Stupid Sensei
サスケ & ナルコ

If someone had told Sasuke that the only Kunoichi on his Genin team was his future wife, he would have scoffed at them for even thinking something so ridiculous. It was just his bad luck that said Kunoichi was Naruko Namikaze; SasuFemNaru, possible strange side pairings.

- - Chapter Thirty One - -
Final Exams ~ Part III

'I found myself in Wonderland;
I'll get back on my feet again.
Is this real? Is this pretend?
I'll take a stand until the end'

"You possessed Karui," Sasuke muttered disbelievingly. "She was your test subject. You were the one controlling her until Naruko killed her."

"Correct."

Sasuke tried to ignore what that meant. It meant that Naruko had been scarred almost beyond repair because this sick, disgusting man had needed a test subject. What for, Sasuke didn't want to know right now, it explained everything though.

Why Kumo's apparent attack had been so sudden, uncharacteristic, how it had been so rapidly taken away from the Raikage's control. It had been practice. Practice for this summit. Orochimaru had used Karui to test the main technique, and then he had expanded it across the people of Kumogakure after the invasion.

Even if he hadn't properly been able to defend Kumogakure, the line of Raikage there was an ironclad genetic line by law, unlike in Konoha, where most were elected. Even if Ä had lost popularity, the coup d'état should not have been so fast. Only the Daimyo had the power to depose him, and while the Lightning Daimyo was certainly unhappy, the reports suggested that he wasn't quite that displeased yet.

But more than anything, it meant that even his students had been brought into the man's self-imposed, twisted hell! How could he have let this happen? He swore to himself after his mother had been crippled by Orochimaru's underling that he wouldn't rest until he'd wiped every trace of the man from the world!

What else had he cost him? First his own experience as a test subject, then his first team in the ANBU, Hana, Anko, his mother, Hayate! Was he supposed to sit and let him ruin the lives of his students too? And it was Chōji.

That stung him the most – the fact that Orochimaru would pick the kindest one to ensnare and taint with his foul mind; if Chōji knew what Orochimaru was forcing his body to do, he hoped he had the mental strength to know it wasn't of his doing.

Lee was Dependable. Naruko was Unpredictable. Both of them lacked the edge of amiability that Chōji's lack of confidence as a child had given him however. They were surer of themselves in spite of their own issues, and didn't show the same kind of care to others as Chōji did. Chōji was Congenial.

It wasn't to say Lee and Naruko weren't both good kids themselves – they were. But they weren't Chōji, and Sasuke didn't want to see him taken into Orochimaru's games with him. None of them, but especially not Chōji.

Seeing red, he knew that the only way to get Naruko out of harm's way would be to use his stronger attacks, which risked her own presence getting caught in them, but he was running out of ideas, and time. He was also aware of standings within the village itself, the Hokage's condition.

It was also pointless trying to defeat Orochimaru with tame attacks. He was too smart, and too powerful. If he approached with the intent to kill, he might be able to separate them. The best way to do so would be with an illusion, but that would take time he wasn't sure he had, and Orochimaru knew how to battle the Sharingan.

Forming several hand seals, he locked his gaze with Orochimaru's focusing his chakra against the man's glare intently brushing away his instinctual shiver of revulsion and fear. Orochimaru's desire to kill was as strong as ever.

He could see the other Genin starting to trample underneath it, but Lee was still standing (though he was still being held by his own sword by one of Chōji's clones). Summoning a fire natured chakra, Sasuke rapidly fled through the hand seals for one of the strongest in his possession after making a shadow clone to aid his green-loving student.

"Katon; Gōenka!"

The fireballs which formed above their heads were not as large as they could be, but Sasuke set them higher so that they had farther to fall with the aid of gravity. All he had to do was aim them. Chōji's eyes furrowed as he brought them down around him and charged forward.

Shifting his speed as Chōji fluidly dodged the bullets, Sasuke watched his movements, quickly moving to block his path as his clone made two more of the same. Hefting his hammer in one hand, Chōji watched one of the fireballs heading towards him, and with one hand slammed it into the fireball, enhancing it with his own chakra.

