The room was deathly silent as Chuunin hopefuls gulped in trepidation.
Morino Ibiki fixed his grim stare on each of the Genin. Knowing that his intimidating presence alone was helping to up the emotional battlefield, he smirked, revealing some white pointed teeth. The creepiness of it made some poor Genin nearly wet themselves.
Bored and impossibly annoyed by the constant slight hiccuping coming from his right side, Naruto clucked his tongue against the roof of his mouth, making nervous people jump at the sound.
Ibiki narrowed his eyes at the aforementioned blonde. "Stop that clucking. Otherwise I'll have you removed from the room and disqualified from the exams."
Naruto lazily shifted his eyes over to the scarred man, raised two eyebrows, then stopped clucking.
Ibiki relaxed a bit. Maybe he was getting rusty. It wasn't like the norm for three – not only one but three- individuals to be so utterly comfortable in his test. Still, it looked like he still had his savvy. The blonde listened to him after all.
*Buuuuuuurp*
Ibiki's eyebrows twitched in annoyance. Naruto simply yawned and stretched. Then he patted his stomach good naturedly. "Ah, I think I had too much lunch." Some Genin snickered, Naruto's teammates included.
Feeling the tension in the room starting to drain away, Ibiki roared, "Silence! Now that you have picked out your numbers and are now sitting in your seats, I will now explain the rules. Everyone gets ten points from the start of this exams. If you cheat, that's a minus of two points every time you're caught. For every question you get wrong, that's another minus one point. If you get all ten points taken away, then you're kicked out of the game. If any one of your teammates are kicked out, then the rest of your team is also disqualified. Understand?"
There was a chorus of discontent from the examinees. Ibiki chuckled, then carried on. "The tenth question will be given out ten minutes before the time is up. You get an hour, got that?"
"Wait a minute!" A blonde girl with a Sunagakure headband stood up. "Why is only the tenth question given after almost everything is over?"
"It's the most important question. That's all I will say. Now sit down!" The blonde girl shot the proctor a hateful glare as she reluctantly sat down. The other proctors passed out the exam papers and Ibiki started the clock. "START!"
"L-let's do our best Naruto-kun!" Hinata, red with her effort to speak to Naruto, stammered out.
Naruto paused, then looked to his right. "Huh? Hinata? What're you doing right next to me? Oh yeah, forgot. You got this seat."
"STOP TALKING OR THATS A MINUS TEN POINTS RIGHT THERE!" Irritated, Ibiki yelled wrathfully. From under the desk, Sakura gave Naruto the middle finger, telling him to shut up.
Naruto easily complied, not wanting to jeopardize their exam. He flipped the paper over and gave it a look. Hmm, first question...cryptography? Skip. Second question...skip. Third question...skip. F-fourth question...
From a few seats back, Sasuke wasn't faring so well either. Ha! I don't know the answer to any of these...pretty much screaming at us to cheat, isn't it?
On the other hand, Sakura was having the time of her life. She sped through the codes, decoding them with the finesse of a master cryptanalyst. She flew over the trigonometry questions, dived and somersaulted over the stealth questions, and with pride, copied down every single rules of the Shinobi code she had memorized by heart.
From afar, one Yamanaka Ino was plotting her espionage with an evil grin on her face. She carefully made the handsigns, then stole into Sakura's mind with a flourish. She copied all the answers and came back to her body. Sakura dizzily woke up, not too sure of what happened.
Sasuke carefully looked around for a person who was writing nonstop. If this test was designed to make people cheat, then there must be a few people here that already know the answer! Come on...which one are you? There! He found him. But how to cheat? If only he had his Sharingan.
A pang of regret and anger shot through him, but he shook his head and cleared his mind. It wasn't time to wallow in such things. He sighed then looked up, then blinked in surprise.
There were freakin' mirrors attached to the ceiling, giving him a clear view of everyone's papers in the room. He followed the near translucent wires to the owner. A girl with twin buns on her head. It just happened that he was in the perfect angle to use the mirrors. Interesting.
They do say luck is part of skill. Sasuke copied down his answers, then relaxed, content.
Naruto was in a fix. He didn't know what to do! He couldn't answer any of the questions. What to do what to do-
"Umm, Naruto-kun?" A shy voice wrenched him back to reality. "Would you like to look at my paper?"
Naruto jerked his head twice. He didn't need to copy from her. He was Uzumaki Naruto, bound to be great! He wasn't a cheater! "No thanks Hinata—Waoh!" A sharp kunai shot by his face and imbedded into an unlucky genin's exam paper.
"You, minus ten points. Get out." The proctors kicked the unfortunate team out of the room with little mercy.
