NARUTO
Nox Noctis Ingredior
The Second Test
Outside of Training Ground 44…
"Oh no… not back here!" Naruto groaned loudly at the familiar sight of the Forest of Death's gates standing right in front of him, dividing them from the massive, forbidden, poisonous creature filled forest of trees beyond. The blonde shinobi collapsed to his knees in despair. "God… I take field trips to this place! It's like all the ninja I've ever killed in the past is suddenly coming back to haunt me! Why is Konoha filled with such dangerous things? WHY DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING TO ME?"
Sakura and Hinata knelt next to him. In their attempts to comfort him, they too became distraught and started crying as they stared up at the familiar gates.
"I feel like I'm being reintroduced to my worst nightmares over and over again…" Sakura groaned.
"Death is so biased…" Hinata muttered.
As the three of them group-hugged pathetically, Anko, through snickers and laughs, began explaining the procedure to the remaining candidates. The Rookie Nine shook their heads at Naruto and his two teammates over by the fence, but tried to pay more attention to their proctor for this stage of the exam.
"…so that's it… your primary objective is to acquire both the Heaven Scroll and the Earth Scroll. Once you've gotten your hands on both, you must then get to the tower in the center of this forest with your entire team intact and before the five days are up, in order to pass," Anko stated, looking out towards all the faces staring at her. "Three rules concerning disqualification. First one: if all three members aren't able to acquire both scrolls and make it to the tower within the allotted time. Second rule: if a team member is killed or incapacitated and cannot continue. The third and perhaps the most important rule: you must not under any circumstances open any of the scrolls till you've reached the tower!"
"It just gets worse and worse, doesn't it?" Ino asked.
"It's definitely a drag, that's for sure," Shikamaru groaned.
"Survival is the key to this," Neji said, looking over at his teammates. "This is a simulation for a real life mission, a mission expected of Chunin and Jonin to complete…"
"A most interesting test indeed!" Lee exclaimed, flashing a grin. Tenten sighed and rubbed her forehead in response to her two teammates.
"Seriously, these two take things to much in stride…" she mumbled.
"Now… once you've filled out the death wavers and consent forms I have given you, go over to that registration booth," Anko instructed, pointing towards the stall where three Chunin were sitting and waiting patiently. "There, you will be given your one scroll for your test. After which, pick a gate, and we'll start the exam…"
The teams then quickly filled out their forms, and given the small amount of time they were given, were left to ponder over the test to come. This meant more tension roused from the 20 plus teams that were present, with everybody now isolating themselves from one another, and sticking to their teammates. Of course, everybody kept a greater distance between them and the Kiri team, who was standing off under a tree, glaring at the competition.
Once the registration scrolls were filled up, the teams moved in to collect their scrolls, with Anko monitoring them outside the canvassed booth. When Team 7 came in, forms in hand and smiles on their faces, the Snake Jonin grinned at them and nodded.
"Good luck you cry babies," she whispered in her own, unique way of showing affection to her students. "I know you'll do well…"
"Thanks sensei," Sakura replied.
"We won't let you down," Hinata also said as she passed.
"I can guarantee we will get first place, sensei," Naruto whispered, nodding to his teacher politely.
Anko smirked. "We'll see…"
Team 7 slunk into the both, handing in their paperwork. The Chunin who received their forms then handed them their Heaven Scroll, both Sakura and Hinata taking a look at it. Naruto looked it over before then handing it over to Sakura, who slipped it into her pouch.
"Keep it safe…"
"Will do," the pink haired kunoichi replied. Naruto nodded then turned to Hinata, smiling.
"Ready?"
His girlfriend nodded back, and together, the two of them headed round to find a gate. They chose one away from everybody else, knowing full well that everybody would be doing the same. They got Gateway 12, close to the center, and dead in line with the tower. It was only a matter of heading straight for it, while acquiring a scroll on the way there.
Naruto reached round to and adjusted his gauntlets, as well as his weight bands, tipping the straw hat he wore up with a grin.
"Let's give it our best, Sakura-chan…Hinata-chan," he exclaimed. The two girls nodded to him.
"And if that Venus flytrap shows itself…" Sakura said, bringing a kunai around and twirling it between her fingers. "It better watch out…"
"Let's be strong… okay," Hinata nodded her head, smiling brightly.
All teams, now aware of the coming storm, became more on edge and even wearier of the forest ahead of them, along with what dangers and obstacles lay in wait. Excitement floated alongside fear, the air steadily growing thicker.
"Let's just try and stay as far away from Naruto's team as possible," Shikamaru murmured, looking over at Ino and Choji, to see them nod their heads in agreement. The entire Team 10 stood outside of Gateway 47, waiting for the signal to start. "If this test is as seriously troublesome as that crazy proctor says… then Naruto will kill us without a second thought…"
"Man… why does it have to be like this?" Ino murmured, now feeling a bit less confident about her abilities.
Outside of Gate 36, the Sand Siblings waited patiently, looking into the forest. Amidst the silence, the scents of excitement, determination and planning hovered around them. They obviously thought ahead before each situation, and it showed in their communication. Perhaps this was one of the reasons why they were selected to participate in the exams in the first place.
"Our first objective is the Earth Scroll," Gaara murmured, his brother and sister nodding.
"Let's stick it through you two," Temari stated, patting her older brother on the shoulder. "And not get killed…"
The Kirigakure Team stood outside Gate Number 5, keeping in perfect formation around their team leader, who remained silent throughout the whole thing. His black haired teammate licked his lips eagerly, while their blind friend stood quietly on the side, fidgeting nervously.
"I can taste the fear," the cannibalistic dark haired Genin exclaimed, obviously excited. "I shall assimilate the first team we come across, regardless of the scroll…"
Team Gai stood outside of Gate Entrance 60, Lee's eyes burning brightly with a passion, while his teammates stood to the side, smiling at their fortune.
