A/N: thanks for all the reviews. Sorry for the long delay for this chapter, so I made in an extra long one for you.
Normal
"Talk"
Think
Technique/Inner Character
Demon Talk
Demon Think
I do not own Naruto. I do own any OC's displayed unless I say otherwise.
BEGIN
Sakura gulped and wearily looked at the malicious forest in front of her. Looking at her teammates she saw Naruto was talking to his imaginary friend Sanji again and Sasuke was glaring at the forest. Sometimes is seemed as though she was the only normal one in the group (Seemingly-random violent tendencies excluded; honestly, how did her teammates expect her to put up with all the stress?) The Naruto-ish proctor began to speak
"Welcome to the forest of death" Sakura gulped, looking to her side she saw that her teammates were again focused on the proctor. Sasuke and Naruto both had their hands in their pockets they seemed so relaxed. Breathing deeply Sakura again turned to the proctor
"Before we start I need to hand out these forms" Holding up the forms, Anko continued
"These are agreement forms, there will be deaths in this exam and of you don't sign these then it will all be my responsibility" All the rookie genin gulped, Sakura felt fear stab at her heart. Breathing deeply she tried to dispel her fears, calming down she continued to listed
"I'm going to explain this test, then you can sign the forms at that stand over their" Anko pointed towards the stand and the three chuunin manning the benches waved.
"Ok, simply put the second test is for ultimate survival. First I'll explain the area it will take place in" Pulling a scroll out of her pocket she opened it, a map of the area appeared.
"Around practice arena 44 are 44 locked gates. There is a Forest, River and a tower in the centre. From the gates to the tower is about 10km. During this test you will complete a certain task. Using your skills and weapons you will compete in a no rules scroll battle" Pulling out two scrolls Anko continued
"These are the two scrolls. The white one is the Heaven scroll, and the black on is the Earth Scroll. There are 48 of you, which make 16 teams. Eight will get the Heaven, and eight will get the Earth. So to pass this test, each team must make it to the tower with both scrolls" Sakura mentally did the maths
'Ok, that means that this test will be cut in half. Actually more than that because some people are going to get greedy' For some unknown reason an image of Chouji entered her mind. Now that the rules were over, she saw several teams heading towards the booth and lining up. A hand grabbing her shoulder caught her attention
"Sakura-chan, we have to get in line" It was Naruto, nodding she meekly followed her teammates. All the while her immense brainpower coming up with various strategies on how to effectively steal a scroll and complete the challenge.
'I 'insert name' hereby declare that, during the second chuunin exam (please refer to Section 1 Clause A for definition of 'Chuunin exam' and 'what it entails') that Konohagakure no Sato will not be held responsible for my death or other occurrences listed in Section 2 Clause C. Signed 'Insert Signature'. Man how troublesome' Shikamaru the resident Genius was currently reading the form that you had to sign in order to participate in the chuunin exam. It was full of boring information that would make little or no sense to most contestants (AKA Naruto). Shikamaru though, being the good boy he was critically examined the document (which was rather easy)
'You know, I don't think people are going to realise that Konoha will not be held responsible for WHATEVER happens in this exam.' Signing the final section he handed it to the chuunin at the desk and walked towards their allocated gate.
The final countdown was approaching; each genin team had found their gate. Sasuke sat stoically on a rock waiting for the gate to open, while his two teammates idly talked to each other. Within his mind a perfect picture of the battle ground. (It was a little known fact that as soon as they gained the sharingan the user -excluding those with it implanted- gained a permanent photographic memory even when not using it) he had to come up with an effective plan.
"Naruto, Sakura… We need to come up with a plan" Sakura paused in her conversation with Naruto and her undivided attention was now on Sasuke. Only it was Naruto who answered first.
"We kick some teams ass and find a scroll, then we go to the tower" Naruto never was one for complicated tasks; luckily he had Sakura and her large forehead to compensate.
"Naruto you idiot, we have to plan for inconsistencies. Like, what if we can't find a team? Or what if a team surprise attacks us? Those sorts of things" Although it would have made sense to a normal person, Naruto was too dense and 'stupid' to understand.
"Why Sakura-chan? It's not like there's any team that can beat us. And Sasuke with his sharinwhatsit is sure to find someone" It was one of Naruto's redeemable attributes though, because he had an infallible belief in the strength of his friends. Unfortunately Naruto also commonly underestimated situations… a lot.
"The Sharingan can't find people, it's the Byakugan that does that. We also need a password or someth-" before he could finish though the guard at the gate burst began to speak
"OK! Its time for the second exam, good luck team… Oh and Naruto, don't die. I still haven't tried the Naruto special" at Naruto surprised look the chuunin flashed an all you can eat voucher for the same restaurant Naruto worked at. Sasuke smirked, grabbing Naruto at the shoulders he pointed to the forest. After sheepishly scratching the back of his head Naruto followed his team into the forest.
After jumping a fair distance into the forest, Tenten and team landed in a clearing near the river. Grabbing a stick Neji began to draw in the sand,
"We will make camp here, once we are done we will split up and hunt scrolls at nightfall, when everyone is resting" Tenten and Lee both nodded.
Kiba stood, hands in pockets. A pose similar to Naruto when ready to fight, only for Kiba he was completely relaxed.
