The bushes shook in the shadows no more than thirty feet away from team seven. Sasuke, Sakura, Naruto, and Kabuto were already to pounce on the coming enemy with kunai in their hands, preparing to strike. With another rustle of the bushes, three figures appeared out of the bushes to …
"Ah, it you guys!" Naruto exclaimed.
The three enemy intruders turned out not to be enemies really, but more of acquaintances. If they are supposed to be enemies during the second test. The new team that appeared from the bushes looked up towards team seven when they heard Naruto call to them, which earned him a good whack over the head.
The youngest of the newly arrived team glared at Naruto and the others. "Great, what are you guys doing here? I thought that you guys were finished off long ago when this whole thing started."
"Shows you, we've lasted a lot longer then you losers could ever hope!" Naruto proclaimed.
The other boy snorted. "That's what you think."
"Oh now, now let's play nice. We did promise sensei to try and be nice and all." said the older boy from the other team."
The younger boy just glared at him, a look that clearly says shut-up-or-I'll-come-and-kick-your-sorry-ass.
Their last teammate remained quiet and simple observed Naruto and the others.
"Do you know these guys?" asked Kabuto.
"Sadly, yes." said Sasuke.
"We've met them before the Chuunin Exams started, didn't really make a good impression on each other." said Sakura.
"Well it's a pleasure to see that all of you are still alive and well," said the older boy on the other team, adjusting his glasses the way that Kabuto adjusts his, "But I'm afraid our reunion won't be friendly terms, for you see we need a scroll to pass. So if you all don't mind, we'll be taking your scroll."
Sasuke narrowed his eyes. "What makes you think we'll hand it over to you?"
The older boy smirked, "I don't. I know you guys wouldn't hand it over just like," he snapped his fingers, "that. It would be no fun if you did that would it, and besides, it'd be a disgrace to call ourselves ninja if we don't take it away from you properly."
"I'm ready to kick their asses." said the younger boy, grabbing the handle of the sword tied to his back.
"Are you sure you want to fight us?" Kabuto spoke up, "For all you know, you guys will be fighting over a scroll you already have, and I doubt you want to waste time when the final hour is drawing near."
"Kabuto does have point." said the pinkette.
"Agreed." said the older boy of the opposing team.
Sasuke nodded. "If all of us wish to pass and make it to the next round, we must be sure that the both of us don't have same scroll."
"So what do you propose then?"
"Showing each other our scrolls. That way we can tell whether or not we'll waste our time on each other. And if we both have different scrolls then we'll fight each other to gain our desired scroll, deal?"
The enemy team looked at one another for a moment, as if silently discussing it over with each other. Finally, not needed nodding to each other to confirm their decision, the oldest of their team stepped forward as she reached for something inside her clothes.
"It's a deal." the younger boy said, "We show our scrolls at the same time."
Sasuke nodded in agreement before he walked toward towards the older girl and reached into his clothes.
"On the count of three, at the same time you both will show the scrolls." said Sakura.
No one moved to disagree with her.
Sakura gulped and looked at Naruto nervously, "Well… here goes then."
Both teams on each side tensed, ready to attack.
"One…"
Naruto gulped as he hovered his shaky hand over his weapon pouch, ready to draw out his kunai if needed.
The older boy on the other team took a stance as he watched Naruto's movement carefully.
"Two…"
Kabuto even took a stance in case things got out of hand omit. Even if this wasn't his fight he was still taking part of it whether he liked it or not. Plus, Naruto and others were kind enough to let him tag along to the tower.
The younger boy smirked in glee at the fight to come as he readied the large sword on his back.
Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the older girl in front of him, making sure that she won't pull any tricks on him to take the scroll.
The girl in front of him remained impassive as she started at Sasuke without a worry unlike everyone else.
"Three!"
With one quick and swift movement of the hand, both Sasuke and older girl pulled out their scrolls to reveal…
…..
…..
…..
….
…
..
…Both heaven scrolls
"Aw, man." Naruto whined.
"Crap!" the younger boy yelled.
"Well now what?" asked Sakura.
"At least you two know now not to waste your time on each other." said Kabuto.
"Yeah," Sakura let out a sigh.
