AN: Long awaited Part 1 of 2 in the Forest of Death…. I really am sorry it took so long to write this. All I can say is that 2010 has been an interesting year. From my poor cat committing seppuku, new clients working me to death to my own health issues… I will try to post the next section soon, but it can be a bit. Sorry! As I said in the beginning I will finish this. Sadly I may have times with long (cough) delays. I hope not to have one as bad as this again, but I can't promise that. FYI – I see that fanfic lost my formatting on earlier chapters so I will be cleaning them up and putting section breaks back in…
"That is the whole secret of successful fighting. Get your enemy at a disadvantage; and never, on any account, fight him on equal terms."
- George Bernard Shaw
Chapter 5: Competition promotes growth….
Part 3: Fight …
About five minutes after they entered the forest they heard a scream. Sakura froze on the tree branch she had stopped on. Sasuke looked to the left in the direction of the scream. After a moment he looked up at Naruto, who nodded to him before jumping down to his branch.
"We need to figure out what we want to do, something tells me this may become very bloody," Sasuke said.
"Hey Sakura-chan come up here," Naruto called.
Hearing her name snapped her back into focus, and Sakura jumped up to join her teammates.
"So you got any ideas?" Naruto asked, crouching down.
"Hn, we can either start actively hunting teams or we can head to the tower and set up traps to capture another team," Sasuke said. He grabbed a blank scroll from his pouch and unrolled it, pulling out a pencil he started sketching out the map he had copied with his sharingan. "The tower is here, we are here," Sasuke marked the rough map. "In between we have mostly woods and a small clearing with small hills around a stream. Around the tower is massive trees and dense forest, perfect area for trapping."
"Well, between Sakura and me we can set up some nice traps near the tower," Naruto muttered.
Sakura looked between the two and took a deep breath, "I'm not sure that is the best way," she finally said in a rush.
She blushed as both boys turned to look at her.
"Why not?" Sasuke finally asked.
"Well that is what most teams will think, standard tactics would be to trap a courier and take the missives. Best bet it outside the tower as most will be exhausted fighting their way to it. If everyone does that it makes the area to dangerous and the teams coming through will be on guard," she moved to look at the map.
"Huh," Naruto moved forwarded and pointed to a place on the map by the river, "What if we move silently to this point here? We can set up a trap and then bait it."
"Bait it? With what?" Sakura looked up confused.
"Kage Bunshin," Naruto grinned. "I can create a few teams to spread out in our area in henge to look like other teams we saw. While they distract we move silently to this point. We go high in the trees; remember Kakashi-sensei mentioned how even most ninja forget to look high up? Once we get to here," he jabbed the map again, "we set up a baited trap. What we set is a camp, people will assume we are exhausted and come in to take our scroll, we catch them. If they don't have the scroll we need we can always find another Konoha team to trade with."
"Barter?" Sasuke moved to look at the spot. "I like it, Sakura?"
"Sounds better, we need to make sure that we don't tire ourselves out. The tower run is going to be bad. I mean we are looking at a half way point to set up this false camp, afterwards we need to get through the traps set up by other teams around the tower."
"Nah, actually it can be easy, see over here," Naruto pointed to the south side of the forest. "That area is marked as having a lot of animal life, people will probably avoid it. I can get us through without problems."
"How?" Sakura stared at him confused.
"Same way I pranked the Inuzuka and Abraume complex," he pulled out some pellets. "These are my special animal knock out gas. It works only on animals, and it leaves a marker on any human that goes through it that makes animals run away. It took me six months to get the formula right, but man was it worth it."
"That was you?"
"It's always me," Naruto said as he grinned.
"Nice, let's go for it," Sasuke stood up and rolled the map.
Naruto quickly made nine Kage Bunshin and had them henge. One set looked like the sound team, another looked like the sand team and the last looked like Team Gai. Each team nodded to Naruto before moving out.
"…Yosh, Neji we shall conquer this exam."
Sasuke and Sakura turned to look at Naruto. He looked at them and backed up hands in air. "Hey, if they don't act like the people they are imitating, it just doesn't work."
"How the hell can you imitate that well?"
"Well, teme, years of practice," Naruto smirked and jumped up to the higher branches. "Believe it or not I do a real good impression of you sometimes. People just love to give you discounts and sometimes I'm low on cash."
"But the foreign teams?" Sakura jumped to follow him, when she noticed Sasuke scowling.
