Naruto != mine

AN-
Thank you, readers, and my reviewer, Furionknight. However, though I am enjoying writing this and will still post anyways, can you please tell me how I'm doing? I won't hold any future chapters hostage, but I was wondering how I was doing now that I'm 8 chapters into this.

~Chapter 8~

Team 7 were nearing the end of their first day of the second stage of the Chunin Exams, and they had already had a team from Amegakure try to catch them off guard by impersonating Naruto, who had been away on a bathroom break. The Ame team had been dealt with, but unfortunately they too had an earth scroll, which Ren took into his keeping. They reunited with Naruto and continued on, only to run into a creepy Kusa genin who barraged them with untold amounts of killing intent.

Attempting to avoid conflict, Sasuke offered up his earth scroll, only to have it ripped in half. The genin revealed their true identity, Orochimaru, the traitorous Snake Sannin, and proceeded to hit Naruto with some sort of seal and sent him flying off with a powerful wind jutsu. Ren, meanwhile, pulled out his earth scroll and pressed it into Sakura's hand. "Keep it safe," he said urgently in an undertone. Sakura nodded and put the scroll in her shuriken pouch. "Sasuke, take Sakura and run. I'll try to hold him off. Get out of here, don't stop for anything," Ren ordered, assuming a one-handed defensive stance in front of Sakura and Sasuke, Mizuchi drawn. His teammates followed the order without question, leaving him alone with the traitorous Sannin.

Orochimaru chuckled, rolling his shoulders. "So the little Senju fancies himself a swordsman. Let's see how good you really are with that blade," the Sannin said before regurgitating the Kusanagi no Tsurugi from his gullet. "I know this is probably a moot point, but is that strictly necessary? I mean, besides the fact that it is absolutely disgusting and potentially unnerving, what point is there to have to vomit up your sword every time you want to use it? Or did the sheath clash with your ass bow?" Ren snarked. Orochimaru merely smirked at him.

"Ah, you are a clever one. However, I have an appointment to make." Orochimaru suddenly launched himself forward in a lunge, resembling a striking snake, and tried to skewer Ren. However, he was foiled by Ren both sidestepping and parrying. Orochimaru landed lightly on his feet and started to circle Ren, looking for openings to exploit. Seeing an opportunity, Ren suddenly lunged himself, shifting to reverse grip as he did, going for a vicious disemboweling slash across the Snake Sannin's stomach as he passed. However, this was easily evaded by the use of a substituted mud clone.

"Tsk, tsk, sacrificing range and control for power, how amateurish," Orochimaru lectured from an overhead branch before he leapt downward with a helm breaker which was easily evaded by Ren, who merely rolled to the side. Then it became a straight aerial duel, with Ren doing all he could to stall the Snake Sannin and draw him away from his team. "Your loyalty to your teammates is admirable, Ren-kun. Too bad your sacrifice is pointless. The orange one is already dead and digesting by now, and the weak girl and Sasuke-kun will die soon as well," Orochimaru taunted from a high branch.

Ren's only response was a barrage of water bullets from a single, one-handed seal. "Ah, you are a talented little genin, aren't you?" Orochimaru said, appearing from behind a tree on ground level. After several more exchanges, Ren was panting, low on chakra, and bleeding in a few places. Sheathing Mizuchi, Ren quickly made seals. "Suiton: Mizurappa!" A cone of high pressure water was released from his mouth which tore up the ground and the tree where Orochimaru stood, but missed when the traitor leapt up into the trees once more. "As much as I've enjoyed this, I have a date with Sasuke-kun. Have fun with the snakes," Orochimaru vanished and reappeared on the forest floor placed his hand on Ren's back and the tired Senju vanished in a large cloud of smoke. When the smoke had cleared, Ren found himself in a dry, grassy area with flat-topped stones all around. And, on every stone was a snake sunning itself. "Oh, shit," was all Ren could say as dozens of snakes of all types and sizes rose up around him, hissing angrily.

