Chapter 9: Red Dress, Yellow Locks

Sakura walked up the path that led to the training ground of the second exam of the Chunin Exams. From what Kabuto said before the first exam, and the fact that their proctor told them to meet at a training ground, Sakura was pretty confident that this exam was going to be the survival portion, making her much less comfortable than she was the day before.

The questions of the written test yesterday were definitely difficult, but it wasn't something that Sakura hadn't seen before. She dedicated an immense amount of time in the academy studying problems for the written tests, some would say excessively so, making the questions more than doable. Survival, however, wasn't something Sakura was particularly well-versed in. One mission was all the experience she had, and Sakura hoped that she wouldn't be too big of a hindrance to her team in whatever they had to do.

After only a few more minutes of walking, Sakura greeted Sasuke, who was waiting along the path a few hundred yards from their destination, and stood next to him as they waited for their third teammate. It was a quiet wait, the only sounds being of the nature around them, but it wasn't an uncomfortable quiet. The wind blew, leaves danced in the trees, and birds fluttered about around them, allowing Sakura to relax her tense nerves.

As usual, their third teammate came walking down the path, not quite late but still last to arrive. Sakura wasn't even sure if Naruto noticed them yet. He was staring at the clear sky, hands behind his head, and chewing what was most likely the gross food bar he always has for breakfast.

"Why does he look like he never knows what's going on around him?" Sakura joked to Sasuke, but instead of some kind of grunt, the Uchiha gave a second of pause before a real response.

"Probably a habit." Sakura frowned at that.

"What kind of habit is that?" Her question was met with a confused frown and shook his head. Before she could follow up, Naruto made it to the pair.

The two waiting genin just fell into step with the third, not waiting to continue their way to the training ground. As the forty-fourth training ground came into view, Team 7 noticed that the meeting area was already filled with ninjas. They appeared the last ones to make it, excluding their proctor as Sakura couldn't make her out anywhere.

"Ah shit, are we becoming like Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura looked to the other side of Sasuke to glare at her blonde teammate.

"You're the reason we're so late, idiot." Seriously, they would've been here at least 10 minutes earlier.

"Oh yeah? How many teams passed you guys while you were waiting on me?" Sakura just smacked her lips in annoyance but couldn't actually respond.

"That's what I thought." Naruto chuckled out his words but quickly fell silent as they got close to the group of shinobi.

Looking around, Sakura noticed that all three rookie teams from the Leaf passed the first exam, along with Kabuto's team and the team that was arguing in the stairwell. The Rain team they encountered before the test made it through, the sound team that Sakura saw eyeing down Sasuke was there, and obviously, the Sand team that was interested in whatever was going on with Naruto. There were several others, but none that were especially memorable to Sakura.

"Well look who the decision to show up, the dead last actually made it." The barking voice of Kiba Inuzuka was directed at their team, specifically, Naruto, as he walked over to them with Shino and Hinata walking closely behind, both of their expressions impassive compared to their teammates.

To Sakura's surprise, Naruto didn't reply with anything immediately, and even after a second the only sound from him was an inhale through his nose. In the Academy, it was easy to lump Kiba and Naruto into the same category: loud, dumb, and obnoxious. Every time they were paired together in sparring matches, it would devolve into a shouting match, and they were both battling for the dead last of their class, so her opinions weren't unfounded. But when she was placed on a team with him, Sakura learned that her thoughts of the blonde were a little off.

That being said, Naruto is more than willing to argue with whomever, so his silence was weird.

"I hope Sasuke doesn't get held back too much in whatever the second test is so I can beat him in the tournament later." Even though he was talking about Sasuke, Kiba was still pointedly looking at Naruto with a large grin on his face and a dog yipping on his head.

"He says that because Naruto was at the bottom of the class, but the irony is that Kiba was close to being last as well. By that logic, Hinata and I are being held back by him." Shino's words dampened Kiba's attitude and brought a small smile to Hinata's face before it quickly disappeared.

"Tch, whatever. I'll kick your ass, Uzumaki, then I'll kick that Neji guy's ass, and then I'll kick the Uchiha's ass for giggles." Three consecutive barks from the dog on the boy's head.

"He'd be lucky to get through Naruto at all, much less all three."

