Leafs new Tree

by CharitysSongbird

A mistaken trust leads Naruto to be neglected due to his Jinchuuriki sisters; as time passes Naruto fades from notice of his family and his village. But someone has other plans for the blond Hero. Watch as Naruto sets out to show Konoha and his family what he can do. Minato and Kushina alive, NaruHina, gradual development. NO GOD MODE! Enjoy

14. Chapter 13

I do not own Naruto in any way shape or form.

This chapter is dedicated to every one of you who has favorite and followed my story from the very beginning. While I have tried to thank everyone who reviews personally I am not able to do this with favorites and follows so I have decided to dedicate this story to all of you. Know that I do take a look at every one of your pages and at least look at one of each of you who has written their own story. I'm also using this chapter as a call to action, reviews and the like are so helpful to a writer I can't say so enough so what I'm asking is for each of you to hop on my review chart and find a name of another writer and check out one of their stories for yourselves. They have given me so much help in continuing to write this story and this feels like the least I can do to repay them all share the love with your fellow members and lets all try and support one another. One is all I'm asking for five minutes of your time to help inspire another writer and their work I know you can do it . Anyone who does so and contacts me will get a hint towards the summoning technique question that is fast approaching.

Summoning technique coming up fast it won't be but a few more chapters before it's here so guess away there have been two so far to get it.

1. Future summoning contract for Mito plus scene.

2. Future love interest sneak peak for Minami plus scene.

3. Exclusive Omaku for the three year time skip that will not appear in the story outside of the winners.

So pick which of these prizes you wish to see, and see if your guesses pan out for them

Oh small note that I'm really excited about I found a really great artist on Deviant Art named Zil-Zeki who is working on a personal cover for this story. The work is progressing well and I'm really excited to put it up on this site as soon as possible. If you have some time take the link from my page to go and see her site, she does great work for a fair price so show some support for her work. Thank you and enjoy the story.

Chapter 13

"Talking"

"Thinking/Mental conversation"

"DEMON/God or the like"

"Jutsu"

-A Forest of Problems-

The final thought running through Naruto's mind just as he was passing into the shade of that immense forest was curiosity as to why he seemed to have gotten such an odd feeling from the pollen he had attached to those grass ninja.

Team eleven leapt from tree branch to tree branch into the forest a few minutes before they came to a halt on a particularly large tangle of branches that had knit themselves together to form a kind of supportive canopy where the team could stop for a moment. Kiba had taken point and was the first to land crouched over on all fours as he did so as his slitted eyes and sharp nose flicked back and forth for any trace of another team. Hinata was the second to land so softly that Kiba was almost unaware of her presence without the use of their pollen connection. As she landed a small breeze blew a stray lock of her deep blue hair across her face over her blazing byakugan eyes, as she acted as a second sensor for the group scanning the area for any detectable threats. Out in the forest for about a hundred yards in every direction she could see the faint sighs of Naruto's pollens drifting lazily around as if caught on the breeze. The pollens acted as a final level of detection for the team sending off small pings of chakra between each other, acting to feel out other chakra signatures like sonar, while also acting to disable any illusions that may have been present. Naruto landed a moment later looking over at his two teammates maneuvering over to crouch down beside the two on the branch.

"Akamaru and I can't smell anything, you see anyone Hinata?" asked Kiba turning to face Hinata with his white puppy peeking out of his coat. Hinata turned off her Byakugan and turned to face her teammate.

"Nothing that I can see, it looks like no one is anywhere near us for the time being. There seems to be a nest of some kind of bugs a couples yards in that direction," she said raising a hand to point off behind the boys left shoulder before continuing, "but that's all I can see." she finished giving Akamaru a small scratch behind the ears.

"Alright, how about you Naruto, picking up anything off your pollen?" asked Kiba looking over at Naruto the blonde shaking his head slightly before responding.

"Nope it looks like any of the teams I marked are too far off for me to locate, if they get closer I should be able to pick up on them thanks to the pollen net I have set up, but at the moment we seem to be pretty well alone." finished Naruto getting approving nods all around from the rest of the team.

"Well then this seems like as good a place as any to plan our next move." Kiba said setting himself against the side of the tree and allowing Akamaru to hop down to sit in the small area provided by Kiba's folded legs. Naruto ejected one of his seeds allowing it to nestle itself between the branches below him and allowing for the same soft root like vines that he had used to carry Kushina in wave to create something like a hammock for him to sit in. Hinata soon joined him allowing herself to lean into Naruto's shoulder a little as she did so. Naruto had managed to learn a way to allow the seeds to keep from zapping the chakra from individuals if he didn't want them to thanks to Mito's and Hanabi's constant requests for more rides on his seeds. Once they were all situated Naruto spoke up.

"So I guess the question is how do we want to proceed with this exam?" Naruto asked as he looked around at his team. After a moment Hinata spoke up to his right.

"Well the way I see it we only really have two choices, we either find a team and hit them early, or we wait and take out a team that has already gotten a pair and is headed for the tower." Spoke the girl looking around at her team who nodded in response to her.

"Sounds like our options are pretty limited." said Kiba with a small shrug of his shoulders as he did so. Naruto looked between Kiba and Hinata for a moment before speaking.

"Between Kiba and Akamaru's noses, Hinata's eyes, and my pollen I'd say we will have the best chance to find a team before anyone else, so I say we go ahead and find a team, and head straight to the tower. With Hinata-chan's eyes we can even check which scroll they have so we won't have to worry about engaging teams that don't have what we're looking for." finished the blonde giving his girlfriend a happy smile which she blushed at slightly. Kiba only rolled his eyes with a happy little shake of his head as he did so.

"Ok lovebirds I guess we know which plan we are going with, so which way you want to head?" asked the Inuzuka as he picked up his white puppy and stood up with a little stretch of his back. As he stood up once again. Naruto helped Hinata to her feet before he too raised reabsorbing his seed as he did so and sending out a pulse to the pollen net surrounding the team to get ready to move. Hinata after standing checked to make sure that her medical kit was secure before activating her Byakugan and scanning the area. Once the team was ready Kiba took the lead, with Naruto in the middle and Hinata bringing up the rear, as the group continually scanned for possible targets.

As team eleven leapt from tree to tree in another part of the forest team seven had just landed in a clearing to plan their own actions. Naruko was the first to land on the forest floor. She did a quick scan of the area before signaling for the rest of her team to join her. While the rest of her team was arriving Naruko took a moment to brush some stray leaves and twigs from her outfit. She still wore her Anbu style ninja pants with wrappings around her ankles. Her yellow battle vest stood out sharply against the black undershirt that stretched down to her wrists with two spare kunai pouches also yellow strapped to her upper arms. Her long blonde hair was tied into two pigtails with her hair held back by her forehead protector allowing her bright blue eyes to see her teammates land a few feet off.

Minami was still dressed in her read battle kimono, with her multiple sealing scrolls still held across her belt, and her long red hair still flowing down her back, ending in twin pigtails in the style that Tsunade favored. If one had looked hard they may have seen a small black bead that seemed to be sitting by her left ear like a small black earring which she absentmindedly rubbed with one finger as she turned to look at the final member of team seven who landed beside her.

Sasuke had changed very little from his time at the academy, and still insisted on wearing his blue Uchiha high necked shirt, and cargo pants, although he had taken to replacing his arm sleeves with wrappings that concealed a number of storage seals that he had learned to make from Kakashi; besides that little had changed in his wardrobe, or his attitude. As he landed he addressed the other two members of the team with a small huff before looking around as if expecting something to happen thanks to just his presence.

"What's the deal Naruko, why are we stopping?" called Sasuke in a slightly annoyed tone turning to face his blonde teammate. Naruko looked around at Sasuke with an annoyed expression of her own before opening her mouth to fire back at the boy.

"Shut is Sasuke, we need to formulate a plan before we go any farther." called Minami making sure to cut in-between the two before Naruko and he started a shouting match that would have half the forest on their heads in a matter of moments. She was only marginally successful as Sasuke decided to just argue with her instead.

"I wasn't talking to you Minami, besides we just need to find a team to take out, this exam has been a joke so far, what makes you think this isn't going to just be more of the same." fired back Sasuke with a slight scowl on his face. Minami wanted to throttle the boy in front of her, how could he be so freaking stupid?

"Hey Neesan, sorry but I kind of have to agree with Sasuke on this one, besides that Gaara kid the rest of the teams should be a pushover." spoke up Naruko stepping forward to rest a hand on her redheaded sisters shoulder. Minami looked over at Naruko with a look like she was crazy for a moment, before letting her face drop in surrender.

"Fine, it's not like you'd listen to me even if we made up a plan anyway." replied Minami brushing her sister hand off of her shoulder before stalking a few feet away to try and calm herself down a bit. Giving the two behind her a brief glance she shook her head wondering if she and Naruko had been like this to Naruto, and wondering, if that were the case, how he could have given her any chance at all.

"You ok Minami-chan?" asked Kyu softly looking out from the vine covered bars of his cage as he spoke. Minami smiled softly, figures the giant fox in her head was being more concerned about her than her team, some great squad they were turning out to be.

"Hai Kyu-kun I'm fine, just a little frustrated is all." she replied thinking about the voice in her head for a moment before remembering his connection to his mother.

"Hey Kyu-kun!" she called prompting the fox to pad over to the edge of his cage to talk to her easier.

"Hai Minami-chan what's up?" asked the fox looking down at the girl.

"Hey can you and your Kaasan still talk to each other even now that you're so far apart?" asked the redhead hoping that she may be able to get a little bit of a connection to Naruto and hopefully have at least some kind of intelligent conversation. Kyu thought for a moment before he closed his eyes his tails and ears twitching slightly as if trying to catch a signal on an old fashion radio. After a few moments Kyu lowered his ears and his tails with a defeated little look on his face.

"Sorry but Kaasan is too far away and for some reason I feel her chakra spread out all around the forest, even here." replied Kyu with a confused not in his voice. Minami had to resist face palming as she heard this.

"Of course you would Naruto was spreading his pollens all around, heck he probably would be able to find us long before we ever got within range of him…I guess niisan is more prepared than my whole team put together." chuckled the redhead turning around to head back to her team. As she re-entered the clearing she found herself looking across at a bound and gagged ninja who seemed to be dressed in a full body grey suit complete with gasmask that Naruko and Sasuke were standing over.

Well that was fast, maybe we'll make it out of this forest before we kill each other after all. Thought the girl as she walked over to her teammates to hear how this had happened.

Meanwhile in another part of forest, another girl was dealing with her own frustrating team.

"Shikimaru, Choji I swear if you don't stop whining and asking for breaks I'm going to jump in your heads and permanently alter your BRAINS!" shouted Ino at her team, after their fourth break in the last hour so that Shikimaru could relax and Choji could take another snack break. Choji looked a little embarrassed at his teammate's words and proceeded to put away his bag of chips while looking sheepishly over at his blonde companion. Shikimaru on the other hand only yawned slightly before replying.

"Relax Ino it's only the first day, and we have five more in this forest to get a scroll running around and wasting our strength will only make us easier targets for another team out there." reasoned Shikimaru adding under his breath a comment about troublesome blondes in for good measure. Unfortunately for him Ino had heard his muttered comment, and decided to attempt to pound the laziness out of the boy while Choji looked on helplessly.

After a few moments Ino stepped back from a floored Shikimaru who was nursing a small lump on the back of his head from the blonde's assault.

"Shape up Shikimaru I'm not going to fall behind everyone else just because you want to be lazy, and have an excuse to not go any further in the exam." fired back Ino casting an angry little look over at the pineapple headed boy who was murmuring into the forest floor. Choji worrying what Shikimaru might say next to set off their blonde teammate took the opportunity to step forward to try and head off any conflict.

"Ino, do you think we should go looking for a team to attack, or just set up a defensible camp for later?" asked the heavy boy looking over at his teammate. Ino looked over at Choji for a moment before responding.

"Well I'd like to get a scroll as soon as possible, but I guess having a defensible camp would be best, I mean that crazy purple haired lady did say that there were some animals here that could tear us limb from limb." finished the blonde with a small shiver having allowed her mind to envision a scene involving her team and several large predators.

"Troublesome," spoke up Shikimaru as he pushed himself into a sitting position before continuing, "Choji makes a good point let's find and set up a good camp, we can worry about a scroll once we have a safe place to fall back to, not much point in getting a scroll just to be targeted out in the open a few hours later." concurred the boy as he rose to his feet, and began to make his way forward. Ino gave a small smirk before nodding and along with Choji following Shikimaru forward deeper into the forest.

As team ten made their way deeper into the forest, team nine had just found themselves finishing off a brief battle with a team from waterfall. As Neji delivered a final palm strike to the seventeen some year old man who had just swung a kunai at him, the man found himself unable to stand, only moments before the world turned dark for him. As Neji stepped back he saw thanks to his activated Byakugan that Lee and Tenten had also just finished taking out their assigned targets. Tenten's was currently on the ground several deep slashes covering his form, along with what looked like several nasty blows from some kind of a blunt instrument.

On the other side of the clearing Lee's opponent had been slammed headfirst into a tree trunk curtsey of a spin kick to the head delivered by Lee moments before. As the waterfall shinobi slumped to the ground Lee let out a triumphant cry of joy.

"YAAAAHOOOOO THE FLAMES OF YOUTH SHALL NOT BE DIMINISHED!" howled Lee in excitement as he raised both his hands while spinning to face Neji and Tenten flashing one of his wide grins. Tenten slapped her palm to her face muttering silent curses under her breath at having such a loud teammate to look after. Neji seemed not to notice as he bent down to take the scroll from the fallen shinobi before him. While Lee continued to cry about the flames of youth, Tenten was busy collecting her weapons and resealing them into her multiple scrolls, and taking time to secure the enemy shinobi.

A moment later Neji stood up, a heaven scroll grasped in his hand to offset the earth one they already held. Tenten seeing this decided to speak up.

"So looks like we have both scrolls what's the plan now?" she asked looking towards Neji as Lee stopped his shouting and moved over to listen in as well.

"I say we stay out a little longer before heading in to the tower, the more we take out here in the forest the less competition we have later." stated Neji coldly, privately hoping to find Hinata and take her out of the exams early. Lee seemed onboard with this by shouting about how their flames of youth would help them conquer all of the undeserving. Tenten in the meantime was not completely onboard with the idea but decided to side with her team instead of risking dividing them.

"Alright so which way should we go from here?" asked Tenten looking around the them. Neji seemed to take a moment to think about it before speaking.

