章 23: Chapter 22 - Second Test Part 3

In another part of the forest, under the exposed roots of a giant tree lying on the ground are Sasuke and Naruto with Sakura near checking on them.

'Naruto is only unconscious with some bruise, no broken bones, Sasuke-kun on the other hand has a high fever, and I do not know what that mark on the back of his neck left by that Orochimaru guy is...I hope that Ren is near, but in the mean time i should make some traps and prepare for a possible enemy attack'.

And so for a while Sakura starts making traps all around her teammate resting zone, and after she went to rest near them to recover chakra while still begin aware of her surroundings.

'I was useless back then, I was too scared to move and in the end Sasuke-kun and Naruto had to do everything...' then slapping her face with both hands 'Get yourself together Sakura, as Ren said I'm one of the best kunoichi of this year and while you couldn't do anything against Orochimaru as he is way stronger than a prospective chunin there is no way that you are weaker than any other genins that is taking the exam'

While Sakura was cheering herself, she hear a noise coming from her back and soon put her guard up and draw a kunai, then all she see is a squirrel, but soon notice the explosive tag on it and threw the kunai to scare it away, then like nothing happened she turn again to take care of Naruto and Sasuke while secretly checking for enemies.

'Someone is here, are they with that Orochimaru or are they just participants? Should I delay them or try to take'em out? Should I try to lure them out?' and so Sakura decide to faking that she was too tired and was about to fall asleep.

Soon after her little play she heard a deep male voice "Hehe up all night? But is no longer necessary wake up Sasuke, we want to fight him" she turn and see the Otogakure trio 'that guy Orochimaru had a Oto protector so it is likely that these guys work for him'.

Then Sakura says "What are you talking about? I know that some guy named Orochimaru is pulling the strings from the shadow! What is his purpose?What is this weird mark on Sasuke-kun neck? You did this to him and now you want to fight?" Sakura question shocked the Oto trio and the Dosu says "I wonder what is that man thinking" and Zaku follows "But hearing that we can't let you go. I'll kill this girl and kill also that Sasuke guy"

As Zaku was about to move he was stopped by Dosu who notice the trap on the ground so the Oto trio jump over it, but was soon intercepted by another trap that Sakura triggered by throwing a kunai at a rope on her left, and so the trio still on air was about to be hit by a giant log.

But Dosu thanks to his gauntlet was able to shatter the log and come out unscathed and was about to attack Sakura, but he and his team were hit by a kick from Rock Lee who was near and saved the squirrel-bomb then hear the sounds of fighting.

And when Dosu ask who he was Rock Lee replies "The beautiful green beast of Konoha, Rock Lee" then Sakura thanks Rock Lee who tries to make a good impression on her, then soon after Dosu gave the earth scroll too Zaku telling him that he can have Sasuke and attacks Rock Lee,Sakura tries to help by throwing a kunai but Dosu easily evade it,

And so Rock Lee defends himself from Dosu attack by pulling out a giant roots from the ground and using it as a shield, then he unlock the first gate and uses the Omote Renge(Front Lotus) on Dosu, delivers an upward kick, sending him high into the air.

Rock Lee then follows along his upward trajectory, wraps Dosu with the bandages, once they've reached the peak of the initial kick's arc, begins a spinning motion and propels them headfirst towards the ground, then releases the opponent right before impact and retreats to safety, leaving Dosu to collide with the ground alone.

Because the Front Lotus requires at least one of the Eight Gates be opened, users are likely to be fatigued afterwards and thus vulnerable to attack. For this reason, Might Guy mandates that Lee only use the Front Lotus to protect something or someone important

Unfortunately Dosu was saved by Zaku quick thinking as he use the Zankuuha on his hands to soften the ground where Dosu was about to fall, then Dosu taking advantage of Rock Lee weakness use his sound gauntlet to knock him out.

Sakura the throws kunai and Shuriken at Dosu but Zaku send them away with an air blast from his hands and Tsuchi who was doing nothing until now tries to grab Sakura from the back, but Sakura does a hand seal and use the Kawarimi no Jutsu(Body Replacement Technique) so all Tsuchi grab is a log but soon notice the explosive tag on it so she threw it away but was still blow away by the explosion.

Meanwhile Sakura tries to attack Zaku with shuriken but he again use the Zankuuha(Air Slicing Blast) to send them back, but Sakura again starts with the tiger seal and uses another Kawarimi and then jump.

Zaku notice that Sakura above him was again using the tiger hand seal so he assumed that the was going to use Kawarimi again so he just throw some kunai at her and the starts looking around, but this time she doesn't use it and was hit on the left arm, stomach,left leg and right shin.

Zaku notice the blood falling on him but hit was too late as Sakura was able to stab him in the right arm and was biting him on the left one but soon he was able to free himself by kicking her, and when he was about to hit Sakura she was saved by team 10 who engage them for a short while.

But was soon stopped by the coming of Rock Lee team and by the awakening of Sasuke who unleash the power of the cursed seal and after a short fight with Zaku, he break his arms and was about to attack Dosu but was stopped by Sakura who hugged him and was able to make the cursed seal recede.

After that Dosu leave his scroll behind and after saying that they were only ordered to kill Sasuke he then took his teammate and went away, meanwhile during all this Naruto was still sleeping, but what happened to Ren?.