Normally the technique would have been subtle, sliding carefully along the pattern of the grass so as to avoid the attention of any eye that might have fallen upon it. A shadow was the perfect weapon, normally beneath the notice of even the most observant shinobi. However, in this instance there was no need for such deception. As Shinako looked up, she realized that Maigo had been reaching for the scrolls. His frame blocked her vision of any good vantage point on which scroll it was that he was reaching for, but she was relatively certain that it was hers. Of course, he would be interested in taking both of them. The young woman smirked as she realized that she had the drop on him. She would paralyze him, grab the scrolls for herself, and then cut and run. It had become apparent from the genjutsu that Maigo was not interested in playing nice.
She had been too busy escaping, and had barely registered the sickening, wet crunch that accompanied the plant clamping down on the other genin's arm. Some part of her thought that it served him right for sticking his hand into the cookie jar after attacking her while she was defenseless. By the time she was ready to spring her trap, Maigo was all but finished escaping, no doubt surveying the damage to both his arm and to the scroll. Forming the sign of the Rat, Shinako sent her shadow rocketing forward. It seemed as though time stood still for that scant fraction of a second as the dark pool sped across the grass. Her focus was unbreakable, her aim perfect.
A screech rang out over the trees on the back of the Genbu. Not far from where the various genin struggled, a hawk fell into a dive, executing a flawless maneuver, talons outstretched, eyes locked on the back of a small rodent. Claws penetrated flesh, completing the flash of a sequence that millions of years of evolution had led up to. The hawk would not go hungry.
Shinako felt her shadow collide, pull taut, and then reel in slack, returning to the tip of her toe as she looked around in utter confusion. The snaking tendril of her Kageyose jutsu still lingered in the air behind her, like a scorpion's tail poised for a strike, though fragmented and made altogether otherworldly by its pure existance under the four overhead spotlights of the otherwise chilly and dark room. It was this detail that most confused the three women in surgical gear that now surrounded Shinako with abject bemusement playing across their features. Shinako stood above them, her sandals planted firmly on a sterile surgical table, her hands still clasped together in the sign of the Rat.
It took Shinako several seconds to realize what was going on. As her shadow tendril whithered away, sinking into one of the many shadows that she cast under the lights, the kunoichi looked from face to face of the surgeon and the surgical assistance, who, for the all their training in emergency preparedness, seemed to be at a loss as to what to do. Slowly unfolding her hands, Shinako came to the unfortunate conclusion that this could not be another genjutsu. Maigo simply hadn't had the time to weave another illusion. No, this was something different entirely.
She had been, by her own admission, sleepily going through the motions as the proctor had given the instructions that very morning, but she now remembered in vivid detail the mechanism of her apparent downfall. As the doctors around her checked their dosiers to determine which unfortunate loser had appeared, in full combat stance and unharmed on their surgical table, Shinako remembered the emergency escape mechanism built into all of their scrolls. Maigo must have opened her scroll at the moment her Shadow Paralysis Technique had found its mark, transporting her with a summoning jutsu to the medical care area.
"NARA, SHINAKO! Twenty-three-year-old female, Blood Type O Positive, Konohagakure. Pressure before exams, normal. Eyes, responsive. Vitals..."Busy hands rushed to her as Shinako, wide-eyed and slack-jawed, made to sit on the edge of the table, reaching down to steady herself, both in the awkward motion and against the shock of it all. The medical examiners quickly stripped her of her clothing, going over every inch of her body and scanning for traumatic injuries and sponging her clean while she sat in stunned silence. They began, with every passing moment, to become as confused as she was.
The young woman's mind raced, never latching on to one idea or another, trying to make sense of what Maigo had done. Perhaps he had thought that she was injured. Perhaps he had opened the wrong scroll, as his arm had been hurt by that nightmare of a plant. Endless altruisms and misconceptions made their way through her inner filter, until one image laid into her as though she had been physically electrified. As clear as anything in her mind's eye, she could see Maigo standing over her defenseless form, eyes as cold as the village he came from, forming a handseal.
"No, doctor, I can't find anything. She...she must just be in shock."A long silence, then a whisper.
"Maybe this one quit."The non-essential medical personel began to gather their various papers and tools and make their way out of the room. If asked later, Shinako would not have been able to pick any of their faces out of a line-up, or to say what questions were asked and answered while she sat in her under-garments on the cold metal of the operating table. Her clothing was stuffed into plastic bags to be disposed of, and she was given a plain black kimono to dress in, and then left alone. That was it. Her chunin exam was over.
