A/N - I'm not too happy with some of the fight scenes, but they were the best I could come up with. Sorry it took me awhile to update, but when hardly anyone reviewed on the previous chapter, I felt kinda down.

I DON'T OWN NARUTO, THOUGH IT WOULD BE KINDA FUN… HE HE HE..

"Don't underestimate us."

The bold statement came from Tenten, kunai finding their way into her hands as if by magic. "We'll surprise you."

The brown-haired Sound nin glared at her. "Mere children cannot even begin to hope to defeat us."

"Want to bet? How about using your lives as the bargaining chips?" Kiba snarled, Akamaru next to him and chewing on something. As the nin-dog began to grow and change color, the two forces collided.

Under their masks, Neji and Hinata had their Byakugan activated, hands open and glowing with blue chakra.

Kakashi eyed the male Sound nin who approached him, both his normal eye and the Sharingan one watching under the mask for any signs of movement, or hints as to what his specialty was. The Sound nin cackled. "This is going to be fun."

Suddenly he launched a jumping/spinning kick at Kakashi, forcing the Copy nin to back up before adding other kicks, punches, knifehands and backfists.

The Sound nin was quick, Kakashi realized. And he wasn't using chakra at all to help him move from one place to another, or to add more power to his movements. He was fighting just like Gai and Lee, but he couldn't match their speed; even Lee was faster than this guy. Well, this was halfway easy to fix.

Kakashi had already seen a problem with the nins attacks against him. He either started his attack with a jumping spinning to the head or tried to sweep his legs. Kakashi took out two kunai, one in each hand.

"Going to finally take this battle seriously, are you, Leaf Nin?" the man demanded, lowering himself into a crouch. "About time."

Kakashi shrugged and answering the most bored sounding voice he could muster. "If I must, though I'm wasting my time with you."

Shouting in anger the nin leapt at Kakashi, who sent a kunai to where the Sound nin would be; one low, the other high.

A scream pierced the air as blood sprayed onto the ground.

Naruto and Kyiara were traveling as fast as they could and remain silent, the gray stone mass now towering over them. The two stopped abruptly, both sensing the overpowering presence of one particularly evil person; Orochimaru.

"Well well. Tsunade sends two children here to fight my best soldiers?" The snake Sannin slowly emerged from the ground.

Naruto and Kyiara both dropped into fighting stances. "Where's Sasuke?" Naruto demanded.

Orochimaru smirked. "Naruto-kun, I presume? You are here for Sasuke-kun? He came here on his own accord, of his own free will."

Naruto snorted. "Yeah, sure he did. After you brain-washed him into thinking you would help him against his brother."

Orochimaru raised an eyebrow in mock surprise. "Of course I said that; and that is what I have done, Naruto-kun. He has grown much stronger under my teaching. Much, much stronger than you will ever be, even with the Kyuubi helping you."

"We'll see about that!" Naruto shouted, and tried to leap at Orochimaru; Kyiara held him back. "You are here to fight Sasuke, Naruto-kun. Not Orochimaru. Leave him and Kabuto to me."

Orochimaru turned his gaze onto her, acting as if he hadn't noticed her before then. "Who is your friend, Naruto-kun? Another weak-willed and weak-bodied Konoha Genin or Chuunin?"

Naruto growled. "I'm not going to tell you anything about Cat."

"No need, Naruto-kun. I know who she is…"

The Sound nins were receiving the shock of their lives. The Genin they had been told to defeat before moving onto the main battle were proving to be harder to bring down than even Orochimaru had thought. Almost everyone on both sides was sporting at least one small wound.

Lee was grinning as he ran circles around the male Sound nin he was fighting, occasionally sending in a punch or kick. Suddenly he halted right in front of his opponent. Still smiling, he lashed out with a side kick that would've knocked over a tree, sending the nin crashing into a tree trunk. He didn't get up.

Kiba and Akamaru were circling their opponent, a female who seemed to be pulling kunai out of thin air. Both Kiba and Akamaru bore deep scratches that were a testament to how good her aim was. "Had enough yet, dog boy? Or do you want to continue down the path to a slow, painful death?"

Akamaru, still in his huge dog form was next to his master; human and dog saw something at the same time. Launching themselves at the woman, Kiba snarled, "The problem with you Sound nins is that you don't care about each other and thus lack true teamwork!"

Scowling the Sound nin sent a volley of kunai at both Kiba and Akamaru. One clipped Akamaru's leg; another embedded itself in Kiba's shoulder. Swearing in pain, Kiba leapt back. The female Sound nin laughed. "What were you saying about teamwork being superior?"

Kiba glared at her, blood running down his jacket. "Shut up!"

She tapped her chin with a kunai. "What if I don't want to shut up? What if I want you to shut up instead, dog boy?"

"Good luck in doing so!"

The Sound nin whirled around toward the voice only to have a kunai thrown by Tenten imbed itself in her chest.

The woman fell to the ground, gasping. "How - how did you -" she died.

