Naruto shot up from his sleeping bag. He just received a memory that there was a team with an Earth scroll nearby. He walked outside and saw that the morning sun was high in the sky. Sakura's and Sasuke's tents were not open yet so they were still in dreamland. He heard some growling and looked behind him. Sagi was on the ground, out cold, having a dream. She was on her back with her hands and feet in the air. They were moving in a way that reminded him of chasing something. 'Even when she's asleep, she wants to catch wildlife. Naruto chuckled as he shook his head. He looked at the sun again and tried to guess the time by the sun's position. 'Let's see, it's summer so with that position, it must be at least 10 o'clock. He went to the two tents and looked in Sakura's first to wake her up, but mysteriously she wasn't there. Naruto shrugged his shoulders and figured that nature called. He went to the next tent and stopped dead in his track.

…

…

..He rubbed his eyes and looked again.

…

…

..Yep, there were two people here. Naruto quickly took out a camera that he happen to bring and started taking pictures of the sleeping Sakura and Sasuke. But with each picture, Naruto noticed the positions of the two. If he read it correctly, then Sasuke was in a regular one person sleeping position. Naruto frowned. 'Aw, that's no fun if it's one sided. Naruto thought for a moment, and the frown left him and was replaced with a mischievous grin. He left the tent and woke up Sagi who was still running upside down.

Sagi woke up with a jump. She landed on her butt and looked up at her surrogate brother with sleepy eyes. Naruto whispered something in her ear and she went near the tent. She sat in the dog sitting position and opened her mouth.

'There's no better way to wake someone other than rudely.

Roar!, came out of Sagi's mouth. There was obvious movement in the tent, the sound of shuffling, and the sound of Sasuke yelling. 'Ah, what sweet sounds., thought Naruto.

Sasuke came out, pissed. "Naruto, what the hell did you do?"

Naruto shrugged. "Be more specific. What do you mean?"

"I mean, why was Sakura in my tent?"

Naruto raised his hands defensively. "I swear, she was there before I did anything."

"Fine. But, do you realize what you did?"

Naruto nodded. "Yep. I woke you up."

Sasuke facepalmed himself. "No, you idiot. You woke everyone in the area up and gave away our position!"

"… Riight." Naruto ran over to the sleepy Sagi and yelled in her ear, "Bunny!" Sagi jumped up and shook out her sleepiness. "Where?"

"Sasuke,", called Naruto, "get Sakura. Let's go!" He grabbed Sagi and threw her over his shoulder and jumped away. Sasuke, after doing the same to Sakura, followed suit.

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"What do we do now?", asked the peeved Sakura. She woke up when Sasuke landed on the tree branch and learned that it wasn't the most comfortable thing to do.

"I know where one of the teams that have an Earth scroll is. It's not that far from here."

Sasuke looked at both his teammates. "Right, let's go then. No point of sitting around."

They jumped off in the direction of the team. The team was not far away, so they arrived in a few minutes, landing on a branch above the location. But, all they saw were tents. "Are they still sleeping?", asked Sakura.

"I don't know. But, if they are, we can't go down there and accidentally wake them up.", replied Sasuke.

"hmm, I know!", said Naruto. He leaned over to Sagi again and whispered something in her ear again. She nodded and transformed into her fox form. She jumped down and disappeared from sight. They waited for a few moments before the fox girl jumped back up to their branch. She shook her head. "They're all sleeping. I didn't see any movements inside the tents. But it smells weird."

"Good.", said Sasuke, ignoring the smell part. "Sagi, do you mind going back down there and getting the Earth scroll." Sagi, instead of answering, jumped back down.

"Hey, Sasuke, why did you send her back? We know that they're asleep so why don't we go down there?", asked Naruto.

"There's a possible chance that when something as heavy as a human enters their sight, traps will trigger. Plus, if they do wake, a fox won't be suspected as anything."

"But, there's one problem.", said Sakura, not looking at her teammates.

"What?", asked Sasuke and Naruto.

"She can't get back up with something as heavy as an Earth Scroll if she's in fox form."

