XXXVIII: The Second Exam Part III

Konoha, Forest of Death, One Month Nine Days ago:

After the sound–nin left Hinata was left with a still unconscious Naruto and a delirious Sasuke.

"C-come on Sasuke," She coughed. "We n-need to get to the tower."

"No…Okaa-san said to stay here."

"Sasuke! Naruto needs help!"

Her words seemed to wake Sasuke from whatever dream land he had been in. The black marks on his neck faded, leaving only the three tomoe shaped marks where Orochimaru bit him.

"I…What? I had the strangest dream. Where'd Orochimaru go…"

"Naruto's barely breathing we need, we need to." She was overwhelmed by a coughing fit and had to stop for a second. "We need to get to the tower and get help." Another coughing fit caused her to collapse.

"Are you alright?" Sasuke rushed to her side and helped her up, "Oh no… You're coughing up blood that can't be good."

"I'll be fine…" Hinata croaked, "As long as we get Naruto help I'll be fine."

Sasuke picked up Naruto and slung him over his shoulder, "Kami he's heavy for someone who eats nothing but ramen."

They were more than halfway to the tower from their pervious location, when Hinata collapsed, her breath coming in short sharp gasps."C…Can't…Bre…athe…"

"Come on Hinata we're almost there."

"G…o…with…out…me…"

"Don't be an idiot, that's Naruto's job." Sasuke set Naruto down on the ground. "I'll make a clone and have him carry you."

Sasuke made the hand seal for Kage Bunshin but instead of forming a clone, Sasuke felt a stabbing pain in his neck, where Orochimaru bit him.

"Ugh… what am I supposed to do now?" Both of his teammates were seriously injured, and Sasuke didn't have access to his chakra because of what the creepy snake bastard did to him.

After a moment to think Sasuke had an idea. He unsealed his tent from the storage seal Naruto gave him. He used it to fashion a litter for Hinata. After laying her on it, he tied Naruto to his back so he could have both hands free to pull Hinata.

The pace he was forced to move at was excruciatingly slow. He wasn't sure what was wrong with Hinata so he didn't want to jostle her too much. So he was forced to pull her along on the flattest path he could find and stamp down or move any obstruction from their path.

The tower was only a kilometer away when the grey haired and bespectacled form of Yakushi Kabuto launched himself from the under growth and tackled Sasuke to the ground.

"What the hell did you do that for?"

"Whew that was close." Kabuto ignored Sasuke's outburst. "Any closer and you'd have set off all the traps I've been building over here."

"Traps?

"Yeah, I don't like fighting, it's much easier to trap the area around the tower and get a scroll that way."

Sasuke stepped between his teammates and Kabuto. "So why stop us?" He said, "Do you think I'll hand over my scrolls to you without a fight?"

"No But your teammates aren't looking to good, and I was afraid they might die from the trap."

Sasuke chewed his lip nervously for a minute, "What type of scroll does your team need?"

"Earth, why?"

"If I give you an earth scroll will you help my teammates?"

"No, I'd do that even without the scroll. I'm a med-nin remember? But I will guide your team to the tower for that scroll. Sounds fair?"

"Yeah, now please help them, I have no idea what's wrong with them!"

"Not Here, Come with me to my team's camp it will be safer there."

Kabuto took Naruto from Sasuke, making the trip to Kabuto's camp easier on the dark haired boy.

"Kabuto what are you doing here?" One of Kabuto's teammates stepped out from behind a tree, "This is my area."

Kabuto held up the Scroll of Earth Sasuke had given him, "No need for those anymore. Go get Yoroi; I want you two to keep your eyes out while I tend to theses two's injuries."

The other genin seemed to notice Team Seven for the first time, "For the love of…" Kabuto's teammate face palmed. "Kabuto, why can't you be a normal ninja? Leave those three in the woods if you can't kill them."

"I'm a med-nin, You know that Misumi, Besides they're helping us pass."

"What do you mean?"

"Where do you think I got the Earth scroll from they had a spare."

"A spare?"

"We were done with the test maybe thirty minutes into it," Sasuke explained, "We were lucky a team with an earth scroll was nearby, we jumped them and ran for the tower. Oro… Someone really strong jumped us when we were half way there. We escaped but me and Naruto were hurt in the process, while we were recovering another team tried to attack us but we took their scroll and drove them off.

"I...See." the older Genin stared at Sasuke for a minute, "Fine I'll go get Yoroi, you can start your treatment Kabuto."

