Chapter 14

As Naruto stared at the number of dango sticks in front of him, he couldn't help but feel a sense of nostalgia. Back when he was still being trained by Anko-sensei, he had noticed her obsession, more like an addiction, to dango. She was never seen by him without dango, or a dango stick dangling between her teeth. Whenever she was in a good mood, she would always treat him to dango. It was always a very touching gesture for him, so he didn't have the heart to tell her that he preferred Ichiraku ramen.

They had been on the dango stand for over two hours now, and Naruto had told her everything that had happened to him ever since he became a student of Kakashi. He was careful to leave sensitive parts out, such as the massacre on the bridge or that he knew the famous jutsu of the Yondaime.

Anko whistled when he was finished, "Wow, you sure haven't been bored after you became a team member have you?"

Naruto shrugged, "Not if you count doing D-rank missions as exciting. I'll pick a C-rank or training over them any day." He ruthlessly pushed away the memories of repeatedly catching Tora. He would try his utmost to become a chunin, if only to escape from doing that mission again.

Anko hummed, not saying anything else. She avoided any topic that was related to Orochimaru.

Naruto took a deep breath and exhaled, slowly getting up. "Well, it was nice catching up with you sensei, but I gotta rest for tomorrow. I would want to be fully rested for the exam of which you are the proctor of," he said, tweaking between his teeth with the dango stick.

Anko also got up, grinning savagely. "Damn straight. I better not see you losing in this phase. You got that, Naruto?"

Naruto smiled wide and gave a thumbs up, "Loud and clear!"

Anko turned to leave, but seemed to remember something and turned around, "Oh, almost forgot to tell you. Come to the training ground 44 tomorrow at nine o' clock."

Naruto tilted his head, "Wouldn't this be considered cheating on my part to receive information from the proctor, sensei?"

Anko smiled and shook her head, "This is the information your team sensei would be telling you. I'm just saving you the trouble of finding your team or Kakashi. All the best, kid!"

She vanished in a swirl of leaves. Naruto nodded to himself and turned around, heading towards Ichiraku. He felt quite good today in the exam, so celebration was required. Dango was good and all, but it wasn't dinner. Inside his mind, Kurama scoffed, muttering about pathetic excuses to eat unhealthy food.

As Naruto neared the ramen stand, he saw something that caused his heart to skip a beat.

Temari was roaming on the street, apparently taking in the sights. The best fact was that she was on her own. None of her brothers were with her, not even Gaara.

He didn't know why, but suddenly his palms started to feel sweaty and his heartbeat seemed to increase. This was his perfect chance of spending some time with her!

'Go for it, brat,' came Kurama's encouraging voice. Wow, he and him were on the same page!

His steps automatically began to take him in her direction. Every step felt like he was going too slow, but at the same time, he was going too fast. He had no idea on how to approach her or what to say, but at the same time he wanted her to spend time with him, to enjoy spending time with him.

'Oi, Naruto! You will not stutter in front of a mere girl! You are my jinchuriki and you won't embarrass me!' Naruto wanted to tell him that she didn't even know that he was a jinchuriki. And how the hell did that fact relate to what he was about to do?!

He barely kept himself from voicing his thoughts to the fox inside him, forgetting that Kurama could easily read his thoughts. Kurama scoffed and refrained from speaking. He will see how Naruto handles this without making himself look like a fool.

It happened too quickly, but he was standing behind her. She seemed to be unaware that he was standing directly behind her. Steeling up and swallowing up his nervousness, he tapped her shoulder.

Temari finally relaxed after exiting the hotel where she and her brothers were staying. She had known that after their training, she was going to get bored because she had nothing to do. After almost half an hour of arguing, she was able to convince Kankuro to let her leave the hotel. Gaara really didn't care much about what she did and that was one thing she was grateful for. Baki didn't protest much when she told him that she would be able to scout the important locations in this village.

So here she was, wandering the streets and taking in the sights. She had to admit, Konoha was beautiful. All the greenery in the village made it seem like the village actually pulsed with life. The weather here was very pleasant as well, though that could be attributed to the greenery.

As she aimlessly wandered, her thoughts turned to the attractive blonde from before. "Uzumaki Naruto," she tested the word on her lips, her mouth unconsciously turning into a smile. He was certainly attractive, more so than any boy she had seen of her age. He was also quite fearless and charismatic as well, if what he did when the tenth question was asked is anything to go by. That certainly earned him points in her book.

She didn't know if he realized it or not, but he had erased all traces of doubts the intimidating examiner had put into them, including her. Something inside her told her that he knew.

Her hormones seemed to make their presence known, as she turned began to imagine what he looked like without his shirt and jacket on. Her cheeks burned as she realized what she was thinking and rapidly shook her head to clear it of anymore thoughts like those.

'Why am I thinking such things? I don't even know him!' Then her thoughts did a complete one-eighty once more. 'Although, I wouldn't mind to get to know him through a date or two….' She flushed again, though this time she had a smile and didn't try to shake it off.

So lost in her thoughts she was, that she startled a bit when her shoulder was tapped. Mentally cursing herself for getting caught off guard, she turned to see who had tapped her and got frozen in place when she saw the subject of her thoughts right in front of her.

Naruto became a bit confused when Temari turned around and suddenly froze. 'Guess she wasn't expecting to meet me,' he thought before waving a hand in front of her eyes. "Temari-san, are you alright?"

His voice snapped her back into the present. She saw him looking at her, a curious expression on his face. Regaining control of herself, she smiled and greeted back, "I'm alright Uzumaki-san. I just wasn't expecting to see you here."

She giggled a bit at the sour look that he made, "Please don't call me that. Naruto will do just fine."

She returned an easy smile, "Then you must call me Temari. Being called like that by someone of my age make me feel old."

Naruto didn't know how he was speaking without thinking, "That just won't do now, will it? I wouldn't want to make a pretty lady such as yourself feel old," he returned her easy smile.

Temari felt her face go warm at his response. Not wanting to be looking embarrassed, she folded her arms and turned her face away, a smile tugging at her lips. "Flatterer," she scoffed softly.

Naruto internally grinned. This wasn't hard at all! He didn't have to pretend to be someone he wasn't. He would be thinking up on what to say if he was. The lines and responses just instinctively came to him.

Temari changed the topic, "So, what are you doing here, Naruto?"

Naruto put his hands in his jacket pockets, "I am actually on my way to have dinner after talking with my sensei." He then asked a bit hesitantly, "Would you like to join me?"

Temari barely kept from choking on air, but couldn't prevent her eyes from going wide, "W-What?"

Naruto then discovered that repeating his question was exponentially harder, but he managed it without stuttering, "I said, would you like to join me for dinner?"

The smile on his face would have seemed natural to anyone if it wasn't for a drop of sweat rolling down the side of his face.

Temari forced her stopped mind to kickstart. She could not believe it; just a short while ago she was thinking about going on a date with Naruto. And not, not even ten minutes later he was asking her out?!

She regained her wits and asked, stuttering, "A-Are you a-asking me out on a d-date?" Oh, and her beet red face wasn't helping her at all. She was hoping though, that the answer would be yes. She might get to know him a bit better.

Naruto himself felt his face go warm a bit, but he just rolled with it. Shrugging in what he dearly hoped was a natural manner, he said with a smooth smile, "If you want it to be, sure. Let's go with that."

Temari, saying Naruto relaxed, forced herself to relax as well. Crossing her arms, she smirked, "So, where are you taking me Naruto?"

Naruto smirked in return, "You haven't been to the Ichiraku ramen, have you?"

Five minutes later, they were walking in the direction. Naruto was quickly discovering the awkwardness of the silence between them. To make it go away, he picked a topic that both of them could safely converse about without giving away their secrets.

"So, what's the shinobi academy in Suna like?"

And so, the silence was broken and conversation picked off from there. Temari was glad to find out how easy it was to converse with Naruto. His seemingly bored/indifferent attitude, in her eyes, was perfectly suited to him. His tone was very friendly and to her pleasant surprise, she found herself enjoying just talking to him.

"And we have arrived," Naruto announced. Temari looked up to see a small, unassuming ramen shop. It was more of a bar than a shop.

"Quite simplistic, this place is," she commented. Naruto smirked and turned to her, "Don't knock it until you've tried it."

"Yo, Teuchi-ossan!"

A middle aged man turned around, smiling when he saw his favorite customer. "Naruto!"

Temari guessed that Naruto had to be very familiar with him to call him that. The man named Teuchi then spotted Temari standing beside Naruto and his smile widened, "Oh, and who is this lady friend of yours? A girlfriend on a date?"

Teuchi suppressed his chuckles as both the children turned red, the girl more than Naruto. Naruto opened his mouth to speak when Ayame came out of the back, wiping her hands. "Naruto-kun! Who are you? And who is this girl beside you?" She asked a bit bewildered.