Kiba started as the kunai in his shoulder vanished, as did the pain and blood. "What the - those were all illusions? Holy crap, that kunai in my shoulder sure felt real!"

Tenten glared at him. "Shut up, dog boy. We aren't out of this yet."

"…Kyiara-san." Orochimaru's lip curled in a sneer. "So you managed to evade my assassin team, kudos to you. You may have escaped from them but you won't escape from me and my assistant. He has been a wonderful tool and warrior -"

"I know damn well who he is, snake bastard!" Kyiara spat. "He is my brother!"

"Correct, Kyiara-san. But now is not the time for the two of us to reminisce about the past." He started to sink back into the earth. "My two fighters are waiting for both of you at the caves."

Without a word the two Genin headed for the caves.

Both Sasuke and Kabuto were standing on ledges halfway up the rocky cliff face on either side of the cave, arms folded over their chests. Orochimaru appeared out of the earth about them.

"Do we have Konoha ninjas coming for us, Orochimaru-sama?" Kabuto asked.

"We do indeed, though I am disappointed in how badly we were underestimated yet again by Tsunade. It's just two Genin, one of which you would be most interested to fight, Sasuke-kun."

Sasuke smirked coldly. "Let me guess; Konoha's number one loudmouth and dead last Genin, Uzumaki Naruto. A one-time teammate of mine."

"Yes." Orochimaru glanced at the other waiting nin. "Kabuto, I want you to take care of the other one. He should be most interesting for you to fight."

"Yes, Orochimaru-sama."

Below them two masked figures emerged from the leafy undergrowth, and both stopped dead, looking up.

"SASUKE!"

Sasuke looked down with an almost bored expression at his one-time teammate. "What is it, Naruto-baka? Come to try and take me back to that loser village?"

Naruto growled but said nothing. Amazingly.

Kabuto cocked his head at the masked nin with Naruto. It was a female, dressed almost like he used to. Actually the only part of his outfit that had been altered was the removal of the collar of his shirt. He still wore the amethyst crystal even though it was now useless. It reminded him of the Orochimaru's promise when he wanted to run away from what he was asked to do.

The female ninja's chakra was so varied it was shocking, though he didn't let the emotion show on his face. He recognized Sharingan as well as Byakugan, and a very powerful healing ability. There were others, but even Kabuto wasn't totally sure of what they might be.

The cat mask turned to face him. "Long time no see, Kabuto."

Kabuto cocked his head at her. "Don't believe I remember you. What is your name?"

"Get down here and fight me; you'll remember soon enough."

Kabuto sighed. "Very well." he leaped down and landed in front of her. Straightening and adjusting his glasses he said, "Let's get this over with."

Orochimaru nodded to Sasuke who also jumped down, landing a ways away from Naruto. "Come on, baka. We're going to fight somewhere where we won't be bothered."

Kyiara and Naruto exchanged a look. "Let's bring our precious people home."

"This ends now, you two." Orochimaru said. "Neither of you will walk away from here alive, just as your childish companions out there in the forest will not." He nodded to his two warriors. "Kill them."

Kakashi didn't even blink as his first attacker fell to the ground, dead. The second woman nodded. "Very good. I can see you're quick; but are you as quick as I am?" she vanished.

Under his mask, Kakashi's eyes, both normal and Sharingan, widened. This Sound nin had the same 'wind riding' chakra power as Kyiara did. Doubtless Orochimaru had gotten it from the same clan.

Kakashi felt a booted foot connect with his side, sending him crashing into a nearby tree. He got to his feet, squinting as he looked about, trying to see where the next attack would come from… and failed.

This time a backfist hit him on his temple. Kakashi was able to turn himself in midair so he landed on his feet. At the last moment Kakashi saw the punch aimed at his stomach and blocked it and the following strikes.

It seemed that being able to ride the wind moved a person from place to place faster than even his Sharingan eye could follow, but that person needed to slow down to be able to execute their moves properly, and it was slow enough that he could see them coming at the last minute. But she was attacking at completely random places, and thus he was unable to guess where the next attack might come from. He was just going to have to take his chances at attack her one of these times.

"What's wrong?" the other female taunted. "Is she too quick for you?"

Kakashi ignored her and concentrated on his opponent. She had stopped her flurry of movement two yards away from him, breathing heavily. She hadn't used any hand seals, so it would be next to impossible for him to copy her kekkai genkai. Using the Nara clan kekkai genkai of locking shadows with their opponents would also be practically useless in this fight. But there was something else…Kakashi straightened, coming to a decision. He took a step back, lowering one hand and wrapping the other around his wrist.

"Chidori!"

A/N - Like I said, the fight scenes suck, but I did the best I could. Thank you to NEHXAA16 and WHITE ALCHEMIST TAYA For reviewing on the previous chapter. THANK YOU AND A PLATE FULL OF COOKIES!!!

And speaking of reviewing, anyone who is reading this story and liking it, please, please review! A writer who hears almost nothing or no good or constructive about his or her work gets sad. DON'T LET ME BE SAD!!!