"So everyone would be heading to the tower right. Ha, it would be best to place traps close then" the sound of a foot snapping a twig alerted Akamaru to the fact that someone was behind them. Smirking he motioned where they were to his teammates. Several fear-filled screams showed them that their well-hidden trap was successful. Walking towards the now defeated genin Kiba couldn't help but gloat.
"Hidden Leaf jumping leaches will sense life forms then attack in a group. Five minutes of sucking and then you're in the next world. So, we found a nest and set up a trap and lured you right into it" to prove his point he held a bug out on his hand, it had a small chakra string attached to a contact lens in each Genins left eye. Grabbing the scroll, Kiba whooped in joy, it was the one they needed.
The fear-filled scream was the sounds of the forests first victims. Naruto shivered, it was a scary sound.
"Was that a human scream?" Sakura asked fearfully next to him, Sasuke shrugged. The urge to pee suddenly attacked Naruto like a raging waterfall. Turning away from his teammates Naruto began to walk towards the bushes
"Hey guys, I gotta pee. I'll be back in a sec" Sakura and Sasuke just sighed at his attitude, walking into the bushes he unzipped the fly and began let it rip. Just as he was about to finish a small noise alerted him, beginning to laugh he zipped up turned around
"You know Sakura-chan if you wanted to watch- hey, your not Sakura" the enemy-nin dashed at Naruto full speed. Unfortunately he was attacking the wrong guy. When the Nin reached striking distance he threw a punch, easily ducking it Naruto slid his hands into his pockets. While crouched Naruto Whirled around the enemy and kicked the enemy nin in the back, once the nin was a safe distance away Naruto stood back up and readied himself for the enemy's retaliation. He didn't have to wait long; once the Nin had regained his bearing he threw kunai at the ninja cook one after the other. Naruto easily dodged them all, jumping on a tree he began to go on the offensive. The enemy had no chance. When he blocked, Naruto broke through the block. When the rain-nin attacked, it was dodged. All in all, it couldn't have been called a fight.
Three minutes after Naruto had left his team to pee, he came back… with a hostage. Sakura and Sasuke had to double check and make sure it really was Naruto. Once they determined it was Naruto (much to his annoyance) he and Sasuke began to interrogate the enemy Nin… well they tried to.
"You will tell us what we want to know" Naruto declared, shadows appearing in the right place to cover the face and make he eyes seem to glow. The Nin refused to answer.
"Look, we don't want to hurt you. Just tell us where the rest of your team is, what scroll you have and who has it. And we will let you go" Sasuke said, he and Naruto were playing the good-ninja bad-ninja routine. Unfortunately you had to be able to play the part (I mean, Sasuke as the good ninja?) again the Nin refused to answer.
The third time, Naruto and Sasuke began to sing 'oh, the ninja jumped over the mountain' in an off tune and scratchy voice. The ninja again refused to answer.
The fourth event was Naruto showing and attempting to bribe the ninja with all the embarrassing pictures of Sasuke Hinata had captured and Naruto had purchased over the years. While the hostage nearly died of laughter he still refused to answer (although it did cause Sakura to blush and Sasuke to go ballistic)
The fifth attempt involved a bright light, several musical numbers and a rubber chicken. However the ninja still refused to answer. Well in Sakura's opinion enough was enough.
"Look here you" the hostage arrogantly looked at Sakura, once he saw her expression though… he flinched; Sakura seemed to be a demon from the underworld. Her face was covered in darkness; only piercing eyes and a large evil smile could be seen. Malicious dark-blue bordering black chakra seemed to poor from her in spades. She grabbed the ninja, placed her legs just above the ninja's manly region and began to laugh a high pitched evil laugh.
"So, ninja-kun. Tell me everything you know. Or…" for effect she pushed on his lower regions lightly, but it was still enough for the Nin to wet his pants. Then he cracked, and told him everything he knew. How they came from the rain-village and his teammates were going to ambush people near the tower, he also said how they specialised in genjutsu and long-range fighting. Then he went on about how he secretly kept his teddy and that he often pretended to kiss it because he couldn't get a girlfriend, and how one of his teammates was actually gay, well… you get the point.
Although now that he had cracked, they had hit another problem. What to do with him? Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on how you view it) it was determined for them. A large gust of wind came out of nowhere blowing them all away, separating them all.
When Naruto came to, a large shadow hovered above him. As he was still hazy he couldn't make much of it, although it did look like a giant man-eating snake…
"MAN EATING SNAKE?" Naruto jumped backwards quickly, and managed to avoid the large man-eating reptiles initial strike. Most people would have been scared stiff at the sight of that large animal, But since when was Naruto normal? All he saw was four days worth of snake meat and enough left over for a rainy day. To top it all of, it is common knowledge that all large man-eating snakes weren't poisonous as they relied of eating their prey whole after strangulation.
"Food here I come!" Naruto ran towards the snake, Sanji helping him out.
"As this is your first large animal, there are several things you should know. To defeat them you have to out power them, with your strength that shouldn't be a problem for this snake. I would aim between the eyes because that is were the brains are." Naruto followed the advice, rushing at the animal he jumped into the air just as the snake struck again. As the attack sailed under him, Naruto began to spin rapidly gaining so much speed he appeared to be nothing but a sphere, when he reached the head Naruto struck the animal with as much force as he could muster right between the eyes killing it instantly. Landing safely on the ground, he looked at his newest prize, and then scratched his head.
"Ok, now what?"
