Chapter 13
Team 7 arrived in front of room 301 at three thirty in the afternoon. There were already lots of chuunin-hopefuls standing around, all of them watching the commotion at the door. Naruto turned towards that as well.
"Hah! You plan to take the exam with that?" an older Leaf ninja with band-aids on his face was saying mockingly to another one on the ground. "You should quit now, little kid!"
The other shinobi standing beside the door laughed down at the fallen boy who was wiping a trickle of blood from where he had been hit.
"Please, let us through," a voice begged as a familiar girl stepped up to the ninja blocking the entrance. The moment Naruto realized it was Tenten, she was hit by a very fast punch to the face and stumbled backwards.
"Hey!"
The blond shouldered his way through the crowd watching the scene and crouched beside his friend.
"Tenten, you okay?"
She looked up at him in surprise but nodded with a smile, a slight bruise already forming on her left cheek. He stared at it a little perplexed from such close distance. That didn't look like a normal bruise at all. Tenten seemed to notice his puzzlement and gave him a super quick wink.
"Oh," he said quietly. So this wasn't real?
He turned to the other boy on the ground and realized that the blood on his chin didn't seem quite right either. He eventually looked up at the two shinobi standing in front of the door, as the one who had not-quite-hurt Tenten spoke up again.
"This is a kindness we're doing to you," he said with a sneer. "The chuunin exam isn't easy. Even we failed it three times straight."
As he launched into a long explanation of the dangers of the exam, Naruto took a moment to scan him and his friend with his Sense Materia. He wasn't all that surprised that the two ninja were impressive compared to all the other genin he had seen, and that included Sasuke and Sakura as well. If it wasn't for his Chakra bar, they would have him beaten in every stat too. But what was happening? Were they part of the act too, or did they not know what was happening either? He tried to pay closer attention to his surroundings and he finally picked up the other strange things in his immediacies.
"We're just thinning out those who will fail anyway," the ninja was saying in the meantime. "What's wrong with that?"
Naruto scowled. There was an area genjutsu affecting everyone around, and after he concentrated on the source, he was able to tell what it was meant to be. He straightened up to advance towards the door but Sasuke beat him to it.
"I agree with that, but you'll let me pass through. And also remove this genjutsu." He smirked. "I'm going to the third floor."
"So you noticed," the ninja in front of the door said.
"Of course we noticed!" Naruto stepped in heatedly and Sakura nodded her head as well.
"We're on the second floor," she declared much to the shock of the crowd behind them.
The shinobi who had attacked Tenten chucked amusedly.
"Not bad," he complimented them as the genjutsu was dropped. "But all you did was see through it!"
He moved to attack and Sasuke did the same but both their kicks were blocked by the boy who had been on the ground next to Tenten until a moment before. He held their legs for a second before releasing them and joining the girl and another genin with Hyuuga eyes. Naruto looked at them for a moment before scowling at Sasuke.
"You always have to hog the spotlight," he mumbled irritably.
The Uchiha finally looked at him after having frowned at Tenten's teammate himself.
"Everyone must know not to mess with me," he said smugly.
"I'll mess with you," the blond shot back and it seemed like his challenge was going to be accepted when Sakura interrupted them.
"Come on, guys!" she called. "They're letting us through!"
That was distracting enough that they both dropped their glares and followed the pink-haired girl. In the corridor beyond, Sakura waited for them together with Tenten's team.
"Hey, Tenten," Naruto called immediately, noticing how her bruise had disappeared entirely. "What happened back then? Was it staged?"
The others all gave him a surprised look while the secret blacksmith grinned.
"We had planned not to draw bad kinds of attention to ourselves," she explained, "so we tried to look like easy preys… at first."
She shot a half-disapproving and half-amused look to the boy to her left.
Naruto regarded the guy who had stopped Sasuke's kick with interested eyes. His look was ridiculous but he knew better than to judge on that. There was probably a pretty strong ninja beneath the bowl-like haircut, the caterpillar eyebrows and the spandex jumpsuit.
