Third-Person POV

"S#!t, what was that, Nobu?!" Hisashi asked in panic.

"Damned if I know!!" his teammate replied.

They sat perched on the branches of trees as they stared off in the direction their comrade Tadao had gone in. That next minute they heard a scream and explosive sounds going off.

"What the hell happened to Tadao?" Hisashi trembled. "Should we- should we go get him?"

Nobu swallowed hard. "No, we have to keep moving."

Hisashi grabbed him by the sleeve of his shirt. "What? What do you mean? We have to go save him!!"

"Look, he's the one that insisted he go survey the western front, it's his fault he's landed himself in whatever mess he's in right now!" Nobu shrugged off Hisashi's clasp. "We should count ourselves lucky he wasn't the one with our Scroll."

"How can you say that? Tadao's our friend!!"

"If I know Tadao he would want us to keep on going, not sacrifice everything including our one chance to be Chunin for him!"

Hisashi's lips quivered. "So that's it then? We're just gonna leave our comrade?"

"There's too much at stake here, Hisashi, I'm not failing these Exams a third time," he said as he leapt off the branch. "We can pass the test in his stead, honour him with our victory if that's what you want."

Hisashi after him. "Wait, Nobu!!"

But his cries fell on deaf ears. Nobu landed into a large clearing of the trees then began running north in the direction of the tower.

S#!t, S#!t, S#!t, he swore vehemently in his head. It wasn't supposed to go this way!! How did things come to this? Ah, I knew I should have stopped Tadao from going!! If I fail these Exams again, that's it! I'll never be able to continue with being a ninja! The three of us will be the failures of the whole Land of Wind.

He shook his head and stopped running for a moment. No, stop it, focus, Nobu! It ain't over! You've still got your Scroll and Hisashi. Make a plan.

Right now the biggest issue is we're down a man. We still need to grab an Earth Scroll from another team, but would two men really be enough to pull it off? Ah, wait, what if went after one of the rookie teams? They'll obviously be weaker than us from lack of experience and training. It'll be an easy swipe for two-more experienced genin.

Nobu turned around to face his teammate. "Alright, Hisashi, if you're finished complaining here's the pl.. a..."

But he might as well have been talking to himself. Hisashi lay on the ground of the forest clearing, his body slumped on the ground and unmoving.

"Hey, Hisashi! Can you hear me?" Nobu called out to him. "You seriously sleeping right now? Get up, we need to go!! ..... Hisashi?"

Hisashi would not move. Fear seized Nobu's heart. A-Arienai!!

He turned tail to run, but just before he could a boy emerged from the dense trees.

He was very tall for his age but Nobu guessed he must have been about 13 or 14 years old. He had very curly black hair that looked like a dark bush, strange golden-coloured eyes and triangle markings on his cheeks.

Nobu, who was on high alert at the very moment, held his ninjato in the boy's direction. "Who-who are you? What do you want?"

The boy held his hands up as if he was surrendering. "I can't find my friends. Help me," he said very bluntly.

"What?" Nobu became incredibly confused. First Tadao had been attacked when he separated himself from the group, then something or someone had very seemingly-so killed Hisashi from behind him and now a kid had come out of nowhere asking for help to find his friends.

Nobu felt he might just go mad. Then he realized that such a young person before him who was taking the Chunin Exams must be a rookie genin - or that's what he wanted him to think. His lips curled as he approached an answer.

It must be him! Nobu concluded. He must be who did in Hisashi and Tadao. Still, a genin as young as him? No, I can't afford to play his game. I need to go about this carefully or I'm next!

"Can't find your friends, you say?" Nobu asked, lowering his ninjato slightly. "How come you're coming to me, an enemy, about it?"

"I'm desperate," the boy replied.

Nobu crossed his eyebrows. Does this kid not have a filter? Or is he just that bad at acting?

Hm, but even if he is the one that took out Hisashi and Tadao if I help him find his friends maybe I can take their Scroll from 'em, provided it's an Earth, (there's always that gonna be that risk of not knowing for sure) and take out his whole team as revenge for what he did to mine.

Yeah, okay, Nobu, there's a plan! Now I just gotta play this out well.

"Alright kid, how about this," Nobu began, completely lowering his ninjato. "I'll help you find your friends, but in exchange, you have to help me find an Earth Scroll."

