"Whaaaat! I can't remember all that!" Whined Naruto. Koyuki rolled her eyes and Sakura gave him an amused look.

"It's simple Naruto even I memorized it." Sakura told him.

"INCOMING!" yelled Koyuki as a hurricane of wind rushed towards them. Sakura and Sasuke jumped to the same tree, Koyuki jumped in a different direction and Naruto got hit full blast and was sent flying into a tree eight feet away. Koyuki took out a six inch cilinder with a four inch blade and pressed a button that made it turn into a full length spear. She looks around and realizes her teammates were not there.

"I seem to have jumped in the wrong direction." see gathered her chakra to search for the others when a large shadow loomed over her. She looks up and her eyes grow wide with fear as a giant snake is towering over her and looking at her like a tasty meal.

"That is one huge snake." she whispered. Lounged at her with it0s mouth wide open. Koyuki gathers her chakra to her feet and leaps high in the air and avoids getting eaten. But before she can jam her pear on it's head the tail flicks like a whip and slams her into a tree. She quickly recovers and avoids a second strike from the snake and this time she tabbs the tail with her spear making the snake hiss furiously. The snake tries to bite her again and this time she jumps on it's snout and buries her spear right in between the snakes eyes. It hisses in pain and slams it's head right on the tree taking Koyuki with it. Fortunately she managed to jumps off but since the snake did not die immediately it hit her with it's tail one last time before finally dying. Koyuki landed on the ground but sprained her ankle in the process.

"Ngh! Shit...I hate snakes." she murmured as she took hold of her spear and helped herself up. "Now I need to find the others." She closed her eyes and tried to sense if they were near by. Finding nothing she searched a little farther before she finally found them, but something was wrong. Besides her three teammates there was one other chakra and that one made shivers run down her spine. It felt sinister in some way and it gave off such an inhuman feeling she was very close to shivering.

I don't like this feeling. she thought just as she picked up another chakra prescence, this one more familira...Naruto. She leaned on her sprained ankle and yelped, yup it was bad. She threw a kick and winced, it seemed she could still bring damage to an enemy but not as much as she would like.

Oh well, it's better than nothing.

She sensed for their direction and jumped into the trees as quickly as she could.

"Naruto!"

She arrived just in time to see Naruto get hit in the stomach by the grass ninja from before the second part of the exam. She made a face when she realized Naruto had been held up by the grass nina's tounge which was an ugly purple bruise color and standing on top of a dead snake. Sasuke was standing right in front of the dead snake with a look she's never seen in him before, terror. After the grass ninja hit Naruto in the stomach he threw Naruto high into a tree making him loose conciousness and fall. Sakura threw a kunai and pinned Naruto to the tree with it.

"It's futile Sasuke Uchiha, if you want to pass this test then you'll have to do it the hard way." the grass nin said as he held their earth scroll in her palm and birst it into flames. Then she took her heaven scroll, wrapped her tongue around it...and swallowed it whole!

"Now the only way to get the scroll is to open me up, can you that young Uchiha?" she said with a smirk. Sasuke was shivering, the look in his eyes was so full of terror and fear Koyuki's blood began to boil white hot. She hated that look and what pissed her off even more was the smug look the nin was giving him; a primal hunger and power filled her eyes.

"Are you sure you are strong enough to defeat me?" she said "Or will you run away with your tail between your legs."

That does it! She's gonna die right now!

The nin takes out a kunai on only to block a kunai that had been aimed for her head. All three shinobi look around and see Koyuki, spear in hand and a dark look in her eyes that gave of a fire spark of murder.

"Koyuki!" Sakura yells with relief.

"Koyuki," Sasuke whispers before raising his voice. "GET OUT OF HERE!"

"No!" Then points her speared to the grass nin. "No one threatens my team and gets away with it. No one!"

In the blink of an eye she's face to face with the nin and punchs her right in the face. The grass nin stumbles and Koyuki hits her with the pole of the spear. On the third hit the grass nin blocks it and wraps her tongue around Koyuki's neck and tries to choke her.

"Fire Style! Dragon Flame Jutsu!"

A large fire dragon attacks the nin from behind just as Koyuki disapears in a swirl of smoke.

"A clone!" The dragon hits her head on and she consumed in a blaze of fire.

"Bitch." Koyuki murmurs before turning to Sasuke who's still frozen in place. She walks towards him and when she's close enough she slaps him with the back of her hand so hard his head snaps back.

"Koyuki what the hell!" Sakura yells, Koyuki gives her a murderous glare and Sakura bites her lip to stop herself from glaring back.

"What the fuck is wrong with you Sasuke!" She snaps and he flinches back a bit. "I've never seen you act like this before, stop being a coward and man up! If you want to defeat Itachi you have to stop being afraid." she whispers the last part and the look on Sasuke's eyes change. A purple tongue wraps around her neck and only manages to cry out once before she's thrown and slammed into the ground. She looks at the person looming over her and her eye grow wide as the grass nin stands before her...without a single burn mark in her body.

