Chapter XXII
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
Oscar examined the sign affixed to the fence closely. 'Danger! Stay Out!' it read.
"Don't worry," Sasuke soothed an agitated Sakura, "We've been here before. It's just the Forest of Death."
"You have no idea how reassuring that is," Naruto deadpanned. Oscar, meanwhile, had just taken a marker out of his pocket and was busy covering the letters of the warning on the sign with tiny stick figures and animals, some using grappling hooks to climb steep upward strokes, some sliding down into the valleys formed by the warning.
"Oscar, that's vandalism!" Sakura reprimanded.
"Well, I'm just a regular juvenile delinquent, then, aren't I?" Oscar said, sketching busily. Naruto glanced over to where the other twenty-five passing teams stood huddled, not twenty feet away, necks craned back so they could peer up into the canopy of the towering trees. The wire fence before them seemed undeniably flimsy beside such an awesome sight. After leading the genin to this place, Anko had vanished, promising to be back in a minute. As Naruto looked around, the purple-haired woman reappeared in the midst of the crowd of genin. Team seven made haste to join the teams.
Anko was giving some creepy, dramatic spiel about how the genin would 'Soon find out why it was called the Forest of Death!'
Muah-ha-ha-ha! Shujin added to Naruto, his evil chuckle made comical by the bite of laughter at the end.
Naruto couldn't help it; he let out a snort of unrestrained laughter. No more than a split second later, there was a flash of metal beside Naruto's left eye and he felt a stinging sensation. By the time Naruto registered the warm wetness sliding down his cheek, he could already feel Shujin already beginning to heal the cut, but the blue-eyed boy stopped him. Too many people were watching by now to risk revealing his regeneration.
Before Naruto could put a hand up to the cut to disguise the fact that it had already half healed, Anko provided a much better distraction. Weaving her way through the crowd, she latched herself onto Naruto, pulling him off balance so that he staggered. He felt something swab his cheek, something warm, slick, and sinuous. With a twinge of disgust, he realized that Anko was licking the spilled blood from his face. Probably it had a dramatic effect on those foreign or Konoha ninja who weren't already acquainted with the Snake Mistress.
Naruto could see Hinata's pale face though the crowd, her features frozen in an expression halfway between disgust and blazing anger. Naruto was relieved to see that neither of these emotions seemed to be directed at him, however, only at the woman drinking his blood. It was then that he noticed a funny spasm cross Hinata's face, as if she weren't quite sure what she was seeing or how to react. Then her face relaxed into a little smile. Looking around, Naruto noticed more than one smirking face among the crowd, and a few were breaking into real laughter. Confused, Naruto twisted in Anko's straightjacket-like grip, to see what was going on.
Oscar had wandered up behind Anko while she had been terrorizing Naruto, with the air of one who was bored and looking for something to occupy him until something interesting came along. Casually, he had dipped his hand into the pocket of Anko's loose trench coat and pulled out a box of pocky, all without Anko being any the wiser. His face got a concentrated, bright look, as if pleased with himself. He held the little box up to his ear and shook it a little, listening to the rattle. Satisfied, he flipped the box open, pulled out a stick, and transferred it to his mouth.
Anko, interrupted in her vampirism, turned around at the faint sounds of crunching. When Oscar noticed her looking, he smiled and held out the open box. "Pocky?" he asked sweetly.
"Is that… mine?" Anko asked, temporarily thrown. Not that people never picked her pockets. They sometimes did. Once.
"Yep. Want some?" Anko stared at the box, shocked, for a full five seconds. Naruto counted, waiting for her to release him. He was not disappointed.
"You little bastard!" Anko screamed, practically throwing Naruto from her, the temptation of his blood forgotten. There was fresh blood here, just waiting to be spilled. Naruto had to give Oscar credit; his smile didn't so much as falter. He just stepped back, the open box held tauntingly in one hand as Anko lunged, not for the box, but for his throat. Oscar was only brought up short when he stepped heavily on someone's foot and he collided painfully with the other person's chest. Oscar looked up into the face of the taller person and Naruto could practically hear the dark boy's mind whirring.
