AN: You get this earlier than I intended because my discord group pushed me to post it. So, here ya go! Enjoy!

Silence.

The forest was silent. The same way it would be after an explosion, Or in this case, a fight. Five figures could be seen on the forest floor, all bloodied or beaten. Blood dripped onto the ground in an unsteady rhythm, staining the grass it landed on.

"Naruto," Sakura breathed, breaking the silence. Her eyes were wide, hands held up in front of her defensively. But there was nothing to defend against. Not anymore. In front of her, Kotetsu had the same look, eyes wider and sweat beading his face.

Naruto was on his knees in front of them all, panting heavily. Sweat dripped down his brow while his arms hung uselessly by his sides, makeshift sling having fallen off at some point. "Is everyone ok?" He breathed, looking over his shoulder.

"You…" Sakura tried, fumbling with her words for a moment before shouting, "You idiot!"

Naruto only managed a wobbly smile.

Chains of golden light jutted out of his chest, ripping his already torn shirt to shreds. They wrapped around the snake sannin tightly, links pinning his arms to his side and forcing him to stay on the ground. Naruto had jumped in front of the group before Orochimaru could do anything and had unleashed them, straining his already exhausted chakra reserves. And with the seal on his stomach, the strain was even harder.

The action alone could have very well killed him. And he'd known that. But he'd done it anyway.

"You bastard," Orochimaru suddenly hissed from across the small clearing. His chin was propped up on the ground so he could look at them, hair plastered to his face with both sweat and blood, making an even sharper contrast to his pale skin. He looked livid, the bloodlust in his eyes ebbing out into the air around him.

"Oh, shut up," Naruto shot back weakly. "We got you. You're finished." The sannin only growled in response.

"I'll finish him up," Sasuke offered, grabbing a roll of ninja wire from his weapons pouch. Before Kotetsu could argue, he'd jumped forward and kicked the sannin in the head, knocking him out. He then set to work wrapping his exposed hands in the wire. Once he was almost finished, he slipped a scroll onto Orochimaru's pocket, careful to hide the action from Kotetsu. It was the scroll Sasuke had forged detailing the Sound invasion due to take place during the third exam.

"Hey, get away from that man!" Kotetsu shouted, finally coming to his senses and rushing forward. Sasuke just rolled his eyes but stepped away, making a show of raising his hands in surrender. The chunin immediately set about securing the area, placing chakra suppressant seals on the sannin before checking everyone over.

"Are you all alright?" He asked, looking up from his work.

Across the clearing, Naruto was panting hard. He was hunched over, beads of sweat dotted his face and brow and covered in grime. He really looked like he'd been dragged through hell. "Yeah," he said. "I'm great."

Sakura just glared at him while Sasuke looked entirely unamused Kotetsu himself didn't look the least bit convinced.

"Backup should be here soon," he said. "So you can let go of the chains now."

"No," Naruto said firmly, shaking his head. "He could wake back up. I'm not taking chances."

Kotetsu grimaced, but said nothing, accepting the response. Instead he set back to work.

Given the reprise, Sakura walked over to Naruto and started checking him over, sinking to her knees so she was at his level. She winced at what she saw. "I told you to keep still, moron," she breathed, moving to look at his arm. Naruto winced as she held it up, examining it once again.

"I ain't gonna back down from a fight," he panted. "You know that."

For a moment, it looked like Sakura was about to argue, but when she looked up and saw the determined expression on his face, the words died on her lips. She let out a defeated sigh instead.

"I know," was all she managed.

Just then, Naruto doubled over with a cry of pain, shuddering.

"Naruto!" Sakura cried, catching him.

"'M fine," he ground out, hands curling into tight fists.

"It's the chains, isn't it," Sasuke noted, watching the golden kekkei genkai start to waver in the air.

"I said I'm fine," the blonde shot back, voice shaking from exertion.

"You just went up against a sannin," Kotetsu suddenly shouted at them. "You shouldn't even be alive!"

