19 Chapter 19: Chunin Exams Arc: Part 2

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Playing the Role of the Byakugan Princess

Chunin Exam Arc: Part Two

Chapter nineteen

The Forest of Death may sound like a cliche name, but it is very fitting for this place. This forest is just one big ol' death trap if you do not stay alert or watch your step. Without even activating my Byakugan, I can already sense the dangerous lurking animals and the murderous Shinobi. I am thankful to even have my visual powers at the moment because the trees are so tall and close together that it is blocking out most of the sunlight, making it seem like it is the middle of the night instead of the afternoon. The perfect setting for a Shinobi on the hunt.

But, now is not the time to be scaring myself. Right now, we have to go meet up with Team Seven and survive Orochimaru. Though, it would be very polite of the snake man if he decided to not target us. There some other nice, strong Genin around for you to mark.

I awaken my Byakugan to make sure we are still going on the right path. I see that we are when I make out three familiar chakra figures up head. Good, now let's hurry and get to them before the real terror starts.

"Um, Hinata?" I hear Shikamaru say as we sneak along the forest ground. Shikamaru had suggested that we do this since most Shinobi and animals are most likely going to be hiding and traveling through the treetops.

"Yes?"

"I don't want to come across as questioning your intentions, but is it really in our best interest to go through this Exam with Naruto's team?" my teammate asks. "I understand your reasoning to do so, and they mostly make sense to me, but you heard what Asuma said about them yesterday. They are loud, obnoxious, and they seem to attract all sorts of unwanted attention and trouble. He isn't exactly wrong about all that, you know?"

"I doubt Sasuke-kun will, but Ino and Naruto might make a scene or two and get us caught," Sakura adds in.

I nod, letting them know that I understand their concerns. "I know good as well that we can possibly get through this Exam by ambushing our targeted team, stealing their scroll, and sneaking our way to the Tower in a day or two tops. This Exam is made for teams like ours and Kiba's. However, I am thinking long term just and believe it is better to surround ourselves with opponents that we can easily read and are already aware of what abilities they possess over total strangers. When it comes to Naruto, I can assure you that I can make him keep quite and control his outbursts, even if he doesn't want me to. As for Ino, I think she will be fine as long as you, Sakura, do not get in an argument with her. She may be loud and annoying, but she isn't stupid."

Sakura blushes at my calling her out. "I will try to bite my tongue around that pig."

"However, I do not want to seem like I am controlling you guys and making you go along with this plan," I continue. "If you don't think it is a good idea, you can object and we can go through this Exam alone."

I am only saying this because I just don't want to come across as assertive or demanding. I am just giving the impression that they are the ones that are being giving the choice on whether they want to do this or not so they feel like they are having a say in things. I know that they know that this is a pretty good idea in order to better our chances at becoming Chunin, without finding out the real reasoning, so they are not going to go against me. By doing this, I can continue building their trust at being able to rely on me as their leader, excluding Asuma, so they can trust my future plans in certain circumstances without fail since I know, mostly, what the future entails. It will just make things more easier on me if I don't have somebody questioning my orders without spilling the truth and exposing myself.

As expected, neither of them objects to my idea and we continue our short journey towards Team Seven. Suddenly, an unknown trio of Shinobi enter my field of vision, traveling in our direction. I instantly stop dead in my tracks and flung my hand out to stop Sakura and Shikamaru. They immediately halt and their faces grow alarm.

"What's wrong?" Sakura whispers as she goes on guard.

I concentrate on the incoming Shinobi. "It appears to be a trio of Ame Shinobi, about sixteen or seventeen years of age. Two are wearing hats while the other is wearing bandages around his forehead and has a scar where his right eyes used to be. They seem to have some sort of umbrellas as a weapon, maybe? Either way we need to hide. This isn't the same Amegakure squad that I said we needed to target, so there is no need to fight them. They have the same scroll as we do."

I am glad that Shikamaru and Sakura does not protest and we emerge ourselves in a thick bush. If this timeline was totally canon and I ended up on Team Eight, Kiba would have wanted to fight these guys to dwindle don the competition even if they didn't have the scroll he needed or they already obtained one.

About thirty seconds later, the Ame Shinobi come into view and stand in a small group as we suck in our breaths and remain as still and quiet as a statue.

"Are you sure you sensed some of those rookies here?" the guy with a pair of goggles covering his eyes asks.

The one eyed guy spits. He must be their leader. "Of course I'm sure! They must have sensed us back and are hiding around here somewhere."

Crap! Don't look around! Just go away! Shoo! Shoo!

Before the Ame squad even get the chance to search their surroundings, multiple screams were heard overhead. I cover my ears. Those weren't painful screams; those were screams of pure terror. I notice the Ame Shinobi tense up and they give each other a worried look.

"Do… do you think those rookies ran off and got themselves stuck in a trap or something?" the short and chubby Ame Shinobi ask towards his leader.

The leader shrugs nonchalantly, but I can tell that he is hesitant to pursue an investigation. "If so, I don't want any part of it. Let's just go. There is plenty of other rookies for us to find."

The leader's teammates nod in agreement and the squad leaps away as we stay hidden until they left my field of vision.

"Man, that was a close one," Shikamaru sighes as we crawl out from the bush. "The Exam just started and it is already becoming a drag."

