Disclaimer: I own not Naruto. I am borrowing the characters, and a few scenes, but the ideas that they are pushing towards, are mine.


Word of Honor

Chapter 7: Seal Markings

Kabuto walked down the streets of Konohagakure no Sato, his gait heavy and seemingly distraught. His purpose was unclear to most who saw him; though those who'd seen him before and knew that the Chunin Exam's were in Konoha, and that he had yet to pass said exams yet had an idea. And they'd be right, Kabuto wasn't taking the Chunin Exam's this year.

Orochimaru had given him a better matter to take care of.

Through his years in the village, both Kabuto and Orochimaru had found something interesting. There were people registered in the village who were not actually in the village for the majority of the time. Danzo's Ne (Root) could have been the cause for some of the missing persons, but the numbers and placement of said people were too odd for it to only be Danzo. After all, what use could normal, untrained civilians have in Danzo's group?

Which lead Kabuto to where he was now; walking the 'retired' sector of the village, and looking for clues. This particular sector was dedicated to shinobi who had some reason or another to quit the shinobi force and needed a livelihood to settle into. There were plenty of other genin who came here to see what their potential future could be if they didn't pass the Chunin Exam's, so he didn't seem out of place. In fact, a few would probably ask what he was doing there seeing as he was very optimistic about his lack of promotion. Him being in the retired sector sounded like he was giving up.

Kabuto shook his head at the foolish thoughts of his 'fellow genin'. Like he was actually on their level. No, he was here for another reason. He was here to see one of the older retiree's who had once been a rather skilled med-nin. His purpose; interrogation.

Pushing his glasses to the bridge of his nose, he came to a stop as he looked at the address he was looking for. A fake smile on his face, and looking as fake and naïve as ever, he looked over the building. It was quite large, at least three stories tall. There were few windows, obviously to bar anyone from entering into places they shouldn't, with a wide arch leading to the front of the building.

Walking calmly to the door, he paused as he noticed someone sitting on the porch. Approaching with a bit more caution, his eyes narrowed slightly as he got a better look. He would not let someone get the drop on him.

He was rather young man -maybe a year younger than himself- with a lanky build, and dirty blonde hair that appeared to have brown streaks in certain parts. He was dressed in clothes that he hadn't seen on too many people; a long sleeved white flannel shirt with a brown vest buttoned up over it, dark green slacks, and squared off sandals. It vaguely appeared like one of the foreign civilian's that came through from time to time, however, the mask was definitely Konoha property.

It was a mask of a monkey, grinning brightly at any and all who saw it. The eye portion had been covered with one way glass to allow whoever was looking through them to see him without him being able to see their eyes. It looked like the Anbu mask of a rookie member who still lacked the professionalism to simply allow the mask to remain with its impassive look.

He blinked as he suddenly realized he'd been staring. "I'm sorry, I've just never seen a mask like that. Did you make it yourself?"

The young man said nothing for a moment, slowly turning to Kabuto. Then, his head snapped up, jumping in excitement. "Oh, yeah! I wanted to be in Anbu, but washed out of becoming a genin shortly after passing the entrance exams. Those jonin sure don't mess around!"

Kabuto nodded, remembering his own test. It had been sickeningly easy to figure out what his sensei had wanted to see in them. Since his 'teammates' had been subjects to some of Orochimaru's projects, they listened to him without a second thought. After all, he was closer to Orochimaru than they were, and if he gave a good report on them, Orochimaru might prove find them of enough worth to empower. The only real difficulty was hiding his real skill so that his sensei wouldn't see anything out of place.

The young man suddenly stopped jumping, his head tilted to the side in a confused manner. Kabuto allowed himself to act the part of 'curious genin' a bit more. "Is there something on my face?"

"Yeah, you're glasses." The young man said in a way that was completely serious.

Kabuto chuckled at the joke. It was a bad joke, but laughing might be beneficial. "I was looking for Yamanaka Izo? I was wondering if –"

"Nope."

Kabuto paused, wondering if he'd heard him right. "I'm sorry?"

"No can do." The young man replied, nodding his head as he spoke. "You don't have an appointment, so I can't let you in. That's the rule."

Kabuto nodded slowly. He hadn't heard of this 'rule' but it could have been that it was just something that he'd overlooked when seeking him out. If he couldn't find anything on setting up an appointment with him, he'd just have to do things the hard way. "Very well. I'll come back when I have an appointment. Thank you for informing me of my mistake."

