FR: *struggle against rop* well are you going to do it
Ino: maybe. Are you going to give me happier moments?
FR: …..Maybe?
Ino: *pulls out kunai and aims for nether region*
FR: do that and I will put you through even worse scenarios
Ino: …...like what?
FR: I have a few ideas
Ino: if you push it too far than you will suffer my wrath
FR: fair enough *grins*
Ino: FANREADER!
FR: anyway guys happy fourth of July!
"Normal speech"
'Normal thoughts'
"Demon/Summon speech"
'Demon/Inner Sakura/Summon thoughts'
Jutsu name
(author comment) - not a lot of them
flashback/memory
~locations and transitions~
One thing before we start I am having trouble with the jutsus name, because I keep switching from English to Japanese names. So I will say that you might find it odd when I say kage bunshin and then shadow possession. Sorry if this confuses you. I might just drop the jap names even if some of them sound cooler in Jap :P
Numbers are also a pain but I think I'm finally getting a system for it
Just to clarify: I'm dumb :P
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, it's owned by one wiser than me
Chapter 24: a Snake in the forest
Naruto sat on the ground next to the windows, as he watched Anko say she would get the numbers down by more than half. 'Wonder what the next trail will be?'. He was brought out of his thoughts when Anko walked up to him
Anko bent down to look at Naruto with a wide grin on her face "hey gaki ready for a fun trip?" Naruto was tilted his head in confusion but didn't get the chance to say anything since Anko picked him up and tossed him over her shoulder
"Anko-nee-chan! I can walk myself"
"Maybe but this is more fun" Anko then turned to the rest of the participants and yelled "meet me at Training ground 44! Be there in thirty minutes or else you're disqualified!"
Naruto heard where they were going and got a big smile on his face 'I haven't been there in a long time! I wonder if Kuma-san is still mad at me hehehehe'.
Anko then jumped out the still open window with Naruto on her shoulder
Everyone remained in their seats at see the proctor of the next stage of the exam basically kidnap one of the participants
The rookie nine all had the same thought ran through their head
'Wonder how Naruto-san/kun knows that crazy woman'
Ino was one of two that felt a bit of jealousy at the idea that Naruto knew a woman that seemed confident not just in personality but in her body as well. Based on the way she dressed, the woman had no shame in showing off her curves. Ino looked down at her breasts and felt even more jealous at the size the woman had compared to herself
The second person was Hinata as she thought at the confidence the woman had, something that Hinata wished she had even a small portion of so she could tell Naruto how she felt. She was a little jealous at the figure the woman had. The thing was she felt that even if she had such a figure it wouldn't matter since she was already hiding a figure that was a few levels higher than her peers but no one knew since she wore somewhat baggy clothes that hide her body from everyone
Both girls shook themselves out of their thoughts when they noticed their teammates leaving the room. Both rushed to catch up with them to get to the training ground
Ibiki had waited a few minutes after the students left before he dismissed the chunin from the room as he began walking passed the desks picking up each sheet of paper. Once he made it to where Naruto was sitting he noticed something on the desk: it was an orange pencil. Now normally this wouldn't be anything to worry about but all the pencils that were distributed were all green in color. He counted the green pencils that were on the desk and the number corresponded with the amount that were seated in this row. He jumped back when a poof of smoke appeared where the pencil was. He shifted his arm so a kunai could slip out of his sleeve in case he needed to get ready for a fight
"Finally I can breathe easier…...even if I don't need to"
Ibiki stared wide eyed as the smoke cleared to show Naruto sitting on top of the desk "what are you doing here kid? I thought you left with Anko?"
Naruto looked towards Ibiki as he gave a foxy smile "hey grumpy scarface!". Naruto could tell it the name pissed him off as the tick mark on his forehead was clearly visible. Naruto would have kept pushing the man's buttons but he gained a serious look as he looked into Ibiki's eyes "Ibiki-sama, there is something I needed to tell you alone"
Ibiki was taken aback at how serious the kid got. Not once has he seen the kid this way. From the little interaction he had with the boy, he knew that there was severe hurt that was hidden behind the smile but this was new to him "what is it"
"I was told by Hokage-sama that if I ever came across anyone that smells of snakes that wasn't Anke-nee-chan, then I am to tell either her or you alone."
Ibiki felt his muscles tighten and nodded for Naruto to continue
"The guy named Kabuto. He smells like snakes. It's not that the smell was coming from his directly, more like he has been around the smell so much that it just stuck to him"
Ibiki's mind started going a mile a minute with what he was told "is there anything else you can tell me, did he act oddly, get closer to anyone, look at someone for a second or mention anything?"
Naruto thought for a second and remembered the feelings he got from the guy and how one came up upon the mention of someone and didn't show up again regardless of anyone else "he seemed interested in Sasuke for some reason" see Ibiki quirk an eyebrow he elaborated a bit while keeping how he got this a secret "before you guys came into the room he was giving us info on some of the other contenders, ones we ask for. He told us their skills who their teammates were and number of missions they went on and the ranks. I asked for Sasuke Uchiha since Sasuke asked for my info and felt like doing it to bug him. When I asked for it the guy seemed really interested on him"
Red flags were going up in Ibiki's head. The information on missions should not be public knowledge. That should only be on records and only available to jounin, Anbu and the Hokage. No Genin should have access and no Jounin would give that info. "Is there anything else? Anything could help"
Naruto thought for a second before he answered "there was someone else who seemed interested in Sasuke. He actually seemed more interested since he felt more greedy at the same time as Kabuto"
"He felt?"
Naruto was kicking himself for letting that slip. The hokage may trust the man completely but Naruto was still wary on letting his secret out "it's just a talent of mine. Please don't ask"
Ibiki saw the small flash of hurt in the boys eyes 'must have to do with the kyuubi if he wants to keep it secret'. "That's fine. Who was the other person?"
Naruto gave a mental sigh of relief as he shook his head "don't know. I didn't look at who it was coming from since it was coming from another part of the room. I would have passed it off but it spiked at the very same second Kabuto's grew."
Now Ibiki felt dread. If Kabuto smelled like snakes and was interested in Sasuke, that would be concerning but if there was someone else in the room that had more greed spike at the same time, brought many thoughts to his mind but one of the worst thoughts stood out to him 'Orochimaru has infiltrated the chunin exams'. Ibiki gave himself a mental shake ' as ridiculous as it is, I should bring this up with the hokage!'. Looking back to the boy he spoke "thank you Naruto. Now you should get to the training grounds before you get disqualified"
Naruto's serious demeanor dropped and he gained another foxy grin "don't worry. Boss should be there already with Anko-nee-chan"
Ibiki saw Naruto go up in a puff of smoke 'a bunshin huh? Very clever, not only did he get info that we didn't know about but he used the bunshin and henge in a way to give us this info. If he can get to the final part of the exams, I'll leave a recommendation for him to make chunin. Good luck kid'. Ibiki picked up the boys paper, looked at it and noticed something. The handwriting, it was very similar to another's. Flipping through the papers he pulled out two that had the same. One was Shikamaru Nara and Ino Yamanaka. He noticed that the one for Shikamaru looked like he rewrote over the answers he had which meant that he must have used the Shadow possession for his teammate and based on the position of his teammates it must have been the Akimichi he used it on. This meant that the Yamanaka girl used the mind transfer jutsu on the Nara to give him but with the handwriting being on Naruto's as well could only mean that she also used it on him. It could also mean that the Nara used his jutsu on him but during the examine he saw Naruto slump before he began to write down the answers. Not see a look of panic on Naruto's face meant that he wasn't surprised about moving against his own will tipped him off at the lack of shadow possession. Th feminine way the writing was done help him out as well. The girl helped out someone outside her team. Ibiki smirked at this because a girl helped out someone that looked like he was panicking from the very second the test started 'heh, kids got a girl and I'm pretty sure he doesn't know it
~with Anko and Naruto~
Naruto and Anko were standing in front of the gates of training ground 44 and Naruto had just told Anko everything he told Ibiki but more clear on how he found this out.
