Hey. Sorry for the long wait. Classes just started up again and I've got less free time. On top of that, I just got Grand Theft Auto 5.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Naruto bounded across the massive branches, his Rinnegan eyes blazing behind his sunglasses as he scanned the area for any traces of his teammates chakra, with the gray haired genin trailing behind him. So far, they'd found no trace of Naruto's two genin teammates.
Naruto was growing more and more frustrated as time went on. It had been an hour since he met up with his fellow Konoha genin, and there still hadn't been a trace of his teammates. Once more fears entered his mind of what Orochimaru may have done with them, but he shook his head to ward off those dark thoughts, his face hardening in determination.
Turning his gaze back to Kabuto, who was currently looking off in search of any sign of other individuals, he wondered if he should tell him exactly who it was that was responsible for his separation from his teammates.
He shook his head, deciding to cross that bridge when they came to it. If Orochimaru had his team, then he'd send Kabuto away if he didn't want to face him. Until then, he'd keep quiet about it.
"So, Naruto…" Kabuto began, getting the blonde's attention. He craned his neck to look at him, the uncanny senses all shinobi possessed allowing him to continue moving at top speed without loosing his footing. "Where exactly were you guys when you were separated?"
Naruto expression turned sheepish as he replied, "Well to be honest… I don't know for sure."
"Huh?" Kabuto was obviously perplexed by that answer. "How can you not be sure? Don't you even know which way you came?"
"Well, kinda. I mean, know we're headed in the right direction!" Naruto replied, looking ahead of him again. "This is my first time in this place and the guy we were fighting could summon snakes and one of them kind of… swallowed me." His face twisted in slight disgust as Kabuto's eyes widened. "The snake got what was coming to it, but by the time I forced it to cough me up, stupid thing had dragged me halfway across the forest."
"Ah…" Kabuto replied, nodding. "That makes things more difficult."
Turning and looking ahead, Naruto said, "I've been using the tower as a guide. I'm pretty sure I know about where we were."
Kabuto gave a grunt of acknowledgement in response before commenting, "You're pretty lucky, you know? Not many could have survived that."
"Yeah, well I don't feel like it right now." Naruto replied, his brow furrowing. This wasn't the first time that had occurred to him. With a sigh, his gaze turned upward, looking at the clear sky through the forest canopy. 'Sakura… Sasuke… Where are you guys?'
Sakura stared worriedly down at her prone teammate, worry clear on her features. While Sasuke had calmed down and now lied still, his brow was furrowed and his mouth twisted into a slight grimace, showing he was still in pain. He seemed to be getting better, but he was still suffering.
She wished she'd trained alongside Naruto in sealing jutsu. Maybe then she might have some idea what was happening to her crush, even if she knew she wouldn't be able to do anything about it, not knowing was killing her. And not knowing where Naruto was almost as bad. Was he ok? Was Sasuke going to be ok?
She sat back, placing a hand on her chest and taking a deep breath, doing her best to keep herself calm. Getting stressed out wasn't going to help anyone, and it might distract her if someone should happen upon them. She needed to stay attentive, not just of Sasuke's condition but of their surroundings. And so she sat and waited, her hands on her knees as she stared down at her teammate.
Suddenly, the stillness of the forest was disrupted by a rustling in the bushes, causing Sakura's eyes to widen. Immediately, her green orbs narrowed, discretely pulling out senbon needles with her left hand and shuriken in her right, preparing to face down whatever enemy might leap into the open.
Hearing the rustling come to a pitch, signifying whatever it was had left its cover, she half turned, keeping her weapons hidden, to see… a squirrel, chewing on a nut as it stared at her.
'A squirrel?' She asked herself, all tension leaving her form as she placed her hand on her forehead. "Geez, I'm almost as bad as Naruto was on our first real mission. I almost attacked some defenseless-" Her gaze hardened as the squirrel began to run towards her. Without any warning, she spun, rising to her feet in one motion and let her shuriken fly at the small woodland creature.
The star shaped weapon twisted on a curving path through the air as it flew towards the terrified animal. Before it could react, the tool struck true and sliced its back slightly, causing it to cry out in pain as a small amount of blood leaked from the wound before turning tail and fleeing into the bushes.
Sakura winced slightly at the sound it made, but it was for the best. She counted herself lucky that she hadn't just dismissed it and looked away.
She'd have missed the now torn and useless explosive note on its back.
She quickly reached into her pouch and pulled out a kunai, moving into a defensive stance as her eyes scanned the surrounding area.
"All right! I know you're out there!" Sakura declared fiercely, mentally preparing herself. She hoped that it was only one opponent she was facing, she highly doubted it though, but still she wouldn't give up. Naruto and Sasuke would never give up, and she certainly wasn't going to let them down.
This was why she'd been training so hard. This was where she'd make up for how useless she'd been at Wave. "Come out!"
"Well well, she noticed the explosive note. She's pretty sharp." A voice she recognized spoke out from the foliage. She tensed slightly.
'That's…' The three genin of the sound burst from their hiding place, the mummy like boy standing at the front of the group. Their posture was relaxed, the spiky haired one even sitting down on the root of a tree as he sent a confident grin her way. Clearly they didn't consider her a threat. 'Those three Oto genin.'
"You look like you've been up all night. You've done a pretty good job of being your friend's watchdog." The leading Oto genin said, causing Sakura to bristle. "But you don't need to bother any more. Wake up Sasuke, we want to fight him."
'These guys are Orochimaru's goons…' The pink haired kunoichi thought to herself as she recalled the Sannin's words. 'How much do they know?' She asked herself, her mind racing a mile a minute as she tried to figure out exactly what Orochimaru's game was, vaguely recalling what he'd said about his subordinates. He wanted the Sharingan, that much she was sure of… if he wanted the eyes he could have just killed them all and taken them, or taken Sasuke back when they fought him? Not like they could have done much to stop him. As much as they'd improved since their adventure in Wave, they were no match for a Kage level ninja.
So he wanted Sasuke to come to him willingly then? And were these guys supposed to test him or something? Didn't he already have enough of that when they fought? Did it have something to do with the seal?
"What do you clowns want with Sasuke?"
"Oh? The little girl has quite the mouth on her." The apparent leader commented, looking at her in his odd, hunched over posture, his head tilted to the side.
"Just answer the question!" Sakura snarled at the trio.
"Heh, she thinks she's in a position to make demands." The spiky haired one said with a cruel grin, giving her a look you might find on someone about to tear the wings off a fly for their own amusement. "Why should you care, anyway? After all, it's not like you're going to walk away from this alive."
Sakura refused to be intimidated by that statement, months of being exposed to Zabuza's killing intent having hardened her to threats. Quickly, she decided that if they planned to kill her either way, there was no point in holding back information. "Just what the hell is Orochimaru planning?" She yelled, startling the three genin. "I know he's the one who sent you, he told us you'd be here. Why'd he send you to attack us after he already thrashed us? And what's that mark he put on Sasuke!?"
The bandaged genin's eyes narrowed in consideration as he regarded her warily. "Hmm… what's that man thinking?" He wondered aloud.
Sakura was slightly taken aback by that. So, they didn't know anything? While she couldn't begin to figure out Orochimaru's intentions, she knew enough to know that, if he hadn't told them anything, it was likely because they weren't important enough. She doubted he cared at all if they lived or died. After all, she couldn't see him softening them up for them, and if you were going to send someone on a mission, you'd tell them everything you knew about it, unless you didn't care if they succeeded or failed. She doubted they were anything more than pawns. Whatever it was, it probably all went back to that seal.
That seemed right up his alley, using people as pawns with no concern for their lives. He'd probably throw them away once they weren't useful to him anymore. She almost felt sorry for them. Almost. If only they weren't complete jerks that were planning to kill her.
"Enough talk." The spiky haired boy stated, rising to his feet. "If you know who our boss is, we definitely can't let you get away. Let's finish this."