"Well great, now what do we do Ryoma!" the younger boy demanded.
Ryoma frowned slightly, cleaning his glasses with the end of his shirt. "Cool your jets Kohta, we'll just have to move on and find another team."
"Are you serious, at this rate we'll never find the earth scroll before dawn!" Kohta shouted.
"Don't worry, we'll think of something." Ryoma said calmly, placing his glasses back on. "Do you have any ideas, Katsumi?"
Katsumi placed the scroll back in her clothes before she shrugged.
"I figure that would be your response." the older boy commented.
"Ah, what will Kisame-sensei think of us if we don't get our hands on a scroll and pass this test!" Kohta exclaimed.
"Nothing good I can image," said Ryoma.
"Is that suppose to comfort me or something!" the younger boy exclaimed.
Katsumi remained silent and watched.
From the side lines, team seven and Kabuto watched the argument going on among team Kisame, not really sure what to do at this point.
"Maybe we should go." Kabuto whispered.
"Good idea." Sakura whispered back. Naruto and Sasuke nodded in agreement.
Slowly and carefully, all four of them backed away from team Kisame and turned to take off. But before they could take the first step…
"Hey, where do you think you're going!" Kohta demanded.
They turned to see Kohta glaring at them with Ryoma and Katsumi watching them.
"To find our scroll, that's what." said Sasuke, getting irritated by them now.
"Without us?" Ryoma said with a hint of a smile, adjusting his glasses in Kabuto style.
"What you talking about?" Naruto asked with his normal confused foxy look.
At this Ryoma smirked. "Do you really think that we will let you all go just like that for taking up so much of our time?"
"You guys are the ones that stopped us!" Naruto yelled.
"Shut up!" said Kohta.
"And for that we're going to be tagging along until we get our scroll from you." said Ryoma.
"What!" Sakura shouted in disbelief.
"What scroll!" Sasuke demanded.
"Because you guys made us waste our time you guys will have to give us back those minutes." said Ryoma.
They all stayed silent for a moment.
"That doesn't make any sense!" Naruto shouted.
"Shut up, we're coming whether you like it or not!" yelled Kohta.
"No way!" Naruto yelled back, glaring at Kohta as he glared back.
"Whoa there, we don't want to start something now when we have no reason, do we." said Kabuto, "Besides we're just wasting more of our time by arguing."
"So what should we do?" asked Sakura.
"Let's let them tag along." said the older teen.
"But why?" the blonde knuckle head whined.
"With more members in our group, the better the chances of getting your scrolls quicker." said Kabuto.
"I guess that makes sense." said Sakura.
Sasuke sighed. "Fine, you guys can come."
Ryoma smirked. "Good to hear."
Kohta smirked triumphantly at Naruto.
Katsumi remained impassive as always.
This was going to be a long night.
Night has completely fallen in the forest, leaving team Itachi, team Kisame, and Kabuto in the dark of the night. For hours the group has been walking through the forest, heading towards the tower that was waiting no more than a mile away from them. The walk towards the tower was both tiring and… eventful. Naruto and Kohta wouldn't stop bickering to each other over the smallest and strangest things, Ryoma wouldn't stop staring at Sakura's ass, much to her displeasure, and Sasuke was starting to get slightly weirded out because Katsumi was silent next to him the whole time. Normally the girls that are around him wouldn't shut up and talk his ear off. Now he would give anything to hear the slightest sound from this girl.
It seemed so long now since they started to head for the tower together. It seemed like they've been walking for hours and hours towards the tower without a break and their feet were starting to hurt. But the more they walked, the farther the tower seemed to get until they were forced to stop and rest.
"Why aren't we there yet?" Naruto panted slightly.
"It seems as if we've been walking forever." Ryoma commented.
"Something is not right here, we've should have reached the tower by now." said Kabuto.
"Hey," Kohta started, "haven't we've been through here already?" as to prove it, he pointed towards a tree that had three kunai imbedded in it.
About an hour ago, Ryoma made some sort of perverted commented about Sakura that embarrassed her and turned her red as a tomato. Both embarrassed and angry, Sakura whipped around to face him and threw three kunai knives, aiming right at his head. But Ryoma quickly dodged her attack, barely, and quickly took refuge behind Katsumi. But that didn't work out to well for him as she hit him over the head for his perverseness towards Sakura.
