Near midnight, all the exam candidates were asleep in their respective homes. Well… not exactly peacefully, since nerves and anxiety gnawed at the consciousness of more than a few.
One of those restless genin was Sasuke. The Uchiha tossed and turned in bed, switching positions in a desperate attempt to find enough comfort to drift off. That was at least fifteen minutes ago. Now he was walking through the nearly empty streets of Konoha, trying to clear his racing mind with fresh air.
He wasn't stupid. Thinking tomorrow would be anything like today would be idiotic. The competition was fierce. Neji's reputation preceded him—a rising star from a prestigious clan, a top graduate with honors, much like Sasuke himself.
But the one who worried him most was Gaara, thanks to the disturbing details Kabuto had revealed. And beyond even him… the Saiyans. The trials set in the Forty-Fourth Zone promised brutal fights, survival tactics, and rival teams that would hardly be "friendly" in their goals.
How many teams would be allowed to advance? For the first time, Sasuke found himself glad Goten was on his side—but truth be told, he had never actually seen him fight. Estimating his strength would be pure guesswork.
His absent-minded wandering led him to his team's training grounds. There, he found a bizarre object: a spherical structure about the size of a small house, resting on four short, sturdy legs planted in the grass. Curious, he approached. He'd never seen anything like it.
He recalled Trunks scolding Goten about something he had forgotten after the written exam. It had to belong to them. Their powers were strange, and apparently, so were their possessions.
Standing before the odd structure, Sasuke cautiously extended a finger to press the lone button beside what looked like an entrance. With a metallic hiss that startled him, a ramp lowered to the ground.
Inside, he fumbled along the wall until he found a switch, as if instinct guided him straight to it. Light flickered on. Nothing remarkable—just a bare chamber with a red floor, except for a strange machine in the center that stretched up like a pillar to the ceiling.
Scattered around were weights and dumbbells. That's when he realized this cramped space was the Saiyans' training room. But why here? The interior was tiny compared to the outside, uncomfortable, and surely unbearable in the summer heat.
By reflex, Sasuke crouched to pick up one of the small dumbbells.
Shock froze him. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't lift it even a centimeter. At best, he managed to roll it slightly across the steel floor. Its weight was beyond comprehension.
"What the hell is this supposed to be?" he muttered, teeth clenched, straining in vain to raise it.
His veins bulged, his breath grew ragged, and his heart raced as if he'd just sprinted laps around the entire village.
The more he saw, the more unsettled he became. How could boys his age possess such monstrous strength? He tried to dismiss the faint tremor of fear creeping up his spine—but he couldn't shake the memory of Itachi's words that night. His obsession with power burned stronger than ever, but the Saiyans cast too long a shadow. Being so far beneath their level gnawed at him with rage and frustration.
He couldn't know it yet, but the presence of those two boys in his world was accelerating the natural course of things—and with it, the bad choices he would one day make. Their existence was pushing him toward the edge far sooner than fate had intended.
Slowly, he approached the pillar-like machine at the center. A small screen read 400G.
"What does that number mean?" he murmured.
The rest of the console was a clutter of strange buttons, though one stood out—a large triangular switch right beside the screen.
With more resolve than he had shown pressing the earlier buttons, Sasuke reached out—
But a familiar voice stopped him cold.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," came Kakashi's casual tone. The jōnin leaned lazily against the entrance, Icha Icha novel in hand. "You'd probably die."
Typical Kakashi. He said it with the same disinterest as warning someone not to spill hot tea.
The words chilled Sasuke even without fully grasping their meaning. He turned, pale-faced, about to speak—but Kakashi continued.
"That number," the copy-ninja explained, tucking his book away, "indicates how many times heavier everything inside this chamber becomes. Tell me, Sasuke—what do you weigh? Forty kilos? Forty-five?"
Sasuke instantly understood. If Kakashi was right, pressing that button would have crushed him under his own weight, splattering his insides across the floor before anyone could intervene.
He glanced back at the dumbbells. Each already weighed a ridiculous amount—but four hundred times that?