"This is it! Soon, everybody will come to know the name, Rock Lee!" the fuzzy browed Genin exclaimed, punching the air in front of him.
Sasuke's team stood patiently outside of Gate 20, smirks on their faces and, all things considered with their skill set, they were confident that they would be able to get through this no problem. The only one who wasn't saying anything, doing anything or smiling out anything was Shino, who seemed to be more intoned with the environment to show off any hints of excitement.
"YAHOO! We rock at survival!" Kiba exclaimed.
"Let's keep a clear head through this one," Sasuke grinned.
All the way over at Gateway 32, three Grass shinobi crouched at their gate, looking into the forest with sneers and grins. Obviously, given the tension and atmosphere around them, these three had other, more important motives.
"Anything goes, right?" the long haired, female ninja of the team exclaimed, a purple rope belt around his waist, securing his beige tunic and clothes. "Remember the plan…"
"We have our orders," Dosu of the Sound Team, standing in front of Gate 6 said, looking back at his two teammates. "Do not fail. We are expected to find the one known as Sasuke Uchiha, and eliminate him!"
Zaku grinned and glared over at Kin, who fidgeted a bit when they both turned to her. "Don't hesitate… and don't screw up. Remember, we don't stick around for anybody!"
The girl nodded, looking nervously into the forest. Zaku and Dosu easily noticed the sweat dripping down her face, and the two of them, though they were only assigned this team for their secret mission, turned towards their comrade. She was acting stranger then usual, and it was messing up the air they were attempting to convey.
"What's got you all jumbled up, Kin?" Dosu asked, raising his only visible eyebrow.
"I… don't really know…" she replied, looking into the forest. "It's just that… I have this… weird feeling that… something else is in that forest…" She gulped, feeling a wind from between the trees pass right through her. "Something… bad…"
Everybody was at their gates, waiting patiently. Unfortunately, the mood that had settled with Kin, also suddenly settled with Naruto. A cold gust of wind drew Naruto's attention towards the forest and trees in front of him. He furrowed his brow as he gazed into the darkness beyond, the sound of animals going quiet, signifying something was up. Sakura and Hinata felt it a few seconds later, all three of them glaring into the woods.
"Feel that?" Naruto asked.
"Yeah…" Hinata whispered.
"But what is it?" Sakura queried.
"I think… I left something in the forest… the last time we were here…" Naruto replied eerily, unsettling his teammates.
The bell sounded minutes later, and with that, every gate flew open, and the Genin were off. One by one, the teams entered the forest and took to the trees, gaining the high ground advantage immediately, and quickly beginning their hunt for the other teams, as well as the scrolls. In threes, the groups descended into the darkness beyond the thickets of vines, branches, bushes, shrubs, high grass and tree trunks. There was no room for error here, no room for screw ups, and no room for mistakes.
Make the wrong move, and it'd cost you…
Naruto, Sakura and Hinata stopped on a large branch a few minutes in, overlooking several clearing for the best vantage points. They looked around, triangulating their position on the branch and watching all sides. The spiky haired blonde took in everything, from the higher branches above them, to every rock and bush, before looking over at his other teammates.
"Hinata… see anything?"
"Not yet…" she replied. She activated her Byakugan, her eyes flaring as the side veins pumped chakra into her eyes, enhancing her view ten fold. "All teams have just left the gates and are on the hunt. That gives us a five minute window of opportunity… at the most…" Sakura looked over as well.
"No one's around at the moment though. The other teams must be some ways up ahead…" the pink haired kunoichi stated. "We can use the time we have to our advantage."
Naruto nodded in agreement. "Alright then… let's see. Rather then going off looking for a fight, how about we try something more subtle to get our hands on a scroll? Lets see… flat terrain, plenty of trees, lots of hiding spots… low branches… thick shrubbery… leaves…"
After a few seconds of careful thought, planning and analysis, a smirk crossed the blonde's lips as a practical, if not basic, idea came to mind. In response to his thoughts, he looked over at his teammates, who also had similar smirks on their faces.
"Got an idea, have you?" Sakura asked. Hinata and Sakura shared grins with their blonde teammate, who pulled out a roll of wire from his pouch.
"Something that just might work…"
The three of them got to work, quickly moving about the area to set their trap. They managed to create functioning devices out of their surroundings and whatever they had one them in the nick of time, and once that was accomplished, they all hid in their respective places, choosing to go one on one and three on one if necessary.
Hiding amidst the thick vegetation, the three members of Team 7 lay in wait for another team to come around. The entire clearing beneath the tree they had landed on was laced with all sorts of cleverly disguised traps for hundreds of meters in all directions, with Naruto, Sakura and Hinata knowing exactly where their own were.
Eventually, three Amegakure shinobi arrived on the scene in search of another team with a scroll they were looking for. The rogue group wore khaki spandex outfits, obviously water proof, with shin and arm guards and gauze wrappings, with breathing apparatuses and masks hiding their true identities. They looked like a particularly tough group, the hidden members of Team 7 taking in their targets and their weaponry, determining their class and ranking.
The three of Amegakure ninja landed in the area and looked around in a quick sweep. Telltale signs told them that someone was here recently, and they were quick to get on the trail. The leader of the group used hand signs and gestures in correspondence with his orders.
"Fan out and search this area! They couldn't have gone far!" he said in a voice that was made metallic and raspy by the breathing apparatus. His two cronies nodded in response, and fanned out over the area, one of them taking the high ground, the other the shrubs, and the other leader down the middle, his flanks covered.
The moment the Rain Nin known as Mubi hit the trees, crossbow in hand and held at the ready, he was immediately hit. Sakura, perched on the branch above, swung down and, grabbing him by the head and covering his mouth, pulled him up. She held and applied pressure around his neck and head, quickly cutting off circulation in both air and nerve, causing him to pass out. She pulled him up into the trees where they both disappeared.