"I spied on them with teme for a bit, got enough down to copy, and it would look odd to have too many Konoha teams around us."
{RoD}
"What do you think of here?" Naruto asked as he landed in a clearing.
He was joined instantly by Sasuke and Sakura. Sasuke began scanning the trees looking at the different angles; he moved around to study the light filtering in through the branches ad leaves. Sakura moved around the area judging the lay of the ground and the distances to the trees before turning and smiling.
"Oh, I think this will work just fine. Between Naruto and me we can make this place death trap, and Sasuke can set up traps in the trees?" she looked to Sasuke hopefully.
"Should do," he pulled out a scroll that he threw at Naruto. "You take this and pass me the storage scroll with the blue ribbon, say about 2-3 hours to set up?" He caught the scroll Naruto tossed him.
"Works for me," Naruto grinned, folding his hands behind his head, the scroll along his back neck.
{RoD}
Silence, only broken by the sound of leaves and birds echoed through the trees that the three genin were moving stealthily through. One stopped and held up a hand for the others to halt also.
"Hear something?" the girl asked as she moved in closer.
"Yeah, sounds like a team are setting up a camp ahead. We should take a look, they might be easy picking if they are already tired."
"We need to spy them out first, could be a set up," the last said, his voice muffled by a water breather on his face.
"Alright, let me go," the girl knelt down a made a few hand signs before closing her eyes. Slowly her form seemed to waver out of focus as a genjutsu took effect. Once she was gone from sight, the other two could see slight impressions in bark as she moved in the direction the other genin team was setting up camp.
The two boys moved closer to the trunk of the tree and hunkered down to await news, trying to remain out of sight.
{RoD}
Miku moved silently through the trees, secure in the knowledge that her chameleon genjutsu was working smoothly. She could hear the noise up ahead and slowed down and lay against the tree. Slinking forwards she moved to get a closer look at what was happening below.
She watched as three genin moves around a temporary camp. As she watched them she began to realize that the team just might be perfect picking. One of the boys was walking around the perimeter setting basic traps. She watched as he layered trip wires that connected to tags. Not close enough to see she assumed that they were small explosives or shock tags. She barely caught the sideways glance the boy cast towards the center of the camp, but when she did Miku had to control her snort of laughter. The black haired boy was glaring disgustedly at the girl. Curious she turned to study the girl and see what the problem was.
Of course it would be tree huggers, she thought to herself. It had been disgusting to her to see what some of the Konoha genin were like at the first test. She vaguely remembered the pink haired girl and another blond haired girl fighting over a boy like two civilians, it had pissed her off. They were a disgrace to Kunoichi everywhere. Even now the girl was sitting down looking through the pacts acting as if she was busy, when in reality she is trying to catch her breath from running. Aggravated, Miku turned to look at the third and almost laughed. The boy was wearing orange clothes and making a mess of the campsite. He apparently was only partially paying attention to the campsite he was building, instead watching the girl with an adoring look on his face.
Watching for a bit longer, Miku smirked in excitement. Perfect, she thought after a while, turning to leave the site behind.
{RoD}
"Think she bought it?" Sakura whispered.
"Of Course," Naruto grinned widely. "Bet she is off to get her team. They plan to take our scroll."
Sasuke smirked, "Nice acting by the way."
"Huh, are you kidding, I so do not act like that," Sakura whined. Naruto and Sasuke shared a glance before turning to look at the girl. "I don't do I?" she whispered shakily.
"Not as much anymore Sakura-chan."
{RoD}
Taking down the team was easier than Miku had thought. When the boy in orange had stepped out to use the bathroom, her teammates had grabbed him. Tying him up, they dumped him behind the bushes and headed to move in. Kagari quickly formed a henge to make him look like the blond and stumbled out of the bushes into the Konoha team camp. Mubi nodded to her as he moved to follow silently behind so that he could help get the drop. Miku snarled at the boy once before forming the chameleon jutsu again and moving further into the campsite.
Once they were gone the bound Naruto gave a muffled giggle before disappearing in a puff of smoke. On the other side of the camp in a tree the real Naruto's eyes snapped open and he grinned while elbowing Sasuke and Sakura. The three genin smiled before moving to different tree locations that allowed them to watch the camp from all directions. Knowing that one of the team was a genjutsu expert, Sasuke looked around with his sharingan. Pulling on two wires he felt them jerk slightly. Tapping a code into it, he let them know that the girl was nearing the Sakura-clone under genjutsu.
