Chapter 034

She woke up a few seconds later and sat up. "Huh? Where am I?" Sakura's eyes widened as she remembered the last thing she saw was Kakashi, and she began to look around frantically. "What happened? Where's Kakashi-sensei!"

"Sa… kura…"

Sakura turned around at the familiar voice. "Sasuke-kun-" she stopped and her eyes widened as she saw Sasuke, beaten, bleeding, with his left arm missing, his leg bent at an awkward angle as he leaned against a tree.

"Run… Sakura…" He said in a strained voice as he lifted his head up and she saw that he was missing an eye.

"Sas… uke… -kun…" Sakura's eyes widened and she didn't the only thing she could. "KYYYAAAA!" She yelled, before her eyes rolled up in the back of her head and she fainted.

"KYYYAAAA!"

Sasuke's head turned to the sound of the scream. That was Sakura. He thought to himself before shrugging, she had probably just been stupid enough to get caught by their sensei. He was not surprised by this turn of events; the girl was nothing but a useless fan girl. The raven haired genin-to-be turned his head when he saw Kakashi, leaning against a tree with his arms crossed.

"Maybe I went a little too far." Kakashi said. "Though, she was said to be the best at genjutsu." he mumbled at the end.

Sasuke scoffed. "I'm not like those two."

Kakashi eye smiled. "Say that after you get a bell Sasuke."

Sasuke smirked as he threw several Kunai at Kakashi, who dodged to the left. Sasuke waited for a moment, expecting the trap he had set to go off. He ended up frowning when nothing seemed to happen.

"If you were expecting that wire trap to get me, you're going to be disappointed." Kakashi said, after having Naruto surprise him with his improved abilities, he had decided to keep his guard up with the others. Perhaps that was why he had used a genjutsu of a little higher quality than normal on Sakura? He shrugged; it was still a D ranked one so he could not be blamed if she was incapable of breaking it.

Sasuke scowled as he rushed Kakashi. Throwing a punch at the Jonin. Once again Kakashi decided not to let Sasuke do anything, grabbing the genin's arms and then throwing him towards a tree.

Sasuke twisted around and bounced off the tree, shooting back towards Kakashi as he went through several hand seals, ending on the tiger seal.

Kakashi's eyes widened. A mere genin can't do that jutsu! It takes to much chakra!

"Katon: Gokyakou No Jutsu (Fire Release: Great Fire Ball Jutsu)!" Sasuke sucked in a deep breath and blew out a fairly large fireball, sending it crashing into Kakashi.

Sasuke landed on his feet as the fireball dissipated and frowned when Kakashi was nowhere to be seen. That should have at least left some ashes, so where is he? To the left? No. To the right? No. Above? Sasuke looked up to see that Kakashi was not there.

"Below." A voice spoke up from under Sasuke's feet. A pair of hands shot out of the ground and grabbed Sasuke's feet before pulling him down, burying him up to the head.

Sasuke looked up to see Kakashi crouched down next to him with an eye smile. "I'll admit you're not bad. However, I would say Naruto is about as good as you are." Sasuke sneered as Kakashi stood up. "Yeah you may stand out, but you know what they say, 'the nail that stands out the most, always gets nailed down the hardest' or something like that." Kakashi walked off with Sasuke watching him.

There's no way that loser is better than me! Sasuke thought with a sneer. I'll show him the true power of the Uchiha!

He looked down at his predicament and grimaced. …

Just as soon as I get out of this.

"KYYYAAAA!"

Naruto stopped on a tree branch as he heard the scream, recognizing it as Sakura's voice. Damn! Did Kakashi get to her already! He took off again, increasing his pace. She should be alright; Kakashi's not allowed to kill us.

Naruto soon came to the clearing where the scream originated from. Stopping for moment as he saw Sakura lying in the middle of the clearing, twitching occasionally as she foamed at the mouth. Running up to her, Naruto kneeled down and lifted the upper half of her up and tried to shake her awake.

"Sakura, Sakura!" Naruto said, sighing in relief when Sakura gave a groan.

"What? Where?" Sakura asked as she saw the blur in front of her.

"Nice of you to join us again." Naruto joked. However Sakura paid no attention as she remembered seeing Sasuke on his death bed.

"SASUKE-KUN!" She screamed, shooting up and smashing her head into Naruto, who fell on his back and tried to blink the stars out of his eyes. "SASUKE-KUN! Where are you! Don't worry I' coming to save you Sasuke-kun!" Sakura stood up and ran out of the clearing in search of her precious Sasuke-kun.

Ooooh wow, that head of hers is like hitting a brick wall. Naruto thought with a groan. Standing up he sighed. I really should expect this stuff to happen by now. Yet every time I manage to get surprised.

It looked like he would be doing this on his own. But that was ok, he had a plan to beat Kakashi, it would just take a little knowledge of the man and some deception on Naruto's part.

Kakashi continued walking back into the clearing, reading his book as he thought about how his 'team' had done so far. He was honestly disappointed in them. Sakura had fallen for one of the most simple genjutsu he had when, according to her reports, she was supposed to be the best on the subject of genjutsu. Sasuke he had to admit was good, he had managed to set a decent trap that might have worked had he not taken the fight more seriously from the beginning, and his taijutsu form was good. But the boy was simply too arrogant, believing that he could actually go head to head with a jonin.

Naruto had been the surprise. Using tactics and jutsu that Kakashi did not know he had possessed. His taijutsu was also decent, just a little below Sasuke's, but he also used deception, making him better then Sasuke who simply fought head on. Not only that, but he had tried to get his teammates to work with him… Kakashi didn't think the boy knew that the whole point of the test was to work as a team. But Naruto at least recognized that he could not fight a jonin one-on-one with any hope of winning.

As Kakashi entered the clearing he stopped and noticed there was another person already there, standing near the training posts.

It was a woman with long black hair and red eyes that held an exotic quality to them. She was wearing makeup that consisted of red lip stick and purple eye shadow, just enough to enhance her already beautiful features. Her outfit consisted of a red mesh blouse that had one long sleeve on the left, and no sleeve on the right. Over this was a very broad material that resembled bandages and had a rose thorn pattern running along the center of them. Her hands were wrapped up in bandages and she wore a Konoha head band on her head and regular blue shinobi sandals. Kakashi could easily recognize this woman as one of his fellow jonin, Yuuhi Kurenai.

"Kakashi." Kurenai greeted as her red lips curved into a smile. "I've been looking for you."

Kakashi narrowed his eyes in thought as the beautiful red eyed jonin walked up to him. Kurenai is supposed to be testing her team right now, there is no way this can be her. Running through some calculations the Cyclops determined 'who' this really was and 'what' was really going on. This must be Naruto using his infamous Oiroke No Jutsu I've heard so much about. Kakashi appraised the transformed Naruto as the blond walked up to him. I have to admit, the Henge is nearly flawless. However it's only an illusion, and should only take a simple touch to dispel.

He decided to go along with Naruto to see what he would do. "Kurenai-san, I thought you would be with your team."