I feel quite generous this week, I think I'll try to post a new chapter on Wednesday and Friday in addition to this one. Each of these chapters are better than the last (In my opinion), so I expect more reviews from you all. Of course I'm not bribing for more reviews, I just like to know people are enjoying the story. Chapter 10 of this story is where I really take off on original ideas and directions which will lead into the joys of part two where my writing really shines again.
On a side note, Stay tuned into the 'Portal' when the holidays come around, I just managed a 25 page short story that may get you in the Christmas spirit.
Uykou Myou
(Wings of Life/Destiny)
Part One: Entrance: Chapter 9
"Excellent, the one we needed." Shino commented as he picked up the scroll from the deceased ninja, after avoiding the leach like critters.
"Lets hurry and be the first team to the tower, it'll be awesome!" Kiba shouted. Team 8, with their corresponding scroll already in hand, decided for the easy approach and headed straight for the tower to avoid any other fights.
"We've been running for at least an hour, I need to rest Sasuke-kun." Sakura complained with sweat pouring from her face from the exertion of running for so long. Naruto immediately came to a stop, bringing Sakura with him, making Sasuke stop a few feet from them.
"Why are you stopping dobe?"
"Didn't you hear Sakura-chan? She is tired and needs to rest. For that matter, I need to take a leak." Naruto defended as he took off into the forest for some privacy.
"Hmph, whatever." He muttered before sitting on a higher branch of the tree Sakura was sitting under. A few moments later, Naruto returned looking refreshed.
"Ahh, much better. I didn't think I could go for that long."
"Gross Naruto! Keep those thoughts to yourself!" Sakura shouted just as Sasuke punched him hard in the face. "Sasuke-kun, what was that for? It was gross but not that worth punching yet."
"Look at him, that isn't Naruto. For starters his kunai pouch is on the wrong leg."
"Very perceptive, now give me your scroll." Commanded the imposter. Sasuke smirked and dropped into fighting stance, but before he could act an orange blur flew into the area, grabbing the imposter's head, and driving his knee upward connecting with his chin, knocking him out instantly.
"Stupid bastards jumping a guy while he's taking a piss. What are you guys, gay?" Naruto griped while kicking the downed ninja again.
"Does he have a scroll?" Sakura asked looking disgustedly at the intruder.
"No, but one of the other two did. Unfortunately it is the same as ours."
"Are you saying that you defeated two ninja already?" Sakura asked, slightly astonished.
"Yep, that should teach them to prey on someone needing to relieve himself."
"Whatever, let's just get moving, we're wasting time here." Sasuke lead Team 7 onward through the forest for a few minutes until he felt something. "Look out!" Sasuke tackled Sakura to the ground as a great wind ripped thought the forest, dragging Naruto along with it. Naruto soon found himself smacking into a large tree quite a ways away from the group, leaving an impression of himself in the trunk with the remaining force.
"What the hell was that? I don't even see Sakura-chan anymore. If it gets any worse I'll run into a huge animal as well." Moments after saying this, Naruto was met with the open mouth of a huge snake. "Why me? I just had to say something didn't I?" he moaned to himself as he was now looking around inside the belly of the serpent. Naruto felt the oozing of the inner lining of the stomach pulling him deeper while the digestive actions were eating away at his clothes and making his skin burn all the while he was struggling to free himself by cutting and slashing at the innards with a kunai to no avail.
"I will not become someone's lunch! Tajuu Kage Bushin no jutsu!" Thousands of clones started to appear and expand the snake's guts until the pressure in the snake was more than its skin could take and shredded it into pieces, causing it to burst into smoke, leaving Naruto alone in the forest. "That was a close one, now to get back to Sakura-chan and Sasuke."
"Well, if it isn't Uchiha Sasuke, I've been looking forward to meeting you. For many years I have been intrigued by the Uchiha bloodline." Sasuke and Sakura looked over to the source of the voice and saw the rain nin with the long tongue talking to them with a disgusting grin on his face.
"Who are you?" Sasuke demanded while preparing for an attack.
"Tsk, tsk, A little fast to jump to conclusions. What makes you say you even have a chance against me?"
"Save it, I'm an Uchiha."
