Peter huffed and puffed a few seconds as he watched the retreating forms of the pair of Sound Ninja before he leaped to the ground next to his friends. Once he got there he collapsed to the ground tiredly. "I think that I could go without having to deal with those guys again." He said tiredly.
"No kidding," Naruto panted, "but hey we made them run away right?" He said brightly causing the other two to stare at their teammate in disbelief.
"Idiot, they left because they didn't think that we were worth the trouble." Sakura growled at Naruto, too tired to even bother taking a swing at him. "They were both so strong compared to us."
"Yeah well come on, we need to get out of here before they decide to come back." Peter said as he forced himself to his feet. "I really don't want to find out what they'll do if they want to finish us off or something."
"Right." The other two said as they slowly climbed to their feet and chose a direction, and began running doing their best to put some distance between them and their battle field.
"So far we've been in two different fights, and all we've got to show for it is some extra supplies." Naruto grumbled. "There has to be a better way of doing this."
"You figure it out, you tell me." Peter said as he checked his pocket and saw that they still had their Heaven Scroll, it would be embarrassing if that ninja had managed to pick his pocket after all that. The group stopped though as they saw something that they hadn't been expecting a giant black snake like thing was fighting with a real snake. The only problem was that the black snake was only about half the size of the giant snake and was obviously losing.
"What is going on?" Naruto asked in confusion as Team 7 watched the writhing figures twist and turn as they tried to strange each other.
"Look down there." Sakura said pointing. The group looked to see a roughed up Sai busily doing something with a scroll. A moment later a second black snake rose off of the paper to engage the large snake. The now outnumbered snake writhed angrily as it tried to shake off the two chakra serpents. Within moments the snake was pinned and the last of its life was being choked out of it. Sai nodded as the snake suddenly disappeared in a cloud of smoke. He then rose to his feet and made a hand sign and the hissing serpents suddenly turned into black liquid. The boy took an unsteady step and then fell face first into the ground.
"Come on let's check on him." Sakura said as the trio rushed to his side. The group looked the older ninja over worriedly.
"Well?" Peter asked the girl.
"Chakra exhaustion," Sakura explained, "he must have used up nearly all of his strength fighting that snake."
"It was the second snake." Sai rasped out.
"Second, you mean there are more of those things out here?" Naruto exclaimed as his eyes began looking around for anymore snakes as if creatures that large could just sneak up on them.
"He must have been so busy fighting those things that he used all his chakra up." Peter noted as he hefted the boy up. "Which way is your team?" He questioned, Sai pointed along a path that was close to the way that they had just come. "Great, we got to go back that way." Peter grumbled.
"What could do this to him though," Sakura asked worriedly, "and do you think Sasuke-kun is alright?"
"Looks like we'll find out soon enough." Naruto told the girl, as they headed back the way they came. A few minutes later they saw the other two members of the team lying on the ground unconscious.
"It looks like they've been through hell and back, or at least the Bronx." Peter noted, as they began checking the other members of the rival team over.
"Oh Saskue-Kun, what did they do to you?" Sakura simpered, as she examined the other boy with worry. As they examined them they saw Saskue's teammates slowly but surely start to wake up. "Easy there," Sakura said as she helped them up. "Whatever happened to you guys was enough to take you all out."
"What happened," Naruto asked, "I mean what could do this to all of you? Saskue may be a teme but he's not weak." The blonde admitted grudgingly.
"Orochimaru," Hyō returned as he slowly climbed to his feet.
"As in the Sannin?" Sakura asked she recalled everything that she had ever read on the three Legendary Sannin. They were three of Konoha's most powerful Ninja alive that were not Hokage. They were said to be powerful enough to take on whole groups of ninja without even breaking a sweat. If she remembered correctly they had been instrumental in the last war and had all been students to the Third Hokage. There was Jiraiya the Toad Sage, Tsunade the Slug Princess, and Orochimaru the Snake Sannin. For various reasons each of them had decided to leave Konoha. Of the three, only Orochimaru had criminal status for some unknown reason that was not talked about. All three were ranked as S class ninja in the Bingo Book, and were flee on sight for any but the most powerful groups of ninja.
