Come From The Holy Fire

by JulyFlame

This is no longer being updated on FFN.

11. Discord in the Garden Tonight

Much thanks to the ever tea-imbibing Desdendelle and the cat-heating Tavina for beta-reading.

Tavina's alternate suggested title for this chapter was: "Everyone's Horrible, Terrible, No Good and Very Bad Second Exam."

---

I barely avoided missing the next branch, which was impressive, because of just how large it was. Naruto was ahead, moving with surprising speed and determination. Sakura, ahead of me, turned, the serious look on her face softening with concern. "Sasuke-kun, are you okay?"

"Fine," I answered, as I tried to figure out what the hell was going on.

Sakura wasn't wearing her usual clothes; instead of the usual dress and shorts, she was wearing an olive green jacket and matching cargo pants. Even from a distance away, I could tell they were more rugged and hardy looking than her usual outfit was. Occasionally as she jumped or landed, the jacket flared out, showing a black shirt underneath. It was extremely practical, and not delicate looking in the least. This must have been why she wasn't thrilled at finding out her mom packed for her.

This had to be the second test, obviously, but beyond that...

I didn't even know what direction we were going in, or what the plan was, if there was one, or who had the scroll and which one of the two it was. You're carrying the Scroll of Heaven, dummy, my thoughts directed at me.

Somewhat less of a total loss, then, but not enough to make me feel that much less directionless.

We kept going, silent.

The idea that Naruto could stay quiet this long was weird. Almost unnerving. Not quite impossible, but just strange that this twelve year old who generally showed little in the way of self-control could actually stay focused on a single task.

Then again, maybe not so much?

He had to have had some, just to figure out the shadow clone jutsu, after all. And that was for something he thought would get him to become a ninja.

In practice his own survival probably ranked much higher in terms of things that would keep his attention span going. I couldn't see Kakashi's warnings being ignored so easily when they were so serious. At least, I hoped so.

I tried to shove the uncomfortable question of when I started to get attached to imaginary dream children away.

Ahead, Naruto briefly turned his head to look at us. "Sakura-chan, are you holding up okay?"

"You don't need to check every five minutes, Naruto," Sakura answered, sounding not quite exasperated. "It's not going to change from the last time. My knee's fine. The medic-nin cleared me at the hospital after it happened for full duty, remember? That was weeks ago."

"Yeah, but, he said you gotta do exercises and stuff to make sure it recovers fully, didn't he? Doesn't that mean it's still bad?"

"And I've been doing them! Ugh. Just because you might slack on things doesn't mean other people do, right, Sasuke-kun?"

"Right," I said, just choosing to echo. I suddenly felt very guilty. I realized I didn't even know where the folded up print-outs of the knee stabilization exercises I was supposed to do went, much less the ones for my shoulder. I hadn't kept them up for long after I had gotten out of physical therapy. They were probably gathering eraser dust or something in one of my desk drawers.

"Yeah but..." Naruto drifted off, apparently not wanting to share more than he already had. "Nevermind. We'll just keep moving unless someone needs a break, yeah? And hope we don't get caught…" The last words were quieter than the rest.

He was worried. Not just worried, actually afraid. As far as Naruto was concerned, we were in danger of being tracked down by Orochimaru because of him. The only reason why he hadn't attempted to split off on his own was probably of being severely warned by Kakashi that we stick together. I resisted the urge to shudder. That thought had floated into my head on its own. Kakashi had said that this morning. A morning I knew nothing about, except, it seemed, for that.

I redirected my attention to the surrounding gargantuan trees reached high into the sky with so many vast branches it was difficult to properly see it. Trees really had no business being this large. Redwood forests were already highly suspicious to me. These hulking beasts didn't even have the excuse of being pine trees and mostly going in an upward direction. These were the plant world versions of freaks of nature, completely impossible.

Being indignant about trees made me feel a bit better, but it didn't last long.

For however many other people were supposed to be in here— between genin teams and jōnin on standby— the forest was quiet in a natural way. No sounds of fighting at all. That was almost spooky on its own.

It said to me at least that everyone in here was preoccupied with the proverbial elephant in the room. The snake in the forest. This was a very, very different game of survival than the one any of them expected they had signed up for, except for the ones who were here because of him. I doubted they would mind it very much.

And Orochimaru wasn't even the only danger in here. There were the Sound-nin, as well.

My personal concern, outside of Orochimaru, was not wanting to run into Gaara.

I didn't want to be the one to find out firsthand he didn't have enough self-control to not kill even when it was a direct instruction, which unfortunately answered the question of if that had been forbidden or not.

I decided to do my best to just stop thinking before anything else slipped into my thoughts, unwanted.

The peacefulness of just running didn't last for long.

Naruto tried to come to a sudden stop on the next branch, a long sloping length extending upwards in the direction we were going that luckily for him gave him enough space to skid and tumble— made particularly rough by the presence of his gear bag— before he got back up to his feet, pulling a kunai out from his holster. Sakura and I, further behind him, had just enough time to slow down and land less clumsily.

It was obvious why Naruto had stopped when he had, when we dropped down to join him.

A bright red spray of blood was apparent against the wood, with kunai and shuriken embedded in this branch and some of the other branches nearby. The scent of smoke from burnt wood lingered in the air, heralding the occasional scorch marks in the trees around us. A fight had taken place here.

Something about it made me tense up.

Sakura gasped, before pressing her hand to her mouth to cut it off. "We need to leave," she said, as quiet as she could.

Naruto was still looking around with the kunai gripped in his hand, eyes squinted in concentration.

"What is it?" I asked.

She pointed upwards, without a word.

Naruto exchanged a wary look with me.

I regretted looking up.

Pinned above our heads to the overhanging branch were two bodies, both in flak jackets, one with an obvious neck wound, blood still seeping down. The other showed no sign of injury at all, but neither showed any signs of life.

Too realistic.

Blood splashed down onto the branch we were standing on, staining the bark.

It was only when I met Sakura's eyes that it occurred to me that it hadn't dripped before that. That had to mean the bodies had just been pinned up there right before we got here. It was new. Same as the spray of still-bright blood earlier, and the smell of smoke.

Naruto jumped ahead, only to be swallowed whole by the giant snake that suddenly lunged down from above, descending to the ground in a way that was horrifyingly silent except for the snap of its jaws. It disappeared from sight.

Sakura screamed. "NARUTO!"

I couldn't help but approach the edge to stare downwards, trying to figure out where the fuck the snake went. With all the other sensory nonsense with these dreams, I absolutely did not want the experience of being eaten by a snake.

"I'm surprised you're not running," a voice said. I twisted around to find out where it was coming from, temporarily meeting Sakura's eyes.

A figure dropped down from the branch the corpses were pinned to, landing without a sound. Their dark hair was pulled back into a tight bun, a Konoha hitai-ate tied to their forehead. Dressed in a collared track jacket, and with a sash crossing over one shoulder, nothing about the clothing remotely screamed menace, but there was something chilling in the half-mocking smile directed at us.

Sakura pulled out a kunai, even as she took a step backwards.

"Would that even do anything?" I asked. "It's obvious who you are. Are we supposed to be stupid enough to assume that would work?"

Triggering that kind of nightmare sequence never went well in dreams gone bad for me before, and I didn't think it would turn out any different with one featuring Orochimaru. I really, really did not think that Sakura and I would be able to out-run Orochimaru in a nightmare, even when he was dressed non-threateningly like that. He was still wearing someone's face over his own, after all.

There was no point, which annoyed me.

"You Uchiha... for all that you enjoy being dramatic yourselves, you can't stand anyone else having the same opportunity, do you?" He laughed. "And here I was, ready to play pretend for you."

Sakura stepped backwards, until she was on the very edge of the branch before it no longer offered standing ground.

"I don't need this anymore, even to pretend to check against yours, then." He mockingly pulled out the scroll for the exam. The Scroll of Earth. Unlucky us. He opened his mouth, and I could pinpoint the moment that it was past where a normal human would be able to extend their jaw. Orochimaru's tongue extended out from his mouth, wrapping it around the scroll, pulling it into his mouth before he swallowed it whole.

His throat bulged as it slid down. A stupid thought crossed my mind, despite the horror and tension of the moment: I wondered how it would even come out, or if he would even bother, if this hadn't been a dream. There was no way it was going to get past his stomach.

"So much for games. Let's see how you deal with fighting for your life, when it's futile."

Like the dream with the Tsukiyomi before, terrible images of death smashed through my head. Not of the Uchiha clan, but of Sasuke's. My stomach roiled threateningly.

