Hey peeps, this is Niken-sama, here with the first chapter of 'Crimson Orchestra', the idea for this just came to me as I was relaxing in bed one day, please read and tell me what you think, review or pm it doesn't matter (I do kind of prefer reviews though) criticism is openly welcomed as long as it can make me a better writer, well that's enough from me, please ENJOY!

I do not own the anime Naruto or any of its characters.

Luck

Fate

Destiny

Karma

Orochimaru never did believe in any of that mystical idiocy, he had always wondered why people actually thought that any of these things governed their tiny insignificant lives; it had boggled him even more when he discovered that some people even thought their lives could take a climb for the better if they practiced what they defined to be 'good living', so many of them putting their collective hopes into the ideas of mortal men, ideas that none of them could even prove the existence of.

How sad.

He had always seen life…differently.

He was a scientist at heart, and his brand of science always dictated that the events of one's life are orchestrated by the choices and actions of the person in question and to a lesser extent the different components found in the person's environment, such as other people, their actions etc. Many things were involved but definitely not luck or fate or whatever silly name other persons ascribed to it.

But every scientific theory must have at least one worthy challenger and Orochimaru was staring it dead in the face.

Don't get the wrong idea here; He was never known to give up on any of his perspectives without deep thought or concrete evidence.

But on the other hand, what was he really supposed to think about the current opportunity that had presented itself before him?

1. A very dark alley

2. Two dead ninja

3. An unconscious six year old that could become the most powerful weapon in Orochimaru's arsenal and a prospective new body.

His brand of science had most certainly lost this round.

Picking tonight of all nights for his monthly visit to Konoha was in one word…dare he say it…lucky.

It had almost become a hobby for him to infiltrate the village he had once called home; it was his way of keeping tabs on Konoha's ninja, their civilians, his enemies, his potential allies, the new safe houses and escape routes, the village's strengths and most of all…its weaknesses.

But you would think that a village that would never shut up about the so called "Grade A" shinobi and prodigies it produced in every generation would at least have a decent anti-infiltration team/plan or something of the sort, it sometimes felt too easy for him to get in; he did remember that he lobbied for this kind of thing in his younger years as a loyal citizen, it's a good thing he was ignored by most of the council, this gift would have never come his way.

But was this really happening?

There was no way he had just happened to be here when this happened…was it?

His brain couldn't help but to replay the scene in his head again and again.

He had been using a deserted apartment near the village walls as a meet up spot for his informants and after more than a dozen of meetings and information gathering sessions, Orochimaru was ready to call it a night, when he had heard some commotion and looked through a window into the alley.

A ninja who had a tied up and gagged little boy (who was still kicking and scream by the way) hoisted over his shoulder marched to the very back of the alley before dropping the boy to the ground, another one appeared a few seconds later telling his companion that they he had 'knocked the boy's guardian, a man named Iruka unconscious and they could finally take revenge for the village'. To be honest he had been surprised by their bold actions.

"I have to say, I didn't know these little bugs had it in them, hatred is probably the most powerful motivator…and one hell of an incentive."

Orochimaru watched with great interest as the men proceeded to beat, insult and mock their captive, his cries for help muffled by the cloth stuck in his mouth, they constantly referred to him as a 'monster', 'demon' and more importantly 'the fox', after taking out their anger on him, they both pulled out a kunai and with smiling faces plunged them deep into the boy's chest.

Orochimaru smirked as he watched the display, the actions of these men would be received differently by all in the village, it would divide them, and a village divided was a village easily conquered, his smug look was soon replaced with astonishment as he felt a very strong chakra pulse emanate from the boy's body, what happened next almost went by too quickly for him.

The boy…who should have been dead or even too weak to stand; the same who had just been beaten into a pulp, sprang up with new life, his body being surrounded by a scarlet cloak of chakra, the ropes that held him captive melted away like butter in a fiery hot skilling, the kunai that were sticking out of his chest turned into metal puddles at his feet, but strange enough his clothes were unscathed, it was almost as if the chakra…was a living thing defending itself.

