To make up for the super short chapter last time, here's a long one! Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Chapter 10

Sakura looked at what little water she had left in her water bottle. Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura has been in the Forest of Death for three days now, and despite the fact that it was a forest, there was no humidity. They had yet to come across a body of water, so they were forced to use the water bottles Sakura had packed in her backpack. After this one was gone, they only had one more in between the three of them.

Naruto was cooking some smallish animal they managed to catch while Sasuke was setting up traps while keeping his teammates in sight. After a few days of having to fend off genin teams, Sakura understood, really, she did. But sometimes, a girl has to have some time alone, especially since she saw some red in her underwear that day - which was concerning.

Despite the implications of that, she put it aside and focused on the task at hand - finding water. She knew that human body only lasted so long without water, and they were down to a few mouthfuls, and they still only had the Heaven scroll with no leads on getting an Earth scroll anytime soon. Making a choice, she saved the water until tomorrow and looked back at her boys. Sasuke was sat down next to Naruto waiting the last few seconds the meat needed to cook. Naruto was a surprisingly good cook, despite his favorite food being ramen, but she suspected that was because he grew up alone and needed to cook to survive. After eating, Sasuke took the first watch and as Sakura curled up in her sleeping bag, she knew that although the scrolls were important, basic survival came first - and that meant finding water first thing in the morning.

Despite their best intentions, the three of them have yet to find more water and are down to the last mouthful by mid afternoon. As they touched down on the ground, the shadows from the trees blocked the light of the sun and Sakura felt goosebumps raise on her arms. She briefly thought of how weird the Forest was, with it's weird plant life before a gust of wind separated Naruto from her and Sasuke. "Naruto!" Sasuke and Sakura looked around frantically, but it wasn't use. Naruto was gone.

He can't be dead. He just can't be. Naruto can't be dead! Sakura was shook. The last ten minutes were terrifying. First, they thought that they found Naruto, but it turned out to be that nice Grass nin, who suddenly wasn't so nice anymore, especially after he said that he killed Naruto. The pure Killing Intent that emanated from the Grass nin was enough for her to see her own death. Despite the genjutsu training Kakashi-sensei had put her through, she couldn't get out of it and she would have died if not for Sasuke. Both Sasuke and Sakura were shaking as they tried to get themselves under control before the nin found them, they both knew that it was only a matter of time.

"This is not good," Sasuke's voice was shaking as he spoke. "There's no way we can beat him."

"I'm so sorry, Sasuke. I trusted him, both when he showed up as Naruto and before," Sakura's voice wasn't much better. "Dios, I'm such an idiot!"

"...You didn't know. Don't beat yourself up too bad, Sakura." Sasuke's hesitation and uncomfortableness was clear in his vice as he tried comforting his more emotional teammate.

"Yeah, Sakura-chan! You didn't know! I liked him too, remember?" A slightly husky voice came through the air.

Sakura gasped and Sasuke quietly called, "Naruto!" and there he was, their precious knucklehead teammate, slimy and dirty, but relatively unharmed. Sakura ran to him and hugged him, uncaring of the slime while Sasuke held back only due to pride. "You're okay, you're okay! He said you were dead!"

"Almost. I was eaten by a giant snake before I broke out of its stomach." Naruto's voice lost its blasé attitude for a second before he became perky once more.

"So, that's what happened to him. Manda will be upset that I killed another one of his species." The Grass nin came up from the ground in front of them and the genin immediately went into a defensive position. The Grass nin smiled cruelly when he noticed how shaky the weapons were.

Sasuke made an aborted movement, like he couldn't make up his mind on throwing the kunai or putting it away. Sakura puke understand, she had the same feeling. She wanted to fight to live but she knew that they had to run away in order to live. As Sasuke talked to the Grass nin about the scrolls, the nin took his out and lit it on fire. At the team's shocked sounds he smirked. "You really think I care about this stupid scroll? You can keep yours all you want, I don't really care either way. I only want one of you, if the others get out of the way, I won't have to hurt them."

