So I hope you enjoyed the last chapter, we finally broke 100 kudos on ao3. So big thanks to those readers, let's go for 200 favs, I believe in you guys.

big things are now gonna start happening, but it's the forest of death, that goes without saying.

As always I hope you enjoy.

Training ground number 44

Over the next hour many teams gathered around the fenced of dense forest, it seemed pretty much everyone had made their way here thus making it so no teams were disqualified.

"Okay, it looks like everyone is here. Now, before I explain this part of the exam I need to hand out have consent forms, you see, unlike Ibiki I don't play nice, neither does this test, there is an incredibly high probability some of you may die in this next section, I need everyone to sign a consent form so the leaf village cannot be blamed for your deaths, we also have a couple of VIP genin here with us and I ain't taking any blame because you lot decided with your fancy skills and clan jutsu you were ready for the big leagues when you weren't." Anko shouted to the crowd as some chunin that were assisting Anko handed out three sheets each to every team, most gave it a brief look and signed but there were about two or three teams that upon hearing they were likely to die actually gave up then and there and left the group.

"Heya boss!" A young voice yelled out as they saw Konohamaru standing there with his two friends Moegi and Udon.

"Konohamaru? What the hell are you doing here?" Naruto said as he looked at their presence here with confusion, with Sakura giving a similar look, Satsuki however, glared at the Hokage's grandson, still not over the utterly ridiculous comment he made.

"Well Iruka-sensei said we had to do a report on the chunin exams and we thought we'd do better then everyone other team in our class if we actually interviewed people." Konohamaru said cheerfully.

"So you came to the middle of the exam with the very dangerous foreign ninja? This didn't go so well last time Konohamaru." Naruto said deadpanning at the academy student, remembering how there had almost been a major incident with the sand ninja.

"Nahhhh. It'll be fiiiine. Besides we are only planning on talking to other leaf ninja. And the proctor lady apparently owes Iruka sensei a favor for covering her dango tab one time so she's letting us do this." Konohamaru said, smirking.

"Alright fine, what do you want to ask?" Naruto spoke as he sat down with Konohamaru, Udon took out a notepad and started to speak to Sakura and Moegi started to question Satsuki as he tried to block her out as she filled in her consent form.

Later

After some time all the forms had been collected and Konohamaru and his friends had left, Anko channeled chakra into her throat so her volume was heightened.

"ALRIGHT MAGGOTS LISTEN UP! I'M ONLY GOING TO SAY THIS ONCE, SO IF YOU MISS IT SUCKS TO BE YOU!" Anko yelled with got everyone to shut up and pay attention.

"OK good, now fair warning, this will cut the numbers down by more then half, I don't play easy like Ibiki." Anko spoke with a sadistic smirk, sending shivers down the spines of many a genin.

"The second exam is this, you will all enter the training ground fourty-four, or better know. As the forest of death *sadistic grin* and you will have five days total to reach the center where an observation post is located. But it's not that simple, you see, each team will be given one of these." Anko spoke, many teams having another chill at the name 'forest of death'. Anko took out a pair of scrolls, one white and having the kanji for 'heaven' written on it and the other a dark purplish color with the kanji for 'earth".

"A heaven scroll and an earth scroll, each team will have one, while inside the forest, you need to get the other, by any means necessary." Anko said, now they understood why the numbers would be cut by half, only so many scrolls would be given, this was a survival and combat exercise, it would be brutal, bloody and definitely not easy. The consent forms made sense now.

"Now while you diiiiid already sign your forms, if anybody is too chickenshit for this, leave now." Anko spoke, she looked around and saw a few teams sweating it slightly but nobody was backing down.

"Huh, I thought that would at least make one or two run. Ibiki may have been telling the truth about this year being a good crop." Anko thought as she looked out at the crowd, oh there was Iruka's little favorite student, guy could not shut up about the kid after a few cups of Sake, Anko decided to sweat him a bit.

Naruto or either of his teammates had no time to react as a kunai was thrown just centimeters from stabbing his cheek, the knife landing into the ground behind him. A slice appeared on Naruto's cheek as the kunai was seemingly meant to just lightly graze him.

"I'd watch out if I were you, us leaf ninja are normally especially targeted in these exams." Anko spoke as she appeared behind Naruto, her very long tongue licking the blood from Naruto wound, significantly freaking him and everyone around out.

Even though she was the proctor, Satsuki was ready to strike at any time, or was this another kind of test? Her hand itched for a kunai.

"Ewewewewew!" Naruto screamed in his mind.

Anko suddenly reacted to an even creepier ninja appearing, holding her knife with her tongue. It was so long it must have been some kind of genetic trait or jutsu.

Anko held a kunai up, her body responding automatically, ready to cut down this grass ninja if she showed any additional hostility.

"I was…just returning your kunai." She spoke creepily, Naruto really wished he wasn't in the middle of this exchange, as constant shivers were going up his spine.

"Why thank you grass ninja! However, please be mindful not to sneak up on another's like that." Anko spoke in a high pitched tone, she was clearly ready to start and end a fight if it broke out.

The tension defused as Anko broke away from Naruto and the disturbing grass ninja.

"That grass ninja gives me a bad vibe." Anko thought as she hardened her gaze at the gass ninja, she felt almost…transparent, phantom like almost.

Anko checked her watch. "Shit, we're behind schedule, I'll be keeping an eye on her though." Anko thought as she saw she was behind.

"OK listen up! First I'm going to call your team then you will go into the tent and receive a scroll, no peaking at the scrolls of any kind, yes that mean you two Hyuga, if I find anyone trying peek at another teams scroll you're done." Anko spoke loudly across the crowd, with team nine Neji gained a disapproving look on his face, well there goes that idea.

