Sasuke rolled to a stop, wincing at the pain shooting through his arm at the sudden movement. This Zaku guy apparently only had the one main technique, a pressurised burst of air from the tubes in his palms. Aside from the size, and therefore the pressure it had on contact, it seemed pretty similar to the Daitoppa. All of this was very interesting, but brought him no closer to planning a counterattack.
Sakura, being the more rested of the two, had started their attack, rushing the enemy kunoichi. The third opponent, the one wrapped in bandages, seemed content to let his teammates do the lion's share of the fighting, at least until Sakura's Mizu Bunshin came a little too close for comfort. He made his displeasure known by lashing out with the strange metal gauntlet on his right arm, punching through the clone's head with the blow.
So now Sakura was left to fend off two enemies at once, while Sasuke was stuck playing tag with the last of the trio. Not to mention his vision blurring after using the Mangekyou for so long. 'I've had enough of this.' he thought angrily, pushing his good hand agains the ground and driving a heel into his opponent's chin. He followed this by throwing a kunai at the kunoichi running towards Sakura; Gin or Kin or whatever her name was. With her facing the other direction, the shot was almost guaranteed to hit.
Almost being the operative word, as Dosu blocked the knife with his gauntlet. "Watch yourself, Kin. Next time I'll let the attack through," he grunted, before swiping at Sakura, who collapsed. As Sasuke dashed towards her, Dosu waved his hand lazily and the Uchiha found himself getting very acquainted with the forest floor, his three remaining limbs refusing to support him as the world turned sideways.
"It's a pity. You're pretty cute..." Zaku muttered, pulling Sakura's chin up so that he was looking her in the eyes. Kin scoffed, turning away.
"Kami, you're a complete sleaze, Zaku," she snapped. "We have a job to do here, so don't try and live out your sick little fantasies." The brown-haired teen smirked in response.
"Oh, are you jealous, Kin-chan?" he said mockingly. "Don't worry, baby, there's enough Zaku to go around- SHIT!" he roared, Sakura having lashed out and bit the hand holding her. Zaku attempted to pull his hand free as Kin cackled madly. "GET- OFF- YOU- BITCH!" he snapped, blasting her with his air cannon. However, it seemed he'd underestimated her grip, given that a sizable chunk of his palm was still in her teeth as she flew to the side. The Oto genin stormed towards her, his bleeding hand curled into a fist.
"Calm down, you idiot!" Dosu warned, holding his teammate back before the brunette could attack again. "She's waiting for that!" he snapped, pointing at the kunai in the girl's hand. "Use your jutsu on her and then we'll deal with the Uchiha- urk!" the leader of the trio choked, an electrically-enhanced fist slamming into his throat. Sasuke followed this up with a backhand strike to Zaku's face, and a sweep kick to knock the brown-haired shinobi to his feet.
Sasuke drove his knee into Zaku's back, staring grimly at the other Oto-nin as he drew a kunai and held it at the boy's throat. "Either you agree to leave right now, or your teammate dies." he threatened, frowning as the girl shrugged and Dosu raised his visible eyebrow.
"Kill him, then. He's already lost" Dosu said, as though it was obvious. Sasuke blinked, trying to hide his surprise. He knew Konoha was famous for promoting teamwork more so than the rest of the shinobi world, but he'd expected them to have some kind of attachment to one another.
"Damn you Dosu, you bastard..." the prisoner groaned, shifting slightly to glare at his team's leader. "You can't just leave me here!"
"Don't worry, Zaku. We'll avenge you in his moment of weakness. Kin, stop playing around and grab the girl." the leader snapped, Kin's arm flashing out and grabbing the genjutsu-cloaked Sakura, pulling the exhausted girl into a chokehold. Sasuke's eyes widened at the sight.
"Let her go. Now." he heard himself saying, his eyes burning with the desire to unleash Amaterasu. Zaku took advantage of the distraction to unleash a burst of air into the ground, throwing both genin into the air. Zaku managed to land awkwardly on his feet, while Sasuke had the misfortune of hitting the ground with his injured arm under him.
