Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto...

Chapter 6 – The exam continues…

Naruto crossed his fingers and thought, 'Shadow clone.' Ten new Narutos appeared in the clearing. He pulled out a kunai and his copies did the same. Sakura began to tremble at how serious Naruto was being. All the clones suddenly disappeared in clouds of smoke while Naruto cried out in pain. He scowled and was surrounded by at least a dozen senbon. He also had at least four stuck in him at various locations. He then began to run through hand seals only to be struck by a gust of wind, throwing him clear of the clearing.

A sinister voice that ran chills down Sakura's spine began to speak. "Now that the annoying brat is taken care of, hand over you scroll," a defiantly feminine voice ordered.

Sasuke grabbed Sakura and pulled her towards where Naruto flew off towards. A chuckle was heard. "My, my they run like little rats," a female with a Grass headband said to her two companions.

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Naruto was finally able to right himself before he slammed into a tree. He sighed and then said, "Great I still need to get the hand seals down quicker." He jumped down the ground and then closed his eyes. He suddenly brought his kunai up and blocked two swords.

"Lucky, lucky… we have you all alone," a voice said.

Naruto opened his eyes to see that he had blocked two swords. He turned his kunai and then spun around to his right. He was able to embed one of his kunai in the Rain shinobi closest to himself. The man screamed and jumped off. Naruto smiled and pulled out new kunai to replace the lost one. The man's eyes appeared to be quite angry. "You should just resolve yourself to dying at our hands, Konoha scum," he exclaimed.

Naruto pouted and replied, "But I was having so much fun… Maybe Zabuza-sensei will reward me if I get my tenth, eleventh and twelfth kills?" Knowing full well that Zabuza's body had been burned and then buried out at sea and only his sword was left as a memorial.

The guy's eyes widened at the mention of the Demon of the Mist. This was enough for Naruto to push past the man's defense and push the kunai into the man's left lung and graze the heart. Naruto watched as the man collapsed and dropped his sword. Naruto turned to a specific tree and said, "If you don't want him to die I would surrender now, because I know where you are and will spare your lives on the condition that you give me all scrolls that you obtained so far. I might even help heal him a little bit so you can continue and pester other teams."

"How do we know we can trust you?" a voice asked from the tree he was looking at.

"If you want your friend to live, you don't have a choice," Naruto replied.

"Are you a sensor type," the voice asked.

"No… I'm the Easter bunny here to give you colored eggs. What do you think, idiot?" he replied angrily. He then looked down at the man on the ground and said, "I would guess that you have about twenty minutes until the slice I gave to his heart will finally give way and he will die from hypertension and blood lose." He then turned and saw a scroll coming towards him. He raised his hand and caught the scroll. He then sighed and grabbed the seal and crushed it, causing the bomb tag to fizzle. He then whispered, "Idiot." "You just killed yourself and your team."

The injured and another man jumped at Naruto. Naruto sighed and ran through several hand seals. He then grabbed a couple kunai from his pouch as he whispered, "Wind style: Great break through."

He tossed the kunai in front of his jutsu and it took the kunai straight into the two charging Rain shinobi. The men were blown back into the tree, but were both about three feet above the ground. They then looked down at their chest and found a hole there and felt themselves being held up on the tree in their backs. One of them managed to whisper out, "How?"

"Know thy enemy, know thyself and victory is assured, but if you don't know go with overkill," Naruto replied and tilted his head with a smile. He then said, "I would have let you go, but you pushed the issue, but thanks for the scroll and the supplies."

Naruto sadly watched as the two on the tree expired. He then rummaged through their stuff and took what he deemed as valuable and left the bodies after a small prayer. He then jumped off where he felt a larger chakra signature along with those of his teammates.

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Sasuke was sweating and Sakura was barely holding on to consciousness at the killing intent that was coming off the Grass genin. 'This can't be a genin,' Sasuke thought to himself. He grabbed several shuriken and threw them at their assailant.

The woman smiled and said, "So the boy has some teeth after all." The woman suddenly disappeared as the shuriken reached her. She reappeared in front of Sasuke and kicked him and Sakura to the side with a fiendish laugh. She then said, "Let's have some fun, why don't we?"

The next several minutes were filled with the Grass genin kicking the pair around a clearing. She finally stopped when a chill ran down her spine and her compatriots fell out of the canopy with their faces blued with death, but their lips were a dark bluish purple, as if they had been frozen to death. She then jumped back as a kunai with three explosive notes tied it landed in front of her. The notes went off and then the woman standing a distance away began to laugh. "This little game is getting interesting," she said to no one in particular.

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Naruto and his clones lay his teammates out and began to check them for injuries. Sakura glared at Naruto as his hands moved over her chest, but she then winced when he touched a rib. She knew better than to complain, since he we basically the medic for the team right now. She knew that he wasn't groping her because of the way he didn't seem to enjoy touching her breast through the fabric. He sighed and then said, "Well, Sakura, you basically have a cracked rib and a sprained wrist."

She glared at him and asked angrily, "So how are my breasts?"

Naruto replied while checking out Sasuke, "You pulled your left pectoral muscle. Otherwise I wouldn't worry."

She was shocked and asked, "But you were groping me."

Naruto shook his head and replied, "If I were groping I would have squeezed your nipple instead of using my fingers to go through the tissue to feel the muscle. Wish I knew diagnostic jutsu so I could give a better conclusion of what I find. Otherwise, I would say you are a girl and I have no interest in feeling you up, sorry. You can have Sasuke do that now if you like, since he is just bruised. We need to avoid that lady if at all possible."

