"Status report, now!" The Hokage made his way through the infirmary where Kakashi had asked to be met with a troubled look on his face.
It's not everyday that your wayward student decides to pay a visit.
"We made contact with Orochimaru in the forest, he really is here." Said Kakashi grimly.
The Hokage sighed. "Do we know what he's doing here?"
"We're not sure yet, He attacked Hyuga Neji's team and left both boys completely out cold, we're still monitoring them through the screens." Informed Kakashi, earning a thoughtful look from the Hokage.
"This has become too serious, ANBU!" The same brown haired man with a Lion mask from before showed up. "Gather a squad and go into the forest, retrieve every team still competing and get them out of there, the exams are cancel-"
"No!" Yelled out a recently awakened Anko.
"No?" Asked the Hokage
"If we cancel the exams, he's going to attack the village." Said Anko, surprising the Jounin and the Hokage.
"How do you know that, Anko?" Kakashi certainly didn't remember Orochimaru telling them he would do such a thing when they faced him off.
"She..." Anko motioned to a little snake coming out of her trench coat, "told me."
Anko was allowed to sign the Snake summoning contract back when she was still Orochimaru's apprentice, after his deflection and her return to the village he tried to get her off but much to his chagrin, the leader of the Snake clan, Manda, view Orochimaru as nothing more than a pest he did favors to from time to time and as such wouldn't honor his wishes.
The summoning clan later became divided between those who came to realize Orochimaru was a sick bastard and those who didn't care as long as they got a free meal out of helping him.
The former were the ones Anko frequently summoned.
Both groups were still a part of the same clan and as such, could be summoned by either if they so choose, hence why Orochimaru had been able to send Anko a message.
"If he's willing to attack us just to make sure we keep this going there must be a reason why he's doing this..." Mused the Hokage before something clicked on his mind.
"It's the Hyuga boy, that's what he's after..." He looked at Kakashi. "Did you see what he did to him?"
Kakashi shook his head. "We were out of the tower looking at the corpse the chunin found, we left a pair of Kage Bunshin to keep watching in our absence but they released themselves the moment they saw him in the surveillance system as instructed."
"Did you find anything?" He asked, rubbing his chin in thought.
"When we got there both him and Team 9 were long gone... we located the team, should we send a squad to retrieve them?"
Hiruzen thought about it for a moment and slumped his shoulders. "I would like to get them out as soon as possible... but it's best if we let them stay in the forest and complete the exams."
"Why would we do that Hokage-sama?" Asked Kakashi.
"He's interested in Neji, that makes Neji the key to lure him out." Hiruzen looked sternly at Anko and she immediately knew what that look meant.
"Do you think he did that to him?" Anko's voice was full of something akin to sadness and frustration when she asked that question, she received a sad nod from the Hokage as an answer.
"He knows what he did is dangerous, if he truly believes what he's doing is worth the risk then we must find out what it is."
Kakashi wasn't too thrilled about this, he knew the Hokage was right but he still didn't like it, growing as close to his team as he had it was hard for him to sacrifice another for the sake of the village.
The Hokage seemed to have caught Kakashi's train of thought if the comforting hand on his shoulder was any indication.
"Tora, I want a squad ready for an emergency extraction, you will stay here and watch over the team, if at any point Orochimaru decides to approach them again and only if he does you will intervene." The Sandaime wanted to keep the team safe from his wayward student but he couldn't show any form of favoritism, especially not with foreign shinobi in the forest.
If another participating team made a move on them it was up to Team 9 to keep themselves safe.
—
"Please wake up... either of you, p-please just wake up..." It was hard for Tenten not to shed a few tears when looking at her team's dire condition, desperation was visible in her face mixed with the frustration she was feeling because there was nothing she could do to help.
It was even harder for her to even start to process just how they managed to get into this situation. Team 9 had started this exam with no doubt in their minds that they were going to ace them and come out as Chunin.
She started thinking they might have been wrong.
After being toyed by Orochimaru of the Sannin, Tenten managed to carry both of her teammates to the safest cave she could find in her vicinity, she found one a few kilometers away from the place where they encountered the traitorous ninja, she wasn't sure exactly how far though.
She knew it was important to keep track of her steps as a ninja but limping your way through a forest full of threats while carrying the unconscious weight of both of your teammates had a way of making you a little... distracted.
The team was now resting in what Tenten thought to be a safe place, the cave they were in was protected by layer after layer of traps made out of the girl's own supplies and what she could find in her vicinity.
She wanted to use her weapons for them so badly, but she had already wasted enough as it is, best not waste anymore here.
