Chapter 4

Almost half of the genin who have participated in the preliminary round of the chunin exam ended up in the hospital. Konoha was famous for the quality of the medical attention it could provide. Now they had numerous patients to take care of.

Rock Lee was the worst. His battle with Gaara of the sand left his body broken and his ninja career in question. Not only did he cause serious damage to his muscle, chakra and nervous system by opening five of the eight chakra gates, he also suffered massive injuries that were inflicted by Gaara's sand. The bones in his arm and leg were broken in several spots and would require much time to heal.

Then there were two members of team 8. Hyuga Hinata suffered internal injuries around her heart, while her teammate Kiba ended up in the hospital with a severe concussion after Naruto's kick rammed his head into the ground.

Tenten was admitted with sprained back, but got off lucky as she was close to actually breaking her spine. Finally there was Uchiha Sasuke, whose body was recovering after Kakashi sealed up the curse mark. Sealing techniques always were straining on the body, especially the more complex ones and naturally nothing simple would work against the curse mark.

Yes, the hospital staff had lots of work treating injured ninjas, you could see doctors and nurses running around, making sure the patients drank their medicine or went through the necessary procedures. The hospital building resembled an ant hill, with everyone knowing where to go and what to do. To those outside it could seem chaotic, but nothing could be farther from the truth. It was a well developed system that functioned at the best of it's ability.

"What do you mean we can't see him!" Naruto's voice rand across the hospital hallways. He and Sakura came to pay Sasuke a visit at the hospital, but the lady at the reception told them that he was not cleared to have visitors.

"Idiot, it is a hospital, stop yelling, you are too loud!" Sakura said after she smacked Naruto on the head for being obnoxious.

"Ow, ow, ow." Naruto rubbed his head. It was amazing how he never complained about the injuries he received after his battle with Kiba, but now whined at being smacked on the head. Sakura still remembered how Naruto once more proved that he was incredibly hard to pin down. He simply refused to lose and no matter what Kiba threw at him his incredible stamina and willpower absorbed everything to return it to Kiba with interest. And then, after all that he was jumping from joy and grinning.

"Excuse me, but why can't we see him. Is it something serious?" Sakura turned her attention back to the matter at hand.

"All I know that he is not to receive any visitors."

"Tsk, wait, what about bushy eyebrows?" Naruto asked.

"He means Rock Lee." Sakura explained when the woman looked at Naruto with confusion.

"Ah him, just a minute ... " the woman began to check her notes. " ... hmm, ahh yes, here he is. I am sorry, he just underwent serious surgery, no visitors."

"Again that crap?" Naruto stomped angrily and frowned. "And Hinata?"

"Hyuga Hinata." Sakura again specified, though she doubted there were many other girls with that name.

"Accepting visitors." The lady nodded, but before Naruto had a chance to ask anything else added that only the members of her clan and genin team were allowed.

"What?! Who can we visit then? I am going to ... "

"Calm down, Naruto." A calm voice cam from the side.

"Kakashi-sensei." Sakura smiled when she saw their teacher come down the stairs, followed by a strange man with long white hair.

"Sasuke is doing fine and is resting now. I am sure he will be discharged soon, so no need to worry."

"Oh, that is good to hear. But why can't we see him?"

"Yeah, I don't remember teme getting that badly beaten up after his fight." Naruto crossed his arms on his chest.

"We had to make sure that everything was alright after you ran into ... how did you put it ... snake ninja."

"Oh, that creep." Naruto nodded and Sakura remembered the strange mark that appeared on Sasuke's shoulder. That must be the reason Sasuke was admitted to the hospital.

"Anyway, you and Sasuke will need to prepare for the third stage of the exam." Kakashi spoke.

"Oh yeah, can't wait to pound that Neji guy into the ground." Naruto scowled, his palm curling into the fist.

"Neji will be a strong opponent Naruto, you will need help to prepare for that battle."

"Alright, what is the first thing we do, sensei."

"Wait, wait. I never said I would be the one helping you, Naruto. Don't look at me like that, you know that since both me and Sasuke share the sharingan I am the only one who can truly help him and if you remember, Gaara is not someone who you would want to face unprepared."

Sakura expected Naruto to object, but the blonde seemed to consider what he heard.

"So, if you won't teach me, who will?"