"Is it bad to say that I am a little glad that those screams happened to keep them distracted?" I ask as I brush myself off.

Sakura shudders. "No, but they were so close. I wonder what happened?"

I shake my head. "I don't. We need to keep moving before we do find out. Those screams and Ame Shinobi just proved that there could be anyone and anything at any corner."

"I-I'm starting to like your idea more and more now," Sakura admits. "I will feel better once we are with Ino's team so we can outnumber potential enemies."

I am about to reply when a gust of wind carrying debris interrupted me. My short hair flaps around me as I raise up my arms to shield my face from being scratched.

"What's going on now?!" Shikamaru shouts over the wind.

I focus my Byakugan and notice the wind is coming from an attack towards Team Seven's direction. Is the fight starting already?! We were suppose to meet up with them before it happened!

The wind dies down as I answer him back. "We need to get going. Now! Naruto, Sasuke, and Ino are in trouble!"

I sprint off towards the direction of the battle as fear and dread start to overcome me, but I attempt to repress it. Okay, so Orochimaru seem to have came earlier than I planned. But, we can still go through with it and jump in to protect Sasuke. All they seem to be doing right now is talking, which seems to be the usual in this universe before a fight starts. We have a couple of minutes to spare if we just hurry and-

"Hinata! Wait up!" Shikamaru hollers from behind me, disrupting my thoughts.

"What?" I snap back, not slowing down. Telling me me to wait up. He's crazy! We are in a rush!

"You know better to go into a situation head first without a plan!" Shikamaru reminds me.

As he says that, I slow my pace and allow them to catch up. He's right. I know about my plan, but I haven't told them about it yet. I'm pulling a Naruto and acting before I think. I know better than this.

"You're right," I tell him as they catch up to me. "I am sorry. I just got caught up in the moment. It is just the person they are up against appears to be stronger than your average Genin."

Shikamaru raises an eyebrow. "Person? Not people? Where is the rest of this enemies team?"

"I really don't know," I say. "I assume they split up during the attack. He is all alone at the moment and I do not see them nearby, but we need to keep our guard up still for all outcomes."

I know that Orochimaru's "teammates" does not participate in the battle, but Shikamaru and Sakura do not know that so it is best to ease their mind and let them know that they are not nearby. To be honest, I do not even remember what ends up happening to them.

"Who is "he" exactly?" Shikamaru questions.

Ugh, this would be so much easier if everyone just possessed the power of the Byakugan.

"It is the creepy Kusa Shinobi with the long tounge," I explain. "You know, the one who seems bloodthirsty and ready to kill and who I just so happened to ask Kabuto about the day before?"

Sakura's body begins to slightly quiver in fear. "H-him?"

"Yes, but now is not the time to be frightened. As you mentioned before, there is going to be six of us and only one of him. While we don't know his powers, I am pretty sure we can at least be able to escape if needed."

"I am just wondering why he is alone in the first place," Shikamaru mumbles, mostly to himself. "We need to proceed the battle the way we usually do: with caution and with stealth."

"We can also rely on Naruto's Shadow Clones to bombard the guy if needed since we know now he has a pretty strong Wind Style Jutsu in his arsenal," I tell them. "Actually, we can…" I stop speaking briefly and widen my eyes. "The guy just swallowed his own scroll."

Orochimaru just took that thick ass scroll and swallowed it in one gulp. Why am I even surprised? Freak.

Sakura and Shikamaru mimics and widens their own eyes in shock. "He did what?!" Sakura exclaims.

"Man, are you sure you just don't want to let Naruto and them handle this?" Shikamaru complains as he rubs his face.

"I would like to just avoid this guy altogether, but we cannot just leave them alone with him," I reply. "Now, here's a little something that I have just came up with…"

I quickly tell them my plan before they agreed that it is the best one we got at the moment and picked up the speed. As we swiftly approach the battlefield, we mask our chakras so we would not get caught even though I do not think that will go unnoticed by Orochimaru. Thought, maybe it will if he is putting all of his focus on Sasuke and Ino while Naruto handles the Sannin's snake Summoning. Speaking of Naruto, I wonder if he is chilling in the stomach of the snake just yet?

When everyone comes into view, we hide behind a bush and watch as Orochimaru seems to put Ino and Sasuke under a genjutsu while glaring at them with such killing intent. The intent radiates over towards us, sending chills down my spine and I feel my own body begin to tremble. I have not even seen Orochimaru's true form yet and already I know he is much more terrible and terrifying in person. The genjutsu or the killing intent, or both, must have been too much for them because Ino is paralyzed with fear as Sasuke vomits on the ground and collapsed onto his bottom, breathing heavily and looking white as a sheet. Sakura covers her mouth to surpass a scream as she blinks away tears from her eyes at sight of her rival and crush. Shikamaru doesn't react, but I can tell by the look on his face that this whole situation is getting to him as well.

My eyes snap over to Orochimaru as he chuckles playfully as if someone just told him a good joke. "Can't move already?" Sasuke struggles to command his body to move as he controls his hand to slowly inch their own to his weapon's pouch. He flicks up the pouch and pulls out a kunai. He manages to get himself to stand, but that is all he able to do since his body is still responding to fear over his own needs. Sasuke raises the kunai and stares down his opponent. "Hmm? What do you intend to do with that?"

