Before the War

Hiro fell down the cliff and continued to roll down hitting the rocks and branches. After falling for more than twenty meters, Hiro had several cuts and many bruises. Still he refused to give up. He crawled back on to his feet and pulled out his Tanto. He looked back up to Orochimaru laughing at him.

Hiro grew angry and activated his byakugan. Finally looking over the entire battlefield he found he was surrounded by hostile animals. His byakugan shut it's self off and his vision went back to normal.

"You can't win Hiro-kun. You'll never get these bells." Orochimaru did his sinister laugh. Quit now. Go back to the academy, you aren't ready to be a real shinobi." He turned his back to Hiroaki and began to walk away.

Hiro began to get charge what chakra he had left. A little over 70 percent. He then began to charge up ahead and activate his byakugan .

"Hakke Kusho!"

The wave of chakra propelled forward and struck Orochimaru in the back. Orochimaru instantly turned to mud and fell into the ground. Hiroaki looked everywhere with his byakugan and noticed, Orochimaru underneath him. Before, Hiroaki could even move or react he was sunk into the ground effectively trapping him. Orochimaru rose from the ground and began to laugh louder than before.

Hiroaki closed his eyes and used shunshin to move behind Orochimaru. In mid-jutsu, Hiro began to reach for the bells. The world slowed down to a crawl. He could see himself inching closer and closer to the bells. It was almost if the bells began to move a nudge toward him. He was getting closer and closer.

*Cling*

Time picked up in speed again, and Hiroaki swiped at nothing. Hiro felt a blade land on his throat. "Too slow Hiro-kun." Orochimaru laughed again and then the timer rang. There was no more time left. The 30 minute time limit Orochimaru had put had ended rather abruptly.

"Looks like you failed to get the bells again, Hiro-kun. I expected more from a 'prodigy' like you. Kukuku" He had risen from the floor in front of me. This was the 4th time he had me go through this test. Each time I would make any progress at all the timer would go off. Each time I had failed he would tell me exactly what I did wrong and he would then begin to mock me and my skill's.

Any confidence I might have had in any of my skills had quickly evaporated under his very watchful eye. It had only been two days since he forcefully took me from the Sarutobi compound to accompany him on this mission.

Flashback

The night had been rather dreary for me. The amount of nightmares I had gone through would forcefully wake me up bathed in sweat. I hadn't gotten almost any sleep that day. I had continued to ponder what the hokage had told me and I was still debating if I really wanted to be in the field. I mulled over options of joining Root, which would almost guarantee my future as an elite shinobi of the leaf. I thought of what Orochimaru also told me. I'd only have a ceiling of my power that Danzo would allow.

I had grown rather tired again and decided to give sleep another try. Nightmare's be damned, I was more than exhausted. I closed my eye's and drifted back to sleep. Yet again the ocean of blood chased me through my dreams seeing the face's and flailing body parts floating toward me. I couldn't escape it no matter how far I ran or which direction I went, it followed me everywhere. It would eventually lead back to that cursed area we had fought the damn Iwa Jounin. Every time the dream would make me fight him over and over again. I had no control over my body during those times either. My body would move on it's own, showing me that twisted fate until I would eventually kill the Iwa shinobi.

Yet again, I rose up from my bed drenched in sweat. I could barely breathe, my body panting hard, trying to get very little breath inside me. That's when I saw his eyes staring at me in the dark. Silently gazing upon me. The eyes moved forward, toward me in the bed.

"Get up. Were leaving." He threw my clothes at me and began to pace while still looked at him with a confused look on my face. He looked at me again and sighed. "What are you waiting for?"

I still wasn't fully aware of what was happening. "Where are we going?"

"Mission."

I began to get up and dressed. "At this hour?"

He stayed quiet.

I finished getting dressed and went to get my Tanto. Orochimaru went and picked it up before I got to it. He began to inspect it and pulled it out of it's sheath before he took a few practice swings with it. "Where did you get this blade, gaki?" He asked in a demanding voice.

"It was my mother's. She left it to me." I eyed him carefully as a look of interest crossed his pale face.