As soon as the fireball had been repelled, the hammer slammed to the muddy surface of the clearing – seeing the state of the ground, Sasuke cursed, dodging a running line of earthen spines as they shot from beneath his feet, retreating to the air over Lee. The tide was coming in. It wouldn't be long before this clearing was flooded. It was already half gone – he guessed that it would only be around ten minutes before Lee was fighting on the surface rather than the mud.

"Come now Sasuke, don't you want to know how I achieved all this?" he Orochimaru sneered, watching as one of the fireballs dropped towards him. It landed and the resulting explosion echoed around the clearing, blinding them all and throwing Sasuke from flight path, dangerously close to one of the mangrove trees.

"How? Why?" Sasuke hissed in answer to Orochimaru's question, watching as the smoke cleared, and a dome of earth dribbled and crumpled – an earth technique.

Lee had managed to free himself as Chōji was distracted before Sasuke's clone arrived, and now he and the clone had both taken their swords to hand. Starting more hand seals, Sasuke watched as they held their swords low another, swooping down towards the others and quickly drawing his chokutō once the seals were complete.

"Katon; Bakuneko no Jutsu!" he chanted, leaving forming three flaming felines to follow as he surged forwards, cutting his way through wind blast with his sword. Forging a path the small cats leapt past until they reached their intended target.

As Lee approached from one side, his clone approached from the other, and the cats raced down beside him. Chōji whirled his hammer in an arc around his body, stretching it away with a swing of chakra. It connected with his clone, dispelling it into a puff of smoke, but Lee jumped, dipped, dived, and dodged. After years of helping him develop it, he was fully versed in the tricks to avoiding Chōji's aptly named 'Tsuchi Pachinko' method of whirling his hammer and firing it from ropes of chakra.

As the cats landed, circling in search of an opening point, Lee lunged forwards, splitting his own shadow clone as Chōji aimed his hammer towards Sasuke. Deflecting it, with some effort, Sasuke held two fingers up in front of him, releasing the timers on the flame cats.

He was grateful for Lee's help – having Orochimaru's intelligence in a body as strong as Chōji's was a serious pain in back side. Naruko didn't even bother to challenge him head on during training. Sasuke could manage Chōji by himself, and Lee too had inherited enough training from his adoptive father to manage when pushed, but even they had to be on toes to avoid getting knocked flat.

"Katsu!" he called out, as Lee and his shadow clone took their own technique forth. His cats had been developed after a brief skirmish with Deidara of Iwagakure – he could see the potential in his own fire techniques, and while it wasn't quite as strong as the clay ninja's bombs, the resulting explosion was more than enough to distract Chōji.

They exploded in three successive, finely timed blasts which succeeding in drawing Orochimaru's grip from Naruko's neck, sending the battered girl through the air to tumble out to the open water. Before she sunk too far beneath the water Sasuke managed to cast some stabilising chakra on her so she stayed afloat, using a string of chakra to pull her to the surface just as Lee's skin darkened with the opening of his eight gates.

Normally Sasuke would lecture Lee about using them rashly, but it was an emergency, and any extra strength would be only beneficial. Together, they dove into the blast of the fading explosion, aiming for Chōji (Sasuke using his Sharingan through the smoke cover and Lee his sensory capabilities to track his position).

"Shōmon Gekkō-Ryū;Mikazuki no Mai!" Lee roared, bringing his sword down on Chōji's shoulder; the chakra infused blade crackled with the sound of wind chakra. The technique was one Sasuke had taught him personally, jazzed up with some of Lee's personal flair. Sasuke was sure Hayate was rolling in his grave for the variant on the style, but could apologise to him when they got back to the village.

With the force of the blow and the help of the wind running along Lee's blade, Chōji was blasted back towards Sasuke. Summoning electric chakra once more now that Chōji was away from Naruko, he formed the hand seals for Chidori, streaming it through the blade as he ran the blade through Chōji's gut.

To his fury and consternation, Chōji disappeared, only to be replaced by a muddy rotten log.

