FicWad

Chapter 4

"Welcome to the stage of the second test; Training Ground 44, more commonly known as the 'Forest of Death'." Anko announced proudly to the assembled genin. "Within the boundaries of this forest, at least half of you will be disqualified from this Chuunin Exam."

"You think that scares me?!" called Naruto from amongst the chuunin hopefuls. "That stupid forest is nothing but a bunch of trees! I'm not afraid!"

"Heh... We've got a spirited one..." Swiftly moving his head, Naruto barely avoided the kunai she had aimed to cut his cheek. Realizing the examiner's plan as he moved, the blonde moved the chakra anchor she set behind him for her shunshin. Instead of appearing behind the blonde, the examiner materialized fifteen feet overhead, looking around in surprise before succumbing to the pull of gravity.

Naruto burst into laughter as the examiner landed lightly a few feet away from him. "I'm scared now Anko-san!" the blonde choked out between giggles, only to freeze when cold steel tickled the side of his neck.

"Brats like you are the first to go," the examiner's sultry voice warned him from behind. The astounded Naruto looked to where she had once stood to find nothing but air. Fighting the impulse to gulp, he glanced over his shoulder to see the fishnet clad jounin holding a kunai to his jugular. Leaning closer to the blonde, she whispered throatily, "And you spill that red blood I love so much..."

Satisfied that she had sufficiently scared the blonde, Anko holstered her kunai and addressed the crowd again. "Before this tests begins, I'm gonna have to ask y'all to fill out one of these forms," she said, waving the stack of papers she had pulled from her coat. "This part of the exam can get pretty violent, so these waivers relieve me of responsibility if you croak. Once everyone has signed one, I'll explain the second test."Swiftly disseminating the forms to the genin, Anko lounged against the fence while the genin thought things over.

Since the first test was, ultimately, a test of resolve, it did not take long for all the waivers to be signed. When the last of the genin finished their signatures, Anko called attention back to herself and began her explanation of the second test. "Simply put, this is the ultimate survival test," she began cheerfully. She pulled a map out of her coat as she continued. "First off, the arena for this test: Training Ground 44 is acircular area surrounded by 44 locked gates with a forest, a river, and a tower in the center. It is about ten kilometers from any gate to the tower. Your goal is to get to that tower within five days carrying both of these scrolls." Anko, once more utilizing the supra-dimensional powers of her coat, pulled a pair of scrolls from it. Holding up the lighter colored scroll, she continued again."Thirteen of the 26 teams here will be given one of these, a 'Heaven Scroll', while the other half will be given its darker counterpart, the 'Earth Scroll'. You will have to take the opposite scroll from another team through whatever means necessary in order to pass this test

So half of the teams here will definitely fail... thought Sakura uneasily as the explanation came to aclose. Gulping, she came to a startling conclusion. And it's not exactly likely thirteen teams will pass. Since we have to survive in there for five days, some may well die from the conditions...

"Now, I'll go over what conditions will fail you,"the examiner cheerfully said, gleeful at the expressions of the rather worried genin. "First, those who do not make it to the tower with both scrolls inside the time limit will fail. Second, if you lose a teammate, for any reason, you will fail. And finally, anyone who looks inside their scrolls before entering the tower will fail, in addition to receiving a surprise, and trust me, it won't be pleasant."

"What if the test becomes too bothersome and we want to quit before the five days are up?" Shikamaru's lazy drawl filled the silence after the examiner finished.

"You must stay within the testing area for the duration of the test, it's a rule," was the curt answer. Gesturing towards asmall wooden stand near the fence, Anko wrapped up her speech. "That's it for the explanations, give your three waivers to those chuunin and you'll get your scroll. Then choose a gate and get ready for the start." As the genin began lining up to enter the shanty, she could not help but get in the last word. "One final piece of advice, everyone... Don't die!"


