Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto
CHAPTER 18
The sunlight scattered patterned shadows across the grass, and a sudden breeze rattled the chain link fence at their backs as Team Seven scanned the crowd outside the infamous Forest of Death. Determination was firmly set on their faces. Sasuke delivered his patented Uchiha glare at anyone who dared make eye contact, Hinata looked every bit the intimidating Hyuga with her shoulders thrown back and arms crossed, and Naruto's whiskers twisted into a vulpine smirk as he opened his senses to assess their competition.
"What do you see, Naruto-kun?" Hinata murmured just loud enough for the two teammates at her sides to hear. She tipped her head forward, allowing her long midnight hair to disguise the raised veins at her temples as she also took stock of the other shinobi around them. Naruto displayed no such subtlety with his intentions, and used his height to stare steady blue eyes down upon all the other genin who anxiously milled around in the early morning. Everyone here knew this was a competition, so he saw no point in pretending to be non-threatening.
"The biggest threats are that maniac from Sand and that Grass kunoichi over by Team Eight," he gestured in their direction with a lift of his chin. "She's just...ridiculous, got chakra levels like Ero-sennin. There's no way in hell that chick is a genin." Hinata noticed that his confident grin had slipped away, and he was shifting restlessly beside her. Curious, she turned her attention to the team from the relatively unknown country.
"Her chakra coils are very disproportionate," the Hyuga squinted suspiciously at the contorted network exposed by her bloodline. "Her increased chakra must be recently acquired, or partially disguised somehow? Her network anatomy doesn't match what you're describing." Naruto shrugged in response to Hinata's assessment, as he closed his senses off to the sea of chakra signatures around him and shook his head to clear away the intense flood of sensation.
"Maybe she's a plant, or a decoy placed in here to thin the herd," Sasuke suggested, throwing an annoyed look at the blond. "That crazy jonin was complaining about how many people passed the written exam."
Naruto had the decency to look sheepish, as it was his own impassioned declarations that had encouraged so many genin to wait out the tenth question of the written exam instead of surrendering. He had been at no risk of failing personally, but the arrogant threats the intimidating jonin with the garishly scarred face had bellowed at them were insulting to the entire mindset of a shinobi, and Naruto just couldn't keep his mouth shut. Plus he had complete faith in his team to answer the question correctly one way or another.
Back in the academy he and Hinata had worked out a way of "helping" each other during tests by using his shadow clones in various ways. For the chunin exam he had transformed a shadow clone into a pencil that the two friends surreptitiously swapped between them, so he could copy some of her answers from the section on historical treaties and country laws, which always were his weak point. And Hinata had easily used her Byakugan to copy his portion of the physics formulas and calculations, subjects that came almost naturally to him after studying so much fuuinjutsu. Sasuke had been assigned a spot across the room, but was easily answering questions on his own, and using his Sharingan to copy the rest from a nearby Konoha genin with glasses who had mentioned it was his seventh time taking the exam. The fact that not a single written answer even mattered in the end, was just the kind of frustrating ninja trickery that passed as irony amongst shinobi. But the fact that Team Seven had survived the first round intact, made it difficult to complain.
As they now stood together outside the tall barrier that separated them from the second round, with their scrolls packed and weapons sharpened, they continued to survey their prospective enemies, each trying to ignore the thrill of fear and adrenaline produced by this next challenge.
Shouts drew their attention to Team Eight, where they saw Kiba loudly mouthing off to the purple haired proctor, earning him a slashed cheek from a flying kunai that she launched in his direction. Sasuke grunted in disgust as the leering kunoichi draped her arms around the Inuzuka's shoulders and ran her tongue slowly up his stunned face, licking the trail of blood that dripped down his chin.
"I could've happily lived my life without ever having seen that," Naruto shuddered as the scantily clad proctor laughed too hard at her own sultry teasing. Before her creepy mockery was done, a grotesquely long tongue slithered over her shoulder with the thrown blade dangling from its forked tip. In unison Team Seven cringed and gagged at the suggestive gesture by the Grass kunoichi as she returned the weapon to its overly affectionate owner.
"It's so gross, it's not even impressive," Hinata groaned into her hand.
Their horrified staring was interrupted by Sakura clomping a red faced Kiba on the head, screaming at him to control himself, while Shino's beetles audibly increased their agitated buzzing.
"Moving on..." Naruto awkwardly cleared his throat, forcing himself to look away. "Hime, are you able to tell which teams have the scroll we need? Maybe we could get an idea of who to target when we enter the forest and avoid the rest of the Konoha teams."
Sasuke snorted at the juvenile perspective of the loyal sentimentality Naruto adhered to even at a time like this. "These are the chunin exams, you softie. Don't you think we've grown beyond playing favorites? We are supposed to fight them in the Forest of Death not organize a camp out."
