Disclaimer:Naruto is not mine.
Enjoy this chapter, the longest so far.
Chapter 17 – Forest of Death
Shino arrived before Naruto and Hinata had, at area 44. Naruto then spoke up, "So did you scan the area with your bug?"
"Yes Naruto, I did. There will be one female bug per participant, so that I can always keep track of where we are if we are separated. So... any objections?" Shino replied looking at his two teammates.
Naruto's face was plastered with a big foxy grin and chuckled into his hand, "I like how you think, Shino." Then Naruto started looking a little troubled, he replied hesitantly, "But isn't that cheating?"
"I see no reason why it would be so. We are, after all, a scouting team. Knowing where our allies and enemies are is one of the most essential things while on a mission." Shino responded, Naruto thought about it for a minute and nodded,
"Eh...you're right." Naruto scratched his head nervously.
Over the next fifteen minutes, other teams participating in the Chunin Exams started to arrive. Team 7 seemed to be in an especially good mood. All of course, except for Sasuke, who never seemed to be in a good mood. "Hey Sasuke, I see you've had your prune juice today." Naruto teased.
Sasuke responded with a "Tsh…" and turned away apparently even more annoyed than before. This of course put a big grin on Naruto's face. Hinata blushed seeing him in a good mood. Sakura marched over to Naruto and appeared to be going to hit him then leaned into his ear and whispered,
"That was actually funny. Now don't let Sasuke hear that or I will hit you." She then walked over to her team.
Suddenly a voice came from behind Naruto and the others. "Ok, maggots!! Time to listen up!!" For some unknown reason, Naruto suddenly saw a kunai headed towards his face. He dodged the best that he could, but it still managed to get his face scratched causing a small cut. Anko was suddenly beside him, licking the blood off of the cut on his face. This sent shivers of fear down Naruto's spine and Hinata got very angry at the proctor. Naruto was now fearing for his life, mostly because the woman seemed to be enjoying hurting him and to a degree where he didn't like. Hinata on the other hand, was angry at this woman pawing Naruto. Then Anko noticed something out of the corner of her eye and stopped her actions on Naruto, while pulling out another kunai from her belt.
A grass shinobi leaned over Anko's back with the kunai in her tongue. "Proctor, I thought I would return your kunai." For some reason Naruto's nose was twitching. He did not like the smell coming off the grass ninja.
"Thank you nice grass shinobi, I appreciate that." Taking the kunai out of the ninja's tongue she then continues to speak, "Ok now that I have your attention..." She winked over at Naruto. "First things first before I let you enter this forbidden ground, I need you to sign this release form stating that Konoha will be indemnified if you happen to die in this part of the Chunin exams. Also, welcome to the Forest of Death. For the next five days you will be working against your fellow teams to get both of these." She pulled out two scrolls. One was white with a black label reading Heaven. The second scroll was black with a white label reading Earth. "Each team will be given either a heaven or an earth scroll. You must gather a complete set, one heaven and one earth. After you have them both, you will need to head to the tower in the center of the forest. Do not, I repeat..."
Anko took a breath before she continued, "Do not open them. When you become a fully qualified ninja in the near future, you will be assigned to missions where you'd be given special documents that aren't meant to be opened. This will be a test of trust. As a chunin, you would be trusted more with harder missions than genins. When you complete your forms, please as a team, go to the booth and pick up your scroll and then head to your team's assigned gate. If you're wondering how you're going to survive without food, don't because this area has abundant resources of food and water. Just watch out for dangerous animals and poisonous plants. And on another note, I want to say this to all of you, good luck and just don't die." With that speech, Anko passed out the release forms.
Team 8 got their forms and headed to the booth, got their scroll and quietly walked to their assigned gate. "Ok Naruto you hold the scroll." Shino ordered. Naruto took the scroll and put it in his pack. "In the mean time, we should come up with a plan to trap the other teams in case they have the scroll that we need. In order for that to happen, Hinata, I want you to use your Byakugan to see if any teams are around us. If there are, you should see which scroll they have. If they happen to have the one we need, we'll come with a tactic to ambush them and take their scroll. We should come across at least one of them today. If we go along with this plan, we'll be at the tower before anyone. Any objections?"
