This is the last chapter of alolha123's work. XD Next chapter will be all mine.
Beta-ed by Jenny-Cat-Miaow
Things as they are
Chapter 9
Neji narrowed his eyes from his perch on top of a tall tree, just on the edge of the clearing. Tenten, his almond-haired teammate who was standing next to him, nudged his shoulder. "What is that, Neji?" she asked, her thoughts echoing his. "I've never seen Gai-sensei show us anything even remotely similar to that."
"I don't know," was his terse answer. "I've never seen any stance like it before. It's probably something Kakashi taught him. He used to be in ANBU so maybe he saw something in another hidden village." It was the most logical answer he could come up with.
Tenten frowned once again at the blatant lack of respect for the Jonin. She didn't know the silver-haired man personally, but her sensei had some long history with him, and now she was disinclined to meet him after Gai-sensei's strange description. Kakashi…sensei's students didn't seem that bad, though. At least they hadn't taken on some of the qualities Gai had told them about.
Let's just see if they are worthy of the teaching of the famous Second White Fang, Tenten thought amusedly having also heard about his infamous habit of failing teams all the time from Gai-sensei. So this team had to have something worth teaching.
Kin grasped her kunai a little too tightly. "I don't know how you know that stance," she gritted out, "but it's no more than cheap imitation." She lied in hopes of boosting her own and her teammates confidence because they knew exactly what a master at that taijutsu could do. She readied herself into a fighting stance, one of the lower, more common stances that were taught to Sound nin, not worthy enough of Orochimaru's personal attention.
Zaku agreed readily with his teammate. He was at first shaken at the thought of fighting the Dance of the Snake stance, but then he realized (much to his relief) that Sasuke might have only copied it because he was an Uchiha. And all of them knew that copies weren't as good as the originals. Sasuke wouldn't necessarily know how to use that stance, and Orochimaru didn't use it that often unless he actually needed to (and to think he would need it against these Genin? Absurd!), so Sasuke couldn't have copied much.
It was all a bluff, a ploy to make them irrational and scared.
Not one of them realised that Sasuke should not have known anything about Orochimaru in the first place seeing as he'd been disguised as a Grass nin and therefore not something that should have been connected to the Sound trio.
The last of the Sound trio though, leaned back thoughtfully. This Uchiha Genin knew the Dance of the Snake? Interesting. Perhaps Orochimaru's target hadn't been just the blond one. He would have to see how Sasuke fought against his teammates; then, he would attack with a better assessment of the black-haired boy's skills.
And if Orochimaru hadn't known about this earlier, he would no doubt be pleased to hear so, perhaps wanting to gain another follower, or hear a report on another spy he'd planted among the Konoha ranks. Besides, it would save their hides as a 'hidden ace' even if they did lose.
Letting his teammates take the first move, he stood by and watched as Kin threw a few senbon experimentally.
Sasuke's hand shot out and, with the ease of only an experienced Shinobi, he caught the senbon and flicked them back at Kin with a short motion. She caught them easily, as expected, and put them away. Senbon wouldn't work; he had had much weapon training before. Additionally, Sharingan or not, his senses – as an Uchiha – were higher than the average person. And she realised this.
Quickly, he snuck a glance at Sakura. She was afraid… she needed to gain some confidence, before she fell behind. "Sakura," he said, shaking the girl out of her thoughts. "Would you mind taking care of the girl over there? I can fight those two, but not all three of them at once."
Sakura hesitated for a split second before nodding decisively. "I can do it."
"Thanks." Turning his attention back to the Sound nin, he analysed his situation. Zaku would most likely attack first; he seemed like the more impatient type. Dosu – yes, that's what that guy's name was – was leaning back. He would most likely stay back, watching them fight to learn more about Sasuke. That was fine; he preferred to fight one enemy at a time, after all.
Another thought entered his mind and he recalled that these three hadn't lasted very long after the chunin exams. That little recollection was enough to ease some tension in the Uchiha's shoulders. So not everything was lost after all. Perhaps this memory problem didn't actually exist and he was over thinking things, causing his own problem in doing so. If that was the case he'd have to rectify it and soon but not now. He couldn't afford to lose focus now.
Zaku quickly stretched out both of his arms, palms facing forward. "Zankuuha." he muttered under his breath. Immediately, a huge gust of wind blew from the holes in his hands toward Sasuke and Sakura. A grin was on Zaku's face; he was probably gloating about having such 'weak' and 'tired' opponents, Sasuke thought dismissively. No matter, 'weak' and 'tired' opponents still put up a fight.
Sasuke grabbed Sakura quickly and jumped out of the way. The gust of wind would not hurt Naruto, who was protected by the large, hollow, thick tree trunk. He would have to be careful of how he used his chakra; after that jutsu Orochimaru used, his chakra was nearly non-existent. It would definitely be an obstacle, but he could defeat these measly Sound Genin without jutsus. He was fast enough, after all. If an opponent was faster than you, one merely ended up wasting chakra trying to hit them.
Putting Sakura down a couple of yards away, he back towards Zaku. The Sound Genin seemed startled that he could move so fast, but then held out his hands again for another Zankuuha, thinking to hit Sasuke with the same trick that hadn't worked the first time around. Honestly.
Sasuke easily dodged the gust of wind just like the first time and, before any of the others could notice it, he had swiftly kicked Zaku's feet from under him. With a grunt, Zaku fell forwards; it seemed that if he decided that if he were to fall down, at least he could get Sasuke under him. Unfortunately for the Sound nin, Sasuke sidestepped and brought his fist up firmly, which connected with the nin's head, one of Orochimaru's favourite ways to hit an opponent.
Jerking backwards, Zaku cursed. "That's it!" he shouted, fully enraged. "Zankuu kyokuha!" he shouted, and a huge blast of wind erupted from his hands. Sasuke, not expecting this sudden recklessness but silently cursing himself because he should have, was blown far back before skidding to the ground.
Sasuke bit his lip. This would have been so much easier with chakra. The fight would have been over already.
A flash of bright green jerked him back to the fight. "Leaf Hurricane!" Lee shouted as he appeared, kicking all three of the nin away, in three systematic blows.