"There are plenty of other teams with Earth scrolls," Hinata interjected before the two could get started. "I can see one team from Sound, two from Iwa, and my personal favorite," she grins in an evil way, "one from Kumo." The ominous cracking of her knuckles immediately had both boys taking a half step away from the righteously indignant Hyuga.
"Welp, you heard the lady! Kumo it is then," Naruto rubbed his hands together, the anticipation making him even more fidgety. Sasuke hummed in an amused way, turning to face the gate they had been assigned for entrance into Training Ground 44. "I didn't realize you could be so vengeful, Hinata. I knew you'd come around eventually."
Hinata stuck her tongue out at the sarcastic comment just as the crazy purple-haired jonin who must have forgotten how to dress herself suddenly screamed out the call for readiness, and the teammates instantly dropped into a runner's crouch. Naruto couldn't contain the excited grin that split his face and swore he even felt the Kyuubi flick his tails in anticipation. They had prepared diligently for this day, and he was certain their hard work would pay off in a spectacular way.
The gates flew open and they launched into the canopy as the battle cries of genin from around the world filled the air.
It was a catastrophe. They were in no way prepared for any of this.
Naruto groaned as he slowly roused from a deep sleep that left him feeling weak and groggy. His eyes quickly adjusted to the pale hues of the early morning light reflecting off the jagged walls of a small cave, where it appeared he and his teammates have spent the night. The details of yesterday's battle come back to him with painful clarity as he takes in the gut wrenching sight of Hime's bandaged eyes, and Sasuke's feverish shifting.
The fight with the Grass kunoichi was outrageously excessive in its ruthless brutality and sinister aspects. None of them could land a hit. Hinata couldn't get anywhere close enough to use her Gentle Fist. Naruto's clones were destroyed by snakes that were constantly erupting from all sides of the dense brush. Sasuke, the continued target of her monstrous attacks despite his having offered up their scroll in surrender, was barely fending off the freakishly long necked shinobi. Together, he and Naruto managed to pull off a fire and wind combination jutsu that they had been certain would put an end to the saucy taunts and powerful assaults. But afterwards, as they had hunched over panting in near exhaustion, with hands braced on wobbling knees, Hinata had called out a warning that something was not right.
They had watched in horror as the woman's burnt carcass crawled out of the smoking ashes. The sight of the exposed sinew and hanging flesh, the smell of the singed hair, and the sound of the devilish laughter had nearly undone the jinchuriki. But when the disfigured face cracked wide open to expose a slimy new body slithering out of the gaping jaw and shaking off the loose hide like a snake shedding its skin, his vision started to narrow and he had felt the bile rising up his throat. The freshly emerged yellow-eyed shinobi had continued to chuckle in a low raspy tone, declaring that he hadn't had such a wonderful spar in many years. "But now I'm done playing games," he had hissed as his smile stretched unnaturally high up his pale cheeks. "And I mean to collect my prize."
They simply could not compete. The madman had redoubled his efforts, and the three genin were desperately fighting for their lives. Trying to camouflage himself in a pack of attacking clones and get close enough to land a hit, Naruto instead was hit square in the gut with a chakra blazing hand that left him staggering and dizzy. Seeing he was defenseless, Hinata had leapt to strike at a snake that was flying towards her best friend, only to be blinded when it swung its massive head through the air and spit acidic venom across her face. Her pain filled screams had distracted Sasuke, and in that instant the unhinged shinobi struck, sinking his fanged teeth deep into the Uchiha's neck. The last thing Naruto saw as he tried to crawl toward his teammates was a flash of green shoot across the destroyed forest and the famous blue glow of the kaiten's chakra vortex.
And now, apparently they were safe, a realization that sank in as Naruto saw their packs neatly laid against the rock wall, the edges of the Heaven scroll peeking out of one the pockets. He then focused his attention on his best friend, leaning over Hinata's prone form, relaxing at hearing her even, steady breathing as she slept. His fingers brushed her tangled hair away from her face, and sympathy shot through his chest at the angry red skin peeking out from under the bandages that covered her eyes. Even the gentle stroke of his fingertips caused her to unconsciously flinch in pain. The sudden urge to pick her up in his arms had Naruto clenching his fists with the effort to resist disturbing her rest. Anger boiled within him and his mind instinctively went to that place where the demonic hatred usually lurked, waiting for the opportunity to sneak past his mental defenses and fill his mind with thoughts of revenge and bloodlust.
But as he braced himself for the onslaught of malicious intent, he was suddenly much more disturbed by the empty silence that he found in it's usual place. Instead of the sharp stab of hatred that he usually had to block from his voluntary thoughts, a murky haze surrounded the edges of his inner consciousness, like the fog of a dream lost upon waking.
With suspicion growing, he tried to focus on the ever present prisoner of his seal, only to find...nothing. What the fuck?
