Chapter 9: Snake bites

Team 10, 9 and 8 were back by the cave they had stayed in for three weeks just a day prior and were activating security seals that had been inactivated when they left. It hid the cave opening from spying eyes and also any signs of humans being there. Team 10 then went hunting while Team 9 went to get water and team 8 gathered firewood and guarded the campsite.

They quickly brought down a giant boar ,and after skinning it,brought it back before cutting the body into pieces. Team 8 had a large campfire going when they arrived and took the meat and readied it for cooking with the herbs chouji had picked along the way and when team 9 arrived with water they started cooking. Meanwhile they started discussing how they would capture other teams that had the scrolls they needed. Team 10 had heaven while team 9 and 8 had earth.

They agreed to work together instead of against each other so they had teamed up since safety was in numbers. Naruko then sent out 50 clones of herself into the forest to locate teams so they could attack during the night. In the last 3 weeks they had gotten to know the forest like the back of their hand by going on trips across the forest and had Naruko draw a map of it by the end of each day with the easiest routes to and from each notable place. Including the dens where the most dangerous animals and insects lived.

By the end of dinner 5 of her clones had found 5 different teams which had the scrolls they needed. They traveled to each point together since they would be easier to overpower with their numbers. One of the 5 teams was team 7. Sakura tried to stop them from attacking them by claiming that comrades should not attack each other even during an exam.

Their reply to that was laughing since they knew that if the roles were reversed then they would not hesitate to do the same thing to get their scroll. They told Sakura that the exams were everyone against everyone. No one was allied even from the same village unless you made an allegiance like they had. That was when a large gust of wind came at them out of nowhere and Team 10 were blown away since they had not expected it. The other 9 people stayed put but teams 8 and 9 looked worriedly in the direction that their friends were thrown.

That was when 2 teams from sound arrived along with someone they never expected to see, Orochimaru.


-with team 10-

Naruko groaned as she woke up from hitting an large rock, hard. Shikamaru, Ino and Chouji all had escaped the damn thing but were also rubbing sore places that would bruise. They then stood up and started looking around and the next thing they noticed is them being surrounded by 4 large snakes which looked kind of hungry.

Naruko clenched her fists making the claws come out before sighing and then sliding into a light taijutsu stance that Gai had made with her claws in mind. She then jumped up to the largest snakes head and slashed through it. And when it vanished in a poof she knew it was Orochimaru attacking them. Her team-mates got rid of two of the snakes while Naruko took care of the last one before they hurried back the way they came.

Their friends were all struggling to fight with the sound teams while Orochimaru was just toying around with the Uchiha. Sai was bleeding badly on the ground so Naruko sent Ino over to him since she knew the most about healing out of all of them. Sakura was crying in a corner and Sasuke was struggling badly with Orochimaru who was mainly just kicking his ass. Naruko sent Chouji and Shikamaru to help team 9 and 8 with the sound teams before rushing forward to destroy Orochimaru by herself.

She used her claws to break the beating that was going on and managed to scratch the sannin's face due to his surprise at her joining the fight. She continued to strike but he kept dodging every strike. This frustrated the blond who started going faster and less rationally, just really aiming to hit the sannin even if it wasn't fatal.

Orochimaru used a rather large swing to kick her back and Naruko skid back a few steps before rushing back forward. All of the genin in the clearing stared in awe at the fearlessness that the blond was showing when facing a sannin that was by far, stronger than her. Orochimaru eventually seemed to grow frustrated when she didn't seem to be slowing so he got in a few hits and then used kusanagi to fight her.

Naruko just got faster at that and looking into her eyes Orochimaru could see that the kyuubi had lent her his strength which meant trouble for him so he decided to finish this quickly.

"Well Naru-chan it has been fun playing with you but it needs to end now." Orochimaru said locking her steel blades in a position over her head before whispering in her ear. "You should know better than to let your anger control you." He then made an elemental seal over the seal on her stomach knocking her out and then summoned a snake who swallowed her whole.