Sasuke jerked up, startled and slightly embarrassed. Had this happened in the other world? He rubbed his head with his right hand, where a bump was slowly forming. "Lee," he muttered, not knowing whether to be glad or resentful that "Konoha's Mini Green Beast" had come to his rescue. The worst was, he wasn't even entirely sure if he had needed the save of not.
Lee grinned widely, showing a flash of white. "Don't worry, Sasuke-san!" he assured him with a thumbs up. "I will protect you and Sakura-san and Naruto-san!" his eyes became dreamy. "And if I do, Sakura-san will surely fall in love with me!"
Refraining from shaking his head in embarrassment, Sasuke pondered the outcome of this match. It would be interesting; the Sound nin used long-distance attacks, making Sasuke's Dance of the Snake stance rather limited in its effectiveness while Lee used short-distance attacks. What had been the outcome of this match the last time? He wondered. Last time I hadn't been awake to see it. Though, the Sound nin had still been there. So, either Lee didn't come or he was defeated. He shook his head. And I can't imagine Lee being defeated by these morons.
Lee blurred as he attacked Zaku with his rapid taijutsu kicks and punches. Zaku seemed to be faring badly too used to his long range attacks; Lee wasn't giving him enough time to use his Zankuuha or anything else he might have wanted to throw at them. Finally, fighting back in the only way he could, Zaku met Lee's hand with his own fist, unable to match Lee's raw strength and speed. And naturally, his hand broke, and his defence failed. Zaku cursed again, loudly.
Sasuke grinned. He was enjoying this, as sadistic as it was. And the best part was, he'd only have to step in if Lee needed the help. Something told him Lee wouldn't have appreciated the help anyway.
Sakura had only a passing awareness that Lee had come to fight for them. She was far too busy fighting Kin, the Sound girl. It was obvious that Kin was the more experienced and talented fighter, but Sakura had the intelligence and the plot.
Jumping back, Sakura formed a couple of seals and Kin reeled back as Sakura shimmered out of the scenery. Hah! Sakura thought. Take that! I'm not useless, after all!
Kin swirled around, trying to see some indication of where the pink-haired girl was. "What are you, a coward?" she taunted, trying to get Sakura to respond to her. To her annoyance, it wasn't working. "Won't you come out already?!" she growled.
Suddenly, she keeled over as Sakura's invisible foot connected with her stomach. "I'm a ninja and we're supposed to be the silent and unseen. Duh."
"You… brat!" Kin raged, and immediately began punching and kicking the area around her.
Meanwhile, Sakura peeked out from behind a bush that she had gotten behind after that attack. She's going to tire herself out, Sakura thought, grinning.
While Lee was quickly beating Zaku up, Sasuke motioned to Dosu. "Come on," he goaded. "Don't you want to join in the fun, too?"
Dosu's eyes narrowed. He hadn't gotten enough information to tell exactly what type of fighter Sasuke was, but now that Zaku was taken up by that green spandex guy, there wasn't much of a choice. "Fine," he said, holding out both of his hands. Suddenly, a sound wave floated out of Dosu's mechanical arms and towards Sasuke, who easily dodged it. Again and again, he dodged the sound waves, rather familiar with this type of technique as Dosu hadn't been the only one in Oto to use it.
Sasuke frowned as he leaped again; was it just his imagination, or were these waves actually leading him somewhere…?
Sasuke landed on a small sand pit. Almost as instantly as he landed, his eyes widened. He swore. So maybe Dosu hadn't been the only one to use these techniques, but he had been the most skilled.
Dosu aimed an elementary but effective wind jutsu at the patch of sand and a swirling tornado of sand rose, effectively blinding Sasuke. He can guess my strength, the Uchiha thought. Uchiha are known for the Sharingan, after all. He back flipped out of the pit, but only to land straight into another sound wave – different from the others; it was so much faster and stronger that it actually moved him – and blew him into the tree behind the pit.
I should really learn taijutsu, like a better one, one with more effectiveness, Sasuke thought dazedly as his head started to throb violently. I did, for that fight against Gaara, but that was just speed. I didn't actually learn taijutsu.
His head rolled over. Why am I seeing spots? I can't afford to sleep on the …
…
Naruto saw Sasuke go down. He saw his head loll backwards, against the tree trunk. He saw the blood that trickled down the brown wood and onto the dark grass and knew that something was actually wrong with the Uchiha, more than what it should be. Images from the fight with the Grass nin ran through his mind and the last blurry one, stuck out. Sasuke had been hit with a seal. He probably didn't even know that it was a seal. And one that sealed away his chakra making this fight so much harder for him than what it should be. No wonder he was knocked out from a hit like that. At the moment he was no better than a civilian.
Dosu was advancing towards Sasuke, readying a kunai just in case Sasuke woke up early. Sasuke would be too dazed to protect himself even if he did wake up from that blow any time soon.
He saw Sakura tire, hiding herself from an opponent she knew she couldn't beat, her jutsu beginning to wear off. He saw Kin finally get a hit on Sakura with a senbon and bell meaning she could no longer hide. He saw Kin beat Sakura up mercilessly as she finally discovered Sakura's place, the pinkette having never having been a real match in a straight up fight.
And here he was, letting it all happen, unable to protect them.
And he was angry. Absolutely furious.
This power surging through him… was it his own, or that man's? This power… was almost too much for him to wield… and at the same time, it was perfect…
Power… I could do so much with this… amazing power…
Purple chakra began seeping out of his body like a poisonous toxin, leaking into the air and surrounding him, but all he saw was red.
Neji narrowed his eyes as he felt an unearthly, evil chakra. Where is it? He thought, glancing around. Wait… it's coming… from the Namikaze. That was strange. If he had had this power before, why was it only now that he was coming out?
Activating his Byakugan he saw three things, the Uchiha's chakra was disrupted, a seal of some sort interfering with its flow. The Haruno girl was nearing the end of her own capabilities, her chakra screaming weariness and the Namikaze looked like he'd been poisoned, starting by a spot on his neck. Only this poison was the source of the chakra.
He watched as Naruto rose up and strode out. Black flames covered his body from head to toe, and purple chakra seeped out of his chakra points, tainting the air as he walked. Neji felt a tinge of fear. Was this Namikaze's power? Was this what… the Namikazes were? This power was… horrible. Purely evil. And it would explain why the Hokage was who he was.
