𝙰𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜 𝚂𝚙𝚎𝚊𝚔 𝙻𝚘𝚞𝚍𝚎r. (𝙶𝚊𝚊𝚛𝚊 𝚡 𝚘𝚌)

Second Test ( Chapter 11 )

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The second test was about to begin, Ura, Temari, Kankurou, and Gaara stood in front of the gate they were assigned to. Their plan was to get in, grab the scroll they needed, and to get to the tower they had to go to. Ura looked through the gate and gazed at the Forest of Death, trying to see what was so deadly in there that gave it it's name. The trees were bigger than anything she once saw before, and there was an eerie feeling in the air surrounding the forest.

Then, the gates were opened, the four sand Genin ran in, leaping from tree-to-tree, scoping out where the other Genin were at. After a few minutes, they stopped at a patch of land where there were no trees, just to sense anyone. Ura could feel the other Genin all around her, but were all going in different directions to find the opposite scroll they had. As she looked around, she then understood why the forest got it's name, Ura could feel death was coming.

"I have a bad feeling about this..." Ura turned to her teammates, but they weren't there, "Temari? Kankurou? Gaara? Where are you?"

No one answered her calls, Ura went into the tree tops, but none of her teammates were near her. Where could have they gone to? They were right beside her a few seconds before she looked around! This wasn't making any sense, how could they have just disappeared without making a noise or movement, Ura would've sensed their disappearence through their chakra. She began to frantically search the small portion of the forest she was in, but she couldn't find their chakra at all.

For an hour she had searched, but there was no sign of her missing team. One of them would have told her that they were going to leave, so they couldn't have just left her there...or would they? No, Ura knew they wouldn't have just left her there so someone could find her.

"Lost? How unfortunate for you..."

Ura froze, turning around slowly with fear stricken in her eyes, a team of three from the Village Hidden in the Grass were right behind the entire time. She gulped, too afraid to move or speak, she couldn't even get ready to fight them off, "Uhm....uh...."

"She's so terrified to the point she can't speak," the girl member smirked, her died green hair covering one eye as she chuckled at Ura, "She's a sand kunoichi....the weak one I heard about."

"Heheh...I say we have our fun with her before we kill her," the male member of the team eyed Ura, his jet black hair tied back in braid, "Lets cut her wrists and watch her scream."

"No. We'll stick a kunari in her jugular and watch her gasp for breath as she dies," the other male member with short bleach blonde hair gave her a cold look, "Then you can do whatever you want with the body."

Even when they loomed closer to Ura with death in their eyes, Ura was stuck, unable to move at all. Then, when they were about an inch from her, something awoke in Ura, the feeling that her first ever mission brought had returned. The feeling to survive, the instinct to live was back in her blood, she had to kill them in order to live. Ura finally leaped to the ground, the grass Genin followed her movements, surrounding her on each side. There was no time or ability to throw her umbrellas in the air, then that was an open attack for all of them, it was too risky. Ura pulled out three hari, two in one hand, one in the other, a plan was forming in her head. They ran at her at once, making it hard for her to get an accurate aim on them, but she had to do something or else she would die.

Ura threw two of the hari at the girl and the boy with black hair, but dodged the one with blonde hair. She made a copy of the hari in her hand and threw it at him, they all dodged her attack, but while they were trying to dodge the hari, Ura threw an umbrella in the air, the other one opened and directed at them. They froze, planning on what she was going to do, but it was easy to see that she was going to use her hari.

"Stupid girl, you think we don't know what attack you're going to use!?" the girl snapped at Ura, "We know what you're planning to do."

"Then you should've saw this too!"

The grass ninjas turned to see another Ura with an umbrella opened at them, all not knowing where this one came from and which was the real Ura. Both Ura's had a smirk, knowing they out-smarted their enemy, even when they were terrified for their life, they knew there was always a way out. When they were about to leap away, both Ura's twirled the umrbellas, the two umbrellas above, another was thrown by the clone, twirled, all four umbrellas releasing hari. As the grass ninjas tried to outrun the flying hari, both Uras had two hari in each hand, gracefully swirling on her heels, cutting their throats as the rest of the hari went through the grass ninjas, leaving tiny holes. Blood squirted all over both Ura's and the surrounding areas, three bodies layed on each side of Ura as the clone disappeared in smoke.

Ura looked at what she had done, two umbrellas were still open on the ground, finished with their task, hari were everywhere, one the trees and on the ground. Though they put up a good fight on trapping her to kill them, Ura had used up a lot of her chakra to use her umbrellas and make a clone with the same weapons. It was one of the faults of using the umbrella, they took up a lot of chakra for them to twirl on their own. She slumped to her knees, the rush of instinct fell out of her, and now she was left to exhaustion. Then, she looked at one of the bodies and saw the scroll that her team were looking for, an Earoth Scroll. Taking the scroll in her hand, this was all she needed to go into the tower, without her team.