Leaping from branch to branch, the genin of Team 7 made good time through the forest. Nimbly avoiding the more common hazards, they pushed on until Naruto was forced to make a pit stop. Suddenly dropping from the trees, he addressed his comrades.

"Hold up, guys! I gotta pee." Seeing his teammates stop, Naruto made to relieve himself at the edge of the clearing.

"NOT WHERE I CAN SEE DAMNIT!" Sakura's enraged yell froze the poor boy in place. "Go into the woods a bit or something."

Not wishing to anger his volatile teammate further, Naruto acquiesced, slipping between a pair of trees and heading out of sight. A minute or two later, the blonde reappeared, fastening his belt.

"Ahhh, that felt good," he sighed before joining his teammates. They were about to leave when a sudden rustle of the brush Naruto had just emerged from set all three shinobi on edge.

"Gah, you guys will never believe what that idi-"the newcomer's grumbling ceased suddenly as he stumbled out of the foliage. Burning eyes took in the scene. "Heh, figures."

"Naruto?!" asked a suddenly worried Sakura, looking between her teammate and the exact copy that had just appeared. Without warning, her crush turned and attacked their blonde companion. A quick punch launched the blonde back into a tree where his Henge vanished, revealing a dark haired Ame nin in a full body yellow jumpsuit and a rebreather.

"You really shouldn't try to best the Higan with agenjutsu," the real Naruto said to the lone ninja. "All it does is irritate me." Team 7 approached the genin as he spoke in an attempt to secure the trespasser, when the genin withdrew a small brown orb from a pocket and threw it at the ground. The ball emitted a bright flash of light and loud explosion when it struck, disorienting all three Konoha nin. By the time they recovered, the Ame genin was long gone.

Team 7 scattered around the clearing to look for atrail but was sorely disappointed in their efforts. Regrouping at the base of the original tree, Sasuke addressed the other two. "We need to come up with apassword in case we get separated and the impersonated one can't break free that quickly."

"Alright, but what will it be?" asked Sakura of her crush.

"One of us asks, 'the nin song 'nin machine''."Sasuke's teammates readied to commit the response to memory, or at least, one of them did. A dim level of brown glowing weakly from behind his moody teammate attracted Naruto's attention. After a moment of staring at the brown glow, things fell into place for Naruto as Sasuke tried to finish his password. "When asked, answer with-"

"Uh... teme... You might not want to say that with whoever that is behind you listening." Shooting the Higan wielder an annoyed glare, Sasuke tensed as a shape rose out of the ground behind him.

"Kukuku. Your eyes are even better than Iexpected, Naruto-kun," a silky voice said as a ninja's body was revealed. The three members of Team 7 faced the nin as Naruto responded.

"Heh, you'd have to do much better than that to hide from the Higan," the grinning blonde responded as he settled into afighting stance. "But now that you're out here, it's time I kick your ass!"

Smirking widely at the bold pronouncement, the Kusa nin ran through several handseals in rapid succession. An astonished Naruto watched as the white chakra surged through his opponent's body, barely slowing as he used his bloodline to try and stop it. The ninja chuckled darkly when he felt his chakra shudder. "I know all about your bloodline, Naruto-kun. You won't be using my chakra today." Mind working overtime at this, the blonde reacted automatically as the jutsu was completed. Throwing his teammates to the side, the hyperactive ninja braced himself against the howling wind that emerged. "/Fuuton: Daitoppa no Jutsu/."

Less than a second after it began, the fierce winds bodily lifted Naruto and threw him deep into the woods and out of sight. Flipping end over end, the blonde could do nothing to prevent his painful collision with a particularly thick tree. Groaning, he rolled back to his feet and turned to head back to his team when he came face to face with a sixty foot long snake.

"Oh.... shit!"