Naruto and Hinata shook their head no, in fact they both kind of agreed with Shino's plan. It sounded like it'll work and plus it was the only plan that they had to go on. The gate was promptly opened at noon, much to everyone's anticipation and all the teams went rushing into the Forest Of Death and discussing the plans to each other. Team 8 headed into the forest, after an hour into their journey, both Naruto and Hinata called the team to a stop. Shino not understanding why they had stopped, he looked at his teammates, "Forest leaches." Hinata replied, pointing up into the canopy. "I could see them earlier and I didn't want us to get attacked by them, so... I believe this will make a good ambush site."
"I could smell them or at least the decay they left on the forest floor." Naruto commented.
Shino nodded, they all lept in the safe side of the canopy and away from the leeches to wait for an oncoming team. Hinata spotted one coming their way about an hour later. By using her Byakugan, she observed even further in recognizing what scroll they currently possessed. Hinata let out a gasp. Her two teammates turned to look at her.
"What is it, Hinata? Is there someone coming?" Shino asked. Hinata nodded.
"Yes, and they also possess the Earth Scroll." Shino's eyeglasses tinted in the sunlight and Naruto smiled his goofy grin. Their plan really worked! They only had to wait about a half hour more for the group to arrive and the leaches to attach to them. "That was easy." Naruto commented, jumping to the forest floor, where the team's dead bodies were, he pulled the scroll from their pack. "Good thing you saw they had an Earth scroll, Hinata. So do we head for the tower or do we look for more?"
"We can either head straight for the tower or see if we can help any of the other Konoha teams." Shino replied. With that they left the area.
Fairly soon after they had left the area, Shino, Hinata and Naruto found a scene of a potential battle. They found Gaara and the sand siblings being confronted by a group from the village of hidden in the rain.
"Okay, hand over your scroll and we will go easy on you." One of the rain ninja commented.
"I wouldn't piss him off if I were you." Kankurou replied, gesturing to his little brother next to him.
"Oh come on, we will crush you." The rain ninja retorted.
"Have it your way, I am not responsible for your death." Kankurou retorts, stepping back a little.
"Enough Kankurou. They have annoyed me enough. I will kill them." Gaara replies with an evil smile.
"Show me what you have midget!" The lead rain ninja says. He then threw his umbrella up and made a couple hand signs. "Ninja art Senbon cage!" Senbons flooded out the umbrella and began to surround Gaara. "You will not be able to survive this. You will be attacked from every angle and you will die." Kankurou and Temari just smirk. "Aren't you the least bit scared? You are going to die."
"I warned you." Kankurou smilingly states almost laughing.
"Die!" the rain ninja yells. All the senbon surrounding Gaara headed towards Gaara who was just standing there impassively with his arms crossed. A cloud of dust erupts as the weapons neared their target. The dust cleared and the senbon had been stopped from hitting Gaara by a shield of sand that surrounded him. "What? How did you survive? There is no defense against that attack."
The Rain ninja look on with surprise as they saw the hundreds of senbon stopped by what looks like a couple of overlapping shields of sand. "Now you did it. You're going to die." Kankurou playfully sings. "You see the sand protects him from any type of attack. It's the ultimate defense and he doesn't have to do a thing for it to work. It just does. Well it was nice knowing you."
"Senbon rain!" the rain ninja replies, sending more needles towards Gaara. They are quickly blocked by more sand. Also unnoticed sand is covering the rain ninja's legs and climbing up his body. "Wait I can't move!"
Gaara calmly walks over and picks up the rain ninja's umbrella. "Sand coffin." The sand covers the ninja completely. "Sand burial." Gaara replied, his hand outstretched as he made a fist with his hand, crushing anything that was now in the sand. The leader ninja was crushed immediately and at the impact, sprays blood all over the area hitting the umbrella that Gaara was holding, he was shielding himself as if the blood were rain.