Naruto smiled, his blush slowly disappearing, "This is Sabaku no Temari. She is a genin from Suna, here to take part in the chunin exams. As to answer your question, ossan, she's not my girlfriend, but we are definitely on a date," he said the last part while turning to Temari and winking, making the sandy blonde redder than she already was and curse Naruto in her head for being so charming.

Teuchi finally let out his chuckles while Ayame happily sighed. Teuchi asked Naruto, "And you brought your first date to my stand? I'm really honored, Naruto!"

Naruto shook his head as he motioned for Temari to take a seat. He sat beside her and grinned, "Why wouldn't I? Your ramen's awesome!"

Turning to Temari, he smiled, "What will you have, Temari?"

Temari frowned a bit in thought and answered after a moment, "I'll have a Shio ramen, please."

Naruto turned and simply said, "I'll have my usual, ossan."

While the ramen was being prepared, he discreetly checked Temari out out of the corner of his eye. Her posture was full of confidence and from what he could see, there wasn't a single speck of a fangirl in her. She was indeed a serious kunoichi. Glancing at her legs, he noted with appreciation the toned, smooth calf muscles underneath the fishnet. His gaze then snapped upwards to a place that occupies the minds of all teenage boys. Her chest was actually quite developed for her age. If only her top were a bit lower…..

Temari was steadily turning redder and redder as she spotted Naruto checking her out. She did not miss the appreciation in his eyes as he checked out her legs and chest. Her embarrassment finally toppled off the edge and she turned to him with a red face and furious eyes, "What are you doing?!"

She expected him to blush and splutter and fruitlessly try to excuse himself. To her surprise, he did not even blush a little bit. Instead, he smirked and returned a question of his own, "What do you think I'm doing?"

Their orders arrived and as Naruto broke his chopsticks, he answered his own question. "I'm checking you out. In both the ways."

Temari's embarrassment turned to confusion at his blunt answer. Taking a bite of her own ramen, she barely refrained from gasping in pleasure. It was delicious! As if the the food was from heaven itself! Suna had nothing as tasty as this!

She heard a chuckle and she opened her eyes to find Naruto's staring at her with amusement. Turning a bit red, she scowled and asked, "What's so funny?"

His reply was quick, "The reaction of everyone who tries the ramen of this stall for the very first time." He chuckled as she swiped at his arm for embarrassing her.

She then addressed his previous statement, "What did you mean when you were checking me out in both the ways?"

Naruto sneaked a glance in front of him and sighed exasperatedly at seeing Ayame and Teuchi trying to eavesdrop not so subtly. He loudly cleared his throat, causing the two to turn away and return to their work, whistling innocently.

He then turned to Temari, who had a faint look of amusement on her face. "Well, the first point of view is that of a shinobi. You are my competitor, which makes it my duty as a shinobi to gather as much information I can about you," he explained, getting a smirk from her.

"Oh, and what have you learned?"

Naruto gulped down the last of his ramen and said, "Well, the only thing that I have come up with is that you have wind release, indicated by the large fan on your back, which you likely use to augment your jutsus. The size of your fan is also an indicator of your preferred type of jutsus. You like to use fuuton on a large scale to overwhelm your opponents."

He then thought for a bit and added, "The size of your fan is an indicator of another thing. That thing is not easy to carry by any means, so your body has to be physically very strong. Especially your upper body, considering the strength required to swing it at a force to generate torrents of wind."

Temari was getting bowled over at how spot on his observation was. She didn't even know it was possible for a complete stranger to learn the full set of anyone's abilities with just one glance. One thing was for sure: Naruto was extremely intelligent and observational. She didn't know anyone of her age who had analytical skills of this caliber. Naruto was turning out to be a very dangerous opponent, now that she thought about it.

Finishing his soup, he smacked his lips and turned to face her, the smile never leaving his face. "Of course, to everyone it's blatantly obvious that you prefer using your fan than tai or genjutsu. But you must have a good grasp of taijutsu, if not genjutsu, considering the fact that children of Kages have a certain standard to live up to. I'm totally guessing this, but you really don't seem the type to use genjutsu."

Temari was at a loss of words. No genin should have analytical skills like the ones Naruto was displaying. Everything he had stated until now was fully true. Something in the last statement caused her to ask a question, but her voice held awe, "Wait, you mean everything you've just said was based on pure observation except for the last statement?!"

Naruto rested his elbow on the counter and smirked, nodding. "Observation and the conclusion that I can derive from those observations. Of course, to derive those conclusions, I have to know my facts so I can suit my theories to them."

Temari looked at her empty bowl, muttering so low that Naruto almost didn't catch it, "You're really good at that."

Naruto grinned, "I better be! I have been practicing that for a while now."

"And what's the second view?"

Naruto's tone turned purely innocent, "Oh you know, how boys check out hot girls." That earned him a swipe to his shoulder, but there was no heat behind it and the twitching corners of her mouth gave her away.

Paying for both of them, despite Temari's protests, he bid the father and daughter goodnight and they both left.

"I have to say, this date wasn't half bad," she smirked while walking alongside him. He was escorting her back to her hotel. She had to admit, it was incredibly cute of him.

Naruto nodded, putting his hands in his pockets, "I have to agree on that. For a date in the middle of chunin exams, it wasn't bad at all."

They talked a bit more and when they finally reached her hotel, Temari turned to Naruto and smiled genuinely, "Thank you for the date, Naruto. It was really fun, not to mention the great food."

Much to her surprise, Naruto actually looked embarrassed at the praise. He rubbed the back of his head with a sheepish look, "Aw, you're embarrassing me."

Then he smiled back at her, "Seriously though, I too had fun going on a date with you."

An awkward silence descended upon them again as neither knew how to properly say goodbye.

'Chuck it,' Naruto decided. In move that surprised Temari, he leant forwards and pressed a light peck to her cheek, just near the corner of her mouth. "Good night," he muttered before vanishing.

He did it so fast that it did not even register to Temari when he left, and how he had left. She just kept staring off into space, a blank look on her face. When she did recover, a massive blush appeared on her face as she smiled and rubbed the corner of her mouth where he had kissed.

She wanted to be angry that he had kissed her without her consent, but it was a very sweet gesture and not to mention, the perfect end to their date. 'He is bold, that's for sure,' she thought before going up to her room, a happy and dreamy smile on her face.

She wouldn't mind another date with him.

XXXXXXX

Naruto had, for the first time in a long time, a sleep filled with dreams that were actually pleasant. He and Temari were on a beach, with Temari wearing some really skimpy bikini. He was this close to kissing her when his body alarm rang and woke him up.

He rarely ever groaned while waking up, because that dream was close to reaching the best part. 'Then again, you rarely ever get to see the best part in those type of dreams,' he thought wistfully. Getting out of the bed, he proceeded to do his morning rituals and head onto the roof. He needed his mind to be in a state of hyper focus. He could not afford any distractions today.

Creating a shadow clone to restock his equipment and make breakfast, he flipped onto the roof and sat down in a meditative state. For an hour, he proceeded to calm down and focus his mind on a single objective: to succeed. He mentally went through every piece of information he had read and come up with over the years, every tactic, strategy, everything. When he opened his eyes, all the grogginess was gone, replaced by intense focus and determination.

He proceeded to review the memories that suddenly came from his dispelled clone. He nodded satisfactorily how the both of his hip pouches and thigh holster were stocked.

Both pouches were stocked with ample kunai, shuriken, explosive tags, both the normal and tandem explosive tags, flash tags, ninja wire, soldier pills and sealing scrolls, both storage and blank.

Tying his spiky hair back neatly, he finished dressing up and sat down for breakfast his clone had prepared for him. He swiftly finished his breakfast and and washed his plate. Looking up at the clock, he saw that he had half an hour to the exam.

'Time to leave,' he decided. After closing the door to his apartment, he activated the security seals and left. He walked at a comfortable pace to the training ground 44. Upon arriving, he saw that the genin were still assembling.

"Naruto!"

The call made him turn, spotting his two teammates coming. Sasuke and Sakura looked determined more than ever. He waved back.

Ten minutes after they had all assembled, a burst of smoke in front of the crowd revealed Anko in all her glory.

"Look sharp, greenies! Welcome to training ground 44, otherwise known as the forest of death." She introduced with a sinister flair mixed with dramatics. She had her trademark, bloodthirsty showing, making some of them sweat and the rest feel anxious.

"For the second part of the exam, the objective is to retrieve and protect. But first, you all are going to sign these papers if you want to take part in this portion of the exam," she said, waving a bunch of papers in her hand.

As they were handed the papers, Naruto raised an eyebrow at the large letters 'FORM OF CONSENT' printed on top. He quickly read it and signed it, just in time to heat a genin across the group call out.

"What do we need to sign these for? We obviously have to take the exams!"