Fighting their way out of the bush their teammate had thrown them in, Sakura and Sasuke once again met the androgynous Kusa ninja. "You guys want my Earth Scroll, right?" the nin asked, holding out the mentioned scroll. At Sakura's numb nod, the genin smirked and lifted the scroll near his face. A long, prehensile tongue shot from his mouth and wrapped around the scroll, guiding it back into his throat. The nin swallowed the scroll whole and looked back up at the remaining duo. "Then let us begin the battle over the scrolls... with our lives on the line."

An oppressive weight settled on the shoulders of the two Konoha genin as they made eye contact with the Kusa genin, forcibly quelling their every attempt to move. Fragments of images ran through their minds, each more graphic and brutal than the last. The macabre slideshow came to a halt as each genin felt a kunai pierce their skull.

Both genin collapsed to their knees, shaking in abject terror. A heartbeat passed and Sasuke emptied the contents of his stomach onto the ground below. /Genjutsu?! /the avenger asked himself. No... the sheer amount of killing intent in his eyes was enough to show us images of our own deaths. Lost in thought, the last Uchiha missed the movements of his opponent as he completed a jutsu.

"/Kanashibari no Jutsu/," the disturbing ninja announced in a bored tone as the Konoha ninja found themselves completely paralyzed when the fear from his killing intent increased a thousand-fold. "You can no longer move."

I... I can't die here! Move! Sasuke screamed at himself as he watched the nin idly lob a kunai at each of the genin before him. Mere moments before impact, Sasuke managed to stab himself in the thigh to disrupt the Kanashibari before grabbing his teammate and taking to the trees. "To overload fear with pain... This may prove to be worth the effort after all."




While the Kusa nin and the last Uchiha had their heart-to-heart, Naruto and the gigantic snake were having arather less static battle. Without preamble, the snake began to strike, lashing out at Naruto almost faster than he could react. Only his extensive training kept him from being devoured. When one of the snake's strikes lodged a fang into a gigantic tree, Naruto used the reprieve to gather himself and try to escape the scaly monster. The snake freed itself before he could make good his escape, however. A moment later, Naruto was forced to jump upwards to avoid the mouth that occupied where he had been standing. At the apex of his leap, the blonde threw a kunai and a trio of shuriken at his foe.

The snake closed its eyes for protection and none of the weapons left so much as a scratch. A discouraged Naruto landed and prepared for the second round. A soft rustle from behind had him trying to dodge, but before he could move, the snake's tail trapped his legs. Swiftly encircling the rest of Naruto, the snake swallowed the boy whole.

Ugh.../Naruto complained to himself within the reptile's esophagus. /He ate me...

Slowly moving down the digestive tract of a giant snake was not on the 'Naruto-Approved List of Ways to Die', which included glorious things such as "stomach exploding from ramen overload". Therefore, Naruto put all of his considerable cunning towards finding a way out of the snake's gullet. After a few minutes of hard thought, and several holes burned into his jumpsuit by the stomach acid, Naruto had a flash of inspiration. He consulted his mental list, wondering if the same concept would work on a snake. With a shrug, he acted.

Naruto, burning eyes alight with determination, brought his hands together in his favorite seal. /Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!/Hundreds of Narutos appeared in the stomach of the beast, stretching it well beyond the breaking point. The snake's narrow body quickly overloaded from the pressure and exploded, drenching the surrounding area in stomach fluids and gore. The Uzumaki couldn't help getting one last comment in. "Guess I should've mentioned; side effects of Uzumaki Naruto may include severe indigestion."

Chuckling at his wit, the blonde dismissed his clones and made a token effort to clean himself up before taking to the trees to find his teammates.




"Sasuke-kun, wh-," Sakura tried to ask, but was silenced almost immediately by her panicked teammate's hand. Hidden amongst the branches as they were, the slightest sound could give away their position. I've never seen Sasuke-kun this scared before... What are we going to do?

Before she could formulate a plan, their hiding place was invaded by a massive snake. Completely panicked, the Uchiha flew off the handle, peppering the snake with projectiles and pinning its skull to a lower branch with severa; kunai. Once the snake had been killed, the Uchiha relaxed his guard, internally berating himself for panicking like he had. His self-admonishment was silenced, however, by the eerie, grating chuckle of the terrifying ninja.

