Both "Naruto" and "A Flash to Naruto" are property of their original owners. GawrBack claims no credit aside from this two-line intro.
Unfortunately, I don't know the original author of this fanfic, but if you know their username - please leave a review so I can credit them.

Ah, it's good to be back to this fanfic. I've been working on another fanfic 'Drunken Love' so I put this one on the back burner for a while, but now, I'm back. First off, as usual I'd like to thank my reviewers for well, reviewing, though I should really start releasing chapters sooner. Ell's been asking for the last chapter for forever.

Well, it's best that I get started now uh?

Chapter 11: Beasts of the forest Part 1

Jetta, Temari and I wondered through the forest. Visibility was low, though the sun had not set yet because the forest ceiling caught and hid most of the sunlight from our eyes. It had been some time since we devised our 'plan' but, we were yet to find any traces of the river, even worse, anywhere were we could set up camp for the night cause, it was kinda obvious that I was sleeping in that damn forest again. Why me?

We were treading though some trees, having to change our body positions on multiple occasions to proceed. Unfortunately, this was beginning to frustrate us. Especially me. OK, mostly me.

I sighed as we squeezed through some trees. "Why can't we find that river? I mean, the place is only 10 km in diameter… I can walk 10 kilometers in like what, a couple of hours if I'm feeling lazy!"

"Tsebe quit complaining. Things could be worse." Jetta said as she squeezed behind me. (That sounded wrong…)

"Hmm… Being dead doesn't sound too bad to me. No worries, no stupid exams in stupid forests, yup, that sounds like a sweet deal." I said as I continued to squeeze my way through the trees.

"Tsebe, you're forgetting the most important part," Temari replied as she squeezed ahead of me. "You're dead."

Temari suddenly disappeared out of site. Oh great, what now? I thought as I continued. I emerged from the trees, into… a bush? And I thought it was something…

"Hey wait for me!" I heard Jetta call behind me.

I saw Temari past the bushes, vaguely standing with her head slightly tilted up. I slowly proceeded towards her, hoping that she wasn't staring at a giant 381 eyed spider or something. As I emerged and stood next to Temari, I saw what caught her attention. It was two huge trees, with grew to somewhat swallow the forest, and whose roots intertwined leaving a large gap between the tree itself and the forest floor. I looked around the trees. There was moved dirt, moss, and blast marks on the surrounding bushes, as if a tornado passed through those bushes alone.

"Whoa," Temari said. "That's a healthy tree. Plus, we can camp out underneath it."

It then hit me what the hell I was looking at. "Oh hell no."

Jetta stumbled from the bushes. "Why not? Seems good enough, hidden so that no one or thing comes knocking at all odd hours. Let's stay here the night."

I dropped to my knees. "Why here? Why freaking here?!"

Jetta looked at me with an inquisitive eye. "So…" She said as she placed her hand on her chin. "This is where the crime transpired huh?"

"Shut up!"

Temari looked at me and raised an eyebrow.

"Hey, just guessing." Jetta said as she shifted her weight and placed her hand on her hip. "And, why else would you not want to stay the night here, I mean I'll its missing is room service and this is paradise. Well, paradise in a forest that is."

I sent Jetta a glare. "Whatever…"

We made our way to the tree. Jetta placed her hand on it and looked up. "You know, all we may have to do is bring in some bushes to make a somewhat comfortable bed and keep the bugs out and this may be kinda cozy." She turned and looked at Temari and me and gave us a look. It was one of 'those' looks… "I know you two will make it quite cozy indeed."

"What?!" Temari said surprised raising her hands. "No, no. Not at all."

Jetta the slid to Temari, and then began to slowly nudge her with her elbow with a smile on her face. "You know, if you want me to sleep somewhere else tonight, you know you can 'do what you do', just let me know."

"Jetta…"

"I don't want to, 'interfere' with your plans so just let me know. I have no problems with sleeping in the tree itself you know."

Temari looked at Jetta, "Jetta, you don't have to-."

Jetta cut her off. "No, no. I insist. If you wanna get all 'freaky' and what-not. Just let me know."

"Jetta, no I don't wanna get freaky with him!"

"Yeah, sure." Jetta said as she winked for Temari. "Just make sure the glove is on tight."

