[hr][h3][color=#AB4730]Natsuko Rinha[/color][/h3][hr][sup][i]Evening  ||  Land of Wind: Demon Desert[/i][/sup][indent] [/indent]
[color=#AB4730]“Right? I’ve eaten enough scorpions for a lifetime,”[/color] Natsuko said, laughing with Aimi. Beside her, Koharu was markedly less amused, and Natsuko caught her glancing at Tetsu and Haruto across the fire more than once. Still, Koharu had lightened up enough to crack a smile despite her burns, which Natsuko knew hit more mentally than physically. A year or two ago, she might not have understood, but now she did; her teammates were heirs, strong and proud of their strength. For them, every loss was weighed on them because they didn’t, [i]couldn’t[/i] lose. The luxury of being able to laugh off a loss was not available to heirs, whose losses had a whole host of implications that started with impaired judgement and clan weakness. Koharu and Kazuhiko had attempted to explain to Natsuko one time, and though the details had been lost on her, the conversation helped reaffirm the longstanding standard of stress her teammates have had to deal with. Nowadays, Natsuko was better at spotting heir-related situations, like when she didn’t understand why one of her teammates wasn’t as happy or amused as her about something that’d happened. Sure at times it might’ve been because she wasn’t as funny as she thought, but that was Kazuhiko’s opinion. As far as she was concerned, she was hilarious.

On the other side of the fire sat said silent grouch, looking as uninterested in conversation as he could and pulling it off, to boot. His eyes were on the fire, and the skewered piece of scorpion in his hand was barely touched, but Natsuko knew him better than to believe in his seemingly natural lack of interest. He was stonewalling the Suna-nin out with his poker face tactics. 

Sure, even Natsuko wasn’t quite ready to forgive the two boys for burning Ruru and taking her hostage, but they’d agreed to an alliance, given the stolen tools back, and helped hunt for their dinner. They’d even apologized, albeit under pressure from Aimi, who was capable of being quite intimidating when she was mad. More importantly, though, they’d provided her team with aloe and petroleum jelly, the former for Haru’s burns and the latter for their whole team’s chafed skin. Considering all this, Natsuko felt that Suna Team 12 was more than on their way to redeeming themselves. They had wronged, but they were trying now, and there wasn’t much more she could ask for.

To be fair, Natsuko was a little biased here. Aimi was instantly likeable, clicking with Natsuko and everyone else who spoke to her, and the petroleum jelly was working wonders on her feet, which had dried to the point of cracking despite this being only their second day in the desert. Granted, they were dealing with the Demon Desert, which touted its harshness in its name, but credit where credit was due, the Suna teams knew what they were doing in the sand. From staying aware of where their shadows fell while hunting to carrying around medical supplies for ailments common in the desert, their familiarity with the landscape was impressive. The only thing they’d lacked was a reliable water source since it didn’t seem like Suna had many water jutsu users like Koharu, but they knew how to identify the types of cacti that were edible and held water.

Even more impressive were their wind jutsu, which were specialized in ways Natsuko wasn’t aware was possible. From what she’d seen, Aimi appeared to use wind chakra to boost both her stride and the speed with which she covered it. Haruto, on the other hand, utilized chakra to turn his jumps into what was essentially floating. Only when Aimi told her it was a hiden technique passed through their clans did Natsuko feel better. For all Sayumi’s snipes about her being lazy and uncreative, her tutor couldn't expect her to use something similar to hiden techniques. Hopefully.

“Hey, why’re you three being so silent?” Aimi asked, shooting a sharp glance to both her teammates. “Battle’s over, remember? We’re allies now, so let’s see some chatting.”

Kazuhiko looked between Natsuko and Koharu, his eyes communicating his dislike of the idea, but Natsuko just gave him a smile and a shrug. Yeah, it sucked that he’d been saddled with talking to the two more disagreeable members of the team, but that’s how life went, right?

