Wish Upon the Night Sky (Naruto Fanfic)

Chapter 32

Usagi thirty two


>>>>CHAPTER 32<<<<

>>>>Because We’re Teammates<<<<

Three days had passed since the beginning of the second exam.

With Sasuke almost fully healed, he thought that challenging Usagi would be a good idea. He had considered his new power, and wanted to, well... To test it. Usagi, being the strongest in team seven, was the perfect person to challenge.

"Usagi.” He stood up, staring at the redhead. “Fight me."

After staring at him blankly, Usagi pulled out her notebook. [Are you serious?]

"Yes. Now, fight me." He pulled out a kunai.

[What about Naruto and Sakura?] At the moment, they were off hunting for food... And that's what Usagi and Sasuke were supposed to be doing, too. It was a struggle to get Sakura to leave ‘her Sasuke’ alone, and now Sasuke wanted to waste his time fighting?! Usagi was shocked. She thought Sasuke was smarter than that.

"They won't be back for a while." He threw his kunai at Usagi, aiming for her stomach, but she dodged the attack easily.

[This is really stupid!] She wrote. The words were bold and spread across the full page, though written sloppily and in a rush.

"I don't care." Sasuke said.

Usagi shook her head, signalling that she refused to fight.

Sasuke threw a cloud of shuriken at her, which she dodged effortlessly.

"I'm serious, Usagi! Let's fight!" He shouted, moving to punch her.

She caught his fist in her small hand as it was an inch from impact. [Don't do this.] She wrote with one hand, her other holding his fist still.

"I need to know... How strong are you?"

[Sasuke, please do-] Usagi’s hand was knocked, her pen dragging across the page before leaving her grip.

"Speak!" He shouted, the black marks spread across his skin, changing his chakra to that dark chakra he had when the sound nin attacked.

Usagi stepped back, slightly scared of this Sasuke. This was not the Sasuke she knew. The rage in his eyes, the dangerous tone to his voice… He was different.

"Who's weak now?" He asked, taking hold of her wrist.

Usagi’s eyes widened as a large snap was heard through the forest. Her wrist went completely numb as it fell to her side. As if it were a twig, her wrist had just snapped.

"Fight me!" He shouted, throwing another punch.

With her good arm, Usagi dodged and threw her own punch, hitting Sasuke’s stomach.

After a few punches were exchanged, Usagi grew sick of such an immature battle. She activated her Deva Path jutsu and with the wave of her arm threw him against a nearby tree.

... But it did nothing. The dark chakra completely enveloped Sasuke’s body as he stood up, almost unaffected by Usagi’s jutsu.

'What... That power...' Usagi froze in her spot. Not even Naruto's second chakra was this dark... And he had a tailed beast sealed inside of him!!

"You're not even trying!" Sasuke shouted, sending a punch straight to Usagi’s stomach.

The impact sent her straight to the floor. Where was this power coming from?! Was it the curse mark?!

"Sasuke! Usagi!" Two voices shouted. "Where did you go?!"

The marks disappeared from Sasuke’s skin as he calmed down. "Usagi..." He realized just what he'd done. He had gotten so caught up in the moment… He hadn’t really thought of the consequences fighting Usagi might bring.

Usagi stood up, picking up her notebook with her good arm. As if the giant infected cut wasn't enough... Now the bottom half of her arm had to be broken too! Her entire arm was completely useless now.

"There you are! We found some fruit and berries!" Sakura said, placing down the food she held.

"Haha! We sure did!" Naruto laughed, holding a small red berry.

Usagi’s eyes widened as he brought the berry to his mouth. Quickly, she knocked it out of his hand.

"What are you doing?!" Naruto asked.

[That's poison!] Usagi scribbled down. That was the exact same berry she had eaten when she was three. Almost ten years down the line, she was still suffering from its effects. That's right. That small red berry was the little monster who had stunted her growth.

"... Oh." He then went on to separate the berries form the rest of the fruit, and Usagi helped, not wanting anyone else to suffer from severe shortness like she does.

Noticing that Usagi wasn't moving her injured arm, Sakura spoke up. "Does your arm hurt again?"

[I fell over before, and did something to my wrist.] Usagi lied, hoping to get it wrapped before the hand shaped bruise started to form on the skin of her throbbing wrist. She didn't want anyone to know what happened, for Sasuke’s sake.

"Let me have a look." Sakura rolled up her sleeve, inspecting her bright red wrist. "Can you move it?"

[Barely.]

Sakura then touched her wrist lightly which sent a pang of pain all down Usagi’s arm. Already the skin was starting to swell and grow inflamed.

Noticing the bad reaction, Sakura came to her conclusion. "I think you broke it... We have a few bandages left, so I'll wrap it for you."