"Here take the scroll. We don't need it! You can have it. Please take it." One of the other rain ninjas places the scroll on the ground. "Wait what are you doing?" He asks as the sand starts to encompass him and his teammate. "Why? NO!!"
"Rain of blood" Gaara says as he closes his hand and the other two rain ninja were pulverized by the crushing sand, spraying blood all over the area.
"Hey, what do you know a heaven scroll!" Kankurou comments. "Lucky for us, we don't have to do any more work." Looking over at Gaara who seemed to not have had his bloodlust sated. "Ah, come on Gaara we got what we need. So why can't we just head to the tower?"
"We are not alone, and I have not had enough blood." Gaara turns to where Team 8 was hiding.
"Hey, how are you doing? Neat trick you got there, well, looks like we both have all the scrolls we need. We'll just leave peacefully now." Naruto comments as he walks out from behind the bushes. Hinata, who was still behind the bushes, had a look of utter terror on her face.
"You are my prey. Now you die." Gaara growls as the sand starts to move in Naruto's direction.
"Shadow clone jutsu!!" Naruto says as fifty Naruto's fill the space between the two possible combatants. Naruto put a big grin on his face "Are you really sure we can't talk about this?"
The sand becomes a wave taking several clones with it. Hinata lets out an 'eep' as she was picked up and carried away by Naruto. Shino seeing this follows closely. They continue to run for an hour in random directions. Shino comments "Naruto are you ok?"
"Yes, I just have one killer of a headache." Naruto replies remembering the scene of clones being eviscerated coming to his mind. "That guy is trouble." Then grin broadly as he sees a couple of images of Gaara being given a noogie. And other silly antics the clones were doing. After another hour Naruto knows the last one is gone but is reassured that the clone dismissed itself after making sure that the sand siblings went off in another direction. "We are safe now. We need to avoid that guy at all costs." Naruto replied seriously.
"How so?" Asks Shino.
Naruto chuckles, "He has no sense of humor, and the way he took out the clones...?" Naruto gulps, "Well, let's just not talk about it."
"Someone is coming. A single person and moving quickly" Shino exclaims. They hear a sudden crash of branches as they see Kiba going by very fast followed by a huge snake. The snake suddenly gulps down Kiba. Utter horror is displayed on Team 8's face. Shino turns to look at Naruto, "Well? Do we help him?" Not seeing Naruto or Hinata there he shrugs his shoulders "I guess that answers that question."
The snake starts to lie down and is hit by an explosive tag, then several more. It opens its mouth and Naruto jumps in. "Naruto!" Hinata screams. The snake's body begins to bulge and expand. It finally explodes sending hundreds of Naruto clones and Kiba flying. Most of the Naruto burst into clouds of smoke as the clones disperse. Shino catches Kiba while Naruto lands in a heap on the forest floor. Hinata goes down to him. She is crying, Naruto moves. She grabs him and hugs him tightly. "Naruto!" she continues to sob. "You told me you would not take those types of risks."
Naruto sadly looks into her crying eyes. "I know but we were not getting anywhere and Kiba and Akamaru were going to suffocate in there. I couldn't stand having my friend die like that. I am sorry to have worried you Hinata. I will try to keep it to a minimum next time." She nods approval to his statement. They both get up and move to the side of Kiba who has regained consciousness.
"Hey, where's the snake? And what was with the wind?" Kiba comments.
"Where is your team Kiba?" Shino asks.
Kiba shakes off his sluggish feeling. "I was blown away from them by a strong wind. We need to get back to them."
All four of them head in the direction that Kiba indicates. As they approach, Hinata activates her Byakugan. "Sasuke and Sakura appear to be fighting a single ninja." Hinata reports, then there was a sudden look of fear on Hinata's face. "The shinobi is extending his neck and it had just bit Sasuke. Watch yourself! There are weapons all over the place." Seeing Naruto pulling ahead she calls to him "Naruto, please be careful."