It had been nearly an hour, and Ren was in a sorry state. A snake had gotten a bite in on him despite his evasion attempts, and it made him steadily slower and unsteadier, until he eventually fell unconscious. A large constrictor was about to twine itself around him when a massive eagle swooped in and lifted Ren in it's claws. It took him to a large aerie in the side of a mountain above the clouds and deposited him in a nest at the center in front of a massive eagle with golden plumage and a steel-colored eagle the size of a large dog which was perched next a large scroll. It was this sight which greeted Ren when he awoke. He started to panic, but the snake venom still had him paralyzed and the smaller eagle spoke. "Calm yourself. We have no wish to harm you. In fact, we have an offer for you," the steely eagle said. It had a stern, hoarse voice, and an air of both pride and wisdom. "We want you to become our summoner," the massive one said sternly, cutting to the chase. "May I ask why?" Ren said, eyeing them suspiciously and flexing his muscles as the snake venom wore off. "I am Buchi, Senju-san, and this is Washinushi, our leader. The reason for our offer is that we have had our clan members observing the Elemental Nations for some time, trying to find someone who is worthy to sign our contract. You are the one we have chosen. You are observant, intelligent, skilled, noble, and proud. All of these are traits we value in our own. Thus, we have chosen you as our first summoner. Do you accept?" Washinushi said. "I would be honored, Washinushi-sama, Buchi-sama," Ren said, bowing. "Sign here in blood, please," Buchi said, unrolling the scroll. Ren pulled out a kunai and pricked his fingertip, using the blood that welled up to sign his name. "The contract is made. Now, the hand signs for the summoning jutsu are…" Once Ren had learned the summoning jutsu, he asked for Buchi to send him back to the Forest of Death, near where he had been sent from.

He arrived in a clearing to find a very large bear attacking a bespectacled redhead girl with a Kusa hitai-ate. He quickly drew Mizuchi and leapt forward, tired muscles fueled by chakra and adrenaline. Sinking Mizuchi into the bear's back, he was shaken off before he could do anything else. Deprived of his weapon, Ren made seals. "Suiton: Suiben," he said, a water whip growing in his left hand. He lashed out with the whip and snared the bear's ankle as it rose on its hind legs to swat away the Senju with an enormous paw. Ren dodged the swipe and rolled behind before pulling hard, toppling the beast. He leapt on again and pulled Mizuchi free. He then swung the blade in a wide downward arc and beheaded the creature. The whip fell into water once more and Mizuchi started to drip with blood diluted by chakra-condensed water.

Ren sighed and jumped down, wiping the blade on the beheaded corpse of the bear. He popped a pair of chakra pills and a food pill and turned to the Kusa genin he'd saved. "Are you alright?" Ren asked, offering the young kunoichi a hand. She nodded weakly, reaching up and accepting the help up. Oddly, when she touched his hand she suddenly jolted and a blush spread across her cheeks. "What's your name?" Ren asked. "Karin," she said quietly, still blushing. "Do you know where your team is?" "They abandoned me here," she said, starting to tear up. "It's alright, Karin-san. You can come with me while I find my team. After all, it is in both of our best interests to work together," Ren said. "Here. I took this from my idiot teammate before he left," Karin said, drawing a heaven scroll out of her shuriken pouch. "Thank you, Karin-san. Now, we have to find my team. Hopefully they got to somewhere safe," Ren said, placing the heaven scroll in his shuriken pouch.

It was a few hours later when Ren and Karin found a shorter-haired Sakura in the middle of a confrontation with the team from Oto. Ren signaled Karin to hold position and leapt down into the clearing. "I don't know your intentions, but I would suggest that you leave now. Otherwise, I've been having a really bad day, and I would love to carve you up," Ren said in a threatening tone of strained patience. "Heh, like we need to listen to you," the female member said. She was an attractive girl, with an athletic build, pale skin, and long black hair. Her teammates, a gauntlet-wearing mummy with one visible eye and a spiky haired boy with a cocky look on his face seemed to agree, seeing as the mummy leapt forward gauntlet-first, only to have Ren draw his blade and sever his arm in one swift movement. "Never underestimate your opponent," Ren said, kneeling down and pulling up the mummy's head. "Now, I'll be merciful," Ren concluded, drawing Mizuchi across the mummy's throat and dropping the body onto the ground. He then looked at the spiky-haired shinobi. "You're next," he calmly stated, condensing water on Mizuchi to rid it of blood, wiping it on the mummy's clothing, only for Sasuke, who was covered in black flame-like markings originating from a three-tomoe seal on his neck, to emerge from the tree and brutally defeat the spiky-haired Oto genin by breaking both arms. While the beating ensued, Ren pulled Sakura aside.

