*Ophiophobia is the fear of snakes ;)

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When the second part began, all the teams rushed into the forest, everyone trying to find a team with the scroll they needed. But Team 7 had a different strategy, instead of looking for a team, they were going to make the teams come to them. That's right, they were heading straight for the tower, once they arrived they would wait for a team to come and steal their scroll.

Sasuke was currently in the front, they had decided that he would be the best choice because of his Sharingan. So Naruto and Sakura followed him as they ran to the tower, at this rate they would get there by night.

Okay so maybe more like tomorrow night. The trio had slightly underestimated the distance between them and their destination. Because of this, and Naruto's constant complaining, they had set up camp near a stream.

Sasuke volunteered to watch first. Letting his teammates get a much needed rest. He sat on a tree branch slightly to the left of his teammates. It allowed him a better vantage point, and hid him from any oncoming attackers.

The ravenette leaned back on the trunk of the tree while crossing his arms. He scanned the ground below him through narrowed eyes, looking for any signs of suspicious movement. A soft breeze swept past him, rustling the leaves quietly. But the breeze was gone as soon as it came, and that's when he heard it. The unnatural rustling of leaves and a voice, 

"The three chakra signatures are close." Sasuke sucked in a breath and mentally slapped himself. How could he be so stupid! He instantly masked his chakra, it would give away that he had heard them but then he could stay hidden. If only he could wake up Naruto and Sakura...

"I just did, they're pretending to be asleep right now." Sasuke nearly fell out of the tree, and then turned to glare at Kurama, who was on the branch directly next to him.

"Goddamnit Kurama! How are you even-You know what, I don't even want to know,  do you know who's coming towards us?" Kurama smirked foxily,

"Four people, three have genin level chakra, and judging by the large amount of chakra coming from the fourth one, they are at least jounin level or higher." Sasuke sucked in a breath,

"Well shit." Sakura's voice rang through the air, taking the words right out of the ex-Uchiha's mouth. He was about to remind them all to stay quiet, but then...

"Kurama! You didn't tell us we could all talk with our minds dattebayo!" Sasuke wanted to bang his head on the tree.

"That's because you can't." The Kyuubi stated bluntly, successfully making Naruto shut up from shock.

"I hear them! They're over here!"

Sasuke cursed, activating his Sharingan and sprinting at the four figures, quickly hitting the pressure points of two of the genin and having to engage in Taijutsu for a bit with the third. 

And as their headband glinted in the moonlight, Sasuke learned that they were grass nin. But that minor realization changed nothing, and the ravenette wasted no time in incapacitating the final grass genin. Once Sasuke had taken them all down he turned and saw his two teammates fight a ninja with long black hair.

His teammates were doing quite well but the ninja was only using Taijutsu. "Heh, you brats are pretty good...But not good enough!" The ninja said as he launched five shurikens at Naruto.

At the last moment, Sakura jumped in front of the blonde, appearing to have saved him as the four weapons embedded themselves in her back, and one narrowly missed her neck. Instead cutting one chunk of her hair really short. Sakura wobbled a bit as if her legs wouldn't support her weight, then she went limp, falling face forward into the ground. Sasuke wanted to rush to his teammate's side, but he held himself back when he noticed something. Huh, this Sharingan thing actually works!

If it wasn't dark, the ninja might have noticed how the shuriken wobbled ever so slightly as if they were being suspended mid-air with wind, he also might have noticed the crude genjutsu placed on her back, making her shirt appear bloodstained. But instead, the ninja watched in horror as Sakura's body lay limp on the ground. 

"Sakura-chan! No!" Naruto yelled as tendrils of orange chakra started circling around him.

Now Sasuke decided to make his presence known. The Sharingan user ran up to where his teammate was and dropped to his knees."No. No! Sakura!" He forced tears to his eyes, trying to act as distraught as possible. Then he turned to the ninja with his mangekyou glowing in the darkness.

