"So what's the plan?" Sakura asked Sasuke quietly. He had nominated himself as their teams leader without consulting them and had collected their teams scroll. He barely glanced at her and directed his answer towards Naruto.

"Travel at least an hour into the Forest before we regroup and strategised our next move forward." Sasuke slipped their scroll into his weapons pouch without any further comment.

They stood in front of the wire fence that surrounded the training ground that was colloquially known as the Forest of Death and signed a waiver that stated they knew the risks involved and absolved Konoha of any responsibility in the event they were injured up to and including the loss of their life.

Half of those entering into the Forest wouldn't pass this stage of the exam, some might even die. Sakura was quietly confident that they'd at least survive even if they didn't continue through to the next stage.

They were silent as they ran in single file as soon as they had been let into the Forest, in fact the only sound they heard were their footsteps on the branches. Sakura gasped and stopped so suddenly that she nearly fell off the branch she was on. Naruto and Sasuke had taken two more leaps before they realised and turned back for her.

"Let's get down out of these trees, take a break, we've been running for a while now," she said signalling to them 'ambush'.

"Good thinking Sakura, I need to take a leak anyway," Naruto said loudly and turned away as if to urinate then and there. Sakura scrunched her face up disgusted and smacked him on the back of the head.

"Gross Naruto, at least go behind some bushes," she growled. She pushed her chakra sense out and threw a kunai at Naruto when he returned at the same time Sasuke did.

"What the hell guys!" Naruto yelled.

"Cut the crap," Sakura sneered.

"Naruto had a cut on his cheek," Sasuke stated.

"He's also right handed," she added. "Your holster is on the wrong leg." The impostor tried to melt into the ground but Sakura was quicker and had him trussed up with a water whip that was infused with her chakra. She tightened her chakra stopped him dead in his tracks.

"Where're your teammates?" Sasuke asked, casually spinning a kunai around his finger.

"Going to kill them too?" the Rain nin gasped. His henge had dropped when he had been found out. Sakura rolled her eyes.

"We're not going to kill you. But we can paralyse you and leave you here. Think you'll be able to defend yourself against the animals and bugs here that think you're food?"

The Rain nin glared at her with full loathing, trying to make his killing intent known.

"That's cute," Sakura scoffed and hit him with a burst of her own killing intent in return, ignoring Sasuke's startled look and told him to go and find Naruto. "Now, what scroll were you given?"

"Like I'd tell you," the Rain nin grunted.

"Where are your teammates?" she asked and he stayed silent. "If I get answers then I might release you. I'll knock you out, but when you wake up, you'll be able to move how does that sound?" Sakura tilted her head inquisitively though her expression was impassive.

Sasuke and Naruto arrived back in time to see her use more water restraints and then pat him down.

"Wow Sakura-chan, that's so cool. When did you learn how to do that?" Naruto gushed. The Rain nin kept his eyes on her the entire time.

"He doesn't have it," she announced after hitting him with an unsealing jutsu. "Where is your team and which one has the scroll?"

Sakura hesitated, wondering if she could go ahead with what she was thinking of doing. Neither Naruto or Sasuke looked like they knew how to fix the situation of having a hostage. So she took a deep breath and stabbed him in the shoulder with one of her kunai. She'd sharpened all of her weapons in preparation and it sliced deep into his flesh without any resistance. The Rain nin screamed.

"We got the Heaven scroll, my team split up so we were less likely to be detected."

"Well that is a shame. Which direction did they go? Which one has your scroll?" her captive glared at her and she buried another kunai, this time through the palm of his hand.

"North-West and West. I came South-West. The one who went West has the scroll."

Sakura looked over at her own teammates. Naruto looked horrified and Sasuke had a carefully blank expression on his face.

"I don't like being lied to," she stated. Sasuke elbowed Naruto quickly to keep him quiet and nodded.

"I'm not lying, I swear."

"Liar," she breathed and shoved another kunai into his elbow joint.

"I'm not lying," he whimpered.

"I know you are," Sakura replied sadly. "Too bad for you and your team I don't give as many chances as the exam's first proctor." She removed her weapons and wiped them clean on his clothes before re-pocketing them. She hit the two pressure points at the back of his neck and knocked him out before removing her chakra from the water holding him up.

He collapsed heavily at her feet. He'd wake up within an hour, his wounds weren't serious, though he'd have trouble moving his arm until it was fully healed. He'd be fine if he wasn't killed by something or someone else. She cast a low-level notice-me-not over him that would dissipate when he woke up.

"Let's go," she said to her team and jumped up into the trees, hesitating only long enough to make sure that they were following her.

Ten minutes later she changed their heading and ran for another five minutes before stopping.

She held her hand out to Sasuke. "Scroll."

"What the hell was that Sakura?"

"That was getting information- bad information but information just the same. Give me the scroll Sasuke."

