Eh…here's the next chapter. Man, I'm freaking BORED!
The peace after Ibiki had silenced the questions about the tenth question of his test was short lived. "You're early…" Ibiki growled while rubbing his forehead. The very strange kunoichi with a kite (?) strapped to her back ignored him.
"Still twenty-six teams, Ibiki? You're losing your touch." Said interrogator's eye twitched.
"Or it could be we have an unusually impressive group this time." Anko shrugged it off and introduced her self, in a very loud fashion of course, to the genin.
"My name's Anko Mitarashi, meet me in the Training Area 44 immediately for the next test." A sadistic shine found its way to Anko's eyes. "And I'll warn you now, I'm going to cut your numbers by half!" Most of the genin gulped in fear, but a select few were mostly unfazed. Well, unfazed might not be the right word.
'Great, a female Naruto for our proctor!' Sakura felt like banging her head against her desk. Overall, Anko was pleased at the result her little stunt had brought, and smirked in triumph before leaping back out the shattered window.
"What a freak," Naruto stated loudly enough for everyone to hear.
Naruto was hopping from foot to foot in front of the forest. The whole place was giving him a tingling feeling. "Hurry up and let us in!" Naruto's brazen shout interrupted Anko in her little tirade about the Forest of Death. A very creepy smile slithered across Anko's face.
"Oh, a tough guy, huh?" In a whirl of nearly invisible movement, Anko hurled a kunai at the eager blond. As she prepared to teleport behind him to lick the soon-to-be cut, he did something that surprised even her. He craned his head to the side as the kunai came at him and took it head on. There was a stunned silence in the crowed before a cracking sound was heard, and shard of metal fell to the ground at Naruto's feet.
"Hope the forest is more impressive than that little show," Naruto said as he ground the metal shards into dust underneath his foot. Anko shot another creepy smile at Naruto again.
"This'll be fun." After another brief pause, Anko explained the exam, and every team signed their forms and got their scrolls.
"Baka!" Sakura punched Naruto over the head. "Showing off like that! Now the teams know to be weary of us!"
"It's no fun if the prey doesn't know to run," Naruto replied, and Sakura involuntarily shivered.
"Stop doing that, you know it creeps me out." Naruto's previous predatory expression was replaced by his usual foxy grin.
"Sorry, Sakura-chan, but I can't help it!" Sakura sighed, and Sasuke just chuckled lightly at the whole ordeal.
"Don't worry, Sakura. We'll just go with retrieval plan B, okay?" Both genin nodded, and the trio prepared to descend into the forest. The bell rang, and the gates opened, and twenty-six teams of shinobi raced into the infamous forest. Team 7 practically flew across the branches.
"Well, Naruto?" Sasuke asked without even looking at his teammate. Naruto sniffed the air, and his teammates felt the familiar feeling of his chakra spread out and wash over them to spread along the forest like a carpet. Naruto grinned, not that his teammates could see it.
"About a hundred yards north from here. I don't sense anything too unusual. Should be a quick fight."
"Good." Sakura left no room for argument, not even for Sasuke, the more or less leader of the team.
"Okay, okay," Naruto said, trying to appease the kunoichi. "Follow me, I'll let you guys know when we get close enough."
The team of Kiri genin propelled themselves along the trees. "Anybody sense anything else?" the ninja in front asked through his gas mask thing.
"Not since that last chakra surge a couple of minutes ago," one of his identically garbed teammates replied. "What do you think it was?"
"Hurgh!"
"Eh?" the two genin in front turned their heads slightly, only to watch their teammate fall off the branches, several senbon sticking out of his body. "What the-agh!" They gasped for air through their masks as the fists met their bodies. Blood filled their masks from the single blow, and they only managed to see a brunette and a blond before they passed out.
"Dang, that was easy," Naruto said as he stopped the body of the genin from falling. "Found the scroll. What do you know, an earth scroll, just what we need." Naruto said in a slightly disappointed tone before he dropped the body on a particularly thick branch. He then pocketed the scroll. Always best to have them separate.
"It sure was nice of Haku-san to teach me how to use these." Sakura asked hopefully as she rejoined the boys, having had to fetch her senbon prior.
"He's got to have somebody to repopulate his clan with!" Naruto teased her, earning a blush and a very painful elbow to the stomach. "It was worth it!" he wheezed, trying to suppress his laughter lest he earn more pain.
"If you're quite done, we should head to the tower. We can pick up any scrolls we happen to stumble upon on the way." Naruto did his little happy dance that he had developed to express happiness without shouting. Sasuke covered his eyes and sweat dropped.
"Naruto…how many times have I told you not to do that?" Naruto didn't stop 'dancing' as he replied.
"Forty-seven and a half." Sasuke raised his eyebrow at his teammate's count. "You were stunned speechless the first time, and only managed to utter part of a sentence." Sasuke sighed and shook his head. Think a stupid question…
"Can we go now?" Sakura asked, a little pleadingly. Naruto stopped dancing and Sasuke started forward with a grateful sigh.
"You guys hear something?" Naruto asked as a strange whistling noise started to ring across the forest. Sasuke narrowed his eyes but didn't stop moving.
"That sounds like…"
"A Fuuton jutsu!" Sakura finished for him, but it was too late, and they didn't have time to dodge before the great gust of win hurled them to the forest floor, separating Naruto from the others. Sasuke and Sakura couldn't manage to grab onto something, and were thus throwing into a gigantic tree.
"Damn," Sasuke muttered as he stumbled back to his feet and shook it off. "You okay, Sakura?" The pink-haired kunoichi nodded and also got to her feet.
"Where's Naruto?"