Kabuto set Naruto on the ground next to Hinata. After a quick examination of them both he said, "Hinata's in pretty bad condition. She's got seven broken ribs one of her lungs is punctured and the other is filling up with blood."

Kabuto unsealed a bag of medical supplies from a seal on his wristbands. "Half an hour more and she might have suffocated." He jabbed a needle into Hinata's chest and pulled air out of her lung cavity.

"The Puncture is easy enough to deal with." Kabuto performed a series of hand seal leaving his hands glowing with green medical chakra. "The blood in her long is a bit more difficult." He placed his hands on her ribs "Broken bones are hard to heal I can help speed up the process but it will take at least a week for them to be fully healed." As soon as Kabuto removed his hands from Hinata's side her breathing evened out and she began coughing weakly.

"What about Naruto?" Sasuke asked While Kabuto rolled Hinata onto her side.

"His condition seems stable enough now, but I have no idea what's wrong with him."

"Oro…The strong ninja we fought did something to Naruto's stomach, I didn't really see it I was fighting his sn… his teammates."

"I see… Kabuto lifted Naruto's shirt and took a closer look at Naruto's seal. "Crap, this is bad."

"What's wrong?" Sasuke noted the hint of panic in Kabuto's voice.

"The ninja you fought put a five point seal over Naruto's eight" When he noticed the confused look on Sasuke's face he clarified, "Odd numbered seals over even numbered seals completely cut off the chakra flow, not to mention it could break Naruto's seal and release the Kyuubi In a burst of energy that would level the entirety of this training area.".

"That's bad… Can you remove it?"

Kabuto scratched the back of his neck nervously, "I probably can, but I don't want to risk it."

"Uh…what happened?" Naruto moaned, "I fell like crap." Naruto suddenly sat upright, "where's Kurama?"

"Kurama?"

"The ninja we fought, "Sasuke hoped Naruto would get the hint and not say Orochimaru's name, "He put a five point on you."

Naruto jerked his shirt up to take a look. "That it? I can have this off in a jiffy…" Naruto tried to remove the seal, but he found his chakra was fluctuating too wildly to anything with. "Or not, the seal's messing with my control."

"Can you stand?" Kabuto asked.

"I think…" Naruto seemed to notice Kabuto for the first time, "Oh hey Kabuto, How'd you get here?"

"I walked."

"He found me trying to get you and Hinata to the tower, I'll explain later."

Naruto looked around, "Where is she?"

"Sleeping, it was a close call, but she'll be fine with a couple of day's rest."

"Come on Kabuto, You promised me you'd help get us to the tower." Sasuke, impatient to be done with the test, reminded Kabuto, "Let's go."

"I'll Carry Hinata for you." Kabuto said.

"No I got…" Naruto tried to say as he stood up. He collapsed before he was halfway up. "Damnit…"

"I'll carry Naruto." Sasuke slung Naruto over his shoulder. "What about your teammates are they going to come with us?"

"No, they'll want to stay here and try to snipe a couple of teams." Kabuto picked up the handles for Hinata's litter. "If we hurry we can be at the Tower in fifteen minutes."

Indeed ten minutes later and they were nearly there. They only had about a hundred yards to go when a team of Ame Genin jumped out of the undergrowth, blocking their path.

"AHA!" The leader shouted, "Finally found you! Give us back our earth scroll!"

"Yeah, and your Heaven scroll too!" one of his teammates shouted.

"You have got to be kidding me…"

Meanwhile:

Anko raced through the forest, She had recognized the jutsu that had removed the faces of the three Genin from Kusa. It always had been Orochimaru's favorite way of disguising himself.

She skidded to a stop ina small clearing, "OROCHIMARU!," She shouted, "I know you're here!"

Orochimaru stepped out from the tree he had been hiding behind, "Bravo, Anko-chan. You found me… That means it's your turn to hide now."

A/N: Sorry for the short chapter, Next one's longer I promise. As to why I'm updating a day earlier than usual a storm knocked out the internet to a bunch of houses in the area I live and it won't be fixed until Sunday at the earliest.

Also, I need a beta reader who's willing to beta read all the chapters in my buffer (five or six) and then two chapters a week until I'm done with the story. It'll just be spelling and grammar correction so it shouldn't be too hard (I'd do it myself, but I really don't have the free time to write and edit two chapters a week.)