Get Lost

Chapter 12

It only took a few minutes for the screaming to start. It wasn't too far away. It stopped after a few minutes, but it shook Kazue.

Day one was spent running from anyone they saw. Sonomi was fully against this, but after they saw how easily Kiba, Shino, and Hinata's team dealt with their attackers, Rokuro made the decision for all of them. 

It took him saying that "most of the strongest teams would get to the tower in the first few days. After that, it would mostly be weaker teams" to finally convince Sonomi.

They ran across one of the two rivers pretty early on day two. They kept by it, slowly following it upstream. It was a good source of food and fresh water, making the surviving part of the test a lot easier. Every once in a while, they would have to escape into the forest to hide from a team. Eventually, they came in sight of the Tower.

"Alright," Rokuro said. "Well, that's where the tower is. We need to remember that."

"We won't have to if we never get the Heaven scroll 'cause we keep running," Sonomi grumbled.

"We shouldn't just take on any team. We're probably one of the weakest ones here. Kazue doesn't even have a clan jutsu she can use. When we finally do attack, I want it to be on our terms and I want to know for sure that we aren't going to die fighting them."

Most of day two passed before Rokuro finally decided they should follow a team. The team split up a lot, which meant Team 11 split up too. Kazue ended up following the oldest member of the enemy team. He was only in his 40s, but it seemed old to her.

Rokuro, Sonomi, and Kazue crouched on the branch of a large tree, overlooking the small camp of their targets.

"The leader has the scroll," Sonomi said. "It's a Heaven scroll."

"Kazue, neither of our targets used any ninjutsu. Did yours?"

She nodded. "Once, to get away from another team. It made it impossible for me to see his chakra at all, though I could still see him."

"Interesting. So nothing aggressive. We don't know what type of ninja we'll be facing down there."

"Then why these guys?" Sonomi demanded. She was the most tired out of them all and was getting grouchy. "This is the first team we haven't just run away from."

"For starters," they all have minimal amounts of chakra. Some of the guys in this test have some much it's amazing they don't have a constant aura of it. Plus, they've been running away from all teams, just like we have."

Sonomi grumbled. "I don't like this."

Rokuro ignored her. "We'll wait for them all to fall asleep, then sneak in and steal their scroll. I don't want to fight if we can help it. Especially when we don't know their ninjutsu."

"They'll post a watch," Kazue pointed out. 

"The watch fell asleep last night. They'll be even more tired tonight. As long as we aren't clumsy, we'll be fine."

The three of them waited as the sun slowly slid behind the trees. Kazue took the first watch. 

This forest was terrifying, especially at night. She had seen multiple centipedes bigger than she was, and the whole place was full of strange noises. It had been difficult to fall asleep the first night. Kaze sat on the edge of the branch, looking down. It was so dark that she couldn't see the ground unless the moonlight managed to filter through the leaves above.

She hated it here. Kazue would love to go home. Nowhere was safe in this forest. Everyone and everything wanted to kill her. They'd had a close call early with poisonous berries. Even the food was trying to kill them.