"Where did he get that mark?" "Orochimaru bit him. He said it would give Sasuke-kun power and that Sasuke-kun would go to him for more," Sakura responded , "Also, they said Orochimaru sent them to kill Sasuke." Towards the end of the one-sided battle Naruto arrived. He seemed to want to intervene, but he was stopped by Ren gesturing him over. Sasuke finished off his opponent with a kunai and turned to Ren, who signaled his teammates to stay back and summoned a water whip. "Fight me," Sasuke commanded, a wild look in his eyes. "No," Ren replied, "I will not. Besides, I expected better of an Uchiha. Giving in so easily to Orochimaru's false promise of power. He probably wants you for your eyes, and will kill you to get them." Ren used the water whip to bind the Oto kunoichi, who was stunned by her teammate's deaths. "How will you restore your clan to glory if you die. I know you want to kill your brother for vengeance, but that will do nothing. He will eventually be blinded by the very eyes he used to kill your clan, a punishment worse than death. It is your duty to your clan to live. If you disagree, go ahead and kill me. I will not defend myself," Ren said, stepping forward and looking Sasuke dead in the eye, all while Karin, the Oto kunoichi, Sakura, and Naruto looked on wide-eyed. "No," Sasuke said, dropping the kunai and looking down shamefaced as the mark receded. "Congratulations, Sasuke. You have defeated Orochimaru's seal. It fed on your lust for power and vengeance, but the power it gave would in the end destroy you. If you want to gain power, gain it for the sake of your village, and your clan, not for vengeance," Ren said, putting a hand on Sasuke's shoulder, "Now, pull yourself together, we have flak jackets waiting for us."

Once Ren had more securely bound the Oto nin and introduced his team to Karin, he picked up the Oto kunoichi bridal fashion and the team went to the central tower, where they found a room where they found an inscription, which Sakura decoded as a riddle. Ren produced the scrolls and they opened them across each other. In a puff of smoke, Iruka appeared to find what would go down in history as one of the strangest arrivals to the second exam ever. There stood Ren, his clothing ripped, torn, and cut, carrying a bound kunoichi he had taken prisoner, a foreign genin hanging close by him, and his teammates in similar condition to himself. "I had a whole speech prepared, but it seems I should call for ANBU instead. "Only for this one," Ren said, holding up his prisoner, "Karin-san has done no wrong. She was abandoned by her team and accompanied us for safety." "Very well. Karin-san will be allowed to stay. But, she will be your responsibility since she came in as part of your group, she will have to sleep in one of your rooms, since the rooms are three-person accommodations. Also, I need to stay here to greet newcomers, so can you watch the prisoner in a room?," Iruka said, seeming awkward. "Sure, sensei. Have fun," Ren replied as Team 7 moved on to their assigned rooms.

"Alright, we need to organize who is sleeping in which room. Personally, I think we should go by gender," Ren said, with the Oto-nin still in his arms. Sakura, however, was uneasy with this, as she was a bit leery of the Oto nin and Karin, so Ren was assigned to a room with Karin and the prisoner, while Sakura was with Sasuke and Naruto. He took in the Oto prisoner and, after divesting her of her equipment pouches and performing a frisking for concealed weapons, unbound her.

"You are free to use the bathroom, but be warned, I will not be letting you out of my sight. Try to escape and you'll be back in bindings. Am I understood?" Ren said sternly, looking seriously at the Oto nin, who was still humiliated by the frisking she had been given. She nodded, not meeting his steely gaze. As she left the room, Ren followed, a a hand staying near his kunai holster just in case. "Do you have to watch me pee?" the Oto genin asked in a spiteful tone. "Yes, I do. Otherwise you may try to escape or kill yourself, which I cannot allow. You're lucky I don't still have you bound," Ren replied frostily, crossing his arms and leaning on the doorway.

