Runagai Chio (A story of my Naruto Character)

[Rinji]

Chio's Chuunin Exam
By Rinji


There was a dead silence between the two of them as they picked the weeds off of Mai's grave site. The winter had just ended, and it was six months till the day. Both Toji and Chio's scars were deep, but they were healed finally. Chio stood up, a little shorter than Toji as he stood up, and they admired their work. The grave stone read: Here Lies Sunagi Mai. Our Smiling Face. It was true that neither of them wanted another teammate, but it was required that they get on for the Chuunin exams. The worst part was that neither of them had any idea of what the Chuunin exams would be like. They had only been to Leaf village on certain missions, and were only vaguely familiar with its terrain. When Chio asked Goro-sensei what the exams were going to be like, he would only glance at him, and then look him over. Then he would say "You may be ready." That drove Chio nuts!
For days Chio spent sleepless nights in bed, imagining what the Chuunin exams were going to be like. It was in his nature to do this sort of thing. He was only 14, and his imagination could always get the best of him, sometimes making him quite reckless. Soon they both stood in front of the cleaned and weeded gravestone, then Chio looked over at Toji, who glanced at him and grinned.
"I suppose we're finished." Toji said with a sly gleam on his teeth.
"That we are..." Chio smiled. "And you know what that means."

-------

In the dunes outside of the village, there were miles of sand in every direction, this not only hid the village, but made anyone not experienced in the desert very vulnerable to dehydrating before they got there. Toji and Chio cultivated these empty dunes, and made them a perfect battle field. Chio stood on his dune, facing Toji, who stood in front of the distant city. The sky was perfectly cloudless and shined a blissful bright shade of blue. Both ninja stared done each other as the wind blew past them at twenty miles an hour. Soon, Chio couldn't take it anymore, and kicked the sand, lunging directly toward Toji with a lightning-fast kick. But as he kicked it, it shattered into sand, and Toji came up from behind at Chio. But the silver-haired boy was ready for him, swinging his leg back with a kick straight into Toji's gut, knocking him back off the dune. But as Toji fell, he made a hare, bird, and a ram seal with his hands.
"Doton: Suna Kakutasu No Jutsu!" He shouted making a large sand ball covered with spikes fly straight at Chio.
"Ken Ken No Jutsu!" Chio shouted, straightening his hands and slicing them into the ball of sand, making it bust, and then flying straight at Toji.
"Kakutasu kabe!" He shouted with a boar seal, making Chio run into a wall of cactus, and sticking himself back.
"Gah!! Ow ow ow! God All Mighty that hurts!" He pulled out the spikes. Then Toji came at Chio with a hard punch.
"Psyche!" Chio shouted, clearly not as bothered by the spikes than he let on, kicking straight up at Toji as he approached. The raven-haired ninja slid across the sand dunes and spat blood.
"Not bad." He sat up.
"Challenging a taijutsu user to hand-to-hand? I don't care if their immobile or tired, you just don't do it Toji. Stick to the summoning. Errm." He pulled out the rest of the spikes as he walked up to Toji.
"It's a girl, right?" Toji said, picking out a few from Chio's shirt.
"From what I heard. She's from another class, they said she's pretty far along as a Genin." Chio said, starting to walk back to the main building, Toji still at his side as they walked down the windy streets.
"I hope she knows this is only for the Chuunin exams. You didn't happen to catch her name did you?"
"No, I didn't happen to."
They opened the door to the main building.
"Then what use are you to me?" Toji said.
"Insurance policy. Your ass gets kicked, I make sure the next guy pays. I don't even know if she's any good. I don't care how long someone's been a Genin. If they can't do it, they just can't do it, sometimes age doesn't teach us anything useful."
"That's a little pessimistic don't you think?" They got to the Kazekage's door, and opened it.

