Looking back over his shoulder, Seji saw Asuka and Reiji split off on their own.
Dammit, now we're all split up... He thought to himself in frustration. It looked like he was going to have to either find Toko and Seichi or find his piece of paper on his own. Hopefully Toko and Seichi weren't blow to bits by that huge explosion. Speaking of which, he made a note to keep track of how many traps went off. They could only trip three more in order to pass. He would have to be on the alert for any tricks Fuyuko might have set up.
Once he made it to the forest he made sure to stay in the trees, assuming there would be more trip wires and paper tags on the ground. He was mistaken as he almost tripped over a wire so thin it was almost unoticable to the naked eye. Unfortunately, stopping his movement almost made him swing forward. Humorously he swung his arms out from his sides in a pinwheel fashion in an attempt to push his center of gravity backwards. But it was too late, he was going to fall forward. Seji grunted and pushed off from the branch he was previously standing on and performed a forward flip towards the ground. That was closer than he would have liked.
Seji made sure to move around the patch of leaves that was most definitely a pit covered by foilage and he also jumped over another explosive tag. Annoyance began to creep in. Where the hell was Seichi? Onoda even found the clearing where Toko cut a tree clean in half. Of course Seji didn't know it was Toko who did that, and was curious about how a tree could be so perfectly sliced. And still, he had yet to find a piece of paper.
If I was sensei, where would I hide something? He asked himself. Seji had yet to see anything but traps on the ground, and people solemnly looked up. Maybe she hid a piece in the trees? The Onoda once again surveyed the high ground, making sure to check for more trip wires.
Seji was about to give up hope when he noticed something high up in a tree, a bird's nest. He jumped high into the branches and checked inside the bird's house made of twigs. Sitting there was one of the pieces of paper.
"Finally!" He exclaimed with glee. Seji excitedly swiped the paper but in doing so his hand brushed another hidden wire. Realixing what he had done his eyes widened.
"Shit..." He looked around, cringing, but nothing happened? Seji smirked, sensei couldn't even contruct a proper trap! The boy pocketed the piece of paper and was about to jump down from the tree when he just barely heard a quiet clicking noise. His eyes widened once again.
The trap had a time delay!Three kunai whistled through the air towards Seji's back and three more flew towards his front side. The genin pushed off the tree into the air to dodge the kunai below but the final kunai fell down from above him. Seji just barely was able to draw his own kunai and deflect the oncoming blade. The offending kunai was deflected but not perfectly. The blade flew past his face and sliced a shallow cut in his cheek. After landing back on a branch, Seji sat down and took a few deep breaths.
"Fuyuko sensei is actually trying to kill us, the crazy bitch..."Seichi whisked himself tree to tree scanning for traps and anybody else nearby.
Hmm...Where is everybody? He would come to a halt on a tree branch, squinting and peering through the tree leaves which blocked him some. He noticed a figure who laid sat down on a tree branch in the distance.
"...trying to kill us, the crazy bitch." It was Seji. Seichi had a basic relationship with Seji, the only thing linking them together being the familiarity of their names and outward personalities.
"I hear ya!" Seichi would say, hopping from the nearby tree branch attempting to avoid any nearby trap he thought to be around and landing beside Seji. He would then point to the paper clenched between his teeth.
"but lookie what I found" He would try and mutter with his teeth closed.
Seji looked up to see Seichi with the paper in his mouth. He grinned and pulled out his own piece.
"Same here," he claimed proudly. The Onoda looked past Seichi as if he was looking for something.
"Is Toko not with you?" He asked curiously.
"Nah." Seichi replied looking off in the distance.
"If I remember we split up around there" He would point near where he previously set off the bomb.
"Oh yeah!" Seichi would say recalling his mistake.
"I don't know if you heard that thing from earlier, but sorry in advance."Seji shrugged,
"at least you guys aren't dead right?" He said with light-hearted sarcasm.
"And yes, yes I did notice the huge ass explosion, it was kinda hard to miss..."Seji paused to think briefly, then spoke his opinion.
"I think we should meet back up with the group, seeing as we both have our pieces of paper and we don't have much time left. I think Reiji and Asuka went off on their own in that direction." He said this as he pointed a finger towards where he believed their teammates were.
"Lead the way, Seji-boy" Seichi said stretching his arm around his shoulder.
Seji nodded and pushed off the branch he was on and leaped from tree to tree, keeping an eye out for traps.
That's two traps that we've set off so far, hopefully Toko, Reiji, and Asuka haven't set off anymore... Or we'll surely fail. He thought to himself worriedly.
"So, Seichi, I don't really know you that well honestly. Care to tell me about yourself?" Seji asked curiously as they weaved through the forest trees. Not only did he want to make small talk but he also wanted to analyze his teammates, he hadn't had the proper chance to gauge their strengths and weaknesses.
Seichi would follow alongside Seji as he moved through the forrest tops.
"Oh stop, Seji. You're making me blush" He would say in a playful feminine way. He would laugh off the playfulness then get serious.
"I don't really know...I wouldn't wanna brag but I do feel like I'm a pretty good ninja. Most of what I know is basically stuff my dad taught me, nothing too advanced." He would then quickly spin out the way of a dividing tree and regain his momentum beside Seji.
"To be honest, I was actually suprised I was even chosen to be in a team like this. Everyone seems to have a talent and speciality, then you have me who's just there."Seji looked over at his teammate and chuckled at his girl impression. After hearing him say he was surprised to be on the team he said,
"come on, if you were picked by the Hokage himself for this squad then you're probably just as strong as the rest of us. Do you have a kekkei genkai or something?"Seichi would briefly think looking upwards,
"No kekkei genkai, but I can throw pretty good. It was the only thing the instructor ever complimented me on" he would reply.
Seji nodded, feeling respect for his peer.
"Not everyone needs a kekkei genkai to be strong. Look at the Sarutobi clan, no kekkei genkai but the Hokage is from there. Aren't you the one who always says that hard work beats talent?" The Onoda grinned and gave him a thumbs up,
"I hope you can prove that statement to be true, and who knows. Maybe one day you'll be able to take on a person with a kekkei genkai like me," he said jokingly. Seji was normally a humble person but he found it funny to jokingly taunt his teammate.
Seich would return with his wide grin.
"Maybe I'll take you up on that someday!" He replied driving his fist into his chest as a sign that he'll remember the offer.
The two would continue through the forrest until they finally caught up to Asuka, Reiji, and Toko. Seichi would approach the group, spitting out the paper from his mouth and snatching it in mid-air.
"The only way to melt away." he would read hoping the group would make sense of it.
Seji chimed in and read his paper aloud,
"Humans cannot freeze time." The Onoda would frown after speaking.
"Is Fuyuko on drugs or something? Or is she just bat-shit crazy?" Even he, Seji Onoda: Kohona's brightest, had no idea what the hell any of what Fuyuko had written meant. Seji looked to the group helplessly, they still needed three pieces of paper and they still had figure out what the hell they all meant.