"Guess we're just full of surprises," Sasuke muttered back. The comment was met with a doubtful stare, but no verbal response.

The group waited in silence after that for backup to arrive. And after five minutes, it did.

Anbu dropped down from the trees above, landing in a perfect circle around them. Accompanying them was none other than Anko Mitarashi, eyes practically on fire.

Naruto, who was just barely holding it together, managed to give them a pathetic wave in greeting. Unsurprisingly, none of the Anbu returned it.

"Cat, boar," Anko called out. "Secure the area. Rabbit, Fox, Bird, take care of him." She gestured sharply to Orochimaru, eyes full of of the arrivals branched off to deal with the still unconscious sannin, following her orders, while the other two went over to the small team.

"You can let go of the prisoner now, Uzumaki," the cat Anbu said. Naruto spared him a doubtful glance, but listened anyway. Anbu were trained to handle situations like these. He could put his trust in them.

Following his orders, he let go of the chains. Immediately Naruto felt the toll it had taken on his body as they zipped back into him. His breathing was labored and he felt his heart beating erratically in his chest. He sagged towards the ground, falling into Sakura's grip like a sack of flour.

"You shouldn't have pushed yourself so hard," she scolded quietly as she held him up.

He was breathing so hard he could barely respond. "Not like I… had a choice," he finally managed to breath back, a small smirk on his lips. Above him, he could feel Sakura roll her eyes.

"Excuse me," someone above them interrupted. Naruto didn't have the energy to look up, only managing to catch a glimpse of their sandals. "Are either of you in need of medical attention?" Ah, so it was a medical ninja.

"Yes," Sakura announced, slipping into doctor mode; as Naruto like to call it. Her demeanor turned hard and serious, all signs of fatigue and weariness vanishing, replaced instead with the cool level facade of a seasoned medic. "My teammate is suffering from chakra exhaustion and a stage two supracondylar fracture to the right humerus. I suspect bruised ribs as well."

"It's not that bad," he grumbled from her arms. Ignoring him, Sakura went on.

"I have a few lacerations and bruising, but nothing severe. And Sasuke has some mild second degree burns."

The medic made hummed in acknowledgment before shouting orders to some of his comrades. Naruto listened as the ninja rushed about before he felt someone take him out of Sakura's arms and ease him onto a stretcher.

"I can walk!" He grumbled weakly, trying to push himself up. Unfortunately his one good arm didn't seem to be enough and he fell back down, vision swimming. Above him, Sakura just scowled, eyes glaring daggers at him.

"Please stay down, Uzumaki," one of the medics said firmly. He only listened because he saw Sakura cracking her knuckles in the background.

"Take them to the hospital," He heard Anko call out from the side. "We'll clean up here."

By now, Naruto's vision was started to darken, black creeping up along the edges. His limbs felt heavy as lead, making it near impossible to turn his head to see what was going on.

"The Hokage will want to speak to them," Boar announced, ignoring Anko's orders.

"He can wait," Anko shot back threateningly. "Hospital first." When they didn't move, she threw a round of senbon at their feet, shouting, "Now!"

The Anbu nodded reluctantly before ushering the medical ninja off. And that was the last thing Naruto saw before his eyes slipped shut, exhaustion finally taking over.


Kakashi's day was going rather slowly. Because he didn't have a genin team to teach, he had nothing on the calendar. And wasn't that odd. He had grown so used to managing his little demons that five days without them seemed, well, boring. And Kakashi did not do well with boredom.

He considered taking Gai up on a challenge, but ultimately decided against it, choosing instead to hang out in the jōnin lounge with all his other sensei comrades. It had been dull, but they made good company. He actually made conversation! So that was new.

It was sometime around one that he left to find some food (anything but Ichiraku's), but upon returning to the lounge a few hours later, he was met with a scene of chaos.

"What's going on?" Kakashi asked, watching the all the other jōnin run around frantically.

"You haven't heard?" One asked, stopping in front of him. He shook his head. "Orochimaru appeared in the forest of death. No one knows how he got in."

Forest of death? That's where the second exam was taking place!

