Twin2: Why is it that whenever you promise an update, the Internet crashes? Stupid decade-old modem…

Okay, I guess it's officially 'tomorrow'. Now, I didn't get 578 reviews for the chapter – I never expected to, and only made that comment as a joke. I didn't expect so many people to take it seriously, and I especially didn't expect to get more than thirty percent of my stated 578 reviews – that's 197 reviews for one chapter. Wow. Now, the real reason I'm updating is because although I didn't get the total amount of reviews I said I wanted to put this up now, when Twin1 went to check her email (where your reviews are sent), the expression on her face and her choking on her Coke until Dad rushed in all ready to do CPR was so worth the sleepless night I had writing this. I love you guys! Lol. You, as a collective, managed to make me laugh until my sides ached. Also, this chapter is dedicated to reviewer Anonymous 1-10 for her 10 reviews, and quite possibly a few more. You were probably the most compelling factor in this update, so this one's for you! Twin1 actually broke down in tears and begged me to finish this chapter what with all the death threats and tearful pleading in her inbox.

Twin1: Why is everyone yelling at me?

Twin2: On the other hand, I'm not too happy with this chapter. It's just… y'know. Off. If anyone can quantify it, please feel free to drop us a line; it's driving me crazy.

Twelve: White Light

I was sitting straight-backed beside Sasuke in a shelter created by natural barricades of tree roots, my hitai-ate in my hand, while Sakura dabbed uncertainly at the blood on my face. Finally I sighed and said, "Sakura, just – just bind them, already. Do it properly, and don't worry about hurting me. No matter how gentle you are, it's gonna hurt, so at least do it right. Please. Before I pass out from blood loss. I honestly dunno why I haven't already…"

"O–okay. C-can you…"

"I'll try not to scream," I said flatly, "just hurry up. I'm getting really dizzy, and you'll need me as an advance guard while we wait for Sasuke to wake up."

I couldn't help letting out quiet yelps as she wrapped gauze firmly around my slashed eyes, but Sakura didn't hesitate, and I bit down on the sounds and let her tie it off, forcing myself not to fight against the cloth.

I let out a shuddering breath, swearing violently in my head as Sakura pulled her hands away and backed off, me wiping shakily at the blood still on my own face with a damp cloth and grimacing at the sticky feeling on my fingers. "We'll only stay here overnight, whether or not Sasuke wakes up. If we can get to the Tower quick enough we'll be able to get some good, safe rest, and some medical attention for him, too. I really don't like the feel of that chakra flux."

I heard Sakura nod, and then she squeaked, sounding embarrassed, and said, "Sounds like a good plan to me." I frowned slightly – not enough to disturb my eyes – what was her problem? What was there to be embarrassed about?

I shrugged it off as a girl thing and continued, "I'll watch Sasuke; you stay on guard. We're not going to be getting much sleep tonight, I'm afraid." Putting one hand in my pocket, I separated out my remaining tag bundles, finding the one I was looking for. "Sakura, here." I handed her half of the tags from the sheaf I had selected, explaining, "These are, or should be, tranquilliser tags. Slap them on a person like you would an explosive tag to a branch and activate it and it'll knock 'em out for at least twelve hours. Just don't use it on Leaf nin if you can avoid it – they're still in the test stages and I don't know if the effect is strong enough to kill or not." I had nerve tags as well, but they were nowhere near as certain to work – I only started on them after Wave, and I didn't want to accidentally hurt my teammate if the tags went bad and exploded randomly. Which they were still kind of prone to doing.

As Sakura left the shelter of the buttress roots I leaned back with a silent groan. It really was a miracle I hadn't collapsed from blood loss already – head wounds bleed a lot, and this one was no mere scratch. I was fairly sure I hadn't healed already because something was up with the fox (the bellowing pain that still reverberated in my belly was a pretty good clue), but guessed enough of his chakra was still running through my coils to stop the bleeding a little. But still, it was only a guess. I had no idea what the hell was going on.

Leaves whispered as I wiped Sasuke's forehead gingerly – he was overheating, feverish, his breath rasping slightly and his chakra rippling angrily, centring around the flux in his left shoulder. That was seriously going to have to get looked at. "Sasuke," I said quietly, replacing the damp cloth, "you better come through this okay. You hear me? No dying on me. Not now. Not after we've come so far."

There was no obvious response, but I thought he gave a faint sigh that might have meant: Just hang in there. It'll all be okay in the end.

I half-smiled, and then exhaled slowly, letting my ears focus on the outside world, listening to the scramblings of small animals, the humming of insects, the screaming of a genin team from Kumo… I wonder what they ran into? But it was a long way from us, so I didn't really care.

I took another deep breath, trying not to fidget. My system was still buzzing with adrenaline, even after the long time it had had to calm down, and I found myself twitching incessantly, checking Sasuke's pulse and temperature, scanning the flux every few seconds. Then I flinched, fighting with my stomach, before staggering away to vomit in a nearby bush. My head was killing me. It wasn't just my eyes that hurt; it was like that snake-freak attacked my brain as well, making my whole skull radiate pain. I hope that sword-thing didn't have acid on it…

I coughed, then spat, rinsing out my mouth, before stumbling blindly back and sitting down near Sasuke again to lean against the tree. I sighed, listening to Sakura's quick, anxious breathing out the front of the little cavern created by the tree roots. I needed something to do, or I'd lose it entirely. Or throw up again. Neither option was that inviting.

I pulled my sealing notebook out of my backpack and flipped it open, going back to the problem of the freeze tags. The problem was that as a general thing, the elements didn't work together; they worked against each other. You had to change a fundamental part of them to stop them destroying each other inside the tag (boom), but doing that meant they weren't wind and water anymore. It was impossible to just contain them, too; ever tried to put a metaphorical leash on the elements? NOT FUN. Also does not work.

I chewed on my pencil, staring sightlessly at the supposedly innocent seals on the paper with a slight scowl. You can't defuse them enough to get them to connect and work together, and if you separated them far enough for them not to blow up they wouldn't be able to react to make the ice…

A metaphorical light bulb went off in my head, warm and sparking with energy. Directional seals were usually… but if I used them here… plus a spiral glyph to bind it all together… put those seals there and that one there and change the direction of that rune… those nodes, the connector paths would act as conduits for the extra power and they even had that endothermic tendency that would let them store power –

I grinned at the scramble of notes that the page must look like, then flipped to a new one, wiped my finger over my cheeks (which were wet with blood again) and began to ink in the seals for three freeze tags, following my newly-determined formula.

