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Delta was the third to leave a review, but the first two didn't say anything warranting a top of the chapter response... not that I didn't appreciate them. I love all reviews!
Deltabeta: Huh, that's actually a fairly accurate analysis of what I did now that I think about it. And trust me, the "punchline" is gonna be awesome... Well I guess this chapter better deliver now that I've said that... oi.
Take All The Help You Can Get
"This is it. Ready guys?" Naruto asked his team as they stood before the academy where their Chuunin Exams would begin.
"Kakashi asked us that yesterday moron." Sasuke sighed and walked past him to enter the building.
"Alright alright, sheesh," Naruto muttered. ". . . teme. . ." he added quietly. Insignificantly short argument aside, the three genin of Team 7 entered and began walking up the stairs. They'd been told that they were looking for room 301. They soon found it surrounded by a few other students who for some reason were not being allowed to enter. Even stranger was... Naruto walked right past it without so much as a glance.
Sakura and Sasuke stopped, looking a bit confused. Then it hit them, they were still on the second floor, why would room 301 be on the second floor?
"Sasuke-kun... should we tell them?" Sakura asked.
"Hn, if they're too stupid to figure it out on their own, they shouldn't be Chuunin," Sasuke scoffed, and began to walk after Naruto. Sakura glanced at the group one last time, just in time to see a girl with two buns in her hair get back handed off her feet and then figured Sasuke was probably right. She felt a bit bad for the group being fooled by what must be a genjutsu, but it was their own fault for not noticing such a simple trick.
Sasuke and Sakura found Naruto waiting at the top of the third floor stairs.
"Hey, what took you so long? Don't tell me they actually fooled you even for a second?" Naruto grinned mischievously. It was almost refreshing to see him so full of energy again.
"The most surprising thing here is that you weren't fooled," Sakura scowled. She still wasn't used to Naruto being smart.
"Well, to be honest the only reason I even noticed the room was because of the crowd. I wasn't looking for our room yet because I knew we were still on the second floor at the time. Seriously, and people call me stupid and they had like ten people trying to get into the wrong room!" Naruto laughed loudly.
"In other words... you weren't really paying attention..." Sakura grumbled. For a second there, she had almost been impressed.
Naruto sighed, "There were two people guarding the door using a genjutsu to disguise themselves as Genin, though they were probably Chuunin or higher, but I doubt Jounin would bother with that. There were four teams, adding up to twelve people trying to get past them. The imposter on the right was controlling the genjutsu disguising room 234 as 301," he explained at length. Sasuke's right eye twitched slightly while Sakura just stared at Naruto dumbly. "See? I was paying attention. Can we get going now?" Naruto asked and then turned around to head to their destination.
"Now's he's just getting cocky," Sakura growled as she and Sasuke followed Naruto.
The dysfunctional team arrived at room 301 with plenty of time to spare, and entered. They all stopped short for a second when they saw the rather large group in the room.
"Th-there's a lot of people here," Sakura gulped. She had been working a bit harder lately, but the odds were hugely against her. She doubted she'd be able to rely on her team throughout the entire exam.
"Ha! Just more chances to prove how awesome I am!" Naruto grinned excitedly.
"Exactly." Sasuke couldn't help but agree. Not exactly how he would have worded it though.
They took a few steps into the room and suddenly heard the doors behind them open as more teams arrived.
"Sheesh, I can't believe they pulled a trick like that. This is all your fault Lee, you just had to keep trying to get into the room! It wasn't even the right room! He slapped me in the face!" It was the girl with buns in her hair.
"S-sorry TenTen," a boy in a ridiculous green spandex outfit replied.
"We're lucky Neji noticed or we'd be completely screwed!" the girl, TenTen, continued her rant as the team found a spot in the room to wait.
"I guess we just wait now," Naruto shrugged. The group took a few more steps into the room, but were once again interupted.
"Sasuke-kun! You made it!" A blonde girl draped herself over the Uchiha.
"Ino... get off," Sasuke growled dangerously.
"But I want to show my affectio-" Ino suddenly felt herself dragged off of him by an extremely angry and jealous Sakura.
"Hands off pig," She growled, showing a side that had largely been dormant ever since Naruto had stopped provoking it.
"Oh here we go again," Naruto sighed mentally.
"Hey, watch it forehead!" Ino slapped Sakura's hand away and glared at her.
"No, you watch it! Sasuke doesn't even like you, and you're being all pushy like that! How stupid can yo be?" Sakura yelled at her rival for Sasuke's affection.
"H-hey, don't talk to me like that!" Ino was surprised at how harsh Sakura was being. Sure they pretty much hated each other, but Sakura seemed way more aggressive than usual.
"Maybe you should go away if you can't take it." Sakura crossed her arms and continued to glare daggers at Ino.
"Screw you! This isn't over!" Ino glared and stomped off.
"I could have handled that..." Sasuke looked at Sakura warily.
"Oh... umm, sorry. I've been wanting to do something like that for a while now," Sakura laughed nervously, replacing her furious demeanor for a more sheepish one.
"Uh... huh..." Sasuke shook his head. Girls were crazy, he'd never understand them.
Meanwhile, Naruto felt someone tap his shoulder and turned to see who it was.
"Huh? Oh! Hey Hinata, I knew you'd make it!" Naruto grinned. Finally someone he could actually talk to while they waited!
"I-I couldn't l-let your help go to w-waste." Hinata was clearly nervous with the large crowd, and the fact that most of them would be trying to get rid of her.
"Well of course not!" Naruto chuckled. "That was time I could have spent training myself!"
"I-I'm sorry..." Hinata looked away.
"Oh come on! I was kidding, don't you know me better by now." Naruto poked Hinata's shoulder playfully.
"Oh... s-sorry, I-I guess I'm n-nervous." Hinata blushed.
"Eh, don't worry. I'll let you in on a secret." Naruto leaned in closer. "Sasuke is too!" He whispered and then gave an amused grin when Hinata giggled at the joke.
"Hey, stop messing around with the competition Hinata, especially the stupid ones!" someone yelled at them. Naruto looked up and saw that it was Kiba, one of Hinata's teammates. He was almost as loud as Naruto used to be, and twice as cocky.
"I-I... uhhh." Hinata was red with embarrassment now. She waned to stick up for Naruto, but that would be awkward since no one really knew about her being friends with Naruto.
"Oh go blow it out your ass Kiba. You're not exactly a genius either. Maybe Hinata should stop being around you." Naruto countered with a smirk.
"Why you little..." Kiba glared and began to stomp over to pummel him, but the last member of their team grabbed his shoulder.
"Don't lose control of your temper so easily, Kiba." the shade wearing boy said in an eerily calm monotone.
