A Painful Life

Author's POV

Yumi was sleeping. She was dreaming about Gaara. A big smile was on her face, she dreamed about him battling 3 ninja. One of them performed a "rain of needles" jutsu. Suddenly, a shield of sand protected him. Gaara then killed those three ninja by making them choke in sand burials and their blood was raining everywhere. Yumi just sat up at the sight of the raining blood. She looked around at her teammates, they were still sleeping. It was time to wake up, it was morning.

"Wake up sleepy heads… if you want to pass this test!" She said.

Naruto opened his eyes. "Huh, oh what time is it?"

"It's morning, it's time to wake up, unless you want to snooze and lose", said Yumi.

Sakura sat up and yawned. She batted her eyelashes when she saw Sasuke sleeping. "Sasuke, time to wake up!"

Yumi sighed and stood up. She took her scrunchy from her ninja bag and pulled her hair into a loose ponytail. Sakura combed her hair and wore her headband.

"Guys… there's something I need to tell you", said Yumi. Her stomach started growling.

"Uh oh", Sakura pulled out her kunai. "I think we've got company".

"It's my stomach, I'm starving", blushed Yumi.

"Oh, well we all are. There's a lake near by. We can have fish for breakfast", said Sasuke.

Later

We all walked to the lake and sat by. Naruto begged to be the one to jump in and fish since we don't actually have any fishing gear. He took off his clothes and climbed to a near jumping cliff. Sasuke was holding some kunai knives to attack the fish when they jumped out of the lake. I wanted to join them too but it would end up in an argument. So I just sat with Sakura to bring wood to make fire.

Sasuke was able to hit three fish, then one more. Naruto looked really tired. "This is really tiring! You do it!" He yelled.

"We need more fish for later, three isn't enough. I could eat four fish myself, do it three more times", said Sasuke.

Naruto grunted. "It's okay Sasuke, you two can take shifts for later", said Yumi.

"Sasuke! I've set up the wood, all it needs is some fire! Can you help?" said Sakura.

Yumi glared at Sakura. "Um Sakura, there are four members in this team", she said.

"Yeah", Sakura gave Yumi a "what do you mean" look.
"Just telling you in case you forgot, no need to thank me", said Yumi sarcastically.

"This is the fourth afternoon since the test started", said Sasuke.

"Uh huh…" said Yumi.

"Which means lots of teams have passed already", said Sakura.

"Guys, I know we have like not much time left, but if we start searching right after we finish our food, we could make use of the time and we will have regained our energy", said Yumi.

"We only have 25-26 hours left, and the test started about 2:30 pm… this is getting bad", said Sasuke.

Naruto was obviously thinking about the fish in front of him. Yumi looked up and remembered what happened. "It's all my fault, isn't it? I'm the one who dragged Orochimaru all the way here… I'm guessing it would have been different if I stayed in the Sound village. But it's no time to regret mistakes, we should just eat up and start searching for a heaven scroll", said Yumi.

They started eating. Sakura looked at them. "You know, there may not be any heaven scrolls left", she looked down.

"What do you mean?"

"That 80 percent of the test is over, plus the fact that it's the fourth day of this five day test means… That Orochimaru guy burned down the heaven scroll we had", Sakura said.

"Thanks for bringing that up", said Yumi feeling all guilty.

"So the highest amount that can pass is 13 teams right? There are 78 entrants, 26 teams and only 13 of each scroll. From that point on, the amount of the passing teams went down by one", continued Sakura.

"So you mean that if we only have one scroll, and the other was destroyed, the scroll is totally meaning less without the other. Yeah we needed two days to recover but as I said, we need to be more active and start searching if we want to be one of the 13 passing teams", said Yumi.

"Exactly, this is our last chance", said Sakura.

"The next enemy is…" said Sasuke."I'm going to get some water".

"Wait, I'm coming with you", said Yumi.

Yumi's POV

Sasuke and I went to get some water. It was silent the whole time.

"So Sasuke, are you having any trouble with your um new changes?"

"Changes?"

"I mean the curse mark".

"No. I'm going to listen to you and learn to control it".

"Good. I'm sorry about what happened".

"Like you said, there's no time to regret. We need to go and get going. There's not much time left", said Sasuke.