"Kukuku. Prey should never let down their guard,"the mocking voice rang through the trees. "in the presence of a predator." With a gut-wrenching crackle, the skin on the snake's skull began to crack. Aheartbeat later, the Kusa nin exploded from the snake's head, body elongating, looking much like a snake. The nin wound himself around a tree as he slithered up towards Sasuke. Fortunately, the sudden appearance of a bevy of shuriken inches before his face quickly halted his advance.

"Gomen, Hebi-teme," Naruto called from his position overhead. His grin widened as he finished his apology. "I think I gave your snake a bad case of upset stomach."

Sakura breathed a short sigh of relief at seeing the blonde unharmed. Sakura set her eyes on their opponent, feeling far more confident than a moment ago. Sasuke, however, had too much experience with ninja that completely outclassed him. Damnit, even if Naruto joins us, all of three of us together won't stand a chance against this guy. Pulling out the team's Heaven Scroll, Sasuke shakily presented it to his opponent. "Here. Take our scroll and leave us be."

"NANI?!" exploded Naruto as he leapt down in front his terrified teammate. Landing lightly, he grabbed the scroll and planted afierce punch into the Uchiha's face, launching him clear off the branch."Idiot! Why the fuck would you try to give up the scroll?!"

"You don't understand the situation! He can kill all of us easily!"

"Then what guarantee is there that he'd let us live?! You fuckin' coward. You're too blinded by your fear to see reality!"

"Kukuku. Naruto-kun is right, you know," the Kusa nin interjected. "It would be much easier to simply kill you all then take the scroll." Ignoring the startled gasps of his teammates, Naruto glared at the nin.

"You are going down; right here, right now." As the last word left his mouth, Naruto struck. He attacked the Kusa nin head-on, starting with a vicious right hook towards his temple. Easily blocking the blow with one hand, the target stood firm against the barrage of punches. Naruto became increasingly frustrated as his opponent easily deflected every one of his attacks. Finally fed up, Naruto put as much as he could into one attack. As the target of his anger began moving to block, he thought, Not this time, jackass. Using every ounce of willpower he possessed, he forced all of the chakra from the nin's arm. The arm's movement halted for a split second, allowing his punch to land directly on the surprised ninja's jaw. He jumped back out of range to avoid any counterattacks the Kusa nin might throw.

With a sickening pop, the nin wrenched his jaw back into its rightful place before speaking, "I'm impressed Naruto-kun, you must really want to beat me."

"Hell yeah, teme," the blonde replied easily."Except, you've already lost. The ability of my Higan is really just a battle of will. Whoever focuses and wants the chakra the most will have control. And you can't compare to the willpower of the great Uzumaki Naruto, so your chakra is mine!"

"Heh, we shall see..."

Running through a sequence of handseals faster than Naruto could even comprehend, he announced his next technique. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" The sudden explosion of smoke heralded the appearance of yet another giant snake, this one several times larger than Naruto's former foe. "I seem to have discovered a weakness of your Higan, eh, Naruto-kun?"

That was way too fast... I didn't even know he was using chakra 'til it was over. Naruto thought reluctantly as he stared the snake down. Without warning, the snake struck with its tail, forcing Naruto to dodge. The snake followed the movement easily and snapped at the midair blonde in an attempt to devour him. /Naruto!/came his teammates wordless shouts. Fully convinced he was about to die, Naruto prepared himself for the inevitable.

Moments before the jaws closed around him, something seemed to snap within the blonde. I won't die here! The Higan user seallessly summoned a shadow clone and used it as a springboard to jump away from his impending doom. When he got above the snake's head, he swung around and punched the top of its skull, sending the snake, and its summoner, rocketing towards the forest floor.