"Naruto, allow me to introduce master Jiraiya." Kakashi motioned towards the man behind him, who right now was openly leering at the cute nurse nearby oblivious to the conversation in front of him.

"That pervert will teach me? Yeah, right." Naruto shook his head, but Sakura suddenly smacked him on the head again.

"Naruto, don't you understand who that is. It is Jiraiya, student of the third Hokage. Iruka told us about him and lady Tsunade during lessons at the academy." Sakura remembered the lecture. It never crossed her mind that Iruka never told them about the third member of the team. It was decided that the younger generation didn't need to know about some darker parts of history, including the betrayal of Orochimaru. Thus many knew who Jiraiya or Tsunade were, but not about their third teammate. And even Jiraiya and Tsunade for many were mere symbolic images and not actual people or village shinobi. For those younger, they were just icons of their time.

Jiraiya seemed to hear Sakura's words and finally tore his eyes away from the nurse.

"That is correct. I am the man who is known north and south, west and east, my enemies tremble before me and women squeal with joy at my presence. I am non other than the great mountain hermit, the toad sage Jiraiya!" the whole introduction was followed by a silly dance that most likely was aimed at making Jiraiya look cooler. It was followed by several minutes of silence.

"And you call me an idiot?" Naruto turned to Sakura who was wondering if she made some mistake. Never in her life did she expect a great ninja to act in such a way.

"But ... but ... he is the student of the third Hokage." Sakura mumbled.

"Turns out the old man screwed up as a teacher then." Naruto stated. "All I understand is that he is just a perv."

"Just a perv?!" Jiraiya seemed offended by that. "To your information I am not just a perv, I am one hell of a perv!"

"That doesn't make it any better, you ... you ... pervy sage."

"Pervy sage? You little brat, you should be kissing my feet for agreeing to teach you."

"What on earth could you possibly teach me, I can take you out with a single move."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah!"

"Then come on, show me what you've got, brat!"

"You got it."

"Oh no." Sakura guessed what was going to happen.

"Sexy no jutsu!"

"Wh ... wh ... whoah!" Jiraiya's eyes threatened to jump out of his skull when he saw that the annoying brat was replaced by a gorgeous and quite naked young woman, whose form was partially hidden by wisps of smoke, preserving her modesty if that word even applied here.

"See, totally out of it." Naruto cancelled the jutsu, much to Jiraiya's dismay. "And that wasn't even my harem jutsu."

"You mean there are more jutsu like that?" Jiraiya exclaimed. "Kid, you are a genius. Keep that up and I am going to teach some awesome jutsu!"

"Really?"

"The mountain sage never lies. Now lets go, your training awaits."

"It better be worth it. Bye, Sakura-chan, Kakashi-sensei." Naruto followed the strange man out of the hospital, leaving Sakura with Kakashi.

"That was Jiraiya, the Jiraiya I spoke of?" Sakura asked in disbelief.

"In the flesh." Kakashi nodded.

"He is worse than Naruto!"

"Well, nothing we can do about that." Kakashi shrugged. "I think I remember Ino visiting Choiji on the third floor, perhaps you would like some company."

"Sure, thanks. See you later, Kakashi-sensei."

Kakashi nodded and turned around. Just a moment ago he saw an all too familiar figure, that went upstairs. Sure, Kabuto could have every reason to be in the hospital, but Kakashi had strong suspicion that the genin was not who he made others think he is. It was just a hunch, a wild guess, but as a ninja Kakashi knew when to trust his guts. This was one such moment.

Kakashi went back to Sasuke's room, his hand ready to grab a kunai from the holster on his thigh, but perhaps there would be no need for that, it could just be his paranoia. Still with Orochimaru around being paranoid was more of a blessing than anything else.

"So, so, decided to play with the adults. Aren't you all full of yourself." Kakashi stepped into Sasuke's room. An ANBU guard that was stationed here to guard the last Uchiha was on the floor in a pool of blood, while Kabuto stood over Sasuke's bed with a strange curved kunai.

"I should've know you would've spotted me, Kakashi."

"Hn." Kakashi tilted his head avoiding a medical scalpel that hit a wall behind him. It was thrown from a blind spot and gave Kabuto the half a second he needed to move over to the window and face Kakashi.