"I told you to stop with that, Kiba. My problems with Neji are Hyuuga issues, not yours." Hinata's voice was gentle but firm in an attempt to get, what seems to be, an already stated point across, earning a pout from the Inuzuka.

"Don't act like you're a factor here, Inuzuka." Kiba's face instantly morphed into a scowl at Sasuke's words, and Sakura did her best to hold in a laugh. Her amusement was quickly ruined by the screeching voice of the single most annoying person alive.

"What are you laughing at, billboard brow? The only joke I see here is you." Ino Yamanaka's words already had Sakura's anger in a lather. Her forehead wasn't even that fucking big.

"Who even asked you, piggy?"

"Please, can we not do this again? Something tells me our test today isn't a few questions." Shikamaru's tired complaint was heeded, but with a scoff and a flick of long blonde hair.

"It's crazy that we all made it here, huh? Everyone from the rookie class is standing right here." Sakura smiled at Couji's comment. Looking around at the kids she grew up with, all of them ninjas trying to become chunin together, made her nostalgic for the academy days.

Stopping her eyes at her teammates, Sakura noticed that they were completely checked out of anything that was going on. Naruto seemed to back himself out of the little circle they made and was staring past their former classmates. Following his eyes, Sakura saw Gaara staring at Naruto as he was the day before. Sasuke was doing much the same, except his focus was on the team from the Sound Village, specifically one with bandages all over his head that left only a single eye visible.

Nothing even happened and both of her teammates already had teams with something against them. Sakura was drawn out of her observations by the lazy drawl of Shikamaru's voice.

"I'm sure you guys are glad to get this far." The Nara was looking at Team 7 with a small smirk on his face. Her brows furrowed as Sakura tried to understand where that came from.

"What are you talking about." The irritation in Sasuke's voice was subtle, but she could hear it, maybe he heard it as she did. It definitely sounded like an insult.

"Well, the Akimichi, Yamanaka, and Nara clans have been teaming up for generations and we've learned how to work together since birth. Hinata, Shino, and Kiba are also members of cornerstone clans in the Leaf that all have complimenting abilities that they've inherited. You guys have Sasuke, a prodigy, Sakura, studious but not physically gifted, and Naruto, the dead last. Out of all of us, you guys seem to be in the worst position." Sakura's teeth were clenched hard enough to take an arm off had one been gifted to her, and now all of the genin presents had insight on their team, no matter how skewed it was. Shikamaru looked around him and his smirk grew larger. "Oh man, did I see that out loud?"

"He painted a target on our backs as the weakest of the teams of rookies."

The realization scared her. The last thing Sakura wanted was to have any attention drawn to them, but now they had two teams eyeing her teammates and Shikamaru betting against them. Naruto seemed to be in the same spot as Sakura, his hands closed into tight fists and visibly controlling his breathing, while Sasuke was the exact opposite of the two. The Uchiha let his lips fall into a confident smirk.

Poof

Directly in front of the entrance gate to the fenced training ground, all the genin were gathered in front, Anko Mitarashi appeared with a giant smile on her face. Now, with her attention focused on the actual training ground, Sakura was in awe at the size of the grounds behind Anko. Trees extended up to the sky, big enough to be towed over most buildings in the village proper, and the perimeter of the fenced grounds was just as impressive.

"How big is this place?"

All the genin turned to focus on their newly arrived proctor.

"I want to get to the exciting shit, so I'm going to make this quick. This place behind me is Training Ground 44, affectionately known as the 'Forest of Death'. We use it for several things, but genin aren't allowed in here so we can protect you guys from giant tigers, snakes, man-eating plants, and any other living thing in there. At the center of these grounds, just over 6 miles away, is a tower. This tower is your destination." She reached in her trench coat and pulled out two scrolls, one white and one blue each labeled "Heaven" and "Earth" symbols, respectively.

"Each team gets either a Heaven or an Earth scroll, you have five days to reach the tower with BOTH Heaven and Earth scrolls. You have three days to reach the tower. When you reach the tower all three members of your team must be present and healthy, your team must be in possession of both a Heaven and an Earth scroll, and you must not look at the contents of any scroll you have." Anko lifted a finger for every requirement she gave. With her off-hand, she reached back into her trench coat and pulled a stack of papers.

