*I still don't own Naruto or Mega Man!*

Dialogue Key

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" = Regular Speech

'Shadow Clone Jutsu!' = Someone's Thoughts

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" = Someone Yelling

"SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!" = DEMON/SUMMON TALKING

'SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!' = DEMON/SUMMON THINKING

Found

Sakura was breathing heavily as she tried desperately to keep her teammate alive. Since Kakashi never really taught her anything that she wanted to learn, such as Medical Ninjutsu since she wanted to be more useful to the team, she had to resort to finding people willing to teach her on her own. As such she went to the Third Hokage and told him about her situation, and he recommended to her that she do some volunteer work at the hospital under several medics that the Hokage himself deemed fair and trustworthy. As a result, she was given a few lessons on battlefield medicine and Medical Ninjutsu from these hospital workers.

This turned out to be a godsend as, while her abilities and knowledge in the medical field are limited, she's able to help her fallen teammate in his time of need. Unfortunately, she can't do much. She's found that he has several bad gashes and broken bones due to the fall, and a number of his organs have been ruptured. She's barely keeping the internal bleeding at bay with her pathetically tiny Chakra reserves.

She still curses herself for wasting all that time she could have used for training outside of the academy. Wasting it on trying to make herself look good for a guy who doesn't even pay her the slightest bit of attention except in the rare life or death situation. And now that she thinks about it, she wouldn't be surprised if Sasuke later tries to use her and Naruto as nothing more than meat shields to save his own skin.

The pink haired girl shook her head slightly as she returned her focus to trying to save her teammate. It's not looking good for him as his body is healing far too slowly. Normally he would at least be mostly healed from even severe injuries like these. But now he's healing at the same rate as anyone else in the village would be.

'It's taking too long… Why isn't he healing fast like he normally does?' Sakura mentally asked herself. 'Is it because of something Orochimaru did to him?'

Suddenly, a shadow looked over the pink haired Genin and her downed and dying teammate. She grew tense as she looked out of the corner of her eye and saw the proctor for the second exam, Anko Mitarashi, getting down to one knee as she took out her field medic pack. And slung over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes was the still unconscious Sasuke. Normally, seeing Sasuke being treated in such a way would make Sakura unleash her inner fangirl and start screeching at whoever was treating her 'precious Sasuke' in such a manner to stop and apologize. But this is not one of those times, as the more logical side of her mind is now in control, and she knows that in a life or death situation like this she needs to be as quiet and alert as possible.

"Relax, Pinkie, it's just me. I'm here to help." Anko said as she set the unconscious Uchiha down. "I sensed Orochimaru's foul Chakra sometime ago and have been looking for him ever since. What happened here?"

"We were hit by a massive blast of wind that I think was an elemental Ninjutsu and got separated from Naruto. Then we ended up being attacked by a Kunoichi from the Hidden Grass Village, but that ninja turned out to be Orochimaru of the Sannin in disguise. Naruto found us when he was about to kill us and actually held back a giant snake that he'd summoned before Orochimaru grabbed him with his tongue and hit him in the stomach, knocking Naruto out before he threw him to the ground!" Sakura was in tears at this point. "I tried to catch him with a kunai, but I was too slow and I missed! Before Orochimaru left, he extended his neck and bit Sasuke on his neck, causing a weird mark to appear! And I think when he knocked out Naruto, he did something to him! He's not healing as fast as he should be!"

Now even though Anko is all about torturing enemies, spilling the blood of the condemned, and has a love for explosions and dango, she does know how and when to be serious around others. And especially when a situation requires a gentle touch. After she finished setting Naruto's broken limbs into splints and bandaging his external wounds, she placed a hand on Sakura's shoulder and started gently shushing the distraught girl.

"Calm down, kid. Calm down. Wipe away the tears. Now, show me where Blondie was hit. I might be able to find out what the Snake Bastard did to him." Anko calmly ordered.

Wiping her tears away as best she could, Sakura pointed to Naruto's stomach region. Wasting no time, especially since she knows of the boy's Jinchuriki status, Anko unzipped Naruto's jacket and tore his shirt to expose his upper body. Sakura gasped at seeing how malnourished her teammate really is. He's so thin that she can see his ribs jutting out from his sides. And his arms may as well be twigs in comparison. No wonder he's so tiny for his age.

The pinkette watched in confusion as Anko carefully placed her palm over Naruto's stomach and started channeling her Chakra. The whiskered blonde let out a few pitiful whimpers but seemed to refuse to cry or shout in pain. Anko narrowed her eyes at this level of pain tolerance that's normally only seen in more experienced Jonin. But then again, it could be that he's in too much pain to do anything but whimper.

'Most people would be screaming their lungs out or crying from the pain, but this gaki just keeps toughing it out. The poor guy. Just what have the villagers put him through to make him as tough as he is?' Anko thought to herself.

Finally, she found what she was looking for. The seal holding the Nine-Tailed Fox at bay. And appearing above that is a seal that doesn't belong.

"Damn that bastard, Orochimaru! He placed an odd number seal, a crappy one at that, on top of the original seal in order to block off the kid's power! So now, not only will his Chakra control be shot to hell, but it's also keeping him from healing right!" Anko growled.

"What? I don't understand. What's that make on Naruto, and why would Orochimaru put a seal over it?" Sakura asked.

"No time to explain! We need to get you kids to the tower right now!" Anko said as she rummaged through her coat pockets.

She found what she was looking for almost immediately. A scroll that she would use to help the kid. She quickly unfurled the scroll and carefully dragged Naruto so that he was lying atop a seal array. Focusing her Chakra and placing her hands into the Tiger hand seal, Anko did the one thing that will help more than anything right now.

"Seal!"

With an audible poof and a burst of smoke, Naruto disappeared as the kanji for human appeared in the seal array. Sakura gasped as the purple haired woman quickly rolled the scroll back up and put it in her pocket.

"I knew that Patient Transportation Sealing Scroll would come in handy someday." She said as she picked up Sasuke. "Once a severely wounded patient is sealed inside, the scroll keeps them in a form of suspended animation until they can be brought in for immediate medical care."

As Sakura stood up she and the proctor took to the treetops knowing that traveling on the ground would be too dangerous with all of the large tigers, bears, wolves, and other predatory creatures lurking about. And the smell of blood would definitely make things worse.

"Wait a minute, how are we supposed to find our way to the tower? The sun is setting too rapidly, and it's getting too dark to see the correct path!" Sakura said, worry evident in her voice.

"Oh, that's easy. Just follow the sign." Anko said.

She jabbed her thumb towards a sign pointing towards a large tower at the end of a totally clear path. The sign itself reads in big bold letters "This way to the tower, stupid!", as if it's mocking any lost travelers. Sakura raised an eyebrow as she asked a question that seems to be one that can't be ignored.

"How did I miss that?"

"Simply put: you weren't supposed to see it. Not much of a test if you have signs pointing the way to the tower. It was hidden by a Genjutsu that was made to only dispel in the most fire situations. Much like right now." Anko answered. "Now normally, I would just recast the Genjutsu and leave it at that. But now that I think about it…"

Using a low power fire jutsu, Anko lit the sign ablaze and allowed it to burn to cinders as she and the pink haired Genin took off towards the tower. Time's running out for Naruto and who knows when Sasuke's recently acquired Curse Mark will activate and either kill him or send him into a frenzy.

*To Be Continued…*

Thank you all so much for reading. Please don't forget to review and tell me your thoughts on the chapter. May the Force be with you, and have a great day.