"Aw, hell yes!" I muttered happily, ripping out the page and carefully tearing the three tags separate. The next unlucky bastards to come across us could be my guinea pigs for these, as opposed to the innocent trees I usually ended up using.

Sasuke groaned softly, and I shifted my focus back onto him, wiping the sweat off his face and changing the cloth. "C'mon, Sasuke, you've beaten worse than this," I told him quietly. "Hang in there, huh? We just gotta get to the tower, but you better wake up before then, bastard – you're damn heavy. You hear me? You gotta wake up."

He didn't respond, though I was hardly surprised – his chakra system was flaring uncontrollably, and the worst of the storm was centred too close to his head. This kind of crap was painful enough, but in your head? That had to hurt like all fuck.

I wrung out a cloth absently, listening to the sound of a genin team arguing off in the west. They were too far for me to make out the words, but they didn't seem to be close enough to be a threat, so I set about finishing the freeze tags: edging them with blood to stop them from going off the second I put chakra into them and deciding on an impact fuse seal, even if they didn't always work – the timers would be unreliable for these ones.

I'd just finished when I realised that the genin team had stopped arguing and were now moving – and heading straight at us. "Shit. Sakura, three hostiles, approaching from the west. Be on your guard."

She gulped, then whispered, "Thanks. Be careful."

I frowned, wondering what she meant, then turned back to my best friend as he coughed weakly, chakra fluttering disconcertingly. I checked his pulse again, changing the cloth as I listened to the approaching team suspiciously and relaxing slightly as Sasuke's coughing fit calmed. The three advancing genin were just that: genin. Their chakra was normal, if with a different feel to most others, and it wasn't aged or shadowed.

All the same, three enemy genin was probably three more than my team could handle right now.

I heard a squirrel scurrying around, far too close to our camp, and cocked one eyebrow as I realised it had just escaped from the three genin, who had stopped moving for now. The sound of a kunai landing in the dirt made me twitch, and the squirrel bolted away. I guessed Sakura hadn't wanted it to set off whatever traps she had set up.

Then I heard voices, unfamiliar ones, talking quietly, out of most people's range of hearing. Well, sadly for them, I'm not most people.

"She noticed the explosive tag on the squirrel?"

There was a tag on the squirrel?

"I don't think so."

"Then what…"

"I think we'll find out if we get closer."

That was two males; I guessed the third was female, judging from footsteps and the usual way genin teams were set out, but I couldn't be certain. Exceptions to every rule and all that shit.

"So… let's get going."

I quietly warned my teammate, "Get ready, Sakura; they're coming."

She squeaked in fear, but I was preoccupied with Sasuke's violent shivering. Damn, he was just going from one extreme to the next!

I wondered vaguely what time it was. If I really tried, I could guess it from the lengths of shadows on the ground, or the strength of sunlight, but that was difficult, and not something I usually bothered with; I'd just ask Sasuke. Not to mention I could usually only tell 'day' and 'night'. But the thought fled my mind as I heard a male genin's voice, one of the ones from just earlier, say mockingly, "Keeping guard all night?"

I huddled down instinctively against the bark of the tree roots, wondering if they could see me. Hoping that the answer was 'no'.

"Wake up Sasuke-kun. We want to fight him."

I froze. Fight Sasuke? What the hell for? There were stronger, more impressive genin out there to prove themselves against, and we were unlikely to be targeted as easy prey. Okay, so we were rookies… I paid only vague attention to Sakura's sharp voice demanding various answers, preferring to mull over my own questions and put a comforting hand on Sasuke's shoulder when he shuddered, his chakra flashing tiredly. The internal fight was wearing him out. Hang in there, Sasuke…

"Hmm… I wonder what that man could be thinking…" There was a definite sneer in the guy's voice as he spoke, and I frowned slightly. That had something to do with 'that mark', the power flux in Sasuke's neck, which was still just as violent as before.

"But hearing that, we can't let you go," the other male added. "I'll kill you. And I'll kill this Sasuke-guy, too."

I bared my teeth. Yeah right. They'd have to get through me first!

"Wait, Zaku," said the first one, and I instantly pinned the name to the second male voice. "How unoriginal… What use is a trap if it's noticed?"

They spotted one of Sakura's traps?

"Che, how sad," 'Zaku' said snidely. "She threw the knife so the squirrel wouldn't get caught."

"Let's kill her now," said the first genin, and I could hear the malicious grin in his voice. My heart started to pound as I reached for a weapon, hearing all three of the enemies push off from their vantage points, all headed towards us, and then there was a sharp 'twang' as Sakura cut a wire. I raised my eyebrows at the size of the log I could hear swinging down towards them, and grinned. Sakura had definitely improved from the bratty fangirl who'd been a footstool in Sensei's bell test, thinking to trap the above as well as below.

Then there was an incredible blast of air – not sound, just air – that shoved against me, no doubt far more violent outside of the shelter. What the hell? I thought frantically, shifting my feet so that I was ready to move if I had to. I was about to charge out, weapons flying, when a voice made me relax as I realised we were okay, at least temporarily. Rock Lee had come to the rescue. Thank Kami-sama for his insane crush on Sakura and inability to back down from a challenge.

The blows I could hear landing sounded very painful, and I made a note to watch out for this guy (on top of all the other mental notes on Rock Lee. Seriously, there was enough mental paper in there to make a mental tree…). His taijutsu was very impressive, and his speed was nothing to sniff at.

I listened to them exchanging blows, half of my focus on Sasuke, who was groaning quietly between gritted teeth. I was starting to get really worried; the flux wasn't getting any better, I still had no clue what it was, and his system was getting exhausted from the constant fight. If I had better chakra control I might risk giving him a bit of my chakra to help fight whatever was the problem – my chakra was volatile enough to drive it out – but I didn't, so I couldn't.

