Naruto 1. Take care of the idiot the Forest

"Take care of the idiot, will you Lee?" Neji asked as he stared at Sasuke, leaves falling between them. "I guess that leaves me pinky here then." Tenten said with a sigh, drawing her favorite sickle from it's sheathe and stepping towards Sakura. "I'm not an idiot, dattebayo!" Naruto shouted, glaring at Neji while Lee got into position across from him. "Shut up dobe; concentrate on beating thick brows and leave the freak to me." Sasuke said as he sneered at Neji, drawing a kunai with his right hand and filling his left with shuriken. Neji activated his byakugen, and Sasuke did the same with his sharigan, and the two flew at one another.

Sasuke threw the shuriken when they were within three feet of each other, forcing Neji to duck and open his back to Sasuke's attempted downward stab. Neji allowed himself to continue to drop down to the ground, grabbing Sasuke's ankles before the kunai could reach his back and pulling them out from beneath him. Neji thrust himself up into the air with his legs, spinning as he soared over the falling Uchiha. Neji's hands struck into Sasuke's shoulders, blue chakra flowing into the younger boys body. He flew past and rolled as he hit the ground, coming up and turning around to face the rising Uchiha. Sasuke was panting, with small holes in his shirt where Neji had blasted him. Sasuke brought his hands together and used a fire release: giant fireball to force the Hyuuga back and gain himself some space. As Neji flew back to avoid the fire ball Sasuke took out his largest shuriken, and quickly tied several wires to them. Forcing all of his chakra into his feet he propelled himself into the air, and threw the three massive shuriken in a flat line from himself so that they would pass by Neji. Neji began to dash towards Sasuke, his index and middle fingers extended so that he could stab Sasuke's points. Sasuke landed and pulled back on the wires, throwing a wide kick to keep Neji back while the shuriken whistled back towards them. Neji caught his leg with one leg while stabbing the point that would prevent Sasuke from releasing chakra from his foot with his hand. There would be no more dashing around for the Uchiha. He saw the shuriken flying towards him at the moment his fingers bit into Sasuke's leg, and began to whirl towards them while praying he could catch them all.

Sakura knew she was no match for Tenten. She had entered this exam knowing that she wasn't going to pass; she hadn't even wanted to enter at first. But she wouldn't get better without trying, and Sakura knew now what her role in the group was. Keep the other's safe and don't be a burden on them. She had to get stronger to protect them, and she had to fight intelligently so as not to burden them. Which meant, in this case, she had to hold out until the other's had won their fights before she lost. Tenten wasn't a match for either Naruto or Sasuke; but she was more then capable of turning a fight to her teams advantage by joining in with either Neji or Lee. So Sakura had to hold her here; and the easiest way to do that was… clones. Her clones weren't shadow clones like Naruto's, and had a tendency to flicker, but they would keep her from getting directly attacked. As her group of four clones charged at Tenten, Sakura pulled an explosive note from her bag and gathered her chakra to her feet. Tenten took Sakura's left handed punch straight to the jaw, but she caught Sakura's hand as she fell back, and quickly slashed the inside of Sakura's left arm with her sickle. Sakura cried out, tears welling in her eyes as blood gushed from the long wound. She opened her left hand and attached the burning exploding note to Tenten's right arm, which was holding Sakura's left. The explosion threw the two of them apart, and both of them lay on the ground for a moment stunned by the sound and impact. Tenten got up first, her right arm covered in burns. She looked at Sakura for a moment in silence, and then pulled out a small scroll with her left hand. She drew her thumb across her right arm to pick up blood, and then dragged the blood in a line across the scroll's five symbols. Each of the symbols released 10 small shuriken tied to a small metal ring by very long slender wires. Tenten put her fingers through the rings, and threw the shuriken by holding the wires tight with her hand and swinging them like a sling over her head, letting go at the right moment to send them flying at Sakura, who was now standing holding her arm and inching away. Sakura managed to dodge the fifty shuriken while only taking minor gashes, but Tenten grasped the wires with her hand and began to swing the shuriken in a wide arc, pulling them closer when they had come around towards Sakura again, and wider out on the rest of their orbit. Sakura threw herself to ground in the hopes that Tenten wouldn't be able to hit her with the arc. Tenten smirked, leaping high into the air and pulling the shuriken up with her. She threw them down in a hail towards the prone Sakura, who had no room to maneuver on the ground. She pulled herself into a ball and screamed as several shuriken buried themselves into her body. Tenten took the rings off of her left hand and began to look for the others.

