Naruto regained consciousness in her mindscape. As before, she was on a barren lunar wasteland with the large gate before her and the Earth in the sky. This time there was also a large, slitted snake eye in the sky. Three tomoe vaguely reminiscent of the Sharingan rotated around the outside the eye. Every once in a while the eye would blink and a snake would slither out of it, only to be vaporized by the Kyuubi's chakra when it touched the surface of the moon.
"Do something about this snake, Stepmother," the Kyuubi sneered from within its cage. "I refuse to share my living accommodations with this vermin."
Naruto was beginning to hate the way the Kyuubi had adopted her fumbling explanation to her teammates into a derogatory title, but she agreed with its sentiment. She thought about the best way to do it and settled on trying to use her hair.
She absorbed some of the Kyuubi's chakra and then pushed it outside of herself. Once again her hair grew. She sent it toward the eye and latched onto it. She felt chakra from the eye try to burrow into her. She repulsed it and tried to absorb the eye like she had Zetsu. The snake eye's chakra was not very similar to her own. She found that she could not instantly absorb it like she did Zetsu's or the Kyuubi's. She kept trying, thinking that this was the best way to deal with the "invasion." Finally, she got a handle on the difference between the eye's chakra and her own and began to absorb it. The chakra felt dark and disgusting, but in a different way that Zetsu's had. However, the fact that it was so different than hers made the purification easier, even if the absorption was slower. She slowly absorbed the eye's chakra.
As she absorbed the chakra, the resistance to absorption grew until it virtually stopped. With a harder pull, she shattered the resistance and the eye itself. She thought she heard a scream as something nasty dissipated. After that, the absorption sped up and the tomoe that had surrounded the eye somehow unraveled into more symbols. As she absorbed the chakra, the characters and symbols dissolved until there was nothing left.
The Kyuubi snorted. "Took you long enough, Stepmother."
Naruto ignored the Bijuu and focused on waking up.
In the waking world, Naruto found herself lying in a cave. Hinata and Sasuke were being tended by several of Naruto's Shadow Clones.
"Boss!" a couple of them called. "We're glad you're awake."
"How long was I out?" she asked.
"About two hours."
"Are there more of you?" she asked. She could see six of them in the cave.
"Yeah, standing guard outside," one of the clones said. "The ones you sent out for more scrolls all came back. They only managed to get one more Earth Scroll before the attack."
"What happened after I went unconscious?"
"Orochimaru bit Hinata-chan and Sasuke-kun too. He knew we were there and told us to protect you as best we could and then departed. He told us he'd be sending more challenges our way, so we recalled the rest of us and found a defensible spot."
"How are Hinata-chan and Sasuke-kun?" she asked.
"Not good. Especially not Hinata-chan," said the spokes-clone. "She's got a bad fever and is sweating like crazy. I don't think she'll survive if we don't get her help or if you can't do whatever it was you did to yourself to come out of it to her."
"One of you dispel," she commanded. The spokes-clone did so and Naruto examined her memories. The clone had summarized the events well.
Hinata was moaning weakly. The seal had expanded all over the visible parts of her body and was slithering all over her like a living snake. She placed her hand over where the wound on her neck was, since she assumed the seal was anchored there.
She sent her chakra senses into her friend. She could immediately feel the difference between the two chakras. Hinata's was clean and pure—gentle with just a hint of steel under the softness. It was reminiscent of her own to a small degree, although not to the same degree as the Kyuubi's or Zetsu's. She assumed it must be because Hinata was descended from Kaguya distantly. The other chakra, Orochimaru's, was the same that she had encountered in her mindscape. She tried to latch on to the foreign chakra, but it was hard due to the fact that she liked Hinata's more. She finally caught ahold of the dark chakra, and started to absorb and purify it. It was more difficult than when she had cleansed herself, but she persisted. She felt a hint of relief when the resistance diminished, signifying that whatever was directing the seal was gone. She continued to absorb the dark chakra. When she was all done, she released her contact with Hinata.
Hinata gasped and cried out in pain. Her chakra senses could feel Hinata's chakra leaking out through the place where the seal had been. The seal must have gotten intertwined with her friend's chakra network. In desperation, she sent chakra back into her friend at the location she had removed the dark chakra from. She sent in a fair amount of chakra to try and patch the "wound." If there was one thing, Naruto had to spare, it was chakra. She tried to weave it around the wound in Hinata's chakra network and then compact it. It kept leaking, so she added more. Finally, she purified some of the Kyuubi's chakra and added it too. She cautiously removed her hands and chakra and took a relieved breath. The "patch" held.
She examined Hinata with her Byakugan. There was a concentration of chakra in her neck, almost like a ninth gate made up of Naruto's chakra. Hinata was breathing more regularly. She put the back of her hand to Hinata's forehead. It felt as if her fever might be going down.
"Watch her," she commanded her clones as she moved over to Sasuke.
Sasuke even now, was doing better than Hinata had been when she started removing the Snake's chakra from her, but he was still doing poorly.