"Why would the Sannin Traitor want to do this to you guys though?" Peter asked curiously as he looked at the downed figures. "I mean, why would he care about the Chunnin Exams? It just doesn't make any sense for a powerful ninja like him to concern himself over."
"He had his reasons I am sure." Hyō said stiffly as he continued to examine his comrades. "You should leave and continue with your mission though. If you are hoping to take our scroll though, then you are too late. It was destroyed during the fight with Sannin Orochimaru."
"Did you at least hit him back?" Naruto questioned curiously.
"Of course Saskue did." Sakura said indignantly for her crush.
"Unfortunately we did not manage to do anything that the Sannin did not want us too." Hyō returned to the team. "Now why are you still here?" He questioned again. "There is nothing here for you."
"We're here because you're Leaf Ninja, and it's our job to make sure that all of our people get out in one piece." Peter returned to the other boy irritably. "Well that and Sakura has a crush on the Duck Butt head and Naruto and I never were very good at leaving well enough alone." He joked at the other boy.
"Very well." Hyō returned emotionlessly with an accepting nod. "You should leave now though, they are my responsibility. The safety of the Sharrigan and the Uchiha Clan Heir shall be mine until Sasuke can awaken himself."
Peter nodded his head. "Fine, be safe though. Team 7 we need to move out, we got things to do and people to beat on." The other members nodded as they checked their supplies before heading off.
The team had traveled for 15 minutes looking for signs of anyone or thing that might have a scroll. So far they had come up with nothing. "Anything guys?" Peter asked over his radio, glad they had remembered to use them as it allowed them to cover a slightly larger area.
"Nothing," Naruto's voice returned, "I can't find anybody out here." The blonde complained in annoyance. "Where is everybody?"
"Well keep your guard up, remember that Orochimaru is out there somewhere and that he took out Saskue and his entire team without even trying." Peter cautioned the other members of the team. "There's no telling what he could do to us if he decided we were in his way."
"All to true, perhaps you would like a demonstration?" A silky voice questioned in an amused tone.
Peter swallowed as he turned to look ahead of him as he saw along haired man with scaled skin wearing the familiar purple and cream colors of the Sound Village Ninja smirking at him. The guy was just casually leaning against a tree trunk watching him. Peter could have also sworn there was no one there a moment ago as well. "Guys, I got a snake problem over here." He said worriedly. A few moments later the other two had shunshinned alongside of their friend.
"Well, well, what do we have here?" Orochimaru questioned as he looked the team over with interest. "When I saw that Kidōmaru, Sakon, and Ukon hadn't turned you all into smears I was half expecting to see some competent ninja. Instead all I find is a pair of loudmouthed fools and a masked jokester. Then again there is the mysterious foreigner with a most unique bloodline that allows you to mimic the skills and abilities of a spider. I would love to get inside of your body and see just what it is that makes you work. I'm sure that there are so many interesting things in you that would help in my work." The man said with a silky voice that set all of them on edge. There was an underlying edge of menace to the voice despite its pleasantness.
"Huh, I think that I could pass on being used as a target for you and your crazy science projects." Peter shot back at the Sannin. "Because despite your similarities, what with you skin tone and eye coloring Doc Conners you ain't."
Orochimaru chuckled at the defiant youth before him. "Oh trust me, when I say that in time you shall be useful to me if I think you have any potential. Still, I suppose a test of your abilities and skills would be helpful it would let me know if you're actually worth the effort to deal with though." The ninja said casually as he watched the trio as if judging whether or not they were worth the effort it would take to disable. "Besides I've already dealt with Saskue-Kun and appraised his skills, now I want to see just what it is that you can do. Considering the fact that the three of you managed to stand up to two members of my Sound Four it means that there is more to each of you than meets the eye. Then again they were having to keep their abilities down so that they didn't attract any unwanted attention, had they truly used their power well I have no doubt that they would have dealt with you easily enough. Despite all of the potential that the Rookies of your year have, you are still a far cry from being registered as an actual threat to any of my people."
"I don't think so freak," Naruto growled as he drew his kunai in anticipation of the upcoming fight that it looked like they were about to have. "You want to take on Team 7, then come on we'll show you what we got."
