May 5th 2002:

Sunlight breached the canopy of humongous trees above Ryomen Sukuna, Naruto Uzumaki, and Sasuke Uchiha. Cold wind blew across the hidden area in the Forest-Of-Death. Shadows loomed everywhere.

Naruto and Sasuke had remained unconscious throughout the entirety of the night, wounded from their battle against Orochimaru. To ensure no-one would steal their scrolls or resources, Sukuna stayed awake.

Despite the insane amount of hours that had passed, Sukuna was not exhausted whatsoever because of his unique physiology. Bored out of his mind, Sukuna counted the number of leaves surrounding him.

From what he had heard beforehand, the three Shinobi from the Sound-Village who had made Sasuke their target would strike at dawn. Sukuna wasn't worried about such weak individuals, though.

Not much time had passed until Sukuna climbed to his feet. In the distance, Dosu Kinuta, Zaku Abumi, and Kin Tsuchi watched him. All three of them had grown surprised by Sukuna's sudden movement.

"Do you think he's leaving his teammates behind?" Kin asked from her cover in the bushes. "If he does leave them, it makes things easier."

Zaku crossed his arms, scoffing. "Don't be idiotic. I doubt he'd abandon his teammates at this point in the exams—at least I think so."

Annoyed by their blabbering, Dosu hissed out. "Be quiet, you two. Lord Orochimaru has given us his orders. Just focus on our task."

Peeking out from his cover behind a huge chunk of stone, Dosu blinked his visible eye in surprise after noticing Sukuna had vanished. Was there a chance the four-eyed boy had abandoned his friends?

Even Zaku and Kin had become somewhat befuddled by Sukuna's sudden disappearance. Fist clenched in excitement, Zaku spoke to the leader of his team. "This is our chance! Come on, let's take it!"

"I still don't know why Orochimaru wants us to kill Sasuke." Kin admitted to them. "Wouldn't he be more useful alive than dead?"

"Don't question lord Orochimaru's orders." Dosu grunted in response. "Our mission is to kill Sasuke Uchiha, nothing less and nothing more."

Banging his knuckles together in frustration, Zaku sneered. "Dosu, stop being such a coward! Why are you so worried about that freak?"

"That Kabuto fellow said that their team had gone on an A-Rank mission." Dosu said. "I'm not sure if we should underestimate him—."

"—So who's underestimating who?" An amused voice said. "I've noticed the three of you spying on me and my teammates all night."

Each member of team Dosu lurched out from their hiding spots in a bout of shock. Sukuna had seated himself down on the top of one of the boulders close to them, palm placed beneath his cheek.

Four crimson eyes watched them move back in obvious amusement. Descending upon the soil of the area they were in, Sukuna wiped off the dust on his outfit, slicked his pink hair back, and folded his arms.

Prudent beyond comprehension, Dosu thought. "How long ago did he sense our presence here? I was confident we had hidden ourselves!"

"Damn it!" Kin brandished a Kunai from her pouch. "We must have exposed our location to him somehow! I thought we would be fine."

"This is perfect!" Zaku smirked at the red-eyed boy. "I've been itching for an easy opponent! I'll slaughter this bastard and Sasuke Uchiha!"

Sukuna walked up to them in a nonchalant gait, four eyes glowing crimson and illuminating the shadows around them in a hue of red. Hands inserted into his pockets, he spoke. "Don't keep me waiting."

Dosu was punched into a boulder a mere moment later. "You want to kill me and my teammates, right? So, why don't you come and try?"

(-)

Shikamaru Nara, Ino Yamanaka, and Choji Akimichi had ditched the hollowed-out tree they had been occupying earlier. In hopes of retrieving an Earth-Scroll, they had searched for any weak teams.

An hour had passed since they had begun their search for anyone who was in possession of an Earth-Scroll and they had found no-one. Compared to her friends' lackadaisical reactions, Ino was frustrated.