Once he did that he bit the Uchiha's neck and then left. The sound team's decided to yield and left their scrolls with them before leaving since they did not have much reason to be in the exams any more. After that Shikamaru started fighting the snake since he had to get his team-mate out and the others soon joined in. Shikamaru eventually allowed the snake to swallow him too and then found his blond team-mate about to get swallowed completely and stabbed a kunai to keep them both stuck before using a small wind jutsu to cut through the snake form the inside killing it instantly and then laid his team-mate on the ground.

They both smelled horrible so he picked her up and then started heading towards their hiding spot in the mountain with Ino, Hinata and Shino. The rest would take care of Team 7 getting to the tower to forfeit.

Tenten left one of the scrolls, the one Team 7 needed since Sai needed medical attention quickly and told Sakura to take the two boys to the tower and forfeit the exams, they were not ready yet. After that Kiba and Chouji made a shadow clone each which was all they could after the fighting and had them carry the two unconscious boys for her to the tower.

They then headed after the others. When they arrived in the clearing Shikamaru was taking a bath while Naruko was being watched over. Ino, Hinata and Tenten decided that they should change the girl out of the clothes and bathe her so that she wouldn't throw up when she woke so when Shikamaru was done bathing the three girls took hygiene stuff into the smaller cave along with a pair of fresh clothes for the blond and then while the younger two of them washed the clothes Tenten bathed the blond, making sure that there was no more slime in her hair or on her body. After that they redressed her and left her armor to dry.

They then put her in her tent and then went to make dinner and then stood watch with the others.


-the next day, Narukos pov-

Naruko slowly opened her eyes and immediately closed them when the headache hit her full force. She let out a small groan and lifted her hand to her head and slowly sat up. She saw Tenten sitting by the opening of her tent and looking at her.

"How do you feel?" the brunette asked after a minute of them staring at each other.

"Like my head got trampled by an herd of horses..." Naruko said and Tenten smiled before leaving the tent. Naruko heard her ask Ino for something that could ease the golden haired girls headache. 5 minutes later she came back into the tent with tea that was made of herbs that should help with the headache.

She drank the tea despite it not being the best tasting thing in the world. Out of all her friends, Tenten was the one closest to her except for Shikamaru and Chouji. Which was odd considering they had not known each other a year ago. But Naruko was not complaining. She had a strong sparring partner in the older girl and someone who didn't care about any darkness in her past. She still seemed to look up to the golden haired girl even when she was younger than her.

Naruko then started inspecting the new seal on her stomach and sighed. She could see that it would make using jutsu hard due to it messing with the normal flow between her and the kyuubi. He had placed an irregular number seal over a regular number. She would need help with removing it and she could not get hurt while she was getting there since the healing factor was no longer there. Naruko then stood up and despite the other girls protests walked out of her tent.

"We have to get to the tower as soon as possible." Naruko simply said when everyone looked up from what they were doing.

"Why?" Kiba asked.

"Orochimaru sealed off my connection to the kyuubi, he no longer heals me and since the loss of all the chakra in my body then I will not be able to use jutsu until it is removed. So unless you are ready to see me get hurt in a fight I suggest we get to the tower and see Jiraya there. He can remove the seal and I will have time to recover before the final exams." Naruko explained making everyone present nod in agreement before moving to gather their stuff together. Naruko just sealed her tent with her stuff inside it and then used water to put out the fire and then once everyone was ready they moved out towards the tower.

Her control had thankfully not gotten so bad that she could not jump across tree's. That would have made her trip too long.

-2 hours later, inside the towers hokage office-

Naruko and her friends were all shown into the hokage's office the moment they arrived since Sakura had brought word of what happened in the forest. Jiraya was already there since he had to seal up the Uchihas curse mark and also unseal the damage Orochimaru had done.