Anko easily dismissed the statement and explained with a breezy smile, "Oh, that's your agreement to accept all the risks in the forest, so your respective villages don't blame me and by extension, Konoha for all your deaths, get it?"

Next to him, Sakura shivered at the words, but when he looked up she had signed the form and looked forward with a steady gaze.

"Alright, listen up or you're going to die before even reaching the halfway mark. One member of each team will take the forms to the row of tents over there, where the forms will be exchanged for a scroll. Some will get a heaven, some will get an earth scroll. You need both, and you need to get both of them to the tower in the middle of the forest in order to pass," she explained. Somehow, her tone turned even more serious after that.

"Of course, you also need all your teammates to pass upon arrival. You must also not open the scrolls until you get there," she glared at everyone gathered, daring them to disagree with her.

Ino raised her hand, "What happens if we open them in the forest?"

Anko smirked, "Something unpleasant….for you and your team."

Naruto gave his form to Sasuke, who also took Sakura's form and went over to get a scroll for them. As he walked away, Naruto decided to scope out the competition…and nearly choked upon sensing the massive chakra signature some distance away.

It was easily as big as his own, perhaps even bigger, not to mention unusually potent. And he almost retched at how much malice it contained. Zabuza did not come even remotely close to what he was sensing now. Gaara, but only perhaps. Discreetly, he gazed in its direction from his peripherals and found out who it was.

It was a kunoichi from Kusa, and she was gazing in their direction with a strange look on her face. Naruto immediately averted his eyes and analyzed what he knew.

'Okay, that was no ordinary chakra signature. No genin can have a chakra pool that large, not to mention it is simply impossible for an average genin to let out such a malicious feeling from their chakra. Her chakra though…we will have to be extremely careful of how we proceed,' he thought as Sasuke came back with a heaven scroll.

Sakura jolted with realization, "This test is designed to cut our numbers in half-only half of us can go to the next round!"

"You're right…. pinkie. We can't have weaklings being chunin, so we gotta weed out. Now that everyone has a scroll, you also have a time limit-five days only. If you run out of time, try again next year."

Chouji looked very upset, "What will we do for food?!"

"The forest is full of food! Giant, juicy bugs and large predators that will eat you first if you don't eat them," Anko absently waved her hand. Poor Chouji looked ready to cry.

"Can we quit?" Shikamaru asked, wincing as Ino hit the back of his head.

Anko scowled, "Hell no! You think you can just quit in the middle of a mission? You want to quit, hurry up and die!"

"Line up at the gates and be ready!" she shouted, pointing towards the gates surrounding the forest. As team seven walked up to the gates, Naruto put his hands around his teammates' necks and pulled them close. Sasuke grunted at the sudden action.

Sakura almost shrieked, "Naruto-"

"Look, stay quiet," his harsh whisper shut her up. Even Sasuke perked up. Naruto was being unusually serious. "Listen, don't look openly but see the Kusa kunoichi?"

He didn't wait for them to look, "First things first, if you see her, run or fly, I don't care what you do but do whatever you can to get the fuck away from her. There's no way she is a genin. Same goes for the team of Suna. You see that redhead, you. Run. Away," he emphasized, looking directly at Sasuke, a storm blowing in his eyes

Sasuke would have normally disregarded Naruto's words, but the urgency and unusual harshness with which he said caused to have second thoughts. He trusted Naruto's abilities as a sensor, so if he was saying something like this so seriously, he would not question it.

Naruto saw Sasuke silently nod and turned to Sakura for the same. She looked shaken, but gave a nod as well.

As they faced the gates, Naruto turned to look around one last time. He caught Shikamaru's serious look, who turned away and concentrated on his own entrance. He caught Temari's eye, who to his surprise, did not blush, but give him a nod for best of luck. He returned it with one of his own.

He saw Anko looking at him with a grin. Holding up a thumbs up, she mouthed "All the best!" before she prepared to give the signal.

"Contestants ready….set…GO!" She shouted in a giddy voice as all the gates opened simultaneously. All the genin shot in with the intent to win.

Team seven took up a three point formation, with Naruto in the front and Sasuke and Sakura in the behind. The two of them acknowledged Naruto's sensing abilities so this way, Naruto would be the first to sense something.

"We should really come up with a working plan for the duration of this test," Naruto said as he flipped over a branch.

"Fine, down there in the clearing," Sasuke ordered, and they descended to the clearing he spoke of, hidden behind a log.

"Let's make this quick, because the air is quickly becoming saturated with our opponents' smells," Naruto commented, sniffing around with his nose.

Sasuke spoke up, "My plan is simple- find and ambush a weaker team for their Earth scroll and high tail it to the tower. We take brakes sparingly, even at night."

Naruto raised an eyebrow at the last point, "Even at night?"

Sasuke tilted his head, "I was counting on your superior night vision."

Naruto acknowledged his point, "While that is good and all, we would have to stick to the ground for you two to avoid face planting into a branch. I can also see a weakness to this plan though. While being on the ground gives us room to run, we would be more vulnerable to attacks from those who can use earth jutsu, not to mention other teams who might possibly follow a similar plan," he speculated.

Sasuke blinked at how quick Naruto was able to point out the faults in his plan. He was about to suggest something else when Naruto spoke again, "But we will follow it, since I can't think of anything better right now. But you are forgetting something, Sasuke."

"What is it?"

Naruto smirked, "We have a great opportunity to use my shadow clones to their full advantage. I can look for Earth scrolls with them, but we would have to find a safe place to wait. Once we get both the scrolls, I can make up the decoys and divide them between me and Sakura, while you take the decoys."

Sasuke thought about it for a moment, black eyes flickering to the ground before looking up directly into the blonde's eyes. "Sounds good, Uzumaki. But where can we hide?"

Sakura spoke up for the first time, "Sasuke-kun, we can hide high up in the topmost part of the trees."

Sasuke rose an eyebrow, "How is that a good hiding spot?" He was surprised that she did not blush once when he spoke to her.

"Konoha will be expected to be hidden in the trees, but since we know that as well, our enemies will count on us to be on the ground. They would never guess that we will be hidden right above them."

Naruto nodded. It was a good plan for a temporary hide-out. "Fine, we will do that. I'll make my clones and send them away first." He held a half ram and without a wisp of smoke, forty shadow clones appeared, and disappeared to perform their tasks just as quickly.

They settled down at the highest level of a tall tree. Naruto spread his senses out, not wanting to be off guard for even a moment. He took out his spare scrolls and sealing supplies and began preparing the decoys. "Remember, as they look for the scroll, they will also be gathering info on the teams to see whether they are weak or strong. As soon as their memories come back to me, I'll go through them to single out the best path for us to go through."

"You're pulling a lot of weight," Sakura said with some concern. Naruto smirked, but stayed silent.

As he finished the decoys, a sudden influx of memories caused his eyes to widen in alarm. His teammates looked at him urgently, with apprehension on their faces. Something had spooked him, and they didn't know many things that could spook the strongest member of their team.

He whipped around to glare at them, and they almost flinched at the coldness in his eyes. "I'll repeat this, Sakura, Sasuke. If you see the Suna team, run away. You see the kunoichi from Suna, sprint, fly, disappear- I don't care what you do, but avoid confrontation with her at any cost. Is that understood?!" He glared at them even more coldly, in order to get his seriousness of the statement across.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed. "Why, why is she so-" Naruto cut him off with a wave of his hand. Face serious, he said, "It's just better if you trust me on this one, Sasuke. Now…"

His expression became neutral once more, "I found a team for us to ambush. Remember the team from Ame? They are a mile away from us, northeast. If we hurry, we can catch them before their argument of who gets the fake and real scrolls ends."

Sasuke looked at him sharply for switching topics, but didn't push for any more info. He took the lead this time to their target.

Just as they stopped behind a large tree, Naruto informed him, "The real scroll is with the middle one."

Sasuke said, "Alright. Naruto, do you have a plan?" He had accepted the point that it was better if Naruto made the plans between them. Naruto's plans followed utmost discretion in these type of situations, which is what they needed right now.

Naruto nodded, soundlessly forming three shadow clones. "Sasuke, you remember how Kakashi-sensei buried you in the bell test? That is what these three will do. In case one of them escapes, you and Sakura will take care of them."

Sasuke as well as Sakura gaped at him, "THAT is the best you have?!" He barely refrained from lashing out because the plan was all kinds of stupid. Naruto smirked in a way that did nothing to comfort the black haired avenger.

"No, but I'm expecting all of them to escape my hold. The decoys I gave you? They are a bit dangerous, so keep a safe distance after giving them away. We will be eliminating the competition entirely, you see. I'm falling back in case they see you," he said, preparing to jump the tree.

"Why?!"

Naruto glanced at the pink haired girl, "Every plan should have a backup plan." With that he jumped away.

