Disclaimer: I own still nothing! Belongs to Masashi Kishimoto!
The Password Is…!
"Well if everyone's gathering at the center towards the tower than I think we should set traps near there." Kiba suggested. Hinata nodded, thinking it was a very tactical plan. Shino didn't say a word, his thoughts on something else. Their fur coated leader was about to question his silent demeanor when Akamaru suddenly caught a scent in the air. He glanced up at the pup surprised "Really? Already here? Well… looks like we'll be leaving earlier than usual…" The whole group stood unflinchingly as screams ripped through the entire forest leaving a hollow echo for everyone around to hear.
Sakura practically jumped out of her skin from the noise, she knew why they called it the forest of death… but that was just plain creepy. "D-did you guys just hear something?"
Sasuke seemed to hear it as well but didn't comment, like he couldn't care less.
Naruko cleaned her ears out with the tip of her pinky and strained to listen. "Nah! It's probably nothing Sakura!" she turned to walk away into the bushes.
Curious by her sudden behavior Sasuke spoke up. "Where are you going? We should think about our strategy-." "I gotta pee!" She interrupted. Now he was a little regretful for even asking.
Their pink haired teammate wore a horrified expression at her blunt answer. "NARUKO DON'T GO SAYING THINGS LIKE THAT TO ANYBODY!" but she was already out of earshot for her to hear.
A few minutes later she came back zippering her orange shorts with an accomplished grin on her face. "Damn! I really needed to use the bathroom!" the green eyed female looked about ready to smack the little idiot when Sasuke beat her to it.
The impact of his hit sent her flying sideways. "S-Sasuke! I know she talks gross but don't you think that's a little overboard?!" Sakura asked. She knew they hated one another but did he really hate her that much?
He ignored her "What have you done with the real Naruko?" his glared was threatening to rip whoever it was in two. "What?! Are you blind?! I'm right in front of you!... bleeding!" the imposture rubbed their cheek painfully.
"You're wearing you're shuriken throwing stars on your left leg, Naruko's right handed. And you forgot the cut she got just before the exam. You're worse at disguises jutsu's than Naruko!" A shadow hid her expression from them. "Since you've forced me to come clean-" the form released, revealing a bandaged gasmask wearing shinobi. "-Why don't you as well and tell me which one of you has the scroll!" A cloud of smoke a appeared just after the jutsu dropped, providing him the perfect opportunity for him to charge.
Predicting a frontal attack Sasuke did his series of signature hand sign's.
Fire style! Phoenix flower jutsu!
Making his own distraction, Sasuke lunged at him through the fires that engulfed the area. They pushed off one another, sending the other flying high. Sight of orange caught his attention once he was over a branch, a smirk played at the corner of his lips. Naruko twisted against her rope bindings fruitlessly "SASUKE STOP SMILING AND HELP ME OUT HERE!" he wanted to soak in his smugness just a bit longer but a rain of kunai forced him reality. His own thrown weapon found its way next to the blonds head.
A tag attached to a kunai set aflame singled a paper bomb. He cursed under his breath harshly and only managed to jump away at the last second before the tree he occupied exploded into tiny wooden splinting pieces.
Landing on all fours he ignored the dull after shock of pain and struggled to stand.
"One false move and I'll kill you…" his enemies knife was held up to his neck, daring him to make a wrong move. "Now hand over the scroll!" Sakura finally arrived. "Sasuke!"
The arrogant Uchiha smirked "…better late than never…" shocked, gas masked guy jumped away from him, narrowly dodging a kunai. Naruko jumped in the scene angry "YOU PERVERT! WON'T GET AWAY THAT EASILY!"
Lifting the back of his foot Sasuke caught the flying kunai just under his foot, his chakra keeping it to the sole of his ninja sandal. Quickly making sure both teammates weren't in his line of fire. The Uchiha did a roundhouse kick, releasing the object just at the right time. He immediately flew after it to add some extra force. The ninja coughed once the weapon struck his abdominal and once again when the Uchiha pushed it further inside.
Naruko froze at the sight of him willing to kill someone. He noticed her expression and glared "He gave me no choice! Now move! We don't know where his friends are! Got it? Keep standing around like an idiot and you'll end up dead-!" the bandaged ninja pushed off Sasuke and took off the other way. His action surprised them but they still stood wary of any tricks.
After a while of waiting, his disappearance was finally confirmed. They sat in a circle and thought up different tactics. "Remember this. If we separate again… we can't just trust each other blindly. It could end up like this again." The sole male member took charge of the team.
"So what are we gonna do then tough guy?" Naruko questioned.
"The safest thing for us to have is a secret password… that way no matter who they look like or how they sound. If one of us gets that wrong… they're an enemy! Now listen very closely I'll only say this once." Both girls leaned closer.
"It's a poem called. "Ninki"- ninja opportunity. When I ask for it here's what you'll respond…" he cleared his throat. "We thrive in the chaos of the enemy tide, quiet Shinobi don't need dens to hide. Our only concern is to watch and wait… until the enemy lowers the gate."
"And you expect me to remember this how?" the blond felt a little offended for some reason. "You dunce, I've already got it down." Sakura scoffed at her, it was an easy thing to remember. "Well how about a different password?... like swordfish?!" now they were ignoring her.
Suddenly a huge gust of wind tore them off their feet. Naruko was the first to fly screaming profanities for being such a light weight "DAMNIT! I HATE STRONG-!". Sasuke took cover. Sakura disappeared as well into the woods, mostly by confusion. "Sasuke!"
Sometime later once everything had died down. The Uchiha boy was left standing alone in the middle of the clearing, waiting. "Sasuke!" he turned on his heel at the familiar voice to see his pink haired teammate. He pulled a weapon "Stop right there, what's the password, Ninki!"
