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The Chuunin Exams – Part 3
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Tayuya was sitting on one of the big tree branches, her two teammates next to her. They observed the group of Genin sitting on the forest floor beneath them. They hadn't noticed them yet.
"Which one are we supposed to kill?" Jirobo's gaze switched between Sakura and Hinata.
"How would I know? I say the one with the pink hair, she's sitting closest to Sasuke after all. If in doubt, we could also just kill both."
"The problem is…" His gaze fell on the hostage sitting between Shino and Hinata. "We can't openly attack as long as that Konoha shinobi is here."
"I know that, fatso," Tayuya spit back at him. "This stupid village. Doesn't even let you kill anyone during the exams. And in Kiri they make you kill others." A smirk formed on her lips. "What do you think master Orochimaru would say if I killed you, huh? You think he'd bat an eye?"
He ignored her last comment and simply answered, "You shouldn't call me fatso. Behave like a girl for once."
Tayuya gave him her best manly grunt and spread her knees some more to make sure every last bit of elegance in her sitting position was gone. "Let's have our newbie here kill her. Jirobo and I will lure the hostage away, maybe those other two as well. Wait till there's a safe distance before you attack her."
"Why me?" Dosu asked.
Tayuya laughed, until Jirobo reminded her that she'd blow their cover if she kept being that loud. "Think of it as an initiation ritual. We gotta make sure you are worthy enough to join the Sound Five."
"Stay with him, I can handle that Konoha shinobi myself." Jirobo stood up, his eyes still focused on the shinobi beneath them.
"What? Why would you want me to stay with him? I'm not a babysitter. Look at that little bitch down there. You think the little princess will fight back so hard that he'll need me?"
"Watch your language," Jirobo calmly said. "At least that girl down there looks like she brushed her hair today. But I'm just thinking about the mission. Master Orochimaru's orders are most important here. You stay here and make sure he doesn't mess up. Or the two of us will suffer for it as well."
Tayuya crossed her arms, obviously annoyed at the situation she found herself in. "Just make sure you don't accidentally kill her before Sasuke wakes up," she snapped at Dosu. "It shouldn't be long now. And Master Orochimaru wants him to witness her last breath."
"Why?" Dosu asked. "Why does he need to see her die?"
She grinned again. "Are you questioning the orders we received from Master Orochimaru? You really must be new."
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Naho moved fast but carefully. She didn't want to run into another team, but she also knew she had to hurry up. Her mind was still with Sasuke, hoping he would be fine.
She came to a sudden stop. Something told her she was being watched. She looked around, thick bushes and vines all around her made it hard to spot threats. A rustling eventually told her on which direction to focus. A tiger jumped out of its hiding spot, right at her.
Naho jumped away. She grabbed a kunai, but her body was full of hesitation. She didn't want to hurt the animal. Still the tiger thought differently about her and lashed out again.
Naho spit a fire jutsu in its direction, hoping she could simply scare it away. It seemed to work and the tiger retreated into a safer distance. It still circled around Naho, its eyes focused on her. Naho used another fire jutsu. Again, the tiger was irritated, and eventually chose to turn away from her.
She was relieved, but then the pain in her lungs returned. It was sharp, so sharp she couldn't stand straight anymore.
The tiger noticed the change in its prey, and immediately returned. Slowly, it walked up to her again, testing the waters.
Naho gasped for air, coughed. She saw the tiger readying its muscles for another jump at her, its tail high in the air. But the pain made it impossible to move. She closed her eyes, scared of the next thing she would feel. The claws and teeth of the tiger that would rip her apart.
But they never came. Instead, Naho could feel someone wrapping his hands around her, carrying her away to safety.
When she opened her eyes again, she looked at two bushy brows and a bowl cut.
"Are you hurt?" Tenten's face appeared next to Lee's. "Neji spotted you when he was scouting the area. I was a bit worried since you were here all alone."
As soon as Lee let her down again, Naho wrapped her arms around Tenten and gave her a big hug. She pulled back again. "You need to help me, please. Sasuke is hurt, I had to leave him."
Tenten spotted the blood on Naho's arm. "Your shoulder! What happened? We need to treat this."
"It's not that bad. Please, Sasuke really needs help."
