Chapter 50 Out of fire

Sasuke wasn't sure why he felt so good but he did, and the feeling of power he had was the most intense thing he had ever felt. He felt totally invincible, like nothing could stop him. He saw how Sakura looked banged up. She had small cuts here and there, slight bruising but nothing too serious at least. He noticed Naruto's girlfriend and her team as well was here. Well he was glad that they didn't finish off this Sound team. The girl looked like she could barely stand; the other guy looked okay although weaker than normal. The boy who he was currently breaking his arms off, well, he wasn't doing too good obviously.

Sasuke grinned as he felt the boy's arms start to give, the Sound genin was begging and pleading with him but honestly, Sasuke didn't really care. This team needed to be taught a lesson and he would teach them all the true meaning of pain. He gave a small chuckle as he pulled on one arm harshly; there was a sickening sound as the boy screamed.

"So I take it your arms are the key to your power huh?" Sasuke said to him. "Let's see what you're like when I take away that so called power of yours."

Black markings started to crawl into existence onto his body. They didn't stop until they covered about half of his body, and Sasuke felt more power at this moment.

He was about to snap the other arm and then he would really go to work on the boy, that is, until he felt someone grabbing him. He was about to attack, thinking one of the Sound genins had gotten behind him when he heard a familiar voice.

"Stop this Sasuke-kun," Sakura told him. "This isn't you. This is Orochimaru's curse mark talking. Please don't let it do this to you."

Sakura had never seen Sasuke like this, she knew this wasn't him. She could feel the evil power coming off of him, as the others did she bet. She felt her young heart breaking seeing the power of Orochimaru at work, how it twisted a person up inside. She didn't want him like this; she wanted him back to his normal self. If he kept this up, would he never return to normal, or would this be him from now on?

She could literally feel the dark energy by being so close to him and it made her feel sick inside.

"Please, just stop. You don't have to do this." She whispered to him.

Something deep inside was touched by that; Sasuke paused as he felt conflicted. His hands loosened enough for the Sound genin to slip out and slowly crawl away.

"Knock him out if he can't get it under search control!"

Anko had yelled out at everyone, she had seen Sasuke run out of the cave, but it had taken her awhile to move her body out into the open. She was already in a lot of pain from forcing herself to move but she knew better than most what that curse mark could do. When she had seen the Uchiha run out like that, she had forced herself to get out from the cave. She hurt like hell, but no one knew what to do better than her.

"Sasuke-kun please!" Sakura begged him one last time.

Sasuke seemed to pause as he let the Sound genin go. Something deep inside of him was fighting to the surface. Was this wrong, if so then why did it feel so good, why was she trying to get him to stop? They hurt her hadn't they, so then why was she stopping him from killing them all? Actually he wanted to do more than just kill them, he wanted to pull them apart. Like pulling the wings off flies, they were nothing to him, they were beneath him.

"Why should you care, after what they did?" He asked her. "They should all die."

"That's not you talking!" She told him hugging him closer hoping that he would break free.

"Sakura do it now!" Anko yelled out.

Sakura didn't want to hurt her team mate but it didn't look like he was going to pull himself out of this.

"I'm sorry," She whispered out as she moved her body as fast she could. She wouldn't get a second chance and Sakura knew she had to take advantage of him being distracted. She pulled back slightly and with her tonfa, slammed the small end into the back of his head. There was a 'thunk' sound as it hit, his body jerked and he fell face forward.

She flinched when he hit as she had tried to catch him, but she had missed.

"I hope he's not going to be angry when he wakes up." Sakura said to herself.

When it was all over everyone looked at the fallen Uchiha surprised at what had happened. For a moment no one said anything, the whole thing had been just so surreal. Shino then noticed that the Sound team was reforming and sent his bugs to stop them. The black insects swarmed around the three of them.

"I think you should stay right there for now," Shino told them.

"So what do we do with them?" Kiba asked seeing that the other team was banged up.

"Look if you let us go we'll give you a scroll," Dosu said as he held up one of the scrolls. "We don't want any more trouble."

"What do you think?" Kiba asked Shino.