The boy's eyes widened. "You have a Heaven Scroll?"

Nobu just realized he had made the biggest and stupidest mistake of his life, aside from becoming a ninja. "No, wa--"

"TRAAAAAP!!!"

"Blossom Style: Garden of Bliss!!"

Several things happened within the next three seconds. Right after Nobu's blunder, the boy screamed at the top of his lungs and without warning the entire forest clearing was shrouded in a haze of pink.

Nobu tried to make a run for it again but as he heaved forward he found his legs were getting heavy- and then his whole body.

He was suddenly overcome with a great tiredness, so much so that his body stopped moving entirely. His eyelids were starting to close.

What's .. going on? What is this jutsu? I feel so... so... calm.

As Nobu was placed under a trance from the haze pink surrounding him he did not even notice when several long plant-like vines roped themselves all around him and held him down firmly.

Right after that happened, the pink haze dissipated and cleared from the area.

"Keh, well what do you know, he did have a Heaven Scroll! Who would've thought?" Daito smirked, having pickpocketed Nobu and taken the Scroll off of him.

"Nice teamwork back there, you two!" he said to Yohei and Fumino as she came out from under the branches of the trees. "Your jutsus really compliment each other, but I guess that makes sense seeing as how your clans are distantly related to each other. (I have to admit I'm jealous.)"

"I don't think it was so much about relation as it was cooperation, Daito," Fumino said modestly, "right, Yohei?"

The curly-haired boy gave a full expressive nod.

Fumino walked to Daito's side and looked at Nobu.

"Still, I wish the rules for this test would be different," she lamented, sideglancing at Hisashi, "so we wouldn't have to outright steal from other teams that have been working just as hard."

While she wasn't looking Daito made a loving face towards her. That's my Fumino, for you! Always putting others before herself! I swear, one day you'll be my wife!!

"Hey, Yohei," she called, "do you think you could release him, please?"

Yohei did as she requested and had the vines untangle themselves from Nobu causing the man to fall onto the ground and wake up suddenly.

Nobu's ears adjusted and the first thing he heard was Daito saying: "...could've at least laid him onto the ground first."

"Calm down, Daito, you know he doesn't like being shouted at," Fumino stated.

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What is going on? Nobu fretted. Are these rookie genin? No, don't tell me... I lost to rookie genin?!

"Oh, hi, hello!!" Fumino beamed when she saw Nobu was awake. "Don't worry, we mean you absolutely no harm! All we wanted was your Scroll, so we'll be on our way now!"

This made Nobu reflexively reach for the secret pocket where the Scroll would be, but when he felt its utter emptiness his heart sank farther and found he was speechless and his mind blank.

"Really sorry about all this!" Fumino apologized to him, as she and Team 9 were taking their leave.

"Nothing personal, man!" Daito said afterwards.

Nobu looked in the direction of Yohei. The boy did not say anything. The boy that had very likely brought about this series of unfortunate events would not even apologize when his teammates did.

Nobu felt ashamed of himself, ashamed to call himself a ninja. He almost felt like crying.

Hisashi, Tadao, I let you guys down. I was our last hope and I blew it for us. To think I would lose to a couple of rookies, even showing me mercy. And now I've failed the Test. Pretty sure I had screwed up the Written Test, too, so now we're gonna fail the entire Exams for a third time in a row.

Yeah, I'm done. F**k this ninja life--

Before he could call it quits on himself, he unexpectedly remembered his reason for becoming a ninja in the first place.

Right, my family. Mom, Dad, little brother and sister Tashiro and Sakami. This is all for them, not myself. I have to become a chunin so they can all have a better life.

He felt for his ninjato and gripped it, not keeping his eyes off of Team 9. That's my purpose. I can't afford to give up!!

I refuse to let it end here!! He dashed forward at the Team, deftly wielding his ninjato. Hisashi, Tadao, I'll honour you both!!

Nobu was incredibly fast on his feet. With only two strides he was already right behind Fumino and Daito.

Since these two were right in front of me when I woke up it's safe to assume one of them took the Scroll from me, he analyzed. It's impossible for me to tell who right now so I'll just have to place my bet-

He aimed his blade at Fumino. -and go for the girl!!

He thrust towards her back, and immediately he was countered by a much larger blade twice the size of his ninjato.

He spun his head and saw Daito holding out the giant sword to block his attack. Nobu swallowed a brick.