What were the chances that someone would be able to find them there anyway?
Tenten took a look at the scroll she was holding in her hand and sighed, the Chunin exams were now the least of her worries, if it were up to her she would've quit the test and made sure her team was alright. Sadly for her, quitting was not an option.
"Argh..."
At first Tenten would immediately jump to her teammate and secret crush's aid when she heard him complaining, it took her a long time to realize she couldn't do anything to help him.
What troubled her the most was not knowing what was going on with her team.
Neji had been bitten by the Sannin and knocked unconscious shortly after, a seal had appeared right were his neck met his shoulders and Tenten didn't know what it meant, she had a decent grasp of fuinjutsu - higher than the average Genin - because of her fighting style, that mark however completely baffled her.
He had been suffering from an intense fever ever since he fell unconscious and it was still burning hot in his body. To top that the Hyuga prodigy would start trembling, groaning in pain from time to time and the seal would give weird pulses, she didn't know what it meant, she didn't know why it was happening, but she knew it couldn't be good.
Her other teammate wasn't faring any better and Tenten knew even less of what was going on with Lee, never had he been unconscious for so long. She didn't know what Orochimaru did to him but it had to be incredibly powerful if he managed to close the gates with a single move.
A noise coming from outside of the cave alerted Tenten, she held a kunai in each hand -one in a reversed grip- and she walked silently towards the exit to find a squirrel looking a bit lost.
Thinking she was overreacting Tenten calmed down and was just about to walk back to her teammates when a hissing sound caught her attention, quickly realizing what it was she spun around to see an exploding tag just activated in the small body of the squirrel.
Without a second thought Tenten threw one of her kunai with perfect accuracy at the animal, making sure it exploded as far away from her and her teammates as possible.
BOOM
A bigger explosion than she anticipated engulfed the clearing and a big cloud of dust rose from the ground. Fetching another kunai from her pouch she walked to the cave's entrance and started looking around for her attacker.
The dust settled and it revealed the genin team from the sound; Kinuta Dosu, Tsuchi Kin and Abumi Zaku.
"We're here for the Hyuga," Said the heavily bandaged one. "Give him to us and we'll let you live."
"What do you want with Neji?" Tenten could guess what they wanted but she needed to buy enough time to come up with something to defend herself.
"That is none of your concern little girl."
Tenten growled. "If you want Neji you'll have to get through me!"
The sound team started laughing at her and that only made her even more mad, one thing was to try and take her teammate from her, but Tenten hated to be underestimated.
"If you have a death wish then so be it."
The spokesman of the team who Tenten assumed to be their leader rushed at her, being that exactly what she wanted she threw a kunai at him that seemingly missed his target.
He smirked behind his bandages but just before he could mock her, the kunai hit a tree trunk that had a thin ninja wire tied around it.
A thick trunk with short pointed rocks tied around it came flying at him, failing to react fast enough to dodge the hit; he was stabbed in multiple places and sent flying until he crashed with a tree and dropped to the ground in a loud thud.
"Dosu!" Yelled the other male of the team, if not familiar with them you might think he was concerned for his teammate.
The truth is he was annoyed because he would have to do more work himself.
Charging fast at Tenten in hopes of catching her off guard, Zaku started charging a big amount of energy on both arms.
On closer inspection Tenten could see... holes?
Not really wanting to find out why he had holes in his palms, Tenten threw a kunai at the ground triggering another one of her traps. In the most undignified way possible Zaku tripped over a hidden rope that tied tightly around his left foot, he was suddenly picked up by it and thrown towards the tree it was tied to.
He hit his head hard.
Making another one of her attackers drop unconscious with the use of her clever traps Tenten started feeling really confident, she didn't have any more traps set but she didn't doubt she could take on the girl of the team without much trouble.
With a smirk of her own, Kin threw a hail of senbon needles at Tenten that she dodged by going down. Not one to waste an opportunity Tenten charged at her only to drop to the ground when the sound of a bell ringing invaded her ear. Unable to stand up, all she could do was watch as Kin calmly walked towards her.
"That is as far as you go." With a chuckle Kin stopped right in front of the struggling Tenten and kicked her stomach as hard as she physically could and stopped to look at the pain visible in her face only to start again.
The onslaught of kicks continued and Tenten could do absolutely nothing to stop it, the devious girl would only give her enough time to cough blood and catch some wind before continuing punishing her.
Growing tired of only kicking the girl's stomach, Kin started viciously stomping her head with as much force as she could, making a dent in the ground the shape of Tenten's face.
