#25: Iroko vs Kazue

Iroko POV

The Forest of Death test had begun.

We dashed on through the trees, looking out for genin, wild animals and traps at every turn and angle. Upon entering the forest, Asami suggested we enter a single file formation squad. Since Yuura was the one who held the Earth Scroll he would stay in the middle, I would be in the front to defend us from oncoming attackers and Asami would be the rear to watch our backs.

Our first obstacle when we were no more than five minutes in was a giant venus fly trap.

Yeah, you heard me right.

It came from the forest ground and as soon as our team hovered over its territory it shots its mouth into the air and went straight for Yuura!

"Wind Style: Gale Palm!" Asami called out.

She clapped her hands together and released a powerful force of wind that knocked Yuura out of the flytraps direction. I caught him then flung a chakra-filled shuriken at the flytrap.

The flytrap, after getting hit, immediately retreated back to the bottom of the forest. We landed on a large branch to catch our breath.

"You okay, Yuura?" I asked.

"Yeah, who would have thought even the plants would be out to kill us?" he commented. "I'll definitely have to keep that in mind next time. Thanks for the save, Asami."

"Let's just focus on conserving our chakra," she said. "We can't afford to use large-scale ninjutsu unless it's an emergency."

"Speaking of which, that Gale Palm is new, isn't it?" I remarked. "Hisao-sensei teach it to you?"

She responded by completely dodging the question. "Let's keep moving."

Minutes later while we made our way to the tower, I began hearing screams and cries in random directions as well as explosions and metal clashing.

"It's begun!" Yuura said shakily.

"Asami, how much further is the tower?" I inquired.

"If we keep going at this pace," she said as she analyzed the map, "two hours."

"Aw, man! Two whole hours--" And then I saw it in my peripheral.

Orange hair blurring through the trees.

Well... that was faster than I thought.

I suddenly landed on the bark of a tree and then ran down it to the forest ground.

"Iroko?!" Yuura called out in confusion. They followed after me.

I landed in a small clearing between the trees, surrounded by large bushes.

This place looks like it'll do.

"Iroko, what are you doing?" Yuura demanded when he and Asami reached the ground.

"It's time," I said, sounding more serious than I thought. "He's here."

Yuura let out a gasp, Asami's head slightly lowered.

"Then his team can't be far off, either," Yuura realized. "I guess this is where we part ways for some time."

"Yuura, Asami...," I half-said, half-mumbled. "I'm sorry, I just--"

He then placed his hand on my shoulder and smiled. "It's fine! You've got your reasons, and I won't try to fight you on it."

Yuura...

He and Asami started taking their leave. "Just make sure you get back to us! We'll send you a signal of some sort. Good luck!"

They leapt back up to the branches and took off.

"Yeah, you too," I replied.

My reason, huh?

Why am I even doing this?

Don't I already have everything I need now?

So, why am I still stuck in the past?

Why am I sacrificing it all for him?!

*RUSTLE*

I flung a kunai straight at the noise. It struck a green jacket that was in the bushes.

Huh? Crap, a diversi--

I got punched right in the face as I spun to face him. The blow was hard enough to send me flying a meter away.

Struggling to get up, I heard his voice loud and clear.

"To think you would be stupid enough to take up this chance. Guess, I can't 100% blame you. Even I thought it was perfect when I saw your scroll."

I knew he saw it!! "What about you, huh? That means your team does have a Heaven scroll!"

"Forget about everyone around you right now," he spat. "You're dealing with me." I looked at him and those memories from long ago sparked inside me again.

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"SHUT UP!!! You think you're so special now just 'cos you saved me?! You weren't anything before and you're still nothing now!! Don't forget that, you loser!!!"

"DON'T YOU EVER THINK YOU CAN RUB SHOULDERS WITH ME! I'M THE REAL DEAL, YOU'RE JUST A JIKO! I'LL BECOME THE BEST NINJA AROUND, SURPASS NARUTO AND LEAVE YOU BEHIND! YOU GOT THAT?!"

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Ah, now I remember...