"He's right, those are Sakura's kunai." said Sasuke.
It was then that something dawned on Kabuto. "We have been here, in fact we must have passed here several times already."
"What do you mean?" the pinkette asked.
"I believe that we have been trapped in someone's genjutsu for the past few hours without even noticing it." Ryoma growled.
"And I can't believe you all fell into it." came a chuckle from somewhere in the forest and them.
Suddenly, black sluggish slime appeared all around and took the form of their enemy.
"Shadow clones?" said Naruto.
"I don't think so." said Kabuto.
One of the clones lunged towards Katsumi to strike, but the older girl dodged it. Two more went after Sasuke and Ryoma but they dodged them as well. Soon all the clones started to attack the group, swinging and throwing their kunai knives at their opponents. One of the clones jumped forward to Katsumi and made an attempt to slash at her with a kunai. But the older girl blocked the attack and sent a forceful kick at her enemy, causing it to fall apart to the ground as the same slime it was before. Once the clone became nothing but slime another appeared in its place and attacked Katsumi, forcing her to jump back from the attack.
Naruto and Kohta were back to back with kunai knives in both their hands as they faced the enemy that surrounded them. Together they slashed through many of the enemy ninjas, only to have them be replaced by more that formed from their earlier attacks. One clone came in between the two, and forced Naruto and Kohta to break apart from each other. Naruto fought like mad as the clones for some reason where being drawn to Naruto more than anyone else. Swoosh by the enemy, the blonde failed to notice that one of the clones had snuck up behind him and was ready to deliver a deadly blow to his head. By the time he realized that one of the clones was behind him, it was too late to defend himself, all he could do was turn around and watch the attack. Only an inch away, the clone was suddenly destroyed and reduced to nothing but black slime again. Right behind the clone that almost killed off the blonde was Kohta with a triumphed smirk at the success of saving Naruto's butt in time. Naruto looked surprise at the sudden rescue but smirked back at the Mist nin before turning towards to the enemy.
Sakura kicked off the head of her opponent and watched the clone revert back to the black slime as before. But once clone reverted back to the slime, it formed together once for and returned back to its clone form again, ready to attack again. Sakura let out a squeak of surprise and quickly stepped back from it. The clone lunged forward and about to attack her when it suddenly became black slime again. Within the pile of black slime was a kunai knife, meaning that the clone must have been hit from behind, but by whom? Her question was soon answer when Katsumi appeared and grabbed her kunai and pulled Sakura away from the reforming clone.
"It's no good," Kabuto slashed through another one, "no matter how many times we cut them down they come back and reform."
"So what should we do then?" Sasuke asked, cut another one.
Not too far was Ryoma, who suddenly had an idea. "I think I have an idea, but we're going to need a bit of cover."
Hours seemed to pass as the group continued to fight off the enemy's clones. Somewhere, high in the trees, a Rain Genin team watched the fight down below from their hidden spot. There they waited and waited until dawn was only an hour away while their pray tuckered themselves out until they could stand no more.
Dismissing the clones, the three Rain nin jumped down to face the now exhausted Leaf and Mist group, who glared up at the real enemy.
The first one chuckled. "That was too easy."
"Now, you all can be easy on yourselves and had over the scrolls or we'll take them force." said the second one.
"I rather doubt that they can put of any kind of fight." the third one chuckled.
"Want to bet?"
The three Rain nins looked surprised and whipped around to see Sasuke, Sakura, Kabuto, Kohta, Katsumi, and Ryoma, standing behind them with smug looks on their faces and didn't seem tired one bit.
"B-But… how!" the first one asked in shock.
"Allow me to explain," Ryoma smirked faintly, adjusting his glasses, "We figured that if we continued to fight your clones, it would get us nowhere before dawn. And by then we would be too tired to defend ourselves when you three finally come out of your rat hiding hole. So we had to draw you three out by then, make you believe that we have run out of gas to draw you out. But in order to do so we had to make a switch."
