a hundred to a hundred and fifty meters to the right. - I'll report in about forty minutes of movement. A hundred meters in this forest is a little more than a lot. - Are we going to check?

- I'm for checking. - Sasuke immediately says. Of course he would be against it! A maniac before a fight, just give me a direction, knead.

- Against instant action. We need to overtake them and set up an ambush. - This is Neiji.

- Supporting. Let's push and meet them! - Sakura decides.

We pick up the pace a little. I throw a sharpened stick and kill a snake that tried to bite my face while hanging from a tree. Why sticks? To avoid clanking with iron, you never know, the sound would be unnatural. Because each of us has three or four sharpened pegs, just for such a case.

We walked around in a convenient arc and carefully settled in. Sasuke and Neji in front, Sakura behind them, and I generally in a two-shouldered tree, on top, to somehow muffle the sensation of my chakra.

Handsome guys are coming. Two guys and a girl, Stone protectors on their heads. They weren't on the target list. How are they still alive? They crunch branches like elephants, they barely look from the side, a girl throws the scroll of "heaven" into her palm. It's a pity to kill idiots.

Hyuga jumps up when he is almost stepped on, hidden blades freeze millimeters from the guys' skin, the girls hold Sasuke's kunai to their throats. I'm probably not the only one who decided to feel sorry for them. There are no open friends between our villages, and there are no genin from Kameni among the targets either.

This is me jumping from the tree into the frozen group. Sakura comes out.

- Scroll! - She stretches out her hand demandingly. That's it, we have "heaven". - You will not survive on this training ground, go back to the gate and refuse to participate, that's my advice to you. - Sakura said and returned once.

We left after her. We move on. Two hours of silence. Relative silence. A couple of times we encountered wild animals, once I, showing miracles of luck, almost got into an underground hive of a local bee. While Roy was waking up, getting ready to take revenge on the offender, we ran as fast as we could. Oh, and Neji gave me a strong slap on the back of the head for that puncture, it was a shame.

Then we were ambushed. First, a general sleep genjutsu, which we threw off just playfully, after Roy of Senbons. With difficulty we repelled this cloud of spokes, after the enemies met. Fog! And from the list. Without wasting a second, I emit several sharp blades of wind from my hands. Sasuke throws burning shurikens. Neji lets the technique pass in front of him and disappears, jumping somewhere up. Sakura throws senbons (surely terribly poisonous) and goes back, hiding.

Another genjutsu from the enemy, thrown off, without even understanding what it affected. Sasuke exhales a fireball, there is a hit! A dash forward almost cost me my life, barely managing to notice the wire stretched at chest level. A thin and extremely sharp thing, it will enter the body playfully, it won't immediately understand. It's stretched tightly, if I cut it, it will lash out to the side, it might hit its own, it won't show any thanks.

- Watch out! Wire traps! - I scream, I can't help any more.

One of the enemies stumbled unsuccessfully, turning away from another fireball from Sasuke. Bang! The loser's chest is pierced right through in my world. Neji flashes in the periphery of my vision, the released blades are bloody. So, three minuses, and the enemies are more satisfying to the team. A panicked scream and the crunch of stones. Sakura got tired of sitting back, and she caught someone in the "Earth Vise" - a warning device under the feet of a pit, after falling from which they roll into the wall with terrible force.

Your mother! A cross between a hippopotamus, a boar and a wolf flies out at me from the side - the size of the first, the fangs of the second and the mouth of the third. The native population is in a hurry to have fun. I treat it with several air blades and a fireball to the face, already in flight to the side, I run up the trunk. The beast only got angry! The bastard has tough skin. I roll down the tree trunk, dodging the shurikens. In response, I throw a couple of kunai with explosive tags. Bang! The crown of the tree from which the attack was supposedly carried out flies apart. A mat and a sooty body falling down, you guessed it! Sasuke finishes off the enemy in flight with a weak chidori. The corpse is cut into pieces by the wire stretched by the enemies themselves. All that remains is to deal with the beast from which Hyuga is now running away. Neiji turned around the moment his pursuer opened his mouth and threw a kunai with a tag inside. Katz! An unpleasant mess of entrails flies apart.

The fight is over, but it's too early to relax. Let's run! A lot of guests will rush here at the noise, both human and not so human, and the latter can be many times more dangerous. There is no time for a search, the bodies cannot be taken with us - the smell is too strong. We rush after Sakura along the upper paths, not talking. I strained my senses, Neiji with an activated Byakugan.

Lucky, we were able to leave without trouble. Haruno led us to some pond, muddy, dirty, but we need to wash ourselves. We wash off the blood, wipe ourselves with a special powder that knocks down the smell. Sasuke killed some kind of predatory centipede. I'll run again...

