World Wide Ninja Challenge!
The Forest of Death!
The Legendary Forest of Death loomed over the small group of examinees like an unavoidable plague. The darkness and killer intent radiating from its' inhabitants enveloped Naruto's sense, giving rise to a growing feeling of dread. The blond frowned at the forest while shielding his eyes from the sun's glare. Its' warm rays were a nice contrast to the foreboding ring of death.
"This place sure is creepy," whispered Sakura in fright.
Sakura's understatement drew a chuckle from Anko, who had been standing nearby.
"Now you will all experience first hand why this place is known as the Forest of Death," said Anko in an amused voice.
A chill passed through every mind at her calm, yet truly frightening words. Only Naruto was unaffected by her scare tactics. With a snort, the blond dropped into a mocking girly pose.
"Now you will all experience first hand why this place is known as the Forest of Death!" mimicked Naruto advertently.
He straightened up and pointed at Anko with a grin on his face.
"Don't waste your time trying to scare us, lady! It won't work on me at all!"
Anko smiled deceptively sweetly at the blond.
"Really? You sure are energetic."
In a flash, a kunai fell from Anko's sleeve and into her waiting hand. She quickly hurled it at the blond, who wasn't expecting the attack at all. Naruto felt a stinging sensation in his cheek before a trickle of warm blood slid down his face from his newly acquired cut. The knife landed a few feet behind him but not before giving another guy an unintended hair cut.
Anko vanished in a flash of high speed but this time Naruto was ready for her. The blond quickly spun into a sweep just as Anko reappeared behind him. With startled eyes, the petit woman performed a double back flip to safety. She landed with another kunai in hand and an excited grin on her face. Naruto grinned as well while slowly rising back up into a battle ready position.
"Not bad, boy! You may just be able to stay alive after all!" praised Anko with savage looking eyes.
"Heh, you flatter me. I don't plan on dying here!" replied Naruto just as excitedly.
All of the other examinees looked on at the scene with intruded expressions. Nobody really could tell who the winner of this clash would be. Anko abruptly whipped around and pointed her kunai at the throat of the same guy whose hair got cut. This guy extended his astonishingly long tongue with Anko's kunai wrapped in it.
"I believe this is yours," offered the tongue guy with a twisted smile.
"Why thank you," said Anko with a smile of her own that seemed false due to her dangerously quiet voice. "But I suggest that you don't try to sneak up on me like that, if you want to live."
Anko took the knife from the guy's tongue with a smirk. His tongue then slid back into his mouth like a limp ramen noodle.
"Pardon me. I get tingly whenever I see blood," commented the tongue guy while staring at Naruto's bleeding cheek.
He smiled slyly before redirecting his gaze back to Anko.
"Also my precious hair was cut so I got a little excited. If you'll excuse me," he finished while backing away to his teammates.
"My apologies," apologized Anko, clearly not meaning it, to his back before putting both of her kunai away.
Naruto slightly relaxed his guard in the absence of Anko's weapons. Everyone else begun to breath a bit easier as well now that it was clear that a fight wasn't going to break out.
"What's with this examiner? She's dangerous!" observed Sakura.
"That's Naruto for you. That guy seemed kind of cool too," thought Domino with an amused smile. "It's interesting really, with a tongue that long kisses would sure be interesting."
"Someone needs a restraining order. She could've seriously hurt someone," mused Elaine with a sweat drop.
"Not bad, Naruto. I have a feeling that you would've won that clash if you guys had fought," thought Genmaru with a chuckle.
Naruto glanced at the tongue guy's retreating back.
"What's up with that guy's freakishly long tongue?" wondered Naruto with a slight shudder.
Anko grinned and strode back to the front of the group.
"Looks like there are quite a few hot blooded people here today. This is going to be interesting," commented Anko with a chuckle as she passed Naruto.
The blond glared at her back reproachfully while rubbing his smarting cheek.
"You're the most hot-blooded person here!" thought Naruto quietly for fear of getting attacked again.
Nonetheless, everyone gave Anko their full attention.
"Before we begin the second exam, I'm going to pass these out to everyone," announced Anko while producing several documents from her jacket. "These are consent forms. All of you are required to sign them if you're taking the Chuunin exam."
"Why's that?" asked Naruto curiously.
Since Naruto had earned a bit of respect from Anko, she answered his question without hesitation.
"From here on out, people will die. Therefore, we'll need your consent before we can continue. Otherwise, I'd be held responsible!" replied Anko with a laugh.
Nobody else thought that this was very funny. Anko cut her humor short after a moment.
"Anyway, while these are being passed around…" she handed the stack of papers to Naruto, who took one and passed it on. "I'll explain the second exam. This will be a survival match within the Forest of Death."
"A survival match? How troublesome," thought Shikamaru with a sigh when he received a consent form.
"As you can see, Training Area Forty-four is a circular region surrounded by forty-four locked gates. There is a river, the forest itself and a tower in the center. The tower is approximately ten kilometers away from the entrances. Within this limited space, a competition where anything goes will take place. Your objective is to acquire one of these two scrolls."
Anko withdrew two different colored scrolls from her jacket.
"The Heaven scroll and the Earth scroll to be precise. You will be fighting for them," continued Anko. "Twenty-eight teams passed the first exam. Half of these teams will receive the white Heaven scroll and the other half will get the burgundy Earth scroll. Bring both a Heaven and an Earth scroll to the tower for your team to advance."
"So basically, of the twenty-eight teams competing, the fourteen that have their scrolls stolen will fail," observed Sakura.
"Yes, but you have to steal a scroll within the time limit. The exam is a hundred and twenty hours long or exactly five days," confirmed Anko.
"Five days!?" cried Ino.
"What do we do for food?!" added Chouji with what was for once a wise observation.
"You guys are ninja, scrounge it up yourselves. There should be plenty of food in the forest," replied Anko.
"Beware though, there are a lot of man eating plants, poisonous bugs and poisonous plants," pointed out Kabuto knowingly.
"Oh no!" moaned Chouji causing everyone to sweat drop.
"That's why it's called survival, you fool!" scolded Ino.
"I'm guessing that as teams obtain scrolls, time becomes more limited due to the difficulty of finding the few remaining teams," predicted Neji.
"Constant movement becomes crucial over time. Resting will be risky. Sounds interesting," added Lee with a dazzling smile.
"We're surrounded by enemies at all time. Unexpected attacks will no doubt be frequent," chipped in Sasuke quietly just for the sake of sounding and making himself look cool.
Shikamaru raised his hand.
"Can we quit in-between?" asked the lazy ninja.
"As a rule, once the exam starts you will not be allowed to give up," replied Anko with a frown in Shikamaru's direction. "If you want to quit that badly then just lay low in the forest for the next five days," hinted Anko with an amused smile.
"Damn, how troublesome," grumbled Shikamaru with his arms folded.
"Now since the subject has been breached, there are three conditions that will fail you," declared Anko. "First up, a team that cannot bring both scrolls to the tower will fail. Second, a team who loses or produces an unrecoverable teammate fails. Lastly, any team who look inside either of the scrolls will fail."
"What happens if you look?" asked Naruto warily.
Anko smiled mischievously.
"That's for you to find out!" she replied. "As a Chuunin, you lot will be expected to handle top secret documents during missions. This is to test your reliability as well as your judgment."
Naruto had a feeling that if he did try to violate the rule, it wouldn't be pleasant. Judging by the expressions on everyone else's face, they felt the same way.
"That's it for the briefing. All teams take five to read over and sign your consent forms, then regroup and turn them in to the officials at that stand," ordered Anko while pointing to a trio of examiners sitting behind a wooden desk. "You will then be assigned a gate entrance to start from and given a random scroll. The exam will begin in twenty minutes. Oh, and one last piece of advice…don't die."
Everyone grew silent as the gravity of the situation sank in…
Sasuke sat alone and quietly observed the examiners. They were hanging and pulling thick curtains shut around the stand so that nobody would be able to see what occurred within.
"Looks like we won't be able to tell what team has which scroll or who is carrying it," observed Sasuke. "In the battles over the scrolls, we may have to kill each other."
Sasuke surveyed the other testers who were in sight.
"Everyone here is an enemy and by the looks of it, their determination is solid. Good, I'll have no regrets."
Anko, who had been observing the Uchiha, chuckled.
"Looks like he understands the reason for the consent forms."
She smirked…
Sakura was wandering about aimlessly while carefully scanning the content of her consent form. The pink haired girl's eyes hardened in determination with each line of text she read. Needless to say, she was prepared to do whatever it took to aid her comrades. A shrill voice pulled her from her musings…
"Oh my, it's you, Forehead girl!" teased Ino in a tone of mocked politeness. "I thought you already went home! I didn't expect to see you here!"
Sakura smiled back.
"Two can play that game," thought Pinky rebelliously. "Oh my, it's you, Pig! I have to go on a survival mission with Sasuke-kun for five days! There's no way that I could go home!"
A vein throbbed in Ino's temple at the mention of Sasuke. The two girls glared daggers at each other.
"Ugly!" cried Sakura.
"Fat forehead!" countered Ino.
"Porky!" came Sakura.
"Wench!" shot back Ino.
The two girls called each other different names, back and forth like this until they could only repeat the same insult over and over. Shikamaru and Chouji, who were standing nearby, sweat dropped.
"Sakura! You can't get through this! Just go home for your own sake!" cried Ino heatedly.
"You go home, Ino! Save yourself the embarrassment of losing to me during the exam!" retaliated Sakura just as angrily.
The two bickering rivals glared at each other one last time before with loud 'hmps' they marched away in opposite directions. Chouji turned to Shikamaru.
"Why do those two hate each other so much?" he asked worriedly.
"I don't want to know such a troublesome thing," replied Shikamaru with a sigh.
They then hurried after their fuming teammate…
Like Sakura, Naruto was walking wherever his feet were taking him as he read over the consent form. The blond sensed a presence in front of him after a moment.
"Hey, Hinata! Why are you here by yourself?" greeted Naruto with a cheery wave.
The pupil less girl gave a startled start.
"N-Naruto-kun!" exclaimed Hinata before quickly looking away with a blush. "Um…"
Naruto stared with polite interest in what Hinata was attempting to say. It quickly turned to a frown when nearly a minute passed.
"Weird girl. Maybe she wants to be left alone," thought Naruto with a touch of annoyance.
As this thought entered his head, Hinata had risked looking at him again. She gasped when she saw the cut on Naruto's cheek. Quickly she reached into her pouch and produced a vial of ointment. She took a deep breath and held the vial out with her eyes closed.
"Um, here!" she offered nervously.
Sadly the blond had already moved on by the time she held the medicine out.
"See ya!" she heard him say from somewhere behind her.
Hinata's eyes snapped open in surprise and she turned to watch Naruto's retreating back for a moment before returning her gaze back to the vial.
"Naruto-kun…"
Five minutes went by quickly and soon enough the twenty-eight teams were called in to turn in their consent forms and obtain their scrolls. Before long, Naruto and company entered the enclosed tent. They turned in their forms in exchange for a Heaven scroll. Naruto became the bearer of the scroll. After that, the teams were escorted to random starting points around the forest.
"This is it!" said Domino excitedly from gate sixteen.
"Yeah. Lets do this!" added Elaine before slapping Domino a high five.
Genmaru merely tightened his forehead protector with an excited smile…
At gate twelve, Kiba and company were awaiting.
"Yahoo! Survival is our specialty! Hinata, you better not go soft on anyone!" half kidded Kiba with an excited grin.
Hinata stared at the ground.
"Okay," responded the Hyuuga quietly.
Shino merely pushed his glasses further up the bridge of his nose…
At gate twenty-seven, Ino and company waited patiently.
"This is troublesome, but I guess we'll have to put our lives on the line," grumbled Shikamaru with a frown. "Let's go after Naruto first, he should be easy to take the scroll from," suggested the lazy ninja with a sudden smirk.
"Let's see, I have potato chips, cakes, rice balls and…" muttered Chouji with a drool.
The butterball plainly wasn't listening. Ino frowned at him with a hand on her hip…
At gate twelve, Naruto and company were waiting.
Naruto was shadowboxing while Sakura observed him without much interest. Sasuke was meditating as usual.
"All right! I'm not going to lose!" cried Naruto while performing a seemingly ordinary seven hit combo which was really a high speed twenty-one hit combination. "We'll beat anyone who gets near us!" he declared before ending his warm up with a simple uppercut.
Sakura nodded in agreement.
"Hell yeah! Damn it!" thought the kunoichi.
Sasuke then opened his eyes and glared at the awaiting challenge…
At gate forty-one, Lee and company were waiting. Lee himself was practically bursting with the fires of youth!
"Gai-sensei! I will do my best! I will win!" vowed Lee determinedly.
Neji chuckled when he sensed Lee's passionate energy.
"Typical," mused the Hyuuga.
Tenten just playfully twirled a kunai on her finger…
Fourteen minutes passed and the examiners begun unlocking all of the gates. Anko's voice then rang out courtesy of a megaphone.
"Let the Chuunin exam, begin!" she cried.
In a flash, the gates burst opened and every team dashed into the forest to begin the hunt! Elsewhere, Kiba and his teammates came to a stop.
"Okay, we're going to look for the thing we talked about earlier! Can you find them, Hinata?" asked Kiba.
"Right!" replied the Hyuuga before clashing her hands together in a prayer position. "Byakugan!" she cried…
Not too far away, Lee and the others were leaping speedily from tree to tree in search of opponents. Lee was in the lead.
"Don't get so hasty! We could get attacked at any moment!" stated Neji who was only two leaps behind the spandex wearing fighter.
"Yeah, we just started!" added Tenten who was one leap behind Neji.
"I know guys, but when I think of all the strong opponents waiting for us I just can't stay still!" replied Lee before increasing his pace.
The others smiled knowingly and speed up as well…
Genmaru and the others came to a halt upon reaching the river.
"Let's camp here. The other teams are sure to come here soon," suggested Genmaru with a knowing smile.
Elaine and Domino nodded. It seemed like a pretty solid plan, since a canteen would run empty in no time in the stifling heat of the forest.
"Should we prepare a little surprise for our guests?" asked Domino with a mischievous glance at Elaine.
The blue haired girl caught her meaning and smiled back.
"Okay," she said while forming seals.
Elaine kneeled in front of the river and stuck her hand out with her eyes closed. Slowly, a blue glow radiated from her palm…
Near the border of the forest on ground level, Shikamaru and company were stealthily scouting for danger. Ino flinched upon hearing a loud crunching sound. She turned towards Chouji with a frown.
"What the hell are you doing?" demanded Ino.
"Well, I got hungry," replied Chouji before stuffing his face with a handful of chips.
Ino sweat dropped.
"How can you be hungry at a time like this?" asked the blonde girl.
Shikamaru strode towards them with a smirk.
"What a record, you actually lasted five minutes," joked Shikamaru.
Chouji grinned before holding out the bag.
"What some?" he asked his comrades.
Ino glared at him.
"If you had room for all those snacks then you should've brought another kunai or two!" scolded Ino.
Shikamaru stiffened suddenly.
"Guys, hide!" cried the lazy ninja.
Immediately Ino dove into some bushes. Shikamaru grabbed hold of Chouji's scarf and dragged him into the foliage as well. The trio were just in time it seemed. Barely a second passed before another team of ninjas touched down in the spot they had been standing earlier.
"See anyone?" asked one guy.
"No but I'm positive that I sensed somebody here," replied another guy.
"They must've ran off," suggested the third guy. "Let's go!"
The trio took to the trees once more. Shikamaru and the others exhaled the breath they had been holding once the enemy ninjas were no longer detectable within the surrounding area.
"We had to deal with this for the next five days?" groaned Shikamaru…
Kiba was explaining their course of action to his teammates.
"Everyone will be headed towards the tower, right? I propose setting traps around there after we get a scroll," suggested Kiba.
Akamaru stirred and begun sniffing the air. Kiba and the others went on alert.
"Looks like we have company, guys," whispered the dog tamer while warily glancing around.
As they glanced about for the new enemies, said ninjas were whispering amongst themselves in the treetops.
"Perfect, they're just a bunch of kids," said one with a grin.
"Amateurs judging by how they're waiting for us in the opening like that," commented the another guy.
"Looks like they know we're here but they don't know our location yet," pointed out the third guy.
Suddenly, one of them grunted in pain. His comrades turned towards him with concerned expressions.
"What's wrong? You don't look so good," said the second guy.
It was true, the first ninja's skin was pale and waxy looking. The back of his shirt suddenly started to move about violently. It fell down to reveal a giant leech like creature latched onto the guy's neck. A huge puddle of blood was beginning to stain his clothes. He fell out of the tree weakly. The other ninjas gave starts before similar bouts of weakness overtook them as well. Leeches were attached to their bodies as well.
"What the hell are they!?" cried the third guy before several more leeches suddenly landed on them from the trees above.
They too fell from the tree they were perched in. Kiba and company approached the downed ninjas with victorious looks.
"How do you like our little surprise?" taunted Kiba with a smile.
"Those are Konoha's giant leeches. They can detect perspiration and body heat within a span of five meters and they'll attack the source in large groups," said Shino quietly. "If they suck your blood for about five minutes…you'll die."
The enemy ninjas gasped in shock and feebly attempted to rise to their feet. However, one of the weakened ninjas accidentally triggered a nearly invisible tripwire. Instantly, the trio were captured in a fishnet trap that had them dangling several feet into the air. The leeches that were still attached to them continued to suck their blood greedily. They all screamed…
Naruto and the others stiffened. This was the second time that someone had cried out.
"Okay, I'm starting to get just a tiny bit frightened," whispered Sakura nervously.
Naruto laughed with his hands clasped behind his head.
"Relax, Sakura-chan! It's nothing to worry about!" declared the blond.
Suddenly Naruto frowned. Instantly Sasuke and Sakura when on guard, until Naruto spoke again.
"I need to pee!" he moaned while rushing to some scrubs.
The blond just begun to unfasten his pants when Sakura whacked him as hard as she could in his head.
"Itai!" Naruto cried.
"You idiot! Don't do that in front of a lady!" roared Sakura before pointing to a tree. "Go over there and take care of your business!"
"Alright alright, I'm going!" grumbled the blond reproachfully.
While Naruto was doing lord knows what behind the tree, Sakura begun a mental rant.
"That boy seriously need to work on his manners! Honestly, what goes on in his head? Sasuke-kun never behaves like that! If he ever does manage to attract a girl hopefully he won't do anything stupid around her!"
Sakura took this moment to glance at Sasuke, who was standing quietly to the side with his hands in his pockets. He appeared to be in deep thought.
"Sasuke-kun hasn't spoke very much since his fight with that Lee person. I hope he'll cheer up soon, besides that guy's strength was unfair! He must've trained a lot to be able to move like that. It's the only explanation I can think of for his speed since Kabuto-san's cards said that his chakra skills were poor. Maybe I'll ask Naruto to show me how to do it," decided the kunoichi.
At that moment, said blond wandered back into the clearing with a stupid grin on his face.
"Ah, I peed a lot!" cried Naruto cheerfully.
"Then again, maybe not," though Sakura in disgust. "I told you not to do things like that in front of me!" she scolded while raising her fist for another 'correctional tap.'
Oddly enough, Sasuke beat her to it with a vicious backhand. Naruto went into a triple spin in midair before smashing into the base of a nearby tree. Sakura gasped.
"Sasuke-kun! You didn't have to go that far!" cried Sakura worriedly.
The Uchiha ignored her and rushed Naruto again. Before the stunned blond could gather his bearings, Sasuke scored a brutal kick into the side of Naruto's face. The force of the blow caused him to roll sideways for several feet. Sasuke wasn't letting up there though, quickly he ran up the side of the tree and boosted off into a lunar somersault. He allowed gravity to seize him for a powerful double stomp into Naruto's midsection. However, the blond had recovered enough to dive out of the way of the attack just in time.
With a grunt, Sasuke ended up smashing a small fissure into the earth due to his miss. He quickly attempted a spinning power sweep aimed at Naruto's head. In a flash, the blond took to the air and landed safely on a overhead tree branch. Sasuke followed suit and use the lower half of the branch to swing himself up like a gymnastic. The result was a dislodging kick into Naruto's back that sent him tumbling to the ground. Naruto landed with a boom on his hands and knees, kicking up a wall of dust in the process. Sasuke touched down a few feet away with a kunai drawn. The blond shakily rose back to his feet.