"Alrighty then, see you later!" The young man said, waving his hand wildly as Kabuto walked away.

Kabuto just grinned as his face was shadowed, pushing his glasses back into place. Obviously others knew of the so called 'secret technique' Yamanaka Izo had developed and were seeking it out as well. That simply wouldn't do. Grinning darkly, he made plans on how he would…extract the information from him.

Back at the porch, the young man stared after Kabuto as he rounded a corner. His hand slowly fell back down to his side, and his foot began to tap to an unheard beat. "So, Yakushi Kabuto has decided to pay us a visit." He muttered, turning on his toes and walking into the house. "Izo-sensei will want to hear about my new friends…exploits."

-xxxxx-

"If we get separated next time," Sasuke said as Team 7 huddled together shortly after the Ame shinobi had ambushed them. "Even if it's one of us, don't trust them. This could happen again."

Despite all that had just happened, Sasuke obviously didn't blame Naruto for being caught. Sakura was too busy trying not to freak out from everything that was currently going on to really care what had happened to Naruto. She just wanted some way of knowing things would be okay.

Naruto was in a similar, if more self attacking state. 'Man, I totally got taken off guard by that guy!' Scowling, he looked to the side. "I won't let it happen again."

"No one's blaming you Naruto. It could have happened to any of us." Sasuke said, surprised that Naruto was taking this so hard. Since they'd come into the forest, Sasuke had been appointed 'temporary' leader –temporary because Naruto wanted a chance to shine at some point- and needed to make sure he kept a level head. "If anything, I wouldn't have been able to get out of that without you. You were able to help me, just like I helped you. That's what teammates do."

Naruto nodded, grabbing the gravel beneath his hands. He knew that, he just felt so weak. He hadn't done much in the fight, and had been the one caught off guard. Plus, if they tried to imitate someone else, even with whatever Sasuke's plan was, he would ultimately be susceptible to even the weakest of genjutsu.

'Genjutsu.' Naruto thought, his mind beginning to whirl. When he'd rescued Moegi, he'd went right through the genjutsu the Ame shinobi had apparently put up, which would be an awesome asset to the team. The only thing that he remembered about how he'd done it was thinking about his promise to Konohamaru and Udon. Biting his lip, he took a steadying breath for what he was about to do.

"You guys." He said, getting their attention. "I promise you, I'll do whatever I can to make sure we get to the tower alive."

Both Sakura and Sasuke blinked in confusion, but seemed more at ease by the promise. Naruto felt the familiar feeling that came with the promise, and sighed in relief. 'That takes care of that.'

When Sasuke told them his idea for a codeword, and gave it to them though, Naruto felt every muscle in his neck tighten. He'd figured that his promise would mean that he'd remember the codeword or something, but what came out of Sasuke's mouth sounded as much like gibberish as anything else he might've said. Cursing under his breath when Sasuke wouldn't repeat it for him, he was surprised when Sasuke handed him a black scroll.

"I put a subtle genjutsu on this scroll to look like the real 'earth scroll'. If you get caught, and need to get away, use this to get away." Sasuke said as he stood up. "I'll hold onto the other scroll."

Naruto sighed, pocketing the scroll in his pouch. A second after he did so, a small rock hit him in the face. Grimacing in pain, he turned to the source.

And was propelled away from his team by the violent oncoming wind.

-xxxxx-

Orochimaru looked between the two genin in front of him. One was a civilians daughter, of no real consequence, and of little skill. The other, was Uchiha Sasuke. Son of the former head of the former elite Uchiha clan. At least, before they'd been wiped out by Sasuke's older brother.

Sasuke showed no fear towards Orochimaru, glaring him down as though he were simply another genin in the exams. Normally, this tactic would work seeing as it was two against one. Well, three against two, but they didn't need to know that. After all, it wouldn't be fun to let someone else handle what he could do alone.

"It wasn't Naruto again?" The girl asked, obviously slow on the uptake. Orochimaru gave her a moment to figure out whatever it was that Sasuke already knew, knowing that civilian born shinobi usually had a certain lack of battle sense that clan raised shinobi had.

Smirking, Orochimaru pulled out the 'earth scroll', already knowing that they needed it to pass this part of the exam. Even if it had been the wrong one, it would have appeared to be the right scroll. After all, he needed bait for them to take. "You want my 'earth scroll', right? Since you guys have the 'heaven scroll'." Taking the scroll and wrapping his tongue around it, he slowly shoved it down his throat. Dramatics always were rather enjoyable, especially since these two were so green, they likely hadn't met a shinobi like him. Then again, few were. Finishing pushing the scroll down, he sighed as he put his finger beneath his lower eyelid. "Now we can begin the battle for our scrolls…with our lives on the line."