He felt another tug back and listened to the pulse along the wire as Sakura confirmed that below her hidden in a tree was the third teammate. He felt Naruto query her to see if she felt she could take him. Sakura replied with an affirmative pulse and Naruto responded that he would take out the one disguised as him. Sasuke felt the urge to smirk at how well it was all going, but knowing that things could still go wrong he focused on the hidden girl.
It was like watching a movie with how fast it happened. The Sakura-clone was immediately taken hostage and the Sasuke-clone was armed and moving against the fake-Naruto. A slight pulse of chakra almost distracted Sasuke before he pulled another wire and watched as the girl holding a hostage was pulled to the ground. She landed on the false Sakura who popped under the pressure. Jumping from the tree he landed next to her and grabbed the off balance girl and twisted her hands behind her back. Grabbing some wire he twisted it around her fingers and hands locking them up and grabbing her other hand tied it as well. Thanking Haku for that trick, he knew she was unable to use her hands for anything, jutsu or weapon wise. He heard fighting behind the bushes and moving quickly finished tying the girl up before heading towards Sakura.
When he got there he had to fight off the urge to grin. It appeared that years of cat fighting with Ino had paid off. Sakura had a sharp grip on the boys' hair and was pulling him off of her inch by inch. Once a small space existed between their bodies, Sakura shot her knee up and kicked the boy right where it would hurt. A small part of Sasuke whimpered in sheer pain, the rest of him though was glad to see the Sakura had actually learned something from the academy. Kami knows that Kiba got kicked there often by the girls in the school.
Seeing the other kid down for the count, he decided to interrupt, "You got him, or need some help?"
Sakura saw Sasuke and smiled while getting up. She put a hand to her ribs before snarling at the boy again and kicking him hard in the stomach. "Nah, I'm good, all though if you have some more wire to tie him up that would be good." She kicked him again, "Never try that with a lady, shanaro."
After seeing the last kick, Sasuke wisely just started to tie the boy up. Afterwards he grabbed him by a foot and pulled him to the center of the camp to place him next to the girl. The girl was staring at them with hate filled eyes.
"What is the idiot doing?" Sakura asked.
Turning Sasuke saw that Naruto was standing off to the side holding a mask in his hand. In front of him was a large ball of grey smoke. After a moment the sound of a body hitting the ground echoed through the cloud, and a clone of Sasuke appeared dragging the body of the third boy. Naruto moved forward quickly tie him up before letting the clone drag him to the rest of his defeated team. The clone disappeared with a pop, and Naruto grinned.
"So, which one has the scroll?" he asked grinning, twirling the mask in his hand.
Sasuke ignored him to start searching the three genin; he vaguely noticed that they were Ame ninja. Finally locating the scroll on the boy Sakura took out, he held it up.
"Crap, they have the same as us," Naruto sat in a huff.
"Well, do we fix the site and try and get another team or should we look for one of Konoha teams and barter?" Sakura asked, he voice wheezing slightly.
"How are your ribs?" Sasuke asked.
"Uhmm, okay?" she answered confused. "Don't think they are cracked, but the wind was really knocked out of me.
"Naruto, are there any other teams near us?" Sasuke turned to the blond.
"Nah, everyone seems to be farther away," he looked up at Sakura. "The closets team is Sound, and Shikamaru's team. They are heading this way, but they only have one scroll. The sound has the right one, but they seem to be ignoring other teams. They also are acting kind of odd," Naruto frowned. "Also I keep sensing someone who is following us. But I really don't think they are genin. Something is off about the chakra. I also can't tell if it is one really strong person or three semi-strong. But we do not want to meet up with them."
Sasuke looked at the scroll and the campsite. "Let's start heading to the tower, I think we are best off finding an older Konoha team and seeing if we can trade off."
He stood up and looked at the three genin from Ame. "So what should we do with them?"
"Let's break the camp and hide them. I know a small jutsu from the med-nin classes that will knock them out for a few hours. After that they have to get untied. It should keep them out of our hair." Sakura said smiling.
{RoD}
"Interesting," a ninja further up in the trees said softly. He had been waiting to see what happened when his master found the Uchiha, but this was much more interesting. Apparently the Demon of the Mist was a much better teacher than Hatake Kakashi. "Wonder what will happen when they meet up?"