"Y-you…what the hell are you doing, Sasuke!?" groaned Naruto with a glare.
Sasuke slowly begun walking towards the blond with no emotion present on his face.
"Sasuke-kun! Please stop!" begged Sakura in another attempt to break up the fight.
Sasuke ignored her once again and lunged. With a tsk, Naruto drew a kunai of his own and countercharged. Their clashing knifes erupted into hot showers of sparks. After three parried attacks, the sparring warriors were locked in a stalemate. Quickly Naruto went into a sudden spin in an attempt to throw Sasuke off balance, but the Uchiha wasn't fooled. Sasuke ducked under Naruto's spinning slash and thrust his kunai towards Naruto's exposed back. Sensing the attack coming, Naruto lunged forward into a reversed forward flip that ended with him facing Sasuke. Naruto assumed a ready position.
"Sasuke-kun!" cried Sakura for a third time.
This time Sasuke responded.
"Sakura! Take a good look at him!" ordered Sasuke without relaxing his guard in the slightest.
"Huh?" said Sakura in confusion before shifting her gaze towards Naruto. "He doesn't look any different."
Sasuke's next statement said otherwise.
"Spill it, imposter! Where's the real Naruto?" demanded Sasuke.
Naruto and Sakura gasped.
"What the hell are you talking about?!" cried Naruto with wide eyes.
"Don't lie to me! If you're the real Naruto then where is the wound on your face, huh?" countered Sasuke.
The blond paled while Sakura gasped again in understanding this time.
"It's gone!" she realized.
"No answer huh? Figures, you're even worst than Naruto at transformations, you sham!" said Sasuke darkly. "If you want more proof then note this, your shuriken pouch is on your left leg. The real Naruto is right handed."
"Heh, looks like you found me out!" confessed the blond with an uncharacteristic sneer.
The fake then went up in a cloud of smoke. It cleared to reveal a Rain ninja dressed in a pale yellow jumpsuit. He had on brown combat boots and a re-breather device. A white mask framed his black eyes.
"I'll get straight to the point. Which one of you guys has the scroll?" demanded the Ame.
Sakura withdrew a kunai and assumed a battle position next to Sasuke.
"Don't be like that, guys. Just hand over the scroll quietly and I'll spare your lives," declared the foreign ninja.
Sakura and Sasuke's silent glares shot down his request.
"I see. Looks like I'll just have to take it by force then!" he roared before charging at the duo.
Quickly Sasuke took to the air with a high jump.
"Guess now is as good a time as any to try out my new Balsam Spread Fire technique," plotted the Uchiha while forming hand seals. "Katon, Housenka no Jutsu!" bellowed Sasuke while taking a deep breath.
He then begun firing a volley of fireballs in a very Genmaru-ish fashion. Quickly, the Amegakure ninja danced around the raining flames despise the sizable fire filled craters that spawned upon impact. The Rain quickly leaped towards Sasuke, forcing him to cut the technique short. Their colliding kunai rang out with loud shings. Sasuke kicked him in the stomach and boosted off higher into the air, while the Rain touched down on a tree branch and begun quickly hopping about. With his new vantage point, the Uchiha spotted Naruto bound and gagged behind the same tree he went to use the bathroom behind.
"Moron!" thought Sasuke in annoyance while hurling a shuriken at the blond.
The flying star cut through enough of the bindings to the point where Naruto was able to free himself. He grumpily jerked the duct tape off of his mouth with a wince.
"I'm going to kill that bastard!" roared the blond angrily while stripping off his weights.
Sasuke allowed gravity to seize him and he guided his fall towards a tree branch. However, the Rain ninja had leaped upward directly behind the Uchiha.
"Lucky me, I see an opening!" taunted the Ame.
The foreign ninja quickly hurled a swarm of kunai and wooden handled swords at the Uchiha. Caught in midair with his back turned, the wave pummeled Sasuke who cried out in pain. One of the kunai, which had an explosive note tied to the ring, detonated.
"Sasuke-kun!" wailed Sakura.
The Rain ninja appeared behind her with a kunai posed over her throat.
"One team down! You may as well fork over the scroll now, little girl," taunted the Rain in Sakura's ear.
"Not quite," cut in a voice behind the Rain.
He quickly looked over his shoulder to find the Uchiha glaring at him.
"A Kawarimi?!" thought the Ame with wide eyes.
Sasuke quickly grabbed the Rain by the waist and lifted him up and over his shoulder into a brutal smash technique.
"Now, Naruto!" cried Sasuke.
Naruto suddenly appeared out of thin air in a forward flip position with his legs bunched up. The blond then lashed out with a kangaroo kick that launched the dazed Rain seven feet into the air. In a flash of high speed, Naruto was directly in front of the flying Rain with his fist reared back. The blond rapidly begun beating the snot out of him with a barrage of nearly endless punches. Naruto then form a hand seal.
"Kage-Bunshin no Jutsu!" he cried spawning two shadow clones.
One of the Narutos hit the Rain with a lethal Haymaker that propelled him a few more feet into the air. A second flipped over the shoulders of the first Naruto to pull of another kangaroo stomp, launching him higher still. The last Naruto leaped from the shoulders of the second to take hold of the Rain's legs and wrapped his own legs around his waist. By this point, they were a good thirty feet in the air.
"Uzumaki Power Bomb!" cried the Naruto that had the Rain's legs bound.
With that, gravity completed the move with a freefall. The terrified Rain ninja screamed the whole way down. They hit the earth with a ground shaking boom that sent a large wall of dust into the air. When the dust cleared, Sasuke and Sakura cautiously approached the six foot deep crater and peered inside. The Rain ninja's head, or what used to be a head was now nothing more than a splatter of tissue, brain, and…water! The mangled Naruto that was in the crater with him vanished in a poof of smoke. The real Naruto appeared in-between his comrades in a flash of speed. He paled upon seeing the gory mess in the crater.
"I-I didn't…it was an accident!" stammered the blond until he noticed the absence of blood. "Is that…a water clone?"
"Yeah. That guy is still alive," confirmed Sasuke.
As if this statement was his cue, the Rain's voice echoed throughout the clearing.
"Oi oi oi, it looks like a direct confrontation would have been very unfavorable for me after all. Very well, you guys win this round. But next time we fight, will be your undoing!" declared the unseen Rain before becoming completely silent…
A trio of Cloud ninjas came to a halt in front of the river. The leader of them, who was constantly scowling, nodded to each of them. They nodded back. The message was clear, "Spread out and search for anything suspicious." As his comrades walked toward opposite ends of the river, the Kumo leader slowly approached the running body of water before him. His eyes never stopped moving even as he kneeled down to fill his canteen. Had he kept his eyes on the water itself, he would have seen the sphere of the fluid hovering in front of his heart…
The second Kumogakure Genin was a quiet guy with a well muscled frame. He was barely even paying much attention to his surroundings at all. His eyes remained glued to the river hungrily. He was dying for a taste of the wonderful smelling thirst quencher. His thirst was so strong that it must've been playing tricks on his mind because the ground felt like it was trembling. His eyes lowered in time to see a stone hand pop out of the earth…
The last Cloud was just as alert as his leader had been. So naturally, hearing the cries of his comrades made him rush back to the separation point. He flinched when he saw the gaping hole in his leader's chest. There was no blood, but his heart wasn't there ether. The Cloud paled and drew a kunai from his pouch. He slowly revolved on the spot in search of the culprit responsible for this. Before he could even blink, he felt pressure on his shoulders. There was the scrap of metal on bone. A brain covered blade then erupted from his chin…
Kiba and company were on their way to the tower by this time. The dog tamer cheered as they leaped from branch to branch.
"Talk about lucky! It's a good thing that other squad we caught had the other scroll! We might just make it to the tower first!" he gushed. "Just two more kilometers to go!"
Shino sped up until he was leaping besides Kiba.
"Do not get too carried away. Doing so is dangerous. Even a small bug protects itself by staying alert so that it may avoid enemies. This is safe," he lectured in a monotone.
"I know that! Geez, you talk in such a weird way," grumbled a frowning Kiba. "Typical bug freak."
Kiba and Akamaru sped up, leaving a frowning Shino trailing after them. Hinata spotted Shino's expression and decided to defend his argument.
"Um, there's some truth to what Shino-kun said. We really should be careful, Kiba-kun," reasoned Hinata quietly.
Kiba sighed.
"Alright already!" he grumbled before taking a whiff at the air.
Abruptly he and Akamaru came to a halt. Hinata and Shino landed on either side of them with their guards up.
"Did you detect something?" asked Shino.
"Yeah," replied Kiba with a nod while pointing ahead. "Hinata, can you scout ahead one kilometer?" he requested.
Hinata nodded and made a seal.
"Byakugan!"
Her eyes snapped open with throbbing veins surrounding them. It was a few moments later when she spoke.
"There's somebody up ahead," she reported.
Shino kneeled and pressed his ear to the tree's bark. He too nodded after a moment.
"There are at least six people," he confirmed quietly.
"Really? Then let's go take a closer look!" suggested Kiba with a grin. "We might see some awesome fighting!"
Hinata and Shino looked at him like he was an insane person.
"Kiba, have you lost your mind? We cannot do that!" scolded Shino.
"Aw, come on! Live a little, besides the examiner told us to bring a set of Heaven and Earth scrolls to the tower. She didn't say anything about bringing more than one!" reminded Kiba with an even broader grin on his face. "If we take more scrolls now, then more teams will drop out right? So what are we standing around for?"
"But, Kiba-kun!" begun Hinata with her usual backup for Shino.
Kiba wave it aside.
"We'll just observe the fight first. If they seem too strong for us when it's over then we won't do anything," declared Kiba before leaping in the direction of the action.
Shino stared at his retreating back for a moment before speaking in an offhanded way. Not that Hinata could tell due to his lack of facial expressions.
"I kind of hate him," murmured Shino before following after Kiba.
Hinata brought up the rear…
By the time they had caught up to Kiba, they found him trying to soothe a trembling Akamaru. The white pooch, was curled practically into a ball with fear. Had he shook any harder, the bushes that they were hiding behind would've started rustling.
"What's wrong with Akamaru?" asked Hinata worriedly when the pup crawled into Kiba's jacket.
"Akamaru got frightened after he sniffed out the enemy's chakra. His nose is acute enough to be able to detect how strong someone is based on their chakra alone. Honestly, this is the first time that I've ever seen him so frightened," explained Kiba. "The guys fighting here are amazingly strong."
Everyone peered through the foliage they were concealed behind in search of the fearsome chakra. What they saw were a trio of Rain ninjas facing off against Gaara and his squad.
"You Sand brats got balls challenging us head on!" cried one of the Rain ninjas cockily.
"Got a death wish?" asked another Rain.
The Rain leader just stared at Gaara in silence. Gaara stared right back with no emotion present on his face whatsoever. After a moment of this, the Ame leader spoke directly to Gaara.
"Kid, you should be more careful of who you try to fight. Now you're all going to die," he declared with a wicked smile.
"Cut the crap. Let's fight, old man," shot back Gaara quietly with his arms folded.
The Rains growled. Kankuro then spoke up.
"Hey, Gaara! Shouldn't we gather more information on them before picking a fight? If they have the same scroll as us then this is just a waste of…" begun Kankuro.
"I don't care," interrupted Gaara without even sparing a glance his way. "I'll kill everyone we encounter."
Kankuro remained silent. At this point, trying to reason with Gaara had just became pointless. The Rain leader grasped the handles of all four of his parasols.
"Well then. Let's do this," said the Rain darkly.
Quickly, he snapped his umbrellas open and tossed them into the air. They begun to rapidly spin while hovering in place. The Ame formed a seal with just his index fingers extended.
"Ninpou, Jouro Senbon!" he cried the name of his Sprinkling Needles technique.
Just as the name implied, Senbon begun raining from the rotating parasols in the hundreds. The very air the needles occupied turned black as they surrounded Gaara on all sides. Gaara and his teammates barely batted and eye when the needle storm moved for the kill. A wall of dust rose into the air upon impact. When the dust cleared, Gaara remained standing completely unharmed. The needles had been stopped by a barrier of sand!
"What!? No!!" cried the Ame ninjas in shock.
The sand and all the needles with it dropped lifelessly to the ground.
"Is that it?" asked Gaara in an almost bored tone of voice.
Angry and full of desperation, the Rain leader's teammates hurled more Senbon at Gaara. The Rain leader then used his chakra to speed up the needles to the point of being blurs. A wall of sand intercepted the projectiles, but never once did Gaara move. The Rain trio's mouths hung open in total awe.
"A rain of needles eh? Well then, I'll make a rain of blood fall," said Gaara darkly…
Kiba and the others stiffened. Gaara's chakra felt enormous! Even though the Sand wasn't showing any signs of energy gathering, it still fogged their minds with alien pressure. Also, Kiba was certain that Gaara's sand smelled of blood. The Rain leader begun speaking.
"My attacks are being blocked by a wall of sand?" he mused aloud.
"That's right," confirmed Kankuro. "It's the ultimate defense. Gaara controls the sand in the gourd and hardens it with his chakra. However, this technique protects him from all outside attacks regardless of his will. You guys can't defeat our Gaara."
The Rain growled and suddenly charged.
"I'll show you!" he cried.
Gaara formed a pyramid with his hands. Kankuro and Temari smirked, this fool was so dead. Gaara's right hand then curled as if he were holding a baseball.
"Sabaku Kyuu!" he cried while thrusting his hand forward.
The Rain came to a complete halt. Gaara's sand, that now littered the ground, snared the Rain's body like an anaconda. Not even five seconds passed, and the Rain was buried from the neck down in sand. The Rain cried out as the sand mound begun to compress tightly around his body. His hovering parasols dropped to the ground. Gaara caught one in midair with his other hand and raised it over his head as if it really were going to rain. He then raised his right hand slowly into the air. The imprisoned Ame begun to levitate making his teammates cry out in alarm.
Gaara glared into the eyes of the Rain one last time. His hand closed into a fist.
"Sabaku Shosho!"
The sand instantly condensed into a small ball. Just as Gaara promised, blood rained from the liquefied body of the crushed Rain ninja. Only his head and its' none seeing eyes remained unharmed. Everyone got covered in blood except for Gaara, who was shielded by the parasol. Kankuro and Temari were fortunate of being out of range of the spray so they weren't covered in the fluids either. Gaara stared at the remaining Rains, who had no chance of finishing this exam now.
"There was no pain. He didn't have time to feel it. He should feel honored, his blood and tears will quench mother's thirst," drawled Gaara.
The Rains had no idea what he meant by quenching his mother's thirst and they didn't want to find out either. One of them quickly produced the Heaven scroll from their pouch. Judging by the glint in Kankuro's eyes, it was the one they needed. This Rain set the scroll down in front of himself and backed away from it.
"We'll give you the scroll just let us go okay?" pleaded the Rain.
Wordlessly, Gaara tossed the parasol aside and raised both hands towards the Rain. They barely had time to scream before they too were encaged. Gaara didn't allow them the kindness of sparing their heads. The completely covered Rains were totally liquefied the moment Gaara's twin fists were formed…
Team Eight was stunned speechless. The ease in which the Rains had been beaten was frightening to the extreme. Kiba and company glanced back and forth between each other fearfully and quietly tried to sneak away unnoticed. "These guys were dangerous" was their only thoughts. They froze when they felt Gaara's chakra spike again. They glanced over their shoulders to find the redhead glaring directly at the scrubs they were still concealed behind.
"Crap! Did he notice us?" thought Kiba fearfully…
Kankuro held up the Heaven scroll and stared at Gaara with a smirk. Gaara's eyes were still locked onto the scrubs. Something had moved, of that he was certain.
"Hey, let's stop now, Gaara," suggested Kankuro drawing a glare from Gaara's teal eyes.
"Are you afraid now, coward?" he asked in a dangerously soft voice.
Kankuro became irritated.
"Listen Gaara, you'll be okay but Temari and I are a lot more vulnerable. Since we have a set of scrolls, lets just go to the tower for now," he repeated more firmly while approaching the smaller ninja.
Gaara raised his right hand again. Kankuro stiffened.
"Don't order me around," murmured Gaara while aiming his hand towards the scrubs he had been looking at.
Kankuro seized Gaara by his collar.
"Damn it, Gaara! Listen to what your older brother says once in a while!" yelled Kankuro directly at his face.
Gaara's emotionless expression never wavered.
"I have never thought of you two as siblings. If you get in my way, I will kill you," promised Gaara before knocking Kankuro's hand away from his shirt.
He raise it into the air again.
"Please, Gaara! Don't be so cold!" begged Temari while raising her hands in a gesture of peace. "Please stop, as a favor to your big sister!" she smiled hopefully.
Gaara glared for several long seconds at Kankuro while sand gathered into his palm. Kankuro flinched when Gaara snapped his fist closed, but he was unharmed. Gaara reopened his hand to reveal a cork, which he sealed his gourd with. Wordlessly he strode in the direction of the tower. His siblings silently followed him. Team Eight was left alone, to exhale the breath they had each been holding…
Sasuke and the others went on high alert after hearing the last scream. They huddled together in a circle to plan their next move.
"The situation has gotten pretty extreme right now. That last attack proved it, we need to come up with someway to be able to identify each other if we get separated," suggested Sasuke. "The possibility of someone transforming into one of us and trying to approach is great."
"Right," agreed Naruto, now reequipped with his weights.
"So what should we do?" asked Sakura.
"Let's decide on a password," replied Sasuke.
"A password?" echoed Naruto.
Sasuke nodded.
"If an incorrect password is given, assume that that person is an enemy. Now listen carefully, I'm only saying this once," said Sasuke darkly. "Ask for the ninja song 'Ninki,' answer with the following. It is a good chance when a large number of enemies are making a scene, there are no hideouts even in a quite place, it is important for a Shinobi to know the right time, the time when the enemy is tired and has his guard down."
"Got it," said Sakura with a confident smile.
"Could you say that one more time?" requested Naruto with a frown.
"Idiot, I say that I was only going to say it once," grumbled Sasuke.
"Naruto, you couldn't remember that at all? I already memorized it!" rubbed in Sakura smugly.
Naruto couldn't help but be slightly annoyed with Sakura, but he kept his cool anyway.
"What are you talking about, Sakura-chan? I memorized it too!" lied Naruto. "I just wanted to make sure by hearing it one more time!"
Sasuke rolled his eyes and stood up.
"I'll hold onto the scroll," said Sasuke.
Seeing the logic behind having a solid protector to act as a distraction, Naruto handed Sasuke the Heaven scroll. Sasuke had just pocketed the roll of parchment when suddenly a strong gust of wind picked up. The current very nearly blew Sakura onto her rear. Sasuke and Naruto shielded their eyes.
"What's going on!?" cried Naruto.
Naruto never received an answer. At that moment, an even stronger gust of wind picked up that even managed to send the weighted down blond flying. The trio sailed into the forest in different directions. Sasuke landed in some scrubs and anchored himself in place using his kunai. A minute later, the wind finally died down. Sasuke glared in the direction of the wind storm towards a slowly approaching killer intent. Abruptly the Uchiha whipped around upon sensing a presence behind him.
"Sasuke-kun?" asked Sakura suspiciously.
Sasuke raised his kunai with a glare.
"Stay back! What's the ninja song, Ninki?" demanded Sasuke.
Sakura sighed in relief.
"It's him," mused Sakura. "It is a good chance when a large number of enemies are making a scene, there are no hideouts even in a quite place, it is important for a Shinobi to know the right time, the time when the enemy is tired and has his guard down." she recited.
Sasuke relaxed his guard.
"Okay. Are you alright, Sakura?"
"Yeah," replied the bubblegum haired girl.
At that moment, a familiar 'itai' sounded.
"Naruto?" called Sakura.
Said boy begun running towards the duo.
"Hey guys, are you alright?" asked Naruto excitedly.
Like before, Sasuke halted him with a raised kunai.
"What is the ninja song, Ninki?" he demanded.