Growing bored of her own torture methods, Kin grabbed her arm and bent her elbow backwards, effectively breaking it and making Tenten scream in agony as she bled all over from her multiple bruises, just to top it all off she stabbed a kunai in each of her thighs.
Kin kicked her hard on the head one more time and what little consciousness was still with Tenten started leaving her.
Waking up extremely annoyed, Dosu grabbed a kunai and started making his way towards the barely conscious Tenten, set on ending her life for daring to hurt him.
NIKUDAN SENSHA!
A giant Human boulder came spinning full force at Tenten's attacker, it caught both Kin and Dosu completely off guard but, while Kin managed to jump back in time to avoid the impact, Dosu was hit and crushed so hard by it that he stuck to it and kept rolling with the ball until it finally came to a stop.
Ino landed beside Tenten and started checking her for injuries, she wasn't familiar with her, she in fact had only met her once before but Ino was in no way going to allow a fellow leaf kunoichi to be abused that way.
In her time with Sakura ever since their old friendship resurfaced the pink haired girl shared with Ino the little medical knowledge she had gotten from the scrolls she was provided as well as the books Sakura got from the library, sadly, neither she or Sakura were at a level where they could treat extensive injuries.
In Tenten's case multiple concussions most definitely, stab wounds and what she assumed to be severe lacerations in her stomach as well as a broken arm.
Ino's teammates dropped beside her while she got to work on stopping the bleeding and at least making sure Tenten's pain was bearable.
"Shika, she's really hurt!" Ino was frantic, she didn't know exactly what it was she wanted her teammate to accomplish but he's supposed to be really smart and she's counting on that.
"We don't have a way to treat her, our best shot is to fend these guys off and take her to the tower with us." Shikamaru was analyzing the situation as calmly as he could, she knew Sakura's medical training and by extension Ino's wasn't good enough to treat more than not so threatening injuries, he didn't doubt Ino could heal most of the damage done to the girl's stomach but he wasn't so sure about the head.
"You fucking Tree Huggers!" Kin became incredibly angry and snarled at them as she got out a full hail of senbon with her special bells tied.
Not having been present long enough to be sure of how her jutsu worked or what it was that her Jutsu did, Shikamaru decided it was best to interrupt her before she did anything at all; he started going through the hand seals for his own jutsu but his pissed teammate beat him to it.
Shintenshin no Jutsu!
Still on the ground with Tenten, Ino's body dropped seemingly void of life, while in Kin's body the Yamanaka girl's conscience took control.
Dosu came back to stand next to his 'teammate' being as angry as she was and started channeling chakra into his arm's modifications to use against them.
Ino took advantage of his distraction and from Kin's body she stabbed a kunai in her leg and a senbon needle in the back of his neck, making him drop unconscious.
Zankuuha!
From the air vents installed on his arms Zaku channeled chakra and formed a gust of wind strong enough to destroy rocks and aimed it at the possessed Kin, he hit his target and sent her flying causing multiple cuts in her body in the process.
Ino got back into her body but was hurt by Zaku's attack because of her telepathic link with Kin's body.
"I'm going to kill you, I'm going to KILL YOU ALL!" Blinded by rage Zaku started charging an incredible amount of chakra in both of his arms, set on destroying the group of Genin gathered in front of him.
Zankyokukuuha!
An overloaded version of the jutsu he used before, capable of leveling the ground as it went, started advancing towards them at high speeds.
Out of nowhere, Naruto appeared and jumped in front of the attack, already going through a set of hand seals.
Futon: Bouseki Tate no Kaze!
All around them the wind started spinning in a circular motion effectively creating a shield Naruto loaded as much chakra as he could into.
Both jutsu collided in an explosion of wind that rose a big cloud of dust, when it cleared it revealed an angry Naruto and a Zaku barely able to stand from exhaustion. Naruto's hands and part of his arms were bruised and had shallow cuts in them that slowly started healing on their own.
"That hurt you asshole!" Yelled Naruto with clear anger in his voice.
"N-Naruto?"
---
Moments Earlier.
"Weird..."
"You've been saying that a lot since we entered the forest, Naruto-kun." Joked Sakura.
Naruto chuckled at Sakura's comment and started exploring the area they were now in. "I can feel here..."
"What do you mean?"
"I can still feel the energy from the trees but..." Naruto turned to look at her. "There's no animals here, no nothing, it's like a zone free of interference."
Part of the reason Naruto had such a hard time using his sensing abilities in the forest was the vast amount of animals and insects interfering with his sensing. While not every being had a big chakra signature there were a lot of them and that made it harder for Naruto to focus.