The three looked at each other in baffled concern, trying to figure out who he was after. Sakura immediately counted herself out, as the only thing she could think of that made her interesting was either sealed in a scroll or was almost out, and nobody knew about them anyway. So that left Naruto or Sasuke and they both could be the target, being the Kyuubi and the Last Uchiha respectfully. But, since Naruto being the Kyuubi was a state secret, it was unlikely that the Grass nin would know, which left…

Sasuke got it just before she did. "Me. You want me."

The smile grew on the Grass nins lips. "I knew I liked you. But Pinky behind you figured it out too, didn't you?"

The attention from the Grass nin made her speak without thinking. "Pinky, really? You couldn't come up with anything original?"

There was silence as everyone comprehended what she said. Sakura covered her mouth, Naruto snorted, Sasuke and the Grass nin just stared. Sakura lowered her hands, "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. I have no idea what came over me."

The Grass nin regained his composure and Team Seven did the same. Sasuke handed Sakura the Heaven scroll to protect while he went after Naruto since Naruto already jumped in to fight the Grass nin, claws out, with some of the Kyuubi's chakra leaking from his body in his anger that the Grass nin wanted Sasuke. The Grass nin leapt out of the way before getting a pensive look on his face before suddenly getting in front of Naruto, holding him to the trunk of a tree. Ignoring Naruto's attempts to escape, he ripped Naruto's jumpsuit down to his belly, where a giant swirling seal was placed. "I know what this is. I know who made it and I know what you are. I can't have you interfering with my plans." With that said, the Grass nin's fingers lit up one by one before he struck the seal with it.

Naruto let out a gut wrenching scream of pain before the Grass nin let him go and he started falling to the ground, unconscious. Sakura ran as fast as she could to reach him, sure that a fall from that height could do serious damage to him, and caught him before he could reach the ground. Looking up, she saw Sasuke was fighting the Grass nin and had to do something. She took out the last water bottle and made the little water they had left into a tiny ball, like a bullet. Aiming carefully, she shot the ball toward the Grass nin's neck, allowing enough of a distraction for Sasuke to get his chains around the Grass nin and pulled him against a trunk on the other side of the branch. Sasuke used his family's fire technique and the Grass nin lit up in flames. Sakura and Sasuke both fell to their knees in relief, glad he was over.

"Well then, what marvelous technique that was. What jutsu was that, I don't think I've heard of it before?" A high pitched voice cut through the air. Sasuke and Sakura looked at what should have been a mess of bones and flesh and instead saw nothing. Jumping up, the teens looked around and saw a figure walking towards them from behind Sakura. The figures face was half melted off, but there was a much paper face inside. The figure tore off the rest of the Grass nin's face and Sakura recognized him.

"I know you. You're Orochimaru. You were banished from Konoha years ago, weren't you? You were in a team with Tsunade and Jiraiya, that's how you know some medical jutsu and that's how you recognized Naruto's seal, isn't it?"

Orochimaru looked impressed. "You know all that? And here I was going to introduce myself, but you took care of that for me."

Sakura couldn't help herself, "Also, aren't you, like, fifty? You wanting Sasuke for his body is breaching on pedophilia territory. Just saying."

Orochimaru opened his mouth to respond but Sakura bulldozed through, "Oh my gosh, what is wrong with me today? I never do this. Please don't Hannibal Lecter me!"

"I'm not a cannibal!" Orochimaru sounded scandalized. Apparently people thinking he's a cannibal is worse than people thinking he's a pedophile. "And I'm not a peophile, either."