The blond grinned.
"I know! It is a good chance when a large number of enemies are making a scene, there are no hideouts even in a quite place, it is important for a Shinobi to know the right time, the time when the enemy is tired and has his guard down!" recited Naruto.
Sakura breath a sigh of relief, but Sasuke's eyes narrowed dangerously. Quickly the Uchiha hurled his kunai at the startled blond. Naruto only just, dodged out of the way of the projectile.
"What are you doing, you jerk!?" cried Naruto angrily.
"Not bad, this time our opponent is good enough to evade my attacks, Sakura," said Sasuke while sinking into a battle pose.
"What are you saying, Sasuke-kun? Naruto gave the correct password!" pointed out Sakura in confusion.
"That's just the problem. Do you really think that Naruto could remember something that long?" asked Sasuke.
Sakura frowned. Now that she thought about it, Naruto's memory was pretty much limited to no more than three sentences at a time. She too glared at the blond, who begun to fidget.
"Looks like there are a lot of wannabes in this exam," murmured Sasuke with a smirk.
The blond laughed before licking his lips with a freakishly long tongue. He then went up in a poof of smoke. When the cloud cleared, the tongue guy from before stood in Naruto's place.
"Answer me this, if you knew he was going to forget then why didn't you make up a shorter password?" he asked.
Sasuke smirked.
"I sensed you eavesdropping on our conversation from underground. Since Naruto is the easiest personality in our group to mimic, I made a longer password. If you had been the real Naruto, your answer to the ninja song Ninki would have been; what was it again?"
The tongue guy smiled.
"Interesting, you don't let your guard down at all," he observed. "Maybe you can entertain me for a while."
His eel like tongue licked his lips hungrily making Sakura shutter.
"This guy is creepy! I hope Naruto is alright," thought the girl while searching for her missing comrade…
Naruto's back was throbbing painfully. It didn't help that he had been slammed into the base of a tree due to that bizarre gust of wind. How could a breeze that strong even exist in such a dense forest was beyond Naruto's understanding. His thoughts then wandered to his friends, who he didn't sense in the immediate area.
"Guess I better search for them," thought Naruto warily.
Despise his protesting back, Naruto rocked back and forth like a beetle until he tipped to his side. From there, he tenderly climbed to his feet. Naruto was just testing his limbs to make sure nothing was broken when suddenly a large shadow overtook him.
"Uh oh, this doesn't look good," realized the blond with an annoyed frown.
He whipped around in search of the shadow's owner. The unexpected sight made him grow pale. A giant brown snake was sitting in front of him with its' tongue tasting the air. It evil looking gold eyes glared at the tiny blond hungrily.
"It's huge!" exclaimed a flabbergasted Naruto. "I've never seen a snake that big before! And judging by the way it's looking at me, I'm betting he's hungry."
The jumbo sized serpent rose higher into the air, further blocking the sunlight from view. Naruto stared grimly into the beasts eyes while slowly gathering chakra into his legs. He already knew, that there would be no time to remove his weights before the beast struck but any bit of speed he could muster would help. The snake's tongue flicked in and out of its' mouth one last time, then its' head shot forward. Quickly, Naruto leaped aside on chakra fueled legs to safety as the reptiles battering ram like head smashed the spot he had be standing at earlier.
The beast's tail shot forward in an attempt to snare the blond. Quickly Naruto took to the trees with a high jump. The snake's snapping jaws then lunged towards Naruto, who deftly dropped to a lower tree branch. Naruto speedily leaped onto the beast's back with a kunai drawn. The blond begun to run along the beast's spine with the intent of attacking its' head, but the creature's whip like tail was already moving to dislodge its' prey from his temporary safe point.
"Dammit! This must've been what Zabuza had to deal with when he fought with Elaine's Water Dragon!" thought the blond with a grunt as he took to the air.
The beast's tail bashed it on its' own head, momentarily stunning it. Naruto took advantage of that moment to spawn two shadow clones. The blond nodded towards them and pointed towards the confused beast as it glared back and forth between the three Narutos. It hissed and opened its' jaws for another lunged. This time, the two clones intercepted the attack by allowing themselves to be eaten. But not before blinding it with a pair of twin kunai throws towards its' eyes. The last, and real, Naruto then grinned while putting as much distance between himself and the snake as possible while it was swallowing his clones. Once the blond was a good fifteen yards away, he turned back towards the beast and whispered one word.
"Boom."
The beast's head exploded into fragments of flesh and bone due to the clone's suicide bombing plan. Since his clones were created with the exact same number of supplies as the original itself, the result was a chain reaction of forty-two exploding tags going off within the beast's body. The headless snake slumped to the ground while Naruto celebrated his victory with a whooping cheer…
The tongue guy withdrew a scroll from his pocket, or more precisely the Earth scroll! Sasuke and Sakura gasped in surprise at both their good fortune and the fact that they had him outnumbered. The tongue guy laughed.
"I can see it in your eyes. You want my Earth scroll right?" he predicted. "Since you have the Heaven scroll…"
At that moment, the strangest sight that either Sasuke or Sakura had ever seen befell them. The tongue guy ate the Earth scroll as if it were a piece of candy! His slimy looking tongue wrapped around the burgundy scroll and he pushed the parchment down his throat. A giant lump slid down in a fashion reminiscent of an ostrich. He licked his lips once he was finished.
"Let's begin, the fight over our scrolls…" he glared at them with slit for eyes that weren't present before.
Sasuke and Sakura gasped in fright.
"By putting our lives on the line!" finished the tongue guy darkly.
Both Sasuke and Sakura begun to convulse violently…
"No one's here," said Hinata upon setting foot inside the tower.
Kiba chuckled.
"So we were the first ones eh?" mused the dog tamer out loud.
Shino frowned.
"No, I felt someone else's presence," replied the human bug nest.
Shino glanced pass his comrades to a nearby pillar. Genmaru was leaning against it with his arms folded. He was gazing at Hinata and the others with a smirk on his face. Domino stepped from behind him and gave the newcomers a cheery salute along with a teasing wink.
"Wrong! We were here first!" she said with a laugh.
"Genmaru-kun! Domino-san! You're here!" greeted Hinata with a shy smile.
It was a relief to see some familiar faces. Hinata's teammates felt the same way judging by Kiba's toothy grin and…well…it was hard to tell with Shino. The dog tamer begun rubbing his nose.
"Aw shucks! Looks like you guys beat us here this time. Don't think that we'll go easy on you because of it!" he taunted with his idea of a greeting.
"Hah! In your dreams, dog boy!" quipped Domino jokingly while making the 'you're stupid' face.
Everyone laughed including Kiba. Only Shino remained laughter free. Hinata then begun looking around.
"Um, where's Elaine-san?" asked the Hyuuga.
"Oh, she went ahead to see if anyone else was here. We just arrived about an hour ago," replied Domino.
"It's strange really, we haven't sensed anybody else here," added Genmaru. "You'd expect a welcoming committee or something."
"Hm, this is most troubling. Perhaps something happened to the examiners," suggested Shino.
"I doubt that, there wasn't any sign of a struggle anywhere," came Elaine's voice.
She entered the room from a side door that lead to a long hallway.
"Hey guys," she greeted Team Eight with a warm smile before turning towards her comrades. "From what I can tell, we're completely alone here. Every room was empty but there was this one room that had a bunch of sealed doors in it. I couldn't open any of them so I don't know what's pass that room."
The others all grew thoughtful after that. Were they too early, was the only thought that passed through their minds. Suddenly, Akamaru's trembling worsened, a sign that Gaara and company were near. The dog begun to whimper, even as Kiba worriedly tried to comfort him.
"Are you okay, Akamaru?" asked Kiba, even though he already knew the answer.
Akamaru whimpered a frightened response. Shino's eyebrows lowered into a frown.
"He's been shaking like that ever since that battle we witnessed," he observed.
"What happened?" asked Elaine curiously.
Kiba and Hinata recapped the situation to the others. The Dragon Genin grew a bit uneasy. Whoever this Gaara person was sounded really powerful. As if these thought were a cue, Kankuro's voice echoed outside of the tower.
"Finally, we made it!" groaned Kankuro.
"Let's just get this over with," came Gaara's voice.
There was the sound of someone muttering under their breath before the doors were yanked open. Gaara, Temari and Kankuro entered. They stared at the others in mild surprise before smirking at them. Gaara paused only to make eye contact with Genmaru, who was still leaning calmly against the pillar, before continuing on to the next room. His siblings silently followed.
"Not a very chatty bunch are they?" joked Domino once the Sands were out of earshot.
If this Gaara was really all that strong, then she certainly didn't want to provoke the guy yet. The others managed half hearted smiles but they remembered all to well the terror Gaara had placed upon them. Genmaru stared in the direction the sand had went with an almost intrigued smile on his face.
"This is going to be more interesting than I expected…" he mused…
Sasuke and Sakura slumped to the ground stunned. Both of them were trembling so badly that it would be possible for them to make chocolate milk if they had the will to hold the container. Sasuke had just enough sense to be able to look around with his eyes, but he was certain that he had gone insane.
"That vision…and all the blood…we're still alive? Impossible I saw us die! Was it a Genjutsu?" Sasuke's thoughts were jumbled but one thing was certain, he was most definitely alive.
Abruptly the Uchiha heaved onto the ground. After a few minutes of vomiting, during which the tongue guy patiently waited, it hit Sasuke like a sucker punch.
"No…it was just an intent to kill. But it was so strong! I literally saw an image of my own death!" thought Sasuke with fear filled eyes. "Who is this guy?! He's way too strong!"
The tongue guy merely stared at him. His cold eyes never seemed to blink as they probed Sasuke's. The Uchiha broke away from his gaze to check on Sakura. The pink haired girl was trembling even worse than Sasuke had been and her crying eyes seemed to be staring at something only she could see.
"Damn it! We've out to get out of here, or we'll be killed for sure!" realized Sasuke while reluctantly obeying his body's impulse to look at the tongue guy again.
A cruel smile was playing on his lips. His eyes remained baleful even as he laughed.
"What's this? You can't move already?" taunted the tongue guy while reaching into his pouch.
"No! He's going to kill us! I have to move!" Sasuke's mind screamed these thoughts over and over again but his body wouldn't budge.
The tongue now held two kunai by his side. Powered by sear force of will, Sasuke managed to draw a kunai of his own and rise to a crouch. The tongue guy smirked.
"And what are you going to do with that?" he taunted.
Sasuke grimaced and painstakingly slowly raised his knife into the air. The tongue guy begun to approach.
"Relax, it'll be over soon," he chided. "You won't even have time to suffer."
He hurled his knives at the duo.
"NO!" screamed Sasuke before stabbing himself in the leg with his own tool.
In a flash, Sasuke seized Sakura and took to the trees on chakra fueled legs. The tongue guy watched his progress with semi amusement…
"Yum! There's nothing better than dango and juice!" proclaimed Anko with a content sigh.
The petit woman had been enjoying her lunch break which mostly involved stuffing herself with sugar coated dumplings. She was just now finishing off her last stick of the pastries out of a twenty-six kit set.
"Okay, once I've finished up here I'll head towards the tower. By now, the quick candidates should be making their way there."
Anko downed the last dumpling and lazily hurled the stick at a nearby tree. She smiled upon seeing the stick, along with the other twenty-five, complete a familiar leaf symbol.
"Konoha mark, complete!" declared Anko with a pleased laugh.
At that moment, a large poof of smoke appeared in front of the purpled haired woman. Another geeky looking examiner emerged from the cloud and kneeled before her.
"Anko-sama, we have a problem!" said the examiner while getting directly to the point.
"What's wrong?" asked Anko warily.
"Three bodies have just been discovered! There's something strange about them!" replied the guy urgently.
"Strange?" echoed Anko.
The examiner nodded in confirmation.
"I've been ordered to inform you immediately!" he said.
Anko sighed.
"Lead the way then."
Anko and the examiner arrived at the scene of the crime less than ten minutes later. Two other examiners, who were already there nodded at her arrival. Anko's eyes became questioning upon seeing the corpses and blood splattered on the ground. Immediately, one of them opened up a file an read the content to Anko.
"These three were Grass ninjas who were suppose to be taking part in the Chuunin exam. Their bodies were found less than an hour ago. We've already taken the necessary protocols and it confirmed that these three were killed in combat. However, there was something odd about the bodies."
The examiner didn't need to finish the rest of the report. What was wrong was made crystal clear when Anko saw the victim's faces.
"Their faces are gone," breathed Anko darkly.
"Yeah," confirmed the examiner. "It's almost as though they were melted off. A forbidden Ninjutsu no doubt."
Almost unconsciously, Anko grasped a constantly throbbing scar of her past.
"He was here. I'd recognize his technique anywhere. But why, why is he in this exam?" thought Anko darkly.
A chilled breeze picked up, giving rise to Anko's feeling of dread. Quickly she turned towards the examiner holding the file.
"Show me the application pictures of these Grass ninjas!" she ordered.
Wordlessly, he produced the documents and handed them to Anko. She begun to study them with narrowed eyes. Of the three ugly looking pictures, one face stood out the most. It was a photo of the tongue freak from earlier that morning.
"So this was the face you've taken," thought Anko grimly before handing the papers back to the file guy. "Report this to Hokage-sama! Also, send at least two ANBU teams into the Forest of Death! Tell them that 'he' has returned! I'm going ahead in pursuit of that man!" ordered Anko before vanishing in a gust of swirling leaves…
Sasuke stopped running some ten minutes later. Sakura, who had stayed mercifully quite during the great escape, seemed to be regaining her sense though she still continued to tremble. The Uchiha winced as he took that opportunity to free his kunai from his leg. His breathing was ragged as he tried to ignore the shooting pain, but he kept watch for that weird guy all the same.
"Looks like the Genjutsu rule still applied. By hurting myself, the pain allowed me to regain my senses," mused the watchful Uchiha. "All that's left to do now is hide out until we can regroup with Naruto."
"Sasuke-kun…" whispered Sakura, drawing Sasuke's eye. "Are you alright? What's going to happen to…"
Sakura never got to finish that thought. The moment Sasuke felt that killer intent from before approaching them, he clamped a hand over her mouth. Sakura made some surprised and inaudible attempt at speech but to no avail. Sasuke ignored her and watchfully kept an eye out for their pursuit. All the while he was trying to figure out some way to run away.
"Sasuke-kun looks so vulnerable right now. That guy…who is he?" thought a worried Sakura.
A shadow suddenly passed over them and Sakura caught movement out the corner of her eyes. She warily peered towards it to find a giant snake that looked exactly like the one Naruto fought! Her eyes grew wide with fright and she attempted to catch Sasuke's attention. Sasuke continued to ignore her, oblivious to the danger they were in. Finally Sakura pried his hand from her mouth.
"Sasuke-kun! A snake!!"
This caught Sasuke's attention. The giant serpent lunged, but its' prey had already leaped out of harm's way in opposite directions. The beast decided to go after the much more appetizing looking Sasuke since he was still in midair. As the beast approached him, Sasuke swore he saw something of the tongue guy in its' glaring eyes. The Uchiha screamed.
"STAY AWAY!!" he wailed while hurling a swarm of shuriken at the reptile without taking proper aim.
Most of the projectiles missed, but a small amount struck a vital point along the side of the beast's upper body. The serpent hissed in pain before slumping over a tree branch, in complete paralysis. Sasuke touched down on a branch of his own while breathing heavily. Sasuke and Sakura's eyes grew wide once more when a line of cracks appeared along the beast's head. Then, like some bizarre butterfly awakening, a familiar figure rose out of the creature's skin. The tongue guy smirked at them before redirecting his gaze towards Sasuke. His freaky tongue begun to sway in a fashion very similar to the immobile snake itself.
"You shouldn't let your guard down for an instant when faced by a predator," murmured the tongue guy before he begun zigzagging around his tree branch like a slinky.
The human snake was fast approaching the Uchiha with rubber band like legs when he was abruptly cut off by a wave of shuriken landing in front of him. With an annoyed grunt, the snake guy along with the others looked towards the source. Standing atop the tallest tree in sight with his arms folded and a confident smile on his face, was Uzumaki Naruto.
"Naruto! You're here!" cried Sakura happily.
"Yo guys! About that password, what was it again?" joked the blond.
Sasuke mentally cursed.
"Naruto! I know you're here to help out but this guy is out of our league! We need to scarper quickly!" cried Sasuke desperately.
Naruto shrugged it off with a smirk. Needless to say, he wasn't going to turn tail and run from anyone. The snake guy sensed Naruto's confidences and spoke with an amused smile.
"It looks like you've managed to defeat that snake, Naruto-kun."
Naruto stared at him with a puzzled frown.
"How does this guy know my name? I must finally be gaining a reputation!" thought Naruto happily. "Hah, you look like a freaking snake! Were you its' mother or something?" he quipped.
The snake guy's eyes narrowed dangerously while Sasuke did another mental curse. This was going to be messy.
"Hey, what's with that look? You miss your baby?" teased Naruto before glaring at the snake guy with deadly seriousness. "I cannot forgive someone who preys on the weak, especially on my friends! Prepare yourself, I'm going to kick your ass now."
For the longest, nobody said or did anything. Then the snake guy smiled.
"This is going to be fun," he thought.
"Damn it! I don't like that look in his eyes. I have no choice then," thought Sasuke fearfully. "Wait a minute!" said Sasuke drawing everyone's attention.
The Uchiha then fished the Heaven scroll out of his pouch. He held it up in front of himself.
"Please, just take it and go," pleaded Sasuke quietly.
Naruto and Sakura gasped while the snake guy smiled more broadly.
"What the hell!? Sasuke! What do you think you're doing!?" demanded Naruto angrily.
"Shut up!" shot back Sasuke with a glare.
Naruto's face became livid but he remained silent.
"Very good, Sasuke-kun. You've made a wise decision," drawled the snake guy. "The only way to escape a predator, is to surrender another meal instead."
Sasuke didn't comment to this and opted instead to glare at the snake guy. Then wordlessly, he tossed the scroll towards him. The roll of parchment had only just left Sasuke's finger tips before being intercepted by an orange blur. Naruto then boosted off from a tree trunk back towards Sasuke.
"Damn you! Don't interfere! Can't you see that we're outmatched!?" cried Sasuke heatedly.
The Uchiha was silenced by a punch from Naruto that had enough force to not only knock him back several feet, but also draw a spray of blood and spit. The stunned Uchiha rubbed his swelling cheek before wiping his mouth clean.
"What the hell are you doing!?" demanded Sasuke with a wince.
Naruto glared at Sasuke for what felt like an eternity before he spoke again.
"I don't remember the damn password so I can't test this, but you're a fake Sasuke right!?" glowered Naruto darkly.
Sasuke and Sakura's mouths dropped open.
"What the hell!? I'm the real one, you moron!" shot back Sasuke.
"Liar!" contradicted Naruto. "There's no way that the cowardly bastard standing in front of me could be the Sasuke I know! I don't know how strong this freak is, but there's no guarantee that he'll let us go if we give him the scroll! Did you ever stop to think about that, huh!?"
Sasuke glared silently at the tree branch he was standing on. Naruto's words had hit home. At that moment, the snake guy laughed.
"You're absolutely right, Naruto-kun! I could just as easily kill you and take the scroll!" agreed the snake guy while licking his lips with his slimy tongue.
Sasuke and Sakura gasped, but Naruto was beginning to see red. Quickly the blond pocketed the scroll, withdrew a kunai from his pouch and rushed the snake guy.
"Don't mess with us!" he bellowed.
As Naruto was approaching, the snake guy quickly bit his thumb and smeared the resulting blood onto a tattoo on his forearm.
"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" he cried.
Like before, that insanely strong gust of wind picked up. Sakura and Sasuke were instantly slammed into the trunk of their respective trees. Naruto however, was able to reduce some of the force pushing on him by anchoring himself in place with his knife. When the gust cleared, the snake guy was standing on top of another giant snake.
"So that's how he's doing it!" observed the blond.