Half scared to death, Naruto just kept his paper down and staged all his hope on the last final question.
...
Ibiki swept the room with his gaze. It was about time. More than half had thinned out. "Alright, it's time for the tenth question. But before that, I'll tell you all this: If you fail the tenth question, then you will never have the chance to become Chuunin again. If you are not sure of your outcome, give up now."
Anxious rumbles erupted in the room. Sasuke and Sakura rolled their eyes. They were confident.
A few teams gave up. Naruto gave those teams and Ibiki a, "What the fuck?" kind of look. "You messing with us? We rookies went through so much to get here. We went through maniacal teachers and crazy d-ranked turned a-rank missions, melodramatic fights, paintball fighting, and flimsy genjutsu barriers." A few proctors bristled at that. "That's only for rookies. I bet all the other Genin went through worse. You expect us to give up just because of a 'maybe?' You sure don't know anything about us. We're ninja, that's what. And ninja never give up!"
Drat that little annoying kid! He totally took over my exam today! Ibiki cursed Naruto, but silently gave the blonde props for his guts. He saw the look of determination that came to the eyes of everyone remaining, then groaned internally. However, he respected the blonde for being so charismatic, and so brave, albeit a bit foolish. "Do the rest of you feel the same?" No one responded. "In that case...You all pass!"
"Eh?" The shocked cries made him smile a bit. He then moved to the explanations. "The life of a shinobi is harsh. You can't doubt, you can't hesitate, and most of all, you can't give up or jeopardize the lives of your teammates. If you give up, then you condemn the rest of your teammates with you. A Chuunin is a squad leader. If he or she doesn't have the guts and intelligence to pull through in these kinds of situations, then he or she will end up killing their whole team.
"But all you have performed admirably. Part of this test was to test your information gathering skills. Those that did not have the ability to spy accordingly were knocked out of the game. You guys made it through in every aspect, and I commend you all.
"It'll only get harder from now on." Ibiki reached up and pulled his bandana off. "You might be tortured, compromised, captured, killed or threatened, but as loyal shinobi to each of your respective villages, you will all pull through, no matter the consequences."
"That's right!" A spinning black figure crashed into the window and threw kunai in four directions, pinning the huge black banner behind her to the walls. "I am Mitarashi Anko, your second exam proctor and it'll only get harder! Everyone follow me!"
"..." Ibiki sweatdropped, along with everyone else. The strange woman wore very tight revealing clothes with a tan trenchcoat draped all over her frame.
Naruto stared distastefully at her clothes. "Who the hell are you lady? I gotta say, your fashion sense is totally out of whack."
"Whatcha say brat?" Anko's teeth glinted as she prodded the blonde with the tip of her kunai. "Wanna die?"
"..Anko." Ibiki stepped out from behind the dark banner. "You're early. Again."
"Huh? Oh. Ummm...Mhuahahahaha! That's alright! Come on, you genin, follow me!" She jumped out the window.
"Finally!" Naruto crowed. "We're getting some stuff done. Nice speech, but a bit lacking in the melodramatic area. You should work on it." Naruto patted Ibiki sympathetically then jumped out the window after Anko.
Sasuke and Sakura briskly headed after their friend. Sakura waved to the scarred man. "That test was really fun Ibiki-san! Really invigorating. Really easy too! Have a nice day!" She followed Naruto out the window.
Sasuke smiled at Ibiki. "Have a nice day." He jumped out as a horde of other Genin followed after him, leaving Ibiki alone in the room.
Ibiki trembled, then fell to the floor. Kakashi, I will not forgive your brats ruining my day...my tests are NOT fun, NOT invigorating, NOT easy, and I do NOT have a nice day with kids burping all over my class. Grrrr..He stood, then moved to pick up the tests. Impassive, he collected every single one of them, then felt his hand tremble again, too angry and too shocked to do much else other than stare at the blank test in front of him. Uzumaki Naruto...you are the first to pass this test without answering a single question. I will get you to understand this world of fear someday.
"This is Training Grounds 44, otherwise known as the Forest of Death." Anko cackled at the expressions on the Genin. "I will now be passing out scrolls marked Heaven and Earth. You guys get one scroll per team, and you have to fight teams to get the other counterpart. You have five days inside the Forest of Death. If you get your scrolls within the time limit, come to the tower in the center of the forest. As you can see, this test is designed to put you against each other, to test your survival skills. Good luck kids!"
"Is this one of your ideas? Because it's just as out of whack." Naruto crossed his arms.
Pissed, Anko threw a kunai to nick the brats little cheek, and wrinkled her nose when Naruto casually plucked the knife out of the air. "Better try harder." He threw the kunai to his feet, daring her with his eyes to bend down and pick it up.
