Fight for the Prize
Orochimaru could barely contain his grin as he signed the agreement form. Or, well, not Orochimaru. Right now, he was Shiore of the Hidden Grass Village. It truly was a challenge not to give in to his amusement right now. Seeing Anko, his former student, put up a tough act as the second exam proctor to try and scare the kids was just too delicious. Like this whole ordeal with the waiver, as if the village suddenly cared about the lives of the children they so gladly threw away in any other scenario. He had been tempted to exchange some quick barbs with her, but considering that pretty much every shinobi in the entire village that ranked Chūnin or above was looking out for him, he refrained. While he knew that none of them would be able to detect him through his Vanishing Facial Copy Jutsu, little Anko knew about this technique. Acting too suspiciously could give him away. When he found out that they were expecting him, he momentarily feared for his plan, but thankfully, they didn't know enough to stop him. What annoyed him more was the fact that he had no idea how they had found out. Especially because they knew so little since it meant they couldn't have captured and interrogated one of his men. He had to find what this 'reliable source' was, but for now, he just had to make sure he wasn't found out too early.
For the same reason, he had disposed of the corpses of the real Shiore and his team rather than leaving them somewhere for them to find later as he had originally planned. He didn't mind if they eventually found out he was here. But he couldn't let it happen before he got to his prize. After that, he didn't care.
Once the paperwork was done, he was given a scroll marked as 'Earth'. It wasn't terribly relevant which one he got, after all, he had no plans of finishing this task. But if Sasuke had a 'Heaven' scroll, he could use it as bait.
The signal for the start of the second task was given and they entered through gate number 16, which was immediately closed again and locked behind them. From now on, none of the examinees were allowed to leave the so-called 'Forest of Death' for five whole days. Five whole days where no one would bother him.
"Go find them, but do not attack," he ordered his two henchmen disguised as Shiore's teammates, who nodded and rushed off.
A tiny snake climbed up his leg and torso until it reached his ear and began to whisper. So Saskuke really had gotten a 'Heaven' scroll. Lucky him. He then noticed that someone was hiding in the trees nearby. Some other team trying to ambush him? Whatever, he didn't care for some spares. Another, bigger snake slid out of his sleeve and quietly disappeared into the bushes. Not long after, he could hear muffled screams that died down quickly after.
It didn't take long until they found the location of his prize. It was time to get started. Now he could finally have some fun. He had no intentions of wasting time to achieve his goal, but then again… time enjoyed was hardly time wasted, was it?
'Doton: Moguragakure no Jutsu!' [Earth Release: Hiding Like a Mole Jutsu]
With a quick hand sign, he sunk into the ground, slithering through the earth until he reached his target.
"Where are you going, Naruto?" he could hear Sasuke's voice from above.
"Well, there aren't exactly toilets in the forest!" one of the spares answered.
"Then do that here."
"What? Ew, is that what you're into? Hadn't taken you for that much of a pervert!"
"You are the only pervert here, Naruto!", the other spare shouted.
"That, and an idiot," Sasuke added. "Look, I like this as little as you do, but we're in what is basically hostile territory. We could get attacked at every moment, and we have no allies here. Remember what Tanya-sensei taught us, splitting up is asking for trouble. Now hurry up!"
Oh, eager little Sasuke. Nervous already? Yet he had no idea what was coming for him.
"Alright, one more thing before we start looking for other teams. Naruto, you always carry some empty scrolls, right?"
"Yup, why?"
"Let's make fakes. If we meet someone we can't win against, we'll throw it at them and run away," Sasuke explained his plan. Silence followed, so they had likely started to make the copies.
"Looks pretty good," the female spare said after a while. "So, who takes the real one?"
"You," Sasuke decided instantly. "Most people here have heard of me, and if they don't know Naruto, they still see how he acts. From us three, you're the most likely to get underestimated, so I doubt anyone will expect you to have it."
"Alright, let's kick some ass!"
Well, that was as good of a cue as any other. Above him, he could hear the wind starting to bellow, and the three kids screamed in shock as they realized they were getting attacked. Orochimaru canceled his jutsu and rose back above ground, still shrouded in the dusk the last attack had blown around. His two 'teammates' came to his side.
"That's enough, I'll take care of them myself," he told his two henchmen. "Feel free to find someone else to play around with, but leave us alone."
The two gave an affirming nod and left while Orochimaru himself jumped up onto a branch of one of the massive trees that formed the almost primordial-looking forest. From his elevated position, he could see that the kids had stuck closely together, seeking cover behind an angled earth wall that certainly hadn't been there before.
