(A/N): currently unedited cuz not enough time. There'll probably be a painful amount of typos and missing letters. Also my fantasy novel is out! Please check it out if you like that genre of novels!

"I've had it."

"Sakura!"

Sakura dropped to her knees, panting as she tried to catch her breath. "For crying out loud how far have we walked?" She complained, looking up beyong the dark line of trees at the tower. "The tower hasn't gotten any closer."

(Y/N) grimaced, as they all came to a stop. She followed her teammates' gazes to the tower right in front of them in the distance, squinting. Strange. We have been walking for hours yet we haven't come any closer. My eyesight should have been able to calculate the distance, with no margin of error.

Something's fishy.

Nighttime had long fallen on them, darkening the frightening forest with the moon as their only source of light. They had been walking for hours already, hoping to reach the tower before nightfall put them at a disadvantage, but it was to no avail.
The tower still seemed out of their reach, yet somehow close enough that they should have been able to get to it in a matter of minutes.

So far (Y/N)'s eyesight had helped with keeping them on the right path, as she was the only one that could still see somewhat clearly in the dark. However, it was getting tiring to be constantly on alert, senses fully stretched out to keep her teammates and the extra safe.

"We can see it right in front of our eyes!" Naruto exclaimed with a whine. "Strange..."

Sasuke and (Y/N) shared a glance, "Certainly. "No mistake about it."

Kabuto furrowed his brows, "It seems we're already within our enthusiastic welcome." He asserted, looking around.  "Take a look at that."

The children followed his finger and gasped when spotting the bug they had struck down hours upon hours ago.
(Y/N) gaped and clicked her tongue furiously. How could I not notice?!

Naruto choked up, jaw dropping , "That can't be! What on earth is going on?!"

Sakura jumped up, gaping at the huge millipedes, "No way!" She exclaimed, arms raised. 

"Is it Genjutsu?" Sasuke asked warily, furrowing his brows.

Kabuto sighed, a tight annoyed smile on his face. "So it seems. We were lured in perfectly. It appears we were meticulously careful and we were made to walk around in a circle."

You don't say! (Y/N) growled in annoyance. She crossed her arms, rubbing her temples. No wonder the tower was looking funky! I thought I saw it flicker once or twice, thought it might be my tired eyes.

"We're being watched." Sasuke concluded, narrowing his eyes. "(Y/N)?"

The Ryudo nodded, looking around with sharp pupils and sniffing. It wasn't of much good if they were in a genjutsu, but it definitely told her what was supposed to be right and wasn't. "Obviously. They intend to wear us down and catch us unprepared when we're tired. It's a bit of a stupidly long strategy, a waiting game, but they're playing it well."

Sasuke huffed amusedly, smirking slightly. "If so, then this follows the enemy strategy."

Kabuto paused at them for a moment, and then looked around with narrowed black eyes. "Then they'll be coming soon."

The five of them held their breath for a moment, listening to the dark of the forest.

(Y/N) looked around intently, sharpened pupils glinting slightly in the dark. Then she noticed something strange on the surface of the trees; it seemed to be moving.
She growled slightly, grabbing the others' attention as shinobi sprouted from the ground and trees, wearing masks around their mouths.

The children huffed, lowering into stances automatically. 
Sasuke smirked, "Hmph. They've appeared."

"This is the best handicap, believe it!" Naruto exclaimed, undeterred by the sudden threat.
On the contrary, he was all the more excited.

(Y/N) chuckled slightly, moving to cover Sakura's back. "Agreed."

Despite the excitement, the children tensed as the amount of clones continued to increase.
"W-what's with this?!" Sakura exclaimed nervously.

"It's quite a number." Kabuto agreed, pursing his lips. "Moreover, they're clones?"

One of the clones laughed condescendingly, "Cornered rats."

Naruto clenched his jaw angrily, throwing a punch at the closest clone. "Shut up!"

(Y/N) narrowed her eyes as the clone went flying easily, as Sakura cheered in relief. That was too easy.
Of course, it couldn't be that simple.

As the momentum drove Naruto further, his fist tore through the body of the shinobi as if it were slime, goooy dark slime dripping off of his fist.
Naruto gasped, as he continued to fall and smacked his face on the ground.

"Naruto!" (Y/N) exclaimed worriedly, wincing at the hard smacking sound. She watched in horror as the shinobi's body dripped, and through the hole Naruto had torn sprouted another torso, holding a kunai. What the damn fuck?!?! That is seriously disturbing. First the snake, now this, what's next?!