The beast glared balefully at him before bringing its' head smashing down on the spot where Naruto had been standing. Naruto had long since took to the air by the time the serpent's head had touched down. The force of the creature's smash had still sent sharp shards of wood flying in every direction though. Naruto crossed his arms over his face to shield it from the flying wood chips while the others ducked as low as they could to avoid them. Naruto touched down a few feet away with some extra cuts added to his frame. The snake guy laughed.
"You're such cute prey. I'm going to enjoy this very much," teased the freak.
Like a bull whip, the serpent's tail shot forward to smash Naruto. The blond leaped to the side of the attack, but the massive tail sudden reversed direction in midswing. The startled blond went flying after feeling the full force of the sneak attack. He smashed into a tree trunk with a winded grunt. Naruto's sore back paralyzed the boy with pain.
"Naruto!" cried Sakura and Sasuke in unison.
The snake guy laughed again.
"Go ahead and eat him, my precious!" he ordered his familiar.
The beast was more than happy to oblige and lunged forward with wide jaws. Just when it seemed that dinner would be served, the blond suddenly vanished in a flash of insane speed! He reappeared a millisecond later directly in front of the startled beast and punched it in the snout with enough force to make it reel backwards. The snake guy was very nearly dislodged by his pet's sudden jerk. He stared at Naruto with startled eyes due to the sudden changes that were taking place.
Just as it did during the battle with Haku, Naruto's hair grew even more wild and spiky than before. His canine fangs elongated and grew sharper as did his finger and toe nails. His jacket became noticeably smaller as his muscle mass increased. Finally Naruto's eye color changed to a deep blood red. Although there was no aura present this time, the very air around the blond shimmered from the rapidly rising temperature of his body.
"This kid…is that the demon fox's power?" wondered the snake guy with dangerously narrowed eyes.
Naruto sudden vanished again, only to reappear beneath the surprised snake. With devastating force, the enraged blond pulled off a Rock Lee right into the beast's throat. It hissed soundlessly due to its' crushed windpipe and the dying creature's convulsing body caused the snake guy to lose his balance. He had just dropped to one knee when suddenly Naruto's arm wrapped around his throat. With a growl, Naruto pulled with all his might while using his foot as a boost to hurl the failing snake summoner into a tree with enough force to break it in half! Sakura and Sasuke gasped in shock.
"No way! Why is Naruto so strong? He's moving so fast, I can't even see what's happening!" thought Sakura fearfully.
Sasuke's mouth was hanging open as if he were incapable of speech. Fear was written all over his face.
"Naruto…this power…it's not normal!"
The blond touched down on all fours with a growl. The snake guy was falling in slow motion from Naruto's point of view. The amount of speed that Naruto was generating was off the chart, even though he still had his weights on! Impatient with waiting for his opponent to hit the ground, Naruto shot towards him like a bullet. In midair, Naruto kneed the bastard in the chin causing his head to snap back with a sickening crack.
Before the snake guy could fly off again, Naruto seized a fist full of his shirt and held him in place. The blond then reared back his head before slamming it into his foe's nose. The blond didn't even stop to admire the for coming spray of blood, he immediately followed up his head butt with an overhead flip that he performed a dozen times in a row. With his gathered momentum, Naruto dropped his heel onto the freak's shoulder which not only sent him plummeting to the ground but also dislocated the limb altogether.
Quickly, Naruto begun to run along the trunk of a tree right after him. Not even two seconds later, Naruto had caught up to the still falling body. The blond was just about to boost off for another brutal combo when suddenly, the snake guy dissolved into a mass of what looked like mud.
"Nani!?" cried Naruto in surprise.
The blond then sensed a presence directly behind him. Naruto glanced over his shoulder to find a jet of flame sailing towards him courtesy of the exhaling snake guy. As fast as Naruto was now, he still wouldn't be able to dodge this attack from point blank range with his back turned. The blond skidded to halt on the tree with his chakra and braced himself as a wave of heat overtook him. This only served to upset him even more. With a roar, Naruto canceled out the flames with a shockwave of chakra that knocked the snake guy back into the air as well. Naruto then rushed him again and scored a punch through a gust of wind and leaves. The bastard had teleported! Naruto growled in frustration while warily seeking out his opponent.
"This…this is Naruto!?" whispered Sasuke in shock.
The Uchiha had activated his Sharingan earlier during the fight but it was still hard to keep track of the exact number of times Naruto had hit the snake guy. Sakura may not have been able to follow the fight at all, but she could tell from Sasuke's eyes that some truly amazing action was taking place. So intent was Sasuke on watching Naruto, that he never sensed the snake guy approaching him from behind. Sakura was about to cry out a warning when…
"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"
A fourth snake appeared and immediately lunged towards the astonished Uchiha. The beast prepared to eat him when in a flash, Naruto appeared and halted the beast's head using all the strength he had. The others gasped at the sight of the heavily breathing Naruto who's face was aimed at the ground. After a moment, Naruto looked up with a savage grin.
"Hey, are you alright, Scaredy-Cat? You're shaking," teased the blond.
Sasuke's eyes widened in realization. That was the same thing he had said to Naruto on the way to Water Country. Naruto's grin then turned into an intimidating glare due to his eyes.
"There's no way that a damn coward like you could ever be the Sasuke I know!" repeated Naruto quietly.
Sasuke couldn't muster up the will power to look away from his rival's eyes. For the first time ever, it was Sasuke who was looking up to Naruto. This fact was determined to engrave itself into Sasuke's memory permanently. The life left Sasuke's eyes after that moment and his shoulders slumped in defeat. His rival had beat him.
So caught up he was in deflating Sasuke's ego that Naruto never sensed the snake guy's long tongue sneaking up on him until it was too late. Like a bull at a rodeo, Naruto found himself bound and helpless. The snake guy's tongue effortlessly lifted Naruto up into the air to dangle in front of him. Naruto's legs failed helplessly as he tried to get a good grip on the tongue to free himself. But it was simply too slippery.
"Damn you! Let me go, you freak!" cried Naruto as he violently trashed about.
The snake guy ignored his insult and examined Naruto with his eyes. Sakura and Sasuke were rooted to the spot with fear so the snake guy ignored them as well. His searching eyes finally settled on Naruto's stomach. He raised his left hand with his fingertips extended.
"So the Kyuubi kid is still alive. Judging by the nature of his sudden power increase, he must release some of the Nine Tail's chakra when his emotions are running high," observed the snake guy before using the tip of his tongue to lift up Naruto's jacket and T-shirt. "Oh my, the seal is visible! Well then, the Five Element Seal technique will work quite nicely here."
Directly on Naruto's stomach was a spiral shaped swirl with Japanese characters surrounding it. To any other person, it would have looked like Naruto had a tattoo job done on him. However, the snake guy knew better. Naruto grunted in disgust at the way he was being violated by this freak. The tongue guy smiled at the blond before frowning in concentration. Tiny purple flames begun gathering on his finger tips. He raised his flaming fingers into the air.
"Gogyo Fuin!" thought the snake guy due to his inability to speak properly with his tongue binding Naruto.
He then trusted his fingers painfully into Naruto's nerves that were surrounding the seal. The blond gasped in agony as a searing burning sensation resulted from the targeted nerves. Steam rose steadily from those points long after the snake guy had removed his hand. Five six shaped marks then appeared around the original seal. Naruto felt his strength slipping away rapidly like a tub full of water that had the plug removed. The physical changes reverted back to normal and Naruto's eyes glazed over. The last thing Naruto remembered before he passed out was the unbearable feel of weights on his arms and legs.
"Naruto!!" screamed Sakura in horror.
Sasuke's trembling worsened.
"It's been twelve years since this boy had been sealed. By the looks of it, Naruto's and the Nine Tail's chakra were beginning to merge," hypothesized the snake guy before reaching into Naruto's pocket.
He withdrew the Heaven scroll like it was a spoil of war and returned his gaze back to the blond.
"I hate to do this kid, but you're in my way now," he thought before lazily hurling the unconscious boy behind him.
No longer able to actively defend himself, Naruto was sailing for a thirty-eight foot drop back to ground level.
"No! Naruto!" cried Sakura before swiftly hurling a pair of kunai at him.
Both snagged his jacket and pinned him safely to a tree, where he dangled like a limp piñata. The two knifes together easily supported his weight. Sakura then glared at Sasuke angrily.
"What's the matter with you, Sasuke-kun!? He could've been killed!" cried Sakura.
The Uchiha met her blazing emerald eyes with trembling black ones before he stared sadly at the ground. This only served to piss off Sakura even more.
"Damn it, Sasuke-kun! Sure Naruto may get in the way sometimes but at least he's not a coward like you! Right!?" she screamed while hot tears streamed down her eyes.
Sakura hated herself for being mad a Sasuke. And she hated herself even more for not being able to truly help her comrades. The pressure of it all finally broke her dam of emotions and she begun sobbing uncontrollably. Sasuke closed his eyes in self loathing. The sound of Sakura's sobs felt like a kunai to the guts. He never ever wanted to be the one who made her cry, but it had happened. His mind then gave way to a saying that had been his driving force for many years.
'You're a fool. You have no place in this world, little brother. If you truly desire to kill me then hate me, detest me and survive in an unsightly way. As you are now, all you can do is run and run like the true coward you are.'
It was more than the Uchiha could stand.
"No more!" cried Sasuke while triggering his Sharingan. "I'm not going to run away any more!"
The snake guy smirked, and Sakura's crying ceased to being an occasional hiccup.
"Interesting. Look's like his Uchiha blood is beginning to boil," observed the snake guy. "I'll have some fun with this one and test his abilities."
Sasuke shank into a light battle pose and allowed his aura of light blue chakra fuel his body. His bangs begun to float into the air as a ring of dust circled his feet. He glared determinedly at the snake summoner, who shrugged it off without a care. The snake he was riding on begun to glow brightly before vanishing in a poof of smoke. When it cleared, the snake guy stood calmly in front of Sasuke in a combat pose of his own…
Anko came to a halt after over a half an hour of searching. She sighed, there were just too many killer intents in this forest to know which one was the person she was looking for. She turned to watch the setting sun for a moment.
"This isn't good! If I don't find him soon, I'll be at a disadvantage during the hours of the night," mused Anko solemnly. "There has to be a reason why he came back. I just wish that I knew what it was, not that it'll matter either way. The moment I see him, I'll settle things between us once and for all."
With that vow in mind, Anko took off in the direction of the strongest killer intent she could sense…
With a flick of his wrist, a kunai fell from Sasuke's arm guards into each of his waiting hands. The snake guy smirked before forming a seal. A shockwave launched towards the stationary Uchiha, who immediately took to the air. Sasuke twisted his body in midair and hurled the kunai waves at his adversary. The snake guy avoided them with simple bobs and weaves of his head. By the time the last projectile had harmlessly passed, Sasuke was able to boost off of a tree branch towards the snake freak.
Sasuke attacked with a double stomp which was blocked by the snake guy's forearm. Sasuke boosted off of his arm after the second kick to perform a somersault over the guy's head. The snake guy quickly tried to catch Sasuke in mid-flip with a roundhouse kick but it had been poorly timed. Sasuke completed his aerobics with no resistances but performed an extra back flip after touching down just to put some distance between them. The snake guy charged at the same time that Sasuke did. Once in range, they begun a furious melee of Taijutsu combat.
Sasuke started things off with a dolphin blow, which was blocked by the snake guy's forearm. Sasuke went into a shaoling spin back to the ground and quickly lashed out with his foot to halt the snake guy's soccer kick. Sasuke stepped on the guy's foot to pin it to the ground. Immediately afterwards Sasuke caught the snake guy's incoming fist in his palm. They separated their hands and brutally smashed their forearms together. Sasuke freed the snake guy's foot to pull off a rotating kick. Quickly the snake guy hopped back to avoid the blow before retaliating with a five hit combination that was easily blocked and avoided by Sasuke. The snake guy finished his combo with an axe kick followed immediately by a spin kick. Sasuke dodged them and once more Sasuke attempted a surprise roundhouse kick that the snake guy jumped over.
The minute the snake guy landed, he vanished in a blur of high speed. Sasuke smirked as he easily was able to follow his movement with his eyes.
"Compared to Naruto, you may as well be jogging instead of running," thought Sasuke.
Sasuke easily avoided the snake guy's pile driver attack with a high jump, backwards. He made a several seals in midair.
"Katon, Housenka no Jutsu!"
The minute Sasuke landed, he fired a stream of fireballs until the snake guy was no longer visible beyond the wall of flames. He then followed up the attack with his signature move.
"Katon, Goukakyuu no Jutsu!"
A massive jet of flame united with the flame wall resulting in a raging inferno. The funnel of twenty feet high flames faded away thirty seconds later. Sasuke tensed in anticipation of another attack. Sure enough, one was headed his way in the form of a human mole. Sasuke quickly leaped back just as the snake guy popped out of the tree branch for a strike. With seven paces in-between them, the battling warriors stared each other down in a classic stand off.
"Feh, this kid isn't bad at all. He not only predicted my movement and acted accordingly, but he even managed to evade my attacks in the process. He's eyes must've grown used to high speed movement after watching my fight with that blond kid," observed the snake guy.
Sasuke stiffened when the snake guy rose to his full height.
"Okay, what is he planning now?" pondered Sasuke while coiling his leg.
The snake guy raised both of his hands over his head before smashing them down with a cry. A shockwave rocketed towards Sasuke who quickly took to the branches above. He boosted off from it and seized hold of the snake guy's legs and waist. The angle that Sasuke had took hold of him resulted in the snake guy losing his balance and falling head first towards the ground.
"This one is for Naruto!" cried Sasuke as they freefell to the ground via a copy of Naruto's power bomb technique.
The snake guy screamed the whole way down and landed with a sickening crunch on his noggin. A spider web of cracks appeared in the boulder that Sasuke had used as a bull's eye. Fortunately, Sasuke had enough control over the move to avoid inflicting self injury in the process. The Uchiha released his legs and hopped back a safe distance away. The snake guy never moved and his eyes had rolled into the back of his sockets leaving only white. His arms slumped lifelessly to the ground and his legs dangled at odd angles.
"Did Sasuke-kun win?" wondered Sakura hopefully with the Uchiha's exact thoughts.
The snake guy's body begun to violently twitch. Sasuke stared on in shock as his foe's body turned into muck again.
"Another Bunshin!?" exclaimed Sasuke.
The words had no sooner left his mouth when a lone kunai scored a cut on his cheek. Instinctively, Sasuke flipped aside to avoid the follow up wave of the flying knifes. This continued until Sasuke's back was pressed against a tree. Quickly he leaped up into it. Sasuke had just touched down on one of it's branches when a heavy punch from the snake guy nailed him in the face. With a grunt he staggered back and blindly put up a guard with starry vision.
Sasuke felt an elbow collide with his cheek bone and another brutal punch ram into his stomach. As Sasuke was doubling over from the strikes, the snake guy's knee rammed into his already smarting face. His head snapped back up only to receive another punch in the face. Sasuke fell on his butt with a winch.
"Hmp, you're beginning to bore me," taunted the snake guy. "Maybe a kid like you isn't ready to live up to the name, Uchiha just yet. But don't worry about it, I was going to kill you anyway."
The snake guy raised his leg for an axe kick.
"Sasuke-kun!" cried Sakura.
Sasuke's eyes snapped open and he quickly raised his fingers. The snake guy's rear then suffered from several explosions due to the exploding tags that Sasuke had planted when he was doubled over. With a pained cry, the snake guy dropped to one knee. Sasuke then leaped into the air and withdrew several grapple like objects with thin thread attached to them. He hurled them around the snake guy while hanging onto the threads. The moment Sasuke touched down, he redirected the projectiles path with carefully controlled jerks on the wires.
"What!?" was all the snake guy had time to say before he found himself being bound to the base of the tree he was standing on.
The snake guy grimaced in discomfort. The wire's were cutting off his circulations. Sasuke then begun forming hand seals that Sakura had never seen him use before. The seals of a new technique!
"Katon, Ryuuka no Jutsu!" cried Sasuke.
Everyone marveled at the sight of Sasuke's chakra engulfing him. It then changed to that of a serpent made out of flames. The beast glared at the snake guy before enveloping the grapple's threads. Multiple jets of flame rocketed towards the helpless freak to consume him in a raging inferno of flames. He cried out in pure agony. A minute later, he slumped over unconscious.
"Yay Sasuke-kun! You did it!" cheered Sakura happily. "That Dragon Fire technique is amazingly powerful!"
The flames continued to burn and there was little doubt that the snake guy would become ash shortly. Sasuke grasped his knees in exhaustion while breathing heavily. Sakura leaped down from her safe point and ran to Sasuke's side shortly after that.
"Are you alright?" she asked worriedly once in range. "I think you used up all of your chakra."
Sasuke was too tired to respond, but he did manage a slight nod for Sakura's sake. Both of them gasped when suddenly a large aura of chakra erupted from the snake guy. The energy wall blew the flames out like a candle on a cake. Slowly the snake guy freed himself from the weakened grapple threads due to the burns it suffered.
"No way!" murmured Sakura.
The snake guy smashed his fist into his palm.
"Kanashibari no Jutsu!" he cried.
Just like that, Sakura and Sasuke felt their bodies go rigid as if an enormous weight had been placed on their shoulders. They both sank to their hands and knees from the strain.
"Damn it! This is a Temporary Paralysis technique! We're trapped!" despaired Sasuke.
Slowly, he buoyed his head to glare hatefully at the crafty snake summoner. The first thing the Uchiha noticed, was that his face had burned away partially like a rubber mask. The small bit of skin that Sasuke could see now, was as pale as the moon itself. A small amount of purple face paint was also visible beneath his glaring snake like eye.
"I'm impressed with how well you can use your Sharingan at your age," praised the snake guy in a much hoarser sounding voice, as if it hadn't been used in a long time. "You truly are Itachi's brother. I think I want you after all. From what I saw, you carry even more potential than Itachi." his hand passed over his forehead protector, replacing the Grass village's symbol for the Sound village's symbol.
"Who the hell are you!? How do you know my brother!?" demanded Sasuke heatedly.
The snake guy smirked and produced the Heaven scroll in his right palm.
"My name is Orochimaru. If you wish to see me again, then get through this exam as if your life depended on it," as he said this, the scroll begun to combust in a eerie green flame.
"No! The scroll!" wailed Sakura.
But the two warriors were too focused on each other to pay Sakura any attention.
"If you desire power like no other, you must first defeat my three subordinates who are taking part in this exam. Do this for me Sasuke-kun and I shall show you true power," stated Orochimaru calmly.
"You…what nonsense are you babbling on about?! We never want to see your face again!" screamed Sakura desperately after seeing Sasuke's almost intruded expression.
Orochimaru chuckled.
"It won't work out that way, little girl," he formed a prayer seal with his index and middle fingers crossed.
As quick as lightening, Orochimaru's neck elongated to unbelievable lengths. His head then launched towards Sasuke with almost vampire like fangs extending as well. Sasuke gasped when he felt Orochimaru bite him on his lower neck.
"Sasuke-kun!" cried Sakura in distress.
For a few seconds, the kunoichi was forced to listen to what sounded like Orochimaru greedily sucking on the Uchiha's neck. Then he ceased the bite and recalled his head like a fishing line. With his neck back at normal length, Orochimaru licked his lips clean as if he had eaten a delightful piece of chocolate. Sasuke cried out and agony and Sakura could only look on in horror as a trio of sixes appeared on his neck like a Satanist tattoo.
"Sasuke-kun…what the hell did you do to him!?" shrieked Sakura at Orochimaru's smug face.
Orochimaru made the common one handed prayer seal.
"I just gave him a farewell present. Sasuke-kun will not forget, in time he will seek me for power," stated Orochimaru tersely before shifting his gaze back to Sasuke. "I enjoyed seeing your moves, Sasuke-kun. Learn some more tricks for me until our next meeting," he chuckled and phased into the very tree itself with a sinister smile on his face the whole time.
Sakura was left all alone with Sasuke's pain filled cries. With Orochimaru gone, the paralysis technique ceased as well. In a flash, Sakura was by Sasuke's side with a comforting hand on his back.
"Sasuke-kun! What's wrong, Sasuke-kun? Please, pull yourself together!" begged Sakura with tear filled eyes.