Anko felt both fear and anger at the idea of Orochimaru being here. She had also come to the conclusion that Ibiki came to, and she began to worry about the reason. She didn't know why Orochimaru would be interested in the Uchiha but she didn't care. She just knew that Orochimaru was planning something and wanted to do whatever she could to put a wrench in it…..with an explosive tag for good measure.
"Hey Anko-nee-chan? You ok?"
Anko shook her head to get the scowl that was on her face. She wanted to lie and say she was but she knew that Naruto would be able to tell if she was so she gave a portion of the truth "no gaki, I'm not but you don't have to worry about it. It's more of a personal thing"
Naruto could tell it was more than just personal but from the emotions he felt coming off her, he felt that he shouldn't bring it up anymore. "Hey Anko-nee-chan,what do we have to do for the next part of the exams?"
Anko was glad for the subject change but kept this info in the back of her head for later. She gave a predatory smile at Naruto that unnerved him a bit "ah ah ah. Not going to tell you anything gaki, I may like ya but this is still a test, so no hints for you. You will find out when everyone else gets here"
Naruto grumbled. He hoped he could get an idea so he could think of a way to get through it in his own way since the last part of the exam, he was panicking for the entire time. He was still thankful for whatever miracle got him the answers to it even if the answers were not really important.
Anko decided to ask something that she wanted to ask before and now that they were alone, she had her chance "so Gaki how many tails you got now? I heard from the old man that you got a few more"
Naruto blushed a bit as he always felt somewhat self-conscious about his tails recently. He knew that the amount of tails he had was important and he once found out that they were very sensitive, when he let some of his baser instincts take over and he ended up chasing his tails. Once he caught on it sent a shiver up his spine that almost made him drop to the floor. Safe to say he was very careful with them when he took a bath. "...I have five tails now"
"Does that mean your stronger now?"
"Well, tou-chan told me that the amount could be for age or it could be for power, but since I have five tails and only twelve years old, it should mainly be a sign for my power but I got them in a weird way so at the moment they are kinda empty, like a battery that needs to be charged. Right now they are just for looks but once I get better the tails will fill up and I will gain the power I should have with them."
"How does he know that? There are only nine bijuu so it's not like there are any other situations like this"
"He says it's mainly a guess but so far he has been right about it. He said I'm the only other bijuu that exists outside of the nine but I'm su~per young compared to the rest of them"
Anko grabbed Naruto and put him in a headlock as she gave him a small noogie "yep you are the gaki to us all!"
Naruto flailed while trying to get out of the hold. This went on for a while as they awaited the rest of the genin
~20 minutes later~
After the thirty minutes were up everyone had arrived and awaited for the proctor to give the instructions on. Naruto had made it back to his team and listened to Anko give her speech on the training ground
"Welcome to training ground 44, you can call it by it's more infamous name: The Forest of Death!"
Everyone felt unnerved by the name, especially when they heard loud growls and roars coming from the forest.
There were only a few that seemed ok. One of the being Naruto "oooh that sounded like fluffy! Hey Anko-nee-chan, how is the big guy anyway?"
Anko gave a smile at Naruto "he is good, although I am pretty sure he is still mad at you"
Sakura turned to Naruto "who is fluffy and why do you seem so calm about this pace. It gives me the creeps"
Anko answered before Naruto could "he is talking about a giant albino tiger that we know. I call him fluffy because one time I slipped and fell off a branch only to land on his back. His fur was so fluffy, that I gave him that name before he tried to make me his dinner" she then gave a content sigh "hah good times"
Naruto smiled as he also remembered his interaction with the tiger. On one of his hunting trips in the forest, something he kept secret from everyone but Anko since it was her personal playground. He ran into the tiger after he was able to hunt down a boar that was three times bigger than a normal one. He would have gone for the one that was ten times bigger but he was only a kid so he played it safe. The tiger actually found him by the smell of blood from the pig but Naruto was not in the mood to share so it became a game of keep away as the tiger chased him around the forest. After a while it became a sort of game that the two played and they gained a sense of comradery after Naruto gave the tiger half of his hunting spoils one time.
Sakura looked towards Naruto before asking "so how come you know about this tiger?"
Naruto continued to smile "I use to hunt in this forest a few times when I was younger"
Sasuke felt curious about this "why dobe?"
Naruto shrugged "Nice way to pass the time and it's cheaper than going to the market" 'since they charge me four times the amount for rotten food'
Anko felt it was time to continue her role. She wanted to finish it up quickly so she could get to the hokage. She pulled out a stack of papers and gave it to a random genin telling him to pass them around "what you are getting are waivers and you have to sign them before you continue. They state that if anyone of you from outside the village get extremely hurt or die than Konoha is not responsible for it."
After everyone signed and turned in the waivers, they were all told that they would be entering a small shack to be given one of two scrolls from the chunin inside. Their goal was to make it to the tower in the center of the forest with both of the scrolls. One being a heaven scroll and the other being an earth scroll. They had five days to get the other scroll from another team and make it or else they are disqualified.
Naruto felt like he would be cutting it close to when he had to shift back on that fifth day
Team seven had gotten a heavens scroll and be right now in front of one of the many entrances to the forest, arguing about who should carry it
"It should be the strongest one to carry it dobe! That's why I'm going to hold on to the scroll!"
Naruto really didn't want to inflate that oversized ego the uchiha had but to get his point across and not continue the argument, he played on it while still getting the win "that would be too obvious! They would immediately go after you since you are the great Uchiha" he said trying to keep the massive amount of sarcasm from leaking out
Sakura stood to the side as she watched the two argue. She didn't suggest that she carry it because if any of the other teams found out that she had it, she wouldn't be able to defend it as well as the other two. She knew that she was the weakest link in the team, despite getting stronger from training with Haku but she still wasn't at the level as Naruto or Sasuke
After a bit more arguing it was decided that Sasuke would carry it. Naruto didn't really didn't like this decision so while his two teammates turned to the gate with him behind them, he made a clone that henged into a scroll and switched places with the real one which Naruto put inside his jacket. Naruto looked around to make sure that no one saw him do it and was thankful that everyone was paying attention to the gate rather than him. He also noticed that Kabuto and whoever the other person that had so much Negative emotion, were not at this entrance. He wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing.
After a few more minutes of waiting, Anko began to speak through the loudspeakers "alright you brats! The second exam begins in 3…."
Everyone tensed up
"…...2"
Team seven crouched down ready to jump in
"...1"
Naruto tensed his muscles ready to get this done
"...try not to die"
All the gates burst open and everyone jumped into the forest ready for anything it can give them
After Anko watched the last of the genin jump into the forest, the smile she had on disappeared as she immediately shunshined to the hokage
~hokage office~
Anko made it to the hokage office just to see that Ibiki was already there but she felt that what she had to say was of the utmost importance "Hokage-sama I need to speak with you!"
Hiruzen lifted a hand to stop her "I know Anko. Ibiki has informed me of what Naruto had told him. I can assume that he has told you as well"
Anko kept quiet as she nodded 'so he told Ibiki as well. Good, so the old man knows about it"
Ibiki turned to the hokage and continued the conversation they were having "so Hokage-sama, what shall we do?"
Hiruzen chewed a bit on his pipe as he thought of what he could do. He wanted to issue an immediate arrest for Kabuto but it might lead to nowhere if they got nothing from the young man. He also wasn't sure about this second person that might be affiliate with Kabuto but there was no solid evidence that the two are together. He trusted Naruto's senses but the way the boy got the info still had nothing connecting the two other than the timing of interest they had on Sasuke Uchiha. "Anko I am sending you with an Anbu team to follow Kabuto and his team for the first three days of this part of the exam. On the fourth day leave them be and find team seven to check up on them to make sure that nothing major has happened to them. Ibiki I want you to focus on security details for the village"
Anko spoke up after hearing this "what about the other person?"
