The forest of death. That's what the second stage of the chuunin exam was called. The rules were to get to a certain place with two scrolls, one of which was handed to you, the other you had to find. You had five days to do so. Killing was allowed. The woman named Anko had even gone a little crazy on Naruto. Junichi decided he like Anko.
Junichi, Saotome, and Ayane set off as fast as possible, determined to find another team and steal their scroll quickly and head on to the tower where they could go ahead and rest. They were almost positive they could take care of any opposition they faced.
Three days later, irritability was high. Junichi was pissed off they hadn't found anybody else yet, Saotome was grumpy that his almost all junk food diet was interrupted, and Ayane was trying her best to keep everybody's spirits up but was secretly annoyed at everybody else's lack of happiness. Its as if she thought the stuff grew out of walls or something.
"We should have found somebody by now. Something has to be going on out there." Junichi said anxiously as he paced about.
"Dude, quit pacin', you're makin' me nervous and I don't want to be nervous!" Saotome yelled at him.
"Well you know what, if you did something besides eat, sleep, and complain every once in a while you might be able to relieve some excess tension." Junichi said shortly at him.
"You wanna say that to my face you steroid pumped training addict!" Saotome yelled at him.
"IF EITHER OF YOU DON'T CALM DOWN, THEN SO HELP ME, I'LL BEAT YOU BOTH TO DEATH! NOW SHUTUP AND BE HAPPY!" Ayane yelled at them both, waving a metal ladle dangerously.
"What was that?" Junichi suddenly said as he turned his head to the side "Something's here…something bad is here…we need to go." And bounded off into the woods with the others trailing behind him by quite a distance.
Junichi was in shock at what he saw. In a small clearing, team seven was under attack by the very person that he had used to scare Sakura just a few days before. It was Orochimaru, the snake sannin, and from the looks of it, he had already taken out Sasuke. Without thinking, Junichi jumped in and stood protectively with his sword out in front of Naruto and Sakura.
"Junichi san! You're here!" Naruto yelled as the white haired boy appeared in front of him "This guy showed up and bit Sasuke on the neck and he passed out!"
"Orochimaru…I've only heard tales of you." Junichi said to the snakelike man in front of him "If you think you're going to get away with this, you're sorely mistaken."
"Oh, I'd like to see you try and stop me." He replied with an evil grin "I do hope you provide more of a challenge then these three."
Junichi charged him with his sword out. Orochimaru ducked under the attack easily and his tongue shot out and wrapped itself around Junichi's neck, only to throw him into a tree. Junichi didn't get up for a long time. Then, out of the darkness, came two fuuma shuriken, spinning right at the snake man. Orochimaru dodged boredly, but failed to notice the attack coming down on him until the last second, to which he still sidestepped, to find himself right in the path of an oncoming fuuma shuriken, which he again dodged easily. Junichi then took the opportunity to swing at him again while he was dodging, giving the blow everything he had. Orochimaru kicked the blade into the air and his snake tone shot straight through Junichi's chest.
Junichi let the sword drop and stared down at his impaled chest. From there he coughed up a little blood before the sound of a guitar was heard, causing Junichi to smirk slightly. At that point, seals rained down from the forest canopy, most exploding in the air around Orochimaru and Junichi. Junichi used the distraction and cut the tongue that impaled him with a kunai, causing it to slither back into Orochimaru's mouth. Orochimaru looked into the forest top and jumped all the way up with his own strength, to find Ayane unawares and throw her straight to the ground. As soon as he did so though, Saotome ran at him with a fist that was glowing blue. Orochimaru punched him in the chest and he flew into a tree. Naruto rushed forward with about twelve bunshins but Orochimaru only destroyed them all with his Kusinagi blade and ended with one slice across Naruto's back, sending him out of commission.
The only ones that stood were Junichi and Sakura. Junichi had a hole in his chest, and Sakura wasn't leaving Sasuke. Junichi looked at the sun peering through the trees and shook his head, knowing his vampire demon wouldn't be effective here. Making up his mind quickly, he ran at Orochimaru at full speed with his palm out, preparing to put any and all of his strength into one chakra blast. Orochimaru watched him up until the last second when Junichi jumped, hoping to catch Orochimaru unaware, but the snake sannin jumped as well, and with one slash of the evil blade, Junichi had a deep gash across his stomach, and he fell to the ground.
