8 - Waiting For The Preliminaries!
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~First Day, First Arrival~
The Tower
Rena And Gaara's Relationship Level: 55%
Rena and Ikari's Relationship Level: [It's Useless To Try. Progression Impossible]
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"I don't think there's anyone other than us here," Kankuro said, having come back from scanning the area. He shifted the hold on the strap he had over his shoulder, wanting to have a damn rest for once. "I'm starving and I want something to do."
"I don't think they'd leave us here with no food. There's probably a vending machine somewhere." Rena said as Suno changed her bandages. They were soaking up blood pretty fast, which was an issue. She was bleeding way too much for a normal wound. It might get to the point where she'd pass out from blood loss. Kankuro had paced around the room for a bit, back and forth.
"Just like I thought, there's no other place to go!"
"We've already waited half a day," Temari muttered. "How much longer are they gonna make us wait?" She looked over to Su, who was sitting beside Rena quietly, not moving, not even blinking. This new girl was strange, even for her tastes. Tsukiyomi wasn't with them; rather, she was in an empty scroll of Kankuro's. Rena and Suno had persuaded him to hide her for the duration of the Exams and that she'd be fine if she just slept.
"Hm?" Kankuro's attention snapped to the echoes of footsteps. Three Hidden Leaf shinobi walked through the area, their heads low, not trying to look in the direction of Gaara, but their chakra and fear was familiar to him. They were the ones who had seen him kill; the ones who hid in the bushes. His eyes moved to the side, disinterested in killing them. Even if he wanted to, he was sure Rena would stop him.
The day dragged on and it wasn't long before a familiar entrant walked into the room, alone. He seemed rather out of it, stopping in front of the Sand Siblings before taking a choice glance at Rena herself. "You got injured, huh? Typical."
"Ikari? Where's your team?"
He shoved his hands in his pockets, leaning against the wall. "Dead."
"What? I'm so sorry..! The fact that you got this far..."
He blinked once, then twice, rolling his eyes and sighing. "It wasn't like I knew them personally anyways. I was being paid to take them through the Chuunin exams, but they wouldn't listen to me and got eaten by a snake." That had to be a h-huge snake... Rena was glad she hadn't run into anything of the sort. "Anyways, there's no rule against not being able to get into the preliminaries even if your team is out of commission."
"Huh...? Really?" She didn't know that. Su might be able to take the exams for herself after all! Tsukiyomi didn't care about being Chuunin, but Su came here to be what she wanted to. So, Rena didn't mind either way.
"You should probably get that wound cleaned as soon as possible," Ikari stated, shrugging. "I'm gonna stay here, but there's a spring 'round back. Cleaned the blood off me there."
"Did you get your scrolls?"
Ikari rubbed his head sheepishly. "Our collected scrolls got eaten by the snake, but I picked some up off some bodies. Just left there. Pretty convenient."
The day passed with very little stimulation. There were a few moments where she wanted to bang her head against the wall. Both Ikari and Gaara were terrible for conversation and Su seemed to just nod her head rather than forming words. Suno was more quiet than usual, a side effect of losing Tsukiyomi for a bit, while Temari had been pulling back Kankuro from babying Rena. Overall, it was peaceful as more and more teams entered the area.
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~ Day 2, Morning ~
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"Hope you know how to hunt," Ikari said, kicking Kankuro's leg. "We have to go out there and get some food, cuz there's none in here." Little did they know, there was a vending machine outside, near the spring but around the corner. Nobody was about to tell them that, though.
"We could run into more of the competition out there." Despite Kankuro's hesitance, this perked Gaara's interest. His bloodlust was peaking again and he was being driven out of his mind with boredom. Although, having Rena's attention on him trying to get him to talk to her wasn't too bad.
"Anyone we have to worry about is already here. Whether weak or strong, they're most likely deeper in the forest and ambushing teams. Today, they'll spend their time fighting or foraging. You're probably more likely to run into someone if you go back in the direction you came, which isn't where we're going." Ikari insisted, his eyes flicking to Rena. "Besides, she's injured. She needs sustenance now more than ever and I don't think the children of the Sand have any knowledge of forest terrain."
Rena, like many other participants in the room, had woken to the sound of Ikari and Kankuro's bickering. She winced. Her wound was coated in dried blood by now. "You guys... you probably need help hunting. You should take his offer."
