The Forsaken and The Angelic

By Quick-n-Popular

Disclaimer: "Naruto" and "Final Fantasy VII" are not mine, nor are their characters. This is story will be the only thing I claim.

Author's Note: Well things are finally on their way. Please note that I've decided to disregard the Sound Team as it was hard to fit them in and they'll only be mentioned as an after thought. Sorry guys but thems the sticks.

Now on with the main attraction...

Chapter Ten: Conversations and Preliminaries

It was quiet in the remote area, in the Forest of Death, where both Team Seven and Team Eight had set up a perimeter and stood guard.

Earlier, both teams had agreed to help each other out since Team Seven's members were in shambles, none of them were talking to each other, and that Naruto, from Team Eight asked for some room to think.

The Blonde had separated himself from his teammates and was situated next to a creek where he was crouched down into a meditative position. A thing he had picked up from his dad, Cloud, when he was too lost in thought.

Naruto sat with the sword Masamune his lap, the eerie nodachi seemed to be looking at him expectantly, or maybe it was his imagination.

The young Strife was still trying to calm his nerves. A couple of hours earlier he was fighting with this weapon under the control of the man that had brought nightmares to him when he had heard Cid and Cloud talk about stories of him. Now, apparently, that same man seemed to be locked deep inside himself and the reason behind that was simple enough.

Reno had made a deadly mistake those years ago when he injected those Jenova Cells into his body.

However, if he hadn't, then Naruto would have been still a Jinjuuriki, a living sacrifice, a Bijuu container.

Which was the lesser of two evils? Being a container for a fox that had destroyed parts of the village hidden in the leaves and that took the life of the village's beloved Yondaime Hokage? Or being the host of the most notorious mass murderer that had almost destroyed the world of Midgar?

The blonde male wasn't sure but one thing he could be certain of was that the man was inside of him and he had the capabilities of taking over, which meant that the village, his team, and Hinata-chan were not exactly safe with him.

Hinata was lost in her own thoughts as she, Shino, and Kiba stood over watch of the perimeter.

What had happened to Naruto had scared her greatly, but not of Naruto himself, but whoever that person was that had taken control over her boyfriend.

To say that it made her shiver would be an understatement. She was already tired from her fight with the snake summons and her small bout with Orochimaru. Her eyes continued to weigh heavily against her determination to stay awake. Her thoughts were the only thing keeping her mind from slipping off into slumber.

"Hey, Hinata."

Hinata blinked rapidly before turning to Kiba who had spoken.

"Get your teammate to cover for you, she's had more than enough time and I can see you're not going to last much longer unless you get some shut eye."

Hinata nodded dumbly before pivoting on the spot and going back to where Sakura was watching over a sleeping Sasuke in a cave. Coming upon her teammates, Hinata gently cleared her throat to get Sakura's attention.

"Sakura-san, it's your turn to stand watch."

Sakura didn't answer; instead she remained looking at Sasuke and didn't respond until Hinata touched her arm.

"Sakura-"

"Stop pestering me, Hinata!" Sakura shouted.

Hinata as tired as she was, half-heartedly stepped back in surprise to the outburst.

Sakura turned away from her and looked at Sasuke once more before turning her head at Hinata.

"Why? Why is that team still here? We….we don't need them. Sasuke-kun doesn't like it either, I'm sure of it."

"We n-need their h-help. What if O-Orochimaru comes back for Sasuke-san? We don't stand a ch-chance against h-him by ourselves." Hinata reasoned.

Sakura glared at Hinata, "I'm not sure if he's the real danger. Naruto seems more dangerous than him. What you see in that…thing, I don't even want to-"

*SLAP!*

Sakura held a hand to her reddened cheek as tears began to form and she grimaced as the wincing pain was so sharp.

Hinata retracted her hand; her Byakugan was active which was giving her a more definite look to the glare she was already sporting at her pink haired teammate.

