Part of the ceiling caved in as I ran, narrowly missing me. The black sludge followed me, whispering things I couldn't quite hear, and I wasn't sure I wanted to hear what it was saying. No matter how fast I ran, I couldn't escape. It was always just a few steps behind me.

"Go away!" I screamed over my shoulder, nearly tripping over some rubble. My mind palace was crumbling under the force of the curse mark, and I could feel every crack, every broken fixture. It hurt worse than anything I'd ever felt before. "Leave me alone!"

I could swear it was laughing at me even as it picked up speed.

I ran faster and prayed to the gods for escape.

There were a few gods that most everyone believed in, or at least knew about. Each clan also had their own gods that they worshiped. The Inuzuka had Okami; the Uchiha claimed Amaterasu as their patron goddess; the Hyuuga revered Benzaiten. The Akimichi and its vassal clans worshiped the original Ino-Shika-Cho.

Please, protect me, I pleaded to our gods. I wasn't sure how much I believed in them, but I was more than willing to throw all my faith at their feet.

I slammed into the stairwell door, sending a shockwave of pain through my body. The sludge watched me, edging closer to the door. I backed up until my back bumped against the railing.

Will I be safe down the rabbit hole? I wondered, hands reaching up to grasp the rusty metal. Were there teeth in the sludge, drawing up into a twisted smile?

Anything is better than that. Anything.

I lean back and let myself fall.

Virus detected. Launching ...

The basements were in even worse shape. They looked like they had aged decades since I'd last been down there. The vines and bushes were brown and rotten. What is it doing to me? I thought numbly.

Things were fracturing and cracking and breaking inside of me. It felt like an old, familiar pain, and I didn't like it, didn't want it - LEAVEMEALONE - and I wasn't sure I could be put back together if I fell apart.

"Get back," I panted. "Get away from me. I won't let y-" I cried out in pain as the bite mark burned with a new intensity.

The sludge was definitely laughing at me, a soft, dangerous sound. Slowly encircling me, coating everything with its darkness. Plants wilted and died under its touch. I was trapped under a partially collapsed column, leaving no way to escape except through the sludge itself, and there was no way I was going to do that.

I was so tired. I didn't know how long I'd been fighting against the curse mark. Minutes, hours, days?

The sludge was just… lingering. Waiting for any sign of weakness.

The pain in my shoulder spiked. I wanted to sleep. To die, to sleep, no more, and by a sleep to say we end the heartache, I thought, sliding down the wall. The sludge shivered and began to slide closer. To die, to sleep, to sleep, perchance to dream.

Slowly, it crept up my ankle, burning white hot. My shoulder throbbed and burned with equal heat. I was so tired. No more energy to even whimper. For in that sleep of death what dreams may come when we have shuffled off this mortal coil.

My eyes drifted closed. I could hear the dark whispers more clearly now, words made of poison and broken glass and metal splinters. It hurt to listen to it, but I couldn't pull away.

Mineminemineminemine, it whispered.

Mine, another voice disagreed.

Darkness swallowed me whole, bringing with it the worst pain I'd ever felt, and I knew with my last conscious thought I was falling apart, never to be pulled back together again.

In thy orisons be all my sins remembered.

He wakes up and yawns. Something is wrong in his domain. He can feel it. "Ugh," he says eloquently, stretching out with a groan. "Hey, Siri, love, what's going on?"

"Vi-Vi-Vi-Virus dete-te-t-tected. Err-Err-Error."

He runs a hand through his hair. Longer and more wild now, he notes absently, than the last time he'd woken up. There's a scar across his eye as well, something that hadn't been there before he'd fallen asleep.

What have you been up to, love?

The walls of his chamber shiver, and he decides now would be a good time to get up and see what's going on.

The answer turns out to be pretty simple. Chaos. Pure and utter chaos.

He whistles and rubs at the new scar. It's a little itchy, but he's sure he'll get used to it. "What mess did you get yourself into this time, 01100101 01110010 01110010 01101111 01110010?"

What.

"01100101 01110010 01110010 01101111 01110010," he tries again.

Well damn, this is worse than I thought.

He sprints down the decaying hallways, waving a hand when he can to bolster the sagging supports. What happened here? What did I miss while I was sleeping?