Hiruzen sighed "if we knew exactly who it was than I would send someone to watch them but right now we don't and there are too many teams to check. I wish we could confirm this but I don't want to spread things out too much"
Ibiki and Anko nodded at hearing this. Ibiki left to do his duty and Anko stood straight in front of the hokage waiting for the anbu team that he would call.
~back with team 7~
The team had been tree jumping through the forest for a few hours and thanks to Naruto's knowledge of the forest they had avoided areas that had dangerous animals. Sakura and Sasuke still jumped when they started hearing screams coming from a distance. They were not sure if it was from losing to another team or one of the creatures in the forest. The team decided to stop and take a break on one of the large branches.
Sakura was panting from the long and fast journey "so *pant* how do we get another scroll?"
Sasuke scoffed at the question "we find another team, beat them and take their scroll"
Naruto would have agreed but the idea had no thought to it. If they find another team, they might not have the scroll they need and if they run into the suna team ...they would have to leave immediately and hope they weren't spotted. He also wanted to avoid Kabuto, since he didn't trust the guy. "I hate to say it but Sasuke's right. We will have to find a team in order to take their scroll but we have to be smart about this"
Sakura looked towards Naruto "how do we do that?"
"My clones"
Both Sasuke and Sakura had to admit that it was a smart idea to use his clone. Especially since the clones transfer the info back to him
Sakura still felt confused for a minute "but how will you know which scroll they have?"
Naruto paused for a second and thought about it. He got a small idea and felt it would be their best bet "I'll send them in twos. If they get a chance, one of them can hendge into a scroll and use the kawarimi to get it. If it's not the scroll we need then they can leave it but if it is, we get the scroll and avoid a fight"
Sasuke didn't like the idea of not fighting anyone "no we should get the scroll ourselves"
Naruto turned to look at Sasuke "look Teme. we are here to pass the exam! Not fight every single fighter here! So shut the fuck up!"
Both of them stared into each others eyes for a minute before Sasuke relented and moved away. Naruto smirked before he summoned fifty clones and then they all went in different directions.
Sakura was impressed by the amount of clones that Naruto summoned but she kept it to herself
Naruto then spoke up, "we should get moving. It's not smart to stay in one spot. It makes it easier for us to get caught, either by another team or one of the animals in this forest"
Both Sakura and Sasuke stiffened when they heard a roar from deep in the forest as well as another scream.
The team then bolted from their spot to go deeper into the forest
~hours later~
The team had been on the move despite two of the members growing tired from moving so much
Sakura was the first to call out "Naruto-san! *pant* maybe we should take a break"
Naruto stopped on a branch and turned around to look at his two teammates. He saw that Sasuke was panting heavily, hunched over a bit and with a bit of sweat on his forehead. Sakura was on her hands and knees
Naruto felt bad for pushing them too much but after thirty minutes from when he sent out his clones. He felt like something was after them, he could feel the massive amounts of greed that seemed to be following them. After they had moved so much he couldn't get further from the feeling.
Sasuke caught his breath a bit as he glared at Naruto "Dobe! What the hell is your problem!"
Naruto kept glancing around to see if he could spot anything "we're not alone teme and whoever it is, has been following us from the start"
Sakura was now sitting on the branch leaning back on her hands. "Are you *pant* sure? *pant*"
"Yeah"
Sasuke just scoffed "tch if you're too scared to fight, than you don't deserve to be a shinobi"
Naruto just kept looking into the forest "we'll take a break before we get moving again"
Sasuke scowled "don't give orders to an uchiha dobe!"
Naruto didn't care about the teme. He just wanted to get this part of the exams finished as soon as possible. He sat down and kept his senses open, just in case.
They all sat down getting their energy back from the fast traveling they had to do. Sakura gained a look of remembrance as she turned her head to Naruto "hey, any luck with your bunshin?"
Naruto jumped a bit at the question since he was looking into the forest. He looked towards Sakura and registered the question. He went through some of the memories he got from a few of the clones "um…. A few of them found some teams but they didn't have the scroll we needed." what he didn't say was that the ones that did have the scroll they needed was both team 8 and 10 so he chose not to try taking their scroll.
Sakura slumped at this since she hoped that one of them might have gotten the scroll they needed and they could just make it to the tower.
Sasuke smirked at this "hm looks like even your clones are useless"
Naruto suddenly got a shot of memories and he shivered at what had happened
Sasuke raised an eyebrow at this "what the hell is up with you?"
Naruto shook his head "a pair of my clones had found that suna team. They were caught really fast"
Sasuke scoffed "see what I mean ...useless"
Naruto thought back to the memories 'good thing it wasn't us'
~clone memories~
The couple of clones that found the suna team had watched the red haired suna-nin named Gaara, wrap up another team in what looked like sand. The clones could only watch with wide eyes as the sand covered the three from the other team entirely and they heard the suna-nin speak his jutsu
Sand coffins Gaara yelled while lifting his hand towards the three now floating encased shinobi, with his fingers bent like he was grasping a ball
The clones could only shudder when they saw what he did next
SAND BURIAL Gaara clenched his lifted hand into a fist, which caused the sand to crush the shinobi inside as blood seemed to spray a bit out of the encasing. Blood began to color the sand red and some began to drip onto the ground
The clones felt sick as a small sadistic smile began to show on Gaara's face. One of the clones looked to the other and spoke in a whisper, "we should get out of here. Whether they have the scroll we need or not, I don't want to mess with that guy" the second clone nodded and both began to turn around to leave. They stopped when they realized that something was crawling up their feet. Both looked down to see sand begin to climb up their legs and increase in size. Both looked back to where Gaara was standing and saw that he was looking directly at them with his hand raised in their direction
"Mother says she wants your blood"
Both of the clones began to scream out and struggle as the sand had made it to their chest. As the sand got to their neck both lifted their chin in desperation as they both heard Gaara speak
"Sand Coffin!"
Both clones could no longer see anything but sand. Fear gripped their hearts as they heard Gaara speak again, though it was muffled they knew what was said
"SAND BURIAL!"
And with that both clones dispelled, sending the memories back to the original
~Memory end~
Naruto shook his head trying to rid his head of the memories. Coming back to reality his eyes shot open as he felt the feeling he felt following grow much closer and the smell of snake was now bombarding his nose. He jumped to his feet and turned fast to his teammate
Sakura could see the alert look in Naruto's eyes and didn't like what it could mean.
Sasuke was taken aback a bit at the panic he saw in Naruto's eyes
"WE NEED TO MOVE!"
Before Sasuke or Sakura could get to their feet a massive gust of wind blasted at the three. Naruto let his claws out to grab onto the branch they were on but the wind was strong enough that he was pushed back a bit leaving claw marks dragging across the branch.
Sakura and Sasuke were not so lucky as they were both launched away deeper into the forest in different directions.
Naruto couldn't see what direction they went since the wind had caused him to squint. After the wind had died down a second burst came but Naruto was ready and applied chakra to his feet to keep him planted in place. What he didn't expect was a massive dark tan snake with dark brown splotch pattern on it, climbing up the tree he was on till it was looking down at him "oh shit!"