"Hmph, whatever, Shino." Kiba grumbled, stuck his hands in his pockets and turned around to walk off, but not before his pet dog Akamaru, who was riding on his head, barked at Naruto and growled a bit.
"Come Hinata, it will likely begin soon." Shino motioned for Hinata to follow him.
"G-good luck Naruto-kun." Hinata said and then quickly headed over to Shino.
. . .
A few more minutes passed and finally the examiner appeared along with a number of Chuunin. He was a large imposing man with a bandana on his head, leather gloves, and a trench coat. Naruto half expected him to ask if they wanted to buy a watch.
"Alright listen up, I am Morino Ibiki, and I will be giving yo your first test." He began. "It will be a written test."
"Well, Naruto's screwed," Sakura sighed. Everyone was then assigned seats, and nobody was sitting next to anyone on their team. Though Naruto was pleasantly surprised when he found himself sitting next to Hinata, though he doubted they'd have time to talk to each other.
Ibiki then listed a number of rather frightening rules. A subtraction based scoring system and anyone who failed removed their entire team from the running. Anyone caught cheating five times lost automatically, again along with their whole team.
"Man, I've been getting better at fighting, but I'm still not good at tests!" Naruto groaned. He could live with himself failing he supposed, but he didn't want to screw Sasuke and Sakura over.
"You may now look at your tests and begin!" Ibiki announced. Naruto did so, looked over the questions, and decided he'd be better off just killing himself then and there.
"Are you willing to trust us yet?" Naruto suddenly heard the older male voice speak in his mind.
"Oh come on! This is the worst possible time!" Naruto groaned mentally.
"Is it? What if I told you the answers to most of these questions?" The voice inquired.
"Well... uhh... what do you want in return?" Naruto asked.
"All we want is for you to succeed. There is no catch to this." The voice answered.
". . . f-fine, but you better be telling the truth!" Naruto sighed and looked back at the test, and soon begin to answer questions as the elder voice narrated to him the answers.
Meanwhile, Sakura was figuring out the questions at a decent pace. Being a bookworm back at the academy was finally paying off.
"Hmph, Naruto's probably taking a fit right about now." She would have found it funny except if he failed they were all done. She glanced up at him, and nearly choked in surprise to see him quickly writing down answers. "Th-there's no way he knows the answers! He's been getting smarter but this is ridiculous! He's definitely cheating... or, or making stuff up! Yeah, that's it, no way he knows this kind of complicated stuff!" Well, it was somewhat true; Naruto was getting help. "Hmph, well, then how is Sasuke-kun doing?" she wondered, and looked over at him next. She felt sick when she saw he wasn't even holding his pencil and was looking at his test with dismay. Part of her felt like giving up on life at this point.
A bit later she noticed Naruto was leaning back in his chair completely relaxed, done with his test.
"WHAT THE HELL! DAMMIT! I'm barely half done!"Sakura nearly snapped her pencil in half. She checked Sasuke again and noticed he was finally writing down answers and at a decent pace too. Except he wasn't even looking at his paper... he was staring at the boy in front of him. "W-wait... is he... CHEATING!" She supposed it was fine as long as he... didn't get... caught...
She felt like smacking herself. She always praised herself for being so smart and she'd missed the point of the test. She'd noticed that the test seemed rigged to make them cheat, but she thought that was just to trick them into failing. She realized now that, being that they were all ninjas, it was rigged that way because they were supposed to cheat. Herself being smart enough to not need to was just luck on her part. In fact it was rather ironic that she hadn't seen the true purpose until now.
Sakura finally finished the test with just over ten minutes left. She felt extremely embarrassed despite being able to answer the questions. Both Naruto and Sasuke had finished before her. She was supposed to be the smart one and yet she felt like the biggest failure in the room.
"Number 53, FAIL!" one of the Chuunin watching the test takers shouted and shortly after a Genin was dragged out, along with his team. It had happened numerous times throughout the test.
"W-well, at least I'm in the room." Sakura twitched slightly as she watched the doors shut behind the kicking, screaming Genin and his embarrassed team.
"Alright, pencils down," Ibiki spoke up when their time was up. "I'm about to give you the final question, but first, I'm going to give you a warning. If you answer this incorrectly, you will be prohibited from taken this exam ever again!"
"What the hell kind of rule is that!" one of the other Genin shouted.
"MY RULE!" Ibiki roared. "However, you have the option of leaving now and trying again next time. So what's it going to be? Risk it all, or hope for a more forgiving proctor next time? Just keep in mind, if you give up, you take your team with you."
"Oh crap! I wasn't ready for this!" Naruto thought nervously.
"Do not fret, stay in the room and it will be fine." the soft spoken voice advised.
"What?" Naruto asked confusedly.
"You will see," the voice replied cryptically.
One after the other, teams were eliminated when it turned out one of their members didn't have the stones to go through with it.
"You're sure of this?" Naruto asked. He still had a little time left to back out.
"Positive," the soft voice assured him. A few seconds later, it was too late. He'd have to trust the voices for the second time in the last hour. In the end, only 66 remained of an initial number of more than double that.
"Alright, those of you who remain..." Ibiki gave an amused smirk. "PASS! Congratulations!"
"See? You can trust us," the voice spoke up instantly. Naruto wondered if perhaps it was bragging.
"Hmph, we'll see..." Naruto replied, still suspicious.
"Wh-what about the last question?" Sakura asked, confused.
"You just answered it. The two choices for question ten were either leave, or stay. Those who chose to stay answered correctly just by doing that. As a ninja, you won't always have the choice to back out and try again later. Only those with the guts to press on are worthy of becoming a Chuunin." Ibiki explained. "And trust me, you will need that kind of courage to survive." He said ominously, and pulled off his bandana, revealing horrific scars and even screw holes in his skull.
"Ewwww..." Sakura blanched at the sight.
"What the hell did he go through?" Sasuke wondered, eyes wide.
"Wow, somebody really kicked his ass," Naruto twitched, hoping he never had to deal with something like that.
Before Ibiki could say anything else, one of the windows shattered and a banner was suddenly pinned to the ceiling with kunai. Standing before it was a woman wearing a fishnet shirt and a miniskirt. Beyond that she wore a trench coat that was not fastened shut, which let everyone see that she was rather well endowed when it came to her... physical dimensions.
"Don't celebrate just yet! I'm Mitarashi Anko and I'll be giving you your next test which will be much harder!" The woman shouted.
"Umm, was that really necessary?" Ibiki peeked around the banner to look at her.
". . . shut up. . ." She grumbled at him. "Wait, you let this many pass? I figured you'd have gotten rid of more. Oh well, I'll at least cut them in half." She smirked maliciously. "Now come on maggots, follow me to the next test!"
. . .
"So, by now they must have finished the first test. How do you think your teams did?" a bulky man with a beard and a cigarette asked.