So one of them is an Earth Release User. Likely not Sasuke, he's an Uchiha after all. Now, how do I want to do this?
Noticing something behind him he quickly jumped off the branch with a somersault. As he did, he could see the blonde boy in orange clothing, his heel connecting with the tree where Orochimaru had stood just a millisecond earlier. Upon impact, the wood burst into pieces.
Is that her..?
No, this wasn't the technique of his former teammate, not even a weaker version of it. He could tell from the way the boy had moved that whatever he did functioned vastly differently. But while whatever he did would never be able to level an entire castle like she could, it was still more than the average Genin could produce. Orochimaru quickly threw a shuriken at him, causing the boy to vanish in a puff of smoke. A shadow clone.
'Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!' [Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu]
Feeling a flaming heat coming closer from behind, he made another, even larger snake come out of his sleeve and quickly wrap around him. The fireball impacted mid-air, searing off the reptile's scales and charring its flesh, but Orochimaru himself remained unharmed. He then twisted around in his fall, put his feet against the dying animal, and jumped off of it, landing on an oversized root that coiled a few dozen feet into the air.
Once he landed he turned around, looking at the three kids down and the ground.
"Not too shabby, I must say," he admitted. "Maybe this will be fun after all."
The kids' faces hardened, seemingly annoyed that he was still talking down on them - figuratively and literally. Well, they probably still thought he was on the same level as them. How cute! Time to correct their error.
"You want this, don't you?" he asked, holding up his 'Earth' scroll. He then opened his mouth, pushed the scroll down his throat, and swallowed it whole. Looking at the disgusted faces of the three, he couldn't suppress a grin.
"Then for this battle, let us put our lives on the line!"
He grabbed his face with his left hand and pulled down the skin under his left eye. Simultaneously, he stopped suppressing his killing intent and let his bloodlust run rampant. His grin grew wider as he focused his gaze on the kids, directing all of his murderous thoughts to them.
It lasted just for a moment but to them, it likely felt like an eternity. Their eyes were wide open and they panted heavily, surely now realizing the difference between them. In the end, they were just kids after all.
Although, on a second look, their reactions seemed a bit… lackluster. He had certainly given them a scare, but he had expected more.
"Who is that guy?!" The blonde boy finally asked. "His killing intent might be stronger than Tanya-sensei's!"
And that was definitely not what he had expected. It seemed like their Jōnin-sensei was unorthodox by Leaf standards. To test the waters he threw some kunai at them, but they dodged them so effortlessly and with minimal movement it almost seemed instinctual. Either they had recovered quickly or hadn't allowed their fear to overwhelm them in the first place. Yes, this might actually end up being fun!
'Katon: Karyūdan!' [Fire Release: Fire Dragon Bullet]
From his mouth, a concentrated projectile of fire shot forward. Instantly, the blonde jumped in front of his team and raised both hands, holding some form of tag in each palm.
'Ninpō: Niten Kekkai!' [Ninja Art: Two-Point Barrier]
The tags got torn apart, creating a translucent veil of chakra in the process. When jutsu hit the barrier it burst into a blast of flames, but while it knocked the boy off his feet, all three kids remained unscathed from the fire. Orochimaru used the flames as a cover to get closer, but the sensor girl obviously noticed him. As soon as the fire dispersed she jumped over her teammate and threw a punch. Orochimaru's lower half turned snake-like and with inhuman flexibility, he evaded the attack and coiled himself around her body.
Before he got the chance to do anything else to her though, some force pulled him off of her. At the same time, the blonde boy attacked him with his kunai in hand, but Orochimaru softened his arm and wrapped it around the boy's hand, flung him around, and made him crash into Sasuke who had just been about to pounce on him from behind. As they rolled over the ground, Sasuke attempted to hit him with a handful of kunai, but he simply let his body fall into a pile of snakes that slithered away and then reformed again on the large root he had stood on earlier. Just as he did, a giant snake as tall as a building broke out of the ground behind him. He didn't order it to attack yet and had it stand back, merely glaring at the kids until he ordered it otherwise.
The kids regrouped and then flinched as they saw the giant reptile. Orochimaru crossed his arms and gave them a challenging smirk.
"We give up!"
He cocked an eyebrow at Sasuke's declaration.
"Huh? Hang on, are you serious?!" the blonde shouted.
"This guy is too strong, Naruto! The test just started, we just need to get a new scroll from another team!"
Sasuke then pulled out the 'Heaven' scroll from his satchel.