"Pretending to be weak?" the blond eventually said with a frown. "I don't like that! I don't like that at all! Everyone must know I'm not to be messed with!"
Although he had meant that, he enjoyed the annoyed look on Sasuke's face nonetheless.
"Yeah, I had figured that much," Tenten teased him. "I'm pretty surprised you didn't just electrocute that guy out there!"
"If he had hurt you for real, you can bet your ass I would have!" he said seriously and the girl let out a cute giggle.
"Oh, guys!" she said then, turning to her teammates as if she had suddenly remembered they were there. "This is Uzumaki Naruto. Naruto, these are Rock Lee and Hyuuga Neji."
"Ah and…uh," the blond started a bit lamely, "and these are Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke."
There were nods and greetings all around until Lee's impromptu confession of love was heartlessly thwarted by Sakura. That was followed by a bit of awkwardness, which the blond didn't exactly make better by laughing at the boy.
"Uhm, I was very excited when I heard you were going to be in the exam," Tenten said, trying to restart a normal conversation. "Did you know that this is the first time in five years that rookies have been entered in it?"
"That's because we're awesome!"
"You're not the only ones, though," the girl continued. "Six more rookies from Konoha are participating. You probably know them since they must have graduated with you from the Academy."
"Do you know their names?" Naruto asked, wondering who they could be.
"Uh-uh." The secret blacksmith shook her head. "We only knew that there were three rookie teams and that one of them was Kakashi's. And, of course, I knew you were his student so…"
"How do you know so many things about the exam?" Sakura asked in interest. "Our sensei didn't tell us anything. If it hadn't been for Naruto finding it out elsewhere, we would have probably heard about it yesterday if not today, even."
"We caught some rumours," Lee explained with a glint in his eyes. "If you hang around the right places, you pick up all kinds of useful information. Tell you what? I'll take you to a very nice ninja bar after we're finished!"
Sakura raised her eyebrows at the extremely bold and apparently relentless boy. "No way."
Tenten's teammate dropped his head in disappointment and Naruto couldn't help but laugh again. He put both hands on his mouth when Lee started looking angry at him but snorting sounds were difficult to block in.
"I'm sorry," the blond eventually said, raising his arms in a placating gesture. He turned to Sasuke. "Does it look like this when I do it?"
The Uchiha thought about it for a second before shrugging. "Every bit as pathetic."
Naruto nodded, still fighting back a grin. "Right."
Seeing as the other team was looking at them strangely, Sakura decided to explain.
"Naruto's asked me out on dates since we were at the Academy."
"And you've never…" Tenten began, letting the incomplete sentence float there.
"Of course not!"
Everyone noticed Sakura's embarrassed look in Sasuke's direction – which he ignored – and Naruto's immediate worse mood.
"Teme," he growled.
"Dobe," the Uchiha returned automatically.
"Why couldn't you just stay home today?" the blond grumbled. "This exam would be so much better without you."
"I should be the one to say that," the other retorted snidely. "You've still got time to run home and save yourself the embarrassment."
Naruto was about to reply, either with just his mouth or also with his fists was yet unclear, when Tenten interrupted them in confusion.
"You do realize that you can only participate in the exam as a team, right?" she asked, shifting his eyes from them to Sakura.
"What?"
"You can only take part if in a group of three," the secret blacksmith said slowly, staring at them as if waiting to see understanding in their faces. She didn't. "Your sensei really didn't tell you anything, did he?"
Team 7 shared a stunned look, a blink and finally a single comment.
"Oh."
Kakashi had told them it would have been 'easier to fail' without all three of them participating. Another one of his cryptic sentences had been uncovered. The bastard.
"Individual choice, my ass," Naruto said. "Why did he lie to us?"
Sasuke seemed to think about it for a moment. "It must be his usual crap about being a team and acting like one."
"Oh, my god!" Sakura huffed exasperated. "He's obsessed!"