Naruto throws his senses wide open, spilling awareness out around him in an attempt to feel anything. Outside he felt the familiar presence of Neji and the rest of Team Gai, it must have been they who had shown up to help fight that freak. Next he combs over Hinata's chakra in minute detail, checking for any sign of a disturbance or life threatening weakness. A measure of relief flowed through him when he was instantly greeted by her calming aura. He can't resist taking her hand and sending a small pulse of chakra into her body, smiling as her own flow involuntarily danced with it like two leaves twisting in the breeze. He didn't know why she was the only one who reacted to his chakra that way, but it was an undeniable sign of life and a connection that always made his chest warm.
The moment of peace was short lived as Naruto focused on his other teammate. Sasuke continued to restlessly toss about his bed roll, a thin sheen of sweat covering his forehead causing his bangs to stick to his grimacing face. Crawling over to his side he can feel a sickly contaminant coursing through the normally sharp chakra of his friend. Nervously, he reached out and pulled down the blanket that was tangled around Sasuke's body and hissed through his teeth at the angry red wound on the back of his shoulder. Neji's voice comes from behind him, and had he not been trailing the Hyuga's chakra, he might have jumped at the ninja's silent arrival.
"He's been like that since yesterday," Neji says softly, aware that Hinata was still sleeping. "After that attack, the shinobi retreated into the forest. I followed him with my eyes and never saw him rejoin a team. It appears he was working alone. We did not pursue, and decided to find shelter for the night." The calm voice of the Hyuga further helped Naruto organize his thoughts as they both scrutinized the odd wound. "It's as though there was a poison of some kind in the bite," Neji murmured.
"Like a venomous snake," Naruto frowned and leaned closer to study the raised edges of what appeared to be some kind of seal within the lesion. "Neji, what do you see with your Byakugan?"
Activating his bloodline with a small pulse of chakra, Neji observed the Uchiha's inflamed coils with narrowed eyes. "There is chakra embedded into the bite, it's definitely leaking into his network," he exhaled harshly through his nose as he straightened and crossed his arms. "His body is fighting against it, but with not much success."
The smell of food drifted into the cave from where TenTen and Lee were working on breakfast, and Naruto felt his stomach rumble with hunger. He sighed as he sat back on his heels and pulled the thin blanket back up over the shivering boy, worrying over the state of his team and the threat that still lurked freely through the forest.
"Close the tenketsu around the bite," he asked after a moment of contemplation. "Perhaps it will contain the poison or whatever it is, and allow his body to recover enough to move. We have to get out of here, and I'm not leaving anyone behind." Neji's silver gaze observed the way the rambunctious prankster he had grown up with could transform into a squad captain juggling priorities of his mission versus the importance of teammates' welfare, and his mouth tipped up on one side. Perhaps becoming Hokage isn't just a childish dream?
As they exited the cave and followed the aroma of breakfast, Naruto clapped his old friend on the back, a bit harder than necessary as he always did. "Thanks again for stepping in to help us out. We tried to hold that freak off for as long as we could but there was no way we were winning that battle." His blond hair spiked up even more crazily as he scratched his head in frustration. "Something about that guy's chakra felt kind of familiar. I just can't put my finger on it."
The boys joined the rest of Neji's team, but Naruto remained rather subdued, as he continued to toss over ideas in his head, his mind chasing a million different leads but not coming to any solid conclusions. He wished either of teammates were awake and able to offer advice. Again Naruto tried to find the Fox within himself, to ask if he remembered anything, sometimes he could trick an answer out of the Kyuubi if he pestered hard enough. But still, all there was in place of the usual storm of animosity was a dead connection. It was almost as if his tenant had been counter sealed inside of...
Suddenly Naruto froze mid bite, remembering the chakra charged hit to his gut that had been delivered by the long-necked lunatic. "No fucking way..."
Standing up abruptly he yanked his shirt up over his head and gaped down at the seal on his abdomen. "That son of a bitch!" he growled, but his epiphany was met with mixed reactions.
"Oh! I accept your youthful challenge!" Lee yelled and began ripping open the neck of his green leotard. TenTen was blushing hard and Neji was glaring at TenTen.
The jinchuriki took no notice as he glared down at the five pronged seal overlaying his eight trigrams, muttering all kinds of creative expletives as he brushed past Lee without noticing the bare arm hanging awkwardly out of the stretched neck hole as the bushy browed boy twisted around to free his chest in competitive enthusiasm.
"Lee, keep your clothes on, he's not trying to strip challenge you, he's trying to see what's wrong with himself," Neji sighed, attempting to ignore the irritating way TenTen's wide eyes followed the blond's tan back as he disappeared into the cave.
"Hey Neji," he tried not to perk up too quickly as her brown gaze turned back to him. "Do you have any tattoos?" He huffed at her cheeky grin, "Wouldn't you like to know." He smirked, and went to see what the unpredictable genin was doing now as he emerged from the cave and flung his backpack on the ground.