Her head hurt, when she found whoever made that gust of wind she would #$%^&* the annoying &^$$%. Groaning she pushed herself into a seated position, glancing each direction she looked for her teammates. Hearing feet behind bushes several feet in front of her she cautiously walked towards it. It was Sasuke,
"Hey Sasuke, where's Naruto?" Sasuke turned to Sakura so fast that she was sure he would get whiplash.
"Sakura? What's Naruto's middle name?" Sakura looked at Sasuke confusedly,
'What on earth?' what was he on about, how was she suppose to know?
"I don't know Sasuke, he never told us. In fact I don't know what yours is either" Sasuke smiled at his pink haired teammate.
"Good, it is you. And I don't have a middle name, don't know about Naruto though"
'Oh, so that's what he was on about!' Sakura sighed to herself relieved, for a second there she was seriously beginning to consider that Sasuke was crazy. Sitting on a log that was nearby she waited for Sasuke to begin to speak again
"I'm guessing that you didn't see Naruto on your way here?" Sakura shook her head in a negative; Sasuke palmed his face then sighed. Sakura smiled weakly, standing up she walked towards the nearest bushes, before she could disappear though, Naruto landed in the clearing. As soon as he 'relaxed' himself, Sakura was instantly on guard, there was something… off about his stance.
"Hey guy's, didya miss me?" Sakura relaxed a little bit, at least he was acting all right. Although it was strange how he had holes all through his fighting stance. That was when it hit her; it wasn't the Redleg stance. She discretely glanced at Sasuke; he had noticed it as well. Taking the initiative Sasuke threw two kunai at the possible impostor, his reaction proved it. Normally Naruto would have dodged the Kunai heading towards him, as a rule he refused to use his hands for anything other than jutsu in a fight. The impostor though, whipped a hand out of a pocket and easily caught the kunai. Sakura followed up Sasuke attack by throwing kunai herself; again the enemy used his hands to deflect the weapons with his new kunai. Attacking in unison Sakura and Sasuke timed their attacks in an attempt to defeat the enemy Nin, all the while the impostor was still acting like Naruto.
"Why did you do that Sakura-chan?" after the words left the impostor's mouth Sasuke approached to attack with taijutsu. Each of Sasuke's attacks was blocked with the HANDS. Jumping backwards the enemy landed on a tree trunk and faced Sasuke; the Nin licked his lips. Shuddering Sakura determined she did 'NOT' want someone looking like Naruto doing that. The exploding tags attached to her kunai, Sakura threw them at the Nin. 'BOOM!'
Sakura landed next to her teammate, when the smoke had cleared standing in front of them was a creepy looking female ninja (Sakura recognised the symbol of grass on the forehead protector).
"Ku Ku Ku Ku, how did you know I wasn't Naruto?" Sakura answered before Sasuke could gloat, and possibly give away confidential information.
"Why should we tell you?" she yelled brashly, the grass-nin chuckled.
"Well done little girl, good choice" The way she said that made Sakura's back shiver, she looked to Sasuke for support.
"Ku Ku Ku, show me what you have Uchiha?" Sakura's eyes twitched,
'We are a team dammit, why do people always have to look at Sasuke and Naruto for a challenge?SHANNARO!' blinking in surprise at the uninvited thought Sakura was snapped out of her musings. The grass-nin looked at her and Sasuke, following that was an extremely evil smile that put Sakura's to shame. The grass-nin first swallowed the scroll they needed (much to Sakura's disgust) grabbed her eye and let out a whole lot of something.
What ever it was caused her to experience extreme amounts of fear; it completely overwhelmed her senses. Death, fear, anger and destruction, all of those feelings surrounded her, the end result was Sakura seeing 1000 ways the enemy in front of her could kill them. A kunai through the heart, their head being chopped off, being forced to kill each other and other numerous ways. While she couldn't look down to check she did feel a warm liquid running down her leg, she wouldn't be surprised if Sasuke was feeling the same.
Sakura watched in horror as the enemy in front of her pulled two kunai from a pouch and placed them between two fingers. Sakura tried again and again to force her body to move, but to no avail. She did notice out of the corner of her eyes that Sasuke was trying to do the same; luckily he could move his hands ever so slightly.
"Ku Ku Ku, I guess this is goodbye" the Enemy threw the dual kunai at the struggling duo. Sakura tried harder than ever to avoid them, but again she failed to move. Feeling involuntarily movement she watched as the kunai harmlessly passed overhead. Landing behind a branch her eyes widened slightly when she felt blood pitter-patter on her face. The feeling of immense doom was gone, looking up she saw Sasuke standing in front of her, a kunai slice on his face, it would likely scar if it isn't healed quickly. There was another source of blood as well; it was a wound to the knee, stabbed by Sasuke's own kunai.
'He overwhelmed that fear with pain? Just who is Sasuke?' she watched as Sasuke sat her down and then nervously looked about, with shock she realised that his sharingan was active.
"Sasuke are you al-" a hand covered her face, Sasuke looked at Sakura sharply
"Quiet, we have to get out of here" Sakura was shocked; Sasuke really was scared. Looking behind her, she let out a piercing scream. Sasuke whipped around to silence her then he too saw the snake.
"*&^%$#" Jumping backwards both Sasuke and Sakura separated to dodge the snake strike. For some reason the snake targeted Sasuke though, when he looked into the eyes he saw that the grass-nin was behind it.