Naruto hits the ninja in the face just as his neck goes back to a normal length. "More insects to disturb me." the grass ninja says. "Sasuke-kun you will seek me out when you are ready and I will give you power." The ninja sidesteps Naruto's next punch and grabs him. He then throws Naruto into a tree leaving a three meter diameter crater in the tree. Naruto slowly slips into unconsciousness. "Well, I will see you later Sasuke-kun." The ninja slowly merges into the limb they are standing on.
"Sasuke-kun? Sasuke-kun? Are you alright?" Sakura screams as he screams in pain. She sees a mark appear near his neck in a heaven seal formation. (Three tomes.) "What did he do you Sasuke?" She cries as she cradles a screaming Sasuke.
Hinata jumps and catches Naruto as he finally falls away from the tree. She sets him on the ground and then notices her hand is covered in blood. "Shino, I need your help!" Hinata yells to her teammate. Shino is quickly by her side. She rolls Naruto onto his stomach and sees a kunai imbedded handle first into his back. "He might recover if we can get it out and stop any major bleeding." Shino nods and has his insects make a protective glove for his hand.
"I am ready when you are Hinata." Shino says as he grabs the blade portion of the kunai. Hinata has a large handful of gauze and ointment on her other hand. She nods as Shino pulls out the kunai. The bleeding is bad but the ointment makes the blood slow and the wound appears to be healing. She then takes off his shirt and finds a couple of shuriken embedded in his back. They remove them then bandage Naruto up.
"He will be out for the rest of the day maybe longer. Let's hope his guest will help repair this and are not bothered for the next day or so." Hinata comments as Shino nods.
"I will search for a protective shelter and check on the other team. Will you be ok with Naruto? Please do not blame him for his rash actions. I am sure he will learn from them. He seems to like to learn his lessons the hard way." Shino states as Hinata chuckles. Shino jumps back up into the trees and meets with team 7. "Is everyone ok? I am currently searching for a defensible position so that we can rest our team. You may come along if you like. I am sure it will be easier to defend with four members than as two separate teams of two."
"Sasuke is hurt. He was bitten and is in a lot of pain." Sakura responds. She looks sad. "Is Naruto ok? I saw what happened. He took quite a hit."
"He is injured and will not be able to move for a day or so." Shino responded. "My insects have found a defensible cave that is near water. We can rest there."
It took five minutes to get both Sasuke and Naruto situated in the cave. It was more like the roots of a tree than an actual cave. Sakura could not believe the bandages that were on Naruto's back Hinata shyly asked Shino to help take off Naruto's pants. Sakura was sure she was up to something not very lady like. She was proven wrong, apparently Naruto had a shuriken in his leg that needed to be removed and the wound treated.
Shino then took Sakura out of the cave to set up traps. He was surprised that she was very adept at this skill. She seemed to be able to place the traps where they would be most effective. Hinata and Kiba rested while Sakura and Shino worked. They soon found Kiba sleeping and Hinata sleeping on an unconscious Naruto.
"That is so cute." Sakura said blushing. "Well I guess we get the first shift."
"No Sakura, my insects get the first shift. We need sleep. There are a few hours of daylight left and my insects will alert me if someone approaches. I suggest we get some sleep." Shino replied. Sakura nodded, "All right."
They slept until the next morning when Shino then woke Hinata, who is embarrassed to have slept on Naruto's chest all night. He woke the others stating that someone was approaching.
Three sound ninjas were on the outskirts of the camp watching their target, Sasuke who seemed to be down for the count. "Will they be much of a problem?" Dosu asked through his bandaged face.
"We'll be taking on four injured leaf shinobis. It's no big deal." Kin the female ninja replied.
The sound ninja approached the camp and they were then confronted by Shino "You should not attack. You are outnumbered and we are prepared for any assault."
