OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Cat was in the room with her three jonin along with the jonin from the other villages, watching the progess of the exam through some monitors that were getting feed from hidden cameras in the forest. All of a sudden her stomach twinged and she felt ill. She put her hand over her mouth and paled. She slid a hand down to her abdomen and applied a little healing energy to it and she felt a little better. That had been happening on and off for the past three weeks, but she hadn't told anyone. She didn't want to worry anybody and she knew if the council knew that she was feeling under the weather, they wouldn't let her go.
Of course, her husband and her other two jonin noticed immediately. Zabuza asked "Are you alright?"
Nekomi said "I'm fine."
"No, you're not. You just healed yourself, from what?"
Nekomi smiled slightly "It's nothing, I've just been feeling a little sick lately, I think it's been from not getting a lot of sleep and you know, stress due to the exams..."
Shina said "Ba...eh...ma'am, how long have you been feeling like this?"
Nekomi answered "For the past couple of weeks, but..."
Shina asked "Have you had any headaches?"
"Every once in a while."
"Have you um..." She whispered in her ear. Nekomi blushed "I thought...y'know, I've missed before due to stress." Then it dawned on Nekomi. "No! It's not possible! I..we..I'm...uh, I feel sick again." She put her hand over her mouth and ran off to the bathroom.
Shina sighed. She looked at the two men who were clueless, but still worried. She said "Well, Haku's going to be real happy. She's going to get her wish."
Ishigo asked "What do you mean?"
Zabuza thought for a minute then he put two and two together. He jumped up "What?!!" His yell drew the attention of the other jonin who glared at him. Shina yanked him back down to the table.
"Be a little more loud, would you? We're trying to not attract attention, remember?"
Zabuza asked "But how can you be sure?"
Shina sighed "She has all the signs, but I'll check her chakra when she returns from the bathroom." She turned to Ishigo. "You know, I bet she won't mind if you cut that link and re-establish it once she's...feeling better."
Ishigo had gone pale and looked awful with his head between his hands on the table. Ishigo nodded and soon looked much better.
Meanwhile, in the forest of death...
The three groups from Banshou were still standing together, waiting for the gates to open, when suddenly Itachi and Gaara doubled over a little. Their team mates were instantly concerned.
Naruto asked "What's wrong?"
Gaara swallowed "It's mom, she's feeling sick."
Naruto cried "Is she okay? Do we need to..."
Gaara shook his head, seeing his brother was ready to rush right out of there and go find their mom. "No. He grew a little more pale, then color started to return to his face. "It's a little better now...she'll be okay."
Miwa asked "What was all that about It..."
Itachi said "Names, remember?"
Gaara said "We really need to do something about that. We don't have time to come up with code names for everybody."
Haku said "How about the first letter of everyone's name?"
Itachi said "That's actually a pretty good idea."
Taro said "But there are three of us with T names and two of us with names that start with a H and two with an I."
Itachi asked "Two with an I?"
"I-sensei."
"Oh. Okay." He thought about it and said "Okay, this is how it goes. I'm I. Our sensei is S. You are M and you are T." His team mates nodded and he pointed to Tora, Haru and Takeo. You are O, R, and E, got it?"
They nodded. Itachi tested. "R?"
Haru nodded. "E?"
"Nani?" Takeo answered.
"O"
"I got it already..It..I mean I."
Itachi said "Just checking, now, your sensei is H, okay?" The three nodded. Itachi turned to Naruto's group. He pointed at Naruto, Gaara and Haku. You are N, G, and K." The three nodded. "Your sensei is Z. Kaasan is B, everyone got that? Memorize it well." They all nodded and the gates opened. They split off.
Gaara said "Okay, our objective is to find an earth scroll and get to the tower, which is in the center of this place." Naruto and Haku nodded. He continued "The best way to do this would be to just head to the tower and wait, ambushing a team that makes it to the tower and taking their scroll."
Naruto asked "But how can we be sure that they have the right scroll?"
Gaara said "By the time they reach the tower, they will have most likely retrieved both scrolls already."
Haku said "So, it's a stealth mission."
