Hearing the sounds of battle breaking out nearby, Sasuke and Sakura were about to rush toward the source.
But before they could take more than a few steps, they spotted Naruto already heading back — walking toward them smugly, chest puffed out with pride.
"Naruto! What happened? Why did a battle break out?" Sakura asked worriedly, glancing at him.
Naruto smirked at her question. "Hehe, didn't I already tell you someone was watching us? I was right. They were hiding in the dark — so I made a plan to bait them out."
"The moment I wandered off a bit, they came after me. Just like I expected." He looked extremely pleased with himself, still puffing his chest like a proud peacock.
"Naruto, how many people were there?" Sasuke asked, glancing at him though something about the way he looked didn't feel quite right.
"There were three of them, actually, and I beat them all up easily, but they all ran off in fear right after," Naruto said with a sunny smile.
Sakura let out a soft sigh of relief.
'Yeah… that's our Naruto.'
"Sakura, didn't Sasuke tell you after I left? I gave him a hint about all this," Naruto added, turning to her with curious eyes.
"It doesn't matter now," Sakura said with a deep sigh of relief, hearing that the enemy team had retreated. Still, she couldn't help but doubt Naruto's claim about defeating three Genin.
'They probably just pulled back on their own… something must've come up on their side,' Sakura thought to herself, smiling smugly as she assumed Naruto was just boasting to impress her.
"Well, forget about that for now that we were discovered let's move. We need to relocate and set up a trap at another position," Sakura said, leading the way.
Naruto nodded cheerfully and followed them. The group began moving back to their original position to strategize and decide on a new location.
Just as Naruto had started walking with them, he suddenly sensed something slicing through the air — a kunai was flying straight toward him.
In a flash, Sasuke moved stabbing at Naruto with his kunai in a decisive strike aimed at his abdomen.
But before it could land, Naruto quickly grabbed Sasuke's wrist, halting the attack.
"Sasuke, what the hell are you doing?!" Naruto shouted angrily, puzzled by the sudden assault.
On the side, Sakura wore the same shocked expression. She couldn't comprehend why Sasuke was acting this way. "Sasuke, what are you doing?! Why are you attacking Naruto?!"
Sasuke didn't take his eyes off Naruto as he replied, "Sakura, haven't you noticed yet? He's not our Naruto — he's a fake." He followed his words by hurling a flurry of shuriken.
"What?! How can that be? But… he—" Sakura stammered, unable to believe what she was hearing.
"I left a tiny mark on Naruto's hand when he walked off earlier. This guy doesn't have it. You tried to copy his appearance, but you wouldn't notice that level of detail in such a short time. Nice try, fake." Sasuke replied as he solemnly locked eyes with the fake Naruto, watching every move the imposter made with unwavering focus.
"My my, aren't you a smart one," the imposter said with a dark smile that felt eerily wrong coming from a Naruto face. His eyes were cold, and the curve of his lips was far more sinister.
He caught the incoming shuriken mid-air with ease, then brought one to his mouth and licked it slowly.
"You're clever. I'll give you that."
"Who are you?" Sasuke asked, narrowing his eyes.
The fake Naruto dispelled the transformation, revealing a tall woman wearing a Grass Village headband and a distinctive purple rope belt tied around her waist an unusual accessory they hadn't seen anyone else wear. It was Orochimaru in disguise.
Without a word, Orochimaru pulled out an Earth Scroll from his bag — and the sight of it made both Sasuke and Sakura tense.
It was the scroll they needed to pass the exam.
Sasuke's eyes sharpened with interest.
Orochimaru glanced at Sasuke with a twisted smile, his eyes briefly flicking to the scroll in his hand. "You have the Heaven Scroll, don't you?" he said, pausing for a moment. "I happen to have the Earth Scroll. Why don't we settle this properly? The winner takes both."
Sasuke was just about to agree… when he saw something that made him swallow hard, a flicker of fear showing in his eyes.