Then I jerked and clapped my hands over my ears, gritting my teeth against a blast of air and ringing sound that shot needles of pain straight through my eardrums into the centre of my brain, hot pulses of fire burning in my head and making tears come to my eyes, which made the deep wound there sting. But I paid it no mind, forcing my hands even tighter over my ears and trying to block the painful noise.

Then it was gone, and I tried to drag myself back to the present, my skull still echoing with the vicious ringing. Other sounds, people talking, filtered through to my agonised mind, but I couldn't focus on them, my brain flickering from one thing to the next in a confused, pained jumble.

Slowly I regained my grip on my senses and consciousness, finding myself crouched on the ground beside Sasuke, my head in my hands. I could hear the Sound genin jeering as Sakura fought them – Sakura!

I shot to my feet at the sound of kunai meeting flesh and darted forwards to the entrance, trying to build a mental map of the situation. All I could tell was Sakura was in close quarters combat with – was it Zaku couldn't tell life signs right – and I could smell the blood and there was another team in the shrubbery but no that was just Team Ten – I hope to Kami they don't attack us – and I shouted, "Sakura, use a tag!"

I don't know if that was her original plan or not, but there was the tiny flare of chakra needed to activate a tag, and then she was scrambling away. I held my breath, waiting for the tag to blow, but nothing happened…

…until Zaku crumpled to the ground.

"Aw hell yes," I murmured, grinning. "Looks like the tranquilliser tags are a win."

"Zaku!" Yep, definitely a girl as the third party member. "What the hell? Get up, you lazy bum!"

No reply. I smirked. Aw hell yes.

"Che, do I have to do everything myself?" the girl complained, and suddenly she was standing above Sakura, making me stiffen in surprise. I'd heard her moving, but that was still rather impressive.

"You'll never survive as a kunoichi when you're more worried about your looks than your weapons," her cold voice said, and I heard Sakura yelp in pain, putting me on edge as I reached for a tag slowly. But if Sakura was there, she'd get caught in the blast – this wasn't going to be easy –

"I mean, your hair is perfectly silky smooth! Great for a model – useless for a ninja!" Sakura seemed to be being shaken – had she been grabbed from behind? No – she was being shaken by the hair – Kami, that had to hurt!

I seemed to have been forgotten temporarily, and I quickly flicked through my repertoire, trying to think of something I could do to save my teammate – and Sasuke's breathing was getting harsher by the minute. Explosive tags too strong, shock and flash tags too inclusive (I'd hurt Sakura too), other tags contact-based –

I heard the buckle of Sakura's weapons pouch clink, raising an eyebrow as Kin sneered, "What're you gonna do with that kunai? It's not like you're strong enough to actually hurt me!"

And Sakura's quiet reply: "It's not for you."

And the sound of a kunai slashing through hundreds of threads reached my ears.

Sakura's feet were suddenly moving again and my mind computed that she had cut her hair to escape, that there were now two free targets –

Let's see what these new freeze tags can do!

In an instant I had hurled two kunai unerringly at the remaining genin, and there was a yelp of shock that was cut off with an odd 'crack' through the air – not like bone snapping, something different. The second tag just exploded in a blizzard of freezing air on contact, making both me and its target – the male genin – curse. "Damn! What was wrong with that one? Although that was a cool wrong." The only thing better than a tag doing exactly was it was supposed to was a tag exploding in a whole new way! Hmm… I think that it was that node… did I…? I think I must have, if it reacted like that. The wind seal must have fed through one of those endothermic nodes too many times, overridden the diverter and built up a circular path… or even just enough power… that would probably do the trick…

"You little brat!" the girl snarled, and I glanced in her direction, wondering what had happened with the tag aimed at her. She was breathing heavily and – I thought – shaking slightly. Hm.

"What happened there?" I asked Sakura, pointing at the girl – Kin, I think was her name – who only cursed at me.

"You froze her feet to the ground," Sakura said, sounding awed.

"Awesome!" That had been the intended effect for these ones; I had finally gotten it to work! "Now, what shall I do with these idiots?"

"W-what about Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked, and I shrugged carelessly. He was behind me, and I could hear everything for ages. He was fine where he was for a minute or two.

Aloud I said, "Sasuke's just going to have to take care of his own unconscious ass for a while. Is Lee okay?"

"He's – he's out cold, and he's pretty beat up, that air-thing – his eardrums–"

"Messed with his balance," I muttered, nodding. "Yeah, I felt it. Bastards. I don't think it was strong enough for his ears to go entirely, though. He should be fine with a little recovery time."

I decided then and there that I hated Sound ninja. Their whole attack theme seemed incredibly unfair to me. I shook my head, trying to dispel the ringing. And it wasn't just this fight – since we'd come to the forest, it had been explosion after loud clash after screaming genin with no end in sight. In the midst of a battle, I had managed to dismiss the noise, but it irritated me in hindsight. And my head hurt. And I was dizzy. That creep, next time I met him I'd cut his eyes out, see how he liked it… grumble.

If I could find him again, that was. His voice and creepy snake-scent were ingrained in my memory, but I realised that I didn't have a name to match with the markers.

Eh. I'd ask Sasuke when he woke his ass up.

My eyes were still bleeding sluggishly, and I wondered idly if the euphoric I-don't-give-a-damn had something to do with that as I swivelled my head in a sick parody of looking around. Heh. Give the stuck-up Hyuuga in that tree nightmares, seeing me with blood dripping down my cheeks and bandages tight around my eyes.

But so far at least he hadn't attacked us, and as long as it stayed that way, I wouldn't have to deal with him. Instead I focused on the annoying Sound genin – the two who were still conscious, I mean. Number three probably wasn't getting up for a while. The girl was struggling, yelping occasionally as she tried to get free. If she'd had access to ranged weapons she'd probably have proved it already, so no danger there. It was the last one who could be dangerous if he wanted to. But with a little luck, and a lot of bravado, I might be able to scare him off.

Slowly, I let my head tilt to the side, and grinned. "Two down, one to go," I said conversationally. "Would a level two explosive tag be overkill, Sakura?"

"Um… maybe," she said uncertainly. Damn it, Sakura, you're supposed to be a genius! Catch on already!

"Aw, you never let me have any fun," I whined anyway. "You've seen them! It wouldn't cause that much of a mess!"

