Lalala, another chapter here. It's fun writing these!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Inu-Yasha.

"Blah" -talking

'Blah' -thinking

-Blah- -italic

Blah -Kyubi

(Begin Chapter!)

"What's this?" Sakura thought out loud. They had walked into a room full of shinobi. It was filled with them. 'They're all here for the exam…?' Sakura thought. 'They look so strong…'

"Sasuke-kun!" a girlish squeal was heard. Naruto and Sakura turned their heads to the sound. A blond girl was latched onto Sasuke.. The boy himself did not look too pleased. "I haven't seen you for a while so I've been waiting in excitement!"

"Get away from Sasuke-kun, Ino pig!" Sakura screeched.

Naruto flinched a little from her high volume. Ino replied to Sakura's insult with, "Why, if it isn't Sakura and her big, ugly forehead."

"What did you say!?"

"You guys taking this exam too? How troublesome," a male voice said behind the Ino girl. Another boy was beside him, munching on potato chips.

"Found you guys!" another voice yelled. It was a boy with a dog on his head. His two teammates were behind him. One was a silent boy with sunglasses, the other was a girl who looked rather shy.

"Who are these people?" Naruto asked Sakura.

She blinked at him and said, "What do you mean, 'Who are these people?' Don't you remember your classmates!? Or don't you see them?"

"Classmates?" Naruto thought about it but didn't come up with anything. Some of the people were staring at Naruto. 'I don't remember them…in fact, I can't remember any of my classmates besides Sasuke and Sakura.'

Damn. This isn't good. You can't remember them?

'No…'

Ok, That blond girl is Ino, the guy with the pony tail is Shikamaru, the guy beside him is Chouji, the girl with no pupils is Hinata, the guy with the sunglasses is Shino, and the dog boy is Kiba. Can you remember that? Oh wait, you can't see…well, just do with their voices!

'Do you know how hard that will be?'

Kiba, who didn't hear Naruto, said, "I guess all nine of this year's rookies are taking the exam. I wonder how far we'll get, huh, Sasuke-kun?"

Sasuke was looking at Naruto suspiciously but answered, "You seem confident, Kiba."

"We did a lot of training, we're not going to lose to you!" Kiba proclaimed.

"You make that sound like we didn't do any training, Kiba-san," Naruto replied to the boy's boasts.

Kiba quirked in eyebrow at Naruto's behavior and smirked. "Well, if it isn't the dobe. I thought you ran off."

Hinata was staring intently at the blond. The former chakra user said calmly, "I didn't 'run.' You can say 'fly.'"

Kiba laughed at this and sneered, "You'll fly when pigs do!"

"Pigs can fly, if they wanted to," Naruto answered with a smile. He laughed at how stupid he sounded but continued. "They just haven't found out how yet, Kiba-san."

Some of the genins laughed at him but Naruto kept up his friendly façade. Then, another genin from Leaf came up and said in an annoyed way, "You guys should be more quite. You're rookies just out of the academy, right? Screaming like school girls, jeez. This isn't a picnic."

"Who are you?" Ino asked.

"I'm Kabuto, but instead of that, look behind you."

They all turned around and spotted three guys angrily staring at them. Naruto gave them a friendly smile and waved. They glared even harder at that and Sakura hit him upside the head.

Kabuto watched this carefully, smiling at it. Then he said, "Those guys are from Rain and they have short tempers. Everyone is nervous about the exam. Quite down before you cause a scene. Well, I can't blame you for being rookies and all. You remind me of how I use to be.

"Kabuto-san, was it? Is this your second time?" Sakura asked.

"No, it' my seventh. This exam is held twice a year and this is my fourth."

"Wow…so, you know a lot about this exam."

"Yep." He smiled at them. It looked just like Naruto's friendly smile, which sent some of them at ease. "I'll share some info with you cute rookies. With these nin-info cards…"

That definitely caught all of their attention. Sakura asked, "Nin-info cards?"

"They're basically cards which have info burned into them with chakra. I have four years worth if information in here, over 200 cards. They look blank but to open the info you need my chakra." He set one card down and chakra began to swirl around it when he touched it with his index finger. A map appeared.

"Wow. A really easy to read map. What kind of info is it?"

"This is the number of those taking the exam and where they came from."

Sasuke asked, "Do you have info on individuals?"

Kabuto smirked. "Some guys you're worried about? Of course, the info I have on the participants aren't perfect but I have them. Even of you guys. Say something about these guys and I'll take a look."

"Gaara of the Sand and Rock Lee from the Leaf."

