. While Sasuke and Sakura were busy dealing with the creepy grass Genin, Naruto had been swallowed whole by a giant snake. The thing was large; much larger than anything the rookie had ever seen.
He'd spent time struggling, kicking the slippery insides of the snake and screaming for help but nothing helped. It seemed that he would die inside the stomach of the large serpent. "Is this really how it ends? I'm just gonna be snake crap left behind in the woods?" he asked himself, starting to lose his hope of ever getting out.
It was then that he had an idea of how to get out, and it seemed like it would work. He had dreams of becoming Hokage, and he wasnt about to give up just because he'd been swallowed by a snake. He needed to get out and continue to chase his dreams.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" the stomach of the giant snake began expanding as Naruto created as many shadow clones as he could. The snake's stomach continued to expand until it exploded, freeing the blonde ninja.
He and all of is clones escaped from the dead snake's insides, panting and covered in the creature's bodily fluids. "Sorry, but you picked the wrong ninja to swallow. I'm gonna be Hokage someday!" he exclaimed, catching his breath.
The two remaining members of Team 7 were standing about ten feet or more away from the Grass ninja, neither one were able to move. They'd been trapped in some sort of Genjutsu and were forced to watch the moment of their deaths. Sasuke fell to his knees and started throwing up, while his pink-haired partner just sat there.
"Sakura?" he asked shakily, looking over at the girl. The Genjutsu must have hit her worse, because she was unable to speak. She was visibly shaking, with tears streaming down her face. He knew that he needed to find a way to get them both away from their enemy, otherwise they're as good as dead.
The Grass ninja just stood there, laughing at how pathetic the rookies looked. "You're paralyzed with fear, aren't you?" she asked the question, though she'd already known the answer. Sasuke clenched his jaw, trying desperately to regain control of his body.
"What's wrong with me?! Come on, move..! Move, Sasuke, move!" he told himself, but it didn't seem to be helping much. He looked down at his kunai holster, fighting his hardest to grab the weapon. He finally seemed to be regaining a little bit of control, through it took work.
He managed to slowly pull out a kunai and climb shakily to his feet, which seemed to amuse the Grass ninja. "Good job. Now, what are you going to do?" she asked with a devious smirk. As soon as Sasuke looked into her eyes, he lost what little control he had fought for.
"Shit, it's no use... I can't move!" he cursed, watching her slowly walk toward him and his immobile teammate.
"Don't worry, I'll end it quickly, but I don't have to tell you that. You've seen it with your own eyes." she raised her arm above her head, ready to throw the kunai. "I expected you to be more of a challenge. How disappointing." As the kunai flew through the air and toward the two rookies, Sasuke began to panic. If he didn't find a way to move quickly, he and Sakura would both die.
"Come on, you have to move!" Sasuke told himself, trying his hardest to free himself from the paralysis. Just before it was too late he made one final and desperate attempt to free himself. He used all of his willpower to stab himself in the thigh with his kunai. Using the pain to overcome his crippling fear of death, he used the opportunity to pick Sakura up and get to safety.
The young Uchiha winced as he wrapped his hand around the kunai's handle. Taking a deep breath, he quickly pulled the blade out of his thigh, blood following it. Sakura, who seemed to have snapped out of her trance, let out a surprised gasp.
"Sasuke, that wound looks deep! Will you be alri-" he quickly slapped a hand over the pink haired girl's mouth. They needed to stay quiet so the Grass ninja wouldn't be able to find them.
"We've gotta move..! Gotta get away from her..! But how?! Where?!" he was definitely starting to freak out, and even Sakura could see it. She'd never seen him so upset and anxious before, and it was actually starting to scare her.
Suddenly, she noticed that a huge shadow had been cast on them and looked up. Her eyes widened as she saw what it was; a giant snake towered above them, ready to strike. She screamed into the Uchiha boy's hand before freeing her mouth.
"Sasuke, look out!" he glanced over just in time to see the snake as well. Before it could clamp it's jaws around the two Genin, they dodged the serpent's attack. "Shit, I didn't even notice! I must be losing it..!" he thought in a panic, still moving through the air.
