Chapter 115: The final stretch - Jinchūriki located!

"Look out!"

Boom!

The big ant began its attack. It moved so fast that in a second it was in front of Ajisai. Tenten tried to help it, but could only warn it of the danger before the beast tried to crush Ajisai. Still, she remained calm and pulled out a kunai, passing by the ant as if nothing had happened.

The ant fell to the ground and a strange transparent fluid came out of the wound that opened up on the side of its black exoskeleton.

Tenten's jaw nearly dropped as she witnessed such an act of power from Ajisai. If she was able to defeat that ant with a single cut, then the fact that she was able to dodge Rock Lee's kicks made perfect sense.

"How did you...?"

"Training..."

Although this, for someone like Ajisai, wasn't that hard. The exoskeleton of a giant ant was tough, but Ajisai's technique in manipulating the sharp kunai allowed him to cut through things that would normally be a pain in the ass.

After this, Ajisai knelt down and inspected the corpse of the ant.

Tenten watched this with a bit of disgust as Ajisai stung the ant's insides a couple of times. Unable to contain her curiosity and disgust, she decided to ask with a bit of discomfort in her facial expression.

"What are you doing?"

"I need to find the nest of the other ants. If I tame them, they can become excellent summoning beasts" Ajisai narrowed her eyes 'Although Okaminaru-sama is much more powerful than all the summoning beasts I have' It's true that Okaminaru is extremely powerful, he is Toru's partner, who so far has been able to defeat Konan.

Okaminaru has trained alongside Toru, after all. This is why Ajisai thought it would be good to have more summons like Okaminaru.

"Only you would think of that sort of thing. Still, we should continue. It would also be dangerous if we ran into such a herd of ants."

"Yes. But I think I can train them well."

"Are you still at it?"

After this conversation, Ajisai and Tenten continued looking for a way out. They walked for a few hours without success, as it seemed that this whole ruinous place was completely sealed off. Moreover, strange squeaks and footsteps could be heard on the walls all over the place.

They remained alert until one of the walls in front of them began to break. Debris fell and glowing eyes showed through the darkness of the hole.

The eyes began to widen and then.

"Run..."

"What? Ahhhh!"

Ajisai grabbed Tenten's wrist and ran as fast as she could. Behind them eyes glowed and out of it came dozens of giant ants whose exoskeleton, unlike the first ant they encountered, looked like shiny red armor with gold accents.

The ants looked hungry and angry, as they even bumped into each other while following those two girls.

Tenten ran with all her might, but the ants were quite fast and scary, as well as being a bit bigger than the first ant they encountered.

"Where did so many come from!"

"Maybe they sensed our smell. Or I don't know. I don't know anatomy and ant history."

Instead, Ajisai tried to find a quick solution to this problem. If she used one of his fūinjutsu she would buy a little time, but only that. Besides, if he summoned Okaminaru in this cramped place, surely the whole place would end up collapsing until they were crushed to death by the debris.

She also has another invocation, but it was the same as before, she would only get a little time. Still, she had to do something about it, so she used one of the simplest options.

She held up a card with the painted seal and pointed it at the ants.

"Kaifū no Jutsu: Sora fū ichigeki! [Intact Seal Jutsu: Empty Seal Strike]"

At the same moment, a large wave of seal paper was ejected from the card at high speed against the ants.

'She has so much chakra to store so many things in a seal... she... is very strong...'

Tenten recognized Ajisai's talent as a kunoichi specializing in fūinjutsu. If she had enough chakra to store that much paper in a seal, that means she might be able to summon large beasts like Toru and Naruto did during their fight against Gaara.

While Tenten was thinking, the ants were overwhelmed by the large amount of paper that made them retreat. Ajisai took advantage of this and ran alongside Tenten away from there.

But when they turned around the next corner, another pack of ants was waiting for her. They tried to go somewhere else, but there were more and more at every exit. It was as if the ants had planned this, as if they had agreed to corner and kill these girls.

And that wasn't out of the realm of reality.

"We have to do something. We'll die if those things attack us" Tenten was already beginning to see her end in this place, but she wasn't going to go down without a fight. Even if her body felt the fear of imminent death.

Ajisai on the other hand, bit her finger and dropped the blood on the ground. "Kuchiyose!" a cloud of smoke exploded and a large three meter panda emerged. The panda looked at the ants and grinned, sharpened its claws on the ground and then lunged forward.

Its front paws swung back and forth slashing at the ants. But soon, the ants surrounded it and Ajisai was forced to quash the innovation.

"Nothing works... nothing..."

Ajisai bit her lip and clenched her fists. 'I'm going to die in this place... Toru-sama will be disappointed in me...' Due to the force with which she clenched her fists, a little blood began to drip from her hands.

