"Well...this place certainly is something." Sasuke looked up.

"Indeed. You'll find all sorts of dangerous creatures in there that you can extract for materials. All the herbs, snake venom..." Sarah giggled, "Gosh this place feels so cozy."

Naruto looked at her weirdly, "Of course you would say that. You're fucking weird enough as is, Sarah-Chan."

Sarah winked.

"What? You think I'm gonna be scared of some forest? That's nothing! I'm not afraid of that or your weird ass antics!" Naruto declared as he pointed over at Sarah.

Anko quickly appeared behind Naruto and scratched his face open with a kunai, licking up his blood as if it was some sort of fine delicacy. Sarah and Sasuke grimaced in disgust.

"Kids like you are always quick to be killed... Spraying that red blood that I love so much~"

A grass ninja walked up beside Anko and handed her back a kunai with her tongue. Sarah felt like she was about ready to vomit.

"A bunch of damn sickos here in this exam..."

Anko passed around some waivers for people to sign. Sarah quickly signed hers before passing it over back to Anko alongside everyone else. The woman explained that this test would be a survival one. They had to collect two scrolls and make it back to the tower within five days or else they'll be disqualified.

Sarah and her team eventually made it over and collected their scroll from the proctor. Team Seven quickly dashed off into the woods. Eventually they had to stop so Naruto could take a leak.

"Seriously?!? Of all times you could've chosen NOW just had to be the time for you to take a piss?" Sarah blushed furiously as she and Sasuke turned their backs to give their blonde teammate some privacy.

"Sorry Sarah-Chan, duty calls!" Naruto responded before finishing up, "All done."

Sarah quickly pulled out a seal and channeled her mana into it, "KATON: VINE CAGE!"

Swinging a bunch of vines over towards an opening, Sarah managed to catch three ninjas lurking nearby. Slapping a paralysis seal onto each of their foreheads, Sarah rummaged through their pockets in search for the other scroll.

"God damn it!" Sarah exclaimed.

"Wow...you're so cool Sarah-chan! How were you able to catch those guys?" Naruto asked her.

"Simple; I had a gut feeling," Sarah responded before getting up off the ground, "Just like I have one right NOW!"

Punching the ground with her fist, Sarah saw the grass ninja from before shot up and hopped away backwards. Sasuke quickly pulled out a kunai and stepped in front of Naruto. Suddenly a huge snake came up from behind them and swallowed Naruto whole.

Sarah's eyes widened.

"Hmm...you want my earth scroll right, since you guys have the heaven one?" The woman asked before swallowing the scroll whole, "Now let's begin the battle for each others scroll."

A huge wave of killing intent radiated from the woman. Sasuke quickly fell to the ground vomiting while Sarah stood there stoically. Naruto on the other hand was trying to process everything that had just happened.

"Hmm....interesting girl aren't ya?" The woman said.

Sarah just stared at her. Killing intent wasn't very effective on her due to having to face death already at such a young age.

.

.

.

Fire burning half her face... Her mother standing there with a disgusted expression on her face...

"Get back you demon!"

"Mama-"

.

.

.

Sasuke stabbed himself in the thigh with his kunai, shakily getting up off the ground to face their opponent. The snake behind them exploded, Naruto coming out and hopping down beside his teammates.

Another giant snake quickly came slithering towards the group. Sarah immediately rushed over and slammed her fist into the snake's head.

"Cha!"

The snake was sent flying back into a nearby tree. Sasuke and Naruto quickly jumped into action and tried to fight the grass ninja with all their might. Sarah analyzed the situation from afar, noting that this wasn't no ordinary ninja that they were fighting....

"Sasuke, Naruto, pull back and flee! This isn't no overate ninja, it's Orochimaru of the Legendary Sannin!" Sarah shouted.

Sasuke and Naruto immediately fled with Sarah on foot. The two were still confused as to what was going on, how Sarah managed to figure out Orochimaru's identity, and why a Sannin was attacking them.

"We can't take him on alone. We're going to need some backup," Sasuke said.

"I don't know why we're even running away in the first place? This makes us look like cowards!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Running away is the only smart answer, especially if we're going up against someone more experienced," Sasuke retorted, "Think with your fucking brain for once Naruto."

"I'm trying!" Naruto whined, "But it's so hard when there's so much excitement going on!"

