Konohagakure no Sato :
Forest OF death :
The clearing in front of the cave was tense, the Sound Genin closing in like vultures on a wounded PINK sparrow. But just as the air turned heavy with their Murderous intent, a green blur tore through the morning mist.
"LEAF HURRICANE!"
Swish—BAM! BAM! BAM!
The impact was swift. With a literal whirlwind of kicks, a figure in a green spandex jumpsuit materialized in the center of the trio, sending all three Sound Genin sprawling back into the dirt.
"Guff—!"
"Ugh—!"
"Uh—"
The Sound Trio scrambled to their feet, teeth bared. They fanned out, flanking the newcomer who stood between them and the cave with an air of bizarre confidence.
"Who the hell are you?" Zaku spat, wiping dust from his chin and flexing his hands towards lee , the hands which have holes in their palms for Air pressure .
Sakura blinked, her bloodshot eyes widening as she recognized the eccentric guy from the day before who confessed to her .
( .....It's that Weird Guy )
Lee didn't turn around; he simply raised a hand, striking a pose that was one part heroic and two parts ridiculous.
"I am the Beautiful Blue Beast of the Leaf Village... ROCK LEE!"
The Sound Genin stared at him in dead silence. It wasn't the silence of respect; it was the silence of people trying to process whether this guy was actually serious.
And Is this the same person who hit them before , While they were busy calculating his speed from that opening salvo, Sakura finally found her voice.
"You..... Why are you here?"
Lee's eyes remained locked on Dosu and other two sound genin , but his voice softened, carrying a charming—if slightly dramatic—theatricality.
"I will always appear.... whenever you are in trouble, Sakura-chan."
"........But we're in the Chunin Exams," Sakura whispered, her head drooping in shame. She had rejected him so harshly just yesterday, and yet here he was, acting as her shield. "Everyone is competition........ I'm technically your enemy."
Hearing Sakura , Lee didn't hesitate. "I believe I said it once before, did I not? I will protect you until the day I die!"
The memory of his confession—( "Please go out with me! I will protect you until I die!") —hit Sakura like a physical weight. Her face heated up in a mix of embarrassment and genuine gratitude. She looked at the cave where Sasuke lay broken and then back at the green-clad boy standing tall.
"Oh..... T-Thank you," she whispered.
That was all it took. Inside Lee's head, fireworks were going off. (Perfect! I did it! Guy-sensei, that was a masterpiece! She is definitely falling for me now!)
The daydreaming ended the moment Dosu, the bandaged leader of the Sound Trio, stepped forward. He adjusted the heavy, vented gauntlet on his right arm, his single eye cold and analytical.
"Annoying," Dosu muttered. "Zaku."
"Yeah?"
"I'll leave Sasuke to you. I'm going to kill this green fly."
Dosu moved. He wasn't just fast; he was efficient. He remembered Lee and his information from the day before—the "Bushy Brow" with the high-tier Taijutsu. (heh ......Only Taijutsu ...Good,) Dosu thought. (Time for some fun.)
Seeing Dosu appraoching him , Lee's eyes sharpened. (He's fast... maybe even faster than Sasuke.)
As Dosu closed the distance, he unleashed a flurry of swift, precise strikes. Lee danced around them, his movements fluid and rhythmic. Even while dodging, Lee's mind was racing with worries
(I need to be careful. Sakura-chan is exhausted, and enemies .....there are three of them...... also I have to keep them away from the cave& sakura chan while I—)
BRRRRRRR!
A high-pitched, vibrating hum suddenly filled the air.
Lee's world started spinning. His equilibrium shattered in a heartbeat, and his legs felt like they were made of water. Before he could regain his balance, Dosu smirked and drove a series of brutal punches into Lee's solar plexus and chest.
*smack*Boom*
Grabbing Lee's arm while he was still disoriented, Dosu spun and hurled him into the air like a piece of trash.
"Air Pressure Blast!" Zaku shouted.
UGH!
While still mid-air, Lee was slammed by a concentrated wave of ultrasonic sound. The blast hit him square in the back, sending him hurtling through the clearing until he slammed hard into the trunk of a massive tree.
Dosu didn't give him a second to breathe. He had a personal grudge against anyone this energetic& green
(I hate capsicum..... and I hate bushy hair in my food. I'm going to end this bastard.)
BRRRRRR!
Kick.
Punch.
Elbow.
Knee.
It was a one-sided Beatdown. Lee tried to fight back, but every time he got close, Dosu's gauntlet emitted those agonizing sound waves, scrambling Lee's inner ear and leaving him helpless.