The snake's head impacted heavily with a hefty branch, almost breaking completely through it. Looking back towards the blonde, the snake summoner locked eyes with the red, burning orbs of the Higan. Such strength in a genin... I may have to stop playing.

"Get back up here teme! I ain't close to done with you yet!"

The Kusa nin smirked evilly. "Maybe not, but I'm through playing Naruto-kun." Lifting a hand to his face, the ninja pulled. The skin began stretching and tearing as he pulled before the whole thing simply came off, revealing a pair of dark yellow, slit-pupiled eyes set in an extremely pale face. "I am known as Orochimaru, the strongest of the Densetsu no Sannin, and unfortunately for you, I no longer have the time to continue this charade."

The snake suddenly lunged upwards, completely ignoring the blonde in favor of his male teammate. Sasuke could only stand there, eyes shut tight against his death. Not feeling the expected pain, he cracked open his eyes to find his teammate, a kunai in each hand, holding the snake back. A chill passed through his body when the blonde looked up, revealing the now blood red fires of the Higan to his teammate. "Oi! You alright, scaredy-cat?"

"Na- Naruto... your eyes changed... They're red now,"Sasuke shakily pointed out, mindful of the psychotic ninja behind the blonde.

"Badass! Time to see what they can do!" Turning his head back to Orochimaru, he asked, "Ain't that right, hebi-teme?"

"Another time perhaps, Naruto-kun." As he finished speaking, Orochimaru's head sprouted from his neck, lengthening much like his whole body had earlier. The head swung around and launched towards Sasuke, lightly biting the back of his neck before retreating back to the snake ninja's body. "I've accomplished what I came for."

When the teeth left his neck, Sasuke hands rose to clutch at the bite. Less than a heartbeat later, his screams filled the clearing as Naruto witnessed a malignant purple chakra course through his friend's coils from the bite before retreating into a circular trio of black tomoe under the bite marks, tearing one final scream from the avenger before unconsciousness claimed him. Naruto turned his attention back to Orochimaru."What the fuck did you just do to him?!" Naruto ground out through clenched teeth. So lost was he in his anger, he didn't notice the tingling sensations as his canines grew, whisker marks enlarged, and fingernails lengthened into claws.

"I merely opened to him a path to power,"Orochimaru answered silkily. "He will come to me when he realizes you, and Konoha, could never grant him the level of power I can."

"It will be hard to raise him so high when you're a corpse!" screamed Naruto as he launched a renewed offensive. With claws capable of cutting through stone and monstrous strength from the strange red chakra pouring through his body, Naruto was able to hold his own against the Sannin, but only with judicious use of his Kekkei Genkai. Naruto's enraged state was more than enough to overpower Orochimaru's will for external chakra, rendering his jutsus mostly unusable. The rage that powered him however, almost fully consumed his mind, leaving him unable to muster the focus needed to disrupt the snake summoner's internal chakra, leaving the Sannin free to augment his physical abilities at will.

As each attack against the Sannin proved useless, Naruto grew angrier, clouding his thoughts further. His anger turned itself into more and more of the burning red chakra flooding his system. In a very short time, the chakra completely overflowed from his coils, boiling out of his skin in angry red clouds. The chakra clouds gathered into an identifiable form that caused no small amount of worry for Orochimaru.

So the vessel lives. A suddenly very attentive Orochimaru thought when he recognized the basic shape the red chakra taken. I have to stop this soon or he may draw out too much of the kitsune for me to stop. I have to wait for just the right moment...

Orochimaru picked up his speed, dodging or blocking the blonde's every attack. With a bloodthirsty roar, Naruto called even more of the Kyuubi's chakra to the surface, distorting his chakra shell as a single tail sprouted from his back. "NOW YOU DIE, OROCHIMARU!" came the battle cry from the berserk blonde as he launched his final assault, fist cocked to deliver retribution.

