LAST TIME!

Kin was being all ninja and jumping through the trees when BAM! Orochimaru to the FACE. So that snake guy was like "Ohai Kin, do this thing plz?" She was like "Uhm, y wud I do that, like?" Then he flashed her a charming smile and a heaven scroll. She was like "O, k den!" and agreed to like, spy on Naruto or something. Then Sasuke fell out of a tree but was saved by Kabuto who just HAPPENED to be passing by, I call BS. Then Naruto and Kabuto set up camp with Sakura, whilst Kin watched from a hidey hole. Right where we left off, Naruto was approaching Kin's hiding place, KUNAI DRAWN.

-TSHL-

Kin held her breath as she watched the blonde approach her hiding spot through the leaves, strictly she knew she was at a disadvantage, especially with someone who was so obviously a short range fighter. But she had used this same feint before and had seen it work wonders … she continued to hold her breath as the boy approached then as he got within a few paces she tugged on the wire she held in her right hand. Across the clearing an almost imperceptible chime rang out. Everything happened within a heartbeat from then.

The blonde took the bait and began to turn his head, during the same moment Kin released the breath she was holding and let a fired a kunai at full strength right into the boy at point blank range. Of the many things she was expecting, a burst of cloud wasn't on her list. Her pupils dilated in fear at that moment, and without a second's thought she abandoned her hiding spot and re hid herself a few dozen paces away still with a view of the camp. After a second a very tired looking Uzumaki stumbled out of the forest and into the clearing, he glanced around himself as if confused before setting his sight once again on the suspicious bush. Kin narrowed her eyes as she considered her next move.

The boy was obviously talented with some kind of bunshin jutsu, which meant the one currently in the clearing was most likely another clone. If that was the case, then the real Uzumaki was somewhere in the forest looking over the clearing, much like herself. She felt her lip curl at that thought, her speciality was this situation exactly. Two shinobi in a stalemate with neither willing to reveal themselves, she held back a laugh and readied a senbon for flight with a bell. She might not be able to attack the original directly, but if he was within hearing distance then he'd be caught in her gen-jutsu, then it would be game over. She raised the senbon and took aim at the blonde in the clearing, still approaching the bush. Her brow furrowed for second, if this WAS a clone … then where was the original? She took a second to commit her senses to hearing only to turn around immediately, eyes wide open into a defensive stance.

"What are you doing, Sound-san?" Her heart thundered in her ears and she recalled memories of the conversation she'd just had with the Otokage.

'I was careless, I should've tried to find him before taking out the clone.' she brushed the thought from her head and began to consider her situation. The blonde was crouched on a branch a meter or so away, slightly higher than her spot giving him both an attacking and defensive bonus. If she tried a genjutsu now she was sure he'd be able to identify and properly release it with ease buying her maybe a split second, not nearly enough with a close combat specialist. She found herself looking at the boys eyes, there was no malice, fear, or anger in them. Just simple curiosity. She began to lower her senbon when she recalled what the pink haired girl had said before.

'If she spent more time confronting danger instead of running away, maybe she'd be able to grow a bit stronger. Then maybe she would have been able to defend herself properly.' She gathered as much courage as she could muster and raised her hand once again, the senbon poised to throw. The blonde followed her hand as it rose and gently shook his head, she understood his meaning perfectly. If she were to attack him now then he wouldn't have any choice but to fight back, and he knew that he would win without being told. It surprised her then that he didn't take advantage of the situation. In her experience, any one would have taken full advantage of her at that point. Instead she found herself silently locked in a battle of wills with those now hypnotic eyes, gently forcing her to lower her weapon. Several seconds passed before Kin fully lowered her needle but she still gave the boy a savage look, he returned it with one of curiosity. She saw his eyes dart down to her now fully lowered hands before returning to her eyes, she knew. It was now, she was sure that in the next second or two another clone would rush her from the forest, perhaps a kunai would sail through the air. She closed her eyes and let a breath pass her lips.

'I've failed. He'll kill me now, and if by whatever miracle he doesn't a fate a hundred times worse awaits me with Dosu, Zaku, and Orochimaru.' Her brow furrowed and her lip trembled. 'Did I only lower my weapon because it was the easy way out? That pink haired girl was right, I am a coward.'

"You're not a coward, you know." Kin's breath hitched as her eyes shot open to meet the blue, now looking away as if slightly embarrassed. He scratched the side of his face as she stared at him incredulously. "When my teammate said that earlier, she didn't know what she was talking about. I'm guessing you heard her, right?" Kin nodded dumbly, still not able to find her voice. He looked at the floor when he saw her nod as if he were ashamed. "Sorry about her, really she's a nice person. Just not taking Kakashi-sensei's advice yet." He beamed at her.