"Oh, you know their names, this'll be easy then." Kabuto looked through his stack of cards and pulled two of them out. He put the first one down and focused his energy. "Rock Lee, he's a year older than you guys. 20 D-rank missions completed and 12 C-rank missions completed. His taijutsu increased in the last year. Last year he gained attention as a talented genin but didn't participate in the Cuunin Exam. Like you guys, this is his first time. His teammates are Tenten and Hyuga Neji.

"Gaara of the sand, eight C-rank missions and one B-rank mission completed. Impressive, a B-rank mission as a genin. He's a new comer from another country so I don't know much about him. It seems he returned from all his missions without a scratch."

"Hey, what do you have on me?" Naruto asked. Sakura rolled her eyes but listened anyway. Maybe this guy knew where Naruto had gone…

"You, huh? Ok." He took out another card and focused chakra on it also. "Uzumaki Naruto: seven D-ranked missions and one…A-ranked? Oh, it says here that it was originally a C-rank. After those missions were completed you went missing. But, wouldn't that mean you're a missing-nin?"

Some of them stared at Naruto but he smiled and said, "Put this in your card, it was cleared up with the Hokage. Anything else on there?"

"It says you were sometimes seen hanging around -those- forests."

"-Those- forests?" Sakura asked.

Naruto took the card and looked at it. Well…tried to before he remembered that he had his hitai-ate over his eyes. "Um…Can you read the rest of this to me?" Naruto asked sheepishly while he handed back the card.

Kabuto took the card back with a smirk and said, "You were one time seen in Water Country a month and a half after you disappeared. And with a black cloaked figure that never showed his face. That's all, by the way." 'Is Naruto-kun blind?' Kabuto wondered.

Naruto then grabbed back the card and immediately ripped it to shreds. "Sorry," the blonde said, scratching the back of his head. "Though as vague as that all was, it still had too much stuff on it that I don't want anyone knowing."

"You know I could just make another one," Kabuto said in amusement.

"You -could-, but could you pretty please not?" Naruto asked, putting his hands together as a sign of begging.

Kabuto chuckled and said, "Cute. Maybe…"

"Good enough for me," Naruto said with a grin.

Kabuto chuckled again. He continued talking, "There are a lot of genins here from Leaf, Sand, Rain, Grass, Water Fall, and Sound. Well, Sound is a small village just created last year so there isn't a lot of information on it. These genin are elite from their countries, this test isn't going to be easy."

"Not gonna be easy, huh?" Naruto mused aloud. He turned his body to the rest of the genin and yelled out, "Hey! My name's Uzumaki Naruto and I'm not an easy opponent to take down so take your best shot!" Everyone in the room turned to glare at him.

"What the hell is his problem!?" Ino shouted.

'Too stupid to know he has problems,' Sakura thought flatly.

'Now -that- should make them target me!' the vessel thought. 'This way, this test should be harder for me.'

Don't you think you're being a little too harsh on yourself?

'Not really, no.'

Kankuro thought, 'That brat from before. What an idiot!'

'Hmph, well if it isn't "Naru-chan",' Temari thought with amusement.

Gaara ignored him.

"He's very spirited," Neji said to Lee. Lee nodded while Tenten just glanced.

The genins from Sound were talking to themselves and it seemed like they had decided to do something.

Shikamaru looked at Naruto, incredulous. "He just turned everyone in this room into his enemy with just one sentence!"

"Maybe that was what he was aiming for," Kabuto said, smirking. 'Interesting…'

Suddenly, Sakura tackled Naruto and yelled in his face, "What do you think you're doing!?" Then, she noticed everyone's glares and said, "Uh…Don't listen to him! He's rather stupid…"

Then, the sound genin attacked. One of them jumped in the air and threw kunai. Kabuto stepped back to dodge them. Another was suddenly in font of Kabuto. He swiped at his face but the white haired genin leaned backwards. He smirked but it was gone when his glasses broke.

'He dodged it!' Sasuke thought. 'Why did his glasses break?'

Naruto winced and rubbed his ears. 'This is bad. My ears hurt and they didn't even aim their attack on me…'

That -is- a problem…one that you're going to have to solve yourself, Kyubi said.

'You don't know how to help, do you?'

Not a clue.

Kabuto shivered violently and threw up. That drew a lot of people's attention. "Hey, you ok?" Naruto asked. There was no reply so he turned his attention to the sound genin. "Listen here, friends, that wasn't very nice."

"We're not trying to be nice, brat," one of them sneered.

"Why not?" the blonde asked, as if he couldn't understand why someone didn't -try- to be nice.