"I'm sure mine did just fine. The first test is about information gathering right? All of my students have skills that can help them with that," a woman with red eyes and long dark hair replied. The two shared a room with Kakashi, and they were all waiting at the area where any teams that survived the second test would end up. The two were Sarutobi Asuma and Yuhi Kurenai respectively.
"Hmm, what about your team Kakashi?" Asuma asked.
"Well, Sakura's smart so I'm sure she probably didn't even need to 'cheat,' and Sasuke's talented. I'm not sure about Naruto though..." Kakashi sighed. Then again, with what had been going on with Naruto, he very well could have pulled it off. "So, I guess that leaves you then Asuma."
"Let's just say I think it'll only take one of them to get the entire team through." Asuma chuckled. It was true, during the test, Ino had used her Shintenshin no Jutsu to body swap into someone who had finished the test, memorize the answers, and then jump into her teammates Shikamaru and Chouji to write down the answers for them.
"The next test is the Forest of Death. Students actually die during this one, much more challenging than cheating and not getting caught," Kurenai said as she looked out the window and into the forest surrounding the building they were in.
"I'm sure my team will make it. They argue a lot, but their teamwork is just as good as their parents'... well... sometimes," Asuma replied. As the two went on, chatting about how they figured their teams' skills would help them pull through, Kakashi just wondered what would happen to his own team. None of them really had skills that were made for getting through a survival challenge. They would have to rely on teamwork, something that they had sorely been lacking lately. He also worried about Naruto. Not out of concern for the boy though, but for Sasuke and Sakura. What if the stress of the forest set him off again and he hurt someone?
Naruto hadn't hurt anyone since he pummeled Sasuke, but still, Kakashi knew whatever was going on with him wasn't over. He didn't trust Naruto.
. . .
Meanwhile, the surviving Genin teams had been informed about the rules of their next test. Each team had a scroll, either a brown earth scroll or a white heaven scroll. They needed to hold on to theirs, and get whichever one they lacked. Beyond that, they had to get to the center of the forest without any casualties. These rules ensured no more than 11 of the 22 remaining teams would pass.
"Alright, finish filling out your consent forms and trade them for a scroll, then you'll each be sent to a gate and the test will begin." Anko ordered. "Oh, and one last piece of advice... don't die." If only it were that easy.
After getting their scroll, a heaven scroll, Team 7 stood before their gate.
"Alright, I'll hold onto our scroll-" Naruto was interrupted by Sasuke before he could finish his sentence.
"No way, I'll hold onto it. I'm the least likely to lose it!"Sasuke scowled.
"Wrong." Naruto folded his arms defiantly.
"What makes you say that?" Sasuke asked, annoyed by what he perceived to be stubbornness.
"Room 301," Naruto smirked, reminding them of his lengthy explanation on why the ruse hadn't fooled him.
". . ." Sasuke glared at Naruto, but realized he had no argument and gave up.
"Anyway, as I was saying, I'll hold onto it and then we'll head to the center. We should probably wait to find a scroll. We'll conserve our energy and pick off a more tired team closer to the end." Naruto explained what he saw to be the best plan. "It's not that complicated I know, but that'll make it easier to pull off."
"Right, and we'll just hope no one attacks us," Saskue scoffed. "It's not that easy, moron."
"We're ninja, we'll hide from them, hell, maybe we can even pull off an ambush or something," Naruto countered.
"Right, you are going to hide." Sasuke glanced down at Naruto's jacket.
"Tigers are orange and they can hide," Naruto glared.
"Tigers have stripes," Sasuke reminded Naruto.
"You're just gonna argue with any plan I come up with just to be a prick, aren't you?" Naruto sighed. "Alright then, what do you think we should do?"
". . . err, well, obviously we should. . . uhh. . ." Sasuke was clearly struggling, having been focusing on arguing with Naruto he hadn't put any thought into what they should so.
"So, we'll go with my plan then?" Naruto laughed, amused at the anger and embarrassment that was becoming clear on Sasuke's face.
"Screw you," Sasuke grumbled. Fortunately the argument was resolved as a Chuunin showed up shortly after to unlock their gate and let them into the Forest. It had begun.
Barely an hour into the forest and already screams could be heard in the distance.
"Be wary..." Naruto heard in his head.
"Yeah, I know," he replied. It was pretty obvious that he should be careful.
"Be wary now," the elder male voice repeated more forcefully. That's when Naruto noticed.
"Hey guys hold up, I gotta go uhh... use a bush," Naruto said and quickly ran into the bushes.
"Ugh, already?" Sakrua complained.
Moments later, they heard a loud rustling come from where Naruto was supposed to be relieving himself and a figured suddenly shot out of said bushes and crashed into the ground.
"What the?" Sasuke was instantly on guard and pulled out kunai. He saw that it was a genin from another country wearing a mask and a yellow jumpsuit. "Hn, and I thought Naruto's outfit stood out..."
"Dammit!" The genin jumped up, pulling out an unusual double bladed kunai of his own.
"Well what are you waiting for, get him already!" Naruto shouted as he ran out of the bushes. "Or do I have to do everything myself?"
"Just sit back and watch." Sasuke smirked. "Katon: Housenka no Jutsu!" Sasuke called out and then launched numerous small fireballs at the foreign genin whose eyes widened in surprise as he quickly dodged out of the way. He then foolishly kept his attention on Sasuke, and thus never saw Sakura until her foot slammed into his temple from the side.
"Sh-shit... this was stupid!" The genin grumbled as he stood up and attempted to escape, though he was too off balance from the blow to the head to do more than stumble away slowly.
"You got that right." Naruto smirked maliciously as he moved to block his path, leaving him surrounded by Team 7.
"H-hey, I don't have the scroll! Come on, we can work something out." The genin, whose headband told he was from Ame, said nervously as he held his hands up in surrender.
"Yeah, well, if we take you out, your team is disqualified. Less competition." Sasuke reminded their prisoner. "Now, we'll let you off with just some broken kneecaps if you tell us where the rest of your team is. Otherwise we'll be painting the ground with your blood." Sasuke raised his kunai threateningly.
"O-OK OK!" The captive's eyes widened fearfully, and he quickly gave them directions. "See, I helped, we're good now right?" He chuckled nervously.
"Oh, we're good." Sasuke glared. "You're not." He then swiped his kunai across the genin's neck, leaving him writhing on the ground, gurgling pitifully as he died.
"KYAA! SASUKE-KUN! WHY?" Sakura shrieked in shock.
"Dammit, that was too much!" Naruto glared furiously.
"Hmph, the coward betrayed his team too willingly. He deserved worse," Sasuke looked coldly at the corpse, eyes full of contempt. "Come on, let's go get his team's scroll." The Ame genin had also disclosed their team's scroll type along with the directions. It was the one they needed.