If it were anyone else, they might have switched to Ninjutsu or long-range tools, but Dosu knew Lee was a pure Taijutsu specialist. He was fighting a shark in the middle of the ocean.
Dosu thoroughly enjoyed the blood spilled by Green Cockroach from The leaf . Blood began to leak from Lee's ears and nose, his green jumpsuit tattered and stained as he took hit after hit.
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Forest OF Death :
The Main Tower :
"So, it's daybreak. Dosu and the others should be making their move soon "
Standing on a private balcony high up in the Grand Tower, a man wearing a Sound Ninja headband looked out over the canopy. His skin was deathly pale, his slit, light-brown eyes tracking the gold and orange light bleeding across the horizon.
( Uchiha Sasuke )
This was Orochimaru, casually masquerading as a Sound Team captain. But as he watched the sunrise, the warmth of the light , and it's colors made of gold and orange only brought back a cold, humiliating memory.
(Uzumaki Naruto.)
Orochimaru's eyes darkened, all traces of his usual amusement evaporating. Up until yesterday, his plans had been flawless. Even when he received the intel on Sasuke and his teammates, he hadn't batted an eye. Chunin, Jonin—it didn't matter. When the Sannin wanted something, he took it.
But yesterday's ambush changed the entire board.
(That kid....... no, that shinobi. He literally sat there and watched his own team hovering on the brink of death just to wait for the absolute perfect opening... and then he executed a textbook, lethal ambush.)
Orochimaru licked his lips, the phantom sensation of a blade slicing through his neck making him shiver. The fight hadn't even lasted two minutes. The very first thing the brat did was take his head clean off.
(But how did he hide from my senses? And if he was hiding.... for how long?)
It was frankly ridiculous. For Naruto to slip entirely under the radar of the Snake Sannin and land a decapitating strike before he even realized what was happening—it was unheard of.
(And that jutsu... what the hell was that? The sheer speed and cutting power...)
As a researcher and a maniac obsessed with immortality and mastering every jutsu in existence, Orochimaru was deeply intrigued. Even remembering the sensation of his head leaving his shoulders didn't faze him as much as the sheer relentless violence of the assault that followed.
(Unreal. The kid didn't relax for a fraction of a second after taking my head. He immediately followed up with explosion tags, and then...)
Orochimaru licked his lips again, his eyes narrowing dangerously. Yesterday was the closest he had come to true death in years. The last time he felt that kind of helpless, suffocating terror was when he looked into the eyes of a certain clan murderer.
Uchiha Itachi.
While Itachi only needed a single glance to render the Sannin helpless, yesterday's ambush felt practically the same in its sheer oppressiveness. From start to finish, he wasn't allowed a single breath. The kid was a relentless , Fast-paced, zero wasted movements, and absolutely no ninjutsu that required time-consuming hand signs.
( He didn't let me use ninjutsu, either. He specifically targeted my hands to lock down my hand signs..... and then went straight for my legs to kill my mobility.)
Orochimaru's crossed arms tightened slightly against his chest. The kid had systematically dismantled him, keeping him entirely on the back foot for the whole exchange .
(And those damn silent shurikens...) Then The Sannin remembered those pesky, usually useless tools that Jonin-level shinobi rarely bothered , something that he himself hardly used after becoming Jonin and LAter Sannin.
Somehow, the brat had managed to slip them right past his sensory network, hitting him with a cutting force far heavier than normal steel.
Without a single second to heal or counter, Orochimaru had been forced to rely on his Shadow Snake Hands. But even those were rendered completely useless when the kid pulled out the Fourth Hokage's signature jutsu. Except, it wasn't the normal-sized Rasengan Orochimaru remembered.
(The sheer size of that Rasengan.... and the massive chakra reserves required to pull it off...)
But if the giant Rasengan was a surprise, the climax of the fight was what truly put the fear of Pure Land into him.
The absolute madman had intentionally let the Kusanagi sword pierce his own body just to pin Orochimaru in place. From there, he delivered a punch carrying Tsunade's monstrous strength, launching him into the air to set up the final, devastating blow.
(Tsunade's Taijutsu , and That blue flame...... definitely an S-rank jutsu. Something completely off my radar.)
In that split second, Orochimaru felt the icy grip of the Reaper. He had to rely on his absolute mastery over seals and chakra control to instantly shatter his bindings.