"What, are you doing?" Naruto asked in a cold, chilling tone, addressing the one that was about to further injure the Uchiha.
None of the Sound trio spoke for a long time. They were all staring at Naruto, like Lee and his two teammates were. Silence reigned, and obvious fear radiated off of them. All of them.
"I asked… What, are you doing? And like my sensei, I don't like repeating myself." Naruto stated in that same, terrifying tone, a tone that promised death if one were so lucky. "You… You three did this… didn't you?" he stared at the Sound trio. "Don't try to deny it. I saw you." He accused as though the trio's actions were the greatest crime in the Namikaze's eyes.
Zaku suddenly stepped forward. "That's right, we did!" he grinned. Probably his sad attempt at bravado.
Dosu's eyes widened. "No, you idiot!"
However, he didn't get to finish his sentence. Naruto, quicker than he had ever been before, suddenly appeared next to Zaku and, with a swift roundhouse kick, sent him flying. The blond appeared next to Zaku and then gripped his neck. "You… did this…?" Naruto asked in a trance-like voice. Like his mind couldn't process anything at the moment, just his objective which seemed to be wiping out the sound trio.
Zaku couldn't answer; he just struggled in the other's deathlike grip, gasping for breath.
"You…" Naruto's sapphire eyes widened, and suddenly, without warning, he threw Zaku across the clearing and into a tree. The tree splintered under Zaku, and he sank to the ground. As Zaku tried to foolishly get to his feet again, Naruto raised a hand and muttered the name of the jutsu under his breath, sending a torrent of razor sharp winds towards the genin. When the jutsu ran its coarse, Zaku didn't move again.
He turned to the other two Sound members. "You, too… You did this too." No one really understood what he was referring to but he was only targeting the Sound trio so it was safe to assume he meant hurting his teammates. Funny thing was, no one had really taken the blond for a team player.
Sasuke grasped the edge of the tree as he tried again to stand up. Although his wounds weren't serious, they were incredibly painful. He had to get to Naruto, before he actually killed someone! And… if that happened, he would most likely follow the path Sasuke had taken. That path to power, he knew, was not worth it at all. Not to mention, the blond would regret it later and if Sasuke could at least do that much, spare him that guilt, then he would.
"Teme…" he rasped but Naruto didn't hear him.
He called out again trying to be louder. "Teme!"
This time, Naruto turned around, with no expression on his face whatsoever. Sasuke slowly walked forward, clutching his bruised shoulder. "Stop it already. They're not worth your time, teme."
Stop fighting.
If you fight now, you're going to give in to Orochimaru's will. The longer you rely on that power, the more it will cloud your mind, the more it will eat away at your body and your ability to think as you.
And you will die, be it physically or mentally.
But he didn't say any of these things, he wasn't supposed to know them.
Naruto's expression turned colder. "They did all of this," he stated, as if that was his whole justification.
"Please, Naruto-kun! Stop fighting them!" Sakura cried out as well. "You need to rest."
Those blue eyes, cold and merciless turned to Sakura who had managed to pull herself into a sitting position. Blood ran down a slip lip and a cut on the side of her head. But she seemed to ignore it all in favour of looking at Naruto with pleading green eyes.
Something inside Naruto's eyes shifted at the girl's gaze and they softened.
Grudgingly, the black flames receded back to the mark on his neck. Naruto's vision faltered as a throb of agony came from the bite, and he collapsed onto the ground. Hobbling as best as he could, Sasuke reached Naruto and stared at the Sound Genin.
"You are too strong," Dosu spoke up, watching Naruto carefully. "Naruto-kun, we cannot defeat you." Not with that Uchiha helping you. Cautiously, he walked over to Zaku and slung him over his shoulder. "Please, leave us alone for now, and I can promise you in return that, if we should meet again in battle, we will not flee." He carefully placed the Heaven scroll on the ground. "Take that as a sign of good faith. Come on, Kin." The girl joined them and the three Sound Shinobi jumped away.
Sasuke walked as best he could to the scroll and picked it up with a small grin. Forest of Death mission success. Now, all they had to do was reach the Tower.
Neji felt an ominous feeling spread throughout his body. What… was that chakra? Are Kakashi's students really that evil… and powerful? He was so fast, and even I had a little trouble following his movements.
His blank eyes narrowed. Namikaze Naruto… I will see you in the finals. There's no doubt about that.
Blank eyes turned to look at the Uchiha, and a small shiver had to be suppressed as well. That one was dangerous as well. Without that seal disrupting his chakra who knew where this battle would've gone. After all back before the first exam, the Namikaze had been looking at him like he was a rival, something that he was puzzling over. Which meant he was not to be taken lightly either if the Namikaze had been troubled by him and he'd had that kind of power.
Injured or not, the Uchiha and the Namikaze made a dangerous team. Any fool could see that and they didn't need the Byakugan to do so.
Kakashi sat in the waiting room, eye not moving, not blinking as he stared at the far wall.
Something was wrong. Of that he was certain.
Mostly because his team was not at the tower yet and they should be.
"Maybe he was exaggerating." He heard one jonin whisper to another, referring to Kakashi's confidence in his team.
"I knew the Kyuubi brat wasn't anything special." The other agreed.
"Obito, which teams have made it to the tower by now?" Kakashi asked the jonin sitting next to him, ignoring the other two.
"The one from Suna." Obito replied.
"Only them?"
"Yes."
Kakashi frowned. Something was wrong.
"When they get here," Not needing to say who 'they' was, "Study them with the Sharingan. I have a bad feeling."
Obito blinked at him before nodding, not questioning Kakashi's intuition. It was almost always right.
Minato sat at the Tower, trying to organise his thoughts. He turned back to Anko with a deep frown.
"Are you sure?" He knew she was, but it seemed like the next logical thing to do.
"Positive Hokage-sama. He's here. I wasn't able to find anything other than the area of a fight." Anko replied, eyes staring at the far wall rather than face the blue depths of the Hokage's eyes.
Minato sighed before getting to his feet and walking to where the jonin were waiting. He spotted Kakashi sitting next to Obito, looking just as troubled as the Hokage felt, but probably for different reasons.
"Kakashi-kun, Obito-kun." He called the two over, their heads snapping to him instantly.