“Is it a crime to want to eat dinner in peace?” Haruto asked, his shades making it impossible to tell whether he was actually annoyed. “Not everyone’s as talkative as you.”

“As if I’d believe that after three years of watching you and Tetsu talk nonstop during meals,” Aimi shot back. 

Despite Haruto’s half-obscured face, Natsuko could imagine the annoyance in his eyes now, and she covered a giggle with a hand as he turned to Kazuhiko. 

“What do you think about the scorpion,” he said, his tone unnaturally even. 

Kazuhiko met his gaze with an even flatter look. [color=lightsteelblue]“Starving’s worse.”[/color]

Natsuko laughed then, drawing everyone’s eyes, and she recovered with a shrug and grin. [color=#AB4730]“What? That was funny.”[/color]

“We should talk about Team 1 at some point,” Tetsu interrupted, prompting a spike of annoyance in Natsuko, but Aimi’s apologetic glance as she patted her knee was enough to keep her from interrupting. “They’re the strongest Suna team by far, and I don’t think it’d be a stretch to say they’re the strongest in this exam.” 

He looked between them, pursing his lips. Considering how proud he was, Natsuko figured it must take a lot for him to admit to being weaker, which just went to show how strong Team 1 must have been. 

“The shorter boy, Katsuzo, specializes in both wind and earth jutsu. His clan’s hiden jutsu mixes the two and allows him to control rocks and sand. He’s known to rocks more, but when we fought today he used sand to slow us down and grab onto Haru,” Tetsu said, looking to Haru, who gave a nod. “He’s difficult to fight in general, but in the sand, he’s basically impossible to fight.

“Then there’s the taller boy, Atsushi, the puppeteer. He has two puppets—a centipede and a hawk. In Suna he’s known as a born puppet master, a genius. Trying to predict what he’ll do with his puppets is just…” Tetsu shook his head. “All I can say is that he hid his hawk inside his centipede when we last fought, but he probably won’t do that again. Watch out for his puppets though. Puppeteers’ strongest weapons are their poisons.

“Finally, there’s Maho, the girl with the crazy strength. It’s a wind-based hiden jutsu, but take a punch from her and you’re done. Fighting her from a distance is your only option, but last time we went at her by combining our fire and wind techniques, she turned it back on us by deflecting it with one of her wind-enforced punches,” Tetsu said, annoyance bleeding into his tone. “Her jutsu can hard counter many of my jutsu, and my whole team’s since we favor close combat. With Katsuzo restricting our movement… that battle was a mess, and we were lucky to get out as fast as we did.”

There was a brief silence, and Natsuko spent it processing his words. Hearing his description and brief on the battle, she was almost intimidated. Fighting someone who could control sand, someone who wielded poisoned puppets, and someone who required that she attack from a distance all at the same time? It sounded like an impossible scenario, but it seemed to be their current one.

[color=lightsteelblue]“If we can counter Maho, how does the situation change?”[/color] Kazuhiko asked, his eyes focused on Tetsu and his meal completely forgotten.

“Well, it changes quite a bit,” Tetsu said, grinning.
[indent][sup]   [/sup][/indent][hr][h3][color=white]Suna Team 1[/color][/h3][hr][sup][i]Night  ||  Land of Wind: Demon Desert[/i][/sup][indent] [/indent]
The sneeze that burst from Maho was loud enough to send Katsuzo flinching despite him standing on Atsushi’s other side, and that action did not go unnoticed by Maho. Matching the glee forming on her face was the disgust tightening Katsuzo’s as he raised a finger to point at her.

“Atsushi, tell her to keep her germs to herself,” he demanded.

“Oh shut up, you must’ve given your cold to me,” she shot back. 

“Atsushi’s the one who sneezed earlier, [i]Aho[/i].”

“That doesn’t mean you aren’t fucking sick, [i]Yatsuzo[/i].”

