Chapter 10
Mangaka Shuzen: I'm going to respond to both of your reviews in this chapter. Well Hinata might seem a little different right now but that's only because Naruto's missing! She's still the same, just trying to get stronger for Naruto, and yes I liked that Kiba part also, it was a cool idea I hope. As for finding Naruto…I'll just let the chapter speak for itself.
XxAshishxX: Maybe, maybeee I'll do a yandere Hinata, I hope you enjoy this chapter in the meantime.
He was getting ticked off, something that didn't happen to him much. Every time he thought he made progress, he ended up right back at the entrance to the cave.
"How long have we been walking Yori? It feels like all we've been doing is walking in around in a circle."
Yori looked around, scanning their surroundings. When he didn't answer back Naruto looked behind him to see what he was doing.
"What's the matter Yori? Is there something out there?"
The boy just shook his head before speaking.
"I thought I saw something…" He shook his head as if trying to get something out of his mind. "But I think it was just my mind playing tricks on me."
"Oh alright, but do you know where we are?"
"Er, from what I can tell we're near the border of Otogakure."
That surprised Naruto 'Why the hell am I by the Sound Village?'
'Don't you remember kid?' the return of the fox spooked Naruto.
'Shit, don't just come out of nowhere damn fox, where the hell have you been anyway?'
'I've been resting, trying to regain my energy; I was severely weakened when it happened.'
This piqued Naruto's interest, what could've caused this demon inside of him to lose so much energy that it caused it to have to rest.
'What are you talking about fox?'
The Kyuubi just snarled in response to the boy's incompetence.
'The mission.'
'What? What mission are you talking about?'
'Do you not remember? It was a disaster right from the start, I had a feeling something bad was going to happen but I didn't know when it would.'
'What the hell are you talking about you big ball of fur?'
'GRAHH! I am the Kyuubi! Not a "big ball of fur" you insolent little kit.'
This caused Naruto to smirk; it was fun being able to talk to the fox again.
'You think this is FUNNY? You know what would be really funny? If I decided to take away the chakra that's been healing you again.'
Naruto nearly doubled over as he remembered the intense pain that had stricken him when the Kyuubi had taken away his healing in the cave.
The Kyuubi chuckled as he witnessed the boy nearly turn ghost white at the mention of that incident.
'Fufufu, now that you remember what I can do I recommend you listen to what I'm about to tell.'
Naruto didn't smirk that time, he just kept on walking.
'This mission we went on was a very dangerous one. Not what we were doing, but who we were assigned with on it.'
'Who was it?'
'It was you, Orochimaru, Sasuke, and Kakashi.'
When he heard Orochimaru's name he nearly froze on the spot.
"Why'd you stop Naruto? Is there something up there?"
Naruto just turned his head around and flashed one of his grins before giving a thumbs up.
"No I just thought I remembered something but it went away, sorry for that, let's keep on going."
He turned back towards the way he was walking and continued on before speaking again to the fox.
'Orochimaru? Why was he with us? Especially if Sasuke was on our team, that's just not smart. God dammit baa-chan what were you thinking?
He rubbed his temple, catching the attention of Yori.
'You guys were apparently going to the Hidden Sound Village to retrieve something, Orochimaru came along because of his knowledge of the village and the land around, he was supposed to help.'
'Help? Yea right.'
'I didn't like it too, I felt something was off the moment we left your village.'
'So then what happened?'
The fox rustled around restlessly is response to his question.
'It failed.'
This caught Naruto off guard.
'We, we failed? But how?'
'Your sensei…'
The fox trailed off and that scared Naruto. As he spoke the fox took note of the ever present worry in his voice.
'What the hell happened to Kakashi-sensei damn fox?'
As the fox was about to snap back at the boy it stopped and held its tongue. Yelling at the boy wasn't going to help anything so for this time, and this time only, he'd allow the boy to take out his frustrations on him.
When the fox didn't respond he got even more worried.
'Where is-' "NARUTO!"