Were it not for the fact he was projecting his killing intent in such a concentrated way, he would have laughed at their terror. This was nothing. Compared to some of the people Orochimaru had known and met, he would have laughed in the face of anyone who tried to throw something so weak at him.

Sasuke hunched over, hurling what had once been his lunch onto the forest floor. Orochimaru didn't bother reacting to it, instead remaining seemingly calm. Inwardly, he applauded that they hadn't reached for their kunai's yet. It would be such a waste to hunt down the mighty 'last Uchiha' only for him to kill himself before the real hunt actually began.

He did allow himself some satisfaction, seeing them both trembling in fear. The little civilian girl was even crying. His old sensei must've been going senile if he let a girl like her out into the field.

"You can no longer move." He muttered, watching as Sasuke reached for a kunai. And he'd had such high hopes for him. Whipping his hand, he flung two kunai towards them. He didn't need to waste more than that.

Before it reached them, he watched Sasuke use the kunai he'd grabbed to stab himself in the leg. His mind now overriding the fear with pain, he moved and grabbed his teammate. Orochimaru's eyes never left him as he attempted to escape from him.

"As I thought…he's no ordinary prey.' He thought, forming hand seals for a summoning.

-xxxxx-

Naruto grimaced as he shook himself of as much of the snake goo from his clothing. It was official, his clothes would smell for the rest of their short lived life. With a sigh, he continued on, not bothering to remove his slightly goo covered jacket.

Some would say that this was a very stupid thing to do, seeing as smelling like snake goo would attract any shinobi who was capable of tracking him by scent. However, Naruto didn't care about that. His entire frame seemed to be pushed faster as his thoughts raced through different possibilities of what kind of jutsu could do that.

'A natural forest based hurricane?' He thought before shaking his head. 'Nah, a hurricane would have taken down some of the trees too. It was probably just a normal, really overpowered gust of wind…yeah.'

Recognizing that the gust of wind had been a jutsu was impressive for him, or would have been if his mind hadn't been throwing out more questions. He'd made a promise to his teammates, so why wasn't he getting the benefits that he'd gotten saving Moegi? He'd made the promise, and felt it take hold just the way it was supposed to, but now he was once again cut off from his teammates.

"Dang it, if I'm not fast enough my teammates could die!" Naruto shouted, pushing himself faster amongst the tree branches.

Amazingly, as soon as he said it he noticed something off about his chakra control. When he pushed off, he remained stuck for an extra second. This in turn was making him be unable to get the proper propulsion he needed to really move faster. To test this, he changed his chakra grip on the tree so that that extra second was gone.

The result was instantaneous. His speed nearly doubled, and he actually found that he had a hard time seeing most of the forest out of the corners of his vision. Putting that away for later, he kept pushing faster towards his teammates.

Landing silently, his eyes widened as he saw some genin coming out of the carcass of a dead snake. Reaching quickly into his shinobi pouch, he whipped out a batch of kunai and shuriken. His eyes narrowed as the genin rapidly approached his team and he launched his volley as hard as he could.

The genin stopped a moment before the weapons impacted, which probably saved their life. When the kunai struck the branch, they were buried to the point that only a sliver of the blade was still visible. The genin stared at them for a moment, before lifting their head.

Naruto grinned, remembering that they probably wouldn't trust him with out the codeword. Despite not remembering a single part of it, he spoke confidently. "Sorry Sasuke, but I forgot the codeword."

Sakura immediately brightened upon seeing him. "Great job Naruto!"

Sasuke on the other hand, didn't look nearly as happy. "Naruto, I know you think you're cool and here to save us…but forget it! Run away! This one's on a whole other level!"

The genin chuckled at their display. "It looks like you defeated that giant snake…Naruto-kun."

'This genin look like a snake. So he's the one…' Naruto thought as he narrowed his eyes. "So, you're picking on the weak huh?"

Then, Sasuke did something very out of character. His eyes, once blazing with his clan's Sharingan, faded back to their normal onyx color and turned away from their opponent as he held out their 'heaven scroll'. "I'll give you the scroll. Please, take it and leave us."

Naruto was shell shocked, feeling a righteous rage building up inside him. "Sasuke! What are you talking about? Why would you give our scroll to the enemy?"

