A/N – Reviews rule! Thank you all who reviewed and made me realize that. Anyways, off to the story, shall we?

Chapter 4 – To the Tower

Naruto had no idea about what was going on. He just tried to use his clones to get the snake-dude stay put. But when Sasuke just stared at him for a few moments and then the guy disappeared completely, well it was confusing.

Sasuke jerked out of the dream world and his hand went automatically to his neck where he could feel the marks moving. "What's going on?" he thought.

"Naruto."

The fox-like boy stopped staring at the place where Orochimaru stood before and looked at his friend. "What?"

"On my neck," Sasuke said, "Can you tell me what's going on?"

Naruto stared at him before moving towards him and asking him to show. His eyebrows rose when he did and when he saw what was happening. Three black spots were uniting into one smaller one and a tiny circle was being made around that one spot. It looked like a tattoo now. As the spots stopped moving, Sasuke did a test. He activated his Sharigan, sure that any chakra from Sakura would be gone now. It didn't hurt a bit.

He activated Mangekyo Sharigan, still not believing he could. This was a major advantage. A huge one, since Mangekyo Sharigan gave him the use of the two most dangerous Uchiha clan's jutsus. Again, no pain in his neck. He deactivated his eyes.

"So, uh, what happened?" Naruto asked, staring at the pile of ashes in the spot where Orochimaru was before. Sasuke didn't respond as he moved forward. In the ashes there were three items, completely unharmed. A headband with the sound mark on it. A heavens scroll and a silvery thingy that he identified as… a silvery thingy.

"He's gone," Sasuke spoke.

"Yeah, I can see that," Naruto pointed at the pile of ashes, "but how?"

"I killed him," he said, taking the three items and putting them into Naruto's backpack. Then he saw something. He withdrew three bottles. "Chakra replenish potion?" he asked. "You have chakra replenish potions?"

Naruto looked at the bottles, clueless, until he remembered, "Oh yeah, Kakashi gave me some before the second exam. Told me that they could come in handy." He looked up at Sasuke who was openly gaping at him.

"You… all this time… chakra potions…"

"I forgot alright," Naruto said sheepishly, scratching his head. "Besides, we didn't need them, did we?"

Sasuke glared at him, before saying, "If we had drunk those, then Sakura would be conscious right now."

"Oh… yeah…" Naruto agreed, as he looked at their third team mate, "what are we going to do now?"

Sasuke looked at the earth scroll he had and the Heavens scroll he had put into Naruto's backpack and said, "We're going to the tower as soon as we can. It's still early, not even a day has passed. If we're lucky then everybody will still be battling and not heading there. With Sakura out, we can't fight more teams."

"Should we wake her up?" Naruto said, looking around. Sasuke had a doubt that he was looking for a stick, so he quickly said, "No."

"No?"

"Yes, no," Sasuke said, "I'll carry her."

"You'll carry her," Naruto repeated slowly, as if Sasuke was speaking in Italian.

"Yeah, you'll take your backpack and some bottles of water. We don't know how long it'll take."

Naruto nodded and ran towards their camping fire, where he took the water bottles. He joined Sasuke's side a minute later. The other boy had already picked up Sakura.

"Let's go."

The two boys started to walk through the forest heading to the finish point of the second exam. They had to be extra careful so they wouldn't run into any traps or get any attention from enemy ninjas.

"So what is that mark on your neck?" Naruto asked, as they walked. Sasuke didn't respond. Naruto fell quiet for a bit, before he said, "You actually think of me as a friend, eh?"

That got Sasuke's attention. He shifted Sakura just a tiny bit as they moved, before he asked, "What do you mean?"

"Sakura said that you can only use the Mango-thingy if you save your friend's life and he does the same for you. So I presume that after you moron jumped in front of a lightning bolt, then it means we're kind of friends, aren't we? Since you got to mango the hell out of that snake-dude."

Sasuke thought about it, not wanting to amend that it had to be his best friend whose life he saved. Actually, he didn't even have any closer friends than these two. So Naruto would have to be his best friend, right?

"Guess so," he said. Naruto nodded, before adding, "You'll still my rival though and I'm going to take you down."

"Hn," Sasuke said, but he was amused. He just didn't let it show. He usually never let emotions show, it'll ruin his reputation. He showing emotions is the same as a good ninja like Neji stumbling on a tree root and falling flat on his face or something – it just didn't happen.