"What a pitiful bunch of genin." Orochimaru mocked with an evil grin as he slowly faded away into the shadows, leaving the two teams sprawled out all over the clearing.
Saotome was the first one to wake, except for Sakura, who was still holding Sasuke in her arms and sobbing silently. He limped over to her, knowing that he had three broken ribs as soon as he took the first step.
"Saotome san!" Sakura exclaimed in surprise "You are awake! You're the first one up. We've been here for about an hour after he left. Junichi got hurt really bad."
Saotome didn't say a word, he just walked over to his comrades. Since Sakura told him Junichi got the brunt of it, he walked over to him first. She had been right, it was bad. A shinobi couldn't usually be able to take that kind of damage and keep breathing, at least not that Saotome knew. All he could do was bandage the wounds as best he could. He didn't know anything about medical jutsu or healing wounds in general, but he knew how to bandage, and that's what he did.
Next he went on to Naruto, who also had a sword wound. Saotome did the best he could and moved on to Ayane, who only had head trauma again. After he felt he did all he knew how for the others, he set them all down and started to make a camp without even taking time to bandage his ribs or even say a word to Sakura, who still cradled Sasuke's head in her lap. It took him a little while, but he got the wood and made a rough form of shelter, which he put his sleeping friends under and finally rested in the heat of the small blaze.
"I couldn't do anything to help them." Sakura half mumbled to herself as she stared at the fire "There was nothing I could do to help. Even Ayane chan was able to do something…but I could do nothing."
"Well, there's no use worrying about it now. It's all over with." Saotome said with a wince as he turned slightly on one of his bad ribs "Orochimaru got what he wanted. What did he do to Sasuke san anyways."
"He bit his neck and a strange mark appeared on him, but it caused him pain and he passed out." Sakura said quietly "Are you hurt too?"
"Just a couple of ribs. No big deal. Don't want to waste the bandages anyway." Saotome said idly. He laid down facing the stars. Suddenly he heard a rustling in the trees. He got up as quick as he could and held out a kunai readily.
Temari stumbled through the foliage and into the clearing with wide eyes. "Oh my god what happened to you guys!" She exclaimed as she got closer
"We found these guys being attacked by a snake guy named Orochimaru, and we tried to help, but he massacred us." Saotome said as he lowered his kunai, glad to see a friendly face, especially Temari's "What the hell are you doing here?"
"My team already finished two days ago, but we waited for you to make sure you got out okay. When you didn't show, I went out on my own to look for you guys and help you out." She said as she walked up and hugged Saotome securely to make sure he was real and not some nightmare about to go wrong. She recoiled when he winced at her embrace "Oh my god, you're hurt!"
"Just three ribs my dear. Nothing serious." Saotome said with a genuine smile as he ran a hand gently over the side of her face. He was so glad to see her at that moment. Had it been anyone else he might have just attacked them anyway, but for her, he would move mountains.
"There, you need to rest." She said, laying him down and getting out her set of bandages as she removed his shirt with her free hand. "How did one guy take all of you down? Where's Junichi san?"
"He's one of the legendary three sannin of Kohona I suppose." Saotome said as she wrapped his ribs gently "Junichi took the worst of it though. I wrapped em' up as best I could, but I'm no medical specialist, even with these things, and Sakura chan's still in shock from seeing people get impaled in front of her."
"Don't worry. I'll take care of everything." Temari said as she laid Saotome against a tree and went to go get help. She didn't take ten steps before the ground in front of her suddenly exploded, causing her to jump back and pull her fan out.
Out of the dust appeared three people with the sound emblem on their forehead protectors. One was wrapped up like a mummy, the other was a female and the other had holes in his hands.
"Just where do you think you're going girlie?" The guy with the holes said tauntingly "Orochimaru sama came through here and now it's our job to clean up the remaining vermin."
"Why don't you freaks just try it." Temari said confidently as she pulled out her fan "I'll take all three of you down without breaking a sweat."