"Where's Rei?" Lee asked. He knew her from the Academy days.
Naho lowered her head, covered her eyes with a hand. "Let's just go to Sasuke. Please." Her voice cracked as she spoke.
Tenten looked at Lee and Neji. Neji rolled his eyes and sighed, but Lee was ready to help.
"We are on a mission," Neji reminded them.
"And Sakura-chan's friend needs our help," Lee declared by raising his hand high into the air, ready to march to Sasuke.
Neji sighed again, knowing there was no use arguing against both his teammates. He'd been outvoted once again.
They weren't on their way back to Sasuke for long when Naruto and Kiba came running at them. Naruto happily waved soon he spotted Naho.
"Naruto!" Naho ran up to him. "Sasuke, he's… he's hurt. We have to get back to him!"
Naruto smiled back at her. "It's fine, we already found him. Sakura is with him."
She looked at him with big eyes. They slowly filled with tears, and suddenly. Naho started crying. She stood there, rubbing tears from her eyes while loudly sobbing.
"N-naho?!" Naruto took a step backwards, irritated by the sudden outburst of tears. "What happened? Are you hurt? Oh, your shoulder, does it hurt?"
Naho shook her head. She tried but couldn't stop sobbing. "I'm so glad. I thought I was all alone. I didn't know what to do."
Tenten stepped up to her and Naruto and put a reassuring hand on Naho's shoulder. "I'm sure everything will be fine now."
"Tenten." Neji threw a dark glance at Tenten, which told her all she had to know. He wanted to continue their mission.
"Will you be fine without us? Our traps got destroyed earlier, so we still need to set up new ones."
Naruto showed her a thumbs up. "Don't worry, I'll protect her." Naho was still sobbing and brushing away tears next to him. He carefully put his hand on her shoulder like Tenten had just done and gave her two awkward pats.
"No reason to cry. I'm still here too, so you don't have to rely on that idiot Naruto to protect anyone," Kiba said in a joking manner. It was his way to try and lighten the mood again.
Naho nodded, and together, they made their way back to the others.
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The ground beneath Hinata and Shino started shaking. Hinata instinctively held onto the tree trunk next to her to not lose balance. She activated her Byakugan, searching for enemies.
But before she could find anything, a smoke bomb dropped between them. The smoke didn't hinder her eyes, so she could see it clearly when a shinobi landed next to her. His hand snatched the tag from her pockets. She pushed chakra into her hands, ready to stop him. But suddenly realised something was holding onto her feet. They didn't move. Hinata fell over trying to walk with feet that wouldn't budge. Their hostage ran away with the new holder of his tag.
When the smoke dissolved again, their hostage was gone, and Hinata and Shino's feet were stuck in the ground.
"Are you alright?" Sakura ran over to them and helped freeing their feet from the earth jutsu.
Hinata scanned the surroundings in great hurry. "I'm so sorry, Shino," she repeated over and over while searching for what she'd lost.
"Don't worry," Shino said, putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "I have a bug on our hostage. A female bug to be precise. This male one here will follow her scent." A bug crawled up his hand and took to the air.
Hinata turned to Sakura. "Will you be fine? We have to get him back or Kiba will be really angry."
"Yes, of course," Sakura instantly answered. There was an ocean of doubts in her, and she really didn't want them to leave her alone with an unconscious Sasuke, but those doubts she tried to hide. "Go get your hostage back. I'll wait here."
And with that, Hinata and Shino were gone.
Sakura's eyes ran over her surroundings before she went back to Sasuke. Everything was quiet. Still, she took out a kunai and held onto it tightly.
The feeling of being watched stayed with Sakura. Not long after Hinata and Shino had left, Sakura's feelings proved correct and shuriken flew through the air, straight at her. She blocked them with her kunai.
Sakura left the small tree cave and found a shinobi with the Sunagakure headband standing in front. Half his face was covered with bandages.
"We don't have a hostage. You can leave again," she told him, knowing he wasn't supposed to attack them if it was not to accomplish the mission. His appearance creeped her out.
"Oh, right. It looks like your teammate is hurt." He nodded towards Sasuke and approached Sakura. "Can I help you somehow?"
Sakura raised her kunai. "Freeze! I don't need any help. My teammates will be back soon. I want you to leave."