Sasuke clenched his teeth, narrowing his eyes. I'll asses this. Sharingan! The boy turned on the doujutsu quite easily, staring intently as the bizarre body moved.
(Y/N) spotted the second torso turning around to slash at Naruto just in time, as Sasuke and herself threw shruiken out to stop the limb's movement.
"Naruto!"

Naruto barely had the chance to look back with confusion and a gasp as the arm holding the kunai was ripped into pieces by the shruiken, goo dripping everywhere. (Y/N) shivered. Well, that's a problem.

The bizarre shaped shinobi turned around the glare at them, kunai instead being thrown at Sasuke, who gritted his teeth and narrowed his eyes. And then panicked slightly when he realized he couldn't move.

Shit move out of the way you idiot! (Y/N)'s gaze moved to Sasuke, catching a peek of the dark mark on his neck, flaring up. Ah shit. Kunai hurtling towards a paralyzed Sasuke she shoved him to the ground before Kabuto could tackle him. She stumbled a bit, clicking her tongue. Sasuke landed on his butt harshly, kunai whizzing past above his head and cutting off a small piece of his black mane.

He growled in annoyance, a retort on his lips, then he realized he couldn't say anything either, in a panic. What's going on?! My b-body.!
Sakura quickly crouched beside him, helping him sit up and asking, "Are you okay?"

(Y/N) frowned, guard raised as she got closer to Naruto, back to back, glancing around as the shinobi closed in on them. She looked at Sasuke, worried as he shook his head in dismissal at Sakura's questions. The mark. He still has it. Of course he does you dumbass (Y/N)! There's no one who can dispel it for him! I was just lucky...

"Scroll please."

"Scroll please."

"Scroll please."

Naruto clenched his teeth, confused and alert, "Since Kabuto was injured, does that mean these are Shadow Clones after all? B-but Shadow Clones are supposed to vanish if they take a direct attack; these things don't vanish! Does that mean it's a genjutsu after all?! Which is it?!"

He's got a point. It must be a mix of both. No they must be... (Y/N) looked for the kunai the shinobi had thrown, finding it already in Kabuto's hands. Like her, he seemed to have come to a conclusion as he studied the blade. "Both." (Y/N) replied with a grimace.

Naruto cursed, raising a kunai to strike the closest shinobi, but Sasuke stopped him. "It's futile, stop it! These things are illusions, it's an enemy genjutsu." He exclaimed with furrowed brows.

Sakura gaped in confusion, "B-but Sasuke's hair was cut for real!"

Kabuto shook his head, closing his eyes. "No, it's as they say. The enemy is probably hiding somewhere and coordinating their attack with the movements of the genjutsu shinobi, attacking from a different location. Pretending as if those genjutsu shinobis are the ones attacking."

(Y/N) huffed at that, pursing her lips. Not that it was difficult to figure out really. Kinda obvious. The impressive thing was making it seem real enough to trick her senses, or at least hide the real body from her.

"Then I'll find the idiot who's behind the scenes and kick his butt, believe it!" Naruto exclaimed angrily.

"Hold it Naruto. We've been deceived as to the source of the kunai, so we can't discover the precise location of the enemy like this. Do you get it? That is the enemy's objective. From a data standpoint, it's a type who is weak at close combat and taijutsu that likes this kind of attack. The true enemy won't come out until we can't move at all." Kabuto explained. "Listen everyone, in any case, all there is to do now is to fend off the enemy attack."

That doesn't sound efficient at all. (Y/N) scoffed, furrowing her brows. Damn, it'd be useful now if one of us knew genjutsu. We could use our own version of it to trick them.

Naruto gritted his teeth, furrowing his brows. "Fine, if that's their plan..."

The fake shinobi quickly started to attack them, throwing kunai one after the other. Sakura shielded her face with her own kunai, while the others dodged, moving out of the way.

"This is ridiculous!" (Y/N) exclaimed throwing her hands up as she dodged a kunai. Isn't there something we can do? Our own version our own version.... Ah!! Of course I'm a fool! Can't believe it took me so long to think about it! She nudged Naruto in the ribs, whispering something in his ear with an evil grin.

Naruto gasped and facepalmed. "Of course!" He grinned, determined. "Since it's come to this.."

"Wait you two, don't waste your chakra!" Kabuto urged, trying to stop them. "Even if you attack these things there's no point!"

(Y/N) rolled her eyes at him. Okay, I'm seriously getting tired of this guy. It almost seems like he wants to see how long we can hold out for.. weird. Analyzing us....She scoffed. "We are just taking a page out of their book."