"Confident are we? Lets try something." Sasuke stood in front of Sakura reading for an attack, but none came as he was flooded with fear coming from the man before them. "What's wrong Sasuke-kun?" The man asked as he stepped closer. Sasuke attempted to move, but found his body wasn't reacting as it should.
'I can't move. Why can't I move?'
"Lets see if the famed Uchiha clan is what it stacks up to be." The rain nin whipped a kunai straight for Sasuke. Right before it came into contact with him, he shoved his own kunai into his leg freeing his mind from fear to pain allowing him to move at the last moment.
"Sasuke-kun, you're bleeding." Sakura continued to look at his leg as it leaked his life giving fluid to the ground.
"Sakura, shut up and stay out of my way." The kunoichi stepped back in shock of his rough attitude, but did as he requested. Sasuke activated his Sharingan and faced the intruding nin through the Uchiha dojutsu.
"Ah, the Sharingan, excellent. Let's see how well you can use it." Sasuke led out with a series of punches and kicks, all being dodged by the clearly superior ninja. The Uchiha flew through a few hand signs.
"Katon: Hōsenka no Jutsu." After inhaling a large breath of air, Sasuke started spitting out a rapid series of small fire balls.
"Fūton: Daitoppa." Called out the rain nin as he sent a huge ball of air towards the flames. Using wind element against a fire element isn't the smartest thing to do, since when the flames hit the concentrated air, it raged to a great inferno. Unfortunately the rain nin wasn't an idiot. The speed of the rushing air pushed the inferno towards the two members of team 7.
"Sakura, move!" Said person was still stuck in her spot fearing any movement as Sasuke pulled her out of range of the flames. Before a counter attack was launched, Naruto came into the area landing a heavy punch to the man's face, causing his skin to peel away showing a different, pale face, underneath.
"Hmm, too many people now, Kuchiyose no jutsu!" The new pale faced man called forth a huge snake into the forest to take care of business.
"Hey bastard, who are you? I didn't like that other snake and I'm guessing you are the cause." Naruto shouted to the man.
"Very well Naruto-kun, since you managed to survive my other pet, I will let you in on something then. You can call me Orochimaru." Orochimaru pealed back the rest of his skin revealing his true self to Team 7. "Now you can die." The huge snake took off after them, aiming for Sakura first. The three of them separated, Sakura hid in a nearby area while Naruto and Sasuke decided to fight.
"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!" Sasuke exhaled the massive ball of flame that hit its mark on the weird looking Orochimaru. With a confident smirk, Sasuke landed on a near by branch eyeing the smoke from his attack.
Naruto was having worse troubles than Sasuke with his new snake friend. After getting struck in the head a few too many times by its tail, Naruto was feeling anger envelop him and the uncontrollable want to actually harm something. He felt the warmth of the Kyuubi's chakra start to flow as he was left for dead by the large snake and went to search for different prey.
"Very nice Sasuke-kun." Cackled the irritating voice of Orochimaru as the smoke faded showing that just a few pieces of clothing were singed.
'Who is this guy? We can't win if he blocked that attack so easily. We must run.' Sasuke thought as his confidence was gone and he felt fear enter his very being again.
"And I was hoping for a little more fun. Oh well, my pet has just finished with your other teammate and wants to play with you." Orochimaru cackled as the snake barreled in on Sasuke's form. Sasuke looked at the snake with fear evident in his eyes and cringed for death to consume him, but didn't feel anything. Opening his eyes, he stared into deep red slitted ones.
"What's the matter Sasuke, scared?" Naruto asked with his elongated fangs bared as he held back the snake with ease. With a single punch to the snake's snout, Naruto forced the summon away into its realm. Without a second glance, Naruto rushed forward and thrusted his clawed hand into the stomach of Orochimaru, actually drawing blood from the man.
"It really is in you isn't it. I can't have it interfering. Gogyō Fūin!" Orochimaru's right hand was illuminated as he contacted Naruto's seal and laid his own over it causing tremendous pain. Naruto screamed out displaying the excruciating feeling he had tearing away at his innards and fell to the ground unconscious due to the pain. "Well I guess it is time to leave, I'm sure Anbu will be here shortly from that last move. I will leave you with a little gift Sasuke-kun." Before Sasuke could react, Orochimaru's neck stretched out and landed a bite to his shoulder. "Now when you need power, you will feel the urge to seek me out. See you soon Sasuke-kun." Orochimaru melted into the ground leaving the genin alone.