"I needed a base," Orochimaru said simply, from outside the dust cloud; Chōji's shoulder bore the brunt of Lee's attack, so at least they had dealt a blow on him, but it wasn't enough to knock him out. "It was a good chance to see how you had adjusted to the life of a teacher, and I must say I'm quite impressed. You hardly noticed my presence at all during the mission – even the sLeeping drug. It should have been familiar to you Sasuke, it was your own personal sLeeping draught once before."

Sasuke seethed at the memory of the night he and the boys had been drugged. He'd never even thought about it. He'd been persuaded by Naruko to eat the damn food in the first place, and for once hadn't thought to check it for poison. Waking up the taste in his mouth had been foul and familiar, but he'd never been able to place it.

Now that Orochimaru said it so bluntly, he had to wonder how he could have mistaken it for anything else (it had been the only taste in his mouth for over a year at one time in his life). Not wanting to stop, he darted forward as his clone finished his hand seals and called out the release incantation.

"Katon; Kamukawa no Jutsu!"

A stream of chakra flood the ground as it was blown from the clones lips, spreading and fanning across the surface of the ground, and circled round to block Orochimaru off. The flames reached knee height, and while not as large as some techniques, covered a wide area, but the man was not to be fazed.

"Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu!"

Raising on hand, Orochimaru formed a few one handed seals a great dragon of water rose from the surrounding mangroves, surging towards his clones. Sasuke whirled himself up, using his wings to pull himself out of the way, running through the nine most natural and easies hand signs he knew-

He stopped before he freed the lightning chakra he had been forming as he saw the extent of the water, and Chōji's proximity to the weakly breathing blonde girl – he couldn't use lightning while Naruko was nearby! - and in his hesitation, the dragon slammed into him. Sasuke was blasted back into the cliff face, above the other exhausted and injured Genin. With all his strength he used his chakra to fix himself to the face of the cliff, and glanced down at the scene.

Lee was back on his feet after the initial wave had blown him to one side, looking moderately stable for all the fighting he had already done. He wasn't sure how his chakra was holding up, but he hoped the boy still had his sword.

"My mind was elsewhere; why don't you enlighten me further?" Sasukee asked, pulling his sword to hand.

"Of course," Chōji smiled, opening his arms gaily.

"You possessed Karui… She was your test subject. You were the one controlling her until Naruko killed her." Even as Sasuke's words floated down to the clearing, Orochimaru's reply ("Correct") was heard by a second set of ears.

They echoed into Naruko's mind, bouncing around her dazed consciousness with ungainly disbelief. Karui had been controlled? That couldn't be right! She had wanted an easy promotion! What did he mean he had been controlling her?! How could Orochimaru possibly take control of someone to that extent?

'Whelp, calm yourself,' Kurama echoed dimly, sensing something she could not. 'He speaks his words deliberately to unhinge you. Focus your mind! Whelp, your blood is poisoned! If you lose consciousness his mind will take hold! You need to-'

Naruko listened to the fox even as his words faded, focusing on the sound within her mind and using it as a point of clarity through the oxygen-deprived fog which had taken hold of her.

At first she struggled to remember what exactly was going on – it was so hard to breathe – then she remembered flashed. Chunin exams. Hinata. Chōji. Sasuke? She could hear his voice, did that mean he was here too? She couldn't see him. But she could her him. He'd never come into the exam itself unless they really needed it.

It was so hard to breath. She dug her hands weakly against the arm that trapped her neck, vainly trying to get herself out of Chōji's hold. Sensations came and went, and she was aware of the fight going on around her only by the dull images, and her other senses.

She felt the heat as Sasuke's blasts from Gōenka fired down, then the sound of explosions filled her ears, the blast ricocheting around her. She managed to open her eyes just as she plunged beneath the water's surface, sinking into that sharp chill which flooded and seared her lungs. Then she felt a pull bringing her back to the air above.

Regain a little sense as the water soothed her aching gut and the burns on her skin, she caught a glimpse of smoke, the explosion, and watched as Chōji jumped back from it, a deep gash in his shoulder. Orochimaru was using his voice to speak, and she strained, trying to listen to what he was saying.

