A/N: This is another story I started a few years back after being inspired by another story I had read; do not remember the name of the story or author and was unable to find it again.

As of now, the pairing is strictly NarutoXTsume. I may consider adding someone else down the line, but unless I have a solid reason, it will remain a single pairing.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 1: Reincarnation

Things had been going fine for team 7 as they made their way through training ground 44, otherwise known as "The Forest of Death", during the second phase of the chuunin exams. That is, until they crossed paths with one of the village's most infamous traitors; Orochimaru. The encounter had started with the orange-clad, blond-haired genin known as Naruto Uzumaki being blown away by a powerful blast of chakra-infused wind that separated him from his teammates; Sakura Haruno and Sasuke Uchiha.

Once his impromptu flight had ended, Naruto found himself staring down a massive snake that towered above him by several meters. Despite his best efforts, the confrontation had ended with Naruto being swallowed whole by the oversized serpent. This defeat was short-lived however as the young blond managed to free himself by creating enough clones to tear the snake open and allow him to escape.

During the time that Naruto had been dealing with the snake, Sasuke and Sakura, primarily Sasuke, were facing off against the snake sannin, Orochimaru. Sasuke was making a valiant effort of protecting himself and his female teammate, but it was ultimately in vain; after all, he was a genin trying to fight an S-class missing-nin.

"This has been fun, but I think it's time to end this," Orochimaru said before regurgitating the handle of a sword and drawing it out of his throat as if his esophagus were a sheath. Moving swiftly towards a terrified Sakura, the pinkette could do little more than stare wide-eyed at the sword as it came down on her in an overhead swing to split her in half.

"Look out!" Naruto yelled as he finally made it back to his teammates to see that one of them was about to meet her end at the edge of a psycho's sword. Diving for his pink-haired teammate as fast as he could, Naruto barely managed to push her out of the way in time. However, his interference was not without cost.

"AHHHHH!" Naruto screamed in pain as his right arm was severed at the shoulder and fell to the forest floor below. Clenching his teeth to bite back the pain, Naruto let himself follow his arm to the forest floor in order to put some distance between him and his assailant.

"Kukuku, very noble of you Naruto-kun," Orochimaru commented as he watched the one-armed blond descend.

"Naruto!" Sasuke and Sakura yelled as they made their way to their teammate who was currently using his jacket in an effort to stop the bleeding. Once he recognized his teammates' presence, he turned toward the boy he saw as his rival and moved his jacket away.

"Sasuke; burn it," Naruto demanded as he fought to maintain consciousness. Sasuke nodded in understanding before using a small fireball to cauterize the wound. Naruto groaned in pain as he felt like his teeth would crack from the force of his clenching jaw. Sakura had to fight back her urge to gag at the scent of burning flesh and the sight of Naruto's severed arm lying nearby.

"We need to get out of here," Sasuke urged as he helped the blond to his feet. Naruto growled in disapproval as he glared at his teammate.

"Don't be such a coward," he snarled before turning his narrowed eyes toward their enemy. "Besides; do you really think he's going to let us get away?"

"Kukuku, you're not as dumb as you look," Orochimaru mocked before going through several handsigns and summoning another large snake beneath his feet.

"Bastard," Naruto growled as his fingernails seemed to lengthen into claws and his normally-blue eyes bled into an angry red with slit pupils. "I'll kill you!" Orochimaru smirked in amusement at the blond jinchuuriki as he drew a kunai with his remaining arm and ran towards him. Jumping to the side to avoid the snake's effort to swallow him like the other one had, Naruto drove his kunai into the side of the snake's head. The snake hissed angrily as it rose back up taking Naruto with him as the boy clung to his kunai. Naruto could do little more from his position than use his feet to kick at the serpent's scaly underbelly; which seemed to do absolutely nothing.

"My my, even in your condition you still try to fight; how amusing," Orochimaru said as his tongue extended to bind Naruto and hold the blond in front of him. Using his left hand to lift the boy's shirt, Orochimaru studied the seal that was currently visible on his stomach while the fingers of his right hand seemed to light up in purple flames.

"Gogyo Fuin!" Orochimaru called out as he drove his flaming fingertips into the blond's stomach. Naruto spat up a mixture of blood and saliva as a new seal appeared around the existing one on his stomach. Once the boy's eyes regained their normal cerulean hue and slid closed, Orochimaru released his grip and allowed the unconscious boy to freefall back to the earth.

