I have been looking forward to this chapter since I first started planning this story three years ago. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.
The walk around the village didn't take long. Fifteen, maybe twenty minutes later, the sun was beginning to go down, and we were standing in front of the Forest of Death, affectionately known among the Yamanaka as 'the Shodaime's Playground'. I had never gone past the gates before. This was the closest I'd ever been to it.
Looking at it now, I could see why Training Ground Forty-Four had earned its nickname.
I swallowed nervously. I didn't remember. I couldn't remember. I couldn't -
"You ok?" Sasuke asked in a low voice against my ear. I shook my head.
"This is the area for the second exam," Anko said with a devilish grin. "You're about to figure out first hand why they call this the Forest of Death!"
Something about the chakra was… different. Not dark or evil, just different. Was it because of how the Shodaime grew it? Or was it more of a Fangorn forest sort of thing? Curiosity slowly began to overcome my fear. I half absently wondered if Dad could help me with some research. Why didn't I remember this the first time I had come here?
"'You're about to figure out first hand why they call this the Forest of Death'," Naruto repeated mockingly under his breath. I elbowed him sharply. "What? They're not even trying to scare us!"
"Shut up," I hissed, glancing around. Right, I couldn't get distracted by weird plants; we were kind of in mortal danger. I didn't know what my face must have looked like at that moment, but it must have been something because Naruto fell silent.
It was already too late.
"You're pretty cocky, huh, kid?" Anko asked conversationally. In the blink of an eye she had a kunai out and flying through the air. It landed on the ground in the midst of some Kusa nin. Less than a heartbeat later, she was standing behind Naruto, affectionately stroking his cheek. "Your kind is always the first to go, spilling all that rich, lovely blood all over the ground…"
Her tongue flicked out. That can't be sanitary, I thought, trying to ignore the increasing bloodlust in the air. My chest tightened uncomfortably.
Another kunai flashed into her hand as one of the Kusa nin approached. "I believe you dropped this," she(? he?) said softly, speaking clearly even though her tongue was wrapped around the first kunai.
"Thanks," Anko said after a moment, lowering her kunai and accepting the other one. "Don't stand behind me radiating bloodlust unless you're in a hurry to die."
"I'll keep that in mind," the Kusa woman said. Something was w̢̭̭̳̙̙̟̩̓ͦ̚r͎̙͊ͩ͌͗̍o̟̲̙͍͚̜͍̒ñ̤̹̻̭̈́g̥̫͖̗͈̹̝̍̽͂ͧ͛͞ with her chakra, smooth and cold and muffled. I wanted Naruto as far away from her as possible. Stay away from her and stay away from Gaara and stay far away from Orochimaru when you find where he is.
I stepped forward towards Anko, eyes flickering towards Naruto. He seemed perturbed but physically fine, aside from the cut on his cheek. It was already scabbing over.
"I'm very sorry about my teammate, Mitarashi-san," I said, bowing my head. "He didn't mean to be rude. May we please have him back?"
Anko glanced down at me before releasing Naruto and waving us both off. "Yeah, no problem, kid."
"Are you ok?" I asked softly, pulling him away from our crazy proctor and back towards Sasuke. "Stay away from that lady and the Suna team."
"Y-Yeah." He glanced back over his shoulder and shuddered. I didn't blame him.
"Idiot," Sasuke muttered once we came close enough, but he sounded more worried than anything. I guess my nerves were infectious.
"Now, before we begin the second test!" Anko announced, pulling a sheaf of papers from her jacket. "There's something I need to pass out. You need to sign these agreement forms."
There was visible confusion on the faces of those around us. Sasuke frowned.
"There's gonna be some deaths in this one," she continued in a sing-song voice. "If you guys don't sign these, it's gonna be on me!"
"This woman's insane," Sasuke said under his breath. Naruto grunted in agreement.
"Now, I'm going to explain the second test, then you guys can sign these. Each team, after signing, will check in at that booth there." One of the men sitting there gave us a little wave. The papers came over our way. I took three and handed them to the next team, slipping the other two towards the boys. It was a fairly standard disclaimer form, 'Konoha is not at fault for any deaths that occur during the chūnin exams', etc. Mostly a formality in the event someone important ended up dying we wouldn't be at fault, even if war was declared. "The test itself is simple. Ultimate survival mode. Around Training Ground Forty-Four are forty-four locked gates. Inside is a forest, a river, and a tower in the center. From the gates to the tower is about ten kilometers."