He turns a corner and then he sees her, and his heart breaks a little.

"Oh, lovely girl," he murmurs. "You've always given more than you took from those you loved. How much have you given now?"

He can't say her name anymore, and he thinks it's because she's forced herself to forget it. Utterly purging it and the pain that came with it from her memory, to the point where even he can't say it. She calls herself Inoko now, he remembers, and takes a step forward.

The sludge surrounding her hisses at him. Hisses at him. How utterly rude.

"Get out of my sight," he snarls.

Mineminemineminemine, it snarls back, dark and poisonous and guttural.

"Mine," he retorts, and summons light into his palm. "Get. Away. From her."

It hisses at him again, curling around her more tightly before relaxing and slowly opening a path.

Now that he can take a proper look at her, he sees it's so much worse than he thought.

"Lovely girl, you haven't split like this in years."

Half of her stares blankly just over his shoulder, the other half covered in the sludge like a seabird caught in an oil spill, desperately trying to crawl away with just an arm. Cracks cover the parts of her that he can see, leaking golden light. This is bad. This is… very bad. Hesitantly, he reaches out to touch her hair. She shivers under his touch, but otherwise doesn't react.

Can I even fix you this time?

"... help… me…" the black half of her wheezes, and tries to pull itself further away. Then it convulses like a computer glitch with an unearthly distorted scream. Tears drip down the normal half. It doesn't even blink.

"I'll help you," he whispers. The sludge is whispering ominously and begins to press back in. He gathers her up in his arms and presses the two halves together, slowly sealing them into a whole with a glowing finger. It's just a patch, one that he hopes will last long enough for her to heal a little bit. "I'll put you back together." Would it be enough? Would it ever be enough?

As he fixes her, he looks up at the sludge, curls his lip at the vicious whispers. "We're not strong enough to beat you back," he says after a moment. "I can't get rid of you. And you'll kill us both if we keep resisting like this, won't you?"

He's pretty sure there's teeth grinning at him from the sludge, and his scowl deepens. She will die if she keeps resisting, and he can't bear to lose her. He turns back to the girl in his arms, so different than what she used to be, yet still so strong, and presses his lips to her forehead. There is only one way that he can protect her, only one way that she might survive. On her own, she is doomed no matter what. But maybe, with his help, she can survive.

"It's ok to let go, sweet thing," he whispers. "I'll protect you from the worst of it. Let go and let it take you."

The sludge pours over them both and Inoko screams.

When I woke up again, I felt like I could fight anything. Even Gaara. My entire body was thrumming with power. It reminded me of when I had taken over Naruto's shadow clone - had that really been just a few days ago?

My veins crackled with energy. They felt like they would explode if I didn't get rid of some of this… this… gift. I could see so clearly now that this was a gift, one meant for Sasuke but I had stolen it from him, and it was mine mine mine now.

I could do anything with this.

The terror on the Sound trio's faces lightened my heart. Fear me, fear what I can do to you.

And then I see Sasuke. Senbon lodged in his leg, blood trickling from a dozen wounds. He looked exhausted and in pain. The girl's foot was on his head, and he wasn't even fighting back. Barely even a snarl. They hurt him. They hurt him. They hurt him they can't do that because he's mine mine mine mine.

The old man goes into the woods with his hunting dogs to find his dinner. In the woods, he sees a creature and shoots off its tail and takes it home and cooks it up and eats it.

The wood splintered under my hand. I would kill them. I would kill them all for daring to touch someone that was mine.

That night, he hears a scratch scratch scratching at his door.

"Tailypo, tailypo, I want my tailypo."

I was impossibly fast now. Faster and stronger than I'd ever thought possible. They couldn't hope to stand against me. Maybe without the curse mark, they would have been able to defeat us. Maybe.

Hurting them was so easy, I almost laughed. The cracking of the Sound genin's bones was like music to my ears. I will repay all of the pain you've delivered tenfold, and then some. It was so easy to kill him. How easy, I wondered, would it be to kill the rest of them?

The old man sends his three dogs after it, and they chase it into the woods. Only two come back.

His neck snapped like a wet twig.

