Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, if I did then Tayuya, Jiraiya, and Yugito would still be alive and Kyuubi would be female. I do own the story plot, original jutsu and oc's.

Chapter 15

Race to the Tower

Team 7 sat silently in the middle of the clearing in absolute silence. Sasuke and Sakura were staring at Naruto with similar expressions of shock, the only difference between the two was that relief could be seen in Sakura's eyes while anger were present in Sasuke's. Naruto held a sheepish grin on his face, head held down while rubbing the back of his head.

"A Fake?!"

"I'm really impressed Naruto! That was some good think-"

"A FAKE?!"

"Sasuke-kun you don't have to yell. I mean it was a good idea that Naruto had and-"

"HE DECIEVED BOTH OF US! HOW CAN YOU NOT BE PISSED AT HIM?!"

"Don't yell at Sakura-chan, Teme! Besides I didn't do it to trick you or send the impression that I don't trust you. I did it for safe-keeping so that if anything went wrong...we would still have a scroll."

Sakura was was glad that Naruto trusted both of them and thought ahead in case of something like this would happen. Sasuke was begging to settle down but was still a little pissed that Naruto had tricked him and handed him a fake scroll.

"When did you switch the scrolls on us?"

"When I was taking a leak yesterday in the forest. Right after that ninja tried to ambush me I decided to hide the real one and switch it with one of mine as a substitute."

"I thought it was weird that you gave up the scroll so easily, so what scroll did you use?"

"Well...all the scrolls that I'm carrying are to help with surviving the outdoors and the only one I could had was a scroll containing a weeks worth of food rations."

Sasuke let out an aggravated sigh, not the least bit surprised that Naruto had substituted all of their food which was just as important as the scrolls but he was glad that they now had two scrolls again.

"Only a complete idiot would use up all our food but...I suppose it could have been worse. So where did you put the scroll?"

"I have it with me so if you excuse me I'll go get it."

Naruto stood up off the ground and began to walk towards the bushes. Sasuke on the other hand stood in front of him to block the way.

"No your not going to leave to get it. You said its with you and I want to know where."

"Are you sure about that?"

"Positive."

"Alright suite yourself."

Sakura stood up from the ground and stood next to Sasuke as she to was curious as to where Naruto had hid the scroll. When she was taking care of them last night, she saw no sign of a scroll hidden anywhere on his body so she paid extra close attention. Naruto took a few steps back while loosening up his shoulders and taking in several deep breaths.

"Hurry up Dobe! We don't have all day."

"Let me get ready or else it won't work!"

'Or else what won't work?'

Sasuke and Sakura raised a eyebrow in intrest as Naruto continued loosening up his back muscles and taking deep breaths in and out of his mouth. Finally it seemed that he was done warming up and took a sumo stance as he made eye-contact with the ground. He slowly extended his pointer finger on his right hand and moved it towards his still open mouth. As his finger entered his open mouth his eyes closed tightly in a pained expression.

"ACK..ACK..UUGG...HOO..ACK..BLEEEEEECCCCCCHHHHHHH!!"

Suddenly a torrent of semi-digested food and fluid came spewing out of his mouth at great speed. Both of his teammates were sicken at his actions and were stunned speechless. He continued to vomit for at least 5 seconds until it seem that something became lodged into his esophagus.

"OOH OOH OOWAA"

A small white cylinder began to come out of his mouth and slowly fell onto the ground (Thankfully not into the pool of regurgitation) along with Naruto who fell onto his ass, gasping for air. The scroll wasn't covered in sick but instead covered in this thin film of slime which Naruto shakily reached for it and flicked it until it was just like new.

Both teammates were stunned speechless by this sickening act that they just witnessed while Naruto just sat on the forest floor dizzy and exhausted. His hand trembled slightly as he extended the scroll towards Sasuke.

"I don't want it!"

"You...made...me...take it...out!"

"Why did you even-"

"Last...place...anyone...would...look."

"That's still disgusting!"

"Well I...only had a...few seconds...what else was I-"

"Hide it somewhere else, Like your pouch or hell even in your pants! But swallowing it?!"