Sasuke tries to take a step forward, but his body is fully paralyzed. I can see the look of conflict on his face as he grits his teeth and widens his eyes. Orochimaru smirks as he pulls out two of his own kunai and begins to walk towards Sasuke. I feel my body tense up and Sakura draws in her breath.

"Don't worry," Orochimaru says as he licks his lips. "I'll end this in a second. You won't even have time to feel the pain." He frowns in mock disappointment as he raises his kunai. "It is too bad though. I really wanted you to entertain me more."

Before I can react, Orochimaru quickly flings the two kunai towards Sasuke. Sakura cries out next to me and I see Orochimaru's eyes flicker over to our hiding spot, giving us away. But, that does not matter right now. As we all jump out of the bushes, Sasuke stabs his leg with his kunai, overriding the fear with pain so he can take control of his body again. His grow blood red as he picks up Ino bridal-style and quickly flees by leaping up a tree. Orochimaru analyzes what Sasuke just did before turning his back on us.

"I suggest you three continue on your merry way if you know what is best for you," he warns. "I have already forgiven you one time before." I know he's speaking to me about asking Kabuto about him yesterday.

Orochimaru takes off and the three of us exchange glances before ignoring Orochimaru's threats and begin to follow him. With my visual powers, I watch as Orochimaru summons a large brown snake, allow it to swallow him up whole, and slithers towards Sasuke and Ino's spot.

"Oh, just a heads up, the enemy can summon snakes," I inform my teammates.

Shikamaru rolls his eyes. "Great, he can summon snakes, too? That makes things so much easier on us."

Sakura remains quiet as we make our way up the trees.

We finish climbing up the trees and reach the scene in time to see Sasuke yelling something at the snake and hurling a handful of shuriken at it. Ino just watches in horror as the snake crashes into a tree and begins to bleed all over the place. A cracking sound is heard as the snake's skin begins to break and Orochimaru's disguised body starts to rise out of it in an eerie way.

No! Stop! Freak! Stop! So disgusting!

He gives us a sinister stare and grins. "You don't let your guard down for even a second. Prey need to strain their minds all the time, and run around in the presence of a predator ," he almost sings ominously, licking his lips with that long ass tongue of his.

Then, he starts to flick his slowly tongue at us and his body lurches forward. The bottom half of Orochimaru sits in place while his upper half extends out and coils around trees and branches, making his way towards Sasuke. Widen my eyes, I shoot a glance towards my best friend to see if he would attack or get out of the way, but he is overtaken by fear. Instead, he gives a shout in horror as his body begins to quiver and he stumbles backwards.

Was Sasuke this frightened in the anime/manga? I cannot remember, but all I know is this is not like him and if he is not going to move out of the way then I am going to make him move.

I pull out a handful of shuriken to hurl towards Orochimaru when a group of kunai knives does the job for me. They land right in front of the slithering man and he averts his eyes upwards to the new incomer. We follow his lead and I smile.

Finally, we can get this show on the road.

"Sorry, Sasuke!" Naruto shouts from above as he stands on top of a branch with his arms crossed and with a smirk on his face, attempting to appear like a hero and a badass. "The password is… I don't remember!"

"Naruto!" Ino cries out in relief.

Sasuke desperately throws his hand aside. "Naruto! You may be coming here to show off while you help us out, but don't get involved! He's way above our level! Run!" He flickers his gaze over to me and my team. "You guys, too! Get outta here!"

Sakura clenches her fists in false bravery. "Run so we can leave you all alone to fight this guy? We would never do that, Sasuke-kun!"

Not wanting to be outdone by her rival, despite the situation we are in, Ino raises her own fists up. "Yeah! We're your comrades! You just said so yourself, this guy is too strong. You are not fighting him alone!"

Not wanting to get involved in the conversation and let this brief moment of Orochimaru being distracted go to waste, I take action. I quickly hold out to fingers to signal to Sakura and Shikamaru that the plan is in motion. They notice the signal, nod, and fan out. As they do so, I make a cross sign with my hands and two Shadow Clones appear next to me. One clone rushes over in between the space of Sasuke and Ino to guard them while my other clone leaps up towards Naruto to tell him about his role in my plan.

While my clones do their part, Sakura creates two illusionary clones and sends them after Orochimaru. They charge after him as he starts to unwrap his body around the tree to react. The first clone jumps in the air and bursts into an explosion of cherry blossoms, As Orochimaru just begins to notice the falling petals, the second clone sneaks in with explosive tags attached to her and combusts to a real explosion. Orochimaru hops back and shields his face as the smoke mixes in with the cherry blossoms to impair his vision. Shikamaru takes the opportunity to extend out his shadow and maneuver it over towards Orochimaru to attempt to take control over his body.

I say attempt because I already know that we won't even get close to him with the shadow. This is just all one big distraction from the main event.

As expected, Orochimaru shoots out of the smoke to avoid Shikamaru's shadow as my teammate continues to chase after the snakeman with it towards the real destination: Naruto. I see my Shadow Clone nod towards him and dissipates as Naruto uses his Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu to start bombarding Orochimaru. Shikamaru recoils his shadow at the last second as Orochimaru turns around just in time to see the waves of Narutos falling down after him. Before he could get out of the way, the clones begin to land on him, one after the other, like raindrops and start pulverizing him.