A large smoke covered one section of the room and someone in the smoke yelled out, "Quite down you worthless bastards!" There was immediate silence. "Thanks for waiting, I am Morino Ibiki, the examiner for the first part of the Chuunin Exam."

(Scene Change)

'A paper test, joy.'

This sucks. You can't even see the questions without taking off your blind fold, Kyubi told him.

'I know. This really sucks. This blind fold is the only thing keeping them from seeing my eyes.'

Why not do henge to make your eyes seem normal?

'That could work.'

Naruto put his hands under the table and made the hands seals but didn't really concentrate on the chakra. He has long ago found out how to perform his techniques in spirit energy but made these hand seals for appearance's sake. There wasn't even a smoke as the henge began. He reached up and pulled the hitai-ate off his head, setting it in front of him on top of the desk. Some people stared at him. He finally opened his eyes but had to immediately close them again.

'The lights are too bright!'

That's the sun. But what can you expect after not seeing anything for two weeks?

Naruto blinked rapidly to get used to the light. He finally stopped after five minutes. Tenten and Temari stared at him and there was a slight blush on their cheeks. 'He's kinda cute,' they both thought.

'Since when did Naruto look so...good?' Sakura thought. 'He looks nice with his hair like that.'

Hinata, who was sitting next to Naruto, started to blush heavily. Naruto didn't notice any of this as he read the questions on his test. The examiners, who were watching everyone carefully, started sniggering at how some of the girls were blushing and/or staring at a certain blond boy. Naruto's eyebrow twitched as he felt the stares. 'Ok…why are they staring at me?

Oh my poor, poor dense kit, Kyubi mock mourned.

'Why are they staring at me?'

If you can't figure it out, I'm not gonna say anything.

'You suck.'

Naruto turned his attention back to his paper. Nothing. These questions were hard and he didn't have a clue to answer these. Then he realized the stares stopped except for an examiner. He looked at the row of examiners and realized they were watching the genin like hawks to mice. 'Bastards,' Naruto thought. 'They watch us like we're going to cheat…fine! I'm going to cheat out of SPITE!'

He could distantly hear Kyubi groan in disbelief. He, of course, ignored it. He looked around for a good victim. While he looked, he saw the air was filled with energy. 'Heh, looks like I wasn't the only one who decided to cheat.' He heard a small whisper at his side. He turned to his right and saw Hinata.

"Naruto-kun…you can look at my test," Hinata had whispered to the blonde.

Naruto's eyes widened slightly in surprise and amazement. 'She has no ill will or deception in her eyes…but why does she want to help -me-?' Naruto thought. He stared at her a bit. She looked away and blushed, not sure what to say.

"I don't want you to disappear here," Hinata whispered without looking at him. She then added nervously, "Y-you know, s-since there a-are only nine o-of u-us…"

'That was a lie, but she's really just trying to help me…' He gave her a small, sweet kind of smile. She saw it from the corner of her eye and tried to hide her red face. He held her hand down, on the desk, leaned close and whispered back, "Thanks, but I don't want you to get in trouble."

She shivered a little from his touch. Naruto let go and leaned back on his seat, hands behind his head and pencil partly in his mouth. 'Now, how am I going to cheat? These guys sure are creative. Wait, what's that sound?' Naruto glanced over and caught one of the examiner's eyes. The examiner smirked. Nruto gave him a little wave, mainly out of habit. 'I guess he thought I was cheating when I whispered to Hinata…then again, I should know better then to talk during a test…'

Naruto looked up at the ceiling. 'How did that thing go again? Look up for inspiration, look down in concentration, but never side to side for information…information…look side to side for information…' Naruto looked to his left, then to his right. He noticed someone writing without pausing. 'Looks like someone has all the answers…he's my target. Now how to get it…' Naruto smirked. 'Too easy.' He waited until the guy stopped writing.

Naruto closed his eyes and put his feet up on the table in a loud -Thump!-. Everyone momentarily turned their attention to him but it seemed like he was only going to sleep. He muttered a lullaby under his breath. The boy he had targeted got drowsy and laid his head down. He almost fell asleep before that. Naruto stopped muttering but he still got a few stares. At least they couldn't hear what he had sung, but they may have linked it to the boy who was asleep.

Naruto then put the whole room in an illusion. Everything looked the same but there were some differences. Naruto was still in his seat with the test face down on his desk. Now, that may seem normal but the real Naruto had his test in his hand and he was at the dreaming boy's desk. He quickly switched the tests and went back to his seat. As he sat down, he dropped the illusion. He erased the name on top and put his own. 'Simple and clean,' Naruto thought, satisfied.