"I bet he's prepared a speech for it, in the off-chance that one or two of us get rejected because not everyone has come," Naruto said. He lowered the left side of his head-protector to cover one eye and pointed his index at Sasuke in exultance. "Ah-ah! Told ya! You can only take steps forward as a team, suckers!" He straightened the hitai-ite back to its usual position and shrugged. "Or something like that."
Sakura sniggered and even Sasuke grinned slightly. They turned back to Tenten and her teammates who were looking at them somewhat warily.
"Let's get going," Neji said with finality after a long second of silence, and he started walking down the hallway.
Team 7 looked at each other, nodded and followed after him.
They soon reached the third floor, room 301, and the two ninja standing in front of the door.
"So, everyone's here, huh?" Kakashi commented. "Now we can properly take the exam."
Sakura rolled her eyes at the man.
"Whatever do you mean, Sensei?"
The jounin looked surprised for a moment, then his eye closed to form his usual smiling expression.
"Neji! Tenten! Lee!"
The booming voice echoed painfully against the walls of the corridor and Naruto couldn't help but wince as he turned to the other ninja present. He was… Lee's dad? He sure seemed like it, considering his looks – same ridiculous hair-cut, spandex jumpsuit and even thicker highbrows – but the three genin were calling him Gai-sensei.
"I'm so proud of you I feel like crying!" the jounin continued and tears were actually streaming down his face. "I know you will face this exam with the strength and courage I've always seen in every one of you!"
And then he went on and on about random things like will of fire and power of youth. It was hard to not stare at him but Kakashi seemed to be ignoring the other's antics completely.
"Stick together and you'll be fine," he said simply, his nonchalance on the opposite spectrum compared to Gai's enthusiasm. "Now go."
But the weird ninja had directed his attention to them by that point. He moved faster than the eye could see and practically materialized between them and the door, sporting a smile that resulted more than a little creepy for how wide it was.
"Ah, so you are my eternal rival's pupils! Kakashi must have taught you well if you're participating as rookies." He put one hand on Sakura's shoulder and one on Sasuke's, but his gaze enclosed Naruto as well. "I wish you too the best for the exam."
"You're Sensei's rival?" the blond repeated, glancing at the silver-haired jounin and noticing his sigh. He shifted his eyes back to Gai and examined him with his Sense Materia. He gulped loudly at the results.
"Eh-eh… fifty wins, forty-nine losses," he stated confidently and his grin grew even brighter. "I'm ahead of him."
Kakashi rolled his eyes but didn't actually deny that. "Ignore him, kids. Off you go."
Team 7 didn't need to be told twice, gladly making a run for it. They heard Gai's voice boom again throughout the corridor until the door slammed shut behind them, leaving them standing inside room 301, under the menacing look of dozens of ninja.
"Wow…" Naruto said, looking at the multitude of shinobi. "So many…"
The blond couldn't help but grin in anticipation as he scanned the competition.
The chuunin exam began with a written test. Most genin looked lost in thought already, concentrating on the questions and occasionally scribbling something down on their sheets, while others appeared either desperate or confident. All around them, chuunin proctors were observing the proceeding intently, notepad in hand, and at the teacher's desk, in front of the blackboard with the rules, the scarred examiner was doing the same. The classroom was completely quiet for anyone but Naruto, because inside his head a loud argument was taking place.
'I don't believe it.'
'You better start to.'
'I can't fucking believe it!'
'Everyone's been telling you this for months! Really, how can you not understand it?'
The blond shook his head as he thought back at what the Kyuubi had just told him. It made sense… dammit!
'They want us to cheat,' the genin repeated with his inner, now incredulous voice.
'And not get caught at it,' the Demon reminded him.
Naruto shook his head again with a frown. He let his eyes roam over his test and couldn't help but groan at the incomprehensible questions.
"Right," he whispered in resignation a moment later. He hated doing this but he didn't want to fail the test… he didn't want to fail his team, especially.
'Right,' he said for the benefit of his tenant. He picked up the pencil. 'Let's begin with the first one, then. Start dictating.'
There was a moment of silence and then the Kyuubi spoke up.
'Naruto, I don't know the answers to most of these questions.'
The blond too took a moment before replying. 'You're joking, right?'