"Why are you …" she stopped short, unable to find words to match her feelings. He tilted his head to one side.

"Why am I wha-"

"WHY ARE YOU NICE TO ME!?" Naruto flinched backwards at the sudden volume of Kin's voice and slipped backwards off of his perch, thudding onto the earth a few meters below. He grumbled slightly as he got back onto his feet and looked at Kin who was sending him a fiery look.

"I have to have a reason to be nice!?" he narrowed his eyes at her as he cradled a bump slowly growing on his hind, Kin simply huffed and cast her gaze away.

"Like any shinobi needs a reason not to be, especially to an enemy shinobi." Naruto threw her a confused look before growling quietly.

"Oh! So just because I'm a ninja I can't be nice to other ninja? How'd ya think alliances started?" Kin pulled a deadpan face,

"Not like this, not with guys like you." He looked hurt for a second before scoffing,

"Oh yeah, and as if you were there for every alliance ever made." Kin sighed and met his eyes for a second, her eyes still brimming with the tears she passed when she thought she was going to die. She wanted a real answer. Naruto looked uncomfortable for a second before nodding slightly and casting his gaze back toward the camp.

"I'm nice to everyone, just cause it's how I wanna be treated, ya know? My teammates give me a hard time a lot and I'm not exactly Mr popular in the village, I just want people to be nice back." He jutted out his lower lip at the admission childishly, as if he was being punished. But Kin couldn't help but allow the tears she'd been holding back to flow, and the sob she'd been fighting to crack through her stinging throat. He was the same as she was … Just looking for acceptance in a life that didn't seem to want to accept her. The boy looked at her concerned that his words had had such an affect but he didn't need to stop himself from approaching as a second later a call echoed through the trees.

"Naruto!?" He cast his gaze back to the clearing from the girl,

"Sakura, she must've heard you yell before." She was holding a hand over her mouth to muffle the whines that emanated from deep inside of her, whilst simultaneously wiping at her eyes with the other hand. He searched the ground for a second whilst he wrestled with a thought in his head. "We have plenty of food if you wanna, I dunno… join us or something?" He scratched the back of his head awkwardly as he spoke and Kin couldn't help but scoff under her breath as she regained her composure.

"You really are a ridiculous ninja." He gave her a lopsided smirk and awaited her response. "I don't think your teammate would want me around, so thanks but no thanks." Without another word she turned and crouched as if to take off into the forest, but stopped when a rough hand slipped around her wrist and held her in place. Her heart skipped and then thundered as her memory rushed to the last time a person had gripped her in a similar way. She couldn't, WOULDN'T allow that to happen again.

Suddenly, and with deceptive strength the girl began to thrash violently away from Naruto attempting to free her wrist from his grasp, he watched in shock and obvious worry as the tear tracks became visible down her cheeks once again. He felt his throat tighten and stepped forward, wrapping his other arm around the girls back, bringing her into a tight hug. Resisting her as she shook violently against his grip and took in deep lungfuls of air between sobs.

"Sound-san, calm down. I'm not going to hurt you, I won't let anyone hurt you … Just calm down … Calm down." His voice became quieter and quieter as the girl stopped trying to resist his grip and began to latch back onto him as if he were a life line, slowly she returned to herself and looked into the orange of the boys jumpsuit. She remembered how he had put himself in danger in order to fight the Boar, no thought for his own safety, no thought of reward, or of taking advantage. She sighed at what she was about to do.

"Kin." The boy released his grip enough that he could examine her suddenly shy expression.

"What did you say?" She ducked her head for a second before looking up, her burning look back in place.

"My name is Kin, shut up with the "Sound-san" nonsense." She bit back a smile as he let one spread across his face, touching every feature from his eyes to his ears.

"I'm Naruto, over there is Sakura, Sasuke, and Kabuto." The girls eyes hollowed slightly at the mention of Sasuke and she receded into her own mind as she thought.

'Why did it have to be his teammate. The first person who seems to genuinely understand how I feel, and give a damn about it … His teammate is on my hitlist.' She manoeuvred her arms to come between herself and the seemingly happy blonde then created a brief string of handseals. She gave him one last look of apology before completing the Substituation Jutsu for the second time in his company.

A second passed before Naruto sighed and dropped the log that had replaced Kin and silently made his way towards camp, vowing that he wouldn't share his encounter with the Sound shinobi with Sakura or Kabuto.

"I'm here Sakura, I was just taking a leak don't worry."

"Jeez Naruto, too much information."

The third shinobi that had observed the entire interaction between the two genin silently made his way to a vantage point and gazed into the clearing once again, going by completely unnoticed.