"I agree, there's no sense putting it off any longer." The mummy like genin said.
Sakura took a deep breath, remembering what she'd been told about fighting superior numbers. Hit fast and hard without holding back. Take your enemies out quickly and decisively. Then, her mouth widened into a smirk. With a swipe of her kunai, she cut a wire behind her, alerting the three enemy shinobi to a new threat.
A moment later, kunai burst from the canopies on both sides of the clearing, flying through the air to skewer the sound genin.
The trio of sound shinobi jumped forward away from the advancing hail of kunai, moving toward where Sakura and Sasuke hid, just as a groaning sound was heard from above.
Looking up, the trio saw a massive tree trunk, held up by a wire and speeding through the air towards them, the hail of kunai still going on behind them, cutting off their escape.
"Damn, she got us!" The bandaged genin cried out in panic… before his façade of terror dropped and he returned to his normal state of calm. "Not."
He placed his right palm on the trunk and made a single one handed seal. In an instant, the hunk of wood shattered, sending splinters through the air as its two halves continued along their paths and the kunai came to a stop.
They would have made some remark about how poorly constructed that plan was… were it not for the fact that, among the splinters of wood they spied several paper bombs, causing their eyes to widen as Sakura's smirk grew.
"Shit!" Their leader yelled as the tags began to burn. He only had time to brace himself before they detonated, erupting into a balls of light and heat that sent the trio flying backwards, slight singed and covered in slight cuts as the roar of the blasts echoed through the area before they hit the ground in heaps, all three kicking up smaller clouds of dirt as they skidded to a stop.
With a slight groan, the bandaged genin placed one hand on the ground and rose up. He was lucky he'd destroyed that the way he had, or else the tags might have been closer. He was a little surprised, he hadn't thought that the tree huggers capable of such a tactic.
He was broken from his thoughts as he hearing, the most acute of all the sound genin of his generation, alerted him to an extremely faint sound, heavily muffled, but not enough so for his honed sense to miss. He recognized it without even needing to try to locate its source, having encountered jutsu similar to the one the girl was no doubt using before.
"It was a distraction, she's underground!" He yelled before planting his feet on the ground, channeling as much chakra into his legs as he could before kicking off.
As his teammates began to do the same, they found it was too late. A dainty hand burst from the ground and grabbed the Oto kunoichi by the ankle, even as her teammate escaped. What happened next was a blur for the brunette. One moment, she was being pulled down and the next, she was buried up to her neck in the ground, Sakura looking down at her in triumph. All she could do was glare before struggling in vain to get free.
Sakura turned her eyes to her remaining enemies. Reaching into her pouch and pulling out another group of senbon as she ran towards her adversaries, crossing her arms over her chest before throwing the poisoned needles at the two remaining Oto genin.
"Tch, don't get cocky, you stupid bitch!" The spiky haired boy snarled before raising his hands, revealing holes in the core of his palms. "Slicing Sound Waves!"
Twin supersonic blasts of air burst from his hands, flying towards Sakura and blowing away her senbon. The girl quickly ran through a series of hand signs before the attack struck her, only for her to vanish a moment later, a log appearing in her place.
Sensing danger behind him, the Oto genin turned to see Sakura on the branch of a tree above him, letting loose another volley of senbon. He immediately turned and pointed his left hand at her, releasing another wave of cutting wind at her.
Sakura immediately bolted from her perch, launching herself away towards a vacant portion of the battlefield a mere moment before the cutting air current tore through the branch.
Landing in a crouch, Sakura's eyes widened as, out of the corner of her eye, she saw the bandaged genin speeding towards her, his gauntlet clad fist cocked back and ready to punch at her.
Knowing the danger that odd gauntlet presented, she quickly dove back into the ground, vanishing from sight, allowing the attack to pass harmlessly through the space she'd just occupied.
The bandaged genin jumped away as Sakura burst from the ground behind him, reaching to grab the straw on the back of his coat. He spun in midair, turning to face her.
"Well, you're certainly good at running away. Is this all you can do, sneak around and take potshots at us?" He mocked her as he landed.
"You're one to talk when all you can do is hide behind that gauntlet of yours!" Sakura shot back. "Every time you swing your arm that thing vibrates, producing sound waves you manipulate with your chakra, attacking your targets inner ear and throwing off their equilibrium. From there, it's child's play to take them out. That's how you attacked Kabuto and got out of Sasuke's grip back when Naruto used your face to mop up the floor." She smirked again as his sole visible eye widened in shock. "Lucky for me, since your sound waves can't pierce the ground and I doubt they'd remain effective at a range, as long as I keep my distance or dive back underground, I'm safe."
'She figured it out after only seeing two attacks!?' He quickly schooled his features, a dismissive look in his visible eye. "So you figured out the secret of my melody arm. Good eye. Give the girl a medal." 'She's actually pretty clever… this should be fun.'
"A medal? No thanks, but I think that after I wipe the floor with your asses I'll take your scroll and drag your asses to the tower for a nice stay in the I/T department. I'm sure they'd just love to get their hands on some of Orochimaru's lackeys." Sakura said. Their group training and her improved confidence had the side effect of causing her 'inner' personality to bleed over a lot more often than it used to. "Shouldn't be too hard, since all you can do is hide behind that gauntlet of yours and your friend had to mutilate himself with those little wind holes just to become an average ninja, CHA!"
"Shut the hell up!" The spiky haired genin roared, pointing both his hands at her. "You've got no idea what you're talking about! We're the shinobi of the future, you're just an out of date piece of trash!" He unleashed another wave of wind at her, which she ducked under ground to dodge, mindful of the bandaged genin.
The now named Zaku grunted in response before slamming his right hand to the ground, sending a ripple through the earth to Kin, the ground popping up into a dome around her, seeming to rattle her a bit before she pulled her arms out of the loosened soil.
"It's obvious now we've been underestimating her. Let's just take her out so we can deal with Sasuke like our master ordered. No more games. Kin, you know what to do." The sound kunoichi nodded and drew out her own senbon.
Zaku scoffed. "I can't believe we've wasted this much effort on such a small fry."
Sakura burst from the ground, rising halfway out of the earth before making a hand sign and slamming her palms into the ground. "Earth Style: Rock Shuriken!"
A wave of small stones, despite the name, shaped more like daggers than the metal stars, erupted from the earth and flew towards the three sound genin, who leapt above it. Sakura pulled out a kunai with an explosive tag and threw it at them, causing them to scatter to avoid the resulting explosion.
Quickly noting the easiest target, she rose from the ground and ran towards Kin as she landed. She immediately made to throw her senbon at her, before the brunette's eyes widened, her sense of balance thrown off as her sight grew distorted. Where a moment ago everything was clear, she could suddenly swear that there were two of the pink haired girl rushing towards her, zigzagging back and forth. Her hands and forearms were suddenly feeling numb and her body was slow to respond, refusing to do what her brain commanded it to, and she was beginning to feel oddly lightheaded. 'What the hell!? My body… why am I…?' Her eyes widened, her expression showing mild panic as she realized what must have happened. 'Don't tell me…!'
Sakura threw an uppercut and Kin who ducked to evade the blow… only to find she didn't go low enough when the attack collided with her chin, sending her reeling back. She stumbled back as Sakura charged as much chakra as she could into her arm as she pulled her fist back.
With a battle cry, Sakura threw her fist at Kin, the brunette barely able to offer any defense before the attack plowed into her solar plexus, knocking the wind out of her and causing her to cough up blood, before driving her into the ground, the force of the blow driving her into the soil slightly and sending cracks a few feet around her. She quickly lost consciousness.
"What the hell?" Zaku questioned while Dosu's eye narrowed, having seen Kin's sluggish actions and the sudden shift in the way she held herself. The way her eyes couldn't seem to fix on her opponent. And a blow like that shouldn't have taken her out… unless her constitution had already been weakened. It only took him a moment to deduce what must have happened.