"OK team thirteen from the waterfall get a scroll and be quick about it!" Anko shouted as the named team jogged into the tent and emerged about one minute later the scroll obviously hidden on a member of the team.

Satsuki however was a bit smarter, while it was against the rules to see what exact scroll the team had, who had it however was on the table, she activated her Sharingan and looked to see small microexpressions on the faces of the team, one was showing higher levels of anxiety then the other two, either he was just scared, or he had the scroll, well an educated guess was better then a shot in the dark.

Satsuki kept this up, some teams it was obvious to see while others it was impossible, she saw that Gaara guy go in, nothing, she got absolutely nothing from him, all she could see was that he had massive chakra and his gourd was also infused with chakra, although Naruto actually had more chakra which was something baffling to her, although his control was awful as a result.

But, if she had to bet on it, Gaara definitely had the scroll, it was clear he was in control of that team, and with Kabutos Intel about his total lack of any injuries on any of his missions he definitely had some high quality defensive jutsu she'd wager, an easy choice for the scroll carrier.

Many other teams went past, Satsuki either reading them or making educated guesses on who had the scroll, she had a pretty good idea of some easy pickings, only problem was finding them and hoping they had the right scroll.

"Team seven, from the leaf, come get your scroll." Anko shouted as the three of them walked behind the tent, two chunin waited for them, they handed them a heaven scroll. Naruto had a sneaky idea, and made sure he got a good look at both.

"Allright, everyone has a scroll, I'll say again, five days tops, in the forest to get to the center with both scrolls, you may not open your scroll at any point whatsoever, this task is meant to represent a mission where you have to transport a classified document through enemy territory, so, don't look, it'll be bad otherwise." Anko said, another sadistic smirk at the end.

"Wait what are we meant to do about food?" Choji asked from the crowd, of course the Akamichi would ask such a question.

"Well there are lots of things, the few very non toxic plants, many dangerous animals and giant bugs, get creative, I heard a rumor that one team even resorted to cannibalism when I was a genin but I'm pretty sure it's just something someone made up." Anko said with a smile on her face as a feeling of dread washed over many of them, team seven were very glad they had storage scrolls with more then enough rations inside, the thought of eating giant bugs made Sakura want to throw up.

"That being said when inside anything goes, you can kill, you can maim you signed the forms your death is not our problem it is yours. You all got a hate number with your scroll, go to it, fifteen minutes until go time!" She shouted out as the teams broke apart, each going to their respective gate.

Satsuki already had the scroll on her, all of them, even Naruto, agreeing it was best that she held it. They all checked their gear and all nodded to one another.

"So should we make some kind of plan?" Naruto asked them, Satsuki just shook her head.

"No idea if anyone could be listening out here, let's wait till we are in the forest." She spoke, Naruto and Sakura just nodded, the last test had drilled into them how important information can be, last thing they wanted to do was give any away for free.

The time ran down, team seven making sure to stretch, Naruto tried not to look at Satsuki as she did hers…he was failing horribly.

The time finally ran out and the sealing tags keeping the gates into the forest closed burned away and everyone around the forest instantly rushed in.

However while many of them wanted to get a scroll and advance as ninja, one was there to advance his own agenda as he and his two clones ran into the forest, tracking his prey.

"I wonder how you'll fair, little Satsuki." The monster masquerading as a man thought as he dispelled his two clones and set off in his hunt.

With team seven they rushed deeper into the forest and stopped on the ground to strategize.

"So, what's the plan?" Naruto asked both his female teammates as they huddled together.

"Well I think we should try and push as deep into the forest as possible quickly and set an ambush, in theory we could even catch a team with both scrolls and exhausted from a fight, making it easy to take them down and get both their scrolls with ease." Satsuki suggested, Sakura and Naruto thought about it and agreed, it was better if they could ambush a team, strike as a unit on their terms, definitely safer then hunting a team down.

"Yeah I think that would be best, I can also rig some traps so we can control the area we fight in." Sakura suggested to which Satsuki nodded.

"Yeah I think we should go with Satsuki's plan, but I've also got a plan of my own. Shadow clone jutsu." Naruto spoke, creating two clones as he spoke, both of them took a series of paper bombs out of their pouches, his equipment also cloned, and attached them to their chests.

"Well that's a pretty smart, if kind of brutal, use for his clones." Satsuki thought as she looked at the clones turn themselves into suicide bombers they then both used a handseal and used a transformation to turn into both an earth and heaven scroll which Naruto then caught.

"That's pretty sly of you Naruto." Satsuki said smirking as Naruto placed the fake scrolls in his pouch.

"Well at first I was thinking it could be possible to fake the scrolls if needed but that probably wouldn't get past that crazy proctor lady if she's a toku-whatever jonin, but I thought it may be useful if we need to trick another team." Naruto said, quite proud of his idea, if they ever needed to get out of a bad situation, a little rigged bargaining tool should help.

"Definitely, you hang onto them, so we all agree? move further into the forest and set a trap?" Satsuki asked quite proud of Naruto for that little trick, he was definitely still that same idiot she knew from the academy, but she felt that he was changing into something new and different, but still that same loser at his core.

She got two nods from her teammates but before they could leave something quite odd happened, a downpour of rain came over them, even with a totally clear sky.

"Scatter! water style!" She yelled as they did just that, she didn't need Sharingan to tell that it was some kind of water style jutsu, but what did it do, It barely created any rain to use for other water jutsu and seemed to have no offensive effect.

That answer was revealed to her as many clones of herself appeared on the tree branch she was on, she looked over to see it was the same with Sakura and Naruto.

"Hey loser! This you?!" She yelled over to him, sadly the response was less then optimal.

"No"

"Yes"

"I think it's Sakura."

"Aren't you some rookie of the year you tell me?!"