I would kill them all and let their blood water the earth. Let their screams echo into the forest as a warning to Orochimaru, because no one would mess with my boys and get away with it.

"Tick tock, tick tock!" I declared, fingers just itching to bash their skulls in and rip their throats out. What delightful patterns would their blood make on the ground? Laughter bubbled in the back of my throat as their terror was almost visibly oozing from their bodies. I was so alive and they were about to be so, so dead. "Time's up."

Rip and tear and burn and bite and kill, kill, kill.

"Inoko, stop it!"

I froze. Turned. Ino.

I-I didn't want her to see me like this. I didn't want to see the horrified looks on their faces. I didn't want to see Ino afraid of me.

It was like the world shifted just a little bit to the left, back to where it was supposed to be. The desire for blood seemed to abate, if only enough to let me focus on the here and now.

I turned back to the Sound genin, hoping they hadn't seen my temporary lapse. "Get out of my sight," I spat at them. "Take your teammate and go. So help me, if I see your faces again, I won't be so merciful."

If I saw them again, I would kill them for what they did to Sasuke. I would kill them, and I would laugh as they choked on their own blood.

As they finally left, taking the corpse with them, I steadily became aware that while the curse mark was easily one of the most intense, thrilling feelings I'd ever had, it also hurt like a bitch. Like a white hot brand was being jabbed into my shoulder.

I was proud to say that I did not scream. But I did kind of collapse to my knees and semi-seriously tried to claw the curse mark off.

Less than a second later, I felt Ino's hands against my shoulders. "It's ok," she whispered. "It's ok, we're here now, we're gonna help you."

The searing pain began to recede as Ino talked. I glanced up into her eyes, and everything I saw in them told me that it really was ok now. I was safe.

Once the pain and the mark had pulled back into a throbbing point on my shoulder, I looked over at Sasuke. Without the hazy rage of the curse mark, I could see him a bit more clearly now. He wasn't hurt quite as badly as I had thought before; he mostly just seemed exhausted. He was so tired, but at the same time visibly relieved.

It almost hurt to look at. Had I really terrified them all so much? I won't use it again. I won't.

I tore myself away from Ino's arms and staggered over to Sasuke on wobbly legs. Chōji and Shikamaru were here, and they would protect us from anything that dared to attack us right now; I trusted them with all of our lives. But right now? Right now, I had to reassure myself that he really was alright, that Orochimaru hadn't marked him.

"Sasuke," I whispered, falling to my knees and pulling him against me. His heartbeat was a rapid pulse underneath my hand, each beat telling me that he was ok, he was safe. He sagged heavily against me, and almost instantly he was asleep.

Dork, I thought with a faint smile. When Naruto came charging out, finally awake and raring for a fight, I pulled him into the hug too and just spent some time holding my boys.

"So," Shikamaru drawled. His eyes were sharper than usual, voice missing the usual bite of sarcasm. "Wanna explain all that?"

Ino elbowed him. "Can't you be a little bit more tactful? Yeesh." She glanced at me. I stared back. "That being said though, what… what happened? What was that?"

"A hickey," I said flatly. Chōji choked.

"Inoko, now really isn't the time for jokes -" Shikamaru started, straightening from his slouch with a frown. I flapped my hand at him.

"Later, ok? It's a long story and I don't want to tell it more than once."

I didn't like the looks that my sister's team shared. I didn't like that I didn't understand them.

I'm on the outside now. I dug my hands into Sasuke's shirt and looked away. Naruto shifted from his position on my back. I wondered how much he was picking up on the mood.

"So," I finally said once the silence became unbearable. "What day is it?"

We camped out in the same spot for the rest of the day. Naruto and I stayed with Sasuke while Ino and the boys scouted the area with some of Naruto's shadow clones. He'd been pretty vague about what happened to him, waiting for me to take the lead on explaining what happened.

I didn't like that very much.

Between the five of us, we managed to set enough traps to dissuade even the most persistent genin and gather some food. Sasuke slept most of the day, even after we took care of his injuries.

"He probably stayed up all night keeping watch," Chōji suggested. Shikamaru was sulking in the corner, watching us out of the corner of his eye.