Anko glared at Naruto, internally debating whether or not condescend and pretty much bow to the blonde while picking her kunai up, or just leave it there. Or pound the little kid to the ground.
But before anything, a long tongue snaked out and pulled her kunai free from the grass. "Here." A raspy voice called from behind. "I got your kunai, Miss Proctor."
"Why thank you." She took the kunai from the strange kusa ninja with the long tongue, a little grossed out but otherwise happy that she didn't have to pick it up. "Anyways, let's get back to the exam."
"But what about our food supply?" Chouji cried, holding his last bag of potato chips. "I don't wanna starve!"
"Idiot, there's plenty of food in the forest. You just have to watch out for the giant insects." Anko brushed off, a bit irritated.
Chouji and Ino looked appalled. "I-insects? Extra large bugs? Kyaah! No!" Ino shrilly ran into Shikamaru's arms. "Shikamaru, I don't want to go in there!"
"It's too troublesome. Let's quit."
"We can't quit lazy-butt! Come on!" Ino shook her fist at her teammates.
Shikamaru sighed. "Women are so troublesome. They want one thing but then want another, then get all bitchy because they can't get both."
"I agree!" Sasuke reached out and put a hand on Shikamaru's shoulder. "You and I really match with the brainwaves. I like you."
"You better not be talking about me!" Sakura yelled, a bit irked. "You should always say good things about your teammate. Especially to other friends."
Sasuke motioned a meaningful eyebrow toward Sakura. "See what I mean?"
"Totally. How troublesome."
"You little brats, send a representative to get in line and get a scroll!" Anko pointed to the erected tent around the stand.
A few minutes later, Sasuke and his teammates gathered around in a circle far away from the other teams. "Alright," Sasuke said breathlessly. He discreetly pulled out a Heavens scroll from his pouch. Leaning in close, he said, "I suppose we're going after the teams with an Earth scroll then."
"An Earth scroll? Something like this?" Sakura pulled out an Earth scroll.
Naruto and Sasuke gawked. And stared. "Where in nine hells did you get that?" Naruto blurted out. "I can't believe you!"
Sakura smiled a devious smile. "Well, let's just say they should have put up a barrier, with proper seals, than a flimsy tent."
Sasuke gave her a thumbs up. "You are the most violent, enigmatic, arrogant yet the most amazing, cool, quintessential person in the entire universe. I love you."
Sakura blushed prettily. "I don't think the word, 'quintessential' fits in this context, but I get your gist."
"Wow, this is great!" Naruto ran up and hugged her. "I'll sum it up. You're awesome Sakura. So I guess this changes our plans then?"
"Should we head straight for the tower?" Sakura asked. "Or, should we stay behind and thin the crowd out some? I thought they might find out that they're short on scrolls, so I made a duplicate complete with some of your concealment seal tags, Naruto, but they can still find out."
"Hmm, should we kill some time?" Naruto turned to Sasuke, stroking his imaginary beard. "I'd rather prefer to go straight to the end. It's cleaner and faster, and I bet they keep record of things like that, so if we busted every single record there, it'd be amazing!"
"I really like the idea of wiping some competition out, but Naruto's right. We don't really know who we're facing anyway, so I say we conserve energy and prepare for the final exam. Instead of fighting, we can gather some information instead?"
"Good idea. Gathering info on the teams we come across, right?" Sakura nodded. "Okay, that's great. Now, do we keep these scrolls together or separate?"
"Separate." Naruto took the Heaven scroll from Sasuke and slapped three concealment seals on it. It faded to a blank plain scroll, and any vestiges of chakra was effectively suppressed and undetectable. Carefully, Naruto pulled out his brush and a bottle of his custom made ink, and drew a small but complicated storage seal on his skin, right on his bicep. "I'll seal this to my own body. I think Sakura should take the other one."
"Okay." Sakura slid up her shirt. "Put it on my stomach. I'll protect it best there."
"Ooh, this is nerve-wracking," Naruto said, staring at Sakura's toned stomach. "Can you do it yourself? It's kind of weird to gawk at a girl's belly."
After much scuffle, the scroll was stored safely.
"Oh brats?" Anko called. "Get ready. A team per entrance! On my whistle, three, two, one!"
Scrambling, Team Badass set off like a bullet into the dark, ominous forest.
"What are we going to do?" Chouji nervously asked his teammates. "We know we're not going to match nearly any of the teams. There's no guarantee we'll come across someone weak, either. We're doomed! I don't wanna die!"
