"I'm still riding the high from yesterday~," Eri practically sang out. She was in such a good mood, even going on to say how she had prayed double at the shrine that morning to reinforce her fortune. She was overwhelmed by her own euphoria.

"I don't know how you can be," Momo scoffed, settling her hand on her hip and passing Eri a scrutiny-laced look of skepticism, "you're holding a waiver in your hand, right now, you know? Aren't you even aware of what's happening?"

"What do you mean?" Eri lifted her head, waving the slip of paper in her fingers, "It's just a survival test."

"A SURVIVAL test," Momo repeated, cocking her head to the side. She couldn't help but stare in utter diseblief, how could she be so unassuming and casual about this. "Just a survival test doesn't really take place in a forest of giant b-bugs! A place called the FOREST OF DEATH! HELLO?" She knocked roughly against the side of the feline girl's head, "Is there a brain up there?"

"You're afraid of bugs?" Tatsuo spoke in that moment, tilting his own head thoughtfully.

"I didn't say that," Momo immediately put a stop to the budding of such a nonsensical comment, "I don't mind the flying ones... I just... don't like the crawly ones."

Eri perked up, brows knit and confusion beginning to creep in, "Aren't you afraid of butterflies though?"

"Those aren't flying bugs," Momo so matter-of-factly clarified, index risen to her point and all, "those are demons."

"I just..." Tatsuo rolled his shoulder out, shifting his head around and letting his lime eyes wander elsewhere, "...find that somewhat ironic, don't you? Considering your closeness with Shino and all."

"Well that's different," Momo asserted, "he can control them! So they don't..." She briskly ran her hands up her arms. She was getting the oddest and most offputting sensations of hundreds of little creepy crawlies scaling her limbs, "Hgh... climb all over me and attack me and s-stuff... "

"It sure would be unfortunate for you to face him in the forest, wouldn't it?" Tatsuo added in jest, successfuly forcing his curly-locked teammate to bristle.

"Shino'd never attack me! He's my friend! And his bugs are CUTE!" She huffed, folding her arms. She was just so against any assumption that Shino could do anything other than be completely perfect in any way, of course. In her eyes, he was just a sweet bean that could do no wrong. Still, she had to admit there was something under the surface that was bothering her slightly.

"You okay?" Eri inquired, peering over her shoulder while looking over the contents of the waiver.

"Huh? Yeah, totally," Momo waved off idly, "I'm gonna go see Shino though, okay? I'll be back before we start!"

"Don't come back 'til you're married," Eri added, receiving a blunt shove in reply, as well as a loud "Shuddup!" As Momo grew distant.

A small smile crossed Eri's face as she peered back down at the slip of paper, scrolling her thumb through all of the small prints to carefully review it in its entirety.

"You've been looking that over for a while," Tatsuo began, folding his arms and peering down at his teammate, "Did you forget to grab a pen to sign it?"

"Oh no," Eri shook her head, "I like looking over all the details before I sign anything."

"I'm sure it's just a standard waiver..."

"After that first test, can you really blame me?"

"Fair play."

After a few moments, as the applicants to continue on their mingling and conversing during the preparation time, Eri made her way over to a small rock near a tree. She had finished reading over every single word of the waiver, even all of the crazy liability terms that she couldn't completely make heads or tails of in their entirety. Regardless, she had looked over it all, so it was about time for her to sign. She kneeled down, pressing the paper against the surface of the rock and scribbling in her name.

Somewhere in the serenity of signing her soul away, a feeling of dread wormed its way into her chest. Like that feeling one got when someone was watching them. Her eyes eased ever so slightly back to the side of her, catching the sight of this pallid woman from before. She had made quite the impression when she snuck up on their new proctor, Anko, just earlier, returning her kunai with her inhuman tongue.

Eri couldn't quite explain it, but she got a strange feeling from that person, like a chill. She was sure that it was no different from animals, feeling the intimidation and killing intent that radiated off of a predatory force.

"Mmn..." she attempted to ignore it, only now warily passing the occasional glance from behind the veil of her hair. She couldn't help but be alert, and every muscle in her body felt like it was tensing uncomfortably, preparing for some sort of horrible event or bracing for impact that she anticipated would never come.