“I don’t know why you insist on calling me that. It’s nowhere near as good as Aho, Aho.”

“Well you’re a fucking midget.”

“Atsushi, she’s resorting to name calling.”

“Aw, ‘lil baby gonna go cry to Atsushi because I hurt his feelings?”

“Atsushi, I don’t understand why she says this kind of stuff. Can’t she understand that I don’t want anything to do with people who don’t have two brain cells to rub together?”

“Are you calling me stupid you—”

With some resignation, Atsushi placed a hand on Maho’s shoulder. He didn’t want to intervene any more than she wanted him to, but judging by how her eyes went straight past him, his warning was going unnoticed.

“Yes! Yes I am!” Katsuzo said, brows high. “I’m glad you finally figured it out! I mean, it took three years, but hey, you got there, and I guess that’s what’s important for someone with the IQ of a decapitated lizard.”

Centipede was around Maho in an instant, and she struggled, wind swirling around the puppet. Beside her, Atsushi took a step back, mild concern gracing his face. If Maho fully activated her wind jutsu, Centipede was at risk of getting damaged. The alternative was having Centipede inject her with a tranquilizer, which he wanted to avoid because it’d put an end to their plans for the night, but judging by the looks of it—Maho spitting expletives as Katsuzo smirked triumphantly from the side, enjoying the now grazing wind—it seemed like he might be better off safe than sorry.
[indent][sup]   [/sup][/indent][hr][h3][color=lightsteelblue]Kazuhiko Taketori[/color][/h3][hr][sup][i]Morning  ||  Land of Wind: Demon Desert[/i][/sup][indent] [/indent]
Scouting the desert was made much easier by Haruto, who had access to sparrow summons. If Kazuhiko ever thought that summons were useless, he certainly didn’t anymore. A mere three sparrows was enough to scout out a good portion of the desert, given the height, aerial view, and flat landscape. The first sign of danger was when only two returned to report.

“Tsk, Hanemaru didn’t come back? Of course,” one of the sparrows sniped from his perch on Haruto’s arm, ruffling his feathers. “He was always careless, thinking he could fly at a lower altitude just because he’s a bit faster.”

“Well, we don’t know how he was caught. It could’ve been a hawk,” the other sparrow said from beside him, a shiver rustling his feathers. “I hate hawks.”

“Well whatever, he deserved it,” the first sparrow said. “As for my assignment, the southeast was clear. No Team 1.”

“I saw a Suna team that wasn’t Team 1, probably half a mile off,” the second sparrow added, “but otherwise the northeast was also clear.”

“Okay. Thank you,” Haruto said.

“We’ll be going then. Apologies on Hanemaru’s behalf,” the first sparrow said. “I’ll go give him a talking to when we get back.”

“Yeah, apologies,” the second sparrow said, and both of them poofed out of existence with a small cloud of white smoke.

“Right,” Haruto said, his sunglasses making it difficult to tell where his attention was focused as he spoke, “west, huh?”

“Seems like it,” Tetsu said, and Aimi nodded. 

[color=#AB4730]“But we don’t know if it’s them,”[/color] Natsuko started, confusion written across her features. 

[color=lightsteelblue]“The sparrows reported that the other two directions were clear, so the only unknown is west,”[/color] Kazuhiko explained. [color=lightsteelblue]“Also, Suna-nin are more used to the desert, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they know to keep their eyes on the sky.”[/color] 

A nod from Haruto confirmed this, and Natsuko managed a grudging [color=#AB4730]“okay”[/color] before they were off, dashing across the sand to the west. Traveling across the sand was made easier by a suggestion from the Suna-nin to apply water-walking principles to the sand. By maintaining a steady layer of chakra on their feet, they were able to avoid displacing the sand below them, thus allowing them to walk on sand as if it were solid ground. While it took chakra, it saved time, and they were hoping to get the battle over with before the sun reached its peak. 