"Naruto!" Sakura yelled as she moved beneath her descending teammate and managed to catch him before he could hit the floor and receive further injury.

"Now then; where were we Sasuke-kun?" Orochimaru asked rhetorically as he licked his lips and stared at the young Uchiha.

[Inside Naruto's Mindscape]

"Where am I?" Naruto asked aloud as he found himself in a dark corridor standing ankle deep in water. The area stood in was pitch black, but there seemed to be a dim light in the distance; likely from a torch or a small fire. Making his way toward the light source, Naruto idly noted that what little he could make out of his surroundings were reminiscent of a sewer.

"Over here," a deep voice called out to him from where he assumed the light was. It took several minutes, but he finally reached the source of the light and found himself in a large antechamber that was enclosed with walls made of a dark stone and lit with a pair of torches that adorned the wall on either side of the passage he had entered from. The most notable thing however was the massive cage on the other side of the room composed of bars so thick he doubted he could even wrap his arms halfway around them.

"Come closer," the voice called out once more making Naruto take a tentative step towards the cage, but kept himself alert; which was a wise decision because he had to jump back to avoid the large paw that had emerged from the cage in an effort to crush him.

"Who's there?" Naruto demanded as he glared into the space between bars trying to see who had attacked him.

"That should be fairly obvious," the voice answered back as a large figure began to make its way into the light.

"Kyuubi?!" Naruto was moderately surprised to see the colossal fox standing in front of him and took a moment to realize that he had somehow found himself in his mind looking at a physical manifestation of his seal. "How did I get here?"

"How should I know?!" the beast growled through bars as it pressed against the cage.

"I think I can answer that," a new voice answered before what looked like a glowing whip of some sort wrapped around the Kyuubi's throat and yanked him harshly into the bars of the cage. Before Naruto could make a comment about the new voice or the strange whip, his surroundings suddenly changed as he found himself standing in a lush meadow looking up at a full moon.

"You must be Naruto Uzumaki," the regal sounding voice he had heard before called out making Naruto turn around. The man standing before him had a tall, slender physique with a handsome face, fair skin, pointed ears, slanted golden eyes with slit pupils and knee-length silver hair. His face was adorned with a purple crescent moon on his forehead that could be seen beneath his bangs, two magenta stripes on each cheek, and a magenta stripe on each eyelid.

"Who are you; and how do you know my name?" Naruto asked earning a smirk from the regal-looking man which revealed one of his unusually long and sharp canines.

"My name is Sesshomaru; and you Naruto Uzumaki are my reincarnation," the now-named Sesshomaru explained as he stepped fully into the moonlight to reveal he was wearing a spiked pauldron that covered his left shoulder attached to the upper section of his cuirass while a large collection of fur called "mokomoko" covered his right shoulder. Beneath the cuirass, he wore a white kimono white with a red and white cherry blossom flower crest at the collar and sleeves. He wore matching white hakama which were gathered at the ankles, producing a "ballooning" effect and a pair of black ankle-high boots.

"What do you mean?" Naruto frowned in confusion and would have scratched his head, but the arm he attempted to do so with was no longer there.

"It means that your body contains my reborn soul," Sesshomaru answered as he approached the boy he had determined to be his reincarnation.

"So I'm you?" Naruto's brow remained furrowed in confusion as he tried to understand the concept of reincarnation.

"That's one way to look at it I suppose; thanks to the seal that man put on you, I was finally able to make contact with you and have begun the process of altering your body to be a proper vessel for my soul."

"What?! I never agreed to that!" Naruto yelled.

"I don't recall asking for your permission," Sesshomaru narrowed his eyes at the young blond.

"So what's going to happen to me then; are you just going to be taking over my body?"

"Not exactly; you'll still be you in a sense, but will have my memories and most likely take on some of my personality since our souls will essentially be merging," Sesshomaru explained further. "I shall also be draining the youki of that fox in order to compensate for what I have lost."

"So does that mean we'll be half demon or something?" Naruto asked earning a raised eyebrow in response.

"Not at all," Sesshomaru shook his head earning a sigh of relief from Naruto. "We will be a pureblood demon as I am essentially recreating my own body from the power of my soul." Naruto immediately face planted with a groan at the idea of being what the villagers had called him for years.

