Tatsu said nothing 'There's something about Kabuto, something I don't like. Still though, whatever the reasons might be he did help us and we have other things to worry about right now. I'll deal with that later, for now we should find the others.'
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Now let's see how things are going on the other end.
Sakura opened her eyes to find sunlight 'It's morning. Oh crap, I fell asleep! And Sasuke's still out cold. I can't believe it's daytime already.' then she heard a rustling coming from the bushes behind her 'Oh no!' she fearfully grabbed a kunai and slowly looked behind her, only to see that it was just a squirrel 'A squirrel? Oh man, don't surprise me like that little guy." then she yelped and threw a kunai, scaring the squirrel off 'That was too close.' she hadn't noticed the paper bomb on the squirrel's back.
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Lee was making his way through the forest when he saw the same squirrel "What the-?" he then rushed in and pulled it off, then destroyed it "That was close. This paper bomb explodes after a certain amount of time, who would do something like that?"
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"Some lookout, you're half asleep."
Sakura was snapped out of her daze and looked to see Dosu and his squad 'Crap…'
"At least you don't have to keep watch anymore, what's the point after we've already found you? Now wake Sasuke up, we want to fight him."
'You'll never get him you jerks.' Sakura reached for a kunai "What do you want here, I mean what do you really want? I know Orochimaru is calling the shots from the shadows. Why is he after Sasuke, you know don't you? And now you wanna fight him when he can't defend himself?"
"See, if your other two teammates were with you then this wouldn't be a problem."
"Yeah but… they abandoned us during the fight with Orochimaru!"
"Don't lie girl, we saw what you did."
Zaku was a little more cocky "I can't stay quiet after hearing you talk to us like that after what you pulled. First I'm gonna kill this girl, and then I'm gonna kill Sasuke."
"Hold up Zaku." Dosu put a hand on the ground "It's so obvious, this is the color of dirt that's recently been dug up and this kind of grass doesn't grow in a place like this. You know pinky, if you're going to lay a trap then at least make sure it's actually hidden."
"You're just a joke, you threw your kunai knife so that squirrel wouldn't spring the trap you set."
"Now we kill her, frankly we'd be doing the Uchiha a favor." Dosu charged first, but saw a log swinging at them 'So she set a trap from above?' he placed a hand on it "Nice try." he formed a hand seal, shattering the log "Clearly you have no talent as a ninja, someone like you needs to know more about effort and loyalty."
"Leaf Hurricane!" Lee suddenly showed up, squirrel on his shoulder, and quickly kicked them all away "Looks like you also need to make more of an effort."
"Who are you?"
"I'm known as the Leaf's Green Beast, but you can call me Rock Lee. This is really all thanks to you little one, but now it's time for you to run along." he let the squirrel down gently "Before we do this, there's something I want to know. Bandaged one, you said before that she abandoned her teammates. What did you mean?"
"Well her teammates, Tatsu Kamikaze and that blonde one, were fighting an enemy ninja, the Uchiha was out cold at the time, and she took the Uchiha and abandoned the other two, something about letting them cover their escape."
"Is that right?"
Sakura paled "Lee, don't listen to them. Who would you believe, a bunch of outsiders or your rival's teammate?"
"Firstly, Tatsu has a clear distaste for you and from what I see it's clearly justified. Secondly, insulting them solely for being from another village is nothing more than unnecessary discrimination." he turned back to Dosu "I may not like her, but she's still my rival's teammate so I'll protect her no matter what."
"Zaku, I'll let you have Sasuke." Dosu pulled out his Earth Scroll and threw it back "I'll take care of this one."
'From the look of it, she's in no condition to fight.'
"The one with the bushy eyebrows is pretty good at taijutsu, it looks like I'll get to have some fun." Dosu charged.
Lee pulled a large branch up from underground to block Dosu's attack "There's some kind of trick to your attack, so I won't waste my time trying to dodge it. After all, I've seen your jutsu before and based on where you're from I'd have to assume it's sound related. Of course, even saying that, 3 on 1 aren't good odds for me. I'm gonna have to take a chance. I'll go all out against them one at a time. I'd better not take a chance, I should take them off.' he leapt onto a tree trunk "I can tell you're all strong, so I'll have to go all out." he pulled down his leg warmers, revealing weights around his ankles, which he promptly removed.