"Here! Take it and then leave us alone."
Oh, cute little Sasuke! It was kind of adorable how he tried to get him with his little trick.
"And what, pray tell, am I supposed to do with a fake scroll?"
The boy flinched.
"I know the girl has the real one. Now, are you willing to part with that one?"
The kids grew quiet and he ignored his urge to snicker. He could attack them again at any point, but this was just too entertaining.
"Sakura," Sasuke finally said. "Give him the scroll."
"B-but Sasuke-"
"DO IT!"
The girl was startled at his outcry, but in the end, she pulled out the real 'Heaven' scroll and threw it up to him.
"A smart choice," Orochimaru commended, balancing the item in his palm. "Prey can get a chance to escape its predator by distracting it with a different meal. Unfortunately for you, I don't actually care about-"
The rest of his sentence was cut off as the scroll in his hand detonated.
The concussive force of the blast almost knocked him to the side, but he managed to catch himself without falling from the root. Still, the explosion blew his right arm cleanly off, and he could feel the mask of his Vanishing Facial Copy Jutsu melt under the emitted heat, the disguise now being little more than a charred flab of skin that covered most of his face save for his eye. His real, yellow, snake-like eye stared into the thick smoke that enveloped him.
"Did you seriously rig your fake with explosives, Sakura?"
"Um, yes? Wait, don't tell me you didn't!"
With a swipe of his remaining arm, he dispersed the smoke and instantly had their attention again, coupled with disgusted looks as they saw what remained of what they assumed was his face.
"I guess that means you noticed me spying on you," he mused.
"Well, you didn't exactly try to hide your chakra signature," the pinkette answered.
Oh? Is she a sensor? That's rare for Genin this young.
Before anyone could say more, the blonde boy formed a hand sign and summoned a large fūma shuriken into his right hand.
I didn't see him pull out a scroll. Does he have a storage seal on his skin?
Orochimaru himself had done some research in that direction, but he didn't know someone else had the same idea. Or that said someone had succeeded.
"Naruto, wait!"
But the boy ignored Sasuke and threw. Not that it made much difference, from this distance, dodging was trivial. Orochimaru merely ducked and the weapon embedded itself in the tree trunk behind him.
"I said wait, damn it! Act or not, I meant it when I said this guy is too strong! Look at him, Sakura blew him up and he doesn't even care!"
Sasuke's eyes then focused on Orochimaru again.
"You! If it's not our scroll you're after, then it's me, right? You want me!"
Orochimaru merely sighed.
"Come on, Sasuke, are petty tricks really all you can do?"
"I'm not trying to trick you!" the boy insisted. He then took out all his weapons and threw them to the ground before stepping closer. "It is clear that we can't defeat you! Promise to let my comrades live, and you can have me!"
"... I see, that's how it is," Orochimaru mumbled. He then threw a kick to the side. The Genjutsu broke, the fake Sasuke vanished, and he could see the pinkette who had snuck up to him barely managing to dodge with a backflip.
'Sen'ei Jashu!'[Hidden Shadow Snake Hands]
Four snakes shot forth from his sleeve, forcing the girl to jump down from the root to escape them, cutting off the head of one of them with her kunai while she fell and avoiding the others. As she did, he noticed that she wore an insignia he didn't recognize that resembled an insect wing on her back. Had a new clan been founded in the Leaf? No, Kabuto would've told him that.
But if that Sasuke was part of the Genjutsu, then where is the real one?
Looking around, he quickly found the answer as he saw the boy standing on a branch one tree away. He had his Sharingan active, glaring at Orochimaru with the beautiful red eyes he so much desired. His hands were raised up into the air and above him, ten fūma shuriken hovered, strung up on chakra threads.
The Puppeteering Jutsu? Ah, so that's how he pulled me away earlier. Well well well, now things are getting interesting!
'Sōshūjin!' [Manipulating Attack Blades]
He threw his hands forward and the large blades began to spin, closing in on Orochimaru from multiple different angles. Dodging would likely be annoying since Sasuke could redirect them. A side glance showed him that the weapon the blonde boy had thrown earlier had, in fact, not been part of the Genjutsu, it was still sticking in the tree. He pulled it out with his remaining hand, spinning it and readying himself to block the remote-controlled blades. But just as he did so, the fūma shuriken suddenly transformed into a clone of the blonde boy that grabbed his hand, flung himself up, and crossed his legs over his shoulder to create an arm-lock.
A transformed shadow clone? So no storage seal after all. But it was already a weapon when he summoned it, did the girl mask it with her Genjutsu? Or is he able to summon those clones already transformed? Oh well.
