I'm actually stuck on how to write chapter 34 now gah that's annoying. i might write it similar to this so it depends what you all think of the way this chapter is written. It's different. I hope you find it enjoyable, and let me know what you think.

Please enjoy it, lol.

Thank you for the alerts and reviews.

Naruto = flash back

'Naruto' is thoughts/thinking

"Naruto" signing/sign language

"Naruto" speaking.

"Naruto" Demon

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto just some DVDs and games.

Chapter 32

Naruto felt like he was floating. He didn't know where he was or why he was floating there, but he knew something had happened. He could smell blood and hear the faint whisperings of voices. He tried to concentrate, but found himself sinking. He relaxed, letting going and began to float again. He smelt more blood, his nose crinkling up in displeasure; he'd always despised the scent of blood. Why was there blood? The voices got louder, but he couldn't make out what they were saying or who they were. Why couldn't he place things? What had happened? He felt the chakra as it sprung to attack, a scream; he recognised that scream. Wait, what's that chakra? It's twisted and evil. He sunk down again. There's that scream again, Sakura, he twisted as he sunk further down before being swallowed by the darkness.

His eyes snapped open as he felt the malevolent chakra erupting around him. He moved to intercept the source of the chakra, finding himself standing in front of Sasuke. He pushed forwards, his hand on Sasuke's chest above his heart, while Sakura wrapped her arms around him from behind.

"Sasuke, please stop," Naruto could barely hear her whispered words spoken into Sasuke's back.

"It's us Sasuke, your teammates, this isn't who you are," Naruto pushed his hand over Sasuke's heart, "Don't give into Orochimaru, fight it Sasuke, we're here for you, come back to us."

"Please, Sasuke. Please stop." The curse mark receded slowly before their eyes.

"Here, take our scroll," Dosu placed their earth scroll on the ground. Naruto eyed him wearily from over his shoulder, "Please, let us leave. There is something we must find out now. Know, that if we meet again, the next we will neither run nor hide." Dosu collected his teammates and began to edge away.

"WAIT!" Naruto felt his ears ringing seeing as he was still so close to Sakura.

"Who is Orochimaru? What does he want with Sasuke? And Why Sasuke?"

"I do not know. We were merely ordered to kill Sasuke." Dosu replied.

They all watched as he walked away. Hinata and Shino ran over to Kiba, sitting him up to tend to his wounds. Akamaru limped over. Ino grabbed Lee along with Shikamaru and helped him over to the tree. Naruto held out a hand to Sasuke who had sat down as the curse seal evaporated. He pulled Sasuke up to his feet and together they walked over to the tree.

"Do you want to come down and tend to Lee?" Naruto spoke up into the tree where Neji and Tenten stood.

Sakura came over, her hair was a lot shorter than he remembered it. She tapped Naruto on the shoulder as he turned to her.

"Your hair looks nice short," he smiled.

"Thanks, Naruto."

Tenten took Lee from Shikamaru and Ino and slapped him awake. She berated him a bit as Neji walked over to them.

"Hey, thick brows, thanks for saving us." Naruto said walking over.

"It wasn't me Naruto, it was Sasuke."

"But thank you anyway, all of you," he turned seeing team 8 and 10 sitting around by Sasuke and Sakura.

"What do you mean it was Sasuke?" Naruto asked.

"I got my butt handed to me by those sound ninja, I used front Lotus."

"Lee you shouldn't have done that."

"Why not?"

"It leaves the user vulnerable. It can only be used once because it puts so much strain on that person. It's a very dangerous technique not to be used lightly, and it's incredible that you can do that Lee." Naruto explained.

"Thank you, Naruto, I just wanted to protect Sakura. When I was down I think Sakura tried to fight, and the boy with the dog too, then that team appeared and finally Sasuke woke up. He must be really strong. The next time we meet I will be stronger, I promise." Lee smiled at Sakura and Naruto, as he leaning on Tenten and hobbled away.

"Sakura, I'll straighten out your hair." Ino called.

Sakura sat down as Ino used a kunai to straighten out the jagged cut made to her own hair while the teams discussed what had happened.

