43 - Flying Arrows

"Let's see..."

The team had received their scroll and entered the mountain, taking a seat under a rare tree to check the details of the proctor they had to rescue.

The image was cut in half, revealing only brown hair (cough cough background character default hair color) and a Kumo headband colored green instead of blue. The text identified the mock 'injury' as chakra exhaustion, and stated the proctor's first name as Daremo.

"Any clue where we can find him?" Yozora questioned, rolling the scroll back up.

"Let's walk around for now. We have time," Tsuretsu decided, standing back up and glancing at the now nonexistent path.

"Yurei, did you find Kitanai?" Kyomu asked as the undead floated back into the cave.

"Makoto killed him," the lavender haired boy replied flatly, causing everyone else to fall silent.

"Sand boy is fucking what?" Rina replied incredulously, dropping the cards in her hand. "Killed by the mystery remote puppet lady?"

"She wanted to deliver a message for Kyomu-san, to 'stop poking at things he doesn't need to know,'" Yurei relayed flatly.

Kyomu stood up, a dark expression on his face. "Prepare to fight. We're hunting her down."

"We've been cooped up in this cave for too long," Kessho announced, which would have looked cool if he hadn't been holding Cards Against Humanity cards reading 'Byakugan vein face paint,' 'Akatsuki fanfiction' and 'Arson!!' (exclamation points courtesy of Hoka)

"Walk slower, Itera," Haikei grumbled, still cradling his broken finger as the team walked on. The sun was beginning to set by now. "Remember, it's your fault for detonating the explosive tag before I got out of the way. So technically you broke my finger."

"Don't be a wimp or next I'm breaking your arm," the charcoal haired girl replied flatly, her long dark gray jacket trailing behind her as she walked up the mountain.

"We should take a break soon, though," Hane offered quietly. "I need to check on Haikei's finger."

"Hm."

"I'm tired," Tomo announced, halting.

"Let's get to..." Yozora glanced at the way they were going. "That tree there. Then we can rest."

Tsuretsu, however, stopped in her tracks before the other two could walk onwards. "I think... I sense a chakra signal. It might be a proctor."

Tomo sighed dramatically, but Yozora nodded. "Okay, where is it?"

The brown haired girl observed the nearby surroundings, pointing to a cluster of rocks. Nodding to each other, the three genin walked over, spotting there was indeed a proctor sitting there.

However, this wasn't the proctor they were sent after.

"He's blond," Tomo pointed out.

"We should bring the proctor along anyway. We can use him as leverage for whatever team was sent after him," Tsuretsu pointed out, a glint in her eyes.

"My mock injury is broken legs," the proctor offered.

"Uh... Tomo, can you carry him?" Yozora asked. The older genin nodded. "Okay, now we go to the tree and rest."

However, as the group walked down the trail under the now dark sky, they were once again interrupted by a kunai zoomed past them. Tsuretsu quickly jumped out of the way, the weapon embedding itself in a rock.

"Nope, that's not our proctor!" a boy with short black hair and glasses announced- Modoru, from Kai's team.

"They know where we are, just attack!" another boy, this one with average-short ginger hair and green eyes- Jimen, shouted, raising his fists.

From behind another rock, the MVP of the team, Kai, emerged as well, earth swords raised.

"Andromeda!" The starry figure appeared in a flash of blue light, shielding the three genin from the other three's attacks.

Tomo immediately unleashed a clone jutsu, raising kunai and lunging forth with speed he definitely didn't have in his brain. Modoru was thrown into a rock while Jimen found the real one, and now clashed with him kunai to kunai.

Yozora summoned two Ursa Majors, both which lunged towards Kai. The black haired girl, however, destroyed both with a swing of her swords.

"Tsuretsu, can you distract her?" the purple haired boy shouted, avoiding an earth jutsu erupting from the ground.

"On it!" the kunoichi replied, hurling two shuriken at Kai. The older genin shouted, slashing them apart midair before whipping around to destroy the Ursa Major Yozora sent after her.

Before they could struggle more, a silver arrow flew through the air. Kai immediately slashed it in half, only for the explosive tag on the tail to detonate promptly, throwing the older genin through the air.

Another arrow flew through the shadows, hitting Jimen in the arm. Tomo quickly jumped back as the arrow poofed out into green gas, which caused the genin to gag and faint.

"The Suna team," Tsuretsu recognized as a trio emerged from the darkness. Haikei was complaining about not being able to fight with his broken finger, Itera was sorting through her quiver, and Hane just looked tired.

"That proctor is the one we're after," Itera announced. "We saved you. You owe us."

"We could have handled it!" Tomo argued indignantly.

"Technically, with Kai's close range skills, it would be near impossible to beat her without a ranged fighter," Hane offered, stepping back when glared at.

For a moment, the two teams stood in a tense silence.

"Okay, how about we help you find your proctor, and in exchange you promise to hand over this guy," Haikei mediated. "Oh, and what do we do with Kai's team?"

Itera calmly nocked an arrow with an only slightly evil gleam in her gray eyes. "Sleeping gas. 12 hours."

"You're a genius," Tsuretsu admitted.

Leaving the Kumo team tied up and unconscious, the two other teams (+ one tired proctor) made their way to the previously specified tree under a careful truce.

"I volunteer for the first watch, I still need to keep an eye on Haikei's finger anyway," Hane said as everyone began to set up 'beds' (read: rocks with leaves and jackets on them).

"One person per team," Tsuretsu argued. "Neither of us know whether to trust the others."

"I'll do it," Yozora interjected before an argument could boil over.

"So... you're a healer?"

The two genin had sat in silence for a while, but their shift wouldn't be over for another several hours. Yozora might as well as strike up some conversation.

"Yeah," Hane replied with a nod. "Haikei is the close range fighter. Itera can do a crazy amount of things with her arrows. And I... uh, run around and hide, and do a bit of healing jutsu when needed."

"A lot of ninja don't care enough to train to be a healer, it takes dedication to do so," Yozora pointed out. "Back in my team- I mean back in Konoha, not Tsuretsu and Tomo- I knew a healer. Her fighting strength is good, but not a match for the others, but the team wouldn't be complete without her."

"Yeah, it's just... well, I don't feel all that special," the black haired boy muttered.

"Everyone contributes to a team, no matter what they do," Yozora insisted.

Hane glanced downwards. "Hm."