The men who were at first dumbfounded regained their senses and tried to attack the boy, but would never live long enough to regret it, as they came close enough, parts of the chakra cloak lashed out like tentacles and wrapped themselves around the men, it was apparent from their contorted faces that they were in agonizing pain and before they could even manage a cry or even a scream their bodies burst into bright orange flames.

After a few seconds of squeezing the life out of the charred bodies the tentacles finally released them allowing the black steaming corpses to fall to the ground, a few more seconds past and the tentacles along with the chakra cloak slowly receded into the boy's body leaving him to fall flat on his back.

And now here he was with the opportunity of a lifetime right at his fingertips, after observing the child's breathing pattern Orochimaru knew for sure that he was unconscious and most likely exhausted due to what could be only called extreme chakra overuse.

He couldn't stop the evil smile from forming on his face as he jumped out of the building and down into the alley.

He took ample time to examine the bodies of the deceased ninja; thanks to a vest that had fallen off during the scuffle he could safely say there were both probably Chuunin, he would never know for sure who they were because their upper torsos had been burnt very badly, their faces now resembled chunks of charcoal, no sign of skin, blood or flesh; they had died painfully, and the kind of damage displayed only made Orochimaru much more interested in the other party involved.

He walked over to the little blond boy, he was still unconscious, his face and clothes covered in dirt, patches of mud and dried blood which meant that any fresh wound had already closed, at the moment he looked like any other harmless whelp, but what happened ten minutes ago made Orochimaru very cautious. The jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Yoko was untrained yet powerful enough to take down Chuunin, he would make sure to pay plenty of attention to how this child developed under his care.

Orochimaru's head spun around in the direction behind him as he channelled chakra into his ears.

Barking, lots of barking, and shouting….Ninja dogs and Anbu Patrol, he needed to leave; he needed to leave right now!

He used his elongated tongue to lift and place the child over his shoulder as he went through a series of hand-signs; he spoke softly as he pressed his hands into the ground.

"Earth Style: Underground Escape."

Slowly but surely Orochimaru and his newest prize melted into the ground leaving no evidence of what direction they had gone and to the untrained eye there was no way to know for sure how they had even left.

A few minutes after Orochimaru had successfully escaped; a team of ninja dogs charged into the alley barking as they sniffed the ground, behind them were 4 of Konoha's most well known shinobi and 2 teams of Patrol Anbu, the 4 men were made up of the Anbu's interrogation specialist Ibiki Morino, the newest addition to the teaching staff at the shinobi academy, Iruka Umino, Anbu Captain Kakashi Hatake and last but certainly not least, the Sandaime Hokage, the leader of Konoha himself, Hiruzen Sarutobi.

Ibiki called out to Kakashi as they entered the alley.

"Yo Hatake, why are your dogs acting like they've smelt a bitch in heat? They were fine just a few seconds ago."

The Anbu Captain responded without turning back.

"They only act like this when they feel a very strong pulse of chakra, and considering who we're looking for…that's not exactly a good thing."

Ibiki frowned as he realized what Kakashi was implying; the sound of Iruka's voice brought him out of his short reprieve.

"Dear Kami, what happened here? Did…did Naruto do this?"

Ibiki eyes widened a bit when he came closer to the charred remains of the ninja that had supposedly attacked the Chuunin guardian. Kakashi looked over to Pakkun; the only talking summon that he had, hoping for an explanation, the brown ninja dog did not fail to deliver.

"No doubt about it, this chakra is definitely not human, it's been six years since I've smelt something as toxic as this…and there's blood too, probably belongs to the boy since our two friends over there are all out."

Iruka trembled as he spoke, his guilt over losing Naruto almost becoming too much for him to bear.

"B-b-blood? Wait! That means he's injured even if he ran he couldn't get far from here…we should pan out and cover a wider area and…"

"That won't help Iruka…Naruto is no longer in the village, and is probably too far away to give chase by now."

