Chapter 8: "Sand Ripples in the Wind"
Naruto had never seen so much open space in one place before – or such a uniformity in color. As far as the eye could see, fields of golden sand stretched into the distance. The horizon was not straight, but humped with faraway dunes, and the intense, constant heat from the sun caused refractions in the air.
Sunagakure (Hidden Sand) was not, in the strictest sense of the word, hidden. Neither was Konohagakure (Hidden Leaf), for that matter – the huge overhanging mountain with the busts of the Hokage carved into the cliff's face was a dead giveaway. But just like how Konoha was isolated by dense forests and mountains, Sunagakure's location was secured by the sheer extremity of its geographical surroundings. They had had to endure endless sandstorms and scale treacherous rocky cliffs for several days to reach the village. If any ordinary person or ignorant ninja had attempted the journey, they would surely have fallen long before the village's clay buildings came into view.
When Naruto and his team finally arrived at the gates of the village, they were directed towards a desert space encircled by a barbed fence. Inside were dozens of huge pieces of rock that jutted out from the sandy ground. As soon as the gate to the lot screeched open, he felt at least several dozen pairs of eyes immediately turn to glare at them.
Naruto had never seen such a large gathering of foreign ninja together in one place. Just judging from the hitai-ate of the nearest genin, he could tell there were at least four other villages here, including Amegakure (Hidden Rain), Kusagakure (Hidden Grass), Takigakure (Hidden Waterfall), and of course Sunagakure (Hidden Sand). Naruto shifted; the tension in the air was tangible.
"Ick, this place is disgusting," he overheard a genin from Takigakure complaining. "I've got mud all over my sandals."
"Let's hurry up and pass this stupid exam so we can go back home," her teammate grumbled.
"Confident, aren't they?" muttered Rai, from besides him. He, like the other two, were wearing thick cloth cloaks to protect them from the sun. He looked musingly around. "I wonder who the others from Konoha will be? I heard from my brother that some rookies are actually taking the exam this year."
"They must be really talented then," said Mayu uneasily. Her eyes darted around. "I know I definitely wouldn't have been ready for it when we graduated. I don't know if I'm ready now, actually..."
With a shake of his head, Rai squeezed her arm comfortingly. "You'll be fine. You've got me and Naruto backing you up."
Mayu's face remained pale, but she nodded.
While it was too early to say for sure, Naruto could already tell that the exam was not going to be a pushover; the other villages would have sent their best genin teams, and competition was going to be fierce. The question was, what kind of trials would they face? Different villages hosted the exam every time, and the tests were always different.
However, he had known this from the very beginning, and they had trained with this in mind. So long as Mayu didn't freeze up, Naruto felt reasonably confident that his team would be strong contenders. They would be able to weather whatever the test threw their way.
Probably.
"Nervous?" asked an unfamiliar voice from behind them. Naruto turned around. The approaching boy was wearing the hitai-ate of Konoha, but Naruto had never seen him around before. He looked several years older than them, with long hair tied back in a ponytail and a pair of circular glasses perched on his nose. "You're from Konoha too, aren't you?"
"Well...yeah," said Rai, tapping his own hitai-ate meaningfully.
"I'm Kabuto," he said, ignoring the cheek. "This is your first time taking the exam, isn't it? Is it your first time in Sunagakure too?"
"Yes..." Mayu gulped. "Is it obvious?"
Kabuto smiled. "Yep! You remind me of how I used to be."
"Is this your second time taking the exam, then?" asked Naruto.
"Nope...this is my fourth," he admitted. "This exam is held twice a year so this is my second year. It's my second time here in Suna as well."
Unable to detect a lie from the boy's tone of voice or his body language, Naruto felt himself losing interest; he doubted anyone truly competent would fail the chūnin exam twice, let alone three times in a row.
A glint of gleaming metal caught his eye, and turning slightly, Naruto saw the familiar leaf hitai-ate again on another boy. He was pale with long dark hair, and had the unmistakable clear eyes of the Hyūga clan. He seemed calm, though his fidgeting teammates looked a bit more nervous. Naruto looked him up and down; the Hyūga clan was rumored to be one of the strongest in Konoha. He wondered how the boy before them would measure up.