Jiraya simply indicated for Naruko to show him her seal and then seeing what type of seal it was he immediately started lighting his fingers with the seal that would undo it. He then rammed his hand into her stomach making the blond slide a few steps back with a loud groan.

Naruko then stood straight as the seal vanished and then fell unconscious as the Kyuubis chakra started flowing through her system once more.


-Shikamaru's pov-

Shikamaru caught her having suspected this would happen and then laid her down on the couch in the corner while they gave their report of what happened in the forest. They were then told that Team 7 had failed the exam since they had opened the scrolls before entering the tower. Chouji and Kiba just shook their heads since their clones had told the only conscious genin to walk into a room before opening them but it seemed that she had not listened. Sasuke Uchiha was under lock and key in the anbu's headquarters so that Orochimaru could not get to him and while they did not know what effect the cursed seal would have on him he would remain there. Sai was receiving medical attention while Sakura had been shown the way out of the forest and to her home.

Hiruzen then had them shown to apartments in the tower which would be their home the remainder of the exam which was 4 days considering the exam had started yesterday. The apartments were side by side and each room had 3 rooms except for Team 10's which was the biggest of the apartments. It had 4 bedrooms, 1 master bedroom which they decided that Naruko should have while the other three members took the other 3. The apartment was quite frankly a suite. It had a fully stocked kitchen, a living room with a flatscreen tv and ps3 gaming system along with a Billiard table and some shoji. All of the bedrooms had a bathroom connected to them and Naruko's was the biggest.

Shikamaru laid the golden haired girl on the queen sized bed in her temporary room and took off her shoes before leaving the room. He heard someone knocking on the door so he went to answer it. Gaara of the sand was standing on the other side, stone faced as ever along with his siblings. He let them in telling them that Naruko was still unconscious due to the seal having just been removed that Orochimaru had placed on her.

Gaara just nodded before walking into the golden haired girls room and closing the door behind him.


-Gaara's pov-

The moment door closed behind him he turned to the bed. Gaara could see his friend laying there sleeping and smiled softly. 'She really looks like an angel when she sleeps. So peaceful, like the world is not full of pain and suffering.'

Gaara walked forward and sat on the edge of the bed beside the blond studying her silently. He had wanted to run to her the moment she had entered the tower but she had been placed in a meeting with the hokage so he had to wait. And now she was unconscious so he still could not talk to her.

Out of everyone in his world she was the one that had never once looked at him in fear or disgust. She had understood who he was the moment they met. The moment they clashed she had offered him an helping hand and had his seal fixed so that he could sleep without the shukaku being able to gain control or eating his soul. She was his savior, his angel. And he wanted to be at her side at all times to protect her. But knew he could not.

He knew that they would be separated in the invasion and that it was necessary but he did not like it any more even at that. He was planning on escaping his imprisonment and helping against the sannin since he knew that if the hokage got hurt Naruko would lose her life. Though he knew that he could always take her with him to Suna if they decided upon that.

Gaara knew that he had what his sister called a crush on the girl and cared more deeply for her than a friend would but knew that even if they would date then they could never end up together. Since she would have to restart her clan in Konoha. He knew that she was planning on going to Uzushiogakure in the future and try to enter the ruins to see if she could find anything of use and had she never returned to Konoha she had wanted to one day return the village to its former glory.

He leaned down and touched his lips to hers softly before leaving the room since he knew she most likely would not awake until the next day.


-Naruko's pov, 4 days later upon the end of the second chuunin exam.-

Naruko studied the group around her. Anko had cut the teams number in more than half. Out of the 24 teams that had started the second exam, only 10 remained. She could see the almost extremely satisfied smirk that said woman was throwing at Ibiki who pretended like it wasn't impressive at all.

All of the council was present along with some anbu and jounin and she could see the hatred in the civilians eyes that she survived the forest. There were also some Hyuuga clan elders there with Hiashi.

