Н‘¾Ð‘¯Ð‘¬Ð‘Μ Ð‘»Ð‘¯Ð‘¬ Н‘¾Ð‘°Ð‘Μ𝑫 Н‘©Ð‘³Ð‘¶Ð‘¾Ð‘º €¢Ð’Ƒ𝒙Н’Ƒ• Chuunin exams pt3

When Akashi was done healing Sasuke up, he got up and went to where Sakura was. She was kneeling on the ground, face a bloody mess. He went down on his knees and placed a hand on her chin, raising her head up. “He did an awful number on you”. He said as he observed her half closed eye and split lip. He touched her shoulder and she winced. Furrowing his brows, he looked her over. She had multiple bleeding spots caused by the kunai that impaled her skin.

“Let’s stop the bleeding, shall we?” She weakly nodded and he let go of her chin. Focusing the Chakra in his hands, he went over every bleeding wound she had. After about 10 minutes, all the wounds were almost fully closed. “That should do the job”. Nodding, he got up and looked at the injured Lee. Ino was holding his arm over her shoulder, supporting his weight. Akashi walked over to them. “Here, let me”. Ino glanced at him in suspicion, but handed Lee over.

Akashi grabbed his chin and moved his head in different directions, observing the wounds. Nodding to himself, he let go of his chin and healed over the cuts on his face. “Okay, you’re good to go”. Lee was interrupted when Naruto woke up, yelling. Sighing, Akashi shifted around, meeting Naruto’s panicked gaze. After he explained what happened, Naruto calmed down. Tenten came and took Lee, Choji was with Shikamaru and Ino was fixing up Sakura’s hair.

A Chakra spike alerted Akashi of another’s presence. He felt it before, but he couldn’t pinpoint who it belonged to. Snapping his head in the direction it came from, he saw Hyuuga Neji atop a tree. Neji wasn’t looking at him. Akashi followed the trail of his gaze and stopped at Sasuke. Narrowing his eyes, he looked back at Neji. The look in his eyes wasn’t friendly, but it didn’t look like he will attack.

Sensing someone was looking at him, Neji slowly met eyes with Akashi. The said boy was standing in the middle of the field, close to Sasuke and he was glaring at Neji. This boy… “Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke… we’re leaving”. Neji’s eyes widened when he heard the other boy speak. He didn’t break their eye contact as he said the words. There was a dangerous look in his eyes, one promising bad things.

The redhead turned around, ignoring Naruto’s indignant cries of ‘huh? why?’ and grabbed a kunai from the ground. Pocketing it, he walked past Sasuke. “Hurry up, we need to make a new plan”. Wordlessly, Sasuke and Sakura followed after him. Naruto was frowning, an annoyed look on his face, but he went after them. And as they disappeared from the clearing, Akashi let his mind roam. This was a disaster.

_

Three days later, the four of them made camp near a river. Sakura was tending to the fire while the three of them went fishing. Naruto, unsurprisingly, was bad at it. Sasuke hit the fish with his kunai as they jump out of the water. Akashi reached into his pouch and brought out small senbon needles. He threw them at the shadows in the water, a few fish floated up, senbon sticking out of them. Naruto jumped up and pointed at them. “What is that?!” He shouted.

Akashi shook his head. “Senbon needles, didn’t we already mention them before?” Akashi asked as he went into the water, grabbed the fish and put the senbon back into his pouch. “I know that, but you killed the fish with them?” He had a confused expression on his face. Sasuke was silent until that point. “Senbon needles can be used to kill, but the users has to have great precision to do that”. He explained.

Akashi nodded his head. “Exactly, if I hit a vital spot, I can sever the nerve closest to the brain and instantly kill them, or I can just paralyze them”. He exited the water, carrying the fish with him. “I think we have enough, let’s head back”. The other two followed him back to camp. After they cooked the fish and ate it, Sasuke said he was gonna go and get some water. “Are you okay by yourself?” Akashi asked, worried about his body. He suffered major wounds not so long ago.

“Can I come with you?” He asked another question after the Uchiha didn’t answer. Sasuke continued walking. “Suit yourself”. At his words, Akashi got up and trailed after him. After a few minutes of walking, Sasuke crouched at a nearby water source. He pours the water inside the wooden container that he brought with him. “Are you okay?” He stopped when he heard the redhead ask. “I’m fine”. Nonchalance clear in his tone, he continued pouring the water in.

