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Chapter 35: Surviving the Academy
The sound, inside the walls of the building is much different then outside. Everything echos throughout the academy and every wire, explosion, and trap is enough to shake the very foundation inside the academy. Koichi, Koji, and Ryoko continue speeding through the tunnel leading to the beginning of the maze of the. Koichi runs just a little bit ahead of Koji and Ryoko and the three reach a wide open area as they exit the tunnel. Ryoko makes the tiger seal immediately as they enter the field and Koji grabs onto the scruff of Koichi's neck and hold him back as he pushes chakra into his body. The open field suddenly turns into a large area filled with several paths and walls.
“*hehe* Thanks bro.” Koichi says. “I didn't think they'd be using genjutsu as a trap.”
“Don't worry about that, we don't even have time to talk about your horrible skills with illusions, just leave that to Ryoko and myself.”
“I'll take the lead, there are a few more chakra based traps in the area that I can sense so I can keep on the look out, I also have gone through simulations with traps similar to this with my father, I should be able to prevent us from activating much.” Ryoko says.
“The map.” Koji says. Koichi takes out the map from his back pocket and opens it up. His eyes widen as he looks at the map. “Give me the map Koichi.” Koji says abruptly.
“It's blank!” Koichi blurts out. He holds out the map in front of him and both Ryoko and Koji turn and look upon it.
“What the hell is this?!” Ryoko says irritated.
“It has to be part of the test.” Koji says. He walks over to the paper and places his hand on it. He closes his eyes and tries to channel some of his chakra into the map.
“What are you doing?” Koichi asks.
Koji opens his eyes and he sighs. “There's some paper that's chakra sensitive and reacts when chakra is funneled into it. I was going out on a limb with it but apparently that's not the case.” Koji says disappointed. “It looks like we're going to need to figure this out another way.”
“We don't have time to waste though, we need to press onwards, our obstacles are going to be more difficult.” Ryoko says.
“We're just going to have to take them head on without halting.” Koichi pounds his fist into his hand and looks ahead of him determined.
“We can't be reckless, we don't even know which path is the right path to take and these traps are going to be difficult, we need to be careful.” Koji warns.
“There's still trails of chakra from the previous teams that have taken this path. All we need to do is follow them and keep our guard up and we should be fine.” Ryoko suggests. “Come on we need to go.” Ryoko walks out in front of Koji and Koichi and begins leading them down the path. *It looks like I'm leading this mission. I can't afford to fail not just for me, but for them.* Koichi follows close behind Ryoko and Koji looks around in the dark room looking at the large maze that surrounds them. Although reluctant, he follows Ryoko's lead, placing his trust in her.
Overhead in on their path, two proctors hidden in a secret platform over them look down at team Kankuro as they begin their way through the maze.
“These guys would've had the right idea if any of the teams that took this path actually passed.” one of the proctors says to his partner. “All the teams ended up taking the most difficult routs and activating the most difficult traps. I mean really some of these traps I wouldn't feel comfortable going through myself.”
“They need to figure out the map if they expect to pass this test at all, or at least make it to the appropriate halfway mark in order to be able to open the scroll.” The other proctor says. The tension in his proctor's eyes intensifies as he looks down at the three genin. “However, if they head too far down the right path into the outer wing, they won't pass.”
“We'll have to step in if they head down there.” The other says. “It's simply too much. When they rebuilt this place, the council wanted to make sure our instructors for the academy were of the highest caliber.”
With those ominous words, team Kankuro continues their way through the maze.
~Several Minutes Pass~
Almost an hour has passed since team Kankuro and the other teams of the group finished began their exams. As team Kankuro finds themselves piggybacking off the trails of the previous testers of their path, they find themselves running into several traps. Although they manage to overcome them, they are quickly exhausted.
“Ryoko, how much further can we go?” Koichi whines.
“How many times do I need to keep telling you, I can only follow the signatures that are clear in front of me. I can't see through the maze walls.”
“Well how do you know we're not going in circles then?!” Koichi complains.
“Will you just shut it and let me handle this?!” Ryoko's tone is frustrated and irritated. She's physically exhausted and her chakra is continuously fading as she uses every ounce she has, trying to decipher the right path to take.