'No.'
'But-but-but you told me you-'
'I told you that I paid attention at the Academy and that I remember everything you read,' the Demon finished for him. 'But that's the thing – you never read much and as for the Academy, you probably missed as much lessons as you attended to. These questions are hard, they seem like advanced stuff. I can't help you here.'
Naruto tried not to let the shock appear on his face as he mulled the words over in his head.
'How am I going to even cheat, then? How can I get my hands on these answers if- Oh…'
Of course.
He stopped talking when the idea struck him like a slap on the face. The Kyuubi just snorted, having already arrived to the same conclusion, probably. They discussed it a little, Naruto surreptitiously looking around the room at the chuunin proctors watching them like hawks. When he agreed with his bijuu that their plan wasn't going to get any better if he just started over-thinking it, he settled back on his chair and waited. There wasn't much he could do for the moment, so he just busied himself observing the other participants, his gaze stopping more often than not on two genin in particular.
The first one was Gaara, the Sand ninja he had met a few days earlier at the gates. The red-head looked about as busy as him – as in to say at all – but much more calm and collected. Naruto frowned a little when the jinchuuriki looked at him, his eyes as empty and unreadable as his face. The blonde glared back almost challengingly before turning around, annoyed.
He had eventually told his team about their confrontation, and although Sasuke had looked unhealthily interested in how strong the Suna-nin actually was, the blond thought that his warning had been received. Kakashi agreeing with him also helped getting the point across. The red-head kid was dangerous.
The second genin Naruto was consistently looking at was Kabuto, the grey-haired Konoha shinobi who had introduced himself to their little group of rookies and Tenten's team at the entrance to room 301. He had showed them his Nin-info cards about some of the competition and had also told them that would be the seventh time he tried to become chuunin. Considering how he had gotten his ass handed to him by a weird-looking Sound genin right before the beginning of the exam, Naruto would have had no problem in believing it… if it hadn't been for his Sense Materia.
According to the yellow sphere, in fact, Kabuto was by far the strongest ninja in the room, and that didn't just include the chuunin-hopefuls taking the exam, but also the examiners. Even the scarred one who was presumably in charge of things was visibly weaker than him as far as his Materia could tell. Sure, Naruto hadn't actually had the chance to scan every last one of the participants, but he highly doubted another genin would even come close to the grey-haired ninja. The guy was about as strong as Kakashi… Even though he knew not to rely on the sphere's power to gauge an opponent's skill, the blond couldn't help but swallow uneasily as his eyes rested an instant on the scribbling shinobi. He had acted so weak but… something didn't add up.
He continued thinking about it for a while, the topic effectively keeping his mind away from the task ahead. Thanks to that, when the time finally came, he wasn't nearly as nervous as he could have been. He chanced one look at his oblivious target, scribbled down something on his test sheet and then hid it quickly up his sleeve, folding it enough to fit in loosely. He stood up and looked at the chuunin proctors lined against the wall.
"Uhm… I need to go to the bathroom," he said, and his plan was finally set in motion.
When Haruno Sakura regained possess of her body, she immediately turned her head to the left and tried to glare a hole into Yamanaka Ino's head. The blonde had just had the gall to use her mind-control jutsu on her, in order to take a look at her test, no doubt. The pink-haired girl scowled even harder when Ino-pig just smiled smugly, and she made the promise to herself to never let the Yamanaka do it again.
No matter, though, she told herself, reigning on her temper. She had completed the test, exception made for the mysterious tenth question, and she was sure her score would be very good. She was positive Sasuke would do well too, either by himself or by cheating, but she wasn't so sure about Naruto. She chanced a look at him, down a couple of rows, only to find his seat vacant.
Her heart skipped a beat for a moment. Had he lose all his points? Had they thrown him out while Ino was controlling her? But no, then she would have been disqualified too, together with Sasuke. Then what-
And then she saw him, returning to the room from a side door, and she let out a sigh of relief. He was handcuffed and escorted by an examiner like the other guys she had seen going to the bathroom. He was still okay, then. She watched as he got his hands free and started walking back to his seat, passing between rows of chuunin still intent on their test. Her eyes met his for a moment when he passed by, and she could have sworn there was something mischievous glinting in his blue gaze. He eventually reached his seat and plopped down with a heavy grunt.