Instead of turning away again, Dosu charged at Sakura. Sakura defended herself, dodged his hits, but didn't get to counterattack. She didn't see a reason in this fight. All she wanted was for that stranger to stop and leave.
"I told you, we don't have a hostage," she said again.
But the shinobi didn't seem to care. He kept attacking her.
A device on his arms produced a high-pitched sound. It hurt her ears, so much it left her unable to move. She pressed her hands onto them, but the sound was too distracting.
Dosu punched her in the face, then threw her to the ground. He started kicking her once she was down.
Sakura didn't understand. "What do you want?" she gasped. He didn't answer.
There was a small opening when Sakura noticed that he was looking at Sasuke. She formed signs and a spurt of water hit Dosu, pushing him back. They went back to close-combat, but this time Sakura was more prepared. They exchanged hits until Dosu activated his sound wave again. This time, Sakura used another water jutsu to cover her own ears.
Dosu stopped for a moment. "Not bad," he admitted. The water dampened the sound. "But you can't fight if you need to hold your hands over your ears."
Sakura dodged a bit, but he soon caught her again, smashed her down to the ground once more. He held her down with his foot while his eyes once again looked at Sasuke.
"Why are you doing this?" she asked again. She couldn't get up anymore. He was stronger, and the sounds he produced numbed her whole body when she didn't use her water jutsu.
He didn't say anything, didn't hit her anymore. He only pressed her down and waited.
Another shinobi jumped down from the treetops and landed next to Dosu. Sakura didn't know her, but she could see that the girl wore the symbol of Sunagakure as well.
"What are you doing? Make sure she looks beat up alright." Tayuya kicked Sakura in the sides. She slowly walked circles around them, looking down at Sakura. "You are pretty ugly, you know that? Just what is that forehead."
"You said Sasuke would wake up any minute. What if the others come back?"
She slapped Dosu's back. "Relax. I don't know if I can bare another deadhead in our team. Let's just have some fun with Miss Beauty here. You are being too nice to her."
Tayuya tackled Dosu away from Sakura to get on top of her herself. She grabbed Sakura's hair, and pulled her up.
"Yikes, is that flower shampoo I am smelling? Bad enough that you were born with pink hair."
Sakura grabbed her wrist, trying to get her to let go. Tayuya only kicked her again and grabbed tighter onto her hair.
Sakura still couldn't figure out what was wrong with these people. But maybe it had something to do with Sasuke. Their eyes kept glancing at him. He was still lying in the little tree cave, unconscious. Pearls of sweat ran down his forehead. She couldn't let them get to him, whatever their plan was.
Her hand found a kunai, and she cut the first thing she knew would free her: her hair.
Tayuya had not anticipated that move at all, and the moment it took her to regain her composure was enough for Sakura to whirl around and slice. The blade connected to Tayuya's shoulder and arm, leaving a superficial but bleeding cut.
"You little bitch…"
"Tayuya," Dosu said. She didn't hear him. Or she chose not to hear him. She threw herself on top of Sakura again. The two girls wrestled on the forest ground until Tayuya was sitting on top of her, dealing blows. One after the other, with a burning passion in her eyes. "Tayuya!" he said again, louder this time. "I think he's waking up."
Dosu's last sentence finally got Tayuya's attention. She quickly let go of Sakura to have a look at Sasuke. He was slowly rolling left and right. A red pattern spread on his skin, all over his body. And eventually, he sat up.
Tayuya took a kunai and gave it to Dosu. "Kill her. Now." She spit at Sakura, who was still on the ground, and vanished in the tree branches.
Dosu had a bad feeling about all this.
Sakura slowly pushed herself up. Her lip was bleeding, her cheek changing its colour to a deep blue. Her head was spinning.
Dosu grabbed her, rose the kunai to her throat.
"What are you doing?"
He froze as he suddenly heard Sasuke's voice right behind him. He hadn't even realised that he'd gotten up already.
Sasuke grabbed Dosu's arms, pulled them away from Sakura. "Sakura, did he hurt you?" He didn't wait for her answer before putting a foot on Dosu's back to push forward while yanking his arms backwards.
Dosu screamed. Bones broke. Sasuke kept pulling.