"I don't need any help from you!" Kankuro snapped, irritated by Ikari's personality. He was such a dick! Where did he get off, acting that high and mighty? Dammit! Even if he was right, that didn't mean Kankuro had to like it!
"I would offer to come, but..." Rena gestured to her leg. "I'd just be a liability in the event of an attack."
Temari crouched by her side, offering her a smile meant for only family. "Rena, I was going to take you to the spring outback. The guys should be the ones to forage for food, I am still a lady after all." She helped Rena drape an arm over her neck, pulling her up. "Su can come too. We should probably bathe and hunt for fish at the same time." How dare Temari suggest he get himself wet? Gaara hated water with a passion.
"Are you saying that we should all...?" Rena asked, her face turning red at the thought. "No, no way, we can't!"
"Shinobi and Kunoichi don't have shame, Rena," Temari said, bopping her on the head. "Besides, most of us are like family. I'm not so sure about Ikari and Su, but they'd better keep their distance." She gave them one of her famous glares. Meanwhile, internally, Kankuro was screaming, dancing and jumping with joy as he sang his points gained song.
It wasn't that Rena was embarrassed, however, She well understood what it meant to be a Kunoichi. She was terrified of showing her body to others, rather uncomfortable with the scarring on her skin. It was ugly... the type of monster she didn't want to show anyone.
Only I may love you.
A voice echoed through her head, causing her to wince. Temari caught her before she hit the ground. "Woah, Rena, are you okay?!"
Do you honestly think anyone else would..?
Rena shook off the dizziness, using Temari to help steady herself as she stared at Gaara, who stared right back.
Can you truly, honestly tell me that anyone else would love you after seeing what you are?
What the hell had that been...? It was an unfamiliar voice that stirred dread deep in the pit of her stomach. So familiar, yet completely alien at the same time. Yet, as soon as the words had come into her mind they faded away as if they'd never been there in the first place, leaving her to wonder if she had simply imagined it. Could... someone have said something like that to her once? But, wouldn't she remember the words more clearly if that was the case? "I think I'd rather wait until we got to a place that has showers," She admitted, trying to weasel her way out of it, but Temari wasn't having it.
"We can't afford to be picky, here, Rena. That wound needs to be cleaned. There's nobody here who can help us and all we have are the medical supplies on hand- which aren't many." Temari shook her head, helping Rena over to Kankuro, "Brother, we can't risk her wound opening back up again. Walking will just increase her blood flow, so you're going to have to carry her there."
"I'm gonna stay here," Suno replied, quietly. He'd seemed a bit down lately. "I'll protect the Scrolls. Don't worry." Temari felt like she could truly trust Suno in protecting their key to getting further into the exams, so she nodded.
Kankuro picked Rena up bridal- style, his face flushing red. Their relationship was progressing fast, right? Way too fast. The next step would be consummation- No, he couldn't be thinking about that right now! His heart was hammering away in his chest as Rena wrapped her arm around the back of his neck. He swore he was gonna explode just from touching her!
He felt Gaara's glare on his back. Wait, why was his brat of a brother disrupting this tender moment and advancement in their relationship!? No way! He wouldn't be having it! He did his best to ignore Gaara's gaze, advancing as quickly as possible.
Twenty Minutes Later
They had finally made their way to the spring behind the building. Surprisingly, there was plenty of fish and a fast-moving river that kept them from moving upstream. Everyone was busy stripping down to their underwear, which was what Temari thought was going to happen in the first place. As Temari helped Rena undress, she finally realized why the girl was so reluctant to get out into the water without clothing on. Her hands softly ran over the scars, causing Rena to jump up and fall over, smashing into the ground. "Ouuuch.."
"Sorry. I shouldn't have touched without asking." Temari pulled her up, sitting her down on the rock and undoing her bandages. The wound looked rather nasty. They should have cleaned it last night, but Rena had been so exhausted that she'd conked out. "I see why you didn't want to take a bath with everyone, but we need to get your wound cleaned."
Rena sighed, nodding. "I know. Let's go."
Meanwhile, while the girls were talking [With Su in the corner, not undressing], Kankuro had stripped down to his underwear. He had forgotten, however, to remove his headpiece and jumped into the spring without really thinking about it. Several events were set in motion; the first being Kankuro's hat floating to the top of the water. Kankuro's makeup washed off in the flow of the river and he came back up for air, his hair blowing in the wind as if it was a hair commercial. "Damn! That feels good!"
