Chapter 41

Team 7 had been in the forest for ages now. They had just fought off the genin from Amegakure. Sasuke in annoyance at Naruto who was dumb enough to get impersonated. 

"Hey guys! Are you alright?" Naruto ran up to them. 

"The password?" asked Sasuke, his kunai still his hand.

"Ummm…" Naruto smiled and licked his lips, "So thats how it is huh?" 

BOOM! He exploded in a puff of white smoke. A genin with long hair appeared, from Kusagakure. She was wearing a purple belt. She grinned, licked her lips, and released killing aura. 

Sakura and Sasuke gasped. They saw their deaths. They could feel the kunai ripping through their head,stabbing into their eyes, the blood dripping. Everything was red. Their hearts pounded out of fear. Sakura dropped to her knees, gasping and sobbing out of shock. 

Sasuke remained standing but he was paralyzed with fear. Move! He couldn't move. He was still shaking. Move! She lifted a kunai and threw it towards them. 

Sasukes eyes turned red, into sharingan. He grabbed his kunai and stabbed his thigh. With that, Sasuke was able to move. He grabbed Sakura and jumped away. The kunai stabbed into the floor where they had just been. "Not bad…" 

…

"Oof!" Naruto slammed into a tree and fell on his back. 

He turned around and saw a large snake, hissing and slithering towards him. What had Big Sis say about the snake again? Something about the pouch. Naruto lept to his feet and pulled out the pouch she had given him. Before he could rip it open though, the snake lunged towards him. 

Naruto dove sideways, barely dodging the snake. But, the pouch flew out of his hand and hooked itself on a tree branch overhead. "Dang it," muttered Naruto, "You stupid oversiezed lizard!"

The lizard narrowed its eyes, flicked its tongue, and dove at Naruto. "Ahhh!" He jumped up, "Kage Bushin no Jutsu!" a dozen Naruto's appeared, jumping around and taunting the snake. 

The snake looked around, flicked its tongue, then spun around. "Ha! Thats right! Get outta here!" shouted the Narutos. 

Instead, the snake swung its tail, wiping out all of the shadow clones with a cloud of white dust. Poof! 

Naruto just made more shadow clones. They threw ninja tools at it, but the snake batted aside. Naruto turned and lept for the pouch while the snake was distracted. "Got it-" he grabbed it, "Ahhh!"

The snake swallowed him whole. "Stupid snake," groaned Naruto. He could barely move, let alone rip open the pouch. What was he going to do know. 

"I am not going to be digested!" shouted Naruto at the snake. 

He squirmed around, trying to punch and kick the inside of the snake. He bit dow then gagged, regretting it immediately. The snake inside of the snake was slimy and disgusting. He felt it move, as if having a bad case of indigestion but it didn't spit him back out. 

Naruto was sad. He was going to be digested. Now he could never have Ichiraku Ramen anymore. Ramen… he tried to shake his head. Focus! But ramen… 

Naruto thought of that one time he had eaten so many bowls of ramen that he felt like his stomach would blow. Blow… blow… BLOW! Naruto hada lightbulb moment and grinned. 

He struggled, moving his hands together into a hand sign… "KAGE BUSHIN NO JUTSU!" he screamed as loudly as he could. 

Hundreds of Naruto clones began to appear, many immediately being crushed to death and disappearing. But, with the chakra of the nine-tails, Naurot could make thousands. "AHHHHHHHH" The snake blew up and Naruto and his clones jept out, covered in snake chunks. "Gross," he grimaced then remembered where he was. 

"Right! Where is Sasuke and Sakura?" he looked around. There was a crash and a shriek and Naruto ran in that direction, the pouch forgotten on his wrist. 

…

They were hiding behind a tree, out of sight from the Kusagakure shinobi. There was no way she was a genin. Sasuke hadn't felt that scared since… well… 

Focus! He thought. The enemy could be anywhere. "Sakura," he whispered. 

She didn't respond and he looked at her. She was still shaking with fear. She wouldn't be any help in a fight for now. Hiss… hisssssss…

Sasuke turned, alert. A snake sprang words them. Sakura jumped backwards and out of the way. Sasuke followed, pulling out five shuriken and throwing it at the wide open mouth of the snake. His Sharingan made sure it hit its mark. 

The snake dropped down, dead. Blood flowed out from its dead body, staining the trees red. Sasuke and Sakura stood on a thick branch. Sakura gasped as the scales of the dead snake ripped open. 

The Kusa shinobi stepped out of it. "Very good," she licked her lips, "Very good. A prey must always stay tense and flee desperately." 

Her body streched and coiled around the branch, quickly heading towards them. "Sorry Sasuke," Naruto posed on a branch above them, grinning, "I forgot the password." 