Kagari was hit next. Wandering about ten minutes into the bushes, he suddenly tripped a wire and got pulled up by his foot by a robe and flung into the trees. A small yell was followed by a loud thud when he swung into an overhanging branch and was knocked out. The rope broke and fell into the bushes and into a pit dug out by Hinata. The girl was waiting at the bottom, and searched him the moment his unconscious body disappeared into the bushes.
This left only Oboro. As he was heading down the space carefully, he suddenly came across a kunai lodged in a tree trunk with a wire strung across. Smirking at the 'amateur' trap work, he ducked under it and stepped over another, low hanging wire.
"Too easy…"
However, he didn't count on one wire being directly under the shadow of the one above, and tripped it. The moment he did, a log was tripped from its position in the trees in front of him. It swung down and hit him head long with the force of a train, and flung him a good twenty meters through the air, before he tumbled across the ground to a stop.
"Argh! Dammit…"
"Why, hello there," Naruto exclaimed, standing directly in front of the young adult with his arms folded. He crouched down in front of the Amegakure Genin and smirked at Oboro, who glared angrily up at the blonde. "So…where's that Earth Scroll, aye?"
"I'm not telling you anything!" the man growled back.
Sakura and Hinata landed on the ground behind him, and the two approached, now all three members of Team 7 glaring down at the Ame shinobi with smirks on their faces.
"This one giving you trouble, Naruto-kun?" Sakura asked.
"Apparently…" the blonde replied, grinning. He raised his right arm and flicked his wrist, hidden blade flashing into view. He then held it right at the man's face, making his next point absolutely clear. The Ame ninja sweated bullets when the tip of the blade tapped his nose. "Now… I'm not going to ask you again…"
About five minutes later, Oboro was found dangling unconscious twenty feet above the ground in a rope net with his two unconscious teammates, all three of them swinging gracefully in the breeze.
Naruto, Sakura and Hinata nowhere to be found, having left the scene the moment they acquired their second scroll. In fact, it was Team 10 who came across the three trapped shinobi several minutes later, the Ino-Shika-Cho trio averting their gaze and looking up in surprise at the Amegakure Genin.
They blinked in unison at the groaning sack of three bodies…
"Well… I think it is okay to assume at this point that they no longer have their scroll on them," Choji said, munching on a bag of chips. Shikamaru sighed in frustration, while Ino followed the swinging of the net from side to side.
"Boy… they had their butts whooped…"
"Must have been Naruto's team…" Shikamaru added, placing his hands on his hips. Ino looked over at him.
"How do you know that?"
Shikamaru pointed towards the tree to their left. When Ino and Choji looked to where he was pointing, they all developed animated sweat drops when saw that the tree trunk had graffiti written on it. A picture of a chibi Team 7 was standing together with their tongues poking out and peace signs presented, with the words; 'Brought to you by Team Kickass' inscribed beneath it.
"Geez… we're struggling here and they're having fun!" Ino muttered.
Elsewhere…
About three kilometers in, the Grass shinobi from earlier before were still in such of their chosen targets. They were after Team 8, specifically the member Sasuke Uchiha. Landing in a small clearing beside a network of overhanging tree roots from huge, towering strangler fig trees, Team Shiore stood in perfect formation and analyzed the respective area, before gathering in for a brief on their plans ahead.
"That team with the Uchiha kid should be passing by here at any moment," the oversized, toad looking man with big lips and rings around his eyes informed, looking over at the team leader. "What is your plan of action, Lord Orochimaru?"
"Why… simple… divide-and-conquer…" the long haired girl replied, licking her lips excitedly. Her elongated tongue drew a nice, fine line of saliva along her upper-lip. "We only want Sasuke-kun… so lets separate him from his teammates…"
"Sounds reasonable," the skinny man in the mask replied.
"You two will split up and kill the other two members of his team once I've separated them," Orochimaru stated, walking forward and heading straight up. He extended his arms, preparing to unleash a long-range jutsu that would knock out the three boys when they came around. "Do what you will with his comrades… leave Sasuke-kun for me."
"Of course… sir… GARH!" A loud bone crunching snap was heard as the bulky, toad looking man's chest exploded outwards when a black blade pierced him though his back, splattering blood over Orochimaru's back.
Orochimaru looked back to see what had happened, a little bit surprised as he watched one of his team members get lifted two feet off of the ground by an unknown force, twitching with blood pouring from his mouth. The man's masked teammate spun around, drawing a kurai in response to the threat, but suddenly had his face grabbed and crushed by an invisible hand, and he too was lifted off of the ground. A split second later, the skinny man had his soul ripped from his body and sucked away into oblivion, and the fat one was tossed aside like a rag doll, heart punctured and useless. He hit the ground with a disgusting thud, as more blood poured out of him.
Orochimaru hardened and glare and turned around, facing whatever it was that had decided to interrupt him.
"Show yourself…" he (or in the case of his disguise, she) hissed.
Foot steps were heard as the invisible figure stepped forward, forming imprints in the grass and blood. Seconds later, the cloaking over the figure revealed a tall, sixteen year old male wearing ANBU armor, a bloody, clawed right hand, syringes on his left hand, Akatsuki cloak around his waist, and no mask. A spiky haired blonde stepped out of the shadows, face in stitches, and a blood red Sharingan in his right eye, and Rinnegan in his left. Orochimaru immediately expressed great surprise at the appearance of the individual and stepped back.
"An adversary consisting of powerful doejutsu and interesting ninjutsu…" Orochimaru grinned as the figure glared at him. "How interesting…"
Dark Naruto tilted his head at the snake lady, and blinked, left eye first, then right eye. His raspy breathing was quite haunting.
