Chapter 38

"I-What-Why?!" Kurotsuchi asked, looking around clearly very confused and trying to make some sense of the situation she was now in.

Me, for my part, was cursing inside my mind. Of all the things to come across as we moved through the Forest, we just had to find the Iwa equivalent of a Princess being chased by Gaara of all people. 'Just my luck, isn't it?'

"Princess, calm the fuck down and stop shouting," I told her, keeping an metaphorical eye out for any danger through Web Sense. Kabuto and Yoroi, for their part, were simply standing around like I told them to, ready to assist if needed. I wondered if the former was looking for a chance to do something though.

"Don't call me that!" 'Of course she keeps screaming, why wouldn't she?' I thought to myself, as I gave her my best unimpressed expression. I saw blood rush to her face, but whether it was due to embarrassment or anger, I wasn't sure.

"Anyway, we have to move," I said as I stood up and cracked my neck. We really did, not only because Gaara could get to us anytime, but also because I wanted this damn Test to be over already. "I know where your team went, more or less. So, we'll take you there and then we'll be on our-"

"Why did you help me?" She asked (more like demanded, really), taking a defensive stance that made me want to roll my eyes. It was somewhat justified, but still. I had just saved her freaking life, after all.

"Because we are the good guys and we do things out of the goodness of our hearts, of course," I replied with a wide grin, which got all three people to raise eyebrows at me. I clicked my tongue at them in annoyance. "Because you were shouting about being the granddaughter of the Tsuchikage, why else?" I answered this time. "Can you imagine the fallout we would have if you died in our village?"

"The waivers-"

"Right, because Iwa will surely care about that and not jump at the chance to declare war to Konoha," I countered instantly, not even letting her get her words out. It obviously annoyed her, but honestly, I didn't care.

I was having a very shitty day as it was, what with having met fucking Orochimaru, having gotten the thrice be damned Curse Mark on me, that still burned my shoulder even if Kabuto had helped with that, and I had to keep the company of two people that worked for the bastard still. Now, on top of that, I had to deal with this bullshit situation and I really wasn't feeling up to being understanding and patient.

If I wasn't so sure that I had dealt with the mind part of the Cursed Mark, I would have been worried. It was good that it was a three against one and I was pretty sure of our chances. Otherwise, this would have been a very bad situation to be so angry at everything.

"My grandfather wouldn't-"

"Look, I really don't care," I interrupted again, which probably wasn't helping her temper, but I could care less about that either. "We'll get you to your team, and then you can do whatever the fuck you want. I did what I wanted and avoided a war, now I just want to get to the tower and get some sleep. Now, Yoroi, get her moving and follow me. If she does anything funny, drain her."

"Sure thing, Eiji," The guy said, and I just knew he was smirking under the mask. Why, I didn't know.

"Don't touch me!" Kurotsuchi screamed as she jumped away.

'Bloodlust.'

"Princess," I spoke again with a smile on my face. "You are gonna come with us and when we find your team, I'll be very happy to not have to deal with you anymore. But I'm having a bad day so far, and I don't want to put up with your spoiled brat antics."

"How dare-" She stopped talking as my smile disappeared.

"Maybe we should have just left her," Yoroi pointed out and, for a second, I almost liked the guy.

"Yeah, maybe… you know what, I don't know what we are still doing here," I realized with a sigh. "We saved her, job done. Good luck, princess. Let's go, guys," And with that said, I stood up and walked away, looking for the perfect route to follow with Web Sense as Kabuto and Yoroi followed silently. They were a pain in the ass to have around, but at least they kept their mouths shut. Point for Orochimaru's lackeys over Iwa shinobi.

"Wait," Kurotsuchi called out. "I… could use the help."

"Wow, that sounded painful," I pointed out, making her grit her teeth. With a deep breath in, I calmed myself a bit. "Good. With that out of the way, let's get the Princess to her team and finish this goddamned Exam." Behind me, I heard said girl grumbling under her breath. Tough luck, the name had stuck. "Keep an eye on her, guys. Now, let's go."