"Damn these exams!" Ino grabbed her hair in annoyance. "Where are all the weaklings?! We haven't even come across anyone else here!"

Arms crossed, Shikamaru snorted. "Works for me. If we fail this portion of the Chunin-Exams, then I can just sit back and relax."

"Your parents would bother you about it, though." Choji munched on his crisps. "We might as well become Chunin for the sake of it."

"You don't see the real picture here, Choji." Shikamaru told his teammate. "My parents would just bother me about other crap."

Shaking her head at him in incredulity, Ino proclaimed. "You're such a lazy moron sometimes, Shikamaru! We still have to get a scroll—!"

An explosion of some kind cut off Ino and silenced the three of them. Dragging them by their shoulders, Ino took Shikamaru and Choji to the source of such an ear-splitting sound. They hid in some of the bushes.

"It can't be." Shikamaru noticed the two unconscious people placed above a mat of smoothened out soil. "Is that Sasuke and Naruto?"

Mouth opened wide in palpable shock, Ino whisper-shouted. "Sasuke?! Why the hell is he knocked out? Who did this to him?"

Choji focused more on the other spectacle ahead of them. "Um, you two. Are you just gonna ignore Sukuna fighting the Sound-Shinobi?"

Sukuna had deflected an inundation of Kunai thrown at him by Kin. Adjusting his combat-based stance last second, he lashed his hand out and unleashed a Dismantle at the wave of sound shot at him.

Spluttering at how Sukuna had stopped his attack without any difficulty, Zaku clenched his teeth in rage and defiance. Dosu maintained his distance from Sukuna, analyzing all of his abilities.

"Zaku!" Dosu yelled at his teammate. "Keep your distance from him! It looks like he can generate some kind of pulse that destroys things!"

In a crimson burst of commendable speed, Sukuna appeared behind Zaku and punched his shoulder. A second impact from the special effect of Divergent-Fist hurtled him into the huge roots of a tree.

"Stop shouting so much." Sukuna picked at his ear in annoyance. "You haven't even tried fighting me yet—so stop your stupid yammering."

Heated by Sukuna's dismissal of his prowess, Dosu raised his right arm and removed the bandages wrapped around it. Sukuna raised an eye-brow at the porous metal gauntlet connected to Dosu's limb.

"Kind of like the gauntlets that Doto and his cronies wore." Sukuna snorted to himself. "Let's see how well he can use his version of it."

Dosu had closed the earlier distance he had established between himself and Sukuna, swinging his gauntleted arm forward. Slapping Dosu's arm to the left, Sukuna squinted his four eyes in boredom.

However, much to Sukuna's pleasant surprise, an odd vibration entered his body before a small amount of vomit leaked from his lips. Dosu smirked at Sukuna after he had stumbled and lost his balance.

"You've underestimated our abilities!" Dosu raised his right arm. "Let me explain to you the fundamentals of our techniques at length…"

"My abilities are based around sound." Dosu said. "No amount of blocking my attacks will be able to stop the sound from reaching you!"

Sukuna just smiled in amusement. "Sound, huh? I assume that Zaku's powers are also based around sound—but Dismantle still stopped it."

"Let's hear his pointless rambling." Sukuna could feel his lack of balance remain. "The ability itself isn't powerful, but it is disruptive."

"The human ear-drum—the tympanic membrane—ruptures when it's exposed to sound levels in excess of one-hundred phons. You get it?"

"If the sound is powerful enough to upset the liquid in the semi-circular canals of the deepest inner ear, it makes keeping your balance hard."

Tapping his ear, Dosu spoke. "I have the ability to manipulate vibrations thanks to this handy appliance attached onto my arm."

Shikamaru had heard all of this from the bushes. "I guess Sukuna's in a pretty tough bind, huh? Not that any of that crap is my business."

Hand pointed out towards Sasuke, Ino mumbled. "I can't just leave Sasuke next to those two hooligans that he calls his teammates!"

