Chapter 58
For the millionth time in his life, Sasuke questioned if he was insane, or if he was the only one sane in this insane world.
It started on the second day in the Forest of Death. A night had passed and Sasuke had not seen any other teams nearby. It was logical, considering that most of the genin would make their way towards the center of the forest, making sure that they covered the distance to reach the tower by the end of it.
Unless, of course, a genin team decided to reach out and search for their target.
Sasuke raised a kunai in one of his hands and hid a few more shuriken in the other hand behind his back when he saw the little mass of chakra running towards them.
Ninjutsu? Puppets? Aburame's bugs? Sasuke had many guesses, but none of them prepared him for the little rats sniffing the grass as they emerged from the forest. Correction, not actual rats, but rats that looked like they were made out of ink stroke.
Sasuke waited for the rats to attack them - both Naruto and Sakura were in team formation now, readying their weapons and holding their breaths - but the rats just stared at them with their small, ink dot eyes, before scurrying back to the bushes.
Um, okay?
"Hello, fellow Konoha genin, nice to meet you." When the boy walked out with an ink rat on his shoulder, Sasuke's hands tightened. Although, he wasn't sure if that was because of the unfamiliar ink ninjutsu, or the obviously fake smile the boy had on his face.
"Hello!" Naruto, of course, opted to go with the polite route as soon as he saw their Konoha headband.
"We're graduates from last year. My name is Sai, and these are my teammates Kato and Tsubame-"
"What do you want," Sasuke interjected before Naruto could follow their lead and start with an introduction too. The boy named Sai didn't even blink, accepting his rudeness with the same fake smile like it was painted on a mask.
"My team is centred around information gathering, so unfortunately, while we can locate quite a few candidate teams, we are not confident in our own battle skill." Sai said, placing his ink rat on the ground. Under their watchful eyes, Sai took out a kunai and stabbed it down.
The ink rat only had the time to stare at its owner accusingly before being reduced to a puddle of ink. "As you can see, my technique doesn't have a lot of attacking power and it's easily defeated. It's the same with my teammates," Sai said, pointing to the remains of the ink rat.
"So what, you want to team up with us in order to gain our help?" Sasuke got why they were here immediately, however, that didn't mean he approved of that. The Chunin Exam was supposed to be the survival of the fittest. Cooperation within a team, sure, but between teams, Sasuke didn't find the proposal to be worth considering.
"I believe the better word is an exchange," Sai said, taking out his own scroll. It was the Earth scroll. "I know your team also has the Earth scroll, so that doesn't make us enemies right now."
Sasuke turned around to look at Naruto, who shook his head in confusion as well. Their Earth scroll was kept in Naruto's storage seals, who had only taken it out once or twice to check for damage. To think that the ink rats were so close by and he didn't notice … Sasuke turned back to Sai and found his fake smile unchanged.
"I noticed that your team doesn't seem to have a sensor. We are quite good at information gathering, and we can help you find the location of teams with Heaven scrolls, in exchange for your assistance at obtaining one for us as well," Sai proposed.
As if seeing the skepticism in Sasuke's gaze, Sai continued, "Negotiation and exchange are a part of shinobi's skills, so I do believe that this is valid within the Chunin Exam. After all, friends from the same villages can help each other, so how is an alliance based on the exchange of needs any less fair?"
"Who will get the first scroll then?" Sasuke asked, wondering if it would break the smile on the boy's face.
"You will, of course," Sai replied without any hesitation. "We're well aware of the fact that we are in a weaker position right now. However, we just have to trust your honours, don't we? Judging someone's personality is also an important skill for us intel gatherers." Before Sasuke could question again, the boy already answered.
Sasuke had a feeling that by 'judging someone's personality', he meant 'knowing Naruto's bright naivety'. After all, the inspirational speech Naruto had given at the end of the first exam was freshly ingrained in the memory of all surviving genin.
Sasuke let out a grunt of annoyance in his head. He didn't trust Sai and his team, not his fake smile, nor his show of weakness. For a team that was this calm and collected, there was no way they didn't have the matching battle skill, even if it was just using their wits.
"Ne, Sasuke, that sounds like a nice proposal." Sasuke heard Naruto's whisper-not whisper before he could give a rejection. Naruto had the guts to give him a wink and said, "if they want to steal our scroll, we can always just beat them up."
Yeah, maybe next time we won't say that out loud in front of them. However, Sasuke agreed with Naruto's words. Sai's team had already found them, so the chances of them avoiding a conflict had they planned to start one was pretty much null. In terms of fighting, Sasuke did not plan to back down just yet.
"He makes a point, we have no reason to be enemies right now, and we can use the help in finding teams with Heaven scrolls, instead of wasting time on teams that have the Earth scroll," Sakura said, giving Sasuke a reason that was much more logical.
Great, now Sasuke couldn't just reject the invite from Fake Smile and his fishy team. It was supposed to be a team effort, and Sasuke had enough lectures from Maiko-nee and Itachi about respect for teammates.
Sasuke gave Fake Smile a nod, seeing his fake smile get wider. Just like that, the temporary alliance which Sasuke had no faith in was formed.
For a second, Sasuke thought that Naruto held the same suspicion as him - after all, he did suggest that they could beat their ass if they were up to no good. However, like many times before, Sasuke realized he was just thinking too much.
"Ehhh, look Sasuke, they respond to me. Your ninjutsu is so cool, Sai!" Sasuke refused to look, because Naruto was having fun playing with Sai's ink rats, like the idiot he was.
Just because they are also from Konoha didn't mean they were not competitors. Sasuke wanted to sigh.
"Do you have any other ink creatures, Sai?" Naruto asked. Somehow, Sasuke managed to read from the boy's fake smile something like 'I'm glad you asked'. Whipping out his large scroll, Sai held out his ink brush and started drawing on fabric.
Sasuke saw the stream of chakra being injected into the ink as Sai made his drawing. A moment later, a few pigeons materialized out of the scroll, dancing around the trees before flying down back into the scroll.
"Cool! Does this technique require specialized ink? Or is the key the shapes being drawn?" Naruto asked, eyes gleaming in curiosity.
Right, how could he forget, Naruto's newest interest was writing calligraphy under Jiraiya the Sannin's instruction. How did the event progress to that point, Sasuke didn't ask and for the first time, Naruto didn't tell. Everyone was allowed to keep their own secrets. Sasuke himself kept quite a few.
However, the result of his training was debatable. Naruto showed them the suppression seal in excitement and even Sasuke had to admit that it looked pretty decent, at least on the outside. However, when Sasuke asked if it could be used to seal the chakra of an opponent, Naruto rubbed his head and laughed awkwardly.
The answer was no. Which begged the question of why he was learning this seal in the first place. But as Sasuke said, everyone was allowed to keep their own secrets.
"Wait, I shouldn't have asked that. Ninjutsu is a shinobi's secret, right?" Naruto rubbed his head a moment later.
"Well, it's information, so perhaps if you have something in exchange it would be a fair trade," Sai proposed instead.
"What do you want to know?" Naruto asked and Sasuke perked up just in case Fake Smile wanted to ask for something outrageous.
