Act 5: Reminisce
Chapter 35: Team 7 (V)
Updated on: 8 September, 2007
A few hours into the second test, Mitarashi Anko was already well underway enjoying a light meal on a wooden bench, just outside one of the gates of the Forest of Death.
"Big trouble, Anko-sama!" a Chuunin yelled as he dropped in with a puff of smoke. "Bodies! Three of them!"
Putting aside the snack back onto the plate, Anko took a sip of the tea from the cup before calming questioning the Chuunin.
"Bodies?"
"And they are weird, please come!" the Chuunin announced, still in a half-kneeling position.
Putting on a frown, Anko quickly followed the Chuunin to the scene of the crime. Arriving at the scene, a few of the Jounins and Chuunins stepped aside to allow Anko had a look, due to the whole Akatsuki incident going around, Anko was not surprise on seeing the other two examiners already there: Morino Ibiki and Gekkou Hayate.
There was already a conversation going on, Anko managed to hear one of the Chuunin reporting to Ibiki: "…they seem to be the Hidden Grass shinobi, who entered in this exam, but as you can see, they have no faces. They are blank, as if they were melted off."
Hayate coughed once or twice, while Ibiki turned to look at Anko, waiting for any opinion, but upon seeing the expression on her face, Ibiki knew that something was up to no good.
"Anko?" Ibiki asked anyway.
"There's no mistaking it, this jutsu is his...," Anko half-cursed as she grinded her teeth together, imagine all sorts of possibilities, among those, the thought of her teacher joining with Akatsuki came up, and it saddened her.
"Orochimaru, just as the Hokage warned," Ibiki said. "He's here, as our mysterious informer told us."
"Shall we cancel the exam?" Hayate suggested, his eyes giving off an off-coloured appearance.
"You," Ibiki commanded, pointing at one random Chuunin. "Go and report this to the Hokage, the three of us will enter the practice ground."
"Here are the pictures submitted by the Hidden Grass for these three Genins," a Chuunin handed the photos to Ibiki, as he memorised their appearance before handing them over to Hayate.
Taking the photos in hand, Hayate asked Anko instead, "Will you be all right?"
Snatching the photos from his hands, Anko looked them through, before saying to her comrades, "I'm fine, let's go!"
x
Deep within the forest, past the battle between a giant insect and Neji's team, and further in, passing the battle between Team 10 and Gaara's team, was Sasuke. He alone stood on the top of a tree, looking around, scouting ahead. Hours passed and they had yet to find any opponents.
Jumping down, leaping from tree branch to tree branch, Sasuke landed at the bottom, meeting up with Naruto and Sakura.
"It's too quiet, something is not right," Sasuke commented, the very reason he decided to scout around, looking for signs of enemies.
"Why? Isn't that good?" Naruto asked curiously.
"Stupid! We won't find any scrolls if we can't find any team!" Sakura said as she knocked her fist gently on Naruto's head.
"This quietness is unsettling, as if something is causing it… There are no birds, no wild animals… Is something near?"
"Come, Sasuke," Sakura motioned him forward with her waving hand, "We can find more Genins if we head towards the centre of the forest."
"Sakura's the smartest!" Naruto proclaimed waving his hands about. "You on the other hand," Naruto said, pointing one finger at Sasuke. "You made the mistake of pretending to be Sasuke!"
Two kunai instantly flew past Naruto and struck Sasuke in the chest, looking in shock, Sasuke watched Sakura finished off with another two kunai in each hand.
Exploding into a large puff of smoke, Naruto looked worryingly at Sakura, "Good thing that you were right, Sakura, but how did you tell that he was a fake?"
Pointing one finger to her right eye, Sakura smiled saying, "I can tell, Naruto, come we better hurry up and find him, Sasuke is alone."
The two of them treaded cautiously through the forest ground, passing by where they initially split up, passing by where they initially planned to meet up again, and finally to where Sasuke was last seen. Sakura knew that something was different about herself, not just the fact that there was a demon within her, but rather that her pair of eyes could see things beyond illusions, it was this ability that allowed her to tell the fake Sasuke from just now, and now, she was hoping that she might be find out where Sasuke was.
The creaking of the wood above them announced the arrival of someone, alarmed but not caught off-guard, the both of them tilted their heads up, seeing someone standing high above them, with the sun shining brightly behind his back.