Eating his crisps, Choji said. "Do you think we should check if Naruto and Sasuke have an Earth-Scroll? We could take it from them."

"I doubt it." Shikamaru scratched the back of his head. "Sukuna isn't stupid enough to keep his scrolls on such easy targets. He has them."

All of a sudden, amused laughter rang across the Forest-Of-Death. Sukuna returned to his feet, smacked his damaged ear, concentrated on Dosu in particular, and vanished in a vermillion streak of speed.

"Impossible!" Dosu widened his eye. "He shouldn't be able to regain his balance so fast! Also, why the hell is this bastard laughing at me?"

Knuckles planted into the back of Dosu's head, Sukuna launched him into the air and slammed him into a small tree-branch. Turning around in an instant, Sukuna moved his hands around to block Kin's kicks.

A Kunai slipped out from her hand, enhanced by a simple application of chakra. Sukuna swatted the Kunai downwards, punched her into the soil, hummed in boredom, and caught Zaku's fist in his hand.

"Don't tell me all you can manipulate is sound." Sukuna smirked. "I wouldn't be surprised if there was another gimmick to his abilities."

Teeth widened into a vengeful grin, Zaku replied. "Of course not! Unlike Dosu, I can manipulate both sound-waves and air-waves!"

Moving his free hand towards Sukuna's head, Zaku outputted an attack created one-hundred percent from air-waves. Sukuna snapped his head backwards, glancing at the bushes that were then destroyed.

"I've seen everything I've wanted to see from you three." Sukuna threw Zaku into Kin—who had risen to her feet. "You're all boring."

Sukuna observed them as the members of team Dosu regathered. Unaffected from Dosu's vibration-oriented technique, Sukuna tapped a palm onto the entrance of his ear in annoyance. "It's still ringing."

From the bushes, Shikamaru yawned. "Sukuna's treating these three like a joke. I guess these Sound-Shinobi really are weak."

Ino scowled. "He better not take whatever scroll they have! We called dibs on it."

Choji ate his food, quiet and patient. "Sukuna is pretty strong in his own right. But those three from the Sound-Village look kinda tough."

Silent and uninterested, Sukuna blurred forward. Zaku snarled at him, lifted both of his arms, and blasted out a sonic boom. Dismantle scattered it, letting Sukuna get in close and punch Zaku's face.

Flipping upwards, Zaku grunted once Sukuna had grabbed his ankle. Spinning around on the heel of his foot, Sukuna tossed Zaku into the bushes and appeared in front of Kin in a flash of vicious movement.

Jolting at his sudden arrival, Kin failed to block off the roundhouse kick buried into her hip and staggered. Dosu lunged at Sukuna—who grasped his right arm by the wrist. Smirking at him, Dosu released pulses of sound.

Sukuna's body rattled a little from the onslaught of vibrations that dug into his left ear-drum, rupturing it even more. Though, because of his unnatural physical prowess, Sukuna could endure this without trouble.

Blood leaked out from Sukuna's ear—but he ignored it and fell onto one knee from the expected loss of balance. Dosu prepared to burst Sukuna's shoulder apart—but was then head-butted in the nose.

Having leaped to his feet, Sukuna fired off a Dismantle to his left after Zaku had blasted a Slicing-Sound-Wave at him. Sukuna pressed his hand down onto the soil, utilizing Spiderweb to form cracks in it.

Losing their footing for the shortest of seconds, the members of team Dosu stumbled backwards. Kin had collapsed already from Sukuna's prior roundhouse kick. Zaku and Dosu looked at each other, unsure.

"Why does it feel like we're the ones losing?" Zaku clicked his teeth. "We outnumber this bastard three to one! We should be winning!"

Dismantle was launched into Zaku and Kin, hurtling them away. Sukuna walked up to Dosu, gave his teammates a brief glance, and spoke to him. "Why the hell are you even trying to kill Sasuke?"