Plants? He had used the plants?! Naruko found it hard to believe, but continued to listen, hoping that she might hear something she could use to figure out how to help take the crazy bastard down and help Chōji.

She had to do something, but what? She was so drained of chakra that a rasengan was impossible, never mind a Fūton. She didn't even think she had enough for a simple shunshin.

The water around her began to run towards Orochimaru, and she watched as it grew yup into the form of a dragon. One that blasted towards them, it roared up over her head, slamming into Sasuke's grey winged form and hurling into the cliff face.

Naruko tried not to listen as the conversation mingled through the nearby fight, but it was difficult not to hear those words; they meant that Karui had been innocent. She had burned her to death in the most gruesome way possible, and she had been a victim of this man's twisted game? She felt sick.

This man had caused all this just for the sake of testing a new technique? He had possessed Chōji to cause nothing but destruction? No! No, not Chōji! She couldn't stand the mere thought of him possessing Chōji, but that was what he was doing right at that very moment.

His foul mind was polluting her kind and loveable, earnest teammate. It was wrong. She couldn't let him keep this up, but what could she do? She could hardly move, and Lee and Sasuke were only just barely keeping up with him themselves.

Twisting her head as best she could, Naruko tried to make out the blurry shapes of her teammates. Lee was close enough to make out, weaving a vast number of hand seals in rapid succession as someone she assumed was Sasuke met and exchanged sword blows with who she guessed with Chōji. Then Lee's hand seals stopped, and the water drained towards him, forming a very, very large wave, the crest of which plunged down towards the two fighting shinobi.

As the water crashed down, re-flooding the clearing, Naruko paused her observations for the moment, closed her eyes, and tried to concentrate. What did she have left? What could she use? Could she make a seal?

As she searched her mind for a minimum chakra-use technique that would at the very least help her teammates Chōji's face appeared above her, hammer in his hand.

Naruko tried to move, angle her body away from Chōji, but a foot on her stomach stopped her even as he raised his hammer. "You have a talented student Sasuke; I haven't seen an Akimichi use the berserker trait so efficiently for years, but I wonder what will happen when he realises he wasthe one that killed her?" Orochimaru asked with a delighted curiosity in her teammate's voice.

The hammer began to fall, she heard Sasuke and Lee roaring in protest, and then everything went black as she did the first thing that came to her mind. 'Kurama, help me!' she begged internally, calling out to the fox as loudly as she could.

The outside world vanished as the interior cage of her mind appeared. The Kyūbi's prison was rather dry – the water level proving just how little chakra she had to spare – but mould appeared to be growing in places.

'Kurama please!' she begged, hurrying to the bars of the cage. 'We can't fight him! I don't know what else to do! I don't know how to stop him without killing Chōji! Please, you must know something, anything!'

The fox glanced down at her. He was seated on his hind legs by the cage, as if watching, analysing, and listening. Naruko knew he had been. Slipping between the bars, she stood beneath his muzzle as it towered above and looked up.

'You have never asked for my aid before,' he noted, sounding gruffly surprised. 'Can you truly think of nothing else? And I thought you were intelligent for a female.'

Naruko kicked his closest paw and he yelped, glaring at her once again.

'I cannot help you,' he said then, laying his head down in apology. 'If I were to take over now, you would lose your consciousness, and this is how his technique works. The poison lulls your mind to a sLeep, and then his mind takes over. If you used any of my chakra, it would pull your mind away for a moment and it would not surprise me if the snake-man hopes you do exactly that, for if you did, he would also control me. Were it wise I would do as you request, but in this particular choice, I would rather my chakra be used for your gain than his.'

Naruko blinked, trying not to let tears creep up on her. There was nothing she could do? Even if she used the Kyūbi's power, it would just be turned against her?

'So I'm just supposed to sit and wait for someone else to rescue us?!' she demanded. 'I can't! He's going to kill us at this rate! He's trying to kill me now! There has to be something!'

The fox looked at her, and his brows furrowed. 'There may be something you have enough chakra left for,' he said. 'It may even give you're the human you want to mate with time to intervene.'