Tenten saw this and just simply understood what this girl was feeling.

"I will kill you... I will kill each and every one of you... I will kill you and then... Shi no Tenshi-sama will be proud of me!" with a frown, Ajisai held a kunai in each hand. "Dansu Gyakusatsu: Ikidzumari!"

Like a swift flash, Ajisai appeared in front of the ants blocking one of the exits. She held the kunai in her hands tightly and looked at everyone with a strange expression. An expressionless face whose eyes looked at a dead being in front of her.

Tenten watched as Ajisai went from side to side violently killing any ant that crossed him. This made her feel weak, so she clicked her tongue and then pulled out a large scroll.

"Let's see if you can handle this, you stupid ants."

The scroll opened and sharp weapons appeared. All the spears, swords, kunais and shurikens shot out and slammed into the ants' exoskeletons. However, most weapons bounced off and fell to the ground. Only one shuriken stuck in a specific place on the ant, its chest.

Tenten found the ants' weakness. She looked at Ajisai and told her, but she looked at her with a death stare as she killed the ants, making Tenten's blood freeze.

'Looks like she doesn't need it...'

***

'Hah... hah... hah... hah...'"

She fell to her knees on the ground. She got tired of using only taijutsu to kill the ants attacking her. And right now she is surrounded by the corpses of the ants.

Both Ajisai and Tenten managed to survive, but Tenten discovered a new fear, and that fear is the girl in front of her. The bloodthirsty way she was killing the ants made her look like she enjoyed killing. Still, she decided not to say anything about it and went to look for a way out. Although that was no longer a problem. Because of the fight, a wall broke down and sunlight could be seen through it. After a few seconds, the wall fell down and Ajisai and Tenten sighed in relief.

"At last..."

Tenten's smile was erased when she saw that the exit was so high above the ground that it looked like they were floating in the sky. However, Ajisai didn't care about this and grabbed Tenten by the wrist again and threw himself into the void.

Tenten screamed for a few seconds, but stopped when she saw Ajisai bite her finger. The summoning started and a gigantic wolf appeared.

"We're falling, huh. I'll take them upstairs."

The wolf spoke and immediately kicked into the air, then attached itself to the sandstone mountain and ran up the wall at a fucking dangerous speed.

Already up at the top, Okaminaru looked at Tenten, but didn't want to ask anything.

"Thank you, Okaminaru-sama."

"Don't worry, Ajisai-chan. Next time you summon me bring me some good food, okay?"

"Yes..."

The wolf disappeared after that and Tenten looked at Ajisai. 'So you were the one who summoned the giant wolf, huh. You sure are strong, Ajisai-san.'

***

The two teams looked at each other. They didn't know what to do. A few hours ago they were fighting for the scroll, but now they felt that they should not fight again, it would be something like disrespect, plus no one had enough motivation to fight against the same opponent. So Ajisai herself proposed something.

"This will be our truce. Now we will leave. We'll look for the land scroll somewhere else."

Neji nodded his head. He agreed with this decision. Besides, there was still more than 24 hours left for the test to end, there was still a chance to get the sky scroll somewhere else.

"I understand. I have to thank you for this too."

"Don't thank me for anything."

Team Ajisai left and Neji was left thinking as he watched those girls walk together.

'Dansu gyakusatsu, huh...'

-The next day-

Again they fought against another team. This time they managed to get the scroll, but Sakura was badly injured and the wound on Hinata's head reopened.

Using a makeshift camp, Ino tried to treat the wounds of her teammates. This was the last day of the second test and the sun had barely risen.

Sakura's head rested on Ino's lap.

'I... at that time'

-A few hours ago-

There were tears on Ino's cheeks and blood on her fists. The three enemies had been defeated and were lying on the sand in a very serious state.

Ino lost control, acted on her feelings and was carried away by the anger of the moment.

Still...

"Don't ever talk about Toru like that again...I won't forgive him...you don't know him and you have no right to judge people without knowing them."

Ino realized how hypocritical she sounded at that moment. In the past she had judged Toru over and over again just because of his quiet personality and aloof attitude. That was a fact, even she didn't have the right to judge people.

She fell to her knees remembering the past. She thought Toru was going to stand by her side after the day she confessed her feelings and look at the situation now. Toru is a dangerous criminal to the Shinobi World.

On the other hand, Hinata held Sakura in her arms while blood was pouring out of her head. Even she had difficulties against the enemies, even using Hendō was difficult.

-In the present-

Hinata sat next to Ino and looked at Sakura.

"This was my fault. Sakura is like this because I acted recklessly" Stroking Sakura's hair with one hand while healing her with the other, Ino felt extreme guilt for what happened with the last team.