Naruto said "Aww...so we're just going to go hide and wait to ambush some guys? That sounds so boring. It'd be a lot more fun to just ambush some teams before they get to the tower and maybe get in a couple of decent fights."
Gaara said "Kaasan said not to show off."
Haku said "G...the quicker we finished, the quicker we could go check on kaasan."
Gaara frowned a little. He said "Fine, you win N..., but no showing off, be discreet and K...no bloodline." They nodded.
Naruto said "Let's go get us a earth scroll!" He pumped his fist in the air and cried "And maybe I can beat up a few konoha genin while I'm at it. That'd be great!" He grinned.
Gaara and Haku looked at each other, concerned.Gaara sighed and looked at Haku and mouthed 'Watch him.' Haku nodded. Gaara said "I want to contact the other teams first though." He looked at Haku, who nodded and walked in between Naruto and Gaara and made a kage bushin bird that looked like a seagul and sent it flying, calling as it went.
She said "It will find the other teams then call out to them and lead them back here. We should stay where we are." Gaara nodded.
Naruto's patience ran out after an hour. "Where is everybody?"
Haku said "Be patient. They're coming."
About ten minutes later everyone showed up.
Itachi asked "What is it, K?"
"How'd you know I sent it?" Itachi pointed at his eye. "Oh, I forgot."
"What's up?"
Gaara said "We have decided to attack teams to get scrolls."
Itachi said "I thought you would have decided on a stealth and ambush strategy."
Gaara looked at Naruto "It didn't go over well with N."
Itachi understood. He said "Just don't take down a konoha team that has a kid on it that looks like me, okay?"
Haku asked "Your brother?"
Itachi nodded. He said "We will continue with a stealth and ambush strategy. What will you do, R?"
Haru turned to Itachi "We had also decided on an attack strategy."
Itachi nodded "Same goes for you then, watch out for that team, also, all of you, no bloodline limits and tone down your abilities a bit..." He paused, then said "G, you and your team take the left side, we'll ambush near the middle, R, you take the right." They all nodded. "Go." They split off again.
Gaara said "Remember what niisan said."
Naruto said "Yeah, yeah. Hey, do you guys hear a team up ahead?" He ran across the trees. Haku and Gaara followed, with a sigh.
They all looked down from the tree. Naruto grinned "It's a leaf team!"
Gaara looked down "It's two boys and a girl, the boy's a hyuuga, I don't know about the other boy or the girl."
"So they're fair game."
Gaara said "We should at least see what scroll they have first. Hyuuga's are pretty strong."
"Hey, come out of that tree, I know you're there."
They jumped down, surprised.
The girl with her hair done up and buns and a boy with bowl cut hair looked surprised. The girl said "You're one of the waterfall teams."
Gaara said "Hai. Which scroll do you have?"
Neji asked "Why should we tell you?"
Gaara pointed to Naruto "Because he wants to fight and I don't see the point in it if you don't have the scroll we need."
Lee said "We have the heaven scroll!"
Naruto said "Aww man. No good, we need the earth scroll!"
Gaara said "You heard it, let's go."
Neji said "You're running away?"
Gaara said "There's no point in fighting you. C'mon N." Naruto took a last dissapointed look and jumped back up into the tree.
"I see another one!"
Gaara's eyebrow twitched as he followed.
"Another leaf team!"
Haku looked down at them and then all three jumped down as kunai were thrown at them. She studied the team. There were two dark haired boys and a girl with pink hair. She said "Hey...that boy, he looks like..."
Naruto groaned "Give me a break, we can't fight these guys either?!"
"You heard what I said."
"Geez." Naruto sighed "This is getting kinda frustrating."
Sasuke asked "Hey, what are you talking about?"
Gaara said "Nothing."
"Why aren't you going to fight us?"
Gaara held his head for a minute. He then frowned and closed his eyes for a minute. He sighed 'Naruto's really not going to like this, a lot.'
Itachi sent back 'I know, but I have a bad feeling about Sasuke. Something's going to happen. Stay with him. You and Gaara are just as capable of defending him as me and you're closer.'
'What if he won't team up?'
'Convince him, you're good at that, or get Haku to.'
'Fine.' Gaara sighed. He said "Hey, what scroll do you guys have?"