The goal is to keep Orochimaru restricted with the clones while we get away from him and alert an official to take care of him for us. How am I going to do that? Well, wait around to see!

As Naruto and his clones continue to attack Orochimaru, I gather up my teammates and Ino and we huddle around Sasuke.

"Sasuke," I say softly. He doesn't look at me as he grits his teeth, body still quivering. "I know that you are scared, but we all are right now. However, we cannot just stand around. We need to fight and flight if we want to make it out of here alive."

Sasuke remains silent as he looks past me and focus his attention on the battle going on behind me. I hear Ino suddenly gasp and call out for Naruto as I see with my Byakugan that Orochimaru has summoned another snake and is starting to wipe out most of the clones. But, Ino is calling out Naruto's name because the snake actually spins around and smacks Naruto with its tail, sending him crashing into a tree. I curl my lips inward and narrow my eyes towards Sasuke with anger. I was really relying on him to help out with my plan, since he is the strongest out of the six of us, with his Sharingan and shuriken and fire jutsus. I know he doesn't know this, but I am trying to save his life and future! My whole life since I have been reborn has been about making sure the people around me is always safe and I am always thinking ahead to see how I can alter the future for the better! Naruto is over there getting pummeled by Orochimaru and his snake and I am not going to allow Sasuke to ruin things, and his life, just because he is terrified!

Before I can stop myself, I raise my hand and slap Sasuke across the face. I hear Sakura and Ino gasp behind me, but I shoot them a glare, daring them to say something. I focus my attention back on Sasuke as he blinks in reaction from the slap and looks at me dead in the eyes.

"Snap out of it, Sasuke!" I demand. "I know that you pick on Naruto sometimes and undermine his skills! He may be goofy and a little loud at times, but at least he isn't a coward! He's doing much more than you at the moment!" Sasuke slightly widens his eyes as I sigh and change my expression from anger to understanding and determination. "Like I just told you, I know that you are scared. You seem to have seen something in this guy that we haven't just yet. But, we are all afraid. However, we need to fight in order to get ourselves out of this situation."

Sasuke looks at me for a second and then appears to be opening his mouth to say something, but my instincts tells me to jump out of the way and I do so as the rest of my friends follow my lead. The snake's tail smacks through the branch we were just standing on and wipes its tail towards us again. We leap out of the way once more, but I feel myself suddenly flying backwards as a huge gust of wind shoots through the forest, causing us to scatter everywhere. I perform a mid-air backflip and land not so gracefully on a branch. My feet seem to slip as I land and I being to fall off the branch, but someone grabs my hand. I look up to thank my savior and joy overwhelms me as I see Sasuke standing there with his Sharingan activated, looking ready to fight.

"You alright?" he asks me. I am only able to nod as he lifts me back up and I grab my chest to feel my pounding heart. "Where are the others? Are they okay?"

I expand my vision to find Sakura and Ino standing at two separate trees brushing themselves off. They seem fine. I look over and notice Shikamaru is laying horizontally on a branch, unconscious. His head seems to be bleeding, notifying to me that he somehow hit his head during Orochimaru's wind attack. Naruto is hiding within a thick brush of leaves, catching his breathe. I see that he has a nasty wound jagged across his cheek from the impact of the snake's tail from earlier.

"Everyone seems to be alright for now, except for Shikamaru," I tell Sasuke. "He is unconscious and has a gash on his head so I cannot determine his condition from here."

Sasuke nods. "You gather up the others and go check on him. I will handle this guy."

I gulp. "You can't handle him alone."

Sasuke smirks. "Watch me."

He takes off towards Orochimaru before I can stop him. He's right, though. I need to regroup everybody and check on Shikamaru. Then, I will rejoin the battle with Sasuke. I am not allowing him alone with Orochimaru. I still need to cause a long enough distraction to get us far away enough so I can alert a Chunin Exam proctor.

I go after Sakura and Ino first. "Are you two okay?" I ask once I got the three of us together. They both nod though I notice multiple small wounds, about the size of paper cuts, located all over their body. "Good. I am going to need one of you to perform first aid on Shikamaru while I go fight with Sasuke."

Sakura tenses up. "What happened to Shikamaru?"

I give her a worried look. "I really don't know. He's unconscious at the moment, but his head is bleeding."

I pull the first aid kit out of my backpack and Sakura takes it. "And, you're going to fight that guy with Sasuke-kun?"

I nod. "Yes. I am going to get Naruto-kun to help as well. I don't think you guys are weak or anything to help us, but I have one more plan that will, hopefully, get us away from our enemy. While we fight him, somebody needs to watch and protect Shikamaru and you two fit the job for that!"

For some reason, Sakura is very unsure of her skills as a Shinobi so I think this role will help boost her confidence, plus keep her and Ino safe while we deal with Orochimaru.

"Hey!" Ino says, narrowing her eye and glaring at me. "I'm on Naruto's and Sasuke-kun's team! Shouldn't I be fighting with them while you take care of your teammate?"

