~Alai~

I waited until I was safely hidden in the tree line before beginning the search for my team. I knew that it would be hard and I was starting to finally see why they call it the Forest of death. The ground was covered in vines, roots, and poisonous plants. The sounds of the wild animals covering up the screams from the Genin taking the exam.

'Teams are already being eliminated...'

"I'd better hurry."

Making my way across the forest was simple, the only worry I had was avoiding the opposing teams. I didn't relax until I heard one voice echo through the trees.

"You got one... A little shorter?"

Naruto.

I turned in the direction of the voice and sprinted my way there. But when I had them in my sights, I noticed there was another ninja spying on them. I landed on the branch above them just as Sasuke spoke.

"No Naruto, that's it."

"It looks like the Chunin Exams have a little spy." The girl spoke. It surprised me at first, because I had hidden my energy like Nema had taught me but apparently it wasn't enough.

"I'm the least of the the Leaf's problems."

"Is that right?" She replied, her tone sounding dangerous.

'This woman is dangerous. She has a blood lust that surpasses Zabuza.'

"Is the little spy at a loss for words all of a sudden?" She continued, cutting into my thoughts.

I shook my head as a quick answer before asking my own question.

"Who are you? There's no way your like these other participants."

"And your not a ninja, what is a girl like you doing in here?" She asked, with sudden amusement replacing the dangerous tone she previously had.

"I asked you first."

"I'm afraid I don't have time to play games with you. This is goodbye, my little spy." She jumped up to my level and tried to slash at my body with a kunai. I responded the way Kalen taught me. I didn't just dodge the kunai but I dropped down a branch. I was initially going to jump back up and attack from behind but she appeared in front of me and made a hand sign.

I had no idea what the hand sign meant and I had to admit that it worried me. She put her hands to her mouth and created a powerful gust that crashed into my torso, sending me flying. I braced for any type of impact. The worst I would crash into would be a rock or a tree. Not so bad right?

My worries were silenced when I felt a hand reach out and grab ahold of me as we were thrown further from the strange ninja. I looked over my shoulder quickly to see Sasuke looking to me with confusion before trying to pull me closer. The winds kicked up as another gust hit my shoulder. I screamed out as our hands were ripped apart from each other. The ninja was separating us. Sasuke tried to reach out for my hand again but I had hit into the top branches of a tree.

I heard my team mate yell my name as I lost sight of him. Instead of flying across the forest like he was, I was now plummeting down to the floor of this dangerous place. I acted quickly and managed to create my barrier before I crashed through anymore branches.

Lucky my fall stopped short as I landed on a branch with a thud, the barrier eliminating the damage from the impact.

"I can only imagine what condition I'd be in if I wasn't a beckoner."

I let my barrier fall as I observed the area around me. I looked for any signs of Sasuke but found nothing.

'He must have been thrown a bit further.'

"Ugh... Ok, Upsie daisy!"

'That was Naruto.' I thought as I glanced down to the base of the tree I was standing in. Naruto sitting on the forest floor trying to piece together what just happened.

"Naruto!" I called down, moving to jump down to his level. He jumped slightly before realizing it was me and relaxing.

"Alai, it's only you... Wait.. What are you doing here?" He seemed slightly suspicious of my presence before I put my hands up in a defensive position and tried to explain.

"I got worried, there's a dangerous man in this forest after Sasuke, someone who's not a Genin."

"Someone's after Sasuke? Why is it always Sasuke! What makes him so important." He started ranting with such an angry tone that I couldn't help but try to calm him down. That was when I heard something behind me.

I reacted quickly and jumped out of the way just as a gigantic snake swallowed Naruto whole. He was screaming for help as the snake turned to me and tried to repeat the process it just went through with my team mate.

"Oh no you don't."

I dodged every attempt the snake made at capturing me until he lunged forward. Instead of him swallowing me, the snake decided to squeeze the life out of me.

'Guess I made him mad.'

I heard Naruto yell something from inside its stomach as I was slipping from consciousness.

"Shadow clone jutsu!"