As if on cue, the clones of Kabuto, team seven, and team Kisame poofed, revealing them to be Naruto's clones before they poofed again and disappeared.
"The switch wasn't hard, easy if you have the right skills and jutsus that is." Ryoma finished.
"It's easy for Mist nins like us to pull a switch like that in front of you idiots." Kohta added.
"We shinobi from the Village Hidden in the Mist are known for our assassination within the mist," Ryoma said with an evil smiled, "leaving our prey blind within the blood mist, before we go into the strike of the kill. We leave no survivors."
Let's rewind to what happened, shall we.
Three hours earlier…
"Where's Kohta?" Ryoma asked, fighting off another clone that lunged at him.
Kabuto cut down another clone, "Over there!" he pointed to the boy near Naruto.
Quickly, Ryoma pushed his way through the crowd of clones towards his younger teammate. With one more slash through a clone, he was right beside Kohta.
"Kohta, I need you to do something for me."
"Like what?" his younger teammate asked, ridding another clone.
The older boy pushed two clones out of his way and quickly jumped back, right next to Kohta, and quickly whispered something into his ear. Kohta nodded and nodded until a small smirk appeared on his face when Ryoma finished up.
"That I can do." said Kohta.
Pushing the rest of the clones away from him, Kohta quickly formed several hand signs before he completed the jutsu. Mist soon covered everything and surrounded everyone in the battle field, leaving everyone blind, other than the three Mist nins. Taking this chance, Ryoma then rushed over to Naruto and approached the blonde with caution, so he knew that he was friend then foe. Once Naruto it was just Ryoma, the older boy quickly came up to the blonde and whispered something in his ear.
Naruto grinned, "No problem, but you guys better get out here quickly."
"Will do, thanks."
Just as Ryoma left and collected the others to get out of the mist, Naruto got to work on part of the plan. Without much of a word to the others, Ryoma took everyone out of the mist and to a safe hiding place in the forest, as Naruto's clones to their places, changing all of them to look like his friends. From there, the mist had lifted and fighting with clones continued on, as if nothing happen.
"Now, give us your scroll." Ryoma demanded, with same evil smirk graced across his face.
"Tch, over our dead bodies you brats." said the leader of the three Rain nin.
Kohta smirked, "That can be easily arranged!"
"Bring it on!" Naruto declared.
A great battle broke out between the three teams, and Kabuto. The fight carried on the same as it did in manga expect with the help of Team Kisame. Team Kisame fought with great force with Team Itachi as well with such great skill that they didn't need to pull out their secret jutsus or moves. At this, Kabuto kept not only a good eye on Sasuke and his friends, but Team Kisame as well for he knew he would need to know everything about them in the near future.
In the end, the enemy fell, utterly defeated by Team Kisame and Team Itachi.
Ryoma searched through three unconscious Rain ninjas, looking for their scroll in order to pass the second test. Searching the last Rain shinobi, Ryoma grinned in triumph for finding not just one, but two earth scrolls that both teams needed.
"Hey, check it out!" Ryoma held both of the scrolls up with same grin on.
"Alright! We've got our earth scroll!" Naruto jumped in the air.
"Yes, we're moving on!" Kohta grinned.
"No time to celebrate just yet," Kabuto butted in their celebration, "We need to get to the tower right away before it is too late."
"He's right, let's get going." said the Uchiha.
Ryoma nodded in agreement and quickly scrambled onto his feet and handed Sakura their scroll before he joined up with his team. By the time the group reached the tower, it was sunrise, leaving only a short amount of time for the teams to complete their test before it was too late.
"Looks like this is where we part." said Kabuto.
Sakura nodded, "Looks like it."
"We better hurry inside." said the older boy on team Kisame.
"I'm sure my team is waiting for me to go inside, I better get going. I'll see you all inside and I wish the best of luck to each of you." said silver haired teen.
"You to Kabuto!" said the blonde.
With a small farewell, Kabuto left the group and went off to join his team once more.
"Well… we better hurry up and find our door before it's too late." Ryoma said.
"Uh… yeah we should." Naruto rubbed the back of his head, looking down at his feet.
"You have our thanks for helping us pass." the pinkette smiled and bowed to team Kisame.
