Recap: Itachi doesn't get the curse mark, surprisingly, but Orochimaru's men are still chasing him down. One thing Itachi did get was a better sharigan! Yay! and Shisu came! We all love Shisu! And I still suck at recaps.

Guest: I'm working on that I don't like how Sakura is at the moment, change can be a little tough though.

Chapter 7: The power of the Uchiha

XxxxxXxxx

"Hey, brother!"

"Yeah?"

Sasuke walked over to Itachi. "What is this?"

Itachi pointed to a section on an old scroll, he took a closer look at it. "...It's the great Uchiha weapon; Susanoo. Only Uchiha powerful enough can obtain such prowess."

"How can I get that ?"

"The only way to obtain such powers is to..."

"Hate."

XxxxxXxxx

Sakura struggled to find her words. "But...why are you...protecting me?"

"I won't let you be the only one who gets to look good in front of Itachi-kun!" Ino said.

"More insects, interesting." Dosu said in a creepy voice.

"Arghh...what're you two thinking? This is too rash!" Choji yelled, he tried to run away, but Shikamaru grasped tightly onto his scarf. "Shikamaru let go of my scarf! I'm not a dog!"

"Forget it! You can't run away and leave Ino to fend for herself, idiot!"

Ino smirked. "I'm sorry to get you all wrapped up in this, but we are a team after all."

"Yeah I know."

Zaku crossed his arms. "If you're so scared, then just run away, fatty." He encouraged.

Choji stopped struggling and glared at Zaku. "What did you say, I don't think I could hear you."

"Huh? What the hell?!"

"That word is a taboo word for Choji," Shikamaru explained. "If I were you I wouldn't say it twice or-"

"Oh if that's the case, then I said you can run way, FATASS!"

"DAMMIT!" Choji yelled, several veins popping out. "I AM NOT A FATASS! I'M JUST CHUBBY!" He pumped his fist in the air. "YEAH, I'M CHUBBY! LET'S DO THIS LEAF VS. SOUND!"

Shikamaru let go of his scarf. 'This is gonna be so...troublesome.'

"Here we go." Zaku eye's glazed over to Sakura. 'What a pain...we were supposed to bring Itachi-kun to Oro-sama before the end of the exams, but it looks like that'll have to run over...'

Sakura got onto her feet and cautiously walked towards Naruto and Itachi. "Sakura..." She turned her head around.

"Ino..."

"Take of them."

Sakura smiled. "I will!"

"Alright here we go! INO'S TEAM LET'S DO IT!" Ino yelled. "YEAH! INO-SHIKA-CHO formation!"

Choji did several hand seals. "Multi-size technique!" His body suddenly expanded to a giant ball.

*This jutsu basically expands your body, or different/singular parts of your body as well*

"Next, human bullet tank!" Choji squeezed in his head, feet, and hands, giving him the appearance of a boulder.

Choji rolled towards Zaku, he smashed into the ground, making dirt particles fly everywhere. Zaku held out his hand and prepared to do another air slicing blast. Just before their jutsu could collide, Dosu started running over to Zaku.

Shikamaru weaved a hand sign. "Shadow imitation technique!"

*This jutsu stops people...well that's what it does. And it controls the person. There is however a time limit.*

'My body! That kid did something...' "Dammit, I can't move!" Dosu's shadow was successfully trapped, disallowing him to move.

Just before Choji could hit Zaku, he dodged just in time. Dosu, on the other hand, was still trapped in Shikamaru's jutsu. Kin looked back to see that Dosu, for some reason, was placing his hands on his head. "Dosu, what're you doing?!" Kin yelled.

"He's controlling me somehow?!"

"Ino!" Shikamaru yelled. "Getting the girl would be nice!"

Ino nodded and made a hand seal, she looked back to Shikamaru. "Take care of my body!"

"Right!"

"Mind body switch technique!" Ino's body collapsed making her vulnerable.

*This jutsu allows you to briefly control someone and their actions, the downsides, however, are dire.*

Choji stopped spinning and returned back to his original form. "...ugh...so dizzy..."