The clones formed three hand seals and sunk into the ground. Sasuke and Sakura watched with anticipation on what would happen. They were half surprised when all the three evaded capture, but only because Naruto had expected them to.

The one on the left called out, "You wouldn't know subtlety if it hit you in the face, blondie!" He dispelled the clone, with his teammates doing the same. The clones had actually allowed themselves to be dispelled to appear weak. The truth was they had allowed themselves to be detected.

He called out, "You really thought we'd fall so easily to such pathetic plans? Come on out and we might let you live. You cannot escape!"

With an angry scowl, Sasuke jumped down with Sakura by his side, eyes wide and wary. It was all up to Naruto now.

"Where's the blondie?" the Ame nin, who Sasuke suspected was the leader, asked roughly.

Sasuke answered in a tight tone, "He went to find us a hiding spot after leaving us with the clones."

He was absolutely sure that the leader was smirking at them behind his breathing apparatus and said in a mocking tone, "Alright, kids, hand over your scroll."

Sasuke took out the heaven scroll from his pouch and threw it to the leader, who caught it easily.

He sounded pleased. "A heaven scroll! Perfect! It will go perfectly with our Earth scroll. You two: kill them." The two behind him took out their kunai and advanced.

Sakura stuttered fearfully as she took a step back, "Bu-But you said-"

"I said I might let you live, and I decided that I won't. Now hurry up and kill them," he said impatiently.

"TALLY HO!" Came the sound of Naruto's all too joyous roar. Sasuke and Sakura immediately jumped back, but the three Ame nin made the dire mistake of turning in the direction of the voice.

The "heaven" scroll in the leader's hand revealed itself to be a very effective and explosive tag. Sasuke and Sakura, even while being on the ground, were almost blown back a few more feet from the sheer blast. It was a testament to how dangerous the tags Naruto used were.

"That went quite well," his voice came through the smoke. Sasuke and Sakura looked up to see Naruto grinning, Earth scroll in hand. Sasuke just grunted as he stood up.

"I agree." He was a little disoriented from the blast along with Sakura, but they would be alright in a few seconds.

"Naruto? Are they….?" Sakura asked, really not wanting to know.

Naruto nodded, "Of course they are dead. Anyone would be who was standing as close as those three to the tag." He tossed the Earth scroll to Sasuke, "Keep it with yourself. I'll make the decoys."

As Sasuke and Sakura covered him, Naruto dropped to his knees and took out his sealing supplies. He steadily inked out the seals for the next two minutes, adding a seal to make the scrolls look exactly like the real one, along with a few other additions.

"Alright," Naruto sighed as he packed up his sealing supplies. Handing over the new fakes to Sasuke, who looked confused. Naruto explained, "Change of plans. You are sticking with the fake scrolls, me and Sakura will keep the Earth and Heaven. Remember, there is an addition to the fake scrolls. The new ones that I gave you now are smokescreens, so be careful not to mix them up."

Sasuke nodded and pocketed the scrolls, giving his blonde teammate a nod of thanks. "Ok, same formation as before. This time, we won't be stopping until we reach the tower."

They went through the trees again, with Naruto setting a comfortable pace so as to allow the other two to keep up. He could have used shunshin to get them to the tower faster, but this was a good opportunity to check out any team they come across for the next phase of the exam.

It wasn't too long before problems rose. Naruto tensed as he sensed the very familiar, evil chakra heading their way, and fast. And it wasn't alone.

"Move people, we have a tail," he ordered as he picked up the pace. Sakura and and Sasuke tensed and picked up their pace as well. Naruto motioned for Sasuke to switch positions, as if they were caught up with, Naruto would be able to distract them.

Naruto took a glance behind when he flipped over one of the branches. No one was behind them, but Naruto knew that whoever was following them would be catching up with them anytime now.

Gritting his teeth, he summoned a ninety-nine shadow clones, all of which transformed into the replicas of the original team 7. "Move, dammit move!" he hissed sharply.

The clones took off in different directions, each fake team splitting up. 'Though I suspect it won't be enough,' he grimly thought. He ordered his team, "Alright, just for a short while, move like your ass is on fire! Let's go!" They kicked into high gear and as far away as possible.

He was somewhat relieved when the large signatures got off their backs. Keeping his senses open, he sensed that the signature was far enough that they could take a short break. He signaled his team to stop on a branch.

"I know who was following us now," he revealed as he gulped down some much needed water along with with the others. When the other two looked at him, he said, "One of them was a giant snake that only seemed interested in making me its meal. The other is the bitch from Kusa that I warned you about. She has wiped out ten of the thirty-three team, and she is mad. Bottom line, we need to reach the tower fast. So hold on!"

When the two gave him questioning looks, he sighed impatiently and said, "I'll use the body flicker to move us. Now come on!" He almost yelled.

They grabbed each of his shoulders tightly so they wouldn't be left behind. Naruto was just about to form the ram seal when his danger sense exploded.

He hadn't even molded the chakra for a shunshin, so he instinctively flash stepped to avoid the attack that obliterated the branch they were on.

Reaching the ground, the other two released their hold and got into stances. Sakura was shaking at how close she was from getting blown to pieces. It was only thanks to Naruto's speed that they were able to avoid that.

Sasuke gripped the kunai in his hands tighter as he stared into the dust cloud in front of him. He squashed the tiny twinge of fear that went through him. Naruto was very serious about the Kusa kunoichi being dangerous. Based on Naruto's tone, they were fighting an opponent who was possibly stronger than all three of them combined.

Kunai had immediately snapped into his hands, with wind chakra coursing through them. He stared impassively at the dust cloud, knowing that whatever was behind it, would be possibly threatening their lives in a way much worse than what Zabuza did.

Their first priority was to run away, not fight. Because they had a worse chances of surviving than a snowball in hell. Plans flashed in his mind, each being discarded instantly as he tried to come up with a one that actually gives them a chance.

He wasn't allowed to think further when his eyes widened in alarm. He executed a scissors kick to push his teammates away, just in time for himself to avoid the mouth of the huge snake that tried to swallow him.

'I cannot fight this snake here! I need more space, dammit!' He cursed mentally. He turned in the opposite direction and purposefully set the pace so that he could bait the snake away from his comrades.

Sasuke cursed as he tensed up even more, moving himself in front of Sakura.

"Sasuke-kun, we have to help Naruto!" She screamed, already tensing up to jump when a slick voice, dripping with malicious amusement even while being female, spoke up behind them.

"No need to worry about your friend. He will be dead very shortly. You worry about me."

Both of them turned around and the tension inside them almost doubled when they saw who it was.

It was the kunoichi from Kusa.

XXXXXXX

Naruto had already formulated a plan on what to do when he spotted a clearing. The shadow clones from earlier had all dispelled themselves, so that chakra had come back to Naruto. He landed in the clearing and turned around.

The snake was huge, easily reaching up to seventy feet in length. As soon as he stopped, the snake lunged with its mouth wide open. He immediately jumped back, easily avoiding the mouth. Forming a shadow clone behind the snake, he instantly switched places with it. So now, the clone was in the field of vision of the snake, giving Naruto full access to its unguarded back.

As the clone jumped around the clearing, Naruto hid on a branch and waited for the perfect moment to strike. As soon as he saw the snake getting into position so it was facing the exact opposite direction of the real Naruto, Naruto acted.

He had practiced this until he could do it with just one hand seal, and he was so grateful for it. Clapping his hands together, he did it.

'Suiton: Suidanha!' (Water style: Water severing wave) The stream of water that was expelled from his mouth was razor sharp. So sharp that it could cut through thick boulders like a hot knife through butter.

It cleanly split the head of the snake from its body. The clone whistled as he walked across to the real Naruto, the now dead snake laid across the full clearing.

They both gazed at it for a moment, after which the clone said, "That was downright savage of you."

"Thanks."

He dispelled the clone and tried to piece his thoughts together. He knew that snakes this big were not there in the forest, so this was a summon.

'But there are only two snake summoners. Anko-sensei is not allowed to interfere as the proctor of this exam, so that leaves…..' His face paled rapidly as he came to a horrifying conclusion about just who his team was facing.

He spread out his senses and cursed when he sensed absolute fear from Sasuke and Sakura's numbness. He disappeared in the fastest shunpo he had performed until today.

XXXXXXX

Naruto narrowed his eyes at the immensely potent killing intent that was permeating the air. He landed on a high branch and studied the scene below.

The Kusa bitch was staring at Sasuke with a look of amusement, as if she knew she could end him any instant, but was allowing it to play out for her amusement. Naruto's jaw muscles clenched because she was absolutely right. Hell, she could kill himself any instant! Sasuke stood no chance at all against her. 'Who the hell is this intruder?!' He silently released all his resistance seals.

"Come now, Sasuke-kun, you know you can't win. What will you do?" she chuckled.

