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Morning came soon enough, but Naruto and Sasuke were still asleep. Sakura was leaned on a nearby wall, still in deep sleep. Akashi watched in silence as their chests expanded with each breath. He was thankful they were still alive. Sakura woke up once before and proposed they make traps, Akashi agreed and they made a couple. Sakura gasped awake and looked at Sasuke and Naruto in worry. Once she saw they were safe she let out a sigh of relief. “Bad dream?” She looked at Akashi and nodded. “Yeah…”. She sighed out.

“Did you not sleep at all?” She asked the redhead. He was inspecting his kunai, flipping it around. “I never needed much sleep”. He replied, not looking at her. She furrowed her brows, but decided not to ask anything else. Both of them whipped their head around and towards a bush, after they heard rustling coming from it. Akashi readied his kunai and Sakura started shaking, the kunai in her hands almost slipping through her fingers.

A moment later, a small squirrel exited the bush and started running towards them. Akashi’s eyes widen when he senses concentrated Chakra coming from its back. “Sakura!” He whisper-yelled and she threw a kunai in front of it, making it stop in front of the trap they previously set, and run away from them. “There was an explosion tag on it, be careful, someone knows we are here”. Akashi said and closed his eyes. Concentrating on his Chakra sensing sense, he widened his field of range. His field of range depends on how calm and concentrated he is.

When he is fighting, he can concentrate on 10 or 15 meters on coverage, when he is standing still he can cover up to 40 or so, but when he is sitting and concentrating only on that one sense, he can find Chakra signatures to up to 100 meters away. Currently, other than the three of his teammates, he found three unfamiliar signatures near their temporary camp. “Sakura, they are here”. He warned her and stood up. She followed suit, albeit on shaky knees.

Akashi exited the camp and looked in front of himself. Three unfamiliar ninja were standing there, two men and a woman, all three wearing Oto headbands, the same one Orochimaru wore. “I suppose you’re here on Orochimaru’s orders?” He glared at the three of them. They seemed shocked he knew the name, but they soon recovered. “You are correct, now, could you wake up Sasuke for us? We want to fight him”. Akashi gripped his kunai tighter.

“What is the purpose of that? Why did Orochimaru bite him and what is that on his neck?” Akashi demanded, but they stayed silent. “Why do you want to fight him after you did this to him?” Sakura added. The guy let out a sigh. “I wonder, too, what is that person thinking?” The second guy said that they can’t ignore that and that he will kill Sakura and then kill Sasuke. “If you touch them, you will find yourself missing a hand”. Akashi growled at them, taking a defensive stance. “Is that a threat?” The same guy asked as he started walking over to them.

“Wait, Zaku”. The first guy said and stopped in front of the trap. “How unoriginal, this grass doesn’t even grow here”. They figured out that there was a trap there. The ninja looked at them. “Let’s kill them”. The three of them then proceeded to jump at Akashi and Sakura. She pulled out a kunai and cut a wire that made a huge log swing from the sky in the direction of the ninjas. One of the ninja placed a hand in front of the incoming log and it was blasted away. “What?” Akashi gasped and crouched down, prepared to fight.

“To be blunt, you have no talent at all”. The ninja said. “People like you need to work harder!” He yelled as they descended upon the two Genin. As Akashi was about to dash at them, a green blur appeared. “Konoha Whirlwind!” Rock Lee was in front of them. The three Sound ninja were thrown away. Lee jumped in front of Sakura. “Then the three of you also need to work harder”. He said as he had a palm open towards them.

“Why are you here?” Sakura asked him. “I will always come when you are in danger”. He declared, not even turning to face her. Akashi frowned at his words. “Great, act like I’m not here”. He deadpanned and ended up being ignored by Lee. The same squirrel that was there before, was on his shoulder. He gently scooped it and settled it on the ground. It hopped away. “But right now, I am your enemy, too”. Sakura told him, making Akashi grimace. “Sakura, we need all the help we can get”. He said.