Kyubi sighed but didn't say anything. Naruto didn't bother asking, knowing that Kyubi wouldn't answer. Kyubi could block his mind from Naruto but it didn't work the other way around. The former chakra user wasn't too annoyed by this fact since the kitsune had -years- more experience then he.

The blonde reached for his hitai-ate after glancing at the clock. There was only five more minutes until the time was up. He tied his head band like his old style before he met Inu-Yasha. 'It's nice being able to see again. Besides, I kept tripping on things when nobody was looking.'

Naruto ran a hand over his blonde hair and sighed. He distantly heard someone asking to use the restroom. Nothing worth telling happened after that besides someone getting forcefully removed. The seconds slowly ticked away…three…two…one…finally Ibiki's voice rang out, "We will now begin the tenth question. But before we get to it, I'd like to go over the added ruled for it."

Just then, the boy who had asked to go to the bathroom (who Naruto saw was Kankuro) returned. He took his seat as Ibiki said, "Nice timing. Was your doll playing beneficial?" The boy looked shocked for a moment but didn't say anything.

"Now I'll explain," Ibiki said. "There are rules of desperation. First, for this tenth question, you must decide to take it or not." At this, murmurs came from the genins. "If you choose not to take it, your points will be reduced to zero and you fail along with your teammates, If you choose to take it and answer incorrectly, the person will lose the right to ever take the Chuunin Exam again." Shouts of shock and disagreements issued.

"What the hell is this!? There are guys who took the exam before!" Kiba yelled.

The jounin chuckled and said with dark amusement, "You guys were unlucky. This year it's my rules. But I am giving you a way out. Those that aren't confident enough can choose not to take it and try again next year. Let's begin. Those who don't take it, raise your hands. Once your number is confirmed, leave."

Sakura looked at Naruto worriedly. She thought, 'I won't raise my hand. I have confidence that I'll be able to answer it. Even if Naruto causes us to fail, it's not like I got it wrong so I can try again next time. But…but Naruto, you're different. You should forget about us and think about the next chance.'

A boy that sat to Naruto's left stood up and raised his hand, saying, "I-I won't take it! I'm sorry Gennai…Inoho…" An examiner called out their numbers and they left, spirits low. Several people after that also quit.

'Man, bunch of cowards,' Naruto thought, feeling a little pity towards them. He looked around the room and noticed that the ones remaining either looked like they were also about to quit or were having serious doubts. He happened to glance Sakura's way and noticed she was about to raise her hand, looking at him with sad eyes, as if to apologize. 'She's not…she can't-' Naruto quickly looked at Sasuke but the boy didn't notice. 'Damn. Better do something about this.'

He quickly raised his hand, shocking those who knew him, even briefly. He glared at the jounin and then slammed his hand on the table, as if mocking everyone of those who had quit. "You think those words scare me?" the blonde asked the jounin darkly. "Well, guess what? They don't. I'm not gonna back out of this and I -never- take back my words! If I did, my self-worth is pretty much nothing, and that would be worse for me than death." He smirked coldly, then let it fall from his face and he leaned back on his chair, a happy grin back on his almost always smiling lips.

'You got guts, dobe,' Sasuke thought.

'Yeah…you're that kind of idiot,' Sakura thought fondly.

"I'll ask you again," Ibiki said after a short pause from Naruto's speech. "Your life is riding on this decision, this is your last chance to quit."

Naruto twirled his pencil in his hand and said absently, "I follow my unbending words, that's my nindo." He looked side ways to Ibiki, as if to make a point.

'Interesting kid, blasted away everyone's worries,' Ibiki thought as he scanned the remaining genin. '78 left…more than I expected…stretching it any longer won't make a difference.' He saw the chuunin examiners nod to him. He proceeded. "Good decisions. Now everyone remaining…I congratulate you on passing the first test!"

There was a small crash and everyone, once again, turned their undivided attention to Naruto. The blonde shakily got up from falling off his seat and stared at the jounin in disbelief. He finally shouted, "I sputtered all that melodramatic crap for -more- shit!?" Some of the genin sniggered at the blonde but part of it was relief.

The jounin smirked and explained, "There never was a tenth question, or you could say those two choices were it."

"Hey! Then what were the first nine questions for!? Were they pointless then!?" Temari shouted.

"They were not pointless, they served their purposes. To test your individual information gathering abilities. That purpose."

Naruto let his head drop heavily on his desk. 'Ugh…'

It's ok, most people didn't figure it out either, kit.

'Gah, humans and demons are seriously different,' Naruto thought to Kyubi, thinking back when he was left in the forest full of demons.

