"What the hell are you doing?" Naruto asked furiously at the heartless torture of another human.
"He loses, and that means his life is forfeited," Gaara stated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "For beings like us, life holds more. But for a pest like him? Well, they deserve to die." Gaara said darkly.
"Put him down. Or I'll kill you myself!" Naruto declared angrily.
"Oh, you'll kill me?" Gaara said his killing intent filled the area. Samui collapsed on her knees. Fuu flinched at the power. Naruto flinched as well, and Gaara smirked at this. "Be careful with your words, friend." While they had argued, none realized the sand had raised the struggling Ayuma high in the air. Wrapping around his mouth to keep him silent.
"No-" Naruto started but flinched as Ayuma hit the ground head-first with a disgusting splat. The body was pulverized by the fall. The group, all except Gaara, marched forward to look away.
Gaara walked past them and calmly climbed onto his horse. "I didn't kill your friends; you could never kill me, and don't assume because we are kin, I won't kill you." He said as he started to trot on with his horse.
Gaara felt that while the others seemed to hate how this event went down, it went down the best way it could've so far. Now they knew what line not to cross. Shortly after, they elected to set up camp. The day turned to night, and things got ice cold. Gaara agreed to take a shift, wanting this time to himself. He explained he could not sleep and would watch for the night. The group didn't feel entirely comfortable with this but realized it was best to agree for now. Gaara had formed a shelter out of stone for them and the horse. Naruto managed to catch various fish. His mother taught him survival skills at a young age. Fuu had gone and found safe drinking water. Samui had started a fire to warm the odd structure. She seemed incredibly on guard being left with Gaara. He also knew at least twenty clones were watching them. Ten more following Fuu. It appeared the blonde intended to protect the team, even against itself. But he had behaved, and things went well. Now, deeper into the night, he was able to relax. He suddenly felt the presence of others coming and, with a smile, stood. He created a sand clone to watch over his teammates as he climbed onto his steed and rode out to meet them.
This exam would serve his vice as well as his goal!
Team Eight's POV (Trial of Nio - Land of Iron)
Neji knew the first exam had gone as well as it did, primarily due to a lucky team. They were well suited to the task at hand. Not much had truly changed in that regard. His team had a solid repertoire of skills, solid thinking, and agreeable nature. It made it clear to Neji that they would likely pass with ease. But he needed to pass. He had no doubt Naruto would pass. As such, he needed to as well. Naruto had shaken his core belief system, so the two were friends. But deep down, Neji had felt slightly dissatisfied. Naruto had defeated him and merely continued to grow.
During the training sessions just before the exams, Naruto defeated him and Ino most of the time. He had quickly cemented himself as the most powerful on their team. Neji truly was happy for his friend. He grew due to his own training and unfaltering spirit. Neji would never look down on him collecting his spoils, but he had to admit it was frustrating.
Naruto had been significantly below him in rankings. He had come a long way mentally, but he was no genius. He came from relative nothing, and yet he stood above him. Neji didn't resent him for it but craved to be his equal. His goal of changing the Hyuga would require strength to gain influence. If he couldn't at least match Naruto, could he truly pursue his goal of breaking fate? The question haunted him. He needed to prove to himself he was able to change things. He would start with himself.
His team had elected Tenten to be the lord. Her repertoire of tools would not be hampered too much on horseback. Oddly enough, I am also very well-trained to ride a horse. Kurotsuchi had insisted on being a leader. And to her credit, she seemed to be skilled at it. Even if her communication skills certainly needed help. They had decided to immediately seek out another team, attempt to get their points early, and focus on arriving.
As such, when Neji spotted another team with his long-range Byakugan, he called in his team to decide how to attack. While they believed they may be able to crush them outright, they decided to separate the lord, with two of them attempting to score while the other two held off the defenders. Sai and he would attempt to score, while Tenten and Kurotsuchi held off the others.
Kurotsuchi had been quite clever in the plan she created. The Horses were an interesting addition, an exploitable one. Horses were well-trained creatures and were hard to panic. Unless, of course, they were convinced they were in danger. She had a simple plan: they couldn't harm the horse but didn't need to. Or even startle it. Just move it.
Neji watched as Sakura and Hinata worked with two other shinobi he didn't recognize. Moving on to other Leaf shinobi was unfortunate, but they couldn't risk leaving them alone. They observed the four Kankuro on the horse, and the other three formed a loose diamond formation. Once they had thoroughly scouted them, they moved to enact Kurotsuchi's plan. With a cry of her jutsu, it began.
"Earth Style: Stone Uprising!" As she finished this call, the ground beneath Team Seven suddenly rose. A large pillar of stone shot up thirty feet in the air. Leaving a swearing, Kankuro separated from his teammates. Sakura, Hinata, and Mangetsu jumped up, attempting to interfere. But Kurotsuchi shot out of the pillar, hand signs already flowing. "Earth Style: Earth Flow Spears!" She called. Suddenly, several jagged spears shot off the ground. Causing Hinata and Sakura to scramble back from them. Mangetsu merely charged forward with the spears stabbing him through, but he simply seemed to bleed water.
"That stuff doesn't work on me!" He called as he drew a tanto and flew forward to attack Neji and Sai, who were climbing the pillar to attack Kankuro. But as he attempted to, Tenten jumped in front of him with a pair of metal tonfas. "Listen here, girly," Mangetsu said with a sneer. "You're out of your league! You can't even hurt me!" He called confidently, charging towards the woman. Tenten merely smirked as she twirled the two with a smile. As Magetsu swung his tanto with wild abandonment at her head. She shot out with a thrust to his middle section. The man gasped as it hit his stomach and drove the air out of him.
"H-how." He asked breathlessly.