Rena slowly edged her way into the water, holding herself as close as possible and trying to make herself small so she wouldn't be as noticed. Luckily, her lower half would be submerged, so not as noticeable. The water was cold, but not unwelcome and she watched as red seeped into the water from her wound. Temari splashed into the water beside her, with Su simply sitting on a rock and kicking her feet now and again. Fully clothed. Nobody was quite sure about her deal.
Ikari, on the other hand, walked into the water with that same confidence and swagger as always. He was a little taller than Kankuro, which, of course, irritated our not-protagonist. The water in front of Ikari burst up and he caught a fish. Then another and another as they flew up into the air and landed in his palms. "What?! How are you doing that?!" Kankuro demanded, wanting to catch more fish than him.
"Secrets of the trade," Ikari responded, rolling his eyes. Kankuro proceeded to try and catch fish, desperately, with his hands, failing and crashing face-first into the water each time. Ikari's pile was progressively growing, on the other hand, on a strip of neatly-placed leaves. It was clear that Kankuro was feeling inferior as he tried even harder.
Gaara had been standing by the edge of the water. He didn't want to enter, but he supposed he had to. Dipping his toe in, he found it was pretty much ice cold, an unwelcome contrast to a warm day. In the end, he decided against getting into the water and reclothed himself, watching as Kankuro and Ikari competed to secure the most fish.
Ikari won.
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Day 3/4
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Altogether, the party had collected enough food to last them for the rest of their time there, including nuts and berries. Ikari had roasted and dried the fish in the sun, making for a snack that didn't need refrigeration. They had ventured around a little more, looking at all of the rooms, only to find whiteboards in some marked '5'. They discussed it, theories about what it meant, but the most popular one among them was that on the final day, something would happen.
While Rena's wound got better, it seemed like she slept even more. Throughout the day and night, Temari sat by her side, sleeping beside her. Su was on the other side while the boys kept watch at night and the girls did during the day. Temari had, luckily, brought a book with her that she intended to read through. She snacked on berries she had picked, enjoying the pleasant summer breeze.
Ikari and the boys seemed to get up and move around a lot. It was strange that Ikari was staying with them, but nobody except Kankuro complained since he had assisted them. Why they didn't know. He should have been put off by Gaara, as most usually were, but he wasn't.
In the end, they took turns tending Rena's wound and all was fine and dandy until the very last day.
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Day 5
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They had, in anticipation, set up camp in a room with one of the whiteboards. It was going to be a long day, so they'd all decided to sleep at the same time. However, they were jolted awake by Temari shaking them. "Gaara, Kankuro, Rena, look! The board!" She pointed at the board that had once held the number of days they had to wait on it and read out the riddle to them. "If qualities of heaven are your desire, acquire wisdom to take your mind higher. If earthly qualities are what you lack, train your body and prepare to attack. When heaven and earth are opened together, the perilous path will become righteous forever. The 'blank' is the secret way that guides us from this place today."
"'Blank'? What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Kankuro muttered, yawning and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes lazily. "Someone else solves it, I'm going back to bed." He flipped over, clearly not interested in participating. Ikari, on the other hand, had been propped up against a wall. His eyes had been closed the entire time, but they flicked open almost perfectly as if he hadn't been sleeping in the first place.
"That's an easy answer. Open those scrolls at the same time."
"Huh?" Suddenly, Kankuro was up. "You think you know everything, huh?!" He grabbed Ikari by his shirt. "Anyone could figure that out! I figured that out before you! Anyways, if you're so right, why aren't you doing anything?!"
"I'm not going to open my scrolls. I'll just follow whatever happens when you do."
"That's shady as hell!"
"Kankuro, stop complaining," Temari said, turning around to watch Gaara take their scrolls out of their bag. He jolted both of them open, throwing them on the floor as the summoning Jutsu activated. A single figure exploded from the mist, stepping out of it with poise and elegance.
"Baki?" Temari and Kankuro asked at the same time, in shock and awe that it was him coming out of the scroll. Gaara, on the other hand, simply turned his head away.
"Yes. You may want to open Rena's scroll, too." He glanced around the room, taking in the architecture of the Hidden Leaf. What was so impressive about wooden walls, anyways?
Su took one of Rena's scrolls, and Suno took the other. They looked at one another for what was possibly the first time and tore open the scrolls as fast as they possibly could, laying them down on the floor as the Sand Siblings had before them.
