Chapter Text
“Are you alright? Scaredy cat,” I taunted.
My eyes felt sharper as I single-handedly held back an extremely large snake from eating Sasuke. A part of me really loved the way things stood, I was the one protecting my team while Sasuke was scared stiff. Oh how the turns had tabled. Or was it ‘how the tables had turned?’ Either way, there’s no way he could call me the Dead Last now that I saved his pretty boy ass.
While contemplating whether turns could get tabled, I lost track of the gift-wrapped freak on the snake’s head. She, or he (after meeting Haku I learned never to assume someone’s gender based on facial features and hair length) grabbed me with his…her…THEIR tongue before I could react. A second later I was dangling in front of the long-haired individual, trying to wiggle free of the disgustingly long appendage.
“LET ME GO YOU UNI-SEXED PEDOPHILE!”
The person looked at me questioningly for a moment before brushing off the comment completely.
“The nine tailed brat is still alive, I see. With quite the tongue on him as well.”
“Bet you like that!”
Again I was ignored, though I did get the pleasure of seeing an angry tick appear on their forehead.
“Oddly enough, you and your bijuu are coexisting quite well. I’m going to have to change that.” They raised a hand, each finger glowing with a different kanji.
“FIVE PRONGED SEAL!” they shouted as the glowing fingers were forced into my seal.
An intense pain coursed throughout my body. I wasn’t aware of much past it, though I could have sworn someone shout to Sasuke while another voice simply screamed. It took me a while to realize it was me who was screaming, but I couldn’t figure out who the other voice was. Or why they were shouting at Sasuke when I was the one getting hurt.
Everything became fuzzy after that, like I was on the brink of losing consciousness. I was vaguely aware of being thrown into a tree then dangling there from my jacket. But I needed to stay awake. I felt that if I let myself get knocked out, something bad would happen. So I clawed my way back to the real world, fighting tooth and nail just to get awareness once again.
I struggled to open my eyes only to find myself dangling from a tree, nothing holding me there except a kunai through my coat. I could hear fighting nearby, probably that bow-wearing person and one of my teammates. Though, remembering how helpful they were before, maybe not. Whoever they were fighting, I figured I could get down without them noticing, but only if I was quick about it.
Pain still tingled through my body as I reached up and pulled out the kunai. I focused my chakra into my feet as soon as I started falling. But something wasn’t right. My chakra wasn’t working like it should as my feet slid down the bark instead of sticking to it.
I landed wobbly onto a branch below me, grabbing the trunk to keep from falling. Once my balance was back, I quickly glanced over towards where the fight was coming from. I blinked. Then blinked again. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. My eyes must be wrong since I was certain Sasuke couldn’t be that person’s opponent. Let alone doing well against him.
He surprised them with a couple kunais, a shuriken, and some ninja wire. Which was a pretty good move, I had to admit. Quietly. So, no one would hear it. But, if that wasn’t good enough, he set it all on fire and burned their face off. It peeled off their head like one would an orange, revealing another, somehow more sinister, face beneath it. They said something about wanting Sasuke, which must have creeped my teammate out since the bastard froze, again.
They didn’t even move as they stretched their neck out, their snake-like fangs gunning towards Sasuke’s neck. Without a second thought, I threw myself towards the assailant, grabbing their neck before they could reach my teammate. The fangs dug into a nearby tree, making them hiss in annoyance. I wasn’t even given the chance to let go before their neck returned to their body, reeling me in along with it.
They grabbed me by the collar, dangling me before them, unimpressed by my struggles to get free.
“How are you still conscious?” They studied me with a look in their eyes that I wasn’t comfortable with. It reminded me of an evil doctor or a mad scientist. A look that said they no longer saw a person in front of them, only something interesting they wanted to take apart. “I tightened your seal so you can’t access the fox’s power, so how are you able to keep fighting?”
“I don’t need that stupid furball’s power to fight you, ya creepy pedophile!” I yelled back.
I continued to struggle, this time kicking out at my captive but found myself being held just a little too far out of range.
“And why do you keep calling me a pedophile?”
“Because you look at Sasuke like hungry kids look at an ice cream cone, you clearly said you ‘want him’, and you just tried to give him a hickey. So that makes you some creepy old pedophile… or Ino in disguise.”
“I’m not a ‘creepy old pedophile’ nor a fan girl,” they said crossly.
“Umm…if you’re not a creepy guy or a fan girl, then what gender are you?” I asked, inching my hand towards my kunai pouch while they glared at me.
“Male,” he hissed in annoyance.
“Cool, cool. Definitely good to know. It’s better than calling you ‘that creepy person trying to bite my teammate.’ It was getting a little long to keep thinking-“
But before my fingers could even brush the pouch, my opponent slammed me into the branch of the tree we were standing on.