Kakashi didn't waste time with walking and appeared in front of the Hokage in the blink of an eye. "It's Team 7 isn't it?" he asked immediately.
"We believe it is." Minato replied, waiting for Obito while everyone else in the room began to pay attention to the conversation merely on Kakashi's opening statement alone.
"Believe?" Kakashi asked, tone growing emotionless, falling back on ANBU training.
"Hai, there weren't any bodies." Was all the Hokage would say before turning and leaving the room, knowing the other two would follow.
Team 7 raced against the clock as they dashed through the forest. It was the fifth day now; after the Sound fight they had taken two extra days to rest purely because they had needed it.
The decision had definitely been cutting it close, but it was necessary. Naruto, having used the cursed seal, had been exhausted and unable to move, much to his chagrin. The others had said nothing, because it wouldn't have been good to show anything that seemed the slightest like pity; but instead, they dragged him off under their temporary shelter and forced him to rest. Using his desire to reach the last round of this exam against him and reminding him that even if he made it to the tower, he wouldn't be able to win any fight much less stay standing long enough for the proctor to say begin.
And two days later, like Sasuke and Sakura had expected, Naruto was back to normal, his moody stoic self anyways.
Sakura had just needed some sleep and Sasuke, while his chakra was still out of sorts, was also able to fight much better now.
"How long does it take to get to the tower?" Sakura asked her blond-haired teammate. Regardless of her change, she still held a crush—smaller, but nevertheless a crush—on Naruto.
Naruto didn't answer for a couple of seconds. "I'm not sure," he answered finally. "But it shouldn't take longer than a day if this place is a 10km diameter making it a 5km radius. We'll make the deadline if we're careful and we don't get into any meaningless fights."
Adding onto the conversation, Sasuke said, "Although, the other teams who haven't reached the tower yet will also be heading towards there right now. We have to be extra careful to not run into them or any traps set up for weary teams."
Nodding slightly, Naruto added yet another thing. "And it won't be just the teams that already have both scrolls. There will also be teams that will have only one or neither of the scrolls, and they'll also be heading towards the tower to try to run into a team with both or more scrolls to get theirs."
Silent, Sakura frowned. They made it sound so hard when they said it like that, but their tone betrayed nothing. Utterly blank. She doubted that she could do that, and, sighing mentally, she told herself yet once again that she had a lot of catching up to do. After this exam, she was determined to do just that.
It was a silent journey as Team 7 travelled. Occasionally, Sakura, the chatterbox of the group, would try to strike up a conversation; but more often than not it ended in silence. It was almost depressing, really. Mentally wishing that someone friendly—even that Ino-pig—was here with her, Sakura followed her teammates towards the towering spire in the distance.
She almost wished Sasuke was the annoying dobe from the Academy again, almost.
"I told you," Naruto muttered sourly.
"But," Sakura's voice faltered, "I'm sure this was the way to the tower. Could we have taken a wrong turn?"
Their third teammate, Sasuke, said nothing, instead staring at the tower in the distance that hadn't gotten any closer the last three hours of traveling. It was a genjutsu, no doubt about it, not travelling directions or distances; but the question was the caster.
Genjutsu was only limited to the imagination of the user, but the time and span of the genjutsu were what taxed the user. If they had used this constantly for the last three hours or more, either they had a massive amount of stamina or they were crazy, perhaps even desperate. Although it was possible for a genjutsu to be continued by another person, in a Genin exam, he very much doubted that would happen.
He did wince at the thought of having missed the genjutsu for three hours straight and having forgotten about it from the first time around.
Either way he needed to take down this person and quickly. After all, time was of the essence and they had just wasted three hours of it.
But he could always use his Sharingan, too and just lead them to the tower…
Ah, no. That wouldn't work. They wouldn't believe or follow him, for one, and two, genjutsu affected not only sight but also the other four senses. Even if he led them, they'd feel like they were walking through trees and bushes and etcetera.
Their minds would be bothered before they even started the third exam and that could be the difference between a win or a loss. He didn't even have the chakra needed to disrupt the others' chakra.
Sasuke stopped suddenly and stretched, yawning. His other two teammates stopped as well, glancing back at him incredulously.
"What are you doing?" hissed Naruto, irritated already from the genjutsu.
"We can't stop now," urged Sakura.
"But Sakura-chan," Sasuke whined, "I'm so tired."
Staring at him, both Naruto and Sakura could hardly believe their eyes. A minute before, he'd been forcing them to go as hard as they could—not a hint of this lethargic attitude before.
Naruto's carefully guarded eyes bored into him, and Sasuke met the gaze silently. Play along for now, his eyes read.
Then it hit him. Sasuke had already found the genjutsu caster's position.
Although bitterness stung at him for not catching the caster before the dobe, Naruto nodded once and turned to Sakura. "Let's stop for a little bit," he said.
"Right," Sakura agreed. She knew when she had to obey orders, and currently Naruto's tone screamed for obedience. This was like when they had entered the forest. All was not as they were pretending.
Then turning to Sasuke, Naruto said, "How long will this take?" but in his eyes, he said something completely different: Fine, I'll let you find those enemy nin. Hurry up so that we can fight them and get to the tower.
"Saa, I don't know," Sasuke replied easily. I have a plan already. "I'm really tired!"
"Why don't we rest in the trees?" Sakura suddenly asked, and the two boys turned to her, surprised. Turning defensive, she frowned. "What? We can see any enemies that might approach!"
I thought that she'd found their hiding places, Sasuke thought, relieved. They're hiding in three trees—three different enemies. One's casting, but the other two are watching closely, waiting for a chance to pounce down on us, waiting for us to tire out from all the walking. "Good thought, Sakura-chan!" And with ease, he jumped into a tree behind him—the one "coincidentally" adjacent to the genjutsu caster's. They're startled at this, he thought. They don't know what to do. Move, and risk being heard, or stay and risk being seen? Perfect.
"Why don't you come up here with me, Sakura-chan?" Sasuke begged, adding an extra dollop of Naruto-ish.
"Of course not, you baka!" Sakura shot back before she even realized what she was saying. "Or…" she stuttered, but was silenced at the unspoken approval at her words.