"What do you think of my smile? I was told that smiles make establishing a connection easier. However, judging from the way your teammate acts, I think it needs improvement." Sasuke's eyes twitched when he heard Sai's words. It was not his smile that needed an improvement - although, it did - it was his sanity
Still, Naruto rubbed his chin and gave Sai's fake smile an examination. "I'd say it's a little fake, like, I'm not Sasuke, but even I can tell that you don't actually mean it," Naruto said, eyes glowing with sincerity against Sai's empty smile. "Perhaps you should try smiling when you actually feel like it. To be honest, people may not care if you give them a smile, but they definitely will not like it when you give them a fake smile."
Even Sasuke agreed that it summed up his feelings perfectly. Eventually, Naruto showed him his own bright smile. "Take it easy, smiling shouldn't be a burden!"
Sai's smile froze for a second. It was like he was debating something in his mind. However, he shook his head and the fake smile remained. He pointed to his scroll and said, "Now for my part of the deal, my ink ninjutsu does require a specialized ink which I had to constantly hone with my own chakra. However, the shape I create is also important. Creation requires both integrity and belief, both of which relied on practice and imagination.."
"Integrity … and belief," Naruto muttered, repeating Sai's words. Just then, a few ink rats return from the forest, crawling themselves onto Sai's blank scroll, forming words that spelled out a list of information.
"There's an Iwa team close by that has the Heaven Scroll. Should be a ten-minute travel time." Sai looked at Sasuke, asking him silently if that was an appropriate target.
After a moment of thinking, Sasuke nodded for his team and an agreement was reached instantly. Without wasting any more time, the six of them jumped on the branches and started to move.
Sasuke kept watch over Sai's team, so that he could react as soon as they had decided to do something fishy.
However, five minutes later, Sai's genin team stopped in his tracks and turned around. "Someone is coming and they're not our target." They didn't need more words, Sasuke pulled out his shuriken, Naruto readied his fist, and Sakura tightened her kunai.
It happened faster than Sasuke could process. An indescribable aura of evil engulfed him, piercing through his limbs, his chest, and his throat. For a second, it was as if his soul had left his body and all he could do was watch from the afterworld.
He saw the incoming figure - a woman with a headband carved with Kusagakure's insignia. The woman looked at him with a faint smile on her lips and Sasuke felt his blood froze - from fear and from rage.
The woman came straight at him, without hiding her presence and path of attack, because she believed that there was nothing Sasuke could do against her killing intent.
That really pissed him off.
Sasuke forced the chakra into his eyes and felt the Sharingan pulse. The world seemed to slow down for him as he felt his body lightened. Without a pause, he brought his fingers to his mouth and blew out a giant fireball.
He might have learned many Uchiha Katon over the years, but Katon: Great Fireball would always be the first technique he had learned since he was three. Likewise, it was also the first technique he had mastered without any hand seals.
The woman had chosen to attack him straight on, leaving the path wide open. Then, Sasuke would return the favour by greeting her with the flames.
The woman narrowed her eyes at him, half surprised and half amused, as she ducked at the last second, landing on a branch a few metres away.
"Break out of it!" Sasuke yelled, knowing full well that his teammates were in the same position as him. However, before he could even finish the sentence, a giant beast made of ink rammed itself towards the Kusa-nin, breaking the branch where she stood and forcing her back even more.
Sai stood a few meters behind him, hands outstretched with the ink brush, looking at the Kusa-nin with a face devoid of emotion and full of seriousness. In a corner of his eyes, he caught an ink bird shooting up into the sky, before exploding in midair into a splash of ink.
So he really wasn't as helpless as he told them. However, as it would seem, Sai and his team were on their side.
Kato and Tsubame didn't need an order from Sai before they charged in and cornered the Kusa-nin.
Kato released a series of wind blades that slashed through the air with a high-pitched sound as Tsubame flicked her shuriken augmented with wind chakra. Despite the high-speed projectiles that even Sasuke couldn't make sense of without the sharingan, the Kusa-nin weaved herself through the barrage of attacks, escaping using the twists and turns of her body.
"To think Konoha would send Root into the Chunin Exam. How desperate they must be." Sasuke caught a whisper that hung over the air as the Kusa-nin disappeared from where she was.
For the first time, Sai showed a genuine emotion - something akin to irritation - as he raised his kunai to block the attack from the Kusa-nin that suddenly appeared in front of him. However, the moment the metal clashed, Sasuke caught the replacement technique and the destination was …
The stray kunai stuck to the tree behind him was suddenly gone and what replaced it was a menacing figure looming over him, stretching its tongue and showing its fang.
Sasuke didn't hesitate when he slashed the lightning-infused kunai in a wide arc, ducking his body to avoid a strike towards him at the same time.
Sai and his genin team were already converging towards him to help, but something was amiss when Sasuke first laid eyes on the Kusa-nin. This was a clone, he realized, a medium constructed with messy, incoherent chakra.
"It's a clone!" Sasuke yelled as his kunai made contact with the figure, cutting through a puddle of mud instead of flesh. The Kusa-nin had gone for Sasuke at the very start, even doubling back a second time. It made them believe that Sasuke was the target of her attack, attracting all of their attention when she appeared in front of Sasuke again.
That meant, her real target was someone else.
A few meters away from Sasuke, on another branch, the Kusa-nin appeared from the tree and made her way towards Naruto, who was still trying to breathe from the intensity of the killing intent.
"Move, you idiot!" Sasuke yelled in rage. He needed something that was fast, something that would strike within a second before the Kusa-nin could reach Naruto.
Eight meters, I can do it. Even before he had finished the thought, his hands started to go through the seals. Straining his eyes, Sasuke focused on the point between Naruto and the Kusa-nin, the point where their attacker would surely cross if they continued.
A bolt of lightning fell down from the air, striking the path where the Kusa-nin had crossed with a thunderclap speed. Sasuke knew that the power of his Narukami couldn't be compared to that of Kakashi-sensei, let alone the fact that his control was more careful than ever because Naruto was close by. However, jutsu always needed to serve its purpose, which may not always be dictated by its power.
Narukami burned the Kusa-nin on her arm, grazing her right hand and halting her movement just for a second. More importantly, the loud struck of thunder woke Naruto from his prison of killing intent. Naruto moved back in an instant, making the hand seals for his shadow clones, ready to engage in the threat in front of him.
However, the Kusa-nin had a smile on her lips as her upper body extended, propelling her towards Naruto before his shadow clones could be made.
Sasuke watched in horror as the woman plunged her fingers into Naruto's stomach. A large surge of chakra erupted in his vision, rushing through the woman's arm to her hand and finally, towards Naruto.
Naruto let out a choking sound as he fell back due to the impact, but the Kusa-nin grabbed his collar and kept him steady. Sasuke didn't know what she was trying to do, but whatever it was, it required continuous contact and some time to complete.
That was when a flash of electricity stretched across the Kusa-nin. In the blink of an eye, the Kusa-nin's upper torso was almost sliced in two from the neck. Another flash and the hand that pressed in Naruto's stomach was sliced off.
Before the third flash of lightning, the Kusa-nin dissolved into snakes and slithered down the branch like a wave of white.
As the snake reformed into the human figure at the bottom of the tree trunk. Sasuke finally caught the figure standing on the tree branch, in front of Naruto, who was clutching onto his stomach and gasping for air.