Sasuke said "What scroll do you have?"
Gaara answered "heaven."
Sasuke frowned "So do we."
Gaara said "Why don't we work together to get the two earth scrolls?"
Sasuke said "No way, you're not even from Konoha. Why should we work with you?"
Naruto said "What are you thinking, Ga...G? There's no way I'm going to..."
Gaara scowled "Niisan told me to."
Naruto frowned "Aniki...?"
"Yeah."
Naruto sighed. If Itachi wanted him to do it, he couldn't really refuse... "I really don't like this mission. Fine, I don't care."
Gaara turned to Sasuke "How about it?"
Sasuke said "No, you'll just slow me down. I don't need any more people slowing me down."
Gaara said "On the contrary, with the six of us working together, we can find the scrolls more quickly."
Sasuke frowned, finally "I don't care. Just stay out of my way." He started walking away.
Gaara sighed "Good enough." They walked together, Gaara inconspicuously guiding them more towards the left.
When it started getting dark, they set up camp for the night.
Gaara turned to Naruto and Haku. "I'll take first watch, N, take second, K take third. For now, go get some sleep." They nodded and Naruto climbed up in a tree branch. Haku curled up under a tree.
The pink haired girl asked "What's up with the letters? Don't you guys have names?"
"Of course we have names, but there is no need for you to know them." He paused "Nothing personal."
Sakura frowned. The other boy with dark hair, Kai, said "Doesn't bother me any."
Sakura asked "Why are you working with us though. You don't seem to be doing it because you like us."
Gaara said "We felt like it. Let it go. It'll make things easier for you." She didn't ask any more questions after that.
Everyone was up moving again the next morning. Gaara frowned "N...do you smell that?"
Naruto tensed and stopped "Snake." He growled "There's a snake around here, closeby, but I can't see it."
Gaara nodded "I thought so. Be on the lookout." All of a sudden Haku threw a half dozen senbon at a tree and a person jumped out. Everyone heard a low growl.
Gaara realized it was coming from Naruto and he knew why. This man, even he could smell it and his senses weren't as well developed as Naruto's. "You smell of snake strongly." The man/woman looked surprised. Gaara decided to call it a man.
The man looked surprised. He said "Well, Sasuke-kun, I did not expect you to find some new friends, no matter, they will be no match for me." He made a few handsigns and summoned up a huge snake, several stories tall.
Naruto and Gaara were shocked, Naruto only got angrier. They both knew the only person who could summon snakes like this was "Orochimaru!"
He looked surprised "Hm, so you know of me? How strange. I've never seen you three before."
Gaara said "We know you by reputation only."
He said "Tch, no matter, you'll soon be dead." The snake came after them. Gaara cried "Naruto, Haku, defensive, guard. I'll take out the summon. Be careful." They nodded and got in front of Sasuke.
Sasuke said "Hey."
Naruto said "This guy's way above your level. We'd all have trouble with him, he almost defeated Kaasan."
"Kaasan?"
Naruto shook his head "Let's just say this guys above jonin level, he's a sannin."
Sakura cried "The Orochimaru? He's a missing nin!"
Sasuke turned to her in surprise "You've heard about him?"
Sakura was delighted that Sasuke was paying her attention and tried to show off "Hai, sasuke-kun. He was one of the three famous sannin. He was banished from Konoha for his experiments on people. He's a double S class missing nin."
Sasuke's eyes widened. Someone that strong could...was Itachi...could he be telling the truth? No, no, he couldn't have been wrong this whole time. He couldn't have...'
Gaara called up a wave of sand and crushed the snake. Haku cried out "But Ga..."
Gaara interrupted "I know, I know, I had to." He scowled at the snake sannin.
Naruto said "Let's take this guy down."
Gaara said "Don't be so hasty."
Orochimaru frowned. Here was a brat who just took out one of his summons with ease and he used a sand technique. He was supposed to be from waterfall. What was going on here?' Things were starting to get unpredictable. He should avoid a fight in case these strange genin had something up their sleeves he didn't know about. He frowned. He'd just have to make an opening and get at Sasuke.
He saw one and stretched out his neck. He had to retract it as the black haired girl shot a wave of senbon at it. He cursed and went in.