At this point Sasuke would have said something sarcastic along the lines of Is that the level two that exploded the giant snake all over your clothing or the level two that desiccated a square kilometre of heavy jungle? and while Sakura's response wasn't as good as his would have been, it still did the trick: "Naruto, I've seenyour apartment. Your idea of 'mess' does not tally with mine."

Well, as far as I knew, she'd never actually seen my apartment, so apparently she'd gotten the picture. Finally. I pouted, crossing my arms and looking as put out as I could manage. "What if they won't go away? Then can I?"

"Hmm…" She sounded like she was considering it, though the Sound guy didn't seem all that upset, and then something exploded well behind us, sparks and shrapnel dotting our little clearing. That was another team down…

"Oh, that's where I left that tag," I exclaimed, trying for delight. Sakura stifled a snort, and finally, finally, the last Sound genin folded.

"Very well." He shifted, feet scuffing the grass. "I concede defeat to a superior force. If I leave you my team's Earth Scroll, will you let me take my teammates and leave without further struggle?"

I automatically glanced at Sakura, thinking quickly as his female teammate spluttered and screeched. We didn't need another scroll – we had both, now; we were in the clear. On the other hand, if these guys didn't have a scroll, it would make it much harder for them to pass this exam. They'd aggravated my headache – which was now the size of a small country – harassed my teammate, and had been going after Sasuke. I wasn't feeling particularly charitable.

"Fine," I growled. "You turn up in my scope again before the end of this, and you'll find out what was making all those explosions earlier."

As the tired, defeated chakra of the Sound team faded away, my focus was drawn to the rest of Lee's team, who were standing over us but not moving. Yet.

I scowled up at their tree. "Are you going to come down and bother us, too?" I demanded, not willing to even try to be subtle.

"Are you going to try to fight us?" the Hyuuga asked in return. Annoying bastard, answering questions with questions. Neji, his name was… eh. At this point, I really didn't care. "Use one of those 'level two' explosive tags of yours to run us off?"

"No," I said frankly. "I mean, if I had to get rid of you guys I'd just hit you with a tranquillizer tag like the Sound dude got. You'd probably survive it… well, maybe. In here survival's more of a question than an answer."

There was a distinct pause as the two glanced at each other, before the girl I'd nearly trampled in that training exercise all those months ago cleared her throat and said carefully, "How about we just take Lee and get out of your hair?"

I could be perfectly happy with that arrangement, and told them so.

Team Ten, it seemed, had decided that discretion was the better part of valour, as I'd heard nothing from them for a long while, not so much as an intake of breath. Annoyingly I couldn't remember when that had happened, but if they'd decided to sneak off without bothering us, so much the better. I was in no mood to be dealing with more people now, not with Sasuke shifting again –

Sasuke!

I scrambled back to my fallen friend; he was panting, twitching, making odd, soft little noises that I couldn't classify, but his heartbeat was sharp and steady, and – his chakra was starting to settle, just a bit. It would clearly still hurt like a bitch, but hey, anything was a good sign at this point. "Sasuke? Hey, can ya hear me? Come on, man, if you can't hear me then I'm gonna have to get seriously worried about you…"

He groaned, and the tired, pain-filled sound was like music to my ears. "Oh, hell yes! How are you feeling? Come on, buddy, gimme somethin' to work with; pain, blood loss, numbness, somethin' ta do with your chakra 'cos that's some weird shit it's doing there –"

"Naruto, shuddup," he growled.

His voice was faint, hoarse, and gasping, a weak little cough punctuating the end of his sentence, but it was a response, for heaven's sake, a response.

However, it wasn't what I was looking for. "That's not an answer," I informed him crossly. "Come on, come on, come on, you were the idiot who didn't avoid the big scary chakra-dude, now own up to it and tell me what he did!"

The Uchiha tried to move and hissed in pain, slumping back. "How the hell should I know?" he panted. "Ugh… I had the craziest dream…"

"Good for you," I told him brusquely. "Can ya get up? We got blood everywhere again, we're gonna have to move soon."

"Good grief, can't you even sit still for five minutes without making a mess?" Sasuke demanded, now struggling to sit. It was obviously a lot more trouble than it was really worth, because he was forcing chakra into his muscles just to be able to move them right –

Chakra made a sharp crack against the ground where it sparked, the heat scorching the grass under his hand to a few blades of ash. Sasuke yelped and jerked his arm back, nearly toppling over – Sakura caught him – and I prodded thoughtfully at the burnt spot. "I take it you didn't mean to try to set us all on fire?" I said mildly, and my friend swore tiredly at me.

"Chakra just – flashed out," he huffed. "Can't control it…"

I rubbed my jaw, chewing absently on my lower lip as I thought about that. Sasuke's got real good control – when you play with fire most of the time, you have to be able to keep it in check, right? He'd never had the problems I did with random flares.

"The chakra flux," I said aloud, and Sasuke shifted. I read the question in the movement and continued, kicking my feet off to the side so I wasn't sitting on my heels as I did so. "Since you passed out, your chakra's been, like, freaking out. Looks pretty painful, but then what would I know. Anyway, your shoulder looks the worst, which is bad, because your chakra doing cartwheels near your brain is just never a good thing, so –"

"My shoulder?" he interrupted, shifting his hand – probably to rub at his collarbone. "That's… that's where he bit me…"

I gaped at him. "He bit you? Oh, gross, have you got any idea what that can do? Oh, that's disgusting…"

Sasuke poked me, and I quickly went back over what we'd been saying, trying to remember what I was supposed to be – oh, right. "So, um, I think that might have had something to do with it," I finished lamely. "Your chakra was going mad, so… I dunno. It doesn't seem to be doing anything now, so… maybe we can get Sensei to take a look at it later."

"Y-yeah, I guess so…" His hand moved again – from the next sound he was running it through his hair or rubbing his head or something. "Damn… that was such a weird dream…"

He seemed pretty bothered by it, and my broody Uchiha buddy usually brushed off dreams and nightmares and shit like they were bedbugs or something. "'Bout what?" I asked, wondering if it had anything to do with his chakra. With it in tune with the rest of you, it spazzing like that would do something to your head – maybe dreams…? Something to look into, maybe.