The snake opened its mouth and launched it's head to bite at Naruto. Naruto jumped back to avoid the bite and flipped backwards in the air to land on a small portion of the branch. Looking back at the snake, he had to jump to the side as he saw its tail coming down on him. The tail strike shattered the entire branch causing Naruto to fall. He was several hundred feet in the air and Naruto did not want to know if he could survive from such a height. He looked up to see the snake was following him in the air as it's tail clung to the tree and it was going to eat him if he didn't do something. Quickly pulling out a kunai and ninja wire, he tied the wire in the loop of the kunai and tossed it to one of the trees. Once the kunai got stuck into the wood of the tree, he grabbed onto the wire and swung away from the snake that had just bit down at where he was in the air. Swinging away and towards the tree, he felt a bit of relief avoiding being eaten. The kunai unfortunately dislodged from the tree and Naruto dropped from the swing but Naruto was falling into the direction of the tree. Flipping in the air to bring his feet to the trunk of the tree he channeled chakra to his feet and stuck to it. "that was close". Naruto heard a hiss behind him since he was in a crouch position and without looking he bolted up the tree, just in time to avoid another bite that shattered the area he was just on. "I am NOT going to be some snakes lunch!". Looking down he saw the snake was climbing the tree fast, so fast that he would be caught soon. "When I get out of this I am SO working on my damn speed in my human form!"
The tree he was running on, exploded by a tail strike that went through the tree and hit Naruto hard sending him flying.
"DAMN IT!"
The snake launched at Naruto and opened its mouth to bite again at him. Naruto didn't have time to use the same air maneuver again, so all he could do was shift himself into the air, braced his legs, lifted his arms, pumped as much chakra into his limbs and got ready. The snake bit down at Naruto but he was able to stop the mouth from closing entirely on him. Naruto was on the snakes lips keeping the mouth open. Naruto felt strain on his body as he twinged in pain "N-no way I'M GOING TO BE EATEN! DATTEBAYO!".
The snake kept moving through the forest and kept trying to close its mouth.
~meanwhile with Sakura~
Sakura was now on ground level after she was blasted away from the gut of wind. "Ow ...where am I?". she looked around to see if she could see the rest of her team but found that she was alone. After getting up, she dusted herself off a bit and decided to follow the small body size trench that was obviously made from her travels. After a bit of walking she saw a massive snake coming in her direction. She immediately hid behind a tree just in time to avoid it. She looked up to its head and was glad that it didn't see her but something caught her eye. It was a small flash of orange at the tip of the snakes mouth. To Sakura it looked like a bit of Naruto's sash but she thought it would be stupid to think of such a thing. She was brought out when she heard yelling from the direction the snack head was
"YOU'RE NOT GETTING ME! WHEN I GET OUT OF THIS, I'LL DESTROY YOU STUPID HEBE!"
Sakura than realized that the orange she saw was indeed Naruto's sash. She felt dread at the fact that Naruto was about to be eaten. She wanted to help but she had no clue on what to do. She had no jutsu to use and no weapons to attack with. Naruto was the heavy hitter of the team, she was more a support, even if she couldn't really be the support she could be. She could let Naruto get out of this but she couldn't bring herself to do that to her teammate, so will all the courage she could muster she ran towards where the snake was going.
Once Sakura was able to catch up enough, she had jumped on top of the snakes body, and run up it's slithering body. She had trouble keeping on top of the body since it was scales and in constant movement but adding chakra to her feet she was able to move up. Once she got close to it's head, the snake stopped moving causing Sakura to trip. Looking up from her laying position she saw the snake move it's head to look at her. Her eyes widened in fear as the snake was looking at her and the fact that she could see Naruto in the snakes lips keeping the mouth open
"NARUTO!"
Naruto who was struggling against the still attempted closing mouth heard his name being called and turned his head to the side to look behind him. He saw Sakura was laying on top of the snake's neck area. 'Sakura?' feeling the snake push harder to close the mouth, his knees buckled a bit before he put more strength into his limbs to push them straight again. Turning his head to look at Sakura again he screamed out "SAKURA! A LITTLE HELP!"
Sakura got back on her feet, trying to think of a way to help out. She stopped and looked back in time to see the tail of the snake heading in her direction. Jumping off the snake she narrowly avoided the strike and tumbled onto the ground. Looking up she rolled to avoid another strike. She began to run away from the snake that started to slither in her direction. Sakura began to run up the tree hoping to get away but the snake began to coil up the tree after her
Naruto kept his gaze behind him to see Sakura still running. It was hard to keep track since the snake was going around the trunk in order to chase the girl. He began to think on a way to get out of this and got a stupid idea but it was the only thing he could think of. "SAKURA! DO YOU HAVE ANY EXPLOSIVE TAGS!?"
Sakura turned her head and panicked a bit more since the snake was still coming. She felt like her only chance to get away would be when the snakes head was on the opposite side of the trunk. She heard the question and yelled back "WHY?!"
"TIE AS MANY….. AS YOU CAN TO A KUNAI…..AND TOSS IT IN…..IT'S MOUTH" he yelled as the snake coiled around the trunk again and yelled everytime the head was on the same side as Sakura.
"WHY!?"
"JUST DO IT!"
Sakura dug into her weapons pouch and grabbed seven of the tags. She had to jump off the trunk and down to a branch as the snake swung it's head at where she was
Naruto grunted as the head impacted the trunk. He was glad that he didn't loosen his grip on the snakes lips but he felt his arms and legs, starting to get tired. After all the moving he felt some snake spit cover him and he was starting to think of anything painful he could do to the snake but his plan he was going to do would be enough. Another thought came to his mind 'where the hell is that Teme when you actually need him!?'
~meanwhile with Sasuke~
Sasuke got up from the ground and dusted himself off from the gust of wind "tch whoever did that is going to pay for it!"
"Kukuku well what payment would I have to give for my greeting?"
Sasuke looked around for the voice but couldn't find where it was coming from. Once he looked up he saw that standing on a low branch was a Grass kunoichi looking down at him. He didn't know what was up with the woman but he felt uneasy but maintained his attitude "so your the one that did that. Don't think that you can get away from doing that to me". As he began to walk towards the Grass kunoichi he paused as a massive amount of KI came upon him. He fell to his knees, trying to breathe but felt like his lungs were being gripped by hands and they were squeezing them. He saw his death. He saw the woman piercing his chest with her hand before ripping his heart out before crushing it.
"Kukuku is this your limit? What a disappointment. You are weak compared to Itachi"
Sasuke heard this and gritted his teeth as he slowly pulled out a kunai and stabbed himself in the leg to get out of his stupor. Getting back to his feet he glared at the kunoichi "don't you dare say that name around ME!" Sasuke leapt towards the woman ready to fight
The kunoichi smiled wider as she stood there ready to test the last Uchiha of konoha
~back with Naruto and Sakura~
'Tou-san! I could use a bit of your chakra!'
"Alright just hold on. Let's hope that your teammate hurries up!"
Naruto felt his father's chakra pour through his system, helping him hold the mouth open but he was still getting tired
Sakura had finally gotten her explosive tags tied to a kunai but she realized that she would need to aim for the mouth of the moving snake. She had practice throwing kunai but she was always stationary. She could do it while moving but she was not entirely confident with throwing it through a small opening on a moving target while she was moving as well.
"SAKURA HURRY UP!"
Sakura was still unsure but she thought of one way it could work. She made her way to another tree and began to run up the tree while looking back to see the snake still chasing her. This was going to be her only shot as she no longer had any more tags and was running out of stamina. Waiting for the snake to coil around the tree before it moved up in a straight line for a bit. She saw her chance and immediately jump off the tree, turned around, took aim and threw her kunai in the opening of the mouth. She didn't know what Naruto was actually planning but she could think of what it might be.
Naruto still looking behind him, he saw Sakura throw the tags. Pushing the mouth open a bit wider. He saw the tags go into the mouth but he saw that the slime had put out the small sizzling of the tag. He thought as best he can and came up with another plan. The tags were going further down the snake's throat and knew he had to act fast. Spitting out the snake spit in his mouth he silently gave thanks to his father for teaching him how to do this. Taking a deep breath, he channeled chakra into his lungs, he breathed out a hot stream of fire into the snake's throat. He kept the stream going hoping that it would reach its target. After blowing the flames down the snakes throat for a few more seconds, he heard it.