"She must have poisoned her when she dragged her underground. Zaku, don't let her hit you. A single blow and you'll be easy prey." The bandaged genin advised. With a growl of annoyance, Zaku nodded as Sakura reached into her pouch, pulling out a kunai as she closed the distance between them.
Meanwhile, unnoticed by Sakura and the two remaining Oto genin, three pairs of eyes gazed into the clearing, watching the battle unfold. Team 10 watched as the Konoha kunoichi did her best to take on an entire team, but she was quickly loosing momentum. Now that the enemy knew she was a threat and were taking her more seriously, they regrouped and pressed the attack, leaving her on the defensive.
"Damn." Shikamaru growled out under his breath. "Am I hearing things, or did she say Orochimaru? What the hell have those guys gotten themselves into?"
"And where's Naruto? I don't see him under the tree." Choji noted. "You don't think…"
Shikamaru shook his head, his brow furrowed and a bead of sweat rolling down his face as his mind raced to try to understand just what they'd stumbled upon and how the already troublesome Chunin Exams had gone so far into the left field. "Not a chance. Sakura wouldn't act that way if something had happened to him… but where is he? She could use all the help she could get right now." The lazy genin turned his eyes to the blond kunoichi at his side. "Hey, Ino. What do you want to do?" She turned her bewildered gaze to him. "You two were friends, right?"
Turning back to the battle before her, Ino could hardly believe how much Sakura had grown since they graduated. She remembered the shy little girl, crying after being teased for the umpteenth time, she was when they first met. When they learned they both had a crush on the same boy (along with over half the girls in the class), they swore to each other that they wouldn't lose, in love or anything else, to the other.
But… could she really say that she'd done everything she was capable of? Could she hold the three of them off as long as Sakura had if she was on her own? When had she fallen so far behind?
Sakura leapt into the air to dodge another blast of wind from Zaku, flipping in the air and pulling out four kunai as she did so, before throwing them at the mummy-like leader of the trio, keeping them far enough apart that he couldn't simply deflect them with his metal gauntlet.
The sound genin bolted to the side before leaping at the pink haired kunoichi before his honed ears registered the faint sound of string being cut. Craning his neck and looking back with his sole visible eye, he just barely saw the faint remnants of a wire hanging limply in the air, now severed in two by one of the kunai.
Gritting his teeth beneath his bandages, he turned his eyes back to Sakura, who smirked. Well over a dozen kunai rained down on him from above. Hearing the sounds of the small daggers cutting through the air, he spun around to face them, raising his gauntlet to block the one flying towards his chest only for his expression to shift into a mask of shock as it pinged off the steel of his melody arm and his eyes beheld a small bag attached to the ring.
As one, purple, poisonous clouds of smoke burst from the kunai, filling up half the clearing as Sakura landed. Having the antidote in her system, the toxic vapor was harmless to her, and she immediately shot towards it, intent on attacking her adversaries and forcing them to breath in the fumes if they hadn't already.
Her heart was pounding and could hardly believe it. She was so close. So very close to coming through for her teammates when it came down to her. If she could just end it here, she'll not only have saved their skins, she will have at last proven, to herself as much as them, that she wasn't going to hold them back as she had in the past. She had become someone they could truly depend on, not just for emotional support, but as a teammate.
Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be. As she neared, Zaku bellowed from within the cloud. "Supersonic Slicing Wave!" And a truly enormous wave of compressed air was released, blowing away the cloud of poison and forcing Sakura to bring her arm up to shield her face from the debris. She could feel the slight sting as small pebbles and chunks of earth battered against her arm. She could hardly believe the scale of the attack, relative to the size of those air holes. It wasn't even directed at her and yet she was still being pushed back! Her feet left grooves in the ground as she struggled to remain on her feet.
The bandaged leader of the sound genin, still being in the air, was flung away like so much dust in the massive wind storm. He managed to right himself enough to land on his feet against the trunk of one of the trees surrounding the clearing.
His path vision now clear, Zaku took a deep breath of clean air, having held his breath while in the cloud, as he turned towards the Konoha kunoichi, pointing his palms toward her. "I'm gonna blow you away!"
Before she could move to dodge, another wave of air slammed into her. All she could do was raise her arms to shield herself as air current, powerful enough to shatter stone, pushed her through the air and into a tree, shattering the bark and leaving an indentation in the wood as she yet out a yelp of pain and coughed up blood before falling to the ground and landing somewhat shakily in a crouch.
Her senses warning her of danger, she turned just in time to see the bandaged genin approaching her and dove underground again, thanking her lucky stars that the technique was pure chakra manipulation, something she excelled at, and had no hand signs that would have taken up her time.
However, she heard him land and then footsteps quickly pass over her and continue onward, towards… Sasuke!
Her eyes snapped wide open as she quickly moved through the ground as quickly as she could and burst from the earth between him and her teammate, blocking a sweeping blow with her arm. She winced as her limb came into contact with the gauntlet and braced herself for what she knew was coming.
And there it was. Suddenly, she stumbled, unable to keep her balance. The world was twisted and spinning. She could barely see the genin in front of her before he whipped around and lashed out with a kick to her solar plexus, sending her crashing to the ground.
"Heh. Nice one, Dosu." Zaku commented as he looked at the downed girl, who struggled against the nausea and lack of equilibrium to rise. With a chuckle, he continued, "Well, you put up a pretty good fight, but it looks like this game is over."
"It's a pity you put so much value in your teammates lives." Dosu chided. "You could have easily made it out of this if you'd simply abandoned your precious Sasuke. It's what we'd do if any of us fell behind." She managed to glare up at him, feeling nothing but contempt for the trio if that's how they felt about their comrades. "Then again, if it was truly Lord Orochimaru put him in this state, I can hardly blame him for winding up in this condition. Really, what is his plan?" He closed his eye, contemplating this for a moment. That mark the girl mentioned earlier… the only thing he could think of that would fit, given the caster and the Uchiha's condition would be one of the Snake Sannin's Curse Marks. But why would he send them after someone he gave one of those? There was only one possibility he could think of, and it wasn't one he wanted to consider. Finally, he took a step forward. If he was right, they needed to end this. Now. "Well, I guess it's time we close the curtain on this farce, wouldn't you agree?"
None of the inhabitants of the clearing noticed as steam began to leak from the mark on Sasuke's neck. The Uchiha heir unconsciously grit his teeth, shivering as a new wave of pain washed over his form. However, he was aware of none of this as deep within his mind, his consciousness was trapped in a dream, confronted by his worst memories.
Sasuke turned his head from side to side, trying to figure out where exactly he was. He was, somehow, standing in an endless, white void. He knew it must be a dream, but… this was unlike any dream or nightmare he'd ever found himself in. He heard a sound… sobbing? Somehow, it sounded… familiar. He looked across from him and there stood a crying little boy. 'Who? His brow furrowed as he realized who it was that stood before him. 'That's… me?'
"Mother… and father… Why? They didn't have to die." He sobbed out, rubbing the tears streaming from his eyes and suddenly, the Uchiha heir found himself back in that room… that night… the moonlit night where he found his parents lying in a pool of their collective blood, his younger self standing where his older brother had when he callously announced that he'd killed them, just to test the limits of his abilities. "I couldn't save them. The entire clan was slaughtered… he killed everyone."
"No… you." His younger self stated, causing shock to cover his features as the child before him said the words that had been whispered in the back of his mind since that night. "You let them die… all you could do was watch." He said, his expression twisting into a grin reeking of malevolent intent as his voice shifted, mixing together with the voice of the Sannin who'd sent him here. He reached up to his right eye, digging his nails unto his lower lid and peeling away his skin, revealing Orochimaru's amber orb and chalk white skin. "If only you had more power."
