CHAPTER 22

APUS

'What is this thing?' Sasuke's limbs were numb. This was a terror he had not felt in a very long time. He only had enough sense to grab Naruto, who was just as numb as he was, by the arm to lift him to his feet.

"That's not Hinata-chan," he said, trembling. It wasn't even her face anymore. It was longer, whiter, and the eyes! They were like the giant snake in the forest, only with infinitely more intelligence. Sasuke tried to hold onto the anger, the desperation, the worry for Hinata. It was the anchor he needed to think sensibly. 'I have to get to camp now!'

"Who the hell are you?" he cried. He saw something in those eyes, a terrifying quagmire ready to drag him under and suffocate him. Did Naruto see it too? Yes . . . by the look in his eyes it was obvious he was sensing some kind of danger, but to what extent?

"What should we do, Sasuke?" he said. It wasn't like Naruto to hesitate like this. Sasuke clacked the back of his tongue and whipped out two long kunais.

"We kill it," he said roughly. "Better safe than sorry. Get to camp and check on Hinata." This extracted an even wilder, more insane laughter from the she-creature pinned to the tree. It licked its lips again with a wider stroke of its tongue. The mouth grew wide—unnaturally wide—to show two large fangs and a set of dangerously sharp teeth.

"Sasuke Uchiha," it hissed. Sasuke's whole body seized up. "What lovely eyes you have."

"Whoa, Sasuke look out!" Naruto cried. A massive anaconda rushed at them from the canopy with its mouth open, ready to consume them both. They jumped in opposite directions to avoid it, each landing flat-footed to a tree. Sasuke had chosen the one closer to the doppelganger, and saw it winding its way up along with him. He rushed toward the cluster of branches, both kunais gripped in hand. With a backflip he was able to dodge an oncoming bite, but when he threw the kunais with an intention to kill, ended up missing the target by just a bit. He landed on another tree, furious.

Naruto was having trouble with the bigger one. Sasuke jumped into the air to help him. "Naruto, here!" Naruto jumped up to meet Sasuke and the anaconda followed. When its mouth dropped open Sasuke formed a jutsu that sent fire rushing down its throat. The venom in its mouth caught aflame and it hissed in pain. Sasuke and Naruto met on the same tree, watching the head thrash back and forth, knocking against the trees trunks with the force of an earthquake.

"Where's the other one?" Naruto said, looking through the branches. It was so goddamn dark that even Sasuke's Sharingan was next to useless. They needed Hinata's Byakugan. Sasuke wanted to rush into camp to see if she was safe, but he also didn't want to risk drawing danger to her. He swore viciously, turning to Naruto.

"Didn't I say get to camp?" Sasuke was willing to take the damage so his teammates could escape. Out of the three he was the one most equipped for it, and didn't trust Naruto enough to be a diversion. Not in this case. Just because one snake was down didn't mean there wouldn't be others.

"Sasuke!" Naruto shouted. While his back had been turned the doppelganger shot out from the trees, neck stretched out like rubber, sharp teeth jutted forward to strike. Naruto bolted forward with a speed not even Sasuke knew he possessed and struck the creature right in its jaw. The long neck bent sideways at a sharp angle, meeting with the darkness, and momentarily disappeared. Echoes filled the canopy, malicious hissing laughter.

"We have to get out of here," Sasuke said lowly. He was panting.

"What are you talking about?" Naruto demanded, nails digging into his palm. "We can't run away! If we do it'll follow us!"

"We risk it." Then, in a blind fit, he grabbed Naruto by the collar. "We need to find Hinata and get the hell out of here! Do you understand me?"

"Sasuke—"

"You aren't going to pull that bravado crap here! Do you want to fight or do you want to live? This obviously isn't part of the test!"

"Sasuke!" It was back again; only it wasn't a snake's body, but a person. Sasuke felt the blood drain from his face. Even in darkness they could see its yellow eyes flashing, just as if they were two glowing marbles in its head. A distance of fifteen meters was enough to make out every detail. 'This is bad.' The forest floor rumbled. The trees shook. Even from this far up Sasuke could feel the shift of something below, something big and heavy underneath the earth. When it surfaced the first thing that became visible were a pair of giant eyes. It crawled slowly, so absolutely massive that it had to twine around four tree trunks to make its way up.

"Not another one," Naruto whispered with dread. Yes, this snake was much bigger. Much. It approached the doppelganger gingerly, as if it were appealing to him. Its tongue lashed out to taste the air. Sasuke was sure he could lay his whole body flat on that tongue and still have plenty of room around him. Enough for Hinata and Naruto. The doppelganger smiled and stroked the snake's head along the rigid brow. Sasuke and Naruto watched in horror as the same hand began to disappear inside the scales, slowly, until the two became one, and the enormous snake eyes were flashing with laughter. "This can't be happening." Naruto shook his head. "What are we gonna do? Hinata-chan . . . Hinata-chan is probably—"

"Shut up!" Sasuke snapped.

"Dammit, we never should have left her!"

"I said shut up!" Sasuke's knees were shaking. 'She's fine,' he forced. 'Nothing's wrong with her. She's safe in camp waiting for us to come get her. She's fine . . .'

"Sasuke," Naruto shouted. "We gotta move!" The largest of branches snapped like twigs under the weight of the snake. As it charged Sasuke and Naruto leapt to separate trees. The one they'd been standing on broke in half with a crushing snap of jaws. When the fangs unlatched Sasuke saw the very bark melt and hiss with venom. Horror wrenched his insides. 'No way! How could a snake that enormous be poisonous too?' They were in even deeper trouble than he thought. He yelled at Naruto to watch out for the fangs.

