After that encounter with the creepy lady with the long tounge from grass, Sakura had to say, she didn't fell to optimistic about this whole "Forest of Death" thing.

The purpled haired Jounin, Anko, didn't seemed to excited either. She had a small, but noticeable frown on her face as she handed out scrolls to the waiting groups. Or maybe, that could just be how she normally looked, Sakura didn't know.

But she was still pretty cool. Sakura would have to ask Kakashi about her.

She had no doubt there would be deadly creatures in there, but as she side-eyed that grass nin and the psycho from sand, she couldn't help but wonder if they were bringing the deadliest aspects in with them.

"Hey Fo-Sakura!"

"Pi-Ino."

Ino was smirking, magnificent blond hair pulled back into its usual ponytail. Sakura looked at a strand of pink hanging over her shoulder, wondering if she should tie it back too.

Ino had followed her gaze and with a sigh and a shake of her head, pulled an extra hair band off of her wrist and moved behind Sakura.

"Tilt your head down."

Sakura did.

Ino braided her hair.

"...So, that redhead psycho is kinda hot. Sasuke's bad-boy vibes times ten."

"I-Ino!"

"What? It's true!"

Sakura couldn't argue with that. But as she glanced at Haku, she couldn't help but feel a sense of foreboding. She could tell behind his mask that he alternated between staring at the grass Kunoichi and at Garra, who was now muttering to himself and clutching his forehead.

"I know, Ino, but still, he's bad news."

Haruhi would think so too.

"Yeah, I'm not dumb enough to approach him. Sasuke at least isn't a psycho." Sakura bit her tongue, resisting the urge to say she wasn't giving Sasuke enough credit. He had gotten a lot better lately, but at the same time she agreed.

"Hey Ino, if team seven has an extra scroll, we'll give it to you."

"What-oh, thanks, we will too."

"That is a good strategy. We don't know what we will face after the forest of death." Haku had appeared behind them.

"Ino, I suggest your team finish your business in the forest of death as quickly as possible, with all due haste. The longer you are in the more likely hostiles will take your scroll."

Ino was staring wide eyed at Haku, a blush dancing across her surprised face before she nodded, a determined glint in her eyes.

"Did you notice that the sound teams are gone?"

"Uh...no?" Ino and Sakura said. Truthfully, they hadn't even realized they were competing.

"But Sakura, you and Sasuke talked to one of them before the first exam started."

Sakura scrunched up her face, before she gasped in realization. They had talked to the team before meeting up with Haruhi and Kakashi-sensei. They had all taken a special interest in Sasuke, just like everyone else. She wondered how tiring it got for him, to have everyone constantly into his business.

"Oh! Kin! She seemed kinda snooty, but not too bad. Why were they booted?"

"They were booted because the circumstances surrounding them were suspicious. Their scent tracks were discovered in Konoha before admission was allowed. They are suspected of making plans that would have thrown off the entire Chunin exams and needlessly endangered Konoha genin."

"You mean, endangered them more than normal." Sakura said dryly.

"Yes."

That was surprising.

This whole test was dangerous. What could they have been planning that would have warranted them being kicked out?

Ino had the same thoughts apparently, and wanted to tell her teammates.

"Well, I better get back to my team now. Bye Sakura, and thanks, Haku."

Haku inclined his head, taking his eyes off of Gaara briefly to watch Ino's swaying blonde hair as she walked away from them.

Just what had they signed up for?

"So Kakashi, what exactly is the second part of the exam?"

Two chunin had just walked past them talking about it.

Kakashi hummed thoughtfully, eye betraying his hesitation to share information with her. On one hand, Haruhi was stressed enough. She had been twisting her hair nonstop, and biting her lip. On the other hand, the truth set you free. She could feel better knowing what the kids were getting into. And he didn't like lying to her.

"It's in the Forest of Death."

Haruhi didn't look too surprised or put-out, so Kakashi took that as a good sign.

"And what is that?"

"Well, a… training ground of sorts."

"The Genin have already trained though. Why would they go there?"

He had to hand it to her. When Haruhi caught a scent, she was on it faster than one of his ninken.

"The Forest of Death is unique and special due to the fact that it is a naturally chakra dense spot. Due to the high level of Chakra in the forest, the creatures born there are… enhanced."

"Enhanced?" Haruhi asked sharply.

Ah, you really couldn't put anything past Haruhi.

"Yes, bigger, faster, taller. Things like that."