"Stay away from me!" he threw his entire collection of remaining weapons at the beast. It stopped in its tracks and fell to the ground harmless; a kunai had pierced the brain. Sasuke landed on a tree branch and panted heavily, Sakura was nowhere to be found. Just when he was about to search for his teammates something caught his eyes, the skin was breaking on the snake and a figure was rising out of it.
"You shouldn't relax for even a second, when in front of a predator" Sasuke fell backwards, almost in denial. At least that was until the grass-nin lurched forward and her eyes widened in shock. Once the Nin had fallen to the ground Sasuke saw why, an array of Kunai and weapons had implanted themselves in the enemy's head and back. A throwing distance away Sakura stood, her hands still in front of her, panting heavily.
"Ha, what would you do without me Sasuke" Sasuke smiled the first true smile of the day to Sakura, looking back at the 'corpse' of his enemy is watched confused and then in horror as it turned into mud.
"I will admit I underestimated you, Sakura-chan" a tongue slivered across Sakura's throat.
"Hmm, I can taste the fear on you" the Nin was standing right behind Sakura, holding onto her shoulders.
"Now what did I say about predators?" the face was falling off the grass-nin now to reveal a pale white face with golden eyes and again the 'thing' that caused fear struck full force. Sakura gulped and shivered uncontrollably
"W-w-what a-a-are you?" Seeing the enemy-nin ripping of the rest of 'her' face Sasuke realised that it was a male, the now male spoke
"Orochimaru, ku ku ku, my name is Orochimaru" even the voice changed now it was deeper. Sasuke was in a pickle, how was he going to rescue Sakura?
While Sasuke came up with and cancelled various plans on how to rescue his teammate, said teammate was also coming up with ways to get out of the situation. Sakura came up with various plans, picking the one most likely to work she put it into action. Lacing her elbow with chakra she smirked as Orochimaru looked at her curiously, thrusting it backwards she felt the signs of a cracked rib and the Nin was forced to let go as he was thrust backwards.
It was with some sense of triumph as Sakura jumped from tree to tree getting to Sasuke; landing next to him she smiled at his stunned expression. (She refused to acknowledge the immense pain in her arm) together they turned again to the enemy.
"Ku Ku Ku, you are an interesting one, I haven't experienced that since…" Orochimaru's eyes glazed in memory, shaking his head he continued
"No matter, I'm still going to kill you" with those words reality came crushing down, while he seemed to be slightly favouring his ribs, the attack did so little damage that everything seemed pointless. Like an extremely fast snake Orochimaru began to slide up a tree, once he had reached the top, he lifted one of his sleeves to show some sort of seal there. Swiping it with some blood he summoned an extremely large snake, at least three times the size of the previous snake. All hope appeared to be lost, that was until
"SNAKE MEAT!"
Naruto walked with exaggerated steps while whistling a merry tune as he dragged his newest kill (a snake) towards where he hoped his teammates were. Inwardly he was continuously chanting the same thing over and over
'Snake Meat! Snake Meat! Yummy yummy Snake Meat!' Naruto was extremely happy; he had found enough food for more than four days. Now all he had to do was come up with various ways of cooking it. Approaching the clearing he heard sounds of fighting, peering around a tree he saw some white, pale face golden eyed ninja get blasted by Sakura.
'Go Sakura-chan!' when the ninja got back up with almost no injuries and started to race up a tree like a snake Sanji spoke up
"snake snake fruit, model python, I never thought I would see that again. Careful Naruto, this is someone with a bloodline" grinning like a predator himself Naruto watched as the enemy summoned a snake even larger than the one he had now, the amount of food in that snake… grabbing his current snake be began to swing it around like a sling.
"SNAKE MEAT!" throwing the animal he watched in satisfaction as it collided with the other snake, both animals fell to the ground. He refused to give the snake a chance to rest though, because as soon as it had collided Naruto was already on the attack.
'THWACK' Naruto kicked the opposing snake on the left side of the mouth, jumping back off the animal he twisted in the air and watched in pure bliss as his teammates stared with open mouths. When gravity worked its rounds and Naruto began to fall he kicked the 'bad' snake on the top of the mouth making it and the ninja riding it fall to the ground faster than you can say 'BOOM!' to end the dramatic entrance Naruto easily landed on his feet and stood, hands in pockets in front of the now unconscious snake.
"Ku Ku Ku, what power Naruto-kun" the snake-like ninja calmly walked forward until he was standing on the snake's head. Hearing his teammates land next to him, Naruto spoke
"Who is this guy?" Sasuke was the one who answered
"Orochimaru, look Naruto we have to get out of here. We have no chance!" Naruto shook his head, and replied
"Idiot, if we work together we can beat him" Sakura attempted to persuade otherwise
"Naruto, we have to get out of here. I don't know give him the scroll or something!" she was getting a bit hysterical at this point, even with Naruto's strength they had no chance. Naruto though, thought otherwise,
"Look Sakura-chan, Sasuke… its not like this guy is a jounin or something. He is a genin like us remember?" Sasuke shrugged his shoulders and faced the enemy, all the while shaking in his shoes. Sakura though, was not going to be consoled so easily she was about to give a rebuttal when Orochimaru decided to join in
"Naruto's right Sakura-chan, I am only a lowly pathetic genin" it was filled with sarcasm, clearing showing that Naruto could not have been more wrong
"See Sakura-chan? I was right" Naruto said, his expression completely serious. Well, you can't please everyone. Naruto paused, as if finally noticing how scared Sasuke and Sakura were (he suddenly had a strange urge to light a cigarette); walking forward he stood between them and Orochimaru
"Sakura, Sasuke… don't be afraid, everything will turn out fine" a large grin spread on his face, even when facing an opponent of Orochimaru's calibre (the snake had never stopped sending out massive amounts of killing intent) he held no fear.