-TSHL-

Kin leaned against an enormous fallen tree that created a wall of thick wood behind her, she wiped furiously at the stray tears that were still running down her cheeks and subconsciously chipped away at the bark with her thumbnail, she often found herself doing this when she was lost in thought. Why had she even been crying? She couldn't remember the last time she had cried, she only knew that it had been years, perhaps even before her time in Oto. Usually she was as uncompromising as steel, an icy persona kept even her own teammates at a firm distance, but this person, this … Vessel was getting through her defences like they didn't exist. She dug deeper into the wood of the tree with her nail as her thoughts carried on, could it have been the influence of the demon? Destroying her defences so subtly that she hadn't even realised it was being done. It was certainly crafty enough for a demon to have thought it up, but she didn't really believe it. Some part of her knew that it was him, the boy that had gotten through to her, not the demon.

She let her thoughts of the blonde enigma drift from her mind and she hid herself among a patch of large ferns before settling down into sleep, dreaming of something … dark.

When Kin awoke again she stared up into the sky and attempted to recall the strings of her half remembered dream, then she saw the first signs of dawn appearing across the sky. She frowned to herself as she decided she had less than 12 hours left of the exam. Deciding this she stood up and began to stretch out her legs, then froze. She wasn't sure how she hadn't realised it before, but several things were different about the area she had slept in. The scent of roasted fish was strong in the air and within a few seconds he found the meal wrapped up in a few layers of plastic film, subtly hidden under a smaller fern. When she bent down to check under the leaf she found something that shocked her a lot more, a Heaven Scroll stared back at her from its position in the dirt. Her instincts screamed at her to dodge and she involuntarily scrambled backwards away from it, surely it had to be a trap, surely?

She fell into a defensive position as she mentally extended her senses then applied her hearing to check for any who may have been watching … sensing no one, she approached the scroll with obvious caution then extended her chakra toward it in an attempt to check it for a genjutsu, there were none. She briefly looked about herself, checking once again for signs of an observer. Then. Slowly. She extended a hand and picked the scroll up, after a second a smile brushed across her features and she stowed it into her pouch. She looked at the packet of fish in the other hand and smiled ever so slightly brighter. 'Naruto … Was this you?' She didn't bother to waste any more time and with a quick shot of chakra she fired herself back into the forest, taking a bite of the still steaming fish.

-TSHL-

"HOW THE FUCK COULD YOU 'MISPLACE' THE SCROLL!" Sasuke was livid as he yelled at Naruto again, the blonde hung his head and didn't reply. Sasuke had been awake for just over an hour and had spent the better part of that hour shouting at the blonde. The pink haired girl and silver haired boy only watched on from the sidelines and occasionally tried to remind Sasuke that they were on a time limit.

"Don't you think you should be telling him that!" he pointed accusingly at Naruto when Kabuto tried to tell them that they should get moving. "He's the one who thought it'd be great idea to play hide and seek with the Scroll!" Naruto looked like he was about to say something in response, but didn't get the chance as Sasuke took off into the forest before anybody could respond. "Hurry up, you idiots! We've got to find a new fucking scroll now!" The three remaining genin only shared a look before taking off after the Uchiha, Sakura cast a curious look over to Naruto and asked the question which had been burning inside her for the last few hours.

"Is there something you're not telling us, Naruto?"

"What? No, of course not." The blonde mentally cursed himself for answering too quickly. Sakura's eyes narrowed.

"You know, I heard a yell last night, what was it?" The blondes eyes flashed, in concern for a second before returning to normal.

"I … stubbed my toe, that's all. Yeah! When I was taking a leak, remember?" He scratched the back of his head in embarrassment and laughed awkwardly, hoping that his teammate would buy into his lie. Sakura's gaze didn't shift.

"It sounded like a girl." He laughed louder and more awkwardly in response.

"Haha, Sakura! You're so mean for mocking my scream." The girl opened her mouth to speak again but before she could a wave of chakra rippled through the forest. The hairs on her arms and neck bristled at the animosity it held, she felt its choking strength envelope her for a second before she acclimatised to it and drew in a shaky breath. She sent a look at both Naruto and Kabuto who both cast their heads in the direction the chakra seemed to indicate.

"That's where Sasuke went, right?" Sakura felt fear pump through her like blood as she thought of Sasuke fighting the source of such a foul chakra alone. "We have to go and help him, now!" The two boys shared a look and Naruto nodded confidently, Kabuto looked slightly less sure but nodded as well.