Naruko ignored the comment about Sasuke (it wasn't exactly untrue after all, just the Fox's animalistic vocabulary which made it sound crass). 'What do you mean?' she asked.

"Of course," Chōji smiled, opening his arms gaily.

He always had been a show off to Sasuke, never one to make a song and dance without the appropriate audience, even if he was evil incarnate.

"My attempts to find immortality recently brought me to examine the products of water country; I've investigated their uses as poisons many at time, but never their uses as panaceas. I wanted to see some of my creations as they reacted with that goal in mind, so I introduced my blood to the plants I had developed," he began, raising his hammer and slamming it to the ground with all of Chōji's strength. A great crack appeared in the earth, screeching up towards the cliff where Sasuke had stabilised himself.

With only seconds below the wall dislodged beneath him, Sasuke stopped the flow of his chakra, flapping his wings to pull himself back to the safety of the air, his ears intent on the words Orochimaru still spoke.

"I tested them on some other subjects first, and I found that the plants secreted a substance which, when it came into contact with the skin, was absorbed, and gave me an insight into their surface thoughts, so I decided to develop it further," he said, his eyes wide with an ecstasy only Orochimaru could find.

It was a face Sasuke knew far too well. "Karui," Sasuke guessed, dodging a hail of boulders that were being knocked in his direction. He had to get that stupid hammer away from Chōji. It was good when it was on his side of a fight, but not so much the opposite.

"Correct. Karui was a test of the concentrated substance. I controlled her completely; my mind occupied and supressed her own. I introduced the breed to Kumo gardens during your student's confinement, and soon I controlled several inhabitants within the village, and after Minato's retaliation they enforced and encouraged the rebellion against his brother." Orochimaru smiled. "I then introduced them to the arena here, very few, but enough to infect the participants who were not quite so resilient with their antidotes. The plants secreted their contents, and once absorbed, it was as if magnets drew me to your Akimichi boy here. As I make out, he tends to avoid his injections when he can."

Taking aim, he hurled his sword straight down, fissuring the blade with electricity. It sliced straight through the arm and through his shoulders, trapping it and bringing enough pain to momentarily distract Orochimaru, something Sasuke took note of. If Orochimaru could feel pain within his host's body despite not having physically possessed their body, then there was definitely a physical link.

He hadn't quite believed Orochimaru's explanations, though the man had no reason to lie. It just sounded too good even for him. Besides that, the notion of plants growing anywhere around him that might help Orochimaru possess people was incredibly unnerving.

There had to be some sort of downside to the technique, or Orochimaru wouldn't have spent such a long time testing this supposed genus of foliage he'd developed.

Orochimaru recovered Chōji's body quickly however, and the damage to his arm was not completely cumbersome. It was with only slight irritation, Chōji raised his fingers as Sasuke yanked back his sword, rapidly forming a set of hand seals for a wind technique.

"Fūton; Daitoppa!" Chōji cried, releasing a howling gale towards him, which Sasuke found difficult to stay airborne in.

His own chakra supplies were not inexhaustible, and due to its very nature and origins, he couldn't stay in his cursed seal body for long. He was already pushing his limit with it, but he didn't dare drop the form – Orochimaru's elemental techniques were not ones to sneeze at. Beating his wings, Sasuke managed to hold himself up against the blast, though it ripped and tore at his skin as it passed him.

Painful as that was, he had confirmation of the words Orochimaru had spoken of the techniques basis. Like the water element displayed earlier, the water element was not Chōji's. The DNA in the plant that Chōji had absorbed likely allowed Orochimaru to use his own elements whilst controlling his victim's body. Sasuke had to admire the technicalities, but the thought of trying to counter it made his head hurt.

If Orochimaru's DNA was in Chōji's bloodstream, or anyone else's for that matter, then the only way to save him would be via a medical procedure. Probably a sealing one nowhere near possible in a battle setting. The Genin had been right on the mark about knocking him out being the only option.