"Shut up Chouji! We're not gonna die! We just have to do our best." Ino pumped her fist in the air, trying to bring up the mood. "Come on Shikamaru! We can do this!"
"How?"
"I say we catch someone alone, and see if they have the scroll!"
...
"Crap. Crap crap." Shikamaru slapped his forehead. Hiding behind the bushes, the trio stared at the long haired figure a few meters ahead of them. "This was the best choice we could find?"
"I-I don't think we can take him on, even with all three of us," Chouji was scared. He wanted potato chips, and he wanted to get out of this mess.
"Why are you following me? Get out of that bush." An indifferent voice made them jolt. Neji peered into the thick foliage, waiting for the annoying rookies to reveal themselves.
Stumbling, Team Ten jumped out of the bush. "Oh my! If it isn't Neji-sama!" Ino batted her eyelashes. She undid her hair. "I wonder, if his Neji-sama has some time for some poor old me?"
"You are as seductive as a stinky mule," Neji told her. "Go train some more before you think about ambushing me." He walked off.
Ino fumed after the Hyuuga. "How dare he! I'll get him for this!"
Shikamaru scratched his head. "How troublesome. They always say a woman's wrath is the most frightful thing."
"Yahoo!" Kiba howled as he and his team soared through the trees. "I bet we're the first to get to the tower! Our ploy with the jumping leaches was brilliant. Right Shino?"
"...Yes."
"Aw man, you're too quiet." Kiba grumbled. Then Akamaru caught something. "Hm? What's this smell? It reeks of fresh blood! Hinata, can you look what's up two o'clock, about a kilometer or so?"
Hinata did so, and gasped at the sight she saw, feeling a little faint. "There's a team just up ahead...absolutely massacring at least ten others!"
At this, Shino and Kiba looked uneasy. "Should we check it out?" Kiba asked, unsure.
Shino nodded. "I think that would be wise. But we should take care not to draw any attention to ourselves."
They stealthily approached the sickening smell of blood, until they were safe behind a bush, watching a horrifying scene where a red haired boy from Suna literally crushed three Ame Genin without batting an eyelash.
"Fuck," Kiba swore. "Akamaru's whimpering. We better get out of here!"
"Gaara!" The black clothed, painted Genin protested. "Stop! We don't need to kill anymore! It's unnecessary and frankly, a waste of our time."
"Gaara, please! L-listen to your sister, okay? We're your siblings, right?" The Suna kunoichi tried to reason with the redhead.
But Gaara didn't seem to listen. He continued to squeeze chakra to his fist, glaring a promise of death to the bush in front of the leaf ninja. Team Eight subconsciously gulped in fear. Was this their end?
"Gaara!"
"I got it." Gaara's cool voice broke them out of their shaking. Gaara was now calmly corking his gourd. Then, the three foreigners left, leaving the leaf ninja alone behind the bushes.
Kiba clutched a whining Akamaru to his chest, too scared to speak. The killer intent he had felt was unimaginable. He nearly wet himself at the prospect of him being crushed like an ant like those poor Ame Genin.
Shino was quiet, and tugged on his teammates' sleeves. "Let us go. There is no point in remaining here. We should now stick close and stay out of that team's way."
Yeah. They were going to be wary now. Because that redhead was dangerous. More dangerous than anything any of them had come across. If they had thought this Chuunin exam was going to be a breeze, then they were just proven wrong. This Gaara was a surefire threat.
Anko was enjoying the last batch of her famous 'Konoha Leaf Dango', aka 99 sticks of dango, exactly enough sticks to fill her stomach nicely and to make a neat leaf pattern on a tree.
"Proctor Mitarashi!" An urgent voice snapped her out of her reverie.
"What is it?" The special Jounin looked down from the little house-tent they set up. "What do you want? It better be something important."
"It is! I mean-" the Chuunin fretted. "Three Genin examinees have been found! They're all dead, and..they all have..all have..."
"Dead?" Anko wasn't too sure about where this was going. "They signed the waiver, didn't they?"
"Yes, but they died before they could sign the waiver!"
"I don't think I follow you."
"Follow me!" The Chuunin hurriedly led the proctor to the scene.
When Anko saw the three corpses, she felt her stomach sink into the bottom of the earth. "Oh, please no."
A few other ninja circling the bodies asked her, "Who could have done this? This is clearly murder!"
"I know of only one person with this style of infiltration." Anko gritted her teeth. "It's him. He's back. Warn the Hokage!"
Team Badass was quiet for once as they sped through the branches. They were almost to the tower, but there was this nagging premonition tugging at the nape of their skulls.
Naruto put up a hand to stop them. Pausing on top of the branches, Sakura and Sasuke wondered why they were stopping.