Mayu must have followed his gaze, for she commented, "They must be one of the rookies from the class after us. I don't recognize them."
"Yeah, they are," said Rai, perking up and turning away from Kabuto. Pointing at a girl with Chinese-style buns, he said, "The girl's Tenten. She's a weapons specialist like me; her dad used to train us together when we were young."
But before they could go over to talk to them, several clouds of swirling sand suddenly appeared at the entrance to reveal a group of Suna chūnin and jōnin.
Naruto gave them their full attention, quickly taking note of their standard Suna attire. At their head was what appeared to be their leader: He was very tall, towering over much of the other Suna ninja, and had two red markings on the side of his face. Half his face was covered by a turban-like head gear with a sheet hanging down, and the remaining half was contorted into a hard glare.
"Thank you all for waiting," began the man, looking around at them sternly. "My name is Baki, and I will be your examiner for the Chūnin Selection Exam's first test. You will now all be assigned a team number, in order of your arrival here." There was a murmur of uncomfortable assent. The chūnin examiners began to walk around, giving out plates with numbers on it.
Kabuto returned to his team, and Naruto and his team waited patiently for theirs, as they had been the second to last to arrive. Finally, when the chūnin arrived at their number, they received the number 79. Right after the Amegakure team following theirs received their number, Baki gathered their attention once more. "If you will look around you, you will notice the slabs of rock that have been placed in the field. Pick one, and gather around it with your team."
After a moment's pause to process the information, Naruto and his team walked over to the nearest rock. The others surrounding them all hurried to do the same. Each rock was about two meters wide, with another two meters radius separating the rock from the nearest surrounding rocks, making space rather limited between each team. Squinting his eyes against the sun, Naruto craned his neck backwards to look up at the rock. It was easily over five meters tall.
"The field has been divided into twenty sections, with four rocks of equal height in each, and a team surrounding each rock. Your objective is to protect your rock and keep it above ground level. There are five ways to fail this test. One, if your rock reaches ground level, your team automatically fails. Two, if, by the end of the time limit of one hour, your rock is at a lower height than any other rock in your section, your team will fail. Three, if you physically touch any of your opponents or their rocks, your team will fail. Four, if your whole team is deemed unable to proceed with the test, you will fail. And five, if you kill any of your opponents, you will automatically fail."
"What? So how do you pass?" hissed Rai.
Naruto had found that while Rai had many talents, swiftness of mind was not one of them. "Basically, we have to protect our rock from the other teams, and only one team out of every four, at the most, is going to pass. We'll have to attack the other team's rocks using jutsu or projectiles so that they're at a lower height than ours."
He looked at the teams of their adjacent three rocks, and saw that they too were sizing him up. One team was from Kusa, and the other two were from Suna. The deck was stacked against them; the teams from Suna were going to be operating in their natural environment. They probably knew everything there was to know about sand and rocks, and would be using this knowledge to their full advantage. Furthermore, it looked like this first test was going to be entirely a physical challenge, which would be problematic considering their team's strengths.
Naruto pondered the mammoth rocks before them. Rai's artillery alone would do little against the tough rocks, and Mayu's genjutsu would have no effect at all. His wind chakra was sharp, but he hadn't tried cutting through rock before - meaning that their best bet would probably be to take out the opposing genin.
Suddenly remembering something, Naruto knelt and picked up some of the sand. He rubbed it between his fingers, and while most of it fell to the ground, some of it stuck to his skin – it was slightly moist.
"So? What's the plan?" prompted Rai.
Naruto looked up to see that he and Mayu were looking at him expectantly. He glanced at the enemy genin; they didn't appear to be listening, but...
"We'll go with Plan E," he said, talking quickly. Baki, the jōnin, was opening his mouth. "Mayu, take the Kusa. Rai, take the closer Suna team."
"Begin!"
Immediately, a flurry of action and clanging filled the air.
