章節 121: Chapter 121

T-this is no genjutsu, Sasuke struggled just to breathe. Her killing intent is so intense it showed images of my death! I've never felt something like this before, not even from that time with Zabuza!

"S-Sakura," Sasuke turned and saw that Sakura was even worse off than he was, shivering uncontrollably as tears ran down her cheeks

"Well it seems neither of you can move, a pity. I expected this to be a challenge." the woman said with a frown. "I guess I'll just get rid of you right now." She pulled out two kunai and gave them a lazy toss towards the two prone genin.

C'mon move, I've got to move. Sasuke struggled to move the hand he had that held his kunai. C'mon move! MOVE!

At the very last moment Sasuke managed to stab himself in the leg. Acting quickly he grabbed Sakura and leapt away.

"I see, so the prey managed to use pain to get rid of his fear," the strange kunoichi licked her lips. "It seems the prey might be more interesting than first glance may seem."

Sasuke stopped behind a tree when he felt they had gotten a safe distance away. He knelt down on the branch, pulling the kunai out of his leg with a wince. His Sharingan eyes began spinning frantically as he looked around for any sign of the frightening woman.

"Sasuke-kun, your leg looks pretty bad!" Sakura said as she looked at the wound. "Let me help you wit-" The pinkette was silenced when Sasuke covered her mouth with his hand as he searched for the woman.

He's completely terrified right now. I've never seen him this scared before, Sakura thought in surprise.

It was then that she noticed the large snake above them, getting ready to devour the pair and tried to warn Sasuke, but couldn't because of the hand on her mouth. Finally she managed to back away as she pushed the hand back, "Sasuke-kun there's a snake above you!"

The raven haired boy turned and grabbed Sakura before jumping off the branch just as the snake smashed it. He set down Sakura and jumped away as the snake seemed to follow him. Damn it! I was so frightened I wasn't aware of my surroundings!

Sasuke grabbed several kunai and shuriken and began flinging them at the snake, aiming at the head in order to kill it. He gave a soft sigh of relief as the snake hissed and began to fall down. Then to his horror the scales on the snake began to crack, and then revealed the woman who had been chasing him came out, grinning at him widely.

"You two shouldn't relax even for a moment," the woman gave a bloodthirsty grin, "in the presence of a predator."

The woman began to slither across the tree branch, only to be stopped by a powerful wind blade cutting the branch in front of her.

"You know, if you two wanted to have a party like this you should have invited me," A voice spoke up from above them. The two genin looked up to see their teammate standing there; despite the joking tone he had a serious expression on his face.

"Well, well that was quite the wind jutsu," the woman said with a grin. "I don't think I've seen a wind blade that powerful before in a while, and coming from a Genin too. Surprises seem to abound on this team."

Naruto glared as he jumped down to his teammates, "Get the fuck out of that disguise, it's not fooling anyone…Orochimaru."

His two teammates stiffened and paled at the familiar name. Everyone had heard of Orochimaru, a genius shinobi who had been trained by the Sandaime Hokage along with Jiraiya and Tsunade. A man who was considered the foremost ninjutsu expert and along with his two other teammates had been dubbed the title of Sannin due to their famous battle against Salamander No Hanzo. He was also one of Konoha's worst traitors, an S-ranked missing ninja who was wanted for inhumane experimentation on citizens of Konoha and most likely, many other villages and countries.

Meanwhile the kunoichi just chuckled, "That's quite insightful, I would never have expected it from the dead last of his class." The kunoichi brought a hand to her face, peeling away the skin to reveal a pale face with yellow slitted eyes. "Tell me how you knew it was me?"

Naruto glared back despite the feeling of dread that was in his gut. He had really hoped he was wrong about who this was, it had been an assumption based on the fact that only he and Anko could summon snakes. "Only two people in this world can summon snakes; you and Anko-nee-chan."

"Ah! Yes, that's right, you know my old student." Orochimaru chuckled in twisted glee, a part of the Sannin was amused that this boy seemed close enough to consider Anko as an older sister figure, maybe he could use that for some form of psychological warfare.

"Ku ku ku, tell me how is dear Anko-chan? She was always my favorite you know. Is she still sore about me leaving her? You know I've heard many stories about her promiscuousness within Konoha, I guess I shouldn't be surprised you two seem to be getting along well."

"Don't you dare talk about Anko," Naruto clenched his fists so hard he began to bleed. The urge to kill this man was so strong the whiskered blond had almost launched himself at the Snake Sannin right then, it was only through sheer force of will and knowledge that he would not last five minutes against this man that allowed him to contain himself. "Because of you she's become an outcast, and only a few people are even willing to try and get to know her!"

"Ku ku ku, it seems I touched a sore spot," Orochimaru chuckled, "you and Anko-chan seem quite close. However I have not come here for idle chatter about my previous favorite tool, there are other matters I must attend to."

What's he after? Naruto kept his eyes trained on the Snake Sannin as he listened to the man's words. The whiskered blond did his best to remain calm and think clearly despite being near someone who could kill him as easily as one breathes. There's only one reason someone like him would reveal himself to a couple of genin in a village that he betrayed, but that wouldn't make sense! An S-rank missing ninja comes to the Chunin Exams for the entire purpose of fighting one of us in the Forest of Death? I don't understand what he hopes to gain from something like this.

"Why are you here?" asked Naruto, he was not quite sure that he would actually get an answer. After all, why would someone with such a reputation bother to tell a genin his plans? Because of this line of thought it came as quite a surprise when he did receive one.

"Why I am after Sasuke-kun." Orochimaru chortled, "He has something I want."

"What does he…" Naruto's eyes widened as he realized what this was about. "You want his Sharingan!"

That was the only possible explanation Naruto could come up with. Anko had told him about her relationship to Orochimaru, how she was his apprentice. She had also informed the blond of her sensei's desire to learn all the jutsu in the world. At the time Naruto had simply snorted, wondering why someone would pick such an impossible dream. However if Orochimaru ever got his hands on the Sharingan that dream could possibly become a reality. Sasuke's head snapped up and he looked between Naruto and Orochimaru, looking slightly pale and angry.

"It seems information on you was wrong. You are much more intelligent than my informant gave you credit for," Orochimaru said, licking his lips. He would love to investigate this matter further, however, "but I have no time to play games with you unfortunately. So just let me tend to my business with Sasuke-kun and I'll let you live."