Naruto nodded, grinning widely as he signed. "If we hit them all in one sweep, the enemy won't fire inadvertently while these things are reverting back! So the hiding place will be discovered."

The two knuckleheads grinned, hands moving quickly. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

More than a dozen copies of (Y/N) and Naruto appeared into their view,accompanined by tell tale smoke. The clones ran at the enemies, attacking swiftly and destroying them, even as they regenerated.
(Y/N) clenched her teeth. Damn, they regenerate in about five seconds! But.. he. She suppressed a smirk, knowing the plan was working. Really, should have thought of this from the start.

"Sasuke, what should we do..?" Sakura asked, frowning.

Sasuke cursed under his breath. "Man, those idiots. All there is to do is go for ti!"
"B-but"
"Indeed.. It's not a situation they can get through by themselves." Kabuto added with furrowed brows, gripping his own kunai.

The others threw themselves into the fray, slashing viciously. (Y/N)'s clones were swift and agile, taking out chains and slashing the enemies at great speed, even as they regenerated.

The original clicked her tongue furiously, resting behind a tree for a moment as she tried to think. She tried to pinpoint the location of the real enemies, but she couldn't quite get it right. If they are able to hide from my senses, they must know what I'm capable of, which is... weird. Not a lot of people know. Hm. Suspicious. Doesn't matter either way. As soon as they reveal themselves we'll strike. Besides, if we do it right, we'll have enough time to rest.

It took longer to draw them out than (Y/N) had hoped. Some hours later, the team fell to the ground, pretending to be worn out as the clones poofed away. Naruto and (Y/N) gritted their teeth, trying to stand back up.
And then the fake enemies swirled away, disappearing and revealing the real enemies. Another three man team from Amegakure.

"You're the one who did that to my left shoulder. I finally found you. You really hung me up. Lucky. I can finally even the score." The leader said, eager as he raised a kunai, staring coldly at Sasuke.

The teams stared at each other for a moment, glaring. And then Naruto snickered and (Y/N) grinned, bumping shoulders.

"Cornered rats." Sasuke's voice repeated their own words back at them smugly, from behind a tree.

"It went well (Y/N)!" Sakura exclaimed with a giggle.

As the team panted, Naruto and (Y/N) smirked confidently. The real versions of their comrades made their appearance swiftly, right behind the enemies.

"W-what the heck are these guys?! This can't be!"

"Since when-?!"

Naruto snickered, "Idiot. You finally showed your true colors punk!"

(Y/N) snorted haughtily, as the two of them let go of the transformation jutsu. Their comrades who had been crouching beside them poofed into smoke and revealed their clones, two Narutos and one (Y/N) with large grins on their faces.

"T-these brats! Don't tell me-!" The shinobi exclaimed raspily through his mask.

"The Shadow Clone was just the preparation for the trick for us to portray every member of the team!" Naruto explained with a victorious grin. The plan had been partially of (Y/N)'s making, but Naruto nailed it down with the Transformation Jutsu. (Y/N) really was proud of him for that; back when they had done the exam he couldn't transform a normal clone or himself, but now he did both so easily!

"At the same time they lifted the Shadow Clone, the three of us hid. The genjutsu users were adversely deceived." Sasuke added with a smug smirk, eyes still in their Sharingan form.

(Y/N) huffed with a smile, breath slightly ragged. I'm tired... Those were a lot of clones for too long. Beside her Naruto winced and dropped to his knees.

Sasuke quickly noticed and frowned, in barely hidden concern, "Naruto! You've used too much chakra. I'll do the rest." He reassured him, but Naruto was already lunging at the shinobi, punching one and sending him flying all into the ground like dominos.

(Y/N) smirked proudly, crossing her arms, as she brushed the dirt off her. "Tired or not, we're not getting outdone by you this time."

Kabuto, Sakura, and Sasuke gasped in surprise at Naruto's resilience even when run ragged and exhausted.

"No way! I'm not always going to have the good parts taken away!" Naruto exclaimed with a raised fist, panting.

(Y/N) smiled, feeling warm and fuzzy inside. Good, we defeated them. And as usual, Naru's great. She looked at the other's surprised looks and noticed Sasuke's hardened eyes, rolling her own (E/C) eyes.

Is this that Naruto? Since when had he improved this much? Sasuke thought, brows furrowed.

Sakura gasped his name in awe and surprise, glancing between both (Y/N) and Naruto. Whoah, (Y/N) has always been strong, but Naruto really has progressed a lot!

