Welcome back to another chapter of Team Itachi.

Thanks to TheOrangeStar802, Charmed, Akatsuki no Kyara and The True Not Importantfor the reviews!

"Shadow Possession Jutsu... success."

"Why us?" Naruto frowned.

"Sorry, Naruto," Choji had an apologetic look on his face. "They were unguarded and all, so Ino decided to barge in and take the scroll. Well, it's every man for himself out here, right?" He laughed nervously.

"You should have engaged me in a fair fight!" Naruto was annoyed.

Shikamaru sighed. "Choji."

Choji nodded reluctantly, not comfortable with the idea of hurting a comrade. "Expansion Jutsu!" The Akimichi grew into three times his normal size, and curled into a giant ball. "Human Boulder!"

"Release!" Shikamaru released his jutsu, just a second before Choji slammed full force into Naruto's body. The blonde Jinchuriki was sent flying out of the cave.

"Now that's taken care of, let's go and find some place to camp for the night! We head for the tower early in the morning!" Ino said cheerfully, pocketing Team 7's Earth Scroll.

"What a drag."

"I hope they have food at the tower!"

Team 10 strode out of the cave, leaving the unconscious Sasuke and Sakura behind, but not before Ino creepily marveled over Sasuke's face.

"Not so fast!"

The trio looked up, and Ino let out a loud gasp. Shikamaru grunted, and Choji regarded the scene with a panicked stare.

At least twenty Narutos were up in the trees above them. All were armed with two katanas.

"If you want to leave..."

"... you have to beat us first!"

Shit. Ino-Shika-Cho can't work on twenty enemies, and we don't even know which one is the original Naruto! Shikamaru thought. Wait. This isn't a simple Clone Jutsu. This is... the Shadow Clone Jutsu! But that's a B-Rank technique! How did Naruto learn that?!

"We can handle fifty Narutos, let alone twenty!" Ino called out confidently. "Besides, those are stupid illusions! Just a simple Clone Jutsu! They can't touch us!"

Now all the Narutos had smirks on their faces.

You have no idea how wrong you are... Shikamaru turned towards his teammate.

"We can't touch you, eh?" One of the clones started.

"Why don't we..."

"... test that out!"

The Naruto clones began grouping themselves into pairs.

What is he thinking? Shikamaru looked around at the clones, as they all successfully formed into twos.

One particular pair began the action. The first Naruto of the pair lifted up the second Naruto, and with all his strength, flung this second Naruto towards Team 10.

"Wha-?" Ino was punched in the face by the flying Naruto. Angrily, she got up to retaliate, but the clone who had punched her dispersed.

Uh oh... Shikamaru looked on as a dozen Narutos came flying at them, with their fists outstretched.

In just five minutes, Team 10 had fell.

Ino was knocked unconscious, with Naruto not feeling very comfortable over hitting a female. Choji and Shikamaru, however, had bruises all over their faces and bodies.

"I'm sorry, guys," Naruto said cheerfully. "Ah, well, you should be fine after a good rest."

He strode over to Ino, and praying she wouldn't wake up and scream at him for being a pervert, Naruto checked all her pockets for the scroll. Thankfully, this only took a few seconds, finding his team's Earth Scroll in his fellow blonde's back pocket.

"Sooo, who has the Heaven Scroll?" He thought aloud. After a thorough check, Naruto found Team 10's Heaven Scroll on Choji, and, although feeling a little guilty about beating up his friends like this and halving their chances of passing, decided to keep the two scrolls.

The least I can do is move them to a safe place, Naruto nodded determinedly. I can only summon one or two more clones, or I'll be dying of chakra exhaustion.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu."

Two clones jumped out from a puff of smoke. One carried Ino bridal style and Shikamaru on his back. The other had the job of carrying the overweight Choji, and this particular clone looked ready to collapse.

As his clones left, Naruto retreated back to the cave and stuffed the Heaven Scroll into Sasuke's pocket, keeping the Earth Scroll for himself.

Since I've got the scroll we want, I should disperse all the clones around the forest now.

One by one, the hundred or so clones that Naruto had summoned were dispersed.

I definitely need to rest for awhile... Wow.

No... I feel so re-energized now.

Why? I swear I was so tired a minute ago!

Shrugging it off, Naruto sat down and toyed with one of his kunai.

Just gives me the opportunity to look out for the enemies.