I shook my head, trying to ignore it even as my breathing went shallow. Breathe in. Breathe out. Deep breathes to fight off the panic and fear that was trying to grip me.

Sakura let out what barely counted as a noise as she dropped to her knees, the kunai clattering out of her hand and onto the wood. Uncontrolled tears began to stream down her face.

"Sakura, get up," I said, grabbing her arm. I pulled her up, shifting her to provide more support. "This isn't real."

She whimpered. I nudged at one of her feet to force her to try and support herself more.

Something flashed in Orochimaru's eyes— a greedy look directed entirely at me— and the terrible mental images and fear began to dissipate. "How are you able to ignore it, Sasuke-kun?" The condescending derision of earlier had disappeared entirely.

I couldn't quite convince myself that an intrigued Orochimaru was better to deal with. It probably wasn't.

"Sakura, we need to move," I whispered, voice urgent. "Close your eyes and get a hold of yourself. Breathe." She did, almost immediately steadying.

"Is there something wrong with you, to inhibit what should be a natural fear for someone targeted as prey? Or is there something else?" Orochimaru's smile was taunting. "Do you think you're also a predator, Sasuke-kun?"

I glanced back at Orochimaru, unable to disguise how unimpressed I was with the heavy-handed metaphors, and then grabbed Sakura around the waist, throwing us both off the side of the branch, clapping a hand over Sakura's mouth when she opened it to scream in surprise. It ended up muffled against my palm, her breath warm. We tumbled down, rolling and smashing against different branches on the way. The air was completely knocked out of me by the time we were on solid ground.

Sakura got up first on wobbly legs, giving me a hand to help stand up.

From down here, we couldn't even see the branch we had been on. I hadn't realized how far up that had been.

Sakura armed herself again, if shakily. "Sasuke, are you alright?" she whispered. She pulled me towards the nearest tree we were next to; immense like the others, its roots were partially lifted above the ground, creating nooks to hide in.

"Yeah," I answered, distracted. There was no sign of any snakes— actual or figurative. I wasn't sure how we'd come across or get Naruto back if we were this lost. I guess we'd have to hope he'd figure it out on his own, otherwise he'd be lost.

"Those bodies… They were wearing flak jackets. They had to be some of the jōnin trying to capture him. What are we supposed to do? He knew your name." Sakura's voice quavered, even with how softly she was speaking. She was trying to avoid attracting any attention to where we were.

I couldn't remember the entire sequence of events or reasonings from the show; Naruto had been swallowed by one of Orochimaru's snakes in there, too, but was giving the seal to Sasuke always Orochimaru's goal from the start or had that been a change of plans?

How much did Sasuke's Sharingan play into that? Had I even unlocked it in these dreams? No, I hadn't. Sasuke's lack of trauma was unfortunate there, I guess.

I chewed on my bottom lip as I thought over the options. "If he knew mine, it means he doesn't care about you. Go. Find Naruto or someone." I had a strong suspicion I was about to find out how important an active Sharingan could be to Orochimaru's interest in Sasuke. He had given up on even pretending he was in here for the exam when confronted.

"What?" Sakura sounded insulted, it overriding her current fearfulness. "I'm not going to leave you behind! How can you suggest that?"

"Easily," I answered. "He came in here for a reason, and that's me. If he decides you're a nuisance, he'll just kill you. Those jōnin didn't stand a chance. What makes you think we will?"

She looked at me, worry in her eyes. "Sasuke-kun… the last time I left you behind…"

"Does it matter?" I was beginning to wish we hadn't fallen all the way to the ground. It would have been easier to lose Sakura.

That turned out to be the wrong thing to say. Her eyes narrowed. "Don't say that kind of terrible thing," she hissed. "I felt awful when we heard there were bodies and we couldn't even stop to see if you were one of them. I am not going through that again when I don't have to, especially with both of you at the same time!" It seemed like Sakura had ended up with the lion's share of the trauma from Wave, then. I didn't count my new squeamishness around raw meat.

"How touching," Orochimaru's voice said, from above.

Sakura jolted, and we looked upwards.

He was wound around a thinner branch, one arm hanging loosely down, straight. It was a terrible contrast against the rest of his body, warped as it was to wrap around the wood.

I was not looking forward to having normal nightmares if those ever happened again, because I couldn't see my mind not reusing that in the future.

There was a sudden rustling.

Sakura and I barely dodged out of the way as another massive snake— not so large as the one that had managed to swallow Naruto whole— darted at the spot we had hidden in, its jaws wide, showing its dripping fangs.

It barely occured to me afterwards that I had let loose a flurry of shuriken when I had split away from Sakura. Blood was visibly running from the side of the snake's I was facing.

On the other side, Sakura had not gained such a wide clearance, and red covered her right sleeve, before it slowly turned to flecks on her shoulder and face. She was breathing hard, her eyes wide. The kunai was missing, but her hand was red and damp, with a small chunk of flesh clinging to her fingers. If either of us could put more claim to the snake's death, it was her.

My stomach turned again. I tried my best to ignore it. Throwing up now was an awful idea. Then again, it had worked to distract Itachi, hadn't it? I wasn't sure I wanted to try to throw up on someone in these dreams on purpose, though, even Orochimaru. Once was bad enough.

"Both of you are more interesting than I expected," Orochimaru mused. "Are you planning on surpassing your brother, Sasuke-kun? Should I bother to ask your comrade's name?"

"Will it get you to stop with the predator and prey nonsense?" I asked, in spite of myself.

Before I could even process it, he had moved from the branch to the ground, and was holding me up by the neck at arm's length, looking me in the eye. A bit too closely in the eye. My jaw didn't take long to start aching from where his grip was positioned, legs dangling uselessly.

"You haven't awoken the Sharingan," Orochimaru concluded. "Even with all that loss… Are you unwilling to acknowledge it, or is it something else? I can't believe it's because you don't possess it at all." The pressure on my neck shifted. "Even the most elite of jōnin react to my killing intent."

Can't breathe, can't breathe…

"Sasuke!" Sakura's shout did nothing. Why would it have?

He stared at me impassively as I finally began to thrash when my vision started to fade to black around the edges, trying to breathe. Was this really what it would feel like?

It was getting harder to move or think, and my eyes started to shutter close.

The grip on my neck moved again, the pressure no longer on my windpipe.

I gasped, before I sucked in fresh air.

"Too slow again," he noted. "But not involuntary."

"LET GO OF SASUKE, YOU ASSHOLE!" Naruto's shout came just before he dropped into sight, smashing down into Orochimaru from above, knocking the Sannin down, and me out of his grasp.

There was a pearlescent mucousy sheen covering Naruto, thick enough that his hair was sticking up in hard spikes where it wasn't slicked against his skull. It was disgusting, and absurdly made me wonder how he got out of the snake. Then again, I probably didn't want to know.

Naruto grinned at me as he stood up. "Hey, hey, did you see tha—"

He was knocked into a tree by a swift kick as Orochimaru righted himself.

"One cautious, one reckless, and then there's you, Sasuke-kun," Orochimaru said.

Naruto struggled to his feet, eyes narrowing. "Hey, you bastard! We're all Konoha-nin here! Why are you going after us?"

"Is that what you think is going on?" Orochimaru laughed to himself.

Sakura's eyes widened as she realized. "Naruto, don't! That's Orochimaru!"

Orochimaru's attention shifted again, this time directed onto Naruto, clearly putting things together. "The Kyūbi brat?"

Naruto froze, eyes widening with fear and worry.

"So you do know what you are." Orochimaru smirked, drawing closer to Naruto. Despite the slow, deliberate walk, Naruto didn't move, his eyes dilating as he switched between looking at me, Sakura, and Orochimaru. Naruto's breathing was visibly labored by the time Orochimaru was standing in front of him. The fear that gripped him was different from the one that Orochimaru had triggered in Sakura before. "Hiruzen-sensei must have constructed this team with a hope of keeping you under control just in case something happened... Hatake Kakashi must be your jōnin-sensei, then," he concluded out loud.

There was something terrible and fascinating about watching him reason all of this out just from one single clue.

"'Kyūbi brat'?" Sakura questioned, her voice small.

Orochimaru laughed. "Your teammates don't know, but you do?"

It was like throwing a switch.

Naruto's eyes narrowed, and he snarled. "Don't you dare tell them!"

"The Yondaime Hokage sealed the Kyūbi into a newborn infant and died in the process. This boy."

Sakura gasped.

Orochimaru's smirk turned even more mocking. "This whole team was likely never meant to be a legitimate one from the start. The single remaining Sharingan user in the village, one with the possibility of possessing a full set, and..." His eyes lingered on Sakura. I tried to dismiss the idea that his gaze seemed almost sympathetic. "Probably an intended sacrifice or distraction? The Sandaime isn't afraid of wasting his shinobi as long as they aren't precious to him."

