Not long afterwards Haruka sensed more shinobi nearby. It was the Kusa team with that creepy tongue guy. She'd rather have avoided him, but his team did have one of the earth scrolls. She was just about to inform the boys when a gust of wind, so strong that it ripped the foliage to shreds, hit all of them. In it's wake stood Tongue Guy, who had apparently sent his two comrades away.
Sasuke was right next to Haruka, but Naruto had somehow gotten separated from them. She eyed the Kusa nin for a moment, making sure that he was distracted taunting Sasuke with his Earth Scroll, and then told Jubei to go find Naruto, keep his scroll safe and stay out of the fight. That Tongue Guy was willing to take them on alone could just mean that he was very arrogant, but the power of that wind jutsu made her think otherwise.
Her suspicion was proven right a second later when a genjutsu washed over them. Thanks to the odd properties of her chakra she immediately knew that the pain she felt wasn't real, that Sasuke wasn't actually lying on the ground in a pool of his own blood, bones broken and limbs twisted at unnatural angles. And even with that almost instinctive knowledge, it still took a lot of effort and far longer than was save in a fight to break the genjutsu. She slapped Sasuke across the face the instant she managed, the sudden pain freeing him form the illusion as well. He went to his knees, bending over and vomiting. When he sat up again his Sharingan was active.
It didn't help any. The next thing the Kusa nin hit them with was a massive wave of killing intent. It had Sasuke shaking and Haruka joined him on the ground, pupils blown wide with terror and tears streaming down her face. She should have trusted her senses earlier.
"I'm disappointed in you Haruka-chan," Orochimaru said, genuinely sounding it. Next to her Sasuke tightened his grip on a kunai, standing up on shaky legs, but Haruka couldn't move. She just sat there, shaking like a leave in the wind, and stared at the monster that still sometimes haunted her dreams. She sat and stared, even as two kunai flew straight at her, and then Sasuke was suddenly in front of her.
"Cut it out! We need to run!" He yelled. He'd caught one of the projectiles, but the other had hit his leg, leaving a deep cut behind.
"You don't understand," she whispered. "He's just toying with us. He wont—"
She cut herself of, when she noticed the giant snake summon above their heads. Sasuke saw her looking up and pulled both of them out of the way. The snake hit the ground with a crash that didn't even slow it down. As it moved to strike at them again the fear coursing through Haruka's veins like ice finally tipped the scale between fight and flight. While Sasuke jumped backwards and threw a barrage of shuriken and kunai at the summon she stayed behind, waiting until the projectiles passed her and then following with a Body Flicker. She pulled the wakizashi she'd pilfered from that one ronin in Wave and drove it into the summon's brain the moment she landed on it's head. It's muscles slackened almost immediately and she leaped away again.
Sasuke's shoulders sagged in relief at the sight, but it didn't last long. The snake's corpse burst open close to it's neck, and out of the gore rose Orochimaru.
"You shouldn't relax this easily," he chuckled. "After all, you are prey, and prey should never stop trying to get away when in the presence of a predator." The Sannin elongated his body unnaturally, and then winding around the trunk of a tree like a snake, made his way upwards. He was mere meters away from Sasuke's position when three shuriken impacted the bark right in front of his head, making him pause. Naruto stood on a tree a little ways off, looking rather pleased with his aim, but Orochimaru wasn't at all bothered by his arrival.
"Run!" Haruka shouted at him, but of course he didn't listen. Instead he yelled some nonsense about defending the weak. Apparently the blond was under the impression that they actually had a chance in this fight.
"Don't be a fucking idiot! We're dead the moment he decides playing with us isn't fun anymore!"
The blond looked a little taken aback by that last declaration, but he stood his ground. Sasuke though seemed to have realized the danger they were in, even if his attempt to get them out of it was doomed to fail from the start. The Uchiha deactivated his Sharingan and offered to hand over their scroll without a fight if the Kusa shinobi let them go. Naruto screamed at him in outrage for even thinking about giving up, but the only thing Orochimaru did was chuckle and praise Sasuke's decision.
The blond wasn't in agreement at all. He jumped at the Uchiha, hitting him square in the face and growling that he had to be an imposter because there was no way the real Sasuke would be such a coward. It was an idiotic move, but then he actually followed it up with decent logic.
"I don't know how strong that guy is, but what guarantee is there that he'll actually let us go if we give him the scroll? You wanted to know what I learned in Wave? That people like Gato can't be trusted to keep their word, and this asshole is just like that!" Naruto followed that little speech up by telling Sasuke that he was the stupid one for being too afraid to understand the situation.