The Rabbit mask looked down at the Kusa-nin, who, to Sasuke's horror, now had a different face. Greyish skin with purple marks around her - or was it his - eyes, the insignia of Kusa was replaced with that of Otogakure.
"Pick someone your own size, Orochimaru," the Rabbit-masked Anbu said With a ninjatō in her hand, identifying the attacker as one of the most notorious missing-nin in the history of Konoha, apparently, even more traumatizing than Itachi.
"Only one Anbu? Even if it's you, Uchiha-hime, I'm a little disappointed by the lack of welcome." Orochimaru grinned, his androgenous voice a mix of annoyance and amusement.
"You want my body, no? Then don't waver, you should keep your eyes on me." Maiko-nee said, her breath steady as if they were just chit-chatting despite the words leaving her mouth. What an insane world where I'm always out of the loop.
"Jealous?" Orochimaru had the guts to laugh. However, his laughter was soon interrupted when a curtain of lightning senbon rained down from where Maiko-nee stood, pushing him to fall back to avoid getting paralyzed by the crackling lightning.
His sister didn't leave any time for Orochimaru to recover, catching up to him across the branches and breathing out three chains of fire dragons, sealing his exit paths until only one path remained.
She was pushing the missing-nin away from them, taking the battlefield elsewhere.
"Sasuke-kun, we need to retreat and stay clear from the battlefield," Sai whispered to him as he flickered to his side. His teammates were already going to Naruto, whose unknown injury on the stomach seemed to have faded, and Sakura, who had just gotten out of the stronghold of the intense aura of fear and was finally making sense of the situation.
Sai and his team were in the know, that much Sasuke could guess. However, he had known enough about Anbu to understand that now was not the time to be asking questions. With a nod, Sasuke followed Sai into the opposite direction of the forest, with their teammates following behind.
(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ fuwa~fuwa~desu~~~
"So, I guess your 'genin team' just doesn't want to pass the Chunin Exam." I let the ink rat climb on my arms before it jumped into my blank scroll, forming the words 'Made contact with the Targets. Continual observation in progress' along with a detailed report of how he convinced my brother's genin team to let them tag along.
"Well, I don't think any of them cares for the Chunin title," Tenzō answered while shaking his head. The fact that Sai told them they were inadequate at fighting was hilarious, but it also made it awkward if they did advance into the third stage where the tournament would be held, which would also make anonymity nonexistent. Therefore, they would probably pretend that their scrolls were taken at the last moment and dip themselves out of the Chunin Exam quietly.
"Fair enough. Anonymity over Chunin, I can understand that." I shrugged my shoulders, it was their decision in the end. It wasn't like they needed a Chunin title to earn money. Their salaries in Anbu were more than enough to provide for them and I didn't think they were advanced enough in their reformation program to think about what to do after Anbu.
For them, the Chunin Exam was just a mission and their purpose to be in it ended as soon as the second stage passed.
Hiding amongst the outskirts of the Forest of Death, I eyed the tower in the centre, where the genin team with the Suna Jinchuuriki had reached in a mere four hours, decimating everything and everyone they had met on their path. Participants were kept in the tower until the Exam was over and so far, the Jinchuuriki had stayed with silence and compliance.
Noticing my gaze, Tenzō saw the Tower as well. "Is there anyone in Konoha who can match up to him?" The man asked after a moment.
"I have no idea," I answered with honesty. Whether it was inborn talent or hard work, the end result was a boy who had become one with the sand. While not quite complete, fighting him with his tailed-beast power was akin to fighting a phenomenon of nature itself. It would be a whole different experience for the Konoha genin entering this year, even those two boys on Gai's team who were said to be the strongest genin.
Just then, we all saw it, the ink bird that shot itself above the forest and burst into a splash of ink.
I fastened the mask over my face and circulated the lightning chakra over my body. "Team 1 and 2, keep watch; team 3 and 4, get into your assigned positions." I heard Tenzō's order carried over the air as I flickered away.
It was a mystery how Orochimaru got into the village, with our tightened security and eradication of unauthorized Root entrances. However, we understood that Orochimaru was like a flood - when he crashed down on us, rather than setting roadblocks, we should guide him along the canal.
Still, predicting Orochimaru's movement had been difficult. Imagine my surprise when I slashed him down, freeing Naruto - not Sasuke - in his grasp, interrupting whatever he had planned to do to the boy.
It was an oversight on our part, as well for Sai's genin team, to think that Orochimaru's target was constant and unchanging. That made it even more infuriating.
"Pick someone your own size, Orochimaru," I told the snake sannin as he tried to reform his body, this time, with his real face.
"Only one Anbu? Even if it's you, Uchiha-hime, I'm a little disappointed by the lack of welcome." Great, there goes my anonymity, again.
"You want my body, no? Then don't waver, you should keep your eyes on me." I saw him eyeing me with a hunger that a predator had for his prey. He still wanted my body, that was for sure, much more so than Itachi's and Sasuke's.
Itachi's body had been spent and Sasuke's body was still young and not fully developed. However, mine was ready to use and at its prime. However, that also meant that my body presented the biggest challenge in terms of becoming his vessel.
Still, a little bit of determination would make all of our lives a lot easier.
"Jealous?" I had to resist the urge to roll my eyes when he said that. Alright, I'm done talking.
Lightning senbon gathered in my hand and pierced down, not allowing him to take a single step forward. Chains of fire dragons crashed down around him, lighting the wood into torches. Without giving him a chance to breathe, I pressured Orochimaru to move along, staying away from the genin.
"You know, if you and Itachi had come to find me, we would be able to enter into a much more amicable trade. I'll even transplant the eyes for free," Orochimaru said, letting the sword shoot out of his mouth as he finished the last word.
I flicked the extendable sword to the side, cutting it with the yin-chakra glowing on the blade. As expected, the broken sword tip expanded into a snake, screeching as it bared its fang towards my neck.
I clenched my teeth in annoyance as I made the hand seals and let the wind scythes expand violently from my body, cutting into the giant white snakes and crashing it into a tree. Without stopping, I concentrated lightning chakra into my blade and let the sound of a bird chirping fill our ears.
I stabbed the sword into the ground, letting the web of electricity run wild, electrocuting the swarms of snakes that threatened to drown me, turning them into a mush of charred blackness. However, before I could retract my sword, a gust of wind struck my body, forcing me to let go of the ninjatō. The impact sent me flying into a tree trunk, knocking the breath out of me.
Orochimaru was in front of me in the blink of an eye, his palm moving towards my chest, little clusters of chakra gathered at his fingertips. I had a bad feeling about that, so instinctively, I activated Jinrai.
A spark of electricity flashed as Orochimaru rammed his hand into the tree trunk, sending splinters flying. The next second, I pushed off the tree branch with my soles and slashed through his neck.
Jinrai had the worst match against Orochimaru and the fact that his neck reconnected before it could even separate proved my point. In the state of Jinrai, my only weapon was my blades, in their barest state without any augmentation. If there was an opponent that I couldn't kill using my blade alone, like Orochimaru, Jinrai was only a distraction.
Fighting with Orochimaru was always like this. The amount of chakra and tricks up his sleeves were endless and all of them were annoying and deadly. A moment of carelessness and I was as good as dead. Furthermore, my job wasn't just to survive against Orochimaru, it was to exert pressure on him.
