Escape [Sasuke Uchiha]

Chapter 20: The True Purpose

[The next day...]

Ayuda's P.O.V

Today was the day – the finishing date of the second exam of the Chuunin Exam.

I took a glance at the person who sat beside me. It was Sasuke Uchiha who had his right hand clasping his left shoulder where the black mark resided. Although he tried to act cool and natural, I could see from his eyes that he was in slight pain. He would grit his teeth in agony from time to time. The hand that covered his black mark was shaking as well. It was crystal clear that the black mark had begun to inflict pain on him in the inside.

I spoke up with my eyebrows furrowed in concern, "Sasuke, are you alright?"

He glanced at me with the same pain in his eyes. He replied with a gravelly voice, "I'm fine."

His answer did not convince me.

It was five minutes ago when Kabuto Yakushi and his team entered the tower and gathered with us, and then three minutes later, Naruto and his team walked into the room. Everyone (what I mean everyone was Kiba's team, Ino's team, and my team) was delighted to see them and greeted them when they took five steps into the room. I immediately became conscious of the fact that all the twelve rookies had made it to the tower.

Sasuke's lips curled into a smirk when he noticed me in the room. I bet he was pleased to know that I passed the second exam too. I returned his smirk with the same message. But my smirk dropped right away when he grimaced and threw his right hand to the black mark on his shoulder, clutching that very skin as if trying to get rid of the sudden pain.

Right now, we were waiting for the third exam to start. We were told to wait in this dull room which only had nothing but tables and chairs with windows that showed us the view of the Forest of Death.

Naruto walked up to Kaito and Kiba and he crowed enthusiastically that they had passed the second exam together. Kiba then told him that the third exam would be much tougher and there was a high chance of Naruto failing it, and this had clearly made Naruto upset. The ball of sunshine started an argument with Kiba who bickered back. Kaito tried his best to stop these two before things got worst.

Sakura headed straight to Ino, boasting that she made it to the third exam as well. Ino began to insult the pinkette about her big forehead, and then Sakura retaliated by deriding her "Ino-pig" name. With that said, the two of them began bickering like always.

Geez, these two... I respired loudly, catching a certain ravenette's attention who had ensconced himself in the chair next to me. We were sitting down on a table which only fit four people. The other teams took other tables and minded their own businesses. That's when Sasuke grunted in pain and his hand flew to the black mark on his shoulder once again.

"Sasuke..." I fretted, "...you should consider whether you want to continue taking this exam or not. That mark gives you pain ever since you got it."

I could see from his expression that he tried to ignore the pain as he said in response, "I'll be fine, Ayuda. This is not a big deal at all."

He withdrew his hand off of his shoulder and the pained look on his face was replaced into one of his impassive looks. He tried to pretend that everything was good. Idiot. I can see clearly that you are hiding the pain. Why is he so stubborn?

Four minutes later, a chuunin entered the room and announced that the third exam would start soon. He then commanded us to follow him. We did as we were told without a single complaint.

A minute later, we were brought into a large room where there were two balconies facing one another across the room. Another thing that I easily noticed in the room was the gigantic sculpture of two hands forming a hand sign known as 'ram'. I could see the many figures that stood in front of the said sculpture. They were the teachers, some chuunins, Anko Mitarashi, Iruka, and also the Third Hokage. I could see Shiori standing in between Guy (Rock Lee's teacher) and a beautiful black-haired lady (Hinata's teacher).