Chapter 13! The first to be uploaded after changing the upload schedule. I hope I was able to provide a better chapter this time, but I won't know if there's no reviews, so please review and tell me how to improve. Now please enjoy The Second Exam!
All rights go to Kishimoto and other creators of Naruto. If I invested in Naruto then maybe I could so I owned a bit of it, but I don't know how so I don't own a shred of the franchise.
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Naruto yawned as he walked through the streets of Konoha. While he was not a morning person, he had woken up early today. He had woken around six and just couldn't get back to sleep. Ichiraku wasn't open yet, so Naruto settled for some instant ramen. Looking into a nearby clock store window, he saw it was 7:26. 'Hmm, I would imagine Hinata would be heading out about now'. With hope that his teammate hadn't left earlier, Naruto jumped over to the Hyuuga Compound.
Upon arrival, he was grilled by the two Hyuuga guards standing on either side of the entrance. Naruto was saved however, when Hinata came out. After quickly assessing the situation, she snapped at the guards that Naruto was her friend and was not a threat. The guards were momentarily frozen in shock at hearing that the demon brat was friends with the Hyuuga Heiress. Recovering from their shock, they apologized to Hinata and retook their posts.
Hinata then walked to the second exam. Naruto quickly followed, not wanting to spend another minute with the guards. "Man those guards are scary! If you didn't come when you did, I would be running for my life right about now!". Naruto had fallen in stride with Hinata, his arms behind his head, enjoying the morning sunlight.
Without even looking at Naruto, Hinata asked, "Why were you waiting in front of my house?". Without skipping a beat Naruto responded, "Well I woke up early and couldn't sleep after that. I saw it was about 30 minutes before the scheduled time and assumed you'd be heading out for the exam soon".
"But why did you wait in front of my house? You could've just sat on a tree and waited for me to come out". Naruto took a second to think.
"I guess I wanted to surprise you. Since you haven't had any friends before me and Sasuke. I thought you might enjoy someone waiting for you. Sorry if it was weird. I don't have much experience with… friends. Or at least dealing with the family of friends… Sorry if I made things really depressing". Naruto was scratching the back of his head once again. A habit that added to the warmth he radiated.
Hinata found herself slightly blushing as she said, "Thank you, I liked you waiting for me". Naruto's face was split in half with the smile that ran across it. Hinata found herself getting flustered at the sight. 'Why do I feel so good but so embarrassed?'. Naruto didn't seem to notice thankfully for Hinata, and the two were able to make it to training ground 44 with 15 minutes to spare. Sasuke arrived a few minutes after, an almost undetectable bounce in his step.
Naruto had been around Sasuke long enough to know when something was the slightest bit off, and noticed right away. Naruto planned on asking about it later. Naruto could tell something extremely good if Sasuke actually showed it in his walk, but Naruto just couldn't deduce what it could be.
Shrugging it off, Naruto greeted Sasuke and started a conversation about his progression in the art of dango making. For the next several minutes, the two talked about how they were progressing in becoming master of their preferred foods. Hinata found herself feeling like she was being left behind by the two, 'great not only has my sister surpassed me the Gentle Fist, but my teammates have surpassed me in general life!'.
Remembering his promise, Naruto turned to Hinata and said, "Oh yeah, Hinata come over my place next time you have a chance and I'll make you the pancakes I owe you. I can even show you how they're made if you want". While Naruto didn't think anything strange about his words, Hinata found herself blushing slightly once again, 'he'd teach me, one on one, with no one else around?'.. Wait what?! NO! Get a grip on yourself Hinata! Father can only do so much, but you'll still be married off to a suttor! And I don't like Naruto like that! No, he's a friend, just a friend'.
"Uh, Hinata?"
Hinata had gotten so caught up in her thoughts that she forgot to answer Naruto, "What? Oh yes, I'd like that very much". Naruto smiled and turned back to a suspicious Sasuke. Hinata really hoped that the Sharingan couldn't copy and thus read the thoughts of people. She didn't even know what was going on with her right now, she didn't want anyone finding out about her inner turmoil about romance, especially the Uchiha.