"If you guys move an inch, I'll kill Kin!" Ino threatened, a kunai at Kin's neck. "Just give up your scroll and leave, then I'll let her go."

"Ino, watch out!" Sakura yelled.

Zaku smirked and directed his hand at Kin. "Like I give a damn!" Without remorse, Zaku blasted Kin into a tree. Worriedly, Shikamaru looked back to see blood dripping from the side of Ino's mouth. "Ino!"

'These guys, they're hurting their own comrade. What creeps.' Ino thought to herself barely getting up on her two feet.

"Idiots, we don't care about the damn scrolls or completing these exams safely." Zaku explained.

"We care only to capture Itachi-kun." Dosu added.

'Damn! This jutsu reached its limit...!' Shikamaru could no longer hold the shadow and Dosu was released.

"So," Dosu examined, finally free to control his body. "This jutsu only last around...five minutes?" He turned to Kin. "And that's a possession jutsu isn't it, but I see it has a drawback."

Dosu rolled out his sleeve and pointed it at Kin. "Killing Kin will also kill the girl, won't it?Too bad, Kin should've been more useful."

"CUT IT OUT!"

Dosu turned around, there he saw two new shinobi; Neji along with Tenten. "You lowlife sound ninjas are despicable, trying to bully these weak ninjas and then declaring a victory over them?" Neji said. "You've made a mistake."

"Lee..." Tenten started to say, seeing his condition.

'That must be Lee's team!' Sakura thought to herself.

Neji continued. "Since you knocked out one of our own teammates, we'll just return the favor!" With that, Neji awakened his special eye prowess and got into a fighting stance.

"...It's like seeing through his eyes!" Dosu said, shocked as well.

"Take on more step, I will not hesitate to fight you..." Neji sensed a strong amount of chakra. 'Wait...What is this chakra...?'

"Stop acting so high mighty and fight already!" Dosu challenged.

Neji loosened his stance. "That won't be necessary."

OoO

"You're opponent is now me."

Sakura swung her head around, Itachi was slowly getting up. "Itachi-kun! You're awake, again!"

Ino sensed something off about Itachi. "Wait...Itachi-kun?"

Once Itachi was finally up, a giant blood-orange skeleton coiled around him. Slowly, he opened up his eyes, revealing the Mangeykō sharigan. Looking back, he saw the horrible state Sakura was in. "Sakura, who hurt you?" Itachi asked.

"Itachi-kun! I...I..."

Itachi's expression darkened. "Answer my question, Sakura."

"What is this power?" Dasu wondered aloud. "No wonder Orochimaru-sama wants him, this is..."

Zaku cracked his neck and smirked. "We did."

Sakura watched in complete terror as Itachi's outer skeleton enlarged to monstrous heights. "Itachi-kun your body..."

"It's incomplete."

No one said anything, except for Shikamaru. "Ino, Choji let's go this is bad!" Shikamaru grabbed Ino as she released the jutsu and they hid behind a bush,

Dosu stood there, petrified. 'Is this the kid's power...he's...he's better than master himself.'

Zaku, despite everything, held both of his hands out, ready for a full attack. "Don't be scared Dosu, this guy is just a weakling!" Zaku yelled, he shifted himself towards Itachi.

"Zaku no! You Idiot!"

"ARE YOU PREPARED TO DIE, ITA-"

Itachi pulled back into a stance, as if he was ready to release an arrow. "There isn't anytime for you to be talking."

Before Zaku could release his attack, a giant fiery arrow pierced straight through his chest. "Dam-" Zaku fell down onto his knees as he vomited up his own blood.

"Zaku!"

Itachi's Susanoo hands shot straight towards Zaku and grabbed him. Slowly, Itachi began slowly clenching his fist, making the grasp on Zaku tighter and tighter.

XxxxxXxxx

Flashback...

Shisu crouched down, he held out several kunai knives "Are you ready for another technique?" He stuck one in the dirt and threw another kunai into a tree. "I've tied a wire string connecting the two kunai together, with mastery of this technique, you ca-"

"Shisu-san." Itachi suddenly said.

