Previously:

"!!" Yoroi grunted in pain, shocked by the powerful kick Sasuke unleashed, nailing him under his jaw, when he suddenly reappeared right beneath him.

"Yes!!!" April cheered, pumping her fist excitedly as she watched Yoroi Akadō sail high into the air, and Sasuke pushed off from the floor, wasting no time throwing himself up after his opponent.

"!!" Lee gasped, shocked. 'That's my…!!'

'What?!!' Guy thought, furrowing his brows, also startled when he recognized the move.

Kakashi, Ino, Dosu, Shino, and Neji stared at the astonishing scene below, stunned. The corners of Gaara's mouth turned down, while the corners of Orochimaru's turned up into a smirk at the display of raw talent.

"Though, from here I'm going original..." Sasuke said, appearing behind Yoroi with the Leaf Shadow Dance.

"!!!" Yoroi gasped, shocked by how swiftly the tables had been turned on him.

Chapter 63: The Uchiha Blood!!

Everyone watched in amazement while Sasuke shadowed Yoroi in the air.

"It's over," Sasuke told him, placing two fingers against his spine.

"Ugh… Leaf Shadow Dance…!" Yoroi exclaimed.

"Take this!" Sasuke said, preparing to transition into his next move.

"!" Naruto and Sakura gasped, recognizing the technique as the one Lee used to defeat him.

Hayate watched from the ground, observing them carefully.

"!!" Sasuke gasped when the effects of the burning cursed mark intensified, and he coughed up blood. 'Damn it…!!' he thought, cringing at the way his veins throbbed and his muscles screamed at him. "Arg..." he groaned from the pain as the black marks began to spread. 'It's reacting again…!' He didn't think using that small amount chakra would take such a huge toll!

"..." Orochimaru studied him eagerly, waiting to witness its full effects for himself.

'Ugh...' Sasuke's eyes widened as the black marks traveled across his face to cover his left one.

"!!" Anko gasped in alarm, while the Hokage instantly went on the alert when they saw them.

'This is bad…!! He's about to lose it again!!!' April thought, disturbed when she saw the state he was in. "Get it together, Sasuke!!!!" She yelled anxiously.

Sasuke gritted his teeth, squeezing his eyes shut as her words reverberated in his brain.

"Please… Please, stop..." He heard Sakura begging him to quit and saw her crying face again.

"You Bastard! Stop acting all cool, idiot!" Naruto scolded him.

"Get it together!!!" April's voice echoed again.

'Heh… Having them worry about me...' Sasuke thought, gritting his teeth harder. '… I can't… I can't let this thing...'

'Is this the end…?' Kakashi thought, furrowing his brow, preparing to intervene.

'Control me!' Sasuke decided with determination, opening his eyes wide as he willed the painful marks to recede.

"!!" Orochimaru said, scowling while he watched the cursed seal retreat back into itself.

"!" Kakashi gasped, astonished.

'….!!' Anko's eyes widened as she furrowed her brow, bewildered by the unexpected turn of events. 'The curse is returning!?'

Sasuke smirked. "Here it comes," he told his opponent.

"!!" Yoroi said when he felt Sasuke flatten his hand against his back, wincing at the pressure exerted on his spine as he pushed off. "Gu…!!" he gasped in alarm when Sasuke used the motion to spin himself around to deliver a swift kick. He quickly moved his closest arm to block the attack. "Heh… Not enough!!" he told the Uchiha with a smirk.

Sasuke gritted his teeth again and retracted his leg, spinning around in the opposite direction.

"!" Yoroi gasped.

"… Not enough," Kakashi remarked. That weak defense was nowhere near enough to stop Sasuke now.

Sasuke finished spinning, landing a hard blow to Yoroi's face.

"Guaa!!" Yoroi groaned in pain, his body falling headfirst toward the ground.

But Sasuke wasn't done. He delivered another attack to Yoroi's abdomen to increase his speed.

"Guu!!" Yoroi grunted, only a couple of feet from the floor.

"There's more!!" Sasuke yelled, spinning back around to deliver another kick, slamming his opponent's body into the ground.

Orochimaru glared with disappointment while everyone else looked on in astonishment, angry with Yoroi for failing to provoke Sasuke enough to rely on the cursed seal.

"Lions Barrage!!" Sasuke roared fiercely as Yoroi coughed up blood from the overwhelming force bombarding his body between Sasuke's final blow and crashing into the floor hard enough to crack it.

"!" Hayate said when Sasuke was sent rolling across the floor after his opponent's body bounced from the impact, watching him slide to halt several feet away. "..." Hayate stared down at them. It was clear the match really was over. Now it was time to pass a verdict. 'Like I have to check,' he thought, kneeling down to verify that Yoroi was unconscious. Now to check on Sasuke… He turned to look at the Uchiha. "!" he said, smiling slightly when he saw that the boy was already picking himself up.

"!" Naruto, Sakura, and April watched Sasuke force himself into a kneeling position, panting while he wiped the blood and sweat from his face.

Orochimaru smirked again. He may not have been able to see him use the power of the cursed seal today, but he was as certain as ever that Sasuke Uchiha was exactly what he had hoped he would be.

"I'm stopping the fight here… and thus…" Hayate announced. "The winner of the first match, Sasuke Uchiha… has passed the preliminaries!"

"YES!!" Naruto and April cheered.

'Thank goodness he was able to get those marks under control…!!' April thought, relieved. Now they could tell Sensei and get him some help!

"!" Sakura gasped when Sasuke plopped into a siting position and started to fall backwards.

"Well, good job," Kakashi congratulated him, appearing behind his exhausted student just in time to stop his fall with his knee, already reading his book again.

"!" Sasuke said, surprised. He turned to look at him and smirked. "… Hmph."

'The movement before the Lions Barrage was Guy's taijutsu,' Kakashi thought. 'He must have recorded it when he and Lee tangled earlier.'

"Sasuke! Heh heh..." Naruto called out to him, laughing. "You, you.. what a lame way to win! You're all beat up, idiot!!"

"!" Sasuke said, furrowing his brow at the stupid comment.

"Naruto..." April said wryly, sweat-dropping. He just couldn't resist taunting him. She thought Sasuke did pretty well under the circumstances. "Great job, Sasuke!" she called down to him.

'Sasuke-kun… thank goodness,' Sakura thought, relieved.

"That damn total moron..." Sasuke huffed, smirking. 'How was that… April? You're not the only one on our team who can can copy that level of taijutsu.' he thought, staring up at her. He wanted to see her squirm after the way she tried to threaten him, but even after all of that, she seemed annoyingly unperturbed. If anything, she actually looked happy.

'That last combo was awesome… I totally want to try it!!' April thought with an eager grin and an excited gleam in her eye; her brain already working it out, calculating different methods she could use to copy or even improve it.

'Alright… Me, too!' Naruto thought, clenching his fist and trembling with excitement.

"..." Lee stared down at Sasuke with a serious expression and mixed feelings.

'Lee…' Sasuke thought, looking at him next. "Thanks to you, I was able to survive. If I hadn't seen your technique earlier, I would have been trouble.' He was glad they had fought now, and that he had activated his Sharingan in time to read it. "Oww..." He winced at the pain of his muscles cramping, protesting against the way he had forced them to move while reproducing Lee's technique. '… But it's not a move I can count on very much,' he thought. 'No wonder April had to take a break after she used it...' At the time he had assumed it was the exam seal's fault, but maybe it was because of this.

"..." Lee continued to stare down at Sasuke, a bead of sweat sliding down the side of his face. 'I see,' he thought, understanding what must have happened when he recalled their encounter before the exam began. 'That time… you were able to copy part of my technique from just seeing it once… That is your ability… Sharingan!!' No normal person could have accomplished such a feat. 'Sasuke-kun… What an impressive person you are… You will get stronger and stronger… I even… feel fear...'

"..." Guy watched Lee's reaction carefully out the corners of his eyes. Having a technique you worked so hard to master stolen so easily was never an easy feeling to experience. He looked back at Sasuke. 'Mastering even part of the high-speed taijutsu Lotus techniques is impossible without grueling training… Even with the Sharingan, it's not something that can be perfected that quickly… and the creativity of that finishing move…' he thought, deeply impressed. 'Kakashi… this boy reminds me of you when you were young...'

"..." Neji furrowed his brow while he stared down at Sasuke, understanding very well how astounding it was for him to have pulled those moves off.

'Last year's number one rookie was Neji Hyūga… This year's number one rookie is Sasuke Uchiha...' Tenten thought, glancing between them. 'I wonder which is stronger...'

'But, what a guy… To release the true power of the Sharingan here… The terrifying… Uchiha blood...' Kakashi thought, watching Sasuke while he caught his breath. He followed the boy's gaze to the upper level and spotted another terrifying kid. 'She's glowing...' Kakashi thought when he saw the bright expression on April's face. There were practically sparkles. He smiled a little wryly behind his book. 'She always gets so excited when she sees a new taijutsu move she's interested in… She'll have it figured out and be ready to put her theory into practice before the end of the next match, if she hasn't already.' April might have shortcomings in other areas, but she was a genius when it came to taijutsu. Even if her eyes couldn't keep up with the whole technique, her brain would use her keen instincts, sharp intuition, and thorough knowledge of the human anatomy, physics, and martial arts to fill in the gaps. And once she knew how something was done, the years she spent training her body in a style where the main principle was to absorb and adapt a wide range of techniques from other sources gave her the uncanny ability to enact it almost immediately.

'That's surprising…' Anko thought, furrowing her brow with a bead of sweat sliding down the side of her face, her attention still on Sasuke. 'To be able to stop the reaction of the curse with his own will...'

"..." The Third observed the whole scene with a grim expression on his face. That had been too close for comfort.

Gaara, still standing with his arms crossed, tightened his grip on his arm.

'Damn. Not again...' Kankurō thought, a bead of nervous sweat sliding down his face.

"!" April glanced in their direction when she sensed a spike in bloodlust, but it was hard to pinpoint who it belonged to with so many likely candidates over there, and she quickly looked away again when Biki tried to make eye contact with her. She didn't want to encourage him. Just thinking about him made her skin crawl.

"Now, this is fun," Zaku remarked with a smirk, his eyes still on Sasuke.

"Speak for yourself," Biki grumbled sourly, irritated that he couldn't get April's attention to stay on him.

"..." Dosu glanced from Sasuke to his moody teammate. He really hoped Biki wouldn't try to do anything stupid.

"Kyaaa! Sasuke-kun!" Ino cheered, falling in love all over again.

'… Looks like this is it for us,' Shikamaru thought.

"Man, I'm hungry!" Chōji said, wishing they had something to eat while they waited.

"W… Wow..." Hinata said nervously, amazed.

"Hmph. That was nothing," Kiba scoffed dismissively.

Orochimaru trembled with barely contained excitement. 'Wonderful...' he thought, licking his lips.

"Sasuke Uchiha," one of the medical ninjas addressed him, while his teammates carried Yoroi away on a stretcher. "Let the Medical Team treat your injuries now."

"You guys aren't needed," Kakashi told him. "I'll take care of him."

"!" Sasuke said, surprised. What could he do that the medical team couldn't?

"I'm going to take you to the back and..." Kakashi said, squatting down to talk to him on his level so the others wouldn't overhear. "Seal up that curse." he finished, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"..." Sasuke's eyes widened slightly. He could do that?

"Umm… We will now move on to the next match!" Hayate announced.

"Wait until after the prelims…" Sasuke told Kakashi. "I want to watch the other matches."

"No!" Kakashi said firmly, earning himself a glare. "Don't get so mad. If we don't take care of it now, it will be too late. I won't listen to your selfishness anymore."

While they were talking, everyone else's eyes were fixed on the signboard as the names for the next match were revealed.

ZAKU ABUMI
VS
SHINO ABURAME

"Heh, who's this loser?" Zaku sneered cockily.

"..." Shino furrowed his brow slightly.

'Where are they going…?' April wondered while she watched Kakashi guide Sasuke away. 'Is Sensei going to do something about that thing on his neck?' She was sure he had seen it during the fight when it started to spread. She hoped Sasuke would fill him in on everything that happened with Orochimaru and the sound ninjas while he was at it.

'Sasuke-kun...' Sakura thought, concerned.

"!" Naruto said when he saw the way Sasuke was holding his neck, remembering the glimpse he got of those strange marks there. "Oh yeah, Sakura-chan, April… Did either of you see a weird thing on Sasuke's neck during the fight?"

"!" Sakura tensed. She wanted to say something, but then she remembered how Sasuke had made her swear not to tell him or April about it, and how earnest he had been at the time. She furrowed her brow and frowned. "I… also don't know," she lied reluctantly.

"..." April glanced sideways at her, knowing that was far from the truth. Sasuke had probably forced her to make some stupid promise to keep it a secret, even though that was obviously a bad idea, not to mention impossible.

"Oh..." Naruto said, frowning and furrowing his brow with confusion and disappointment.

"I saw it," April told him, making Sakura flinch. "I don't know what it is… but it looks like Kakashi-sensei is taking care of it. So, don't let it worry you." She was still concerned, but it would be better not to let Naruto get too distracted before he had a chance to finish his own match. They could get more answers later.

"Oh..." Naruto said again, his expression relaxing a little. If April said so, he had no reason to doubt it. "Okay!"

"..." Sakura glanced at her purple-haired teammate, wondering if she was angry that she had lied. It was obvious that April knew more than she was letting on.

"Umm… Now, we will… begin the second match," Hayate announced. While they were talking, Zaku and Shino had moved down to take their places.

"..." Naruto squinted at the sound ninja's subpar condition. This didn't look like it would be much of a fight.

'That's the sound...' Sakura thought, furrowing her brow when she saw him. 'The guy whose arms were injured by Sasuke-kun… He's going to fight like that…?'

'He's the one who attacks by blasting air from holes in his hands, but... his arms are bandaged so thoroughly… They're even in slings...' April thought, frowning slightly in confusion. 'I thought Sasuke only dislocated them…?' They should have been able to fix him up by popping them back into place. Didn't anyone on his team know how to fix that?

"… Will Shino-kun be alright…?" Hinata asked Kiba, worried about their teammate.

"He's strong!" Kiba replied. "He's one guy even I don't want to fight..."

"… Please begin," Hayate said, signaling for the two genins to start.

'Now… Zaku… It will be interesting to see how you fight...' Dosu thought.

'I don't care what you do… Just do it fast, so I can fight that purple-haired girl!' Biki thought with a frown, getting impatient. And it had better be her he fought, or everyone present would suffer the consequences! Well, they would probably suffer anyway, but he would be sure to make it extra painful if he didn't get what he wanted.

"..." the two sound ninjas turned their heads when they caught movement out the corners of their eyes and saw that Orochimaru had already disappeared to go after his own prey.

On the level below, Zaku and Shino stared each other down.

"If you fight here, you will be finished," Shino told him. "Forfeit..."

"Heh… this one moves a little bit," Zaku said, slowly removing his trembling left arm from the sling, holding it out in front of him. "And one arm… is enough against you!!" he declared, launching himself at Shino.

Shino quickly responded by blocking Zaku's arm with one of his own.

"Damn," Zaku cursed.

"You can't beat me me up with just one arm," Shino said coolly.

"Shut the hell up!!" Zaku sneered. 'Take this!!!' he thought, getting ready to blast him.

"!!" Shino gasped when he became aware of what was about to happen.

'Slicing Air!!' Zaku thought, unleashing an explosive air attack at point blank range. He smirked at the way it sent his opponent's body rolling roughly across the floor. "Heh."

"!!" Hinata and Kiba gasped in alarm.

"All right!" Kakashi said when he finished writing the last character of the incantation for the fūinjutsu he was about to perform, in his own blood, on Sasuke's back. "Hang in there just a little longer." Kakashi put his hands together and carefully formed the necessary hand seals with perfect speed and accuracy. 'Evil sealing method!!' he thought, slapping his palm over Orochimaru's cursed seal.

Sasuke flinched at the sensation, furrowing his brow and gritting his teeth when he felt the sensation of something crawling across his skin and burrowing into his neck. "GWAAAA… GU!" Sasuke screamed as the lines of bloody kanji wound themselves up around his arms and back to gather around his neck. "Kuh!" he grimaced. "Guu..."

Kakashi finished compressing the spell into the new containment seal and removed his hand from Sasuke's neck, watching as he fell forward while panting to catch his breath. Frankly, he was impressed that he was still awake after all of that. This type of fūinjutsu took a lot out of both the caster and the one it was being performed on. "The next time that curse tries to become active… this new seal should contain the power," Kakashi explained to him. "But… Sasuke, this new seal… relies on the strength of your will. If you lose faith in yourself, and your will weakens… the curse will become wild again."

Sasuke's eyes drifted away from his teacher as they began to close, and he collapsed forward onto the ground, unconscious.

"He's totally drained." Kakashi observed. "Time to rest." He could turn Sasuke over to the care of the Medical Team now.

"So you can even use sealing jutsu now..." a familiar voice said from the shadows behind the leaf jōnin, making him flinch. "You've grown... Kakashi."

"… You are..." Kakashi said warily, furrowing his brow as he turned to face him. There were very few people who could sneak up on him like that, and he would know that voice anywhere.

"Long time no see… Kakashi-kun," Orochimaru greeted him with his true appearance, still wearing the sound jōnin uniform.

"… Orochimaru..." Kakashi said, a bead of sweat sliding down the side of his face. He looked just how he remembered him.

"I'm sorry. I'm not here to see you, Kakashi-kun," Orochimaru told him, stalking closer. "I'm here for the boy behind you."

"… Why are you after Sasuke…!?" Kakashi asked sternly, glaring at him while he remained standing protectively between his student and the treacherous snake before him.

"Heh… You're lucky," Orochimaru told him. "You've already gotten your hands on it..."

"!?" Kakashi said.

"You didn't used to have it… did you?"

"!" The crease in Kakashi's brow deepened and his glare grew harsher when he realized what he was talking about.