The other genin returned to a more human state, smirking at Sasuke's attempt to negotiate. "Very smart. The only way to escape a predator is to give the predator a different meal."

"Take it." Sasuke said, throwing the scroll towards the other genin.

Naruto's eyes widened, not able to fully understand what was going on. This didn't mean that he was going to just let it slide. Using his new chakra speed, he flew forwards and snatched the scroll away before it got halfway across. Still speeding forwards, he landed just behind Sasuke.

Sasuke, in a blind rage caused mainly by fear of what would happen thanks to Naruto, rounded on Naruto. "You idiot! What do you think you're doing? Do you understand the situation?" Naruto didn't flinch as he too whirled back towards Sasuke, slamming a heavy blow to Sasuke's cheek, knocking him off balance on the branch. Leaping away from his crazed teammate, Sasuke continued to shout. "What was that for?"

Sakura was also confused, though quite a bit less vocal than she normally was. "Naruto, what are you doing?"

Breathing heavily, Naruto searched through his gut to find some inkling towards the truth. His promise may not have been able to help him when they were ambushed, but it could most certainly help him now. After all, not knowing if this was his real teammate or not was a matter of life and death.

"I don't remember the codeword, so I can't be test it, but you're Sasuke's fake aren't you?" Naruto said. As he said it, he felt a mild burning sensation in his gut. Since he wasn't clutching his gut in agony, he was on the right track.

"You moron, I'm the real Sasuke!" Sasuke spat back.

"Liar…" Naruto said, the burning sensation fading away. "There's no way the coward in front of me, is the Sasuke I know! I don't know how strong this guy is but what guarantee is there that he'll let us go if we give him the scroll? You're both too freaked out to understand the situation!"

Behind his mask, Orochimaru was somewhat impressed. It wasn't Sasuke, but his no named teammate had understood that simple fact. Truly, there was more to him than met the eye.

"Kukuku, Naruto-kun…you are correct!" Orochimaru said, pulling up the sleeve on his left arm revealing a special tattoo on it. "Especially since I can just kill you and take the scroll."

Wiping a trail of blood down the tattoo, he began making hand signs. Before he'd finished wiping the blood down, Naruto had burst forward. Strength surged through him as his movements became faster than even before. "Shut up!"

Orochimaru smirked, hearing Sasuke yell for Naruto to stop. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Technique)."

Naruto, who was mere feet from delivering a powerful haymaker, was caught off guard as a giant snake appeared beneath the genin he was about to hit. In midair, and unable to defend himself, he took a powerful blow that send him crashing upwards through several smaller branches before slamming into a particularly thick branch.

Naruto coughed up blood, his mind drawing a momentary blank as he regained his bearings. Seeing the snake beneath him, and more importantly the genin riding it, he felt rage grow within him. He heard something about being allowed to eat him, and realized that if he didn't do something, he was going to die.

Die.

"LIKE HELL!" Naruto shouted, slamming the snake's mouth shut with a powerful punch. From deep within himself, he felt an immense power flooding through him, shouting at him to crush the enemy before him.

Unfortunately, without the sudden realization of death so eminent for the moment, he was caught off guard by the large but relatively harmless fireball that struck him. Landing near Sasuke in an undignified heap, he groaned in pain. 'That…was a bad idea.'

Sasuke's eyes widened as he watched Naruto attempt to go toe to toe with the once untouchable genin. 'That's Naruto?'

Meanwhile, Orochimaru was enjoying his little discovery. 'Well now, this is becoming quite interesting!' he thought as he directed his snake towards Sasuke. "Sasuke-kun, now it's your turn! What will you do?"

He didn't have to do anything. Naruto moved before he even realized that he'd moved, stopping the snake from eating Sasuke. He'd once again drawn on the immense power, thought this time was different. There was no additional malice; just the overwhelming desire to protect Sasuke and Sakura, and to stand his ground against this guy who thought he could just waltz around and say he was going to kill his teammates.

Panting from overexertion, Naruto glanced up at Sasuke. "Hey…are you…alright…scaredy-cat?

Sasuke stared back into Naruto's blue eyes, seeing nothing but amusement at his fear. Sasuke remembered saying something similar to Naruto after the fight with the Oni (Demon) Brothers, and cursed his fearful state. So caught up in his berating himself, he nearly missed Naruto being picked up by their enemy's tongue.

"Hey! Let go of me!" Naruto shouted, pointlessly flailing about in a desperate attempt to break free.

