Shizuka was frozen in place.
She couldn't move.
She couldn't breath.
A kunai was fast approaching her head and she couldn't move. Blood splattered all over the clearing as the lethal weapon embedded itself in her skull. She was dying and where was Sasuke? No no no he had to live because Natsumi didn't.
And then Shizuka realized she wasn't dead yet. There was no pain, no blood, only a red haze around the edges of her vision and a deeply paralyzing fear.
Genjutsu.
Her eyes blazed crimson red, instantly identifying the genjutsu placed on her. Release. Release. Release.
But the genjutsu wouldn't release, too strong for a genin. Even a genin more well-versed in the art of genjutsu as most. At that exact moment, she realized that this woman, this grass nin, was in a completely different league than them.
"Sh-shizuka" Sasuke's voice cut through her terror like a knife through butter. His voice was strained and his body as unmoving as hers.
"I can't get out." She spoke breathlessly. "I know it's a genjutsu but I can't get out."
Out of the corner of her eyes she saw her cousin's trembling arm slowly but surely inch towards his kunai pouch.
"It's okay." His voice was sharper than usual. "I'll figure it out."
"Oh?" The woman gave a predatory grin. "You can still move?"
Shizuka was still desperately trying to will herself to just move. Wiggle her toe, a finger, anything.
In the meantime, Sasuke had managed to pull a kunai out of his pouch, slowly bracing himself back into a fighting stance.
"Very good." The grass nin praised, grabbing two kunai of her own. "Now what? No need to worry, I'll make this quick, but you already knew that."
Shizuka's eyes went impossibly wide as the two very real kunai were thrown at them in some sick sense of deja vu. She still couldn't fucking move and now they were going to die for real.
A grunt of pain sounded from her side and the next thing she knew is that a pair of arms wrapped around her, blue fabric pressed into her face, and then she was in a tree. Her ankle knocked harshly into the branch and sent sharp pulses of pain up her nerves but she could finally move again.
A deep rattling breath shuddered out of her as she gently unwrapped herself from Sasuke's tight grip. Her eyes immediately narrowed in on the gaping wound on his thigh.
"Shit" She cursed softly. "We need to get that bandaged."
"No time." Sasuke grunted. "Where's Naruto?"
"I don't know..." she trailed off as a shiver ran down her back, the hairs in her neck standing up. Slowly, her head turned around until her eyes locked on an absolutely massive snake heading their way at high speed.
With no grace and all brute force, she managed to grab Sasuke by the collar and jumped out of the tree right before the snake splintered straight through it. Holy shit.
Another shoot of pain traveled up her leg as she landed on her ankle hard again. Sprained? Not good. Before the pair had time to recover, the snake was on them again. They scattered in different directions and the snake opted to follow her cousin instead.
Sasuke was uselessly chucking shuriken after shuriken at the reptile, sharigan blazing angrily, but the sharp metal harmlessly bounded off the scales. "Stay away from me!" Sasuke's voice was laced by a sharp desperation she hadn't ever heard from him before.
Finally, a kunai managed to land right in the beast's open mouth. It shrieked and writhed around in pain before falling to the ground with a resounding boom.
"Is it dead?" She asked hesitantly, stupidly.
Her cousin let out a shuddering breath, taking cautious steps backwards until he was side to side with his teammate.
"I think so?"
The disgusting sound of peeling scales crackled through the otherwise eerily quiet clearing. Shizuka could only raise a hand in front of her mouth as she looked with wide eyes as the giant snake started shedding its skin, shrinking until the grass nin was left standing in its place.
"Maybe not." She breathed.
"I can sense your fear and desperation." The woman hissed. "It's only natural. The prey mustn't let down its guard in front of a predator."
In an instant, her body stretched and elongated unnaturally, curling around a tree before launching herself straight at the duo, jaw wide open and sharp teeth glinting in the light. Shizuka frantically scrambled for a kunai, while Sasuke made to dodge sideways.
A volley of shuriken comes from their left, interrupting the snake-woman's attack as she had to curl her neck in yet another unnatural direction to dodge out of the way.
"Looks like I came just in time."
Shizuka had never been as glad to see Naruto, relatively unharmed, as right this moment.
"Naruto, get out of here!" Sasuke hollered. "You have no idea what you're up against! Go while you still can!"
Shit, Sasuke was really panicking now. He would never have said that otherwise. Not like Shizuka wasn't still trembling with fear too.
"So you managed to escape from inside my snake friend?" The grass nin commented with something akin to amusement. "Well done..."
