DISCLAIMER: Original series belong to someone else. Edit done 5/24/18.

NOTE: things continue to deviate from canon, hopefully in a humorous manner.

* break *

Spiral Dragon, chapter 11: The Forest

* break *

Sakura HAD overheard Sasuke. "Come on, you. We're having a talk about you impersonating me."

Naruto watched as real-Sakura stalked off, with fake-Sakura stalking off behind her. "Uhm."

"Troublesome," summed up Sasuke.

"Yeah, well, we got to get to this Training Ground 44. You ever been there?" Naruto scratched his head, trying to remember something. "It sounds familiar."

"No," said Sasuke.

"Well, it's four and four so it seems kinda ominous," noted Naruto.

"Ninja flair for the dramatic," said Sasuke, well acquainted with the practice.

"Maybe," said Naruto.

* break *

Sakura was quick to check out the fake her. One of the things she'd been curious about was WHY Naruto had fixated on her back in the Academy. Back then she'd not been curious as he was simply an annoyance, an obstacle on the road to Sasuke.

Now Naruto wasn't nearly as annoying, as stupid, or as worthless. No, Naruto was possibly the strongest genin in the village in terms of pure physical strength. Now Naruto had a clan, with clan techniques and some support. Not a lot as apparently 'Aunt Keri' was not a ninja and not allowed by some non-interference agreement to do much as far as mission prep, which was a pity as Sakura thought that Naruto's Aunt might just have made a good ninja.

It was her frustration in getting anywhere with Sasuke that had brought up that curiosity about why Naruto had been asking her out for YEARS. Despite constant rejection he'd persisted until VERY recently.

So why? What qualities HAD Naruto gone after her for? Would it be possible to show those qualities to Sasuke and get him interested? Why had he abruptly dropped asking her out?

"Here," said Sakura, indicating to the clone that a bench under a tree would do.

"Okay," said fake-Sakura, looking slightly miffed but taking a seat. "What is it? You do realize that one of us has to be at Training Ground 44 very shortly, correct?"

Sakura took a good look at her other self. Slightly shorter, but having the indications of tight wiry muscle everywhere that wasn't covered. So probably weighed more.

Sakura eyed her distorted mirror, taking in details.

"What, you just looking me over for some..." The clone considered her original briefly. "Cataloging differences?"

"Figured it out?" asked Sakura, slightly surprised.

"Deduced - based on eye movement and the focus of your pupils," said fake-Sakura, her head cocking slightly to the side. "The possibility of you advising Naruto on corrections to make is relatively low, so I would assume that this has something to do with Sasuke."

Sakura blinked, then stared at her fake-self. "You... don't sound like Naruto."

"Hardly, Naruto created me - so I have his memories prior to my creation, but since then I've fitted myself more into this role," said fake-Sakura, one hand coming up to touch herself over the sternum. "Though I may have a limited duration, for the time I am around I am me. A version of yourself."

"Naruto sees me as..." Sakura looked herself up and down again. "I can't even picture Naruto using words and terms like that."

"His learning ability has recently been addressed," said fake-Sakura. "However, Naruto has some difficulties in applying the information."

"You're smarter than he is," noted Sakura. "How is that even possible?!"

"Use your own intelligence, original," stated fake-Sakura, her voice sounding mildly sarcastic. "More than that is either a Clan Secret, a Village Secret, or otherwise Classified. Now, either you or I need to make haste to Training Ground 44 in order to participate in the second trial phase of these Chunin Exams."

"Fine," grumbled Sakura. "I'll go."

"In that case," said fake-Sakura, obviously thinking. "I shall follow discretely, observe the conditions of the test, and then see what I can do in terms of support from the shadows. I estimate that without using any jutsu, I can maintain myself for another eight hours."

Sakura considered her double again. Naruto really sees me like this?

"We should hurry," said fake-Sakura, standing up. "Timing isn't everything, but it is of vital importance on shinobi missions. Which is really the best way of viewing the Chunin Exam itself, isn't it?"

"As a ninja mission?" asked Sakura. "I suppose so."

* break *

"Waitaminute," said Naruto as the two of them came up to the crowd. "THIS is Training Ground 44?"

Sasuke grunted.

"I take it back, this might just be fun," said Naruto.

"Hm?" asked Sasuke, indifferent to nearby genin who had heard that comment and were now openly staring.

Naruto came to a stop near the edge. "Yeah. That's the place. I don't know what the test is, but this place has got some good eating."

Shikamaru was nearby with his team, including a rather peeved-looking Ino Yamanaka. "Eating?"

"Yeah," said Naruto, who then realized that a lot of the nearby genin were all looking expectantly at him. "Ever since my bloodline got awakened, I been needing to snack every so often."

"I just saw a bird land on a branch," said Shikamaru, pointing at a spot in the forest. "The branch turned out to be some carnivorous vine monster. It ATE the bird."

"Oh, those things," said Naruto, deciding to just go ahead and explain. "They don't taste too good either. Even when cooked. Like that black licorice stuff but with an off-metal taste too. Bleh."

"It ATE a bird," repeated Shikamaru.