"We can't kill them," Shino said as he doubted any of them could kill in cold blood. It wasn't in their nature to pick on the weak either. They couldn't hold them prisoner as that would be too troubling, plus with all the other teams out there impractical. Team 7 still had problems of their own as well. "Very well, leave it behind and go. But we'll be watching you; if you try to double back to his area then we won't accept any surrender."

The Sound team wordlessly placed the scroll on the ground as they left as best they could.

Shino walked over and took up the scroll. It wasn't like they needed it but now they had a backup for both scrolls it would seem.

Hinata moved over to where Sakura was, she saw the other girl was taking care of Sasuke. "Sakura how is he?"

"He'll be okay, but he'll have a major headache when he wakes up." She said.

"What about Naruto-kun?"

"He's still inside the cave there help Anko-sensei while I get Sasuke-kun in there will you?"

Hinata nodded as she eagerly went to the cave. Although Anko complained about being helped back into a sitting position beside Kakashi, she knew that Hinata was only helping. After that the Hyuga girl sat next to Naruto as she gently stroked his blonde hair. She bit her lip seeing him looking like this. It brought back memories of when he had been put in the hospital. She had thought that she had died that time and she was very worried.

"Naruto-kun," Hinata said softly. She lost track of time and noticed that Anko was smirking watching the two of them. "Please wake up. I don't want to lose you, not now."

"Y-You've always been there, you've been one of the greatest joys in my life. You were my first friend and...and my first love. Please be okay, I can't lose another person I love. I'm not strong enough to go through that again..."

She felt the tears starting to spill out and she laid down on his body, crying silently into his chest. She gripped his black vest as her tears stained the orange shirt under it. It wasn't fair, for so long she had cared for him and then she fell in love with him. Now after all these years they were finally together, it was just cruel to lose him at this point.

Then she felt a hand on her head.

"Please don't cry Hinata-chan," a tired voice said.

Hinata's head came up suddenly as she looked surprised to see Naruto looking at her. "Naruto-Kun!" She quickly hugged him tightly as he was surprised by this, also she was hugging him pretty tightly too.

Anko could only chuckle as she watched the two but noticed that Kakashi moved. She was hopeful that he was starting to wake up and so she shook him gently. He groaned which was a good sign as he hadn't been responsive until now.

"Hey Kakashi, time to wake up." She said softly.

"Uhhhh..." Kakashi slowly opened his uncovered eye. The world was dark and out of focus for him. He felt like hell and he could barely even move his body. It felt like someone was shaking him, a moment later he thought he heard voices.

"Kakashi, come one and wake up."

"Anko?" He asked as he felt a female hand on his face. He looked up and the world was slowly getting back into focus. It was dark but he could start to make out Anko's features, she looked like hell but then again, that's how he felt.

"Hey there," she said softly to him.

"How long was I out for?"

"More than a day at least. You had me really worried you know that?" She told him a little harshly. She hated how scared she had been.

"Sorry," Kakashi said after a bit. He asked for any water as his mouth was really dry. Thankfully Sakura had left one next to her and she gently poured it into his mouth. Hinata was too busy still clinging to Naruto to notice and the others weren't in here, so she could pull his mask without him worrying. She put it back up as he thanked her. After that they took the time to check his injuries, as far as he could tell he had some minor ones, nothing fatal but the chakra exhaustion was the worst of it.

"How are the others?" Kakashi asked her.

"Well Naruto seems okay, even with his own personal nurse it seems." Anko smirked as Hinata fussed over him. "Sakura got a little banged up but Sasuke...he got a curse mark put on him."

Kakashi didn't like that one bit. He knew from Anko what those things were like. He would have to deal with that when the time came.

Outside the cave, Sakura had put Sasuke's head on a makeshift pillow from spare clothing from one of their backpacks. She was worried about how things would go with him. Team 8 was also wondering how long to wait around, although they were friends this was still a competition and they had done a lot for Team 7. They couldn't leave them like this but they made a decision that when Naruto and Sasuke were back up they would leave. It was just practical because the after three days they had to make it to the tower by the fifth day. So they had a day and a half to get to the tower or else they wouldn't advance.

It was at this time that the ANBU had finally found them, for a day they had been searching the forest, which wasn't easy. They had to use stealth to try and track down Orochimaru and they had also run into several summoned snakes. Apparently the ex-Leaf ninja had set a few loose in the forest for a laugh or to just keep them busy.