"Turns you on...doesn't it?"

"What the hells that supposed to mean?"

"Come on every girl wants you but you completely ignore them. Even a blind man could see what's going on."

"I'm not Gay!"

"ENOUGH!"

Both boys were startled by the sudden yell and were truly scared by their teammate's face. Sakura was livid with anger and did nothing to hide it. Her jaw was clenched with her teeth baring at the frightened boys. Her nostrils were flared and eyes burning holes through their very souls.

"I know what Naruto did was absolutely disgusting but if he didn't do it we wouldn't have the scroll anymore so thank him now!"

Sasuke quickly turned his head to Naruto and looked right into his face with a terrified expression.

"Thank you for keeping the scroll safe Naruto!"

"Good, now Naruto apologize for calling Sasuke-kun gay when you know it's not true."

"But Sakura-chan-"

"NOW!"

"I'm sorry for calling you gay Sasuke!"

"Good, now that you two are done I'm going to sleep so the two of you decide who's gonna take the first watch."

"I'll do it Sakura-chan."

Naruto pushed himself up onto his feet and stuffed the scroll into his pouch just and Sasuke did the same thing with his. Team 7 quickly went in search of a new area to camp out for the night. After a few hours of searching they came across a tiny area surrounded by bushes and a single tree. Sakura quietly laid her head on the soft grass, quickly falling into a deep sleep. Sasuke laid against the tree with his arms crossed and closed his eyes.

Naruto sat cross-legged, watching his teammates sleeping and listening for any unusual noises. A growling could be heard coming from all around causing Naruto to tense up a bit. The growls became louder but thankfully not so much as to wake up Sakura or Sasuke. Naruto slowly rose up from the ground and began to survey the area. He couldn't the slightest signs of life besides a few birds but the growling continued to grow louder and louder. The growling still grew louder and Naruto could feel his heart beating faster as he still couldn't find the source of the disturbance. Instantly Naruto found the source and slowly reached down with a calm demeanor.

"How did I not notice that I was this hungry?"

Naruto plopped back down on the ground, rubbing his stomach that growled at him for sustenance. He scoped the area to see if there was anything edible for him to eat. He noticed that there was some moss growing on the ground near the base of the tree. Naruto picked up a piece and brushed off the dirt then took a small bite. A soon as he took a bite he immediately spat it back out of his mouth.

'Disgusting! Why in the hell did I do that?! What am I, a complete ret- wait what's that?"

Naruto quickly noticed something else growing at the base of the tree, something that looked a lot more enticing than moss. A cluster of large mushrooms were growing around one of the roots of the tree and to Naruto they looked absolutely luscious. They were around the size of his palm, had a yellowish tinge and red dots on their caps. There was at least seven of them and they just seemed to scream at Naruto 'EAT ME'. Naruto drooled a little as he stared at the marvelous fungi and just as he was about to snatch one one them from the ground he suddenly remembered what he was told about eating wild mushrooms.

'Remember Brat, even though mushrooms are one of the greatest sources of food for a ninja when he or she is travelling in the wilds, you have to be careful when eating them. Some are lethal while other's will just leave you really messed-up.'

Naruto quickly began to think about what kind of mushrooms were growing in front of him and if they were lethal or not. Though he was taught how to identify edible and non-edible fungi he wasn't exactly great at it but good enough to know the deadly ones.

'Alright...it's not a Death-cap mushroom nor any other poisonous one that I'm familiar with. It looks kinda like Oyster mushrooms but their a little big...probably fertile soil in these woods.'

With out a second thought, Naruto reached out and plucked one of the mushrooms from the ground and popped it into his mouth, chewing happily on the fungus.

(Konoha Hospital)

"How is she?"

"Her condition has finally stabilized. She should be fine now."

"I still can't believe how delirious she was when we found her."

"Yes, well...Let's just be thankful that you and your team found her when you did or else the venom would have most likely reach her nervous system. If that had happen then they're would've been nothing we could of done."

