Shino, Naruto, and Choji walked through the forest with care. Neither Naruto nor Choji were inclined to use stealth, and in Choji's case, he had little talent for it, but all three of them were very careful to move as quietly as possible away from the clearing they had just passed... and the thing they had witnessed.

Shino paused for a moment, then raised an hand and signaled the others close. "They're moving away from us."

Naruto blew out a sigh. So far, their mission to mark their potential victims had gone well. They had several promising candidates, and Naruto had sent out a few clones to try and find the scroll capture team and inform them where some easy targets were, a set of genin that had just had a tough fight and were weak enough that any one of his allies might have taken the team, never mind the force they had at this time. One of those clones had popped and reported success, and the assault team was moving in.

But in the process of seeking out targets, they had almost become one of them. The three of them had almost blundered into a clearing, and had backed off carefully when Naruto waved them back. Three younger shinobi from Sunagakure were facing off against three genin from Amegakure. This meant nothing to Choji or Shino, but Naruto recognized the Suna genin and was concerned enough to pull the team back, leaving a clone to watch.

"I ran across these three when the Chunin exams were warming up," he explained in the forest. "The girl and the guy in black with face paint were normal, if arrogant. The guy was being a bullying jerk, picked a fight with a kid I know. My team was about to fight with them when the third one with the red hair, Gaara, showed up and threatened to murder his team if they did not stop causing a fuss. And the way they reacted," he said with a frown, "I think he might have been willing and able to do it."

Shino adjusted his glasses slightly. "That does not mean he would win against us, Naruto-san. He might have a specific power over the other two. Or he might have legal power over them. That said, your choice is a good one. Why? Because it is better to know their capabilities if they intend to display them by fighting, and we can always claim them for ourselves if they are weakened."

Naruto and Choji nodded agreeably, then Naruto stiffened. "Scratch that. We're leaving. Now. Quickly." He suited actions to words, leaping away into the woods as fast as he could. When the others caught up, Naruto quickly summoned a trio of clones, who henge into the team and took off to the side while the three of them hid.

It was a tense half hour as they made their way slowly along until Shino informed them that the Suna genin were moving away. "Wait," said Choji, who was frowning, "How do you know they are leaving, Shino?"

Shino nodded once and held out his hand. After a moment a few insects, smaller than his smallest fingernail, crawled onto his hand. "This are female Kikaichu insects. The males within my colony can detect their scent from great distances, and scouts from the colony can track them and report their location."

"You bugged the red haired kid," said Naruto, incredulous.

Shino shook his head slightly. "No. I attempted to, but he managed to kill it without giving it time to send out an alarm pheromone. The other two Suna shinobi are marked as of ten seconds ago, when I got the latest report from a scout. Still heading away from us. The three Ame shinobi are reported as showing no signs of life. What happened, Naruto-san?"

Naruto shuddered as he replayed the memories his clone had given him in his mind. "Gaara killed them. Their leader started a fight, and the kid slaughtered him by crushing him in sand. The other two surrendered their scroll, and he killed them too, as they begged for mercy. Then he spotted my clone and killed it as well." He shook his head, trying to keep the clone's painful death in a crushing grasp of sand out of mind. "We need to tell the others to avoid him. Let's head back."

Choji was the first to notice the strange glow through the trees only a few hundred feet from their base. It was a light blue color, and seemed to fill the air itself, turning everything they could see into a shade of blue. The three of them crept carefully through the woods, working towards the glow, and with each step they grew more apprehensive, because each step took them closer to both the source of the blue tinted light and their base of operations.

Eventually they reached a clearing and they saw what was causing the blue glow. Ino was kneeling on the grass in the clearing, staring at a single blue flower no larger than her fist. Her eyes were half lidded, her face slack and serene. This was all the more worrisome, because two shinobi were standing next to her, one on each side, crouching within arms reach. Both had a single arm up, two kunai held in one hand. They were as still as Ino, unmoving, but while she gazed languidly at the flower, they gazed at her with the unblinking focus of an animal on the hunt.

Naruto had barely begun to reach for his swords when the two shinobi turned to face him and his hidden teammates. They both gave him a small and mirthless smile before returning their gaze to Ino.