"You call getting chased by a Sannin exciting? While I ought to-"

"Enough!" Sarah interjected, "We won't accomplish anything by bickering."

"Then what do you suppose we do?" Naruto asked her.

"Simple; we think outside the box," Sarah smirked as she grabbed a scroll out from her bag.

Throwing it up in the air, Sarah pulled out a large axe made up of ice out and stood there on the tree branch. She grasped onto the handle tightly, ready to face the Sannin on. Orochimaru looked at her with an amused expression on his face before sending a barrage of snakes towards her. Sarah quickly cut them down with her axe before charging directly at Orochimaru. The Sannin simply flung the axe out of her hands and tossed the girl aside.

"Impressive..." Orochimaru complimented before summoning another snake, "Go ahead and eat her, Manda."

"Sarah-chan!" Naruto shouted in fear.

Sarah smirked as she wiped the blood off of her face, "Summoning jutsu!"

A large cat came dashing out of the tree and quickly picked Sarah up, setting her on the ground. Sarah grinned as she quickly healed her wounds, "You're not the only one with a summoning contract, dickwad!"

Sarah stood up as she clenched her fist tightly, "You know what to do Nekobata."

The ninneko nodded as he dashed off into the distance. Sarah stared the giant snake dead in the eyes as she dashed over towards it, springing up into the air and landing a devastating blow to its snout with her fist.

Naruto sprung into action and immediately charged at Orochimaru, using his multi shadow clone jutsu to attack him. Sasuke dashed in and used his Sharingan to copy and redirect his movements. Sarah grabbed the snake by its scales and threw it at Orochimaru with all her might.

"Eat shit sucker!"

Naruto and Sasuke jumped out of the way as the incoming snake hit Orochimaru head on. Orochimaru crashed through several trees, spitting the heaven scroll out on impact. Sarah quickly snatched the scroll and jumped back.

"We need to run, now!"

"Can't you use one of your weird ass glyphs to make us invisible?" Sasuke asked her.

"Yeah but it won't work against someone like him! You two can't even mask your chakra signatures much less hold your breath for several minutes at a time!" Sarah responded.

"We're fucking dead!" Naruto exclaimed.

Sarah quickly grabbed her two teammates by their collars and ran off into the distance. They were able to make it a good way towards the tower before Orochimaru caught up to them.

"I'll say I'm impressed that you were able to land a hit on me girl, unfortunately for you that will be the only time I'll let that happen."

Orochimaru shot his tongue out and grabbed Naruto with it. Sarah quickly turned around and sliced it with her kunai, snatching Naruto in the process. Letting her teammates go, Sarah pulled out another scroll from her bag and pulled out a katana with it.

"Sasuke, Naruto, take the heaven scroll and run! I'll take care of him!"

"We're not leaving you behind!" Naruto shouted.

"We're suppose to be a team, and that means we got to stick together no matter what." Sasuke started to form handsigns, "Katon: Great Fireball Jutsu!"

Sasuke spat out a giant fireball from his mouth and directed it at Orochimaru, the snake fleeing as the fireball impacted the ground. Naruto formed handsigns and swung some clones over towards his direction, each of them holding out several explosive tags. Orochimaru tried to dodge them all but ended up getting burnt by an explosion. Sarah used this as an opportunity to sneak in and slice one of his arms with her sword.

"Gah!" Orochimaru grabbed onto his arm in pain.

Sarah smirked, "I guess I was able to test my new concoction out after all."

"You brat!" Orochimaru hissed as he extended his neck out towards Sarah in an attempt to bite her.

Sarah quickly ducked as Orochimaru's face made an impact on a nearby tree. Naruto used this as a prime opportunity to snatch some seals out of Sarah's scroll and attach it to the Sannin, watching as he slowly was engulfed in a mixture of four elements. Fire. Light. Earth. Ice.

The trio quickly evacuated as the Sannin exploded, chunks of flesh and blood flying everywheres. Eventually they stopped at a nearby lake to rest and recover from their battle.

"Naruto...what you did back there has to be the single most stupidest thing I have ever seen." Sasuke smirked, "You have my respect."

Naruto chuckled, "I would've been dead had it not been for Sarah-chan saving me."