In five hours we caught another team from the list, then it was time for lunch. Four packages with a special mixture went into the pot. It is cooked just like that, without opening it, so that there is no smell. No open fire, the temperature is provided by another briquette, inside which, after it is squeezed until it crunches, a furious chemical reaction takes place. After the readiness is determined, a wide tube is inserted through a special valve, through which the lunch is pulled out. The taste, frankly speaking, is so-so, but safety is more important. Dense packages burn smokelessly from properly supplied chakra. That's it, we move on.

Closer to the morning we go to bed, having found a drier place. Sakura makes a shelter underground, an air duct under the roots of a tree, so that it is not noticeable. Without Hyuga or a sensor, it is no worse - you will never find us. The walls of the grotto are reinforced by earthworks, so as not to wake up in a puddle in the morning. No fires or anything, we'll just breathe in and it'll be hot anyway.

We took turns on duty. Neiji always chose the dog watch, as the most steadfast in spirit. Lately, I've become increasingly convinced that the Hyuga clan is more of an order of fighting monks with strict internal dogmas, traditions, and their own philosophy.

The middle of the third day of the exam. We set up ambushes near the tower itself, hunting for teams from other villages. Almost all the targets have been eliminated, only 2 from Kumo remain, but they don't seem to be in the tower, and we haven't met them either. I hope that the targets disappeared on the road, for example, in the bellies of animals. If they don't appear during this day, we'll end the tour like this.

-A-ta-ta. What people. - An unfamiliar voice, filled to the brim with bloodlust. - Are these your friends, brother?

I turn around sharply. A tall guy, black hair to his shoulders, a sharingan with three tomoe glowing in his eyes, a crossed-out Leaf protector on his forehead. His athletic figure is emphasized by a semi-tight black jumpsuit with many pouches. He looks cute, I guess.

-ITACHI! - Sasuke shouted with undisguised hatred, breaking into a mad frontal attack.

Half a second of fighting and Sasuke flies to the side, spitting blood and clutching his right hand, twisted at an unnatural angle. Blood is visible, an open fracture. Your mother! This is the last thing we need. I didn't even have time to notice the enemy's actions.

Neji rushes forward, trying to cover us, but he is no match for a missing-nin either. A blurry movement and Hyuga is caught in a hold, and then sent flying into a tree trunk. A blow, Neji with visible difficulty tries to get to his feet.

Intuition hits the nerves. I hit with air blades, lightning chakra into my body, trying to break the distance. With a grin of superiority, Itachi pursues me, quickly jumping right in front of me, at arm's length.

- Tsukiyomi! - His lips whisper. Oh, if it works, then I'll end up in a torture chamber for 72 hours.

Red sky, red moon, black earth. Hanging on a cross, crucified. Itachi opposite. The world is not detailed at all, but he is not the most important thing here.

- You are in my illusion, Naruto. There is no way out. You will spend three days here, in agony. Not a moment will pass outside...

- So you know my name too? Why do you need all this?

- You wouldn't understand, you're so stupid! - And a crazy gleam in his eyes. He's clearly out of his mind! - My faith... Mangekyou! Power is everything! The world obeys the Power of my eyes! I almost forgot! - The fanatic turned sharply to me. - Crunch! - He commented on the sound of the katana plunging into my body.

It hurts terribly, it's obvious that he's been honing the art of torture for a long time. Blow after blow. Pauses during which the pain only increases. Itachi says something, but I don't hear it. I have neither the strength nor the opportunity to scream. To fall asleep. To lose consciousness! If only the torture would stop. Apparently, Kuro heard my prayers. My vision went dark.

The first thing I saw when I woke up was how the enemy's face distorted into a furiously perplexed grimace.

- How?!

I smile back with effort, and the next moment I hear the crunch of my ribs. Itachi kicked me in the chest, I don't have time to react. I smash my back through a tree and stop, knocking a crater in the ground. How painful it is! My body is very heavy, I can't move a finger. I want to sleep. It's getting dark before my eyes.

A painful breath through the pain! The darkness retreats. I spit out an unpleasant mess of blood and thickened saliva.

According to Sakura, who brought me to my senses, Itachi didn't want to have fun anymore. He simply started talking about how Sasuke should kill all the people dear to him and follow him if he wants such power. In response, Sasuke demonstrated deep knowledge of the obscene-messenger language. And that's where we parted.

