Drawing on the side of Sasuke and Shiori was made by me~~
What was that? I looked over to source of the explosion, which was at Lord Hokage's spot. Lord Hokage was then taken hostage and surrounded by a barrier.
"Stop it Gaara!"Temari shouted.
"I must kill him,"
"There's no point in continuing this fight!"
"That's right!"Kankuro added. "Don't forget our mission!"
What mission?
"Out of my way..."
"Operation is already underway.." A sand ninja announced to the three. Genma stepped in front of Sasuke.
"What is going on?! Tell me!"Sasuke demanded.
"Those traitors.."I muttered under my breath. "They were the ones who planned this attack. I thought we had a treaty.." I glanced over my shoulder, staring at the people who were all asleep. "Damn.."
"Go!"the sand shinobi ordered the sand siblings.
"Is the host of this party, Orochimaru?"Genma asked.
"Don't know, don't care,"
"Sasuke, I'm sorry but the Chunin exams end here for you. Sasuke, you already achieved Chunin level. You're a leaf shinobi. Put your training into good use,"Genma said.
"So I'm suppose to take down Gaara?"
"Just be careful. It's the real thing now, not a match."
"...Yeah,"he said before taking off.
I have to find Naruto and Sakura!
Third P.O.V
As soon as the barrier closed, Orochimaru faced the Third Hokage along with someone in a robe and anbu mask. "Well well, we had intended to capture Sasuke while Gaara was causing trouble but I suppose not everything goes as planned."he said as he held a kunai to Hiruzen's neck.
"I see..so that was the plan..The Leaf Village and Sasuke were your targets.."
"Ha!"Orochimaru scoffed. "Do you really think that the Leaf Village is so important? Now, if Gaara returns, I'd be able to show you something very interesting but anyway, your stubbornness and incompetence allowed me to out maneuver you. I defeated you. I was able to sneak in some of my spies.." The anbu beside him took off their mask and pulled down their hood.
"It's..it's you.. That girl from the preliminaries who dropped out, Suguha.. You work for Orochimaru?"
"....You see me beside him, don't you? Don't ask stupid questions.."she replied, looking pained.
"I knew that this day would one day arrive,"Hiruzen said. "However you aren't going to defeat me that easily.."
"I told you didn't I? You should of picked the Fifth Hokage because, Third Hokage, right here and right now, you're going to die.." That moment, a kunai was thrown at Orochimaru, knocking his own kunai out of his hand, allowing the Third Hokage to be free. "Why you!"
"I won't let you destroy this place!"Suguha declared. "You've done enough wrong and I won't be part of this.!" She pulled down her sleeve, revealing a senbon wrist launcher and shooting them at him. He took out another kunai blocking each one. "Lord Third, stay behind me. I won't let him lay a hand on you,"
"You've been corrupted by this village's beliefs.."Orochimaru sighed. She sent him a glare and her hand glowed blue. "You're going to fight me with medical ninjutsu?" She charged at him and tried striking him but he easily dodged each attempt, kneeing her in the stomach and pulling her up by her hair. "You fool, you still have much to learn before you can ever challenge me!"
"I..."she gritted her teeth. "I don't care if I die, I won't let you-" He suddenly slammed the side of her face to the ground, stepping on it. "Ah!"
"Would you mind explaining to me about your sudden rebellion?"
"Oh please.."she scoffed. "You thought I was ever loyal? It's true that you 'saved' me since I was an orphan but everything you did was for personal gain. You took advantage of poor orphans who had nothing and want to mean something," Orochimaru laughed.
"Don't tell me you're doing all this because you're bitter over his death. That boy was loyal enough to allow me to experiment on him which failed.."he said. "Kai was truly a great help who regretted nothing. Why can't you accept that?" He sighed.
"He didnt need to die for your stupid purposes!" Orochimaru stepped down on her. "You won't be able to destroy-"
"Listen little girl, I WILL crush the leaf village!"
Shiori's P.O.V
Dad stood in one of the aisle along with Guy. Sakura was not that far away from the both. She seemed as she was unaffected by the genjutsu. "Sakura!"I called.
"Shiori! Sasuke is gone!"she gaped. I nodded and walked over. "Do you know where he went?"
"......That idiot went to finish off his match with Gaara,"I informed her. "...Its not just a regular match anymore..so I don't get why he wants to finish it off that badly. He's being reckless-"
"Shiori, behind you!" I glanced over my shoulder, noticing two sound ninja in the air, heading towards me. I didn't enough time to respond. Instead, I ducked, covering my head.
Nothing happened so I opened my eyes, meeting Dad's gaze. "Shiori, are you alright?"Dad asked. He saved me. I gave him a nod. "Stay there while I trim down the enemy's number size, okay?"