"Yeah, what Naruto said." Sakura hesitantly agreed, not looking anywhere near as confident as her friend did.
"Well, it's either fight you or let you use us for target practice and I'm really not a fan of being used as target practice." Peter said as he quickly fired his webbing the group watched as a strand of webbing wrapped itself around the Sannin trapping him within a cocoon.
"Most interesting a form of organic webbing that you can fire from your wrist." Orochimaru noted as he examined the webbing for a moment. That would be easier to use in combat situations than Kidōmaru's method of using webbing." THe man took a second to study the webbing before his body fell apart into a pile of squishy mud.
"Crap, a mud clone." Peter said as he jumped off the tree branch as he tried to go where he wasn't expected. Naruto and Sakura had gone high which gave them a wide range of attacks to look for.
"Orochimaru where are you. are you afraid of us?" Naruto demanded as he looked around for where the Sannin had vanished to.
"Naruto, let's try and not make the Sannin angry enough to kill us alright?" Sakura pleaded with her teammate.
Orochimaru's voice echoed throughout the forest in response to the outburst from the blonde boy. "Do you really think that you actually stand a chance against me little ninja? If you wish to join in this little test of mine though I think that I can allow for that to happen. Who knows if your all lucky then you all might survive what I'm about to do to you. Let's see if you're really as capable as you like to make people think you are." There was a large cloud of smoke off to the side and suddenly a large serpent towered over Team 7.
"You've got to be kidding me." Peter said as he looked up at the creature. "What are you some kind of tamer, and where's the ball you keep that guy in?"
Orochimaru ignored the boy as he focused on his serpent. "Deal with those two, I want the bug for myself." The snake seemed to understand as it lunged at Naruto, while its tail tried to knock Sakura away leaving Peter alone to face off with the pale figure that was now staring at him with interest.
"What is it with some people?" Peter asked with a sigh as he gestured to the arachnidan emblem on his clothes. "I mean it's a spider, not a bug but a spider. As in 8 legs, yet you have to go and call me a bug which has only six. Heck you have a guy that works for you that has eight limbs, so you should know this. You're even a card carrying member of the evil scientist association, you should know these things and yet you still refer to me as a bug. Why can't you evil types ever get it right? Is there some sort of mental block in your heads or something?"
"I think you should talk less and show me what your capable of instead little spider." Orochimaru ordered. "Striking Shadow Snakes." He said, as he made a punching motion and Peter was forced to drop even farther as several snakes erupted from Orochimaru's sleeve as they tried to bind or bite the elusive ninja. "Now that is good, your a fast one. One of the faster ninja's that I've seen for your age. Given enough time you might even rival some of the masters when it comes to speed."
"Thanks I think, but speed's not all I have." Peter said as he shot a webline out and then swung himself in a loop over a tree branch and both of his feet slammed into the Sannin. "I'd like to think that I eat my spinach as well." He added as he then swung his arm only for his wrist to be caught.
"I have to wonder boy, do you even know what it is that your blathering about?" Orochimaru questioned curiously as he then swung Peter around and slammed his back into the trunk of a tree.
Peter groaned as he felt the impact. "Oh yeah that's going to bruise." He complained as he felt the spot.
"Your body appears to be quiet resilient as well." Orochimaru noted as he continued to inspect Peter and his abilities impassively. "Impressive for one so young to already be as durable as you are. Most ninja don't reach that level until their mid-teens. The fact that you have already managed to do so speaks highly of your bloodline. How is it that I've never heard of it before though?"
"In case you missed the memo, I'm not exactly from around here." Peter grunted as he glared at the figure. "If you want to tell me where I'm from though maybe I'll help you figure it all out."
"A most interesting proposition," Orochimaru admitted, "but I think I would prefer just pulling the answers from your mind. I almost wish that I had found you earlier your body would have made an excellent host."
"Sorry I've already tried that, and it didn't suit me." Peter returned to the Sannin. "There's also the fact that the whole tongue thing is just something that I really can't do. I've got personal issues when it comes to having a giant tongue coming out of my mouth. Next thing you know you'll be trying to add in fangs or an interest in eating someone's brains out. Hope you don't take it personally if I'm not interested in being your host though, I know that some of you guys can get rather upset if you're told no."
