If Sakura could not convince her teammates to skip out on the chunin exams, she knew that she would have to formulate a watertight plan to keep Sasuke out of Orochimaru's clutches instead. Though she hoped that Kakashi managed to convince the Hokage into banning Otogakure, she could not rely on that. She knew that even in her old timeline, she could not have taken on Orochimaru alone–that snake had as many lives as a cat and a bottomless well of jutsus to draw from. Not to mention, he knew Sakura's fighting style better than nearly anyone thanks to his familiarity with Tsunade. Now, Sakura had disadvantage after disadvantage. In fact, her only hope was that Orochimaru would so severely underestimate her that she would be able to land one good blow.
There had to be another way around her predicament. Of course, she could push Sasuke out of the way and take the curse mark herself, though that would introduce so many new variables that she very well could make this timeline worse. Another option would be to seek out Tsunade early and hope that she could figure out a way to undo the curse mark, though yet again, Sakura could not rely on that being successful.
Sakura felt as if she were in an impossible situation. By preventing just this event, she could turn the entire timeline for the better, but out of everything she had faced in her past life, Orochimaru grabbing hold of Sasuke felt the most inevitable. She needed an outside perspective, but she was not ready to divulge information on Sasuke's fall into darkness yet. With a huff, she decided to speak with Kakashi, regardless of whether she could tell the whole truth or not. Some help would be better than none.
––––––––––
Despite the late hour, Sakura could see light seeping through Kakashi's curtains. Of course he was not asleep. Before she knocked on the door, she sent a wave of chakra to probe around her in case of any traps. Nodding to herself as she detected none, she knocked firmly on the front door. Kakashi took his sweet time answering it, finally greeting Sakura with a tired sigh.
"Come on in," he said, though he sounded awfully miffed about it. "I was just getting to the good part in my book."
"You can get back to that garbage in a bit," Sakura replied, her voice curt. "We have some slightly more important matters to discuss."
Kakashi muttered something under his breath and motioned for Sakura to take a seat on the couch while he busied himself in the sparse kitchen. "Tea?" he offered, putting the kettle on to boil.
Sakura nodded, knowing that she wasn't planning on sleeping much that night and any amount of caffeine would help.
"Right, so you're here about the chunin exams, I assume?" Kakashi grabbed two ceramic cups from his cupboard, holding them up to the light to check for dirt.
Sakura took a steadying breath, her mind already running at a mile a minute. "Yes," she started. "Before I explain my worries, I need to know, did you manage to convince the Hokage to prohibit Otogakure from the exams?"
"I did," Kakashi said, a glint of pride shining in his one visible eye. "I looked into missing people in the area as you suggested and man, did a lot come up. Did you know that more than one hundred children have gone missing in the last seven years alone? I brought that up to the Hokage and he agreed that there was likely something suspicious lurking under the surface in that village. I did not bring up Orochimaru, of course, but I have a feeling that he was suspecting that that old snake had something to do with Otogakure. Honestly, it's embarrassing that we did not pick up on Oto as a potential threat in your past life. It has Orochimaru's rank scent all over it."
Sakura breathed out a sigh of relief. Though that revelation did not eliminate the prospect of Orochimaru's appearance in the chunin exams, it certainly made it less likely.
"That's great news," she said, accepting a cup of tea from Kakashi. "Now, that doesn't mean we're in the clear, though. I doubt Orochimaru is going to take Otogakure's ban in stride, and knowing him he's figuring out another way to weasel into the village as we speak."
Kakashi grabbed his own cup of tea and took a seat on the couch adjacent to Sakura. "I agree. The best way to prevent Orochimaru from showing up is to inform the Hokage of his intentions."
Unfortunately, Sakura knew that Kakashi was right. It was dreadfully difficult to protect a village while going behind the leader's back. Still, she did not know how to explain Orochimaru's intentions without revealing an awful lot about herself and her situation.
Sakura narrowed her eyes in concentration. "You're right, but revealing that would be risky. How could we possibly explain how I, a genin, and not a particularly spectacular one at that, got my hands on information regarding Konoha's most notorious missing-nin?"
"Who said I'd tell the Hokage where I got the intel from?"
Sakura nearly slapped her palm to her head. She had been so worried about betraying her true identity that she failed to notice the simple path in front of her.
Kakashi took notice of her expression, his eye crinkling as he continued. "I just spent the last week or so doing a deep dive into Otogakure's politics and history. I could easily tell the Hokage that I found some evidence that Orochimaru was involved and that his reason for entering that village in the chunin exams was to invade Konoha. Honestly, it's the least unlikely thing I could possibly tell him."
"Okay, then what information are you going to present to the Hokage?" Sakura pushed his argument, challenging it as if she were an interrogator. It had to be flawless.