"Sasuke, stop!" Sakura couldn't believe he had just broken the boy's arms without even flinching. The look on his face irritated her. It felt strange.
He stopped but didn't loosen his grip just yet. "Why? I'll kill him for what he did to you. I'll avenge you. Just like I'll avenge my family." His grip tightened around Dosu's wrists, so much that the sound of breaking bones was heard once again, and only overshadowed by Dosu's new screams. "This new power. I can feel it running through my veins. With this power, I will avenge all of them."
"Stop it, Sasuke. Please!" Sakura grabbed his arm, pressed herself against him. She couldn't look into his eyes. They scared her. So she buried her face in his shoulder. "Please, stop this. Don't kill him."
Sasuke let go of Dosu, who fell face-first to the ground, unable to break his fall.
Sakura watched the red pattern on Sasuke's skin vanish. He was staring at his hands, trembling.
"What happened?" he gasped at Sakura. "Why are you here?"
Sasuke's eyes were the same black eyes again that Sakura knew so well. He stared at his own hands, irritated at what had just happened, at his own actions, and at his power.
"Where is Naho?" he asked, as his memories started to come back to him. To turned around, his eyes searching for her.
"Naruto is looking for her. She wasn't here when we found you. What happened?" Sakura's eyes were still on Dosu, who was cowering on the ground.
"Naruto is here too?" Sasuke didn't quite understand. But he saw the worry in Sakura's eyes. So he chose not to tell her about Orochimaru. About the death of the others. "We need to find her," he said instead. But he could only take a few steps before another sharp pain spread through his body, originating from the seal on his neck.
Tayuya was observing everything from her hiding spot, clenching at the fact that Sakura was still alive. "Useless," she hissed and grabbed a kunai. It left her in a peculiar situation. Orochimaru had ordered them to kill the girl that was with Sasuke. But she also knew he didn't mean for Sasuke to be hurt in the process. And Tayuya was convinced that he would end up hurt if he started a fight with her over the pink-haired girl. She had to be fast.
She sneaked around them in the treetops, searching for a good angle. The kunai she threw they dodged, just like she anticipated. The two Genin searched for her, their attacker, but Tayuya still had a plan. Little bells were attached to the kunai she'd thrown down to them, and a string allowed her to move them, get them to chime. She played a little song. It was a genjutsu transmitted via sound waves. A weak one, but it would do, Tayuya figured. Orochimaru had forbidden her to bring her flute. He'd ordered her to hold back her powers, pretend she was a mere weakling. It pissed her off.
Tayuya jumped down at Sakura, another blade in her hand. Her and Sasuke were both paralysed by her jutsu.
"Sasuke!" Naruto's voice echoed through the forest. His voice was enough to mess with Tayuya's sound-based genjutsu, and in the last moment, Sasuke managed to pull Sakura away from the attack.
Tayuya spit at the ground. There were three new Genin standing in front of her, backing up Sasuke and the girl. One of them seemed wounded. She was ready to kill all of them. All except for Sasuke.
But then she heard yet another team, and Hinata and Shino returned together with their hostage. Tayuya bit her lip, but then decided to grab Dosu, who was still cowering on the ground, and leave.
"You… you knew, didn't you? You fled as soon as you saw him waking up," Dosu said once they came to a stop in a safe distance.
"Hmph. There are certain things you learn when working for Orochimaru." She looked down at Dosu, who was holding back groans of pain. "What a pain in the ass. Did you have to go and get both your arms broken? We still need to make it to the next round."
It didn't take long until Jirobo returned. Tayuya was not happy.
"Why did those brats come back with the hostage?" she yelled at him.
"They seemed to somehow be able to track him, no matter where I went. Didn't want to risk anything, so I let him go for now. I didn't suspect you two would take that long to kill the girl…"
"You idiot," Tayuya yelled. She pushed past Jirobo, hitting his arm as she passed. "So useless. Both of you. Let's report back for now. Then we still need to find ourselves one of these damn hostages. We need to get to the next round after all."
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Once team 7 was reunited, they set up camp for the night, caught some fish, and talked about their future plans. Sakura disinfected the wound on Naho's shoulder and properly bandaged it, while Sasuke insisted he was fine again. Hinata, Kiba and Shino left them. After all, they had their own exam to pass. Their hostage not once said a word to either Naruto or Sakura.