"Orochi…maru…" the young adult boy hissed, in a deep, gravely voice.
"Well… I can see that my disguise does not fool those eyes… I appear to be at a disadvantage here," Orochimaru stated, reached back and drawing a curved kunai blade from his pouch. "Or… so it seems…"
The clawed teen raised his left hand and pointed with one of his syringes at the disguised ninja.
"…"
"Apparently, you cannot speak very much… or very well for a mindless brute," Orochimaru whispered, smirking. "I will have the pleasure of cutting out those eyes for myself…"
In the blink of an eye, Dark Naruto lunged in a blur motion, slashing with its black katana. Orochimaru ducked it and, grinning, grabbing the boy by the shoulder and drove his curved kunai right into his chest. The bone crunching blow lifted the blonde a couple of feet in a jolt, and the Snake Sannin grinned when, in just the opening seconds, the fight was over.
Or… so Orochimaru thought…
Dark Naruto looked up at Orochimaru, glaring at him through empty eyes. Orochimaru glared back with a sly grin.
"Oh… fascinating…"
He yanked his blade out and leapt back, just as Dark Naruto swiped at him with his clawed hand, lightning incasing it and zapping around him. The electricity ran up and down his whole arm, as he straightened up, revealing a gaping hole in his chest. It eventually closed up when metallic wires crisscrossed to cover the wound and heal it. Orochimaru grinned as he watched the teen heal himself.
"You're immune to damage…" Orochimaru whispered. "You siphon impure thoughts, hatred and dark chakra from your surroundings to feed you strength and keep you alive… I am familiar with that technique…" The disguised Snake stood up, grinning. "You're feeding off of my chakra at this very second, aren't you?"
Dark Naruto straightened up, bones cracking as he stretched his neck, then his arms. Suddenly, purple chakra could be seen radiating off of his body. Orochimaru looked on in surprise when he suddenly saw black, twisting patterns form on his skin, starting from his chest, all the way up his neck and down his visible arms. He blinked when he recognized the chakra, as well as the patterns.
"The Cursed Seal of Heaven… hmm?" Orochimaru grinned. "You've implanted it on yourself to give you strength. But what are you going to do with all that chakra?"
Just then, the black markings vanished, and what appeared to be a lightning storm and clouds began appearing around Dark Naruto's body. As the black clouds enveloped him, lightning shot off and around his body through the clouds. Throwing both hands forward, electricity shot like whips and weapons right out at Orochimaru, who back-flipped away to avoid the currents of electricity. The lightning tore up the ground and burnt grass as it bolted through the air, and seconds later, it stopped, with lightning still crackling off of the user's body, who continued glaring at his opponent.
"I know what you want…" Orochimaru exclaimed, recognizing the young male's appearance as the one from earlier in the First Stage of the Exam. He spotted him ages ago. "You want your original host body… don't you?"
Dark Naruto paused for a moment, the lightning storm around him disappearing. It blinked when he heard what the enemy ninja in front of him said, and he tilted his head and frowned, still breathing heavily.
"I… want…"
"Yes… what do you want?" Orochimaru asked, grinning widely.
"I… want…"
The Kusa Nin disguised Sannin waited patiently for the Dark Naruto to come to an answer. It took it longer then expected from such a formidable fighter and a lot of speech correcting, but it eventually formulated an answer.
"I… w-want…" His face suddenly began changing and shifting, the sound of bones crunching and crackling could be heard, and Orochimaru watched in interest as a Forbidden Jutsu was used by this abomination of a shinobi. A few seconds later, and after some painful changing and facial reconstruction, Dark Naruto turned back to Orochimaru, with half of his face transformed. The Snake Sannin saw that the right side of Dark Naruto's face had transformed into a young girl's face, one with pink hair and green eyes. "I… want… S-Sakura…"
"I see…" Orochimaru exclaimed. "You wish to reacquaint yourself with a new host body…or…" The Snake ninja hunched an eyebrow. "Is it something else…?"
The Dark Naruto stepped towards him, raising his syringe hand. However, the Snake Sannin grinned and stepped aside, pointing in some random direction, to which the dark phantom glanced in.
"You want her… then you will find her in that direction…" Orochimaru said.
Dark Naruto completely ignored the Snake Sannin, and activated one of his doejutsu. The Sharingan eye morphed into Kakashi's Mangekyo, and in a blink, the phantom got sucked into a slip-space black hole and vanished. The Snake Sannin watched him leave and grinned, a single bead of sweat running down at the side of his face.
"Well… that was terrifying…" he thought, his grin lowering a bit. "Lucky… if I was to continue fighting that brainless manifestation…I would surely have lost several lives…"
Further into the Forest…
The Sound Genin Team was sitting around a clearing some ways away from anybody else's position, hoping to ambush another team that might come around. Dosu, Zaku and Kin, all of them were fanned out and were either sitting or standing, all three of them coming up with a strategy to help them achieve their objective.
"If Sasuke is our target, then why aren't we going after them, huh?" Zaku grumbled, twirling a kunai in his hand. Dosu looked over at his teammate, his expression one of annoyance. "Sitting around like this is stupid…"
"We just got into the forest Zaku… we have plenty of time," Dosu replied, turning towards his bored teammate. "Rushing into battle is not a wise choice. Lord Orochimaru must first take care of things on his end, before we can move in…"
"I still say it's a load of crap," Zaku replied, frowning. "I can kill Sasuke right now if I wanted to! Waiting around is just wasting precious energy I could be using on him."
"We must locate him first, before we move in…" Dosu shot back. "This is why Lord Orochimaru assembled us in the first place, because we are his best students, fully capable of handling whatever comes our way. Analyzing our opponent and finding his weaknesses are what we must achieve first, before moving on to our primary objective!"