Kabuto in particular stared Naruto with a certain amount of surprise and shock, as if he didn't expect so much from him. Amazing chakra stamina.. both of them! Right after a multiple shadow clone jutsu, a daring techique that transforms just two of the bodies into his companions. To think he can still move even after doing all that. Here it's the fifth day now. This kid will transform if he can just master the use of his chakra... And the other one is not nearly as tired as him! Remarkable!

"Not bad. But we're still not unlucky!" The leader of the opposing team said through his mask, as the other two followed his lead and formed a hand signal. "There's no time. This time around we'll shouw our Ninjutsu!"

(Y/N) sighed heavily. Oh come on give up already!

"Ninja Art: Fog Clone jutsu!" The Ame shinobi exclaimed in synch, weaving hand signs. Like germs, they multiplied in a split second and soon there were dozens of copies of the Ame shinobis. (Y/N) growled lowly in annoyance, taking out another kunai out her quickly depleting pouch. Oh great.

"Shadow clones?" Naruto asked in confusion.

"No, they are plain clones. However he's up to something." Sasuke replied with a frown. "Be careful!"
"Hah! If they are just clones then there's a real body. I'll kick their butts left and right until I run into him."
"Idiot! Such a tactless thing-!" Sasuke protested.
"I'm saying don't stick your nose in!"

(Y/N) clicked her tongue at both of them, "Stop it!" She hissed, grabbing Naruto's collar and stopping him from lunging at the clones recklessly. Does everyone always forget I can tell them apart?! "This is no genjutsu! Lemme handle this you fools so we can save time!"

"Huh?!" Naruto exclaimed with a pout.

The clones frowned for a moment in confusion, as the girl was suddenly jumping towards them quickly, but instead of attacking, she was sniffing their clothes quickly. Sharp nose quickly detected nothing where there should have been, and with sharp ears she studied the clones. This all happened in less than a minute, and then (Y/N) smirked widely, a vicious sharp thing.

Sasuke could only attempt to do something with his Sharingan, quickly trying to locate the original faster, but as he used it pain burst from his neck in hot tendrils that made him shake on his knees. Since earlier, the nape of my neck hurts when I use the Sharingan. Maybe I used too much chakra. Dang it! Sasuke gritted his teeth and kept an impassive expression, fighting through the pain.

"I found you~" She sang teasingly, proceeding to jump behind one of the clones. But to everyone's momentary confusion, instead of attacking him she took out a paper tag swiftly and slammed her fist into the ground, "Dragon Style: Fire Cage Jutsu!"

Bright fire burst from her fist, breaking the ground into pieces of rocks and dirt. The flames swirled and wrapped into a fire sphere, effectively knocking out and trapping the shinobi, who had been quite unefficiently hiding under the ground. With a proud scoff, (Y/N) ignored the awed looks from the others as she looked into the hot flames sphere, gleaning a glimpse of the knocked out shinobi.

Naruto whooped and cheered for his friend, throwing his fists high, "YES! Nice going (Y/N)-chan!"

Sakura laughed in awed disbelief, and chuckled. "We're okay here you two!"

Kabuto had stopped halfway towards (Y/N) going to help her with the fight, but quickly halted when no one else made a move to. He soon realized it wasn't needed, because in less than a minute she had all three enemy shinobi trapped in what he could only describe as a swirling ball of fire that he could barely see through. The color of the flames flickered between reds and oranges, so bright and hot he could feel them even while standing feet away from it. That girl. She really is talented. I understand why he's interested now.

(Y/N) sighed with a fond smile, as Naruto continued to cheer for her and hugged her cheerfully. She giggled and pushed him away, "Come on, let's pickpocket them!"

She dragged a body out of the sphere and together with Naruto the two of them inspected all the bodies one by one, looking for the scroll. Aware of the sun rising quickly above them she cursed, rustling through their clothes faster.

The mix of genjutsu with real attacks had been infuriating for a while, but (Y/N) had figured it out in a spiffy and saved them all a great deal of time and pain in the butt with her quick thinking. She was more troubled by Sasuke's momentary paralysis and his obvious pain than anything else, along with Kabuto's suspicious actions during the fight. Trying to get in the way of an attack going for one of them twice, going out of his way to give advice and seem nice... he seemed to be trying to seem as inconscpicuous and frinedly aspossible, to be in their good books.