Tetsu stopped first, raising a hand to signal the rest of them to stop. “There,” he said, pointing at a group of sandy-colored protrusions ahead. 

[color=lightsteelblue]“Let’s split up and corner them,”[/color] Kazuhiko said. 

Tetsu nodded, and they were off, Tetsu leading his team to the left and Kazuhiko leading his to the right. Staying silent on the sand wasn’t hard, but maintaining a low profile among the sparse landscape was. Luckily, it didn’t seem like the other team was watching from within the rock formations, which Kazuhiko likely wouldn’t have recognized as a viable hiding spot on his own. Luckily, he had the Suna team’s experience to lead them through the desert and point out what might not stand out to a Konoha shinobi.

Across from each other, the teams crouched behind cacti and rocks as Kazuhiko counted them down from three. On one, they dashed forwards into the large crevice between two rock formations, only to find an abandoned fireplace with the remains of a lizard still sizzling above it.

Haruto kicked at the stones lining the fire. “Tch we missed them,” 

[color=lightsteelblue]“No,”[/color] Kazuhiko said, his eyes flicking around the hideout. Though it looked to be a short-term, possibly newly-found place, the lizard wasn’t burnt yet, and there were some stray bones scattered haphazardly on the floor, almost as if—

He stiffened, head snapping up in alarm. [color=lightsteelblue]“They’re still—”[/color]

The world whited out, leaving him alone in the vast sea of nothingness. He saw nothing, stood on nothing, [i]was[/i] nothing. He was standing in the middle of an endless sea of white, drifting further and further into nothingness, and—

A sharp pain hit his shoulder, and he grunted, grabbing his shoulder as the world blinked into color again. Tetsu, Haruto, and Aimi had cornered a tall, black-haired boy and a shorter and much more terrified-looking boy with green hair. Beside him, Natsuko was looking at Koharu in confusion.

[color=#AB4730]“Ruru, what was that for?”[/color] she asked.

[color=lightsteelblue]“Genjutsu,”[/color] Kazuhiko said, straightening and looking around as he caught his breath. [color=lightsteelblue]“That’s Tadamitsu Hyuga,”[/color] he said, indicating the taller boy, who was raising his hands with a pleading smile on his face as he tried to keep the Suna-nins’ kunai at bay. [color=lightsteelblue]“He saw us coming. And the other person on their team—”[/color]

“Specializes in genjutsu?”

A pale-haired girl stepped out from the shadows, kunai glinting in her hand. Along with her height and complexion, she was strikingly similar in appearance to Koharu, which was precisely why Kazuhiko remembered her. 

[color=lightsteelblue]“Michi,”[/color] he said, eyes flicking to her teammates, then back. [color=lightsteelblue]“I suppose this is where we ask for your characters.”[/color]

She forced a laugh. “Well you’re a little late for that!” she said, her tone sharpening as she spoke. “Some Suna team got us first, but you’re welcome to rob us of food and whatever we have left.”

Beside him, Tetsu’s team reacted, straightening and backing off from Tadamitsu and Yasu. Aimi whispered an apology as Tetsu walked over, his face hard. 

“Two boys and a girl? One puppeteer with a centipede?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Michi said, her voice taking a weary tone as she lowered her kunai. “You know them?”

“They got us too,” Tetsu said as Haruto and Aimi joined him. Haruto’s face was still unreadable, but Aimi looked fully apologetic, rubbing her arm as she glanced back at where Tadamitsu was rubbing Yasu’s back as the shorter boy sat, barely suppressing shivers.

[color=lightsteelblue]“We’re looking for them,”[/color] Kazuhiko said. Beside him, Natsuko looked a bit awkward, offering a hesitant smile at Michi between glances at Yasu.

Michi looked between the six of them, then to Tadamitsu and Yasu, before meeting Kazuhiko’s eyes resolutely. “We can take you to them. If you guarantee us characters if you win.”
[hr][sup][@Sunflower][/sup]