"I don't know what you're talking about. Even if you are Lady Saya, you can't just accuse people without proof. Real scroll, fake scroll, I have no idea."
"I knew you wouldn't admit it!" Saya declared confidently. "The ink you used to make the fake scrolls is the same kind used for painting puppet markings. This special ink is something you traded from me for a potent poison. You can't buy it anywhere else. Did you think I wouldn't recognize it?"
***
"Is it really that easy to identify?" Daigan's face stiffened. "Lady Saya, you seem quite agitated. Did you fall for it?"
"So you admit it?" Saya tilted her head back at a forty-five-degree angle, her expression triumphant. "Who do you think I am? Do you think a little trick like this could fool me?"
"Then what's the problem? It's not like any Sand Ninja were unlucky enough to fall for it." In truth, Daigan would have preferred it if Lady Saya's team had been eliminated. With their strength, there was a slim chance they could pass the third test's preliminary round.
"There's a massive brawl going on outside, and that's all you have to say?"
"What do you want me to do? Go out and help the other candidates tell the real scrolls from the fakes?"
"If you hadn't pulled these little stunts, our journey wouldn't have been so difficult! We had a brutal fight only to find out you were the one pulling the strings!"
Lady Saya was fuming. Kankuro took the fake scroll from Daigan, unrolled it, and a smile unconsciously spread across his face. "So that's what happened. No wonder you were so late. I thought someone had taught you a lesson and you were too scared to show up."
Temari, who had overheard the gist of it, walked over and looked at the blank fake scroll. She instantly understood the scene outside. "How many of these did you spread around?"
"Ten. Besides this one, there are nine others out there," Daigan answered.
"Well, that's..." Temari shook her head. If no one could tell the difference... No, even if someone could and was willing to help, who was to say other teams would believe them? How would they know if you were genuinely helping or just lying to get a competitor eliminated? Once the seeds of suspicion and doubt were planted, they weren't easily removed.
"The remaining Sand Ninja teams are basically hopeless. This is for the best..." It wasn't that Temari looked down on her comrades, but pretty much all the genin from their village with any real skill were already here. It had been a long time since so many Sand Ninja had passed the second test in a joint Chunin Exam. That a sign of resurgence should appear in a year when the village was about to risk everything was a poignant thought.
As night fell, the dangers within the Forest of Death would increase exponentially. Venturing out now would be foolish.
"I guess that's it for tonight," Daigan said, a weary look on his face. "No one else is likely to come. Let's disperse."
He found a bench for himself, leaned back, took out his Temari puppet, and began to slowly tune it, his focus so absolute that it surprised even Kankuro.
"You two, do you know what's up with Daigan today? He seems a bit different from usual."
"You noticed it too, Kankuro?" Chi chuckled. "He saw Temari and didn't even pester her. Just said a few words and that was it."
"So that's it!" Kankuro realized. "I knew something was off. Has the kid had a change of heart? Did he dump Temari? Doesn't seem likely..."
"Who got dumped? If you keep talking nonsense, I don't care if you're my brother, I'll make you pay!" Temari's eyebrows shot up as she snarled through gritted teeth.
"You two, quiet down! Don't wake Gaara!" Chi whispered, pulling the infuriated Temari back.
They all glanced at Gaara, who remained perfectly still, and collectively breathed a sigh of relief.
Meanwhile, Daigan, focused on the puppet in his hands, was uncharacteristically silent. His brow was furrowed in thought, a hesitant look on his face.
"What's with that expression? It's a little strange. Don't tell me he's developed some new weird fetish," Kankuro mused thoughtfully, drawing on his worldly experience.
"Fetish?" Yome glanced from Temari to Daigan, who was engrossed in his puppet. "There's a beautiful woman right here, but he ignores her to fiddle with a puppet that looks exactly like her. Are all puppet masters this strange?"
Putting aside the unbelievably ugly puppet Lady Saya was holding, Kankuro himself didn't seem to interact much with living people either. He was the type of strange guy who could lock himself in his room and talk to his puppets.
"What's with those looks?" Kankuro glared back at the female ninja. "That guy is a bit odd, but there's a pattern to it. He acts crude, but he's very smart. He's just too lazy to use his brain unless it's for something important. Also..." Kankuro stroked his chin, a look of interest on his face. "Daigan likes to simplify complicated matters. He only focuses on one important thing at a time. The way he looks right now, there must be something more important occupying all his thoughts, leaving no time to harass Temari..."
Simply put, he was in single-task mode, too lazy to think about multiple troublesome things at once.
Yome, Chi, Temari, and even Saya and Sana stared at Kankuro strangely. "Since when did you get so close to Daigan? How do you know him so well?"
Temari's expression soured. "You don't even seem to pay that much attention to your own sister, do you?"
"I was just guessing!" Kankuro laughed awkwardly. Being the center of attention among so many female ninja was not a comfortable experience.
On the other side of the room, the quiet Shira walked up to Daigan and bowed deeply.
"What's this?" Daigan looked up, surprised by the burly figure who had suddenly approached him.
"We met in such a rush last time, I didn't get to properly thank you."
"We both got what we wanted. Don't worry about it. Besides, we're competitors now. You're a ninja too, so you should at least learn to act like an arrogant Sand Ninja. No one's going to go easy on you just because you're meek."
"That's not what I meant!" Shira quickly tried to explain. "I just wanted to say thank you..."
"Alright, I heard you." Daigan put down his puppet, stood up, and clapped Shira on the shoulder. "Be more confident. Before, you were striving to become a ninja. Now, you need to think about what kind of ninja you want to be. Don't bow your head so easily; people won't think you're polite for it. Your teammates are over there, right? Go on..."
An emotional taijutsu user was a good comrade, but Daigan didn't like making friends with people like that. He himself was an impulsive person. While he might feel a sense of kinship with someone similar, he was more likely to feel disdain for someone who shared his flaws. It increased the chances of making the same mistakes with no one to offer a different perspective, and there was also the risk of having his own thoughts seen through due to shared empathy.
It was like seeing his personality on someone else—an uncomfortable clash that felt like an offense to his own sense of unique self.
***
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