"Why did you say he was lying?" Naruto asked quietly. Whatever image he had of her was clearly shaken.

"And since when can you do water jutsu!" Sasuke growled.

"Are you pissed that you underestimated me Sasuke?" she asked sarcastically. He rolled his eyes and didn't answer, looking away.

"We need a password," Sasuke said eventually. "So we know that we are who we say we are."

"Sakura, why did you say he was lying?"

"Because we entered in through the west gate. If his teammates travelled west they'd be outside of the Forest."

"Can we move on?" Sasuke demanded. "The question will be 'When does a ninja strike?' The answer will be 'A ninja waits until the time is right, when the enemy sleeps and drops his guard, when his weapons lie forgotten in the stillness of the night, that is the moment for a ninja to strike.' Got it?"

Sakura nodded while Naruto made an uneasy sound. "You got one a little shorter?"

"No."

"Fine, okay okay, I got it. I just thought it was going to be a password not a pass speech."

"Okay then, I'll keep the scroll," Sasuke said getting to his feet. Sakura glared at him and opened her mouth to protest but whatever she was going to say was interrupted by a blast of wind that sent them all tumbling away from each other and pushing Naruto off into the distance.

Sakura groaned as she got to her feet. It was just one fight after another it seemed. She checked her reserves and threw out her senses pleased that they were barely touched thanks to both her affinity and her fine control. She ran back to where she'd last seen the others. Sasuke was closer so she went to find him first.

His eyes were filled with the Sharingan and he brandished a kunai at her demanding to know the password. Sakura had just finished reciting it when Naruto arrived, or someone that looked like Naruto. According to her senses Naruto was still a few hundred meters away- and in combat.

She didn't get a chance to tell Sasuke though because he'd already worked out that Naruto wasn't Naruto. Again. This time it was the Grass ninja who had sliced Naruto's cheek before they'd even entered the Forest. Her long creepy tongue slithered out of her mouth and licked her lips. Sakura shuddered as the nin swallowed her Earth scroll like a snake. In fact a lot of her mannerisms were serpent like.

"Well when this is over," the grass nin commented, "one of us will have both scrolls and the other of us will be dead."

Sakura gasped for breath as the killing intent rose around them. Her limbs didn't want to move and her heart felt like it was about the beat itself out of her chest. Next to her Sasuke was throwing up. Sakura pinged her chakra around her tenketsu points to try and get her moving. Her own killing intent was like that of a kitten compared to the woman's ravenous thirst for blood that had paralysed them with fear.

She and Sasuke exchanged a terrified look but neither of them could move- at least not properly. She jerked her arm with a gasp, followed by twitching her leg. Sasuke was getting to his feet, a kunai in hand and the woman was taunting them that she'd make it quick as she drew her own weapons and slowly walked towards them. Drawing the moment out.

Sasuke jabbed his kunai into his own thigh as Sakura knocked him to the ground out of the way of the weapons that had been thrown at them. She pulled him up and they ran away, holding onto each other. They paused for a moment both of them still freaked out and uneasy. Sakura bandaged his leg and tied it off just in time for him to knock her off the branch and out of the way of the jaws of a giant snake.

"Whoever she is, she's not a genin," Sakura panted as they ran. She could feel Naruto getting closer to them. She was terrified and she didn't know how she felt about Sasuke visibly showing equal terror.

Neither of them were prepared for Naruto to punch the giant snake chasing them into the side of a tree and knock it unconscious.

"Sakura! Sasuke! Are you okay?" Whatever he said next was ignored because the grass nin was rising up out of the snake with a wicked grin on her face.

Sakura slammed her hands together in a series of signs and pressed them to the tree branch they were standing on. It wasn't a jutsu that she wanted people to know she could do, but no one would know she could do it either if she were dead.

Woody vines emerged from the tree and strapped the woman down as best they could.

"Well aren't you a precious little surprise," she said, eyes gleaming. "I came here for Sasuke-kun, but what a delight it's been to find you." Sakura shuddered.

"Who are you?" she demanded, her voice shaky.

"I must say it's very bold of you little lamb to try and capture me." Sakura swallowed and reached for her pouch.

"Who are you?" Sasuke repeated, his voice steady, but his hands were clenched into fists and they were still trembling.

"Tell me Sasuke-kun, do you know your village history? Do you know of the three legendary Sannin that hailed from the Leaf?"

"Orochimaru. You're Orochimaru," Sakura whispered going pale and feeling faint. "Sasuke, we have to run."

"What does a Sannin want with me?" Sasuke asked taking a step closer.

"You mean besides your pretty eyes, come on, we need to get out of here," she yelled pulling at his arm though he didn't move other than to shrug her off.