"Yeah, well, there's all sorts of things in there that're decent meals," said Naruto. "Giant tigers, the centipedes are kinda nasty unless you cook 'em first, the leeches are yucky, but there's some pretty big snakes that are pretty good. Uhm. If the giant tiger begs you not to kill it, please don't. I kinda like them, they know all the good hunting spots. But if you cook the centipedes they're kinda crunchy and can be kinda tasty."

"Really?" asked Choji. "What do they taste like?"

"Sorta like pork-bone ramen," said Naruto. "The snakes are a little strong-tasting except the poisonous ones, they taste kinda like chicken."

"How big are these snakes?" asked Shikamaru, thinking this was good intel. Not only on possible food sources but that Naruto could apparently deal with man-sized giant poisonous snakes and sum them up as 'strong-tasting' meant something too.

"Varies," said Naruto, pointing at the gates. "Smallest are about as long as you are tall. Biggest I've seen are from here to the gate."

"That's about thirty feet," noted Shikamaru.

"Oh, and there's some acid spitters and carnivore tree-dwelling leeches, they can get kinda nasty but as long as you stay off the ground - you're fine," said Naruto with a nod. "Both of 'em tend to stick to the lower branches and if you're above them they can't attack. Oh, and they don't taste good at all."

"Naruto, you found this place AFTER your bloodline awakened, right?" asked Sasuke.

"Yeah?" asked Naruto.

"So is this place dangerous to those of us who do not have your physical talents?" asked Sasuke calmly.

"Uhm," said Naruto as he thought about that. "Yeah. I guess. Most of it actually."

"That's why it's called the 'Forest of Death' and not the 'Forest of Snacks' meatbag," said Anko Mitarashi, appearing in front of the group in a whirl of smoke and leaves.

"Oh, I figured that was just the ninja need to go for dramatic names and such," said Naruto, scratching the back of his head.

"To be fair," commented Shikamaru with a head nod, "there IS a fair amount of that."

"Kakashi's brats, huh?" asked Anko. "I'll be keeping my eye on you."

"Better use both eyes," Naruto shot back. "That way you won't miss a Moment Of Awesome."

Sasuke smirked. He didn't need to indulge in snappy comebacks - another benefit to having a competent team.

"Still need all three of your team, and I only see two," said Anko. "Your kunoichi better show soon."

Naruto just looked confident. Sasuke continued to smirk.

Anko made a gesture. A thrown kunai grazed a cheek.

"Yeowtch! What was that for?!" asked Kankuro. Unsaid was the whole 'why me' part.

Anko was abruptly behind him, wrapping snakelike around his limbs and resisting his effort to do a substitution. "You think I didn't notice you were missing a member too?" Anko licked the blood off his cheek and noticed this genin was at least old enough to have a purely involuntary physical reaction to her body pressing up against him like this.

"What? Are all the women in this village sex-crazed or something?" asked Kankuro, struggling and quite aware of his reaction.

"No, just the ones over puberty," said Anko, releasing him and deciding to further mess with the guy. Part of her job description after all. If you couldn't mess with the foreign genin's minds, who could you mess with? And it was so much fun too!

"Urk," said Kankuro as his earlier meeting with Naruko and now this pushed his imagination into somewhere that had more to do with teenage hormone-induced fantasy than anything resembling reality or ninja missions.

"Now listen up," said Anko, using a movement technique to appear before the group again and holding up two scrolls. "These are the conditions of the second test. This is an Earth scroll, this other one a Heaven scroll. Your team will be assigned one scroll, and you must acquire the other scroll by ANY means necessary."

"Including prying it from the cold dead fingers of an opposing team?" asked a genin from Mist.

"That's where the waiver you have to sign before you get a scroll comes into play," acknowledged Anko. "Absolving me and Konoha from any responsibility for your death, dismemberment, maiming, poisoning, transformation, disintegration, or similar ends to your shinobi career."

"Did I miss much?" asked Gaara as he approached.

"No, I... GAARA'S SMILING?!" Kankuro felt faint.

"He probably just overheard that he can kill someone in this section of the Exam," reasoned Temari.

"No, Inako's House of Pleasure," said Gaara. "I only had the ten minute treatment, but I can come back and get a full hour."

"Wha-wha-what?" asked Kankuro, whose imagination was already pretty much in lemon territory.

"Yeah, right," said Temari, deciding to disbelieve the whole thing rather than deal with the implications.

Gaara merely found the smile on his face and exterminated it. He could dwell on the pleasantness of the foot massage and those little meat pastries later. And that had just been in the waiting room - what was available deeper in the building?

* break *

Sakura rejoined Team 7, looking thoughtful.

"Did the clone dismiss herself?" asked Sasuke, noting that this was real-Sakura and not the other one. Also putting away the little notebook where he'd been amusing himself by trying to figure out ways of avenging himself against one Anko Mitarashi.

"No, she's going to get various supplies first and toss them over the fence in about three hours," said Sakura. "We'll want to be back near Gate 7 at that point."

"Oh?" asked Sasuke.

"We're not allowed out, she wouldn't be allowed in, but nobody said anything about supply drops," said Sakura.

"Sneaky," said Naruto with a grin. "Almost Chunin-like, one might say."

