Sasuke was confident he'd pass the exam, despite losing Naruto as an ally. When the exam started, he decided to put his anger for Sakura aside, and ally with her and Team 10 in the exam, especially considering that the two groups had the same scrolls, so there was no reason to fight. When the gates opened, they bolted through the high trees of the forest, eventually finding a small stream with fish and deciding to stop there.
"Where's Naruto?" Sakura asked her teammate. Sasuke shook his head, telling her he didn't know. "Sometimes I wonder if Naruto is like this because of how the people here treat her." She spoke, mostly to herself.
"It probably is," Shikamaru intruded into the conversation, "Ever since she was born she's been given nothing but hatred and betrayal. I'm not surprised if she wants to kill us all." The remaining members of Team 7 grimaced, hoping that they will never see her as a true enemy.
"I don't even really know what's inside of her. I've always just been told that there's a demon inside of her, and that she can't be trusted because of that." Sakura added on. "Because of that, people just assumed that she would be a certain way." She concluded. Sasuke heard that and went into introspection. His people, the Uchiha, have always experienced discrimination, because of an assumed "Curse of Hatred." To him, it was just another form of bio determinism, a powerful form of oppression.
He was bitter toward his brother for slaughtering his clan, and it sent him into a frenzy of hatred that he was still victim to at that very moment. But even he could acknowledge that Naruto was experiencing a pointless oppression.
Choji and Ino returned from fishing in the stream, returning to a slightly quieter group. "We're back!" They said, a bit loudly. After observing the state of the group, they asked, "What happened?"
As Shikamaru was about to explain, they heard a strange, otherworldly noise, a bloody squelch, and Naruto's voice. They immediately mobilized, finding the clearing and entering it. They saw quite the scene. A knocked out team 8, a Genin incapacitated in wood, and a bloodied Naruto with chakra amassing in her hands. She didn't even turn her head to look at them as she said, "You've found me."
"Naruto? What are you doing..?" Sakura asked. Naruto didn't reply, as she simply put her hand on the Genin's head and ripped it upward, taking his soul with it. She learned about a planned invasion on Konoha, the whereabouts of the Sound Genin, and the Genin's true identity of Orochimaru. The Genin went limp, dead. They looked in horror at the scene. Sakura and Ino screamed, not just because they saw her kill someone, but also because they just saw someone's soul get ripped out.
"Don't worry, I won't do that to you. We're allies." She half-lied. She needed to keep the reincarnations of Indra and Ashura close to her. She theorized that staying in close proximity to them would also stunt their growth, because she would end up taking the brunt of the challenges, and therefore causes for growth in strength, away from them. It would be like stealing water from a plant.
The inheritor of the One-Tailed Beast is in this competition. You must reclaim his chakra. Kaguya reminded Naruto. She affirmed her in her head.
"By doing this, I steal all knowledge from my victim." Naruto informed them. She activated her Byakugan, scanning them for their scrolls. The two groups both had Heaven scrolls. "You're also lucky I already stole a Heaven scroll from someone. Now you can either follow me, or stay here, but I have things I need to do."
Naruto simply opened a portal to her requested location, and left it open so that the teams could follow.
Steeling their nerves, the rest of the Genin followed Naruto to Gaara, where he had an unfortunate soul in a sand coffin. "Hello Gaara." Naruto greeted him. As soon as she got close to him, he ended up going wild, his sand forming a shell around him.
"What is he doing?" Ino asked Naruto.
"Get away." Naruto replied, making a wood clone at her side, "This clone will help you throughout this exam. I have something to do with Gaara." Shikamaru, Ino, and Choji left with the clone, but Sasuke and Sakura stayed.
"Fine, meet your own death." Naruto said to them.
"Why don't you want us to help you!?" Sakura yelled at Naruto.
"Because you two are a burden, and you both think I'm a demon." She replied to her. This silenced them.
"We're sorry about what we said. We've decided that we want you as an ally, as a friend." Sasuke entered the conversation. The two looked at him in slight surprise, he would never apologize about anything.
"..." Naruto, despite having a very specific goal of reclaiming all chakra, still wondered what it was like to have friends, to be liked on the basis of her personhood, and not to be hated for Kaguya. She felt a small happiness at hearing Sasuke's words, but she (or perhaps Kaguya) stifled the emotion, and went cold again. "For now." She finished.
The two saw her slight smile, the change in her eyes.
Gaara's shell cracked, and out came a grotesque, sand-colored arm. The trio felt a surge of demonic chakra afflicting them. Naruto's hands of chakra manifested, and they smashed the shell between them. "This is the Ichibi." Naruto told her teammates. They nodded, readying a kunai.
大筒木
Hiruzen suddenly felt a surge of demonic chakra, and not Naruto's kind.
The Ichibi! He realized, as he rushed to mobilize a team of ANBU, taking off his Hokage cloak and armoring himself.
大筒木
The Sound ninja felt this chakra, and were confused as to why the invasion was starting so early.
大筒木
Preparing herself, Naruto sprouted branches from the ground, raising her into the air to meet Ichibi when he eventually forms, taking her teammates with her on a platform. Before the Ichibi's shell shattered, Naruto met a team of ANBU and Hiruzen.
"Retreat! This is an S-level threat!" Hiruzen yelled at the team of Genin.
Our plans may be interrupted by these people. Kaguya said mostly to herself. Naruto felt an epiphany, she felt elated. Use this technique. Kaguya told her. In the blink of an eye, Naruto and the Ichibi were in a different dimension altogether, a frozen wasteland. Because of Naruto's lack of proficiency with it, and the lack of nature chakra in the wasteland, she could barely use her wood release abilities.
When the Ichibi's egg broke, he was at his full size, yelling in insanity.