“Does the mark hurt?” Taking a deep breath at the increased number of questions, he whips around. “It’s fine!” The other boy flinched at his tone. “I’m just worr-“. Sasuke stood up and walked over to him. He jabbed a finger to his chest. “Don’t be! I’m not weak!” Akashi was taken aback at that revelation. But soon enough, his eyes narrow. “I never said you were weak!” He slapped the hand away from his chest. Now it was Sasuke’s turn to be surprised.

“Damn it! Can’t you let people in for once? Why do you push everyone away?!” He grit his teeth, staring straight at him. Sasuke wanted to. He really wanted to let people in. He saw Sakura was trying, he saw Naruto was trying. Akashi was too. He wanted to scream. He wanted to scream out the words. After something I cared deeply about was ripped from me, how can I just take in something else?! How can I fill in a hole so big?! But he didn’t.

Frustrated at his lack of an answer, Akashi turned on his heels, prepared to leave. He froze in his tracks when he sensed a Chakra signal. “Sasuke!” He turned to him in a hurry. “Someone else is at camp”. And with that, he broke into a sprint towards camp. Sasuke was running behind him, barely keeping up. The two of them reached camp and saw who was there. Kabuto was there and, apparently, he stopped Naruto from opening the scroll, even though they were strictly told not to do that.

Sighing in exasperation, Akashi slapped the back of Naruto’s head. Kabuto explained that at the last exam, they put sleep-inducing gas, so that the one who inhales it sleeps through the whole exam. Kabuto said he got both scrolls and was heading towards the tower. Sasuke saw this as an opportunity to get the scroll they were missing. Kabuto told him that if he really planned to fight him, he would just attack him from behind.

The five of them then decided it was best to head straight for the tower. Kabuto said that people probably already set traps around it to catch the ones who finished. He told them they could get their last scroll there. Night had already fallen when they reached near the tower. All five of them whipped their heads around when they heard something and Naruto threw a kunai in that direction. It turned out to be a giant centipede.

Then, as they go closer to the tower, looking to evade any traps that were undeniably already set, they run into a massacre. Dead ninja were hanging off the tree branches. As Naruto took a step forward, closer to the dead ninja, he set off a trap. Kabuto jumped and pushed him away. He, in Naruto’s place, got impaled, but it turned out to be the replacement technique. He remained unharmed.

“Kabuto, thank you”. Akashi bowed his head and then turned to Naruto. “Watch where you’re going next time!” He pointed at him. Naruto sheepishly scratched the back of his head. They continue their way to the tower, but something seemed off. No matter how much time passed, they didn’t get any closer. Kabuto explained that they were probably in some kind of jutsu, since the centipede that Naruto hit earlier was right next to them. They were going in circles.

“Get back!” Akashi yelled as he sensed multiple weak Chakra signatures around them. They all huddled in a circle, closer to one another as they looked at the oncoming enemies. They were all replications. It would be easier to use my technique, but it would handicap everyone except Sasuke and I. Akashi grit his teeth as he watched them approach. Naruto, being Naruto, just jumped straight in and hit one of them. The replica started melting as Naruto’s hand went through it.

Then, from the place Naruto blew it apart, another one started growing, there were now two upper bodies. It took out a double kunai and went to stab Naruto. “Naruto!” Sasuke and Akashi yelled at the same time as they threw shuriken at the replica’s arm. The arm exploded and the replica looked at Sasuke and Akashi. It threw the kunai at Sasuke, but he didn’t move out of the way.

Akashi, being the closest one, pushed Sasuke out of the way. The kunai whizzed past their bodies and scratched Kabuto’s shoulder. “Sasuke? You okay?” Akashi asked the other boy. He helped him up into a sitting position. When Naruto went to throw a kunai, Sasuke yelled. “Naruto, it’s no use, it’s a illusionary technique!”. Akashi looked between Kabuto and Sasuke. “But the wound on Kabuto’s shoulder is real”. Sakura spoke up.

“No, I sense another Chakra signal, but the illusion is disrupting my ability to pinpoint it”. Akashi agreed with Sasuke. Kabuto said that the user probably matched the illusion’s kunai throw with his real kunai throw and that that’s how he got hit. “They only attack when the illusion attacks”. Akashi furrowed his brows in thought. Naruto let out a loud ‘oh!’ and Akashi turned his way. “What?” He asked him.

“I’ll just attack the illusions with my own clones, that way, the real user won’t be able to attack until the replica does, unless they wanna blow their cover and show us their position”. He did the hand signs for his shadow clone technique and a lot of Naruto’s popped in existence. Naruto, alongside his clones, proceeded to attack the other replicas. The others soon joined in. They fought like that until dawn came. They were all spent. Sasuke, Sakura and Kabuto dropped down as Naruto’s and Akashi’s knees were shaking.