Shizuka's mouth dropped open. Naruto had been inside one of those freakishly big snakes?! And somehow gotten out of it?!
"Alright, I have no idea what's going on here" Naruto spoke with an accusatory jab of his hand towards the woman. "But I do know that you've been picking on my teammates and I don't like that at all! So go on and slither back into your dark evil snake hole, lady, before I make a pair of shoes out of you!"
Well, that was a nice speech.
"You can have it." Shizuka's head swiveled back around to her other teammate, his sharingan now deactivated, as he pulled out the heaven scroll. "You want the scroll right? Take it and leave us in peace."
"Are you crazy, Sasuke?" Naruto protested loudly, arms motioning around dramatically. "We're not handing over our scroll to the enemy. No way!"
"Shut up and stay out of this!" Sasuke snapped right back.
"Are you hearing this, Shizuka?!" The blonde turned around to his female teammate. "He's gone insane."
"No." She responded quietly, an uneasy undertone in her voice. "He's right. This is not a fight we can win."
"Very smart, you two." The grass nin chuckled darkly. "Sometimes when the prey wishes to save its own skin, it will sacrifice something even more precious."
With gritted teeth, Sasuke tossed the scroll to their opponent, only for Naruto to jump in the middle and swipe the scroll out of the air. Leaping through the trees, he made his way back to a silent Shizuka and a highly annoyed Sasuke.
"Stop trying to be the hero, Naruto!" Sasuke shouted with clenched fists. "Just get lost and leave this to me-"
The boy was abruptly shut up by a punch to the jaw from Naruto. Shizuka gasped as Sasuke nearly fell over, reaching out a hand to steady her cousin.
"This is so not the time to be fighting amongst each other!" Shizuka hissed angrily.
"Well," Naruto, completely ignoring Shizuka went on. "I may not know the password but at least I know who I am. You, I'm not too sure about. How do I know it's really you?"
"Oh my god, can we not do this now!" Shizuka glowered in exasperation. "It's the real one."
"What kind of joke is this?" Sasuke growled, squaring up to the blonde. "Of course it's me, you loser!"
"Liar!" Naruto growled right back. "You may look and sound just like the real Sasuke, but there's no way you're the Sasuke that I know! I don't care how hard this fight's been for you! Giving up? When did you become such a coward?!"
"Naruto, please" Shizuka begged. "If we fight this, we're going to die. You haven't seen all she can do. She's just playing with us."
"Fine!" The blonde whirled around, bristling in agitation. "You're both a bunch of cowards. I'll do it myself!"
Naruto grabbed a kunai and leapt for the grass nin, who bit her thumb and dragged it over a tattoo on her arm. Summoning jutsu.
"NO!"
Naruto disappeared from Shizuka's view as a huge cloud of smoke appeared before them. Seconds later, another gigantic snake reared out of it, jaws wide open. It immediately spotted Naruto, throwing itself down in an effort to crush him.
Luckily, Naruto managed to change directions last minute, bounding into a nearby tree. Unluckily, the snake, with a flick of its tail, shattered straight through the tree's trunk, sending Naruto careening down to the floor.
Shit shit shit. They should have surrendered while they still could.
A strange aura swept through the clearing as Naruto slowly got back to his feet. Shizuka gasped quietly as she noted his eyes were completely red. His chakra was spiking harshly, much like it had during their fight with Haku.
"Eat this, you overgrown reptile!" The boy shouted, leaping forwards with increased speed and kicking the snake right in the head. The animal reeled backwards, not having time to recover as Naruto slammed his fists into its body over and over.
Where was all this coming from? Had he always been this strong?
Finally having had enough of the boy beating up her summons, the grass nin exhaled a sizeable fireball at the boy, sending him flying backwards into a tree harshly.
"There's no mistaking that chakra..." The lady muttered thoughtfully, before turning her attention to the cousins. "Now, let's see how well you do."
Shizuka froze as that same heavy, murderous aura filled the air as she made eye contact with the woman. The snake, having sufficiently recovered from being pummeled down, leapt for the pair with its jaw wide open.
Before she or Sasuke could have done as much as move, Naruto dropped down from the trees, piercing a kunai into the snake's nose, grunting as he holds the reptile back.
"You alright?" He pants heavily, craning his neck to make eye contact with Sasuke. "Scaredy cat Just standing there frozen like a frightened rabbit. Hah, you're not the Sasuke I know. Nor the Shizuka, for that matter."
His words rolled right off of her like water. Who cared if she wasn't being brave right now? At least she was trying to get them out alive.