Naruto had immediately recognized the five pronged seal as one that Jiraiya had offered to place on him back when he had first lost control of the Kyuubi, to help prevent it from overwhelming him again. But the boy had declined, insisting that if the Yondaime had intentionally designed his seal to leak so he could learn to use the Kyuubi's chakra, then that is what he would do, proving that his hero's faith in a lone orphan was not wasted.
Fishing through his pouch for a brush and paint, Naruto ignored his little audience as his mind raced through the various arrays he would need to create in order to reverse the blocking seal. He paused to calculate his current chakra level, and worriedly gnawed at his lip when he assessed the borderline amount he had remaining. He could probably pull this off, but it would set him way back, which was not ideal out here in the notorious Forest of Death. And in all fairness he couldn't monopolize Team Gai forever, they had a great chance of making chunin and it wasn't fair to hold them back.
The counter array of the pesky five pronged seal was a more complicated creation than he had ever attempted alone without Ero-sennin or Dog to supervise. But removing it was important, not because of any selfish desire to retrieve his power, but because he needed to protect his teammates. And if he had any hope of addressing the evil looking seal on Sasuke's shoulder, he needed to help himself first. I have to find the Fox, he affirmed to himself, and let his mind fall away.
Naruto lifted his head as he felt himself arrive within his mindscape. "Kyuubi?" The bars on the cage were still there, but the presence was gone. A thick, literally palpable, black fog swirled through the atmosphere on the other side of the cage. Everything was obscured to the point where Naruto just had to trust his own intuition that the Fox was even still there.
"Hey Furball! You ok in there?" Naruto dared to stick a hand through the bars and swing his arm through the fog. The kickback of the seal jolted him like an electrical burn as it singed his arm. From the place where he made contact with the miasma, streaks of sealing formulas shot out like green flashes of lightning.
Naruto rubbed his tingling arm as he glared up at the foreign barrier in his mind. "I don't know if you can hear me, I sure as hell can't see you," he yelled into the void. "But I want you to know I'm gonna fix this. I promise!" Silence greeted the jinchuriki, and he frowned. Usually the Fox would at least snort derisively at his overly optimistic claims of solving seemingly insurmountable problems.
"I-I could use your help, Fox." Naruto stammered, more unnerved than he wanted to admit about the silence of the chamber. He'd gotten kinda used to the idea of never being completely alone, and this emptiness was making him restless. "I'm a bit strapped right now, after that fight and all, and I've never done this before, and it would be really helpful if you could, y'know, chip in a bit." He waited, there was no answer. No nothing. Just blackness. "It won't stop me, I'll make it work either way. I never give up! But, it might be easier if we work together. I can push from the outside, if you push from the inside, and maybe it will strain the seal enough so that it'll break even if my array isn't perfect?"
There, was that a rumble? It wasn't loud, but the tremor that traveled up his legs definitely came from behind those bars. His mouth quirked up in a crooked smile, "I'll take that as a yes! Hang on Furball! I'll have you outta that mess in no time, dattebayo!"
Out in the real world his head snapped up and he set to work like a man possessed, which he guessed he was? Pacing around, scribbling large characters in the ground, to form the containment circle and settling into the center of his diagram, he carefully dipped his brush into the paint and took a deep breath. This was gonna be the tricky part. As he precisely applied the spiraling calligraphy across his chest and abdomen, he was vaguely aware of the presence of the others nearby, but kept his head down and focus sharp. Sweat rolled down his forehead as he craned his neck to make sure each kanji was correct.
That's as good as it'll ever be, he thought, finally glancing up to see Hinata had joined them at the edge of the ring, leaning on Neji's shoulder as he filled her in on the state of her team. Squinting painfully at the kanji scratched into the dirt, she lifted her red rimmed eyes to his blurry figure. "Are you sure about this Naruto-kun? You don't want to wait for Kakashi-sensei or Jiraiya-sama?"
Naruto flashed her a reassuring grin to alleviate the worry etched on her face and shook his head, "Nah, after what happened, I don't want to risk another run in with that bastard while only at half capacity. Besides," he tapped a finger to the large swirl across his abdomen. "Two heads are always better than one!"
Neji raised a suspicious eyebrow, not completely understanding the vague comment, but remembered that Naruto possessed a unique type of chakra that was difficult to control, yet immensely powerful when harnessed. Hinata had told him that much, and judging by the way she smiled and nodded at Naruto's little joke, she must know more about it than she had let on.
Adjusting his position within the sphere of formulas so that he was lined up perfectly, Naruto took a deep breath. "Alright Fox, it's now or never," he mumbled. Clapping his hands together he squeezed his eyes tightly shut and forced the pool of chakra he had accumulated since the battle into the freshly created seal, and grit his teeth as the kanji flashed around him with a blue glow. He struggled to maintain a smooth flow and maximize his efficiency, instantly feeling the lingering fatigue hit him anew.