"You're pretty strong, but not enough." she picks Koyuki up by the neck throws her on the ground again, but this time she's ready and back flips to regain her balance. The nin appears in front of her and throws a right hook, Koyuki ducks to the side and hits the nin in the ribs. The grass nin aims a kick to her head and Koyuki uses her left arm to block it and kicks back, with her injured ankle. The grass nin catches her kick by grabbing her ankle and laughs.

"Did you think you can do any damage with an injured ankle." Koyuki looks at her with fear.

How did she know!

"That was my snake you killed," she responds as if she read Koyuki's mind. "And now you're gonna pay."

There is a moment of silence before a loud crack breaks it, followed by Koyuki's scream of pain as the grass nin break her ankle.

"KOYUKI!"

She falls to the ground and she takes hold of her ankle, then the grass nin wastes no time as she kicks Koyuki in the jaw and sends her flying straight to Sakura who catches her and sets her down on the branch she had been for most of the time.

"Now, it's your turn." the nin whispers to Sasuke who gulps fearfully.

"Sasuke you have to stop being afraid!" yells Sakura and grabs Sasuke's attention. "Naruto and Koyuki fought to protect us and you can't just stand there and be afraid you're better than that! You are one of the strongest people I know you can't just quit now because of another nin, you can win!"

For the first time since they met Sasuke finally decided to listen to Sakura.

She's right I can't just run away; I have to pass this exam and get strong enough to hunt him!

He takes out two large shuriken and he activates his sharingan, glaring at the nin with determination to rip him open and get the heaven scroll.

I have to win!

Koyuki had never seen Sasuke fight like that, not even during the fight with Haku in the Mist Village. Sasuke was able to follow the grass nin's movements which were almost hard for her to track. He blocked and kicked and punched back twice as hard for every movement the grass nin made. Then Sasuke was thrown in the air with a punch to the gut, he used the momentum to land on a thick branch and threw his two large shuriken. The nin doged and threw his own pair at Sasuke, who back fliped and swung himself to the other side with the wire that had been attached to the shuriken. He landed on another branch and looked around for the nin, he quickly raised his hand in front of his face to avoid being kicked in the face and slammed into a tree.

"Your skills are impressive Uchiha Sasuke, but that won't be enough to defeat me."

"Heh" Sasuke chuckled as he glared at the nin with his sharingan eyes. He uncrossed his arms in one swift motion and a batch of shuriken wrapped around the nin and embeded themselves on his flesh. The nin tried to move his arms but realized he was wrapped in wire. Sasuke jumped away to stand in next to Sakura and made quick handsigns ending with the sign of the tiger.

That nin is sooo toast. thought Koyuki with a smug look.

Fire Style! Grand Fire Ball Jutsu! Sasuke took a deep breath, gather his chakra and blew out the biggest fire ball his teammates had ever seen! The wires caught fire and traveled faster than the fire ball, reaching the enemy and engulfing her in flames. The pain was so intense she screamed in pain and terror as the flames melted her flesh and her screams turned to ones of a banshee as the fire ball finally reached her and burned her to a crisp. Sasuke stood there for a moment, panting and shaking from spending the last of his chakra before turning to his female teammates.

"You two alright?" Sakura nodded but the grimace of pain on Koyuki's lips he knew she wasn't fine. Koyuki caught his look of concern and gave him a painful smile.

"I sprained my ankle before I got here...and that stupid nin finally broke it."

True enough when Sasuke kneeled down and took her ankle she hissed in pain.

"Sorry, it's pretty swollen one of us is going to have to carry you the entire way."

"No you don't have to I can just use my spear-"

"You'll be putting more strain on it and that'll make it worse." Sasuke gave her as look that Kakashi always gave her when she was being difficult, it clearly said Don't be so stuborn and listen to me. She scoffed indignantly and Sasuke took it she understood.

"kukukukuku."

The hairs on the back of their necks stood on end as they slowly turned their heads towards what was supposed to have been a burnt body and saw the grass nin stand up...unharmed. The only thing that was off about the nin was her left eye which looked like skin had peeled off only do reveal a much paler leayer of skin and yellow slited eyes, just like a snake.

"Very impressive, impressive indeed. But it's time to put an end to this." The nin's voice was no longer that of a woman's but much deeper and hoarse voice of a man. The nin reached to it's left eye and pulled it down a bit, once again Sasuke and Sakura where frozen in their spots while Koyuki felt a cold shiver down her entire body before realizing she couldn't move at all.

"You're sharingan was very satisfying Sasuke-kun. It seems your sharingan will be able to surpass even Uchiha Itachi."

Sasuke and Koyuki's eyes grew wide with surprise.

How...how does he know about that?