Lowering his voice to an entertained whisper, Sukuna said. "You must be connected to Orochimaru, right? He gave Sasuke that mark."

"He knows about Orochimaru?!" Dosu then stared at Sasuke in shock. "A mark? I thought Orochimaru just wanted us to kill Sasuke, though."

Zaku had returned and yelled out. "Take this — you slippery bastard!"

The Supersonic-Slicing-Wave technique was directed at Sukuna. Caught somewhat off-guard by this, Sukuna grinned as a humongous mixture of air-waves and sound-waves slammed into his body.

Crashing into the roots of a ginormous tree, Sukuna spat out some blood from his bruised mouth and laughed. Hand extended forth, he decided to speak. "I have to give you props for that one, don't I?"

Zaku blinked, unable to comprehend how Sukuna appeared next to him and how Cleave had been activated on his arm. Blood pooled out from the long laceration that went from his elbow down to his fingers.

Sukuna's dull eyes glowed crimson while Kin and Dosu rushed over to where he had kicked Zaku. Next was Kin—who had a Dismantle directed into her solar-plexus. Dosu watched his teammates lose one by one.

"I admit it." Dosu's eye looked down in shame. "I don't stand a chance against him. I also have no clue what lord Orochimaru's intention is."

"Leave." Sukuna canted his head to the side. "I don't give a shit about what Orochimaru wants—but you three are some boring opponents."

Head tipped down in defeat, Dosu nodded. "Of course. I understand that I don't stand much of a chance against you, Ryomen Sukuna."

"Right." Sukuna snorted. "I forgot Kabuto announced mine and Sasuke's names to everyone after talking about Naruto's card."

Dosu slung Kin and Zaku onto his shoulders, then disappeared. Sukuna looked over at the bushes—where team ten was hiding. Disinterest coated his voice. "You three pests can stop hiding now."

Hands raised like he was caught by a police officer, Shikamaru walked out from the bushes. "I am not in the mood to fight this crazy lunatic."

Choji followed after Shikamaru, hand buried into a packet of crisps. "Sorry for spying on you, Sukuna. We just heard a commotion."

Ino just flipped her blonde hair in response. "How could you let Sasuke get so hurt?! What kind of teammate lets that happen?"

Sukuna rolled one of his shoulders. "I don't really care about you three. If you want to fight for my scroll, then don't waste my time."

Ino was about to respond to him—but then broke out into a cold sweat alongside her teammates at a random influx of malicious chakra. Shikamaru sucked in a breath, looking at the source of this feeling.

Choji dropped his packet of crisps and looked at Sasuke, mouth parted in obvious fear. Odd marks stretched across Sasuke's flesh as he climbed to his feet, head lowered and arms dangling to the side.

Like an aggressive monster of some kind, Sasuke snapped his Sharingan-accentuated gaze towards each member of team eight. Ino ignored her fear, smiling and raising her hand. "Sasuke, you're—!"

In the blink of an eye, Sasuke had approached Ino to punch her. Shikamaru had shoved her into the bushes, dragging Choji along. Sasuke gritted his teeth at them, eyes glowing crimson in rage.

"What the hell is that?!" Shikamaru shivered at Sasuke's blood-thirsty expression. "That isn't the calm and stoic Sasuke from school, is it?"

Choji gulped. "I'm not even a sensory type—but I can tell that isn't natural. What happened to Sasuke to make him look so evil…?"

Ino sweated. "This can't be Sasuke! His chakra is nothing like it had been back when we went to the academy together. What is this?"

Sukuna walked towards his teammate. "That was a little aggressive, huh? I see the markings. Have you taken inspiration from yours truly?"

"Sukuna?" Sasuke spoke through clenched teeth, grabbing his head in pain and groaning out. "No, I must kill every obstacle in my path!"

"If what I can remember from my past life is right, then this is the Curse-Mark." Sukuna pondered. "What's Sasuke's next move?"