Chapter 2
A girl stood in front of them, her dark green hat was that of a pilot's with goggles on it. She wore a long sleeved painted color shirt and black shorts with sandals on. But what both of them found really strange was the fairy wings on her back. She stood there, smiling with her teeth gleaming. The Kazekage, looking at her with his bright blue eyes, and then looking at them. "Chio and Toji, I'd like you to meet your partner for the Chuunin exams." He said, holding his hand out to her. She kept the smile on her face and bowed to them both. They both looked oddly at her, but bowed anyway.
"And... you're sure you want to go to the Chuunin exams?" Chio said.
"Yay! Chuunin!" She said. "I'm Jomo Jomo Miji! Miji!" She said walking up to them and bowing to them again, then looking up at him, her red braid dropping onto her shoulder. She was clearly older than 15, but neither Toji nor Chio were able to guess her age. "Yay! Chuunin!"
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"Vroom vroom vroom vroom." Miji said as she walked with her arms out like wings of a plane. She continued this as Chio and Toji walked ahead of her.
"Man, this girl is absolutely nuts." Chio whispered to Toji, looking back at her with his peripheral vision. Soon she stopped the vrooming and started skipping and humming. Toji took his army helmet off and scratched his head. "Well we haven't seen her in combat yet."
"Are you crazy?" Chio wide eyed Toji. "This girl does look like she can take down a butterfly, let alone cover us under fire in the Chuunin exams."
"Well you're gonna have to test her out."
"What? Why me? I'm afraid of breaking her like a china doll." Chio looked back at her, seeing that she had stopped and was watching a caterpillar cross the road. "Hey! Come on! We gotta get to the sandy fields!"
"Oh? Yeah! Alright Chio-sama!" She got up and skipped over to them as they continued walking.
They reached the gate, and continued to travel out toward the dunes, but then they couldn't hear her again. Miji was at a house, picking daisies and pansies out of their gardens, singing a song.
"Hey!" She laughed and quickly ran toward them.
Toji slapped Chio on the shoulder. Chio glared at him as he pointed at her, then he rolled his eyes and looked at Miji.
"Ummm, Miji-chan."
"Hi hi!" She said, her smile wide.
"We're going to have to test your abilities as a ninja." Chio said, smiling as best he could.
"Fight fight!" Miji said, punching the air. "With you Chio-sama?"
"Uhh, yeah." He looked dreadful toward Toji, who shrugged. Finally they reached the sands outside of town at a far enough distance, and Chio turned toward Miji quickly, to his surprise she jumped backwards in a fighting pose as he did. She unzipped her pockets and brought out something that surprised both Chio and Toji, she brought out flower peddles. Then she reached onto her shoulder and flipped a switch.
"Ninpou: Bara hi no Jutsu!" She shouted, throwing the red flowers at him and flapping her wings, but soon they lit on fire as they approached Chio. He quickly twirled himself around quickly, his leg creating enough wind to put out the fire. Chio quickly jumped toward the girl and kicked straight for her. Before he reached her, she quickly pulled out wild flowers from her pockets.
"Mikon Shiro No Jutsu!" Her wings flapped again, making a huge flash happen in front of Chio's eyes, while he was somewhat blinded, he did not falter in kicking her, she made a hard grunting sound. Then she punched him in the face. It was a surprisingly good hit, Chio had to admit, but it was nothing compare to Goro-sensei. Chio quickly caught her next punch and swung his leg straight at her, she blocked with her arm, but she still showed pain from his rock solid kicks. As he was ready for his next attack, Miji pulled out blue flower peddles throwing them at Chio's leg.
"Aoi Kousoku No Jutsu." Her wings flapped and his kick was deflected, knocking him somewhat off balance. "Katon: Ryuumera no Jutsu!" She shouted, putting her fingers around her mouth, and blowing fire straight at Chio. In an instant, Chio bent backward, it merely singed part of his shirt. As the fire attack ended Chio came back up with a kick to her gut, making her slide back and stumble a few steps. Chio came in very fast and hit her with the back of his arm, knocking her off balance once again, but she came in with a kick at him, which he took to his calf, unaffected. He quickly grabbed her leg and pulled her toward him, wrapped an arm around her and bringing her down to the ground.
"Whoa!" She shouted. "Wow, that was good!" She said, getting up. "You are a very good fighter, Chio-san." She bowed. "But I gotta get home. Bye Toji, Chio!" She shouted as she ran. Chio sat in the sand, and looked at Toji.
The silver haired ninja got up and dusted himself off.
"I suppose we can give her a chance."

Chapter 3

Chio finished setting up the dummies stuffed with straw. They all stood in a row, all of them with different hats on, top hat, base ball cap, swimming cap, straw hat, gas mask, and a fez. Miji stood in front of the dummies, smiling at how cute they were.
"Alright, to get an idea of what you can do, it saves time if you showed us a little bit at a time. Now, on the top hat." Chio stood out of the way.
"Hai! Here I come!" Miji shouted, pulling a bow from her back and loading up an arrow. "Mijirinji Bakuretsu Sturiku!" Miji shouted, firing an arrow but hitting the ground below the dummy, leaving behind a trail of black stuff.
Both Chio and Toji looked at each other.
"Playtime match!" Miji said, slicing a match through the air, lighting it on fire and throwing it on the gunpower, making it instantly go at the arrow and explode, sending the top hat scare crow flying.
Miji loaded another arrow. "Sakura Kiri No jutsu!" Firing an arrow that burst into sakura pedals, all of them slicing into the dummy.
"Roze Mera Metsu!!" She loaded up an arrow that burst into red rose pedals, and set the next two on fire.
"Shiro Marou No Jutsu!" She shouted, making daisy pedals go at the next one, and huge marshmallows growing all over it, breaking the stake it was on.
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All three of them sat on a picnic blanket in the middle of a small grassy area, where there was much less sand. Chio at an apple while Miji ate a rice cake and Toji drank tea.
"You guys understand that we're going to need to stick together the entire time, no matter what, right? I mean even if we're taking a leak, we have to be right there beside each other, so we don't get ambushed when we're apart."
"Oooo, Miji can't go when Miji's watched."
"We're going to need to come up with a fool proof plan in case we question the identity of one of our team mates!" Toji said, getting out a note pad and a piece of paper, writing. "We'll need strategies, and tactics to help us get through obstacles such as- STOP LOOKING OVER MY SHOULDER!"
"Sorry!" Miji backed away. Then she went over to Chio. "Let me see your hair!"
"What? No! You can't touch my hair!" He brushed his silver-white hair back. "I work for hours to get it looking this good!"
"Pleeeease! I'll make it pretty!" Miji looked at him with big, wavy eyes.
Chio closed his eyes and sighed. "Fine."
"Yee!" Miji went behind Chio and took off his pony tail. "Pretty pretty pretty!" She chanted.
Toji handed Chio the list. And Chio went over it.
"There is no way I'm wearing one of your dumb helmets." Chio looked at him.
"Hey! We need to be protected! And our heads are our valuable body parts."
"Shovels? Why would we need shovels?"
"To set traps!"
"Screw that, I can set traps without using shovels!"
"Heehee, scrunchy!" Miji held out her hand to him, and he placed a hair scrunchy in it.
"They'll be too heavy. We need more details on our tactics as well."
"Yes... I agree." Toji's eyes widened as Miji released Chio's hair.
"Hmm? What is it?" Chio said, but then he swung his hair over the fronts of his shoulders, to see two pig-tails. "Oh... how pretty... Now get these damn things out of my hair!"
"Hai! Chio-chan!" Miji giggled.