Hinata bit her lip in worry, her feet starting to move forward with the instinct to rush to his aid, to add her chakra to his own. But Neji placed a firm hand on her shoulder, gesturing at the intricate pattern in the dirt that absolutely could not be disturbed. TenTen and Lee watched in wonder from the edge of the brightly glowing ring that had started to dance on the earth and slowly seep into Naruto's tense body like water swirling into an eddy.
"C'mon, c'mon, keep it going, don't..give..in," Naruto grit through his teeth, straining to maintain the steady current of chakra. His array must have been sloppier than he thought, the exertion of pressing on was greater than he imagined. If he failed now, he wouldn't be able to make a second attempt for at least another day. They didn't have that kind of time. He had to make it work.
The array spun faster, the intensity of the glow blazing brighter as the jutsu strove to achieve its peak. Naruto growled with the intensity of his effort, alarm shooting through his chest as he realized that he was going to be cutting it dangerously close. His head throbbed as he forced his focus to sharpen, reaching deep within to wring every last drop of chakra from his body. His harsh voice echoed through the vast chamber of his mind, "Now Kyuubi!"
From inside the cavern red chakra flooded out of the bars with the force of burst dam, saturating the water with its crimson hue as it raced across the churning waves toward the blond boy standing on the brackish water with hands clasped in fierce concentration, a vulpine grin stretched across his face. His spiky hair danced in the chakra fueled wind as he took a deep breath, barreling his chest and pursing his lips.
Outside, the small group watched in awe as the seal suddenly blazed like fire and burst from the earth in a swirling vortex around the crouched genin. Naruto seemed frozen in the middle of the maelstrom, unaffected by the storm around him. All at once, red slitted eyes flew wide and his mouth opened in a fang toothed shout as he thrust the mass of demonic chakra from his body with a bellowing "HHAAA!" The array flashed and burst with a mighty gust of wind that knocked the whole group on their asses and sent Naruto crashing into a tree trunk.
The instant weight of the familiar presence within him settled into his gut, and Naruto sighed in relief as he felt his body flood with energy and his own natural healing ramp up in response. Thanks, Furball, he chuckled inwardly. Next time maybe we could team up before the fight, eh? The Kyuubi's snort was less harsh then usual, I only helped you for my own reasons, it hardly serves my purpose to not have access to your thoughts, he huffed as he turned his back on the bars to pretend disinterest. Keep telling yourself that, the jinchuriki snickered as he returned his focus to the outside world again.
Blinking dazedly, he sat up, rubbing his head and causing leaves to fall out of the blond strands. Hissing a bit through his teeth at the fresh burn marks on his stomach, he crawled over to Hinata, gently helping her sit up and brushing dirt from her hair. "Sorry Hime, that was kinda tougher than I thought it would be."
Neji had pulled TenTen to her feet and she reached to pluck a twig from his hair. "Next time you should warn us that there is a blast perimeter," the Hyuga grumbled.
"Well at least it worked!" Naruto laughed as he retrieved his dusty pack from under a bush and pulled out another shirt.
"That was an amazingly youthful display of skill, Naruto!" Lee exclaimed after bouncing to his feet sans assistance. "If I didn't already have Neji as my eternal rival, I would challenge you to a lifelong competition of fervent contention!"
"I'm happy to share," Neji muttered under his breath, which had TenTen giggling as she pulled yet another piece of debris from his long hair.
"Oh no, he's all yours," Naruto chimed in, taking a scroll from his hip pouch and unsealing two hairbrushes. Tossing one to TenTen he answered her confused look with a laugh. "I've learned that when one has the tendency to create havoc wherever they go, it's common courtesy to pack a hairbrush for your Hyuga teammate. Practically a mission essential for me these days."
Hinata didn't bother to stifle her smile at Neji's deep blush as they both sat patiently and endured the forced attention of their teammates.
"About 150 meters out, on our two o'clock," Hinata stated as she leapt off another tree branch.
"And the scroll?" Naruto asked, neatly ricocheting off a trunk to her right as he followed her lead through the dense forest.
"Earth," she confirmed, only slightly squinting to zero in on the small cylinder which was poorly hidden in the backpack of one of the genin up ahead.
"Down!" Sasuke yelled, and the three drop to the forest floor just as a massive bird swooped down from the sky to make a grab for what it thought would be an easy meal. For the rest of the second stage of the chunin exam, the team had decided to let Hinata take point as they traveled through the harsh landscape, her Byakugan leading them toward potential targets. Sasuke flanked her left, intermittently scanning with his Sharingan for short range threats. Naruto was randomly throwing out shadow clones to address said obstacles, and so far the strategy was working, but he continued to worry that the recovering Uchiha was overusing his still somewhat new bloodline.
