This chapter was a bit rushed, but I was trying to get it out here for all you peeps before midnight for a very special reason.
ONE YEAR ANIVERSARY BABY!
Also this thing broke 300 reviews last chapter, which is ASTOUNDING for me. I want to thank each of my reviewers for this because you guys are the boss sauce! Thank you all for reading up until now and I hope you enjoy the chapters to come.
I've been on a stint of Fate and Overlord fics lately, and I'm going to be posting the first chapter of a Fate/stay night fic idea that I've been toying with for awhile now here pretty soon to see if it gets any interest. So yeah, a new story idea is getting posted here in the next day or two and now go check out some Fate and Overlord fics, cuz they be bangin.
To continue this theme
Fic o tha day: Nerve Damage by CrossyCross All you need to do is read the summary honestly.
"Shirou converts his nerves into makeshift magic circuits every time he needs to use magic. A human body has millions of nerves. A magus has on average twenty circuits...maybe he's on to something there..."
The story just get's more insane from there, OP god mode Shirou with 2628 magic circuits and a story where multiple servants get summoned during the 5th grail war. I think, last I checked, there was like 27 Servants. Shirou has four Sabers, FOUR. All of them them Identical. Saber, Saber Alter, Saber Lily and Saber Nero from Fate/Extra.
All of whom are Identical except for Nero who has larger... make that much larger tits. Where the normal sabers are an A bordering a B cub Nero tops off the scale at around D to DD... yeah... And the story parodies the hell out of that fact.
Hilarity ensues, it ensues greatly.
Song/s of the day: I'll Face my Dread to Reach the Mass Wiping Out A bunch of mash up's and dual mixes of Persona 3 songs, it's kind of badass so check it out.
Word/s of the day: Bustier Because I like boobs, that is all.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, I actually don't want to own Naruto right now Because Kishimoto is actually doing a good job with Sasuke right now. The story is so much better now that he doesn't have that size 12 emo dildo rammed up his ass.
-ooo-
"speech"
'Thoughts'
"Kyubi speech"
'Kyubi thoughts'
-ooo-
Chapter 18: Getting Real Sick of This Forest
Darkness. Darkness and moisture
Sasuke's eye's snapped open to that gloom only to quickly gag as a deep copper scent hanging in the air entered his nose.
Placing his hand down on the floor beneath him produced a wet sloshing noise, Ignoring the possibility that he was in some cave of some sort for the immediate need to find the source of that rancid smell. Holding a hand to his face the boy looked around for the source.
Sasuke's next breath caught in his throat as the bodies of his mother and father entered his vision. The coppery smell he had breathed in earlier was the odor of the pool of blood he was laying in. Gulping he Lifted his hand from the wet floor and brought it closer to his face. Deep crimson stuck to the hand, dripping down his wrist to stain his shirt sleeve. With a strangled gag the boy got to his feet, a bit of the red liquid seeping deeper into his clothing, forcing the smell to cling to him.
That smell, the noxious fumes that clung to his body the night of the massacre, the stench that had taken days to wash from his skin, the nightmares however... they'd taken much longer to get over, and now they were coming back full force, bursting in on the edge of his psyche, what he'd tried to suppress over the years with his own progress and the helpful social interactions with the few friends he'd made in the academy.
Naruto being at the top of the list, if it hadn't been for Naruto, Sasuke would have probably continued to brood in a self serving spiral of hatred until either his mind or his resolve broke, and neither boded well for him. The annoying blonde had put him on his ass constantly, that in turn set his Uchiha pride to boiling, which pushed him even harder the next time, until finally he'd had to admit to himself that Naruto actually was stronger than him. His pride had taken a hit that day, sure. But he soon realized that he hadn't felt that burning jealousy he'd usually attributed to his normal fights with the blonde
It was strangely soothing to have his ass handed to him by someone stronger him but not hold that win above his head.
"So sad, so tragic." A purr of a voice echoed out from the darkness. Sasuke's eyes snapped to the noise to find a younger version of himself standing in his old school clothing, casually watching him from behind a clear glass wall, the only thing allowing him to talk to Sasuke were several small holes in the pane of clear material.
But that wasn't what was strange to him, what was truly strange were the purple markings around his younger self's eye's. Sasuke's back went rigid as his younger self glared at him.
"Mother, and father... they didn't have to die, if only you were stronger." Mini Sasuke fixed his elder self with a glare, the tears in his eyes slowly turning red with blood. "If only you weren't so WEAK!" splashes of blood flew up as he watched his parents die in front of him.