"There are 17 genin teams here, and there are enough sets of scrolls for eight teams to fulfill the requirements. Only five teams will be allowed to progress to the third exam. If only four teams make it to the tower before the end of the three days only four teams pass, and there are no freebies. Now each of you signs one of these consent forms and when all of your team signs one goes to the stand over there and gets your scroll." The proctor pointed to the small stall a few dozen feet away pressed against the fence of the grounds.

Sakura was stunned by the amount of information they were given. Suddenly, a large weight was thrown onto her shoulders and she didn't know what to do. A three-day exam? Not only that, but only five teams could pass through? Looking around at all the genin, all of which were just eyeing down Team 7 like they were easy prey just before Anko appeared.

"I'm going to kill Shikamaru"

"Why do we need to sign consent forms?" A random genin called out from the crowd.

"Well, we can't have the Leaf take responsibility when your blood starts painting this forest. The only rules are the ones I just told you. You are free to complete this task under any means necessary, so go crazy." Her voice was too excited, too happy, for promising their demise.

Sakura turned her attention to the serious face of Shikamaru that was looking at her team, regret was visible in his eyes.

"Now I regret opening my big fucking mouth."

"Save it for when we pass this stupid ass test." Naruto was quick to respond, but not in a hyper-optimistic voice, but a rather disgruntled one. A voice of someone preparing for a five-day slog.

Naruto pushed through the crowd toward their proctor, Sasuke was quick behind him and Sakura brought up the rear. Eyes were leering at them as they were the first to snatch the consent forms from their proctor.

"Oh, what's this? Some snot-nosed brats sacked up first, huh?" Anko chuckled to herself, passing off the stack of papers to Naruto.

"When your team gets your scroll, you'll follow someone to your start gates. When you hear the bang it's time to start." Their proctor, seemingly done, disappeared from the grounds as older ninjas seem to like doing.

Sakura and her team went directly to the stall to collect their scroll, signing their papers without bothering to read them, and handed them to the dark-haired chunin in front of them.

"Who wants the scroll?"

There was a few seconds of awkward staring between the three genin, but Sasuke discreetly nodded toward Naruto. No words were said as a blue scroll was given to the blonde and it was slid into a pocket on the inside of his jacket. The moment the scroll was secured, three shinobi appeared next to them, each put a hand on one of their shoulders, and they were whisked away. In a quick rush of air and scenery, they were immediately staring at a gated, chain-linked entrance to the training ground with a large sign above it with the number 16 and were left alone. A deep sigh sounded from Sasuke.

"You both better be ready, there's no other choice now."

"Yeah, we're ready, Uchiha. This is going to be a mess, how do we want to do this?"

Sakura thought about Naruto's words. How they started was everything. Every team was going to come flying out of the gate, if they get caught in the wrong spot they were as good as dead. Sakura anxiously nibbled on her lip before she spoke.

"What if we hung back at first?" That got a couple of questioning looks from the two. "Like, if we hang back we could conserve energy and not risk getting in any early fights."

Her teammates fell into a short silence.

"It makes sense to me. As long as we don't straggle for too long, right?" Naruto looked at Sasuke for confirmation so they'd all be on the same page and Sasuke nodded back.

"If we start slow and then speed it up later we could catch someone off-guard."

"Hey, why do I have the scroll and not you? You're the genius aren't you?" Naruto's question was met with a scoff.

"Only an idiot would give the scroll to the one everyone expects to have it. That's why you have it, who would think to give it to you?" To Sakura's surprise, Naruto gave a good laugh at Sasuke's quip and she smiled at the scene.

She knew that the next days were going to suck and she wanted to appreciate the light-hearted mood.

And with a loud bang, the mood was dropped and Team 7 was flying into the dark forest.

"What the fuck is this place?!"

Naruto was running point in Team 7's triangle formation as Sakura trailed closely behind his left and Sasuke lagged further back on his right. They were jumping from branch to branch on colossal trees that twisted and bent their way towards the sky, occasionally landing on giant bugs or fungus attached to the bark that would intimidate small dogs. All around, sounds of the forest could be heard, cries and calls of animals in the distance, tremors of whatever giant beasts hid in the dark forest.