Sasuke smirked. Sneaky, underhanded, and almost certainly useful. Yes, this team was proving less of a burden than he'd originally thought.

"So which of us gets the scroll?" asked Sakura.

"I think you should," said Naruto. "You keep more scrolls than the rest of us anyway."

"Oh, and I can use a henge on it to make it resemble another kind of scroll," said Sakura. "Good idea."

"Uhm, right," said Naruto, not wanting to admit that part hadn't been his idea.

* break *

The initial report had been months ago. A new shrine, the Hiryu Shrine, with the head priestess claiming to be of Uzumaki heritage. Not that Uzumaki heritage was all that unusual. Since the destruction of their village the survivors had scattered throughout many of the countries, even a few in those countries that had invaded Whirlpool.

Now that he was here in the Leaf Village and just outside the shrine itself, he could see that it was of more interest than his initial reports had indicated.

There was a Bounded Field surrounding the shrine. Fair work, but he wasn't sure what to make of the conditions. Intent perhaps?

He looked over the shrine, the torii, the stairs, nodding as he ticked off the various lines and wards. He couldn't see them, not as clearly as a Hyuga or Uchiha could if they'd been present. He wasn't exactly inexperienced though.

Smirking, he found a weak point and broke it - letting the wards unravel and dissipate without a trace. Simple inexperience on the part of the one who'd set the wards, leaving in a point like that where the whole thing could come crashing down.

Orochimaru was still smirking when a wooden ema plaque struck him. Such a thing was not very weighty and wouldn't do much damage, though this one shattered on impact and became a large number of jagged wooden shards that sunk into his face. Mainly because of the sheer force it had been thrown with.

"Okay, that was just rude," said Orochimaru as he healed the damage and looked up the remaining stairs to where a redheaded shrine priestess stood with one hand in a tora-sign and the other holding a handful of paper wards. "So you arranged a trigger if your wards were taken down? I didn't see it, so it must have been..."

The priestess finished whatever her preparation had been and threw the paper strips. Contrary to the normal behavior of such things, these sped out on curving loops that ended with them hanging in mid-air on each side of him.

Orochimaru actually raised an eyebrow at the writing on them now that one was only a few feet away from his face. "Wards against 'supernatural evil'? I suppose I should be flattered but that's hardly going to have any effect on me."

(SLASH!)

Orochimaru frowned as a blonde girl wielding a pink sword landed on one side from him. "Oh, now that's rude."

"Naruko, stay out of this, this one is beyond your abilities," said the shrine priestess.

"But I cut through his neck?" protested Naruko, staring. She was SURE she'd landed that blow correctly.

"Well, it's nice to be recognized, I suppose," said Orochimaru, reaching out to pluck the barrier ward out of the air.

(FZAK!)

Orochimaru shook his burned fingers, noting that the movement was enough to have his head fall off from the earlier decapitation move.

"Oh, now this is quite rude," said Orochimaru, before shedding his disguise as he pulled himself out of his own mouth.

"I thought you were a naaldlooshii," said the priestess. "Such are not to be accorded more formal manners."

"I'm not familiar with the term," said Orochimaru before spitting something acidic at the nearest ward which began to dissolve. All the wards fluttered loose as soon as one failed.

"A 'skinwalker', an immortal being that kills victims and then cloaks itself in their skin to assume their identities," said the priestess. "I think you can see where I'd make such an error."

Orochimaru appeared to think about it. "Yes, actually. I can see where you might get such an idea. Now you know better?"

"Yes, you're a powerful ninja who just happens to do much the same," said the priestess.

"Just a moment," said Orochimaru, lengthening his arm to grab the attacking blonde swordswoman before she could slice into him again, then flinging her towards a tree. "Distractions."

"Young, impulsive, impatient," said the priestess, shrugging with one shoulder. "I repeat myself."

"Ah, yes, I am familiar with that sort," admitted Orochimaru. "Now, do I understand you're not actually a ninja?"

"True, and as you are currently not on the shrine grounds, or attacking me, I'm limited in my responses," said the priestess as she produced another set of wards.

"Interesting," said Orochimaru, seeming to shift coloration and begin melting. "You detected my mud clone and substitution. You might just be worth marking. How unfortunate that I have pressing business elsewhere."

* break *

"Yeesh," said Naruto, shaking mud and other substances out of his ninja sandals.

"So, 'Forest Of Death'," said Sakura. "It doesn't seem so bad. Nothing in it but trees."

A large tiger rumbled as it came out of the brush, teeth bared in a snarl.

The breeze shifted just a little bit.

The tiger snorted, blinked, then froze.

"Hobbes?" asked Naruto.

The tiger chuffed in reply.

"Any good spots for a camp?" asked Naruto.

The tiger chuffed again and looked off to the side.

"Got it, thanks and good hunting," said Naruto. "Oh, and don't hunt any of the ones with headbands. Don't want you getting hurt."

The tiger gave an obvious eye-roll and made a sort-of sneeze before stalking away from them.

"You talk to tigers?" asked Sakura.