I stand corrected, Sakura thought as she took out her last ditch effort, Kubikiribōchō, the sword she got by pure accident. She still wasn't strong enough to use the sword for long, but she figured the element of surprise would help her stall until the proctors came. As the sword came out of the scroll it was in, Orochimaru's eyes widened in shock. Gathering her strength, Sakura swung the sword but Orochimaru dodged. Sakura kept swinging as fast as she could, but was slowed down as she was still unused to the weight of the sword and as Orochimaru was a master at kenjutsu and was a freaking Sannin, she kept missing and he took an opening and made his way behind her, and twisted her wrists. Sakura cried out and dropped the sword, her arms now caught under one of his while his other went around her neck.

Orochimaru lowered his head to her neck and dragged his nose across it and up to her ear. "You know, if he really wanted to prove he wasn't a pedophile, this is not the way to go." Inner's voice broke through Sakura's thoughts while her breath stuttered to a stop.

Orochimaru's warm breath hit her ear as he whispered, "What a marvelous girl you are. If I could do what I want to twice, I would do it to you too. But, if you ever want to know how to properly use that sword, you know how to look for me." Before Sakura could even begin to break down what he said, his face was suddenly very far away, zooming toward Sasuke, who was still on the ground. As Sakura cried out for Sasuke to run, Orochimaru bit Sasuke's neck and his head snapped back to the rest of his body. Sasuke collapsed and Orochimaru let Sakura go.

As Sakura scrambled away from Orochimaru and towards Sasuke, she heard him call out. "I hope you live, Sasuke. If you do, you will seek me out to gain power, I can guarantee it. I'm trusting you, girl, to keep him alive for me." She turned her head to where he was and saw him vanish, just like he was never there. Sakura looked around, Naruto and Sasuke both unconscious and all of them out in the open.

Sakura managed to both unconscious team members onto the ground and into an opening under some roots from the large sycamore trees surrounding them. She found out that, not even five minutes away, there was a small spring where she could get more water. Where was this when I needed it? While caring for Naruto and Sasuke throughout the night, Sakura discovered something else about her powers - she could use water to heal; only small cuts and bruises, but it was a start, which was good because whatever Orochimaru did to Naruto forced him to stop healing.

But what really worried her was Sasuke. Not too long after she settled them down, he began sporting a rather high fever and it would not go down, all the while moaning and writhing in pain. She kept the cloth that she ripped from the shirt and dipped in the spring cool, but the fever remained disturbingly high.

Sakura sat indian style in a vigil by the entrance of the roots, traps set up around the clearing. She was exhausted from staying up all night taking care of her teammates and she had to guess the time since their watches broke during the fight with Orochimaru. The water she was able to get rejuvenated her a bit, but nothing would replace a full night of constant vigilance. Her head slowly fell forward and hit her chest before jerking right back up. I can't fall asleep! If I do, we're dead!

A rustle coming from a bush on the other side of the clearing caught her attention. She waited to see if it would happen again, and when it didn't, she slowly turned her head forward, making sure to keep the bush in her peripheral vision. She tightened her hold on the kunai in her hand and cut the wire on her right, facing the inside of the cave. Her trap activated and a barrage of senbon flew towards the bush and three genin jumped out, but not completely unscathed. Sakura barely had time to see that hey were from Sound, a former territory of Konoha that had recently gained independence, before a blur of green landed in front of her. One look at the jumpsuit and bowl cut hairstyle and she knew exactly who he was, and that was before he turned and Rock Lee's face changed from concern to the squirrel Sakura didn't realize was in front of her, to shock at her predicament.

"Sakura-chan! Are these people bothering you?" Lee's tone was light, but his face betrayed how serious he was. His eyes took in Naruto's and Sasuke's still bodies as nodded to himself. "Sakura-chan, allow me the homies of fighting for you!" Without waiting for Sakura's stuttered decline for assistance, he lept at the one in the middle, the one covered in bandages except for his left eye. But, despite Lee's best efforts, he even got the one named Dosu on the ground, it ended up being three against one and Lee was losing. With one last attack from Dosu, Lee tumbled to a stop on front of Sakura, bleeding from the cuts in the jumpsuit.