He was glad that they decided beforehand to not sprint through the forest, Naruto had a feeling they would've landed themselves in the maw or den of something more than willing to make a snack out of three 13-year-olds. They weren't sprinting, but they weren't leisurely traveling toward the center of the forest either, traveling at a good medium pace to conserve their energy, arcing around the tower, and remain aware of their surroundings.

After some time of their contained pace, Sakura called for a break in a small opening between large trees that sat near a stream that flowed through the forest. Naruto was more than a little ruffled that they weren't told that the test would be multiple days. Multiple days in a forest and they had zero supplies outside of the basic tool pouch that they always carried with them. So as they paused their advance, Naruto scooped water from the running stream to hydrate himself as Sakura did her business and Sasuke stood in silence. Sakura rejoined them with a deep frown on her face, but there wasn't much that could be done. They would be roughing it for potentially the next few days.

"I say we start to speed it up. The teams that started fast should be a ways ahead of us so if catch up now we might catch them off-guard." Sasuke was getting antsy. Naruto knew that he wasn't the passive type, everybody knew that. If the Uchiha had something to prove he would prove it.

"Sounds good to me. What do you think, Sakura?"

"Don't worry about me, I can keep up. We need to think about what we're going to do about food." Another thing that ruffled Naruto. Had he known they would need food today, he could've brought a shelf of food bars with no problem. But no, they would have to hunt and gather.

"We won't have to look far for food." Naruto nodded his hand up at the large squirrels that jumped from tree to tree that may or may not have had large, disemboweling claws extending from their hands.

"We really need to get out of here. Even the squirrels look creepy." Distaste dripped from the girl's mouth, and the two boys agreed as much and soon they were back in the trees, flying at much-increased speeds.

Another sum of time passed, the sun seemed to reach its apex in the sky, and Naruto's wet orange jacket was clinging to him from the amount of sweat he was expending. They made sure to never stray too far from a flow of water, Sakura's idea, while occasionally rising to the canopy to catch sight of the large tower they were headed to. They couldn't run straight to the tower, they would be there already if they had, but it wouldn't do to run directly away from it either.

Their travel was without issue until they came upon a clearing in the vegetation. There was a ring of sunlight, a few dozen yards in radius, that Team 7 jumped into intent on bypassing entirely. Instead, three ninjas formed up in front of their path, forcing Naruto and his team to come to a halt in the center of the clearing. Standing in their path were the forms of the three Rain ninjas that they "met" the previous day. All standing with their odd grey and black bodysuits and umbrellas strapped to their backs.

"I do believe I told you not to look down on minor villages, brats. Rain shall no longer be the placemat of the Great Villages, our god will make it so, but first, we have some kids to put in place." A sneering smile came across the scarred man as he reached to his back and flung half a dozen umbrellas into the air while speeding through hand seals.

"Sprinkling Senbon"

There was no real explanation for what was happening, none that made sense to Naruto, but he quickly latched a hand on each of his teammate's arms and exploded chakra through his coils. Naruto's vision rushed as he brought them behind the trunk of the nearest tree as senbon rained through the area. Needles were slicing past their cover as Naruto looked to his teammates for a plan.

"There are three enemy shinobi that have us pinned behind a tree, how do we attack them?" Naruto narrated the situation to help jog his thoughts.

"We can't just run, they knew we were coming somehow. Unless we really push ourselves." The needles stopped flying as Sakura spoke, something she said must've clicked something in Sasuke.

"No running, there's no way to make sure we get away. But if someone was able to keep their focus, run away from their attacks, the other two could land some hits." Sasuke's eyes were boring into Naruto. Talking could be heard from the clearing on the other side of the tree, they needed to be quick.

"Fine, while I'M the distraction, what're you guys doing?"

"Sasuke can use his earth jutsu to sneak behind them, I could help hide him better from them and then give you back up." They all nodded at the thrown-together plan, but it was the best they had.

Naruto quickly flickered back into the clearing, the ground was littered with needles and the umbrellas were back on the Rain shinobi's back.

"Only one? I supposed the other two brats are sneaking around?" The three enemy ninja laughed at that, "I hope you do well, Mr. Distraction."