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At 8 o'clock exactly, Anko appeared in a cloud of dust. "Welcome to the Forest of Death you brats! For the second exam, your team will be given either a heaven or earth scroll," she then held up both scrolls that she seemed to have taken from an invisible pocket on the back of her jacket. "You need both scrolls to pass. Now to get a scroll, you need to take it from another team! You will need to fill out an "if perishes" form for your families and villages stating that we are not responsible for any killinging within that forest. While killing another team isn't prohibited, it's also not encouraged, so try to hold back on your urges you little savages". Anko shot a glance at Gaara on that last bit.
Naruto snickered at how anti-child Anko was being. He was one of the few people who knew about her relationship with Iruka. A second later he felt a kunai cut his cheek and Anko appeared behind him. "Did I say something funny kid?". Anko now held a kunai to Naruto's throat, threatening to pull the blade across.
Naruto didn't even flinch, "I'm laughing at the irony of the situation. If not for having seen it myself, I would've never guessed you'd go out with… mff mff". Anko had covered Naruto's mouth and had a tint of pink on her cheeks. She then clonked him on the head, "You know too much brat". Naruto gave her a foxy smile, knowing he had control over her.
Trying to regain her authority, Anko turned away and continued explaining the test. "You have 5 days to reach a tower in the middle of the forest. You're only let inside once you show both scrolls. Once that's done, you have finished the test". "Oh yeah, you open a scroll, you've failed the test".
Anko was about to walk over to the scroll both to relax when a face appeared next to her. It was the head of one of the grass genin. Her next was extended to impossible lengths and her tongue wrapped around the kunai Anko threw. "You forgot this miss. Wouldn't want to be a kunai short in case of emergency, now would we?". Anko narrowed her eyes at the kunai and took it back cautiously, "Get away from me before I put this kunai to use". The Grass kunoichi bowed her head and retracted her neck back to her body.
The genin teams slowly went to get an "if perishes" form. When Naruto received his he almost laughed. 'As if anyone would make a big fuss if I died'. Signing his name on seemed a useless ceremonial gesture to him.
Sasuke thought about Haku, but still signed the form without hesitation. 'If I can't survive a chunin exam, how will I be able to face Itachi?!'. He knew that there were some strong genin present, but Sasuke also knew that he was strong too. He wasn't one to think little of his abilities, and this exam was a perfect way to measure himself against others.
Hinata was more hesitant about signing. She was still getting used to the whole life being in danger on a regular basis thing. Unlike Sasuke and Naruto, she had a family who would miss her. When they had lost her mother, she thought she had almost lost the man she called her father. Thankfully, he found his joy in his daughters and didn't become cold and stern. She knew he couldn't handle another loss, but she also knew she and her team had come too far to back out. Acting before she could think any longer, she wrote her name on the form.
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Naruto had volunteered to get the scroll, but was quickly shut down, due to him probably going to flaunt the scroll to everyone else. Instead, Sasuke was elected to go, and received a heaven scroll, hiding it in his pack from the other genin.
While Team Seven prepared, Team 8 was having some… problems. Getting the scroll wasn't the problem, it was Sakura returning to her team to find a Rock Lee on one knee, promising to protect her always. Sakura shivered at the sight of the boy's eyebrows and terrible fashion sense. She tried turning him down(rather harshly too), but he seemed unaffected by it and kept on asking her out and proclaiming his love.
Kiba laughed, seeing how frustrated Sakura was getting, and even though it was hidden, even Shino let a small smirk form on his face. Over the past few months, Sakura had been incredibly irritable to be around, to the point that even Shino was annoyed with her. But she was still their teammate, so Kiba and Shino would look out for her. Seeing her in a position where the roles reversed was hilarious for any of the Konoha 9 who were watching.
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Within thirty minutes, all the genin had decided whether or not to fill out the form and had gotten a scroll. Currently they were standing in front of the gate they were assigned to, waiting for the test to begin.
They weren't waiting long for the gates to open wide, and signal the start of the second exams. The genin teams raced into the forest, as if trying to make as much distance between themselves and their proctor.
After a few minutes of running, Naruto stopped abruptly and took a defensive stance. Hinata and Sasuke quickly followed, activating their dojutsu. "Jump" Hinata shouted. Right as they did, three pairs of arms came from the ground. Team Seven stood on the branch above and watched as three of the same person emerged. His headband signified that he was from the hidden rain. Before they could question him, they all turned into mud. "I can't see any chakra signatures nearby, he must have sent squads of clones out to try and take out some of the weaker teams".
