Sasuke woke up in the hospital.
He was terrified to find that he could not move.
Sakura sat at his bedside, Naruto was curled up on his mattress. They were talking quietly.
He tried to make a sound, a movement, anything to let them know that he was stuck. But he couldn't and they continued talking without noticing the panic he was in. He tried and tried, but his body was too heavy. He couldn't lift his head, or his arm, or even twitch his fingers. Every hard breath felt like it would be his last, because an invisible weight sat on his chest, immobilizing him, paralyzing his lungs. He trashed in his head, but his body remained immobile as stone. Tears of frustration and panic leaked from his eyes.
It was the glint of the light off his tears that finally caught Naruto's eye.
In an instant, he was raised from his prone position by Naruto's arm, his head lolling against Naruto's shoulder.
"You're alright! The healer said you might panic. But there's no need to worry. You were injected with a paralyzer, it should wear off in a few hours." Sakura spoke in a hurried rush, scrambling on to the bed on her knees, her face angled to remain in front of his eyes.
Sasuke blinked in relief and tears rushed down his cheeks. Naruto wiped them away quickly.
"Don't worry teme! I wouldn't let anything happen to you."
Sasuke wanted to throw his arm off and shoot back a venomous retort, but all he could move was his eyelids.
It turned out that Naruto had been able to fight off the snake-venom with the help of his 'tenant'. He'd created shadow clones, rushed to bind Sakura's wounds and then carried them to Konoha General as fast as he could. His voice was somber as he told the tale.
Sasuke tried not to think of the desperation Naruto must have felt if he was not even willing to rub-in how he had saved Sasuke's life.
Naruto had recovered within hours and Sakura within the next day, but it took three days for them to be discharged from the hospital. Sasuke remained under observation during that time and after Sakura stabbed a healer who tried to remove her from the room while she was asleep, no one asked Naruto and Sakura to leave.
During this time, Naruto made a nuisance of himself as he tried to check and re-check their wounds. The rubbing-in and boasting did come- once Sasuke was able to move, and Sakura's bandages came off.
They were summoned to the Hokage's tower.
As they entered they all froze for a moment when they found the woman who had left them to die in the forest there. She glanced at them with her black flinty eyes and grinned to reveal sharp teeth.
In eerie coordination, Naruto and Sasuke pounced at her with kunai drawn, mouths twisted to reveal teeth.
Sakura stumbled back with fingers locked in the Ram seal.
By the time Naruto and Sasuke landed, the woman whirling away to avoid them, Sakura had drawn the woman into a single layer of balance-affecting genjutsu.
With a signature pop and white smoke, several Naruto clones blinked into existence, caging the woman.
She stumbled slightly as she turned to hurl senbon at them and Sasuke's kunai sliced across her cheek as he charged at her again.
Sakura's fingers twisted into the horse seal and she used the smoke from the dispersal of Naruto clones to weave another layer of genjutsu affecting the woman's sight and hiding Sasuke as he landed behind the woman again.
There was a pause where the woman straightened. She tilted her head and looked straight at Sakura as she licked the blood from her own cheek with a tongue that was longer than normal.
In the next second, she was in front of Sakura reaching for her neck.
Sakura hastily switched with one of the Naruto clones that appeared as Naruto performed his signature jutsu again. The clone popped as the woman pushed a senbon into its neck. But by the time it was too late, as the woman began to turn, Sasuke landed on her back and used all his momentum to drive a kunai into the back of her neck.
There was a moment where everything was still as the woman collapsed. Then, as Sasuke landed back between his team-mates on the opposite side of the room, all three of them panting, slow mocking clapping began. They turned their heads to see the woman emerge again from the shadows, the clone they'd fought turning into an unidentifiable mass of white flesh that reeked.
"You were able to defeat my clone. Nicely done!" she stopped clapping and grinned her maniac grin again.
Sasuke's sharingan re-activated and Naruto and Sakura began their hand seals again, but before they could begin again, the Hokage cleared his throat loudly and rose from the pavilion he was seated on.
"I see you have met each other." he remarked as he moved to stand between them and the woman.
"This is Mitarashi Anko. She has agreed to be your temporary sensei." he told Team 7.
Naruto stared at the Hokage in shock. "What? She almost killed us in the forest!"
"Oh that, that was just a test to see if you were worthy of being my team!" Mitarashi Anko flashed her canines again.
Naruto made a noise deep in his throat and tried to jump at her again, "A test! I almost lost my team because of you."
Sakura gripped the back of Naruto's collar to stop him from rushing at the woman again.
Anko looked at Sakura with her head tilted again. "Wouldn't have been a great loss."
Sakura's hand shook, and Naruto raised his hands to make seals, but the Hokage cleared his throat again.
"Anko." he said firmly.
Anko glanced at the Hokage and her face blanked.
"We meet in Training Ground 3 every morning at 6. Don't be late." she told Team 7. She turned to the Hokage and bowed, "Hokage-sama." Then she was gone.