But four of them had found the battle area where Kakashi and Anko had fought and followed the trail. As the four landed they took stock of the area. So far only genins were here, two looking a little worse for wear.

"Oh you finally found us!" Sakura felt a bit better now. "Anko and Kakashi-sensei are in the cave."

An ANBU wearing a bear mask stepped forward. "They're in the cave? He had reports that they went off in search of Orochimaru."

"Yes, they fought him, in fact he was after Sasuke-kun, but they're both injured." She told him. Bear looked to the others and nodded his head to them, they would look after the ninja, he got a special smoke bomb ready. It would give a large color of smoke to alert others of their position. He picked out a green one, this would mean urgent medial help was needed.

"About time you guys showed up, what the hell took so long?" Anko's voice was heard as she yelled out in sudden pain. "Damn it! Don't touch it like that!"

Bear looked to the girl, "This could take a bit, maybe you can fill me in so I can tell the Hokage what happened here?"

After Sakura told him everything, they had managed to get Anko and Kakashi out of the cave. Sakura was happy to see that Naruto was back up as well, only a bit confused on what was going on. He also looked pretty worried for his dad as well. One of the ANBU seemed to have medical training and did her best for the two of them. Anko felt a bit better as her collar bone was knitted back together a bit, although it was only a patch job, at least it didn't hurt as bad now. Kakashi was another matter, they gave him a chakra bill to help him restore his reserves but he needed rest. Also the hit to the head he had was going to have to be looked at as well.

It was around this time that Sasuke was waking up, everyone was pretty nervous at this because they weren't sure what to expect.

"Sasuke-kun, are you okay?" Sakura asked attentively, although she kept one hand gripped to her weapon just in case.

"I…I think so," the boy said as he went to feel a bump to his head. What had hit him? He kind of remembered waking up, a sense of great power, he remembered breaking the arm of one of the Sound team and about to do the same to the other arm. He also remembered a little of how much he had been enjoying it, which was wrong. He never enjoyed hurting people, he always tried to stay detached from feeling in battle.

He remembered Sakura trying to calm him down, then Anko yelling out something and then…

"Did you…knock me out?" Sasuke asked her.

Sakura looked away from him, "Yes…I'm sorry, but you were out of search control and Anko-sensei said that if you didn't get under search control, that I had to do it. I'm really sorry…"

Sakura still couldn't believe she had just done that to him, her major crush, and what did she do? Slam a metal tonfa into his skull.

Sasuke was silent a moment before standing up, "It's okay."

"What?" She looked up in surprise.

"You did what needed to be done," Sasuke told her as her turned to look at the scene around him. "You did your duty as a ninja."

Sakura wasn't sure but this was the closest he had ever gotten to complimenting her.

Sasuke meanwhile was just avoiding looking at her because he was embarrassed. Had he really been that much out of search control to be knocked out? He prided himself on his search control but to lose it so easily made him feel disgusted with himself for being so weak willed. On top of that, he had to be knocked out, he hoped that no one would know of that part at least.

As Team 8 left they went on their own way to the tower. Now that the mandatory three days were up they could start to move towards the tower. As they jumped through the trees Shino noticed something. He had the extra scrolls in his backpack but it felt lighter for him. At their first rest stop he checked the bag and found that their old spare was gone. He looked at the bag but there didn't seem to be any hole in it.

"What is it?" Kiba asked him.

"I lost one of the extra scrolls." He said making sure it wasn't there.

"Well it's not like we needed two extra anyway, but I wonder when you lost it?" Kiba asked out loud. They didn't notice the slight smile on Hinata's face at that moment.

Back with Team 7 as they were packing up, Naruto noticed something poking out of his bag. He pulled it out and it was one of the scrolls. At first he thought it was theirs but Sakura was supposed to have had it, then he noticed it wasn't the same scroll. This was another one, in fact it was the one they needed.

At first he was wondering how in the world that had happened but he suddenly smiled. He remembered that Team 8 mentioned something about having two extra ones, and that Hinata had been fixing his bag for him.

'Okay I really need to pay her back for this,' Naruto thought as he placed the gift his girlfriend left for him. Maybe it wasn't exactly honourable but hell, the first part of the exam had been how good to cheat. Plus anything goes in this and given they were attacked by a rogue criminal ninja, well it all evened out.

