Sasuke gasped as something began to come out the head of a giant snake. The sight was only disgusting, even more so with his sharingan activated. Sakura watching in disbelief as a body fully emerged from the opening. The grass ninja looked at them wildly as her whole body was covered with snake fluids. Her tongue was like that of a snake as it wiggled about her mouth, licking her lips as she manically laughed. Her body began stretch and wrap around a nearby tree before coming toward Sasuke. Before he could reach them, a series of kunai and shuriken flew toward him, making him drawback.
"Looks like a came just in time!" a familiar annoying voice yelled as everyone turned in its direction.
With a very foxy-like grin, Naruto was standing on one of the high branches of a tree with his arms folded on his chest. Sasuke and Sakura couldn't hide their slight relief at the blond's arrival. The snake woman looked amused at the arrival of the jinchuriki, although she was annoyed that he had gotten in her way. Oh well, she would have to get rid of him as well.
"Oh, and by the way. What was that password again?" he asked, making the other groan.
"Forget it, Naruto. You made it!" she said in relief.
"So, Naruto....." the woman spoke. "You managed to escape from my friend. Well done."
"I know right!" he said with a cheerful grin. "I'm just that awesome."
Sasuke and Sakura fought the urge to face fault at him.
"You idiot! Now is not the time to be clowning around!" Sakura yelled with a tick mark on her forehead.
"Alright!" Naruto said, ignoring Sakura's statement. "I don't know what the hell is going on here, but you've been picking on my teammates and I don't like that." he said as he pointed at the androgynous freak. "So, you better just slither back into your hole, Snake Lady, before I make a pair of shoes out you!"
'Naruto's going to get us all killed.' Sasuke thought as he looked at the woman. 'I've got to do something.' He didn't know what the hell this lady problem was, but from what he experienced earlier, she was dangerous. The way her eyes moved about, analyzing the situation. All this silence was just giving her more time to plot their deaths. With a light gulp, the Uchiha spoke, turning to the snake woman.
"You can have it!" Sasuke said, causing everyone to turn to him.
Sakura's eyes widened in shock as he dug into his ninja pouch and pulled out their heaven scroll. Naruto just narrowed his eyes. 'That idiot. What the hell does he think he is doing?' he thought as he looked at the Snake woman who was staring at the Uchiha with interest. Too much interest. He clenched his jaw. 'So that's what he wanted....' he inwardly said as he stared at the Sannin in disguise. 'Fucking bastard.....'
"The scroll, right?" Sasuke continued. "That's what you want. Alright then! Take it and leave us in peace!"
"Sasuke?!" Naruto shouted, causing the Uchiha to turn to him. "Just what in the hell are you doing?!"
"I'm getting us out of this!" Sasuke snapped. "So just shut up and stay out of it!"
Naruto just narrowed his eyes at him. You was so going to pay him back in full for disrespecting him like that.
"Very wise, very sss-sensible." she said with a slither. "Sometimes the helpless prey, in order to save their own skins, they realize that their only hope is to distract the predator with something even more egregious."
Sasuke just narrowed his eyes at the woman. "Take it." he said as he threw the scroll toward her.
Before the airborne scroll could reach the woman, an orange blur appeared before disappearing again along with the scroll. Naruto suddenly appeared and punched Sasuke in the face, sending him crashing down the tree. Sasuke barely managed to catch himself at the sheer force of the punch. He not so graciously landed on the forest floor and glared up at the blond who was glaring back at him.
"You stupid fool!" Sasuke yelled. "What the hell are you doing?"
Naruto narrowed his eyes even further at the Uchiha. "How we know who you say you are?" he asked him.
"What do you mean?! It's him! Don't be so stupid!" Sakura yelled.
The pink-haired girl was silenced by an icy glare from the blond. He was really tempted it to just knock her out and hide her, but it would ruin his plans. Naruto turned back toward Sasuke who was still glaring up at him.
"What sort of nonsense is this?" Sasuke asked angrily. "It's me you loser."
"I don't think so." Naruto replied. "You may look like him, but there is no way that you're Sasuke Uchiha. The Sasuke I knew wouldn't surrender just because the fight was tough. He wouldn't give up the scroll for the sake of saving his skin. He wasn't that much of a coward." he said coldly.
"You asked me what the hell I was doing?" he continued. "I was not choking that's what. I wasn't letting some snake freak make a weakling out of me. Man the hell up, you bastard. I refuse to give up to this mutant."