Chapter 4

The time had come. It was 3 days before the Chuunin exam and the three ninja from Wind Country set off for Fire Country.The trail was long through the desert, but they made good time, coming to the forests of Fire Country in a matter of a day and a half. From there it was a matter of locating the village, they weren't allowed to write down the directions, knowing the Hidden Village of the Leaf was supposed to remain hidden. But Miji apparently know the way by heart, giving them accurate directions. The village was lively that day, other villages sent their ninja there to sign up for the Chuunin exam. They stayed close together, seeing quite a few of them were some 5 or 6 years older than them.
While Chio and Toji made their way through the crowd to get to the academy, Miji stopped, smelling something delectable. She grinned, looking at a corner with a dumpling store.
"Yay!" Miji shouted and ran for the store. Chio quickly looked over at her.
"Miji! Hey! We can eat after we sign up!" Chio quickly followed her, Toji rolling his eyes and running after him.
Suddenly, Miji tripped over another girl's heel, causing her to lose her balance and knock over suddenly, along with Miji. The girl had green hair, and an orange jumpsuit with a red headband on. Her eyes were in swirls with Miji getting up off of her.
"I'm sorry!" Miji said, putting her hands together and bowing to her.
"You idiot!" A shorter, bulkier boy said, his hair was blond and sticking straight up, and he had a large spiked club on his back. "I think you need to watch where you're going." He said, cracking his knuckles.
"Back off, Goru, I can handle this!" Shinju got up with an angry look on her face as she turned to Miji. "You moron!" She said, pulling back her bandaged hand for a punch. Miji's eyes widened, she knew her pain tolerance and taijutsu were very low rate, she could only shield herself with her hands. She heard a large beating sound, and then opened her eyes. Chio's leg was straight up in the air as was Shinju's kicked fist.
"What the..." Shinju turned toward Chio, and stepped back a few. "Who the hell are you?"
"Someone who thinks an apology is enough without having to hurt someone." Chio said, standing tall with Toji beside him.
The tall one with long red hair stood there, silently and seemingly unamused.
"Bastard..." Goru grabbed his large mace off of his back.
"Don't approach me man!" Chio shouted, pointing his finger at Goru. "I swear you'll learn how to breath through your chest." Chio went sharp-eyed, and Goru stood down. "Come on, Miji." Chio turned and walked away with Toji.
Shinju gave a curse, and then put her hand straight into a tree trunk, making a big hole.
Miji didn't look back, she simply walked up to Chio and grabbed his hand. He stopped and turned to her, and she gave him a big hug around his upper torso, being about four inches shorter than him. She pressed her forehead to his chest.
"Thank you..."
At first he was stunned, but then he hugged her back for a few seconds.
"Hey... don't mention it." He turned and walked back into the main room where Toji was looking at them with wide eyes.
Miji's cheeks turned red, she put her hands together, and sighed.

Chapter 5

The celebration was over, and all of the preparations were made. All of the papers were signed and all of the names were taken into the books. Toji turned the knob, all of them up at 7:00 in the morning, and led them into the waiting room, where they would wait for the written part. Chio met eyes with Shinju once again across the room, and she couldn't hide her feelings, the anger was clear in her eyes. She wore the same orange jump suit as last time, only this time she had on two orange boxing gloves. Chio only met eyes with her for a moment though, then he turned back to his team. He glanced at the ninja from Snow Country, one of them having a full black shinobi suit. The others wearing round pointed straw hats with shinobi masks covering their mouths. The others from leaf country that caught his eye was one boy with a back pack on his back, his violet eyes seemed to tell a lot about him. Before long, the Special Jounin led all of the Genin into the next room.
The written test was agonizing. Chio didn't know how long it took but it was drawn out a great deal. So many of the Genin cheated and were withdrawn from the test. Chio simply kept his wits about him, hoping that Toji and Miji were doing the same. These boring math questions were all the same, how far from the distance in point A to point B if certain variables are put into the equation. It made very little sense, as shinobi are taught to eye these things with depth perception. Thankfully the written part went off without a hitch. Of all the people that were in the room before, there were about 3/4 remaining. With all of that noise over with, the tension really began.
Another Jounin led them to a heavily fenced area. Inside all of the Genin could see the forest, but it looked like it would take days to get to the other side of it.
“Greetings, Genin!” The Jounin faced them, he was somewhat young but all of them could tell he had a lot of experience. “I am Gozimi Kakuya, I will be overlooking your progress in the second phase of the Chuunin exams. The rules are simple. You start out with either an earth scroll or a heaven scroll, through out the coarse of five days, you are to hold both scrolls and make it to the tower in the dead-center of the Forest of Death. There are no rules against death, though as allies we do frown upon such actions in these. Fight with honor! Oh, and one more thing. Those who open the scrolls before reaching the tower with both of them will be instantly disqualified!” With that said, the Chuunin assistants passed out the scrolls to each team. Chio’s squad received a Heaven Scroll. He looked over at Shinju, and to his surprise, she was looking at him, with an Earth Scroll in her hand. With that, a very sly grin crossed her face.
“Each team has been given a number, that is the number of the gate you will be entering, find your gate, and enter when we give the signal. May you all fight with honor!” He shouted, his loud voice carrying all the way to the back of the line.
They wasted no time in finding gate 9 on the south side of the forest, it was only around forty yards from where they were standing. Chio looked at the other ninja pass them by, and saw with some comfort that the gates were very far apart from each other. Chio turned to Toji, and he turned to Chio. Both of them locked their hands in a grip. Then they both turned to Miji, who locked them both in a tight hug. But soon, the flare fired, leaving a red smoke line, and the gates unlocked. Quickly, all three of them bolted in.