"Kukuku, so the Kyuubi brat is still alive." Orochimaru muttered, noting Naruto's eyes turn red as he wildly attempted to strike him. "When your emotions are heightened the Kyuubi's power overflows…very interesting." Lifting Naruto jacket and shirt, he looked on with amusement, having already completed the necessary hand seals for what he was about to do. "Ah, the seal is still visible. Gogyou Fuuin (Five Element Seal)!"

Not bothering with the 'heaven scroll' in Naruto's equipment pouch, Orochimaru flung him over his shoulder nonchalantly.

It was now time to see if Sasuke was as useful as he'd hoped.

-xxxxx-

Nothing changed in Sasuke vs. Orochimaru fight. Moving on.

-xxxxx-

Anko leapt through the trees, her mind racing as she tried to track down her wayward sensei. The sun was fading in the distance, which caused her to curse as she quickened her pace. Once the sun had gone down, her main methods of tracking would become useless to her.

She stopped on a branch, feeling a bead of sweat running down the side of her face as she stared into the trees. She had been Orochimaru's students, his soldiers, and had learned everything she used now to their full advantage. His betrayal had cut deeply within her, but now she would give her life to kill the man who had made her life a living hell in the village, even if she couldn't take him with her.

"It's been a long time…Orochimaru-sensei." Anko said, not bothering to turn to face the man she despised so.

"Impossible." Orochimaru muttered, genuinely surprised that Anko had managed to sense her. He knew that her skill had grown, but hadn't quite expected her to get to this point.

Closing her eyes, she leapt into the air, kunai falling into her hand as she prepared to chuck them at her former sensei. Before she could though, she was taken off guard by Orochimaru's tongue which shot out and wrapped around her wrist. Realigning herself in midair, she landed roughly on another branch. With a loud cry, she gripped the tongue and pulled.

'You won't get away! Senei Jashu(Hidden Shadow Snake Hands)!'

Snakes shot out of her sleeves, latching onto Orochimaru in an attempt to give Anko better gripping power. Flinging Orochimaru overhead, she tried to bring him down as painfully as she could. Years of experience allowed Orochimaru to avoid serious damage as he smirked. Retracting his tongue, he allowed Anko to pull him around. Once he was close enough, he used his chakra to retract his tongue in a way that allowed him a burst of speed into Anko. Caught off guard, Anko was violently smashed into the tree behind her.

Not missing a beat she grabbed Orochimaru's hand in a death grip, unwilling to allow him to escape. Pushing up, she flipped Orochimaru over, pining him down to keep him from escaping. Gripping a kunai in her other hand she rammed it through both of their hands into the tree. She wasn't about to take any chances.

Taking a shaky breath, she grinned at Orochimaru's partly burn fake face. "Heh, got you Now I'm just going to borrow your left hand, Orochimaru." She fumbled with his left hand, finally able to form the necessary seal she wanted. Orochimaru's eyes widened, obviously recognizing the seal as well as what it did. Anko smirked in triumph. "Yes…you and I will die…"

"Kukuku, planning to commit suicide?"

Anko whirled around in shock, having been unable to sense the newcomer. Or rather, the real Orochimaru. She cursed as the Orochimaru in front of her dispersed in a plume of smoke. 'Kage Bunshin(Shadow Clone)!"

"Now Anko, a special jonin like yourself shouldn't be using all those nasty kinjutsu I taught you." Orochimaru said smoothly, one hand peeling off the rest of the burn 'mask' from his face. The other formed a half seal, triggering a reaction in Anko.

Anko gasped for breath, trying desperately to pick herself up despite the pain from her Ten no Juin (Curse Seal of Heaven). "Why…are you here?"

"It's been so long since we've seen each other." Orochimaru said, finally showing his pale face to the world. "And yet you're still so cold…Anko."

Anko couldn't help but laugh despite the pain. "So…are you here to assassinate Hokage-sama?"

"No, I don't have enough men to do that yet." He replied, like someone discussing the weather. "I thought I'd come and recruit some of the more outstanding genin from this village. In fact, I just gave them one of my seals. There's a kid I want…"

Anko was now shaking due to the pain that the seal was placing on her body. "Heh…that kid's gonna die. You and I both know…"

"There's only a one in ten chance that he'll survive." Orochimaru finished for her, his expression not changing at all. "But like you, he might not die."

Anko snickered, knowing that putting so much faith in the seal would cost him. "You must really like this kid."

