For being smack dab in the middle of a frozen wasteland of a country, the forest is actually pretty huge.
We manage to travel for a couple solid hours without meeting any genin, which says something considering how many people are competing. As we move deeper and deeper into the place the trees grow larger and larger, until they begin to rival even the ones back in the Forest of Death. I don't even want to consider whether or not the animals here are similarly massive.
We're running alongside a clear blue, rushing river, when the distant sound of steel meeting steel drifts through the air. A moment later Samui darts away from the river, behind one of the trees, and with a gust of wind I toss myself beside her into a crouch. She raises a hand for silence, listening as the sounds of fighting persist.
"What are you thinking?" I whisper, during a lull in the noise. She glances back at me.
"Stay here," she says flatly. "I'll investigate."
"I'm sorry, what?" I stand up from my crouch. "That's stupid. What happens when you get overwhelmed by whoever's fighting up ahead?"
"I will not." She shakes her head. "You would only get in my way, regardless."
Oh. Oh. Time to nip this nonsense in the bud right the hell now.
"Look, Samui," I growl. "I don't care what you think of me as a person, but if we're going to make it through this task you're going to need to respect me as a shinobi. I can hold my own just fine in a fight, and you need to trust me when I say that, or we're both going to fail miserably." Sure, maybe Hatake hadn't had a random girl from Kumo in mind when he was preaching about teamwork, but the point still stands.
The blank expression that she's kept up since she first tapped me on the shoulder finally changes, then- into one of annoyance. "I don't know if I can. I'm afraid you'll be too busy ogling my breasts to fight your opponents."
I wince. "Alright, I deserved that one. Sorry about that. They're just so-" What the fuck are you doing, Uzumaki. "What I mean to say is, I won't do it again. Promise."
She rolls her eyes. "So uncool," she mutters. She turns back towards the distant fight. "Fine. Just stay hidden until I make the first move, okay?"
"Yeah, sure."
We move forward once more, slower and in silence. I keep my wind bursts to a minimum since we're weaving between the trees, not jumping among them. The sounds of fighting become louder and louder as we go, until we start to hear voices as well. Calling out jutsu, shouting taunts, and cursing. Mostly cursing, though.
We find the two teams duking it out by the river. A genin from Kusa is locked into close combat with a genin from Iwa, and two shinobi from Kiri and Ame respectively are hurling suiton techniques at each other from on top of the river itself. The Iwa nin looks to be fighting with pure Taijutsu and a couple kunai, utilizing a brutal style that keeps the Kusa nin on the backfoot despite the katana they're wielding. The two shinobi fighting on top of the water seem to be locked in a stalemate for now, cancelling each other's jutsu out as fast as they can perform them.
Samui motions for me to stay where I am behind one of the trees, and slinks through the forest, circling around the fight until she's out of my sight. The fight rages on, the Iwa nin pushing the Kusa genin steadily back, and the suiton users continuing to neutralize one another.
Then all of a sudden the Kiri nin catches their opponent off guard with a hail of shuriken disguised by a water bullet, knocking the other genin off balance in his hasty attempt to dodge and causing them to spew their next jutsu in the direction of the two close combat fighters.
The guy from Kusa is already leaping back from a punch when the jutsu comes crashing down on them, and just manages to avoid it. The Iwa nin, on the other hand, gets hit full on and thrown off his feet into a tree, thankfully far from my position.
"You motherfucker!" He howls, staggering to his feet. "How hard is it to keep to your own side of the fight!? Useless son of a-" He cuts off as the Kusa nin descends, katana held high above their head, and raises his kunai up to block with a curse.
And on the other side of the river, Samui bursts out from up in the trees. The tanto I'd noticed strapped to her back after I stopped ogling her is held in a firm two-handed grip, and when she lands on the genin from Kiri she shoves it clean through his head.
That's a cue if I've ever seen one.
The Kusa genin is pressing his assault as hard as he can, forcing the Iwa nin back into the trees, when I appear between them. I duck under the shocked sword wielder's clumsy swipe, spinning and kicking his legs out from under him. I turn, yanking my tanto free from its sheath with a shriek and blocking the swipe from the Iwa nin.
He growls, shoving against my sword, and I amp up my chakra output in kind. "You're gonna regret interrupting me, you tree hugging piece of shit."
I spit in his face.
His eyes go wide with fury, and I break away, just managing to dodge the vicious kick he aims at my ribs. He lunges towards me, only to juke to the side as the Kusa nin descends on him. He fights back twice as hard as before, eager to get back to me, and quickly pushes his opponent back against a tree. The Kusa nin attempts to block a punch, but the katana proves too unwieldy, and the Iwa genin's fist crushes his shoulder against unforgiving bark.
He cries out, dropping his sword, and I move in.
The Iwa turns to me just in time, raising the kunai clenched in his hand to block. Not this time. I swing my tanto down, layering chakra along its edge just like I do with my punches, and release it just as I hit him. The burst of wind chakra blows the kunai right out of his hand, and the following sword swipe slices two fingers and the tip of his thumb clean off.
He jerks back, but I'm already moving forward, spinning inside of his guard and slamming the hilt of my tanto against his temple. He drops like a sack of rocks. I stand there for a second, catching my breath, and after a quick glance to make sure the Kusa nin is still down, check his vitals. Still breathing; just unconscious. I pat him down, but he doesn't have a scroll on him.
I walk over to the other genin, slumped against the tree he'd been smashed against, whimpering. He tries to dodge when I go to pat him down, but a swift jab to his broken shoulder stops him in his tracks. No scroll on him, either. I pick his katana up, give him a warning look that he isn't coherent enough to register after the blow I just dealt him, and head back to the river.
Man, I'm glad I took the time to learn how to use my pressure bursts with my tanto like Hatake suggested. It was a pain at first, since I didn't have the direct control over it that I did with my bare fists, but it was definitely worth getting down.
I find Samui sitting on the ground with her legs in the water, cleaning off her sword. She's completely drenched, but aside from that she doesn't look to have taken any damage. The other two shinobi are nowhere to be seen. I sit down cross-legged next to her, tossing the Kusa nin's katana into the river.
"Did you get their scrolls?"
She nods, holding up two Loyalty scrolls.
I blink. "Wow, that's really dumb."
"They'll be good to have as backups," she says, holding them out to me. "Here, you can carry them."
"You sure? Can I be trusted with our backups?" I tease. Alright, mostly tease. I am a little miffed she never even asked if I wanted to carry our original scroll, but whatever. I've got my own now. "Hey, that was pretty easy. Maybe this won't be so tough after all."
"We got the jump on them, and they were weak." She pulls her tanto from the river, drying it off on her dress and sliding it back into its sheath. "The genin from Kumo will not be near as easy to defeat."
"We'll just have to avoid those guys, then." I stand up, pocketing the scrolls. "Anyway, come on. We might not have been the only team to notice this fight, and I'd rather not get hit with a taste of my own medicine." She takes back the lead without another word, running back off into the forest, and I begrudgingly follow her. Something tells me this is going to be a long week.
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