Hey guys! Yes so soon but I went on a tangent! Tee-hee!
Sakura: You idiot go to sleep!
Me: Shut up! I created you, I can destroy you!
Sakura: No you didn't.
Me:...I wrote you into this story I'll take you out!!
Sakura:-fake gasp- I'm sooo scared.
Me: Shut up.
Note: I do not own Naruto! Please enjoy the chapter! The danger heats up as they enter the forest of DEATH! BWA HAHAHAHAHAHA!!
Chapter eight: Danger in the wood
After all of the kids were given a ten minute break after making their fires and doing the tent competition. Sakura was sitting at the side lines gulping down a bottle of water,
"C'mon Sakura give me a sip!"
"No way Naruto wait your turn!"
Sasuke merely rolled his eyes,
"Idiots…" he muttered, though, he had seen improvement with Sakura. She used to not be able to lift even one log, now she could carry an armful and ran faster with them.
She's still a little know it all, then why…? Sasuke shook the thought out of his head as Naruto handed him the water bottle, he took it gratefully and gulped down the last of its contents.
Sakura turned to Anko; she was getting to speak again because she was taking a deep breath. Sakura covered her ears,
"EVERYONE LISTEN UP!" Once every camper's ear drums were officially broken, Anko continued,
"Up next is the race through the forest of death! Everyone get your bags and get to the starting line!"
Sakura grabbed her pink back pack and approached the starting line, Sasuke had his back pack, and so did Naruto. The two boys were on either side of Sakura and biting at the bit to go,
"Now listen up! The rules are that you must reach the finish line in three days! You have a map, a compass, and the supplies in your bags! You know how to make a fire, and how to make a tent! The race will lead to the martial arts part of the exams! Rules are mostly the same as the ones from the fire making competition,
Number one, no attacking other groups! This is only a race!
Rule number two, stay on your trail, if you do not we will let you wonder for a few hours and you will lose precious time!
Lastly, if one of you is hurt, you have whistle in your backpacks! Blow that whistle and one of us will be there to help you! Good luck and I hope you all make it out alive!" Anko gave a sickening look of entertainment at that last part. What, did she want us to die or something?!
"Well, here we go! I'm pumped!" yelled Naruto getting ready to go, Sasuke stood there, staring at the forest. Sakura looked at him oddly,
"Sasuke, is something wrong?" Sakura asked a little nervous, he simply narrowed his eyes at the forest; he turned his face away from Sakura and then turned back to her,
"Something is…familiar about this place. Something that's sending a shiver up my spine, don't you guys feel it?" Sakura felt it alright, and it was making her knees shake. Something was wrong here, like the back of her mind was screaming at her to turn around,
"I feel it too Sasuke, but we can't let those other teams win, especially not Neji's!" said Naruto with flames in his eyes. Sasuke's eye seemed to twitch at the sound of the Hyuuga's name,
"Well, well if it isn't Sakura!" Sakura would know that annoying winy voice anywhere,
"Hello Ino, so pleasant to see you." Sarcasm was dripping from Sakura's voice; an electric spark seemed to go between them,
"Nice to see you too billboard brow!" Sakura stiffened,
Oh no she didn't!
Oh my yes she did!
"Well guess what Ino! I have Sasuke on my team; all you have is a kid with an eating problem and a lazy idiot!"
Ouch, that hurt.
"But…I uh um-"Ino was at a loss for words, Shikamaru snuck up behind them,
"Come on Ino, we have to get our starting point or Anko will kill us." Shikamaru was as lazy as ever, but Ino sighed and gave in,
"Alright let's go! We'll show you in forest Sakura!" Ino walked away flipping her hair with Choji and Shikamaru,
"Man, what's her problem?" muttered Naruto looking bitterly at Ino's back, "Better yet, what's your problem Sakura? Why would you say that about Choji and Shikamaru?" Naruto never understood girls.
Poor sap never would.
