Kakanaru: The pain behind Naruto's mask

22

"Alright maggots. You have 5 days to get to the tower. You will get either a heaven scroll or an earth scroll. The scroll you need will be with another team. Do not open the scroll. Now sign these liability waivers to show that I'm not responsible for your death." Anko told us. I beckoned Sasuke and Sakura towards me. "I'm getting a strange feeling from one of the grass nin. I think we should finish this as quickly as possible. I train in here sometimes so there are Hiraishin markers all over the place. You two grab onto the strap of my bag while I teleport so we can get this done without running into a fight." Both of them nodded, which surprised me. "We've learned by now not to argue with you. Though it took pinky longer." Sasuke must have noticed my look of surprise. "Start, maggots!" I went from marker to marker. To me, everything looked like it was going in slow motion. I snatched an earth scroll from a group we passed who had music notes on their headbands. We stopped at the gate of the tower. It had the same number as the gate we entered. I looked back at the other two. Other than looking a little nauseated from the speed we were going, they seemed fine. We entered the tower. Once in the tower, we opened both scrolls. Sakura opened one and I opened another. Iruka Sensei came out. "Wh- how did you three get here? They only said start ten seconds ago!" Iruka Sensei shouted. "My fathers jutsu." I explained. Iruka stared for a minute. "Just choose a room. You'll be here 5 days as per requirements." Iruka Sensei said. "Can you tell Kakashi to come and find me? I've had a bad feeling about two of the competitors so far. And something shukaku said to me when I ran into the sand nin earlier isn't helping that feeling any." I said. Iruka nodded. "I'll send him up." I let out a sigh of relief. Then I raced to get to the best room first, which was on the fifth floor. I don't know where Sasuke and Sakura went and until the third round is underway I don't care. When Kakashi got to the room he gave me a kiss on the forehead. "So what's up?" He asked. "I heard from shukaku, the one tail, that the Kazekage isn't the same person he was, that someone else was using his body." I started. "That does sound disturbing." Kakashi stated. "That's not all. One of the grass nin seemed off in the second exam, and in the first exam a leaf nin named Kabuto smelled like snake." Kakashi seemed to freeze for a moment. "Are you sure it was snake?" Kakashi murmured. "Yeah, why?" "One of the Thirds old students who went rogue had a snake summoning contact." Kakashi told me. "That same sense that warned me of danger is telling me that Jiji is the one I should be most worried about at the moment. I don't know if I'll see them before things go bad so could you let my godparents know not to let Jiji out of their sight?" Kakashi nodded. "I'll let them know. In a minute." He said just before kissing me. I pulled him closer into a hug. I really didn't want him to go, but I knew that he had places to be. "After this mess is sorted out you better be prepared for a bloodbath. Both Tsunade and I will kill you if you're late to the wedding." I warned him.