"We'll head towards the tower and camp out near it, anyone who is headed there will have at least fought one other team, and most likely be in a weakened condition, we can take a few out, and then simply head to the tower without worry." said Neji starting to march off form the clearing in the direction of the center of the forest. His two teammates took a moment to look at one another before following along after him as he took to the branches above.

In the meantime team eight had just finished setting up their own camp by a stream that they had located. Shino was sitting down beside the river having taken off his sunglasses and having set his open palms down on the ground in front of him sending out small pulses of chakra to instruct the local insect's native to the forest to surround their camp and act as both guardians and an alarm system for them.

Sakura in the meantime was taking a moment to check her medical bag over for supplies making a count of what she had, as well as checking what she might need to have on standby for each of her teammates. Every once in a while she would look over to Shino at which time he would meet her green eyes with her own brown eyes and give her a small nod allowing her to know that the defenses were still intact, and underway.

Yakumo in the meantime had set up two of their tents in the covered roots of one of the giant trees that dominated the forest. After having finished her work she had set about outside of the tree with her back to it and pulled out her painting kit to start preparing works revolving around the trees, and creatures she had seen around her. She could not help but hum a small tune as she just began to fall into enjoying her work as she painted.

Shino finally finished setting up their defenses before reaching down and picked up his discarded glasses even as he pushed himself up from the ground and dusting himself off drawing the attention of Yakumo and Sakura with his movement.

"The barrier is set up and I have my own insects acting as a net in the trees above, we should be able to have a warning at the very least before anyone enters into this area." spoke Shino as he pushed up the glasses on his face and pushed them up to cover his eyes. Sakura smiled over at her teammate as she finished putting her supplies back together moving over towards the tree where Yakumo was sitting still busy drawing. As they reached one another Sakura called to Yakumo who at that moment was absorbed in her work, and hadn't noticed the presence of her team yet.

"Yakumo, earth to Yakumo." Sakura called chuckling slightly at teammate's state. After getting to know the girl for the last few months Sakura and Shino had gotten use to Yakumo becoming obsessed with her drawings, and had always enjoyed this small character flaw of the girl. The whole team had taken to teasing each other often, and had grown closer as a result. They had no illusions as to who they were. A quiet bug boy, an obsessed artist, and a brash medic, but in admitting it to themselves and each other they had formed a trusted team that was almost a family. Yakumo shook herself slightly looking up sheepishly at her teammates with a small embarrassed grin on her face.

"Sorry about that Sakura I was just finishing up a sketch, these trees could really help me with a few plant based Genjutsu." Spoke the brown-haired girl in a cheerful voice. Shino seemed to incline his head at her comment before speaking.

"I have to agree with Yakumo, this forest has already given me several new forms of insects to use and expand upon my own colony, it seems this test will indeed help us grow as Kurenai-sensei hinted at." finished the stoic boy turning to face Sakura who shook her head slightly.

"Figures I would need our mission to take place in a library to help me out, but the nature trip is perfect for you two." she chided them in a good natured way that the two caught immediately.

"So what should we do now, the exam is going to last just a few days, should we get moving now, or wait a bit?" asked Yakumo looking around them. It was Shino who spoke up first.

"At the time I would say that we take this time to plan and set up possible attack plans, our position is secure, and simply rushing out will do us little good, at the moment if someone assaults our defenses we may have a scroll with little to no additional effort." reasoned the Aburame looking at his two teammates. Sakura nodded her head with a small smile.

"I guess you're right, for now we just hold up here, but there is something I was wondering, if we run into another leaf team should we try and ally with them?" asked the pink haired girl looking at her fellows. Shino and Yakumo seemed to think for a moment before responding.

"I don't see why we couldn't try that, I mean if we have the same scroll we wouldn't even have a reason to fight." said Yakumo looking over at Shino who nodded softly at her words.

"Hai, I would prefer to avoid attacking members of the leaf, but we have to accept that they may judge us as targets, so at the very least we should be prepared for them to attack, even if we offer peace." reasoned Shino as his teammates nodded in turn.

"Well sounds like we have a game plan." said Sakura proudly as she moving to grab a food bar from her pack before taking a seat beside Yakumo, who was looking down at her drawing once again in concentration. Shino in the meantime took to watching a few water insects by the river gild across its surface analyzing their movements with interest.

As team eight was settling in team eleven found themselves fanned out in an ambush position overlooking a group of three shinobi who they recognized from the beginning of the first exam. Kiba, Hinata, and Naruto all sat crouched on the upper branches looking down at the three figures of leaf genin below them.

The first figure they recognized as Kabuto his silver hair giving off a dull shine in the little light that permeated the large canopy above them. Beside him stood his two teammates, one wearing a strange set of glasses and face mask that made him appears to be closer to a doctor than a shinobi. The second fellow was only remarkable in his total lack of uniqueness; he simply wore a standard black two piece suit with his forehead protector tied around his head as he seemed to be scanning the surroundings lazily.

"So what do you think?" asked Naruto over the mental link as he looked around at his teammates. They had sensed the three's approach a good ways off and had altered their path so that they could set up an ambush ahead of them, but now that they found themselves looking down at fellow leaf shinobi they were taking a moment to question whether they wished to proceed with the attack.

I know what you mean man, it just feels wrong to attack another leaf team….but still it's what the exam is, I mean there aren't that many foreign shinobi to begin with, and we need to get a second scroll to pass this part. Reasoned Kiba as Akamaru pocked his head out of his partner's hood to nod in agreement.

I agree with Kiba, besides there is no guarantee that they won't attack us if we make ourselves know to them, it's not like we have to fight to the death, this is only a test. Hinata sent over the mental link getting nods form her two teammates.

Sounds good to me Hinata-chan so I guess all that remains is to figure out who gets who. replied Naruto looking down at the assembled Shinobi below. However, before they could do more than start to pick out their targets, a sudden motion from one side of the clearing below drew both their eyes, as well as Kabuto's team's attention. As the team above watched the grass team Naruto had noted as, finding odd, walked into the clearing approaching Kabuto's team. As team eight watched, they noticed neither side seemed to be preparing to fight, almost like they were expecting one another. Soon the two teams were face to face, and Kabuto seemed to be addressing the lead grass ninja about something that team eight couldn't quite make out.

Down below Kabuto had just finished greeting his master, and was waiting to receive his orders.

"Now Kabuto I need you to make sure that after my….kukukukuku time with team seven that they make it to the finals, I need Sasuke to be able to fight and evolve his sharingan, and the curse mark before I draw him towards me." spoke a disguised Orochimaru his face twisted into an evil grin. Kabuto and his two teammates nodded swiftly at the snake sage's words, before Kabuto replied his own small smile tracing his lips.

"It will be done, but what about your sound team, should they survive or even succeed in taking out Sasuke what would you have me do with them?" asked Kabuto looking up at Orochimaru who seemed to contemplate the idea for a moment before answering.

"If they should succeed then I suppose I will have to have them tested for a mark next, and move onto simply taking one of the younger Uchiha during the invasion, but should they fail and live I will leave their fate up to you." finished Orochimaru a twisted smirk spreading across his face as he spoke. Kabuto also smiled at this giving a small bow as he did so.

"Thank you my lord, rest assured it will be done as you say." finished the silver haired boy as Orochimaru stepped back out of the clearing even as the two figures that had been standing with him crumbled into mud revealing that they were clones the entire time. From up in the canopy team eleven were at a total loss as to what to make of what they had witnessed. To them it had appeared as though the teams had simply meet for a moment before parting ways, but even from their vantage point it was clear to them that something was up. To be on the safe side they had decided to wait and see how the meeting would play out, but now they were left with simply more questions as to what was happening.

What do you think all that was about? asked Naruto to no-one in particular as the Grass shinobi made their way out of the clearing.

"No idea, but something is definitely up between those teams, I would suggest that all of you stay on your toes." Spoke Juubi getting a bad feeling about what they had just witnessed.

I'm with Juubi on this one Naruto-kun something is weird with that grass ninja, I was able to get a glimpse of their lips but all I caught was something about a lord someone and Sasuke. said Hinata looking over at her blonde teammate. Naruto seemed to stiffen for a moment at that.

Sasuke would mean they are targeting team seven, maybe that's it, remember Kabuto had those data cards, maybe he is selling info to that grass ninja so that he can take out team seven easier. I mean it's not a secret that they are kind of a prodigy team or anything, maybe they're just looking to eliminate a strong team. suggested Kiba while Akamaru gave a small bark of agreement.

Unfortunately Akamaru's bark was just loud enough to cause Kabuto to stiffen slightly. He had been so occupied with his report that he hadn't properly scanned the area, and the last thing he needed was someone throwing a wrench into their plans by him being careless. With that in mind the silver headed spectacled boy began scanning the area for the source of the noise. As team eight froze in place trying to remain hidden Kabuto and his teammates continued to scan the surrounding woods.

"I know I heard something, but whoever it is seems to at least be smart enough to stay hidden." Kabuto said to his two teammates, as they nodded in agreement. Still that doesn't mean I'll let you go that easy. Thought Kabuto as he reached into his pouch and withdrew several Kunai with paper bombs dangling from their rings. True he did not know precisely where he was being watched from, but that did not mean that he couldn't flush out the best possible vantage points.

With a single practiced twitch of his hand three of the missiles were off two speeding towards the woods on the forest floor while one shot up dangerously close to team elevens position. As the Kunai flew skyward a resounding and unified thought raced through the members of the team almost simultaneously.

SHIT! Their minds screamed as they all dove sideways out of cover to get away from the blast they knew was coming. This resulted in all four of them finding themselves standing, their feet adhered to the trunk of a huge tree looking down at a smiling Kabuto even as a resounding blast illuminated not only the surrounding foliage, but acted to backlight for them in turn. After the deafening blast and burst of light had subsided Kabuto still wearing that same grin upon his face called up to the Genin above him.

"Well well well, if it isn't team eleven, didn't your Kaasan's ever tell you it's impolite to listen in on others conversations." Called up the boy in a mocking tone as he looked from one to another of the team above him. Naruto snorted at that for a second before calling down to the teen below him.

"Are you kidding we're in a ninja village, I think you'd know that's the first thing we are taught to do." Called Naruto, Kiba giving him a nervous little grin as he readied himself for the fight he knew was coming. Hinata as well allowed herself a small smile even as she began to build up a small amount of chakra to launch a defense if it became necessary. Kabuto for his part looked generally amused at hearing Naruto's response as he took a step forward.

"Well said Naruto I couldn't agree with you more, but the fact remains that you really shouldn't have been listening into that meeting it's going to cost you." Kabuto said his voice becoming silky smooth and threatening with every syllable he spoke. Naruto as well as the rest of the team heard the tone, and as a result were not surprised when Kabuto's two teammates launched a barrage of small fireballs from their mouths towards the team standing on the tree's side. As the explosions of fire leapt out Kabuto's grin grew even wider, thinking he had taken out his targets already. Before he could turn, however movement overhead caught his attention.

From the smoke where the fireballs had hit a shimmering disk of water became visible its flat surface facing towards the trio on the forest floor. Through the distorted view one could see that Hinata had stepped forward to throw up the surface of water to take the hit form the fire balls. Before the grounded team could do more than register their failure the girl and her team were moving.

Hinata was first to move as she pumped a pulse of chakra into her feet acting to blast herself from the tree and hurtle down like a missile towards the figures below while weaving a series of hand signs as she did.

I will take the masked one! she shouted over their mental connection as she landed on the last sign and called out her Jutsu as she hurtled towards the ground.

"Mizu Bushido!" Hinata cried, as from the disk of water that still flew before her two watery shapes bubbled up forming into two copies of the girl before turning their pale eyes forward and leaping from the disk and down towards the masked member of the trio below. The figure smirked seeing her two clones fling themselves as him, one tenth of this girls strength was sure to be nothing he thought as he allowed his right hand to start glowing blue as he activated his innate ability to steal chakra, even while taking out a kunai in his other hand ready to intercept the oncoming clones.

As the first clone landed before him he lashed forward with his Kunai in hand intent on taking the clones head from its shoulders, however, as he leapt forward the clone girl bent back at an impossibly graceful angle allowing the blow to swipe the air harmlessly over it, before landing and falling into a battle stance. Warning bells went off in the man's head as he ducked narrowly missing a strike from the second clone that had landed a mere second after the first and had taken his momentary distraction as a chance to launch a palm strike at his back. As he hit the ground he swung himself into a low sweep kick hoping to catch his attacker in the blow before they could recover from their failed assault. The second clone girl had other ideas, and leapt gracefully into the air avoiding his kick and even delivered a swift kick of her own to his exposed shoulder. Although the blow was not substantial it did allow for the clone to use him as a springboard to push herself back and create space between the two.

As the man looked back at the clone he smirked in a kind of triumph, the blow had been little more than that of a child's, if that was all they had these clones were nothing to worry about. However, just as this thought entered his head his instincts screamed at him to move, and it was all that saved him from the next blow. As he allowed his instincts to pull him back the disk of water that had been a shield had solidified into a solid ball and had hit the ground where he had been standing with a sound of cracking a splashing. Before he could relax at the near miss Hinata had landed using the slashing water to surf forward towards him to throw a palm strike at his now open chest. As the girl's blow closed distance the masked figure swung his right hand around to catch the blow in a gloved hand, still pulsing with blue chakra.

As the two hand connected the man clamped down hard on the girls hand before starting to drain her chakra as fast as he could. Hinata feeling the drain immediately signaled for her two clones to rush the man with Kunai to try and give her an opening. Luckily it worked at the two clones drew in their blades at the ready the man had no choice but to release her and leap back in an attempt to avoid the oncoming assault. His safety was fleeting as once he landed he looked up to see both the girl and her clones pulling back their left sleeves to expose multiple senbon launchers all trained at him. Before he could do more than raise one kunai up as a small defense a flurry of senbon where screaming his way.

Hinata let fly with a salvo of senbon towards the mask shinobi she was battling. Whatever had happened to her when she had gotten close to him seemed to have come from the man's glowing right hand, and at the moment she was in no mood to take a repeat performance. As she watched her opponent bobbed and weaved attempting to keep from getting squired by the many projectiles fired at him, but despite his best efforts a handful of the needles found there mark and he let out a curse as the needles bit into his flesh.

As he ripped out a few of the needles he charged forward with is outstretched hand trying to reach the pale eyed girl before him. As he charged toward her Hinata threw back her sleeve and bent down into a defensive stance to receive him. As he closed in he launched out one claw like glowing hand towards Hinata in an attempt to grab hold of her and bring the fight to a close. Hinata had other ideas, springing forward she parried the attack with a sweep of her left arm directing the glowing hand uselessly way from her just as he slammed a glowing palm into the man's chest with a sickening crack as the chakra from her blow cracked the man's ribcage, and forced him to fly back a few steps. Thanks to Shizune Hinata had learned to target particular areas of the body with her gentile fist, and the results had been devastating to say the least.