Naruto and Sasuke relaxed at this, taking their time to return their kunai to their pouches. Hinata then led the way, and Team Seven was once again racing through the woods. After about 2 hours of running through the treetops, Hinata called for a break that she and Sasuke really needed. Naruto seemed like he could've gone another 8 hours at least. 'How does he have so much stamina?'.
After they finished resting, Sasuke turned to his teammates saying, "Okay, we need a password in case one of us gets lost. That way when they return, we can use it to make sure it's actually them and not someone using a henge". Hinata nodded in confirmation, Naruto knew he wasn't great at remembering this on the fly, but he also knew Sasuke knew this and agreed to the idea. "The password is, the sun sets on the last day of autumn, the moon rises on the first night of winter. Got it?". Hinata and Naruto both nodded. Hinata was actually able to memorize the password, but Naruto could feel it leaving his head as quickly as it entered.
Sasuke smirked and turned, leading the group further into the forest.
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Eventually, Naruto had to pee. Hinata and Sasuke needed a rest anyway, so Naruto hopped off to find some privacy. A few minutes later, he returned. Sasuke asked him what the password was and Naruto recited it perfectly. Hinata raised an eyebrow at this, and Sasuke smirked. Within an instant, Naruto had two shuriken in his legs, with a kunai to his throat. Sasuke had his sharingan activated as well to dispel any genjutsu. "You see, Naruto wouldn't have been able to remember the password. I noticed you earlier, but I thought this might serve us better". Naruto dissolved into the rain nin from earlier.
Hinata used her Byakugan and made sure it was the real one this time. "So what's going to happen, is your team is going to give us your scroll and maybe I won't kill you". The rain nin narrowed his eyes and signalled his team. Two other rain ninja landed on the opposite end of the tree branch. Hinata confirmed that they were actually there. They stood there, their eyes burning with hatred. Eventually they took the scroll out of their bag, holding it towards Hinata. "Hey now, if you want your teammate to survive, I would suggest not using a fake to bargain his life with".
'Damn those sharingan!' thought the rain ninja. Reluctantly, the rain ninja gave Sasuke their heaven scroll. In return, Sasuke kicked the rain nin he had been holding hostage towards his teammates. The two teams starred at each other for a while, until the rain nin turned and left. Hinata watched as they left, making sure they didn't try a sneak attack.
"They're gone" Hinata said. Sasuke nodded and turned to where they had last seen Naruto. Hinata looked out with her Byakugan. "I see his chakra, but it's far away. It looks like he's in… A giant snake?!". The two raced over, concerned about their teammate.
Naruto found himself within the belly of a 50 meter long snake. Right after he had finished up, the Snake had snuck up behind and swallowed him in one bite. Currently he was clawing the slippery insides of the Snake trying to escape. Then he had an idea, a gruesome one, but one that just might save him. Putting his fingers into a cross, he said "Shadow Clone Jutsu!".
Hinata and Sasuke arrived to see the biggest snake they've ever seen being inflated by something. Lumps formed all over it's skin, filling the snake. Eventually the snake exploded like a balloon, leaving it's remains scattered everywhere. Acting fast, Sasuke sent a fireball in front of him and Hinata to prevent themselves from being covered in the snake's entrails.
After the fireball had dissipated, they were left with hundreds of Narutos standing in front of them, all covered in snake guts. "Hey guys!" they all said in unison. They then poofed out of existence, leaving only one snake gut covered Naruto behind. Hinata shivered at the sight, and Sasuke's nosed crinkled at the smell. Naruto saw their reactions and took a good look at himself, even smelling the snake gut, realizing just how bad it smelt.
Grabbing some lavender he saw, Naruto made some hand signs, "freshen up jutsu". The air around him picked up and started swirling around him. Naruto let go of the flowers and they follow the air currents. The air then filled his clothes and pushed off all the snake guts easily. When he returned to the ground, the flowers were no were to be seen, but his clothes now smelled of the lavender that he had grabbed.
Smelling himself once more, Naruto smiled at his teammates, "Now I smell like Hinata". Hinata's ears turned pink at this, 'W-why does he know how I smell?'. Sasuke raised an eyebrow towards Naruto with the same question. Naruto was confused, "What? I was stinky, now I smell good!".