"But Dad, Lord Hokage is..."I trailed off, glancing over at the barrier. "He's in trouble."
"We have to leave that to the ANBU. We already have trouble enough here. Besides, he's not just some pushover. Don't forget, he's the hokage, he can handle it."
"..Right."
"Shiori,"he said again.
"Yes?"
"Release the genjutsu and wake up Naruto and Shikamaru. Follow Sasuke with them,"he instructed. Dad then used his summoning jutsu, causing Pakkun to appear. "Pakkun here will track Sasuke by scent."
"Our fifth member is a puppy??"Sakura questioned.
"Sakura,"I began. "Pakkun isn't just a puppy. He's a ninja dog and good at tracking. Right Pakkun?" He jumped into my arms and I noticed he sniffed me. "What's wrong?"
"Kakashi said you guys needed to find Sasuke's scent so you should have the freshest one." It didn't take long for my face to burn up.
Overcome with embarrassment, I stuttered out my response. "W-W-What are you talking about?"
"I've heard there's something going on between you two..."
"S-Shut up! There isn't anything between us. We're only teammates! Stop teasing me! Now, I have to go release the genjutsu!"I stammered. "Don't stall me!" I crawled over to find Naruto and found both of the boys. "There you are!" I quickly formed the sign and released it.
"What's going on, Shiori?"Naruto asked, rubbing his eyes.
"I'll fill you in later..Stay down," I crawled over to Shikamaru and peered down at him. Why do I have a feeling..? I saw him twitch. He's just regularly asleep. I can't believe him. "Pakkun.."I muttered.
"Got it.." He chomped down on Shikamaru's leg.
"Aughhhhhhh!"Shikamaru yelped, shaking his foot.
"..Enjoyed your beauty sleep?"I asked with a close eyed smile. "..Like hell I would ever said that to you!" I crashed my fist onto the top of his head. "Why were pretending to be asleep?"
"I didn't want to get involved. Give me a break. I couldn't care less about Sasuke,"Shikamaru said as he played with Pakkun's face, causing Pakkun to growl and bite him.
"..What's happening?"Naruto asked. "What's all this?" A sound shinobi appeared behind Naruto but Guy was able to stop him, pushing him through the wall. "What the..?"
"I'll explain the mission."Dad said facing us along with Guy as they still had to fend off shinobi. "Track down Sasuke, stop him and then head to a safe location to receive further orders."
"Let's go!"I said, grabbing Naruto's hand."I'll explain more later!" We went through the hole and into the forest. "Okay, here's the deal with Sasuke, After you all fell asleep because of the genjutsu, he went after Gaara to finish him off."
"Why did you have to pull me into all of this?"Shikamaru sighed. "Its such a drag."
"Shut up."I said. "There's nothing you can do now!"
"This way!"Pakkun informed. Along the way, Pakkun told us that we were being followed. "We need to lose them. Follow me. We're going back over our footprints. If we pull this off, our footprints will seem to disappear."
"Got it," We did as we were told and continued but Pakkun stopped again. "What is it?"
"...They're back on our trail."
"We gotta do an ambush! We have no choice!"Naruto spoke up.
"It's no good,"Pakkun interrupted. "The men chasing us are Orochimaru's henchmen. My guess is that they are all jonin leveled.
"Why won't it work?"Sakura asked. "The level of the ninja has nothing to do with it,"
"Look, an ambush is a key battle tactic but in order for it to work, you need to meet two conditions,"I explained. "First; the ninja on the run must be completely quiet and must find the enemy first. The last condition is that they have to be able to catch the pursuers off guard somewhere that they can do a lot of damage quickly and be able to conceal themselves again. If you can't meet those conditions, it won't work out the way you want it. We got 1 but 2 is out of luck for us."
"Why?"
"Our pursuers have studied our layout,"Shikamaru answered. "I'm assuming they've been put through simulated practices for this mission. On top of that, they're probably masters of the pursuer jutsu."
"So they know all our cards?"
"Who knows but the ones pursuing us are a special unit put for this specific mission and what our us: A fool, a kunoichi with no particular talent, a mutt-" I cut off Shikamaru.
"You better not finish that sentence off with me."I growled. "You're just lazy."
"Exactly. The best plan for us is a divergent that only looks like an ambush. One of us is gonna stay behind and slow them down...One of us we will have to be a decoy. It'll help us escape but the decoy will probably die.." We all stopped on seperate tree branches. Die..? I'm not going to let any of them volunteer, especially not Naruto but I want to see him so badly...."Who's going to do it?" Everyone was hesitant, silent. "We need the dog to follow Sasuke so that means...I'm the only one who can do it."
I looked at him wide-eyed. "You can't!-"I protested.
