"Comradery. How touching" she said in a chilling tone. Her sediment then increased its speed and burst forward. Despite his consciousness, the blonde's body was still sluggish from the thrashing he had endured. He wasn't fit enough to evade. Instead of colliding with him, however, it merely glided past his face. The sand opened a small slit on his cheek that began to bleed. Gaara's sand then returned to her, much to Naruto's surprise. She glanced back at her teammates as the sand funneled into her gourd.
"I'm satisfied" she called back to them. The fan wielding girl and the boy with makeup both nodded and waited for Gaara to join them. They then disappeared into the forest, leaving a shaken Naruto and Sakura. After a few moments of tense silence, the blonde spoke.
"You alright?" he asked. The pink haired girl nodded rigidly and skittered away from the mutilated body of Zaku, which still laid on the ground. She made her way over to Sasuke and gazed at him.
"You should probably know; Sasuke-kun has an odd marking on his neck. I think he got it from Orochimaru" she revealed as she stood over their sleeping teammate. Naruto nodded and wiped blood from his face.
"What the hell was that all about?" he wondered aloud as the image of Gaara and her comrades flashed through his mind. Sakura pursed her lips and shook Sasuke a bit to see if she could stir him.
"From what I was able to gather, they came to kill the sound genin. Not sure why, but that's what Gaara suggested" she said in an uncertain tone. The blonde chewed his lip absently and sat down next to Sasuke.
"If that's the only reason, then that's really screwed up" he said. The teammates then lapsed into silence. For the next five minutes or so, nothing was said. The streak of soundlessness was broken by Sasuke, who sat up abruptly.
"Where am I?" he asked quickly while his eyes darted in all directions. After a brief explanation of his loss of consciousness, the Uchiha calmed down and took a moment to study the environment more carefully. He quickly caught sight of Zaku's body and scooted back several feet. He quickly calmed himself, but shot his teammates a questioning look.
"What on earth happened here?" he asked. Sakura chuckled uncomfortably and attempted to avert her eyes from the corpse.
"Where to start…"
Kakashi felt a massive weight lift from his shoulders as Team Seven hobbled through the entrance of the tower. They had barely made it, and they looked the part. Naruto's face was crusted with blood from a cut on his cheek, Sasuke looked to be straining against some sort of ailment, and Sakura simply looked exhausted. The Jonin quickly made his way to his team and looked them up and down. As he had previously observed, they were in rough shape.
"I already know what happened to you all out in the forest, so don't waste your breath. Get some rest" he ordered them. The children were then directed away by Ibiki, who had been standing nearby. Kakashi watched them walk away intently, catching sight of a strange mark on the back of Sasuke's neck.
"Don't waste your energy wondering about it. You definitely need to be worried" Anko, who had suddenly appeared by his side, said bluntly. The silver haired ninja frowned and eyed the woman, ignoring the fact that she had seemingly read his mind.
"You know something?" he asked. Anko nodded and pulled down her shirt to reveal her collarbone, where an identical marking to Sasuke's was. Kakashi's eyes widened.
"When and where?" he asked. The enigmatic kunoichi sighed and stretched her back out to relieve herself of stiffness.
"Orochimaru and I have some history that I'd rather not get into. Lets just say that the mark isn't a good thing. Not in the least. If you know anything about fuinjutsu, you should put it to use and seal that thing" she said. The copy ninja heeded her advice and made a mental note.
"What does the mark do?" he asked curiously. Anko took a few seconds to come up with an appropriate explanation.
"It acts as a superficial boost in power, a damn good one in the case of the one Sasuke and I have. Problem is, it kind of drives you insane" she explained. Kakashi furrowed his eyebrows and motioned for her to elaborate further.
"It becomes like a drug. The more you use it, the more dependent on it you become. Both mentally and physically. Beyond that, it seems to draw you to the creator of the seal, that being Orochimaru in this case" she said. The silver haired Jonin pondered the information.
"I think I'm going to go ahead and take your advice" he said, beginning to walk away after his team as he spoke. Anko nodded and produced a kunai to file her nails with.
"Good plan" she muttered. After a few moments of silent solitude, the proctor launched her kunai into the inner wall of the tower, splitting an unfortunate bug in half in the process.
'I know what you're doing, you wretched snake. I know why, too'
Naruto rubbed his eyes tiredly as he trudged around the silent tower. It was nearly one in the morning, and the vast majority of the other successful cells had opted to take advantage of the eight hours of resting time being allotted to them. The blonde, however, had found himself unable to sleep in any capacity. The stress of the day was overwhelming. From the encounter with the Snake Sannin to strange markings on Sasuke's neck, it all ate away at his composure.
'And then Kakashi-sensei comes around and snags Sasuke for some reason. So weird' he thought to himself as he rounded a corner. His thoughts then drifted to his sudden awakening during his time in the forest. Multiple things about the scenario had been odd, but none more than the unceremonious manner in which he had been quite clearly spared by Gaara of the Desert. Her reasoning for allowing himself and Sakura to live was beyond him, and the answers to those questions seemed utterly unfindable.
'It doesn't make a lick of sense. We were sitting ducks. Ripe for the picking. What was her deal?' he pondered, a bit of frustration creeping into his emotional matrix. Then, as if in direct response to his dumbfounded wonderings, a shifting sound caught his ear. The blonde whirled around to see Gaara, looking as blank-faced as she had while ruthlessly murdering Zaku, sitting on a bench by the wall.
"The hell is your problem? Don't sneak up on people" Naruto snapped as he regained his wits. The redhead's reaction was entirely nonexistent. She simply stared at him.
"I've been sitting here for nearly an hour. I did no such thing" she said matter-of-factly. The blonde clenched his jaw and stepped back, fear surging through him despite his best efforts to contain it.
"You could have at least said something when I walked by" he said defensively. Once again, Gaara gave him no discernable reaction.
"And why would I be obligated to inform you of my presence? If anything, you are the intruder in this case" she pointed out calmly. Naruto forced himself to calm down. He then took a deep breath and steadied himself.
"What are you doing awake? It's really late" he asked. Gaara shrugged and gestured to the black circles under her eyes.
"Sleep has never come easily to me" she explained in a monotone manner. When Naruto didn't immediately respond, the redhead countered his question in kind.
"What is your excuse?" she inquired. The Konoha genin, being quite tired in spite of his inability to sleep, sighed and gave her a hard look.