Curse Mark

Naruto's eyes snapped open.

The young shinobi heard the sounds of battle. He turned his head to the side and saw Sakura in front of him and Sasuke, defending them. The young kunochi cut a wire with a kunai that released a large log from above at a group of ninja that were coming at them. He knew such a cheap trick wouldn't work.

A smirk appeared on Sakura's face. She had worked all night to make sure that her teammates were safe and then set up traps in order to keep them safe. Even though the sound ninja had saw through her first trap, they were going to fall directly into the second.

Naruto clenched his teeth. He had to do something.

The log scattered to Sakura's surprise. "What!?"

"Sakura, duck!"

Sakura looked back. Three kunai flew over the girl's head with explosive tags attached to the bottom of it. Once the flying knives were in range of the opposing team; Naruto performed the needed seal. The explosions went off.

The three sound shinobi flew back, barely managing to flip back and landed on their feet. Dous lifted his arm in front of his mouth. "It seems another one of Sasuke's teammates has woken up." The man eyed Naruto who stood on one knee with his arm extended out.

Sakura held her hands close to her chest. "Naruto, you're awake."
"Keep your guard up, Sakura," Naruto said. Sakura faced forward.

Zaku looked over at Dosu. "Can we just kill them both?"

Dosu nodded. "Certainly, then we'll get Sasuke." The mummy looking shinobi pulled his sleeve back to reveal his melody arm. "Go." The three sound ninja charged forward.

Naruto stood by Sakura's side. "Sakura, can you fight?"

"Y-yeah." Sakura picked herself up.

"I'll check out what skills they have. Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Naruto made the cross hand seal. Three clones puffed up in front of him. Each clone pulled out a kunai knife and charged for one of the three sound shinobi.

"Does he really think something like this will stop us?" Dosu swung his arm that the Naruto clone blocked with his kunai. A sound vibrates out of the melody arm's holes that attacked all three clones, turning them to smoke.

Naruto's eyes shimmered. The guy in the middle managed to destroy them all, he thought. He quickly recovered and focused on the two that were still coming. Naruto slammed his feet on the ground and swung his legs out to trip up Zaku.

He spun around and slammed his legs down on Zaku's stomach, pinning him down. The blond boy then looked over to see Sakura and Kin clash with their kunai. Kin was the stronger of the two, knocking Sakura on her butt. The kunochi was ready to kill her.

Naruto rolled over Zaku. He grabbed the teenager's arm and launched him over his shoulder like a baseball. "Now die," Kin said. Just as the woman was about to swing down her kunai Zaku's body slammed into hers, knocking them both back.

Naruto's eyes shifted over to the leader of the group. He saw the shock expression of the mummy looking ninja. Seeing that the guy was off guard Naruto charged at him. If he could just get one punch off he knew he could keep the momentum up. He threw his fist forward.

Dosu got into step. He blocked Naruto's attack with his melody arm that created vibrations. Dosu used his charka to channel the sound waves into Naruto's ear. Naruto screamed and collapsed onto the ground from the damaging effect.

Dosu lifted his fist up ready to strike. "Time to finish you off."
"No!" Sakura threw a pair of shuriken at the shinobi.

Dosu simply lifted his arm to block the attack. "Alright fine, we'll deal with you first." He stepped over Naruto who couldn't do a thing to stop him. It didn't take long for the three sound ninja to take advantage of the pink haired kunochi.

New resolve filled the girl's body as she cut her hair and battled against Zaku. The angry teen punched the girl off him with a solid punch after punching her several times. Naruto still couldn't move just yet, but he felt his body responding. If Sakura could just hang on for a little while longer he could…

Suddenly a dark purple energy swirled up that caught everyone's attention. They all watched as Sasuke rose with the curse mark activated and his sharingan turned on. "Sakura, who did that to you?"

"I did," Zaku pointed to himself. It was the last stupid thing he got say. Sasuke easily distracted the teen with a fire shuriken attack that allowed him to get behind him. Sasuke drove Zaku to his knees as he grabbed his arms. He landed his foot on the other ninja's back.

Everyone watched in horror and dismay as Sasuke joyfully pulled Zaku's arms out of their sockets. He then looked over at Dosu. "I hope you'll be a better challenge then he was." He walked toward Dosu as he backed up.