Chapter 6

They traveled deep into the forest, for five minutes without stopping. Then they halted by a large tree, and sat in a close circle.
“Alright, first priority is to find a river or a long body of water. From there we can travel up and down it, trying to find our opponents.” Chio said, keeping his eyes sharp. “One second with your guard down can mean the very end of you in this place, understand?”
Both of them nodded. “Not even a sec-“ Then a kunai chain struck into the tree beside them. “CRAP!”
“Bakuretsu Tacchi No Jutsu!” A girl shouted, making the point where the kunai hit combust, making the bark fly everywhere. The girl stood tall on the tree above, and grinned. She ran a hand through her blonde hair, but then her grin disappeared, as she saw all of them had disappeared.
“Look out! Samani!” A boy from behind her took off his straw, pointed hat and threw it at Chio as he approached Samani from behind. Chio glanced at the hat, and saw razor blades come out of it. Chio quickly did a back flip, kicking the hat on the bottom, making it spiral upward, where the boy caught it once again, and landed on the ground.
“How very careless of you Samani, you should learn to be wary of someone dodging your attacks.” He grinned, rubbing his nose.
“I already graduated the academy, but thanks anyway, Tai-san.” She looked over at the black haired boy put back on his hat. Then she looked at Chio, twirling one of her chains casually. “You are good, Sand Boy. But I don’t-“
“The name is Chio… Bitch.”
“What?!” Samani clenched her chain and let it slacken.
This made Tai laugh. “Don’t dish it out if you can’t take it, Sami-san.” Quickly Tai reached into his hat and pulled out three razors from it, all of them attached to strings. With them he quickly threw them aside, making them spin around on his hat at a seemingly impossible rate. “I’ll handle this one.” He looked to the left. “Sami-san!”
Samani quickly looked to the left to see rose peddles flying at her. She quickly lifted her arm to block them but they just slid off.
“What the…”
“Roze Mera Metsu!” Miji shouted as the peddles burst into flame on her arm, making her shriek as she dropped to the ground and smothered the flames. “Meeeehhhhh!!!!!” Miji shouted as she jumped from the tree at the unwitting Samani and put her fist straight into Samani’s nose, knocking her straight back sliding across the dirt and into a tree.
Tai looked down at his teammate, worried.
“Oh, no you don’t!” Chio shouted, going into a fighting poised state. “You said you’d handle me, so here I am! Handle me!”
Tai glared at Chio, now just a little annoyed, he quickly flicked his head to the side, making the three blades spinning around on his hat spin at top speed again. He quickly charged at Chio, leaning his head forward. The white-haired ninja quickly jumped back from the blades, and attempted a punch, but he quickly withdrew as Tai’s hat got in the way, the blade coming very close to cutting Chio’s hand. Tai grinned and quickly pulled a straw from his hat, and made two long bull horn appear at the top.
“Oh hell…” Chio said, quickly bending straight back, dodging Tai’s charge, but one of the blades cutting Chio’s chest, making a small blood spurt. “Gah!” But then he quickly brought up his leg with a kick to Tai’s midsection, making him stumble back many steps.
Chio put his hand on his cut. “Barely been here twenty minutes.”
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Toji had barely enough time to make all three hand seals to bring up his spiked wall in front of him to block the large wave of fire making its way for him. It broke on the wall, and ceased, but the Leaf Genin wearing a completely red uniform jump straight over the wall, at Toji.
‘Oh man, this bites!’ Toji thought in a panic as he was swiftly attacked by the Genin’s superior taijutsu. ‘He’s always coming in close! I don’t have time to come up with any attacks!...unless.’
As the red ninja performed another attack, it caught Toji off guard, causing the fire to engulf him. When the ninja wasn’t looking, Toji jumped into view behind him with a bird, monkey and hare seal.
“Kasui Sukin no Jutsu!!!” He shouted, making waves of dirt come to his body, and cover him with rock-hard spikes. With that done, he charged at the ninja, who lit his fist aflame and charged right back. With a simple twist, he brought his burning palm straight into Toji’s chest, knocking him back and putting a spike into his hand. But to his surprise, the clone disappeared.
“What?!”
"Kakutasu Dama No Jutsu!" He shouted making a large dirt ball covered with spikes fly straight at the red ninja, knocking him in the chest and making him fly back into the tree he was on. “Lets see you flame your way out of-“
Then the ball propelled straight back at Toji, with the trajectory of the flame.
“Oh Crap!” Toji quickly dodged it but lost his balance on his branch. In an instant, the Konoha ninja appeared directly behind him, and for two seconds their eyes met in a glare. Then the ninja rammed his knee into Toji’s chest, and hammered his back down to the ground.
Toji hit the dirt hard, and tried to get up, but his arm was severely hurt, and he cringed as the ninja landed beside him.
“Where is the scroll?” The ninja asked straight forward.
Toji looked up at him. Then a slight grin came across his face. “Hehe, if you thought I had it, you’re wrong. You’re gonna have to fight a lot harder than that if you want the scroll…”
“Oh?” The nin crossed his arms.
“Yeah, Chio has it.”

