Chapter Six

When Things Begin

Shinigamigakure

Hiruzen Sarutobi sat in the Zetsumeikage's office, working through paperwork with his Shadow Clones, having been asked to while Minato was gone. At the present time though, he was worried. He'd sent out a group consisting of Zabuza Momochi, Haku Momochi, Han (the previous Gobi Jinchuuriki), and Sakumo Hatake. They were supposed to have finished their assignment four days beforehand, but there had been no sign of them.

"Hiruzen!" The door to the office slammed open, revealing Hashirama Senju.

"What is it?" Hiruzen asked, wondering what would cause such a ruckus from Hashirama.

"Han just returned from his mission, alone. Something happened." The First Hokage said, scowling. "We need to evaluate his condition; he isn't healing like he should be."

"That can't be good…" Hiruzen sighed, getting up and using Shunshin.

He caught up with Hashirama at the base of the Zetsumeikage Tower, and rushed with him towards the gate.

As they approached the large Rashimon gate that connected their village to the Living World, Hiruzen saw Han, missing chunks of armor and flesh, surrounded by ANBU. He rushed over, seeing that the gashes and wounds were coated in a black sludge.

"Han! What happened?" Hiruzen asked, knowing that whatever it was, the enemy had to have been incredibly strong.

"We were… ambushed on our way back. Someone had been waiting for us… a few miles from the gate. I don't know how they found it. They seemed to only use Taijutsu, but whenever they landed a hit on someone that broke skin, the wounds… became infected almost instantly. Haku was the first one to be overwhelmed. The sludge on his wounds seemed to… dig into him, and spread."

Flashback

"Aaagh!" As the four Shinigamigakure shinobi fought, Haku suddenly collapsed to his knees, coughing up blood and black sludge. Zabuza knocked his opponent backwards, rushing to check on Haku.

"Haku! Haku! What's wrong?" Zabuza shook his adopted son, and laid him on the ground. He looked over Haku, and his veins seemed to bulge out, but were black.

"I'm… numb…" Haku croaked, grasping at Zabuza's hand.

"Shit! You should be healing! That goo crap looks like it's stopping the natural healing, what the hell is it?" Zabuza was in a frenzy, not even noticing Haku's eyes going dark, then becoming completely black. As such, he was caught completely off guard when Haku reached up, grabbing Zabuza's throat and hoisting him up into the air.

"W-what?" Zabuza gasped, letting out a scream as Haku leaned forward and dug his teeth into Zabuza's throat.

Han and Sakumo heard the scream, turning to look. They both gaped, and got back to back, knowing they'd now have two more enemies.

"Shit… this just got harder." Sakumo said, scowling. "Lightning Release: Storm Break!" Sakumo shouted, running through handseals. Lightning shot out from his hands, impaling two enemies that were coming towards him.

"Sakumo, have you ever seen anything like these before?" Han asked.

Their enemies looked similar to normal Shinobi, but had completely black eyes, claws, sharpened canine teeth, and pointed ears. There were 7 of the enemies, with 4 having Kumo hitai-ates, and 3 having Iwa hitai-ates.

"No, I don't recognize them. I know the hitai-ates, but I have a feeling they're not associated with their villages anymore." Sakumo said. Han nodded, and concentrated on the Gobi's residual chakra, forming a Jinchuuriki cloak. He began to gather chakra into his hands.

"Sakumo, hold them off! I'm going to use a Tailed Beast Bomb to decimate them all at once!" Han said, having learned to use the technique without going into Biju mode.

"Alright, I'll buy you as much times as I can!" Sakumo said, and saw Haku and Zabuza rush off into the forest.

"Shit! Zabuza and Haku left. We'll need to warn the village about this." Sakumo sighed, pulling out a tanto, pouring his lightning chakra into it. "Alright, let's dance!"

As Sakumo slashed his way through the remaining enemies, Han began to build up the Tailed Beast Bomb in his hands.

"Sakumo, it's ready! Get out of the-!"

"AaaaAAAAAGH!" Han was cut off as Sakumo screeched, and Han saw why. One of the enemies had put his arm right through Sakumo's stomach.

"Aghh… Han! Quickly! Before I end up like the others!" Sakumo shouted, the darkness appearing in his eyes.

"Alright! Tailed Beast Bomb!" Han shouted, releasing the attack. It hit right in front of the group of enemies, and in a blinding flash, the huge energy attack put a crater where it had hit, and all of the enemies, Sakumo included, were gone.

