Unknown: Thank you; you'll find out what's been told to the Sand Sibs as we go along; yes--Sakura has noticed that Sasuke follows Naruto's lead, but is likely in denial; one cannot teleport to a location unless one knows the location, so teleporting straight to the Sand Trio is out; not telling you about reactions or anything else that will come up in later chapters.

AnonymousPerson: Thanks! Glad you like it.

tad: Not sure about 'best line ever', but I will admit I couldn't resist adding it.

The Second Task, Part 1

Anko should be here any minute now…

Sasuke sent a wordless acknowledgement.

Think we should do something about her entrance?

There was hesitation, then a strange sort of half-acquiescence. If Sakura does something, we should back her. Otherwise… it's Anko. It would only encourage her.

Sasuke could practically feel Naruto's smirk.

I know.

He spared a moment to wonder how he could have forgotten that Anko was merely a more bloodthirsty, female version of Naruto's basic personality. The blond loved to get her riled up for just that reason.

And Anko made her—rather destructive—entrance.

Sakura's hand twitched towards a kunai before Anko started yelling, but the motion was aborted when it became obvious that Anko was Leaf and therefore likely a proctor.

Sasuke gave a snort of amusement at the disappointed 'pout' that washed over the link, inadvertently drawing Anko's attention—and kunai—to himself.

The kunai was intercepted by another mid-air, both clattering harmlessly across one of the empty desks, and Naruto was on the dais before anyone but his teammates realized it, another kunai held to Anko's throat.

Sasuke settled for raising an eyebrow, ignoring Anko's shocked and furious expression, "I could have handled that myself, dobe."

"Hey, you threatened Ibiki—it's only fair that I get Anko. Sakura can have Genki." He stepped back, placing the kunai in its holster before glancing up at Sasuke and raising an eyebrow.

Sasuke shrugged and threw two chakra strings at the kunai on the desk two rows in front of him, yanking them back up to his hands before throwing both pointy objects to their respective owners.

Neither commented and Naruto returned to his seat, a sort of stunned silence following him and remaining for several minutes more before Anko finally got her bearings. It wasn't often that Gennin caught her off-guard, after all. That's all it was. She'd been caught off-guard.

Anko cleared her throat. "Meet me at the entrance to the Forest of Death in two hours."

xxxx

Kakashi winced as many pairs of eyes turned on him, the general air in the room being something between incredulity and thinly veiled amusement or horror.

"What the hell have you been teaching those brats?"

xxxx

Can't kill snake-face, can't kill snake-face, can't kill snake-face… The words were repeated like a mantra over and over again.

"Naruto!" Sasuke snapped, drawing the eyes of not only his teammates, but the other Gennin nearby, "Will you please cut it out!?"

The silent chant cut off. "… Ano… sorry, Sasuke."

Sakura shook her head, slightly exasperated, "I'm… not going to ask."

Why do you keep saying you can't kill Orochimaru anyway? Sasuke switched to mindspeak.

We aren't in the forest, yet, and he's only twenty yards away… do you have any idea how tempting it is to just kill him and forget the rules?

There was a slight pause and Sasuke grimaced, When you put it that way… yes.

Neither noticed the way Shikamaru's eyes narrowed as he watched team 7.

xxxx

The forest was nowhere near as intimidating as Naruto remembered it being—although, he had been much 'younger' the last time he'd been there. Now, it felt like home—though that might have had something to do with the fox-senses he was calling on at the moment.

"Got anything?" Sasuke asked tersely, aloud for Sakura's benefit.

Naruto tilted his head slightly, then shook it. And there's no telling if people will be where they were last time, he added silently, Too many variables could have changed.

A slight acknowledgement flitted through the link, then Sasuke straightened. "Should we try to meet up with Gaara? People will be less than willing to take on a six-man team, especially with Suna's own terror involved."

Sakura looked thoughtful, "That's not a bad idea," she said slowly. "But who's Gaara?"

"The son of the Kazekage," Sasuke stated. "He's a friend of Naruto's. His teammates are his siblings, so if you take on one, you take on all—and tick off the Kazekage while you're at it."

Sasuke failed to mention that, at the moment, Kankuro was relatively certain that his younger brother would kill him given the slightest provocation.

"How did Naruto manage to make friends with the Kazekage's son?" Sakura asked.

Naruto looked insulted.

Sasuke smirked, "They have a few things in common." He paused, "Or not. Gaara's quiet, serious, and can be terrifying when he wants to be—and I wasn't kidding when I said he crushes people to death. The only common ground there is, is that the dobe can be damn scary if you tick him off."

"Gee, thanks…"

You're being pretty quiet, Sasuke observed silently, casting a somewhat worried glance at the blond. Are you all right?

I'm… Naruto trailed off, unable to honestly say 'fine', but not sure what was bugging him. … not sure. He admitted, shifting uneasily. I guess I'm a bit on edge… something doesn't feel right.

Sasuke gave him a level stare, then turned away, "Let's get moving."

xxxx

Shikamaru led his team through the undergrowth just far enough to find a sheltered place between the trees to plan. Their options were limited—they had neither the Inuzuka's nose nor the Aburame's insects to track other teams, and they didn't have the third advantage of the Hyuuga's eyes to see any dangers nearby. Kurenai's team had a definite advantage in that aspect and would have an easier time on this portion of the test.

Of course, Naruto's team also lacked those advantages, though the Uchiha had the Sharingan and Naruto had obviously gotten some kind of advantage, though what he had only vague suspicions. The Haruno girl would be no good for tracking, and, Sharingan or not, the Uchiha wouldn't be able to see everything around him like the Hyuuga would.

That would have left Team 7 as a possible target for the scroll… except that Shikamaru was not one to move before being able to see all of the opponent's moves… and Naruto was an enigma. Team 8 was out—no way would they get past Hinata's eyes. That left them with their only options containing unknown qualities.

Or… alliances. But who would ally with a new Gennin team that had been together only a few months? Especially one with no incredibly outstanding talents. There was kage mane and Ino's mind-control, Choji's family specialty… but all those had severe limits. There was also Shikamaru's brain, but those were things that only other Leaf would know about.

Still, such an alliance had quite a bit of room for backstabbing involved, and he didn't trust any of the members of other teams enough to know they wouldn't turn on his own. Shikamaru sighed.

"What's the plan?" Ino asked, cutting through his thinking.

"Kurenai's team will be impossible to sneak up on and Naruto is an unknown. We need to find and ambush a weak team from either Grass or Sound."

xxxx

Team 8 had little trouble finding the perfect place to set up their ambush, with Hinata's eyes and Shino's talents with insects, they had little trouble bringing in an unsuspecting Sound team. Of course, their little plan left Kiba and Akamaru with nothing to do, but the simple efficiency with which they acquired their second scroll (thanks to Hinata, they could pick a team with it) was enough to placate him.

Now all they needed to do was get to the tower.