Sasuke then did the strangest thing possible. He embraced Sakura's waist as if seeking further comfort from the kunoichi. He's cries grew even more pained after this. Sakura cradled his head next to her bosom while pleading for the Uchiha to get better. From what she could feel, Sasuke was suffering from a high fever.
Soon Sasuke's consciousness left him, leaving behind a emotional and frightened Sakura.
"Naruto! Sasuke-kun is…he…" wailed Sakura.
Naruto didn't stir either. For the first time ever, Sakura was truly alone…
Anko lightly touched down upon a wide tree branch with the silent grace of a cat. With a grim glare of determination, she approached the murderous intent before her. In the shadows of the night, a pair of glowing green eyes peered back at her. The cloud that was blocking the moonlight finally parted, allowing its' illuminating glow to light up the area. Orochimaru smiled from his integrated perched within the tree that he was recovering in.
"It's been a long time, Anko," greeted Orochimaru calmly.
Anko got straight to the point.
"You are a dangerous S class criminal. As a representative of Konoha, I'm going to kill you. Even if it costs me my life," vowed Anko darkly. "Also, this is a bit of a personal score. Long ago, you would've wanted me to stop someone like you right…Sensei?"
Several Senbon fell from her sleeve in-between her waiting fingers. Orochimaru sighed tiredly.
"You can't," he stated simply.
Anko rearing back her Senbon arm said otherwise. Quickly, Orochimaru's freaky tongue shot out like a bullet. Anko took to the air and performed a back flip onto the trunk of the tree behind her. Orochimaru's tongue followed after her as quick as lightning. It wrapped tightly around her wrist causing her to lose her grip on her needles due to the pain. Orochimaru's tongue then yanked her away from the tree. Anko deftly performed a series of aerobics and landed easily on her feet.
"Damn you! Ninpou, Sen'eijashu no Jutsu!" cried Anko.
A quartet of snakes wound themselves around Anko's arm from her sleeves. They then extended themselves just like Orochimaru could and charged towards said person. The snakes seized hold of Orochimaru and yanked him violently from the tree he was fused with.
"Die, Orochimaru!" cried Anko before having her snakes slam him into the tree behind her.
With Orochimaru stunned, Anko used this opportunity to recall her snakes back into her sleeve. She then withdrew a kunai from her pouch and seized hold of Orochimaru's hand. After slamming it into the tree as well, Anko pinned both his hand and her own to it with her knife. Despise the pain and bleeding, Anko still managed a grin.
"You're mine now!" cried Anko before taking hold of Orochimaru's other hand. "Hope you don't mine if I borrow your left hand!"
Orochimaru's eyes widened in shock at the seal Anko formed with their interlocked hands.
"First the Hidden Shadow Snake Hand and now this!?" realized the snake master.
"That's right! You and I are going to die together," confirmed Anko smugly before steeling her resolves. "Ninpou, Sojasosai no…" she began.
"What's this, committing suicide, Anko?" asked a familiar voice behind her.
Anko's head whipped around with wide eyes. There stood Orochimaru with a smirk oh his face. His pasty pale skin seemed to glow in the bright light of the moon.
"Y-you…" stammered Anko.
"That's right, that there is just a replication," teased Orochimaru.
Anko looked back towards the Orochimaru she had pinned to see it melt into a puddle of muck. Anko's gaze lowered to the ground as she slowly freed her aching hand in defeat. Orochimaru laughed at the sight.
"How pathetic, you're one of Konoha's special Jounins yet you're still using those forbidden Jutsu I taught you. Attempting the Duel Snake Destroyer is especially bad isn't it? You're bringing shame to your precious Konoha!" taunted Orochimaru while slowly approaching Anko.
"Shut up!" cried Anko before hurling her blood soaked kunai at him.
Orochimaru barely batted an eye when he caught the knife between his index and middle fingers.
"I told you it useless," reminded the snake master. "Kanashibari no Jutsu!"
Just like Sasuke and Sakura, Anko sank to her knees as if under an enormous burden. Unable to move, Orochimaru kneeled in front of her to gaze almost fondly into Anko's eyes.
"Wh-why are you here!?" demanded Anko.
"Tsk, it's been so long since we last seen each other but you're acting so coldly," mocked Orochimaru while pretending to have a hurt look on his face.
"Bastard! Don't mess with me! You've come to assassinate Hokage-sama haven't you?!" cried Anko angrily.
"Not quite. I don't have enough men to do that yet," replied Orochimaru. "As for you're earlier question, I'm seeking out some outstanding talent from the village."
Orochimaru's eyes glowed with malice and Anko winced while grasping her neck again. Orochimaru smiled in recognition.
"I just gave another boy that same seal as well. His exceptional talent has caught my eye," hinted Orochimaru in a tone that was unmistakably that of a braggart.
"Selfish bastard! Do what you want, but that kid is going to die!" growled Anko.
"You're right, his chance of survival is only one in ten," agreed Orochimaru. "But just like you, he may survive."
Anko suddenly grinned.
"Heh, you must really like this kid," she said.
Anko's eyes widened in shock when Orochimaru unexpectedly caressed her cheek.
"What, what, do I detect jealousy?" teased Orochimaru. "Don't tell me you're still upset that I used you and threw you away like trash."
Anko glared dangerously at him causing him to grin.
"Unlike you, this one is quite skilled. It's not surprising since he carries the Uchiha bloodline abilities," said Orochimaru before removing his hand from her cheek. "He's also very beautiful. He'll make a perfect vessel to be my successor."
Orochimaru then rose to his full height.
"If that boy survives, things will become pretty interesting. Please don't stop the exam prematurely, you wouldn't want to be held responsible for the elimination of innocent lives just for spoiling my fun would you?" threatened Orochimaru before vanishing in a burst of purple flames.
Anko was left alone, to mull things over…
The soothing sound of the running river was pure heaven to the relaxing members of Team Gai. Tenten was quietly sipping some chilled ginger tea from her bamboo canteen. Lee was quietly meditating about Gai-sensei's teachings of the fires of youth. Lastly, Neji was keeping a watchful eye out for attackers. Sensing none in the area, the Hyuuga spoke.
"We've managed to secure plenty of food and water in the first twelve hours. By now, the other teams should be resting," pointed out Neji. "Let's use this time to our advantage, as planned. We'll split up and scout out for enemies but, whether you find a camp or not…"
Neji rose to his full height and withdrew a kunai from his pouch. He then tossed it into the ground.
"We regroup here at dawn," he finished.
"Okay," said Tenten reluctantly. "Shoot, just when I was thinking of taking a nap."
Lee responded with a good deal more subservience.
"Roger!" he cried with a salute.
"Okay," Neji raised an arm into the air. "Break!"
In three flashes of movement, the trio took to the trees in opposite directions…
By this time, Anko had just finished dressing and applying bandage wrappings to her self inflicted injury. Her hand still throbbed painfully and it was more than likely that it would leave a scar. She sighed and stared at the ground without any emotion present on her face. After a few minutes, Anko stood up from the rock she was sitting on.
"I need to inform Hokage-sama about this right away," she murmured to herself.
Anko had taken no more than three steps in the direction of Sarutobi's place when she froze. A hungry feeling killer intent had invaded her senses. Anko warily peered into the darkness of the forest in search of the source. Three gleaming pairs of eyes glared right back at her. There then came the unmistakable sound of an animal's growl.
"God! Could they have came at any other time!?" groaned Anko.
The gleaming eyes owners stepped into the moonlight. They were Konoha's prized man eating tigers, a western jungle cat that had just recently begun to settle in Fire Country. Three of them had been captured and released in the Forest of Death just for the Chuunin exam. They surrounded Anko, whose back was pressed against the rock she had been sitting on. Apparently, they had been attracted by the scent of blood from Anko's wound.
Anko was just preparing to spring over the flesh craving beasts when her cursed seal begun throbbing painfully again. Her hand shot to the mark out of habit as it drained her body's strength. Anko sank to her knees in pain. One of the big cats prepared to pounce…
"Kanashibari no Jutsu!" cried an alluring voice unexpectedly.
The three tigers yowled in outrage as their bodies were burdened by the effect of the paralysis technique. Anko weakly sought out the person responsible for rescuing her. Out of thin air it seemed, Sagitario and two ANBU squad members appeared in front of her.
"Hey Anko-san, we've been looking for you," greeted Sagitario with a dazzling smile.
One hand was in his pant's pocket and he coolly twirled a rose in his visible right hand. The ANBU guys stood silently behind him. Unlike Sagitario, the ANBU were dressed in black pants and black sleeveless T-shirts that were covered completely by a gray padded vest. They each had black arm guards with bracers attached to them as well as simple looking Katanas strapped to their backs. Their faces were completely hidden by a monkey and a bird mask respectively.
"You guys are late," scolded Anko with a frown.
"Now now, don't be like that, Anko-san. It wasn't easy finding you in here you know," teased Sagitario. "I can't sense you based on beauty and your lovely face alone."
The ANBU guy's snickered a bit when Anko sputtered indignantly with a crimson face. They gave an alarmed start when Anko sank to her knees in pain again.
"Anko-sama! Are you alright?" cried one of the ANBU.
The other ANBU did a double take.
"That's…the cursed seal! It's visible!" he cried.
"Orochimaru-san. He was here yes?" asked Sagitario with a slight smile.
He and Orochimaru went way back, and not in a good way either. Anko gave a pained nod.
"What? Is it true? We must report this to Hokage-sama!" cried the first ANBU.
Anko weakly raised her head.
"N-no! Go to the tower!" ordered Anko.
"Anko-sama! What are you saying!?" protested the second ANBU. "You know that if Orochimaru is ever seen here, a maximum security protocol is to be enforced. This is no time for a ninja exam!" he scolded.
"I know that but…" begun Anko sadly.
"Hey, hey, hey don't yell so much. Can't you see that she's in a lot of pain right now?" cut in Sagitario while approaching Anko. "I will personally escort her to Hokage-sama's place. Can I ask you guys to go ahead of us and fill him in?" requested Sagitario with a smile.
The ANBU knew that smile all too well. It more or less told them to take a hike or suffer the consequences.
"Yes sir!" consigned the ANBU a little too quickly before vanishing in twin gusts of wind and leaves.
Now that they were alone, Sagitario smiled warmly at Anko while offering her his hand.
"Come on Anko-san, we'll go slowly."
Anko glared at him for the longest causing Sagitario to sweat drop. Finally, Anko stood up on her own and strode briskly pass him with her eyes closed.
"I can walk by myself!" she declared.
"Oh, right. Of course you can, but I'll feel better if I can hold your hand, Anko-san," flirted Sagitario.
Anko glared suspiciously at him.
"None of your perverted tricks?" she questioned.
"I cross my loved filled heart," replied Sagitario with both a smile and a sweat drop.
Anko sighed and reluctantly held out her hand. The green haired Jounin tucked his rose neatly into Anko's hair before smoothly locking arms with her. Together they started walking. Sagitario's eyes never left Anko's, who determinedly stared straight ahead. She hoped that he couldn't see her flushed cheeks in the darkness…
Sakura changed Sasuke's cloth for the third time since the fight with Orochimaru. She soaked another strip of cloth with water from her canteen and pressed it gently to Sasuke's forehead. With a sigh, she checked on Naruto for the twenty-fifth time. The blond still hadn't stirred. Naruto had given Sakura quite a scare when she gotten him down from the tree only to find out that he was barely breathing. Whatever Orochimaru had did to him, had nearly drove the blond to the point of death.
Sakura glanced around the temporary shelter that she had found. Honestly it was amazing that she was able to find a nearly uprooted tree. The opening between the unplanted roots was as good to hide in as a cave. The hard part had been getting her comrades into it. Naruto was especially difficult to drag in due to his ridiculously heavy weights. It took a lot of huffing and puffing and more than a fair share of cursing but she had pulled it off in the end. After that, Sakura pretty much spent the whole night keeping watch over them and setting up clever booby traps to fend off attackers.
Her efforts had kept them all safe, but now she was beginning to nod off. Unable to fight off the lure of sleep any further, Sakura closed her eyes…
Neji came to a stop after over an hour of scouting. He glared in annoyance at some nearby scrubs.
"Stop hiding and come out," he ordered.
A little over twenty seconds later, Team Ten emerged from the foliage.
"Oh my! I never thought I'd get to meet last year's number one rookie, Hyuuga Neji-sama!" cried Ino in nervous politeness.
"Can I have your autograph?" added Chouji while getting in on the act.
Shikamaru simply frowned at his cowardly friends, not that he wanted to fight either. Ino then let her hair down, tripling her natural cuteness. She winked seductively at Neji.
"I've always wanted to catch your eye!" she moaned in an Oscar level performance.
Neji barely even looked at her.
"Get lost," he said while walking away.
A vein throbbed in Ino's temple.
"Damn you! Why doesn't my sexiness work!?" thought Ino angrily while brandishing a fist at Neji's back.
The Hyuuga paused in mid-stride.
"Since you're shaking your fist at me, does that mean that you want to fight?" asked Neji without turning around.
That adjusted Ino's attitude mighty fast.
"N-no!" she said with a sweat drop.
"Then get lost!" snapped Neji with a glare over his shoulder. "Taking a scroll from cowards like you would make me the laughingstock of the village."
"Yes sir, Neji-sama!" squealed Ino a little too quickly.
She and her comrades took cover under the scrubs again like a trio of kicked dogs. Neji tsked.
"Damn cockroaches. Not even worth my time," grumbled Neji before walking calmly away…
Sakura awoke with a start. Her body was drenched in cold sweat and her eyes were filled with terror. In a heartbeat, Sakura spun around to check on Naruto and Sasuke. Both were mercifully unharmed. Sakura begun to tremble.
"It was just a dream, but Naruto and Sasuke-kun had gotten attacked by that Orochimaru person. I couldn't warn them or even move, it was terrible," thought Sakura sadly. "I hope we never see that man again!" she cried out loud to herself just to hear any sound in the eerie silence.
It seemed to help, and Sakura immediately felt better. She wasn't going back to sleep anytime soon. Sakura was just thinking of changing Sasuke's cloth again when she heard rustling behind her. She stiffened in fright and with shaky hands, withdrew a kunai from her pouch.
"Please don't be him! Please don't be him!" she echoed over and over again in her head while fearfully glancing behind her.
Naturally, she almost fell over at the sight of an adorable squirrel nibbling on an acorn. The furry rodent consumed the treat and took notice of Sakura for the first time. Since Konoha squirrels were pretty tame in this parts due to the kindness of the villagers, the rodent bounded towards Sakura thinking that she would give it some food. Its' eyes grew as wide as saucers when Sakura instead threw a kunai at it instead. The confused and frightened beast took off in the opposite direction.
"Sorry little guy, but it was for your own good," thought Sakura with a relieved sigh.
The last thing she needed was the death of a rodent on her conscience due to her concealed trap going off. Little did Sakura know, she had saved more than one life with her actions…
Lee landed with a heavy thud on top of a tree branch. A faint rustling caught his attention. He lowered his eyes to take in the number of leaves that had been dislodged from his perch. A glint shone in the corner of his eyes and he smiled. It was time to play a little game!
"Lets see, if I can catch all twenty of these leaves before they touch the ground then Sakura-chan will begin to like me! But if I miss even one, it will always remain an unrequited love. That and she'll call me Fuzzy Brows for the rest of my life," thought Lee with a waterfall of tears.
His tears were quickly replaced by the fires of youth!
"Here I go!" he cried before leaping out of the tree like a dive bomber.
His hands were blurs as he snagged leaf after leaf out of the air. He made it as far as nineteen before he had to slow his fall a bit with some quick boost offs from tree to tree. He landed on a thick tree branch to seek out the last leaf. Much like a hawk trying to eyeball a retreating mouse. Taking a deep breath, he leaped. Lee had nearly caught the last leaf when he noticed a faint light out the corner of his eye.
"Is that…"
Acting on instinct alone, Lee abandoned the leaf and rebounded towards the light source. He seized it and triumphantly held the same squirrel from before into the air. In his other hand, was a burning piece of paper that had been stuck to the rodent's back.
"Phew, made it," breathed Lee with a smile before crushing the burning slip into powder. "You almost got blown up by an exploding tag, little buddy. I wonder who would do something so cruel?"
The squirrel couldn't exactly talk, but it understood Lee well enough. It freed itself from Lee's grasp and bounded off in the direct he had came from. It stopped and stared at Lee as if to say "are you coming?" Curiously, Lee followed the rodent. The last leaf remained forgotten…
Sakura's eyelids once again begun to droop. Her exhausted body screamed for sleep, but Sakura refused to yield to the temptation. A familiar laugh drew her half sleeping brain from the void.
"Keeping watch all night?"
Sakura turned around to find the three Sound ninjas from earlier.
"You don't need to continue now," continued the mummy faced Sound. "Wake up, Sasuke-kun. We want to fight him."
Sakura tiredly stood up and glared at the Sound trio.
"What do you need to fight him for!? Isn't that Orochimaru guy your leader?" demanded Sakura much to the amazement of the Sounds. "What is this mark that he put on Sasuke-kun!?"
The mummy faced Sound grew thoughtful.
"What could that man be thinking?" he pondered out loud.
"Regardless, after hearing you say that, we can't let you live now!" declared the tan shirted Sound. "I'll fix all of you myself!"
Sakura tensed in anticipation with a kunai in hand. The tan wearing Sound was just about to approach when mummy face spoke.
"Hold on, Zaku," he ordered.
The Sound named Zaku frowned.
"What for, Dosu?"
Instead of answering him, the mummy Sound, Dosu kneeled to the ground.
"You're not very good at setting traps, little girl. The grass in this spot isn't growing, plus the turned over dirt is a different color."
Sakura growled as he lifted up the grass colored veil to reveal a pressure pad.
"There's no point in setting a trap if you make it so obvious," he continued causing his comrades to grin. "Kill her."
All three Sounds leaped towards her. Oddly enough, Sakura smirked in the wake of their attack. Wordlessly, the kunoichi cut through an nearly invisible thread of wire. A giant log then swung towards the startled Sounds. Just before the spike covered wood could hit, Dosu shattered it to fragments with a simple punch from his metal arm. Sakura gasped.
"Frankly, your skills are terrible!" taunted the mummy head. "You should work harder in the next life!"
The Sounds were almost in range of the teary eyed Sakura when…
"Konoha Senpuu!" cried another familiar voice.
The Sounds were then knocked aside by a spinning green blur. The blur vanished and reappeared protectively in front of Sakura in a flash of super speed. Lee raised his arms in the 'you have the initiative pose.'
"In that case, you guys should work harder as well!" Lee declared with a smile.
The squirrel from before was riding on his shoulder. It squeaked as if agreeing with the spandex wearing fighter.
"You're…why are you here?" begun Sakura.
"All in good time, Sakura-chan. But I will say this, I'll always appear when you're in a pinch!" replied Lee while stroking the squirrel calmly.
"Who the hell are you!?" demanded the Dosu.
"Me? I'm the beautiful green beast of the Hidden Leaf Village! Rock Lee!" he announced before setting the squirrel down. "Thank you for guiding me here friend, now go."
The squirrel glanced at Lee once more before taking off into the forest.
"Lee-san, aren't I your enemy too?" asked Sakura.
Lee stood back up and faced the Sounds.
"I said it once before. I'll protect you until the day I die," reminded Lee.
Sakura lowered her gaze to the ground.
"Thank you, Lee-san," she murmured.
Lee stuck his arm out and flashed Sakura the nice guy pose without turning around. Dosu sighed and produced an Earth scroll from his sleeve. He tossed it to Zaku, who pocketed it.
"Oh well. Zaku, you can have Sasuke-kun, I'll take care of these guys," said Dosu quietly. "The spandex guy seems skilled in Taijutsu. This should be fun."
Lee tensed as Dosu rushed him. Sakura attempted to slow Dosu's charge by hurling a kunai at him, but he leaped over it. It was Lee who canceled his attack altogether by smashing his entire arm into the ground. With a mighty yank, Lee uprooted one of the tree shelter's massive roots! The mummy guy boosted off of it to safety.
"There's a trick to your attacks right? After seeing you use it once on Kabuto-san, I won't give you the chance to pull it on me!" declared Lee.