"What happened?" He asked, stomach already starting to sink in dread.

"He attacked a genin team," the jōnin told him, face like stone.

Kakashi's stomach felt like lead now. His hands started to shake. Not his team. Please not his team. They were strong but Orochimaru was a sannin. Not even Kakashi could stand up to him. He didn't want to know- but he had to.

"Which team," he demanded.


The hospital was bustling with people just like any other day, which wouldn't have annoyed the ex-Anbu had it not been that his team was somewhere in it possibly dying from their wounds. Kakashi shoved people out of the way as he made his way to the front desk, earning him a few glares and frustrated exclamations. He didn't care though. He had things to do.

Sliding to a stop in front of the front desk, he rattled off breathlessly "Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno, and Sasuke Uchiha. Where are they?"

"Sir I'm sorry but they're not allowed any visitors at the moment," the front desk nurse apologized. The statement just made Kakashi angry.

"I am their jōnin sensei, Kakashi Hatake, which means I have family visiting rights," he spat out. "I demand to see them."

"Let him through," a new voice interrupted. Kakashi looked up to see the Cat Anbu standing off to the side, apparently having just arrived. "I can watch him."

Hesitantly, the nurse nodded before pulling out the sign in form and handing it to him. Not one to waste time, Kakashi just signed a henohenomoheji instead of his name before rushing off towards the Anbu.

"Thank you, Tenzō," he said, heading off down the hall.

"Of course, senpai," his friend said, following after him.

"What happened?" He asked, getting straight to the chase. "Nobody's been giving me a solid account." None of the jonin he's spoken too had offered anything beyond "Orochimaru attacked some genin" and that he'd been apprehended. So it wasn't a surprise that Kakashi was freaking out upon learning that it had been his team that had been attacked.

"Orochimaru showed up in the Forest of Death during the second exam," Tenzō listed off. "He and two others had been impersonating a team of Kusa genin, We know so because a group of us found the bodies this morning. Without their faces."

A cold shiver of dread ran through Kakashi at the report. Orochimaru could do that? At this point though he really shouldn't be surprised.

"Then what?" he demanded.

Tenzō let out a sigh before continuing. "We don't know, because the genin haven't said much," he said. "But apparently he attacked them and engaged in a battle. What he was after we're still not sure. He hasn't said yet and neither have your students. But eventually, during combat your team managed to signal for help in the form off opening a scroll which summoned a proctor. Weather they knew that would happen or not is still up in the air, but with the help of Kotetsu they subdued Orochimaru and brought him in."

Kakashi faltered in his steps.

"They what?" Subdue a sannin? Impossible.

"Yes," Tenzō responded. "There were two puncture wounds in Orochimaru's shoulders that restricted his movement along with multiple burn marks and lacerations. He was also chakra deprived, meaning he really put up a fight against them."

While Tenzō was speaking, Kakashi's mind was working at a hundred miles per hour. My genin, he thought. Did that?

"What happened to them?" He managed to ask. If they were all in the hospital, it was for a reason. And knowing that they had gone up against a sannin…

"The Uzumaki was hit with a seal that shut off his access to the Kyuubi. It unbalanced his chakra system immensely," Tenzō reported. "They discovered it during surgery. We're still trying to find someone who can undo it."

Surgery for what? He wondered nervously. The stone that had formed in his stomach grew heavier.

"The girl, Sakura, received multiple lacerations and suffered minor chakra exhaustion," his friend continued. "The least injured is the Uchiha boy, with only a few cuts and burns."

It was all Kakashi could do to keep one foot in front of the other as they walked down the hall. How could this have happened?

"Are they… are they alright?" He finally managed to ask.

The Anbu's silence only made his stomach sink lower. The then Anbu stopped in front of a door and reached to open it. "I'll let you see for yourself."

AN: Hahahahahahhahaa. What? You thought I'd actually kill someone? Anyways, thank you SO much for reading, and if you liked it, favorite it or leave a comment telling me what you thought of it! Thank you for reading!