The four Naruto's each gave responses different from one another.

"What the hell?" She muttered under her breath.

"What the fuck."

"I agree it's Sakura."

"Eat me loser!"

Her copies gave different responses too.

"Just what kind of jutsu is this? Some kind of reverse clone?" Satsuki thought as she looked around in confusion, it was pretty odd, it was obvious who the originals were because they were the only ones making sense.

"Satsuki, you suck."

"Man you really do sink as a ninja, sure you wouldn't be better off as a housewife?"

"Your brother was probably in the right."

"What the hell shut up! That's a load of crap!"

The Naruto's said, OK she knew this was part of a jutsu and she should keep her cool but those housewife and brother comments, clone or not nobody was going to say anything like that.

She threw two shuriken with a quick flourish. Only for it to get worse as one phased right through one Naruto and the other actually hit, it implanted itself slightly in Naruto's utter chest, it drew blood but didn't penetrate deep.

"Wait, that's one real? But I thought he was the real one, unless, no Naruto would have no reason nor the balls to say something like that, he certainly wouldn't mock me losing everything." Satsuki thought. Something weird was going on. Satsuki had to deflect two kunai thrown at her, one from Sakura the other from Naruto.

Were they mistaking her for a fake who was saying something insulting like Naruto's clones were?

"Man I wish Satsuki had a twin brother he'd be sooooo dreamy."

"Man, sometimes Kakashi sensei really makes me wanna commit murder, Cha!"

"I wonder if I should use my forehead to advertise leaf village shinobi services?"

"Will you all be quiet!"

Sakura and her copies spoke, just as confused as Naruto was.

"Eh I give up on being Hokage."

"Man I wish that Bushier Brows guy was our sensei."

"Hey Satsuki I think you're really pretty, wanna go on a date?"

"What the hell! Shut up all of you!"

The Naruto's sounded, speaking more ridiculous things, but one of the ones talking nonsense was real while the one making sense appeared to be a fake…the rain! The seemingly harmless rain!

Satsuki quickly activated her Sharingan and quickly saw the truth, she should have seen it sooner, after all Itachi loved genjutsu, she'd need to spot it in an instant if she was to fight him.

Her eyes quickly scanned the area around and found chakra infused with the humidity, definitely from that rain, the wet ground had slight traces of chakra too. Now she understood.

This genjutsu formed three copies of all hit by the rain, since it's genjutsu the copies use your thoughts to say ridiculous things which you then respond too, however to your teammate a clone actually says your true words while the original says some dumb phrase clearly meant enrage and cause a reaction from the teammate, a potent genjutsu for making a team turn on one another, but, they didn't count on the Sharingan.

Satsuki quickly flared her chakra, removing the copies from her vision and with her eyes she quickly saw then, three rain ninja on a high branch, all three of them crouched and holding a hand sign, clearly this was a higher level genjutsu and they had to share the load.

Before then could notice she had broken free she struck hard and fast.

"Fire style:Phoenix flower jutsu!" She yelled as she launched a series of small fireballs at the group.

It seems one was more aware then the others, or he was just the one in charge of her section of the genjutsu.

"Water style:water wall!" He spoke as he spat out a wall of water that seemingly stopped her attack.

However, Satsuki expected some kind of water defense to block her fire jutsu; they were rain ninja after all. As the fireballs impacted the wall the shuriken payload she'd enshrouded within broke through the water wall and cut into the rain ninja, however most of the wounds were superficial, the water wall still affecting the velocity and impact of the steel stars.

"Damn! How did she see through the genjutsu and find us?" one of the rain ninja asked, his voice altered by his rebreather, as he looked down at the smirking Satsuki, and rather unfortunately for him, right into her eyes, time for a little genjutsu of her own.

"Genjutsu:Sharingan!" She thought as she used her ocular powers to render one of the rain ninja unconscious.

"Wait, that's the Sharin-." was all he managed to get out before his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he fell limp. His teammates did manage to catch him before he plummeted to the forest floor.

"Shit water style:vapor haze!" his teammate spoke as a large amount of water vapor emerged from his rebreather acting as a smokescreen so they could escape. Satsuki would have given chase but the vapor was infused with additional chakra, effectively blinding her Sharingan.

"Damn! You guys okay?" She shouted back as Naruro and Sakura were getting their bearings as her efforts broke the genjutsu.

"Yeah, think so? What was that just now?" Naruto asked as he recovered quickly, in all honesty the genjutsu was too bad for him not that he knew it, with the amount of chakra Naruto had surging throughout his body, nothing less then a true genjutsu master could properly trap him in an illusion, however this did mean it was incredibly difficult for Naruto to disrupt that flow if he ever was caught in genjutsu.

"A team of rain ninja got us in a genjutsu, a pretty strong one too. I've wounded then and knocked one out with genjutsu, we can catch then easy, hopefully before they can wake their teammate up, let's go!" Satsuki shouted as she gave chase, after they quickly shook their heads free of the fog Sakura and Naruto quickly gave chase.

"Hurry up, they'll have to stop to break him out of that genjutsu and they can't afford to do that, best time to strike is now while those wounds are fresh and one is incapacitated!" Satsuki shouted back to them as they all up their pase, Naruto used some extra extra to catch up to Satsuki and keep pace with her, they knew they were gaining however, an odd wind blew through the tress, Satsuki was laser focused on the rain ninja so she didn't notice, but Naruto did.

"SUKI!" He yelled out as he barley managed to give her a chakra infused push before he was hit by a large blast of wind that caused havoc, even with Naruto intervention Satsuki was not spared, only on the edge of the wind blast with Sakura also be caught up in, the area became a storm of broken wood as the immensely potent jutsu destroyed all in its path.