"Stop it!" Sasuke yelled, crouching low to avert his eyes from the thing in front of him.
"Oh, but why would you hide your eyes from me?" The thing hissed, unable to move in for the kill because of the barrier but more than happy with his verbal assault. "We both know if you had been strong enough you could have stopped Itachi, weakling."
"STOP IT!" Sasuke grit his teeth as he curled into a ball on the ground. His hands were plastered over his ears so he couldn't hear the ghostly wail of his clan as the visions of the massacre played behind his eyelids, the memories burnt into his brain by his brothers' Tsukiyomi.
"You just stood there and watched them die, COWARD! WEAKLING! You'll never kill Itachi pretending to be a ninja! You don't have enough hate!"
The last Uchiha's breathing caught in his throat as his mind hyper focused on his younger double, the haunting words of his brother echoing through his mind.
'There is no value in killing the likes of you… My foolish brother… If you want to kill me… curse me! Hate me! And live a long and unsightly life… Run away… run away… and cling to your pitiful life.'
A hoarse scream escaped Sasuke's lips-
Only to get cut short by a blow to his head, silencing his hysterical cries.
"That's enough of that." A rather familiar voice echoed in the dark.
Sasuke's black eyes rose groggily, the twin black orbs catching a pair of black shinobi sandals near the glass partition where his younger self seemed to be shouting at him. Only he couldn't hear the curses as whoever had kicked him was leaning against the glass, covering the small holes that allowed his younger self to talk to him. Slowly his eyes rose again to meet a pair of slitted blue ones, set above a frowning face crossed with three lines on each side of his cheeks.
The Uchiha's eyes widened. "N-Naruto?"
"The one and only." He replied cheekily.
This was so surreal. That was the first thought in the Uchiha's mind, the next was how the hell Naruto was...well... wherever the hell 'here' was.
"Cozy little mindscape you have here Sasuke." Naruto quipped, glancing around the dark and dank nothingness around the single area of light in Sasuke's mind, an area that housed the bodies of Sasuke's dead parents. "Can't say much about the decor though."
Sasuke grit his teeth, it was Naruto alright. No one he knew of could annoy him and at the same time relieve him. Thanks to the blonds words he knew where he was, in his mind. "If this is my mind, what are you doing here?" Naruto wasn't a Yamanaka, he couldn't walk minds like Ino and her family... A fact that Sasuke praised Kami every morning for... So that begged the question why... or better yet HOW was he here?
Naruto snorted in amusement. "Well, for starters I used some of Kyu's chakra to seal off that hickey on your neck where Pedomaru bit you. That chakra linked us, it'll give me about five minutes to talk to you and to warn you about chuckles here." Naruto tossed a thumb over his shoulder at the Orochimaru-fied Sasuke, who was cussing at Naruto through the glass, though with Naruto's back to the wall you couldn't hear anything he said.
The Uchiha frowned as he watched his younger self make several rude gestures at Naruto's back. "And just what IS that exactly?"
Naruto looked over his shoulder at the fragment of Orochimaru's soul, finally seeing the gestures being flashed at him. "Heh, From what I can gather that right there is a piece of Orochimaru's soul, he injected it along with a very advanced sealing formula into your neck."
Sasuke turned green, that THING was a piece of someone else's soul? And it knew enough of his darkest thoughts and secrets to torment him like it had been moment's before? The boy felt sickened by that fact. "So. What exactly do I do about that?"
Naruto's annoyingly cheerful attitude fell. "That's all up to you actually." At the questioning look, he pointed at the mini Sasuke who had stopped it's muted ranting and now sat on the floor glaring a hole into Naruto's back. "This is your mindscape, right now I'm not able to do anything but talk to you. That thing however is directly connected to your body and can influence you, this wall I'm leaning against is a seal I set up around it to keep it from messing with your mind, looks like it wasn't strong enough and Pedomaru poked a few holes in it so it could talk with you." He moved away from the wall and walked closer to Sasuke, Orochimaru's soul piece jumped up from where it was sitting and started yelling out curses and using what it had dug from Sasuke memories to corrupt the boy but Naruto moved Sasuke away from the wall until it was only mildly annoying. "I can't do anything to keep that hole closed, all seals of this nature require the user's will to keep it in check."
"So if I want him to shut up...?" he left his question open to get a definitive answer from the blonde.
"You shut him up." Naruto agreed.