Light glinted off of glasses as the boy adjusted them for a better view.
{RoD}
Under the ground three ninja were listening, and the female was licking her lips in interest.
"I think it's time to make our play. You two go on ahead but set up an explosion trap in their way. I want to make sure they get separated. It will work better; they seem to be pretty decent as a team."
As the two stared to leave, they stopped at the woman's voice.
"Oh, and make sure you get the orange boy, he needs to be pretty far away from the rest. In fact, aim for him to be pushed in that direction," she pointed to the west. "I'll have a snake to keep him company. I want to see if what I heard about him is true."
At their nods the woman looked up ahead before tagging after the three Konoha genin. After all, she may have come for the Uchiha, but who said she couldn't check on Minato's brat?
{RoD}
As three genin moved stealthily through the trees no one noticed another shinobi moving just ahead setting up a trap. As the three genin touched base on a tree, Naruto smelled something off.
"Guys wait," he called. Sasuke landed on the branch above him, and Sakura right next to him.
"What is it?"
"I think we have company ahead, see?" Naruto pointed to some signs of movement on the tree. They were very recent.
"Huh, think we should take him or go around?"
As the three knelt down, the very same shinobi realized that the three were not going to fall for his set trap. Thinking quickly he wrapped an explosive tag around a kunai and took aim.
"What the-" all three stood up but it was too late the tag went off.
Sasuke was blown backwards into a tree and he slid downwards towards the ground. Sakura who was closest to the tag gave a loud scream of pain, Naruto who had been nearest to her quickly pushed his body towards her. He saw her hit a tree and did a quick Kawarimi to get closer and grabbed her as they were both blown back by a second exploding kunai.
Holding Sakura close, Naruto fell to the ground landing on his back. He felt himself lose consciousness and hoped that Sasuke was alright.
{RoD}
"…ruto, Hey…ruto"
The voice sounded far away, but the tone of worry was heavy in it. Struggling through the thick fog of sleep Naruto tried to wake up.
"…ruto, can you hear me?" Sakura's voice was filled with concern. "Come on, you need to wake up now Naruto."
"Sakura," he answered weakly as he struggled to open his yes. He had a moment of blurriness before his head hit the ground as Sakura threw herself into his arms.
"Oh Naruto, I was so worried, you idiot, why did you take the full force of the landing." She alternated between hugging him and yelling at him.
"Sorry Sakura-chan, but you know my body takes damage better than yours," he pushed her back and sat fully up to look around. "What about Sasuke? Any ideas where he is, or where we are for that matter?"
"I have no idea," Sakura sat back and wiped the tears from her eyes. I think he was blasted in the opposite direction. Maybe we should aim that way," she pointed in one direction. "That way we could head back towards the blast but at the same time in the direction we were going before."
"Sounds good," Naruto stood up and held out a hand to her, "so let's go."
"Okay Naruto," she smiled at him and took his hand. As he helped her up he froze.
"Ah Sakura," he started.
"What?"
"You might want to turn around very slowly."
"Wha-" Sakura took a deep breath in as she turned and saw a giant snake. The head of the snake was at least half the size of Naruto, wrapped multiple times around a tree and staring directly at them.
"That is one big ass snake," Naruto muttered. He slowly shifted in front of Sakura and flicked the latch on his arm sheathes, dropping two knives into his hands.
"What the hell is something like that doing in Konoha?" Sakura whispered harshly.
"I have no idea, but we are going to back away slowly," Naruto started stepping back with Sakura inch by inch.
The snake seemed to watch them when suddenly it opened its mouth wide and a tail shot out of nowhere and wrapped around them.
"Naruto!"
"Sakura!"
Before they could even blink the snake was fully wrapped around them, cutting off their air. Sakura started to pass out from the pressure, and all Naruto got a glimpse of was a snake head coming down on them. Eaten by a snake, not the way I wanted to go… Zabuza is going to never let me hear the end of this…
{RoD}
"Achoo!"
"You alright there, not too much sake, I hope?" Kakashi was staring at the man who suddenly got hit by a sneezing fit.
"Shut up," he muttered, for some reason he turned to look at the forest. "Huh, think the brats just did something we will have to mock them for," he answered.
"Oh good, hey weren't you and Hayate going to have a spar?" Kakashi looked around at the mass of shinobi surrounding them. "How did this turn into a party?"