Well, that didn't sound too bad, but I knew better. Oh, I knew better indeed. There was a reason we as Academy students were told to never go near the Forest of Death. Why Dad and Mother had been so angry and afraid the one time I ventured close to it.
"While in here, you will be asked to complete a simple task. A no-holds barred scroll battle."
"Scroll battle?"
Anko pulled two sealed scrolls from her pockets. I allowed myself to be sidetracked for a brief moment in admiration for how deep her pockets were; even in the shinobi world, girl pockets were painfully small. All the more reason to track Anko down afterwards and ask her where she got her coats because damn.
… I'd gotten more distracted than I intended.
"Thirteen teams will get the Heaven scroll, and the other thirteen teams will get the Earth scroll. To pass this test, your team must make it to the tower with both scrolls. This test will last one hundred twenty hours - exactly five days."
A few people squawked in protest, my sister and Chōji among them, if I heard right. Something told me that it wasn't so much the time limit as much as the fact that none of us brought any supplies.
"As the days go on, your chances of succeeding grow smaller. The area will be crawling with enemies; you won't get much sleep." Not like I was going to anyway, I thought sourly. "Not only will some of you fail from losing your scroll, but some will die from the terrain itself."
Anko was still smiling, either unaware or not caring of her dark words. "Disqualifications! First, those that don't make it to the tower within the time limit with both scrolls. Second, those who lose a teammate to injury or death. You can't quit in the middle. You'll be in the Forest for five days. Oh, and one more thing: you absolutely cannot look inside the scroll until you make it to the tower."
We glanced at each other. The moment those words left her mouth I knew that there were going to be less than thirteen teams who passed. The one surefire way to ensure someone would look in the scrolls was to tell them they couldn't. Naruto scowled at the look Sasuke and I shared before turning our gaze to him.
"I'm not going to!" he hissed before speaking up. He gave us a dirty look. "What happens if we do?"
"That's a surprise for anyone that does," Anko answered sweetly. "A chūnin will be asked to handle classified information. This is to test your trustworthiness."
Seemed legit enough. If we couldn't be trusted to keep our noses out of probably blank scrolls, we definitely couldn't be trusted to carry highly sensitive documents. Ninja operated on a need to know basis, and most of the time, we didn't need to know.
"That's it for the explanations," Anko said. "Exchange your forms for your scroll, then pick a gate and get ready. Oh, and a final word of advice: don't die."
"Like we weren't already planning on that," I grumbled, turning my attention back to the form and reading it a bit more carefully. 'By signing this, I accept the risk of evisceration, decapitation, disembowelment, and other life/career ending injuries.' Yikes, what is in that forest?
Naruto barely glanced over the form before scribbling his name at the bottom. Even Sasuke didn't take long to read it. Both were itching to get in there. I wondered if they would be as eager if they knew what I knew.
Any hint of a good mood vanished like morning dew in the sunlight.
"It's time to exchange scrolls," one of the chūnin announced from behind the curtain.
The Sand Siblings went first, the other two trailing behind Gaara. I didn't even bother trying to spy out who got what; there was absolutely no way I would be taking my boys anywhere near them.
We lingered towards the back of the group. Or rather, I lingered; Sasuke sensed there was a reason I was hanging back, and we both restrained Naruto. At long last, we made our way behind the curtain and received both a scroll and a gate number.
Heaven, Gate Twelve.
"Everyone, follow an instructor and go to your gates!" Anko bellowed. "We will start in thirty minutes!"
Half an hour. It passed so slowly, and yet it seemed to vanish in the blink of an eye.
"Are you sure you're alright?" Sasuke muttered in my ear as Naruto bounced on his feet. "You're white as a sheet."
"I'm fine," I said, giving him what I hoped was a reassuring smile. It didn't work; he just looked more concerned. "Honest."
We're going to die. Orochimaru is going to come for us and we're going to die.
"The second test of the chūnin exams begins now!" Anko shouted, voice carrying much further than voices usually did. The proctor opened the gates, and the boys went through. I hesitated at the border, balanced between worlds. Balanced on a knife's edge. I could almost feel the blade digging into my feet. There's no going back now.
I stepped forward into the forest, and the proctor shut the gate behind us. I took a deep breath, and began to jog forward to where the boys were waiting for me.
It only took another half hour before a scream echoed through the forest. I flinched at the noise. It's starting. Was it someone foolish enough to get in the way of Gaara? The Grass lady? Orochimaru?
We kept walking. It seemed like I jumped at every sound, every tiny ambient noise.
"I gotta take a leak," Naruto finally said, fiddling with his pants. I spun around, feeling my face heat up.