"So you're going to prove the village right," Naruto lamented earning a narrowing of the eyes from Sesshomaru.

"I care not for the opinions of mortals; anyone that stands against me will not live to talk about it."

"You can't do that! They might be assholes, but they're still our comrades," Naruto proclaimed.

"As long as they stay out of my way they have nothing to fear," Sesshomaru responded as he stepped closer to the blond genin. "Now it's time for you to go to sleep; I need to focus." Before Naruto could protest, Sesshomaru struck his neck and he collapsed to the ground like a puppet with his strings cut.

"Now, let's get this over with."

[Back with Team 7]

Sasuke had done his best to hold back Orochimaru, but had inevitably been defeated which resulted in the snake-like man placing a seal on the boy's neck that caused him to fall unconscious with the occasional whimper of pain. Sakura could do little more than watch helplessly as her crush was completely dominated. Once Orochimaru left the area, the pinkette moved to collect her unconscious teammates and drag their motionless bodies to shelter beneath the roots of a large tree.

After setting a few traps around the area, Sakura resolved to keep guard of her teammates until they awoke. Using a piece of cloth she had ripped from her clothing, Sakura dipped it in some cool water to place on the thrashing Sasuke's forehead. She was interrupted from tending to the raven-haired boy when a large tuft of white fur somehow appeared and began to wrap around Naruto until his body form was completely hidden from view.

"What the hell?!" Sakura exclaimed as she stared at the strange occurrence with wide eyes. She attempted to move the strange fur aside to see what was happening to her teammate, but it wouldn't budge. Giving a sigh of defeat, she went back to keeping guard and occasionally tending to Sasuke. "Please wake up you two; I can't do this without you."

Meanwhile, the team from Oto watched Team 7 from their hiding spot as they observed their target; Sasuke.

"What do you want to do Dosu?" the black-haired female member of the team asked the bandaged boy who was shrouded with a straw raincoat.

"We'll wait until dawn and then make our move," the bandaged boy responded earning nods from his teammates.

[The Next Morning]

Sakura was startled awake by the sound of movement having fallen asleep at some point during the night. Looking around for the source of the noise, she found a squirrel making its way toward their position. She ignored the small creature for a moment until she got a feeling that something was wrong and scared the squirrel away with a kunai. Taking a brief glance to her teammates, she found them exactly where she had left them; still completely unconscious.

"Think she noticed?" the last member of the Oto team, a boy with spiky black hair, asked as he watched the squirrel with an explosive tag attached to its underbelly scurry off.

"Who cares; let's get this over with," the girl known as Kin Tsuchi answered as she made her way into the clearing making her teammates shake their heads at the girl's impatience.

"Who are you?" Sakura asked when she saw the approaching Oto team.

"It doesn't matter; just give us the Uchiha and we won't kill you," the spiky haired boy named Zaku Abumi commanded.

"Not a chance!" Sakura responded as she brandished a kunai and glared at the approaching boy from Oto.

"Whatever," Zaku shrugged as he continued his way into the clearing. "It's your funeral."

"Hold up, Zaku," Dosu held the other boy back as he bent down to brush aside some dried leaves to reveal a poorly made trap.

"Ha, you'll have to do better than that," Kin mocked. Sakura didn't respond verbally, but smirked as she raised her kunai and cut a hidden string to her left. This set off the real trap which caused two logs to swing from the trees toward the waiting Oto genin. Zaku rolled his eyes as he stepped between the approaching logs and held up his hands. Sakura's surprise was evident as a burst of air shot from the boy's palms and destroyed both logs simultaneously.

"Now then; hand over the Uchiha unless you want to end up like those logs," Zaku demanded as he raised a hand toward the pink-haired genin to reveal a tube of some sort embedded in his palm.

"Never!" Sakura exclaimed as she jumped into the clearing with her kunai held in a reverse grip.

"Your funeral," Kin shrugged as she drew a pair of senbon with bells attached to them. Sakura easily deflected the senbon with her kunai, but suddenly found her vision becoming blurry as she began to see double. Before she could do anything about her vision, she doubled over as a fist was driven into her stomach courtesy of Kin. She had no time to recover as Kin immediately followed up with a kick to the face that sent Sakura flying. Landing harshly on the forest floor, blood dribbled from Sakura's mouth as the girl groaned in pain.