Thinking back to the plan Ino had spoken to him telepathically, the only thing they really lacked in that sense had been knowledge and man power. Even as a group, Chunin, strong as they could be and as much as Sasuke knew they were, were no match for the crazed experimenter.

Even a retired ANBU such as himself wasn't really enough. Sasuke had fought the man several times in the past, and frankly it was only luck and the expert healing abilities of his teammate which allowed him to survive.

He had to do something though; he could not let this man overtake and control the lives of his students the way he had his own. He wouldn't be able to live with it if he allowed Orochimaru to affect them any more than he already had.

Focusing his chakra, he dispelled the illusion of wind that had settled over him, adapting and maintaining his hold on the cliff face he remained held to. With a quick blast of flame to burn through the mass of snakes which had emerged from Chōji's mouth Sasuke flew towards him for real, ignoring the spray of blood that resulted.

Properly retrieving his sword from where it had impaled into Chōji's shoulder, he narrowly dodged the swipe of Chōji's hammer, relying heavily on his family dōjutsu to keep up with the boy's unintended but unrelenting attacks.

Grabbing hold of Chōji's hammer arm, Sasuke finally managed to catch him before it swung down on him, running through a set of one-handed seals. "Katon; Niku wo taberu kasai no jutsu!"

His eyes set on Chōji's, he smirked within the illusion he had finally succeeded in setting up. Chōji stilled only for a moment before Orochimaru dispelled the imaginary flesh eating flames, but it was enough to seize the hammer from his hands and retreat to Lee's side.

"That won't hold him for long," Sasuke said, flickering to the black haired boy, where he stood some distance from Naruko; a glance back to Chōji showed that he had already recovered from the slight illusion. "How does your chakra feel?" he asked, tossing the hammer into the now waist deep water where it wouldn't be found without difficulty – Chōji would be upset, but he'd buy him a new one to replace it.

"Brimming with displeased youth, Sensei," Lee replied seriously, panting for breath. "Though I fear not quite youthful enough for my father's beautiful techniques. It appears my reserves are not as large as those of my esteemed companions." He glanced over their shoulders at his other teammate as he already started the hand seals Sasuke had painstakingly drilled into him as soon as he learned his second element was water. "But I made it last!"

"Good, because he's heading straight for us," Sasuke grunted, trying to hold his cursed seal form up a little longer as Chōji did something he had been hoping wouldn't happen. Calling up his chakra, he crossed his arms in front of his body in the shape of an 'x', the middle fingers of his hands pointing up and down alternately.

"Akimichi Kinjutsu; kyōbō!" Orochimaru laughed.

Lee's face paled, and Sasuke gave up trying to stay in the air, instead gripping his sword tightly and running his hand with some blood over the tiny purple Uchiha emblem carved into the black lacquer of the handle.

As Chōji's pupils began to disappear to tiny points before dominating the entire surface beyond his irises, a second chokutō appeared in Sasuke's hand. It very similar to the first in design but for its blue handle and white inlays. Wasting no time as Orochimaru forced Chōji into his berserker mode, he felt his muscles strain from the effort of keeping away the two simple kunai in Chōji's grip.

With broad swiped and lunges he managed to hold back the attack of Chōji's berserk state, but every blow seemed to get heavier and heavier with each passing moment, and it was relentless. As soon as his parried one blow with one arm, the second rose to block another.

It was incessant, and there was no rhythm or reason to the moves, they were mad, quick lunges which came about simply based of his reaction to Sasuke last blocks or, less frequently, his attacks. However, Chōji had trained all the skill needed to execute into his body via muscle memory, and they were not sloppy.

The uses of his Sharingan at such a quick speed to track Chōji's movements left an ache in his eyes that blurred his vision slightly, but he didn't dare let the dōjutsu fade.

"Lee!" he roared, starting to feel the pressure of Chōji's attack, his feet slipping on the water which had completely flooded the clearing, pushing him back towards his oldest student. His eyes following Chōji's every move, he managed to whirl under his arm and drop a slicing wound across his back.