"Easy, there's an extensive lab system underneath the village and there have been numerous reports of inhuman monsters wandering the surrounding woods."
"How on good Earth did you not pick up on this last time around?" Sakura exclaimed, incredulous. "Did you even bother to do a background check on the village before allowing them into Konoha's walls?"
"Well, there was not going to be a background check until I did my quick investigation," Kakashi replied, his features turning slightly sheepish. "Now that you mention it, that would have been incredibly irresponsible of the Hokage."
Sakura nodded, a seed of doubt growing in her mind. "Too irresponsible," she muttered. "Hokage-sama may be getting old, but this is too much of a slip."
Kakashi's composure turned icy. "What are you insinuating?"
"Nothing too sinister." Sakura paused for a moment. "Hokage-sama always had too much of a soft-spot for Orochimaru, didn't he?"
"Well yes, he was Orochimaru's teacher after all." Kakashi's tone was cautious as he tried to predict where Sakura was going with her comment.
"And you said that you thought that Hokage-sama suspected Orochimaru's involvement with Otogakure? If that's true, then I think it may be a possibility that he still believes that he can either defeat Orochimaru by luring him into the village or that he can convince him to return to Konoha as a loyal shinobi this time around."
"Neither of those possibilities make any sense." Kakashi shook his head. "Hokage-sama couldn't defeat Orochimaru decades ago. What would make him think that he could do it now with him older and weaker and Orochimaru stronger? And your second idea is absurd. The Hokage is a soft man at times but he's not a naïve child."
Sakura nodded, acknowledging Kakashi's rebuttal. "I agree. Neither of those options make much sense. But if it's not either, then why was the Hokage so negligent to all of this?"
Kakashi stayed silent for a moment, his expression calculating. "I don't know," he said finally. "This worries me. What exactly happened in your time since Otogakure was allowed to participate in the exams?"
Sakura bit the inside of her cheek in frustration. She knew that it would be best to explain the entire scenario to Kakashi, curse mark and all, but from there, he would ask so many questions about Sasuke that Sakura would be forced to reveal how evil he became. Another lie of omission. She couldn't keep doing this.
Schooling her face into indifference, she began to explain an abridged version of the Otogakure invasion. "As I mentioned before, Orochimaru managed to infiltrate the village. I believe he arrived with the Otogakure ninja, but during the third round of the exam, he assumed the Kazekage's appearance and attacked the Hokage. He had killed the Kazekage a while before the invasion. With Otogakure present, he had his army at his disposal and besieged the village. From what I heard, Hokage-sama challenged him one-on-one and unfortunately died in the effort."
"Ah." A flash of sadness passed over Kakashi's features. Losing the Hokage was without a doubt a hard blow.
"Oh, and I nearly forgot." Sakura continued with her recount. "Orochimaru was successful in part because of Otogakure's presence but also because he tricked Sunagakure into attacking Konoha in tandem with him."
"That was quite an important detail, Sakura." Kakashi took a moment to think. "We need to prevent the Kazekage's assassination. If I understand correctly, if we keep the Kazekage alive and achieve amicable relations with Sunagakure, Orochimaru's plan will fail."
"As far as I'm aware, you're completely correct. Though, I will not lie, that sounds nearly impossible."
"It's not impossible." Kakashi's voice possessed full confidence. "I will make sure the Hokage warns Sunagakure. This invasion will fail."
"Yes, but you predicting this entire situation with Orochimaru and Sunagakure is incredibly suspicious. Where will you say you got the information from?"
Kakashi paused for a moment. "There is one person outside of the village who would know what Orochimaru is up to."
Sakura furrowed her brows in thought. "Tsunade-shishou?" That was the only person she could think of who would possess that kind of information, but even that seemed implausible given how little Tsunade cared about the village at this point in time.
Kakashi shook his head but did not provide an answer.
"Look, I've given you tons of information about things that I really should have kept secret," Sakura challenged. "You can tell me this."
"The one man is Itachi Uchiha," Kakashi stated. "I will tell you no more on the subject so don't ask. What's important is that the Hokage will be warned and subsequently, the Kazekage will be warned too."
Sakura's eyes widened at Itachi's name. The more she looked into Konoha's politics, the more Itachi appeared and less she realized she knew about him. Her suspicions surrounding the man were only growing and though she knew she could not interrogate Kakashi about him at the moment, she would eventually. For all she knew, there were two Itachi Uchihas. The first was the one she was only beginning to learn about thanks to information from Fumiro and Kakashi: a quiet, polite young man with incredible skill and a seemingly good heart; the second was a brutal mass murderer with a love for nothing but torture and blood. Though her portrait of him was far from complete, she did not believe that he was wholly one or the other. There was something she was missing–something substantial.
