-Akira's Theme- Yeah, I'm rewriting the chunin exam thing from the ending of last chapter, hehe :p
Back to arriving at the Chunin exams building
Akira walked up the stairs slowly with her hands in her pockets. Since she had never went to the academy in the village she didn't know any of the other genin besides her own team and those sand ninja. Her mind wandered to Kankuro, she blushed and gripped at her head "Goddamn that idiot! Infiltrating my mind like that! No, I can't like him he's an asshole prick!" she yelled causing some people to turn and look at her. She made a distressed sound as she made her way over to her awaiting team. Sakura smiled and waved as did Naruto, Sasuke was indifferent "Hey Akira, you ready to get this party started?!" asked Naruto excitedly as he jumped up and down with pure energy whilst Sakura placed her hands on her hips "Yeah Akira, are you ready for this? I know I am," Sakura started confidently "Now cut it out Naruto, let's go."
Akira rolled her eye's with a small smile and intertwined her fingers behind her neck, effectively locking her arms behind her head. She followed behind her team silently with an indifferent look, mostly looking at Sasuke's head. It amused her greatly since it looked like a ducks ass, but the cut did fit the boy nicely. Akira turned her head to look out the windows that the four of them past by as they ascended the stairs, lost in thought.
Her mind had wandered back to the puppeteer that she had breakfast with. They had ended up staying there for a few hours talking, and she had easily forgotten what he had tried to do to Konohomaru. She was so stupid. Kankuro made it extremely hard to be hostile to, his personality and the way he acted around her was a full one-eighty of what she had saw the day before. It confused her, she knew she shouldn't assume anything about him because she still barely knew him he just left a bad impression. She sighed and closed her eyes, it was just to much work to keep a grudge.
She looked up in surprise once she saw her team stop from the corner of her eye, she glanced confusedly at them before flickering her eye over to where a group of genin were standing. She narrowed her eyes at the two guys in front of the door, and growled silently once she saw the sign above "Genjustu," she whispered and silently crept back down the stairs catching the eye of Sasuke. She nodded at him a silent understanding going between them as she continued to walk.
She placed her hands in her pockets an indifferent look overcoming her features as she stopped to gaze out a window. She didn't know why that agitated her like it had, but it had struck a certain nerve in her. She turned around and slightly jogged back up the stairs, once she was at the top she sighed before using a chakra burst to propel herself forward. She caught the guy creating the genjutsu's leg right before the boy in the spandex and bowl haircut could. Everyone looked at her in surprise "Do not touch my teammate, also do you know how much energy it takes to stop idiots like you?" She released his leg and put enough force into it to throw his leg to the ground, cracking the floor slightly. She gave him a death glare "Release the genjutsu, we don't have much time anyway," She sighed out and turned to Sasuke with a smile "Come on guys, let's go I'm excited for this!" She hummed out and started to walk away. "Hey! You!" Akira stopped and turned around and hummed in reply.
"Who are you?" a boy with long brown hair and pupiless eyes asked towards both Sasuke and herself. Akira looked at him for a few seconds and opened her mouth to say something but Sasuke beat her to it. She let out a sigh and tuned them out, she didn't care. She wasn't anything special, she was a genin and that's all she was.
She walked forward and waved her arm for her team to follow. Naruto suddenly perked up from his stupor, whatever the reason it was about and quickly followed after her. Sakura looked at her from Lee who had just asked her out, which she had declined, and quickly followed after. Sasuke, after a few minutes followed suite and went after his teammates. It left the rest confused, they had never seen or met that girl before and she was apart of team 7?
Naruto quickened his pace to walk next to the blue haired girl "Hey Akira," he started to ask which made her turn to look at him "Yeah? What is it Naruto?" she asked and he gulped "What was the reason for you to look so scary back there? There was no reason for it, you know." He stated quietly and Akira's expression hardened for a quick second before she looked at him with a soft and kind smile "Don't worry about it, I just don't like it when people mess with my family." She said softly.