'Man I can't wait to show them this,' Naruto grinned and then he noticed something strange. He was feeling a little more tired than he should. Although he just woke up, Naruto still felt not all there, which was odd. He would always bounce back, since he knew now why he healed so fast so why did it seem like it wasn't working now? He even noticed that he still had a slight cut on his arm, it was scabbed over and would heal, but the point was, that should have healed already.

He remembered that guy doing something to his stomach, the image of that mark on Sasuke's neck came into his mind. He took a quick look around and when he was sure no one was looking pulled up his shirt.

There were no markings but what if Orochimaru had done something to damage the seal there? Naruto was getting a little more worried, if the Fox ever got out it would hurt everything he cared for. He moulded some chakra and the seal showed up.

'Okay everything looks okay, wait, what the hell? Where those there before?' Naruto thought he noticed something off about the seal. There were some weird looking marks that he was sure weren't there before. He hoped his dad was okay by the time they hit the tower because he would have to ask him to take a look at this.

-24 hours later-

Team 7 had half a day left before they had to reach the tower, they were already making a mad dash for it. They had gotten a slow start as they were still recovering from that fight with Orochimaru, it also didn't help that they had to fend off against other teams along the way. The closer they got to the tower the more teams seemed to be around the area.

It wasn't easy, in fact it was hard. Naruto for some reason was having trouble with his ninjutsu. His shadow clones were coming out a lot less in number and seemed weaker for some reason. He also couldn't get a decent wind technique going either. Sasuke was having similar problems, he once tried to do a grand fireball and had to stop in the middle of it, the curse mark on his neck had flared up giving him pain. Sakura was the only one not handicapped but her own stamina was running low from having to pull the extra weight.

Now they were just on the edge of the forest, the tower was in view but there was only one problem. There was a large open space between the forest and the tower, the perfect place to set up an ambush.

"Great, so now what do we do?" Sasuke asked looking over the large area. It looked too easy for someone to just jump out at them.

Naruto thought about it but he sudden got an idea, he remembered once when he tried to get past some bored chunin on guard duty for a prank once. He got a grin on his face as the idea took shape. "Well I have an idea we just walk right up to the place."

"What the hell are you thinking?" Sasuke asked him annoyed.

"Just watch," Naruto made a cross and there were two clones now standing with him. Although, Naruto looked disappointed for some reason. "What the hell? I was going for four not two."

"Don't look at us," one of the clones said.

"Not our fault." The other finished.

"Fine, just do what I planned on doing," Naruto said annoyed as the clones pulled a henge. Now there stood two ANBUs like the ones they had just met. "See we walk up looking like prisoners, if anyone stops us then one of these guys will tell them to get lost or else they'll be kicked out of the exam."

Sakura blinked, it wasn't bad for a plan. "But what could we have done to get the ANBU after us?"

"Uh...I hadn't thought that far ahead..."

Sasuke sighed, "How about that we were caught looking into the scrolls? Since we're not supposed to, it's the only thing that could actually get us into trouble."

"Oh, that makes sense," Naruto said as they got ready. They gave all their weapons to the 'ANBU' agents and they were lightly tied with their hands behind their backs. Just in case this didn't work, their hands could easily come out of the ropes.

With a moment to take a mental breath, they all set out. They walked instead of ran, because that would seem very suspicious. They also tried to look the part of captives, Sakura kept her head down as if in shame, Sasuke looked like he wanted to kill someone, and Naruto looked like he was trying to get his hands free, but doing a horrible job of it. They could almost feel eyes on them, as they traveled but they kept on going.

They were about halfway there when they started to think this could work. But it was when they were nearly there when they heard someone coming up behind them. They saw what looked like a Leaf genin team. Either they were on their way to the tower or they were trying to see if Team 7 was easy pickings.

"Unless you genins have a reason to be here, either get to the tower or get a scroll," one of the 'ANBU' said in a deep voice.

"Hey we were just wondering what's going on," The middle boy in the group asked. "we were just curious. I mean why are you taking them away?"

"They opened up the scroll so they're being escorted to the tower for punishment." One of fakes stated.

"Whoa, that's what happens when you open them up!?" A boy with spiky hair asked surprised. "I didn't think it was that serious."

