They're all on time the next morning – it's kind of unbelievable. Naruto is pumped up, raring to go, yelling at the top of his lungs. Sasuke snorts, and looks to Sakura. She meets his eyes for a moment, just a single moment before she glances down and away.

Hm. Looks like she's shaken up from what he said yesterday. Hopefully that won't be a problem.

Sasuke doesn't have even a moment to think about it, though, before the proctor is calling attention to herself – and it becomes very, very clear that could be a problem. This is a challenge where they could die. They have to sign actual, written waivers to prove that Konoha will not be held responsible for their deaths. And from the looks of the other genin (the sand and sound and grass nin, especially)… death is a strong possibility.

His mouth is dry, and he swallows sharply. No. No. He can't get too caught up in the possibilities – he knows he won't die today, not tomorrow or the day after or any of the days of this task, and he needs to make sure none of his teammates die today, either.

As the waivers are handed out, the crowd begins to disperse, and he clears his throat. "Naruto. Sakura," he says, and they turn towards him, confused. "Stick close to me. We shouldn't separate."

Naruto frowns. "I'm gonna be stuck with you for five days, anyway! Can't I have a half hour to myself?"

Sasuke shakes his head. "We don't know what the other teams are capable of. We don't want them to somehow get a one over on us."

Naruto's not convinced, so Sakura speaks up, nodding in agreement. "Sasuke's right," she says, and the Uchiha relaxes a little. He's not on that bad of terms with her, he guesses. "Maybe they could put a tracker on us, or something. We should stay together."

The blonde accepts that, at least, letting out a little huff but nodding. "Okay, okay…" He looks a little sheepish. "Maybe you can help me with this, anyway. I can't read it all."

Sakura rolls her eyes. "Idiot."

Sasuke is really god damn concerned about this whole event.

They've barely made it a half hour into the forest when Naruto has to take a leak. "You should've went before this," Sasuke mutters under his breath, but ugh, they would've had to deal with this sooner or later.

He catches Sakura's fist before she hits him, though. "No. Naruto should go here, you just look the other way."

Sakura glares at him, ready to protest, before she wilts a little and pulls her fist back. "Because we shouldn't separate, right?" He nods, and she sighs, turning away. "Fine. Hurry up, Naruto."

It's immensely awkward, listening to Naruto piss into the bushes while Sakura blushes furiously and stares off into the other direction, but it's definitely worth it to Sasuke. He can sense the presence of another ninja, and the Uchiha doesn't want to give them even the slightest opening.

"Come on," he says to them as soon as Naruto's finished. "We need to keep moving. We don't want anyone to catch us with our guard down."

They nod. "Right," says Sakura. It seems like she feels a bit better, and he's grateful. Tensions in a team aren't good when they're literally fighting for their life – well, abnormal tensions, he and Naruto are never going to get along while the blonde is an idiot.

He wants to tell Sakura about the watcher, given her intelligence and that he knows she won't do well with a surprise, but he can't think of a way to tell her without the ninja overhearing. Mentally, Sasuke curses. They need… hand signs, or something.

Especially when, about ten minutes later, another watcher shows up. Are they teammates? Most likely – and that worries him. It means there's another teammate lurking about that he hasn't sensed yet, and all of them are quite possibly in danger.

"Stop," Sasuke says, and the other two do so.

Naruto scowls. "Oy, oy, you were the one who said to keep moving! What now?!"

Sasuke – mostly – ignores him. "We need a password. In case we get separated."

Sakura's eyes light up. "I've got an idea! Maybe we could-"

"I already have one," he says, cutting her off, and Sakura wilts a little bit. "We need something no one else will think of."

He kneels down, and the other two follow. "Listen. We need to assume if we get separated, and someone gives a different password, or doesn't know it, they're the enemy. No matter what they look like. Understand?" They both nod, and Sasuke relaxes just a little bit. "I'll only say it once, so listen closely."

Sasuke tells them a song his… his mother once sang to him, the 'Ninja Chance' song, and is a little relieved when neither of them recognize it at all. Sakura picks it up immediately – he's not surprised. Naruto… doesn't, and that's not a surprise at all.

But good. He has a plan.

The Uchiha stands up. "I'll take the scroll," he says, and Naruto scrambles up, too.

"Wait, wait, Sasuke-"

It's as if the enemy was waiting for them to make the password. Something comes flying at Naruto, too fast for Sasuke's non-Sharingan eyes to see it, giving him a scratch on the other cheek to match the one the crazy proctor gave him. "What the-?"