"What's wrong Naruto?"
Naruto's mouth was set into a grim line. "Someone's following us."
Sasuke and Sakura shared a look. Neither of them had felt anything. "Are you sure?"
"Dead sure. There's a person with extremely evil chakra coming straight towards us at five o'clock." Naruto pointed. "He's underground though, like he's going to sneak up on us." Naruto put his fingers into a ram seal. Concentrating his inner mind's eye onto his surroundings, he felt for the strange chakra again. "Definitely trying to sneak up. He's suppressing his chakra, when he has a lot of it. And by lots, I mean like almost as much as me."
"What do we do? Run? Or wait and divert, or fight?" Sasuke asked.
"Well we're not that' far from the tower." Sakura pointed out. "We can run."
"But this person is running very fast." Naruto kept his eyes tightly closed. "He's skilled. I don't think running's an option guys."
"But if he's really that strong, then fighting's not an option either," Sakura bit her lip. "I think our best shot is to try and divert him while we run for the tower."
"Kage bunshin?"
"Yeah. Formation 3, just like we practiced." Sasuke and Sakura put their hands up in an illusionary seal while Naruto formed his trademark Kage Bunshin seal.
"My my, what's this?" A deep, scratchy voice issued from the shadows. "How did mere Genin like you manage to detect me?"
"Not everyone's a 'mere' Genin," Sakura spat. "You shouldn't underestimate us."
"Perhaps." Stepping into the light, the lone Kusa ninja from before licked his upper lip in anticipation. "Now then, dear Sasuke-kun, would you delight me with a little fight?"
"Hell no." Sasuke stepped back. "You're a freak with a gross tongue. Stay away from me!"
"You are afraid?" The Kusa ninja taunted. "Aren't you the last Uchiha?"
"I am not the last Uchiha. My brother is still out there somewhere." Sasuke replied stubbornly. "Besides, yes, I am a little scared of you. Who wouldn't be? You have the most inhumane tongue ever."
The Kusa-nin frowned. "I see." In a flash, he was behind them all. With a hand that moved so fast none of them caught it flying towards them, he backhanded Sakura to a tree, not even giving her the opportunity to scream.
Naruto and Sasuke jumped away the moment their teammate went flying. "Sakura!" Naruto screamed. "You!" He reached and pulled out several of his exploding tags tied to kunai. With as much force as he could muster, he threw it at the lone foreigner. The Grass-nin dodged, but Sasuke was right behind him.
"Take this bastard!" Sasuke stabbed the ninja in the back. But instead of bleeding and crying out in pain, the ninja simply puffed into a log. "Naruto! Where is he?"
Naruto concentrated, then pointed to underneath the ground, three feet away. "There! He's trying to sneak up on us again!"
The Kusa-nin slowly rose from the ground. "I see. How very rare." He chuckled, and the others trembled in fear. Sakura pushed off the ground and wiped the blood from her lips. "You're a sensor. Such beings are not very common in Fire." He reached up and touched the skin around his eyes.
Knees weak, the Genin readied themselves for his next attack, but what hit them was beyond any of their expectations.
Fear. Unadulterated revulsion shook their core as they were enveloped with overwhelming killer intent, at least ten times greater than the one they felt from Zabuza. Just by meeting his eyes, Naruto Sasuke and Sakura were brought to their knees as they watched images of themselves being killed and slashed and gutted, the hallucination so real, everything feeling as if it were being done to themselves at that very moment.
Sasuke balked, then threw up onto the ground. Sakura felt tears gathering in her eyes. She was so scared, scared, scared... The air was suffocating and she couldn't breathe...
Naruto was frozen to his spot. He couldn't move. He couldn't think. He just knew he had to get away, but this fear was so deep and heavy he already felt despair and hopelessness setting in. It was impossible to get away. It was useless to try. But give up? He couldn't give up! That would be hypocritical, having proclaimed that giving up is the worst thing a ninja can do in any situation in just the previous exam. Damnit! Move, move!
Sasuke clawed at his throat. The burning sensation of his stomach contents was nothing compared to what he was feeling now. Had this been minutes or hours? Or days? Or was he just deluded, and mere seconds had past? Whatever it was, he had to move. Move! He could dimly understand that their enemy was pointing three very sharp kunai at their foreheads, about to impale their brains to mush. No! He had to move! Move move move move move...
He managed to pull out his own dagger and run it through his thigh. Focusing on the pain, he deflected the three kunai with his shuriken and made a run for it with Naruto and Sakura both on his arms.
Orochimaru ripped his disguise off and licked his lips. Sasuke was very interesting. It seemed worth it to go after them.
...