"Right." Sasuke glared at the snake who had dared infiltrate his memories, focusing all his mental will on closing the few holes it had made in the wall. At first nothing happened, then the glass like wall seemed to ripple a few times, the ripples passing over the holes causing them to shrink until nothing was left but smooth and clear glass.
"Now." Naruto sighed. "What do we do with you?"
Sasuke blinked, turning to his... friend? Yes, friend. "What do you mean by that?"
"Itachi." Naruto spoke simply. He only had to say that one word and several things happened in quick succession. Sasuke tensed up at the name, his face scrunched in mild anger and the lights of the room in his mind flickered a bit. "And that's exactly why." Naruto pointed out the obvious reaction to a simple name. With great effort Sasuke schooled his features and waited for Naruto to explain, a few tense muscles still visible on his neck.
"Sasuke." Naruto sighed. "Stop chasing Itachi."
The reaction was immediate. Sasuke's eyes widened, pupils dilating and an angry snarl forced its way past his lips. "How DARE you! Do you know what he's done? Do you know-"
Naruto's face was no less angry as he snapped at the livid Uchiha. "Of course I know!" He growled. "An-chan is a member of T&I and a former ANBU, she knows alot more than either of us do." The blonde boy sighed, releasing the built up tension in his body. "Something is really weird about that day Sasuke, something I haven't quite placed yet." He looked the Uchiha dead in the eyes. "But I don't think Itachi was working alone or killed them simply on a whim like the reports say."
That had Sasuke's retort caught firmly in his throat. "W-what?"
A single eyebrow rose. "Do you honestly think that one man could take down an ENTIRE clan of Sharingan users, in one night, without anyone realizing it before the job was done? Really?"
Sasuke was about to say that his brother was just that good when something stopped him, he really thought about that question for a moment. His clan was situated in over twenty acres of land, enough for the one hundred or so members of the clan to live with a spacious bit of land between each other, but that wouldn't stop the sound of death being heard by at least someone. It was a strange, there were always guards set around the entirety of the district, so someone would have seen or at least heard something unless Itachi had taken down the entire guard for that evening. So either he spent the time to take down each guard (Which would take far more time than necessary) or he had help to take them down.
The last loyal Uchiha blinked several times before his eyes widened. If Itachi had help then...
"I see you're getting it now." Naruto smirked, nodding to himself. "If Itachi had help then it wasn't just him going psycho on his clan. This was planned, for a purpose."
A scowl formed on Sasuke's face. "And just what purpose could that be for?"
Naruto shook his head "You're not gonna like this."
The scowl grew deeper. "I could care less about what I like, the only thing that matters right now is finding out who else helped murder my family."
A deep sigh escaped the blonde. "I've always thought that the Uchiha massacre was a bit fishy, so I kept tabs on the more blatant rumors I could remember. The most damning one at the moment was that the Uchiha were possibly planning a coup."
A breath caught in Sasuke's throat. "W-wha?"
"I'm telling you this now Sasuke because it's highly likely that this was the case and the Hokage or someone high up in the village ordered Itachi to kill your family after countless negotiations failed. It's actually kind of obvious if you look at it from an ANBU's standpoint, something that An-chan beat into me from day one, to look underneath the underneath." Naruto grew quiet a moment, a thoughtful look on his face. "From what I could find out, the Uchiha hated most of Konoha because the people thought the Uchiha were the cause of the Kyuubi attack." Naruto pointed a finger at Sasuke. "A fact that is attributed to one of your patrons, Uchiha Madara. He who was able to control the Kyubi with the power of his Sharingan. That single bit of bad history ostracized the Uchiha and the Uchiha, after some time of course, reciprocated. It's actually quite funny really." He chuckled here, a small depressing laugh.
"Why the hell would that be funny?" Sasuke growled. "The way you say that, the People of Konoha are at fault."
Naruto nodded. "That would normally be the case...if they were wrong."
Sasuke eye's widened for the second time that conversation. "Y-you mean they...
"I've had a lengthy talk with Kyu-chan about that night." Naruto looked away, a pained look on his face. "A man with an orange spiraled mask that only revealed the man's right eye. My mother, the previous Jinchuriki of Kyubi was killed by the man when he extracted the Biju from her stomach. Sure, she lived for a short while after that but died protecting me from Kyu-chan while the fourth sealed her. My father died sealing her within me." He rubbed his hand on the seal on his stomach, a fact that wasn't lost on the Uchiha.
"Your dad was..."