The person he had backed into was excruciatingly pale with a narrow face that was shaded by the wide straw hat she wore. As Oscar stared up at her, she held something up. The kunai Anko had aimed at Naruto. She gripped it tightly as she held it out…
Naruto blinked a little. Is it just me, or it she holding that with her tongue?
I do believe you're right, Shujin said, that's disgusting. There was a pause. For a human.
Okay, I don't want to know.
At that moment, Oscar finally decided to move. The pocky apparently forgotten, he raced right around Anko, her grab missing by a mile, to hide behind Naruto. In a stage whisper that carried louder and clearer to all of the amassed shinobi than if he had shouted, the dark boy said, "That creepy lady scares me!"
Naruto sized up Anko, who was receiving her kunai from the other woman, pulling it out of the coils of her tongue, and the other woman herself, of course. "Which one?" he asked.
"All of them!" Oscar declared.
"Alright! Shut up if you don't want me to carve your faces with a holes big enough to match your mouths!" Anko screamed suddenly, apparently finished with the pale woman.
Oscar cowered behind Naruto. "Protect me," he whispered.
"Now, before I set you cute little guttersnipes loose in the big, dark, deadly forest, I just need you all to do me one little favor. Sign these waivers so that when only half of you come out of this alive, the families of the other half don't sue me broke." Anko grinned happily as the genin hesitated. "Come on, I don't bite!" she paused for an instant, frowning. "No, wait, that's a lie. Oh well! Come on! Any takers? I'm not letting anyone beyond this point until they," she pointed to two bored-looking people sitting in a booth some distance behind her, "Have every one of your little incomprehensible signatures. And then," Anko giggled, seemingly unable to contain herself, "Let the carnage begin."
This elicited nothing but a blank silence from all of the gathered genin. Those who knew Anko personally were unimpressed, particularly as they had already entered the forest of death with few consequences. True, Kiba claimed that his left foot would never be the same again after stepping on that enormous leech, but his sister Hana had proclaimed it 'nothing to worry about,' so no one took him seriously.
Those Konoha shinobi and those from other villages, on the other hand, the ones who weren't used to Anko's antics, were seriously unsettled. In fact, though they broke the silence, turning to each other with agitated whispers, none was brave enough to step forward and take a waiver.
Sasuke sighed. "Hn. Anko, over here. I'll take one of those."
"Thanks a bunch, Uchiha. Just when I thought I was finally going to get that short one at the back to burst into tears," Anko groused. But it had done the trick. One after another, genin were stepping forward to collect the forms. Soon, every one of the forms was gone and an unruly mob was forming by the booth as people handed over their signatures and their safety.
"Hey, dobe. Did you notice she had us sign the forms before we even know what we're doing?" Sasuke asked, standing aside to let Naruto escape the crowd around the booth.
"Yeah, but she's always doing things like that," Naruto said comfortably. "I'm sure we'll be fine."
"How can you be so sure?"
"Well, the first test was pretty rough. This one can't be too bad in comparison."
"Oh, I forgot. The first test was a written one- your worst fear," Sasuke smirked.
"Unfair!" Naruto chided. "I'm just saying that the first test was all about mental strength and being able to take calculated risks. If this one is going to happen in the Forest of Death, it can't be that much more than a brute strength kind of test. Survival of the fittest and all that."
"Perhaps," Sasuke said cryptically, "But there are many here I wouldn't want to meet in a deadly forest without warning. Him, for instance," Sasuke said, nodding as Gaara walked past leading the other two members of his team. "Or even that Kabuto guy. We still have no idea what he's capable of."
"Well, he has failed this test six times already," Naruto pointed out.
Don't you find that unusual? Shujin chipped in. He's had years to build up his skills. If it's just that he hasn't trained seriously in all this time, why would he take the test every time it comes around? It's a big risk for someone who doesn't care about improving himself. And if that's not the reason, than he's been holding back.
Why would he do that? Naruto wondered.
Your guess is as good as mine.