Elsewhere in the Forest of Death, Naruto and Lee were fighting a very brutal close range battle. Naruto had given most of his chakra to clones, and they were busy attempting to beat Lee to death while Lee destroyed them one by one looking for Naruto's real body. This was difficult, as Naruto's real body had been henged into a kunai that was currently being held by a clone. There had been close to 100 clones at the beginning of the fight, the last thirty were all that was left. Naruto used the best strategy available to him, he had the clone throw him at Lee and unhenged himself at the last moment, kicking Lee in the back of the head. Lee only fell to his knees, but the clones moved in kicking and punching. "Forgive me Gai Sensei, I have to disobey you" Lee thought as he opened the first gate. He swiftly killed the remaining clones, but missed Naruto who had henged back into a kunai and had one of his clones throw him into the air to avoid Lee's counterattack. Unhenging again at tree top level, he looked down at the rapidly approaching streak that was the leaping Lee. He used the very last of his chakra to create two clones, which he had throw him down at high speed at Lee. The two of them impacted hard, sending a wave of wind and leaves out from them. Both of them fell unconscious to the hard forest floor; Naruto had elbowed dropped Lee's forehead at the same time Lee had had punched into his stomach.

Sasuke set fire to the wire's as Neji turned his back, catching Neji in a trap from both sides. Neji saw the hand signs, but continued to turn, hoping that the fire would be less devastating then the oversized shuriken. He caught two of the shuriken with his hands, and kicked the last one up so that it was no longer racing towards him. The fire caught his shirt on fire, but he ripped his coat off as he stepped back, minimizing the damage. The burns were bad, there was no doubt about that, but the area burned was only a small circle on his back. Neji and Sasuke stared at each other, red eyes meeting white ones, as they gauged which one of them was going to have the greatest difficulty going on with the fight. Sasuke couldn't move as fast as before, but his fire techniques had proven effective, while Neji hadn't done much damage but was still mostly mobile. Neji smirked, filling his hands with all of the energy he could, and attacked the spot most likely to defeat the Uchiha. Sasuke caught his left hand, but the right passed by and slammed into the area over his heart. "No!..." Sasuke got out before the blue chakra flashed through his body and out his back, cutting him off with searing pain. He lay on the ground, staring up at the trees as he lost consciousness.


	2. Night in the Forest

The battle with Team Guy had gone… badly. Sasuke couldn't really stand on his own; he currently had an arm draped across Naruto's shoulders to balance him. Sakura's left arm had one major laceration and a myriad of minor ones; the large one from a sickle that had opened the inside of her arm from her elbow to her wrist, and the minor ones from the bomb she had blown up on Tenten at point blank. Her arm was thus essentially useless, and was currently bound up in a sling made up of Naruto's jacket. Naruto, thankfully, was relatively unharmed by the ordeal. He was low on chakra though, and wouldn't be able to fight a one on one for at least a day. As the three of them meandered through the forest it was becoming increasingly obvious that they had been knocked out of the chunnin exam. They didn't have a scroll, they were all injured, and every one of them was exhausted.