Hinata's ears continued to turn a darker shade of pink. Sasuke smirked, "why do you know what Hinata smells like?". Naruto turned red, realizing how creepy that sounded.
"Sorry! I just have a heightened sense of smell, and well… that's what Hinata smells like". Sasuke seemed satisfied with this, but turned to see Hinata with a light pink tint upon her face. 'Oh? Is Hinata getting flustered at this?', Sasuke smirked and let out a chuckle. 'That's going to be fun to watch'.
Waiting for Naruto to join them, Team Seven set off again.
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Team 8 wasn't having much success, it was the third day and the only teams they had encountered had already lost their scroll. They were tired, and Sakura was starting to panic about how they still didn't have a heaven scroll to go with their earth.
Shino remained as stoic as ever, with Kiba plugging his eyes to try and block out Sakura's rambling. They were hopping through the trees, once again trying to find a team to battle for an earth scroll. Suddenly they heard a loud crash to their left.
After going to investigate, they saw that it was Naruto, but more ferrell looking, fighting against some strange man. Taking action Kiba and Shino went to help, Sakura was terrified by what she saw and thought 'If Naruto's fighting alone, then where's Sasuke?!'. She went off to find Sasuke, leaving her teammates behind.
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On the third day of the exam, Team Seven had not encountered any other teams. Unless you count secretly witnessing Gaara's power as he crushed a waterfall nin as if finding pleasure in it. Hinata was still a bit shaken from that, but she was still building her tolerance for gore. A big improvement from being frozen in shock at the sight like she had been in Wave Country. Sasuke gave a small shudder, but was able to not let his PTSD get to him. Naruto was proud of his teammates for coming so far with their tolerance for gore.
Team Seven was jumping through the trees, looking for a team when the grass nin from earlier attacked. Her neck was extended to an impossible length and she was baring fangs from her mouth.
Team Seven scattered, moving into positions of attack. Hinata activated her Byakugan to find the rest of the team, but only saw the one grass nin. On top of that, she saw just how powerful she was. "She's way too powerful for a genin! We can't beat her!".
Unfortunately, the grass nin had already engaged Sasuke in combat and it was too late to run. Sasuke had activated his Sharingan to try and keep up, but could barely avoid or block the grass nin's attacks. Seeing the snake nin was distracted, Naruto released his weight seals and bursted towards the grass nin. Giving a hard punch to the grass nin's jaw.
As the grass nin stood up, Team Seven saw that her face was all torn up, like it was some mask. The Grass nin smiled and let out a chuckle that sent chills down their spines. She then grabbed her next and pulled upward. Her face peeling off, relieving a man that was the definition of looking like a snake.
"Hello children, now while it was fun to play around with you, I came here for Sasuke". Faster than anyone could react, the man sped forward, extending his neck out in the process. He sunk his fangs into Sasuke's neck leaving a strange mark behind. Sasuke collapsed as if all the life had been sucked out of him.
Naruto finally let his anger out. His eyes went red, and his hair became wild. The air became still around him. Hinata felt cold, she looked at Naruto with fear. 'Where is this power coming from?'. In a voice that wasn't his Naruto said, "Hinata, take care of Sasuke. I've got to take out the trash". Without waiting for a response, Naruto became a streak of red zooming towards the snake man.
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Shino and Kiba tried to find ways to assist Naruto, but they were way out classed. Shino tried to place bugs on the man, but the man used a sword that he had pulled from his mouth to cut the beetles in half. Kiba had tried fang over fang with Akamaru a few times, but was too slow. Eventually Orochimaru got tired of them and decided to end the battle. He delivered a devastating amount of blows to Kiba and Akamaru both, and then appeared before Shino. Slashing the boy across the chest. Nothing too deep, but enough to give a nasty cut.
Finally the man turned to Naruto with a wicked smile on his face. Naruto appeared before him and landed a deadly blow to the man's temple. After he crashed into the ground, the man climbed out of his own mouth as if it was a second skin. He then took his sword and met another one of Naruto's charges. This time though, the man stabbed the sword into Naruto's stomach, the sword reappearing through Naruto's back. Naruto's rage was extinguished and he fell to the ground with a thud as he crashed onto the forest floor.