"So, what happened?" Naruto asked, turning to Kiba.

"Well, those three came looking for Sasuke," Kiba began, "You two had gone off to get supplies and provisions. When they fell into are trap we knew they were there somewhere." Kiba held his hand out as his fingers were relocated, painfully, his arm was re-bandaged, and when he finished howling out his pain, he continued with his story.

"So, the mummy guy got knocked into the air by Lee, right, and the other guy was fighting against me. He uses air pressure or sound waves or something and he manages to dislocate my fingers, what with Akamaru not leaving your side, Naruto." He glared at the blond boy as Hinata swabbed at the cut above his eye.

"I just kept being knocked back by this guy. It didn't matter how many passing fangs I attempted, he managed to knock me off course. At one point, I was sent flying towards Lee and the mummy guy, and that guy stuck his hands into the ground making a cushion of sorts; which stopped Thick brows' attack. Yowl!" His hand was splinted together tightly. "That girl just stood there watching all this happen, Sakura was guarding you two. But then the mummy guy did something to thick brows which made him all wobbly, what did he say Sakura?" he called out to the girl having her hair fixed.

"Oh, he uses sound as an attack. Sound is just vibrations really, he uses his chakra to push the sound to his target. That thing round his arm is an amplifier," she nodded as Ino finished.

"If you come here, I can administer treatment to your injuries," Hinata asked politely.

"Thanks, Hinata." The two girls joined the group.

"So, where was I?"

"Lee was being made disorientated because of the attack on his ears drums," Naruto coaxed.

"Right, and it's kinda like a high pitch whine,"

"Did it affect you?" Choji asked, munching on chips.

"Course it did, I've got heightened senses don't I? Hurts like one hell of a..."

"Kiba!" Hinata admonished.

"Sorry Hinata, it just slipped out," Kiba attempted to rub the back of his head, jarring a finger.

"Naruto, can you help me with this? It needs stitches, and so does this one," Hinata asked, interrupting. Naruto moved over to Sakura and took hold of the spare needle and thread that Hinata held out.

"This might hurt quite a bit, but it will be over soon," Hinata smiled, trying to reassure her.

"Hey! In the middle of a story here." Kiba grumbled.

"Sorry, carry on, you were both out of it," Naruto laughed.

"Yeah, we were both kinda out of it, and then their girl started to attack Sakura and pinned her with her hair. That's why it's so short, she cut it off to break away cause the other guy, not the mummy guy, started to head over to Sasuke, and she started to go wild, throwing Kunai and then kawarii-ing away. She did that twice before he realised that she was still coming at him from her third assault. That's when team 10 stepped in; don't know what you were waiting for though." Kiba sniffed, turning to them.

"We were waiting to see what Ino would do. Physically, we're not the strongest team amongst us, and there isn't a lot we can do unless we do things together." Shikamaru stated shrugging.

"We are not weak!" Ino shouted.

"No, you rely heavily on teamwork whereas the rest of us can fall back on our own individual talents if we need to. To be fair, we've got the worst teamwork of all of us, and team 8 is the best balanced." Naruto shrugged.

"So, what happened next?" Sasuke asked.

"Well, we managed to cause a bit of a distraction using our teamwork when Hinata and Shino came back followed by Lee did you say his name was," Shikamaru watched as Naruto nod his head, " when Lee's teammates arrived."

"Then Sasuke woke up and had this weird stuff all over him, what was that?"

"A bad sign, we need to find another scroll and get to the tower as soon as possible." Naruto stated.

"We've got both," Hinata replied.

"We've got an earth scroll." Ino blabbed.

"We had a heaven scroll. I take it Orochimaru got that," Naruto watched Sakura nod, "So, now we have an earth scroll and two heaven scrolls to find."

"You'll need to rest for a bit before we move out."

(Line)

Anko leaned heavily on the shoulder of Hikaru; his ANBU turtle mask had shattered long ago in their confrontation with Orochimaru. She had sweat trickling down the side of her face; her body was in so much pain. She kept glancing at him, out the corner of her eye, his blonde hair fell into his face, and his olive green eyes showed the pain he was in; but, he was still supporting her even though he was the more injured of the two.