They didn't bother continuing the mission, in a couple of hours Sakura and Neji dragged Uchiha and me to the tower and handed us over to the medics. Haruno, of course, gave it her all 200 percent, getting us back in order, but there are A-class medics there, and that's a huge difference in skills and experience. Of course, I regenerate like crazy anyway, and if you increase the chakra current, then the wounds just close up before your eyes, but there are no guarantees that everything will heal as it should, so it's better to trust the professionals.

I'm sitting in the infirmary, indulging in sad thoughts. How long did it take Itachi to take out our team? Eight seconds? Or five, if you cut out the conversations? I already felt pretty cool, and then with a swing and face-first onto the asphalt... they sent me to the ground. They fused my ribs in a couple of minutes, playfully removed the bruise, put on a tight bandage just in case and sent me out for a walk.

I met Sasuke, who apparently came out of the next room.

- He finished us off quickly. - I'm just saying this to break the silence.

- Bitch. - Uchiha hisses. - I need to get stronger to kill him. Much stronger! - Sharingan lights up involuntarily in his eyes. But after a few seconds, Sasuke comes to his senses. - And one more thing. I saw you hit Tsukiyomi, how are you?

- Got away. He didn't have time to do anything special... just slashed a couple of times with his katana. - I'm trying to calm my friend down.

- You can't get out of this illusion! - Uchiha starts getting angry, you can tell by his face.

- Sasuke, I'm not lying to you. I really did get away from there. I used the power of the jinchuriki. The technique is designed for people, right? I'm a bit of a demon. - I answer honestly. - And the fact that I spend a lot of time in the inner world with my biju also helped a lot.

- Maybe I should become a demon too? - A bitter smile.

- It's not worth it. You have more potential than this traitor. And you also have to revive the clan, and being... it's a bit inconvenient, you know...

- Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke! Hokage-sama and your team members are waiting. Follow me. - A figure in a mask and a gray cloak emerged from the shadows.

We were led through a couple of corridors and floors. An ascetic room, in which there is only a desk, at which the kage sits. Opposite him, there are several stools, on which we sit. In the corner, leaning his back against the wall, stands an extremely displeased Kakashi.

- We arrived as per your orders.

- I see. So, what happened? Sakura, as your commander at this stage, has already reported on the... incident. I would like to hear any details from you.

- My brother came to visit me, apparently. This psycho thinks that I want his power! - After a short pause, Sasuke began extremely emotionally. - Itachi spoke about Mangekyou and demanded that I kill my team...

-I see. Naruto, what can you say? - Hiruzen shifted his gaze.

-Nothing. All I managed to do was get caught in a genjutsu and get my ass kicked. Nothing useful...

-I see. Sign the non-disclosure papers. You can rest in the tower today, be at the general formation tomorrow at 12:00. - The ruler has let us go.

It's not easy for him, oh it's not easy! Suna's strange movements, the exam, and now an S-class missing-nin has shown up.

During the day I somehow washed myself, washed and mended my clothes, ate a normal meal at some enterprising shopkeeper who opened right in the tower, paying for his delivery. The rest of the time I devoted to sleep.

It was time to announce the results of the second stage. The assembly hall-arena is truly impressive! A huge area covered with powerful stone slabs. Small hanging corridors above.

Today there will be qualifying fights, since as many as four hundred candidates have passed. Exactly four hundred. Of these, 50 must be selected who will fight in the final. This will not affect the title in any way, they are judged by what you managed to show, it's just that the higher you climb, the more prestigious. There are even medals and decent cash rewards for the first ten places, although the difference between places is huge, if for tenth they give 15,000 ryo, then for first exactly a million.

We go to the upper galleries. In order not to bother for too long, the examiners call eight "random" people, who must defend their place in the finals in a fight against everyone. Killing is prohibited. I watch the fights carefully, waiting for my turn.

The level of the candidates is not bad, but there are also those who got here by miracle. Such often give up themselves, not tempting fate in a fight. Oh! Another match is over, the winner is a genin from the sand, who cheerfully stunned two of ours at first, and then hid under the floor, slowly attacking from behind the opponents, who were carried away by each other.

- The next eight! Uchiha Sasuke ... - The examiner continues.

Come on, friend, don't let me down! Although why do I doubt him, he can easily beat me, unless of course he teams up with Kuro. That's right! Sasuke immediately activates the sharingan and, distributing illusions left and right, cuts into the thick of things. Beautiful stretching, great acrobatics. He's having fun and showing off more than actually fighting. It took Uchiha two minutes to scatter all his opponents. Nothing serious, and the opponents were more interested in each other than in fighting a much more dangerous enemy.