Haruka didn't know if she agreed with the last part. Sasuke's tactic wouldn't have worked, but at least he'd realized that they stood no chance in a fight. Not that Naruto cared what either of them thought. He pulled out a kunai and sprinted towards Orochimaru, completely ignoring Sasuke's shouted warning. The Sannin didn't even try to doge, instead biting his thumb and smearing the blood over a tattoo on his arm. The jutsu used so much chakra that the air around him started to spin and shimmer. And then he suddenly stood on the head of the biggest snake Haruka had ever seen. The beast had four horns, it's scales purple with thin black stripes and it's very appearance had ripped the tree Orochimaru had been standing on to pieces. The flying shreds of wood and bark hit Naruto, hard, knocking him out of his jump. While he fell his opponent told the snake to eat him as an appetizer.
"Eat shit!" The blond screamed in answer to that command. His features were more feral, pupils turned to slits, and Haruka could feel a more malevolent chakra seep out of his seal and mix with his own. Orochimaru looked stunned, but he didn't waste any time, clearly having recognized the new danger. He took a breath and then released it, forming another wind jutsu that slammed Naruto into a tree. She heard wood splinter, there wasn't any time to check if the blond was okay though. Orochimaru had decided Sasuke was his next target and Haruka had finally accepted that her teammates were too stupid to run.
She jumped in front of the Uchiha as the massive snake struck, concentrating all of her chakra in front of them to form a spiked barrier. The impact shoved her back several centimeters, even though she'd glued herself to the tree branch with chakra. Splintering wood flew everywhere, but then the snake halted, snout bloody and torn. Naruto jumped back into the fight a moment later, launching a volley of kunai at the snakes head. Orochimaru snatched him out of the hair with his tongue though.
"How interesting, I didn't know the Nine-Tails brat was still alive," he chuckled. He pulled Naruto's jacket up at the hem, exposing the seal on his stomach, and then slammed his other hand into it, somehow interrupting the chakra flow. Naruto's eyes went glassy, his body limp. Orochimaru threw him over his shoulder like a piece of trash, not sparing him a second glance. "If I'd known I could have had the real thing I wouldn't have bothered with you Haruka-chan. Ah, no matter you're not what I came back for anyway."
Haruka went after Naruto the second she felt Sasuke activate his Sharingan again. She had to use the Body Flicker several times, but managed to catch her teammate before he impacted with yet another tree. He was unconscious though and she couldn't just put him down somewhere. So instead she slung him over her shoulder and stayed out of Orochimaru's line of sight.
"Jubei," she called. The little tanuki had done as instructed, staying close, but not drawing attention to himself. "Go find someone from Konoha, anyone above genin level. Tell them Orochimaru is in the forest and then show them how to find us." Jubei nodded once and then leap into the trees, moving away at an impressive speed. She really hoped he'd reach someone before they were all dead.
Her had snapped back towards Sasuke when the smell of burning flesh hit her nose. She'd heard him use a fire jutsu earlier, but didn't think he'd hit. Whatever he'd done wasn't enough to stop Orochimaru though. The Sannin was laughing like a maniac, even as his head was smoking and melted skin dripped from his face. He formed a seal Haruka had never seen before and then his neck elongated, head speeding towards Sasuke and biting his shoulder. The Uchiha grabbed at the wound, gasping and shaking in pain.
"Seek me out if you want the power to kill your brother, Sasuke-kun," Orochimaru said, then he sunk into a tree and a moment later his chakra was gone. Haruka hurried over immediately, only somewhat hampered by Naruto's weight over her shoulder. Sasuke started to scream even before she reached him, eyes open wide, but unseeing. Under his skin a small trace of Orochimaru's chakra swirled and swirled, and then reformed itself into a seal. Sasuke collapsed the second it settled down, but Haruka swore out loud. She knew exactly what that thing was and now she had to protect two unconscious teammates.
Her chakra reserves were almost completely drained from all those Body Flickers and the barrier she had used to stop the snake earlier. They'd be easy pickings if anyone found them now, and the fact that she still had one of the Heaven Scrolls likely wouldn't save them either. Her best bet would be to hide and wait for the summon to bring help. She could deal with what that meant for the exam later.
Haruka pulled both Sasuke and Naruto into a little cave formed by one of the massive trees's roots. It wasn't too far from the place they had fought and would provide decent cover in case a team passed by. There was blood all over Naruto, but his scratches and bruises were already healing, even his cracked ribs would probably be fine in a few days. Sasuke wasn't nearly as wounded, but he had quite the fever and Haruka had no way to bring it down. So instead she concentrated on lining their surroundings with wire, explosive and projectile traps. She'd need all the help she could get if she actually did need to fight.