Looking from the fallen girl to the still sleeping Uchiha, Dosu turned to his teammate. "Zaku. Since it doesn't look like Sasuke will be getting up any time soon, just finish him off now. I'll take care of the girl."
Sakura's eyes widened at those words as Zaku scoffed. "Che, that's no fun. I was hoping he would at least put up a fight."
'No!' Sakura thought as she tried to fight off the effects of Dosu's sound waves. With a growl, she rose to her feet. "Like hell!"
She threw four kunai at the sound genin, but Zaku raised his hands with a grin and fired a wave of wind at the approaching weapons while Dosu simply knocked those aimed at him aside with his gauntlet, The wall of cutting air sent the kunai back to their sender, and Sakura leapt into the air to evade before reaching into her pouch and pulling out four more, this time with explosive tags.
Sakura threw the weapons at the genin, making a hand sign to detonate them as they approached and before Zaku could deflect them, forcing them to jump back to dodge as the weapons exploded, but they weren't fast enough and were propelled through the air, slamming on the ground as Sakura landed, stumbling and falling to her hands and knees.
'It doesn't hurt.' She told herself as she rose to her feet. 'I'm not scared. I won't lose!' She controlled her chakra as best as she could as she shot forward towards Dosu's distorted form as he got up. She couldn't muster enough control to dive underground or the speed to use Body Flicker or Substitution, and they'd deflect her only offensive jutsu. That left only one avenue of attack, her fists. 'I won't let Sasuke down the first time he needs me! I'm not going to let us die here like this!'
She closed the distance between them, charging as much chakra as she could with as much control as she could muster with the damage to her inner ear, as Dosu rose to his feet.
The sound genin threw a punch at her, which she blocked, but that alone caused damage as the melody arm reverberated from the impact, all of its sound waves directed to her ear. She screwed her eye shut and clenched her teeth as her ear began to bleed under the assault, but she'd already begun throwing her fist at him. The sound attack caused her to release the chakra in her arm. Fortunately, that had the same effect as if she'd released it voluntarily and with a cry of effort, the attack slammed into him.
Dosu blocked with his uncovered forearm, and it felt like it nearly snapped in two! His face became a mask of shock and pain as his arm was driven back into his body before he was sent flying clear across the clearing and into the root of a tree, shattering the sending splinters through the air.
Sakura could hardly even see her accomplishment her vision was so distorted, and even if she had, she wouldn't have had anytime to enjoy it as a wave of wind immediately slammed into her, driving her through the ground and leaving her at the end of a long trench, her body racked with pain. Between the damage from the last attack and that to her inner ear, she could hardly even see what was around her, let along move. She struggled, but she couldn't even raise herself up on her arms.
Dosu, having fallen down after slipping from the tree, rose up with a grunt and gripped his now throbbing, definitely fractured arm, the bandages around his mouth carrying a slight, red tinge from the blood he'd coughed up.
"Geez, that was weak. You rely way too much on that arm of yours, Dosu." Zaku taunted.
Not bothering to remind Zaku that that was the pot calling the kettle black, Dosu glared down at Sakura's prone form. "Enough. Zaku, finish her."
"Whatever you say." Zaku replied as he leveled both his palms at her. Sakura couldn't even see this but nevertheless closed her eyes and braced herself, readying herself for death.
Then, she heard the sound of someone appearing between them in a burst of motion. Sakura looked up but couldn't quite make out who had saved her.
"I won't lose to you, Sakura." She heard a familiar voice say. "I already told you that."
"Ino…" Sakura said as she recognized the voice, relief flooding her system.
"Just sit there and try to put your head on straight. We can handle the rest." Ino said, briefly turning to look at her out of the corner of her eye before returning to her enemies. "I can't just stand back and let you show off in front of Sasuke, after all."
"Heh, more insects rising up to get crushed." Zaku scoffed, smirking at the trio while Dosu glared. He remembered, before the first exam, these three hadn't noticed them when they moved to attack that four eyed idiot who mocked their village. Under normal circumstances, he was sure they'd crush them… but they were down one kunoichi and his forearm was fractured. While still confident, he was wary.
"Big words considering how Sakura here softened you guys up." Shikamaru commented, his own expression confident.
"Sorry to drag you guys into this." Ino said.
"Don't worry about it. We couldn't just stand by and let them get killed, right?" Choji said. Normally, he would be cowering, but Shikamaru was right, one enemy was down and the other had a fractured arm and with the way Sakura had set up the battlefield, this shouldn't be any trouble with the Nara's brain on their side.
"Yeah, now let's show them Konoha's Ino-Shika-Cho trio." Shikamaru said.
"Right." Both his teammates answered.
"Che, what're a dumb blond, a pineapple headed punk and a fatass going to do?"
That got Choji's attention. With a jerk, his expression hardened and his hands clenched at his sides. With a voice completely devoid of emotion, Choji asked, "What did you just say? I didn't quite catch that."
"Huh?" Zaku responded while Shikamaru turned his eyes to Choji.
'That word is taboo around Choji. If he says it one more time…' The Nara thought.
"I said, what do you think you can do, fatass?" Zaku stated.
With a growl, Choji's features twisted into a look of pure, unbridled rage as a fire lit in his eyes. Raising his clenched fist before his chest, he cried, "I'm not a fatass! I'm just a big boned, damn it! That's it, we're going to wipe the floor with you Oto bastards, you hear me!?" With that, he charged, running through hand signs. "Cubbies rule!"
"Do your thing, Choji!" Shikamaru called as the Akimichi completed his jutsu.
"Expansion Jutsu!" With a plume of smoke and chakra, Choji's midsection expanded until his body was basically one huge sphere with stubby arms and legs and his head just barely sticking out. Like a threatened turtle hiding within its shell, his arms, legs, and head sunk into his body, hiding them away from the world, before he began to spin so quickly that he appeared to be a large, green ball. "Human Boulder!"
And with that, he shot at the spiky haired Oto genin, carving a trench into the ground as he barreled towards him. Zaku just gave a cocky smirk as he began to raise his palms to counter the attack. "What a pathetic jutsu. It's just a rolling fat-" With a grunt of shock and effort, his entire body locked up. "Wha-what!?" He shifted into an odd, hunched over stance with his hands forming a sign he didn't recognize. "Why can't I move!?"
At that moment, Shikamaru, in the same stance as Zaku was smirking. 'Hm. Too easy. After what Sakura did to these guys and the way she set up the battlefield, this is child's play even for us.'
"No!" Zaku cried as the enlarged shinobi was nearly upon him. Dosu kicked off the ground towards him, seeing something was wrong, but knew he wouldn't make it in time. With a cry of agony, he was hit head on and crushed by the Akimichi heir, vanishing under his bulk and left in a crumpled heap in the path of destruction he left, dead ton the world with blood leaking out of his mouth.
"Zaku!" Dosu cried in shock as he came to a stop. "Damn it!" The bandaged covered genin snarled as the Akimichi came around. He moved to intercept his next attack when the 'big boned' genin rolled to a stop and reverted to his normal size, swaying on his feet with swirls where his eyes should be.
"Uh… Everything's… spinning…"
Dosu's eye narrowed as he examined Choji for half a second before deciding he wasn't a threat before turning back to the remaining genin before he stopped, seeing Shikamaru was still smirking with his hands set in a sign that the remaining Oto genin didn't recognize, guessing it was whatever jutsu had left Zaku helpless. He jumped to the side and away from the Nara. 'What is it? Some kind of paralysis jutsu!?'
As he skidded to a stop, he noted nothing was happening. His brow furrowed as he scanned his adversary before he noticed something off. The boy's shadow was stretched, vanishing into a hole.
He took on a look of realization as he understood what must have happened… but it was too late. He suddenly found his own body frozen the same way Zaku's had been. "What the-?"