The ninja barely dodged the two genin powerhouses as they started attacking him relentlessly. He wasn't too worried until the blonde summoned a large purple ball. A Bijuu bomb, this was not good.

When it became painfully clear that he wouldn't be able to land a hit on either of the raging genin without getting seriously banged up. The ninja jumped back from the two genin to compose himself.

Big mistake.

As soon as he stopped moving, Sakura sprung up from her position on the ground and roundhouse kicked the back of the ninja's head. Knocking him out and landing gracefully. Unlike her opponent, whose unconscious body flopped ungracefully like a fish who had too much caffeine.

Nobody moved, the three genin heaving, trying to catch their breath. They just stood there until reality set in, they were sitting ducks. The noise from their battle probably had some team on their way towards them now, and it was obvious they would not be able to win against another team in their current state.

"Should we leave the bodies here or..." Naruto trailed off, turning to look at the four unconscious bodies on the ground. 

Nobody said anything, but Sasuke studied the ninja with long black hair. His forehead protector bore the symbol of the leaf village, and it only took a few moments for Sasuke to recognize the clothing the leaf-nin was wearing.

"Hn, no, just this one," Sasuke said as he gestured to Orochimaru, the Snake Sannin.

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.

.

"Oi Sasuke, do we really have to lug this geezer to the tower dattebayo?" Naruto asked as he casually kicked the stirring Sannin back unconscious.

"Yes, otherwise we have no proof. I can genjutsu him though." Sasuke said and lifted one of Orochimaru's eyelids and staring into it for a few seconds, "Done, we should go. We can reach the tower by morning if we leave now."

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.

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"Why do I have to carry the snake guy dattebayo? He's so heavy!" Naruto said for the third time. Sakura huffed and rolled her eyes. She lifted her hand and focused chakra into the air, lifting Orochimaru off of Naruto's shoulder and suspending him in the air. It took a lot more chakra and focus than she had anticipated, and she almost dropped him a few times. Naruto was right, what was that guy eating?

The three of them continued to run to the tower. The trip was mostly uneventful until they were confronted by three sound ninjas. They were ready to charge until Sakura smiled at them and said. "Do you need an earth scroll?" The pinkette retrieved the scroll from her kunai pouch and tossed it to one of them. She calmly started walking again, followed by Naruto, Sasuke, and an unconscious Orochimaru who was leaving a trail of drool on the ground.

The Otogakure ninja stared wide-eyed at the three Konoha ninja they were about to attack. Thank Kami they didn't. "Isn't that the team the other Leaf nin's were picking on?" One of the sound nins, Dosu, whispered. His two teammates nodded in confirmation. He narrowed his eyes at their retreating figures. There was something about them that bothered him.

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"Ne, Sakura-chan. Maybe you shouldn't do that 'ttebayo." The pink haired kunoichi smiled evilly. She had made a point to bonk the snake Sannin head on every surface she could find along their journey.

"The Dobe is right for once. I for one don't want to have to deal with two angry Sannin for giving their teammate brain damage."

"Serves him right! Because of him, I'm basically bald on one side of my head!" Sakura exclaimed, her face turning slightly red from anger. She managed to hit his head on one more tree trunk before Naruto yelled.

"We're here dattebayo!"

"Now what?"

"Open the door Dobe."

"Shut up Teme! What do you think I'm trying to do? It's locked 'ttebayo!" The blonde jinchuuriki said as he pulled on the doorknob in vain. His raven-haired teammate sighed and calmly knocked on the door. The door immediately swung open, revealing a smiling Umino Iruka.

"Congratulations! You've completed the second stage of the Chunin Exams..." His voice trailed off when he noticed the floating Orochimaru next to Sakura. Their former sensei's eyes rolled to the back of his head and fell to the ground face first.

"You just had to knock on the door Teme. See how well that worked? You broke Iruka-san dattebayo!"

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