A woman's figure emerged, her headband the first to come out of the smoke. It was scratched and scuffed, hanging around her neck. She had a cigarette on her lip, caught in between two of her fingers, the other hand resting on her hip. She wore shorts and a tank top, not very shinobi-like, but closer to casual wear. Her shoulder-length black hair swayed in a draft from one of the many cracks in the walls of the old building, crystal blue eyes scanning the area as she grinned. "The hell took you all so long?" She flicked the cigarette onto the floor, stomping it out with the heel of her boot. The appearance of Sansa caused Rena to spring to her feet, eyes widening as she took in the sight of her mother and teacher. Sansa Hikari seemed like she had gotten better at her swearing issue; her first word wasn't crude.
She remembered Sansa fondly as the reason why she and Gaara interacted in the first place. Without Sansa's words of wisdom, she'd never had even spoken to him or given him a chance as she did.
'Judging a book by its cover is like callin' the Kazekage a shithead. They're both impractical and most likely gonna get ya killed. At the worst, maimed.'
Her eyes stopped on Rena, and her smile faded. She sighed, before walking over to her and smacking her on the head. Then began the tirade. "You lil FUCK! You never even came to see me, you lil shit!" Nope, the swearing problem was still there. As she shook the dazed young girl, she continued, "I had to go to the Kazekage and scream 'bout a few things and after that, I had to deal with this asshole over 'ere!" She thrust a thumb in Baki's direction, who stifled a chuckle. Sansa and Baki had known each other before he'd become a teacher to the Sand Siblings.
"So, Baki," Rena was trying her best to keep herself from throwing up with how dizzy Sansa shaking her was making her, "Has Sansa changed any?"
"Don't talk about me like I'm not here!" Sansa snapped, "I'll gut you!"
"No, but the Hidden Sand's Devil Tactician never slept. When you vanished, she entered the regular troops and moved to the top of the chain, becoming quite important to the Kazekage and the Village as a whole."
"Hey!" She turned to Baki, pointing at him. "When you describe my life in six years, you don't just leave out some fucking details!"
He shrugged. "And she became my Fiancée.."
Rena's mouth almost dropped to the floor; it was quite the unexpected turnabout. Baki preferred quiet and seemed to be a rather reserved man, while Sansa was crass and loud. They were exact opposites and in no way the perfect match for each other. "Anyways, Baki supported me when you decided to go an' disappear. I looked for you every day, kiddo." Her voice switched from her usual loud to a more tender, soft tone. This was a shock, as Sansa usually showed her care as a form of violence, usually by punching people. She knelt by Rena's leg, getting her to sit down. "You took a nasty hit here, kiddo. Lemme fix you up." She removed the bandages, making a few hand signs. "Healing Sparrow Technique! Waking Sparrow!" She placed her hands above the injury, blue light and warmth surrounded her leg, allowing the wound to close up in no time. She got up and patted her hands on her shorts. Her eyes moved over the room, noticing Su and Ikari. "Who're you?"
"Ah, this is Su!" Rena rushed to introduce her new friend, before catching herself. "I mean, Tsu...Tsuki... Tsukiyomi. She was in the village with me, remember?"
"I could have sworn she looked hella different, but I was at a distance..." Her eyes flicked to Ikari. "And you?"
He shrugged. "Nobody."
It seemed like Sansa was going to fire back, but she paused. All of the hairs on the back of her neck raised and she could feel goosebumps up and down her arms as she felt chakra that she had never expected to feel again. "Impossible," she whispered, the blood draining from her face as a team of three moved toward them.
Kana Yoru and her team seemed to be intruding whatever rooms they could find. They'd been accompanied by a Jonin, but Rena had never seen him before, anywhere. Kana's team consisted of two females and a male- all of them shared extremely similar traits, such as their hair and eye colors. Kana's eyes were empty, yet filled with a familiar desire Gaara recognized all too well- a yearning for blood.
"This isn't over, Hikari. I am looking forward to killing you... and proving you're exactly who I think you are."
"Whatever, psycho!" Rena muttered, shaking her head and sighing. "Sansa, do you know her? She won't leave me alone."
"No," Sansa responded quickly, much too quickly for Rena's liking. "I've never seen her in my life." Rena nodded, but she was wondering if Sansa was lying to her. She had her suspicions. However, Sansa seemed to have regained her original disposition quickly enough. "Anyways, you little shit, why would you agitate someone to the point of them wanting to kill you? You're such a damn burden."
"I love you too, Sansa."
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As you know, bolded words mean that it's a scene meant to be rewritten!