"Talking"
"Thoughts"
"SCREAMING/YELLING/SHOUTING"
"Jutsu"
"Tailed Beast talking"
"Tailed Beast Thinking"
Sound Effects
Date & Time
|Location|
[Flashback]
[+]
Chapter 12: Forest of Death pt 2
[+]
*Previously on Part 1*
The original Team 7 sprinted far away from the Orochimaru's location, Naruto had originally created 16 shadow clones but 4 were already hidden within the foliage, so when the smoke cloud erupted he and his teammates took off while the hidden clones replaced them.
It was a clever idea but Naruto knew that wouldn't stall the Snake Sannin for long.
"We got to move faster he has already destroyed all my Shadow Clones." Naruto informed after receiving the memory of his last clone.
"Hinata any sign of him?"
"No- Yes he's rapid approaching."
"How much time to we have?" Atsushi asked.
"Less than 3 minutes."
"That's not enough time but we have to try."
"Try what?" Sasuke asked as he dodged a thrown kunai.
"A collaboration jutsu… I need you and Naruto to perform the Firestorm."
The two boys nodded and began weaving hand seals.
"Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
"Wind Style: Cyclonic Thrust!"
Sasuke turned round and spewed a massive fireball the size of a wagon, Naruto followed suit concentrating wind chakra around his arm before releasing a pressurized stream of wind blades. The latter enhanced the former and tore through the dense forest incinerating everything in its path, Orochimaru discovered this late and got burnt to ashes.
Hinata saw this and reported back to the boys, "Guys I think we… Aaargh." She cried in pain as she felt something pierce her side. The Hyuga extracted the Kunai from her side and took a look at it.
'Poison?' was all she could say to herself before collapsing to the ground.
[+]
*Part 2 starts here*
(With the Sand siblings)
Gaara stopped at a clearing. Temari and Kankuro stared at their younger brother in surprise.
"Gaara, is something wrong?" Temari asked cautiously.
The Sand User remained silent for a few moments, before turning his head to the left. "We have company."
No sooner had he said this Genin team from Amegakure appeared out of the foilage.
"Look what we have here boys." Shigure, the team leader chuckled. "Little Suna Nin." he smirked. "No worries Little Suna Nin, we only want your scroll. If you give us your scroll now, then we might not hurt you too bad."
Temari rolled her eyes. "How stupid..."
Kankuro smirked. "Can I kill these ninja, Gaara?" He said grabbing onto a large scroll on his back.
Gaara shook his head. "No."
Kankuro frowned. "Why not? I'd love to show them how weak they are compared to us."
"Us? Weak? I think you're delusional." Baiu, one of Shigure's teammates smirked behind his leader.
"Oh I don't think we are." Temari chuckled. She saw her Jinchuriki brother take a step forward and added, "You guys are in for a real treat. Not everyone gets to be killed by Gaara."
Gaara stayed silent.
The leader stared at them amused, "I think I'll show you weaklings not to mess with us." Shigure pulled his weaponized umbrella from its holster on his back. "Prepare to die." he smirked before opening his umbrella then throwing it in the air. He performed a hand seal and the umbrella began to spin.
"Ninja Art: Senbon Shower!" The umbrella spun faster and faster until senbon needles rained from it.
Gaara stared uninterested as the senbon needles flew straight for him.
Shigure and his teammates smirked at this. "See?" Shigure chuckled. "He's probably skewered to the-" he froze when he saw Gaara surrounded by a shell of... sand? "What? How is that possible?"
Gaara was standing in a shell of sand that was covered with senbon. He looked bored, though menacing.
"You guys did it now." Kankuro chuckled.
The Genin from Ame all took a step back. "Who... who is this guy?" Midare, the third team member whispered.
The sand shell slowly slithered down to the ground, the senbon dropping with soft clangs. Taking advantage of their Shock Gaara instructed his sand to slither over to the Amegakure team and up their bodies.
"Wh-What is this?!" Baiu cried. He tried swiping at the sand.
Shigure was hitting the sand with his umbrella, but it wasn't doing any good. The sand continued to climb up until it had completely encased their bodies, leaving only their faces exposed.
