❝𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝒂𝒈𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝑲𝒐𝒏𝒐𝒉𝒂❞

𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 4: 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑪𝒉𝒖𝒏𝒊𝒏 𝑬𝒙𝒂𝒎𝒔: 𝑷𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝑰

Message from the Author: I have decided to start with the third exam and just do flashbacks to the second exam. I find the first one is INCREDIBLY boring to write about so I'm not even going to try.

"Congratulations on passing the second exam! From now on things are going to get much more difficult for all of you." Naruto tuned out the Third Hokage and instead turned his attention to his pink haired kunoichi comrade. A lot had changed during the Second Exam and Naruto wasn't so sure he actually knew what she was thinking. From her actions during their time in the Forest of Death he wasn't sure he knew who she loved anymore.

-Flashback Begins-

No one knew what just happened. One minute all three of them were jumping through the trees and the next minute the air itself seemed to slam into Naruto and send him flying through the forest, breaking trees and branches as he flew.

"Naruto!" Sakura seemed frantic as she called out for the blonde but the only answer she got was a chilling laugh and a spike of killer intent so massive that it brought her to her knees. She didn't even need to look into the pale woman's face to see her death. Why do that when her death was playing in her very eyes. Tears began to fall uninterrupted as the images engraved themselves on her brain.

"Kukuku. Don't worry about little Naruto-kun. I'm not going to kill him yet. No his eyes are much too precious to be wasted like that."

'His eyes?' Sakura and Sasuke's thoughts echoed each others but they couldn't dwell on such things when two kunai were thrown directly at their faces.

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Naruto had to think quickly. His eyes flared to life and he pointed a hand at a tree he just passed.

"Bansho Ten'in!"

The tree didn't budge. Instead, Naruto used the tree as the center and focussed the gravitational pull on himself. The force of the air bullet was cancelled out and Naruto soon found himself holding onto a tree branch.

"SASUKE!"

The cry rang out loud and clear, the pain in Sakura's voice was evident and pushed Naruto into action. Desperate to reach his team sooner Naruto decided to do something incredibly stupid. After each chakra enhanced jump he used Shinra Tensei on the tree branch using his foot as the release point. After three Shinra Tensei jumps he crashed head first into the clearing where he watched a pale faced man or woman (he couldn't tell at his angle) sink his or her teeth into Sasuke's neck. He quickly scanned the area for his other teammate and soon located her. Sakura was holding her side and leaning against a tree, she looked very exhausted and very injured. Each of her legs had several deep gashes that prevented her legs from supporting her weight. Her arms were cut and singed while a single kunai protruded from her shoulder. She was helpless in this situation and could only watch as Sasuke fought a very one sided battle. The clearing sported several new gashes in the earth and plenty of fresh burn marks, the smell of burning flesh and burnt wood permeated the air in some sort of sick mixture of nature and death. The teeth were removed from Sasuke's neck as the mouth opened so the head could return to its normal position. Sasuke cried out in pain and fell to his knees while trying to cover his neck and tear the new marks out that were causing him such pain. He continued to try both of the actions before his eyes widened. His overly large pupils shrank to almost nothing in an instant and Sasuke fell face first into the earth and stayed there in an unmoving heap.

"You fucking teme! What did you do to Sasuke?!" Naruto brought his furious gaze to rest on the eyes of the pale, half melted face that belonged to what he assumed was a guy. The pale faced "Genin" licked his or her lips with an unusually long tongue.