"Now you get it," Kakashi said, reading him as easily as one of his novels. His single visible eye was cold, almost cruel. "Don't torment yourself, Sasuke. If you dwell on it too much, you'll lose your mind. Just remember this: Goten and Trunks are on our side. That's all that matters. If they weren't…"
His voice trailed, heavy with implication.
The crazy, unhinged Anko had already given her instructions. She even had enough time to throw in a mocking, borderline offensive remark about Goten's monkey tail. The boy couldn't help but pout a little when everyone's eyes turned toward him and his supposed 'physical defect'
The insult came because Goten had burst out laughing when Mitarashi explained that the distance from the forest entrance to the central tower was a grueling ten kilometers.
"Alright, maggots! I hope you've all handed in your consent forms and have your scrolls ready!" Anko barked, raising her voice slightly while checking her wristwatch—it was almost 2 p.m. "Now get to your gates so we can start this damn thing already!"
The kunoichi made Goten extremely nervous. A terrible thought crossed his mind and made him shiver. He remembered the wedding photo Bulma kept on the little table by Capsule Corp's entrance. In it, the beautiful scientist posed in a stunning white dress beside a scowling Vegeta in an elegant black tuxedo Mrs. Brief had chosen for him. Convincing the prince to get married had been hard enough—but convincing him to wear something he considered humiliating? Nearly impossible.
The problem was that Goten imagined that same picture… but with Anko's face swapped in for Bulma's. Horrifying. Some things should never exist, yet his mind betrayed him. His face turned pale blue. That would surely be the most terrifying marriage in Earth's history—but thank Kami, it was Trunks who was spared from that nightmare.
"Goten, relax, we're all together," Sakura tried to comfort him, thinking his nerves were because of the test.
Sasuke, however, eyed him with curiosity. After last night's experience in the gravity room, he found it inconceivable that the boy in orange could be shaken so easily.
Meanwhile, Team 10 stood before their own gate—number 27. Choji, drooling, listed off the candies and snacks he kept jealously guarded in his little pouch. Shikamaru, annoyed, muttered that it would've been smarter to bring shuriken and smoke bombs instead of pastries.
Every chunin stationed at the massive steel gates checked their synchronized watches. At precisely 2:30, Anko's voice rang out:
"ALRIGHT, YOU FILTHY WORMS! THE SECOND PART OF THE EXAM HAS BEGUN!"
KLAAAANG!
The metallic crash of padlocks hitting the ground echoed everywhere as the cyclone fences swung open. Most teams bolted forward with feral speed into the dark maze of the towering, grotesque trees of the Forest of Death.
The only one who acted differently was Trunks. With a smirk, he grabbed the heavy chain with one hand and shredded it as if it were a flimsy spiderweb. He pulled it apart slowly, almost lazily, yet with such brute force that each link burst apart with a sharp crack.
"Finally! The psycho gave the signal!"
The supervising chunin, pale and horrified, could only cover his face with his hands, while Team 10—already used to the Saiyan's strength—slipped inside as if nothing had happened. Ino, however, couldn't resist mocking the poor guard, sticking her tongue out and pulling down her eyelid.
"Guys, I've got a plan," Trunks said after they had gone a few steps into the eerie woods. "Hope you don't mind, Shikamaru."
"Doesn't matter," Nara replied with his hands behind his head and a satisfied grin. "You'd be doing me a favor. Thinking up plans is a real drag."
"Good," Trunks nodded firmly, clenching his fists. "Believe it or not, I can reach the tower in the blink of an eye. Then I can just wait for some team to arrive. Someone has to come eventually."
"I see," Shikamaru cut in during the pause. "You'll snatch the scroll from the first idiots who show up. But remember—it could be three against one. Most likely a full team. Worse still, it'll probably be the strongest team, since they'll be the first to make it through."
"I know. But I can handle it—trust me." Trunks winked, jabbing his thumb at himself with a grin that, unlike Goten's, oozed mischief and confidence. "So, what do you say?"
