chapter 25

Sakura was in complete awe as she witnessed the team work between Naruto, Sasuke and the others. It was only the seriousness of their situation that stopped her from cheering them on.

She pumped a fist up in victory when she saw the Sannin getting swallowed by the huge explosion. But her feeling of joy turned to downright horror when she saw that Orochimaru had survived, without a scratch.

She watched, utterly terrified as Orochimaru suddenly sprung forward, to her disgust and horror, with his neck elongated and long snake-like fangs exposed.

Sasuke, not being able to react fast enough, gets bitten by Orochimaru on the side of his neck, causing some sort of seal to appear.

Sasuke fell to his knees, screaming, then 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."

He then glanced at the others, who flinched at his gaze. He chuckled, "Don't worry, you are not my target. I wanted to get you guys to hand me your earth scroll, but I don't have much time left." He said as he promptly vanished in a swirl of leaves not before he looks at his side.

Sakura fell to her knees in relief and exhaustion. Both Haku and Sai sighed of relief as they looked at Naruto, Karin and Sasuke on the ground, they felt completely and utterly hopeless.

After Orochimaru left, they picked up Karin and the others and they went to a cave to heal.

Ryu who was standing on top of a tree let go of his grip on his sword.

"ahh, guess I missed the show"

Karin woke up not long after, while both Naruto and Sasuke were still unconscious from the fight against Orochimaru. Karin quickly checked on them as she found out that Naruto's seal has been tampered with, and Sasuke had a seal on his neck that she had never seen before.

Although she could use sealing Jutsu she was not at a level that she could understand both of the seals on them and was unable to do anything. She could only heal them hoping it would not be too much of a problem.

Alerted from a daze by a squirrel, Sakura quickly wards it off with a kunai, ignorant to the fact that Team Dosu had sent the squirrel there with an explosive tag on its back.

As they were resting Dosu and his squad suddenly came to challenge Sasuke. Seeing that the trio did not come with a pure intent, Haku and Sai got ready for battle. They hadn't fully recovered their chakra, but it should be enough to handle them, they thought.

Lee suddenly jumps in forcing the three of them away. Declaring as he made his entrance that he would protect Sakura until he died, Lee uses his brute strength to pull up an underground root to block an incoming attack by Dosu.

As the battle ensued, Lee prepared to use the Front Lotus after deeming that it met the criteria that his teacher, Might Guy, told him had to be met in order to use it. Lee is then able to catch Dosu and use the technique, but the force of impact is cushioned by Zaku, and Dosu is saved.

Unable to move as his body is recuperating from the strain of using the Front Lotus, Dosu incapacitates Lee with his own technique, which he claims is faster than Lee's Taijutsu since it works at the speed of sound.

As he was about to make a move on Lee, Haku threw senbons at him forcing him to move back.

Team 10 arrived on the scene at the time Lee was fighting Dosu. Team 10 joins the battle with but weren't able to best the sound Nins.

The cursed seal on Sasuke had by now started to take effect, and Sasuke woke up and had enormous murderous intent.

"What's with this chakra?", Karin says, as she feels the energy coming from the seal on Sasuke.

Before she could make sense of the situation, Sasuke had already charged at the sound Nins. Sasuke easily defeated Zaku Abumi of Team Dosu, going as far as to dislocate his shoulders for no other reason than to cause him pain.

Before he could do any more damage to anyone else, however, Sasuke is held by Karin chakra chains.

"That's enough Sasuke, this is not you", Karin says.

Due to the suppressive property of the chains it managed to suppress charka allowing Sasuke to regain control of the seal.

"What was that just now?", Haku asks.

"I don't know but it has something to do with the seal on his neck", Karin replied.

Dosu left with his teammates while leaving there scroll behind, wondering why Orochimaru had sent him to kill Sasuke if he had known that Sasuke would have the cursed seal.

After Sasuke calmed down, team seven thank the other teams for their help as they all went their separate ways.

Team seven managed to make it past the second stage thanks to the scroll they got from the sound Nins.