Sakura ran to Sasuke's side and immediately looked at the fang marks left behind. "Sasuke-kun! Are you ok?"
"Yeah, I'm…. AHHHH!" he screamed as Sakura watched a weird three piece seal appear on his skin where he was bitten before Sasuke slumped down into unconsciousness.
"Sasuke-kun!" She shouted in fear for her crush. "Naruto, get your midget ass over here and help Sasuke-kun!" Sakura heard no answer and looked to where she last saw him and realized he was unconscious on the ground as well. "Damn it Naruto! Quit sleeping!" She ran over and kicked his side and noticed he didn't even flinch or move. "Shit!" She cursed, knowing she was alone and had to take care of them herself.
Sakura soon found a decent hiding spot in the roots of an overturned tree and took great effort in dragging her two teammates to the temporary safe haven. Once she had them there, she placed Naruto to one side and Sasuke on the other. It was obvious how much she cared for the Uchiha with how she made sure he was comfortable as she laid out her jacket for him to rest his head as opposed to just letting Naruto lie there in whatever position he was dragged in.
No change was seen in either of her patients as the sky got dark, and with it, her weariness grew trying to drag her down into sleep, but she knew they could die if she did. Steeling herself, she set in for a long and excruciatingly slow night.
Naruto found himself meandering through various mazes of dark and dank corridors. He came to a huge door and heard a loud pounding from within trying to break the door down. He approached the door and lifted his hand to touch it, but got a huge shock in return causing him to back away.
"What the hell is this place?" Naruto wondered until he heard a beautiful sound from down one of the clammy corridors. A woman's voice humming a soothing tune filled his ears and immediately he moved towards the origin of the relaxing sound. He continued down the halls as they got brighter and more beautiful with each step until he turned into a large room with light grey marble flooring and many marble pillars that seemingly had no end as it faded into clouds overhead. All the marble had gold etchings of feathers snaking across them giving the room a feeling of absolute royalty. Looking forward, Naruto saw a very beautiful woman with a faint glimmer of something attached to her back, resembling wings, where the sound was still coming from.
"Are you an angel? Am I dead?" The woman turned to him with a smile he only saw when a mother looked to her child. Somehow he just felt at peace looking at the woman.
"Hello Naruto-kun, it has been a long time since I have seen you and you have grown well, although your soul is getting tainted by the Kyuubi."
"So I'm alive?" She just nodded and waited for his next question. "Who are you?"
"Call me Enzeru. And for your first question, I could be considered an angel by you mortals." She motioned to him to sit on an elegant looking couch where she just seated herself.
"So Enzeru, you say I'm not dead, so why would there be an angel with me? Why are you here?" He asked as he sat down on the couch at a safe distance.
"I have been with you since you were only a few weeks old. You had trouble sleeping and I was sent to comfort your soul. I take it you felt relaxed when hearing my song?"
"Yes, but why?"
"It is a rare song that can only be heard as being beautiful by certain people. I don't know why this particular song soothes you but it was intended as a way for women of pure heart to find their true love a few millennia ago. Since then it has been lost to this world."
"Well that is weird, so you were sent to help me stop crying as a child?"
"That's pretty much it. There is also some power that you can use, similar to the Kyuubi's."
"Really? Cool!" He interrupted.
"Well, kind of. There is a problem though. Every time you used the Kyuubi's chakra, it has been harder to get through to you. I fear that if you keep using his power that you will corrupt your very being. Unfortunately my power can't be used like his and can only heal unless it is in the right hands and as such I can't counteract the degradation he has caused in you. I will try to lessen the effects, but if you draw too hard on the reserves you could almost tear yourself apart from two opposite powers fighting over your mind." Naruto looked at the ground in realization of what she said.
"I take it then that you are the voice in my head that contradicts the other voice that must be from the Kyuubi?"
"Yes."
"So, why can you talk to me like this?"