The snakes tail loosened its grip on my body as its torso suddenly expanded beyond its limits. Causing it to burst open and spill snake guts everywhere.

I was thrown to the ground by the blast, causing more damage to my arm and shoulder. I propped myself against the tree that I hit into.

"Sorry! I'm gonna be hokage one day! and if you think I'm just gonna be snake food for you then your crazy!" Naruto said as he finally realized that his plan worked. Or at least I hope that was his plan..

The blonde celebrated for a moment before realizing his surroundings and started looking around frantically.

"Alai!?"

"Over here Naruto." When he saw me he ran to my side and kneeled down to my level.

"Are you ok? Why are you holding your shoulder?"

"I think that second gust dislocated my shoulder."

"So we need Sakura?"

"I can heal myself but we don't have time for that. I think that snake was meant to keep us away from Sasuke and Sakura."

Naruto's attitude changed to a serious one as he held his hand out. I took it and let him help me up.

"Can you make it through the trees alright?"

"Yeah, let's go."

He took lead as we tried to find our way back to the other half of our team.

'I only hope that we're not too late.'

~Sasuke~

"Sasuke that wound is deep!"

I put my hand over Sakura's mouth so she would shut up long enough for me to think.

'Gotta move, gotta stay away from her.'

Sakura had no idea what we were dealing with here but I had to be strong. If I couldn't be strong then it wouldn't take long before we were dead. I briefly wondered where Naruto was and whether or not Alai was ok.

'Why is she even here?'

I briefly remembered the fear I felt as that second gust of wind from this woman's jutsu pulled her away from me and into the trees of the forest. I had been trying to find her when this mystery girl showed up.

Sakura started squirming around, pulling me from my thoughts just as she yanked my hand off shouting. "Sasuke look out!"

I turned just in time to see a huge snake trying to swallow us. I jumped away from Sakura just as she barely dodged the snakes attack. The snake turned quickly to face me as it lunged forward again. As I looked at the snake's head I got a glimpse of the girl. I pulled out four kunai and threw them directly into the snakes head.

"No! get away!"

My weapons impaled the top of the snakes mouth, causing the snake to fall to a lower branch and cease all movement. Sakura looked to be in relief, believing that it was over.

"Hahaha!" that bone chilling voice echoed throughout the forest as the top of the snakes head started to crack open. The girl was able to slide her way through the opening and look me directly in the eye.

"Good job, the prey must always be on high alert... When in the presence of its predator."

The girl had extended her whole body to mimic that of a snakes as she wrapped around the tree. Her speed was incredible and instead of trying to evade her, I found myself frozen in place again, and just like before I found myself being barely saved by an arrow and kunai blocking my enemies path.

"Looks like we came just in time!"

~Naruto~

Alai and I managed to make it there just as teme Sasuke was about to get his butt handed to him by a snake lady. We jumped up to a branch on their level at the same time and each turned to the side simultaneously, making us back to back as I threw kunai in the lady's path and Alai shot an arrow into her right hand. Perfect teamwork.

"Looks like we came just in time!"

Everyone looked up when they heard my voice. While Sakura looked relieved, Sasuke just looked scared. Something he never was.

"Oh and by the way... what was that password again?"

~Sasuke~

As Naruto stood back to back with Alai he asked about that stupid password.

"Oh and by the way... what was that password again?"

"Oh just forget it, we know it's you." Sakura told Naruto as she looked over at the two with confusion.

"There's a password? Since when?" Alai spoke up.

"Since an imposter failed to be like me." Naruto turned his head slightly to talk to Alai and she replied with a short laugh.

"That's impossible!"

"I know right?"

"WOULD YOU TWO PAY ATTENTION!" Sakura shouted, gaining their attention. This also pulled the mysterious enemy ninja back into our attention.

"So it looks like you survived Manda. I have to admit I doubted you my little spy."

Alai whispered something to Naruto quickly before he nodded his head and refocused on the enemy in front of us. She looked to her as well and responded to the previous comment.

"It would take more than that to take us down!"