As Usagi got her wrist bandaged, Sasuke couldn't help but feel guilty, and also slightly confused. 'Why did she lie...?'

Sasuke, you stupid duck butt emo. Usagi is your friend.

But the young emo couldn't see that. He's to obsessed with his revenge to realize that people actually care about him. Stupid.

--Fourth day of the exam--

"How’s your arm doing?" Sakura asked Usagi. The two were setting up for a fire while the boys were catching some fish.

[It's as well as a broken arm can be.] Sakura gave her a sympathetic look. Of everyone's injuries, Usagi’s had been the worst as they were not injuries that would heal overnight. They needed time and proper care to heal. Two things they didn’t have.

After the two had collected enough wood, Sakura turned to Usagi. "Can you light the fire?"

A fireball jutsu later, a big fire was burning and four fish were cooking over it.

"The second exam started four days ago... Right?" Sasuke asked.

"Yeah..." Sakura answered.

"And it began at around 2:30pm... So it will be over in less than twenty-six hours." Sasuke calculated.

"A lot of teams will be finished by now, which means..." Sakura sighed, resting a hand against her face. "I'm worried that there won't be any heaven scrolls left."

"What do you mean?" Sasuke questioned.

Sakura explained her reasoning for thinking so. "Well, the second exam only lasts for five days... And four days have already passed. That's eighty percent of the test time. There are 26 teams competing, and only 13 of each scroll... Since you need both scrolls to pass, a maximum of 13 teams will pass, but that was before that Orochimaru guy burned our heaven scroll.... That means only 12 teams can pass now.

“We also have no way of knowing if the other 25 scrolls have survived. As soon as one scroll is destroyed, another automatically becomes useless. We split up from the rest of the teams from Konoha, and spent a lot of time resting and letting our wounds heal... We'll have to widen our search, to make up for lost time."

"The next enemy we meet... Could be our last chance." Sasuke said.

The fish was then eaten in silence.

... Until Sasuke stood up. "I'm going to get some water."

A he left to get his water, Naruto grabbed the earth scroll, saying that there was another way to get a heaven scroll, without any fighting.

"How?" Sakura asked. When Naruto emptied a bag of full of scrolls to the ground, Sakura gasped. "No way!"

"Yes way." Naruto smiled evilly. Well, as evilly as he can... He just ended up looking goofy. "If its scrolls they want, I got a million of them. With the right decoration, we can pass these for a heaven scroll in no time!"

"W-Wait just a minute!" Sakura freaked out. "Even if you can make the outside look the same, we have no idea what's on the inside! Or what's written in them! It’s against the rules to open the scroll, right, Usagi?!"

... Usagi was out of it. 'The clouds look so pretty...' She started up at the sky in a daze. Once she was out, there was no bringing her back.

"... Well..." Naruto ignored Usagi, as did Sakura. "The scrolls probably have some kind of weird password in them that doesn't make sense until you have both scrolls... So yeah! You probably need that password to get into the tower at the end of the exam! I bet that's it!"

"So what?! We never saw the inside of the heaven scroll in the first place! There's no telling what it said! It's no use even trying to make a fake!!"

"But what if... We use the earth scroll to figure out what the other one say?"

"No..."

"It holds the secret... I'm gonna open it!"

"No!" Sakura whacked Naruto over the head. "It's against the rules! Isn't it, Usagi!"

... No response. The two then went back to ignoring the redhead’s existence.

"But, we don't have many other choices!" Naruto said.

... That's actually true. He said something smart.

As Naruto fumbled with the scroll, Kabuto appeared.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." He stopped Naruto from opening it. "Don't you remember the rules?"

An approaching Sasuke thought Kabuto was an enemy, but after some explanations, the situation was made clear.

"You're hopeless." Sasuke sighed.

"Sorry." Naruto and Sakura bowed their heads in shame.

"What was Usagi doing?" Sasuke asked. "... Where is she?"

After looking around, they noticed she was gone.

"Usagi! Where are you?!"

After a minute, Usagi emerged from a nearby bush. [I sensed someone over there, but I couldn't find anyone. False alarm?]

"Don't run off without warning!" Sakura scolded.

"... Anyway." Kabuto then went on with his explanations. "Those who disobey the rules will be forced to withdraw from the exam. Last time I took the exam, anyone who peeked at the scroll was hit with a hypnosis. They lay unconscious until the exam was over."

"... You're names Kabuto, right?" Sasuke inquired. "What are you doing wandering around by yourself?"

"Well... I wasn't after your scroll if that's what you’re implying."

"Probably not... You could have stolen it from Naruto just then, but you're still after the heaven scroll, aren't you?"

"Nope. I've already got a set." Kabuto showed off both scrolls. "But I got separated from my team. I'm on my way to join up with them at the tower. So, I'll see you around."