I see the anger flicking in her eyes, totally realizing that she is still pissed at me from my comment yesterday. If we survive this, I really need to apologize to her.

"While that would typically be the logical thing to do, it isn't for this situation and I have already explained why," I replied. "You might not care much for me and are only putting up with me because I am best friends with Sasuke and Naruto, but I need you to trust me. If none of us come back to this exact spot in ten minutes, you can intervene and I will step back. Sound like a deal?"

Even if the ten minutes go by and we still haven't gotten away from Orochimaru, I will not go through with this deal. I can always make it up to Ino later, but I just really need her to shut up and butt out right now.

Ino crosses her arms, not appearing convinced, but her words speak otherwise. "Fine, ten minutes. Then, I will come in and show you and Billboard Brow what Team Seven is really made of!"

I nod as Sakura ignores Ino's insulting nickname for her for once and begins to tend to Shikamaru's wound. I hop off before Ino can protest anymore and I went to find Naruto.

"Are you alright?" I ask him, eyeing his wound on his cheek.

He nods, giving me an annoyed look. "Yeah. I'm fine. He just got one in on me, but he won't get so lucky next time!"

"Well, this next time starts immediately because Sasuke is already fighting the enemy," I inform him.

Naruto raises an eyebrow. "He's fighting him, now?" He knocks his fists together. "Great! I thought for a moment that wasn't the real Sasuke since he wasn't fighting or doing anything." He pumps his fist up in the air. "Let's go!"

He charges forward, but I grab his arm and yank him back. "You know better than to go in like that," I scold. "This guy is stronger than us, no matter if we outnumber him. We need a plan."

The word plan seems to be the word of the day since it has been used so much, and since none of my other plans have worked thus far.

"Let's just attack him with my clones like we were before!" Naruto suggests, almost in a whine so he can hurry and get into the battle. "You and Sasuke can just go after the creep while I distract him with my Shadow Clones!"

I just stare at him. "That's… actually what I was about to say."

See, Naruto is bright and calculated when he wants to be.

"Well... okay," Naruto replies back, in a bit of surprise. I guess he isn't used to people agreeing with his ideas. "Let's go, then!"

We hurry over to Orochimaru and Sasuke to see them going at it. Sasuke hurls a handful of kunai at Orochimaru as he easily dodges it. Sasuke does a backflip and pushes off a tree, soaring towards Orochimaru. He comes down with a kick directed towards Orochimaru's head, but he raises his arm up to direct the attack. Sasuke twists his body around in mid-air to land a roundhouse kick onto Orochimaru's side, but he protects his with other arm. Orochimaru contorts his body between Sasuke's legs and raises his fist to give him an uppercut to the gut. The red-eyed boy see through his attack and performs another backflip to get out of the way and to create more distance between the two of them. As he lands, his hands are quickly making handsigns and several balls of fire expels out of his mouth and shoots towards Orochimaru. To the naked eye, it may have seem like the fireballs struck him. However, I see with my Byakugan that he has burrowed through the tree and jumps out right in front of Sasuke, swiping at him. Sasuke leaps back once more and gets into a defensive fighting stance.

As they briefly stare each other down, I nod towards Naruto and we break out of our hiding spot. Naruto creates a hundred clones and aims them towards Orochimaru while I land beside of Sasuke.

"What are you guys doing?" Sasuke growls. "I got this."

I shake my head. "He's holding back, Sasuke. You eyes are just as great as mine. You know just by his movements that he is only toying with you to see what you are capable of."

Sasuke grits his teeth, know that I am speaking the truth. "What's the plan?" he asks, regretfully. He obviously wants to fight this enemy himself.

"Nothing to extravagant," I begin. "Naruto just spams Shadow Clones at him while you and I try our best to weaken or restrain him while he's busy with Naruto."

Sasuke smirks. "I don't know how to weaken him, but I know how to restrain him. Follow my lead!"

Sasuke and I take off towards Orochimaru and Naruto. As planned, Orochimaru seems to be busy being bombarded by Naruto's Shadow Clones, not getting the chance to move from his spot. After Orochimaru deals with one wave of Shadow Clones, another wave of them comes in to attack and rinse and repeat. Out of the corner of my eye, I notice Sasuke breakout several layers of wire with shuriken attached to them.

Before I can ask what he plans on doing with those, Sasuke beats me to it. "You go in first. I will handle him second."

I do not question him and I continue to run towards Orochimaru as Sasuke hangs back. I surge chakra into my hands and feel the power begin to radiate outwards to activate my chakra scalpels. Weaving through the raining clones, I send a spurt of chakra to the bottoms of my feet and pushed off the tree, zooming towards Orochimaru. I raise palm to strike his shoulder, but he notices me in the nick of time and grabs my hand. That move seems to be an error on his part as my scalpels start to cut through his hand. He hisses as he drops my arms and hops backwards, nurturing his injured hand. He glares at me as he easily sways from side to side to avoid Naruto's clones.

"Chakra scalpels, huh?" Orochimaru mumbles, mostly to himself. He chuckles softly. "Somebody has excellent chakra control. My my. Aren't we the talented one?"