"Something's up ahead, three of them, you okay to take them out?" Hikaru shifted his weight so that his useless arm was now behind. He pulled a kunai out, holding it awkwardly in his damaged hand. He turned his head slightly behind him, a smirk spreading across his face. "Sorry kitties, looks like you'll have to mess with someone else."

Two ANBU dropped in front of them, a fox, and a sparrow. They titled their head at him, and turned to Anko.

"Good, you guys took your time," she growled.

"Actually, Bird and Boar, who are behind you, were sent to find you, we came for Turtle." Sparrow spoke.

"You're pretty beat up boss; they ain't going to be too happy about that."

"Who?" Anko asked.

"Naruto and the Hokage," Hikaru flinched at the mention of their names.

Anko dropped to the floor grasping her neck as Bird and Boar dropped down to join them.

"Are you okay?"

"Orochimaru was here; her curse seal is acting up." Hikaru stated.

"We should get you to the Hokage..."

"NO!" both Anko and Hikaru shouted.

"The tower, we need... to get... to the tower," Anko panted.

"We'll explain there, the Hokage can meet us there." Hikaru stated as Anko was scooped up by Boar.

Anko was placed on the sofa located in one of the rooms of the tower; she gulped at the water Fox brought her as Hikaru had his arm relocated with a loud pop.

"Start explaining, Anko," Bird growled.

"We can't stop the exam," Anko began.

A door opened to their right and a chunin examiner stuck his head out.

"Anko, we've been waiting on your arrival, there's something you have to see,"

"What is it; we're in the middle of something important!" Anko snapped.

He held out a tape as they all followed him into the room, pushing the tape in, he paused it at just the right time.

"Look at the time," he pointed to the corner of the screen.

"No way,"

"An hour and 37 minutes into the second test and someone's already made it to the tower." Fox sounded surprised.

"Not just that, but look at the smaller one, not a scratch on him."

"How is that possible?"

"He's like Naruto." They all turned round to see the Hokage standing there with Ibiki. "My grandsons have already had a run in with this particular team. Konohamaru questioned Naruto about them. Both Naruto and the young sand shinobi there are drawn to each over." The Hokage explained.

"There's something about his eyes." Boar moaned.

"Like Naruto's whisker marks, but his eyes just seem malicious." Fox stated.

"Yes, he is one to be wary of I believe." The Hokage spoke, moving back into the other room.

"Now, what happened between you and Orochimaru, Hikaru?" the Hokage sat down on the couch, pulling out his pipe and lighting it.

(Line)

'The rookie nine', were gathered by a stream, resting up and stocking up on supplies.

"Get in the stream dobe and scare the fish out of the water." Sasuke's arrogant tone had come back.

"Or you could just skewer them with your kunai, dad showed me how, watch this," Choji walked over, watching the fish and flinging out a kunai, pinning a fish to the sand bed beneath it. He retrieved his kunai and the fish, and returned to catch more. Naruto, Sasuke, and Shikamaru joined him.

Hinata and Shino stood guard as Ino and Sakura set up camp. Slowly, they coaxed a fire into life. Shikamaru and Choji walked over carrying an armful of fish each. Ino stood up as they dropped the fish into a pile next to the fire which had just sprung to life.

"We're going to ahead take a look around, give us half an hour tops." Shikamaru said

"What, why?"

"You both have members of your teams injured, you'll need a day at best to rest up, and so, we're the most capable team right now."

"They want to go scouting to see if they can come across a team. Then they can take them out and take their scroll." Naruto explained, dumping his fish down followed by Sasuke. "They're allowed to leave if they want."

"No, we'll be back; we're not leaving you now that we've found you." Choji nodded.

They all waved as team 10 disappeared into the surrounding forest.

Team 10 had just moved out of Hinata's range, slowly creeping through the forest under growth when they came across a team huddled around the giant roots of a tree. Concealing themselves in the surrounding bushes, they listened in to their rather frantic conversation.