"You're pathetic," Kin mocked as she moved behind her opponent and began to lift Sakura up by her hair.

"AHHHH!" Sakura screamed in pain as she struggled to free herself from the girl's grip.

"Your hair is so soft; maybe if you spent your time training instead of taking care of your hair you wouldn't be so weak," Kin mocked. "It's girls like you that give kunoichi a bad name."

"Let her go!" a new voice cried as a boy in green spandex with a bowl cut and insanely thick eyebrows leapt into the clearing.

"Lee!" Sakura called out to the boy. "What are you doing here?"

"I will always be there when you're in trouble Sakura-chan," the boy responded with a thumbs up and a bright smile.

"What a freak," Kin commented with a grimace as she held a kunai to Sakura's throat.

"I'll handle this clown," Zaku declared as he leveled a hand at the boy in green spandex. "Zankuuha!" he called out as he launched a burst of air at his opponent. Lee easily avoided the attack as he disappeared in a burst of speed. Faster than Zaku could follow, Lee appeared in front of him and delivered a devastating roundhouse kick that launched him into a nearby tree.

"Bastard!" Dosu yelled as he charged at Lee and threw a punch that Lee ducked under before delivering a rising kick into his attacker's stomach that launched him into the air. Appearing behind his airborne opponent, the bandages on Lee's arms suddenly unraveled before wrapping around the bandaged boy keeping him helplessly bound.

"What the hell?!" Dosu yelled as the duo began spinning violently straight at the ground. Dosu screamed as he saw he was about to be driven headfirst into the ground.

"Front Lotus!" Lee called out as he separated from his opponent who ended up waist deep into the ground.

"Damn; that was a close one," Dosu commented as he pulled himself out of the dirt.

"How are you still standing?!" Lee asked in surprise as he seemingly struggled to stay on his feet.

"Zaku used his Zankuuha to soften the ground beneath us," Dosu motioned to his teammate who was smirking at the spandex-clad teen. "That was a pretty dangerous move; but it looks like it puts a major strain on your body doesn't it?" Dosu asked as he rushed forward and delivered a kick to his opponent's face that sent him back in the direction he came from.

"Lee!" Sakura called out worriedly as she looked at her comrade was now lying on the ground motionless. Ignoring the ranting of the girl holding her hair, Sakura used her kunai to give herself an impromptu haircut and get away.

"What the hell?" Dosu exclaimed when he suddenly found himself unable to move.

"Shadow Possession successful," a boy with black hair tied into a ponytail that was reminiscent of a pineapple called out. He was wearing a short-sleeved grey jacket with green-edged sleeves and the symbol of the Nara clan on the back; under which he wore a green-lined mesh armor T-shirt. He also wears brown pants and a pair of silver hoop earrings. If you looked in his direction, you could clearly see that his shadow was currently connected with Dosu's while his hands were positioned in the symbol of his clan's signature technique. This was Shikamaru Nara; heir of the Nara clan.

"Shintenshin no jutsu!" another voice that was distinctly female yelled. This was Ino Yamanaka; heiress of the Yamanaka clan . The girl had fair skin, blue eyes and long platinum blonde hair worn in a ponytail that extended to her waist with bangs framing the right side of her face and was also sporting a red clip on the left. Her outfit consisted of a purple high-collared blouse and matching apron skirt. She also had bandages on her abdomen and legs, small hoop-earrings and white arm warmers.

"Don't move or this girl dies," the possessed Kin said as she held a kunai to her own throat. Dosu rolled his eyes as he looked at his other male teammate.

"Zaku…" the bandaged teen called out to his teammate.

"On it," Zaku responded as he aimed his palm in Kin's direction.

"Oi, isn't she your teammate?!" the possessed Oto nin asked worriedly.

"Tch, as if we give a damn what happens to her; it's her fault for getting captured," Zaku answered coldly. "Zankuukyokuha!"

"Get out of there Ino!" Shikamaru called to his teammate who was possessing Kin. However, she was unable to drop the technique in time as the girl was blasted with a powerful blast of air that sent her flying to crash straight through a nearby tree. The blonde's real body suddenly coughed up blood as a result of the attack.

