The last blast of chakra was felt by the sound trio as Sasuke regained his consciousness. Naruto programmed a clone to take Sakura to somewhere safe and guard her. He himself chose to watch Sasuke to see if there is a need to further intervene with the cursed seal.

"Decapitating Airwaves" Zaku shouted the jutsu just as Sasuke finished his hand seals with the tiger hand seals

"Fire Style: Grand Fireball" the fireball consumed the airwaves and continued stronger than before. With no technique to stop the fireball, the sound genin was forced to scatter. Sasuke grinned at the way his blood warmed and stalked the air user.

Zaku landed to a momentarily safe place but before he could fully reorient himself he saw Sasuke from the edge of his sight and aimed to his general direction for another shot of decapitating airwaves. He failed however for Sasuke arrived first and bent his arm behind him and pulled. When the sound genin fell to his knees he grabbed the other arm and put his foot to his back.

"It was a big mistake to attack us you fool. Let me show you how big it was…" Naruto jumped down from the branch to watch Sasuke and made his way to them.

"What are you doing Sasuke?" he asked, tone perfectly neutral. Sasuke turned his head to him but not his gaze. It was on the sound genin. His face was in an 'why are you asking questions with glaring answers' expression.

"Eliminating opposition." Naruto hummed and pulled out his Fuinjutsu book.

"Are you going to kill him?" the question came out so naturally that he may be talking about the weather. The cold sweat rolled from the sound nin could have fill buckets at this point but Sasuke hesitated. Naruto sighed and felt worse and worse but none of it showed on his body. He chanted 'it's necessary' in his mind.

"You need to get used to killing Sasuke. Being a ninja requires us to kill." He drew a kunai from the seal on his wrist and grabbed Zaku's left arm. "He knew about the risks, we all knew about the risks before entering the exam." He handed the knife to Sasuke. "it is about kill or get killed. Do you want to die?" Sasuke took the Kunai but he was still hesitating. Naruto was half glad that the Sasuke he came to love was still existing in the scarred mind of the boy and half stern that he couldn't adapt to the situation at hand. A ninja that can't adapt is a dead ninja in their first lethal mission. Zaku's laughter made them refocus on the Sound ninja. Knowing that he can't get out of here alive, Zaku did his best to hurt his enemies before his end.

"The last Uchiha can't kill to save his life!" the sound ninja yelled. Both Konoha genin glared at him and Naruto pulled his arm harshly. He grunted but didn't stopped running his mouth. "it is so fortunate for Uchiha clan to get slaughtered, they would kill themselves instead. You are such a dis-" He couldn't finish as his head rolled several times in air before fell down. Moments later his body followed. Naruto threw the kunai in his hand to somewhere far. The Kunai, overcharged from the wind chakra Naruto used to make its cutting potential superb, exploded in air. Shrapnel scattered around, some piercing trees, some ground but it was ignored.

Both boys were knee-deep in their demons…

"Let's go back…" Sasuke said, he was surprisingly first to recover. Naruto nodded.

"Naruto… it is dripping…" Tsukimaru warned. He wiped his nose with his hand and stared at the black substance.

"Does the statue hold?" The statue was a mental manifestation of the seal he had on his powers. It wasn't the only restriction on them but it was the first one.

"it is cracked and darkness is dripping from them but it is still in one piece. It is best you repair it."

"I shall do it first time possible. Are they getting past swords?" they are the second seal, a circle of stabbed down swords with a long length of chain connecting them.

"No but it is enough to rattle chains." Naruto sent a mental nod.

