::Little more explanation is desired I think. First, Naruto and friends encountered Orochimaru on a mission in the past, and he's still a threat. They were not selected for the Chuunin exam, and therefore any special abilities learned while training for the tournament might or might not show up.::
Hatake Kikashi jumped through the trees, centering in on the presence he knew had to be this presumptuous Kurai girl. The village was in an uproar, and the Hokage had sent out messengers to the other kages to warn them of the girl's appearance. While the Hokage had told him much of the legend and fact surrounding the Hidden Snow Village, he knew there was more. The answers had hinted at more dangerous things, forbidden knowledge perhaps. The threat of the clan in control of the village also came from denying some kind of sanction imposed on them by all the other countries, just how this was done he wasn't sure, but the Hokage had been adamant that Kakashi's team had to have him, and that it was Kakashi's job to persuade the girl to let him go with them. As a veteran jounin he found this a little humiliating, but there had to be a reason for all this fear.
He stopped and sniffed the air. I was different here, cold. Snow Village. Ha. He continued on until a snowflake fell in front of his face. Snow? Here? Looking around he saw a bare foot hanging out of some leaf cover. Jumping down to the ground he walked over and looked up.
She was quite a bit softer in appearance than he'd expected, but not so young that being a chuunin of skill was out of the question. Her energy made her feel young, but she was clearly a mature adult. She looked down. With a wry smile she asked, "You here to convince me to let the kiddos stay?"
"No, I'm going to come with you."
She frowned. "Come with me? Do you understand what I'm supposed to do?"
He smiled behind his face mask. "You're taking them through the ordeal of the kage, yes? Well, they're my team, so I am to go with them."
Her foot stopped swaying and he could see a paw print mark on the bottom. She didn't notice his look. Kurai took out a kunai and examined it, turning it around in front of her face as if it was a gem. Like the rest of her appearance, it was a pale metallic color instead of black. What was it made out of? Looking down at him she said, "If you can hold your own against me I'll let you come. I won't go out of my way to protect you, though, so if you die it's your own damn fault." She vanished and Kakashi started to turn, but she already held the kunai at his throat. "Ready to begin?"
Kakashi's mind was going a million miles per hour. She was fast, too fast for him to see. Resigned to taking this battle seriously, he shifted his head protector to reveal his left eye. The kunai lifted away and he turned around to face Kurai. She gave him a smile that was almost a sneer and held the kunai in front of her. "You move first, I insist," she said.
Kakashi dove to the side and jumped off a tree to attack from behind. She spun around and blocked his attack, sneaking in a kick, which he blocked and turned into his own kick.
She jumped back and then launched herself at him. As he ducked she faded. An illusion? Then he dropped to the ground to avoid the fuuma shuriken she tossed his way. Then he heard muttering and looked up to see her completing a jitsu. Finished, she pointed at him. Hundreds of fine needles appeared around her and flew up into the air. When he tried to follow them with his eyes he was blinded by the sun. Then he heard the needles coming back down and jumped out of the way, quickly administering his own jitsu. "Water Dragon no Jitsu!"
A geyser erupted from the ground, taking the form of a dragon head and swinging down upon Kurai. Kakashi got the satisfaction of seeing her look surprised, then he was the one left stunned. The water dragon suddenly stopped and it took a moment for him to realize it was frozen. Hidden Snow Village. Ha.
She came down at him from the top of the water dragon sculpture and he was forced to block the attack. His sharingan caught her other hand's quick motions, though, and he jumped away as a spear of ice came down right where he'd been standing. A one-handed jitsu, not common or usually that effective. He held up his hands. "How much longer is this going to take?" he asked.
Kurai didn't respond. The sharingan caught her as she slipped away behind the ice dragon and left an illusion. Kakashi tracked her as she came around behind him. He turned with his own kunai ready, aimed at her throat. She blocked it and scowled. "Not much longer, I'm slowly working the kinks out," she said. Then she started a barrage of quick kicks and punches that Kakashi was forced to fend off.
As she kept him busy with physical attacks, they both started working on a possible means of cornering the other with a quick jitsu. At the same time they shoved away and began their seals. Kakashi finished first. "Fireball no jitsu!" as the attack zeroed in on Kurai, she finished her own seals.
A burnt log hit the ground.
Kakashi sighed, and turned to face his opponent. Instead of being in the air ready to strike, Kurai lay on her back staring at the sky. Curious, Kakashi drew closer. She was breathing in gasping breaths and sweating profusely. "I-I can't…." she croaked. Tears formed in her eyes and evaporated almost instantly. "I can't take it!" The grass around her vanished in puffs of smoke, leaving her surrounded by ash. Her skin was bright red, and Kakashi could feel the heat radiating off her skin. What was this?
Whatever was going on, there would probably be repercussions for Hidden Leaf Village if she died here. Kakashi rushed over to the ice dragon and shattered it. He then sent shards into the ground near Kurai, which began to drip and melt. Gathering some fallen pieces he walked over and tried covering her in them. After a couple more loads of broken ice she stopped glowing a ferocious red and the heat faded.
She opened her eyes and looked around. "It was so hot…" she said, her voice a whisper.
Kakashi smiled. "That is the nature of fire."
Kurai sat up and looked around. She was covered in ashy mud. Making a face, she stood up and stretched. Turning to face Kakashi she said, "That was some quick thinking on your part. Maybe having you around won't be so bad." Looking at the remains of the water dragon she sighed. "It was a great jitsu, but I imagine it would be easier to do near a surface-level body of water." Her cheeks turned pink and she began to sway. Kakashi caught her as she lost her balance. She attempted to chuckle. "After living in Snow Village it's hard to go anywhere else… So hot…" She didn't seem to be doing so well in the warmer climate. Kakashi brought over more ice and she held it to her forehead as she sat on the grass.