"What's your point, Sasuke? You just gave in your form. You can ask Anko, but I doubt she'd let you back out, even though we would still have three people on our team." The grin faded from Naruto's face and the twinkle that Sasuke had hardly ever known those blue eyes to be without was extinguished. "In any case, I wouldn't let you back out now, even if Anko would," Naruto said seriously. "You've worked too hard for this to stop now, and if you drop out, not only will everyone around you lose respect for you, but you'll lose respect for yourself. It's now or never, and if you go for it and fail, you'll at least be able to say you tried. And you can try again and again as long as it takes, as long as you give it your all every time."
"You should write that down, Naruto," Sakura said, stepping up behind the blonde boy and laying a hand on his shoulder, "That was really good."
"Yeah, well, I'm saying it to myself as much as to him," Naruto grimaced.
"Did it work?" Oscar joined them and they all began walking back from the booth together, heading for the edge of the gate again where Anko was waiting to explain the directions.
"I guess so, but I'll still be calmer when this is over," Naruto said grimly.
When every straggler from the twenty-six teams had arrived, having given their forms to those manning the booth, Anko began.
"Alright, brats, listen up, because like the first test, there will be no questions and no repeats. This forest is basically an enormous circular plot of land with a radius of ten kilometers. Inside of this fence there is forest, obviously, but also a river and a tower right in the center." She considered for a moment, screwing up her face. "Well, near the center, anyway. In any case, your aims will be twofold. Firstly, you must survive the forest itself and make it to that tower within five days. Secondly, each team will receive one of these scrolls."
Anko held out two scrolls of the same size. One was black with the kanji for 'Earth' on it and the other was white with the kanji for 'Heaven' on it. "Thirteen teams will get one type and the other thirteen will be given the other type. You are to compete with every other team in this forest. No rules. No restrictions. Killing is permitted. You're goal is to arrive at that tower not only within the time limit, but with one of each kind of scroll. Thirteen of the teams here now will definitely fail, but I doubt that thirteen will actually pass, to be honest. Dying is easy. Fighting is hard. Be warned, those teams who lose a teammate or who have a teammate who was killed will be disqualified. Lastly, you are absolutely forbidden from opening those scrolls before you reach the tower. As a Chunin, being able to follow orders and not let personal curiosity jeopardize your mission is essential."
Anko looked around, checking every face, eyes lingering on every scared expression, every bead of sweat, every twitching hand. She smiled. "If you want my advice, here it is; don't die. You can probably do better than dying here. Now, there are forty-four gates around the perimeter of the gate. Pick one to start from. I'd say good luck, but if you're honestly relying on luck at this point, you may as well just get your teammates to kill you and save yourself the embarrassment later." She handed out the scrolls and the teams moved off, talking in hushed, strained voices and glancing back at Anko every so often. She watched them in turn, her light brown eyes pitiless and a smirk playing around her mouth. When every team was positioned before a gate, Anko looked around with deliberate enjoyment. "For most of you brats, I'd be lying if I said I'll miss you. So I won't. The second test begins now! Go!"
The man who had unlocked gate number twelve stood back and team seven, not so much as pausing to look at each other, dove straight through. Into the forest.
The four of them had been walking in complete silence for no more than an hour. Thus far there had been very few signs of wildlife, save for the enormous, bloated leeches draped over the distant branches of the gargantuan trees above and the occasional squirrel that would dart out across the path. Naruto shuddered. It seemed like the kind of place were all of the really dangerous creatures would come out at night, when the leaves blocked all moonlight and the ground was steeped in shadows. Naruto was just considering breaking the silence when a shrill scream rent the air. It resonated from far away, the dense canopy above acting as a primitive echo chamber, but Naruto, with his abnormal hearing, could tell it was male and definitely genuine.
"W-what was that?" Sakura stammered, unconsciously drawing closer to her teammates.
"I'd say that's one of our competitors down," Sasuke said, looking like he wasn't sure whether to be pleased or pitying.
"But that might mean one less chance for us to get the Earth scroll that we need," Oscar pointed out. "We should hurry up, get the scroll, and get to the tower."