"He'll be okay," Sasuke reassured her. "The dobe's nothing if not sturdy." Sakura would have smiled and nodded, but an ominous chakra filled the air as a strange Grass 'kunoichi' landed in front of them.
"Well hello, my little friends,' the ninja said, 'her' voice raspy.
"You attacked us," Sasuke stated simply and put his hand on his sword and activated his Sharingan. A smile creeped its way to their opponent's lips.
"What impressive eyes." The 'kunoichi' pulled out 'her' scroll. "Now come, we shall fight for our scrolls!" Sasuke felt himself gaping as the Grass ninja swallowed 'her' scroll.
"What the heck?" Sakura mumbled as she drew slightly closer to Sasuke without leaving her fighting stance.
"Yes…we shall fight… to the death!" Sasuke and Sakura were hit by a massive wave of killing intent, and their whole bodies shook.
"M-my. That was unpleasant," Sasuke said as he once again took command of his body. "But I've felt the blood lust of a demon. That's nothing." Sasuke charged the Grass genin, much to 'her' delight. Sasuke looked like he was about to draw his sword, but then disappeared in a blur. On instinct, mostly, the Grass genin looked up to see the Uchiha genius in mid-air and performing hand seals.
"Goukakyuu no Jutsu (Grand Fireball Technique)!" A massive sea of flame came down on 'her', but the genin ignored the fire and shot right through it, aiming right at Sasuke. A rain of senbon from the side interrupted the Grass ninja and forced her back to the ground. 'She' brushed the senbon sticking out of her away like flies, and glared at Sakura.
"You won't hurt Sasuke-kun!" Sakura started performing seals of her own, and the Grass genin found 'herself' to be in between two genin ready to launch attacks at 'her'.
"Nenshou Kousen no Jutsu!" The Grass ninja calmly sidestepped the beam, but noticed that the kunoichi had long since stopped doing her hand seals, and instead held up her very shiny gauntlets against the laser.
'Damn,' 'she' thought right before the laser bounced back and then split into five beams, effectively striking 'her'. The ninja fell to the ground and dissolved into a pile of mud.
"Dammit!" Sasuke cursed aloud as his eyes searched for the ninja. Sasuke nearly stopped breathing as he saw the ninja appear behind Sakura. "NO!" A kunai pierced his teammate's chest and she fell to the ground. Part of Sasuke knew that Sakura could heal herself, but his logical side was currently eclipsed. He charged the smirking Grass ninja and the two met in a dance of taijutsu. Finally, Sasuke drew his blade. The Grass ninja barely had time to dodge before the already crimson steel sliced clean through one of the trees.
"I'm going to kill you!" Sasuke's voice took a more primal edge to it as he chased the Grass ninja into the canopy. Each swing of his katana felled a branch or tree, but he still couldn't hit the mysterious Grass ninja. "Hold still, dammit!" Sasuke's voice retained its primal edge, and suddenly he vanished. The Grass ninja barely had time to raise an eyebrow before ninja wire wrapped around him and bound him to a tree. One that Sasuke had been leading him to the whole time.
'So, he wasn't even trying to hit me.'
"Ryuuka no Jutsu (Dragon Flame Technique)!" The flaming serpent flew down the wire and engulfed the Grass ninja. Sasuke panted as he left the flaming body to check on Sakura. Sure enough, she was just finishing up patching herself up.
"It's a lot harder to heal yourself than it is others," she apologized, but Sasuke still smiled.
"As long as you're alright." Sakura smiled, and on the inside Inner Sakura was cheering.
'Take that, Ino-pig! Cha!'
"What an impressive attack, Sasuke-kun." Sasuke and Sakura froze at the voice.
"No way," Sasuke hissed as he slowly turned around. The Grass ninja was a top a giant snake, and part of 'her' face was melted off, revealing a second face underneath.
"Now, see if you can handle my pet."
"My turn!" An orange and black blur tackled the snake, rather unceremoniously causing the 'Grass ninja' to fall off. It only took a few moments of wrestling before the snake vanished in a puff of smoke. Naruto was about to grin triumphantly, but what Sasuke was doing totally threw him off: he was handing the enemy one of their scrolls.
"What are you doing!" he shouted, but Sasuke shouted right back.
"Naruto, you have no idea how powerful this guy is, and truth be told, neither do I! He's been playing with me this whole time!" The ninja smirked.
"How very clever, Sasuke. Your eyes may be even sharper than Itachi's." Sasuke's hand tightened around the scroll at the name of his brother. Sasuke had to bite his lip to avoid shouting out questions. This…thing was too dangerous.
"So you're going to give him our scroll?" Naruto shouted again. "If he's really so powerful he'll probably just kill us anyway!" Naruto assumed the Akaken stance, and started to glow with navy blue chakra. The ninja widened his eyes not just at the forbidden stance, but also at the strange chakra. This was surely the fox boy, but what the Hell was that?
'That might turn out to be useful.' Without a word, the ninja's neck extended like lightning straight at Sasuke. Naruto intercepted it just in time, but the neck slipped through his grasp and bit Naruto on the neck, who then dropped to the ground screaming. Sasuke tried to rush forward, but the fangs struck his neck as well, reducing both boys to curled up balls of agony.
"What'd you do to them!" Sakura shouted and leapt in front of both of her teammates, just in case.
"I just left them a little parting gift. Sasuke will come to seek me out for power, he will seek Orochimaru." The snake disappeared into the shadows.
Muwahahahaha! I love cliffhangers! Well, I love to write them, anyway. Now you'll have to keep reading my fic, lest you die of curiosity! Please read and review, and refrain from cursing me for my cliffhangers, past, present and future. Thanks :)