"Wait!" Sasuke called out as he walked away. "Fight me."

"... Fight you?" Kabuto questioned.

Usagi was beginning to think Sasuke had a fighting complex. He needed to challenge everyone to keep on living. Yep. That's it.

"Are you joking?" Kabuto questioned.

"I wish I were... But our time is almost up."

After Kabuto completely owned Sasuke in the art of conversation and human behaviour, he agreed to show team seven the way they needed to go.

So, after what seemed like an eternity of running in circles, while trying to get to the tower they realized they were stuck in a genjutsu.

"We fell straight into their trap." Kabuto sighed. "We've been running in circles this whole time... Whoever cast the jutsu is probably waiting for us to wear ourselves out so they can move in and take us out!"

As if on cue, enemy ninja crowded the five.

"Here they come."

As Naruto moved to punch one of the many clones, his hand went straight through, and the clone reformed its body.

It was a genjutsu... But then, Kabuto received a cut while pushing Sasuke to the ground.

Not only was Sasuke’s curse mark acting up, but our little ninja weren't sure what they were dealing with.

"Are they shadow clones or genjutsu?" Naruto yelled.

"They're just genjutsu!" Sasuke said, looking at them with his sharingan.

"B-But..." Sakura stuttered. "Kabuto’s wound is real!"

"No..." Kabuto said. "Sasuke’s right. The person who cast the genjutsu is watching from nearby and syncing his own real attacks with what we’re seeing!"

After what seemed like an eternity of fighting illusions, the real enemy decided to show up when the five were completely worn out.

... But then Naruto reversed their positions completely. "Now who's trapped?" Sasuke smirked from behind the enemy.

"What?! No way!" The enemy stuttered, completely surrounded.

As Sasuke was going to take out the enemy, Naruto moved in. "No way! I won't let you have all the fun!"

'His chakra... It's almost endless.' Usagi gawked, realizing just how much chakra the blonde had. Combined with his second chakra, the amount he had was monstrous.

Anyway, the five then went on to defeat the three enemy ninja.

And they got a heaven scroll! Yay!

So, as our heroes continued on their journey, they made it to the one and only tower.

"This is door we enter through." Kabuto said. He had found his teammates upon arriving. "Good luck everyone!"

---- ---- ---- ----

"... There's no one here..." Naruto sweatdropped upon entering the building.

[What happens now?]

"... Look at that!" Sakura pointed to a big board with a message inscribed.

After reading it, the genin decided to open up the scrolls.

And... Open!

In the centre of the scroll, the character for person was written.

"Drop the scrolls now!" Sasuke yelled.

Soon, the scrolls were on the floor, and a person emerged from them.

"Hey. It's been a while." A familiar voice spoke up. The young ninja looked up to see a familiar face smiling down at them.

"Iruka-Sensei?!" Naruto yelled. "What are you doing popping out of a summoning scroll?!"

"A chunin always greets the applicants at the end of the second exam... It was just good luck that I got to greet you four...." He then checked a small clock. "You guys barely made it... Congratulations, you've all passed the second exam! I wish I could take you all out for ramen at Ichiraku’s, but-"

"YESSSS!!!!!" Naruto hugged Iruka.

Their former Sensei was a little flustered by the sudden display of affection. "Hey, Naruto! Let me finish..."

"Haha! Yes! Yes! We did it!" Naruto then proceeded to jump around the room.

"He just keeps going and going." Sasuke sighed as he collapsed to the floor. Sakura and Usagi soon followed, resting themselves down on the cool flooring, watching on as Naruto bounced off the walls.

"You haven't slowed down a bit... Eh, Naruto?" Iruka sweatdropped.

Watching Naruto run around made Usagi dizzy. Well, at least that's what she told herself. In truth, she was just nauseous from her infected wound. Either way, she lay down on the floor, and stared up at the ceiling.

As Iruka went on to explain a wide variety of things, Usagi grew lightheaded, and a huge feeling of coldness swept over her.

'Get up, Usagi. A little temperature is nothing you can't deal with.' Usagi gave herself a small pep talk as she stood up. ‘You’re a ninja now, not a kid.’

After ignoring every word that Iruka spoke, it was time to start the third part of the exam.

Bring it, chunin exams!

_______________________________________________________________________________________

AN/ Finally, the forest of death is over! Sasuke is an ass, a selfish duck ass. But then again, Usagi’s not very nice either. Clashing personalities is what they have. Puts some serious strain on team seven.

The storyline is finally beginning to advance now. Before you know it it’ll be shippuden. I’m currently writing chapter 52, which is in shippuden times. I really like writing Usagi’s character from a more mature point, even though a lot of the more comedic elements died down.

 

Thanks for reading as always,



-C