"Shit..I think I broke a few ribs," Sarah winced as she felt a familiar tingle course through her. She slowly began to heal her ribs with her mana, "Sasuke you're pretty fucking smart, being able to snap out of Orochimaru's killing intent AND spitting that huge ass fireball at him."

"As if you wouldn't have tried to do that yourself," Sasuke responded.

Sarah shrugged, "Eh fair enough."

"So what exactly is the plan here? Do we go and head towards the towers or just wait here and stay for the night?" Naruto asked.

"I already sent my summons out to alert the examiners about Orochimaru's presence. It's only a matter of time now for them to track us down and take us to safety. In the meantime we should probably rest here for the night and set up some traps," Sarah explained as she tossed two scrolls over towards Naruto, "Your specialty is pranks, right? So use that to your advantage. Sasuke and I will set up camp."

Naruto nodded as he quickly got to work. Sarah got up off the ground and began to help her teammate set up camp. She was lucky enough to come out of their previous battle mostly uninjured, especially considering the three of them went up against a Sannin.

Orochimaru most likely wasn't dead. He probably had some contingency plan in case something were to happen. He's smart, Sarah will admit, but his insanity is clouding his judgement heavily.

"I wonder why one of the legendary Sannin chose to attack us three specifically?" Sasuke asked.

"Mm..perhaps he could be after your Sharingan or Naruto, since he is..you know..." Sarah made a few hand gestures, "A jinchurriki."

"Fair point," Sasuke said before looking down at the ground in anger, "I wish I hadn't been so...weak back there..I let you and Naruto get hurt just from defending me..."

"It's fine, everyone has their moments." Sarah grasped onto a tree branch tightly, "I know I had..."

.

.

.

One of the Chuunins grabbed Sarah by her hoodie and held her up as the other two went on to attacking Naruto. Sarah was gasping for air, attempting to reach for her pouch. The Chuunin holding her saw this and slammed her up against the wall. Sarah had no choice but to watch as her best friend was being beaten up for essentially no reason.

"Why are they doing this? Aren't they suppose to be protecting us?"

No matter how much Sarah trained and practice, she would never be strong enough to protect those she cared about. She was weak, useless... She always had to rely on Nemuri to get them out of trouble. Why couldn't she defend herself?

Sarah slowly reached into the Chuunins kunai pouch and grabbed a sharp object out from it. Before the Chuunin holding her could react Sarah stabbed him in the side, causing the Chuunin to let her go. Falling onto the ground, Sarah coughed as she held the bloodied kunai in her hand. The duo saw this and started coming towards her. Sarah used her other hand to open up her pouch and pull out two seals.

She slammed the two pieces of paper into the ground, vines coming out and wrapping themselves around her attackers. The remaining Chuunin quickly got up and lunged at her to attack, Sarah using the kunai she had stolen as a weapon to take the man down. She threw it at the man and hit him in the head, his body collapsing onto the floor.

The other two Chuunin made their way out of the vines, one of them forming hand signs to some unknown jutsu. Sarah rushed at him and quickly punched him in the face, sending him flying down the alleyway into another building. She then pulled out another seal and used the light coming from it to blind the remaining Chuunin, using it as a distraction for Sarah to punch the man in the face.

A crater formed beneath the man, his skull crushed into the pavement. Sarah breathed heavily as she watched the blood drip from her fist. All she wanted to do was to go watch a movie with her friend. That's all she wanted to do. Why did they have to ruin it for her?

Looking back over towards Naruto, Sarah saw how badly beaten the boy was. She wished there was something more she could do to help. She wished that she had some power..ANY power to heal him.

"So do something about it!" Nemuri cried out in rage.

Sarah nodded. She quickly rushed back over towards her best friends side and held his body in her arms. She sobbed uncontrollably as she watched Naruto struggle to breathe. Why did she have to be so fucking useless?

.

.

.

"That's why I train my ass off to make sure nothing bad could ever happen to those I love," Sarah threw the tree branch into a nearby pile, "Maybe you could perhaps ask Kakashi-sensei for some extra lessons?"

"Hm.." Sasuke calmed down, "Alright.."

Naruto eventually came back and threw some tree branches onto the ground, "The traps are all set!"

"Excellent. I'll take first watch," Sarah said as she used a fire seal to light the branches aflame, "No objections."

"Hm. Fine enough," Sasuke said before laying down on the ground.

