It was late into the night almost morning when Sakura felt someone moving along the edge of the genjutsu, in the bushes surrounding the area she'd hidden. She was confident they couldn't see her considering the illusion and the faint light, but the sun would fully rise in less than an hour and the sealed genjutsu would probably fade not long after that time. Naruto's chakra could hold far longer than that, but the seal slowly weakened as chakra flowed through it.
"They should be around here, we're near the battle site of Orochimaru-sama and my sound waves detected three people unless we've come across another team," she heard a male voice and knew she had to act first. Keeping hidden she cast a transformation jutsu taking on the form of the Hidden Rain ninja they faced earlier, took out one of his unique double edged kunai, and then cast a simple mist jutsu.
Leaping onto a tree that made her visible above their mist and drawing their attention she called out to them, "Who are you and what scroll do you have?" She had the correct form, the right weapon, and was using water jutsu which might be expected from a ninja from the Hidden Rain, though the technique was actually most commonly used by ninja from the Hidden Mist. Unfortunately, with Naruto out for the count she couldn't rely on any fake scrolls so bargaining was out of the question unless she was willing to give up their actual scroll which was a last resort.
She carefully looked over the group and recognized them from the first exam and recalled the bandaged ninja could release a close range attack that didn't require contact, which was likely related to sound. The others she couldn't guess their skills without any information. "Hey Dosu, can we just kill him?" The non-bandaged ninja asked nonchalantly, ignoring her question entirely.
The bandaged man, Dosu shrugged, "Why not?" His gaze flickered towards her for a moment, "Unless you have information about the whereabouts of Sasuke Uchiha, in which case we might be a bit nicer." He directed the second statement to her and at her denial of any knowledge he indicated the first boy could kill her.
Dropping into the mist she used the lack of visibility to cast what was probably one of her most complex genjutsu, it involved layering a second nearly identical, but more noticeable genjutsu directly over her first. She did so as they were approaching in case any of them were genjutsu types and her decision was rewarded when the girl called to her teammates, "There's a genjutsu here, he's probably trying to escape or assassinate us."
All three yelled, "Kai," and broke the first layer of the genjutsu not realizing the second layer that had already been very delicately woven into place before they arrived. It didn't cost much chakra because she only needed to hold it long enough to fool them and it warded off suspicion about what was hidden. As long as she kept them distracted hopefully they wouldn't search any deeper. "Nice try," the girl said, referring to the genjutsu they broke. It was meant to paint Sakura's genjutsu skills as mediocre and someone as arrogant as this girl seemed to be immediately assumed Sakura had nothing better, that was a big personality flaw for a ninja. The mist was already beginning to fade and Sakura didn't want to waste time sitting around, the longer she waited the larger their advantage.
Throwing a shuriken Sakura cut the wire letting a log swing towards them, which they didn't seem concerned about. Dosu jumped up and shattered it with his ability, but the genjutsu hid the tags that were scattered across the log until it shattered. The explosions in the air sent him flying towards the ground and cleared the mist, though the shuriken she threw to hit him while he was vulnerable were sent back by air pressure from his teammate.
"Dosu, let me have him," he boy asked with smiled with a sadistic smile.
"Do whatever you want Zaku, this fight was your idea anyway," Dosu agreed. Both of them paused when they heard their female teammate yell out to them. She had walked right into the area Sakura had hidden a scroll, Sakura had been watched her approach and slammed her hand down releasing oil around the area the girl was standing. Rather than wait Sakura threw an exploding tag igniting the liquid. Without Sasuke's flames enhancing things, the fire was weaker than their attempt on Orochimaru, but it definitely couldn't feel good and she likely couldn't shed her skin.
Zaku was distracted by her screams just long enough for Sakura to charge at him. Considering his main fighting tactic was releasing pressurized air she doubted he had great taijutsu skills, she just needed to make sure he didn't get an opening to hit her with the pressurized air. She was able to give him a few chakra enhanced strikes, but flinched for a moment despite herself.
She didn't turn to see, but she knew the minute the genjutsu seal ran out and her tiny reaction gave Zaku the time to send her sprawling back. Now that the boys were visible she dropped her transformation. Keeping it up was a waste and casting another genjutsu to hide them wouldn't work because they already noticed.