Sakura still very scared out of her mind ran to Sasuke. She wrapped her arms around him from behind him. A tear ran down her face. "Please…stop."

"Back off." Sasuke knocked Sakura's fragile form around. The girl rolled across the ground, falling unconscious. Sasuke focused back on Dosu.

Naruto managed to push himself up on his hands and knees. "Hey, Sasuke!" Sasuke glared over at Naruto as he threw a shuriken at his leg with the wire attach to it wrap around his leg. Naruto pulled on the wire to yank Sasuke off his feet.

Sasuke flipped around. He slammed one of his hands on the ground while the other one launched off three shuriken. Naruto had no time to evade, being impaled by the ninja stars. The boy then turned into a cloud of smoke.

"A shadow clone." Sasuke noticed a hole behind where the clone had stood. Sasuke managed to land on a single foot. He lifted himself up when two shuriken flew out of the forest from opposite directions.

Each shruiken had a wire attach to them, tying Sasuke up. Just as Sasuke tried to break out of the trap Naruto came down out of the tree above Sasuke. He had his fists interlocked, slamming them down on top of Sasuke's head.

Sasuke dropped to the ground unconscious. Naruto sat on top of Sasuke, making sure he couldn't do anymore damage. He then looked over at Dosu. Dosu looked around to see two of Naruto's clones stepped out of the forest, holding the wires that held Sasuke.

"So what's next?" Naruto questioned Dosu.

Dosu lied down his teams scroll. "We'll give you this scroll in exchange for letting us go."
Naruto nodded to the proposal.

Naruto stood in a tree, watching the other team leave and making sure they didn't show any sign of coming back. Naruto was then about to come down and grab his teammates so they could go to the tower when his eyes wondered in a different direction to see the red haired Uzumaki girl he had seen earlier and that she was in danger.

He looked down at his two clones. "Take Sakura and Sasuke to the tower. I'll catch up." Naruto leaped into the air.

Karin stepped back terrified as a rival team stepped toward her. Both of her teammates lied beaten unconscious on the ground. The young kunochi was quickly running out of options. Her eyes shimmered in fear.

"Just hand over your scroll," the ninja in the middle said. He pulled out a kunai. "Or die right here. So what's it going to be?"

Naruto landed on all fours behind the group. Before even the first one could turn around Naruto stood up and slammed his fist against the back of the middle ninja's head. The other two leaped into the air to avoid getting struck.

Naruto turned his eyes to the right. He tossed a shuriken with a wire attach to it at the man that went right. The shuriken spun around the man's leg, tying it up with the wire. Naruto pulled on the wire, bringing the man down.

The man hit the ground on his back. Naruto then pulled and threw him across into a tree opposite of where he landed. Naruto finally focused on the last one who landed in a tree. He wasn't going to let the man get away.

He jumped after the man, but the man was so afraid he leaped away. Naruto flipped onto the tree trunk, throwing a kunai knife. The double-edge blade cut down the man, dropping him into a brush.

Naruto landed back on the ground. He walked up to the first one he took out, reaching into the man's pouch. Karin looked at the sight in amazement. She had never seen someone so skilled and strong before other than the men she feared. Naruto took out the Earth Scroll the group carried. "Here it is."

He then looked over at the red haired girl. He smiled at the girl who appeared to be from the leaf. He stuck the scroll out toward her. "Take this and you should be able to enter the tower."

Karin appeared confuse. "But don't you need it?"

Naruto walked up to the kunochi. "Nah, I already got one." He took her hand and placed the scroll in it.

"Then don't you need the Heaven Scroll?" she questioned.

"I have that too," Naruto answered.

Karin looked down at the scroll. She gazed back at Naruto. "But why are you helping me. We aren't even from the same village."

"But we are from the same clan."

"Huh?"

Naruto pointed himself. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki."
"You're from the Uzumaki clan!?"

Naruto moved over to one of Karin's teammates and lifted him over his shoulder. "Yep, so I'm going to help you in as many ways as I can." He moved over to the other unconscious team member, picking him up. He then faced Karin. "So let's get to the tower my teammates should already be there."

Karin smiled "Ok."