To the Tower
"You can't even make it to the village gate without getting distracted," Sasuke shouted. "There's no way you can lead us to the tower!"
"Sasuke's right, you might have improved, Naruto, but there's no way you can lead us to the tower," Sasuke yelled at him. She stood behind Sasuke, stomping her foot down. The two had ganged up on their fellow teammate when he suggested he should lead the team.
They stood in the Forest of Death. There second instructor, Anko had explained they had to get the opposite scroll they didn't have and to take it to the tower. Each of them realized this survival training wouldn't be easy as they would have to face the other teams and worry about the wild animals that roamed deep inside.
The team had already heard the screams of another team. Things only become worse when a shinobi from the rain village tried to take out Naruto in order to get their scroll. Naruto managed to defeat him and got him to flee before the man could reach Sasuke and Sakura.
"And why not?" Naruto questioned. "I've proven since we started the chunin exams I'm just as capable as you and Sasuke." They had watched his battle with Lee and him slid right through the first exam. How long would they treat him like an idiot?
"That doesn't matter," Sasuke said. "It doesn't mean you're ready to lead this group."
Naruto shoved his hands in his pocket with an annoyed expression on his face. He shut one of his eyes. They were getting nowhere fast and if they kept at it would lose any chance of passing the exam. "Alright, fine you can lead."
"Good, then we have to make sure from now on we are able to tell we are who we say we are," Sasuke said. "I'm sure that ninja who attacked Naruto would have tried to take his place in our team in order to get our scroll."
The three sit down in a circle. "So what's the plan?" Naruto questioned.
"We need a password that only the three of us know," Sasuke told them. He then recited a ninja phrase of when a ninja should strike. Unbeknownst to them someone was listening to every word they spoke. "You got it."
They both nodded.
"Good," Sasuke picked himself, "then let's get moving." He placed his hand on his waist while he looked over at Sakura. Sakura and Naruto stood back up. "I'll take the scroll."
"Wait, hold on for a second, Sasuke," Naruto began saying.
Suddenly a rush of wind hit the group. They crossed their arms, trying to block the surprise attack. They were all pushed back, falling into separate parts of the forest. Standing where the wind originated were three grass shinobi. "The two of you get moving, I'll handle this alone."
-M-
Naruto stood on his shoulder as his upside down body was pressed up against the three. Naruto's closed eyes trembled. He slowly opened them, blinking a few times to reclaim his vision. "What happened?"
Naruto managed to flip himself up, getting on all fours. "I never felt an attack like that before." Naruto rubbed the back of his neck. He gazed up to see a giant snake in front of him that hissed.
He got up on one foot, adjusting his body to face the cold serpent. "That's one big snake." The snake launched itself forward, opening its jaw to devour the boy. Naruto leaped out of the way.
The snake smashed its head into the bark of the tree.
Naruto landed on a tree branch far up the tree. He watched as the snake pulled its head out of the tree. Smoke poured out of the area. "Where in the world did that huge snake come from anyway?"
The large snake looked up, spotting Naruto. Naruto stood up and formed the cross seal hand sign. A shadow clone puffed up beside him. The clone grabbed Naruto's arm and spun him around. He threw Naruto forward as the snake charged at him with his jaw wide open.
Naruto pulled out three kunai knives from his pouch that had paper bombs attach. He threw them forward so they went right into the snake's body. He formed a hand sign that triggered the bombs. The knives exploded inside, splitting the snake in half. Its dead body collapsed on the forest floor.
The Naruto clone puffed into smoke.
Naruto landed on the ground. He looked back at the head of the dead snake. "I better go find the others." He narrowed his eyes. "Then what's after them."
-M-
Sasuke's eyes and mouth were wide open as the grass ninja sunk her teeth into the Uchiha's neck.
"Sasuke!" Sakura screamed.
The grass ninja took out its fangs as a curse mark appeared on the back of the boy's neck. The woman retracted her head back to her body that she extended out from several feet below the two leaf shinobi. She broke her hand sign.
She smirked. "I'll be taking your Heaven Scroll now." She stuck out her hand. "So hand it over or face worse."
Sakura caught Sasuke in her arms, trembling. She was frightened to death and couldn't bare to move anymore. Tears fell from her eyes. "What do I do? What can I do?"
"Hand over the scroll or you die," said the grass ninja. "You have no other choice."
Kunai flew in several directions around the grass ninja with sharp wires attach. They stabbed into the trees to form a crisscross net around the shinobi. "What's going on," the women questioned. She then noticed that paper bombs were wrapped around the wires. "What!?"
The bombs went off.
The tree branch shattered to pieces, falling to the ground. Heating smoke covered the area. Sakura looked at the sight in shock. "Who did that?"
The grass ninja shot out of the smoke, wrapping around the tree trunk like a snake. She slithered up when shuriken and kunai cut off her path. Half of the woman's face was gone. She looked around to see several Narutos that stood or kneeled on different branches.
"So, Naruto you escaped my friend did you?" said the woman.
Sakura looked around to see all the clones. "Naruto, you're back."
Naruto looked down at his frightened and unconscious teammates. He couldn't let things end here. He needed to protect his team and the scroll no matter what. From the glimpse he got of the woman's power she acted just like a snake.
Each Naruto spread out three shuriken between their hands. They all threw their shuriken at their target at the same time. "Everywhere shuriken!" The razor sharp shruiken storm crashed down on the masked woman. Over a dozen stabbed into the woman.
"Got her," Naruto said. He was confident in his move until the woman's body broke apart into muck. "A clone." Within seconds a shadow figure swooped by, cutting down all of Naruto's clones.
The shadow came out of the tree behind the real Naruto to attack him. Naruto heard it coming, flipped back and around to face the shadow that revealed itself to be the grass ninja.
Naruto threw the wave of shuriken. The snake-like ninja easily avoided the strike, going underneath still coming after Naruto. Naruto landed on the branch before he jumped back on a tree trunk before he launched himself through the trees on the right.
The snake ninja flew directly at him, closing in. Naruto had run out of moves and the jaws of his opponent were opening to devour him. His eyes turned red with the nine tails charka leaked out. His inner beast had been unleashed.
"Nice try." The woman stretched out her hand that was infused with charka and thrust it into Naruto's stomach. Naruto screamed. A seal formed over his stomach to cut off the fox's charka.
Naruto fell back, falling unconscious through the air.
"This certainly was an interesting experience to say the least." The snake that was Orochimaru pulled himself back into the shadows, disappearing.
Sakura spotted Naruto falling to his death. She knew she had to do something. She pulled out a kunai and threw it. The knife pinned Naruto to a tree by the back of his jacket.
Sakura dropped her hand on the tree branch she kneeled on. Her eyes trembled with tears building. "What do I do now?"