Sakura forced herself back to her feet and quickly took position in front of Sasuke and Naruto to protect them from the sound ninja who were looking a bit worse for the wear, but unfortunately still active. The boys were both bruised, but it was the girl who had it worst: she had small burns across her body, her clothes were damaged, and her hair was damaged as well. "Looks like you made the right choice to fight, Sasuke was here taking a nap the whole time," Dosu said to Zaku.
"I'm going to kill that bitch, but first I think I'll take out her little friend," she said throwing needles aiming for Naruto. Sakuar forced herself to jump in the way without enough time to block them. She made sure not to let them hit anywhere vital, but the larger issue was it left her open for Zaku to her hit again. She sent chakra to her feet to stop herself from colliding with the tree behind her and leaving the boys open to the other girl's attacks.
Seeing Dosu charging at her she let more needles strike her and released the final scroll she had hidden, the water sealed inside started bubbling out and she immediately sent a shot of water at the girl with enough speed to knock her off her feet. Despite causing the least damage she was most wary of her, mainly because Dosu and Zaku were firmly set on attacking Sakura first, while the girl targeted Naruto. Turning her attention back to Dosu she knew she didn't have enough time to use any ninjutsu to stop him, but right before he reached her someone dropped down and knocked him back.
Dosu was able to get back to his feet and asked, "Who are you?" He sounded more annoyed than actually concerned. A ridiculously dressed male appeared in front of her and though it took a moment she recognized him as he introduced himself.
"The Beautiful Green Beast of The Hidden Leaf, Rock Lee," Lee replied and if he had simply introduced himself simply by name it probably would have been more effective. Still Sakura wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth, the fact that he was here and on her side was very helpful. Unfortunately from what Sakura could grasp his style was largely taijutsu which would put him at a serious disadvantage against Dosu.
"Lee, what are you doing here?" Sakura asked, she really hadn't interacted with the other boy much and she certainly didn't know how he found her.
"I will always appear when you are in danger," he said taking a position in front of her as if to protect her, "though I apologize for my lateness when I first arrived you were transformed and I left. As I was leaving I heard someone mention Sasuke and I turned back to gather information in case you were involved.
"Why?" Sakura asked.
"Because I have sworn that I will protect you until the day I die," and though he congratulated himself on how cool he was, which should have been lame, Sakura appreciated it. She was willing to risk her life to protect her team because she loved them albeit in very different ways, and here was Lee jumping directly into danger for her sake. He might look odd and act weird, but anyone willing to stand in front of her to defend her was someone she was willing to respect.
However, she refused to be a person who constantly needed to be protected. Relying on others was part of life, she was on a team for a reason, but she needed to play her part. Right now that was helping Lee. "Neither of us are dying today, Lee," she stated with confidence that the situation might not have warranted.
"That's all very sweet, but it's time for me to end both of you," Dosu charged again and trying to conserve chakra Sakura sent shurikin at him though he easily jumped them and move to descend on Lee. To everyone's surprise Lee reached into the ground and pulled out gigantic tree roots blocking Dosu from getting too close. He unwrapped the bandages from his arms, with a speed that shocked Sakura, and managed to get below Dosu. With a well placed kick he sent him flying into the air.
Somehow he was able to shoot into the air, grab Dosu, bind him in bandages, and pile drive him into the ground with strength that could kill someone. Unfortunately, what would have been hard ground was softened greatly by Zaku's sound waves allowing Dosu to survive with only a bit more damage done to his body.
On Lee's part she noticed there was some recovery time for the technique because he was still crouched seemingly in some pain leaving him unable to escape Dosu's attack. To prevent a follow up strike from Dosu Sakura was forced to use up some of the little chakra she had left to send a blast of water, knocking him backwards into Zaku. Sakura was nearly out of chakra and everyone was out of commission, she was considering a move that was borderline suicidal when suddenly the Ino-Shika-Cho team appeared out of the bushes.
Before Sakura could say anything Ino made sure to declare, "I'm only doing this to help Sasuke."