Kunais had absolutely no effect on the scales. It was tough as armor. No projectile worked—even the ones with bombs attached. His flower phoenix jutsu didn't work either. He tried going for the eyes once and almost got himself eaten whole. The closest thing they had to an advantage was speed. A creature so big obviously had its limitations, especially when working through such a heavily crowded environment. Luckily there were plenty of spaces to hide, however not nearly enough opportunities. If they didn't think of something fast . . .

Sasuke looked at his hand. If ordinary weapons and fire didn't work, maybe his Chidori would. He'd never had a real opportunity to use it before this moment. In his present state he had two tries. Each would leave him open for an attack if it didn't connect properly, but he had Naruto with him. 'Kami help me.' Sasuke grit his teeth and looked around for his idiot teammate.

He caught Naruto in midair, saving him from another attack. The snake's head lodged into a net of branches and had to thrash around to get free. That gave them just enough of time to hide. "Naruto." Sasuke gripped his upper arm. "I'm going to use my Chidori."

"You think it'll work?" Naruto asked, trying to catch his breath.

"We don't have a choice right now. I need you to distract it."

"What if it doesn't work?"

"Just do it! I need time to charge."

"Dammit!" Naruto took a breath and went for it. The snake caught sight of him immediately, and he used his shadow clone jutsu to produce a small army of replicas.

"Over here, you overgrown newt!" they goaded in unison. "I'll make a pair of boots outta you!"

Sasuke had to hurry. The longer he took, the more likely Naruto was to get himself eaten. With his right hand he grabbed his wrist, opened his palm and focused. The blue sparks formed immediately. It was a screeching target in the dark forest, but Naruto was doing his best. Without being able to see what was going on, Sasuke made sure to listen as hard as he could while he charged. He didn't want to be caught unawares and have to attack prematurely.

The strain was intense. He felt his eyes light up and his nerves jump. This was the adrenaline rush he needed! 'Just a few more seconds! Hold on Naruto!' Ones by twos he could hear the clones bursting into puffs of smoke. The stumps and logs plummeted into the darkness toward the forest floor, breaking branches and twigs on the way down. It was impossible keeping track of the real Naruto by ear, or at least that's what Sasuke thought until he heard a scream. Panic erupted through the adrenaline. 'Good enough!'

He flew from behind the tree with his Chidori in hand. He was only vaguely able to process the scene before him through the rush; Naruto with his shirt coiled to the chest and the doppelganger protruding from the snake's forehead, fingers dug into his stomach. "Over here!" Sasuke roared. The snake's head turned at once, mouth agape. There was no time for second chances. The Chidori connected with even greater effect than Sasuke had hoped for. It ate through the mouth first, ripping the pliant tissue so that the jaw hung by a flap of skin. Gravity served as a fantastic assist, allowing him to travel further down the snake's body, tearing, burning, and electrocuting muscle, until he reached the stomach.

As it went limp and started tilting, Sasuke propelled himself off. The whole body went sideways, crushing and snapping everything under its weight, until it too disappeared into the void. When it hit the ground the entire forest shook. Pain erupted through Sasuke's arm. He had to take a few moments to collect his senses, and when he did he immediately went to Naruto, who was folded over one of the tree branches—unconscious. "Naruto!"

Sasuke turned him over. There was a mark on his stomach he had never seen before. "What the hell is that?" he gasped. "Naruto—wake up! Do you hear me? Dammit!" His arm was twitching with uncontrollable spasms. He had to grip it with his other hand to keep it still. The tips of his fingers were still hot, sparking with left over chakra. His legs were trembling even though he was bent to his knees, and his breath was short. 'Recover!' he screamed at himself. 'Recover, damn you! Hinata—'

"I'm impressed, Uchiha!" Sasuke's heart stopped when he saw a head fly at him from the void. It was so fast that he only had time to blink, and then a pair of fangs buried into his neck. Shock masked the pain. The tree branch snapped in half. Naruto's body sprang into the air and plummeted. Sasuke was pushed back into another tree, pinned. The fangs dug harder, shooting a sulfuric liquid into him. Then the pain did come, and he screamed. He screamed loud. Even thoughts of his teammates were abandoned in this moment of agony, and for a second that felt like an eternity, his mind left him.

He knew the eternity was only a second long, because when he opened his eyes to see Naruto's body still in the motion of falling, his heart stopped. 'He'll die!' But he didn't disappear into the void. Kunais flew under him, sticking to a nearby tree. The wires that were attached formed a net for his body, saving his life. Somebody swooped in from the darkness, and in the haze of Sasuke's pain he swore it was a white bird. But the bird had hands, and from those hands protruded blades of chakra. The bird came right for him, but it didn't attack him. It sliced through the neck of the doppelganger whose head immediately came off—fangs unlatching—and spun into the void. Sasuke could hear it laughing as it fell, hissing, cackling, and so rife with amusement that it was almost a song.

His body collapsed into a pair of white wings—wings of the bird. She called his name, but he was slipping . . . slipping. Before he plunged into the dark sea, the sea of pain, the sea of oblivion, he thought of Hinata.

*A/N*

I had to rewatch the fight between Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, and Orochimru for reference in order to write this. When I did I was like, "Oh yeah, that's why I hate Sakura." If you watch it you'll know what I'm talking about.