"Sakumo, my friend, I am sorry it had to end this way." Han sighed, his Jinchuuriki Cloak receding. "Now back to the-" Han stopped as he coughed up blood and felt a blinding pain in his side. He looked over, and saw something that horrified him. A black-eyed Sakumo had his teeth sunk into Han's side, but that wasn't the disturbing part. The entire left side of Sakumo was gone, and where his body was missing, a wriggling black mass was pushing out, reforming his body.

"S-Sakumo?" Han gasped, as his friend ripped Han's side out, his inside pouring out as he fell. Sakumo, almost completely regenerated, gave Han a grin and rushed off in the same direction that Haku and Zabuza had gone. Han coughed up more blood, and some black sludge, starting to crawl towards Shinigamigakure.

Flashback End

"Hiruzen, you need to kill me!" Han shouted. "Permanently! With Zabuza, Haku, and Sakumo already overwhelmed… we can't afford to have me lost as well!" Han groaned, clutching his side.

Hiruzen sighed, looking at Hashirama, who nodded back at him.

"W-wait, hold on. I have one last thing." Han choked out. "The sludge… it's similar to the Gobi's chakra! I think it may be related to the Biju!" Han gasped. "That's why it's taking so long to get to me!"

Hiruzen, hearing this information, nodded and ran through handseals.

"Han, thank you for your dedication to this village. Your death will be honorable." Hiruzen said. "Sealing Technique: Soul Destruction." Hiruzen murmured. A sealing circle appeared around Han, and glowed for a moment. From Han, his soul was pulled out of his body, but Hiruzen saw something was wrong. Multiple black threads seemed to connect Han's soul to his body, stopping the full removal.

Hiruzen's eyes went wide as the threads seemed to draw Han's soul back into his body.

"Oh no…"

Konohagakure

Sasuke, Naruto, and Nawaki rushed towards the Academy, almost late for the first exam.

"Dammit Sasuke, learn to get up on time!" Nawaki shouted, all three moving at high enough speeds so their conversation wasn't overheard.

"Oh shut it! At least I don't take half an hour to get dressed." Sasuke growled, and Naruto rolled his eyes.

"You're both acting like children. I shouldn't be saying anything though… but still! Let's just hurry up!" Naruto said, the Academy now in sight. They stopped at the entrance just as a team from Suna went in.

"Alright, let's go." Sasuke murmured, and the three of them walked in.

They knew almost immediately that something was off. The team from Suna seemed to have disappeared. Sasuke, quickly activating his Sharingan, saw through the genjutsu.

"Follow me." Sasuke said, getting nods in confirmation from Naruto and Nawaki. The three began to move through the Academy, but after a few minutes, Sasuke stopped.

"What's up?" Naruto asked.

"Right in front of us. Lots of traps." Sasuke said, noticing a second genjutsu.

"Hold on. It's a double layer genjutsu." He murmured, seeing through it. He saw that there weren't nearly as many traps as it seemed, but there were some in places that seemed open, and others where they seemed to be.

"You're up, Naruto. Disable them." Sasuke ordered. Naruto glared at the other boy but nodded, walking up next to Sasuke.

"Sealing Technique: Temporal Distortion." He murmured, using his chakra to draw the seal in midair. "Okay, the traps are frozen for a little while." Naruto said, sighing.

"Okay Naruto. Give me one of your Hiraishin kunais. I'll throw it to where you need to take us since I can see through the genjutsu. We don't want to break it since it'll trip up other participants." Sasuke said, taking the kunai that Naruto handed him. He quickly threw it to the other side of the trap field, nodding to Naruto.

"Hiraishin no jutsu!" He murmured, the three disappearing in a yellow flash. They appeared at the other end of the hallway, just past all of the traps. Naruto grabbed the kunai and canceled his seal, bringing the traps back into the normal flow of time.

"I'll never get used to that…" Nawaki murmured, his face green.

"It was only your third time." Naruto said, grinning. Nawaki shook his head and groaned.

"I'll hold it in somehow." He gasped, feeling his breakfast coming.

The trio noticed an open door up ahead, and walked over, going into the room. As they entered, the genjutsu seemed to drop. At this point, they were glad they still had their faces covered, because everyone else who had passed the exam was in that room.

"You're the guys from that new village." One Kiri shinobi murmured, and as soon as he said that, everyone else seemed to have their eyes on Naruto, Sasuke, and Nawaki.