"Alright fine, but next time don't do something so drastic without warning..." Naruto sighed. To be honest, he agreed with Sasuke's motives, though he still didn't like the idea of executing a prisoner.
"Whatever, let's just get going. We don't know how long we have until his team moves," Sasuke muttered and began walking in the direction specified by the dead traitor. Naruto grumbled a few things incoherently and followed. Sakura took one last horrified glance at the body and gulped. She hadn't expected to have to deal with such things just yet, but she figured she'd have to get used to it eventually. She decided staring at a dead body wasn't going to do her much good and then quickly jogged to catch up with her teammates.
The three didn't get far when suddenly Naruto felt that something was horribly wrong. Somebody was watching them.
"Sasuke..." Naruto whispered to to Uchiha.
"Yeah..." Sasuke nodded, this wasn't something only Naruto could feel this time.
"What is it?" Sakura asked. But that didn't mean everyone would notice...
Unfortunately, not even Naruto had gained the ability to see the future and suddenly a massive gust of wind hit them, completely lifting them off their feet and sweeping them away.
. . .
"Ugh, what the hell was tha-" Naruto started to groan, but,
"MOVE!" the female voice screamed inside his head, and Naruto looked up just in time to see a massive snake lunge at him.
"T-too fast!" Naruto watched in horror as the snake moved to scoop him into its mouth. It was at that moment, though, that time seemed to slow down. A familiar presence entered his mind and he felt power begin to flow through him.
The snake then snapped its jaws shut, but they stopped half way. It was as if someone had jammed a stick into its mouth to stop it. A bright orange, and very angry stick.
"Heh, nice to have you back, Kyuubi." Naruto grinned, though he was straining against the giant snake's jaw muscles. He had one foot on its lower jaw, and both hands holding back its upper jaw. His strength was fueled by the reddish aura around his body. It was barely enough. "Better finish this bastard before he realizes he's actually a bit stronger than I am," Naruto muttered, his voice strained. He moved one hand away from the top jaw for a moment, and the snake was instantly able to close its mouth a bit more, though still Naruto was able to hold on.
Naruto whipped out a kunai, and jammed it into the roof of the snakes mouth. The snake writhed, actually lifting Naruto's free foot off the ground. He quickly placed it next to his other foot to help keep the snakes mouth open, though now the snake was tossing its head around in the air, and Naruto was getting a bit sick to his stomach.
"D-dammit, sit still you overfed bastard!" Naruto shouted while he dug in his weapon pouch for something else. When he finally found it he quickly attached it to the kunai and then jumped away, allowing the snake to close its mouth, though it was still shaking its head in an attempt to dislodge the kunai.
Naruto hid behind a tree and began counting backwards, "Three, two, on-" Before he could finish, he heard an explosion and a moment later a charred piece of snake landed next to him. "And dinner's ready. I should carry more explosive notes with me, they really come in handy," Naruto smirked. However, he wasn't going to have time to see if snake tasted any good. He had been blown away by a jutsu and the user was probably going after his team.
. . .
Meanwhile, Sasuke was extricating himself from a thorn bush while Sakura, who had landed on a slightly more comfortable rock, was rubbing her now rather sore back.
"Owww, are you OK Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked as she stood up.
"When this bush decides to stop mimicking Ino, I will be." Sasuke grumbled angrily, though his joke earned a giggle from Sakura.
"Want help?" the girl asked.
"No, I got it." Sasuke manged to get the last thorn out of his shirt and get away from the clingy plant. "Did you see where Naruto landed?" he asked. Sakura gave a quick glance around, and then shook her head. "Damn," he sighed.
"I'm over here!" a familiar voice shouted, and then the teammate in question ran over. "You guys OK?"
"We're fine," Sakura answered.
"That's good. I got stuck on a tree while you guys kept going." Naruto grinned. "So, what now Sasuke, keep going after that Ame team?" he asked.
"Errr, yeah..." Sasuke answered a bit uneasily. Why was Naruto asking him what to do? Even Sakura picked up on it this time. If anything, Naruto would at least still be a bit miffed over Sasuke's execution of their prisoner. He certainly wouldn't be asking for instructions.
"Which way were we supposed to be heading again?" Sakura asked. She figured if Naruto knew, then they could trust him. Sasuke realized what she was trying to do and didn't answer.
"Pay attention, we were heading that way." Naruto was able to recite the directions perfectly. However, his demeanor was totally off. The way he spoke, the way he was acting. "So let's get going!"
"Right, follow me." Sasuke nodded. They then headed off, though every now and then Sasuke glanced back at Naruto warily. At one point he glanced back at Sakura, his expression telling her he still didn't feel right about the situation.
"You actually gonna say anything, or do you just like looking at us," Naruto scowled.
"I'm just being careful. This forest is dangerous," Sasuke scoffed at the remark.
"Be nicer to Sasuke-kun, if it wasn't for him noticing that trick with the fake room number, we wouldn't have gotten this far," Sakura yelled at Naruto.
"Yeah yeah, fine," Naruto sighed. Less than a moment later Sasuke turned around and launched a kick straight at his head, sending him crashing to the ground. Sakura also pulled out a kunai and held it up defensively.
"Wrong answer. Naruto's the one who noticed that trick, and you're definitely not him." Sasuke glared at the imposter. The faker then rose to his feet, a sadistic smile on his face.
"Well, I guess I can't know everything. Though I have to wonder how you knew to check," he chuckled.
"You weren't acting like Naruto. Naruto wouldn't just let Sasuke-kun lead like that," Sakura explained. "Even though Sasuke-kun could do it just fine..."
"Hmph, well it looks like I analyzed things incorrectly. How interesting that you're not leading your team, Uchiha Sasuke." The fake Naruto smirked curiously and then, in a puff of smoke, changed into a taller, pale-skinned form wearing a yellow outfit with black pants along with a kasa on his head.
Sakura and Sasuke were surprised, as the person was older than they'd expected. They'd expected just another genin their age that they'd be able to take out without too much difficulty. Of course age didn't always mean much, but he was certainly bigger than them.
"Very well then, we'll get straight to business," he chuckled darkly. "It will be funner than I thought. So then, you'll want to take my earth scroll correct? Being that you have the heaven scroll." He produced said earth scroll. Then, in an unexpected and sickening twist, the man wrapped his unnaturally long tongue around the scroll, and swallowed it whole. "So, shall we begin the battle for each other's scrolls?"
Before Sasuke or Sakura could respond, two kunai suddenly flew at them, one stabbing deep into each of their foreheads. They watched as their bodies were sliced up and could do nothing about it. It was like they were just observing, but at the same time, it was if it was actually happening to them. But the fear, the fear was definitely there - and it was overpowering. When they had a brief reprieve from the horror, Sasuke threw up. Sakura however just sat their, a blank look on her now tear streamed face.