"Orochimaru sealed away the Kyuubi for a while. I will be able to talk to you until the seal is removed, but I don't know who could unseal it."
"Well if his power is so corrupting, then why don't we just leave him sealed?" Naruto asked with a touch of hope in his voice.
"You are linked to him beyond what I am. If you are kept away from his chakra for too long, then it will become toxic to you. Basically if the seal was undone later down the road you would die, also your chakra control is a mess from the seal leaving you pretty bad off for jutsu."
"Oh, not good."
"No. There is more to my power but I must tell you later since you aren't old enough to understand it quite yet. Besides, I think it is time you return to the real world. Your friends are in danger." Naruto watched as Enzeru faded into darkness and left him alone in the dark.
Naruto soon heard the faint sound of Sakura, but couldn't make out what she was saying. Slowly his senses started coming back to him and he felt something evil stirring in close proximity to him until massive amounts of chakra was felt pouring out next to him.
"Sasuke-kun!" He heard Sakura scream as he felt the evil chakra move away from him.
"Sakura, tell me who did this to you. I will avenge you." Naruto thought about what he said. Sasuke didn't once say anything like protecting her, but would just attack for vengeance. Not even Sasuke was that heartless, there must be something else that happened.
"I did it, what are you going to do about it?" came another guy's voice. Naruto forced himself awake and pushed himself to his feet as he saw Sasuke lunge forward with strange markings on his skin. The Uchiha planted a few powerful punches before grabbing the enemy's arms and pulling back on them hard.
"You are so proud of these arms, what will you do now?" Sasuke asked as he gave a sharp pull causing an audible snap from the guy's bones breaking. The sound nin screamed out in pain and before the rest could react, Sasuke had sent them all reeling with a forceful kick. Sakura was starting to get scared from the rage on his face and the unrelenting attacks and had to step in fearing what he could do next.
"Please Sasuke-kun, stop. It's enough they can't do anything else." Sasuke's chakra receded reluctantly, and with it the strange markings. Naruto felt a bit more at ease and watched as Neji picked up Lee, obviously from a fight he was loosing.
"Take our scroll, and leave us be." Requested the sound nin that Naruto could only figure was named Zaku from the quiet conversation the sound team had. Sasuke allowed him to drop the scroll and watched as he was carried away by the bandaged guy into the forest.
"Well, that was troublesome." Naruto looked and had a slight smile on his face seeing Shikamaru there. "So I suppose you have a heaven scroll, it would be much too troublesome to fight you for it." Shikamaru turned to leave but was interrupted.
"Shikamaru, wait." The lazy shinobi looked to Naruto barely able to stand. "We have an extra, you can have it if you want."
"Although that would make our lives easier, I would feel as though I owed you something, and that would be even more troublesome. Take better care of yourselves, we are still a few miles from the tower and the enemy will surely be massing in that area to intercept teams as they come." Shikamaru kept walking with his team until they disappeared from sight.
"Hey Sakura-chan, you alright?" Naruto asked as he dragged himself to his teammates.
"No thanks to you. What the hell was wrong with you, you get hit once and you pass out?" She shouted at him angrily.
"It was more than a simple hit; we'll just leave it at that. How about we get some traveling done; it can't be a good idea to stay here for any longer."
"I guess you're right Naruto. Can you walk or will I have to drag your ass again?"
"Yeah, I can walk, let's just get going." The team continued on their way slowly. Fortunately for them, they spent so much time moving at a slow pace that they had no other fights and arrived just barely before the time limit expired. This messed up Kabuto's plan to get friendly with them, but at least he was able to determine that Sasuke survived the seal and went ahead with the rest of the plans.
After team seven opened the scrolls, Iruka came out to explain the scroll's meaning, but Naruto wasn't listening since he was conversing with Enzeru.
'So, you are a very powerful person where you come from and you have no idea why you specifically were chosen for this job?'
'Exactly, it was just something that I had to do.'
'Hmm, so are you from heaven or something?'
'Well, something like it. I am what is called a principality, a Guardian of Nations. One of the more powerful of heavenly beings, but there are a few even more powerful.'
'Ok, but why meddle in my business? Is there some reason?'