ANd then He released the shadow clones that had been keeping the Konoha Jonin busy, scraped together a fraction of chakra, and activated the Summoning Jutsu. He called a massive snake, threw himself into its mouth, and immediately cancelled the summoning Jutsu.
Only through that desperate, complex sequence did the legendary Sannin manage to escape with his life.
( This is a lesson I should remember .........to not underestimate anyone )
Even after arriving back in the Ryuchi Cave, the horrors hadn't stopped. The summoned snake was instantly reduced to a charred skeleton, the blue flames already eating their way toward Orochimaru's real body. If he hadn't used his Orochi Rebirth shedding technique right then and there, he would be a pile of ash.
(No....... I already died back there. If it wasn't for my shedding substitution, I'd be gone.)
A genuine shiver ran down his spine. He silently thanked the horrific research he had conducted back in Konoha all those years ago. The village, his old sensei Hiruzen, and even Danzo all thought his experiments had been a failure.
They didn't understand that his end goal was entirely different from theirs. Just because he didn't awaken the Wood Release didn't mean the research was useless. His shedding technique was the ultimate proof of his success.
(Heheh. The First Hokage's cells really are unique.....Konoha I am forever thankful.)
But despite surviving, the lingering dread of that final jutsu remained. Still, backing down wasn't an option. Uchiha Sasuke was the prize, and if he abandoned years of preparation over one near-death experience, he wouldn't be Orochimaru.
The plan was supposed to be simple:
Show Sasuke the terrifying gap in their power.
Plant the Curse Mark.
Flex again during the Konoha Crush by killing the Hokage and destroying the village.
Let Sasuke's thirst for revenge drive him willingly into the Sound Village's open arms to acquire the Uchiha vessel , just like Kimimaro and others .
But Uzumaki Naruto had violently derailed step one. even as careless, Orochimaru had been brutally beaten in front of his intended vessel.
And That was the only reason he had been forced to strike again last night.
After the First failure , The new objective had been to plant the Curse Mark on Sasuke, and then publicly defeat—or permanently cripple—Naruto right in front of the Uchiha to re-establish dominance.
But...
(That brat wasn't even with his team. Was he busy? ....Or did he figure out Sasuke was the target and just ditch them entirely?)
Orochimaru's brilliant mind worked in overdrive. He had completely stopped viewing Naruto as a kid. You didn't call a Shinobi a kid.
especially When he broke down the boy's combat profile, it was terrifying:
Prowess: Jonin-level lethal force.
Mind: A Nara-tier tactician.
Senses: Yamanaka-level senses
Strength: Tsunade's bone-shattering punches.
Stealth: Aburame-like invisibility.
Reflexes: Echoes of the Fourth Hokage that made him a nightmare to track in that fast exchange
And most importantly?
(He fights exactly like me. Pure, ruthless strategy fueled by a disgusting stratergy and a prioritization of survival above all else.)
There was no naive, self-sacrificing "Will of Fire" garbage in that boy. He didn't preach like his sensei Kakashi, his godfather Jiraiya, or his father Minato. or His sensei Third Hokage
First, he held his ground in the shadows while his teammates were seconds away from being slaughtered.
Second, he completely ditched them in the middle of the night to run solo operations, maybe already considering Sasuke as primary focus
(*Slurp*..... Heheh. Uzumaki Naruto... If only you weren't a Jinchuriki.)
If it weren't for the demon in his gut, Orochimaru would have thrown Sasuke aside and pivoted entirely to taking Naruto's body. But stealing the Nine-Tails host was a logistical nightmare.
Not only would Konoha hunt him to the ends of the earth, but the intel would leak to every Great Village and then the whole world would be after him .
Worse, it would put him directly in the crosshairs of his former organization. And the one person Orochimaru absolutely did not want breathing down his neck was the leader of the Akatsuki.
(Heheh. But once the Konoha destruction plan goes off..... I really won't mind finishing you off, Uzumaki Naruto.)
Or perhaps, capturing the Jinchuriki and using him as a bargaining chip in a transaction with Pain was an option.
Orochimaru stared at the rising sun, a dark, lethal smirk stretching across his pale face as his abnormally long tongue slithered over his lips.
( *Slurpppp*.. Heheheh.)
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Forest OF Death :
The Forest of Death was living up to its name. The pale light of dawn only highlighted the brutality of the clearing. Rock Lee was lying on the ground, bruised and bleeding from his ears, while Dosu systematically kicked him, relishing the sound of the Leaf genin's ragged breathing.
