The Enlightened One Ch.61

— Lei —

I frowned at the scroll my clone handed me—another Earth scroll. Well, I hoped Hinata had a Heaven scroll because, at least then, this wouldn’t have been for nothing. 

The team Naruko and my clones targeted was rather weak. Honestly, one of my clones could have taken them out. I hope those weren’t Mei’s forces because if that’s what her genin looks like, it’d be much harder for her to win.

Eh, I’ll support her; she’ll be fine. 

“So, there’s a group less than a kilometer away. Do you girl want to take them out?” I asked.

“Of course!” Naruko smiled as if the answer was obvious, and knowing her, it should have been.

“Then, they’re all yours.” I shrugged, and Naruko’s smile turned into a beaming grin as she launched herself toward them. Satsuki wasn’t far behind, and I followed them at a leisurely pace. 

I know they wanted some action, but that wasn’t the only reason I was letting them get their hands dirty. 

I wanted to keep my full focus on our surroundings. Sure, I could still keep my guard up in a fight, but keeping my full focus on the Forest of Death was our best bet for avoiding any horrible situations. 

We reached the people, and I blinked. I realized it was a group of stone shinobi. Not Kurotsuchi’s group, but a three-man of random stone ninja. They all looked like they couldn’t be younger than twenty, and I had to start wondering if these guys were truly even genin at all. 

“What? Are you leaf blowers looking for a fight?” The oldest looking man with a nasty scar questioned as he took a powerful, confident step toward us, cracking the earth beneath his foot. 

“Mhm!” Naruko bubbled. She looked like she was just about ready to punch anyone much more someone that actually wanted to fight. 

“Two gals and a boy who’s balls haven’t even dropped yet, want to fight us?” Another one, a shorter, rounder man chuckled. “Gragragaragra!”

I didn’t like the way he laughed. It honestly sounded straight out of One Piece of some shit. 

“Naruko, Satsuki, I give you both full permission to kill that one.” 

“We’re not gonna kill them!” Naruko held her chest, appaled that I would say something so evil. 

“Then I will.” I said as I glared down the round man who smirked back at me, licking his lips like he wanted more from me than just a fight. “Yeah, he’s dying.” 

“I’m not killng anyone.” Naruko crossed her arms, sat down cross-legged and turned her head from me as if ignoring me until I relent. 

“Then don’t, but I will.” 

She gave me a side-eye but it seems that answer was enough for her. 

“Watching you both interact… is incredibly taxing.” Satsuki noted. 

“How do you think I feel when you both fight?” I raised an eyebrow at her. 

“Point taken.” 

“Why the fuck are you fucking seedlings ignoring us?!” The last man, a tall smooth face looking man shouted. 

Seedlings? I’m keeping that. 

“Hold on one sec.” I held up my finger and took a seat. Reaching into my pouch I pulled out my scroll and started drawing and everyone looked at me in confusion. 

I also took out a brush and started writing on the scroll. After only about thirty seconds, I was done and I showed it to the others. 

“A drawing of me…? Are you trying to beg for your life with art? Because I’m starting to consider letting you live.” The tall guy's hand on his chin as he inspected my very accurate drawing. 

“No, I looked at your smooth face and the first thought I had was ‘this guy looks easy to draw’ so I tried, and BOOM! I was right.” I nodded, proud of myself.

“I’ma kill him!” The tall guy shouted, launching at me but was met with a fist to the gut by my bubbly, hyperactive girlfriend. The man was launched back quite a ways but stayed on his feet as he skidded backward.

“He’s sitting this one out!” Naruko informed them before dropping into a taijutsu stance. “But she-” Naruko pointed at Satsuki. “And I are more than happy to introduce you to the ground.” 

“You stole that last line from Lei.” Satsuki raised an eyebrow. 

“Shut up! You’re making me look less cool!” 

“As if a moronic big-breasted buffoon like you could ever in a million years seem “cool”....loser.” 

“Who are you calling a loser? You flat-chested cheat code!” 

This…this is going to be my whole fucking day…isn’t it?

— Sakura —

“It’s an Earth scroll!” Sakura cheered. 

“We got lucky.” Kuzan placed his hands on his hips and laughed. The sight was rather strange for Sakura. Kuzan’s foot atop the dead cloud shinobi’s head, but it’s the shinobi world, she should get used to sights like that. 