"I am Mamushi," said the one on the left, still unmoving. "I wait patiently for my prey to come to me. If she moves, I strike." His attire was simple, a basic shinobi outfit, but instead of a dark black or blue color, his outfit had a brown coloration interspersed with occasional vertical stripes in a pale yellow tone. His head and face were covered with a mask of the same material, his eyes by dark lenses.

"I am Habu," said the one on the right, also unmoving. His outfit was much the same as Mamushi's, save that the yellow toned sections were circular, encompassing large patches of the darker material. "I seek out my prey and visit them with death. If she does not move, I strike."

After a moment, Naruto stepped out, swords drawn. "So, one way or another, you intend to kill her?" Both nodded at once, a single slow movement of the entire head. "And if I have a spare scroll to give you, would you be satisfied and leave her alone?" Both shook their heads, in the same slow, precise manner. "Is there anything I can do, just short of killing you, that will stop you from hurting her?"

Both shinobi slowly shook their head, and Habu turned his face to Naruto once more. "It is on you to determine which is best. Mamushi will give her the smallest of pricks, barely enough to feel, and she will die quickly and painlessly from his strike."

Mamushi turned as well. "Habu will strike ferociously. It will be painful, and undoubtedly lethal, but she will have the delusion of fighting her fate, and perhaps gain comfort from that notion. It is on you to choose, as our leader demands. Choose now or have the choice taken from you." Both leaned forward slightly, preparing to strike, their arms raising.

Four short swords flew out of the bushes to either side of Naruto, pinwheeling at the two foes. Only two people throw a weapon as unbalanced as a sword, either an idiot or very competent and practiced shinobi. Habu and Mamushi spun away, just far enough to avoid the spinning swords, and they both hissed in fury when they realized that the swords were literally pinwheeling, spinning on all of their axis, barely a threat. They continued their spin, arms flashing at the entranced kunochi, only for Naruto to block both swings with his own blades, carefully placed to slice between their two kunai and into their hands if they pushed the attack. They pulled their hands back and struck again at different angles, both still trying to strike Ino, and both failing as she was dragged away by several Naruto clones who passed her along as if she was part of a bucket chain.

Naruto spun, his swords flashing in an elaborate pattern, and broke away from the two enemies, who stood strait and watched him with an eerie silence. They shared a look between them, and Habu chose to speak. "You have no real talent with swords, do you, Naruto-san? That was a very flashy move there, but it was also very poorly executed."

Naruto laughed. "Believe it if you want, but I know more about swords than... wait." Naruto looked at the two of them, who were unmoving, their arms not even raised to defend themselves. "How the hell do you know my name?"

"We know plenty about you, Naruto-san," said Habu, stepping away from his companion, spreading out a little to prepare to fight. "We observed you carefully during the previous phase, as well as using the intelligence data our leader gave us. We are not here for the little kunochi, we are here for you, to test your mettle." He raised his arm, his body held sideways to present a slimmer profile. "There is only one way for this to end, Naruto-san."

His swung his arm from where he was, ten feet away, but something about his move made Naruto nervous, and the blond jumped to the right, barely avoiding the strange blur that was coming at him so suddenly. He still managed to keep an eye on Habu, and he rolled away to his left as the blur lashed out again. This time, he observed Habu's arm elongating unnaturally, stretching out in a fluid manner. Habu swung that arm like a whip, and when the two kunai in his hand hit the ground, they were buried to the hilt.

Mamushi meanwhile stood back from the two fighting shinobi, his stance easy and relaxed. He watched the fight patiently and with a great deal of interest.

Naruto rolled again to the left to avoid another stroke, this time coming to his feet at the end of the roll, smiling at his good fortune. Something so simple as a extending arm was no challenge at all. He lowered his arms and waited for the next stroke, a long sideways lash. He laughed in triumph and brought his swords together, lunging for the extended limb, ready to draw the blades across one another like a giant pair of scissors. He managed to reach the arm, but when he tried to go for the cut, he was unable to move his swords. He looked down and saw that Habu had reached out with his other hand and had grabbed both handles, his fingers contorting like his arms to wrap around both of the hilts and keep them still. "Gahh, that's creepy!" he shouted, flinging his arms up violently, tossing his swords far over Habu's head to land on the forest floor behind him. Naruto opened his mouth to shout, then shut it quickly while tumbling to the right again to avoid another strike. He tumbled along in the same direction, avoiding each strike as it came, smiling to himself and making certain to periodically steal a quick, almost unnoticeable glance at his dropped swords.