If he had more training it would probably not be a problem for Naruto, Kakashi had explained to him that the best way of training his senses was exposing himself to situations like this and focus on each individual signature and separate it from the others time and time again. That way he would get used to bigger amounts of signatures, amplify his range over time and get through what Naruto described as Interference.
He had however neglected training his sensing abilities the most in favor of working on his fuinjutsu, he still trained but definitely not enough to feel through the forest clearly. That's why this clearing irked him, for some reason the animals had left completely, Naruto could see the signs of battle and by the looks of it it must've been a big one.
Whatever it was that happened here must've scared the local fauna away.
"I'll try and find a team from here." Naruto got to his knees and placed his index and middle finger on the ground. He closed his eyes and started concentrating on as much as he could, near him he found what he thought to be a team from Suna, he was just about to tell Sakura when he felt them.
A few Kilometers from where they were, he could feel Team 10 and Team 9 fighting another team together, that immediately struck him as weird until he noticed Neji's chakra was all wrong, there was something going on with him and whatever it was.
It felt evil.
Then Naruto noticed what worried him the most, he couldn't feel Lee, he could feel Tenten with lower than normal reserves, but he couldn't feel his friend at all, Lee always had a small signature because of his condition, but it was there, no different to that of a regular civilian.
Full of worry, Naruto didn't even think twice.
"Team 9 is hurt!" He released all of his weights and told Sakura to catch up to him as fast as she could and he started running.
He ran and ran as fast as he could for kilometers without stopping, he has always been a stamina freak and that's the only thing that allowed him to run as much as he just did.
When he got to them the first thing he saw was Zaku shooting his overpowered gust of wind at them.
---
Present Time.
"What the hell happened here, Shikamaru?" Naruto couldn't see Neji or Lee anywhere and the only thing he found was an unconscious Tenten being taken care of by Ino.
"We don't know, when we got here they were beating Tenten in the ground, I don't know where Neji and Lee are." Answered Shikamaru, currently the only calm member of Team 10.
Naruto closed his eyes to focus for a moment and calm down, he turned to look at the cave where he felt Neji and Lee to be at, he was glad he could feel Lee this up close, a giant weight was lifted off his shoulders.
"Where's Sakura?" Asked Ino
"She's coming, I ran here as fast as I could, she's catching up, should get here in a few minutes." As predicted by Naruto, Sakura arrived a few minutes after, she bonked Naruto on the head for ditching her and then walked towards Ino and Tenten and started helping the Yamanaka with her treatment.
Naruto and Shikamaru were both going to enter the cave where the boys were resting to assess the situation when they felt it.
An energy so powerful and so vile even the non-sensors could feel, just waking up Tenten caught a glimpse of Neji walking out of the cave, a series of black markings extending through his body.
Shikamaru subconsciously went to grab a kunai with Naruto doing the same with one of his twin staffs.
Neji paid no mind to them and turned to look at his fallen teammate only to find her beaten to a pulp and barely conscious.
"Who did that to you?" Even though his voice seemed calm and stoic as usual, everyone could feel the hatred in it.
Zaku who was just coming back to himself stood up and faced Neji with a smug look on his face, his exhaustion clouding his judgement.
"I did! Why? Are you angry?" As he asked the question Zaku pointed one of his arms at Neji and started channeling chakra to it.
Not dignifying a response, Neji started to walk slowly towards him until he disappeared in a show of pure speed, he re-emerged just beside Zaku and without a second thought he started attacking the Tenketsu in his arms, but he didn't stop there, once all the chakra pathways in his arms were closed he started attacking all his blood vessels and nerves.
The arm fell limp to the side and started swelling at the same time it turned purple, not caring about it Neji continued his assault on it, the sight of blood starting to drip from the constant onslaught of precise strikes did very little to satiate his bloodlust.
Neji's body was covered in blood while Zaku fell to the ground screaming in pure agony, holding his arm and trashing around the ground, hoping it would somehow lessen the pain. Had Neji not been interrupted, he would've kept until his arm exploded.
"WHAT IS WRONG WITH Y-"
HAKKE KUSHO!
Neji placed a palm on Naruto's unsuspecting chest to stop his advance and sent him flying at full intensity until he crashed loudly into the wall of the cave making him wince in pain.
Kagemane no Jutsu!
Holding a rat seal, Shikamaru's shadow connected with Neji freezing him in place, he immediately started struggling as the potent chakra surrounding Neji overpowered his own, Neji was set free and started running at Shikamaru only to be stopped by strong rock covered punch courtesy of Sakura.