"Maybe," I said, trying my best to ignore the horde of clones running around the clearing. Naruto was… doing his best. At whatever he was doing. "Good job, Naruto!" I called out.

The response I got was confusing but positive. Which. Pretty much summed up Naruto in a nutshell.

Sasuke woke up at about mid afternoon. He still looked tired, but didn't seem as dead on his feet as before.

"Feeling better?" Ino asked.

"Hn."

"That means 'much better, thank you'," I piped in. Ino snorted and went back to sharpening her kunai.

He gave me a look.

"Well someone has to translate your non committal grunts," I huffed, pretending to sulk. "Naruto, Sasuke's being mean again."

"Teme!" twenty clones shouted at once.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at me, glancing down at my shoulder. My hand went up to it unconsciously.

Shikamaru scowled.

"Don't look at me like that," I growled. "I said later, ok?"

"What's later?" Sasuke asked. I tried to restrain my irritated look, but by everyone else's looks, I don't think I did a great job.

"Nothing. Everything. I don't know." The curse mark began to hurt again.

"Have you taken care of that bite yet?" Classic Team Seven. Trying to help and just making things worse.

"The what?" Ino demanded. She stalked over to me and yanked my t-shirt away from my neck. "What the hell, Inoko?"

"It's nothing," I snarled, jerking away from her. "I'll deal with it later, ok?" I loved them all, but I wasn't going to trust this to any of them. I'd talk to Sensei next time I saw him, and then Dad once I'd gotten the immediate danger taken care of. Maybe then I'd tell them what happened.

Really scowling now, Shikamaru asked, "What knocked you and Naruto out of commission? Didn't you say you were ready for this?" He sounded accusatory. Didn't he trust me? Why didn't he just trust me on this?

"There was this crazy lady from Grass," Naruto tried to explain. "She was all crazy and snakey and super strong! She had this crazy strong wind jutsu, and it separated us, and then I got eaten by a snake, which was super gross, and then she was being all weird about Sasuke. Why are all the girls all crazy about Sasuke? It's just Sasuke, Sasuke, Sasuke with them, and it gets really old."

"She really did a number on you, didn't she?" Shikamaru said quietly.

I hated the frown on his face, hated how his hands slipped into his thinking position. I didn't need him calculating our odds of survival or something like that. I dug my fingers into my shoulder as it throbbed.

"Maybe you guys should just quit while you're ahead."

Naruto and Sasuke shouted at the same time. He ignored them, staring hard at me. "For that matter, maybe we all should. If these are the genin that are in this exam, we'd be better off with more training first."

"Oh sure," I said sarcastically, "I'll be sure to let the Hokage know that it's too hard for the baby genin, especially when his own students come in to play. I'm sure six months would give me so much extra time to prepare for when Orochimaru comes calling."

Sasuke looked at the ground. "So it was him…"

"Let me think, crazy overpowered, snake themed with snake summons and snake jutsu, gee, I wonder how many S-ranked missing nin fit that criteria."

"This is serious!" Shikamaru snapped, raising his voice for the first time.

"Shika," Chōji said softly, resting a hand on his shoulder. "Maybe this should wait until we get to the tower."

Ino wasn't looking at any of us, and I felt a brief flash of guilt at the expression on her face as she absently rubbed her shoulder.

He glanced at both of his teammates before deflating a little. "Fine, fine, whatever."

"I'll see you at the tower?" Ino asked quietly, hand slipping into mine.

Now I felt even more guilty for causing my twin to lapse into this subdued version of herself. Ino was supposed to be bright and cheerful.

"Yeah," I mutter, forcing myself to let go of my shoulder. "See you there." I jerked my head over to the scroll the Sound team had left behind, innocently sitting in the grass. "Take that with you; we can't use it."

She nodded and gave my hand a final squeeze before they all vanished. None of us looked at each other for several seconds.

"Was it something I said?" Naruto asked.

"We shouldn't stay in one place for too long," I said, rebandaging Sasuke's leg. I'd smeared the deeper wounds, including the one he got when he stabbed himself - good grief, I was never going to let him hear the end of that one - with some of the things I kept on me to help it heal faster and reduce pain. Somehow only a few of them broke during the fight with Orochimaru, and none of them were that one vial of mildly corrosive acid that I'd been meaning to throw out for a while.