"Sasuke…?"
"No."
"You have gone far enough, Leaf!" the stranger shouted. Taking one step aside, he revealed another figure standing behind him, his second teammate.
"Sakura, do you see him?" Naruto asked in a whisper from behind Sakura.
"Who?" Sakura asked without turning her head back.
"The third person, each team has three members, and there are only two here…"
The second stranger flipped backwards, landing in front of them in a kneeling position, while the first stranger ran and jumped, landing behind Naruto. Now that they were out from the cover of the sun, the two of them instantly recognised the other two newcomers. Now surrounded by both sides, the two of them realised that they would have to fight their way out of this.
"Tsuchi Kin," the second of the two introduced, pretty with black hair combed to the back, she stood with both hands on her hips, standing one step at a time towards Sakura, unafraid of anything. "My name is Tsuchi Kin."
"Abumi Aoi," the one in front of Naruto calmly announced her name, unlike Tsuchi, she remained stationary and in remained in her battle stance. Her light blonde hair was left untied to the back as well, wearing the same patterned attire as her teammates.
"Great, we are missing the monster of the three," Naruto mumbled, without knowing where she was, it would become harder for the two of them.
With Naruto and Sakura standing in between the two of them, Kin gave Aoi a simple nod to give the go-ahead of their plan. They had honestly no idea where their third member, Kyoko, was, she always had this habit of doing a disappearing act occasionally. However, even without Kyoko's presence, Kin was confident that the she could handle her mission alone, which was to allow Aoi to establish a direct contact with Naruto, close enough to do her stuff. Understanding what needed to be done, she would have to risk her life with the Sakura, and to her understanding, the seal placed on Sakura was beginning to weaken, allowing the demon to surface anytime.
Trained by Orochimaru herself, Kin understood enough that she would not want to fail him to taste his wrath. To defeat Sakura, she must do it before her demon was to be fully awaken, that much she knew from the information she gathered from the mission briefing.
Her previously cool expression broke in reality on how powerful her opponent might actually be, even if trained by Orochimaru himself, Kin wondered if…
"No! This will finish in half an hour- No! Ten minutes! I will finish this in ten!"
Clutching her fists hard, she shook them hard, allowing the tiny bells lined up on her arms to vibrate. A single row of bells were spread from her wrist to the tip of her elbow, though appearing normal on the outside, each and single one of the bells on her arms, legs and a final pair on each ear were carefully crafted, and enchanted with jutsu meant to augment her attacks.
Closing both fists tightly, Kin prepared her jutsu to attack Sakura with her sound-induced hypnotic attacks. Suddenly, Sakura moved in a zigzag motion, crossing her line of sights several times before settling right before her. Aiming to kick upwards at Kin's chin, Kin cursed while grabbing hold of Sakura's attacking right foot. As Sakura sent her other foot, trying another attempt to kick at Kin's face, Kin dodged and pulled Sakura's right foot, slamming her to the ground.
"Sakura!" Naruto called out, though turning his head just for a short while, to look at how Sakura was doing, Aoi managed to slip into his defence within this short instant.
"Face me, Naruto!" Aoi said while grabbing onto his shoulders, as Aoi started to move her face inwards, her mouth slightly left ajar.
Startled, Naruto decided that there was no time to worry about Sakura, using both hands to push Aoi's grip apart, Naruto squatted down, and swept his foot against Aoi. Jumping upwards, Aoi dodged his sweeping kick, and sent out kunai towards him, aiming for his hands.
Blocking each and one of the kunai thrown to him with his own kunai, he flipped the kunai around, holding the weapon by its blade, and tried to throw it at Aoi. Before he could do that, Kin suddenly came flying in from above him, knocking right onto Aoi, pushing her off the air. As the two crashed against the earth, Naruto glanced back, surprised that Sakura took care of Kin so quickly.
Cursing once more, realising that she had underestimated the ability of Sakura again, Kin punched the empty air in front of her. Puzzled due to not being familiar with Kin's technique, neither Naruto nor Sakura tried to dodge it, but Aoi was seen jumping to one side, as if caution of something. Suddenly, a heavy pressure brushed by Naruto's right arm, tearing his jacket's right sleeve. Staring at the damage, Naruto realised that Sakura was just behind him a little off to the right, turning around just in turn to see Sakura getting hit right in the chest by the full blast.