"Yes, what is it?"

"...Can you teach me how to...hate? If I have hatred, then I can grow more useful."

"Hate? Who taught you that?"

"My brother."

'...of course, Sasuke is such a horrible brother.' "Itachi, how can you protect everyone if you have hatred? The only way to grow strong is to..."

"Love."

XxxxxXxxx

His Susanoo started to disperse as pieces of bone started falling on the ground.

"Itachi-kun..." Sakura tightly hugged Itachi just before he could kill Zaku.

"...!" Itachi's arms fell to his side. '...is it really true Shisu-san?'

"Sakura..."

Itachi's orignal eyes returned, making the entire Susanoo disappear all at once. Sakura clung onto Itachi even tighter, her voice grew softer as she leaned in closer. "...Do you know how much it hurts me to see you like...this?"

'...Can we all grow strong if we just...loved?'

Kin ran over to Dosu as he picked up Zaku. Not saying another word, the three sound shinobi ran away, but, before they got too far away, Zaku managed to take one last look at Itachi.

'Why did you miss my vital spot...Itachi? After all of this...you choose to spare me.'

OoO

"Thank-you, Sakura."

"...are you...hurt?"

"It never once mattered to me if I got hurt or not, but is everyone el-"

"But..." Sakura repeated. "Are you hurt?"

Itachi turned back and stared at Sakura's eyes, they were so, sincere. "...I'm...fine."

"That's all I ever wanted to hear..."

Shikamaru was already out of the bushes since things calmed down, he looked over to Naruto. "Well, we're pretty much ok, for the most part, how's Naruto?" Shikamaru asked.

Itachi and Sakura walked over to Naruto. "...what's his condition, Sakura?"

"He-he! Sakura-chan, I'll be your hero any day!" Naruto mumbled, still asleep.

Sakura groaned. "He's fine."

The rest of Team ten walked over to Naruto. "What now? Kick him or something?" Shikamaru said.

"Allow me." Choji offered.

Naruto's dream...

"Naruto-kun, save me!"

Naruto stood in front of Sakura as Orochimaru ran over to them. "Never fear Sakura-chan, I got your back!"

Itachi's weasel ears twitched. "Hey! That's my line, dosu!"

"Not any more! I'm the hero, alright!"

Itachi walked over to Orochimaru. "That's fine, I'll just leave the village, dosu." Itachi stuck his tongue out. "How do you like that?!"

Naruto's position loosened and he dropped his kunai. "Wait you're...leaving the...villag-"

*GAAHHH*

OoO

A large bump had swollen on Naruto's head, he looked up and saw Choji with a club in his hand. *vein pops* "HEYYYY! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT F-" Naruto looked around. "Wait...where's the snake dude?"

Naruto got into a crouching position. "Everyone hide! Go, go, go!"

'Great, the idiot is awake...' Ino thought as she lugged Lee around.

Naruto felt a poke on his bump. "AHHHHHH!" Naruto quickly turned his head around, only to see Itachi poking his bump. "Wh-what're you doing?!"

"Hm, perhaps Choji hit you too hard..."

"You're the one and only Naruto, that's for sure." Shikamaru sighed, hands in his pockets.

"Huh?"

"All you do is give me a headache."

Naruto quickly stood up, seeing as they're was no danger and all. "Sakura-chan!"

"..." Itachi desolated from the group and started to pack up everyone's belongings, they were leaving soon enough.

Naruto ran up to Sakura. "Sakura-chan! Your hair!"

Sakura brushed through her hair. "Just a new style, just I to try something...new."

Itachi stood up. 'I can only wonder...'

"I prefer it longer," Sakura continued. "but in the forest ,it gets hard to manage..."

"Ah, I get it."

Naruto noticed Shikamaru and Choji were still here. "Oh...yeah, why are you guys here anyways?"

"It would be a drag to explain, so I'll leave it at that."

"...Actually...everyone came to save us." Sakura said, she glanced at Ino who nodded in agreement.

Ino smiled. 'Still hiding her feelings, huh.'