Keep it normal, Sasuke's gaze read. A smug expression came to his face. I'll easily defeat them. But it left his face as another thought came to his mind. These nins are waiting for us to become weak from traveling—then they'll attack. If I could use kage bunshin, then I could trick them with it but I don't have Naruto's original reserves. Even this Naruto had the crazy reserves the other one did.
He frowned, and then after a moment's thought, a plan came to mind.
He could always just attack now and catch them off-guard, too. Why wait? They didn't exactly have the time for it.
I'll do that, he decided. I don't really care if Naruto or Sakura fight, but I'm sick of this forest. Getting to the tower as quickly as possible is the best option right now. Furthermore, he thought as his mood lightened considerably, In the trees I can unleash my full potential, well as full as it is with this blasted seal. Naruto can't fight anyway, the curse seal is too unstable. The best he can manage is taijutsu.
He supposed that he'd never been so reckless before, but at this moment, he couldn't have cared less.
Naruto jerked his head up as he heard the sounds of fighting suddenly break out, and swore lightly. The dobe had better not done anything stupid! He thought as he jumped swiftly into the trees and prepared to fight as well.
But it seemed that Sasuke had not noticed him approaching, and what beheld his eyes utterly stupefied him.
Sasuke—Sasuke, that dead last!—was fighting with more power than he'd ever seen him have before. His taijutsu—for that was the only thing he was doing at the moment—was…flawless. Every other time he'd seen Sasuke fight since the Academy, he'd always had some mistakes, almost like he'd been distracted. And Naruto had always written it off as he was too weak to discipline his mind.
Really, he should have known it was because Kakashi-sensei had always been around as well. Why would Sasuke want to hide though?
Naruto had never seen this type of taijutsu before either. It was a new type of taijutsu, or barely even taijutsu at all. It was in a whole category by itself. Sasuke was dodging in and out of the enemies' reach and their defence was easily twisted and slipped inside of, almost as though he were…
Sasuke was dancing with the enemies.
But why did that make him see green?
Not wanting to be left out of the fighting, Naruto jumped in and caught one of the three nin off-guard. Flicking his wrist to catch the enemy's forearm, he twisted the arm around until a satisfying 'pop' was heard. The enemy gasped out in pain and surprise, but the blonde did not stop there.
Kicking a leg out and swiftly catching the enemy's legs, he tripped him—and the enemy fell backwards, having lost his balance. And with a thrust, Naruto threw him into the trunk of a nearby tree, which their head bashed against and they lost consciousness.
He felt a tap on his shoulder and jumped, swirling around but coming face-to-face with not an enemy but instead Sasuke himself.
"Took you long enough," Sasuke smirked, bouncing a slightly bloodied but otherwise clean Heaven scroll in the air.
Naruto rolled his eyes. "I wasn't going all out, you know," he pointed out. "If I were, I'd have finished that guy off in no time at all."
"Sure," the other remarked sarcastically, as if he knew all about the pain Naruto was currently trying his best to ignore. "Let's get down before Sakura wonders what we're doing."
The black-haired boy turned to jump down, but Naruto grabbed onto his shoulder. Sasuke gave him a look of annoyance. "What?" he asked. "Are you scared of Sakura?"
It seemed the blond boy was undeterred by this caustic remark. "You never used to call her Sakura," he stated. "Why don't you call her 'Sakura-chan'?"
"Want me to get her off your back?" Sasuke sneered.
"You've changed completely since we graduated—no, since the day of the exam. Why?" Naruto scrutinized the Uchiha's face for any sign of—well, anything—but it was in vain. Sasuke had the facial expression of a rock. "And my father wouldn't believe you were a spy simply because your skills are higher than what everyone thought they were."
The only indication of emotion was the short pause from Sasuke, but he soon said, "Why not? Graduating is the day we all become adults, after all. Might as well start acting like it. And that's more the reason he's suspicious than anything else, because I act different."
"It's not just that," Naruto argued. "You've changed in skill, too. You used to not be able to get the bunshin at all—but now, it's effortless for you. And at the Country of the Wave—and just now, too. What was that taijutsu you used?"
Sasuke averted his eyes. "It's nothing important. Something my otou-san taught me a long time ago."
"No," contradicted Naruto. "I've seen Uchihas fight, and I've never seen that stance before—"
"Don't you think they could have just hidden it from you?" Sasuke cut in a bit too quickly. "As the son of the Hokage, you have access to places others don't. I bet you've even been inside the Hyuga compound."
Giving him a strange look, Naruto continued. "But if you were taught it a long time ago, you wouldn't be able to reach the places you are supposed to reach. The hands are supposed to be able to stay at the height of the opponent's shoulder—and if you were younger, you wouldn't be able to reach those spots."
Sasuke was slightly impressed. "Apparently your otou-san taught you some observation skills," he said. "I was beginning to think that you didn't have any—you know, after all of those fangirls pining after you?" He was giving non-answers at every turn and the only way to get a straight answer out of him was to catch him off guard and something told Naruto that would be near impossible to do.
Naruto scowled, but then launched another question as Sasuke was about to escape from the trees. "How do you know so much?" he demanded.
The other stared at him lazily. "What do you think?" he asked. "Don't you think that it's possible that I've been secretly training and hiding everything from the world? Isn't deception one of the most important lessons for Shinobi, one of their most important and valued traits?"
Naruto stared at Sasuke's back as the black-haired boy jumped down from the tree and began to talk hurriedly with Sakura—supposedly apologizing for ditching her. Deception? It was possible, wasn't it? This made sense, he thought. If Sasuke was really deceiving everyone… that was a frightening thought. But then he frowned. How could his teammate fool the ANBU that were for some reason or another constantly following him? He wasn't blind, after all; he'd seen the Shinobi tracking his teammate. But that sprung another question into his mind: Now, why were there ANBU following him, anyway? Was it the spy thing? Or had they always been there, bringing it back to that S-classed secret?
Too many questions, too few answers and none of them coming from Sasuke.
"I told you, we should have just swum across the river!" Naruto argued as he ran towards the tower with his other two teammates.
"I know, I know!" Sasuke snapped. "But there was a trap there, baka! Didn't you see that underwater trap?"
"I did, dobe, but we could have—"
"Don't even try to explain a way to get across that without taking more time than going around!" Sasuke interrupted. "Deactivating the trap would've have meant it would have been the same amount of time."