The Sounds smirked while Sakura look on in awe.
"Lee-san is so strong!" thought the kunoichi.
Lee quickly assessed the situation.
"From what I can tell, Sakura-chan is in no condition to fight. But with three against one, I'm at a disadvantage. There's no choice then, I'll have to destroy each of them at full power!"
With that in mind, Lee slowly unraveled his bandage wrappings. The Sounds watched this with impatient expressions, but Sakura's eyes widened in recognition.
"Gai-sensei! I now have no regrets about using this technique. Just as I promised, I will use this move to…Protect a precious person!" Lee voiced his last thought.
Seeing that he was ready, Dosu charged again. He had just got in range for an attack when Lee vanished in a flash of high speed. Dosu blinked once before Lee reappeared and scored a brutal kick to his chin. Dosu was launched several feet into the air only to give a start upon hearing Lee's voice directly behind him.
"This is just the beginning!" he cried. "Omote Renge!"
Lee's wrappings then snaked their way about Dosu's body binding him completely. Dosu grunted in discomfort at the tightness of the constriction. It didn't help his nerves when Lee went into a dizzying spin. Everyone gave a start.
"Crap! He can't protect himself like that!" realized Zaku in alarm.
He quickly flashed through some hand seals and smashed his hands into the dirt. Seconds after that, Lee smashed Dosu into the ground hard enough to kick up a huge cloud of dust. Lee leaped aside, but there was something wrong judging by the frown on his face.
"Heh, looks like I made it on time!" said Zaku with a sneer.
Everyone looked towards the mummy guy to find his head comically buried under a cushion of dirt. With a kick of his leg, Dosu freed it with a soft plop. He shook his head while groaning.
"Impossible!" cried Sakura and Lee in unison.
"Ugh, that hurt a lot! Even on a sponge of dirt," grumbled Dosu before glaring at Lee. "I hope you're prepared, punk! I'm going to pay you back for that."
He charged at Lee, who was breathing pretty hard. Lee quickly avoided Dosu's punch, but dropped painfully to his knees just like Kabuto did. The spandex wearing fighter's vision swam with blurry images of the others. He then vomited with a loud retching sound. It only got worse when his left eardrum ruptured. Blood started oozing from said ear.
"Lee-san!" cried Sakura worriedly.
Lee cradled his damaged ear in stunned silence.
"Your pretty fast, but you can't outrun the speed of sound!" bragged Dosu with malicious eyes. "Allow me to explain, the human ear enables one to hear by catching vibrations in the air. However, the eardrum will shatter if it's exposed to vibrations higher than one hundred and fifty decibels. My attack allows me to generate and amplify vibrations as well as apply shocks to your ear canals. As I'm sure you've noticed, this shock causes one to become disoriented and nauseous. You won't be able to move properly for quite some time! Now, I'll show you a wall that hard work alone could never overcome!"
Lee grimaced while the Sound team laughed. Zaku add the insult to the injury with his next pun.
"Your outdated Taijutsu skills won't work very well on us! I'm a nice guy so I'll tell you how my technique works as well," he said cockily. "I can control supersonic waves and air pressure with my hands. With this ability, not only can I make cushions but a blast of air pressure at half of my full strength can destroy a rock. Do you want to experience my full strength first hand?" he sneered while exposing his palm, which had holes in the center of them. Pressurized air gusted out of them.
Apparently, Kin was the Sakura of her squad since she didn't go into a rant about her special skills. Still, Lee growled in frustration at his new predicament. The mummy guy then spoke.
"Now, it's your turn!" he yelled before rushing Sakura.
"No!" cried Lee while stumbling dizzily after him.
It didn't look like Lee would make it in time so Sakura readied a kunai in her defense. It quickly proved useless when Lee vanished into high speed once more. He reappeared with his legs already in motion.
"Konoha Senpuu!"
"Damn!" grunted Dosu, thoroughly annoyed at this change of events.
He braced himself for the blow, but it never came. Lee's body grew weak with dizziness at that moment, an after effect of Dosu's earlier attack. Dosu took advantage of Lee's vulnerability to catch his now slower moving leg. He then took a swat at Lee's head but the green Taijutsu fighter easily blocked it with his arms. The mummy guy didn't seem bothered by it though, and the reason made itself known when a super loud blast of sound attacked Lee's ear again. Although Lee probably couldn't hear him, Dosu begun bragging some more as this was happening.
"My special arm is amplifying the vibrations in your ear to the point of a maxed out speaker! But there's so much more to it than that. Experience the added force of my chakra!"
Lee screamed in pain as what looked like a pressurized blast of air entered his ear. His eyes then glazed over and he slumped to the floor out cold.
"Lee-san!" wailed Sakura.
"Now to finish you off," murmured Dosu with mounting excitement.
"No! I won't let you!" screamed Sakura while hurling a wave of kunai at him.
Dosu quickly blocked the attack with his metal arm guard. Sakura didn't let up there though, she quickly hurled another wave of, this time, shuriken at him. Zaku intercepted the attack and knocked it aside with a blast of pressurized air from his palm. Sakura shielded her eyes from the sudden gust of wind, but this action left her vulnerable to a surprise attack from Kin. The female Sound seized Sakura's hair and gave it a sharp tug, dragging Sakura to her butt. The pink haired ninja's eyes watered in pain.
"Your hair is even glossier than mine. If you have time to care this much for your hair then train more!" taunted her captor with a smirk while yanking Sakura's hair this way and that for a Sakura bobble head effect. "Trying to be sexy for that Sasuke guy? Well then, Zaku, kill him in front of this slut!" teased Kin.
Zaku grinned as well.
"Fine by me!" he replied.
"No!" cried Sakura before being silenced by another sharp yank on her hair.
"Don't move!" barked Kin.
Sakura begun to cry.
"I can't do anything! All I ever do is get in everyone's way! I-I wanted to protect everyone but…but…" thought Sakura abjectly.
Zaku begun to approach.
"Let's get this over with," he said with a smirk.
Watching him pass her by was more than Sakura could stand. Desperately, she drew a kunai from her pouch. Kin glared at her.
"Don't waste our time! You can't do anything with that and you know it!" snapped Kin with a look of dislike written over her face.
It changed to one of surprise when Sakura smirked at her mischievously.
"What makes you think I intend to attack you?" she shot back.
As quick as a flash, Sakura cut her hair just as Kin tried yanking on it again. This resulted in the startled Sound kunoichi losing her balance completely. But the sight of Sakura's much shorter hair stunned everyone speechless. Her forehead protector came free from the top of her head and fell with a soft plop to the ground. But her eyes burned with a determination that nobody had ever seen before. The determination to protect those who were important to her!
"Damn it, Kin kill her!" cried Zaku.
Kin eagerly obliged with several kunai in hand. She hurled them at Sakura, who was forming several hand seals.
"I've always tried to act like an adult."
Sakura's impaled body went up in a poof of smoke.
"I've been saying that I love Sasuke-kun and I always lectured Naruto like I was better than him."
The smoke cleared to reveal a log in her place. The Sounds gave startled starts.
"But after all this time, I finally realized that I've just been watching their backs."
Sakura reappeared a few feet away and charged at Zaku, who was smirking in anticipation.
"Truthfully, they are both so much further ahead of me."
In a graceful move, Sakura hurled a swarm of kunai at Zaku. He quickly deflected them back at her with a blast of pressurized air.
"They always have been."
The wave hit home, but Sakura had once again when up in smoke.
"I was always the one who got protected."
Zaku smiled at the sight of the replacement log that was revealed.
"Even Lee-san told me that he had feelings for me."
A shadow hovered over Zaku and he glanced up to find Sakura sailing towards him with a lone kunai in hand.
"So much so that he was able to put his life on the line for me."
Zaku hurled a swarm of kunai at Sakura before looking about to see where she would appear next.
"Naruto, Sasuke-kun, Lee-san, I want to become like you."
Zaku gasped when he felt a drop of warm blood splatter on his cheek from about. With wide eyes, he glanced back up at Sakura who was now in range for an attack. He had been tricked!
"This time, I want to be the one who protects you."
Zaku grunted in pain as Sakura stabbed his arm with her kunai. Her teeth latched onto his other arm, causing him to cry out. He desperately begun pounding Sakura on her skull while cursing at her. He could feel a bit of his flesh being slowly ripped away from his arm by Sakura's teeth.
"Ah, let go of me, damn you!" wailed Zaku.
After two minutes of relentless pounding from Zaku, Sakura was beginning to bleed from her nose, eyes and forehead. A particularly sharp blow, nearly dislodged her when she hacked up some blood from her mouth. Still, she stubbornly refused to let go no matter what. However, her weaken state wouldn't allow her to last much longer and she was soon sent flying onto her face with a thud. Zaku scrambled to his feet and rapidly rubbed his smarting arm.
"You stupid little bitch!" he roared angrily.
Sakura weakly climbed to a sitting position and started breathing heavily. Zaku aimed his palm at Sakura with the intent of blowing her to kingdom come. Sakura didn't flinch, but she didn't try to get out of the way either. She had no regrets. Just as Zaku was going to fire, a familiar trio barred Zaku's path. Ino and her comrades had arrived! Everyone's eyes widened at the sight.
"Ino…why?" was all Sakura could manage.
"I told you that I wouldn't lose to you anymore, Sakura. I'll take care of the rest myself!" replied Ino with a smile at her rival before glaring at the Sounds.
"Heh, more pests came out!" observed Zaku with a smile of his own. "I take it you were watching that embarrassing scene?"
Chouji instantly begun to panic.
"Are you guys mad!? These creeps are too dangerous!" wailed the Akimichi.
Shikamaru seized hold of Chouji's scarf before he could run away.
"You baby! It's troublesome, but we have to do this now that Ino has revealed herself. As men, we can 't run away!" reasoned the lazy ninja with a smile and a shrug.
Ino giggled.
"Sorry about getting you guys involved, but we are a three man team!" added Ino with her two cents worth.
Chouji didn't seem convinced.
"No way! I don't want to die! Please let me go!" wailed Chouji while yanking on his scarf.
"Shut up! Whatever happens, happens. We'll just deal with it later!" shot back Shikamaru.
Zaku laughed.
"Go ahead and run if you want, Fatso!" he taunted.
Chouji's ear twitched and he didn't try to struggle anymore. Ino and Shikamaru sweat dropped, this Zaku person was really asking for it.
"I'm sorry, I didn't hear you. What did you say to me?" said Chouji in a dangerously quiet voice.
Zaku looked confused, but he repeated his taunt all the same.
"I said that you can go jack off in the woods for all I care, Fatass!"
That did it! Chouji whipped around with the eyes of death, and they were glaring straight at Zaku.
"I'm not fat! I'm big boned!" he bellowed while enveloping himself in a spectacular aura of chakra. "Hurray for big boned people!!"
The Sound trio gasped at the butterball's impressive level of power. While Shikamaru and Ino smirked, the fat man was ready to dish out the pain!
"Awesome, he's pissed off!" thought Ino with a giggle. "Here we come!" she cried in a singsong voice.
"Geez, this is going to be really troublesome," mumbled Shikamaru.
Team Ten took a step forward.
"Ino, Shika, Chou formation!" they all cried in unison.
"Baika no Jutsu!" bellowed Chouji for his Double Weight technique.
The big man's body blew up like a balloon. Several fissures appeared beneath his feet thanks to his added weight.
"Now Konoha Taijutsu style! Nikudan Sensha!" cried the much larger Chouji for his Meat Tank attack.
His limbs were tucked into his clothes and great blasts of chakra gusted out of his sleeves and pant legs. The chakra propelled him forward and he went into a rapid spin likened after a human pinball. Chouji charged at Zaku.
"Oh wow, it's a rolling fatass!" joked Zaku with a laugh. "Let's see if it can handle my Air Ripping Blast…Zankuha!"
With his air pressure being released at full strength, the mighty gust prevented Chouji from advancing any further. However, it didn't seem to be stopping him from rolling either. Zaku grimaced in frustration, Chouji's rapidly spinning body was cutting through his technique! Zaku cried out in surprise when Chouji bounced his spinning body high into the air. Chouji then dropped like a stone towards Zaku, who now was suffering from the cool down effect of his technique leaving him unable to move for several seconds. Dosu quickly tried to rush to Zaku's rescue.
"Not so fast! Kagemane no Jutsu!" cried Shikamaru.
The lazy ninja's shadow then elongated and speedily tagged the mummy guy's shadow. He instantly froze in place.
"What the!?" exclaimed Dosu as his hands begun moving of its own accord.
"Heh, Shadow Imitation is a success!" smirked Shikamaru.
In the end, it was Kin who had knocked Zaku safely aside. She then turned to glare at Dosu.
"What the hell are you doing!?" she cried.
"It's him!" shot back Dosu in humiliation when Shikamaru made him assume a monkey stance.
"Ino! You take care of the last one!" instructed Shikamaru with his frown back in place.
"Right! Take care of my body, Shikamaru!" joked Ino with a wink before forming the seal from before. "Ninpou, Shin Ten Shin no Jutsu!"
Kin was expecting many things, but having her body stolen wasn't one of them. Ino took over her mind and forced her into a state of unconsciousness. Ino's body slumped into Shikamaru's arms while Kin became oddly withdrawn.
"Kin?" cried her comrades in concern.
Ino/Kin opened her eyes and smirked.
"It's over!" cried Ino. "If either of you move, I'll kill this girl!"
She pressed a kunai to her host body's throat to empathize her point.
"Leave your scroll and take a hike!"
Ino raised a confused eyebrow when Zaku and Dosu started chuckling. It turned to one of horror when Zaku aimed his palm at Ino's host.
"Chouji!" she wailed desperately.
Zaku's blast was fast approaching, but it was quickly intercepted by the spinning butterball. Regardless, the force of impact still sent Ino flying painfully into a tree. A thin trickle of blood emerged from the corner of both Ino's and her host's body as well. She had been bluffing!
Ino weakly raised her host's body off of the ground and begun breathing heavily.
"You…you guys would attack your own partner?"
Zaku and Dosu narrowed their eyes.
"You shouldn't take us so lightly. If necessary, we won't hesitate to kill each other off to fulfill our mission," answered Dosu. "Our only goal is to fight and kill Uchiha Sasuke. This little Chuunin exam means nothing to us."
Everyone gasped and Shikamaru's technique ended prematurely due to his lost concentration. Dosu glared at him.
"Looks like you've reached your limit, kids. Too bad, you almost had us," he taunted.
Ino and the others lowered their heads in defeat.
"Feh, how pathetic," said yet another newcomer's voice.
Everyone turned towards it to find Neji and Tenten watching the scene with their arms folded.
"Sound ninja are just fools who prey on the weak after all!" continued Neji with a disapproving glare.
Both Tenten and Neji then shifted their gaze to their unconscious team mate.
"Lee!" cried Tenten worriedly.
"Hmp, he screwed up," observed Neji quietly.
"Great, more vermin to get rid of!" grumbled Zaku. "Why don't you get your cocky asses down here and fight!"
Neji's eyes took on an increase level of frostiness.
"That spandex wearing kid down there is our teammate. By the looks of it, you three crossed the line," growled Neji before wordlessly activating his Byakugan.
Everyone flinched at the sight of his massive veins and overall fearsome look. Neji knew that frightened expressions were on everyone's face because he could easily see everyone without shifting his gaze at all.
"If you still wish to fight, then we will give it everything we have," continued Neji darkly before returning his eyes back to normal.
Tenten noticed this and stared at him with a puzzled look. Neji merely smiled coolly.
"It seems that there's no need for us to get involved after all, Tenten," said Neji, much to the irritation of the Sounds. "Look over there," he nodded his head towards the rising power source he had spotted…
The darkness was absolute. The darkness was eternal. No matter how hard or how long he stared into the darkness, it wouldn't change. Finally, Sasuke opened his eyes and revealed a brightness that overtook his senses completely.
"Where…am I?"
Slowly, a faint image came into focus. The return of the very darkness that Sasuke came to hate. It then manifested itself completely into a more human shape.
"Who is that?"
The image came into clearer focus as it grew closer.
"Is that…me?"
A younger looking Sasuke stared at his older counterpart. He was dressed in a black uniform shirt with black shorts. He seemed to glare almost accusingly at the older Sasuke.
"Mother and Father…they didn't have to die," a single tear of blood rolled down his cheek.
The moment the droplet hit the almost air like ground, the light faded away completely. The real Sasuke glanced around him at a very familiar room. When he returned his gaze back to his younger self, he found that two bloodied corpse were now laying between them. They were his parents.
"He killed everyone, and I didn't do anything. I didn't have enough power!" the younger Sasuke grasped his head tearfully. "Without power, you can't do anything!"
He glared hatefully at the real Sasuke before grinning evilly.
"No, you killed them. You destroyed our clan! Uchiha Sasuke!!"
The real Sasuke gasped when his younger self's eyes changed to those of Orochimaru. Their cold yellow glow was the last thing Sasuke saw, before his own body burst into purple flame. He screamed…
Sasuke slowly rose to his feet. His body burned with the power of the very darkness that had consumed him. However, there was no pain, only raw unrestrained strength. His chakra flared and spiked throughout his body with the same color of the fire in his dream. His eyes snapped open to reveal the Sharingan.
There were a lot of insects surrounding him. He recognized two of them as his companions. It was a little hard to remember, but he thought that one of them was named Sakura. The devil that had once been Sasuke reached out with his senses. Most of the chakras he sensed were rather weak by comparison to his own. Only two of them seemed strong enough to be of much interest. He turned towards the strongest one, at the moment, and sized up the silent boy with the tan vest. He felt familiar to the dark being, not that the devil cared to remember. He then turned towards the second strongest power source, the sleeping blond kid. Naruto he believed his name was.
His emotionless eyes passed him by quickly and he turned back to his other companion. He glared hard at her for a moment before speaking.
"Sakura…" he said in a cold voice.
It was almost as if the devil was testing the sound of that name on his tongue. Everyone present begun to tremble in fear when he spoke. The devil could sense their fear, like a sweet nectar to his senses. The power that this thing…what had once been Sasuke was overwhelming them all. Only Neji seemed unfazed, if a bit intrigued by the foul sensation of Sasuke's chakra.
"Sakura…who did this to you?" asked the dark monster quietly.
For a moment, Sakura was too frightened to speak. She couldn't bear to look into this thing's eyes. So instead, she stared at the markings that were slowly spreading about it's body.
"Sasuke-kun…your body…" she managed to say in barely a whisper.
The devil seemed to hear her well enough though. He examined his hand, which was covered in black spots that were spreading like a virus. It didn't hold his interest for very long however.
"Don't worry about it. All that's important is that now I have to power to destroy whoever it was that hurt you. I feel good," said Sasuke quietly. "Master Orochimaru-sama gave it to me."
Sakura couldn't believe what she was hearing. If it weren't for her fear, Sakura would've been trying to throttle Sasuke back to his sense. Instead she sputtered a single word.
"What?"
The devil flexed his hand, testing the feel of it with emotionless yet internal excitement.
"I finally understand why he chose me," he continued as if he hadn't heard her. "I'm an avenger. To kill him I must obtain power no matter what. Even if it means accepting the devil's fruit and surrendering my body."
Sakura's eyes filled with tears, this wasn't the man she loved. This person, was a blood thirsty monster! Sasuke mistook Sakura's sad tears for those of pain, and vowed to do something about it.
"Tell me, Sakura! Who the hell hurt you!?" he demanded harshly.
Sakura whimpered and was about to speak when…
"I did!" declared Zaku with a grin.
The devil's cold eyes locked onto Zaku with no mercy present. This only served to excite Zaku even more. The Sound didn't know very much about this cursed seal that Dosu had warned him about, but he wasn't going to turn tail and run from some half dead freak that just woke up from a nap! He stared balefully back into those blood red orbs and sneered.
"Ino!" cried Shikamaru drawing everyone's attention except for Sasuke, who had eyes only for Zaku. "Get out of there! You might get mistaken for the enemy!"
"Right!" cried Ino before desperately forming a seal. "Kai!"