Tenten jumped down and headed to Ino and Lee. "Let me wake up Lee." Ino gave Lee to her and she shook the sense back into him. "Wake up Lee! Snap out of it!"

Lee's eyes eventually opened up, barely he could make out one of his fellow teammates; Tenten. "Uh...Tenten why are you...here?"

"We came to save you."

Lee looked around. "Where are the sound nin?"

"The Itachi guy he drove them off."

"Oh, I see..."

"Why did you break the plan and fight alone Lee, see now you're all beaten up." She scolded

"I know, but Sakura-San was in trouble."

Tenten sighed. "That was still idiotic you know."

"Yeah, I know."

Naruto ran up to Tenten and Lee. "Bushy bro-!"

Sakura punched Naruto in the face. "Don't be so rude to Lee-san!" She yelled.

"Huh?...The hell happened while I was asleep?" Naruto mumbled.

"He's so clueless." Shikamaru bluntly stated.

"Yeah, I don't think he would ever be the main character of anything." Choji added.

Sakura smiled at Lee. "Thank you Lee-san, I think I've gotten a little stronger because of you."

A waterfall of tears rolled down Lee's face as he grinned. "You're welcome Sakura-san!" He looked over to Itachi who was as always, distant from everyone. "The Uchiha clan is better than I thought, you drove off the sound nin and you have my thanks. Me on the other hand, well, I got my butt kicked."

"Is that so? Hm, you must of lasted a long time while I was out so you've earned my respect, Lee-kun."

"Ha, ha! That's awesome!" Lee turned to Sakura. "The leaf lotus blooms twice Sakura-san, next we meet I'll be stronger. That is my promise!"

"Yeah you will!" Sakura agreed.

"Hey Sakura!" Ino called out. "Let me straighten your hair."

"Well if you want to!"

While Ino did Sakura's hair, Neji, who was still up in the trees, closely watched Itachi. 'Uchiha Itachi; with powers never before seen in the leaf. He'll be quite the opponent.'

Anko...

-Day 1: Ten hours ago-

"..." Anko clenched her neck just as the ANBU hand finally arrived.

The ANBU with the bird mask was shocked. "The curse mark! How is that possible?!"

"Orochimaru..." She slowly answered.

"...we'll have to take you the Hokage then..."

Anko whipped her head. "No, take me to the tower!"

"Are you crazy? The Martial law states that if Orochimaru were to ever come back, then the exams are immediately over."

"I'll explain it to you later at the tower, bring the Hokage too."

OoO

Anko lounged on the an uncomfortable couch, she still felt the throbbing pain of the curse mark. "I know things are bad," She admitted. "but, no matter what, we can't stop the exams!"

"Why?" An ANBU asked.

"Because-"

Right as she was Anko to explain, the door swung wide open and chūnin burst through the doorway. "Anko-san! We have important news! It's urgent!" The guy yelled.

"Ugh...what is it now?"

He held out a tape. "Take a look for yourself."

"A video?"

Anko slid the tape in and everyone watched the TV for any sign of conundrum, as soon as a group of genin passed through, the chūnin pointed at the time slot. "Look at the time!"

"The recording's an hour and 37 minutes."

Anko was shocked. "The three shinobi from the sand village passed the second test. Unbelievable, in 97 minutes."

"No one has ever passed the test so quickly." He explained. "These guys aren't at a genin level." He concluded. "At least not to destroy the record of four hours."

"That's not just it." Anko said. "From here to the entrance that's 10 km and they faced through the violent animals, harsh terrain, competitors, all as if that was nothing." *6 miles*

The video stayed paused at Gaara. "Especially the red-haired kid." Anko added.

"Hm what's so special about him?"

"It's really noticeable. Look at his body."

"...Oh I see now."

Anko looked out of a window. "Not a single scratch or a noticeable speck of dirt on his clothes." 'For any chūnin going from the entrance to here, spotless no-less, is impossible...'

Team 8...

-Day 1: 50 minutes after start-

"YAHOO! This is the survival life!" Kiba yelled as the team jumped from tree limb to tree limb. "Heh, right Akamaru?"