Naruto threw himself at Orochimaru, the blue of his eyes bleeding into a red visible from here, the whisker marks on his face darkening and broadening. "I SAID! DON'T! TELL THEM!"

His hand clawed across Orochimaru's stolen face, and it tore, peeling apart where Naruto had struck him. The skin hung in tatters, getting in the man's eyes, revealing the near-white complexion beneath it.

Orochimaru didn't seem to have expected that to happen so fast, striking Naruto away with one arm, before the other reached out, stretching far beyond what a normal arm should have been capable of. He gripped Naruto's jacket collar to hold him up, like he had scruffed an unruly pet.

"LET! ME! GO!" Naruto's shouting devolved into something more terrible and primal, as he clawed and kicked out into the empty air. Whatever reason and kind of cleverness Naruto usually possessed had completely abandoned him.

Using his free hand, Orochimaru tore the ruined skin from his face, pulling it up from under his chin and through his hair, where he finally reached his fingers through the hair tie, loosening his hair from the bun it had been in, all in one smooth motion. Bits of tattered skin hung in his hair. He approached Naruto, letting his arm shorten to a more normal length, passively observing his struggle. His gaze soon drew down to Naruto's stomach, Naruto's thrashing making his jacket and shirt shift upwards, exposing his belly.

"So the seal is visible when you get riled up… Emotions affect the body in such interesting ways... " What looked like purple fire suddenly appeared at Orochimaru's fingertips.

This was so much worse to watch than in the show.

I wasn't aware of arming myself, but I must have, for there to be a cloth-strip covered Kunai gripped between my teeth as I rushed forward, the joints between my fingers already occupied with more. Metal wire led away, knotted around the loops at the end of the kunai, tied around even more kunai and shuriken that swung behind me as I rushed forward.

We had rigged up for laying traps on the fly if need be, with ninja wire attached to our kunai and even shuriken.

This time, knowing didn't bother me.

I threw the first handful in an arc, twisting to avoid getting caught by the weapons attached to the wires at the other ends, with much more grace than I really possessed. Sasuke did, though.

Orochimaru's eyes— their true color visible now— widened in surprise, barely dropping Naruto in time to be able evade the first wave of kunai.

It wasn't quite fast enough for the second wave. A shuriken that was tied to one of the kunai from before clipped a visibly large hank of his hair at the midpoint as it swung through the air. I didn't need the Sharingan to predict Orochimaru's moves. He just needed to be unable to predict everything heading at him.

The one in my mouth still remained, and my fingers moved on their own, molding just enough chakra to set the cloth aflame. I flung it at Orochimaru's feet.

Sakura's eyes widened, and she yanked a kunai from her own holster. There was an exploding tag attached to it. It would possibly buy us enough time—

or just make things worse.

"Naruto! Move!" I shouted, just as Sakura threw it.

Naruto looked up from where he had been on the ground, his eyes still wild looking and red, even from here.

I had a sudden bad feeling about this.

He launched himself at Orochimaru, instead of heading for safety, with a wordless scream, fury still painted on his face.

"Naruto!"

Orochimaru jammed his hand— the ominous purple flames still dancing on his fingertips— against Naruto's belly.

Naruto let loose a terrible yowling sound before he bonelessly collapsed to the ground.

Sakura's kunai hit my lit one, and an explosion went off, blasting dirt and smoke upwards, making everyone else disappear from sight.

The last thing I saw was Orochimaru's face, fangs extended from his mouth suddenly lunging at me from the smoke.

Being bitten in a dream did not hurt any less than being bitten in real life, which was absolutely unfair.

---

"All teams, this is Team Sarutobi. Clear over here," the radio piece fed into Kakashi's ear as the last jōnin pair checked in at the quarter hour mark. Its volume was turned down to be as low it could be to avoid unnecessary sound, since the earpieces leaked noise. It meant that any comms were only half distinguishable.

Quarter hour many, Tenzō signed to him, when they began to move again to patrol their portion of the forest. The former Root agent had even thrown in the unnecessary downward drag that was supposed to inflect disapproval. At first, Kakashi noticed it only among a specific subset of Anbu— Root agents in the wild— but before long it has spread to most of the others, who had thrown more modulating movements in. Only captains and exasperated trainers kept it out of their signs, now.

Negative, he flicked back behind his head, and shot ahead. Tenzō would have to take the lead or get next to him to continue that 'argument', as much as it could be considered one. Despite how few hand signals there were— however much rumors liked to state it was the case, Anbu tactical signs only had a few extra beyond the standard Konohagakure list, it was no true language— Tenzō was adept in arguing and even complaining in it all the same. He hadn't missed it.

Besides the limited radio use, they were running silent; it was the only option that made sense, being ordered to limit their interference in the test as much as possible. Otherwise, they would attract too much attention from not just the participating genin, but the wildlife as well, outside of Orochimaru and whoever else he had managed to get into the examination.

Konoha's intel team had already identified one team, extracting them inside of their gate before they could get any further. Doing so earlier would have provided hints to anyone else. The genin from Otogakure were likely being dealt with by Torture & Interrogation as Kakashi patrolled. Even with everything else going on— enough that reserve forces were being activated to help with everyday operations, much more than normally happened for the exams— it was too time sensitive to have them wait in a cell.

Orochimaru did not have a reputation for doing anything by halves; a single group of teenagers who could be immediately subdued by a single Anbu— in spite of their attempt at a fight— only put them all more on edge. There was no possible way that was it. Kakashi refused to let his guard down.

Killing intent flooded over him, followed by a scream from far ahead and below. Without bothering to signal behind him— Tenzō would figure it out— he dropped several feet down, pushing chakra into his legs and ran until he could get a more thorough look, pushing his hitai-ate up to uncover the Sharingan.

It isn't very often that Kakashi came across a murder scene where there weren't even body parts remaining.

The scent of blood was heavy in the air, enough to permeate his mask, and there were dark wet splatters on the ground. Uneven, radiating from a center point in a clearing.

Three Suna genin— the Kazekage's children— were standing on one side of the bloodshed. The killing intent was emanating from the youngest one, who was splattered with blood. It would be more unexpected if he hadn't investigated ahead of time, when Naruto had babbled about meeting a red-haired boy who, unfortunately to Naruto, was not family. Gaara of the Sand was already a killer of repute, an internal issue of serious concern for Suna. Most jōnin couldn't give off enough killing intent for it to spread as far as that had. The vast majority of genin could barely exude it at all.

On the other side, two Kusa genin, who were staring in clear horror, standing utterly still. The girl of the two had bright red hair of a shade he had only seen on one other person, almost thirteen years ago. A matter for another time.

It wouldn't impact the mission, he decided.

Tenzō joined him a moment later, standing ahead enough in front of him that it meant Kakashi couldn't pretend to ignore his hand signs. Eight, he signaled. Three Konoha. Engage query, disprove.

Out of sight, then. If they had any sense, then those genin would leave the moment they were given the opportunity.

To Tenzō's clear dismay, Kakashi dropped into the clearing. They didn't need two unstoppable forces rampaging through the forest, after all. Not when the younger one could be used to the benefit of the other. The change in rules allowed the jōnin to remove any identified killers from the forest, at least.

The killing intent radiating from the youngest Suna-nin retracted with a baleful look directed at him..

"Jōnin-san, this was an accident," the eldest of the three siblings tried to tell him, her words rushed. She raised her hands placatingly.

"Fuck off!" a bush shouted. It rustled for a moment, with hushed whispers, before a boy pushed out to stand in front of it, the red fang markings on his face telling Kakashi he was an Inuzuka. The small dog, quivering in the Inuzuka's jacket, was just additional confirmation. Two others emerged to stand next to him, an Aburame boy and a Hyūga girl. Part of Kurenai's team, then. "That bastard just went off and killed someone! You're just gonna lie about it?"

This was a worse situation than Kakashi had expected to deal with.

"Don't talk that way about my younger brother!" Temari shouted, as the middle sibling cringed.

"He killed Shigeri in cold blood!" The dark-haired Kusa boy retorted. "You stood there and let it happen! You were going to let him kill all of us!"

"You were the ones who attacked us first! It's not our fault! You started this in the first place!"

"We didn't expect that we'd get fucking murdered!"

"So? It's not our fault the rules changed! We had to show that we understood we could potentially die during the exams before we left our village, didn't you?"

The red-headed girl burst into silent tears.