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Hinata had taken a few seconds to snap out of her trance before attending Sasuke. She activated her Byakugan and looked him over. Besides some minor scraps he was physically fine. It was that mark that the man had given him, Sasuke seemed to be trying to fight it off, but it looked to be a losing battle. Hinata did what she could, healing the scrapes he had in the mean time as she waited for Naruto. She was terrified of his power when he went into that… phase whatever it was.
Sakura had randomly shown up a minute or two later, worried about Sasuke and fawning over him. After ordering Sakura to watch over Sasuke, Hinata raced off to find her blonde teammate. When he entered her vision she witnessed the man stand through Naruto with a sword. Her eyes grew wide as she also saw the damaged states of Shino and Kiba. She watched in slow motion as Naruto fell to the ground. She completely forgot about the man as she raced to Naruto. By the time she had reached him, the man had left and he was in a puddle of his own blood, unconscious.
A wave of emotions threatened to come crashing down on Hinata, but she was able to hold them back. Instead she did what she could to close his wound and then raced to Shino to do the same. Then she pulled Naruto's arms over her shoulder and jumped through the trees towards Sakura. "Get Sasuke and follow me, I left Shino, Kiba, and Akamaru behind for now, but we need to act quick before we lose them". Sakura wiped the tears from her eyes and did as told. The two found a small clearing with a cave made by tree roots. They placed Naruto and Sasuke in the cave and then went to retrieve Kiba, Akamaru, and Shino.
Once they had gotten the boys to the cave, both Hinata and Sakura collapsed. "W-what happened to them?" Sakura asked. Hinata explained what had happened to Sasuke and where that man came from. Sakura was terrified by it. Hinata saw this and sighed, 'am I the only capable girl in our class?!'. Hinata offered to do the first watch, and Sakura readily accepted. Within seconds Sakura was lying next to Sasuke sound asleep. After checking and healing what she could with the others, Hinata let out a tired sigh and shuffled over to Naruto, pulling up his shirt to get a better look at the stab wound. She had wrapped it up with bandages and used medical ninjutsu the best she could, but it wasn't enough.
Now that Sakura was asleep, Hinata let her walls fall and all of her pent up emotions of the day came crashing down on her. For the first time since her mother's death, Hinata cried. Naruto had wanted to become friends with her even though she treated him terribly. He was kind, and didn't care about her being the Hyuga Hier. He treated her just like anyone else, and she was grateful for that. He was her only friend, and she felt like she was going to lose him. She had been able to get along with Sasuke, but she never hung out with him. She never went clothing shopping with Sasuke, or go out for tea with Sasuke. Or try to make her sister become friends with a kid from her class just because Hanabi didn't have any friends.
Naruto gave her so many experiences that she had never imagined happening to her. He made her laugh, he made her embarrassed, he brought emotions that she had buried deep within her out of the time capsules they had been buried in.
And all she could do was watch as he fought for his life against a poison that had coated the sword. Hinata let her forehead fall to Naruto's chest, and she turned her head to listen to his heart beat. She found it soothing, so soothing that she ended up falling asleep.
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When Sakura awoke, it was still dark out with the sun just starting to rise. She looked around for Hinata and started to panic when she didn't see the Hyuuga. Looking at Naruto, Sakura saw Hinata fast asleep with her head on his chest, softly hugging him. Sakura's jaw dropped, 'WWHHAAAAATTTTT?! HINATA AND NARUTO? WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN? AND WHY NARUTO? HE'S DISGUSTING AND WEAK AND HATED BY EVERYBODY!'. It took a solid three minutes for her to recover. She recovered when she remembered Sasuke was in the room. For the next 5 minutes she fawned over him. When she finally looked away from him, she finally saw and remembered how beat up Kiba and Shino were.
Shuffling over to them, she looked at their battered bodies. Kiba's face was bruised, and since Hinata removed his coat, Sakura now had a clear look of Shino's flash across his chest. The cut slightly purple from the poison. 'I left them to find Sasuke and this happened...They would've ended up like this anyways! And with you along with them!...But I could've helped them! I could've done something!... But Sasuke-kun was hurt!... And there was nothing I could've done for him!' tears started rolling down her face 'I couldn't do anything to help Sasuke, I could've helped my teammates!'.