"Arf!" Akamaru barked in agreement.

"What luck! Those dumbasses we caught had the earth scroll and at this rate, we'll be the first ones!"

"Let's calm down and keep quiet." Shino muttered. "We don't want the enemy to hear us." Shino continued. "Even the smallest insects, in order to-"

"Gah! I know that!" Kiba cut in. "Why do you keep on talking about bugs, yeesh it's annoying! You aren't the boss you know!"

"...but um Shino-kun does make a good point." Hinata piped up.

"Ok-ok!"

Hinata stared at the ground below them. 'I hope Naruto-kun is...ok.'

Kiba's nose caught a waft of something. "Wait! Hold it!"

"Since everyone said we should be so cautious about our enemy, then I want you, Hinata, to look one km that way." Kiba ordered. *1km=abt 1,000 yards*

"Right!" Hinata looked in the direction given. 'Byakugan!' With her eye prowess, Hinata could see a shinobi with red hair carrying a giant gourd. "It looks like there's a fight going on." She said.

Shino pressed his ears against the tree limb they were on. "Six I would say."

"Heh, let's go check it out." Kiba said.

"What?! That's not a good choice."

"Huh?!"

"Examiner said to bring one heaven, one earth scroll. She never said we couldn't bring more, besides it'll eliminate the competition." Kiba explained.

"B-but..." Hinata started to stammer.

"Relax. We'll just check it out and if it looks bad we won't fight. Now let's move!"

OoO

Once Team eight finally got there, they hid behind a group of bushes and peered at the fight, it was clearly bad, so bad that Akamaru had begun shaking. Kiba brushed through Akamaru's fur. 'Damn...those ninja have Akamaru that spooked?'

Three rain-nin stood before the sand siblings, Gaara's emotionless eyes looked at the rain-nin as if he wanted to rip out their organs and bathe in their blood remains.

"You're going to die!" The leader rain-nin stated.

"Enough with this talk, old man." Gaara said. "Let's fight."

'We don't know if their scroll was taken or which scroll it is.' Kankurō, Gaara's older brother, stepped in. "Without some information Gaara, fighting them is pointless."

"It doesn't matter. Those who have met my eyes all must die."

Kankurō gritted his teeth in frustration. 'Hardheaded little brother, I knew we shouldn't have done this.'

One of the rain-nin threw several umbrellas up into the sky. "Raining needles technique!" He yelled, the umbrella as said, began raining needles.

"You can't escape from these needles, I control them with my chakra!"

Without moving an inch, the sand surrounded Gaara and protected him from the needles from all sides. "Is that it?"

Kankurō crossed his arms and smirked. 'Gaara's the wrong guy to pick a fight with, that's for sure.'

"...!"

"That's all you have? If you're going to make it rain needles, then I'll make it rain blood." Gaara sinisterly hissed.

Kiba, Hinata, and Shino were all stunned. Kiba clenched his fist. 'Those needles at that speed should've been able to pierce through steel.'

Gaara made a single hand sign. "Sand coffin!" The sand rushed towards their leader and slowly engulfed him. He picked up one of the umbrellas.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

"I could just cover your mouth and suffocate you." Gaara suggested, he opened up his palms. "But that's too pitiful."

Gaara's fingers came closer and closer until it was a full fist. "Desert graveyard!" The sand, crushed the rain-nin making blood literally rain down all over the terrain. Gaara opened up the umbrella as blood rained down.

"He didn't suffer because I killed him instantly." His sand crawled back into the gourd. "When blood mixes with the sand it grants the user more power." He explained to the two remaining rain-nin.

The shorter rain-nin rolled them a heaven scroll. "P-please," He stuttered. "d-don't kill us. Here's our scroll."

The ground rumbled, and more of Gaara's sand wrapped around their bodies, eventually engulfing them. Gaara held out his hands and just like he did with their leader and started to slowly close his hands to make a fist. "Wait stop!" The ninja pleaded but alas.

Temari waved her hand. "See ya!"

Gaara squeezed his fist shut and even more blood rained down.

"Come on! Dammit we gotta go!" Kiba whispered.