He crosses his fingers in a strange hand sign and opens his mout to reveal fangs, then his whole neck stretches and lounges at Sasuke. Being unable to move his other two teammates could do nothing as the nin bit down on Sasuke's neck.

"SASUKE!"

When the nin pulled away Sasuke felt white hot pain on his left shoulder and fell to his knees, screaming in horrible pain. Then the nin turned to Koyuki with blood filled lips, sending cold terror down her spine.

"You seem to be pretty strong too Hatake Koyuki. Perhaps I should gift you as well." her eyes grew wide as his hands changed to different hand signs and bit her down on her birthmark. Her scream was louder than Sasuke's had been as her memories came flooding back in one enormous clump. The nin pulled away and his neck went back to it's original length as Koyuki grabbed her arm with bruising force. Sakura regained her ability to move and kneeled down next to Sasuke who was holding his shoulder.

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO THEM, WHO ARE YOU!"

"My name's Orochimaru, and I just gave them a little parting gift. The curse mark I gifted Sasuke with will make him hungry for power, and I'll be the one to give him that power when he comes searching for me. As for your other friend, her little gift will give her just as much power, though I have to say I don't know how it'll affect her since her heart is not as vindictive as Sasuke-kun. All the same they will both be of some use to me." with that he sank into the ground and dissapeared. Sakura took hold Sasuke's left hand and he took hold of it and nearly crushed her fingers. Koyuki on the other hand was now clutching her head and shaking violently. Sakura looked over to Naruto as tears began to roll down her cheeks.

"NARUTO PLEASE WAKE UP! I NEED YOUR HELP! NARUTOOO!"

Sasuke screamed one last time before passing out on Sakura. She looked over at Koyuki who was still shacking and murmuring so fast she thought Orochimaru had roasted her brain, until her shaking seemed to subside. On the other side Naruto gave a small groan as he began to regain consciousness. His vision was blurred and little by little it cleared, though when it did and he saw his teammates injured he called out.

"Sakura are you alright!"

"Naruto, you're awake; I need your help Sasuke and Koyuki are hurt!"

"What?" He stuggled and realized he was pinned by a kunai, he made a clone and he unpinned himself. "Did that nin do that to them?"

"Yes but I don't know what technique he used on them." she said once Naruto joined her. He kneeled next to Koyuki and gently sat her up but she tried to jerk away from him in fright.

"Don't touch me!"

"Koyuki it's ok it's me."

"Don't touch me with the same hands that killed my mother!" Naruto's eyes grew wide, Koyuki thought he was the person that had killed her mother. "How could you, I trusted you...we trusted you how could you betray everyone like that!"

Her eyes were glazed over and she was on the verge of shaking uncontrollably again. Naruto took her by the arms and said gently but firmly.

"Koyuki you have to snap out of it, it's not real you're hallucinating."

That's when she began to shake violenty again, Naruto took her in his arms and held her tight for a few minutes before she stopped and finally passed out.

"We have to get out of here," Naruto said looking at Sakura who was looking down at Sasuke with tears in her eyes. "hey don't worry Sakura-chan we'll be alright. C'mon lets get a place to rest and take care of these two."

Sakura gave him a strange look, he's never acted so mature before. He new what to do and he was controling the situation.

"Naruto, we should also set traps around the perimeter incase we get attacked."

"Good idea," he looks at Sasuke and an evil smirk spreads on his face. "This must be the first time I see that teme asleep, maybe a makeover might do him some good!"

"Don't even think about it." she snapped. Realizing the serious Naruto she'd seen a few seconds ago would not be appearing for quite a while. It took them a while, but they found a large tree showing it's roots and the opening under it was big enough to fit all four of them. Naruto placed his unconscious teammates in the furthest part of the tree away from the opening, both of them had a fever so Naruto and Sakura had to take turns as one would take care of them while the other would watch for enemies. They were both tired and out of energy even if they took turn resting, Naruto's chakra was acting weird as it was causing him trouble to mold his chakra.

"Naruto why don't you rest and I take over."

"Really Sakura-chan?"

"Yeah don't worry I got it."

Naruto went over to his other teammates and settle himself next to Koyuki and touched her forehead.

At least her fever seems to have finally gone down. the same couldn't be said about Sasuke as his temperature tended to rise and drop in the matter of a seconds. The only thing they could do was keep a wet towel at the ready and hope for a miracle so his body wouldn't over heat and make him die. Naruto closed his eyes and instantly fell asleep while Sakura looked out of their little hideout to sense for enemies. Little did she know they were already being observed by the same shinobi that had attacked Kabuto in the first stage of the chunnin exams.

"Will you look at that, we found out target."

"Remember our orders, we find the Uchiha and the Hatake girl and then kill them."

"What if the others get in our way?"

"Lord Orochimaru never said anything about letting the others live." the one with the bandages said as a bloodlusted smile curled up on his bandaged face.


Happy New Years everyone! Hoped you enjoyed this special New Years treat. =3