"As the first set of rules explained, success depends on the whole team doing well. This puts pressure on a person not to mess things up for their teammates. But the types of questions this test had were not the kind a mere genin could answer. I'm sure most people here had came to the same conclusion…in order to score points, I have to cheat. Basically, the premise of this test was to cheat. To help you guys out, we had two chuunins mixed into the crowd as cheating targets."

At this, Naruto could hear Sasuke "Heh" and realized that the Uchiha had figured what the test was about. 'And I came up with that only with one sound,' the blonde mused. He continued to listen as people said how they found the person or how difficult it was for them. 'I think I stole one of the chuunins' papers…' Naruto glanced at his former target and he found that the guy had woken up and was staring at his paper is disbelief. 'Oops…I think I left my name on that thing too.'

You're such an idiot.

'Maybe you could of helped by reminding me,' Naruto shot back.

Can't always be here to cover your back.

'You're stuck in my body, of course you'll be here!'

Whatever.

Naruto rolled his eyes. He heard Ibiki say, "Of course, those who cheat poorly fail." After saying that, he untied his headband and showed his head. "Because, in times, information can be more important in life…and on battlefields and missions, people risk their lives to get their hands on it." Horrible scars, burns and drill holes were on his skull. It was disgusting to look at. Many stared at it in horror. Gaara merely stared. Naruto didn't even flinch, having a slightly glazed look in his eyes as if bored. "I want you to remember that important information can be a powerful tool for your comrades or village."

"I still do not understand the final question," said Temari.

"The 10th question, the 'take it' or 'not take it' decision…" explained Ibiki, "Obviously these were painful choices. Those you chose the latter fail along with their teammates. Those who chose to take it…could lose the chance to take the test again. A leap of faith. How about these choices say you become chuunin. Your mission is to steal a secret scroll, the amount of shinobi, their abilities, ect., are unknown to you. And of course their could be traps set all around you. Do you accept it or not? And because you don't want to die, because you don't want your comrades hurt, can you avoid the dangerous mission? The answer is no!

"No matter what the danger…there are missions you can't avoid. The ability to be courageous and to survive any hardship is the ability to become a chuunin captain. Those who can't put their destinies on the line, who cling to the uncertain future of 'there's always next year'…and then walk away from their chance…those pieces of trash who can only make those kind of choices don't have the right to become chuunin, that's how I feel!

"Those who chose to take it answered the tough tenth question correctly. You will be allowed to survive any troubles you face in the future. You have made it through the entrance. The first test is now over. I wish you guys luck," Ibiki finished.

Naruto looked at the window. There was something coming…Naruto tensed but realized it was human and relaxed as much as he could. Ever since the forest infested with demons, he couldn't ever relax. The thing he sensed before came bursting out the window, shattering it. Kunai were thrown and a banner came up. A woman stood in front of it. She yelled out, "You guys! This is no time to be celebrating! I am the examiner of the second test! Mitarashi Anko! Now let's go!" She pumped her fist into the air.

'This examiner…is Naruto-ish…' Sakura thought in shock.

Naruto grinned at her. 'This person looks interesting,' Naruto thought.

If you mean 'psychotic' by interesting, sure. Let's go with that.

'Well…she's "unique."'

Yeah, "unique."

The first examiner appeared behind the banner and hissed at her, "Bad timing." She flushed.

To cover it up, she said, "78!? You let 26 teams pass!? The test was too easy this time!"

"This time, there are a lot of outstanding ones," was the calm reply.

"Bah. That's fine. I'll at least cut them in half in the second test. Ahhh…I'm getting excited. I'll explain everything once we change places, follow me," Anko said darkly.

Everyone followed her out.

When everyone left, Ibiki began to collect the papers. '…Why does he have two tests? Heh…switched them on a chuunin without him noticing until it was too late? Interesting guy…'

(Scene Change)

"Welcome to the stage for the second test, practice arena 44. Also known as 'The Forest of Death.'" Anko bragged.

"This is creepy," Sakura muttered, looking at the forest.

"You'll find out soon why they call it that," Anko continued.

Naruto spoke loudly, "Heh. Doesn't look like anything special." 'Compared to the forest I was at for almost three months,' was silently added.

"You're pretty cocky," Anko said, smiling. She swiftly pulled out a kunai and threw it at him. Naruto stood still and let the kunai cut him. The kunai landed somewhere behind him. He saw Anko move behind him and hug him. "Kids like you get killed pretty quickly, hehehe…" She trailed off as she leaned close to the cut and licked the blood off. Naruto's eyes widened slightly and stared at her. "Spraying all that red blood I love so much…"

Naruto turned his head so he was facing her. He smirked and said, "I've never been kissed by such a lovely woman before."