This brought him out of his mental conversation and back to the present.
'Once this is over…once we get back home, you'd better tell me.'
'….'
"Narutoooo!"
"What is it Yori?" He looked for the boy but to no avail, just then he heard some rustling coming from the forest in front of him, at first he thought it was an enemy of some kind so he got into a defensive stance.
'Here kid' said the Kyuubi, and at first nothing happened, causing Naruto to wonder what he did but then right as he started thinking that the fox was all bark and no bite a wave of energy burst through his body.
At first Naruto smiled, realizing that the Kyuubi was helping him but that soon changed into a frown. As the fox's chakra flowed through his body he realized the sheer amount that was being channeled into him.
'Damn brat just has to have gigantic chakra reserves; it's only because of me anyway…'
Once he felt that his chakra had been replenished enough he took off towards the source of Yori's voice. Running along he tried to stop the fox's chakra before he reached Yori, he didn't want to freak him out and seeing him with his fox features would surely do so.
'Hey fox, I'm better now you can stop the chakra.'
Right as he finished speaking the chakra subsided.
'….'
Before Naruto could say another thing to the Kyuubi he collided with a tree.
'Bet you think that is funny huh?' But there was no response from the fox.
As he slowly got up he realized what he collided with, and it wasn't a tree.
"Long time no seeee Naruto-kunnn"
-Sakura-
"I'm telling you guys; even ask Shino! If we keep on going this way we'll get to him! I bet on my life that's him!"
Sakura was less than pleased to be woken up from her sleep especially by that loudmouth Kiba, but once she heard the reason why, she was up and ready to go.
"I'm not saying you're wrong Kiba" This came from their leader, Shikamaru. "I'm just saying there's a possibility of it being something else."
"I know it's him, ya wanna know how I can tell it's him brainiac?" Shouted the excited boy.
The moniker that was sent towards Shikamaru went over his head as he just sighed in annoyance.
"How?"
"You remember when Naruto and Neji faced off in the finals and it seemed like Neji had just about won but then Naruto got up and there was that foul orange chakra around him?"
Shikamaru just nodded in remembrance to that event. Ever since he spotted that chakra he had tried to figure out what it was. He asked Neji but all he got from him was some grumbling about "Re-evaluating something." He also had an image to uphold so after awhile of not getting any real answers as to what kind of chakra it was he just dropped it.
'Some things are just too troublesome.'
"Well me and Shino were discussing it earlier when we first caught whiff of the chakra butttttt it seems to be the same kind of chakra from that match."
This caught Sakura's attention.
"So just up ahead is Naruto?"
Shikamaru however was not as ready to accept it, yes all the facts have pointed to it being Naruto but what if it wasn't? He didn't want everyone's hopes to get up for nothing.
"It's a possibility that's him." Shikamaru said as they made their way through the forest, leaping from tree to tree.
Sakura smiled to herself as she realized just how close they were to Naruto.
'Once we get to you…'
She just shook the thought out of her head as Shikamaru spoke.
"I do have one concern Kiba."
"What is it?"
"If I recall correctly that chakra only showed up when Naruto was on the verge of losing…I guess my question is why now."
Kiba just bit his lip as he realized what Shikamaru was implying.
"Sh-shut up, it's Naruto we're talking about here! He'd be able to handle any situation easily."
Sakura herself just looked down in sadness at Kiba's response.
'What's going on Naruto?"
-Naruto-
He flew back, the wind knocked out of him as he crashed through a tree.
'He's strong…' Just thinking caused him to wince in pain.
Looking up he was able to fully get a look at the person that stood across from him.
"Or-Orochimaru"
"Fu fu fu hello Naruto"
Seeing the man who took away Sasuke stand before him ignited a fire deep within him. Without thinking and going purely on adrenaline he stood up quickly and summoned four shadow clones.
"Oh hehe I wonder which is you Naruto."
Naruto immediately sent his clones towards Orochimaru, hoping to get some sort of damage off on him.
