You will receive one of two scrolls, either the Heaven or Earth. In order to pass, you will need to report to the tower in the forest at some point in the next five days, with both a Heaven and Earth scroll," Tenzo instructed, gazing grimly at all of them. "But before you collect your scroll, I want all of you to sign these forms."
"Why?" Kiba asked, frowning. "What d'you need us to sign them for?"
"Standard procedure for these exams. Once you sign these, you're agreeing not to blame Konoha if you get yourself maimed or killed in the test," Tenzo said, deadpan, as several genin flinched and/or winced at the thoughts of being injured that badly. "So either sign up and report to one of the booths to pick up a scroll. One more thing: Under no circumstances are you to open the scroll before reaching the tower. If you do, you'd better hope you're only expelled from the exams." he muttered darkly, Naruto ducking behind Hinata at the sight.
"Oh my Log, pull yourself together, Naruto. Don't make us tie you up again." Sakura scolded, delivering a quick slap to her teammate's head before dragging him off to the nearest booth.
"Hey, he is a very scary man, Sakura-chan. Let's get this done so we don't have to meet him again." Naruto argued, hurriedly scrawling his signature across the bottom of the form.
"Head to entry point thirteen, you'll be given the signal to enter..." drawled the bored-looking chuunin in the booth as he handed a Heaven scroll to Sasuke, who placed it in a storage scroll.
"You two better get focused. I don't want to have to explain to Iruka-sensei why we ended up nearly killing one another in the middle of an exam. Remember what he told us about keeping professional?" the Uchiha scolded.
"Professional? I'm totally being professional!" Naruto announced proudly, wincing as Sakura slapped him.
"Just be ready, Naruto. Wouldn't want Konoha's 'Army of One' getting himself disqualified, would we?" his black-haired friend smirked.
"... do people actually call me that? 'Cause that's awesome."
"You're an idiot."
"Oi!"
OoOoO
Iruka pulled out a kunai, sinking back into a combat stance. "Who are you?" he asked quietly, staring intently at the translucent figure stood in the doorway; an old man wearing dark blue robes. The man simply arched a brow, moving slowly towards the jounin.
"The better question, child," he rasped, appraising Iruka as he continued walking, his steps making no impact on the dust-coated floor. "Would be: Who are you, who would make his way into the library of a dead village? And put that away before you hurt yourself." he sneered, gesturing at the knife in the young man's hand. Iruka slowly returned the kunai to his pouch, never taking his eyes off of the... ghost? that stood just a couple of feet from him.
"My name is Umino Iruka, jounin of Konohagakure. I am here on behalf of the Sandaime Hokage, hoping to recover some of the artifacts and information that was lost along with Uzushio." he offered, trying not to make it obvious how freaked out he was. "No-one said anything about ghosts! I'm a teacher, not a Log-damned exorcist!"
"Umino, hmm? And you claim that young Sarutobi sent you? My, my... still, at least he gave it thirty years or so before he decided to ransack our ancestral home." the spirit mused, eyes cold.
"It's not like th-" Iruka began.
"Be silent! I've heard all I need to. We sent dozens of our best shinobi, hundreds, even, trying to help Konoha guard its borders from a war we never should have been involved in! If we hadn't supported Konoha, we wouldn't have been destroyed! And when we were under siege from fourvillages at once, what did Konoha do to help us? What did your precious Sandaime Hokage do?" the old man snarled, glaring as he stepped just in front of Iruka, who stumbled backwards. "Nothing. They let us die in vain, without a thought for our so-called 'eternal alliance'. If our closest friends were willing to stand back and let us die in vain, then tell me. Why should I let you take anything more from us?"
This said, the spirit's form began wavering before he exhaled and his image came back into focus. Iruka straightened himself up and stared at the spirit.
"I'm sorry."
Those two words, spoken softly, were enough to attract the old man's attention back to the Konoha native. "What was that?"
"I said I'm sorry. I wasn't even born back then, so I only have our history to go by... but from what I know, the rest of the Iwa and Kumo forces were basically committed to stopping any help from Konoha," Iruka continued, voice stronger now. "And I'm sorry if it seems callous, but I need to collect whatever I can from here and bring it back to Konoha. All this can help us, keep what happened to Uzushio from happening to us if, Kami forbid, there's another war. So I'm going to do what I can. Now please let me past so I can find my friends and leave." he finished, almost daring the older man to try something.
"...You're either really brave or really stupid, boy," the spirit mused, before his face contorted itself into a wide grin. A familiar grin. "Either way, I approve! Follow me. I'll show you where the prisons are. And seeing as how you gave your name, I'll do the same. I am Uzumaki Kaito, Shodaime Uzukage. I'd bet you're Wataru's grandkid, he used to be exactly like that when he was a kid. Anyway, better get going before my projector runs out of chakra!" he cackled, striding down the corridor, leaving a very confused Iruka behind.