The girl stretched to attack Naruto and Alai, but they broke apart and went in different directions. Naruto jumped to Sakura's side and whispered something to her before looking to me. When Sakura nodded in understanding he shouted something across the forest before joining Alai on a different branch.

"Alai said you know what you can't do!"

The statement made me remember what two people have told me now.

~*~Try not to let her out of your sight ok?~*~

~*~She doesn't want anyone hurt. She's... special, if the wrong people get ahold of her, it could mean trouble.~*~

This person is dangerous, and Alai wants to keep us all as safe as possible. Which means no names.

The enemy kunoichi looked to us all after Alai managed to get away from her attacks.

"Perhaps I should take you a little more seriously little spy. What is your name?"

"A good spy never reveals their identity."

"So you choose to remain a mystery to me. How positively interesting!"

The girl let her freakishly long tongue hang out again. This enemy would be the death of us all and I knew it. I had to do something.

"Here.."

I was the center of attention as I pulled out our scroll and held it out to our opponent.

"This is what you want right? just take it and leave us!"

"Very good, in order to save their own lives, the prey must sometimes distract its predator with something even more precious."

"SASUKE WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" Naruto started to protest my actions, but I wasn't going to listen to the dope.

"Shut it loser, you don't know what your up against! Just get out while you still can!"

I turned back to the girl and threw the scroll to her. She smiled in victory as she held our her hand to catch her prize. But Naruto punched the girl off of the branch she stood on as Alai caught the scroll. I turned to yell at Alai.

"What are you doing? Don't you know how dangerous she is?"

"Of course I know, I currently have a damaged arm from her wind."

"Then why are you interfering? Why are you even here?"

"You still have things you need to ask me right? If your alive then we'll be able to talk once your a Chunin."

"None of that matters right now! We have to survive! This test isn't worth our lives!" That was when I felt something strike my right cheek.

Naruto had punched me.

"What did you do with Sasuke..." Naruto whispered from behind us. Alai didn't flinch at the voice or his action, as it seemed she was thinking the same thing.

"What are you talking about Naruto? It's Sasuke!" Sakura lectured him, as if she should be talking right now. She's just sitting there.

"That's not our Sasuke. He may look like Sasuke and he may even sound like Sasuke, but that's not Sasuke. I mean come on! When did our Sasuke become... such a coward!?"

I couldn't answer as Naruto scowled down to me before our opponent spoke over us.

"Fear is natural to prey, but on the other hand... Why would I just let you run off when I can kill you and retrieve the scroll anyway?"

Alai turned to the girl with a different reaction than the rest of us. While we looked horrified into the eyes of our opponent, Alai looked as if she'd figured something out.

"You..."

She looked as if she were going to continue her statement but she then again realized something.

"Sasuke you have to escape from here! This person doesn't care about this exam. They aren't even a Genin-"

The enemy ninja had reacted quickly once Alai started to speak. Whatever Alai was going to tell me just then, she really didn't want me knowing. In a split second Alai was thrown into a nearby tree, hitting her right shoulder against the thick trunk. As she yelled out in pain the girl advanced as fast as possible. The kunoichi tried to cut her open but Alai managed to dodge at the last second, earning her a swift kick to the gut. As Alai rolled across the branch she slid off the edge and collapsed on the one below her.

There was silence. Alai must have been knocked out by the impact. It was shortly after that when Naruto yelled 'no,'

"Sorry my little spy, I can't let you go and ruin my fun."

I let her get hurt. I'd surely get blamed for this if we made it out alive.

~Alai~

Orochimaru caught on to what I was planning on doing fast. He quickly threw me back into the heart of the tree sending waves of pain through my right shoulder. I let out a short cry of pain before I noticed he was suddenly above me with a kunai. I reacted quickly enough to avoid being gutted but I couldn't avoid the swift kick that I received immediately after.

'Damn Sanin's...'

I tried and failed to hold on to consciousness as I rolled across the branch and down to the one below.

Everything went black.

"Naruto!"

'Is Naruto in trouble?'