And with that said, I jumped on a tree branch and started moving. I could feel the three of them following me, with Kurotsuchi right behind me and the other two watching her back. At least they were efficient faux-teammates.

As we traveled, I followed the trail left by her teammates with Web Sense, which was much easier said than done. After all, the technique gave me a 3D image of everything within the radius of the jutsu. It didn't give me colors, or scent, or sound, but I could 'see' the shapes of everything. It was a weird thing to get used to, especially while I was leveling it, since it added more and more detail as it went.

Focusing on the physical clues of where the two of them had gone was difficult. I had to guide myself with the scrapped bark of the tree branches that they had used to run away and little else. It wasn't the best, but I managed to at least keep track of the general direction they took, only straying a bit at a time when the signs weren't as clear.

Soon enough, I was able to pick up on their presence. Or, at least, what I was sure was their presence, considering that it was two people alone. The fact that one of them was pacing around and the other was a… pretty big guy, just like one of Kurotsuchi's teammates only served to prove my suspicion.

"And, here we are, Princess," I said once we stopped on a tree branch over the clearing her team had stopped at. The two had obviously sensed us, but both their guards came down instantly at the sight of the girl. A bit stupid, considering that Transformation was a thing, but they were pretty worried, obviously. Kurotsuchi herself didn't even argue the nickname this time, as she literally flew the rest of the way towards the fat guy and engulfed him in a hug… as much as she could, considering the man's size. "Let's go," I told Yoroi and Kabuto, who both nodded.

"Wait-" The Iwa girl called out, but I had already put a hand on both of my teammates' shoulders by then. Less than a second later, we disappeared in a cloud of smoke with a Flicker.

[}-o-{]

Team Gaara

"It was him," The red-haired jinchuriki growled.

"Him?" His sister asked, almost making him snap.

"The guy with red eyes?" Kankuro guessed, showing his younger brother that he was more than a goddamn idiot for once.

"Yes, it was him," Gaara repeated, one of his hands balling into a fist until his knuckles turned white. The sand around them moved, making both his siblings tensed up before they relaxed as it crushed one of the nearby trees. 'If only I didn't need them,' He thought with a snarl. 'Useless, the both of them.'

"So, the bastard's gonna pay, huh? Good," The older brother let out a satisfied smirk.

'I can't believe these two,' Temari thought to herself, wisely keeping the words to herself. Between Gaara's crazed bloodlust and Kankuro's wounded pride, they were going to ruin their mission or, worse still, get the three of them killed.

[}-o-{]

Team Kurotsuchi

"You ok?" Nojiko continued fussing over her until-then-missing team member, looking Kurotsuchi up and down searching for wounds or anything of the sort. The blue-haired girl had obviously been very worried about her female teammate.

"Yes, I'm fine," Said girl grumbled, still embarrassed that she had needed to be saved like some damsel in distress and then she had needed the Konoha nin's help again to find her team. She would, however, admit that she owed the red-eyed bastard one. And she would find a way to pay him back. Begrudgingly, but she would.

"How did you end up with a team of the Leaf?" Akatsuchi asked, sounding more surprised than accusatory, although Kurotsuchi should have expected as much.

"They saved me from the Sand freak," She explained simply, gaining surprised looks from her teammates. "The red-eyed one distracted the Suna nin and then Flickered me away. Said it was to avoid Iwa declaring war on Konoha."

"We would never do that!" Nojiko exclaimed indignantly, much like Kurotsuchi herself had done not so long ago. Akatsuchi, for his part, grimaced, telling the other two all they needed to know about what he thought on the matter.

While Nojiko argued her point with their male teammate, Kurotsuchi frowned. For as much as she denied it, she knew there was a fair chance that her grandfather would have done just that if she had died. And even if he hadn't wanted to, there were a considerable number of people that resented Konoha with a passion for what the Fourth Hokage had done to them. True, war took lives and everybody knew that. But what the Leaf late leader had done was not a battle, it was a massacre. And as such, it had left a stain in the history of Iwa, a permanent mark of shame and weakness that many wanted to remove at any cost.