It was almost enough to make Kakashi consider leaving the clearing and allow the genin to fix themselves instead, but it was too late. He had already made the decision to intervene the way he had. He was beginning to regret this new habit that he had developed in the last few months. Allowing genin to talk was a mistake; he should have known better from his experience leading Team Seven.

"Both of your teams are disqualified and no longer part of this exam," Kakashi said. "Team Kurenai—" the Inuzuka and Huuyga both reacted in blatant surprise at the fact he knew who led them, the Aburame less so— "Unless you feel like joining them, leave."

His declaration only started another uproar of protests, between the male Kusa-nin, the two older siblings from Suna, and the Inuzuka boy.

"Why are we disqualified—"

"—it was an accident—"

"We didn't even do anything!"

"-even know-"

"Why are we getting in trouble?!"

Sand shifted, skirting across Kakashi's toes. He decided to ignore it.

"Will you all shut up," Gaara rasped.

The genin went dead-still, silent enough to hear the wind in the branches above.

Gaara stared at Kakashi. "You're Naruto's sensei."

"How does he know Nar—" The Inuzuka was silenced as his teammates pressed their hands over his mouth, pulling him back. Kurenai had mentioned her concerns about her team; he would have to mention to her that the Hyūga girl's survival instincts outweighed the anxiety Kurenai had thought would be such an issue

Wonderful. It stood to reason that Naruto would manage to make himself memorable to the most dangerous genin in the exam. "Yes, I am." There was no point in bothering to deny it, the information was easily accessible, especially during the exams. He had probably put the connection together from when he and his team had left the exam hall when Kakashi was waiting for the various Kiri-nin that had fallen under Zabuza's banner.

The boy stared into his eyes, unblinking. "If he lives past this… I want to talk to him."

"We'll see," Kakashi answered. He wondered how much ramen it would take in the form of blatant bribery to make Naruto avoid the red-haired boy. From how much his blond student enjoyed both ramen and making terrible friends, he suspected it would empty his savings. He'd leave that tactic to Asuma. "Team Kurenai. Leave."

This time, they finally left, the Inuzuka dragged away forcibly by his teammates. The dog had more sense than his human partner.

Once they were acceptably out of range, Kakashi spoke once more. "Take out your scrolls and open them."

Temari eyed him warily, more so now that her younger brother had said anything. "I thought we weren't supposed to open them unless we reached the tower?"

"You are no longer part of this exam. Open your scrolls."

The red-headed Kusa-nin haltingly pulled out the scroll for her team, tears still streaming down her face. Kankuro— the cynical comments on the intel report about how the boy was only a few years away from being able to be used as an easy body double for his father the Kazekage weren't that far off at all— reluctantly pulled the one he was holding out.

Both had the Scroll of Earth.

Kankuro waited until the girl started to open hers up to do so himself.

Smoke began to disperse, and out of alarm and caution the genin threw the scrolls out and away. At least that showed neither were as senseless as the earlier dramatics suggested.

Two chūnin appeared from the smoke, the only thing stopping them from immediately attempting to knock the genin out being Kakashi's presence.

To Kakashi's internal surprise, both were women; one he vaguely recognized as one of the many instructors at the academy, a curly haired woman in glasses that he only knew of having the unique reputation as being a germaphobe in spite of working with children. The other, unfortunately, he knew well by sight if not personally, though it had been years since he saw her in a flak jacket.

Things were not going well in the village if Nara Yoshino— the Jōnin Commander's wife— felt the need to volunteer herself for active duty again. She must have forced her way into taking one of the opened roles, after yesterday's reorganization happened. It was no wonder now that Shikaku— normally adept at keeping annoyance off his face— had looked particularly frustrated when they were planning out the general area each jōnin team would patrol this morning.

"The team from Suna killed someone and are disqualified from the rest of the exam. The Kusa-nin no longer have a full team as a result and can no longer continue," he informed them, keeping his voice as casual as he could. Yoshino had already noticed the girl's hair. The other woman showed no sign of making any kind of connection. "Both need to be escorted to the tower."

"We still have to go there anyways?" Temari asked in disbelief. "We're closer to the gates out than to that building!"

"You entered and signed the release form," Yoshino said, folding her arms under her chest. "Do you really want to be found out as the first team that failed entirely because you couldn't follow basic instructions?"

Temari's eyes narrowed. For being outnumbered by Konoha-nin that outranked her in a non-combat situation, she was holding her ground. In spite of her youngest brother— or because of him— she was doing her best to try to exert as much control as she could over the situation. Kakashi resigned himself to mentioning that. "Fine. Are we going to have to stay there until the second exam is finished?"

"Yes," Kakashi answered.

"Thank you for alerting us in the first place, but we can take over from here," Yoshino told him.

The other woman nodded slightly. "Thank you, Hatake... san." Kakashi ignored the delay.

It wasn't the first time he was so firmly dismissed by chūnin, and it certainly wouldn't be the last time. While with Yoshino it was probably just how the woman was— going from gossip, along with the fact she was trying to firmly reassert herself after years inactive— the hesitance of the academy teacher wasn't anything new from the past several weeks. The fact she had even made the attempt at being polite at all meant that his reputation was slowly recovering in spite of itself.

Either way, it meant these genin weren't his problem anymore. All the better for him.

Kakashi gave a lazy one-fingered salute of acknowledgement before making the tiger seal, disappearing out of their sight with a plume of smoke before running. He stopped on a branch overhead that still had enough clearance beneath it to watch, just in case. He lowered his hitai-ate back into position.

Tenzō landed silently next to him, the only tell being the other man's weight making the branch dip lightly.

The earpiece crackled. "All teams, this is Tower. Check in requested, over," Gai's voice said.

Kakashi pressed to transmit, answering. "Tower, Hatake. All clear."

Tenzō gave him a look of disapproval as the other teams answered. Likely over the blatant lie over the comms. "You should have just knocked them out and let the assigned chūnin handle it."

"There's something off about the Kazekage's youngest son. Not just the killing intent."

Tenzō frowned. "You could have let me know instead of throwing yourself into without warning."

They watched as the chūnin and genin below took off in the direction of the tower.

"Didn't matter."

While the killing intent and chakra emanating from Gaara had carried implications, especially when paired with the boy's reputation... The expressions and reaction of the red-haired boy reminded Kakashi of one of his own charges instead, and not in a way that boded anything well.

Uchiha Sasuke concerned him.

Normal genin did not react so little to death or treat people like they were afterthoughts or frustrations that could be carved or pushed through, even in battle. While the boy's reactions after he had carved through a swath of Gato's mercenaries were normal after a first kill— throwing up, an avoidance of bloody meat, and nightmares— it was everything during it that worried him.

Even experienced jōnin did not shut themselves off like that. Even prior to the annihilation of the Uchiha clan, Sasuke's older brother had not. For all that shinobi were tools and soldiers, they were still people. In spite of all the death the genin had been exposed to by now, and the way Kakashi had seen Sasuke's first kills haunt the boy's sleep, there was no sign of the Sharingan.

What did it mean that the surviving child was able to surpass his elder brother in such a terrible way?

And yet, in spite of that, outside of that mission and the altercation with the Hyūga boy the one and only time they trained with Gai's team, Sasuke appeared… not normal, Kakashi had no idea what counted as normal for almost thirteen year old children and didn't like what insight he was beginning to gain there, but the boy acted with enough maturity to counterbalance the other two and seemed to at least respect that the people who surrounded him on a daily basis were people as well. He was mostly quiet.

Even so, the only thing that kept Kakashi from dropping Sasuke off at the Intelligence Division's main building was Jiraiya's urging for him to keep his worries to himself, after he had brought up his concerns to the older man when Jiraiya had met them in Kōsaten-mura on their return to Konoha. While he had done so, it didn't mean he wasn't baffled at the fact that Sasuke had somehow 'passed' the psychological screening after their mission anyways. If it weren't for the fact that he needed to avoid any further trouble for the foreseeable future, he would have infiltrated the hospital to look through Sasuke's medical records. Making a formal request would only alert someone to the fact that he felt the need to look through them.

Yoshino and the others vanished entirely from sight. He could only assume that Gaara was assenting entirely to the escort, then; there'd be no need for a direct intervention on his part.

Giving in to Tenzō's better nature, he held the transmission switch down. "Tower, Hatake. Two chūnin and five genin are on their way to the tower." The numbers explained what happened well enough.

"Team Hatake, Tower. Roger that." In spite of the fact it was only Gai's voice being transmitted, the tone of Gai's voice all but outright said that the man was probably directing a thumbs up out at the forest from where he was positioned.

Tenzō seemed placated by the better adherence to procedure, and he laid off the annoyed-inflection motion when they exchanged information in tactical signs for the next few hours.