"S-Sakura, wake up. Naruto's not the bad g-guy here. He's a ninja, trained to k-kill just like all of us. He didn't have to but he c-came to our rescue against a missing nin who makes us look like complete infants a-against him. Sure, he lost c-control of himself but he was quick to get back into control."

Sakura looked down as she continued to rub her sore cheek.

"Sakura-san, if you d-don't mind me asking, why did you decide to become an n-ninja?"

Sakura looked up and then to the side, "I wanted to make my parents proud of me and to show that even a clan-less shinobi could go far as long as she put her mind to it. Well, that's what I originally wanted, but I also wanted to show Sasuke-kun that I would be worth something to him."

Hinata nodded and nearly collapsed because of it due to how sleep deprived she was right now. That slap and this conversation had nearly drained her of whatever energy she had left.

"S-Sakura, I know he scares you but h-he's not dangerous. P-Please try and give Naruto-kun a chance." With that, the Hyuuga Heiress collapsed and fell promptly asleep.

With the exception of a team from Sound coming in to try and kill Sasuke, which was seemingly handled with ease, the two teams had their scrolls and moved with ease to the tower in the middle of the forest and completed the exam and then were led to separate rooms to relax before the last two days of the second portion of the exam was to be completed.

Hinata had tried her best to console Naruto and to make him believe that she was feeling threatened by him, by any measure. However, Naruto was still depressed by his thoughts and he wished heavily that his family was there to talk to about what this all meant.

The last two days ended soon and everyone who survived and passed the second portion of the Chuunin Exams were now situated in an open field in the middle of the tower where they all waited until the Hokage spoke telling them about the true meaning of the Chuunin Exams themselves. After here, only Kabuto left stating that we wasn't feeling all that well to complete the exams, which had Naruto and his team looking at him oddly.

Now, the remaining groups were individually called out to spar off against one another, while the others took to the stands above.

"First match, Ino Yamanaka vs. Kiba Inuzuka, contestants wait until I start." Said the proctor of the third exam, one Hayate Gekko who erupted into a coughing fit after speaking.

Naruto lazily watched as Kiba went up against the mind specialist of Team Ten. He was confident that Kiba could handle this easily as the girl seemed to possess few skills but no major talent other than her clan's jutsus, which made her a long ranged fighter.

However, he has been wrong before; as long as Kiba keeps his mouth shut and not provoked into doing anything stupid, then he should easily take this round.

"Ha! This should be an easy win, right boy?"

Akamaru yipped in agreement.

Kiba puffed out his chest, "Besides, all she knows how to do is work her mouth, she has nothing."

Kurenai, up in the stands with Naruto and Shino, narrowed her eyes at her student's behavior. 'Kiba…' She thought warningly.

Ino, while being the village gossip monger, was smart and she could easily hear the double entendre of what he was implying.

This, of course, made her see red.

Hayate looked between the two contestants before raising his hand and brought it forward, "Haijime!"

Kiba was running at the Yamanaka girl in a mad dash, but what she said next made him nearly trip.

With her middle and index fingers, along with the thumb, touching their respective pairs on the other hand; Ino shouted, "Shintenshin no Jutsu!"

In the mere seconds that followed before he was possessed by Ino's "mind-body switch technique", Kiba, who had heard of the technique multiple times by word of mouth from his mother and sister, was instantly regretting his foolish action.

With possessing Kiba's body, Ino brought out one of Kiba's kunai to his throat near the jugular vein, signifying her win of the match.

"Winner, Ino Yamanaka!" Hayate announced.

Naruto slumped his head down, while Shino adjusted his glasses before he stated, "Well, he had that coming."

Naruto nodded while their sensei was grumbling about having to fulfill the bet she had made to Asuma should one of her students came against his and that they lost.

After relinquishing control over his body, Ino went smugly back to the stands while Kiba growled angrily, Akamaru whimpering, as he made his way back to his teammates.