I tried to do something, anything, but my body wouldn't move.

As Sakuras screams echoed through this deadly place I kept trying and failing to regain control of my body.'

How long had I been out for?'

I would never know, because this time a different voice overpowered the young girls.

"You are hurt young one? I'm afraid it would take some time to heal you."

'I don't have time Talon!'

Finally, as my spirit's protests rung through my mind, I was able to open my eyes and witness what had happened while I was knocked out.

Naruto was hanging from a kunai that held the fabric of his clothes in tight against the tree, also out cold. Sakura was still in the same place as before but she was looking down toward Sasuke and Orochimaru who were down on my level.

Sasuke's sharingan was activated and he was trying his best to defend himself.

'At least he's back to himself.'

Orochimaru was proving to be too much for him as the young Uchiha fell to one knee in defeat.

I watched in slow motion as Orochimaru's neck extended out to reach over to my teammate. I had no idea what he was intending on doing to Sasuke but I was going to try to stop it. As Sakura watched Orochimaru in horror, I somehow managed to force my body to pick itself up and run toward the two ninja.

Just as he bit down into Sasuke's skin I yelled out his name and threw my hand up, letting a familiar power surge through my body.

"Fydan Eka!"

The air around my body became cold as ice started to form above my hand. I used the ice to shoot a powerful crystal to my enemy's torso. he turned to avoid the mysterious attack but I managed to clip his right arm.

Sasuke fell to the ground holding his neck, screaming in pain as I kept my eyes on Orochimaru. His arm was cut badly and frozen, rendering it useless. He looked to me with interest before laughing at his own misfortune.

"My my, I have really underestimated you little spy. Where did you get that power?"

I ignored the mans question as I looked back to Sakura, who was holding Sasuke to her body tightly. He'd passed out from the pain. This meant that I was alone in this battle. Sakura wasn't strong enough to fight a Sanin. I looked back to my opponent before speaking to my remaining teammate.

"I need you to listen to me carefully Sakura. I need you to take Sasuke and Naruto, and find somewhere safe to hide them."

"But-" Sakura's voice broke, she was on the brink of tears. I had to make sure that I could buy enough time for her to hide them before I lost this guy.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine. Just be strong and take care of them. When I get back I can heal them."

She hesitated before answering. "Alright..." She lifted Sasuke up as best she could before looking back.

"Please be careful Alai."

'No!'

Orochimaru laughed once more before looking to me. "Alai. Alai Tyiadain. The number one target of the Akatsuki currently. Now I see why you were such a challenge little spy. Your a prize! Although I think I'll call you Ali now. Isn't your dear brother also a target? Though I think his specifics calls for a decapitation. What was his name again? Oh yes... Kalen! Where is he hiding?"

"He isn't here."

"What a shame, it would have been more fun to fight the two of you."

He roared into a cynical fit of laughter as I ignored the Sanin.

"Sakura... I need you to take care of them ok? Make sure they don't get a fever or sick."

"You aren't going to heal them?"

"...I'll find you later on."

"O-Ok..."

"Remember girl, Sasuke will come in search of me for power. He will come in search of Orochimaru." He spoke to Sakura before she left to retrieve our teammates. He made sure she remembered his name.

She cut Naruto down from the tree and dragged the both of them across the forest floor below us as Orochimaru watched me carefully, trying to figure out what I was doing.

"You realize that I'm no longer interested in the Genin team right?"

"From what I understand, you were removed from the Akatsuki. I doubt they would deal with you. They would take me by force from your hideout."

"They will never find out I am in possession of you my dear Ali."

He took a step closer to me as I took a step back. When Sakura gave my name to Orochimaru, I knew that my plan would have to change. I wanted to ask him about the Akatsuki as an anonymous kunoichi looking for revenge on Pein. Now that he knew who I was...

'Sorry Kashi. Looks like I may have lied to you when I said I wasn't leaving.'

"You see if the Akatsuki is after you then there must be something special about you. I intend to find that out. With some experiments that is, you'll be my newest test subject."

