"Come on Naruko… it's not safe here."

"I gotta take a squat!"

That's what I heard from inside the hollow tree where I was tied up by a couple of Kiri ninja. We were in the Forest of Death-the place that was the setting for the second exam. Whoever the ninja was impersonating me wasn't doing a very good job… they were too bubbly! And also the ninja that bound my wrists didn't know that I could just slice the ropes with wind-chakra. However there was one problem with that, which was that I didn't know how I could do it silently. Then I thought back to my training… Cut the leaf… but how could I with the tip of my finger? My palms are too far away, so the only alternative is the tips of my finger.

I tried to give a quick burst wind-chakra to the knot on the rope, and it made a slight sound that was sure to give me away. If they were fast enough to bound and gag me, then they'd be pretty quick to kill me too.

"'Ey, did you hear somethin'?" said the dunderheaded, fat ninja.

"It that bitch?" said the team leader, he looked to me but I gave the most innocent anime face I could give him and he turned back to that cretin teammate of his. "Or was it someone outside? Stay here and watch her! As team leader I'm well equipped to handle that Uchiha boyfriend of hers."

"Okay." she said lumbering over to me. "Can I have some fun with her? Please, Hakumo?"

He gave me a wicked nasty smile. I looked at him teary-eyed anime-style and nearly wanted to plead for my virgin body to stay clean.

"Wait until we separate them…" said the skinny leader, "Go play with her hair. That ought to piss her off while I back up Rika-chan."

The fat perv looked back at me, trying to pull my hair loose from my pigtails.

"Oh look, I can already hear the other bitch scream… good job Rika!"

I did hear someone scream… it was probably Sakura. Skinny perv took off, and I was left to my doom with the fat perv. The fat perv started to pull out a knife and threatened to cut it if he got bored hearing me scream as he pulled my roots out. He started to pull hard on my now undone hair. I screamed aloud, him playing into my act that I was still fully tied up. "What are you going to do to my friends!?"

"What does it look like? We'll kill them, that's what! YAY!"

"You sick-ooooo!" I said, prolonged from what I was saying as he pulled on my roots.

"You need to shut up. Maybe I should start cutting now-ooo!" he said I went to strangle him.

He turned purple and grasped my wrists as I choked him. I didn't want to kill him, so I decided that I'd move my hand downward and quickly press his pressure point in his neck. That's when I ran out and went into the forest to find Sakura after he had passed out.

XXX

"Sakura, Sasuke-kun, where are you?"

I saw the trail of blood leading into the bushes somewhere deeper into the forest and saw the two bodies of my teammates! OH MY GOD! Or, um, at least I thought they were bodies. They appeared to be dead from afar, but on further inspection they were just critically wounded.

"Come on Sakura, wake up and heal us!" I said to her progressively opening eyes. "Sakura! Wake up!"

"Huh…? Ugh! Those guys… they… ugh… got the scroll." she said as she coughed up blood.

"It doesn't matter if you don't get up and heal yourself and Sasuke-kun! I think you're in worse shape. Just heal your wounds and do it quickly so we can get out of here!" I said. She got into the mermaid position and started healing her wounds as quickly as possible.

"Alright now it's time for Sasuke!" we both said.

She turned him over on his belly and we saw the most horrific sight. His chest had a large, deep sword gash on it.

"I don't think I can heal that without stitches! All I have is ninja wire which is metal."

"Cut my hair to mid-length like yours! My hair's outrageously long anyway, but you need to strengthen it permanently with your chakra so we can stitch him up!"

I turned around with my back facing her, "Are you sure, Naruko? You don't want to-" said Sakura.

"Do we have any other choice, dammit? Just make sure you get all of what you need." I said.

"How short?"

"Just enough to live with and as much as you need!"

I felt a big tug on my hair and heard, "Alright, it's cut… now let me save Sasuke-kun!"

Sasuke appeared to be awake now and coughing up blood. It appeared that Sakura's wound was less of a wound than I thought and it was Sasuke who made the trail of blood.

"Oh no…" said Sakura.

"What?" I said.

"His chakra is dangerously low… it's almost like the life was sucked right out of him! He's… he's…" said Sakura, prolonging what she was going to say. She started to cry…

"You don't mean…" I said, looking doubtful even though I knew what she's going to say...

"HE'S GOING TO DIE!"

XXX

Sorry guys for cutting it short. Cliffhangers gotta start happening in this series some time.

Bye!