"We should wait until the sun is up again to go back to the entrance," Sakura said, knowing that with the death of Rei, Sasuke and Naho would be disqualified. No one dared to openly speak Rei's name.
Naho quietly sat next to them at the fire. She only took a few bites of her fish because Sakura told her she had to eat to recover some strength. Sakura's own lip was so swollen from the beating she'd received that every bite hurt.
"But the tower is much closer. Maybe we could just go there," Naruto said before taking a big bite of fish. It was too hot still and he burned his tongue. He was the only one of the three who seemed to have an appetite despite the day's events.
Sakura was about to explain to him how the inner parts of the forest were so much more dangerous than the outer parts. After all, it was the part where most fights would take place. But there was something else bothering her.
"Would you stop staring at my hair?" she snapped at Naruto. "Don't think I don't see you glancing at it all this time!"
"What? Well, sorry, but it just looks so different!"
"'Different', huh? It's fine, you can tell me it looks awful, go on!"
"I'm not saying it looks awful. I just think the long hair fitted your very well!"
Sasuke rolled his eyes at the two.
A sudden scream echoing through the forest stopped little fight.
Sakura immediately put out their campfire with water jutsu.
"I'll go and have a look," Sasuke said. Naruto wanted to join him, but Sasuke told him to stay. "With Naho and Sakura injured you better stay with them. That fire was probably visible from far away, so they should know our location."
Naruto didn't like being told what to do. And he didn't like that Sasuke chose himself as the one to go and scout. But protecting Sakura and Naho was a good enough reason for him to stay behind.
Sasuke nodded at them and vanished in the dark.
Another scream showed Sasuke the way. His eyes had adjusted fairly well to the darkness around him, yet there was still a lot he couldn't make out. He spotted red hair, so bright it was impossible to overlook. There was a girl sitting on top of a tree, crying. A tiger was climbing up towards her.
Sasuke gave the tiger a kick and followed up with a fire jutsu that had the animal flee.
"Are you okay?" he called up to the girl, but his eyes were focused on his surroundings. He was expecting an ambush.
Nothing happened and the girl on the tree kept crying, her arms wrapped around the tree trunk as though she was scared to fall.
Sasuke jumped up to her. "Hey, you okay?"
The red-haired girl now looked at him. She sobbed, but slowly calmed down. "Did you beat the tiger?"
"I did. What are you doing here?" He spotted the headband of Sunagakure on her forehead. The girl definitely didn't look like a shinobi though, or rather, she didn't behave like one.
"Really?" Her face lit up. She brushed away some tears. "I've lost my teammates. I don't know. Suddenly they were just… gone. And then that tiger jumped at me and tried to make me his dinner. My name is Karin. Who are you?"
She held out her hand to him, but Sasuke didn't shake it. Her sudden talkativeness irritated him. He still wasn't sure if this wasn't an ambush after all.
"Well, good luck." He ignored the girl's attempts to start a conversation and was ready to leave her be. But to his dismay, she jumped at him and grabbed his hand, almost falling down the tree.
"I lost my glasses when I ran away. Please, have you seen them? I'm basically blind without them."
Sasuke's eyes ran over the forest floor. It was too dark to find something like glasses. Still, the girl was holding onto him tightly, her eyes still filled with so many tears they were visible even in the scarce light. He pulled his hand away from her. "Where's the rest of your team? They can help you search."
"I told you. I don't know where they are. They were just gone all of a sudden. Please, don't just leave me here."
"Sasuke?" Naruto's voice came closer and closer, calling for him. "Hey, where are you?"
Naruto, Sakura and Naho all came looking for him. They'd been worried. Naruto, missing the kind of suspicious nature so prevalent in Sasuke, immediately invited the girl to stay the night with them once he heard her story. Karin gladly accepted.
She held onto Sasuke tightly as they walked back to their camp, despite him being the one least convinced of her. So tight Sakura pushed Naruto at the two so he could be the one to lead the half-blind girl.
"That fire jutsu you used was pretty cool," Karin said. "Is it the Fireball Jutsu? I mean, it kind of looked like a fireball, a blurry fireball but a fireball. It was definitely fire, right? I could feel the heat."