Chapter 7

“Chio HANDOU!” He shouted, his foot finally connecting with Tai’s chin, making him spin off of the tree, his eyes going blank as he hit the ground, very much unconscious. Chio quickly got to Tai and checked his pockets. “Aw HELL!” He picked up another heaven scroll. “The breaks I get.” Chio spat and then put the second heaven scroll in his pocket. “Sorry pal, but you’re not ready.” He waved and then ran to Miji’s battle.
Miji held an injured shoulder that was hit with tree bark as one of her kunai exploded behind her. Miji brought out one arrow, and without even loading it, flicked it straight for Samani.
Samani quickly twirled her chain-kunai as it approached, a using it as a shield.
“Release!” Miji shouted before it hit the chain, making it burst into flames.
Samani jumped back quickly as the fire approached her, throwing the kunai straight through it, at Miji. Before it hit her, Chio jumped in, catching the kunai in his hand.
“Ha! Bakuret-AH!!” She screamed as Chio kicked the chain so hard, it jerked her from her place and made her fall off of the tree. She quickly flipped and landed on her feet, but Chio was right there, and he chopped her in the neck.
“CHIO!” Miji shouted, taking a deep breath and blowing fire straight at him. Chio looked at her with wide eyes, thinking she had gone crazy, but then she saw a figure appear in front of him, the other Leaf Genin coming out of nowhere and taking the fire head-on, turning into fire himself.
Miji’s attack stopped and he turned to her, raising his arm. “No you don’t!” Chio shouted, spinning a kick at him. But he held up his forearm and blocked the kick, cringing somewhat. In a flash he also spun around and kicked at Chio, who caught the kick with his palm and spun around in the air, away from him. Then they both faced each other down, eyes narrowing.
“I am Leon…”
“Runagai Chio.” Without another breath, Leon charged with a flaming punch. Chio bent way back, his foot going up in a kick and his hand going to the ground for balance. Leon got hit, and skidded back. Chio flipped straight forward, as he was upside down, Chio wrapped his arms around his legs from behind, and then kicked both of his feet at Leon’s head. Leon quickly blocked two of them, but his heel caught Leon in the face, making him recoil back some but then swipe a punch at Chio’s legs, but Chio quickly kicked them both forward, and then brought them both straight back into Leon’s face, flipping forward, back on the ground again, and Leon stumbled back, falling to one knee.
As Chio came in for a finishing kick, though, Leon punched forward with both hands, blasting fire at Chio.
“Whoa!” Chio shouted, trying to jump, but his legs were caught in the flames. He flipped quickly. “HOT HOT HOT!” Chio shouted. In the blink of an eye, Leon appeared behind Chio in the air, and kicked him straight in the midsection, bringing him down to the ground with a crash. Leon landed on the ground, and then ran straight for Chio’s hole, in a fighting position. But as he crossed Miji, she sent Sakura peddles at him.
“Sakura Kiri No Jutsu!” She shouted, sending blades straight at him, he stopped in time to escape the brunt of the attack, but got sliced on his arm a few times, causing bleeding. He cringed and faced her, but in two seconds, Chio’s rock solid kick hit his chin and his jaw, his eyes also going blank. As Leon dropped, Chio dropped to one knee.
“Ohh man…” He held his chest and saw that another cut had gone across the other.
“Chio!” She went down to him. “Are you alright?” She started to look at his bruises and cuts.
“I’m fine, where’s Toji?” He started to get back up, but she held onto his shoulder as he stood, looking up at him.
“Wait…” She said, then kissed him on the lips, holding the back of his head.