"Let's see just how fast that speed really is." Orochimaru said, as he continued his attack. "Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu." He said, and Peter found himself trying to move out of the way as several small fireballs tried to strike him the fact that they were spaced out made it more difficult to dodge them.
While Peter was in the air the Sannin appeared above the Gennin. Peter tried to swing his arm behind him only for the limb to be caught. Moving faster than the ninja would have thought a kunai slashed his arm spilling blood all over the place. "This could prove useful." Orochimaru noted as he took a scroll out and sealed the blade away.
"Great, now you're a vampire as well." Peter said as he did a quick check on his arm. "I almost wish that you had tried to use a needle instead of a kunai though." He then charged and jumped into the air, and slammed both of his feet into the man sending the Sannin flying.
The two landed with a crash Peter balancing on his damaged arm while Orochimaru had been slammed into a tree hard enough to crack it. "Now that is interesting, you're nearly as strong as Tsunade was when she was a youngster. I didn't think that there was anybody that was that strong outside of her Clan." The Sannin said as he eyed the crack his impact had just made. It was also kind of freaky to Peter as he realized that the man appeared to be uninjured. "Your blood will have all sorts of secrets in it I'm sure. Possibly even better than some of the older samples that I stole when you first appeared." Orochimaru informed the boy.
"What can I say I eat my wheaties." Peter returned, his head then shot up. "Wait, you stole my blood?"
"Yes, I did. It turns out that hospital security is rather lax in comparison to some of the other secure places. I've often wondered if you weren't a side effect of some of my experimentation with the Impure Resurrection technique." Orochimaru said as he eyed the boy before him. "Perhaps this new sample will tell me something new now that it seems a majority of your abilities are now active. While I've yet to find anything that says you are a result, I've yet to find anything that would deny it as well. Are there any other skills that you have?" Orochimaru questioned with curious interest. "I would love to see what else it is that you're capable of. Maybe even test you to find your true potential." The Sannin licked his lips hungrily at the thought of examining the figure before him.
"You mean beside the fact that I don't have to use chakra to stick to things?" Peter asked with amusement.
"Agility, strength, precognitive awareness, webbing, clinging ability, and who knows what else." Orochimaru said as he listed the abilities that the boy had from his bloodline. "I think that I shall wait to see how well you do for the rest of the exam before I make a final choice, but you could be a good secondary choice if I need one." The Sannin said as he looked the boy over. "I have a feeling that we shall meet again boy."
"Maybe sooner than you think." Peter said he rushed the ninja and landed a blow into the ninja. "Spider-Sting!" he said as he used a taijutsu move that he had been working on. The blow caught the Sannin by surprise as he was tossed into a tree.
"Yes, most impressive." Orochimaru hissed, as he rubbed his face. "Perhaps I should remind you just who and what it is that you are trying to fight though." He said in an almost thoughtful manner. He seemed to disappear and Peter was left looking around for wherever the ninja might have gone to.
"Where is he?" Peter muttered as he anxiously searched the treetops.
"I'm everywhere and nowhere is that not the way of the ninja little Gennin?" Orochimaru's voice echoed around him. "All you have to do is look towards the shadows."
Peter eyes narrowed as he tried to figure out where the voice had come from. His Spider-Sense tingled and he moved watching as several kunai slammed into the branch he had been on moments before. He turned his head in the direction that the blades had come from.
"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!" A wind ripped through the area and tore at Peter.
The ninja did his best to stay stuck to the branch, a ripping sound and he saw that the bark was being pulled away and suddenly he was lifted up and slammed into a tree trunk. Peter grimaced as he searched for his attacker. How was he supposed to fight someone he couldn't even see? He turned around and nearly fell as he saw the Sannin was behind him.