Gaara lifted his open palm up in the air and the sand mirrored the action lifting the encased shinobi some feet above ground.
The three Amegakure shinobi stared in horror as they were lifted into the air by the Suna nin.
Temari giggled and waved her hand. "Bye bye."
Gaara clenched his fist causing the sand to compact, "Sand Burial!"
The sand encased shinobi screamed in agony as they were crushed into paste.
Kankuro chuckled. "What idiots. We tried to warn them."
Gaara turned his head and stared in the eastern direction before narrowing his eyes in the said direction.
Temari noticed her brother was staring off. "Gaara, we should get moving. We're close to the tower."
The Jinchuriki stared in the direction for a few moments longer before turning to his siblings. "Let's go."
The Suna team were about to proceed when they felt a blast of demonic chakra which made Temari and Kankuro to tremble in fear. The chakra was similar to the chakra that Gaara emitted when his killing instincts took over him, which was happening right now.
"That chakra! Mother's sand craves for it. I must see who it is and I must have its blood" Gaara said as he darted off towards the source of the demonic presence.
"Should we follow him?" Temari asked, showing concern for her little brother.
"And risk getting involved in whatever that was. No thank you." Kankuro replied.
[+]
(With Team 7)
Some minutes earlier
Naruto didn't know what came over him, but the sight of Hinata falling to the ground unconscious and knowing that Orochimaru was responsible for it made him angry… very angry.
"Well look at that, one down three more to go!" the traitorous Sannin chuckled after watching the Hyuga girl fall. "So who's next?" He gleefully asked.
Naruto's pupils narrowed into slits as his iris changed from blue to red. His teeth grew into small fangs and his fingers grew claws as the Kyubi's power coursed through him forming a tailless cloak.
Orochimaru's interest spiked as he watched the boy transform, 'So the Kyubi finally comes out to play?'
"I'm gonna kill you." The Uzumaki growled before disappearing into thin air shocking his teammates. The Uzumaki reappeared right in front of the snake sannin, burying a fist into his gut. The Sannin willingly took the hit and almost regretted it as he rocketed backwards before colliding into a tree with a sickening crack.
'Naruto landed a hit!' Sasuke cried mentally not believing what he just saw. His thoughts were then interrupted by the sounds of chuckling.
"Ku ku ku, nice effort Naruto-kun." Orochimaru said before crumbling into dirt, surprising those who were still conscious.
'An Earth clone?' They all thought.
Atsushi and Sasuke were immediately on guard watching each other's backs in case the Snake summoner tried to sneak up on them, Naruto seeing that the Snake master had escaped released an animalistic roar as the chakra cloak took a more fox-like appearance with ears and a tail emerging.
Seeing that the boy was drawing more of the Kyubi's chakra, Orochimaru (The real one) decided to do something about it.
"My my my," He began jumping down from the branch he was stationed on, "I'm impressed Naruto-kun, 13 years old and you can already handle the Kyubi's power without running amok."
"Kyubi's power? What the hell are you talking about?" Sasuke asked glaring at the snake sannin.
"Oh! I'm surprised that you don't know about that Sasuke-kun, looks like your teammate has been keeping you in the dark about his special gift." Orochimaru replied with a sickening grin while Naruto and Atsushi's eyes widen.
"Keeping me in the dark? Special gift? What exactly does he talking about Naruto?" The Uchiha asked turning to his blond teammate for answers.
The Uzumaki opened his mouth but words failed to come out.
'This is bad.' Atsushi thought before glancing at his chakra cloaked friend, 'Why isn't he trying to stop him from telling Sasuke the truth?'
'Why am I not trying to get him to stop?' Naruto said to himself as his chakra cloak slowly faded away.
"Because you're conflicted." Kurama answered.
'Why?'
The nine-tailed fox released an exhausted sigh, "Because a part of you wants the Uchiha to know about me while the other doesn't want him to know about me and now both sides are at a stalemate."
"Naruto," Sasuke called gaining his attention, "What is he talking about?"