Yes, they got the scroll, but at what cost?

Sakura got stabbed in the stomach and bled quite a bit while Ino tried to kill the bastards who were making fun of Toru being a criminal who abandoned her teammates. And yes, there is quite a bit of truth in the latter, but Ino doesn't perceive it that way. She faithfully believes that Toru is not guilty and that there was something strange that day.

"It's not your fault. It's no one's fault, but..." Hinata put her hand on Ino's. "Sometimes those things are going to happen to us. We are shinobi, we are kunoichi of Konoha" She looked into Ino's eyes and smiled. "I can understand you quite well. Now I'll help you prepare the things you need to get Sakura better."

"Thank you, Hinata."

They both understand each other's pain, that's why they can get along. They are teammates, they are friends and you could say sisters.

While they were trying to make Sakura regain consciousness, a sandstorm is coming. They realize this and frown.

They quickly dismantle the tent and place themselves behind a large rock that luckily was nearby. There they took shelter by pulling the tent over them while clinging to the ground with the shinobi weapons they brought in their bags.

The sandstorm lasted for a few minutes. Although this storm appeared out of nowhere, as if someone had summoned it. Obviously Hinata and Ino were too worried about Sakura to think too much about the storm.

***

After the sandstorm ended, an explosion was heard. This explosion kicked up the sand and a piercing scream echoed across the desert.

Just at that moment, Sakura woke up without knowing what was happening, but Hinata and Ino could not explain to her what was happening. Sakura simply had to see it with her own eyes.

They came out of their hiding place and approached the place where the scream was heard and there they saw it.

There was a large black chain connecting from one person to another.

In the center of the place... was Gaara.

-From another place nearby-

Ajisai's team has managed to take the scroll from a team that was distracted. They quickly tried to approach the tower so they could gather more information until the end of the test, but they were met with this.

A large sandstorm appeared for a few minutes and then disappeared. Obviously something like this was too strange, so they went to investigate and saw the Kazekage of Suna struggling against some sort of chain that was trying to pull something out from inside his body.

'Jinchūriki...'

Ajisai already knew this. She knew that Gaara is the Jinchūriki of the One-tailed Bijū. Therefore, she thought this information is not useful.

"Let's observe..."

"Yes..."

-At the place where Gaara is-

'I got carried away. No... they're going to take the Bijū out of my body.'

Gaara struggled and tried to hold the Bijū inside his body as much as possible. If they pull the Bijū out of him, not only will the enemy have more power, but Gaara will die. That's what always happens to Jinchūriki who have had a Bijū removed.

That man on the sandstone mountain smiled in victory as he saw Gaara cornered. He held his hands together over the shamisen and continued to use the chain fūinjutsu in order to make progress in extracting the Bijū. However...

"Oraoraora!"

A green-haired girl appeared hitting the chains. Even with this, the chains electrocuted her taking away much of her chakra and leaving her lying on the ground.

The man narrowed his eyes and increased the fūinjutsu chains by applying more pressure on the shamisen strings. This caused a black chain to shoot from the man's chakra shield to where the green-haired girl was.

This girl was obviously Fuu, who tried to help Gaara, but was only dragged into the same situation. She now had the same chain that Gaara has across her back.

"Sorry, I failed."

"Why, I told you not to follow me!"

"I can't just abandon you like this. If your friend was here, I'm sure he would have come to save you, right?"

"My friend...?

With these words from Fuu, Naruto's image appeared in Gaara's mind. He looked down at the ground and replied.

"Yeah, because he's an idiot."

It was obvious. Someone like Naruto would throw himself into danger in order to save his friends. This was something Gaara had already seen with his own eyes.

"Ahhhh!"

Still on the ground, Fuu writhed in pain as the melody of the shamisen increased. The chains began to move outward from their bodies and the extraction of the Bijū accelerated.

Fuu quickly raised two fingers in front of her face. 'Ninpo, coocon [Ninja Art: Coocon]' A cocoon of chakra formed around Gaara and Fuu and the chains stopped.

***

Elsewhere, where Ino and her team are.

"This looks bad..."

Just as Ino said that, Hinata ran off in the direction where Gaara and Fuu are. Ino couldn't help but follow her, as she had become very reckless when it comes to saving someone. Sakura followed them at a slow pace because her wounds still cause her pain.

-With the Ajisai team-

"Fuyo... Suiren."

Her teammates looked at her. They understood what was going on plus this time... their mission is about to be completed. For right now, in front of them, what they were looking for showed itself.

"We found the Jinchūriki."

_______

The second volume is coming to an end. Get ready, because at last the real story begins.

Over 100 chapters of introduction? Oh yeah, I'm an idiot XD