Naruto waved his hand dismissively. "Ah, that won't happen." But Sakura still stared down, not looking at him. Naruto was curious so he followed her gaze and looked at the trunk of the tree where they stood upon. There they saw a fox-Sagi scratching the trunk as she tried to climb with the scroll in her mouth.

Naruto lips formed the Oh and looked at Sakura. "You have the most chakra control so use tree climbing to get her."

Sakura gave Naruto an evil look for sticking her with the job but climbed down nevertheless. She was halfway down the tree and was motioning her hands toward Sagi when

Click!

Sakura's foot sank into the tree. She looked up and yelped as she jumped down to avoid the sharp wooden spears hitting the place she once stood.

Click!

Sakura flinched as she pressed another trigger on the ground. Tons of kunai came flying down from the tree tops above.

Naruto and Sasuke watched as Sakura dodged for her life, jumping up, down, and sideways. She grabbed Sagi and ran back up the tree as fast as a ninja could and reached the two males. She breathed heavily and then looked at them and yelled, "What?"

Both of the guys raised their hands defensively. "I didn't say anything.", they said simultaneously. When Sakura calmed down, they silently left the area.

Unknown to them, the three ninjas that had their scroll stolen were lying dead. Their blood oozing out of wounds that looked like snake bites. Their faces were gone, as if someone torn them off.

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Team 7 and Sagi were jumping silently. They didn't want to relive that hectic event from this morning. But Sagi kept itching her nose. Naruto tried to ignore it for the first 10 minutes, but it bothered him too much. "Sagi, why do you keep itching your nose?"

Sagi, who was not in fox form, replied, "I keep smelling snakes and it's really bothering me. I think the smell got stronger than from that campsite."

'Snakes? It could be him. But why would he be here of all places? "Sagi, can you tell me where the smell is coming from?"

Sagi wrinkled her nose. "Why would you want to go closer, onii-chan?"

Naruto shook his head. "I just want to confirm something."

Sagi sniffed the air. "Uh, onii-chan. We don't need to go closer. I think it's coming to us."

Sasuke looked back. "Naruto, what is it."

"I don't know, but prepare yourself. If it is who I think it is, we're about to go through a hell of a fight."

Sagi's eyes widened. "Onii-chan, it's here." The troop stopped dead in their tracks and got into their battle stances.

"Kukukuku.", came from out of nowhere. Naruto narrowed his eyes. He'd recognize that laugh anywhere. "Yoroton: Jigoku no oni mōdo!" Naruto's red chakra skin came out and transformed into his hell demon armor. When Sasuke and Sakura saw this, they pulled out their kunai and got into a triangle position to see all sides. Sagi, after seeing Naruto transform, dove into the foliage and watched as a bystander.

They waited.

…

…

…

Sakura sighed in frustration. Where was this guy? But then, she felt something drip on her head. She looked up and froze in fear. "Uhm, Nar- Sasu- , uhh,"

"What is it Sakura?", asked Sasuke without looking at Sakura.

"Sn- abo- up there!", she finally managed out. Naruto and Sasuke bent their heads up and saw what had terrified the pink haired girl.

A giant snake had coiled itself around the thick branches of the trees and hanged down, looking at them. A drop of snake saliva dripped down on the genin. But Naruto knew that this wasn't what they were supposed to be focusing on. It was a distraction. He opened his mouth wide at the snake and shot dark red fire at the snake, which caught fire quickly and disintegrated. Unfortunately, the fire jumped from the snake onto to the tree, igniting the canopy of the forest. It soon looked like they were under a ceiling of fire.

"Uzumaki Naruto, always creating destruction in your wake.", said a voice behind Naruto. Sakura looked down to her front and realized that this person in front of her was one of the genin entered in the exam. "Hey, you're one of the Kusa ninjas, right? What are you doing here by yourself?" Both Sasuke and Sakura relaxed and were about to put away their kunais when Naruto yelled at them, "Don't be fooled! This is no Kusa ninja!"

The duo stared at Naruto blankly. Then Sasuke spoke up. "Naruto, what the hell are you talking about? That girl? has a Kusa headband."