She bounded forward up the next flight of stairs and was met by Kakashi at the end of the hallway. She walked up to him and the rest of her team followed in pursuit. Kakashi gave her a weird look and shook his head, he then explained that he was glad that they had made it so far and that he would see them at the end of the third exam. They nodded in understanding as the grey-haired shinobi disappeared in a flurry of leaves. They all took a deep breath as Naruto walked in front of Akira and opened the doors, they all were immediately met with turned heads, sneers, and glares. Akira raised an eyebrow at the genin within the room. There appeared to be around a hundred or so within the room of all sizes and ages. She looked back over to her team when she heard voices she never heard before. She made a face and quietly slipped away from them, the pupiless boy from before tried to get her attention but she just walked faster. She didn't feel it necessary to converse with them since it wouldn't be of importance. They weren't apart of her team, and they seemed to be patronizing each other anyway.
She sighed and leaned against the wall a few feet away from them, she started to look around again, scanning every face, nook and cranny. She stopped once she saw a familiar pony tail of black and blue hair jump back a bit in surprise, her face was red. Akira started to chuckle before she was abruptly stopped by the proctor. "Would all of you please shut up?!" The man yelled which quieted everyone down in a few moments. The proctor introduced himself then he explained a few rules before stating that everyone would have to take a random number to place your seating chart. Akira pushed herself off the wall and went to grab her number, she was pushed out of the way by someone who took the number she was going to take. She deadpanned with a sigh and grabbed the next one. She scanned the rows for the seat that matched her number before walking to the seat and sitting down.
She had sat down by her sister, Akita. She silently regarded her as the girl turned to her with a guilty expression "I'm sorry about yesterday. I don't know what came over me. I swear I'm not usually like that. Please forgive me," Akita said, lowering her head slightly. Akira widened her eye's slightly before humming,
"I don't care how sorry you are. What you said was totally unacceptable. If you ever speak to me like that again, I will not hesitate to knock you out," She replied back in a threatening tone. A look of slight fear flashed across Akita's face before she calmly responded, "Do you want to, ya know, start over? Maybe?" She closed her eyes, as if she was expecting a negative response. Akira sighed and rubbed her temples with her index and middle fingers and mumbled, "It's alright. I forgive you, it's to hard and tiresome to keep a grudge over a simple outburst," She moved her hands behind her head and closed her eyes.
Akita cleared her throat and calmly stated with a small smile on her face "Hello. I'm Akita supposedly your twin sister. My favorite color is red, I love spaghetti, and I have wind and fire nature chakra."
Akira looked at her sister a little taken aback, she wasn't expecting that small amount of extra information, just the name she was expecting. Akita looked at her sister for a few moments before looking down at her lap, the tips of her ears slowly turning red. Akira let a breathy chuckle, and her sister looked back up to her. Akira gave her a toothy grin. She leaned her chair back and slipped her arms behind her head.
"My name is Akira, obviously you're twin sister. My favorite color is purple, I love any kind of food as long as it's edible, and I have Wind and Water nature chakra." She explained, mimicking her sisters way of the introduction. A look of wonderment and awe flashed across her sisters face and she opened her mouth to start a sentence and got a few words out before Ibiki interrupted her yelling "If you two are done chatting, we can start the exam," Akira looked over to him with a pretty neutral look as her sister looked over with wide eyes, obviously embarrassed by the escapade. Akira glanced at the girl from the corner of her eye, she, like Kankuro, were showing entirely different personality traits around her. She sighed and looked back up to the proctor to listen to what he was saying. "Now keep all your papers face down until I tell you to. So now listen up. There's a few rules you all have to follow I'm going to write all the rules on the black board and explain them all. I will not be taking any questions, so listen carefully,"
He explained that everyone started off with exactly ten points, and with every question you get wrong a point would be deducted. Akira was intrigued once she heard that, she hummed in understanding as he continued to explain that the test was and still is a team event. If someone got a zero on the test the entire team would fail. Akira's ear twitched and she looked over to see Akita with a worried expression and bouncing her leg. She gave her sister a pitied look and quickly looked back over to Ibiki once he explained that if you cheat you get two points deducted from your score. Akira raised her eyebrows at that, usually when you cheat you fail immediately. She smelt bullshit here. If you cheat five times you're out of the game. Akira sighed and picked up her pencil, starting to fiddle with it. "You have one hour. Starting... Now!" Ibiki yelled. Everyone turned their papers over and she heard many groans resonate within the room. She wrote her name on the top of the page quickly and scanned over the test. She widened her eye which quickly narrowed. These weren't questions made for genin. A thought flashed through her mind as she quickly looked around the room. 16 proctors to make sure you don't cheat, all eagle eyed and obviously skilled in the field of vision. Akira let out a scoff. You were supposed to cheat.