"No, we can't open the scroll!" the long haired teammate argued.

"But if we want to create a copy of the earth scroll, we need to know what's written on the heaven scroll, in order to make it believable." The glasses wearing teammate argued.

"We were told not to open the scroll." The first teammate scowled.

"We're on the third day of the exam already. Half the teams will probably be done already; this could be our last chance."

Shikamaru turned to Ino. "Can you take control of the guy holding the scroll?"

"Why?" she nodded.

"If we make them open the scroll, we can take it. I'll use my Shadow Imitation technique to hold the other two still while you swap consciousnesses with the scroll holding guy and open it. As soon as you've opened it, return to your body. We don't want you getting caught in whatever traps are hidden inside the scroll. When its clear, Choji can go out and collect the scroll."

"That's a great idea Shikamaru, but why do I have to go out and collect the scroll?" Choji frowned.

"Well, we might not be the only ones watching them, and Ino and I will be out of it after using our jutsu for so long. You're the strongest out of us three, and if someone does jump out and attack, you can knock them back with your human bullet tank to knock them back and grab the scroll." Shikamaru explained.

"How will we know it's clear?"

"We'll give it 45 seconds before you move."

"Why 45 seconds and not 30 seconds?" Ino asked.

"Because 30 seconds is the standard time a jutsu lasts." Shikamaru sighed. "Ready?" they both nodded. He tilted two fingers forwards, signalling that they should commence battle.

Moving his hands into the rat hand sign, his shadow stretched out to encompass the two teammates, nodding to Ino when he had them caught. Moving her hands so that her index, middle finger, and thumb formed a rough triangle with the remaining fingers pointing up, see looked through the triangle, finding her target, and sent her mind across to his.

The remaining ninja stopped what he was doing; stopping midsentence his two teammates looked at him strangely.

"What's wrong?"

"Why'd you stop midsentence?"

They watched as he began to peel the scroll open.

-NO! - They both shouted, trying to rise to their feet and finding they couldn't. Looking down they saw their shadows stretching away from them and in to the surrounding undergrowth.

Smoke erupted out of the scroll as Ino returned to her body, her job complete. Three screams alerted team 10 that whatever trap was hidden in the scroll had been activated. Shikamaru released his jutsu and nodded to Choji as he tended to Ino's slumped body. Choji cautiously stuck his head over the bushes to see all three ninja knocked out cold. He jumped over the bushes, turning into his meat tank and rolled towards the fallen scroll; which had been returned to its original state. He spun, catching the scroll in his hand as he rolled past it, hitting the tree and using that to bounce off and change direction, heading back to his teammates. He bounced over the bushes, returning back to normal as he joined Shikimaru and Ino.

He held the scroll out to Shikamaru who tucked it away with their earth scroll. Picking Ino's body up, they began making their way back towards teams 8 and 7.

(Line)

Hinata twitched as Team 10 came back into her line of sight about half an hour after they had left it. Naruto, Shino, and Kiba looked up to her as she twitched.

"It's just team 10 coming back," She supplied.

Naruto smirked, adding more fish to the fire, as Choji came through the underbrush, and sat straight down, taking the proffered fish held out to him by Naruto, with Shikamaru carrying Ino. Naruto got up to help Shikamaru.

"Here, we can put her down on my hoodie," he went in his backpack to retrieve the hoodie, and started to frown, his hand touched something cold, making him draw back. "I must have left it at the tower." He said after a while.

"It's probably a good thing that you did actually, don't want to make you a bigger target than you already are." Shikamaru shrugged.

"Fair point," Naruto chuckled.

"Did you get a scroll?" Sakura asked, looking at Ino, "that's why Ino's asleep, right?"

"Shikamaru came up with the plan." Choji stopped eating long enough to speak.

"It was something you mentioned earlier, Naruto. About there being a reason not to open the scrolls, they're booby trapped."

"I thought they would be. The whole point of this part of the exam is about not looking in the scroll. You have to have two scrolls before you make it to the tower, so there must be a two part phrase or password that's needed."

"So, if you open the scroll, you're not fulfilling part of the criteria for the mission." Shino nodded.