"Come now Naruto-kun" He spoke as he side stepped two of the clones. "Don't tell me you still resent me for taking away Sasuke."
Naruto summoned four more shadow clones to assist the others.
"You can summon as many as you'd like Naruto." He shot his arm out and eight snakes came out, eliminating each shadow clone."
"Don't you see boy? This is why your precious Sasuke came with me; I hold all the power, all the knowledge, Konoha was just holding him back!" He spoke angrily his words coming out like daggers to Naruto. "I unlocked his true potential!" With that Orochimaru shot a wave of snakes at Naruto. Before Naruto could react and move out of the way he realized that the snakes from earlier had latched themselves around his legs, rendering him immobile.
Naruto tried kicking his legs out but to no avail. He just looked up right in time for the snakes to hit him, sending him flying back through the forest.
Orochimaru cackled to himself as he saw the blond-haired boy's body strewn over a tree.
As he took a step forward he heard a sizzling sound and he looked around him for the source of it. What he saw caused him to smile, all around him lay explosive tags.
'So that's what your plan was, sending the shadow clones at me was only a distraction, not bad boy, maybe if things were dif-' He was cut off as the tags detonated around him, causing a huge explosion.
-Sakura-
"What was that Shikimaru?" The team just heard an explosion and Sakura was the first to speak up.
"I don't know for certain but I'd bet on the fact that whatever that just was, had to do with Naruto."
The rest of the team nodded.
"Alright everyone, double-time!"
A unified "Hai!" was given in response as they darted even faster towards the source of the sound.
-Naruto-
He slowly got up, his body racked with pain as he surveyed the damage that had just been done.
Looking around he saw a crater in the distance with a body lying in it.
'Did I get him?'
He took one step forward before the real effects of Orochimaru's attack showed, causing his body to fall over and roll into the fetal position.
'Poison, fuck'
'I can't do anything boy…I'm sorry.' The fox's voice surprised Naruto, but his answer didn't. Orochimaru was a deadly bastard; of course he'd lace his attacks with poison.
'Don't blame yourself, it was my own stupidity.'
'….'
As he was about to try crawling forward a shadow fell over him and he heard a "poof" in the distance.
'Shadow clone…Orochimaru you bastard.'
He turned his face towards the person standing over him but who was standing there surprised him.
"Yori"
The boy looked at Naruto before kneeling down and raising Naruto's body up, running his hands over his body.
"I'm so sorry Naruto"
"Wha-"
As he fell back to the ground he wondered what happened.
'He said sorry, Why, why Yori?'
'It's all because of Orochimaru, dammit'
Naruto watched as Yori quickly got up and went over to Orochimaru who seemed unharmed.
"Ku ku that was impressive Naruto, you almost had me."
He turned around and walked away, motioning for Yori to follow, he quickly fell behind him as he followed his master.
'Damn you….you took another one of my friends'
He tried to get up, to chase after him, to do anything to stop him from going but he couldn't. He tried moving but his legs wouldn't respond to the commands he was sending.
'What kind of poison is this? He only hit me once with that attack yet the way my body feels it's like he struck me over and over. I can't even move my hand that much anymore.'
Naruto rolled over onto his back, trying to start some sort of movement in his body but it didn't work.
'I failed, I failed, I failed, I can't save anyone.'
He shut his eyes to try and stop the tears from rolling down his face but it was too late.
'Baa-chan, Ero-sennin….Sakura-chan, anyone please help me, please.'
"NARUTO" screamed the familiar voice.
'Who?' Was all he was able to say as his eyes finally closed, but not before they caught a quick glimpse of pink.
A/N: Woooo! I just nearly wrote the entire chapter today. I hope you guys still enjoyed it and I hope that my first "fight scene" wasn't too shabby, I know not much happened in it but what did you expect Naruto to do? He's been in a cave for so long and now he has to face Orochimaru, of course he'd get his ass handed to him, even with the fox's chakra in him. As I finished typing this chapter I felt happy with how it came out, and I can't wait to start the next one. Have a great day c: