Thanks for reading after so long of me being inactive. I'll post regularly from now one, about a chapter a week. Without further ado, the story:
Team 7 stops at the base of a large tree, with a small alcove in the roots that was hard to see. They stepped inside and after a short discussion, Naruto made 3 shadow clones and positioned them looking in an overlapping pattern, taking the last position herself. Sakura and Sasuke went to sleep. After 6 hours, Naruto woke up Sasuke and took a 3-hour nap.
With the first day almost over, Team 7 started toward the north cutting to the side instead of directly to the tower to cut off another team. Sasuke took point, as he had the fastest reaction time. Sakura stayed in the middle as her sensory skills were the best on the team. Naruto took rear, because she was a hard hitter and could better cover the area behind them with shadow clones.
Just before noon, Sakura stopped on tree branch causing Naruto to stop and Sasuke to back track to her. "What is it?" Sasuke asked.
"An immense chakra, smaller than Naruto's but still massive. 40 meters north east."
"Let's go kick some ass!" Naruto said, already moving to that direction.
"Naruto, stop. Think about a strategy, we need a plan of attack," Sakura stated.
"Her plan is the same as mine," Sasuke said, smirking. "Attack, quickly. Element of surprise, quick victory. Be done and at the tower before the second day."
Naruto grinned and nodded at him. Sakura just shook her head and sighed. "I guess I'll run analysis on their abilities as soon as we see them and you guys power them out. Remember what Kakashi said, teamwork on survival missions is critical." Everyone nodded and ran quickly but silently to the location of the chakra.
Before arriving fully at the location, everyone dimmed their chakra to remain hidden and snuck closer to the group. A tall pale genin, with long hair and an abnormally long tongue was staring down a group of three sound nin. Shortly after Team 7 arrived on scene, the sound nin took off. The tall pale genin was alone. He looked up and in the direction of Team 7 after a few moments.
"Kukuku, you saved me the trouble of having to hunt you down… Sasuke-kun, kukuku," he said maliciously.
Sasuke's first reaction was fear, his primal instincts telling him to stay hidden and flee simultaneously. Naruto, however, wasn't swayed. She glanced at Sasuke and saw him shaking in fear. "Keep up, Scaredy-Cat, it's just one genin," she said before launching herself out of hiding and at the man.
"Naruto, no! You don't understand," Naruto was out of earshot at this point, Sasuke cursed. "Sakura, stay hidden, just keep track of what's going on. If we die, you need to get out of here." And he took off after Naruto.
Naruto had seriously underestimated her opponent, she thought this as she was thrown through a few trees. She got up and removed the gravity seals from her clothes. Then vanished as she ran at him again. She was moving so fast as to be invisible, her trail only marked by the gusting of wind and the occasional rushing leaves, but that was behind her. She hit the man with a swift kick to the chin, followed by a series of punches and elbows to kill the man quickly. After a few moments of the barrage, she realized that apart from her first kick, none of her attacks were hitting the intended kill target, but missed by varying degrees.
He was obviously dodging, but her speed had him on the rope. She paused for a second, to do the shadow clone hand sign and spawned four clones, who then assisted her in trying to kill this man. After a moment, her clones started disappearing, seemingly for no reason. Then she saw it, a snake crawling out of his pant leg. As his leg flew close to the last clone, the snake bit the clone in the neck immediately disbanding it.
Sasuke jumped in right as the last clone disappeared with his Sharingan activated. He caught those little movements that Naruto couldn't catch and started to beat down on the man, who started laughing at the fact that Sasuke saw what he was doing. He stopped playing around, pivoted on his hand and chest kicked both Naruto and Sasuke, slamming them into trees. He then stood and raised a kunai, licking it. Naruto glanced at Sasuke, who barely glanced back nodding.
Naruto drew on the evil power in her belly. Her whisker marks became feral looking, her usually ocean blue eyes became a glowing red, her nails became claws and an evil chakra coated her body. She growled and blasted at the man disappearing from her starting point and reappearing with her fist in his gut. He looked down in surprise before the momentum carried him back, splintering the tree behind him.
A stream of blood ran out of his mouth for a second before a follow up hit to the face sent him careening through the next tree behind him, before Sasuke caught up and dropkicked him back at Naruto, who cratered him in the ground and jumped away as Sasuke said "Katon: Goryuka no Jutsu!" and unleashed a fire attack on the man.
The crater was a bowl of fire for a moment before the flames dissipated. The only thing left of the man in the crater was a smoldering cloth at the bottom of the crater. Naruto returned to normal and started walking towards Sasuke, before he shouted at her gesturing behind her. She turned around right as she was knocked unconscious by a blow to the temple. Sasuke readied himself and threw shuriken that were easily blocked.
"Kukuku, you are strong, and surrounded by strong allies. But only with me, Sasuke-kun, can you find the strength you need to kill the man you want dead. Hunt me down when you are ready and I can show you the way, you just need to come to me of your own desire and hatred. Seek the name, Orochimaru, when you are ready. I will give you a taste of what I mean," he said sadistically, stretching his neck and biting Sasuke on the neck, where three tomoe appeared in a circle pattern. "The Heaven Curse Seal will grant you strength beyond your imagination," he said as he disappeared, "if you live through the night, kukuku."
Orochimaru disappeared into a tree, laughing sadistically. Sasuke was screaming in pain, after a few minutes, he passed out. Sakura, just reaching the point where Naruto and Sasuke had ended up, fell to her knees beside Sasuke and stared at the tomoe on his neck. After a few minutes, picked him up and carried him to a safe spot under a tree's roots. She went back and collected Naruto, placing her next to Sasuke.
"One of you needs to wake up," She said, starting to cry. "I can't do this alone. I need your help, Sasuke-kun." She sobbed into his chest. After crying for a little while she started to get hungry. "I'll be right back, guys. I'm going to go get dinner."
She returned to find an unknown person in the clearing close to the tree they were hiding under. Sakura immediately hid her chakra and ducked into a bush to hide. The man appeared not to notice her, so she started making her way around the clearing, slowly and quietly to get to Naruto and Sasuke before he could. When she came up to the tree, still hidden, she could see his headband. He was one of the Sound Nin, the one with the large metal object with holes in it on his right arm.
After a few moments, his teammates arrived. A woman with long black hair and shorts, and another man with holes in his palms. They started towards the tree that Naruto and Sasuke were hidden under. Sakura cursed when she realized that their chakra wasn't hidden. She had no choice.
The Sound Nin Three stopped when a kunai landed between their legs. They looked up and saw Sakura standing there in a ready position, kunai in hand and determined look on her face. They laughed for a moment.
"Who are you to think you can stop us, girlie? You care too much about looks and boys than actual fighting, so you are weak. Move aside, all we want is Sasuke," the woman said.
If they just want Sasuke, "Are you working with Orochimaru?" Sakura asked.
"If she knows that name, he's already been by," the first man said. "What is he playing at? Sending us after Sasuke, but approaching first?"
"We'll figure that out later, but our mission is to kill Sasuke, so we will. Let's just kill all of them, no one will miss them," the second man said. Sakura's eyes widened.
"No, too messy. Her, if she won't step aside, but just Sasuke. Leave the cannon fodder for some else to clean up."
"You really are no fun, you know that?"
"Stop ignoring me!" Sakura yelled. "I am a kunoichi of the Hidden Leaf! I can take you punks on!"
She launched the kunai she was holding and took off after it. The first man blocked it easily with the metal on his right arm. But Sakura was counting on that. She had thrown a second one right behind it, so when he lowered his arm, it impacted his right shoulder. He cursed as Sakura finally got to them, trying to block her punch. Sakura imbued her muscles with chakra to increase their strength output and cracked the metal on his arm, breaking the bone underneath and dropped under the kick the other man let out but got caught by the hair by the woman.
"Your vanity is your undoing. You should've focused more on training and less on your hair. You might have survived," she said.
"Most of my life, I've been picked on, put down. But no more, I am a kunoichi now, and I can handle my own!" She surprised everyone by drawing a kunai and cutting off her hair and turning around and trying to gut the woman with the kunai. The woman jumped away surprised by the murderous intent in the genin in front of her.
After a moment, the Sound Nin started laughing. "I'll take care of her, she's nothing special," the man said.
"Don't underestimate her Zaku," the first man said, healing his broken arm. "She packs a punch, but is slow. Use speed to take her out."
"I'm not an idiot, Dosu," Zaku said, indignant of being treated as stupid. Sakura readied herself as Zaku walked in her direction.
"Konoha Senpu!" a voice yelled, a green blur entering the scene. Zaku dodged by jumping backwards at a high distance avoiding the attack. Sakura recognized the green body suit, bowl cut and massive eyebrows. Rock Lee, graduated the year before them without any Genjutsu and Ninjutsu, specialized in high speed Taijustsu. His appearance here was unexpected but welcome from Sakura, as she was sure she was about to die.
"Sakura-chan, are you okay?" Lee said.
"I'm running out of chakra, and probably wouldn't have lasted much longer. Thank you for helping, Lee," she said wearily, not dropping her ready stance.
"I'll protect you for now, until your team returns," Lee said. Sakura's eyes teared up, Lee glanced at her. "Where is your team?"
"unconscious, they fought a really strong person and used most of their chakra. They probably won't wake for another few hours," Sakura said, sniffling a little.
"Don't you ignore me!" Zaku yelled, charging Lee. He threw a few body blows at Lee, but hit nothing as Lee disappeared and reappeared behind him. Lee grabbed him by the neck, slammed his head on the rocky ground, tossed him into a tree and punched him in a quick succession of heavy blows that splintered the tree as well as three behind it. Zaku hit the next tree, cracking it but stopped, coughing blood.
"I was getting to you," Lee said, "You can wait your turn. Sakura, tell me what is going on."
"A ninja disguised as a genin, named Orochimaru attacked us. Naruto and Sasuke fought him, but couldn't cause any damage to him. When they ran out of chakra, he knocked Naruto unconscious did something to Sasuke who passed out shortly after. I'd hid their bodies, but these guys still found him."
"Hmm, I'll take care of these guys. Then you need to run and hide again," Lee said, turning to the Sound Three. "Who wants it first?"
"I never finished my turn," Zaku said, walking up from the tree he landed at, blood dripping from his mouth and his shirt ripped open from the force of Lee's blows.
"You can barely stand, I don't murder defenseless people," Lee stated blandly, "It goes against my youth."
"Shut your stupid looking face. I'll end this with one move," Zaku said. "Zankuha!" He raised his arms hand open at Lee and a force of air and sound struck Lee with great force, blasting him back against a tree. Lee stood up smiling, then a look of shock crossed his face as he fell on one knee. He was dizzy and disoriented. "This is why I never lose. Losers of your caliber, only using Taijustsu, are severely affected by my technique, Zankuha. With this, I shoot highly pressurized soundwaves at my opponent, as a solid attack, but the after effects are even greater than the blow itself. It destroys the balance and concentration of the receiver. You shouldn't be able to stand for a while after that. You're finished."
"You're the ones, who are finished," a malicious voice that sounded familiar to Sakura said.
"Who are you?" Zaku asked. Before he could react, a kick to the chest sent him flying into Dosu, who caught him and placed him on the ground. Zaku stood and looked at the place he was kicked from. Sasuke was standing where he just was, purple chakra forming a spiral around him, and tribal tattoos stretching across his face and left arm. His eyes were malicious.
"I'm your end," Sasuke said simply, disappearing. A moment later, Dosu and Kin flew through the forest and Zaku was on the ground, Sasuke standing behind him holding both arms by the wrist and pinning him down with his foot. "You take pride in your arms, I'll tear them off first," Sasuke said, starting to pull his arms off. Zaku's bones started to groan and creak, and Sasuke laughed as they snapped but kept pulling.
"Stop it!" Sakura cried, "You proved your point! You don't need to kill them!" Sasuke paused and looked at Sakura. "Please Sasuke, let him go!"
Sasuke kicked him over and released the purple chakra, passing out in the process. Dosu dropped the Earth scroll he had and grabbed the now unconscious Zaku, taking off into the forest. Sakura grabbed the Earth scroll, the counterpart to their Heaven scroll, and carried Sasuke back to their hidden place in the roots of the tree. She went back to Lee, who was just standing up.
"I have to return to my team now, Sakura-chan. Don't mourn my absence, rejoice in knowing we will meet again, for this is our youth!" Lee said, taking off quickly.
"Thank you, Rock Lee," Sakura said after him. He saluted over his shoulder as he disappeared.
Sakura went back to the hiding place and started searching the vicinity of the area for somewhere to move the two-unconscious people.
Well, what do you think? I'll have another chapter for Hero of the Leaf in the next few days. Anyways, stay tuned for the next release!