"Just… searching, for something I couldn't find," he murmured, and he was clearly very much out of it or he'd never have been talking about this in front of his already-devout fangirl. "There were… voices… but they didn't make sense. I couldn't figure out what they wanted, so I just sort of ignored them…"

He tried to sit up again, hissing in pain even when I tried to take some of his weight and Sakura supported his other side. "Damn, that Grass dude really did a number on you," I said slowly, still trying to gauge the real level of injury. "I guess… d'you know anything about him?"

The Uchiha, still breathing hard, managed to nod and murmur back, "Y-yeah… not much, I'll admit, and a lot of the crap he was spouting didn't make sense, but… he called himself Orochimaru."

…

"Nope, doesn't mean anything to me," I shrugged.

A few hours later, we stopped for a break, mostly because Sakura just about collapsed and began to cry, spluttering something unintelligible about my eyes and Orochimaru and being so scared and how she was sorry she hadn't been able to stop him from hurting us… it went on for a while, until Sasuke finally gave in and guided me to sit on the forest floor before moving towards the noise of Sakura's sobs. From her little wail and the thump of two bodies colliding, it sounded like she threw herself into his arms, and Sasuke for once didn't sidestep.

"It wasn't your fault," emo-boy murmured to her. "You did all you could. Sit down – come on, sit – and drink this." I tilted my head, interested. Was he giving her a drug to calm her down, or one to sedate her? I hoped it was the former, because I didn't think I could stand unaided anymore, and there was a weird and worrying tingling starting in my extremities. Sasuke, of course, was pretending to be fine, but I could tell he was shaken up as well. We needed all three of us awake to get out of here.

Still, after a few minutes' quiet sobbing, Sakura slumped over with an audible rustle of clothing, and I listened as Sasuke lowered her unconscious body to lay on the ground and moved back to sit beside me. Now was as good a time as any for a short break.

"Two days in, and we have two people out of three crippled already," he commented grimly, breaking the silence that had gripped our tiny camp (y'know, aside from the leaves and genin screaming from afar).

"Huh?" I glanced up from my boredom-and-stress-induced (and thus completely failed and pointless) attempts to replicate that explosive-freeze formula I'd used on the Sound genin.

"This stupid curse seal makes it dangerous for me to use chakra, and you're blinded – and this time there's no way to hide it."

There was a pause as I considered this. "You sure?"

"Yes. Sakura knows. Lee and his team know. Team Ten – no, scratch that, Shikamaru knows. The rest of his team maybe not, unless he tells them. You're not healing as fast as usual – there's absolutely no way for you to say 'I'm not blind'."

I grimaced, biting my lip. "Shit."

Sasuke didn't reply aloud, just shuffled closer and hugged me roughly around the shoulders. I sighed tiredly and went limp, leaning heavily against him, feeling exhausted and miserable. "What're we gonna do, Sasuke? I don't wanna go… but they won't let me be a ninja if I'm blind… that was the whole point of hiding it, I knew they'd never let me! I knew!"

I buried my face in his shoulder, eyes stinging viciously at the thought of being forced to quit being a ninja. I wouldn't be able to take it – my life as a ninja meant so much to me, and always had, even before I graduated. And Sasuke would be out on missions more and more often, and I'd be left without my best friend.

Sasuke awkwardly patted my head as I shuddered, trying not to sob, and said, "It's not over until it's over, Naruto. Don't give up now. Show them that you're meant to be a ninja, that it's in your heart and soul and you can't give it up!"

"Why bother?" I whispered, bloodied tears leaking from my broken eyes. "Why bother? They'll just drag me off, saying I'm a health hazard, a danger to my team – and you know what? They'd be right!"

Sasuke sighed, and I knew he was rolling his eyes.

SMACK!

"Ow!" I cringed, putting one hand to the back of my head.

"Snap out of it." I stared at him, confused, and he continued, "You're better than this, Naruto – you can and you will be better. Now get up; it's time to go."

I stood up slowly, listening to Sasuke checking his bag and waking Sakura, and smiled. Don't give up.

I guess it's only fair.

"H-How're you feeling?" Sakura asked timidly, and I grinned, masking my earlier despair all too easily.

"Been better, but hey, I'm conscious."

Sasuke walked over, brushing my arm to be sure he had my attention. "Can you carry your own pack or do you want me to? You lost a lot of blood."

I turned my head to him, offended. "What kind of prissy sap do you take me for?" I picked up my backpack and strapped it down properly, checking that I could reach my sealing scrolls more easily this time – I had refilled my pouch, but it never hurt to be cautious. If we ran into Orochi-freak or Gaara… I didn't want to think about it.

"Naruto, put your hand on my arm," Sasuke instructed me, pulling me from my worries and making me glare instead.

"Sasuke, I'm not a little kid who's gonna wander off!"

"I know," he said patiently. Then, very faintly, so faintly only I would be able to hear him, "But you're not supposed to be able to do this."

I bit my lip, realising the truth in his words. I wasn't supposed to have been blind for so long that this felt like being treated like I was four years old again. No one else knew. No one else could know. So I sighed harshly and put one hand on the soft cloth of his arm guard, letting my hand tighten around it a little like I was nervous.

"I'm going to start moving," he said, and took a step that I automatically followed, and we started off towards the tower. "We won't be doing tree-climbing – you'll only hurt yourself that way." There was an unspoken question in that comment – how did you manage it before?

"I'll learn," I said flatly, and then murmured as quietly as I could, "Nearly killed myself then. Listened for you and Saku, and aimed. All I could do."

Sasuke nodded, then said, after a few minutes of silent travel, "You're doing good – look out for that rock."

I half-paused, and felt around with my foot to find the offending stone before stepping over it. Sakura was silent beside us – probably didn't know what to say, how to handle this. My head was pounding, but I didn't say anything – it wasn't too distracting, and there wasn't much I could do about it, either. Maybe I should think about modifying the tranquilliser tags into instant painkillers…

Then I twitched, and whipped around, a handful of shuriken already flying at the chakra source hiding in the trees, and as it dodged aside with the speed of someone far above genin I stiffened and threw more – the chakra was slightly shielded, maybe maybe jounin level – only one, were his team hanging around – he'd deflected one of my weapons, using a kunai – I smelled snake.

