Team 7!

{Room #207, Konoha Hospital, Konohagakure}

{7:12 PM, 3rd July 13 Yrs ANB}

{3rd Person POV}

After glaring at Naruto and turning around to make sure Hinata was awake as well, Sasuke leaned against his bed once again. He thought about the difference in approaches he could take in the fight, but in every way, he tried to think of how he could have done things differently, but the result remained the same.

Fighting Kakashi for months had conditioned everyone on their team to work together, this was their basic instinct now. At first, he was the one who was out of tune with Hinata and Naruto who both did surprisingly well when they fought together. So Sasuke tried to use their presence in a fight to his advantage but Kakashi simply focused on him and bashed him around.

It ended up with Naruto and Hinata getting the hits and gaining the opportunity to increase their seal's effectiveness leaving Sasuke behind in physical conditioning. After half a month of falling behind, he gave up his pride and started cooperating with Hinata and Naruto.

The combination of the Sharingan who could predict Kakashi's movements to some degree, and a Byakugan who could react more easily to Kakashi's speed, was more powerful than he expected. The Byakugan and the Sharingan fit perfectly and soon after all three of them started getting consistent hits and for the first time, Sasuke was confident that he was getting stronger.

But the fight with Orochimaru snapped him back to the ground, he looked around at Hinata who was blushing at Naruto who was fushing over her. He never expected to care about either of them, but he knew what it was like to be a second choice, during his childhood he had suffered under his father's dismissal of his efforts.

He knew what it was to be alone in the world with just a desire or dream keeping him going. Team 7 resonated with Sasuke like he never thought it would, both Hinata and Naruto had suffered and through camping together and sharing struggles under Kakashi's merciless training they had unknowingly grown closer.

'We need to work harder, whoever it was that confronted us was strong, far stronger than almost anyone I have ever seen, the speed at which she moved and the strength her punches had, had rattled me too much at the start of that fight.' Sasuke was broken out of his thoughts as the door opened and Kakashi walked into the room. 

Sasuke noticed the sigh of relief as Kakashi's shoulders sagged even though the older Jonin immediately acted like he was unaffected.

"So you lost, to just one shinobi, a Kunoichi at that, I thought you were quite confident you guys would not lose to anyone?" Kakashi questioned the hyperactive blond who was strangely silent.

"Kakashi-sensei..." Hinata spoke up but then hesitated, she wasn't shy anymore but she didn't have anything to say, she just spoke up in reflex to defend Naruto.

"It's not our fault," Sasuke spoke, he was surprisingly relaxed. If he had been thrashed like this 2 years ago he would be fussing about ways to gain strength right about now but he didn't say anything or had any thoughts in that regard. After being bashed around by Ren for a whole year, and under Kakashi's hand, he realized that the strength he desired was merely a byproduct of the effort he put in.

"She was strong, way stronger to have any right to be in the competition. And the way she coveted and went after my Sharingan and Hinata's Byakugan, she should be self-assured in her strength." Sasuke said, his hand going to his neck which was burning a little bit, now that his senses were returning he could feel it.

"So you weren't blinded by your arrogance, it seems I did beat it out of you," Kakashi spoke casually, now that all three of them were working together he was slowly reverting to his lazy personality.

"His name is Orochimaru, an S-Rank shinobi taught by Hokage-sama, he defected the village because he performed illegal operations on kids he kidnapped from Konoha in secret," Kakashi spoke, all three of them froze for a moment and Naruto looked ready to erupt in outrage.

Kakashi put his hand up shutting up the blond, "Orochimaru is one of Konoha's most infamous missing-nin as even today, according to the rumors, he had continued to do his experiments in various labs scattered around the elemental nations."

He then pointed to the marks on each of their necks and spoke, "He might have promised you power but it isn't as simple as that. Ren was the first one to find you three and he checked on your seals. According to him, this seal is slowly trying to mingle with your chakra network, and because of that the doctors were quickly able to stop the infiltration early. Although both of you could still tap into its power, that would lead it the seal infiltrating your chakra network, and who knows what would happen then..." 

Kakashi left the sentence unfinished in order to let their mind come up with horrible conclusions themselves but Sasuke knew what Orochimaru wanted, he wanted the power of the Sharingan for himself. He had seen the desire and fascination for the Sharingan that Orochimaru had, he had seen it all before. The envy and the desire at the Sharingan, but it was more raw more pure in his slitted eyes.

"What about the exams Kakashi sensei?" Naruto asked, that startled Sasuke as he was so engrossed in figuring out who they fought that he completely forgot about the exams.

"The rules were set, if even one member was incapable of finishing the second exam then you would be disqualified. Not that it matters of course, as all three of you needed a rescue." Kakashi spoke.

All three of them felt a little disappointed at that, but the outcome of the battle was out of their hands. Kakashi looked at his three disappointed students and then he spoke, his gaze focused on Sasuke's expression, "The exams are suspended anyway..."

Sasuke's head snapped up at the unexpected statement by Kakashi so he looked up, "Ren killed Gaara from Suna during the exams, what he didn't know was that Gaara was also the son of the Yondaime Kazekage. When Gaara's brothers and sisters shouted this out, Ren ran away from Konoha. As of this morning, he was declared a B-rank Missing nin."

...

'What what, this doesn't make sense...' Sasuke thought as he leaned back down on his bed, he was dissecting what Kakashi said just now.

'Why, why would he run...' Sasuke thought but then he froze as a possible answer appeared in his mind.

'No way right?'

...

-----------------------------

AN - I was going to write Orochimaru's fight as a flashback in this chapter but then decided against it, it would be better when I write Orochimaru's POV in the future! Two chapters today since the story is currently not focusing on Ren!