"Not a word. I know." Was his remark as Naruto had lifted his head to say something.

The tournament continued on with many contestants from the other villages vying for their spot to continue on to the final portion of the Chuunin Exams, the next to follow was Sakura Haruno vs. Shikamaru Nara.

Both contestants were down in the arena and while one was eyeing the other warily, the other was looking plain bored.

'Why did I let my mother talk me into taking this troublesome exam?'

Shikamaru had no aspirations to go higher in rank and he felt the only reason he was here was as a courtesy to his teammates to help them. Looking at his opponent, he could see the determination under her nervous visage, which made him sigh.

Sakura was someone, or actually one of the many, that Shikamaru tended to avoid in the academy as they had a single-minded purpose to become betrothed to one Sasuke Uchiha. Her prowess in the academy was limited to the school work and nothing extraneous as working on her physique or expanding past the three jutsus taught at the academy. Thus he was pretty sure that she really hadn't gone farther in her repertoire than what she had when she left the academy. Really, the only thing that had taken to his surprise was her expression she was wearing now.

Whatever had happened to the pink haired kunoichi lately seemed to have a profound impact upon her.

Shikamaru sighed, he really wanted to just forfeit but he knew that he'd never hear the end of it from Ino, if he did.

Looking at Sakura though…

"Haijime!" Hayate announced.

Sakura leapt back and put some more distance between her and the infamous shadow user. Knowing how well his jutsus of his clan worked, she felt more inclined to fight at a safe long distance.

Gripping her kunai and shuriken, she showed her ambidextrousness and threw both weapons consecutively while running the edge of the circular arena around her opponent.

Shikamaru, meanwhile, grumbled troublesome as he dodged the weapons while at the same time tried to think of a strategy to use against the girl who was trying her hardest to keep out of the range of his Kagemane no Jutsu. However, he knew that she was just about out of her supply for weapons which left an opportunity for him to capture her.

Sakura in the meantime was smiling, which caught Shikamaru off guard.

She grabbed the pouch behind her and brought out three kunai attached with explosive notes.

"Troublesome."

Throwing one while dashing to his location, she waited until it was pierced into the ground before she set it off, but by that time Shika had made his way to the opposite side of the arena. Using the Bunshin no jutsu, creating two clones, she charged Shikamaru and, with her clones copying her with their, albeit fake one; Sakura threw the remaining kunai at Shikamaru.

Shikamaru cursed as he dived out of the way as the explosion sent debris from the wall of the arena virtually everywhere.

Once the dust had settled, Shikamaru's leg was revealed to be pinned under a large slab of concrete from the wall.
He looked to the proctor, signifying his defeat.

"Winner, Sakura Haruno!" Announced Hayate.

"Wow." Naruto said as the field medics came onto the field to take the shadow user away on the gurney.

Kurenai and Shino nodded while Kiba shrugged.

"Don't know what the big deal is, she got lucky, that's all."

Naruto shook his head, "You don't get it, even Zabuza was reluctant to go against a Nara as they think twelve to twenty times ahead."

"Like I said, she. Got. Lucky." Kiba growled.

Kurenai sighed, "You really are a baka. Haruno out witted him, that's what's amazing here."

Kiba scoffed but didn't add anything more than what he already said.

The next match was soon being announced on the digital board with Naruto Strife vs. Sasuke Uchiha.

"Do I even need to tell you good luck?" Kiba joked, "Most of the time, it seems you hardly even need it."

Naruto chuckled and then left to head down the stairs to the arena as Sasuke himself was as well.

When both reached the bottom they looked at one another. Sasuke seemed himself both smug and determined while Naruto just looked at him, curiously.

Knowing first and foremost that the boy had gained his bloodline when he had faced off against Haku, he wasn't sure whether or not he'd be able to deceive the doujutsu with his particular abilities. However, Kakashi made no light of it in his report to the Hokage of the whole affair in Wave, so perhaps maybe.