Sakura had broken into sobs, cursing herself for her own weakness. She stopped when she heard someone outside. Sakura scrambled outside and had drawn a kunai. Her eyes red, and long pink hair a mess. "Hinata!" she called out. It was the hidden sound team standing before her on the opposite side of the clearing. "Hinata!" she called out again. Sakura's knees started wobbling in fear, "HINATA!".
Hinata woke to the sounds of her name being shouted. Quickly taking in her surroundings, she saw her current… situation. Her face turned to a tomato at incredible speeds. Within seconds she had extracted herself from Naruto and was standing by the entrance. It was then she heard Sakura cry, "HINATA", then Hinata realized what was going on and within a second had appeared within before Sakura with her Byakugan active.
"HA! What's this? These two pip squeaks think they can stand against us? What a joke," The boy without bandages taunted. Hinata narrowed her eyes, "We'll see just how good you are, teme". She then released her weight seals and zoomed towards the boy who had taunted. She had struck three chakra points before having to dodge a punch from the bandaged boy. She leaned her head back just enough to dodge the strike.
Unfortunately it was the hand with the strange gauntlet and Hinata had a wave of nassau bruttaling crashing into her. Hinata fell to her knees barely able to keep from vomiting. The non bandaged boy used this time to deliver a hard kick to Hinata's stomach, sending her back over to Sakura. Sakura ran over to Hinata, shaking her back and forth, trying to wake her up, but Hinata was knocked out cold.
The female of the sound genin pointed to Sakura "You're a disgrace to Kunoichi! She came to try and defend you and your comrades from us and you watched her, doing nothing to help. You're the most useless ninja I've ever seen!".
Sakura flinched at the word useless. She turned to the sound genin, now with two kunai in hand. The girl of the sound genin said, "I'm getting this one. I want to teach her what a real Kunoichi can do". The sound genin then took out senbon needles.
Sakura charged forward, sounding a desperate war cry. The sound genin smirked and threw her senbon, the needles embedding themselves into Sakura's chest. Sakura then poofed into a log of wood, and appeared to the right of the sound genin. Once again Sakura was filled with senbon, and once again she was swapped with a log. Now Sakura was only a few meters away and made hand signs, preparing for the next round of senbon. The sound genin anticipated for Sakura to poof away after being hit with needles, but instead Sakura finished her jutsu and deflected the senbon. Acting fast the sound genin threw four senbon needles with pinpoint accuracy at Sakura. One at her heart, another at her next, and the last one at her eyes. Sakura fell to the ground, a puddle of blood forming around her.
The sound genin smirked at her victory, but when she turned around, she was met with the chakra infused punch of Sakura smashing into her face. The sound genin was sent back a few feet at the force of the strike, skidding across the ground a little. When she looked back to the supposedly dead Sakura had been, she realized that she had been put under a genjutsu.
'Now I'm pissed'. The sound genin now had a scowl on her face, and no longer held back. Using her great speed, she appeared behind Sakura, lifting the girl by her hair. Sakura yelped in pain as she waved her arms trying to escape. "How does it feel you little bitch?!". Tears of pain rolled down Sakura's face. "Yeah! Cry you useless piece of shit!".
Upon hearing the word useless again, something broke within Sakura. 'Useless…? Useless! That's exactly what I've been! Useless! I've never done anything by myself, and I rely on others to do the hard and difficult work. No longer! Forget Sasuke! He's never done anything for me! It's time I started appreciating my teammates and became a kunoichi!'. Sakura held a kunai up and in one fluid stroke, cut the hair she had been growing out for the past 4 years purely because of a rumor.
Because of the change in weight, the sound genin stumbled backwards and provided Sakura an opening to land a powerful kick in the sound genin's stomach. Sending the sound genin back over to her teammates.
The boy without bandages was getting impatient and decided to step in. "That's it Kin. I'm finishing her off". He then rushed forward with a Kunai pointed straight for Sakura's heart. Sakura was still recovering and couldn't dodge or block the incoming attack.
In a flash of green, the non bandaged boy was sent backwards that he blocked with his arms and Rock Lee was standing before her. "Do not worry! I will protect you!". Sakura felt even more tears falling down her face. The boy she had treated so poorly was now putting his life on the line to protect her.