"Heh. Cute," the second examiner mocked. She noticed something and pulled out another kunai. Another person with long, black hair stood behind her. He held the kunai out to her wit his abnormally long tongue.

'He smells like a snake,' Naruto instantly thought. 'And distantly reminds me of…Naraku.' He thought the last part violently.

"Your kunai," he said.

"Thank you," Anko cheerfully said. She frowned when the boy made no move to…well, -move-. "But you know, don't sneak up behind me…unless you want to die."

"No, I just get excited when I see blood," the boy said creepily. "Plus, you cut my precious hair. I couldn't help it…"

'N-Naruto-kun…' Hinata thought worriedly.

'What's with her?' Sakura thought. 'This isn't good. And that guy…'

"Looks like we have a lot of bloodthirsty ones in this test," the jounin said, smirking. "Hehehe, should be fun. Before we begin the test, there's something I have to pass out." She held out a stack of papers. "You must sign these agreement forms. There will be deaths in this one, and if you don't sign these…it will all be my responsibility."

(Scene Change)

'This place kind of reminds me of that forest,' Naruto thought as he walked with his teammates into the forest.

Ah, feels almost like home.

'Yep.'

Suddenly, a scream was heard throughout the forest. Sakura's eyes widened in fear and asked shakily, "That was…a human scream, right?"

Naruto smild at her, completely calm. "Sure didn't sound like a -demon-."

"Not funny, Naruto!"

Naruto's ears twitched as he heard someone. Sakura didn't notice but Sasuke did. The onix eyed boy asked the blonde, "What's wrong with you?"

Naruto turned to his teammate slowly, his face grave. He whispered in a frightened voice, "Someone's here…"

Sakura shivered from his expression and told him, "Naruto, stop it! You're creeping me out!"

His face broke into a grin, his eyes sparkling. "Ok!"

Sakura nearly fell from the shock of the dramatic change of expressions. "Naruto!" she yelled angrily. Sasuke twitched from anger. He wouldn't admit it, but he was worried there for a second.

Naruto chuckled nervously, hand scratching the back of his head sheepishly. "Sorry. I guess I kinda over did it. Well…there really is someone here." After he said it, he pulled out his kunai and threw it into the shadows.

"Naruto, stop trying to act so cool!" Sakura screeched at him.

A muffled scream reached all of their ears and out jumped a boy, holding onto his arm. His arm had a kunai in it, he was bleeding. "You…You'll pay for this!" The shinobi charged towards the blonde.

Naruto jumped up, onto a tree branch. He said to the shinobi, "Getting a little dangerous, aren't we?" The shinobi only sent kunai at Naruto. The Kyuubi carrier stood upside down on the tree branch to escape the barrage or flying projectiles. The lone shinobi was suddenly at Naruto's side and created smoke to cover himself and anything within a five feet radius. After the smoke cleared, there were two Naruto's instead of one.

'Oh no! Which one is Naruto!?' Sakura thought frantically.

Sasuke had his Sharingin activated and interfered by kicking the mysterious shinobi in the side, sending him flying towards a tree. The shinobi glared and did a flip, landing on his feet, the jutsu dispelled. He jumped and ran away.

"He got away!" Sasuke yelled.

"I doubt he had a scroll anyway," Naruto said to calm the Uchiha. "He came alone, most likely. No one was here to help him against us."

There was a pause before Sasuke spoke again, "If we get separated next time, even if it's just one of us, something like this could happen again."

"Then what do we do?" Sakura asked.

"We'll make a codeword. Listen…if they get the codeword wrong, assume they're the enemy, no matter what. Listen carefully, I'll only say this once. The 'NN' song: 'NN Machine.' When this is asked, answer this…'A large amount of loud enemies is the friend of the shinobi, hide and remain silent. A shinobi must understand the proper time. When the enemy is tired and ill prepared.'"

While Sasuke was saying that, Naruto was thinking. 'Damn! I already have problems remembering people, how in the seven hells am I supposed to remember that!? And to add to that, a -snake- is hiding underground…' Naruto said, after Sasuke finished speaking, "How am I supposed to remember that? It's too long!"

"Are you stupid? I already memorized it," Sakura said scornfully.

Sasuke simply said while getting up, "I'll hold the scroll."

After they each stood up, there was a large burst of wind they knocked them down. Naruto was blown away.

Three grass shinobi appeared, the idle one saying, "You guys just play around over there. I'll handle them myself."

Sasuke hid under some bushes. He heard a noise behind and swiftly turned around, noticing it was his pink haired teammate. "Stay away! The codeword!"