Naruto tensed as the other two Rain-nin each grabbed a pair of umbrellas from their backs, and was instantly jumping out of the way of a concentrated shot of moment he started moving he couldn't stop. He was ducking, dodging, weaving, and contorting his body as best as he could to avoid the flying needles. It wasn't lost on him that he was in an agonizingly similar situation a little over a week ago. His skin crawled and his blood was boiling, but he did his best to ignore it, he couldn't let it get to him.

Naruto's eyes widened as one of the Rain shinobi, the one that was to the right of the scarred one, turned away from Naruto, clearly looking for his teammates. He reached for a kunai in his pouch, only for the long-range assault to end and he was charged by the other two Rain ninjas.

The scar-faced shinobi led with his partner trailing, aiming his foot into Naruto's face. Naruto learned to his right, giving him a clear path to enemies body, but before he could counter, his other opponent came from the weak side and stabbed forward quickly with a kunai aimed at Naruto's chest. A flash of heat spread through Naruto and in a panic Naruto flooded his body with chakra to speed up his movements, throwing his body into a roll around the stabbing ninja and jumping into the air intent on throwing shuriken at his opponents.

"Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu"

Three balls of flame shot past the airborne Naruto and exploded in the spot of his opponents. When he landed, Naruto turned toward the origin of the flames, seeing Sakura stabbing a knife into the third Rain shinobi with wide eyes and Sasuke running in his direction to help with the last two ninja, Sharingan eyes blazing.

Smoke and dirt cleared from Sasuke's attack, showing the lightly singed clothes and snarled faces of their enemies. Naruto ran with Sasuke, the Uchiha letting him take the lead, and jumped into a high kick at the scarred man who rose his hands to block. Shuriken flew around the two, aimed at the second Rain-nin, and Naruto dropped back onto the ground and took a strike to the face that was followed by another. Naruto latched a hand to the second arm that struck him, using chakra to keep his grip firm. He pulled a kunai as he was pulled into the scar-faced ninja and thrust his hand into his target's stomach, only for it to be stopped by the man's other hand and pulled away from his stomach. The two were stuck in a stalemate, the taller man forcing his weight down onto the smaller boy.

His heart was thumping and a growl echoed in his mind, Naruto gritted his teeth as he held the weight, trying to think of what to do. An idea came in a flash and Naruto stopped fighting against the man's weight and pulled his body down and his opponent with him. The scar-faced man's grip on Naruto's knife arm loosed and as they fell down Naruto jabbed the knife back toward the man's body driving it into his side as they landed.

"Fuck this guy's heavy."

"Naruto!" It sounded like Sakura's voice.

"Ah, you little bastard!" The man tried to scramble off of Naruto, his arm finally free from Naruto's grip, but as he rose Naruto pulled the knife from the man's ribs and slashed at his throat while he pulled away.

Naruto didn't even know if his strike made contact at first until a small stream of blood across the Rain ninja's neck quickly grew into a waterfall flooding from his throat. The man's eyes shot open in surprise and a hand tried to cover the wound, but the damage was done and he fell backward onto his back.

Naruto took a sharp inhale to gather himself before standing up, heat flooding out of his system, and he saw Sasuke and Sakura walking in his direction from the last downed shinobi who was face down in the dirt.

"Are you okay?" Sakura rushed to him, looking over his body. Naruto glanced down, too, only to see that his dodging of the senbon wasn't completely flawless.

As he pulled a few needles from his arms and legs, Sasuke went about searching for the shinobi Naruto fought.

"I swear I got stuck with the hard on–"

"Earth Style: Rock Spikes"

From the trees behind Sasuke, a line of spikes shot from the earth in different directions, all leveled to skewer them at the chest. Before the spikes made it to them, Naruto again snatched his teammates away in a flicker. A dull ache settled in the chakra coils he's been flooding with exorbitant amounts of chakra, but that had to wait for later. When they came to a stop in the trees opposite where the spikes came from, Team 7 burst out into a sprint to get away from their new attackers.

"They waited to ambush us! They wanted to take the winner of the fight off-guard to steal the scroll!" Sasuke's agitated voice was projected over the air whipping past their ears.

"Fuck it, we need to find a place to stop, we can't worry about it now."

