Summary: During the Chuunin Exams, Team 7 encounters Orochimaru, the evil member of the three legendary Sennin. He is apparently after Sasuke's body, but due to Naruto's need to protect his friends, finds that he has marked the wrong person. How will Team 7 continue? Read on to find out.

Disclaimer: I do not, and likely will not, own Naruto or its characters. This fan fiction is not for monetary gain. I am sexy

Prologue;

"Sasuke-kun!"

'Hey kid, wake up...'

"It's true that unlike you, Naruto is clumsy and gets in the way, but..."

'Kid, if you don't get up, I'll make you get up...'

"At least he's not a coward!"

Sasuke visibly tensed. 'Sakura's completely right... what am I doing standing around?' He raised his head, eyes clenched.

'Foolish brother. If you want to kill me, then hate, spite and survive pathetically! Run and run, and cling desperately to life...'

He forcibly opened his eyes, a look of intense anger upon his face. 'NO!' Sharingan blazing, he leaped into the air, hurling 4 Kunai at the Grass attacker's passive form. 'If I can't risk my life here, then how do I expect to defeat my brother?' His hand gripped the tree, and he whirled himself around in the direction the now running Grass attacker, and launched his spinning windmill blade, which was also dodged. He pumped his final kunai full of chakra, engulfing it in flame, and throwing it at his opponent.

'Hey, kid, you're really missing a great fight here, y'know?'

Naruto opened his eyes, which felt like that had been closed forever, and slowly turned in Sasuke's direction just in time to see the windmill blade come flying back at the Grass nin.

"Sasuke...?" was all that Naruto managed to get out, the pain in his head making it terribly difficult for him to think.

'Ha,' Sasuke thought, as his windmill blade was caught by the Grass nin's mouth. 'Katon: Ryūka no Jutsu!' With that, flame began running up the string he had attached to the weapon, connecting with the Grass nin's face. 'Gotcha.' Sasuke smirked.

"To be able to use the Sharingan so well at this age... You truly are the man that carries the Uchiha blood." The Grass nin looked up at Sasuke, a violent grin on his face. "Just as I thought... I want you..."

'What... who is this guy? He took that flame attack right in the face, but it doesn't seem to have affected him at all!' Sasuke mentally yelled.

"I had fun testing your powers." The Grass nin said, reaching a hand up to his hita-ate. He pushed against it and a small amount of steam blew off in the wind, revealing a sound headband. "You really are brothers. I sense power in your eyes that surpasses Itachi." the recently revealed Sound nin said, obvious excitement in his voice.

"Who the hell are you?" Sasuke screamed.

Holding up the earth scroll, he answered. "My name is Orochimaru. If you want to see me again, then survive and pass this exam..." He grinned as the scroll went up in flames. "Of course, make sure to defeat my Sound nin trio on the way." The last of the earth scroll turned to ashes and blew away.

'Hey kid, now's the time. You really wanna be Hokage? Defeat this guy. Not only will you save your friends, but you'll have destroyed one of the most evil people on the planet. But then again, it's unlikely that you could do either.' The Kyuubi sounded as if he was having a lot of fun. Of course, he always did when tormenting Naruto.

"What are you talking about? We never want to see your face again!" Screamed Sakura.

"Oh, but things won't work out the way you want, little girl. The world rarely works how you want it to." He chuckled a little, and raised his hands into a seal. Suddenly, his neck elongated and his head flew towards Sasuke.

'Too bad, looks like your friend is gonna die.' The Kyuubi laughed.

'Not today! No! Not while I can prevent it!' Naruto shouted back at the Kyuubi. Using all of his strength, he rose and kicked off the ground, heading right for Sasuke. 'He won't die, he won't!'

Orochimaru bit down. 'Finally, Sasuke-kun, you're all mine.' He released and his head shot back to rest properly on his shoulders. He looked back over at Sasuke and his eyes widened considerably.

'Aha, kid, you got guts. I'll give you that.' Laughed the Kyuubi.

"AHHH!" Naruto dropped to his knees and released an ear-piercing scream. The pain was like nothing he had ever experienced before. It burnt all over, but at the same time it only burnt where he was bitten.

"Wha... what have you done?" Screeched Orochimaru. "How dare you interfere!"

Sasuke couldn't believe what had just happened. He looked down at Naruto, on his knees, sweating and screaming in agony. He looked over at Sakura, who was visibly shaking, more than he had ever seen her shake before. He turned to Orochimaru, who was absolutely furious. "The world rarely works how you want it to, right?"

Orochimaru snapped his head around to look at Sasuke, and his eyes turned to that of pure hatred. How could this be happening? He wanted Sasuke, not the brat! This just wasn't right! But there was nothing he could do to fix it. The marking process wouldn't be ready for another week, at the very least. It would need nearly a month to get the full amount of power out of it again.

"I'll be back for you, Sasuke." He regained his composure. "That brat will probably die within the next week. Not many people survive the seal." He grinned, and sunk into the branch he was standing on, disappearing from sight completely.

"AHH!" Naruto screamed. The pain was still there, and was gradually hurting more and more, if that was even possible. It felt like his skin was melting. The pain was just unbearable.

"Naruto! Hang in there!" Sakura shouted, running over to him. She then spotted the blood on Naruto's shoulder.. "Sasuke, come here, and bring your banda..." she trailed off. Sasuke jumped over to inspect. What he saw made him gasp. The blood on Naruto's shoulder, oozing slowly from the bite marks, started to turn black. The bite sealed up and the blood seemed to sink back into the shoulder's skin. It then moved around and formed a shape that looked similar to a fully developed Sharingan. Three commas in a circle formation.

"Gaaaah!" Naruto let out a final scream before passing out, painfully twitching. Sakura just looked down at him in a state of pure shock. She didn't understand what was going on. Or, more correctly, she just refused to accept what she saw in front of her.

"We have to move somewhere safer, Sakura. I'll carry him, but let's get going. We're one person down and any team with brains will take advantage of it." His voice was a little shaky. She nodded, unable to say anything. Sasuke lifted Naruto onto his back, and they leapt down to the ground to find temporary shelter.

A/N;

A short one, basically setting the scene for other chapters to come. It is (obviously) set during the chuunin exam, at the point where Team 7 first encounters Orochimaru. I've been reading a load of the fanfic here at both the very good and the downright horrible stories (Hopefully mine won't fall under that category, but I don't think I'll ever forget some of the horribly cliched and impossible situations I've read lately), and inevitably had a few ideas of my own. Anywho, I'll quit boring you with my end of chapter notes.

PS; Waaah, waiting time to upload chapters for new users sucks, even if it is for a good cause.

PPS; I really am sexy, just as the disclaimer says. Also, PPS has "pee pee" in it, which I find mildly amusing. I am rather childish, at times.

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Translations; (May or may not be correct)

Katon: Ryūka no Jutsu ; Fire Release: Dragon Flame Technique. It's the jutsu Sasuke uses to send a flame down a piece of string, in case you didn't know that already.

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