"Are you scared?" Naruto asked, not jeeringly, merely curiously.
"I'd be a fool if I wasn't." The dark boy dropped his gaze to the brilliant green foliage around them. It wasn't as thick as Naruto would have expected, but he supposed that the leaves overhead must block most of the sunlight. Oscar spoke again, choosing his words carefully. "I think we should have a code word or something, in case we get separated."
"I agree," Sakura said, "We can't take anything for granted here, not even each other."
"How about this," Sasuke said tentatively, "If one of us asks another, 'How does the song "Nin Machine" go?' We have to answer, 'The Gray saw it and thought something should be done. The White didn't care. The Black saw it as good. The Yellow denied it. The Green looked around for someone who would act. The Blue supplied support and the Red went out and acted.' Do you guys have that?"
"Yes," Sakura replied immediately, "Easy."
"I think so," Oscar said, eyes screwed up, then nodded. "Yep, it's there."
"What about you Naruto?"
Naruto looked at Sasuke with wild, hunted eyes. "Are you kidding? I can't remember that!"
Unfortunately, neither can I, Shujin put in.
"But you have the gist, right?" Sasuke said.
Naruto had just opened his mouth to say that he had not even this, when he saw Sasuke wink. It was the briefest thing, but immediately after, Sasuke swiveled his eyes first to the right, then the left.
Naruto understood. There may be someone listening. I'd better just go along with it. "Actually, yeah, I think I might have it. At least the gist." Sasuke winked again.
"Good, then let's go. We may have five days, but Oscar was right, the sooner we get a scroll and get to the tower, the better."
"Then at least we'll get to see what's in these things," Naruto said, trying to cheer up the others. The words did not help much, though. I keep forgetting that they can't heal. I guess imminent death doesn't agree with them, Naruto thought. Good thing I'm used to it. I may end up having to take the lead here. For now, though, I think Sasuke has some kind of plan. At least, I hope so, because he's the one with the scroll.
The four of them continued, sticking to ground travel for the most part, hardly speaking, moving low bushes and climbing vines out of their paths every once in a while. After a while, when some of the immediate fears began to recede somewhat, the four of them found their paranoia mounting, slowly, subtly. After glancing around for the sixth time in the last half hour, Sasuke finally voiced what they were all thinking.
"We should have met someone by now. After all, some group out there will want out Heaven scroll. I'm glad we're making such good progress, but we really need to find a group with an Earth scroll."
Just because it had been said aloud, the bare facts did not alleviate any of the tension. They walked on in silence, until Naruto finally couldn't bear it. Not even Shujin was saying anything. "I need to go take a leak," Naruto said. He had been walking at the back of the group and the other three stopped and turned to exchange looks.
"I don't think you should go alone," Oscar said.
"Alright, who's coming with me?" The words came out slightly more aggressively than Naruto had intended. He quickly smiled so that no one would think he was being difficult.
"Not me," Oscar said quickly.
"Me neither," Sasuke said, no more than a beat later. They both looked at Sakura. She crossed her arms and stared right back.
"Oh no you don't. Don't you dare," She said, ominously.
"Not even for me?" Sasuke asked hopelessly.
Oscar punched Sasuke on the arm. "No fair exploiting her, Uchiha."
Naruto rolled his eyes. "Whatever. I have to go, so I'll just make sure I stay within shouting distance. How's that?"
"Should work. Just be careful," Sasuke said.
"Thanks," Naruto said and left. Sakura and Sasuke sat down on a nearby fallen log. Then they hastily got up as Oscar nudged them with his foot. All three bowed to the log and offered thanks and prayers for the rotting wood in its fallen state. Then all three sat down.
No more than a few minutes later, just when they were about to send someone after Naruto, the blonde boy emerged from the bushes. He stopped, his smile faltering, as Sasuke rose and pointed a kunai straight at him from the other side of the little enclosure. "How does the song, 'Nin Machine' go?" Sasuke asked.