/Now!/Orochimaru ducked under the overextended punch, instantly channeling chakra to his fingertips and completing his jutsu before the berserk jinchuuriki could stop him. "Gogyo Fuuin!"

The force of the blow propelled the blonde backwards, sending him over an inch into the wood of the tree he struck. Naruto gave a final cry of pain from the impact before falling unconscious in his wooden silhouette.

"Kukuku, to think Sasuke-kun and the vessel would be on the same team... You still haven't lost your touch, Sarutobi-sensei..."Orochimaru muttered to himself before he melted into the branch he was standing on and disappeared.

Sakura shakily descended from her perch above the fight and gathered her teammates' bodies. Sniffling quietly she asked herself,"What am I going to do now?"




Night had fallen by the time Sakura carried her teammates down to the forest floor. She hurriedly hid the two boys in a cave formed by the roots of a massive tree and set traps around the small clearing outside. After her meager supply of tripwire, explosive notes and shuriken was exhausted, she returned to the cave, prepared to stand guard until her friends awoke. Sakura stood sentry over her fallen comrades, wishing the dawn would come faster. A sudden cry came from inside the cave, and she immediately ducked in to check on the boys.

Naruto snapped awake, clutching his stomach in pain. The earthen roof that he awakened to confused him at first, but after afew seconds the memories of the Forest of Death, and Orochimaru, came rushing back. Sitting up with ashout, Naruto flinched as he was struck by a sudden feeling of vertigo. When the disorientation had passed, he began looking for his teammates. He very quickly noticed the unconscious Sasuke lying next to him and Sakura working her way inside the small cavern.

"Naruto! You're awake!"

"Sakura-chan... Where the hell are we? What the hell happened while I was out?"

"We're in a cave under the roots of a tree. When that Orochimaru guy knocked you out, I carried your bodies here and hid you guys in this cave. I've got some traps set up so we should have some warning if anyone shows up."

Naruto nodded at her and dragged himself to the nearby wall to sit against it. "Whatever that asshole did really screwed up my chakra, and I don't feel very good right now. I'm gonna rest here for a bit before anything happens."

"Right. Rest well Naruto, you've earned it."Sakura said with a smile to the blonde. "You really surprised me back there."

"Hah," Naruto chuckled dryly. "Serves you right for underestimating the great Uzumaki Naruto, future Hokage!"

"How were you able to do that? Was that red chakra some new level of your Higan?"

Naruto suddenly became extremely interested in the dirt floor. "I guess you could call it a Kekkei Genkai, but no it wasn't the Higan."

"You have two bloodlines?!" a wide-eyed Sakura asked, completely dumbfounded.

"Not exactly... It's more a curse than anything else."

"But it makes you so much more powerful! How could it be a curse?"

Naruto chose his next words very carefully. "It has to do with a seal grafted onto me the day I was born..."

"The day you were born..?"

Naruto's head fell back against the wall. "Hai... Iwas born on October 10th, 12 and a half years ago. The same day the... Kyuubi no Kitsune laid waste to Konoha..." His companion visibly tensed when he finished.

Sakura's eyes widened in surprise and she began frantically stammering denials, trying to ward off the harsh truth. "N- No way!You c-can't mean what I think you mean! That just isn't possible!"

"But it is. I am the container of the Kyuubi no Kitsune," Naruto declared sadly, pulling up his shirt to reveal his seal. The revelation struck Sakura like a physical blow, forcing her to re-evaluate the blonde. At her piercing stare, Naruto slumped against the wall. With a heavy heart, Naruto tried to console her. "...After this exam is over, I'll talk to Hokage-jiji about changing teams..."

The depression and pain evident in the blonde's voice shook Sakura out of her shock, and made her evaluation very easy to conclude positively. "NO!" Sakura's cry snapped Naruto's head up in surprise. At the look on his face, Sakura couldn't help but tease him a bit. "..I mean, we're a good team, and I don't want to have to train another dummy to take your place." She ended the statement with a friendly wink and smile, causing a grin to split across the blonde's face.