There was a reason Iwa hadn't sent many teams to the Exams. Her grandfather had had to pick teams that wouldn't cause issues with Konoha.

As such, her death might have caused a war despite her grandfather's wishes. It would have certainly motivated the warmongering idiots to demand another war. 'And it was so close,' Kurotsuchi realized with a shudder as she remembered the sand closing in on her. It was a sobering thought, that one. With as much power as she had and as much protection as she had due to her family… she could still be killed. Easily at that. And not only that, she could have brought a lot of suffering with her death too.

'Got to be more careful,' She decided with a sigh.

[}-o-{]

Eiji Satou

I grunted as I felt a stab of pain on my shoulder, the Cursed Mark apparently deciding to act up after I used Chakra. It had grown more and more noticeable through whatever Kabuto had done, as I used more and more jutsu. I needed to-

"Everything ok, Eiji?" Kabuto asked, feigning concern and I almost scoffed at him. My mood was clearly not the best. What is more, I didn't even remember the last time I had been so angry and annoyed for so long. Which brought me back to my previous thought.

"Give me a minute," I said as I sat down with my legs crossed and closed my eyes. Going back to my mindscape, I mentally noted how it was probable that I would be doing that a lot more than I had in the past. Checking on the Snake mind-leech, I noticed that it had moved a bit, something that I hadn't thought possible.

That prompted me to take a look at everything again. Evidently, there was something that I wasn't quite getting there. Still, I did my best to reset the bastard in the middle of the Void and, for good measure, move the flaming purple-chakra thing the pseudo-horrocrux had brought with it towards a new place. I settled it outside the village, on top of a stone platform.

'I'll have to check on the bastard regularly, it seems,' I thought, more than a little worried that my solution wasn't as permanent as I thought. It didn't even look like it was as effective as I had thought, which brought all kinds of concerns to my mind. 'Difficult to know if this mood is because of how shitty everything has been for the last day or so, or if it's the Mark… guess I'll have to wait until I get to relax a bit to see if it continues like this...'

With a sigh, I opened my eyes again.

"Everything ok, Eiji?" Kabuto asked, concerned on his face. My mind whispering me how fake he was certainly didn't help my mood. Everytime I looked at the pair of them, it grated on me, wearing down whatever semblance of calm I managed to gather. If I didn't know better, I would have thought that was Orochimaru's plan all along.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said as I stood up, my shoulder still burning from the Chakra I had used before. 'I might need to avoid using chakra from now on,' I thought grimly. And that sucked, mainly because it took away Web Sense which was my most useful jutsu for the Second Test.

It didn't matter though. 'I can manage,' I reassured myself as I took a deep breath in. I had trained in this forest for long enough. I knew how to look for other ninjas in it. Maybe Anko had planned it, it was a distinct possibility. But everytime she had pointed at something and told me that it was a sign that there was someone else using the Training Grounds had taught me how to find others in the forest. 'Nevermind, it was definitely her intention,' I thought with a grin. 'Indirect teaching, I guess.'

"Let's look for a team to take the scroll from and get this over with already."

"I think we can help with that," An stranger's voice replied and I suppressed the need to snap at them. Slowly, I turned to see the Sound Team standing on a tree branch.

"You three… you don't know what you are getting into," I warned, even if I knew it was useless. I sent a pulse of Web Sense, just to check on their equipment and make sure that they were exactly what I expected. I couldn't risk there being a surprise somewhere here.

"The kid thinks he can take on the world, huh?" The guy that was supposed to be Sasuke's victim in this setting mocked. And I stopped myself from rolling my eyes.

"Yoroi, take the mouthy guy, careful with his hands though, he can shoot something out of his palms," I said, keeping it vague since I wasn't supposed to know that they weaponized sound. "Kabuto, take the girl, she has some strange senbon though, look out for that. I would rush her though."