"Why don't you start out with me first girlie" The male said stepping forward with a confident swagger.
Temari leapt into action, her fan open and blowing gusts of wind at her opponent. The boy stood there and held out his hand, suddenly Temari flew through the air and hit a tree.
"My sound waves disrupted the air currents and the sound is what hit you." The boy said with a smirk. "Your wind attacks are nothing to me."
The boy held out his hand again, grinning as Temari shut her eyes, waiting for her death to come. Then for no reason the attack didn't come, she was about to open her eyes when she heard a loud crash. When she opened her eyes, a panting Saotome was standing in front of her with the fire on his right fist dying away.
"Saotome kun! You shouldn't be up!" Temari exclaimed, running over to him hurriedly "You should be resting! I can take care of these guys."
"Temari, against people who can disrupt air, you don't stand a chance." Saotome said as gently as possible. "You go and stay with the others. I'll take care of everything here."
Temari tried to argue but Saotome suddenly pressed his lips to hers, startling her a bit. As he broke the kiss, he looked into her tearing eyes. He smiled at her beautiful face and gently put a stray lock of her hair behind her ear, letting her hold her face in his hand as he did so. Then she took a step back and they nodded to each other, each going about their new task.
"I don't know who you are, but you've made me mad now." The boy said as he climbed out of the crater he had been thrown in to. "You two, get over here. We're going to tear this guy apart."
"I don't think you'll be tearing anything apart." Saotome said with a grin, his voice suddenly deeper "In fact, I think I'll be the one doing the tearing."
Saotome saw the attack coming. In an instant he dodged to the side enough to avoid the sound waves and dove in to the group, his fist glowing blue with chakra.
"BURNING FIST" He shouted as he drove his fist into the mummy guy's chest, sending him flying. The attack had been quick enough to throw them off guard a first time, but now they had him. Before he could strike the next one, he felt the sound blast hit him in the back and he watched as he flew into a rock.
"You're nothing more than an ordinary genin!" The tall male said mockingly as he prepared to shoot again, but stopped when he looked at his prey.
Saotome had gotten up and was grinning evilly. He was now standing on the balls of his feet, his heels in the air. He held his fingers out like he was flexing claws. His hair was suddenly longer and his teeth were now sharp. He stood hunched over in a very animal like way before charging them, his speed twice what it was before.
This time they were ready for him, and they all got out of his way. The mummy guy was itching to get revenge though, and he was first to make the assault, and he leapt in to punch Saotome in the face. His eyes widened in shock when he found that Saotome had latched on to his wrist, his jaws growing into a dog-like mouth, complete with teeth. Black fur had started to grow all over his body and his ears were pointed. His toes and fingers had grown long claws on the ends of them. With a quick twist, he took the boy's hand off. The mummy yelled in pain for a second, but didn't have time to do anything else as the claws of Saotome suddenly began to dig into him over and over again, almost completely ripping the front of his body open.
Everybody who was able to witness the attack recoiled in disgust, especially Temari, who was in shock at seeing her Saotome turn into a killing monster like this. The remaining sound team members tried to hide, but to no avail, Saotome ripped them apart like rags, one by one. The second to fall had been the girl, she put up little fight as Saotome's teeth tore into her neck. The last had been the boy who attacked Temari. It took a long time for him to die. Saotome drew it out painfully. He made deep claw marks across his chest, then his back, then ripped his arm off, then his leg, then gashed his face, then finally bit his neck, letting the blood flow over his jaws.
Temari was shaking from seeing this. It was the most horrible thing she had ever seen. Not only because it was the boy she cared for, but because he had killed them like a demon. Then his howl over the corpses sent shivers up her spine. As the beast walked over to her she tried to crawl away, but her legs simply didn't work. The lumbering animal in front of her still had blood in its fur. What once was Saotome's shirt had been torn in the metamorphosis.
"S-stop! D-don't c-come near me!" She screamed at the demon as it slowly neared her.
As soon as it heard her voice, it lowered its ears and whined slightly, the way a scolded dog might. Slowly it reached out to touch her. She stared as the reaching hand in front of her slowly changed back into the hand of a human. Saotome was on his knees in front of her, his hand reaching to stroke her face gently.