As the snake attacked, Sasuke though he'd seen the Grass ninja that had almost killed him. "No! Get away from me!" he screamed, pulling out a few shuriken and throwing them at the serpent. The blows were fatal, and the snake died before it had it the tree.
Sasuke's eyes widened when he watched the skin of the serpent break open, watching a figure climb out of it. Both of the members of Team 7 were shocked to see that it was the Grass Genin that was coming out of the snake's corpse.
"I can sense your fear and desperation. It's only natural; the prey must never let down it's guard, not even for a moment... In the presence of it's predator!" she looked the Uchiha right in his eye, licking her lips with her freakishly long tongue and laughing manically.
Her body seemed to stretch and contort as she launched forward after Sasuke. Her lower body looked like that of a snake's; allowing her to slither up the base of a tree, trying to get to the young rookie.
He cried out as she got closer, the fear evident on his facial features. Sasuke, the fearless Avenger, was terrified for once. Before the serpent-woman was able to reach the Uchiha boy, someone had thrown kunai and shuriken on the tree branch in front of her, keeping her from getting any closer.
"Looks like I came just in time!" the farmiliar blonde knucklehead exclaimed, grinning proudly. Sakura was surprised to see her blonde teammate again, but she had never been happier.
Arisa stood up shakily, tasting the blood in her mouch mixing with the dirt she was forced to ingest. She didn't anticipate having this much trouble with this team; they seemed so weak and naive when she was following them.
"Are you finished yet?" the 'leader' of the Genin squad asked, moving the red hair from his face. Arisa spit out the vile mixture in her mouth, glaring at him. Before she had the chance to reach for another of her weapons, she heard a farmiliar voice speak up.
"I cannot believe you're getting beaten by these losers." everyone glanced over in the direction of the voice, seeing Saeko striding toward them.
"This doesn't concern you." the boy commented, turning his back on the girl. He completely ignored Arisa's twin sister, which irritated her. Since he was paying no attention, she took the chance and hit him in the neck with her hand, watching as he fell unconcious to the ground.
"Actually, this does concern me." she said coldly, before turning her attention to his teammates. Without their group leader to tell them what to do they immediately folded, throwing their hands up in the air.
"H-he has the scroll. Take it! Don't hurt us, please!" they thought their desperate begging would save them, but she just crossed her arms in disappointment
"Ari, you want to help me out?" she asked, glancing over her shoulder. The brunette nodded, walking over to stand next to her sister. The twins targeted one of the boys, taking turns punching and kicking him in the face.
They stopped attacking him, giving him the opportunity to climb to his knees. "Ready?" Arisa asked, and her twin silently nodded. They both began concentrating chakra into their feet, preparing for the final attack. It was a move they had come up with together; they trained for quite some time to perfect it.
Saeko started the attack, kicking him and causing the boy to fly up into the air. Both the girls jumped up after him, taking turns pummeling him with chakra-powered feet. Once they got quite a few hits in, they both raised a leg and prepared for the final blow. They both kicked him in the head at the same time, causing him to hit the ground hard.
The two girls landed on their feet, looking down at the second unconcious boy. It was silent for a minute, before Arisa looked at her sister and said "Thanks for helping me out. I probably-" she stopped when her sister put a hand in her face.
"You're pathetic, Arisa." she fished the scroll out of the red-haired boy's pocket then walked away without another word, leaving her twin sister alone in the clearing.
Naruto kneeled on a tree branch, trying to catch his breath as he stared up at the giant snake and it's master. The Grass ninja laughed at the blonde boy from her spot on the snake's head. "What a tasty little meal you'll make. Be careful, he likes to play with his food." she commented.
Just then, the snake swung it's tail, aiming right for Naruto. It broke the branch he was kneeling on, causing the rookie to fall down about ten feet or so until he landed on another one. He rolled off and, while unconcious, began falling toward the serpent's open mouth.