Everyone nodded except Ino. The blonde was lost in thought, remembering that exact same wink—the one he gave her back during their terrifying encounter with the pink demon.
"Ino, are you in or not?" Choji waved a hand in front of her absent stare.
"Huh? Oh—yeah! Of course, I trust you, Trunks," she said at last with a genuine smile, which brought a faint blush to the boy's face.
"W-well, that's it then! Stick together! All you need to worry about is reaching the tower alive. Avoid fights at all costs!" he added firmly, clenching his fists as Gaara and Kabuto's sinister faces flashed in his mind. "If you run into trouble, just flare your chakra as high as you can—I'll be there right away!"
With that, the boy rose slowly into the air, higher and higher, until in moments he hovered above the endless canopy of the grim forest. From above, the treetops looked like a vast, unbroken green sea.
Narrowing his eyes, he focused on the massive tower ten kilometers away, small as an ant from this distance.
"Stupid hag… let's see your face now," he muttered with a smirk eerily reminiscent of his father's.
A cobalt-blue aura erupted around him. In an instant, he vanished—only to reappear before the tower.
He descended slowly, his boots tapping gently against the ground at the main entrance. In the corner above the door, he spotted a security camera sweeping side to side.
Grinning mischievously, the bold Saiyan flipped it off. Then, not satisfied, he turned around, yanked down his pants, and mooned the lens, slapping his backside for good measure in an act of childish defiance.
The place was empty—no guards outside, no staff in the monitoring room where the camera's feed played across the screen. On that screen, in the corner, a clock marked the time: two minutes. That was all it had taken—one minute and fifty-nine seconds spent chatting with his teammates, and a single second to spot the tower.
"Damn it! I think Trunks already made it to the tower!" Goten exclaimed, lifting his gaze when he felt his friend's ki spike in an instant and move swiftly.
"H-h-how can you be so sure?" Sakura stammered, her wide green eyes filled with disbelief. "It's barely been two minutes at most! That's impossible!"
Sasuke wore the same expression of shock, except for Naruto, whose eyes were narrowed into two little lines, with a thick bead of sweat rolling down his neck.
"Because of his ki," Son explained with a shrug, closing his eyes. "He moved about ten kilometers and then stopped. That's the distance to the tower, right? He must be there." His calm delivery only made the impossible claim seem even crazier, more irrational.
Setting aside his initial surprise, Uchiha smirked arrogantly, his trademark sharp gaze returning. "He'll probably wait there until the first team arrives. Clever. I expected nothing less from him, and for the useless ones on his team to go along with it. Right now, they're probably hiding from the rest."
His sharp, confident analysis made the others nod in astonishment.
"I can do the same thing!" the impulsive Goten shouted, hopping excitedly and raising his hand like a little schoolboy begging his teacher to call on him.
"No way! You're staying here with us!" Sakura scolded, yanking him by the ear and forcing him forward, while Naruto laughed and Sasuke rolled his eyes in annoyance.
"Ahhh, Sakura, that hurts! Stop, please!" the boy whimpered, tears in his eyes, hopping along on one leg as he followed her.
"We're Team 7, not Team 10! We don't have to copy Ino-pig's group!" Sakura barked in frustration, quickening her pace and, in doing so, increasing the pull on Goten's ear. "If you run off now, I'll never forgive you! Got that?"
Behind her stern and bossy act, Sakura was being eaten alive by nerves. Each team had its own way of doing things, but for her, having Goten nearby was the best possible comfort. She was terrified. Would she admit it? Of course not. She'd never show that weakness to Sasuke or Naruto. She already felt like enough of a burden to the team.
"I can't hold it anymore! I gotta pee!" Naruto suddenly shouted at the top of his lungs, as though his urgent need was something the entire forest—and their enemies—absolutely needed to know. "Just wait here a sec!"
All he did was turn, take two steps, and relieve himself in the nearest bush—naturally provoking Sakura's wrath.
"Damn it, Naruto! What do you think this is, a doghouse? Not in front of me!" she screamed, smashing him with one of her brutal punches to the back of his head.