Yesterday had been tense for them as they had bid Team Gai goodbye and hunkered down in the cave to allow Sasuke one more night to regain his strength. The curse seal was still producing symptoms similar to a flu or poison, and the Uchiha had restlessly tossed and muttered all through the night. This morning Sasuke insisted that he would be fine, and the reality was they were on the clock, so they had set out after a solid breakfast. But the guy's chakra still felt off to Naruto in a way that made him apprehensive about more than just his health, and now he hoped this opportunity up ahead would provide them with the scroll they needed to complete stage two and get the hell outta here.
If there was one thing Kakashi was good at, it was drilling Team Seven on tactical attacks, and his genin were a well oiled machine of his own making. Hinata used hand signals to silently relay the exact positions of their targets, and Sasuke immediately gestured that he would lead the attack. This desire was nothing new from the Uchiha, however the malicious gleam of his dark eyes had his teammates more than a little concerned. Naruto waved his hands and conveyed that he wanted to do a stealth infiltration, the genin below were obviously weaker than themselves, and poorly guarding their prize. Besides, Sasuke was still not at full chakra capacity, neither was he for that matter, and Hime's eyes were healing but sore.
Sasuke's nostrils flared, he never liked taking orders, and the baka's passive approach was irritating his already agitated state. His nerves were buzzing with adrenaline, he couldn't hardly sit still long enough to see the hand signals, his whole body was thrumming with the need to move. A mantra, nearly audible, whispered in the back of his head, that he was strong enough to do this on his own. He didn't need them. Their advice was flawed. He was better than them. He could prove it. He needed to prove it. He needed to fight.
Hinata frowned at her teammate's tense posture and uncharacteristically poor focus, every muscle in his body straining in his crouch, like an invisible leash was barely holding him back. Naruto frustratedly threw a small rock at the distracted Uchiha in an attempt to get his attention, when his Sharingan suddenly spun to life, and before Hinata could grab his arm he was gone, nothing more than a dark streak moving across the sunlit canopy of green leaves.
"Fuck! Hurry Hime!" Naruto's yell was unnecessary, and thankfully served as a warning to the three sitting ducks below, who had enough sense to move first and ask questions later. Sasuke collided with the earth in the midst of where they had been gathered for a meal, the intensity of his impact strong enough to crack bone had he hit his intended targets.
The small clearing erupted into a battle zone of jutsu. Not wanting to contribute to an already unfair fight, Hinata and Naruto hung back, gaping at the brutality Sasuke was unleashing upon the other genin. One was propelled into a tree with such force the whole trunk cracked as they fell, unmoving, into the shrubs. The last two seemed slightly more coordinated and were able to launch an earth jutsu meant to crush Sasuke between two massive hunks of earth, but just as the slabs encased the raging Uchiha, Naruto felt the change in the air, and the suspicious familiarity of the dark chakra slammed into him with the traumatizing recollection of where he had first encountered the evil curse seal.
"No," he whispered, and Hinata's heart rate spiked at the fear she saw in his blue eyes. "Not again, no, no, no..."
"Naruto-kun what—" before she could finish the question Sasuke burst from his earthen prison with a maniacal laugh that had the hairs on the back of her neck standing on end. A fiery pattern danced across his skin, spreading over his face and arms, pouring from the malevolent seal on his neck and solidifying into an inky black network of blotches.
"Behold the power of the Uchiha!" He roared and launched himself at the two quaking genin with a speed only seasoned shinobi could hope to track. He blurred around his targets, slashing them haphazardly with the clear intent to torture and toy with his victims. The one screamed for mercy, but his cry was cut off as his throat was slashed.
Naruto was yelling so loud his voice was cracking. Hinata gasped at the blatant disregard for any kind of clemency from her teammate. Without pausing to see if he would repeat the cruel murder on the last genin, Naruto and Hinata took action. It took nearly six clones to restrain the insane Uchiha, who screamed in fury at being stopped from finishing off his last opponent. Not waiting for his thrashing to stop, Hinata rapidly hit as many of his major tenketsu as she dared until he went limp, and the black pattern retreated into the seal like a snake returning to its den.
As his Sharingan bled out of his eyes, they saw a second tomoe had appeared.
Naruto bent down to scoop up the unconscious Uchiha, slinging his body over his shoulder with a grunt. Hinata timidly turned to the bleeding genin, who had staggered over to the tree where his teammate is rousing from the hard collision. She felt obligated to apologize, regardless of this being the chunin exams, and knowing full well that Sasuke technically broke no rules. Her guilt over the mismatched slaughter caused by her team sits like a heavy ball in her stomach. Despite knowing there is nothing she can say to bring back their teammate, she opens her mouth to offer to help tend their wounds, but is cut off by the angry words of the defeated genin.
"Just leave us," the slashed shinobi hissed through clenched teeth as he assisted his only teammate to sit. The backpack containing the scroll had fallen to the ground during the mayhem, spilling its contents nearby. "Take it," a sandaled foot kicked the Earth scroll towards her. "I never want to see that thing again."