"Enough playing. Finish him off." the Grass ninja ordered, watching as the boy fell closer and closer. Suddenly, he regained his conciousness and turned himself upright, bringing his foot down and kicking the snake as hard as he could in he nose.
As the rookie moved back, the serpent-woman saw something different about him; his eyes had turned red and he seemed more agressive. Her eyes widened a bit as he started punching her pet snake repeatedly, not letting up in the slightest.
"Naruto's completely lost it." she said with a sigh, but gasped when he started doing serious damage to the snake and everything around it. "Woah, where'd he get all of that strength?!" she'd never seen him so strong, or violent for that matter. She didn't want to admit it, but it was kind of scary.
He kicked off of a tree and went for another powerful punch, but instead ran headfirst into a giant fire-like cloud. He began falling again, breaking tree branch after tree branch until he finally landed on one.
"T-That fire in his eyes, there's no mistaking it!" the serpent-woman sputtered in disbelief, before grinning madly. "This is getting very interesting." she thought, before turning her full attention to the Uchiha boy.
Without hesitating, her snake moved it's large head toward Sasuke quickly, prepared to strike. He was so scared that his legs wouldn't move, so matter how hard he tried. It seemed to be looking grim, but Naruto intervened. Standing infront of his teammate, he stabbed the snake in the face with a kunai.
"Hey, kid. You aren't hurt, are you?" he asked, looking up at his teammate while "Scaredy-cat." he finished, glaring at the boy.
"I-Is that really Naruto?!" Sasuke's eyes widened when he saw the blonde's eyes. He had never seen him like this.
"Standing there, frozen, like a frightened rabbit. You're not the Sasuke I know, no way!" he screamed. He was completely sickened by how weak Sasuke was being. Just standing there, doing absolutely nothing.
After a long and grueling fight, they finally thought that it was over. The serpent-woman was tied tightly to a tree and unconcious, while Naruto hung by his shirt on one of the trees. Sasuke swayed a bit as he stood, weak from all the chakra he used.
"Sasuke, you did it!" his pink-haired teammate screamed as she ran to him. "Are you okay? Don't worry, it's all over now!" she tried to comfort him. She didn't know just how wrong she was about that, because the serpent-woman broke free while the two rookies were talking.
Both of the Genin froze in place, finding that they were unable to move yet again. Sakura dropped to her knees and shook slightly, trying to move her body. The snake-woman's dark laughter echoed through the forest air, catching the attention of the two rookies.
"Such mastery of the Sharingan at such an age? You're a true Uchiha, after all." she observed, her voice becoming more masculine all of a sudden. "Yes, you're definitely his brother. In fact, your eyes are even keener than Itachi's." these comments about his brother seemed to strike a tender spot in the boy.
"Who are you? What do you want?!" he screamed, earning a laugh from the ninja. Sasuke eyes widened when he saw that part of the woman's face was melting off, and that she was now wearing a Sound Village headband. It was obvious that this person was not who they appeared to be.
"My name is Orochimaru." the masculine voice echoed through the forest, tossing around the rookie team's Heaven Scroll. It turned out that it was a man the entire time. "As to what I want, that will have to wait until you pass this test with the best score possible." as he finished his sentence, the Heaven Scroll started burning with green flames.
"No, the scroll!" Sakura gasped, still struggling to move. Orochimaru ignored the rookie and informed them that they would need to beat his Sound Village henchman. The two had absolutely no idea what they were going to do.
The Genin watched as the serpent-man's neck contorted and stretched inhumanly. His neck stretched a hundred or more feet until he reached the two teens. Sasuke cried out in pain as Orochimaru sunk his canines into his neck. The bite mark began burning, causing so much pain that Sasuke fell to his knees screaming.
"W-what did you do to him?!" Sakura demanded, glaring at the man.
"I just gave him a little parting gift. Very soon Sasuke will seek me out, desiring my power." as he spoke, the sound ninja began sinking into the tree branch. "I enjoyed seeing the power that you already possess." the man finally disappeared, leaving the rookies alone.