All eyes turned to the Hokage who had spoken for the first time since their arrival in the alley. Kakashi was the first to speak.

"Hokage-sama, how are you so sure? I doubt Naruto could truly escape the village without alerting a guard and why would he even run? "

The Hokage didn't respond to Kakashi, he instead turned to Pakkun.

"Do you smell traces of chemicals solutions as well, Pakkun?

Pakkun barked at a few of his fellow summons before nodding.

"Yes, we're unfamiliar with the specific names of them but there are definitely traces…How did you know?"

The Hokage grimaced as he continued to look down at the spot beneath his feet.

"There's still some chakra residue here from a high level earth jutsu used to go underground, there aren't many shinobi in our village that are skilled enough in Earth jutsu to pull it off…"

Ibiki finished the statement.

"Which means it was most likely an outsider."

Kakashi spoke again.

"But at the same time we shouldn't rule out the possibility of it being someone from the inside, both the Akimichi and Uchiha are well versed in Earth jutsu, both clans don't have much liking to Naruto, so any of them could have seen this as an opportunity to get their 'revenge on the Kyuubi'."

Both Ibiki and Iruka shuddered at the thought but the Hokage shook his head as he responded.

"No…It's neither the Uchiha nor the Akimichi…your dogs just confirmed it for me, Anbu teams; please find the members of the council and tell them we are having a Protocol 7 meeting right now."

The Anbu nodded as they shunshined away to find the respective council members.

The Hokage turned to Kakashi and spoke.

"Send a message to our contact in the Land of Wind, Jiraiya should be somewhere near Suna(Sand Village), tell him that we need him back here ASAP."

Iruka stepped forward as he questioned the leader of his village.

"Hokage-sama…it sounds as if you know who took Naruto…why aren't you telling us?"

"There's only one person I know that's been around chemicals long enough for it to leave a scent on him, and if it is him…We might never see Naruto ever again."

Iruka's eyes widened, tears threatening to run down his cheeks.

"No! We have some of the best trackers in the world; there's no one who could be that hard to find."

Kakashi sighed heavily as the realization hit him.

"There is…one person."

Both Ibiki and Iruka looked at him as he continued.

"Orochimaru of the Sannin."

The reactions between Iruka and Ibiki were quite different, Ibiki's face became pale as his throat became very dry, Minato was his friend, the Yondaime had saved his life countless times and now he had allowed Minato's only son to be taken by the village's worst enemy; in his mind's eye he could just see Minato being disappointed in how the village had treated his son and even worse the little Ibiki himself had done to help.

Iruka's knees buckled beneath him as he considered the part he had played in this fiasco…he couldn't protect one of the closest people to his heart, someone that had considered Iruka to be his older brother, how could he ever go back home knowing that it would be missing the energy, laughs and antics that only Naruto could bring, a dark train of thought crossed his mind as he remembered Anko's stories of the different experiments Orochimaru would often run on his students…what if he did those to Naruto?...What if he never saw him again? As the thought crossed his mind, all Iruka could do…was faint.

Ibiki quickly caught the Chuunin teacher before he hit the ground. The Hokage spoke again.

"Ibiki, please get him to the hospital, and please carry out your orders Kakashi-san, if there are any updates, I'll be in the council meeting room."

Both ninja nodded as they sped off to carry out their respective duties, the Hokage looked back at the alley and spoke.

"You have absolutely no idea what you have done Orochimaru, you didn't just kidnap a jinchuuriki….you kidnapped someone...something you could never hope to control...how unfortunate for you."

And with that the Hokage left to start one of the most important council meetings in the village's history.

END.

So that's it ladies and gents, please really do tell me what you think, comment on the hits/misses anything that comes to your minds, or ask any question you wish I will answer it publically or in private your choice, PM or Review please. Oh and suggestions are noted, I won't promise that I'll accept them, but they'll be noted. Anyways take it easy and have yourselves a good day.

Niken-sama