"Remember I told you if you wouldn't tell me how you became ninja then I'd find out for myself," his hands sparked until a bright flame-like jutsu emerged.

...the reason why I'm doing this...

"So show me!! Show me why you're a ninja!!!"

...is to know why he said those words to me on that day!!

Our feet bolted and we clashed.

Third-Person POV

As they left Iroko in the forest clearing, Yuura and Asami kept their eyes peeled and their guards up for the rest of Team 4.

"Let's make sure we stay close together, alright, Asami?" Yuura advised. She nodded suite.

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All of a sudden, Asami blinked her eyes and she saw that Yuura was no longer in front of her.

?!

She landed on a branch and looked all about her. Yuura was nowhere in sight. It was like she was in a completely separate part of the Forest.

What just happened? Where's Yuura?

"Asami?" She heard his voice ahead, but there was no one there.

Something's wrong.

|||

"Asami?" Yuura called after the snow-haired girl when she had suddenly stopped moving. "What's wro--"

Yuura blinked.

And then Asami was no longer there.

He blinked again.

She was still gone.

Huuuuuuhhhh?!?! He searched about himself wildly. Wh-wh-what just happened? Where did Asami go?!

"This can't be right..," he said aloud.

SNAP!!!

Yuura jerked his head to the sound and he saw that the branch he was on had been torn off from the stem of the tree, clean through.

Oh, no, I'm under attack!!

As he fell down, he turned his body around to see who his assailant was and, not so much to his surprise, it was Tensho Hyuga.

She was already leaping into the air to attack him with her hand in the iconic palm-out position and her eyes the featureless pale lilac colour.

"Tensho!" Yuura exclaimed. Quick, no time to waste!!

"Water Style: Aqua Dome!!" Yuura managed to form the bubble-shaped water sphere just as Tensho was about to slam her palm forth, creating a massive shockwave and a deafening sound.

As soon as her surprise attack failed, Tensho pouted her lips in annoyance then leapt back away from Yuura. The shaggy-haired boy breathed a sigh of relief then inwardly gasped when he noticed there was a large crack on his Aqua Dome.

The attack was strong enough to leave a dent in it, he realized, looking at the red-haired Hyuga. If she does another one of those...!!

Upon landing unto the forest ground, Tensho heaved a sigh. "Ah, man! I thought I could get this over with immediately! Well, I guess that's just you, huh, Yuura?" She smirked.

Yuura fell on his words, unsure of how to respond to her. "U-uh, I, um-uh--"

Suddenly, she moved forward at Yuura with incredible speed, leaving behind a gust of wind.

She's so fast!!! Yuura exclaimed. Almost as fast as Iroko!!

There would've been no time for Yuura to move in any direction save backwards. So as soon as Tensho's Gentle Fist made contact with the Aqua Dome and shattered it, Yuura flung himself back and utilized--

Something I managed to learn from Suigetsu-sensei, he thought. Since I couldn't learn the exact technique of his clan's Hydrification jutsu he was at least able to teach me its two key properties, how to control the flow of Water-nature in chakra and constantly keep shape transforming it, which ultimately lead me to create this jutsu of my own!!

Dragon --> Snake --> Horse --> Ram --> Dragon "Water Style: Rolling Torrent!!"

Below his feet, small but pronounced waves of water manifested, carrying him across the ground as though he were surfing.

Huh? A new jutsu? Tensho wondered in surprise.

She leapt again from her position and lunged at Yuura.

"Gentle Fist!!" she cried as she threw her palm--

--to which, Yuura smoothly dodged, as the waves of water beneath him carried him away from her vicinity.

With this, I'll be able to keep my distance from her and stay on offence as well! A consumes quite a bit of chakra, though, so I have to be careful.

Tensho gritted her teeth then attacked once more, but Yuura still effortlessly dodged, and the same happened once more.

"Hey, stay still, will you?!" Tensho called after Yuura.

"Water Style: Water Bullets!!" Yuura answered.

Tensho stopped in her tracks to parry and dodge the small water-bullets that were shot at her with pinpoint precision.