Sakura in the middle of her jump threw another kunai that was tied with Ninja wire towards an adjacent tree and swung away hoping she would be able to get away from the snake. During the swing she turned her head to look at Naruto who began to blow fire into the snake's throat for a few seconds and then a portion of the snake expanded with a muffled *boom*. Then another and another and another. After a few more the snake had exploded entirely and the force threw Sakura off the wire she swung on and she impacted hard with the tree she was aiming for
Naruto was happy to hear the muffled explosions from inside the snake but after he stopped breathing fire the snake had finally exploded and the force of it launched Naruto into the air. After flying into the air for a bit he began to fall back to the ground. Naruto felt worry since he was falling from very high in the air and he was extremely tired from keeping the mouth open and breathing fire. His eyes felt heavy while falling and while trying to think of something, he suddenly felt himself stop with his arms and legs dangling down. Turning his head to look up he saw that a kunai had embedded into the end of his sash 'good thing...I added the sash belt... when Anko-nee-chan ...took me clothes shopping'. Moving his head towards where the kunai came from, he saw that Sakura threw it. Lifting his right arm, he gave a thumbs up as a thanks. Sakura smiled as she collapsed onto the large branch in exhaustion. Naruto turned his body to climb slowly up so he could pull out the kunai. Using a bit of his chakra to wobbly climb up the tree before jumping to where Sakura was. He was so tired that he couldn't land on his feet and crashed next to Sakura. 'My limbs feel numb! Tou-san, can't you fix it?'
"I can but it will still take a bit of time before you can feel them again. Be glad that it will only take a few hours and not days"
Naruto felt a bit of relief at that. He rolled to his side to see that Sakura turned her head to look at him. Both began to give a tired laugh for surviving something like that. After a few minutes, Naruto moved to lean on his hands as he still tried to get his breath again.
Sakura just laid on her back just happy that she was alive. She turned her head to look at Naruto and after calming a bit she saw that Naruto was covered in both snake spit and guts. "Naruto ...your gross"
Naruto felt confused at her statement before he looked down at himself to see that he was covered in gunk "oh man! Gross! *sniff* *sniff* Oh gross I STINK". Naruto wanted to cover his nose but his hand was covered in the crap as well. He gave himself a mental note about getting his father to teach him how to control his senses so he could tone it down since he was tired about them causing problems
"You should have asked me to teach you that before I taught you how to breathe our bijuu fire"
'Well I didn't expect these kinds of problems. But next time we train, we will fix them.'
Both Sakura and Naruto were startled when they heard a scream coming from the forest. Turning their heads into its direction, they recognized the voice of the scream. It was Sasuke.
Naruto grumbled as he slowly got to his feet "damn it we forgot about him. Sounds like he needs help". 'Damn it my legs feel like lead and I can't even feel my arms'. Turning to Sakura who was still laying on the branch, he knew she wouldn't be able to move for a while "Sakura-san, I'm going to go help the teme. You going to be ok waiting here?"
Sakura nodded her head "I'll be fine. I will catch up as soon as I can"
Naruto nodded back before he used all his strength to jump in the direction of the scream
~few minutes ago with Sasuke~
Sasuke was panicking as he realized none of his attacks even got close to the kunoichi. The kunoichi didn't even block any of the punches or kicks he threw. She just swerved around all the attacks like he was going in slow motion. Sasuke had activated his sharingan but the speed the kunoichi was using was making it fairly useless as even though he could see things more clearly, he couldn't even see her move. Jumping back, Sasuke went through hand signs for his katon jutsu. "Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu". Sasuke watched as the fireball was heading towards the kunoichi. He smirked when he saw that the kunoichi didn't move. He thought that the sheer power of the jutsu caused her to be shocked still. Once the jutsu impacted, his smirk widened, thinking he finished her off.
"Ku ku ku that was slightly impressive Sasuke-kun"
Sasuke turned around just in time to feel a fist impact in his solar plexus. Feeling the air leave him he saw that the kunoichi was coming out of the tree. 'Just how strong is she?!'. Sasuke was launched into the air and impacted the bottom of a branch that was above them. Sasuke gained enough breathe to shift himself so he could flip to the top of the branch he impacted. "Damn! What kind of skills does this bitch have?!"
"The kind that I am willing to offer...Sasuke-kun"
Sasuke jumped forward before flipping to face behind him and saw that the kunoichi was standing right where he was. Once he landed he glared at her "who the hell are you!?". Sasuke then noticed that a piece of skin under her left eye looked to being dangling under her eye showing paper whit skin with some purple around it.
The kunoichi then lifted her hand to place a finger behind the sagging skin and pulled it down to reveal more of the of the white skin "I am one of the legendary sannin, Orochimaru. I have come for you specifically Sasuke-kun"
Sasuke took a step back in fear at the idea of fighting one of the Sannin. "*gulp* Why do you want me?"
Orochimaru pulled the rest of the fake face off as his long tongue licked passed his lips "hmm I'm here to offer you a way to power. A way to gain the power to kill your brother"
Sasuke paused as he felt his interest peaked. A sannin was offering him a way to gain the strength he wanted. A way to kill his brother to show the might of the Uchiha and in the back of his mind he had another small thought 'and to show Naruto where his place is...under my foot'
Orochimaru saw that Sasuke was interested and in deep thought. He used this chance to stretch out his neck towards the unaware Uchiha. Once he was close enough he opened his mouth and bit down hard onto the boys neck
"AAAAAAHHHHHH"
Orochimaru poured in the chakra needed and focused on implanting the seal he had created for his purposes. After a few minutes, his curse mark was placed and he released the boy as he retracted his neck. He stood there as he watched the boy fall to his knees as he clutched at where the curse mark was forming "if you survive this, seek me out and I shall grant you more power"
Orochimaru was brought out of his happy mood when he ducked to avoid a flying roundhouse. Turning his head he saw the blonde of Sasuke's team land further down the branch he was on. 'Hm the kyuubi brat, Kabuto's info had told me that he is a useless shinobi.'
Naruto couldn't feel his legs after throwing that kick towards the pale man 'tou-san can I have some more chakra!'
"Fine but you need to get away from this man. He is dangerous. If you can, get his scent!"
'Why?! And I can't! All I can smell is the crap that's on me!'
"Focus! Focus passed the smell on you and have your sense of smell focus on a point in front of you. You can separate the different smells around you so find the man's smell. But remember, your first priority is to get away from him"
'I'll try!'
Naruto then felt a surge of power refilling him with energy. He knew that his father's chakra was potent but he would be able to handle it for a few minutes without losing himself. He needed to get Sasuke and leave.
Orochimaru felt the kyuubi's chakra 'hmm, so he uses the demons chakra immediately against me huh. This could be a problem for my plans later' Orochimaru smiled as he thought of a way to hinder the boy. He saw that the boy disappeared from sight 'hmm impressive speed for someone this young but it's not even his power, it's the demons. Without it he is nothing but a useless brat'. Orochimaru stood still and waited for the boy to show up.
Naruto re-appeared in the air next to Orochimaru's and prepared a claw strike. Naruto was going to launch the man away with the strike and then go pick up Sasuke so he could get leave the area. What he didn't expect was to be grabbed by the throat and brought to eye level of the man. Naruto grabbed the wrist putting all his remaining strength in trying to get out of the grasp 'shit! I gotta get the teme and get out of here. This guy is way to strong! ….wait if he's this close, I can get his scent!' for a few seconds of struggling he tried to get the scent but he could only get the snake gunk still on him 'damn it FOCUS!'