Chapter 8

Chio helped Toji onto his feet, crutching him to make him stand up straight. Toji’s arm was hurt, and bleeding quite badly, but Miji put an herb into his wound that numbed the pain and then salted it, making him cringe.
Afterward, they made their way more into the forest, crossing over forest areas with the most dangerous animals in their homes in various trees. Chio caught more than one spider webs, some of them with very dangerous spiders, but he quickly pulled them off by their asses, so they couldn’t bite him, and then throw them onto the ground below the tree. He looked down at Toji to see he was as fast as he ever was, always subconsciously racing Chio, and Chio caught on quickly.
Suddenly, one of the tree branches that Miji landed on was hit and broken, making her fall off with a scream. Chio and Toji stopped instantly and went down below where they saw a very familiar tall guy, wearing sun glasses with long red hair. His hands in his pockets of his trench coat.
“Ah crap!” Chio said, turning around and not being surprised to see Shinju, the girl from the village, facing Chio with a grin on her face. She stayed in her stance, and slowly began to approach him, but before she could get too close, Chio punched his fist in the air so many times, it looked as if his arm detached from his shoulders as they punched in all different places at once.
“Kaleidoscope Fist!!!” Chio shouted as his fists went everywhere, punching Shinju in the face and the chest at the same time, several times. Shinju did her best to block the punches, but she was clobbered. Then she smiled. “Is that all you’ve g-“ then his leg swiped across her face, making her run her head into a tree. She held her jaw where his kick landed, then scowled at him.
“You bastard! Oki Sumashu!” She shouted, and her fist went straight for his face, he bent backwards but her chakra released from her fist and caught him in the face, making him fall. He fell on his back but instantly flipped up and back onto his feet. He was just in time to block one of her next punches with his foot as he kicked in the air, the chakra released from both of them made the trees around them crack and the dirt around them fly up and around them. After that, he caught both of her hands in his own, and then started to rapidly kick her as he bounced back and forth using her hands to pull him in to kick her in the gut, and then in the chest. She was knocked back into a tree finally. Then Chio spun straight at her in a torpedo move.
“Doton! Rokku Presu!” She shouted, making her chakra lift an area of rock up as a wall flying straight for him. He acted fast and spun around, kicking the rock with all of his strength breaking the rock in front of him, but not expecting to see her fist breaking through it as well, and punching him in the face. He hit the ground hard and rolled. He slowly got up, panting and wiping the blood from his chin.
“Nice grey horn.” Chio said, feeling the burn where she hit. As she stood in front of him, ready to attack again, “No, no, no, it’s my turn!” He shouted, his leg flying down into the ground below them and making the grown break and very slightly fissure under her feet, knocking her off balance. “CHIO HANDOUUU!!” He shouted, kicking straight at her in the gut, and then spinning around, his other leg catching her in the head. She fell to the ground, and then bounced straight back up with a right hook going at Chio face, but he quickly flipped backward, his feet catching her in the chin and lifting her off the ground with the intensity of the strike.
Toji stood against two, Goru, holding the large iron spiked club, and the one called Oniwa. Miji was unconscious, lying behind Toji, he head bruised and her back bleeding from the strike she took. Toji wasn’t sure about his odds of success, but he knew he had to do this, so he quickly took a scroll from his pocket, and put it in his mouth, performing three seals, ram, horse, and dragon. “Kakutasu Kigen!” He shouted, causing a large portion of cactus to emerge from the scroll as he opened it and put it on the ground. The cactus swung directly at the two, both of them jumping to either side. Instantly Toji put on his snake seal “Grow!” He shouted, two fists growing out of either side of it, Goru was hit, the spikes sticking into his chest and stomach, causing him to cringe and growl in pain. Oniwa held out both of his hands and caught the cactus end that came at him, clenching his hands and busting the cactus on his end, causing it to shrink back into the base of the cactus. “Hari Dangan!” He shouted, with a ram seal, shooting several needles toward both of them, Goru’s club blocking the needles and then swinging it around and smashing the cactus. Oniwa once again caught the needles in his chakra before it hit him, and then clenched his hands to make them break. He then shot them straight back at Toji in a bigger barrage. Toji barely had enough time to form his bird, snake, and ox, a wall growing out of the cactus, catching the needles. But before he could counter attack, Oniwa was behind the wall busting it apart and shooting more needles at Toji, this time driving them into his arms and stomach. He yelled in pain, but then dodged out of the way as the spiked club came down at him, it broke the ground in cracks.
Toji quickly pulled the needles from his stomach with a cringe and then sent them directly at Goru, sticking them into his back. He could see that it affected the chunky ninja, he bent backwards and he reached a hand, not able to get them. Goru then turned around, lifting the hammer with both hands.
“Spikes!” Goru shouted, making the spikes on his hammer grow straight out. He brought it down at Toji, who could only lift up his arms, the cactus was now out of range of protecting him, and he was very low on chakra.