Sakura brought her racing thoughts back to the more pressing matter at hand: the chunin exams. "I'm trusting you with this, Kakashi-sensei," she said. "There is so little room for failure here."
"I know." Kakashi's expression was dead-serious. "This is a mission. I don't fail missions."
Sakura nodded in acknowledgement. "We've got training tomorrow morning, huh. I should probably head home and try to squeeze in at least a few hours of sleep."
Kakashi's demeanor quickly switched back to its usual nonchalance. "Yeah, you probably should," he said, grabbing Sakura's cup. "You teenagers need plenty of rest."
"Thank you for your help, Kakashi-sensei." As Sakura closed the door behind her, she let out a breath of relief in the chilly night. Kakashi's help really had proven invaluable.
–––––––––
Sakura spent the few days before the first exam training with her team. Kakashi doubled down on group formation exercises, constantly testing their teamwork. To Sakura's pleasant surprise, her teammates took to the exercises in stride, constantly finding new ways to back each other up. Naruto even slowed down and listened to Sakura's suggestions during mock battles sometimes.
In between training sessions, Sakura continued to teach Sasuke medical ninjutsu, though he was beginning to hit a wall. For some reason, Sasuke could not bring himself to heal live tissue. Each time he tried to heal a small scratch, Sakura could sense his chakra coiling in on itself, forming an abrasive mass.
"Sasuke, stop." Sakura pulled her scratched hand away from Sasuke's grasp as he tried and failed to summon healing chakra for the fifth time in a row. "What is your intention here?"
Sasuke grit his teeth. "To heal, obviously."
"You are not channelling that intent into your chakra." Sakura quickly healed the scratch she had gotten from training earlier in the day on her hand. "Remember how you healed the fish? That is the intention you want. Not anger and not destruction."
"This is different from the fish," Sasuke said, his voice strained.
Sakura raised an eyebrow. She understood now that Sasuke was facing a sort of mental block; she only needed to understand the root so that he could move on. "Could you expand on that?" she asked, looking merely curious.
Sasuke seemed to flounder for a moment as he attempted to gather his thoughts. He allowed several moments of silence to pass before his face regained its typical apathy. "I'd rather not," he stated simply. "I need time to think about it so we should take a break for now. I'm not mastering this before the chunin exams so we should just start up again afterwards."
Sakura agreed with him to a point. He was not going to master medical-ninjutsu in the two days before the first exam. In fact, he would not be anywhere close to being even a field medic by that date. Still, Sasuke did not often give up that quickly.
"That makes sense," she started, packing up her healing supplies. "I sure hope you aren't planning on quitting, though. It took me years to even get adequate with medical ninjutsu. You've got to be patient with this."
"I know." To Sakura's surprise, Sasuke did not appear frustrated. "I'm not quitting. We just need to focus on getting through the chunin exams right now and I know that you can heal plenty well for the both of us. We can get back to this as soon as we get promoted to chunin."
Sakura lit up with the embedded compliment. "You're pretty confident that we'll pass, huh."
"Yeah, of course we will." Sasuke's lips curled into a small smile. "We're pretty damn good."
–––––––––
The building in which the first exam was to be administered buzzed with nervous energy. Sakura stood close to the two other Konoha genin teams from her year, listening passively as they quizzed each other on basic ninja knowledge. The first exam was supposed to be a paper test, though none of the genin suspected that it was more than just a display of written knowledge.
Naruto inched closer to her, bringing his face to her ear.
"Hey, Sakura-chan?" he whispered. "You don't think I'm gonna fail this, right?"
Sakura grinned in response, gently elbowing him in the ribs. "No way. You're gonna be the future Hokage, right? You've got this in the bag."
Naruto's back immediately straightened with pride as his face flushed. Grabbing onto Sakura and Sasuke's wrists, he pulled them both towards their exam room.
"Come on, guys!" he said, leading them up a set of stairs. "We should be the first ones there!"
Sasuke's eyes grew slightly in surprise. He agreed with Naruto, though he was tempted to check for a genjutsu in case a punctual imposter was impersonating his typically tardy teammate.
Sakura thought to check for a genjutsu before Sasuke, though.
"Wait, guys," she said, digging her heels into the ground to stop Naruto from pulling her along. "Someone cast a genjutsu on this floor. We're about to go into the wrong room."
Sasuke quickly raised his arm in a ram sign and sent a pulse of chakra through his body, releasing the genjutsu's hold on his mind. As he looked around, he noticed that they were on the wrong floor entirely. Turning back towards the stairwell, he motioned for Sakura and Naruto to follow him.
Sakura nodded in acknowledgment, following behind him with her hand on her kunai holster. She had no reason to expect an ambush during the first exam, but she could never be too careful.