'Leg weights? Basic training equipment.;
Lee held up the weights from each leg, then promptly dropped them.
'Come on, you really think it'll make that much of a difference just by dropping a couple of pounds of weight?'
The weights crashed to the ground with a loud thud.
'...I stand corrected.'
Lee leapt back to the ground and began unravelling the bandages on his hands 'Sorry Guy-sensei, but I'll have to use the Lotus if I want a chance at winning.'
Dosu charged.
"This is it!" Lee suddenly blitzed forward and kicked Dosu into the air, then wrapped his bandages around Dosu's body "Primary Lotus!" he pile-drived him, sending him spiralling downwards.
"Oh no Dosu, there's no way he can break his fall." Zaku formed several hand seals and used his Slicing Sound Wave in an attempt to cushion the impact of the fall.
'So that's it, he's trying to use those air cannons in his arms to cushion the impact of the fall for his teammate. Good try, but I know how to avoid that!' instead of pile-driving Dosu directly into the ground, he pulled Dosu into the air with the bandages wrapped around him, and hit him with a sharp kick to the stomach, sending him hurtling towards the ground.
"Dosu!" Zaku attempted yet again to use his Slicing Sound Waves.
"No you don't!" Lee drew a chain wind staff and hurled the chain at Zaku, wrapping it around him and preventing him from cushioning the impact of the fall, with Dosu hitting the ground very hard soon after.
"D-Dammit…" Dosu slowly emerged from the ground "That's a… frightening jutsu… almost killed me… you're more than I expected…"
"You're more resilient than I gave you credit for, the Lotus isn't something many people can walk away from. Before we continue this battle…" he looked over to the bushes 'Chances are I could win if they help me, but maybe it'd be best for them to wait in the bushes and make a surprise attack when they find an opening.'
"Say so long freak!" Zaku prepared another Slicing Sound Wave blast.
"Wanna bet?" that was when Ino showed up, with Choji and Shikamaru by her side.
"So what's this, the second string?"
Lee stared intently at him "You're…"
"Hey." Ino gave a small smirk "Tatsu goes on about you all the time, and after seeing you in action I decided that I'm impressed. You did good, but the guys can't have all the credit. It's time to show some girl power."
"This doesn't concern you." Dosu told her calmly "If you don't want to get hurt I suggest you back out now."
Choji nearly lost his shit when he saw Dosu glaring at them "Are you two crazy, what're we doing here? These guys are bad news man!"
"Don't look at me, it was Ino's idea." Shikamaru pointed out "But what're we supposed to do, just sit back and let some bushy-browed freak do all the fighting?"
Ino smirked "Sorry to drag you guys into this, but we're a 3-man squad right? All for 1, 1 for all."
"Yeah, what's meant to happen will."
"This ain't teamwork, I call this suicide!" Choji tried to run, only for Shikamaru to grab hold of the bandages on his arm "Let me out of here, please!"
"Quit it, you're getting on my nerves."
Zaku snickered "Better a live sheep than a dead lion, right fatass?"
Choji stopped cold and everyone else froze "Did I just hear that right? What did that guy just say?"
Shikamaru froze 'Oh crap, he just pushed Choji's button bigtime.'
"You wanna try saying that again?"
Zaku didn't get the memo "I said you're smart to get out while you still can, fatass."
Choji turned to face him and exploded "WHO ARE YOU CALLING FAT?! I'M JUST CHUBBY OKAY?!" he exploded with chakra radiating around him "CHUBBIES RULE!" he turned to his teammates "That does it, now this is personal! It's a fight to the death between Leaf and Sound!"
Ino smirked 'Perfect, he's totally lost it.'
"Good job dumbass." Shikamaru grumbled "Thanks a lot, now we've gotta live with him."
Zaku smirked "Don't worry, it won't be for long. We've gotta get rid of these clowns, Sasuke's the target.'