Naruto got up. Better start setting some traps... Kiba and Shino got caught in them, so it should work for everyone.

He checked his small tool bag, where he kept his dozens of ninja weapons. Finding three more explosive tags left, Naruto activated them, before starting to set his traps up.

This should be good, he smirked, thinking of an enemy ninja getting caught in this. He was a natural at traps.

When Naruto was a child, ANBU were normally stationed outside his house every other night, because of the villagers' tendencies to attack the house where he lived alone. A kind dog-masked ANBU had taught him how to defend himself through traps, and since then, he'd been practicing. Only this time, Naruto could use real ninja tools.

Smiling at the memory, Naruto walked back into the cave, trying to be as careful as possible in case he set off one of his own traps.

Satisfied with his work, the spiky-haired boy leaned against the wall, toying with his kunai for awhile and thinking of the day that'd passed, until he finally succumbed to sleep.

"You're mine now, Sasuke-kun... kukuku..."

"No!"

"You're... mine..."

"No! No! I'm nobody's!"

"Mine... only mine... kukuku..."

"No... no... fuck off!" Sasuke screamed, the upper half of his body jerking up. He immediately noticed the sweat rolling down his cheek, and that he had activated his Sharingan in his sleep.

What... what kind of dream...

Suddenly, he remembered. Orochimaru.

Sasuke's fingers brushed against the spot where Orochimaru had bitten, and winced as he felt intense pain when his hand made contact. Deciding to ignore the wound for now, he turned to see Naruto, leaning against the wall, asleep, and Sakura, lying on the ground and snoring softly.

He was surprised to see his screams hadn't woken his teammates up. Then the raven-haired boy examined his surroundings.

Naruto and Sakura must have got me here... Sasuke looked towards his teammates and smiled. Although Naruto was a bit of an annoying loudmouth and Sakura was annoying as well, they were both interesting in their own ways. If he had a choice, he would still choose to stick to Team 7.

Then the Uchiha remembered the events of last night. Orochimaru. That bite. Sasuke had a feeling it was no ordinary bite. He stretched his head a little to get a look at his neck.

His eyes widened as he spotted some kind of mark there.

What... is that? I think I'll have to ask big brother about it once we're out of this place.

Sasuke walked out of the cave, and thanks to his Sharingan, noticed the traps lying around the area. Realizing he still had his dojutsu on, he was about to deactivate it, but refrained from doing so after seeing the traps littered around the cave.

Naruto or Sakura must have set them, Sasuke concluded, as he walked towards the nearby stream.

Hell... I'm thirsty.

Before Sasuke could lean down to taste the water, he felt a burning pain on his neck. Groaning, he collapsed, clutching onto the spot where the pain was coming from.

It was the mark. The mark was doing something to him. Coming to this realization, Sasuke felt fear grip his chest. Was it killing him?

No, if anything, Sasuke felt a surge of great strength shooting through his body, accompanied by the pain of course. He didn't feel any cells dying.

Deactivating his Sharingan, Sasuke continued turning. The pain was unbearable.

Almost as soon as it came, the pain suddenly stopped.

Blinking in surprise, Sasuke got back up. He took the sip of water he wanted and walked back to the cave, and activated his Sharingan when he was near the traps.

"Gaaahhhh!"

He was back down on the ground, writhing in pain. It was returning! He felt the great boost of power again, unfortunately accompanied yet again by the pain.

Instinctively, Sasuke deactivated his Sharingan, and instantly, the pain vanished.

My... my Sharingan! It's the cause of the pain! But why? Sasuke frowned, getting back up.

This had to be set aside for now. The priority at the moment was to pass this test. Sasuke nodded to himself determinedly, and skillfully made his way back to the cave, avoiding the traps by remembering where he'd saw them earlier.

Unbeknownst to him, hidden within the trees, was a certain silver-haired, bespectacled individual.

"Hehehe." Kabuto smirked. "This is going to be interesting."

Another short chapter, I'm sorry, but I couldn't think of anything more to write. I originally had this battle with Naruto and Sakura double-teaming to defeat the Ino-Shika-Cho trio but I re-read it after writing half of it and realized how shitty it was, so I erased everything and redid the chapter. Heh.

On an off-topic note, what is your favorite Naruto opening? Mine has to be the fifth opening, played during the Sasuke Retrieval Arc.

Until next time!