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Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine, he is Kishimoto's

"Dattebayo!" -normal speech

'Dobe' -Thoughts

'{Shannaro!}' -Inner Sakura

"Ningen" -Boss Summon/Tailed Beast Speech

'Brat' -Boss Summon/Tailed Beast Thoughts

"Kage Bunshin!" -Ninjutsu/Genjutsu/Taijutsu move.

Beta'd by BigCC

Chapter 37: The Forest of Death, Part 7: The Last Stretch

With Teams 7&8

Clearing, Forest of Death

"Owowowowowowow…" Naruko grumbled under her breath, sitting with her back leaning against a tree and wincing in pain every few moments. She was still feeling the effect of that Kami-be-damned Gravity Field, every last inch of her poor battered body feeling like someone had decided to use her as a human flail.

Ino was not sympathetic. "Serves you right for pushing yourself so hard." She said firmly, staring down angrily at her teammate/friend. "Honestly…we have to wait for you to get fixed up before we go on, you know."

The redhead ducked her head in embarrassment. "Sorry…I just wanted to test myself…"

"You weren't thinking at all." Sakura corrected her friend. "You just didn't want to admit defeat. Honestly you haven't changed a bit since we were kids Naruko; you just can't stand the thought of losing at anything."

"Sakura-chan!" Naruko whined.

"I-It could be worse." Hinata pointed out. "We should only have to wait about half an hour more for Naruko-chan's injuries to heal. If it was a broken bone or something, it would force us to wait until tomorrow morning at the earliest before she was well enough to move."

Ino and Sakura threw exasperated looks at one another. Hinata had always spoken up in Naruko's favour, but since becoming her girlfriend, the Hyūga Heiress was completely on her side.

"So what's the plan once Red is back to full strength?" Kiba asked.

"We go straight to the tower." Sasuke stated bluntly.

"Yeah…and run the risk of getting ambushed by half-a-dozen opportunistic teams who are looking to grab our scrolls and pendants." Naruko scoffed tiredly as she tried to adjust herself to be a bit more comfortable. "We are ninja; let's try acting like it and use stealth? Under the cover of night, it'll be hard for people to see us unless they have a Kekkei Genkai like the Sharingan or the Byakugan that lets them see chakra, or a family legacy like the Inuzuka that enhances the senses other than sight."

"You do know that means you, Sakura and me are going to be a bit useless in that case right?" Ino reminded her dryly.

"My sight may only be just a bit better than a civilian's, but my nose and ears are almost as good as an Inuzuka." Naruko corrected her blond lover. "And with my clones, we can create a disturbance elsewhere and draw attention away from whatever route we plan on taking. I really have to get Anko-chan-sensei to teach me that explosive clone jutsu she was talking about a while back…"

"That wouldn't happen to be Ninpō: Bunshin Daibakuha (Ninja Art: Clone Great Explosion) would it?" Sasuke asked in a tight voice.

"Yeah actually. Why?" the Uzumaki Heiress blinked in surprise.

"My…brother…was very fond of using that particular technique." The Last Uchiha said distastefully. "I don't have the chakra to use the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu as anything close to a combat technique, so there was no point in me learning it. I have the scroll on how to use it though…if I give it to you, will you let me train against it?"

"What…you want to learn how to fight against an exploding clone?" the redhead blinked. "Uhhh…sure. We'll have to have a Med-nin on standby in case you get too close though."

"Hn." Sasuke nodded.

In the end, Naruko's plan was accepted, mostly because none of the others had come up with anything better. The rest of the genin settled down to rest and keep themselves occupied until Naruko was fully healed. Hinata sat next to her girlfriend and talked to her about the seal she was working on, while Ino and Sakura talked about upgrading their combat outfits. Kiba and Sasuke were on watch duty, with Akamaru helping.

"So this seal is one to turn clothes into armour?" Hinata blinked at the complex formula in front of her.

"Broadly." Naruko agreed. "At best, it can reinforce the structure of whatever fabric it is drawn on to the same resilience and toughness of steel, without reducing its flexibility or ability to breathe. It should also keep the weight at about the same level, give or take a few grams. It has chakra storage seals built into its main matrix that are used to power it, but it's fairly limited in how much chakra it can store, which is something I'm still trying to fix before I put into field testing."

"How much chakra can it hold?" the Hyūga Heiress asked curiously.

"Barely enough for five minutes." Naruko said sourly. "Granted, most fights rarely last that long, but refilling it is a pain and I kinda want to see if I can make that part easier too. I'm thinking about having it use a small absorption matrix designed to target the wearer's ambient chakra in order to let it refill without the owner of the coat or vest or whatever having to do anything. It would also mitigate the small size of the storage seals. For the moment, I can't make them bigger without destabilising the entire matrix."