Oddly enough, she had started hitting Naruto less hard than before. That "honor" had shifted to Goten. She wasn't stupid—she realized she could unleash her full strength on the Saiyan and barely hurt him. But if she did the same to Naruto, she might actually injure him, and that was not something she could risk right now. Her strength was immense.
Then, a suspicious sound caught everyone's attention—the trickle of liquid splashing on the ground. When they turned their heads, they saw Goten casually peeing in the bush right beside Naruto, having seized the moment during Sakura's scolding to do the same. True to form, he was too absentminded to realize what kind of storm was about to hit him.
One warning had been enough—but for Goten to ignore her entirely and do the exact opposite of what she'd just said? That was too much. The veins in Sakura's slim arm bulged as she clenched her fist. She was about to clobber him from behind when he suddenly turned around.
"Ahhh, I really needed that!" the Saiyan exclaimed with a blissful grin—without even bothering to fully cover himself as he turned. Sakura froze, pale as a sheet. She'd seen everything.
"D-d-does G-Goten have no shame?" Even her thoughts were stammering, her mind stunned as she stared in disbelief at the boy casually zipping up like nothing had happened.
Only now did she realize that was just how Goten was. Innocent to the point where even nudity didn't faze him.
Naruto wouldn't have cared either, if not for his worry over how Sakura might react.
"Uh, maybe I'll… go find a more private spot. Be right back…" he mumbled, retreating further into the bushes.
Meanwhile, Goten stretched lazily, hands behind his head, commenting on how dark the forest was. Indeed, the colossal trees allowed almost no sunlight to penetrate. That night would be darker than usual—so dark, neither the stars nor the full moon could hope to shine through the tangled canopy. None of them realized how lucky that was. The last thing they needed was a twenty-meter-tall great ape, weighing Kami-only-knew how many tons, rampaging around.
"Whew, I feel so much better!" Naruto called out suddenly, emerging from a bush some distance away. "I even managed to write my full name, believe it!"
Sakura was about to scold him for the disgusting comment, but she stopped when Goten stepped forward and raised his arm protectively in front of her, blocking Naruto's path toward her.
BAAAM!
Out of nowhere, Sasuke struck. Without warning, he blurred forward at blinding speed and delivered a vicious rising kick to Naruto's chin, lifting him clean off the ground and sending him flying several meters before crashing onto his back.
"Sasuke, don't you think that's a bit much?" Sakura cried, alarmed, almost horrified, as she saw Uchiha slowly draw a sharp kunai from his pouch.
Shaking, teeth rattling, Naruto staggered back to his feet, clutching his throbbing jaw. He felt like his teeth had nearly shattered.
"Damn it! Are you insane? Stay back, guys!" he warned.
But Sasuke showed no hesitation. He was ready to throw the kunai—until Goten suddenly appeared in front of Naruto, moving too fast for anyone to see, and tapped the blonde's throat with two fingers.
Naruto's eyes bulged. He clutched his neck, gasping, gagging, collapsing in on himself as he fought desperately for air. He was suffocating—his airway crushed shut. In seconds, he dropped like a sack of stones, hitting the ground face-first.
Sakura was in shock, horrified. She tried to run to him, but just then his body burst into a cloud of white smoke, vanishing in a small explosion—revealing the real enemy.
It was a tall, lanky shinobi of the Hidden Rain, clad in a white full-body suit and wearing a gas mask over his mouth, his face obscured save for a dark visor. He had disguised himself with a Transformation Jutsu to appear as Naruto and approach undetected.
But his trick had failed. Sasuke had spotted the missing scar on "Naruto's" cheek and the kunai pouch strapped to the wrong leg. The disguise was decent, but riddled with errors.
Goten, for his part, had sensed the foreign chakra. But his reason for striking wasn't detection—it was to prevent Sasuke from actually stabbing the intruder.