He then looked in Kin's direction, the girl was sitting against the side of the tree, huddled up and shivering. The boy wrapped in gauze furrowed his brow at her and approached, coming to stand in front of the girl.
"Pathetic, Kin," Dosu whispered, the girl looking up at him, sweat running down her face. "What? Did you catch a fever or something? If you faint or collapse, there's no way we're carrying you all the way to the tower…"
"Oh, lighten up on her, Dosu," Zaku groaned. "Don't pick on her just because she's ill or afraid. Girls are like that sometimes…"
"I-It's not that I'm sick or anything," Kin replied, rubbing her arms up her shoulder sand looking away. "It's just… I can't stop shaking for some reason. Ever since we came here, I've been feeling… cold…"
Dosu furrowed his brow. "Could it be something physically wrong with her… or mentally wrong? Either way… something has got her trembling…"
"Perhaps it is best that we find higher, safer ground to plan our next move," Dosu said, turning to Zaku. "Come…"
"Right…"
A rustling in the trees caught their attention before they could get a move on, Dosu, Zaku and Kin quickly rising to their feet and rounding on the bushes behind them. When they did, a loud scream was heard, and unexpectedly, much to their surprise, a random Amegakure shinobi came running out, covered in blood and terrified. He ran right in between the three sound ninja, screaming his head off.
"RUN! HE'S A MONSTER! A MONSTER!" He disappeared seconds later into the bushes on the other side of the clearing.
Shocked, the three Sound shinobi turned back towards where he came from, where they saw a tall Genin walking into view. Backing away, the three of them readied their weapons, Kin clutching a cluster of senbon, Zaku his kunai, and Dosu his sound wave gauntlet. They watched and waited as the figure walked out of the bushes. As soon as he stepped into the light, they saw that it was another Amegakure ninja, wearing a poncho with sun umbrellas on his back and stitches on his face. His expression was pretty empty, and he had a splatter of blood on his face.
"Oh… it's just a punk kid messing around," Zaku exclaimed, grinning and standing up straight. Dosu chuckled in amusement, while Kin breathed a sigh of relief.
"Just what we needed… competition," Dosu said, pointing towards the ninja. "You wish to challenge us after trying to scare us… boy?"
"Don't mess with the Sound Ninja!" Zaku shouted cockily. "We'll cut you down before you even have the chance to make a move…"
Of course, as soon as Zaku said 'cut you down', the Amegakure shinobi's legs in front of them suddenly fell away, along with his pelvic region. His lower half of his body fell to the ground while his top half remained suspended in the air, his guts and innards pouring out onto the floor in front of the Sound Genin, all of them backing away in shock. Then, all of a sudden, the top half keeled over, revealing a shadowy figure behind the lifeless corpse.
When the top half hunched over, the unmasked Dark Naruto had his clawed hand wrist deep in the dead boy's back, and the Sound Ninja got a rather disturbing view of the blonde ninja ripping the spin and skull from the top half of the dead ninja. After doing that, he tossed both items away, covered in blood, yet able to keep a straight face.
"WHOA!" Zaku shouted. "WHAT THE HELL MAN! THAT'S NASTY!"
"GET BACK! NOW!" Dosu ordered, all three of them leaping away to put distance between them and their blood covered opponent.
Dark Naruto completely unveiled himself from the shadows, dragging another corpse by the leg in his right hand. However, this corpse wasn't a fully covered one, it was skinned. The muscles and blood of another shinobi he had cut down, without skin or clothes. The Sound Genin cringed when he tossed that body as well, now focusing attention on them.
"Quick work…" Dosu murmured.
"Wait… isn't that…" Zaku recognized the face of the blonde haired shinobi as the one that took the first part of the exam, only now he looked older, colder and particularly more blood thirsty. The spiky haired punk gritted his teeth and took a defensive stance. "You're that blonde loudmouth from the written exams! What the hell are you doing? Skinning your opponents! That's too gory, even for a ninja!"
The phantom furrowed its brow and pointed its clawed hand in their direction.
"E…ne…my…" the twisted teen gargled…
"On your toes!" Dosu said, looking left and right at his teammates. He noticed Kin was looking even more freaked out. "He's going to attack!"
"NOT BEFORE I DO!" Zaku roared, tossing his kunai at the blonde. The ninja simply moved his head to avoid it, but missed when the brown haired boy leapt in front of both Dosu and Kin, throwing both his hands in front of him, forming a small number of hand seals, before taking aim with his cannons. "Get back! SUPERSONIC SLICING WINDS!"
A shockwave, followed by a loud explosion as a massive blast of wind shot out of the boy's hands, propelling straight for his blonde target at super sonic speed. The initial blast wave tore up the ground as it charged down the Dark Naruto, who saw the attack coming at him in super slow motion.
Bringing his hand up to meet it, the Sharingan-Rinnegan shinobi widened its eyes, and pumped chakra down his arm, intercepting the attack with his own.
"Shinra Tensei!" The shockwave of gravitational force to follow produced a particle barrier around the blonde, which ultimately expanded and rendered the Sonic Wave attack useless. The attack fired by Zaku simply went around him, destroying the surrounding environment and cutting a deep trench straight across the ground. Seconds later, it was over, and Dark Naruto was still standing as if nothing had happened.
Zaku stood speechless, his arms going numb from unleashing his most devastating attack. Dosu and Kin were also astounded that the young male was still standing, let alone alive from bearing the full force of the attack. While the team was standing in shock, Dark Naruto held his clawed hand towards Zaku and revered the effects of his previous attack-defense.
"Bansho Ten'n!"