Sasuke ignored her.
"I'm sorry, I just… I always start babbling when I'm nervous. And I'm pretty nervous. What do I do if I can't find Kabuto again? I don't want to be alone in this forest. But you guys saved me, so thank you very much! You in particular, Sasuke. You really saved my life." It was hard to see in the darkness, but there was a soft blush on her face.
Sakura didn't like where this was going at all. But to her relief, Sasuke was still an impenetrable stone wall when it came to female admiration.
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The next day, they went back to the spot where Karin had been attacked. Sasuke soon found her glasses and gave them back to her. Her face turned all red once she put them on and looked into Sasuke's annoyed eyes. She stumbled a short 'thank you'.
"Karin!" Another shinobi appeared, a hostage was following him. Sasuke's hand instinctively moved to his weapons, but the guy barely showed any interest in him. He walked past him to Karin. "Here you are. I was looking for you everywhere. What happened?"
Karin quickly explained that she'd been attacked by a vicious tiger and that Sasuke was her saviour. She introduced the shinobi as Kabuto.
Meanwhile, Sasuke eyed their hostage. Naruto, Naho and Sakura all stood close to him, observing the scene themselves. And he couldn't help his mind coming up with plans and opportunities to abduct the hostage, claim her, somehow pass the exam after all. But the risk most likely wasn't worth it, not when they would be disqualified anyway.
"I would like to offer you our hostage."
The sentence completely took Sasuke aback and pulled him out of his thoughts. He only managed a short "Eh?", convinced he'd somehow misheard the shinobi.
"I want you to take her. If this exam has showed us anything, then that it is too early for Karin here. And our third member is kind of lost too. She went scouting and hasn't returned since. I don't think us passing is a good idea. But you saved Karin's life. So she's your hostage now."
He handed Sasuke the tag. Sasuke couldn't hold back a grin.
No one thanked the stranger. Sasuke was missing the manners, Naho wasn't thankful at all.
"Aren't you two disqualified anyway?" Naruto eventually asked. "What do you still need a hostage for?"
"If there is a chance we can still pass this, then we have to continue. We can still make it to the tower in time."
Kabuto nodded at Sasuke, and left together with Karin. Karin waved at them, at Sasuke specifically. She really wished she could meet him again.
"But…" Naho's gaze dropped. "Rei's dead. I know we barely knew her. But she was our teammate. And she's dead. We shouldn't be thinking about continuing exams. She's dead."
"And where is the point in giving up because of that?" Sasuke sharply replied.
Naho's brows dropped, and for a moment, they thought she was going to cry.
"Why don't we just go to the tower and see what happens? I want to have a look at those who passed," Naruto said, trying to sound reassuring.
"Naruto! I already told you, the further we go, the more traps there are!" Sakura snapped.
"But it's so close. Naho needs medical care, right? And you could use a patch." Naruto thought for a moment, then got an idea. "Hey, how about I just send my Shadow Clones out again? They can run into the traps for us."
The team agreed, and Naruto summoned several Shadow Clones that went to scout the area, a safe distance ahead of them. Whenever one of them triggered a trap or ran into enemies, it would disband, giving Naruto knowledge of their location. The squad then moved around them, dodging anything ahead of them.
One time, Naruto not only received memories, but also a punch in the guts from his clone. He almost stumbled and fell at the sudden pain.
Another time, he found Shikamaru's team. The clone spotted them hiding in some bushes with their hostage. It was almost noon, and whoever didn't make it to the tower by then would be disqualified. Team 7 decided to see why they were hiding.
"Sakura, what happened to your hair?" was the first thing Ino yelled at Sakura, but she quickly put her hands in front of her mouth and looked around, scared someone might have heard her. "And wait, why are you even here?" she whispered.
Sakura touched her hair. The way Ino looked at her made her feel all self-conscious again. Naho had said it wasn't bad, and Sasuke didn't care to comment. It had been easy to persuade herself Naruto simply had bad tastes. "Does it look that bad?"
"I mean… yes. It does."
Naruto nodded in full agreement. "The long hair was definitely better. Why did you cut it again?"