"Dammit!" Shikamaru yelled as he released his technique and moved to check on his teammate. Once he was free, Dosu jumped back to avoid being caught again. Everyone suddenly stopped as an ominous aura filled the clearing. Turning to the hollowed out tree, they saw an awakened Sasuke walking out with a vile purple chakra swirling around him as strange markings covered the left side of his face before receding into the mark on his neck. Looking around the clearing, Sasuke noticed the enemy ninja and his injured teammate who still had blood dripping from her lip.

"Sakura, did they do this to you?" he asked as he approached the pink-haired girl. Sakura could only nod in response as she stared at her crush in bewilderment.

"Enough of this! Zankuukyokuha!" Zaku yelled as he launched another wave of air at Team 7; he laughed victoriously when there was no sign of Sasuke or Sakura when the attack was over. However, his celebration was proven premature as Sasuke reappeared with Sakura in his arms and placed her on the ground.

"You seem awfully proud of those arms," the Uchiha said before vanishing in a burst of speed. Zaku yelled in pain as Sasuke reappeared behind him and pressed his foot into his back as he pulled his arms backwards. "Maybe I should tear them off!"

"AHHHH! Stop! Stop!" Zaku pleaded as Sasuke continued to pull on his arms until there was a sickening pop; Zaku's resulting scream rang loudly throughout the clearing as Sasuke released him and everyone else stared in horror at the ruthless display. Zaku moved to stand behind Dosu as his arms hung limply at his sides.

"We give up," Dosu called out as he raised his hands in surrender. Reaching into his pouch, he pulled out an earth scroll and set it on the ground. "Just take our scroll and let us leave."

"Whatever; just get out of here," Sasuke responded earning a nod from Dosu who moved to pick up the unconscious Kin before he and Zaku quickly ran from the clearing.

"Well that was interesting," Shikamaru said casually as he walked toward his fellow Konoha genin with Ino leaning against him for support. Trailing behind them eating a bag of potato chips was the last member of their team, Choji Akamichi; heir of the Akamichi clan. Chōji has a rotund build with markings on his cheeks in the form of swirls and spiky, brown hair that sticks upward through his headband. His attire consists of a green, short-sleeved haori with a long, white scarf over a white shirt with the kanji for "food" on it; he also wore black shorts, hoop earrings, and bandages around his legs and forearms.

"Where's Naruto?" Choji asked between mouthfuls of chips as he looked around the clearing for the orange-clad knucklehead. As if to answer the question, the area was suddenly filled by an overwhelming presence that left all of the genin feeling weak in the knees as they struggled to breathe; some of which succumbing to the pressure and falling to their knees.

The presence quickly vanished as everyone looked to see a new figure standing in the clearing that radiated power like a god amongst men. The figure stood at about 5'10" with a large tuft of white fair draped over his right shoulder, fair skin, pointed ears, slanted golden eyes with slit pupils, and knee-length silver hair with short bangs. Beneath his bangs, a purple crescent moon could be seen. Each cheek was adorned with three magenta stripes that seemed to replace the whisker marks that had previously been there and a magenta stripe could be seen on each eyelid.

"Tch, disgusting," the figure grumbled in a silky voice as he stared at the tattered orange outfit he was wearing that had torn to accommodate his increased height. Using his clawed left hand, the man tore off his orange jacket to reveal the mesh undershirt beneath it.

"N-Naruto?" Sakura managed to stutter out as she stared at the silver-haired man with wide eyes. Gold eyes turned to her with a bored look as he looked her over.

"Sakura," he responded plainly with a small nod.

"That's Naruto?!" Ino asked in disbelief as she blushed heavily at the new appearance of the former blond; she wasn't sure if she should call him handsome or beautiful with his soft features.

"How is that possible? And what happened to his arm?!" Choji asked drawing everyone's attention to the missing appendage.

"Ah, right," Naruto commented casually before a new arm suddenly burst from his shoulder. As if this wasn't surprising enough, the hand was tightly gripping a beautiful katana with a unique design. It had various rune-like symbols etched along the backside, a beige hilt with similar runes around it and a grey tsuba. Giving the blade a few test swings, Naruto nodded approvingly. Having nowhere to place the blade at the time, Naruto wrapped his discarded jacket around the blade and held it in his left hand.

