Chapter 99

I moved in quick speeds in the direction of the tracker seal I placed on Karin. With the way I was moving I was almost upon her. When the signal was strong enough, indicating I was a few hundred meters away, I changed my chakra carpet to the radar form. With what I sensed she and her team were still moving fast. It was understandable. The exam had just begun. The first thing to do would be to move as further in as possible then secure a temporal base.

Within a short while I had already caught up with them. After less than five minutes they finally decided to stop. I saw one of them take out their scroll before passing it to Karin. He took her arm and bit into it. I did not know why but the way she was being treated kind of ticked me off. It was not a logical reasoning. We were shinobi after. Nothing more than soldiers to be used. Well, they were, not me. I was an assassin. Off track. Regardless of whether we/they were shinobi or not, we/they were still human.

I sped up and appeared behind the one that had bit her. "To bite a lady like that, and not even in the kinky way, how unsightly". With teeth still sank in her arm, he did not have time to process the sudden turn of events before I decapitated him. It was clean swipe, but maybe I should have pried him of Karin first. Her arm fell to her side with the head still attached to it. She did not shake or pry it off as she seemed to be in a daze, staring at me blankly.

The other teammate finally understood the situation and pulled out a kunai. How sad. What was a barely Genin level going to do? It seemed he intended on catching me off-guard. Another quick swipe, and his head was detached as well. I looked to Karin who continued to stare at me in a daze. For someone who had just witnessed her 'teammates' get slaughtered right in front of her, she did not seem to have any reaction. Not pity. I knew she was treated poorly and did not have any feelings towards them. What I was expecting was more fright or panic. She just stared at me.

I looked to her with a confused look, "By popular demand. I came to save you." I spoke. Instead of answering she looked back at the bodies before looking back at me. I walked towards her and grabbed her arm. "Don't worry. No one will hurt you anymore." I pried the head off her arm which earned a slight wince from her. I healed the bleeding arm with my medical ninjutsu. "Thank you." I finally had a reaction. I looked up at her and saw tears in her eyes. I was suddenly blindsided with a hug as she cried her heart out. Although I did not really have time for this, I could not really push the lady away. She was probably feeling relief at this point. She probably never had anyone save her before. If so, it was understandable she would fall for Sasuke the way she did.

After crying her heart out for about five minutes she finally calmed down. "Have you calmed down now?" I asked as she let go of me. "If so then hold on tight." I picked her up in a princess carry and sped as fast as my sealed body could carry me. Within a moment I was already back where Anko was. My sudden arrival startled her a little as she pulled out a kunai and stood on guard.

"Anko-san, please take care of her for me for a while. I'll be back soon." Before she could say anything, I had already left. I felt I had wasted too much time with Karin. I sped through the forest, following the tag I had placed on Akari a week before the exam. Thankfully they had not gone too far. It wasn't long until I got closer to the target. That was when I felt and sensed it. Fighting. It looked like I was late to the party.

When I got in range of sight, I finally had a clear picture. Orochimaru toying with Team 7. He had yet to discard his disguise as the grass ninja. Things were very different from the original. In the original, he had a snake swallow Naruto before trying to test Sasuke. This time however, it looked like he was just having fun with the three. Those three may have gotten much stronger than the original but fighting against Orochimaru was a whole other story.

Suddenly I Saw him charge at the three with a bot more step. It looked like he was done playing around. His movements were much sharper. I saw him move towards Akari. It looked like he wanted to get rid of the pests first. I could not stay back and do nothing. One wrong move and he might actually kill her.

I was right. While moving towards Akari, I saw Orochimaru smile while staring at Sasuke. It looked like he was trying to stair up Sasuke. Maybe show him his uselessness? Just as Orochimaru was about to reach Akari, I quickly got behind her and pulled her back, causing the claw swipe to barely miss. Everyone turned to the new intruder. "Sakura!"

"Yo! Did I miss anything?" The other two moved back and joined me and Akari, making some distance between them and Orochimaru. "What are you doing here? Is there something wrong?" Sasuke asked. He was quite quick on the take. It was technically still an examination and me being there meant something must have happened.

"For now, you three stand ba..." before I could finish my words Orochimaru was upon me. His speed was terrifying. I was forced to instantaneously release the gravity seal on me and push my autopilot to full power, but his punch still grazed my cheek. I jumped back to make some distance between us. Thankfully he did not follow else that would have been problematic. The other three finally reacted before jumping to my side once more. I could see the slight fear and astonishment in their eyes. What Orochimaru just showed he had been toying with them the entire time.

I looked at him as saw it once more. The rage, the hatred. I had never seen him nor interacted with him before. So where was the rage and hatred coming from? I was confused and on guard, until I got my answer. "It seems I was right. You look just like Mebuki back then. You really are her daughter. I'm going to enjoy killing you." He released suffocating killing intent as his glare intensified. I had almost forgotten. Jiraiya did say they knew Mebuki back then. I have no idea what had happened for him to want to kill me for vengeance, but I was not about to stand there and just allow myself to be killed.