Chapter Eight

Sakura scrambled to her knees and stared over the cliff edge in shock. Sasuke and Naruto had already disappeared from sight and all she could see was blackness below her. It was impossible. Sasuke had just…. He had just moved, without even thinking about it. She hadn't even had time to realise what was happening, had barely seen the needle protruding from Naruto's neck before it was to late.

She couldn't see them; could barely see anything beyond the scope of her circle of red light. She took a breath; steadied herself. They had fallen, but they weren't dead. Team seven had been through to much, seen to much, to succumb to something like this. They weren't dead, but they might be hurt and they were going to need her, need her healing skills. She had to find a way down.

The sound of a boot scraping against stone and then a light laugh behind her pulled Sakura's attention away from the cliff's edge. Carefully she spun on her knees, getting one foot under her, and, with a kunai instantly clutched in one steady hand, looked around the red-lit cave. She didn't have to look hard. Three men, all dressed head-to-toe in dark grey, exited one of the caves she, Sasuke and Naruto had managed to rule out and arranged themselves in a semi-circle around her.

"That's a nice bit of light you have here," one of them said and Sakura turned her head slightly to see him better. His face was covered except for his eyes, though all she could see of them were dark holes as the fabric covering his face created shadows where his eyes should have been. Sakura let her eyes move to the bandanna that was tied around the man's forehead. They were from hidden Grass. "I think we'll be taking it, and whatever you used to make it," the man continued.

Sakura remained quiet. What could she do? She had to find Sasuke and Naruto, she couldn't waste time messing around with idiots. But she couldn't just jump off the cliff, and she couldn't start climbing down either, not while these three men were threatening her.

Climbing was her only option, she decided, but to do that she needed her light, and that meant she couldn't give it away as a peace offering.

"I don't think you heard me, little girl. Hand over the things you used to make your light, and we'll let you live. Then at least you'll be able to tell your village how your team-mates died."

Sakura's eyebrow twitched and she shifted slightly, getting her other foot under her. "They're not dead," she stated.

The man before her started slightly and then gestured. The man on Sakura's far right edged closer to the cliff edge and peered over it; his smirk reappeared in seconds.

"She's bluffing, there's no one there."

"Nice try, little girl."

Sakura tensed her muscles. "I said they weren't dead, not that they were hanging to the side of the cliff." she rejoined and then moved. Diving forward she looped the hand with her kunai in it thorough the strap of her pack and swung it into place, grabbed the bowl of red light with the other and then ran through the gap that had been left when the man on her right had moved closer to the cliff edge. As she passed she gave the man near the cliff a hard kick and then she was gone, disappearing down the tunnel at the end of the room that Team Seven had originally ruled out because it led downwards.

Behind her Sakura heard the sounds of swearing as the men struggled to keep their third team-member from falling off the cliff, but she ignored it to concentrate on running as quickly as she could. Four times she came to places where there were crossroads and each time she took the cave mouth that led either down, or parallel to the cliff edge. It was over an hour before she finally slowed down, then finally stopped.

Dropping into a crouching position, Sakura hugged the bowl close to her stomach to mute the light and then looked around her. She had stopped because the cave she had come too was missing half the floor and dropped off into darkness, just like the one where Sasuke and Naruto had fallen.

After regaining her breath, Sakura crawled over to the edge of the cliff and looked down seeing nothing but darkness. It looked like she could climb though, if she were careful.

Sitting back again, Sakura put the wooden bowl on the floor then struggled to get her pack off and then began to rummage around in it quickly. It took a moment, but she finally found what she was looking for and pulled it out, holding it up to the light. What she held was a half full jar of herbal cream. She paused and then pulled a small, square piece of fabric out of her pack and spread it on the ground and then unscrewed the lid on the jar and scooped out what was in it and plopped it into the centre of the fabric. Working quickly, she got as much of the cream out of the jar as she could and then, using the corner of her red dress, cleaned out the inside of the jar and put it down next to the wooden bowl; then she turned back to the square cloth, carefully wrapped it and put it back into her pack.

Once that was done she turned back to the wooden bowl and jar then poured the contents of the bowl into the jar until the hand that held up was glowing a fierce red colour. She put the jar down carefully and then the bowl and then pulled a kunai out of her pouch and pulled the jar's lid over to her and punctured three very precise holes into it. After that she put the kunai away and pulled out a knot of string and threaded it through the holes, tied the string firmly, then screwed the lid back onto the jar tightly and pulled it over her head.

She looked down at the glowing jar that hung around her neck for a moment and then shoved the wooden bowl into her pack, pulled the pack onto her back and then crawled back over to the cliff.

