Disclaimer: I don't own DBZ or Naruto

No review shout outs this time. I actually cut my finger opening a can of chopped tomatoes while cooking. You may think that's not so bad but when you've had heart surgery like I did three years ago even a small cut will have you bleeding freely. Don't worry, no blood got in my food.

Last time - Orochimaru takes precautions to assure all goes according to canon-. I mean, to plan, yes.

This time - All goes according to canon and the mark is branded. Orochimaru now gets ready for his Uchiha/Saiyan hybrid body.

That feeling of a colossal let down from the lofty expectations built up from the hype of a persistent voucher greeted the remaining Chunin Exam applicants. A good number still remained, inspired to solider on in respect of Naruto's fly-by-the-pants speech of unbreakable perseverance in spite of the threat of remaining a Genin for the rest of his life. No one wanted to be a wuss, so they stuck to their guns and weathered the storm of Ibiki's suspense and collapsed when he revealed it was all but a test of their mettle.

Now they were really kissing Naruto's ass in the wake of the second anticlimactic reveal of the exam. All that tough talk their ballsy second proctor gave in regard to the supposedly feared Forest of Death, couldn't be backed up in any sense of the word. The Forest of Death looked half dead already, pun very much intended.

Multiple trees comprising a noticeable portion of the forest were axed, allowing light to penetrate the once guarded canopy, banishing the shadows with its illumination.

"Huh, is this it?" A nameless fodder asked.

"Well, it used to be scary shit," Anko grumbled sourly. The only thing intimidating about her playground now was the crumbled ground she was almost a part of. Even the once eerie, chilling winds she found relaxing was abated, "But someone just had to unwind." Even without following her pinpoint glare to the implied offender, most turned dry, awkward smiles to Trunks who was off whistling conspicuously.

Anko shook her head in furious infuriation, 'Damn kid!' If she had been privy to his involvement in this year's Chunin Exam she never would've volunteered to be a proctor. She only accepted the role out of her innate desire to be a big shot and scare the pretenders. It was difficult enough as it was succeeding in her approach after her fellow proctor gave the remaining applicants (which was more than she expected) a prep talk. A shit-talking hotshot made the endeavour impossible.

Anko heaved a grudging sigh to the futility of her wayward motivates and current position. There was no turning back now. She just had to grit her teeth and dig in her heels, and power past it. 'Just remember what Mom said, girl. Dig in your heels and never show weakness, though that's probably why she and Dad got a divorce.' Damn, she needed dingo after this, "Alright, I'll explain the objective of the second phase of the exam, so listen well." And so she did.

The activity of the second exam lit a fire under the stomachs of the demi Saiyans and Naruto, since it was practical and not written. Not that Trunks struggled with the written exam. Quite the contrary. With the high intelligence inherited mostly from his mother (though Vegeta wasn't a slouch in this regard either) he breezed through the test as though it was a pop quiz. No, the difficulty of the first phase wasn't what made the summary of the second phase sound appealing; it was his Saiyan blood, itching to be sated with action that piqued his interest.

Anko's explanation of the second phase seemed precisely like the subscription the good Saiyan specialist doctor ordered, with all teams to be given one of two scrolls dubbed Heaven and Earth and tasked to locate one of the other teams holding onto their scroll counterpart, steal it, and head out to a tower marked on their maps within a time duration of seven days.

A game of hunters in the sport of hunting, essentially. Just the sport a tribal preteen from a warrior race preferred to pacify his innate need to prove his dominance. Games of the nature like King of the Hill were right up Trunks' alley, 'Heh, this could be fun.' He watched their competition entering a secluded booth just outside the gates of the ruined Forest of Death with a savage smirk befitting of his beastly nature.

"You shouldn't have transformed." He heard the monotone complaint of his high collared teammate.

Trunks stared into Shino's lenses dully, "I'll bite. Why?"

A gleam that seemed to illuminate his irritation shined over his glasses, "Because, now that they are aware of your strength, they'll take precautions to avoid us."