"Sakura." Ino addressed her without looking at her "Sasuke's down and Tatsu and Naruto are nowhere in sight. Look after Sasuke, we'll take it from here." then she turned her attention to her teammates "Alright Team 10, let's show them who's boss!"
"Got it!" they chorused.
"Formation Ino-Shika-Cho! Alright Choji, take it away."
"My pleasure! Expansion Jutsu!" Choji blew up like a balloon "Followed by Leaf-style taijutsu: Human Boulder!" he rolled forward in a rage.
"You've gotta be kidding." Zaku muttered "I think I'm supposed to laugh myself to death. Slicing Sound Wave!" he unleashed a blast of air, stopping Choji in place.
That is, before Choji jumped the air stream.
'This thing's spinning way too fast, my Sound Wave can't control it. And if I try going Super Sound on it, it's liable to rip my arms off!'
"Zaku!" Dosu rushed over as fast as he could, which wasn't that fast considering how wounded he was by Lee's jutsu.
'Oh no you don't mummy-man, time to put you under wraps. Shadow Possession Jutsu!" that was when Shikamaru used his Shadow Possession Jutsu to stop Dosu in his tracks.
"What's happening?!"
"Just me and my shadow."
Zaku leapt out of the way just before being hit by Choji's Human Boulder.
Dosu found himself doing a ridiculous pose "Oh come on!"
"What is it? Why are you just standing there like that?" asked Kin.
"I'm why." Shikamaru had a big shit-eating grin.
"It's some kind of paralysis jutsu." Dosu realized.
"Ino, I'll leave the girl to you."
Ino nodded "I'm on it, just keep an eye on my body."
"Sure."
"Mind Transfer Jutsu!" Ino hit Kin with her Mind Transfer Jutsu.
"Enough of this!" Zaku finally had enough of dodging Choji's attack "Kin!"
"What's wrong with you?!" Dosu barked.
Kin, actually Ino's mind in Kin's body thanks to the Mind Transfer Jutsu, smirked and held a kunai to Kin's throat "Party's over fellas. Take it easy, one false move from either of you and your teammate here gets it in the neck. You don't want that to happen so here's what you do, just drop the scroll and walk away. When you're far enough away that I can't sense your chakra, I'll let her go. I don't get these guys, something's wrong. Hey Choji!"
"Coming!" Choji dropped down.
Zaku merely fired his Slicing Sound Wave, sending Kin-Ino flying into a tree.
Shikamaru noticed blood coming from Ino's mouth "This is bad."
Kin-Ino looked up from the ground "I don't understand you guys, what kind of monster would attack their own teammate?"
Zaku smirked "One who knows that our teammate would rather die than be controlled by someone."
"Besides, it's not the scrolls we're after or even passing this test. What we want is Sasuke back there- Where'd he go?" then Dosu found himself free "So your paralysis jutsu has a pretty limited duration I see."
"Shadow Possession Jutsu." Shikamaru corrected "Get your jutsu right."
"Whatever, and I see that your teammate was able to slip her soul into her opponent. Very clever, but dangerous. Anything that happens to Kin happens to her too. So if, say, Kin were to die…"
"What're you gonna do, kill your teammate?"
"In the name of her honor, then so be it."
"Oh man, what a drag."
Zaku smirked "Did you really think you could beat us? Face it, you ninja are just a bunch of hacks from a second-rate village."
"Pretty tough talk." Neji made himself known "I guess that makes your village third-rate. I wonder if any of you amateurs are ready to take on the real thing. Lee, you blew it."
Lee smirked bitterly "Sorry…"
"Don't be, you bought me the time I needed." a voice cut in.
"What the-?!" Dosu and Zaku turned to see Sasuke behind them 'But something feels different about him.'
"Thanks guys, you bought me the time I needed to put my plan into action. See, I knew I wouldn't be able to beat you guys with those one, so I used Lee and the others showing as a chance to buy time so I could get them off. It feels good too, now I feel lighter than I have in ages. You guys did alright, but leave it to me from here on out."