Orochimaru smirked as an idea formed in the back of his mind. "Jealous, are we? Are you still upset that I threw you away? After all, unlike you this one has talent. He is of the Uchiha blood after all. So much talent, so much potential. He will be the greatest vessel. I look forward to seeing his growth, so don't stop the exams, especially on my account. Now, for that should interest you."

Orochimaru knew what he was about to do would probably come back to bite him, but then that was the danger of snakes. And Anko was a particularly nasty little viper. With a grin only a mad scientist could pull off, he leaned down next to Anko and placed two fingers against her curse mark.

Anko flinched at the physical contact, wanting nothing more than to bite Orochimaru's fingers or throat. The pain still wracked her body though, and she was forced to remain unmoving as Orochimaru channeled chakra into her seal.

"This is quite the odd little function I found for the seal." Orochimaru said, his smile never wavering. "Truth be told, I don't know quite what this will do to you, so we'll have to catch up at some point. You can try again when we meet."

Slithering away, Orochimaru slowly began to meld with the tree. Anko looked at him through half lidded eyes, barely conscious enough to see straight, and was almost unable to hear what he'd just said. Glaring at him as best as she could, she slowly spoke. "You…bastard."
Orochimaru shrugged, "Just remember, don't stop the exams. If you try and stop my enjoyment…know that Konohagakure will be finished."

Anko stared into space as he disappeared, finally passing out from the immense pain of the seal beginning the process of rearranging itself.

-xxxxx-

Within the strange anomaly that was Naruto's mindscape, a change was occurring. For in once corner of his mind, there was a special staircase. This staircase would allow Naruto to travel between his mind, and his seal –two completely different entities- and speak in the sewer area that held his burden; the Kyuubi.

Now though, a barbed tangle of wire and thick bars were firmly in place between the two, preventing the two from connecting as they previously had. The bars each consisted of a combination of all five elements; forming into an impenetrable substance that could only be removed by the counter seal.

Within the mindscape, looking through the gate, was the Naruto-lookalike. He held his hand a small distance from the entrance, noting the way the chakra prevented him from entering. Slowly he spoke. "The Gateway is strained."

From behind him, there was a giant crash, and a rush of energy followed. Not batting an eye at the occurrence, he turned away from the gate and walked forwards. Coming across a large cylindrical room that had the appearance of an oversized dojo. Written on the center of the floor was a group of circles, each one with different words written on them. Leaping down, he began to channel energy through the seal labeled 'Shodaime' (First).

"It is time." He said, his voice barely a whisper as the energy flowed into the shape of a person. "Our lord approaches. Be mindful of the next generation, senzo." (Ancestor)

As the energy took shape, he walked away, he first duty complete. Within moments, the energy began to settle down, settling on the form of a woman. Her red hair was long, hanging well past her shoulders, to around the middle of her back. She wore a red combat dress that accentuated her quite well. As her violet eyes opened, she slowly began to look around.

"Where am I? Where's Naruto?"


AN: …yeah, there was several cannon scenes that were completely necessary. I didn't like having to try and rewrite them normally, so I rewrote them…from different perspectives! Mostly. The Sasuke getting marked didn't need to be written again, seeing as nothing changed in that particular fight. Also...two fight scenes. Please tell me how I did...I need to know so I can improve.

Also, remember last chapter when I wanted to bring in 'him'? Well, monkey-face (who's name I actually couldn't introduce yet) is him. And he'll be helping later…'cause he's a hero! You'll get the joke when the preliminaries are over.

One of my reviewers (Mangahero18) mentioned in their review of Chapter 1 that the promise thing was like the Inheritance Cycle. I've read the inheritance cycle, and had to agree with it on the whole 'ancient language means your promises are binding'. That got me thinking, and I wondered; 'what would happen if Naruto didn't word it right?' And thus, what happened in this chapter. Naruto didn't word it right, so he didn't get all the strength and skill he wanted when he thought he needed it. Bazinga.

And Orochimaru's screwing with Naruto's seal has allowed me to progress his bloodline thingy along! Granted, he's not going to learn too much for the time being seeing as…well, you'll understand when I explain it. But he will eventually get really…I'm not sure strong is the right word, but it'll work for now. Especially if the number crunching I've been doing is right.

Also, considering how fast I've been cranking these suckers out, I may have to let this cool off a bit before updating. What do you guys think?

Next time on Word of Honor; Subconscious Defensive Mechanisms. Where Zaku is reminded that he need to stop saying stupid things.