“Sorry...what about your summoning rats or whatever, can't they burrow and give us a hand?”
“No, this academy is made of steel and metal. Not even my meercats can burrow through this.” Ryoko says in a calmed tone realizing her frustration a moment ago. Ryoko continues on walking for a moment with Koichi and Koji behind her. She suddenly stops, panting heavier then before and she drops to her knees.
Koichi and Koji rush to her quickly, “Ryoko are you alright?” Koichi asks worried.
“I'm fine.” Ryoko says in a low tone.
“Picking out the chakras of the others with careful judgment and while still navigating through traps has taken it's toll on you.”
“I said I'm fine!” Ryoko bursts out with her head down. She continues to pant however she tries to control it. Her face is filled with anxiety and frustration towards herself *Damn it. I can't fault now, I just can't* Ryoko focuses her chakra again looking towards the chakra patterns in the area. “This way is the best.” She point towards the left path. “If we go down here I can't sense any chakra based traps up ahead for a while. It shouldn't be a dead end I can sense a large cluster of chakra built up in that direction it must be nearing an exit.”
Just then the sound of a large bell rings throughout the entire academy getting the attention of Koichi, Koji and Ryoko. As the first bell rings throughout the academy, the remaining four teams all look up as they hear the bell, their expressions serious realizing only two more spots remain.
“God damn it.” Masaomi says, banging his hand on the wall. He turns behind him and looks at his teammates. Koga carries Shizuko on his back, her eyes are in a daze as she's barely conscious. “How is she?”
“That illusion was too powerful for her. We only lasted as long as we did because of our bodies, but Shizuko doesn't have the same resilience that we did.” Koga says. Blood drips down Koga's right arm. “If I hadn't cut my arm we'd still be trapped...But this blood loss is getting me light headed.”
“Damn it, if Shizuko were conscious she could patch you up, I'm a complete dud with that type of stuff.” Masaomi admits.
“Don't worry about it, we'll pull through.” Koga says.
“Come on, we have to go!” Ryoko says pulling herself up.
“Are you sure you're alright to walk?” Koji asks.
“I'm fine, lets go.” Team Kankuro and Team Maiyuri continue on their paths heading for their destinations. Ryoko brings her team to a wide open area within with three corridors at the end of the long hall.
“The floor here seems different from the rest of the path.” Koji says. “There's a trap here we need to be careful.” Ryoko and Koichi nod and the three genin head on with caution. As they continue to walk Koichi notices a gleam of light in his peripheral on the left side. A kunai suddenly ejects from a hidden hatch over head and towards Ryoko.
“Ryoko heads up!” Koichi warns. Ryoko releases one of her katana and swings it to her side deflecting the blade. Just then two more kunai from all three of the genin's blind spots shoot out again towards Ryoko. After it passes over to Koichi's sight he knows she wouldn't be able to react in time in her condition of fatigue. “Ryoko behind you!” Koichi darts out towards her but as he does he stumbles as a tile in floor sinks below him. Ryoko turns as Koichi yells for her and notices the blades. She manages to move however she's brazed on the shoulder and her arm by the two blades and the cuts run moderately deep as blood seeps down her arm and she drops her blade. Suddenly the floor begins to shake beneath the feet of the genin and in an instant several sections of the ground begin to simply sink and disappear.
As Koji quickly notices this he takes out a kunai and some wire and join the two. As a section beneath him disappears and he stumbles off, he throws the kunai and wraps it around the remaining section. The section where Koichi's back lay disappears as well and he begins to fall. As he falls he notices sand trickling down from the sections and he quickly claps his hands together and gathers a large amount of sand to his arm and creates an extension which wraps around the path remaining. Koichi see's Ryoko begin to fall and he takes his other free hand and creates a bed of sand underneath her. The platform finishes it's depleting and what remains are thin roads that lead to the end corridors.
“Damn it, I screwed up!” Koichi exclaims. As Koichi says this, Koji looks below and his eyes widen slightly. “What is it Koji?” Koichi looks down and his eyes widen as well...