"Do you know, where she got it?" he asked again, this time his voice went back down to a more intrigued pitch.

"Does it matter?" I asked slightly annoyed.

He began to channel chakra into the blade and the blade began to have a small glowing effect on it. Orochimaru instantly dropped the blade. The handle of blade had suddenly grown small spikes. A small smirk crossed his face. He looked at me and gave me his answer. "Won't you indulge your poor sensei."

I sighed. "It was apparently a gift from my father. Can we go now?"

Orochimaru then began to walk phase into the floor. "Bring all of your things, meet me at the gate in 10 minutes."

Flashback ended.

I fell on the floor tired. Barely registering that he was now standing over me. He continued to berate me calling me pathetic for being tired. We had been on the road to Sunagakure no Sato for the last two days. He would only allow us to stop to have his "test" before we continued onward. He truly didn't care if I was tired or not. He wouldn't even stop to eat. He would force us to continue going as we ate the 'Food Bars' that he would hand us. After I had complained to him that he was being unfair, all he had to say was that I could stop at any time I wanted too. He and the other ANBU escort would just leave me behind.

Needless to say, I was beyond sore and tired. He went and handed me another one of his food bars and told me to eat it. The first time I had tried it, it tasted so bitter and sour. I could barely keep it down. I was thoroughly surprised when I began to feel my soreness and exhaustion minimize to tolerable levels. He had laughed at the apparently 'stupid' face I had made.

When I had asked him, what was in the food bars he only smirked and told me I 'couldn't possibly comprehend his experimental rations'. All in all, Orochimaru was kind of an ass. He had a huge superiority complex in this universe and that's really saying something, but nevertheless he had an odd way of inspiring me to continue going. I just wanted to prove him wrong.

Taking the food bar from him and immediately scarfing it down I put on the famous Hyuuga mask on again. I picked myself up from the floor and began to pickup the weapons I had used during the 'test'. After a good 5 minuets of picking up the weapons, I heard the whistle. It was time for us to go. We were apparently behind schedule. We hadn't even made it to Kaze no Kuni. We were currently near the border of Kawa and Kaze no Kuni.

Orochimaru took the lead this time and set out at least a kilometer ahead of the rest of us. Everyone except me had been made to do this. I was too 'slow and weak'. After close to an hour on the road, we came to a halt at the border. Suna had sent out a welcoming party to receive us.

In the distance, I could see Orochimaru and what I could assume was Baki speaking to each other. Then, Orochimaru turned around and yelled for me to come to him. "Why does he want me to go over there. *sigh* Might as well get this over with." I begin walking over there and begin to notice the heat begin to rise. "Kami-damn desert." I finally arrive a few seconds later and I'm greeted with a firm handshake form Baki.

"Ah, you must be Hiroaki. I knew mother, She was a fierce warrior with a gentle heart." and with that Orochimaru quickly dismissed me from their conversation. I was getting tired of just getting dismissed constantly but there wasn't anything I could really do other then leave but that was not really an option.

As I sat there a realization hit me. "I missed the meeting with the Hokage. I also missed the dinner that the Uchiha had invited me too." I knew that any future relationship I had with them had just sunk. Orochimaru had hurried me out if the village before I could even properly think.

It had roughly been an hour traversing through the insanely hot desert before Baki had made his way next to me toward the back of the group. I saw him getting slower and slower and I re-put on my Hyuuga mask. "Hello, Suna-san." I said in my most emotionally devoid voice. "Is there something you need?" I tried not looking at him as we kept up a slower jog.

"Is there many Hyuuga with you hair color?"

"M-my hair?" I looked at him with a very confused face. "You mean if other Hyuuga have pony tails?"

"No, Gaki. You have red hair." He said that as he gave a small chuckle.

I looked at him to see if he was trying to make a joke or something else. Then I noticed that he was seriously asking. "You are mistaken, Suna-san. My hair is brown." I didn't give him a chance to respond before I began to jog faster trying to catch up with Orochimaru at the head of the group. A few minutes later I end up side by side with my sensei.