As the masked shinobi clutched at his now throbbing chest he looked over glaring at the girl before him even as she sunk back into an attack position flanked by her two clones. With an effort the shinobi found his feet again, and charged at her once again just as off on the other side of the clearing a blast sounded.

As Hinata had flown down towards her opponent Kiba too had taken the momentary cover to dart towards his target. Unlike Hinata who had the bonus of the shield to help aid her, Kiba had taken to fall into his four legged style followed by Akamaru and sped away down the tree before springing from it as he neared the ground with an opening Gatsuga that catapulted him towards the unassuming looking ninja below. As Kiba and Akamaru turned into twin tornado of claw and fang the shinobi below them leapt back while seeming to contort his body slightly as he did so.

As the two attacked crashed into the ground the shinobi sprang forward with both his arms spread wide, as if heading to give the two an odd hug. Kiba seeing the charging figure wasted no time in hurling a handful of shuriken his way without pause before heading through several hand signs at high speed. Before the shrunken were half way to the enemy shinobi Kiba had thrown back his head to draw in a deep breath before swinging it forward with a loud cry of Fūton Renkūdan as he spat out a large bullet made of compressed air. The wind bullet meet the shuriken in midair and carried them forwards with deadly new force. Seeing the oncoming missiles, the charging shinobi ground to a halt before he seemed to lose some of the rigidness of his body.

As Kiba watching in sick fascination the figure seemed to bend and twist around the deadly missiles allowing them to pass by him with little impact. Even the final impact of the air bullet seemed to have somehow been absorbed by his now rubbery body with little damage.

What the hell is with this guy is he made of rubber? Kiba roared in his mind even as he gritted his teeth and bent down on all fours to continue his assault on the figure. Just as he was about to launch himself forward, he noticed that the man seemed to pause for a second before going rigid in his movements again and retaking his charge. A small smirk played across the Inuzuka's face at seeing this.

So there's a delay huh, I can use that. Thought Kiba as he reached into his back and pulled out a small red pill.

"AKAMARU!" he shouted as he flicked the red pill towards the pup, who caught it in his mouth crunching it down. The pup's fur seemed to sharpen in to needles as it ate the pill, and its coat took on a red hue as though it was boiling. Kiba smirked as the approaching Shinobi seemed to pause in his charge at seeing the pup's transformation.

"Big Mistake Buddy!" called Kiba as Akamaru leapt onto his back, and the two were engulfed in a cloud of smoke for a moment. As the smoke cleared there sat two Kiba's both growling in anger towards the figure before them. To his credit the shinobi did not retreat, but instead simply spread his feet and took a readied position never letting his eyes move from the twin figures before him. Soon the two were on the attack.

Kiba lunged forward slashing at the shinobi's head, only for the figure to duck down momentarily. However this proved unwise as the transformed Akamaru was quick to follow up his partners attack with a vicious kick of his own slamming hard into the man's face with a sick crack and flinging the man back a few feet from the blow. Not waiting to give him time to reorientation himself Kiba leapt aided by Akamaru over the shinobi's head so that he and Akamaru were now flanking the man. As the man looked over and charged at Akamaru Kiba charged forward driving a sharp elbow into the man's back flinging him forward where Akamaru meet whim with a powerful clawed blow to the face slamming the shinobi back into the ground.

Just as Kiba was about to call out a shout of praise he saw a poof of smoke around the figure seeing him replaced with a log a moment later. Seeing this he turned just in time to see the shinobi dropping from above him, and giving him just enough time to roll sideways out of the way of the man's swinging blow. As Kiba skidded to a halt a few feet away he had to stop to bite back a curse.

Damn this guy is tougher than he looks! He thought before signaling over to Akamaru who leapt back upon his back as he did so. Once the two were back in position Kiba took a moment to stare down his opponent again. It was clear that at least the first blow had connected before he was able to replace himself, so it seemed he was able to inflict some kind of damage on the man.

With a feral smile Kiba let out a small howl of wild abandon, as he and Akamaru charged forward zig sagging between each other as they closed the distance towards their target. When they were close enough both had spun forward turning into two tornados of claws and teeth that fired off towards the shinobi. Seeing the attack closing the man quickly replaced himself with another log leaving him momentarily air born above the pair of tornados. This however was a mistake. As soon as the Kiba and Akamaru saw their prey escaping Akamaru halted his spin while twisting so that he was now facing Kiba with his hands interlocked in front of him. Kiba gave off a wide smile seeing his partner's actions before canceling his own spin but making no effort to halt his progress towards his partner. As he reached his partner he flipped over so that his feet found the place where the transformed pup's arms crossed turning his face skyward towards his target with a smirk.

A shiver when down the suspended shinobi as he saw one of the two figures launched towards him by his fellow and began spinning anew, a savage smirk on his face before it disappeared into that tornado headed his way. Before he could do more than look on in fear the tornado seemed to pull in the air around it doubling in size and racing forwards like a shot from a bow aimed right at his chest. He quickly pulsed chakra through his body allowing his limbs to go lax again and swung himself sideways in an attempt to dodge the blow. It was only marginally successful, as he felt the wind, sharp as nails, carried along with the spinning boy cut deep into his back even as he fell contorted to the ground.

As he landed he allowed himself a moment to breath, and thank Kami that the blow had not hit home. However, even as he thought this he felt an uneasy disturbance behind him turning to see the other boy standing behind him growly as it swung both arms down in an x like slashing motion which he had unknowingly turned into. Still being loose he had no choice but to receive the blow headed his way. With a cry of pain he leapt back but not before eight long slashes had dug themselves into his chest allowing a trickle of crimson to spill out from them. As he clutched at his now bleeding chest he looked up to see the airborne boy landing beside his partner both giving him soft growls and identical faces with fanged grins upon their lips. Without giving him a moments rest the two figures sprang forward once again to attack.

As the feral twins and the stretchy shinobi reentered combat they remained ignorant to the largest of the battles happening just outside of the clearing. While Kiba and Hinata had sprung forward to take their targets head on Kabuto had been already moving towards them looking to finish off anyone who had survived the initial bombardment.

As such Naruto didn't have to spring forward to find his opponent, instead Kabuto and he met each other halfway before springing off between the trees a short distance from the clearing. Naruto had only been able to raise one black bar in time to intercept the kunai strike that had lanced out towards his throat from the silver haired opponent. The impact actually served to drive him out of the clearing catching himself on one of the trees a few feet from the ground. Looking up he saw Kabuto land a few yards away and a few feet up on a tree facing across from him, a line of a smile crossing his lips.

"Well I have to say you're doing well for yourself Naruto-kun, I wouldn't have thought you'd have been able to block my first strike, I complement you." Mocked Kabuto as he proceeded to holster his Kunai and relax both his arms on either side of him never taking his spectacled eyes off of the blonde boy below him. Naruto for his part tightened his grip slightly on his rod while thinking hurriedly.

Crap he got me away from Hinata-chan and Kiba, he's better than I thought he was! The blonde shouted in his mind, his thoughts drifting to Hinata and Kiba a few yards away from him in the forest. Juubi however, wasn't about to let him be distracted in the heat of combat.

"Naruto focus this isn't someone you can fight with your mind elsewhere, Hinata and Kiba will be alright I'll keep an eye on them through the pollens so just focus on him for now, you won't be any good to them dead." called Juubi in a tone like a drill Sergeant. There was a time to be calm and there was a time for calm explanations, but this was a time for action, and risking losing him over formalities was not high on her list.

Juubi's words steadied Naruto, who took a second to shake his head before glaring up at the still smiling Kabuto, but his mind was now focused, and in the fight. Humph seems the boy can keep his cool after all. Thought Kabuto to himself as with a flick of his wrists two long chakra scalpels bloomed from his hands and he blasted himself forward towards Naruto. Naruto had just enough time to register the oncoming attack before cutting the chakra to his feet and allowing himself to freefall from the tree falling under the scything blow of the spectacled boy. As he dropped all six of his seeds shot out of his coat taking their circular position behind him momentarily before springing into action.

While four of the seeds followed him down the top two seeds shot out towards the silver haired boy like small missiles careening towards him. Kabuto looked down to see the two approaching orbs with just enough time to slam one foot forward onto the tree he had launched himself towards and with another blast of chakra threw himself back away from their assault. As the orbs impacted the tree before him, he could not help but thank his fast thinking as the orbs blew clear through the giant tree leaving two splintered tunnels in their wake.

What they hell kind of Jutsu was that? Thought Kabuto as he looked back down to see another orb firing off towards him. Naruto could not suppress a small grin as he saw Kabuto scamper up the tree once again to avoid his second shot, even as the first two seeds zoomed back to his sides. His smile faltered however, as his seed impacted Kabuto only for him to burst into a wisp of smoke.

Damn it Shadow clone, thought the boy sending out a pulse through his pollens to try and identify where the silver haired boy had disappeared to. His sonar pollens screamed at him just in time for him to dive forwards while launching his remaining five seeds behind him to drive off the attacking Kabuto. Kabuto was forced to replace himself hurriedly with a log nearby to avoid being smashed to pieces by the oncoming orbs. As he reappeared he ducked to avoid the swipe of the bar that the blonde had swung at his head only to find a foot rising up to meet his face. As it connected Kabuto brought his arms up to cross in front of him just in time to blow him back slightly from the blonde. As he landed his thoughts raced once again.

What the hell is with this kid is he a sensor or something, how does he keep finding me? The spectacled boy screamed in his mind as he reformed his chakra scalpels and charged again, adding chakra to his limbs to increase his speed. As he raced forward he allowed a small smirk to grace his face, when he had blocked the attack he had one of his scalpels cut through the boy's leg, when he put pressure on that leg he would be falling into an open position.

Kabuto was then shocked when the boy did not only fall or stumble but actually used his leg to push himself into a charge against him. Naruto issued a quick set of orders to his seeds before racing to meet the silver haired boy halfway. He knew that his greatest advantage was still the unknown so his greatest hope was to finish this fight as soon as he could.

"Naruto something is up, this guy is no Genin he's at least as fast as your Kaasan, hurry and take him out!" called Juubi a note of panic in her voice as she watched the fight progress. Faith was all fine and good but this was a situation that she had hoped Naruto would never find himself in. Outmatched and in a battle in all likelihood to the death.

Naruto gave a mental nod as he sprang forwards two seeds flying behind him so that his back covered them completely from sight. As Kabuto struck out at him with a swipe of his chakra blade Naruto raised the bar in his left hand up to intercept the blow, to the silver haired boys rage the scalpel seemed to flicker and die as it hit the bar leaving him open again. As he struck out with his second scalpel Naruto bent forward as though going into a roll allowing the seed directly behind him to fly forward over his head and crash headlong into the medics face. With a sickening crack Kabuto flew back across the open clearing slamming hard into a tree trunk and cracking the tree he had flown into with his impact calling forth a cry laced with blood from his mouth.

Naruto was not about to take any chances, however taking this moment to form four of his seeds into seedlings who lined up in front of him all crouching down slightly with their arms outstretched and their backs slightly arched forwards giving off a low hum as they stared across at Kabuto's form. As Naruto watched Kabuto seemed to wrench himself free of the tree before dropping to the forest floor his back and arms contorting awkwardly as the figures watched. Ask Naruto watched Kabuto rose to his feet again with a bloodied face with an obvious broken nose. As Naruto readied his next attack Kabuto coughed and spat another mouthful of blood onto the clearing floor while sending a glare towards the blonde.

Damn him, what the hell is he? And why does my chakra keep destabilizing around him, my scalpels and now my healing, damn it I can't even fix my face. This fucking kid is going to pay! Roared the silver haired boy in his mind as he saw Naruto and a few shadowy figures seeming to ready themselves for another assault, Seeing through his swelling and blood covered eyes was a challenge in and of itself, but it didn't take him much to figure out he was in imminent danger. Weighing his options he quickly swiped a hand across his face gathering a bit of blood to help his next attack.

Back with Hinata and Kiba the two were just finishing up their own assault against the Kabuto's teammates.

Hinatas target had just collapsed onto the ground a few feet in front of the girl, allowing the Hyuuga a moment to let out a heavy breath. It took that poison long enough to work its way into his system. Thought Hinata with a small shake of her head as she turned to look over at where Kiba was finishing up his fight.

For the last few minutes Kiba and Akamaru had been bouncing their fighter around between each other landing blow after blow upon him like a pack of wolves slowly wearing him down. After long enough fight he simply dropped thanks to a combination of exhaustion, and blood loss Akamaru barking happily as he leapt on top of the downed shinobi with an excited wagging of his tail. Kiba shook himself slightly wiping the sweat from his brow and turning to see Hinata giving him a small nod in turn. Both turned a moment later as a loud crash drew their attention back towards where Naruto had disappeared.

"Kiba we need to go help Naruto!" called Hinata looking over at her teammate as he nodded turning to face where the crash had come from. As the two members of team eleven rushed off towards Naruto's position Naruto was currently finding himself facing down what he could only describe as a giant snake. The beast must have been at least some eighty feet long, and its sickly grey scaled head flicked out a forked tongue every so often, as Kabuto sat on top of his head glaring down at the boy.

With a swipe of his arm Kabuto directed his summon to spring forward even as he himself retreated back into the forest and away trusting on his summon to if not finish the boy at least buy him time. Naruto could do no more than leap back as the great snake swept its tail forwards catching his seedlings full in the chest as it did so. As Naruto watched his seedlings who had not been expecting the hit were flung air bound and off in several directions even as he landed. Seeing this and with a cry of fury Naruto sent a pulse to his remaining seeds shifting them into great black lances that resembled those of a storybook picture of a knight like the ones he had sometimes read to Mito. These were not fiction however, they hurled themselves forward towards the beast both ripping into the great serpent and pinning it forcibly to the tree behind it. The snake proceeded to shriek in agony as it felt the spikes ripped into its scaled flesh.

Worse than that, the chakra of the seeds spread throughout the snake causing its very nature as a summon to turn on itself in howling agony. As Kiba and Hinata burst into the clearing what they saw was a creature that was effectively being ripped apart on the cellular level, and having no way to escape its pain. Naruto himself could hardly stand to see what was occurring before him and quickly shifted the lances back to their seed form allowing the snake to mercifully disappear into a cloud of smoke before him, even as he turned to face his two approaching teammates.

Hinata and Kiba looked over at where the giant snake had been as Naruto looked over at them with a small frown on his face. Before either of the other two could say a word the blonde had run up to them and started talking in a hurried voice.