How odd that just a moment ago they'd both felt so superior for seeing through the man's guise and now they were being destroyed and he hadn't even had to lay one hand on them. It hadn't even been a ninja technique, this man just exuded death and horror from every pore in his body, so powerful was it that it had caused those vivid images to appear in their minds.
However now the man was going to attack them for real and neither of them could move to avoid it. They could only watch as he drew real, quite deadly kunai from his weapon pouch. But no, Sasuke could move, if only a little.
"N-no, I can't die here! Not now!" He thought frantically. In desperation, he grabbed a kunai and stabbed his own leg, as if punishing it for not allowing him to run. The pain brought his body back to life and he quickly grabbed Sakura and jumped away from the danger at the last second.
"Kukuku,what an interesting boy..."Orochimaru chuckled in amusement. This boy just might be worthy.
. . .
"You know your teammates are likely under assault at this very moment." The elder voice spoke as Naruto did his best to make his way to where he hoped Sasuke and Sakura were.
"Yes..." Nauro replied. He didn't feel he needed to be reminded.
"Then you must plan ahead," it continued.
"That's not really my style. I don't even know what I'll be up against anyway. Just leave me alone, I don't need you!" Naruto had been fine before they'd shown up and he had the Kyuubi now as well.
"And you you listen to her so readily..." the voice pointed out, referring to the female voice that aided him in battle.
"Well it would be stupid to ignore her and get stabbed in the face!" Naruto argued. Wait, was he arguing with himself? With voices in his head? He really was going insane, wasn't he?
"Our advice is intended to help you, you have no reason to not listen," it explained calmly.
"If I listened to you I'd basically just be using Sasuke and Sakura for this exam only to toss them aside afterward!" Naruto growled out loud as he argued internally.
"They weigh heavily on your heart. They distract you, you'd be better without them. They care too little for you," the softer male voice spoke up. "You do need them for this exam, but trying to be their friends only hurts you when they push you away. You should use them as you need, nothing more."
"Your obnoxious 'advice' is what's distracting me!" Naruto grit his teeth in anger.
"Stop, advance slowly. Something is ahead," the female voice suddenly spoke up. He regretted listening somewhat, as it made him feel like he was arguing against the voices only to do exactly as one of them said. However, he did listen and advanced through the trees more slowly. He peeked through a small gap in the foliage as he noticed what the female voice had mentioned.
What he saw was Sasuke and Sakura being menaced by another massive snake with a strange man standing atop its head.
"We don't even have a scroll! Leave us alone!" Sasuke shouted, clearly terrified.
"Oh, well, then I guess I'll have to let you go. Just like you did to that poor Ame-nin," the man on the snake chuckled darkly. Sasuke's eyes widened, realizing he was probably screwed.
"FINE! YOU WANT A SCROLL! COME GET IT!" Naruto roared and suddenly burst out of the trees, his body wreathed in red chakra. He flew forward and kicked the massive snake in the head, actually causing the titanic beast to lose its balance. Naruto rebounded and used chakra to land on the side of a tree while the snake was busy getting its bearings back. The snake hissed and parted its jaws once it had recovered, planning to attack Naruto. Naruto was ready though and flung a quartet of shuriken at it, causing the snake to flinch and duck its head, trying to protect its eyes and mouth. Meanwhile, Naruto raced up the side of his tree until he reached a branch and was standing upside down.
Once in place, Naruto jumped off the branch with all his might, becoming like a meteor bearing down on the snake. He had a kunai in hand and upon impact stabbed deeply into the snake's head. He felt some thing give and saw that he'd stabbed down until only half of the hilt was still showing. While the snake writhed in pain, Naruto stomped down on the hilt, shoving the kunai in as deep as he could get it to go. Upon doing that the snake suddenly tottered, losing control of its body. Moments later it crashed down against a tree, quite dead.
Naruto stood atop his kill before glaring up at Sasuke,
"What the hell is your problem, coward? This is two of these fucking snakes I've killed now. You should have at least tried! You actually know ninjutsu!" he shouted up at the Uchiha. Sasuke wasn't sure how to respond. After all, how does one argue with the person who just killed a 100 foot long snake and saved your life?
"Behind, turn and grab!" The female voice warned sharply. Naruto listened, turning around just in time to grab a... tongue.
"Oh that is just wrong." Naruto nearly gagged, but didn't miss a beat as he took hold. He wrapped the hideous thing around his fist once and then slammed the tongue against the tree the snake had fallen against. With his other hand he pulled out his second to last kunai and pinned it against the tree so he could let go of the slimy thing.
At the other end of the tongue, the man who'd commanded the now dead snake's eyes went wide in shock and pain. He hadn't expected such a rapid and violent response to his sneak attack. His eyes widened further when Naruto took the tongue in both hands and pulled with all his might. The man flew through the air... and right into Naruto's Kyuubi powered punch. The man's face exploded with pain and he fell back, laying atop the dead snake's head, seemingly unconscious. Who could get up from such an impact?
"N-no way! When did Naruto get this strong? This is insane!" Sasuke thought, fist clenched in rage, jealously, confusion, and even fear. He wasn't sure who to be more afraid of, the snake man or Naruto!
Naruto panted after such a rapid series of exertion.
"He moves!" the female voice warned. Naruto looked down to see the man slowly rise. Naruto dashed forward to punch him, but the man flowed around him like water and ended up behind him. He didn't attack and instead freed his tongue from the tree. The long thing slid fully back into his mouth; a truly sickening display.
"Very impressive, Kyuubi child," the man hissed. "You're stronger than I would have expected. However, you are not what I need."
"What are you talking about?" Naruto growled, but received no response.
"Perhaps if things work out, I will find a use for you later. So I'll let you live. After I deal with you, do try to survive the rest of these exams," the man chuckled.
"Duck!" Naruto was altered a split second before the man attacked. He ducked under a punch. "To the side, then back!" Naruto next avoided a knee and then the man's other hand reaching out for him. He back flipped off the deceased snake's head and landed on a lower branch.
"You have one kunai and three shuriken left along with all your smoke bombs and two exploding notes. You forgot to pack wires even after being reminded. Twice." The elder voice listed out what weapons Naruto had.
"Great. The voices in my head are pissy..." Naruto grumbled.
"I was simply reciting-"
"Yeah, yeah, thanks. Shut up and let the fighty voice talk now." Naruto brushed it off as the snake man literally slithered down a tree, quite rapidly, towards him. As the man faced him the engagement seemed like it would be short and sweet as Naruto was guided by the female voice as usual. He struck a killing blow before too long, but the man dissolved into mud. The voices never even had a chance to warn him about the follow-up attack as he was grabbed from behind and the man slammed his hand down onto Naruto's stomach. Everything went black...
. . .