The wound steamed as Chōji continued his barrage; autonomic calorie controlled healing? If Chōji were in his mind at all, Sasuke would congratulate him for mastering the skill without need for the Akimichi pills, but frankly it was nothing more than a hindrance.

Using his to beat him in the face and block a double handed attack, Sasuke hurled Chōji back into the mangrove trees; it was the last sighting of 'the monstrous tengu', as the form had once been known for the day. So close to Orochimaru, the malignant pull it came with was much stronger. Normally Sasuke could hold off its effects for several hours, but so close to Orochimaru, the seal could feel its master's demanding, incessant call all too clearly.

As the younger male slipped on the water from the force of the attack, Sasuke took quick advantage of the boy's slip and rammed his swords together, impaling him on it for sure this time, holding him in place just as Lee finished his set of complex hand seals, ignoring the continued swipes and attempted stabs Chōji maintained.

"Suiton; Bakusui Shōha!"

The gigantic wave that was summoned by Lee's chakra rose up around them, casting its shadow all the way up to the cliff where Shikamaru and the other Genin had taken refuge from the fight; with a single, forward pushing gesture from its conjurer, it surged forward, the crest of the wave roaring as it thundered down towards Sasuke and Chōji.

Taking is swords from Chōji's gut, Sasuke jumped back just in time to avoid the destructive force of the wave, watching as crashed down onto Chōji. He prayed it had knocked him out as he landed into the water, quickly pulling himself to the surface where Lee had collapsed to his knees from exhaustion.

"You have a talented student Sasuke,"

Sasuke's heart stopped as he whirled around to the spot where Naruko had landed atop the water. Chōji stood with only the shoulder wound from Lee as his injury, right next to the blonde girl. "I haven't seen an Akimichi use the berserker trait so efficiently for years, but I wonder what will happen when he realises he wasthe one that killed her?"

No! How had he switched himself out during the explosion? Looking at the hammer that was being raised above Naruko's head, he swore for missing such an obvious trick. He had transformed himself! The Chōji they had been fighting must have been one of Orochimaru's sturdier clones!

Desperation coursing through his veins, Sasuke pushed all the chakra he had left to his feet in hopes of intervening the blow before it struck. He couldn't let this happen! Orochimaru would not kill his team – he would not let it happen! Not again! Not to her!

"Naruko!" he roared, sprinting across the water as fast as his legs would take him.

"No! Chōji stop him! Stop!" Lee shouted to his teammate, unable to miss the immediate danger Naruko was in. "Stop! He's going to kill her! You have to stop him! Chōji!"

Lee summoned all the strength he had, trying to open even his Kaimon as his feet splashed across the water in panic. His body seared in protest with every step as his already fragile chakra network struggled to cope with the damage from opening the Hachimon, and Sasuke quickly passed him.

The look on his face was not one he had ever seen on his usually calm and composed teacher, and for a moment, Lee felt the bewildering amount of fear in his teacher's chakra, and the same fear that was distorting his calm features leaked out unsettlingly around him.

His eyes were wide, and the sweat running down his cheekbones was soaking into his black flak jacket. His movements were not practiced, nimble or sure of themselves as they usually were. The gritted teeth in his jaw looked more like an attempt not to scream.

Even in a battle setting, Sasuke-sensei never got too riled up. Frome what he had heard of the invasion from Chōji, even then his anger had been relatively calm and composed. He hadn't shown fear in this way though.

He knew from village gossip that Sasuke had once been linked to Orochimaru when they were assigned to him as budding leaves fresh from the academy. Recently, Naruko had told him that he had actually been one of the three who survived his experimentation lab beneath training ground forty-four.

Knowing this made his fear make sense, but Lee was unsure that was all there was to it. This was more than just fear of a former torturer. He knew that expression – Naruko had worn as she caught sight of the Kumo Genin teams when they first arrived, and it wasn't the same at all.

Seeing his teacher so unravelled and desperate hade his feet feel unsteady as he struggled to maintain enough chakra to stay atop the water, but he strained himself all the same. Sasuke-sensei was still forcing every drop of energy he had in spite of his obvious internal turmoil, so it would be most un-youthful if he couldn't follow his example.