It was late afternoon when one of the check-ins had a failure.

"Team Aramaki, Tower. Nothing heard, over."

Kakashi and Tenzō stopped on the next branch, long enough to exchange looks. According to the plan laid out, they were nowhere near the general area that that team was supposed to patrol.

There was no way for them to know what had happened unless that pair either checked in late somehow or someone closer investigated.

Even though there were five teams that could investigate easily, the comms stayed silent.

Silence was not always cowardice. Not all sacrifice was meaningful.

Jōnin did not run headlong into death without thinking; however valiant the idea was made to seem to small children and academy students, and rushing headfirst to investigate when two jōnin had possibly died in less than fifteen minutes from the last check-in was the definition of recklessness. Reckless ninja did not live to be ninja for very long.

"Team Hyūga, this is Team Yūhi, over," Kurenai's voice broke the silence.

"Kurenai-" Asuma's voice broke from procedure, before ending the transmission entirely.

"Team Yūhi, this is Team Hyūga. You have a plan in mind, over?" The crisp words carried over with practice and no tension in the Hyūga's voice.

"Team Hyūga, Team Yūhi; we're requesting your team to join us to investigate."

"Team Yūhi, this is Team Hyūga. Wilco out."

Kurenai and her partner for this were on one of the inner patrols ringing the missing team. The Hyūga team's patrol area didn't border the missing team's, but Kurenai's. With the Hyūga clan member's assistance, it would approach something less than a total death trap. At least, in theory it would.

Two jōnin dead in fifteen minutes or less. Whatever Orochimaru was planning, at least some of it was in this forest filled with genin after all.

With only a meaningful glance, Tenzō shoved a bamboo water canteen into his hands before he began to move again, momentarily leaving Kakashi behind.

Kakashi took the moment for what it was. He pulled his mask down, uncovering his lips for long enough to drain the canteen of its contents. He pulled it back up into place and shoved the now empty canteen into his bag before he rushed to catch up.

There was only so much they could do.

Whatever the Hokage thought this would achieve, it was looking increasingly certain that capturing Orochimaru would not happen. Not without plenty of jōnin dying for the sake of attempting to get one man.

Whatever secrets Orochimaru had, what value they could hold this many years after his crimes and departure... it left questions. Kakashi was unable to fully shove the probably-dead jōnin out of his concern. There were very few things in the forest that likely held any interest to Orochimaru, and Kakashi was supposed to be in charge of two of them.

---

The shadows were deep, and only becoming deeper as the sun set.

However useful that would be for Shikamaru, it didn't explain why Ino was forcing them in the same breakneck pace they had been since entering from their gate.

"Ino, we can't keep going like this," he finally protested, coming to a complete stop. "Either we stop together, or you're going without us."

"No-" Ino turned around, her ponytail swishing and fanning out. The fight momentarily drained from her, as she looked between him and Chōji. "You're right," she said, shoulders slumping. "We should find somewhere to set up camp."

Chōji sighed with relief.

It would have to do for now. For the last several weeks, Ino had been in an almost constant frenzy, for lack of a better description. While she had always been annoyingly bossy, it had switched into being closer to bullying, taking training with their parents and with Asuma-sensei suddenly more seriously than she ever had before. It would have bothered Shikamaru less if it hadn't been for the fact that he and Chōji were getting dragged into it, whether they liked it or not.

Being harangued by Ino was actually worse than being harassed by his mother; Kā-san at least asked how he was doing instead of just trying to make him miserable. She was even beginning to become concerned at how forceful Ino was being lately with trying to force him into doing things. It was starting to make him have to readjust his evaluation where his mother was concerned.

Hanging out with Team Seven in their spare time was one thing; Ino's resurrected friendship with Sakura was the least annoying change as of late, even if he had no idea what the hell Naruto was getting up to, to somehow end up friends with missing-nin revolutionaries. Sasuke at least kept his mouth shut usually and didn't expect much.

Her suggestions for them to train with Team Eight, however… Shikamaru had no idea what that was about. Ino had mostly ignored Hinata the whole time in the academy, and her interest in flowers meant that she wasn't exactly thrilled by Shino or Kiba, between the insects and the dog. It was only made worse by the fact that Asuma-sensei and Kurenai-sensei had agreed to the idea. He had no idea what that was about, either, for that matter.

The whole thing was a drag.

Shikamaru looked over their surroundings, frowning. It was already becoming dark enough that the shadows on the ground were becoming meaningless; even his own barely stood in contrast, and he couldn't see it improving, considering the sun hadn't even fully sunk yet. While Chōji's techniques were best suited for being on the ground, if they stayed down here his own techniques were going to be almost useless. The current phase of the moon wasn't going to provide nearly enough light to reach down here. He wasn't skilled enough to work in near-darkness; not yet, at least. That required not just more chakra control than he currently possessed, but more chakra and much more experience than he had.

"We need to get higher," he said.

While it would be better for them to get to the tower as quickly as they could, none of them were— or at least should be— in more danger than they would normally be for this exam. At least, that was what Chōji's father had tried to imply to them.

Orochimaru's experiments had been with kekkei genkai. All of their techniques were hiden. As long as they just managed to avoid crossing the path of an legendary S-rank ninja who according to Chōza was powerful enough to have once been considered a candidate for Yondaime and had fended off Anbu and the Sandaime off to escape from the village, they would be fine.

They just had to ignore everything else, like the fact that Ino and Shikamaru had been escorted from the main academy building to Chōji's house in the middle of the Akimichi clan compound to spend the night at Chōji's for the first time in years and their mothers had dropped off mission-ready gear bags. That Shikamaru's mother was in uniform when she had done so, wearing a flak jacket he knew she had earned but he had never seen her in. That when they had woken up this morning, Chōza had shown no sign of sleeping that night, and was dressed in his armor.

Everything would be completely fine, if he was the sort of person able to ignore the evidence in front of his eyes.

Shikamaru looked at Chōji, whose worry was visible on his face.

"Yeah," Chōji said, reluctantly. This was the longest any of them had seen Chōji without a bag of snacks of some kind in his hand. "If anything happens in the middle of the night down here, it'd be no good. I can take the middle watch," he offered.

"Okay with me," Ino answered. "I'll take the last one."

It would leave Shikamaru with the one where he should have at least some ambient ambient light to work with just in case.

They managed to find a tree that was decently higher than the ones surrounding it, and set up to rest in the highest possible branches. It was just tall enough that with a bit of climbing and chakra, it was possible to look out over the treeline. Like this, the tower in the middle didn't seem so far away.

He spent the hours of his watch staring out into the rest of the forest. The occasional plume of smoke from the impact of a fire jutsu could be seen, and at one point someone out there must have started a true fire. It didn't last for long.

Shikamaru turned over to Chōji before too long, and slept fitfully. He woke up to the grey light of a cloud-covered twilight sky when Ino gripped his shoulder. The diffuse light would be almost as useless as darkness was, but the clouds were fast moving, heading west as though they were fleeing the sun, and looked like they would be gone soon.

They descended halfway, eating ration bars Shikamaru suspected they weren't supposed to have. Then again, this test had turned too real. While skilled shinobi could live off the land if needed, an experienced one shouldn't have to. Not being prepared or having a plan could kill the strongest and most powerful ninja. Tests like this always had fake parameters and didn't really matter, usually.

They set off again, Ino forcibly taking the lead once more.

Unlike the first day, where they had by complete chance not encountered any other teams, this time they skirted the battle between two other teams— from Kiri and Ame, an ugly match up with few specific advantages to either— and came upon the remnants of another, kunai and shuriken littering the ground. It was only going to get worse as time passed and they got closer to the tower.

Around mid-afternoon, with the bright summer sunlight streaming down in ways that created full shadows, they came across a team from Suna, poorly hidden in a tree hollow. The girl who was supposed to be on watch among them had dozed off. Even Shikamaru wasn't that lazy.

Shikamaru held a finger to his lips to the other two, before he crept closer, brows furrowing together in concentration. His shadow stretched forward slowly and clumsily, poking its way around as he tried to search for their scroll. He was still working on practicing Kageyose no Jutsu with his father.

Extending his shadow was increasingly becoming second nature, and he could even manage to control others with Kagemane no Jutsu by now, if only for short periods of time, but actually pushing his own shadow into being material enough to manipulate things was more difficult than he had expected it to be when Tou-san had first explained it to him. The fact the movements to control it weren't a simple one on one like with Kagemane were a pain.

It was still less troublesome to try this than to do an outright fight, even though if they were dumb enough to fall asleep like this they probably wouldn't be that difficult of a fight.