"The man who essentially killed my mother and father, the man who destroyed half of Konoha and killed hundreds, the man who brought the fear of the villagers upon your clan, igniting the flames of rebellion within the clan and the man who wore an orange swirl mask to hide all of his face, all except his right eye." Naruto stared Sasuke down. "A Sharingan eye."
Sasuke fell to his knees at that revelation. Indirectly or not, the evidence was just too possible, to hard to ignore. He'd heard a few rumors now and again about his clan, he usually never gave them much thought but a few fit too close to Naruto's scenario for comfort. Many considered the Uchiha to be a treacherous clan (the ability to steal things as a bloodline will do that for you) and it wouldn't take much to fan the flames of doubt after that. If his clan were attempting to overthrow the village... killing hundreds... most likely weakening the village enough for other villages to attack. It would have at the very least sparked a civil war, if not a full on Shinobi World War.
Suddenly the odd behavior of his brother around the rest of the clan made a sick kind of sense. Itachi probably knew that he'd have to do something like that eventually, he had always been more loyal to the village rather than the clan, he had seen the pride the man had in just doing his best for his village, which made this all the harder for him.
Harder because Sasuke prided himself on his reasonable hatred despite his unreasonably large hatred for Itachi. No, that hatred may have been unreasonably large but he hated Itachi for a reasonable reason. He couldn't rationalize hating the village for ostracizing his clan when it was an Uchiha that was the cause of that hatred in the first place. Even if he could muster up some form of anger at them, it was quickly doused when he realized that the village was as much the stooge of the Masked Uchiha as his clan had been. The man hadn't destroyed Konoha with the Kyubi like he had most likely wanted (Because really, why else would you unseal a Biju on the outskirts of a village?) but the masked Uchiha had sown the seeds of doubt that had destroyed his family and weakened the village from within.
And Sasuke felt anger, a rich, vibrant and all consuming hatred. Not for his brother. No, he could wait for that now that he had some information on the 'why' of that night so many years ago. Right now he was feeling a burning anger at the masked man who had started this entire debacle in the first place. If he hadn't unsealed the Kyubi... his family and Naruto's family...
That doused the flames of his rage as he turned an unwavering eye on the blonde in question.
"This is why I said to stop chasing Itachi Sasuke." A hand snaked it's way up to the blonde's brow to rub a sore spot there. "It's highly possible that Itachi was just as much a victim as you, not only that... Do you really think that you're the only person who could kill Itachi?" That question caught the young Uchiha off guard for a moment. "Itachi is an S-Rank Criminal, it's highly possible that someone could collect his bounty or he could even succumb to some illness at some point, living, then dying an incredibly short life." Naruto rolled his eyes at the obviousness of his next statement. "Hell, you have a solid 6 years on the man, you could just wait patiently for him to age to a point where he's weaker than you then kill him when he you have a significant advantage or find him and poison his drink with a blinding poison to weaken him."
A hand shot up to forestall the coming tirade. "We're ninja Sasuke, before you go off on things like 'honorable' vengeance and a fair fight. Remember that we are NINJA" He put emphasis on each agonizing letter there at the end. "We don't fight fair, its the whole reason we're taught stealth in the academy, so we can simply sneak past an enemy or fuck him up from behind."
The last Uchiha opened and closed his mouth several times, raising a finger now and again to try and make his point known, but each time he tried he lowered it just as quickly.
Naruto decided to wrap this up, he could feel himself slipping away from the connection between them. "If nothing else then look toward the goals you've set yourself for a reason to stop chasing the man."
Sasuke looked up, a faraway and lost look on his face.
"One of your dreams is to bring the Uchiha Clan back to prominence, that means having kids..." At the blank stare Naruto groaned in annoyance. "Dude, you're one of the smartest people in my class can't you... tch, whatever... The point is this, Itachi is an S-ranked missing-nin, a man who could have probably ran for Hokage if he wanted to. You're planning on chasing this man down in his prime while he's still capable of bringing down Kage level opponents. Even if you somehow managed to fatally wound him, how well off do you think you'll be?"
An almost audible click was heard as an imaginary light bulb above the kids head turned on.
"Yeah, that's basically it, even if you kill him you might end up sterile from a sneak attack... or ever worse, dead. If it were me...I'd leave the guy well enough alone until he was old and cripple and have my children gang rape his ass after I taught them everything I know." An evil little smirk came to Naruto's lips as that little scenario flashed before his eyes. "You're so high strung about it being an Uchiha who kills the guy, just because it has to be an Uchiha doesn't mean it has to be you."