I needed to take the initiative before he realized what we had planned.
With the way Orochimaru was narrowing his eyes at me, it seemed that seed of doubt had already been planted in him. Without a word, he tried to dissolve his body into the ground but I had already placed my hand on the ground, letting the crimson lotus bloom from the forest floor.
The petals snapped shut without mercy, incinerating one of Orochimaru's feet as he tried to reverse his jutsu and jump out of the ground.
I wasn't finished, with the half seals, a ruby-red arrow materialized in front of me and fired towards him without giving him a chance to reorganize himself. The arrow aimed at his heart, and with a look of anger, Orochimaru bent his body in a way that defied physics and narrowly avoided the arrow, sacrificing one of his arms instead.
White snakes gathered to him immediately, regenerating his missing body parts in a second.
"I'm starting to think you don't want me to leave," Orochimaru spat out with irritation. Dissolving into the ground or tree again was not an option anymore with my red lotus, not unless he could first restrain me.
"I told you, keep your eyes on me while I kill you," I said, my killing intent raged towards him as my eyes swirled into the Mangekyou.
Orochimaru widened his eyes in recognition as he made the hand seals immediately. The Rashōmon rose from the ground just as I activated Amaterasu. The demonic faces on the ancient gate blocked the inextinguishable black flame, but Amaterasu had already started to burn through the blockade.
However, while Orochimaru was busy summoning up the Rashōmon to block my Mangekyou, black lines raced towards him from all directions. Stuck between Amaterasu and the surprise attack, black lines hooked onto his body, binding him in an instant.
Around me, dozens of Anbu held their position, maintaining the complex seals that connected their hands with Orochimaru, keeping Orochimaru restrained, as well as sealing his chakra, provided by the one and only Jiraiya.
To capture Orochimaru, there were only so many viable options, but all of them involved ridding Orochimaru of the ability to use chakra. One was to damage Orochimaru's body faster than he could regenerate, starting from his hands that were required to make seals, then the rest of his body, making sure that he was too busy keeping himself alive than to counterattack or slip away.
My Amaterasu was designed for that, that was why Orochimaru needed to give his all to counter it, even if he was aware of other Anbu nearby, finally catching up to us.
Another method involved complex sealing that required coordination of many Anbu agents, almost impossible to do if Orochimaru was alerted.
Therefore, I had arrived earlier than the rest of the Anbu, pressuring him to keep his focus on me and treat me as the only viable threat. I had to make him think that my goal was to kill him using my Mangekyou abilities, thus giving other Anbu agents time to approach him with stealth and stand in formation.
Orochimaru's mouth was opened, but he couldn't even speak, not with the seal Jiraiya spent months on, requiring more than a dozen shinobi to perform, strong enough to restrict both movement and chakra.
After all, Itachi and I wanted him alive for now, and if circumstances allowed, so did Konoha, for all the secrets Orochimaru knew. Who even knew if killing him was possible at this stage, given his pursuit for immortality. Still, I kept my Mangekyou on him, ready to purge him with Amaterasu if necessary.
I took out a scroll from the storage seal wrapped around my arm. Inside it, contain another set of complicated seals that would transport Orochimaru directly to the strongest prison under Anbu headquarters. Thankfully, the Forest of Death was just close enough for the transportation array to work. It would take some time for the seal to activate as well as a load of chakra that would drain me immediately. After all, Orochimaru was the worst of the worst that deserved our highest level of attention.
Suddenly, my Mangekyou warned me of danger, allowing me to shift my attention just fast enough to catch the distortion in space behind one of the Anbu agents and the orange-masked individual that appeared in full.
Danger alert screamed in my head, making me turn on Jinrai without thinking. I flashed towards the intruder, slicing my blade through his neck just as he raised a kunai towards the Anbu in front of him.
However, my blade passed through his neck unobstructed. I hit nothing, it was like his flesh didn't exist. The thought of a genjutsu was dispelled the moment the Anbu in front of me was stabbed through the neck. His part of the seal was snapped in an instant.
During all of this, the intruder kept his mask away from me, but the threat my eyes felt told me that I was meeting an opponent that was the same as me - a Mangekyou user.
In the blink of an eye, he appeared next to Orochimaru, who now had the chance to break out of the loosened seal with a part of its integrity destroyed.
I tried to dispel the lightning chakra coursing through my body while focusing my left eye on them, trying to capture them with Kannon Bosatsu. However, the same swirl of space appeared, sucking both of them into the black hole before I could activate the Mangekyou technique, leaving only an image of the black robe with red clouds in my memory.
At my feet, the Anbu lay dead as blood flowed out of his neck. In the span of two seconds, Orochimaru was rescued by an unknown intruder, potentially Tobi from Akatsuki, while an Anbu agent was killed.
I opened my mouth, trying to give an order that was appropriate, but before I could, an aura of menace bursted behind us, making me swallow whatever I was about to say.
Naruto's Nine Tail Chakra, I cursed. Orochimaru must have done something when he hit Naruto.
"Team 3, clean up the scene and report to the Hokage. The rest, follow me and ready the suppression seal," I ordered as I flickered towards the direction of the chakra leak.
"Stay away from him!" I yelled when I saw Sakura tried to approach the boy covered in an orange coat of chakra that radiates pure malevolence. Naruto knelt on the ground, clutching onto his stomach as his features changed to that of the beast. He looked up and I remembered to blink the sharingan away.
The fox-like pupils stared at me with foreignness, but no doubt, I saw recognition as the boy clawed the ground with his fingers, trying to contain the chakra and maintain his consciousness.
Tsubame rushed in and pulled Sakura back as the Anbu agents formed a circle around Naruto. With a piece of sealing paper in my hand, I considered ways to restrain him long enough to place the suppression seal.
Tenzō should be here soon, he would have started running as soon as he sensed the burst of tailed-beast chakra. His Wood Release was most suitable for restraining tailed-beast, containing the most rudimentary power of nature. Otherwise, Sai was behind me, his ink seals should work as long as Naruto could prevent the transformation from continuing.
"Wait … Mai … Miss Anbu." Suddenly, I heard a small voice coming from the boy in front of me. Naruto raised his head and stared at me with determination in his eyes. To think that he was conscious enough to try to hide my Anbu identity. I gave the Anbu agents a sign, telling them to watch with vigilance, then I nodded towards the boy, encouraging him to continue.
"I can … seal my chakra myself … if you just let me try." Naruto spat out the words as if every word exhausted him. Nevertheless, I saw the scattered fuinjutsu supply beside him, with a piece of suppression seal laying on the ground.
It was the same design as the ones given to all Anbu, but the overall feeling was a little different, no doubt the work of a different person than Jiraiya.
I paused for a second, before telling him, "I believe in you." That was all he needed before he reached out his shaky hand and grabbed the piece of seal buried by the scattered supplies. With a hard slap, he pasted the seal on his stomach and let the chakra that he could barely control flow into the seal.
A lot could go wrong. For example, the seal would have been misdrawn, or perhaps the chakra injected would be too rough for Naruto's newbie techniques. However, what I saw was the orange chakra around the boy fading little by little, until the beastly feature disappeared and I was once again looking at Naruto's bright blue eyes.