Sakura frowned slightly as she noticed how he kept on tossing secretive glances at her. On an intuition, she looked down at her test and-
"You little-"
On her desk, slightly crumpled in the middle, now rested a clean test sheet, almost as blank as a new one if not for the small note scribbled down on the top right corner. It read 'Sorry Sakura!' in what she could easily recognize as Naruto's horrible handwriting. She looked it over in shock for a moment before glaring at her teammate, finding his guilty and chagrined smile somewhat appeasing. She forced herself to calm down, and after a quick look at the examiners and one last heavy sigh, she just picked up the pencil again and started writing.
Re-answering the test was a chore, but also a much quicker affair, she realized when she finally dropped her pencil only ten minutes later. She rubbed her sore wrist slightly as she looked down at her teammates. Sasuke had already taken his usual position, shoulders slightly hunched and hands steepled in front of his mouth. He met her eyes with a passing glance and gave her such a quick nod with his head she would have missed it if she had blinked. Naruto was done too – obviously, she thought bitterly, but a small part of her couldn't help but be amused at the blond. Using his Steal Materia to get himself a good test… that was smart, if she could say so. She allowed herself to take some pride in the fact he had decided to steal her test, knowing that she would have answered – and answered correctly – all the questions, but she knew that her spot by the end of the row had played a part in it as well. But all that mattered were the results and she knew they were going to be good.
Team 7 would ace this test.
When Naruto eventually looked up at her, this time she answered his sheepish smile with one of her own.
"Okay," Morino Ibiki said suddenly a few minutes later. His voice cut through the silent room like a hot knife through butter. "We will now start the tenth question."
Sakura gulped quietly and readied herself, and she could see many others doing the same.
"Before we get to it, though," the examiner continued, "I'd like to go over the added rules for this question."
They had to wait for the man to berate a Suna genin coming back from the bathroom before he could resume.
"I'll now explain… the rules of desperation." Many bodies shifted nervously at that declaration and Sakura felt her throat tighten a little bit. "First, for this question, you must choose whether to take it or not."
"Choose? What happens if we choose not to?" a kunoichi behind her asked.
"If you decide not to, your points will be reduced to zero," Ibiki said harshly. "You'll fail along with your two teammates."
Much uproar followed that as people started shouting that of course, then, they all would take the question. But the examiner acted as if no one had spoken, resuming in his grim tone.
"And now the other rule. If you decide to take it and answer incorrectly…" and here he made a pause charged with tension, "you will lose the right to take the chuunin selection exam ever again."
Only Akamaru could be heard in the stunned silence that ensued, as he whined loudly.
"What kind of stupid rule is that?" Kiba mirrored his companion a second later. "There are guys here who have taken the exam before!"
The scarred ninja once again surprised everyone as he laughed quietly. The sound had a creepy almost sadistic quality to it.
"You guys were unlucky," he said. "It's my rules this year." He leaned his head very slightly towards the door and something in Sakura's head clicked. "But I'm giving you a way out. Those that aren't confident enough can decide not to take the question… and can try again next year."
Of course, she thought, her eyes narrowing dangerously at the man as she realized what was going on
"So…" he continued, "those who do not wish to take it can raise their hand. Once your number is confirmed you can leave."
Sakura looked around the room and finally at her two teammates. She noticed how Sasuke was looking at Naruto and couldn't help but frown a little. The blond seemed very worried now, his mind no doubt wondering what he should do, and seeing his anxious face, she felt the sudden urge to stand up and explain to him what was happening. She refrained from doing so, though, glancing briefly at the various examiners around her. She bit her lower lip restlessly.
Think, Naruto. Come on.