Zaku suddenly felt a sudden pull on his body, and he leapt back, only to suddenly find himself flying straight for the blonde. He yelled out in shock, trying to stop himself but unable to. A split second later, he was caught by the blonde's clawed hand and held in mid-air. After which, Dark Naruto struck him in the arm with his syringed hand, all five of them, and instead of injecting something into him, began sucking fluids out. Zaku withered in pain and cried out his last before suddenly, his entire body, accept his clothes, was sucked into the syringes. Within seconds, his entire body, spiritual and physical essences, were assimilated with the Dark Naruto, with the only remains of the Sound Ninja being his clothes, flopping to the floor.
Dosu and Kin backed off, horror struck at the sight. It was then the Dark Naruto in front of them suddenly performed its Forbidden Technique again. Bones and muscles crunched, squashed and stretch, as his entire face reconstructed itself. Seconds later, with a snap of its head, the blonde faced the two again, who were horrified to see that it was Zaku's face they could see, not the blonde's.
"Come join me guys… it's great in here…"
"W-W-What the hell kind of technique is this!" Dosu backed away, Kin following suit. Both of them were absolutely horrified.
Dark Naruto-Zaku sneered, and raised his clawed hand towards them.
"Tell me… where is the pink-haired brat? Please tell me…"
"T-That's Zaku's voice!" Kin whispered, recognizing the disembodied culmination of the original user's voice and Zaku's, both talking at once. However, it not only sounded like their teammate's voice could be heard, but many others as well.
"That's no ninja! That's a monster!" Dosu shouted, taking a stance and drawing a cluster of kunai from behind him. "Monster or not, it's going down!" In the blink of an eye, he tossed his knives at the face stealer, the projectiles curving through the air before striking its target. The Naruto-Zaku staggered when it was hit in the shoulder, blood drawn. However, it shrugged it off as an inconvenience, and began marching towards them.
"Come on guys… knock it off! That hurts!"
"Stay back!" Dosu shouted, thrusting his gauntlet towards the phantom. "I'm warning you!"
"Look… just tell me where the pink-haired girl is and I'll leave you alone… maybe…"
"Kin! Stay back! I'll handle this!" Dosu said, and rushed forward. Kin was too frightened to protest, and watched as her teammate went into battle, head-long against the impossible opponent.
Leaping at the teen continuing to walk towards him, Dosu cranked his gauntlet arm back and hooked out, slamming it into the Naruto-Zaku's face. The blow was enhanced by his Melody arm, which blasted a sound wave right through his head and his entire body, if not the force of the blow's impact. Smirking, the boy kicked off of the face, violently forcing the face back and leaping through the air. Drawing a cluster of shuriken, he swung it around and tossed it, striking his target multiple-times, so much so that the phantom staggered back, shuriken impaled all over him and blood spilling out like an open hydrant.
Landing ten meters away, Dosu grinned under his mask and raised his gauntlet arm again, preparing for a second attack.
"How'd you like that…" he asked. "If the shuriken didn't faze him, then the resonance from my Melody arm should have screwed up his sense of balance and sight. He'll be dead in no time…"
Shockingly enough, Naruto-Zaku straightened himself up from the multitude of blows. Bones cracking sickeningly as he straightened himself, the corpse of a ninja cracked its neck impossibly to the side, Zaku's face now crunched up and almost unrecognizable. Grinning widely at a bewildered Dosu and Kin, the face twisted, split and stretched, transforming back to Naruto's face.
"Where is Sakura-chan?"
"Impossible!" Dosu shouted, trembling from head to toe. "He shouldn't even be standing after that! No ninja could have survived such an assault!"
Kin fell over backwards tripping over a rock, eyes wide and locked onto the monster of a shinobi, sweating bullets.
This thing was the most frightening thing they have ever seen, even more terrifying then Orochimaru…
Its grin widened insanely.
"Now… death time…"
It threw its clawed out up and, aiming it at Dosu, suddenly fired a current of lightning at him. The electricity hit the Sound Genin head on and, instead of just paralyzing him with thousands of volts of pain, began roasting him from the inside out. Dosu's agonizing cry of pain rang out throughout the entire forest as he was lifted off of his feet, while continuing to be electrocuted by the bolts of lightning. Kin stared silently in fear as her last teammate was tortured on the spot by hundreds of thousands of volts, lightning cracking through the air as Dosu met a grizzly fate.
After two minutes of straight out, continuous lightning currents, Dark Naruto lowered his arm and let Dosu fall back to the ground. Blackened from the electricity and sizzling, Dosu's body fell to its knees before falling flat over to the ground. A second later, his body caught fire before turning to naught but ash.
Kin whimpered and backed away, as the blonde shinobi turned from the corpse on the ground, to the girl. Frowning, he then began walking towards her, forcing her further and further back at a faster rate, before her back hit a tree. Wedged in between the roots, Kin cowered as the blood covered phantom walked right up to her, its shadow cast over her like the grim reaper, ready to take its next victim.
To him, life and death apparently meant nothing…
"P-Please… please… don't hurt me…"
Tears flowed freely from Kin's eyes as the phantom raised its blood covered clawed and licked them, before bringing the armed hand down to bear on her. It hovered right in front of her face, the extended blades flashing, and the rotting flesh of his fingers placed right in front of her nose.
"Merge with me…"
WHACK!
Kin's eyes flew open when a silhouette shot out of a beam of sunlight behind the towering phantom and came in with a roundhouse kick right across the blonde's face. Dark Naruto, though physically unaffected by the flow, was caught by surprise and sent flying across the field and into a tree. He slammed into it hard, forming a dent in the solid trunk.
It looked up towards its previous target, only to see a familiar face blocking his way.
Donning his white trench coat, the real and genuine Naruto Uzumaki stood in his path, face overshadowed by his straw hat, and body blocking Kin from sight. The Sound Girl was awe struck and fear struck from the combination of events narrowing down on this very spot.
Naruto glared daggers at his opponent, arms thrown out and hidden blades drawn.