All eyes were now on the Uzumaki that no one noticed the purple energy that emerged on the Snake sannin's right hand.
"Sasuke… I." he began only to feel something slimily binding his body, "What?"
"Prepare yourselves." Orochimaru called as his tongue drew the boy close to him, lifting his shirt a bit upwards to reveal his stomach.
"Five Elements Seal!" He declared before slamming the purple colored hand upon the Eight Trigrams Seal locking Naruto's ability to access the Kyubi's chakra.
Naruto let out a cry of pain as he lost consciousness before being tossed over the Sannin's shoulder, landing beside his other unconscious teammate.
'This is bad, no this is very bad.' Atsushi panicked as he began to think of a way to save both himself and his teammates.
'He took him down with one move?' Sasuke thought as he stared at the unconscious form of his teammate, 'He's been toying with us the whole time when he could have easily killed us off within seconds!'
Seeing that the problem which was Naruto had been resolved, Orochimaru turned his focus on the two remaining members of Team 7. "And then there were two." He said smiling at the panicked/fearfully expressions on their faces.
However the Snake master suddenly replaced his cheerful expression with a serious one, "Don't you want power Sasuke-kun?"
"Huh?" was Sasuke's intelligent reply.
"I can give you the power required to defeat Itachi."
Both boys gained shocked expressions on their faces but Orochimaru wasn't done yet, "In order to receive this power all you have to do is to join me Sasuke-kun, join me and together we will accomplish incredible things."
The Uchiha remained silent as he contemplated the offer.
'Yes that it Sasuke-kun/No, please say no.' the Sannin/Kishida thought after seeing that Sasuke was actually contemplating the offer.
Seconds later his decision was made.
"I don't need you power." Sasuke growled out much to the Sannin's ire and his teammate's relief. "I will defeat Itachi on my own!"
"Foolish child but no worries you will soon seek me out for my power after I have given you a little gift." The Sannin then made a hand seal as his neck shot towards the duo only to be interrupted by…
'A wall of sand!' the three thought in unison before a certain red-haired made revealed himself.
"The Uchiha and Uzumaki are mine and no one else! SAND SHURIKEN!" Gaara called sending a multitude of sand projectiles which the snake sannin barely managed to dodge.
'Damn, I won't be to able to get to mark Sasuke now. Oh well, I'm sure I can think of a way to get him.'
As the Sannin was about to cut his losses and retreat, Atsushi turned to his raven-haired teammate.
"Sasuke?"
"Yea."
"I think this will be a good time to grab our teammates and run."
"I totally agree but there is something you failed to consider."
"What's that?"
"We are struck to the ground." The Kishida blinked then stared at his feet and noticed that they were encased in sand.
"Darn it!"
[+]
The snake sannin finally cut his losses and fled the scene, with that solved Gaara turned to his conscious captives and flashed them a maniacal grin which resulted in shivers running down their spines.
"Blood… Mother wants your blood and I aim to give it to her!" More shivers went down their spines.
Gaara slowly stretched his hand towards them when…
"Lightning Style: Thunderbolt Flash!" Out of Atsushi's hands shot numerous arcs of lightning, unfortunately Gaara's sand shot up encasing him in a cocoon.
"Is that the best you got?" The maniacal kid asked emotionlessly after his sand cocoon broke up.
"Fire Style: Grand Incineration!" Sasuke used up a large amount of his remaining chakra and unleashed a very high-powered amount of fire chakra from his mouth into a single fireball, the overpowered fireball smashed into another wall of sand superheating it into glass.
"…"
"…"
"…"
"…"
"You know that didn't get him."
"You don't have to rub it in."
The glass wall was shattered by a sand shockwave before the Suna boy prepared his next attack…
"Sand Shuriken!"
The two boys braced themselves for impact when…
"Wind Style: Lion's Roar!" Naruto appeared before them and unleashes a powerful blast of wind equivalent to the roars of a 1000 lions, the shockwave disintegrated the sand projectiles before plowing Gaara through the dense forest.