"That… Sharingan in your left eye!" Orochimaru finished, shooting him a jealous glare.

"…!!" Kakashi frowned. So, he was after Sasuke's Sharingan.

"I also want it… the Uchiha blood," Orochimaru stated wickedly.

"What are your goals…!?" Kakashi demanded. He knew there had to be more to it with him involved.

"… The newly created Hidden Sound Village… That's my village..." Orochimaru replied.

"..." The crease in Kakashi's brow deepened again and a bead of sweat slid down the side of his face. He wouldn't dare…

"You should understand from just that..." Orochimaru said, seeing the look in his eye.

"Foolish ambition..." Kakashi said sternly.

"Well, yeah, something like that..." Orochimaru agreed. "And for that purpose… I need a lot of pieces."

"Hey… Get up!" Zaku taunted Shino. He wasn't finished beating on him yet.

"…!!" April furrowed her brow while she watched Shino pick himself up as the dust cleared, noticing something strange. 'No way… are those…!?'

"!" Zaku furrowed his brow, too when he noticed something was strange about the blood on Shino's face. It was dark, and it was moving. '… Wha… What!?' he thought, startled. Looking closer, he realized it wasn't blood at all! 'B… Bugs…!? From inside his body… coming from below the skin…!?' He tensed when he realized he could hear small skittering sounds behind him. "!!" he exclaimed when he turned to look and saw the army of insects that had surrounded him.

'Ugh… so gross...' April thought, grimacing, while she instinctively pulled her legs back up over the ledge, pressing her knees against her chest.

"These are called Destruction Bugs, they attack their prey in numbers and eat chakra," Shino explained, holding one up on the tip of his finger. "If this many attack you, as I said before… you will be finished."

'That's just plain scary…!!' April thought, shuddering at the thought of having all of those tiny little legs crawling all over her while they drained her chakra. She never realized Shino was hiding such a terrifying ability. She was really glad she didn't have to fight him!

"Gu..." Zaku gritted his teeth as he turned back to face him.

"If you don't want that, then give up… That's your best option," Shino told him. "If you use that technique with your left arm on me again… then the bugs will instantly attack you from behind."

"Damn..." Zaku cursed, glaring at the bugs.

"If you use it on the bugs… Then there will be an opening for me to attack… Either way, you can't pass here," Shino continued, forming a hand seal. "You should always have a trump card!"

"Ugh..." Zaku groaned, scowling at him.

From the way he was trembling with frustration and had begun to lower his head, for a moment, April thought he might actually be thinking of giving up, but she was quickly proved wrong.

"Don't mess with me!!" Zaku roared, raising his head again as he pulled his other arm from the sling, thrusting both of them out to the side, with one aimed at Shino and the other aimed at his bugs. "Heh… You should always have a trump card, right!!? Here!!"

"…!!" Shino furrowed his brow.

"What!? He can use his right arm, too!!?" Kiba shouted incredulously.

'I see… From the beginning… The whole premise of his arms being that injured was just an act!' April thought, frowning slightly with concern when she remembered the terrible damage he was capable of inflicting when he used both arms together.

'Good one… Zaku,' Dosu thought, smirking while he watched his teammate, coming to the same conclusion.

"So, Sasuke is also… just one of those pieces..." Kakashi asked Orochimaru, narrowing his eyes dangerously at the older ninja.

'Take this!!' Zaku thought, activating his jutsu to blast away Shino and his bugs at the same time.

"No, Sasuke-kun is… a very important piece..." Orochimaru said, smirking.

BOOOM!!!

"!!" Zaku gasped when his arms exploded. "Eh?" he said as his severed right forearm hit the ground, numb with shock.

"!!" Kin and Dosu gasped, while Biki watched with a bored expression on his face.

"!!?" Kiba exclaimed.

"!" Kurenai said.

"Wha!!? What!!?"

"??" April said, gaping at the horrible scene with wide eyes. 'No way… That was the kind of explosion you get from too much pressure building up… The only way that could have happened…' Something must have been blocking the holes in his hands. Her eyes landed on the bugs on the floor, and she remembered how they had also been on Shino's body. And there was a moment where he was in direct contact with Zaku. 'Did he somehow have those things stop them up!?'

"And the guys taking the test right now..." Orochimaru continued to explain to Kakashi.

"When I told you to give up earlier, I ordered them like this: 'Close up those dangerous wind holed with your bodies...'" Shino revealed to Zaku, closing in on him. "This is a true trump card..."

"… Y! You…!" Zaku exclaimed, turning to face him, but he was too late. Shino hit him with a harsh blow that sent him flying.

"Are just… my pawns," Orochimaru concluded with a wicked smirk.