"Not one step closer!"
Dark Naruto blinked, and pulled itself off of the tree trunk it was thrown into. Bones cracked as its arm and shoulders realigned with themselves, and the neck, which had suffered some damage, healed with a quick left and right snap. Though disgusting and seemingly painful, the phantom wasn't at all fussed about injuries.
Seeing as that it was more focused on him now then anything else, Naruto glanced down at Kin behind him, who was still staring wide-eyed at the creature and trembling uncontrollably.
"Are you okay?" he asked. The girl gulped and shook her head, bringing her knees up to her face and trying to look away, but unable to. Naruto smiled, understanding what it was like to be that afraid, but was unable to reflect upon it. A shadow crossing the tree alerted him to attack, Dark Naruto lunging at him with its clawed hand, now lined with senbon sticking out of his fingers. Reacting in the blink of an eye, Naruto ducked down, covered Kin with his body and waited for the impact.
Dark Naruto struck the wedge in which Naruto and Kin were hiding, the impact splitting the tree clean in two and sending debris everywhere. However, when the phantom ninja looked back, it saw that it had attacked but the tree instead of its targets that have seemingly vanished into thin air. Blinking, the shinobi withdrew its clawed hand from the tree trunk and turned around, finding Naruto carrying Kin bridal style in the center of the clearing, with Sakura and Hinata assumed in stances behind him.
As Kin held onto the real Naruto for dear life, he glared at his other-self, obviously appalled by what he saw.
"Disgusting," Naruto spat. "You were barely able to survive our last encounter, and now… the first thing you do after coming back to life, you just aimlessly butcher Genin out of sheer lust for power! A real shinobi wouldn't rely on other people's hard earned strength in a one-on-one confrontation… so why don't you drop the fancy tricks and face us fairly!"
However, Dark Naruto was obviously not listening, and raised its clawed hand, hidden blade flashing into view.
"Why is it back, Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked, Byakugan blazing.
"I thought we killed it a week ago…" Sakura said certain that they had finished off the phantom back in the spiritual chamber not too far from here.
"Apparently, we only incapacitated it," Naruto replied, furrowing his brow as he looked it over. "It's just a ghost now, a shell of its former self from the chamber, but strong enough to escape the sacred space it was confined to. It's attempting to reconstitute itself with hatred, which it uses as an energy source. Of course… my dark half may appear strong to others, but as long as we're here, it's weak. We have to finish what we started… and see that it ends for good this time…"
All of a sudden, the three members of Team 7 were joined by several more familiar faces. Looking up, Naruto unexpectedly saw Sasuke, Kiba and Shino drop into the clearing from the branches above after spotting them and fanned out on Team 7's left. When they did, they looked up at their opponent standing in the shadows, shocked to find a second Naruto glaring back at them.
"Whoa! What the hell!" Kiba shouted, pointing at the abomination and looking in between it and the real Naruto. "Long lost twin or twisted joke?"
"Twisted joke," Sakura replied.
"Oh… okay," Kiba murmured.
"Just what the heck is that thing?" Shino asked, looking over at Team 7 from the staggering ghoul in front of them. "It looks like you Naruto… but the vibes I'm getting off of it tells me it isn't…"
Kiba sniffed the air and pinched its nose. "It smells disgusting… like blood…" Akamaru trembled as the little dog sat in his master's jacket, staring at the phantom. The pup definitely felt something bad radiating off of the monster standing many yards away, with Kiba comforting his friend. "Hey boy… it's alright…"
"It's got the Sharingan?" Sasuke said, glaring at the thing looking over the two teams. "It's got two different eye types in it… two different doejutsu!"
"Long story guys, we'll explain later," Naruto replied. "Right now, we're in a lot of trouble. This thing will kill you without a second thought if you're not careful…"
Kiba furrowed his brow and looked around, noticing the assortment of bodies lying on the edge of the clearing, as well as what remained of the two other Sound Ninja, the last, remaining member huddled up against Naruto.
"Man… this place got wronged…" the Inuzuka exclaimed. "Did that thing do all this?"
"Yup!" Naruto, Sakura and Hinata all said at the same time.
Dark Naruto looked towards Team 7, immediately focusing on the pink haired girl standing in the middle of both Teams. When Sakura the eyes fall on her, she took a stance and readied herself. However, instead of attacking as it was supposed to, the shadow phantom suddenly fell over onto its knee, and with a rather pained groan, coughed up a pool of black blood, that splattered onto the floor. The teams looked on in surprise when suddenly, blue and red chakra began to radiate off of the phantom as he slowly got to his feet. As soon as he did, suddenly, all of the wounds he had started to heal, and the machines and mechanics attached to him began to fall off.
The syringes cracked, splintered and disintegrated, along with his claws. The teen's eyes whitened, and morphed back to their original blue, and the Akatsuki cloak worn around his waist tore itself up and vanished. After that, his entire body began to dematerialize, and he staggered over to where Sakura stood, right towards the group.
Everybody braced themselves, particularly Hinata. However, Naruto held his arm out to everyone as he watched his dark counterpart walk towards them.
"Wait …" he said, "It's over…"
"Huh?"
"Just watch…"
Naruto stepped away with Hinata, leaving Sakura standing on her own. Team 8 also backed off as Dark Naruto headed towards the pink haired kunoichi, his entire body continuing to fall a part as it walked through the shadows and light breaking through the trees. She lowered her fists and dropped from her stance, watching as the manifestation they had fought so hard and so readily approached her and her alone. By the time the phantom reached Sakura, he was already becoming transparent.
Pained in his efforts, the Dark Naruto smiled happily, the first genuine smile ever, and raised his right hand, running it over the girl's face gently.
"Protect me… okay…?"