"Hinata-chan, Kiba are you ok?" called Naruto as he reached the two checking over them quickly before pulling Hinata into a strong hug the had the girl squeak out an eep as she was pulled in suddenly. After a second she worked her hand in front of her and pushing herself back from his softly looking into Naruto's bright purple eyes with her own pale lavender ones.

"Naruto-kun we're fine, what's wrong?" asked Hinata seeing a clear amount of worry in Naruto's face as she stared at him concern evident in her voice and eyes. Kiba also took a step forward wondering what had set the blonde boy off the way he was acting.

"Hey Naruto buddy what's wrong you look like you've seen a ghost or something?" he asked stepping forward also looking at the blonde with concern in his voice. Naruto for his part looked between the two closing his eyes momentarily and trying to calm himself down with a few breaths. Juubi took this moment to speak up to the other two present.

"It'll be ok, Naruto just got done fighting a Jonin level opponent, and something about this exam isn't adding up." spoke up Juubi communicating through the pollens Hinata and Kiba possessed. Both members listened in waiting to hear more.

"It was Kabuto he isn't who he seems to be from what little I saw he is strong enough to have his own team much less be a chunnin, but the biggest issue is the summon he used at the end of the fight." Juubi said getting a mall puzzled look from the team members.

"That snake." spoke Naruto softly calling the groups attention to himself, "there's only one shinobi who uses snake summoning, and I have an awful feeling that I know who Kabuto was talking to when we saw him." said Naruto as he looked put at his teammates with a worried face. Kiba froze for a moment realization coming to him as he pieced together what he had just heard. It was Hinata who spoke next and her voice came out in a little voice barely above a whisper, even as she felt herself shake a little involuntarily.

"O-orochimaru." she said look up as Naruto nodded and all three of them took a moment to thank Kami that Kabuto hadn't noticed them a moment earlier. After a moment they looked at each other as if asking what they were supposed to do now that there was an S class missing shinobi running around the exam doing Kami knows what. Luckily for the stunned teens Juubi spoke up to get them back on track.

"Look at the moment we don't know what is going on, I see Akamaru there has the scrolls we need so let's find a place to set up camp for the night, and try not to panic." Spoke up Juubi making all of them calm down slightly and take a moment to look over at Kiba where Akamaru was standing beside him a brown and white set of scrolls clutched in his mouth as he padded over to them happily. Seeing this Kiba bent down to take them rubbing the pups head as he did so getting a happy bark from the pup in response.

Naruto looked down at Hinata before placing a small kiss on her brow before nodding to them and taking a step forward to allow his two seeds to enter back into his jacket before repositioning his Pollen net around him to make sure he remained aware of everyone's movements. Hinata blushed as she felt Narutos lips and smiled with some comfort as she fell instep beside him as they prepared to move. Kiba placed the two scrolls in his pack before stepping up to stand by his team as well. Soon the team was making its way through the trees looking for a defensible position for their camp. As they moved Hinata gave a small look around before speaking up to Naruto.

"Naruto-kun!" asked the girl looking over at the blond who turned to face her with a small puzzled look.

"Hai Hinata-chan, what up?" asked naruto looking back at the girl even as they proceeded forward.

"Well I was wondering where did your seedlings go?" asked Hinata having noticed the lack of several of Narutos orbs decorating the back of his coat. Kiba noticed as well looking over to Naruto who seemed to have somehow not noticed this fact previously.

"When that snake attacked me they took the blow and were knocked back into the forest. I guess they are somewhere out in it still." He said without any worry in his tone. As Hinata and Kiba looked at him he smiled a little waving one hand absentmindedly before speaking again.

"It's ok I learned they will head back to my chakra signal, once they are in range of the pollen net I can make them go into seed form and then bang their back." Naruto finished turning to face forward once again. Kiba smiled a little before looking back ahead. Hinata in the meantime didn't seem as convinced and after a moment spoke up again.

"Um but Naruto-kun didn't you scatter a few pollens on other teams to try and keep track of them?" she asked bringing Naruto to a complete halt when he heard her. As the other two stopped beside him he raised a hand to scratch at the back of his head with a little chuckle rising to his lips as he did so.

"Huh I guess your right Hinata-chan…but I'm sure they'll find their way back…eventually." He finished still chuckling lightly as he did so. Hinata and Kiba looked at him for a moment before shaking their heads and bursting out into a little chuckle of their own. Soon the three were in the middle of a full blown laughing fest the fear, exhaustion, and simple amusement of the entire situation falling on them all at once.

While team eleven were regaining their breath, another team not an insurmountable distance from them was also out of breath, but for an entirely different set of reasons.

Naruko and Minami where both covered in several steaming cuts that were slowly closing thanks to the Kyuubi sealed within them. As they stared across the branch they saw the mocking smile of a pale face set below his slitted yellow snake like eyes.

Damn it, what the hell is someone like this doing here and why the hell did that freak hit Sasuke with? And why the hell did they bite him? Thought a slightly panicked Naruko as she looked over at her haggard sister, who even then was barely able to keep standing. Seeing this Naruko let out a silent curse as she looked over at the pale faced man once again trying desperately to think of what to do next. Luckily the enemy seemed content to waste time mocking her so she was granted a few more moments of time.

"So this is all the famous Namikaze twins are capable of, I must say you don't exactly live up to your legend do you?" mocked Orochimaru as he stood in front of the pair with a cruel smile. Naruko stiffened slightly at this but held in her anger, and used this time to think instead. She cast a quick glance over to where Sasuke lay face down on a tree branch without moving.

Damn it Sasuke isn't in any condition to move, and Minami and I are already running low ourselves….damn what are we going to do. Thought the blond girl moving slightly and feeling a small poke in her side as she did so. She kept from yelling but her focus was not drawn to her belt where she saw her father's Kunai. She suppressed a grin as she saw it.

That's it, ok freak I don't care if it gets us expelled from the exam, I'm not going to lose my sister and Sasuke over something this stupid. She thought reaching down towards the Kunai while trying to remain undetected. Unfortunately Orochimaru saw her almost minute flinch of pain and saw her small action and its intended target.

Orochimaru seeing this threw a quick shrunken charged with wind chakra towards Minami causing Naruko to leap over to push her sister out of the way of the oncoming weapon. This was all the opening the snake sage needed as he leapt forward firing a cluster of snakes at the blonde one snapping the Kunai into the snake's mouth and falling down into the depths of the forest. Naruko looked over the side with a small curse as she saw her weapon falling out of her grasp, her last hope. Turning she had just a moment to register a white hand reaching out before she found herself hoisted up by her throat and watching helpless as Orochimaru drew back a hand with several fingers with small flames on the tips of each of them. Before she could do more than kick her feet wildly at her attacker before Orochimaru slammed her hand into the girl's stomach extracting a loud cry of pain from the blonde before moments later she slumped limply in the snake sage's hand.

From a few feet away Minami pushed herself up with effort looking up in time to see her sister be dropped unceremoniously to the tree branch before the pale freak before standing before the blonde. Without a second thought Minami allowed Kyu's chakra to flood her body as she screamed in rage. Kyu panicked trying to call out to his host.

"Minami stop you've already used too much of my power against that guy, if you do any more it may rupture your chakra pathways!" shouted Kyu as Minami ignored his warnings allowing a full two tails to form on the cloak once again before flinging herself forwards with a roar of rage and pain as she did so. Orochimaru turned in time to duck under the red headed Jinchuuriki before she could take his head off of his shoulders before sinking into the branch he was standing on.

"KuKuKuKu so our little fox is angry again." Mocked the sage as he started running threw a few quick hand seals forming a seal that Minami was to enraged to recognize. When the team had first been pushed back by the figure both she and Naruko had attempted to establish their cloaks to hit the bastard with everything they had, but he had managed to hit them with some kind of sealing jutsu that had momentarily broken her link with Kyu, and causing a small feedback upon the two momentarily rendering them momentarily paralyzed.

The same Jutsu was now completed and a faint golden glow now emanated from the snake sages hand as he brought it up to crash into the redhead's enraged face. When the seal hit home Minami's cloak blasted off of her with the force of several explosive tags that blew her back crashing her into the tree behind her, sending bits of splinters and blood from the impact. The only thing that kept her conscious was the pain that was now racing through her body, even as tears and blood ran down her face. Kyu howled in fear.

"Minami! MINAMI!" screamed Kyu in a panic as the redhead looked over at the chuckling pale figure before her that was slowly approaching her with slow steady steps chuckling her dark laugh with every step she took.

"So you do have some fight in you, too bad I've spent the last few years researching your mothers type of chakra, I must admit it took me a great deal of time to make that particular jutsu but it has its uses in putting down a baby Jinchuuriki like yourself. It may not be much against a full beast, but someone like you won't be a big deal to manage." finished the sage as she looked down at the bleeding girl before him with a sick smile across his face. Minami felt a spasm of fear run down her spine even as she gazed into the face before her. For a moment she even saw her own death occurring before her eyes, and the thought brought a fresh bout of tears to her eyes.

Orochimaru smiled at her with a sick countenance that showed how much he enjoyed seeing the pain he was inflicting. Orochimaru may have prided himself on being a scientist first, but after years of the kind of twisted experiments that he undertook one came to find a taste for the despair and pain of others. However, before he could savor the moment a movement and sudden noise behind him had him spinning around to face an odd sight. As he looked over at the figure before him he could honestly say that he had never encountered such a creature before.

It stood no taller than any of his recent victims did and appeared to have the vague shape of a young teen. However, where its eyes should have been instead sat two bright glowing balls of shining purple light that gazed at him almost as if he was curious. Orochimaru could not help but turn fully to look at the creature before her who seemed to be walking forward aiming for the girl behind her. As Orochimaru watched the figure passed by him as though he wasn't even there as it approached the girl who was looking at it with a small happy smile on her face in seeing the creature.

N-Naruto's seedlings…thank kami….but why is there only one? she thought as the seedling gazed at her humming sadly as if it was concerned for her. Before she could do more than look at the seedling, however, Orochimaru had seemed to run out of patience with simply watching the creature and stepped forward to examine it more closely.

With his usual amount of gentleness the snake sage shot out one large snake to wrap up the figure and take it away for further study. The snake managed to wrap the creature up from head to toe, but as Orochimaru moved to take hold of the creature the snake suddenly hissed in pain as a large black looking thorn shot out of the seedling stabbing through the snake causing it to shriek in pain. Orochimaru leapt back as he saw his serpent fall limply to the branch below before slipping down towards the forest floor with a cry of agony the whole way down. As the snake fell the Seedling turned slowly to gaze at Orochimaru with a low hum that almost sounded like a growl to the snake sage. Before he could do more than ponder how the creature had killed his summon the seedling was charging forward two long vine like appendages flowing out of either of its hands as it rushed over the branch towards him.

Orochimaru allowed a small smirk to grace his lips as he saw the creature charge him. He loved a fight like this and the last few opponents had done little to slate his battle lust. With that in mind the flew through a few fast hand signs before spitting out a single large fireball at the approaching seedling making sure to angle it away from the disabled teens. While he may not particularly care for the teens he needed them alive if Sasuke was to make it to the next part of the exams and further his plans.

As the ball of flame speed forward the seedling didn't pause to charge straight into it extracting a small smirk from the sage seeing this. Well I guess I won't be getting a live one, the sage started to think just before a long vine like appendage followed soon by the seedling itself flew through the blast as the ball of flame dispersed into a wave of quickly dissipating fire.

"What!" shouted Orochimaru as he was forced to leap back from the swiping attack even as the seedling pressed the assault. Orochimaru was not a legendary Shinobi for nothing, however, and he was soon flying through a set of seals again before spitting out several balls of wind towards the oncoming creature.

Like the flame before, the wind dispersed upon contact and the creature charged forward apparently unabated by the impact again sending another swipe toward him. With a silent curse Orochimaru sank into the tree branch avoiding the Seedling's latest slash of the vine like whip it had swung at him. The seedling may not have been burdened with an abundance of intelligence, but it did understand basic ideas of self-defense as well as danger. From its limited understanding the redheaded girl was in danger and the pale one seemed to be the instigator. As a result it decided to attack the source of the pain that had chosen to attack it. To that end it slowly swept its purple eyes around the treetops looking for its enemy.

Orochimaru obliged the seedling leaping down from above with his blade in hand swinging down to cut the black creature in half. The seedling noticed a little late but managed to swing its hand and the whips up in order to hit the sage. Unfortunately for the creature Orochimaru's blade was far too strong a weapon to be slowed by such things. The blade cut through both the whips and the seedlings arms alike without any effort. For a moment Orochimaru allowed a smile to spread across his face in anticipation of his victory. A second later Orochimaru was forced sneer once again as his blade smashed into the creatures head and halted abruptly.

A second later the sage stood in front of the now armless creature that looked down at his arms on the branch before him, and then up at the figure before him for a moment as if more surprised than actually hurt. Before Orochimaru could do more than look shocked at the fact that the creature's head seemed to have withstood his assault his senses screamed at him to leap back from the creature, but he was too late. From the Seedlings back sprung three crude looking chains with small blunted tips that shot forward into the sages chest launching him through the air before it slammed him into a tree across the gap.

Orochimaru felt like he was just hit by a punch from his old mentor's staff as he found himself lying slightly cockeyed in a crater of a tree. With a small grunt he pushed the chains off of him as he saw them slowly retracting across the gap back towards the black creature who even as he watched had sent out several small interweaving threads that vaguely resembled tree roots that affixed themselves to its lost libs before hoisting them up to re-secure themselves onto its stumps. Orochimaru was torn between pain, fascination and annoyance as he saw the creature literally rearming itself.

Damn thought the snake sage as it looked over at the creature through his slitted snake eyes that fucking thing isn't making any sense, what the hell is it? And why aren't any of my attacks working on it? Ah I don't have time or chakra for this, those damn suppressing justus took more out of me than I would have liked. Well I've done what I needed here there's no reason for me to stay longer and fight this fucking monster any longer. Thought the sage allowing himself to shift back into the tree and out of the detectible range of the creature.

After a few moments the Seedling allowed its chains and vines to recede back into itself with a small hum of apparent self-satisfaction. It then proceeded to turn over to march over to help pull the injured Minami up to her feet. Thanks to her tenant her wounds were healing enough for her to move around and she allowed herself to smile happily at the seedling that had just helped her to stand. What was it that Mito-chan called these guys…se-seed-kun was that it Kyu? Asked Minami softly.

"Hai Minami-chan that's them thank you Seed-kun!" called Kyu happily as he wagged his tails gleefully from his cage. Minami could not help but agree with her tenant's thanks and spoke up in turn.