Standing up, she placed the scroll into the same pack with her hari, then began to pick up her hari, then get her umbrellas strapped back onto her back. It took her a good full hour before she finished, and Ura had to admit how tired she really was. Losing her team...killing three more people...using too much chakra... All of that was enough to make her too drowsy to stay awake for long. But...she couldn't go to the tower yet, she had to get a Heaven Scroll as well to enter. She had two days left, the sun was setting on the first day..

A flicker of familiar chakra got Ura's eyes open, it was Gaara's, she couldn't mistake his for anyone else! Quickly get up, Ura ran as fast as she could without collapsing to the destination where she knew Gaara had to be at. It took her half an hour to get there, but when she arrived, Ura waited behind a bush. Her team was battling someone already, the opponent was taunting Gaara and his team. Then, Ura leaped into the air, pulled out an umbrella and opened it, slowly floating down to the ground.

"Well there you are, we lost you when we continued to run," Kankurou smirked at Ura as she landed besides him, "It's been three hours."

"I have an Earth Scroll," Ura pulled out the scroll, "I got it from the deceased grass team."

Gaara looked at Ura through the corner of his eyes, then back at the team in front of him, deciding that they should die. The team leader in front of them smirked, "So...a member of yours can use the umbrella too? Well, at least they can master my technique while we kill the rest of you."

"You looked at me the wrong way...so now you're all gonna die," Gaara's gourd opened, sand spewed out.

"Die!" the man threw the umbrella in the air, a signal to Ura that the hari were going to hit Gaara.

Ura instantly threw up her umbrella, though Gaara could perfectly protect himself, there was no way would she allow his hari to ever come near Gaara. When his umbrella spun, releasing his hari, Ura's umbrella did the same, deflecting all of his hari away from Gaara, and at them. Though it wasn't enough to kill them, Gaara then sent his sand at all three of them, killing them with ease, "They died instantly..."

As Kankurou held the Earth Scroll, looking at it to make sure it wasn't a fake, Ura was picking up her hari, along with their opponents so she could have more hari. Gaara watched as Ura placed all the hari in her bag, he didn't understand why she did that, she knew he wouldn't be harmed. So why did she waste more of her diminishing chakra just to do that? Ura finished and noticed Gaara staring at her quizzically, so she gave him a soft smile, then walked to him and the rest of the team, "Well, we have both scrolls, and the tower is a few hours away...we better get going."

"Can you make it? You're almost out of chakra," Temari gave Ura a worried look, "You can barely stand, if not for the umbrella you're leaning on."

Ura noticed that she was leaning on her umbrella, then shrugged, "I can manage running..."

"I'll fly Ura over to the tower, we'll wait for you guys," Temari opened her fan, Ura walked over to Temari

"Sure, Gaara and I will get there," Kankurou put Karasu back on his shoulder tied up, "Be careful..."

Temari nodded, then swung her fan open, leaping on to it then waited for Ura to hop on. Both girls were flowin into the air, then glided to where the tower was, it was pretty far, but it would only take them an hour to get there.

"What happened while you were lost?" Temari asked, looking back at her friend.

"I ran into a team... They gave me no choice, I killed all three of them and took their scroll," Ura answered as she got comfortable on the hard fan, "It would've been better if I could've escaped from them."

"It's probably better that you did kill them...how badly?" Temari was curious, she hadn't witnessed Ura's full strength.

"Pretty badly," Ura looked down at the forest, "I mutilated them all with my hari...that's why I still have dried blood all over me, I did the best I could to get away..."

Temari then noticed that Ura was swamped with blood all over her, the hair, the skin, the uniform, her legs were flooded with blood. It gave her a sick feeling that Ura was that strong, but...she had to see it to believe that Ura was capable of such strength. The rest of the flight was silence, both girls were deep in their own thoughts to even speak what they felt. Temari and Ura landed at the entrance of the tower and entered to have a seat to the side.

Ura looked at her bloodied hands, what had she become? It had to be all the training she had done before to get her to be that strong...but she didn't know she was malicious to the point of an easy kill. When it was a dangerous enemy, she could do it, but other Genin, though they wanted her dead, that had also had a purpose to prove was totally different. Ura was no longer the Sand Kunoichi that had a huge thing for Gaara, now she was a dangerous weapon that was mastering the art of killing.

*This is what you told yourself, anyone that stood in your way of proving to Gaara that you were good enough to fight would have to be killed. This is not for you, this is to make Gaara see that you are more than just his prey, you are the strong kunoichi that loves him! Get yourself together!* Ura's subconscious spoke to her.