Sasuke shivered at the tone but spoke, "It's a scroll you want, right? Take it and leave us!" he threw the fake scroll to the Kusa nin, who probably thought it was just a regular heaven scroll.

He barely refrained from cursing when she just threw it behind her, and the scroll went off in an explosion like the one that killed the team from Ame.

"Ku ku ku. You don't think I didn't know about the little trick your team pulled off?" she mused in a dark tone.

"D-Damn….." Sasuke forced out through gritted teeth. He was gritting them ever since he felt the unnatural killing intent from the kunoichi, to stop from chattering in a show of fear.

He was uncontrollably shaking when he felt her killing intent, and had barely stabbed himself in time to avoid being pierced in the head by her kunai.

The kunoichi moved, scaring Sasuke who hurled shuriken at her. "Stay away from me!"

She dodged it with ease, and was almost upon him when a fist came out of nowhere, smashing into her cheek with such force that she was flown backwards. The woman however, simply spun mid-air and landed gracefully. She absently rubbed her cheek as she stared, impressed with his ability to catch her off guard, and the power behind the strike.

She looked into the impassive face of one Uzumaki Naruto, amused by the resolve in his eyes. Sasuke, for once in his life, was infinitely glad to see his comrade. Sakura almost sunk in relief at his appearance.

"My, my, you escaped my friend, Naruto-kun?"

Naruto's face gave nothing away as he answered, "Your friend is dead." The kunoichi looked even more impressed as she looked at him, noting the lack of any scratches or damage on him.

"Very impressive, Naruto-kun. Not many can dispatch my friend without sustaining damage," she complimented.

Naruto glared at her, and she was faintly reminded of another blonde who glared identically. "Why don't you drop that disguise? You're not fooling me."

The woman regarded him for a moment and then laughed, hard. "You are amusing! What makes you think I'm wearing a disguise?"

Naruto simply stared impassively, "That giant snake of yours was a dead giveaway. Only two people are known to possess the snake summoning contract. I already know the first, which only leaves one option: Orochimaru of the Sannin. The way you lunged at Sasuke is the snake style of taijutsu, which is another giveaway of your identity."

There was no outward reaction from the woman, but inwardly, she was more impressed. 'What analysis! To be able to observe and deduce things so quickly, and with just one look. That's easily jonin level thinking. The power behind his strike was easily jonin level as well, and it was well timed and placed. He must be incredibly talented and skilled. Shame that he is the jinchuriki of the Kyuubi, otherwise that body could be mine,' he silently complained.

Sasuke was barely keeping from shaking. 'Orochimaru of the Sannin?! The S-rank missing nin from Konoha and former student of the Sandaime?! We stand no chance against him…'

"Very cleverly deduced, Naruto-kun," the woman said. "Anything else you can tell me?"

Naruto was on an even higher alert, ready to move at the slightest sign of movement from the Sannin. "Well, it's quite clear that you are after Sasuke and by extension, his sharingan. You sent a summon to dispose of me, and didn't even pay attention to Sakura, instead choosing to pick on Sasuke. Am I wrong?"

Orochimaru chuckled, which turned into a full blown laugh. He stopped laughing and….shed.

The skin of the kunoichi was pulled off to reveal an extremely pale man with long, black hair and golden, slitted eyes surrounded in purple markings, almost like an eye marking. He wore a tan shirt with a long-sleeved black undershirt and a large purple rope around his waist tied in a large knot.

Sasuke and Sakura stared in horror at the most infamous missing nin of Konoha, while Naruto didn't waver from his gaze.

"You are most interesting, Naruto-kun. Unfortunately, it is not you who I came for," he said, looking at Sasuke and licking his mouth with an unnaturally long tongue. Even Naruto was unable to avoid the shudder at the show of creepiness.

He eventually said, "Sorry but, I can't allow you to have your way with him. I need him intact if we want to pass this phase." With that being said, he made the first move.

With lightning speed, he slapped his hand on the ground, a large sealing array erupting from his hand and onto the ground. The clearing was bathed in so much light, that Orochimaru grunted and was forced to shield his eyes, lest he became blind.

When the light died down, the three genin had vanished.

Orochimaru simply chuckled, before following them. 'He's certainly fast.'

Naruto was flash stepping like crazy, his teammates held in fireman's carry.

Sasuke shouted, "Put me down, Uzumaki!"

Naruto didn't miss a beat, "Only if you're as fast as me or faster."

Sasuke shut his mouth and just held on, knowing Naruto was way faster than him. Sakura simply held on for dear life. This was the first time she was moving this fast, or had seen Naruto move this fast.

Naruto was going full throttle, knowing Orochimaru would eventually catch up to them. He was hoping to find some help…..

He sidestepped just in time to avoid being blown away. Orochimaru had caught up to them and was looking highly amused.

Face going impassive, he set Sasuke and Sakura down. "Sasuke, hang back! It's you he wants!"

Sasuke scowled, but heeded the other boy's words and moved back to guard Sakura.

Naruto had leapt forward to meet Orochimaru, fist to fist. They engaged in a furious bout of taijutsu, both of them becoming blurs. Orochimaru's eyes narrowed- this fighting style seemed somewhat familiar, and the boy was doing far too well. Punches and kicks were being blocked quite easily, but finger jabs were coming too close to vital areas. He needed to stop playing around.

Naruto was giving it all, and his frustration was mounting because Orochimaru seemed totally unfazed by his attacks. He was landing hits, but they were barely afflicting any damage. He charged two kunai with wind chakra, increasing his reach. He was forced to duck when snakes erupted from the sannin's sleeves. He flash stepped away, hands lit up by red lightning chakra, causing Orochimaru's eyes to widen.

'Raiton: Rakurai !' (Lightning style: Lightning strike) The red lightning was barely avoided by the Sannin, who jumped sideways. Naruto immediately flash stepped to Orochimaru, who was mid-air and stabbed him in the heart with the wind infused kunai.

His eyes widened when Orochimaru just turned brown and crumbled into mud. His senses told him the real one was fighting Sasuke. He immediately turned and looked above, cursing mentally when he saw Sasuke being pushed back and taunted by Orochimaru. The Uchiha was blocking every blow, but it was hurting every time a hit was blocked if his contorted face was anything to go by.

"How weak you are compared to Naruto-kun, Sasuke-kun!" He chuckled, watching the boy try to land a hit on his person.

Though he jumped back just in time to avoid another punch in the face. Naruto landed by Sasuke, who was lightly panting. Sasuke began to back up, remembering Naruto's words, but a hand kept him in place. He looked at Naruto's impassive expression.

"I can't take him on alone Sasuke. I need your help. It won't beat or kill him, but it might create a chance for us to run away," he said, carefully watching Sasuke.

Sasuke breathed deeply, calming himself down. This was the first time Naruto had asked him for help, and it was perfectly justified. Orochimaru was not someone who could be taken out by even jonin, much less fresh genin. If fighting together gave them a chance to retreat, he was willing to do it.

"Let's do it."

Naruto smirked for the first time since the fight with orochimaru started and both the boys turned to Orochimaru, who chuckled seeing the looks in their eyes.

"Fighting together? Even that-" He was forced to block Naruto, who had flash stepped in front of him and used the momentum to increase the hit of his kick. Sasuke converged in from above, and both the boys started fighting him.

Sasuke was giving it all he had, and Naruto was more than glad to to have a partner. He and Sasuke were perfectly managing to fight together, their blows not landing on each other. Weaving between each other's attacks without even grazing the other, the two managed to put a surprised Orochimaru on the defense. Naruto was faster than Sasuke, which meant that Orochimaru had to defend himself from two fighters of irregular speed. His body had to react fast and slow, at different times.

Not that difficult for him, but the time it took for him to get used to it, he had already taken too many blows. Jumping back, he formed the snake seal.

"Futon: Daitoppa!" (Wind style: Great breakthrough) A huge blast of air roared towards the two boys, who split up to avoid the blast of air.

Sasuke sped through hand seals. "Katon: Gokakyu no jutsu!" (Fire style: Great Fireball) A huge fireball made its way to Orochimaru, who simply jumped sideways. He was surprised when suddenly, chains of water wrapped around him and smashed him to the ground. He looked up to see Naruto's fist heading towards his face. Instantly switching places with a log, he avoided the glowing fist of dense, blue chakra that would have likely cracked his jaw. He vanished in a burst of speed and dispelled the shadow clone who was maintaining the water chains. He ran around the boys in a blur, trying to disorient them., but mostly to see if they could follow him.

Naruto and Sasuke stood back to back. Naruto was able to follow Orochimaru with his eyes and slower perception, though he doubted his body could move at that speed. Sasuke's two tomoe sharingan was slowly getting used to Orochimaru's speed, when Orochimaru dashed towards Sasuke.