"Hence the booby trap," Sakura smiled.

"Yeah, but I wonder what the trap is?" Kiba asked.

"We'll find out when we get to the tower," Naruto shrugged. "What? I'm going to ask?" he smiled.

"Wait, since Orochimaru destroyed our scroll, the number of teams that can progress has been cut down. Instead of thirteen teams being able to pass –"

"Now only twelve can!" Kiba shouted.

"Well, I guess the sand team will be there, and I doubt we've seen the last of Neji's team." Naruto nodded.

"The sound team will try everything to be there."

"And then there's you guys." Sakura concluded. "That's five teams we can be sure of."

"We need to get another Heaven scroll, and soon." Sasuke said standing.

"I'm going to get some water," Naruto said, standing to join Sasuke. He touched his shoulder as he disappeared into the under growth.

"Leave him, he has something on his mind he needs to figure out." Shino stated, stopping Hinata from going after Naruto.

"He'll be back, don't worry." Sakura stated.

'But he's not okay, he's not himself, at least not completely,' Hinata thought as she watched his retreating figure.

(Line)

Naruto caught a glimpse of red as he turned around; he frowned, ducking through the foliage, following after the trail, when he heard a scream. He shot forwards, following the sound of a roar and knew that someone had been confronted by one of the giant bears that lived in the forest. There was a smaller scream as he got closer.

He pulled a scroll from his ninja pouch and letting it unfurl while he ran through several hand signs as he landed on the back of the giant bear. The accompanying roar was cut off mid blast as he sealed the bear in the scroll. He wiped his brow at the excursion. He hadn't sealed something that big before, and was still shaky on the hand signs. He hoped he hadn't caused the bear too much damage. Landing gently on the grass where the bear had been, he stooped down, gathering his scroll and tucking it away into a pocket. He finally looked up at the young girl he had saved.

She was clutching an earth scroll tightly to her chest as she squinted up at him. She had bright red short hair, about the same length as Sakura's was now; which flicked out like spikes on one side and was perfectly smooth on the other. She had crimson eyes and pale skin, and was frantically searching the ground with her unoccupied hand for something as she squinted up at him.

"Here, are these what you're looking for?" He walked over, bending down and handing her the glasses.

She took them tentatively as she finally got a look at her saviour. His blurry blonde hair and tanned skin finally settled into a perfect image. He had amazing blue eyes and a cute smile as he stepped away from her.

"You lost your teammates?" he turned his head, scanning the forest, his blonde hair catching in a seam of sunlight filtering through the leaves. "Hmm, grass ninja, there's a couple of grass nin over that way about two kilometres." He pointed to their left as he held his hand out to her. She nodded, finding the whisker like scars across his cheeks a distraction from his otherwise amazing appearance.

"Naruto, you idiot, she's got the same scroll as us, let's go!" They both turned to see Sasuke standing behind them. Naruto's smile dropped slightly when she saw Sasuke, her mouth having dropped open.

"Yeah, he has that effect on people, he's Sasuke. Good luck finding your team," Naruto sighed, walking over to Sasuke, he had a slight smirk across his face.

"Dobe, you're not supposed to be helping her." Sasuke went to hit Naruto who rocked back on his heel to avoid the hit.

"She was terrified, I couldn't let her get mauled by a bear. Besides, she's got the same scroll as us," Naruto shrugged as they were swallowed up by the forest.

(Line)

Naruto and Sasuke stilled as they found the small band of rookies each pointing a weapon at Kabuto. Sharing a look, they edged over.

"What are you doing here?" Sasuke asked. Walking through the many kunai pointed at Kabuto.

"I got separated from my team; I was hoping that you guys wouldn't mind me staying with you till we get closer to the tower.

(Line)

"We should move. The smoke from the fire and the scent from the cooked fish will draw predators out." Sasuke noted.

"Right,"

"Team 8 should take the lead with team 10 in the middle and we'll bring up the rear." Naruto stated.

"Why that order?" Kiba moaned.