"Snake-man, I won't let you hurt my friends any longer!"
"Ku Ku Ku, lets see if you can keep that promise" with those words, Orochimaru charged. The speed was so great, that Naruto was completely taken by surprise. Lifting up a leg he managed to connect with the incoming blow, however it was not an equal attack. Naruto was sent flying, eyes widening he watched as Orochimaru began to charge towards his friends. Without thinking he threw several weapons just in front of the sannin, luckily it forced him to stop to avoid becoming a pincushion. Charging forward he threw his kicks, Orochimaru managing to avoid or block every one of them. Grinning like a madman Orochimaru swung his left arm impacting Naruto and pushing him off the tree they were fighting on. As Naruto fell, Orochimaru turned to the others
"Its your turn now" before Orochimaru could make good on his threat another voice yelled out
"As if I'll let you!" the voice was definitely Naruto, however it was strange, distorted. When Naruto came into view, you could tell why, covering his body was a vile red chakra. Letting loose a serious disturbing growls he again attacked, however this time his attacks were faster and stronger.
"This kid? No way!" Orochimaru looked in on surprise as Naruto began to keep up with him (even if he was limiting his powers to avoid being spotted) however it still wasn't enough, blocking a strike Orochimaru twisted Naruto around and kicked his behind. Naruto struggled forward, surprise on his face. Before Orochimaru could finish the job though another attack interrupted him
"Katon Goukakyuu no Jutsu (Grand Fireball technique)"
Sasuke was shaking; the fear in the environment was extremely daunting. It was like he was facing Itachi again… shaking away the memories that tried to assault him he attempted to calm his shaking hands. The enemy was still amassing extreme amounts of killing intent, but it seemed as though Naruto was unaffected by it, this gave him strength to fight against the fear as well.
'Dammit! Why can't I move?" once his hands stopped shaking he quickly got used to the amount of killing intent that was being thrown around. It gave him breathing space, looking at his female teammate he saw that she was still out of it. 'TWACK!' turning quickly to the noise, he watched as Naruto was thrown off the tree. The Nin looked at Sasuke then spoke
"Its your turn now" stepping backwards Sasuke tried to find an escape, luckily he didn't need one.
"As if I'll let you!" While the voice and chakra of Naruto did disturb Sasuke for a bit, that wasn't what caught his attention, it was the helplessness. No matter what Naruto tried, or how hard he hit, it still wasn't enough. If things went as they were going, then Naruto would loose. Naruto needed help and quick, but what could Sasuke do?
'WHAT CAN I DO?' As if those words were a trigger, Sasuke's blood boiled.
'Protect' Sasuke didn't know why he thought that; but it seemed like it belonged. Seeing Naruto get his ass handed to him, Sasuke quickly performed some handseals
"Katon Goukakyuu no Jutsu (Grand Fireball technique)" a large fireball flew out of his mouth and sped towards Orochimaru. The surprise on the snakes face was worth it, quickly glancing he saw Naruto mouth thanks and jump beside him. Seemingly as one they attached Orochimaru in taijutsu. Their styles complementing each other they eventually managed to make Orochimaru to move backwards.
"Ku Ku Ku, we can't be having this" Sasuke still shivered at the sound of that voice, unfortunately he didn't have much time to muse on it much, because Orochimaru began his counter attack. Sharingan swirling Sasuke watched as Orochimaru blocked one of Naruto's overhead strikes, dashing in quickly he tried to punch Orochimaru in the face. Unfortunately Orochimaru's bloodline reared its ugly face and his head moved in an inhuman angle to avoid the strike. Eyes widening Sasuke watched as Orochimaru grabbed Naruto's leg and swung the boy at Sasuke. Grunting they were both thrown from the treetops to the ground, throwing the other boy off of him, Sasuke glared at the enemy Nin.
"You bastard" a low voice growled next to him, glancing in that direction he watched more of that ghastly red chakra surround the blond. His sharingan swirling Sasuke could have sworn he saw a fox grin malevolently at him from within the chakra, shrugging it of his eyes left this teammate and instead settled on the snake-nin. Adding chakra to hands he quickly formed handseals as Naruto dashed towards the enemy, once they connected he yelled out the technique
"Katon Housenka no Jutsu (Mythical Fire Flower Technique)" Several fireballs were spat out of his mouth, they easily missed Naruto but the enemy had manually dodge. Once the technique finished Sasuke grabbed some equipment stolen from Sakura's pouch and charged towards the Nin, dashing left he allowed Naruto to kick the enemy's legs, when the enemy jumped to dodge Sasuke wrapped around the enemy some steel wire. Giving some an end to a Kagebunshin of Naruto he and the bunshin ran in opposite directions to tighten to wire.