Sasuke and Atsushi stared at their blonde teammate then the path of destruction created by his jutsu and back, this continued for another five seconds before Naruto crumbled to ground returning back to his state of unconscious.
[+]
Some hours later
After Gaara was sent flying by our resident blond, Atsushi and Sasuke grabbed their unconscious teammates and immediately seeked out shelter. Luckily they found a suitable cave which wasn't occupied by any wild beast and moved in, they nursed their respective injuries and those of their teammates who still hadn't awaken. It turned out that Hinata was subjected to a knock out agent while Naruto… well the two couldn't really identity what was exactly wrong with him except that it had something to do with his chakra.
Speaking of chakra…
"Atsushi?"
"Yes?"
"Did you know?" Sasuke asked glancing at his unconscious blond teammate.
'No use denying it now.' Atsushi sighed, "I was told on the day we took the Genin exams."
"But that was 5 months ago."
"Yes and before you ask I couldn't tell you or Hinata because it's an SS-rank secret punishable by death." Atsushi explained with the Uchiha nodding in reply.
"So who told you?" The Uchiha continued.
"Mizuki," Atsushi growled out, "He tricked Naruto into sealing a forbidden scroll then tried to kill him, but unfortunately for him Iruka-sensei and I were around to stop him before Naruto created a bunch of shadow clones who beat the hell out of him."
"Oh…"
"…"
"…"
"…"
"…"
"Sooo…" The Kishida begin, "That move Grand Incineration… Where did you learn that?" he asked.
"The Uchiha Jutsu Library, it uses up the chakra worth of 5 Great fireballs and leaves me pretty much tired."
"Wow…"
"Yeah, what about your move Thunderbolt Flash?"
"It's a combination of the Rakurai and Laser Gun, I was saving that for the finals but as you can see…"
"I know the feeling." Sasuke interrupted, "Anyway how long will they be out?" he gestured to their still unconscious teammates.
"A few hours… I hope." The greenette answered.
"Then we will be struck here for a while."
"Looks like it."
"…"
"…"
"I will start the fire."
"I will begin the first watch."
[+]
|Elsewhere in the forest|
Anko dashed through the forest as fast as she possibly could. Her face was of one of fear and concern. "It's almost nightfall..." She thought to herself. "I must find him quickly; once it gets totally dark I will be at a further disadvantage..." She added.
The older kunoichi narrow her eyes with anger. "But why is he here at a time like this? What is his purpose?" She asked herself once more in confusion. "Well it makes no difference if you have come to this village, then we will settle things now." She stated.
Anko then began to run even faster than before. "You are now an S-Rank missing shinobi." She thought to herself as images of a man with a snake appeared in her mind. "I must stop you even if it cost me my life and if that's not possible." She declared with resolve.
Stopping on a tree branch, the Special Jonin crouched down. "I must slow you down until the Anbu arrives." She thought to herself with determination.
Then the older kunoichi began to stand up. "I learned everything from you… I was one of your men... and thus..." She then thought to herself. "... That is my job, right Orochimaru?" She declared vocally as she narrowed her eyes.
Right behind the very tree branch Anko was standing on, the man in question was somehow fused with the tree trunk as he looked at the woman. "That's not possible." Orochimaru declared with amusement.
Anko closed her eyes as Orochimaru remain motionless, still melded to the tree. Then the kunoichi jumped as high as possible while taking out a handful of senbons from within her jacket.
Before Anko could throw them however, Orochimaru simple raised his chin as his tongue began to move on the inside of his mouth. Next thing Anko saw was the S rank criminal actually extended his tongue in an inhuman manner.
The tongue had grabbed the hand which held her senbons. This forced Kunoichi to drop them and leap onto another tree branch.
"I won't let you get away, Striking Shadow Snakes!" Anko screamed as many snakes came out of her jacket while they wrap and bit on the tongue.
Once she had a good hold on his tongue, Anko used every ounce of her strength to pull Orochimaru right off the tree and slam him to the one she was in, leaving a massive cracks on it.
However the Sannin didn't look fazed as he recovered quickly enough to get up and slam her to the trunk of the tree.