"T-thanks Seed-kun." she spoke softly through the exhaustion and pain she was feeling. The seedling turned its wide purple eyes onto her before giving off a happy little hum as she took a step back from it, finally able to stand under her own power. As she did so she suddenly remembered Naruko and rushed over to her prone form. She breathed out a sigh of relief a moment later as she found Naruko unconscious but breathing and with a steady pulse. She took a moment to thank Kami before heading over to check on Sasuke finding him in a similar state. After pulling the Uchiha over to lie next to Naruko she turned her head up to see the seedling looking around as if getting ready to depart. With a small bit of panic she called out to the seedling.

"Seed-kun!" she all but yelled causing the seedling to turn and face her humming slightly, "can you help me carry these two?" she asked gesturing towards the two prone figures on the branch before her. The Seedling paused for a moment as though in thought before nodding slowly and stepping forward to pick up the two prone figures. The Seedling bent down to pick up Naruko in the manner he had been shown previously but found an issue with also picking up Sasuke. After several attempts to both hold the girl and the boy together the seedling remembered its time with Mito and simply wrapped the boy in a clump of black chains pulling him slightly into the air while following Minami as she worked her way down to the forest floor. As Minami and the Seedling made their way to the forest floor and towards a hollow tree that Minami had remembered seeing earlier.

Meanwhile in another part of the forest team ten had just stopped to make a quick plan before finding a place to camp for the coming night.

"Look Ino I'm say that we take the position by the tower and wait to hit a team as they move in, that way we guarantee they have the scroll we need, and we don't worry about wasting our time fighting for a prize that may not exist." spoke Shikimaru while Choji nodded his head in agreement with his friend. Ino thought for a moment before looking back at the black haired boy with a small smile.

"Well I don't see that being a bad plan to start with, should we head there first thing tomorrow?" asked the blonde looking over at her team. Before either Shikimaru or Choji could answer, however, they heard a sound off in the forest to their left. The three were up and in battle position ready to face the oncoming threat. As they listened for a moment they heard a large amount of commotion coming their way. With a quick handsign Shikimaru and his team leapt high into the branches above hoping to catch who or whatever, was out there by surprise. Looking down from above they saw the bushes on the edge of the clearing rustle slightly before a strange black creature exited them and stood out into the clearing before turning two large rounded purple eyes up towards where they at it the canopy. Not wanting to take any more chances, Shikimaru and his team leapt back from the clearing and raced along the treetops for a while before halting above another clearing and turning to face one another. Choji was the first to speak.

"W-what was that thing?" he asked looking at his teammates a slight note of fear in his voice as he did so. Ino turned to face him resting one hand on his shoulder in a comforting way before speaking.

"Calm down Choji we got clear of it." said Ino trying to comfort her teammate as she looked over at Shikimaru for some encouragement from him. Unfortunately just as he was about to speak up, a rustling in the foliage behind them caught their attention, and the three turned to see the same creature jump forward to land on a branch a few yards away from them. Without waiting all of team ten leapt down from their position to land on the forest clearing and fall into a defensive formation gazing up at the creature that was before them.

"I-it's following us!" chocked out Ino fear evident in her voice as she turned to look at Shikimaru with worry in her face. Shikimaru simply nodded curtly at her before turning back to face the creature just as it landed on the ground in front of them.

"It looks like it isn't going to let us run from it, team get ready to take it out!" called Shikimaru as he formed his hands into a common handsign of the Nara clan, and moments later his shadow shot forward towards the creature. As it connected with the shadow below it Shikimaru allowed himself a small smirk.

"Good I've got it!" called Shikimaru standing up and crossing his arms over his chest. The seedling seeing this decided to mimic his actions leading the Nara to believe that his move had been successful. Thinking the creature to be captured Ino and Choji allowed themselves to relax for a moment and take a closer look at the creature before them. Ino was the first to speak up.

"Hey is it just me or does that thing look kind of like Naruto?" she asked pointing at the creature, but as she did so the Seedling seeing her raised its hand to point back at her, causing Shikimaru to freeze for a moment before shouting out to his team.

"It's not contained, get back!" he called pulling out a few shuriken to launch over towards the creature, who leapt back in turn from the attack allowing a small bit of humming to escape itself as it looked over at the team with some confusion.

"Oh crap it looks like you made it mad shouted Choji!" as he focused chakra into his left arm and swung it forward towards the Seedling intent on slamming it back into the tree behind it. As the boys arm swung forwards it expanded until it was the size of a small bus and slammed headlong into the black creatures face. The forest clearing was suddenly filled with a resounding Crack as Choji's fist plowed into the seedling! The attack was marginally successful.

The seedling found itself hurtling back into the tree behind it crashing headfirst into it, but Choji also cried out in pain as his hand shrank back down to its usual size dropping to one knee as he did so. Shikimaru dropped to his friend's side looking at the boys arm that seemed to have a few broken fingers and small amount of chakra burns around the impact zone. Shikimaru frowned at his friends injury before turning to forge his attention back towards the creature that he hoped was not going to be getting back up. Unfortunately as he watched the Seedling was even then pulling itself out of the tree it had been shot into a moment before. As team ten watched the seedling managed to pull its head free from the tree, and fall with a soft thump to the ground before turning its head to look back at them with its wide purple eyes.

"Shikimaru, what the hell is that thing and why is it getting back up." shouted Ino as she started going through a set of hand sighs quickly while casting a worried look at her teammate. Shikimaru looked up from Ino to Choji before looking back at the black creature before him his mind racing as he watched the creature tilt its head slightly at them.

"I don't know Ino, but whatever it is I don't know if we can handle it!" called back Shikimaru looking over at the seedling whose arms started to shift slightly before his eyes. As he watched in horror both of the creatures arms swelled out mimicking what Choji had just done moments before. With a sudden terror Shikimaru grabbed Choji and leapt back with him in tow along with Ino as one of the creatures fists swept sideways towards them with quite a bit of force behind the blow. Shikimaru's mind raced at what he had just seen, the pieces slowly falling into place. As sudden realization hit him to turned just in time to see Ino finish her final handsign just as he yelled at her to stop.

"INO NO!" shouted the black haired boy stretching out a hand towards the blonde as if to will her to stop her actions. Ino, however, had already acted, and even as the remainder of team ten watched her body fall limply to the ground signaling that she had cast her mind forward into the creatures. Shikimaru and Choji both looked over with shocked expressions on their faces and a large amount of fear.

Meanwhile inside of the seedlings head Ino was completely lost, as to where she was. The blonde haired girl turned in a small circle examining her surroundings with a clear amount of puzzlement on her face. Usually when she jumped into a beings mind she either immediately started to see through their eyes, or was introduced to a scene not unlike a large library or some other home that had a clear form of organization to it. The place she found herself in now however was a large open field with a clear blue sky with soft green grass, and what amounted to a light breeze. Around the field were dotted small trees each only standing about a foot in high and of the same shade of black as the monster had been. Approaching one it seemed to flicker a little as she did so before a small bulb like shape on top opened like a flower bud might and Ino instead of seeing the center of the bud saw what looked like some kind of memory. She saw through the creatures eyes as a large snake like creature swung a tale towards it knocking it back and air born. Ino watched as the creatures view catapulted around several times before coming to a sudden halt upon impacting the ground.

Seeing this Ino stepped back before casting her eyes around the field and seeing that it was dotted with many small trees that swayed gently in the breeze. Before she could do more than look around puzzled she felt a presence behind her and whirled around. What she saw made her blood freeze. There looking at her with its head tilted slightly was the creature that she had fought outside. As she watched the creature looked from the tree she had just looked at, then back to her with a curious little tilt of its head before raising a hand in a little waving motion. The shear oddity of this was enough for Ino to momentarily loose her grip on her technique, and fly back out of the Seedlings mind waking a moment later in her own. As she shook her head slightly to reorientate herself she noticed that she was not resting on the forest floor. She found that Choji and Shikimaru had used the brief incursion into the creatures mind to retreat back into the treetops above it, and were staring open mouthed at where she assumed the creature was.

Ino turned to look and saw something that just confused her more than anything that had happened today, and that was saying a lot. Below where the vaguely male creature had been standing now stood what she could only describe as a black version of herself with bright purple eyes, and the same smooth face as the previous one. As she watched she noticed that it was almost a complete copy of her right down to her pony tail that it seemed particularly fascinated with at the moment. Even as team ten watched the black figure seemed to be trying to grab hold of the newest appendage with an excited humming accompanying its circular track. Ino tore her eyes away from the odd little spectacle to look over at her team with complete puzzlement on her face.

"Ok would someone mind telling me what the hell is going on here?" she asked looking over at Choji and Shikimaru who looked over at her with similar looks of confusion on their faces. After a moment Choji spoke up.

"Don't know, once you hit it with your jutsu it just stopped moving and started to ripple until well," here he pointed down at the Seedling who had just managed to grab hold of his ponytail and was currently humming in apparent excitement as it ran its fingers through the long strands of hair. "Well it just started looking like that, and then you were back." spoke Choji while looking back at Ino with a small shrug. Shikimaru took a turn to speak up at that point.

"If I'm right I think I have this thing figured out." he said as both of the members of team ten looked over at him. "That thing is some kind of mimic or something, every time we hit it with something, it adapted in some way." He spoke as the others nodded slowly at his words. "And I think this thing ran into team eleven at some point to." As he got two sets of confused looks from his teammates. Seeing this he elaborated

"Remember Ino, you mentioned that it looked like Naruto, it probably ran into them and mimicked him at some point." finished Shikimaru as he looked over at his team who nodded. "I say we leave now, it seems a little preoccupied." continued Shikimaru jabbing a thumb back at the now female creature that seemed to be twirling admiring the small bit of blackness that seemed to be its version of her skirt. Ino blushed bright red at this as the Seedling proceeded to tug and pull at it exposing some more private areas if they had been on the forest floor to see it. The next moment Team ten were off and after a time the seedling seemed to shake itself before setting off once again in search of the signal from the pollens.

As team ten fled away from their encounter with the Seedling another team was having a very different experience with one of the black fellows. Team Guy was losing ground against their own seedling.

Neji panted as he knelt down attempting to catch his breath as he watched Lee once again jump into battle with the strange black creature before them. When the being had wandered across them and seemed intent on following them, Tenten had suggested it was some type of clone, and they had decided to engage it before it gave away their position. Neji had scanned it for a moment with his byakugan but was only able to see a single mass of chakra that seemed to fall in with Tenten's suggestion. As a result the team had set up a quick ambush position and waited for the creature to enter into the semi-circle they had formed in an open clearing.

Neji had been the first at it landing four successive palm strikes onto the creatures exposed back firing several blasts of chakra into its back where its lungs would have been hoping to dispel the creature, or at the least put it down on the ground.

Things had not gone as planned; his hits didn't even manage to slow the creature down as it swung behind itself without a pause. Neji had dodged the sloppy blow easily enough and struck out again at the being slamming several more blows onto the seeming clone, finishing with a powerful double blow to the beings face. Impact didn't even seem to slow the creature down as it grabbed onto his wrist before bringing up a knee and pulling back on the Hyuugas arms pulling the boy into the creature's knee. The hit knocked the wind out of him blowing him back a small distance. As Neji looked up he saw that Lee had leapt forward to deliver a spinning kick to the creatures head causing the clone to skid across the clearing for a distance.

Lee had given out his usual cry of "Yosh" before going into a quick speech on the powers of youth. Before the green spandex wearing teen could continue speaking, however, the creature had pushed itself back to its feet before springing forward to execute a sloppy version of Lee's own windmill kick. Lee raised an arm taking the kick onto his forearm and spinning slightly before reaching out with his other arm to grab hold of the blocked leg, and spinning to through the creature to the other side of the clearing.

This did not seem to perturb the creature as it launched itself back at Lee this time throwing a few blows that looked similar to some kind of a style but it did not seem familiar to the Hyuuga. Lee was smiling fiercely as he engaged the creature trading blow for blow with it.

As Tenten landed beside Neji checking him over for a moment, she looked up to see Lee land another devastating blow to the creatures chest causing it to skid a few feet back , before its knee's knelt down slightly before springing forward to continue the fight. Lee allowed his left hand to fall behind his back as he raised his right hand before him falling back into his common stance. As the seedling raced towards him he dropped down while shooting up a single leg vertically and knocking the seedling up with a strong blow to the seedlings chin. Once the creature was air born Lee jumped after him flipping forward with one leg extended slamming into the seedlings chest and sending it crashing down to the clearing below. As Lee landed he turned his face back to look at the remaining members of his team.

"Tenten how is he?" called Lee as he stepped back into his stance facing the crater in front of him. Tenten gave Neji one more look over, before standing up and pulling out two sealing scrolls from her pouch.

"Hai he's fine but I don't have a clue why his style didn't do any good." Replied Tenten stepping up beside Lee just at the Seedling leaned up from the crater Lee had punched it into moments before. As it turned its purple eyes on the pair Tenten leapt into action quickly unsealing a set of Kunai and shuriken to fire into the creature before her. As always her aim was true and the creature was slammed back into the crater squired by all ten kunai and shuriken. For a moment the pair allowed themselves to relax before the black creature before them sat up again still with several of the weapons still sticking out of the body, of the creature.

Seeing this Lee sprang forward just as the creature gained it footing. As he raced forward he was almost brought to a halt as the black figure sank back into his own stance just in time to parry his forward punch with its own left arm. Before throwing its own imitation of Lees previous strike straight at the boys head. Only thanks to his years of training was Lee able to swipe his head sideways at the last moment to avoid the strike, while falling into a spin kick with his right leg that took the creatures legs out from under him, and catching him with a devastating straight kick to the suspended creatures chest knocking it back a few feet. Allowing Tenten another opening to fire off another salvo of shrunken and Kunai into the creature adding to its velocity flying backwards.

After a brief pause the Seedling once again began to rise giving off a loud humming noise as it did so. Hearing the noise Neji decided that it was about time that his team headed to the tower. With that thought in mind he called out to the other members of his squad just as they launched the creature back with another tag team move.

"Lee, Tenten we are getting out of here and to the tower, there's no point in fighting this thing any longer." He called just as he rose to his feet a little shakily. Lee seeing this ran back to swing one of the Hyuugas arms around his shoulder. Tenten seeing this turned for a moment before cutting both of her thumbs with a Kunai and throwing both of her sealing scrolls high above her as they unraveled and spiraled around one another. Soon after that the bun wearing girl leapt up into the center swiping her hands across the sealing symbols of the scrolls summoning weapon after weapon to her hands and firing them off one after another into the creature below her. Weapon after weapon shot down hitting the creature over and over, slamming it a step back with every impact, kunai, shuriken, sickles, great balls of iron covered in spikes, and all manner of weapons in-between. As she dropped almost completely out of breath her target had been almost completely engulfed by the weapons that now pinned it to the base of a large tree.