Sakura was currently sitting outside of a small alcove, fighting off sleep. After Naruto had been defeated Sasuke had summoned up his courage, but had lost as well. Somehow even attempting to incinerate the snake man hadn't worked. On top of that, Sasuke now had a strange mark on his neck.
The petty silver lining was that the snake man apparently hadn't thought to search Naruto for their scroll, or maybe Sasuke had distracted him. She wasn't sure she even wanted to stay in these exams though. With all the things that were happening, she felt completely outclassed. There were terrifying people out there, something that was suddenly all too obvious to her. What if there were more like that and she had to go up against them?
"Stupid squirrel..." Sakura muttered and quickly threw a kunai to scare a nearby squirrel away. She didn't need it setting off her traps. She couldn't defend Naruto and Sasuke from an enemy team on her own, so her traps were her best chance at the moment.
"What's a matter girl? Afraid of the small furry forest critters?" Sakura's heart sank when two enemy genin from Oto suddenly appeared, walking towards her.
"A little closer... almost... almost..." Saura tried not to look at where she'd put her traps, she didn't want to tip them off. Her traps were not that big, but there was a chance they were deadly. She wasn't sure if she was ready to watch people be killed before her... again... but it was better than being killed herself she supposed.
"Heh, hold up." One with spiky hair said and knelt down. "Oh looky, trip wire hooked up to an exploding note. You're a nasty little bitch." He glanced up at Sakura.
"Maybe..." Sakura glared and suddenly stood up. She quickly pulled out a kunai and cut a nearby invisible wire. The next thing the two Oto-nin knew, a massive log was freed from the forest above. It was an old, dead branch that Sakura had found and rigged up into a trap.
"Holy shi-" The spiky haired one said upon turning around. He hadn't expected that. Sakura hadn't expected that he'd be able to blast it in half though, simply by aiming his palms at it, "ZANKUUHA!" The boy shouted and the described action occurred, seemingly caused by a powerful burst of air. "Heh, not ba-" His eyes widened when Sakura pulled another wire. "You just set off the exploding note... didn't you...?" He twitched and looked down. She had.
Him and his partner quickly ran in opposite directions, barely escaping the blast radius in time. Unfortunately, Sakura hadn't had the time or energy to set up more traps. She hadn't thought her log would fail and figured the explosive trap was enough back-up.
"Such nice hair!" Sakura suddenly felt pain as her hair was grabbed tightly from behind. Sakura clutched at her hair, but couldn't wrestle free. "I have long hair, but I never really took the time to make it quite! This! Nice!" She punctuated her words by twisting and pulling at Sakura's hair, amplifying the pain. Sakura cried out, feeling helpless.
Wait, why should she feel helpless? She didn't fight with her hair. Her arms and legs were completely free. She may have been tired, but suddenly Sakura's mind began to race faster than ever before. She was on her knees, so with some effort she could probably force her way to her feet. However, any movement or sign of attack with leave her with precious little time before her assailant reacted. So she'd just move fast then...
Sakura suddenly forced her way up to her feet, and twisted around. It hurt like hell with the way her hair was being held, but she grit her teeth and worked through it. She reached up and grabbed the girl's arm that was holding her hair and tugged, pulling her closer. This act mercifully reduced the tension on her hair alleviating the pain, but it also meant Sakura could easily lift her foot and kick the girl in the stomach. With the girl off balance and her grip on Sakura's hair loosened, Sakura reached up and grabbed her throat.
Girl in hand, she quickly pushed her back and slammed her against the tree which had Naruto and Sasuke under it. Sakura didn't let up on the girl and grabbed her hair.
"You! Won't! Kill! Us!" Sakura shouted in a near frenzy, slamming the girl's head violently into the tree again and again. Unlike her victim, she wasn't planning to play around and torment the girl. No, she was going to bash her skull in. Once the tree bark was red with the girl's blood, Sakura took the back of her head and then threw the unconscious girl face first into the ground. She then stood there panting and glanced up at the other two who were staring in surprise at the violent display.
"Very... nasty... little bitch..." The spiky haired one twitched.
"Are you going to soil your trousers or kill her?" His partner, whose entire head was bandaged, glanced at him.
"Shut up, I'm not scared of a girl with pink hair. Kin's just stupid," Spiky growled. "I'll finish her off in like 10 second-" He ducked as a shuriken whizzed past his head. "Right then..." He cracked his knuckles and... ducked as two more went by. "If it didn't work the first time, why do it again?" he shouted... and then glanced down as a kunai stabbed into the earth at his feet. "OH COME ON!" He ran away from it as fast as he could before the explosive note attached to it went off.
Spiky coughed and shielded his eyes as the dirt and dust from the explosion settled. He looked up just in time to see that Sakura had taken the opportunity to close the distance between them. He leaned back to avoid a punch and quickly countered by grabbing her wrist and kneeing her in the gut upon pulling her off balance.
Sakura quickly stumbled away, knowing she couldn't afford to be near him while her guard was down. She remembered what Naruto had said now, about her not being good enough to launch attacks against others. She'd hoped the element of surprise would have helped with that, but luck was not on her side apparently.
"Heheh, I'm gonna beat the hell out of you little girl! I'm not even gonna bother with jutsu against you! Look at you, you can barely stand!" Spiky tore at her confidence with every word.
"You're not that much bigger..." Sakura muttered. In fact Spiky seemed a little scrawny.
"Tch, whatever," Spiky said and then lunged forward, throwing a wide punch at her face. He seemed to be planning to overpower her rather than use finesse. That was fine, she'd trained enough to handle such a simple punch. She raised one arm and winced as she barely held back the weight of his punch. However she countered, slipping forward and ramming her elbow into his jaw.
She followed up, both of her hands gripping his right shoulder, and then slammed her knee into his right leg. At this point Spiky was very off balance and it only took one quick movement of her leg to hook his left leg and then with her arms pull him off his feet and throw him to the ground.
Unfortunately Spiky was a ninja just like her, so despite the initial shock of being countered and taken to the ground, he didn't waste any time and got to his feet within moments of hitting the ground. He glared at her, now very wary.
"Ah screw it..." He raised his palms up and aimed them at her, letting Sakura see the strange devices implanted in him. Her eyes widened, knowing he was rescinding his plan of not using jutsu. "ZANKUUHA!" When the dust from the air wave settled, there was no sign of Sakura. "Ha, she was so weak I shredded her into nothing!" He laughed, seeming pleased with his work. He flinched at the sound of metal on metal only a few feet from his head and turned to see two four shuriken clatter to the ground.
"No. No you didn't." His bandaged partner said, having just barely deflected the weapons with his own. "She probably used Kawarimi. You gave her too much warning!" he scolded.
. . .
"Awaken." the voice whispered. Naruto ignored it, he was so tired.