"Wh-what about adding a couple more storage seals?" Hinata asked shyly. Naruko looked at her for a moment before studying the matrix she had on the scroll in her hands. The next moment, Hinata was being kissed deeply and her shocked lavender eyes widened before closing in bliss as she valiantly tried to kiss back.

When they parted (much to Hinata's reluctance, it must be said) Naruko beamed at her. "Thanks! I was so focussed on correcting what was wrong that I forgot that I could add pre-existing matrices to it as well."

"Y-You're welcome." The bluenette said in a daze, her 'Inner Hinata' practically squeeing in joy at the ease at which Naruko was bestowing physical affection on her recently.

"Get a room already." Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"As soon as we get to the tower and have a shower, that's the plan." The Uzumaki Heiress smirked suggestively.

Hinata exploded into a bright red blush and fainted with an 'eep!', while Ino and Sakura weren't much better, Ino especially as Naruko caught her eye and smirked slightly.

Kiba clamped one hand over his nose to prevent a nosebleed, while even Sasuke's face looked a bit pink.

"What? I need my beauty sleep." Naruko said innocently.

Later

With Amegakure Team #2

"Boss, we need to sleep~!" a voice whined piteously from a group of trees.

"Shut up, you retard!" another hissed.

"Koichi-san, we haven't slept since the day before yesterday. Takeda's barely keeping his eyes open and I'm not much better off." A third voice argued softly. "If we don't go to sleep soon, we'll collapse!"

"You shut it too, Satou!" the first voice snapped. "We can't let that asswipe Oboro and his two lunkheads be the only ones from Ame in the Finals!"

Amegakure had sent three teams to this Chunin Exam. One, Team Kazuo, had been eliminated in the First Round, leaving Team Oboro and Team Nobuo to try and pass the Second Round.

Oboro and his teammates were very good at using a combination of Genjutsu, Suiton Ninjutsu and Doton Ninjutsu to wear down their opponents and win, which was how they took down a Kusagakure team and hightailed it into the tower after doing a speedy run of the three locations for their necklaces. Lucky bastards.

By contrast, the eliminated Team Kazuo had been Jacks of All Trades, all of them having some degree of skill in a variety of ninja arts.

Nobuo Koichi and his teammates, Satou Shigure and Takeda Yuichi, were weapons specialists. Koichi used a pair of tantō, Satou wielded an Amegakure Combat Umbrella and Takeda wielded a kusarigama. In addition to that, all three were above average in Shurikenjutsu. In a straight up fight, Team Nobuo could beat Team Oboro like an unwanted stepchild. As they were ninja however, Team Oboro never let things come to a straight fight between them unless there was no other choice. This had led to Oboro's team being viewed as superior Shinobi.

As one might imagine, this led to quite a bit of resentment on the part of Team Nobuo, who knew they could win a straight fight between them easily. They had worked on their counter-Genjutsu skills and Nobuo tiredly promised himself that once this exam was over with, one way or another, he would ask their sensei about diversifying their skillset somewhat.

As it stood though, he had to admit that Satou had a point. They were too damn tired to be of much use and were more likely to hurt themselves than the enemy. That would be embarrassing, hurting themselves with their own weapons! Oboro would never let them live it down if that happened! He could have sworn, for example, that they'd seen a Wandering Ninja earlier on.

Just as he opened his mouth to order them back to their camp, three female figures dashed across their arc of sight, with Konoha headbands. Nobuo froze with indecision for a moment before rolling his eyes. Typical. Prey comes when they're too tired to chase them!

"Back to camp. I'm too tired for this shit." The Amegakure genin groaned.

With the Konoha Genin

"That was lucky." Kiba whispered as they leapt forwards, heading in a roundabout wat to the Tower. They had been prepared to follow Naruko's plan, but the lack of reaction and retreat of the Amegakure genin had negated the need for its use.

"Wonder who Oboro is." Ino mused.

"Not someone those three were fond of." Sasuke grunted. "Let's get to the tower. I am sick of this kami-forsaken forest."

For once, no-one disagreed with his sentiment. The numerous chakra mutations and deadly plants that made up the forest were more of a challenge than the other genin and they'd had to run away from animals bigger than even the giant white tigers who ruled the outermost areas of the Forest of Death at least twice. The entire experience was both nerve-wracking and had made tempers fray on more than one occasion.