Suddenly, a vision came to me of two guys. One of them opened the scroll they had and suddenly they were both out. Their other teammate heard them scream and ran to them. I snapped back to reality. Then another vision came to me, it was Sakura and Naruto. They were planning on opening the scroll. I snapped back to reality and looked at Sasuke.

"What's with you?" He said.

"It's Naruto and Sakura… they want to open the scroll! And the first vision means that there's going to be trouble from what I saw".

Sasuke and I ran as fast as we could. When we reached them, we saw someone with them. OMG, is that an enemy? No, it's Kabuto, my enemy… not exactly theirs.

"Guys, what were you thinking?" Sasuke said.

"Didn't you hear the rules? Guys, if Kabuto wouldn't have shown up, something bad could have happened", I said.

Naruto and Sakura looked down in guilt as we told them off. Kabuto explained that the scrolls were packed with a hypnosis jutsu that knocks out whoever who opens the scroll till the end of the exam blah blah blah. Sasuke thought he was after our scroll, but Kabuto already had both scrolls. Sasuke wanted to fight Kabuto for his scroll.

"You're not kidding, are you?" I said.

"Kabuto helped us you jerk", said Naruto.

"Naruto's right", said Sakura.

"Shut up! It's the only way for us to survive, we have no choice", Sasuke said.

"You're lying", said Kabuto. "You're all talk. Why attack me when I'm on my guard, why announce it in front of me? After all, that's not the way of the ninja".
I knew it! He was spying on us! Orochimaru is still here, in Konoha… I've got a bad feeling about this…

"Let's go… the smell of this cooking fire can get lots of hungry enemies… not to mention the wild animals", he said.

As we were on our way, actually as we were jumping our way on trees, Kabuto was telling us about things in this forest. Yeah, there were still lots of enemies near the tower… like an ambush waiting for prey to attack and stuff. So, we won't be able to defeat them alone… we need to be like a group. Besides, doing all this alone is quite scary. I'm not saying I'm feeling scared but I'm not feeling safe either… Like I really can't cope with the team. Even though I may look it but Naruto and Sasuke always fight, Sasuke and I always fight… and I can't think of Sakura as a strong kunoichi. Anyways, what we're gonna do is attack one of the teams near the tower to get the scroll we need. I do think that it's a little harsh to sabotage hard work but desperate times call for desperate measures. Kabuto also told us about collectors who take extra scrolls to give to other teams or to receive info and stuff, meaning we're not the only ones trying to get a scroll from teams near the tower. It was already night by the time we arrived near the tower.

"We need to be careful from here", said Kabuto.

"I can see the tower over there", I pointed.

"Alright, let's go", said Naruto. Suddenly, he looked back and threw a kunai. We heard a squishing sound, must be the kunai. We all looked and saw it was a huge centipede on the tree.

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I screamed.

"Oh, it's just a centipede", said Naruto.

"Just a centipede? That thing is as big as a bus", said Sakura.

"That's nasty, look at all these legs", said Sasuke.

"Oh my gosh, it must have been taking too much vitamins", I gagged.

"I'd like to tell you that we should avoid loud movements and noises, so if we see any more bugs, someone should be next Yumi just in case she screams again", said Kabuto. "We should move slowly and quietly, we'll tip off our enemies because we won't be getting a warm welcome from them, moving in this forest is like an elephant".

"Uh huh, I get it now", I said.

Later

We swam in one of the lakes to shorten our path, then we kept walking and walking. I was so tired.

"Guys, I can't keep up this speed…" I said.

"How long have we been walking?"

"I think we just met our warm welcome party", said Kabuto.

"That's… No way!" pointed Naruto.

We all looked and saw the centipede on the tree.

"EEEEEEEEEEEEK, not again!" I screamed again. "Was that…"

"Genjutsu?" said Sasuke.

"No way!" said Sakura.

"What's going on here?" shouted Naruto.

"They're watching us", said Sasuke.

"They took advantage of our fears, made us walk in circles. We just fell into their trap", said Kabuto. "They're planning to tire us out so they should be ready to attack".

Then we heard voices saying "Surrender your scrolls". We looked up at the trees and saw lots of ninja clones.

"Ew, don't they look like that guy Sasuke battled?" I said.

"Yep, they've appeared", said Sasuke.

"Perfect handicap", said Naruto.

"You're just like mice in a mouse trap", said one of the clones.

"Oh yeah", charged Naruto at one of them with full speed… as usual.

These were not shadow clones, they're mud clones. Attacks don't affect them!