Sasuke entered the correct exam room first, settling in a corner of the room to wait until the proctor assigned them seats.
"I hope you all studied for this," Sasuke said, his voice a whisper as more teams filed in. "It's not going to be anything like that Academy crap."
Naruto visibly paled, but maintained his cheerful attitude. "Yeah no problem, Sasuke," he replied, making no effort to lower his volume. "Sakura made me read that boring ass history book so I know everything we need to know about Konoha."
Sasuke assumed an expression of pleasant surprise. He knew that Sakura would not make Naruto waste his time on some poorly written childrens' history. Maybe Naruto was more prepared than he had expected.
Sakura opened her mouth to contribute to the conversation but snapped it closed as she heard a fight break out on the other side of the room. Throwing her arm in front of Naruto, she wordlessly told him to stay where he was and observe from afar. A vine of worry clenched at her chest; last time the team of Otogakure ninja had staged a fight in order to paint Kabuto as a victim. Yet, as she investigated the commotion from her spot across the room, she could not spot his white hair in the fray. In fact, as she looked closer, she realized that it was merely a fight between Konoha ninjas. Unsurprisingly, Kiba had managed to anger Neji Hyuuga and was seconds away from unleashing Akamaru on him.
Sasuke made a move to join the fray, but Sakura grabbed his wrist.
"Wait," she muttered. "We don't want to get caught up in petty fighting this early. You know how brutal the second and third exams are. We don't need to give anyone more of a reason to kill us."
Sasuke could not argue with Sakura's reasoning. Frowning, he turned back to his team, easing his arm out of Sakura's grip.
Just as the fight escalated to an all-out brawl, the proctor, Ibiki Morino, strode through the front door, bringing the fight to an abrupt stop. As he walked by the genin gathered in the back of the classroom, Sakura could see them flinch at his imposing stature. Ibiki stood in the front of the room, a stack of papers in hand. Not a single genin dared to speak, the room filled with tense silence.
"Take your seats." Ibiki's voice boomed through the room.
Within seconds, everyone was seated, facing forward.
"My name is Ibiki Morino," he announced, scanning the room as he began the instructions. "I will be your proctor for the first exam. This exam will consist of ten written questions. You have an hour to complete the first nine and you will receive the tenth once that time is up. You may, under no circumstances, cheat. If you are caught doing so, you will be immediately disqualified."
He waited a moment in the front of the room before passing out the exams. As soon as everyone had received a test, he took a seat at the desk in the front of the room. "You may begin."
Sakura looked down at her test and sighed. She knew that the purpose of the first nine questions was to cheat without getting caught, but she had been able to complete the exam without cheating in her past life. Reading over the questions again, she realized how absurd they were. In all of her years as a shinobi, she had not once had to solve a differential equation or use an integral. Calculus really did not come up often when you were fighting for your life. Regardless, she could technically complete the exam, and she knew that Sasuke would be cheating off of her soon, so she began to solve the problems.
About fifteen minutes into the exam, she sensed a sharingan watching her. Good. Sasuke had figured it out. She moved her pencil up to the top of her exam and quickly scribbled out a note.
These are all correct so far, she wrote, knowing that Sasuke would see it.
Though she could not get confirmation that Sasuke received her message, she continued to sense his sharingan. Unfortunately, she had no way to help Naruto cheat from her position in the room, but she had confidence in his sheer stubbornness; he was not going to give up.
She was, as expected, correct. At the end of the hour, Ibiki rose from his seat to collect the papers, ignoring the looks of terror on most of the students' faces. Before Ibiki announced the final question, he announced the names of the genin who had been caught cheating. Sakura watched their shameful walk out of the classroom, their teammates full of rage.
Ibiki cleared his throat. "Now, we move onto our final question."
He paused for effect, allowing tension in the room to build.
"If you answer this question correctly, you pass. If you fail to do so, not only will you fail the exam, but you will never be able to take the chunin exams again. If you wish to forfeit now, please raise your hand."
Sakura kept her eyes trained on Naruto, hoping that her changes to this timeline would not result in Naruto forfeiting this time around. Instead, he did not as much as flinch. As several other genin in the room raised their hands and exited, Naruto kept his eyes trained forward, exuding confidence.
Ibiki waited a moment longer, letting the shinobi stew in discomfort.
"Has everyone made their choice?"
The remaining ninja nodded, the tension in the room palpable.
"Good. The final question is: you all pass."
Naruto cried out in astonishment, turning his head to face his teammates. His eyes glinted with glee.
"You see that guys?" He got up from his seat and hurried over to where Sakura and Sasuke were sitting. "We totally killed it!"
"Yes we did!" Sakura exclaimed, pleased that at least one thing had gone right so far. "I had no doubts, honestly."