Daito then followed up with a parry and disarmed Nobu of his sword and concluded his counter with a swift left hook.

Nobu slumped to the ground unconscious.

"D-Daito!" Fumino turned around and exclaimed.

"What? He was gonna hurt you!" he insisted. "I had a feeling he would retaliate, which is why I had never let my guard down as we were walking away." He let out a sigh. "Should've just stayed down, man. Come on, let's go."

Fumino looked remorsefully at Nobu one last time then followed after Daito. In her head, she wondered if being able to make everyone happy was truly possible.

🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃 At the same time ⏳⏳⏳⏳⏳⏳⏳⏳

"Ena, how close is it?" Itsuki inquired.

"Nearly 2 kilometres about," she responded, "and it's fast approaching."

"Good, time to get ready."

Team 24 stood at the top of the trees of the Forest of the Death with the side of the Hokage Rock directly behind them.

After having surveyed the landscape, Ena deactivated her Enbogan* and looked at Itsuki worriedly.

"Are you sure about this?" Ena asked him.

"Yeah, I am," he said aloofly. "That snake has to be brought down."

"Why though?" Genzo cut in, lying comfortably on his branch. "We've got the two Scrolls we need and Ena says the tower's only thirty minutes away. Why bother with a snake, let's just go!"

"This isn't about us," Itsuki explained. "That snake has injured and possibly killed hundreds of participants already. If someone doesn't stop it, it'll keep hurting others."

"And by someone you mean you, right?" Genzo scoffed. "You always were tryin' to play the hero."

"Don't help me if you don't want to," said the green-haired boy. "I'll be fine on my own, you guys just wait here."

Genzo crossed his arms. He knows full well we can't go anywhere because he's the one with the Scrolls!

"Hey, hold on!" Ena exclaimed. "You said it yourself! That snake's taken out over a hundred genin here! Can you really take it out on your own?"

"Relax, Ena," Genzo answered, "you and I both know he'll be fine." He stretched out like a cat and relaxed against the body of the tree. "At least I get to do nothing for the time being."

"Okay, but..."

"It's okay, Ena," Itsuki smiled slightly. Ena returned a weak one.

The ground then started shaking dramatically and birds dove into the air with frantic. Trees were swaying left and right and the pebbles on the ground started to rise.

"It's here," the wide-eyed girl mouthed.

Itsuki leapt onto the forest floor. He performed these hand seals: Horse --> Ox --> Bird and finished it by combining the Earth and Wind elemental seals. Then he waited.

The ground rumbling became louder and louder, until it became unbearable to hear--

--then it was silent.

.

.

FWOOOOOM!!!

Without any warning or a moment to breathe, the great white snake was instantly upon Itsuki and it was met with a gathering of several thousand amalgamations of stone and minerals.

The rush of the snake was so great that the air pressure from it's attack sent Itsuki high into the air.

Ena gasped in horror.

The green-haired boy was dazed for a second but regained his compusre just as swiftly. The snake, having identified its prey, shot up at Itsuki from the ground, mouth wide open to swallow him.

The boy held out his hand and said aloud: "Mineral Style: Towering Pillar!"

As if heeding his call, all the rocks and minerals from the ground rose into the air like a stream of grey and brown. They came together right before Itsuki and molded a giant pillar-like object, shoving itself into the snake's mouth.

Itsuki landed on top of the pillar and jumped off of it, having successfully avoided the snake's first attempt to eat him whole.

Falling to the ground, Itsuki eyed the snake suspiciously. It stared right back at him with vicious, crimson-coloured eyes and long black slit-pupil.

Then it chowed down on the pillar with its fangs and crumbled it with no apparent struggle.

Figures... Itsuki huffed.

He held out his hand once again and the rocks and minerals came at his call, now forming a flight of stairs for him to run down on.

"I'm about 70% certain he has to be enjoying himself," Genzo commented to Ena.

The snake did not waste another second. It lunged at Itsuki once more while he was descending thrugh the makeshift stairs. He jumped out of its way, just marginally avoiding it and landed back onto the forest ground roughly.

Itsuki picked himself back up and kept running. Showers of stones and pebbles fell onto the ground all around him. And suddenly a great shadow fell over him. Itsuki reared his head up and saw the snake directly above him.