Looking up at him she said, "This is rather humiliating. I was doing fine until you threw that fireball at me." She sighed and lay down on the grass facing the blue sky. "I was already having issues with suppressing my desire to keep my chakra aflame. It's a necessity when you live where it's always cool if not freezing."
Kakashi then told her that his team would be arriving soon. She smiled. "So you were sent to soften me up? No chance." Once the hot flash subsided she returned to her tree limb and Kakashi leaned against the trunk with his favorite book.
When Sasuke entered the field he was expecting to be the first. His first surprise was that Kakashi was waiting for him. Even more so was that Kurai was sitting right above him in a tree reading over his shoulder. Both looked up as he approached and said, "Hello, Sasuke-kun!" Then they looked at each other and away. Sasuke found the simultaneous greeting mildly amusing, even if the situation was not.
"I suppose this is some kind of high rank mission?" he said in a disinterested voice. Kurai smiled.
"You could say that. Definitely A rank, and my party has paid in advance." Then she looked at the tree line across the field and said, "Come on out, Naruto, you aren't fooling anybody." Naruto fell rather indecorously from a branch above her and almost out of the tree, except Kurai caught the back of his shirt. Depositing him on her branch facing her she said, "So nice to see you working on your skills, but you have a ways to go before I can introduce you as chuunin." Kakashi looked up from his reading in his version of a curious look, Sasuke frowned, and Naruto grinned.
"You're gonna turn me into a chuunin! Yes!!" Naruto clapped his hands together and started scheming under his breath. Kurai sighed.
"I'm not going to turn you into anything, only hard work will make you better. I have to admit back home you'd already be jounin, but these people clearly don't know how to train our kind." Kakashi now felt mildly irritated.
"If he'd be jounin already with your grand training, why are you still a chuunin?" Sasuke asked. He was genuinely interested in a type of training that could turn Naruto into a jounin.
Kurai scowled. "Senior Chuunin, thank-you! And the reason is rather simple, but I shouldn't tell you." She jumped to the ground and waved at Naruto. "Come down now, we need to get away from prying ears." Naruto liked the idea of secrets, Sasuke resented it. He watched the two walk into the woods and scowled.
"Don't make a big deal out of it," Kakashi warned as he read. "I can be sure there will come a time when she'll be forced to give up the goods and tell us what's going on. Until then, humor them and let them have their brother-sister moments." Sakura's approach distracted them for a time, then Kakashi told her that Naruto and Kurai would be back momentarily.
As for the definition of momentarily…
Naruto lay on the forest floor panting. His whole body felt like it was a live wire. Just as Kurai had warned, all his nerve endings had woken up and begun clamoring for attention, turning him into a giant wound. Kurai sat outside of the ice dome she'd made and was trying to keep her cool(literally). Naruto had gotten the Nine-Tails Fox demon, Kyubi, sealed into his body. It was a powerful creature with amazing chakra. The Hokage who sealed it had done a great job, but back home the seal would have been blended with another symbol to allow the demon's chakra to gradually mix with its host's to avoid outbursts.
It had taken Kurai years to learn the discipline needed to control her own inner demon, now she had to teach her little brother who was reaching the age when it would be difficult for him to control the demon as his own chakra changed with puberty. She drank heavily from her water flask, still feeling rather warm even though it was pleasantly cool for spring. Wrestling Naruto into the circle had taken work.
The added seal on his stomach had alarmed her, someone had tried to reseal the demon after the Hokage. After dispelling the additional seals she'd been forced to subdue the demon's chakra as it tried to break the weakened bonds. Now Naruto was battling to keep the demon from tearing him apart. The afternoon began to fade, and as sunset approached Kurai broke her dome and gently wiped Naruto's sweating body down. He'd fought hard, and won. She put his shirt back on, zipped up the jacket, and picked him up. With a demonic glare she wiped away the traces of the ritual and returned to the field.
The other three looked up as she approached, Sakura and Sasuke's hands hovered above their pouches with their weapons. "What did you do to him?" Sasuke demanded. Kurai scoffed and gently set Naruto down near Kakashi. She went to Naruto's pack and removed his blanket, then wrapped him up in it and set him at the base of the tree. She then brought a small pack out of the bushes and sat across from Kakashi.
"He'll wake up tomorrow just as energetic as usual, I'm sure. Be careful about making him angry, though, he's going to have an even sharper temper for the next week." She took a leather pouch out of her bag and opened it, removing a paper packet. Then out came a medium-sized pot and she emptied her water container into it and tore open the package. She held the pot in one hand as she stirred with the other. Kakashi watched with interest as the soup began to steam and thicken. It smelled okay, but looked like mud.
Setting the pot on the ground she made herself comfortable and said, "Eat up, even if you're not hungry. Rest well, because tomorrow we start north." Then she closed her eyes and looked asleep.
Kakashi played the brave soul and scooped up some of the slop. He took a taste and 'hmm'ed. "This is interesting. High in protein, a mild depressant, and such a delicate flavor… Good if you've been on stimulants for a week."
Sasuke and Sakura only ate a little before going to sleep. Kakashi stayed up, though. As the moon began to rise Kurai stirred and opened her eyes. "You're supposed to rest, Kakashi," she said.
He raised an eyebrow. "I was waiting for you to go to sleep. Interesting time to meditate, though."
She picked up the pot and quickly drank the remaining soup before rinsing it out carefully and putting it away. "Our fight told me I needed it. I find it disturbing that so simple a jitsu could have broken my control." Then she looked at the sleeping forms and sighed. "I hope this is worth it. Even worse is if…" She didn't finish the sentence and instead rolled herself up in her own blanket and went to sleep. Kakashi stayed up a bit longer, then nodded off, certain no one was around.