Chapter 9

“Ryuumera No jutsu!!” Miji shouted, blowing a great deal of fire at Goru before his club hit Toji. Goru growled in pain and fell backwards. As Oniwa began to do seals, Toji pulled out a scroll, and summoned his giant shuriken to his hand. He quickly threw it spiraling at Oniwa. The tall ninja was taken by surprise with the shuriken and it struck him hard in the side, but his attack let fly none the less. All of the grown under Toji broke, and he was tossed straight up in the air, as if something had hit him on the chin.
“Toji!” Miji shouted, pulling out a bow and arrow quickly and firing a white one at him. He stopped the arrow, once again holding in midair with his short ranged telekinesis. He then grabbed it out of the air. “Shiroi Maro!” She shouted, making a giant marshmallow engulf his hand from the arrow.
Oniwa tried to get it off of his hand but it quickly engulfed his arm.
“Wha-what is this stuff!!” He smelled it. “Marsh mellows?!” It quickly began to grow over him as he tried to use his telekinesis to make it disperse.
-----
Chio was hit in the chest by her kick, sending him stumbling. As she charged along side him, she punched at his face. Acting quickly, his legs wrapped around her arm and he bent backward. When he punched was done, he kicked her in the face, and spun around her arm, jumping off of it. Both of their faces were bloody, as well were Chio’s fists, his gloves completely torn apart. He could still feel the beating in his face from Shinju’s harder punches, she was good. Her fists were around the strength of his legs, and that made her dangerous.
“You about ready to give me that scroll yet?” Chio said. This made Shinju’s eyes scowl at the white haired ninja.
“That’s a question you should ask yourself, Chio.” She said in a growling voice. It was said with malice, but she also meant a good deal of respect by it. He could back up his words, this one. No one had ever lasted against her in a taijutsu match. Her headband was not catching the sweat going down her face. She was tired, her knuckles ached from the impact of his kicks, as did her torso, knowing she had enormous bruises under her shirt. Her bra was snapped in the front, and she could feel her eye swelling up, and her eyelid was having trouble staying open. The only thing that kept her up and at him, was the knowledge that he was hurting just as much.
“Oki Sumashu!!!” She shouted at the top of her lungs, lunging at him with a punch of great momentum
“Chio HANDOU!!!” He charged at her with a straight-out kick. His leg was much longer than her arm, and his kick landed directly at her face. Blood splattered on his foot from her mouth. She was knocked straight back into the tree behind her, making it splinter quite a bit.
He stood where he was a minute, panting for breath, and wiping his chin, looking at the blood on it. He slowly made his way to Shinju, and stood over her. She deserved to be a Chuunin, but not more than he deserved it. He reached down and searched for the scroll on her.
“Oh Chio!” He looked up to see Miji waving the earth scroll in front of him.
----
Chio stayed in the back as they made their way toward the tower. His face was pounding, and his torso ached all over. Though he could fight, it would definitely not be in his maximum, he could see his companions were injured as well, they were vulnerable now. And he knew that there would be one or more challenges waiting for them, especially with as close as they were to getting there.

Chapter 10

They slept well that night. The night watch was the hardest part of that night. They were exhausted from all of the battle, and it seemed the same way with all of the other students, because it was quite. They had no fire that night, they slept under the stars. Miji kept first watch, sat up in a tree, keeping to the shadows as best she could, hidden behind the leaves, her bow and one red arrow in hand. The explosive arrow was the signal that she shot into the middle of the camp, where the fire wood was. If the logs lit on fire, Chio and Toji would be right on their feet. The night passed uneventful.
In the morning, the three were sluggish getting to their feet. All of them ached terribly, but soon they replaced their bandages, and they were off once again. They stopped at a clearing, in the middle of the clearing was the river, and wherever there was a river this close to the finish, there was bound to be trouble. Chio kept himself in a crouch, keeping his eyes to the trees and all around him. When he was pretty sure there was no immediate danger, he went off toward the middle stream, his cantine open and ready to dip into the river. As he neared it, two arrows went straight between his legs as he ran. He froze, looking to the left, and then cursing his mid-range attacks, he tumbled to the river and ducked into the water as two arrows shot into the shore of the bridge.
A beautiful raven-haired girl stood at a far range, her bright blue eye wide open and staring at Chio. She didn’t want to kill him, because he looked like an alright kind of guy, but she needed his heaven scroll, or else she would fail the test.
It was then that Toji jumped out from his hiding spot, pulling his giant shuriken out and spinning it straight at her. She quickly shot an arrow straight at the shuriken, veering it off course. “Kakutusu Spiegel no Jutsu!” With fully revitalized chakra, Toji cast a metal cactus toward the girl, and it shot at her in a solid ball form. She shrieked, having nowhere to run, so she jumped high, and her foot caught onto the top, toppling her down to the ground on the other side of it, landing on her back. Chio got up from the water.
“Come on!” He shouted to Toji and Miji, and they all quickly ran toward the tower. When they got to the other side of the trees, there was a whole circle of explosive notes waiting for Chio.
His eyes widened as he saw them. “SHIII—“ He shouted, jumping straight forward, propelled by the blast that lit up the forest. Chio instantly caught a glimpse of a blue-suited shinobi of the leaf in front of him, without hesitation, he spun around in a perfect circle and caught his foot into the ninja’s face, knocking him to the ground.
They finally made their way to the tower, going up a few stairs, and passing alongside one of Chio’s old schoolmates, Rokumaru. He didn’t think Roku would say anything, but then he turned to Chio.
“Ah, Runagai Lightning Legs Chio!” Rokumaru said with a smile. “You made it. Nice going man, you’re tougher than a lot of schmucks out in this place. I’ll be betting for you in the finals!” He said patting Chio on the shoulder.
“Thanks!” Chio said, Toji looking at him carefully as he entered the room.
“Is he crazy? He graduated top of our class no sweat!” Toji whispered.
“I know, I sparred him once. I lost.” Chio looked at Miji.
“Ooooo!” Miji said, gawking down the hallway as they came to their room.
Then they came to the final room, and read something up on the board. “Ummmm, Okay, what’s what supposed to mean?” Toji said, looking at the heaven scroll he snatched from Chio. He looked at his Earth Scroll, then they both looked at each other, shrugged, and unraveled them onto the ground. They both looked at a circle of symbols and signatures.
“Wait… this is a summoning seal.” He said just as it began to light up. They both stood back as a puff of smoke was emitted and there stood a short girl standing barely taller than Miji. She had a perky face and beautiful blue eyes.
“Washi!” Miji shouted.
“Miji!” Washi said, both of them embracing each other. Chio and Toji looked on, dumbfounded.
“Chio! This is my cousin! Washi! I visit her in Leaf village every year!” Miji said, smiling.
“Hi! I’m Washi, I’m your assigned Chuunin to tell you the importance of the scripture on the board! Now, I completely forgot what it means, but I’m sure if you’ve read it, you probably know!” She gave them both a wide smile, showing her perfect white teeth.
Chio’s eyes were quite wide when he heard all of this. “Uhhh, leadership is important?”
“Yes! That’s what it was! As you work as a team your teammates tend to get ideas and plans that work! The people that make these plans are Chuunin-material and are definitely what we’re looking for!” She smiled and hugged Miji again.
“Well I come up with plans.” Toji said.
“Yeah? Well I come up with plans that work!” Chio eyed Toji and Toji eyed Death!
“Now now! I’m sure your plans are both hysterical! But we have to be off to the preliminaries now!” She said, stepping forward. “Follow me!”