The woman chuckled, ignoring the insults. She actually found the blond's words rather amusing and made her rethink her previous opinion about him. Maybe there was some intelligence hidden under all that stupidity.
"Sad, but true." The woman said as she stood, catching everyone's attention."But it doesn't matter." she said rolling up her sleeve, revealing a weird marking on her arm. "As long as the scroll holds, I can simply kill you and take it."
Seeing her draw blood over the markings, he knew what she was doing. He ran at her recklessly with a kunai in his hand, ignoring Sasuke's warnings. Before he could reach her, in a gust of wind, a large snake appeared with the woman standing on top of it.
"NARUTO!" Sakura yelled as she watched her teammate get slammed into a tree, under the weight of the giant animal.
Naruto dodged at the last minute, much to the amusement of the woman. Before he could gather himself, the snake used its tail to knock him away from her, onto a tree. Naruto crashed into a high branch before falling, losing blood as he fell. Just as the snake was about to finish him off by consuming him like a fly, Naruto sent an axle kick to the snakes mouth, closing it much to the surprise of the woman although she remained calm. She noticed that his eyes had became red and slitted and his whisker marks were darker.
'That shouldn't be possible....' the woman thought with narrowed eyes as she watched him battle her summon. Sakura could only watch with slight awe and confusion as Naruto fought off the huge snake. She wondered where he all of a sudden got this power from. The woman chuckled as the jinchuriki charged at her. She sent a stream of fire toward him, knocking him back into a tree.
She laughed as she turned her attentions toward Sasuke. "Let's see how well you do, Sasuke." she said as her and her snake charged at the paralyzed Uchiha.
Before the snake could touch him, Naruto appeared before him, slamming a kunai into its face. "Hey kid, you're not hurt, are ya?" Naruto said as he looked up at him with an grin. His eyes were demonic like and his whiskers were darkened. His canines were sharp and he looked feral. "You scaredy cat."
This made Sasuke pause and his eyes widened. "What the hell are you doing, Sasuke?" Naruto said lowly. "You're standing there frozen like a frightened rabbit. Hehe, you're more a coward that I thought."
Sasuke and Sakura gasped as Naruto was suddenly lifted by a snake tongue. He struggled to get free as he was held into the air by the snake woman. 'How extraordinary.' she thought as she walked up to the jinchuriki, charging her malevolent chakra into her fingers. 'The nine-tails brat lives.' she stated standing in front of him. Naruto's eyes widened when she grasped his wrist.
"I see. When your anger is roused, some of the nine tails' fox chakra is released." she said as purple, fire like chakra appeared on her fingertips.
Naruto gasped in recognition of what the Sannin was about to do.
"What an interesting childhood you must have had." she stated as she lifted his shirt, revealing his sealed. "To bad I have to get rid of you for the moment. I'm sure a fight with you would have been delightful.
Naruto's eyes constricted at her next words. "Five Elemental Seal!" she yelled as she slammed her hand onto his stomach.
Naruto cried out in pain as a burning sensation covered his navel area. He could feel the Kyuubi chakra being suppressed and locked. Naruto's eyes turned back to normal and his pupils dilated before he passed out. The last thing he could hear was Sakura screaming for Sasuke to do something. He only hoped that he would be able to hold up until help came.
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Anko sat in the jonin lodge eating dango. Kurenai sat across from her former teammate with slight worry marring her expression. While Anko may have seemed to be acting normal, Kurenai knew that something was bothering her. Although she still acted like her regular self, there moments where she would stare off into space. And sometimes she acted rather jumpy for not apparent reason. She tried to play it off, but Kurenai knew better. Seeing that Anko wasn't going to bring it up anytime soon, Kurenai initiated conversation, clearing her throat to get the woman's attention.
Anko turned to her long-time friend and saw the worried look on her face. Anko sighed as she looked away from her, knowing what she wanted. She was one of the few people that actually paid enough attention to read her.
"What is it, Kurenai?" she said in her usually playful demeanor although her eyes said other wise.
"Cut the crap, Anko." Kurenai said. "What's the matter with you?" she asked with honest concern.
Anko just sighed and took another bite of her dango. "It's nothing, Kurenai." she said. "Just leave it alone, please."
Kurenai narrowed her eyes at this. Something was definitely wrong with her. They told each other everything and hid nothing from each other. They were best friends, more like sisters. Whatever it was that was bothering her, it had to have been something serious.
"Anko." Kurenai said gently as the purple haired kunoichi looked at her. "You know you can tell me anything right?"