She shook her head and smirked before reading over the questions. She answered all of them with little to no effort, as having trained her entire life with a Mizukage and a member of the 7 hidden swordsmen of the mist she had to know this stuff. Once she was finished she looked over at her sister and mentally face palmed, she seemed to be having a lot of difficulty. Akira scanned the room to see her teammates, Naruto seemed to be in the same state as Akita, Sasuke and Sakura seemed to either be successfully cheating or they just know what they are doing. Akira suddenly went perfectly still as a kunai raced past her face and landed in the desk of a person a few chairs behind her.
"Wh-what was that for?!" The leaf genin yelled.
"Five strikes, and you're out," The examiner said coolly. He kicked his and his teammates out of the room and went back to his seat. After a few minutes more an more genin were kicked out.
Akira let out a sigh and leaned her chair back so that it was standing on only two legs, she pressed her legs against the table to keep from falling over and fell asleep after zoning out and ignoring the sound of chaos around her.
After about fifteen minutes Akira woke back up, feeling a bit better than she did before. She turned over to look at her sisters paper only to see it blank. She saw her sister face palm and groan, which caused her to start to chuckle with a big goofy smile forming across her features. Akita looked up and over to her with a weird expression "What are you laughing about ?" She quietly whispered to her sister.
"Oh, nothing really it's just that you don't have a single problem done and there's only, er, twenty minutes left," Akira replied with a snicker.
"What? You're already done?" Akita whispered back, in a rude tone.
"Hmm? Oh yeah, I've been done. Just woke up from a mini nap actually," she said nonchalantly. She saw her sisters eye twitch in annoyance and it caused her to let out a breathy snort and turn back to Ibiki. She looked up in surprise when Kankuro stood up and said he needed to take a leak. Akira looked over at him and covered her mouth, she couldn't hold back the laughter that was bubbling up her throat. The best she could do was resort to chuckles. She didn't see her sister's expression as she was watching Kankuro, when he walked past he gave her a wink which caused her to blush slightly and chuckle some more. From the corner of her eye she saw him glare behind her, presumably at Akita. She wondered what happened between them.
"Get ready for the tenth question!" Ibiki yelled a few minutes later.
"Before I give you lot the final question, I'm going to add one more rule," he yelled out.
Suddenly Kankuro walked back into the room and Ibiki said, "Heh, looks like you're in luck. The time you've spent playing with dolls hasn't been totally wasted," Akira raised her eyebrow slightly at that remark.
"Don't worry about it, take a seat. Let me explain, the rules are absolute. First, you'll choose whether to take or reject the tenth question-" Ibiki was in mid sentence when Temari interrupted him.
"Ch-choose? What happens when someone rejects the question?"
"If you reject the question, you'll loose all your points immediately and fail. With both your teammates will fail right along with you,"
Someone from the back yelled, "Then why would we reject it?"
"Because if you fail the tenth question, you will never be able to retake the chunin exam, and you'll stay a genin for the rest of your life," Akira listened to the proctor with interest, his words not bothering her in the slightest but did perk her curiosity.
Kiba slammed his hands down on his desk and yelled out, "You can't be serious. That's ridiculous! There are ninja here who've sat for the chunin exams more than once already! We know they are!"
Ibiki started chuckling, and started saying, "Just your rotten luck. I wasn't making the rules last year! I am now, though. Anyone who has doubts would be smart to reject this question. Come back next year, and the year after that. Those who choose not to take the tenth question should raise their hands. Your team's numbers will be recorded, and you could leave," There was a pause where everything and everyone was quiet for several minutes before kids started to get up and leave not wanting to risk the future.
Akira glanced over at Naruto as he started to raise his hand, come on Naruto don't give up, that'd go against your nindo. Naruto took a deep breath then slammed his hand down on his desk and yelled, "Never underestimate me! I don't quit and I won't run! I'll accept your stupid question! Even if I risk ending up a rookie for the rest of my life... I'll still become Hokage, even if I can only make it by pure stubbornness. I don't care! I'm not afraid of you!" Akira smiled softly at her teammate.
Ibiki started to talk again, "I'll ask you one last time. This is a decision that could affect the rest of your life. Quit now, while you still have the chance,"
Naruto yelled back, "I never go back on my word. That's... My ninja way!" Everything went silent, no one moving a muscle.