I don't reply to his mockings as I rush over to attack him some more. I twirl around on my toes and begin to aim towards multiple chakra points, knowing that not even one of my strikes will land. As expected, he dodges all of my attacks and throws his own fist at me. I spin out of the way and focused the chakra contained in my right hand to the center of my palm to exter out a chakra thread. The chakra thread shoots like a sword and I wave it around to keep Orochimaru on his toes. Thanks to my mastery of the Protective Eight Trigrams: Sixty-Four Palms, I am able to create a single straight chakra thread without having to complete the whole jutsu. My next goal is to learn how to bend the chakra thread without having to continuously move my hands in a sphere like formation, now is not the time to be thinking about that.

Orochimaru gives a weird look of impressed mixed with amusement as he evades my chakra thread and it goes straight through the tree behind him. Probably thinking about taking me to along with Sasuke because of my Byakugan and excellent chakra control. I mean, I would make a better medic than Kabuto with the right training, not that I'm thinking about taking such an offer or anything. I deactivate the chakra thread and run towards Orochimaru again. What the hell are you doing Sasuke? Naruto and I cannot play decoy for too much longer. As to answer my thoughts, Sasuke appears out of nowhere and slings the shuriken wire behind Orochimaru. Seeing Sasuke finally attacking, Naruto calls back his clones and gets out of the way. I get out of the way also as I watch Sasuke manipulate the shurikens with his wires to get them to the correct trajectory. He wraps the wires around the tree that is right behind of Orochimaru and yanks his wires forward, catching the snakeman in his trap.

"Is this the Sharingan Controlled Triple Windmill Blades?" Orochimaru questions as struggles to break free from the wires, but they seem to be to thick for him to even move.

Nobody answers him as Sasuke weaves hand movements that I haven't seen him perform before. "Fire Style: Dragon Fire Jutsu!"

A huge blast of fire spreads across the area and travels through the wires towards Orochimaru. As the fire burns through him and burns a large hole through the poor tree, he screams in pain as his body start to melt from the intensity and force of the fire. Knowing this attack alone isn't going to stop him, I beckon Naruto to start spamming clones once more to build a protective wall between us and Orochimaru in case he breaks free from the wires somehow. As all of this is going on, I prepare my SOS message for any Chunin proctor, particularly Anko, to notice. I pull out my wire, a few kunai, and a few explosive tags. I stuck the tags to the kunai and connected the wire to the kunai. When everything is ready, I threw the kunai up in the air one by one to create an SOS message that was taught to us during our Academy days. As each kunai flew into the air, I lift up two fingers to explode the tags.

I hope this attracts somebody.

As I am throwing my SOS flares, the flames from Sasuke's jutsu has died down, leaving a very charred and pissed off Orochimaru. I don't even have to turn around to see that a part of Orochimaru's disguise has melted away, revealing a part of his trueself: a single golden eye with a purple birthmark right in the corner of the eye. He steps forward and easily snaps the wires in half, tossing the aside. With a wave of his hand, he sends out a huge gust of wind to wipe out all of Naruto's clones that were standing guard and then clasp his hands together. Instantly, the three of us are all paralyzed and I drop onto my knees as I through the last kunai into the air, never being able to make it explode.

No… that was my trump card. My SOS cannot be ruined! Please oh please somebody come save us.

"I'm impressed that you can use your Sharingan so well at your age," Orochimaru says to Sasuke, not sounding impressed at all. He glances at me and huffs. "And, I'm impressed on how annoying you have been. Orchestrating this whole plan to stop me, as if you are able to anticipate my attacks. I should've know you would've been a handful when you decided to stick your nose where it doesn't belong."

Ugh, are you still annoyed about that? Get over yourself. Okay, now is not the time to be making imaginary taunts towards Orochimaru. He's basically threatening you right now.

Orochimaru focus his attention back on Sasuke again. "You have truly lived up to your Uchiha name. I want you after all." He flickers his eyes back over towards me. "Just incase you somehow break out of this and have some more tricks up your sleeve…" Before I can even blink, he comes at me with blinding speed, getting only centimeters from my face. My heart skips a beat.

Naruto widens his eyes. "You leave her alone! Get away from her!"

"... I'm going to go ahead and dispose of you," Orochimaru finishes.

He picks me up by the collar of my shirt and tosses me off the branch like a rag doll. I hear Naruto and Sasuke gasp in horror as I fall. I scream as I begin to plummet towards my death, the paralyzing jutsu not wearing off despite me falling. I close my eyes. Is this how I'm really going to die? By getting thrown aside like trash and not even being able to rescue anybody or meet any of my intended goals? I feel my body fall into something solid, but it isn't the ground. I dare to open my eyes and find myself in the arms of Naruto. I open my mouth to give him my thanks, but quickly shut it when I notice his eyes. They are red. The features of his face has also grown more rabid with his whiskers seeming thicker and his teeth has turned into fangs. I guess seeing Orochimaru throw me off the branch surged enough emotion to channel some of the Kyuubi's chakra into his own and was strong enough to break out of Orochimaru's jutsu.

This battle is not going to be pretty a happy ending for Naruto.