Adding Orochimaru into the situation had done nothing for everyone's nerves.

"We're almost at the tower." Hinata said softly, her Byakugan active. "I can't see any Genjutsu or other teams within the range of my eyes, aside from that Ame team that we passed."

"Let's keep alert just in case someone's using earth jutsu to hide beyond Hinata's sight." Sakura directed them. "The last thing we need is to stumble at the last moment."

"Yeah." Naruko agreed. "Hinata-chan, keep an eye in front and above us; I don't want to sucker-punched by a Raiton jutsu again. Everyone else, keep an eye, ear or nose out in the other directions so Hinata-chan can focus on her areas."

With nods of agreement, the other genin obeyed. None of them wanted to have to get into a stupid fight when they had just gotten everything they needed to enter the tower. Ninja only fought when it was advantageous to them to do so or there was no other choice but to do so.

The haze of a Kekkai Ninjutsu surrounding them made Naruko groan. "Kekkai ninjutsu? Seriously? Who on earth could hide the jutsushiki from Hinata-chan's eyes? Unless…shit, they used some more Fūinjutsu to cast a powerful Genjutsu."

"Tch. As always, Uzumaki are annoyingly insightful in matters of Fūinjutsu." A disgusted voice spat. As the Konoha genin landed on tree branches, a man emerged from a tree. He was dressed in skin-tight black clothes and had a blank hitai-ate on his head. A black spandex half-face mask concealed his lower face and the pair of night-vision goggles covered most of the upper portion of his face. A hood covered the rest of his head.

All-in-all, he visually matched the ridiculous stereotype of a ninja that some moron over in Hana no Kuni had placed into a film as one who stood out like an idiot because they wore such obviously suspicious clothing.

"Feh. It matters not. Your ending is decided." The man dressed in Shinobi Shōzoku sneered. "This Kekkai is something that only a Fūinjutsu Master could possibly break out of and it will contract rapidly and kill you once I leave."

"So you're a member of the Clans of Darkness." Naruko said darkly. "Which are you? A Mikami? A Ryūjin? An Amatsuka? Or one of the others?"

"HA! So you have some knowledge of those your accursed clan has oppressed in the past, Uzumaki." The man sneered again. "I am Amatsuka Taichi, Head of the Blue Dragon Faction of the Clans of Darkness. Take that name with you as a gift as you die, Uzumaki scum!"

"Dobe, who is this poser?" Sasuke asked as he eyed the man.

"An Amatsuka." The Uzumaki Heiress said with a scowl. "They were a powerful Clan in what is now Yu no Kuni (Land of Hot Water). They were most unorthodox Fūinjutsu users who specialised in a body puppetry seal linked to a mask…the Norowareta Kamen no Fūinjutsu (Cursed Mask Sealing Jutsu). The Uzumaki Clan purged them about a century before the Period of Warring Clans."

"And just who gave your accursed clan licence to act as the Fūinjutsu police, huh?!" Amatsuka demanded. "Had the Uzumaki not interfered, the Amatsuka would rule at least Yu no Kuni right now! Feh, wasting words on those about to die is meaningless. What am I thinking…? Die in agony, Uzumaki."

With that, he vanished using a Shunshin. As he did, the Kekkai barrier trapping them slowly began to contract inwards, pressing against the trees around the genin before gradually pushing them over. Inexorably, like an advancing ring of juggernauts, the entire forest seemed to be drawing in on them.

"Well shit." Naruko said off-handedly. "This is irritating."

"Irritating?! No shit." Ino barked. "We're gonna get crushed!"

"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!" Sasuke didn't waste any time on words and simply fired his best Jutsu at the barrier. It didn't do anything, simply splashing against the barrier jutsu ineffectively.

"Hinata-chan, are there any weak points on the barrier?" Naruko asked calmly. "Any areas where the chakra isn't as thick or has a flaw in it?"

Rapidly scanning the area, the bluenette shook her head. "It looks fairly constant all around us."

"Does it go beneath the ground?" the redhead asked, still as irritatingly calm as before.

Again, Hinata scanned the area, and then broke into a smile. "No, it doesn't!"

"Ha! Thought so!" Naruko smirked. "That guy was sloppy. And he underestimated us. Probably thought we would run around like idiots in a panic. Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Around Teams 7&8, clones of Naruko appeared, quickly grabbing them and jumping down to the ground before running through a handsign sequence.

"Doton: Dochū Senkō!" they all said and dragged the surprised team members underground, swimming through the earth like fish to emerge on the other side of the barrier.