"You guys are the sensors, me and Sasuke are the heavy hitters, and we're also the only team out of us lot not to have both scrolls. So, if we get caught out we won't be giving up both scrolls, only one." Naruto nodded. "Come on, let's move to the tower."

The teams all jumped up into the canopy of leaves, and, following Naruto's suggested order, Hinata slowly dropped back so she was level with Naruto. He glanced at her and moved closer as they jumped through the trees.

"Naruto? You'd tell me if something was wrong, right?" Hinata pushed her fingers together in her nervous habit as she moved alongside him.

"Yeah, of course I would." He looked at her before sighing. "It's hard to explain, I can't feel my chakra. It's normally swimming just under the surface of my skin, but now, it's faint; nothing like what I'm used to. Orochimaru did something that's just knocked me for a loop is all." He stopped, giving her a one armed hug. "Nothing I can't handle." He smiled.

She nodded, "So, who did you save?" she moved off again. "Sasuke was grumbling about you wasting time."

"There was a girl that was about to be mauled by a bear." Naruto shrugged.

"She was a red head I take it." She smiled.

"How do you know?" Naruto stopped, on a branch.

"Just had a feeling." Hinata smirked. "I better catch up with my team before Kiba decides it's a good idea to beat you silly."

"He can try," Naruto laughed, moving after her.

(Line)

Konohamaru smirked as he crept into the bedroom he shared with Naruto in the Hokage tower. He pushed his chakra out like Naruto had described, there was no one around, he smirked a gap toothed grin.

(Line)

"Shino, stop!" Hinata called.

The teams all gathered around Hinata; she frowned, her byakugan reaching out to her furthest point.

"The tower is up ahead. I can just make it out. There are quite a few shinobi hiding in wait, already set up in ambushes. I think before we proceed, we should come up with a plan."

"Well, surely we need to get a heaven scroll."

"Yes, but how do you plan on getting the scroll and making your way to the tower without another team confronting you." Shikamaru sighed.

"Well, we need to get the scroll ourselves, for starters. But, it will probably be best if we stick close together."

"We need to figure out which team has the scroll we need first. Then we should probably isolate them somehow, and then join back up into our bigger group." Sasuke concluded.

"But, as a big group we make a bigger target." Shino mumbled sagely.

"As well as a bigger threat. Other teams may have made allegiances as well." Shikamaru added.

"Are there any leaf ninja? I don't feel comfortable fighting members of our own village." Naruto asked.

"Only one that I can see, it appears to be that Kabuto's team. Naruto, Tsubasa is coming." Hinata smiled as the little bird landed on Naruto's shoulder.

He ruffled the bird's feathers as he settled; Sasuke eyed the bird, an idea forming in his mind. The bird could check the other teams and see what scrolls they had, narrowing down their search as well as being a member of team seven, rather than using another team to scout for them.

"Naruto, your bird, can it scout?" Sasuke asked, his eye's meeting Naruto's as Naruto figured out what he meant.

"Yeah, Tsubasa, we need a heaven scroll. Can you find a team with one or more scrolls for us?" he watched the bird bow it's head before taking off. "What's the next part of our plan then?" Naruto asked, turning back to Sasuke and Sakura.

The other teams fell back within ear shot, but gave enough space that team seven could come up with a plan of their own. Hinata kept her byakugan activated as Shino's bugs followed Tsubasa. Shikamaru listened in to team seven's plan, glad that they were beginning to work together better than they had when they were training together. Choji and Ino were watching Naruto as Kiba checked Akamaru's injuries. He was really coming out of his shell, but there was something off about him which Choji couldn't place. Ino was watching the way Naruto's entire body moved, each movement a subtle sign. She would have to get her father to go over people's body movements as she couldn't place what Naruto's body was trying to tell them. Besides, he was kinda cute. Her eyes widened as she thought that, when did Naruto become cute? Hinata and Shikamaru chuckled as Ino's eyes widened, both had noticed her watching Naruto, coming to the conclusion that she was blushing because she'd realised that Naruto was rather good looking in his own way.

Thanks for reading. Remember I'll post on my profile in advance when I'm posting the next chapter.

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