Neji was sent crashing hard into the ground by the sheer force of Sakura's attack but seemed unaffected by it as he stood up once again.
"STAND DOWN NEJI!" Yelled Tenten, standing up and leaning into Ino for support.
'They're holding you back...' Neji turned to look at his teammate with a face full of hatred and started walking toward her with no care for the other people present, Sakura and Chōji wished to intervene but Tenten didn't allow it.
'They want you to be weak...' Neji kept walking even more enraged as the whispers filled his ears and clouded his senses.
'They think you a slave, they're just like them' He stood in front of her and looked ready to attack, chakra started to be molded in his hands and despite Sakura's insistence to let her help Tenten wouldn't have it.
'Kill them, kill them all...' Neji raised his hand toward his teammate, set on stopping her heart with a single movement, but much to everyone's surprise, including Neji's, the bloodied and bruised Tenten managed to conjure enough force to squirm off of Ino's hold and slap him in the face, hard.
"Stand down" This time Tenten's voice came out as a full on command and for some reason, it seemed to work. Neji was brought out of his trance, pearl white eyes staring into brown ones.
The marks taking over Neji started to recede and went back to hide into his neck. With the sudden burst of evil chakra gone Neji dropped to his knees.
'Troublesome...'
"We give up!" Said a recently awakened Dosu carrying Kin on his shoulder. "Here, take our scroll, we're leaving." He then picked up his now unconscious teammate and rushed the hell out of that clearing.
Naruto picked himself up from the ground and watched the whole thing play out as he made his way back to the group, seeing Neji in the ground and no trace of the weird markings he sighed and stood next to his teammate while looking at the Hyuuga in the ground.
"That was rude." He said, crossing his arms.
"Tenten, what happened to you?" Asked Sakura.
Tenten sighed and sat down again, she then started retelling the events she and her team had gone through up until the sound team first made their way to her, including their fight with Orochimaru and what he did to Neji, much to the Hyuga's annoyance.
He hated the fact that he was bested by an opponent, he hated the fact that he found the power he had been gifted alluring even more.
"Orochimaru..." Started Naruto looking intently at Neji. "I only know he went rogue years ago, Jiji doesn't like to talk about him." Naruto made his way to Neji and much to his annoyance helped the Hyuga up.
"May I look at it? Please." He said with a playful tone, Naruto understood the gravity of the situation, but he wasn't going to pass on a chance to mock Neji anytime soon.
Neji allowed him to look at the seal either way, he knew Naruto was learning Fuinjutsu -because he wouldn't stop talking about it when he trained along with his team- it wouldn't hurt to let him check. Naruto was studying the design and couldn't understand much about the way the seal was constructed so he started asking questions.
"How exactly did it feel when you used it?"
"I felt it pulling at me, like it was taking over my chakra when I used the Byakugan." He answered without losing the stoicism that was characteristic of him.
"That is interesting..." Naruto put a finger over it and started focusing on his sensing ability to see if he could learn anything useful about it, he could feel the vile chakra extending through Neji's own, like it was trying to taint it.
"It's way above my paygrade..." He sighed and removed his finger from it and allowed some space to breathe. "It seems to be connected to your Byakugan somehow and it's extending through your body, the best I can do for you is seal your chakra flow to stop it from going through your body until someone who knows what they're doing takes a look."
That made Neji angry.
"That is unacceptable, I still need to pass this test." His voice was daring Naruto to say otherwise and knowing he wouldn't be able to convince him he started looking for alternatives and spoted the scroll the sound team had left on the ground.
"What scroll do you have?" He asked.
Tenten was the one to reply. "Heaven."
Smiling to himself, Naruto went and picked the Heaven scroll Dosu left behind and put it in his pouch. "Give our extra to them." He instructed Sakura.
Catching up to what Naruto wanted to do Sakura did as instructed and handed Neji the earth scroll.
"Now you have the scrolls you need, let's go to the tower and have someone look at you." Naruto was really hoping Kakashi would know what to do about it, he grew a lot in his fuinjutsu knowledge but this was on a whole other league.
He had to give it to Orochimaru, when it comes to seals he seemed to be one sophisticated bastard.
"I don't need your help."
"Calm down... Neji." Out of the cave came out Lee, breathing hard and still bruised.
"Bushy brows!" Naruto rushed at his friend and started looking frantically over him. Besides Shikamaru and Choji, Lee had become one of Naruto's dearest friends and the immense fear he felt when he couldn't detect his chakra signature wasn't something he would be forgetting any time soon.