"Good call. So, everyone who is still here... You've just passed the first exam,"
Akita jumped up and yelled with the biggest smile Akira had ever seen, "We did it!" She pulled her up out of her seat and hugged her, "We did it, Akira! We passed!" Tears of happiness was starting to fill her sisters eyes, a look of relief feeling her face.
"Uh? Yeah, Yeah, we did...yay?" Akira said questionably, and awkwardly patted her back.
"Heh, heh. All eighty-two of you who are still here just passed the first exam," Ibiki said rather nicely. Sakura exclaimed, "What do you mean 'passed'? When did that happen? What about the tenth question?!" Akira rolled her eye's at the pinkettes' question, couldn't she just relish the fact that she passed?
"There is no tenth question... Beyond the whole accept or reject thing,"
Then Temari yells, " Hey! Why did we have to suffer through the other nine questions?! That was a total waste of our time!"
"There was no waste. Those questions had a purpose, which they've already served. Our goal was to test your skills at spying. Remember the rules at the beginning? You pass or fail as part of a three-man group. With that rule, I pressured you with the fear that anything you did wrong... Would bring your teammates down with you. However... The questions are beyond genin level. So, most of you.. Having reached that same conclusion... Had only one way of retaining your points- by cheating. In other words... We set up the test on the assumption you'd cheat. And, to ensure there would be suitable targets for you to cheat from, we snuck in a pair of ringers... Two chunin who already knew all the answers... Of course anyone who cheated in a clumsy or obvious fashion, failed," He took off his headband to show us his damaged and scared head.
"Because there may be circumstances where being caught in an act of espionage can cost you more than just your life. You pay in ways that can be taken from you little by little, time and time again, when many lives hang in the balance. The information you obtain can't be trusted if you can't keep your presence secret from the enemy. Learn that and learn it well, if you bring back intelligence from a suspect source or a compromised operation, you're doing your enemies' work for them, putting those you serve in danger. That's why we maneuvered you into using you espionage skills to cheat. It was the quickest way of weeding out the students whose skills aren't yet up to snuff,"
Ibiki went to tie his headband back around his head when Temari spoke up, "Okay... But what was the deal with the tenth question?"
"Ah! The tenth question was the first real test on the exam. Let me explain," Akira had fallen back asleep after Temari had asked why they had to suffer through the nine questions, Akita, not wanting to listen joined her sister in her nap-fest.
Akira opened her eye and all she saw was darkness. She heard crying, a wailing that would come from a child or more likely an infant. Akira narrowed her eyes and looked around until she decided to follow the sound of the crying. The darkness melted away around her unveiling a forest like scenery. The crying was louder than before, so she followed the sound of it yet again. It led her into a clearing that was rather small, there were two babies with a man hovering over them who seemed to be crying and a woman off to the side, dead. She walked closer and listened to the man as he cried "Akita. Akira. I'm sorry, please forgive me not as Mizukage but as your f-father." he choked out that one sentence which caused Akira to gasp and widen her eyes. The man- Her father did hand signs, at a speed she could not fathom. He then placed his hands on the infants stomachs just as a giant clawed talon came crashing down, her father was crushed just as he finished the jutsu. Siddun disappeared in a mass of swirling smoke and two sealing marks appeared upon them. A large one over Akita's heart and a small one appearing just behind Akira's left ear. Her hand immediately went to that area and placed her hand above it. Tears welled up into her eye's "F-father, no," she sobbed out "F-f-father, f-father, no p-please no!" she screamed out and grasped her head, she started to hyperventilate but after a few minutes she calmed down just as she was shaken awake, the sound of a familiar voice echoing around her.
"Hey sweetheart, wake up will ya?" Kankuro asked a bit worriedly as he bent down and started shaking her shoulder. She opened her eye and took a deep breath as she leaned her chair back into it's intended position. She looked up to Kankuro who was looking at her with an emotion she couldn't place, he moved his hand forward and wipe her tears away "Tears don't suit you darling, why were you crying in your sleep?" He asked her and rubbed her eyes as he removed his hands from her face "I…I don't know…" she looked around before looking back up at him "What's going on?" she asked Kankuro. He chuckled slightly
"Heading over to the second exam sweetheart, My brother and I came to wake you guys up." he explained and she nodded slightly. Her eye widened a bit, she forgot about her sister. She turned to look at Akita just as she explained that she couldn't remember what happened. Maybe they shared a dream. Akira decided to say something as well "Yeah, I have no clue either." As she said this, it seemed to startle Akita somewhat.