The hokage was explaining why the exams were held before giving the word to Hayate who explained that since there was still too many genin they had to have preliminary exams. He offered anyone who wished to withdraw to do so and Kabuto and his team mate Yoroi Akado, both of them were still full on chakra but quit since it was a part of the plan but since Sasuke had not passed the exam it was no use to have Yoroi compete Kin Tsuchi. Hayate waited for a few moments to see if there was anyone else before signaling to Anko who spoke into a microphone and then suddenly appeared a large flat screen out of the wall and the matches were randomly drawn.

(AN: I'm too lazy to type any of the fights out, all of them go like in canon except for the last three which are in this fic hinata's and Tenten's and Naruko's. I will type out those two.. mostly.)

The matches were as followed:

Zaku Abumi vs Shino Aburame – Shino wins.

Misumi Tsurugi vs Kankuro – Kankuro wins.

Ino Yamanaka vs Shikamaru Nara – Shikamaru wins.

Gaara vs Lee- Gaara wins. (he doesn't crush Lee's leg or arm though he is still damaged by the opening of the gates.)

Dosu Kinuta vs Chouji Akimichi – Dosu wins.


Naruko vs Kiba

Naruko sighed as she heard the dog boy's rambling about how he was going to show her that he was still a top dog by beating her. She slowly made her way down and saw Tsume shaking her head at her sons idiocy. Hana stood there and was glaring lightly at her brother who noticed it and stopped his rambling and just smirked at Naruko who just looked lazy.

"You know, Kiba. I almost wish to forfeit just so that I wont have to wipe the floor with your face in front of your sister but I kind of want to compete in the finals just to see how far I can go so I do hope that you can forgive me for this Hana, but I am afraid that your brothers ego has to end today." Naruko said lazily and everyone in the room chuckled. Kiba seethed and ran at her with Akamaru at his side and Naruko just simply side stepped him and tripped him making him fall flat on his face. Hayate signaled them to begin and jumped back.

Naruko then pulled off her jacket and ramming a kunai into the wall near her, hung it up while whistling a tune. She then turned around and walked over to where Kiba was looking irritated by her lazy easy going attitude.

He changed into his beast mode along with Akamaru who changed into a clone of him before clenching his fists making his steel claws slide out. Naruko didn't even blink at her own creation being used against her and slid into her shadow fang taijutsu style while sliding her own steel claws out.

Kiba and Akamaru then both ran at her before entering the fang over fang technique. Naruko just quietly waited until they struck and then simply countered their strikes and threw them face first at the wall behind them. Both of them twisted in mid air and then used their momentum to repeat the same movement. They kept it up like that for awhile with Naruko simply toying around with him while smirking. Then she seemed to grow bored and decided to end the fight in such a big fashion that no one would dare mess with her again.

She made some hand seals with lightning speed before chains appeared out of the ground which latched onto Kiba. Then there appeared in front of everyone the grim reaper clad in his dark robes with his scythe. He walked towards Kiba who was yelling at Naruko to stop the jutsu. He knew that the jutsu would kill anyone it was used upon. She had used it against some of the teams in the forest. The grim reaper came to take peoples souls away.

Naruko just stood by inspecting her nails while everyone stared in shock at her coldness. All of her friends were shocked that she would use the jutsu on one of her own friends and were considering rethinking their opinion and friendship with her.

The moment the grim reaper's scythe hovered over Kiba's chest over his heart Naruko looked up and walked forward. Then the chains let go of the frightened genin who fainted and the reaper vanished.

Hana then appeared by Naruko looking quite pissed off.

"What the hell was that?"

"That was the grim reaper giving Kiba an exam."

"What the fuck do you mean an exam?"

"If Kiba had something in his past that required killing him for then the grim reaper would have killed him. Since he didn't it means Kiba may be an idiot but he is an idiot that is an innocent." Naruko simply said before looking to Hayate who nodded and declared her an winner, she then grabbed her jacket and kunai before heading back up to where her team was giving her an disapproving look.