Ino brought her hands together for one of the Yamanaka techniques. Shikamaru's eyes widened before he narrowed them at her, the other end of his shadow wriggling from his nerves.

"Ino!" he hissed. "I can handle this!"

Her eyes shut, and Chōji had barely enough time to catch her before she slumped to the ground.

One of the sleeping bodies in the hollow woke and slowly sat up, patting himself down, eyes meeting Shikamaru's. He smirked in the way Ino did when he found the scroll, holding it up for Shikamaru and Chōji to see. It was the Scroll of Heaven. They were lucky. With that, they could go directly to the tower from here.

The body Ino was possessing slowly lowered the scroll down to set it right in front of Shikamaru's shadow, motioning for Shikamaru to grab the scroll and for them to leave, before it went and laid back down.

Shikamaru carefully pulled the scroll out, doing his best to keep it from scraping across the dirt. Any additional noise would be too much.

Ino in the Suna-nin's body motioned for them to move again.

Exchanging a concerned glance with Chōji, Shikamaru slipped the scroll into his bag as Chōji lifted Ino's body up, hefting her over his shoulder. They ran.

Ino's mind didn't return for several nerve-wracking minutes. Well beyond what they had ever had to wait before, even when she had missed.

Her use of that technique had never lasted this long before. Even accounting for however long it would take her mind to return to her body at a distance, how had she managed to at the lowest estimation more than double how long she could use it in a matter of weeks?

They stopped for just long enough in the branches of a tree for Chōji to set Ino down.

Her eyes gleamed, a giddy expression crossing her face, and she swept her hair back into place. "Did you see that?" she squealed. "They didn't notice at all!"

Shikamaru sighed, barely resisting the urge to roll his eyes. "I had it handled, Ino. By moving around in that guy's body you could have woken the other two."

"Well, I didn't and it's not like you've got the fine control down with that technique anyways," she said, heat rising to her cheeks in a flush. "If it wasn't for me you probably would have botched it. Right, Chōji?"

Chōji's eyes widened as he looked between the two. "I... Ino, I don't know about that... I mean… Do we have to argue over this?" he asked, half-pleadingly. "Do we have to do this, right now?"

Shikamaru shut his eyes. "Chōji's right. Let's get a move on. If we keep going and do our best to avoid any of the other teams, we'll make it to the tower easily."

Ino huffed out a breath, but relented. "Fine."

She took the lead again, waiting only long enough for Shikamaru to hand the Scroll of Heaven to Chōji; keeping them split up until they reached the tower was the better strategy, as tempting as it was to give both of them to Chōji.

As a gambit, few people would expect that the powerhouse of their team would have both scrolls on him, and would target Shikamaru or Ino first, but it was too still too risky.

Tests had fake parameters.

They pushed ahead, slowly continuing their push deeper and deeper into the forest.

While they weren't running into anyone— Ino was making sure of that— there was something off and he couldn't figure out what.

It frustrated Shikamaru.

How was he supposed to strategize when he couldn't see everything in front of him?

It was beginning to get dark again, the muddy oranges of a sunset coloring the light, when Ino suddenly veered wildly off-course, heading away from the tower with a sudden burst of speed, leaping into the trees.

"Ino!" Shikamaru raised his voice as much as he dared to; she didn't respond, but to his annoyance only moved faster. She had heard him, she was just ignoring him. "What is she doing?" he muttered to himself.

Chōji slowed down for just long enough to match his pace with Shikamaru. "Shikamaru, I've got a bad feeling about this," Chōji said, worriedly. "Should we stop her? What's she doing? We're going the wrong way."

"Stop her from doing what?" Shikamaru asked, frustration in his voice. "I don't know what she's doing either, Chōji. I'm just as confused as you are."

Chōji swallowed.

Ino stopped on the curve of an immense tree trunk, as suddenly as she had bolted. It gave him and Chōji just enough time to catch up with her, as little distance and time as it had been.

Beneath them, there was a clearing where giant roots from the surrounding trees had risen above the earth before sinking back down, leaving tunnels that were wide and high enough that multiple grown men would be able to go through them. There were three figures just barely in sight taking shelter under one of them, preparing their camp for the night.

Shikamaru barely had time to recognize them as Konoha-nin before Ino pulled out multiple shuriken from her pouch, launching them at the other team with a wide curving throw that would make it less obvious what direction the attack had come from. Two of them wore their hitai-ate on bandanas that covered their hair with cloth masks covering most of their faces. The other one he recognized as the strange older teen with the info cards that Sasuke had verbally cut down in front of them right before the first test. Kabuto.

Shikamaru stared at Ino in shock. "What the hell are you doing? They're from our village!"

Cries of alarm and pain rose from below. The other genin left their shelter, now armed as they looked for their attackers. One of the masked ones— glasses over narrowed eyes squinting to look around, possibly incorrect prescription— yanked a shuriken from his bicep, letting it fall to the ground. That was too casual a move for genin, even ones that went through this exam as many times as had been claimed.

Apparently luring them out was what Ino had wanted, because she pressed her forefingers and thumbs together again, and Shikamaru didn't even have enough time to shout at her to not do it before her body slumped over. Shikamaru didn't know what he was expecting, but the way they almost immediately directed their attention at the trunk they were on was alarming. They had already been spotted.

"They have a Yamanaka with them!"

He barely dodged out of the way, dashing for the top of one of the raised roots below when the first wave of kunai sped through where he had been standing, and Chōji dropped to the ground. The angle from below and the trunk's towering height meant that Ino's body should be safe from any ranged weapon attacks.

Dread blanketed over Shikamaru as fear pulsed through him when he landed.

There was killing intent in the air.

Only a couple weeks ago Asuma-sensei had exposed them to it for the first time, under the watchful eyes of their fathers. It was better for them to experience and recognize it for what it was in a safe, controlled scenario, rather than being hit by it by surprise on a mission, he had explained. Training had been short that day.

Either these guys wanted them to think they were willing to kill them…

Or they just wanted to kill them.

Because Ino's opening attack had taken everyone by surprise, Shikamaru wasn't willing to bet on the non lethal option.

That and the fact that the killing intent had only begun after one of them realized Ino was a Yamanaka…

While some people were cagey about the clan of mind technique users, outright hostility wasn't the norm. An intent to kill wasn't normal— unless something you knew and didn't want discovered was at risk. For allies the worst would be embarrassment, not nearly enough cause to want to kill, which meant…

In spite of the spiral marked leaf symbol engraved on their hitai-ate, these were not allies.

This was worse than a total drag.

Shikamaru threw out an arc of kunai, causing the three opposing shinobi— the one Ino was possessing as of yet unidentified— to scatter, giving Shikamaru enough time to jump backwards to get a better idea of his next move. He had no idea how to counter them at all, what to do. There was no strategy.

Chōji was frozen where he was standing.

"Chōji!" Shikamaru shouted. He resisted the urge to swear; that had never done anything helpful for Chōji in the past regardless of who it came from, and he doubted it would in this life or death situation Ino had dropped them into without warning. "Fight through it! This isn't nearly that bad!" A half lie. The killing intent was not nearly as bad as what Asuma-sensei had made them experience, but their fathers had been there to assure them it was safe. That had been controlled exposure. This wasn't.

The encouragement wasn't enough; if anything, Shikamaru had miscalculated. It had only put focus on Chōji.

Though Chōji finally began to move, reaching for his kunai holster, the masked one with glasses lunged for him. To Shikamaru's disgust, the man's body started to stretch, and his limbs coiled around Chōji, prying his arm away from the holster with one twining arm. Chōji shouted in surprise, trying to wrench himself free.

Ino's initial 'advantage', completely planless, was failing her. It was failing all of them.

The other masked one pulled a kunai out, throwing it at Kabuto, who narrowly blocked it with a thrown kunai of his own.

"Shikamaru, do something!" Kabuto— no, Ino in Kabuto's body— shouted. Ino stepped back, barely avoiding a close strike aimed at Kabuto's chest.

Shikamaru had no idea what to do.

Ino-Shika-Chō.

Ino-Shika-Chō.

They had formations for a reason.

He didn't need to come up with anything new; he needed to not overthink it.

Shikamaru twisted to look in Chōji's direction. His hands were close enough together; the enemy was trying to constrict around him entirely.

"Chōji! Use Baika no Jutsu!" he shouted, as he pressed his hands together for the rat seal. His shadow slinked forward as he directed it to stretch itself towards the body Ino was possessing and the other enemy nin. He latched his shadow onto that of Ino's attacker, and threw his arms backwards, giving Ino a moment of reprieve. In the short time he had hesitated, the dark-lens wearing shinobi had closed the distance that Ino had been trying to maintain.