Without waiting a moment longer she raced over to her team leaving the discarded scrolls behind her, as she and they departed from the clearing with all hast. Glancing back for a moment Tenten just spied out of the corner of her eyes the form of whatever that black creature was extracting itself from the tangle of weapons and bark.

After team Guy had gone far enough away the Seedling finally managed to extract itself from the tree; although now it seemed to have much in common with a porcupine thanks to the dozens of weapons now covering its whole body. The Seedling seemed to look at itself for a moment before shaking itself and heading out towards the next closest bit of Naruto's chakra it could find.

The blonde in question was just settling down beside a fire with the rest of his team cooking a rabbit that Kiba had caught moments before. Naruto poked the fire once more before turning to smile over at Hinata who was sitting a few feet away from him swirling the water in the pot with a small bit of chakra from her hands.

"Hey Hinata-chan here comes one now." called Naruto motioning off behind Kiba as one of his Seedlings pushed her way through the underbrush into their small clearing. This particular Seedlings appearance, however, caused quite a reaction from the group of around the fire. Standing a few feet away was a Seedling whose form was still in that of Ino and was humming softly as it looked back and forth between them seemingly happy about returning.

Kiba was the first to speak up. "Hum, well I have to say I didn't know that they could do that." He chuckled turning a smile over at Naruto who looked to be in a state of shock. Hinata was also staring blankly ahead without being able to comprehend what exactly she was seeing. Juubi for her part first started giggling, before bursting out into full blown laughter as she looked at the seedlings form.

"HeHeHaHa ohh my Kami….phfmt g-greatest technique…ba-battle Jutsu ever!" she managed to squeak out between her giggling and laughing. Naruto couldn't help but scowl slightly at Juubi's mocking before shaking himself slightly and looking back to the seedling that was playfully spinning around watching Akamaru walk around it sniffing curiously. As the blonde boy looked over at the Seedling's antics he felt a sudden shiver run down his spine.

He felt a sudden coldness emanating from his right, and turning he saw Hinata had turned with an uncomfortable little smile on her face, and both her eyes turned up in closed eye smiles of their own. Behind her seemed to be the Shinigami himself. Naruto felt a large amount of fear cascade over him as he looked over at his Hinata-chan with a nasty feeling in his chest. Juubi for her part was laughing even harder at the sight of the poor boy terrified before the presence of his angered girlfriend.

"H-Hinata-chan….prettiest girl in Konoha...kindest girl in the whole world…. and someone not to judge before talking it out." spoke Naruto slowly scooting back with his hands raised in front of him in a placating manner. Hinata for her part gently stood up before slowly walking over towards Naruto still with her unnatural smile upon her lips. Kiba simply turned back to look at Akamaru with a small smile even as the girlish screams of Naruto echoed out across the forest, as night fell in earnest around the team and the rest of the forest.

The next day found Naruto nursing a small smack on his face, along with Hinata applying a bit of ointment to the bruise, with a very sorry clear blush, and embarrassed look on her face as she did so. Kiba and Akamaru were both smiling over at the couple as they ate some ration bars while slowly moving around the camp and collecting their packs.

"I-I'm sorry Naruto." whispered Hinata as she replaced the lid on her ointment and turned her face to stare intently at the forest floor, not wanting to meet Naruto's eyes. Naruto looked over at her with a bit of a puzzled look on his face for a moment before wrapping the girl in a tight hug, and mussing her hair slightly with his free hand even as a large smile spread across his face.

Hinata despite herself was unable to fight off a bit of giggling as Naruto poke at her while chuckling himself, never letting the girl go from his grip. The two sat like that for a few moments before Hinata raised her eyes to look up at Naruto the leftover smile from her giggling still painted across her face as she did so. Naruto just beamed down at her before bending his head down slightly to capture her lips in his own. As the girls soft lips pressed softly into the boys she allowed herself to momentarily relax, and let her mind wander to happy times she had shared with Naruto. The two likely would have stayed like that if not for the wolf whistle they heard a moment later causing both of them to look round to spy Kiba and Akamaru, along with a Naruto looking Seedling watching them from over where their packs were laying.

Hinata for her part turned a bright red before attempting to bury her face deep into Naruto's chest in a mostly useless attempt to hide herself. Naruto for his part just cradled the shy girl with one arm while rubbing the back of his head a little as he looked into the smirking face of his other teammate, just as Kiba spoke up.

"You know I think you could do better than the forest of death for a date you two." He called in a happy mocking tone with no true annoyance in his voice. Akamaru barked happily as well, and even the seedling who most likely didn't even know why itself hummed in a content manner as it looked at them. Naruto smiled over at Kiba chuckling slightly as he looked around himself before replying.

"ya I guess you have a point," the blond said working his way to his feet while keeping a gentle hold on the pale eyed girl in his arms as he did so. "I guess we should hurry up to the tower then." he finished just as Hinata pulled her head from its hiding place on his chest and looked over at Kiba with a embarrassed little smile.

"Ya I guess we should, but what about your seedlings, aren't they still out there?" asked Kiba turning his eyes left and right as he said so, as if expecting another to hope out of the underbrush like the previous night. Naruto paused for a moment before sending another pulse form his pollens, and shaking his head slightly.

"Nope none yet, but if we take it slow we should run into them throughout the day as long as we keep the pollen net out." replied Naruto even as Hinata stepped back from him with a small smile hurrying over to grab her pack, and trying to hide her blushing face from Kiba. She was only marginally successful.

"Sounds good to me." replied Kiba as Hinata and Naruto picked up their packs and the four members of team eleven leapt into the trees and off into the forest at a moderate pace.

In another part of the forest another team was just about to head out themselves after a productive nights work. Sakura had just packed away the last of her medical supplies, and was waiting for Yakumo to join her and Shino as they stood in the little clearing by the river of the camp they had set up the previous day.

Yakumo emerged a moment later visibly placing the two scrolls they needed into a pack on her back along with her art supplies. By a mixture of luck and a well put together setup an un-expecting team had wandered headlong into their bug defensive net the previous night. After Shino had called off the foot long leaches from the other team, they were in no condition to fight, and had surrendered their scroll peaceably rather than make a fight of it.

As a result team eight had decided to simply make a beeline for the tower this morning ignoring any other conflict they may come across in favor of simply reaching the safety of the building.

"So Yakumo have you got everything?" called out Sakura in a not unkind voice as she adjusted a strap on her medical pouch that lay across her back. Yakumo smiled over at her team as she stepped forward towards them while replying.

"Hai I've got everything, sorry for taking so long." Yakumo replied with a bit of an apologetic note in her voice as she did so. Shino raised a hand in a soft little wave as if to dismiss the thought completely before speaking in his usual calm voice.

"It is no trouble I haven't dropped the bug net yet, so there is no rush, this spot is still well defended." Spoke the Aburame with a small hint of pride in his voice. However, before any of the team could say anything else Shino stiffened and turned suddenly to face a spot on the left side of the clearing from where he and the rest of his team stood. Sakura and Yakumo saw this and both stopped immediately turning to face the direction to. As Shino motioned that something was approaching through the net Yakumo reached back into her pack withdrawing an index card sized picture even as Sakura slipped on a pair of thick leather gloves. As team eight focused forward they heard the sound of something approaching them through the woods and tensed slightly. Sakura spoke up a moment later.

"If it looks like an enemy team, we see what condition and village. If it's someone we know we hold the attack, and if it's some animal we just head out no point in fighting it over a spot we aren't going to stay in." spoke the girl in a quiet voice receiving a pair of nods for her words. All three took stances getting themselves prepared for whatever was about to enter their clearing. But whatever they may have been ready for what came out of the forest caught them all off guard.

Suddenly from the forest burst a strange black figure that seemed to be running full tilt while waving its arms wildly on either sides of itself as if trying to fly with them. As the team watched the figure ran right past them before tripping on a loose stone and rolling forward to land face first into the small stream that lay by their camp. Team eight stood there in complete silence simply looking over at the motionless figure for a second before giving each other inquisitive looks.

"Um Shino was that one of those Leaches plastered to its face?" asked Yakumo after a moment looking back at the figures who was rolling back and forth in the river still waving its arms about randomly apparently in quite a bit of distress. Shino took a moment before he responded.

"Hai it was, but I can't communicate with it for some reason, my chakra can't reach it." replied Shino not taking his eyes from the figure in the water. Sakura for her part was doing her very best not to burst out laughing at the shear oddity of what she was seeing, but she managed it with a few steadying breaths.

"So, um what does this count as?" she asked with of note of amusement in her tone as she relaxed and gestured over to the figure that had finally managed to roll itself out of the water and was standing up with some effort. Before the other members of team eight could speak the figure, who they just noticed seemed to be about their own size had taken off running only to crash headlong into the nearest tree trunk and knock itself back onto its back once again. Even Shino had to fight to keep a smile from coming to his face upon seeing that.

"Um maybe we should help him?" suggested Yakumo as her teammates gave her a curious look prompting her to continue, "well I mean it was our net that seems to have gotten it into this situation, and for all we know there's a leaf headband behind that leach." The girl reasoned pointing over at the figure that was now sprawled on its back its arms and legs splayed out around it. Sakura and even Shino gave the brown haired girl looks that made it clear they thought she had just taken leave of her sense.

"What, look at it, I don't think it's dangerous." Spoke the girl a little defensively as she crossed her arms in front of herself. Sakura shook her head muttering something like not again while Shino just readjusted his glasses. Yakumo just turned to look over at the figure a few feet away the seemed to have sat up at the sound of their voices and was seeming moving towards them slowly with its hands outstretched trying to feel around itself.

Yakumo had always had a soft spot for things in need ever since she herself had been locked away. If not for her sensei Kurenai and the Namikazes prowess at sealing she may have remained that way for the rest of her life. It had led her to have a very protective nature towards others she saw in need, and with that in mind she rose slowly to make her way over to the creature before either Sakura or Shino could stop her.

As she stepped forward she gently placed her hand out to take hold of the creatures own outstretched black ones. The creature paused at feeling her hands slowly entwining its own around hers, and from under the large insect she heard was sounded like a happy little humming.

"It's ok," she spoke to the creature while turning to nod over at Shino to hurry over and help with the leach. Shino after a moment obliged her and hurried forward taking out his hands to take hold of the leach and pull it form the creatures face. As team eight watched the leach feel away from the things face revealing a smooth area where a mouth may have been, and two glowing purple eyes opened into perfect purple orbs of light. Team eight simply stared at the creature for a moment as it took a moment to look back and forth between them in apparent confusion.

After a moment the Seedling decided that these people were the ones that had helped it, as its eyes fell on the thing that had been attached to its face moments before. As it cast its thoughts back through its limited memories it remembered seeing its creator twirl the pale eyed one around, and the happy noises that she had made deciding to try out the same actions in hope of thanking these people.

Before Yakumo could even realize what was happening the creature, that now that she got a full look at it looked a little like Naruto had leapt forward and encircled her waist in its arms and proceeded to twirl her around humming again in a seemingly excited manner. To her credit Yakumo was able to keep calm long enough to see that the creature was not trying to hurt her and even allowed herself to giggle slightly at the little fun she had being twirled around in its arms. Shino had taken to placing the leach back on an adjacent tree and simply watched the enter action with one eyebrow quirked up in apparent confusion. Sakura was actually fighting to keep from laughing at the whole situation she saw occurring in front of her. One moment the creature had been bumbling around in apparent panic and now it was twirling her teammate around like some kind of princess in an odd dance.

After a few moments of spinning the Seedling set Yakumo down where the girl smiled whipping a few stray hairs from her face as she did so even as Sakura stepped up to place a hand on her shoulder.

"So it looks like you've made a friend there Yakumo." Chuckled Sakura as she looked the creature up and down trying to figure out where she had seen something like it before. Yakumo shot Sakura a little smirk without commenting as she straightened herself back up and taking a moment to make sure all of her equipment was still firmly attached. Shino took this moment to walk over to the creature and begin sizing it up once again before speaking in a soft tone.

"You know this think looks an awful lot like Naruto in a lot of ways." spoke the stoic youth, as Sakura and Yakumo looked back and forth between him and the creature who seemed to have become very interested in a nearby squirrel. Comprehension dawned on both Yakumo and Sakura as their eyes traced the creatures form again. It was hard to see at a glance especially considering the thing lacked a face or any color besides black and purple, but once you got past that the similarities were uncanny. However, before they could say another word to one another rustling in the forest made itself known and Team eight as well as the seedling turned as three figures entered the clearing.

Out of the woods stepped Gaara followed soon after by Temari on his left, and Kankuro on his right just a few feet behind him. Team eight froze for a moment as the redhead turned his teal eyes around at them slowly licking his lips slightly as he did so. From inside the boys head a dark voice spoke up.

"You see Gaara I told you I felt his presence here, look there the black figure is obviously of him..go and make him suffer for questioning your mother's love…make him pay in blood." spoke Shukaku in a eerie voice as he goaded Gaara onward. The redhead's eyes flashed dangerously as these words echoed in his mind as he looked around at the group before him.

Temari seeing her younger brother's look suppressed a small shiver praying that he did not lose control and decide that she would make a good target next. In the meantime Kankuro, whether out of pity for the leaf shinobi or simply a desire to not see more bloodshed spoke up.

"Gaara we don't need to bother with these guys, I mean we already have both scrolls we should just head to the tower now." Kankuro tried to reason taking a small step forward to look over at Gaara clear fear in both his tone and movements as he did so. Gaara turned his maddening teal eyes back on Kankuro for a moment before speaking.

"Try to order me again, and mother will have your blood next." Gaara said softly with a tone that dared his brother to speak out again. Kankuro shrived slightly before taking a step back from the boy and shutting his mouth. Temari looked from across at the members of team eight with a note of pity in her eyes as she didn't see them lasting much longer. Soon they would join those genin from rain, and all those countless others that Gaara's sand had consumed over the years. Her gazed sifted momentarily as she noticed for the first time the black creature that seemed to be looking at them with wide purple eyes, not seeming to comprehend what was occurring. Temari could not help but stare at the strange black creature even as it stared back at her tilting its head slightly as it did so.

While this was happening team eight were looking between one another and the enemy team trying to size up what they should do next. Sakura had taken a position in front of Yakumo who had withdrawn another index hard, while Shino had allowed his sleeves to fall over his hands and a slight buzzing told them that he was ready to unleash a wave of insects at any moment. However, before any of them could signal to the others, or even make a plan the creature had stepped in front of them with a light humming.