"Naruto, please do that behind a bush," I complained. "I don't want to see it. And be careful, the chakra here is funky and messing with my senses."
There was just… so much natural chakra, everything else seemed drowned out. I could barely sense Sasuke and Naruto, just a few meters away.
I didn't like it.
I didn't trust it.
"Man, so much came out!" Naruto sighed, emerging from the bushes. I frowned and tilted my head. Something wasn't quite right… something was wrong with his chakra… "I feel great now!"
That wasn't Naruto.
Sasuke beat me to the punch - literally; he hit not-Naruto in the face hard enough to send him flying. I had a kunai in each hand before he landed.
"Where's the real Naruto?" Sasuke demanded.
"What are you talking about?! What was that for?!"
He yelped as one of my kunai landed between his legs. I pulled a new one out and glared down at him. "You'd better start talking if you want to get out of here unharmed," I warned. "Believe me, it won't go well if you don't."
"Come on, guys, it's me," not-Naruto tried to say, pasting a smile on his face that the real Naruto would never try.
"Oh, so sorry," I said sarcastically, brandishing my blades. "I didn't realize you magically became left handed after taking a piss."
"And you're missing the cut on your cheek," Sasuke added. "You're a fake loser who's even worse than Naruto at transforming."
"At least Naruto can keep his dominant hand straight. Better get talking, faker."
If this punk had laid one hand on Naruto, touched one blond hair on his head, I would thoroughly tear his mind to shreds and enjoy every moment of it.
The henge melted away, revealing an Ame shinobi. "Unlucky, but no matter! Which one of you has the scroll?" I skittered back a few steps; I wasn't as good in close quarters combat as Sasuke was. "Fine! I'll take it by force!"
Both of us began making hand signs. I finished first, slamming my hands into the ground and making an earth wall. Sasuke jumped above it and shot balls of flame from his mouth. They slammed into the ground, the Ame nin barely dodging them.
Sasuke jumped forward at him, kunai clashing as they hit and pulled away. The other genin snarled and bolted. Sasuke was after him in the blink of an eye, launching himself onto a tree branch. I swore under my breath before following him, glancing around to make sure it was just the one.
As far as I could tell, there was just the one, but I didn't know where Naruto was either.
"Sasuke!" I heard Naruto yell and instantly felt a measure of relief. He was ok. He was ok.
"Tag!" Sasuke called, bouncing off the tree branch back towards me. A second later the branch exploded. Huh. Looked like my penchant for explosions served him well.
The Ame guy flickered behind Sasuke, a kunai dangerously close to his ribs. Oh hell no. I launched a pair of kunai towards him. Naruto evidently had the same idea, and with three kunai closing in on him, the genin had no choice but to jump upwards. Sasuke was on him in the next moment, kicking him into a tree and following up with a kunai.
He fled pretty quickly after that, leaving a trail of blood behind him.
"Are you guys ok?" I asked, looking both of them over, but especially Naruto. He seemed a bit ruffled, but mostly disappointed that the other guy got away.
"I'm fine, it'll take more than one measly genin to take me down!"
I ran a hand over my face and gave a shaky breath. That… could have been a lot worse. It could have been better but it also could have been so much worse.
We ended up sitting down underneath a semi-sheltered log. I couldn't sense anyone near us, but that didn't mean anything in this environment. My fingers rested uneasily on the hilt of a kunai.
"If we get separated again," Sasuke said, "even if it looks like one of us, don't trust them. The next person won't be so bad at disguise."
"Agreed," I said, glancing around. Too much ambient chakra. Useless. Absolutely useless. "Any ideas?"
"Yeah, a password. If they get it wrong, assume they're the enemy no matter what." He very carefully signed to me. Enemy. Water.
Shit. I relied so much on my chakra sense that when I couldn't use it I was crippled. I hadn't even noticed.
"'What flower did I send Naruto to get on the day of our test?'" I suggested. I rested a hand on their knees and lightly touched their minds with a thread of chakra, showing them my memory of the yellow poppy. The way the sunlight fell on the petals. The feeling of the stem below my fingers. "A red tulip, remember?"
Sasuke's eyes lit up as he realized what I was doing. It took Naruto a few more seconds to realize. I gently pat their knees. Tense energy coursed through my chest. Sasuke stood up and said something, but I didn't hear his words.
Because I felt it.
Killing intent, thick in the air, choking me. I froze in place. My ears popped as the most powerful wind jutsu I'd ever seen slammed through the forest, sending us all flying. I clipped the side of a tree, pain flaring in my side and knocking my breath out of my chest.