Thinking quickly, Anko used her left hand to grabbed Orochimaru's right hand and throw him to the bark while taking kunai from her right sleeve. Then in a manner of sacrificial move, she stabbed the same hand that held Orochimaru's to hold him in place.
Anko resisted both the pain and the urge to scream as her back seriously hurt from the collision, but instead smirked as she had Orochimaru where she wanted. "Hehe, caught you." She said using her right hand to fold his left while making a strange hand seal. "I'm going to borrow your left hand Orochimaru-teme." She declared.
"This seal." Orochimaru got out as he instantly recognized the hand seal.
Anko smirked evilly. "You and I will both die." She declared as she closed her eyes to prepare her suicidal jutsu. "Ninja Art: Double Snake Assassination-"
"Planning to commit suicide?" The voice of Orochimaru declared from a distance away.
Anko's eyes widen for a moment from realized what had just happened, "A Shadow Clone huh?" She said in a calm manner as the Orochimaru in front of her dispersed itself.
"Correct Anko-chan." The Sannin answered before making a hand seal.
Anko flinched and fell in her to her knees while holding her neck in agony. "Why are you here?" She asked through her pain. 'This fucking curse mark again.'
"It's really simple, I surprised that you haven't thought of it yet."
Anko's eyes immediately widen when she realized who he was after, "You bastard…"
"Now now no need for any insults."
"And why is that?"
"Because I haven't marked him… yet but soon or later he will be mine." He waited for her to calm down a bit, "So please don't stop this exam prematurely and if you try to stop my enjoyment…" He continued as he began to melt into a tree branch, "Konoha will burn!" After than he completely vanished learning a cursing Anko behind.
[+]
Morning
August 27
Hinata's eyes slowly began to open as she woke up inside… a cave. The girl tried to recall what occurred before she fell unconscious but came up with a blank.
"Finally you awake," She heard someone said, "I hope you had a good night's rest."
Hinata turned in the direction of the voice and spotted Sasuke leaning against the cave wall, he seemed to have been watching over her.
"Sasuke what happened?" She asked slightly confused.
The Uchiha raised a brow, "You mean you don't remember?" he received a negative nod, "Well while we were fleeing from Orochimaru you got knocked out by one of his sleeping agents."
That made her remember the fight, concerned she asked. "Are…"
"Atsushi and I are fine, Naruto…" He paused before glancing at where the unconscious boy lay, "Is still unconscious."
Hinata blinked then rushed over to the blond and began checking his vitals, the Hyuga activated her Byakugan and released a gasp as she discovered out what's wrong with him. 'This seal wasn't here the last time I checked, what happened after I was knocked out?' She focused her Byakugan on the seal and noticed a mass of red chakra surrounding the seal, 'This chakra is the same one that Naruto-kun displayed at Wave.'
Hearing her gasp Sasuke drew closer, "Find anything?" he asked.
The blue-haired Hyuga nodded, "There is a seal that is preventing him from molding chakra."
"The Five Elements Seal."
"Huh?"
"After seeing you fall Naruto suddenly became angry and called upon his special ability." Sasuke didn't want to tell her about the Kyubi yet.
"Only for Orochimaru to distract us and slam that seal onto his gut." Atsushi's voice rang out from the cave's entrance.
As the Kishida entered the cave, Sasuke saw the look on his face and knew that something was up, "What is it?"
"We got company and not the good kind."
[+]
Sasuke walked out of the cave like tree and into the open, "You can stop hiding now." The Uchiha said loudly, hearing this three enemy genin saw no use in hiding and came out.
"H-how are you up?" the one with black Kakashi-like hair said (Zaku). "I thought the mark Orochimaru gave you should have put you in too much discomfort to fight, if not killed you!"
"What mark?" asked a very confused Sasuke as Hinata and Atsushi appeared beside him. They also wanted to know about this mark the Sound ninja were talking about.
"What do you mean… what mark? The curse mark that should be on the back of your neck" their leader (Dosu) said.
Some seconds later, the boys recalled when Orochimaru's head was traveling towards them, but was stopped by Gaara's sand.