"Because it's just what they are, that's why!" Sakura yelled and faced the forest, Sasuke looked at her bitterly, he was right she was just a little brat! Anko spoke up again,
"I'll count down from ten! Ten…"
Shino dug a hand into his jacket,
Hinata narrowed her eyes,
Kiba stuffed Akamaru into his jacket,
"Nine…eight…"
Ino made sure her hair was tied back correctly,
Choji narrowed his eyes at the forest, and sweating at the same time,
Shikamaru yawned,
"Seven…six…five…"
Neji narrowed his eyes,
TenTen leaned forward and was shaking from excitement,
Lee was getting ready to run,
"Four…three…two…"
Sasuke was sitting there stoically,
Sakura was growling at Naruto,
Naruto was shaking from excitement,
"One!"
She might as well as said, 'Release the hounds!' because as soon as that word was uttered from her mouth, every single one of the teams made a mad dash into the forest of death.
This did not include Sakura Haruno,
"Slow down guys!" she yelled, breathing heavily already because of all the other events.
Sasuke raced to the front, he wanted to get out of this forest as quickly as possible. It was sending shivers up his spine.
Kakashi was putting on a pair of gloves when someone knocked on team sevens cabin door. When Kakashi opened it, it was Asuma,
"Kakashi, there's been a change of plans. Scout master only wants chunins to monitor the forest of death."
"What?!" Kakashi had been informed that the Jounins were going to watch over the forest,
"Yeah, he said that it would be a good leaning experience for them…I don't see dad making that kind of decision."
"Asuma, who told you about the change in plans?"
"My dad did when I went to check on him, he seemed a little off though…I guess all we can do is sit and wait…" Kakashi wasn't paying any attention; he was already making his way out the door,
"Where are you going?"
"Killing a snake." Kakashi turned from Asuma and pulled up his bandana.
Sakura and the group had stopped for a moment to rest; Sakura was reading the map,
"Okay, it says that we're about fifteen miles from the martial arts arena. If we take a right here, we should be there in no time." Sakura took a look at the compass they had, getting the directions the needed to go next,
"I think we should take a good long break for now then go, or we'll wear ourselves out." Sakura rolled up the map and placed it in her back pack. Naruto was standing up and had his arms crossed,
"I don't get why we have to stop, I mean, I'm ready to do, aren't you Sasuke?" Sasuke nodded, his eyes kept scanning the area. Constantly searching, he felt something ominous watching them. Suddenly, something dropped on Sasuke's nose,
"Uh-oh! Guys we'd better pitch a tent quick!" Naruto was scrambling in his backpack,
"That won't do any good idiot! It will soak into the bottom of the tent, let's find a cave!" Sakura was looking around and then took out the map,
"It says there is a cave no far from here, let's go follow me!" Sakura turned and ran in the direction of the cave, Sasuke and Naruto following closely behind.
The rain kept getting worse, it starting sprinkling, then it turned into a complete down pour,
"Sakura how far is it?!" yelled Sasuke,
"It's just up this hill!" yelled Sakura, keeping her eyes on their current course. Naruto shivered, and caught up to Sasuke,
"Hey Sasuke…do you feel like we're being watched?"
"Yeah…and I hope we're wrong."
TenTen felt something land on her shoulder, when she looked at it she saw a wet spot,
"Neji, it's starting to rain, we need to find a place to stay." Neji nodded and looked at the map,
"The next cave is three miles away; we won't make it in time."
"I have an idea!" cried Lee and started to run off to the right, Neji and TenTen took off after him,
"Lee where are you going?!" yelled TenTen as the rain started to pour down harder on their heads. Neji then gasped when Lee reached a giant tree, this was no ordinary tree, its branches seemed to stretch out for miles and it was so tall it could have been a stairway to heaven,
"Lee this is amazing!" TenTen ran over to the tree and climbed onto a root, it was taller than two men put together! TenTen kicked her legs out and looked at Neji,
"How did you know this was here Lee?" asked Neji, he was looking at the tree and revealing in its gigantic glory,
"When I needed to use the restroom and I separated from you guys, I saw the branches of the tree and followed them here. I made sure to remember the way just incase."