"Ino!" Shikamaru called from the bushes frantically "Hurry up and get back in your body, you don't want to get involved in this. You too Choji, get everyone out of there!"
Ino quickly released the jutsu.
Dosu froze when he sensed Sasuke's chakra 'This power… it's too big, too powerful… more than I anticipated.'
Zaku didn't get the memo "What's wrong Dosu, you're not getting cold feet are you?"
"No Zaku, you don't understand!"
"Watch this, I'll take care of the whole bunch of them in one fell swoop! Supersonic Slicing Wave!" he unleashed an enhanced Slicing Sound Wave, leaving a long crater "What do you know, blew them all away."
"Not quite." Sasuke had gotten Lee and Sakura out of the way, and backhanded Zaku into a tree with one blow.
"Zaku!" Dosu looked up at Sasuke "Such power, and he doesn't even have a Curse Mark. How?"
"A training method Tatsu showed me awhile back, he gave me Gravity Seals to increase my physical strength and speed. I knew I couldn't beat you with them on, so I used the others fighting you to buy enough time for me to release them. But enough about that, let me show you what I can do. Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!" he fired several small balls of fire.
"I don't think so! Try this!" Zaku fired another Slicing Sound Wave, causing the flames to disperse, revealing shuriken in their place, hitting Zaku all over his body.
Sasuke then kicked Zaku into the air Lee-style, then used Dancing Leaf Shadow to appear directly behind him "I kind of borrowed that move, but from this point on I'm getting points for originality! Lion's Barrage!" he used one hand to turn Zaku over, then landed a kick to the abdomen, followed by a punch to the chest, slamming him straight into the ground with a devastating kick to the stomach "It's over." then he turned to Dosu "I would go full man-slaughterer on you, but that's not really my style. So here's the deal, do you have a Heaven or Earth Scroll?"
"Earth Scroll." Dosu, trembling slightly, pointed to Zaku "He has it."
"Let's see here… porn, porn, porn, Sword Monthly…" he put that in his pocket "More porn, more porn, oh here we go, Earth Scroll." he pulled it out "So here's the deal, I'm gonna take this and in exchange you can take your friends and leave. Deal?"
"Deal. You're strong Sasuke, but Tatsu is much stronger."
"I already knew that, he's the one who's been training me."
"We can't hope to defeat you the way you are now. So it's a deal, you keep the scroll and you let us go."
"Agreed."
Dosu went over and slung Zaku over his shoulder "It would seem we underestimated you and your allies, but at least we found something else we needed." he picked up Kin "We're even for the moment, but I won't run next time."
"Before you go, what does Orochimaru want with me and why me? And what has he done with Tatsu and Naruto."
"I don't know, all I know is that we were told to target you and then Tatsu after you, and we did. But what I don't understand is why he would send us to assassinate someone whom he fully knew the capabilities of, and then plan to send us after someone who could take on Orochimaru himself."
"He probably used you guys to test me."
"Perhaps… but he's all we have, every one of us. We were always alone, but he gave us a place to belong. Without him, we'd all be alone…"
"Maybe you don't have to be… come find me after the next phase of the exam is over, we'll talk about it there."
"...Very well…" and with that, he departed.
Then Sakura went up to Sasuke "Hey Sasuke that was-"
"HEY!" a kunai whizzed past her face, cutting it slightly as a pissed off Naruto showed up with a pissed off Tatsu sung over his shoulder.
"Thanks, but I've got it from here." Tatus got back on his own feet, then grabbed Sakura by the neck "You little skank, you've got a lot of nerve! I should kill your ass for what you pulled back there! I knew you were a shitty fangirl, but this is a whole new low even for you! You took Sasuke and left me and Naruto to die!"
"Let me go!" Sakura shouted "We should've just given up the scroll like I said!"
"Use your head your f*cking little whore! That Hidden Grass kunoichi was the Sannin Orochimaru that was kicking your asses! Why in the name of f*ck would a Sannin care about a test?!"
"Let me go! Sasuke, help me."
"Tatsu, set her down." Sasuke said slowly.