She sent her chakra senses into Sasuke. Sasuke's native chakra was also somewhat like hers, but it was darker—not nearly as dark as the foreign chakra, however. Sasuke's chakra was hard and sharp on the surface, but fiery underneath. The foreign chakra was more entrenched, but she managed to begin drawing it out. When she finally removed all of Orochimaru's chakra, she slowly started to withdraw her own. Again she felt Sasuke's chakra start to hemorrhage from the "wound" in his chakra network. She patched it in much the same way that she had Hinata's. She slowly withdrew her chakra again and was relieved when the "patch" held again. Her Byakugan showed that Sasuke again had something like an extra chakra gate made up of Naruto's chakra.
She leaned back, relieved and a little exhausted.
"Boss, take a look at this!" said one of her clones. Her clone pointed at Hinata's neck. "When we first examined her, she had three black tomoes here before they started swirling and expanding. Now it looks like a pale full moon."
Naruto examined Hinata's neck. The clone was right. A pale gray circle with slightly darker markings reminiscent of a rabbit or a face was barely visible against Hinata's pale skin.
She examined Sasuke's neck and found the same.
She could barely think, so she said, "I need a nap. Wake me up if either of them wake up or if there's trouble."
With that she lay back down and went to sleep.
Naruto awoke at twilight. She pulled some ration bars out of a storage seal she had had Kakashi put in her vest. Based on the time that the sun set this time of year, she guessed it had been six hours since Orochimaru had attacked. After eating the ration bars, she got up and did some stretches.
"Anything happen?" she asked her clones.
"No," one of them replied. "It's been quiet. Hinata-chan and Sasuke-kun are doing much better. I think they'll wake up soon."
"I'm awake," said Sasuke. "What happened? How'd we get away from Orochimaru?"
"He let us go," said Naruto, "after putting his freaky mind control seal on us."
"What?" he shouted.
"It's alright," said Naruto. "The Kyuubi protected me until I was able to absorb the chakra from the seal. I woke up and then absorbed the chakra in your seal and Hinata-chan's. You don't have any of the Snake's chakra left in you. My clones protected us until then."
"You absorbed it?" he said raising an eyebrow.
"You remember what I told you about what happened with that Zetsu creature? It was like that, but harder, since Orochimaru's chakra isn't anything like mine."
"Do you think there will be any side effects?" he asked.
"I don't know. After I absorbed the Snake's chakra, you and Hinata-chan started leaking your own chakra through the 'wound.' I had to make a 'patch' with my own chakra. With my Byakugan I can see a 'lump' of my chakra in you, almost like an extra chakra gate. I don't know if that will do anything to you. The only other thing is that where the Snake had tried to mark you guys, there's a Moon Mark instead."
"Really?" he asked.
"Yeah, come look at Hinata-chan's."
Naruto gently moved the cloth band that held Hinata's Leaf Badge so that Sasuke could see her neck.
"I have one of those too?" Sasuke asked.
Naruto nodded.
"Do you have one?" he asked.
"I don't know. I didn't think to have a clone look."
Naruto bared her neck. First one side and then the other.
"I don't see one," he said. "Why don't you have one?"
"Maybe it's because the Kyuubi protected me and so the seal never got a foothold in my chakra network," she replied.
Sasuke grunted. "Should we wake up Hinata-chan?" he asked.
Naruto shook her head. "Let her sleep. She had a worse reaction to the seal than you did. I think she almost died. I've been thinking about whether we should make for the tower or not. With our Doujutsus we could probably make it in the dark, but I think it would be better to try in the morning to give Hinata-chan more time to recover."
Sasuke grunted and then pulled out some ration bars.
Naruto took the first and last watch that night with Sasuke taking the middle watch.
In the morning, Hinata woke up. She was a little worse for wear, but claimed she could run and fight. Naruto explained what had happened to her and made Sasuke show Hinata his Moon Mark. Hinata thanked Naruto profusely for freeing her from Orochimaru's cursed seal.
They quickly ate more ration bars and had some water. Naruto formed up contingency clones and they made a run for the tower.
Thanks to Naruto's Byakugan, they avoided other teams. After they had been traveling for two hours, Naruto called a halt.
"I can see the girl we thought might be my cousin and she's alone. I want to talk to her."
"Are you sure?" asked Sasuke. "She's from Kusa, just like Orochimaru was posing to be from. It could be a trap."
Naruto nodded. "Wouldn't you take a risk for family? Besides, between Hinata-chan and me, we can see most traps ahead of time."
"I'm game if you approach her with a Shadow Clone," said Sasuke.
"Me too," agreed Hinata.
"Alright," said Naruto. "She's this way."
Naruto led the way. As they neared the presumptive Uzumaki, Naruto saw that she had stumbled onto a giant bear. The girl began to run as the bear chased her.
"She's in trouble from a bear!" Naruto said as she started to run.
"Naruto, you idiot!" yelled Sasuke.