"They're intelligent enough to understand stuff, but can't exactly speak like we do," said Naruto. "It's something I gotta practice. Hobbes there was scared of me at first but when I promised not to eat him we got along a lot better."

"Scared of you?" asked Sakura, estimating the tiger as weighing well over eight hundred pounds.

Sasuke glanced at the bushes the tiger had disappeared in, glanced at Naruto, and then considered something before nodding once. "Survival instinct. There's a bigger predator around."

This didn't reassure Sakura at all who then started looking at the foliage as if expecting something HUGE to show up at any moment.

"Oh," said Naruto after a few moments, getting the idea. "Well, let's get going."

"Do you have any idea where we're going?" asked Sakura. "We can't go too far from Gate 7 until the supply drop."

Naruto frowned for a couple of moments, sighting on the distant gate and then pointing off away from that and to the right. "I think I been here before. There's a stream going through there, and some rocky outcroppings just a little bit past that."

"Somewhere we can set up camp?" asked Sasuke, about to say how stupid it would be to remain in a location where they could be found. Then something occurred to him and he nodded. "Ah. Right."

Naruto's grin was slightly mischievous.

"What?" asked Sakura.

"Obvious campsite," said Sasuke, remembering Ninja Rule #17.

"Why would we set up a camp, wouldn't that just provide," began Sakura, whose eyes widened a little as the idea came to her, "a target? Oh."

* break *

The Rain genin smirked. Three little Leaf genin had set up their camp. One's feet were sticking out of the tent, the other two sneaking off into the woods.

A whisper reached his ear. "I knew that the Leaf Village was weak and had no idea of how to be proper ninja, but this..."

The Rain genin nodded to his compatriots, readying his umbrella. This situation was too good to pass up.

The umbrella shot out, twirling open and raining senbon down upon the campsite. The tent was pierced, the legs sticking out of it twitching a bit, and then lying still.

"Quickly, before the other two get back," said the lead genin, leaping into the small clearing.

"Why don't we kill them too?" asked the second of the three.

"We will, but we can find the scroll first, otherwise it's all just a waste of time," said the lead genin. Naturally he went to the dead genin first, the logical place to expect their scroll. Once there though, he leaned down and picked up one of the senbon. Which had one end bent. "What the hell?"

"Surprise," said the not-dead genin, reaching out and grabbing one of the Rain genin's ankles.

The boy rolled to his feet, then began flailing around with the Rain genin, as if the one he'd grabbed was a flyswatter and he was after a particularly agile and troublesome bug.

"You monster!" said one of the two other Rain genin, getting ready to throw kunai.

"Excuse me," said Sasuke, landing on the kunai-thrower's head.

"Going somewhere?" asked Sakura as she appeared before the third of the Rain genin.

* break *

"That's FIVE freaking 'Earth' scrolls," complained Sakura.

"Well, maybe we can find one of the other teams and trade with them?" asked Naruto as he began filling in a ninja-shaped crater in the ground.

"That's providing we run into another team, they have more than one Heaven scroll, and it's actually someone that won't automatically attack us," pointed out Sakura. "Which is what happened last time we offered."

"Another team just arrived," said Sasuke, glancing up.

The three genin stopped and looked at the newly arrived team of three genin.

"Trade you an Earth scroll for a Heaven scroll?" asked Naruto hopefully.

"How did you get so many scrolls in less than a day?" asked Shikamaru.

"We camp here, near one of the gates," said Naruto, jerking a thumb in the direction of the fence. "When someone attacks us, we beat 'em up, then I toss 'em over the fence."

"Once they're outside the fenced area, the team is disqualified and can't return," added Sakura. "Two of us use bunshin to act as decoys, Naruto is bait."

"I can take a hit better than the rest of my team," said Naruto, shrugging.

"And the teams roaming this area are on the lookout for weak teams that are afraid to go further in where the bigger predators including the more powerful teams are," noted Shikamaru as he put together the evidence. Craters, ninja-shaped indentations in the ground, and a couple of scorch marks that hadn't been cleaned adequately further indicated what Team 7 had been up to. "It's not going to be effective in the future though."

"Yes, well, the area has pretty much been 'fished out' I think," said Sakura. "Hey Ino."

Ino kept her position behind Choji and continued to glare at Sakura.

"What about you guys? Got a Heaven Scroll you want to trade for an Earth scroll?" asked Naruto hopefully.

Shikamaru reached inside his vest and withdrew... an Earth scroll.

"Oh MAN, we just can't get a break today," complained Naruto.

Shikamaru Nara was able to put things together. He was lazy and would rather watch the clouds than actually put any effort out, but now his life was on the line. Besides, if his mother heard that he deliberately failed any part of this exam - she would be extremely harsh towards him.

That would be Troublesome with capital T and appropriate underlining. She was naturally talented at that.

Sakura was different from earlier in the day. Walk, body language, voice wasn't quite the same, a few details like that. Much more what he would have expected and not what he'd observed earlier.

Sasuke was the same as earlier, though even more alert. His eyes constantly checking his environment, staying silent and a little removed from his team in order to keep track of the conversation while keeping an ear open for hostiles.