Sakura looked at Lee in dismayed surprise. Even though she didn't want him to fight for her, she had hoped he could help her. He was known for not staying down no matter how much his teammate, a Neji Hyūga, beat him down, just like his sensei Might Gai. With how fast the Sound nin's had took him down, Sakura knew she was no match for them in her sleep deprived state. Sakura looked from Lee to her teammates and strengthened her resolve. She had to buy some time for them, she knew that Lee's teammates couldn't be too far behind, they wouldn't leave him to take care of himself when they needed him to pass.

She tightened the grip on the kunai still in her hand, and stood in front of Lee's prone form. The girl with the gray and black scarf burst out laughing with the other boy chuckled. The leader, Dosu, however gave Sakura a considering stare. Sakura met his gaze and hoped that he couldn't see how tired she was, how scared the encounter with Orochimaru had made her. She made sure her voice didn't shake when she called to them, "What do you want? I know you don't want our scroll, not this soon after…" Sakura risked a glance at Sasuke, his quiet moaning starting up again.

The boy with "death" written on his shirt spoke up. "We just want the black haired boy, Sasuke Uchiha. We just want to kill him, no big deal. Just give him to us and we'll be on our way." His mocking tone didn't sit well with Sakura and she turned back to the group and took out her kodachi. This was the first time she would use it in actual battle since she knew that it would have been useless on Orochimaru.

The girl rolled her eyes. "Jeez, Zaku. Now look what you've done, you went and got her all protective. Not that it'll help her any. Those traps she set were so easy to get by."

Zaku glared at her. "Are you sure about that Kin? You seem to have a few scratches on you. They don't hurt, do they Kin?"

"Why you-"

"That's enough, Zaku, Kin. We have a mission to complete. You wouldn't like to keep our guest waiting, now would you?" Dosu spoke up, sounding much more elegant than Sakura expected, but his speech pattern didn't seem natural. It was like he was trying to imitate someone. She shrugged it off before rushing forward and attacked Zaku who blasted her away with sound waves. Sakura landed feet first into a tree and immediately jumped off to attack Kin. Sakura was happy she decided to get stronger because she knew that otherwise she would be in trouble. After turning to get away from the senbon thrown by her opponent, Sakura managed to cut Kin in her arm fairly deep before her kodachi was blasted away by Zaku.

Now weaponless, Sakura turned her body to put some space between her and Kin, but Kin grabbed her loosened ponytail and held her to the ground. Kin was panting and her blood was dripping down her arm into Sakura's hair, but her grip held tight. "You know, if you spent more time training instead of conditioning your hair, you'd be much better with that sword of yours. This cut doesn't even hurt!"

Sakura closed her eyes for a second to center herself. She knew what she had to do. Kin was right. She had vowed to get stronger, and she had, but she wasn't strong enough. Killing Haku and disarming Zabuza were flukes that should've never happened, but they did. She knew then that she had to prove to everyone - herself, her team, her parents, even the Hokage himself - that she was more than a spoiled, pampered civilian girl who decided to play ninja. The resolve she felt since she asked Kakashi-sensei to take her training seriously grew and hardened once more. Sakura opened her eyes and took out a kunai and grabbed some dirt.

Kin noticed the kunai and laughed, "What? You think that'll hurt me?"

Sakura turned her head a little to get a better angle. "It's not for you. This is." Sakura grabbed Kin's arm and rubbed the dirt in Kin's wound and brought the kunai to the hair. Pink strands flew free as she cut her hair and Kin screamed in pain as dirt was forced into the open wound, reflexively letting go. Sakura couldn't help herself, "I thought you said it didn't hurt?" Sakura would admit to being petty at times. Lin's eyes burned with rage as she lunged toward Sakura and hit a log, knocking her out. Zaku's eyes widened as he saw his teammate knocked out by a substitution jutsu before frantically looking around for Sakura.