It didn't matter, she had changed dramatically over the few months under Baki's training, her courage had changed, her willingness to be someone had changed, but more importantly...her life had changed. Ura had willingly given up her family and her old-self just to become who she was now, giving up so much in such a little time... It was too late to go back, to change everything to be who she used to be, that would never come, who she was now was who she was going to be for the rest of her life. A fighting, killing kunoichi of the Sand under the Kazekage, that was her fate now.

"So...do you like Kankurou too?"

Ura looked over at Temari, the silence was broken, she had to come out of her own thoughts, "No...he's only a close friend.."

"I saw him hold you a few days ago when we came back from training...are you sure? You two looked pretty intimate," Temari eyed Ura, "It's alright if you like him too, it's probably easier to like him anyways when Gaara will take a longer time."

Though Temari was right, she was also wrong, Ura shook her head softly, "No, he did hold me for comfort that I needed, but he's not the one I really love..."

Temari knew Ura was speaking the truth, though she looked a bit hurt from being told, again, that it would be a long time before Gaara saw how she felt, that it was a done deal about Ura loving Gaara. Though it was touching that Ura cared about Gaara, Temari couldn't help but feel sorry for Ura. Over the time Temari had known Ura, she had learned about Ura's little plan to try to win Gaara over. Temari looked at the door, she had a feeling Ura's plan wouldn't work... Gaara was Temari's brother, she knew him fully well to know that it would take more than just fighting him to see what was directly in front of him.

"Temari, Ura."

Both girls looked up to see Kankurou and Gaara, they had finally entered after hours of waiting. They all walked down the hallways to see Baki, who told them what the scrolls were about. Ura couldn't pay attention, she was still dwelling on her change, though it probably was an insignificant thing. Baki noticed how different Ura look, physically from the blood, battered up than the others, "Did Ura fight to get the scroll for all of you?"

"No...we kinda lost her in the forest...then she killed a team of grass Genin and got their scroll," Kankurou scratched his head, "But Gaara ki-"

"Wait just a second, you got lost? Then you killed an entire grass Genin team?" Baki didn't understand the good and the bad that Ura had done, "All in 19 hours?"

Ura nodded, then notice Gaara turn to also look at her, this time...it was a look a slight shock. She had the notion that she had finally gotten his attention, it was just another few steps closer to their own battle. Then, she had a determined look at Baki, "I slaughtered them, they threatened my life so I gave them what they were begging for..."

"Well then...all of you come with me," Baki walked out of the room, the team trailing behind him.

They were one of the first teams to get in front of the Hokage, but it would be a matter of time before the others came. Ura sat against the wall waiting, a dull look in her eyes as she traveled through her thoughts about who she had to fight next. Kankurou sat next to her, "Excited about next test?"

"Truthfully...no," Ura sighed, "I'm tired...i'm hungry...and I have no chakra left..."

"Build it up," Kankurou suggested, "The rest of the remaining teams won't be here for awhile."

Ura nodded, put her hands together, then began focusing on replenishing her chakra. As she concentrated, Kankurou then commented, "Maybe if you fight someone strong, you should use your Sharingan..."

That last word almost broke her concentration, but she only mumbled, "I will not use that unless I have no other option, no one will give me that last option."

"What about that Uchiha? What if you get stuck fighting him?" Kankurou asked, eyeing her as she had her own eyes closed.

"Not even him.." Ura murmured, the conversation of the Sharingan was done.

Ura really meant it that no one was ever going to coax her to make her use her Sharingan, it took a lot of her own chakra, and it will only be used if she didn't have the choice. When she used it on the first exam was just because she didn't know that writing the answers down wasn't neccessary. Even if she was going to fight Sasuke, he would never make her use the Sharingan, no matter how badly she was battered... If it meant that someone was going to take her life, then she would use it, but unless she actually, really needed it, the it was never coming out.

It took half an hour to rebuild all of her chakra, Kankurou was already taking a small nap, Gaara was leaning against a wall, and Temari was sitting on the floor. Two more teams had come, but it wasn't enough actually stand up in a straight line. Ura probably wreaked of blood, but she didn't care at the moment, at least it wasn't her own that she was covered with. She stood up, if she was going to have blood all over her, at least she had to clean off her umbrellas to make them look nice. If she wasn't so dwelled on what she was now, she would've wanted to take all the blood off of her, but now...she wanted her opponent to worry about her weapons, not what she smelled like.

A few more hours later, Temari kicked Kankurou awake, they stood in a line as the very last team entered, the entire Team 7. Only 18 Genin were 21 Genin were left, all standing in 7 lines in front of their sensei and Hokage, awaiting the explination...