Sasuke acted on instinct, grabbing Naruto's left arm and spinning him once. Naruto let momentum take over, having no time for surprise at Sasuke's choice of attack, and let himself be thrown forward feet first. His shoes met an arm, which he used to jump back to Sasuke. "Che," Naruto said in irritation and jumped up. Orochimaru made to follow him when a cry distracted him

"You focus on me!" Sasuke shouted as he dashed to Orochimaru, engaging the man. The Sannin was greatly surprised that all trace of fear was gone from Sasuke. He easily blocked all strikes coming from the boy, but noticed it at the last moment- a blonde blur with fist outstretched to meet his stomach.

He managed to block it, but was sent skidding to the edge of the branch they were fighting on. He was about to chop the boy unconscious, when a puff of smoke revealed it to be a shadow clone.

Sasuke knew how to take advantage of an opening. So when he saw the puff of smoke from Naruto's shadow clone, he wasted no time. Dashing forward, he kicked Orochimaru. He was unsurprised when the man blocked it in a cross position, but the momentum at which he came created enough force to throw orochimaru off the branch.

The pale man only had a moment to show his shock before he was grabbed from the waist and sped headfirst into the lower branch.

Naruto had jumped up to a higher branch and shot downwards with great speed, catching the missing nin from the waist and smashing him headfirst into a lower branch. He honestly did not know how him and Sasuke were working in a tag team so perfectly, reading each other's intentions so clearly, but was glad for it.

Sasuke landed next to Naruto, and both watched in disbelief as what Naruto had smashed into the ground was revealed to be a mud clone. They both turned to look the other in his eyes, nodding to each other. Neither of them knew how they communicated like this, but both of them knew what had to be done.

Naruto's senses kicked in first, showing Orochimaru heading towards them. He forced himself to react slowly and allowed himself, as well as Sasuke, to be hit. Both flew back from the force of the hit, and pretended to be knocked out as Orochimaru walked closer.

"What teamwork, you two! I've never seen such fine teamwork before in my life, even my own team. Surprising me with every move is not a feat anyone can perform, but you two managed it very impressively," he praised with a crazy glint in his eyes.

Naruto chose to activate the explosive tags he had stuck to the back of Orochimaru's clothing. Orochimaru flew forward and landed face first, caught unawares.

"Now, Sasuke! Trap him!"

"Yeah!"

Both of them took out shuriken and held them between the fingers of both their hands. Giving the Sannin no time to recover, they each split up.

Orochimaru slowly got up, the burns on his back slowly healing. He had barely recovered when he was wrapped up in ninja wire. Glancing towards his right, he saw Sasuke lodging the shuriken wrapped in ninja wire into a tree on his right. On the left, Naruto had done the same. The wrap around him was so tight, Orochimaru mentally winced as his back hit the bark and the wire dug into his skin, drawing blood. 'Where is all this teamwork coming from?! Kabuto said they did not work together at all!' He enforced his skin with chakra when he saw it.

Naruto and Sasuke landed on the tree in front of him.

"Let's go, Naruto!"

"Yeah!"

Sasuke sped through four hand seals while Naruto formed the snake seal.

"Katon-"

"Futon-"

"Ryuka Daitoppa no jutsu!" they both shouted together. The large dragon shaped flame that came out of Sasuke's mouth was enhanced by the wind jutsu used by Naruto.

Orochimaru watched with wide eyes as the utterly humungous dragon made of fire sped towards him. The flames barreled into him, burning his skin off.

Naruto and Sasuke watched, with the latter panting heavily and the former critically gazing, as the jutsu hit Orochimaru. Hell, the combination jutsu was so strong that it literally tore apart the area where it impacted. Orochimaru fell downwards, consumed in flames and the upper half of the tree falling as well.

Sasuke fell to his knees, trying to catch some breath. He had never spent so much chakra at once, ever. Looking up, he saw Naruto intently staring at the place where the jutsu had hit.

"Did we…. get him?" he asked between deep breaths. Right now, he could care less if Naruto was exhausted or not.

"It certainly looks like it," Naruto murmured, trying to see with his senses if they indeed got him. Turning to Sasuke, "It doesn't matter if we got him or not. We have a chance to run-"

That was all he could say when something pink, wet and slimy wrapped around him. He looked down and disgustedly noted that it was a tongue. It pulled him away from Sasuke, who had a similar expression of disgust.

He came face to face with Orochimaru, who had not a single scratch on him-only his clothes were a bit burnt. He had a smirk on his face as he brought up a hand, five purple kanji lighting up on his fingertips. "That's enough out of you, Naruto-kun." It was good for him that Naruto was channeling chakra to try and escape, making his seal visible.

Naruto's eyes went wide as he recognized the kanji. He had extensively studied this particular seal. The Gogyo Fuin (Five elements seal) was a seal that his mother had highlighted in her notes. It was a seal that was mostly used to throw off the chakra control of a jinchuriki. He had extensively researched it in relation to his own seal, the eight-trigrams seal, from the notes that his father made while studying it.

He hadn't mastered the eight-trigrams sealing style completely, but he knew enough to know what would happen if Orochimaru applied it on him. His seal consisted of two Four Symbols Seals, creating the Eight trigrams seal. The Five Elements Seal was an odd numbered seal; if it was applied over his even numbered seal, his contact with Kurama would be cut off. Speaking of whom…

'Naruto! Move, you idiot! You know what would-' That was all he could hear from Kurama before Orochimaru hissed.

"Gogyo Fuin!" His arm shot to make contact with Naruto's seal.

PAIN. It exploded onto Naruto, overwhelming his senses and setting his nerve endings on fire. It was such unmatched agony, that his vision blackened moments before he did. He couldn't even scream in pain when he was suddenly unconscious. The last thing he saw before falling asleep was Orochimaru throwing him off.

XXXXXXX

Sakura was in complete awe as she witnessed the tag teaming between Naruto and Sasuke. She had never even imagined that Naruto and Sasuke, who seemed complete opposites of each other, could work so perfectly. It was only the seriousness of their situation that stopped her from cheering her on.

She pumped a fist up in victory when she saw the Sannin getting swallowed by the huge fire jutsu that Naruto and Sasuke cast together. Her feeling of joy turned to downright horror when she saw that Orochimaru had survived, without a scratch.

It was only pure reflex that she managed to pin Naruto to a tree before he fell to his death. She watched, utterly terrified -but she got in front of Sasuke with a kunai held in reverse grip. She wouldn't let anything happen to Sasuke, she thought. Orochimaru suddenly sprung forward-to her disgust and horror- with his neck elongated and extended, fangs barred.

Sasuke pushed her aside, allowing the snake nin to sink his fangs into the boy's neck, causing some sort of seal to appear. His scream though…it was terrible and she was sick of hearing it.

Sasuke fell to his knees, still screaming, and then he abruptly stopped and slumped forward, unconscious but still in pain. Orochimaru chuckled and looked down at Sasuke with satisfaction in his eyes. "Now, show me more of your power, Sasuke-kun. You were good, but can be far greater than Naruto-kun."

He then glanced at the pink haired girl, who flinched at his gaze. He chuckled, "Don't worry Sakura-san, you are not my target. If you quietly hand me your earth scroll, I won't kill you." He watched as the pink haired girl pulled out the earth scroll from her pouch and held it out with trembling hands. He took it from her hands and promptly vanished in a swirl of leaves.

Sakura fell to her knees in relief and exhaustion. She shivered at the way he addressed her. It felt completely wrong. She looked at Naruto hanging from the kunai on the tree and Sasuke on the ground, and for the first time in a long time, she felt completely and utterly hopeless.

[AN: A skip here, only until Naruto wakes up]

XXXXXXX

Naruto slowly opened his eyes, groaning in pain as he got. 'That Orochimaru is on tough bastard,' he grimaced. 'Kurama, you there?'

The only thing that greeted him was the great demon's silence.

'Yep, as I suspected. He's been completely cut off. And I can't undo this seal because because the counter requires chakra control of a jonin at the least, not to mention that it will require a foreign chakra other than mine.' He made a half ram seal and tried to create a shadow clone, but it looked worse than death. Pale skin tone, as sturdy as a blade of grass, not to mention he could barely get up from lying on the ground before getting dispelled.

Naruto tried it again, this time with the cross seal. He nodded in relief when a healthy shadow clone appeared. Dispelling it, he tried to sense chakra signatures, but had much difficulty in molding the chakra in the required way. He sighed and got up, stumbling from the head rush that he got. He steadied himself for a few seconds, then nodded. Other than terrible chakra control, he was physically fine….mostly.

As he stepped out from the underside of the tree, his eyes widened when he saw what was going on.

Sakura was on the ground, looking like she was attacked by all the terror in the world. Team ten was behind the bushes, looking terrified. Their bodies were filled with tension as they gazed at the scene before them. He even saw Tenten and an unknown boy, standing on a branch, trying to decide what to do. Seeing their gazes fixed on an unconscious Lee, he deduced that this was Team nine.