"That's not his real face. He stole it from one of the Kusa ninjas."

"Stole?", asked the team couple. (that's much easier to write.)

"Yes. That person there is none other than former Konoha nin, one of the Sanin, Orochimaru!"

"What?", exclaimed the team couple. At that moment, a flaming piece of timber came falling down upon the team. They took one look and split up, avoiding a crushing, burning death. Naruto cursed. He was pretty sure that he wasn't the target, and Sakura didn't have any noticeable thing that the snake bastard would want, so the only one left is Sasuke. He can't be split up from him.

Sasuke landed on a large branch that was as wide as a hallway. Orochimaru landed a few feet away, his stolen face ripped off. Sasuke was ready. He made a few hand seals and, "Katon Goukakyuu no Jutsu!". The giant fireball hurtled toward Orochimaru and hit him, or so it seemed. When the flames blew out, a charred log was seen. "Damn, Karwarmi Where is he?"

"Behind you." Sasuke turned quickly and lashed out with his kunai, but his arm was caught in Orochimaru's hand. "Now, now, Sasuke. Why do you attack me? I can give you power. Enough power to defeat, oh I don't know, Itachi?"

Sasuke's eyes widened. "Can you really give me that power?"

Orochimaru grinned. He has the boy in his grip. "Of course I ca-"

"Sasuke! Don't listen to him!", yelled Naruto who landed a few feet away on another branch. "He can't give you that power. He lost to Itachi himself!" That shook Sasuke out of his stupor. Sasuke let Orochimaru lift him up as he jumped and jumped kicked the Sanin in the gut, sending him flying to the end of the branch. Orochimaru seethed. He almost had the Uchiha. No other choice, then. He would have to force the power onto him. His neck suddenly lengthened toward Sasuke. It was too fast. Sasuke couldn't dodge it in time. Orochimaru opened his mouth to place the Curse Mark when, "Die, you bastard!", cried Naruto. He was midair with his sword out, ready to slice downward onto Orochimaru's neck. The Sanin's eyes widened as he saw Naruto and retracted his neck, before he got an unwanted haircut. Naruto sliced the empty air and made his seal. "Yoroton: Enerugīgādian!( Energy Guardian)" Naruto's hell demon mode armor glowed and changed shape. The glow disappeared and revealed one of the other 5 armors. (Not the new one.) He had a breastplate, armored shoes, and armored gloves. He carried a shield that was as that reached up to his neck and ended with a point(Imagine Zero's shield from Gundam Wing). All of this was silver and what didn't have armor on was covered in black cloth. He then turned around to Sasuke and slammed his shield in front of the Uchiha. The shield glowed and quickly reached out and surrounded the Sharingan user. Sasuke's eyes widened as the glow blocked off the outside world completely. The glow subsided and showed a container that was the same color as the shield. "Yoroton: Enerugīgādian: Raiottoshīrudo kanzen'na hogo (Riot Shield Full Protection)" He then looked at Orochimaru. "You should know this technique. I used it on myself when we last met. This shield is made completely out of the fox's chakra. If the 4th couldn't kill him, do you think you can overpower him?"

Orochimaru was pissed. This was not going as planned. Right now, the best thing to do is to retreat. He jumped off without saying a word, making new plans to accommodate for this catastrophe.

Naruto waited until he was sure that the snake Sanin was gone. Then he placed a hand on his Full Protection which glowed and returned to its original form. "Armor Seal" Naruto turned back into his regular, white clothed form. Sakura had just gotten to this scene as she was far away from here. "Aw, man. It's over?", complained Sakura. But, inwardly, she was relieved that she didn't need to fight and possibly hold the two back. Naruto shrugged as he pointed toward the tower. "Let's go. I don't want to waste any more time here." 'Especially with the Snake Bastard with us., thought Naruto.

Sasuke agreed quickly as he did not want to face Orochimaru again. Sakura nodded also, because everything was really creepy in a big, dark forest. Naruto called to Sagi so she would come out. She jumped on Naruto's shoulder in her fox form quicker than the other two could see. They nodded and took off toward the tower.

END