Orochimaru smirked as he looked at the boys eyes. He thought that the eyes were slitted much like his own but slightly different 'must be the kyuubi's influence but it won't be a problem much longer'. Orochimaru reached for the boys shirt and ripped off the lower half. He dropped the ripped piece of shirt and curved his fingers as he used a massive bit of chakra into creating a kanji on each of his fingers and thumb. He expected that the seal would react to the seal he was creating but much to his irritation it didn't show. 'Now this is interesting. Is it possible that it was concealed so no one would be able to tamper with it. Impressive. Either Minato or that pathetic former teammate of mine did this, pity that I had studied the seal in great detail so I know where it is on the boy and where to place this'
Naruto saw the sudden stop the pale man had and smirked "surprise!" and took a deep breath
Orochimaru looked up to the boys face in time to see him breathe a stream of fire. It was so close and unexpected that Orochimaru was burnt in the face causing him to let go of the boy 'damn this boy!'. Orochimaru launched the hand that had the kanji and aimed for the boy
Naruto was in the middle of falling to the branch when he saw a hand move at great speed.
"KIT YOU TO MOVE OUT OF THE WAY! DON'T LET THAT HI…."
Kurama was silenced when the hand impacted on Naruto's stomach. Naruto felt his entire body burn and immense pain in his stomach as the hand that impacted his stomach kept pushing him until he impacted with the trunk of the tree enough to shatter the wood he impacted on.
Orochimaru was clutching the right side of his face as it, his right shoulder and bicep were covered with massive burns. "You little brat! I should end you right now." Orochimaru was walking towards the down blonde that was amazingly still conscious but clutching his body in pain
Naruto was in a fetal position on his side as his body felt like it was being ripped apart 'shit! What did he do!?'. Naruto moved his eyes to see the man was walking towards him. Naruto gritted his teeth as he pressed his knuckles down and slowly pushed himself up a bit. When he was halfway up he looked up to see that the man was also twitching.
Orochimaru paused his walking as he felt his body twitch from the burns. 'What is wrong with this body?! Is this because of the demon chakra? Could it have done something to it?!'. Orochimaru knew that he would need treatment soon so he reluctantly decided to let the boy live for now. "Be grateful boy. You will live through this day" Orochimar then opened his mouth painfully to spit out a scroll "this is the scroll you will need to advance. Consider this a gift to you for your achievement to harm me and an extra gift to Sasuke-kun." Orochimaru then felt the chakra signatures of others coming towards him, although they were weak so he assumed that it was a group of genin coming "hmm seems that someone is coming. They might be your allies or enemies but I have no business with them" Orochimaru began to melt into the wood of the branch while still clutching his face "protect Sasuke-kun with your life boy. Since it's the only thing I expect from you" and with that Orochimaru vanished from sight.
Naruto couldn't gather any strength and collapsed as his vision was blurring he called out in his mind 'tou-san, can you help out a bit?'
"..."
'Tou-san? Are you there?'
"..."
'Tou-san please say something…...this isn't funny'
"..."
'Rama-tou-sama?! Please don't leave me again…..'
"..."
'please ...I don't like being alone' Naruto felt tears start to run down his face as his vision blackened and before he lost consciousness he heard something
"NARUTO-KUN/NARUTO-KUN"
The last thing he saw two people coming towards him. One person with the colors: dark purple and platinum blonde and the next person was cream color and dark blue
~1 hour later~
The rookie nine were gathered in a small cove with a large tree that was hollowed out. Shikamaru and Choji were standing right outside of the entrance to the hollow tree Shino and Kiba along with Akamaru were on the edge of the cove keeping a perimeter.
Both Naruto and Sasuke were unconscious inside the hollow tree. Ino and Hinata were taking care of Naruto, while Sakura tended to Sasuke.
Naruto was sweating constantly and had tears falling down the sides of his face as he mumbled "please don't go…..don't leave me alone". This had hurt both girls in hearing him say this. Ino who was on Naruto's left, had wiped off the sweat from his forehead and left arm as Hinata who was on Naruto's right, wiped off the sweat from his right arm and torso as well as check on him. They had already cleaned him of most of the gunk he had on him
Hinata had learned during one of their training sessions, to not use the byakugan on Naruto as the amount of Chakra he had was staggering. He had so much that it looked like he didn't have chakra coils or points, just a mass of chakra. She tried it now just as a percaution but she saw that his massive amount of chakra was pulsing in bright flashes. So much so that it had started to hurt her eyes so she chose to just examine him normally
Sakura kept an eye on sasuke as he seemed to be in pain as he slept. She didn't know how to help him. She wasn't a medic and had only basic field practice. All she could do for her teammate is place a wet rag on his forehead and hope that it would help. She looked back to her other teammate, to see that he was being well taken care of by Hinata and Ino. She wondered why the two were so adamant in making sure he was okay. She also wondered what had happened to them while she was still recovering on the branch.
Sakura was fortunate that the whole fight with the snake had caught the attention of team 8. Kiba and Akamaru had heard Naruto yelling and the explosion, then went over to help. When they saw Sakura laying on a branch they jumped over to her and checked to see if she was alright. Hinata was a bit concerned for her but she felt more worry for her other teammates, mostly Naruto
Team 10 actually came across the destroyed path that the snake made and in a bit of curiosity on Ino's part, followed the path of destruction to see what caused it. They had arrived a few minutes after team 8 and had the same concerns. Ino was the first to ask Sakura "where's Na...the rest of your team?"
Sakura told them the direction Naruto went and they all jumped in that direction. They came across both Sasuke and Naruto collapsed on the ground and panicked.
They moved to the cove they were now resting in. Sakura had also picked up the scroll that was on the ground near Naruto and found it was the scroll they needed. But she also found out that Sasuke no longer had their scroll, which meant that they had to find another one.
Sakura had decided that she would try and get some sleep, since she was still exhausted from before. Turning to the other two females she spoke "hey can you make sure that Sasuke-san is ok. I'm going to try and get some sleep"
Both Hinata and Ino turned to Sakura and nodded. They were both told on what happened and understood that Sakura was exhausted.
Sakura laid down facing in the other direction, a bit away from them as to not get in the way.
Hinata turned to look at Ino. she could see the worry in the blonde girls eyes as she looked at Naruto. It was the same look she would give the boy as well. "Y-you care about him, don't you?"
Ino looked up from Naruto to Hinata "of course I care about him. He is ...was my friend" she said that last bit in a soft hurt voice
Hinata tilted her head "what do you mean he 'was' your friend?"
Ino looked down at Naruto in shame "I…..hurt him. At the time I was mad at something he said and I didn't want to believe what he was saying was true. I confronted him about it and didn't even consider if what he was saying was true." Ino began to feel tears welling up in her eyes but she didn't care "I...I was so mad that I *hiccup* I slapped him and called him the dobe of the class *sob*. I *sob* still remember the look of hurt in his eyes when I did that. And when he was leaving I told him to never talk to me again and ….he promised me he wouldn't *sob*"
Hinata sat there listening to what Ino was saying and felt tears fall down her cheeks as well. She felt a bit of anger when she heard that Ino slapped Naruto and called him dobe but she could see the pain the girl was in. Ino felt so much regret from her actions that nothing Hinata could say would help her. Hinata got up from her kneeling position and moved around Naruto so she could give Ino a hug. Hinata now understood why Ino had helped Naruto out in the first exam. She wanted to do something that could help her ask for forgiveness from him.
Ino just ended up crying into Hinata's chest "*sob* how could I do that to him when all he has *hiccup* ever done was be nice to me, help me and would always listen to what I say"
Hinata just patted her on the back as she cried as well "shh shh. It will be ok. Naruto will forgive you. I'm sure"
"*sob* No he won't. Why would he? *sob"
What the two didn't know was that Sakura was still awake and had heard everything that Ino said. Sakura had a sad look on her face as she thought about what happened between Ino and Naruto 'I had no idea that's what happened to them. That must be why Naruto looked so torn that morning. Oh kami what have I done'
~in the forest~
In the forest, high up in the trees, watching the group of nine were three oto-nin. The same nin that attacked Kabuto right before the first exam. Zaku was tapping his foot impatiently "what are we waiting for! I say we go and finish them off right now!"