Aoi reappeared by the left side of Naruto, pulling his left arm to the ground, grabbing his head, and pulling his face towards her, once again trying to land a kiss. When Naruto resisted, and pulled away, Aoi frowned and started spinning him to throw him up into the air without any time for him to react.
"Ahhhhhhh!"
Sakura staggered backwards, one hand covering her mouth, feeling blood rushing up.
"Not good!"
Kin leapt into action, trying again with her previous technique using the bells on her right leg. Sakura failed to dodge it, and felt the wind blew by her face, but she managed to catch Kin's feet. She removed her right hand from her mouth which was now covered with blood, she used the blood and smeared it across Kin's eyes.
Now feeling the irritation of blood getting into her eyes, Kin fell backwards while Sakura suddenly felt the delayed effect of Kin's kick. As if something exploded right in her face, Sakura was blown backwards, crashing against a tree.
Still wiping off Sakura's blood from her eyes and face, Kin did not noticed as Naruto grabbed Aoi and pushed her against her own teammate. As the two of them collided once more, with Kin's disorientated and Aoi having her wind knocked out of her lung, Naruto grabbed Sakura and pulled her out of the scene.
Looking back at whether anyone was following them, Naruto continued to run even when he saw none of the two, or even the monster called 'Kyoko'. After feeling that he had ran far enough, Naruto dropped Sakura and slumped down beside her.
"Sakura, are you all right?" Naruto asked while he pulled out the torn right sleeves from his jacket, which was tangling by a thread.
Sakura sat up, both hands on the ground, feeling very dizzy. Giving a weak nod, Sakura was surprised how easily she recovered from two direct hits, before any thoughts could get into her attention, Sakura suddenly violently puked her guts out. Not minding Sakura puking out her lunch, Naruto examined their bodies for any external injuries and found none. From what he judged, it seemed that Aoi might be the physical weakest among the three of them, though he could not deduce a reason why Aoi was constantly trying to get close to him, and it was the intimacy kind of distance she seemed to be trying for. Shaking the thoughts of that Aoi wanting to kiss him, Naruto suddenly recalled a strange marking on Aoi's tongue he saw in their fight, was that a jutsu seal?
"Sakura, are you all right?" Naruto asked again, while Sakura raised an unsteady left hand, motioning him to wait.
The two of them rested there for the next few minutes, Naruto gathering this thoughts, trying to get his bearing, knowing the need to go back to find Sasuke once more. Once Sakura's sickness was over, the two of them set off again.
x
"A genjutsu trap? I have been through here before."
"Not good," Sasuke commented. "I'm surrounded already?"
Activating his Sharingan eyes, Sasuke confirmed for himself that he was surrounded, not by mere shinobi, but rather snakes. Huge snakes lurking around the corners, and tiny snakes just within his reach, but hidden away from sight, any slight movement might trigger an attack.
"Sasuke," a voice called out within his mind, as if sound penetrated his skull, directly communicating with him, giving him a splitting headache. "Look out! Behind you!"
Looking up, he could have sworn that for a second, he saw a palely white armoured figure in green overflowing cloak. Heeding the stranger's warning, Sasuke spun around quickly and found a head with a snake-like extended neck swirled into the scene, spiralling itself onto a branch near him. Jumping backwards, Sasuke watched as the rest of the body caught up to the head, and eventually the neck shortened until the two objects joined up to form a proportional figure.
"A Grass-nin? Is their plan to catch us off one by one? I must look out for his teammates! Is that green-clad shinobi their ally?!"
Unexpectedly, the Grass-nin raised one hand to his face, and started to peel it off. Sasuke had no time to feel disgusted, as he noticed another paler face underneath the mask. Removing the Grass-nin forehead protector and the straw hat altogether, the new enemy introduced himself, "Sasuke, I love to play games with you, but I rather cut to the chase."
Before he could react, suddenly, the air stirred as a single kunai came flying in, piercing through Sasuke's forehead protector, stabbing right into his skull.
Raising one hand to his head, he confirmed for himself that it was a genjutsu, yet Sasuke could not shake off the fear. "Fear! This is no genjutsu! It's fear! The killing intent in his eyes is causing me to see an image of death! Who is this guy?! He's not here for the scroll!"