Confidently, Naruto replied, "The Gray saw it and thought something should be done. The Green didn't care. The Black saw it as good. The Yellow denied it. The White looked around for someone who would act. The Blue supplied support and the Red went out and acted. Satisfied?" A moment later, the blonde boy dodged as the kunai left Sasuke's hand and narrowly missed Naruto's side. "What the hell?" he said indignantly. "What's wrong with you? I recited the code word!"
"Exactly. The best the real Naruto would be able to do is kind of blunder around and name colors. You recited it word for word. Who are you and what scroll do you have?"
"And if you have to answer just one of those questions, make it the second one, please," Oscar put in helpfully.
"Kukuku. Remarkable. I see I chose right, after all." There was a puff of smoke and the woman from before appeared in Naruto's place, the pale one who had handed Anko her kunai with her tongue. Now, she drew a black Earth scroll from a pocket of her white, robe-like garment. "You have the Heaven scroll, don't you? You need this." A thick, gray and scarlet snake slithered out of the end of the woman's sleeve. It coiled up the outside of the woman's sleeve, blinking slitted eyes at the three members of team seven and flicking its narrow, forked tongue in and out rapidly. Lazily, the pale woman reached up with the hand holding the Earth scroll and placed it in the jaws of the snake. The snake sent the other genin one last sly look across the thick scroll before retreating down the back of the woman's robe. As it did so, the woman removed the wide straw hat that she wore.
"As you should already know, this will be a fight to the death. A scroll battle of sorts. Are you ready? No? Good." Instantly, before a single move could be made on either side, Oscar, Sakura and Sasuke were pierced, run through by cold, cold blades- unyielding metal. Then they blinked and it was over. Sasuke found himself on his knees. Genjutsu, he thought stunned. Then, No, that was no jutsu. That was pure, unfiltered, killing intent. Sasuke felt as though he had just swallowed an apple whole. His throat hurt and his eyes stung. I actually think I am about to die. Right here. Right now. Suddenly, he registered someone tugging at his arm. The pale woman was saying something, but he couldn't focus. He must have been on the ground no more than a few seconds already and he allowed himself to be pulled up and dragged behind a tree.
There, Sakura squeezed his hand hard and briefly before backing up a pace. Sasuke's eyes followed her, blankly, without purpose, without emotion. Oscar pushed Sakura aside completely and studied Sasuke's expression minutely. In his stunned state, Sasuke heard the dark boy say the words, 'Thought it was a genjutsu,' 'Memories,' and 'Shock,' in a clipped, clinical tone. Sasuke wasn't paying attention until Oscar took a step back and slapped him as hard as he could across the face.
The sound of the blow seemed to ring in Sasuke's ears, but it had started fading already, and as it left, sounds came rushing in; branches cracking and shifting, Sakura whispering, the gloating voice of their adversary. Immediately, the details made sense and Sasuke clapped a hand over Sakura's mouth. Looking at Oscar, the Uchiha place a finger to his own lips. Oscar nodded once. The three of them split, heading for different branches to hide. Where's Naruto? They all wondered as they crouched, hidden for the moment.
Sasuke laid a hand on the branch before him to free the other hand so he could move aside the foliage hanging in front of his face. He needed to see. As he rested his fingertips on the branch, however, it flexed, the tiny scales coating it contracting and expanding. Sasuke snatched his hand back, but it was too quick for him. A loose coil of the snake whipped around behind Sasuke, catching him in the small of the back and sending him flying out of the tree to sprawl on the forest floor. As soon as he landed he was on his feet, prepared to take cover. He turned to see the snake that had thrown him. It was rising from the branches of the tree in which he had been hiding. Sasuke knew that Oscar and Sakura would have seen it too.
"Don't help me!" he yelled. "Stay hidden!" He threw a hail of shuriken directly at the place where the serpent was emerging from the low canopy, looking like a sea snake resurfacing. Every one of the projectiles hit its mark and the snake toppled from the tree with an impact that made the ground shudder. When it hit the hard forest floor, there was a final sort of snapping noise.