Naruto fell on his butt in exhaustion, letting out big breaths as he muttered, "Ahh, thank god it worked."
A moment later, he looked at me and asked with uncertainty, "Miss Anbu, I didn't lose control, so I won't be disqualified, right?"
Right, Jiraiya must have warned him about that rule before sending him off to the Chunin Exam.
"No, you're still in," I said, suppressing the urge to let out a chuckle. "How many more suppression seals do you have?" I asked.
"Plenty, don't you worry!" Naruto shouted as he pulled out the stack of suppression seals under the scrolls. "I made a lot of them before the Exam. Well, they are the only ones I can make anyway," Naruto rubbed his head and muttered in embarrassment.
Personally, I didn't know what he was embarrassed about. One functional seal - and not a beginner's seal at that - after less than a month of learning fuinjutsu, that was an accomplishment many could only dream of achieving.
"May I have one?" I asked and the boy handed me a piece of the seal. Then, I told the genin, "Since you're still in the exam, you should continue on your way."
None of them needed to be told twice. Sasuke gave me a look but otherwise didn't say anything as he left with his teammates. Sai gave me a nod as he left, confirming that he would continue to send updates through his ink creatures.
"Team 5, reconvene with Bear. Observe Naruto from the shadows. If his tailed-beast chakra leaks again, suppress him immediately and take him to Jiraiya-sama." I whispered to one team of Anbu standing beside me. They nodded before flickering away, blending themselves with the landscape.
Jiraiya would need to look at whatever Orochimaru did to Naruto as soon as the second stage was over. But for now, Naruto earned the chance to continue with the show of his own suppression seals.
"The rest of you, return to your position." The Anbu scattered as soon as they heard my words. As for me, I needed to report to the Hokage.
(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ fuwa~fuwa~desu~~~
His name was Kaede Taka.
He was nineteen years old, recruited into Anbu two years ago, talented in water releases.
It was only after he died that I learned of his information. Before, all I knew of him was the codename Dove.
"Are you okay?" I heard Kakashi's voice when I opened my eyes. He stood by the Anbu entrance to the Hokage's tower as I leaned by the wall, waiting for all the relevant parties to gather before I could complete Team 3's reports.
"Yes, I'm fine," I said, following him into the Hokage's office. I knew full well that Kaede's death wasn't my fault, but it was still my responsibility as the commanding officer overseeing the mission, and it will forever be etched into my memory.
"After we restrained Orochimaru using Jiraiya-sama's seal, an intruder that matched the description of Tobi from Akatsuki appeared behind Dove, using a technique that made him teleport without warning. I attempted to attack him, but he … phased through my sword and killed Dove. Before I could restrain him with my Mangekyou, he teleported with Orochimaru again," I said, watching the room full of people - the Hokage, the advisory council, Kakashi, and Itachi - all fell into silence.
"Could it be a genjutsu?" Nara Shikaku asked after a moment, breaking the silence.
"It's not impossible. But whatever it is, it's leagues above normal genjutsu. His attack hit Dove without a doubt; the wound on him matched the trajectory of the assault. My Mangekyou was open at that time, so was Owl's Byakugan, but neither of us saw any traces of a genjutsu," I replied. Every feeling in my body screamed that it was a reality, Tobi really had just made himself intangible and phased through my blade as if he didn't exist.
"It could be his Mangekyou ability," Itachi proposed after hearing my words. "I know very little of his Mangekyou techniques other than the space-time ninjutsu that he used to teleport and he always kept his eyes hidden from me."
Mangekyou gave techniques of another calibre - with certain conditions met, there was a sense of absoluteness in their effects. Without knowing how it worked and what conditions restricted the technique, the chances of countering it were close to zero.
"Well, with Tobi's involvement, it might explain how Orochimaru got into the village undetected. Just a few minutes ago, shinobi from the Hyūga Clan found the dead bodies of the Kusagakure genin team that Orochimaru had tried to disguise as." Tsunade said, looking at the Hyūga Clan head.
Hyūga Hiashi nodded. "The bodies were buried in the Northern Cemetery, their faces gone. It's safe to assume that Orochimaru has a jutsu that allows him to take the faces of someone he had killed."
"Why would Tobi rescue Orochimaru? I thought he defected from Akatsuki," Tsunade asked. We had never considered the possibility of Orochimaru and Akatsuki working together. After all, Akatsuki, based on Itachi's description, had lots of temper and pride.
"Tobi … is chaotic. I don't think Akatsuki's rules mean a lot to him, but neither does Orochimaru's life. I'm more inclined to believe that he still needs Orochimaru to complete whatever it is that he has planned," Itachi replied. A moment later, he added, "perhaps 'need' is not the right word. 'Want' might be more accurate."
With Tobi's mysterious abilities, saving Orochimaru was just a passing effort. Did he absolutely need Orochimaru's plan to work? Probably not. However, if he could just push the events along, Orochimaru might arrange a spectacular show at the expense of Konoha.
In that case, knowing what Orochimaru had planned to do during the Chunin Exam was more important than ever.
"I think Orochimaru wants to weaken the seal on Naruto and let the Nine-Tail lose control," I said, attracting everyone's attention. "After their encounter with Orochimaru, he might have modified something on Naruto, resulting in a brief leak of Nine-Tail's chakra afterwards."
"Currently, it's at a level that Jiraiya-sama's suppression seal could handle. In fact, it was Naruto's own version of the seal that suppressed it." I pulled out the piece of seal I solicited from the boy and handed it to Jiraiya.
Jiraiya held it up to the light and glossed his fingers over it. Slowly, he injected chakra into the seal, watching the black lines pulse with power. A moment later, he laughed, much to our surprise.
"This is my seal, but it's also not my seal," Jiraiya said amidst his laughter. "My strokes were designed to accommodate the barest minimum of chakra, to make sure that the user could activate it with ease, whether they were tired, injured, or exhausted from fighting. However, the boy's strokes were bold and strong, made to tolerate a large amount of chakra without overloading the seal. I doubt he understood the subtlety of the strokes, so this was a product of trials and errors, designed using his own chakra as the baseline."
Jiraiya tucked the piece of sealing paper inside his jacket, a sense of pride leaking from his voice. "After all, he was never good at chakra control."
"On another note, the way we handled Orochimaru this time won't work a second time. Sealing him required both Maiko's effort to pressure him and the factor of surprise. Now that he knows, he won't fall for it a second time," Jiraiya's expression turned more serious as he moved on.
If it was just a leak of Naruto Nine-Tail chakra, we could handle it. Orochimaru might have ways to draw out Naruto's tailed beast chakra temporarily, but Yondaime's seal were not so weak that it could be undone with a single touch without the proper key. But then, there was another problem in the village …
"The One-Tail Jinchuuriki is also in the village. I hardly think it's a coincidence that Orochimaru had chosen to strike at this point," Kakashi mentioned what I was thinking, what all of us were thinking.
The leakage of Nine-Tail chakra, no matter how brief, was an opening. It was akin to peeling a frozen door open. No matter how hard we tried to close it, the door would always be left ajar. The weakening of the seal was set in motion the moment Naruto accessed Nine-Tail's chakra in the Land of Waves.
None of us knew if Orochimaru could also do the same to the One-Tail Jinchuuriki, nor do we know how the two Jinchuuriki would interact with each other when one of them was agitated. At worst, we would be dealing with the uncontrolled transformation of two Jinchuuriki.
