The night wind blew through the Forest of Death. In the east sector, far from the watchtowers and the eyes of the ANBU patrols, three figures moved among the shadows with the silence of ghosts.
Root agents were trained from childhood to suppress any trace of their existence. Their breathing was imperceptible, their steps left no mark on the damp ground, and their chakra signatures were compressed to the point of being almost undetectable. They were the perfect instruments of Danzo's will, forged in the darkness and tempered by absolute obedience.
The leader, whose porcelain mask had no distinctive markings, raised a clenched fist. The other two stopped instantly, freezing their bodies in positions that would allow them to attack or retreat in a fraction of a second.
"Movement ahead," the leader whispered, with a voice barely audible even to his companions. "Three signatures. They are not genin."
"ANBU?" asked the agent to his right, a woman whose mask had a single vertical line through the left eye.
"Negative. The movement pattern is too aggressive. They are not trying to hide."
The third agent, the largest of the three, tilted his head slightly. "Foreign operatives?"
"Possibly." The leader activated a subtle sensory technique, extending his perception through the trees. "They are heading toward sector eighteen. The same direction as our targets."
The implications were immediate and alarming. If another group was moving toward Naruto Uzumaki and Sakura Haruno, it meant someone else had information about their location. Someone else had plans for those children.
"Orders?" the agent asked.
The leader considered the options for exactly two seconds. The instructions had been clear: recover the targets alive, eliminate witnesses, and make it look like the work of foreign teams. These strangers were not part of the plan, but they could serve a purpose.
"We intercept and evaluate. If they are competitors, we eliminate them. If they are useful, we extract information before discarding them. Move."
The three shadows dissolved into the darkness, converging on the unsuspecting Sound team.
*****
Dosu Kinuta was not a patient man, but serving Orochimaru had taught him to fake it convincingly. He walked through the forest with his companions flanking him, his only visible eye scanning the darkness with cold calculation.
"We should have arrived at sector eighteen by now," Zaku complained, adjusting the tubes implanted in his arms. "This detour is wasting time."
"Lord Orochimaru's orders were specific," Dosu replied without looking at him. "We take the long route to avoid the main surveillance points. Arriving early would arouse suspicion."
"Suspicion from whom?" Kin asked, a tone of frustration in her voice. "The Konoha ninja are too busy watching the obvious threats. They do not even know we exist."
"They know enough." Dosu stopped, slightly lifting his fur covered arm. "Something is wrong."
Zaku tensed, moving his hands toward the tubes in his palms. "What is it?"
"The sounds of the forest have changed. The insects stopped chirping, but there is no predator nearby to cause that reaction." Dosu's eye narrowed under his bandages. "We are being followed."
Kin pulled three senbon from her pouch; the small bells tied to them glinted dimly under the moonlight. "I do not feel any chakra signatures."
"That is what worries me. Only elite operatives can suppress their presence to such a degree." Dosu began to form a mental map of possible escape routes. "This was not in the intelligence reports. Konoha should not have anyone in this sector."
"Maybe they found out about us," Zaku said, shifting his tone from annoyance to something close to enthusiasm. "Good. I have been wanting to test these new modifications."
"Do not be an idiot," Dosu snapped. "If they are ANBU, we cannot afford a direct confrontation. Our mission is Sasuke Uchiha, not proving your worth against Konoha's elite."
Before Zaku could answer, the attack came.
A kunai hissed through the air with astonishing precision, aimed directly at Dosu's throat. He barely managed to deflect it with his melody arm, and the metal resonated with a discordant note that echoed through the trees. Two more projectiles followed immediately, targeting Zaku and Kin from different angles.
"Contact!" Dosu shouted, activating his sound technique to create a defensive pulse. "Formation!"
The three Sound ninja put their backs together, forming a defensive triangle. Kin's senbon flew into the darkness and the bells created a sound web that would reveal any movement. Zaku raised both arms, the tubes in his palms glowing dimly as he prepared to launch a devastating blast of air.
"Show yourselves!" Zaku yelled. "Or I will level this entire section of the forest!"
Three figures emerged from the shadows simultaneously, their movements synchronized with mechanical precision. They wore gray uniforms and white porcelain masks, and their postures radiated a controlled lethality.