As Naruto quickly formed the necessary seals with his hands, he saw that the Suna genin were focusing their attentions on attacking the rocks. The genin from Kusa, like his team, were already attacking their enemy genin directly. As a stream of shuriken embedded themselves in their unprotected rock, pieces of rock shattered and crumbled down.
Ignoring the attack, Naruto exhaled a small but powerful gale of wind from his mouth: "Fūton: Kyōfū (Wind Release: Gale)!" Whipping through the surrounding rocks, it careened towards the Suna team farthest from them. They jumped behind their rock, easily avoiding it. The wind blasted harmlessly against the rock, which wobbled, but otherwise remained stoutly standing.
Naruto smiled.
Meanwhile, Mayu had lowered her hood, and unclipped her hairclips, letting her hair fall around her shoulders. Her hands blurred into action, and as she stoked them to life with her chakra, the blue bird-shaped clips began to twitch and ruffle their feathers, swelling to twice their size. Stretching their wings, they took to the air.
Suddenly, there was a shout of pain as Rai managed to hit one of the Suna genin in both legs with shuriken. The genin fell to the ground, and several chūnin rapidly appeared by his side with a stretcher. As the incapacitated genin was taken away, in vengeance, the remaining two turned their attentions on Team Kakashi. One of them was a puppet-user, and she directed her scorpion-like puppet towards Rai. It scuttled rapidly towards him, its stinger gleaming with the promise of slow-working poison. Letting out a stream of swears, Rai pulled out another scroll of artillery.
Trusting his teammates to carry out their part of the plan, Naruto sat down behind the rock and closed his eyes. Making the appropriate hand seals, he concentrated on first shaping his chakra into being as thin as sharp as possible, before sending it trickling deep underground. Slowly but surely, he could feel the air pressure building up below him, and in reaction, something else began to surge upwards.
In the distance, he heard further screams of pain coming from the Kusa team and felt a glimmer of pride. Mayu's genjutsu operated through her blue birds – if a bird made physical contact with another person, they would immediately fall under her trap. She could cause them to feel any sensation, including intense pain. The Suna genin probably wouldn't have fallen for the trick, seeing as how they were familiar with the birds of the region, but the Kusa genin hadn't suspected a thing.
Now this left the two remaining Suna teams. Leaving Rai to handle one, Naruto fed an extra burst of chakra into the jutsu, and then finally gathered it all into a concentrated ball directly below them: "Fūton: Kihō (Wind Release: Air Bubble)!" Opening his eyes – blinking rapidly to adjust them once more to the sun – he inhaled deeply, rapidly forming the hand signals for his followup jutsu. When his lungs were full, he blew the same strong gust of wind towards the rock of the Suna team.
Once again, they prepared to leap behind their rock – and froze as they couldn't. Looking down, they found their feet submerged in quicksand. With a yelp of panic as the sharp wind blew towards them, they ducked down. The wind blew over their bodies, and smashed against the face of the rock. With looks of blatant relief, they straightened up – and then froze once more, as the rock teetered dangerously. Disbelief dawning on their faces as their bodies continued to be swallowed up by the quicksand, they helplessly looked up as the rock wavered back and forth above them. After a few seconds of dangerous indecision, the rock finally lost its battle against the combined force of gravity and an unsteady base. Only the genins' screaming heads were visible above the ground now, and with a groaning sound, its base rose out of the ground as it began to fall on the immobile genin.
Sweating from the effort, Naruto rapidly urged more of the air pressure to build up, which would in turn cause the underground water to gush up. Just before the rock hit the ground, the genins faces slipped below the watery quicksand with a slurping sound. There was a tense moment of silence, in which the sounds of the other battles around them seemed magnified. Finally, a second later, the three genins heads popped up again above ground from besides the rock, which floated on the surface.
Naruto exhaled. Their faces were smeared with mud, but they were alive. Hacking and coughing out mud, they limply floated in the quicksand.