"There is no mark, your boss never gave me a curse mark." Sasuke pointed out. Hinata didn't quite get where this was going and Atsushi was confused at why Orochimaru sent a Genin team after them.
"So Orochimaru-sama failed?" the girl (Kin) asked suddenly not feeling very confident about their mission. "Guys, something is definitely wrong here..." She then muttered to her teammates.
Zaku began to chuckle as he prepared himself without a care in the world. "Doesn't matter in the end, once we finish up the rest, we can kill Sasuke." He remarked with confidence.
Dosu also prepared himself as he looked at the Uchiha. "Exactly, it's time to kill this brat."
On hearing her teammates' decisions, Kin didn't like this plan anymore, but she was still had to follow the other two or risk getting herself killed for betrayal.
"Alright, Kin, you take care of the girl." Dosu ordered the female teammate.
Kin nodded in response to that. "Got it." She responded as she took a look at Hinata who had assumed the Gentle fist stance. 'This is going to be a tough fight.'
Dosu extended his right arm out and charged straight at Sasuke while Zaku pointed his palms at Atsushi.
"Bring it on loser!" Sasuke roared as he got into his inspector fist stance.
"Alright greenie, time to die." Zaku remarked with a smirk as he then pointed the palms of his hands at said Kishida. "Decapitating Airwaves!" He then roared as high-pressured air blast suddenly came from out of device on his hands.
Atsushi's eyes widen at this. "Shit!" He cursed at the incoming attack, he knew that the attack was too quick for him to dodge or used a substitution, so thinking quickly, "Earth Style: Mud Wall!"
The attack had made impact with the poorly made wall and broke through, lucky the wall absorbed much of the jutsu but the Kishida was still sent skidding backwards by the jutsu. 'Still haven't got the hand of that Earth Jutsu.' Atsushi thought as he got back up.
Zaku let out a grunt of annoyance at this, "That won't stop me from killing you!" He announced before revealing the holes in his palms.
[+]
(Meanwhile with Sasuke and Dosu)
Thanks to his Sharingan Sasuke noticed the device on the Sound Genin's arm and decided to play it safe by keeping his distance.
"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!" the Uchiha called out spewing a fireball.
"Resonating Echo Shockwave!" The Sound Genin slammed both melody gauntlets together, producing a sound blast which expanded forwards.
Both attacks canceled out each other in a fiery display of ash and cinders, deciding to use the smoke as a cover Dosu rushed into it with hopes of locating and catching Sasuke off guard. He arrived at the other side and located no Uchiha, "Where did he…"
"Moeruken (Flaming Fist): Explosive Shot!" Dosu was interrupted by punch then a miniature explosion to his back which sent him shooting forward before crashing into the ground, the sound user immediately got up to his feet but whined at the burning sensation on his back. Dosu looked up at his opponent and noticed that his fist appeared to be covered in flames but by the expression on his face it didn't hurt.
"Moeruken: Body Flare Armor!" Reddish flames ignited off Sasuke's body engulfing him in a fire cloak, Dosu look on with an expression of awe and slight fear before the Uchiha charged on. [1]
[+]
|Elsewhere in the forest|
"Man! What a jerk!" A female voice screamed out in annoyance.
The screaming voice of a very annoyed Ino echoed through the forest. Team 10 had encountered Neji and after a pathetic attempt of the girl trying to flirt with him, they quickly made to retreat when the action annoyed said boy.
"How dare he ignore my beauty!" Ino then ranted with her hands balled into fists.
Shikamaru meanwhile groaned to the complaining from his teammate. "Troublesome... I knew that wouldn't work." He grumbled out.
"Well we are in the middle of the exam, we should focus on getting the scroll we need." Choji reminded as he then looked off into the distance. "Like Sasuke over there fighting that Oto Genin." He soon added as he pointed a finger in a specific direction.
That caught Ino's attention as she ran in the said direction, her teammates mumbled something along the lines of girls abandoning whatever they were doing if Sasuke was spotted elsewhere.
[+]
(Kin vs. Hinata)
"Lightning Style: Lightning Senbon!" Kin spent a cluster of her lightning coated senbon towards her opponent.