Naruto. Naruto was the one most changed from the Academy. His loud misplaced overconfidence had been replaced with a more quiet confidence. Also, if you watched carefully, you could see how careful he was in doing perfectly normal things. As if he was afraid that things would be accidently crushed by an errant move.

That handclap before the first exam, coupled with the evidence he'd seen now, including the information overheard at the gates prior to entry to the forest. Naruto was stronger. Lots stronger. Stronger than should be physically possible with only minor reduction in speed if that. Also tougher. There were tears in his clothing and what looked like an acid burn on a shoulder, but his skin was unmarked.

So the main difference from his expectations was Naruto.

The rumor of him having unlocked some kekkei genkai had originally been dismissed as just an overheard comment at that ramen bar.

All three members of Team 7 could pose a danger to his team (ninja), but the evidence that he'd acquired prior to approaching plus their confirmation of the fate of the teams they'd fought indicated that the danger was lessened by their intent. None of Team 7 tended towards ruthlessness, including Sakura's pursuit of Sasuke. Fights between kunoichi over a guy could turn deadly but there hadn't been any sign of that so far.

"I'm going to get something to eat, I'll be back in a minute," said Naruto. "You guys. Temporary truce, okay? We're all Leaf villagers here, right?"

Shikimaru was quick to agree. "Yeah. No reason to forego possible allies when there are better targets, right?" After all: it got the insanely strong Naruto out of immediate fight range, if they were attacked by outsiders the two groups together could likely handle a single team much easier, allowed for further collection of information, and stretching their own food supplies out would further benefit them.

"Use your summons, you can hunt better that way," said Sasuke, breaking his silence and eyeing the other team. (We're not allies, at best we're rivals and worst case enemies. What is he thinking? Or is he even thinking at all?)

Shikamaru's eyes flicked again, indicating he was thinking about something.

Sakura was keeping an eye on Ino. Ino seemed a little intimidated by Sakura. That was good, because the dreaded Ino-pounce was less likely.

There was a crashing of trees off where Naruto had vanished and then the dragon was briefly visible as it lifted up.

Ino screamed. Choji swore. Shikamaru made a face.

Sasuke, on the other hand, smirked. It wasn't showing an ace-in-the-hole. This was a promise. If the three genin of this rival team moved against them, they could end up eaten.

"What the hell was THAT?!" asked Ino as soon as she'd recovered from the shock.

"Naruto can summon dragons," said Sakura as if it were no big deal. Apparently forgetting completely what her own reaction had been the first time she'd seen that. And she still didn't know that the dragon WAS Naruto.

"That's why the animals are all avoiding this area," put together Shikamaru, eyeing Sasuke now. "Big predators tend to avoid bigger predators. Naruto probably has that smell on him if he associates with that very often."

Sasuke inclined his head, perfectly willing to let the most obvious (if incorrect) assumption get carried around.

* break *

Sakura sat atop the shrine building, looking out over Konohagakure, and checked her chakra reserves.

If she remained here, not moving or exerting herself, she could last about seven minutes.

She wasn't real, but there was so much to do and see. So many experiences she'd briefly accumulated. She wished she could go on, just one more day. Life was an adventure and she wanted it to continue.

Instead, she was waiting to pop.

What would happen afterward? If Naruto had to do this again, would she pick up where she'd left off or would it be an entirely new her?

"Ah, to hell with this," said Sakura as she picked herself up. "Best to just get it over with."

(POOF!)

Zabuza Momochi was determined not to panic.

The delegation from Kiri was here to collect him and transport him, alive, back to Kiri.

He was beginning to think that being alive did not involve any of the traditional methods of torture. There was something much more frightening that could happen.

"So, Kiri no longer has problems with bloodline practitioners?" asked Haku, looking over one of those who had arrived. As this individual had cat-slitted eyes and long pointed ears - it seemed a likely possibility.

"The current Mizukage has two bloodline elements herself, so no," said the cat-eyed fellow with a grin that revealed especially long canines. "You are Momochi's apprentice?"

"Yes, Haku," said Haku, bowing slightly but not lowering his eyes at all.

"Good," said one of the more normal fellows. "We just have to negotiate with Konoha for the release of Kubikiribocho and we can be on our way."

"What is to be Zabuza-sama's fate?" asked Haku.

"His crime against Yagura was forgiven," said the normal-looking Kiri-nin who'd spoken earlier. "He's still missing-nin, but there's currently a forgiveness program for that too. Probation, payment of fines, that sort of thing. Ryoushi here was part of a nearly exterminated clan and in hiding, but he's done pretty well so far."

The cat-eyed individual nodded. "I was not only reinstated but given my old clan holdings back and made provisional chunin in about three months."

"Yagura hated bloodlines. Our new Mizukage pointed out that killing them weakened us compared to other villages like Cloud and the Leaf that actually encourage them," said the apparent leader of the Kiri-nin. "Now, if one of our ANBU guards would signal the negotiator - we can start the fine detail stuff."

* break *

Naruto had a shadow-clone of human-him on his back, had to keep up the practice if nothing else.

He'd just cleared the trees a short distance when a snake longer than he was shot up out of the tree-cover and bit him.

(CRACK!)

Followed by the sound of fangs breaking against armored scales.