"You four should get going. You won't want to miss your first exam," Ibiki said in front of the classroom. Akira sighed and looked up at Kankuro as he started to help her up without her asking. "You look a little pale darling, are you sure your alright?" He asked quietly, surprisingly serious. She nodded "Yeah. I'm fine." Kankuro smirked slightly "That's good, means I can do this." and he smacked her ass. It was sudden and loud which caused everyone to turn to it, Akira blushed slightly and shrugged out of Kankuro's grasp. She sighed and raised her hand to her face, shaking her head slightly as she left the room. She could feel Kankuro boring holes into her behind which just made her walk faster. She heard yelling a few moments later, it sounded like her sister.
She sighed once she got outside then sweatdropped, she didn't hear where the second exam was. She heard footsteps behind her and Kankuro walked up behind her "Oh good, you didn't walk off." he asked as he drew nearer. She turned to look over to him "Uh, yeah. I…forgot to ask where we were going…." she said a bit embarrassedly and Kankuro let out a short bark of laughter "Training ground forty-four sweetheart," she nodded at his reply "Alright, thank you." she turned away from him and started to run there. She heard him say something under his breath before he quickly followed after her. He didn't say anything afterwards, opting to just be in each others presence.
Akira looked back at the guy beside her, silent and strange. She didn't know what to think of him to be perfectly honest but she knew one thing, she was starting to like him. A lot. It was strange really, she was confused she kept telling herself. That she was only starting to like him because he wanted her too, just so he could hurt her, but her common sense and heart were saying different things. "-Darling? You alright there? You're spacing out a little." Kankuro stated which caused her to snap out of the daze she didn't realize she was in. She took a deep breath "Yeah, yeah, you know full well i'm alright." she sighed out if only a bit irritably. Kankuro rolled his eyes at her "If you say so Sweetheart, I'll hold you to it."
The two of them arrived at the exam sight after a few minutes of more silence. Her team was standing by each other waiting for her to arrive. She smiled and sped away from Kankuro who had stopped to wait with his sister for the rest of their team. She stopped in front of them with a smile and Sakura stepped forward with a sheet of paper in her hand, which she noticed which everyone else had one too. She accepted the sheet that the pinkette had saved for her and scanned over it "What is this?" She questioned after a few moments, looking up and moving her hair from out of her face. Sakura looked up from her own paper and was about to say something when Sasuke beat her to it "It's a consent form stating that the jonin and everyone aren't responsible for if we die." He said with a huff and went back to his paper. Akira nodded in understanding and signed her name "Well, we are strong. Plus I won't let anyone hurt you guys if I can help it." She said with a smile. Sakura and Naruto smiled at her and Sasuke mumbled something along the lines of 'I'd do the same.' Akira smiled at them, before she turned deadly serious. personally recommend listening to this
"Alright, I have a plan. I'm the strongest one here in our team, you all know that along with battle experience I am superior," she started but was cut off by Sasuke's growling. Akira glared at him "I'm serious, you do not need to like this or me at the moment, but I'll need you to listen and trust me. The possibility to die is going to be enhanced by at least fifty-six percent. So what I'm going to do, when the gates open I'll race forward using my wind release. I have a jutsu which will enhance my speed by one hundred twenty percent by bending the air around me and not creating any friction. This jutsu is extremely hard to do, I've been saving chakra up for weeks so I can use it as much as possible just for this moment. I'll be able to use the jutsu up to ten times before my chakra reserved for that jutsu alone is diminished. A resting period is needed in-between uses. I'll go first and get our opposing scroll whilst being a decoy as well. Ninja's will scout me out, which would leave you guys open to test your true ninja abilities. " She finished, her team staring at her in awe as she looked at them with a seriousness they wouldn't have expected from the normally lazy and happy-go-lucky shinobi. "Don't die on me."
Akira let out a breath of air, a small amount of steam came from her mouth as she started to build up her chakra and looked up when she heard the proctor, Anko, yell that it was time to distribute the scrolls. Team seven gathered their papers together and turned them all in at the same time and got their scroll which was a Heaven. Akira let out a pleased sound as her team went to their assigned gate, she placed the scroll in the pouch attached to her hip. She leaned forward, one foot in front of her form the other behind and slightly turned. Her arms were up and bent around shoulder length she took a deep breath and held it.