"Good idea, but you think this will help you? If anything, you little act is over. So drop that kunai and surrender, you know I will not hesitate to kill you."

"Of course not, Kakashi, you have a history of killing people, heh, even those closer to you." Kabuto smirked when Kakashi narrowed his only visible eye. That hit a sore spot.

"One more word ... " Kakashi pulled out his own kunai and took a step forward, when suddenly Kabuto jumped him. A single kick to the chest threw the spy over to the opposite wall, but just then the dead ANBU jumped up and jumped through the window, shattering the glass.

Kakashi went over to the window and looked down and Kabuto, who pulled away the ANBU mask, mocking the famed copy ninja.

"He reanimated a dead body, used it as some sort of puppet. Sick technique, but effective as distraction." Kakashi sighed looking to the side. The transformation jutsu was cancelled and it was revealed that it was the dead body of the ANBU Kakashi tried to capture.

Kabuto with a satisfied grin landed outside the hospital grounds and immediately discarded the ANBU clothes. He made sure to mask his scent and take every other measure in order to not be followed, but he didn't count on someone watching him the moment he jumped through the window. The spy was spied on.

...

"So, we are here, why?" Naruto looked around. Jiraiya brought him over to a small river.

"We need a source of water for training."

"You are going to teach me a water jutsu? Awesome!"

"Err, something like that. I am going to teach you a chakra control exercise that will also come quite handy in battle."

"Chakra control? Again?" Naruto rubbed his head. He must've slammed down like three hundred times back in the tower until he was able to repeat the tree climbing exercise.

"Yes, chakra control. You have enormous stamina, monstrous amounts of chakra so you need control or else you will waste energy without any results."

"Pfft, I've doing fine so far."

"You've been lucky so far, brat."

"Whatever, pervy sage."

"Don't call me that! I am Jiraiya, get that through your think skull"

"Jiraiya the pervy sage, fine. What is the exercise."

"You disrespectful little ... ugghh. Fine you will learn to walk on water. Watch." Jiraiya went over to the water and kept walking until he was in the middle of the small river. "Why such a surprised look, didn't think of it being possible, brat?"

"Whoah, that is awesome, pervy sage. How do I do that?"

"The same way you stick to vertical surfaces, but the water is unstable, so you will have to constantly adjust the amount of chakra needed. Now get to it."

"Could you explain that again." Naruto scratched his head.

"No, now try it!"

"Alright, alright, perv." Naruto went over to the water and tried the technique, only to fall into the knee deep water by the shore.

For the next half an hour Jiraiya watched with an amused smile while his student repeatedly fell into the water until he was completely soaked. He somewhat suspected that considering the amount of chakra the kid had, but surprisingly Naruto began to get some progress.

"Hn, come over here, brat!" Jiraiya crouched down with a serious expression.

"What now, I just began to get a hang of it!"

"Just get over here. Good, now pull up your shirt."

"What? What kind of pervert are you?"

"Just do what I say and stop being disrespectful."

"You yourself admitted that you are a big pervert, don't be angry when people rub that in your face." Naruto yelled, but pulled up his shirt.

"Now charge chakra through your body."

"This is stupid." Naruto frowned, but complied. Jiraiya saw how the seal on Naruto's belly became visible, along with unwanted addition Orochimaru placed. It seemed like Orochimaru used a simple five point seal to cut off the limited amount of the fox's chakra that was constantly leaked into Naruto's chakra network. That screwed up the kid's chakra control as it destroyed the balance of energy. Well, luckily Orochimaru was never that much of a seal master, unlike Jiraiya.

"Release!" Jiraiya suddenly slammed his fingers into Naruto's gut. The boy flew back and rolled on the ground from pain.

"What was that all about?" Naruto jumped up.

"Try the exercise now."

"What? I ought to kick you in the ... "

"Just do it."

"Argg." Naruto spun around in frustration and marched over to the water. "Hey, what gives, it is so easy. I am doing it. Yeah!" Naruto began to jump and run around the water surface as he had just received a life time supply of ramen.

"See, I am a great teacher, huh." Jiraiya smiled.

"Maybe, but you are still a pervy sage." Naruto laughed.

"You will never stop calling me that, are you?"

"Nah, unless you will stop being a pervert."

"Fair enough, I guess." Jiraiya scratched his head. "Get back here and dry up, after that I will teach you a killer move. A summoning jutsu."