"What did he do to you? I can barely feel your presence." The concern in his voice was evident.
"I'm not sure, Naruto-kun." The memories of his fight were very scarce and his head hurt too much to concentrate on anything at the moment.
"He closed the gates pressing his fingers on his stomach." Explained Tenten, immediately catching Naruto's attention.
The boy knew about the Hachimon formation thanks to Lee and Gai and he was sure just hitting someone hard in the stomach wasn't enough to close the gates.
With Lee's consent Naruto lift off his ripped jumpsuit to reveal his stomach and sure enough, a five element seal was there, Lee couldn't channel chakra but that didn't mean his chakra wasn't there, Orochimaru probably used the seal to force shut what little chakra he had available and the gates closed.
"That's nasty." It was, in Naruto's opinion, well within his area of expertise, while the seal was a few levels above Naruto's own; it was one of the seals he found in the scroll left by his mother, he had made it a point to learn as many of them as he could, and the counters for some of the more advanced ones. That way he would be able to help when needed even if he couldn't replicate the seal itself.
He had been right.
"This is going to hurt a little." Naruto closed his eyes to focus the right amount of chakra in his hand, he formed a claw with his fingers and each of them started shining a light blue in the tips.
Gogyo Kain!
Naruto slammed his hand into Lee's seal hard and knocked the wind out of him. The green-clad genin stood up almost immediately however and thanked Naruto for his youthful assistance.
"Are you done Shika?" Naruto asked to his lazy friend.
Shikamaru, who at this point only wanted to drop to the ground and stare at the clouds, looked tiredly at his friend and nodded. "We were on our way to the tower when we found them."
"We should all go together then." Said Sakura voicing Naruto's thoughts. "Tenten needs to be looked at by a medic, traveling in a big group will prevent other teams from attacking us"
Everyone agreed - almost - and they decided to let team 9 rest a little before making their way to the tower, Sakura patched some of Tenten's injuries with the supplies she was carrying on her and let her sleep for a while.
The damage caused by the relentless kicking Kin had given her while Tenten was trapped under her genjutsu really made a number on her.
Naruto walked to Neji and asked him to remove his shirt, he unsealed a brush and some ink from a scroll on his pouch and started drawing a seal on his neck to stop the flow of his chakra, the seal was by no means perfect or what Naruto would call fancy, but it served its purpose and while it was not hard to break, he was putting it on a willing subject.
He went through a short sequence of hand-seals making the seal light up, after Neji tried to use his Byakugan and failed, Naruto was satisfied and the three gathered teams made their way to the tower.
---
If qualities of heaven are your desire, acquire wisdom and knowledge to bring your mind higher.
If qualities of earth are what you lack, train your body in fields and prepare to attack.
"I don't know what that means!" Exclaimed Lee looking happier than necessary. "What a Youthful riddle, LET US FAN OUR FLAMES OF YOUTH TO UNDERSTAND IT'S MEANING!"
"Stop yelling!" Shikamaru's left eye was twitching, he had been hearing Lee's youthful proclamations for a whole day now. "Troublesome idiot."
"Why don't you relax a little Shika?" Suggested Choji with a little apprehension.
It had taken them all a little over a day to get to the tower, because of Team 9's dire situation they all had decided to take it easy, and walk all the way here as opposed to running.
Had they done that they probably would've made it in a few hours, saving Shikamaru from the constant speeches of youth and the banter between the members of Team 9 and Naruto.
Shikamaru liked Naruto, he really did; Shikamaru knew Naruto was right most of the time in his discussions with Neji; he just couldn't understand why he would keep on arguing when it was clear the Hyuga wasn't going to change his mind about his beliefs.
This whole thing is such a drag.
The Nara heir sighed. "We need to open both of our scrolls at the same time." Not wanting to waste any more time here than it was necessary, Shikamaru tossed both of his team's scrolls to the ground in the form of an x revealing a sealing array Naruto recognized as a summoning contract.
"Hello!" Announced the Jounin in charge of Team 10, Sarutobi Asuma. "I had no doubt you guys were going to make it, come with me now." Asuma stepped out of the smoke and started walking into the tower with his team behind, taking them to a set of rooms where they would be allowed to rest until this part of the exams came to an end.
After exchanging nods with Shikamaru Naruto grabbed the scroll he was carrying while Sakura did the same, and they tossed them in the ground summoning their own sensei to the room.