"Chuunin exams, everyone is bored," Raido answered. "Unless you are on guard duty or a part of the second exam no one has much to do, and most of the ninja force has been pulled back."
"Huh, still, maybe it is time to start your spar, I mean I would hate to see you too drunk to fight," Kakashi smirked at Zabuza who was reaching for another sake bottle.
"Hey, I was just drinking while Hayate was getting up his nerve. Boy seems really nervous to me," the ex-mist ninja defended himself.
"Hey Hayate? You about ready for your spar?" Raido called out.
Hayate who had been in a group of Chuunin and Jounin smiled widely. Apparently the alcohol they decided to imbibe helped and the moved confidently towards them. "When ever you are Momochi-san."
{RoD}
"Hey Ibiki, where are you off to with all that equipment?"
Ibiki turned to see Anko walking towards him. Remembering how she had messed with his ending exam he smiled. On him it was just plain scary, and he was happy to see that Anko faltered for a half a second.
"I heard that Hayate and Momochi are planning to have a spar. Haven't seen the man use his blade before, and also Hayate has been craving to see what he can do against as Mist Swordsman. I thought I would get it all on recording."
Anko started to grin; she pulled out a stick of dango and moved to take some of the equipment. "Oh, I can't wait to see this, here let me carry some of this for you."
"Why Anko," Ibiki's grin grew wider. "I don't think you can join us."
Anko froze and looked up, "What do you mean? I have been egging Hayate on to challenging that man once he got his sword back. In fact I even sent a message to him so that he would ask soon. Why wouldn't I get to watch?" her right eyebrow was twitching in aggravation.
"Well, you know the second exam in going on, and I do believe that Hokage-sama said you need to be at the tower in, oh ten minutes," Ibiki looked from the clock on the wall to Anko who had her mouth open in shock. "Better hurry Anko, hate to see you get yelled at for skipping out on the exam."
With that Ibiki turned to leave. When he hears Anko cursing behind him he started to whistle.
{RoD}
Naruto fought down his panic when he realized he was trapped in the snake with Sakura. Trying to remain calm, he tried to think of a way out of the snake. He could try and cut himself out, but it was risky. Better to blow a way out, perhaps tags? He moved his head slightly when he heard gasping.
"Sakura, stay calm," he called out.
"Naruto, we need to get out of this snake and fast," she answered back. Her voice was shrill in panic.
"I know but how? I can't move far enough to get to my tags or move around enough for weapons," he tried to move his body around to gain space.
"No, we would get caught in the blast. What we need to do is make the snake threw us up or explode without risking ourselves," Sakura answered back
Trying to think, Naruto had what he thought was a brilliant idea, insane but brilliant.
"I got it Kage Bunshin. I can make hundreds, we blow the snake up like a water balloon, but instead of water we use Kage Bunshin."
Silence greeted his remark, before "Can you move your hands?" Sakura's voice was getting harsher.
Trying to wiggle his fingers he found he could move them," Yeah, you good for me to try this? Sakura-chan…"
"NARUTO! HURRY!"
Pulling his arms closer together, Naruto formed the hand signs and gathered as much chakra as he could. "Here's hoping."
Feeling his skin tingle, Naruto released the jutsu and felt it as multiple versions of him started to appear inside the snake. He watched as the snakes body started to expand to fit the new load, and he kept making more in hopes that the snake had a limit to what t could hold.
BOOM!
Naruto felt his body moving towards the ground, and as he landed he felt liquids and who knows what landing on him and around him. Quickly moving into a crouch he looked around and saw Sakura nearby. He crawled over to her.
"Sakura-chan, are you alright?"
He watched as she took in a few large gasping breathes before she spoke. "Naruto, no matter how cool a story this is," she stopped for another breath and looked at him with a serious face, "you will never ever tell anyone about this."
He sat back on his heels and laughed, "Ah, but Sakura-chan this is an awesome story-"
Sakura grabbed his jacket and pulled him closer. "Never tell anyone, got it?"
Staring into her face Naruto gulped before nodding.
"Good, now," Sakura stood up and tried to brush herself off. "Let's go find Sasuke."
He watched her leave for a few minutes before standing up, "Damn, she can get really scary," he muttered before following her away from the mess of the dead snake.