After that exchange, the Oto nin clammed up, while Ren stood watch with stony silence. All of this made Karin a bit nervous, and she spent most of her time fidgeting while sitting on the bed. When the ANBU arrived they cuffed her properly and took her off to a cozy cell in T&I to see if they could coax any information out of her. After the prisoner had been hauled off, Ren sat down on the edge of his bed and sighed wearily. "Sorry if I made you uncomfortable, Karin-san," Ren apologized. "It's alright, Ren-san," Karin replied, not looking him in the eye. "Well, I don't know about you, but I could use a meal. Care to join me?" Ren asked, standing up. "Okay," Karin answered, following after the Senju.

The time allotted for the exam came and went, and all competitors were ordered to report to the center of the tower. There in the bowels of the building was a large circular arena with high walls and seating around the rim. A large screen dominated one wall, which the competitors now faced. A Konoha nin wearing standard gear and a bandana-style forehead protector stood before them, a senbon hanging loosely from his lips. That had just received a speech from the Hokage explaining the true purpose of the Chunin Exam, and the man in front of them now stepped forward. "Now, due to the unusually large number of you, we need to hold a set of preliminary matches in order to reduce your numbers so that the third exam will have only the best of you continuing on. The board will display two names. These two will stay, while the others will head into the seating above. I will be the referee in the fights, and If I say stop, you stop. Now, before we begin, does anyone want to leave now ?" He said, businesslike despite a calm demeanor. There were no takers, so, with everyone spoken for, the computer did its work. The first names produced were Uchiha Sasuke and Akado Yoroi. "Give'm hell," Ren said, sending Sasuke a thumbs-up as the Uchiha faced off against one of Kabuto's teammates.

What followed was an odd fight, to say the least. While Sasuke would normally be tossing katon jutsu and end it quickly, but he'd been forbidden from using chakra lest he inadvertently left himself open to corruption by Orochimaru's little 'gift'. Thus, the Uchiha of Team 7 was limited to taijutsu only, which was a liability that was made worse when Yoroi revealed that he had a technique to drain chakra through physical contact. However, using a bit of quick thinking and a move plagiarized from Rock Lee during a spar a few weeks back when Gai had shown up and challenged his Eternal Rival's team to spar with his own, to see who was a better teacher. Ren had gotten Tenten as an opponent, while Sasuke faced off against Neji, and Naruto fought Rock Lee. Lee won, battering Naruto down with his strong taijutsu, while Ren, using his bokken to avoid killing Tenten, had managed to defeat the Weapons Mistress. Sasuke had battled Neji to a draw, and thus Gai called it a tie and exchanged a disturbing sunset hug with Lee. Over the course Sasuke had apparently used to the Sharingan to copy Lee, and now used a modified version which he called Shishi Rendan to defeat Yoroi.

The next match was between Kankuro, the black-clad Suna genin with the face paint who had threatened Konohamaru, against the other member of Kabuto's team, a Misumi Tsurugu, who revealed that he too had an unusual ability, which was to extend his limbs and manipulate them as if they were rubber. He managed to entwine Kankuro, only for it to be revealed that "Kankuro" was a puppet which then impaled the Konoha genin with poisoned blades.

After that, Sakura and Ino were put on the board. Ren put his head in his hands as the match turned into a painfully protracted cat fight, albeit with a few clever moves and tricks, ending in a double knockout. "They really seem to bring out the worst in each other," Ren mused, shaking his head, "Let's hope we have a better match next." The jonin sensei, who were sitting nearby, nodded in agreement.

The next match was between Temari, the blonde with the fan they had met earlier, and Tenten Higurashi. What followed was a clear demonstration of the advantages of futon ninjutsu when facing a weapons user as Temari used her fan-enhanced jutsu to send the Weapons Mistress' projectiles away. Even when Tenten pulled out all the stops, Temari had her opponent land on her unforgiving iron-cased fan.

After the battlefield had been cleared of weaponry, the next match was between Shino Aburame and Shikamaru Nara. "Hmm. Shikamaru's larger-scale tactics against Shino's analysis and strategy. This could go either way," Ren mused, looking on with interest.