"Shadow Possession Jutsu, success." Shikamaru smirked, shifting his stance and raising his hands above his head, pointing his hands towards his head. Much to his surprise, Dosu was forced to imitate this motion.
"Shadow Possession… I knew it. This jutsu of yours takes control of your enemy by linking your shadows together… and… you connected our shadows without me noticing…" With a grin, Shikamaru turned his head, allowing Dosu to make the same motion so that he could see Shikamaru's shadow coming out a hole in the ground behind him. "… by sending your shadow through the holes the girl made fighting us."
"Exactly right. You're pretty sharp, too bad it didn't do you any good." Shikamaru turned his gaze to Ino. "Hey Ino, do you mind? I won't be able to hold him for long."
"Sure thing, I'll take care of it." Ino replied, making the sign for her clan's jutsu. "Take care of my body for me, ok?"
"Right."
She raised her hands, looking through the space between her palms to look at the bandaged genin. "Mind Transfer Jutsu!"
With that, she fell over, her body caught by Shikamaru while Dosu's eye widened as everything went black to him. The Nara released the technique and Dosu stood up. "Hm, now all that's left is to tie these guys up."
"Wow… it was over so fast…" Sakura said in surprised near whisper from her place on the ground, recognizing the jutsu and knowing that Ino was now in control of Dosu's body.
In short order, the three Oto genin were tied up and the two males given a dose of Sakura's poison just to be on the safe side. They had an earth scroll, just what Team 10 needed, and since Sakura already had an earth scroll, she let them keep it. Ino and Choji would have cheered were it not for the situation.
"Glad that's over." Shikamaru commented before turning to the recovering Sakura, who was now able to stand on her own two feet. "So, you guys seriously ran into Orochimaru? The Orochimaru of the Sannin?"
Sakura grimaced, her gaze falling to the ground. "You heard that, huh?" She looked up, her expression troubled. "Yeah… lucky for us, he was just testing us, if you call that lucky. He knocked out Sasuke and had one of his snakes eat Naruto…" She half lied.
All the members of Team 10's eyes bugged out at that. "WHAT!?"
"He said he wanted to see how far we could go in the exam, and since we need Naruto to pass I'm sure he's fine! I think he just wanted him out of the way." Her expression became pained again. "At least… I hope. I wanted to go looking for him… but I couldn't leave Sasuke the way he is."
"Damn… Orochimaru. And we've got no idea where Naruto is... This is beyond a drag." Shikamaru said, rubbing the back of his head as his brow furrowed. This was way more than he bargained for when he let Ino for- convince him to go along with these troublesome exams. Why'd they have to get mixed up in something like this? Finally, he shrugged. First an A-rank mission and now this. Things seemed to blow up around these three, and he didn't want to be there when more excitement happened to find them. "Well, good luck. Now that we've got both scrolls, we can make it out of this troublesome forest. I'm sure once Sasuke wakes up you'll…"
"How can you say that!? What are you thinking?! We can't just leave them like this!" Ino cried as she whirled on him, hands balled into fists.
Shikamaru shrugged. "What? We helped them out, didn't we? And we got the scroll we needed to show for it. I say we get out of this forest before something else happens."
"What if someone else finds them?!"
"Sakura was doing just find on her own until those three showed up, and they weren't normal. I'm sure she'll be able to handle it."
With a growl, Ino grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him closer to her, staring angrily into his eyes. "We are not leaving Sakura here to look for Naruto, take care of Sasuke and hope some other team doesn't find them! We're helping them, so deal with it!" She turned to the pink haired kunoichi. "Don't worry, forehead, we've got your back." Seeing Sakura's surprised look, she smirked. "Oh, come on. You don't think I'd let you take all the credit for watching Sasuke, not to mention let you keep an eye on these three-" she gestured to the unconscious ninjas, "-on top of everything else, do you?"
Shikamaru gave her a slightly annoyed look. "How'd I know you were going to say that? Fine, it's too troublesome to argue when you get like this." With a sigh, he continued, knowing there would be no way to dissuade his blonde teammate. "I'd rather not spread ourselves thin, but let's split into groups so we can look for Naruto while we watch over…"
Shikamaru was interrupted when Sakura noticed movement behind him. Sasuke was rising to his feet, partially cloaked in a fading cloud of steam issuing from the seal on his neck. "Sasuke!" She cried, drawing all their attention to him. Unnoticed by Sakura and the two males in the group, Ino's eyes widened when she felt his chakra, taking an involuntary step back as she sensed it. "You're awake!" Sakura said as she moved towards him, only to stop, her face taking on a surprised and bewildered look as he came out into the open.
The mark on his neck had spread, covering his left arm and a quarter of his face. But perhaps more alarming was the look in his eyes.
Those coal eyes were like two chips of black ice, colder than she'd ever seen them before and seemed to radiate murderous intent. There was a malice hidden within their depths that had never been there before… a darkness that reminded her of the cruelty and sadistic glee in Orochimaru's amber orbs.
However, that malevolent fire in his eyes died down, replaced with a look of… almost concern, when they fell on his pink haired teammate, his gaze quickly scanning over her, taking note of all her injuries, "Sakura… what happened?" He asked before his gaze filled with rage. Were it not for the situation, Sakura would have felt elated he was angry for her. "Who did this to you?"
Sakura took a step forward, shaking off the shock she was feeling and clasping her hands before her chest as she replied, "It's nothing, Sasuke, I'm fine now, really." She stepped aside and looking to the captured sound genin. "It was those three but see, Ino and her team helped me out and we took care of them." She turned back to him, giving him a concerned look as he eyed her, noting the blood leaking out of her ear before looking at Team 10, Choji flinching under his gaze.
"They helped you?" He asked and she nodded. "You're sure you're all right?"
She nodded again. "Please don't worry about me, Sasuke, look at yourself! You're…"
"I know." He cut her off before looking down at his hand, examining the markings covering his skin. "Don't worry about it, I'm fine. In fact I've never felt better. I can feel this overwhelming power coursing through my body… this power he gave me. It helped me understand." He closed his eyes. "I'm an avenger." 'No matter what the cost, even if I have to make a deal with the devil, my path demands that I gain power.'
Sasuke opened his eyes, his Sharingan blazing. "You took care of yourself well, Sakura." His eyes landed on the unconscious sound genin. "Hn, I was hoping to test this power out on these punks for hurting you, but you already took care of them." He chuckled slightly. "No matter, they probably weren't strong enough to give me a challenge now anyway." A grin, one dripping with malicious glee, spread across his features. "I have to find someone stronger. I have to test the limits… of my ability."
'Wha- what is this? What's wrong with him?' Ino asked herself, more than a little intimidated by Sasuke's change in demeanor. 'He never acted like this before! And his chakra… it's so dark… and twisted…'
'This… this isn't Sasuke.' Sakura thought as she watched Sasuke begin to walk to the edge of the clearing. "Wait!" She suddenly rushed over to him. "Where are you going? What about Naruto?!"
"What about him?" Sasuke asked coldly, craning his neck to look at her out of the corner of his eye, making the other genin flinch.
"W- what are you saying?! We've got no idea where he is or if he's ok! We've got to find him and-"
"Why bother?" Sasuke cut her off again before turning away again, every fiber of his being calling out to find an opponent, any powerful opponent, and crush them like an insect beneath his foot. "If he can find his own way back, then good for him. If not…"
"Sasuke!" Suddenly, his eyes widened and Sakura's arms wrapped around him. Resting her forehead against the back of Sasuke's head as she sobbed quietly. "Please, snap out of it! This isn't you! How could you even suggest something like that! Listen to what you're saying!"
While Sakura's warm embrace did a lot to combat the darkness that had taken root in the Uchiha heir's mind, it alone wasn't enough. He was about to shrug her off as the rage and bloodlust the Curse Mark flooded his mind with demanded when her words cut through to him and his breath hitched.
'To test the limits…' He heard himself begin as the moment replayed itself in his mind.