Temari sighed. "Whatever."

Darkness was now upon us. The forest was black, dark, zero visibility. You could not see your own hand in front of your own face, and that's not a joke. We would have started a fire but, we were a group of baboons. No, not cavemen, baboons, cause cavemen had fires, and we didn't. Not even a spark. We sat in the roots, no one able to see the other, and no one daring to move. The forest noises kept us in our places, snakes, rattles, bugs, rustling, you name it, and we heard it that night.

"Is everyone there?" Jetta called out.

"I'm there." I said softly.

"Jetta, you asked like 15 seconds ago. No one's going to die, relax."

Silence stood for a few seconds, well, silence except for the forest noises.

"AHHHH!"

I sprung up to my feet!

Bam!

My head banged on the roots above. "OWWWW!"

"AHHHH!" The same voice screamed.

"What's going on!?"

"My head!"

"AHHHHH! It has my foot!" The first voice screamed. It was Jetta.

"What!?" I yelled.

"I don't know!" Jetta screamed. "AHHHH!"

Bam!

I suddenly felt something ram into my body. I managed not to fall, but I hit my head again…

"AHHHH!"

"Jetta relax! It's me."

"Oh." I felt two arms wrap around me. Tight. "AHHHHH!" Jetta held me tighter, a bit too tight for my liking and she was now wildly kicking.

"Jetta!" I said. "Calm down!"

"Alright, alright. I'm ok, I'm ok." She said as her grip on me loosened.

"Thank you. Now I can breath a-."

"AHHHHH!"

"Not again!"

Then, I began to hear a sound. It sounded like… snickering? It was coming from the darkness, then again, Jetta was in the darkness to me and she wasn't letting me breathe. I squinted my trying to see through the darkness. Nothing. Well, nothing other than a vague image of Jetta clinging onto me.

The noise came again. As did Jetta's screaming.

Something's fishy… I said to myself. Though, it's starting to get kinda obvious. My hands reached into my pockets. I had to have had something that could have shed some light on the situation. Let's see… Scroll which I can't read… Why the hell did I bring that? A shuriken, why isn't that in my holster? My iPod (actually it's a Zen now)… Wait that's it! I reached in and pulled out my iPod.

"Time to figure out what's really going on here…" I said to myself, though I think Jetta heard.

I turned on my iPod, turning on its light, which revealed what was attacking Jetta foot. A hand. That was it, a hand. A hand which I recognized…

"Temari!?"

I lifted the pod to illuminate a smiling kunoichi.

"Yeah, you got me." She said as she raised her hands.

Jetta immediately letting go of me turned and pointed a finger at the sand ninja. "You did that to me! You almost made me wet myself!"

"You're lucky it's almost." I said.

"Uh huh. You've done me worst Jetta." Temari said folding her arms, still with a smile on her face. "So I decided to have a little revenge,and I see you took a 'liking' towards Tsebe."

"No I didn't! And name one time I've done you worse." Jetta asked.

"One time, you managed to take one string of my clothes, and by the time I reached in the town, I was walking in my bra!"

"Wait, your bra alone?" I asked.

"Unfortunately, yes."

Jetta laughed. "Oh yeah I remember that day. By the time you reached back home you were so red." She wiped her eye as if a tear came. "Good times, good times. So yeah, you've got a point…"

"I'm glad you see things my way." Temari said happily. "Now if you mind, I'd like to sleep. We need to be at full strength for tomorrow in case we run into that worm-slug-thing." Temari then crawled over to where Jetta and I were. "Good night folks." She then lied down on her side, placed her hands under her head like a pillow and pulled her legs up.

Jetta reached over her in a menacing pose. "I'll get you!"

"You know, I can hear you. No one falls asleep that quickly."

Jetta simply growled and rolled across to my other side. She then lied down to fall asleep. "I'll crash too then…" She said in a somewhat irritated tone. Something told me that the war had only just begun… "G'nite."