"What the hell?!" Ino asked; basically summing up the thoughts of everyone in the clearing. Ignoring the question and the curious stares, Naruto moved to pick up the earth scroll the Oto team had left behind before tossing it to Sasuke.

"Let's go," Naruto plainly stated as he began walking away from the clearing.

"Who the hell do you think you're ordering around, dobe?" Sasuke growled through grit teeth before leaping at his teammate and throwing a fist at the back of his head. Naruto said nothing as he tilted his head to the side, grabbed Sasuke's wrist and effortlessly tossed him over his shoulder to land on his back several feet away.

"This is your only warning, Sasuke; don't test my patience."

"You're dead!" Sasuke growled as he began going through handsigns and launched a large fireball at his silver-haired teammate. The flames met nothing but air as Naruto appeared behind Sasuke with his hand raised in a knife-like fashion.

"I warned you," he whispered before striking Sasuke in the back of the neck and sending him into unconsciousness. Catching him by the back of his shirt, Naruto tossed the motionless Uchiha at his pink-haired teammate. With that finished, Naruto wordlessly continued his trek in the direction of the tower they were supposed to go to. Shaking her head to get over the shock, Sakura moved to follow her teammate with the unconscious Sasuke over her shoulder.

"Wait up, Naruto!"

"…"

"…"

"…What the hell just happened?" Ino asked as the other members of Team 10 wore similar confused expressions; not caring about the other two genin that had shown up to carry away the unconscious form of Rock Lee.

"I'm not sure what's going on, but we should probably get moving as well," Shikamaru responded earning nods from his teammates before they leapt into the trees to complete their task.

[Two Hours Later]

Making their way into the tower, Naruto and Sakura looked around to see the entryway is empty and the only thing in sight was some sort of riddle on the wall. Reaching into the unconscious Sasuke's pouch, Naruto pulled out the heaven and earth scrolls before opening them and tossing them onto the floor. Once the opened scrolls were lying on the floor, a puff of smoke appeared from them revealing the form of their academy instructor; Iruka Umino.

"Congratulations you three; you passed the-" Iruka stopped mid-sentence when he noticed there was an unconscious Sasuke, a man he had never seen before, and no sign of Naruto. "What happened to Sasuke; and where's Naruto?" he asked Sakura who had set the unconscious Sasuke on the ground and was rubbing her head trying to figure out how to explain things. Thankfully, Naruto made things easy for her as he decided to explain things himself.

"I am Naruto; or at least I was. And I knocked Sasuke out because he was annoying me," Naruto answered making the scarred chuunin's eyes widen in shock and confusion.

"What happened to you?" Iruka finally asked as he looked over the boy's new appearance.

"I would prefer not to repeat myself, so I will explain once you have gathered the old man and Kakashi; in the meantime, I'm going to find some more appropriate attire." Iruka ignored the fact that the boy was ordering him around and vanished in a puff of smoke to gather the hokage and Kakashi; Naruto had already walked away to find some new clothes.

Not knowing what else to do, Sakura stood next to the unconscious Uchiha until a pair of medic nin showed up to take him away for treatment. Now that she didn't have to worry about Sasuke, Sakura left to explore the tower in hoped of finding food and, more importantly, a bath.

[An Hour Later]

Iruka stood in an office beside Kakashi Hatake, the jounin sensei of Team 7, with the hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, sitting behind a large oak desk while they waited for the subject of this meeting to arrive. They didn't have to wait long as the door opened to reveal the silver-haired genin as he entered the room. Having not seen the new Naruto yet and not quite believing Iruka's story, Hiruzen and Kakashi were surprised when they saw Naruto enter. Naruto was now wearing a plain black shirt beneath a black cuirass with a spiked pauldron over his left shoulder; his right shoulder was still adorned with his mokomoko. His legs were covered by standard black pants that were taped off at the ankle and a pair of ankle-high black boots. At his left hip was his katana that was wrapped in a simple leather sheath that he had found and held in place by a plain purple obi.

"I must admit, I didn't quite believe Iruka when he was explaining your new appearance," the hokage admitted as he took in Naruto's new appearance. "But as the saying goes; seeing is believing."

"Care to explain how this happened, Naruto-kun?" Kakashi interjected giving a brief look to the hokage signaling that he could confirm this was indeed Naruto.