"Ah, I'm tired of this. I'll take care of this brat and then we're getting Sasuke, no more playing around!". The bandaged man now stepped forward. Lee disappeared and reappeared before him, landing a devastating kick to the man's head. When the mummy man recovered, he had prepared for Lee's attack and through a punch that Lee leaned backwards to dodge. Lee was only able to leap backwards before being hit by the nassau. Sakura rushed to his side, seeing if he was okay. Lee was barely able to stand much less fight, but still to a combative stance, ready to defend Sakura and her comrades till death.
The non bandaged boy decided to deal the finishing blow and went for a kick. Lee was entirely helpless to defend himself. When the foot made contact though, it wasn't Lee who it hit, but Sakura. She had moved in front of Lee at the last second and took the blow. She was sent backwards into Lee who was just barely able to wrap his arms around her to protect her from the impact on the tree.
The sound genin went for a double kill on the two. He drove the Kunai towards their chests, the blade screaming for blood.
The blade's thirst was sated… but not by the blood of it's intended target. Sasuke had appeared before Sakura and Lee and had taken the Kunai to the hand. He was covered in black marks and his eyes were clouded, as if he were on some drug. He had a smile of insanity on his face as he let the power overtake him. "This is what you do to my comrades? I guess it's only fair I do the same to yours". Within seconds he launched the sound genin into a tree, causing it to splinter on impact. He then vanished and appeared before the genin called Kin. He held her by the throat and choked her as he held her off a tree root.
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Naruto woke up in something that looked like a sewer. The water came to about his ankles, but it didn't seem to actually make him wet. Trying to find where he was, Naruto walked down the corridors or the sewer looking enclosure. Eventually he came across a giant room with a large cage running across it. He went to investigate the giant cage, but stopped halfway there when he saw two large eyes now staring back at him. "Hello Kit. About damn time you came to see me!". Naruto stumbled backwards in surprise and fear.
"Y-you're the Kyubi!"
"What gave it away? Now listen close brat! I don't have long. Now, unlike many of the stories and historical texts, I did not intentionally attack the Leaf. I was controlled by a user of the Sharingan to do so" the Kyubi gave Naruto some time to process the information before continuing. "Now while I would do anything to get out of this prison, I can't unless you lose control or you let me free. Now over the past 13 years I've grown to respect you, so I'll cut you a deal. I'll teach you jutsu and lend you my power, but in return, you have to promise to never allow me to be imprisoned again after you perish. Do we have a deal?".
This was moving way too fast for Naruto to keep up with, but he was just barely able to hear every word. Now he was just processing it. "Wait. What? But you're the nine tailed fox! A demon!".
"The title of demon is only given by those whose power people are afraid of. I am not an evil entity. I am a being of chakra who has his own emotions and thoughts. Now, I'll give you some time to think it over and process things, but I will not wait forever. Now leave. Your friend is under the influence of a cursed seal and must be stopped!". The Kyubi then forced Naruto out of his mindscape, causing the boy to wake up.
It took a few seconds, but Naruto was able to get his bearings and reacted as quickly as possible. Unsealing all restrictions, Naruto moved at speeds that only Sasuke and Rock Lee were able to witness. In less than a second, he was standing behind Sasuke. "You don't need to do this. Drop her Sasuke". Sasuke's grip on Kin's throat tightened, and she started to struggle less due to her lack of oxygen. "Sasuke!".
After a few seconds, Sasuke let Kin drop like a doll to the ground. "Give us your scroll and I won't kill you". Sasuke may have let her live, but he still wanted a prize. The mummy man complied and left an earth scroll before Sasuke. He then gathered his teammates and left without a word. Sasuke's curse mark retracted back to the mark on his neck. He then shook as if clearing it of fog. "I couldn't stop myself. But it felt so… good". Sasuke went to his knees, still trying to process what had happened.
Naruto gave Sasuke a comforting hug and then went to check on everyone else. Sakura and Lee were able to make it over to the cave and rest. Seeing that they were okay for now, Naruto rushed over to Hinata with concern. He was very relieved when he saw her breathing. Doing a quick check, he learned that she was just knocked unconscious. Gently he picked her up to move her to the cave. At that moment, Neji and Tenten finally arrived.