They all turn, instinctively, towards the direction it came from. There's nowhere there, nothing but trees, but Sasuke can feel the hair on the back of his neck sticking up, goosebumps lining his arms as he readies a kunai. There's something… something… something's coming.

He's proven right, a moment later, when a massive gust of wind comes out of nowhere. Sasuke can't see anything, just feel the sting of new cuts forming on his cheeks, feel the dirt hit him as it's gouged up from the ground, taste the burning dust in the back of his throat. He can barely open his eyes into the wind, can't even see his teammates around him-

So he stops grounding himself, letting the wind push him back until he tumbles through a bush. There, finally, he anchors himself, dropping to the ground underneath it and stabbing his kunai into the dirt to keep him stable. It keeps him from the worst of the wind and means that when it finally clears, he has a perfect vantage point of the ones who attacked them.

It's the grass nin. A shudder goes down his back – they had seemed strong, or at least the woman and apparent leader had, and filled with bloodlust. This. This might be a tough one to get out alive from. He watches as the woman tells her teammates to leave (which concerns him even more. How strong is she if she confidently knows she can take them on by herself…?), but before he can see which direction they go, there's a rustling behind him.

Sasuke scrambles to his feet, whirling around with his kunai at the ready, and- it's Sakura. Disheveled, dirty, picking a twig out of her hair, but it's Sakura, looking incredibly glad to see him. He almost – almost – relaxes, but a glance back shows that all three of the grass genin are gone, and the Uchiha is acutely aware of the other mysterious presence that he still doesn't know the source of (he doesn't think it was a teammate, now). He narrows his eyes. "Password?"

She blinks at him, surprised, before she nods and recites it – perfectly, to a T. He supposes someone could be disguising themself as her, but… He doesn't think so.

Before Sasuke can interrogate her further, though, and make sure it's really her, there's another rustle, and both of them whip around. This time, it's an unfamiliar genin from Amegakure. He's a brunette, dressed in a strange yellow jumpsuit with a sash around his eyes and a strange device on his mouth. "Ow, my head…" he groans, rubbing it, before he opens his eyes and jolts at the sight of them. "Fuck, listen-"

The Uchiha can guess who this is, but his kunai is at the ready, Sharingan activating. "Who the hell are you?" he asks, taking up a defensive pose half in front of Sakura.

He shakes his head. "Look, I was watching you guys, but I had nothing to do with this, I swear-"

"Oww!" Naruto's voice cuts him off, and they all turn as the orange-clad ninja half-hops, half-runs towards them. "That hurt! Are you guys okay? Who's that?"

Sakura holds up her hand, and he skids to a halt. "Never mind him," she says. "What's the password?"

"Oh! I know, I know," he says, and grins – and recites the password perfectly.

Sasuke's eyes narrow. Sakura, on edge from the appearance of the random new genin, narrows her eyes as well. "You remembered it?" Sakura says slowly, unsure, and glances at Sasuke.

Naruto's face scrunches up, confused – but it's different than his normal scrunch. (Why the fuck does Sasuke know this.) "Ehhh, of course! Sasuke said to memorize it!"

"Che." Sasuke glares at him. "You're not Naruto. He could never remember the password. Who are you? Show yourself!"

The Ame genin takes a few steps towards them, standing in a defensive position, and Sasuke spares him not even a glance as he and Sakura stand ready to fight. He doesn't think they're on the same side.

And Not-Naruto's face- twists. Morphs into a smirk that looks so unnatural on the Uzumaki and then the tongue… Yeah, Sasuke has no questions about who this is. "So that's how it is, huh…" the Not-Naruto says, and with a puff of smoke, it's the grass nin woman standing before them. (The Ame nin swears.) "But if you knew he couldn't remember the password, why didn't you make it shorter?"

Sasuke smirks a little. He can't help it. "I knew you were eavesdropping nearby."

She takes off her hat and licks it – ugh. Disturbing. "Oh, really. So you're not tired or letting your guard down… this will be more interesting than I thought."

Where the fuck is Naruto, though?

The Uchiha can't contemplate that long before the grass ninja decides to be even MORE disturbing, somehow. Swallowing the scroll. Sakura shudders next to him, and while Sasuke doesn't twitch, he understands that feeling deeply. It's horrifying. Even if it's the scroll he needs, would need to cut her apart to get it open, or force her to regurgitate it – both of them disgusting options.