"Sure thing, Eiji," I was almost starting to like Yoroi, if I was being honest. At least he was good at following orders. Or maybe it was because he was more of an extra than Kabuto? Whatever.

"Ok," Kabuto nodded.

"And you'll take me on?" Aske the last member of the Sound team. "You sure you can-"

'Running, Free Running, Intermediate Taijutsu, Intermediate Kenjutsu,' I called out in my mind as he talked. With all those buffs and without weight seals, I found myself all but appearing in front of the guy. With a kunai already in my hand, I drove it right through the underneath of the Oto nin's thigh. Another kunai buried itself on the remaining leg. Then I threw a punch right into his gut, followed by an uppercut to his jaw.

The only sound the poor bastard made was a groan in pain when the first kunai cut into him. The next second, he fell limply on the floor. 'God bless Energy skills,' I thought, glad that I didn't have to use any chakra in that fight. And also glad that I probably wouldn't need it for the preliminaries, if they still happened.

"Dosu!" I heard the other male in their team call out and when I turned, I noticed that he had been distracted at the worst possible time. Yoroi quickly took his chance and put the guy into a lock that allowed him to drain his chakra with one hand on his neck and the other holding into one of his arms.

If I was him, I would have shot out a wave of sound from my remaining arm. Even if it didn't hit anything, it probably would have given me a chance to free myself. Evidently, the guy wasn't as smart, because he kept twisting and turning, trying to aim at Yoroi. Eventually, his struggles lost strength and grew sluggish as the energy was sucked right out of him.

Turning my eyes to the other side, I saw Kabuto standing over an unconscious female Sound ninja and pulling out a needle from his thigh. Apparently, he had tanked the girl's attacks. Not a bad strategy, considering that he could heal himself. And even if he couldn't, they knew I could use the Healing Palm, so it was still a solid tactic.

"Honestly, do I look that much like a kid?" I did, I knew I did. It still pissed me off that I did look like a kid still. I had grown over the years, but I was still thirteen, half the age I would have probably been if I hadn't died. It was so fucking annoying-

'I don't have the Mark under control at all,' I realized, feeling my face grow pale as the thought settled in. It was ridiculous, how easily my temper got the better of me. It would have made sense, if it had involved my friends or something. But I was getting so angry at things that were mild annoyances at any other time.

"You do, a bit," Yoroi answered jokingly, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"That sucks," I replied with a grin, internally counting to ten to regain some peace of mind. I couldn't be snapping at everything. I had to get myself together. What I wouldn't have given to be at home drinking some tea and chatting with my friends, or at the vet playing with the dogs and the puppies. But no, I had to be trapped inside a Forest filled with ninja that wouldn't care one bit if I died and had two teammates that were just spies for a crazy Voldemort wannabe-

I took a deep breath. 'There has to be a way for me to use the mindscape and stop the influence,' I thought to myself, trying to send my thoughts to more productive ideas.

"We have to check them for the scroll," I told the others and they immediately started checking their respective opponents. Meanwhile, I let my mind wander as I checked mine.

'Orochimaru had a presence in my mindscape,' I rationalized. 'That has to be a clue. There has to be a way to use that. Do I kill him? Would that make the Mark disappear? I want that power up, but… is it worth it if my mind becomes unstable? Is there any other way?'

It wasn't worth it, I decided after a moment. I needed my mind at full capacity just to be able to keep up with anyone that was relevant. I couldn't become a mindless beast unless I had a Bijuu backing me up like Naruto did. Otherwise, the power up wasn't enough to make up for it. I also couldn't risk taking Sasuke's place in the plot, turning my back on my friends.

'I really need more time to take a better look at things in my mindscape,' I thought with a grimace as I found the Sound team's scroll in one of the guy's pouches. 'Until I do, I can't assume much.'

"Are we done here?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at the other two. I saw that, unexpectedly, Kabuto had found another scroll on the girl. That meant we had an extra. Good in case we came across one of the other Konoha teams and could help, I guessed. "Keep that one yourself, Kabuto," I said, getting a nod from the boy. "Let's rush the tower, I really can't be bothered to stay in this place one more second than I need to be."

