Demons in the Dark: The Hell Gate
Ch 4 – The Blood of the Snake
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"Welcome to Training Ground number Forty-Four, affectionately named the Forest of Death." Anko said, a wicked grin across her lips. "Before we begin, everyone's going to have to sign a waiver to officially protect Konoha from whatever laws your home-villages have about dying here." Anko said, looking around at the crowd. Her grin widened further at seeing Team Seven, Sasuke holding Naruto's jaw closed. "Oh, don't do that to your little buddy! I want to know what he's got to say!"
Sasuke looked over to her, scowling as he released Naruto. The blond cast his teammate an annoyed glance, before he took a deep breath and settled for glaring at the woman. Naruto stepped forward as the woman vanished, Anko tripping and falling on her face where Naruto had been standing a moment before. While she picked herself up, most of the other Genin around were laughing at her slip. Only a few noticed Naruto avoid her, but only she noticed him kick her ankle as she passed.
Dusting herself off, Anko walked over to a tent set up next to a chain link fence surrounding the forest compound. Keeping her frustration to herself, she took a stack of waivers and began passing them out. As she handed Naruto one, she glared at him with a legitimately upset look on her face. "Ruin all my fun." Naruto kicked himself internally, for once cursing the instinct he'd obtained since the Nami mission. If there WERE a threat to worry of, then they had a good chance of encountering them as a result of his reaction. He did his best to scan the crowd around him, but he didn't have enough experience to detect someone who knew how to hide their interest.
"Now then, once you've turned in your waivers you'll be given either a heaven scroll," At that statement she held out a white scroll, "Or an earth scroll." At this she held up a black scroll. "Half of the teams will be given heaven scrolls, while the other half are given earth scrolls. The only way to pass this portion is to arrive at the tower in the Forest's center with both scrolls. Put simply, you'll be fighting each other over these." Anko looked directly at Naruto with a taunting smirk. "And another aspect is survival, this portion doesn't end until either half of you report in or five days go by. Good luck, kiddies!"
Team Seven entered the tent, each of the three handing off their signed waivers to the proctors sitting at a table with Heaven scrolls and Earth scrolls. They were handed a Heaven scroll, the team naturally handing it to Naruto. He himself was confused, finding that he was the most foolish out of the three. "Why would you give me this? I'm the easiest to trick!"
"Be that as it may, you're the hardest to kill and the most stubborn. You won't give this up unless one of our lives depends on it, and you have the best chance of keeping us out of that situation." Sasuke said, Sakura nodding her agreement. "So keep it quiet, and remember to keep an eye out." After mulling it over, Naruto understood their logic and nodded his own agreement. With that, they left the tent and walked off to join the rest of the Genin waiting for the test to begin. After about five more teams went through the tent, Anko blew a whistle to gather attention.
"Alright, maggots! The proctors will designate each of you a gate to enter at, Suna Team One enters from here. Get going!" Anko called, Naruto smirking as the test was getting underway for real. While he was a bit wary of the unknown variables like Sunagakure and Kusagakure, he was more than ready for a challenge. Were he honest with himself, he'd find himself craving the challenge. As Team Seven was ushered to their position, they found themselves at the farthest gate. Naruto was growing impatient, Sasuke also showing a desire to get moving.
A moment later a horn blared out from loud-speakers that they hadn't paid any attention to, the gates opening to signal the exam's beginning. The three immediately took off at a high speed, hanging behind top speed for Sakura's sake. If one of them burned out early, they were done. Sakura had improved almost impossibly quickly in a single night, but given what the problems were, she was close enough to ten or twelve improvements that it was actually surprising that she needed any help at all.
The three had neither a contingency for a five-day survival test, nor for stealing from other ninja. Sasuke was the most likely to be sought out given his clan's reputation, so the three were prepared to fight three-on-three. However, all of their strategies lacked killing blows. And if they were going to obtain scrolls from other teams, Naruto and Sasuke were restricted from using their fire-based abilities.
Within about fifteen minutes, Naruto stopped short. He waited for the others to find stopping places, before he raised his left hand with three fingers and his thumb sticking up. In their decided code, this had meant that Naruto detected a strong level of anxiety from at least three people. He took point, leading them off to the right of their initial heading. As they closed in, Naruto took to the ground to play decoy. As he did, he felt the anxiety wane slightly and shift into confidence. He whistled loudly to signal the change, this signal meaning that someone confident had come within his range. He clapped his hands once to signal again as he came to a stop in a small clearing, this meaning to take cover and watch his flanks.