ANBU, Dosu thought immediately, although something in his instinct told him he was wrong. No... these are not regular ANBU. Their equipment is different. Their masks do not have the standard animal designs.
"Genin of the Sound Village," the masked leader declared, his voice devoid of emotion. "Your presence in this sector is not authorized. You will submit to interrogation."
"Interrogation?" Zaku laughed, a sharp and mocking sound. "We are participants in the Chunin Exams, idiot. We have every right to be here."
"Your movements do not match those of exam participants. Your trajectory suggests a specific objective. Your equipment exceeds the standard specifications of a genin." The leader stepped forward. "You are infiltrators. The penalty for infiltration is death."
Dosu's mind worked fast. These were not normal ANBU. Their behavior was too cold. And most importantly: no legitimate ANBU would execute exam participants without direct authorization from the Hokage. These were operatives of some clandestine division, something operating outside the official chain of command.
Konoha has its own snakes in the grass, he concluded. This is a complication we could not have anticipated.
"You are making a mistake," Dosu said carefully, buying time to evaluate the situation. "We are not a threat to Konoha. Our interests do not conflict with yours."
"All foreign interests are a potential threat." The masked leader unsheathed a tanto from his back. "This is your last warning. Surrender or be eliminated."
"They think we are normal genin," Kin whispered to her teammates. "They have no idea what we can do."
"Then let us educate them," Zaku responded with a malicious smile. "Slicing Sound Wave!"
He thrust both arms forward, releasing a concentrated blast of pressurized air directly at the enemy formation. The attack was fast, powerful, and totally unexpected for someone who appeared to be a simple genin.
The three masked figures scattered with inhuman speed, but the female operative was slightly slower. The edge of the air blast caught her shoulder, spinning her around and sending her crashing into a nearby tree. She recovered instantly, but blood was already seeping through her uniform.
"Combat confirmed," the leader announced calmly. "Eliminate them."
What followed was chaos.
The largest agent engaged Zaku directly; his taijutsu style was brutal and efficient. Every strike was aimed at vital points, every movement designed to incapacitate or kill. Zaku countered with blasts of pressurized air, trying to create distance, but the agent closed the gap with relentless determination.
"Damn it!" Zaku fired another blast, but the masked man dodged it with a fluid spin. "This guy is not a normal ANBU!"
Kin found herself facing the injured operative and quickly discovered that the injury had not diminished her lethality in the slightest. The woman moved like water, flowing around Kin's senbon attacks and striking her blind spots with precise and devastating blows.
"Their attack patterns are different!" Kin shouted as she barely dodged a strike aimed at her throat. "They do not use the standard Konoha style!"
Dosu and the masked leader circled each other, both recognizing that the other was the true threat.
"You are not ordinary genin," the masked man observed. "Your combat awareness is too refined. Who trained you?"
"Someone who understands that true power requires sacrifice," Dosu activated his melody arm, sending a disorienting sound wave toward his opponent. "And someone who is not afraid of the darkness."
The masked man tilted his head slightly, processing the information while dodging the sonic wave.
"Then you are someone else's tools. Tools that must be confiscated or destroyed."
"We are not anyone's tools!" Zaku roared from his position, firing another blast that forced his opponent back. "We are Sound ninja! And we are going to tear you apart!"
Idiota, Dosu thought as he counterattacked. He is revealing too much. But it no longer matters. These operatives clearly have no intention of letting us leave alive.
The battle intensified and both sides abandoned any pretense of restraint. Sound techniques clashed with the assassination methods of the masked men, and the forest around them suffered the collateral damage of their conflict.
*****
From the shadows of a massive oak tree, about two hundred meters from the battlefield, a figure watched with cold and calculating eyes.
Shiore had been following his Sound team when he sensed the confrontation. He expected them to encounter resistance from Konoha's official forces, not from this clandestine division operating from the shadows.
So old Danzo finally shows his hand, he thought, his snake eyes following every movement below. Root operatives in the Forest of Death during the exams. The warmonger is making his move, likely looking for the Uchiha. He always had a talent for opportunism.