"Fuzen Kaiten!" A semi-circular dome of chakra deflected the attack away from the Hyuga towards her left.
Kin wasn't having an easy fight, her genjutsu were useless against a Hyuga and Hinata was deflecting or dodging her senbons with such flexibility that it looked like she wasn't even trying. Oh how much Kin regretted accepting this mission.
Hinata on the other hand was dominating against her opponent, after learning that they were here to finish up what Orochimaru started she was determined not to let that happen.
"Eight Trigrams: Vacuum Palm!" She called blasting her opponent against a tree bark, disorienting her. Hinata wasted no time and moved in for the finish.
"Eight Trigrams: 32 Palms!"
[+]
(Zaku vs. Atsushi)
Among all the members of Team 7 it looked like Atsushi was given the most difficult opponent to deal with, his lightning attacks were neutralized by Zaku's air blasts and the Kishida couldn't get close enough to engage him in taijutsu without being blasted by a Decapitating Airwave then lastly he couldn't use any water jutsu due to the absence of a water source. So the Kishida patiently waited for his spiked opponent to make a wrong move.
Zaku's face, though it was clearly tired, was beyond mad with rage from having someone making him seem like an idiot, his opponent has stopped fighting a while back and was dodging his wind blasts left, right and centre making him to waste a lot of his chakra already.
"Well then punk," He started with an enraged tone as he reached for his pocket and pulled out a dark purple pill that was glowing.
"Huh?" Atsushi muttered in confusion at the sight of the pill.
"It's time to end this!" Zaku stated as he put the pill in his mouth and swallowed it.
At that moment, his entire body then began to convulse, dark purple chakra wafting off of his body but focusing more on his hands.
[+]
|Naruto's Mindscape|
"Almost there… Almost there." Kurama grunted as he poured more of his chakra into the seal, causing it to corrode. "I just need a few more minutes!"
[+]
"What in the world?" Atsushi said as he felt waves of foul chakra flowing out of the spiky-haired Sound Genin.
"What's… going on?" Sasuke panted out as he stood over the unconscious and partially burnt figure of Dosu. The Moeruken (Flaming Fist): Body Flare Armor used up a good chunk of his chakra and his reserves hadn't quite filled back up since the battle against Orochimaru.
However what Sasuke failed to note was that his opponent wasn't really unconscious just severely tired and in pain but conscious, 'Zaku makes a good point… Orochimaru-sama's pill should help turn the tables.' Dosu thought then painfully reached into his pouch.
It didn't take long for him to grab a pill and pop into his mouth as seconds later he witnessed a transform similar to Zaku.
"Are you guys' nuts?" Kin cried out as she watched her teammates transform into vile monsters, 'How could they consume experimental pills like that?' The girl tried to crawl her way to safety but winced as Hinata's last attack caused her a lot of pain.
Zaku and Dosu howled in pain as their skin began to take a reddish-brown tint that added with the fact that their muscles seemed to triple in size as the pill begun its work, Team 7 and Kin knew that they were in big trouble.
Lucky help arrived…
"Leaf Hurricane!" A eccentric voice got out as suddenly.
The two Oto genin were forced back by a familiar green spandex wearing shinobi.
"It would be unwise to continue this, leave now or else I, Rock Lee the Beautiful Green Beast of Konoha will be forced to attack back for attempting to hurt a fellow comrade." Lee declared as he took a battle stance.
"Lee?"
"Fear not my youthful friends; for I Rock Lee shall defeat this vile monster." Lee pointed at Dosu, "While you guys handle the other."
"Lee-san shouldn't we…"
"Dynamic Entry!" Lee called out jump-kicking Dosu in face. Hinata blinked then turned to Atsushi who then shrugged before offering a solider pill to Sasuke, the Uchiha nodded as he ingested the pill.
"You heard the weirdo." Sasuke began now in leader mode as he felt his reserves building back up, "Hinata try to draw his fire while me and Atsushi prepare a combo."
"Sasuke you sure?" Atsushi asked warily, "You aren't that adept with lightning jutsu yet."