The seedling may not have been very old, or smart but one thing its unusual creation had granted it was the ability to feel chakra and intent much like the smaller pollens, and the waves of killing intent coming off of the redheaded boy were almost tangible. After seeing where they were directed the Seedling had taken it upon itself to stand between his newest friends and the dangerous boy whose teal eyes seem to glow with excitement as they fell upon its own form.

Kankuro saw the creature move, and could not help but look at it confused.

Huh what the heck is that thing, is it some kind of clone, or puppet, and it seems to be shielding the team there, does Konoha even have a puppet squad, damn this is not the kind of thing I wanted to get mixed up in damn Gaara and his bloodlust. Thought the puppeteer from sand as he saw Gaara's face contort into a wicked little smile as the cork from his gourd shot out with a soft popping noise. A split second later a virtual tidal wave of sand shot forwards towards the Seedlings as well as the members of team eight.

The members of team eight were almost too late to jump back just as the wave crashed over the area in front of them. With a cry Yakumo saw that the creature hadn't moved and had been engulfed by the sand that even then compacted around it forming a strange lumpy form in the sand with a single bright purple eye showing. Gaara smiled wickedly as he saw this before slowly raising a half closed hand in front of him.

"We have to help!" shouted Yakumo trying to think of a way to get the creature out of its sand prison while pulling up her card and channeling chakra into it. Sakura seeing this pulled out several kunai as well preparing to launch them in support. Shino for his part allowed two clouds of insects to shoot out of his coat as well. Before Gaara could close his hand his attention was forced sideways as he saw what looked like a large venus flytrap materialized suddenly from a nearby bush and shot forward its jaws open wide. Temari was about to draw her fan when a salvo of kunai caused her to bring it up in her own defense even as she was forced to leap back from the attacking plant. Kankuro was also forced to leap back as a ball of insects, about the size of a basketball, shot towards him with a loud buzzing sound.

As the members of the sand team watched the plant's mouth shot forward clamping down around Gaara's form and shooting up into the air, apparently satisfied with its prize caught in its jaws. For a second team eight allowed itself to breath thinking they had at least taken care of one of the threats as they saw the sand around the black creature fall to the ground soft, revealing the confused looking creature that had landed on its butt sit up and looking around. But their relief was short lived, as they saw the giant plants mouth contort and bulge before blowing apart in a shower of sand and bits of green that splatted to the forest floor revealing the form of Gaara standing on a cloud of sand with his arms crossed and his eyes glaring daggers at those below him.

"Oh crap!" called Yakumo seeing how easily he had escaped from her genjutsu, and worse how he didn't seem to have even a single scratch on him from the attack. Sakura and Shino also looked worried as they eyed one another in concern. Sakura spoke up a moment later.

"We need to get out of here." she called casting a quick look over at her team who inclined their heads a little at her words before looking back just in time to see three tendrils of sand shoot out towards them again. Their momentary hesitation was all that the tendrils needed and in a moment the three found themselves bound as Gaara's sand lowered him to the ground and he smiled dangerously around at them. A nasty shiver ran down the group's backs as they looked into those cold teal eyes, and for a moment they all felt that this may indeed be the end for them.

That was until a long black chain shot up from out of the corner of their eyes tearing its way through the sand tendrils linking them to Gaara allowing the sand to fall from them in great clumps. Their faces jerked over to see an odd sight before them. The creature that they had saved had sprouted what looked like five crude black chains that were waving back and forth gently, as hit turned its purple eyes glaring over at Gaara with and angry little hum in its voice that could have been mistaken for a growl. As team eight steadied themselves the black creature charged forward at Gaara its black chains flying ahead of it in a deadly swarm even at it charged forward. Without a moment of hesitation Temari swept her fan forward sending out a cycle of air towards the attacking black figure. But as the blades of wind impacted the creature the dispersed harmlessly not even slowing it down. Then next moment Gaara's sand had hardened into a protective half dome of sand that the chains crashed into cracking it, but not being able to pierce through. However, a moment later the Seedling itself impacted the dome forcing the sand to bow in enough for the actual sand to pound up against the redhead with a blow like that of a sledgehammer, forcing him back a few feet. As the redhead stumbled back team eight saw their chance and took to the tree's Yakumo calling down as they leapt.

"Hey whatever you are we need to get out of here hurry" she called waving an arm at the creature below who turned eyes upon her for a second before nodding and racing off after them. Team eight and the Seedling in tow shot off into the forest before the sand team could recover. After what seemed like a solid hour of running they finally stopped turning sweaty and panting faces to one another even as they allowed small smiles to show on their lips.

"L-looks like we lost them." Breathed out Sakura between breaths as she looked around at her team, who nodded back to her breathing heavily themselves. After a moment Yakumo looked around before speaking up.

"Hey were did that thing go?" she asked causing the rest of team eight to look around as well searching for the creature in question. After a moment they were forced to conclude that they had somehow lost it in the forest. Yakumo let out a small groan at that, but otherwise seemed ok. Sakura seeing this gave the girl a small comforting smile.

"Hey that thing is probably just fine, I mean it fought that one guy easily enough it will be just fine, let's just worry about getting to the tower for now." the pink haired girl said as Yakumo and Shino looked at her for a moment. A little while later team eight headed off towards the tower, anxious to have this exam over with.

In another part of the forest a redheaded girl was looking down at the still forms of her blond sister, and her black haired teammate with concern evident on her face.

"It will be ok Minami-chan they just need to rest, and Seed-kun is watching out for danger so you should rest to, that second blast from that white guy really messed up your control, and I'm still not able to give you enough of my chakra to heal all of your wounds." Spoke Kyu in a soft voice trying to reassure his redheaded host. Minami smiled a little bit at the fox's words before speaking.

"Thanks Kyu, but I'm ok, if I need a big fluff ball like you to look after me I'll never live it down." she chuckled back as Kyu waved his tails in a small happy movement.

"Darn right I'm fluffy, my Kaasan said I'm the fluffiest thing in the world!" called the fox with a clear note of pride in his voice, which caused the redhead to giggle slightly as she turned her gaze to look out of the hollowed roots she was using as shelter. Outside of her hiding spot sat the Seedling, or Seed-kun as she had gotten to referring to it as. The black figure sat Indian style before the door swaying back and forth softly humming happily as if it wasn't sitting in one of the most dangerous places on the planet. To it, it could have been its own backyard for all the care it seemed to give.

As Minami looked at it she couldn't help but smile as she saw the creatures apparent happiness…how long had it been since she had been able to be that happy herself.

How long has it been since anyone in our family was that happy? Wondered Minami looking away from the Seedling. As far back as she could remember she and Naruko had always been training with Minato and Jiraiya. Always pushing themselves, Naruko even more than her. She took a moment to lean down to run a hand through her sister's hair gently remembering those times.

-flashback-

A seven year old Minami and Naruko lay in the grass of the training field both breathing heavily but happily as they looked around the field at the shadow clones of themselves that were cheering in apparent celebration. Minato and Kushina were there as well smiling over at the girls with apparent happiness of their own…and Mito and Naruto were there two.

The small redheads two year old hair done up on two small pigtails that stuck out of opposite sides of her head, while her face had a shining smile upon it as she excitedly waved her arms around at all of the clones squealing in joy. Above her Naruto was also smiling around at the clones, a look that mixed both happiness, and sadness, but Minami hadn't noticed. A while later found the family heading back home with Mito perched on Kushina's shoulder and Minato leading the way while Naruto stood a little off to the side watching them go. Naruko had decided to do just a bit more training before heading out. and soon Naruto had headed out himself leaving just the two sisters in the clearing. Minami watched as Naruko proceeded to summon a group of shadow clones before falling into a stance with them and going through the motions of the latest set of stances that Jiraiya had shown them for the toad style. As Minami watched Naruko would slam to a halt every time she hit a stance even a little off, before silently cursing and starting again. Seconds turned to minutes, and soon Minami stood watching a panting Naruko fall to one knee as the clones around her began to pop, a small pained smile upon her face. Minami walked up to her sister who was now lying back on the ground a small exhausted smile on her face as she did so.

"Honestly sis why do you always have to be like this," chuckled Minami as she fell to a sitting position beside her sister even as Naruko laid back in front of her with a breathless groan.

"And I've told you a hundred times that I'm going to get strong enough to protect everyone, you, Niisan, Tousan, Kaasan, and our newest imouto." smiled back a breathless Naruko smiling up at the fading light of the Konoha sky. Minami shook her head lightly as this before leaning over slightly to pat her sister gently on her head. Naruko playfully swatted her sister's hand away from her before continuing.

"Hey stop that, I will be strong enough then all of us can be happy here just like we are now." smiled the blonde girl as she moved to sit up. Minami could not help but smile as well as she helped pull her sister to her feet, and head back home. There everyone would be ready to greet them with smiles on their faces….a world of happiness they loved being a part of.

-flashback end-

As the images of that time faded form her mind Minami gave a small sad smile as she continued to brush her hand absentmindedly through her sister hair. Those times hadn't lasted long, soon they had started to find themselves at odds with Naruto, and she and Naruko had begun to spend less and less time smiling with the whole family, and instead training with the parents, and godparents. Soon it was odd for them to even be together as a family.

Maybe we haven't even been a family since then…oh Naruko how did we end up like this all we wanted was to protect our family…how did we manage to mess it up so bad? Thought the redheaded girl as she closed her eyes slightly allowing a single tear to fall from her scarlet eyes, and onto her sister's whiskered cheek.

A second later, however the redhead dove forward to shelter her two teammate's forms as a thunderous crash rocked the tree that was acting as their shelter. Bits of wood and dirt sprinkled down over her bouncing off as a clear voice called out to her form across the clearing.

"Ok you in there come on out your little clone scarecrow isn't scaring us." called a voice that seemed to be slightly muffled in its delivery. As Minami leaned up from the impact she spied through the trees entrance a group of three figures who stood just a few feet away from her hiding spot. Three figures stood there wearing a strange assortment of clothing. With a shiver Minami recognized them as the members of the sound village. The first figure a bandaged individual wearing a heavy grass cape with one eye showing had been the one to speak. Beside him stood a boy with gravity defying black hair, and a vile little smirk playing across his lips and to his other side stood a girl with her black hair cascading all the way down to her feet. The wrapped up one called out again

"Come on out and hand over Sasuke to us, and we may even let you walk away from this little girl." He called in a mocking voice once again. Minami gritted her teeth wondering what if anything she could do to help protect her team, her reserves were all but shot, her connection to Kyuubi all but sealed, and even worse she had lost her father's kunai while in the battle with that pale bastard. She was well and truly out of options. Just when she was at her wits end she heard a familiar humming and turned to see the seedling who had been sitting in the door way pull itself from a pile of dirt a little to her left. It seemed whatever the initial attack that the sound trio had launched had flung him back into the underside of the tree, and not actually harmed it. Looking over she smiled slightly seeing the seedling looking at her confused. Suddenly an idea shot into her head, and a wicked smile that would have scared off her team if they hadn't been unconscious.

Outside the tree the sound trio were looking at the entrance while waiting.

"Hey Dosu, what are they saying in there?" asked and annoyed Zaku looking over at his teammate with a clear amount of annoyance in his voice. Kin smacked herself slightly wondering why she was cursed with having such an annoying person as her teammate. Dosu was thinking much along the same lines as his teammate at about that time.

"Shut up Zaku I'd tell you if you would shut your trap." shot Dosu over to his teammate with a disgusted little glare at him before going back to his listening. What he was hearing was a bit confusing, however, and he was only able to catch the last few words which he muttered under his breath. Kin who was listening in couldn't help but ask what he heard.

"What?" she asked looking over at her teammate who turned to face her.

"It doesn't make any since all I heard was "get them"." replied Dosu even as a crash erupted from the bottom of the tree drawing all three of their gazes. What they saw was the same black figures that they had thought was some kind of sensory clone, or some kind of monitor. What they saw below them now wasn't any simple clone. As they watched the black creature turned its purple eyes upon them and a low hum escaped its face.

"What the fuck I thought you said that was a clone!" shouted Zaku as the Seedling looked over towards his teammates with a scowl. Kin just glared down at the black creature pulling out handfuls of senbon as she did. Dosu for his part just pulled back his cape revealing his sound gauntlet and glaring down with one eye towards the creature.

The Seedling was scanning its eyes back and forth between the three allowing its limited experience to try and help it prepare itself for the situation at hand… Unfortunately this particular seedling had been spending the majority of his time acting as a plaything for Mito and Hanabi so its expertise in these areas was limited at best. However, spending time with the two had given it one major advantage.

Before the sound trio could make their move they stared in odd fascination as five perfectly formed chains formed out of the seedlings back all clinking and moving in unison as though they each had a mind of their own. At the trio watched two of the chains flew out in straight lines on either side of their team burying themselves deep into the trees on either side of them. As the sound trio looked to either side, they almost missed at the chains yanked the Seedling forward towards them. Dosu only noticed it at the last second calling to his team in a panic.

"GET DOWN!" he shouted ducking down along with the others just in time as the Seedling came hurtling over their heads. The Seedling was carried a few yards further on before its two chains released themselves from the trees they had been embedded in allowing him to flip over and land sideways on a tree a few yards above the trio looking down at them even as its chains continued to wave ominously. Without missing a beat Zaku raised both his hands palms up towards the figure above with a wicked smile playing across his face.

"Nice try you bastard but eat THIS!" he shouted as two concussive blasts of chakra laced balls of air shot out towards the Seedling. The Seedling had only just landed and couldn't register the attack in time to do more than take it full in the face. Which may have mattered if the blasts hadn't simply dispersed upon impact causing the fierce gale to fall out in a calm little breeze. Zaku's face almost didn't have time to fade before the Seedling shot off from the tree and was flying down at the three like some kind of large spider. Luckily for him Dosu kept his wits about him long enough to grab the scruff of Zaku's neck before pulling him back with enough force to have him fly back a few feet through the air just before the Seedling plowed into the ground with force of a cannon blast. Dosu not missing a beat leapt forward swiping his sound gauntlet forward charged with enough chakra to make the creatures head explode. As the Seeding's eyes turned up to face forwards the gauntleted fist of Duos smashed into him with enough force to crack the steel gauntlets. There was a blast of sound ear bleeding noise and what felt like a low grad explosive tag and Dosu and the Seeding found themselves flying back through the air in opposite directions.

Dosu skidded to a halt landing awkwardly as Kin jumped over beside him a trickle of blood coming from where several bits of the tree had embedded themselves in his flesh. His female partner bent down for a moment looking him over before speaking her voice half panicked.