Less than a few seconds passed before the trio came across the raven haired boy, keeled over onto his hands and knees breathing heavily. Sakura's eyes widened as she identified Sasuke as the source of the chakra … that seal. Her mind rushed as she began to approach the downed teammate, she was shocked to find that someone had stopped her from getting closer, she looked behind her to see Kabuto holding her back by her shoulder. She began to say something but he merely gestured for her to look ahead, she saw Naruto walking slowly toward Sasuke. A strangled cry from the Uchiha made the blonde halt his progress for a second but he started his advance again just as quickly once the cry passed. She saw thick purple chakra ooze from the cracks between her Teammates fingers as they were clamped over the seal on his neck, it seemed to react to Naruto because when the boy leaned forward to touch it, it seemed to lunge out at him. He backed away swiftly out of range and began to circle around until he came face to face with Sasuke.

The boy began to pant and strain as the seal glowed a bright red and then screamed in agony as glowing red patterns seemed to grow from the seal and move across Sasuke's body and under his clothes. Naruto narrowed his eyes and moved closer to his teammate again, raising his hand as if to touch the oozing purple mess again, this time however the chakra shied away from his touch and began to retract back to where it came from inside the seal. Leaving the glowing red marks covering just over half of Sasuke's face. Then a hiss resounded around the Uchiha and the red marks seemed to steam simultaneously and change from red into a jet black like the original seal was. Sasuke threw back his head and screamed in pain, horror, and in pure animalistic hatred, and rage.

-TSHL-

Kin kicked off of a branch and fell into pace behind Zaku who nodded at her, and then acknowledged the scroll she flashed at him. Dosu caught a glimpse of it out of the corner of his eye and nodded in Kin's direction too, she thought to herself that it was as close to a greeting as she would get from there two. A second passed while the three manoeuvred themselves into their normal formation and then a shriek passed through the trees, Zaku turned to face its direction and then looked at Dosu.

"It seems that we've found our target, we'll engage team seven Asap." Dosu spoke under his wrappings and pulled his loose jacket down to cover his melody arm. Kin glanced nervously from the direction Sasuke's scream had come and then to her team.

"Wait a second." The two other members of the team exchanged a look before looking at her expectantly. "Sasuke has a curse mark." Both boys shared another look, filled primarily with fear, then Zaku glanced back at Kin.

"You're sure?" Dosu scoffed.

"Of course she's sure, she wouldn't mention it otherwise." Kin nodded at Dosu,

"Orochimaru-sama told me himself." Dosu shook his head loosely then cast a concerned look over to Zaku.

"We don't have a choice here, we all know that don't we?" Zaku nodded in response and Dosu cast his single eye back over to Kin. "What else did Orochimaru-sama say?" she shook her head and took a breath before speaking.

"I- I don't think he expects us to survive." She said with her voice cracking slightly, she let out a harsh laugh, "I guess that explains why he let us into the exam, huh! We're far from the best genin, he just wanted us to test the curse mark!" Zaku back pedalled slightly as Kin spoke and looked between his two teammates who looked equally distraught. He shook his head a few times and growled.

"Fuck that Uchiha! We'll tear his fuckin' head off and show Orochimaru-sama we're not useless. Yeah?" Dosu nodded and began to move in the direction of Sasuke's scream,

"We may as well do this now, you agree?" his two teammates nodded and took up positions either side of him. Kin coughed into her palm to get their attention once again, Dosu nodded at her to continue.

"I should probably say, they're actually travelling in a group of four, not three." Zaku grimaced at the information before forcing a confident smirk.

"More fun for us, right man?" The spiky haired boy gave Dosu a punch in the arm as he spoke, thought the only response he got was a low growl.

The three were moving swiftly through the forest when the first waves of Malevolent chakra hit them, first chokingly obvious and then it died into the back ground of their mind. Dosu brought the group to a halt in front of a large clearing. Then turned and looked at each teammate in turn, "It would seem that Kin was right about the curse mark. We'll stage our offensive here in this clearing, the open area will allow for maximum devastation with your air cannons, Zaku." The other boy nodded and ran a finger over said cannons in anticipation of the coming fight. "When- If it becomes obvious that we don't stand a chance against them … We'll need a distraction, there's no sense in all three of us dying when only one has to." As Dosu spoke, Zaku gained a slightly guilty expression and cast Kin an apologetic look.

-TSHL-

I don't think that I changed much in this section, just expanded it. I have tried to make Dosu and Zaku more believable though, I don't want them to be evil for evils sake. I want them to be more realistic, have moments where you think that they're just two guys. Cause let's face it, they are really. I do feel kind of bad for making Sasuke such a cock, but it is relevant to the story now and later. It is for plot purposes … not just bashing.

The next chapter is something I'm looking forward to writing though, the fight between Team Seven and Team Sound! What will Naruto do when he's pitted against Kin, or visa versa? Exciting stuff, man.