Chapter TWENTY FIVE
"This is not the time to be celebrating. I am the examiner of the second test, Mitarashi Anko. Now, follow me!"
Sakura yawned. She hadn't really caught much of what Anko was saying but Sasuke would probably have been listening, so she dismissed it. Suddenly, a sheet of paper was shoved into her hands. She absently grabbed it before passing down the rest. Naruto's gasp made her look down.
Consent Form.
I hereby state the Hidden Leaf Village will not be held responsible if my team or myself do not survive the Exam.
Signed:
Sakura sighed, her mind already putting the pieces together.
"So, simply put, we are to get through the forest and into the tower in the middle after we have collected both scrolls."
Sasuke nodded.
"And I suppose we'll only get given one scroll, so we have to steal another from some other team?" She asked.
Sasuke nodded again. "We have a five-day limit. Anything's allowed." He paused. "I thought you weren't listening?"
"She is holding two types of scrolls. She mentioned that half or less will get through. I have simply just pieced it together." Sakura said.
Sakura sigh. "This is more troublesome than I originally thought."
Naruto's eyes widened. "Oh no! Sakura-chan! You've been hanging around Shikamaru way too often!"
Sakura closed her eyes, ignoring him. Countless numbers of plans and tactics ran through her mind.
Sasuke grabbed Naruto's wrist, making him quieten down.
"We'll head straight for the tower and hope we come across a team with the Earth scroll on the way." Sakura decided. "Some of the teams will hang around the start to see if they are lucky enough to run into a weak team. I think some of the teams will know this, and will head ahead, especially some of the less experienced teams, in hopes of avoiding conflict as much as possible."
Sasuke nodded. So did Naruto, though Sakura had a feeling he did not understand the reasoning behind her plan.
That didn't matter, Sakura decided. As long as he followed said plan.
When the bell signaling the start went out, team seven shot off. Sakura was automatically in the lead and neither boys complained.
"I got to take a piss." Naruto said, turning around and facing a tree.
"Dobe! Go do your business behind a bush or something." Sasuke snapped, slapping Naruto on the back of his head.
Naruto glared at him but did what he was told. A few minuted later, he was back.
"Man, I feel so much-" Before Naruto could finish his sentence, Sasuke sent him flying. Naruto hit a tree and slid to the ground. He slowly stood up.
"What the hell was that for?" Naruto asked.
"Where's the real Naruto?" Sasuke asked.
Sakura narrowed her eyes.
"What are you talking about? I'm the real Naruto!" Naruto said in a 'you must be crazy' kind of tone.
"Naruto is right handed. You have your kunai pouch around your left leg." Sasuke sneered. "Even Naruto is better at the henge."
"Your chakra signature is also different from Naruto-san's. Who are you?" Sakura asked, glaring at 'Naruto'.
There was a puff of smoke, revealing 'Naruto''s true form.
"An Ame shinobi?" Sakura muttered to herself.
"You figured it out. Oh well, which one of you has the scroll?"
Neither spoke up, though a harsh statement along the lines of 'Neither of us are stupid enough to tell you' was on the tip of Sakura's tongue. Instead, she shrug. "Unlucky that you decided to transform into the one who was most likely to tell you."
Sasuke scoffed.
"I'll just take it by force then!" The rain ninja declared, running towards them.
Sakura was in front of him in a flash. She leaped over him, spinning around and smashing her foot against the back of his neck. There was a crack, and the Rain shinobi flew away.
"Did you..." Sasuke trailed off.
Sakura tilted her head at him.
"Never mind." Sasuke shook his head.
They quickly found Naruto.
Sasuke plopped down onto the ground, motioning for his team to do the same.
"If we get separated next time, even if its one of us, don't trust them. This could happen again." Sasuke said "We'll make a code word just in case. If they get the code word wrong assume they are the enemy no matter what they look like."
"The question will be," Sasuke said slowly. "When does a ninja strike?"
"And?" Sakura prompted
"Listen carefully, because I will only say this once." said Sasuke.
"The answer must be 'A ninja strikes when the time is right. When an enemy sleeps and drops his guard, when his weapons lay forgotten in the stillness of the night...that is the moment for a ninja to strike.' Got it?"
"Got it." Sakura said, almost immediately.
Sakura and Sasuke turned to look at Naruto.
"Can you repeat the password?" Naruto asked while trying to process what Sasuke had just said.