It was now or never. Carefully she turned herself around and began to make her way down the cliff-face.

How, and this was an important question, how did Naruto always get him into these kinds of situations?

Sasuke was currently wedged in between two ledges of rock, with a cliff face on his left and terrifyingly open air on his right. The only thing keeping him from falling to his death was the fact that he was using his feet and back to keep himself wedged where he was with copious amounts of Chakra.

And the fact that Naruto was sprawled, face first and completely unconscious, across his lap making him just that little bit more heavier wasn't helping. At least he hadn't been wearing his pack when he fell, both he and Sasuke would probably have been very much dead at this moment if he had have been.

Tensing his legs slightly to keep them in place, Sasuke moved his hands away from the wall and pulled Naruto more securely into his lap, grabbed the blond's wrist and checked his pulse. It took a moment for Sasuke to find it, but when he did he was relieved to find it was strong. Going by touch, Sasuke moved his hands to Naruto's neck and felt around for the needle, carefully pulling it out when he found it and bringing it up to examine. He felt further relief when a quick smell test, and then a careful taste test of the clear liquid that coated the needle revealed it to be a common sleeping potion; Naruto would wake up soon.

Meanwhile, Sasuke had to keep them from falling to their deaths and at the same time, get them down. Flicking the needle away from him, Sasuke put his arms around Naruto to make certain he wouldn't fall and then slowly began to edge his way downwards, concentrating hard on keeping his Chakra flow even and on not slipping.

He was dripping with sweat and sporting numerous stinging, bleeding cuts by the time a twitch from Naruto's direction revealed the blond was waking up. Sasuke stopped moving, fixing himself in position again, and turned his attention to Naruto. His eyelashes fluttered slightly then slowly opened. Sasuke glared at him and shook his shoulder.

"Ugh…" Naruto twitched slightly and opened his eyes properly. "Holy fuck!"

Sasuke kept a hold of Naruto as his entire body twitched violently and he stared downward, now completely awake. "Don't. Move," Sasuke said and tightened his grip on Naruto.

"S-Sasuke, we're hanging off a cliff!"

"Really, Naruto? I hadn't noticed."

"What happened?!" the blond demanded. "And why can't I move?!"

Sasuke loosened his grip slightly, "because you'll fall, baka!"

"No, really, Sasuke. I can't move," Naruto's voice had the sound of deep concentration in it and he was now staring fixedly at one of his hands, which were hanging down passed his head.

"Oh. A side effect of what knocked you out. It'll wear off," Sasuke said calmly and shifted his position slightly as he felt his back slip downwards slightly. "You fell off the cliff," Sasuke added in answer to Naruto's first question.

"I-I fell off the cliff?" Naruto repeated. "Then how come you're here?"

Sasuke's back slipped again, "could we discuss this later? Preferably when we're on solid ground and not suspended half-way up a cliff face?"

Naruto twitched again, slightly, "you jumped after me, didn't you?"

Sasuke sighed and resumed his cautious inching down the cliff, "yes."

"Idiot! You could have died!"

"You would have died," Sasuke returned calmly.

"That's not a good reason to go jumping off cliffs!"

Sasuke remained silent for a moment. "I can't think of a better one," he finally said quietly.

"Idiot!" Naruto said again, closing his eyes, "you're really…really an idiot."

Sasuke didn't bother replying, simply carried on his careful downwards climb.

Eventually Naruto opened his eyes again and twisted his head a bit in the direction of Sasuke face. "I can move a bit now," he stated.

"That's nice," Sasuke paused his downward climb again to catch his breath, "don't."

"Chi'. I'm not that stupid," Naruto said then suddenly added, "wait, if we're here, where's Sakura?"

Sasuke blinked, "probably still up top."

"Weren't we being attacked?"

"…She'll be fine," Sasuke said after a moment.

Naruto frowned.

"She'll think of something," Sasuke said, and began to move downwards again. The two bits of rock he was bracing himself against were slowly beginning to get closer to each other and he hoped they might find a ledge or something soon.

"Hey, Sasuke?"

"What?" Sasuke felt a sharp sting in his left hand as he slipped slightly on the rock and cut himself.

"Do you smell something…odd?"

"Odd? Like what?"

"Like…" Naruto paused then said it anyway, "like meat-buns. Pork, I think."

Sasuke paused in his climbing and sniffed carefully. "…no."

Naruto closed his eyes and sniffed again, "are you sure?"

"Positive," Sasuke confirmed.

"That can't be right," Naruto muttered. "I can damn well smell them. Just like yesterday; I could have sworn I could smell Ramen, but there was no one but us around."