His teammates agreed with Naruto's assessment and they dashed back into the thick of the forest, climbing higher and higher up the trees they bounced from and settling on the highest branches of the biggest tree they could find. The altitude limited the ways anyone could attack them, and luckily whoever attacked them didn't seem intent on pursuit. The three genin took a minute to gather themselves before they spoke.

"We lost a chance to get a scroll." The disgruntled voice of Sasuke was the first to break their silence.

"We were also tracked by the Rain team from the start. How did they even find us like that?" It wasn't like they knew where they started themselves, much less anyone else.

"They probably had a sensor. It had to be the one that tracked me underground, even with Sakura's genjutsu covering me." Naruto nodded at the explanation and gave a glance to Sakura who was looking at her own hands in disbelief.

"You alright, Sakura?" She nodded acutely, face falling into a frown. Her eyes moistened, but before any tears could fall, she inhaled sharply and threw a half-hearted smile at him and Sasuke.

"I'll be fine, just shaken up." She didn't sound like she believed it much either, "We can't stay here, we need food and water."

She was right, and to ready himself, Naruto stretched out his muscles to knock the kinks out of their fight. The aches from earlier were gone and he was ready to go, but his teammates looked a bit winded. Sakura was right. It was midday and they had no plans for food yet, they strayed from their water source after the fighting, and they had no shelter for the night.

"The stream, right?" Securing water had to be the first issue, that was the basic rule of survival that anyone is ever taught.

"We can get to the stream, find a nearby place to set up a camp, and then we look for food." Sakura and Naruto nodded at the plan of action and Team 7 left their place in the canopy of the trees and searched for running water.

They still stayed closer to the top of the trees, choosing to have a more aerial vantage point for their search for water. It felt like hours before they made it back to the stream but when they did, the trio made no hesitation to shoot down to the water and hydrate. Hands dove into the water and scooped up as much water as possible toward dry lips.

After getting his fill, Naruto stood and looked at their surroundings at the ground level. Gnarled roots exploded out of the ground and shot right back under, consistent darkness that wasn't present in the higher levels of the forest was settled, and the sounds of wildlife were back in full force. However, this was more of a comfortable thing to hear now that they were going to be on the hunt for food, whatever it is they can find.

Only 50, or so, yards away from the section of stream Team 7 came down to drink from was a small alcove that caught the eyes of a perceptive Uchiha. They were searching the area as discreetly as possible, in hopes of not running into another team, and a subtle cavern formed in the bowels of a particularly disfigured tree caught the red-eyes of Sasuke. Ducking under arched roots, and pushing through hanging fungi, the three genin settled into a dank nook that was big enough to keep the trio with some space between them and the room to build a small fire.

"We need to gather food. Food and wood to cook over." Sasuke's eyes shifted from Sakura and Naruto, silently asking for their thoughts.

"I can find wood, kindling, and set up traps if you guys can go and look for something to eat." She was skittish when she suggested it, almost like Sakura was ashamed about staying behind and preparing their camp.

"That's probably for the best. I feel fresh, and pretty eyes can see the shit we can't, don't worry about it." Naruto chuckled at Sasuke's dismay from the stray comment before the Uchiha reached into his tool pouch and handed Sakura a roll of wound ninja wire.

"Don't get seen while we're gone." Sasuke crawled out of their little den, Naruto following his lead by also giving Sakura his ninja wire for trapping and a farewell before heading out.

Sasuke and Naruto's hunting strategy was similar to the strategy they used to find cover: keep a low profile and be as vigilant as possible. The two were deliberate in their movements. They always made sure to keep their makeshift camp in mind, they kept to low branches, and they were as silent as could be. However, something was wrong, really wrong.

Naruto jumped down to the ground in an opening between trees and looked around semi-frantically before looking back at Sasuke.

"Why the hell is it so silent?"

There were no more calls of the wild. Insects weren't scritching, birds weren't chirping, and there wasn't rustling within the trees from the elevated animals. All of it seemed to stop. Sasuke dropped next to him and scanned the area with his Sharingan. As they searched their surroundings for literally anything, Naruto saw, out of the corner of his eye, Sasuke sharply spins to look behind them then suddenly Naruto felt a forearm drive into his side and push him off-balance.