While he would've once been frustrated with another holding such a skill, Sasuke had taken on Naruto's optimistic thinking to a degree. So long as he had teammates, Sasuke need not be the most powerful in order to avenge his dead clan. As they waited a short amount of time, Naruto put his arms in a relaxed position behind his head as he tapped his foot.
"Geez, you'd think someone trying to pass would move a little bit quicker." Naruto said, looking around lazily. He felt a wave of chakra wash through the field, not extending upward to where Sasuke and Sakura hid. He continued to pretend he knew nothing about the situation as the most confident of the auras moved behind him. They approached slowly, as though not worried in the slightest. Another few seconds and Naruto could hear them breathing behind him, waiting for them to make some kind of actual move. However, all that happened was a boy walking up behind him as though he were untouchable. Naruto had his back to him, but he could feel the confidence overwhelming the area from this boy alone.
"Too easy." The voice was spoken through a respirator, Naruto hearing a metallic 'clink' as the boy reached his arm around to begin choking Naruto out. However, Naruto had grown tired of his own façade.
"Genjutsu, huh? Rookie move to assume it's worked." Naruto grabbed the boy's arm, gripping until he felt the bone while the boy cried out in agony. Naruto was a little surprised to feel a warm liquid dripping down his arm as he turned around, chuckling while he did. "What, a little pressure and you start to bleed? Are you sure you shouldn't have stayed in the academy?" As he got a look at him, Naruto saw that the boy had black hair with a Kirigakure headband upon his fore-head. Additionally was a respirator on his face and a yellow one-piece suit, having torn at the fore-arm where Naruto was crushing the boy. "Tch, shut up. You'll tell the whole forest we're here."
Naruto decided not to waste any more time than was needed, and threw the boy into a tree behind him. Hitting head-first, the boy was knocked out cold in this one move. Naruto waited while the confidence turned into fear, making the blond grin a bit to himself.
"Oh, come on! You run off to attack me, TRY to fool me, what's wrong with a straight fight?" Naruto asked, receiving nothing as an answer. He sighed, looking straight out to his left. "You know that you need all three of you to pass this test. You have to come out if you want to move on." Naruto had been impatient since the written exam, and at this stage he didn't actually have to wait. "I'll tell you this once, then I'll prove it, then you'll hand me your scroll. I know where you both are."
Naruto vanished, reappearing in the same position holding a second boy whose one-piece included a hood over his hair. He held the boy by his neck, this one slowly losing consciousness. "Stop it!" A third appeared from the foliage before Naruto, making the blond grin wider. "Let him go, I'll give you our scroll!" Naruto sighed, throwing the boy in hand into the same tree as the first. The boy in front of him held up a white scroll, Sasuke descending to land behind the boy, decking him as he tried to turn and look at him.
"Too bad, none of them actually gave a fight." Naruto said, Sasuke shaking his head as Sakura descended herself to land between the two.
"I'm more annoyed about-" Naruto whistled to cut her off, figuring she was about to mention the duplicate scroll. Sasuke whispered the problem with saying anything in Sakura's ear, the girl sighing. "That makes sense, but it still bugs me."
"Nothing to worry about, let's just get moving." Sasuke said, the three taking back to the trees with Naruto taking point again. The three were intent on reaching the tower before anyone got hungry, none of them comfortable with the thought of making camp with enemies about.
As they continued, Naruto sensed the sensations he'd felt on the Bridge months before, murderous intent laden with reluctance to follow through. It was hard for him to discern who was safe to attack, especially given the radical difference in ability he'd encountered initially. As he sensed six familiar auras, he found himself incapable of continuing past them. The other two trusted him not to lead them into too much danger, but he felt that he needed to protect one of these auras from the other. As they closed in the most malicious aura moved on, the other two following and confirming Naruto's hunch on their identities.
The three landed in the clearing, Naruto looking around as he focused on the malicious aura. He was certain that it was moving away, but for some reason… he felt like the danger hadn't waned at all. He looked off to his right, rubbing the back of his head with a goofy grin on his face. 'What am I doing?' "Hey, sorry I'm late Hinata-chan! I was hoping to come help with those guys before they got your scroll!"
"Naruto, what are you doing?" Sakura asked, Sasuke smiling at the blond.