Hinata picks up the filthy prize, feeling no satisfaction with its possession. "C'mon, Hime," Naruto says lowly from behind her, adjusting Sasuke's weight to balance across his shoulders, bracing him by a limp arm and leg. "We need to get outta here before...well, anything else happens, and that's our ticket to escape." His eyes light briefly on the pair of genin huddled together, and a look of intense regret crosses his features before he leaps up into the trees.
Hinata takes a deep breath, and shakily exhales, clutching the scroll in her hand. She bows to the defeated shinobi, a perfectly executed expression of apology and respect conveyed without the use of words, and before she silently follows her boys, she leaves a thick roll of bandages and a jar of her own medicated ointment.
They set a grueling pace to the tower, the shock of the fight fueling their adrenaline laced sense of urgency to put the forest behind them. Naruto gave up making clones, redirecting his chakra into each leap to powerfully propel him and his teammate toward a place of safety. Hinata ignored her throbbing headache and burning eyes, pulsing her Byakugan at intervals to correct their course.
The roof of their sanctuary peeked over the top of the trees in the bright sunlight of midday, and Hinata inwardly sighed in relief at being able to deactivate her overused bloodline, when suddenly a scream pierced through the dense foliage far to their right and she swept her gaze in that direction. She raised her hand in the signal to halt and heard Naruto grunt as he skidded to a stop under his extra burden. Zeroing in on the position of the cries, her heart drops at the sight of the siblings from the Sand, who appeared to have ambushed another team that was also making its way back to the tower with their scrolls.
Gesturing to the hidden scene, Hinata explained in a nervous whisper what she saw into Naruto's ear, now immensely cautious about this newest threat. "Should we stay hidden or move out while they're distracted?" he asked, planting his feet more firmly on the ground to better distribute the weight of his teammate.
"They're focused on their fight, they haven't seen us," she summarized, but continued to stare with mild confusion. "Its odd, the three of them are just standing there, none of them are braced to fight. Temari is actually leaning on her massive fan like she's bored, and I can see both scrolls in Kankuro's puppet. But there are still two genin left facing them, and they look terrified...what are they doing?"
"As long as they're not looking our way I don't care, the last thing we need right now is another stare down with that—"
His words cut off as Hinata clapped her hands over her mouth, barely stifling a scream, and squeezing her eyes shut. Her knees gave out and she choked on her own breath, a look of such terror on her face that Naruto immediately felt his canines sharpen in reflex to the protective emotions that surged through his chest.
"Hime! What happened? What did you see?" He unceremoniously dumped Sasuke onto the ground and reached for her as she retched, then turned away to heave into the bushes.
"Hime? Are you ok? Are we in danger?" Naruto was bent next to her, hand rubbing up and down her shaking back, pausing only to send three clones out in a triangular perimeter around them. "Talk to me, Hime," he pulled her hair behind her ears, holding it gently away from her face as she spit and coughed. Hinata wiped her face on her sleeve, panting into the fabric to keep herself from hyperventilating.
"He...he was serious, about wanting b-blood," she gasped, and Naruto frowned deeper in confusion, ignoring her filthy clothes and pulling her into his chest. His alarm at seeing her so immensely petrified rivaling his fear of the thing that caused it.
"His s-sand...the gourd is full of sand and he c-can command it. He engulfed the other team, and ... and ..." she pushed her face into his orange jacket until the pressure caused colors to dance behind her fiercely closed eyes. "It ate them! And it soaked up the b-blood like... it was thirsty," her words muffled as she hoarsely whispered, "and the others, just stood there and watched, while he...he devoured them..."
Naruto's eyes were wide in horror, he had thought he had sensed it back in the town that day they had first run into the Sand siblings, the chakra of a demon, a bijuu, tainting the massive killing intent of the insane redhead. Daring to tentatively reach out with his senses and confirm his fears once and for all, he recoiled at the heavy bloodlust that poured from the direction of the slaughter. The impression of the rabid animal was still there, overlaid with a twisted sense of satisfaction from a predator successful with their hunt.
Kyuubi, Naruto called out in his mind, do you know this one? Is he one of us?
A growl rumbled in his gut. You are not the only one with a broken brother, he felt the demon respond, before the connection was severed abruptly. SHIT
"That's it. We can't stay here. Hime, are you ok to move out?" Naruto whispered harshly into her ear.
She nodded into his chest before leaning back, breathing deeply and squaring her shoulders. Her cheeks were blotchy and her poor eyes were more red than silver as she raised a trembling gaze to his focused blue stare. "I-I just want to be done, let's go," she said with more bravery than she thought she felt at the moment. Naruto raised a hand to her cheek, brushing a thumb over a tear that trailed down her face and tried to offer a reassuring smile. "That's my girl, let's finish this."