As they were making their way to the tower, Neji had spotted Hinata and Sakura in trouble. After informing his team, they quickly changed directions to aid the two Kunoichi. Hearing that Sakura was in trouble, Lee quickly left his teammates behind in order to reach Sakura faster.
Upon landing, Neji made his way towards Naruto. "How is she?". Naruto informed him of Hinata's condition and let Naruto place Hinata in the cave of tree roots to rest. "What happened? When I first saw you guys, you and the Uchiha were unconscious". Naruto sighed and then explained to Neji and Tenten what had happened with the snake man.
By the end of his story, Neji and Tenten wore frowns. "It sounds like Orochimaru," said Tenten. Naruto gave her a confused look. Tenten sighed and explained to him that Orochimaru is a Sannin that went rogue and is now one of the most dangerous criminals on earth. Naruto gulped and had never been more thankful to have advanced healing. Leading Neji and Tenten back to the cave, Naruto was pleasantly surprised to see Shino and Kiba waking up. After looking over them, Naruto rejoined the group and the conversation.
When Hinata awoke, she was surprised to see her cousin there, she was also surprised to see everyone awake. After dealing with Neji's inquiry, she went to check up on everyone else. Apparently Shino's beetles had helped combat the poison, and had been able to adapt and produce and use such poison themselves now. After some medical ninjutsu on Kiba and Akamaru, the two were only left with a few bruises. Sakura and Lee were more shaken up than anything, just a few minor cuts. What stumped her was Naruto. When she looked him over, he no longer had any signs of being stabbed or poisoned. 'How is this even possible?'. Deciding to ask Naruto later, Hinata quickly moved on to Sasuke. The mark appeared like an infection that was taking over his chakra network. At the moment it was only a few centimeters into his chakra network, but at this rate it would take over completely within a few weeks at most.
Now that everyone was okay, all the teams prepared to leave. Naruto had learned that Team 8 needed a heaven scroll and gladly gave them his team's extra. The three teams then left in separate directions for a little while until turning towards the location of the tower so as to complete the exam.
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After reaching the tower and following the instructions for the scrolls. Team Seven was given a warm welcome by Iruka-Sensei. Although it didn't last long before Medical nin and some jounin interrupted. Anko stepped forward demanding, "What happened in those woods?!". Iruka sighed in disappointment about his reunion with his students being cut short.
After an hour of multiple stories being told, Anko pinched her nose and let out a hard sigh. "Early yesterday morning we found the actual grass genin that had attended the exams with their facial features missing. Putting the pieces together we were able to determine that Orochimaru the Snake Sannin had infiltrated the exams. We were then informed by Team Guy that you faced off with him and apparently Sasuke Uchiha received a mark on his neck". Team Seven nodded their heads in understanding. Anko dismissed them after telling Sasuke that they would talk the next day.
Once it was just her and Iruka, Anko walked straight up to the wall and threw a hard punch that left a spider web of cracks behind. "He was under our noses and I wasn't the slightest bit aware!". Iruka could see a few tears run down her face and felt his heart ache at the sight. He knew that the subject of Orochimaru was touchy, and that Anko wanted nothing more than to tear the man to shreds, but he also knew that she was still incredibly troubled by him as well. Walking over, Iruka pulled her into a hug, their foreheads pressed against each other.
"It's not your fault. He's a master of deception and disguise. You can't blame yourself for not seeing through all his acts. You need to stop thinking he's your responsibility to deal with alone. I don't want to lose… you too". Now Iruka was tearing up too. He had lost so many of his loved ones. All he had left were Naruto and Anko, and he'd be damned if they died without him doing everything within his power to try and save them.
"You big idiot". Anko was once again reminded just how much she loved Iruka, and to show it, she put every once of that love into the kiss she gave him. Iruka returned her passion every step of the way. Eventually Anko became her usual self and decided to take their little make out session up a level.
"Anko! We can't do that here!". All Anko gave for a response was a mischievous smile and a naughty glint in her eye. Iruka's statement was completely disregarded and he could/would do nothing to stop it.
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So what did you think of the Second Exam? I tried to push a little more on Naruhina and try to at least get them to have a crush on each other because there's not going to be too many more chapters before I have Naruto's training with Jiraiya. Also, please check out my new story "Whirlpool of Stone". See you guys and gals in two weeks!