"And the kids will be up against that?"

"Yes."

"Hm, but that still doesn't answer my original question. Why there? For a challenge? That can't be the only reason."

Kakashi shook his head as his eye crinkled into a smile.

"Exposition."

"To show off?" The pure curiosity in her tone was endearing.

"Essentially. That hotspot of chakra is one of the last in the elemental nations. In fact, out of all of them, its the largest and closest to a hidden village. By showing the dangerous creatures inside and its proximity to the village, it's a show of strength on Konoha's part. And there's the fact that our hotspot is partially created by the first Hokage himself. He put years of time and effort in to the place to sustain life, and rare plants and animals. It's a reason why many of the tree are so much larger than normal."

"That's fascinating." Haruhi said, sounding genuinely intrigued, "But why is it one of the last?"

Sharp as a kunai, his Haruhi was.

"Well, officially, Konoha has been in three incredibly destructive wars. That's not even counting the skirmishes and other conflicts. High death tolls, and damage to the environment. That's the important one. The wars waged by all the elemental nations together, with their organized shinobi forces, destroyed and damaged most of the hotspots. While some still do exist in more remote areas and farther from warzones, it's a small continent, and most are gone. It's what makes this hotspot, the Forest of Death, so precious to Konoha. It's a symbol of our prosperity, that we have something that almost no one else has. That we're naturally better."

Haruhi was silent for a moment.

"So what you are trying to tell me is, that Konoha has one of the last hotspots on the planet, filled with incredibly rare creatures and plants found nowhere else, and the government-Konoha, is instead of protecting it, are using it to their benefit, to show off, and stage incredibly destructive battles. Battles that would compromise all the hard work the first Hokage put into it, and the creatures living there? Does that sound right?"

"..."

Absolutely scathing, he thought admirably.

Kakashi nodded.

To his surprise, Haruhi let out a cynical laugh that made his toes curl.

"Ah, you know what, Kakashi? Maybe our worlds aren't so different after all."

The screams of pain were getting louder. They could attract attention, and in this forest, that was nothing good.

"Oh God, Help! Karin!"

Sasuke pressed himself further into the bark of the giant tree and grit his teeth. The screams had turned into moans as the genin had died, and Sasuke could hear the crunch of bones grating against his eardrums.

"Mom…"

He peeked over a branch just in time to see a giant bear swallow a genin whole, a twisted arm being sucked in. Blood bubbled past its maw, and Sasuke could make out the faint outline as he went down.

He wished he had turned his sharingan off, because that would haunt him for the rest of his life. But even if he had turned his eyes off, he still probably wouldn't have been able to forget it.

Sasuke desperately needed to vomit, but the sound and smell might attract the giant bear.

He imagined his bones cracking like toothpicks as he too was eaten, screams being smothered by his own blood and breathing the vile breath of the bear.

God.

Why did it have to be like this? Why was all this pain and suffering necessary in order to become a ninja? Was it because that was all a ninja life had to offer?

The giant bear's fat purple tongue licked the blood off it's sharp teeth, leaning down in order to sniff the body. The lower half was splayed against the tree roots, while the upper half was lying awkwardly on the grass. That genin had been bisected by a bear claw bigger than him.

The bear grunted, turning away from the genin and lumbering away from him-and towards Sasuke. He had a moment of panic.

His strongest fireball would only tickle the bear though it's thick fur. Blunt force wouldn't do much, and if it stood on its hind legs it could possible reach him.

To his great relief, the bear walked right past him, seemingly intent on something.

When the bear was out of sight and Sasuke couldn't hear it's heavy breathing anymore, he leaned over and threw up.

Coughing as he stood, Sasuke's brow furrowed. Not that he was complaining, but the bear probably should have attacked him next.

He then realized there was only two bodies in the clearing.

Where was the third member? Was it this Karin that one boy had shouted before he died?

Whoever this Karin was, it was probably the member with the scroll. And they were probably in trouble.

Sasuke tilted his head back and took a deep breath in. Which was a mistake. The dead boy's intestines were out, along with the partially digest food held inside. It smelled.

They probably left this Karin behind to go searching for food. That meant the she was a support fighter and stood even less of a chance than the other two.

Sasuke jumped after the bear.

He knew it was a stupid thing to do. It wasn't his responsibility to help. All he was doing was getting the scroll. Yeah. And he couldn't get it if it was in the bears stomach.

He paused.