"Naruto makes a lot more sense now..." the teacher thought idly, jogging after the chakra construct... who was chatting animatedly about his granddaughter. Evidently, this Kushina was an adorable baby.
OoOoO
"SWEET MOTHER OF BALLS!" screamed a blond shinobi as he pulled the last of the senbon out of... well, it was uncomfortable. for everyone. Sasuke, meanwhile, was sorting through the supplies they'd procured from a relatively weak Taki team. The only one worth mentioning had been one with a strange chakra beam technique. while it hadn't managed to score a direct hit, the glancing shot she'd landed on an unprepared Naruto had apparently been sufficient to activate one of the weapon scrolls in the Uzumaki's pocket. At least the senbon were relatively non-fatal, as opposed to kunai.
"Naruto, please. We need to decide what to do with this," Sakura frowned, holding up their newly liberated Heaven scroll. "Do we keep it, to make things easier in the next round, or try and trade for an earth scroll?" she asked, gaze flicking to the unconscious team they'd placed against a nearby tree.
"We keep it, obviously." Sasuke scoffed at the same moment as Naruto piped up. "Trade it, obviously." Sakura just sighed and shoved the scroll into her pouch.
"Don't get into an argument over this, not until we set up camp for the night," the pinkette warned. "It's nearly night already, so we have four and a half days before we have to get to the tower. We'll keep it on hand for now."
"Alright, fine, where are we going to set up? I'm not going near those leeches again." Sasuke grimaced, as Naruto rubbed the bandage on his arm.
"Hey, after today, I'll be happy just to get some shut-eye. Ramen?"
"Where did you even get that?"
OoOoO
"Let's get moving, you guys! We've only got four days left!" Naruto called, effortlessly dodging the kunai Sasuke threw.
"Naruto. It is currently sunrise. Do you know what that means?" Sakura groaned, her hair and clothes dishevelled. "It means you've woken us both up, two hours before we need get moving." Naruto's smile became a little forced as Sakura's voice grew colder.
"S-Sakura-chan?" he whimpered, suddenly very nervous. The pinkette smiled pleasantly.
"I'm feeling generous, so I'll give you a choice. You can either go scout the area, or you can stay here and..." Naruto was gone before she could finish.
"Nicely done. That should buy us a half-hour or so," Sasuke grunted, before a pillow landed on his face. "Tell me you're joking."
"If Naruto and I don't get to sleep in, neither do you. Now get up before I have to make you." Sasuke rolled his eyes, not that Sakura could see it.
"I'd like to see you try."
OoOoO
"...so you're actually made of chakra?" Anko perked up at the sound of a voice approaching. She glanced at her companions, Zabuza giving her a nod in return.
And then Iruka walked in with a ghost.
Well. In retrospect she shouldn't have been too surprised. This was the guy who wanted to teach everyone how to fly.
Also, Zabuza had passed out.
"Took your time, didn't you, Iruka-kun?" she drawled. "If you hadn't turned up soon, we were going to eat the kid." she continued, cackling as Haku blinked in shock.
"Well, it turns out that visitors aren't transported to the same area as prisoners, Anko-san. Hold on until I find a way to open the cells." Iruka murmured, examining the faintly visible sealwork across the walls. Anko blinked as the semi-transparent figure approached her, eyes flicking to each of the three imprisoned shinobi.
"Two Kiri-nin and a curse victim, eh? You have some strange friends, Iruka-chan..." the old man muttered, expression not wavering even as Anko's hand flew to her neck. "The circles are the absorption sigils, by the way." he pointed out, a sheepish Iruka channeling his chakra into the floor. Haku bent down to lift the unconscious Zabuza as the bars of their cells slid into the ceiling.
"Now that you've got your friends, you'd best get moving before Sarutobi gets himself all worked up," the spirit advised, waving a hand through the air. A nearby wall shimmered and faded to reveal a corridor lit dimly by torches. "This should lead you back out."
"Feh," Anko snorted, even as she walked past the man. "Not like we're missing much."
OoOoO
Sakura slammed against the trunk of a tree, coughing harshly as she fought to stay conscious. Pushing herself to her knees, she watched Sasuke desperately trying to fight off the Kusa kunoichi who'd attacked them. Pulling out a pair of kunai, she ran ahead to try and support her teammate. "Where the hell is Naruto?"
Sasuke was barely holding his own as his opponent effortlessly threw a barrage of punches and kicks. "Whoever this is, she's no genin. Hell, I don't even think Iruka-sensei's this good-" he thought, before a knee to the solar plexus knocked him to the ground.
"Here I was hoping for a challenge, Sasuke-kun. Maybe the rumours of what the sharingan can do were exaggerated... or are you just weak? Itachi-kun was far better than this, after all..." the Kusa shinobi mused, grinning widely at the glare Sasuke unleashed, before the boy's hands came up in a single tiger seal.