Sasuke nodded in agreement.
"I think we owe you our thanks, right?" Ryoma looked at his team.
"Right!" Kohta agreed with a smile.
Katsumi nodded with a hint of a smile.
Sakura giggled, "Looks like we're all thankful for each other."
"Seems like it." Sasuke commented.
"To the best ninja of the Chuunin Exams." Kohta declared, holding his hand out to Naruto.
The blonde grinned as he took the Mist nin's hand, "To the best ninja of the Chuunin Exams, which will be me."
The younger boy let out a short laugh, "We'll just see about that!"
"Is this everything?"
"Yes, my lord it is everything that I have collected from them."
"Wonderful! Excellent work as always, Kabuto."
Kabuto gave a small bow, "Thank you, Lord Orochimaru."
In one of the private rooms of the tower within the forest, Orochimaru leaned casually against the wall, looking over the card information that Kabuto gathered. Standing to his left, Kabuto stood with his two teammates standing behind him, waiting for the sannins further orders.
Orochimaru faintly cackled, "Everything is falling into plan perfectly. Now the only thing left is to see that Sasuke makes it past the preliminaries and to the final test."
Kabuto raised an eyebrow, "Preliminaries?"
"There are more than the usual amount that have passed the second test this year, so they will cut it in half by having preliminaries for the final test. We just have let to Sasuke pass and let the curse mark take its course. Thanks to the Sound team we formed and entered, the mark has been activated and will slowly take over Sasuke, leaving him to see the power that I can truly give him! Kukuku…"
"Except there's just one problem with that, my lord."
"And what's that?"
The silver haired teen shifted his weight, looking a bit nervous, "Sasuke's curse mark hasn't been activated, yet."
The snake man looked lazily at his right hand man, clearly not upset at this news, "I see… no matter it can still be activated during the preliminaries. Tell Dosu and the others that whichever one faces Sasuke, better make sure not to screw it up this time and activate the curse mark."
"W-Well, here's the thing Lord Orochimaru, Dosu and his team didn't pass… they're dead."
"What!" the once calm sannin was now angry, "How could they be dead, they were specifically trained to enter the Chuunin Exams and all the challenges thrown at them. How are they dead?"
Kabuto flinched under his master's tone and forced himself not to take a step back. He knew Orochimaru would react like this; he was just not quite prepared to be under Orochimaru's furry.
"I want an explanation, Kabuto. And I want it now." the sannin hissed with an angry glare.
"Y-Yes, my lord." Kabuto paused enough to pull himself together, "It seems that Dosu and his team was killed off by another team by what we found yesterday. And by the shape their corpses were in, we found that they were killed by Iwa ninjas. We were able to track down which team it was out off all the ones that made it to the second test. It is the team that is under the teachings and guidance of Deidara of Iwa."
Orochimaru gave a somewhat disgusted look at the name.
"But it seems that his team did make an attempt to attack Sasuke and his team after you left them it seems. They did try to carry out the orders but is seems that another team got in the way though from them carrying out their mission."
"Was it that same Iwa ninjas?"
"No, it was a Suna team."
That seemed to spark a slight curiosity in the sannin's eyes, "Which team?"
"I believe it is the one of the Kazekage's children, under the teachings and guidance of Sosari no Akasuna."
"Sasori…" Orochimaru muttered.
"Correct." said Kabuto.
Orochimaru said nothing for a while as he bowed his head down low enough for his hair to hide his face. He didn't move, didn't speak, or even acknowledge that Kabuto and his team were still there. Because of this, Kabuto was starting grow a little worried of what was going on in his master's head, or if he was alright.
Suddenly a faint chuckle was heard, coming from Orochimaru, to only break out into laughter that caused the snake man to throw back his head as he continued to laugh.
Finally his laughter died down to a faint chuckle again before turning to his right hand man.
"Somehow," he chuckled, "That doesn't surprise me."
Now Kabuto was confused, "Excuse me, my lord."
"Aw, it's nothing for you to worry of Kabuto." he smirked, "To me, this is just a cruel irony really."
"If you say so."
"Well, since out little runts are gone, you'll just have to do the job then I'm afraid Kabuto."
"I understand."