When the genin next to the blond raised his hand, she let out a long sigh. Other people soon started giving up, quitting this year's exam for fear of remaining stuck as genin forever. Sakura shook her head at them but kept on observing her teammate squirming a few feet away. Chancing a look at Morino Ibiki, she couldn't help but think he must have felt very pleased with himself under that expressionless mask of his.
Her gaze snapped back to Naruto when he raised his hand-
And a gasp escaped her lips when he brought it down hard onto the desk.
"Don't underestimate me!" he shouted, challenge in his voice. "I will not run!"
Dead silence descended on the room at that point and the pink-haired girl had to calm down her racing heart at what she had thought had been a close call.
"I'll take it!" her teammate continued resolutely. "Even if I stay a genin forever! I'm going to will myself to become Hokage anyway, so I don't care! I'm not afraid!"
Sakura smiled widely before turning back to the scarred examiner, a look of determination on her face as well.
Bring it on.
"I'll ask you again." The man addressed the blond directly this time, his quiet voice holding the littlest hint of warning. "Your life is riding on this decision. This is your last chance to quit."
But the grin on Naruto's face didn't leave space for doubt.
"I don't go back on my word," he said confidently. "That's my ninja way."
The man took one second before replying, his eyes darting briefly to the chuunin proctors lined against the walls. Sakura's eyes widened in realization as every single piece of the puzzle moved to its rightful place.
"No…"
Her feeble, surprised voice went completely unnoticed as the examiner spoke up again.
"Good decision. Now, to everyone still remaining, I congratulate you on passing the first test."
And this time, even though there was nothing creepy or sadistic in the smile on his lips, Sakura could only scowl at it.
The Forest of Death looked as ominous as its name sounded even under the afternoon sunlight, but Naruto wasn't affected by it. Not at all. The blond skipped excitedly from one branch to the other, chakra working under his feet and occasionally on his palms to keep him moving and balanced. Behind him, Sakura and Sasuke were keeping up, following him silently as he led them where only he could.
To where new Materia were awaiting him.
He smiled widely, thinking about how strange it had been when, at the creepy Mitarashi Anko's signal, as many as four Materia presences had suddenly appeared in his senses. He had looked in their general direction, then, his eyes moving quickly to Area 44 and the chuunin proctors of the second test who were unlocking its gates. He had realized at that point that whatever seal had kept those doors closed had effectively stopped him from perceiving the spheres beyond.
Until then.
He had eventually convinced his teammates to quickly circle around the area to get a better sense as to where they were located exactly, and he had decided which gate to enter through consequently. Naruto was grateful Sasuke and Sakura had indulged him, but he knew that the possible usefulness of these new Materia for the exam had been a very compelling argument in and on itself.
As the two pulling sensations that he was following intensified, the blond sped up significantly and corrected his course a little to the left, soon reaching his objective. Now in front of him, in the middle of a large group of enormous trees, stood a much smaller one, the upper portion of its trunk looking rather withered, almost sick, compared to those around him – or even compared to its own roots. It was odd how the tree appeared so healthy where it embedded into the ground and at the same time ever sofrail as it grew away from the dirt.
He dropped in front of it and grinned, his teammates landing beside him only a second later.
"Is this the place?" Sasuke asked.
"Yep. There are two of them."
The blond looked the thin tree up and down and suddenly frowned.
"I wonder if it's the Materia causing… this," Sakura commented, unconsciously voicing Naruto's own thoughts. She gestured at the lack of leaves and at the sudden dried look of the bark in the upper half of the tree.
The orange-clad genin looked up at it too and felt a little unnerved by the near complete silence around them. Not even flies and insects could be heard in that portion of forest and everything seemed still.
"Maybe I should send a clone to check," he said. "Just to be safe."
"Hn," Sasuke agreed even as two clones appeared in front of them, both equipping the Cover Materia in their right-arm holster in a by now automatic gesture.
One Kage Bunshin circled the tree while the other stepped cautiously on its trunk, applying the necessary chakra to stick to its bark. He began his march up on it a second later, while the other started digging in the dirt beside the roots. His kunai made quick work of grass and soil and the hole had already become a shallow pit when he finally slid his bare hand inside and cried out in exultance.