Naruto had directed his wind chakra to squeeze in on itself underground, causing the gas particles to accumulate and increase pressure. As a result, the stores of water below ground had moved upwards to the surface by pure hydraulic pressure. Since they were in a desert, Naruto hadn't been expecting to have access to a source of water large enough to create quicksand, but to his surprise, there had been an abundant water source beneath them.
Due credit for the discovery had to be given to the genin from Takigakure who'd been complaining about the mud.
Sitting down on the ground besides their standing rock, Naruto saw that Mayu and Rai were already done. The genin from Kusa were all slumped around their rock, frothing at the mouth. Mayu's blue bird was chirping from on top of one their chests. The two other Suna genin struggled as they stood pinned against their rock with multiple kunai. A destroyed scorpion puppet lay in pieces by their feet.
Taking in the chaos of the quicksand, Rai raised his eyebrows. "You overdid it, Naruto."
Mayu was smiling, the color of her face returned to its normal shade. She raised a finger, and one of her birds landed on it.
Naruto regarded the remaining desert space. The chūnin examiners were collecting the incapacitated genin, and most of the battles were still going on. The pristine rows of rocks from barely ten minutes ago were already in shambles. Some of the rocks had been shattered into pieces, and he could see several genin moving feebly under the fragments. By the looks of it, less than twenty teams would be passing.
"Team 79 passes the first test," said Baki. "Standby for the second test."
Tale of the Setting Sun
Chapter 9: "Deep, Dark, Crystal Cave"
The teams that had managed to take out their opponent teams before the time limit were all gathered in a large room with rows of clay chairs. When Naruto and his team arrived, only one other team from Amegakure was there. Their eyes were bloodshot as they glared at team Kakashi, and in wordless agreement, they chose seats at the opposite end of the room.
As the minutes passed, the remaining teams came trickling in, each looking increasingly more bedraggled. With ten minutes left on the clock, he noticed the Konoha rookies coming in. Despite how long it had taken them, they did not seem particularly worn down and walked in with confident demeanors.
Rai noticed as well, and beckoning for Mayu and Naruto to follow him, he made his way over to the girl with buns in her hair. "If it isn't Tenten!"
The girl perked up at her name, but when she saw Rai, her face fell. "Oh...it's you."
"It's been a while," said Rai, ignoring her lack of enthusiasm. Naruto got the impression that this was not an unusual dynamic for them and wondered whether something had happened in their past. "This is Tenten, guys. These are my teammates, Mayu and Naruto."
Mayu shyly smiled at them.
"This is Hyūga Neji and Rock Lee," replied Tenten dutifully, gesturing to the two boys besides her. The one with the clear eyes had to be the Hyūga, meaning the one with the bushy eyebrows and the martial arts belt around his waist was Rock Lee.
"Nice to meet you! I am Rock Lee," said Lee, with a flashing grin and a thumbs-up. He seemed reasonably friendly, and hadn't reacted at all to Naruto's countenance the way other villagers did. On the other hand, Naruto had never seen him before, so it was possible that the boy was one of the war orphans who'd kept to the orphanage.
"You're Kakashi's team, aren't you?" said Neji, glancing at them coolly.
Lee visibly perked up. "What?! So you are the pupils of Gai-sensei's eternal rival?! You will make worthy opponents then!"
"Is Gai your team leader?" asked Mayu.
"Yes," answered Tenten, with a warmer smile for the other girl. "You guys must be the reason why Gai-sensei wanted us to take the exam this year as rookies."
Rai raised an eyebrow. "I've never heard of Gai though. Are you sure he and Kakashi-sensei are rivals?"
"Are you sure you have never heard of him?!" said Lee, his already circular eyes growing even wider than Naruto had thought possible. "He is the strongest jōnin in Konoha, with a record of – "
"You're Uzumaki Naruto?" interrupted Neji. The whole time, Naruto noted, his pale gaze had not wavered from him. "The one who graduated from the Academy two years early?"
Naruto blinked; he'd never heard anyone refer to him as such. "That's right," he said.
"He's our local genius, the kind born only once a generation, yadda yadda," said Rai, throwing an arm around Naruto. With a sly smile, he added, "Kinda like you Hyūga, I'd say."