Hinata vs Neji

Everyone stared in silence at the screen. They knew that while the hatred wasn't as much between Neji and Hinata after the training trip where Naruko told them about the kyuubi then there was still some anger.

They both slid into the same position but Hinata's was slightly different with her having her fingers slightly relaxed and her legs less steady since she would be using more movement than the gentle fist usually did. Naruko immediately knew the position and smiled. The two of them had discussed the possibility that Hinata would have to fight her cousin and that it would be better to have something he didn't when the time came. Naruko had trained the girl personally in private in her own apartment ever since they became friends in a new version of the style that was only a little bit different but fit the shy girl better.

The moment the match was started Neji ran forward but Hinata was prepared for it and slapped his hand away before ducking under it and sliding behind him and hitting two of his chakra points that were in his shoulder blades which made his strikes less powerful. Neji whirled around and glared spitefully due to him not knowing the style she was using and not liking how his cousin who had always been weaker than him was suddenly landing hits.

"I'm guessing that Naruko taught you this considering only she would have you stop using your own family's style for something else less proper." Neji taunted and Hinata just smiled.

"Aye, she did help me with this style. But not because of what you think. The gentle fist style does not fit my body. So while I do practice it while you are around I use this as back up when fighting someone I know is better than me in using the gentle fist. You are the prodigy of our generation, not me. I mentioned it to Naruko once during training that I might have to face you or someone else of the clan and since I was inferior to others in it we figured out a way to change the style but still use the basics. I call it the flowing dragon, deal with the fact that I no longer simply lose to you dear cousin, because this is a new me." Hinata simply said before darting around once more and hitting more of his chakra points.

This continued for some time before Neji finally grew angry enough to elbow her in the neck and then slam an overpowered chakra strike at her chest. He kept up hitting the girl while she was still stunned but before he could finish her off he suddenly felt himself thrown across the room.

He landed on his feet and saw Naruko giving him a death glare from where she was holding an unconscious Hinata who had blood seeping from her mouth which indicated some heavy internal damage. Hayate had called the match the moment the girl had fallen unconscious but hadn't been able to stop him. The medics were called at that moment and they rushed out and took the Hyuuga clan heir from the arena on a stretcher.

Naruko just kept on glaring at the boy who was starting to grow quite uncomfortable by it since he knew that she could kill him as easy as breathing. Naruko then bent down to a puddle of Hinata's blood and after covering her hand in her blood, clenched her fist causing her steel claws to slide out.

"I swear upon my parent's grave that I will avenge this Neji Hyuuga. Be it in this exam or the moment you are in my way. And when you do, you will regret the very day you were born." Naruko said coldly making the Hyuuga prodigy shiver in slight fear. She then turned her back to him and walked back to her team.


Next up were Tenten and Temari. From the beginning Temari just used her fan to blow away the other girls weapons like they were flies. She then used an powerful wind release to cut up the girl badly and rendering her unconscious. When the bun-haired girl was falling to the ground Temari intended to catch her with her fan but looked up to see Naruko holding the girl while standing on her fan.

"You know, what you were planning on doing was not an honorable move at all Temari. Especially after Hayate called the match in your favor. I would suggest that you didn't try anything like this again." Naruko said simply before giving the unconscious girl to the medics who carried her off.

"Whatever." Temari simply said as they were joined by the rest of the genin on the arena floor so they could draw numbers for the last exam.

They said their number out loud as they drew it:

Neji: 2

Temari: 4

Shikamaru: 3

Shino: 5

Gaara: 7

Dosu: 8

Naruko: 1

Kankuro: 6

"First fight will be Naruko vs Neji, second fight will be Shikamaru vs Temari, third will be Shino vs Kankuro, fourth and final will be Gaara vs Dosu. You have one month to prepare. Be ready to show your best!" Hiruzen said before dismissing them.


-x-x-x-x-

Officially the longest chapter...

hope you like.