COTE x Naruto: New Beginnings

Chapter 20: The Results

There was something up with Ayanokouji. That's what Sakura thought as she told him and Horikita about her meeting the Class C student, who was apparently a guy named Ryuuen.

After Ayanokouji mentioned the hidden camera, Sakura knew that somehow, Ryuuen was connected. Most likely, he was Class C's leader, too.

Something sinister was at play if the leader of Class C insisted on having the photos of the other classes' key cards and the word of his classmates was not enough. After all, what else would Class C need a camera for except to take photos of the key cards? It also explained Ibuki's interest in Sakura and what she'd been up to during her time outside the camp.

What surprised her was when after Horikita left, Ayanokouji told her he wanted to talk to her about something else.

He didn't really say much. Actually, he only asked questions about her plan. Very particular questions, such as why she went with Hirata on the first day and not alone.

Ayanokouji only asked that, but from the way he asked, Sakura almost got the feeling that he knew all about her actual plan, she'd been especially startled by him telling her about the camera.

However, she'd shrugged it off.

Until now, when about an hour had passed since she'd eaten some strange mushrooms and felt like throwing up. Because all of a sudden, he appeared, startling her and making her stop clutching her stomach. She'd been expecting Hirata to come.

He looked at the last mushroom lying on the ground, then at her. "These mushrooms are poisonous," he told her slowly, but didn't sound alarmed at all.

'How the heck did you find me, hm? I'm more than twenty minutes away from the camp. Coincidence? I think not.'

"Hmm, oh no," she said weakly, a wry smile on her face.

She'd expected Hirata to come, but maybe, Ayanokouji would be an even better choice.

"You could get seriously hurt because of this, I must take you back to the cruise ship," Ayanokouji told her, walking towards her and kneeling until he was at her eye-level.

"Aww, I would really rather not cost my class 30 points, but you're probably right," Sakura muttered and then groaned, feeling bile rising up in her throat.

Ayanokouji said nothing and lifted her up effortlessly, carrying her towards the direction of the beach which was coincidentally not far away at all.

'I hope Hirata won't be too worried,' was Sakura's last thought before she blacked out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kakashi stood at the beach alongside all of the other first-years. Well, almost all. Of course, Arisu was missing, as was Class C and surprisingly, he couldn't spot Haruno either.

Then, there was a surprising addition. Surprising to everyone perhaps save for a few select students from Class A. There, standing where Class C should've been standing, was Ryuuen Kakeru, looking all too smug for someone whose class had 0 points. Not for long, however. Kakashi knew that he'd succeeded in his plan and had gotten the cards of not only Class B, but Class D too. It seemed like not even Haruno who'd avoided the camp the entire time had been safe from Ryuuen's machinations.

Currently, Ryuuen was mocking Class D.

Vaguely, Kakashi overheard Hirata responding. "We'll be fine anyway, I think. We have 242 points."

That was very surprising. Kakashi knew that Class D would have quite a lot of points after realizing Haruno's strategy, but he didn't think they'd have that many.