I took another step back before being rushed by the Sanin. I was fast enough to place my barrier up before he could get his hands on me. I used the moment he took as a pause to bolt my way through the tree tops.

'I have to get away!'

I tried to zigzag through the forest so he would become confused but he's a freaking Sanin.

It took him no time to catch up, he lunged a kunai past me on the right and a snake that I managed to shoot down with a quickly and accurately drawn arrow.

'I'm in trouble...'

~Sakura~

I heard nothing from Alai or Orochimaru as I put traps around the area where I'd hidden Sasuke and Naruto. They weren't responding to anything and Sasuke was starting to run a fever. Alai wouldn't be able to heal him now, because I had made the mistake of giving her name. But I had to be strong enough to take care of them now.

'My team needs me, Sasuke and Naruto can't help and Alai isn't here. Its up to me.'

~Kakashi~

After I got out of the trap I informed the Hokage and immediately went to the examination room, where Ibiki was looking over the papers from the written portion.

"Morino, how did the first section go?"

He looked up to me with interest before speaking.

"Hasn't Alai told you? The participants should have entered the forest by now."

"Alai is intending on taking on Orochimaru in order to receive information. She planned on entering the Forest of Death without anyone's knowledge."

"WHAT!?" He looked up to my face with shock before continuing. "I could never tell what that girl was thinking..."

"She tricked you didn't she?"

"I knew something was wrong when you weren't with her, but Anko said she found her, I dismissed it."

"Damnit!"

I left then without another word. I couldn't blame Ibiki Morino for not having Alai with him, she always was able to slip past people easily.

'Alai what are you doing?'

Before I could even reach the forest I heard a scream erupt from outside Konoha's boundaries.

Without thinking I changed my course. Orochimaru got to Alai.

~Alai~

It wasn't until we left Konoha behind that Orochimaru had gotten ahold of me. He used some technique that I'd never seen before. I'm not sure how he did it, but he just sort of... appeared in front of me. I tried to spin around him and continue running but he caught on quick and summoned a snake to wrap its body around mine without effort. The snake was quick to bind my hands so I couldn't even call for help.

'So this is only a fraction of the power a Sanin possesses.'

I panicked as I felt my body being dragged toward the snake man. I didn't want to become an experiment of a madman in some foreign land. So I used my last burst of energy to struggle as best as possible before being completely restricted by the snakes muscles. A scream escaped my lips as I looked over to my captor. It was then that I closed my eyes and prayed to the elders before whistling into the density of the empty forest.

'Hopefully Kashi is out here looking for me.'

~?~

"How the hell did they just DISAPPEAR!?" I screamed into the empty tree line, blaming the forest for losing our target.

"Calm down.."

"Calm down? We FINALLY get a lead on this guy who has our info and he sicks his goons on us, THEN they manage to lose us in the woods! Yeah I'll calm down alright."

"Well if you keep yelling. You realize we'll never find them right? They'll just avoid the annoying voice echoing through the trees."

"Yeah yeah fine, jackass!"

"Just focus..."

"Where should we-"

It was then that we heard a loud scream echo through the dense forest. It was definitely a girl from the tone. What worried us was that it was in the direction that we lost the two goons. And we were close to Konoha.

We exchanged a look and decided to check it out, moving silently through the trees. As we got closer to the sound we wondered what could have caused the girl to scream. We just hoped that whoever it was is alright.

We weren't expecting the sound we had heard next but it made us look to each before running faster through the forest.

A high pitched whistle bounced off the tree bark and into our ears.

~!~ So I am playing Tales of Xillia. please tell me someone knows that game?

Sasuke: who cares? it's got nothing to do with this.

DawnxAingeal: SHUT UP ANTI SOCIAL SASUKE!

Sasuke: hn

DawnxAingeal: yeah that's right you 'hn'... Jerk

-Sasuke walks away-

Now that he's gone... Please rate and comment your ideas :) I appreciate them. SEE YOU SOON! hopefully it will be really soon.

~!~-DawnxAingeal