Spinning a kunai out from his pouch, Sasuke threw it towards the Grass-nin, as he rolled for covers. The 'Grass-nin' instantly caught it with one hand, playing it with his fingers before he threw it back at Sasuke. As Sasuke felt the disturbance in the air, he turned, and saw the kunai coming towards him, image of dying by a single kunai in his forehead came into his mind. Shaking it away, he dodged to one side.
As his face ducked to one side, the sudden hissing of a snake forced him to turn face-to-face with the serpent. Even before he could react, the snake sunk down its fangs onto his right arm, as it started to twirl around it. With his left arm still free, he drew upon two kunai at once, and slew the beast by cutting its head off. Even though the snake released its hold after its death, Sasuke could already feel the numbing effect of its poison. Clutching hold onto his right arm, he struggled to move away from the scene.
"Where are you going, Sasuke?" the echoes of the actual voice sounded everywhere around him. "Hehehe…"
"Who are you?! What do you want?!" Sasuke yelled, knowing that his location was already known to the Grass-nin.
"I am… Orochimaru," the Akatsuki member said, sliding down the side of a tree trunk, he landed right behind Sasuke, and grabbing hold onto Sasuke's shoulders with both his hands, he sank his teeth down onto Sasuke's neck.
Resisting him, Sasuke tried to push Orochimaru away, but he found his strength sapping away by the second, until finally when Orochimaru let go of him, Sasuke fell to his knees wobbly.
"Sasuke!"
Hissing his irritation, Orochimaru sluggishly tilted his head to observe the newcomer.
"Let him go!" Sakura yelled this time, arriving just behind Naruto.
The four of them were high up among the treetop canopies, within the lush greeneries belonging to ancient overgrown trees. Both Sakura and Naruto were on one tree, while Orochimaru and the dazed Sasuke on another.
Orochimaru let out a sigh before licking up Sasuke's blood on his lips with his tongue, recalling his body and limbs back into proportional shape, Orochimaru stood by Sasuke.
"Sasuke!" Naruto shouted once more, as he prepared to leap off from his location to theirs.
Giving a gently push to one side of Sasuke's shoulders, Orochimaru pushed Sasuke off the branch they were on. "Oops," Orochimaru said. "I guess you better catch him, Naruto. I hate to run, but the two of you aren't my type, I will let the others have their fun."
However, to his surprise, instead of catching the falling Sasuke, Naruto continued to jump towards Orochimaru. "Sakura, catch him!" Naruto shouted, choosing to let Sakura to save their teammate.
Nodding regardless the fact that no one watching, Sakura jumped down, bouncing off here and there until, she crashed right into Sasuke, pushing off into a nearby branch. Meanwhile, Naruto released a fire jutsu immediately it was completed.
Hissing a sigh of annoyance, Orochimaru countered Naruto's fireball by spitting out greenish acid from his mouth, the heavier-density acid propelled the flame backwards, knocking it back towards Naruto. Braving the heat, Naruto dodged his own fireball along with the pool and various splashes from the acid.
Failing to notice his opponent's movement, Orochimaru sneaked up from behind, opening wide his mouth in the same posture as he did before biting on Sasuke's neck. With his fangs exposed, poisonous substance dripped down, burning the skin of Naruto's neck. One hand clutching the burned skin, the hand formed a fist, and Naruto threw that fist upwards and back, aiming for Orochimaru's face. Instead of dodging it, Orochimaru widened his mouth, and swallowed his fist, sinking in his fangs into the knuckle of Naruto's right fist.
As Naruto yelled in pain, Orochimaru extended his neck and spun his head around like a slingshot, and finally releasing Naruto after several turns, letting his flew through the sky and hitting against a tree.
"Orochimaru!"
Surprised, Orochimaru turned to face the voice, only just in time to see his ex-student, Mitarashi Anko, coming in from behind.
"Mitarashi-sensei!" Sakura shouted.
"Sakura, get the two of them out of here!" Anko shouted.
Nodding once, she tried to spot where Naruto fell. "Naruto!" Sakura shouted, with Sasuke still in her hands, she could not reach Naruto fast enough. When she did, she saw Naruto curled up in pain, keeping his right fist cradled tightly between his abdomen and his thighs. Letting Sasuke rested against the tree branch they were on, she quickly approached Naruto, noticing the pained expression on Naruto's face.