From the corner of his eye, Shikamaru saw Chōji balloon outwards. There was a cracking noise and a shout as the shinobi with the bizarre technique untwisted himself as quickly as he could from Chōji, slumping to the ground. They could do this.

The moment of confidence disappeared with a realization.

His chakra was draining far more quickly than it should have.

"Your shadow techniques must be just solid enough for chakra absorption to work," the restrained ninja commented, vicious amusement in his voice. "Who would have guessed? I wonder how it affects Yamanakas."

Ino's borrowed eyes widened behind the glasses.

"Ino! End the technique!" Shikamaru broke his shadow away, letting it retract. In a matter of seconds, his chakra had been almost entirely drained. "Chōji! Get to her body! Get out of here!"

He couldn't see if Chōji followed through or not, his attention was too focused on what was happening in front of him.

To his disbelief, in spite of his warning, she wasted time to pull out another kunai instead, holding it backwards. She extended that arm, before testing it, flexing it inwards once, then wider for stronger momentum. Was she going to try to force a suicide move before leaving that body? If Ino timed it wrong—

The remaining enemy's fist shot out, grasping that wrist just before the kunai got close enough. The glow of chakra flared around it, temporarily made visible.

Synchronized screams tore out from not just Kabuto in front of him, but behind as well, from Ino on the tree trunk. Blood trickled out of Kabuto's nose, before he collapsed, and the screaming stopped entirely, leaving only silence.

The last ninja on Kabuto's team stood up, letting Kabuto drop to the ground.

The killing intent had never ended.

Shikamaru didn't have enough chakra left to fend him off in a fight and flee. If the other ninja was left alive, he couldn't guarantee the other two would be able to hide from him or escape, if Shikamaru ran to join Chōji and Ino. So much for his hopes and dreams of becoming a salary ninja and all that. He'd have to haunt Ino for this. Dead before thirteen. It didn't cheer him any.

At least there were good enough shadows.

He heaved a breath of air.

A senbon sped through the air, just just barely glinting in the remaining light, piercing the enemy's neck. He toppled over.

Shikamaru fled for the trees, not bothering to wait to see if it was a rescue or someone poaching.

Chōji was running ahead of him with a visible limp that was getting worse, carrying Ino with one arm, his other swinging uselessly at his side. Even now, from where Shikamaru was, he could tell Chōji was already beginning to slow in spite of the fear that was fueling him. Blood was flowing from Ino's nose, just as it had from Kabuto's. She showed no signs of stirring.

He had no idea what had just happened, but nearly everything that could go wrong had.

Chōji's leg gave out after a half mile of running, and Shikamaru was barely able to prevent him from crashing entirely.

Ino was still unconscious. The blood had stopped, leaving a dried crust that traced her upper lip.

Shikamaru was so tired. He had never trained to reach this point in his life. At some point, tears had started to well up in Shikamaru's eyes, and he wiped them away with a balled up fist.

"I don't think I can walk like this," Chōji told him through gritted teeth. Tears stained his face, creating ugly blotches of red that partially blended in with Chōji's cheek markings. Now that they had stopped, he could see a worrying stain of blood soaking through the bandages of Choji's right leg. "I don't think I should have ran on this, Shikamaru."

Unconscious Ino. Brink of chakra exhaustion Shikamaru. Injured Chōji.

Ino-Shika-Chō.

What a winning combination.

Shikamaru laughed, brokenly, cutting it off before he started to cry for real.

The tower was so close and yet so far.

He wrestled his bag off of his shoulders as he dropped to his knees, shoving it open to dig for the exam scroll. All of the running had shifted the contents around.

Chōza-ji had told them what would happen if they opened the scroll ahead of time.

Tests had fake parameters.

The 'glory' of becoming a chūnin wasn't worth this. He didn't care anymore.

The pressure of a hand made itself known on his shoulder just before he could open it.

"You don't need to resort to that," a soft-toned voice said.

Shikamaru slowly turned around.

Naruto's friends from the rogue Kirigakure faction stood behind him, Haku's hand pulling away. The one with the sword tilted his head in greeting towards Shikamaru, his back mostly to him. The sword was unwrapped, both of the blue haired teenager's hands around its handles. Chōjūrō. That was his name. The meek expression he had in the exam hall was gone, all of his focus on making sure no one stuck up on them from behind.

"You're Naruto-kun's friends," Haku said. In spite of it being the second night, the older teen barely looked ruffled from being in here for so long.

"Yeah, friends," Shikamaru replied dully.

"We heard the screaming," Suigetsu told him, from behind Haku. "Would have been nice to have a real fight for once if someone didn't decide to use senbon." His eyes flicked at Haku.

"I was hoping that we could meet up with Naruto-kun before entering the tower, but we haven't seen his team," Haku told him. "If you don't mind accepting it, we can help escort you the rest of the way. It isn't that far."

Shikamaru stared. "Really? Why?"

"Zabuza-sama instructed me to make sure we gain allies," the older teen told him. That was more to the point than Shikamaru had expected.

Suigetsu snorted. "He told me to stop being an asshole. Neither's going to happen."

"We should say yes," Chōji whispered. Shikamaru couldn't tell if it was from the pain or from Chōji trying to be discreet.

"We accept," Shikamaru said.

Hopefully Ino would wake up.

---

I woke up feeling confused and thirsty, dappled light filtering through weaved together branches that still had leaves on them. They had been tied together using strips of olive green cloth, anchored down by kunai that had been driven into the ground. It was the same style of basket weave I had shown them, just scaled up.

I was still Sasuke.

I slowly sat up, barely avoiding scraping my head on wood. It smelled vaguely musty, and the space was cramped. My neck ached like I had slept wrong, and my lips were parched. I must have been unconscious within the dream, but I was exhausted, not rested at all. I felt light-headed, almost floaty. I hadn't felt this awful since… since… I shoved the thought away.

"Sasuke!" Sakura whispered. She sounded relieved, despite the low volume. Sakura twisted around to look at me with worried green eyes. The jacket was gone, presumably sacrificed for camouflage. An armor mesh undershirt was visible under her black shirt, peeking out and covering her elbows. "How are you feeling?"

"Thirsty," I said, trying to swallow. Sasuke's voice was hoarse; it actually hurt to talk.

She leaned over, reaching into one of the packs, and pulled out a water canteen, which she handed to me.

I opened it and wet my lips before I started to chug it.

"You've been asleep for nearly two days," she told me. That was longer than it had been in the story, wasn't it? "You had a fever and you wouldn't wake up… I was so scared. It didn't break until this morning."

I finished draining the canteen, letting it fall into my lap, but it didn't land the way I expected to.

Looking down, Naruto's jacket was across the top of my legs. It was half folded on itself. It must have been covering me before I had sat up. "Where's Naruto?"

"He went to go get more water," she said. "That canteen you finished off was the last we had."

"Oh," I went.

"I didn't know he was the demon fox…" She looked down, her hair draping to hide her face. "He's been in the same class as us the whole time… Iruka-sensei's parents died when it attacked the village, did you know? I heard some of the teachers talking about it, once. I didn't know why…" Sakura looked up. She wasn't meeting my eyes. "Do you think all the adults know? Is that why they've always looked at him like that? I thought the reason nobody liked him was because of all his dumb pranks… I didn't… Do you think we're just supposed to be there to keep him under control just in case?" Her eyes welled up. "Or to be a distraction?"

"I don't know," I said.

There was a rustling of branches and leaves.

"Please don't hate me," Naruto said. He shoved his gear bag in first, before he crawled in. With all three of us in here, the space was cramped. His voice cracked. "I'm not the Kyūbi. I'm not. Even Iruka-sensei said—" he choked. "It's just sealed in me, there's a difference. I swear." Tears were gathering in his eyes, too.

I was so unprepared to deal with this on multiple levels.

"I—" Sakura faltered. "You're dumb, goofy, loud Naruto. You couldn't even pass the final exam at the academy with the rest of us the right way. How can there be something that awful inside of you?"

"I don't know," Naruto said, his voice barely above a whisper. "I don't have any parents or any family. The Yondaime needed a baby and chose me to seal the Kyūbi into. Maybe they died when the Kyūbi attacked the village. Maybe they're alive and don't want me anymore. I don't know. They didn't even want me at the orphanage, and they take just about anybody."

I refused to tear up over how sad and pitiful Naruto looked.

"You're not allowed to talk like that," Sakura said, finally crying. "You're— you're supposed to—" She cut herself off forcibly, instead sniffling and wiping her face across her forearm. "What are we supposed to do?"