"uuuggg"

A low groan alerted the two men in the room to the figure laying in the bed. A man in a medic's robe and another wearing standered issued ANBU black ops uniform with a falcon-like mask. A young woman with a head of purple hair began to stir underneath the sheets of the bed and reached for the oxygen mask that she was wearing.

"I need to see the Hokage."

The med-nin quickly rushed to her side in order to gently take the oxygen mask from her hand and place it back on her, then gingerly placed a hand on her shoulder to push her back onto her back.

"Please Mitarashi-san, lay back down. We've just finished removing the toxins from your body and are in no condition to move."

"I don't care, I need to talk to the Hokage now! It's a matter of grave importance."

The masked ANBU took a step forward to address Anko.

"Please Mitarashi-san, I will get the Hokage if you will lie back down."

Anko didn't answer him but showed her answer to him in the form of a sigh then resting her head against the pillow. The ANBU member said his gratitude and disappeared into thin air. For an hour she waited with her patience running low and anxiety running high. How long had she been out? Where was Orochimaru now? Would she be able to redeem herself? She continued to ponder when her thoughts were interrupted by the door swinging open to reveal the ancient leader of Konoha.

"Anko-san...what happened to you?"

"Hokage-sama it was-"

Suddenly Anko felt her whole body racking in pain and fell back onto the bed, panting. The Hokage quickly came to her bed side to lay his hand on her forehead in a comforting gesture. Anko quickly tried to regain her composure and as soon as she was ready she uttered one name.

"Orochimaru!"

The Sandaime Hokage stared at Anko with eyes showing fear and what appeared to be a little bit of hope. He reached out to cup both of her hands into his and stared into her eyes with nothing but kindness and trust.

"Are you absolutely sure that he is here?"

"Hai Hokage-sama. I confronted him in training ground 77 disguised as one of the participants. I was unfortunately tricked by him but was told that he had marked one of the genin earlier that day."

At that point the Hokage's eyes widened in fear and quickly turned to face the ANBU agent.

"I want you to cancel the Chunin exams immediately and find the child that has been marked. This is a crisis situation and we must take immediate action!"

"NO! You mustn't stop the the exams or else he will destroy Konoha!"

The Hokage turned back to Anko with disappointment in his eyes. He let out a tired sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose. After awhile he looked over at Anko with a tired expression.

"Do you at least know who he has marked?"

"No sir. I don't."

"Figures he wouldn't say...stay here and rest until you feel better Anko-san. That's an order."

"Hai Hokage-sama."

(Morning)

Sakura was awoken by the sun's rays that caressed her face gently and let out a nice, long yawn. She sat up to wipe the sleep from her eyes when she noticed Sasuke stretching his arms. She was slightly confused to see Sasuke waking up instead of Naruto.

"Sasuke-kun? Where's Naruto?"

Sasuke turned his head from left to right in confusion and turned to face Sakura with a slightly worried look.

"I don't know. He should of woken me up last night to take the second watch but I guess he didn't."

Both of them got up in search of there lost member, calling out for him. They continued to call out for him until the hit a small river surrounded by a rocky shore of white stones. They quickly noticed a small campfire with three roasted fish on sticks and a orange coat.

"Hey guys, what's up?"

They turned to see Naruto walking out of the woods with something in his hands, smiling and waving at them. Sakura marched towards Naruto, grabbing him by his chain-link shirt.

"Why did you leave us alone?!"

"I came back every 15 minutes to check up on you! Besides no ones around for miles."

Sakura grudgingly let go of Naruto and sat at the campfire with Sasuke to eat her breakfast. Naruto quickly joined them, grabbing his own fish to devour it. Sasuke noticed that after he finished his fish that Naruto stuffed something in his mouth and began to chew.

"Dobe what are you eating?"

"Nushwombs."

"Swallow then talk, you pig."

"Mushrooms."

Sakura turned to Naruto with concern as he continued to stuff his face.

"Naruto you shouldn't be eating those. They could be dangerous."

"Don't worry Sakura-chan, I'm perfectly fi-"

Naruto suddenly stopped mid-sentence as his vision suddenly changed. Everything became more colorful and wavy. Sakura's hair was glowing and everything around him suddenly appeared...edible.