After a day of traveling Team Kakashi set up their camp. Because they were so weak at the moment, they trapped every inch of the area of the camp around them for several yards. Sakura was the only one with sufficient chakra control to create exploding notes; each of them was made up strips of clothing that she wrote the symbols on in blood while infusing the appropriate amount of chakra. Once she had built six of them she passed out; Naruto catching her as she fell to the ground. Naruto then jumped from tree to tree weaving a net of wires set to explode if someone entered. The exploding wires were specifically obvious for two reasons; first it would make anyone attempting to accost them nervous to do so, and second it would make the more subtle trap harder to spot. Inside the larger net of wires was set a net of small, almost invisible strings tied to bells. Anyone dodging wires would have a hard time seeing string, and if they knew someone was coming they could simply run. Sasuke had fallen asleep the moment they had started to lay out the camp, his injuries overcoming his ability to stay conscious. Naruto placed his comrades at the foot of a tree they had centered their camp around, and then sat against it so that the bells hanging from it's branches would hang down next to his head. He quickly fell asleep as the night fell, shivering in the cold damp shadows.

Naruto woke up first at around midday, accidently waking his companions when he startled at the feeling of weight on his legs. Somehow in the course of the night both of his teammates' had managed to get their heads up into his lap without either waking up or waking him. Sasuke and Sakura were dumped onto the ground when Naruto leapt up, and they groaned at the feeling of bashing their heads against the hard rooted ground. Sakura worked her way to her feet, and brushed her hair with one hand as she tried to gain her bearing. Sasuke simply lay on the ground, staring at the dirt and then looking up Naruto with a slight blush. "Naruto, could you… help me up?" Sasuke asked while looking back down at the ground. Between Sakura and Naruto, they managed to get Sasuke to his feet and they ate the last of their tack bread. "Naruto, could you retrieve the exploding notes while I get the bells?" Sakura asked with a closed eye smile, head tilted slightly to one side. Naruto nodded and jumped off as quietly as he could, hoping to grab as much of the wiring as he could as well. They had to get to the tower, at the very least, so that they could get out of this forest. Sakura turned to Sasuke, who was leaning against the tree, and asked him a question as she reached up with her good arm to get the bells "I know this is going to sound weird, but did you crawl into Naruto's lap some point during the night?" Sasuke blushed, and then shot his eyes to one side, answering "nope, I have no idea what you're talking about." Sakura smiled and laughed weakly, "me neither." It was a long awkward moment after that as they waited for Naruto to get back.

Naruto was currently thinking about how low their chances of passing the exam were now that Sasuke and Sakura were both entirely out of commission. He doubted he could get them two scrolls by himself in the last day of the exam, and the other's wouldn't even be able to act as place holders in a fight between teams. He was better rested now then he had been yesterday, and was confident in his ability to defeat an individual ninja, but an entire team?... Pessimism wasn't really part of Naruto's personality, but he knew that there was a limit to how much he could do by himself, especially while protecting his companions. Shrugging, Naruto decided that at the least he could get them all to the tower, dattebayo! And they would pass the exam next time it came around! He returned to the camp to find he two members of his team staring at the ground and not talking. He was slightly disturbed by the quality of their silence, so he began to chatter about random things while he got them all going again.

Kabuto walked into their encampment with a cheery greeting. "Hi! I was wondering if you would work with me to get to the tower. I got separated from my team while going after a scroll, and I'm afraid I can't defeat a team by myself." Naruto looked at him, looked away towards the distant dot that was the tower, and then back again. Kabuto's eyes widened as he saw the intent in Naruto's eyes, and he reached for a kunai just as Naruto created a half dozen clones. The clones grabbed Kabuto as he attempted to stab them; he managed to get one before they had him. Naruto yelled "Sasuke!" And was rewarded with a giant fireball flying from the location of the tree Sasuke was leaning against and blasting the clones. Kabuto leapt back as fast as he could, taking only minor damage, before taking a kunai to the leg from Sakura. As he grabbed it to pull it out, the note attached to the kunai exploded, tearing hell out of his left leg and hand. Naruto created another group of clones, which proceeded to beat Kabuto into the ground before he could react and fight back. One of the clones took both of the scrolls off of the unconscious body, and handed them back to the main Naruto, who then dismissed them.

"Sorry Kabuto, but I can't afford to give up on passing the exam now. I'll make it up to you later, dattebayo!" Naruto apologized to the prone form, and then walked back over to help Sasuke from the tree. "We still have a chance, dattebayo!" Naruto shouted, as they limped off through the trees.