Naruto formed six Shadow Clones as she ran. She ran into a clearing in time to see the redheaded girl trip. Naruto let loose a volley of kunai. Her clones did as well.
The bear roared at her and turned away from its prey. Sasuke came up beside her and nailed the bear in both eyes with kunai, killing it. Hinata approached the two. Naruto's contingency clones stayed in the trees to perform a quick Replacement, if needed.
"Thank you for saving me, but I don't have my teams scroll," said the girl.
"Actually, I was hoping to talk to you," said Naruto. "I noticed your red hair and can see that you have a large, dense chakra reserve. Are you an Uzumaki?"
The girl looked at her suspiciously. "Why do you want to know?"
Sasuke hit the back of Naruto's head. "Idiot, introduce yourself."
Naruto grinned sheepishly. "Oh, sorry. I'm Uzumaki Naruto. I was wondering if you were a cousin."
The redhead looked doubtful. "Really? Was your mother a Hyuuga?"
"Oh, my eyes," said Naruto. "No, my mother was an Uzumaki, although my father wasn't. My eyes and coloring and these weird horns are from a run-in with missing nin a few months ago."
She looked even more doubtful. "They transplanted them?"
"No, there was a weird reaction to some foreign chakra they introduced me to which caused me to manifest some long-dormant features. The Uzumaki clan is distantly related to the Hyuuga clan—Senju and Uchiha, too."
"So you were a redhead before?"
Naruto shook her head. "Blonde, actually. They say I took after my father for coloring, although they say I looked like my mother otherwise."
"Okay," she said. "I'll believe you, provisionally. I can sense you have a monstrous amount of chakra even though you're restraining it, which means you might be an Uzumaki."
Naruto smiled brightly, "You can do that too? I'm not very good at it, since it's easier to just use my Byakugan."
The girl returned her smile. "My name is Uzumaki Karin. Pleased to meet you."
Naruto said, "This guy is Uchiha Sasuke and my other teammate is Hyuuga Hinata. What happened to your team?"
Karin frowned. "The forest happened to them. We wandered into a giant tigers' den while trying to find a place to camp. They didn't listen to my warning and got caught. I ran and managed to shake the tigers. I spent the night in a tree and then ended up getting chased by that bear."
"Oh, my condolences," said Naruto.
Karin shrugged. "We weren't close. They put us together just for the exams."
There was an awkward lull, so finally Naruto blurted out, "How do you like Kusa?"
Karin grimaced. "I hate it. They worked my mother to death healing their wounded after taking us in. I'm not sure I can expect anything different."
"Oh," said Naruto. "What are your plans then? Maybe I can talk to the Hokage about you staying here."
"Shiore-san suggested a town elsewhere in Kusa no Kuni I might go to if I didn't want to go back to Kusagakure no Sato."
Naruto asked, "Who's Shiore-san?"
"Did you see the feminine guy with the freaky tongue that talked to the crazy proctor lady at the beginning of this exam?"
Naruto widened her eyes. "Oh, that guy. I wouldn't listen to anything that guy said. He was Orochimaru the missing nin in disguise. Really bad news."
Karin frowned. "Figures, with my luck. Do you really know the Hokage?"
Naruto smiled. "Yep. He even lets me call him Jiichan. Maybe he can figure out how we're related."
"Really?"
Sasuke snorted. "No one has ever bothered to teach this idiot manners until recently. For some reason Hokage-sama tolerates it."
"Be nice, Sasuke-kun," murmured Hinata.
"Okay," said Karin, "I'll talk to the Hokage with you."
"Great!" Naruto said excitedly.
"Let's hurry and finish this thing," said Sasuke.
"Do you want to come with us, Karin-chan?" asked Naruto. "If your teammates are already dead, there's no point in you staying."
"Please!" the redhead replied.
The four genin resumed their trek to the tower. Within another hour they arrived.
Naruto ignored Hinata and Sasuke as they read the clue on the wall. She pulled out the three scrolls that they had collected.
"I think we should unroll one of each kind," said Hinata.
Naruto handed an Earth Scroll to Sasuke and put the extra one back in her vest.
"Ready?" she asked as she held the Heaven Scroll.
Sasuke nodded.
They both unrolled the scrolls and then dropped them as characters began to move on the scrolls and smoke emerged.
A familiar figure could be seen in the smoke as it cleared.
"Iruka-sensei!" Naruto called. She ran to her favorite Academy teacher.
"Hi, Naruto-chan," he said. "I'm glad you made it through. Who's your friend?"
"This is Uzumaki Karin. Her team fell victim to the wildlife, so she came with us," Naruto said.
"Uzumaki, huh?" Iruka said. "A relative?"
"Maybe," said Naruto. "We'll ask the Hokage about it—but that's for later. Listen, Iruka, we really need to talk to the Hokage about something else that happened in the forest."
Iruka looked at Sasuke and Hinata. They both had serious faces.
"It's true," said Hinata. "Something happened that Hokage-sama needs to know about."