"You're brilliant Lee!" yelled TenTen from her perch. Neji looked fondly at her then at the tree,
"There has to be a hole somewhere at the bottom of this tree." Neji closed his eyes for a few moments then a shock wave went through the area as he opened his eyes,
"Byakugan!" There were veins popping up by Neji's eyes, and it also seemed some small veins were in his eyes,
"Alright, let's find a spot…" Neji looked around the tree; he could see the land levels around the tree and into the roots of the tree. The roots were strong, but behind the tree, there was a hole in its trunk,
"There's a hole on the other side of the tree, in the trunk."
"That's great Neji! Let's go, it's starting to rain harder." TenTen slipped off the trunk, on her way down she hit her arm on a branch and was falling sideways,
"Ah!" TenTen closed her eyes and prepared herself for the instant pain of hitting the forest floor,
It didn't come.
"Are you alright TenTen?" Neji asked, TenTen realized that Neji had caught her and Lee was right beside him,
"I-I-I'm fine Neji, thank you." Her face turned red and she struggled from his grip, Neji set her down and the veins his eyes receded,
"Let's go, we need to get to a shelter before this gets any worse." Neji walked calmly around the tree while Lee and TenTen followed, TenTen hung back,
He's so strange…but he's saved me so many times…thank you Neji…
Ino walked at the front of the group, followed by Shikamaru, preceded by Choji. The trio had been walking for at least a few hours,
"C'mon Ino, I'm tired and I'm hungry!" Choji's belly seemed to have a bear living in it because it rumbled so loud both of his teammates could hear it,
"Alright fine, we'll stop, but you'd better hurry Choji!" Ino growled aggressively as Choji dug a bag of chips out of his back pack and sat down. Shikamaru sat down beside him,
"You're so troublesome…"
"Can't you think of anything new to say Shikamaru!? You're so boring when you talk like that!" Ino wined as Shikamaru yawned, as he was yawning, something fell into his mouth and Shikamaru flinched. When he looked up, he saw another drop fall on Ino's head,
"Ino, are there any caves around here?"
"No, why?"
"Because it's starting to rain."
"What?! No! We have to find somewhere to stay! Ahhhh!" Ino put her backpack over her head to try and stop the rain from getting to her hair,
"Give me the map Ino." Shikamaru took the map from her, he looked at it, and then looked up, then saw something that disturbed him,
"Ino, do you see that cave over there?"
"Yeah let's go! My hair is getting wet!"
"Ino, that cave isn't on the map!" It was too late; Ino had already gone and ran toward the cave, Shikamaru chasing her and Choji running with his bag.
"This way everyone!" yelled Kiba running through the forest, with Hinata and Shino behind her. They had been jogging for an hour now, Hinata had her Byakugan activated like Neji's, looking for traps,
"See anything Hinata?" asked Shino without looking at her,
"N-n-n-no…I don't s-s-see anything…" Then something caught her attention, she stopped and Akamaru barked, making Kiba stop. Shino looked down at her,
"What is it Hinata, what do you see?" asked Shino, then Hinata gasped and put her hands over her mouth,
"Hinata tell us what your seeing!" yelled Kiba, Shino looked at him and instantly silenced him,
"Go on Hinata." Said Shino,
"I-I-I-I s-s-saw Ino's g-g-group g-g-go into a-a-a c-cave a-and t-t-they v-v-vanished!"
"Are you sure Hinata? Is that what you saw?" asked a shocked Shino.
"Y-y-y-yes…" she was starting to step back, Hinata kept looking in the same direction…she was seeing something that was terrifying her,
"Hinata…what else is there?"
"E-e-e-eyes…s-s-snake e-e-eyes!" she whimpered, Kiba and Shino looked at the cave. Whatever happened, campers were now missing, and this was an emergency,
"I'm getting the whistle!" said Kiba digging into his back pack; he pulled out a bright red whistle. Shino nodded and Kiba blew into the whistle, hard.
…
"What's going on? They said the adults would be watching us? Why aren't they here?!"
"That means they're not here, which means something else is going on, something dangerous." Shino looked at the cave, then back at Kiba,
"Kiba, Hinata, blow your whistles; blow them as hard as you can." Shino was already digging his whistle out of his bag,
"Why Shino, you already said the adults weren't coming!" yelled Kiba, the nervousness was getting to him.