A few more fights. Neji was called. Come on. Hyuga! I believe in you! Half a minute. Even less. To get into close combat with Hyuga, who trained for a long time with the thick-skinned me, whose tenketsu never broke, and with Sasuke spinning like hell? Suicides, though. Neji walked around, handing out slaps, and apparently using a weakened version of the rasengan - just a whirlwind of chakra. The enemies scattered around the hall from some seemingly careless movements of Hyuga. Beautiful, damn it!

A couple of fights. Gaara's performance. The psychopath was barely pulled away from his opponents. Temari simply blew her opponents aside, wildly waving her huge fan. Kankuro lost to our Shikamaru. He managed to smash his opponents against each other with the help of shadows.

My turn! Who are our opponents here? Hmm... Kumovtsy and Sandmen. I'll show them class! Formation of an octagon, so that everyone is on approximately equal terms. The referee's signal.

- Raiton! Futon! Thunder wind! - Minus three from the very beginning! Heh, a vile jutsu. Wind that beats with electricity, very difficult to dodge. One of the Sunovtsy goes underground, only the Kumo genin remain on the surface, who are running at me in a crowd, doing some jutsu on the go.

I dodge several kunai, a couple of air blades. In response, I send a fireball, but it misses, they managed to jump to the sides. Ki from below! A lightning strike into the ground. I hope the sandman won't kick the bucket while they're digging him out. I breathe a stream of flame at the approaching godfather, forcing him to retreat, after which I jump back, dodging a blow from the second one, some kind of thing like a chidori, but weaker. A spit of a water fist in the face makes him go to rest, the second one almost immediately gets caught in an air ram. The last one tries to keep his distance and hit from afar with air gusts, but how can you get through to me with that? A jump to the side, a zigzag approach, a fireball flies at me. I break the distance and respond with water bullets, hides underground. The enemy has at least three elements, very serious! I watch the situation, straining my senses. I blinked! The floor explodes in a flash of fire, I jump back. The feet were knocked off, but nothing more, the enemy miscalculated the force, it came out too weak. Almost merged, need to be more careful. Air shells bite into the floor in a row. The opponent jumps out, responds with a stream of fire. Water shell! Another one, another! Fog appears, I shoot a discharge at it. A painful cry, I finally hit! I speed up and fly through the fog, enter close combat, interrupting an unfamiliar series of seals. I hit with a ram of air, trying to stun the enemy, after which I manage to deliver a powerful blow to the very edge of the chin, shook the brains, almost breaking the jaw. That's it, the fight is over. Kumovets takes one step somewhere under himself and falls face down on the floor.

Finish. I return to the top under the angry glances of my competitors. It was hard! There are worthy opponents here, let's not forget. How did this nugget not make it onto the list?

A few more fights, and then they call Sakura. Ino. Hinata. Are they crazy? Hinata will go after Sakura, because she's on my team. Sakura and Ino are old rivals. What a snake pit. In addition, two girls from Sand and three guys from Rock.

Let the fun begin! Sakura fan-scatters checkers with sleeping and paralyzing gas, covering her face with a breathing mask. Hinata rushes towards her, but her path is blocked by a stone wall that jumped out of the floor. A kind of game of tag. Sakura hides from her opponents, throwing poison traps. Close combat is not her strong point. One of the guys takes a few stumbling steps and falls. Apparently he's had enough air. The other two are vigorously kneading the girls out of the sand. Ino and Hinata have clashed. Close combat, the outcome is predictable. Hyuga, they are Hyuga! Ino lay down to rest.

The confrontation between Rock and Sand ended with the victory of the girl from Sand. However, she didn't have long to rejoice: Sakura jumped out of the ground like a jack-in-the-box. Two quick blows and everything is ready.

A duel between two girls. Hinata tries to force a close fight, Sakura jumps like crazy, almost without attacking. Hinata's legs start to sway. Apparently, our teammate led her into an old cloud of gas. Well, all that's left is to finish her off! Sakura waits about ten seconds, after which she begins to throw well-accelerated stone projectiles at the Hyuga, torn from the floor. Apparently with the last of his strength, Hinata makes a dash forward and manages to land one blow to the stomach, after which he falls exhausted onto the pitted ground. Sadly, such a jab with the juken was enough for Sakura. Victory was so close! I hit the railing with resentment.

I watch the rest of the fights just as carefully, because I need to remember my potential opponents. It's unlikely that I'll be pitted against Gaara right away, I'll have to get to him first. The future chunins are showing themselves well, not bad at all. But I still put Sasuke in first place in terms of skills, his speed and dojutsu give him a big advantage over the other contenders. But if we measure raw power, here the sand one and I are beyond competition. That's it, the selection is over, it's time to prepare for the third round. I only have a month…