Trunks didn't even spare a glance to the other teams beside team seven and ten not only purposely avoiding their gazes but also giving them a wide berth of space. This treatment the equivalent to a V.I.P's that were receiving had Hinata feeling terribly self-conscious, until Trunks' dismissal provided her relieving comfort from her own insecurity, "Pssh! As if any of those weaklings could keep away from me!" He scoffed, turning a thumb toward his chest of vibrant hubris, "Who d'you think you're talking to? I'm the sensor, remember?" His tone dried, eyebrow quirking to Shino's sweat beaded forehead of barely noticeable awkwardness, "I can sense 'em from miles. None of these lameos know how to suppress their energy," He tossed a dismissive hand over his shoulder, banishing any doubts, "Darn. All I got to do is ambush the first group of nobodies I feel, beat 'em up, and take their scroll, easy-peasy. Then we're home free."

"Of course!" Hinata gasped, fingers fiddling with an ornate jar grasped in her small hands, "That was how you were able to find us on the day we met."

"Yep." Trunks clarified, popping the p in his single word utterance to accentuate his lethargic tone. Curiously, his eyes homed in on the small jar in his teammate's hands, "Hey, what's that?"

"Oh, you mean this?" The subtle drumming of her fingers sped up a beat, her already small voice quietening further, "I-It's just, some," She swallowed a lump of timid apprehension down her throat. "Some ointment. In case, we get hurt." She curled her stomach, shrinking in on herself, praying neither one of her male companions would call her on her poorly thought out excuse.

"Okay," Thankfully, Trunks was likely didn't care or was either too gullible. Considering his intelligence and the disinterest in his tone it was most likely the former.

Hinata breathed a silent sigh of appreciative relief, stealing a glance to a head of similar Super Saiyan-like hair shyly, 'I really want to give this to Naruto, but-.' She just couldn't steel her shaky nerves of self-doubt for the life of her, no matter how much she tried. The mere thought of even approaching the orange bundle of strength and vibrant positivity was enough to turn her legs to jelly, compounded by her fear of initiating Trunks' icy resentment. His eyes, freezing to the frosty degrees of contempt the instance they met hers for the first time on the day of their team gathering made it concise that he did not like spineless girls, coupled with the knowledge that he had barely said two words to her since joining the team, choosing to avoid her unless it was to go over team tactics with the others.

His positive response to Ino, a girl with a spine, and how well they had kicked off their relationship further hammered home the notion that he resented her kind; weak, soft-spoken and without a backbone.

Hinata's shoulders felt weighted, felling as though a boulder had been placed on them. Even now, she could see Trunks flicking brief glances to the platinum blond Yamanaka when he was sure no one was looking.

'Trunks.'

…

"Man, this is gonna be such a drag," Shikamaru groaned, slumped over in grudging acceptance. He would kick himself for folding in so easily to Ino's assertive demands if he had the motivation. Yes, even something as motionless as berating was a hassle too much to Shikamaru. He would've tried to resist Ino's commands to partake in this tiring exam but he didn't have the energy to argue with her about it. And there was his paradox. In being lazy and passively relenting to Ino's orders, he ended up tasked with an insurmountable quest based on the low strength of his team. The Nara, while negligent on the surface with his lethargic posture and uncaring attitude, was neither an idealist or an optimistic.

He knew his team flat-out sucked, whichever way one sliced it. No dodging the bullet. He had already come to that conclusion long before now; when they were first assembled as a team, in fact. At best, they were hopelessly inadequate and at worst, downright weak – glaringly so. Sometimes, he found himself contemplating the reasons behind their selection as a team, even if the term "don't break what isn't broken" could explain their generation of their clans sticking together as a unit.

Even if their fathers were terrifyingly formidable as a unit that didn't automatically guarantee they would be too. Not every child of their esteemed parents inherited their talents. That was likely the case for the current generation of the Ino-Shika-Cho trio.

None of them could duke it out in close quarters unless pitted against another inept hand-to-hand combatant. Choji was the closest one of the three who could even come close to filling the role of close quarter fighter, but the problem with that lied in Choji's inflexible and terribly slow Taijutsu style. That was where he and Ino where meant to complement Choji's style with their clan's signature jutsus.

Shikamaru's shadow would pin their targets down.

Ino would possess them.

And Choji would sock them.

Straightforward enough and easily countered.

For instance, Shikamaru couldn't just hold anyone. Only people around about his strength and Chakra-levels. If he happened to catch someone significantly more powerful than him like Ino's new boy toy hypothetically, he would easily overpower his control and break free.