“I told you before, that I will protect you to the death”. Lee said as the wind blew through his hair. Akashi could only watch in silence. The Sound ninja got out a scroll and threw it to Zaku. “Zaku, I leave Sasuke to you, I’ll take care of the others”. He dashed forward, and just as he used the blasting technique from before, Lee ripped out a giant tree root from the ground, blocking it. “Your technique has a trick to it, right? I won’t dodge in a normal way, I’ve seen you use it before”. Akashi watched him block it effortlessly.

Lee is way stronger than I am… damn it, I need to get stronger. Lee started unwrapping the bandages around his hands. The ninja dashed at him and Lee disappeared from in front of him. He’s even faster than before. Akashi thought as he watched Lee appear under the ninja and kick him in the air. He then jumped after him and wrapped the bandages, and himself, around the ninja. They started falling to the ground, head first, while spinning.

As they were about to hit the ground, Zaku, used a technique that softened the blow. Lee jumped away, back to the others. The ninja jumped after him and went for a hit, but Lee dodged. A moment after, Lee fell to the ground, clutching his left ear. What? Didn’t he dodge it? Akashi watched as the ninja explained how it doesn’t matter if Lee dodged or not, the sound travels and his ear picked up on the vibration, making the eardrum shatter and him to lose balance.

The ninja dashed at Sakura and Akashi jumped in front of her, kunai prepared to strike down his opponent. But, before the ninja could reach them, Lee jumped in front of them and distracted him. The ninja managed to use his sound on Lee again, making him fall onto the ground. The ninja was about to kill him when Sakura threw kunai his way. He blocked them with his metal sound-producing hand.

Akashi grabbed a couple of shuriken and threw them with all his might at the ninja. He didn’t move to block them, instead, Zaku appeared in front of him and blasted the shuriken away with his air pressure technique. Akashi grit his teeth at that. There was a wince and he turned around just in time to see the woman grab Sakura by the hair. “Sakura! Get away from her!” He brought out his kunai, but sudden pressure at his back made him stumble away from them. There was no way for Akashi to get there in time.

“Now, what will you do?” He heard the beast inside himself ask. Shut up! I don’t need anything from you! He screamed inside his head as he watched Zaku approach the place where Naruto and Sasuke were at. “Are you sure about that?” The fox asked and a desperate expression overtake Akashi’s face. I… I don’t know. He heard the fox’s deep chuckle echo through his mind. He looked at the trapped Sakura and watched as she grabbed a kunai. “Saku-!” He started yelling, but stopped after he bore witness to her cutting her hair off.

She freed herself from the grip of the woman. Sakura started doing hand-signs and Akashi immediately recognised them. The woman slammed into Sakura from behind, but Sakura disappeared in a puff of smoke, in her place was a log. Zaku called out to his female teammate and told her to move out of the way. He blasted his air pressure and Sakura disappeared again, in her place a log. Akashi watched as Sakura descended from the air. She did the hand-signs again and Zaku threw kunai at her.

The kunai hit her straight on, but she didn’t disappear. This caught Zaku off guard and he couldn’t react in time to block Sakura’s kunai. She managed to stab him in the arm and they fell to the ground. She bit his other arm as he mercilessly started beating her. “Are you just going to watch?” The fox spoke up again. “Why don’t you just surrender to me? I’ll make all the pain go away”. The fox proposed. Akashi froze in place. The proposition was too tempting for him to say no.

You’re just trying to trick me! I won’t fall for that, ever! He retaliated and gripped his kunai in hand. He was interrupted when Ino appeared along with the rest of her team. Choji turned into a big ball and headed straight at Zaku, keeping him busy. Shikamaru used his Shadow Imitation on the other guy and Ino transferred her consciousness into the ninja woman’s body. Once she did that, she threatened to kill the woman if they don’t leave.