"A genius?" echoed Lee; the words appeared to have struck a chord with him. "I'd like to challenge you to a fight sometime, then."
At that, Naruto turned towards Lee, taken aback. "This probably isn't the best venue for a fight," he said mildly. "You'll have to wait for a later test for an opportunity."
Neji's eyes narrowed. "You say that like you expect to win."
That hadn't been Naruto's intention, but thinking about it, he supposed it was true.
"As if Naruto would lose to some rookies like you," scoffed Rai.
With that, it seemed Tenten had had enough, for she seized her teammates firmly by the arms. "Will you drop it already? Let's go, guys."
Although Lee allowed himself to be dragged away, Neji brushed off Tenten's hand. Nonetheless, with another hard look in their direction, he left as well.
"You could've been a bit more friendly, Rai," said Mayu, watching them walk away.
Rai shrugged. "They were being too cocky for a bunch of rookies."
His teammates' voices fading into the background, Naruto's gaze followed the retreating backs of the rookies. He hadn't gotten much of an impression of Tenten besides the fact that she and Rai seemed to have a strange rivalry going on. Moving on, there was Lee. He seemed determined to make a name for himself, judging from the way he'd instantly challenged Naruto. His heavily bandaged fists also indicated strong resolve.
Lastly, Naruto's eyes flicked towards Neji. He had been a bit more scathing than expected, but Naruto felt impressed at his self-control. He'd thought when he saw him before that perhaps the calm attitude was all an act, but the first test had barely ruffled his feathers. The Hyūga boy was the real thing after all. Team Gai would all likely be strong contenders in the exam.
Naruto didn't mind; so long as they didn't get in the way of Team Kakashi, he thought that the more Konoha genin that passed, the better.
From a rough estimate, there were about eighteen teams seated in the room, about evenly distributed in terms of villages. Many of them looked weary, with purple bruises and scratches all around their body. Only a scant few seemed relatively untouched, like himself and his teammates. Simply judging from their lack of presence, compared to the Konoha rookies, they did not seem like they would be much of a challenge for him...
But looks could be deceiving. That was what being a ninja was all about, after all – blending in with the shadows and offering oneself as harmless so as to lower the enemy's guard. And then, just when the enemy had relaxed and left an opening, you struck.
Suddenly, he turned around as he felt a tendril of intensely cold blood lust creeping in from the entrance. A sandaled foot emerged from around the corner – and just as the bloodlust vanished as quickly as it had appeared, he saw Kabuto walk in, with his teammates trailing behind. Naruto closely examined the teammates, but they looked fairly ordinary with black masks covering most of their faces.
He wondered: Could this be an example of precisely what he'd been thinking of just moments ago? Of a snake, coiled around its unsuspecting prey, poised to strike with its poisonous fangs?
It turned out that Kabuto's team had been the last one to pass, for no one else had come in when a bell rang piercingly at the one-hour mark. As all the gathered genin simultaneously turned to look, a pair of doors that had been closed flung open with a bang. A file of Suna chūnin marched in, with a different jōnin at their head. He looked younger than Baki, with black hair that hung over his right eye.
"Congratulations on passing the first test of the Chūnin Selection Exam," said the jōnin, his indifferent expression belying his words. "My name is Yūra, and I will be your second examiner. Regardless of whether any of your teammates are capable or not, the second test will commence within the hour. But first, we will proceed to the venue for the second test."
Following the chūnin past the doors they had just come through, it was revealed to be a long tunnel-like hallway that sloped sharply downwards. The walls were made of sanded rock and it was dark, lit only occasionally by stone torches. As they shuffled in silence down the steps, Naruto looked around. The air was growing increasingly colder and damper, and the sputtering lights from the torches were growing weaker: it seemed the second test would be taking place underground.
Mayu stumbled besides him, and as Naruto reached out to steady her, he suddenly noticed how pale her face was.
"Are you alright?" he asked. He wondered if she had gotten injured during the first test, and whether it would be serious enough to affect them in the second test.