"What the hell was that! There are people here who can cast that level of wind style!? Where's Naruto?!" Satsuki's thoughts went a mile a minute as worry, anxiety and adrenaline surged through her.

"My my, such a noble sacrifice, but in the end, utterly pointless." A female voice spoke, the tone was almost sickening, it sent shivers up her spine, not to mention its snake like nature.

Satsuki and Sakura turned to see the grass ninja that almost clashed with the proctor standing their, a small creepy smile on her face along with her yellow outfit, grass headband and odd purple rope like belt or sash.

"So, little Satsuki Uchiha." She spoke as she slowly approached the two young kunoichi.

Satsuki looked at the woman and was paralyzed, the dread and killing intent she felt being just a bystander to Kakashi and Zabuza was nothing like this, she looked her dead in the eyes, and a vision flashed before her eyes, a vision of her own death at the hands of this…THING! It wasn't genjutsu, she started to hyperventilate, she wanted to reach out, hold onto something, anything, anyone.

"Naruto…"

With Naruto

"What in the hell *groan*." Groaned Naruto as he got up, with clothing was wreaked, he was cut up and he ached all over, just what was that, some kind of jutsu? He just barley got Satsuki out of the way before he got hit…Suki!

"I gotta get back to her." Naruto spoke he got to his feat, and started to move slowly he was very broken right now, but he had to keep moving.

*hisssssss* a hissing noise sounded out and Naruto looked at his feet for some kind of snake he was maybe about to step on. A shadow loomed over him and as Naruto looked up to see what was casting it, then he saw the snake, the giant snake.

"Oh you've got to be fu-" was all Naruto managed to get out as to snake struck and ate him, Naruto would have dodged but his body was shattered right now, he was struggling to walk, let alone dodge the giant snake.

"-Ing kidding me!" Naruto yelled out as he slid down his throat into its belly.

Back with Satsuki

Satsuki was paralyzed in fear, barley able to move which was better then Sakura who had just physically and cognitively shut down in front of whatever this woman was.

Was this a genin? Some part of the test? Just what was this monster!?

She had her gaze focused solely on Satsuki as he walked forward.

"Oh it seems you're paralyzed in fear. Well, at least your instinct is good to feel such fear, and you haven't passed out yet, most delicious." The grass ninja spoke, looking into her eyes Satsuki saw they were yellow and snake like, looking at her like she was something to be eaten up, prey, in every sense of the word, she was even more unnerved as the snake like women hooked her finger into her eyelid in a display that shook her even further. She had to RUN, she had to MOVE!

In a display of utter desperation, she took the kunai in her hand and managed just enough movement to stab it into her leg, the searing hot pain rebooting her system as she gathered chakra in her legs, grabbed the still debilitated Sakura and ran, she ran away again, she felt like that little girl again, no hope, no comprehension why her beloved big brother had lost his mind and killed everyone she cared about, as she rested, heart pounding like a drum in her ears, leg wound gushing, she tried to steady her breathing and return yo her current self, she swore she'd never be that helpless young girl again, not ever, yet just being in the presence of whatever this woman was had cause her to be reduced to that sobbing little girl again, she wasn't sure if it was the demonic snake woman or the thought of being that girl again that made her want to vomit.

Speaking of.

With Naruto

"Oh God if I get out of here I need to burn this outfit." Naruto spoke inside the giant snake's belly, this just kept getting worse, first off he got stuck in a genjutsu, then they gave chase, then he got hit with some sort of massive wind jutsu and THEN a giant goddamn snake shows up and eats him! Man this just wasn't his day.

Naruto felt so weak, he was stuck here, was he going to die? He thought about that, dying, and who he would leave if he did, Iruka-sensei, old man third, Ichiraku, who always served him when nobody else would, his team, Kakashi-sensei, Sakura, even though she yelled at him sometimes…and…Satsuki, it seemed so odd now that they always butted heads, well that was mostly him, but in such a short time, they had become friends, worked as a team to free their sensei and become stronger by competing and training together, but see was still out there, in danger from whoever used that powerful wind jutsu. No…NO! Like hell…he'd die here! Naruto gained a fierce look in his eyes as his will brought out reserve strength.

Soon Naruto's skin started to sting and tiny scraps of his clothes started to melt away.

"Oh shit, I'm in this things stomach, it's starting to digest me! Okay, think Naruto think…OK that could work, it'll eat into my chakra but it's either that or this thing keeps eating me." Naruto spoke as he moved his hands together and made his favorite sign.

"Shadow clone jutsu!" Naruto yelled as he performed what was surely becoming his signature jutsu, although he had few others.

The snakes belly filled and bloated and in the end something had to give and in this occasion it was the snake's skin and internal organs, in an explosion of snake blood and guts mixed with shadow clones, Naruto was freed from his confines.

"Owwwww." Naruto groaned as he lay on a tree branch covered in snake blood and guts, he was really beaten, that wind jutsu had done a serious number on him, everything ached, his eyelids felt heavy, he just needed to…rest.

"Hey loser." The words and an image of Satsuki giving the soft smile she often had when she called him a loser flashed in his mind. That's right Satsuki was…Suki was..

Still in danger. He felt the red rush through him, just for a second, but it was a stronger second, it's was like lightning shot through his chakra network, just for a second, he felt his bones crack healing themselves slightly as Naruto struggled to his feet, the quick jolt of the nine tails chakra fading and Naruto eyes returning to their normal blue from the red they'd just been.

"Don't worry, I'm coming." Naruto said to himself as he ran off to where he got separated from his team.

Back with Satsuki and Sakura

Tears were falling from Sakura's eyes as she shook while Satsuki breathed heavily, still in shock, and now wishing there was another way to get out of that situation, as now she had a stab wound in her leg which would definitely effect her ability to run away, she'd say her ability to fight but…was that even possible here? Could this thing be fought?