"If we can't alert an adult, we want to alert the other campers. Maybe one of them will hear and come help us." Shino took a deep breath and blew into his whistle.
When Sakura reached the cave, she heard something before she stepped inside. It was a whistle! Someone was in trouble, but an adult would take care of it,
"Stop guys, do you hear that?" said Sasuke stopping dead,
"An adult will take care of it Sasuke, I'm freezing we need to get inside!"
"Just listen!"
Sakura suddenly heard two other whistles blend with the first,
"Three whistles?" asked Naruto confused.
"Something's wrong…very wrong…we have to check it out." Sasuke turned around and started to walk in that direction, Sakura and Naruto looked at each other for a moment, then shrugged and followed.
Inside the cave, a man hissed and seemed to growl,
"Thosssse children…curse them!" said a rather scratchy voice, another smooth voice seemed to chuckle,
"Don't worry my Lord…we'll get them eventually…should I dispatch them?"
"Asssss long asssss they don't fail me thiss time!" the man scratched out and the other man called,
"Zaku, Dosu, Kin!" Three shadows appeared in the cave, Two had the silhouette of a man, and one of a woman,
"Go, take them all down."
"Very well." Said the female and they all three disappeared.
Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto walked toward the whistles until they spotted Kiba, Shino, and Hinata, still blowing the whistles.
Shino was the first to stop and he signaled the others,
"Glad someone came; we've been doing this for ten minutes. Hinata saw something happen to Yamanaka's team"
"Ino?" gasped Sakura, wait, why did she care? She hated Ino…no…that wasn't true. She had never really hated Ino,
"What happened?" asked Sasuke, looking at Hinata,
"T-t-t-they w-w-went i-i-in t-t-that c-cave…" The poor girl was near tears, she was shaking in fear,
"Calm down Hinata, its okay." Shino tried to calm her but she just kept shaking. Naruto felt pity for her,
"Hey Hinata, it'll be okay, don't worry we'll find um!" said Naruto in a cheerful voice, Sakura looked at him like he was insane,
He thinks I'm going in there?! I don't think so!
"Hinata saw them go in, we were close enough to see inside the cave and they just vanished!" said Kiba, Akamaru was shivering in his shirt, this called Kiba's attention,
"What's wrong Akamaru? What are you so scared of?" asked Kiba, the puppy just continued to shake,
"Akamaru never does this, something's really wrong…"
"Alright, how about we all go in as a team and see if we can fish them out?" asked Sasuke, he was looking at the cave. Then, he gasped,
"I…its gone!"
Neji approached the hole in the tree with TenTen and Lee behind him, when he stopped dead,
"What's wrong Neji? Why'd you stop?" asked TenTen and Neji put up a hand to silence her,
"What is it Neji?" asked Lee, he looked at what Neji was looking at and saw something. It was barely noticeable, but you could see it under the leaves,
"Neji…is that?"
"Yes, it's a net-trap." Below the leaves on the ground in the hole of the tree, was a net waiting to ensnare whoever stepped on it,
"Who would put this here, maybe another team?"
"No, this is too intricate for some twelve year old to do, this is- Move!" Lee jumped away and Neji grabbed TenTen and pulled her to the ground. She screamed as logs went flying out of the air, they were tied to ropes, which meant someone had cut the ropes and…
Tried to kill us!!
"Neji…what happened?" said a very shaken TenTen, her heart was racing and all of the color had gone out of her face,
"Stand up TenTen!" Neji dragged her off the ground and began to run along with Lee. Logs kept swinging down from the trees trying to crush them,
"That net was just a distraction!" yelled Neji trying to keep TenTen running. One went for Lee and he jumped up to face it,
"No Lee! Run!" yelled TenTen, then she saw something amazing…
"Leaf whirlwind!" Lee spun around extending his leg and hit the log away from them, the log even cracked!
Neji stopped and TenTen nearly fell over, she gained her balance and looked as Lee kicked another one away,
"Okay…where did he learn to do that?" TenTen was totally lost; a human shouldn't be able to do that!
"TenTen, do you have those scrolls Guy sensei gave to you?"
"Yes…" TenTen said unsurely.
