empathy (rewritten 2019)

chapter thirteen

Keiko couldn't stop budging. The week before the Chunin Exams, she confiscated Sakura's kunai and sebon needles; anything that was sharp and tempting. Sakura cursed the older nin out (for the first time in a long time) and decided she would train on her own for the time being.

Keiko obliged--in fact, she didn't visit the training grounds at all until the Chunin Exams began. Sakura barely caught a glimpse of her during the written exam but once the second part began, she saw Keiko arriving to the Forest of Death tragically late.

The older nin was leaned against the fence, rubbing her sunken, dark eyes and fiddling with the hem of her jacket. They made eye contact when Anko called them together for a briefing and Keiko broke it quick, looking down at her shaking hands. Sakura could only stare in wonder and worry until Naruto pulled her away.

Then Anko pulled the gates open and the race began.

Keiko and her team pulled against the wind, their feet floating above tree logs and the three of them glazing past the leaves. They'd made a plan--run as fast as they could during the day before the hunting began at night. Nighttime was when the horrors began; the monsters crawled on open skin and the moon stared down at them with red, swirling eyes. To avoid losing themselves in the night, it would be best to get the furthest during the day.

That was their plan. But it fell to ruins on the very first day.

Around five hours in, Keiko spotted a tail on their end. Her teammate, Ren, asked if they should speed up, and she said no. With a simple substitution jutsu, Keiko's team landed behind their chasers and were now advancing on the unsuspecting team.

Three boys, all with a broad build. They paid no mind to Keiko once they finally noticed the trick; only, they sped up and began meandering off throughout the forest.

And that's when it happened--the three boys split up and Ren decided to go off on his own, too. Keiko and Tamariki called for him, but they decided to split up as well. When Keiko finished off her mark, she tracked Ren down, and found him under a dead tree.

It took Tamariki another hour to find Keiko, kneeling on the spilt blood of her dead teammate.

And sitting by the stream, washing her knees and fingertips free from the blood, she gazed upon the river at her rippling reflection.

Ren wasn't the only one she'd lost.