An avengers strife for power

Naruto and Ino followed the scream inot the forest. It wasn't far, since they were able to hear it, and just after a few moments, they got to a small clearing between the trees.

Naruto gritted his teeth in anger as he saw the scene: Right there in the middle of the clearing stood Sasuke. He had twisted on of Sakuras arms behind her back and held a kunai in front of her. He had obviously expected them to arrive, as he glared right at them.

The two remaining members of Team 7 landed in the clearing, some few feet away from Sasuke. The fear and shock in Sakuras face was evident, she had not expected to be held by Sasuke in this way. She was practically a hostage. "Sasuke! Let her go!", Ino yelled at the Uchiha, her concern for Sakura obvious.

But Sasuke didn't even bother to pay attention to Ino. "You have the Earth Scroll, don't you? Naruto!", he adressed Naruto. His knowledge of those two things was not something he could've found it himself.

Sakura averted her eyes in shame. It appeared as if she had told Sasuke all that. "I-I do, but...", Naruto answered hesitantly.

Letting go of Sakuras arm, Sasuke held out his free hand, his kunai still dangerously close to Sakura. He wagged the finger, motioning Naruto to hand it over. "Give it to me. I need it to become a Chuunin.", he said simply.

"Is that why you've attacked Sakura? Sasuke, you...", Ino gritted her teeth, for the first time seriously outraged at Sasuke. Ever since Ino had chosen Naruto, her rivalry with Sakura had pretty much vanished and the two had become rather friendly with each other again, even if there still was some sort of a friendly animosity left.

Sasuke shook his head. He did not consider this to be unfair behaviour. He had a clear goal, and to accomplish it, he would do everything. "I cannot fail here.". He closed his eyes as he seemed to remember something. "I have an ambition, and for that reason, I have to gain power. I need to become stronger.", he explained before opening his eyes anew.

"Naruto... I want to fight you, too.", the Uchiha growled and his eyes flashed red. Naruto and Ino stared at him for a moment, for they had never seen anything like this before.

Recalling the name of it, Ino gasped. "Is that... the Sharingan?", she muttered, her voice breathless. Ino knew well about her classmates power, her dad having told her all he knew about the Uchiha clan. But she hadn't seen Sasuke with the Sharingan before, until now.

And even if she had no idea of how powerful exactly it was, she thought it better not to find out now. Especially not with her friends life on the line. "Naruto! Give him the scroll, please!", Ino pleaded with Naruto.

Of course, Naruto had exactly the same idea. He wouldn't refuse and risk Sakuras health over this. "I get it, I get it... just don't do anything to Sakura, alright?"

Sakura however shook her head vigorously. "No, don't! We're gonna fail the exam if we lose our scroll!", she begged her teammates, thinking their success to be far more important than herself.

But her teammates didn't think the same way. Ino shrugged her shoulders. "So what? We can take the exam again, next time. But we're gonna do it together, Sakura.", she told her with a confident smile.

Both Sasuke and Sakura stared at Ino for those words. "Ino...", Sakura said weakly.

Naruto nodded. "She's right. The title of the Hokage can wait. And I don't want it if it means abandoning you here, Sakura-chan!", he proclaimed firmly, not a single moment of hesitance or doubt in his mind. He valued his friends much more than such a scroll.

"Naruto...". Sakuras voice was now not much more then a sniffling sound.

Pulling the scroll out of his jacket, the blonde ninja showed the still sealed scroll to Sasuke, who nodded, satisfied with the way things were turning out. Naruto, scroll in hand, slowly made his way towards Sasuke, moving slowly to avoid rousing the Uchiha. He was about halfway there when a chuckle was heard.

"Oh, there you are. Have you any idea how long it took me to find you, hmm?", a voice echoed through the clearing.

"Who's there?", Naruto yelled, but the voice only chuckled more.

Similar to the others, Sasuke got unnerved, Hectically, he threw his head into every direction, hoping to see the onlooker with his sharingan. "Come out and show yourself, you coward!", he challenged the voice.

"I intend to do just that...", the voice said, but this time, there was no echo as whoever owned that voice was drawing closer to them...