"You say you will not leave them. Until you listen to me, you will be far too affected by their deaths. You must awaken!" Another voice spoke. Still Naruto ignored it. Couldn't they just let him rest?
"You must listen to them. Please get up now." Something about this last voice, it was new. Something about it made him want to listen. He'd never wanted to listen to anything more in his life. He had no idea why.
It's a rare thing to realize one is asleep. It's even rarer to be so lucid that one can actually call themselves back to the world of the waking at will. Naruto had one of these rare moments and his eyes snapped open. It was still dark, but he could see light streaming in from the side and rolled over. He saw Sasuke next to him sleeping and outside he heard fighting. Sasuke must have been more than simply sleeping if there was a battle going on.
Wait, where was Sakura? One of the voices had mentioned his teammates dying... it must have been Sakura who was fighting!
"No wires eh? Fine, I'll fix that now!" Naruto reached into Sasuke's weapon pouch and pulled out his string, though it was half used up. He quickly but quietly crept out of the small area he'd been sleeping in and saw a battered and beaten Sakura pinned against a tree, arm twisted behind her back as her face was pressed up against the bark. A spiky haired Oto-nin was her aggressor.
However, Sakura showed how much of her training she remembered and simultaneously stomped on Spiky's foot and then slammed the back of her head into his nose. His grip loosened enough for her to raise her free arm and elbow him in the head, knocking him away. She spun around and, using the tree as a base, lifted both legs up and kicked Spiky in the chest sending him tumbling away.
Afterward though, Sakura fell roughly to a sitting position at the base of the tree, seeming completely out of energy. If she didn't get help soon, she wouldn't be able to fight off another attack. Such an attack seemed imminent as Spiky rose to his feet, still having plenty of energy and fueled further by rage.
"Zaku! Watch out!" Spiky was warned by a teammate whose entire face was covered by bandages. Zaku turned in time to see two shuriken flying at him, but he simply turned to let them fly past.
"Gee, thanks for warning me about that, Dosu. I might have felt a breeze..." Zaku muttered and glared at Naruto. His eyes widened when he felt something and realized the shuriken had been attached to wires. The next thing he knew he was tied up, though loosely.
"Shit... I'm not good with wires!" Naruto grimaced at the sight of his own shoddy attempt to bind Zaku. However, he pulled as hard as he could and managed to pull Zaku off his feet. He'd at least be tangled up for a few a bit letting Naruto focus on bandage head.
"Hmph, looks like one of them woke up. I guess this might really be annoying," Dosu grumbled. "I'll take care of this one."
"Dammit! This is a pain in the ass!" Zaku shouted as he tried to wriggle out of the wires.
"Be careful fighting the one with bandages. The object on his arm must do something..." The elder voice spoke up.
"You think?" Naruto replied sharply, annoyed at it stating the obvious. "But I only have one shuriken left and no kunai..." He'd lost his last kunai when he'd been knocked out.
"Then we will use only one shuriken to defeat him," the female voice spoke. "Are you ready?"
". . . alright. You better have a good plan." Naruto took a fighting stance.
"Run directly at him," the voice ordered.
"That seems backwards..." Naruto didn't get it.
"I thought you trusted her," the elder voice said.
"Gah! Fine!" Naruto shook his head but with a roar of effort charged directly at the bandaged one.
"To the side, quickly!" The female voiced urged forcefully. Naruto felt that he wouldn't have time to simply start running in the new direction and dived. "Get behind him!" Naruto rolled out of the dive and pushed off as hard as he could to move around behind Dosu. However, his opponent wasn't simply standing there and turned to keep his eyes on Naruto. "Keep moving around him as fast as you can... be ready to grab your weapon." Naruto kept it up, running and jumping, trying to keep Dosu's eyes off him, which seemed to be the idea.
"What the hell are you doing?" Dosu grumbled and shook his head, actually starting to feel a little dizzy.
"NOW! His foot!" The voice commanded. Naruto obeyed and slid to a stop and threw the Shuriken. It was aimed from Dosu's blind spot so he didn't notice until it stabbed into his foot. He howled in pain and fell to a knee. Naruto didn't have to be told what to do and was already rushing towards Dosu. Dosu looked up from his injured foot in time to see Naruto's knee flying into his face. The force was enough to send him sliding backwards.
"Naruto!" Sakura suddenly called out a warning. Naruto looked up and saw that Zaku had finally freed himself.
"That's it, you're dead!" Zaku held his hands out towards Naruto... and then nothing happened. "I-I can't move! What the hell?" Naruto then noticed something weird was happening with Zaku's shadow as it seemed to be stretching into the forest. A moment later a chubby kid burst out of the treeline and punched Zaku in the jaw, causing his head to snap around and his eyes to roll back into his head.
"Chouji? What are you doing here?" Naruto asked, thankful for the assistance but still nervous since they were enemies for this part of the exams.
"I-Ino?" Naruto glanced over, hearing Sakura speak. Ino was indeed amongst them as well, followed shortly by Shikamaru.
"Well I figured even if Naruto suddenly learned to fight it wouldn't be enough. If anyone's taking you out, forehead, it's me. Got it?" Ino frowned.
"Err... thanks..." Sakura smiled weakly, exhausted from trying to fight off the trio of enemies alone. "How long were you watching?" Ino glanced to the side at being asked this. "Ino?"
"Umm... almost since the beginning?" Ino blushed slightly in embarrassment. "B-but don't get upset or anything, technically we're opponents, be glad we helped at all,especially after what you said earlier!"
"Ugh... son of a..." They heard Dosu groan, but he was silenced as Naruto walked over and kicked him in the head.
"I almost died! Numerous times!" Sakura shouted in shock.
"I was about to help when you got pinned against the tree, but then we saw Naruto get up and decided to wait and see how things went..." Ino scratched the back of her head.
"You wanted to see how things went? I know we're not friends anymore, but are you serious?" Sakura got to her feet now, some of her strength returning and fueled by pure incredulity. "We're still from the same village!"
"Why are you so pissed off? You're alive!" Ino glared, feeling completely unappreciated. She was the one who'd convinced Shikamaru and Chouji to step in when they had!
"How could you wait so long?" Sakura wasn't going to accept Ino's weak arguments. "You waited until you were hardly even needed anymore!"
"W-well... get over it! It is how it is!" Ino scowled. Secretly she was thinking that Sakura had a point, but she'd never admit it out loud.
"Just go, Ino," Sakura muttered and shook her head.
"What?" Ino looked shocked, feeling that she was being brushed off.
"I don't need your help. I'm not the little girl you knew anymore. Now I'm thinking even being friends for the sake of it isn't possible. We stopped for a stupid reason, but now I have a better one," Sakura glared and then stalked off. Naruto blinked, wondering what he'd just witnessed.
"They clearly have a history with each other," the soft voice said.