"Gokakyu!" he roared, firing a massive fireball from his mouth, catching her in the face before a blast of water knocked her back a step. Sakura landed beside her teammate, launching a kick to their enemy's gut to open up more distance between them.
"You okay, Sasuke-kun?" she coughed, before the Uchiha rushed past her, hand sparking with the power of Chidori. He slammed his fingertips into the enemy's chest, cursing when she dissolved into mud.
"So very angry, Sasuke-kun," the singed kunoichi muttered from behind them, smiling blandly as Sakura slid away as quickly as she could. "But I suppose I should congratulate you. I wouldn't have expected a pair of genin to force me to swap with a clone," she continued, before suddenly reappearing behind Sakura and grabbing her by the hair, causing Sasuke to freeze in the middle of throwing a kunai. "If you don't want your friend to get hurt, you'd best put down your weapon. You could hurt someone with that, after all."
Sasuke snarled, before dropping the knife by his feet. His enemy kept smiling right up until Sakura reached her arm up, slicing through the pink locks of hair in the Kusa-ni's hands before vanishing in a burst of smoke. By the time a pair of grime-coated blond shinobi lashed out from behind in a co-ordinated attack, the enemy was decidedly frowning, even before a barrage of fireballs from Sasuke sent her reeling back.
"I'm gone for ten minutes and you're getting your asses kicked? You guys need to get your acts together," a blood-and-other-fluids-spattered Naruto critiqued, earning himself a pair of glares. "It's a joke! Kami, see if I help you two next time..."
"And what happaned to you?" Sakura wondered aloud, seeing her teammate's shredded clothes. "What took you so long?"
"Snake summon. Like one of Anko-sensei's, but, like... bigger. Also? Hungry." he responded, deadpan, before being blindsided and thrown headlong into a tree, groaning as he collided solidly with it. The other members of Team Seven froze as the Kusa-nin literally tore her now burned, charred face off.
"I underestimated you, especially that Kyuubi brat. I'd like to see how much you could grow, given enough time," hissed the enemy, reshaping her-himself into a thin, pale shinobi wearing a long, grey tunic over dark pants, a purple rope tied around his waist to act as a belt. Yellow eyes with slit pupils stared at the two genin, freezing the blood in their veins with the force of malice behind them. "But for now, I'll leave you with this parting gift." The man's arm stretched out like a whip, embedding itself in Sakura's gut before grabbing the girl and slamming her face-first into the ground, where she lay unmoving.
Sasuke growled at the still smiling enemy before bursting into movement, blinking to reveal eyes patterned with six-petalled flowers. "You and your gift can go to hell! Amaterasu!"
OoOoO
Sakura coughed harshly, wincing at the taste of blood in her mouth, as she forced herself to her feet, blinking to refocus her vision. Above her head, she could see tree roots forming a hidden cavity below ground level.
"... no... hurts... nonono, stop..." Sakura stifled a cry at the sound of agonised moaning. Naruto was curled up in a ball a few feet away, looking unnaturally pale and sweating profusely, flinching away from her touch. "If Naruto got this hurt, what happened to Sasuke-kun?"
She made her way to the light at the entrance, wincing at the sight of a heavily beaten Sasuke, one arm held tightly against his ribs and a trail of dried blood running down from one eye. "S-Sakura? You're okay?" he rasped, clearly exhausted. Sakura nodded, pulling the emergency supply scroll out of her pocket and removing the first aid kit. Any arguments Sasuke had were silenced with a quick glare from the team's most skilled medic.
"After you got hurt, me and Naruto tried to hold off that guy, but even Mangekyou only slowed him down for a couple of minutes. He tried to poison me and Naruto... he took the hit. Whatever that stuff is, it's... it's really bad. Even Anko-sensei's snakes can't give him more than a stomachache. He... he saved my life," Sasuke explained, hissing in pain as Sakura reset his arm, wrapping it in a sling as best she could. "Then Tenzo turned up with a couple of ANBU, drove the guy off. A couple of the emergency Kage Bunshin managed to grab you two and we tried to set up a base here so we could get some breathing space. That was this morning; you were out of it for almost the entire day." he grunted, shifting his weight slightly.
"Sasuke-kun-" Sakura began, before cutting herself off. "That man... he used snake summons. There's only one person who could do that aside from Anko-sensei," again she paused, looking terrified. "Sasuke-kun... that man was Orochimaru of the Sannin."
Sasuke gulped slightly. "So what does Orochimaru want with us?"
"Excellent question, Sasuke-kun," sneered a voice, the two Konoha genin leaping to their feet as a trio of Oto-nin looked down on them from a high branch. The speaker was one of the two males, with brown hair spiking straight up. "But I wouldn't worry about it.
"You won't live long enough to find out."