As Satsuki was stuck in her own head Sakura was slowly gaining her senses back, she then heard a hissing sound and turned to see a large snake poised to strike at them.

"Satsuki!" Sakura shouted as she pulled the raven haired girl with her just barely managing to dodge the venomous strike, also breaking Satsuki out of her trance, seemingly.

As Satsuki took charge of her own movement in the air she springboarded off a tree to gain more distance from the massive predator.

The shaken girl looked into the eyes of the large snake, exactly the same as that woman's eyes.

"No! Stay away!" She screamed as she frantically threw two handfuls of shuriken at the snake, cutting it up and causing it to fall dead against a large tree branch. Satsuki breathed shakily as she looked down at the large snake.

Cracks formed in the snake's skin and via some deeply sickening jutsu the grass ninja emerged from the snake's body, further unnerving both the kunoichi.

Satsuki was affixed in place, terror and trauma fusing to create a potent cocktail that was continuing to dibillitate the young Uchiha. The grass ninja smirked at the girl's fear.

"I expected so much more, but that is an honest reaction. Of prey, terrified of its predator!" She spoke in her creepy tone as her body seemed to lack any bones as she coiled around a branch like a snake in order to strike at Satsuki.

Satsuki would have been a sitting duck, with Sakura helplessly watching, too afraid herself to try and combat this monster if a cluster of shuriken and kunai didn't implant into the tree branch stopping the grass ninja's advance.

All three of them looked up to see Naruto standing on a higher branch leveling a heavy glare at the grass ninja who just looked up at him with an amused smile.

"So, my little friend seems to have been defeated, I thought he would deal with you quite easily." The creepy kunoichi spoke, still having her body coiled around the tree branch.

"So, you sent that thing, sorry to say but your little pet ain't getting back up, and neither will you!" Naruto said, his tone hard, he could see the slight shakes and the stab wound in Satsuki's leg, it was good he showed up when he did.

"Naruto! Don't be stupid! Run away dammit, I can't beat this…thing! Neither can you!" Satsuki shouted to her male teammate, what was that loser doing here?! He was going to get himself killed!

"Yeah well what was I supposed to do, leave you and Sakura to die, Kakashi-sensei taught us those who abandon their friends are worse then scum, and no way I'm someone like that, not ever." Naruto spoke back like it was the most obvious thing in the world, the concept of abandoning them both was utterly absent from his mind.

"Idiot! He has no idea what this thing is!" Satsuki thought Naruto was going to get himself killed.

"Oh I'm a thing? You wound me so, Satsuki." The grass ninja spoke, speaking her name in a tone that unnerved her.

"Shut it. Listen, this is what you want right? Take it and leave us in peace." Satsuki spoke as she took out her scroll and without deliberating with her teammates tossed the scroll to the grass ninja, who looked quite amused at the display, now standing normally on the branch.

Before the scroll could reach her however Naruto jumped down and caught the scroll, clearly against this course of action.

"Naruto! Stop it you moron, I'm trying to save all of our lives here!" Satsuki yelled at him angrily, why did he have to be so dense at times, this wasn't about the exams anymore, this way about getting out of here with their lives! Even if the three of them worked perfectly in sync, they had no chance of beating her, earth scroll or not.

"I don't know what the hells going on here…but there's no way you're Satsuki!" Naruto said as he turned to her, a fierce gaze focused on her as he slipped the scroll into his pouch. The grass ninja just stood there, seemingly amused by their interaction and deciding not to interfere.

"Have you lost your mind?! Of course I'm me!" Satsuki yelled, getting in his face, insulted by the implication that she wasn't herself.

Only for Naruto to give her a blow to the cheek, shocking her.

"Like hell you are, the Satsuki I know wouldn't give in to anyone, not try to run and hide like a coward, there's no way the Satsuki I know…can be you!" Naruto yelled at her as she looked up to see a gaze she hadn't seen on his face ever, he was angry, truly angry that she was claiming to be THE Satsuki Uchiha with her actions.

"Naruto! Of course that's Satsuki we've been together the entire time!" Sakura yelled over to him, not really understanding Naruto's anger as Satsuki did.

"So say out of this, I'll turn this thing into a fancy snakeskin wallet." Naruto spoke as he took out a single kodachi and rushed the grass ninja, who seemed quite amused at Naruto.

"Dammit wai-*painful grunt*." Satsuki started to say as she tried to stand back up, only for the sharp pain from where she stabbed herself to stop her in her tracks. She couldn't move like this, seeing her plight Sakura quickly jumped over to help Satsuki bandage her wound.

"Here, let me help." She said quickly as she took out some bandages and quite skillfully tended to Satsuki's wound.

"Oh so you think you're going to stop me? How amusing." The grass ninja spoke as she effortlessly weaved through Naruto's attacks.

"Shut up!" He yelled as he quickly formed a seal with his blade still in hand and made two shadow clones who instantly join Naruto in his assault, but it did absolutely nothing as the snake woman continued to dodge through them with ease.

"Hmm, shadow clones, well what else would I expect of a jinchuuriki, you have more chakra then you know what to do with, but no matter how fine the metal is." The grass ninja spoke, temporarily catching the Naruto's off guard, delivering a swift kick to the two clones and grabbed the original by the throat.

"A blunt blade still can't cut anything." She finished as a sadistic smirk crossed her face as Naruto struggled in her grip.

"You do have great power within you, but the rest of you is useless, you're a dumb as a brick, understand nothing about chakra or jutsu, you're nothing without the fox, it's the only reason you're even alive." She continued, her sadistic smirk widening as she kept verbally cutting into the young ninja.

"You shut your mouth!" Naruro said, red eyes staring back at snake like one's with pure rage and bloodlust.