Still, the fact that she came after me must mean she's not the one that has their Heaven Scroll. Yuura analyzed. Yet they knew I was the one with the Earth. How? And if Kazue is with Iroko, then that just leaves Jin with the Scroll--

He gasped in realization. Wait, where is she, Jin? And where did Asami go back there?

Tensho saw the look on Yuura's face. "You figured it out yet? Doesn't matter, your scroll is as good as mine, anyway!!"

Before Yuura could launch another attack, she smashed her palm into the ground with infused chakra, uprooting the whole ground towards where Yuura was. His Rolling Torrent nearly gave out from the colliding rocks but he managed to maintain it with more chakra control.

Then, amidst all the airborne rubble, Tensho spoke: "'Cos if you think I won't be able to reach you by you keeping your distance, then you're wrong."

Within her mind's eye, the Bagua symbol manifested all around her and her Byakugan intensified. She crouched low as her hands started glowing.

"Gentle Fist Art...," she began.

Oh, no! Yuura exclaimed. Don't tell me...!

"...Eight Trigrams:..."

She's gonna fire the rocks from all around me!!!

"...Sixteen Palms!!!"

With massive force, she slammed a large hunk of rock at Yuura with astonishing speed. The blond boy just barely surfed over it with his Rolling Torrent as he struggled to summon another Aqua Dome to prepare himself.

I was right!! Quick, Aqua Do-- ?!

Suddenly Tensho slammed her palm into another rubble of rock. "Eight Trigrams: Two Palms!!"

Yuura saw one of the rocks pelt right pass his Aqua Dome before it could fully form and appear right before him.

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Asami jumped from branch to branch, trying to find any clue or trail that would lead her to Yuura. She still couldn't figure out how Yuura would disappear like that.

It must be the work of someone's jutsu, she surmised. To split us up most likely. If that's the case, Yuura might be in battle right now as they're after the Scroll. I have to find him, more so if it's Team 4.

Calling out his name in a 'minefield' this dense is suicide, so I'll just have to retrace my steps--

"Binding Cloth: Viper's Grip."

The sound of a small voice that belonged to neither Yuura nor Iroko, threw Asami into high alert. But as she looked in one direction, from the other shot a long white piece of cloth that viciously grabbed at her left arm, halting her from any movement.

What the...? Trailing the cloth back to its origin point she saw that it was very tightly tied to the sturdy branch of a nearby tree. She tried pulling at it but it resisted quite strongly.

"I'm sorry...," came the small, almost inaudible voice again. "But I have to keep you here for as long as possible. Please don't hate me..."

Asami looked all around her but she could not match the voice to a face, mostly because there was no face to match it to. For all it seemed, she was pretty much alone. There was a trace of chakra she could detect but it was too faint to trace.

Then a thought dawned on her.

That girl from earlier, the one that slipped past me and Iroko before Yuura had arrived.

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"Anyway, we'll be heading on inside, good luck to you guys!" Tensho said. "Come on, Jin, that's enough hiding, we gotta go!"

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Jin, that was her name. I hadn't even sensed her then, so she must specialize in covertness.

Asami pulled out a kunai from her pouch and struck at the binding cloth but it rebounded off of the material! She imbued her kunai with Wind nature and struck at it again but the same thing happened once more.

Like indestructible rubber or something, she thought.

"Please don't bother," came Jin from the shadows. "It's made from something that resists chakra and is really dense, so please don't struggle!"

Asami bit her lip in frustration. I can't get a good read on her location. If she plans on keeping me here then it must be until the other girl, I think Yuura had said her name was Tensho, gets the Scroll off of him-

And if that's the case, then it must mean that Jin has their Team's scroll. This is my chance.

Asami imbued her kunai with Wind-natured chakra once more.

Jin spoke again. "Sorry, but, um... I did say--"

She stopped short when she saw Asami not aiming for the cloth but flinging the kunai at the branch that the cloth was tied to, effectively cutting it and releasing her.

"Oh, no!" she gasped.