Looking up at Team Kankuro as they dangle off the platform, is Team Maiyuri. Masaomi and Koga look up at the three shinobi with hostile eyes. The two paths intertwine with one another and the two teams are directly on top of one another.
Masaomi shifts his eyes to his side, noticing an obvious trap with explosives. *The three of you are going to end here!* Masaomi darts out towards the trap, intentionally tripping the switch and suddenly several explosions activate throughout the area. Koga picks up on Masaomi's intentions and keeps himself and Shizuko out of range of the blasts.
“What the hell is he doing?” Koichi ponders. Koji's expression gets extremely grim. As the explosions end, the rise a lot of smoke and Koga jumps right into the smoke.
“Koichi!” Koji yells. Without a moment's hesitation, linking into Koji's cry he launches Ryoko up, onto the platform still remaining and diverts his sand in front of him and Koji as two kunai tagged with explosives shoot through the smoke towards the two brothers. Koichi's sand catches the kunai and he manages to smother the explosion just enough to prevent it from knocking the two of them off balance.
Koichi pulls himself up with his sand and Koji swings himself up from his kunai. “What the hell was that?!” Koichi yells.
“They tried to sabotage us.” Koji says. “The intent didn't seem to be for the kill but just to make us fall onto their platform so we'd get disqualified.”
“But they can't do that or—”
“Nobody saw a thing, Masaomi used the smoke as cover, not even the proctors could see through that thick of a fog.”
“But it's obvious.” Ryoko says. “The weren't trying to kill us just to get us out of the running.”
“Their intent may not have been to kill you maybe.” Koichi says with a low voice. His expression pained as he remembers Masaomi and Koga back at the hospital months ago. “Just being around me causes them to hate you by affiliation, I'm sorry.”
“You don't have anything to apologize for.” Ryoko says. “Come on, we need to get going before they get too far ahead of us.”
The three genin carefully make their way through the pathway and Ryoko leads them down the corridor to the right.
“Damn they took that path.” One of the proctors observing team Kankuro says. “Do you think we should stop them now?”
“No, they have to do the test on their own, the moment we interfere they're disqualified. We can only jump in once things become too much for them to handle.”
“And just when do you think that will be?” The proctor says with sarcasm. The other observing proctor watches as the genin head through that path approaching the most difficult section of that path and he sighs.
“If they activate the trap, then we'll interfere, but they can still avoid it if they stay sharp.”
The three genin continue on their way through the path for several minutes and they experience a relief from any sort of traps for the time the travel.
“This is strange.” Koichi says, shifting his head from left to right. “We haven't stumbled into any sort of traps since we came down this corridor.”
“Well don't jinx it you idiot, we're probably getting closer to the exit.”
“But if we were, we'd be facing a barrage of obstacles.” Koichi suggests.
“We just have to stay on our guard is all.” Koji says trying to calm the nerves of his comrades.
The team continues to walk down the following the chakra signals. As she walks, Ryoko begins to experience her vision coming in and out of focus and she becomes light headed. She shakes her head trying to shake off the distortion however it does her little good. He body begins to tremble subtlety but unnoticed by Koichi and Koji. Her body has been severely fatigued and she's reached her limit. The proctors overhead notice her and they notice the team entering the danger zone.
Ryoko continues onward approaching a hidden sensor, however her vision disorients her focus and she doesn't notice it. She walks right by the sensor and just as she does the walls on all sides begin to drop and the space opens up wide. The proctors immediately spring into action however as they land, one of the proctors accidentally trips another trap.
“Shit!” The walls on all sides of them begin to shift creating another path and one of the walls are put up between them and the three genin, preventing them from helping them and also trapping the three genin.
Just then whistle of projectiles can be heard from all directions of the proctors. “Watch it!” The other proctor says. The two chuunin quickly deal with the projectiles however they still remained blocked from the three genin. “Come on, we have to get to them quick!”
Just then chambers from all over the area begin to release a thick fog and it cuts off the sight of all three of the genin from each other. “Koji, Ryoko!” Koichi yells trying to open his eyes through the smoke.