"Thank you, Ino," Sakura responded not pointing out the fact that she didn't ask why Ino was helping. Things didn't work too well for their team, although they did manage to trap Dosu with Shikamaru's shadow Ino ended up injured when Zaku willingly attacked his possessed teammate. Chouji's own attack didn't hit because he went after Zaku who was still able to move, leaving him dizzy and disoriented.
They did give Sakura enough time to catch her breath and decide on her plan for taking out Zaku, she flooded all of her remaining chakra through her body and ran at Zaku draining her small reserve as she dodged and resisted his air pressure strikes. When she finally reached him she landed one blow before being launched back towards Sasuke and Naruto, essentially empty of chakra. However, all she needed was one strike because she planted an explosive tag on his right arm and set it off before she crashed.
Zaku screamed and cursed in pain, Sakura thought she managed to crack a few bones at the very least. When all hope finally seemed lost and Dosu was freed from Shikamaru's shadow Lee's team appeared in the trees just adding to the absolute mess that was going on. She hoped their confidence wasn't unfounded and someone could put these Sound ninja down. If she was facing just one of them she was fairly confident she had a good chance especially against the girl, but three on one had been too much for her.
Just trying to move sent waves of pain through her body, she allowed the conversation going on to continue as she tried to struggle to a seated position. Everything seemed to pause when she heard a sound behind her, "Sasuke," she called out turning to look at him trying to force the pain aside.
The moment she actually saw him any joy she felt was frozen when she realized he was covered in black marks coming from the point where he was bitten. His chakra felt off and when he looked at her the marks lit up and to spread, his chakra becoming darker and heavier at the same time. Her skin crawled and she was struck speechless when he asked, "Sakura, who did that to you?"
Sasuke slept fitfully, swallowed in nightmares as fighting went on around him, his brother's voice mocked him as he sat looking at his parents' blood. The first thing that struck him was the pain radiating from his shoulder. The pain was blown away the moment he saw Sakura, his anger overrode any lingering pain. Sakura was a ninja and injuries came with the lifestyle, he was aware of that, but looking at her he couldn't accept it.
Bloodied, bruised, and collapsed in exhaustion with needles sticking out of her staring at him like she was terrified of something. It was like something born from his nightmares, his bloody past superimposed on his present. He didn't want to see pain in those he cared about, and for him to be feeling this monstrous fury at her state he must care for her in some way. He was going to do something to right the wrong in front of him, hurt those who hurt her and wipe the fear from her face.
The burning on his shoulder that had been awakened by the torture his mind provided continued to flare the longer he looked at Sakura. Deep down he knew he should rebel against this darkness, but he felt incredible and instinctively knew what he was meant to do, he was going to punish whoever harmed Sakura.
This desire for revenge only proved that he was right in wanting to kill his brother. If destroying the people who hurt Sakura felt so right, then wanting to kill his brother for everything he did was the next step. This power granted to him by Orochimaru served a purpose and rather than run from it he leaned into it further. Sasuke knew what he was, an avenger, he would give up or take anything to complete his mission.
"Sakura," he asked needing to know, "who did that to you?"
There was a deafening silence nobody spoke and even the forest seemed to quiet, frozen by the energy pouring off Sasuke. Some like Sakura were unable to speak while others were unwilling to get the attention of Sasuke as he was now. "Sasuke," she managed to get out weakly, "your body." She wanted to convey what was wrong physically not only in his surface appearance, but in his chakra because she could feel how wrong it was.
"Don't worry, I feel power flowing through me," he paused for a moment before stating to everyone and nobody, "I feel great." There was something distant in the way he was speaking as if he was talking to himself and not actually trying to assuage her fears, not that his words did anyway.
If he felt great then she had no doubt that he was being consumed, because she knew that in his right mind Sasuke would never feel great in the depth of that darkness. The idea that hours ago he felt terrified of Orochimaru and now he was fully accepting of the curse bestowed on him was inconceivable to her. "Yes, I understand why he gave this to me," Sasuke continued speaking, "I'm willing to eat the devil's fruit and gain the power to fully realize what I am, an avenger" His voice dipped when he called himself an avenger.
In most other places Sakura would have found random declarations almost comical, but here it was disturbing and full of dark certainty to the point that she truly believed Sasuke, at this moment, was capable of anything. She wasn't able to voice any of that before he spoke again addressing everyone, "Who was it?" His voice was cold as ice despite the flames burning across his skin.