"You…" Sakura punched Naruto. "Are you an idiot?! I was fighting, okay? Where were you during that time, huh?"
"Quiet!" Shikamaru hissed at them. "Do you idiots want to get us killed?"
"Oh yeah, why are you guys hiding here in this bush?" Naruto looked around, but he couldn't find anyone. They were close to the tower though, so maybe their team was simply being careful.
Chouji was munching on a chocolate bar. "There is this red-haired guy up ahead. He and his team are standing right in front of the tower picking up anyone who tries and enter. He already has six hostages with him. So we decided to take a lunch break here instead."
Ino threw a dark glance at him. To her, this was not a lunch break. She wanted to make it to the next round. But both her teammates seemed rather indifferent.
"Six?! Wow, that guy has to be strong." Naruto felt excitement. He wanted to meet this person.
"I think he's the Kazekage's son," Ino said. Her eyes fell on Naruto. "I guess he's what you'd expect from the son of a Kage. Not like our class clown here."
Naruto was about to fight back again, but Shikamaru signalled him to be quiet, followed by a punch from Sakura as reinforcement.
"It's almost noon though. Are you guys fine just sitting around here?" Sakura asked.
"That guy is scary. I'd rather have another bag of chips than go near him," Chouji said.
Shikamaru shifted some body weight to sit down in a more comfortable position. "They are standing right in front of the entry. We saw what happened when another team tried to enter the tower. It wasn't pretty. Maybe we could sneak past while they are fighting another team."
Naruto looked towards the tower. He couldn't spot Gaara. Shikamaru had made sure his team would stay a safe distance away from them.
"Then let's go there," Naruto said, eager to have another look at Gaara. Ino's words still bothered him. He was a Kage's son too. "I can distract them while you guys sneak past. I have the shadow clones. I'll just pretend I'm a whole team."
Ino burst out laughing before again putting a hand in front of her lips. "They'd beat you in less than a second."
"Then I'll run at them with 20 clones. 20 seconds should be enough for us to sprint past, right?"
Chouji opened another bag of chips. "I don't like the idea either. Let's just stay here and have more lunch. We can always try again next year."
Naruto couldn't understand them. He looked at Sakura and Naho, but they both had no desire as well to get to the tower. Sasuke was silent, but at least had a thinking expression on his face. "Why not? I mean, we just need to get inside, right?" Naruto kept urging. There was nothing on the line for him, yet he still wanted to make it to the tower in time. This way, he could prove he was as good as the others. He belonged there.
"Even if you managed to distract them. It's too risky. If they catch one of us, he'll pulpify us," Ino said sharply. But still, she was hoping too they would find a way. She was a clan's daughter. An heiress, she had to make it to the next round.
"The guy can't be that strong," Sasuke crossed his arms in front of him. "I'll go and see for myself."
"But Sasuke…" Ino was torn between admiration and worry. Part of her wanted to believe that Sasuke was stronger than the Kazekage's son. But she had seen what he did to other teams.
"Actually, maybe Naruto is right." Shikamaru sat up straight again to look at the tower that was visible in the distance. "All we have to do is get inside the tower. No one said we had to take the front entrance. While Naruto's clones distract them in front of the entrance, we'll approach from the back. Chouji can punch a whole in the wall and all we need to do is to rush inside. His sand won't reach us as long as he stays at the entrance."
Sasuke wasn't convinced they couldn't just take the front entrance. Shikamaru reassured him that he didn't want to fight the Suna shinobi, so he agreed. Time was running out anyways. The others nodded as well.
"Let's go before we waste more time," Sasuke said. He still had hope that he might pass after all.
Naruto summoned two shadow clones. It was the most he trusted himself to summon without relying too much on the red chakra in his belly. But almost instantly, Ino laughed at him again, pointing out that this wasn't quite the number he had promised. Naruto bit his lips, and summoned another ten clones.
"Four would have been enough, actually," Shikamaru said. "Just use the transformation jutsu so that they think it's another team."
"I'll transform them into all of us plus some back-up. No problem at all!" Naruto said with exaggerated conviction. He had to tell himself he could do it. He formed the sign, nervous. This was the jutsu he had failed at every single test in the Academy. He could already hear his classmates laughing.
"Transformation!" he yelled, and the clones changed shape.