I switched off my Pod and lied down on my back, on the leaves which we left there to soften the forest floor. I stared at the blackness above me. I shuddered at the sight. Let's just say, I'm not too fond of the dark. Still, I gazed into the darkness. This makes me wonder, what was my past? It's like this view for me, dark, with no light, no end anywhere in sight. Its now starting to set in, I'm in Naruto. I'm IN NARUTO! But at the same time, something inside me feels… empty. As if I don't even know who I really am here, or back home. Wait, actually I don't. I know nothing of myself, in this world and the 'real world', or at least what seems to be the 'real world' to me… Then again, this seems almost more realistic than what remnants of my past I can actually remember! Either way, I need to start getting some answers, and hopefully soon. The only problem is, Orochimaru is involved somehow, and I hope it's not how I think it is… Hopefully not, hopefully… Either way, I need to stop this train of thought. This can wait till later; right now I need to live in the moment, which right now means, falling asleep now, in the world of Naruto…

I closed my eyes and started to nod off. Then suddenly, something caught my attention. A sound… A… Burning sound…

Sakura's POV

Back in Konoha

I stood in the window my room gazing at the moon. Kakashi sensei decided not to seal my mark, but unfortunately for me, that means that I now have a perpetual burning sensation in my neck, the only thing is now, it's starting to feel good. Pleasurable even. Maybe even a bit too pleasurable, at least for a 'cursed' mark. I hope that not too bad, then again, just thinking of this gives me the feeling that something bad is going to happen, like I'm going to die or something. Although most times, it just burns. At first the burning was intense but now, it's quite bearable. As long as I don't use a lot of chakra that is.

I raised my head the let the breeze flow through my hair sending it flowing across. I was beginning to miss it flowing down my back but its better this way. After all, I am a ninja; long hair would have just hampered me, hence making me a hindrance to the team which, I have to admit, I kind of am… Still… I've got to change that, soon. Maybe I'll do something incredible in the Chuunin exams, in my match. Against Tsebe… Great… That's something to look forward to. A thought then went through my head. Hmm… Sasuke's in the hospital… Or at least that's what Kakashi sensei tells us, then again Naruto went and said that they weren't allowing him visitors so I guess he's there. I hope he's ok… That means that Tsebe's alone at home… Maybe I should go and make sure he's ok. I bet that's his first time home alone so maybe he could use some company although Tsebe is not a little kid… He can take care of himself, well even. But maybe I should just go over and say 'hi', just to make sure… Sakura he's a ninja he can take care of himself, but… It would hurt to go for a walk would it? Arrg! Might as well go, before this keeps me up or something.

Tsebe's POV

Forest of Death

The noise persisted, keeping me up. My eyes opened. Something was different… I could actually see. Well, not see fully but at least something vaguely.

Is it morning already? No, I didn't close my eyes that long ago… What is it then… My eyes opened wide when I realised what was going on. Crap, Paperbomb!

I quickly rose up and tapped Temari on her shoulder. "Quick, get up."

She lazily opened her eyes. "Always when it reaches the interesting part…" She sat upright. "What's wrong?"

"Shhhh." I said as I raised my finger to my mouth. "Keep your voice down. Something's up. Wake up Jetta, we're moving."

As Temari reached over for Jetta,

Boom!

The front part of the roots above us exploded into flames!

"AHHHHH!" Jetta screamed as she sprung to life. "What the hell!?"

Fwap, fwap, fwap! Three kunai flew under what was left under the roots, right in front of us. Paper bombs were attached to them.

I stood us. Not fully but as much as I could. "We have to move now!"

The bombs burned.

Jetta sprung up to her feet. "Let's go!"

"Now!"

Boom!

We leaped out just in time, though one of my feet got burned. Behind us was the tree, now with the bottom engulfed in flames with large pockets of smoke rising from the roots. It was rather a shame actually, to see such an old and majestic tree on fire like that. Luckily, this fire raised visibility by a good bit, so at least I wouldn't run around tripping over roots and things like that.

"Yow! My foot!" I yelled as I landed. "I hate this forest! Why can't we just get home already!?"

I saw Jetta and Temari land next to me, Jetta smiling with laughter but Temari looking in another direction.

Three kunai then came towards us. We leaped back to dodge but I noticed something. They had strings attached. Three figures were then vaguely visible through the smoke.

"Show yourselves!" I said as I landed. "We know you're there."

"What do you want!?" Temari yelled.

The three figures then disappeared behind the smoke.

"Your scrolls that's what!"

The three kunai then lifted from the ground!