Not worried at all, Zaku fired his air pressure at the woman’s body, making Choji jump in. Both Choji and Transferred Ino fly away. Shikamaru’s Shadow Imitation ran out and the other ninja was released. Just as they all thought it was the end for them, Neji and Tenten showed up. Neji was about to jump down, but he looked at where Sasuke was and decided otherwise. An ominous Chakra signature entered Akashi’s senses.

He whipped his head in Sasuke’s direction. “What…?” Akashi watched as the Chakra around Sasuke’s body spread around him. Coming off in purple waves. “Sakura… who did that to you?” He asked her, tone heavy and dark. The seal from his neck spread all over his body, covering it in black markings. His Sharingan was also activated. “Sakura say it! Who the hell hurt you?!” He demanded. Akashi watched in horror as his whole demeanor changed. “I did”. Zaku called out, a confident grin on his face.

Sasuke whipped his way and glared at him. Akashi took a step back, away from the inevitable fight that was going to occur. Of course, he had to step on a twig which alerted Sasuke of his presence. The Uchiha looked his way and his eyes slightly widen, before going to normal. “Akashi… leave this to me”. He shifted his attention back to Zaku. The markings on his body briefly glowed, before even more of them appeared and they changed back to black.

Zaku prepared the biggest attack in his arsenal. He pointed his palms at the four of them. “I’ll blow them all away!” He said and released his air pressure. Akashi blinked and Sasuke was gone along with Naruto and Sakura. Before the air could hit him, he felt someone grab him by the wrist. He was pulled out of the way. “Huh…?” He was at a loss for words. Sasuke was totally different from before… and not in a good way. He quickly did hand-signs and fire was released from his lips, heading straight at the two ninjas.

Zaku used his air, but once he blew out the fire, shurikens underneath remained. He got hit by multiple ones. Sasuke quickly dashed near him and grabbed his arms behind his back. Akashi felt a shudder run through him as he watched the expression on the Uchiha’s face shift to amusement. He pushed Zaku’s back with his leg and broke both of Zaku’s arms. The sickly crunches echoed through the forest. “Sasuke?” He called out to the boy. Sasuke looked his way and Akashi didn’t know why all of this was happening.

And there I was… vowing I was never gonna let anything happen to them. He shook his head, disappointed in himself. I am a fool. I cannot protect them, for I am weak…I am useless like this. Sasuke turned back to the other ninja. “That leaves just you, you better entertain me better than him”. He started walking over to the frozen ninja. Akashi could only watch as Sasuke got further and further away from him. “Sasuke!” He yelled and dashed after him. Once he was close enough, he grabbed him by the shoulder and turned him around.

“Stop… this isn’t you… please stop this”. Akashi begged him as his hand slipped to the boys wrist, where it gripped him. Sasuke’s eyes widen and the seals start glowing. They slowly start receding inside the curse mark on his neck, until they all disappear. He wobbles on his feet, but before he could drop, Akashi slowly settled him in a sitting position. “Hey, hey… just breathe”. He comforted the panting boy. Sure enough, his breathing settled to a normal speed.

The ninja from in front of them settled down his scroll and picked up his teammates. He told Sasuke that he and his team cannot defeat him and asked him to let them leave. He said that if they meet a second time in this exam that they will not run or hide. With that, he turned around and left. Sasuke raised his shaking hand and gripped it by the wrist. “What was I…?” He trailed off as he looked at it in disbelief.

He was momentarily surprised when he saw another hand cover it. “Hey, don’t think about it, that wasn’t you”. He shifted and looked at the redhead besides him. The boy was visibly worried, even though he, too, was shaking. He was worried about him, him who almost killed people in delight today. He grit his teeth and looked away. He mustn’t look weak. “Sasuke… it’s okay to be afraid… that makes you human”. He heard Akashi say and a moment later, a familiar warm feeling washed over his body.

Looking back, he saw Akashi healing the various scratches he had on his body. The green glow lighting up his face along with his unusual violet eyes.