Orochimaru slowly parted his lips and from within, a long, snake-like tongue slithered out, coiling around the Earth Scroll. Without breaking eye contact, he drew the entire scroll into his mouth in one slow, deliberate motion.
Under Sasuke and Sakura's incredulous eyes, Orochimaru still disguised looked at them coldly after swallowing the scroll whole.
Then, he placed one hand solemnly over his eye, he stared at them and said,
"Now, only one of us will be walking away with the scrolls."
The moment those words left her mouth, an overwhelming wave of bloodlust surged from him.
In an instant, both Sasuke and Sakura were gripped by terror. They saw flashes of death—kunai piercing their throats, heads being severed. The visions were so vivid, it felt like it was truly happening.
Their legs gave out. The sheer weight of the killing intent crushed them, forcing them to their knees.
"I-Is this... an illusion?" Sakura asked, trembling. Her legs kept shaking uncontrollably even though she had already collapsed. She didn't even have the strength to try to stand up.
"No," Sasuke muttered, struggling to his feet. "It's not genjutsu. It's... it's her bloodlust. Just from that... she showed us how she might kill us."
His own legs wobbled, but he forced himself upright, unlike Sakura—who could only sit there in a daze, eyes blank as she stared at their opponent.
"You're quite courageous... I'll give you that," Orochimaru said, his eerie voice crawling into Sasuke's ears, sending chills down his spine.
"Aren't you worried about your little blond friend?" Orochimaru added with a smirk. "I don't think he'll survive for long. One of my acquaintances is with him right now... he might be in someone's stomach already."
Sasuke's eyes sharpened at his words.
"What?! Naruto, he—" Sakura's voice broke as sobs burst out of her. It was too much. The earlier bloodlust still lingered in her mind, and now this it shattered what little strength she had left. Her defenses crumbled completely in that moment.
Orochimaru didn't even glance at Sakura's breakdown. Instead, he casually flicked his wrist, sending a pair of shuriken flying at them.
Sasuke's eyes widened. As the spinning blades closed in, his trembling hands suddenly steadied. His focus locked onto them—then, without even realizing it, his two-tomoe Sharingan activated.
With precise movements, he deflected the first shuriken aimed at him—then swiftly turned and knocked away the second one before it could strike Sakura.
From the opposite side, Orochimaru—no longer bothering to hide his twisted glee—watched with a crazed expression.
His face was filled with longing.
Seeing Sasuke activate his Sharingan triggered something feral in him. For a moment, he almost lunged forward, but restrained himself.
Not yet. He wanted more than just the Sharingan—he wanted Sasuke's body.
Without an Uchiha's body, he could never fully unlock the eye's true potential.
His tongue lolled out slowly as he stared, almost salivating.
"Truly magnificent," Orochimaru whispered, voice laced with desire. "As expected... of an Uchiha."
Despite his fear, Sasuke didn't back down. Gritting his teeth, he threw a kunai at Orochimaru and immediately began forming hand seals with sharp precision, aiming to injure him somehow—anything to slow him down.
'He's got guts,' Orochimaru thought, intrigued. Sasuke had been paralyzed with fear just moments ago, and yet here he was fighting.
Orochimaru licked his lips again, that unnaturally long tongue sliding across them as he watched Sasuke's hand signs with growing interest.
Sasuke finished his seals and inhaled deeply.
"Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
A massive fireball erupted from his mouth, crashing toward Orochimaru with searing heat.
But Orochimaru didn't flinch. He casually dodged with a strange, slithering Body Flicker technique, vanishing from view just as the fireball scorched the trees.
"Hoh... a fireball of that size at your age?" Orochimaru's voice echoed mockingly. "Impressive... but is that all?"
And then he disappeared from sasuke's view.
Sasuke's eyes darted around frantically. But there was no sign of him. Panic surged again in his chest. Then—
A voice whispered from behind, soft, chilling, and far too close to him.