"Well it is," The ANBU said getting a little frustrated. "Now get going or we'll report your team pestering us."

They were about to leave but the final member of the group paused as he grabbed his two friends. "Hold on, something's off. How come they're both wearing the same mask? I thought ANBU had to wear different ones."

Naruto's eyes widened as he looked, both were wearing a bear mask. He mentally slapped himself in the head for forgetting that. Both clones must have had the same idea and no one had bothered to check.

"Uh...well...he lost his and that's my spare," one of the ANBU said feeling a little nervous now.

"Something is fishy here," one of the boys said as he started to take a closer look. These ANBU were looking a little nervous plus why would looking into the scrolls be that bad? Chunins or that crazy woman with the jacket he could see overseeing the exam, but being from this village it was just too odd for the special ops to be involved.

Maybe a team from another village wouldn't notice, but being here they knew the kinds of things ANBU were said to do.

"Crap this is bad," Sasuke remarked silently to his friends.

"What now?" Sakura asked in a similar hushed tone.

"I say we make a break for it," Naruto said slipping his hands a bit more free. "My clones can slow them down, but I got one smoke bomb left as well."

"Alright but we need our equipment back from them too," Sasuke told him and the masked blonde nodded.

"Look we don't have to answer to a bunch of genins!" one of Naruto's clones yelled out trying to cow the boys. So far, it didn't seem to work.

That's when Naruto slipped his hand out and reached for one of the few pieces of equipment he could hide in his jacket. They didn't give all their weapons away, just the visible ones. "Throw us the gear and stop them!" Naruto yelled out as he threw the smoke bomb into the genin team.

One of his ANBU clones tossed the backpack containing their gear and Team 7 was off. They ran as fast as they could. Naruto looked in for anything to help as he heard the sounds of fighting. His clones wouldn't last long, one good hit and they were toast.

"Yes!" Naruto had found a kunai with an explosive tag already on it. It must have been Sakura's as he didn't have any ready like this, plus it looked like it was done by textbook standards. He threw it behind him, not even looking as he set it off. There was an explosion with some yelling, but they didn't stop running. Naruto couldn't hear anything other than his heart pounding and his breathing, but he just stayed focus ahead as he ran on. The others did the same, and soon they saw an open door at the base of the tower and ran inside. They didn't even stop until they were halfway inside the room.

Once inside, they all breathed a sigh of relief. They were panting for air as they looked behind them. It seemed that the genin team wasn't or wouldn't follow them into the tower. Maybe they didn't have both scrolls and didn't want to run the risk of being kicked out of the exam. Well, whatever the reason, Team 7 was finally in the tower and they were glad for it.

.Now they were in a huge chamber with two huge phrases written on the wall ahead of them. It sounded like a riddle to Naruto, something about Heaven and Earth for some reason.

'If qualities of Heave are your desire then acquire Wisdom to take your mind higher. If Earth qualities are what you lack, then train your body and prepare to attack. When Heaven and Earth are opened together, then the perilous path will be righteous forever.'

"So...what's this supposed to mean?" Naruto asked reading it over again. He hated riddles, they made no sense to him. "I mean other than we have scrolls called Heaven and Earth, what does it mean?"

Sakura thought it through, "I think it's something like they mean different things. Heaven and Earth seem to be associated with the mind and body."

"A ninja must train his body and mind to act as one," Naruto suddenly said catching everyone's attention and surprised look. "One of the things my dad taught me."

"So then you need both, like how we need both scrolls," Sasuke said. He looked at the two scrolls they had. "When Heaven and Earth are opened together huh?"

"I guess we can open them both up," Naruto said as he took one and Sakura took the other. They weren't sure what would happen, after all they weren't supposed to open it. He did and was left a little confused at first. It looked like a seal at first but he was unfamiliar with this type. "Hey what kind of seal is this, all it says is 'man' on it."

Then both started to smoke, both genins threw the scrolls away thinking they might have screwed up. There a pillar of smoke, as it cleared a form seemed to be inside of it. Then when the smoke cleared they were greeted by a very familiar sight.

"Hey there," Iruka said smiling at them. "For a moment there I wasn't sure you'd make it, but congratulations on passing the second exam."

Next up Chapter 51: Eliminations