"What the hell happened, what is that thing?" Kin asked looking from Dosu to the Seedling who was slowly getting up from the tree it had been thrown into. Dosu took a moment to shake his head before pulling down some of his bandages so that he could spit out a glob of blood.

"The damn thing somehow stopped my sound blast for targeting it," here he spat out another glob of blood before pulling up his bandages, "The sound just blew out in every direction, I caught some of the backlash." he finished pushing himself to his feet as he looked over to where Zaku had just made it to his feet as well.

"Fuck first Zaku's cannons now your sound what the hell is this thing made of!" shouted Kin as she filled both her hands with senbon and launched them towards the creature with a cry of rage. To her and the rest of the sound Shinobi's surprise the creature became peppered with her senbon and staggered back slightly. Without missing a beat the other two sound shinobi pulled out Kunai and Shuriken of their own, and soon the three were hurling everything they had downrange at the creature. Hit after hit buried themselves into the Seedling as the hits continued to be forced backwards by the onslaught of weapons plunging themselves into it. Finally the onslaught paused at Kin allowed the final needle to fly from her fingers, leaving all three sound shinobi slightly out of breath, and more than a little panicked at the image in front of them.

The seeding was still on its feet, one of its arms dangling from its shoulder weighted down by the myriad of weapons sticking out of it. It's legs too seemed to be little more than scraps, and as it struggled to move both of them collapsed beneath it as it swung its only free arm forward to keep itself from falling all the way forward. Even then the Seedling continued to look forward at its attackers, with a small humming growl.

"What the hell do you have to do to kill this thing?" called Zaku his breath a little haggard as he looked at his teammates. Dosu only shook his head slightly at the sight before him, he had seen some dangerous things from Orochimaru's labs but this thing was quickly working its way up his list of nightmares. Kin was the only one of the three to keep her wits about her long enough to start weaving a quick set of seals.

Minami who had just managed to clear out the front of the burrow she had been hiding her team in looked over she saw the horrible state that the seedling was in, as well as the sound kunoichi land her hand on a final seal. As she watched Seed-kun seemed to somehow lose sight of its surroundings and start looking back and forth as if it could no longer see anything in the clearing.

With a satisfied smirk Kin lowered her arms and let out a low breath. "It's ok I trapped it in a genjutsu so it won't be a problem anymore," she breathed out showing a bitter little smile to her team as she spoke. Good thing I hit it with so many bell senbon, hell I'd be surprised if anyone could focus with that many sound waves hitting them, its mind is probably collapsing in on itself from the strain." she finished with a chuckle as the three shakily made their way to their feet, and turned to see Minami staring at them.

"Well it looks like your guard dog is gone now little girl." mocked Zaku cruelly as he gave Minami a fierce smirk. Minami for her part just gritted her teeth before pulling out her two silvery star blades, and with a flick of her wrist caused them to start spinning becoming two disks of spinning steel, but it was a bluff, Minami had almost no strength left in her, and real panic was setting in on her. Just as she was about to start getting truly desperate, a vile feeling bust of chakra came from behind her causing both her and the trio to turn as Sasuke stepped forward with dark purple energy oozing out of him as he stepped up to stand beside Minami his fully developed Sharingan spinning wildly in his eyes as he looked around at those gathered.

A pulse of Sasuke's chakra flooded across the clearing, and even flowed over where the seedling lay forcing the disruptive sound waves to halt their work. From where the seedling sat a small humming growl came out of its body once again stronger that those previous as its purple eyes flashed dangerously over at the pulsing figure. This chakra was evil, by its very nature it was something the Seedling knew… and despite itself it felt a desire to destroy it, with every fiber of its being. With a great effort the Seedling pushed itself unsteadily to its mangled feet, even as Sasuke charged forwards into the sound trio flinging them effortlessly around the clearing.

Sasuke had just torn Zaku's arms from their sockets as the Seedling had shakily made its way to its feet, and looked his way. Minami was in a state of almost shock at Sasuke's actions. Sure knew that such violence was a part of their work, but something about seeing Sasuke seem so happy with his actions made her stomach twist uncomfortably. She had to stop him, something was clearly wrong with him, and with that driving thought she raced over to Sasuke to try and stop him before he went any further.

"Sasuke that's enough." She half pleaded half shouted as she ran to her teammate, but even as she neared him she saw the madness in his swirling eyes as he turned to face her, his mouth moving in a wicked little smile as he did so.

"Minami perfect, these weaklings aren't enough, fight me, test me, come on, come at me." Sasuke called in voice caught between joy and madness, as he turned to face his teammate even as she halted in her tracked looking at him as though he was mad.

"W-what Sasuke this isn't the time for this you need to stop, something's wrong with you." Minami tried to reason with the maddened Uchiha. Sasuke however, was having none of it pulling out a kunai and throwing it past the girls face so that it drew a small trickle of blood from her check as it passed. Minami winced slightly at the hit before feeling the wet stickiness of her own blood as it dripped down her face.

Shit something really is wrong with him, he isn't acting rationally, that snake bastard must have done something to him. thought Minami as she looked at the half crazed boy standing before her. As she took a cautious step back she noticed a flicker of movement off to her side where the Seedling had staggered to its feet, its wounds not healing.

The Seedling was on its last legs as it stood there, healing from the battle with Kabuto, Orochimaru, and now this most recent battle without time to rest itself with Naruto had dropped its reserves down to just about nothing. It didn't even have the power left to heal its arm that dangled by a strand from its shoulder still squired by dozens of weapons. None the less some primal force seemed to drive the creature forward towards Sasuke dragging itself shakily from one foot to the other as it went.

Minami looked over a stab of sadness and guilt at seen the state of the Seedling. It had done all of this, been hurt so defending her and her sister… sacrificing itself for them without thinking of itself at all…just like Naruto had done all his life. Tears started to fall down the redheads face some of the water mixing with the blood from her check and dropping crimson tears upon the forest floor.

No…no more please you've done enough… please kami no more. Minami thought her voice so weak that only her thoughts could cast themselves forward begging pleading for the reality of what she was seeing to stop.

But it didn't Sasuke's head slowly turned to see the slowly approaching Seedling an annoyed little look crossing his face as his eyes fell upon it. Whether he was too far gone to notice the appearance of the Seedling or that his battle lust had simply overridden his common since, whatever the reason he didn't question the creature's presence, and simply turned to face it flying through a series of hand signs as he did so. Seeing this Minami lurched forward to try and place herself between the two just managing it as a bout of flame escaped the Uchiha's lips and flying towards the girl.

Minami saw the flames coming, and closed her eyes tight as she felt the flame approach her, its warmth tickling her face as it closed in. But something else was there as well, another feeling something around her stomach. Without warning she felt a pulling sensation and her eyes flew open as she found her waist wrapped in a black chain that that pulled her out of the path of the flam. As she turned her eyes she found the wide eyes of the Seedling looking at her even as the flames rushed over him. The chain holding her faltered slightly as the flame continued to poor of the creature, and its form seemed to buckle under the pressure from the unending flames. Even as she watched she could see that the flame was dispersing as it hit the seedling, but the continued torrent of the flame kept the heat and flame fresh on the Seedlings form.

Even as she cried out she saw its damaged arm fall to the forest floor and slowly become swallowed by the flame even as the chain holding her also faltered dropping her to the ground as it did so. Through watery eyes she saw the Seedling slowly begin to crumble away as more and more flame covered it, till finally Sasuke halted his attack, and the flame died away from the seedling.

As the flame died away and the Seedling came back into view Minami almost cried out in sadness as she saw it. Both its arms had been burned away, even as bits of black seemed to break away like ash from the creature as it looked over at the Uchiha. The burnt ends of chains dangled weakly from its back were they had broken in an effort to get Minami clear of the blast. Even as the two members of team seven watched the seedling began to crack as bits of its face, and body fell to the forest floor and dissipated leaving large gouges across its form as it did so. Despite this and to both of their shock the Seedling managed to rise shakily to its feet, both its legs little more than mutilated lumps that were cracking and chipping away even as they watched. With a last bit of effort the Seedling forced itself to crouch slightly facing Sasuke before pushing everything it had left into a final shot forward towards the Uchiha who had begun going through seals once again.

The Uchiha was to late however, and before he could finish his final seal the Seedling had slammed its head straight into the Uchiha's face balling the two over to the forest floor. As the hit landed the menacing chakra from Sasuke seemed to explode from him even as the markings around his body proceeded to recede back into his neck. Minami forced herself to her feet and ran to the side of the pair even as the Seedling rolled off of the now unconscious Uchiha as its body continued to crumble, one of its legs cracking and blowing away as it did so. Just as Minami reached the spot the Seedling turned its remaining purple eye to her and let out a weak hum towards her. Minami dropped to her knees beside the Seedling feeling a stab guilt, sadness and everything else that came with the feeling of helplessness when someone sees something they have not power to stop. Tears still in her eyes she spoke softly to the Seedling even as the cracks reached its final eyes and the light started to dim.

"I'm sorry Seed-kun, oh kami I'm sorry." she said between tears as she looked down at the Seedling even as fresh tears began to form it her eyes. Before she could say more the seedling extended the last bit of chain it had left that was crumbling even as it did so to gently wipe away one of her tears with a soft hum that had the redhead speechless. As the chain fell the cracking finally reached the eye and the Seedlings form completely crumbled away leaving only a black orb where the creatures head had been, black and unmoving, with a faint pulse of purple energy coming off of it.

"Minamai hurry put your hand on Seed-kun!" called Kyu inside the girls head before she could collapse. Minami shook her head slightly before asking in a voice exhausted from her experiences.

"W-what?" she spoke the sadness and weakness clear in her voice.

"I said hurry and put your hand on Seed-kun I may be able to give it some of my chakra to help save it before it's gone!" shouted Kyu. Minami paused only for a moment taking in what the fox had said before she thrust her hand onto the orb ignoring the slight feeling of weakness that came with contact with the orb.

"DO IT!" she almost screamed as her hands meet the orb. She had failed to protect her team, she had failed to keep her family from falling apart around her, and she had failed to help the creature before her, but she would be damned if she was going to lose anymore. As her hands hit the orb a sudden pulse went through her and a blast of Kyu's chakra shot its way unabated through her arms and down into the orb. As she watched the orb pulsing seemed to grow a bit stronger and flickers of red could now be seen in the purple light it was given off. After what seemed like an eternity, she let her hands fall, and let out a tired breath.

"D-did it work?" she asked panting slightly as she did so. Kyu was silent for a moment as well its breath coming out in small gasps as it did so before finally speaking.

"H-hai I think so, Seed-kun should be ok for now, but he needs to get back to Naruto and Kaasan so he can be fixed." replied Kyu. Minami let out a soft happy breath as she looked around the clearing and noticed for the first time that the Sound trio had seemed to have go while the getting was good. So she stood after a moment taking a look around before picking up the orb gently and taking it back into the tree to place in her pack before returning to check on Sasuke.

Meanwhile in another part of the forest Naruto and the rest of team eight were helping a Seedling pull what looked like the entire contents of Konoha's armory out of itself.

"Ya you were right there was no way the Seedlings were going to get into trouble." Joked Kiba as he pulled a mace out of the back of the Seedling with a grunt of effort. Naruto just gave him a tired look as he pulled out what seemed like the hundredth kunai from the Seedling.

"Always looking at the negative Kiba, look at it this way, we won't be short on weapons." Replied Naruto halfheartedly as Hinata suppressed a giggle as she sat with a seedling of her own scanning the area with her Byakugan keeping a watch out for anything.

"So what number does this make anyway, we need to get to the tower sometime today." asked Kiba as he rose stretching his back slightly as the seeding stood as well, helping to pull out the last few weapons. A moment later the seedling had collapsed into a Seed orb and flown back to situate itself on Naruto's coat, as the blond rose to.

"This guy makes five, but we are still mission one out there somewhere." He replied with a small note of concern in his voice. True a Seedling was nothing to shake a stick at but they weren't invincible, and if by some bad luck one did fall in battle and he wasn't there to retrieve it he could kiss a year's work goodbye, and kami help him explaining to Mito that one of her playmates wasn't going to be around. The blond suppressed a small shiver at the thought as Hinata stood as well walking over as the seedling that had been with her retreated into Naruto's coat as well.

"Still Naruto, Kiba makes a point, we do need to get to the tower, and if we don't hurry we might not make it on time." She spoke softly looking over at Naruto with a soft smile. Naruto turned to face her before letting out a breath and relaxing.

"Ya I guess you're right, lets head out for now, with any luck we'll find it on the way, and worse case I'll just keep the pollen net up to find it after we finish this part of the exam. " finished the blonde as the team set off towards the tower.

A few hours later found them standing before the towers base facing two open scrolls that were smoking slightly. The next second there was a small burst of smoke and Kushina steeped out to them smiling around at the three her red hair waving behind her.

"Well done team, you've passed the second exam." She said beaming around at them all. Team eleven all looked at one another smiling as they did so, but before they could do more than give each other a quick smile a commotion from the entryway into the tower drew their eyes.

As they turned they saw the haggard members of team seven entering into the room, all sporting the clear signs of battle and exhaustion. As Naruto looked over he felt a familiar, if not somewhat altered pulse form over by Minami that seemed to be coming from her pack. As his purple eyes meet her red ones she gave an almost impossible to notice nod of her head. From inside Naruto's head he heard a small sound of Juubi giggling.

What's so funny Juubi, and why am I getting a weird vibe from Minami? Asked Naruto trying to figure out what he seemed to be missing. There was a short pause where Juubi seemed to be collecting herself before she spoke again, her voice unmistakable in a tone of happiness.

"Oh I can't wait to see what my little Kyu-kun did, something tells me you just got Mito and Hanabi a new present." Giggled the Juubi leaving Naruto to wonder what on earth she could be talking about.

And end…wow that chapter got out of hand fast, I have to say fight scenes are really easy to get writing once you get the hang of them. Ok to head off any complaints let me answer a few questions I am sure people will bring up. First yes the seedlings are basically immune to chakra, and yes they can leap through a fireball without much effort. But there is a difference between shirking off a small compact burst of fire that dissipates quickly enough to not leave much heat, and getting hit with a flamethrower. True it disperses but the heat doesn't as fast as it continues to be replaced. Second Yes Kushina has a special type of chakra that Orochimaru can't duplicate. He can however, figure out how it works, and make an imitation of sorts. Finally yes Seedlings are powerful, but they aren't invincible, just hard to put down and fight. I hope you enjoyed the chapter and thanks again for all of the reviews, favorites, and follows that make this story continue. Also small point I will be starting class soon on top of the job I work, so my pace for chapters will slow a bit, I will try and keep up the pace but other things may slow that down. Till next time Songbird out.