The smell invaded my nose, the same – the same – as the bastard who'd cut my face in half, the one who'd done that to Sasuke, who'd made Sakura cry.

A wave of fear, fear reserved for the one who'd made my eyes useless accessories in the first place rose up in an unprecedented wave. My tired, confused mind overlapped with nightmares, old memories locked away long ago that still stalked my footsteps, and through it all was the snakes, the smell of them, there, here, now, him –

My heart leaped up into my throat and stuck, making breathing hard, and Sasuke was saying something but it was too late it was too late I was gone they were here I could hear themfeelthemsmellsnake and just like that, I bolted.

I only got a few paces before a root underfoot snagged my ankle and sent me sprawling, my head smashing against the tree I'd have run into two steps later anyway. I screamed aloud as the rough bark smashed into my temple and dragged across my face, across my eyes, jostling Sakura's bandage, sending fire flooding through my body, rippling in agonising waves from my eyes and ohgod there was blood but I had to go I had to leave I couldn't stay notagainnotagainnot-

"Naruto!"

Sasuke. My panicking mind latched onto the voice and I stopped flailing, letting him disentangle me from the tree and its low-hanging branches and pull me into a tight hug. "It's okay, Naruto, you need to calm down," he murmured. "It's okay. You're safe."

I shook my head, unable to tell him how not safe we were, but I was getting dizzy and feeling the ground tilt precariously under me, so I just clung tighter and whimpered when he loosed his hug and instead pulled me to my feet.

"Holy hell, Naruto, what happened to you?" a voice exclaimed, and I instantly pinned the false friendliness as Kabuto. How does he know my name? I don't understand he smells snakesnakesnakesnake no not quite almost snake? "Are you okay? That looks nasty – I'm a medic-nin, let me take a look at that –!"

"Get lost," I growled straight away, pretending I couldn't hear the half-sob in my voice. Lifting a hand cautiously, I gingerly touched my cheeks, where I could feel moisture, and brought newly-slicked fingers to my mouth. The coppery tang of my blood flooded my mouth and I gagged, then whimpered a little to think how much blood I had to be losing, and tightened my grip on Sasuke. No more running off on my own and re-opening barely closed wounds.

"Naruto, if he's a medic-nin, maybe you should–" Sakura tried.

"No! Get lost!"

"Naruto, let me help you, that must hurt!" Kabuto pleaded.

"Stay away from my eyes, you creep! I said GET LOST!"

"I think you should leave, Kabuto," said Sasuke firmly, his right hand on his weapons pouch. I almost collapsed with relief that Sasuke was on my side – what else is new? – and finally, my panic began to abate a little.

I didn't relax until Kabuto's signature had backed away from us hurriedly and was too faint and far off to really sense. Then I breathed a heavy sigh of relief and put one hand to my head. "Thanks, Sasuke."

"No problem."

"I don't see why you had to be so rude," Sakura said stiffly, and I tilted my head in her direction just slightly, wondering how she could manage to scold me now of all times, for that of all things.

"Have you forgotten what I told you at the start?" I asked brokenly. "We can't trust Kabuto. His deception skills would put jounin to shame – I think he may actually be a jounin, judging from his speed and chakra," I added as an afterthought.

"But he's a Konoha nin!" Sakura argued.

Sasuke turned his head, to look at me, I think. "He isn't, is he?"

I shook my head slowly, not wanting to aggravate the headache. My chin and jaw were wet and dripping onto my shoulders, I realised dimly, but pushed the thought aside before it could panic me. "No. He reeks of snakes – like that guy from Grass. I don't trust him, and I wouldn't let him near me on a good day, let alone now."

"We can't trust anyone out here," Sasuke put in. "Our only option is to head for the tower. It's all we can do."

By the time we made it to the large structure in the centre of the Forest my head was thudding painfully in time with my heartbeat and I was starting to stumble, my feet not quite following where I wanted them to go. I felt exhausted, leaning on Sasuke heavily, and I felt dizzy and light-headed at the same time as my blood being made of lead.

"Hang in there, Naruto, we've made it to the tower," Sasuke said, and I frowned in confusion. Tower… we were heading for the Tower, that's right… Why was that?

"What do these hangings say…" Sakura mused, and I thought dully, What hangings? Why'd the wind stop? Are we inside? "Heaven and Earth… mind and body…"

"Forget the riddle!" my friend said sharply, and I vaguely felt someone tapping my face. Are they trying to get me to wake up? Why is that… I am awake… "Naruto, come on, don't die on me now!" I'm not gonna die on you, teme…

"Should we open the scrolls?" Sakura asked anxiously. "I mean, Anko said not to until we got to the tower, and, well, we're here…"

"At this stage I don't really care," Sasuke declared, and tugged gently at my jacket – to get at my scroll, that's right – there was a rustling of paper – I guessed they had opened the scrolls – and there was a rush of smoky warm air.

"Yo."

Kakashi-sensei's lackadaisical greeting roused me from my bloodloss-induced stupor and I pulled my head off Sasuke's shoulder to smile weakly at him. "Hi, sensei. We made it."

"Naru – Naruto!" he choked out, sounding horrified. "What the f – what the hell happened?"

"Orochi-freak happened," I mumbled tiredly. "Bastard nearly killed us, and of course the other genin thought a rookie team was easy prey. Stupid lazy bastards."

Kakashi put one hand on my shoulder and I twitched at the unexpected contact. His other hand gently gripping my opposite elbow, he shifted my weight off Sasuke and then carefully lowered me to the floor, letting me sit down, to my relief – I wasn't sure how long I could stand up on my own.

"Sasuke, what happened? Naruto, I'm going to take off the bandages to have a look," Kakashi said calmly. His hands started to unwrap the gauze binding my eyes, keeping one hand on my shoulder.