If Ino missed her shot, her spirit couldn't return to her body for a whole five minutes, leaving her completely vulnerable in that time span.

And Choji's heavy hits were only as strong as he was. They could be tanked, though not easily.

"I was gonna say, 'if we have to do this, let's just go after Naruto's team', but-." He didn't need to finish. Choji's shiver spoke volumes, "If that kid's really, nearly as strong as Trunks, he's someone I'd like to avoid." Because there wasn't a snowball's chance in hell of him ever be able to successfully hold onto someone with such a high "Chakra-capacity" like Trunks, even if he had his doubts they even utilized Chakra.

Ino sighed in reluctant agreement of her teammate's pessimistic assessment of their chances, though the mention of her boy toy made her sneak a peek to him. She perked up, watching Trunks stiffen and avert his gaze from hers, blushing up a storm and obviously trying not to look at her, 'Oh. I see how it is,' A smirk curled her lips, her eyes gleaming in opportunity, "Don't count us out just yet, Shika."

Shikamaru met her bold smirk with intrigue. She hadn't bitched him out so it wasn't just bravado speaking.

"I have an idea." She gestured over to that idea.

He followed her trail to team eight. While there wasn't a huge space between the rookie teams like the gigantic berth the other teams gave them, there was still a noticeable gap for the sake of team privacy, 'Oh?' He mouthed, realization clearing his eyes. He coloured his lips with a smirk to rendezvous with Ino's, "I see what you mean."

She winked.

"Yep. We're gonna be just fine."

New Kids on the Block

C

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TEN

A World that Favours the Gifted

Team seven nigh literally flown off the blocks the very second they were allowed after being rewarded their Earth scroll, galloping through one of the many gates of the littered Forest of Death. Since Goten was by far the strongest and most versatile of them in terms of abilities, they easily came to the consensus that he should hold on to their mission objective. Goten, being himself, didn't have an opinion and readily accepted, bashful at the responsibility his team tasked him with.

Sakura lent him her pouch as a makeshift scroll carrier seeing as how he never had one and expertly displayed her superior mothering skills to fasten the little carrier above his behind.

They travelled with relative pace with no real haste, no particular destination in mind. They were using the very brief time they knew they had before the real meat of the game began to marvel at the damages Anko explicitly implied Trunks caused to the Forest of Death.

The sight was something to be behold up close and personal. They had never seen so many stumps seemingly floating from the still enormous roots of the forest. They couldn't even see the ground and without any leaves providing a camouflage one half of the forest seemed to be a giant pitfall of endless nothing.

Tree hopping was decidedly out of the question unless they were ready to face the other examinees naturally taking to other side of the forest with enough trees to provide shelter and cover.

Throughout their leisured sprint through the woods, Goten was adamant in sparing intrigue glances of innocence over his shoulder like he could feel a pair of eyes on them, catching Sakura's notice. She was about to ask him what he thought was so fascinating that he needed to keep a light surveillance in their flanks until Naruto's seemingly airheaded complaint averted her attention.

"Man, I wish we could fly. Then we could finish this thing in record time."

"Be serious, Naruto," Sasuke frowned, trying to maintain his cool, "We don't have time to entertain stupid ideas. Once lapse in concentration could cost us."

"I'm being serious, bastard!" Naruto yelled defensively, "Flying's totally possible!"

"Yeah, for pigs maybe."

"I can fly."

"Sasuke's right, Naruto," Sakura said, paying no heed to Naruto's disappointment to her taking Sasuke's side, "If we start daydreaming we could get ambushed, then what?" A pointed glare of her emerald eyes elicited a wince from Naruto, "Mm-hmm." She muttered dryly, "That's what I thought so drop the stupid fantasies, knucklehead. Who do you even know that can actually fly? Seriously?"

"Me."

"Huh?" Sakura uttered, finally taking note to Goten's suggestion, blinking wide eyes of bewilderment to his calm face, "Goten, what do you mean? Can you-?" She swallowed, lowering her voice as if she was about to speak about a forbidden taboo, "Can you fly?"

Goten nodded without hesitation, "Uh-huh! Flying's easy."