"I don't know, Sakura-chan." Naruto lowered his voice and leaned in closer to his teammates. "I didn't actually uh...answer any of the questions on the written part so I was pretty worried for a bit there."
To Sakura's surprise, Sasuke managed a small smile. "Honestly, I copied all of Sakura's answers," he admitted. "I just didn't get caught. That was the point I think."
Sakura's smile grew as Sasuke openly admitted to a failing of his. "Yeah, information gathering was the main objective," she agreed. "Though it wasn't technically impossible to answer the questions."
"Yeah, well you're a genius, Sakura-chan, so it doesn't count."
Sakura thanked Naruto with a nod. With a light punch in the shoulder, she turned to him. "I wouldn't sell yourself out, honestly," she said. "You're not stupid."
Sakura did not think it was possible for Naruto to look more thrilled, but his eyes managed to widen to a comically large size. "You're the best, you know that?"
Just as Sakura was about to respond, a figure came hurtling through the window, shattering the glass. With Anko's entrance, the second exam started as quickly as the first one ended. Now, Sakura began to feel nervous. The second exam would test her and Kakashi's plan. If all went well, Sasuke would not receive the curse mark and the Sandaime would remain alive. Konoha would be in a far better position than it had been at that time in her past life, yet her success was far from guaranteed. Orochimaru consistently lived up to his name as the snake. He would do anything in his power to slip into Konoha and steal Sasuke away.
Sakura had no more time to worry, though. Anko stood in front of the remaining genin, a dango stick between her teeth.
"The second exam starts now," she announced with a sinister grin. "You will all follow me to the Forest of Death."
"Why would they call it that?" Naruto muttered to Sakura, grimacing. "That's an awful name."
"It's an awful forest from what I've heard," she replied. "Real scary."
Naruto shuddered, but followed Anko and the rest of the genin. High, metal fences surrounded the thick copse of trees that defined the Forest of Death, or the forty-fourth training ground. From her vantage point outside the forest, she could not see deeper than about 100 feet before shadows consumed the landscape.
As soon as all of the participants had arrived at the forest, Anko cleared her throat to catch their attention.
"I hope you all enjoyed the easy section of these exams," she said. She had a reputation for slight sadism, especially when it came to her relationships with her students. By the look on her face, it was obvious how she earned that reputation. "From here on out, you will start dying. For the second exam, each team will receive a scroll–either heaven or earth. As I'm sure you can guess, your objective is to collect one of each and make it back to the tower at the far side of the forest before the five day limit is up. Whatever you do, don't open the scrolls until you reach the tower. The instructions are simple enough, so I won't bother taking questions. Yes, you can use lethal force, so I'm going to have you all sign a waiver before you grab your scrolls so that Konoha won't be legally liable for your deaths or whatever. Now, line up, get your scroll, sign your waiver, and be prepared to fight for your lives."
Before Sakura got in line with her teammates, she scanned the mass of genin, keeping an eye out for any of Orochimaru's allies. She saw none of the previous culprits, though the kusagakure kunoichi whose body Orochimaru had stolen was present. Sakura could not detect any strange chakra from her, though she knew that it did not disqualify Orochimaru's potential presence. That snake knew how to disguise himself. For the moment, though, things were looking better. Scanning the area one final time, she tucked herself behind Naruto and got in line.
Signing the waiver this time around felt pointless instead of daunting. She had already given up her body and life to Konoha in the most literal sense of the phrase. Why should she care who was legally liable for her potential death when she was already willing to lay down her life for the village?
Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto turned in their waivers and received the scroll. For the time being, Sakura slipped it in her pouch, putting a little effort into stealth, but allowing anyone clever enough to see. She knew that it would not stay in that pouch for long.
Sakura took a moment to regroup with the rest of team seven at their assigned gate.
"I have an idea for a barebones plan," she said, her voice barely above a whisper. "I say we stick to this to the best of our abilities and take on unknown variables together. First of all, we need to get through this as quickly as possible. I say we grab an earth scroll off the weakest team we can find and then get to the tower immediately. There is no glory in this part of the exam; we can show off in the third round."
Sasuke took a moment to digest her plan. On first impression, he found it the cowards route, but the more he thought about it, the more sense it made. They were here to pass the exam, not to take out every team that entered. Not to mention, finishing quickly would seem quite impressive.
"That sounds like a fair plan," Sasuke agreed. "We should disguise our scroll in some way, though."
"I've already cast a genjutsu on one of the blank scrolls in my pouch." Sakura motioned to the grey pouch at her hip. "It should look exactly like ours. As for the real one, I'm going to trust you with it."
Sasuke took the real scroll from her, tucking it deep in his own pouch.
"Now Naruto, how do you feel about the plan?" Sakura noticed his slightly glazed-over eyes and decided to pull him back into the conversation.