Naruto angrily and swiftly leaps from branch to branch as we make our way upwards towards Sasuke and Orochimaru. He drops me on my bottom and sprints towards Orochimaru's direction. I make out just in time to see Orochimaru had extended out his neck to give Sasuke the Curse Mark while paralyzed. However, Naruto stops him in mid-attack by slamming into the snakeman's neck, causing it to grossly bend in half. Naruto raises a claw and slashes through Orochimaru's neck, leaving a deep gash. Orochimaru clenches his teeth as he recoils his neck and gets out of the way as Naruto jumps forward to headbutt him. Allowing Naruto to attack Orochimaru in his blind rage, I rush over to Sasuke to pick him up and flee, but he holds out his hand. I guess Orochimaru broke the hold he had on Sasuke to get away from Naruto.

"We need to get out of here!" I plead.

Sasuke gives me a crazy look. "We can't just leave Naruto behind!"

I grab his hand. "He will be fine! Let's go!"

Sasuke jerks his hand away from me and I narrow my eyes at him towards his reaction. "You can go. I'm staying."

I clench my fists. "You are really wearing down my patience, Sasuke! I thought you trusted me? Trust what I am saying and let's go!"

Sasuke opens his mouth to protest, but Ino suddenly enters the scene with a bewilderingly look. "It has been ten minutes! Why are you two just standing around? Where's Naruto?!"

Naruto and Orochimaru pops back into view as to answer her question and I notice by the look on Orochimaru's face what he is about to do. Before I can stop him, Orochimaru's fingers glows purple as he lifts up Naruto's shirt and slams the fingers into the boy's stomach. "Five Elements Seal!"

Naruto's mouth hangs up, but no sound comes out. His red eyes start to waver before they become blue again and he slips into unconscious. As he did me, Orochimaru tosses Naruto aside and I pull out a kunai knife and sling it towards his way. It barely catches a piece of his clothing, but it is enough to save his life as the kunai sticks to the tree and allowing Naruto to suspend in mid-air.

"Naruto!" Ino screams at the top of her lungs, as if trying to wake him up. No response.

I look over at Sasuke, and then at Ino, and then at Naruto, and then at Orochimaru and grit my teeth. This is a bad situation we are in. I came into this feeling a little too confident. I didn't think we would defeat him, but I thought we would have least been able to get away from him. Naruto seemed to have saved Sasuke from receiving the Curse Mark, but Orochimaru has the opportunity now with him knocked out. Sasuke is feeling weak now and has used a lot of his chakra to fight Orochimaru anymore and Ino and I know we are not a match for him. Sakura is taking care of a knocked out Shikamaru, god knowing what condition he is in.

I wonder how much Sasuke is going to protest if I sacrificed myself and tell them to go on. That is what a real Shinobi does, right?

Before I can go along with my spontaneous last resort, I sense a familiar chakra flare heading our way and I almost cry with happiness. Orochimaru seems to have noticed it to because his expressions has changed from victorious to frustration, as if nothing is going right for him today. Good. Sick bastard.

"Hmm, it seems like your little SOS message did work after all," Orochimaru says to me. "For now, I guess my plans are going to have to come to a halt while I face this old friend of mine." He appears conflicted for a second, but then smirks sinisterly, sending chills down my spine. "No, I cannot do that. Maybe another time. Consider yourselves lucky this time around, especially you, girl. I'll be back, Sasuke."

He disappears into the wind, leaving behind a whirlwind of leaves.

I blink in reaction at the sudden exit. What did he mean by especially me? Was the conflicted look he had on his face from thinking about ways to torture or kill me. I shudder. I don't even want to begin to let my mind wander down that road. I shake my head and tried to remain focus.

"We need to get out of here," I order in almost a hushed whisper, afraid if I speak any louder that Orochimaru might come back.

Sasuke and Ino follow my orders without protesting. I go into survival mode as I begin to make my way towards Sakura and Shikamaru. Sasuke grabs Naruto, hurls him over his shoulder, and he and Ino follow me. Sakura sees us and opens her mouth to say something out of concern, but I cut her off by scooping Shikamaru into my arms and continue leaping from tree to tree as I activate my Byakugan. Now is not the time to be talking and asking questions. That can be done later. Right now is the time to hide in a secluded spot, set up traps, and prepare for the Oto Shinobi. If I remember correctly, they were sent out by Orochimaru before so Sasuke can test his new powers on them. Even though Sasuke has received the Curse Mark… yet, I believe that Orochimaru will still have the Oto Shinobi to come after us to defeat us in our weakened states and capture Sasuke. Even if they don't come after us, I still plan on going after them, after we rest up, to go away and eliminate they from the primarily matches.

After what seems like searching forever in eerie silence, I finally found a decent place to hide: a small opening at the base of a tree. It isn't the most perfect spot to hide, but at least it will shelter us from most enemies if we just hide our chakra flares and have Sakura to create a False Surroundings genjutsu around us.

I land on the ground and enter the base of the tree. I gently lay Shikamaru down, being careful to not harm his head. I remove the backpack from his shoulders and rest it under his head as support. Sasuke does the same for Naruto and we all crawl back out of the hole.

I look over at Sakura. "Cast a False Surroundings illusion on this area so we can remain hidden. Ino, you start concealing the entrance to the best of your ability while Sasuke and I are going to be setting up traps."

Sakura gives me a worried look. "Can anybody tell me what happened first of all? Why is Naruto unconscious and do you even want to know how Shikamaru is doing?"