Sakura wisely remained silent.
Unfortunately for her, the two other teammates—regardless of the somewhat quiet talk they'd had after they had defeated those enemies—had become more outspoken against each other. It could have been the heat that made them this way, but it was most likely just their differences. Sasuke was the furthest thing from Naruto she could think of; and yet, ironically, they complimented each other at the same time. It was so weird.
Well, she thought optimistically, we're almost at the tower.
She relished the thought of having another shower.
They landed at the front of the door and Sasuke pushed the door open. Thankfully, the thought of finally ending this five-day survival test silenced the two boys, and they all glanced inside cautiously. There was no telling what could be next. Only Sasuke knew that they would be forced to fight, yet again.
It was large, spacious room with clean, tiled floors and a high ceiling. There was a large banner strung on the far wall, and on it were many kanji and characters. Kanji, Sakura thought in disgust. It wasn't as if she couldn't read kanji, but it was sometimes a bit annoying to remember. "Let's see," she said aloud, assuming that Sasuke couldn't read kanji since he had pretty much failed the academic part on the Academy. "It says—"
"I know what it says," Sasuke cut in, as if he'd read her mind.
Surprised and a bit affronted, Sakura stopped her reading as they all individually scanned the banner. This is kind of a weird paragraph, she thought. Do the others get it? She risked a glance at her teammates, but their faces betrayed nothing. As always, she thought with disgust. It wouldn't hurt them to smile or frown at least once, but noooo they're both too good for that.
"Let's open the scrolls," Sasuke suddenly announced. Taking out the Heaven scroll, he was about to open it—and his actions were mirrored by Naruto, who had taken out the Earth scroll as well as dropped the extra on the ground by his feet—when Sakura suddenly cut in.
"We aren't supposed to open it!" Sakura panicked.
Rolling his eyes at her, Naruto said, "The crazy snake lady said we could at the end, right?"
Sasuke nodded once, and suddenly Sakura felt very stupid and embarrassed. "Right," she muttered as the memory came to her.
Sasuke stared at her for a minute trying to decide whether to say something to make her feel better, but then decided against it. "Let's open them already." he told Naruto, who nodded.
As soon as the paper opened, a sudden whoosh of smoke erupted from the scrolls. "Get back!" Naruto cried. "It's a summon for a person!"
Jumping back with alarm, the three watched cautiously as a shadow slowly formed in the billowing smoke. A Chunin stepped out, and as he began to explain the reasons for the Heaven and Earth scrolls, Team 7 conveniently tuned him out—an especially useful skill they'd acquired in the Academy. Sasuke however hadn't missed the slightly relived look they were getting from the chunin and was also vaguely wondering what happened to Iruka-sensei. Guess it wasn't to be, not in this reality.
The chunin continued talking while they continued to not listen, just basking in the peace and relative quiet. Because seriously, who wanted to listen to a lecture when they could be truly resting for the first time in five days?
As they entered the large room, Team 7 joined the group of other Genin who'd gathered there. Sasuke felt his throat run dry as his eyes darted around the place for any sign of Itachi, remembering what he'd said near the forest of death. Some part of him was desperately wishing that he wouldn't be there—so he wouldn't lose his concentration—but the other part of him wished that aniki would be there.
Again, he was reminded of his mixed feelings about his brother—no, could he even deserve to be called that? Itachi was one of the very few people who Sasuke could never fully figure out, and that caused him uneasiness. Just what did the Itachi in this world want?
He saw Kakashi-sensei on the balcony, staring down at them with that all-too-familiar bland stare. He was another one of those people. But this time, there was something else in that stare, relief maybe? Just like the chunin that hovered around the Hokage.
Next to Kakashi sensei, was that Obito guy and he had his Sharingan pinned on them, but the moment he noticed Sasuke, the red disappeared. Sasuke wondered what that was all about.
Finally, his eyes settled on the all-too-familiar figure of his black-haired brother, who stood respectfully a few feet behind the Hokage who stood in front. He was no longer relying on crutches either and his eyes betrayed nothing for a moment as they surveyed the genin. But as his eyes came upon Sasuke there was an unfamiliar emotion in them and a slight twitch of his lips.
And now, Sasuke thought dryly, the question is, was that the beginning of a smile or a grimace?
Either way, it couldn't have been good, he decided.
Trying to release his thoughts of the conundrum called Itachi, Sasuke turned to the other Genin that had passed the survival test and listened in.
"Naruto-kun, I knew you could make it!" Ino exclaimed happily, ignoring Shikamaru, who had turned to Chouji and immediately disproved her statement by whispering that she'd been extremely agitated for the few minutes before Team 7 had arrived. Ino seemed to be intent on ignoring that too. Sasuke was all too happy to say he didn't envy the dobe there.
Then he turned and surveyed the other teams. Apparently everyone who had passed last time also passed this time—and he wasn't sure if that was good or not. The Sound team was furthest from him on the right side, whispering to themselves and taking quick, occasional glances towards him and Naruto. They weren't much of a threat—Sasuke had already spent too much time in Sound to not know the techniques of the Shinobi there, and the best ways to avoid them.
Next to them was Kabuto's team, with those two nondescript teammates of his. They certainly looked calmer than others. Kabuto was probably the only who would actually be of any threat—the other two were irrelevant. That was, if Kabuto actually stayed to fight this time.
And then there was the Suna team.
Ah. Gaara was openly glaring at him, barely suppressing his killer intent, dark eyes holding a gleeful malice directed entirely at him.
Nice to know that he already had enemies.
Sasuke was unable to resist sending a smirk to the Sand Jinchuriki, and cocked his head slightly. When Gaara's glare increased threefold, he slowly turned away—not fast enough to seem like he was admitting defeat; slow enough to show he wasn't intimidated by the glare—and moved onto the next team, which was right next to him.
He mostly knew their abilities already anyway. Temari was a wind-oriented Shinobi, with that ridiculously enormous fan of hers, and Kankurou used puppets. Gaara was the only one he wasn't sure he could win against in his current skill level, but with luck, he wouldn't have to fight him…until the finals, or the Sand-Sound Invasion started. And if that happened then he had a month to get back into shape, something he should have been doing since he got here but having been unable due to the constant ANBU watch. Only, now, he'd actually have an excuse to train.