"Well, that was easy. On to the tower-dattebayo." Naruko said lightly as she emerged last, using a pulse of chakra to dislodge any clods of dirt that had clung to her clothes or hair. Chakra was so damned useful.

Copying her to get rid of the dirt, the others followed behind her to the base of the tower. It loomed over the rest of the forest, which said something considering most of the trees were taller than Naruko's old apartment building. What little the Uzumaki Heiress knew about the tower was that it had been originally designed as an emergency fall-back position during the First's reign in case Konoha was ever occupied by an enemy force. The Forest of Death around it, combined with the thick, Fūinjutsu-enforced walls of the tower, made this one of the safest places in Konoha in that instance.

Well, safe for the civilians who would be escorted via secret tunnels underground to it, anyway.

It had since been replaced by the bunker systems carved into the Hokage Monument and beneath the village, once the village had grown too large for a single tower, no matter how large, to hold. Now it served several more utilitarian purposes.

Sending her clones to scout around the base of the tower, Naruko led them a quarter of the way around of the base of the tower until they found a small assortment of red doors set into the wall. The fact that there was the space of a foot between the doors and the line of the outer wall meant that there was likely a foot-thick wall here normally, covering up the doors. Naruko eyed the floor in front of the doors carefully and saw the traces of the same stone as the tower.

'Huh. A sally point converted into regular doors, perhaps?' the redhead wondered idly.

"Do you think we should each take a different door?" she asked Sakura, who nodded.

"Yeah. Probably better that way." The pinkette agreed. "See you on the other side."

Separating, the two teams chose a different door and went through them.

Naruko looked around and saw a small room just large enough for three grown men to lie down next to one another. The walls were plain except for three slots in the wall immediately opposite the door. They were just about the right size to insert the emblems.

"Looks like this is the first part. Necklaces off, girls." Naruko said. The three kunoichi genin took off their emblems and slipped them into a slot each. With a soft click, the wall spat the emblems back out and sunk into the ground, revealing a much larger room inside. It too was utterly devoid of any furniture and the only thing that really stood out was a large tapestry filled with words on one side.

"'If you do not possess Heaven, gain knowledge and be prepared.'" Ino read out. "'If you do not possess Earth, run through the fields and seek strength. If you possess both Heaven and Earth, Dangerous Paths shall become Safe Paths. This is the secret of…' there's a missing word or two here…'It shall lead you on your way.'"

"What the heck does that mean?" the Uzumaki Heiress said blandly. She may have studied more than when she was in the Academy, but this still went over her head.

"'Heaven' refers to intelligence and knowledge, 'Earth' to physical strength and training." Hinata said quietly. "It's basically saying to become better ninja by training to improve your weaknesses. If you lack knowledge, study. If your body is weak, train it and improve. I-I think this is one of Hokage-sama's favourite sayings from during his first reign as Hokage."

"Wow…I really need to study Ji-chan more." Naruko muttered. She had studied all of those she sought to become better than as Hokage, but mostly their battlefield achievements, bloodlines and jutsu. She had neglected their teachings.

"So…how do we proceed?" Ino asked with a frown. "The poem's a great lesson, but it doesn't tell us how to go on."

"It does, actually." Naruko said after a moment of thought. "The last part, about possessing both Heaven and Earth and how it would turn dangerous paths safe? I think it means that if we open both the Heaven and Earth Scrolls together here, it'll be safe to do so."

"Well, it isn't as if we've got anything else to try." The Yamanaka Heiress shrugged. There were no other clues in the room to suggest what to do, so Naruko's idea wasn't as reckless as it sounded, despite Shikaku's warning about not opening the scrolls.

Removing the Heaven and Earth Scrolls from the locations on her body where she had sealed them away, the redhead passed one to Hinata and on a count of three, the two girls opened them.

Naruko glanced over the two scrolls and said. "Throw it! It's a summoning array!"

With a clatter, the two scrolls were flung away from their holders. Smoke started to emit from them, along with a jutsushiki spreading out from them.

"Please tell me we don't have to fight a monster or something!" Ino groaned as she drew her weapon.

"Given how things are right now, I wouldn't be surprised." Naruko grumbled as her hands came to get, ready to weave a few handsigns into a ninjutsu, even as Hinata settled into the ready stance of the Jūho. When the summon array complete itself, smoke exploded to fill up half of the room, only to disappear, leaving two women standing atop the scrolls.

"Kurenai-sensei! Anko-sensei!" Ino said in relief, sagging down as her tension flowed out of her body.