*Damn it!* Ryoko thinks to herself. She begins to make a few seals, but she stop and quickly draws her both her blades and cuts down two pointed pieces of earth that shoot up beneath her on either sides of her. As she cuts through the earth segments she also cuts through wire on one of the stones which activates another trap. She begins to sense thin lines of chakra shooting towards her from the sides and she manages to avoid them, enhancing her speed with her chakra.
“What the hell?!” Ryoko hears Koichi's voice and as she senses the chakra of her teammates she sees their chakra lined with the rope like chakra strands and realizes that they've been captured in a web of chakra strings.
*Oh no...oh no, no, no!* Ryoko takes a step and she stumbles a slight amount. *I don't have any chakra left...* Ryoko grips her blades and squints her eyes intensively. *I don't have a choice* She twirls both her blades once and gets a firm grip on them and then whips them down to her side releasing a huge gust of wind with her fuuton chakra and blows the fog away and sees her teammates trapped. She notices the earth around the both of them displacing and without hesitation she focuses her chakra to her feet and with amazing speed she speeds to Koji and cuts down the pointed sections of earth that begin to rise. She then heads towards Koichi and does the same and then attempts to cut the strings of chakra, but she's unable to. She sees a small platform near the center and begins to run towards it hoping to release the strings. However as she does this she doesn't notice the chakra strings shooting out from all sides of her, as the more earth sections she cut down the more chakra based traps she activates. Ryoko eventually notices the chakra strings and tries to react however she stops in place, frozen and simply drops and the wires restrain her.
“Ryoko!” Both brothers yell in unison. Ryoko is barely conscious however with the last ounce of chakra she has she emits a gust of wind from her mouth towards the platform and it deactivates the strings from all of them, however Ryoko falls after. She's on the border of unconsciousness, moving is completely out of the question for her. The ground begins to shake vigorously and Koji looks above and sees several jagged stones and bolders overhead as well as the sides of the room curving upwards in a cavernous type way. Koichi notices several chambers open all around with kunai inside them.
“The ground's shaking!” One of the proctors says.
“This is not good!” The other says in a panic.
Just as the avalanche begins and the stones begin to fall, the kunai from the chambers begin to shoot from all directions of Ryoko. Koichi rushes towards Ryoko and Koji heads to the side towards the walls of the area, he takes out two scrolls and releases two puppets.
“Ahhh!” Koji turns and sees several kunai impale Koichi. Koichi has a semi circle barrier of sand around Ryoko but not enough to cover her entire body. Koichi is placed on the opening side of Ryoko with his arms spread out to protect her. As the rocks fall towards them, Koji sends one of his puppets, controlled by his left arm over to Koichi and Ryoko. The puppet stands atop of Koichi's sand barrier with it's hands up. Koji stands on the wall and sends his other puppet up towards the rest of the bolders. Koji's puppet has several paper tags on it's body and as it gets airborne, he has it explode and causes the stones to split into several smaller bolders overhead.
Koji then has his other puppet extend two hidden arm from the side and it holds it's arms up over head as well and it creates a wall of chakra protecting Koichi and Ryoko from overhead. The explosion from Koji's puppet blocks the pathway from the back way where they entered just as the proctors come into sight.
The stone shower falls overhead and is deflected off of of Koji's puppet overhead of Koichi and Ryoko. Koichi pants with pain and looks up at his brother, his eyes blurred partially. As his vision comes into focus Koichi widens his eyes in horror “KOJI!” Koji is exhausted but he manages to look above him as several large stones still continue to fall over him.
With one of his puppets destroyed and the other protecting his teammates, Koji has no defense...
The stone collide with Koji and proceed to fall to the ground carrying him and crushing him under their immense weight.
“KOJI!!!”
To Be Continued...
Author's Note:
I forgot that I didn't release anything yesterday so I had to do it now, I can't keep getting far behind with my release dates xd. Anyway this is a good chapter for me I believe. It's a little long but I think I build up the appropriate amount of suspence in this cliffhanger here. Please give me some feedback on the chapter. Tell me what you liked/disliked about it or things I did well on/not so well on and need to improve on etc. To those of you who read/comment/rep this post I thank you, enjoy 
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