"Now we have to find the real Naruto," Sasuke snapped coldly, though his glare fell sharply on Goten, who stood silently over the unconscious enemy. The Saiyan's speed was insane—almost like Trunks'.
"HEEEY! OVER HERE! HELP ME!" came Naruto's desperate cry.
Tied up like a cocoon near the bushes, the real Naruto struggled. Sasuke rushed forward and, with one flick of his kunai, sliced the ropes loose.
Meanwhile, Goten grabbed the Rain ninja by the ankle, hoisted him into the air like he weighed nothing, and shook him mercilessly until every weapon clattered to the ground—kunai, smoke bombs, explosive tags, caltrops—everything. But the scroll? Nowhere to be found.
Sakura stood pale, frozen, saying nothing. She hadn't even noticed the trap. Even Goten, with no shinobi training, had played his part. Naruto bounced back quickly, but had she been the hostage, she knew she wouldn't recover. Not so easily.
"Is… is he dead?" Sakura asked, her voice trembling at the thought. Killing wasn't forbidden in this stage of the exam, but she wasn't prepared to see death firsthand.
"No. He'll wake up in a while," Goten said casually, scratching his neck before glancing at her. "No scroll, though. Guess he thought he could steal ours alone."
Sasuke's hand brushed his pocket where their precious scroll was hidden. If Naruto had been carrying it, like he'd wanted—after throwing a tantrum over it—they'd already be disqualified, or worse, forced to hunt down two more.
"We need to move. We've stayed here too long," Sasuke warned, taking point. "They set a trap for us. If we linger, we'll be surrounded."
The team followed without a word. Sasuke led, Naruto sulked but obeyed, Sakura knew better, and Goten simply didn't care for leading. He'd spent too many years following Trunks' orders—even if the boy had asked him to blow up the moon, Goten would've done it without protest.
For twenty long minutes, they walked in tense silence, kunai in hand. Only Goten trudged along carefree, nearly nodding off. But they knew him well—his strange sixth sense meant he'd always be the first to notice danger.
And he did. Goten snapped awake, eyes sharp, scanning the area. Even Sasuke had to admit the Saiyan's instincts were useful.
"What is it, Goten? Who is it? Where?" Sasuke pressed, instantly putting the others on alert.
"DOWN!" was all Goten managed to yell before everything happened at once.
Grabbing Sasuke and Sakura, he slammed them to the ground and covered them both with his arms, praying Naruto could endure what was coming. He couldn't protect all three.
A violent gale exploded through the forest, ripping toward them with hurricane force. The blast was so powerful that it threatened to hurl them hundreds of meters like rag dolls.
Naruto, caught at the rear, was swept off his feet, flung helplessly into the dark woods. The monstrous wind left a trail of devastation, dust and debris erupting sky-high above the treetops.
Stones and shrapnel lashed against them. Sakura, the least protected, suffered dozens of cuts along her bare arms. Had Goten not shielded her, she would've been shredded. She knew it.
When it was over, Goten stood first—completely unharmed. Sakura could swear she'd heard pebbles shattering against his body like glass during the storm.
"I have to find Naruto!" he cried, panic in his voice as he darted off into the wrecked forest. "He could be hurt! I'll be back soon!"
The reason for his fear was clear—the presence of the one responsible, radiating a foul, monstrous chakra, as vile as Majin Buu's.
That was the real Goten. In moments like this, the clumsy, childish facade vanished, revealing the seasoned warrior he truly was. Both Sasuke and Sakura noticed, still stunned by his speed and decisiveness.
They rose slowly, blood dripping down Sakura's arms, but she ignored it. Their eyes turned toward the figure approaching through the shadows.
A woman emerged—the same eerie shinobi from the Grass Village who had returned Anko's kunai before the exam began. She licked her lips with her unnaturally long tongue, savoring the fear thick in the air.
"This will be fun," she hissed, her icy voice dripping with savage cruelty. Removing her straw hat, she drew out the coveted scroll.