"Now, that makes things easier," Dosu commented dryly. "Zaku, please try to actually kill him this time? We've wasted enough time dicking around as is."
"...yooooooooo..."
"Wait, what the hell is that noise?" Zaku frowned, peering into the forest as the distant cry reached his ears. He could just barely make out a blurred figure in the distance, gradually growing closer. Maybe not so gradually.
"YOOOUUUTH! DYNAMIC ENTRY!" came the battlecry, as a sandal impacted Zaku's solar plexus, launching him into the air.
"Lee?" Sakura wondered aloud, giving the green-clad taijutsu specialist an incredulous look as he stood and struck a pose, hand outstretched, thumb up and teeth-ting- audibly shining.
"Yes, Sakura-chan, it is I! Naruto-kun's most youthful advice has inspired me! If you do not yet see me as a potential partner, then I must prove myself! SO! Whenever you need my assistance, I vow to be there to protect you!" Lee cheered exuberantly. It was Sasuke who summed up everyone's reaction.
"What."
OoOoO
Naruto burned. Whatever the creepy snake guy had done, it was tearing him apart from the inside out. He had no idea where he was, or how long he'd been there. All he could tell was that he needed to fight this thing quickly, or it'd get worse. Somehow.
"IDIOTIC BRAT! How could you allow yourself to be infected like this?" Well, that was one way. Naruto forced his eyes open, noting that he appeared to be kneeling on the floor of the sewer where he'd met the Kyuubi back in Nami, though it was quite noticeably different. Most pressingly, the water, which had been red last time he checked, was now a sickly grey, and the floor was crumbling. He pushed himself to his feet, trying not to vomit as he stared up at the beast sealed in his gut.
"What're you talking about?" he choked out, seeing his prisoner snarl as its cage slowly lowered into the floor. He could actually feel whatever the bastard had used making its way through his system.
"You allowed that snake-obsessed fool to send a fragment of his own soul into your pitiful body! Without my power, you have no way to fight it. But this thrice-damned cage prevents me from purging his mind from yours. I will not be used like a tool by someone as wretched as him!" the fox snarled, its shoulders now only a few feet above Naruto's body. "If you want to survive, then you must accept my power before he takes control."
Naruto started forwards, before hesitating a few feet from the cage. "How do I know you won't try to take over?"
"You don't, brat," the beast rumbled, snarling. "But are you willing to die? To let the Uchiha whelp and the pink one die because you couldn't take the chance? I can sense your enemies close by, and they are overpowering your precious teammates..."
By this point, Naruto himself was snarling, eyes cold. "That's low. That's really low. I'll go along with you for now, but don't forget that this is my body. You're a prisoner." That said, he placed his hand on the cold metal of the cage, gritting his teeth as demonic energies forced their way into his system.
The Kyuubi glared as its prison vanished from the mindscape. "Little fool doesn't even realise what's happened to him. The power he accepted won't be enough to purge the snake from this body. Will it?"
A yellow eye glinted in the darkness as the sewer began slowly piecing itself back together. "And I thought I'd had you fooled, Kyuubi-sama..." it hissed, the speaker's face twisted into a grin.
"Now we wait, and see if Naruto-kun is strong enough to make use of the gifts he's given..."
OoOoO
Lee coughed, grimly wiping blood from his mouth as he warily circled Dosu. Despite Sasuke-san's warnings, this Dosu character's abilities were most disconcerting. Sasuke-san was fighting the Oto kunoichi while Sakura-chan attacked the one known as Zaku.
"Why the hell are you helping them? You're not part of their team, you should be trying to clear out the competition!" Dosu snapped, Lee flipping away from the Melody Arm's attack range before dashing ahead to drive the metal gauntlet into the ground, distoring the vibrations with the resounding clang.
"They are comrades, fellow shinobi of Konohagakure. I need no more reason than that to aid them." Lee admonished, closing the distance with a Konoha Senpuu, driving his sandal into his opponent's chest. The green-clad genin frowned as his opponent flew backwards. 'I'm still too limited with weights of this level... that kick should have been a deciding blow. When these exams are over, I will perform one thousand kicks, until I have regained my full speed and power!'