'I'm sure there is, but I don't know what it is, I was never told the reasoning.'
'Great, well thanks. I guess that is all, oh, I think Iruka-sensei is talking to me, bye'
"Naruto! Were you even listening?!" he yelled. Naruto looked around and saw the rest of the team was already gone.
"Sure Iruka-sensei, if you are dumb, get smarter, if you are weak get stronger, right?" the chuunin sighed and shook his head.
"Close enough, the Hokage needs you all in a meeting. There is something that needs to be done before the next part of the exam."
"Yeah fine, but can you tell me one thing, who is Orochimaru?" Iruka's eyes widened and a spike of fear was displayed across his face.
"Why do you ask?"
"Well, Sasuke and I fought him in the forest." The chuunin couldn't believe his ears; a recent student of his survived a fight with a sannin.
"Is this another one of your pranks? What did he look like?" Iruka demanded hoping it was really all a sick joke of his.
"No it isn't a prank. He was all pale and I even got eaten by a huge snake he summoned." Iruka's attitude faltered once again and realized Naruto wouldn't joke around when asked directly.
"Sorry Naruto. I must go talk to the Hokage about this. If you ever see that man again, run." Iruka disappeared quickly and left Naruto to walk into the large room where every other genin team was waiting for the aged Hokage to speak.
"Welcome chuunin hopefuls, congratulations on making it this far in the chuunin exams. Unfortunately since there are a few too many contenders, there will be a sudden death preliminary round. We are doing this only because our tests may have been too easy and the final exam will be in front of a large group of people and we can't keep them for too long. Are there any questions?"
"Yeah, I don't think I can continue, I forfeit." Kabuto called out surprising the surrounding ninja.
"So be it, any others? Good. Now I will leave you to your next proctor, Gekko Hayate."
"Thank you Hokage-sama. This will be cough a battle where anything goes. Cough Killing is permitted, but if cough I decide it is over, it will be so. Your names will be cough randomly chosen on the board over head." Everyone looked to the board and watched as the first names were selected. "Abume Zaku vs. Uchiha Sasuke. Everyone else to the upper level." The sickly man commanded.
"Please Sasuke-kun, don't fight, just forfeit. I don't want to see you get hurt again." Sakura begged after they were alone for a moment from everyone else retreating to the balcony.
"I am an avenger and must get stronger. Only the week give up and I can't be weak. Now get out of my way." Reluctantly Sakura backed away with tears in her eyes and headed for the stairs. Sasuke went to move forward but was stopped by Kakashi this time.
"Don't use your Sharingan. If that seal gets out of hand, I will pull you out of the match disqualifying you." Kakashi didn't wait for a reply and continued to the balcony leaving Sasuke to wonder how he knew about that seal, but he cleared his mind easily when the fight was about to begin.
"Fighters ready? Begin!" Sasuke smirked as he stepped closer to Zaku and his bandaged arms.
"So you want a repeat of last time?" Sasuke asked, hopefully to scare him into forfeiting.
"Not this time, you are a bit weaker, so I have the advantage."
"You think so? Well your arms seem a bit out of it." Sasuke's eyes noticed some movement of one arm and fell into a defensive stance.
"Hmm, what do you know, I seem to have one arm working; advantage, me." Sasuke saw the sound nin's arm thrust forward and dodged before seeing anything just to be on the safe side. "Well I guess you are a bit jumpy, so my assumption of your weakness was correct. Now let's see how scrambled your brains get at close range."
Zaku moved faster than Sasuke could react at the time without the help of his dojutsu, but decided for an offensive move to take him out before he could strike. With a powerful kick, his foot met Zaku in the midst of his attack and was thrown into the air. Mimicking Lee's move from before the exam, Sasuke jumped behind the soaring nin and performed a spinning kick to his injured side, throwing him to the ground. Using the momentum of his fall, and an added spin, Sasuke rammed his heel into the stomach of the sound nin with the call of: "Lion's Barrage!" Naruto was watching closely during the match and realized just how simple that move was, you didn't need any special ability to pull off that attack, but it looked impressive.