"Make me." She mocked as even with the influx of red chakra, he was still stuck in her grip, if anything it only hot tighter.

Only for Naruto to be freed as the snake woman had to back off to avoid to storm of shuriken being launched at her by the now treated Satsuki.

Naruto coughed and hacked as his airways were unblocked.

He turned to Satsuki, seeing her save him, finally fighting back, he smiled seeing that as the rage fueled haze in his mind lessend.

"OK, time for me to shutyou up." Naruto said as he cracked his knuckles, his mind still clouded and body still supercharged by the nine-tails's power.

"As I said make me. Summoning jutsu!" She said as she bit into her thumb, and wiped the blood on a tattoo on her left arm, and in a large puff of smoke, another giant snake, bigger then the last two appeared from the smoke, predatory gaze focused on the three genin as the snake's tongue darted out to taste the air creating a classic *hisss*.

"Summoning?! That's a highly advanced and exclusive ninjutsu!" Sakura spoke, she'd read that only those with a special contract could perform the jutsu to summon the clan of animals they had contracted with, she knew Kakashi-sensei had a contract of his own but to think this monster also had one, and a seemingly more advanced one as she'd never seen Kakashi-sensei summon a giant killer hound.

"Oh it seems one of you knows their jutsu, as armature as she may be." The snake woman chuckled.

"Get the hell, outta my way!" Naruto yelled as he jumped at the snake and brought down his leg in an axe kick straight on the snake's head with thundering force, Naruto then continued a savage assault of brutal power, his aggression and physical strength being heightened by the tailed beast chakra running through his network.

"Is that?...Naruto?" Satsuki questioned, seeing his aggression, it was like seeing a wild animal attack the snake, not the knuckleheaded loser she knew.

"Drop dead!" Naruto yelled, delivering a final punch to the snake, which caused it to recoil in pain, but ultimately all Naruto did was draw some blood from the giant snake, not seriously hurt it, did the giant snake's scales offer greater physical protection? These kind of thoughts along with worry ran through Satsuki's head as she saw that whole assault seemed to have winded Naruto and only made the giant snake more angry, this snake woman was just standing there, even if they could beat the snake she could just summon more or kill them herself.

The snake seemingly shrugged off Naruto's attack and charged at Satsuki who was still frozen, luckily, Naruto wasn't done with the beast just yet, with sheer physical might he stopped its bite, holding it back with just his kodachi and physical strength, although it seemed to take a lot out of him.

Red eyes looked up at black ones, the fierce look in his red eyes being unlike anything Satsuki had seen from Naruto before.

"What's wrong? Scaredy cat?" Naruto mocked through panting breath, a reference to how she had mocked his own inaction against the demon brothers.

"Hmm, that chakra seems to give you quite the power boost, but back to my original point, even a ninja with as much physical strength as a jonin, can do little with a blunted blade." The snake woman mocked before, in a display that caused bile to form in Sakura's throat, her tongue extended and wrapped around Naruto and lifted up up in the air. The snake disappeared, it's purpose seemingly fulfilled.

"What the hell, let me go dammit!" Naruto yelled, trying to struggle against his binding.

Satsuki, seeing her teammates danger took out two handfuls of shuriken, only for the snake woman to wag her figure and she moved the captured Naruto in front of her, clearly showing she'd simply use him as a human shield, which caused Satsuki to falter once again.

"Now then, let's get you and your beast our of my way hmm~?" The woman spoke as she brung Naruto close to her, she lifted up his shirt, revealing the complex sealing matrix on Naruto's belly.

"An eight tetragram seal hmm~? While I lothe you still Minato, your fuinjutsu is still a marvel, I often wonder who is superior, you or the second Hokage." The snake person thought as 'she' saw the masterful sealing jutsu left upon Naruto's skin the night of the nine-tails's attack.

"But even as potent as the seal it, some of the nine tails chakra is leaking out, hmm, is this part of your design Minato, or the beasts? But even as potent as this seal is, and as many countermeasures as it has, the fundamental rules of sealing still apply." The snake person thought as they formed an odd hand sign which caused purple flame to appear on each finger of one of her hands.

"Five pronged seal!" She thought as she slammed her flame covered hand into Naruto's stomach, but instead of burning him, another layer of ink appeared around the original seal.

Naruto felt wrong, he felt his chakra dissipate and become unstable, the red chakra that had been fueling him was shut off completely, blocking it's influence.

Naruto turned back and looked right at Satsuki with a pained look, with the last of his strength he mouthed "I'm sorry" to her before he passed out. With him incapacitated, the woman took out the heaven scroll from Naruto's pouch, his fake scroll clones being useless as the disruption in Naruto's chakra dispelled them, proven by the two puffs of smoke appearing from his pouch.

Chuckling, the snake woman threw him away like yesterday's trash, as Satsuki was still stuck within her own head Sakura took the initiative and with an expertly thrown kunai, stuck the falling Naruto to a tree via his ruined jacket. She teased the girl, throwing the scroll to Sakura, it was clear she wasn't after it.

"Dammit Satsuki wake up! I mean, say what you will about Naruto, yes he's a pest sometimes and constantly annoying, at least…at least he's not a coward!" Sakura yelled to her female teammate, sick of seeing the classmate she looked up to, who had always been a firce lioness in the face of danger, was now reduced to a frightened kitten in the face of this monster.

"Run, run way like the coward you are, my foolish little sister." A voice echoed in Satsuki's mind, that eyes, the eyes of that man, her brother, boring into her mind like they always did.