Sasuke was standing, but he looked so much different from the last time Naruto had seen him. He was covered in black marks, almost like waves in a pattern upon his skin. And he was standing behind a member of the Oto team, Zaku, if he remembered correctly, with a leg on his back and pulling on his arms.

Zaku was screaming his throat raw, though Naruto couldn't blame him after seeing the way Sasuke was tearing his arms off. Wasting no time, he acted. Sasuke was out of his mind right now, no doubt being influenced by the evil, tainted chakra that was pouring off of him in waves.

In a single flash step, he appeared in front of Sasuke. He was grateful that the flash step was simple enough that he only needed to push off after building up chakra in his feet. He delivered a chakra enhanced open palm thrust right into Sasuke's stomach, knocking the air out of his shocked teammate.

Sasuke was thrilled at the power that was coursing through him. It addled his mind, but he couldn't care less. It was like an adrenaline shot to his system, which made him feel more powerful than ever before. He needed to test this power out. The feeling of this power….his goal of killing his brother seemed a lot closer suddenly.

He made short work of the Oto team and was about to permanently rip the arms off the last one. He was enjoying this, the effortlessness with which he was dispatching them. He absently wondered if this was how Naruto felt. Being stronger than anyone else standing before yourself.

He was so into the task of ripping arms off that he was caught off guard when Naruto suddenly appeared in front of him, thrusting a palm in his stomach. All the breath left him in an instant as his hold on the Oto nin's arms loosened.

Naruto turned towards Zaku, who was close to losing consciousness. He looked at the nin whose face was covered with bandages. "Take him away before my teammate tries that again," he ordered.

The nin gulped as he gazed into the icy blues of the blonde. His stance, his way of speaking, the sheer power and resolve in those eyes….he had no doubt that this guy was somewhere at the top in power rankings of genin. He doubted even Sasuke could match him with the curse mark's power. He also knew that he was no match for him.

"Naruto, is it?" he asked, making Naruto narrow his eyes and nod. He slowly held out their team's earth scroll. "You are, no doubt, too strong for us to take on. So I'll make an exchange- let us leave, and we will give you our earth scroll." He dropped the scroll at Naruto's feet.

Naruto's thoughts raced as he calmly picked up the earth scroll. Had they lost theirs? The Gogyo Fuin had knocked him out for a day, that much he knew. He put the earth scroll in his left hip pouch and mentally sighed in relief when he felt the heaven scroll exactly where he had put it. He kept his posture straight. No need to indicate that he was, at the moment, weak as hell.

He nodded and watched as the nin picked up his teammate and took to the trees. He was about to sit down to take a breather- he had still not fully recovered- when his danger sense exploded. Shikamaru 's voice rang out an instant later.

"NARUTO! WATCH OUT!"

Naruto instinctively responded. His upper body bent down, left leg lifting high behind to catch Sasuke right in his chin. The counterattack knocked Sasuke back.

Naruto watched in complete surprise, "Sasuke?! What the hell are you doing?!"

His heart dropped seeing the smirk on Sasuke's face. Sasuke spoke, "Testing this power, Uzumaki. I've never felt so powerful before! It feels like I can take on anyone, even Itachi! But first, I will see how you fare against this power! I will finally beat you today!" He was sounding more like a power hungry maniac at the end than the emo bastard Naruto was used to dealing with.

He jumped back, yelling out, "Everyone stay back!" Though this was bad for him. He was far from his peak condition, whereas Sasuke was fighting him with a powerup. He would have to knock the guy out. That was his only option right now.

Sasuke rushed at him with speed Naruto clearly remembered Sasuke not having the day before. He blocked the punch to his face, but was forced to remain on the defense as Sasuke did not let up his assault. He grunted as he felt the force behind Sasuke's strikes.

"Sasuke, stop it! We are teammates, not enemies!"

Sasuke only laughed, "Ha! That doesn't matter to me! You will go down today!" He then ducked as Naruto pulled out a kunai and made rapid slashes at him. Sasuke grit his teeth when he was forced to dodge every slash with a hair's breadth.

But he also observed that he was easily reading Naruto's movements. Having gotten used to Orochimaru's speed, Naruto's was quite slower. He took advantage of an opening and caught his hand, giving the blonde's wrist a thrust that launched the kunai a few feet above their heads.

Naruto wasted no time and jumped up, performing a flawless front flip that allowed his right heel to kick the kunai directly at Sasuke's face.

Predictably, Sasuke easily dodged it, allowing the kunai to stick into the ground behind him, following with what was an effortless block to Naruto's left leg that was coming down on him. Naruto used the hand to flip off twenty feet back.

Sasuke scoffed, "Do you think such weak and pitiful maneuvers can defeat me? Get real!" He then sped through hand signs.

"Katon: Ryuka no jutsu!" (Fire style: Dragon flame jutsu)

Naruto watched wide eyed as a huge flame shaped like a dragon headed towards him. He barely completed the hand signs in time when he was swallowed by flames.

Sasuke smirked as he watched Naruto getting hit by his jutsu head on. When the flames dispersed, instead of seeing the expected form of his teammate covered in burns, his eyes widened when all he saw was a kunai lying in the middle of the flames.

He had no time to react when he was grabbed in a tight choke hold from behind. Naruto grunted as he struggled to keep the choke on Sasuke. Sasuke's jutsu was powerful, extraordinarily so, but the drawback was equally big as well.

The huge wall of fire had cut off Sasuke's vision of him, which allowed Naruto to substitute with the kunai lodged behind Sasuke. The Konoha teams got out from their spots and in front of them, looking tensed.

Shikamaru lived up to his reputation as a genius when he correctly deduced the reason behind Sasuke's momentary madness. That evil, tainted chakra that was clearly not Sasuke's must have caused this, he realized. He was ready for the moment when Naruto would call for help. He had also noticed, despite Naruto hiding it very well, that Naruto was banged up as well. He was not in peak condition, and stood very low chance against an enhanced Sasuke. Though he was surprised, yet again, when his blonde friend managed to put Sasuke in a position where he held the advantage. Naruto had tightened his choke, but Sasuke was still putting up a vicious struggle.

He tentatively called out, "Naruto, do you…?"

Naruto just grunted a reply, "Don't worry, Shikamaru," he grunted as he leant his head back to avoid a headbutt and a broken nose, "He just needs to calm do-oof!" He grunted when Sasuke slammed an elbow into his ribs.

Naruto finally let his anger show. "Why you!" In a show of savageness that surprised all, Naruto, who still had the choke on Sasuke, slammed his captive's head to the tree nest to him, hard. Sasuke went down like a sack of potatoes, the black marks receding from his skin.

Hell, Naruto had smashed Sasuke's head into the bark so hard that even the bark had cracked a bit.

Naruto panted hard as he stared at the unconscious form of his teammate. This fight had taken a lot more out of him than he expected. 'The Five Elements Seal is proving to be troublesome,' he thought tiredly.

Shikamaru watched as his friend almost tipped forward to face plant, and immediately caught him, gently sitting him on the ground.

"Are you alright, Naruto?" He asked in concern. He had never seen Naruto look even winded. But now, all he could see was exhaustion and hurt. There wasn't a single trace of the usual energy that Naruto always kept contained in him.

Naruto chuckled, "No…I'm really not, Shika." He wanted nothing more than to just sleep, but a part of his mind was telling him that they still needed to reach the tower.

Chouji walked up to him, "Can you keep going, though?"

Naruto slowly stood up, and both the boys tensed when the saw him sway a little before righting himself. Putting a hand in his hip pouch, he took out a soldier pill and was about to swallow it when he stopped. He really didn't need any more exhaustion when the effects of the pill ran out. He put it back.

"Yeah, I'm good….."

He almost fell back down when he was hugged by a sobbing Sakura. He took a moment to realize how terrified she was. He just wrapped his arms around her, slowly stroking her hair, which was cut, now that he realized it.

"Thank kami you are alright!" She sniffled into his chest. She was so relieved when Sasuke had come to her rescue, but that relief had turned to terror when she saw how ruthlessly Sasuke dealt with the other team. She almost couldn't take it anymore when Naruto appeared.

She watched in anticipation as Naruto narrowly scraped a victory against Sasuke and managed to knock him out. Naruto looked to be in worse condition, but she sobbed in relief when he managed to win.

He released Sakura, who looked up at him with tearful and fearful eyes. He kept his hands on her shoulders and said in a serious voice, "Sakura, we need to reach the tower. We can no longer delay. Shikamaru!"

The said boy straightened up at the call. "We're moving! We will meet you at the tower!" He nodded, even though a part of him was concerned for his friend.

"What about Lee?" Sakura asked worriedly, looking over to the unconscious boy. Naruto looked at him with thoughtfulness when a voice cut through his musings.