She stopped and nodded "Right! We thrive in the chaos of the enemy tide, quiet shinobi don't need dens to hide. Our only concern is to watch and wait, until the enemy lowers the gate." She answered correctly.
"Hey you guys alright?" They both turned to see Naruko rubbing her head sorely. "Stop right there! Naruko the password!" Sakura demanded.
"Oh yeah Ninki. We thieve in the chaos of the enemy tide, quiet shinobi don't need dens to hide. Our only concern is to watch and wait, until the enemy lowers the gate."
The emerald eyed girl sighed in relief, which was only short-live once Sasuke chucked two kunai at the blond.
"Sasuke! What the heck?! She answered the password correctly!"
He only smirked "hn… and he's fast enough to dodge my attack this time" A cloud of smoke exploded, in Naruko's place was the tall grass ninja with the long creepy tongue. "What gave me away?"
"Naruko would never be able to memorize that entire poem, she has a hard enough time remembering her ninja id number" The imposter removed his straw hat slowly. "Clever child, this could be very entertaining…"
~meanwhile elsewhere~
The wind had swept Naruko off her feet. She lay upside down against the trunk of a giant tree, groaning "Where'd Sakura go? And Sasuke? Actually where am I?" It seemed no one was in sight, anywhere. The ground around her grew dark, she wondered if thunder clouds were settling over. But the sky was completely covered by leaves from the trees, little specks of sunlight rays were here and there… it was odd.
. A blood curdling hiss vibrated in her ear drum, now she knew what made that sound before.
"S-snake!" She never knew that a snake could get to be that big. Its head was the size of her body!… this wasn't going to end well.
Its long body wrapped her, the tail must have snuck up behind when she turned to look at it. The force of its constriction had her gasping for air. In a quick fluent movement its large mouth engulfed her, a lump in its throat slowly moving downwards.
Once the Blood rushed back to her brain, a feeling of dread filled her. "I-IT ATE ME?!"
"I suppose you'd like to steal my scroll, seeing as you've already got a heaven scroll…" she (their still not sure what his or her gender is) he held the scroll in the palm of his/her hand, almost teasingly. An ugly smile formed on its dark lips ",,,I know…" it swallowed the scroll hungrily. "let's just see who gets the scroll?"
Sasuke and Sakura trembled furiously at the sight. This person was sick and creepy beyond help. All they felt they could do was stand helpless, somehow missing their moral support Naruko was plaguing both of them.
"With a fight to the death!" Its eyes took on a dark blood shot red.
The forest darkened, pulses pounded, blood splattered the forest ground…. their own blood. This mysterious person just stood watching them smiling. Did he get some kind of sick perversion from watching them suffer? It felt like a never ending pain of torture. They flinched back once two kunai knives struck them.
And just like that the illusion ended, leaving both trembling, disgusted, frightened and beyond exhausted. Sasuke wrenched forward, spilling the contents of his stomach on the ground. Sakura heavily fell to her knees not having the same need to vomit as the Uchiha but silently cried to herself. It felt hopeless to do anything, seeing something as horrifying as their death… she couldn't handle it. They felt it, seen it from his point of view, it was a feeling of terror dread fear all put into one.
"Now that you're paralyzed…" The monster reached into its weapon holster. Sasuke tried to think of something, anything to escape this. Something to beat his fear. He could only thing of a single thing and pulled forth his own kunai. "MOVE! MOVE! MOVE!"
"HEY! HEY YOU OUT THERE YOU BETTER SPIT ME OUT IF YOU KNOW WHATS GOOD FOR YOU!" She had already planned what she was gonna do, but gave the dumb thing a chance to release her. this thing was getting on her last nerve. "THAT'S IT!"
Shadow Clone Jutsu!
The snake grew fatter from the clones that continued to pop up inside its stomach, until his body couldn't handle the overload. Instead of barfing like she originally planned… it exploded. Chunks of it hanging off branches, larger pieces scattered across the entire ground. In the heaps of flesh Naruko clone's rose complaining about the smell. One in particular stood, hair down, covered in head to toe with blood and saliva. "I'm gonna be the next Hokage you stupid snake so don't mess with me! I've got better things to do than be a giant snake turd!... okay time to find the others." This experience was defiantly going to stick with her forever.
A hiding spot was the best he could do without getting into a hopeless fight with the monster of a man. Painfully pulling the kunai knife from his leg he was able to move again, huffing from the effort.
Sakura opened her mouth to speak, worried about his injury. But he quieted her with his hand. Right now silence was crucial… their lives were at stake, one wrong move and death would be their certain companion. "Where's Naruko?! How do we escape this guy?!" he felt his teammate tense than struggle against his hand and pull away. "S-SASUKE! SNAKEEE!" Caught off guard, they leaped away in opposite directions from each other.
The Uchiha was baffled. He had never even heard or even sensed it's presence. He must've been more scared than he thought possible.
His eyes widened at the familiar look in the serpents eyes. That grass ninja from before was wearing the same snake-like expression as this monster. He was terrified of that look. Running on only fear he reached into his holster frantically and threw all the weapons he could handle at the snake. Its head stuck to the trunk of the tree limply hanging off the embedded weapons. He breathed a sigh of relief. Unfortunately for him that wasn't the real enemy.
Sakura gasped once the skin of the reptile bubbled and popped. The grass ninja emerged unscathed by the assault. "For shame letting your guard down! Stay on your toes like a good prey should. It makes the chase much more rewarding… for the predator!" just like his dead vessel the man slithered up the tree. His intention clear in his eyes.
His attack was intervened by two shuriken, striking at the wood in front of his face, he didn't expected an attack. The weirdo as well as Sasuke and Sakura looked up at their savior. "Sorry Sasuke… I can't remember your stupid password!"