Sakura's eyes flicked toward it—something the Grass ninja noticed with glee. "I see you want my Earth Scroll. If you want it, you'll have to come and take it…"
With a grotesque crack of bones, she unhinged her jaw like a snake and swallowed the entire scroll in one horrifying gulp.
And then came the true nightmare. Covering one eye, she locked the other on them, ensnaring them in a genjutsu.
In their minds, they watched themselves being butchered—cut open, torn apart, drenched in each other's blood while the snake-like woman licked the crimson from their skin with twisted ecstasy. Finally, she slit their throats, reveling in a frenzy of gore.
The illusion shattered them. Sakura collapsed to her knees, eyes wide, silent tears streaming down her face. Sasuke doubled over and vomited violently.
"They're paralyzed with fear," the woman sneered, twirling a kunai in each hand as she slowly closed the distance. "They've just seen their deaths with their own eyes. Now, I'll make it a reality. Don't worry—it'll be quicker than you think."
When the Saiyan reached the end of the freshly carved path, he noticed that Naruto was no longer there. But when he turned his head to the left, he caught sight—at the very last moment—of the tail of a colossal serpent, unlike any he had ever seen before, slithering into the thick underbrush of the forest. He assumed that the grotesque monster had something to do with his friend's disappearance.
Without giving it a chance to escape, the boy sprinted forward, wrapped his arms around the tip of its tail, and, relying on his inhuman brute strength, yanked it back.
BAAAAMMM!
The ground quaked through the forest as he slammed the beast violently against a massive tree trunk before him. Leaves rained down as though victims of autumn's melancholy passing, carrying with them the looming death heralded by the arrival of the harsh winter.
The animal—primitive as many reptiles—barely seemed to complain of pain, if it even felt it at all. It simply thrashed from side to side before locking its gaze on the boy. Under other circumstances, Goten might have toyed with it. But not now. Naruto was trapped inside the monster's stomach—he could feel his chakra. And he had to return to his friends as quickly as possible.
Before the serpent could launch its next attack, Goten leapt with blinding speed straight onto its head. With a single, devastating punch, he drove his fist into the center of the creature's skull. He was so monstrously strong that he needed no technique or flourish. With nothing but sheer raw power, he brought his fist down like a hammer, splitting the beast's skull cleanly in two.
For Goten, shattering the serpent's head was no different than cracking the shell of an egg. Now, somehow, he had to free his companion from within. But it wasn't necessary—he sensed Naruto's chakra dividing into dozens of smaller fragments, just as the reptile's belly swelled to many times its normal size. It was about to burst.
And burst it did. With a muffled explosion, the serpent's corpse was blown apart, spraying blood and all manner of foul, viscous fluids in every direction, staining the dark foliage and the dull bark of countless trees. Goten himself was drenched from head to toe.
"You messed with the wrong shinobi!" shouted the real Naruto, standing among nearly a hundred shadow clones he had conjured. With a grimace of disgust, he brushed away the thick strings of saliva and other fluids that clung to his body. "Someday I'll be Hokage! And there's no way—under any circumstances—that I'll let myself be digested by a filthy beast like you!"
Blood spattered through the air. The stoic Uchiha, jaw clenched, pulled a kunai from his thigh—he had been forced to wound himself in order to snap out of his trance and escape his enemy's pursuit. In his desperate flight, he carried Sakura over his shoulder, the girl still petrified, eyes vacant, unable to react.
He thought about striking her—after all, as with his own body, a sharp stimulus might be exactly what she needed to break free of her stupor. The problem was that doing so could expose them. For now, Sasuke preferred Sakura's sepulchral silence as his ally above all else. Motionless, hidden behind the thick trunk of a tree, he paid no attention to the colossal serpent looming behind them, flicking its forked tongue through the air before devouring them both in a single, merciless bite.
Sakura turned her head, horrified at what she saw. Her terror and shock were so great that she couldn't even form the words to warn the distracted Uchiha. They were going to die. She shut her eyes, praying that would somehow dull the pain to come. At least she would die beside her Sasuke.