Naruto jolted back into reality. "Right..." He looked sheepishly at her. "You're gonna have to repeat that real quick, Sakura-chan."
Sakura sighed and shook her head, but began to explain again anyway. "We're gonna get an earth scroll as soon as possible then book it to the tower. Got it?"
"Sounds good to me!"
Just a moment later, Anko's voice rang out over the loudspeaker announcing the beginning of the second exam. Immediately, Sakura led Naruto and Sasuke through the gate, doing her best to mask their chakra as they headed in a straight line for the tower. If Sakura remembered correctly, running straight from the entrance to the tower without disruption should take about an hour on its own. About half an hour into the exam, Naruto stopped.
"Hey guys," he said, looking embarrassed. "I kinda gotta pee. You think we could take a break?"
Sasuke groaned, eyes still alert to his surroundings. "I guess, but you need to be quick."
"Thanks Sasuke." Naruto turned to find a spot to pee before Sakura stopped him.
"You can go right here," she said, her tone leaving no room for argument. "We can't risk getting separated right now. I don't care that it's gross."
Naruto shrugged. "I was only moving for you, Sakura-chan, so whatever you want."
As soon as Naruto finished, Sakura took off again, making sure her teammates were close to her. Merely minutes later, she alighted on a branch and held her hand up.
"There's a takigakure team about 200 feet to the west right now," she told Sasuke and Naruto. "I'm masking all of our chakra right now so I know they haven't noticed us. I saw them briefly when we were signing waivers and I know for a fact that they have an earth scroll. Are you guys ready to do this?"
Both Sasuke and Naruto nodded in unison, readying their weapons. As soon as the three hit the ground, they immediately initiated combat with one member of the team, taking full advantage of the element of surprise. The shinobi Sakura found herself fighting yelped in surprise as she landed right in front of them, a punch leveled right for their solar-plexus. They managed to contort themself out of the way in time for Sakura's fist to fly by their abdomen, but Sakura did not allow herself to fall off-balance. Pivoting on her heel, she reached into her kunai pouch and released three kunai. The takigakure shinobi pulled out a short blade and deflected two of the three knives, ducking out of the way of the third. As soon as Sakura's kunai were out of the way, they rushed forward, slashing at Sakura with their blade. Sakura moved forward as well, shortening the distance and slamming her palm into the shinobi's forearm. They cried out in pain as their bones cracked and their blade clattered to the ground. They had obviously been taught well, though, and jumped backwards before Sakura could land another hit, but not before Sakura grabbed their blade for herself. With their dominant arm out of commission, they were unable to form hand signs effectively. Sakura closed some of the distance between them, but stopped about ten feet away. Stolen blade still in hand, she slammed her foot into the ground, a shock wave rippling outwards. The shinobi was immediately knocked off their balance, hands flailing for purchase. In that moment, Sakura closed the rest of the distance, her fist slamming square into their solar-plexus. The takigakure shinobi did not move. Sakura knew they were not dead, but they were certainly too wounded to continue fighting. For good measure, she placed her hand on their temple and sent a wave of chakra through their brain, making sure that they would remain unconscious for at least another hour. What happened to them in the forest was not her problem.
Sasuke found himself struggling a bit more with the shinobi he was fighting, her suiton proving tricky against Sasuke's katon. Regardless, Sasuke was significantly faster than her, even without his sharingan. He dodged her senbon with ease, ducking in front of her and attempting to sweep at her legs. She managed to avoid his kick, though, rolling out of the way. From a crouch, she ran through several hand signs and placed her thumb and index finger to her mouth. A powerful jet of water barrelled towards Sasuke, and though he managed to side-step the brunt of it, part of the jet grazed his upper-arm, ripping through his sleeve and a few layers of skin. He clenched his teeth in pain and activated his sharingan, closing the distance between himself and the kunoichi in mere seconds. With his sharingan active, he managed to land a solid round-house kick on her abdomen, pushing her back several feet. Using that momentum, he grabbed her wrist and wrenched her body over his shoulder in an attempt to throw her to the ground. At the last minute, she twisted in Sasuke's grip and rolled out of the throw, re-entering a crouch. Sasuke gave her no time to prepare another jutsu. In a burst of speed, he appeared in front of her, raising his leg above her head and bringing it down in a vicious arc. He heard an unpleasant crack as she crumpled to the ground. Like Sakura, he took precautions so that she would not be able to escape, binding her arms and legs in spare wire he found in his pack.