"You really believed a simple technique like that would work on me? You're too naive."
Before Sasuke could react, a cold, wet sensation dragged across his cheek. Orochimaru had appeared behind him and licked his face slowly, savoring it.
Sasuke recoiled in horror, jumping back instantly. He wiped his face with a shudder, his expression twisted in disgust.
"You sick bastard! What the hell do you want!?"
"I already told you," Orochimaru replied, chuckling darkly. "I'm here for your Heaven Scroll."
he stepped forward with a sickening grin, his chakra flaring up which was dark and oppressive, unlike anything Sasuke or Sakura had ever felt. It shrouded him like a suffocating fog.
Sasuke faltered. Even after all his resolve, fear clawed its way back up his spine. He glanced at Sakura—she was still motionless on the ground, paralyzed by fear, unable to even blink.
"Wait..." Sasuke hesitated. "If I give you the Heaven Scroll... will you let us go?"
"Of course," Orochimaru replied, smiling as though the words were the most natural thing in the world. His tone was calm, his face almost serene. But the malice behind it was unmistakable.
Sasuke didn't trust him for a second—but what choice did he have?
He looked down at the scroll in his hand, fingers tightening around it. If he handed it over, they'd be disqualified from the Chūnin Exams. Everything would end here.
But one look at Orochimaru disguised as a woman told him the truth: he couldn't win.
With a heavy heart, Sasuke slowly reached into his vest and pulled out the Heaven Scroll, the one he had kept hidden since the beginning of the exam.
Sasuke looked at the Heaven Scroll in his hand, his fingers tightening slightly around it. There was a flicker of melancholy in his eyes regret, frustration, powerlessness. But in the end, he let out a breath and tossed the scroll toward Orochimaru.
Orochimaru tilted his head, amused but also slightly surprised.
'Hmm… I expected something a little more interesting from this Uchiha…' he thought, eyes tracking the slow arc of the scroll.
Just as Orochimaru reached out to catch it—
Whshk!
A barrage of kunai came flying at him, hurled with deadly precision.
"Oh?" Orochimaru chuckled, lips curling into a grin. "So you do have some fight left in you."
The kunai whistled through the air with a sharp buzzing sound, slicing through branches and leaves. Orochimaru prepared to dodge, already moving to evade.
But then one of the "kunai" shimmered.
Before he could react, it changed.
Poof!
A puff of smoke erupted, and from it, Naruto burst out of his transformation mid-air, his kunai aimed straight for Orochimaru's exposed neck.
Spurt!
He'd been hiding in plain sight all along.
From the very moment he told Sasuke about the enemy group, Naruto had devised a trap. He transformed into a shuriken, and it was his shadow clone that had accompanied Sasuke ever since. The plan was simple strike when the enemy least expected it.
Though the enemy ninja group had fled, making his plan seem pointless at first, Naruto had stayed transformed as a precaution.
And now it had paid off.
With Orochimaru caught off guard, Naruto used every ounce of strength in his body to press the advantage, slashing hard and fast.
Outside the Forest of Death
Anko Mitarashi sat on a tall wooden post, quietly savoring her favorite treat: a fresh skewer of sweet dango. Her lips curled into a satisfied smile as she chewed slowly.
'Mmm. Dango really is the best.'
But just as she brought another piece to her mouth, three Leaf ninja landed nearby, panting slightly. Their faces were grim.
"Miss Anko!" one of them called out urgently. "We might have a problem with the Chūnin Exam."
Anko blinked, instantly alert. The stick of dango lowered.
"What kind of problem?" she asked sharply, already on edge from their expressions.
"We found something disturbing while patrolling around the Forest of Death, it's better if you see it yourself" one of the ninja replied, eyes narrowing.
Anko stood up immediately, all traces of playfulness were gone at the moment.
"Show me."
The three nodded and leapt away into the trees, Anko following right behind them at full speed.