For the girl, those fractions of a second stretched into eternity. She could hear the tearing rush of the serpent splitting the air as it lunged. She could hear the dreadful hiss of its tongue. She could smell the fetid stench of its breath, reeking of blood and death. And then—something else made her open her green eyes. A presence.
An aura—unknown, yet somehow familiar. When the boy with the tail appeared before her, she felt a comforting warmth surge through every inch of her body, simply by breathing in the air that changed with his arrival. Sakura had already surrendered to despair—the events of the last few minutes were too overwhelming for anyone. And so, resigned, she had let herself fall into the cold, merciless arms of death, believing that in doing so, everything would be easier.
But today, it was Goten who would have the final word. Clutching the kunoichi tightly, he pulled her back, dragging her from the brink of death itself. It was strange—though she could not sense ki, Sakura somehow knew it could be no one else but him.
The explosion that followed was so powerful it deafened her completely, as well as Sasuke. Even her vision faltered, blurred and sluggish, as if a grenade had detonated mere inches away. Floating in the air, Goten held one hand firmly pressed against the serpent's snout, stopping it dead in its tracks even as it thrashed violently in futile resistance. At the last possible moment, he had placed himself between the genin and the monster, halting its relentless advance with absurd ease.
The Saiyan's knuckles cracked as he clenched his free hand into a fist. Now it was his turn. The violence of his strike resulted in nothing short of an explosion.
KABOOOMMM!
Golden ki condensed into his fist, forming a miniature sphere of energy. But instead of releasing it, Goten slammed it directly into the serpent's face—never loosening his other hand's grip for even an instant. To anyone else, it would have seemed suicidal madness, as both he and the beast were engulfed in the blazing yellow detonation that shook the genin and the forest around them. The serpent's head exploded. Yet when the smoke finally cleared, Goten stood there untouched, his body completely unscathed.
Moments later, the serpent's massive body collapsed onto the forest floor, its head obliterated. This time, there were no vile fluids splattering everywhere—the concentrated golden blast had vaporized every trace of tissue. The reptile's body twitched only with the lifeless spasms of residual reflex.
But it wasn't over. Goten had let his guard down. Obsessed with the serpent, he realized too late that the Grass shinobi, behind the stunned Sasuke, had stretched her neck an impossible ten meters to sink her fangs into the side of the Uchiha's nape.
CRAAACK!
The genin screamed in agony, clutching the fresh wound at the base of his neck with both hands. The grotesque woman retracted her head immediately, restoring it onto her shoulders as if nothing had happened. Goten realized she possessed snake-like abilities—a revelation he found deeply unsettling.
Near the bite, three comma-shaped black marks appeared on Sasuke's pale skin. Writhing in torment, contorted by pain, the boy could bear it no longer and collapsed unconscious into Sakura's arms. She may not have been bitten, but she bore the crushing burden of having witnessed the horrific scene up close.
—"My work here is done," said the vile woman, licking her lips with a chilling pleasure that would make anyone's skin crawl. "Soon, he will come seeking my power. His heart harbors hatred—and for me, that is more than enough…"
Goten landed in front of the kneeling Haruno, crouching down to examine Sasuke. Two fingers to his neck confirmed it: his pulse was weak, but he was alive. That was enough. He trusted Sakura and Naruto to take care of him.
But there was still one more thing—he had to wake the petrified kunoichi, who stared wide-eyed at the unconscious Uchiha, tears silently streaking her dirt-stained cheeks. She could take no more. Sasuke was gravely wounded, and Naruto was missing. Something terrible must have happened to him if Goten had returned without him.
—"Sakura, take him with you. Meet up with Naruto. He's waiting at the end of the path I came from," the Saiyan explained. But the girl gave him nothing in return—no words, not even a glance. The situation was critical. Would he have to slap her to snap her out of it?
He wasn't good at this sort of thing. So, doing the only thing that came to mind, he grabbed her by both arms and shook her furiously, dragging her out of her stupor by force. Miraculously, she seemed to stir back to life. Now her eyes were fixed on him.