"NOW!"
Akira let go of the breath as a ninja unlocked the gate, a large stream of steam came from her mouth and she was gone. She ran, a blur to others without a trained eye. The steam that she released from her mouth was concentrated chakra which surrounded her body, to help her rush throughout the air without resistance. It was her strongest jutsu, which she created when she was smaller to get her away from the people who wished ill intentions upon her. She spent most of her life creating it and mastering it. It was called 'Wind Release: Speeding Bullet'.
She raced forward, the chakra steam every once and awhile secreting from her mouth. She soared a few feet in the air through a clearing, which caused her to slow down enough that she wasn't a blur. She turned and saw her sister with her team, and she smirked and turned back around as steam cloud puffed out of her mouth before she could see if they saw her. She raced forward again, she made sure that whenever she saw a team she ran over to it to catch their attention. She wasn't going to have Anyone near her friends, they were going to survive this exam even if it killed her.
She coughed and landed on a tree branch, she went a little over the time limit she set for it. She breathed heavily, saliva starting to drip from the sides of her mouth. She leaned against the tree behind her, breaths hard and wheezes could be heard. She coughed and tried to wipe her mouth but nothing she did would stop the drool coming from her mouth. She cut a close one there, but she successfully lead a few teams away from the direction of her teammates. She threw her head back, her breaths still deep and heavy. That Jutsu literally knocks the breath from her while she's using it. Wheezes and a few chakra streams sometimes came from her mouth as she rested.
After a few minutes she stood up to attention when she heard a scream that sounded like Sasuke. Both of her eye's opened, with her right open she looked more threatening. She narrowed her eyes and quickly started to jump from branch to branch towards the sound of the scream. She still wouldn't be able to use speeding bullet again for awhile, the bodily strain would be to great. As soon as she got to the area she got smacked by a giant snake tail. She coughed, blood and saliva flew from her mouth as she was slammed against a tree, nearly breaking it in half. Tears welled up in her eyes from the pain, blood leaked from the corner of her mouth. She glared and growled as Sasuke attacked a man, presumably the one who initiated the battle and owner of the snakes. She struggled as she slowly slipped herself away from the tail and tree. The splintered wood along with sharp scales were digging into her skin creating multiple small wounds, most drawing blood.
Once she pulled herself free she staggered and moved out of the way of a stray kunai "Get out of here Akira!" Sasuke yelled at her, and the man stopped in mid action, he went completely still. "Akira?" he asked quietly and slowly turned his head to look at her. His eyes widened "I thought you were dead...I thought you died along with everyone else." He said, still talking to himself. Akira narrowed her eyes at him "Who are you? What do you mean you thought I died?" She questioned angrily and got in a stance. The man sighed "Ah of course you wouldn't remember me. I'm Orochimaru, your Grandfather." Akira felt a wave of nostalgia hit her, a blurry face entering her mind. A memory. It went away just as quick as it had appeared. The same face that was a few feet away from her, was the one she had seen.
She grabbed her head and screamed as loud she could, horror gracing her features "NO! NO! GET AWAY FROM ME!" as Orochimaru, or supposably her Grandfather got closer Sasuke snapped out of his state of bewilderment and attacked the dark haired man again. Orochimaru sneered and swatted him away into a tree before turning back to Akira, walking forward once again "You really look like your mother, basically a splitting image of her if I say so myself. You have your blasted father's eye's though." He said and venom laced his last few words. Akira stared at him before glaring and baring her teeth "You seem like a horrible person. I've never had you in my life, AND I WON'T START NOW!" She jumped forward, a chakra burst giving her some leverage as she went to punch him. He only smiled wickedly, a look of hurt in his eyes as he dodged "Well anyway, this fight doesn't concern you Akira dear," he punched her in her stomach then jumped up, proceeding to kick her in her chest which sent her flying backwards. She flew through trees for many meters before falling to the underbrush below. Blood pouring from the corners of her mouth, bruises and cuts covered her body and she was sure she had a few broken ribs. Her eyesight became blurry as she heard someone calling out her name. Her vision turned black around the edges before she passed out.