"Kakashi-sensei, Orochi-"
"We know, Sakura." Kakashi would've liked to congratulate his team but there were more pressing matters at the moment. "Use your scrolls to summon Gai, Neji." He ordered.
Not wasting time the Hyuga prodigy did as instructed and did as the other teams had done, making Gai appear in the room with a face so serious it seemed out of place.
"Gai." Said Kakashi, getting the man's attention. "Take your team to the infirmary, I'll take Neji to see the Hokage." As he said that he made a Kage Bunshin that approached his team.
"My clone is going to take you to your room, I'll meet you there when this is sorted out."
"Sensei..." Called out Naruto. "The seal is connected to his Byakugan somehow, I placed a suppression seal on him to stop the spreading of the invading chakra, make sure to remove it." Kakashi nodded at Naruto's explanation and motioned his clone to take them to their room.
Naruto and Sakura followed the clone to a room and entered alongside him, after telling them the real Kakashi would come see them when he was done with the Hokage he disappeared and left both Naruto and Sakura to their devices. They both collapsed in one of the beds.
They considered themselves extremely lucky to have come out as safely as they had of the forest, had they run into the same trouble Team 9 had they didn't know if they would be able to make it.
Naruto was also glad he could feel Gaara in the tower, that meant he wasn't somewhere else destroying any Genin team, he felt wrong judging Gaara's character without really knowing him but... the feel of his chakras could only mean trouble.
"We should rest, Naruto." Said Sakura, she knew very well what was going on through his mind and she had to agree with him.
Naruto only nodded at her and laid down on a different bed staring at the ceiling, hoping that Kakashi and the Sandaime would know what to do.
---
"I'm sure Naruto would've loved to be a part of this." Said Kakashi as he carefully drew a complex array of Kanji in Neji's body with his own blood under the supervision of the Hokage and Gai.
"I don't think this is the time for a Fuinjutsu lesson, Kakashi." Gai's tone was probably more aggressive than it should've been, no one would blame him though, having your student in a situation as complex as this can put anyone on edge.
"Calm down Gai... Kakashi is just making regular chit-chat, surely you wouldn't fault a proud sensei for talking about his students?" Though an innocent question from the Hokage, Gai was able to understand perfectly the meaning behind his words.
"I'm sorry Hokage-sama, Kakashi, it was most un-youthful of me." He said earning a chuckle and a dismissive wave from the Hokage, Kakashi wasn't really paying attention to them anymore, too focused on the finishing touches of the array.
'There's too many people in there, it wouldn't be wise to make a move on Neji-kun now that sensei is there...' Orochimaru was hidden in the shadows outside of the room where the sealing ritual was taking place.
He didn't wish for Neji's gift to be sealed away, but he wasn't too worried about it, the seal Kakashi was preparing depended on the recipient's will. Someone with such repressed hatred as Neji surely can be manipulated with the right incentives.
'Oh well... I will allow you to think you're winning just this time dear sensei' Even in his thoughts, the snake Sannin managed to chuckle in that mocking way only he's capable of.
Orochimaru disguised himself as a Jounin-sensei from Oto again and left swiftly without being detected.
Or so he thought.
'I should feel insulted that he thinks I wouldn't be able to detect him out there, there's still much to learn for you Orochimaru' Sarutobi would've loved to intercept the Sannin right then and there to put an end to what he started years ago, alas it wasn't meant to be.
Such a fight in a place full of Genin would prove to be disastrous, there was no doubt in Hiruzen's mind that Orochimaru had more than one contingency set in place if such an occasion arose, for the time being he would allow him to go.
Hopefully that decision won't come to bite him in the ass later.
Shaking his head out of his musings the Hokage watched as Kakashi finished his work on the seals that were placed on the young prodigy, making sure the seals coincided with those in the book he was using to supervise the Jonin as he went the Hokage nodded to him, signaling it was okay for him to start.
Nodding back, Kakashi addressed the young Hyuuga. "This is going to hurt a lot, Neji, whatever happens make sure to move as little as possible." Not waiting for a response -and very convinced that he wasn't getting one- he started going through a complex set of hand seals and placing his hands on the curse mark, as he finished Kakashi called out.
Fuja Hoin!
The Kanjis drawn in blood started creeping up Neji's back slowly, converging all around the curse mark. The Hyuga boy let out a piercing scream that made his own sensei flinch but, despite the pain he was going through Neji's will was strong enough for him to remain completely still during the entire process, after the ritual was over Neji lost consciousness and was then taken by Gai to the infirmary.