"It's better than all of us being wiped out, right? Besides I'm the only one who can pull off this decoy and surviving this attack. The shadow possession jutsu was invented as a decoy tactic. I'll catch up with you later. Go on. Get going..."
I clenched my hands by my sides but reluctantly agreed.
"We're counting on you, Shikamaru!" We went off again.
Be careful, Shikamaru..
"Listen,"Pakkun began. "The enemy is coming up fast. I wonder if he's even trying back there!"
"Hey,"I said. "I know he's not very dedicated but I know he would never let his comrades down. He can do this." Sakura looked down doubtful. "We have to have our faith in him.."
"Pick up the pace!"Pakkun ordered. "..Huh..Looks like those ninjas aren't chasing us anymore."
"Awesome!"Naruto smiled. "Shikamaru succeeded!"
"I never had a doubt!"I added in before looking over at Sakura. "Unlike someone, I know." We got to hurry before Sasuke even gets to Gaara. "Guys, we need to go faster!"
I have a bad feeling..
"Sasuke has stopped moving."Pakkun informed. "He's still a long way ahead of us." That means he's already caught up with them. "Hm? Did I just smell what I think I smelled?"
"What is it?"
"Sakura, did you know you use the same shampoo as I do?" Sakura deadpanned, standing stunned. "Minty Rainforest Mist, right? With extra body? But I wonder why my coat is so much glossier than yours.."
"I smell like a dog.."Sakura mumbled. "I smell like a dog..I smell like a dog. I smell like a dog. I smell like a dog.. I smell like a dog.." She sadly hoped away from us.
"Hey! Wait! Don't move on by yourself!"I called out, going after her. "This isn't the time to worry about vanity!"
"What if you were told you smelled just like a dog?!"
"He was giving you a compliment!"I teased. She groaned angrily and kept on moving ahead. "Just get over it! We have more important things to worry about."
"There it is! I smell Sasuke."Pakkun affirmed after a few sniffs in the air. "He's not alone. I smell others with him. He's caught up with them!" Just wait there Sasuke. "They're close together and stopped moving. Could mean a fight. We should hurry. Smells like we're not the only ones tracking Sasuke. Something else is out there! I can't tell if it's a friend or foe but it isn't human." Sakura gulped and Naruto lightly gasped. Pakkun sniffed the air again and came to a stop while Naruto kept going and crashed right into a tree.
"Naruto.."I trailed off. "Watch where you're going.."
"Smells like they're in motion. They're moving fast. Sasuke seems to be chasing them."
"...What are we waiting for?"I asked. "We need to hurry up! Sasuke could get himself hurt knowing how stubborn he is when he wants to fight an opponent!"
"She's right!'Sakura spoke up. "We should go!" After a while, we got close enough to where Sasuke was. I could feel a large amount of chakra nearby too. "This chakra.. Huh.. There he is! Sasuke!"
Gaara charged at Sasuke who was laying on the ground but Naruto kicked him away in time. I landed right next to him. "Sasuke.." I held him up and noticed the curse mark spreading. The curse mark appeared again?! Was Gaara too much for even Sasuke to handle? Half of Gaara's face looked like a monster was taking over. That was the source of the huge chakra.
"Sasuke!"Sakura exclaimed.
"W-what are you doing here?"Sasuke stammered, looking over at Naruto. He then cried out in pain so I held him up tightly.
"Shiori, this guy over here, who the hell is he?!" Naruto questioned.
"His appearance may be different but he's the one you know as Gaara," Pakkun replied. "Now's the time to tell you that I'm not the fighting type." I frowned, irking. We all can tell.
"Sakura,"I said. "Take Sasuke away from here as far as you can. I'll stay behind to watch over and help Naruto. Hurry!"
"No!"Sasuke interrupted as he pushed away from me. He's beginning to fight back against the curse mark. I noticed blood coming out of his mouth. This guy..Doesn't he understand that he's too hurt and getting low on chakra? Gaara then leaped off his branch and rushed past a wide-eyed Naruto, heading towards us.
"Stay back!"I shouted pulling out a kunai with a paper bomb attached. A regular wouldn't do much. I was ready to hit him with it but Sakura also stood up, determined to protect Sasuke. "Sakura-"
"DIE SASUKE UCHIHA!"Gaara roared but hesitated for a moment before stretching out his arm and slamming Sakura against a tree, knocking her out.
"Sakura!" Me and Naruto cried out. Dammit..What do we do?!
"What's the matter, aren't you going to make a run for it?"Gaara inquired. "Who are these three to you?"
"Who are they to me? They're my friends! That's who they are. You try to lay another finger on them, I'll pulverize you!" Gaara squeezed Sakura against the tree more.
"What's the matter? Weren't you going to pulverize me? Come on then!"
"Damn it!"