"Urk" Seeing the plan working Sasuke watched as two more Naruto clones dragged the now tied nin and using their own wire attached him to a tree. With one end of string in his mouth Sasuke began a long string of seals, a fire technique he had recently learnt from his families scrolls, ending of the fire seal he yelled out the technique and watched as the enemy burnt
"Katon Karyuudan no Jutsu (Fire Dragon Technique)" the flames followed the string and headed straight towards the 'helpless' target, once it reached the target Orochimaru burst into flames. His chakra depleted he fell to his knees, before he fell to far though he was caught. Seeing the pink hair of his 'rescuer' he smiled, Sakura has beaten the killing intent. Before they could celebrate though, a piercing laughter stoped them in their tracks. All three genin turned back to the husking corpse of their victim they looked on shocked as it melted into a pile of mud. A large tongue came out of nowhere and picked up Naruto, Sasuke didn't really see what happened but Orochimaru whispered something into Naruto's ear causing his blonds eyes to widen then Orochimaru shoved his open fingers into the boys stomach and once Naruto had blacked out Orochimaru threw him off the tree.
"Naruto!" Sasuke watched on confused as Sakura cried out to the falling blond, before he got to far though Sakura threw some kunai and stopped Naruto's decent.
"I had fun testing your powers" Orochimaru said as he slowly walked towards Sasuke and Sakura, fear and disbelief clouded Sasuke's senses yet again.
"That boy was stronger than I thought, but its you I came to see" While he was speaking Orochimaru had turned his gaze to unconscious Naruto, but by the time he had finished his eyes were again completely on Sasuke
"I sense power in your eyes that surpass your brother's… I want it" placing his hands in a seal he let out an exceptionally strong attack of killing intent and his neck lengthened so much that it reached Sasuke, a good 50 meters away. Then the head attached to the neck he bit Sasuke. Once Sasuke had been bitten, he felt pain unlike anything he had ever felt before.
Sakura watched in horror as Orochimaru's neck snapped back into place after biting Sasuke.
"What are you…?" Orochimaru never heard her
"Sasuke-kun will come to me for power" with those words Sasuke let loose the most shrilling scream of pain Sakura had ever heard in her life.
"AAAAHHHHHHHH!" Sakura turned to the Snake Nin and demanded answers from him
"What have you done to them? What did you do the Sasuke?" a malicious chuckle followed her question
"I gave them a going away present… don't let Sasuke-kun die yet, he still has to defeat my three sound Nin" The snake-sannin as he melded onto the tree below him, so that only his voice remained. Worriedly she turned to her teammates, Naruto unconscious being held from a possible death by only a kunai. Then there was Sasuke, who was currently whimpering.
Lee stood with his back to a tree looking at his two teammates, Tenten was polishing a sword and Neji was looking at a watch. As if a signal was lit Neji looked at his teammates and threw a Kunai at the ground,
"We meet here"
Shikamaru sighed and he strolled along with his teammates, idly fingering a slingshot. Ino began to speak
"Ok, so who are we going to go for?" Shikamaru and Chouji both shrugged, but it was the shadow user who answered
"Any team but Naruto's" Ino looked at Shikamaru confused
"Ha? Wasn't he the dead last?" Shikamaru sighed at Ino's ignorance
"In everything but taijutsu, when we left he could have beaten all three of us at the same time without even trying… And he has only improved since then" Those words brought back memories; Ino was to busy looking at Sasuke to take any notice but Naruto actually managed to beat the current taijutsu record when in the academy.
"Te, How troublesome"
Sakura sighed a pleased sigh as she unceremoniously dumped her teammates bodies onto the ground and began to set up some traps for any unexpected visitors. Glancing at her teammates she wondered if she was could actually protect them, violently shaking the thoughts from her mind she set back to her task.
"There, that aught to do it" placing her hand on a tree trunk she placed a genjutsu Kakashi taught her. The entrance faded from view and Sakura kneeled next to her teammates and began to apply all her combined medical knowledge and jutsu
"Hmm, strange. Something is interfering with Naruto's chakra"
Seconds turned to minutes and Minutes to hours, and hours to day break. When the sun was beginning to shine through the forest three unknown ninja finally found the hiding spot of there pray.
"So there he is… as Orochimaru-sama ordered, we attack at dawn" grabbing a squirrel they attached an exploding note to it, and set it loose towards the hideout.
Sakura again pinched herself, trying her best to say awake. Hearing some bushes rustle she looked outside the genjutsu and saw an animal heading wards her trap, noticing it was a squirrel her eyes were drawn the exploding note on it's back. Eyes widening she threw a kunai at the creature, watching as it ran away from her. Sighing in relief she waited for the people sent the squirrel to show themselves. Unfortunately she didn't have to wait for long.
"Wake Sasuke-kun up, we want to fight him" Three ninja jumped into a clearing near Sakura, the mummified one speaking. Sakura noticed the symbol on the forehead protectors as that of sound… where these Orochimaru's genin? She also recognised that they were the same people who fought briefly with Naruto before the first exam.
"What are you talking about? I know that Orochimaru is pulling the strings. What is his purpose? What is this weird mark on Sasuke's Neck? First you do this and now you want to fight?" While Sakura was yelling all this, the enemy Nin were shocked,
"I wonder what that man is thinking" The mummified one mumbled to himself, not quite audible enough for Sakura to hear. The one with the scarf started to walk forward
"After Hearing that, we can't let you go. I'll kill this girl and I'll also kill this Sasuke guy" The speaker took another step forward, but was interrupted by their leader
"Wait Zaku" the mummified ninja walked several steps to the trap that Sakura had planted. Examining the ground he spoke
"You didn't do a good job here, the rock was recently upturned and grass doesn't grow here. So, you threw the kunai not because you saw the exploding tag but because you didn't want the squirrel to hit the trap" Sakura refused the smirk, she had seen the exploding tag and that was not the actual trap. When the three ninja rushed towards her she triggered the real trap. A large log, attached to a rock headed towards the ninja, to be on the safe side she also threw several kunai behind the log.