"Oh, right!" Sakura said, then she proceeded to say it perfectly.

Sasuke let himself relax. They turned when they saw their other teammate approaching them. Sasuke yelled at him, "Don't move, the codeword!"

Naruto smiled and said the exact same thing as Sakura. Sakura breathed a sigh of relief before Sasuke threw a kunai at the blonde.

"Sasuke-kun, why? Naruto said the codeword…"

"So this time, it's someone good enough to dodge my attack," Sasuke stated.

"Naruto" smirked. There was a little bit of smoke before it cleared away to show a grass shinobi with long, black air. "Impressive that you knew. How did you know that I was a fake?"

"I knew you were listening to our conversation from underground. That's why I made the codeword like that. There's no way that Naruto would be able to remember a codeword like that, so you had to be a fake."

"I see…neither tired nor ill prepared, our we?" the boy said with amusement. "This will be more fun than I thought."

(Scene Change)

"Ow," Naruto said blandly. His eyes were half lidded in boredom or numbness, he was laying flat out on the ground. "Where in the seven hells are my teammates?" A large shadow loomed over him and Naruto looked a little more to his right. "…Fuck."

A large snake snapped its head towards the blonde. The boy rolled to his left to avoid the snake and was on his feet in a split second. "I got nothing against snakes, but you're not very nice," Naruto spoke to it, as if it could understand. "No hard feelings, I hope. Iron Rever Soul Stealer!"

Naruto jumped on a tree branch and felt for his teammates' life energy. He headed for that direction, leaving pieces of snake behind him.

Upon arriving at the scene, Naruto saw a grass shinobi- was he slithering?- going towards Sasuke, who was standing there, fear evident on his face. His Sharingin was activated. Sakura was a little a ways from him but was also standing there in shock. 'This guy…isn't normal,' Naruto concluded. 'He sort of reminds me of that bastard Naraku…but he's human. He's no genin, that's for sure.'

Naruto quickly threw some shuriken between Sasuke and the Naraku-feel-alike. Naruto spoke up, "I'm sorry, Sasuke-san. I forgot the codeword."

"Great job, Naruto!" Sakura complimented him, going out of her stupor.

"Naruto, I know you think you're cool and here to rescue us, but forget it! Run away! This guy is on a different level!" Sasuke yelled at him, contradicting what his teammate said.

The snake like boy chuckled and said, "Looks like you successfully defeated that snake, Naruto-kun."

Naruto turned his attention to him and stared. 'Not normal at all.' Naruto replied, "So you were the one who sent it after me. All you did was send it to its death."

'This is bad! This doesn't make the situation any better!' Sasuke thought worriedly. 'All three of us could get killed. There is no other way…' Sasuke deactivated his Sharingin. This brought him everyone's attention. "I will give you our scroll. Please, take it and leave us."

'Sasuke must be really freaked out if he's giving up so easily,' Naruto thought.

"I see," the grass shinobi said. "Very smart…the only way to escape a predator is to give the predator another meal."

"Take it!" Sasuke yelled as he threw the scroll. Naruto quickly moved and caught the scroll. "You bastard, what do you think you're doing!? Do you understand the situation!?"

Naruto calmly straightened and looked at him straight in the eye. There was nothing but seriousness in them. Sasuke couldn't understand why, but he felt that this was a bad thing. "Are your eyes just for show? You should be able to tell from that guy's eyes…that just because you'll give him the scroll, doesn't mean he'll let us live. There's no way…that you're the Sasuke I know. He wouldn't have let his fear blind him so much."

Sasuke's eyes widened in realization.

"Hehehe…Naruto-kun, you are correct!" He smirked, showing off sharp teeth. "I can just kill you…and take the scroll." He bit his thumb and run the blood across his other arm, where there was a tattoo. "Summoning no Jutsu!"

A whirl of wind surrounded him and underneath him appeared a snake. The force of energy hit against Naruto and he was slammed against a tree. "Naruto!" Sasuke and Sakura both yelled in worry,

Blood came out of the blonde's mouth. 'Dammit! This guy is strong!' Naruto dropped the energy needed to continue the genjutsu that surrounded him. He would most likely need it later on. He got back on his feet and kicked the snake back. That was when the grass shinobi got a clear view into his face.

'This kid…no way…' he thought in shock. 'Those eyes, there's no mistaking it.' A smirk formed. 'This is getting interesting.'

'Naruto has snapped…but why is he so strong!?' Sakura thought. Sasuke was thinking along the same lines.