“Now we can head to the building and finish!” Sakura smiled, hugging the scroll tightly to her body. They had to be the first team to gather both scrolls. The exam started no longer than three hours ago and they had already finished their first objective. 

“Not so fast.” Taro held his hand up. 

“Huh?” Sakura blinked. 

“Just because we finished doesn’t mean the others have. We’re Konoha shinobi, we help each other out, so we should help the others get their scrolls as well.” 

Once again, Sakura blinked. “Why?” She couldn’t for the life of her understand. Hinata, Lei, Naruko, and Satsuki were more than strong enough to pass themselves and their teams and beyond that, this was a competition. There was no benefit for them in making sure their friends passed. 

“Taro is right.” Kuzan nodded, giving his friend a happy nod. “Lei and us go way back, he’s helped us a ton in the past! The least we could do is pay him back by helping him get a scroll.” 

“I thought you two were rivals…why would you want to help your rival?” Sakura asked. 

Kuzan paused at that, and the smile slipped off his face for a moment. As she looked at his eyes, her heart stopped for a moment before the smile rekindled even brighter than before.

“Because when a friend is in need, you’re supposed to help them! Now, let’s go!” Kuzan didn’t wait for Sakura to rebuddle; he jumped into the air, Taro following right behind him.

Sakura gave the two fleeing forms a weird look before following after them. 

In all the time she knew Kuzan, never in her life had she seen that much anger in his eyes.

— Hinata —

Ever since the exam started, her team hadn’t moved much from the gate. They were taking time to plan strategies in case they ran into someone or multiple teams because, ultimately, their lives were much more important than this exam ever would be.

There’s also the fact that her team was considerably weaker than Lei, Naruko, and Satsuki’s or Kuzan, Taro, and Sakura's. In the former team’s case, all three of their members are powerhouses who can likely take an entire team by themselves in most cases, while the latter team has a genius like Kuzan, a jutsu specialist in Taro, and a chakra control beast in Sakura. Their team would be very efficient if they possessed even a semblance of teamwork, and knowing each of them personally, Hinata knew they got along just fine. 

On the other hand, her team had herself, Kiba, and Shino. Her two teammates weren’t near her level, and she didn’t think it insulting to say that. That’s not to say they’re useless, but they simply aren’t anywhere near powerful enough to do the things that she and the others can do. 

Which is why she suggested what she did.

“You think we should make our way over to Team 7?!” 

“That is exactly what I just said…yes.” Hinata nodded slowly. 

“Why?! We don’t need those guys to win!” Kiba shook his head. 

“You’re right, we don’t.” Hinata took a breath. She had to break this down so Kiba could understand. He was prideful like that. “But there are some powerful people in this forest that I do not want to risk running into without back-up. Lei, Naruko, and Satsuki are powerful; more than that, they are close to us. They won’t betray us, and they’ll have our backs.” 

“But-” 

“I agree,” Shino said simply. He wasn’t much of a talker, but Hinata didn’t mind that. Both of their eyes returned to Kiba, who really looked like he didn’t want to go along with Hinata’s safe option. 

“Look, Kiba.” Hinata scooted over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. Her voice was much softer as she considered his feelings. “I get that you want to prove your own strength, but there’s a difference between confidence and arrogance, and one is better to have than the other. We need Team 7’s help if we want to avoid any injuries or worse, okay?” 

Kiba stared at her, gobsmacked momentarily as a deep red blush crept on his face. He gave a quick, quiet nod, and she gave him a warm smile in return. 

“Thank you, Kiba.”

His face grew even redder, and that was Hinata’s cue to pull away. It seems the boy’s crush on her never faded away, no matter how many times she turned him down, but for his sake, she hoped it would soon. 

“Then, let’s make our way over.” Hinata stood up, dusting herself off. 

“You’re not going anywhere.” 

Hinata swiveled gracefully to dodge the blast of sand that was launched toward her. After doing a backflip and landing softly on her feet, her eyes locked onto the form of Gaara of the Sand. 

His two sibling stood just behind him, their faces expressionless as they stared back at her. Hinata took her eyes off of Gaara for a moment to make sure Kiba and Shino were fine. As she acknowledged they were unharmed, another blast of sand was sent at her, which she dodged just as easily.

“Play with me first, Hyuga?”

— Chapter End —

Author’s Note: The action starts.