She eased up from her kneeling position, taking up the waiver between her fingers, and aiming to try easing away. It wasn't until her last glance served her with a mutual stare between she and this grass ninja that she felt her blood turn to ice in her veins.

"Hey."

"EEP!" Eri burst from the ground in a fit of shock, scaling the tree that towered over the small rock in a moment's notice and gripping tightly onto the branch. Her heart thundered against her ribs, her breath came and went a bit too quickly, and her eyes after a moment of being frozen, slowly eased down.

"Sasuke," she breathed, hand fastened over her chest, "do me a favor and never do that again."

His brow quirked, a rise of concern in her uncharacteristically skittish behavior. He drove his hands into his pockets and cocked his head to the side, narrowing his dark eyes at her, "What's got you spooked?"

"Nothing exactly," she somewhat fibbed. She just didn't know how she would go off explaining that some random ninja flicked her fear switch somehow for some undisclosed reason. Hesitating when she caught the leaking suspicions from Sasuke's eyes, however, she stuffed air into a pocket in her cheek. "The grass ninja from earlier..." she clarified begrudgingly, easing down from the branch to drop down by his side.

"Did they do something?" They were a freaky bunch, he wouldn't even try to deny that. It was just a fact. Still, some weirdos down by the way shouldn't have gotten this over the top reaction from her just on existing alone. It may have been prejudgmental or rash to assume they may have done something to her all the same, but he couldn't help but feel a rising twinge of bother.

"No... nothing like that..." she quickly clarified. She forced an awkward smile, "They just... kinda give me the creeps, you know..?"

He scoffed lightly, but peered fearlessly in their direction regardless, uttering an agreement, "Tell me about it. This whole competition is a traveling freak show."

"Ehhh..." Eri trailed now slightly, tilting her head as her eyes shrank to the size of small dots, "n-now that's kind of rude..."

Though, she should have known Sasuke didn't care. He was typically blunt, even to the point of rude, on a regular basis, and it rarely even crossed his mind twice unless an authority figure corrected him. She used to think he did it on accident, but she noticed he never took tones like that with her parents, especially not her mother.

"Anyway," she eased on, locking her hands behind her back and leaning on the tree. She tried to avoid looking back behind her at all, or dredging up more conversation regarding those Hidden Grass shinobi, "The forest's upon us~. What's your plan?"

"Wouldn't you like to know," a few minutes in and he was already down to his own teasing business. The light signs of a smirk played across the length of his lips.

"Hah?" Air swelled into her cheek as she now tipped her head suspiciously, "Don't tell me you're treating me like an enemy or something."

"Isn't that the point?" He took a mildly condescending air, a sense of challenge surging from his disposition, and in that moment he shrugged idly, "It's survival. So as long as you're out in the forest, you're an enemy, right?"

"Mmmmm..." Eri's lips twitched up into a pout, a quiet whine peeping out through her lips. She pressed her index finger against the corner of her mouth, "I wouldn't treat you like an enemy if I saw you out there... With all those monsters and giant creatures? It would probably pay to have a lot of allies to back you up, right?"

"Sure," he started and Eri could already hear the beginnings of his sarcasm, "and if you make allies with everybody, maybe somebody will just give you a scroll."

Even she knew that was naive, but for the sake of the bit, she rolled her eyes innocently up as if purposely evading his gaze for fear of his judgment, "Well... you say that like it isn't possible... maybe if you actually had some more friends, it'd sound more like a tangible idea..."

"You know," he started in mock-contemplation, just to bait her into wonder before stomping on it, "just for that, I'm coming after you first."

"Huh, no! Sasuke, wait! I-," she placed her hand dramatically against her cheek once more and every breath of her upcoming spiel leaked with over-the-top theatrics, "I-I don't want to have to hurt you..! With my.. my allies, I'll be really powerful, and stuff, you know?"

"Name one person on your side."

"KiS-Sh...," she sucked in her lips, nodding firmly, "Shikamaru." She craned her head somewhat to the left of her and over her shoulder, looking at where the sleepy boy was leaning idly against a tree and attempting to avoid any and all socialization and exertion, "RIGHT, SHIKAMARU?"