"Yeah...I just don't like feeling trapped in small spaces," she said, pulling away from him. Naruto exchanged looks with Rai, who tried to say something to her. She ignored him however, and for the rest of the journey, she didn't talk again.
After twenty minutes, the ground finally leveled out again and soon, they emerged into what appeared to be a narrow underground cavern. There were twelve gaping human-sized tunnel holes in the opposite rock wall. A torch burned besides each entrance.
Naruto immediately realized the nature of the second test: It was likely going to be some sort of maze. Besides him, Mayu must have come to the same conclusion, for she began to tremble.
"I will now explain the details of the second test. And then, before starting, I will need everyone here to sign these agreement forms," said Yūra, standing in the middle of the cavern. With a rustling sound, one of the chūnin pulled out a sheaf of papers and began passing them out. "There will be deaths in this test, and it won't be against the rules this time. So if I don't have you sign these, it will become my responsibility." It was silent. "In this test, it will be a survival of the fittest. Each team will enter the maze through a tunnel in the order that they passed the first test. Here are some details about the maze: we are two hundred feet below ground level, and if you take the correct path all the way through, it is about three kilometers long before ending up at the surface. All the tunnels intersect one another at multiple points. Using whatever weapons and jutsu you have available, your objective will be to obtain two team plates. This includes your own team plate, so if you manage to protect yours, you need only secure one other one. If your team plate is taken, you will need the team plates of two other teams. To pass this test, you and your team must reach the end of this maze with two team plates."
"They're cutting us at least in half now..." A genin grumbled.
"There is also a time limit. This second test will last 120 hours, which is exactly five days. You will be given a torch, but there are other sources of light within the maze. As for food and water...well, you'll have to figure that out on your own," Yūra's eyes gleamed maliciously. "Those who cannot learn to adapt will die from the harshness of the course. Now, I will talk about what will disqualify you. First, those that don't make it to the end of the tunnel with two plates within the time limit. Second, anyone who creates their own tunnels that reach to the surface. And third, anyone who destroys a team plate."
A genin from Amegakure raised his hand. "What if not everyone on our team survives?"
"Your objective is to reach the end of the tunnel with two plates," said Yūra. "Even if you are the only surviving member of your team, you will pass if you complete this requirement." He gestured towards a copy of the form in his hand. "That is all, so after signing the form as a team, go stand by one of the entrances. One team per entrance only."
As the genin signed the forms, Naruto stared down at the paper in his hand. The second test was very telling of the remainder of the exam, as well as the code that the shinobi of Suna lived by. It was apparent that for Suna, the accomplishment of a mission took precedence over the lives of the ninja – failure was not an option. Furthermore, the fact that the entire team was not required for completion of the second test indicated that the third part of the exam, unlike the first two, would test individuals. The third test would likely pit the remaining contenders against one another in direct battles.
"Do you think any of these tunnels are easier than the others?" mused Rai. By the time they'd handed in their forms, half the teams had already picked an entrance. They now waited outside one of the tunnels, tensely waiting for the rest.
"Possibly," said Naruto. "But he said that they intersect, so it's unlikely to matter." He looked at Mayu, who had stopped shaking during the explanation but was still pale. He hesitated, searching for the right words; he still wasn't used to comforting people. "The tunnels should widen, so it shouldn't be too bad, Mayu."
"Thanks," she said with a weak smile, but remained quiet.
Naruto supposed it could've been worse.
Since the team from Amegakure had been the first to pass, they were the first to disappear into the gaping black hole. As the sounds of their footsteps faded, a chūnin examiner walked up to Naruto and his team and marked their team number by the entrance. Rai lifted a torch from its handle.
"Good luck," Kabuto called out good-naturedly from two entrances away. His masked teammates besides him looked at them sullenly.
Naruto was spared from having to respond when, just then, Yūra gave them the signal to go. Taking a step forward, they walked into the darkness.