Chapter 11

Chio took off his pony tail and let his hair fall just below his shoulders. He smoothed out his hair, looking into the bathroom mirror. He always loved the way his platinum white hair shined in any kind of light, and he couldn’t help but notice the ladies admiring it, or probably even envying it. Not that he aimed to please the ladies, though it was on his mind, he decided his training was a bit more important. He ran water over his hand and splashed it on his face, feeling much better than before. The preliminaries were about to begin, and he didn’t want to miss the first match, knowing that seeing all of his opponent’s techniques would be much more important than his hygiene in any case.
He saw another man walk in, but he never got a look at his face, not bothering to look behind him, just seeing his torso in the mirror as he went into the stall directly behind Chio.
He put his hand on the towel dispenser, looking for something to dry his face and hair with, but it was empty. He rolled his eyes and then looked to the other side, there not being one at all. So in stead, he merely began to shake his head around. He straightened his hair once more, and put his hand down on his scrunchy, then he looked to the side, hearing a subtle noise.
Instantly he ducked below a long throwing blade headed straight for his neck, breaking the mirror in front of him. The man burst out of the stall and grabbed onto Chio’s neck, pulling him up as if he weighed nothing at all, and bashing his head into the ceiling, making a hole in it and then brought to his feet, dazed. As the man pulled him toward the wall, Chio caught his leg onto the man’s and twisted around, putting his hands on the man’s, and tripping him down. He quickly elbowed him in the side, flipping backward and to his feet.
The man, with his sharp face all wet from Chio’s hair, and his green eyes fixed on the boy, got to his feet and made two blades pop into his hands and he flung them around skillfully, throwing one straight for Chio’s heart, in which he nimbly dodged to the side, and flipped, landing into one of the stalls. As the man ran to the stall, Chio kicked open the door, knocking him in the face. As he stumbled backward, Chio continued in with a flip kick to the man’s torso, and then got down to his hands, kicking the knife from his hand and knocking him in the face, unconscious.
Without another minute to lose, the translucent window busted open with another assassin, this one much more prepared with two gadgets on either hand, one of them releasing two shuriken straight for the white-haired ninja, but he opened the stall door, blocking them both.
When the new assassin lunged straight for him, an unsuspecting genin entered the bathroom, and caught a glimpse of him.
“Get out! Get help!!” Chio shouted at him, instantly kicking the assassin out of the air and into the wall. The assassin landed on his hand and shot one shuriken for Chio, which struck him in the shoulder as he attempted to dodge, then he shot the genin, who ducked just in time, and shut the door. Chio pulled the shuriken from his shoulder, growling at the pain, and then got punched straight into the stall, breaking the door down. As the assassin aimed at him again, Chio threw the bloody shuriken straight and accurate, catching the ninja off guard and in the face.
“Gah!” The ninja shouted and put his hand on the shuriken, as he pulled it, Chio got up, grabbed both sides of the stall and sent a solid kick into his nose, breaking it completely flat with a crunch, and then flipped backward with a kick to his chin, enhancing his unconscious state.
----
Chio walked out of the bathroom with his hand on his shoulder, and three jounin hurried toward him, followed by the genin who warned them. As two of them went into the bathroom to find the assassins, the other Jounin helped Chio sit on the bench.
“Do you need a medic?” He said to him, and Chio shook his head.
“Nah, it’s just a scratch.”
“They’re not from the academy, nor are they ninjas of Sand Village.” The jounin said from the bathroom door.
“No, I know that already.” Chio said. “Neither of them have a whole lot of experience in assassination, otherwise I’d be in much worse shape. They’re thugs, not ninjas.”
“They’re trying to get you out of the game, aren’t they?”
Chio nodded, knowing whoever did it had a bad chance of winning the Chuunin Exams, and was desperate enough to try and get some of the players out of the game.
“Chio!” Toji said, running to him. “I thought you were just washing your face! Now I see you’re having more fun than I am!”
Chio gave him a sarcastic smile. “Just because I’m better than you and deserve it more.”
Toji gave back the exact same smile and scratched his hair with his middle finger.
“Chio-Chio!” Miji said, coming up from behind Toji. “What happened?”
“Long story, don’t worry about it, lets just get to the preliminaries.” Chio said, standing back up.
“You sure you can still fight?” The jounin asked him, standing up with him.
“Of course; I didn’t come this far to quit now.”
“Well the first match has already started.”
“Crap!” Chio said, bolting off toward the arena, Toji and Miji at his heels.

To be Continued!! Comments are welcome