"Aaarrreee yyyooouuu oookkk NNNNaaaarrrruuuuttttttooooo?"

"I'msuretheDobeisfineSakura."

"Hhhheeee dddoooeeesssnnn'ttt lllooookkk fffiiinnneee SSSaaasssuuukkkeee-kkuuunnnn."

Naruto was both fascinated and terrified by what was happening to him. He turned to look at the trees only to see them staring back at him with small, calculating eyes. The river was flowing backwards with two giant birds circling over head. The last fish cooking over the fire turned it's crispy golden head to face Naruto, repeating the same lines over and over "Red rum, red rum." In a deep voice.

Naruto was hyperventilating as inanimate objects were staring at him with tiny, hateful eyes. He quickly turned his head towards the river where fish were jumping in and out of the water in synch. The fish were blue with spiky blue hair sticking straight up and held a wide creepy smile with big, triangular teeth.

"Come dance with us Naruto...come dance till oblivion!"

"AAAHHH! Evil! Evil, pure and simple!"

Naruto jumped to his feet, grabbed the stick with the last cooked fish impaled on it and ran all the way up on a boulder at the river's shore. Sakura and Sasuke watched with concern as Naruto began to yell at everything around him and swing the fish in the air.

"What's wrong with him?"

"I don't know. He acting more like an idiot than usual."

"He's delusional."

Sakura and Sasuke quickly turned around with kunai in hand, ready to face the new person that had arrived. There they saw standing right behind them was none other than the ninja that had introduced himself before the fist part of the exam had begun. He had both of his arms in the air as a sign of surrender.

"Kabuto!"

"Hey you remembered my name! Now how about you put those down."

"Not a chance four-eyes. You may be a Konoha-nin but your an enemy to us."

"I'm not here to steal your scrolls. Honestly."

"And why would we believe you?"

"Because my other teammates have both of them and I'm supposed to meet them at the tower."

"Why would they leave you all by yourself?"

"I wanted to see if there was anyone else that maybe needed some help."

Sasuke snorted at that remark with absolute disbelief. Most of Team 7 continued to stare down Kabuto while the other member was screaming at the top of his lungs. Sakura slowly lowered her kunai to turn towards Naruto who was still swinging the stick around in the air while yelling. Suddenly he pulled the fish off the stick and flung it with all of his might towards the group. The fish flew towards them at a great speed until it smacked into Kabuto's face.

"BACK EVIL WHITE OWL!!"

A small mark could be seen on Kabuto's cheek and his glasses were a little askew. Sakura quickly turned to Kabuto with worry in her eyes and she asked him a question.

"If you help us to find out what's wrong with Naruto I swear we'll trust with absolutely no questions ask! Will you help us?!"

"Sakura! Even if he does help us we can't just-"

"Will you?!"

Kabuto put his glasses back on properly and began to rub his cheek. He had a bit of a scowl on his face while he had his eyes on Naruto.

"Well I am a little peeved that I was assaulted with a flying fish but...as a future med-nin I have no choice but to help. First off I'm going to have to now what he did for this to happen. Did he touch or eat anything unusual?"

Sasuke, surprisingly, was the first to answer his question. Apparently he too wanted Naruto back to his normal self.

"I saw him eating these big mushrooms before he began acting weird."

"What did the mushrooms look like?"

"They were yellow with theses tiny red spots on their tops."

Kabuto let out a sigh while shaking his head slightly. He turned towards were Naruto was, watching him pick up rocks from the river and throwing them in random directions.

"Well the good news is that the breed of mushroom that you described isn't lethal but the bad news is that it's the main ingredient to several high class hallucinative mixtures."

"What do we do than?"

"There's nothing we can do except just wait until the mushrooms pass through his system."

"DIE WHITE OWL!"

Kabuto was nearly hit by a particularly large rock as Naruto continued to go on his drug induced rampage without showing any signs of stopping. Sasuke was able to sneak up behind him without anyone noticing and jumped onto his back, wrestling him to the ground. Sakura ran to the boys with some rope in her hands and while trying to dodge all of the flailing limbs, finally managed to keep Naruto bound for his own safety.

