Chapter 12: The forest of death part 2

(Continued)

Naruto leapt off the tree branch and headed straight towards the mysterious man.

"No Naruto don't go near him!" cried sasuke and tried to move but his leg was still sore, Naruto ignoring sasuke's warning sprinted towards the man who had become human again and not snakelike.

"I've had enough of this shit! Believe it you're going down you freak!" Naruto roared.

The man simply shook his hands so that his wrist were revealed, drew some blood over something hidden on his arm and immediately there was a great gust of wind, suddenly a great big snake appeared, destroying the whole tree branch and throwing naruto, sasuke and sakura up in the air, sasuke grabbed sakura's hand and leapt from tree to tree to find a safe haven while naruto angrily began whacking the snake over the head with his fists.

The snake produced a long tongue and whacked naruto in the face with it, naruto went soaring backwards and was about to go flying into the tree backwards when he somersaulted and went soaring back towards the snake.

"Don't you dare underestimate me!" naruto roared heading straight for the snake, but the stranger gave a silent command and the snake licked naruto with its long tongue sending him slamming backwards into a tree. Naruto landed heavily on the tree branch, his head lolled forward.

"Now sasuke, its time to see what you've got" the stranger said in his serpent's hiss and he directed the snake towards sasuke and sakura on the tree branch in front of him, sasuke felt rooted to the tree branch, he couldn't move in fear, he was sweating, his heart was thumping furiously.

"AGHHH!" sasuke screamed. He expected to be in heaven with his family, his time ended, was he didn't feel a thing, slowly he looked up and was amazed to see that naruto was standing in front of the snake's head, he was literally holding the snake back by sheer strength and willpower. Huffing and puffing the battle bruised naruto looked sasuke straight in the eye scornfully, sasuke gasped when he saw that naruto's features had changed, his eyes had became red and demonic, the scratches on the side of his face more real and cat like and he had fangs for teeth.

"Is that the nine tails?" sasuke asked himself.

"Sasukeee! Stand up! Get on your feet, are you an uchiha or not? I'm not the one trying to kill Itachi you are!" roared naruto, even his voice had changed, sasuke could only stare and his heart fell downwards when naruto uttered those words about his family and Itachi. Suddenly his head started to hurt and he clasped the side of it with his hands. Suddenly a cold voice interrupted the silence that fell.

"I see, so you're that boy" said the man and he gave the silent command and the snake wrapped its tongue around naruto's waist, holding him tightly it raised naruto upwards towards its master.

"Let me go!" growled naruto furiously continuing to kick and punch the tongue that had enveloped his body, the mysterious man used his long tongue to grab naruto playfully by the arms and held him up in front of him to look at him more closely. He pulled up naruto's top. Naruto who had been engulfed with a confusedly high amount of adrenlinine and anger looked with red eyes at what the man was up to. Suddenly the man slammed his palms into naruto's stomach sending an acid like feeling that penetrated his skin painfully for a while but vanished quickly. Suddenly naruto found himself getting weaker and weaker, his vision blurred and he blacked out.

The mysterious man then tossed naruto to one side aiming to send him falling down to the forest floor.

"Naruto!" cried sakura and she smartly sent a kunai to catch naruto's shirt so that he became hooked to the tree branch behind the man.

"Naruto, no" sasuke whispered to himself, he suddenly had a thousand repressed images spiralling out of control through his mind, he saw Itachi's weird sharingan, he saw a village street littered with bodies, he saw again his parents being murdered by the one person he thought he could really trust.

"You're right naruto" whispered sasuke, sunlight had poured from between the trees straight down onto the clearing where they stood now, sasuke raised his head towards the light and closed his eyes, again as clearly as if he was back in time he heard those words, that had guided his life so far.

"Foolish little brother, if you wish to kill me, hate me, curse me and cling to your wretched life, run, run cling to life and one day when you have the same eyes as me, come before me" said Itachi coldly that day, the words went through sasuke's brain and immediately he looked determinedly at the strange man or demon before him.

"I am an avenger, if I cannot defeat this demon how can I hope to defeat him!" he thought to himself and immediately he went running towards the man, the man released his summoning so the snake disappeared, sasuke immediately sent fireballs towards the man, the man with surprising flexibility was able to dodge the fireballs, curl himself around them and run around with increasing speed, circling sasuke, dodging more fireballs sasuke sent his way, but sasuke was ready, his eyes had become better prepared. So he made some hand seals and sent a burst of fire from his mouth, the man tried to block but he was slowly pushed back against a tree. This is what sasuke had planned all along and he sent chakra strings to envelope the man's body to the tree. The man was amazed to find himself trapped from head to toe with tight chakra strings, he was basically mummified. Sasuke stood far from the man on a tree branch opposite, holding the string in his mouth; he performed hand seals and cried.

"Fire style, Phoenix flower jutsu!" and with that, following the chakra strings the flames soared towards the strange man, burning him literally at the stake, the man's screams pierced through sasuke's body but he didn't stop, he carried on until the man before him was burnt alive. Slowly after 20 minutes, the fires subsided and the charred remains of the man were the only thing left. Sasuke, feeling breathless sank to his knees relieved, as he knew that that jutsu must have finished off the enemy. But immediately his eyes widened in disbelief when he saw the man's body peeling away slowly, bits of skin fell to the ground until nothing was left where the man ought to be standing.

"Wha" began sasuke shocked.