Anko didn't say anything. She stormed over to Naruko and almost ripped her trench coat and bodysuit away to reveal first one side of her neck and then the other. She repeated the process on both Hinata and Ino. When she finished, she almost melted in relief before smacking Naruko over the head with one fist.

"OW! An-chan, what the heck?!" the Uzumaki Heiress yelped as she nursed her brand new egg-sized bump atop her head.

"What on earth were you thinking, fighting my bastard ex-sensei?!" the purple-haired woman growled. "He could have killed you in one cut of his sword if he wanted to! He could have branded you like he did to me!"

"There was no other choice, dammit!" Naruko shot back. "It was me or someone else from our teams and I was the best suited to hold him off thanks to my clones and skill in kenjutsu. If I hadn't held him off alone, he would have gotten his hands on the teme and branded him! What the hell did you want me to do in that situation?!"

Anko looked ready to fire something back, but Kurenai shook her head as she stepped up next to her friend. "We don't second-guess decisions made in the field. It'll be up to Hokage-sama to decide if she made the right or wrong decisions there. For now, let's get these three in so they can go to bed."

That drew universal acclaim from the three genin, who found themselves yearning for a nice, soft bed rather than the cold ground. Naruko decided that she would start carrying around a scroll with sleeping bags in future, just in case this happened again.

Later

Temporary Hokage Office, Tower of the Forest of Death

"So both Team 7 and Team 8 arrived? That is very good to hear." Sarutobi smiled. "They are well, I trust?"

"Naruko's outfit was ruined by Orochimaru's sword, but other than that, the only casualty is their pride." Kakashi reported. "A Med-nin healed the mild concussion that Sakura had and most of their lesser wounds. Naruko was completely healed, with no trace of any poison in her bloodstream."

"I think we can expect her resistance to poisons to have taken a sharp increase." The Hokage said with a frown. "Medicines that have poisons as a base as well, in all likelihood. Have it entered into her medical files. Now…what about Shikaku? Has he fully recovered?"

"Hai. He's simply being lazy again." The cyclopean Jonin rolled his one visible eye at the antics of the Jonin Commander. "Once you give the order, he should start actually working instead of napping all day."

Sarutobi sighed. Why was it that the most intelligent clan in the Elemental Nations was so damned lazy? It almost made him wish that Naruko would sneak into their compound and replace all of their decaf coffee with triple expresso again like she had done a couple of years ago. The sight of every one of the lazy Nara males running around like Gai had made him laugh until he had stiches. The wives had also been pleased as their husbands had been more 'energetic' in the bedroom.

The fact that it had scared the Yamanaka and Akimichi clansmen had been a bonus. The additional fact that it was now considered standard procedure to carry an emergency supply of expresso in case of emergencies if you had a Nara on your team was both a beneficial and highly amusing side-effect.

"Kakashi-kun, I want you to keep an eye on Sasuke-kun from here on out." The Hokage said seriously. "Orochimaru has made him a target; he will doubtlessly try to brand Sasuke again. Ensure that such a thing does not happen."

"Hai, Hokage-sama." The silver-haired Jonin said firmly, and for a moment, Sarutobi could see the image of ANBU Captain Inu where Kakashi was standing. He had taken the same tone as he had as an ANBU and the old Hokage knew that Orochimaru would have a hard time indeed at getting to Sasuke now. Inu had never failed a mission.

Once Kakashi left, Sarutobi massaged his eyes. Ibiki was in the process of interviewing the two defectors from Otogakure and, although he doubted that Orochimaru would be so careless as to let anything of truly profound significance slip to his subordinates, he was hoping for some information of use. Subordinates, especially in the dog-eat-dog village that Otogakure seemed to be, always knew more about what was going on that their leaders realised as a necessary defence mechanism. Finding a few diamonds in that particular kind of coal mine was surprisingly common, even if the subject themselves didn't realise it was valuable.

The saying 'There is no such thing as useless information, only information that has yet to have relevance' was something both the Hokage and Ibiki were firm believers in.

'Now all that I need is for Jiraiya-kun to get his act together and bring Tsunade-chan back where she belongs.' Sarutobi thought with a sigh.

To be fair to his one remaining loyal student, the plan that Sarutobi had concocted in order to get Tsunade to Konoha was something that the Toad Sages of Myōbokuzan would be against out of conservative reflex. He had probably spent most of his time arguing with them for the past month. Still, Sarutobi had confidence that Jiraiya's sincerity would move Fukasaku and Shiina to aid him. Once Tsunade arrived, well…he was going to have to see if the Med-nin who had diagnosed Naruko all those years ago was lying or not.

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Next Chapter: The Tower Part 1: Preliminary Round

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