Inheritance

The Chunin Exams III

Tsuchi Kin dropped to her knees in exhausted defeat, and slumped against the nearest tree, as the inevitable finally happened - she had run out of chakra.

She wasn't stupid, and had known the minute her team-mates had begun to come after her that unless something incredibly unlikely happen, like another team attacked them, or someone decided to take pity on her and rescue her, that this would happen. She was no chakra powerhouse - not like Zaku was; and she didn't have the physical fitness of Dosu. She had known full well that she couldn't out run or out last either of them.

Using what little chakra she had to extend her escape when her muscles had finally given up the ghost had been a desperate ploy for time, in the hope that something, anything, would happen. Hell, she'd take being killed at the hands of another Genin squad then let these two have the satisfaction. Added to that thought was the previously ruthlessly suppressed idea that both her team-mates were just old enough, and had grown up amongst the stories of other Oto shinobi and their 'conquests', that the idea of them taking a little more than just her life was just likely enough to make Kin worry.

She dragged herself to a standing position, and palmed a kunai nervously, knowing the blade was no longer singly intended for her enemies. They would get no satisfaction from her while she was alive. She'd make damn sure of it.

"Betraying Orochimaru is something the intelligent simply do not do, Kin."

Dosu's nasally voice broke through the silence of the clearing like a mace through glass, and Kin couldn't repress the flinch - couldn't stop the fear that emerged on her face at the knowledge she was at best, about to die.

Zaku simply laughed, hands stuck nonchalantly in his pockets even as he leered down at his former teammate.

"Unfortunately for you Kin," Dosu continued, his lone visible eye fixing Kin with a chilling look that she just couldn't quite discern the meaning behind; "it is not a mistake you are going to have a chance to make twice. Orochimaru has ordered your death."

"Orochimaru can go to hell!" Kin snarled out in response, unable to fully suppress the anger that Orochimaru's name drew out of her. "He's using you, just like he was using me. And he'll carry on 'till, you're dead or as good as - a living cadaver for his fucked up experiments!"

Dosu's features twisted into something that was unmistakably a smirk, as Kin spoke, and he never broke eye contact, not even as he replied. "Ah Kin, still so defiant. That's good, I've heard it's so much more fun when they struggle..."

His voice however, didn't come from the figure in the trees, but from right behind her.

Kin's blood ran cold, and she found herself unable to breath in the panic, even as two hands grabbed her wrists from around the back of the tree she had leant against, pinning her up against it so that no matter how she struggled she couldn't move. And as she watched Dosu's image slowly fade out of existence, and the realisation that she had been fooled by a clone hit home, she couldn't help the tears that finally began to slide down her cheeks, even as she trashed and struggled against Dosu's grip, and Zaku, still leering, leapt down from the tree and began to approach.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

And just like that, Kin's world was turned on it's head all over again as a large blue blur she only caught a glimpse of out of the corner of her eye rocketed to the area behind her tree, and impacted with Dosu, sending him tumbling across the ground, and subsequently freeing Kin, allowing her to slump exhausted to the floor.

"Well I was gonna go help the boss out with his fight, but I really don't think I can ignore this now, can I?"

Kin's eyes snapped to the new figure in the trees, and recognised him almost instantly - after all, it's not often you forget somebody who managed to wrangle your entire team with a lightning jutsu that, as far as they had been able to tell, had been used without hand seals, is it? True enough, she couldn't be certain that this boy was even nearly strong enough to do anything more than buy her time; but at the very least, he had fast enough reflexes to have stopped them from attacking Kabuto, and was good enough with one jutsu to use it without hand signs, something usually considered incredibly difficult.