"Ramen?" Sasuke questioned. "You're enhancing your sense of smell with the Kyubi's power, aren't you?"

"Yes, but…" Naruto glared downwards into the darkness below them. "Even if someone down here does or did have ramen, I shouldn't be able to smell it unless they're relatively close. The same now, I can smell pork-buns!"

Sasuke frowned in thought and tried to ignore how much of a dead weight Naruto was becoming, "fresh, or old?"

"Fresh! As if they were right in front of me."

"When we were attacked that first time," Sasuke said slowly, "you asked me if I was seeing odd flashes of light."

"Yes; and?"

"The more I used my Sharingan over the last week the more I've been seeing odd lights and flashes of colour out of the corner of my eyes."

Naruto turned his head to peer at Sasuke again, "a genjutsu?" he asked.

"'The correct path to take will become apparent…if you know how to look.'" Sasuke quoted and frowned.

"Are you saying," Naruto said incredulously, "that these caves are nothing but a giant illusion?"

"What does your nose tell you?" Sasuke said.

Naruto growled, "that someone is having pork-buns for lunch."

"The flashes of light I've been seeing is probably my Sharingan trying to see through the illusion," Sasuke stated.

Naruto suddenly cocked his head to the side, closing his eyes. "There's someone nearby," he said, "climbing."

Sasuke looked up, scanning around them his Sharingan, "how close?"

"Well…" Naruto's expression took on a look of concentration, "okay, not that close. But I can hear it," he pointed left, "that way."

Sasuke opened his eyes wide and put some extra Chakra into his Sharingan, glaring through the rock that surrounded him. "I can see…" he said, slowly and then blinked. "Sakura," he said in surprise.

"Perfect timing!" Naruto exclaimed and pointed to the left again, "climb that way!"

Sasuke glared at Naruto in exasperation, "how, exactly? We're wedged into this bit of rock until we fall or find a ledge, and you're not exactly light you know."

"Errr… Okay, down is fine for now."

"Baka," Sasuke said irritably and began to carry them downward again. "Keep an eye out for ledges," he added after a moment. "If they don't have anything living on them I won't see them."

Naruto nodded and Sasuke continued to climb.

They found a ledge by accident. They had continued their downward course for another forty minutes or so and hadn't spotted a single place they could stop to rest that would accommodate both, or even just one, of them and Sasuke's limbs were beginning to shake with the strain of supporting both his own and Naruto's weight.

Naruto had suggested they find a way for Naruto get off of him a couple of times, but Sasuke had simply shaken his head; he was fairly sure that any kind of extreme movement would dislodge them from their precarious perch and he hadn't thrown himself off of a cliff and then spent over an hour carefully inching down it, only to slip to his death trying to get more comfortable.

In the end though, they had slipped.

Rather, Naruto did. Deciding to take matters into his own hands, Naruto had taken a hold of the rock beside them and attempted to get into a position where he could climb. The sudden change in weight had knocked Sasuke slightly off-balance, but he'd managed to catch himself. Naruto hadn't counted on his limbs still not working properly after the sleeping draught though and he had slipped. Sasuke had immediately lunged away from the rock to catch him and they had crashed downwards instantly, earning Sasuke a cut down the length of his left arm and leg and Naruto a cut knee when their plunging decent had abruptly stopped as they hit the ledge.

Sasuke had managed to go a full three seconds before he'd sat up and, hands checking every part of Naruto he could reach for injuries, given the other boy a lecture he had agreed with wholeheartedly.

It took a few more minutes to convince Sasuke he was hardly hurt at all, and then more as Naruto ripped a sleeve off of his jacket and did his best to clean Sasuke up and bandage him; all his medical things had been in his backpack, which was still at the top of the cliff.

Naruto had just tied off the last strip of orange over one of the worst cuts when he heard the scrape of fabric against rock. He cocked his head to one side, listening intently, and then poked Sasuke to get his attention.

"Oi, smack me if I'm wrong, but there should be a patch of red light glowing somewhere behind me."

Sasuke's eyes immediately moved to focus behind Naruto and he blinked.

"Sakura?" he said, loudly.

There was a pause, "Sasuke-kun?!"

"Come left, Sakura!" Naruto exclaimed and turned around, "we're on a ledge."

"N-Naruto? You're okay?"

"We're both fine, Sakura," Sasuke answered her.

"I-I'll be over in a moment," Sakura called back.