The seals he had on his powers was not for his gain, they were for the people around him. If he didn't have yang part of Tsukimaru, then it would be part for his own. Yin chakra feed itself on the owner's negative emotions and got more… however one must have balanced yin and yang halves of chakra to live; that's why there was so little amount of yin nature shinobi, most died before they can master their power. When the balance leaned towards yang, the body of the user get an unnatural regeneration to burn the excess… but when it leans to yin, it leeched from living cells thus damaging the body. As long as emotions aren't extreme the regeneration of body can deal with it – with a shorter life span – but when the emotions got too strong…

With Tsukimaru's yang balancing his yin he managed but one day it will not be enough. And for that day he had to use seals to restrict the growth of the power. Even so sometimes he couldn't suppress it and it may damage him but he found ways to avoid it. The most effective one is drawing the power out of his body, he used to need to sacrifice some of his blood as a container for it to expel but now he could do it without a medium. However, the excess yin chakra destroyed what life it touched before it got balanced by nature chakra so he tried not to do it a lot.

They arrived back to the clearing they were in… to find the team ten guarding a bruised Sakura. He remembered the guardian clone's memories of dispelling when team ten arrived.

'I must have been pretty distracted to miss the memory' he reasoned.

"…If you don't want your teammate to die." Kin was holding a kunai on her own throat. 'Ino.' Naruto thought. He proceeded to the possessed sound kunoichi.

"Get back to your body Ino." He requested calmly. Ino scoffed.

"We got it covered. Make sure to be thank-" Naruto grabbed possessed Kin's arm, grip tight as a vice.

"Get. Back. To. Your. Body." There was an edge on his voice she never heard. It was commanding and promising severe consequences if not obeyed. Ino took a hesitant peek at his eyes and nearly winced from the coldness of his sapphire pools. She put her hands to ram seal to dispel her jutsu.

Kin had a moment to reorient herself before she was slammed to a tree behind her. A blond boy was holding her from throat. A poof later another blond was next to him. A swift but crushing heel kick delivered to her knee caused her to scream and made her leg bend to wrong way. He did it to the other without giving her any moment, renewed her screams, and put her hands together above her head. He drew a kunai and pinned her hands to the tree then original let go. She couldn't stop screaming as her weight caused her torment, putting it to her feet made white hot pain flare from her broken knees while letting it go caused same to her pinned hands. She couldn't stop tears as the blond threw a kunai to the Uchiha's feet.

"End her suffering…" was all he said and he went to the frozen mummy-shinobi. As he got closer the sound shinobi started to quiver like a leaf in wind. The ease blond in with dispatching Kin unnerved even him.

"P-please let us go. Y-you can have out scroll…" he pulled out the scroll from his pouch and threw it to the blond. Naruto caught the scroll but didn't stop.

"Who is us? Your male teammate is feeding the soil with his blood, your female teammate is…" he turned to see the girl on ground and pleading for her life to Sasuke. he had the bloody kunai on his hand.

"That could be… no, would be Sakura!" he shouted. "Don't forget what the other one did, give them what they deserve!" there was a squelching sound and Kin was no more, an underlying coldness settled on Sasuke's eyes. A minuscule, cold smirk ghosted over the blond's lips for a moment before he turned back to the trembling Sound ninja.

"… No more." He was an arm length away now. "it is just you now." The sound ninja fell to his knees.

"P-P-Please, I-I-I just want m-my life." Naruto hummed.

"you know, there is something you can do for me." Hope lit up the sound ninja's face.

"A-anything"

"You are here for Sasuke, correct?"

"Y-yes"

"Test the cursed seal on him." The sound ninja was confused.

"T-the U-Uchiha has a cursed seal?" Naruto sighed 'Mere pawns'

"Yes… What's your name?"

"D-Dosu"

"Dosu. You were sent here as pawns to gauge its power. You were supposed to die…" he paused "…all of you." There was a little anger in a pool of fear on the sound ninja's face.

"Sasuke killed the boy and the girl on your team, you gave your scroll for your life. That is what you are going to say to him. You are also going to take this" he brought his hand up and shadows materialized on it. There was a pawn on his hand. Dosu took the chess piece. "channel your chakra into it and press it on your heart." He did as told and a pawn tattoo appeared on his chest. "it is my cursed seal, the covenant. With this, your life is in my hands. All I need to kill you is think a command and send chakra. So, don't get funny ideas." He turned back to get back to his teammates.

"Now leave." Dosu didn't needed to told twice.

End If Chapter

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