The next team was Team 8, the team he'd almost been on because of his utter stupidity—but it wasn't best to think about that at this time. Kiba was chatting energetically towards Hinata, who seemed to be politely listening but only half-heartedly. Sasuke found himself wondering if this Hinata had a thing for him as the other Hinata had had a thing for the oblivious Naruto but he didn't dwell on it. Shino was quiet as always, observing others as Sasuke was—smart for a Genin, but Shino had always been mature—and remaining silent, not that he ever said much.
Although Kiba had been the second-to-dead-last in the class, he was still strong in terms of brute strength. He tended to skip over thinking and planning in favour of attacking directly. Hinata, regardless of her clan, was timid and though she could probably use some very deadly attacks, would never have enough ferociousness to execute them to their full potential. The last teammate, Shino, was sort of a wild card—Sasuke had never really seen him fight. The last time he had was at the last Chunin Exam—he hadn't seen the preliminaries, and in the finals, Shino hadn't even fought because Kankurou had resigned before the battle. He knew though, that the Aburame were a clan of insect specialists and didn't use things like kunai and shuriken. That could get dodgy.
But he was an Uchiha—and the only student of Orochimaru, the strongest of the three legendary Sannin—and it would take more than all three of them attacking him at once to beat him . . . if he was able to use all his jutsus and so far he hadn't been able to figure out a way to get Kakashi to teach him the Chidori, or even if it existed in this world.
He caught out of the corner of his eye Hinata glancing at him with an unidentifiable emotion in her eyes—awe, fear, admiration. Turning towards her, he smirked. "What?" he asked, and was promptly stupefied when another, foreign emotion lighted in her eyes—disappointment. "What is it?" he asked again, a bit affronted by her gaze.
"N-Nothing," Hinata stuttered as she turned away with a fading blush.
Staring at her for a few moments and ignoring the suspicious Kiba, Sasuke shook it off and turned to his left. That encounter didn't prove anything to him.
Team 10—Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji—were hardly worth noting. Chouji and Ino would be pathetically easy to beat, but as every team had their strongest, Shikamaru was the most threatening person. It wasn't that the Nara had talent to make him give up, but it was that they could use their minds to either trick him into messing up badly or stepping into the shadow, neither of which sounded appealing to him. However, Shikamaru was perpetually acting lazily, and that would act in Sasuke's advantage.
Behind them was Gai's team, who Sasuke didn't know much about. Tenten was a weapon-oriented person, and what he'd heard she had a large variety of weapons at her disposal, and could summon them from a scroll. Lee was a taijutsu expert—Sasuke's body seemed to groan in remembrance of that impromptu spar that they'd had right before the written exam last time—and undoubtedly very fast. However, if he had to gauge himself now… he'd say that he would have no problem keeping up with Lee's current speed. The last member, Neji, was a Hyuga Branch member, and bitter about it, too. He knew the Hakkesho Kaiten along with the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms, both of which were lethal. But he was also far too dependent on the Byakugan, and that was his weakness.
Sasuke shrugged. Who was he kidding? He was pretty dependent on the Sharingan, too… Not that he'd been able to use it much at the moment.
All in all, Konoha had done well this year. All Rookie teams had made it through. That would send a message to all those important delegates that were coming in a month's time.
Turning to the front of the room as the Yondaime cleared his throat, Sasuke leaned back slightly and listened closely, seeing as this part was new.
The blond Hokage cleared his throat, and the room silenced; then, he suddenly broke into a large grin, reminding him too much of Naruto, and Sasuke could just feel half of the room sweat drop. Not just the foreign nin, too. "Congrats, Genin! You passed the survival test!"
He paused, and then babbled on, as if talking more to himself than a roomful of people. "You know, I was trying to decide whether to cut out this part of the exam, because it took so long and some of the parents were complaining about it, but—"
Anko cleared her throat loudly.
"Ri-ight!" he laughed nervously, giving her a glance and a slightly strained smile. "Anyway, since there are so many of you—and no, that's not an insult, I'm glad that many of you got through—"
Anko cleared her throat again, this time louder and more forcefully.
"—I think we need to have a preliminary exam. You see—"
He was quickly drowned out by the protests of both Genin and sensei from below and above. Sasuke rolled his eyes and crossed his arms in annoyance.
"What do you mean?" demanded the indignant Ino.
Kankurou frowned. "I don't want to fight right now…"
"We just got out of the forest, too!" Sakura wailed, but it was more like a wail to voice a complaint and not necessarily directed at the Hokage himself.
"Saa," the Yondaime tried to calm everyone down, "It's not that we think you aren't qualified to participate in the finals. It's just that there are too many of you! And—uh, the Chunin Exam Finals can't really… be that long…" he trailed off.
"So you're just trying to cut us down to the more qualified ones?" shouted Kiba, enraged.
"No! We're just… Well, yeah, exactly." The Yondaime ended lamely, realising there was just no way of sugar coating it.
Hinata raised her hand timidly, and Minato, relieved to see that someone was polite about this, nodded at her. "Does that mean whoever doesn't pass this preliminary exam won't have a chance of being a Chunin?"
The room quieted, and all eyes turned to the Yondaime, who frowned. "Unfortunately, yes." But as soon as he said that, a grin came onto his face again. "Well, good thing Chunin Exams are held every six months—"
"I don't want to have to do that again!" Chouji complained. Did he really think that as he was now, he was an adequate ninja? What about a jonin exam? That was bound to be so much worse. Honestly, they were all such cry-babies.
Neji scowled, and even though he didn't say anything, he agreed whole-heartedly with the Akimichi. The exam had been entirely pointless to him.
"Settle down!" shouted Iruka, using the loud, commanding voice he'd acquired in the Academy. "It's Hokage-sama's decision, and you have no right to argue against it!"
The room silenced immediately.
Iruka bowed slightly to the Hokage, who stared at him with a gaping mouth. "How did you do that?" another Chunin asked in awe as the sensei stepped back, the silence of the room's occupants ensuring that the statement carried.
Iruka shrugged. "Try teaching the Academy for years and not getting something like that."
"Good point."