The next time she awoke she was in a different place. She looked around, it seemed that she was in a cave of sorts. She slowly sat up, wincing harshly at about her halfway point. Sakura looked over at her quickly, Sasuke and Naruto followed her example and looked at her. Sakura rushed over "No, no, no Akira. You're still badly wounded, you need to rest." Akira chuckled and grasped Sakura's arm, motioning to help her sit against the wall. Sakura wrapped her arms around her and gently helped her scoot against the stone. Once she was settled she turned to look at Sasuke and Naruto. Her eye's drifted to a mark on Sasuke's neck and he shook his head slightly, a universal sign for 'later' or 'I don't want to talk about it' it could be either or.
"How long have I been out?" She suddenly asked and Sakura looked down "You missed a lot. You were knocked unconscious for four days-" Sakura explained until Akira interrupted her "That means today is the final day! Come on, put me on one of your backs and lets go!" She started to get up by herself in the excitement before Naruto rushed over and helped her before Sakura could. "Take it easy 'Kia." He said, using a nickname which made her smile softly "Sorry." Naruto lifted her up onto his back and linked his arms underneath her behind, she slowly moved her arms to wrap around his neck and leaned her chin onto the top of his head.
"Do you guys have both scrolls?" She asked and Sakura hummed in confirmation and showed her. Akira grunted with a nod and they all took off towards the tower. It took around fifteen minutes before they arrived at the building and they walked in. Sakura grabbed both scrolls and opened them, they started to smoke before they exploded. A man appeared. He had brown hair in a ponytail and a scar over his nose which ends underneath both his eyes.
"Iruka-Sensei!" Naruto and Sakura yelled out. Iruka smiled and looked at Akira "Hello Akira, i've heard a lot about you. I'm Iruka, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura's former teacher," He greeted and Akira did a small wave. He then gave them a lesson on how the heaven scroll represented your mind while the earth represented your body, and how your supposed to train both. He then went to explain that if you opened a scroll before you got to the tower you'd be knocked out. After he explained it all he left. Akira felt Naruto take a deep breath "Well here we go." Sakura and Sasuke went to open the doors until they heard voices in a room on a higher level. They all looked at each other before they walked up the stairs, Akira still being carried by Naruto. They followed the voices until they reached a room. It was decent sized and lit dimly to a certain degree.
The sand siblings were there surrounding Akita on a bed. Gaara turned around when he heard footsteps and sighed "Oh, it's you Akira. Hello." He said, his voice was low and rough like sandpaper in comparison. He was looking at Akira, not exactly acknowledging the rest of her teammates. Kankuro turned around to see as she started to wave and he quickly walked over. "Hey Sweetheart, what happened?" he asked a little worriedly which caused her to chuckle a little darkly.
"Not much, I just almost used a jutsu passed it's limit and the seer pressure of it could have killed me, and also got beaten by a man that's apparently my Grandfather." She said that sentence as if she was recounting a walk that she had took.
"Oh, that's not goo-wait, what do you mean by someone that's supposedly your grandfather?" He asked her in surprise as he helped her down from Naruto's back and supported her. Akira sighed and shook her head "I don't know..." she looked over at Akita "What's wrong with Her?"
Kankuro shook his head "Something happened...A fight and during it she had gotten some pretty bad internal injuries." Akira looked over at him "Really? How could that have happened?" She questioned and Kankuro remained silent. She sighed "How long has she been out?"
"Five days." He replied and Akira's eye widened and her mouth opened as if she was going to say something. She shook her head "Come help me sit outside the door. I need rest." She said exasperatedly. He nodded without a sound and led her outside the room and sat her down "Want me to stay?" He asked, a little hope in his voice. She shook her head no, and he sighed before reluctantly walking back into the room. She didn't understand how anything like that could happen to her sister. It was strange. Sakura poked her head out of the door and told her the extent of how bad Akita's injuries were, and it appeared that she would have had to create the damage herself.
Akira rubbed at her temple as Sakura walked back in and talked quietly with the other team. Why did so much shit have to happen during the chunin exams anyway? She needed a break, and an extended one at that. Akira leaned her head back against the wall and rolled her eye's when she noticed Kankuro was at an angle so that he could easily see her. Fucking bastard, getting her all attached to him after they've known each other for a few days. Who did that guy think he is, messing with her feelings like this? It seemed like he was genuinely concerned about her wellbeing, but she wasn't going to believe it...If she could even hope to try and not to.