The blonde smirked "That's the whole point of me coming here, besides the witty banter of course." Naruto waved cheerily to him, his body already starting to disappear back to his real body. "So what's more important? Clearing your clans name or making sure there's still a clan to clear the name of?" With that, the blonds entire body disappeared from sight, leaving a confused and lost Uchiha to go over those words, all the while a disgusting little ankle biter copy of him with snake like eyes was loudly but at the same time silently cursing him from behind the magical 'STFU' glass.
-ooo-
Rock Lee was many things. A hard worker, a splendid ninja and a beautiful green beast (I can only feel sorry for whatever woman...or man... he ends up with, because 'beast' is an accurate description of the boy's equipment, how he hides the thing in a skin-tight green leotard is beyond even this author's extensive perverted knowledge) But beyond all of that, the boy was first and foremost.
A taijutsu specialist.
A fact he made readily apparent when the Mummy wrapped sound nin tried to rush forward and beat our fuzzy browed savior.
Readily apparent because the mummy received a very distinct sandal print to the chin, courtesy of said fuzzy browed savior. Another kick midair sent the mummy flying back into his other male teammate, leaving the girl to try and defend herself.
Lee rushed forward, leading with a kick that would have taken the girls head off had a large slicing wave of wind not blocked his attack, knocking Kin away in the process to land heavily in a heap.
Lee turned back to the two boys who had extricated themselves from each other and were now watching him with a circulatory stare, looking for any exploitable weaknesses.
There were none. Without the Melody Arm on Dosu's right arm, the trio of ninja would be having a hard time with this opponent.
"RAHHH, Leaf hurricane!" Rock lee jumped towards the two boy's spinning as he went to place more destructive power behind his kick.
"Zaku, dodge!" The mummy man pushed his teammate out of the way and leapt to the side avoiding the telegraphed kick easily, what he hadn't counted on was seeing an infuriating smirk on the boys lips as he punched him in the jaw, loosening a few of the mummy's teeth in the process.
'Divide and conquer eh? The cheeky little brat.' He had separated them quickly to keep them from tag teaming him. His Melody Arm made up the brunt of his attack list, since that no longer worked... well this called for some improvising. After flipping through a couple handseals the Sound nin placed a hand against the ground.
"Hidden Art: Echo Pulse!" Where his hand hit the ground, the sound waves created by the hard tap sent rippling waves of force through the ground, forcing the green menace to leap back or risk losing his balance and possibly taking a blow that wouldn't have normally have occurred.
Like the giant wall of wind that was bull rushing it's way through his landing spot for instance...oh...
Lee grit his teeth, holding his arms in front of him in a cross to guard against some of the damage. Like getting tossed into a meat grinder the boy struck the wall of force and was propelled back, the rippling wind girding away at his steel-like forearms. Coming out of the attack with only light wounds the green hurricane that was Rock lee set back on his opponents pushing the two boys back into a corner.
The two Sound nin worked well together to block most of the more lethal blows to their person but they didn't have any more ground to give. Then a sound seemed to bring Lee's attention away from the two. A good thing too or he'd have caught a pair of senbon in the back of his head.
Kin had joined the fight.
Kin watched as her two teammates were pushed back by the green freak in a leotard. 'Seriously, why the hell is he wearing that?' Ignoring that self imposed question for the moment, the girl tossed several more bell tipped senbon at the boy, and like she expected the green beast, like his namesake, swatted the offending metal away. All according to plan.
With a single tug on almost invisible wire, the bells tolled several times, which seemed to surprise Lee for only a moment before his knees hit the ground painfully.
Rock Lee was a creature of obscene balance and dexterity, the boy had spent most of his Shinobi career mastering every ounce of his Sensei's style, but one of the unfortunate downsides to his style was that it was too precise in it's motions, focusing all that power required a balance that was matched only by the styles direct opposite, the Jyuuken. As a result of this mastery of balance anything that threw that balance off would cause an almost complete loss of control.
Dosu, seeing that the boy was down for the count, smirked to himself. "That's good Kin, keep the brat on the ground." His eyes flashed over towards the tree where their quarry had again taken refuge. "And now to take care of the target." As he approached a single kunai flew across the expanse to strike the ground near his feet. Leaping back, the exploding tag attached to the weapon exploding in a small plume of fire. "Tch, still want more then girly?" He glared at the pinkette who had several more of those explosive Kunai in her hands. Dodging those as easily as the first the man started taunting the girl. "You are so pathetic, you cant even hit a moving target, just how bad of a ninja are you?"
