From his position, kneeling on the branch, Sasuke thought, 'That idiot! He should've stayed hidden, then at least one of us could've survived!' before shouting. "Run away you fool!"

Naruto coldly said, "Shut the hell up, brat."

The kunoichi thought, 'Ohh...the blonde brat seems to have had a complete change in his personality...I wonder why. Hebinawa didn't have that kind of ability.'

Naruto appeared in front of Sasuke, unable to be followed by either Sasuke or Sakura, barely able to be followed by the kunoichi. When he came to a standstill he backhanded Sasuke across his face which, due to his being in Sage Mode, caused him to fly over to Sakura's position on the branch of another tree. He called out, "Sakura, get that dead weight out of here!"

"Dead...Weight...!" Sakura managed to say, stunned and offended that the deadlast would have the nerve to insult her, admittedly one-sided, love in such a way. "Why you!" Sakura growled, before jumping from her branch, leaving the immobile Sasuke where he had landed, to attack Naruto with an overhead scissor-kick, which failed spectacularly as Naruto merely raised a single arm to block it. He grabbed her leg with his other hand and threw her back to her branch, next to Sasuke. "What the...But how could he..."

"Thanks a lot Sakura," Naruto said, his voice laden with sarcasm.

"What?!" Sakura half-demanded..

"You just showed this hebi-teme, some of what I can do. Now, get the hell out of here before you do something even more stupid!," Naruto ordered.

"Uhh..." Sakura said, coming out of her stunned state, caused by Naruto's actions, having always been able to get away with belting the blonde in the past.

"Now you fool!" Naruto yelled, having not once taken his eyes off of the deranged kunoichi in front of him.

The kunoichi thought to 'herself', 'So, that truly is a form of Sage Mode...and those wretched Toads' version if I'm remembering correctly.'

Sakura bolted, taking Sasuke, and the Heaven's Scroll, away from the demented kunoichi's reach.

After his 'teammates' had left Naruto said, "Now that the distractions are gone, why don't you take that mask off, Orochimaru!"

"Orochimaru?" The kunoichi said, feigning ignorance, "Whatever do you mean? I'm Hiore, a kunoichi of Kusagakure/"

"Cut the crap. Kusa-nin are all taught the Kusa Bunshin in their academy days. All that is reflected in your chakra is snakes."'

"So, that truly is a Sage Mode then," Orochimaru more stated then asked.

"Yes," Naruto said, seeing no true reason to hide that which was truly rather obvious to the two of them.

"Then I'm curious, what is your relation with that dunderhead Jiraiya?"

"That, has absolutely nothing to do with you," Naruto said as he disappeared once again, this time appearing in front of Orochimaru, who had still yet to remove the Hiore mask. He used a Frog Kata punch, breaking the snake-users sternum. and all of his ribs, sending him flying through five massive trees before being embedded in a sixth.

As Orochimaru emerged from the tree he coughed up blood, signifying that he had received some internal injuries, as expected, from the punch. He said, "You damn brat!"

Naruto smirked and said, "If you get beaten by 'a brat', I wonder what that'll do for your reputation?"

"What?" Orochimaru said, stunned at the blonde's taunt, before chuckling. After his chuckles died down, he said, "Enough playing around," wiped some of his blood off of his shirt and started doing handseals. When he was done he placed the hand with the blood on it on the ground and said, "Kuchiyose(1)." He was covered in a cloud of smoke. When it died down he was standing on the snakes gigantic head.

Naruto said, "So, you've summoned another snake. Is that all that one of the Sannin can do?"

"No. But it's all that I'll need," Orochimaru taunted.

"I see," Naruto said, "Then it's also all I'll need."

"What?" Orochimaru said, "I'll admit that your possession of the toads' Sage Mode is somewhat perplexing, but that's merely because nothing in your chakra suggests that you have ever summoned a creature in your short, pathetic, life."

"I see your point," Naruto commented, "but there's one slight issue that you're overlooking."