Not being able to stand upright anymore, Akashi fell on his knees and Naruto fell on his backside. The illusion disappeared and there, in front of the five of them, was a group of three. Akashi immediately recognized one of them. That guy… Sasuke and I stabbed him in the shoulder at the beginning. “You two… you’re the ones who injured my shoulder, I finally found you. You wasted our time”. He said as he looked between Sasuke and Akashi. “How lucky, I can finally get revenge”. He raised his kunai.

They probably would have died here… if they didn’t set up a trick of their own. Naruto smirked and the other four disappeared in a puff of smoke, in their place stood Naruto clones. Sasuke explained that Naruto changed his clones into clones of the others. The clones puffed out of existence and Naruto fell on his knee out of exhaustion. “Naruto, you used up too much Chakra, leave the rest to us”. Sasuke spoke up as Akashi nodded.

Naruto, being Naruto, jumped forward and hit all three ninja, knocking them away. “I’m not gonna let you take all the spotlight”. He raised his fist in the air, a victorious grin on his face. Akashi’s eyes widened when he saw Naruto’s grin. Is this really Naruto? He grew so much stronger… He glanced at Sasuke and furrowed his brows. There was a faraway look in the Uchiha’s eyes. Seems like he’s thinking the same thing.

The three enemy ninja did hand signs and clones appeared all around them. Naruto jumped in yelling that there was only one real one and if he gets that one all the other clones are gonna disappear. Kabuto and Akashi jumped in after him. Akashi focused his Chakra sensing to try and pinpoint the enemy, but all of the Chakra was the same, the enemy wasn’t within the group of clones. “Naruto! He’s not here!” Akashi yelled and at the same time he heard Sasuke’s painful groan.

“Sasuke? Sakura, what’s wrong with him?!” He shouted. Sakura was kneeling down next to Sasuke, who was gripping his own shoulder. “The mark is spreading over his neck!” She shouted back. While Akashi was distracted, the three enemy ninja exited through the ground and slashed at Kabuto, making him fly back. The fully got out and approached the defenseless Kabuto. “Wind Release: Air Current Wild Dance!” Akashi did the hand signs and the dust around them raised up.

It covered them all, making everyone, except Akashi and Sasuke, unable to see through. Grabbing senbon needles from his pouch, he jumped up and threw three of them, each hitting a vital spot in the enemies necks. As they fell down, unconscious, he dispelled the technique. The dust was blown away by oncoming wind. The enemy clones puffed out of existence. “Thank you, Akashi, you saved me”. Kabuto sighed out.

“That was great, Naruto, Akashi!” Sakura waved at them from besides Sasuke. While Naruto was rummaging through the belongings of the three ninja, Akashi knelt next to Sasuke. “Let me have a look”. He extended his hand towards the markings on his neck, but found his hand slapped away. “I’m fine!” The Uchiha growled at him, clamping a hand over the marks. Akashi huffed and got up. “Fine! Why should I care, right?!” He sneered the words at him and walked away.

“Look! I found a Scroll of Heaven!” Naruto gleefully shouted. Akashi nodded and glanced at Kabuto. There’s something awfully weird about him… I just can’t wrap my finger around it. The five of them continue their way towards the tower. Reaching the tower, they split up with Kabuto. As Team 7 walks through the room, Akashi whips his head to the room next door. There was a sudden Chakra spike. That Chakra… felt somewhat familiar.

His thoughts were interrupted by Sasuke. “I’m fine now, Sakura”. He had an arm around Sakura’s shoulders. She let him go and he took a step away from her. His gaze met Akashi’s. The Uchiha narrowed his eyes and the redhead’s lips curled up in a sneer. Their little glaring contest was interrupted by Naruto’s and Sakura’s conversation. “What do we do now?” Naruto asked. “Look at that!” Sakura pointed at a wall.

There was a huge writing on it, saying something about scrolls. She figured it out and said that they needed to open both the Heaven and Earth scroll at the same time to pass the exam. Sakura took out the Scroll of Heaven and Naruto did the same to the Scroll of Earth. As they peeled them open, they started smoking. “Throw them away!” Sasuke yelled at them and Akashi took a step back.

They threw the scrolls away and they rolled to a stop. There was a huge puff of smoke and there stood a silhouette of a man.