Sukuna remained calm and composed—even when Sasuke rushed at him in a flash of commendable speed. Going through five hand-signs, Sasuke clasped his palms and shot a blast of fire at his teammate.

Sliding to the side, Sukuna used Dismantle to dispel the Flame-Stream. Sasuke summoned a second straight line of flames from his closed palms, angling it at ninety degrees so that it could then hit its target.

Another Dismantle dispersed the flames before Sukuna closed in on Sasuke to engage him in hand-to-hand combat. Fist clenched, Sasuke lashed his knuckles out and dug them into Sukuna's left shoulder.

Impressed by the sudden increase of physical power from Sasuke, Sukuna twisted himself out of Sasuke's range and kicked him. Flipping into the air, Sasuke grunted at Sukuna and landed on a tree-branch.

Harnessing his new inhuman speed, Sasuke tackled Sukuna a split second later and widened his Sharingan-accentuated eyes to cast a Genjutsu on him. Sukuna looked as though he were entertained.

"You forgot, Sasuke." Sukuna knocked Sasuke into a tree. "I'm immune to Genjutsu—so don't even bother trying that crap on me."

Sasuke lurched forward, managed to kick Sukuna's head, grasped his shoulder, and pushed him into a boulder at full strength. Sukuna sank into the large chunk of stone, coughing out a few specks of blood.

Palm pressed against the boulder, Sukuna manipulated Cleave to tear out a small lump of stone from the boulder's side. Sasuke deflected the lump of stone after Sukuna tossed it at him and clicked his teeth.

"I should knock him out." Sukuna decided in his mind. "Sasuke's running on nothing but instinct, so he can't make rational thoughts."

(-)

Rock-Lee, Ten-Ten, and Neji Hyuga had all detected the malign chakra that had tainted the atmosphere of the Forest-Of-Death. Out of general curiosity, the members of team Gai had looked for its source.

Perched on the top of a thick tree-branch, the three of them noticed Sasuke and Sukuna dueling it out against each other. Neji curled his lips at the Ino-Shika-Cho trio in disgust for their lack of bravery.

"That chakra." Ten-Ten rubbed her chin, somewhat nervous. "Sasuke Uchiha, right? He didn't feel like that back when we first met him."

Neji had activated his Byakugan, scoffing. "It must be a technique gone wrong. Otherwise he wouldn't be attacking his teammate."

Lee pumped his clenched fist. "I doubt Sukuna can lose to him! He is one of Gai-Sensei's 'semi-students' — as he likes to call himself."

Sukuna and Sasuke exchanged a series of blows. Hand wrapped around Sukuna's neck, the Uchiha swung him into a tree stump. Leg stretched out, Sukuna pressed his foot into Sasuke's solar-plexus.

Having been launched backwards, Sasuke blinked his Sharingan-enhanced eyes at the pain in his sore muscles. Refocusing on his opponent, he lunged at Sukuna in a distortion of violent speed.

"Everything about him is so much stronger!" Sukuna grinned. "If only he could keep himself sane enough to use this new strength of his."

However, Sasuke soon stumbled forward in exhaustion and slumped to his knees. Against all odds, he had suppressed the mark on his neck. Deactivating his Sharingan, Sasuke took in a deep breath.

Somewhat exhausted himself, Sukuna grouched. "I'm surprised you got a hold of yourself. That mark he gave you made you insane."

Touching the back of his neck, Sasuke gritted out. "Yeah, sorry about that. It just felt like I was in some kind of void of nothing but anger."

Helping Sasuke to his feet, Sukuna looked up at the branches. "It's fine." He then grunted. "Lee, are you gonna stay up there for good?"

Lee touched his feet down on the soil. "My apologies for not helping you, Sukuna! But I could tell by your youth that you would be fine!"

Neji soon followed after his teammate. "Ryomen Sukuna and Sasuke Uchiha. I take back what I said, it would be best to look out for them."