Zaku either having a death wish or being completely unable to comprehend what was in front of him announced cockily, "It was me, what are you going to do?" Sakura didn't know what he would do, but she knew Zaku would regret saying anything.
The moment the boy spoke Sasuke locked his eyes on him, his Sharingan flaring to take in every detail of the boy he was going to crush. People spoke, but Sasuke could barely hear them not caring in the slightest what they said to or about him. His target raised his arms, one slightly unsteady, and released his attack pushing everything he had into it. Sasuke saw it as if it was all in slow motion he grabbed Sakura and Naruto, moving them both out of the way and still was quick enough to be standing next to the arrogant male.
He launched him across the clearing with a single strike, but that wasn't enough Sasuke wanted to make him hurt. He followed up with blasts of fire hiding shuriken and even when they found their target Sasuke felt no satisfaction, he wanted to make him hurt more. Getting behind him was child's play letting him grab the arms he used to hurt Sakura and pull them behind his back. For a moment he waited wanting to savor the moment as he started pressing his foot down increasing the pressure and listened to him scream. Still it wasn't enough, he wanted to truly make him hurt so it wasn't until he felt and heard a satisfying snap that he pulled away. Satisfied for only a moment he turned to the last Sound Ninja still functioning and asked, "Will you be able to make it more fun for me?"
The dark thoughts begging him to continue all went silent when he felt a light impact and heard a yell, "Stop!"
Sakura had been frozen the entirety of Sasuke's fight because as much as she marveled at Sasuke's improved strength and speed there was something entirely wrong, how much he enjoyed it. Sakura had truly been fighting to the death with the very same ninja Sasuke was facing now, but she fought with the grim reality that she was the only one able to protect her comrades. She fought with purpose, Sasuke was fighting because he wanted to cause pain using her as an excuse.
Sasuke had always enjoyed sparring to push his limits and improving, but this was something else entirely. Now, as she flinched at the snap of Zaku's arms she could see Sasuke's release a breath as if that was caused some form of relief.
When he turned to Dosu hoping to do more of the same she forgot all of the pain and exhaustion she was feeling because she couldn't let Sasuke do anymore. He was betraying who he was as a person under the influence of Orochimaru and doing this was letting that monster win. This wasn't Sasuke and she couldn't let him forget who he was. She screamed, "Stop!" and grabbed him from behind hugging him tightly.
Despite all of the strength she had found in herself since she began training she couldn't hold in her tears. He turned to face her and she didn't know what he saw when he looked at her, but she found herself almost begging, "Please," her voice broke, "stop."
Sakura's arms were wrapped around him and when he locked eyes with her the only thing he could see was terror softened only by teardrops. He realized the fear he wanted to end, wasn't born facing the enemies, it was from him. What he was feeling, the mixture of anger and lust for hurting others, slowly faded as he focused on the feeling of her heart rapidly beating against his back and the pain in her voice. She was clearly terrified, but she still embraced him begging him to come back to himself.
Somehow despite everything going on inside him, he was weak to her voice. He found the power leaving and collapsed into Sakura's arms. Dosu fled dropping his scroll, but taking his team with him. Without the curse powering him he was too weak to do anything else. He finally allowed himself to take in everything around him that had been useless background noise. Most of the genin from Konoha he knew were gathered, very few of them looked good. Lee in particular looked like he had been through the ringer and Naruto was still clearly unconscious from the fight with Orochimaru.
He managed to get to his feet in time to watch Naruto get smacked awake and listen with half an ear to the chatter starting up. None of this was relevant to him, not now when he had other things to focus on.
The first thing Sakura did once getting up was go to check on Naruto who had been woken up and Lee who was being helped to his feet by Ino. After confirming the two were alright she took a moment to thank Lee and make sure Naruto knew to treat him well even if he didn't know everything that happened. She went to thank Ino and her team, of course Ino continued to swear it had nothing to do with Sakura and tried to bicker about Sasuke to restore some status quo. Sakura played along a bit, but she had largely moved past petty arguments.