Just hold out for as long as you can, Yuura, Asami thought.

The snow-haired girl landed on the bark of a tree, using the Surface Walk jutsu, the cloth still tied to her wrist.

Okay, and now...

She just narrowly managed to dodge another cloth that was shot at her. Before she could do anything else, the cloth retracted itself back into the shadows between the trees.

There. But no use in going directly after her. I have to wait for it.

Silence ensued for the next thirty seconds. All that could be heard was the tweeting of birds, other creatures and cries for help in the distance.

.

Wait for it.

.

FWIP!!!

Once again, from out of the darkness, another binding cloth sprang out from a completely separate location as from before.

Asami dodged, having to leap off the tree. Her hand seemed like she was making a grab for it when another cloth came out as well.

Asami, with something akin to shock on her face, pulled her upper body downward while in midair to avoid it. It was a good thing she was more flexible than she looked, but this was still not what she wanted, for the cloths retracted themselves once again.

Falling, she reached into her pouch and pulled out another kunai, this time with a string attached to it and threw it as high up a tree as her arm would allow. With the string still in hand, she swung through the tall plant bodies and landed on a much wider and longer branch that was further away from her initial spot.

One more time, she breathed. Wait for it... She closed her eyes and searched for Jin's chakra signature.

There it was. Inside her head, it was like a small purple orb that flickered constantly. It was on the move all around her, leaping from branch to branch, occasionally going off then appearing again.

Then it flickered off for good.

Now predict.

.

.

.

.

FWIP!!!

Dodge!!

She darted her entire body to the left at the last second. The cloth was right in front of her.

Without another moment's notice, she gripped and pulled at it with such sudden strength and speed that out came Jin Mitarashi from the seclusiveness of the green.

There you are!

Asami rushed a Great Fireball Jutsu and blew it at Jin with no hesitation.

It looked like it had hit its target and sent the rest of the trees in that direction ablaze. But Asami knew better that.

Right afterwards, she could hear breathing from behind her. She turned around and there was Jin, standing on the same branch as her. Curious enough, Asami also noticed that a good deal of skin on her right arm, where everywhere else was covered in the white cloth save her head, was exposed.

She knows its useless to slip back into stealth. Now that I have a good read on her chakra there's no point.

"I should've known...," she spoke with the smallest of voices, "that that was a trap. Mmmm, I'm such a klutz!!" She smacked herself in the head.

Asami decided to ignore that. "I know you have your team's Heaven scroll," she said to the purple-head. "There're two ways this can go. Choose wisely."

Jin's lips curled in pure fear, she was shaking and the bangs that went just over her pupilless, light purple eyes became damp from sweat, but she stood her ground.

"I... I can't do that...," she said. "I... I can't give you the Scroll!"

Asami did not flinch. It's the other way, then, I suppose.

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Kazue struggled to stay toe-to-toe with Iroko. Even if he was better than him in strength, agility and dexterity, the one thing he could never beat Iroko in was speed, especially since he developed his Flash jutsu.

And now, Iroko seemed almost just as strong and agile as him, too.

The two boys exchanged blows between the other, from left hooks to roundhouse kicks. As Iroko was taking more hits due to his lack of taijutsu compared to prodigies like Asami and Kazue, he made up for it with his Flash jutsu.

As soon as he activated it, he was able to keep up with Kazue and even overwhelm him, to the point where he managed a good punch in.

Tch!! Kazue hissed. His movement and strength have increased, not to mention his skill with that speeding jutsu. But it's not enough to beat me!!

The orange-haired ninja whipped out from his pouch a kunai attached with three explosive tags. Iroko gasped in shock when he flung it straight at him, having detonated it.

The explosive tags went off just as Iroko dashed out of their proximity.

He's really dead set on doing this, huh? he thought.

"Combustion Style: Flame Serpent!!" Kazue formed the snake-like flame and launched it at Iroko as a follow-up from the explosive tags.

"Serpent?!" Iroko exclaimed, making the Shadow Clone hand seal. "Not cool, Kaz, you know I hate snakes! Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu!!"