"Yeah, I got that," Naruto sighed.
"There is a lot of regret and pain involved in it. Did you get that?" the voice continued, almost sounding annoyed.
"Well... it's obvious isn't it?" Naruto honestly hadn't put that much thought into it.
"If you insist on her being a friend then such details are important." With that, Naruto felt that the voice was done speaking. Ino's team didn't stick around much longer and left. Naruto then set about to binding the Oto-nin so that they would be no threat even if they woke up. He also took their scroll and supplies while he was at it.
He walked back to the hollowed out space under the tree he'd woken up in. Sakura was sitting down outside the entrance and leaning against the tree. She looked like she was barely staying awake.
"Uhh, sorry I didn't wake up sooner..." Was the only thing Naruto could think to say.
"Not like you could control that," Sakura mumbled, not seeming to care one way or the other right now.
"Are you OK?" Naruto asked.
"I'm fine," Sakura replied tersely.
"I can keep watch. You look like you need sleep." Naruto said.
"Right... sleep..." Sakura didn't even move, she just turned her head to side, seeming to plan on sleeping in that exact spot. Naruto shook his head, feeling guilty. Even Sakura, to his surprise, didn't seem to blame him for sleeping through over half the fight, but he still felt guilty.
. . .
Both of his teammates were sleeping. He couldn't help but feel a little vulnerable. The strange snake man had proven that the voices didn't make him invincible. Even the spiky haired kid, Zaku, had almost hit him with some form of attack. He was starting to think he'd been getting a little cocky. OK he definitely had been. Cockiness and overconfidence were things he hated in others and yet he'd been taking on those traits. He found it strange that the voices hadn't commented on that. And they still weren't. And they still weren't... and they still-
"Come on! This is where you butt in and justify whatever you were doing to me!" Naruto growled mentally. He got no response. "Hmph. Fine... be that way." He sighed, giving up for now. He then closed his eyes and tried to relax. He was supposed to be keeping watch, but the voices would cover for him. "Hey Kyuubi." He was hoping he could get through to it. He had never really spoken to it while conscious. He got no response, which didn't surprise him, but he was startled to find he couldn't feel the Kyuubi at all.
"Your friend is awakening," the elder voice spoke a few seconds later, snapping him out of his worries. Somehow Naruto knew he meant Sasuke, despite not specifying. Sure enough, Sasuke walked out of the small hollow a moment later. Naruto grew concerned when a mark on his neck began to spread out across his body, followed by a strange chakra. Sasuke glanced down at Sakura, and then over at Naruto.
"What happened?" he asked, his tone of voice sounding strange and far away, as if it wasn't really Sasuke speaking.
"We were attacked. Sakura held them off until I woke up," Naruto replied, looking at Sasuke nervously. This was something new.
"Something is wrong..." the soft voice said.
"You think?" Naruto frowned outwardly.
"His entire demeanor has changed. Be wary."
"And?" Sasuke looked around.
"Well, we won. I tied them u-"
"I see them." Sasuke spotted the tied up and unconscious Oto team. He then began to walk towards them.
"Sasuke," Naruto called out, wondering what he was up to. He got no answer, the Uchiha just kept walking, his hand twitching almost excitedly. "Sasuke! Dammit..." Naruto groaned, knowing Sasuke was up to something unpleasant.
"He's going to kill them," the soft voice spoke. It spoke a little too calmly for Naruto's liking. However, it got Naruto moving and he quickly intercepted Sasuke.
"No! I know what you're thinking. No." Naruto stared right into Sasuke's eyes.
"And what am I thinking?" Sasuke smirked, his eyes wild.
"You're not killing them. They're defenseless. Tied up," Naruto replied firmly.
"And what if they escape? What if they come after us again with a better plan? No, killing them is for the best. Besides, don't you want them to pay for hurting Sakura? Surely you of all peop-"
"I said NO!" Naruto shouted.
"Hmph. You're too soft. You're not fit to be a leader. Get out of my way." Sasuke tried to walk by, but Naruto just moved in his way again.
"I've been doing better than you have." Naruto glared intensely. He had a feeling Sasuke was about to be done talking.
"Don't even think of saying room 301..." Sasuke growled angrily, hands balling into fists.
"I was thinking about that giant snake!"
"Oh yeah? Well who do you think fought the bastard who summoned it after he knocked you out!" Sasuke roared, getting right in Naruto's face.
"Who kept you alive so you could?" Naruto countered, his voice just as loud. He then pushed Sasuke back. Sasuke flinched, as if he was about to throw a punch and Naruto copied the movement. Their faces were a mere inch apart, both tense and ready to fight. To his surprise, and relief, Sasuke actually backed down. The strange markings on his body receded. He stumbled a little, clutching at the mark on his neck.
"Damn you..." Sasuke muttered and staggered off. Naruto just sighed. Now he was worried about Sasuke. He was worried about all of them. He couldn't feel the Kyuubi, Sasuke had a strange mark on his neck, and Sakura could barely walk after the beating she took. Right now he'd settle for them getting out of this forest alive.
Oh no! Troubles abound! Will they make it? Spoiler, they will. I mean come on, they were weaker in the manga and made it. If you honestly had doubts... well... you shouldn't.
Now to preemptively quell any concerns:
1. You moron, Sakura shouldn't be that strong!
My response: Fuck you, hater. Get over it. She still lost to Zaku.
2. Stop bashing Sasuke! Sasuke is strong and cool and blah blah blah.
My response: I hate Sasuke. No I'm not bashing him. Am I taking some level of enjoyment from him being outdone by Naruto at every turn lately? Yes. Yes I am. However, I am not bashing him... much. But I promise it's not going to be a constant theme. That's all I'm going to say on the matter for now though.
3. Naruto is too different.
My response: Get the hell out of my fic.
Well that was fun! I can't think of anything else you might bitch about off the top of my head. However, I'm going to hope that most of you are intelligent enough to wait and see where I'm going with things.
Now for the mail bag!
Mywickedways: Oh come on! You're making me blush! I'm sorry I stopped writing for so long. Hopefully you'll still be around to read this chapter!
rockon5002: Kukuku! Read and find out! But seriously, you can't expect me to answer that!
Dave-MingChang: I know, I know. I'm awesome. Thank you.
For the rest of you who left smaller reviews, thank you, it still lets me know you care! Thank you! Now go get five friends to read and review this or random ghost number 666 will haunt the socks in your dresser drawer and your feet will get COLD!
Making fun of chain comments ftw...
Also, you can always check my profile to check the status of any fic I have going. I do my best to keep it updated and will slap a date on most updates so you know what's going on. Just scroll down to the 'My Fics' section of my profile and check the underlined status area. (Yes I know this is at the top too, but I want to make sure people know about this since I've never advertised it before.)