"Ku-ku-ku-ku, the little lamb is a smart one. Yes, your brother refused to let me have his, that was a shame, so I came here for yours." They all ran when he slid from the vines holding him and from the grass nin's body like he was taking a jacket off, shedding that which confined him until he stood as he truly was.

"That's it little lambs, run. The hunt is all part of the fun."

Team Seven ran and Orochimaru hunted them. He was faster, stronger and more experienced than them. Sakura didn't like the fact that she'd caught his attention in any way shape or form.

They defended off his attacks, knowing that he was just toying with them. Herding them. Then Sasuke stumbled, his foot slipping out from underneath him as a snake lunged at him and he tried to adjust his direction to dive out of the way.

Naruto and Sakura stopped when he screamed and charged back to where Orochimaru was wrapped around their teammate, his neck stretched out like rubber and his mouth clamped down on the junction between Sasuke's shoulder and neck.

Sakura moved to imprison him in vines again- to stick him inside a tree and never let him out but he evaded every attempt.

Naruto's eyes changed and the feel of his chakra got heavier. Sakura was too busy reaching for Sasuke who was about to fall out of the tree to see what happened but did see Naruto flying through the air past her.

She threw a water whip holding an experimental seal.

A shadow clone caught Naruto and the soft slither of cloth against bark behind her, and the heavy thump as a body hit the ground had her turning around in disbelief.

She flickered her chakra, trying to dispel a genjutsu that wasn't there. She sent a clone to investigate.

Orochimaru was glaring up at her clone who dispelled in fright. Sakura sent in another one when the Sannin didn't move.

Her clone poked him with a stick.

"Knock him out you idiot!" she yelled at her clone. When she was sure he was out cold, her clone managed to get him to regurgitate everything in his throat pouch. She hit them all with a wash of water and then stripped him of everything but his clothes. No point in leaving him armed if he somehow escaped. Granted he'd be able to kill them without weapons, but for some reason knowing he was unarmed made her feel better.

While her clones were busy with that, Sakura was frantically inking a containment seal around the mark that had formed where Sasuke had been bitten. She was glad that he was unconscious because he'd never have let her near him to do it if he was awake.

Sakura sat back on her heels and tried to come up with a plan. She ate a ration bar to give her a boost of energy and looked at her clones, and at her teammates, and then finally at Orochimaru.

She threw out her senses and was reassured when she couldn't sense anyone in at least a hundred meters circle around her. She frowned when she realised that they were in a rather secluded area of the Forest. Still, she set a notice-me-not genjutsu on a hollow at the base of a tree and set her clones to guard while she climbed above the canopy to get her bearings.

She could take them all back to the starting point, or she could take them to the tower. A few ANBU henges on her and her clones, a foreign henge on the Sannin to look like her and they'd be unlikely to be intercepted.

Sakura stuck her head up above the treeline. They'd been blown into the far side of the Forest, it would be quicker to head straight to the central tower- the top of which she could just see in the distance. Another quick sense of her surroundings and they were still clear.

Back on the ground she dug their original scroll out of Sasuke's pouch and sealed them in one of her own scrolls. She picked through the rest of the things that had been taken off of or vomited up by the Sannin. She sealed the large sword away in his own sealing scroll that held hundreds of kunai, shuriken, and a few longer tanto blades.

Sakura gladly seized those for herself and distributed them amongst her clones who henged into ANBU. She picked up a ring and frowned down at the simple band and the slate blue stone that were both covered in seals.

It presented a pretty puzzle but not one that she had the immediate time to figure out so she tucked it into her pouch. She placed a foreign henge on Orochimaru and one of her clones picked him up. Finally she henged into another ANBU, sent her senses out again and gestured for everyone to move out.

With her clones carrying the three unconscious bodies, Sakura was able to concentrate on keeping her senses spread out while they ran. They passed two Konoha teams, a Sand team, and a Waterfall team, all of whom left them alone.

They were confronted by actual ANBU as soon as they stepped into the concrete building, and Sakura and her clones immediately let their henges drop, though she left the foreign henge on the Sannin. She had a feeling that his identity should be revealed to only a select few.

"I need to speak with the Hokage and Morino-san," she said. Her clones sat their passengers down then sealed Sakura's newly acquired weapons into a scroll and then puffed out. Sakura groaned as their exhaustion hit her.

Sakura dug into her pouch and removed the Heaven and Earth scrolls.

One of the ANBU stepped forward and dispelled the henge. Sakura snorted as he leapt back with a curse.

"Don't remove that seal. It's the only thing keeping him like that." She opened both scrolls and Iruka- their academy teacher appeared in a puff of smoke.

"Congratulations guys... What the hell? Why is he...? How is he...?" he trailed off as soon as he saw the two boys unconscious and Sakura in a dirty sweaty mess. "What happened?"

"I need to speak with the Hokage and Morino-san."

So. Big chapter. That's worth a few reviews right? I want to know what you think of where I'm heading with this.

~G