"No." Sasuke said. "I said I'll only say it once."
Naruto groaned. "I was thinking it was gonna be a password, not a pass-speech."
"If you've got a problem with it then—"
Sasuke was cut off by a huge explosion. Each of them jumped off in their own direction to avoid it and lost sight of one another.
Sakura spotted Sasuke behind a bush quickly approached him.
"Sasuke-san." she called, catching his attention.
Sasuke raised a kunai in defense.
"Wait. Don't come any closer. First, answer this question: when does a ninja strike?"
"A ninja strikes when the time is right. When the enemy sleeps and drops his guard, when his weapons lay forgotten in the stillness of the night, that is the moment for a ninja to strike." Sakura said as if she were reading off a text book.
Sasuke dropped his weapon and calmed down. "Good."
They heard a rustle from the bushes and Naruto emerged from the green.
"Hey guys!" he said, almost too enthusiastically.
"Stop. Do not come any closer." Sakura said. Naruto froze. "When does a ninja strike?"
"Oh yeah!" Naruto gasped. "A ninja strikes when the time is right. When the enemy sleeps and drops his guard, when his weapons lay forgotten in the stillness of the night, that is the moment for a ninja to strike."
Sakura's eyes narrowed and Sasuke threw a kunai at him. 'Naruto' flawlessly dodged the weapon.
Sakura leaped over to where 'Naruto' was and held a kunai to his throat. "Do you really think Naruto-san can memorize something like that?"
"I have to say." Sasuke smirked. "Your transformation is much better than that last one. Just give us your scroll and we might take it easy on you."
All the ninja did was chuckle.
"So, you saw through my guise..." The ninja said. Her voice held a deadly tone to it.
The imposer transformed back into their natural form in the blink of an eye, revealing a shinobi from the Grass Village. He...her? opened their mouth to reveal a disturbingly long tongue.
He (or she) smiled and before anyone knew what had happened, he/her pulled a kunai out of nowhere and stabbed Sakura in the stomach.
Sakura, who had finally managed to master keeping her hydrification technique on the standby at all times, exploded into liquid.
Slightly surprised, the Kusa nin-jumped away.
"Sakura!" Sasuke cried out. No matter how many times he saw it, watching the girl turn into water was...disturbing. He quickly ran to where his teammate was.
The water brought itself back together. Sakura gritted her teeth and got to her feet. Sasuke grabbed her arm as she stumbled, letting her catch her breath.
The ninja chuckled. The sound of his (or her) voice made Sasuke and Sakura wince. "You poor, pathetic little children. I thought you'd put up much more of a fight."
They looked into their opponent's eyes, something Sakura berated herself for later, and a killing intent hit them hard, scene she never wanted to see flashing before her eyes.
Her death.
A slow, painful death.
Sasuke, in the same state, was slowly beginning to panic. Why? Why couldn't he move?
"Sa-sakura." He gasped, trying to move his head just enough to look at her.
"Sasuke-san?" She said, attempting the same thing.
"W-what do we do?" Sasuke asked. Moving was getting harder by the second.
How do you overcome fear?
There was blood, lots of blood. There were screams and sounds of tearing flesh. Crimson liquid splattered-
And suddenly, the fear which had been in control of her dispersed.
'I protect your mind.' She heard Inner's voice. 'That's what I'm here for.' Sakura's body broke out of it's frozen state.
She whipped around in time to see their enemy throw two kunai at them.
Not wasting a second, she threw several smoke bombs in the ninjas' direction before spinning around to grab Sasuke. She jumped, kicking off the branch. They needed to get as far away as they could.
By the time Sakura stopped on a branch to catch her breath, Sasuke had mostly recovered.
Some one who could inflict such raw fear couldn't be just any ordinary Genin. Sakura thoughts were cut off because Sasuke suddenly yelled out. "Sakura! look out!"
A giant snake erupted out of the green and flew at them, fangs bared.
Sasuke jumped away to dodge. Sakura jumped onto another branch.
The snake was probably a summon called by the Kusa shinobi. Sakura grimaced. Who is it after?
The snake didn't hesitate and headed straight towards Sasuke.
Sasuke studied the snake. He only saw the same eyes that had terrified him only a few moments ago.
"No!" He cried out. "Stay away!" He threw shuriken at the snake, hitting it's throat and killing it almost instantly.
Sakura landed next to him. "Nicely done, Sasuke-san."