The trees were even wider and bigger here, with all the low hanging branches gone and nothing for the bear to break or snag fur on. The ground was hard packed dirt. No paw prints.

A scream echoed from his right.

He started sprinting towards the sound before he knew what he was doing, heart pounding in his chest.

Was he too late?

He landed on a tree branch and stopped abruptly. Lurching forward before pulling back. Thank god he knew tree walking. The bear had cornered a red haired girl against the trunk of another huge tree. In her hand she was clutching an earth scroll.

They already had that one.

But Sasuke didn't move. He didn't leave.

He watched as the girl leaned down and shakily scooped a handful of dirt in her hands and threw it in the bears face. It stumbled back, eyes watering and nose twitching. It's roar shook the tree branch he was on and the girl-Karin, ran for her life, just as the giant jaws snapped closed inches behind her.

Maybe he wasn't needed after all.

But Karin was sent reeling from the motion of jumping away, and tripped over a tree root. Her glasses were sent flying into the clearing, and she hit the ground hard.

Damn it.

The bear turned it head and Sasuke saw his opportunity.

"Shishi Rendan!"

He slammed his foot over and over again into the bears skull, knocking it unconcious.

There was a beat of silence after the bear collapsed, the girl still too surprised to move and Sasuke catching his breath.

He felt like he had to throw up again.

After a moment, Sasuke straightened himself and limped over towards the girl. He had kicked so hard he bruised his foot. He stooped down and plucked her glasses from the ground. They were shaped liked Haruhi's glasses.

Perhaps it was because of that that made him clean them with the edge of his shirt. He noted that they were a bit bent. He looked and looked down only to see the girl staring up at him with wide red eyes.

He was startled for a second before he realized they weren't sharingan.

She was still looking at him.

Sasuke began to feel uncomfortable. He hated when people stared at him. He offered her a hand in order to help her up and was gratified when she stopped gawking at him and instead looked at his hand. He released a tiny sigh of relief.

She blinked in confusion, before finally, cautiously, grabbing his hand, fingers curling around his painfully slow. He tightened his grip and pulled her up, ignoring her yelp of surprise.

He checked her over for injuries, and handed her glasses back to her.

She took them in a robotic motion, to surprised to say or do anything else, and slid them on her face where they rested crookedly on her nose.

The wide red eyes were on him again, and he felt a blush curling up from his neck to his face.

He cleared his throat.

"We already have a earth scroll."

Still staring. She seemed too stunned to say anything.

Since she seemed physically fine, Sasuke turned to leave, walking carefully to the edge of the clearing. His back itched. Was she still looking at him?

He turned around.

Yes she was.

Dirt covered her chin from where she had fallen, her hair was matted, the back of her jacket was shredded from the bears teeth had just barely missed her. Her skinned knees dripped blood and formed small pools around her ankles. Her glasses were askew.

'Leave her, she's fine.'

She blinked wide eyes at him again and his face flushed.

'Just leave her.'

He sighed.

"Karin."

She startled, putting a hand on her chest as if to say, 'me'?

"Yes you. Listen, do you want..."

Her fist had curled under her chin, and her lips parted slightly as she listened to him. Long red lashes blinked at him.

Sasuke found it very distracting.

"...D-do you want to come with me?" He flinched. That sounded awkward even to him. It reminded him of Kakashi-sensei.

She didn't answer.

He was just about to turn away where she finally said something.

"Yes!"

Sasuke jumped at the loud noise and scanned the treeline for enemies before turning back to her.

"Yes, well, then gather your things and come with me."

He jumped onto the lowest hanging tree branch-a good twenty feet up- and patiently waited for her.

She blushed, face stricken.

"My team…"

"...They've left you behind."

She flinched and Sasuke mentally kicked himself.

"Well?" He said, getting annoyed. He was already overdue, his team would be waiting for him.

"I can't get up there."

His eyebrows twitched. Seriously, what kind of terrible sensei signes up such an unprepared genin?

He jumped down in front of her, noting the way she flinched at his abrupt movement.

"Get on my back."

She adjusted her glasses-nervous habit, and shuffled closer. Sasuke felt like he was coaxing a skittish cat out from under his porch.

She slowly wrapped her arms around his shoulders and hopped onto his back. Sasuke wrapped his arms around her thighs and noted that she had no weapons on her except for one dulled kunai. He recognized the pattern on the handle. It had been the same one on the other kunai that the two dead boys had.