Before Naruto could say anything else, the boy was yanked away by an elongated tongue wrapped around his ankle.
"Hmm, I see." The grass nin mused as she pulled back her tongue, and the boy with it. "Whenever you get angry, some of the Nine Tailed Fox's chakra is released."
What the hell is a Nine Tailed Fox?
Despite Naruto wriggling around in her hold frantically, the lady easily pulled up his shirt to reveal the black lines of seal all over his stomach. Since when had that been there?
"Five Pronged Seal!"
The lady's hand glowed a deep purple as she slammed it down on his stomach. The scream Naruto let out was agonizing, causing Shizuka to flinch violently as she uselessly and horrified watched on as his eyes returned to their original baby blue color before closing fully.
The woman merely laughed as she fished the heaven scroll out of his pocket before tossing him aside like he was a piece of thrash.
Finally, finally coming into motion, Shizuka threw a kunai with an accuracy she would have marveled at in a different scenario. The metal pierced straight through the boy's shirt, anchoring him to a tree and saving him from a nasty concussion at best and death at worst.
"Sasuke?" She questioned uncertainly, looking for some direction for what the hell they were supposed to do now?
"I-I don't know." Sasuke was looking at her just as desperately.
Shizuka swallowed hard before turning back to the lady who was merely observing them lazily.
"You have our scroll." Her voice came out shrill. "Please leave us alone now."
"This little thing?" A one handed seal later and the scroll went up in flames. "I never cared for your scroll at all."
Those words felt like a punch to the face. They were never getting out of this from the very beginning. They should have listened to Naruto.
"W-we have to fight, Sasuke." She urged, grabbing his wrist tightly. "There's no choice."
Sasuke audibly let out a breath, straightening and putting one warm hand over hers.
"You get Naruto." His sharingan activated. "Leave the rest to me."
Shizuka hesitated, not willing to leave him to fight the crazy overpowered grass nin on his own but also realizing they needed to get Naruto to relative safety.
"Fine." She finally agreed. "But as soon as I have him, I'm helping you. Be careful."
She waited for him to nod before darting up to the side, darting nimbly around the trees to Naruto's position.
The sound of metal clashing on metal followed soon after, alongside the warmth of a fire jutsu. Focusing, she put chakra on her hands and feet and crawled down until she reached Naruto, taking one of his arms and putting it around her. With her other hand, she yanked the kunai out of the tree, gritting her teeth as the boy's full weight rested on her shoulders.
Sticking to the tree, she pocketed the kunai and put her other arm around Naruto's torso before jumping further away from the fight, gently depositing the boy.
Quickly making her way back to the fighting, she was relieved to find Sasuke panting harshly but being very much alive while the grass nin was on the ground in front of him, the uncomfortable and oh so familiar smell of burned flesh wafting through the air.
He had done it.
"You've mastered the sharingan well for your age." A voice, deeper than the previous one sounded from the burned heap of flesh. The woman's face had melted off, and there was another face underneath. "Yes, you're clearly his brother. You'll be perfect."
"Who are you? What do you want?" Sasuke demanded, inching closer and moving in front of Shizuka.
"My name is Orochimaru." That name vaguely rung a bell in her head. Surely, she had heard that somewhere before? "As for what I want... I'll wait until we see each other again, Sasuke."
Orochimaru's neck lengthened impossibly. His head flew towards Sasuke. Shizuka desperately jumped at the incoming head with a drawn kunai but Orochimaru was much faster than she was.
His head slammed into her cousin, long hair obstructing her view. Sasuke yelped and grunted in pain. Her kunai uselessly stabbed the space where the man's head was just milliseconds before, already retreating.
"What did you do to him!?" She shrieked, protectively crouching in front of Sasuke.
"I just gave him a goodbye gift. Very soon Sasuke will seek me and my power." With that the man was gone, melting into a tree.
Sasuke slid down to his knees, one hand clutching his neck and breathing heavily.
"Sasuke!" her knees slammed down beside him. "Are you okay? What did he do to you?!"
Sasuke let out a pained yell, tipping forward. Shizuka stopped his fall before he slammed head-first on the ground, leaning him on her instead. He panted into her neck as she moved his hand away from his neck. Two puncture wounds, and above that three ink black tomoes.
"No, no, no!" Her eyes stung with unshed tears as she desperately shook him around. "Wake up! Wake up damn it!"
But he didn't wake up and Shizuka was left all on her own in a forest where everything and everyone was out to get them and two unconscious teammates.