After the battle, Arata and his team hid among the trees. Exhaustion weighed heavy on their bones. The Forest of Death in the Chūnin Exams offered no respite; every leaf seemed to watch them, every shadow breathed danger.
They had fought and survived… for now.
The air smelled of blood and damp earth.
Arata slumped against a tree trunk, panting. Rei kept watch on their surroundings, while Tsubaki cleaned the edge of her kunai with hands that trembled ever so slightly.
"If we keep going like this, we won't even make it to the third day," Rei murmured.
"We have to make it," Arata replied. "I don't plan on dying in this forest."
He fell silent for a few seconds. Something had been eating away at him for days, and he couldn't hold it back any longer.
"Hey…" he said suddenly, looking at both of them. "Why are you with Orochimaru? What made you work for him?"
Tsubaki's hands stilled. The question landed like a physical blow in the forest's silence.
For a moment, Arata thought she wouldn't answer.
But she spoke.
"It wasn't by choice." Her voice was low, devoid of resentment, holding only weariness. "In my village, the Village of Poppies, everyone was getting sick. A poison in the water, they said. The weakest were dying… my little brother among them."
She swallowed hard.
"I went to look for help. Doctors, ninja, anyone. No one came. Until the men from the Sound appeared. They said they could save those who were left… if I followed them. And I did."
She shrugged, but her voice trembled.
"When I arrived in Otogakure, I learned the truth. They weren't curing people… they were experimenting. Orochimaru promised me that if I survived, I would gain enough power to change things." Her eyes hardened. "And I believed him."
Silence returned, heavier than before.
Arata felt a sharp pang in his chest. This wasn't the story of a villainess… but of someone who had bet her life on a sliver of hope.
"I'm sorry," he said, sincerely.
Tsubaki shook her head. "Don't be. Just make it worth it."
Before Rei could speak, a thunderous roar shook the forest.
A pillar of smoke rose in the distance, and the ground vibrated beneath their feet.
"What the hell was that?!" Arata exclaimed, getting to his feet.
"An explosion," Rei said, drawing her kunai. "Very close."
The roar came seconds later: deep, wet, unmistakable.
Snakes.
"No…" Arata whispered, his heart hammering against his ribs. "Not now."
They moved through the undergrowth until they reached a low hill. From there, they saw everything.
Among the trees, a black-haired boy was fighting desperately against a ninja from Grass.
But Arata knew who it really was.
Orochimaru.
"Shit…" he whispered, frozen. "It's happening."
Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura, and the disguised ninja were arguing, the tension thick. The scroll gleamed in the boy's hand.
And just as Sasuke was about to hand it over, a blond figure burst through the trees, shouting:
"Don't give him anything, Sasuke!" —Naruto.
The echo of his voice cut through the forest.
"We need to leave, guys," Arata said in a low voice, his body tensing. "This is about to get ugly."
But Tsubaki didn't move.
"Wait," she said, pointing a finger. "That boy… Orochimaru-sama said we were to observe him."
Arata shook his head firmly.
"It's not necessary." He pointed at the supposed Grass ninja. "Orochimaru-sama is already here. He will handle it."
Rei and Tsubaki looked at him, incredulous.
"How do you know?" Rei asked. "How can you be sure?"
Before Arata could answer, a shout cut through the air.
"Orochimaru?" The voice came from the clearing.
Sasuke Uchiha was staring directly in their direction.
For an instant, Arata felt as if the Uchiha's eyes pierced the distance and saw right through him.
The air grew thicker, electric.
The serpent had just bared its fangs.
Arata swallowed hard.
He knew what was coming next.
And the mere thought of it made his skin crawl.
Fate… had just been set in motion.
The impact echoed like a whip-crack.
Naruto, his face tense and eyes blazing with fury, had slammed his fist into Sasuke.
The Uchiha's head snapped to the side from the blow, and for an instant, his gaze shifted away from the hill where Arata and his team were hiding.
Yet, something was seared into his mind.
A word.
A name.
Orochimaru.
The echo of that name reverberated within him, like a discordant note he couldn't comprehend.
Below, the confrontation continued. The supposed Kusagakure ninja—Orochimaru in disguise—watched the scene with a blood-chilling smile.
And when his eyes lifted towards the hill, Arata's eyes met his.
For an eternal second, time seemed to stop.
A single glance was all it took for Arata's body to tense.
The feeling was identical to standing before a giant serpent: you knew that if you breathed wrong, it would strike.
"Shit…" he whispered, taking half a step back.
Tsubaki swallowed hard; Rei clenched her fists.
At that moment, Naruto's shout shattered the tension.
"Coward!" he roared, lunging at Sasuke with eyes that were blazing, iridescent, wild. There was no red chakra, but the Kyūbi's power pulsed in his gaze, a primal, impossible-to-ignore glow.
Rei watched the scene, surprised.
"So… that's the Kyūbi kid."
Arata nodded without looking away.
"Yes… and he's not even using a fraction of its power."
Below, the fight erupted with brutal intensity.
Naruto attacked driven by rage, instinct, and an inner fire impossible to contain. Sasuke yelled, defending himself, confused by the power emanating from his teammate.
And Orochimaru—or whatever remained beneath the disguise—watched it all with an almost sick fascination.
The roar of a snake tore through the air.
Naruto was sent flying, unconscious, his body hitting the ground.
Sasuke fell to his knees, gasping, but his eyes burned with his newly awakened Sharingan.
"It's getting late," Arata murmured, looking at the sky beginning to tinge with orange. "We need to go."
But before they could move, a voice froze them.
A voice all too familiar.
The disguise of the Kusagakure ninja burned away in the flames, and from the smoke emerged the serpent's true face.
Pale. Perfect. Inhuman.
"We will meet again soon, Sasuke-kun…" Orochimaru whispered, his voice slithering through the trees. "Before that, you will have to face my Sound Ninja…"
Rei and Tsubaki exchanged a tense look.
"'Sound Ninja'…?" Tsubaki murmured. "Does he mean… us?"
Arata didn't answer. He watched silently as Sasuke looked up, his mind connecting the threads.
That name…
The same one he had heard from the three hiding on the hill.
"He's exposed us…" Rei whispered.
"It doesn't matter," Arata said finally, turning halfway. "Our part doesn't start here. That's Dosu's team's job. Let's go."
They began to move away, delving deeper into the thick forest. Night fell upon them, covering them like a thick blanket.
Behind them, the air vibrated with a choked cry.
Arata turned for one last look.
In the distance, Orochimaru elongated his neck like an impossible shadow, his fangs gleaming with a metallic flash.
And before a Sasuke frozen in fear, he sank his teeth into his neck.
The Uchiha's scream pierced the forest.
Tsubaki looked away. "I can't get used to… his gaze," she whispered, shuddering. "It's like he strips your soul bare."
Rei nodded silently, his expression hardened.
"What if he really makes us fight them?" he asked quietly. "What if our target is them?"
Arata kept his gaze fixed on the horizon, where the echo of the scream still resonated.
"Then," he said firmly, "it will be Dosu and his team's turn. We… are just observers."
The darkness enveloped them as they moved away, and among the branches, the chirping of insects mingled with the distant echo of a slithering laugh.