As he fell, Naruto spun to land on his butt, allowing him to see what was happening, and his eyes widened in shock. An impossibly large, impossibly dark, and impossibly vicious-looking jungle cat was thrashing out a massively-clawed paw toward Naruto's previous position, clawing Sasuke's forearm and following through, digging into the Uchiha's stomach. The blonde's eyes widened as blood flung from the contact and Sasuke was forced backward onto Naruto. Working on only instinct, Naruto opened his arms to catch his teammate, and when the Uchiha landed Naruto rocked with his momentum, rolling them further back as another large paw landed on the ground they would've laid.

Standing up, Sasuke in his arms, Naruto thrust chakra down his legs and launched himself on the nearest branch a dozen feet off the ground and rested the gasping and bloody dark-haired boy against the tree, immediately dropping back to the ground. He didn't need this giant-ass cat finishing the job.

Said giant-ass cat kept its sharp yellow eyes attached to Naruto's form with terrifying stillness. Naruto stayed rooted in his spot, sharing his gaze with the horse-sized panther that was stalking him in the open, waiting for its chance to finish its job. Naruto took a deep, calming breath to settle his mind.

"I'll skin this fucking cat before it gets anywhere close."

Naruto pulled one of the few kunai that remained in his tool pouch, holding it tightly in his right hand, and bent his knees slightly in preparation for the next exchange. In a flash of yellow and black, the jungle cat moved with speeds that should be impossible for something of its size and Naruto performed an all-to-familiar technique. As the claws descended on him, chakra reached out for a nearby dead branch, substituting Naruto with it. Gripping the kunai with hand-numbing force, Naruto hyper-accelerated his body toward the cat he now flanked and drove his hand into its immense ribcage as it tore into the dead branch.

The kunai pierced hilt-deep, the force of his blow rocking the big-bodied cat, and the panther let out a pained roar. It wasn't nearly enough, but the knife was stuck in the body of the animal, unbudged as Naruto tried to rip it away. The blonde's eyes widened as the cat curled its body and lashed its jaws toward Naruto, but before he could move out of the way a giant mass landed on the attacking head.

"AHHH!"

A bloodied Sasuke landed on the head of the cat and used his good arm to thrust his own kunai into the face of the panther, driving straight into its previously yellow eye. A pained whine was followed by a limp collapse of the colossal beast, mimicked by the injured Uchiha. Naruto looked down at Sasuke, who was clutching his ravaged left arm and was lost for a second.

"He saved me. Twice. He sacrificed his body to save me."

The thought was so foreign. Someone went out of their way to save him. In a daze, Naruto quickly slung Sasuke's good arm over his neck and took off toward their camp.

"I can walk myself, Uzumaki." Words were shoved through clenched teeth and Naruto scoffed at him.

"We don't know how deep the cuts on your stomach are. Just deal with it until Sakura can look at you." It had to be Sakura. Naruto didn't know a damn thing about fixing wounds.

Naruto made it to their camp in record time, he just hoped the quick pace didn't hurt his teammate anymore than necessary, but there was no choice. Sasuke was bleeding pretty heavily and Naruto wouldn't risk him bleeding out, not after the bastard took the hit for him.

They arrived at the sight of Sakura rigging some traps in the roots that were crawling around their den. She turned around sharply with a kunai brandished at the sound of their arrival but dropped it as soon as she saw Sasuke's wounds.

"What the hell happened?!" She rushed over to help Naruto carry Sasuke under the tree.

"A big fucking cat. Can you patch him at all?"

"I'm not unconscious. I can move by myself." Naruto would've chuckled at Sasuke's exasperation if he wasn't so focused. Sakura seemed to share his thoughts as she completely ignored the words to forcefully lay him down.

"I can try. I'll use the ninja wire I haven't used for traps to try and stitch these closed, but that's all I know how to do." Naruto nodded at that and pulled a raggedy roll of bandages from the bottom of his tool pouch, reached into his jacket and pulled out the blue scroll that was hidden in his jacket, and handed them off to Sakura who already had her own bandages at the ready.

"I'll be back."

"Where the hell are you going?"

"We went out for food and we got it. I'll bring it back."