"We'll be taking him. I suppose he got into another fight he couldn't handle?" A boy- Hyuga, upon seeing the eyes- with long brown hair pulled back in a low ponytail and hitai-ate on his forehead said, and with him was Tenten, who looked at him in concern.

"Don't worry Tenten, I'm good for now," he assured her.

The said girl sighed, "I can totally see that. I better see you at the tower, blondie." Neji picked up Lee, slinging him over their shoulder and with a nod to Tenten, they were gone.

"That was quite abrupt," Ino mumbled, frowning.

Naruto said, "That's how they do. Well, we better get going as well," he reminded them. With a goodbye to team ten, they departed in different directions.

Naruto made a shadow clone, who picked up Sasuke bridal style and with a signal, they started running. He deliberately kept to the ground because right now, he was body was hurting with every step. He doubted he could tree hop in his current condition. That damn snake had really messed up with his chakra control, he lamented.

"Naruto, what about Sasuke-kun?" Sakura's timid voice broke through his thoughts.

Naruto glanced back at her, and then at Sasuke who was still knocked out. He would have applied a seal on him to keep him knocked out, but applying seals with just your hands and chakra required high chunin level chakra control, which Naruto really didn't have right now.

"He will wake up in a while, Sakura," he vaguely replied. Even he wasn't sure how long would it take for Sasuke to wake up, with how hard he had slammed him against the tree. He was also worried on how Sasuke would react once he woke up. Sasuke was already sour on being weaker than him, but now that he got beaten by a weaker Naruto while himself being powered up more than ever? Naruto really didn't want to think about it.

He and Sakura kept running in silence and by the time it was late evening, the tower finally came into view. He turned to Sakura, fishing out his storage scroll and taking out two water cans.

"One small break, then we rest directly at the tower," he said, taking a sip of water. Sakura nodded at his words, before looking at Sasuke in concern. The said boy was on the ground, the shadow clone carrying him dispelled for the moment.

They finished drinking and Naruto was about to summon another clone when Sasuke stirred. He stopped, and both of them looked to Sasuke in anticipation, who sat up, groaning.

Sasuke slowly opened his eyes, thankful for the dark sky. Groaning, he sat up, his body unusually stiff. He turned his head saw his two teammates, looking at him in concern. He tried to remember what happened. He remembered waking up at least. 'What the hell happened? I woke up….Sakura was being attacked by….the Oto team? After that, I was suddenly…powerful?' his memory drew a blank after that, but he winced as the mark on his shoulder burned a little.

"What happened?" He asked Naruto in a low groan. He did not notice Naruto blink in confusion, nor the slight relaxing of his shoulders.

Naruto couldn't believe it. He wanted to, but it was better to confirm. "You don't remember?"

An annoyed face looked at him, "I wouldn't have asked if I did, idiot."

Sakura opened her mouth to tell that Naruto had knocked him out of his temporary insanity, but a look from Naruto silenced her. She gave him a confused look, silently asking why, but Naruto shook his head.

Naruto turned to Sasuke, "An unlucky circumstance is what happened. The Oto team ambushed us in the branches. A hail of kunai came towards us, forcing us apart. You just happened to land on a branch that had wet moss on it. Your foot slipped, but luckily, since it was a lower branch, you only smacked your head instead of breaking your neck," he smoothly lied.

He was really glad for what actually happened. He wondered if it was just his luck that Sasuke suffered short-term memory loss. It was better if Sasuke's defeat was kept secret. He handed a water can to the boy, who nodded gratefully. While he was drinking, Naruto took Sakura aside and explained.

"Listen Sakura, Sasuke cannot know that I knocked him out," he whispered.

Sakura asked in confusion and a little bit of fear, "But why?"

Naruto looked at her in seriousness, "You saw how he acted when he tapped into that power right?" At Sakura's nod he continued, "He's already insecure as it is, about being strong enough or not. The truth might send him over the edge again. You really don't want him attacking us, do you?"

He was glad that Sakura finally saw the truth in his words. He turned back to Sasuke, who had finished drinking the entire water can.

"You ready to move Sasuke? The tower is only two miles out now."

Sasuke chucked the water can into a nearby bush. "Let's move. We'll stop at the tower."

He was about to take the lead when Sakura stopped him, "A-Ano, Sasuke-kun? Naruto still hasn't recovered from Orochimaru's attack. We have to move slowly, so it's better if Naruto took the lead."

Sasuke was surprised at Sakura's suggestion and looked at Naruto. Now that his head was clear, he was surprised how tired and exhausted Naruto looked. "What did Orochimaru do to you?"

"Fucked up my chakra control," was the blunt reply he received. He nodded in understanding, though he was still sour about not taking the lead.

The team started running again, and Sasuke was surprised that they did not take to the branches. Closely looking at Naruto, he narrowed his eyes when he saw Naruto's slightly winced face. It was hurting the blonde to even run.

They finally reached the tower, and Naruto almost fell from exhaustion when Sasuke caught him. "I didn't know a simple chakra suppression seal could do this to you of all people," he said with narrowed eyes.

Naruto weakly shrugged. Sasuke then seemed to think for a moment and asked again.

"Can't you use fuinjutsu to fix it?"

Naruto glanced at him tiredly, "The chakra control I require to perform the seal is beyond me right now. I'll need someone else to fix it."

With that, they walked into the tower, with Naruto's arm supported around Sasuke's shoulder and Sasuke's arm supporting his waist. When they entered, they encountered a riddle.

If you do not possess heaven, gain knowledge and be prepared. If you do not possess earth, run through the fields and see strength. If you open both Heaven and Earth, dangerous paths will turn safe. This is the secret of something something. It shall lead you on your way.

Naruto did not even need to think. "It's telling us to open the scrolls."

Sasuke and Sakura nodded. Sakura pulled out her Earth scroll, while Naruto handed the heaven scroll to Sasuke. Both of them slowly opened it, unsure whether it's a trap or not.

Naruto instantly recognized the seals in the scrolls and exclaimed, "It's a summoning seal! Throw it away!"

Both Sasuke and Sakura did as Naruto said, tensing up in preparation of any threat. They were not prepared for Iruka popping out of them, at first with a smile and a wave, then horror took over his features when he saw how badly they were beaten up, especially Naruto.

"Kami, what happened to you three?" He stuttered.

Naruto took the lead, stepping forward. "Iruka-sensei, is it possible for me to meet Hokage-jiji sometime tomorrow? I've got some very grave news."

Iruka shook his head, "The next phase of this exam is in three days Naruto. And in that period, the none of the genin are allowed to interact with their senseis, much less the Hokage."

Naruto sighed and motioned Iruka to come closer. Once he was, he whispered in the man's ear. "I'm pretty sure the news of Orochimaru being in the exams and ambushing us is quite important."

Iruka's eyes, if possible, widened further in horror. "Orochimaru?!" he exclaimed in horror. He then regained his composure and said, "I'll be sure to report this to the Hokage, but you can't meet him right now."

Naruto narrowed his eyes, "I've got more to tell."

"Then tell me. I'll relay it to the Hokage."

Naruto waved his finger, "Uh uh, Iruka-sensei. Orochimaru is an S-rank missing nin and so, any information relating to him is S-rank. Only the Hokage can know. If he tells it you, no problem. But I'm only telling the Hokage." He even crossed his arms, showing that he was not changing his opinion.

Iruka grit his teeth. Of all the times for Naruto to be as stubborn as a mule, it had to be now! But he also knew that he would only be wasting his efforts trying to convince him otherwise.

He sighed in resignation, "Alright, I'll tell the Hokage that you've got news about Orochimaru," he hastily continued upon seeing the satisfaction on Naruto's face, "But it's up to him if he wants to visit you in the three day period. Even the Hokage has to follow the rules, you know."

Naruto shrugged, his work completed. There was no way jiji wouldn't come to see him. Orochimaru was his former student and a very infamous missing nin. Of course he would want to know why his student was lurking around Konoha during the chunin exams. Besides, he was also counting on jiji to remove the Gogyo Fuin from him. He wanted to be in top form for the next phase.

"Alright, I'll take you three to your room now." Iruka beckoned them to follow and started walking. Naruto took a step and almost cried out in frustration when he almost faceplanted, again. If not for Sasuke catching him in time, his nose would be surely broken. The three followed in the same way they had entered the tower, with Sasuke supporting Naruto. They went up a set of stairs, past a canteen and into a hallway where he opened a room for them. They entered gratefully.

"Naruto, get some rest and come out only when you feel rested, okay?" He received a tired nod in return. He turned to Naruto's teammates, "You two, take care as well." He closed the door after that.

Sasuke helped Naruto to a bed and seated him. Naruto nodded his thanks to him and not bothering to say anything else, he flopped face first on to his bed and was out like a light