Panting, Sasuke was on all fours as he tried to regain his breath. Naruto and Sakura both were coughing and hacking. "What the hell was that? It was like he immobilized us with just his K.I! Are you alright Sakura?" Naruto wiped his face with his hands then turned to his battered teammate.
She nodded. "I'm fine. Just a little bruised. Thanks Sasuke. If it weren't for you we'd never have made it out of there."
Naruto shakily let out a breath. "You saved us back there, dude. Thanks."
Sasuke shook his head, trying to catch his words without sounding like he just ran a 100-meter sprint. "It's what friends are supposed to do."
"How did you do that though? Move under his pressure?" Naruto inquired, naturally curious. "I didn't even see him throw the kunai at us!"
Sakura gently pushed some ebony locks away from Sasuke's sweating face and gave a little scream at what she saw. "Sasuke- your eyes!"
Sasuke blinked. "My eyes?"
Trembling, Sakura handed him a kunai. Naruto leaned forward and caught sight of Sasuke's face. He blew a low whistle. "I gotta be thankful to your ancestors now, Sasuke. Cuz they just saved us."
Peering into the shining surface, Sasuke choked at what he saw. Blood red irises with two tomoe swirled almost lazily in the middle of his eyes. The sharingan.
"Sharingan," he breathed. "How? I thought it was almost impossible to have two bloodline limits.."
Sakura wasn't paying attention. She screamed. "Hebi!"
Naruto cursed as he grabbed his friend and jumped out of the way just as the snake's huge jaws smashed the branch they had been standing on to splinters. "I'm a freakin sensor! How'd I not know this thing was coming?" Sasuke just barely managed to get away.
"Well, you were quite shaken, Naruto-kun." The creepy voice was there again.
Naruto chalked up then stood. He pointed to the long haired ninja. "Who the freak are you and how do you know our names? Why are you attacking us?"
"I suppose it's time to introduce myself." Orochimaru stepped closer, revealing his true face. "My name is Orochimaru. I am here for you Sasuke-kun." He licked his lips and stared at Sasuke provocatively. Team Badass quaked at his identity. "If you agree to come with me, then I'll spare your friends' little lives."
"As if." Sasuke didn't even hesitate. He gave Orochimaru a double middle finger. "If I were still the same weak little lonely Uchiha I might have considered your offer. Because my friends mean a lot to me. But you know what? My teammates and I already established long time ago that we're all better together, or not at all. Bring it on, snake-freak!"
Orochimaru frowned. This wasn't going the way he planned it. Sasuke was way more liberal than he had intended things to be. This wasn't good. If he couldn't convince Sasuke to come with him freely, then his only other option would be to kidnap him, and that didn't suit his motives very well either. "In that case, die."
"I don't think so!" Naruto yelled. "You may be the great Snake Sannin, but we're going to be more legendary than you, so..get used to it."
"Oh really?" Faster than the speed of sound, Orochimaru was behind Sakura. She screamed, feeling Orochimaru's slimy touch on her neck. Orochimaru gripped her slender neck with his tongue, then punched her hard twice in the stomach.
Naruto and Sasuke sprung to action. Making mass shadow clones, Naruto charged, hurling thousands of shuriken aimed directly at the snake-sannin. Sasuke threw ninja wire around Orochimaru's feet, tying him to the ground.
Orochimaru laughed at their attempt. "You forget that I'm holding a hostage," He twisted and put Sakura in line of fire. Naruto didn't flinch. Sakura puffed out of existence and the Sannin stared at his empty hands for less than a second before Sasuke yanked hard on the wires and brought Orochimaru crashing to the ground in shock. Surprised, the Sannin jumped, making a move to retreat a few steps when another hidden wire, looping around his ankle, brought him pummeling back to the forest floor.
Not wasting his time, Sasuke sped through his hand seals. "Katon: Goukyaku no Jutsu!" Gushing hot flame surrounded the Sannin, it's intensity growing to a near white hot blaze, scorching everything in proximity.
Orochimaru's eyes grew round. This level of control and manipulation was nearly that of the Third Hokage's fire jutsu. Was Sasuke so talented that he was able to manipulate his fire element so well? Or was it something else?
"Not finished yet!" Naruto appeared from above. Reaching for his special exploding tags, he attached them to kunai and flung hundreds of them at the Sannin. "Die!" Hands in one seal, he detonated all his tags, creating a massive explosion and a shockwave that eventually quelled all the flames.
Naruto landed near Sasuke. Sakura massaged her neck, brushing off the soot from her clothes. "I hate that everyone always seem to underestimate the girl. Why me?"
"Sorry about that. Did we get him?" Sasuke urgently asked.