"What, you finally realize her looking at you all the time?" Sasuke asked, Naruto ignoring his friend while Team Eight came up from their hiding place in the bushes.
"But seriously guys… don't go anywhere near the Suna teams. The red-head who was just here might be the only big threat out of that village, but he's a crazy threat lemme tell you now." Naruto said, Hinata's face as red as a tomato while her teammates walked up ahead of her.
"Yeah right, like you'd know. I was meanin' to ask but I didn't want to draw much attention, what happened to your eyes Fox-boy?" One of Hinata's teammates was a feral boy name Inuzuka Kiba, his features extremely canine. He was sending Naruto a challenging grin, the blond returning that grin. "I always heard the Kyuubi had red eyes, so don't play it off as the fox in your gut."
"At least you can tell the difference." Naruto said, smiling gently at Hinata. "Sorry I've been so dense… we'll talk when we reach the tower, yeah?" Naruto asked, Hinata's aura giving off an incredible amount of her anxious-joy mixture. It didn't surprise him that Hinata fainted a moment later, but he was pleased to see her smiling in her stress-induced sleep. He noticed her teammates casting him disappointed looks, Naruto rubbing his head again. "Eh he, sorry about that guys. I promise, I didn't mean to do that."
"Long as you're serious about that talk you just offered her, I guess I can let you off the hook." Kiba said, getting in Naruto's face for a minute. "But I've known this girl since Akamaru and I were both pups, you'd best not hurt her."
"Furthest thought from my mind, promi-" Naruto cut himself short as a devious intent greater than anything he'd felt in the past four months began approaching radically swiftly. "Get the hell out of here, now. Something's coming." Kiba was about to argue, but their third teammate Aburame Shino grabbed his shoulder.
"He's right. Carry Hinata, it's time to go." Kiba wanted to argue, but Shino never joked about anything. Kiba grabbed their teammate and took off after Shino, a trio of Kusa nins appearing the instant they got away. Naruto kicked himself for deviating off of their plan, watching the three across from him closely. Before anyone could do anything, the nin taking point had spun around once with Kunai in either hand. In a spurt of blood, both of their teammates fell down dead. As the nin turned around, her laughter told them her gender. Naruto felt a sick elation coming from her, along with a very strong sense of accomplishment. The kind someone feels when they're getting away with something they shouldn't be doing…
"Why hello there, Sasuke-kun. I've been waiting SO long to meet you! The Kyuubi brat, however…" The Kusa-nin brought her hand to her mouth, before flipping it out flat as though blowing a kiss. From her mouth came an incredible whirlwind, Team Seven anchoring to the ground using chakra as though climbing trees. Naruto was suspicious of everyone, but as he felt out the nin's aura, he began to consider that her presence might've been the source of his unease throughout the exam thus far.
"What ABOUT me? You got a problem?" Naruto asked, glaring into the nin's eyes. As he did, she tilted her head in mild confusion. As he continued to focus on the nin's aura, he detected something familiar that he couldn't quite place. "What's wrong, huh? How about you come give us a REAL shot?"
The woman began laughing heartily, an unnaturally long tongue appearing as she licked her lips. "While I don't much like avoiding a challenge, this one I feel I must handle more appropriately. Wouldn't you allow me a chance to fight Sasuke-kun all alone? I promise, I'll leave the other two alone if you let me fight you… Sasuke-kun." The way she said 'Sasuke-kun' made Naruto's skin crawl inside and out, unfamiliar with such emotions as the ones she was giving off.
"What is it you want with me? It's clearly not as though you intend on passing with your teammates dead, so what?" Sasuke asked, the Kusa-nin grinning as she pulled out an Earth scroll.
"You need this one, right? You have a Heaven scroll?" She asked, holding it by the top with her fingertips as she threw her head back and opened her jaw wide. She began to lower it into her mouth, the scroll bulging against the top of her throat. It was at that moment that Sasuke appeared with his hands around her throat, Naruto behind him while Sakura was nowhere to be found. The Kusa-nin's eyes bulged in surprise, having known everything there was on record about all three. Uchiha Sasuke shouldn't have been NEARLY that quick, while Uzumaki Naruto had no chances of doing anything without the Kyuubi's help.