Sasuke did not emerge from his crouching stance. His teammates were still not visible, and he hoped that they had the sense to remain hidden. None of them really believed that the fight was over so soon. Sasuke glanced around, wondering where the pale woman had gone. He was alerted by the noise of scales sliding and a sickening noise, like flesh being ripped apart. His eyes flicked forward in time to see a bulge moving in the side of the supine snake's neck. As he looked, the bulge split open and the pale woman emerged.
If that snake wasn't dead already, she's just killed it, Sasuke thought.
"I'm glad to see you're prepared to take your enemies seriously, Uchiha. But if that's so, then tell me this. You want to live, I assume. So why do you, frightened little prey, not run from the deadly predator?" The pale woman smirked as she unfolded herself from the snake, freeing herself from the carcass with an impatient flick of her foot. "Now," She said, advancing.
As she moved, there was a blur of silver and to Sasuke's eyes it looked almost like the woman had spontaneously sprouted several projectile weapons from her chest. She hissed and fell back, half turning away and raising her hands to pull out the kunai and shuriken. Before Sasuke could so much as move, he felt a hand on his shoulder and looked around to see Naruto.
"Yeah, I don't remember the code word. You'll just have to take my word that I'm me," Naruto said. "Meanwhile, distract her, if you can. Get her talking. I'll try to find the others. Be back in a minute." Naruto left, leaving Sasuke quite alone. As it happened, he had been wondering himself at the fact that none of his teammates had shown up to help him. He feared the worst.
As the pale woman flung down the last kunai that Naruto had thrown at her, Sasuke rose. He put a hand in his pocket and drew out the Heaven scroll. He did not look at the scroll, but he held it out to the woman without a word.
"What, you're going to hand it over without consulting your teammates?" The woman asked sneeringly. She made no move to take the proffered scroll.
"Why not? They seem to have abandoned me," Sasuke said stonily.
"It's a noble sentiment, Sasuke Uchiha. Or it would be, if I had any need for your scroll. But, you see, that's not what I want. I want you. Not your life, not even your loyalty. Once you're on my side I can take either of those things quite easily, so what's the point?"
Sasuke barely hesitated. "If you agree not to follow my team, okay. I'll go with you."
The woman was taken aback. "Really?"
"Hell no! Just leave them alone! Come and get me!" Sasuke dove forward, stuffing the scroll back in his pocket and forming a seal as he went. "Katon: Goukakyu no Jutsu!" The enormous fireball engulfed the pale woman, completely obscuring her from Sasuke's vision. He thought he could faintly hear her cry over the roaring of the flames. To Sasuke's confusion, an enormous roll of smoke bled through the fireball as the flames began to dissipate. The smoke hung in the air for a few moments after the flames had vanished completely and Sasuke activated his Sharingan, trying to penetrate the cloud, to catch sight of any movement. He saw more than that.
As the smoke cleared, the dull glint of scales e larger than paving stones was revealed. It was a snake the like and size of which Sasuke had never seen before. The pale woman crouched on its head, hand splayed on the plates that coated its flat skull.
Sasuke scrabbled back, almost falling over in haste to put distance between himself and the enormous summon. He fumbled around in his weapon pouches, desperately wracking his brains for a plan. But there was no plan. How could he fight something that size? Before he could succumb to hopelessness, however, something yellow came streaking down from the branches above. Sasuke watched in shock, only just barely able to keep up with the movement with his still-active Sharingan. Naruto was aimed for the end of the snake's nose, where the scales were thinnest and most sensitive He landed with a blow that sent the snake's head, and the woman along with it, crashing into the forest floor.
Hissing angrily, the snake reared. Naruto made to dodge out of the way, but he did not see the snake's enormous tail whipping around to meet him. With a single powerful flick, the snake sent Naruto smashing into the trunk of a nearby tree. The blonde boy began to fall. The pale woman had just drawn breath to tell her snake to eat the boy when Naruto's body seemed to ripple and distort in mid air. As Sasuke watched, Naruto flipped himself over and threw himself at the tree trunk, stopping his descent by burying in the tree's trunk a full set of two-inch-long claws that he definitely had not possessed before the fall. He clung to the tree, head-down like a squirrel for a moment. Then he stood, releasing the bark with his claws and standing perpendicular to the trunk, using chakra alone to stick. He launched himself right back at the snake.