—"Go-Goten… what are you planning to do?" was all she could manage after several eternal seconds of silence.
At this point, Sakura thought it impossible—but something rekindled her hope. Goten smiled. Not just any smile. Without knowing it, she was looking at the very same smile that belonged to the savior of the Seventh Universe. The smile of a man who, under no circumstance, ever gave up or abandoned his friends. More than anything, it was the smile of someone who inspired hope and confidence in anyone who saw it. Nothing could go wrong when Goku smiled that way.
—"Did you forget what I promised you yesterday?" Goten asked, his warm expression unwavering. "Nothing will happen to you or the others. Now take Sasuke with you. You don't know how hard it was for me to stop Naruto from following me. I had to do what you did—threaten to hit him if he didn't listen!"
At another time, Sakura might have laughed. This time, she admitted she did so only in her mind. Maybe later, she'd tell him. The thought startled her—she had thought about later. Without realizing it, she trusted Goten would find a way to survive and return to her.
—"I won't let you escape," hissed the heartless kunoichi, her voice clear and sharp enough to deliver her message. "Uchiha won't die—but you… you will be my prey."
Still on the ground, Sakura lifted her gaze as Goten rose to his feet. The boy turned his back to her, facing the demon woman standing only a few meters away. What stunned her was that instead of tying his forehead protector with grim determination, he removed it entirely and tucked it into his orange gi.
In his long years of experience, Orochimaru had seen countless desperate shinobi tighten their headbands with false resolve, as if that symbol would grant them the strength to face their inevitable death. What he didn't know was that this boy with a tail was not a genin—he wasn't even a shinobi at all, as Zabuza had once shouted in rage and frustration back in the Land of Waves.
Raising his palm, slowly, deliberately—so much so it drew mocking laughter from the traitorous Sannin—Goten unleashed a massive, blazing wave of ki.
CRAAAAACCKKK!
The impact resounded as the villain's body was flung backward, slamming into the thick trunk of a tree with brutal force.
Goten turned, his eyes narrowing with a rare, razor-sharp glare. Sakura was stunned by it.
—"Go now! I don't want you staying here!"
Torn between fear and awe, Sakura nodded firmly, hoisted Sasuke's limp body onto her shoulder, and without looking back, began to flee, leaping from branch to branch. She didn't know if she had the strength to carry him all the way back to Naruto—but there was no other choice. Goten had laid everything out for her. All she had to do was handle the details.
As she vanished into the distance, she faintly heard, far behind, the sound of that wretched woman tearing herself free from the cracked wood, ready to face her only remaining opponent.
Incredibly, the boy with the tail had saved her once again. By now, Sakura had lost count. She had lost count of how many times that idiotic, clumsy, good-for-nothing, immature boy had given her another chance to live—all so she could keep treating him poorly.
As she fled from the battle that should have been hers to fight, a painful, sorrowful memory surfaced in her mind.
BAAAAMMMM!
"Owww! What happened? Why did you hit me?" —asked poor Goten, waking up instantly and rubbing his head, a small tear of pain forming in his eye.
"IDIOT! YOU FELL ASLEEP! THAT'S WHAT HAPPENED!" —Sakura scolded him furiously, a thick vein bulging on her forehead.
"But you didn't have to hit me like that! It really hurt!" he exclaimed, still rubbing the spot where the pink-haired girl had punished him. "You could've just shaken me a little and I would've woken up."
"Don't you get it? To you, everything's just a game, isn't it? We're in the middle of an important ninja mission, and you don't care at all! Before we found you two, a pair of assassins tried to kill us on the road! That's why we need to stay alert!"
Sakura was beside herself with rage. Just being in the presence of the annoying boy made her want to unleash all of it.
"Sasuke's right, you're not even a shinobi—you're just a spoiled brat. You'll never understand what it means to work and fight to protect others, or what it means to have someone's life depend on you and your actions. In case you didn't know, you're part of a team, and your irresponsibility could cost the others their lives. But I don't even know why I waste my time explaining it to you! Someone as idiotic as you would never understand!"