A heaven scroll rolled to Kankurō's foot. "What luck," he picked up the scroll. "It's a heaven scroll."

"Good, we can head to the towe-."

"Shut up." Gaara hissed.

"Hm?"

"I want to kill more!"

"No, let's stop, Gaara."

"Coward!"

"Gaara I know you're fine and all, but we're not!" Kankurō argued. "We're set, any more scrolls are futile."

"Don't tell me what to do, you worthless piece of shit."

"Listen to your big brother for once!"

"I never thought of any of you as my siblings and if need be, I wouldn't hesitate to kill you."

Temari, Gaara's older sister, decided to step in. "Now, now.,Gaara. We shouldn't say hurtful things alright, listen to your big sis, okay?"

Gaara held out his hand, everyone panicked. Thankfully however, only a small sand cork appeared. "Fine."

OoO

"These guys," Kiba said. "...they're super dangerous."

"Weeee!" Akamaru squealed in agreement.

Team 7...

-Current time-

Team seven had found themselves at a waterfall with a surrounding rocky coast, their time for the second phase was limited.

"Shadow clone technique!" Naruto yelled as he jumped off into the water. Itachi was on the rocky ledge, with three kunai between his fingers, as Naruto flung the fish up, Itachi threw the kunai knife at them. Sticking them into a tree.

"Hey Itachi-kun, it's set, we just need a fire!" Sakura called out.

Itachi walked back to set on fire. "Fire release: Minimal fireball technique!" A small burst of fire spewed from Itachi's mouth and lit the pile of dry branches.

"Finally!" Naruto got out of the water and sat by the warm fire to dry off.

"This is the fourth afternoon we've been here..." Itachi started to say

"Yeah...?" Sakura said.

"So...let's see if we started at around 2:30 P.M., then that would leave us with only a little more than a day to get the remaining scroll and head to the tower." Itachi turned his head. "And we aren't that close to the tower."

"That means...many teams have already passed..."

'And...that's the biggest one!' Naruto on the other hand wasn't worried about that. "Come on fish, cook faster!"

Itachi took out an earth scroll they managed to find. "...This isn't good."

OoO

Team Shibire were still on the edges of the forest, only one scroll and no hope. "Not only have most of the teams passed by now, but it's already the fourth day." Minoji sighed.

Tanzō abruptly stood up. "It's almost noon," He began walking away. "I'll go get some food, you guys rest up."

"Yeah ok..." Shibire mumbled, he slumped on a tree. "Hey..."

Minoji turned his head. "Hm?"

"The heaven scrolls have white edges on them right and had the heaven character written on it, right?"

"I would think so, but I don't really remember, why?"

Shibire grinned.

"Hey...you aren't gonna..."

OoO

Everyone, except Sakura, was munching on their cooked fish, Sakura was worried. "There could be...no more heaven scrolls left..." She wondered out loud. "...So there's 78 entrants, 26 teams, and only 13 scrolls.

Itachi calculated the math. "Right, so the highest amount of teams that can pass are only 13." "But..." Itachi recalled. "Orochimaru burned the heaven scroll, rendering the earth scroll useless. It can only be a pair."

"Exactly. That means the amount of teams that can pass are now only 12."

"We also can't be sure though if all they're are other scrolls damaged, if only about 20% of the people are remaining during this test, then each time a scroll is destroyed, our chances are slimmer and slimmer."

"After parting ways with our leaf comrades, it took us two days to heal. We have to be more active. After today, it's our last day and our only chance."

Naruto watched Sakura and Itachi go back and forth. 'Man, smart people talk...I don't get any of it...'

Itachi sighed as he slowly stood up. "Since we have time, I might as well get some water. And..." Itachi turned on his sharigan and glared at Naruto. "If you open that scroll, I'll personally murder you."

Naruto's face drained of color, he squeaked his head. "O-ok!"

With that, Itachi disappeared with a water canteen.

'...man, Itachi sure is scary...' With the coast clear, Naruto leaned in and dumped the contents of his bag out. "Hey Sakura-chan,"

"What is it now?"