"That's the test he wanted all along." Saotome said as he suddenly withdrew his hands and stared at them "To protect those I care for with fierce and undying loyalty…the trait of the demon wolf…" Saotome suddenly cried into his hands. He wasn't ashamed either. Slowly he felt Temari's arms wrap around him, her warmth transferring to him and for once, he felt safe. Nothing could ever happen to him as long as he had her.
"It's allright…" She said to him gently and quietly "It's all over now…you saved us all…"
"I saw it…I killed them…I couldn't help it…" He sobbed into her shoulder "Never be afraid of me Temari…Never fear me…I could never hurt you…never fear me or the demon."
"I won't Saotome" Temari said soothingly "I will never be afraid as long as you are protecting me."
As the moon rose in the night, the held each other, seeking safety in each other's embrace. On that night, they neither slept nor ate. They gained strength from each other's touch, and in turn protected each other with the strength they gained. For Saotome, he had a place, even though he was now a demon like Junichi. For Temari, she would always be protected from any threat. And thus, they shared each other's warmth deep in the forest of death with the full moon shining brightly overhead.
The next morning, they decided it was time to move on. Saotome, shirtless and shoeless, took Naruto, Ayane, and Junichi's bodies and had to strap them to his back. Temari protested, saying he was still injured, but he merely smiled and showed her that his ribs had healed perfectly. Sakura still held Sasuke's body, and wouldn't part with it. They headed off with Temari in the lead, having all the scrolls they needed to pass.
It took an entire day to get to the tower, and on the last day of the exam, they finally made it, just in the nick of time. Gaara quickly got Naruto and Junichi's body off of a struggling Saotome and together, they all went inside and laid them down, preparing to open the scrolls. Upon doing so, several strange people appeared to tell them they had passed and talked about some sort of old chuunin saying.
Junichi was placed in the dark, letting his vampiric healing powers take full effect, and in a matter of minutes he was up again. Ayane literally jumped up when they dumped a bucket of cold water on her. Naruto was taken to a small nearby hospital set up specifically for this exam. He would be ok in a couple of days. In the mean time, everybody returned to their homes to heal for the month before the final exam.
Junichi sat in the woods behind his house, thinking long and hard about what he was going to do. Through Eva, he had learned that with certain rituals, he could summon demonic powers and become even stronger. The only catch was, that you have to give something equal to that which you gain.
For now though, he was carving a log away. The thought of even more power was tempting though…he even began thinking about making his own dojutsu. So much to do, and only a month in which to do it.
"Hey man, whatcha up to?" Saotome said from behind him. In the few days since the forest of death, nobody but Temari knew what had happened, and he was keeping it a secret. Sakura had had a small nervous breakdown and didn't remember a thing. Crazy. Junichi could tell that Saotome was different though, he just couldn't put his finger on it.
"I'm carving a mask for myself." Junichi said as he kept on working, not even bothering to look back at Saotome.
"Sounds fun man." Saotome said sarcastically "What are you gonna make it do? Shoot fire? Electrocute people?"
"I'm going to cover my face." Junichi said calmly. He smirked when he literally heard Saotome face fault.
"You mean to tell me that Junichi isn't going to supercharge a mask and do something normal for a change." Saotome said doubtfully.
"That's what I'm saying my friend." Junichi still wasn't even looking back at him. He grinned. Of course this wasn't going to be a regular mask, he just hadn't decided what kind of techniques he was going to implement yet.
"Anything else you working on that might be a tad more interesting?" Saotome asked hopefully. He had come to see what Junichi was cooking up and maybe even get ideas for himself.
"Lets see…" Junichi said idly as he pulled out a small notepad labeled 'things to do' "Demonic rituals…dojutsu…groceries… mask, in the process of completing…sharpen sword…talk to demons…do laundry…"
"I get the picture man." Saotome said boredly "Well, if you get to the good stuff, make sure and tell me so I can watch you do something cool."
"I will." Junichi said, even though he knew Saotome had walked off before he could reply. It was like a piece of mind thing.
Saotome whistled as he walked down Kohona's busy streets. He hadn't planned on training today. He had intended to spend the day with Temari, but she was training, and said he couldn't come. His only source of entertainment for today would have to be the antics of Rock Lee. He shivered.