"Damn... Kin, Zaku, fall back! We'll get our chance in the third round!" Dosu called, before abruptly freezing in place. Out the corner of his eye, he saw Kin flinch, before turning and tackling Zaku to the ground, as a bored-looking shinobi with a pineapple-styled ponytail stepped out from behind the tree, his shadow connected to Dosu's own.
"You're not getting away that easily. Give us your scroll and we'll let you go." Shikamaru smirked, relaxing his grip enough to allow the Oto-nin to remove the scroll from its pouch, but making it painfully clear that Dosu was not in control. Chouji landed heavily beside his friend, providing more than enough intimidation to prevent thoughts of deceit.
Ironic, what with all of them being shinobi.
As soon as the Earth scroll landed in Chouji's waiting hands, Shikamaru retracted his shadow, allowing Dosu to grab his teammates and run as Ino stepped out beside her teammates. Sasuke was, surprisingly, the first to break the silence.
"What was that, Nara? We had it covered. That scroll should be ours." he pointed out, earning a glare from his teammate and a roll of the eyes from Shikamaru, who casually tossed the scroll over to Sakura.
"Troublesome... We're just trying to pay you guys back for Nami. We already managed to find our scrolls," the Nara drawled, yawning as he turned to leave. "Don't get your panties in a twist."
"See you at the tower, Sasuke-kun, Forehead. Tell Naruto we said hi when he gets back." Ino chirped, waving at the two members of Team Seven as she followed her teammates into the forest. And also Lee, even if she had no idea who he was.
"Lee-san, thank you very much for helping us," Sakura offered, bowing slightly. "I want to apologise for what I said to you before the first test, and I hope you'll accept this scroll-"
"Sakura! What do you think you're doing?"
"Sasuke-kun, he saved us. And he got hurt doing it. The least we can do is help him in return." Sakura admonished, taking out some supplies from her medical pack and motioning Lee to sit down.
"No, the least we can do is nothing! Besides, we had it covered." the Uchiha insisted, before a spike in chakra caught his attention. Very familiar chakra.
A clawed hand gripped the roots of the tree, a feral-looking Naruto dragging himself out, despite looking extremely pale and sickly under the bubbling red chakra cloak. He grinned hungrily at his teammates and Lee, all of whom were staring blankly at him, before glancing at the destruction from the battle with the Oto trio. "Well, looks like I missed a party. What happened, and why's Eyebrows here?" he smiled, showing off his enlarged canines.
"We were attacked while you were unconscious, Uzumaki," Sasuke replied stiffly. "This guy gave us a hand, so you can drop your cloak."
"Wha- oh, right. Gimme a sec," Naruto replied, taking a few deep breaths and allowing the cloak to dissipate. "Thanks for the assist, Lee. Really. If there's anything you want in return, we'll do our best. Just... don't mention the cloak to anyone, OK? I'm not supposed to show anyone yet."
Lee nodded gravely. "I know the value of concealing one's full power, Naruto-kun, do not worry. As to wanting to repay me, Sakura-chan already offered me an Earth scroll. However, my team and I have already got one, so there is no need..." Lee trailed off as Sakura pressed a Heaven scroll into his hands. "Sakura-chan?"
"Please, Lee, we don't need it, and you do. Take it as a favour to me," the girl smiled, giving the green-clad genin a quick hug, before frowning as he tensed up. "Lee?"
"..."
"Lee? Are you O-"
"YOSH! THANK YOU FOR YOUR GIFT AND YOUR KIND WORDS, SAKURA-CHAN! I WILL PROVE MYSELF WORTHY OF YOUR KIND AND GENTLE NATURE BY SUCCEEDING IN THESE EXAMS! YOOOOUUUUTH!" cried the taijutsu specialist, sprinting into the forest.
Naruto put it best. "You know, there's something not quite right with that guy. That said, he seems pretty cool."
"His taijutsu is decent, but I still don't like him."
"You don't count, you don't like anyone."
Sakura stepped between them before the argument could start. "We can settle this after the exam, boys. Let's get going before someone else tries to kill us."
"What are the odds of that happening?" the blond shrugged, some colour in his face again. "Again, I mean?"