"You really think that would defeat me, I'm so disappointed in you sasuke" said a voice behind him, suddenly sasuke turned and saw the man standing behind him, the man gave sasuke a big punch in the face, then he gave him a knee in the abdomen, sasuke doubled over in pain but he couldn't defend himself from the deluge of punches and kicks being aimed at him.

"SASUKE!" sakura cried, even though she was weakened she tried sending a kunai at the man's back, but he dodged it swiftly and gave sasuke one last punch in the face sending him soaring backwards, sasuke landed on his belly, face down on the ground, not moving.

"I was expecting a lot more from the supposed new genius of the leaf village, especially one from the uchiha clan" the man said dryly and began walking towards sasuke "At first I thought I had saw something when you created those fire techniques because really you are very young to have learnt some of your clan's most favoured jutsu, I admit that I am impressed that you have activated your sharingan. But really sasuke, your ancestors must weep in their graves, you are so much different than Itachi" suddenly he heard a whirring sound, the man looked left and right expecting some new move from the genin but was surprised when his back was charred by a exploding tag that had been chipped onto the back of his t-shirt, as quick as lightening sasuke got up and flew in the air.

"EAT THIS!" screamed sasuke and he grabbed the man, flipped him upside down, hooked his legs around the man's neck and both of them went soaring towards the forest floor.

"Falcon drop!" cried sasuke as he landed on the concrete/forest floor of the forest, the man in his arms' head landed so hard on the ground that there appeared a slight crater, the body began to convulse because the spinal cord had been shattered, sasuke hopped off the man and landed far away, his body finally at its limit. But even the last move in sasuke's arsenal didn't mark the man at all, the man's body suddenly turned to mud. He had made a substitution jutsu.

"Sakura!" cried sasuke.

"What is it?" asked sakura

"Get out of here, take naruto and go straight away to the tower!" said sasuke

"But it's pointless, we will fail if you are not with us!" cried sakura back.

"Ah are you trying to be a hero, sasuke kun" said a cold voice, out of the earth appeared the man, but his features were ten times different, one side was young and clear faced the other side held the burnt charred flesh legacy of sasuke's technique.

"I thought you needed my scroll" the man teased.

He held up the heaven scroll that team seven needed to make it through the exam. Sakura screamed as the man wrapped an incredibly long tongue around the scroll and digested it. He then looked at sasuke, sasuke was again hit with another technique that paralyzed his body, but this time it was a stronger technique and being already low on chakra, sasuke had no defence against it.

"SASUKE!" cried sakura, tears exploding from her eyes.

"Don't! Sakura, run!" whispered sasuke and tried to move his legs, immediately a searing pain ran through his body, he screamed in agony.

"You are indeed Itachi's brother" the man whispered, sasuke still with his sharingan activated looked at the man in front of him.

"What the hell do you want already?" roared sasuke "Why won't you just leave us alone?"

"You have the eyes of someone that desires power and I will leave you something if you decide to seek me out to acquire the power you need in order to defeat your brother" the man said and immediately he raised one finger, his head comically came off his body and snaked towards sasuke, immediately sharp fangs were against sasuke's neck inserting their way into his neck, hot acid went through his neck, through his body and it really hurt. Sasuke screamed so loud the birds scattered from the trees and took flight, the whole forest echoed with his screams.

"SASUKE!" sakura cried and landed beside him to hold his hand, but sasuke couldn't form any words but just continued to scream. "What have you done to him?"

"I am orochimaru, Sasuke will be alright and soon he will seek me out, for power" the man whispered and he disappear slowly into the ground and was gone.

When he was gone sasuke's condition had gotton worse. He went immediately into a high fever and his words became incoherent and he collapsed into a coma.

"Naruto!" cried sakura but she knew he was dangling above them, he had blacked out also.

"What am I to do" whispered sakura, tears flowing down her cheeks, the sun was setting sending an orange glow through the tree tops onto the forest floor, a slight wind blew around the clearing unsettling sakura even more. She was alone. She started to feel tears down her cheeks, but immediately her training kicked in, how many times had iruka sensei told her that shinobi must be prepared to handle the unexpected? She needed to take charge not to start bubbling like a baby. She had to protect her teammates, suddenly she had an idea. Behind her luckily there was a big cave opening. She dragged sasuke's limp body into the cave and she placed him on his side. Next she attended to naruto unhooking him by slicing the bit of material that was held by the kunai apart and running forward to break his fall. He was heavier than sakura imagined but she coped well, although she was winded slightly, she dragged naruto into the same cave sasuke was in, she took a while to catch her breathe, but she didn't relax, opening sasuke's ninja pouch she retrieved his special chakra strings and began wiring them around each tree, she set obvious and non obvious traps with explosive tags and she sent three clones of herself to keep watch of a 30 mile radius of where they were situated as well as instructing them to set traps as well.

When all those things had been done sakura collapsed over the cave entrance, two kunais in her hands feeling tired but not daring to sleep.

Suddenly the kunai in her hand in the morning turned blue. Sakura gulped and came of the cave to face three genins; they were the three sound ninjas that had attacked kabuto in the chuunin exam written exams. Sakura stood her ground and they approached her confidently.

"Hand over Sasuke Uchiha" the masked genin demanded.

"You'll have to fight me for him" sakura replied back.

The three sound genins started to laugh; the sound ninja cocked his head to one side and said.

"Very well"

THE END