( hehe , I am gonna take revenge on all those capsicum Nigtmares .....HAHAHA )
Sakura felt her stomach turn. Her hands shook, but she finally found her limit. She wasn't just going to watch.
(I have to move, or they're going to kill him.)
Snatching shuriken from her pouch, she threw them directly at Dosu.
Swish-swish-swish-swish!
Dosu didn't even flinch. He didn't have to. The Sound Genin operated as a synchronized unit. Ino-Shika-Cho might rival them in teamwork, but among this crop of rookies, the Sound Trio had everyone beat in pure, ruthless coordination.
"Air Pressure!"
Zaku raised a hand. A blast of compressed sound hit the flying shuriken.
Ting! Ting! Ting!
The weapons reversed direction instantly. Sakura shrieked, throwing her arms up to shield her face as her own weapons slammed back into her. The blast had sapped most of their lethal momentum, leaving shallow, stinging cuts across her arms, but before she could recover, a hand twisted violently into her hair.
"Well, well. Isn't this hair just so much prettier than mine?" Yorui mocked, yanking Sakura's head back.
*Smack..!*
Yorui drove a knee hard into Sakura's ribs, forcing the air from her lungs in a pained gasp. "If you've got time to deep-condition this mop, shouldn't you be practicing your jutsu, princess?"
Yorui grabbed a thick handful of Sakura's pink hair and wrenched her head from side to side, treating her like a ragdoll. Disgusted, Yorui spat near Sakura's face.
"Look at her trying to act tough. Hey, Zaku!"
"Yeah?" Zaku called back, bored.
"Let's kill the Uchiha right in front of this stupid little bug."
Zaku flashed an ugly grin. "Sounds fun. But how about I have some fun with the bitch first? Right in front of him."
"You really can't think with your upper head, can you?" Yorui scoffed.
Listening to them talk about her and Sasuke like meat on a butcher's block made Sakura's blood run cold. Lee was unconscious. Sasuke was helpless.
(No way..... I can't let them do this.)
She tried to push herself up, to fight back.
Smack! Kick! Smack!
Yorui didn't let her. Sharp, open-handed slaps and brutal kicks to her midsection dropped Sakura right back into the dirt.
"Don't move, bitch," Yorui sneered, pinning her down. "Just enjoy the consequences of being weak."
Sakura felt utter despair wash over her. (My body..... it's so heavy. What do I do?)
Hot, humiliating tears spilled down her cheeks, dripping into the dirt below. Yorui and Zaku noticed, and the tension broke into cruel, mocking laughter.
"Hahaha! Look at this shit, she's actually crying!" Zaku wheezed.
"Oh my god," Yorui giggled. "Is this the best a Great Village can produce? What a joke."
Even Dosu, who was busy breaking Lee , stopped and looked over.
"...How ridiculous."
"...Hah... hah... Sakura... chan..." Lee rasped from the dirt, barely holding onto consciousness.
Sakura felt crushed. Her mind spiraled.
(Again........ I'm always the burden. Always the one being protected. I thought I was ready to protect Sasuke this time...... But look at me. Sasuke is dying. Lee is down...... And I'm just crying in the dirt.)
Her hands dug into the soil. She was done.
Zaku started walking toward the cave, licking his lips. "Alright, let's get this over with. Since the bitch is already crying and begging, it'd be a crime not to play with her first."
Sakura closed her eyes in despair But
Zaku stepped right past Sakura, his eyes locked on the dark entrance of the cave where Sasuke lay. "But business first. Gotta kill the target."
Seeing him walk toward Sasuke flipped a switch inside Sakura. Her trembling hand slid into her weapon pouch, her fingers wrapping around the hilt of a kunai.
( No...!!! )
But instead of swinging blindly at Yorui, who was still holding her hair, or trying to slash at Yorui's legs , Hands or torso , Sakura brought the blade up to her own head.
Swish!
"What the—?!" Yorui gasped as the tension vanished from her grip.
Sakura sliced clean through her own hair, leaving the long pink strands in Yorui's hand. Staggering forward, free of her captor, Sakura felt a strange, terrifying clarity.
(I always act like a real ninja. I chase Sasuke, I act like I know everything, I lecture Naruto... but when it actually matters... all I ever do is watch their backs as they fight for me and protect me )
The memory of the Bell Test. The bridge in the Land of Waves. Lee promising to protect her with his life.
She was done watching.
(This time... I protect them. No matter what it costs.)