Dosu looked to his left to look at Zaku "keep it down will ya. We don't want to alert them." turning to his right Dosu spoke with their last teammate "well Kin, what do you say? Should we go say hello now?"
Kin smirked as she looked at the group "not yet. Lets wait till they fall asleep. It will be much easier that way."
~next morning~
It was late at night when most of the nine had chosen to go to sleep. Shikamaru, Kiba and Choji had made a fire in the middle of the cove and slept around it. Ino had cried herself to sleep in Hinata's arms. Hinata chose not to move from the spot and fell asleep.
The only one that remained awake the whole night was Shino but you wouldn't be able to tell, as Shino was sitting slumped near the died out fire and his eyes were covered by his shades. Shino was keeping track of the three Oto-nin that were slowly making their way towards them. He and Kiba had discovered them when Shino's bugs had found them and Akamaru had caught their scent as well. They had chosen to keep quiet just to see what they would do but had a plan in motion just in case
Kin, Dosu and Zaku were on ground level, moving closer towards the cove. Zaku was grinning like mad, thinking of all the things he could do to some of the kunoichi in the group. Dosu was thinking of how he could get the cannon fodder away from their target. Kin wanted to hurt some of the kunoichi as she thought that they were nothing but trash. Something all three felt at the same time was tired but they just passed it off as lack of sleep.
Once the Oto-nin were at the edge of the cove, Shino shifted his head ever so slightly in their direction. This one gesture caused the Oto-nin to jump forward into an attack. Shino stood up from his sitting position but put no guard up.
Kin threw here senbon towards Shino, Zaku jumped into the air to strike at the sleeping nin and Dosu charge towards the hollow tree.
~with Zaku~
Zaku was about to strike at Kiba who he saw as an easy target since the boy was asleep. What he didn't expect was a massive fist to hit him hard from the side launching him away. Once Zaku stopped tumbling on the ground, he looked back to see that the massive fist belonged to the pudgy konoha-nin "what the fuck!"
Kiba slowly opened his eyes and got up to his feet with a smirk on his face. Turning to Zaku he spoke in a cocky tone "heh bout time you guys came out. I was starting to think you were just going to stalk us"
Zaku got up and glared at the two konoha-nin "no way you knew we were here! You're nothing but konoha trash! A sniveling mutt and a fattass!". Zaku lifted his arms, ready to launch his jutsu "Zankūha" but nothing happened "why the fuck isn't it working!"
Kiba felt anger coming off his fellow nin and backed away from Choji. Kiba knew for a fact that you never call an Akimichi fat unless you want to suffer a beating and he could see that Choji was seeing red
"I'M NOT FAT! Baika no Jutsu! Nikudan Sensha!"
Zaku looked up in time to see a big spinning ball heading his way
~with Kin~
Kin had launched her senbon needles at Shino and prepared to use her genjutsu on him. However Shino unleashed a small swarm of bugs from his sleeve and created a barrier to block them. Kin, thinking she could still use her genjutsu since he was still close, began to channel her chakra into it. She grinned thinking it would have worked since Shino didn't move but to her shock another swarm of insects came towards her "shit!". She tried to get away but soon found herself covered "get these things off me!"
"Illogical. You are an enemy and thus must be dealt with"
~with Dosu~
Dosu was making his way to the tree when he heard his team behind him. Pausing to turn, he saw that his teammates were being decimated "what the hell are they doing?! They should be able to wipe the floor with these Konoha nin!"
"Don't underestimate konoha"
Dosu turned around and saw the pink haired kunoichi standing at the entrance of the tree. She was soon joined by the Yamanaka and the Hyuga. "Oh please, what do you think you could do against me. Now be good little girls and let me have Sasuke Uchiha"
Sakura looked at both of her fellow kunoichi but they also had the same look of confusion. Looking back to Dosu, Sakura asked "what do you want with Sasuke-san?"
"None of your business now move!" Dosu charged towards the three.
Hinata and Ino jumped to the sides as Sakura charged forward. Sakura saw that Dosu threw a punch but it was slow enough for her to shift her head to avoid the punch. Once she dodged she threw her own punch and hit Dosu in the face causing a bloody nose and forcing Dosu back a few steps.
Dosu wiped the blood from his nose and watch the pink haired kunoichi for his attack to do it's part. But nothing happened "wha…! She should be on the ground with what I launch! What's going on!"
"Leaf Hurricane"
Dosu was then kicked hard in the head that launched him back further.
Landing in front of the three kunoichi was Rock Lee in his fighting pose "the handsome devil of Konoha! Rock Lee has arrived" he said as he gave a sparkling smile
Dosu grunted as he pulled himself up off the ground "what the hell! What's going on?!". He was pulled out of his rage when both Zaku and Kin were dropped next to him, both still conscious but seemed to be trying their best to stay that way "you got yourself beat by konoha-nin!"
"It's because none of you knew we had you beat before you even made it close to us"
Dosu turned to see that the one that had been laying down even after the fighting started. He yawned as he spoke
"Troublesome. We set up a trap and you three fell into it right away" Shikamaru said as he lazily walked to join his friends
"What trap!"
Shino moved to join his team, as team 8 and 10 surrounded the three oto-nin "it would be illogical to tell you how we defeated you"
Lee had stayed with Sakura next to the tree and watched as the two teams spoke with the Oto team. Sakura turned to Lee "thank you Lee for helping us out here"
Lee gave her a thumbs up and another sparkling smile "of course! It would be unyouthful if I let the teammates of my youthful friend Naruto, be hurt"
Sakura smiled at this 'Naruto really knows how to make friends'
Before anything else could be done, a dark feeling fell upon everyone there. They all looked around to see where it was coming from but they got their answer when Lee was kicked in the back and pushed away from where he was.
Sakura turned to who kicked Lee and felt fear overtake her as she saw Sasuke standing there with his leg up and a sadistic smile on his face. What scared her more was that she could see dark purple chakra flowing off him and half his face was covered in flame like black markings.
Sasuke began to laugh darkly as he looked down at his hand. "So this is the power he spoke of" he chuckled darkly, "this is the kind of power I need to kill those who stand in my way!". Sasuke looked back up at Lee who was giving him a look of shock before he charged at Lee
Dosu, Zaku and Kin had eyes wide open at seeing their target with the curse mark. Kin shook her head in fear "he sent us to fight him after he gave the uchiha the curse mark?! Were we just here to test him with it?"
Dosu shook his head "don't care, I'm not staying to deal with someone with that on them. Lets go Kin, Zaku!"
Zaku growled at this "fuck that I can beat them all alone if I wanted" Zaku then got up and charged at Sasuke.
Team 8 and 10 were more focused on Sasuke fighting against Lee to notice Zaku had moved until they saw him charge the two fighting nin
Lee was dodging and blocking the flurry of punches and kicks Sasuke was throwing. 'Whatever that is that Sasuke-san has covering him has improved his speed and strength a bit but it seems much to unnatural'. Lee then grabbed Sasuke's fist and held it tight "you must calm yourself Sasuke-san. This is no way to have a friendly spar"
"This is no spar this is a fight! You are in my way so I will tear you down!"
They were interrupted when Zaku punched Sasuke in the face. Zaku smirked as his fist connected but much to his shock, all it did was turn his head.
Sasuke moved his head against the fist and glared at Zaku "don't interfere!". Sasuke then pulled his hand out of Lee's grasp and punched Zaku in the face, hard enough the an audible *CRACK* was heard by everyone
Zaku crashed hard into the ground as he clutched his face in pain as he screamed out in pain "argh you piece of shit! I'll kill you!"
Sasuke stomped onto Zaku's hest hard as he smiled at the screams of pain. He then picked up the boy by the neck and threw he behind him.