* * *

~This chapter has less awesome fight scenes and 80% more dialogue, dattebayo! However, the next one will include the first of the tournament fights!


	3. Where Kiba becomes a savior!

Naruto half dragged Sasuke to the tower, entering the front door at the very last second. Beside him Sakura walked in with one arm still useless; and the other holding a kunai in case of attack. Naruto placed Sasuke against a wall, which he slid down to a sitting position; Sasuke's skin had gotten clammy and pale, and they were beginning to wonder if he was going to actually make it. Sakura took out the two scrolls, and unfolded them to reveal a pair of summoning seals. Iruka warped to the spot, his grin at seeing his students fading as he took in their condition. "What happened to all of you? I knew that you were unready to enter the exams… Why didn't Kakashi listen to…" Naruto cut off his rambling by promptly passing out at Iruka's feet, leaving only Sakura awake of the group. "Sorry Iruka sensei, Naruto has had to carry Sasuke for two days now and he just can't keep it up. Can we rest before the next exam?" Sakura asked hopefully, knowing that if the exam continued they weren't going to pass. She began to cry when Iruka shook his head, because all of the work that they had done was going to be worthless now. Iruka looked at the three of them, and then turned his back while clearing his voice. "Shinobi don't show their tears, Sakura. I will see what I can do for the three of you, but this was always a possibility. Missions fail sometimes, no matter how hard you work to make them work." He remonstrated, unable to look at Sakura as he said it. Tears began to run down his cheeks as well as he walked down the hall way.

Sakura managed to get Naruto and Sasuke down the hallway by grabbing both of their belts in her right hand and dragging them. They entered the arena room like that, with tears and wounds and blood. Kakashi stared at the state of his students, stunned that they looked so close to death from what should have been the easiest of their tests. The Hokage seated above looked down at them, and then whispered to Hayate. The tournament referee leapt down to them, and asked Sakura if her companions would be able to continue; they would have to fight in a tournament round almost immediately. Sakura looked at him, with fresh tears beginning to drip down her cheeks, and then nodded. "We will fight. And we will destroy you!" She shouted the last part, pointing at Team Guy. Hayate smiled slightly, and whispered "you might want to get them awake before boasting like that." Sakura looked at them, and then bent down to wake them up. Sasuke opened his eyes blearily, and forced himself to a standing position; he quivered from the effort of simply standing up without a support. Naruto refused to open his eyes until Sakura stomped on his stomach, causing him to hack and cough and finally get up. The three of them took their positions with the rest of the competitors up above to await the computers match ups; the reason that they had to fight this precursor round had already been explained to the other's. The first match was between Naruto and a rain ninja several years older then him. Naruto swayed from exhaustion as he began to descend back down the stairs to the arena; and he was intercepted by Kiba part of the way down. "Eat this." Kiba whispered into his ear urgently. "Eat this, and remember that you represent the leaf." Naruto nodded and threw the small pill in his mouth without even stopping to wonder what the object was.

Each of the last ten steps felt like less of a burden to take, so that upon reaching the bottom Naruto felt only like he had been training all day, rather then three days straight without food. He pointed at the rain ninja, grinning his traditional idiot grin while shouting "I will defeat you! Dattebayo!" Hinata thanked Kiba for saving Naruto as the match began, a smile on her face as she prayed for him to win. The small rain ninja snorted through his snorkeling mask, feeling disgusted that a half dead rat could think he could defeat him! The moment the match began he began to weave hand signs, knowing that as exhausted as his opponent was he wasn't going to be very fast. ' Water Release: Mist Clone Army' was the best weapon against an exhausted opponent, let the idiot use up what little energy he had left trying to find the real one. As the thirteen clones and one real rain ninja circled around Naruto, pulling out kunai and shuriken to throw, Naruto brought his hands together and did what came naturally to him. His fourteen clones rushed out from him, each attacking one of the mist clones and tearing through it. The real body was hit as well, and Naruto charged him and simply began to pulverize him with his fists. After a few minutes of this, the rain ninja was unable to get back up and Naruto limped back up the stairs to fall immediately asleep.


End file.
