The Rinnegan

The Chunin Exams: Part 2

The training ground we were entering was called the 'forest of death'. It looked a bit creepy, but right there and then I had to set aside my fears and just try and get through the exam. They made us sign pieces of paper all about health and safety etc.. and the proctor started explaining that we had to get to the tower in the centre of the traiing ground in 5 days. That sounded easy. Then she explained that we had to obtain two scrolls called the heaven and earth scrolls, and to start off, we would be given one of the scrolls, but no-one else would know which one we had. That was ok. There was just one ninja in the group who sent chills down my spine, and he was really creepy. I decided that we were just going to have to stay away from him, because I did not want to have to fight him.

We were given our scroll, a heaven scroll, and were sent to different entrances and were told to start. It wasn't long before we met the really creepy guy who I did NOT want to fight, which is always just my luck.

"Hello, Mineko" said the ninja who had passed us without any team mates. Must have been a tactic i thought.

"How do you know my name?"

"Why wouldn't I know the girl with the Rinnegan. After all I did know your parents."

"My parents? How.."

"Mineko, leave it. Focus on getting the scroll." My team mate reminded me. He always has to barge into everything. It's like he didn't want me to know what he was telling me...

"Well your village is very secretive isn't it? Not telling you about any of your family. I doubt they've even told you about your brother, have they?" The ninja spoke with a smirk on his snake-like face.

"My...Brother? That...That's impossible...I don't have a brother...Do I?" I turned to look at my team mates, but they were ignoring me. They ran at the ninja and attacked, but he had dissappeared behind me. He whispered into my ear "If you want to know more, I'd ask them" He pointed at my puzzled team mates "If I were you. Nice meeting you Mineko."

"Mineko!" My team mates screamed as he chucked a kunai at the ninja, but he had already dissappeared. "My name is Orochimaru, by the way. You'll be seeing me around" his voice whispered all around us.

That kunai just scraped my ear, nearly hitting my face.

"Oh thanks for that! So now I have a bleeding ear, two lying comrades and maybe even a brother that I've never known about! Well this day just keeps getting worse and WORSE! I thought this was going to be easy, but NO, I get THIS thrown at me! That's just great, isn't it?" I clutched my ear and stared at them. My team mate, Haru, walked up to me, and started to heal my ear. "Mineko stop making a fuss, you'll get us noticed. I don't know anything about you, and I don't want to know either. I'm only helping you because I want to finish."

My other team mate ignored me, and kept a look out whilst Haru finished healing me.

As soon as he had finished, he looked me in the eye and said "You ready?"

I glared at him.

"Fine. Lets go."

By the time we had gathered the other scroll, we had been in the training ground for about two hours or so. We needed to get to the tower before we were ambushed by other cells, but we had spotted a fight infront of us, and had to stop so that we wouldn't be spotted. And with all the luck that I have, it had to be Gaara. Of course it did. From where we had stopped, I could see a different cell also watching the fight to the right of us, and I did NOT want to get into another fight. I had broken a few ribs, and it hurt like hell, so I couldn't have fought to save my life. Literally.

Once we had hidden ourselves in a better position, I saw something that chilled me to the bone. Gaara unmercifully killed an entire cell, and did not even need a scroll from them. He had such a dark aura coming from him, and it scared me. He started talking, or arguing with his team mates, when I felt myself fall from where we were in a tree near to the scene of the fight. In that moment, I truly felt like I was going to die. I couldn't breathe, and the agony I felt was unbearable, and I knew I had just put my team mates and I in such a precarious and dangerous position. I heard footsteps come towards me, and I thought that I was going to die. But instead I felt someone pick me up and lie me in the open space. At the time I thought that they wanted to kill me in front of their whole cell, but instead, I opened my eyes to find Gaara talking to my team mates.

Why didn't he kill me?

Why was he helping me?

Surely he should have killed us by now, seeing as we're opposition and an enemy to him. Shouldn't he have killed us?

I felt someone sit next to me, and I turned my head to find Haru beginning to heal my ribs and help me breathe better.

"Haru..." It really hurt to breathe, let alone talk.

"Mineko, don't speak." He looked at me with a smile as he saw one of the sand ninjas glancing over at us.

"Why... Why aren't.. We.. Dead?" I had to know what was really going on.

"Those freaky sand ninjas have already gotten both of the scrolls, and they've decided to help us. I think the fact that you've already met has helped us live Mineko. For once you going off has actually helped us."

"Where's.. Jirou?"

He looked up at the others " he's talking to the big one."

"Oh, him."

"Just because I'm helping you doesn't mean I like you. I'm only helping you because we need their help, and I need to finish this stupid exam."

He stopped healing me and stood up. I sat upright, and I could breathe a little better. My ribs were still agony though, and I groaned whilst I tried to stand up. I slipped, but Haru was holding me up. He dug his fingernails into me, reminding me that we weren't on friendly terms.We walked over to the others, and they began discussing what to do next. I couldn't concentrate. I had so many questions, and feelings, and ideas whirling round my head, and I needed them to be answered. The whole group was staring at me in silence when I had focused back to reality.

"Mineko, are you sure you're alright?" Jirou asked me putting on an act to seem like a caring team mate. Like they'd ever care about me.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I said giving a small fake smile. "What's our plan then?"

"We'll divide into two cells, and pretend that this meeting never happened." Temari said coolly. "Gaara, Kankuro, let's go." Just as they were about to leave, I caught Gaaras eye, and I saw nothing. No emotions were there, and it frightened me.

Once they'd left it was just Haru, Jirou and I, and I couldn't understand why they'd helped us in the first place. I knew that I was going to have to deal with the pain because I would just get beaten more if I lagged behind or got us into danger.

"Let's go." Jirou said, and we all started running. I had to keep running.