My throat felt tight. No, no, no, no. Dust floated in the air as wood settled. I shoved a heavy branch off my leg, limping a little towards where I could feel Sasuke's half panicked chakra. Everything around me was in perfect clarity. Ping. He was four meters away on my two, lying under a bush. Ping. Naruto, some thirty meters away on my five. And…
Ping.
The Kusa woman. I bolted forward, kunai in hand.
"Wait!" Sasuke said, holding his hand out. "Password."
"Yellow poppy," I said tersely. "Naruto's somewhere that way; he's safe for now, but we need to leave. She's -" coming, I almost said, before the killing intent spiked. It was low enough that I doubted Sasuke felt it aside from a sense of uneasiness, but I could feel the sharpness. Die die die die die, we're going to die.
She came forward, wearing Naruto's face. "Password," Sasuke demanded even as I stood still as a statue, hardly daring to breathe.
"Red tulips," she said smoothly. Sasuke threw a kunai at her. She just turned her head, looking at us with amusement.
"So this time it's someone good enough to dodge my attacks," he said in a low voice. I tried to tell him that we couldn't beat her, we needed to run -
There would be no escape, all we could do was run and hope she would get bored because if she caught up to us we would die die die die -
"If you really were Naruto, you'd know that it wasn't a tulip Inoko asked for," Sasuke scoffed. His free hand was trembling just the tiniest bit. The henge fell, revealing the woman. She slowly pulled her hat off.
"Sasuke," I managed.
"It was a yellow poppy," he went on. "We knew you were there listening, which is why Inoko projected the real password into our minds."
"Sa-" I tried again, choking on the rest of his name when she turned her dark eyes towards me.
"I see," she remarked softly. "Neither tired nor ill prepared, are we? This will be more fun than I thought."
Slowly, she pulled a scroll from her sleeve. "You two will be wanting this scroll, won't you? This simple little Earth scroll to go with your Heaven scroll."
How does she know that? How did she figure that out? We never said what kind of scroll it was; she couldn't have overheard it.
Then she wrapped her long tongue around it and shoved it down her throat. Which now meant that if we wanted her scroll, we'd have to disembowel her, and somehow I got the sense that we might as well just go for a different target.
"Now, let us begin," she whispered. "The battle for each other's scrolls… with our lives on the line."
The cold, emotionless look was positively snake li-
Oh.
Oh no.
The final pieces clicked into place and I knew, without the shadow of a shred of doubt, that we were only alive because he wanted us to be.
Killing intent slammed into the air, so thick and potent I couldn't move. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't think.
We'd fallen straight into Orochimaru's trap.
Beside me, Sasuke threw up. I remained petrified, a vague burning in my lungs reminding the tiny part of my brain that wasn't hysterical that I wasn't breathing.
I needed to run. Get away from him. Run far, far away.
I managed to glance at Sasuke. He'd fallen back, panting and shaking. Protect. I had to protect Sasuke, because he was what he wanted. I failed in Wave, I had to protect, I swore an oath before the Three, protect protect pro-
Orochimaru casually pulled a pair of kunai from his holster, practically flicking them at us. He was playing with us, like a killer whale plays with a seal before ripping it to shreds.
Our impending death spurred us both into action. Moving faster than I ever thought I could, I bolted for the side. I felt Sasuke's hand grab mine and yank me off course, pulling me somewhere else.
We weren't far enough away, but I could breathe again. I sucked in heavy gasps as Sasuke shook like a leaf next to me.
"We're going to die," I whispered, staring blankly into the forest. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, Sasuke, this is all my fault."
"Shut up," he hissed, glancing behind a tree trunk. Now that my body was cooperating, I began shaking as well, hard enough that I doubted I could reach into my kunai pouch, let alone hold one.
Blood stained his leg. Right, he stabbed himself, didn't he? I swallowed. It worked, didn't it?
"Stab me," I managed to get out. Sasuke gave me a bewildered look. "I'm g-going to fall apart at this r-rate, so please-"
I choked back a cry of pain as he grabbed my wrist and sliced my hand open. Tears filled my eyes, but I could focus. Red pooled in the palm of my hand. "Thanks," I managed through gritted teeth, pressing my hand tightly into my side. The blood was warm against my skin. I forced myself to focus on the warmth, on the pain. I needed to ground myself. Protect protect save yourself protect protect protect him.