Actually, scratch that, there was still Tobi and Akatsuki. While we didn't know what Tobi had wished for personally, as a part of Akatsuki, the goal to capture the tailed beast was clear.
"We need to initiate a change, something that will shake our opponents' plans, even just a little bit." Kakashi refused to waste time just to wait it out. He was right, we were in charge of the Chunin Exam and only we had the power to shake up their plan and timeline. The idea was simple, changes created confusion and confusion created openings.
"I'm collapsing the timeline. The final round of the Third stage tournament is supposed to be happening in a month, but I will shorten the interval to be in a week." Tsunade-sama didn't waste any time after realizing what Kakashi meant.
"The Daimyo and Kage would have to be informed again," Nara-san pointed out immediately. The Chunin Exam was an international event after all. However, he added a second later, "There will be displeasure, but they can be convinced if we are determined enough."
In the end, Tsunade-sama concluded, "That's settled then. I will start on the document to inform the Kage and Daimyo of the changes. Continue to observe the One-Tail Jinchuuriki and the Suna participants. Hiashi, please organize the Hyūga clan and look for traces of Orochimaru and this Tobi figure. We need to think of ways to deal with them."
Yeah, the last sentence was pretty much empty at this point, not with the scarce information we had about Tobi's abilities.
"You're going to try that with Orochimaru?" I asked Itachi as we descended into the Anbu headquarters. My brother turned towards me with the cat mask on his face and nodded.
"I know it's a gamble. It might work, or it might just be a misprediction on our part," Itachi said, never mincing his words. Still, he gave me a smile and said, "Even if I'm wrong, there's still you, Kakashi, Hokage-sama, and all the Shinobi in the village."
The Anbu headquarters was usually busy with masked individuals going in various directions, whether they were training, leaving for a mission, or returning from one. However, right now, it was quite empty because most of them were already in their post around the village.
"As for Tobi … I'm quite sorry that I wasn't able to provide more."
"Yeah, you're talking to someone who can't even touch him even if he's right in front of me." I snorted, refusing to accept Itachi's belief that the information he got while putting his life on the line wasn't good enough.
"My confrontation with him returned nothing useful in how to fight against him, only adding more dread in the face of the unknown," I muttered, "but you know, no one is ever traceless. He kept his Mangekyou hidden from me - you also mentioned that before. Moreover, every one of his moves showed a hatred for Konoha, a desire to see Konoha suffer."
The Nine-tail rampage that killed Yondaime and his wife, the attempt to meddle in my confrontation with Danzō from the shadow, and saving Orochimaru more on whims rather than needs. He wanted to see Konoha break down, whether from the inside or by an outside force.
Hell, if we take into account his possible involvement in Kiri's bloody mist, then I might even say that he hated Kirigakure too.
"Yet, for someone so mysterious, he claimed to be Uchiha Madara, the most famous - or infamous - shinobi in Konoha's history. The contradictions don't add up," Itachi followed my line of thought and I nodded.
"Whatever those … fragments mean, we will find out." Giving Itachi a small wave, I walked towards one of the exits, ready to return to my post as a part of Anbu.
(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ fuwa~fuwa~desu~~~
"You need to stop looking like you're constipated," Sasuke said. He didn't need to look behind him to know that Naruto had that face on - the same expression that said he was dying to explain everything as soon as they asked.
Neither of them asked. Sakura didn't because he didn't. Sasuke didn't because he never planned to ask.
"Teme! What's with that description?" Naruto shouted back. "I … just don't want to hide anything from you."
In some ways, Naruto was both endearing and annoying, at least in this village where there was a secret stuck at every corner.
"She told you that it's not for everyone's ears, didn't she?" Sasuke asked instead. He didn't know exactly what Maiko-nee told him, but this much, he could guess. As expected, Naruto nodded.
"Not here, at the very least. This is the Chunin Exam, where there could be shinobi from other villages at every corner, using techniques that could spy on us without our notice." Like Sai's ink creatures.
Speaking of Sai, Sasuke and his team declined their help right after that incident. Naruto and Sakura might have been naive, but neither of them was dumb beyond help. It was clear that Sai and his team belonged in Anbu, with skill sets far beyond that of a normal genin, even chunin.
It almost felt like cheating, if they pretended that Sai's genin team still needed their help in retrieving a scroll - that was assuming that they were actually here for the Chunin Exam, which they probably weren't.
Sasuke didn't want a free ride, neither did Naruto and Sakura.
So, they were back to the old fashion way of running around and hoping that the next team they found had a Heaven Scroll.
"I see chakra signatures," Sasuke warned, his sharingan tuned up to examine his surroundings. "There are three, could be a genin team."
Sasuke halted on the branch and signalled his teammates to do the same. Naruto clasped his hand over his mouth to prevent himself from making a sound, while Sakura lowered her body, trying to hide behind the leaves.
"The hell's wrong with you! You're only a hindrance!" It was just far enough for their target's voices to travel over. A moment, later, the wind blew softly, carrying the scent of blood to Sasuke's nose
They're injured, Sasuke realized. Beyond the leaves and the branches, Sasuke could see the body of a giant centipede in the pool of purple blood.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry ..." The red-haired girl with a Kusagakure headband sobbed as her teammate grabbed her hair and pulled her closer.
"Gods, if you're not a healer, nobody would want to keep you in the team," The boy spat out the venomous words and before Sasuke could even blink, he bit down on the girl's arm.
"Those bastards …" Naruto was never good at letting this kind of thing go, but Sasuke gave him a sign that told him to hush. Despite the anger, Naruto complied. For Naruto, teammates were sacred because they represent 'friends' and 'bonds'. But what he and Naruto had went beyond 'teammates'; it was trust.
Sasuke watched the cloud of chakra being transferred from the girl's arm to her male teammates. Blood dripped from the girl's wounds, but the cuts on her teammate's' body started to close.
Another one who was born with the gift and curse of being special.
"Wait, please, it hurts!" the red-haired girl yelled as her teammate let her go, only for her second teammate to grab her arm, planning to do the same.
"Sakura, take the girl away and keep her out of the battlefield. Naruto and I will deal with the other two." Sasuke gave the signal for attack. Naruto couldn't ignore any further and frankly, neither could Sasuke.
Those that used others as tools were just patching up their own inadequacies.
Sasuke shouldn't have expected much from those who couldn't even see their own incompetence, not when a few fireballs from Hōsenka were enough to make them panic. With Sasuke breaking their formation using the fire jutsu, Naruto rushed in, throwing out a screen of shuriken before duplicating himself using a shadow clone
One of their opponents clenched their teeth and waded through the projectiles, slashing his blade horizontally, wanting to hit both Naruto at once. His blade cut across one, making it disintegrate in a puff of smoke. A hint of mocking laughter appeared on his face when his blade arrived at the second Naruto's torso.
The second Naruto bursted in a puff of smoke the moment the blade hit. Instead, the figure in orange jumped up behind the Kusagakure genin, having long hid himself using a transformation technique amongst the shuriken.
"Naruto punch!" Of course, he had to yell out his attack as he whacked the genin on the head, sending him towards a tree. Now, if Sasuke didn't have his own opponent to deal with, he would have rolled his eyes at Naruto's naming sense.