Naruto ultimately had the easiest time with his enemy, thanks to a lucky match up. He seemed to be against the team's healer, who had little training in close combat. Naruto raised his hands in the hand sign for a kage bunshin jutsu; twenty Narutos appeared in a puff of smoke, surrounding the healer as he tried to run off to a safer point where he could use his bow and arrows. As soon as Naruto had the healer surrounded, his clones pummelled him with a series of messy kicks and blows, stealing the bow from his hands. The real Naruto jumped into the fray, grabbing the bow and slamming it over the medic's head. He froze for a moment before collapsing in a heap on the ground. Naruto called off his clones and immediately dropped to the ground next to him, rooting through his pack.
"I've got the scroll!" He announced, brandishing an earth scroll in his grasp. "Though I feel kinda bad for this guy. I messed him up good."
Sakura walked over to Naruto and the fallen medic, scanning him quickly. "He'll be fine probably," she shrugged. "But now we've gotten both scrolls. Let's waste no time getting to the tower. I trust we still have chakra left over?"
Both Naruto and Sasuke nodded, looking no worse for wear.
"You should keep that scroll, Sakura," Sasuke suggested. "That way, if we're attacked, there's a chance we'll only lose one."
"Good point," Sakura replied, tucking the scroll into her pack and disguising it as a blank scroll with a simple genjutsu. "Let's go."
She took to the trees again with Sasuke and Naruto not far behind. If she was remembering correctly, they had only about thirty minutes left before they arrived at the tower. Though the record Gaara's team had set in Sakura's past life had been 97 minutes, her team was going to get pretty close to that if all went well from here.
Team seven made good time through the trees, their chakra masked effectively enough not to alert any other teams they passed. As they got closer to the tower, the forest got thicker, light completely obstructed by the tightly knit canopy. Sakura could still see well in front of her, but much was obscured by shadow. They were so close to being safe, surrounded by high-ranking jonin and ANBU members.
They were so close when Sakura felt the sickening presence of Orochimaru's chakra. She immediately wanted to stop on the branch and fell the entire tree with one strike. How, after all the precautions she had taken, did Orochimaru still find a way into the village? She stopped on the next branch and held up her hand.
"We need to stop," she hissed. "I can sense a really terrible chakra signature. I'm sure you guys feel that too."
Sasuke took a moment to scan the area and immediately winced. Whoever was nearby was absurdly strong. Far too strong to be in the chunin exams.
"What is that?" he muttered beneath his breath.
"I don't know." Sakura was lying, but it hardly mattered. They would all find out in no time.
She held her breath, focusing even harder on masking all three of their chakra signatures, though she knew that even her best effort would not be enough to throw Orochimaru off their trail.
A mere moment later, she felt a pressure on her ankle. Whipping her head to the side to see what it was, she was pulled from the branch with a yelp by a massive, white snake. Sasuke and Naruto immediately jumped after her, their eyes widening with terror.
The snake slammed Sakura into the ground, her breath forced out of her lungs by the impact. Orochimaru's sickening presence grew stronger and soon she could hear footsteps coming from further in the forest. She forced herself to her feet, managing to control her breathing.
"Stay behind me," she ordered, her teeth bared.
As expected, Orochimaru sauntered into the opening, completely undisguised. His long black hair fell right below his shoulders and his snake-like eyes were accentuated with thick eyeliner.
"Who are you?" Sasuke's voice was barely above a whisper.
Orochimaru laughed, his voice cutting like a knife through the silence of the forest. "Are you saying that you don't recognize me, little Sasuke? What do they teach in Konoha's history classes these days?"
Sasuke's eyes grew in recognition as he finally matched the face to the chapters on the Sanin he had studied.
"Orochimaru," he spat. "How the hell are you even here?"
"Your security is slightly better than I expected, but Amegakure entered so many cute little genin this year. It was so easy to kill one off and enter the village with the rest." Orochimaru picked up the white snake from the ground, allowing it to slither around his arm and up his sleeve. "I am sure you all know that you are no match for me, so I advise you to give me what I want without a struggle."
"What do you want with us?" Sasuke pushed forward, standing in line with Sakura.
"What do I want?" Orochimaru laughed again, more shrill this time. "I want you."
Sasuke's body immediately tensed with fear and he took one step back. He knew that he was no match for Orochimaru. That much was a fact. But he wasn't going to just let the monster take him. Not without a fight.
Sasuke's sharingan blazed to life, his face contorted in a snarl. Stepping fully in front of Sakura now, he ran through the signs for his fireball jutsu, a massive wall of flame extending from his lips and enveloping Orochimaru. When the fire died down seconds later, Orochimaru stood, completely unscathed.
"That was just embarrassing, Sasuke." Orochimaru's expression was entirely condescending. "Give up."