He dryly and exasperatedly looked up at the sound of his name, looking towards Eri and uttering nothing but a delayed, "What?"

"JUST SAY YES!"

"Yeah sure, whatever."

Eri raised her hands, both positioned like finger guns that she angled towards Sasuke, "Boom."

"Yeah, very convincing," the Uchiha rolled his eyes towards her high energy antics. After their brief nonsense he took the time to turn the mood serious, if only for a second, "Be careful though, seriously."

Though sober tones hardly affected the playful cat for long, "Are you worried about me..?"

He could practically see the heart added on so recklessly to the end of her sentence, quite frankly it gave him the fleeting urge to gag. "Nevermind-"

"No, really!" she locked her fists lightly together in front of her, a wide smile beaming onto her face to display her toothy grin and sharpened canines, "I'll be careful, I promise. Thank you for worrying." She tossed him a charismatic thumbs up, "You guys be safe too, okay? And if we meet in the forest, let's not fight each other." On the strongly emphasized 'not' she whipped out her finger-guns again, but her jovial tone and playful urging did little to get things to go in her favor.

He had simply shrugged off her comment, offering but a careless, "Heh. No promises."

It was easy to have lost track of time. They weren't entirely sure how long it had been, especially with the cycles of day and night almost completely hidden by the thick ceiling of trees that had been stretched over them throughout the duration. The Forest of Death was anything but a joke, and it certainly wasn't anything to be taken even somewhat lightly.

"We made it to the tower," Eri breathed out quietly. The team was ragged, a mess at best, and a wreck at worst. The initial plan they had to attack the forest was flawless in theory - had they just stuck to their plans and approached things methodically and according to strategy, they probably would have made it to the tower just fine. They had a... mild distraction derail them, and that was putting it lightly.

"Oh great, we're here," Momo breathed out from her place tugged around Tatsuo for support, "can I be incapacitated now?"

"Afraid not," Tatsuo added lightly, aimlessly petting the young girl's hair in a soothing motion in a way far too casual and comical for its own good, especially since no one seemed to pay it any mind.

Momo's groan trailed out slowly, but she was able to come to her feet on her own. She hadn't really needed help walking, but the walk there was so long and taxing that if she and Tatsuo could share the burden of walking for a while, that sounded perfect.

"We made good time," Eri noted, looking around at the relatively empty tower. There were only a few squads present, one of which they easily recognized as Team 8.

"Well look what the cat dragged in," Kiba commented teasingly, jamming his hands into his pockets and cocking his head. His brow quirked as Akamaru submerged into his shirt - typically a tell-tale sign that he was scared. "I thought you guys were right behind us."

"Had to take care of some stuff," Eri offered a casual thumbs up despite her clear tire, "a few stuffs..."

Finally able to rest, their team took a seat against the interior wall of the tower, getting a breather in as the conversation went on.

"Yeah, you don't say," Kiba remarked, turning and peering over at Momo seated on the far end of the lineup, "Akamaru's still spooked, probably 'cause you've got that gross scent on you. It smells like stale blood... don't tell me you had another run-in."

Momo seemed set to open her mouth, but in her momentary hesitance and precautionary glance in Eri's direction, the latter spoke up instead, "It's a long story, but we made it."

Hinata nodded in agreement, raising her butting fingers up beneath her chin as her softened eyes peered their way, "Thank goodness y-you're all alright..."

"Yeah," Kiba added affirmatively, "we owe you one."

Tatsuo perked up, a taunting smile on his face and sparkles practically dancing about the background behind him, "Oh, really?"

Eri interrupted his glittering backdrop, waving off Kiba's comment dismissively, "We'll put it on your tab~."

"I have a tab?"

It wasn't too long before the other genin applicants began to seep into the tower, filling the place out, but luckily it was after a little while. Having arrived in decent time, the two teams had plenty of time to relax and regain their strength. In some instances, it was a bit harder for some than others to fully recuperate under the circumstance, and rest did little for any wounds except for ease them slightly.

In the depths of the growing crowds and under the supervision of the proctors, overseers, and now even the hokage himself, the conversation began amidst the now-aligned genin.

"Ahhh..! Hey, Team 10 made it!" Eri chirped, practically climbing up on Tatsuo to get a better look.