The next couple of explosive tagged kunai came whizzing by just a bit faster than the last.
"Oh did I make someone angry?" The man continued to crow dodging ever closer to the girl, when the kunai stopped raining in on him, he took a moment to see that yes, the bitch had finally ran out of explosives. "Hah, that's all you got?" He walked forward to end the annoyance once and for all."
Click. Dosu's eye's widened as he looked down. Under an almost undetectable layer of grass a small trip wire stuck just enough above the ground for it to be effective yet unnoticeable.
Silently groaning to himself the man leapt away, escaping the inevitable explosion... only to land in yet another trap, This one gluing his feet to the ground.
"Shit!" The man cursed, panic setting in as his feet stuck fast to the sticky substance. Looking up the man found yet another log (This one quite a bit smaller) barreling towards him.
Thankfully for Dosu, Zaku was nearby and willing to help. "Don't worry Dosu, I got this. ZANKUHA!" The air blast tore through the log and turned it into so much kindling. "See, that was nothing."
"Then how about this!" Said the gauze wrapped fist as it met the cocky sound nin's jaw.
Um...what?
"Zaku!" Dosu yelled, pulling out a kunai and tossing it at the green blur that had decked his teammate.
The green blur stopped to swat the knife away, revealing Rock Lee standing there in a relaxed fighting stance.
'How?' Dosu growled mentally, staring out of the corner of his eye to see Kin sitting in a sinkhole almost completely covered in water. a small twitch revealed that the Pink bitch had used some kind of Suiton jutsu on her. 'Damn. We won't be able to beat these brats if we cant hold this guy down.'
"What the heck is going on?"
Dosu glanced out of the corner of his eye again and noticed the other two members of team 7 stumbling out of the hollow tree that the pink head had stashed them after the green boy had saved her.
"Damn." he cursed again, jumping over to Kin, yanking her a bit harder than necessary. "We're falling back Zaku!" The mummy tossed several smoke bombs to the ground, sending out a massive amount of smoke to cover their escape.
Rock Lee waited for several minutes for any sign of a sneak attack before he fell to one knee. he had used the first gate, the gate of opening to get over the nausea of having his equilibrium shot to hell and now he was slightly exhausted.
The leotard wearing genin approached team 7 slowly. "Are you ok Sakura-san?" he asked the girl, trying to calm the aches in his muscles.
"Y-yes, thank you Lee." She bowed her head as much as she was able, having spent too much chakra releasing a rather obscene amount of water from one of the gauntlets that Naruto had given her to incapacitate Kin. "Are you going to be ok out here on your own? Do you want us to help you find your teammates?"
"Thank you but no, Sakura-san. I can find them easily enough." The two nodded to each other again in thanks. One for the initial save, the other for getting him out of a tight spot during the rescue attempt. Lee turned and leapt off into the tree line, leaving the three alone.
"What happened here Sakura?" Sasuke asked quietly while hanging an arm over Naruto's shoulder and he doing the same in return, both still weak from overcoming their curse marks corrupting influence.
"We were attacked by Sound-nin Sasuke." She nodded her head in the direction of where Lee had left. "I was able to hold them off until Lee could drive them away himself"
"We can get the full story after we find a new place to rest." Naruto grumbled. "And some food while we're at it."
-Several hours later-
"Ah that's better." Naruto sighed, rubbing his full stomach. "Nothing better than grilled fish with teammates." He joked, tossing the bones of his meal into the fire. "And now we have a general idea who to look our for in the third part of the exam." A growl escaped his lips. "Those sound bastards are going down."
"For once I agree with you." Sasuke chuckled, tossing his food into the fire as well. "I'm going to scout the area, you two wait here."
Sakura looked up from her fish. "Be careful out there Sasuke."
"Hn." The boy turned on his heels to walk off into the forest.
Naruto stared after his teammate for a few moment's before turning back to Sakura. "Five ryo says he's going to take a piss and he's too shy to do it in front of us."
Sakura snorted on her food, waving what was left of her fish in his direction. "I'll take that bet."
-ooo-
"Ugh." Sasuke sighed, zipping up his pants after having relieved himself on a nearby shrub. "And now for scouting."
"EeeeeeK!"
"Or saving damsels in distress." Sasuke rolled his eyes. "That works too." The boy was beginning to think Naruto was rubbing off on him. Running in the direction of the scream, the last Uchiha came across a scene that looked like it had been pulled out of a fairytale... well a very grim fairytale, but a fairytale none the less.
