Orochimaru raised his hand to Naruto's stomach, glowing symbols on each of his fingers, one for each of the five elements. But before he could make contact with the demon container, a kunai flew from an unexpected direction, nearly striking him. He dodged it at the last second, and noticed out of the corner of his eye that the corrosive demonic chakra was starting to burn his tongue. Orochimaru growled under his breath, and threw the kid hard into a tree, with more than enough force to knock him unconscious. Orochimaru lashed out with his tongue to knock out the pink haired girl, who had been the one that stopped him from sealing the Kyuubi container. She had literally been such a nonthreat that he had forgotten he was there, a mistake he was most certainly going to rectify. With a single blow from his tongue, she fell onto the branch she had been standing on, totally unconscious, and Orochimaru turned to the last standing member of Team 7.

He cursed under his breath, sensing the approach of a different cursed seal. If Anko arrived and saw that he had marked Sasuke with the cursed seal, there was no telling what she would do. She hated him with such a passion that if she saw the seal on the Uchiha, she was just as likely to simply kill him as she was to treat him, and Orochimaru wasn't going to risk losing his future host to something as mundane as assassination.

Orochimaru extended his neck and shot towards his target.

Instantly, he knew something was off. There was a chakra moving around, one that he was sure he had knocked out just moments ago. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do at this point, with the enzyme already welling up in his artificial fangs, to stop now could be disastrous for everyone involved.

So, not quite praying that nothing went wrong, (not exactly being a religious man) Orochimaru bit down.

Instantly, he knew his half serious prayer had gone unanswered. He had gotten the scent of Sasuke earlier, and it was nothing like this. This smelled more like sweat and foxes.

Shit.

Foxes.

Orochimaru withdrew his neck, cursing mentally as he did. And indeed, there he was, the container of the Nine Tailed Fox. He stood with arms spread and his back facing Orochimaru, clearly trying to protect the paralyzed Uchiha. On his neck were two fang marks, Orochimaru's signature, around which was developing the distinctive shape of the cursed seal of heaven.

Orochimaru was furious. He had been thwarted, not something that happened often. Not only that, but he had wasted a precious heaven seal, and he had no earth seal enzymes with him, meaning that he wouldn't be able to give Sasuke the power or enforced loyalty of his two most powerful seals. And on top of all that, there was no guarantee that the seal would work against a demonic container anyway, he had never tried something like that before, never having felt the need.

All in all, a very bad investment.

Still, if the seal killed or crippled the Kyuubi boy, Konoha would be weakened, and if all it did was work the way it was supposed to, he would gain a potentially powerful loyal servant, although he couldn't posses the boy for fear of the Kyuubi, he could still use him as a tool, a weapon.

Not entirely satisfied, Orochimaru nevertheless slithered away with a smirk on his face. It might not have gone exactly as he had planned, but hell.

There was always next year.

Sasuke stared up at the grinning face of Naruto, still shocked, unable to move. The strange man had slid off into the forest a few moments ago, but that hardly registered. What was rushing through his head at the moment was the simple fact that Naruto, the dead last, the absolute loser, had just saved his life.

Twice.

WHAT THE HELL!

Still, when Naruto collapsed, Sasuke instinctively moved to catch him. He craned his neck, struggling under the weight of Naruto, and saw that Sakura was unconscious as well. Sighing, he surged chakra through his body and lifted Naruto onto his back completely, cursing inwardly as he felt the immense fever his blonde teammate was running. Sasuke managed to hop through the trees to where Sakura was lying, and scooped her up, wishing he could make solid clones like Naruto could. Nevertheless, he managed, lifting his other teammate and placing her on his shoulder. Sasuke looked around for a moment, and spotted a clearing in the distance. He grinned lightly, and jumped off towards it.

Soon, he had arrived, panting lightly under the weight of his two teammates. He walked over to a hollow in a nearby tree and gently set down his two teammates, noticing that, although Sakura was starting to stir, Naruto was still totally out of it, and was actually, if anything, running an even higher fever than before.

Sighing, Sasuke pulled out his canteen, and poured some water on a rag. He placed the rag on Naruto's head, and started to wipe away some of the sweat that had accumulated there.

Even as Sakura started to wake up, Sasuke sighed.

This was going to suck.

Anko shot out of the trees, and skidded to a halt. There he was. The monster, the demon, the creature that had tossed her aside like yesterday's trash, the beast that had ruined her life, and betrayed her trust.

There he was. Her teacher, her confidant, her father figure, the first person she had ever truly loved.

Even as she stared at him, Anko saw both Orochimarus, the cruel uncaring monster, and the kind loving sensei. It was impossible to reconcile the two images, so, in the first meeting with her old teacher in nearly ten years, Anko just attacked both of them, just like last time.

Both of them were good enough to kill.

The opening blows were exchanged, and Anko found herself being driven back. She felt the cursed seal trying to rise up, her own seal of heaven trying to gain control, to take the forefront, but as she had a hundred times before, she forced it down.

Instantly she collapsed down onto the tree branch she was standing on, pain surging through her neck as it had every time before. Memories flashed before her eyes, but she ignored them in favor of what was before her.

"Orochimaru. What are you doing here?"

Orochimaru smirked, and Anko knew he knew what she was doing. She was buying herself enough time to suppress the seal, he couldn't help but know it, he was basically controlling the damn thing. Still, she knew that he would indulge her. As it was, he would be underestimating her, thinking her too weak. That knowledge burned, and a plan started to form, born half of madness and half of desperation.

Still, she had to recover first.

"I'm disappointed in you Anko, to use such an obvious ploy. I had thought my little viper would be a little smarter."