"...Fine." Tatsu did so, albeit very reluctantly.
"Good."
Sakura took a moment to catch her breath "Sasuke-"
"Shut up!" Sasuke did what Tatsu did, but a lot rougher "You did what?! You've got a lot of nerve abandoning your teammates like that, not to mention dragging me with you! You're nothing but a coward and a fraud, you talk shit to Tatsu and Naruto but that's all you can do! You're pathetic! Well as far as I'm concerned, you're no longer a part of Team 7! You've broken Kakashi's rule and in our eyes, you're worse than trash!" he let them go "We've got both scrolls, let's go."
"We picked up a bunch of scrolls actually." Naruto told him "Kabuto showed up and helped us out."
"Good, pass them out to the others here and let's move."
Sakura found the others giving her dirty looks "I-I didn't know who they were fighting."
Lee stepped forward first "And that automatically makes what you did right? You took one of them against their will and left the other two to die, they have every right to denounce you for that!"
"It would seem that they were fated to be paired with a pathetic kunoichi as a teammate, and the supposed kunoichi of the year isn't all she's made out to be." Neji mocked.
"Dude, Ino was the kunoichi of the year." Tatsu pointed out.
"...I stand corrected, the 2nd kunoichi of the year isn't all she's made out to be."
"Better. Now take this." he held out a scroll.
"My team doesn't need your pity."
"It's not pity, it's my way of saying thanks to Lee for keeping Sasuke alive."
"...Very well." Neji accepted the scroll "Lee speaks very highly of you, apparently you two have history. If we should face each other in the exam, I have high expectations." and he leapt off.
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Sasuke was calming himself down by the river 'That little-! It's like she doesn't give a shit about my opinion.'
"Hey."
Sasuke looked and saw Lee sitting beside him "Oh, hey."
"Today's been rough, hasn't it?"
"Try being dragged away from helping your two closest friends against their will."
"I would offer to come with your team so you could have someone to talk to, but my team, particularly Neji, probably wouldn't go for it."
"Don't bother, thanks but no thanks."
"Suit yourself. Later." and Lee walked off.
'Finally, sweet solitude-'
"Hey Sasuke."
'F*ck!' he looked to see Ino sit down beside him "Oh it's just you."
"I talked to Tatsu and the guys, we're all going to the tower together."
"...Why? Are you gonna go fangirl on me like Sakura?"
"Hell no, I don't even like you like that!"
"For Tatsu then?"
Ino blushed "Well…"
"No it's alright, I get it. You and that Hyuuga girl, you're the only ones who didn't think about raping me while I was asleep. Thank you for that."
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During one of the breaks on the way to the tower, Ino entered Sakura's mind and got the truth about what happened from her memories, disgusting her.
She later explained it to Shikamaru and Choji, who shared the opinion of Sakura and just glared at her with disgust. All in all, they just kept talking to Tatsu mostly, and some with Naruto and Sasuke.
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Tatsu led the groups to the tower "Alright guys, we're gonna have to part here. This is our door."
"And this is ours." Ino pointed to the door next to theirs "Take care guys, and good luck. To most of you."
"You guys too." and Tatsu led them through the door.
Ino led her squad through theirs.
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Naruto looked around "So what happens now?"
"Check it out." Tatsu pointed to some writing on the wall "If qualities of Heaven are your desire, acquire wisdom to take your mind higher. If earthly qualities are what you lack, train your body and prepare to attack. When Heaven and Earth are opened together, the perilous path will become righteous forever. This something is the secret way that guides us from this place today. I'm pretty sure we're supposed to open the scrolls now." he took the Heaven Scroll.
Naruto took the Earth Scroll "1… 2… 3!" and they did "What the hell is this?"
"I recognize that jutsu formula, it's some kind of Summoning Jutsu. Oh crap, get rid of the scroll now!" he threw his away just as Naruto did his.
Then, in a cloud of smoke, Mizuki and Iruka showed up "Hey guys, been awhile."
"Mizuki? Iruka?"
"Looks like you've been through a lot, but you still got here with 2 days to spare. Nice."