"Heh I'll manage, now Hinata go."
Hinata nodded before sprinting off towards the abomination that was Zaku.
[+]
|Within the bushes|
The three members of Team 10 eyes widen as they watched the intense battle between the two groups.
"So Ino what do you us to do now?" Shikamaru asked.
Ino gulped as watched the speed Lee displayed as he dodged each and every one of Dosu's attacks and punches.
"Ino?"
"Eh?" Ino got out in confusion.
"Should we leave or help out?" Choji asked.
"Maybe we should just watch for now." She replied as she watched Lee unravel his bandages before vanishing in a blur, the green beast reappeared in front of monstrous Dosu then crouch down and smashed his foot into his opponent's chin sending him airborne. Lee appeared before the monstrosity that was Dosu and wrapped him in bandages, once that was done he grabbed his opponent and spun downwards.
"Primary Lotus!" Lee cried before the two hit the ground…
BOOOMMM!
Creating an explosive cloud of dust, debris and smoke, Lee landed just outside the impact zone, breathing heavily with a grin on his face, as everyone saw the motionless and unconscious form of Dosu in the crater.
"… well that's going to leave a mark."
"A very nasty one."
[+]
(With the rest)
Kin had already passed out thanks to all the pressure and KI being produced or what was she was hit by one of Zaku's Decapitating Airwaves? Anyway no need to worry about her now.
Zaku well…
The spiked-haired genin at this point had completely lost himself to the power of the pill, he couldn't make complete sentences now and his attacks were completely random. Despite this Hinata was still keeping that monstrosity at bay while her teammates prepared their combo attack, the Hyuga had initially tried to seal off his chakra but it wasn't quite working so she went defensive and her Fuzen Kaiten worked perfectly against his Decapitating Airwaves.
Atsushi and Sasuke were almost done with their combo when a crimson blur rushed out of the cave and smashed a fist into Zaku making him sliding backwards as blood and teeth flew out from impact.
[+]
|Not far from the fight|
TAP! TAP!
At that moment, Neji and Tenten soon landed near the battlefield and when they saw what was taking place, their eyes widen from shocked.
"What the…? What in the world is going on here?" Tenten go out as she didn't believe what her eyes were seeing.
Neji quickly activated his Byakugan so that he could analyze the situation, only to go wide-eyed at what he saw. "H-How?" He got out in shock and disbelief.
Upon hearing the tone of her teammate, Tenten turned towards him in concern. "Neji? What wrong? What the heck is attacking that freak?" She asked, but she got no response since her teammate was speechless.
[+]
(With the rest)
The crimson blur wasn't done as it started to move around the Sound genin, so fast that it looked like streaks of lightning.
As this was happening a thought came to the members of Team 7
'Is that Naruto?'
The team and the rest of the Genin watched as the Naruto pounded Zaku into a bloody pulp, but didn't kill him as he fell unconscious from the damage his body received both from the Uzumaki and the pill.
Once sure that his opponent was down, Naruto's red aura disappeared as he searched Zaku for a scroll.
After a minute, "Hey Guys they have an Earth Scroll!" Naruto announced before turning around to view his still stupefied teammates.
"Umm… is something on my face?"
[+]
A/N: So sorry for the long delay, it been over a month since I last posted and I'm very sorry about that. The truth is that I got lost on the path of inspiration and I was kinda occupied by some other things.
Anyway the next chapter will finish up where this one stopped.
It is come to my attention that some of you guys think that Atsushi is the strongest member of Team 7, just to clear up this fact: Atsushi is not and will not be the strongest member of the Team, so please flush out such thoughts from your minds.
[1] – Having unlocked his Sharingan during the Wave mission Sasuke was granted as to the Uchiha Clan Library when he stumbled across the Moeruken: Body Flare Armor Technique. The technique coats the user in reddish flames which grants slightly increased speed and strength as well as protection against any physical attacks.
I hope the past 4 weeks has been pleasant? If not then next week shall be.
Next Chapter: Some Answers
Total number of words: 6097 words.
Jamesco1292002