"We were being followed when we first entered the forest, and after we threw them off Naruto got separated from us when a giant snake came after us," my best friend explained. "A couple of genin tried to infiltrate, but we had a password, and it didn't work. Then this snaky guy calling himself Orochimaru–" I thought I heard Kakashi-sensei inhale sharply at the name, but I might have been imagining it "– comes out of nowhere and starts babbling about power and skill, and goes to eat his scroll. Naruto jumped out of the trees and grabbed the scroll, and then we started to fight him. I don't really remember much of the fight…"

"Naruto, I'm going to clean some of the blood away to get a better look at this, okay?" our sensei told me calmly, and I just nodded blearily as Sasuke continued.

"But Orochi-freak went to cut Naruto in half, and he dodged it, but wasn't quite fast enough, and the sword slashed his eyes instead. I got knocked out soon after that, so I don't know how you guys drove him off."

"He left," I said flatly, wincing slightly as Kakashi-sensei wiped semi-congealed blood away from the gash over my eyes that had finally stopped actively bleeding, now just oozing sulkily. "I guess he got what he came for, or maybe he just got bored. Ow!" Kakashi was now dabbing at my eyes with a cold cloth, and I whimpered as the disinfectant began to sting, shuddering and going stiff as my head began to hurt again, gritting my teeth weakly.

"Sakura, could you go down the hall and take the first door on the left, and ask for a medic, please?" Kakashi asked, then shook my shoulder gently, saying, "Come on, Naruto, stay with me."

"But Sensei, I'm tired,"I mumbled. "I didn't sleep last night, or the night before, and that's totally unfair, and I'm sleepy… and cold. It's… cold…"

I heard shouting and made a face internally – I was too tired to deal with the others being irrationally loud. Was I being shaken? I couldn't really feel it – I couldn't feel my hands or feet – couldn't feel where I was touching the floor – sensing things as if I was a hundred miles away. Sasuke was shouting "Wake up!" – go away, teme, I want to sleep – and Kakashi saying loudly, "Naruto, stay with me now, squeeze my hand if you can hear me."

Why would I need to squeeze his hand? I didn't even know I was holding it, but I tightened the muscles in my hand anyway, my fingers stiff and unresponsive, numb, heavy, unfeeling.

I heard an unfamiliar voice say something faintly about adrenaline and painkillers before all the sounds faded away, leaving me in a blissful, painless void.

Then I gasped and jerked, a stinging pain in my neck as feeling rushed through my body, shuddering with the shock of it. I shoved myself into a sitting position off the floor, shaking my head dizzily, not even aware I had collapsed. "Ow, what the hell?" I complained, putting one hand to my neck.

"Shock," said a voice I didn't know – the medic, I assumed. "I'm surprised he lasted as long as he did – you said this happened twenty seven hours ago?"

"Yes," said Sasuke from my left; I could feel his hand on my forearm through my longsleeved shirt. "First day of the exam, late afternoon. He bashed his head a little while ago, though, and the bleeding started again…" He trailed off helplessly.

"Hm. Tough little thing, you are. Now I'm gonna give you a painkiller, kid, so don't fight me, alright? What's his bloodtype – I'm going to need to give him a transfusion as soon as possible." Unfamiliar hands grasped my arm and turned it over, and I flinched as the needle slid under my skin, depositing the drug into my system. A moment later, those same hands slid up to my collar and dug for my dogtags.

"Naruto, I'm going to stand up. Just stay where you are," Kakashi instructed me, before standing up like he'd said he would, but he didn't move away.

"We made it to the tower okay, then," I decided, tilting my head slightly. "So you managed not to lose the scrolls, teme?"

Sasuke sighed and patted my arm. "No, dobe, we didn't lose them. You, however, lost a lot of blood."

"Eh heh, sorry about that." I grinned sheepishly, then looked up at our sensei and said, "So, Kakashi-sensei, what do we do now?"

"All three of you are going to go to the hospital to get checked and fixed up," Kakashi replied calmly, and I frowned slightly in confusion.

"Not that, sensei, I meant for the chuunin exams. What comes next?"

Kakashi sighed sadly. "Naruto, Team Seven won't be continuing. You'll have to be disqualified."

"WHAAAT?" I howled, thrashing on the floor as the medic yelped. "WHY? We're allowed to get medical help once we get here! We brought both the scrolls, none of us died! Why would we be disqualified?"

"Because, Naruto, one of the requirements is that none of you are incapacitated, unconscious or otherwise unable to fight when you reach the tower," Kakashi explained patiently. "You can't fight, so your team cannot continue."

"What? I can still fight!" I shouted indignantly, struggling to sit up and ignoring the medic's protests. "So I had a little fainting thing a moment ago – I'm okay! Honest!"

"Naruto…" I smacked Sasuke on the back of the head, and he yelped. "Ow!" Then (purely reflexively) he punched me in the shoulder in retaliation.

"Ow!" I whined.

Kakashi sighed heavily in exasperation, and I grinned. "I'm fine, Kaka-sensei! I can still fight! We can keep going easy!"

"Naruto, you can't," our sensei said firmly, and I bared my teeth, chakra starting to flare up angrily.

"I can, Kakashi-sensei!" I snapped, and Sasuke sighed faintly from beside me, but didn't try to interrupt. "I'm not helpless! I might not be at my best right now but I can still put up a damn good fight! We can pass the second exam!"

The medic cleared his throat and made us all turn our heads towards him, me cocking my head slightly. "Excuse me, Hatake-san, but your genin is correct. He may not be able to fight particularly well, but he can… well, he can hold a kunai and stand up, so technically he's not disabled or incapable of fighting. They are allowed to continue. Technically."

There was a long pause, with a steady rise in killer intent that was aimed at the medic. I couldn't help grinning; Kakashi-sensei glaring was always interesting, provided it wasn't me he was glaring at. "Oh yeah! I love technicalities!" I cheered, albeit in a much more subdued manner than my norm.

"Naruto, maybe this isn't a good idea," Sakura tried.

Sasuke snorted. "Don't bother. His mind's made up. No point in arguing with him now; he's too stubborn." I stuck my tongue out at him, and the medic seemed to reach the end of his (justifiably limited) patience.

"You may discuss this later," he said urgently. "Nothing will happen until the exam finishes in a few days, and right now I need this genin in the hospital wing. Girl, you run ahead and tell them to have two litres of B positive blood ready and waiting. Hatake, Uchiha, help me get him up – Naruto, you need to stay still now, okay? You've lost a lot of blood, so we have to stop the bleeding and give you some more. It's going to be okay, but you need to stay awake. Talk to me…"

I felt hands lifting me, but didn't even compute the indignity of it, falling away from the conscious world.