"Oh, cool," said the dragon, swinging out and grabbing behind the snake's head. Claws bit in deeply as the snake began thrashing about wildly. Mainly because it suddenly realized that while it was somewhat longer than the dragon, it had the predator-prey relationship completely wrong.

The struggle was brief but intense, the dragon lifting itself up and the snake trying to anchor itself with the trees and constrict the overly tough morsel it had been tasked to kill. It was a poisonous serpent though, and constriction was not the usual method of finishing off prey. Unfortunately the beast was not apparently vulnerable to being crushed.

When the boy on the back poofed into smoke, it had a very bad feeling about its chance of success.

"Heck," said the dragon as it finally got the leverage and ripped the head free from the body and dropped it into the jungle. "This might even be enough for Choji."

"Is that... the dragon returning with a headless snake twice its size?" asked Choji.

"What the...? Oh yeah," said Kiba, having seen the dragon before though that was a long time back.

"When he said he was going to forage and bring back food," said Sakura, rubbing her eyes and looking as if she had a developing headache, "I should have spoken up. That's way too much."

"Hmph," said Neji, feeling the need to contribute something.

"Well, we do have a lot more people here," pointed out Choji. "We can always cook and then pack meat away for use later."

"Why does EVERYONE have an Earth scroll?" asked Sasuke of the heavens.

"Perhaps the proctors provided Earth scrolls to all the Konoha teams as part of a test," said Rock Lee. "Yosh! Yes, I see now!"

"Somehow I doubt that," muttered Neji.

"I think it's more likely it was just a mistake at the printing office or something," said Tenten, who had the scroll for her team. She also knew darn well it was a Heaven scroll that she'd done a henge on before showing anyone. She wasn't stupid, and revealing that they had the one scroll everyone else was looking for would not be a particularly intelligent move.

"So what do we do?" asked Choji. "I mean, I know we're all competing against each other and stuff, but we can't use each other's scrolls and..."

"HAH! SURRENDER YOUR SCROLL and... oh hell."

The combined Konoha genin teams looked over at the Rain team that had just burst out of the bushes.

"You guys really suck at observational skills, don't you?" asked Shikamaru of the Rain team.

The lead Rain genin twitched a couple of times before addressing the Konoha genin. "Isn't it against the rules to gang up against the other teams?"

"Not specifically forbidden," pointed out Sakura.

"Therefore, well, we're ninja. We're supposed to find and exploit loopholes, I think," added Shikamaru in a bored tone of voice.

"Guys, change of plans," said the lead Rain genin, clutching a parsol in one hand and bringing it to a ready position. He shifted his weight slightly as he looked the group over as if planning where to attack first. "RUN AWAY!"

As the Rain-nin turned to flee, they found Neji had put himself right behind them. "You are in range of my divination."

* break *

The dragon had gone off to look for Naruto, who had apparently fallen off during the struggle with the giant snake.

Naruto had returned shortly, looking a bit scuffed up, and had then gone off to throw the three newest Rain genin over the fence.

Sasuke had started the fire, several genin had started cutting apart the giant snake into chunks which could be skewered and cooked over the fire, and the tension of being in the Forest Of Death had largely dissipated.

Not entirely, and there was some distrust between the groups, but the ceasefire was mainly holding.

"Dang, even the bugs are hiding," noted Choji. "Not that I'm complaining."

"That'd be Shino, actually," commented Kiba. "The annoying bugs tend to avoid being around his bugs for some reason."

Shino seemed to glance in their direction. "Something large and powerful is about."

"Well, yeah, dragon," said Ino.

"Not that," stated Shino. "Something that smells of decay."

* break *

This was troublesome. While he could easily crush a handful of Leaf genin, the chance that Sasuke would make an escape in the confusion was uncomfortably high. Or worse, that those lovely Sharingan eyes might be destroyed in the combat. With a smaller number, he knew he could control the flow of battle and test the Uchiha. With FOUR teams all gathered together, that was iffy even for him.

For one thing, there was the very real risk of groups not used to working together creating further chaos on the battlefield. Quite frankly, he was only comfortable when the chaos on the battlefield was of his own making.

There wasn't a great deal of trust between the teams. Understandable. There was also apparently some unknown variables.

"He killed my snake," muttered Orochimaru to himself.

Sure enough, one of Manda's elder children had been decapitated and was now being cut apart and cooked over a campfire. Admittedly, it had been one of the stupider serpents but it had been quite sizable and powerful with strong poison.

ONE genin and his summons was able to kill it. A genin whose physical strength was quite impressive for someone without a curse seal.

The original plan had been to strike when one member of the team was away, or preferably when Sasuke himself was alone. Then the testing of the "last Uchiha" to discover if he had potential as a vessel. The lone team member had been the loud blonde, a large and powerful serpent summoned to deal with him. It had not been a long enough delay.

Now the groups were cooperating but would go their own separate ways soon enough. THEN he could strike.

A delay to the plan, but the plan continued.

Except that apparently he might have to proceed anyway.

* break *

"'Decay'?" asked Kiba. "That's weird. I was smelling snake before Naruto's summon showed up with this, but now I can't smell anything other than the one cooking."

