Just A Teaspoon Of Crazy

Chapter 22: Snake in the grass

I felt the snake release killer intent so strong it was suffocating, I shook off the unwelcomed feeling and held my ground.

"Not impossible...!" Sasuke grunted as he struggled to move.

"Such mastery of the Sharingan, and so young in age, you're a true Uchiha after all.... Yes you'll do nicely" The Sanin's voice changed as well as his demeanor, His true form was being revealed after all.

"You're definitely his brother, if anything your eyes are even keener than Itachi's." His voice was slippery, smooth, deep and would have been calming if his tone hadn't been malicious.

"Who are you? What do you want?!" The Uchiha's fearful yell was almost like music to my ears, the few rare times he has ever screamed like that had been in this very forest.

"My name is Orochimaru, but as to what I want.... That will have to wait until we meet again, which won't happen until you finish this test with the best score of all. FIrst you will have to defeat the hidden sound ninja that follow me ...." The kunai he held in his hand melted into molten metal and dripped down onto the branch he stood on.

"Fuck you Orochimaru, stop being a pedo and preying on children!" I yelled, hiding the smirk that tried to sneak its way onto my face. And forcing down the laughter that threatened to rip through my throat.

Orochimaru seemed surprised that I had said that, what was left of his last face scrunched in disgust before relaxing and forming a hand seal. The snake's head extending unnaturally shot into the sky and flying towards my raven haired teammate. I felt something slam into my torso, sending me flying back into a tree. I was once again fighting the black spots in my vision, However the sight of Orochimaru with his fangs in Sasuke's neck made me want to let the black spots take over.

'Shit that was close, you're just gonna be bruised. Your chakra reserves are still almost untouched, we'll be fine.' Inner rushed around in circles in my head and I felt the black spots receding with the pain.

'Why is it healing? We haven't learned how to heal yet...?' Suddenly the same headache grew into a migraine.

Orochimaru's neck snapped back to his body like nothing happened, However Sasuke wasn't faring too well. The ravenette boy gritted his teeth and grunted, his hand reaching to his neck as he was brought to his knees.

"What the hell you gave him a hickey?!" I shouted, keeping my tone serious, however laughter was bubbling up in my throat at my own joke.

The look on the Sanin's face wasn't helping my situation.

"No.... I just left him... a little parting gift. Soon, Sasuke-Kun will seek me out and desire my power. In the meantime I am entertained by the demonstration of the power you already possess." Then the damned snake melted into the tree.

I reached into my pouch looking for a scroll as Sasuke's screams of pain quieted down to grunting, hsi body shaking like a leaf in the wind. I grunted once I had the scroll in my hand and unsealed one of the smaller 'slap-on-seals'.

"This may or may not hurt, Lets just hope it works. You better thank me after this you asshole" I murmured as I forced his hand off of the mark and slapped the small seal on. I activated the seal with my chakra and watched as it got to work, the chains sealing the cursed hickey away.

The sun was starting to set and night was falling upon us, the forests noises sounded louder than usual.

Soon the ravenette boy's cries died down to mumbles in his sleep, I reached out with my chakra until I found Naruto's. The blonde boy was pinned to a tree branch by his Jacket, I squinted my eyes, wondering how I could carry both of the boys.

Grabbed a nearby vine and cut it into three stripsI crossed Sasuke's arms across his chest and used the shortest of the strips to tie his forearms together, forming a loop which I dragged over my head. That left Sasuke draped down my back and I pulled his knees forward, tying him into a piggyback position that I further secured by the last strip, which I looped under his arms, drawing the strip between the two of us and over my shoulders, pulled it down under my own arms and tying it behind my back.

'It's good enough' Inner shrugged and I nodded in agreement, not feeling used to the extra weight on my back. I took a few wobbly steps and jumped around a bit before getting used to it. I channelled chakra into my feet and jumped to the tree Naruto was pinned to, I removed the kunai and caught the blonde boy before he fell.

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Running with an extra 197 pounds was hard.

Finding somewhere to hide was surprisingly harder, I ran around for a whole hour trying to find the perfect hiding spot. By the time I found the cannon shelter, under the thick roots of a large tree. However, it was on the ground and I needed a spot above ground level. I climbed the tree, my chakra reserves had been slowly depleting and I needed to meditate and sleep. I focused chakra in my hands and dug into the tree until an adequate cavity had been made. I untied the raven-haired boy from my back and placed him down after setting the blonde boy on the ground of the hollow.

I ran to the bottom of the tree and found a large piece of bark that would work well enough as a 'door' for the little tree hut.

When I arrived again the Uchiha's groans of pain were growing insistently more annoying.

'The seal must not stop some of the pain that the cursed hickey causes... hummm'

I brought the bark in and blocked the 'doorway' in with it. I set a simple trap in the entryway and cast a Genjutsu with a seal just in case.

My body felt like liquid, lactic acid faintly burned in my muscles. I would have felt tired if I had never gone through with endurance and stamina training. I placed two stabilizing seals on the boys' foreheads.

"Inner please meditate for me, this will help with sensing enemies and refilling my reserves while I sleep." I muttered as I curled up on the wood ground and drifted off to sleep, the sounds of heavy breathing guiding me to the realm of dreams.

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