Gifted (A Konoha High Fan fic)

Chapter Forty Four - With The Zenith Birds

  "So . . . did you take a shower, Naruto?"

  They all sat by the cataract, canteens in hand as they stared at Naruto, who was dripping with saliva and looked sheepish. Sasuke wasn't kidding when he said Naruto was getting eaten.

  "Okay, that dog (Ai went pale) just swallowed be whole before I can attack it! Oh, that was just gross! All guts and - " he exclaimed.

  "Enough, enough!" Ai shierked.

  "You two stop fooling around," Sasuke hissed. "We've complete the first stage but I doubt we can get pass the rest easily. You do know that there are three levels of difficulty which ever school you go, right?"

  Ai furrowed her brow in confusion. "Huh?"

  Sasuke sighed. "Ai, you went to the Mami Rina school, the first and easiest school. Example, if Naruto went there for the second stage, it would be harder for him than you because it's the second stage. Get it? Everything you broke, killed, or whatever will repair and the whole thing will happen again, only harder according to the stage."

  "Wow . . . you're smart." Ai said. Naruto snorted and stuffed the rice cake into his mouth, his open scroll by his side.

  "I wonder what the other scrolls contain . . . " Ai said thoughtfully and nipped at her dumplings.

  "We'll have to see . . . " Sasuke said. Ai looked at him then noticed something on the side of his face.

  "Um, Sasuke?" she said. "You have a bit of blood over there?"

  Sasuke hovered over the water surface of the cataract and dipped his hands in to wash his face. When he opened his eyes, the water made out words into a sentence:

  Naruto Uzumaki, Haya Kotone High School

  Sasuke Uchiha, Mami Rina High School

  Ai Yokoshimana, Arata Cho High School

  The water wavered and the words disappared from view. Sasuke grabbed his belongings and turned to Ai and Naruto.

  "We need to get going. Naruto, you're going to Haya Kotone's. Ai, you're going to Arata Cho's."

  Ai nodded and downed her canteen, taking her scroll and putting her food back in. They seperated and Ai dug out the map the scroll provided.

  "Hmm, it's just behind Mami Rina High School . . . " she murmured and stuffed the map back in. "Well, second stage, here I come."

  And she walked. She past by the Mami Rina High School after seeing Sasuke battle Totsumen. When she reached Arata Cho's, she was welcomed by butterflies flying about.

  Their wings were huge and colored red with shades of purple and pink. She smiled and skipped through them, heedless of their power.

  Don't be heedless, champions, there will be danger in every school and their job is to purloin any of the scrolls you have.

  And with that flash of memory, her scroll was snatched out of her hand. She jumped in alarm and ran after the butterflies. How they carried the scroll, she'll never know.

  "HEY!" she cried as a butterfly flew above her. "Give it back!"

  She looked like a kid who got her lunch money stolen by a bully and was jumping for it but was too short.

  "AHA!" she cried when she jumped high enough to swipe back the scroll. There was a little black spot on it from where the butterfly landed and it waved its wings as if saying good-bye.