"Anyway," the Hokage cleared his throat, "No more questions? Good." He said without pausing long enough for anyone to respond. "We will now proceed with the preliminary matches. The electronic board behind me," he motioned to it grandly, "will choose the two Genin to fight randomly. Everyone else, please join your sensei on the balcony."
What? No chance to leave? That would mean Kabuto was forced into the exam. And should he end up fighting Sasuke would he pretend to lose? Give up? Or would he fight and in that case, just how far would he go?
The board blinked for a moment, and the screen blanked. Everyone held their breaths, and suddenly, the board blinked again, and the two Genin names were up.
YAMANAKA INO VS KANKUROU
Itachi stepped forward as all of the Genin sans Ino and Kankurou cleared the floor and walked up to the balcony. Sasuke frowned the whole way there. The first time around Ino had been forced to face Sakura. Things were changing already, leaving him no guarantee for his own partner. He could essentially end up with anyone of them, even Naruto.
Ino, for once, was silent. She was happy to go first—and get the match over and done with—but she knew next to nothing about this 'Kankurou' guy… from the Suna team. He carried a puppet, she knew, and he was probably liable to switch between them at any random moment. But other than that, her information was blank.
"Go, Ino!" Chouji shouted from the balcony in encouragement. Shikamaru lazily waved his hand—some sort of cheer?—but said nothing.
The Genin across from her was intimidating. He was clothed completely in black, with a large circle on his chest, which was half dull yellow and half dark red. A sort of black hat with ears sat on his head, matched with purple paint donning his face. On his back was a mummy-like object, not quite his height, completely wrapped with a tuft of hair peeking from the top of the bandages. But then she realised that this getup was probably supposed to intimidate her, and tried to push the queasiness aside.
"Heh!" he said. "Looks like I've got it easy."
Immediately, Ino's spirit returned. "Don't get cocky!" she warned.
Itachi held out his hand, looking to both the participants before giving a short bark of. "Begin.".
Sasuke watched from above disinterestedly as Ino and Kankurou began to fight. She, of course, immediately tried the Shintenshin no Jutsu. As prissy as she was, Ino had Shinobi's blood in her veins; and the analytical part of her realized that she had to take control of Kankurou before he could utilize his puppet. The sooner she got him, the better it would be.
But that was only if the Kankurou showing was the real Kankurou, which Ino should have tested first.
And as Sasuke had expected, Ino was promptly shocked when her mind hit something. And it was definitely not Kankurou, a dangerous gamble that cost the match because she could not immediately return to her own body.
"Hah!" crowed the Suna nin's voice, which was not coming from Kankurou's body. "Told you!"
Kankurou's body, which had been animated before, now dropped and the fabric fell away, exposing a rather large and intimidating puppet.
With her mind suspended in space and her body rendered useless, she was at the mercy of the Sand nin and Itachi was forced to call the match with a sad shake of his head. Asuma sighed as well, muttering something under his breath.
He disappeared from his spot on the balcony and picked the groggy nin up under one arm before going straight back to where the other two members of his team were waiting.
Well, that had been rather uneventful and actually expected. The Ino-Shika-Cho team formation was only as effective when they were actually in a team. Individually, well, the results spoke for themselves.
Glancing up to the board as the names began to flash across it once again, Sasuke's eyes widened a fraction. Already…? He thought.
NAMIKAZE NARUTO VS AKADO YOROI
Well at least that was the same. If Naruto in this world was the Sasuke of his true reality, this this match up was technically exactly the same. It would be interesting to see what happened now.
OMAKE 1: (By alolha123)
Itachi strode down the stone steps. He'd just come from the mission office—now that he was finally off crutches, he could take missions again. He'd been sort of off the months he'd been on them from the simple lack of action.
But hey, he was a Shinobi. And… Shinobi needed action.
Like beer.
(Not that he drank beer, of course. It muddled his mind far too much once and that, unfortunately, had been a very misfortunate—not to mention embarrassing—situation… besides, okaa-san would never allow it, and if he ever violated the Things That Okaa-san Doesn't Allow list, he'd never see a bar in his life ever again.) Beer just meant someone else was drinking it and when a ninja drank any sort of alcohol it always produced amusing results. Something about the high levels of chakra.
Itachi went for the blackmail material.
He stopped when he heard someone behind him, and turned around to see the Yondaime, much to his surprise. "Hokage-sama," he bowed slightly in respect.
"Aww, don't be like that!" the Yondaime, much to Itachi's surprise and discomfort, slung an arm over his shoulder. "I wanted to talk to you about something."
"What is it?" his interest was piqued. He had thought of joining Shisui as the Hokage's personal ANBU but he hadn't really thought it over since the whole Sasuke thing. Perhaps the Hokage had thought about it too.
"It's about your job at the Chunin Exam, during the preliminaries."
"Did I not do a satisfactory job?" Itachi questioned. He was confused—he almost never did a less-than-satisfactory job before. (Another item on the Things That Okaa-san Does Not Allow list.)
"Uhh," the Yondaime pondered it. "Justa' little…" he held his second finger and thumb a millimeter apart.
"What did I not do?" the boy asked, still confused.
"You need to be cooler!" The Yondaime rushed out quickly. "Like me!"
Itachi's eye twitched. Badly.
"I mean, uh, no offense—" the blonde took a glance at his companion, whose eye was still twitching— "But you need to say 'Begin' with more—I don't know, oomph!"
"More… what?" Itachi would not allow himself to lower his dignity more.
"Oomph!" The Yondaime babbled excitedly. "You know, punch! It's like you're stating 'Begin'!" he said.
"But I am stating 'Begin'," Itachi said confusedly.
"No! You need to say it forcefully! Like, 'Begin!'" The Yondaime said grandly. "Come on, try it!"
"Begin."
"Waa! Itachi, you've got no expression! More! More flair and drama! Make your Hokage proud!"
"Begin."
"More, Itachi! Dramatic Itachi!"
"Be…gin?"
"Noo! Itachi, you're doing it all wroong!"
Deep breath. "Begin!"
"Yosh! You've got it! Okay, let's try it again!"
Itachi could already feel his dignity slipping.
Things That Okaa-san Doesn't Allow list
I think it would be interesting to compile a list of all the things Mikoto wouldn't allow Itachi to do. Any suggestions. I've got about 50 of my own. Not all of them funny but oh well.