"Earth Style: Boulder Fist Technique!!" He formed a giant fist from the earth and punched the snake square in the face, sending it flying.

"BEHIND YOU!!!" Ena cried.

He reacted as quickly as he could but was still too slow to properly block the whip attack of the snake's tail.

It ran through the half-baked wall of minerals he made and smacked his upper body whole. A snake that could down over a hundred genin with just the force of its mobility and Itsuki had taken its attack moreorless directly.

Ena's heart skipped a beat when she saw blood spray the ground.

"S!#t," Genzo cursed.

Now both Itsuki and the snake had taken a pounding and were struggling to recover. The green-haired boy spat blood out of his mouth but his ghostly grey eyes were still shining with resolve.

Ena made a move to jump. "I'm going in!!"

"Hold on a sec!" Genzo called. "It's not over!"

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

Genzo pointed at something. "I mean he's still got an ace up his sleeve."

Ena followed his hand and she saw it for herself. For someone with eyesight as keen as hers she had not noticed this.

There were gusts of wind stirring up all the particles of dust in the entire forest region, millions upon millions of mineral particles rising into the air.

Itsuki was the first to get back up. "Thanks for kicking up so much dust," he remarked.

The snake had now fully recovered and still had its sights set on Itsuki, ignoring every marble of stone and marble continuously rising. It slithered towards him with such destructive force that every tree it passed by fell over and the ground was erased creating more debris for Itsuki.

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"Don't let anything or anyone hold you back .... Be the best ninja you can be."

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"Mineral Style: Extreme Sifting."

The dust moved and swarmed the snake like a living sandstorm. Its whole body was engulfed in several different species of rocks and minerals that existed on the forest ground, submerging the snake-

But it still pushed forward and rushed at Itsuki without slowing down.

Itsuki doubled back, trying to form the Fireball hand seals. Dammit, I need to heat the minerals but I don't have time to spam the jutsu--!!

Itsuki could not outrun the snake. It swiftly caught up to him and prepared to swallow him right then and there.

Ena opened her mouth to scream and Genzo gritted his teeth.

Then, as if on instinct, Itsuki made the Fire and Wind elementary hand seals and scorching hot steam billowed out from around him. The forest ground was submerged in a pinkish-red gas with a white centre.

When they had subsided, Team 24 looked on with shock and awe and saw the snake stuck in a black block of rock, its head and tail sticking out of it on either side. The whole forest ground, minus Itsuki's position had been turned into a black solid substance.

"So... what exactly happened?" Genzo asked.

Ena noticed that parts of the ground that were not solid were boiling and liquid-like, akin to molten lava.

"Itsuki must have unleashed his Scorch Style then superheated all the rocks and minerals, cementing the snake in it." But why did he use Scorch Style? I thought he had declared...

She looked at the green-haired boy. He was staring at his hands as if they were butchered and mangled. His eyes were distressed.

It was instinct, out of a need to save my life, he told himself. But even so ... I can't believe I really resorted to using it again. Dammit.

Then he remembered his situation and looked up at the snake. Its head was no longer white and scaly but brown and cracked like a well-cooked game with its tissues and tendons heavily exposed. There was no light in its crimson eyes. It was dead.

Itsuki breathed a sigh of relief and went back to his friends.

"You were completely showing off near the end there, weren't you?" Genzo goaded him.

"No, I wasn't," Itsuki answered.

"Uh-huh," Genzo nodded. "I will break you one of these days."

Itsuki ignored him. "Take care not to go down there. The ground would be boiling hot."

"Yeah, I'd imagine so," Ena acknowledged. "You really did kill it. Are you.. feeling okay, after having used, you know..."

Itsuki was about to answer but Genzo interrupted by putting an arm around him. "Of course he's feeling okay! He's probably feeling on top of the world right now!! 'Oh, look at me, the great Itsuki Miura! I just killed a giant, man-eating snake, there's no one on my level right now!!'"

"That sounds more like you," Itsuki deadpanned.

"Alright, so now that you're done playing hero, can we head to the tower now?"

"That's what I said, didn't I?"

"You know, you sound like a know-it-all when ya say it like that..."

As the two boys went on their way, bickering, Ena smiled thoughtfully, being glad that it was finally smooth sailing now.

"Hm. That's an interesting kid. He reminds me of someone I know, but I can't quite put my finger on who."