Sasuke and Naruto sat back against the wall, as far from the edge as they could get, as they listened to the sound of Sakura making her way towards them and watched the gentle bobbing of the red light that hung around her neck. As she drew closer, Sasuke could see that she was covered in scrapes and cuts and that her dress was torn in a couple of places.

"Are you badly injured?" Sasuke asked once she'd finally managed to get to the ledge and collapsed, breathing heavily.

"N-No, Sasuke-kun. Just scrapes. How about you two? Are you hurt?"

"Scrapes and cuts, nothing serious."

Sakura breathed out a sigh of relief.

"How did you get away from the attack?" Naruto asked.

Sakura looked up at him quickly then looked down again. "I-I ran. They wanted the bowl of light, it's why they attacked. I pushed one of them close to the edge to distract them, then found a place where I could climb down."

Naruto grinned at her, "way to go!"

Sakura glanced back up at the boy, her face showing her surprise; Naruto hadn't been that civil to her in days.

Sasuke adjusted his position slightly, wincing as his cut arm brushed again Naruto's and sent a wave of pain through him. He ignored it, "now we just need to get out of here."

"How?" Sakura questioned, "I still can't see the bottom, do we climb up, or down?"

"Neither," Sasuke said.

"N-neither?"

"We talked about it while we were climbing," Naruto said, "we think these caves are just a genjutsu."

"A genjutsu?" Sakura repeated. "Why do you think that?"

"My Sharingan is seeing through it a little," Sasuke answered as Naruto looked away, "and Naruto has noticed some odd things as well."

"Odd things?"

"Smells, mainly," Naruto said, still looking away. "Sometimes flashes of light. Things I don't think should be down here, I guess."

"I think it's the answer to the clue we were given when we started," Sasuke continued, "these caves are a genjutsu and the way out is to realise that it is."

Sakura nodded slightly, and then slumped, "I should have known. I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault," Sasuke gave her, and then Naruto, hard looks, "not entirely. None of us have been at our best during this."

Sakura avoided Sasuke's gaze, "if you both figured it out, then why are you still here? You could have dispelled it, already."

Naruto finally looked up, a grin lighting up his expression. "This is a group task," he said gently.

"Now we're together," Sasuke said and sat up a little straighter, "we should try dispelling the genjutsu."

"Okay," Sakura agreed and, aiming another searching look at Naruto, changed her position so she was facing the two boys.

The three of them looked at each other and then closed their eyes, forming the correct seals as they did so. A second later they completed the dispel, their voices turning into one as they completed it.

"Kai!"

Sasuke felt a sudden rush of vertigo and then everything stopped. He opened his eyes to find himself staring at the back of a pair of black clad knees.

Sasuke blinked to try and focus properly and looked upwards as the figure in front of him moved, turning to face Sasuke and then walking passed him to step out of the circle Team Seven had made; it was then that Sasuke realised that they were no longer on the ledge hanging off the side of a cliff. He looked around quickly and saw that they were now in the first cavern they had seen before the Exam started, as was everyone else who had entered the Chuunin exam. Each team sat in a circle with a man, or woman, dressed in flowing black clothing sitting in the middle of them. There were also another three of the Black clad people with each group, one sitting behind each member of the group, lightly touching their temples.

"Ne, Sasuke? You with us?" Sasuke turned back to his own group and looked over at Naruto.

"Yes," he replied and then turned quickly as he felt a familiar presence behind him.

"Yo!" Kakashi said when he got close enough and raised his hand in greeting. "Congratulations, kids. You've passed the first part of Hidden Dark's Chuunin Exam."

It was later, much later, and Team seven had retired back to the guest-house they were staying in to interrogate Kakashi as much as the man would allow himself to be interrogated.

"So…all those black clad people were from Hidden Dark's Genkaku Clan?" Sakura asked slowly.

"Aaa," Kakashi confirmed.

"I don't understand how they pulled off such a large genjutsu on us though," Sakura said. "Or how they stopped Sasuke-kun from seeing through it."

"It wasn't a genjutsu," Naruto stated and then added as a sudden afterthought, "right? Kakashi…err…Sensei."

Kakashi flicked his eyes in Naruto's direction for a moment and then went back to looking lazy. "Right, and wrong. It was a genjutsu but it was also the Genkaku clan's Blood Limit Ability. By going into the subjects mind they can create an illusion that even the Sharingan has trouble seeing through; it took you a while to notice anything odd, didn't it, Sasuke?"

Sasuke made a noise of agreement and sat back further in his chair, he was only half listening to Kakashi's explanation and, while he did find the Genkaku clan's ability interesting, he was more interested in surreptitiously watching Naruto.

"But still…to do something on such a large scale," Sakura said wonderingly.