Zaku landed in a tumble and stopped at Sakura's feet.
Sakura was too scared to move as she stared at Sasuke jump in the air and do hand signs
Everyone noticed where his target was and what he was about to do. They all screamed "SASUKE DON'T DO IT!"
Lee ran towards Sasuke in order to stop him but he didn't make it in time
"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu"
Lee saw the fireball fly over him and make its way to Sakura "SAKURA-CHAN!"
Sakura stood there in fear as the jutsu grew closer. She could feel the heat from it as she had another thought 'I'm going to die'.
She was then tackled hard and barely made it out of the pathway of the jutsu. The explosion of the jutsu impacting the ground launched her further away and she tumbling several times before she stopped. Looking up she saw that the one that tackled her out of the way was Naruto who looked to be breathing hard "Naruto?"
Naruto looked down at Sakura as he gave a wincing smile "made it"
Sakura was so happy to see Naruto and hugged him "thank you!"
Naruto winced a bit from the hug "sakura-san can you let go please? My body hurts"
Sakura let go and gave a sheepish smile "sorry". She then heard a groan right next to her, turning she saw that it was the Oto nin. He was alive but his arms were badly burnt.
Naruto looked at the Oto nin and frowned "I grabbed his foot when I got to you"
"NARUTO!"
Naruto and Sakura looked towards Sasuke and saw that he had a dark grin on his face as he made his way to them.
Sasuke felt an urge to prove himself better than the blonde. To make Naruto eat the dirt and grumble under his foot. Before he could make it any closer he found himself frozen in place
"Possession complete"
Sasuke struggled to turn his head to see behind him. Once he could see behind him, he saw that it was Shikamaru using his clan jutsu "let go of me Nara!"
Shikamaru just kept his hand in the hand sign "you need to calm down Uchiha". Shikamaru was struggling to keep the jutsu up as Sasuke seemed to be slowly breaking out of it.
The rest of the Rookie nine surrounded Sasuke all glaring at the boy who almost killed one of his teammates. Kiba growled at Sasuke "hey you bastard! What the hell was that?! You nearly fried your teammate!"
Sasuke smiled again "she was in the way! What do I care about her if she is too weak to move"
Everyone was shocked at hearing this. They knew that Sasuke was arrogant but to just kill of a teammate because she didn't move was going to far
Shikamaru began to sweat as he was running out of strength to keep the jutsu up but he felt relief when a kunai with ninja wire flew by and wrapped around the Uchiha
Sasuke felt the wire and struggle even more "release me! You useless excuse of …."
He didn't get to finish his statement as Neji dropped down and hit him in the back of the neck, knocking him out.
Neji felt some of the foul chakra on his fingers and shook it to get it off. He turned to his green clad teammate "Lee! What are you doing here?"
Tenten then dropped down next to Neji "let it go Neji. From the looks of it, he helped out when they needed it". Tenten looked over to Naruto to see that he was in pain and his clothes were all ripped up "what happened to you"
Naruto smiled sheepishly "ran into trouble while in the forest"
The rest of the rookie nine all relaxed now that Sasuke had been knocked out. They all gathered around Naruto and Sakura, ignoring the Oto-nin.
That is until Dosu spoke up "hey!"
Everyone turned to Dosu who was still on the ground with Kin
Dosu knew that they could no longer fight right now, so he made the choice of leaving while they could "are you going to let us go? If you do you can have this" Dosu pulled out a scroll and placed it on the ground
Shikamaru thought of whether or not it was a good idea to let them go but after looking at his team who nodded at him he decided to let them go. "Fine take your teammate and go"
Dosu slowly made it closer and gently picked up Zaku, not taking his eyes off the rest of them. After he got Zaku back to Kin they left.
Neji turned to Lee "we are leaving"
Tenten sometimes hated the stuck up attitude Neji had and almost wished Naruto's pranking would have loosened him up a bit but nope. She just chose to agree with Neji as they already had the scrolls they needed and only stopped when Lee left suddenly.
Lee also chose that they should head out since he had saved his fellow nin.
After Tenten and Lee waved goodbye the three also left
The whole of rookie nine sans Sasuke who was still knocked out, looked at the scroll on the ground. Kiba was the one to speak "sooooo….who gets the scroll?"
Sakura wanted to say they should but she felt that she owed the two teams "one of you can have it for helping us when we needed it"
Ino turned to Sakura "you sure Sakura?"
Sakura nodded as she pulled out her scroll "yeah, we lost our original scroll but we got the other scroll so we can try and get another one when we can"
Naruto saw the scroll Sakura had and smiled "actually we can head to the tower now"
Everyone looked towards Naruto to see him dig through his weapons pouch and pull out the other scroll needed
Sakura looked wide eyed at the scroll in Naruto's hands "but how? Sasuke had the scroll. Did you get another one and not tell us?"
Naruto shook his head "no. when Sasuke put the scroll in his pouch I had a scroll switch places with it and then put it in my pouch"
Sakura felt a little mad at Naruto doing that but she didn't have the energy to argue. She was brought out of her thoughts when Ino tapped her on the shoulder
Ino looked at Sakura and spoke "come on Sakura. Let me fix your hair for you"
Sakura moved her hand to touch her hair and found that the left side was burned short. She didn't even notice it until now "ok Ino"
~20 minutes later~
The scroll that was left was a heavens scroll which was what the two teams need and they debated on who would take it. It was decided that team 8 would take it, since it was thanks to Shino using his Kikaichu beetles, to drain the Oto-nin's chakra over the night.
Ino had finished cutting Sakura's hair into an even short cut.
After that was done team 10 left to find a scroll for themselves and team 7 and 8 began to make their way towards the tower.
They had to go at a slow pace as Kiba was carrying an unconscious Sasuke and Hinata was supporting Naruto who still seemed to be in pain.
It had taken hours to make it but they finally made it by the end of the day and Naruto couldn't be happier right now "finally".
One thing that happened through the journey was an irate Sasuke waking up. Sasuke had made the journey more difficult as he kept glaring at Naruto but the blonde didn't even care, since he still felt his body burn.
They walked into the building and looked around finding a large message written on the wall. Naruto had just slumped against the wall as he let his team figure out what they need to do next
"Ano Naruto-kun? Are you alright?"
Naruto lifted his head to see Hinata looking at him with a worried look on her face. Naruto gave a tired smile "I will be when I get something to eat. Thanks Hinata-chan"
Hinata didn't believe him so she sat down next to him and they both just sat there watching both of their teams use the scrolls to summon Kuranai and Iruka
The two senseis gave the meaning of the message before Iruka looked towards Naruto who looked exhausted as he sat with Hinata. He felt that Naruto must have over exerted himself and gave told team 7 where everything was and where they would be staying until this part of the exam ended "also before I leave I want to say that I'm proud of you guys. You made it faster than I thought you would. Well done!"
Both teams felt proud at the praise and they went over to Hinata and Naruto so that the teams could get some food at the cafeteria
End of chapter
My fingers hurt ow
Well the team made it through the end of the second exam. I was originally going to have this split into two but I couldn't stop and got to this point.
Next chapter might be straight to the prelims or have a bit of a filler in the three days left till it ends
Also I wanted Naruto to make a hit on Orochimaru and spoiler, it's more than just a burn. I also wanted an interaction with Ino and Hinata so I made that little moment. I added Sakura hearing it as I wanted her to know what really happened
Also going back to old chapters making edits. re-inserted the original torture scene in "Punishment from three sides" check it out if ya want
Results of the poll:
Feral fox: 8 votes
Prowling Fox: 8 votes
Hunting Fox: 6 votes
Hunter's claw: 6 votes
Fox claw: 4 votes
Well it's a tie between Feral fox and Prowling fox. Poll will be up for 2 weeks before I pull it down so vote for the one ya want
Please read and review