It was quiet for a moment. Then, Ino stepped up to her clone.
"When did you actually learn to properly use transformation jutsu?" For once her voice wasn't mocking him. She was carefully looking at a copy of herself; she liked what she was seeing.
Naruto smiled. A big load was taken off his mind. "I was working hard, you know?"
"All your clones have to do is to distract them while we approach the tower from behind, understood Naruto?" Shikamaru asked.
Naruto nodded. His smile was already gone again. He wanted to be happy, after all, they all relied on him. But he could feel the red chakra spread in his body. It was like darkness that was overcoming him.
They all circled the tower to approach it from behind. Sasuke dropped a snarky comment on the way, saying he couldn't understand all the fuzz. To him, they should have taken the main entrance. Yet he still followed them.
Once Naruto had deployed his clones and they caught the first signs of fighting, they all started sprinting towards the tower. Chouji arrived first at the wall. Ino made sure he did. With a loud bang, he smashed a whole into the wall big enough for all of them to enter. It wasn't exactly the stealthy way.
Soon, Ino, Chouji and Sasuke were inside. Sakura, Shikamaru and Naho closely followed.
Naruto was sprinting towards it as well, when suddenly, a sharp pain spread through his body. There was a strong pressure on his limbs, growing stronger and stronger. Something squeezed until his bones cracked. Naruto collapsed to the ground, convinced his legs were broken. He was writhing in pain as the scene of Gaara commanding his sand to wrap around his clone's legs played in his head.
"Naruto!" Sakura was calling out to him.
He couldn't get up.
Before Sakura or Naho knew what to do, Sasuke was already running back towards Naruto. He dragged him onto his back, and shortly after, they stood inside the hall of the tower together. Several Chuunin and Jounin stared at them and the whole in the wall with big eyes.
"Are you hurt?" Sakura kneeled next to Naruto as Sasuke let him down.
"That bastard really did try to smash me like a potato," he grinned through the pain that was still lingering in his body.
But there was something else that had been transmitted to Naruto apart from the pain. Naruto could see Gaara standing in front of him. He was looking him straight into his eyes.
"So you are supposed to be like me?"
Naruto couldn't make sense of it. Because they both had a Kage as a father? Somehow, he could feel that was not the right answer.
Sakura had to help him stand up. The pain was lingering in his body like a shadow. And so was the red chakra. He hated the feeling. More than he hated the pain from having his bones crushed. With the red chakra came doubts and insecurities, and suddenly, Naruto wondered if his friends had taken advantage of him just now. He had to go through all the pain his clones felt so they could conveniently reach the tower.
"What are you staring at? Are you hurt or not, answer." Sasuke's tone was harsh as usual.
Naruto could feel the anger in him rise. Sasuke had to right to talk down to him like that after all he did for them.
But then Naruto looked at his teammates. There was worry in their eyes. They were worried about him.
They are worried about themselves; he could hear a voice inside him. They are scared of you.
Naruto put on a smile. "Yes, I'm totally good! See, I told you guys this would be no problem. You can all thank me later for helping you pass your exams!" He was speaking loudly, hoping to silence the weird voice in his head that way.
Another team followed through the hole in the wall. They hadn't been the only ones scared of Gaara. The Kazekage's son entered the tower shortly after. His face was completely expressionless, yet his eyes were focused on Naruto.
Shukaku.
The name crossed Naruto's mind when his eyes met Gaara's. He didn't know what it meant. But he didn't care. He had to get rid of this chakra in his body again.
.
.
A/N:
Hello again!
I'd really like for some side characters to play "bigger" roles and have a bit more to do than they did in canon at parts, so I cut some of the characters here (because there are so many!). Kin, Dosu and Zaku for example only existed to attack Sasuke once and then take part in the preliminaries. Same goes for Sound 5, all they got to do was make sure Sasuke is brought to Orochimaru. That was fine for the anime that relied a lot on fighting scenes, but I don't really enjoy writing those, so I'm trying to avoid them.
I merged the two sound teams together with the intention of giving them more "on screen" time. I might even have some of them survive the Sasuke rescue arc later on. Also gave them a slightly different personality/background to fit right into my AU. But we'll see more of that later on in the story!