"Take them out."
"What do you mean it's gone?!" Yelled Kiba, when he turned he saw the cave have vanished, Hinata gasped and Shino started to sweat,
"S-s-Sasuke…where did the cave go?" asked Sakura, her eye was twitching and her mouth was gaping open,
"Hinata, can you look around the area?" Hinata nodded but looked at Naruto and his group,
"I think we all have been having these problems Hinata, just do it."
"Do what?" asked Naruto, and then he felt the shockwave as Hinata activated Byakugan,
"Wow, that's amazing Hinata!" yelled Naruto, forgetting all about the danger. Even though Naruto had yelled this she didn't stop focusing on the area, that's when she saw it,
"There's a hole where the cave entrance used to be…" murmured Hinata,
"Should we check it out?" Sasuke asked Shino, Shino nodded and the group carefully approached the hole. Sakura was not enthusiastic about approaching the cave; she was the last to approach the hole where all of them were looking in shock,
Sakura heard hissing…
"I-I-Is t-t-that w-w-what I-I-I-I t-t-think I-I-I-It is?" asked Sakura and Sasuke nodded. Something caught Sakura's attention out of the corner of her eye; something purple…She walked over to it and picked it up in total horror,
"Sasuke!" she screamed, the whole group came running, when Sasuke kneeled down beside Sakura, she was sobbing over a ripped up purple bag,
"I-I-I-I-It's Ino's bag!" cried Sakura hugging it to her chest, Naruto kneeled down beside her and started to rub her back. Then Kiba cried out in pain,
"What's wrong Kiba?" asked Shino, he was rubbing his neck,
"Someone just hit me in the neck with this!" Kiba held out a small needle, there was something dripping off the tip…
"It's poisoned! Kiba don't move! Whatever you do don't panic!" said Shino raising his voice slightly,
"Don't panic?! Are you freaking kidding me?!"
"He's right Kiba! My mom says that if you panic your heart beats faster and the poison spreads faster!" yelled Sakura and Kiba went still, Shino helped him lean on a tree and sat him down, Then Naruto flinched and Sakura turned to him,
"What's wrong Naruto?"
"I found this in the collar of my jacket; it stung me a little bit." Naruto held out an identical needle to Kiba's,
"Naruto…I need you to sit down…" said Sakura, she sat him by Kiba,
"Everyone cover your necks or any exposed skin if you can. Someone's trying to incapacitate all of us!" announced Sasuke, Hinata gasped and pulled up her jacket, Shino pulled his jacket up and stuck his hands in his pockets, To make things worse, Kiba was starting to get a fever, so was Naruto,
"Hang in there guys…" said Sakura, "Sasuke, get me the water bottle and rag." Sasuke went to dig into his back pack when he turned sharply and caught something in mid-air,
"What's wrong Sasuke?" Sakura gasped when he turned and his eyes were red, and in-between his fingers, was a needle similar to Naruto and Kiba's,
"Oh Dear Lord…" whimpered Sakura as he dropped the needle, his arm shaking,
"Well, well, well, seems you guys haven't changed much…" A young woman walked out from behind a tree, she had ankle length black hair that was tied into a very low pony tail at the back of her knees. Her top was a camo spaghetti strap shirt, her pants were also camo and to finish it off, she was wearing combat boots,
"I'll enjoy killing you Uchiha…" a younger boy stepped out from behind another tree; he had black spiky hair with almost the same outfit as the young woman. He had a tan shirt on with an odd looking Kanji on it. Around his neck he had a scarf, and his pants were, camo. He also had the same boots as the young woman,
Sasuke's eyes went wide, he didn't move for a least fifteen seconds then he snapped out of it, Sakura became very afraid when she saw the look on his face,
"Oh crap…" was all the young Uchiha could say.
Love it? Hate it? Please tell me, things heat up even more in the next chapter-
"Memories of a broken summer"
Thanks to-
xmarachanx
Nikki Mustang
Universal Fighter
Dragonruler
lazy-cerulean
kerpal bubbles
Romance is Me
colourfulgirl
Thestarcrusader
Thanks so much!! Please keep reviewing!