A large part of her was still reeling from what happened and she needed to recover mentally as well as physically. The boys weren't in great shape either so the three managed to trudge to a nearby river to set up camp again after snagging the Sound Ninja's scroll giving them a complete set. Naruto was given an abridged version of the story, because getting too into detail felt like reliving an experience she rather forget.
It was something to revisit, just not today.
Naruto knew they weren't telling him everything that happened, Sakura was really the only one who knew the entirety of the story and though she was vague in parts Naruto got a general idea. He allowed himself to recover from the battle with Orochimaru and tried to study the seal that had been placed on him, which he didn't recognize. The obvious issue, aside from the fact that someone placed a seal on him, was that it was an uneven numbered seal which was placed over the even number seal that he'd come to think of as normal.
His chakra was having some trouble with it's flow and he guessed that he was expending extra chakra to do things, but considering the large pool of chakra he had the effects weren't too noticeable unless he focused.
The seal that disturbed him far more was the one on Sasuke's neck that Sakura asked him to examine, it was something Naruto couldn't fully understand. He'd reached the point where with some time he could understand the basics of a seal if he could study it, the seal placed on him was strong, but served a simple purpose to prevent chakra flow. The seal on Sasuke's neck appeared to be a three a unique three pronged seal, but just probing it slightly showed it was something almost impossibly complex and the three marks were simply it's inactive state.
Working together the three tried to piece together what exactly it was, any time Sasuke tried to use chakra he felt pain and the mark activated which meant it clearly fed on chakra without permission almost similar to Kakashi and his borrowed Sharingan when he opened his eye. Any chakra that was absorbed seemed to be twisted and poisoned into a powerful dark chakra familiar to them thanks to Orochimaru. Beyond that they didn't know much about it, the best solution they came up with was for Naruto to create a seal that blocked Sasuke chakra from reaching that point of his body.
With Naruto's chakra being a bit shaky the best he could produce was a three point seal that blocked chakra to that area which inevitably broke when Sasuke used his Sharingan for more than a short period of time. Still that was a better solution that trying to seal the dark chakra from coming out, which Naruto simply didn't have the power or skill to do. Sasuke did inform him that it helped with the pain that would flare up occasionally so that at the very least was a plus.
It was time to head to the tower, they had their scrolls and they had recovered to the point where they could reasonably function. Sakura still looked like one barely healed bruise, Naruto's chakra flow was still feeling sludgy, and Sasuke was literally cursed, but they needed to finish this portion of the exam to get to someone who could help them. Considering the list of adults they all actually trusted it meant they needed to find Kakashi.
A/N
Way quicker than the past few chapters, right? It's a bit shorter and closer in length to the earlier chapters almost 4,500 words rather than 6,000+, but unless I added more random bits it didn't need to be longer.
The fight itself was different in how the fighting went in the beginning, but I wanted it to go with the same ending because like I mentioned earlier the story line itself needs to follow canon until a certain point, however the way things occur within I'm changing up. This version of Sakura could definitely take Kin because she's a more well rounded genjutsu user and depending on the circumstances I think she could have beaten Zaku or Dosu. Her largest disadvantage was a lack of mobility because she was guarding her teammates. Without them dodging would have been much easier and she could keep a distance.
I mentioned earlier than if I didn't want to write about a part of canon I'd skip it so that's what I'm doing with their fight with the Amegakure ninja on the way to the tower. In this version since they sealed their initial scroll inside another unmarked scroll Orochimaru didn't steal it so another fight is irrelevant. Also Sakura still had her long hair, not because I care one way or another, but because I didn't do the whole hair cutting scene. I know that's supposed to be a "moment", but here the entire fight is her dedicating herself to protecting others and doing anything to win. As well as the moment where she doesn't just give up and let Lee take over entirely, instead she fights with him and protects him from Dosu once he falls.
I kept some of the original dialogue for Sasuke's curse mark scene I did however jump back and forth to describe how Sasuke and Sakura felt during the time. I was going to change the dialogue, but changed my mind instead I wanted see if I could slightly change the feeling of the scene without having to change anything if that makes sense. It was slightly less just horror "orochimaru's awful curse Sasuke's gone insane" and a bit more of an emotional look at Sakura's reaction and Sasuke's mindset.
Please let me know what you thought, I'd appreciate it.