Even if he tried to restrain his arm, one shadow clone of a twelve-year-old wasn't so heavy that he couldn't move. He would simply use the clone as a shield then.
He raised his arm in front of him, but mere milliseconds before the first fūma shuriken struck, each of the ten transformed as well, burying Orochimaru under a pile of clones that clung to his body with all their might. With an annoyed sigh, he initiated a jutsu to destroy the clones. By the time he realized that all of them had bomb tags stuck to their torsos, he was already enveloped in an explosion so strong that it tore the root apart.
With a deep breath, Asuma inhaled the last part of his current cigarette. Guard duty already wasn't very exciting, but guarding a sensor on duty was about as boring as it could get. He of course understood that it was important, but that didn't change the fact that it was boring.
He flicked the bud away and rummaged through his pouch for his pack of cigarettes when Tanya suddenly spoke.
"Good evening, Kakashi."
Asuma looked up, and shortly after, his colleague appeared, accompanied by a teenager Asuma didn't recognize.
"Yo," the Copy Ninja greeted the two and Asuma reciprocated.
"I take it you are here to relieve us?" Tanya asked the teen.
"Y-yes ma'am. W-well, yes and no, I guess? It's now Kakoi's turn in sector 8, and his range is big enough to cover this area as well. I'm Nishi, 16. I-I joined the sensor team half a year ago, I'm supposed to use this opportunity to get some experience, so I guess I'm closer to a second set of eyes here. Or, technically it's not eyes, more like-"
Kakashi placed a hand on the boy's shoulder and he stopped talking.
"I think you got your point across, just do your thing."
"Ah, y-yes!"
As Nishi went into position, Kakshi rolled his visible eye and then looked at him and Tanya again.
"Well, that's that. But I'm also supposed to remind you that the first day of the second task will end soon and that all Jōnin-sensei are supposed to wait for their team in the tower from here on out."
"Alright, then we'll see you in five days I guess!" Asuma affirmed.
"Yes, until then," Tanya added, and the two left. Once the girl had passed Kakashi, Asuma could see him throwing a strange glance at her, but he elected to ignore it. Once they exited their post, they ran up the wall of the next building and jumped over the rooftops towards the Forest of Death.
"Wanna grab a quick bite before we go there?" he asked shortly after they started to move.
"We were called, so we shouldn't waste any time," Tanya refuted as he had already more or less expected. "Though I admit to being hungry as well. My place lies on the way if you don't mind onigiri from yesterday."
"If it's no problem for you, sure!" He of course would've preferred home-made onigiri from Kurenai, but oh well.
Once they reached it, Tanya unlocked the door, let him in, and vanished into the kitchen. Asuma didn't want to snoop around, so he simply looked at the things he could see from his position while he waited.
"Here," Tanya said as she returned and handed him a rice ball.
"Thanks. By the way, what's that over there?" he asked, pointing at the table. On it, there was what looked like a metal pipe that had been cut open, with loads of sealing formulas covering the inside.
"Just an experiment," she stated with a shrug. "Though I've been pretty busy with my team, so haven't made much progress lately."
"Making a new ninja tool for yourself?"
"That's how it started, but I think I found someone who'll be able to utilize it better, so maybe it'll be a gift instead. Though that'll require some changes. Anyway, let's go."
"Right. Hey, by the way," he asked as they went back on their way, "do you think any of our teams made it already?"
"Possible, but unlikely. The Forest of Death is twenty kilometers in diameter after all. Though it depends on how many teams made it through the first test I guess."
"Yeah, makes sense. And how do you estimate their chances after all?"
"Team 10's skillset is perfect for ambushes, so they just need to play their cards right."
"True. Guess it depends whether or not Ino listened to Shikamaru. As for Team 7, I assume you have no doubts?"
"It would be foolish to be certain of their success, but I doubt they'll face an opponent they can't deal with one way or the other."
Sakura panted as she watched the charred torso of their opponent hit the ground, his legs having gotten blown away in the explosion. Her heart rate was high, and that was not just adrenalin from the previous fight. Her hands trembled, and she didn't even want to imagine how she would've reacted if this had actually been their first kill. As bad of an experience that had been, she now was really glad that Tanya-sensei had taken them to the T&I when they came back.
"He… he's dead, right?" she asked, carefully eying the gigantic snake. But the limbless animal showed no signs that it intended to attack. Hopefully, it would stay that way now that its master was gone.