Eh. I'd find a use for it eventually, and then I'd be glad I had it.

"Hn." Sasuke stared off into space. Naruto's clones were running around once more, this time dismantling the various traps.

"Don't forget to leave a few up!" I called, knotting the bandage firmly. In a quieter voice, I said, "So, mild problem. You know how I'm a sensor, right?" Sasuke nodded once. "Yeah, so the forest has been massively screwing with that little ability of mine, because there's a crap ton of chakra in here. It's like… being in a room full of delicious and pungent foods, and you can smell everything, but trying to smell one ingredient of a certain dish is pretty much impossible unless you're right in front of it. Make sense?"

"Yeah," he muttered. "That… doesn't sound good."

"Nope!" I said, sounding much more cheerful than I felt. "And then the little present you know who left me kind of destroyed my sense of smell, to continue with this metaphor." The smile fell from my face. "Just so you know, I've lived pretty much my entire life being able to sense pretty much everyone in my compound, and now if you blindfolded me I couldn't tell if you were here with me. I am… essentially crippled right now."

Sasuke slowly rolled his pant leg down. He was clearly thinking about something, and I'd much rather leave the whole leadership thing to him for now.

"Also I can't use chakra anymore either."

"... what."

I finger combed my hair, trying to pull out the various leaves, twigs, and debris. I'd kill for a shower right now.

The sound of Zaku's neck breaking echoed in my mind, and my stomach turned. Maybe not.

Sasuke ran a hand through his hair and harshly exhaled. "Ok. This is fine. This is great. Naruto is our best chance at defense."

"Taijutsu exists," I reminded him. "I can still use that just fine. I also have a bit of acid we can put on our kunai and stuff, but we'd need new sets after a few hours."

"I'm… not going to question why you have acid."

"Probably shouldn't."

"Hey, Inoko!" Naruto waved. "We're almost done, what's next?!"

"Fantastic!" I replied, waving back. "Get over here once you're done; we need to strategize."

Sasuke and I watched him for a few moments before he broke the silence again. One of Naruto's clones began arguing with him about something.

"You shouldn't tell Naruto about that thing," he said. "He's just going to worry."

I shot a glare at him. "He'll worry anyway. He's not an idiot; he'll figure out something's up. Besides, he's our teammate. He deserves to know."

Sasuke shrugged. "Fine. Your choice, I guess." In the background, Naruto's argument with one of his clones reached a breaking point, and they both started rolling in the mud, the rest of the clones cheering one or the other on.

I side eyed him. "You're judging me."

"Tch. I'm not."

"You are."

"... You want to tell Naruto, but you wouldn't tell Shikamaru," Sasuke said after a long pause. "Why?"

I stood up, dusting my butt off. "He's part of our team," I said simply. "Teammates don't hide stuff from each other."

Naruto emerged from a dogpile of clones, victorious. "Yeah! I won! Take that!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes, and I gave a single clap. "Good job. Let's roll out, and strategize on the way."

Our situation wasn't great. Sasuke was still tired and low on chakra, Naruto's abilities were on the fritz, and not being able to sense any chakra at all made me feel like I'd lost a limb.

And we still needed a scroll.

I guess it's too much to hope that Orochimaru also went after some other teams, and they're also weak and crippled.

Sasuke broke the silence first. "I don't think you or I should take the lead in any fights we get into." He glanced at me before slowly continuing. "We can't overpower another team, not as we are right now. So…" He grimaced as if the words were causing him pain to say. "Naruto, if we come across anyone, you'll need to be the main attacker."

Naruto glared suspiciously at him. "Fine, I guess," he said, trying to find the non-existent trap in his words. "What about Inoko?"

"Essentially crippled over here," I replied with cheer I didn't feel. "I can use taijutsu just fine, but it's never been my strong point."

Note to self: train the crap out of my body once we got out of here so something like this wouldn't affect us this badly ever again.

"Why?!" Naruto demanded, nearly clipping a tree. I winced sympathetically.

"Bit of a long story, but Orochimaru totally screwed up my chakra system by giving me a hickey-"

"He WHAT-"

"-and now I can't use chakra or I risk going psycho. I'm going to have Sensei and Dad take care of it, don't worry."