They were interrupted by a weird sound. They two looked at the supposed-to-be-dead-snake and saw something emerge from it.
Slowly but surely, it became the form of the grass ninja that they had fought a while ago.
Sakura instantly stiffened. The Kusa shinobi turned their gaze from Sasuke to Sakura.
"The...what should I say...technique you used to escape the clutches of fear." The Kusa shinobi said. "It reminded me of a certain Kunoichi I killed several years ago."
Sakura's eyes widened but she quickly forced herself to calm down. Just because it reminded him of her didn't mean that this person was the one to have killed her mother, right?
"What do you want from us?" Sasuke asked.
He got a chuckle as a response.
"What do you want from us?" Sasuke repeated, desperate.
Their opponent just chuckled evilly at him. He pulled out an Earth scroll. "I know that you have the heaven scroll." He said. "And I also know you would just love to get your hands on this precious Earth scroll."
Sakura took a deep breath as the ninja before them swallowed the Earth scroll. "That's just too bad, isn't it?" He asked.
Sakura glanced back at Sasuke who looked too frozen to move. She leaped towards their opponent, kunai in each hand. The Kusa ninja dodged her attacks easily, too easily. As if tired to playing around, a sharp blow was landed on the back of her head. This time, she was (slightly) prepared, and managed to turn only half her body into water. Still, she was sent flying and she landed harshly on the ground. She lay there for a second before she got to her feet. Sasuke wouldn't be able to defend himself. She had to get back.
She emerged from the trees and wanted to hug the fates. Naruto had arrived. Said blonde turned around as her steps made a sound. His eyes were somehow different. They were red-orange and deadly, not cerulean and gleaming with radiance.
"Hmm." The enemy shinobi said. "So this is the nine-tailed fox container, huh?"
Sakura winced from the pain in the back of her head and she crumbled to the ground.
The enemy shinobi pinned Naruto to a nearby tree and pulled his shirt up to reveal a seal on his stomach. He brought out his hand and gabbed Naruto by the hem of his shirt. He placed his glowing hand on his stomach, surrounding the spiral seal that he once had. The impact knocked Naruto out and sent him falling into the forest.
Sakura managed to throw a kunai to pin Naruto to a nearby tree and keep him there until the battle was over.
"Stop it!" Sasuke yelled. "It's the scroll you want, isn't it?" Sasuke reached into his pocket and brought out the heaven scroll. "Take it! Take it and let us go."
"No, Sasuke-san!" Sakura cried out. She struggled to her feet.
"It's no use, Sakura." Sasuke said. "We don't know what we're up against!"
Something bubbled with Sakura. Something so foreign and yet, familiar.
Sasuke threw the scroll over to the rain ninja who had his palm open to receive it. However, a flash of pink appeared between them, taking the scroll with it.
Sasuke and the enemy ninja looked to their right and saw Sakura holding the scroll out. "I'm not letting you take the scroll." she said.
The rain ninja chuckled. "Very persistent, aren't you?"
Sakura placed it in her weapon pouch and pulled out another scroll. She summoned Kiba and gripped them. She held out her left sword and turned her body sideways, holding her right sword behind her.
"Sakura!" Sasuke cried out again. "You don't know what you're up against!"
Sakura shook her head. "I've seen people like him, people who can use their killing intent like that. They are the kind of people who won't be satisfied easily. He can easily kill us. If he wanted the scroll he would have killed us already. After all, after we are dead he can take the scroll without any resistant. He needs us, or at least, someone here, alive."
Sasuke looked like he wanted to cry out in frustration. And yet, he performed the Fire Dragon technique on the unsuspecting enemy ninja.
It was as if the enemy hadn't suspected Sasuke to still fight. He dodged, but the jutsu managed to...melt away the ninja's disguise, revealing a face Sakura had seen many times in her nightmare.
"Orochimaru!" Fury and hatred like never before rushed through Sakura, turning her vision red.
Sorry about the very late update. Also if there were any errors. (Was slightly rushed)
Darque: Raven broke his arm. A car ran into him(ish).
Raven: It wasn't my fault. The car ran into me.
Darque: That's what I said.
Raven: I meant that it wasn't my fault.
Darque: Yeah, cause cars just randomly run into people who are waiting for the traffic light to turn from RED to GREEN.
Raven: ...
Tell us what you think, okay?
Read and review!