My hand immediately flies to touch my head, a relentless pounding racing across the front of my skull. My eyes haven't even opened yet. Even though I should be trying to reorient myself after I, what, fainted? What I feel I might find or see when I finally do worries me. 

What... even happened again? I know that... I was separated from Naruto and the others... I was concussed then, too. Did I hit my head a second time or something...? Oh! That woman! She showed up again! How could I almost forget something like that?! S-She never answered me when I'd asked for her name. But it had to be her. It had to be Mara.

I don't think the pictures back home do her justice – she's much more beautiful in person, even though she looked like a ghost. I still don't understand what happened, or why she appeared in the first place. Is she... really dead, after all? Makara-sensei said in her letter, she didn't know for sure. But if she looked like that...! Then this means she must really be...

Ow... my head really hurts... and trying to remember everything she'd said is making it worse. She... talked about it not being time... yet? For what, though? If she really is a ghost... she wasn't talking to me about a premonition of my death, was she?!

I finally open my eyes, further worried by not knowing what's happening in my surroundings. And what I see surprises me.

I am... not where I remember myself to be. I know I'd passed out in a clearing of sorts, and lining it had been so many thick trees, about as tall as the Hokage monument, if not just a little shorter. Moss covered almost everything in sight. It was quiet.

Now, the rush of water fills my ears. I hadn't realized it, but I'd been lying right next to a bank of water – a creek. On all sides, there is thick shrubbery and foliage to conceal me, so even if someone had passed by me, they certainly wouldn't have noticed me. Where I sit is covered by a large shadow that I guess is from the huge trees above me, so I don't bother to look up – it still hurts a little to extend my neck. Instead, I stand up, and turn my whole body around.

Um... I'm definitely not where I'd passed out, after all. That big shadow I just mentioned is actually a large red tower with a large staircase leading up to some main doors – it's the building we'd been told to find once we'd got both the heaven and the earth scrolls. My jaw accidentally ends up dropping.

How the heck did I end up here?!

Do I sleepwalk or something? Is this some new habit I have to be aware of now? The fact that it hadn't even been an hour since we'd entered the Forest of Death that we were all separated, there's just no possible way that I somehow sleepwalked to the very center of it where our final destination is. There is no way, and yet, there ended up being a way?

Part of my qipao is soaked from the water that had leeched into the soil, so I gather the fabric and squeeze out what I can. I'm relieved to learn, after patting around myself to see if all my pouches were still with me, that the one that had been holding my teams' scroll is still inside. I sigh in relief... before I become aware of it.

Oh, no – I really have to pee!

Well, what day is it, anyway – I focus on figuring out the answer to distract me from my full bladder. I remember the sun being over halfway through the sky before I'd woken up the first time, so that's a little after midday, maybe around two? But now, from what I can see through the trees above me, it looks to be about... nine in the morning. So, I slept and travelled for over twelve hours? And no one spotted me or attacked me? Or maybe, it's been two days. This could even be the last day of the exam.

I-If it is, then everyone should have either made it to the tower already or are already there. Has my team made it yet? Are they waiting for me? Oh god, are they okay?! This forest is a place of nightmares, both of the human and animal variety! And I've just been unconscious the whole time?! Trying to tell myself that it isn't my fault, that I'd already been concussed from being tossed by that strange wind through the trees – I couldn't control that. I don't know who could.

Thinking about it isn't helping matters, though. And so, I decide to remain hidden within the bushes, to keep my eyes peeled for Naruto and Sasuke and Sakura, and to watch out for any of the other teams that might feel keen on an ambush.

It reaches about five in the evening when a familiar warmth fills my chest. At first, it confuses me as to how and why I'm feeling this – I can't remember what it's called off the top of my head because my head is so scrambled, but I'd learned once that there are Shinobi who can sense and track chakra. I think that's what this might be! But then, who's chakra am I sensing?