Kakashi sighed and leaned forward in his seat, accepting the fact that he'd have to make a full explanation before any of the kids would leave him alone. "Their ability isn't so much the creation of the illusionary world inside your minds, more the fact that through others with the same ability they can link those illusions together to create a larger illusion. You each had one member of the Genkaku clan creating an illusion in your mind and controlling it, then there was a fourth member who took the pieces of your individual illusions, wove them together and connected them to the other groups that were in the caves with you. Do you understand?"

"Wow," Sakura responded. Naruto emitted a similar sound.

"Well, good. Now that you understand, I'm going to bed. You three should as well," Kakashi added, getting to his feet. "You have just over two weeks before the rest of this exam finishes and it'll be time for the preliminary fights to knock the numbers down. You'll want to start training."

Training grounds were provided for them, though they certainly weren't areas that Sasuke would have picked to train in. The area team seven was given for their training was underground and consisted of a cavern so covered in stalagmites and stalactites that they almost managed to seem like a forest, if you squinted.

The training area was private, however, and team seven could be certain they could train without being spied on. Four days after getting out of the illusionary caves they had settled into a comfortable training regime with Sakura training hard with Kakashi in one section of their training area, while Sasuke and Naruto worked on decimating the scenery in another section as they resumed their training with the Kyubi's power.

Naruto's fighting had slowly improved from the mishmash state it had been in while they were in the caves and in some ways had surprised Sasuke by being even better than he had been beforehand. As they battled their way across their training area it was all Sasuke could do to keep up with Naruto and his newly developing fighting style, though he was doing his best not to admit it.

It was when he realised that Naruto had noticed he was struggling and began to tone things down that he suddenly called a stop to their training and, breath coming in short gasps, suggested they stop for the day.

"Sure," Naruto agreed quickly as he caught his breath. "I'm starved, we should go get some ramen on the way back."

Sasuke's eyebrow twitched at the mention of ramen but he gave in quickly and, letting Naruto go ahead of him, went and told Kakashi they had finished training for the day. Sakura was doing some sort of meditation while Kakashi had his nose buried in his book when Sasuke came over and he was sure Kakashi wasn't even listening when he told the older man what he and Naruto were doing. Sasuke stared at Kakashi for a moment after the man gave him a distracted 'mmhmm' as a response and then turned on his heel and left the training grounds quickly.

It took him only a few minutes to get to the ramen stand Naruto had suggested and it didn't take him long to find Naruto amongst the surprisingly large group that was gathered there; he was the one pressed hard up against the wall by an over muscled man who looked like he was ready to tear the short blond apart with just his teeth.

Sasuke reacted without even thinking. Instantly he was threading his way through the group, elbowing people out of the way where needed, till he reached where Naruto was. He didn't pause. As soon as he was close enough he lashed out with his foot, kicking the large man in the back of the knee, and then he slammed his fist into the man's face, sending him flying backwards to knock over the pair of leering, similarly over muscled men standing behind him.

Naruto dropped to the ground as soon as he was released and then sprung to his feet, his expression livid.

"Who the hell are you?" the man Sasuke had hit demanded, staggering to his feet and holding a hand to his aching cheek.

Sasuke glared, "Uchiha Sasuke."

The man's eyes narrowed. "another one of those Konoha poisoners," he spat out.

Sasuke kept his glare steady and after a moment the man looked away.

"Chi'. You're not worth it."

Sasuke didn't move a muscle as the man gathered his cronies around him and strode away down the street, thinning the crowd around the ramen stall considerably. He waited until the man was out of sight and then turned slightly to look at Naruto, "are you all right?"

Naruto still looked livid but it was only now that Sasuke realised the look wasn't directed at the man who had been assaulting him; it was aimed at Sasuke.

"What the hell were you doing?!" Naruto demanded, his hands forming fists at his sides. He didn't bother waiting for Sasuke to answer. "Gee, you always have to be mister big-shot, don't you? Did it even enter your mind that I might have had everything completely under control or that I didn't need your help?!"

Sasuke stared at him, his eyes wide, "I…."

Naruto cut him off, "all you've been doing for weeks now is hovering after me like I'm some kind of baby in need of constant attendance! I hate to break it to you, but I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself so would you just stop it!" he began to walk away but Sasuke lunged forward, catching his wrist.

"Naruto, I was just…."

"Leave me alone!" Naruto snapped and wrenched his arm away from Sasuke, "I'm not a kid; I don't need you to protect me!"

And with those words ringing in the air, Naruto turned and stomped off down the road leaving Sasuke to stare after him in bewildered shock.