Sakura blushed at his statement, but then asked, "How did you find us, since we were so far from our original position."

Naruto sighed and replied, "I'm a sensor type, and the funny thing is that until Haku-chan, I never sat down and really learned to feel what was around me. I can tell where people are right now. We're about one hundred yards from another team, but they are hurt and one of them is about to either die or pass out from chakra exhaustion."

"What about that woman?" Sakura asked worriedly.

"She is quite a ways away. I'm also taking both of the scrolls," Naruto said as he pulled their scroll form the unconscious Uchiha.

"Both?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah, ran into a team of Rain shinobi when that lady blew me away from you guys," Naruto explained, while he poured some water down Sasuke's throat.

She looked worriedly at Naruto and asked, "Y-you didn't kill them did you?"

Naruto sighed and replied, "I tried not to, but they gave me no choice, since it was three to one odds and I gave them a chance to withdraw."

Sakura shuddered and looked worriedly at Naruto. 'He doesn't seem to be disturbed by killing,' she thought. She then looked at Sasuke and asked, "Is he going to be okay?"

Naruto nodded and replied, "Yeah, he is just exhausted. We need to toughen you both up." His joke wasn't well received. He then lay against a tree and closed his eyes.

Sakura looked at her teammate in awe.

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Haku sighed as she set the last of the third team that had attacked he team in the bushes. Her teammates had already given her accolades for her keeping them one alive and two getting them more scrolls. She then sighed at the third marriage proposal from her teammates. She couldn't tell the boy that she was already married at the moment, but just pushed their enthusiasm aside and tried to figure out where her husband was. She could feel his chakra beacon, since they had worked on his sensing ability. The big problem was that they were quite a ways apart and she was exhausted. The team set up camp and readied themselves for the night.

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Naruto suddenly sprung up and exclaimed, "Shit! She's back!"

This put both of his teammates on alert. They then heard laughter coming from all around them, but Naruto kept his eyes fixed on a certain direction. "Ho, ho. You are a sensor. I think I will enjoy this, Naruto-kun," the voice said. Naruto quickly pulled out his kunai and turned to block an attack. Sasuke and Sakura were in awe of the speed at which Naruto had blocked the Grass shinobi. She then said, "You have progressed some, Naruto-kun. Now feel the full weight of my power!"

Naruto turned to accept the attack, but Sasuke and Sakura both fell the ground under the pressure of the killing intent let loose by this 'genin'. Naruto's eyes flashed purple, but it wasn't noticed in the low light levels. Naruto threw caution to the wind and extended a palm forward. A gust of wind impacted the Grass shinobi, throwing her back. Naruto was breathing hard from this exertion.

The enemy got up and brushed off her outfit and said, "Seal-less jutsu. I'm impressed, but you're still not on my level."

Naruto dropped one of his kunai and began to do one handed seals. He then opened his mouth and shot out several water bullets at the attacking shinobi, to no avail. Naruto was sent into the trees courtesy of a kick from the Grass shinobi. She then said, "Bye, bye, troublemaker." She then clapped her hands and said, "Now to have some fun with you, Sasuke-kun."

Sakura watched in awe as Sasuke was able to keep up with this genin, and eventually burn the woman. That was when she noticed something wrong, the face of the woman was burned off and she saw a man's face that ghostly white. The man broke the wires that Sasuke had wrapped him in and sent the fire that had burned off the face, like they were string. The man seemed happy that Sasuke was able to fight him at a sufficient level. Sasuke had reached his limit when Sakura had finally decided try to help. She began to throw shuriken and kunai with abandon. The man watched in fascination as the girl was doing something that was basically impossible for her abilities. She missed, but she tried. She asked, "Who are you?"

"Why little bird, I'm Orochimaru, the snake that will swallow Konoha whole, but time for me to leave, but not before I leave a parting gift," he explained, while standing above an unconscious Sasuke Uchiha. He bent over and bit him on the neck. He then jumped back when a huge eye slammed into where Orochimaru had been. The eye broke into pieces and fell towards the ground below. He chuckled and said, "You're too late and now he will seek me out, but first to deal with you pest." He jumped up from the branch he was on and hit Naruto in the stomach. Sakura watched as Naruto's face contorted in pain and lack of breath. He then threw Naruto towards the ground, which was another fifty feet below her.

A figure suddenly appeared and caught Naruto, arresting his plummet to a certain doom. Sakura looked relieved when she saw Haku and her team looking up at Orochimaru. The man laughed and then jumped away.

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The two teams had set up camp inside of a large root system below one of the huge trees. Haku lay against the side of the 'cave' with Naruto held close to her. She had examined both Naruto and Sasuke, finding that that both were exhausted.

Sakura watched Haku and at the look of worry written all over her face. Gennai entered the 'cave' and said, "Traps are set and we should know if anyone comes close." A string pulled a stick and Gennai smiled, "We have guests, but we can wait for them to come to us, since this place is defensible. Haku-san, we are at your disposal."

Haku nodded and smiled warmly at her teammates. She then looked back down at the boy in her arms. She wasn't quite sure what Orochimaru had done to him, but it had thrown his system out of balance and that is saying a lot for him. She then looked over at the Uchiha boy only to hear Sakura huff at the glance.

A/N: Ah soft cliffhanger. Hope you enjoy.