Almost unnoticeable.

Mamushi crouched in the forest and circled slowly through the ground cover, circling around the fight. His clone, a basic technique that was incapable of fighting or even interacting with the world around it, was doing a good job of remaining visible and drawing attention to itself with its nonchalance, the perfect cover for him to slip away and hunt for Naruto's teammates. He passed carefully through the bush, brushing the leaves back slowly and carefully with his arms, making no noise as he searched.

In short order, he saw the two of them, the short fat kid and the taller, skinny kid who was wearing sunglasses even in the dark of the night. He pulled out a kunai and pulled his arm back to throw it, but the skinny kid turned and looked directly at him, in spite of his concealment.

"You have already lost, Mamushi-san," the kid said quietly, with a degree of cold certainty one usually got from teachers reading from science textbooks, of indisputable fact made real by the very laws of nature. Mamushi smirked slightly under his mask and stepped forward out of cover.

"You think little of me, young one," he said, activating his Killing Intent and sending it out at the two. The Killing Intent technique was simple, so much so that it required little chakra and no hand seals. All it did was push the little part in every creature's brain that whispered in their ears when danger was near and told them to flee or die. Mamushi, like most Otogakure shinobi, was well accustomed to its use, and was quite skilled with it. He smiled to himself when the fat kid flinched and turned pale... then he frowned. The skinny kid did not flinch. He simply stood there, staring at Mamushi, his expressions covered by the collar of his coat.

"Yes," the kid admitted, turning his body slightly to fully face Mamushi, his arms still in his pockets. "I think little of you. Why? Because for all your obvious experience and skill in fear and stealth, you failed the most important skill, that of observation." He raised one arm, holding it out, and Mamushi watched with mild interest as a tiny bug crawled out of his sleeve and stood on his fingertip, waving a pair of feelers around. "As soon as we spotted you, I sent out my friends to cover the area and watch for foes who sought to use stealth against us. They noticed you when you passed through that bush... and I ordered them to act accordingly."

Mamushi shuddered in sudden fear, because nothing invokes existential dread in a shinobi like realizing that they had walked into a trap without noticing. He raised his arm to throw his kunai, then froze, partially with the sudden sensation of exhaustion that simple act caused in him, but also in surprise at the large number of insects he could see crawling on his arm. Each one was the size of his smallest fingernail, beetle shaped with a thin and dull black shell. I never even felt them, he thought to himself as he stumbled and fell to the ground, his body exhausted as he chakra was consumed by the swarm.

"Be ready to assist Naruto," Shino said to Choji while his friends fed on the fallen shinobi's chakra. "You'll know when." Choji tore his gaze away from Mamushi with a quick jerk of his head, looking at Shino, his eyes still wide with fear. After a moment though, his eyes narrowed, and he nodded and gave a small grunt of agreement, very quietly.

Shino did not smile in victory. He did not celebrate, inside or out. He watched carefully, and when Mamushi stopped moving, he recalled his swarm, content to disable his foe instead of slaying them. Death is easy given and impossible to take back, his father had said when Shino received his first hive. Shino had the respect of life held by those who knew how dangerous a weapon they carried, and felt no need to act rashly.

But Shino was a very thoughtful and serious young man, so he left a few of his swarm on the man, just in case.

Naruto rolled to his right one last time, and saw that he was in position, finally, his swords one more roll away. Habu was excellent in his technique, lashing out with surprising speed and ferocity, often without any sort of tell on his moves. He simply went from stationary and still to all out attack, a sudden flash of movement without warning.

Naruto avoided the attacks only for two reasons. The first was that he had no real taijutsu style, something Guy had worked hard to encorage. He had learned from Guy not how to fight in stylized movements, but how those movements worked, and from there, how to use the same principals for any move. He had some tells, but far less than that of a shinobi with a specific style of combat like Hinata. He also fought against himself frequently, and was well used to opponents who were unpredictable.