"See? I knew Choji could do it," Momo added in tow.

Tatsuo cast his lime gaze to that general direction, a quiet 'hum' escaping his lips, "The concerning part is that I don't see him eating."

"I hope he's not sick," Eri pitched.

"Another interesting trend to take note of," Tatsuo raised his hand, pointing into the direction of Sakura, "did Do-It-Yourself haircuts suddenly come in style?"

Eri opened her mouth to comment, though feeling her male teammate's fingers lightly grazing the ends of her long locks, she peered down to him from her perch, uttering a simple, "If you try to cut my hair, I'm literally eating you alive."

His face kept oddly casual, his eyes shifting elsewhere as his bland face gave way to a simple, "Well, alrighty then."

"But that's true..." It wasn't as if Eri knew what happened. She hadn't even come across either of them in the forest. She expected it, but she supposed the forest's ridiculous size contributed to the seemingly zero-percent chance of running into familiar faces. "I'm glad to see they're here, though! I wonder how they're holding up!" She climbed down from her much taller teammate, hopping down onto the ground and immediately going to make her way over.

Tatsuo and Momo stayed behind, the two of them watching Eri disappear into the crowd like a couple of exasperated parents.

"Wasn't she just tired a few minutes ago..?" Momo trailed, hands settled against her hips and head falling into a tired lean.

"I'm proud. She's sharpening her social skills," Tatsuo contrarily remarked, though like always, it was hard to tell if he was playing out the scenario or just sprinkling a dash of sarcasm for the jokes.

Eri wove through the crowds. Luckily there wasn't too much movement to avoid in the first place; everyone was so exhausted from their respective trips through the forest that if anything, they were all deciding on trying to minimize any unnecessary movement as much as possible. She had to feel sorry for the guys that didn't get much of a break, like Team 7. Those guys practically almost showed up late.

As she cut the crowd to where she could see Naruto's orange jumpsuit -probably the only thing keeping her directionally on course-, she began getting slowly hit by a strange feeling.

It was odd, but it wasn't unfamiliar.

Crossing the distance, she felt a chill begin to ease up her arms, littering the surface of her skin with goosebumps, and causing a raising lump in her throat. She wet her drying lips, slowing her pace.

'Did the grass ninja make it too..?' She thought through clamoring nerves. The idea of them being present in the room was beginning to startle her, after all, from her being propped up on Tatsuo like a lookout tower, she hadn't seen any sign of those conic hats that stood out, or their unusual dispositions.

Her mind reeled back to the forest, the unfortunate clarity of her memory bursting through her mind like the flashes of a traumatic experience.

The grass ninja she had been eyeing before the second exam began, she had run into her in her attempts at winding her traps. Eri hadn't moved far from her team's clearing. In fact, knowing how directionally challenged she was, she even hooked one of the ends of the wire to a branch, so that she could have something to find her way back. All the waves of sudden nerves and fear that washed down upon her, she had thought was simply the prospect of being stranded in the forest with who knows what around every corner: the anxiety of the unknown.

In this case, 'who knows what' wound up being possibly the worst case scenario.

Seeing the grass ninja's back turned, Eri immediately recognized the clothes, and the standout was the conic had that no one else save for their team seemed to all wear uninformedly. In a typical situation, Eri would prefer to use her head to figure out how to get a look at the woman's scroll out of this, or maybe double back on the diplomacy route and simply try to gather allies, as she had said. In most of these cases, with limited scrolls to go around, forming an alliance was risky, but also could be fruitful in the case of them needing the same scroll, especially being it would widen the search range and sphere of protection.

instead of being able to utilize either of those plans of approach, Eri found herself in the same position as in the hour before the survival test began. She was frozen. Something about this person, it made her unable to even process thoughts properly.

She held her breath.

Slowly, she eased her foot behind her, attempting to slide the wire between her fingers and backtrack out of this place.

The grass ninja, however, with a stance so lanky and loose, twisted to peer over her shoulder, and leaking from her mouth like poison-laced honey, she murmured, "I see you." It was like the sound of a ghost reveling in victory over some twisted game of hide and seek.

All movement on Eri's part came to a halt, shuddering uncontrollably and unable to even hear her own thoughts.