"Byakugan!" said Hinata, hearing this as her cue.

"I've already looked," began Neji dismissively.

"There!" said Hinata, pointing. "Five hundred twenty one meters distance."

"Eh? Byakugan!" replied Neji.

The two looked off for a few moments.

"He's gonna notice if you stare at him," pointed out Kiba.

"Right," said Hinata, shifting so she was facing in a different direction. It didn't really matter with the Byakugan after all - it was a full 360 degree field of vision. Well, 359.

"Hmph," responded Neji, shifting so that he was apparently staring in the same direction as Hinata.

"So what is it?" asked Kiba.

Neji's voice was thoughtful as he used his Byakugan. "It looks like a genin, and it conceals its chakra well - but it's a disguise. Freakishly strong. The only comparable chakra I've seen is either the Hokage or that aunt of Naruto's."

"Not one of the test proctors watching us, is it?" asked Naruto.

"Not likely," responded Neji. "They would not be concealing their identity."

"So, someone with stronger chakra than me?" asked Naruto. At Neji's nod, Naruto thought about it. "So... why is someone watching us?"

"Most likely to attack and claim a scroll and as we are in a large group right now, is reluctant to attack such a group," said Neji, his tone less arrogant than usual as he worked out theories.

"So, he can see us from there?" asked Naruto.

Shikamaru answered, laying back and apparently watching the clouds. No immediate attack so no reason to stress about it yet. "The Hyuga clan's Byakugan is not the only type of sensory jutsu out there. If he's still there, hearing isn't how he's monitoring us. Otherwise he'd know his cover has been blown."

"Found a small snake watching us from just outside this cleared area," offered Hinata, her voice hesitant. "Roughly fifty meters."

"Another one. Seventy five meters." Neji dropped his Byakugan. "Drop your technique. If this is some assassin or spy from another village, they may be able to monitor chakra use."

"Ah, y-yes," agreed Hinata.

"That was awesome though!" said Naruto clamping a hand onto Hinata's shoulder. "Way to go!"

Everyone ignored the squeak from Hinata, and how she swayed. That she ended up falling against Naruto and turning seven shades of red was a little less easy to overlook. Especially as she squeaked again and nearly fainted.

Neji sniffed. "It is completely improper for a Hyuga to squeak like some dog's chew toy."

"Rowf?" asked Akamaru. (You dissing squeakies?)

"So, if this intruder is waiting for us to go our own way," said Sakura. "More reason for us to stay together."

"But we ALL need Heaven scrolls," pointed out Shikamaru. "Counting the one those Rain genin had - that only allows one team to advance."

"Well, this is an exam to see if we're able to be effective chunin," said Sakura. "Chunin are squad leaders and specialists, having to lead field missions or work solo."

"So this might actually be part of the test?" asked Naruto. "That's sneaky!"

The various ninja all considered that. Yeah, it WAS something they could see happening.

"How troublesome," summed up Shikamaru.

"One of our teams can take that Heaven scroll with their Earth scroll and go to the tower," said Choji. "Which one?"

"We can get another one easy enough," said Naruto. "My team's awesome enough!"

Sasuke was about to argue that point but wouldn't arguing the point in this case be seen as a less-chunin thing? If this WAS a further condition of the test would that be a point in his favor or a point against him?

"My team is also okay," said Tenten. After all, their "Earth scroll" was actually a Heaven scroll with a henge. Not that with this many teams out to get a Heaven scroll she was going to admit any of that. "We're experienced enough we don't need your charity."

"We'll take it," said Shikamaru. "I'm not above taking charity."

"But?!" began Ino.

"Yeah, we saw the mess someone made of another team back aways," said Choji shuddering. "Blood-stained ground and pieces of bone and stuff. I don't want to face whoever did that."

"I think we found the same mess," noted Kiba.

"That is NOT encouraging," added Choji.

Sakura considered this, considered having another team owe them one, and considered the chance she'd be able to lord this over Ino in the future. "Go ahead."

"If the attacker goes after you, we can help ya out," said Kiba. "Hinata can keep an eye on ya."

* break *

Ah, one of the teams was leaving. Good! Down to three genin teams.

Now a second team was departing as well. Even better. The patient snake gets the mouse after all.

Two teams left.

An Inuzuka, judging from the presence of a small dog.

One smelled of bugs to his snakes and was likely the source of the sentry line he'd had to avoid. Aburame, obviously.

One useless girl who was either injured or exhausted.

Sasuke Uchiha.

That annoying boy with the strength bloodline. What would he be like with a curse seal? The question was intriguing.

And some other kunoichi whose abilities were uncertain but likely weak and useless. Leaf didn't push their kunoichi nearly hard enough. You had to break them a few times to encourage their growth properly.

Orochimaru smiled in a manner that was enough to send small children and civilian women into a panic. Now was as good as it was likely to get before someone chakra-sensitive was able to detect him.

* break *

Kiba looked up as a shift in the wind brought him a scent. "He's com-"

Which was all the time he had before a major wind storm hit, the wind's force enough that branches and leaves and even a small tree were all tumbling along in its path.