"How long until we reach Sunagakure?" I asked in huffs.

He spared a small glance my way and then looked back ahead and stayed silent for the next few seconds. "You won't be entering the village. You will be with one of the ANBU outside of our gate. I want you to start a training regiment I've planned out for you."

I stayed quiet for a few moments. "Why outside of the village?"

He looked my way again and replied. "Think Hiro-kun. By the time we arrive at the village, I want you to give me the reasons why. If you succeed in your reasoning, I'll let you find out your Chakra Affinity." He gave me a smirk and told me to go back to the tail-end of the group and to let him be.

I grudgingly slowed down again and began to think why he wouldn't want me to be go inside the village. "It has to do with me right? Why not let me see the village? Unless he thinks that I will only slow him down. Maybe I've disappointed him with my weak showing against him?" I kept wondering until I remembered that I had a sizable bounty on my head. "That can't be possible.. right? Suna wouldn't go after an ally right? Maybe it's because he wants me to train. He has been calling me weak and useless these last couple of day's." Sigh.

I kept going like that for at least another two to three hours. After awhile it seemed that they had been taking us in circles, after I spotted the same Sand dune and cactus for the 5th time. Eventually I wandered back to Orochimaru and expressed my concern. He told me to ease my fears. It was only a small illusion of the village to hide itself from unwanted guests. Then he proceeded to dismiss me to the back of the group.

I was getting more and more annoyed as this trip continued going. It was close to sundown, and we had seemingly made almost no progress. We were still stuck in this kami-damn desert. Except the heat had left. Only to be replaced by a kami-foresaken freezing wind. The visibility had basically dwindled to no more than a few hundred meters in front of us.

Still we didn't stop. The Suna-nin told us that we didn't want to spend a night in the desert. Chakra beasts roamed the sandy dunes more often in the nights. Now it was the Suna-nin that surrounded us as the four of us were sandwiched in between the various chunin and jounin. Then the Walls of Sunagakure appeared right before us.

Any previous plans changed when the Baki told us that the Kazekage would have personally welcoming us if he were currently in the village. He would arrive in two days time. Until then we were to be escorted to our Hotel and then we would be free to roam until he arrived. Then he left us with the chunin guards.

When we arrived and settled into our rooms I was bunked with Orochimaru. The very first thing he did was ask me why he didn't want me in here. "You want to keep my training a secret. That's why an ANBU would keep watch out. That's why I wouldn't be training inside the village. So they do not get a sense of what we can do."

He gave a smirk and handed me a piece of paper. "Push your chakra into the paper, gaki."

I grabbed the paper and twirled it in my fingers for a few seconds. I had been waiting for this moment since I arrived in this universe. I had decided that I would want to have a Doton affinity after seeing how many jutsu and uses the Iwa shinobi had used against use. It had defense, Offense and had jutsu for retreat. Needless to say I was excited.

I flushed the chakra into the paper and I was shocked to see the results. The paper had split down the middle. Then each side wrinkled.

Orochimaru gave a small laugh. "Lucky you. It seems fate has given you a gift."

I looked at him confused.

He stared back and sighed. "Futon and Raiton are the two most offensive chakra natures. It will suit the style of what I want to make you learn. I'm going to make you into an offensive beast."

"Sensei, what about defense? There will probably be opponents that won't go down easily or run through the things I throw at them." He looked at me with a bored look.

"I was under the impression that the Main Branch Hyuuga have the ultimate defense?" He gave me a smirk.

Realization dawned on me. It was clear that Orochimaru had been thinking about this and had come up with a game plan. Whatever he was planning had been well thought out and not hastily put together. Then again he was one of the Densetsu no Sannin.

A/N: Hello again and happy Independence day. This chapter is slow but it is really a base to set up the next one. There will be a lot of plot advancement. Next chapter will finally close off the Third shinobi war for the most part and will have the Hokage Election. It will include battle scenes and will set up the course of this story. I'm looking into getting another title for this fic and If any of the readers have suggestions, leave them in the comments.