Following his teacher as he roared in protests and raced ahead, Lee had his katana already drawn in equal desperation, prepared to chop his best friend's arms off if that was what it took to keep him from murdering their teammate.

Chōji would never live with himself if Lee did anything less – it would be what the soft hearted lump would prefer! He had to stop him, regardless of the fact he would kill Naruko, Chōji would never be able to live with himself after. He'd die from breaking his own heart.

It wasn't fair – why Chōji? Why his teammates again? Despite the trials and tribulations of their initial Genin days, Lee had been under the impression that things had been improving for them, but what was going to happen when they finally got Chōji out of his trance?

What if he turned into a shell of his former self the way his female teammate had? Naruko was back on her feet, but something had been killed in her after what happened in Kumo.

That was understandable. He told himself that all the time, but it wasn't right. She wasn't the girl he had grown up with in the academy anymore.

She was trying, it hurt to see how much she tried. He had seen it, before the Chunin exams began, when she asked him if she was being a wimp for being terrified of her own chakra. She'd thrown up after using it for the first time. She worked so hard to be herself again, but she still wasn't there, and Lee had the sinking feeling she wouldn't for a long time.

And yet watching her shell walk in her place was awful; Naruko wasn't a healer by nature, she wasn't a distance fighter. She liked fighting, and had always been best at close range, and she was barely breathing now because she had withdrawn from that, stopped using those skills unless there was no option.

Kumo had taken her shine away, like a gemstone that had been struck by lightning and split in two; the break was clean and repairable, but once it was stuck back together it lost its appeal. She just wasn't the same, and the thought of this happening to Chōji too was too much.

Boosting his speed with his chakra, Lee raised his sword as he and Sasuke-sensei reached Chōji's back. Yet their actions were stalled as Naruko's hands slipped into sloppy hand seals, and brought her fingers to Chōji's skin.

His eyes recognising the hand seals before Lee's could catch up, Sasuke-sensei immediately halted, and before Lee could protest grabbed hold of his last stable student. With a burst of chakra from his feet, propelled them back to the relative safety of a rocky protrusion above the water line.

Before they landed, the water in the air around them and at their feet surged and frothed as her chakra ran over their bodies, and with a thunderous crack as it was conducted by the water activated.

Lee was speechless as iridescent, blinding light shone through the clearing, and the screech of a thousand birds filled of the air echoed up into the clouds.

Yay for almost completing the Chunin arc! You have no idea how much I want to get to the next chapters. I hate this arc now. Srsly. The last few chapters left me brain dead. Not a lot will happen just yet in regards to Sasuke and Naruko, but there will be some more development *evil grin*

The next chapters will focus on the aftermath of the Chunin exams, and then its back to Konoha for a few more twists, so to speak. Hopefully the extra long chapter makes up for the lack of updates. Life really has just been getting on the way this past year or so, and things are a little more back on track now. With the main block I had with this story finally pushed through, and future chapters mapped out, the updates will hopefully become a little more regular.

Thank you for sticking with this story for so long :)

Song Quote: 'Alice' (Extended Edition) by Avril Lavigne
Techniques used in this chapter are as follows:

Katon; Gōenka – Fire Style; Great Flower of Flame.
Katon; Bakuneko no Jutsu - Fire Style; Art of The Blasting Cats.
Tsuchi Pachinko - Slingshot Hammer.
Shōmon Gekkō-Ryū: Mikazuki no Mai - Gate of Pain Gekkō-Style; Dance of the Crescent Moon.
Katon; Kamukawa no Jutsu - Fire Style; Biting River .
Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu; Water Style; Art of The Water Dragon Bullet .
Futon; Daitoppa - Wind Style; Great Breakthrough.
Katon; Niku wo Taberu Kasai no Jutsu - Fire Style; Art of The Flesh Eating Flame.
Akimichi Kinjutsu; Kyōbō - Akimich Forbidden Technique; Berserk (Can also be translated as Cruelty/Despair).
Suiton; Bakusui Shōha - Water Style; Exploding Water Wave.

Nat.
xxx