"We need to run," Sasuke whispered hoarsely. "We can't-"
"We can't," I agreed. The killing intent in the air was giving me a headache, hurting me, making it nearly impossible to breathe, to think. Find Naruto, take them both, and run, run, run far, far away.
Running is pointless, my gut whispered back to me. He'll always find you, always catch up. My throat was dry as a desert.
There was a soft rasp of scales on wood, just above us. I hardly dared to look up. "S-Sasuke-"
He shoved me aside, both of us landing on a pair of nearby branches. I bit back a yelp as my ankle twisted underneath me. Ignore the pain ignore it Sasuke where's Sasuke Naruto Orochimaru -
The snake lunged for Sasuke. I wasn't close enough to do anything, couldn't do anything -
Or. I could.
I shoved off the branch and launched myself at the snake. The back of its head was an easy target, when you grow up landing on slender branches. Base of the skull, I thought, pulling out a kunai. Sever the brain stem, destroy the cerebellum. Actually doing something productive, something that wasn't cowering in fear, was… grounding. I could focus a little bit more, think a bit more.
I wasn't quite sure what killed the snake first; my kunai or the brace of kunai Sasuke threw in a (well aimed) panic. I was pretty sure he was chakra enhancing his throw, considering one of the blades went straight through the roof of the mouth and cut my arm pretty deeply. I swore.
The snake fell dead at my feet. Dead. And we were alone. Where's Orochimaru?
Chakra welled up in the corpse and I faintly realized I was way too close for comfort.
"What excellent teamwork," Orochimaru purred as he rose from the corpse, viscera dripping from his form. He was barely two meters away from me and I was standing there, frozen, like an idiot.
And then he turned to face me.
This close, staring into those dispassionate golden eyes…
Suddenly, I found myself very much understanding what Quint meant by looking into the eyes of a shark. I was nothing. He was an apex predator in this tiny little world within the forest, and I was nothing but a pesky mosquito to be swatted at.
"You're in the way," Orochimaru said in a pleasant voice. I didn't mean that quite so liter-
The next thing I knew, there was a blinding pain in my right side and then my back. My vision went dark for what felt like a blessed eternity. I almost thought I heard Sasuke scream my name, but that... would be…
Sunlight trickles through the trees, dappling my skin. Nearby, Ino dozes on Chōji, Shikamaru draped over both of their laps. Shikaku gently bounces me on his knee as I puzzle out a set of kanji.
"Fu… kyō… wa-on..." I slowly sound out. "Discord?" I guess, glancing up.
In the clearing in front of us, Dad bursts out laughing, Chōza's rich bass joining in. "Do it again, I didn't quite see that," Dad demands, jumping to his feet and dusting himself off.
"Dissonance," Shikaku corrects. Chōza throws Dad again, creating a cloud of dust where he hits the ground. "Though discord is an alternate reading."
I hum in response and move onto the next set.
A butterfly lands on the tip of Ino's nose. Her face scrunches up in her sleep, and it flutters off. One of the Nara deer pokes its head around a tree and is decidedly unimpressed before it too wanders off into the forest.
"Oh, this one's easy; this is comradeship," I murmur.
Chōji snores.
"'Teamwork begins by building trust'," I read carefully, following along with a finger. "'The only way to do that is to overcome our need for invulnerability'." With a sigh, I set the book down and rest my head against Shikaku's chest. "I'm not going to be in an Ino-Shika-Cho, am I?"
He hums, the vibrations clear so close to my ear. "Probably not, no." I knew this, had known this since I was first made aware of the fact that my sister was being trained for an ultra specialty team and I wasn't.
It still stung.
"You'll be placed in a team that works best for you," he says pointedly, lightly flicking my ear. "I don't think you'd do particularly well in a traditional formation. I have no doubt you'd make it work, but you would not thrive."
"Where would you place me, Shikaku-ji?"
Shikaku is silent, and we both watch Dad get thrown into a tree. Chōza needs to take a knee, he's laughing so hard, and Dad can't get to his feet for the same reason.
"Inuzuka Kiba and Haruno Sakura," he finally replies. "You and the Inuzuka get along well and Haruno would do well to hold you both back when needed. Girl's got a good head on her shoulders."
"Ibiki could be our sensei," I say in a darkly amused tone. Shikaku's shoulders begin to shake, just a little.
"I don't know what he could do to deserve that cruel, cruel fate." I snort and slap my book shut. In front of us, Chōza taps out from the arm bar Dad very firmly has him in. Shikaku sighs.