"Summoning?" Naruto sat down on the shore pulling off his soaked sandals and taking off his jacket. "You mean like that snake guy? Awesome, but I don't want to summon snakes, hate those things now."

"I am the toad sage, so I will teach you to summon toads. They are very useful in battle."

"Hmm, alright." Naruto nodded happily, completely forgetting about his stomach being all sore now. When it came to learning new powerful techniques, he was willing to forget about many things. Besides, pain was not something he was not used to.

...

Gekko Hayate listened carefully. By chance he managed to witness a secret meeting between Kabuto and a sand jounin named Baki and what he had heard was a great reason for concern. Orochimaru was behind the sound village and to make it worse, the sand village, the long standing ally, was willing to betray Konoha and stab it in the back at the most crucial moment.

"The sand will not act until the very last moment, so was the will of Kazekage." Baki spoke quietly and calmly. It was surprisingly easy for him to discuss the betrayal of an allied village like this and Hayate felt anger rise. But he was a trained shinobi and holding his emotions under control was the most important skill in his profession.

"That is fine. Here, this scroll has the detailed information on our plan." Kabuto handed Baki a scroll which Baki hid in his pouch.

"Then all settled."

"Yes, except for one last thing. We need to kill a rat." Kabuto smirked. Hayate immediately understood that his presence was noticed and jumped over the roof edge to try and escape, the information he had was critical.

"I'll do it, after all we are now allies." Baki offered with a shrug.

"As you wish." Kabuto nodded and walked away as Baki disappeared to follow Hayate. "Ally, heh, how easy it is to fool them." Kabuto shook his head and disappeared.

Hayate in the mean time was jumping from roof to roof, trying to get as far away as possible, because it was obvious that the enemy would try to stop him from delivering the critical message. He jumped another ledge, landing on a balcony, from there he jumped over a street and ran up the wall to get to another roof that had a tall water tower built atop of it.

"So, the proctor of the exam. Going somewhere?" Baki appeared in front of Hayate, blocking off the escape route.

"It seems I have no other choice." Hayate pulled out his sword. "If your death is required for me to fulfil my duty, so be it." Without any other words Hayate moved forward. His speed was beyond impressive and Baki took a careful step back preparing for the attack.

"Dance of the crescent moon!"

"Huh?" Baki spun around too late to stop Hayate's attack from the blind spot. It connected with Baki's shoulder, but the strike was not powerful enough to completely cut through the jounin vest, even though it did wound the sand jounin.

"Yes, this village has many talented people. To think you have mastered that technique at your age is truly impressive, but still, the sword is just a sword when it comes to cutting things, it can be stopped. But the blade of the wind, nothing can stop it."

Hayate tried puling the blade out, but couldn't. He saw Baki prepare the Blade of the Wind jutsu, there was no avoiding it at point blank range.

"Gahh!" Baki gasped and blood splashed onto Hayate's face. He saw something white appear from Baki's chest and the sand jounin suddenly dropped down to one knee, gasping for air, the technique he was about to unleash never finished.

"Who ... I ... " Baki tried to speak, but was unable to finish the sentence as he slumped down unconscious. Hayate watched what occurred with wide eyes until he pulled out his blade with considerable effort. He looked around and saw a figure on the water tower. He raised his sword and took a step forward, when a white arrow hit the ground right in front of his foot. The message was quite clear and being in the open Hayate didn't want to risk trying to approach the archer, who moved back and disappeared.

Hayate kneeled in front of the prone sound jounin, who was still alive. First of all he took the scrool from the sand ninja's pouch and then inspected wound. Baki was still alive, but even if he was conscious he would be unable to fight. Most likely the mysterious archer saw the short engagement and noticed that Baki's vest was somehow hardened to withstand strikes. The arrow had hit the sand ninja under the shoulder pad, aimed at the undefended spot. Still even after moving through the body the tip came through the other side, piercing the vest. The piercing potential of this weapon was quite impressive.

Hayate was no medic, but he understood that the arrow most likely pierced Baki's lung and pulling it out would kill the sand ninja. Of course Hayate would not mourn the death of a traitor, but Baki could be a potential source of valuable information, so with another cough Hayate slumped Baki over his back after he retrieved the second white arrow stuck in the roof tile.