[}-o-{]

"You!" I heard as the three of us entered the tower in the middle of the forest. Surprisingly enough, it was the first time I was there. None of my training sessions had taken me there. We had come close and gotten a look at it, but never stepped inside. I had guessed it was almost exclusively for the Exams.

Now though, that first impression was forever ruined as I heard a very clearly pissed off boy shout and a wave of Bloodlust wash over me. I felt my shoulders tense, and my body ready itself for a battle. The pain that originated from my shoulder went ignored in favor of the threat that had appeared in front of us.

"No fighting is allowed in between Tests," Another voice interrupted and I finally could focus on the people that were at the entrance. One of them, the one that had shouted initially, was Gaara. 'Huh, he knows it was me? How?' And the other was… I don't remember the guy's name, but he was Chuunin, spiky black hair and a bandage running across his face over the bridge of his nose. I was sure he was a named character although I couldn't quite remember who.

Nevertheless, I was grateful for his interruption. The last thing I wanted after the Forest was to deal with fucking Gaara, especially at the moment since he was still the murder obsessed psycho he was before Naruto used his Talk no Jutsu on him. Actually, I didn't want to deal with anyone at all. I wanted to go to a room and sleep. And then be left alone to deal with the fucking Cursed Mark, because so help me I was fucking tired of-

'Breath,' I told myself as I took a deep breath in through my nose and calmed down a bit.

I looked dispassionately as the Chuunin talked to Gaara and all but dragged the Suna nin out of the entrance hall. My team and I, after a moment, walked towards where we had to open the scrolls.

"You sure we have to open them?" Yoroi asked, and I was sure it was just in his script or something. It was next to impossible that these two didn't know what the Exam was about.

"We finished the test, no reason not to open them," I shrugged, very done with it all as I opened our scrolls.

"Hey there," Anko appeared in a cloud of smoke. "Congratulations and blah blah blah. Now, you," She pointed at me. "You are coming with me. You two go through that door, a Chuunin will take you to a room where you can rest while the Second Test finishes."

I must have looked like absolute shit, because I could see the concern clear as day in my sensei's eyes.

"You used chakra," She accused, although she still sounded more worried than angry.

"I did," I admitted. "I don't know what this is," I continued, gesturing to my shoulder. "But it's been messing with me. I get very angry very easily. And it hurts a lot, even more when I use Chakra, which is the reason I didn't use a whole lot."

"You shouldn't have used any at all. Orochimaru-"

"Left something in it to mess with me. I've… dealt with it, in part," I confessed. Because there was no way they would let me keep the Mark without a seal if I didn't explain things. And if I was going to go through all this shit, I wanted the goddamn power up. I needed it. 'Careful there,' I thought to myself. 'Don't become power obsessed. I don't need to become Sasuke's replacement in the plot.'

"Dealt with it, have you? Yeah, I thought the-"

"I can enter my own mind," I interrupted, making her pause and turn to me. "I entered it when I noticed that something was… wrong. And I found the bastard inside, or something related to him, at least. I've dealt with it. It's still struggling and still messing with me. But… I think I have it under control."

"Yeah, no," She denied instantly, although her face was thoughtful. "We'll be the judges of that… How long have you been able to do that?" She asked this time, narrowing her eyes at me and I smiled wryly as I scratched the back of my head.

"A couple of years."

"And you just mention it now?" I could almost feel Bloodlust in the glare she gave me.

"It… didn't seem to be all that important. I hadn't even found a use for it until now."

"Unbelievable," She grumbled as she started walking again, with me following right behind. "We are gonna have to test that."

That was the part that I dreaded. Because testing something in my mindscape meant a Yamanaka. And a Yamanaka meant that my secret could come out… I needed to play this right. Not for the first time, I wondered if the Cursed Mark was worth it. But it was the only power up I could think of. That, or sealing a Bijuu inside myself, but that last option had next to zero chances of happening.

'Now, how do I go about this?' I thought with a grimace as I followed Anko.