A young Grass Kunoichi with neon red hair was sitting against the base of a tree, her two teammates dead at her side and a giant bear...well...bearing down on her.
Sasuke made quick work of the beast with a Fireball to the back. Like all problems, that one could be solved with liberal use of fire.
The red haired girl looked up at Sasuke, tears running down her cheeks in lingering fear and a slightly larger amount of gratitude. "T-thank you." She whimpered.
Normally Sasuke would have just nodded and grunted in classical Uchiha form before hopping off to meet back up with his teammates, but something stopped the Uchiha and kept him rooted in place.
Oh...the girl had a death grip on his legs...that's why...
"Thank you soooo much!" The girl cried, large tears seeping into his pant leg as she hugged the already numbing limb.
Unused to this level of gratitude the young Uchiha didn't really know how to comfort the girl beside what he had done for Sakura and he really didn't want to hug the girl that was already trying to fuse herself with his leg.
"It's nothing." Sasuke grunted, rubbing the girls back gently trying to calm her down so she could remove her vice arms from around his leg, all the while getting a vaguely uncomfortable feeling in his nether regions seeing as the girl was practically rubbing herself against him."
The girl looked up and stared at the now blushing Sharingan user. "Hey, you're the teammate of that Uzumaki guy right?" Rubbing teams from her eyes, the red head now had a calculated look on her face, like she was planning something devious...just without the devious part.
"Yeah." Sasuke said at length. "He's my teammate. Why?"
"Could I come with you so I can talk to him please?"
Now that question threw the Uchiha for a loop. 'Really Naruto? ... You're drawing women to you while you're not even here...' The Uchiha sighed for what seemed like the thousandth time in the last hour. "And why should I let you talk to my teammate?"
"Because." The girl smoke smoothly, whatever fear she held for the bear seemed to be long gone. "My name is Karin by the way, Karin Uzumaki."
Sasuke's jaw dropped at that little confession, blinking owlishly as the girl formed a small smug smile on her lips.
"So are we going to talk to him or what?" The girl asked, that smug little smile not leaving her face for an instant.
-ooo-
"Really?" Naruto stared at Sasuke and the redhead behind him for several moments, his eye twitching in annoyance. "Even when I'm not trying I'm finding family in the strangest places." He smiled ruefully. "Still, it's nice to see another Uzumaki out there. Karin, was it?"
"Y-yes." The girl squeaked, her voice quavering just slightly now that she was in front of the man she wanted to see. She was shaking, Naruto noted but not for the reasons that the three Konoha genin thought. Karin was first and foremost, a sensor nin. And right now she was feet away from the largest chakra battery in the world. It would be like comparing a her matchstick to a steel forge going full blast.
"It's really nice to meet you" Naruto smiled, bringing a small blush to the little girls face, though oddly enough, instead of getting closer to him, like most women would have by now, she instead moved away slightly and squished herself closer to Sasuke. Naruto blinked. 'Well that's odd, though I can't say I don't like this bit of blackmail material' He got a little closer and the girl moved farther away in turn.
"Is something wrong Karin?" Sakura asked the girl curiously.
"N-no." She replied shakily. "I-it's just that I-I'm a sensor, a-and Naruto-san is..."
"Shining like a neon sign on the sun?" Naruto suggested.
The girl nodded, scooting back a bit more which now placed her damn near sitting in his teammates lap, snuggling as close as possible to the boy. "It seems you have a fan Sasuke, and this one doesn't screech like the others." A smirk found its way on the blonde's lips. "I think that should love at first sight for you."
Both Sasuke and Karin turned a brilliant shade of red, doing an admirable job of matching their key features, namely Karin's hair and Sasuke's Sharingan.
"B-baka!" The red head stuttered. "I-I just met Sasuke-kun."
Naruto's eyebrow rose at that. "'Kun' is it? Moving awfully fast aren't we?" If anything the girl turned an even brighter shade of red, almost literally shrinking down like a little puppy in Sasuke's lap.
"I am going to stab you Naruto." Sasuke growled in annoyance.
"Take a number and get in line, asshole." Naruto quipped, turning his back to his team to stare at the tower off on the horizon, the sun just peaking above the trees on it's way down, casting sharp reds and purples up into the air. "I think we ought to move out now while we still have he chance, you three up for moving?"