Ten-Ten remained silent once she had joined her teammates on the soil while the members of team ten decided to leave. Sasuke glanced at Lee and Neji before a loud voice groaned out. "What the hell?!"

Sukuna looked at Naruto—who had woken up at last. "What happened?! Last I remember was fighting that freaky bastard!"

Sasuke limped towards Naruto to explain their situation. Sukuna turned to the team Gai—but realized that they had already left. Shrugging at their sudden disappearance, Sukuna went to his team.

Once everything had been explained to him, Naruto nodded. "So, Sasuke went insane because of a stupid mark from Orochimaru?"

"It looks like it." Sukuna said in a nonchalant tone. "His strength was given a massive boost, though. It'll be good if he can control it."

Sasuke gazed down at his clenched fist. "Why would Orochimaru give me of all people that type of strength? There has to be a reason…"

Changing the subject, Sasuke cut in. "We can talk about this later. Sukuna, did you manage to pick up that Earth-Scroll left behind?"

"Of course." Sukuna tapped his pouch. "All we have to do is get to the tower in the middle of the forest, right? Then we've passed this test."

"Alright!" Naruto grinned in celebration. "We're one step closer to Chunin! None of these bastards are gonna stop us, ain't that right!"

(-)

May 6th 2002:

The members of team seven had decided to take a break for one day to recuperate from everything that had happened. At the moment, they were eating the fish they had caught from the stream on their left side.

Sasuke and Sukuna were both rather damaged, though—Sukuna's ear-drum had been ruptured by Dosu and he had also been injured because of Sasuke. In turn, Sasuke's injuries came from Sukuna.

"You're real lucky, you moron." Sukuna ate the fish they had caught. "Why the hell do you get to heal so fast? This shit is not fair at all."

"Hah!" Naruto leaned his head back, laughing. "I can't blame you for being jealous of me! Naruto Uzumaki is the best, remember that!"

"My ear-drum's about to ruptured because of your shouting." Sasuke grunted. "Can't you be quiet for one minute so we can eat in peace?"

"These injuries will be a pain." Sasuke said, eating his lunch. "If we get ambushed for our scrolls, then we might have to push ourselves."

"You're injured? Could I be of any help?"

Sukuna had planted his hand on Kabuto's shoulder in an instant, ready to activate Cleave on him. Somehow, without them noticing, Kabuto had taken a seat on one of the logs they used for seating.

Hands lifted in surrender, Kabuto declared. "I don't mean you any harm. I just happened to overhear your conversation, that's all."

Scowling, Sasuke responded. "Sure you did. You must be after our scrolls. Just tell us where your other teammates are hiding, Kabuto."

"They separated themselves from me." Kabuto sighed. "I was hoping to find another team from Konoha who would let me join them."

"Why would we let you join us?" Sukuna ignored Naruto—who looked like he wanted to speak. "You did say you could help us earlier."

"Yeah!" Naruto interrupted them. "Kabuto, you made it sound like you could heal these two bastards up! Do you know Medical-Ninjutsu?"

The bespectacled Genin nodded. "Indeed I do. Here's my proposal — I heal the two of you. In exchange, you'll let me accompany you."

Pulling out his scrolls, Kabuto said. "See? I have both of the scrolls. So I would have no reason to collaborate against the three of you."

"There you go!" Naruto nodded. "See, you two! Stop being so grouchy! You'll get healed and all we have to do is let him follow us around!"

Sukuna moved his hand off of Kabuto's shoulder while Sasuke grunted. "Fine—but you better not try to pull off anything suspicious."

"Of course not." Kabuto adjusted his glasses. "I'll have you two healed up! Just trust me — I've been in the medical business for a long time."

Once Kabuto had healed Sukuna and Sasuke to a suitable degree, the four of them ventured deeper into the forest to complete this section of the exams.

Silence filled the air.

A/N: Thanks for reading this chapter.