"I'm going to kick his ass so hard next time I see him," Naruto snarled. "Pervy gross old man."

"If it makes you feel any better, his original target was Sasuke?"

"That's worse!"

"Getting back on track," Sasuke said dryly, "'Pervy gross old men' aside, my idea is for you to do the brunt of the attacking, while also protecting Inoko. She's going to be using the openings you give her to do some damage with… whatever you have in those vials."

"I'll never tell," I sang out. Sasuke gave me a look.

"And I'll be your midrange backup," he said after another moment. "Most of my jutsu are suited to that, anyway."

"Aw, Sasuke, I'm so proud of you!" I cooed at him. He flushed a bright red as Naruto cracked up laughing. "You're turning into such a good leader."

"Yeah, whatever," he muttered, looking away.

"I'll beat up anyone we meet!" Naruto shouted. "I'll do it and it's gonna be awesome! They'll have to promote me to chūnin after that! And then we can go beat up that weird snake lady!"

"Now that's a plan I can get behind," I laughed. Being with them like this, even if we were in the middle of probably one of the most dangerous places in the Land of Fire, was oddly soothing. "Here's another plan - ambush no jutsu."

We landed on a massive tree branch, and they both stared at me. "Is that an actual jutsu?" Naruto asked.

"Of course not," Sasuke snorted. "... right?"

"There are some pretty funky jutsu names out there." Naruto rubbed his chin.

I resisted the urge to face palm. Barely. "No, it's not an actual- you know what, let's just find another team and I'll show you."

Minami sighed heavily. "I don't like this forest," she complained. "Why did Sensei sign us up for these stupid exams?"

Akira and Akita looked up at her. "Because," one of them said.

"We've got to prove our worth," the other chimed in.

"And besides-"

"This is fun!"

"Out in nature-"

"Surrounded by plants-"

"It's like a vacation!"

Minami huffed. "Stupid identical twins, with their stupid matching outfits and their stupid optimism."

"You're just jealous~" they sang together.

"I am not!"

"Jealous that we're prettier~"

"I am not!"

"Don't worry, Minami-chan, we'll all find girlfriends prettier than us one day!"

Minami threw a clod of dirt at them, burning crimson. "Will you two shut up! I regret telling you anything!"

"Aw, don't be like that, Minami-chan," one of them - she thought it was Akira - said sweetly, wrapping her up in a hug. "We only tease you because we love you!"

"I hate you both," she groaned, going limp in his embrace. "You're the worst teammates ever. Why must I be tormented so? Can we just keep going?"

"That's true!" Akita (probably) said, smacking his fist into his palm. "We only have three more days left!"

"Don't remind me."

There was a rustle in the bush. Akira dropped her and pulled out his tanto. Behind him, Akita did the same.

Minami's mind was racing. What genjutsu should I use? Will it be enough? Didn't I see the Last Uchiha in these exams?

A sheep emerged from the underbrush. It looked at them blankly before giving out a plaintive 'baa?' They all relaxed, lowering their weapons. Minami breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn't that she didn't want to pass, she just… wasn't a huge fan of head on combat. She preferred ambushes and the like.

"Oh."

"It's just a sheep."

A beat passed.

"What's a sheep doing in the Forest of Death?!"

It looked them dead in the eye with those freaky eyeballs and spoke.

"Beep, beep, I'm a sheep, I said beep beep, I'm a sheep."

Team Shigeru froze in complete and utter shock.

"No one will ever believe you, 'ttebayo," the sheep said.

Then something heavy landed on Minami's back, hands wriggling within her jacket before she felt the scroll being removed.

"Run!" the weight shouted, jumping off and bolting for the sheep. The tiny blonde kid picked up the talking sheep before leaping into a tree. She spun around to see an equally tiny boy with dark hair trip one of the twins before following his teammates into the trees.

"I can't believe that worked!" one of them shrieked before they vanished into the forest. Silence fell around them.

"What the hell just happened?" Minami finally asked.

"We were tricked," Akita said mournfully.

"Fooled," Akira agreed. "And above all…"

"We were bamboozled."