Sakura blinked in confusion, but smiled a small smile nonetheless, showing that she accepted whatever he asked of her. Seconds later, Dark Naruto keeled over, and vanished when all of the chakra just dissipated in her arms. Everyone watched as the chakra broke apart into specs of light, before becoming nothing.
Silence fell again, and all around the clearing, the birds began chirping and the sounds of life returned to normal. Naruto, Hinata, Sakura, Sasuke, Shino and Kiba looked around, quiet and confused. It certainly showed when every body in the area started scratching heads and thinking aloud to themselves, 'what the hell just happened?'
"Okay, this is by far the weirdest freaking day I've ever had in my entire life," Kiba exclaimed, looking around and scratching his head. Akamaru barked happily, having also seen what had just happened and no longer sensing a threat.
"Just what exactly was that?" Shino asked.
"I think it was change," Naruto concluded, smiling at Sakura, who was looking down at herself oddly to what had just happened. "You're one special girl, do you know that?"
The pink haired kunoichi looked up at her teammate in question. But then, after a minute of exchanging silent queries, she smiled in return when she saw Naruto smiling right back.
"I don't really want to get involved with whatever you three do in your free time but… whatever," Sasuke groaned, slipping his hands into his pockets and glancing over at Team 7. "Question though… what scroll do you have on you, the Heaven Scroll or the Earth Scroll?"
"Both…" Hinata replied for them. Sasuke, Shino and Kiba blinked.
"Already?" they asked at the same time, earning nods from Team 7.
Reaching into Kin's pouch, Naruto drew the familiar scroll received just before this part of the exam started and flashed it at them. It was a Heaven Scroll, and in response, Team 8 pulled out their Earth Scroll, holding it up in comparison, just to be safe then sorry.
"Do you mind…?" Sasuke asked, hoping to get his hands on it without confrontation. He wasn't even sure if he could beat Naruto at this point, since it's been a while since he'd seen him fight.
"An exchange then," Naruto said, tossing the scroll about in his hand, while still holding Kin. "You let us go, and we'll give you this! Sounds fair?"
"Agreed," Kiba replied. Naruto tossed the scroll to him, and once that was done, Team 7 turned their backs on them and departed, leaving Team 8 to mellow over the realization of finally acquiring both scrolls. Well, not so much as earned it themselves, but traded it in an effort to avoid a confrontation between friends and teammates.
Of course, whatever happened here would leave their thoughts the moment they left the area, leaving only Team 7 to really ponder over what had happened.
Moving on…
"What exactly happened back there?" Sakura asked as she, Hinata and Naruto, with their extra cargo, hopped along. Naruto had recently moved Kin around so that she was on his back, and the girl seemed very comfortable where she was. So comfortable that she had fallen asleep on him. Though Sakura and Hinata were a bit envious of the Sound Nin, they didn't bother to voice their opinions as of yet. "That was Dark Naruto back there, the same one that we fought not too long ago… but this time… he seemed weaker then before. It's as if he'd lost all the will to fight the moment we showed up, given the fact that he just slaughtered two teams before hand!"
"I guess there are a lot of things I just don't know about myself," Naruto replied, smiling back at his two girlfriends. "My guess is that fighting us took a lot out of him, and pulling oneself back from the grave completely drained him of his energy. So he went looking for more…"
"I n-noticed he fell apart as soon as he saw us," Hinata said, looking over at Naruto as they abseiled over a huge gap between trees. "W-What was that?"
"He was looking for something… or someone in particular before he decided to let go," Naruto said, glancing over at Sakura in particular, smiling. "He wanted to see you before he passed away. You must have had more of an impact on my life then anyone else I know, Sakura-chan. That's my thought anyway."
"That's sweet and all, but it still freaked me out," Sakura replied, ducking under some branches as they continued moving along. "I thought he was going to kill us…"
"Why would he? He was going to die anyway?" Naruto smiled.
"I… never knew… someone like that, someone so full of anger and hatred, could have a change of heart," Hinata exclaimed, blushing a little bit, and giggling. "Naruto-kun surprises everyone…"
As they moved closer and closer, covering as much distance as fast as possible in this race to the tower, Sakura and Hinata decided to bring up the question of Kin, who was smiling happily as she nuzzled Naruto's back in her sleep.
"Why did you bring her along, Naruto?" Sakura asked. "It's like every time we do something or go somewhere, he just has to pick up someone else. Man… at this rate, his estate is going to be packed…"
"W-We understand your reasons to help people… but… why her in particular?" Hinata asked. Naruto smiled, and looked back at the girl on his shoulders.
"I couldn't just leave her to die, I'm not that kind of a ninja," Naruto stated. "Besides, there is another reason for me bringing her along with us. Back in the First Part of the Exam, I noticed that she and her teammates were listening in on my conversation with my friends from Sunagakure, something that a lot of the ninja in the general area weren't really paying that much attention to. With that fact in mind, I knew that something was going on with this Village Hidden in the Sound, and that the Sound Ninja have some connection to why Gaara, Temari and Kankuro were so on edge. Something is going on between the Sound Village and the Sand Village, and I need to find out what. The more information we have, the better…"
"Hmm… good thinking, Naruto," Sakura exclaimed. "I see your point."
"But…y-you also like her, don't you?" Hinata said, smiling cheekily. The blonde shinobi laughed.
"Man, it's scary how well you two are getting to know me," he chuckled.
TO BE CONTINUED…
Author's Note: I had to get rid of the Sound shinobi in a gruesome manner, so I figured bringing out Dark Naruto on the verge of death was most appropriate, not to mention having a close encounter with Orochimaru and messing up his plans before he had a chance to get at Sasuke's team. I figured I would later have Sasuke isolated from Kiba and Shino and then have the Cursed Seal put on him, but then again, I have something else in mind with the story. Not exactly what happened in canon, but things will still unfold as the plot thickens.