The light from the cavern behind them quickly faded, and the tunnel began to curve slightly to the right. When they turned the corner, the cavern completely disappeared from view and the only light now came from the torch in Rai's hand. However, the fire was weak and was barely strong enough to light up the path directly in front of them. Naruto wondered how long it would last. The wood was burning slowly but surely, and Naruto estimated that unless the chūnin examiners were going to stroll over and replace them for them – which was extremely unlikely – it would burn out within several hours. Then, they would be left in the pitch dark. Having trained in the dark before, Naruto wasn't worried, but he wondered how Mayu would fare.
"Do you hear something?" Rai suddenly said.
Naruto stopped, and listened carefully. Sure enough he could hear something echoing far ahead. It sounded like dripping. "It's probably water."
"Water? Down here?"
"Remember how we had to climb those mountains to reach Suna?" said Naruto patiently. "Mountains are just tilted layers of porous sedimentary rocks, and they usually run under the desert. Whenever it rains or snows, they soak into the layers, creating reservoirs of groundwater. The water should be safe to drink too."
During his preparation for the exam, Naruto had made sure to put aside a day in the Archives to research the prominent geography of Wind country, and was now glad he'd done so.
"Well, if you say so," Rai shrugged. "So now that the issue of water's solved, what's the plan for food and this maze?"
"There'll probably be some animals that we can eat around here," Mayu said suddenly. As Naruto had predicted, the tunnels had gradually widened in diameter as they walked further inside, and it seemed she felt better with more space around them. "I think we should find food and water first, before anything else."
Naruto nodded. "And after dealing with food, we should find a secure location. It'll be difficult finding somewhere truly hidden inside these tunnels, so we should look for a place with more space to prepare an ambush. For tonight though, we should conserve our energy and just rest. Other teams will be worked up and trying to attack one another first, and they'll be easy pickings for us later on."
They picked up their pace, and soon saw a pale blue light in the distance. When they reached the light, they found themselves emerging from the narrow tunnel into a large cavern that was easily three times the size of the one they had left before. The ground was clustered with large boulders and the walls were lined with something that was emitting the light. As the other two gawked up at the sheer size, Naruto cautiously went over to the wall. Touching it, he realized what Yūra had meant by 'other sources of light.' It was a soft and mossy type of plant that he had never seen before, and it glowed, washing the cavern in watery blue light.
All of a sudden, Mayu let out a cry of alarm. Immediately, Naruto spun around to face her – and saw something small and black streaking out from behind a grey boulder.
Rai threw a kunai; striking the thing right in its chest, it let out a small squeal before slumping on the ground. Stepping forward, he nudged it with its feet: It was a small furry mole-like creature with a pink snout. "Looks like we've found our dinner."
Naruto eventually found the source of the dripping water to be a crack in the wall. Chipping holes into fist-sized rocks with their kunai, they took turns collecting water. Then, after hunting down several more of the mole-like animals, they nestled themselves behind a boulder with their findings. After Rai skinned the animals, Naruto had just begun to ponder how to cook the meat over their dying torch when Mayu revealed something about herself that took him by surprise.
"Your chakra nature is fire?" asked Naruto. On further thought, he supposed he shouldn't have been surprised. The fire chakra nature was common among shinobi of Konoha after all. But she had never before demonstrated knowledge of any fire-based techniques.
Mayu nodded shyly. "I'm not very good at it though, so I usually stuck to genjutsu."
"How does it work?"
"Well...I gather the chakra in my stomach and then kind of put pressure on it, heating it up. Then when it's ready, I blow it out, and I... Here, let me show you." Her hands moving quickly to make the signs, she blew lightly on the wooden torch: "Katon: Takibi (Fire Release: Bonfire)!"
A stream of fire came out from her mouth which, though on the weak side, nevertheless strengthened the torch's flame to a respectable level.
"That's handy," Naruto said, beginning to think of how he could incorporate this unexpected ability into their future plans.
For some reason, Mayu turned pink at that, and avoided his gaze for a while.