"Are you two ready?" Hayate asked.

Naruto nodded and Sasuke did as well.

"Alright then, Haijime!"

Naruto decided to go against the boy with Taijutsu first to see if it would answer the question to the whole doujutsu thing. As predicted, the boy used his Sharingan as he raced to meet Naruto in the middle of the field. Naruto soon became a blur and his kicks and punches collided against Sasuke's terrible defenses, which answered his question altogether.

The Sharingan was blind, at least to his abilities, that is.

Satisfied with that, Naruto continued to treat the Uchiha much like how one of the Inuzuka hounds treat a rag doll, Sasuke was thrown viciously all over the place.

"Kurenai, this is really a one-sided fight. Must your student be so domineering?" Kakashi said, while flipping a page of his book.

Kurenai didn't reply but merely smirked in triumph.

"Gai-sensei! I've finally found a worthy rival! His speed is amazing and the Taijutsu seems unreal!" Came the joyful cry of the green spandex wearing Genin with bushy eyebrows to his adult clone-looking sensei.

His sensei, Maito Gai, to the surprise of everyone who knew what his usual antics were with his student, was not responding but seemed heavily fixated on the fight, or rather, Naruto fighting in general.

"Yuhi-san, your student is a very youthful fighter. However I don't recognize what form he is using, which is perplexing."

Kurenai nodded, "He learned it from his family and, well, they aren't from Konoha."

Gai ultimately understood the underlying message in her statement, the "I'll talk to you about it later".

Naruto soon got bored of using Taijutsu so, instead he decided to kick it up a notch by using his halberd. Grabbing the staff end off his back, he gave it a few experimental swings before he launched himself into the air and came down like a hawk preparing to vivisect a rabbit on site.

Sasuke, to his credit, managed to avoid being pierced through one of his appendages and took out a kunai to defend himself with. He had long since abandoned his Sharingan as it seems to not work with the boy's speed, something he planned to talk with Kakashi about sometime after the match.

At the present, he made to charge the Strife boy, hoping to get under his guard and to cut him in a way that would make him relinquish his weapon.

However, fate wasn't kind as Naruto's boredom was high and he decided then and there to just knock Sasuke out with just a sweep of his halberd to the side of Sasuke's head.

"Winner, Naruto Strife!" Hayate announced.

Naruto nodded and walked back up as the medics came to retrieve Sasuke and he made his way up back to his teammates just in time to see the board change from his and Sasuke's names to Hinata and Neji's.

Naruto felt something really bad was going to happen so when Hinata came down the stairs he quickly grabbed her and placed a kiss to her cheek before whispering into her ear, "Be careful."

Hinata, blushing heavily due to the public affection, nodded and smiled before she went to the arena to face off against her cousin.

What happened afterwards led Naruto to want to kill the Huuga male as he spouted off so many things to undermine Hinata and to paint her as a weak and insignificant member of their household. However, this alone was not what had Naruto wanting his blood on his blade, no it was the end of the fight that what did it.

Neji had demonstrated that he was very proficient in their Jyuuken Fist style of fighting, more so than Hinata.

However when Hinata tried hard to show Neji that she was in fact not weak, he took the drastic turn of beating her bloodied.

From there, Naruto saw red and he was nearly tempted to risk his promotion by going down there and decapitating the pompous bastard.

Neji attacking Hinata's heart nearly had him doing just that.

Naruto demonstrated another ability that had many of the shinobi, the medics especially, wide eyed as he "cured" her right on the spot, using no Charka whatsoever. He then made a hateful glare at Neji, motioning his thumb over his neck in a threatening manner.

By the end of it all, the second part of the Chuunin Exams had finally come to an end. Numbers were drawn and those who had passed were now up against one another in another one-on-one tournament.

Naruto couldn't help but feel malevolent joy at the fact he would be facing against Neji in the first round in just a month.

To be continued…

A/N: Please review

Q-n-P