The next instant, the world fell away and he found himself in the past. A place he had frequented in his nightmares. He stood within a room in his families mansion. The moonlight filtering in through the nearby window as he stared, his eyes wide with terror and anguish at the sight before him.
Stopping just inches from his feet was a pool of blood that had spread from the center of the room, where the bodies of he parents lied, unmoving. So much of the crimson liquid stained the wooden floor that it was clear even to their young son that there was no chance they were still alive. And standing over the bodies of the once proud head of the Uchiha, until that day one of the largest and most powerful clans in the nations and his wife; a powerful and renowned kunoichi in her own right, was their murderer, coldly peering down at the young Uchiha with no hint of emotion, his sword gleaming in the light. A young man who had once been the pride of the clan. Someone whose example he'd measured himself against...
His older brother.
Horror seized Sasuke's mind in a cold grip as his brother finished his sentence. '… of my ability.'
'No!' He thought furiously as he gripped his skull, bending over as he rebelled against the dark influence enveloping his being, fighting through the feeling of fire coursing through his veins as every nerve ending in his body lit up in indescribable pain. 'I'm nothing like him!' He could feel the seal's power, like icy claws digging into his skull as it fought back, slowly loosening as he refused to give in. 'Get out!'
And suddenly, the black markings glowed crimson before they receded, shifting back into the three tomoe mark on his neck as his eyes returned to their normal obsidian color.
With a groan of pain as his head, Sasuke's limbs fell limply to his sides before he fell forward, but Sakura caught him and held him up. "S- Sakura…"
Ino chewed on her lip in concern as she watched the scene, a bit worried about how far her rival may have come in gaining the affections of their love interest, and also over the Uchiha's actions. That wasn't the Sasuke she knew, and what was that twisted chakra?
After a moment, she gathered her thoughts together and stepped forward. "Hey, forehead! You've been keeping something from us, haven't you?!" She said, drawing their attention.
"I'm guessing that mark was having some effect on his mind, right? Even at his worst, Sasuke was never that big of a jerk." He half expected Ino to berate him for saying that, but she was too concerned to comment on it. "It's a keepsake from Orochimaru, am I right?" Seeing Sakura cringe slightly and Sasuke's eye narrow, though not at him, gave him his answer. He sighed, shaking his head and rubbing the back of his neck as he closed his eyes. 'This gets more and more troublesome by the second…'
Seeing their reaction, Ino put her hands on her hips as he brow furrowed, "Look, if we're going to help, you've got to be straight with us. So tell us everything, starting with that seal."
Naruto looked up at the sky, letting out a growl of frustration as he stared into its purple hue. Night was going to fall soon, and he and Kabuto were no closer to finding his teammates.
They'd quickly made it to the spot that they'd encountered Orochimaru, only to find no sign of where Sasuke and Sakura had gone or what had happened. Briefly, an icy cold jolt of fear had entered his heart as he once again contemplated the possibility that he'd taken them, but he quickly shook that off, remembering the rogue Sannin's words and that he'd probably have taken him too if that was the case.
So, he came to the conclusion that it was a sign of the training they'd received that they hadn't left any traces of where they might have gone. Or at least that's what he hoped. He and Kabuto had spent a few minutes there in search of clues, Kabuto looking around in slight awe at the scars left behind by their battle, wondering how it had gone and just how well they'd fared, before Naruto created several clones and scattered them, but he'd yet to receive any memories, meaning their search had thus far been fruitless.
The two had returned to the scene of the battle, hoping to find some clue that they might have missed earlier, only to be disappointed. Realizing how difficult it would be to find particular individuals in an area as massive as this and remembering what he'd been told about other sensory abilities and how easy this would be if only he had them, he made a mental note to look into them in the future. He would have found them by now if he could sense chakra beyond seeing it with his eyes.
"Well, I'll give your friends this; they know how to cover their tracks." Kabuto commented, once more taking in the sights of the damage, his eyes wandering over the various holes in the bark and signs of explosions. They stopped as he saw a branch that looked as if it had simply been torn off.
"Damn it." Naruto growled in frustration as he grew increasingly worried. Yes, Orochimaru had said that he wanted them to progress to the next round, but he wasn't exactly known for telling the truth. He'd take anything the serpentine man said with a grain of salt. "Where're they hiding?"
"Well, it's a big forest." Kabuto pointed out idly, raising his hands in a placating gesture when Naruto rounded on him. "Hey, I'm just saying." He looked out into the trees, placing his hand above his eyes. "They could be anywhere. And if they're this good at covering their tracks, unless they got sloppy, we might miss them if we're even slightly off."
"Yeah, I know." Naruto sighed, placing his hand on his forehead. He couldn't help but worry. Along with Teuchi and Ayame, his team was like the family he never had, and he they were dealing with one of the most dangerous shinobi alive, and he freely admitted the Sharingan had been his objective. "It's just… I feel like I let them down, you know? ...I told them to go on ahead and leave me to hold him off, but they wouldn't. They stayed and fought alongside me, and I let that bastard…" He said, growling a bit at the end.
"Don't let it get you down." Kabuto said. "If whoever this guy was could take all three of you on, he must have been one tough customer. There's no telling if they would have gotten away if they'd just run. You did everything you could and you even tried to sacrifice yourself for their sakes, you can't ask for more than that. Besides, you ever think how they'd have felt about themselves if they had left you and made it out? I doubt they'd have ever forgiven themselves." Naruto seemed to contemplate that but said nothing. After a moment, Kabuto spoke up again. "It's getting late. It won't do us or your teammates any good to go stumbling into an ambush. What do you say we set up camp here?"
There was a pause as Naruto considered this. He wanted to continue the search, and light wasn't a factor to his dojutsu, but he knew it was a bad idea to keep searching all day and night without rest. "I'd rather look a while longer." After a pause, he turned to Kabuto and nodded, placing had hands behind his head as he said, "Fine. You're right, it'd probably just be a waste of time to keep looking for a few more hours when we can start fresh bright and early tomorrow. Besides, my clones can keep a lookout over night. Who knows, maybe they'll get lucky."
Kabuto smiled. "Good, I'll take first watch."
Throughout the night, the two genin slept in shifts, watched over from the shadows by one of Naruto's clones while a few more continued to scour the forest. Unfortunately, it seemed that they looked in all the wrong places and found no trace of his teammates. Naruto replaced them at each of his own shifts, the young Rinnegan bearer knowing better than to let the same clones keep up their search all night and then let all their fatigue hit him at once when it came time to set out.
Soon as the rays of the morning light began to shine through the canopy, Kabuto turned to Naruto, who was just walking out from beneath the trees. "So, I take it your clones had no luck."
"Really? What was your first clue?" Naruto replied with half lidded eyes, not that they could be seen with the sunglasses, before snapping, "If they'd found them, I'd have been there by now!"
"Ok, ok. I just asked a question, take it easy."
"Sorry… well, at least they narrowed things down for us." Naruto replied with a sigh before looking up. "I think they might be looking for me somewhere. They looked everywhere around here, and nothing."
"Maybe after they got attacked by someone and thought moving away from the obvious site of a battle would be a good idea to avoid potential scavengers hoping to strike while they're weak." Kabuto suggested.
"Probably." Naruto replied with a grimace, remembering that Orochimaru said he'd created Otogakure, meaning those three Oto genin worked for him and may have had some hidden agenda.
He shook his head to ward off that thought. Why would he send them after his team? The snake summoner of the Sannin had already tested them. What would be the point?
And why did he just test them anyway? While he wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth, that was odd. He was after the Sharingan, and had the Rinnegan right before him. Why hadn't he taken them? What was so important about seeing how far they'd progress? Maybe he was just arrogant and believed he could take them anytime he wanted, though Naruto couldn't see the logic in giving them time to get stronger, even if he thought they still wouldn't be a match for him, though he admitted to himself they probably wouldn't be for at least a few years to come.