{RoD}
Sasuke looked around the area wondering in which direction his teammates had been blown off in. Once he woke from the hit to the head he took during the surprise attack, he had made it back to the area where the explosion had occurred. The area had been badly destroyed and no signs of his teammates anywhere. He wasn't sure if he should try and locate his team or continue in the direction they planned and hope that Naruto and Sakura caught up. He wasn't even sure if the two of them were together or if all three of them were separated.
He froze suddenly and turned to throw a kunai and some shurikan at a nearby tree.
"Come out, I know you are there," he said pulling out more weapons.
"Ah, so the great Uchiha blood is strong in you," a voice hissed out, amusement thick in the others tone.
Sasuke felt the wire in his left hand and the kunai in his right. He tried to focus on the environment as well as the words. Something about this was wrong. After all, most genin wouldn't immediately know he was Uchiha unless they were Konoha or after him. Zabuza and Kakashi had brought it to his attention that people knowing who he was would not be a good thing while he was still genin. It was pounded into him that the Chuunin exams, unless he made it to the finals, he should hide his identity for as long as possible. Too many would want to make a name for themselves by going after the sole survivor of a clan like his. That was why he had removed the Uchiha symbol from his clothes. So whoever this was knew who he was before hand.
"What makes you think I'm Uchiha?" he asked tilting his head so he could see the trees to the side. He could feel faint signs of chakra. This person was very good at hiding their chakra, way above genin level.
"Have the Uchiha fallen so far that they do not pride themselves on their names?" the voice hissed from behind him.
Twisting he found himself facing that strange grass ninja from before. The one Naruto had pointed out with the long tongue. She lifted off her hat and stared at him, her eyes seemed hungry and she licked her lips with that strange long tongue.
"Yet again, what makes you think I am Uchiha?" he braced his feet to move. "Last I heard the entire clan was destroyed."
"Oh Sasuke-kun, how your father must weep; first his eldest Itachi slaughters the clan, and now the youngest claims to not be one," the woman shook her head and threw the hat to the side.
Sasuke narrowed his eyes, "Are you ex-Konoha ninja? Or did someone send you to capture or kill me? Nobody outside of Konoha should know the facts you state," he narrowed his eyes. "Who are you?"
The woman clapped her hands together in delight, "Oh, you are a quick one, now how about we see those eyes, hmmm? I am curious to see if you have the sharingan yet. After all if you haven't we will need to bring it out," she moved to steps forward. "I so hate to be disappointed."
Sasuke made no move to step forward or back or bring out his sharingan. Something was off about this.
"Here, how about we make this interesting," she pulled out a scroll showing the earth symbol. "You and I have a fight and if you impress me I will give you a gift," slowly she raised the scroll to her mouth and swallowed it whole. "If you don't well…" she looked directly at him and raised a hand to her left eye. "You die!"
She pulled down the skin below the eye and suddenly Sasuke was hit with massive killing intent. He had not even felt this much when training with Zabuza, Kakashi and Naruto. It was pushing down on him, forcing him to the ground. He could feel his body trembling. He vaguely realized that the strange woman was laughing, so trapped down by the killer's aura. He felt his fingers twitch and the wire wrapped around them pulled on the skin.
If you ever find yourself frozen from killing intent, and you can't bring about your own to temper it or control it, a secondary way to break out is to use pain.
Haku's words echoed in his head. He pulled slightly on the wire till his fingers were pulled together and he then pushed them apart. He felt the wire tear at his skin slightly and instantly the pain pulled him from the killing intent long enough for him to move. He threw the kunai at the woman forcing her to duck and moved into the forested area around them.
As he moved behind a tree he took deep breathes to calm him, waiting to hear what the stranger did next.
"Excellent, Sasuke-kun, you broke free how interesting. You might just be useful after all. Tell me, do you plan to hide forever?" Sasuke caught the fist that appeared out of nowhere, and kicked out at the body in front of him. He moved in for some hits and kicks to see what he was fighting. After a few moments he backed off and narrowed his eyes.
"You're playing with me," he muttered.
The woman smiled. "Perhaps, why don't you show me what you can do," she held up her hands in fake surrender. "After all, I have no intention of allowing you to leave without my fight."
{RoD}
Zabuza Looked across the field. Hayate was standing with his sword faced down, his left leg two inches behind his right. His right hand still. The cough that constantly plagued him appeared to have stopped. Pulling his own Kubikiri Hōcho out to the side, his right leg bent slightly he waited. After all, the first move set the tone of the fight. Any good swordsman knew that. He had heard stories about Hayate and his clan's abilities from Kakashi and Haku. It would be interesting to see if the rumors held enough truth. He also realized that Hayate must be feeling the same thing.