After cooking the meat over the torch and eating it – it was stringy but edible – they had just put out the fire and covered their tracks, when another team entered the cavern. Naruto, hearing their foreign footsteps, noticed first, and quieted the two down immediately with a raised fist. As Rai and Mayu lowered their bodies against the ground, Naruto crept to the side of the boulder and peered around its edge. When he saw who it was, some of the tension left his body, but he remained hidden.
The rookies of Konoha wandered through the cavern, looking just as amazed by the light-emitting moss as they had been.
"Amazing! Truly, this is a springtime of youth!" said Lee, punching the air.
Tenten shushed him. "Is there another team here, Neji?"
Naruto saw the Hyūga boy turn around, and immediately noticed that the veins around his temple were bulging: His Byakugan was activated. The boy looked directly at the boulder where Naruto and his team were currently hiding behind, and smirked.
"Yeah...but lucky for them, we'll leave them alone for now," said Neji. "Come on, let's find another place to find shelter."
His teammates nodded without protest, and they leaped to the exit on the other side of the cavern.
Once it was safe, they came out of hiding.
"I really hate that guy," Rai muttered.
Though they couldn't see the sun, they could feel in their bodies that the hour was getting late. Taking into consideration Mayu's poor condition, it was down to between Naruto and Rai to take the first watch. While Mayu crawled into a sleeping bag she'd summoned from a scroll, Naruto and Rai looked at one another.
The other boy jerked his head. "Go on, I'll stand watch first. I'm not sleepy anyways."
Laying down on the ground and looking up at the dark ceiling, Naruto wondered whether the sun had set yet. While his internal clock told him that it was likely around six in the evening, it'd probably been thrown off an hour or two since they'd traveled to Wind country. Truthfully speaking, he couldn't wait for this test to be over, so they could return to the surface. Before going to sleep, he usually liked watching the sunset from his window. Not being able to see the sky was unsettling.
He had just been about to drift to sleep when suddenly, a voice spoke up near his head.
"Hey, Naruto," whispered Rai. "You awake?"
His eyes snapped open, instantly alert. Despite the glow of light from the moss, it was dark enough that all he could make of Rai was a vague body outline. "What is it?"
"...I just wanted to know...what'd you do to Mayu?"
He'd never heard Rai speaking in such a serious tone before; somewhat alarmed, he asked, "What do you mean?"
There was a pause. "You wouldn't know it, but I've known her my whole life, so I know...Once she decides something, it's pretty much impossible to change her mind." Another pause. "Mayu didn't like you, did you know that?"
"I had an inkling," Naruto said drily.
"Actually, everyone I know hates you for some reason, so I figured you must've done something really bad - " Rai abruptly broke off when Mayu shifted. For a moment, it was silent; and then her soft, steady breathing resumed. He cleared his throat. "Anyways...do you remember that day when we had to fill out our birthdays in a calendar at the Academy?"
"What about it?"
"That's when I realized that, well." Rai hesitated. "I guess you already know that you were born on the day of the Nine-tails attack. I was really young so I barely remember it, but my parents were killed on that day. And it's stupid, but...you kinda look like a fox with your whiskers, so it used to give me the creeps."
Naruto blinked, taken aback despite himself. The Nine-tails. He had once wondered as well whether he was an orphan because of that attack. But for some reason, he'd never even considered it as a possible link to the reason behind his ostracisation.
His head beginning to throb, he massaged his temples, and as such, he almost missed Rai's following words.
"Still, you know...whatever anyone else says, we definitely wouldn't have made it this far without you. And," Rai added in a grudging tone, "I don't know what you did, but I think even Mayu kinda likes you now."
With that, Naruto heard Rai rise to his feet and he walked a distance away.
All was silent, except for the sound of steady breathing. Naruto lay still. He wondered why Rai had told him this, and what it was that he wanted from him. He opened his mouth, but couldn't think of anything to say, so he kept quiet.
Since they had put out the fire, it was cold in the cave.
But it also felt just a bit warm. Probably due to the heat emitting from the moss, he thought to himself.
A/N: This second test was based off of the one in Hunter x Hunter.
1/22/17: Fairly significant edits were made.