What the hell was going on? "As it happens…" with that lead-in, Sasuke and the Earth scroll both vanished as Naruto appeared a meter away from the woman with his arms crossed, "… yeah, we DID." The Kusa-nin cast him a glare filled with murderous intent, a purple aura holding a blend of chakra and demonic power emanating out from her. Naruto found himself surprised at the appearance of any other demonic powers, but it made sense that it came from one so strange and mysterious. "The Kyuubi isn't what you should be worrying about. Your first mistake was underestimating Sasuke."
"Well if that's the case, I'll just have to kill two birds with one stone, won't I?" The woman asked, appearing above Naruto with a long sword in hand. As she slashed with her power focused into the blade, she found herself caught on her own breath as Naruto caught the blade between his hands. "W-What?!"
"The second was underestimating ME!" Before she could react, Naruto had kicked her in the chin while back flipping away from her with the sword still held between his hands. It struggled to pull itself from his grip, a voice echoing out from it.
"How dare you! Release me, bring me back Snake! Undo the sin upon the heavens!" Naruto found himself profoundly confused, moving to grab the handle. Before he could, he felt something only Sasuke and Kakashi had managed since Nami.
A kick to the back, sending him face-first into the ground. He lifted himself up on his arms, shaking his head before he noticed the massive crater his impact had made. 'Who the hell is this bitch?!' Before he could get his answer he was kicked in his own chin, flying into a tree on the other side of the clearing. "You dare to strike me, you wretched demon?! If not for Sasuke-kun, I'd skewer you right here!" The Kusa-nin turned around, muttering to herself as Naruto looked over to her.
"Why…?" Naruto asked, finding himself out of breath for the first time since before Nami no Kuni. The Kusa-nin scoffed, walking over to finish knocking the blond out. "Why… why does your sword shout like that?" At that the Kusa-nin found herself surprised, looking at the sword in her hand. "Can't… can't you hear her crying?!" Naruto shouted now, feeling pure pain and heart-break laden with rage coming from the sword. It was as though it couldn't stand to be held by the woman, as though it made the sword feel dirty…
"Tch, cease your inane rambling. Maybe that's just the fox talking to you, after all, you're all it has anymore." The woman said, Naruto putting together the context of her words.
"All it has…" Naruto muttered to himself, the woman raising him by his neck and tightening her grip. "So I see… 'Release me'…"
"Too late for requests, brat! You're lucky I'm letting you live!" At that, Naruto's blazing aura appeared in a bright pulse. The woman was pushed back, her clothes and face both charred with the abhorrent smell of burning hair prevailing over the odor of burnt flesh. She looked up to Naruto, her eyes having become yellow snake eyes. Her grip tightened on her sword as Naruto's eyes shined with his fiery power, the boy raising his right hand toward the woman.
"Release her… let her go right now!" Naruto shouted, the woman being pulled in by a force she couldn't see. She tried to use the Kawarimi to get out of it, but she couldn't do anything with her chakra outside of her body. She felt the sword lift itself, before the tip turned and pulled the sword along with her arm into stabbing her own stomach. The woman's eyes bulged in surprise again, the sword shimmering with a bright golden aura. She looked into Naruto's eyes, finding herself terrified of the being before her. "You took her from her home, and you bathed her in innocent blood! You have FORCED another to commit YOUR sins!"
Naruto grabbed the pommel of the blade, the whole sword pulsing with a golden light before being absorbed into Naruto's aura. "My Kusanagi! You damned brat, how dare you ste-"
"HOW DARE YOU CALL HER YOURS!" Naruto couldn't tell why this upset him so much, but he found himself blinded by his sheer hatred of the being before him. With an unearthly roar heard throughout the entire forest, Naruto unleashed a flaming torrent of energy in a concentrated burst for twenty meters in front of him. As the energy burned the gargantuan trees, they began creaking and falling to the ground as the smoldering form of the 'woman' struggled to raise itself back to its feet.
"You damned brat… when we meet again, you will pay for what you've done here!" 'She' said, white fingers appearing from inside its burnt mouth. They pried the mouth open wide, a bleach white-skinned man appearing from within the mouth and pulling himself out as though shedding skin. "And once I've gotten Sasuke-kun… I'll come for you and that power you've got!" With that, five snakes several times the size of any of the trees appeared from the forest as the man jumped away. Naruto didn't know who he was, but he could feel a fierce determination prevailing over his desire for vengeance.
He needed to deal with these snakes and catch up to his team, there was no telling what the man was up to.