"Our scrolls?" Temari asked as she turned to face Jetta and I. "Don't they know the exam is over?"

"Apparently not!" Jetta yelled as she pointed to a kunai flying right at us.

Fwap! The kunai flew passed as our faces as we barely moved in time. We leaped away, each of us going in different directions.

Fwap! Fwap! Two more kunai then came in my direction. Both with strings attached the same way.

I leaped to the side and dodged them. Suddenly, I felt a presence behind me. A kunai was then lifted to my neck.

"It's over." A voice behind me said.

"Yeah, right." I said as a smile came over my face.

I then quickly lowered my waist. I grabbed the hand with the kunai and brought it away from my neck. The person behind me resisted greatly, but I managed to bring it to my body, at least if I got stabbed there I wouldn't die. Then again… I quickly slipped my hand (the one which was empty) underneath my assailant's arm and grabbed their shoulder.

"What the hell are you doing?!"

"This."

Fwap! Bam! I threw my waist into my assailant's and flipped them over my shoulder and onto the floor. I then dropped my body on theirs and pressed down on their body stopping them from breathing properly. If they could breathe at all.

"Just a little something from my, 'past life'. I learned that in Karate, and people say karate doesn't work in real life."

I only then realized what I was resting on. Something soft…

I quickly turned my head to look at what I was suffocating. A girl. She had long brown hair which now covered half of her light brown skinned, smooth face. She wore her leaf head band on her neck which led down a green sash she wore and a dark red short sleeved shirt. I peered over my shoulder to see that she wore a short black skirt with a pair of tight, dark green long pants underneath. She was actually quite pretty, beautiful some may say, and no more than 14 years old. Ok, most likely 15.

We stared at each other for a while. I wasn't sure if it was a stare-off or if we were just staring. I could hear fighting in the distance. I heard Jetta yell from punching and Temari leaping into the air but my eyes stayed fixed on the girl underneath me. And her eyes, stayed fixed on me.

Sakura's POV

Back In Konoha

I was now meandering down the road to Uchiha manor. I had never actually mustered up enough courage to go there before but, suddenly today, I'm walking down there as if I'm going to the market to buy something for my mom. I was wearing my normal clothes, just that I had a pair of long dark blue pants (same colour as my normal tights) on and a jacket with pockets on the side.

The Uchiha district was in sight. It only then actually hit me what I was doing. I'm going to Uchiha Manor, for the first time even, and it's like I don't have a care in the world. To think, I used to feel shaky even thinking of coming here… Even in my dreams if I cam here I would get cold feet and run off or something.

I approached the district; a huge symbol of the Uchiha clan greeted me on my way in. I looked high up the road to see a huge mansion with an Uchiha symbol on one of the walls.

"Maybe I made a wrong turn somewhere." I joked to myself as I continued.

Oddly, most of the building was in darkness. In fact, all I could see was in darkness, but some light was visible at the back and deep inside the house.

"Maybe I actually did take a wrong turn," I said to myself. "Because to my knowledge, Tsebe isn't too fond of darkness." I still continued to the house. "Not fond at all."

I walked up to the building and to the front door. The door was quite bare, the varnish was starting to peel and it had a few cracks on it. I wondered if it was safe to even knock on the door, after all, I didn't want the door to fall on me. I raised my hand to the door.

Knock, knock!

No answer.

"That can't be good…" I said to myself.

Suddenly, some noises came from inside. A crash, some stumbling, something metallic falling on the floor and some other sounds came from inside the house. I even think I heard some words that would never come from Tsebe. The sounds then stopped, lights were turned on and some huffing was heard from behind the door. The door then slowly, revealing a figure with long black hair, a blue shirt (which looked like the shirt of a gee/karate clothes), with white trimmings around the end of the sleeves and the end and grey pants with white lines going down the sides. The figure also wore some of the arm protectors which looked like the kind anbu wore.

"Good… Night…" The figure struggled to say while still trying to catch his breath.

It took me a while but I finally realised whose voice it was. "Haku?" I said as I stepped closer to him.

"Yes." He raised his head showing his flawless white skin, and his innocent looking face. I swear every time I see Haku he looks more and more beautiful, and I use beautiful not handsome for a reason. Still, it was always a pleasure to lay eyes on him.