Sasuke slowly picked himself up from the ground as the proctor inspected his opponent. "Winner, Uchiha Sasuke." Hayate called out to the crowd while not being surprised that the match was over so fast. A medic came in and dragged out the fallen ninja while another came to Sasuke.
"We should check out your injuries as well." The medic suggested
"No, I'll do that myself." Kakashi interrupted as he led the Uchiha away to perform a sealing on the curse mark.
"Aburame Shino vs. Akado Yoroi fighters to the floor." Hayate started hacking and coughing as the fighters came down. Shino looked beyond his high collar at the guy with sunglasses and cloth covering his face, who was clearly older than he was. "Begin."
Shino and Yoroi stared at each other for a few moments before Shino actually spoke. "I'm sorry, but you can't win."
"My thoughts exactly." Yoroi threw out a punch only to get it blocked by Shino's wrist. Yoroi smirked, but no one could tell as his hand started to glow and grabbed Shino's wrist. Bringing his other hand around, Yoroi firmly held Shino's arm and started draining away his chakra. "You are trapped, I will have all your chakra drained in a matter of minutes. With my hold, you can't escape."
"So you are dumber than you look. You can drain chakra, but can't realize chakra is being drained from you." Yoroi looked down at his arm and saw his skin crawling with insects eating away at his chakra. "You will run out of chakra in mere seconds, you have lost." Shino felt the ninja's grip fade as he dropped to the ground in unconsciousness.
"Winner, Aburame Shino." Hayate called out with disappointment at the ease of the win.
Shikamaru was chosen next to battle the female sound ninja Kin. Even though he decided the match was way too troublesome, especially against a women, he easily walked through it with little injury from using a well placed shadow possession knocking Kin out on a wall that was too close when she mimicked his movements of dodging a kunai.
"Winner Nara Shikamaru. Now will Yamanaka Ino and Haruno Sakura take the stage."
Ino and Sakura's match was basically just a cat fight with very little actual ninja techniques being used. It may as well never have happened since the last attack ended in a double knockout.
"Tie: both combatants are disqualified due to rules of sudden death elimination."
The next fight was between Tenten and the sand kunoichi, Temari. The fight was completely one sided as all of the weapon's mistresses attacks were rendered useless from the power of the wind based attacks sent out by Temari's fan. Each and every weapon thrown by Tenten never got within a few feet of her opponent, so she took to the air as she tried a sneak attack with the help of her chakra strings. Temari folded out her fan to its full extent and nonchalantly waved it at Tenten, resulting in her losing her hold on the weapons and falling to the ground. That spelled the painful end to the match as she found herself falling onto the upright folded fan of Temari, nearly breaking her back in the process.
"Winner Temari." Everyone looked to the board again with anticipation for the next match. "Fighters Inuzuka Kiba vs. Uzumaki Naruto."
"Oh yeah, it's on Naruto!" Kiba was ecstatic that he got him, so he could show off how worthless he was and show there was nothing about him to care about. "Let's go Akamaru!" A few seconds later Kiba was in the middle of the arena with a confident smirk on his face when Naruto joined him.
"You know, I always thought using ninja dogs was cheating. It creates another thing to account for in a battle that can react on its own unlike a real tool." Naruto commented as he readied himself in the arena.
"Fine, you think they are that much of an advantage, Akamaru will sit this one out. But trust me it won't be easy."
"Bring it on Kiba, just don't get mad at me when I blow you out of the water! And don't forget that there is a little lie you told in wave that you need to be punished for." Naruto reminded with a grin.
'Good luck Naruto-kun, I know I should be rooting for Kiba since he is on my team, but I really want to support you, show them all who you really are and kick Kiba's ass!' Hinata thought to herself while sporting a slight blush as she twiddled her fingers nervously from entertaining such thoughts.
(Notes:) As you could tell, last chapter was just a filler chapter to lead into the next arc. It could have been boring to some, but it was all neccisary. This chapter is a major point with the introduction of the new tennant of Naruto. From here on out, there will be many deviations from canon, but the timeline of events will mostly stay the same. I hope you guys haven't left and continue to read, there will be plenty of more entertaining chapters to come as I let my imagination run wild again. Remember, I love reading reviews even if they point out something I messed up. Til next time...Later