Sakura knew she had little time before Orochimaru left Sasuke with his "parting gift". She just needed to prevent that one thing. Hurrying in front of Sasuke, she leaped into the air and slammed her fist into the ground right in front of Orochimaru. He did not move, expecting nothing from a pink-haired, civilian-born kunoichi. That was a mistake. The ground cracked and split, the dirt beneath Orochimaru's feet giving away as a crater formed. Sakura wasted no time, readying a kick charged with just as much destructive chakra. But Orochimaru did not fall for the same trick twice. With a grunt of effort, he grabbed her ankle, slamming her into the ground in front of him.
"Not bad," he mused before summoning a snake to bind her arms and legs. "But certainly not good enough."
Naruto watched the battle from afar for a moment, his eyes growing in terror as he saw Orochimaru kick his teammates around without breaking a sweat. The terror grew in his core, morphing into anger as the fight continued. The anger ate away at him, hot, unadulterated, and blinding. How dare that monster get close to his friends like that. How dare he hurt his friends. Naruto's vision faded into a burning white as his body moved seemingly on its own inexorably towards Orochimaru.
From her spot struggling on the ground, Sakura could swear she saw fear pass across Orochimaru's face for a moment. She craned her neck as far as she could watching as Naruto charged towards him, surrounding in bubbling, red chakra. This could only end poorly.
Naruto swung a clawed fist at Orochimaru, snagging the hem of his tunic. The chakra he exuded burned so hot that Sakura could feel it on her face from the ground. The snakes Orochimaru summoned to restrain Naruto burned away in an instant, falling to the ground in charred ropes. He raised his eyebrows in surprise, stepping back for a moment to unsheathe his sword. As soon as Kusanagi was unsheathed, the tide of the fight turned again. Orochimaru swung at Naruto, the blade slicing cleanly through the chakra and into Naruto's shoulder. He hissed and let out a guttural growl. In a graceful two-step motion, Orochimaru stepped in front of Naruto, landing a solid kick in his stomach. He flew backwards several feet, his back slamming into the trunk of a tree. As he slid to the ground, the chakra surrounding him dissipated and he did not move from his slumped position.
Sakura writhed in her restrained position. The only way she could pose a challenge to Orochimaru would be if she released her Yin seal. Yet, that was not an option Sakura could act on. In the grand scheme of her mission, that would potentially ruin the rest of her future and she could not allow that to happen. But she could not allow Sasuke to be taken by Orochimaru either. Channeling a pulse of abrasive chakra into her legs, she cut the snakes binding her apart and she jumped to her feet. She could feel the Yin seal lying dormant in her forehead. Tears of frustration pricked at the corners of her eyes as she raised her hand in a ram sign. It had to be done.
Just as she was about to release the seal, she heard the unmistakable call of crows, and countless at that. She froze for a moment as hundreds of crows materialized between Sasuke and Orochimaru, a figure emerging from the mass of black.
Itachi Uchiha stood in front of Orochimaru, his sharingan blazing. Sakura noticed, though, that he did not possess the three tomoe she was familiar with, but a completely different pattern altogether. Orochimaru appeared genuinely frightened now.
"I will not allow you to go through with this," Itachi said, his voice completely level.
In an instant, Orochimaru was consumed by black flames. His tunic burned away and Sakura could see his skin begin to sag and melt. Itachi turned his head towards the genin, a small trail of blood escaping his left eye. His expression was utterly unreadable, though Sakura could swear she sensed some fondness.
As quickly as he appeared, he disappeared in the same flock of crows, Orochimaru disappearing with him.
Sakura stood stock still in shock.
A/N: Hey guys! It's only been *checks watch* two years... Anyway, I'm back with a chapter! And the longest chapter yet (it's 7400 words. whew). It also happens to be my favorite so far! Apologies for the long, long wait. I got very very busy with high school and other obsessions, but I reread One Small Kindness and Daybreak Part I a couple days ago and got absolutely YEETED by how good they were and then somehow got some motivation to write this fic again.
I will say, I have not watched an episode of Naruto in about three years now and I honestly don't plan to watch it again. I'm in this fandom for the fics and that's kinda it. That's to say, the Naruto wiki hard carried this chapter since I've forgotten a lot of important plot points. If you notice that anything is glaringly incorrect, please point it out! I don't mean to spit in the face of canon that much.
Also also, I started writing this fic almost four years ago now and I was 13 when I started. I didn't think to plan or outline really anything, so all the important plot points were in my head. Yeah, I've forgotten those. So honestly, this is probably going in a very different direction that I originally planned, but whatever! I'm happy with the ideas I have now!
Finally, formal apology for how poorly written the first....10 chapters or so are. One day I'll go back and fix them, but for now please enjoy how the three most recent chapters don't sound like they were written by a middle schooler.
Well that should get us all caught up! Hopefully I can get a few more chapters out of this wave of inspiration. I'd hate to this alone for another two years lmao. Anyway, please read, comment, and vote! Comments bring me SO much joy!