Kin's body dropped lifelessly to the ground while Ino returned to her own body. She, Shikamaru and Chouji then took cover behind a nearby tree. Kin slowly stirred and climbed back to her feet tiredly. Her eyes too became fearful upon seeing the curse marks on Sasuke's body. The huge chakra force radiating from him didn't help her nerves very much either.
"What's going on?" she cried to her comrades.
Dosu answered with a shaky voice.
"This guy…he's too strong for us! We have to retreat!"
Zaku thought otherwise.
"Relax, Dosu! This guy was half dead when we found him. Let's get him!"
Dosu looked at him as if he had gone mental.
"No, Zaku! You'll be killed for sure!"
But Zaku had already started his attack.
"Eat this! Zankukyokuha!"
If Zaku's last attack had seemed strong, it was nothing compared to the Extreme Decapitating Air Waves. This attack fused Zaku's air pressure and supersonic waves together, both at one hundred percent. The tree shelter and well over ten meters of forest had been pulverized by the blast! So powerful was the attack, that the others had to brace themselves against other objects to avoid being blown away. Zaku was left breathing heavily due to the massive cool down effect of his attack. He smiled at his handy work all the same.
"Heh, got em!" he gasped.
"Got who?" came a cold voice directly next to him.
Zaku didn't even have time to turn his head towards Sasuke before he was sent flying by an almost lazy backhand from the dark warrior. Zaku rolled and bounced on the ground several times before he came to a halt at Dosu's feet. The battered Sound hacked up a mouthful of blood from a swollen jaw.
"Zaku!" cried Dosu and Kin in shock.
Everyone glanced towards the devil, who had yet to turn towards them. Sitting and laying behind him were Sakura and Naruto respectively. All of them were unharmed.
"What amazing speed! He easily avoided the attack while carrying his friends as well! I couldn't follow it at all!" thought Dosu with wide eyes.
No doubt the others were thinking the same thing. The devil then turned around, making the Sounds flinch. Sasuke flashed through several seals at an unnaturally fast pace. His hands were a barely visible blur.
"Katon, Housenka no Jutsu!" cried Sasuke.
However, instead of spitting the fireballs from his mouth. Four of them launched at the stunned Sounds directly from his body! Quickly Zaku took aim with his palms.
"Zankuha!"
A blast of strictly air pressure blew the flames out like a candle. However, the fireballs were really acting as a shield to prevent the quartet of shurikens from being blown away. The Sounds gasped once more at the devil's brilliance. Zaku screamed as the stars ripped into him. The wave had no sooner passed when Zaku felt two excruciating kicks to the back of his legs. Zaku dropped onto both knees with a pained cry before his arms were roughly seized and pulled behind his back to the point of breaking. He screamed in agony as Sasuke planted one foot into the small of his back, directly on the spine. The devil grinned excitedly and laughed.
"You're fond of your arms aren't you?" he asked with a bit of humor added to his cold voice.
"WAIT, PLEASE DON'T DO THIS!!" Zaku screamed but it was far too late.
Sasuke pulled both arms free of their sockets with sickening cracks. Zaku shrieked loudly enough to stir of several birds within the forest. Everyone's mouths dropped open in pure horror! Zaku's mouth was frozen in that now silent shriek even when he lost consciousness. Sasuke let Zaku's broken body drop to the ground with that sadist grin pasted on his face the hold time. The devil then turned around to face Dosu with the desire for the sight of blood shining in his eyes.
"All that's left are you two. I hope you can entertain me better than he did," said the devil while licking his lips hungrily.
Dosu and Kin trembled so bad that a Inari seemed likely. Dosu could already feel moisture in his pants. Sasuke begun advancing towards them…
"What's happening to you…you're not the Sasuke-kun that I know…you've become…you've become…"
Sakura stood up and ran towards Sasuke.
"Sasuke-kun!" she cried before wrapping her arms around him from behind.
The devil glared at her coldly over his shoulder.
"Let go of me, or I swear I will kill you," he growled darkly.
Sakura's heart broke at these words and her tears freely fell from her eyes. But, she would never let go until her Sasuke-kun came back to his senses.
"Please, stop…" she whispered between sobs. "Come back to me, Sasuke-kun!"
The devil knew of no Sasuke-kun, only blood and pain could appeal to him now. But something about her eyes made him hesitate. He didn't know why, but memories of his life drifted into his mind's eye. He remembered Sakura's warm smiles and desires to make him happy. He also remembered times when he had been able to smile back. Even Naruto and the brotherly rivalry between them invaded his thoughts. These memories seemed to calm the devil's craving for pain considerably. Slowly, the cursed seal that had nearly consumed his body completely begun to subside. The Sharingan vanished from his eyes as well and the dark being retreated to the far corner of Sasuke's mind to rest until the desire to feed consumed him once more. Uchiha Sasuke woke up at that moment…
Sasuke weakly fell onto his butt and gasped for air. The sear power, or any hint that he had been overtaken in the first place seemed like a distant dream now. Sakura kneeled next to the Uchiha and sobbed uncontrollably onto his shoulder. Sasuke awkwardly embraced her with the intent of asking her what had happened later on. All the event's beyond the encounter with Orochimaru was alien to him at this point. The terrified Sounds stilled continued to tremble despise the fact that Sasuke's frightening strength had subsided. Dosu produced the Earth scroll from his pocket.
"You're too strong! We cannot defeat you!" said the humbled Sound fearfully.
Sasuke looked at him in confusion before glancing at Sakura as if to say "What is he talking about?" Sakura shook her head and silently promised to fill him in later. Dosu slowly set the scroll down and backed away from it. He then slung Zaku over his shoulder by his waist and turned back to Sasuke for a parting word.
"Please, allow us to leave. I know it's a lot to ask of you, but the three of us need to confirm something," pleaded Dosu. "However, if we should battle a second time during the exam, we won't run or hide. I give you our word."
Sasuke nodded his agreement. With that, the Sounds turned to dash away…
"Hold on! Please tell us! What is this mark that Orochimaru put on Sasuke-kun?" asked Sakura.
Dosu glanced over his shoulder.
"I'm not completely certain myself. But that mark, is a product of chaos and pure evil. Our only orders were to find and kill Sasuke-kun. That's all I know."
Satisfied with his answer, Sakura allowed him to leave. The Sounds slowly strode away into the forest. With them gone, Team Ten immediately spread out to attend to the others. Neji and Tenten just watched…
Anko had just arrived at Sarutobi's place. Currently, she was recapping the events that occurred between her and Orochimaru while the Third patiently listened. Sagitario and the ANBU stood on either side of her and listened as well. Once her summary ended, Sarutobi rubbed his eyes tiredly.
"We'll have to cancel the exam and dispatch the Hunter ninjas," he said seriously.
Anko stood up and leaned on Sarutobi's desk.
"Please, Hokage-sama! We can't cancel the exam!" she pleaded desperately.
The Third was just about to speak when, his office door burst opened.
"Anko-sama!" cried one of the examiners from the hut outside the Forest of Death.
"What is it!? I'm having an important meeting with Hokage-sama!" snapped Anko angrily.
"M-my apologies, Anko-sama! But I think you should take a look at this!" said the examiner while holding up a video tape.
Sagitario took the tape, and after receiving the O.K. from Sarutobi, inserted it into a cassette player. The television set flickered to life and the video begun playing.
"Okay, take a look at this." said the examiner while pointing to the time keeper.
The numbers read 15:28a.m. At that moment, Genmaru and his comrades appeared on the screen. They paused to marvel at the tower structure from up close before entering it. The screen then flickered black and white with static before showing a different time, 16:37a.m. Gaara and his team arrived on the scene. Unlike Team Nine, Gaara turned to glare directly into the hidden camera. His squad then entered the tower. Everyone gave starts of surprise.
"It's amazing! Twenty-eight minutes after the start of the exam, the first group entered the tower. Then an hour and nine minutes after that, the second group followed!" said the examiner excitedly. "This has never happened before!"
"Is that humanly possible!?" exclaimed Anko with wide eyes.
Sagitario chuckled.
"Not bad at all for their first try! I simply have to take them out to celebrate when this is over!" chuckled Sagitario in pleasure.
Sarutobi chuckled at the incredulous look that Anko was giving Sagitario. No doubt she was wondering what kind of training he had been giving those kids.
"These guys can't be Genin! They broke the old record by over five hours!" voiced the examiner.
"There's more to it than that!" said Anko. "None of them had any injuries at all. The forest is filled with beasts, poisonous hazards and steep trails. This is truly hard to believe."
"Indeed," agreed the Third. "But the redhead kid interests me the most. Note that his clothes aren't dirty at all."
Even the ANBU seemed impressed. This kid gave new meaning to the term, untouchable. Sarutobi leaned back in his chair and took a drag on his pipe.
"It's been many years since so many promising people had took part in this exam. It would be a shame not to see how this plays out," murmured the Third with his eyes closed.
Anko spun around with a disbelieving look.
"So you'll…"
The Third nodded.
"The Chuunin exam will continue," he said.
And boy was it going to be an interesting one…
Naruto woke up with a loud cry of pain. He seized hold of his throbbing head and glared reproachfully at Chouji, who was holding a stick in his hand. He and Shikamaru were frowning at Naruto with dislike written on their faces. Naruto, far too used to this kind of treatment, ignored them and glanced around. His eyes instantly filled with confusion.
"Where did that snake guy disappear to? Did Sasuke and Sakura beat him?" he wondered aloud.
Naruto's eyes then settled on Sakura. He did a double take and his jaw dropped open in shock. Sakura's hair was short!!
"Sakura-chan!" he wailed before jumping to his feet.
The blond immediately felt that something was wrong. His weights felt so heavy that his arms and legs begun to scream. His arms dragged him onto his stomach.
"Nani!?" he cried while struggling to lift his arm again.
It was no use, Naruto's strength had abandoned him. Sakura and Sasuke, who turned towards him after he cried out, rushed and hobbled to his side.
"Naruto! What's wrong?" cried Sakura in alarm.
Naruto trembled as he strained to climb to his feet. His arms never rose off the ground even when Sakura and Sasuke helped him manage a sitting position.
"I don't understand! My body, feels so weak right now! It's hard to move in these!" he groaned.
Both Sakura and Sasuke grew thoughtful while the others look on in confusion to what they were talking about. It was Sasuke who spoke first.
"It must've been that technique. It was one of the sealing moves," theorized the Uchiha.
"That's it! Orochimaru must've sealed away most of your chakra!" added Sakura. "Your strength must have been decreased because your body isn't supplying your muscles with as much chakra as normal!"
Naruto moaned in despair.
"What do I do now!?" he wailed.
None of his comrades had an answer. After a few minutes of tense silence during which Ino gave first aid treatment to Sasuke and Sakura. The pink haired kunoichi spoke.
"I think we should have Kakashi-sensei examine you the next time we see him," suggested Sakura. "In the meantime, you've best leave those weights behind."
Naruto gave a start.
"No way! These were a gift to me from Genmaru! I'm not just going to abandon them!!" protested the upset blond.
Sakura put on her annoyed frown.
"Look, Naruto! You can't even stand with those things on! This isn't the time to be showing off!"
Naruto ignored her and tried standing up again. His arms still wouldn't come off of the ground, but he found that by forcibly pumping extra chakra into his muscles he could at least move about.
"See! I can move just fine!" lied the straining blond.
Everyone sighed at his stubbornness, but didn't press the issue since he could at least move around now. Shikamaru and Ino, who now had Lee slung over her shoulders, still muttered the word stupid under their breath but Naruto could care less. It was just another handicap in his eyes. He turned slowly towards Sakura and voiced what was on his mind.
"What happened to your hair, Sakura-chan?"
Despise her annoyance with Naruto, her eyes softened at this comment.
"Oh, I'm just changing my image," she replied with a sad smile. "I like long hair, but you know how that sort of thing gets in my way in a forest area like this."
Sasuke didn't look convinced, but Naruto accepted the logic behind it. He then turned towards Shikamaru and the others with a puzzled frown on his face.
"By the way, why are you guys here anyway?" he asked.
"Explaining such a thing is too troublesome for me," grumbled Shikamaru with a frown.
The others didn't look like they wanted to go into much detail either. It was Sakura who answered him.
"Everyone helped us," she quietly said with a smile.
"Huh?" grunted the blond.
While Sakura recapped the events that occurred while Naruto slept, minus the part about Dark Sasuke and the cursed seal; during which Sasuke listened intently to when she got to the summery of the battle with the Sound trio. Tenten approached Ino.
"I'll take Lee now," she said.
"Okay," was all Ino said before handing him over.
Immediately, Tenten begun to throttle Lee violently.
"Wake up, you fool!" she yelled at him as she did this.
Everyone sweat dropped. Lee blearily opened one of his eyes.
"Tenten?" he mumbled. "Why are you here?"
"Neji and I were looking for you!" replied Tenten while kneeling in front of him.
Lee begun looking around.
"Where did those Sound guys go?" he asked warily.
"That Sasuke boy drove them off," she replied.
"I see…" murmured Lee while glancing at Naruto and the others. "Naruto-san is awake too. And Sakura, what happened to her hair?" he observed.
"Why did fight on your own?" demanded Tenten with a frown. "You could been killed! You certainly looked it when we found you!"
Lee lowered his gaze to the ground. Tenten was going to make a good mother one day.
"Sakura-chan was in danger, so as a man I had to protect her."
A tiny hint of jealously touched Tenten's eyes.
"You really are an idiot you know that!?" she cried.
Lee's eyes became sad.
"I can't argue with that," he agreed.
Sakura approached them at that moment.
"Lee-san…thank you," said Sakura quietly. "Thanks to you, my eyes are wide open now. I think I've become a little stronger too." she smiled.
Lee's eyes filled with tears.
"Sakura-chan!" he said happily with a blush.
He hastily wiped away his tears.
"It looks like I need more training," he looked sadly at Sasuke. "Sasuke-kun, you truly are an Uchiha. Congratulations on driving away the Sound ninjas that I couldn't defeat."
Sasuke nodded, haven already heard the story from Sakura. Lee turned back to Sakura.
"Sakura-chan, the Lotus in Konoha always blooms twice. So…the next time we meet, I will be an even stronger man!" promised Lee with a warm smile.
Sakura returned his smile just as warmly and nodded.
"Okay."
At that moment, Ino called.
"Sakura! Let me fix up your hair!" she cried with a wave.
"Okay, thank you!" agreed Sakura with a third smile.
Things were finally getting back to normal…
Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke spent the next three days recovering by the river. Naruto had spent the first two days reconditioning his body to his weights. But it was on the last day, that the topic of what was contained within the scroll was brought up. Time was running short, and the trio only had twenty-six hours at best to find a Heaven scroll and get to the tower. So once Sasuke wasn't looking, Naruto and Sakura attempted to open the scroll. They were stopped, just in time it seemed, by Kabuto!
"You two really are idiots you know that?" Sasuke scolded his comrades once he found out what they tried to do.
Naruto and Sakura bowed their head apologetically.
"Sorry," they murmured sadly.
"Those who break the rules will find themselves forced into a situation where they are forced to retire," scolded Kabuto as well. "In the previous exam, those who opened the scroll where punished with a deep sleep inducing Jutsu that wouldn't wear off until five days had passed."
"Sorry," murmured the duo once again.
Kabuto couldn't find it in his heart to stay mad at them. They simply didn't know. He tried to cheer them up with an amused smile. It worked, and the crestfallen duo smiled back. Sasuke then turned to Kabuto with a serious look on his face.
"Why are you here alone?" he asked the gray haired ninja suspiciously.
Kabuto chuckled.
"Hey don't be like that. It's not like I was after your scroll or anything like that!" said Kabuto cheerily.
"That's right. If you were, you could've easily stolen the scroll from Naruto since his guard was down," grumbled Sasuke. "You must be after the Heaven scroll then."
"Not quite," replied Kabuto while reaching into his pouch. "I already have both," he held up a set of the white and burgundy scrolls.
"Cool!" said Naruto.
"Yeah, I'm really happy for you, Kabuto-san!" added Sakura.
"Yeah, well I went through a lot of trouble to get these scrolls," said Kabuto while coolly pocketing them. "I was just on my way to the tower now. Sorry I can't stick around, later."
Kabuto had no sooner turned around when Sasuke spoke.
"Hang on!"
Kabuto turned back around, politely curious.
"Fight with us," requested Sasuke quietly.
"Hello, earth to Sasuke! Kabuto-san helped us, you moron!" cried Naruto.
"I'm siding with Naruto on this one. It just doesn't seem right," added Sakura.
Sasuke glared at them before shifting his gaze back to Kabuto.
"Fight us," repeated Sasuke.
Kabuto smirked.
"And why would I want to do that, Sasuke-kun?"
"Look, we don't have much time! I wish it were someone else, but we need that scroll!" reasoned the Uchiha.
"You don't think things through very much do you, Sasuke-kun?" asked Kabuto with one eye closed in an almost pitying look.
"What was that?" growled the Uchiha.
"Come now, if you were as prepared as you pretend to be then you wouldn't have bothered challenging me like this. A serious ninja would've attacked me while I had my guard down," logically pointed out Kabuto. "Don't worry, I don't hate you for this. A few years ago I might've done the same thing. So as a gift to you guys, I'll help you out a bit. Follow me."
Everyone became more hopeful. They may still have a shot yet. The quartet then took to the tree tops, en route towards the tower. Kabuto proved to be very talkative and knowledgeable about enemy behavior.
"The remaining few teams are sure to be gathered around the tower by now. Since this is the last day, this would be the easiest place to find a scroll," explained Kabuto.
"I see, we'll be able to ambush the teams that are on their way to the tower!" realized Naruto.
"Correct, but it won't be as easy as you make it sound," said Kabuto. "Remember the other teams will have came up with the same idea. There will be a lot of traps around there because of it. You guys will also have to be wary of the collectors."
"Collectors?" echoed Sakura.
"Yeah. Stronger than average ninjas and alliances that take more scrolls than needed and trade them to other teams for favors and information. Don't be surprised if you find yourselves fighting nine or twelve enemies at the same time," warned Kabuto.
"Interesting," commented Sasuke with a smirk. "I take it that you're helping us because you're afraid of meeting one of these alliances."
"As much as I hate to admit it, yes that's one of the reasons why I'm helping you. The other reason however, is a bit personal," replied Kabuto.
"Not problem, we understand!" said Naruto. "It's just another handicap for us to overcome!"
The blond grinned excitedly…
It was dusk by the time they neared the perimeter of the tower. The quartet had advanced more slowly to buy themselves more time to take notice of traps. They had also stopped at one point or another to grill some fish for lunch. They were now taking a more foliage filled path to avoid detection.
"There's the tower," said Kabuto while pointing to the east.
Sure enough, the top half of the tower was visible pass the treetops.
"Alright! Let's go!" cried Naruto loudly making everyone winch.
"Idiot!" hissed Sasuke.
A murderous intent immediately appeared behind the group. Quickly Naruto withdrew and hurled a kunai towards it. A pained cry rang out and everyone turned towards it to find perhaps the most ugly critter they had ever seen. A giant Konoha centipede was writhing, pinned to a tree trunk with Naruto's kunai logged into it's head area. It twitched one last time before becoming still.
"Brr, how creepy!" shuttered Sakura.
"It's also extremely poisonous. Naruto-kun, I want to avoid loud noises from now on," said Kabuto sternly. "In a much worse case scenario, that could been the enemy instead of a wild beast. It'll save us a lot of trouble if the enemy doesn't hear or detect us, okay?"
Naruto nodded in understanding.
"Good. I suggest that we slow our pace even more until we reach the tower. We still have fourteen hours left, so let's make the most of them to insure our survival."
"Right," chorused the trio quietly.
They then followed the most over growth filled path they could find, to further conceal themselves…
For the most part, they were making good progress. Other than one instance where Naruto had gotten tangled up in some low hanging vines that he failed to notice and set off a kunai wave trap. Kabuto had saved him from the knives using a basic replacement technique. During the journey, the only other sign of human existence were three deceased bodies. The result of a brutal poison tipped needle trap. Still they trekked on, for nearly two hours before Sakura tiredly sank to her bottom.
"I can't go any further!" she whined while breathing heavily. "We've been walking and walking but the tower isn't getting any closer at all!"