They walked for at least two more hours until they heard voices, belonging to some ninjas from the Mist. They slowly crept past, as Naruto suddenly had an idea.

"Maybe I should send my clones out," he offered, "Let them surround us in big distances, so we'd know if we had to avoid an area."

Sasuke stared. What was happening with the world? Sakura becomes this powerful and then Naruto has good ideas? This was impossible. If now Lee would shave his eyebrows and dye his hair blond, then Sasuke would know that the apocalypse was closing in.

Outside he just nodded slowly. Naruto grinned as he sent some clones into the forest nearby.

"Can you keep in contact with them?" Sasuke asked. Naruto nodded, "Somewhat. They're a part of me you know. My chakra, so I can somewhat communicate with them."

Sasuke didn't respond. He was surprised that he didn't know that before.

"Do you want me to carry her for a while?"

Sasuke looked up to see Naruto looking at him. He looked down at Sakura, whose hands were around his neck by now. She was in a comfortable position and she wasn't heavy at all. She was fine where she was. He was fine with it as well. He expressed himself by saying, "No," to Naruto.

"Okay," Naruto shrugged as they kept walking. Man, this forest was huge.

"We ought to stop for a few minutes," Naruto said. They had walked for another few hours and the tower looked like barely few more hours away. Sasuke knew that and he wasn't sure if having a rest right now was the best idea.

"Come on," Naruto said, "We need to eat and drink."

"We don't have any food," Sasuke pointed out.

"Of course we do," Naruto said brightly, extracting fishes wrapped in leaves from his bag. "I grabbed those when I went after the water bottles."

"Aa," Said Sasuke, "Fine."

He gently put Sakura down as he sat as well. As he opened the bottle, Naruto asked,

"Should we wake up Sakura so she could eat?"

Sasuke looked at her sleeping form, before shaking his head ever-so-lightly. "Let's just save some for her if she wakes up."

Naruto nodded, "So what happened to her anyways. I mean she was so shaky all day."

"She's out of energy or chakra," Sasuke replied, "She used a lot of both today."

Naruto was surprised about Sasuke today. He seemed more… talkative. Deciding to take advantage of that, he asked, "Whose Itachi?"

Sasuke looked up with a sharp glance, but didn't say a word. Naruto sighed, there goes the talkative person and here comes the usually silent Uchiha.

Sasuke took a couple of more bites from the fish and gulped down a bit of water, before he said, "We should start moving again."

"But we just sat down," Naruto protested.

"We have to get there before sunset," Sasuke said, "That's when most ninjas strike."

"Fine, fine," Naruto crumbled, as he quickly munched on a bit of fish, before rising.

Sasuke gently lifted Sakura back into his arms and said, "Let's go."

Naruto stuffed the fish back into the bag, complaining about starvation, as they started to walk.

"Are you sure you can carry her all the way?" Naruto asked.

"Yes," Sasuke replied, his eyes on the road, when Naruto stopped.

"What?" Sasuke asked, looking back at him.

"Enemy ninjas are coming from west. They got my clone already," Naruto whispered looking to their left.

"How far are they?" Sasuke asked.

"About a mile and closing in fast."

"How strong?"

"Pretty strong," Naruto said.

"Then run," Sasuke replied.

"What?"

"Run!"

The two of them took off. They didn't need to fight if they had two scrolls and right now, with an as good as injured team mate, fighting wasn't a good option. It would be three against two and even if they drank the chakra potions, they'd still just waste time and energy.

They stopped about three miles later, both breathing heavily. Naruto sent two more clones into the forest, hoping to make sure they weren't ambushed.

The tower was so close, barely five miles away. Sakura groaned and both boys looked at her. But she went back to sleep a moment later.

"We need to keep moving," Sasuke said. This forest wasn't safe and sunset was creeping closer by the minute. Naruto nodded, hoping that they made it there safe as well.

"Drink," Naruto said, showing a bottle under Sasuke's nose. He looked at the bottle, before he shifted Sakura's weight on his one hand, freeing the other one for a moment, which he used to drink up the water. He nodded to Naruto and Naruto nodded back. Maybe this friend thing wasn't that bad, Sasuke thought as they moved.

-Some time ago in the Tower's top office-

"So Orochimaru is in the Forest of Death," The third hokage spoke, rather calmly.

"Yes," Anko said, "He has returned."

"But why now?" Ibiki asked, "During the exams?"