The second reason he was alive was his clones. He had made several before leaving the bushes, and they waited for him to need help, quickly using the Body Replacement technique to swap with the real Naruto before a surprise blow would hit. It was uncomfortable, being tossed around the battlefield by his clones, but each time, he gained the knowledge of the strike that hit him, and he would charge back into the clearing, always careful to head to the right, towards his fallen swords.

Finally on place, he smirked at Habu and then dove for the swords. His hand grabbed one of the hilts just in time for Habu's hand to wrap around his own. "You cannot think I did not notice your moves, your careful glances, as you tried to get back to your swords, Naruto-san."

Naruto smiled and used his other hand to grab Habu's wrist. Habu frowned and sent his other arm out, kunai ready. Naruto dropped his sword and caught the incoming hand, stepping into the attack to give himself enough time to catch the wrist instead of the blade. He then rotated both of his arms at the elbow, wrapping Habu's flexible arms around his own, and grinned."Did you notice that Mamushi is missing?" he asked innocently.

Habu opened his mouth to taunt his foe, but the sky suddenly darkened. He looked up to see a spinning ball of green and brown briefly eclipse the moon before falling upon him with crushing force.

Choji's Human Bullet technique was a thing to behold. His body, blown up to many times its original size and mass from his clan's techniques, and spinning at more than ten revolutions per second, made for a great deal of force applied to a relatively small area. In this case, that area started with Habu's face. Habu's body was smashed into the earth, and as the spinning continued, he was ground into the dirt and then flung away, sailing dozens of feet until he hit a tree, his arms slowly coiling around him as they, too, were drawn under Choji's bulk. Choji only stopped when Habu's hands released Naruto and slipped under his rolling body.

"Yatta!" Naruto ran up and gave Choji a high five. "That was perfect!" he shouted, dancing in a small circle, "I knew you'd spot the opening when I dove for the swords!" Shino joined them, Mamushi over his shoulder, and the three of them advanced to check on the fallen Habu, who was starting to stir.

"Wait," Habu said, waving his hand as his arm slowly reverted to normal, causing him to grimace. His body and clothes looked like they had been put through a thresher, blood and broken bones quite evident, all the more so when his arm was back to normal size and yet still bent oddly. He used the better of his arms to reach into the tattered remains of his clothing and pulled out a Heaven scroll, rolling it onto the dirt halfway to the team, who all stepped back cautiously. "You have won, and my mission is complete," Habu said, grimacing as he stood. "I was to test you, and it is done. I cannot fight further with any sort of effectiveness. Please let me collect my teammate and go."

Shino frowned. "You are not here to become a Chunin," he stated flatly.

Habu shook his head gingerly, as if he was worried that his neck was damaged. "We were here to get an idea on how Naruto-san and Sasuke-san fought, and no other reason. We have tested Sasuke already, you will find him in your cave. Your female teammate was bait, nothing more."

Choji glanced back at Ino, who had wandered back to the blue flower and was once again kneeling in front of it. "Smash the flower," said Habu, "and she will return to her senses. The Moonflower trap is a genin-level test in Oto, and will not harm her or anyone else." He saw the look on Naruto's face. "I will crush it for you, if you do not trust my words."

Naruto shook his head and sent a clone to help Ino before turning to the others. Choji shrugged and pulled out a bag of chips, content to leave the decision to Naruto. Shino looked at Habu and Mamushi, then said, "I am content to leave the decision to you, Naruto. I am not inclined to kill these two. Why? Because we have won, and should they consider attack again in the future, the odds would be even better for us, making them a non-threat."

Naruto nodded, and turned to Habu. "Take your friend and go, and we'll call it even." His face slowly stretched into a big smile. "And when you get home, tell them Uzumaki Naruto is a badass, but a fair badass! That was a good fight!"

Choji and Shino's eyebrows rose, and neither spoke up, but they thought the same thing. So now we're nothing but sidekicks. They would have argued, but Naruto's clone crushed the flower, and Ino started to scream.

The rest of the Konoha group returned to the cave to find a comatose Sasuke, a crying Ino, and one less scroll to retrieve.

"You need to quit."

Naruto looked up from where Sasuke lay and stared at Shikamaru.