Naruto continued to struggle but with his new restraints he wasn't able to do much except fidget in the same spot. All three of them dragged Naruto closer to the fire as Kabuto, Sasuke, and Sakura sat down to discuss what their next course of action should be. Kabuto explained that the only thing they could do was to wait until enough of the mushroom's toxins pass through Naruto's system without causing him to enter into another episode. The group sat around the fire for nearly 3 full hours. Sasuke had suggested that they should move to a new spot ever now and then so that way they would be less likely to be caught by another group but Kabuto had told them that in Naruto's current condition moving him would be dangerous for both his and their own health.

Just as the sun had reached the center of the sky, Naruto had calmed down considerably but it was obvious that he was still suffering from the effects of the mushrooms. They had decided that Naruto was calm enough for them to leave their spot and head toward the tower. They took it slow at first what with Naruto's current condition and all. He wasn't nearly as bad as before but he was still very jumpy and wouldn't leave Sakura's side but she didn't seem to mind much. Slowly he became less jittery and unfortunately he was becoming pale around the face.

(Night)

"BLEEEEECH!"

Several hours had passed since Naruto ingested the fungi and he was now hunched over a bush while his teammates stood still waiting for him to finish. When he was done he came out of the bushes wiping his mouth with the sleeve of his coat. His face was pale while his lips looked as though they were on fire. His blonde hair wasn't as vibrant and bright as before with his blonde spikes drooping into his eyes.

"My stomach feels like burning!"

Unfortunately for his teammates He couldn't help but to whine constantly which was quickly getting on their nerves. Kabuto continued to lead them towards the tower while making sure they weren't being followed. Unfortunately the constant whining that was coming from Naruto wasn't making his job any easier and he knew that Sasuke was watching him to see if he was going to betray them but simply brushed it off and continued to act as if he was completely unaware. The moon was slowly crossing across the sky they continued to venture on the beaten path.

The group slowly made their way towards the middle of the forest trying to be as quiet as they could, even Naruto who was now complaining in whisper. Kabuto stopped in mid-step and looked down to the side of the path.

"Damn, we've been spotted already."

Sasuke quickly turned his attention to the tree's with kunai ready in hand and hissed a question at Kabuto.

"How do you know we've been spotted?!"

Kabuto turned towards Sasuke with a nonchalant sigh. He pushed his glasses up on to the bridge of his nose and replied with an expression of slight disappointment.

"I found out because I just realized that we have passed this exact same rock 5 times. We're being led in a circle by a simple Genjutsu and whoever is doing this will most likely attack when we're tired and frustrated...like we are now."

When Sakura heard Kabuto she quickly let go of Naruto causing him to unceremoniously fall onto his ass with a groan and reached for a kunai. Naruto tried to jump onto his feet but only managed to hop back up with a loud groan. Everyone in the party looked at the trees to see if they could spot the intruders but to no avail.

Large pools of black sludge began to form on the ground in front of them. Slowly figures began to rise out from the pools causing both Sasuke and Kabuto to raise their weapons, Sakura thinking that maybe the man from before had return to finish them off and Naruto to turn slightly green. The clones each wore the exact same black body suit with a Amegakure hiate-ate on their foreheads. But the most interesting thing about them was that they all had some sort of breathing apparatus in their mouths. Naruto finally was back on his feet with a slightly queasy look as he spoke with a rather loud tone of voice.

"Damn, I thought I already took care of this guy!"

"Last time you took me by surprise but now that my teammates are here we'll be taking your scrolls!"

"I...ack...don't think so!"

Naruto clumsily took both of his hands to form a cross-like shape and several tens of clones appeared, all looking sick to their stomachs.

"Oh man...this is gonna be a long night."

(Authors notes)

Hey everyone I'm back with a vengance as I present another shiny chapter to the story. Sorry about taking so long but I had summer school this year which totally suck, so I had no time to write. Hopefully the next chapter will be longer and quicker!

Please review, my Lord and Master commands it!!

"In Tobi We Trust"