Lee was working hard as ever when Saotome walked up. Saotome quickly put a henge on himself and changed into Sakura as he walked up. He knew Lee had the hots for Sakura and decided to mess with his head a bit. Junichi was such a bad person.
"What are you doing today Lee san?" He said, imitating Sakura perfectly as he walked up.
"Sakura chan!" Lee yelled as he immediately stopped his training but then blew it when he struck a pose "I WAS TRAINING SO THAT ONE DAY I MIGHT BE AS STRONG AS GAI SENSEI!"
"That's great Lee san." Saotome said sweetly "When are you going to teach me how to use the gates?"
"W-what was that Sakura chan?" Lee said incredulously only two people knew about his knowledge of the eight gates.
"I said, when are you going to teach me how to use the gates you fuzzy-browed freak!" Saotome yelled, using his voice but Sakura's body.
"OH MY GOD I MUST BE HAVING A NIGHTMARE!" Lee yelled as he stared at Saotome "SAOTOME SAN IN SAKURA CHAN'S BODY! AAAAHHHH!"
"Lee you idiot!" Saotome chuckled as he transformed back "Just because you don't know any ninjutsu doesn't mean you should be ignorant of it."
"FORGIVE ME SAOTOME SAN!" Lee cried as he fell to his knees with tears running down his face "FROM NOW ON I'LL WORK HARDER THAN EVER TO BECOME AS WISE AS YOU!"
"Lee, if you try to hug me I will knock your block off!" Saotome said threateningly as Lee took his outstretched arms and crossed them over his chest instead.
"Now seriously, when do I get to use the gates man?" Saotome said, getting back to the point.
"One cannot merely learn the power of gates whenever one wants!" Lee said to him "One must be ready for the responsibility required for such techniques!"
"Riiiight…" Saotome muttered. Stupid Lee. Saotome wondered if he could handle the responsibility of a demon. Of course he wondered if he could too. He could only really use the power when he needed to protect someone. Namely Temari.
"But, I can help you train today!" Lee yelled as he struck another nice guy pose "Today we shall add more weight and do speed training!"
"Ugh…" Saotome groaned. More weight. Lee already had upwards of eighty pounds on his wrists and ninety-five pounds on his legs. "Fine, give me some more weight and we'll train."
Lee grinned and ran off to get more weight while yelling something about the fire of youth. Saotome sat down on a stump and undid his weights, setting them off to the side. He had no clue how much weight Lee used, but he knew it was quite a bit. One time he had accidentally put on Lee's weights and practically fell over.
Saotome wondered idly how fast he had gotten since he had started using the weights. He pulled out a kunai and looked at it for a second. He was silently thinking about throwing a kunai and seeing if he could catch up to it. He quickly threw the knife and ran after it. He saw it in front of him and reached out with all his might, right before he and the kunai both ran into a tree.
"SAOTOME SAN! I HAVE THE EXTRA WEIGHT!" Lee yelled as he ran up to the area. He laughed when he saw Saotome step away from the tree.
"Oh yeah!" Saotome yelled at him "Why don't you try it if you think you're so high and mighty!"
Lee grinned for a second. He pulled out a kunai and threw it right at Saotome. Before he even had time to think, Lee grabbed the kunai out of the air inches from his face.
"You've never done that before, have you Lee?" Saotome asked calmly as he stared at the point of the kunai.
"NO I HAVEN'T SAOTOME SAN! BUT I WOULD NEVER PUT YOUR LIFE IN DANGER I WASN'T SURE I COULD GET YOU OUT OF!" Lee yelled proudly.
Saotome immediately began to activate his burning fist, to which Lee paled. It didn't matter who you were, burning fist hurt a lot. Lee had been the voluntary guinea pig when Saotome had been creating the technique, and now had a profound fear of it.
Saotome thought about it, and put on the extra weight. Then he resumed to chasing Lee down and using the burning fist on him. That day, Saotome found the perfect way to enhance his speed. Sure, it was bad for Lee, but it increased his speed too, and he didn't complain as much as he would have had it only been a merciless Lee beating.