"You need to quit, Naruto. Sasuke is in a lot of pain. He might be dying."

"Like hell we will," said Naruto, slowly standing up, fists clenched. "I'm not a quitter. None of us are. If we're going to lose, we'll go down swinging." His entire body was taut, like a violin ready to be played, and the melody was not one that Shikamaru wanted to hear. Naruto looked ready to explode, and the way he kept glancing to the back of the cave where Ino lay, Shikamaru could easily guess who would be the first target if Naruto broke.

Sakura laid a hand on her teammate's shoulder. Her eyes were rimmed in red from her tears, her face sallow and tired, but then, she had every right to be tired. It had been nearly a day since the strange man had bit Sasuke, and she had yet to sleep. Kieri was not with her. The cat had curled up at Sasuke's side and refused to leave him. "Naruto," she said, "we need to keep him safe."

He reached out and brushed her hand off his shoulder, his face set. "And how will he feel when we tell them we lost because of them? Will Sasuke be happy we quit for his sake?" Sakura flinched slightly and looked away.

"Fuck that," came the quiet mumble from the ground. Sakura and Naruto crouched and saw Sasuke was awake, although his eyes were clenched shut. The others crowded around, interested in what was happening… all but one.

"Do you need anything?" asked Sakura, resisting the urge to hug Sasuke as tight as she could and never let go. His eyes flashed open for a moment, and she saw that his sharingan was active, but even as she watched, the tomoe marks on his iris twitched slightly, and he shut his eyes with a groan.

"I need a blindfold. Whatever the hell it is, it's messing with my chakra. I can't get my eyes to focus."

Naruto looked down at his friend, frowning, then tapped him on the shoulder. "Do we need to quit, teme? We can always kick some ass next time."

"Don't make me repeat myself, dobe." Sasuke grinned slightly, until another spasm wracked his body, causing him to clench his teeth, fighting down the urge to scream. After a moment, the spasm passed, and he unclenched, panting. "It's getting less frequent. I might walk out of here yet. Get the scroll. Kick some ass. Just don't take the whole team with you, I'll…" he sighed in irritation. "I'll need some bodyguards until I can move."

Shikamaru nodded from where he was standing. "We can split in half. I'll go out with…" He stopped as Naruto stood quietly in the center of the small huddle. The blond's eyes were sharp, angry, his teeth gritted.

"I'll get our scroll." There was no room for argument in his voice, not the least bit of give. He turned to Shikamaru. "Turn this cave into a fortress, Shikamaru. I have enough manpower for this. Stay here and protect him." He turned to look at the one figure who was not in the huddle, the one person who had done nothing. "And her," he whispered quietly, his voice surprisingly gentle.

Shikamaru nodded. Once released from the trap, Ino had rushed to find Sasuke... and when she did, she became inconsolable. In the last day, she had not eaten or drank, and the muffled sound of her crying was broken only by intermittent moments of sleep. Nobody had gotten a word out of her, not her teammates, not Sakura, nobody. No amount of recrimination would change anything, and it could easily make it worse. Still, it's surprising a knucklehead like Naruto would think of that, Shikamaru thought.

"I'll go with you," said Shino calmly. "The Hyuga can keep watch here, and I can guide you to a group that are in poor condition, and thus would be better served being disqualified now instead of buried later." Naruto nodded, even as he bit down on his desire to let loose on his own. Letting your anger rule you is a stupid thing to do, Kakashi said to them once, and stupid shinobi die stupid deaths. Naruto wanted to lash out, to beat down every foe he could find, and he knew it was displaced anger at his teammate's suffering. And the most important part of that feeling was he knew it for what it really was, and in doing so, he could control his reaction.

"Go kick their ass," said Sasuke on the ground, panting slightly from the latest spasm.

Author's Note: You'll find that my Cursed Seal is... different. It all comes together in the end, and ultimately, it's down to the idea of goals and purpose.

Seriously, thanks to the reviewers for reviewing, even if it's just a quick verbal pat on the back. Yes, it's a tiny non-verbal pat on the back, but it is also encouragement. Nothing encourages creativity like an audience that cheers. Double thanks to those who are pointing out things for me to fix, because I can only read my own stuff so many times before my eyes go numb.