"Am I really…just a coward like Itachi said? But I have to live, so I can face Itachi, nothing else matters…but somone, who falters, who backs down in fear, who doesn't fight with their Uchiha blood boiling in every battle, can never and will never BEAT SOMEONE LIKE HIM!" Satsuki screamed in her mind, finally coming to a realization, that scared little girl who ran away, would never be the one to defeat her brother, so Satsuki had but once choice, to discard that old version of herself, and forge a new Satsuki, by not wavering and never faltering, that was the Satsuki, who would kill Itachi!

Satsuki looked up to see the light shining through the forests canopy onto her face.

She looked her to see Naruto, who had fought as she should have, stuck against a tree. "I'm the one who should be sorry Naruto, so I'll make it up to you know, by defeating…this demon!" Satsuki thought as her Sharingan activated she grabbed a kunai and placed it between her teeth and ran at the snake woman.

"Ah her Uchiha blood has finally come to a boil, now show me Satsuki Uchiha, show me what my new body can do!" She thought as Satsuki engaged her in tailjutsu, with her ocular prowess she managed to anticipate the snake woman's moves and strike back, but it had little effect as she was just faster and was more skilled in taijutsu so her Sharingan just allowed her to keep up, not win, but nevertheless.

"I can see!" Satsuki thought as the grass ninja moved along branches like a snake at speeds Sakura couldn't begin to follow, but with her eyes, she could, she could follow and predict her movement, with these eyes, she'd go further then any non Uchiha shinobi ever could!

Satsuki decided to step things up a notch, simple taijutsu wouldn't cut it, she'd have to go all out, and not worry about how much chakra she was expending if she wanted any chance of getting herself and her team out of this mess.

She threw a handful and shuriken along with the kunai in her mouth at the woman and as she backed herself into a corner to get away from the projectiles Satsuki struck first she launched a series of Phoenix flower fireballs at her and then followed it up with a fireball jutsu, turning to normal blaze into a swirling mass of fire, bit with her eyes she saw the slightly singed ninja jump out of the flames. Just as planned, she'd purposely kept the heat on the flames low to conserve chakra after all.

The Satsuki the snake woman was looking at disappeared in a poof of smoke shocking her.

"A shadow clone?!" She thought as Satsuki appeared above hershe quickly grappled the woman and aimed her head directly down to perform a Hayabusa Drop. Satsuki let out a scream as her targets head implanted right into a thick tree branch, the woman's body went stiff then limp, her skull smashed open by the attack.

Satsuki hopped off her and caught her breath, she'd been forced to use a shadow clone to set up the final blow, she'd never understand how Naruto used it so freely, she still had some reserves but it would be risky to use ninjutsu for a while.

A feeling of dread filled her as what should have been the dead and unmoving body of the snake woman turned to mud.

"An earth style:substitution!" Satsuki thought as she grabbed some ninja wire from her pouch and wrapped it around a tree branch to swing herself to a more favorable position.

She has however intercepted and it seems she stopped playing around with her as her speed increased and her Sharingan did little to stop the rapid assault of taijutsu the snake woman unleashed.

Satsuki was forced to the ground as the woman stood over her, Sakura was still paralyzed against her killing intent and Naruto was completely out, she only had herself to rely on now. Luckily Satsuki had left a little gift for the grass ninja.

The three small explosives that Satsuki had attached to the back of her outfit exploded and in that moment the young kunoichi struck, she had to end this, right here, right now!

"All or nothing." Satsuki thought as she she hurled two handfuls of shuriken at the disoriented older ninja, they flew past her only for Satsuki to use her enhanced eyesight to perform a masterful manipulation of ninja wire attached to each shuriken and entrap the snake woman against a tree.

In truth, Satsuki had not managed to completely master the dragon flame jutsu within the week, she could keep the power up but the jutsu was wild and hard to aim, and she could aim it properly if she tried but then the power of the jutsu suffered, but with the chakra conducting ninja wire restraining her target, she didn't need to aim.

"Please let this work! Fire style:dragon flame jutsu!" Satsuki screamed in her mind. She weaved through the hand signs and poured every last bit of spare chakra into the jutsu, fire appeared in the air around Satsuki and used the ninja wire as a conduit and a mighty blaze shot fourth, hopefully turning the monstrous women into nothing but ash.

However as the fire shot towards 'her' 'she' could only smirk. "Oh you shall be magnificent." 'She' thought, the snake ninja's unnaturally long tongue licking her lips.

"*pant* pant*" Satsuki panted as she fell to her knees, chakra completely exhausted.

That *pant* that definitely got her right?" She questioned out loud, and also a silent prayer, if that didn't finish her off, they were dead, she'd take their scroll and probably kill them all for the fun of it, or was she even here for the scroll? This thing, definitely wasn't a genin, no way in hell, it was now abundantly clear to Satsuki that this woman had to be an intruder to the village, for what purpose she couldn't say, but she seemed to enjoy toying with her.

"*clap clap* oh dear Satsuki, if only it were that easy." An even more sinister, distinctly male voice spoke from the tree, the smoke cleared to see the snake women, or snake man? Had barely dodged the condensed blast of fire that had pierced through the thick trunk of the tree and several others behind it.

'Her' skin had seemingly melted or peeled away, showing that beneath that there was pale, white skin, a tattoo or marking over their eye and infinitely more sinister snake-like eyes.

"But that was most impressive, for a few new genin your strength and rate of growth is extraordinary, you are his sister, without a doubt." The now revealed man spoke, his tone sending even more shivers down Satsuki and Sakura's spine. A bubbling rage forming as this person compared her to Itachi, he knew him?

"Greetings, Satsuki Uchiha, I am Orochimaru." The now named Orochimaru spoke as he peeled off the rest of his fake face and his headband changed from that of the hidden grass, to the musical note of the hidden sound.

"Am I supposed to know who that is?!" Satsuki shot back, she was probably going to die here, she'd take any shots she could, even if she was only capable of verbal ones in her current state.