Sasuke shrugged his shoulder's. "Night's as good as daylight for a ninja."
"I'm fine with it." Sakura agreed.
"I-I guess I could go with you." Karin poked her fingers together, staring up at Sasuke quietly.
"I would have dragged you to the tower regardless." Naruto spoke out. "No family of mine is getting left in this forest on their own while I'm around!"
Karin nodded shakily, still wincing at the sheer power emanating from the blonde's body.
"Then let's move out!"
-a half dozen hours later-
"Really starting to hate this forest." Naruto growled as they passed the same tree for the fifth time.
"Yeah, pretty sure we're in a Genjutsu." Sasuke flashed his Sharingan, to get a good look around. "Yeah, definitely a genjutsu. but I can't see the person who's casting it to break it."
Karin blinked, having not realized that they were in a Genjutsu until Sasuke had said something. "If you want to know where someone is, why not ask me?" I have plenty of practice finding people with my sensor abilities."
"You don't need to tell me twice." Naruto growled. "Just find these bozo's so I can flatten em."
"Right..." The girl backed away slowly from the angry teen. Taking a moment to center herself, the girl projected her senses off into the forest around her, picking up minute fluctuations of chakra. It was sort of difficult to pinpoint the signatures with Naruto's blazing sun standing right next to her but in the end she managed to find them. "There, at four a clock, one 32 meters ahead and 2 meters underground. Anything else?"
"Nope, pissed off." Forming a few Shadow Clones the boy and his doubles flew through a dozen or more handseals. "NARUTO SMASH! Earth Release: Earth Flow Divide!" Throwing out one of the few B-rank Earth Ninjutsu the boy knows, the ground split and ruptured several times around the area leaving a massive sinkhole where the girl had pointed at.
Like a haze the air around them faded and the Forest of Death Tower stood out even closer than it had before.
"Good." Naruto nodded, rushing off in the tower's direction.
"Is he always like this?" Karin asked cautiously, not wanting to get on the blonde's bad side.
"We've been walking in circles in a place he call's home." Sasuke ran to catch up with his teammate. "How would you like it if people cast a genjutsu on you in your home and you wandered around for several hours in your living room?"
"Fair point." Karin frowned. "That would be pretty irritating."
"And Naruto doesn't play nice when he's irritated." Sasuke chuckled back.
"I'll keep that in mind..."
-ooo-
"Congratulations you three- urk." A single finger poked Iruka, who had met the three genin (plus guest) out in the lobby after they had opened both their scrolls together.
"I'm tired, hungry and annoyed, we can do this later." Naruto grumbled, poking the scarred chunin a second time for good measure.
The man in question nearly busted out laughing right there 'Never change Naruto, never change' After a small chuckle session the man lead the four (Which included Karin, whom the three vouched for, Naruto Included since he was going to do his best to get Karin to move to Konoha, there was no way in hell he was letting a family member stay anywhere near the same place as that snake in grass (lol) Orochimaru.)
"And here are your rooms." The Chunin opened door with several beds all in a row. "Get comfortable, you still have to wait two days for the second stage to end.
"Quiet now, bed." Naruto jumped the dozen paces to his mattress, did a flip mid-air then belly flopped onto the comfortable piece of furniture. "Karin's staying in here and tell me when the Hokage get's here so I can talk to him about her."
"Can do Naruto." The Chunin chuckled, shaking his head at the boys antics while throwing a little salute over his shoulder as he left.
Naruto flipped over onto his back and laid his head on a pillow, Idly noting that his two teammates and Karin were doing the same, the red haired girl sharing the bed with Sasuke of all people, who was trying to look all cool about it but was failing miserably, mainly because he was blushing up a storm because his cousin (What he assumed she was) Had latched herself back onto to his leg and was using Sasuke's thigh as a pillow, coming dangerously close to the goods for the Uchiha's liking.
The blonde grinned at his teammates misfortune, whatever the hell happened next, it could wait until he had some sleep, or he'd likely start going Kyubi on someone's ass.
Yeah, it could wait...
-ooo-
Ok, Again, a little rushed, but I as in a hurry.
Also I'm with Naruto on this one, The forest of Death just sucked all the desire for me to write for this story right out of me, so to remedy that. NARUTO SMASH!
"Hidden Art: Echo Pulse"
C/B-rank. Sends several waves of sound through the earth to throw an enemy off balance, More energy can be added and the resonant frequency can be synchronized with the surrounding area to cause more damage than normal which is why it is both C-Rank and B-Rank