"What's with the surprise entrance here? And how long have you guys been planning to pose like that?"
"At the end of the second exam, Chunin are supposed to welcome back the test-takers and it was just luck that we were the ones who got to do that for you."
"Deal with that later you guys." Tatsu went up to them and whispered something too low for the others to hear.
They froze, then Mizuki vanished and Iruka turned to Naruto "Come with me Naruto, I'm taking you to the infirmary."
"Alright." Naruto grabbed onto him, and they vanished.
"So what about you?" asked Sasuke "You gonna be alright? From what I hear, you used almost all of your chakra fighting off Orochimaru. Sorry about that by the way."
"Don't worry about it, just a couple of hours of meditation and I'll be good as new."
"Alright." then he noticed that Sakura was gone "Oh crap, that's not good. That little bitch, she's probably gonna rat on you and Naruto and knowing her she'll probably lie."
"Let's go."
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Sakura was frantically searching around for the jounin lounge 'No doubt that Naruto and the others are gonna tell the Hokage about what happened, I have to hurry and find Kakashi sensei so that I can get my story to him first.' She soon reached the jounin lounge and found Kakashi in there reading his book "Kakashi-sensei!"
Kakashi looked up from his book in noticeable surprise "Well isn't this a surprise, you guys made it with 2 days left to spare. I'm impressed. Where are the others?"
"That's what I wanted to talk to you about sensei, Naruto and Tatsu…"
"Naruto and Tatsu what Sakura? I hope you're not planning to put the blame on them for what you did in the forest." a voice cut her off.
Sakura turned and glared at where Ino was standing behind her "This is none of your business swine."
"I'm making it my business, you were about to lie about what you did and I'm not going to let that happen."
"Since when do you care about them?"
'Not playing that game. Since I saw your memories while we were travelling."
"Y-You… You had no right!"
"I had every right! You took Sasuke and abandoned Tatsu and Naruto to fight someone who could've killed them at any time. What was it you said? Oh yeah, something about letting them cover your escape."
Sakura was stuttering and was about to yell at her until she was forced to turn around.
Kakashi glared at her with his one good eye "Is what she said true?"
Sakura said nothing and looked down at her feet.
"You disappoint me. You claim to be better than Tatsu or Naruto, both of whom have been training every day of their lives, when you refuse to lift a finger and only passed the academy because of book smarts and even then you just barely passed. You can consider this to be your termination from my team, I have no need for trash like you." and with that, he walked out of the room, leaving Sakura alone stunned and in disbelief.
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Tatsu was meditating in Limbo, using the time dilation to recover his chakra quickly "Come on and show yourself Kurama, we need to talk."
Kurama appeared before him, but much smaller "So you came…"
"Orochimaru used a 5-Pronged Seal to cut off Naruto's access to your chakra, how much will this hinder him?"
"He'll be unable to access the Crimson Wind jutsu or any fire-style jutsu, seeing how they use my chakra, leaving only his Shadow Clone jutsu at his disposal. Considering who he may have to fight, this could be a problem."
"But as long as he doesn't go up against Lee, Neji or Gaara then he should be fine."
"Right. You should go now, the next exam will start soon and you've recovered all of your chakra."
"Right."
A/N:
Yes, the Sound Trio will be good guys in this fic. I feel that they had a lot of wasted potential and were just shoehorned out, and I intend to fix that.
Sakura is being bashed as I said before, and she will be kicked out of this fic entirely, at least for the time being, for the purpose of the story. I honestly don't have anything against Sakura, aside from what a (insert massive stream of curse words here) she is in Part I and how she abuses Naruto throughout the entire series, but it's for the sake of the story.
As I said before, Sasuke would not get the Curse Mark, at least not in Part I, but my plans for that area are a surprise for the future.
I'm giving Naruto a secondary nature to fire because I didn't think it was fair that Sasuke had 2 elements while Naruto only had 1, and getting the Tailed Beast chakra during the war doesn't count in my opinion, so I'm giving him a second now and I'll be giving him a third one that will appear after the time skip into Shippuden.