Though, that did offer some comfort. Even if he was more interested in the Sharingan, he couldn't imagine him taking Sasuke and leaving a Rinnegan bearer, so that seemed to increase the odds he'd been telling the truth about leaving them.
Deciding to get back to the matter at hand, his thoughts returned to where his team might be hiding. It was likely they'd moved if they thought staying around there might invite another attack. Good thing his clones hadn't slacked on their search area.
"Come on." Naruto said before leaping up the trees, Kabuto following almost immediately after.
As the pair of genin bounded up the trees and went to continue their search, neither noticed as an Ame shinobi wearing a yellow jumpsuit with a rebreather mask watched from the upper canopy.
Hours passed as the two continued their search and in what seemed like the blink of an eye, the sun was beginning to edge towards the horizon, once more painting the sky a vivid orange that, for once, Naruto just couldn't enjoy in the slightest.
Naruto was growing increasingly worried about his teammates, neither he nor his clones having seen hide nor hair of them despite searching for half the day already. Of course, it didn't help that they were searching in all the wrong places, not that he was aware of this fact. Sakura, remembering that Orochimaru had mentioned his subordinates, had moved as far away from the sight of the battle with the traitorous Sannin as with the unconscious Sasuke and neither Naruto nor his clones had gone in that exact direction, causing them to miss their hiding spot.
The blonde's eyes widened in surprise when his stomach suddenly rumbled, something Kabuto didn't miss. The purple clad genin smirked as Naruto gave a sheepish look and rubbed the back of his head.
"Heh heh, looks like it's time to feed the beast." Naruto then looked around before pointing off to the side. "There should be a river just over there. It shouldn't be too hard to rustle up some grub, unless you'd rather have a food pill." He said, the last part making it clear that's the last thing he'd want and that he had no intention of eating one if he didn't have to. Not surprising, food pills and ration bars were meant to keep you healthy and nourish the body, not appeal to the palate.
In other words, they tasted like chalk.
That aside, you weren't supposed to eat them constantly. They contained powerful stimulants that shouldn't be overused, and that was all he'd had since setting foot in the forest.
Kabuto nodded. "All right, fish it is. Lead the way."
It took only a few minutes to reach their destination. Snaking a path through the trees and beneath one of the massive above ground roots was a fairly deep, winding river, its waters crystal clear and shimmering slightly in the sunlight.
Standing on its banks, Naruto could see the silhouettes of fish deep under the water and grinned.
"'Don't shy away from using jutsu practically for mundane reasons'." Naruto quoted his sensei, chuckling slightly and rubbing his hands together as he eyed the unfortunate fish who had no idea what was in store for them. A few yards away, Kabuto was making a fire, having already gathered the wood and was now spinning a twig on one of the logs, a thin trail of smoke rising as the friction brought it closer and closer to catching fire.
Naruto clapped his hands together and made a sign to focus his chakra before slamming his palms onto the water's surface. His brow furrowed as he focused, channeling his energy into the river, fighting against the current and seizing control of the water as he ensnared several fish within his power. It took a little over a second before he'd captured the unlucky creatures and, with a sweep of his hand, sent a wave of water out onto the ground behind him.
The water was quickly soaked into the ground revealing six fish flailing helplessly on the ground, desperate for air. The Rinnegan bearer stood and grinned as he surveyed his catch before walking over to round them up.
Seven minutes later, and Naruto was enjoying a freshly caught and cooked fish on a stick. Not the best meal, but it was better than the ration bars, that was for certain.
"So, your clones have scouted most of the forest by now? I take it you were planning to use them to scout out other teams and maybe use them to help set up a trap for them?" Kabuto questioned. Naruto's eyes rose from his meal to the other genin and he nodded. "Pretty good strategy, but if that's the case, shouldn't you have both scrolls by now?"
Naruto frowned at that and, after swallowing, he replied, "Yeah, well, we did, but that snake summoning jackass took one of them, so we're short a heaven scroll."
"And those guys you took out before had an earth scroll. Tough break." Kabuto replied before his gaze roamed to the sky and his expression turned thoughtful. "Have you given any thought to what you're going to do after you find your team? You've only got three days left."
Naruto shrugged, the slight movement of his head giving the impression he was looking to the side, though it was hard to tell with his sunglasses. "In that case, I guess we'll go with plan B. We were thinking of camping out somewhere close to the tower and waiting to setting a trap for some poor suckers with both scrolls, so I guess we'll just do that."
Kabuto smirked, adjusting his glasses with his middle finger. "Heh, well, you guys hardly need my help. Good thing too, sorry to say if we don't find your team by tomorrow, I'm going to have to take off."
"No problem, you've helped me out plenty already." Naruto waved him off before taking another quick bite of his fish. After he swallowed the morsel, he asked, "Hey, you've been through these exams seven times, right? Any big difference, or are they always about the same?"
That was something he'd wanted to ask for a while, but he'd been so focused on his teammates he'd neglected to do so. While the exam was apparently always different, he might know something that could help. Having gone through it so many times, he was no doubt a wealth of knowledge on Konoha and other village's testing methods, and he planned to make sure to learn all he could.
What he really wanted to know, however, was how Kabuto learned everything he'd had on his info card. But of course, a shinobi always kept his secrets. He knew if he asked about it, he probably wouldn't get an answer, so he didn't bother. Still, maybe someday he might give him some pointers on information gathering, since he was obviously good at it, though he could always go to Jiraiya since he was the village's greatest spymaster.
"Not really." Kabuto responded with a shrug before bringing his hand up, extending his index finger towards the sky in an explanatory gesture. "Every village's exam is different, but the individual village always has similar tests. In Konoha, the first stage is always a written exam with a hidden meaning, for example, last time, the final question was a test of whether or not you were willing to sacrifice your teammates for the chance of personal advancement, kind of like an inverse of this year's test. All the teams that backed out passed and all those who chose to remain failed. The second stage is always in this forest, though the objectives are never the same. That's the tricky one. Lastly, the final stage is always something of a tournament involving several, randomly selected matches before a wide audience of visitors from other nations, including foreign ninja and VIPs like minor or feudal lords. However, it's not about whether you win or lose these fights." Seeing Naruto's confused expression, he smirked. "Oh no, as you know, while skill is needed to be a chunin, it takes more than just that. You've got to be able to lead a team, plan ahead, keep a cool head under pressure and be ready for whatever crisis lies ahead of you."
"So in other words…" Naruto picked up where he left off. "They judge you based on how well you performed, so you could win the whole shebang and still not become a chunin if you just used raw power or lose your cool too much, or everyone or no body could pass."
"Exactly. You could be the most skilled fighter there, but if you don't handle yourself like a chunin, you can forget about passing." Kabuto replied with a nod as he sat back, propping his arm up on his knee. "Also, if too many teams pass this stage of the exams, there'll be a preliminary stage as soon as the time limit's expired. It's basically the same as the finals, but there are no spectators, and there's no chance of becoming a chunin no matter how well you do."
Naruto mulled this over, crossing his arms and looking to the fire with a frown etched on his features as he thought on what it meant to be a chunin. He thought of his old sensei Iruka and of the various chunin he knew, as well as what his sensei's had told him. Being a chunin meant you would be trusted with leading a mission if a jonin wasn't present. So, it meant you'd have to be ready to hold that responsibility, to be able to think ahead and strategize, remain in control of a situation and keep cool under fire.
Seeing this, Kabuto paused before saying, "I've been meaning to ask, what's the deal with that A-rank mission?"
"Well it started with a mission to …" Naruto started as he gave an abridged version of what happened during the mission, leaving out more details than he had when he told Ino, and then inquired about the Chunin Exams of other countries in turn.