Eleven shadow clones manifested from smoke and moved out away from the Flame Serpent, hiding the real Iroko among them.

Kazue gasped in surprise at the jutsu. When did he..?

Six of the clones went up against the Flame Serpent while the other six closed in on Kazue, all equipped with Lightning-natured kunai and shuriken.

Snake --> Boar --> Rat --> Dog "Lightning Style: Stream!!"

Performing the hand seals, Kazue then released a stream of lightning at the clones approaching him. Three of them managed to dodge it while the other two were caught in the electrical attack and dispersed.

Not him! He thought as he dodged and parried the clones' attacks. But when the hell did he learn the Shadow Clone Jutsu? How does he even have enough chakra to pull it off?

The other six clones had managed to destroy the Flame Serpent, dealing a decisive blow to it, but at the cost of three of them. As soon as they were done, they Flashed over to help the other clones deal with Kazue.

Realizing he was about to be overwhelmed, he leapt into the air.

Tiger --> Dragon --> Ox --> Hare "Combustion Style:" he shouted, "Burning Rush!!!"

A wave of explosive fire washed over all the clones. When it had swept through the entire forest clearing, he landed back down on the ground and saw that all the clones were gone, except for one...

Iroko stood in the centre of the clearing amidst all the burning grass. His clothes were charred in places, his face bruised and he was coughing out smoke, but otherwise, he was still standing, which made Kazue grit his canine teeth.

It's a good thing I've gotten better at Chakra Flow, he thought. I was able to absorb the lightning-nature in Kaz's Combustion Style which seriously weakened the flames that were shot in my direction. Although, he looked himself up and down. I still got hurt, and I haven't gotten that many hits on him. Am I going to have to use 'it'?

Rage marks appeared in clusters all around Kazue's face. His red eyes seethed.

When...

WHEN...

WHEN DID HE GET LIKE THIS?!

"So what?" he spoke. "So what if you can do the Shadow Clone Jutsu or Chakra Flow? That doesn't make you any better than me!!"

"Huh? What are you talking about? When did I say that?" said Iroko. "Aren't you the one that wanted to see for yourself how I became a ninja?"

"SHUT UP!!!" he shouted. "JUST SHUT UP!!!" His hands clutched his face as if he was overflowing with anger. I can't believe it's happening again!!

"...Kaz, why did you say those things to me?" Iroko asked.

He looked at the blue-streaked boy through his fingers. "What?"

"Back then, when we were eight and we had sparred together?" Iroko explained. "You blew me off like I was just trash getting in your way! Why the hell did things ever escalate to that? What'd I do to you?"

Kazue remembered. On that day, in the morning, something had happened to him, something he couldn't ever forget.

And maybe he was looking for someone to vent on, or he was trying to avoid something. But it didn't matter. He didn't want to think about it. He didn't want to think about that day at all.

"Or even further back, when we were seven," Iroko went on, "and I had saved you from tho--"

"NO!!!!"

Kazue finally snapped. "Don't you dare talk about that!! Don't you try to write it off as if I'M THE ONE WHO NEEDED SAVING!!!"

I am not weak.

I am strong.

I don't need saving.

I'm the one that saves others!!

But you...

You made it seem like I wasn't trying...! That I didn't have what it took!! You made it seem like I WAS THE WEAK ONE!!!

He yelled. "JUST STOP THINKING THAT YOU'RE BETTER THAN ME!!!"

"I TOLD YOU THAT'S NOT THE CASE!!!" Iroko shouted back. "I DON'T CARE ABOUT THAT!!! JUST TELL ME WHY YOU'RE LIKE THIS!!!"

"BECAUSE OF PEOPLE LIKE YOU!!! PEOPLE THAT NEVER SUFFERED THE CONSEQUENCES OF GETTING STRONG AND THINK THAT THEY CAN LORD OVER ME!!! IT'S WHY I HATE THIS WORLD!! IT'S WHY I HATE MY LIFE!! IT'S WHY I HATE YOU!!!"