The slight fell of the breeze made the leaves shuffle, hiding the small sounds from the watching ninja. There, a slight twitch. His move will come soon. With a slight tightening of his left hand he kept his breathing even. He would wait; after all, he never made the first move in a simple spar.
{RoD}
Sasuke moved slightly as he his hand cramped. Every move he made had been countered with little effort. It was like fighting Zabuza, Haku or Kakashi. This was no genin, not even a Chuunin. Definitely a Jounin and he was getting concerned. He knew that his only chance was to make a run for it, but he needed to get this woman far enough away to have a chance. With no other option, he allowed chakra to flow into his eyes. He could feel the two tomoes in each eye start to move. Flexing every muscle he took stock of what weapons he still had and prepared to fight. It was time to see if his eyes could add some needed speed to his moves.
"Ah, so Sasuke-kun is finally letting his eyes join the fight," the woman said from the center of the clearing. "Now we can see what you can really do," she licked her lips in excitement.
Sasuke felt a small chill through his body as he realized that the woman could tell his charka was flowing in his eyes. Not good, that meant she was either a chakra sensor or had excellent chakra sense. This meant she was even higher in level than Kakashi.
Knowing he needed the extra help, he reached into his leg bindings and pulled out two sai that Haku had helped him purchase. They were slightly modified, thiner and smaller, but if he kept them turned in, so the blades were against his arms, they added extra force to his blocks. It was not an easy tactic to use, but Haku had realized that when Sasuke had his eyes active things like this became easier.
Taking a deep breath to calm himself, he moved out from behind the tree, hiding the Sai by turning his arms inwards. "Well, you wanted to fight an Uchiha, let's see how you do?" he asked calmly, hoping his fear was contained.
The woman smiled watching him, and as he started to head forward at a run, she moved to match him. They met in a flurry of blows, faster than before, and he saw the slight widening of eyes from his enemy as she felt the sai dig into her arms for the first time. Smirking he kicked her in the chest to get some space between them. He watched her raise her arm and lick the blood.
"Hm, much better, but I think you can do so much more, Sasuke-kun," she hissed out.
{RoD}
"Not bad," Zabuza said over his sword. It was caught in the cross guard of Hayate's sword. The few moments of strikes have ended as quickly as they begun. "This should be interesting," he said, before twisting his blade to break them up.
Hayate grinned at him, a slight twitch in his cheek.
{RoD}
He stared in fright at the kunai heading towards him; he had no idea how to respond in time. His sai having been torn from him earlier lay forgotten on the ground. He closed his eyes, fearing that this was the end, only to hear the sound of steel on steel. Opening his eyes, he couldn't help but grin. The woman's kunai had been caught in the cross guard of Naruto's double sided arm blades. The other was at the neck of the woman, being held back by her second kunai. He felt arms grabbing him pulling him back, and he looked up to see Sakura.
He let out a soft laugh, "What kept you two?"
Sakura frowned, before checking him for major injuries.
He heard Naruto snort in laughter before he and the woman jumped away from each other. "It's a really good story, but-" he was immediately interrupted.
"Naruto," Sakura ground out between clenched teeth. "It didn't happen!"
Shifting his face he could see a smirk on Naruto's face. "Tell me later?"
"Sure, so who's this bitch? And why are you playing all by yourselves?" Naruto cracked his neck, and twisted the right blade to be alongside the inner part of his arm, and the left blade kept out. "You know how I love to play with sharp weapons?"
The woman smiled and licked her lips, "So, you escaped my snake?" she pushed her hair to the side, "I was curious if you had grown in skill, young Naruto," the woman licked her lips, and tasted the blood from her mouth.
"That was your snake?" Sakura shouted.
"Yes, what happened to it?"
"Let's just say," Naruto crouched slightly, his eyes narrowed. "It ate something that didn't agree with it."
Edited by Treyvoni Fox 7/18/2010
Oh yes, this is a cliff hanger. On the other hand I already started the next post. 500 Words have done… only a couple thousand more to go. I promise to have it out as fast as possible, but I wanted to get this out before the 'Post or die' reviews started up. So far only 1 or 2, but I know you people are capable of doing them….