"Very well," Naruto began as he gave a brief explanation of what had happened in the forest. From the fight with Orochimaru, to the meeting with Sesshomaru, to his transformation, and even the minor confrontation with Sasuke.

"I see; hearing that Orochimaru was here is rather troubling," Hiruzen commented as he took a puff from his pipe. "Kakashi, I want you to take care of Sasuke's seal as soon as possible." Kakashi nodded before vanishing in a shunshin.

"So, are you still Naruto or are you Sesshomaru?" the elderly kage asked making Naruto stare blankly at the wall as he thought over how to answer that question.

"Both I suppose; I'm still trying to process everything so I'm not quite sure exactly how to answer that," Naruto narrowed his eyes as he tried to sort out his thoughts. "The only thing I can really say for certain is that the old Naruto Uzumaki as well as the Kyuubi no longer exist."

"I see," Hiruzen continued to puff on his pipe as he mulled things over. While the news of his surrogate grandson being gone was upsetting, the news that the Kyuubi was gone was also rather unsettling.

"In the meantime, you may call me either Naruto or Sesshomaru; I care not which."

"Very well then, that will be all for now; you may use the remaining two days of the second stage however you see fit," Hiruzen responded earning a nod from Naruto before he wordlessly made his way out the door.

"What should we do, Hokage-sama?" Iruka asked the man who took one last puff of his pipe as he thought it over before emptying the pipe of its contents.

"For now, we will continue to observe the situation. In the meantime, tell Neko that I want her and her squad to look for any signs of Orochimaru or what he may be planning." Nodding in understanding, Iruka vanished in a shunshin leaving Hiruzen alone as he turned to look out the window.

"I'm getting too old for this shit."

[2 Days Later]

The remaining genin who had made it through the forest in the allotted timeframe were currently gathered in a large room surrounding what was clearly an arena of some sort. At the front of the room stood a raised platform where various jounin were currently gathered along with the hokage. There was also a large statue on the side whose hands were held in the sign of conflict.

"Hello everyone," the hokage greeted drawing the attention of all of the chuunin hopefuls. From there, he went into a brief explanation of the reasons that the chuunin exams were held along with why there was a need for them to hold a preliminary round prior to the finals. Once his speech was over, he was interrupted by a sickly-looking jounin with shaggy brown hair that was mostly covered by his headband that was worn like a bandana.

"Please allow me to take over from here, Hokage-sama," the jounin requested with a few coughs interspersed throughout.

"Very well, Hayate; go ahead."

"Thank you," Hayate said before clearing his throat. "Greetings, everyone; my name is Hayate Gekkou and I shall be your proctor for this portion of the exam. As Hokage-sama said, there are too many of you so we will be having preliminary matches to narrow down the finalists," At this point, a panel slid back to reveal a large screen. "This screen shall cycle through all of you to select random pairings. Before we begin, is there anyone who would like to forfeit at this time?"

"I will; I don't have enough chakra left to continue." Naruto narrowed his eyes at the glasses-wearing boy he could remember was named Kabuto from the first stage of the exams. Catching a familiar sent coming from the silver-haired teen, Naruto caught his attention as he was walking by and moved to give him a message.

"Tell the snake that I'll be coming for him," he whispered into his ear and noticed a brief widening of the boy's eyes before he continued to make his way out of the room.

"If there's no one else who wishes to leave, we will proceed with the preliminary matchups," Hayate motioned to the screen that began cycling through names until stopping to show who would be in the first match.

Sasuke Uchiha vs. Yoroi Akado

"Looks like I'm first," Sasuke smirked as he vaulted over the railing and made his way to the center of the arena. Once his opponent had arrived, they both entered their respective stances while awaiting the signal to start.

"First match between Sasuke Uchiha and Yoroi Akado; Begin!" Hayate announced. Sasuke didn't waste any time as he rushed his opponent with a flurry of punches. Weaving between blows and parrying what he couldn't dodge, Yoroi's hand lit up with chakra as he grabbed Sasuke's wrist. Feeling himself getting sluggish, Sasuke jumped back to gain some distance from his opponent.

"You can drain chakra?" he asked rhetorically getting a smirk from the older boy.