"Naruto! Are you all right?!" Sakura called out, placing her hands on Naruto's shoulders, trying to see the wound he was hiding. When she finally pulled out the injured right hand, she saw exposed flesh with greenish burn marks. 'I'm all right' was what Naruto seemed to be trying to say, but with his feverish look, Sakura knew that he was poisoned. Sakura immediately kneeled down beside the boy, sucking out the poison with her mouth, and spitting it out greenish substance. After a few times, with the feeling of her lips burning up from the poison, Sakura was certain that she did what she could already, and took out a roll of bandage from a pouch.
Turning around, Sakura saw Anko and Orochimaru still fighting, though it was apparent to her who was winning.
"Get out of here, Sakura! I will hold him off!"
Nodding, Sakura carried both boys and escaped.
"Tsk, they left, that doesn't matter, since what I wanted has already been accomplished, Anko."
"What?! What is it that you want with them for?!" Seeing Orochimaru smirking devilishly, something suddenly dawned upon Anko. "It can't be! You gave Sasuke a Curse Seal!" Reminded of the existence of the Curse Seal on her own neck, Anko suddenly felt the seal warming up her skin, as if it was about to erupt, releasing her hidden powers. Raising one hand, she cupped the area where the seal was.
"Jealous, are we? Are you still upset that I left you alone back then? You wanted me to take you along, didn't you? To be with me forever…"
Growling, Anko threw a kunai at her ex-instructor. Without dodging it, the kunai went straight for his heart, piercing his seemingly frail body. Almost letting out a gasp of concern, Anko grimed as Orochimaru disappeared into a puff of smoke, now standing directly behind her.
Without spinning around, Anko aimed an elbow for Orochimaru's guts. Catching it with his hand, he leaned forward and touched Anko's Curse Seal with his lips.
"Do not resist the seal, Anko, there is still chance for us to reunite. Heed my warning, Anko, do not interfere for the rest of the exam."
Even though knowing it very well that the Orochimaru who kissed her neck was a shadow clone, Anko released her anger on it anyway, spinning around, she punched and kicked the figure with fury until it exploded as well into smoke that would disperse, leaving the Jounin alone once more.
"Are you all right?" a voice called out, walking in, with one hand over his mouth coughing.
Anko was surprised, wondering how long Hayate had been there. Did he see them talking? "Did he see Orochimaru?!"
"I'm all right, come, let's go."
x
The night approached, with the three of them hiding within a hollow trunk of an ancient fallen tree, Sasuke took on a fever as well shortly after Sakura brought the two boys in to hide, and so far, they had yet to encounter any other teams. With Sasuke on her right and Naruto on her left, she felt both their foreheads with the back of her palms, neither one of them had their fevers showing any sign of cooling down. Not to mention, there was still this strange mark on the side of Sasuke's neck that worried her.
"What should I do…?" Sakura asked to no one in particular. "Three days passed, no scroll in sight, Naruto and Sasuke down, and this 'Orochimaru' that Mitarashi-sensei called him who attacked Sasuke."
Almost expecting a mocking reply from her other self, Sakura waited, realising that she's probably asleep at the moment, Sakura changed the wet towels on the foreheads of the two boys. Suddenly, someone landed right on top of them, as the inside of the fallen tree shook violently, someone started to walk on top of them, with each footstep bringing on creek on the old wood surrounding them.
Gasping in shock, Sakura pulled out a kunai in each hand, eyeing the opening in front of her. As the footsteps above her walked closer to the opening, Sakura tightened her grip on her weapons, grinding her teeth together.
"!"
Sakura could feel the forced awakening of Inner Sakura, who was trying to surface violently. The scream soon became unbearable to her, dropping both kunai, Sakura fell onto her knees, holding onto the sides of her aching head.
"Arghhh! Get out of my heeaad!"
Now totally forgotten about the coming intruder, Sakura fell unconscious. With the main barrier falling apart, Inner Sakura surfaced easily, her eyes and hair brightened to almost a glow, her face parted with a sinister smile, welcoming the return of her ancient rival.
x
Sasuke woke up shortly, as the rays of the sunlight fell onto his face, trying to blink away the light, Sasuke eventually bolted upright. Looking around him, he saw kunai everywhere, some fallen trees and some holes in the ground lying on the ground. Sasuke realised that they were in a huge hollow trunk of some sort, but it looked like as if there was a fight going on here previously, as most of the trunk was blown apart from something, revealing them to the forest. Despite the damage around them, the area where they were resting was totally untouched.