Naruto's face was dead serious. "I have plenty of scrolls, we just have to change one to look like a heaven scroll." He explained.

"They aren't stupid, Naruto." Sakura sighed. "Since we don't have a heaven scroll, how will we know what it looks like?"

"...maybe these things have like a password or something..."

Naruto thought up of something. "Yeah I bet that's it, these things probably have passwords to them and you have to read them the passwords in order to pass."

"So what! If we don't know what's on the inside, it's meaningless!" 'What a moron...looks like his serious face fooled me...'

"And the only way to know is to...I'm gonna open this, maybe it'll give us a clue about the password for the heaven scroll. With your big brain I'm sure we can figure it out together!"

"Naruto, no! Itachi said he would..." Sakura's skin crawled. "Personally murder you."

"Forget it, Sakura-chan, Itachi says a hella lot of things, besides, he's probably just trying to scare us."

"I guess you're right..."

"I'm always right!" Naruto delicately started to unravel the scroll. "Besides, what's the worst that could happen?"

OoO

Tanzō heard a scream coming from his group and he ran back, much to his dismay, they were both knocked out, next to them was an opened scroll.

"Did they...yes, they opened the scroll."

OoO

Naruto was almost done unwrapping the scroll. "Almost th-"

"STOP!" A gloved hand tightly wrapped around the scroll.

"AHHHHHHHH! ITACHI, DONT'T KILL ME! I SWEAR IT WAS AN-"

"What're you talking about?" Itachi asked. Naruto slowly looked up, surprisingly Itachi was in front of him with a canteen full of water in hand.

"If you're not Itachi then..." Naruto looked behind him to see none other than Kabuto. "Don't you remember the rules?" He asked. "You cannot open up the scrolls!"

"That wasn't the best choice you guys made..." Itachi scolded. 'Perhaps using fear to control someone is useless.'

"We're sorry." Both Sakura and Naruto apologized as their heads sunk lower.

"Shinobi who break the rules," Kabuto explained. "Are subdued to failing the exams. There's a hypnotism jutsu on the scrolls, if you opened it all the way, you would've been knocked out until the end of the exams."

"Kabuto is it, why are you out here alone?" Itachi asked.

"I'm not after your scroll Itachi."

"I know that, but does it means you're after the heaven scroll?"

"No I have both," Kabuto showed them his scrolls. "I just got separated with my teammates, but I'm heading towards the tower."

'I know what you're expecting me to do, Kabuto, but attacking you straight on won't help me to get closer to you.' "Thank you, Kabuto for helping us," He turned to the team. "Let's head to the tower, I'm sure we'll have a chance to get a heaven scroll."

"Wait," Kabuto cut off. "let me help your team, Itachi,"

'You're trying to get information on me, aren't you? Then this will be the perfect chance for me to do the same.'

Kabuto shifted his glasses. "Most people of your clan would've attacked me and tried to steal my scrolls by now, but not you. I want to help you on the right path."

"Then in that case, we accept your offer."

Naruto grinned. 'Man, this guy is super nice!'

OoO

Team seven along with Kabuto jumped through the trees, night was approaching fast and the second test was ending soon.

"Everyone knows the tactic, right?" Itachi asked as they were closing in on the tower.

"Could ya' go over it again?" Naruto asked. "I already know it, I just...uh...wanna make sure you do!" He quickly added.

"Everyone who has both their scrolls will be heading towards the tower, right?"

"Uh-huh!"

"Well, we can ambush them from there, however,, other teams will be present as well and of course you can expect traps set up."

"Oh yeah! I've been itching for another fight! From now on, things are getting extra juicy!"

A/N: Day 7 of my re-edits, if you're reading this on July 18th, as always, wait a damn day or two so I can update the chapters.

Old news: Fast update? I know. I've had much free time lately.

So gradually you can tell the story is slightly shifting I didn't want it to be the same exact thing only you replace Sasuke with Itachi. This is going to change, especially the fact that the Itachi isn't subdued to the curse of hatred or isn't focused on revenge rather on his team. Next chapter. The fight sequence from now on is changed.