I rushed and warmly embraced him. "Haku! It's been a while."

He was still breathing a bit harshly. "Yes, it has been."

"So, this is where you've been hanging around huh?" I asked as I let go of him.

"Yes." He said with a warm smile on his face. "It was all Tsebe's idea actually. He said since the Manor is a big place I could stay here, as long as I do my fair share of course."

I took another look at Haku's clothes. "So…" I started. "What exactly are you doing now?"

He looked down at his clothes. "Oh, just a little… housework."

I raised an eyebrow at the reply. "Nice housework clothes."

"Well, you wear what you find."

"Ok." I said with a smile. I'm not buying that but, that's not what I can here for. I stepped into the house. "May I come in?"

Haku put his hand to stop me. "Um… Why? What brings you here at this hour?"

Haku what are you trying to hide? I said quietly in my mind. "I'm looking for Tsebe. I want to see him."

Haku's face turned serious. "He's not here. I thought he was you and his team out celebrating after the Chuunin exams."

"Oh," I said averting my gaze. "If so I'll be off then."

I turned around and began walking away. "Good bye Haku."

"Wait." He said. "What about Sasuke? Is he gone too?"

"No, he got badly hurt during his battle and is in the hospital." I lied. That's not why he's there, but I thought that it would be best if word of our marks didn't get out.

"Oh ok then. Good bye Sakura."

I heard the door close behind me while I continued on my path home. "Haku what are you up to?" I said to myself as I continued.

Tsebe's POV

Forest of Death

"Robin!" A voice said. "Get off her!"

Fwap! A kunai brushed passed my shoulder.

"What the?!" That snapped me back into the battle. I got off the girl who I guessed was name Robin. I held my hand out for her. "Call off your friends."

She still just looked at me for a few seconds.

Then suddenly,

"HAAAA!"

Fwap! A kunai slashed my breathing space. A male figure had leaped in front of me with a kunai in his hands.

I took a battle stance, "Calm down. We have no reason to-."

The male ninja lunged at my throat with his kunai! I stepped back to dodge but,

Bam! I foot collided with my chest. I stumbled backwards from the blow.

"Next time I'll slash you open! Now hand over the scroll and I may let you run!"

"Listen! The exam is-!"

He dashed towards me with the kunai extended. Quickly, I reached into my holster and pulled out a kunai of my own and blocked his. He then began slashing towards my neck. I stepped back blocking with my kunai. I flipped backwards and pulled out another kunai. My new assailant was wearing a green kimono style shirt with a white undershirt, a pair of blue long pants with the bottom of the legs rolled up and the holster on the right. He wore his headband on his forehead but most of it was covered by his bushy hair.

Fwap! Fwap!

Two kunai flew passed me!

Alright, you don't want to talk, well then, you'll feel. I rushed towards the ninja and put my kunai away. After all, no need to draw any unnecessary blood. I pulled my fist back as I approached the ninja.

"Jackpot." He said. I then realized that he was holding strings in his hands. He then pulled on the strings sending him flying towards me. He lifted his feet to kick me in mid-air.

"Crap." I stopped in my tracks as I saw him quickly approach. I then dropped to the ground.

Fwap! He blasted over my head.

"Where do you think you're going?" I grabbed his head. I then leaped into the air while holding his head and,

Boom! I flipped him over and slammed him onto the ground. Roots and dirt lifted up from the impact on the ground. I landed in front of him.

"Maybe now you'll liste-."

Bam! A fist collided with my chin. The ninja jumped off the ground and uppercut me. He then landed in front of me. I held me chin in pain with one hand. The ninja then punched towards my midsection. I blocked with my other hand and round-house kicked him in his waist. I then flipped him over by pushing his legs out with mine and quickly turning my leg putting it on his back and then slammed him down. Unfortunately, he placed his hands on the ground before he hit it stopping the hit. He then spun around and tried to sweep me off my feet. I jumped to dodge but he then leaped off the ground and

Bam! He punched me in my stomach.

I fell to the ground and he followed with another punch. I lifted my leg to stop him.

Bam! I then kicked him upwards with my other leg. I then leaped up after him. I grabbed his arms and placed one of my feet on his back. I moved mid air to a tree and placed my other foot on the tree. I then pushed off the tree and began flipping in mid air. I began flipping quickly and prepared to finish the move. Then out of nowhere,

"STOP!" A female voice screamed. It was Robin. She stood there by Jetta with her hands held up to signal a stop.