"Sakura-chan...." Naruto managed to get out through the sudden lump in his throat. The pink haired girl sensed his conflicting emotions and sat down next to the jinchuuriki before throwing an arm around his shoulders.

"Look Naruto, we might not always get along, and we fight a lot, but you're still my teammate. And Kyuubi or no, you're still Uzumaki Naruto, Konoha's number one loudmouth, annoying, and unpredictable ninja."

"Haha! You're the greatest Sakura-chan!" cried alaughing Naruto as he pulled his teammate into a fierce hug. Slowly coming down from the high of someone accepting his jinchuuriki status so quickly, Naruto eased his grip and relaxed back against the wall. "You have no idea what that means to me."

"I might have some idea," Sakura shot back at him."Besides, you're my friend, no matter how annoying you can be."

Naruto's embarrassed chuckle and apology was waved off by the girl. The pair lapsed into silence until Naruto remembered something. "Oi, before I forget. You can't tell anyone about the Kyuubi, alright? Not even Sasuke. Hokage-jiji says it's an S-class village secret, and I'm the only one that can tell people."

"Alright, Naruto, but I think you can at least tell Sasuke, he wouldn't hold it against you."

Naruto released a breath he didn't know he'd been holding. "Thanks, Sakura-chan. I'll think about it, but for now I'd really like to keep it a secret." A poignant silence settled over them, until Sakura yawned widely. "You rest now; I'll keep watch for a while."

Sakura nodded and hoisted herself off the wall to lie down next to her crush. As she drifted to sleep, Naruto moved to the cave's entrance and whiled away the remaining night hours contemplating Sakura's words and rejoicing in her acceptance of what he truly is.




By the end of the night, Naruto was exhausted. The strange seal Orochimaru had placed on his stomach had completely decimated his chakra reserves. He could feel faint stirrings if he focused but it was far too little to create even a single Kage Bunshin. When the sun's rays filtered through the trees to shine upon his face, Naruto's flagging attention was called by a sound from the opposite side of the clearing. Naruto was instantly wide awake when he took in the sight awaiting him, for the trio of Oto genins were working their way into the clearing.

Naruto ducked inside the cave and shook Sakura awake quickly. She shook off the sleep disorientation quickly and followed her teammate outside to greet the new arrivals. When she caught sight of who they were up against, she burst into laughter. The Oto ninja's killing intent became palpable while they seethed under the girl's giggles. "Naruto, what are you so worried about?" she wondered loudly once she had calmed down. "I beat that chick when she picked a fight the night before the first test, and you didn't forget what happened in the waiting room for that same test did you?" The surprised glances the kunoichi of the three received clearly revealed she had'forgotten' to inform her teammates of the confrontation with Sakura.

"But Sakura-cha-" Naruto was cut off before he could finish.

"Shhh. I'm trying to scare them away. We won't be able to beat them as we are now." Sakura hurriedly whispered to her teammate."Just play along."

Naruto gave his teammate a slight nod before calling across the clearing. "What do you want? I'm not really in the mood to kick your asses now."

Glaring balefully at the blonde, the genin known as Dosu answered him. "We are here by order of Orochimaru-sama to exterminate Uchiha Sasuke. Now that I know you are here though, I believe it's time I avenge my earlier humiliation."

"You'll touch Sasuke-kun over my dead body!"Sakura yelled at their opponents while she placed hersef in front of the cave entrance.

With an evil smirk, Zaku responded sadistically."That can be arranged."

A/N - And there's chapter 4. Shorter than previous chapters, but this chapter has taken long enough to finish and I don't want to add the three to four thousand words needed for the sound vs konoha fight(s).

I'm a bit worried I made Naruto come across as a bit too strong in the fight against Orochimaru though. He only managed a single blow, but when I read through it, it feels weird. Let me know your thoughts, complaints, suggestions and criticisms.