"Regardless of who they are, your teammates will be some of the most important people in your life," Shikaku says softly. Chōza and Dad make the Seal of Reconciliation, right before he sweeps Dad's feet out from underneath him with a smooth kick. "Take care of them, Inoko."
Vision slowly returned. My ears were ringing, head spinning. Everything ached.
And then I felt that chakra and realized exactly why I had woken up.
The nightmare scenario. The Kyuubi's chakra rose, thick in the air, thicker than the natural chakra and filling my lungs with poison. My throat constricted painfully.
Vision cleared. There was… a really big snake. And I mean a really big snake, what the frick. On the snake was Orochimaru, who seemed more surprised than anything else. What on earth had my boys done to sur- right, Kyuubi. Which should have remained tightly sealed, but here it was, leaking out and making me glad I had an empty bladder.
And where there was the Kyuubi there was Naruto, protecting Sasuke from the giant snake. There was no visually visible chakra cloak but it was… tactilely visible. In a sense. Ha. I hated the feel of it, hated how it dripped across my senses, worse than Orochimaru.
Sasuke was in front of all three of them, frozen. What did I miss? In what universe-
Orochimaru reached down with his creepily prehensile tongue, picked Naruto up, and dangled the snarling and spitting boy in front of him, looking halfway interested. From here, I could see the seal glowing underneath where his shirt had ridden up. He said something before slamming his hand into Naruto's stomach and his chakra -
stopped
It was only for a moment, barely a hiccup, but I still screamed out his name in horror. "Naruto!"
As casually as I would throw away an empty pudding cup, he tossed Naruto in my direction. If I was in a less hysterical mindframe, I might have thought something sarcastic, like, wow, how considerate of him.
Instead, I focused on catching Naruto and trying to make my bleeding hand stop shaking enough to check his pulse and breathing.
He was ok. He was ok. Naruto was alright. Unconscious, but alive and alright. Safe in my arms.
Sasuke locked eyes with me. There was something I didn't really recognize or understand in his gaze; the only emotions that appeared on his face before were emo and anger.
He looked equal parts scared and determined.
His eyes bled red.
"Oh my," Orochimaru said mildly.
Sasuke had the sense to keep his distance when attacking, at least. All of Orochimaru's attention was on him, so I felt safe (enough) to focus more on Naruto. He was breathing fine, pulse was fine, his chakra was (twisted, disrupted, something wasn't right) also fine. He was just unconscious.
There was a sharp rise in temperature as Sasuke used some kind of fire jutsu on him. And set Orochimaru's face on fire. He was entirely nonplussed as his face just… burned.
"Just as I thought…" Orochimaru said in a soft voice. He looked up at Sasuke, skin peeling off like a sunburn. "I want you."
No.
"I had fun testing your abilities," he continued. "You really are brothers. I can sense power in you that rivals Itachi's."
Sasuke tensed. Don't rise to the bait, Sasuke, please don't rise to it. "Who the hell are you?!" he demanded. His voice cracked a little bit.
"My name is Orochimaru. If you want to see me again, then survive and pass this exam." He made a hand sign I wasn't familiar with. No. No. No.
"Your teammates will be some of the most important people in your life."
Orochimaru's head shot forward, neck stretching impossibly long -
"To protect my teammates… this I swear by the Three."
- zoning in on Sasuke, who was too frozen to move.
"Take care of them, Inoko."
It wasn't a difficult choice.
My chakra surged -
Orochimaru's head grew closer, fangs bared -
Didn't bother with a hand sign, I knew this well enough -
Protect protect protect -
It took a moment for the pain to register. But when it did, gods. It hurt. It hurt so bad. It felt like fire was being poured from those two little marks - no, not fire, lava. Tears welled up in my eyes. I managed to turn my head just enough to look at Sasuke. He was collapsed next to Naruto, horror in his dark eyes.
Black spots began to float in my vision, the pressure on my neck lessening but the pain increasing, pulsing, burning.
I was vaguely aware of Orochimaru saying something - "My, my, how disappointing, Sasuke." - but it just sounded garbled to me. Lava spilled down my neck and into my limbs, consuming any sensation but the pain. Someone was sobbing in the background. The forest around me was spinning, and I was so tired, in so much agony.
Until finally, sweet oblivion consumed me.
Figured, what better day to post the new chapter than Ino and Inoko's birthday? My only peeve is that it's the twenty second chapter... on the twenty third… if only there had been one more chapter. Smh.
I have a tumblr and discord! Tumblr is the same username as here, and the discord link is in my profile.
Beta credit to PyrothTenka and Tavina.