Behind her, Yorui recovered from her shock, her face twisting in rage. "Stupid bitch!" She drove her kunai straight into Sakura's back.
Poof.
"A substitution?!" Yorui realized too late.
BOOM!
The log Sakura had swapped with was rigged with an explosive tag. The blast swallowed Yorui in a ball of fire and smoke.
Sakura didn't wait to see the damage. She launched herself straight at Zaku, hurling a volley of kunai and shuriken as she moved to cut him off from the cave.
"Slicing Sound Wave!" Zaku roared.
The shockwave blasted the weapons back at her with double the force. The metal tore into Sakura's body, sinking deep.
*Poof*
Another cloud of smoke.
"Hmm. Another substitution?" Zaku scoffed.
(Pretty easy to spot. And attacking from above? How stupid.) He looked up, spotting Sakura descending directly toward him.
(Nice eyes,) Zaku thought, catching the absolute, unhinged determination in her glare. (Those are the kind of eyes I love breaking.)
He watched her hands blur through a familiar sequence of signs. Tossing a handful of shuriken straight up at her, he yelled,
"A substitution isn't a shield, pinky! haha ...!"
( now where did she substituted ....)
Zaku hurled the weapons and got ready for the pinky But the satisfying sound of metal hitting a log never came.
( ....hm ?? )
Zaku looked up, his eyes widening. Sakura hadn't swapped out. She had taken the hits. Her body was cut and bleeding, but she was hurtling straight at his face, a kunai gripped tightly in both hands.
(What...?! She didn't sub? Is she suicidal?!)
Panicking, Zaku threw his arms up to guard his face. Sakura didn't aim for his throat. Using the momentum of her fall and the gravity of her own body weight, she drove the kunai violently through Zaku's forearm.
"ARRRGGGH! I'm going to kill you, bitch!" Zaku screamed, the blade buried deep in his flesh.
He reached for his pouch with his good hand to pull a weapon, but Sakura didn't let up. With her hands still pinning the kunai deep in his arm, she lunged forward and bit down viciously on his other wrist, tasting copper instantly.
"AGH! You stupid bitch! She bit me! Get off me, you piece of trash!"
Zaku thrashed, rolling in the dirt. He slammed his knees into her ribs, trying to shake her loose. He managed to rip his bleeding hand free from her teeth, and in a blind rage, he began hammering his fist into her face.
Smack! Punch! Smack!
Blood poured from Sakura's nose and split lip, but she refused to let go of the kunai pinning his other arm. Her eyes squeezed shut as the blows rained down.
"Bitch! You bitch! Let go of me!"
Suddenly, a massive force slammed into Sakura's side.
*Smack!*
Sakura was thrown off Zaku, tumbling hard across the mud. Groaning, she opened her swollen eyes to see Yorui standing over her.
The Sound Kunoichi was a wreck—her clothes were scorched, and nasty burns covered her arms and face from the explosive tag—but she had survived, and she was furious. She had kicked Sakura off Zaku purely out of spite.
Zaku scrambled to his feet, ignoring Yorui, his eyes fixed on Sakura with pure, murderous hatred.
But then, a quiet hissing sound caught their attention.
Pssssss...
They looked down. Right where Sakura had been pinning Zaku to the dirt, a single explosive tag was burning down.
"Shi—"
"This bitc—!"
BOOM!
"AIR PRESSURE MAX!" Zaku screamed, throwing his hands forward to blast the explosion away from them.
The shockwave from his jutsu combined with the blast sent both Zaku and Yorui flying backward. They managed to land on their feet, but the sheer kinetic force rattled their organs and left Zaku's arms completely numb.
"Huff... huff... Damn it, My hands are numb " Zaku panted, his arms trembling.
"You okay?" Yorui asked, wiping blood from her cheek.
"I'm fine enough to kill that annoying Pink trash," Zaku snarled, glaring at the crumpled form of Sakura.
Dosu turned to look as well, ready to intervene and finish the job. But as the smoke cleared, the three Sound Genin froze.
Standing in front of Sakura was a figure bathed in a sickening, violent purple chakra. Black markings spread across his skin like a jagged plague.
"...Huff... huff... Sa... Sasuke-kun?" Sakura whispered, her vision swimming.
Sasuke stood there, his eyes glowing red, radiating a killing intent and violet Chakra that made the air feel freezing cold.
"Sakura," Sasuke's voice was distorted, deep and echoing. "Who did this to you?"
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Author's notes :
Hmm , The preliminery to start in next chapter or 2
I am still confused about the original pairings
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