Everyone looked in the direction of the tower. Sure enough, it was still the same distance away from since they began. Naruto frowned.
"Weird. I thought that we would've been there by now," he murmured.
Kabuto smirked.
"Interesting. Guys, take a look over there," said the gray haired ninja with a point.
The others followed the direction of his finger to find the same creepy-crawly that Naruto had killed earlier!
"No way! Is it Genjutsu?" asked Sakura nervously.
"I'm afraid so. We're being watched," confirmed Kabuto while everyone put up their guards. "Apparently, we were tricked into wandering in circles so that we would tire out."
"An alliance?" asked Sasuke.
"Maybe, we're about to find out," replied Kabuto while nodding to some trees.
From out of the tree trunks and ground, nearly fifty ninjas that looked at lot like the scuba diver Rain ninja Team Seven had beaten before appeared. The difference was that their outfits were black and their eyes weren't visible. They begun staggering towards the quartet like a bunch of freakish zombies. The group huddled back to back, completely surrounded. Naruto and Sasuke smiled confidently.
"Here they come," observed Sasuke.
"Heh, haven we done this before?" said Naruto with a chuckle in reference to the Zabuza showdown. "This is going to be a pretty good handicap!"
One of the, obviously, water clones spoke.
"Oh, we've caught quite a few mice in our trap," all of the other clones laughed.
"Shut up!" cried Naruto while lunging forward with a wild punch.
The blow blasted through a clone's stomach like a karate master's fist through a block of wood. The blond hopped back with a victorious grin. However, instead of dissolving into a puddle of fluid as usual, another hand emerged from the gapping hole holding a double edged kunai.
"What the…what's going on!?" cried Naruto with everyone's thoughts.
Following the hand, the head and torso of another clone emerged from the wound. This was anything but normal. Sasuke then closed his eyes and formed a prayer seal.
"Sharingan!"
Seeing this, the hydra like clone attempted to rush Naruto since he was the closest target. Sasuke quickly hurled a swarm of shuriken at the thing's arm. The flying stars easily sliced it off by striking the same spot repeatedly. The wannabe hydra turned both heads towards Sasuke in what he imagined was suppose to be a glare, not that the thing had eyes to glare with. It hurled its' double edged kunai at Sasuke. The Uchiha tensed in preparation to leap aside when he suddenly froze.
'It's all your fault! You kill mom and dad! You killed them Uchiha Sasuke!' came the voice of his younger self.
"You're wrong! It was him, he's the one who did it!" shot back Sasuke.
'Liar! It was you! All because you didn't have enough power! Why did you let him do it? Why Sasuke!?'
"Shut up! Get out of my head!" screamed the Uchiha mentally.
'You kill them! You kill them!'
Kabuto sensed that Sasuke wasn't going to act in time and quickly tackled him out of the way. Sasuke barely even noticed, his eyes were glazed over as he argued with the voice in his head. The splatter of Kabuto's blood onto his face from the arm wound inflicted by the knife, stirred something inside of him awake.
"Kabuto-san! Sasuke-kun!" cried Sakura in alarm.
Kabuto stood up with a winch and protectively stood in front of the Uchiha. Sakura kneeled next to him and screamed something at him. Sasuke didn't hear her, he couldn't hear her. Only the voice and the dull burning that spread from his neck could reach him now.
'You're a murderer, Sasuke! A murderer!'
The voice then changed.
"But I can change all of that. I can give you what you desire. Submit yourself to me. Submit, to the power that is Devil"
"No! I can't! I wont!" cried Sasuke's voice, but it sounded small even to himself.
"You must. Devil is power, Devil is absolute. Only with the power Devil commands will you be able to crush all who dares to oppose you. Submit to me, set me free!"
"NOO!" cried Sasuke aloud while violently sitting upright.
"Sasuke-kun?!" cried Sakura in alarm as his hand grasped the cursed seal on his neck.
It burned more painfully than he could ever had imagined. But the voice continued to whisper in his ear, faint but not truly gone.
Kabuto was examining the double edged knife with his good hand. His eyes narrowed darkly.
"This is no illusion. That rules out the possibility of it being a regular clone. But I've never seen a Bunshin that behaves like this before," mused Kabuto grimly.
"Does that mean that they're shadow replications?" asked Naruto with a kunai drawn. "But they should've disappeared when I hit them! What's going on!?"
One of the hydra like clones staggered faster than normal towards the blond.
"Dammit!" cried Naruto while rearing back his kunai arm.
"W-wait, Naruto!" cried Sasuke suddenly. "This is just an illusion. Nothing but pure Genjutsu," he said between gasps for breath.
"But Sasuke-kun, Kabuto-san's wound is real!" pointed out Sakura.
But Kabuto said otherwise.
"Sasuke-kun is right. The real enemy is most likely attacking while hiding nearby," said Kabuto while warily looking about. "Note that the illusions have only attacked us with kunai throws so far."
"In that case, I'll find those bastards and beat them up! That'll teach them to throw knives at us!" declared Naruto angrily.
"Don't bother, Naruto. Those guys could be anywhere around us and I'm sure that they'll move if it looks like we're going to find them. It's a fighting style that is often used by those who are weak at long and close ranged Taijutsu combat," explained Kabuto quietly. "We'll have to dodge for now. Hopefully their weapons will run out before our time is up."
Everyone mentally cursed. Things were not looking up. The quartet then spent the better part of an hour dodging and blocking random kunai throws. It wasn't long before the group started to tire. The only good that came out of this was that Sasuke was too busy avoiding attacks to be able to listen to the constant whispering of his inner voice. Sakura screamed in frustration.
"There's no end to this!" she cried.
Naruto growled and formed a seal.
"Then I'll use this! Kage…" he begun.
"Don't, Naruto-kun! You'll just waste chakra attacking them!" cut in Kabuto.
"No! I'm sick of running! If we can at least get rid of the illusions, the real guys won't be able to attack us without giving away their location!" said Naruto heatedly. "Tajuu Kage-Bunshin no Jutsu!"
The area then filled with thirty Narutos. With loud cries, they charged at the staggering illusions. The illusions were being destroyed time and time again by the army. But just as quickly as Naruto eliminated them they would come back.
"We're not done yet!" cried the Narutos in unison.
They all charged again, but this time the others joined in as well…
Nearly three hours later, all of the Naruto clones had been beaten. The others were all too tired to move and Naruto himself was the only one standing, although of wobbly legs.
"This…ain't…over yet!" he gasped before falling onto his rear as well.
The illusions stared at them for a few more seconds, then they all vanished. The real Rains then strode into the clearing with amused eyes.
"Hi, remember me?" asked the one that Naruto Sakura and Sasuke had fought on the first day.
His teammates stood on either side of him. They were snickering.
"I've finally found you punks. Ready for round two?" he continued with a kunai in hand.
For the longest nobody moved. Then Naruto grinned.
"Sure, I'll be happy to kick your butt again! But my friends would like a word with you first!" he said.
Sasuke's voice then rang out from somewhere in the trees. The Rain's eyes widened, the Uchiha sitting in front of him never said anything.
"Looks like we've caught a few mice in our trap, right?" taunted Sasuke from some unknown location.
"Nice plan, Naruto! Good idea using the riot to fill us in!" came Sakura's voice from directly behind the Rains!
They turned around to find Kabuto, Sakura and Sasuke smirking at them. They spun back around and witnessed their copies transform into grinning Narutos. They had been tricked!
"We've got you now, ya bastards!" declared the real Naruto.
The Rains begun cursing under their breaths.
"You're not so great for a Genjutsu specialist," taunted Sasuke. "Naruto! Take a break. We'll handle things from here."
The Rains turned around to face Sasuke and the others, only to be on the receiving end of a sneak attack from the blond. They had been tricked again! This time into dropping their guards and turning their backs to Naruto, never a smart thing.
"No way, Sasuke! I'll never let you take all of the good parts!" gasped Naruto with a grin.
The others smirked. This was so like Naruto, to keep fighting until he couldn't fight anymore. The Rains climbed to their feet with frightened eyes.
"How is it that you can still fight after all of that!?" cried one of them.
Naruto merely took on a battle pose. Seeing this, the Rains spread out and face him with poses of their own. They then formed the same seal that Naruto used when making shadow clones.
"Very well then, try this on for size! Ninpou, Obara Bunshin no Jutsu!"
The clearing filled over sixty Hazy Replications. They all glared at the blond, who was immediately flanked by his battle ready teammates.
"Stay back guys!" ordered the blond. "I'll take them on alone!"
Sakura looked worried, but the others nodded their understanding.
"Be careful, Naruto. They may be planning something," advised Sasuke.
Naruto shrugged it off.
"Only three of them are real right? I'll just keep swinging until I nail one of them!" declared the blond before pressing the catch release button on his weights.
They fell with a heavy thud onto the ground. The blond then took off his leg weights and started stretching his aching muscles. With a cry, an aura of slightly flickering chakra surrounded him. The flickering being a sign that his chakra reserves were about to hit rock bottom. Still, the power rush strengthened Naruto just as always.
The blond then vanished in a flash of high speed. The blond reappeared directly in front of one clone's face and lashed out with a beheading snap kick. Naruto's leg passed through empty air, but the clone didn't disappear. Thinking nothing of it, Naruto vanished again to attack the next one. A minute passed and Naruto was certain that he had hit at least forty clones, with the same results. He didn't want to think about the number of them that he had hit more than once. Since they didn't disappear, it was hard to keep track of that little detail.
Sasuke keep close watch on Naruto's progress and grimaced. He was going to need some help for this one. The blond was slowing down to the point where even Sakura and Kabuto were able to follow his movement for brief periods of time.
"Damn! This is the last of my chakra!" thought Sasuke before refocusing his Sharingan on the clones themselves.
The Uchiha's eyes widened in surprise before the burning on his neck became unbearable. With a cry he dropped to his knees.
"Sasuke-kun!" cried Sakura as usual.
She gasped upon spotting his neck.
"The mark, it's spreading again!" she realized…
"You will submit to me. Sleep and your pain will end."
"I already told you! Stay out of my head!" cried Sasuke.
"Do you not desire to protect your friends?"
"Protect?"
"Do you want to destroy him, the one who took everything from you?"
"Yes."
"Then why do you fear me?"
"I don't want to lose myself again."
"Your mind will remain your own. I only offer you the sincerity of sleep so that you may remain pure. When you awaken, all of your enemies shall be no more. Submit to me."
"I-I…"
"Sasuke-kun!" cried Sakura, rousing Sasuke from his mind. "Don't use your Sharingan anymore!"
Naruto's paused and spun around when he heard Sakura's cry.
"Sakura-chan!" he cried instantly alarmed.
"You let your guard down!" came a voice behind him.
Naruto spun back around to find one of the clones bringing a kunai down towards his head. In a flash, the blond disappeared and reappeared behind him. He grabbed hold of the clone's shirt and pulled him backwards. Naruto landed on his back and used his foot to launch the clone into the air. He then kicked up back onto his feet.
"Damn them!" growled Naruto in annoyance before tensing for another speed burst.
"Naruto!" called Sasuke. "Don't waste your time, the real one isn't anywhere in that crowd."
"Then where are the real ones!?" demanded Naruto while speedily ducking a kunai thrust.
He took hold of that guy's arm and flipped him into a crowd of other clones. None of them vanished or slowed as expected.
"I don't know! This would've been over already if I did!" shot back Sasuke while winching in pain.
The burning had intensified tenfold. A bunch of clones then surrounded Naruto on every side. The rapidly begun thrusting their kunai at his head repeatedly. Naruto's head was a blur as he avoided thrust after thrust. He ducked when all of the clones reared back for a major thrust at once. The clones ended up stabbing each other instead. Naruto vanished from between them in a flash. When he reappeared, he sank to his knees. His chakra reserves were completely drained!
"Ugh, my body! I can't move!" groaned Naruto between gasps.
"Looks like you've reached your limits, kid. Lucky me!" cried a clone while jumping upwards for an overhand slash.
Naruto closed his eyes and braced himself for impact. Kabuto dashed forward and blocked the blow with his kunai. Naruto looked up when he heard the shing of metal on metal.
"Kabuto-san?" said a surprised Naruto.
The gray haired ninja flipped the clone onto his back. Direct attacks may not have worked to well, but throws did the job just fine.
"Naruto-kun! Run away aagu!"
The gray hair ninja sank to his knees and dropped onto his side. Kabuto's back had three knife slashes on it. Three Rain ninjas rose out of the ground with blood soaked kunai. These were the real ones.
"Kabuto-san!" wailed Naruto before screaming in rage.
The blond vanished in another burst of speed and reappeared to score a brutal kick into the face of one of the Rains! He staggered into his teammates, knocking them over and effectively dispelling the Clone technique. The one Naruto kicked was completely out cold while the others were cradling wounds that they had accidentally inflicted upon themselves during the domino effect.
"Don't let your guard down was it?" said Naruto with a smirk before slumping over due to lack of energy.
Kabuto painfully sat up and smiled at Naruto sheepishly.
"Thank you for saving me, Naruto-kun. That wasn't much fun at all," said the gray haired ninja.
Naruto tiredly flashed the thumbs up. The fight had been won!
The quartet spent six hours recovering with some much needed shut eye. But not before tying up the Rains and taking their Heaven scroll! They were now on there way to the toward with less than two hours remaining on the clock. During the walk, Kabuto and Sasuke slowed their stride a bit so that they could talk privately.
"During the fight back there, I saw the mark on your neck. Do you mind telling me where you got it?" asked Kabuto.
Sasuke's glare more or less told him that he didn't want to talk about it. Kabuto nodded in understanding and the rest of the trip was made in silence. The only exception was Naruto, who had recovered amazingly fast in those few hours of sleep. He was almost just as bouncy and loud as usual, and he kept peering into his pouch to look at the Heaven scroll every few minutes with a big grin on his face. Sakura was just as happy, though she didn't show it as much as Naruto did.
They arrived at the tower with just forty-two minutes worth of time left. They had pressed it mighty close that time. Just as Kabuto had said, his teammates greeted them once they made it to the front door.
"You're late!" said one guy who was dressed just like Kabuto except for his eye hiding sunglasses and the dark purple veil that hid his face from view. His name was Akado Yoroi.
Standing behind Yoroi was another guy dressed like Kabuto. He too had wire framed glasses, but his hair was brown. His name was Misumi Tsurugi.
"I ran into some trouble," explained Kabuto with a hand behind his head. "Sorry about that."
Naruto laughed.
"But he helped us get two scrolls!" added the blond in an effort to back him up.
Kabuto gave the blond a look of gratitude.
"I think it was more because of your hard work this time, Naruto-kun," contradicted Kabuto good naturedly. "You were especially incredible, Naruto-kun!"
The blond grinned with both hands behind his head.
"Well, best of luck to us both eh?" said Kabuto with the thumbs up.
"Yeah!" replied Naruto and Sakura.
The two teams then separated. Naruto and his comrades entered the tower and followed the newly placed arrow markers to a big room with several sealed doors. Naruto attempted to open one, but it was no good.
"Damn, what do we do now!?" he cried to the empty air in irritation.
"Well, look at that," said Sakura while pointing to a slip of paper hanging on the wall.
The trio gathered around it and begun reading.
"If you do not possess Heaven, gain knowledge and be prepared. If you do not possess Earth, run through the fields and seek strength. If you open both Heaven and Earth scrolls, dangerous paths turn into safe paths. This is the secret of genesis, the fruits of Nindo. It shall lead the way," read Sakura.
"Ookay, and that means?" asked Naruto with a frown.
"Well, if I had to guess. I think it's telling us to open the scrolls here," replied Sakura.
"I guess it couldn't hurt to give it a try," said Naruto nervously.
Kabuto's warning about the sleep inducing Jutsu was still fresh in all of their minds. Naruto handed Sakura the Earth scroll as if it were a stick of dynamite. All three of them swallowed as both Naruto and Sakura peeled the seal away from the parchment's edge. They then slowly begun to open the scroll. The moment of truth had finally arrived…
Hey Hey Hoo Minna! It's Aninene the Legendary Fox! These last two weeks have been busy busy busy! I know what you're thinking. "Where have you been, Aninene?" Truthfully, my mind became overwhelmed with another Fanfic idea. So, because I couldn't turn part of my brain off and stay focused on this one, I've written the first six chapters of that fic. Don't look forward to it yet though, I'm not posting it until I've finished at least ten chapters.
Okay, now this one was fun to write. The most stone cold anime villain of them all is finally here! Orochimaru :) You wouldn't think it was possible for this guy to become any more evil, but that changes in this fic. His first evil deed will be, making it harder for Naruto to use his speed for long periods of time. Muwahahaha. (Ahem) Moving on, what is your opinion on the alternate personality living within Sasuke? It just seemed so right to put that in there. Too many late nights watching scary movies I guess. Okay, to the reviews!
Echizen Ryoma-san: I know, it terrible that I'm doing just that at the moment. But it still isn't ready to go AU just yet. If I had to make a rough estimate of how close I am to being able to completely alter the Cannon with my current elements I would say 89 percent. But I'll tell you guys now when the AU will start. In just two more chapters!! That's right, after this next one the Cannon will practically be gone until the tournament starts. Then no more Cannon, Yahoo!! So please, just bear with me for one last chapter. :)
Sonic Man 3: You may just be right as far as the plot goes, but keep in mind that there's no need to insult me. I'm not mad or anything like that, you're young after all. But remember, we writers only want to hear your opinion about our work so we'll know where to improve. Insults have nothing to do with the fic, so don't submit them. Remember that whenever you submit a review to anyone.
shadow patronus: I'm glad you like my writing style. One of the iron rules of story writing is that a writer must capture and maintain the interest of the reader. I haven't did that for you and for that I'm very sorry. If you ever decide to give any future fics I write a try, I'll do my best to make it enjoyable from start to finish.
Sa'Kaite: I see what you mean. After looking over some of the chapters, I did find some minor but confusing errors in the fic. I'll have a word with Lola about that. And yes, it was probably a bad idea to go Cannon on a story that I can't alter smoothly without putting crucial Elements in first. The slow and steady method doesn't seem to be working too well this time around, so I'll work harder on that. Ah, you're an action man/woman, in that case you may fall in love with my super fight scene. It will occur next chapter!! Hang on to your hat, it'll be a real piece of work :)
shikamaru the nerd: I have to give you a round of applauds. You are one of three reviewers that submit frequently. Very nice :) Okay I feel for you about the way that Naruto seems so weak at first. Mr. Kishimoto did the lovable hero extreme injustice, but he also has a lot of strengths that no other ninja could ever have. I'll be elaborating on that as the fic continues. The clan itself, will definitely be revealed shortly. As a bit of insight on them, most of the children trained in the clan are already on Chuunin level. A typical teenager would be as strong as a Jounin. And adults, such as Sagitario are stronger than most ANBU and in some cases the Sannins themselves. I won't say anymore, but you'll soon find out exactly why the Dragon Clan is ranked among the most elite in all of Konoha. Look forward to it :)
Disclaimer time! (Hears groans and complaints)
I do not, have not and will not ever own any part of the Anime Naruto. Only my original elements and characters remain my own. All others are properties of Bandai and Mr. Kishimoto.
Lastly, the Ranking System!
Naruto - D Plus Rank
Naruto - C Rank while tapping into the Kyuubi's power
Naruto - D Rank after having his chakra sealed by Orochimaru with a Focus Gauge of 40/100
Sakura - D Minus Rank with a Focus Gauge of 0/100 after using her Limit Break against the Sound Genin
Sasuke - D Plus Rank with a Focus Gauge of 0/100 after using his Limit Break against Orochimaru.
Sasuke - C Minus Rank using Sharingan.
Sasuke - C Plus Rank when corrupted by the Cursed Seal into becoming Devil Sasuke.
Ame Team - D Minus Rank
Anko - B Minus Rank
Orochimaru - A Plus Rank
Dosu - C Rank
Zaku - C Minus Rank
Kin - D Plus Rank
Lee - C Rank
Shikamaru - D Rank
Ino - D Rank
Chouji - D Rank
Kabuto - C Rank with skills supressed
See you next chapter. I'm slightly over the author note limit due to the reviews. Keep them coming please!