That was when the other clone cried out in pain.
Naruto snapped his head up immediately, bringing his eyes back to the Kage Bunshin up the tree. The burst of smoke from his disappearance hid the trunk for a moment until a grey shape barrelled out of it, flying at great speed towards them. The blond jumped away immediately, the kunai in his hand ready to be thrown at the attacker, but had to dodge again laterally as another form landed exactly where he had stood a second before. As he charged this last one with a scream, he had the chance to take a good look at it.
The thing came across as a lizard… if lizards could grow to five feet of length. Its grey scales matched the pupil-slitted eyes as it looked at him, hissing threateningly through a pair of large, pointy fangs. Naruto blocked a swift sweep of its long tail and kicked it on the neck with enough strength to send it tumbling away. It righted itself up in a moment, though, its short but sharp-looking claws firmly gripping the ground. But the blond had enough time to form his favourite seal before being attacked again and two clones were enough to block the next charge and push the creature backwards, striking it with punches and kicks.
He turned to his teammates and cursed slightly at the sea of lizards that had swarmed them. He took his cue from Sasuke, who had just overcooked a large number of them with his Great Fireball, and called up chakra into his paired second level All and Lightning Materia. The thunderstorm that followed dwindled the reptile army to small isolated batches, as the rest of them just dropped to the ground twitching madly. The remaining lizards hissed threateningly at him before scampering away, heading to the safety of the trees.
Naruto just watched them go for a moment, baffled at such a quick retreat, as the creatures disappeared as suddenly as they had come. After blinking owlishly for a couple of seconds, he finally turned to check on his friends.
"Are you guys okay?" he called. He had to step over dozens of injured lizards to reach them and when he did, barely noticing his remaining clones moving about, he found Sasuke kneeling beside Sakura and inspecting a purple injury on her calf. "Sakura-chan!"
The pink-haired girl winced in pain as she brushed the bruise lightly with her fingers. She was leaning against a tree, a thin layer of sweat clearly visible over her cheeks and forehead.
"I'm okay," she said quietly, frowning. "What were those things?"
Sasuke shook his head. "I don't know. Some kind of lizard I had never seen."
"They were hiding in the tree," Naruto commented grimly, his eyes still glued to his friend's injury.
"Camouflaging with it?" the Uchiha questioned and the blond nodded.
"They attacked the clone as soon as he got the Materia out of the trunk. It looked like… like they were protecting the sphere." He lowered his eyes. "I'm sorry, Sakura-chan."
"It's alright," the girl said at once, trying a feeble smile. It morphed into a wince a second later. "Can't you… uh… heal me?"
Naruto shook himself out of his stupid stupor. "Of course!"
As green sparks rained down on Sakura's legs, her face regained some colour, quickly returning to a healthy pinkish. The bruise didn't disappeared completely, though. It was only reduced in size and lightened to an angry red, making the actual puncture points visible.
Naruto frowned in puzzlement. The injury hadn't looked like it would have required multiple healing jutsu, but apparently it did. He tried his Restore Materia again, and then one more time.
"No use," Sasuke said when, again, the injury didn't look any better. "These are definitely fang marks." He looked at the lizards' corpses around and then exchanged a look with the blond. "I think they were poisonous."
Sakura winced again and looked down at her injury, her eyes hidden behind pink locks strayed in front of her face. "I don't feel so bad."
"Not now, maybe, but we don't know how long it takes for the poison to have an effect," the Uchiha said. "Or what kind of effect it will be."
Naruto was biting his lip nervously by that point, trying to keep himself from freaking out. He didn't know his Restore Materia couldn't deal with poison and that sucked. Guilt mixed with concern inside his stomach, provoking the most unpleasant sensation.
"Boss?"
"What?" he snapped in frustration, his head whipping around to look at the Kage Bunshin behind him. All three of them had survived, it seemed, both the two he had created to help him fight the lizards and the one who had been digging down the tree.
"Uhm," one of them started, hesitating slightly at the anger rolling out of the original. Then he reached out with his right hand and showed him the Materia in it. "I think this could help."