"A second trap?" the mummified ninja said, surprised. Just when Sakura allowed her hope to rise he dashed it
"No problem" smashing through the log he blocked the kunai with his metallic arm. Think fast Sakura grabbed several smaller logs and adding chakra to increase her strength and threw them at the enemy… with surprising force. The three enemy Nin's eyes widened and by twisting their bodies they managed to avoid the logs. They never got the chance to relax because before they could speak another word and before they landed, another party entered the fight
"Konoha Senpuu (Leaf Spinning Wind)" A green blob came out of nowhere and attacked the three ninja, hitting them all away. Sakura looked on in shock, then in complete happiness. The green blob was Lee!
"Who are you?" the enemy leader enquired. Lee, every ready to introduce spoke
"I am Rock Lee, the beautiful green beast of Konoha!" The three sound Nin looked at the 'green beast' in annoyance. The mummified one glanced at his two teammates
"Zaku, Kin. Kill Sasuke and the pink haired idiot. This 'green beast' is mine" Charging forwards he barely heard his teammates reply
"Yes Dosu" Seeing two-kunai get thrown at him, Dosu jumped slightly to the left, watching as they missed him. He watched as Lee punched his hand into the ground and lifted a tree branch. Dosu punched trough it, however the branch had deflected his sound waves and Lee took the opportunity to kick the Nin away. As Dosu flew backwards he saw the pink haired kunoichi backhand Kin then Zaku dodge more of those stupid flying tree branches. He couldn't stay away from his own fight for long because Lee had already caught up, appearing behind him Lee threw the sound Nin to the ground.
"Oomph" grunting Dosu glared at the Konoha shinobi. When the boy in front of him all but disappeared he thought fast and jumped, dodging the kick that was aimed at his feet, however he didn't walk away unscathed as Lee while he was still kicking flipped onto a hand and brought his other foot and used that one to hit Dosu with. 'BOOM!' Dosu went flying backwards and then skidded on the ground. After some initial struggling Dosu managed to flip back to his feet and charged at the enemy. Reaching the green Nin he threw a punch, as he expected Lee managed to dodge the initial attack but he didn't know of the second attack type. He cherished the look of surprise on Lee's face when he fell to the ground and vomited.
"He He, here's a hint. You cant just dodge my attacks" Dosu said as he tapped his beloved metal arm. At the enemy's confused looks (even Sakura had paused in her fight with his teammates) he decided to elaborate
"Its sound, even if you dodge my fist the sound will attack you. Do you know what sound is?" Sakura ever the know it all answered
"Vibrations" Nodding Dosu smirked,
"Yes, hearing sound means you our eardrum is picking up the vibrations. But it can break if the vibrations are fast enough…" he left the comment hanging, after all if his enemies couldn't figure out anything from that then they were worthless.
"Dammit!" Lee yelled as he punched the ground, he lifted his arm to cover his ear. But it wouldn't stop the blood from poring out. Trying to stand upright he began to sway side-to-side, unable to keep his balance
"I can't see straight" of cause, he wouldn't allow the enemy to know that. He charged again, surprising the heck out of the mummified shinobi. Reappearing behind the sound-nin he punched him to the side, after which his inner ear played up again and he fell to the ground. The fight went like this for a while, the two shinobi would trade blows but they would both be damaged in the process. It was a battle of endurance, and Lee was coming out on top. Unfortunately for Lee, Dosu knew it.
"Zaku, Kin. Forget the girl, help me defeat this guy" Zaku and Kin were not faring well against Sakura, they couldn't beat her in taijutsu and she just dodged Ninjutsu. Kin's genjutsu couldn't work either, because Sakura noticed it almost instantly. After hearing Dosu call for help they left Sakura and landed both sides of their teammate. Lee coughed again, and whipped the blood from his face; seeing that the enemies had joined forces he looked expectantly at Sakura. Sakura saw the look and as a result landed next to Lee and healed what she could of his ear (it wasn't much, but at least he stopped staggering).
"Hm, your both better than I thought," Dosu began, "Pity you wont live to cherish it. Now hand over the Uchiha" Sakura gnashed her teeth
"Over my dead body" Dosu smirked, it was even visible through the mouth wrappings
"That was the plan" again all three sound Nin rushed, quickly performing some seals. Kin targeted only Lee with the genjutsu, this allowed Dosu to get a few hits in; unfortunately he wasn't on the offensive for long as Sakura managed to hit him with a chakra-enhanced fist. 'BANG!' eyes widening he flew back and narrowly avoided the closest tree. Flipping mid air landed and skidded along the ground sliding to a stop, once he stopped moving his eyes widened and he vomited.
"How do you like that?" Sakura declared, her mouth in a victorious smirk stolen from her two teammates.
Unknown to the two leaf and three sound shinobi they were being watched. Hiding in the bushes were three shinobi, A blonde haired mind attacking shinobi named Ino, a stretchy food eater known as Chouji and one slingshot wielding shadow manipulator called Shikamaru. Together they formed the 'Mind-Attacking Shadow-manipulating cookie-eaters!' or the 'ino-shika-cho' combo.
Shikamaru fiddled with the scroll they held, his eye twitching at how troublesome his female teammate was.