Naruto yawned as he laid down beside Sasuke, "Alright, good night Sarah-chan!"

"Night," Sarah said as she watched her two teammates fall asleep.

Eventually the Anbu and their exam proctor, Anko found and took the trio back to the tower. Luckily enough their injures weren't major (thanks to Sarah being a medic) and they were able to get some rest. The next day the trio had to relive their experience fighting Orochimaru, answering questions about everything that had just went down.

They got the two scrolls needed to pass, so that was a small bonus. Iruka forced his way into the room and engulfed Naruto and Sarah in a hug.

"You two scared me to death! What were you both thinking?"

Naruto chuckled as he forced (or manhandled) Sasuke into the hug, "We kind of had no choice. That crazy snake bastard was trying to kill us! If it wasn't for Sarah-chan we would've been minced meat!"

Sarah rolled her eyes, "You practically ripped a giant snake open and Sasuke over there managed to land a few hits in. I can't exactly take all the credit here."

"You did defeat him Naruto," Sasuke pointed out, "The most we did was distract him."

Naruto grinned, "He exploded!"

Iruka's face paled. Kakashi had to step in and escort the young Chuunin out of the room.

"So..." Naruto paused for a few seconds before continuing, "Does fighting a Sannin qualify us for Chuunin?"

"I highly doubt that. At least we only have one more round of these exams left," Sasuke responded.

"Good, I'm fucking exhausted." Sarah laid back down on the hospital bed and yawned, "Wake me up when the next couple of days pass, I need to regain my energy."

Sasuke nodded, "Will do."

And after that Sarah drifted off into a dreamless sleep...

-

"Sarah you are a fucking idiot," a familiar voice said from in the distance, "Going up against someone much more powerful than you? Not once but twice? I ought to be ashamed."

"Where the hell have you been?" Sarah asked her, "Last time I checked you bailed on me."

"Well your mana reserves didn't automatically grow themselves you know. Seriously, stop villainizing me for abandoning you," Nemuri said as they appeared in Sarah's subconscious wearing the exact same tattered clothes she fell asleep in, "I was busy."

Sarah scoffed, "Busy doing what?"

"This," Nemuri snapped their fingers. A purple diamond appeared in the middle of Sarah's forehead, "Working on completing THAT."

"The byakugou... How do you know about it?" Sarah was shocked.

With the snap of a finger the seal quickly vanished, "Your memories are linked with mine. I've seen you reading that book and trying to figure out just how to achieve such an incredible feat. News flash; it requires storing years worth of chakra - or mana in your case."

"My reserves?" Sarah asked.

"Well let's just say your inhumane strength didn't come out of nowhere," Nemuri chuckled, "Although I didn't expect you to expand your skill set out of the things I've taught you."

"I needed to become stronger," Sarah responded.

"You sound just like that damn Uchiha," Nemuri quickly shapeshifted into Sasuke, "I must become stronger to defeat my brother Itachi and restore honor to my clan. Seriously, what is up with everyone trying to become stronger?"

"You wouldn't understand," Sarah retorted, "You're an ancient ass demon!"

"I'm not a demon, Sarah, but I do know a thing or two about humans and strength; you will loose yourself to the madness while trying to get stronger," Nemuri warned Sarah before wrapping their arms around her neck, "Thats the single mistake all humans make, including yourself."

Suddenly Sarah's wrist weights disappeared, revealing arms covered in faint scars.

"You're nothing special," Nemuri said, "While I do admire your goal, it'll be impossible to obtain if you keep going at the rate you currently are."

"And what do you suppose I do?" Sarah asked.

"Take things slow and don't pressure yourself. Haven't you heard the saying 'good things come to those who wait'? It's true you know!" Nemuri responded as they released their grasp on Sarah.

Sarah sighed, "I suppose you do have a point."

"As always~" Nemuri chuckled, "Hm..I suppose this will be the last time we chat for a while. That seal isn't exactly going to work on itself!"

"Why do you and Kakashi always have to be so mysterious?!?" Sarah exclaimed.

"Well it just adds to the fun in tormenting you," Nemuri responded as they flicked Sarah's forehead, "Goodbye! Also don't use my damn technique without my permission anymore!"

Sarah's body disappeared back into the realm of consciousness. Nemuri smiled before looking back at the endless void, "Now...let's see what kind of shit my host will get into..."