"Don't think too much about it, Sakura," Sasuke stated. "That guy was out for blood, he didn't exactly leave us a choice."
"So, um," Naruto chimed in, "Who gets the scroll from him?"
She shuddered. Right, the Grass Ninja had, for whatever reason, swallowed his scroll. Was it even usable at this point?
"I must say, whoever taught you did so well."
The trio froze as they heard the voice and stared at the corpse in disbelief. Two pale hands appeared from the jaws of the dead Grass Ninja and stretched it open far beyond human limits. A head appeared, then a torso, and finally legs. To shocked to say anything, Team 7 watched in silence as their opponent somehow stepped out of his own mouth, sticky with mucus but otherwise unharmed. Even the arm Sakura had blown off earlier was back. His face looked different though, devoid of any color safe for the purple outlines of his snake-like, yellow eyes like the one she had seen earlier.
That's probably his real face. Then the other one must've been part of some kind of transformation jutsu. A very gross one, Sakura thought as she suppressed the urge to gag.
"I do have a question though, what is that Taijutsu style you use? I can see elements of the Uchiha style in Sasuke's, but the rest I have not seen before, and it looks too refined for something some kids came up with on a whim."
"What do you care?!" Naruto barked at him.
"Hey now, I may not look like it, but I'm something of a scholar. My goal is to eventually learn every jutsu there is, so if I see a technique I don't know, I naturally get curious!"
Sakura narrowed her eyes, trying to estimate whether or not the guy was serious. But if he was, bidding for time might allow them to come up with a new strategy.
"It's called 'Imperial Fist'," she eventually answered. "You likely don't know it because our sensei invented it only a few years ago. She developed the basis while she was still at the academy, and then mixed it with elements from Gentle Fist and other things she picked up."
"I see, fascinating. Guess I'll look into it at some point."
He then held his hand above his headband. When he lowered it again, the Grass insignia had gotten replaced by the one of Sound.
"But I'd say I've played around enough now."
The snake attacked. The three barely had enough time to jump away before its head crashed into the ground, the shockwave throwing Sakura off-course and causing her to tumble for a moment before she caught herself. She had lost sight of her teammates, but she could hear a dull impact and a gargling noise.
"Naruto! Sasuke!"
"Do you really think you have enough leeway to worry about them?"
First, she felt his killing intent. Then, she could feel his chakra. And then, her body froze.
'Kanashibari no Jutsu!' [Temporary Paralysis Jutsu]
She couldn't move a single muscle. Completely petrified, all she could do was watch as he walked into her field of view and drew closer. The snake hissed loudly behind her and she heard Sasuke grunt in pain. Her opponent smirked and twirled a kunai around his finger before slowly pointing it at her. The blade came closer, but she was still frozen.
"LEAVE SAKURA ALONE!"
Suddenly, despite its low range, her chakra sense got completely overwhelmed. Naruto already had massive chakra reserves, but now, they seemingly had somehow increased exponentially. It was as if the entire area was flooded by his chakra.
Thwack!
Just as their opponent looked in Naruto's direction the blonde was already in front of him, burying his fist in his face. He then expelled more chakra from his hand in a single blast than Sakura had in her entire body. The upper half of the Sound Ninja got completely obliterated while the rest of his body crumpled into mud.
When Naruto looked at her, she could see that his azure eyes had turned crimson with slit-like pupils. What in the world- wait, mud?
Behind you! she wanted to scream, but her mouth was just as immovable as the rest of her body. An inhumanly long tongue broke out of the ground, wrapped itself around him with lightning-fast movements, lifted him into the air, and slammed him head-first into the soil. Naruto's shirt slid up - or, well, down from this position - and revealed a strange seal-like formation on his stomach that Sakura hadn't seen before.
"I see. So he is the Jinchūriki."
The what?
The rest of him came out of the ground as well and ran through a set of hand signs. Chakra flickered at his fingertips as he pressed his hand on the seal.
'Gogyō Fūin!' [Five Element Seal]
Naruto wheezed, then his body went limp and he fell unconscious. The chakra Sakura had felt disappeared, and suddenly, she couldn't sense any chakra in his stomach area, as if there was a black hole in his charka network. However, she noticed that she could move her fingers a bit.
The jutsu is starting to weaken! Hang on, Naruto, I'm coming!
The Grass Ninja suddenly dropped Naruto and recoiled his tongue, preventing it from getting cut off by Sasuke's kunai slash as the boy jumped at him. But in the same movement, he brought up his leg and dug his knee in Sasuke's abdomen.