"Oh you will, not to worry, in truth I came here to test you, see what the 'last Uchiha' is capable of, while you lack the power to even push me to fight seriously, your skills for a fresh out of the academy genin are quite commendable." Orochimaru spoke as he stood on a branch across from them.

Sakura slowly drew a kunai, still debilitated in fear. But she had to do something, she had to save Satsuki and Naruto!

"Please, the ninja who matter are talking." Orochimaru spoke as leveled even more killing intent at Sakura which caused all her will to fight and the ability to even move to drain from her, she dropped her kunai and it fell pointlessly onto the forest floor.

"Now then. As you may know I have some subordinates in this exam, my little sound guinea pigs. I do hope you'll show them something even greater then what you've shown me, and to help you do that, I shall grant you a gift." Orochimaru spoke, revealing himself as the leader of the sound genin team here in the exams.

"Fuck you!" Satsuki spat, she was in no mood, in all honesty it was so difficult to even keep her eyelids open right now, all she wanted to do was pass out.

"Oh, Such a fire in you! What fun." Orochimaru chuckled, he'd enjoy turning that willful fire into a raging inferno of hate resentment that he'd nurture to its maturity, only to eventually gorge himself on every morsel.

"Now then take just a fraction of my power, and remember that I always have more I can grant you." Orochimaru spoke, forming an odd hand sign and in a wick display his neck extended and rushed towards the immobile Satsuki at a speed she couldn't even hope to follow or dodge in her state. Fangs plunged into her shoulder and she felt…something enter her body, and it burned, oh God did it burn, It felt like fire was being pushed through every part of her chakra network, she'd never experienced such pain.

She screamed, she screamed a pure, unadulterated wail of agony, unable to move, speak even think, it hurt so much.

Orochimaru just gained a sick smirk as he sadistically watched the young kunoichi's suffering.

"Of course there's a one in ten chance you'll even survive, but I know you won't die that easily my dear Satsuki, your hate will grant you the power you dream of. Goodbye, for now, and always remember, seek me out, if you want more then just a taste." Orochimaru spoke as left Satsuki to scream.

Sakura found her motor functions return and she rushed to Satsuki, trying to see what was wrong, the only thing she saw was the two bite marks in her left shoulder, near her neck, and next to the bite a black mark had appeared, three black tomoe, circling not unlike the pattern of a Sharingan.

Sakura felt useless as she couldn't do anything, just sit there as she heard her teammate scream her lungs out, shivering and sobbing from the pain.

She called over to Naruto only to see he was still stuck to the tree, no signs of waking up soon, even with the agonizing screams of his friend and teammate.

In her pained haze she reached out, reached out towards Naruto, she needed something, anything, memory's of the good times she shared with him, like at the resort, giving way to darker memories and emotions to draw power from, standing over the Uchiha clan graveyard, the size increasing exponentially in just one night, the trauma of her brother's madness, learning that he didn't even spare the other children of the clan.

Eventually the pain became too great and she collapsed, her mind shutting itself off as the pain became too much to handle. Sakura just sat there, not knowing what to do as Satsuki and even Naruto, the two she'd always relied upon were defeated and not there to save her this time.

Deep in Naruto's mind

Naruto felt…strange, like every part of him was numb as he was floating in a deep pool of water, he heard muffled noises, smells that he caught a faint whiff off then they disappeared, sights that gave an odd feeling of familiarity even though he had never seen them before.

And he saw someone in them, did he know them? He felt…happy, at her laughs, smiles, even as rare as they were, even through the haze he could tell she was beautiful, I mean she always had been when they'd met at that ri-...was that right? No he first met her in the academy? Or was it the battlefield? Or had he always known her?! He couldn't think, so many conflicting memories caused a maelstrom inside his head, so he did the only thing he could, to cut through the storm he grabbed the most prominent memory and focused on it.

Oh of course how could he forget, he was meeting up with his best friend at their favorite meeting place like they did every week.

He reached the peaceful stream and waved to her as he ran up to her, a small smile on her face that also gave way to annoyance.

"You're late." She said. She wore a loose, comfortable black kimono and her shaggy black, slightly spiked hair slightly down her back. She'd mentioned that she wanted to maybe grow it out even more.

"Sorry, I woke up late and then my brother wanted to do some extra training with me and I lost track of time." I chuckled, rubbing the back of my head in embarrassment, the short brown hair still a bit of a mess from said training.

Wait, he had blonde hair didn't he?

"I think you'd lose track of your own limbs if they weren't attached to you." She joked, getting a deadpan from him, he knew deep down she wasn't wrong.

He sat down next to her and they both looked out at the stream, listening to the calming noise of the flowing water, a small reprieve from the endless fighting and waring.

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"You okay?" He asked her, he always did this, prying into her life even though they both knew they should keep one another at arm's length, lest they learn of each other's clan affliction.

"You always ask that. Are you?" She asked him back, a somber smile on her face, they rarely answered this question truthfully, yet they both knew the true answer, even without words.

He opened his mouth and told his friend…?

Wait, what was her name?

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He definitely knew it. I mean she was his best friend.

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So what the hell was it?!

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Of course that was it.

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"I'm better now I'm with you…Madara."

So this took…awhile…and I wish I had an excuse but I don't, I just struggled to write this for ages and I do apologize to you all, hopefully chapter 14 comes out sooner.

So yes, Naruto is now experiencing memories that may not be his own…this may have some serious side-effects, both positive…and negative. And Satsuki is going to meet with an even more terrible fate. Also we have over 200 followers on ff and close to 200 faves so thank you all, and I do apologize for the delay but ADHD gonna ADHD.

BTW would you like for me to write the interviews for the rest of the leaf genin? As we have kinda glossed over them so far.