'Females, the bane of all peoples' Originally Ino had heard the sounds of battle and wanted to know about potential opponents. However they soon saw that it was a friend of their's who was fighting a losing battle, conflict arose as Ino wanted to Help them out while Shikamaru wanted to get to the tower are soon as possible. Chouji just wanted to get out so he could eat, but at the same time he didn't want any of his friends to get hurt.
"Dammit Ino, Sakura and Lee aren't weak enough to lose here. But we might die if we don't get to the tower as soon as we can" Unfortunately for Shikamaru both Ino and Chouji waved off his concern
"You've been around Usopp to much Shikamaru, we're strong" Chouji said as he munched on another chip. Ino nodded in agreement. A smack alerted them to trouble,
'SMACK!' Lee was blown over backwards. Twisting he managed to throw his last kunai, it whizzed past Dosu and impacted Kin on the arm. Wincing in pain she grabbed it and yanked it out, glaring at the two Konoha genin. Slowly but surely the Konoha Duo were losing. Of cause that didn't mean that the sound trio were any better.
"Hm, your better than I thought" Dosu muttered under his breath, turning to Kin he yelled
"Use that jutsu, NOW!" Nodding in agreement Kin grabbed a bunch of strings attacked to various Senbon and bells in the area and began to channel chakra, the chiming of bells made both Konoha genin tired as the genjutsu took place. Instantly Lee dropped, while Sakura easily shrugged the genjutsu effects off. Seeing that Lee was out of the fight, Sakura gulped in fear.
'If anything god-like exists now would be a good time to help…' Sakura though to herself in desperation, naturally she wasn't expecting anything to happen. She really should have had more faith, especially as the powers-that-be decided to give her some slack.
"Once we have finished with you we ca- Wha? Zaku?" Dosu, Kin and Sakura stood shocked as this… hand attached to an extremely long arm came out of nowhere, grabbed Zaku and took him into the bushes.
"Hey wha?" the sounds of scuffling and various voices came from the nearby bushes, after several tense seconds the beaten body of Zaku was thrown back into the arena. Once again Sakura and the two remaining Sound ninja looked on in shock and the hand appeared yet again and grabbed Kin…
"Oh know you don't!" Dosu was not going to allow this to turn against him, putting his 'melody arm' in front of him he concentrated as much chakra as he could, then released it in one large burst.
"AAH!" several yells of pain erupted from the bushes and Kin managed to walk out of the bushes none the worse for wear; after all, a sound shinobi was pretty much immune to sound attacks.
"Te, how troublesome" three Konoha shinobi left the bushes,
"Ino?" Sakura yelled in delight, seeing Sakura's gleeful expression Ino could not help but gloat
"Yeah, I though you might need some help" Ino said, shrugging her shoulders in an I-do-this-all-the-time fashion. Sakura smiled in barely concealed amusement, she had missed her friend.
"Ugh" the sound of groaning revealed that Zaku had awoken, glaring at the three new Konoha shinobi he stood up.
"Dammit! You are so going down!" Zaku was furious, he was sore and had just had his ass kicked, Literally. Placing both his hands and turning the wrists so his 'cannons' could be seen he yelled out the technique
"Zankuha (Air Cutter)" high-pressured air charged towards the Konoha Nin, thinking fast Chouji grabbed Ino and jumped sideways while Shikamaru was blown backwards.
"Arghpht!" Crying out Shikamaru felt his skin pierced multiple times and landed on the ground in a heap. Following the advice of the more experienced person within him, he played dead while he prepared his ammunition.
"Shikamaru? DAMMIT!" Chouji glared at the sound-nin, while Ino slumped onto the ground. Ino was still wide eyed looking at Shikamaru's still body, at first Chouji though she was shaking from fright… unfortunately the killing intent that flowed out of her told him otherwise.
"SHIKAMARU YOU LAZY $%^&*^!" Everyone, including the sound-nin looked at the blonde haired kunoichi in surprise.
"But Ino Shikamaru is-" Before Chouji could finish his statement Ino had rushed up towards Shikamaru and kicked the still body. Everyone then stared in shock as the 'dead' body yelped in pain and stood upright,
"Ino, you troublesome girl. Couldn't you see that I was doing something?" Shikamaru said as one hand hid the slingshot from prying eyes while the other scratched the back of his head. Ino, still annoyed as anything yelled in response
"Dammit Shikamaru? Do you have any idea how worried I was? For all we know you could have been dead!" While she would have liked to rant some more, an interruption from the sound-nin prevented it
"Idiots!" Dozu exclaimed as he punched Chouji to the side and rushed straight at the bickering duo. Elbowing Ino he grabbed Shikamaru, "Don't you know not to argue while fighting?" Charging his signature attack he thrust the metallic arm into Shikamaru, frowning in annoyance as the body was replaced with a log.
"Perhaps" Shikamaru droned, atop a tree watching the fight "But it's really to troublesome to let it slide" slipping an iron pellet into his slingshot he carefully aimed at the people in front of him.
"A slingshot?" Zaku taunted, "You're going to defeat us with a slingshot?"
END
A/N: At this point Sakura's chakra attack is like an impact dial, in the sense that she receives heavy recoil every time she uses it. So while the attack strength is about half Tsunade's strength she receives a quarter of that as recoil (enough to bruise and if used enough break an arm)
NEXT TIME: The Strength of teamwork
Please Review and honesty is appreciated. Thanks, The great David