"You seek power, don't you? I can give it to you," he purred.
He grabbed his arm, pulled him up, and sunk his teeth into his shoulder. The scream Sasuke let out was so full of pain that it almost hurt her physically to hear it.
"NO!"
Finally breaking through the jutsu and being able to move again, she quickly rushed to aid her teammates. Noticing her, the Sound Ninja simply let Sasuke fall to the ground and jumped on the head of his snake which lifted him up. Sasuke fell to his knees and clasped the spot where he had been bitten. Sakura quickly positioned herself between the two boys and their opponent, but the Sound Ninja merely smirked. Then, he held up a 'Heaven' scroll. When had he..?
The scroll burst into flames in his hand. This wasn't one of the fakes, it was the real one, and he destroyed it in front of her eyes.
"My name is Orochimaru," he said. "Sasuke, if you want to see me again, do your best and survive."
The snake carried him off. As soon as she was sure he wasn't turning around, she rushed over to her teammate.
"Sasuke! Sasuke, what's wrong?"
"That… Bastard… did something… ahh!"
"Sasuke, you must stay conscious! Let me take a look!"
She barely managed to pry his hand away. At the spot where Orochimaru had bitten him a strange mark had appeared, somewhat resembling the tomoe of Sasuke's Sharingan.
"He put some form of mark on you! I can feel it disturbing your chakra!" That had to be the understatement of the century. His chakra network was in such a state of absolute chaos that she feared it might be life-threatening. Just from being close to him, she could feel his body temperature rise drastically. She had to do something, but she had no idea what! What could she even do?! Was there maybe a way to cut the mark off from his… chakra… flow…
Her gaze wandered back to Naruto. His stomach still felt like a chakraless pit of nothingness.
"Sasuke! When that guy put that seal on Naruto, did you have your Sharingan active?"
"Urgh…"
"Did you have your Sharingan active?! Did you look at him?!"
"Y-yes…"
"Do you think- Sasuke, stay with me! Focus on my voice! Do you think you can copy it?!"
"My… chakra…"
Right, with his chakra in such disarray, there was no way he could use a jutsu.
"Then… then we'll do it together! Like Tanya-sensei showed us! Use the jutsu through me!"
Sasuke didn't answer, but he managed to weakly raise his right hand. Sakura quickly put her left palm onto his. Trying to synchronize their chakra flows was an absolute nightmare under these circumstances, but she gritted her teeth and powered through. Tanya-sensei had always praised her chakra control, now it was on her to live up to that.
"Okay, I'm ready! Are you still with me?"
He once again didn't answer, but he started doing hand signs with her and she mirrored his movements. He moved slowly, and she could almost see his consciousness slipping away from him. Once their hands formed the last seal, Sakura began to see flickers of chakra on the fingertips of her right hand.
"AAAAAHHHHHH!"
Suddenly, Sasuke screamed even louder than before. Black spots started to appear around the mark.
"Sasuke, the thing is spreading! I think using a jutsu activated it somehow!"
"THEN DO IT ALREADY!"
"R-right!"
Without further hesitation, Sakura pressed her fingers onto his skin.
'Gogyō Fūin!' [Five Element Seal]
As she applied the seal, she could feel her chakra getting drained, but the black spots couldn't spread beyond her fingers and eventually retreated back into the mark. Sasuke went limp in her arms, but she could feel his chakra calming down. She laid him down next to Naruto and quickly checked their vitals. Although unconscious, both boys' breath and heart rates were calm, and Sasuke's temperature began to normalize as well.
Sakura could feel a huge wave of relief wash over her. For a while, she just sat next to them, but eventually, she noticed the forest growing darker. Night was about to fall. As she looked at her teammates, she couldn't help but remember their first training camp under Tanya-sensei. How her endurance had been so bad that the two had reduced their own sleep time just so she could recover.
She stood up. She was exhausted, both physically and mentally, and placing the seal had drained most of her remaining chakra. But she had to ignore that for now. The two boys were counting on her!
"Naruto, Sasuke… rest. It's my turn to stand guard."
A/N: Depending on the version of Naruto you grew up with, Shiore's gender may vary (looking at you, English Dub). In the Japanese original, he is a man, so that's obviously what I consider canon.
As many of you already predicted, two months, even with Tanya, isn't enough to overcome Orochimaru. But it is enough to change the results a bit. Writing Orochimaru's POV wasn't easy, but it was interesting. I hope I managed to portray him well.
Oh, and just FYI, the first review under this chapter will be review number 666 (at least on FFN).