Hidden from sight, I wait for the chakra I'm sensing to become closer. And I'd been right to wonder why it'd felt so familiar.

His spiky blond hair comes into view first, bouncing high above a line of shrubbery leading to the red tower. Close by him is Sasuke and Sakura, but with them is one of the other Konoha Genin we'd met during the first exam – K... Kabuto, I think.

When I go to take another breath of relief, I end up choking up a little, and decidedly burst out of the bushes to meet them, my eyes blurry. At the sound of movement, the four of them whirl my way, tired eyes wide with fake alertness.

"Kari?!" the three of them exclaim at me, wincing when I drop before them; my legs still feel a little like jelly from being asleep.

"Kari!" Naruto kneels down, a weak laugh escaping him. I end up laughing back – I'm just so glad!

"You guys a-are okay!?" I all but shout at them, scanning them over from the forest ground. "O-Oh, you're all hurt. W-What—"

"We're alive," Sasuke says. He sighs at me. "I'm glad you are, too."

My eyes widen. Really? is what I want to ask him, taken aback by his honesty. Naruto starts helping me to my feet, and I thank him, when I spot Sakura and her somewhat sour expression standing off to the side. "Sakura...?"

"Where... Where did you go?" she asks me, her voice a forced out whisper. I swallow. "We were all split up, but then we found each other, but we couldn't find you. So much happened..."

"I-I'm so sorry," I'm quick to say on my way over to her, my voice cracking. "I was knocked out after we were all blown away, and then... some stuff happened to me, too... before I passed out again. I'm sorry I wasn't able to be there."

She takes in a deep breath at me, and I note her watering eyes.

"We're finally together again. I was waiting for you guys to show up after I woke up again, all day long; I didn't want to leave and look for you in case you were already here..."

"I'd thought you all were blown away near the gates you entered?" Kabuto says, hand on his chin. "How did you end up all the way in the center of the Forest of Death?"

"Well... I didn't make it here on my own... exactly..." He raises a pale eyebrow. "When I woke up, I don't think I was so far away from the others that I could've still found them, but then I met... someone. I don't think I was awake for long after that. And somehow, I ended up in those plants over there," and I gesture to them. "Oh... what day is it? How many have passed since we were separated? At least one or two, right?"

"The full five days are almost up, Kari," Sasuke answers, reaching into one of his pouches and pulling out an earth scroll. "Please tell me... Do you still have the heaven scroll we started out with?"

I mean to laugh, but it comes out sounding like a sob.

"I'm happy to report... that I managed to keep it safe and sound, even while unconscious," I say, pulling mine out. There's a collective sigh between us all, and then, I'm finally laughing again and handing Sasuke the scroll. "It's really the last day, huh? I can't believe I missed it all... I'm so sorry, everyone."

"Hey, at least this part of the exam is over, right?" Naruto reminds us. "And we're all alive!"

"Y-Yeah, maybe, but..." I hesitate. "... you all look terrible. What... exactly happened?"

"Things that didn't happen to you, obviously," Sasuke mutters.

"That didn't answer my question in the slightest," I say, "but wait, Sakura? Your hair?"

"I... cut it off," she tells me, looking in the opposite direction. "It got in the way during a fight."

I frown. "I'm sorry, Sakura – I know how much you loved it. Well, it suits you, anyway! It looks really nice on you."

"... thanks, Kari."

I look back to Sasuke, look him up and down, and let out a snort. "I'm sorry to you, too, Sasuke – you look the worst of all."

"Oh, shut up," he grumbles.

I turn to Kabuto. "Hello again," I finally, properly, greet him.

"Hi there," he says, smiling. "Your teammates and I had run into each other when my own group and I were forced to split apart a while back." He puts his hand out in front of him. "I'm grateful."

I grin back, shaking it, before my attention is brought to the pinkness of my two arms. Just like what had happened in the Land of Waves, my injury had been lessened to scar tissue, barely visible against my paleness.