The fight had taken too long, but at least they had finished just in time to watch the sunrise and rest for a short while. Even as (Y/N) searched the bodies with Naruto, she took the chance to observe Kabuto carefully as he got close to Sasuke, standing over him.
There is something nasty about him. Why did he try to take a hit for Naruto and Sasuke? And the guys who attacked us, according to what Sakura told me, are the same ones who attacked us before while Sasuke and I were unconscious. I'm not letting him out of my sight.

It didn't matter much even if he was planning something (Y/N) thought. The bigger problem was Sasuke's mark. He had almost fallen to his knees in pain during the fight and become paralyzed for a couple of minutes, as the mark on his neck flared viciously. She admitted she was worried about him. They had to get that mark off soon.

Sasuke sat on the ground with Sakura standing close to him, keeping an eye on his neck and back, where Kabuto stood.

"What happened there? Are you hurt?" Kabuto asked suddenly, raising his brows as he spotted the mark on Sasuke's neck. "That's a terrible bruise."

Sasuke tensed, covering his neck and furrowing his brows. "It's nothing."

Nothing my ass. (Y/N) huffed, accidentally scratching one of the bodies with sharp nails. Oops.

"Here it is here it is! Look the Heaven Scroll!" Naruto exclaimed suddenly, standing up and waving the scroll at them.

(Y/N) immediately threw all the now useless unconscious bodies back into the still active Fire Cage with a large grin. "Nice!" Let them stay there for a few hours he. Karma.

Kabuto smiled, "Good for you!"

Sasuke stood up, looking at Kabuto closely with furrowed brows. There's something about this guy.. that I don't like. He glanced at (Y/N) who was already glaring at Kabuto with her arms crossed. Of course, she noticed from the start didn't she? Typical.

~~~><><><~~~

"Oh it's you guys. You're late Kabuto."

"I got a bit involved in something, sorry."

Finally reaching the tower took a few minutes, but they reached it fast enough. It wasn't as tall as it seemed initially, the windows were small and few in between, with only doors visible on the first level for them, the ones they were supposed to open and go through. (Y/N) and Sakura had one arm wrapped around Sasuke, helping him walk alongside them. He had been reluctant to accept help from either of them, but had ultimately given up when (Y/N) hissed at him threateningly.
Team 7 and their extra walked up the steps and neared the doors, smiling.

Kabuto's team conveniently showed up then. (Y/N) narrowed her eyes, studying them. Bodies conveniently completely covered, unrecognizable. But it does appear like he had a team after all.. maybe I was wrong? No. No way. I'm sure about it; Kabuto must be a spy of some kind.

"But, but thanks to you, we got both the scrolls!" Naruto piped up, leaning back his head on hsi arms, conveniently unaware of (Y/N)'s tense form beside him.

Kabuto turned around and smiled at them, "No, it's because you guys fought hard. You were amazing at the end Naruto." Kabuto praised, and Naruto visibly preened at the praise, smiling wide.

Huh. Now he's praising him.

"Well, we're going through this door. Well then, I wish us both luck." Kabuto declared, smiling and giving them a thumbs up.

(Y/N) couldn't be more glad to see this suspicious creep disappear with his team through the door. At least we're finally free of them.
She let out a relieved sigh as they went through the door and Naruto made a grab for their own.

The red door's seal tore and the four of them entered the wide room, closing the door behind them. There was only a single written poster on the wall, no furniture of any kind.

"There's nobody here." Naruto hummed as he looked around.
Sasuke grimaced and slipped out of Sakura and (Y/N)'s holds. "I'm okay now you two." He said, quickly squirming away as one rolled her eyes and the other smiled frustratingly.

"Say say what are we supposed to do?" Naruto asked, squinting in confusion.
They walked closer to the wall, spotting the writing on the poster.

"Oh! Look at that.." Sakura pointed out.

Naruto squinted at the writing, struggling to make out the characters. "Without.... heaven... I don't get it at all."

"If Heaven does not exist enrich your knowledge, prepare for the chance. If Earth does not exist, run the fields in search of an advantage. Open the series of Heaven and Earth and the perilous way shall be redressed. This is namely the secret of 'the one that guides'." Sakura read out swiftly.

"What's that?" Naruto asked completely clueless.
(Y/N) raised a brow, mouth twisting. "What a convoluted way of putting it huh?"

"It looks like there are letters or something missing there. It probably has to do something with the scrolls. I think this means we're supposed to open the Heaven and Earth scroll." Sakura explained.

(Y/N) hummed, taking out the Heaven Scroll as Naruto whipped out the Earth scroll. They all stared nervously at the scrolls as they peeled the edge.

"Okay, then. I'm going to open it!"