"Hey, guys! She's coming around!" Naruto yelled from the room which caused the bluenette to quickly shoot her head up. She started to stand up, trembling as she did so. She stood for a few moments before she lost all dizziness and went to rush into the room as fast as she could.
"MOVE OVER, NARUTO! GIVE HER SOME ROOM!" Sakura yelled and pushed Naruto away from Akita.
"Heh, heh, heh, sorry Sakura," Naruto said awkwardly and kind of shuffled a few more feet back.
"I heard someone say Akita is coming around! Is she okay?!" Akira said quickly once she was able to get close enough to Kankuro that he could help stable her. He rested a hand on her shoulder and smiled before it transitioned into a smirk.
"Hn, she's fine," Sasuke grunted out. He was standing the farthest away from the group.
"Hey, sweetheart. Nice of you to join us," Kankuro said and squeezed her arm, winking at her playfully. She gave him a half-hearted glare and slapped his hand softly as her sister turned her head in the direction of the puppeteer.
"Kankuro! Stop calling my sister that!" She yelled out and opened her eyes, she then proceeded to look around before glaring back at him.
"Heh, no promises, Akita," Kankuro replied, his smirk getting wider as he patted Akira's back.
Akita made a noise a little like a silent snarl and went to leap up, presumably to strangle him but she quickly fell down to her knees and clutched at her chest. She was clearly in a lot of pain.
"Akita! You need to be more careful. You've been out for a for days, and have internal damages. You need to rest," Akira said calmly while helping her sister lie back down onto the bed.
"Argh. Wh-what do you mean by 'internal damages'?" She questioned, her eye's getting a little wide.
"Well, you took some kind of internal beating, but it doesn't seem like it was inflicted by someone personally. Some of your muscles are torn including your heart. Although, they should be extremely lethal, it doesn't seem to cause you the pain it should. You internal wounds are healing exceptionally fast, and by the looks of it you should be walking pretty soon," Akira said and crossed her arms in frustration, a sisterly anger that she never would have thought she had.
"What do you mean 'it doesn't seem like it was inflicted by someone personally'?" Akita asked, her voice sounding a little accusing.
"I mean, your wounds were done by no one other than yourself. What I want to know is: how and why? Your comrades won't tell me, so, I expect you to tell me," Akira demanded to her twin.
"I have no idea what your talking about! Why would I hurt myself like that!?" She yelled.
"She's on the defense. She obviously knows something," Sasuke stared at her with mostly emotionless expression and voice.
"Hey, Naruto, keep your pet duck's mouth shut! I don't know anything!" Akita howled out, and even through Akira's frustration she couldn't restrict the giggle that bubbled in her throat. From the corner of her eye she saw Kankuro glance at her and a small smile formed. Oh god, not again. Fuck him and his charming ways. He must think that she's cute, she must not be defeated by his fake charms.
"What did you just call me?!" Sasuke shouted, his own anger being intertwined within his words.
"I called you a duck! Got a problem with that?!" Akita yelled louder than before, and her sister raised her eyebrow at the spectacle.
"'Yeah as a matter of fact I d-" Sasuke was beginning to yell, but was interrupted by Shikamaru who had a slightly perturbed expression.
"Hey guys, the Hokage wants us on the first floor. He's going to give us a speech. Why couldn't he just waited until after we're all rested. What a drag," He said tiredly and turned around before going to walk back down the stairs and into the first floor room. Sasuke huffed and started to walk towards the door, he waved his hand in a type of dismissive manner,
"Hn. Fine. Naruto, Sakura, Akira, let's go." Naruto sighed and mumbled something before following after and Sakura looked starstruck that he had said her name.
"Alright Sasuke!" Sakura squealed and quickly followed after him. Akira looked back at her sister for a moment then to Kankuro. He gave her an exasperated but encouraging smile and with a small nod motioned her to leave. She rolled her eyes and huffed before walking out the door shortly after her team. She followed them back down the stairs silently and when they got to the doors once again she hummed and opened them in unison with Naruto.
This she assumed, where the real battles will begin.
Hey guys, Skelly here. I'd like to know if you like the longer chapters or the shorter ones better. I'd like to know so I may tailor the chapters length to the majorities liking. So please, feedback would be appreciated.
Also, all art concerning Akira or Akita belongs to either Me or my co-author respectively.