It looked like they had taken her weapons for themselves.

A ball of anger curled in Sasuke's stomach at the realization, and he realized he couldn't bring himself to regret asking her to come with him. There was no way she would have made it through.

He tightened his grip, and jumped onto the branch.

She gasped into his ear, breath ghosting over it and he had to repress a shiver. Her thighs tightened around his waist.

Girls.

He kept up a steady pace, heading in the direction he had came from.

"I have too much chakra."

That was a bit of an odd thing to say. But hearing her say more than one word was progress, so Sasuke didn't comment on it.

She realized this and explained.

"U-uh, I have a lot of chakra. Controlling it is harder with the amount I have, so tree walking is harder for me.

Well that explained a lot.

He grunted to show he heard.

They fell into a silence as the sun started to set, and soon crickets started chirping beneath them.

"H-how did you know my name?"

Sasuke couldn't very well tell her he heard it with her teammates dying breaths, so he improvised.

"There is a list of all the teams, with pictures and names. Your's was on there."

She fell silent.

The farther they traveled, the worse Sasuke started to feel. He paused on a tree branch and shifted so he could raise one hand to wipe his brow.

He was pretty sure they were lost.

He chewed on his lip.

"Karin."

"Yes?" She whispered behind him.

"I think we might be...lost." While Haku could no doubt find them with his sensing capabilities, it would take awhile in this chakra dense forest, and time wasn't what they had.

She was silent for awhile and Sasuke cringed, waiting for shouting to start.

"I think I can help."

To say he was caught off guard would be an understatement.

"What?"

"Describe to me how their chakra feels."

Sasuke hesitated, before doing just that. He was unaware Karin was a sensor. He turned to look back at her.

Karin's face scrunched up in concentration, and she started playing with the edge of his t-shirt.

Very distracting.

"Go left."

Sasuke went left.

"This forest...it's unlike anything I've ever been in before. There is so much chakra everywhere…"

Karin fell silent again, so Sasuke shrugged and moved on.

As he continued on, hope blossomed in his chest. He started recognizing this part of the forest. A small relieved smile worked its way across his face. He knew he made the right decision when he decided to take her along.

He paused on a tree branch, re-activating his sharingan to see in the darkness. He could just barely make out Sakura's pink hair.

"Why did you decide to take me?"

The question was so abrupt Sasuke didn't answer right away. Why did he? Sure, now he could see that it was a good decision to make, but back then, she was just some random girl who had tripped over a tree root. And she was an unknown, she was an enemy in the exams. Sure, it would be pointless to attack him. But then again, Shinobi were all about pointless suffering. Zabuza made that pretty clear.

"Because…"

Haruhi would have done it. It was the right thing to do. The way she curled her fist reminded him of Sakura and he couldn't leave her behind. And because he wasn't that man, who left people alone in pools of blood, helpless.

"...You could be useful to me."

"Is that all?" And she sounded so dejected and put out that Sasuke mentally berated himself again. Her grip on him loosened, and cool air rushed to the spots her arms had previously been covering.

"No. You were smart when throwing dirt in the bears face. You have potential, and I think it would be a shame if you died and it got wasted. And we can help each other. We escort you safely to the tower, and we have a extra pair of eyes and another sensor."

"Oh." She sounded happy.

Girls were so complicated.

"Do you really mean it?" She asked, and Sasuke started to sweat. What was he supposed to say to that?

"Yes."

A small smile crossed her face and Sasuke was startled at the difference it made. He swallowed roughly before letting her down. They could walk the rest of the way.

"I never did get your name."

"Sasuke, Sasuke Uchiha."

"Thank you Sasuke-kun."

He crammed his hands in his pocket and resisted the urge to grunt. Haruhi said girls didn't like that, and that the ones that did just didn't know it yet.

"I never got your full name either."

"B-but you said you saw the paper?"

Sasuke curled his fist in his pocket. He blamed his mistake on the fact that she kept on looking at him like that.

"I didn't get the time to read it all." He said bluntly, closing his eyes and walking forward.

"Oh, well then, my name is Karin."

He opened his mouth to say he already knew that.

"Karin Uzumaki."

He ran into a tree.

I should really be studying for my A.P tests but I couldn't help myself! Anyway, Haruhi is suspicious, Kakashi is besotted, and Sasuke's faith in Konoha and the shinobi way of life is wavering. Good times.

Many thanks to reebajee