"…and so, with the excessive damage to the cornea and aqueous humour, not to mention the wounds to the irises, it is unlikely that–"

"Look, could you just cut the doctor jargon and speak to me in Japanese like a normal person?" I asked impatiently. It was roughly a day later, and I was being discharged from intensive care. Yay. Now, if I could just understand what the good doctor was telling me… "I don't speak medical lingo."

The doctor sighed, sounding annoyed, and Sasuke stifled a snort from beside me, making me grin. "I meant, Uzumaki-san, that your eyes are so damaged it's not medically possible that you'll ever be able to see again. You were permanently blinded."

There was a long pause as I waited for the doctor to continue, but that seemed to have been the ultimatum. "Sooo…" I said slowly, "what about the other injuries? Any broken bones I should know about and can't remember? Hit my head one too many times? Burns, sprains, all that crap."

The doctor sighed again, more irritably this time, and papers flipped. "Minor concussion. Minor to moderate blunt force trauma. Various contusions and deep tissue trauma. Various small to medium cuts. Slight strain in left wrist, presumably from falling on it. Severe gash to the head, causing extreme damage to the eyes. Moderate to major blood loss. Shock. That about covers it."

"Really? That's it?" I was mildly surprised. "Nothing broken? That's new."

"Well, there's a stress fracture or two in your skull, but nothing worth mentioning."

"Great!" I said cheerfully, pushing myself off the bed. "A couple of days rest and I'll be ready for whatever this exam has left to throw at us!"

The doctor patted my shoulder in a way I think he meant to be comforting. "Alright, you can go now. Uchiha-san, your room is on this floor, room one hundred and thirty-seven; take a left from here, a right down the corridor and it's halfway down the hallway. Take Uzumaki-san there and get some sleep, ok? I need to speak with your teacher."

Sasuke led me down the hallway silently, holding my wrist gently, and I couldn't help shifting my head so that I would appear to be looking at things as we went. It was habit, now, ingrained from years of practise. But even though I could vaguely sense out the area from our echoing footsteps, I asked, "What's this place look like, anyway?"

"Stone walls, metal doors," Sasuke replied. "Floor seems to be stone, but I could be wrong. Fairly well-lit, electric lights and so on. There are metal numbers nailed to the walls beside each door – I guess they're the room numbers. We just passed one hundred – must be nearly there."

I nodded my thanks, and paused a few minutes later as Sasuke pulled himself to a stop. There was the sound of a door opening, and then I heard Sakura yelp slightly – she hadn't taken long to be checked over, and so had apparently been sent ahead. "Oh! Sasuke-kun, Naruto! What did the doctor say?"

I scratched my head. "There was a whole lot of medical jargon, but I somehow avoided breaking any bones. Couple of stress fractures, blood loss, cuts, bruises and so on, but hey! No bones! That's good news!"

There was a pause, and Sasuke muttered, "I believe she meant what he said about your eyes, dobe."

"Oh yeah." Heat rushed to my cheeks and I rubbed the back of my head sheepishly. Well, what do you want me to tell her? I seriously didn't get all the medical crap!

Sasuke sighed. "OK. Just sit on the bed; head left to the wall and follow it." I'll tell her; you're too dense to do it gently.

I ran my hand along the wall until I ran into the bed, sitting down on it with a sigh of relief as Sasuke said quietly, "The doctor told us the outlook was… very bad. There was a poison on the sword – it's a miracle it didn't kill him – and the damage done was… extensive. Sakura… Naruto was blinded. And it's permanent. There's nothing anyone can do."

The girl gasped slightly, but I was starting to feel really sleepy… must have been the painkillers…

I let my mind slip away.

Kakashi's Log

…Sensei, I'm sorry.

I'm a failure as a teacher.

I know you'll never forgive me for everything I've done, but I'm sorry, and I always will be.

Further up, Naruto used 'Japanese' as his descriptive word for his language. This is because, while he is currently speaking English (for all technical purposes, anyway), the true language of the Naruto fandom is, in fact, Japanese. Writing him saying 'English' there was too painful to even contemplate. If I was fluent, I'd write this in Japanese, but I'm not, so I won't. If I ever get good enough I might try it just for the laughs.

New jutsu, since I forgot to put them in last time:

Shikumi no Jutsu (Death Foreseeing Technique, which is a bit of a mouthful)
An interesting jutsu that uses a combination of genjutsu and pure killer intent to show the opponent their own (usually quite violent) death, causing paralysis. Understandably most people, even ninja, are a bit unnerved by this, and put off their game by the technique.
Why didn't it affect Naruto, to stave off most of the questions? Most genjutsu require eye contact, and killer intent doesn't bother him as much as it does most people. The whole jutsu probably just went clean over his head.

Zankuuha (Decapitating Air Wave)
This one's not named in the chapter, but one of the Sound genin used it. Naruto described it as a 'blast of ringing sound', which is actually fairly accurate. The user (Zaku, if anyone cares) here has mechanical implants in his arms that can manipulate sound waves and air pressure to create supersonic blasts of air, which can and does mess with the vibrations of the inner ear and completely destroy your balance.

Mud Clone (I cannot find the Japanese for this, and don't trust my translator at the moment)
Pretty much what it sounds like – a clone made of earth instead of water or shadows or illusion. Easier to make than mizu bunshin, since there's dirt everywhere, takes less chakra than a kage bunshin, and of about mid-strength. Can be difficult to dispel. Some fan fact says Orochimaru can make them reform when they're destroyed, but I'm still sceptical about that.

Oh, and a few people commented that Naruto was 'unaffected' by massive explosions going off practically underneath him. It's the difference between a scratch when wandering your garden, and a scratch while in the jungle running madly away from hungry tigers. At home you'd wail and complain and insist on a bandaid, but in the jungle, you've got bigger things to worry about. It's not that he wasn't affected – he was just preoccupied. I think this chapter described it better, but if not… there you go.

Why do I have to keep explaining stuff? Am I really that poor a writer that none of this is implied in-text?