Sasuke would have watched what happened next, if he hadn't been seized roughly from behind and dragged around a nearby tree. He shook off the clutching hands and readied himself for a fight before realizing it was only Oscar and Sakura.
"Where have you been?" he whispered indignantly.
"We ran into a bit of trouble when we left to hide. Snake summons. Not as big as this one, but still," Oscar replied. Now Sasuke came to look at him properly, he was covered in streaks of blood and some sticky, unpleasant substance.
"One snake each, Naruto included," Sakura added. She was holding a bundle of cloth bandages to her right arm, where there was a series of long, deep gouges and scrapes and in some place her skin was reduced to narrow, bloody ribbons.
"What are we doing hiding? We have to help Naruto!" Sasuke exclaimed.
"Do you have a plan?" Oscar asked, "Or do we just dive in headfirst like usual?"
Sasuke thought for a moment, option after option presenting itself to him. He had to reject most of them. Not much chakra left. Not many weapons. No bargaining. No room to maneuver. They couldn't run. Until he remembered one option. "Sakura, do you have any of your throwing weapons left?" Sasuke asked. Sakura nodded, unfastening her holsters and passing them to him. He received them with a nod of thanks. "Oscar, how much chakra do you have left?"
"Enough for either a good thirty second distraction, or maybe a minute in a pinch, or for one last really good strike."
"That should be enough." Sasuke quickly outlined the plan to them, peering out around the tree to check on Naruto.
The blonde boy was holding his own, but just barely. As Sasuke looked, Naruto finally managed to get in close. He was within striking distance of the woman, who was still riding atop her summon. Sasuke briefly wondered if they would even need his plan, but just then, the woman grabbed one of Naruto's hands with her own, stopping the attack dead and immobilizing the other hand in much the same way with her long tongue.
Sasuke saw her lift up the hem of Naruto's shirt with her free hand. She smiled as she held up that hand, each finger tipped with what looked like a little flickering flame. Then she slammed that hand into Naruto's stomach, crying out as she did so.
Naruto's eyes went wide, so wide that Sasuke noticed their unusual red color and slitted pupils for the first time… Naruto collapsed, slumped in the woman's grasp. She tossed him aside impatiently, but with such force that the other members of team seven knew he would probably break his neck on impact with the tree he was on a collision course for.
"No!" Sakura leapt up and, despite her teammates' shouts, darted out and raced up the trunk of the enormous tree in time to get between Naruto and the trunk. He still hit her at a considerable velocity, however, and temporarily knocked the air from her lungs. In that moment, unable to breathe, she temporarily lost hold over her tree-climbing jutsu and they plummeted together. Sakura was just able to catch hold of Naruto's wrist in one hand and, as they fell past the lowest branch of the tree, some twenty or thirty feet above the ground, she caught hold of the branch in her other hand, halting their descent, but dislocating her shoulder in the process with the rough, sudden stop. She screamed in pain as she slowly, inch by inch, dragged first herself and then Naruto up over the branch. Then she had to let go of the blonde boy in order to sob and clutch her shoulder in agony. She tore the training weight from the wrist of her injured arm and threw it to the ground.
Meanwhile, the pale, long-haired woman dispelled her snake summon, staring expectantly at the tree behind which Sasuke and Oscar were hiding. She took not the slightest notice of Sakura and Naruto.
Behind the tree, the two boys glanced at each other. Oscar held up three fingers, silently counting down. Three- two- one- now! Sasuke threw himself around the tree. He took no more than a split second to orient himself, to use his sharingan, before the weapons had parted company with his hands, thrown hard and viciously straight at the woman. She avoided them with ease, smirking at the dismayed expression on Sasuke's face.