There are still two days left for the next phase of the exams to begin and if what the Hokage thinks will have to happen ends up happening, Neji might not be allowed to participate unless he wakes up in time
Hopefully no more teams will get to the tower in the meantime, he really didn't want to host preliminary rounds.
---
AN: Hello again everyone!
The announcement about Naruto's future pairing wasn't very well received and I would be lying if I said I expected otherwise. The truth is, when I initially started thinking about writing fanfiction I didn't want to include a pairing because of this same reason, you can never please everyone. That however allowed me to reach a certain conclusion, if I can't please everyone, why don't I at least please myself? I took a lot of time debating this story's pairing, as I said, Ino was hands down the strongest candidate for a long time followed by Sakura, but I also thought about other options, Shikamaru, Kiba heck even Sasuke at some point (that goes to show how long before I started writing the plot this whole brainstorming happened). The truth is when it comes to fanfiction, I honestly don't care about a characters sexual orientation or the pairing as long as it makes sense, it is fanfiction after all, every author deserves their creative freedom.
I appreciate the suggestions I get both in my PM's and my comments in every site this story is being posted, and I take everything into consideration, that's why I took so long to decide about the pairing, but as I said before, if I went with a different way to please the crowd, I probably would have ended up writing something I'm not enjoying, and it probably would show in my writing. That's why after careful consideration I decided on my pairing, yes, it will be a guy but there's more to my pairing than just having Naruto date someone and I hope that will show when the time comes, also, Naruto is bisexual in this, his feelings for Sakura are all true. I won't reveal who the pairing will be until it happens.
On a slightly happier note, I would like to thank those who stayed, this is not a particularly big story and it was a bit sad to see myself lose some of my already few followers because of that announcement but, I really appreciate every single one of you who decided to stay and keep on reading either because you were hoping for a MalexMale ship or just because you're willing to give this a chance despite your preferences when it comes to pairings/ships in general.
With that out of the way let's talk plot and things I feel should be clarified. Let's start with Neji first.
There's more to the curse mark than just Orochimaru deciding what body he likes the most, it is true that that is his main purpose but we know there is at least some criteria the subject should meet. In canon we get assured more than once that not everyone is capable of surviving getting the curse mark and I think it shows but how much Sasuke goes through both the moment he got the mark, how difficult we're told his night was and everything that follows, I personally believe the subjects should at the very least somewhat unstable, we know Sasuke is the definition of unstable (bordering on psychotic down the line) and the Sound four are all bat shit crazy, Kimimaro seemed well adjusted enough but I wouldn't dare call him sane. To be honest, I don't remember if the body Orochimaru ends up possessing when he runs out of time waiting for Sasuke had the mark or not but I believe he didn't, so there's that. Neji is full of suppressed hatred and unstable if how quick he is to lose control when fighting Hinata is to be believed, he's a prodigy on top of that, I believe he is a suitable candidate for Orochimaru, someone who would be easier to manipulate as opposed to his clanmates.
Gogyō Fuin: I did my research, though I didn't find much about the main purpose of the seal I believe it's main purpose is to seal the recipient's chakra, in Canon Orochimaru used it to mess with Naruto's seal to deny him of the use of the Kyuubi's chakra and mess his control in the process, that happens because the Gogyō Fuin/Five Element Seal is and odd numbered seal and it was applied to Naruto's Hakke Fuin/Hakke no Fuin Shiki/Eight Trigrams seal (the whole Shiki deal is because Minato used the Shinigami to power the seal) which is an even numbered seal, thus, creating an imbalance in Naruto's chakra, Jiraiya later states that Orochimaru made it that way on purpose.
It made sense in my mind that Orochimaru could use the seal to close the gates by denying Lee the use of chakra, Lee isn't able to mold chakra but he has it in his body, and despite the gates being a Taijutsu focused power-up it is also a chakra based technique.
Also, I didn't remember the original riddle from the Manga but I did remember the one I used, it's from a fic I read at some point but I can't for the life of me remember exactly what fic it was.
Well that is it for this update, I appreciate your reviews and criticism (as long as it's constructive) so it would be nice if you left some suggestions.
Glossary:
Nikudan Sensha
Human Boulder Tank
Shintenshin no Jutsu
Mind Transfer Jutsu
Zankuuha
Decapitating Airwaves
Zankyokukuuha
Great Decapitating Airwaves
Futon: Bouseki Tate no Kaze
Wind Release: Spinning Shield of Winds
Hakke Kusho
Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm
Kagemane no Jutsu
Shadow Binding Technique
Gogyō Kain
Five Elements Unseal
Fuja Hōin
Evil Sealing Method