(And here's my next chapter, readers. Be warned for Naruto's about to face one of his toughest opponents yet. Enjoy.)
When the sun rose over Konha, Naruto who was already dressed stood top the roof of his home watching the sun come up with Soreth.
"This is it, Soreth. Part two of the Chunin Exams is today," Soreth gargled. Naruto turned to his dragon and spoke, "I want you to keep a close eye on things from above. I'm not sure what's going to happen, but I want you to be there in case things get out of hand."
Soreth looked at his master with concern, as Naruto looked at him with seriousness. The dragon nodded its head in response, and earned a head rub by Naruto.
"Good, boy. Well, I better get going." he gripped his airbender staff and headed off to rendezvous with his team. Soreth knowing his orders took it to the sky and followed Naruto.
Soon enough, Naruto, his squad, and the rest of the Chunin Exam participants stood outside a thick forest surrounded by tall fences and warning signs.
"That's a forest?" Naruto asked in disbelief, "Looks more like a jungle."
"What is this place?" Sakura asked in surprise.
Anko who stood before them all answered, "Welcome to the Forest of Death, maggots. This is where you'll be having your second test."
"What will we be doing exactly?" a participant from Iwa asked.
"I was just about to say that until you rudely interrupted me." Anko squinted with irritation. The shinobi remained silent, as Anko continued, "Inside the Forest of Death, all you squads will be participating in a little game of capture the scroll."
"Capture the scroll?" Sasuke asked himself in confusion.
Anko poofed up two scrolls with a different kanji on each, "Each team will be given either a heaven or an earth scroll. Then it's your job to seek out whatever scroll you don't have from any other squad. Once you have both scrolls you are to head to the center tower and await further instruction. If you don't have both scrolls then you're out. And to top it off the time limit is three days. So if you don't make it to the tower by the time limit then your squad is out, and if you can't make it as a full squad then you're still out. And a word of caution while your inside the forest Your competition alone won't be your only problem. For inside that forest lie some of the most deadliest of animals, and poisonous of insects, and lots more surprises."
"I'm not going to like these surprises." Naruto said, as he started getting the willies.
"And one last thing... Don't die!" Anko called.
And so one shinobi from each squad went to one of two tents to receive whatever scroll they were randomly given.
Naruto thought to himself, 'Concealing what scroll each squad has. That makes it more challenging,' he began looking around seeing all the competition. He saw a lot of them were Konoha shinobi, and noticed the other foreign shinobi from Cloud, Mist, Earth, Rain, Sand, Grass, and Sound.
Among the shinobi he scoped out, he saw the three Sound shinobi from before who tried to start a scene before part one of the exams yesterday. He scowled at the three before directing his attention to another squad from Kumo composed of a boy with dark skin and short white hair, a girl with dark skin and red hair, and another girl with short blonde hair, along with a voluptuous rack.
Naruto thought upon seeing the blonde and her developed chest, 'Whoa. Milk does a body good for sure.'
The boy continued to search through the competitors and fell upon one Kiri shinobi who was a boy no older than him. He wore goggles on his forehead and saw he was carrying something large wrapped in bandages. What stuck out were two sword hilts from it, 'That looks like a big sword. Not as big as Zabuza's though. But I wonder...' Naruto thought before he continued to look upon the other competitors before seeing Gaara and his squad. Naruto still felt uneasy about the red haired shinobi before looking at a team of Grass shinobi. He eyed the woman of them team, before he gasped and started recalling the memory of Orochimaru he had the vision of yesterday.
He snapped out of it and thought to himself, 'Why did I suddenly get that vision again?'
"Naruto?" Sakura asked, as the Avatar snapped out of his thoughts.
"Oh, Sakura, what is it?"
"Sasuke's got our scroll. We're supposed to go to our assigned gate now."
"Oh, ok."
Sakura looked concerned at Naruto's behavior, "You seem kind of out of it, Naruto. Are you all right?"
"Oh, I'm fine. Just a bit tense." Naruto answered, not wanting to bring up his vision.
"I understand. Well, let's go." Sakura said, as the two went to meet up with Sasuke.
Soon every team stood by an assigned gate, and when Anko gave the signal the gates flung open and the competitors went into the forest. While high up in the sky, Soreth observed the squads enter the forest before flying above said area awaiting for his master to give him a signal.
Inside the Forest of Death, Squad Seven after getting as far away from the entrance as they could, stopped and hid behind a boulder.
"Ok, Sasuke, what's our scroll?" Naruto inquired.
Sasuke reached into his pouch and pulled out an Earth scroll. Sakura spoke, "So we need to find a Heaven scroll."
"You both know that won't be easy." Sasuke reminded them.