"Got it in one, pretty boy," Yoroi mocked as he ran at Sasuke attempting to get another grip on the boy to drain his chakra. Avoiding the glowing hand, Sasuke ducked down before kicking his opponent into the air. Appearing behind his airborne opponent, he earned a shocked look from Lee who realized that Sasuke had copied the "Leaf Shadow Dance" from him. From there, Sasuke went on to deliver a fierce combo that ended with him using a brutal kick to launch his opponent into the floor of the arena as he declared the name of his assault as the "Shishi Rendan".

"Yoroi Akado is unable to continue; Sasuke Uchiha wins!" Hayate announced. Sasuke smirked as he made his way back into the stands to stand with his teammates. The screen once again began cycling through names to determine the next match.

Kiba Inuzuka vs. Naruto Uzumaki

"Ha, looks like we got an easy one Akamaru," Kiba proclaimed loudly to his dog as he jumped into the arena while Naruto maintained his elegant stride and calmly made his way into the arena.

"Woah, who's the hottie?" a kunoichi with sandy blonde hair and wearing a Suna headband asked as she blushed at Naruto's appearance. While she didn't vocalize her agreement, the female member of Team 9, Tenten, definitely agreed as she wore a similar blush to the Suna kunoichi. Tenten had black hair styled into Chinese-style buns with short bands framing her face and was currently wearing a pink qipao-style blouse with red trim and green pants.

"Oi, drop the henge loser; you're not fooling anyone," Kiba yelled as he pointed at Naruto who had made his way to his starting position.

Kiba was a somewhat feral-looking boy with messy brown hair, sharp black eyes and the distinctive red fang markings of the Inuzuka clan on his cheeks. His outfit consisted of dark greyish pants reaching to his calves and a grey, hooded fur-lined coat, with the hood down over a fishnet undershirt.

"It's not a henge mutt," Naruto responded in a bored tone.

"Tch, whatever; let's do this Akamaru," Kiba said as he turned to his canine companion to see him whimpering as he moved away from Naruto. "What's wrong, Akamaru?"

"He knows it would be foolish to defy me; clearly he has more sense than his master."

"Shut up dobe; c'mon Akamaru, we can easily trash this loser," Kiba tried to convince his partner, but Akamaru's response was to run to the edge of the arena to put as much space between him and Naruto as possible. "Fine; I don't need any help to win this fight anyway."

"Are both combatants ready?" Hayate asked as he looked between the two boys who both nodded as Kiba dropped into his stance while Naruto maintained his relaxed stance. "Round two, Kiba Inuzuka vs. Naruto Uzumaki; Begin!"

"Get ready to have your ass kicked, loser," Kiba taunted making Naruto roll his eyes at the delusional boy.

"Let's get this over with," was all Naruto said before disappearing from his previous position only for Kiba to suddenly be launched across the room to end up embedded deeply into the arena's wall close to wear Akamaru was currently whimpering. The room was currently dead silent as they looked at Naruto who stood lazily in the spot Kiba was previously occupying; very few of them having been able to even see the boy move.

"…Winner…Naruto Uzumaki," Hayate announced while still trying to understand what had just happened. Naruto was already making his way up the stairs to the waiting area as the medics rushed to get Kiba out of the arena for medical treatment. Not particularly caring how any of the other matches turned out, Naruto ignored the stares and whispers of people around him as he leaned against the wall and closed his eyes.

Once the remaining matches had ended, one of Naruto's eyes snapped open at the sound of approaching footsteps to see the cycloptic jounin approaching him with one of his usual eye smiles.

"They're about to draw lots to see who you'll each be fighting in the finals," Kakashi explained earning a nod from Naruto who opened his other eye and made his way back into the arena where the other winners had gathered. After pulling out a green ball from the box held by the proctor, Naruto looked to see that he drew the number 2. After that, he stepped aside and waited until all of the matches were decided.

"Alright, so this is how the first round of the finals will go," Hayate said as he motioned to the board that listed the matches.

Match 1: Neji Hyuuga vs. Naruto Uzumaki

Match 2: Sasuke Uchiha vs. Gaara

Match 3: Shino Aburame vs. Kankuro

Match 4: Temari vs. Shikamaru Nara

Dosu Kinuta shall receive a pass

"And with that, the second round of the chuunin exams is officially over; congratulations to those that have passed and I will see you in a month for the finals," Hayate announced before vanishing in a shunshin. After that, the gathered genin dispersed; it was going to be a busy month.

A/N: That's it for the first chapter; thanks for reading.