So, Sasuke pushed the other Kusagakure genin back with a Great fireball, before flickering to his blind spot and kicked him in the back, crashing him down on the forest floor with enough force to form a small crater.
A little farther away, Sakura held a kunai to the girl's neck and said, "I'm not going to hurt you, as long as you don't move, that is." The kunoichi's body is locked in fear, not moving an inch under Sakura's 'threat'.
"Now, where's your scroll?" Sasuke asked, placing a knee on the genin in the crater and holding a kunai to the back of his neck.
The genin didn't answer, but the brief glance he cast towards his female teammate was enough of an answer. Seeing a slight movement in the corner of his eyes, Sasuke threw a kunai behind him. The lightning crackled on the metal as it etched itself into the tree trunk, missing the other Kusagakure genin's head by an inch.
Sasuke raised his head and eyed the genin by the tree, reflecting the pattern of red and black in his pupil. It wasn't his intention, but the genin screamed, "It's with her! Just take her and let us go!"
Well, some 'teammate' you are.
Sasuke felt the body under him stirred. Immediately, he jumped back as an earth spike rose beside the Kusagakure genin, piercing through the air.
A kunai with an explosive tag followed, Sasuke flicked it aside with ease and let it crash into a nearby tree. The explosive tag soon blew off a hole in the tree trunk, but it served its purpose in distracting Naruto, allowing the Kusagakure genin to grab his teammate and run away.
"Wait a second, you …" Naruto wasn't ready to let go, but Sasuke halted him with a hand on his shoulder. "But they deserve it! We can totally catch them!"
"And what, leaving Sakura here alone with the kunoichi you want to save?" Sasuke said, silencing Naruto in one sentence. "Getting the scroll while protecting your teammates, that's the goal of this mission."
It was easy to run with Naruto's passion and impulsiveness. Arguing with him, competing with him, sparring with him … Sometimes, they were the only things that made Sasuke feel like he had a right to act like a child without a care for the consequences.
But it was different now. They were not sheltered academy students now. They were genin, aiming to become Chunin. So, Sasuke had to be rational, even if he was just as pissed off by his opponent's trick that gave them a chance to run away.
It was Sasuke's only way of keeping his teammates alive.
"The two of you need to stop arguing. She's fainting." Sakura said with a rare hint of impatience. Sasuke and Naruto turned around and saw the girl on the ground, with Sakura kneeling over the girl, her hand with the kunai looking a little awkward in the air.
"I didn't do anything, she just fainted from a mixture of fear, blood loss, and shock." Sakura felt the need to explain, before holding out a scroll. "Unfortunately, she has an Earth Scroll."
"Ne, can you heal her wounds on the arm, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked, adding a second later, "Please?"
No one could say no to Naruto's puppy eyes. Maiko-nee tried at one point and failed, Sakura was no different. With a sigh, she told him, "Give me that bottle of antiseptic in your storage scroll."
Naruto rushed over, fumbling over his storage seal. He was the only one with a storage seal, a gift from Jiraiya. Sakura only planned to bring minimal supplies that were light and easy to carry to handle emergencies. However, upon seeing the convenient storage space on Naruto, she happily put her supplies in.
With a poof, a lot of things spill out from the storage scroll - clearly, Naruto had not figured out how to use the seal with ease yet. Sakura found her bottle of antiseptic and splashed some of it on the girl's wound, before placing her hand over the bite marks and the cuts on her arm, slowly activating the green healing chakra.
Sakura only started to learn medical ninjutsu not long ago, therefore, she had to use the old fashion techniques to supplement her own healing chakra.
While the red-haired girl was being healed, Naruto started his journey to put everything back in the storage seal.
It didn't miss Sasuke's eyes when Naruto paused in shock right after he picked up a scroll. "What is it?" He asked, watching Naruto fall into silence while keeping his eyes on the scroll.
"It's not supposed to open," Naruto muttered, pulling the scroll open. "This scroll is supposed to be protected by a seal that can only be opened with the blood of my mom's lineage."
This time, Sasuke saw the specks of bloodstain being absorbed on the edge of the scroll, but Naruto didn't have a fresh wound on him. He realized it must have touched the girl's blood that pooled on the ground. At this point, everyone, including Sakura, turned their attention to the girl, seeing the red hair that was nowhere near the colour of Naruto's own hair.
"Ne, Sasuke, I think she's my family." Naruto came to the conclusion a moment later.
Yeah, Sasuke thought that he had seen all the insanity and irrationality in one day when Orochimaru appeared in the Chunin Exam. But apparently, it just kept getting better and better.
Sasuke found the whole thing suspicious, at least, from a rational standpoint. However, Naruto wouldn't joke in terms of family, nor would a seal as complicated as the one on Naruto's scroll.
The girl woke up a few minutes later and almost fainted again when she saw Naruto's enlarged face in front of her. It gave Naruto just enough time to reach a conclusion that he couldn't leave her alone, not after seeing how her teammates were treating her.
"Ah, sorry for scaring you." Naruto jumped back, apologizing to the girl who was more confused than scared at this point.
"What's your name?" Sasuke asked, not wasting a second.
"Ka … Karin." The girl answered immediately.
"Last name?" Sasuke asked and the girl shook his head. "Any family?" The girl nodded at first but quickly changed to shaking his head. Sasuke raised an eyebrow and the girl didn't need another cue before explaining. "I had a mother … but she died some time ago."
"Ne … do you want to go back to your team?" Naruto asked, his voice small and uncertain.
Karin looked at the blonde-haired boy, confusion still evident in her eyes, but the fear had subsided, not that it would last long anyway, seeing the purity in Naruto's blue eyes. A moment later, she shook her head.
"My mom comes from a clan where people had red hair. Karin-chan, can I call you that?" Karin nodded and Naruto continued. "This scroll is passed down from my mom and only the blood of her clan can open this." Carefully, Naruto touched the drop of dry blood on the ground with the seal on the scroll. The blood soaked in and a second later, the whirlpool symbol swirled, opening the scroll with ease.
From her expression, Karin didn't know anything as well, but she was still conscious enough to know that the pool of dried blood belonged to her and what this meant.
"I think we're family, Karin-chan," Naruto said, more convinced than ever. "Do you want to stay in Konoha?"
Karin looked at him, confusion replaced with panic once again. She didn't know if she could trust Naruto. Like Sasuke said, it was too irrational, too much of a coincidence.
"But Kusagakure, they won't let me go. I … will be labelled as a traitor and they will hunt me …" Karin was rambling until Sakura calmed her down with her gentle words.
"It's okay, let's not think of that for now. Do you want to go back to Kusagakure?" Sakura asked and this time, Karin gave her a determined shake of the head.
Both Sakura and Naruto turned towards Sasuke, fully expecting him to come up with a solution, which made Sasuke want to sigh in frustration
"Do you want to continue the Chunin Exam?" Sasuke asked. The girl wavered and Sakura comforted from the side. "It's okay if you think you're not ready. I don't care what others say, there's no shame in accepting your shortcomings and trying again later."
Karin shook her head. "They only brought me because I can heal." Then that makes things easy.