"And what would that be?"

"All that is required for a Kuchiyose is the contracted shinobi's blood," Naruto disappeared, reappeared behind Orochimaru's snake and swiped his hands in the blood that Orochimaru had coughed up as he exited the tree before disappearing and reappearing where he had been before. "Okay, that's one half done."

Orochimaru thought, 'He can't possibly be trying to use my own contract with the snakes against me? That's just not possible.'

Naruto made the seals that he knew summoned the snakes of Orochimaru from battling against the snake-user many times, alongside his interrogation training with Anko. He said, "Kuchiyose," and slammed his hand on the ground. To Orochimaru's surprise, and horror, a cloud of smoke appeared. When it cleared Naruto was standing on the head of a massive green tree snake. Orochimaru laughed. He laughed long and hard. Naruto asked, "What the hell's so damned funny?"

"Oh, you may not know this, but that is a green tree snake. They're completely useless in battle. You might as well have not summoned it."

The snake that Naruto was standing on hissed in anger at Orochimaru's taunts. Naruto said, "Just ignore him."

The snake looked at the one who summoned her, and said, "I thought that it wasss weird that I wasss ssummoned. Orochimaru only ever summonsss Manda, or his ilk. But you aren't even contracted with usss. You alsssoo smell really tasstyy!"

"Tasty?" Naruto asked, thinking before continuing, "That's probably the Toad-style Sage Mode that I'm using."

"That makess senssee. Normally we wouldn't asssissst you on princciple alone. But I'll make an excception in thisss casssee."

"Oh?" Naruto said, "I thank you...umm...what was your name again?"

"You sshould give your name firsst."

"Right! Where were my manners! I'm Namikaze Naruto, nice to meet ya!"

"Namikazze!" The snake said, "I sshall make a contract with you laterr...but for now, my nname isss Ophion."

"Alright then Ophion, let's get this snake!"

"Gladly!" Ophion said, charging at Orochimaru and his snake."

Orochimaru said, "Go!" to his nameless snake, causing it to move towards Ophion and Naruto. It moved at a snail's pace in comparison to Ophion, who quickly got to the side of it and sunk her fangs(2) into the nameless snakes eye, killing it instantly. Naruto took the chance to kick Orochimaru hurtling through the Forest of Death.

Anko alighted next to Naruto just as Orochimaru was launched away from them. She said, "So, illustrious leader, finally got your memories back?"

"Yeah, not a moment too soon either. What about you?"

"I got mine about two years ago when I ran across a bunch of missing-nin on a mission."

"Has Hinata..."

"No, not yet. Though since yours have she'll probably be getting them pretty soon too, don't you think?"

"Yeah, probably."

"Well, at any rate, this here's an interesting lady you managed to summon."

"Yeah, she sure is. Although..."

"Although what, toad-boy?" Ophion said, kinda irked at being ignored.

"Toad-..." Naruto said before he started to laugh.

Ophion looked at Naruto in a way that somehow indicated her confusion at Naruto's reaction. She looked at Anko and asked, "What's with this kid?"

"Well...smarter people than me have been trying to figure that one out for a long time. Thankfully, in our time, that was a good thing."

"Your time?"

"Yeah, you see we're from..."

"Anko," Naruto said, cutting her off from continuing her conversation about his mental state with Ophion. "Orochimaru is on his way back and I don't think that I can beat him in my current form."

"Yeah, alright then, beat it."

"Sure thing, later," Naruto said before he disappeared in a yellow flash, teleporting to the kunai that he had placed in Sakura's satchel when he threw her back to Sasuke before making her head for the hills.

Anko said, "So...I'm sorry I don't know what to call you, but how about you give me a hand for a while?"

"Sssure" Ophion said, turning to face Orochimaru once again.

XXXXXXX

A/N

(1) Kuchiyose = Summoning

(2) I am aware that Green Tree Snakes possess no fangs, but hey, snakes don't possess horns either.