Right before Anko could respond, a new person entered the room, catching the attention of everyone in the room. Some of the jonin got into a defensive stance as the smoke began to clear. Standing in the middle of the room, was a tall man with black hair. He wore all black with a cloak, trimmed with black and white fur. He wore a fox mask with a star at the middle of his forehead, followed by two red lines going down the nose. The Konoha ninja immediately knew who this man was and subconsciously straighten.
"Tokubetsu Jonin Mitarashi Anko." his voice boomed.
Anko immediately stood at attention, her precious dango forgotten, which came as a shock to some of those that knew her. Her face was blank and she stood like a soldier. The ANBU commander walked toward the woman, giving an aura of power with each step. The jonin just moved out of his path, not wanting to find out what would happen if someone was in his path. Baki watched the scene with interest, having heard about the infamous ANBU operative. He had more ryo on his head than the 12 guardians themselves and was wanted in Kumo, Iwa, and Tani. He was also a flee on sight shinobi in the bingo books.
The Commander stopped in front of her. "There has been a disturbance in the exam, Mitarashi-san. As the proctor, you will be leading a force to investigate the issue." he said.
Anko nodded. "Hai, Kitsune-sama." she responded.
Without of word, both of them disappeared without a trace. Some shinobi blink a couple moments before shrugging their shoulders. Some of the foreign jonin whispered to each other, talking about what had just happened. Kurenai stared at the plate of dango with a frown before she looked out the window toward the Forest of Death.
'What's going on?'
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Sasuke stared at the woman he had currently tied to tree with ninja wire. Panting from the use of his overpowered fire ball jutsu, he placed his hands on his knees. With a call of his name, Sakura ran toward her raven-haired crush, making sure he was okay. While this was happening, the woman suddenly broke out her bondage, bringing her hands together. Sakura and Sasuke gasped as they were suddenly hit with malicious killer intent. Sakura fell to her knees while Sasuke struggled to stand.
"Impossible." Sasuke grunted out as he looked at the woman who was supposed to be dead after being hit with his grand fire ball jutsu. She should have been nothing more than ash.
"Such mastery of the sharingan and so young in age." she said as her voice began to distort and become deeper. "You're a true Uchiha, after all. Yesss, you will do nicely."
Sasuke roared in frustration as he found himself stuck in paralysis.
"You are definitely his brother." the man said as his snake eyes seem to spark with approval. "If anything, your eyes are even keener than Itachi's"
"Who are you? What do you want?!" he yelled in his struggle.
The male chuckled as he held an earth scroll in his hand. "My name is Orochimaru. And as to what I want, well, you'd have to wait until we meet again. If you happen to finish this test with an impressive score and all."
Sakura gasped as green wisps formed around the scroll. "The scroll!" she said.
"First, you have to defeat the hidden sound ninja serving me." he continued.
"I have no idea what you're talking about. But if you're finished, why don't you just beat it." Sakura said. "If we never meet again, it'll be too soon."
"Oh...we will meet again." he said with a creepy chuckle as he went through handsigns that neither genin could recognize.
Suddenly, his neck stretched like a snake and head toward Sasuke. Sasuke could only stand paralyzed as the head came charging toward him. Right before Orochimaru could make his way to bite his neck, a series of sebon needles flew towards him at hazardous speeds, making the extended head retreat back to its body. Orochimaru pulled out the three that was lodged in his neck and growled. If those had been any higher, it would have been a fatal blow. He glared up at the figure that was standing in high trees. Looking down at him, was a black silohuette with a fox mask. The operative suddenly disappeared from sight.
In less than a second, Orochimaru was sent flying back by a chakra enhanced punch, sending him yards away from the area. Sasuke and Sakura's eyes widened at the newcomer. Before they could ask any questions, their vision suddenly became blank and they fell unconscious. Two Naruto clones caught them before they could fall onto the ground. The clone pinned to the tree dispersed as another clone appeared next to the two carrying the rest of Team 7.
"The toward his a few miles southeast of here. The rest of the genin teams are all dispersed throughout the forest. We will stick to the high trees and head straight for the tower. I already have the earth scroll." the clone told the others.
The other two nodded as one of them gave it their heaven scroll. With nods, they disappeared from view and headed toward the higher grounds. They were nothing but blurs in the shadows of the trees as they sped toward the tower. Kitsune kneeled as he groaned a little. That 5 elemental seal hurt like shit. He created a clone of himself to send back to standby units to give them direct coordinates to his location. He doubted it would take the snake long to recover.