I dropped the ninja and floated to the ground. He on the other hand, did not fall so gracefully.

The male ninja then immediately got up on his feet. "What's up Robin?! Why are you telling me to stop!?"

"Because, the exam is over." She said. There was a strong sense of leadership radiating from her. I was almost forced to listen, whether I wanted to or not. "We have no reason to fight them anymore."

"Well I do." He said as he glared at me.

"Flint! Cool down. Since the exam is over you know what that means, our main task now is getting out of the forest." She said as she walked into the centre of all of us. "So we need to get moving now."

I stepped forward. "Hold on! Now, I don't care if I have to be in a bush with my face in someone's armpit, I need to get some sleep. I'm not risking my life with some worm-leech-thingy loose in the forest while I'm tired."

Robin's eyes grew wide. Flint looked away and the third ninja looked at me surprised.

"You saw it?" Robin asked. "And you survived?"

"We didn't just see." Jetta said. "It attached us and destroyed Temari's fan." Jetta raised her hand towards Temari. "Hence why we're here after going to the tower and passing the preliminary exam."

"Congratulations." She turned and looked at me. "I'm happy for you. But, "Robin started. "You do know what that is right?"

"A monster?"

"No. They say that it is the real reason why here is called 'The Forest of Death'. It somehow gets loose once the exams are over. It devours anything which isn't native to the forest and is said to be unstoppable."

"If so, why wouldn't Anko tell us about it?" Temari asked as she shifted her weight from one leg to another. "It could have been used as even more of an incentive to go all out during the exam as to not be left in the forest to meet it."

"That is because," Robin started. "Very few have seen it and lived. As I said, it devours everything which isn't native to the village and is surprisingly agile in the forest trees and strikes with blinding speeds. Why do you think so little people fail the second part of the chuunin exam and live to tell the tale?"

Jetta scowled. "Well, you seem to be an expert on it. I thought you said few have seen it and lived."

"That's because," Robin closed her eyes. "I'm the only one to survive."

My eyes opened wide. So did Jetta and Temari's.

"Last year, when I did the Chuunin exam, I left my team to get some food to eat. When I came back, my team had opened the scroll and were knocked out clean. I then decided to care after them in the hopes that when they got up, we could still pass. Unfortunately, they didn't get up in time. They got up on the sixth day, one day too late. We then proceeded to leave the forest but, 'it' attacked us. We ran for our lives but, 'it' got us. It utterly destroyed one of my teammates, ripping him to pieces in its teeth and me. My other teammate and I leaped to the trees to escape. 'It' attacked us while in the trees and my teammate and I got separated. I managed to leap out of the trees and landed at the gates to enter, so I escaped but, I was the only one who got out. After my escape, I heard my teammate's screams of terror, most likely from him being eaten from it." Robin looked away. "My teammate… was my twin brother…" Tears slowly ran down her face.

"Oh please…" I heard Temari say extremely softly to Jetta.

Robin then stepped forward and rested her head on my chest. She then looked up at me. "I miss him so much…" She then buried her face in my chest.

I placed my arm around her, like an attempt to comfort her. Temari sent me a bad look, a rather disappointed one. I simply shrugged my free arm and slowly tapped Robin's shoulder.

"It's ok…" I softly said, honestly not knowing what the hell I was doing.

Robin looked up at me with less tears in her eyes than before. "Thanks… That helps…"

"Oh come on…" I heard Temari whisper.

I raised my eyebrows at the comment, which hopefully, Robin didn't hear.

"Alright then everybody." I said still holding Robin. "We need to get a good or at least sufficient night's sleep. Cause tomorrow, we exit this forest. Alive."

And that's it folks. Chapter's over.

I was going to make this one long chapter but I decided to shorten it and divide it into two chapters instead. I know you're happy for that, so that you get to read it faster. So yeah, I'm still trapped in the forest. Hopefully, I'll get out in the next chapter. Hopefully.

Now it's time for usual song that everyone who has a fanfic sings...

Please review! Oh please oh please oh please!

Please…

Thanks! (that is if you review)