"Sasuke-kun! Now it's your turn! What will you do!?" yelled the snake like man, riding atop the snake's head as it charged at the young Uchiha.

Just before it hit, Naruto stopped it in its tracks, pushing it so it wouldn't move. The blonde looked up, a small trickle of blood falling from his mouth as he spoke, "Hey…you alright, scaredy-cat?"

Sasuke stood stoke still as he remembered those were the very words he had said all those months ago. He stared at Naruto's eyes, realizing those weren't the normal, blue, cheerful eyes of his dead last teammate. Those were that eyes of someone who had gone from hell and back, blue eyes that now had slits for pupils.

As soon as Naruto finished talking, a long, snake like tongue wrapped around the boy. When the grass shinobi and Naruto were face to face, the former said, "So the Kyubi brat is still alive…" The tip of the tongue lifted up his shirt. "Oh my, the seal is visible."

Naruto smirked at him and said in a strained voice as he struggled, "I've never had someone's tongue wrapped around me…though in other circumstances, I might have been flattered, but sorry, you're not my type."

"Heh." The snake like man quickly formed hand seals and slammed his finger tips to the blonde's seal, causing the boy to narrow his eyes in pain and a hiss came from his lips but no scream. "You're very amusing, Naruto-kun. Here's a gift from me to you." The boy brought his lips near Naruto's neck and bit. This time the former chakra user clenched his teeth tightly and his hands grabbed the others shoulders, blood coming from how tight the boy grasped, but he refused to scream.

"Your gift's…a…hickey?" Naruto whispered before his body relaxed as he fell unconscious.

"A joker 'til the end, I see." The grass shinobi let the boy go and the blonde started to fall.

'He's going to fall!' Sakura thought desperately. She pulled out a kunai and threw it. It caught a part of Naruto's shirt and pinned him to a tree. Sakura turned tear filled eyes to Sasuke. "Sasuke-kun," she sobbed out. "It's true that unlike you, Naruto's clumsy and can get in the way but…at least he's not a coward! Right!?"

Sasuke stood there in silence, he was getting flashbacks from the last words his brother has said to him. He finally jerked out of his thoughts by Sakura's shouting and focused. His eyes turned back to Sharingin. 'I must survive to kill my brother, that's what I believe yet I was the one too afraid to do anything! How can I expect to kill my brother when I can't do anything here!?'

With those thoughts in mind, Sasuke pulled out shuriken and kunai out. They had strings attached. H threw them as fast as he could towards the intruder.

'Strings?' the snake like man thought, then noticed something. 'This is…the Sharingin Windmill, Triple Blade!' He caught a shuriken but then soon realized that was a mistake as soon as he felt fire burning his face. He didn't let it faze him, though. "To be able to use the Sharingin so well at this age. You truly carry the Uchiha blood." His voice changed into a deeper one. "Just as I thought. I want you…Sasuke-kun! I had fun testing your powers. You really are brothers. I sense power in your eyes that surpasses Itachi."

"Who the hell are you!?" Sasuke yelled at him. 'This guy knows -him-!'

"My name is Orochimaru. If you want to see me again, survive and pass this exam." The man now identified as Orochimaru held out team seven's scroll. It burned to crisps. "Of course, defeating my men, the Sound Trio on the way."

"What the hell are you talking about!? We never want to see your face again!" Sakura screeched.

"It won't work that way," Orochimaru said. He formed a seal and his neck stretched. His teeth clamped down on Sasuke's neck, the same way that it bit Naruto's. "Sasuke-kun will seek me, to seek power. Do tell Naruto-kun the same thing, will you?"

Sasuke felt his neck erupt in pain and he shamelessly screamed. Sakura quickly turned to Orochimaru and yelled, "What did you do!? What did you do to Sasuke-kun and Naruto!?"

"I gave him a present," the man said before vanishing in smoke.

After screaming for a bit, the last boy also fell unconscious. Sakura turned to her blonde teammate, yelling frantically, "Naruto- Sasuke-kun's…" She stopped short as she realized he was still unconscious. 'I'm alone…' Tears formed in her eyes. This time she let them fall.

(End Chapter)

Some of you are probably going, "WTF!? Why did Naruto get a curse seal!?" Well, I just kind of felt like giving it to him. I dunno, I hate it that I had to make him so strong. A high C-class demon? That's like special jounin in Konoha so I wanted to handicap him! Yay!

Some of you be going, "If she didn't want him to be so strong, why -did- she make him like that!?" Well, he'd need to be strong to help kill Naraku so I -needed- him to be strong. So, strong-didn't like strong-handicap.

Plus, I thought it'd be cool for Naruto to have one.