Kiba had already braced himself and simply slid backwards a few feet. Akamaru went tumbling but managed to land on a tree-trunk.

Shino, unfortunately, had leapt backwards at Kiba's warning and was in the process of summoning a mass of his kikai insects. Shino shot away from the group, carried by the wind and privately lamenting his choice of tactics.

Hinata had felt herself being sent flying and had immediately latched onto the nearest solid object.

Sakura had dropped into a crouch and as the wind had begun pushing her had used a drawn kunai to dig into the dirt with.

Sasuke had also dropped into a crouch, but had anchored himself with chakra.

Naruto had simply gritted his teeth, dug in, and wondered about two things. One, if he could do this himself. This was quite obviously a wind technique and his Aunt Keri had made the remark he was a wind element user. Two, had Hinata realized she was hanging onto him?

The wind stopped as a Grass-nin walked into the clearing.

"Eeep! I'm s-s-sorry," apologized Hinata as she realized she had been clinging to Naruto. Her mind immediately went over the feel of tight hard muscles on the boy in question, but she knew this wasn't a time to linger on such things. Later definitely.

"Well, well, well, I expected Wind Release: Great Breakthrough to overwhelm the insects before me," said the Grass-nin, noticing that only the Aburame had been blown away.

"You want blown away, try this! Let's go Akamaru," said Kiba, leaping forward and going through hand signs. "Gatsuga!"

"Lame," said the Grass-nin. "One only has to move at speeds greater than your rotation to do THIS."

The Grass-nin reached into the twin drills and had Kiba and Akamaru by the throats. He slammed them into each other a few times as if taking two blackboard erasers and clearing them of dust.

At which point he frowned because someone was killing his observation snakes!

* break *

She could do this!

Their attacker was using those snakes to observe everyone.

Another snake reared back, baring fangs, but compared to the speed of her cousin Neji - it was pathetically slow. Two fingers stabbed out and a lance of chakra went through it.

Leap to the next, which her Byakugan had already located. Another strike, two fingers and a spike of chakra to kill that one as well. A brief thrill of triumph rose in her at the knowledge that she was being effective!

(WHAM!)

Once the Grass-nin had thrown the dog hard enough to knock over the Hyuga girl, Kiba was thrown and slammed into Sakura.

"Fire Release: Great Fireball!"

Sasuke looked around briefly, not seeing the Grass-nin as the fireball set the ground ablaze briefly.

Then something hit him in the back of the head, hard enough to send him to the ground.

"Using a technique that restricts your vision is foolish against an opponent you already know is faster than you," said the Grass-nin. "Really now, I expected more of a -"

A medium-sized tree came down on him and shed large sections of itself from the impact.

"Watch it!" growled Sasuke, scrambling away. "You nearly got me!"

"No, I hit what I was aiming at," protested Naruto.

"And what was that?" asked a voice as a patch of ground began bulging upward.

The remains of the tree was lifted and brought down again.

"Binding Snake Glare!" said another bulging patch of mud, summoning two large snakes to swarm over the boy. "I do not require interruptions from the peanut gallery."

"Ha!" said a black-haired girl and a pink-haired one as they attacked from either side.

"Binding Snake Glare!" repeated the Grass-nin, though there were large sections of missing nin where someone else was showing through. A hand came up to rip off those remaining tatters of flesh. "Really, this has gone on entirely too long."

"What's the matter, not up for a real fight?" asked Sasuke, his Sharingan blazing as he threw kunai.

"Well, no, not so much," said the former Grass-nin, who simply pumped out Killing Intent to where mere genin would be paralyzed. "Let's just get this over with, shall we?"

His neck extended and with his mouth opening wide to reveal fangs, Orochimaru attacked. Sasuke tried to bring himself to move but found himself still nearly paralyzed from the Killing Intent blanketing the area.

(CRACK!)

"Omph?!" asked the not-Grass-nin, as someone had stuck his arm in the way and his carefully prepared fuuinjutsu bite went off in the wrong target. "Waff? Waff diff yuu do? Mah teef?!"

Sure enough, he could see where his poison was dribbling off the boy's arm, and there were a few broken white bits tumbling to the ground.

His neck finished retracting all the way. "You bwoke mah teef?" It was a minor inconvenience, but it was quite annoying. He'd have to regenerate the teeth, alter the soft tissues of the mouth, reinforce the strained jaw muscles. AND replace the seal-matrix he'd prepared in his mouth.

"Ick," said the boy with the strength bloodline, shaking his arm to get stuff off of it.

"Watch where you're spraying that stuff," complained Sasuke as the Killing Intent had abruptly cut off.

"Ah wiww wemembew fiss," promised the pale-skinned attacker before a large mass of bugs obscured him from view. "Ow fiss is juff gwate." First retreat, then strike later. Just the expenditures of chakra would likely have drawn attention to this spot.

Shino walked into the clearing as his insect swarm dissipated, the nin they'd been attacking nowhere to be seen.

"Damn! Your bugs ate him?" asked Naruto, a little disgusted by the idea.

"No, he merged with the ground and my insects were unable to pursue," said Shino.

"And we STILL need two Heaven scrolls," complained Kiba as he got up and limped over towards Akamaru.