"Fast." Naruto looked at Haku and nodded. Naruto made a ring of kage bushin around the leaf team. They got torn through by Orochimaru.
Naruto growled "Hebi-teme." He spun and deflected a wave of kunai sent at him, then like lightning the neck shot out again. With all his clones taken out, he just had the time to get in front of Sasuke. He hissed as fangs bit into his shoulder.
Orochimaru cursed. He had spent too long here. "I'll be back for you, Sasuke-kun." He snarled, and left.
Naruto fell over with a grunt "It hurts." he fell onto his knees, panting.
Sakura cried "What happened?"
Gaara said "Something bad."
Kai was shaking "Who was that guy?"
Gaara scowled "Orochimaru." He looked at Sasuke and glared "You better thank your brother. He sent us here. If it hadn't been for that, that snake would have done that to you." He pointed at Naruto, who Haku was tending to.
Sasuke was shocked "My brother, he sent you, he's a part of you? He...?"
Gaara scowled "This is bad. I really don't like this." He paused "We need to meet up with the other teams."
Sakura asked "What other teams?"
Gaara said, snapping "Don't ask so many questions." He made a kage bushin bird and sent it up. Itachi's team was there first. Haru's team was also there surprisingly quickly.
Itachi said "Sasuke."
Sasuke scowled recogniqing his brother's voice, then a confused look formed on his features. He said "I...I don't understand."
Itachi turned to Gaara "What happened to Naruto?"
Gaara said "Our cover is being blown bit by bit. What you just did is only a part. I used a suna technique earlier, Naruto mentioned kaasan. Orochimaru escaped. I can only hope he didn't figure anything out."
Itachi asked "What happened?"
Gaara frowned "I took out a summon and told Naruto and Haku to guard Sasuke and his team. Naruto took a blow meant for Sasuke."
"Let me see. Move to the side, Haku."
Haku sniffed "I can't heal it, niisan. It won't go away..."
Itachi looked at it. "It's a curse seal. We'll have to get neesan to look at it."
Haru asked "Should we call her in now?"
Gaara said "Let me see how he's holding up first."
Gaara kneeled beside Naruto who had passed out and performed wakeshin, slumping over top of him. He came out about five minutes later, looking tired. He said, in relief, "It's alright. He's going to be okay. It's working on it."
Itachi asked "Who?"
Gaara only emphazied "It."
"Oh, can it get rid of it?"
Gaara said "It's trying. It can at least contain it."
Haku smiled, relieved.
Naruto woke back up and said, wanly, "Let's continue. It would be annoying to have only made it this far."
Itachi asked "Can you even walk?"
Naruto said "That ate up a lot of my chakra, I don't know." He tried standing up, but fell. Itachi picked him up and put him on his back. "Aniki..."
"No protesting. You'll slow us down like that."
Naruto sighed. "Geez, we need to hurry up and finish. I'm worried about kaasan."
Itachi said "She's okay."
Naruto said "But still..."
"Yeah, I know." He turned to Sasuke's team. He said "We don't have time to waste. We have to stop playing around and get to the tower."
Haku said "I'm unknown, I'll do it."
Gaara frowned. He said "Fine, take Taro with you. Just take down a few teams. We need a heaven scroll. What do the rest of you need?"
Gaara answered "Two earth scrolls." He pointed at Sasuke's team.
"A heaven scroll."
Taro said "How annoying."
Haku said "Two heaven scrolls and two earth scrolls coming right up." Haku held her hand over her chest and closed her eyes.
Taro said "Wait, do mine."
Haku looked at him annoyed "Taro, I thought you had learned how to do it."
"I forgot."
"Fine." Suddenly he dissapeared, then Haku did.
Sasuke jumped "What in the..."
Gaara said "It's a steath jutsu. They'll be back soon." He looked at Itachi and said "You two need to go talk, now. Before they come back and we proceed to the tower. Use wakeshin if you have to. You know how."
Kai and Sakura were still wondering what was going on, Sasuke was highly confused and most of the banshou nins were worried about Naruto and Nekomi.
Itachi sighed and said "Sasuke, let's talk." Sasuke followed his brother a little ways away from the others.