She cursed mentally, but kept up the tough girl façade, still gripping her neck where the damnable seal was, trying to ignore the crippling pain.

"Why are you here? What are you after?"

She was rather surprised to see him frown. "The Sharingan dear viper. Unfortunately, I have been delayed, but that means nothing. In due time, it shall become mine, just like everything else, you included."

Anko's eyes widened, and Orochimaru cackled.

"Kukukukuku. Yes, my dear viper, you have guessed correctly. I have discovered the secret of immortality."

Then, before Anko could even put her double suicide plan into action, Orochimaru was gone, and before the darkness closed in, Anko cursed herself, as Orochimaru escaped once more.

Naruto opened his eyes, and stared at where the sky should have been.

Unfortunately, it wasn't there.

He sat up, and looked around. It was, to be honest, the last place he had expected to find himself. Namely, a sewer. A very badly maintained sewer. The walls were crumbling, broken, with an odd, evil feeling black liquid leaking out of them. Multi colored pipes ran along the ceiling, each glowing with several different colored liquids flowing through them. And more than just that, the whole place was filled with the sounds of heavy breathing, like some monstrous creature in the distance was panting furiously.

Naruto rose to his feet and started to walk, guided by his instincts and the sound of the breathing. Eventually, after seconds that felt like days, or days that felt like seconds, Naruto had arrived at the source. It was a giant steel cage, with massive black bars rising into the ceiling, completely out of sight. Behind the cage was a massive face, all that was visible of the panting creature.

The creature spoke, its face contorted into a grimace, of pain or annoyance Naruto couldn't tell. "Brat. What have you done?"

Naruto stared up at it, and felt his long clouded senses start to clear.

"Are you the Kyuubi?"

"Yes. What have you done brat? What is this black chakra, and why have you let it into your body?"

"Hey, I didn't do it! It was that stupid snake guy, he bit me!"

The creature roared, and Naruto took an instinctive step backwards, fear flashing through his heart for just an instant before it was gone once more.

"You fool! You let a foe bite you! This chakra is no normal chakra, it is an enzyme, and even now, it is trying to take over your body!"

"Enwhat? Wait, the enthing is trying to take over my body?"

Before Naruto could really start panicking the demon roared again, freezing him in place.

"SILENCE! If you think that I would let a mere human take over the body of my host, you are sorely mistaken. This enzyme shall not succeed, no matter what, although there will undoubtedly be side effects."

"W-what do you mean? What are you going to do!"

"I am already doing it. The enzyme is struggling to take you over, but I already exert a great influence over your body. It isn't enough to do what I actually want to do, but it is more than enough to destroy the diseased chakra, and free you from its influence. Of course, with this much disease in your body, the seal has weakened, a true boon."

"Oh no! The Kyuubi is escaping! AUUGHHH!"

Another roar, another flash of fear, and Naruto was silenced.

"You are a fool. If I was escaping, you would know. No, that isn't the part of the seal being weakened by this foul invader. It is targeting the pain giving portions of the seal, as well as the parts that were slowly destroying my body. In other words, where before I was dying, now I live, and I live a life without pain. This is the most beneficial side effect, as far as I'm concerned."

Naruto frowned, and plopped down into the murky sewer water, noting in the back of his mind that it wasn't making him wet. "Why was the seal causing you pain? And why was it destroying you?"

The Kyuubi growled, a deep sound, far more menacing than the roar, and once again, Naruto felt the fear, far stronger than any of the previous, but somehow, less than it should have been.

"The Fourth Hokage, when he sealed me in you, decided that it would be better if he made his own seal, rather than using the tried and true Uzumaki version of the seal. He doubled up on the Four Point Seal, creating his own version, the Eight Point Seal. He intended that it destroy me bit by bit and feed my chakra to you, however, he failed. Despite his genius, he was both only human and not an Uzumaki. This led to the seal merely gradually destroying me and not feeding me to you at all. Not only that, but the destruction was moving at an incredibly slow rate, to the point that my death would only have come in a thousand years, if not more."

"Well that seems pointless."

"Indeed. However, when you died, so would I, unless I broke free first. Furthermore, the immense pain I was being put through made me most eager to escape."

"Wait, why was the seal hurting you again?"

"If the seal had worked as it was supposed to, I would have been desperate to escape before being completely absorbed around the time you turned eighteen. The pain was added to the seal to keep me from resisting at all, but my pain tolerance was underestimated, or the seal screwed up, and I was given just enough pain to enrage me, but not enough to incapacitate me, meaning that I was slowly dying, pissed off, and trapped in you."

"Ouch."

"Yes. I've been trying to escape since the instant I was sealed away and broke out of that stupid genjutsu."

"Genjutsu?"

"If I were to tell you all you didn't know, we would be here forever."

"Oh, ok. So what happens now that all of that is gone?"

"My mind is clearer than it has been in twelve and a half years, a most wonderful experience. Without the pain and the terrible feeling of being slowly consumed, I feel whole. Soon, my body will be fully regenerated, and then, I shall act."

"What do you mean?"

"I will wipe out the enzyme, and reverse the effects as much as possible. Then, we shall speak more. In the meantime, rest, allow me to recuperate and then work."

"Wait, do you know what's going on outside?"

"I know no more than you do, and neither of us will find out until you wake up. And you won't wake up until that enzyme is defeated, and I permit you to leave this place. Don't worry, your teammates will protect you. In the meantime, rest. Let me work."

Naruto nodded, and felt a terrible sleepiness coming over him. He yawned, and was soon sleeping like a baby in the mysteriously dry murky water.

Water which was slowly starting to clear.