"This is the Forest of Death, it's easy to fake your death. It wouldn't be a surprise to your garbage of teammates if you had died when left alone, eaten by a bear. After that, Kusagakure genin could return to where they came from and you would disappear from their memory." Sasuke explained before turning around, capturing an ink rat in his vision and yelled "Sai! I know you're here."
Sai's ink rats were inconspicuous, but after seeing it once, Sasuke could catch them in his vision once in a while.
It took a minute for Sai and his team to appear on the branches, looking at them with an expression of contemplation, already knowing what had transpired through his ink creatures.
"Naruto said that she's his family, a relative of his mother. If that means anything to you, to the village, then you should get the Anbu to set up the scene to fake her death and escort her out of the Chunin Exam." Sasuke said, as calm as he could be. He didn't know who Naruto's mother was, but he had to assume that her bloodline was special, special enough that Konoha would care.
"It will be taken care of, Sasuke-kun." Sai nodded towards him before turning to the blonde-haired boy and the red-haired girl. "Is that alright with you, Naruto-kun and … Karin?"
Naruto nodded, a little confused because he was still processing the situation. Karin did the same a moment later, while her confusion was tripled.
Sasuke and his team needed to move along. Despite all the insanity that happened, they were still in the Chunin Exam. That was the only sane goal that Sasuke could cling to.
Naruto placated the girl, explaining to her that Sai and the Anbu that would come were good people that would help her. Sasuke didn't think Karin cared much, to be honest. Nothing could be worse than Kusagakure, she probably thought in her mind.
"Naruto-kun!" Karin called out just before they were about to leave, making Naruto halt his step and turn around. "Do you have any family in the village?"
"Not any blood-related ones, I think," Naruto rubbed his head. "But I have plenty of people that care about me and now I have you." Karin nodded, looking a little more relieved. In the end, she gave them a small wave before they ran further into the forest, towards the direction of the tower."
Three days and five hours after the start of the second stage, Team 7 arrived at the destination after taking a Heaven Scroll from an Amegakure team who thought that using a mediocre genjutsu was a good idea.
(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ fuwa~fuwa~desu~~~
Kusagakure genin Karin and three others were declared dead in the second stage.
Sai's team was eliminated in the second stage on the official record, not that they were in the forest after the third day.
The team of genin from Otogakure was declared too heavily injured to continue after the second day. Behind the scene, they were 'invited' by Sai and his team to have some tea in Anbu confinement, at least, until their leader could come and get them, which given the circumstances, was probably never.
At the official five-day deadline of the second stage, all of the participants as well as the affecting Kage and Daimyo received the Hokage's notice about the revised timeline of the third stage, the tournaments.
Mizukage and the Daimyo accepted quickly, with the latter expressing some discontent at the sudden change. The rest of the Kage were more outraged, questioning Konoha's organizational skill and their motives. Nevertheless, Konoha was not changing its decision and the Kage relented eventually.
The third stage tournament would start officially in less than twelve hours when the sun rose the next morning.
(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ fuwa~fuwa~desu~~~
This was probably not what Kakashi had imagined when he said to initiate a change and shake up the enemy.
Nevertheless, I just heard a Jonin from Sunagakure - Baki, was it? - scheme with one of our own genin, or I should say Orochimaru's underling, Yakushi Kabuto, about what to do now with the Suna's planned invasion with Otogakure now that the Hokage had rushed the timeline.
Kirigakure's silent killing technique required me to keep my emotions calm as well as my breathing. It was the only way I could get close enough without alerting my targets.
I became an observer, as Baki pointed out, with some anger, that it was hard for their forces to reorganize with the sudden notice. Kabuto furrowed his eyebrows, but he shook his head, saying that there was nothing they could do at this point.
Honestly, if they wanted to scheme Konoha's destruction, they should at least have the decency to do it outside of the village. But I supposed that getting out of the village unnoticed was just as hard as avoiding Anbu surveillance in the village, which, considering I was here right now, was close to impossible.
It was fine and all until I noticed a presence approaching the suspicious duo from another angle. It was Yugao-senpai's boyfriend.
I didn't know how he stumbled upon this - which again, showed that Baki and Kabuto really needed to work on their subtlety when scheming - but at this rate, he would get found out. Baki was a Jonin, despite everything.
Silently, I moved behind Gekkō-san, who didn't notice me at all. Just as I was contemplating how I should make him leave, Baki and Kabuto turned in our direction, suspicious of their surroundings.
However, they saw nothing and sensed nothing, returning to their discussion after a pause. In my eyes, the layers of gentle chakra separated reality and illusion. I turned around, seeing the cat mask and the red Sharingan that shone through in the shadow.
The man in front of me turned sharply, finally realizing the work of a genjutsu. He came face to face with my rabbit mask. I placed a finger in front of my lips. My red sharingan stood as a sharp contrast to the mask, further confirming my identity and hiding Itachi's work.
Not here. Go back. I signed with my hands. A moment later, Gekkō-san nodded, moving away with stealth as Itachi's genjutsu covered for him.
Itachi's chakra withdrew as quietly as it came. It was unnecessary as long as I could suppress my presence using Silent killing. He was always meant to be a flexible presence in the village, helping where necessary, never showing himself unless there was no other choice.
I observed until their meeting was dismissed. Baki went back to the living quarters provided for the Chunin participants, while Kabuto ventured further into the village.
Five minutes later, Kabuto flopped to the ground, with two senbon stuck on his neck, knocking him unconscious. Lightning chakra retracted from my body as the Anbu appeared in the shadow, taking him into confinement.
The news of a Suna-Oto invasion changed everything, yet it changed nothing.
Konoha needed leverage over Suna, especially if we wanted their cooperation on the matter of Akatsuki and tailed-beasts. Furthermore, to remove the weeds, one needed to burn them from the roots.
Therefore, the Chunin Exam would still continue as planned with no signs of disturbance - Konoha needed to show their stability and strength, after all - but now, more than ever, it had become an invitation, for those invited and uninvited, and particularly for those carrying unsolicited gifts.
But of course, by setting up the trap as it was, all of us involved - the Godaime Hokage, the advisory council, Kakashi, Itachi, me … We would forever carry the responsibility of ensuring the village's safety and the consequences of our decision.
The moment the decision was made, an oath was born, where all of us sworn to give up our lives to protect those left in the dark, unaware of the danger that was to come.
A/N: If you just take things out of context, the yandere potential of Uchiha really stands out.
Itachi: Am I not special enough?
Maiko: keep your eyes on me!
Orochimaru: ? ? ?
Sasuke: ? ? ? ? ? (My clan can't be like this?)
Also in this entire event, Suna be like: ? ? ? Who am I, where am I, what's going on? ? ? ?
Of course, the decision not to axe the Chunin exam for safety reasons would have never worked in real life, but the world of Naruto is not modern, real life. The hidden villages are more like a militarized institutions where at least 50% of the population are shinobi and are expected to fight the enemy with adequacy. Risks and benefits were always a source of evaluation, but the criteria and what's acceptable were not the same as today's standards.
I'm not going to write the Chunin exam on the surface over in detail, only the important parts. But if anyone is curious, Team 7 passed the first exam by pure cheating. Sasuke stole the answer from a chunin pretending to be the genin using his sharingan and he shared it all with Sakura and Naruto using a genjutsu.