The Ame genin swears, and tenses – about to leap away, leave them to their fate, Sasuke thinks – but he never gets the chance.

They die.

It's a forceful wind, rushing at them, ripping them apart and cutting into them – he can feel the sting of every cut on his body, feel the blood starting to drip down his arms, shakes and can barely stand-

He sees Sakura, shaking, fallen, the Ame genin, choking on his own air, and the kunai fly, straight and true and there's no way to dodge they're coming too fast right at their foreheads and there's an explosion of pain and colors and everything blurs blurs blurs together in black and white no colors no colors is life literally fading and-

It's over.

He falls onto his knees, feeling the burning bile in the back of his throat and throws up every scrap of his breakfast. Sasuke finds it hard to breathe, finds it hard to even think, and he forces himself semi-upright, staggers a little, and falls back down.

Sakura's in no better state. Shaking, trembling with fear, eyes wide and tears down her face and looking at absolutely nothing. The Ame genin has fallen onto his rear, breath coming in sharp, short bursts as he hyperventilates, staring between his knees at the ground.

She takes a step closer, and Sasuke- He can't move. His body won't move, won't do anything but shake as she takes another step, and if he doesn't move he is going to die

Move-

He pushes himself onto his heels.

Move, do something!

He reaches out, wrapping his hand around the hilt of a kunai.

Get up, get up, get up!

Slowly – surely, he forces himself to his feet, trembling but- but he can't do any more than that, he can't-

The woman smirks. "What do you intend to do with that?" she asks, continuing to walk closer. "Don't worry, I'll finish this in a second." She takes out three kunai. "You won't even feel any pain."

Move, move, move!

He needs to think of something, do something, as the woman lets the kunai fly and none of them can do anything, all of them are useless and terrified and-

Move! Move, move, move, move, move!

He stabs himself.

Knife sinks into flesh, slicing through and Sasuke cries out, choking for just a moment, just one single moment as the blood starts to trickle down his leg but he can't stop, can't stop, flipping on his Sharingan and scooping up Sakura and snagging the wrist of the Ame genin with the other and they're gone.

He flies from branch to branch, ducking up into the trees as Sakura comes to life in his arms and the Ame genin swears and starts moving under his own power instead of banging uselessly against the bark and straining Sasuke's arm until he can't pull them anymore and he collapses on a large enough branch, dropping both of them and dryheaving.

The Ame genin swears violently again. "Shit! What the hell was that?"

No, no, shut up- Sasuke lunges forward to cover the genin's mouth with a shaking hand, looking terrified back the way they came, waiting to see her pop out and come at them… They need to escape. Need to run. They can't stand and fight, not even with three of them (where's Naruto, where's Naruto)

"Sasuke! There's a snake!" Sakura yells right behind him, and he had been too shaken up, hadn't been paying attention-

It's large, huge, could easily eat them and the three scatter in different directions. The snake comes after Sasuke –

And it's the woman.

The snake is coming out of the woman and Sasuke screams, yelling even though his lungs burn and firing off shuriken at the snake – he can't think, can't process, just does and-

It's dead.

He lands on a branch, watching the corpse fall over, breathing hard and trying to not to throw up. Sasuke glances – Sakura's safe. Nearby. The Ame genin is next to her, and he shakes his head. "We need to get out here," he says, and Sasuke couldn't agree with him more. "Shit, I shouldn't even be a part of this, what the-"

He stops. Sasuke follows his eyes to the corpse, and it's… breaking.

Oh no.

The scales crack, the skin of the snake breaking as the familiar figure of the woman slowly, slowly rises from it. (He hadn't been hallucinating. He kind of wishes he had been.) "Don't lower your guard, not even more a moment," she says. "A prey must always stay tense and try to flee desperately… before a predator."

And then she moves. Faster than the snake, but like a snake, winding up the branch too fast for Sasuke to even think, to even do anything.

The Ame genin throws a shuriken but it misses, and Sasuke can't do anything but cry out, taking a step back and palming a kunai before- a mess of kunai and shuriken embed themselves in the branch right in front of her. She stops. Sasuke stops. Sakura and the Ame genin stop.

"Sorry, Sasuke!"

The Uchiha can barely breathe. He turns, slowly slowly slowly and there-

There is Naruto. He's safe, whole (if a little… slimy?), folding his arms and grinning a mile wide. Sakura yells in joy from behind him, but Sasuke only has eyes for Naruto.

The blonde beams. "The password… I forgot it!"