Naruto wasn't hearing any arguments as he set out back where they left the giant cat. Luckily, it was still laying exactly where it was when he left, no other beasts decided to take the easy meal. Naruto pulled the two kunai lodged in the carcass, one in the ribs and the other in the eye, placing one back in the pouch. He inspected the dead body with a frown on his face.

"I can't carry you by myself, but I'm taking something, you bastard."

Tightening his hold on the knife, Naruto went to work. He needed a chunk of meat that could feed the three of them, but a chunk he could travel with and not contaminate it. Face settled into a look of complete focus, Naruto grabbed the panther's massive hindleg and went to work. He was no butcher and he had no experience in anything like this, but he made it work. After several, hard-fought minutes of slashing and cutting, Naruto was able to sever the strong hindleg of the enormous jungle cat.

With a deep breath, Naruto heaved the leaking limb over his shoulder and he awkwardly hugged it to himself as he once again made way to his team's camp. The trek back was much more of a hassle than it was the previous trips, the leg not quite cooperating with Naruto as Sasuke did, but he made do. Naruto continued past the disfigured tree and settled at the stream, stripping off his now-bloodied jacket and washing it in the flowing water, soon followed by his hands and knife.

Painstaking was a good word to describe it. Trying to skin the large, dismembered leg wasn't something he excelled at, but with patience, several cuts to his own hands, and the promise he made to himself to skin this fucking thing before he killed it drove him through the task. He made sure not to set any piece of the leg he was skinning to touch the ground, having to strip off his white shirt to join his jacket to accommodate the size of the thing, leaving him in only his mesh undershirt.

With the meat he skinned pulled from the bone and wrapped in his jacket, Naruto carried what would be Team 7's food for the day under the roots of their tree. As he entered the open space under the tree, Naruto saw a grimacing Sasuke gently ghost his hands over the wounds on his arm and torso with his untouched hand. It wasn't untouched, actually, as it held the scars of the burn that was found there after the Haku fight.

"What is that smell?" Sakura had her nose crinkled in disgust as she built the fire they intended to use for cooking.

"Payback. And dinner, but payback." Naruto nodded at himself, even if they didn't need the leg for food, he would've had to get the pound of flesh somehow.

Apparently, his response was good enough, as his teammates carried on with what they were doing and Naruto took a seat opposite Sasuke in their little hovel.

"You feeling alright?"

"Hn. Ask me that after you've been stitched up by Sakura with ninja wire." His face was pulled back into a grimace and Naruto chose to leave that be.

"Thanks. For saving me. I'll try to make it up to you." He tried to make it sound as sincere as possible because he was truly sincere, but he didn't know what to do in this situation. How does he even make it up to him?

"Just watch your back next time, idiot, and we won't be in this situation." The words were harsher than his actual tone and Sasuke settled into the nook he was sitting in, closing his eyes.

After Sakura finished preparing the wood and kindling for their fire, Sasuke blew a small amount of fire chakra to start the kindling. Sakura tended to the fire, making sure it took, and as the fire grew to a sizable cooking flame, a length of ninja wire was cut across their den, directly across the length of the wire with the chunks of panther meat strung up on it, stabbed through with the heat-sterilized needle that was used on Sasuke. It wasn't the prettiest setup or the nicest, but it was food.

They all agreed that they were in no condition to move anywhere. Sasuke was cut up, Sakura was exhausted, and Naruto, though physically fine if a bit achy, was mentally fatigued. Naruto let his teammates rest after they all finished eating their game, as mediocre as it was, and he took watch outside. He made sure he wasn't out in the open signaling where his team was, taking up a post under an arched root in a section of higher grass and weeds, giving him decent enough cover. Naruto sat dutifully, not allowing himself to get bored and risk his teammates, for hours as the sun slowly descended and the dark forest grew even darker. Not even the full moon could illuminate much of his surroundings, but Naruto trusted his senses to keep him aware. He was aware of the night's sounds, the animals, the insects, the leaves. All were making their own noises, their own songs.

Then the songs stopped. Everything went quiet. All was silent except the subtle jingle of a bell.

You know, it's been odd, writing this.

I've known a few parts I wanted to do before I started, I have the main plot points thought out, but 95% of this has just been me just typing a story in, what I feel, is its natural progression.

That being said, I have no idea if it reads the same way for people blind to the overarching goal.