“Cleaver boy, trying to distract your opponent while planning a counter strike,” he said, sounding amused. “I must say, you are quite intriguing yourself, but you keep getting in my way. It would be easier just to kill you so I’d know for sure you wouldn’t ruin my plans; but then I wouldn’t get a chance to study you more.”
Both choices were equally horrible in my mind. The man was starting to give off the creepy doctor vibe, and I didn’t like doctors to begin with. I was about to voice my opinion on the subject when I was slammed into the tree again, causing my vision to swim.
“But I have plenty of time to come up with a solution,” I heard the snake-man say, his voice sounding as if it was under water.
I was starting to lose consciousness again, but this time there was no fighting it. The last thing I saw was the mad man’s neck extended again and the sound of Sasuke screaming in pain before all went black.
! ! ! !FEW HOURS LATER! ! ! !
After giving Sasuke his “present” and that so-called “fight” with Anko, Orochimaru was in a pretty good mood. He was still hanging in the Forest of Death, more for his own enjoyment than anything else. He had some things he had to do, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t enjoy a leasurly walk on the way. Soon after fighting his precious student, he had come up with a way to solve his problem with the blond brat. It was an ingenious idea, yet so painfully simple he should have thought of it before hand.
It was nearly dark when he found the person he was looking for. Orochimaru dropped down in front of the group, startling only the two teammates.
“Orochimaru-sama, did everything go well?” the single, unsurprised person questioned.
“Yes, though I did run into a small problem. One I was hoping you could help me rectify, Kabuto.”
“Whatever it is, Orochimaru-sama, I’m sure I can handle it.” The silver haired man smirked as he pushed his glasses up, making them flash.
! ! ! !FEW DAYS LATER! ! ! !
We had been in the forest now for about four days and we were running low on time. Somewhere along the way we had picked up the weird guy with the ninfo cards after he had lost his teammates at some point in the last few days or something.
I hadn’t been listening very hard to his explanation since I was still trying to figure out when Sakura had the time for a haircut. I mean it was cute and all but we were in the middle of the Forest of Death. It wasn’t exactly the best time for a makeover. I had asked her once but she only rolled her eyes and called me an idiot. Which didn’t exactly give me an answer.
During the time we were traveling with the silver haired spectacles man, we had ran into a random team and were able to snitch the scroll we needed when they weren’t looking. Technically, we knocked them all out first, but same thing. After traveling a little longer, we set up camp right when the sun was starting to go down.
Spectacles offered to take first watch. Though my teammates were a bit apprehensive, they decided that it was probably best. He had more experience in the field than all three of us put together. It would make sense that he would take at least one of the watches. I passed out as soon as my head hit the bedroll, not nearly as distrustful as I should have been.
! ! ! !FEW MORE HOURS LATER! ! ! !
“Naruto, wake up. It’s your watch,” I heard Sakura say as she nudged me with her foot. I rolled over.
“Five more minutes,” I muttered into the fabric.
“Get up!” she hissed, kicking me off my bedroll.
“Wha?” My eyes shot open, looking around to figure out what just happened, but my surroundings were just too dark to make anything out.
“It’s your watch,” Sakura whispered again. I could hear her footsteps move away as she went back to her own sleeping spot. “I’m going to sleep so you better stay awake or you’ll regret it.”
“I’m up,” I said, through a yawn as I pulled myself into a sitting position.
It was too dark to move anywhere else without tripping over a sleeping person, which I’d rather not do. My team hated me enough as it was, I didn’t want to give them any more reasons to do so. Meaning I stayed put during my entire watch, all the while trying to figure out why it was called a ‘watch’ if it was so dark you couldn’t see anything.
Time felt like it was dragging as I waited for the first ray of sunlight to start illuminating the dark. But though the temperature eventually started to rise, the sky never got any lighter. I sighed, apparently it was just going to be one of those days were time crawls without a single reason why.
It felt like forever before I heard someone’s bedroll rustle before a confused “hm” that could only be from Sasuke.
“Dobe, you were supposed to wake us at sunrise,” he said, his voice sounding a tad annoyed.
“The sun’s taking its own sweet time rising,” I muttered, resting my chin on my hand.
“It’s already up.”
“Impossible!”
“It’s already ten o’clock,” Sasuke continued. I glanced around, worry creeping into the back of my mind when I still couldn’t see any sunlight. “Sakura, we have to go. The idiot decided to ignore the sun.”
“What? Idiot! Are you blind or something?!”
The sound of them packing and, in Sakura’s case, yelling faded into the background as her words echoed through my mind on repeat.
I bolted to my feet, my head whipping back and forth as I searched for anything to prove myself wrong.
There was nothing.
I stumbled backwards, tripping over my bedroll as my teammates as they called my name in confusion. I kept moving. I couldn’t give up. I wouldn’t give up! There had to be something, somewhere that I could see. Even if it was just the smallest piece of light. Just something. I didn’t get far, instead running into something hard head first. I was knocked out cold before I ever hit the ground, my last thought being that, whatever it was I ran into, I really should have been able to see it.