Anko remembered what Orochimaru had said about new talent. She looked up to see the third hokage staring at her, "He is after Sasuke Uchiha, isn't he?"

Kakashi, who was in the corner of the room, started to speak, but Anko beat him to it. She just nodded.

Kakashi closed his mouth. "What, why?"

"The Sharigan. He's after it," The third hokage spoke, "Do you know if he has a chance?"

"He's an S-class criminal for a reason," Kakashi said grimly, "Orochimaru would even have a chance against anyone in this room."

"If he had the Sharigan," Anko spoke, before she shuddered. Her hand went to her neck. She closed her eyes. "He's still fighting."

"How do you know?" Ibiki asked.

"The mark, he's drawing my chakra from me. I can feel it."

Kakashi sat down onto the couch. Two teams had finished this far and he surely hoped his team would make it as well. But if Orochimaru was after Sasuke, then things were bad. Things were really bad.

"We won't stop the exams," the hokage spoke up. We'll see how it goes. Someone send someone to check the forest."

Kakashi rolled his good eye. Anko started to speak up, but stopped herself and nodded. Then she rubbed her head.

"Whoever he's fighting with is either strong or he is toying with them," Anko spoke. Suddenly someone spoke into the receiver.

"Team 47 arrived."

Make that three teams, who had already finished.

Everybody inside the office remained quiet, thinking of different things. Then they started to discuss their battle plan against Orochimaru.

It was about forty minutes later when Anko started rub her neck even more furiously. Ibiki, who had been discussing things with the third proctor, turned around. So did Kakashi.

"Are you okay?" They both asked. Then they looked at each other and glared.

"Fine," Anko said, "He's just draining so much chakra."

"Want some water?" Kakashi asked.

"Or anything to eat," that was Ibiki.

"No thanks," Anko replied, giving both of them weird looks. "I'm fine. Oh and Kakashi?"

"Yes?"

"That boy from your team. The Uchiha. If Orochimaru offered him enough power to do what ever he wanted… would he accept it?"

Kakashi shrugged, "With Sasuke, you never know. He has good reasons to want power, with his brother and all, but he's tough."

But Anko didn't seem to listen. She was trying to concentrate to stop Orochimaru from draining her chakra, when the draining suddenly stopped. The pain in her neck stopped as well and she felt the mark shifting on her neck.

"What the…?"

Again, everybody stopped moving. "What's wrong?" The hokage asked.

"My neck," Anko gasped.

Kakashi, who was the closest to her, slowly slid his hand onto her neck and brushed away the hair. He gasped as well.

"What?" Anko asked, "What's happening?"

"The mark. It's changing," Kakashi spoke. "I think it's either sealing itself or the dark chakra."

"What, why?"The third hokage asked.

Suddenly the radio in the corner of the room, gave them the following message, "Guys did you feel this? The chakra wave was huge."

Ibiki got to the radio first, "Repeat the message please."

"Oh, sorry sir, I meant to say that I felt a magnificent chakra wave in the sector 5B."

"I felt it too," said another voice, "I'm at sector 7C."

"I got it as well," another voice piped in, "I'm at 6A."

"6C got the wave too."

"So did 4D."

Ibiki thanked them for the message before he turned to a room full of elite ninjas, "What could've caused it?"

"When a ninja dies its essence and chakra is thrown around the place," The third hokage said, thoughtfully.

"But it was felt miles away, that ninja had to be one hell of a…" Anko stopped and stared at the hokage, "No, you can't think it was… No way.. Just, no."

"It would make sense," Kakashi agreed, "The mark changing would fit under it."

"No, it's just not possible. None of our guys said that they had seen the target and there are no other ninjas in the forest powerful enough to kill Orochimaru."

"You're forgetting that the forest is full of ninjas," The third hokage pointed out, hoping that Orochimaru's death was the case here.

"They're genin, they wouldn't last ten minutes against Orochimaru!"

"A genin, who's desperate, can do a lot of things," Kakashi said, "I've learnt that over the years."

"Okay, here's what we do…" Ibiki started.

-Back to the damn forest-

"Almost there," Naruto said to himself. The tower was barely two hundred feet away. He stumbled and almost fell down, but managed to get his posture right in the last moment.

"Come on, dobe," Sasuke called, "We're here."

"Yeah, I'm coming, I'm coming," Naruto muttered hurrying up. He threw a look at Sasuke and wanted to punch his face in as soon as he did. He was so… cool! He was annoying him with all of his coolness! Right now, he had walked more than ten miles, carrying a girl and he didn't even look tired. No, instead, he was whistling! WHISTLING!