He recognized the unmarked masks, the gray uniforms without insignia, the ruthless and mechanical combat style. They were the unmistakable signs of Root, the division that officially did not exist but that Orochimaru knew intimately from his days in Konoha.
He could intervene. His Sound ninja were skilled, but Root operatives were trained to kill from childhood. Without help, the outcome was uncertain at best. A simple technique, a sudden appearance, and he could end the threat in seconds.
But something made him stop.
His enhanced senses detected movement in the distance, approaching quickly. Multiple chakra signatures, all powerful with the distinct feel of Konoha jonin. They were converging on the battle site, drawn by the noise and the flashes of chakra.
A jonin, he identified one of the signatures. And at least two others. They will arrive in three minutes.
Orochimaru narrowed his eyes while calculating the implications. If he revealed himself now, he would have to fight not only the Root operatives but also the approaching jonin. He was confident in his abilities, but such a confrontation would expose his presence in the forest. The entire exam would be shut down, his Sound team would be captured or killed, and his carefully laid plans for Sasuke would crumble.
And there is the matter of Tsunade.
That was the variable he had not foreseen. The return of his former teammate to Konoha had changed the dynamics significantly. Tsunade was not just a legendary medic; she was one of the few people in the world who could genuinely threaten him in direct combat. Her presence meant that any exposed operation carried exponentially higher risks.
He watched as Zaku took a deep cut to his forearm and the agent pressed his advantage with mechanical persistence. Kin was doing a bit better, but she was clearly on the defensive. Even Dosu, his most capable operative, struggled to maintain parity with the masked leader.
They are losing, Orochimaru observed with clinical detachment. In approximately ninety seconds, they will be dead or captured.
For a moment, he considered letting them fall. They were useful tools, but tools could be replaced. The information they possessed was limited to their specific mission; they knew nothing of his larger plans that could compromise him under interrogation.
But no. Their capture would raise questions. Danzo would investigate their origins, track their training, and potentially discover connections that led back to the Sound Village and, by extension, the deal with Suna. The cascade of exposure could reach the Kazekage's operation, and that was unacceptable.
I need to act, but not directly.
Orochimaru knew the chakra frequencies Root used for their internal communications. He had helped design some of them during his time in Konoha, when he and Danzo occasionally collaborated on projects the Hokage preferred to ignore. Those protocols would not have changed significantly; Danzo was too paranoid to alter systems that worked.
He formed a single hand seal, his chakra suppressed until it was almost invisible. From his sleeve emerged a small snake, its scales the exact color of the surrounding bark. The reptile slid down the tree and disappeared into the underbrush, carrying a specific instruction.
Thirty seconds later, the snake reached its destination and released a burst of chakra with a very particular pattern, one that Root operatives were trained to recognize as an emergency retreat signal from their central command.
The effect was immediate.
The three masked agents froze mid combat, turning their heads slightly as they processed the signal. The leader raised his hand, halting his subordinates' attacks.
"Retreat order received," he announced. "Mission aborted. Withdraw immediately."
"What?" Zaku gasped, blood dripping from multiple wounds. "Are they running away?"
"Do not pursue them," Dosu ordered sharply, recognizing an opportunity when he saw one. "Let them go."
The masked agents disappeared into the darkness with the same silence they had arrived with, leaving the battered Sound team alone in the clearing.
Zaku fell to his knees, breathing heavily as the adrenaline began to leave his system.
"What the hell was that?" He spat blood onto the ground. "Those were not normal ANBU."
"No." Dosu allowed himself a moment to catch his breath, though his mind was already analyzing what had happened. "They were a division that operates outside Konoha's official structure."
"A secret division?" Kin approached limping, a hand pressed against her ribs. "Does Konoha have something like that?"
"Apparently so." Dosu looked toward the shadows where the masked men had vanished. "What worries me is why they retreated. They were winning. That signal..."
"What about the signal?" Zaku asked.
"It came from nowhere. There was no one else nearby who could have sent it." Dosu narrowed his visible eye. "Unless..."
He scanned the surrounding trees with his sensitive hearing, but whoever had intervened had already vanished without a trace.
Someone saved us. he realized.
The answer was obvious, but Dosu did not share it with his teammates.
"Status?" he asked instead.