"Shall we continue?" Orochimaru questioned and Peter rushed forward and the two began a taijutsu match. Peter scowled a bit as he realized while he was on the offense Orochimaru wasn't even really trying he was still testing him seeing what the limits of his strength was. Despite the fact he was giving it all he was merely being played with. "Fine, you want show I'll give you a show." He said as he began going through some hand motions. Kakashi had told him to save his attacks until he had no choice. He couldn't think of another time than this as being good. "Spider Style: Web Bullets!" He said, and began firing several small pellet sized versions of his webbing at his opponent. This was something he and Kakashi had come up with together he just couldn't ever seem to merge the chakra and webbing together right though. After fighting with Kidōmaru he realized that he really could add chakra to his webbing. He wouldn't be able to do a large amount, but for something like this he should be able to manage it. The attack lifted the ninja up and tore through the body of the figure before him. The ones that missed the ninja hit the tree and tore through the tree.
"Most impressive," Orochimaru said, "your confrontation with Kidōmaru obviously gave you some ideas on how to make better use of your chakra. Your development shall be most interesting to watch." The ninja said before he fell apart into another mud clone.
Peter fell to his knees in exhaustion, he was beginning to wonder if becoming a Chunnin was even worth all the hassle that he was having to deal with while he was out here. It sure didn't help his pride that he had only managed a couple of decent hits on the Sannin while he had been tossed all over the place. He turned to look to see an equally tired Naruto leaning against a tree. It looks like they had both been raked over the coals. Peter remembered that he would need to ask his friends how they had managed to hold those two gray haired guys off, because if they were anything like the spider guy he had fought it should be an interesting story for him to hear.
"Alright you two, I think we've done enough for today." Sakura said. "I think it would be better for all of us if we rested for now. I'll make camp." The two boys nodded as they fell tiredly to the ground while Sakura prepared their camp. Sakura looked rough but had obviously played a supporting roll against the snake. Naruto was quick to offer suggestions on how better to add in better defenses and despite his weariness climbed back to his feet and helped Sakura in hiding the camp. While they did that Peter treated the large slice he had on his arm. His healing factor would make it disappear soon, but until then it was going to be a pain. The bad part about healing really fast was that all of the pain one would feel was doubled as the skin knitted together faster. Once that was done the group ate cold rations before they began turning in. Sakura had the first watch and after three hours she woke Peter up.
"Hey," a weary Peter said as he accepted the water bottle that Sakura gave him.
"Hey, Sakura said she turned to look over at Naruto her mind obviously thinking about something else.
"Okay go ahead and ask, it's obvious that you've got questions." Peter said, as his mind became more alert and he was tired of watching the girl watch Naruto. Besides he needed her to be at the top of her game with as little distraction as possible.
"I was just wondering if you saw Naruto fighting with the snake summon that Orochimaru was using." Sakura said as she seemed relieved to finally ask her questions.
"Not really, I was too busy trying to survive what the scale faced slobbering Sannin was trying to do to me." Peter admitted to the girl. He rubbed his arm as he remembered that he had not really fared any better against the Sannin than the Uchiha had. "Not that I did all that well against him either."
"Well he did beat Saskue-Kun." Sakura reminded the masked boy.
Peter nodded at this deciding not to get into the matter on whether he was better than Saskue or not. "I'm guessing something happened with Naruto?" He asked reminding her of the subject that they had been on.
The girl nodded her head in agreement. She knew that Peter and Naruto both knew more about each other than anyone else besides maybe Kakashi-Sensei and the Hokage."Yeah, his eyes went red, his nails turned into claws, and there was this red chakra like stuff that surrounded him. Do you have any idea just what it was that I saw?" Sakura asked him hopefully. "I don't think I've ever read about anything like that. I was hoping maybe the Aburame's had said something about it."
"I have a few ideas on what it was." Peter admitted reluctantly. The girl smiled and looked at Peter eagerly. "However, it's something that Naruto needs to tell you not me." At hearing Peter say this Sakura shoulders slumped. "As far as I know, it's just an extra boost that gives him more chakra and a few extras. There's a lot more to it than that but that's the basis that I know."
Sakura nodded her in acceptance of his choice. "It's just I remember Haku mentioning something like this when he was describing how he fought Naruto on the Bridge." The girl said. "I also remember how weird his voice sounded during the fight. I thought at first it was the Zabuza's mist distorting the sounds, but the more I think about it the more I wonder." The girl admitted to her teammate.