"Why are you covering your faces?" A Suna nin asked, causing Sasuke to shrug.

"Because we can." He replied. As that occurred, Naruto noticed that Konohamaru was in the room with Moegi and Udon. He was looking forward to seeing what Konohamaru could do now.

"Alright, everyone listen up!" Someone shouted. All eyes turned to the doorway, as a female walked in.

"I'm Ino Yamanaka, and I'm the proctor for the second part of the exam! What you just went through was the first part, which is why only 24 teams are left! Let's see… 6 Konohagakure, 3 Sunagakure, 3 Kirgakurei, 2 Iwagakure, 3 Kumogakure, 2 Kusagakure, 2 Amegakure, 1 Takigakure, 1 Hoshigakure, and 1 Shinigamigakure. Interesting." Ino murmured, looking over the Shinigamigakure shinobi for a bit.

"Alright then. Part 2 of the Chunin Exams is Stealth and Information Gathering Exam. On the other side of the village, there is a large black tower." At this point, Ino put up a map on the board in the front of the room.

"There are multiple entrances and exits. 6 teams will go in at a time, each picked randomly. Each team starts with 10 points. They need at least one to leave. Also, you need one Heaven Scroll and one Earth Scroll. You lose 2 points if a trap is triggered. You get disqualified if someone dies, or if you're seen by tower guards. The objective is to get the two scrolls you need and get out. The time limit is 2 hours. If you're not out in time, you're disqualified." She said. "Any questions?"

"Do we start out with a scroll, or do we need to find both?" One of the Taki nin asked.

"You need to find both. You can fight in the tower, so other teams you find can steal from you though." She clarified.

"Now, have each team come up and get a single number. Pick randomly." She said, pulling out a box with slips of paper.

One by one, each team went up, grabbing a slip of paper from the box. Sasuke went up and grabbed a slip, which was colored Red and had the number 3 on it.

"Alright, everyone done? You should have a slip of one of four colors; Red, Yellow, Blue, and Green. Each color has a slip from the number One to Six. Every team with the same color will go in to the tower at the same time. First Green, followed by Blue, Red, and then Yellow." She said, looking over the teams. "Teams with Green Slips, go to the corresponding entrances at the tower. Each entrance will have a number. Find the number that matches your slip. Everyone else, follow me." Ino smirked and quickly used Shunshin.

The Tower

Sasuke looked back at Naruto and Nawaki, then back at the slip of paper.

"We're not up until the third round of Part 2. We have some time to rest." He said, sitting down. The people from the first round had already gone into the tower, which composed of 2 teams from Konoha, one team from Kumo, one team from Suna, the team from Taki, and a team from Iwa.

"So we have to deal with two teams from Konoha, one from Suna, one from Iwa, and an Ame team. Okay then." Naruto sighed. "And Konohamaru's team is in the tower right now." Looking around, he was fairly surprised when Gamakichi popped up in front of him.

"Kichi? What's going on?" Naruto asked, confused as to why Gamakichi would be there.

"I got a message from your pops. He said that he got a message from Shinigamigakure, and that something happened to Zabuza, Haku, Sakumo, and Han. Apparently, they're all on their way here, and the three advisors were injured." Naruto, Sasuke, and Nawaki all took a moment to gape.

"What? Dammit, this isn't good… they could get here in two days if they moved nonstop at their normal speeds. Thanks for the warning, Gamakichi." Naruto said, and the toad nodded, using reverse summoning to go home.

Naruto looked over at Sasuke and Nawaki, nodding at the two.

"We'll need to get ready for this. If those four aren't in control right now, things could go bad if we have to fight them. And I have a feeling we will have to. Our fights will just be stay alive, and get information. Got it?" Naruto seemed out of his own norm, showing the rare bit of leadership he had.

"Alright. Now, let's get ready for the Tower!"

A/N: Hey guys, sorry it took so long for this to come out! Apparently, I'm not getting the time I thought I would. But still, chapter six!

I have a feeling where this is going, which is good. However, it's not easy to write, which is bad. I'd say anywhere from one to two weeks to write a chapter should be normal for me until this evens out.

Oh, and I've been thinking up ideas for other stories as well! I'll probably wait until this story is over until I post anything else, but once that happens, keep your eyes open!

Alright, I'm going now. Read and review as usual! Over 5k hits on this story so far! I love it!

-Dark