"There you are, Kabuto!" a voice suddenly calls, interrupting my thoughts.  Two men wearing outfits like Kabuto's jump down from the trees above us, landing nearby. "You're late."

"Sorry about that," Kabuto says. "I got a little... sidetracked."

"Yeah, and are we glad you did!" Naruto pipes. "After all, it was thanks to you we were able to find Kari and get the scrolls together!"

"Not really – you did most of it on your own, especially you, Naruto." Naruto laughs, probably trying to be modest.

"Thank you so much for helping them out," I say, grabbing Naruto around his shoulders and giving him a squeeze. "I can't even begin to tell you how thankful I am to be able to see their faces again."

"Ah, I bet they would have been fine without me," Kabuto reasons, waving me down. "Well, this is the door I go through, so... so long! And good luck to us both."

He and his team then leave, splitting the paper between their selected door and entering the tower.

"Okay, you guys," I say, releasing Naruto and jumping up the steps. "Are we ready?"

"We've made it this far!" Naruto says, hands balled into an excited pair of fists. "Let's go!"

I lead the way inside after splitting our paper, the others filing in behind me. A light on the ceiling automatically flickers to life, basking the room in a warm glow, and making the two small balconies inside and the ominous sign at the end of the room seem larger than it really is.

"It's okay, Sakura," Sasuke says from behind me. "I can manage."

"Oh," she says, sounding deflated. "Okay."

"So, um... now that we are all here... what do we do now?" I wonder aloud. Sakura rushes up beside me and points firmly at the sign.

"Take a look at this," she says. Naruto and Sasuke join us.

I squint at the sign for far too long before I realize that my eyes are still blurry from sleep.

"I can't read it," I tell her. "I can't see properly right now." In my peripheral vision, I catch Naruto frowning at me. I want to ask why, but... I have a feeling I already know the answer.

"It says, "If qualities of heaven are what you desire, acquire wisdom to take your mind higher. If earthly qualities are what you lack, train your body, and prepare to attack. When heaven and earth are opened together, the perilous path will become righteous forever. This"—" Sakura hesitates "—"something is the secret that will guide us from here, today"."

"This what?" Naruto asks. "Or is that a secret, too?"

"A word must be missing," I realize, "but what could it be?"

"This verse is about the scrolls," Sakura tells me. "I think that... we're supposed to open them now."

"You guys haven't tried to open yours, have you?" I ask wearily.

"When we had found a different earth scroll after we lost you, yes," Sakura says. Sasuke hands a scroll each to her and Naruto. I can feel the nervous tension in the room. Clearly, something had happened involving the opening of the scrolls that I neither know nor want to know about. I share a look with Sasuke, both of us grimacing when they pull back the flaps of paper.

Nothing happens.

"What the...?" Naruto frowns at the contents of the scroll, a bunch of ink writing inside it. "What the heck is this supposed to mean?" I peer down at it, squinting again.

"A man?" Sakura guesses, turning the paper every which way. "A person?"

"There's something... dangerously familiar about the sign." Maybe it's because my body is still lagging from being unconscious for so long, or the fact that my bladder is about to burst, but I quickly find it difficult to pin down the thought I'm searching for, until it hits me.

Sasuke and I end up gasping in unison when a strange lump appears in place of the strange, rippled circle from the middle of the scroll. A thin stream of steam billows out from a small hole in the top of the lump, hissing and quickly filling the room.

"This is a Summoning Jutsu!" Sasuke shouts.

"Hurry and get rid of it!" I all but scream at them, and by startling them, they fumble in tossing them to the other end of the room. An even bigger plume of smoke pops out of the hole when the scrolls unfurl and overlap each other, filling the room until it's forced out of the opening we'd entered, and out of it a-appears... "I-Iruka-sensei?!"

"Hey," he greets us, lazily throwing up a hand. "Long time no see, huh?"

Updated February 24th, 2022 | 2,514 words