Clone after clone kept coming at him from every direction before he threw a kunai at the in coming on top of him expecting it to disappear like all the others. It didn't, and his eyes widened with the realization that she was the real one. Sakura slammed the kunai in her hand in his thigh as she but his arm hard enough to make it bleed. Zaku continuously punched her face to make her let go, but she held on tight and twisted the kunai. Zaku screamed in pain and desperation before forcing her back with a sound wave, forcing her to roll backwards, taking a chunk out of his arm as she went.

Sakura struggled to get up. She had taken down Kin, but Dosu and Zaku were still up to fight, even if Zaku had a bad stab and bite wound. She managed to get her arms under herself and lift her upper body enough to glare defiantly at them before her vision was blocked by purple. Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji jumped in front of her and went into a defensive position. Dosu stepped back in shock, "Who are you? What's going on?"

As Ino explained why they were stepping in, basically giving her and Sakura's life stories, Shikamaru took in Team Seven's predicament, as well as Lee's. His perceptive eyes took in how the water from the bowl by Sasuke's side seemed to be tilted to one side, despite the level ground. With a move of his hand behind his back, the earth under the bowl tilted and the water spilled, making a beeline to Sakura. When the water touched her skin, it moved to the cuts along her arms and they disappeared. Sakura was watching Shikamaru like a hawk and both their eyes widened at what they saw. Before a fight could break out between Team Ten and Dosu and Zaku, a voice came from behind Sakura. "Sakura? Who did this to you?"

Sakura turned her head and gasped. Sasuke was awake! Except, it didn't really look like Sasuke, he had tattoos up his neck into his face and down to his left arm, originating from the bite Orochimaru gave him. "S-Sasuke?"

"Who did this to you?" Sasuke ignored her whisper as he took in her bruised face.

"I did." Zaku called out, ignoring Dosu's attempt to shut him up. "Do you like it? I think it's my best work yet!"

Sasuke turned his face to Zaku and his face changed from blank to furious in less than a second. Before anyone could blink, he was behind Zaku, pulling his arms straight back, forcing him on his knees. Zaku pleaded with Sasuke to let him go, and he did but not Before loud pops filled the air along with Zaku's screams as both of his shoulders were dislocated. Sasuke threw Zaku away from him. He stalked towards his fallen prey, still not done playing with him, but before he could take more than two steps, two arms wrapped around his chest, stopping him in his tracks. Sakura's voice came through to him, soft by his ear, "Stop, Sasuke. That's enough. It's over now. It's okay, it's okay. No one will hurt me now. It's okay."

Sasuke turned his head to look in her teary eyes and immediately froze. The black tattoos receded back to the bite mark, where three tomoe had appeared and collapsed in a heap of exhaustion in Sakura's arms. Dosu, realizing how out numbered he was now, especially with Neji Hyūga and Tenten who just arrived, gave up his scroll, took his teammates and retreated.

Sakura was still holding Sasuke when Naruto woke up not too much later. He came and took over for her so that she could get her hair fixed by Ino, who seemed to remember their old friendship. Ino was talking about how Sakura has such pretty hair and how she was still pretty even with it short. "Ya know, except for the face." Ino's tone changed from comforting to teasing and when Sakura turned to look at her face, Ino winked. Sakura blushes and her heart skipped a beat as she whipped back around and Shikamaru looked knowingly between the two girls.

After Ino was done, Sakura's hair reached just above her shoulders. She had no idea if it looked good, but she trusted Ino. The other teams agreed to give Team Seven the scroll, as they didn't need it, everyone else already had both scrolls and were on their way to the Tower in the first place. They decided to team up together. As they raced to the tower, they came across Hinata, Kiba and Shino, who needed one more scroll, but decided to try to get to the center anyway. At Naruto's insistence, they helped Team 8 get their scroll and they were off. The four teams eventually made it to the Tower and made their way inside.