"Seems like you brought that snake down nicely," smiled the shinobi.

"This thing," said Sasuke, "She's on a whole 'nother level. If its the scroll you want, I'll give it to you! I'm asking you to take it and just go!" 

"Hey Sasuke!" shouted Naruto, "What are you doing? Why are you giving our scroll away to the enemy?" 

"Shut up! Teme," shouted Sasuke. He knew that if they fought, they would lose. He suddenly remembered what Rin-sensei had told them. Snake… snake… was this the snake she was talking about? 

"Take it!" Sasuke threw the scroll at the shinobi. 

Naruto intercepted it before she could catch it. "Don't interfere!" shouted Sasuke but Naruto punched him in the face. "You don't understand!" replied Sasuke. 

"You're the one who doesn't understand!" shouted Naruto. He lept at her with a kunai. 

"Summoning Jutsu…" another snake appeared, heading straight towards Sasuke

…

I was sitting on the roof with Anko and Kakashi, anxiously staring into the forest. I hadn't sensed anything yet, meaning the pouch hadn't yet been opened. Were the in danger? What if they hesitated. Naruto and Sasuke definitely would. They were both arrogant and thought they could handle it on their own. I sighed. 

Anko sat outside the gates, enjoying her danko and making a leaf symbol on a nearby tree. The senbon she had thrown had embedded itself nicely into the sign. "Honestly," said Kakashi, "If you eat so much you'll become a fat kunoichi." 

"I excersize," answered Anko. Before she could say more, someone appeared in front of us. 

"We have a problem, Anko-san!" he said then turned to me and Kakashi, "Rin-sama, Hatake-san." 

"Huh?" asked Anko, "What, so suddenly?"

"Corpses!" said the man, "Three of them!" 

He was around Chunin level and wore glasses. He wa also holding a clipboard. He had probably been helping in the first exam. "Moreover," he continued, "They are strange. Please come immediately."

We ran after him, following behind. We stopped in front of a row of stones. There, the bodies of three genin students laid. "They're smooth, as if they've been melted away," said Kotetsu, pointing to their faces. 

I felt a small prickle on my neck. Anko reached up and rubbed a spot on her neck. "Its him," she said, "This is his jutsu." 

"We have no time to lose!" I said, grabbed her and headed for the Forest of Death. Kakashi, being Kakashi, knew exactly what I was doing and grabbed onto me at the last second. 

…

Naruto stopped the snake before it hit Sasuke. "You good? Scaredy-cat." he looked up, his eyes a red-orange and his pupil in slits. His whiskers were more defined and fangs jutted out from his teeth. "The pouch…" he shouted, throwing his at Sakura. She ran to catch it. 

"Oh no you don't!" shouted the shinobi. She threw her kunai and it flew away, embedding itself in a tree farther away. 

Her tongue wrapped around Naruto and she slammed her palm into his stomach. "Five Pronged sealing!" He screamed and his eyes reverted back to blue. She threw him. Sakura threw a kunai and it pinned him to a tree. 

She ran at Sasuke and they began to fight in a Taijutsu battle. Sasukes Sharingan allowed him to see every move. They spun and kicked. She was fast but so was he. :"Where did she…" he turned around just in time to avoid a kick. 

His eyes darted back and forth as she slithered along the branches. "There!" he jumped as a blast of air headed towards him. The branch behind him cracked in half and fell to the forest floor with a loud thud. 

Sasuke landed upside down on a tree then, with a push of his legs, rocketed towards her and grabbed her, slamming her head into a branch. He jumped back and gasped as she turned into mud. Mud clone…

He swung around and dodged, using chakra strands to hang onto a branch before swinging to land. 

As soon as he did, she was back. She punched in him the face and he fell to the floor. "Much too easy!" she grinned.

The two explosive tags on her back exploded, sending her stumbling forward. Sasuke used the chakra strands and wrapped her around a thick tree trunk. "Fire style: Dragon Flame Jutsu!" he blew the fire towards her, burning her to a crisp. Or so he thought.

Sakura ran up to him. "Sasuke-kun! You did it!" But he shook is head and pointed. 

The shinobi broke free from the strands, her skin looking as if it was falling off. She raced towards them but Sauske pulled out the pouch Rin-sensei had given them and pulled hard. It teared with a satisfying RIPPPPP. 

The enemy had their fangs out, getting closer and closer to Sasuke. He was too tired. She opened her mouth and was about to bite down… 

BOOM! A ring of air exploded around them and a flash of silver, yellow, and brown appeared in front of them. The shinobi was pushed away from Sasuke who fell to his knees. 

"Dang it," muttered Rin-sensei, not glancing at her students, "I told you not to hesitate… arrogant teenage boys," she sighed.