But the smirk quickly vanished as she noticed the wires tied tightly to the throwing weapons and held taut by the flight of the spinning projectiles. "What?" was all she had time to say, before Oscar had sidled around the opposite side of the tree from where Sasuke had emerged. He laid his fingers across the wires and glanced toward Sasuke. Both acted simultaneously.
Lightning chakra leapt down the lengths of the wires, the bolts arcing between the metal projectiles, still spinning on the ends of their tethers on either side of the pale woman. Caught in the middle, her spine arched and a short scream sliced through the crackling and popping sounds. She fell to the ground, attempted to stop herself from falling completely by putting her hands up in front of her, but to no avail. She crumpled face-first onto the hard earth.
Sasuke dropped her arms to his sides, letting the wires and weapons patter down harmlessly. Oscar was panting, seriously low on chakra. Sasuke felt rather drained himself and, though it would not make a difference, he automatically deactivated his sharingan. There was a pause. A single still moment. The fight was finished.
"Might as well collect her scroll," Oscar said finally, glancing up to where Sakura and Naruto were still perched in the tree above. Apparently deciding that they could wait a few minutes, Oscar approached the pale woman's supine form. Sasuke followed.
When they reached her side, Oscar flipped her onto her back, wincing at the dry rasping noise of crisped skin. "That snake with the scroll is probably in her sleeve again. It wouldn't have stayed behind her back."
Sasuke nodded, crouching down and pushing up the woman's sleeve in time to catch hold of the tail of the small snake as it attempted to slither out of the neck of the woman's clothes. Sasuke dragged the snake out backward, past caring whether he was hurting it or not, and handed it, along with the scroll it carried, to Oscar. He made to turn away and stand up, but paused. Crouching and sliding up the woman's sleeve again, Sasuke studied the seals inscribed on her wrist and a single streak of blood that adorned the seals. He bent a bit closer for a better look, not really wanting to touch the singed flesh.
As he leaned forward, he heard a sudden exclamation from Oscar and felt the ground tremble. Before he could turn his head, a terrible pain suddenly bloomed from two points on the side of his neck. He tried to move, scream, anything, but his body would not respond. Poison? He wondered. He felt the earth shudder once more and heard Oscar swearing. The other boy's voice passed in and out of hearing. Sasuke's neck hurt so badly that he found he was holding his head canted to one side. He reached up gingerly. No sooner had he laid his fingertips on the wound, then the pain exploded into Sasuke's skull, obscuring his vision with red and black sparks and swirls. His voice seemed to unstick. He screamed. And screamed. Until his breath ran out. He passed out.
From the bushes, three genin watched, shifting every now and then. "Shall we attack in the morning?" The speaker was a tall boy with spiked hair.
"Might as well," the other boy smirked. He wore bandages wound all around his head and face.
"Just leave the girl from me," the third person said, female this time, with long dark hair.
"Sure. Have her. Kill her, for all she matters. I don't care. Just don't hurt the Uchiha," said the bandaged boy.
"Alright. In the morning then." Three hitai-ates glinted subtly in the dying light filtering through the branches overhead. Three hitai-ates. Three musical notes. Three pairs of cunning, greedy eyes- watching Sasuke, watching Naruto, watching Sakura and Oscar. Watching, watching.
A/N: A bit late, but not so bad. As per usual, a few notices and notes on the chapter.
-It was mostly centered on Sasuke. I don't really intend to write more of that, but I think it served its purpose here.
-Sasuke kind of froze when he thought he was under a genjutsu because it brought back old memories of when Itachi put that fateful genjutsu on him...
-Deviated from canon a bit, but then, that's the point.
-The codeword response... I actually made it up a long time ago and needed something here that didn't rhyme. All of my rhymes are pretty easy to remember, so it was too unrealistic that Naruto wouldn't be able to remember them if I used one.
-The next update I'll make will be the third chapter of my challenge fic, Perfection is in the Eyes of the Beholder. Where Kushina has appeared! So check that out if you're interested.
-I'll probably remember something else later that I also wanted to say here, but for now, the usual. Thank you for reading. Please oh please leave a review on the site and your soul at the door. Thank you and until next time!