Naruto focused, then cursed. "No. It's pretty much impossible for us to take on a Sannin alone. Best make a run for it now."
"I don't think so." Orochimaru stood from the ashes, completely unharmed. "Doton: Bunshin comes in very handy in these kinds of situations. I can teach it to you, Sasuke-kun, if you come with me? Don't you want power to avenge your clan?"
"Bullshit. I don't have an earth element. Besides, I want to find my brother and ask why he did everything, not blindly rush into revenge. What am I, a little pansy so coddled by the village that I think I have a right to go off being melodramatic when everyone else is busy doing their duty to the village?" Sasuke scoffed. "The explanation can be applied to you, though. You did leave your village after all."
"I am not a pansy that was coddled by the village!" Orochimaru said heatedly, for once breaking his cool. "Just because I was the favorite of the Third and defected right after I didn't get my aspired Hokage position doesn't mean I was being a sore loser or anything."
Naruto taunted. "Did ya hear that Sasuke? He was being a sore loser. We never said anything about being a sore loser, we just said he was being melodramatic, which isn't necessarily a bad thing."
Orochimaru blinked. "It isn't? I thought you were implying that it was."
"Actually, we all try to be melodramatic ourselves," Sakura helpfully put in her input. "You see, the reason why you failed to become Hokage is because you were simply too boring. You needed more drama in your life. Maybe then you might have stuck to the village and done your job with passion."
"Ugh, don't get me started on passion now, you little girl," Orochimaru made a disgusted sound. "I am about the most passionate man in the entire world. And with this passion, I will follow you to the ends of the earth, Sasuke-kun, until you accept me."
Sasuke gagged. "Are you gay? I'm not into fifty-year old men with long tongues and stretchy necks, sorry."
"That's not what I mean!" Orochimaru insisted, feeling out of character more and more by the second. He had to wrap this up and give Sasuke the cursed seal before things got too out of hand. "Anyways, I hope this will make you come at me more seriously, dear Sasuke-kun." Smiling his ominous smile, Orochimaru held up the Earth scroll.
"When did he-!" Sakura searched frantically in her pouch and pack. "Oh no! I'm so sorry guys!"
Orochimaru smirked at the growing panic in the Genin's eyes. He concentrated a bit of his chakra into his palm, then set the precious scroll aflame. Naruto made a little pained sound, but otherwise, no one reacted.
Orochimaru had been expecting them to lose control and charge angrily. But clearly it wasn't his day. Nothing was going as planned. "Well? Aren't you going to attack me? I thought you guys just said being melodramatic was your thing. Come on! Cry, yell, scream, charge at me with all the anger and fury and passion you have. Let's see what you've got!"
Naruto nodded solemnly. "That's a great idea, except, when it comes to living and being dramatic, I think anyone would choose to live. Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Over a thousand copies of Naruto appeared. "Henge!" Bursting into transformations of his teammates, hundreds of Naruto, Sasuke and Sakuras broke apart into teams. "Formation 3 guys!"
Sasuke and Sakura put their hands together for an illusion. Having two illusionary types on the team was a great advantage. "Genjutsu: Confusion!"
Orochimaru let the illusion sweep over him, interested to see what the Genin had come up with. To his immense surprise, the hundreds of Team 7 had disappeared, except for the one real team in the center of the burnt clearing. He paused, then laughed. "What's this? I don't think your illusion worked!" He charged straight for the group in the center, only faltering when the three Genin smirked, then peeled away from the second group of Team 7, which, to the sannin's best knowledge, had not been in existence when he charged at them.
The first group jumped into the trees to his right. Orochimaru halted in his run, unsure of what to do. Go after them? Or stay here? He refocused his gaze onto the second group standing there. Then, they peeled off the third group, and ran for his left. Then the third group peeled off the fourth, and ran straight North. Then the fifth group peeled off and jumped up to the branches, running away to the South. Then the sixth ran to the Northeast, the seventh ran to the southwest, then Northwest, Southeast, then North north east, South south west...
Hundreds of clones, hundreds of duplicate teams, all peeling off one another and heading in different directions. Orochimaru stood, dazed at the sight, then clapped his face. "Kai!" he muttered, feeling the cool wash of the illusion dissipate. Once it did disappear however, nothing changed. Thousands of clones still headed for multiple directions all at once. They were real. He had dispelled the illusion too late.
He inwardly admired their ploy. Their tactic had left him befuddled and confused. He had convinced himself what was reality and what was illusion, despite the fact that it had happened less than two seconds ago, just because he saw it so. Such illusion targeting the eyes, and combining it with real clones, was a terrifying combo.