Sasuke never did anything cheerful and when he did, it was meant to annoy Naruto and Naruto knew it. He glared at Sasuke so hard that he didn't notice when he stopped walking and since he was right next to him, he walked right into the tower wall.

"Graceful," Sasuke said, as Naruto got up from the floor.

"We're here?" Naruto asked, eyes wide with awe. "We're here!"

"Oh, come on, we got to go in," Sasuke spoke, pretending to be annoyed with his childish behavior.

They entered the empty room and looked around. Nothing, not even another door. Then Sasuke noticed the huge billboard. It was a clue, which said that they should open both of the scrolls.

"You open them," Sasuke said to Naruto.

"What, why me?" Naruto asked. They weren't allowed to open the scrolls probably for a good reason.

"Because I'm carrying Sakura," Sasuke pointed out, "You don't want me to put her down on this dirty floor right?"

"I can hold her," Naruto offered.

"No," Sasuke said, maybe even too quickly, "She's sleeping, don't interrupt her."

Naruto, murmuring about moronic gits, took the two scrolls and didn't even think about it as he broke the clasps on both of them and rolled them open. They started to smoke and Naruto quickly threw the scrolls away. It was a summoning jutsu.

And the person who was summoned was nobody else, but Naruto's teacher in school and the guy whose headband Naruto was wearing – Iruka.

"Hey," He greeted them cheerfully. But then his eyes fell on Sakura in Sasuke's arms. "She's not dead or stunned is she?" he then asked, with concern in his voice.

"No," Naruto said, "Just dead tired."

"Are you sure, I mean if one of the team members is out of the game then so are the rest of them."

"I'm… okay," Sakura whispered. Then her eyes which had fluttered open for a moment, fell closed again.

"You heard her," Sasuke growled, "Now, we need to see Kakashi."

"Yes, Iruka sensei, it's important," Naruto agreed.

"But…" Iruka started, "Don't you have any questions."

"Questions later, Kakashi now," Sasuke spoke.

When Iruka didn't seem to move, he spoke, "I've been bitten by a guy, my team mate is half unconscious, I just discovered a hidden trait in me, I killed for the very first time today and I'm really moody, so for the last time… Where's Kakashi."

His eyes flashed red for a moment. Naruto grinned at his former teacher, "Sorry, Sasuke is having the time of the month."

"Naruto!"

Iruka just shook his head and suddenly a door appeared. "Follow me," he said.

Naruto followed quickly. Sasuke was after him, Sakura's head resting on his chest, her breathing regular once again.

They walked up some stairs and came to a stop in a big room, full of ninjas. All were giving odd looks to the genins. "The three of them need to talk to Kakashi," Iruka told to a woman behind the desk. She nodded and tapped some buttons. "Anko, ma'am," she spoke into a microphone, "Three genins here to see Kakashi."

She tapped her headphone once, before she shook her head. "They're in a middle of an important meeting."

"We need to see Kakashi," Naruto yelled. Most of the ninjas in the room turned their heads to see them.

The woman tried again and again told them a message Anko had given her, "It's not legal for a genin to be on this level and if you don't leave now, she could get you eliminated."

"WE.NEED.TO.SEE.KAKASHI!"

"Naruto," Sasuke said, "Just shut up and act like a man for once."

That said he sneered at the ninjas staring at him and walked straight towards the door.

"Hey you're not allowed in there," the woman behind the desk yelled as Naruto hurried up to catch Sasuke.

"Like I care," Sasuke replied, as he came to a halt in front of the door. His free hand, which wasn't supporting Sakura, reached for the handle, when a man in the size of a gorilla said,

"You don't want to do that kid."

"Oh, I think I do and if you don't remove your hand from mine, you'll be sorry."

The man had seized Sasuke's hand and was grabbing it, "What will you do?" he asked, smirking.

Sasuke's Sharigan activated and he stared him right into his eyes, "Do you want to know?"

The man released Sasuke's hand in shock and that was all the young man needed to go barging into the room full of Leaf Village's elite ninjas.

Naruto was right behind him of course.

XxXxXxXxXx

A/N – What do you think? Okay this was a long, kind of pointless chapter, but next one will e full of explaining and some humor. Keep checking and keep reviewing. 15 or 20 reviews before I'll post the next chapter )