Finally alone, Shinako stared at the flat linoleum of the floor, eyes barely focused, mentally reviewing the few short hours that had been the most important test of her life. Looking back, it was easy to see how she had done everything wrong. She had abandoned her search for sustenance and shelter to chase after a person who she barely knew. But no, that wasn't exactly accurate. She should have known that he was an enemy. If her squad-mates ever found out about the time and attention she put into trying to signal Maigo; trying to chase him...ultimately falling into a trap and never truly escaping.
For a few long moments, Shinako simply closed her eyes, laying her head back against the solid comfort of the table. A few hours ago she had been preparing herself to fight, and possibly to die. Now it ended not in triumph, or a blaze of glory, but with betrayal.
Betrayal.
Opening her eyes, Shinako sat up once more, reaching for the garment that had been provided for her, dressing herself in black, like the dead, or someone mourning the dead. Her stare against the blank space of the wall was hard and almost determined. No doubt she would have to explain this to her superiors and her teammates, but she was not willing to accept the chasm of thought that she had just fallen into. She would not be convinced that what she had done was a mistake, or a sign of weakness.
Gripping every moment that she had just revisited firmly in her heart, Shinako told a different story. She had entered an arena where people would be pitted against one another for no good reason, and every inch of her had protested that, curled up like a fist, fingers wrapped around her own humanity. When she had seen a friend she had gone to offer help. When Maigo had fallen she had done her best to rush to his aid, ending up a victim not to her own weakness or inability, but to a single, vulnerable, naked act of compassion and kindness.
Shinako sighed heavily, standing and leaving her guilt and regret on the table. As she exited to operating room it was to a hallway full of people blatantly refusing to make eye contact, yet she held her head high as she headed for the lobby of what she recognized as a hospital. Her common sense and a few symbols on lapels or papers told her that she was still in Kumogakure, and that this had been no short-cut home.
As she passed by the charge nurse, one of them flagged her down and handed her the tools that the examiners had collected off of her person, as well as her tool-kit and satchel. A quick inventory told her that everything was in place. She bowed and thanked the nurse, who also handed her a set of discharge papers and a debriefing packet. Shinako stood at the high counter and read them over. It was pretty standard language, and she simply skimmed over it.
Shinako left the packet on the table, finding no further need for it. Even reading the details of her failure didn't exactly phase Shinako after her self-confidence session in the refrigerated surgical suite. As she began her start toward the front entrance of the hospital, in fact, she caught herself humming a tune from her childhood. Overall, things could have ended up much worse. If nothing else, she still had her health, and she hoped that Joruri was doing well, even is he was still trapped so far away from her in that macabre arena.
It was her teammate and what he was possibly doing, or what was being done to him, that dominated Shinako's thoughts as she entered the lobby. To her surprise, it was filled with men and women wearing flak-jackets and body armor, adorned with the various symbols of the nations that were competing in the exams. It appeared as though this area was being used as a make-shift waiting room so as not to disturb the everyday functions of the rest of the hospital with heavily armed Shinobi moving about.
It was here that a young man who must have been a chunin, sporting the symbol of the leaf-village on his forehead, approached Shinako, flashing a picture of her that he had obviously brought as a form of identification.
"Nara Shinako?" the man asked in a gravelly voice. He couldn't have been much older than she was. Shinako nodded and saluted the man, "I have this message for you...uh," he paused awkwardly as he handed her the message with one hand and scratched the back of his head with the other, obviously at a loss for words.
"I'm uh...sorry about the exams."Shinako smiled and shrugged in a conciliatory gesture, thanking him nonverbally for his condolences. He headed off without another word, leaving her with the plain white envelope in hand. It wasn't post-marked, and had likely been sent by a shinobi who feared that it might have been intercepted en route. Finding a corner of the room filled with mostly leaf ninja, Shinako took a good look at the envelope, labeled with her name and a heart, drawn in a neat pen. The shinobi gathered around her tried their best not to draw attention to the way that they uncomfortably edged away from their village's latest failure. Even this Shinako didn't mind. She broke the seal of the envelope to find familiar handwriting.
"If a shinobi's head were to be suddenly cut off, he should be able to perform one more act with absolute certainty. If his will of fire should reach out into the world one last time to show his love and determination, though his head is cut off, he should not die."Shinako dropped the letter, ceasing to read what remained, her fingers shaking and her eyes beginning to flood. None of the events of the day mattered anymore. Shinako, lips trembling, choked out a single sob. The light had gone out of the world.
2,029/4,711
~~~~~Exit Thread~~~~~
- Training:
Inton Element, C-Rank to B-Rank: 2,000 Words
Genjutsu Specialization, C-Rank to B-Rank: 2,000 Words
Words Used: 4000
Words Banked: 711