I try my best to give her a reassuring smile, despite the mood I am currently in. "Questions will be answered after everything I have said is done."

With sparing another glance, I walk over to a random spot and begin to set up traps. Sasuke joins me seconds later and starts to help me out. We spend the next twenty or so minutes setting up traps in silence, which I am glad he didn't want to converse with me. My mind is too focused at the moment to be talking to anyone. When we were done, we had set up a number of traps. Some traps will shoot out a barrage of weapons if an enemy trips over a wire. Other traps caused smoke bombs to go off, having the enemy to stumble around in the smog into another trap that will get themselves blown to pieces by explosive tags. We even have a few traps that are very noticeable to the naked eye to deceive enemies from the hidden traps. Even if these traps do not work, at least we will be alerted that someone is present if we somehow fall asleep or if we are off guard. However, I'm not letting my guard down. Two of my comrades are down and one is the target of Orochimaru's. I am not playing around. I'm in the mood to kill.

Sasuke decides to ruin our few minutes of peace and quiet. "Did you know that guy's eye?"

Not expecting him to ask that question, I remain silent for a minute or two. Should I tell him I did or lie and say I didn't? What would lying achieve anyways? "Yes, I saw it. It is as if there was a totally different person hiding underneath that skin."

Sasuke nods. "That guy was able to stretch his body parts out to lengths that I didn't even know were possible and was holding back on us. Do you really think… no that is crazy talk."

I raise an eyebrow, encouraging him to finish his thought process. I like when people filled in the gaps themselves without me having to reveal any of my knowledge. I know one day I may eventually have to, but today is not the day. But, Sasuke only shakes his head and doesn't speak anymore. To be honest, I don't want to talk about Orochimaru either at the moment. I mean, we just got done fighting the guy.

We make our way back to the base and I am pleased to see the entrance covers with a decent lay of sticks, leaves, and branches. Mixed in with Sakura's genjutsu, this place is going to be pretty hard to find if you are not specifically looking for us. We enter the base through the makeshift covering and find Ino and Sakura sitting cross legged and quietly around Shikamaru and Naruto. We decide to join and then and sit around the fainted boys.

After a few minutes of tense silence, I finally break it. "How is Shikamaru?"

Sakura narrows her eyes at me as if she wants to scold me for waiting so long to ask, but answers me instead. "He head wound doesn't seem to have done any major damage. Besides knocking him out, I believe he only has a concussion."

Wanting to make sure she is correct, I quickly examine Shikamaru with my Byakugan and nod. "I see no trauma to the brain. I think he's going to be okay."

"W-what about Naruto?" Ino stammers. I've never seen her care so much about Naruto before. I think he is finally growing on her.

Even though I know the answer, I humor her anyways and scan him over with my Byakugan. I deactivate it and sadly shake my head. "I do not know what that guy did to him, but his chakra seems to be all out of whack. I think he's going to be out cold for awhile."

Ino brings her knees up to her chest and wraps her arms around them. "Great. That's exactly what I wanted to hear."

Silence filled the air once more and it remained that way for the next several hours as everybody seems to be lost in their own thoughts. For me, I am certainly not in touch with reality at the moment as I am going over scenarios in case the Oto Shinobi or Orochimaru makes an appearance. I think we will be able to handle the Oto Shinobi since it will be four against three, well three and half since Sasuke will not at be full power. Hell, it might be more people on our side if Lee shows up followed later by Tenten and Neji. Since the original Team Ten helped out Sakura during her fight, I would if Team Eight will make their own appearance if a fight breaks out. I snort. Probably not. I bet Kiba and his team are already chilling at the Tower since their team specializes in tracking.

Why is Choji on their team again?

As my mind begins to wonder deeper and deeper, I find myself growing drowsy and tired. It is probably around midnight now and Sakura and Ino has already drifted off to sleep. Sasuke is still awake in his own thoughts, but I know he is dying to sleep. Shaking my head and slapping my cheeks to make myself more alert, I point at Sasuke.

"You need to rest," I tell him.

He doesn't budge. "I am fine." However, his body betrays him as his mouth releases out a yawn and he grumbles to himself.

I give him a half smile. "Seriously, go to sleep. You need to restore your chakra reserves. I will stay awake and watch the fort. I promise."

Sasuke hesitates for a second, but gives in when another yawn escapes from his mouth. Setting his backpack on the ground, he curls up in a small ball, and closes his eyes. Feeling like a winner for convince him to go to sleep, I rest my heavy eyelids for one moment to get rid of the feeling. The next time I open them, I am startled at the site I see. I widen my eyes and surpass a shriek as I see a man with bandages wrapped around his face staring dead into my eyes, inches away from my face. Behind him, sunlight is trying to peek in. I feel my heart beginning to beat rapidly as I realize that I have fallen asleep over night and have let my guard down this whole time.

"Hmmm, look who is finally awake," the Oto Shinobi says, grabbing me by the shoulders and yanking me out of my hiding spot.

Author's note: I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. Please give me feedback for I have rewritten this chapter three times now and I still don't feel to great about it. This has been the hardest chapter for me to write thus far.

Sasuke didn't get the Curse Mark after all!.. Or will he still get it? Orochimaru always gets what he wants after all. Find out next time!