So what now? He knew he couldn't make all those clones to chase after each and every team. He had failed. His chance to taint Sasuke with his Curse seal was gone, but there would be another. Either way, the Kyuubi brat and his teammates had been very interesting. He would track them down later.
Right now, he could already guess they didn't head north, because he burned their scroll and there was no point in going to the tower anyways, without anything to go through the gates. That left around a few hundred other possibilities, but that was alright.
He'd see them in the finals.
Currently heading directly North, Sasuke and Sakura covered for their teammate from front and back, moving through the trees in an straight line formation. "How is it, Naruto?" Sakura asked, worried. "Did we get away?"
Naruto's brows furrowed in deep concentration, then smoothed out. "Whew. Thought we'd never get away. Yeah, we're safe now. Snake-freak took our bait. He's heading for South, obviously thinking we'd trick him up and take the far route behind him, thinking we've set up reverse psychology...haha! This is reverse reverse psychology! He didn't think 'mere Genin' could be this smart, did he?"
"Are all your clones still intact?" Sasuke asked. "Are you going to dispell them?"
"Not until we get to the tower. He's still chasing a few clone teams with clones of his own. We're getting farther and farther away though, which is good." Naruto grinned. "Great acting back there guys. He probably thought we were going to go opposite from the tower, since we have no scroll."
Sakura tossed her head back, smiling proudly. "Why thank you Naruto. I know I was awesome." She tapped the expanse of smooth skin on the side of her stomach, and a scroll poofed into existence. "It was a good idea to make some copies and keep them in our packs, to fool our opponents."
"I guess I won't be needing this now," Sasuke pulled out his fake Heaven's scroll. "I think I'll throw it down there, to make some hopeful Genin think they're lucky." He threw it down to the ground, where it landed with a soft plop.
Naruto laughed. "You're impossible Sasuke. That's so mean. Planting false hope, huh?"
Sasuke smirked. "I try." He then gestured to his torn up thigh. "I think we should hurry up. It's a good thing Naruto's smart enough to add this gash on every single one of my copies, but Orochimaru might find out that no blood's dripping from it."
"True." Naruto and Sakura agreed, and with Naruto still keeping a watch on any chakra signals, the three quickened their pace toward the tower.
A few moments later after traveling in silence, Naruto felt a terrible headache crawl up his skull from the nape of his neck. Feeling dizzy, he tried to steady himself, but lost purchase on the wood branches, wavered, and fell twenty feet down to the hard cold ground.
Sakura and Sasuke stopped mid jump, shocked. They rushed to Naruto's side. "Naruto! What's wrong?" Sakura frantically searched Naruto's face. Naruto's blue eyes were closed, unconscious.
Sasuke felt for Naruto's pulse. It was steady and strong, but slightly erratic. "He's just out cold, but I don't know why. Aw damn it! What's going on?"
"I don't know, but we should just speed up our pace and hurry to the tower before anything." Sakura gathered Naruto up and leaned him against her shoulders. "We're practically blind without Naruto. Keep your senses up and alert. Come on Sasuke!"
They jumped back into the trees and pumped more chakra into their feet, doubling their pace. Afraid of what was going on with their friend, and in a hurry to report Orochimaru's appearance to the higher ups, Sasuke and Sakura continued their run without a word.
Meanwhile, Naruto sat up in a dark, cold sewer.
"Where the heck is this place?" Standing and trying to wipe some of the murky water off his skin, Naruto looked around for anything familiar. Seeing nothing, he shrugged and began to walk.
"I don't have any equipment with me, no Sasuke, no Sakura...is this an illusion?" He put his hands together and tried to release, but it didn't work. "Hm, doesn't seem like it."
Naruto started walking. "Hello? Anyone here?"
A low growling sound issued from the far dark hallway. Naruto peered at the darkness, unable to see anything beyond that. "Someone there?" His curiosity getting the better of him, he went against his better instincts and teetered up the dark hallway, after a while, turning left into a dark, wide room. "Just where is this place?" Naruto walked up to the tall bars set in the end of the room and examined them. They didn't seem like metal, but they weren't wood either. He glanced up, and saw a big piece of paper taped to the bars. It read, "seal."
Quirking his head with unsaid questions, Naruto leaned against the bars, only to scream and jump a quarter of a second before a huge pair of claws rammed into the space between the bars where he'd been at.
Dark malevolent eyes glittered in the dim light, and red evil chakra suddenly loomed over him. Naruto screamed. "What the freak? What the hell? What the hell are you?"
The creature's lips pulled back, revealing giant yellow, extremely sharp teeth. "Hello Naruto. I am Kyuubi. We meet at last."