Naruto nodded, "We have to play it carefully. After all we don't know who has a Heaven or an Earth scroll. If we just jump the gun we'll lead ourselves to a dead end."
"And a lot of the competitors here are unpredictable. We could end up facing an opponent who knows stuff beyond what we've been taught." Sakura added.
"But with my bending as a secret weapon we should stand a good chance." Naruto noted.
"Even so, we'll need to pick our opponents carefull." Sasuke said.
Naruto agreed, "Yeah. And once we get our scroll we should head for the tower immediately."
Sakura looked at Naruto in confusion, "I'm surprised, Naruto. I thought you'd love to stick around and take a chance to fight more opponents?"
"Maybe on a normal mission, but I got a bad feeling about being out here."
"It is the Forest of Death, you know?" Sasuke reminded him.
"Not just because of that, Sasuke. But something else."
"What?" Sakura wondered.
Before Naruto could finish, he felt the air around him just got heavy, 'Guys, get down!" he pushed them both to the ground before a blast of wind almost nailed them.
"Where'd that come from?" Sasuke asked in surprise.
Naruto looked over and spoke, "From there!" they looked and saw the lead Grass ninja from the Kusa team Naruto observed.
The woman laughed, "Nothing like a bunch of rats trying to hide."
The three got up and got ready to fight, "Naruto, is it just her?"
Naruto nodded, "Yeah. I don't sense anybody else around here."
The Grass shinobi sunk into the ground and emerged from it close to the squad, "I'll make it simple on you all. Give me your scroll, and I just might let you live."
Naruto and Sasuke frowned, as the blonde answered, "How about you take a hike, and we'll let you live?!"
"Naruto, come on!" Sasuke called, as he and Naruto took off, while Sakura stayed back.
The two engaged their enemy who was blocking and intercepting their Taijutsu moves with her own Taijutsu.
"She's strong." Sasuke gasped.
"Maybe, but together we're a lot stronger." Naruto replied, as the two combined attacks and nailed the Kusa shinobi knocking her back.
She got up looking unaffected, "I'm slightly impressed. But your mediocre moves will not save you from this." she formed hand signs, "Striking shadow snakes!" suddenly from her sleeves came multiple snakes.
"Sasuke, look out!" Naruto called, as the two jumped back, as Naruto formed hand signs, "Have some of this!" he expelled a blast of wind from his mouth blowing the Kusa shinobi away.
When Naruto landed, Sasuke spoke, "We should move. No doubt she'll be back in a moment," Sasuke suddenly noticed Naruto looking zoned out, "Naruto, you ok? Naruto?"
Naruto stood there frozen as he thought, 'That jutsu. Snake jutsu? Can it be?'
Sasuke noticed the shinobi was coming back and riding a top of giant snake. Sakura shouted, "Naruto, Sasuke, get out of there!"
Naruto finally snapped out of it and saw the giant snake right on top of him and Sasuke. The snake opened it's mouth and lunged at the two shinobi. Naruto and Sasuke quickly jumped aside causing the snake to crash it's mouth into the ground.
Naruto and Sasuke observed the snake, as Naruto spoke, "Sasuke. I don't think that shinobi is who she appears to be."
"What're you talking about?" Sasuke asked in confusion.
Naruto squinted his eyes at the Kusa shinobi as the giant snake lifted it's head up, "I'm saying it's someone different."
The Kusa shinobi spoke, "My pet here will enjoy feasting on you three."
"Not going to happen." Naruto answered, before letting off a whistle call.
Sasuke and Sakura were confused, as the Kusa shinobi laughed, "Looks like you're out of options." She was cut off as her snake was bombarded with fire ball shots. The shinobi was losing balance before regaining it. They heard roaring, and flying in on scene was Soreth.
"A dragon?" the shinobi asked in shock.
"That's right. Sick 'em, boy!" Naruto called, as the dragon flew all around blasting fore at the snake. As the giant serpent tried to snap at Soreth, the dragon kept flying away being too fast for it to keep up.
"Naruto, Soreth can't keep doing that forever." Sakura warned him.
"I know. We got to stop that monstrosity." Naruto started looking around before analyzing their surroundings. He smirked, "I got a plan. Grab as many kunai and paper bombs as you can." the two nodded.
As Soreth continued to distract the giant snake, the shinobi called, "Enough. Forget that lizard, focus on the brats!" she looked down seeing no sign of them, "Where'd they go?"
"Ignite!" Came Naruto's voice, as he and his partners threw multiple kunai wrapped in paper bombs around the number of trees surrounding them.
The explosions ended up causing the number of trees to collapse and fall right down on top of the snake. Soreth quickly flew out of the way, while the Kusa shinobi jumped off leaving the snake to get flattened and poof away.