The bedraggled trio stumbled through the entrance of the tower, and Hinata quickly puzzled out the riddle as Naruto braced a slowly rousing Sasuke on very unsteady feet. When the smoke cleared off the pair of opened scrolls they looked up to see the blessedly welcome smiling face of Iruka-sensei. The happy expression quickly fell as he surveyed the exhausted genin before him, and alarm filled his eyes at the sight of Sasuke.
"Iruka-sensei!" Naruto sagged with such relief that his grip on the Uchiha slipped, and they both sat down hard. "We need to see Dog, now."
The debrief with their Sensei had been tense, the genin struggling to keep the story coherent as they frantically overlapped each other trying to explain everything at once. When he finally grasped all the details, Kakashi had immediately set out to notify the Sandaime and Jiraiya, and make preparations to place a containment seal around Sasuke's curse mark. After seeing themselves up to the team dorm room where they would wait out the end of the second stage, Hinata had offered to go find some dinner, leaving the boys to place dibs on their beds.
Naruto and Sasuke now sat across the room from each other on their respective bunks, throwing a kunai back and forth between them as they processed everything that had happened the last few days.
"So there's a part of his chakra embedded into the seal?" Sasuke muttered, snatching the kunai out of the air near his ear.
"Yeah, it was the same with Mizuki. Asshole lost his bloody mind when he used that seal's power," Naruto adjusted his cross-legged position on the bunk before his foot fell asleep again.
Sasuke twirled the loop of the kunai around his ring finger, seemingly deep in thought as he let it loose to fly back across the room. "Perhaps I could find a way to take control of the power without losing myself to it, isn't that why you're always meditating?"
Naruto caught the projectile an inch in front of his nose, never batting an eye at the near hit. "Sort of," he hedged around the question, still nervous to reveal too much about the true source of the powerful chakra sealed within himself. "I'm not trying to force my control over the chakra as much as, kinda, make peace with it. It wasn't mine to begin with, and I hate the idea of using power that I've stolen. I want my strength to come from my own sweat and blood, not some enslaved entity or whatever." He bit his lip at the near slip up, and quickly flipped the weapon back with no warning.
Sasuke was still looking down at his feet but minutely shifted to the left without glancing up, allowing the blade to thunk into the wall by his head. He seemed not to have heard all of the introspective answer, his mouth slightly frowning in thought. "Does it ever seem as if... as if it can hear your thoughts?" the Uchiha said in a low and serious tone, reaching up to grasp the kunai sticking out of the panel. "Like a whisper in the back of your mind?" He yanked the blade free and examined it in his open palm.
"Sometimes," the jinchuriki responded with a dry laugh, and pulled out another kunai. "I've found that if I yell back louder and longer it gets annoyed and shuts up." Sasuke's lip twitched a bit at the typical Naruto-style handling of such a unique predicament, and he flipped the knife over in his hand to grip the handle.
The two stare at one another for a beat, and then on some unspoken signal simultaneously threw their weapons across the room, aimed squarely for the other's face. Each neatly caught the oncoming projectile with his opposite hand, and smirked.
"When I had that power, I don't even remember thinking anything was wrong," Sasuke confessed. Thwip, the two kunai again shaved past each other in the air. In perfect sync, they snatched the blades from their deadly accurate trajectories. "It just felt good...really good. I've never been that strong in my life."
"A power that makes you lose yourself is a risky thing," acknowledged Naruto. "But is that power worth the price of your mind? I want my 'other' chakra to be the last tool I reach for in a desperate fight, not something that manipulates me like a puppet."
Sasuke's dark eyes were difficult to read as he thought hard on his teammate's words. "I never want to be a pawn in another's game. I want to be the hand that moves my pieces towards my own goal. But," his mouth hardened into a thin line, "some goals are worthy of the sacrifice."
Naruto opened his mouth to immediately dispute this idea but stopped as he tried to see it from a new perspective. Was there a point at which he would be willing to give in to the Kyuubi for the sake of...of what? If that line did exist, where was it? Who was it?
Lost in a tangent of new thoughts he nearly missed the oncoming kunai from his teammate and barely blocked it with the blade still in his hand, sending it ricocheting back at Sasuke across the room. Ever the pride of his name, the Uchiha didn't even blink as he whipped out a third kunai to send the weapon back with a snicker at his teammate's easily distracted mind.
When Kakashi and Hinata entered the room with dinner, they found a volley of shuriken and kunai being batted back and forth between the two boys like a deadly game of tennis on steroids. The newcomers' wide eyes bounced back and forth following the sparking clashes of metal in the confined space. Finally Kakashi couldn't stand it anymore and reached up to lift his hitae-ate and unveil his Sharingan. Hinata relaxed her tense shoulders, thankful that for once he was going to be the mature one and stop the wild genin before they blew a hole in the dorm room wall. But her hopes were dashed as she heard his jubilant cry.
"I call winner!"