"Three broken ribs, multiple lacerations, possible concussion." Kin breathed with difficulty, her hand pressed against her side. "I can still move."
"Zaku?"
"I am fine," Zaku lied, his right arm hanging at a strange angle. "Those bastards were not that tough."
"They were holding back," Dosu corrected him somberly. "They were trying to capture us alive for interrogation. If they had received orders to kill from the start, we would be dead."
Zaku wanted to protest, but the pain in his arm stole his words.
"So what do we do now?" Kin asked. "Do we continue toward sector eighteen?"
"No." Dosu began to walk toward the edge of the forest. "The mission is compromised. There are too many variables we did not anticipate. We must report to Lord Orochimaru and wait for new orders."
"But Sasuke Uchiha is so close!" Zaku protested. "We can...!"
"We can do nothing." Dosu turned to him with a cold look. "Look at us. We can barely walk. If we run into another enemy team, or worse, the Konoha jonin who will surely come to investigate this fight, we will be eliminated."
"Dosu is right," Kin reluctantly accepted. "We are in no condition to complete the mission."
Zaku cursed under his breath but followed his companions. The Sound team disappeared into the forest, moving as fast as their injuries allowed.
Orochimaru watched them go with a mix of irritation and reluctant satisfaction. His operatives had failed in their primary objective, but they had survived to serve another day. More importantly, the confrontation had revealed valuable information about Danzo's movements during the exams.
So the old man is making his play for Sasuke Uchiha, Orochimaru reflected. Sending Root into the forest while everyone is distracted by the exams. Predictable, but inconvenient.
He slid deeper into the shadows as the first chakra signatures of the jonin approached the area. Kurenai Yuhi landed in the clearing first, her red eyes scanning the area with professional intensity. Two other jonin followed, their weapons drawn and ready.
"There was definitely a fight here," Kurenai announced, examining the damaged trees and the blood splatters. "Recent. Within the last five minutes."
"I count at least six distinct chakra signatures," one of her companions reported. "Three left toward the northeast, three toward the northwest. Both groups are moving at high speed."
"Which group do we follow?"
Kurenai considered the question carefully. "Neither. Our priority is the genin teams. Whatever happened here is above our current mission parameters." She activated her radio. "Control, this is Kurenai. We have evidence of unauthorized combat in sector seven. Requesting ANBU investigation team and continuous monitoring of all genin positions."
Orochimaru listened from his hidden position, noting the efficiency of Konoha's response. In the old days, such a disturbance would have been dismissed as wildlife activity or conflict between teams. Now, they treated every anomaly as a potential threat.
Tsunade's influence, he concluded. She has tightened their protocols considerably.
The Sannin of the snakes weighed his options one last time. He could still reach Sasuke tonight if he moved fast enough. The Uchiha slept in sector eighteen, vulnerable, unaware of the forces seeking to claim him. A single interaction, a display of the power Orochimaru could offer, and the boy's fate would be sealed.
But the risks had multiplied exponentially. Root agents in the forest meant Danzo had mobilized his forces, and if Orochimaru were detected, he would have to face not only the jonin but potentially the entire security apparatus of Konoha. Kurenai and her team were now on high alert, actively searching for threats. The failed confrontation between the Sound and Root would draw even more attention to this section of the forest.
And I still do not know what happened to Kabuto.
His spy should have reported hours ago. The silence was worrying, suggesting something had gone wrong with his operation as well. Without updated intelligence, moving against Sasuke was gambling with incomplete information.
Orochimaru hated gambling. He preferred certainties.
This is not the time, he finally decided, although the decision left a bitter taste in his mouth. Too many variables, too many unknowns. The wise hunter knows when to retreat and wait for better conditions.
He thought of Sasuke, sleeping peacefully without knowing how close fate had come to claiming him tonight. The boy would have his chance to embrace the darkness, but not today. There would be other opportunities during the exams, moments when the chaos was more favorable and the risks more acceptable.
Sleep well, Sasuke kun, Orochimaru thought with something akin to patience. Our meeting is merely postponed. When the moment is right, I will offer you everything you desire... and you will accept.
*****
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Heroine Training System: Squeeze Me with Those Thighs