Naruto rose to his feet and turned to look out into the forest, throwing the last stick and the remnants of the fish it held to the ground as he turned, wiping his mouth off before slamming his fist into his open palm as Kabuto kicked dirt on the fire to put it out.
"Alright, time to get back on track!" Naruto said, reactivating his dojutsu before looking over his shoulder at Kabuto. "Let's move." He said before suddenly halting his movements.
Noticing this, Kabuto looked at him curiously, tilting his head to the side and arching a brow. "Something wrong?"
"Nothing, I gotta take a piss, be right back." Naruto replied as he ran off past the tree line. Kabuto's brow furrowed as he watched him run off, finding his sudden shift kind of odd before he shrugged. It wasn't entirely uncommon you'd suddenly notice you have to go, so he decided to think nothing of it.
That is, until his trained ears picked up the slight sound of rustling in the tree behind him. It was almost imperceptible, even to most shinobi's honed sense of hearing, but he caught it. His eyes to dart in the direction without shifting the rest of his body to let whoever it was know he was on to them.
Meanwhile, Naruto walked into a small, secluded area and looked around, checking his surrounding area for any signs of a threat for a few moments before he seemed satisfied. With that, he walked over to a nearby bush and began to fiddle with his pants.
As the sound of a zipper being pulled down echoed through the clearing, a figure, soon revealed to be the Ame genin from before, silently rose out of the ground, the earth yielding as if it were liquid until he stood as his full height, readying a kunai to attack.
Suddenly, his senses warned him of danger and he turned just in time to see another Naruto, the real one, leap out of the trees above him.
"What!?" He questioned in shock, not noticing the clone he'd been approaching, a shadow clone, suddenly whip around to face him, grabbing both his arms and locking them just below the shoulders, holding him in place as the real blond shot towards him.
Naruto slammed two palms into his shoulders before leaping back, revealing a pair of specialized sealing tags. The Rinnegan bearer then brought his hands together into the tiger seal.
The Ame genin's eyes widened and he let out a groan of discomfort as he suddenly felt his chakra begin to rapidly leave his body, drawn into the two tags on his body. He felt the strength leaving his extremities and soon fell to one knee. He looked up just in time to see Naruto give a slightly feral grin as he pull out a kunai and spun it around in his hand before slamming it's butt into his face, causing the weakened ninja's world to go black.
"Hmph, sucker. Thought you could pull one over on Konoha's number one prankster, huh?" Naruto said smugly. He then turned back in the direction of the clearing. "Well, that's one down." He gestured for his clone to follow him, and he did.
Arriving on a high branch looking down on the riverside area he'd left Kabuto at, he saw he frowned as he saw him fighting against… nothing, swiping a kunai at invisible enemies while holding up his guard.
Any academy student would immediately know that Kabuto had fallen under the sway of a genjutsu, most likely by the downed Ame genin's companions.
Using his dojutsu, he quickly located the chakra signatures of the two remaining enemies.
Said genin were watching as Kabuto fought against their jutsu from their perch on a low branch. To him, a small army of black clad Ame genin, made of an inky substance and able to regenerate infinitely, were attacking from all sides. The beauty of this particular technique was it was impossible to tell apart from a unique clone jutsu, so the enemy never realized they were chasing shadows until they were good and tired.
Once he was, their comrade would arrive disguised as Naruto, and then stab him in the back.
"Too easy." One of the genin commented. "We can keep this up all day. It shouldn't be long before he's completely worn out. Shouldn't be surprised, he did fail these exams the last six exams."
"Yeah, but where the hell is Oboro? How long could it take to take down someone in the middle of taking a piss? He should have been back by now."
"Oh, don't worry about him. He's just a little out of it right now." A voice said from behind them.
"Huh?" Both turned to see a kunai with an explosive tag fall out of the trees and imbed itself in the branch. Their eyes widened as the tag instantly began to burn. "Shit!"
Neither could react before the tag exploded, sending both genin flying through the air amongst chunks of bark and debris and into the clearing and breaking their illusion as Kabuto watched them fall. They bounced off of the ground before quickly skidding to a halt. One raised himself up on his elbow as Naruto landed in front of them, cracking his knuckles.
"He just ran into this super awesome ninja, and you'll be joining him in about two seconds."
In short order, the Ame genin were defeated and tied up, lying face down in the clearing alongside their comrade Oboro. However, the prone teens were ignored by Naruto, who was grinning down at an object firmly clasped in his right hand.
"All right!" The Rinnegan bearer cheered, tossing the scroll up into the air and catching it. "I've got a new heaven scroll! Now all I need to do is find Sakura and Sasuke, and we can get out of this god-forsaken forest!"
Kabuto nodded. "So let's get a move on. It's not a good idea to linger at the sight of a battle."
Unfortunately, getting a heaven scroll proved to be the high point of the day. Another night went by and they were unsuccessful in finding Naruto's team. They got up early the next day and went back to searching, but after a few more hours of fruitless wandering through the forest, hoping in vain that one of Naruto's clones would transmit their location to him, Kabuto stopped on a branch and looked up at the sky.
Noticing that he'd stopped following, Naruto landed and turned to face him.
With a sigh, Kabuto stated, "I think it's about time for me to go." He then looked back to Naruto, giving him an apologetic smile. "If I stick around any longer, I'll be late for my team meeting. Sorry I couldn't be of more help."
"Ah, don't worry about it. You've done plenty." Naruto replied, waving off his apology. It was true, as far as helping locate his teammates, he hadn't been much aid, but he'd given the blond a wealth of information on the Chunin Exams of Konoha and other villages.
"Good luck finding your teammates. I hope they're all right." And with that, Kabuto left, the blond going on his way not a moment later.
The next day, Naruto sighed again as he sat at the top of the forest canopy, leaning his head back and looking at the clouds going by. He was growing increasingly worried about his friends.
Then, his head suddenly shot up, his face shifting to a look of shock before lighting up with excitement. One of his clones had just dispersed, alerting the original and all the clones of its findings.
He'd found them! Finally! The clone had run into Sakura and Shikamaru travelling together, and after they gave a brief summary of how they'd teamed up, led him back to their hiding place. Apparently, they'd actually been moved to somewhere he'd looked earlier after being found by another team.
Naruto leapt down to the lower levels of the treetops before shooting off in their direction. Moving at top speed, it only took a few minutes to reach his destination. He leapt out of the leaves to find himself in a clearing, where Team 10 and his teammates waited for him. Sakura ran forward and waved to him.
"Naruto!"
"Sakura!"
As Naruto landed, he was surprised when Sakura reached him and threw her arms around him. "Don't scare us like that ever again!" She spoke, her tone conveying just how happy she was to see him safe and sound. "Do you have any idea how worried we were?"
While she didn't, and likely never would love him like he hoped she would, she had come to see him as something of a brother.
Naruto wrapped his arms around her, a small smile gracing his features. "I was worried about you too." She stepped back. "I kept saying to myself, 'they're fine, I'll find them eventually' but when you think about who we were up against…"
"Well, last we saw you, you'd been swallowed by a snake. How do you think we felt?" Sakura shot back with a playful expression.
"I told her you'd be alright." Sasuke spoke up with a smirk, drawing their attention to him. "No way you'd let some snake finish you off."
Naruto just gave a grunt of affirmation as his smile widened, but his expression shifted into a frown as Sakura's face showed concern. "Naruto… he did something to Sasuke."
Naruto made a surprised sound as he turned to the Uchiha avenger.
Hope you enjoyed the new chapter.
Sorry to fans of this story, but it's third on my priorities as far as my fanfics go. My favorites are Naruto: Legends of Two Jinchuriki and my upcoming Soul Eater fic: Sinful Rose, named after the song that served as the main theme of Disgaea 2, the lyrics fit a lot of the story.
Next, I'll write the first 3-5 chapters of Sinful Rose then the next arc of Naruto: Legends of Two Jinchuriki, followed by the third chapter of Looking into the Abyss.