"Get some rest Sakura, when the time comes I doubt you're going to care all that much that Naruto has a bit extra juice in him when the going gets tough." Peter told her. "Besides the Forest of Death is hardly the Time or place to have those sorts of conversations or worries." The girl nodded and walked over to her bag to get the sleep that she could. Peter sighed as he considered what he had learned. He remembered the fight at the Bridge and the chakra shroud that had covered Naruto. There had been something dangerous and scary about it. The fact that it had happened again made him think of some short man with claws. He wondered what it meant and why the words berserker rage were the ones that came to mind. He had no doubt that if Saskue had been on the team or hurt that Sakura wouldn't have even noticed what happened to his friend. However, the team that they were on didn't have Saskue, and sooner or later they were going to have to let Sakura in on the secret that Naruto had. Particularly if the Fox though it was alright to come out whenever Naruto was under stress. He would have to talk to Kakashi-Sensei about that and find out just what it meant. He really didn't want to deal with his friend losing control, but he also knew that Sakura was going to have to be told in order for the team to work together.
After three hours where he considered all of these things he got the fun duty of waking Naruto up. "Try and stay awake buddy."
Peter told his friend as he grabbed his bag and went back to sleep. Three hours later Peter was woken up by Sakura. "Well this is beginning to be a habit." He grumbled, as he accepted the water again. He turned to see Naruto was busy unpacking their breakfast. The trio quickly ate the rice ball breakfast before preparing to move on.
"So which way now?" Naruto asked his companions.
"We need to patrol to see if we can find any other teams." Sakura said knowingly. "We have only four more days to find another scroll and to get to the tower."
"Then we best get going." Peter returned as he placed the last of his gear away. "Let's move." The other two nodded and headed out. The group found themselves heading back the way that they had come from before. Peter figured they would make a quick check on Sasuke and his Team just to make sure that they weren't hurt before they would then move on to finding a scroll of their own. The group landed on a tree branch overlooking the place where the team had set up camp to find something that they hadn't expected. The Sound Team had decided to attack the weakened group. Unfortunately for Saskue and his team, they only had one functioning member at the moment. Hyō wasn't going out easily though, as he seemed to disappear and reappear all over the place the guy was like a ghost moving in and out of the shadows to strike at the trio of Sound ninja.
"He can't keep that up for long." Peter said, as he watched the guy head butt the mummy before jumping back into the shadows only to show up again behind the girl who blocked his sneak attack. Rather than pushing against her he folded himself back into the shadows to appear next to the unmasked male member who had been preparing to attack the motionless Saskue and Sai. The guy got a couple of blows to his kidneys courtesy of Hyō. Peter's prediction was true, as a moment later Hyō found himself in a grappling position and suddenly the other two members were on him. The girl had thrown something and suddenly the dark clothe ninja was having trouble standing then the mummy swung his arm and the ninja began screaming in pain as he began to bleed from his nose.
"What a weakling." The mummy said. "I mean seriously what were they thinking letting someone like him be a ninja? If he hadn't kept on moving in and out of the shadows the fight would have been over a lot sooner."
"Yeah, yeah let's just kill the Uchiha brat and get this over with though." The girl said as she drew a pair of kunai and began walking towards the two unconscious boys. "We might as well take care of the whole team while we're at it." She suggested, getting chuckles from the others as they each drew a kunai of their own to deal with the ninja.
Sakura suddenly blurred from her observation spot and was between the girl and Saskue. "Well I guess that answers the question as to whether or not we're going to help them." Peter said dryly. "Although it does kind of ruin any chance we had for surprise." He added in mock complaint, the two boys moved forward to intercept the other members only for a trip wire to go off and several trees that had explosive tags went off. The tags tore the trees out of the ground so that they collapsed around the two in a box like formation. A final tag went off and another tree fell closing the two other members of team 7 off from the rest of the fight.
"Sakura-Chan!" Naruto yelled, as he tried to claw his way through the trees that had captured them.
"We've got to get out of here first." Peter informed his panicking friend. "After we do that, then we can help Sakura." Peter assured the blonde who nodded as they began working on getting out of the trap that Hyō had obviously set up. They had to do this quickly, there was no telling what Sakura would be able to do against three bloodthirsty Sound Ninja or what they might do to her.