Walking passed broken pieces of wood, several kunai and a few pieces of torn green cloth materials, Sasuke found Naruto, undisturbed with one hand bandaged up with some kind of foul smelling herb. Walking further down, he noticed Sakura lying limply against what was left of a tree, her clothes had cuts over all the places, but she appeared otherwise unharmed, merely sleeping from exhaustion.
Running to her side, Sasuke picked up Sakura, trying to wake up her up while examining her for any fatal wounds, and saw nothing. "Sakura! Wake up!"
Rousing from her sleep, Sakura immediately yelped in pain, clutching arching muscles. Looking up at Sasuke, the two of them asked the same question at the same time.
"What happened?!"
"What happened…?"
"Huh?! What do you mean you don't know? It's obviously that you were fighting someone here…"
"How can I tell him that my other self woke up? Gods know what she did to me… Ouch! This is the demon knocked me out totally when surfacing." Sakura waited for a while for any reply, and finally concluded that Inner Sakura was asleep again.
"Um, I don't quite remember, Sasuke..."
"Probably a concussion… Can you walk, Sakura?"
Nodding, Sasuke let her down on her feet. Sakura studied the environment around them, not only was the inside of the tree now exposed to the outside, there were various weaponry lying about. Amazingly, the area around Naruto was left mostly intact, in fact, it almost looked like someone re-bandaged the bite wound on his right hand, and put a green blanket on him, though it looked like a torn piece of fabric from something else.
"Did she do this all by herself? And where did they find a blanket for Naruto?"
"What happened to Naruto?" Sasuke asked.
"He fought with that guy who attacked you and…," Sakura said as she walked over to Naruto's side, feeling his forehead, noticing that his fever was gone already.
"That guy'? Orochimaru did this to Naruto?"
"How's he, Sakura?" Sasuke asked.
"Well, his fever is gone, but he isn't waking up…"
Using the tip of his foot, Sasuke poked the side of Naruto. "Hey, sleepyhead, wake up."
"Sasuke…!" Sakura protested.
"Hmm, please let me sleep a little bit more…," Naruto mumbled in his sleep, turning away from Sasuke.
Angry that all this while, Naruto was just sleeping, Sakura boiled up inside, and grabbed the nearest hard object that her hand could find, and bashed it hard on Naruto's head. Waking up instantly, Naruto shielded his head with his hands against Sakura's attack. "Hey, guys! Stop it, what's with both of you?!" Finally, Naruto caught the object and pulled it away from Sakura's hand.
"Naruto!" Sasuke shouted all of the sudden.
As the both of them looked up at Sasuke's surprised expression, Sasuke pointed one finger at the object in Naruto's hand. It was an Earth scroll, the opposite of what they had, a Heaven scroll.
"Argh!" Naruto shouted, treating it as an alien object, dropping it. As the scroll rolled over to Sasuke's feet, Sasuke picked it up and examined it.
Looking questionably at Sakura, he asked her, "Sakura, did you get this off Orochimaru?"
"Orochimaru? That was the person who attacked you and Naruto, am I right?"
Nodding once, he waited for Sakura's reply. Looking as if thinking hard, Sakura's expression told him that she could not recall anything at all.
As Sakura tried to remember how the scroll got into their hands, she suddenly remembered the period of time when she was unconscious. "Did she take it?"
"It doesn't matter, guys! What's matter is that we got both scrolls now!"
Checking his pocket, Sasuke confirmed that their Heaven scroll was still with him, feeling relieved, he could not help nodding once in agreement.
"How's your hand, Naruto?" Sakura asked as she picked up his hand in hers, unravelling the bandage to reveal a healed hand. "There are still scars, but the wounds appear to be a lot better now! Did the herbs heal all that?"
"Look's great to me, Sakura."
Suddenly remembering the bite Orochimaru gave him, Sasuke felt with one hand over the area where he was bitten. Feeling nothing, he decided that it was probably gone like Naruto's wound. Seeing Sasuke touching the base of his neck, Sakura looked up worryingly, but gave a sigh of relief when Sasuke shook his head and smiled at her.
"I'm okay, Sakura."