"You can't tell anybody," Naruto insisted. He had finally started to cry as well, when Sakura had started.

Fuck.

I reached out with both arms, and dragged them in for a hug. I felt extremely awkward about it, but two crying middle schoolers in close quarters was too much.

It didn't really work, anyways; the sobbing just got worse, the attempt at physical comfort triggering another onslaught of tears.

It lasted for several minutes, at the end of which we were all damp.

Naruto pulled his shirt up, and blew his nose into the bottom hem, before looking at both of us again. "Are you sure you don't hate me?" he asked.

Sakura laughed. It was weak, unsure, and partially strained from being forced, but it was still there. "How are we supposed to hate you? You're our teammate." She gave him a watery smile.

Naruto started to cry again, though at least this time it was paired with a smile.

The tension that I didn't even know until just now had been in this cramped space disappeared.

I rubbed my eyes and tried to figure out what we needed to do. The dreams so far seemed to expect certain moments to be hit, at least, and if this was going to be like Wave… Sitting around in an animal's den, hiding from the rest of the forest, wasn't going to make it end anytime soon.

"We need to find the other scroll we need and get to the tower," I said.

"Oh, uh, we already got the other scroll," Naruto said. He leaned forward, opening Sakura's bag to reveal the Scroll of Earth, nestled on top.

I felt oddly disappointed. Confused, too. "How?"

"After I dragged you both in here, I put a perimeter of traps around the area," Sakura said, looking a bit sheepish. "I didn't know how long either of you would be unconscious and since Sensei said we shouldn't risk opening the scroll unless we had to…" The encounter with Orochimaru had shook her.

"I added another layer when I woke up," Naruto added. He ducked his head, looking down. "It caught one of those jerk teams from Water and they had the scroll we needed, so I took it." That was one way to distinguish between the different Kiris, but I was more surprised that in spite of the fear they both had just exhibited from Naruto's secret being revealed— if for very different reasons— they had been able to work together so well. Then again, not wanting to die was probably a powerful motivator on its own.

As weirdly disappointed as I was at the fact we weren't going to have to fight for a secondary scroll at all, I was still relieved. I didn't want to fight. Even in a 'the children aren't allowed to murder each other this time' edition of the Chūnin Exams arc.

"Oh." I didn't know what else to say.

"You should at least drink more water before we leave," Sakura told me.

The mention of water made me realize something terrible: After shifting around, I needed to pee. At least in Wave there had been toilets. It was a lot harder to ignore when the best option in a forest was a bush.

I pushed Naruto's jacket off and leaned forward until I was on my palms to crawl out.

"Uh, where are you going?"

I felt my ears burn red. "I… need to go."

"Need to go?" Naruto's brows furrowed together, before he realized what I was saying. "Oh! I need to piss too, I'll go with you."

I felt a portion of my soul leave my body. Oh, God. "No!"

Sakura made a face. "Naruto! I don't want to hear you talking about that!"

"But Sakura! I really need to piss! And if Sasuke's got to piss too, he shouldn't be alone after he's been passed out for so long, should he?"

It hadn't taken that long for the normal dynamic to return, if at my expense.

To my horror, Naruto's argument actually won Sakura over.

I did my best to keep the moment from scarring itself into my mind forever by closing my eyes and ignoring Naruto the whole time.

The den was below a fallen tree, a wide and thick thing that kept this spot in the forest clear enough for there to be a gap in the tree cover, letting light pour down unfiltered from the leaves. It had been there long enough for shrubs to start growing around it, with larger young trees pushing upwards from its remains. The weaved together screen of branches was dense enough that it neatly blended with the bush that was right next to it, partially obstructing the slope that led down.

It was silent except for the occasional cawing of birds, high in the trees. Even Naruto was quiet.

"We're about a hundred feet away," Naruto said. It was half-whisper, and he didn't quite meet my eyes as he pointed out in the direction I assumed was where the encounter with Orochimaru had occurred. "I went and looked."

I shrugged, not sure what to say. I didn't want to think about what the remains of the snake would look like— or smell like— after this long.

Naruto seemed to accept it for now, and we made our way back in, where Sakura forced me to drink two canteens worth of water before she decided it was enough.

It was past noon by the time we left.

We kept to the highest parts of the trees, as far up as we could, Sakura taking point. I was kept in the middle, with Naruto behind me. Occasionally he would lag behind, from setting a trap to limit how easily we could be followed. For some reason, I couldn't get rid of the nagging sensation of feeling bothered that they were keeping me in the center, like they thought I needed to be protected.

Somehow, confusingly and bizarrely— this feels too easy— we made it to the tower, without having seen any other genin. It made me feel unsettled. More teams had gotten through the first exam, but we hadn't encountered anyone except Orochimaru. Or, I hadn't, at least.

Then again, there would probably be more caution because of Orochimaru; I somehow doubted Kakashi would be the only one to let that knowledge leak. Would have been. At least, I couldn't see many theoretical jōnin-sensei particularly wanting to let the genin they had been in charge of for however many years die from cluelessness in this kind of situation. I wasn't even a real teacher and I was slowly becoming fond of the freshmen in the class I TA'd for. At least some of them.

Exchanging uncertain looks, we entered one set of doors.

"It's empty…" Sakura commented.

Naruto craned his head up, looking at the balconies above. "You think there'd be somebody here..."

The large sign with its missing words was on the other end of the room, and we stopped in front of it, pulling the scrolls out, and opening them, dropping both the moment the smoke started to emanate.

I half-realized that in the short time that happened, not only had I slipped shuriken into my hands, Sakura and Naruto had armed themselves as well.

Iruka appeared in the smoke, arms folded over each other, a grin on his face.

"Hey, you three—" he started.

Before he could finish, Naruto dove at him. "Iruka-sensei!" The words were half-choked out, as Iruka half-instinctively reared back before he realized what was happening. Naruto sobbed against the chūnin's chest, the kunai that had been in his hand moments before dropping to the tiles with a clatter.

Next to me, Sakura started to cry again.

Iruka looked completely bewildered for a moment, wrapping an arm around Naruto, his expression turning to one of concern and worry. "What? Are you guys okay?" This had derailed what he was supposed to say entirely. Naruto somehow managing to get through to this point was supposed to be a happy moment filled with congratulations; instead, Iruka got to experience two of his students having breakdowns in front of him.

I had the sobering suspicion that the fact that we didn't have any other encounters outside of Orochimaru had ended up leading to this breakdown. The other fights in the show itself had been mostly in the range of Team Seven's abilities, basically serving as proof that they could handle themselves.

Instead, I had dreamed about us getting thoroughly and utterly beaten down, not even worth being finished off. Nothing to serve as a reinforcement or a confidence boost.

There was movement on one of the balconies.

I jerked my head up to look.

The ninja that Orochimaru had stolen the face of in the series was in mid-jump off the balcony, aiming directly for me, a double-ended kusarigama swinging towards me, the other sickle in their hand.

"Sasuke! Move!"

I had barely enough time to process Iruka running towards me, pushing me out of the way with palm, his arm fully extended. I had just enough time to see the chain wrap around Iruka's forearm before I hit the ground. Blood splattered into the air.

A shout.

"Iruka-sensei!"

That was his hand on the floor. It was no longer attached to his arm like it was supposed to be.

Far too late, I threw the shuriken in my hand.

---

I woke up damp and sweaty, chilled through even with my blankets. My t-shirt and leggings were soaked through. I sneezed, setting off a terrible ache in my neck as I shoved myself up and out of bed, shivering. I felt less exhausted than I had the last few days, but that wasn't saying much.

It would figure I would get sick.

I trudged into the bathroom, where I shoved the drain stopper in, and ran the tap, as hot as I could tolerate.

I wound up falling asleep in the bathtub, only waking up when I accidentally went under.

---

Gosh, time for a long author's note!

The second half of 2020, since I started to write this fic, in fact, has been a whirlwind of a time for me. I turned the big 3-0, successfully completed my goal for Camp NaNoWriMo, one of my siblings was diagnosed with cancer (in the middle of a pandemic!), I started my final semester for undergraduate degree, and I managed to finish it. (It just took one global recession, a few years in the military, and a pandemic for me to get it finished. Talk about a wait!) 2020 is closing out on us, and while I missed getting to have Thanksgiving with my family, and making tamales with my aunts and cousins for Christmas and New Years, I'm glad for at least some of the things it's brought.

I hope everyone is able to look forward to better things in 2021, and that whatever struggles and issues 2020 may have brought you are able to be resolved or overcome.

Thanks so much to everyone who's been reading, it's meant a lot to know people are not just reading it, but enjoying it and are even willing to review.