For a brief second, Naruto was almost overwhelmed by the desire to electrocute the clones' butts, create more to repeat the process and then throw the green sphere away. But it was a stupid reaction, he knew it, born from his worry and his helplessness in front of a hurt friend. So he tried to calm himself down, and as he finally elaborated what the Kage Bunshin had said, he couldn't help the surge of hope rising from his chest.
"What does it do?" he asked.
"We're not a hundred percent sure, but we think… we think it might be some kind of healing Materia."
The other clones nodded their agreement.
"We actually tried this one, the one that was up the tree, first," the second Naruto explained, showing a green sphere of his own, "and it looks like it has a poisonous effect. I'll show you."
He turned to a small section of bushes to their left, at little distance from the charred battleground nearby. Green light flashed all around him as he raised his hand, and what seemed like gurgling noises and sounds preceded a dozen greenish bubbles, shifting and swelling to engulf the area. When they eventually stopped reforming, the original dark green of grass and leaves had faded to a sick brown, and everything had wilted and withered as if affected by some kind of disease.
"We tried the Restore Materia on it, but it was useless," the Kage Bunshin resumed. He threw the Poison Materia to the original who caught it swiftly.
The other clone then walked up to that patch of dead undergrowth as well, reaching out with his hand. "This, instead, worked great."
Once he was close enough, he too was surrounded by a circle of light, but this time emerald sparks appeared instead of bubbles, as a nice jingle resonated in the air. The effect would have been identical to the Restore Materia's if it hadn't been for the deep green smoke that accompanied it, swarming down on the bushes like a cloud… like a cloud of poison, Naruto had to admit it.
The results, though, hinted at the opposite.
The Materia healed the small plants entirely.
The blond couldn't help but bark out a laugh at the now perfectly healthy shrubs in front of him.
"We think they are the reason why the tree looks like that," the clone said, pointing at the half-healthy and half-withered trunk nearby, and Naruto had to admit that the theory made sense.
He shook his head then, dismissing it from his mind as he grinned fiercely at his clones first and at Sakura-chan then.
"What are we waiting for?" He snatched the Heal Materia from his copy's hand and kneeled in front of his friend. Rolling up the left hem of his trousers, he equipped both his new spheres in two of the four open slots and looked up at his teammates.
"Do it, Naruto," Sasuke said simply and Sakura nodded.
Some green smoke and sparks later and no mark was visible on the girl's calf anymore.
And then it started.
There was barely the time for him to cheer and for Sakura to smile in relief before an incredibly strong wind and explosion crashed against them in a hot, powerful wave. Naruto was flung away at unbelievable speed, his rolling body hitting trees and ground with painful and numbing impacts that soon had his head spinning. The flow of memories of his dispelled Kage Bunshin didn't help either, and when he finally stopped with one last collision against a hard, rough surface, it took him a while to regain his bearings.
He was sprawled in a wide clearing, dark and stout trees surrounding him. Unlike the spot where the two Materia had been hidden, this part of Area 44 wasn't quiet at all. Birds chirped and insects droned nearby, and something else, something big and heavy was moving through the forest.
He sat up abruptly at the ominous noise and looked up just in time to see the head of an enormous snake forcing its way into the clearing, gigantic body slithering in its wake. It destroyed everything on its path, felling trees and crushing boulders in such an effortless way that Naruto had to wonder if it even realized they were there. If the creatures that had attacked them earlier could have been considered overgrown lizards, then the thing now in front of him couldn't be anything but the Queen and Goddess of all the snakes.
And it was coming straight towards him.
Author's notes – Since someone asked, here's the current combination of Naruto's Materia:
Left leg-holster – Poison/Heal + empty slot/empty slot.
Right leg-holster – Enemy Skill/Sense + Leviathan/Steal.
Left arm-holster – Ice/All + Lightning2/All2.
Right arm-holster – Fire2/Elemental + Restore/empty slot.
Pocket – Cover2.
That's all.
Uncle Stojil