The shinobi landed on the ground again and saw Squad seven standing atop a tree branch, "Clever sneaks."
Naruto frowned, as he suddenly started harnessing Kurama's chakra and stepped forward, "Naruto, what're you doing?" Sakura asked.
"I'm about to expose this imposter." Naruto took off like a shot and started going at the Kusa shinobi one on one, as the Kusa ninja was trying harder to block him. Suddenly Naruto threw a kurama chakra enhanced punch sending the shinobi crashing into a boulder.
"You got him!" Sasuke called, as Soreth roared in victory.
The group saw the figure get up and began chuckling sinisterly and spoke with a male voice that sounded slithery, "Impressive for a young Jinchuriki. I haven't had such a fun fight in a long time."
The group backed up a bit in fright, as the shinobi looked up revealing part of the face was torn off revealing bleach white skin. And a serpent like eye.
Sasuke and Sakura gasped, as the kunoichi asked in fright, "What is that?"
Naruto answered, "That Sakura is a traitor to our village."
"A traitor?" Sasuke asked in confusion.
Naruto nodded, before pointing a finger at their opponent, "You're Orochimaru of the Legendary Sannin!"
Sasuke and Sakura were confused, and suddenly the one shinobi laughed, before ripping the rest of his fake face off to reveal he was the same Orochimaru Naruto saw in his vision.
"I see I'm known even by shinobi at your age. Guess the academy does teach the kids these days about former shinobi who've left behind their old lives for ones more favorable to them."
"Naruto, how do you know this guy?" Sakura asked in shock.
"I saw him in a vision from the past," Naruto explained, "He experimented on innocent lives in our village for sick research purposes."
Orochimaru scowled at Naruto's accusation, "I'll have you know my research was meant to change everything we knew about the ninja world."
Naruto got angry, "More like fulfill your selfish desires to know every jutsu ever made!"
"Well, ok you got me there." Orochimaru admitted.
Naruto spoke, "Jiji may not have been able to finish you years ago, but I will!"
"You?" Orochimaru asked with a mocking laugh, "And what makes you think you can do what your precious Sandaime could not accomplish?"
"Because I have the strength and power to help me see it through!" Naruto called, as he used airbending to propel himself at Orochimaru and began unleashing all his bending elements and combat moves he's learned from his masters.
Orochimaru started dodging to avoid the critical hits and spoke, "But those moves. They're not jutsu, they're bending!"
"That's right." Naruto answered, as he shot a blast of fire from his fist, nailing Orochimaru who skidded back on his feet.
"But no bender is capable of using all four elements. Unless they're the..." Orochimaru paused, as he looked at Naruto seeing the determination in his eyes, "Avatar."
Naruto smirked, "That's exactly what I am. Now do you wish you didn't challenge me?"
Orochimaru merely returned the smirk, "I'll admit this was unexpected, but I can tell you haven't full tapped into the true power that the Avatar possesses. So you shouldn't be as big of a threat."
"We'll see!" Naruto called.
So Naruto and Orochimaru continued going at it, with Orochimaru using his snake jutsu against Naruto, who was warding them off with his firebending. Orochimaru was starting to get irritated, and spoke, "I don't have time for this!" he suddenly dissolved into mud.
"What?" Naruto gasped.
Sasuke and Sakura seeing that were confused until Sasuke realized something, "Sakura, get back." he shoved her aside, before seeing Orochimaru behind him and stretched his neck over baring fangs and lunging right for Sasuke's neck.
Naruto seeing what Orochimaru was about had to act fast and quickly bended a chunk of rock and launched it in their direction. Before Orochimaru could sink his teeth into Sasuke, the rock ended up flying right into his mouth and he ended up sinking his teeth into the hard mass.
Orochimaru's eyes widened at the contact between the rock and his teeth, and cried in pain. Sasuke quickly jumped back to gain some distance from the psycho lunatic. Orochimaru looked over in rage at Naruto, "You, boy, made a serious mistake!"
"Well, sorry but I don't wanna correct it. Soreth, distraction, now!"
Soreth began flying around launching fireballs at Orochimaru who was once again dodging. As he was avoiding the shots of fire, Naruto, quickly grabbed Sakura and Sasuke, and used airbending to propel them away from Orochimaru. When Soreth saw Naruto and his friends escaped, he quickly flew off too.
Orochimaru after catching his breath looked around seeing no sign of Squad seven anywhere. The snake man growled, "The ticket to my dream, gone! NO!" he bellowed.
(And there's the chapter. Squad Seven was only a few moments inside the forest and already were running into problems. Will they get through the second portion without any more problems? Stay tuned for next time.)