"Oh really? You make obvious traps right here in front of your camp. All we have to do is jump over them and then you are ours." Dosu replies. The three sound ninja jump up in the air and all are surprised as a log comes swinging towards them. "Very good but it is not good enough." Dosu slides his sleeve back on his right arm and reveals a bracer with holes in it. The log shatters when it came close to the jumping ninja. Akamaru and Kiba both fall over as if in pain, both were holding their ears.
Sakura screams, everyone turns to find her on her knees while Kin has a handful of Sakura's hair."Nice hair, but to be a shinobi you should worry less about your hair and worry more about your jutsu." Sakura is crying from letting everyone down and not the pain of her hair being pulled.
Hinata is blown into the cave by a strong gust of wind that came from the other sound ninja. "Hey girl, you need to be able to fight long range to fight me. Can I kill Sasuke?" Zaku asks with a huge smile on his face.
Sakura pulls a kunai. "That won't work on me girl." Kin comments on having a kunai in Sakura's hands.
"Who said it was for you?" Sakura says with an evil grin. She then proceeds to cut herself out of Kin's grasp by cutting her hair and sending Kin off balance. She immediately runs at Zaku while throwing several shuriken. Sakura immediately starts to make hand signs.
"Kin get out of the way!" Zaku yells at his teammate, who jumps. Zaku smiles and points his upturned palms towards Sakura. A sudden blast of wind catches the shuriken and sends them back a Sakura. When the shuriken hit Sakura, she is replaced by a log. "I see your game. Where are you?" He turns as Sakura again throws shuriken and makes hand signs. Zaku blasts the shuriken back with the same results. Zaku sees a shadow and again aims at Sakura. But with seeing her making hand sighs he just grabs a couple kunai and throws them at her. He turns looking for another attack from a different direction.
He realizes something is wrong when he turns and sees her bloodied and still coming towards him. Sakura slams into Zaku pushing a kunai into his left arm. Zaku proceeds to hit her trying to get her off of him. Kin finally kicks her off. "Ok bitch, you're going to die." Zaku comments but is interrupted by two distinct chakra spikes. One purple and black, the other is red. Naruto is standing holding Hinata bridal style with red eyes, only wearing boxers and the bandages on his chest and legs. Sasuke is standing looking at Sakura who is barely conscious.
"Who did this to you Sakura?" Sasuke asks.
"I did, what are you going to do about it?" Zaku replies as he sends a wind attack at the cave. "Ha, I got them. That was too easy." The dust settles revealing no one is there at all. "Where did they go?" Kin yelps in pain as she is kicked by Naruto across the clearing. Sasuke is behind Zaku by a few meters just laughing manically. Zaku turns and points at Sasuke, Sakura and Kiba. "Now I have you."
His arms are suddenly behind him being pulled by Sasuke. There are black marks all over Sasuke's left side. "You seem to like your arms." Sasuke twists both of Zaku's arms out of joint with a sickening crack.
Sakura sees that Sasuke is going to kill Zaku and can feel the bloodlust. She runs behind him and embraces him. "No Sasuke. Please don't!" She starts to cry and the curse marks recede and goes back into the heaven mark on his neck. Sasuke collapses.
Dosu puts his scroll on the ground. "We offer this as a token, so that you do not kill us."
Naruto is growling in a very feral tone. "Leave now or I will kill you."
Dosu grabs both of his teammates and leaps away.
Naruto lays Hinata on the ground and stokes her hair as she slowly wakes up. She turns red and says, "Naruto, can you put some clothes on?" Naruto takes another moment to make sure that she is okay before going back to the cave and puts his spare clothes on. Sasuke's head is on Sakura's lap while he is sleeping soundly. Kiba and Akamaru both seem to be feeling better now that the sound ninja has left. Sasuke wakes up about twenty minutes later completely drained. Both groups break camp and head towards the tower. The trip to the tower was most uneventful.
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A/N: Thanks again to Mrs. Utachi Uchiha for her Beta reading and review of this chapter. Much thanks to her. Hope you enjoyed the chapter and the forest of death.
Always remember this is an AU, where Naruto was partially raised by the Hyuga. Should have chapter 18 some time next week.