"Some could call this lucky," the grass ninja began again, dark eyes running eerily over the stature of the girl, as her tone dipped into the territory of a hiss, "Ssome say... fate." The grass shinobi's approach was agonizingly slow, a nightmare for Eri who could only lie in wait for what was to come like ensnared prey. Though call it fortune or just a twist of said fate, the woman stopped. Running her fingers down the edge of the conic hat, her eyes shifted away as if taking a moment to wander over a few other thoughts.

"Though... I suppose I shouldn't press my luck." she turned away, offering only another dark, half-lidded look through empty, coal-like eyes of intent through the shade of the hat, "How fortunate for you."

It could have just been that Eri was lucky to be a superfluous chip in a game she accidentally stumbled into, or it could be that maybe reinforcing her fortune at the shrine that day really was what saved her. Her stiff, now-frigid fingers grazed over the bumps on her skin. Whatever it was, she didn't want to challenge its generosity by getting in that situation twice. Though, why now? Why was she getting that feeling here, with that person nowhere in sight?

Her question answered itself. After a few more now-wary, reluctant paces across the pool of people, she finally arrived to Team 7. Her eyes fixed on Sasuke, not with an excitement to see him, but as if her focus targeted the source of this unsettling energy.

"Sasuke..?" She spoke up through a voice more uncharacteristically quiet, and more uncharacteristically weak.

Busted.

As if it weren't already suspicious enough with his hand fastened over his neck that way, now he had to try to pass himself off as being completely unbothered despite the searing pain that would spontaneously start to burn into his neck like excrutiating flames igniting in his veins. He turned his head, maybe a little too quickly for him to keep the twinge of pain from reaching his eyes, but in more ways than once, this was his worst case scenario.

Eri was always relentless with her questions, and more than that, he couldn't just demand that she keep quiet about it like Sakura. She was too stubborn, and if he didn't give her a good enough reason, she would rat him out without a doubt. if that was the worst end, the worst path to said end would be that hiding this from her would be unnecessarily troublesome.

If that wasn't enough, somehow in meeting her strangely timid call, a new problem reared its ugly head.

What was that face that she was giving him..?

He could understand worry or concern, or maybe suspicion, but why was she watching him with such a fixated gaze, as if unable to divert it elsewhere? Why did she have that faltering frown tugging down the corners of her lips, or that somewhat pallid complexion overshadowing her usually permanently rosy face?

Why... did she look afraid of him..?

A/N: So. I had always sort of played with this idea of liking to do alternate versions of these fanfictions, some of which possibly defying the canon in some way. Since it's usually things that stem from small changes, I was like:

I know Eri just got unlucky, because judging by how huge the forest is, how many different gates everybody got let out of, and who interacted with who throughout the course of the 2nd exam, it's a good chance, Eri and her team just wound up on a pretty screwy side of the forest. So she likely ran into gRaSs NiNjA oRoChImArU before he ever made full contact with Sasuke. (From such a brief meeting he instilled such a ridiculous amount of fear in her), but I wondered...

...what would have happened if she actually did get the curse mark there?

The answer, after some thought is, honestly, due to the nature of her family, being Eri comes from a union clan with two really strong bloods, and different forms of power, Eri's body contains a body that functions really well. She doesn't often get sick -anymore- and her chakra is territorial in a sense (as Momo stated). So with the introduction of a foreign chakra or substance, her body would immediately send out an attack to deal with the problem. Because of that, and the way that a curse mark is put into the body, Eri's body would try to likewise attack the foreign presence. Because of the gene-altering and pretty much mutational properties of that curse mark though, I don't think it would leave her body so easily.

So she'd probably get really sick because of her body then trying to neutralize the curse mark, then ending up attacking itself from mutation. SO LONG STORY SHORT. If Orochimaru had decided he couldn't pass up the chance to have a sample of both of her clan's bloodlines through her, pressed his luck there, and popped a curse mark on Eri as a bonus gift, she probably would have died. Her body wouldn't have been able to take to the curse mark.

SO THERE IS NO ALTERNATIVE STORY. LMAO. Unless it's just a Sasuke-centered angst storyline.

Either way! Thanks for coming to my What-If rant. Thanks for the support and love on this story! I appreciate you guys!