"Great job Naruto!" cheered Sakura.

The guy was shaped like putty from Naruto's attack, and then he connected him self back.

"Ew, is that a mud clone?"

"I'll uncover them! Sharingan!" yelled Sasuke as his Sharingan appeared. I was amazed how the strong the Uchihas were. Just like Kimura. Sasuke threw shuriken at one of the clones that was about to attack Naruto. He threw a kunai back at him. Suddenly, Sasuke looked paralyzed. Kabuto also got hurt.

"I can't attack, it will be useless", I said.

"They're Genjutsu, just illusions", said Sasuke.

"What?" I said.

"He's right… They're just hiding and using Genjutsu", said Kabuto.

"And will attack after we're totally wiped out from using our energy up".

"We could just dodge their attacks... for now", said Kabuto.

All the clones were attacking with weapons and we kept dodging them.

"This is endless!" Sakura and I said in unison.

Naruto decided to perform a jutsu… he's just gonna waste his chakra on illusions. He made a shadow clone jutsu and attacked the illusionary ninja. They were gone then suddenly, the three original ninja appeared.

"Finally, you're now brave enough to show yourselves", I said from behind. We made shadow clones of ourselves… Naruto was the only one who was battling them, the rest were only clones of us. We hid when he released the jutsu. And also… it was already dawn.

"It worked like a charm, Naruto", said Sakura.

"You're now trapped like rats", said Sasuke.

"We got you good!" said Naruto.

"But… how? When?" said one of the ninja.

"It was a trick, the shadow clone jutsu was a diversion while I became the whole team", said Naruto.

"We hid the moment Naruto released the jutsu. You Genjutsu users got a taste of your own medicine", said Sasuke. "Naruto, you've used too much chakra, I'll take it from here", said Sasuke.

"No, I'm sick of you always taking the juicy part", said Naruto.

Naruto was still able to move… Wow, he's got some energy!

"We'll show you our ninjutsu", said ninja 1. "There's little time left… but we aren't unlucky just yet. You're pretty good. Mist Clone technique!"

Other clones appeared. "I'm beginning to really hate clone jutsus!!!" I said.

"I'll just blast them all til the real one appears", said Naruto.

"There must be some sort of trick, watch out", said Sasuke.
"Shadow clone? I told you to stay out of it!" said Naruto charging at them… again.

"Idiot! That plan won't work", said Sasuke.

"Guys, this is a total waste of time and we don't have much time left, it's already Day 5", I said.

The ones Naruto hit were all clones. So Sasuke used his Sharingan again to see through the real ones. Suddenly, Sasuke fell on his knees and screamed.

"Oh no, Sasuke!" I ran to him and saw the curse mark. "Sasuke! Stop your Sharingan", said Sakura.

"It's no use… no matter where you attack, you won't find the real ones", said Sasuke.

Then it turned out they were hiding under ground while using the shadow clones.

"Uh, total rip offs", I said.

One of them hit Kabuto in his face. They were all concerned about Kabuto's smirk then Naruto attacked.

"Great job Naruto!" cheered Sakura.

"Finally!" I sighed.

"What's that? An injury?" said Kabuto about Sasuke's curse mark.

"It's nothing", he said.

"Maybe just a tattoo", I said trying to cover for him.

"Hmmm, you got something on your neck too Yumi", he said.

"Funny you should ask…" I said sarcastically because he already knew I got my curse mark when I was kidnapped.

"It's the heaven scroll! I found it! I found it!" yelled Naruto.

"Yay!" I tried to cheer.

"You're late Kabuto", said someone. It was Kabuto's teammates.

"Sorry, we ran into some trouble", he said. "You were great Naruto!"

"Thanks to you, we got the scrolls", said Naruto.

"Yeah…" I said.

"Good luck to all of us, we're going through this door", said Kabuto.

"Sure, whatever", I huffed.

Sasuke looked at me suspiciously. I gave him a "what are you looking at" look then he looked away at Kabuto.

Inside the tower

"There's nobody here", said Naruto.

"Oh no, what if it's a trap? What if that Kabuto set us up?" I said.

"No, look", said Sakura. "I think they're trying to tell us to open the scrolls".

"Correction: You guys open the scrolls, I'm through with all these surprises. Besides, weren't you guys so eager to open them", I said.

Naruto and Sakura took each of the scroll and opened the scrolls.

To be continued