"No way," Sasuke murmured with a breathless gasp, unbelieving. He shook his head with as much firm resolve as he could muster up to hold true to his refusal. Goten and Trunks had already demonstrated abilities and feats truly out of this world that left Sasuke feeling humbled and inadequate, as if he was a talentless scrub by comparison. He trained hard, especially within the week of preparation with Trunks, but he wasn't even close to their level of natural skill. He hadn't even felt like he gained any distance on them. Granted, it had only been a week since he started tutelage under Trunks'… questionable guidance.

"Dodge!"

But even still, a snail's crawl worth of progress would've meant the world to him.

Surely, they couldn't get that much more otherworldly from here, right?

"Uh-huh!" Naruto insisted curtly and turned, gesturing for his roommate to take the floor, "Show 'em Goten!"

Goten shrugged but did as urged, effortlessly lofting himself off of the dirt ground to the amazements of his other two teammates, coal and leaf eyes expanding with each climb of height their levitating teammate casually ascended over as if trying to match the width of dinner plates. Their heads rose and rose until they could raise no more, mouths agape to their team standing a rough estimate of thirty feet above them on the surface of the very air itself as if it was solid ground.

"What. The. Hell?" Sasuke enunciated slowly, head dropping dramatically, 'What else are they hiding?'

Sakura's thoughts mirrored his, only she voiced hers aloud, "Will Goten ever cease to amaze us?"

Goten rapidly flew around in full three hundred and sixty circles, creating a faint pearlescent donut-shaped hue in the air, "Weeeeeee!" He chanted blissfully, "I'm a little birdie!~"

"Yeah! That's awesome, Goten!" Naruto cheered, fisting the air.

"Goten…" Sakura lipped, breathless as she watched the epitome of innocence perform numerous full circles without a care in the world, her eyes disbelieving, and that wasn't at the speed of which he was circling a small space in laps. Even with all the amazing, otherworldly powers he had like his bloodline and flight he viewed them as toys to innocently play with, not tools to boast about. She couldn't help herself. A smile of admiration crossed her glossy lips, 'Oh, Goten.' He was the poster boy for highly skilled. Strong, but humble.

It was a good example to set.

Goten's ears perked up to a distant windy force rapidly nearing them at a high frequency of speed, ceasing his circling laps to glance in the direction his heightened hearing picked up the raging winds from, "Hm." That just about summed it up too, a huge tidal wave of a repulsion blast heading toward his teammates with ferocity, tearing through the ground like paper and even bending the nearby trees to a curve, "Ahhh! Look out guys!"

He dropped down in front of them, quickly thrusting out his palms, "Kiai!" An even more powerful repulson wave seemingly emerging from Goten's body sliced through the oncoming hurricane like a hot knife through butter, splitting open a wide length of the ground to a massive crevice.

"What the hell/What the heck?!" Sasuke and Naruto exclaimed simultaneously, because what in good god's name had just transpired? They hadn't seen a damn thing. They heard the distant roar of some mighty creature they assumed was one of the overgrown beasts Anko had warned them about but beyond that? Nothing. Nothing at all. Goten shouted and then he was before them, nullifying some kind of wind jutsu that would've otherwise blown them away.

They stared in shock, and that wasn't just at another of Goten's worldly abilities. It was at the furious look he had on his face. Granted, with his doe eyes and adorable face of baby fat, it came off as more of a pout than anything else, but regardless, just the fact he was showing anger for the first time since they met surprised them. They almost assumed someone as laid back and patient as him was incapable of feeling fury, but here they were, looking at Son Goten stomping his feet in childlike rage.

"Hey, don't attack my friends, you big dummy!"

"Goten…" Sakura whispered, still jarred from his unusual irritation. It felt so out of his character she almost felt like she was staring at a different person all of a sudden. She stopped herself from asking who he was demanding, however. A sinister titter provided, causing her skin to crawl.

"My, my," A low, musical voice purred, birthing entrance to a silhouette of unmasked malevolence. Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke gulped down a lump down their throats to the shadowy presence of a bona-fide devil even before a grass kunoichi they had missed in the first phase of the Chunin exam stepped forward in a saunter, expression demented in intrigue, "What an unexpectedly unique jutsu you have, child. I hadn't anticipated you would've able to counter my wind release so easily with it."

Goten scowled, guarded, "I don't use jutsu." He admitted earnestly, feeling unsettled, 'She's giving me the creeps. Who is she?' Because whoever she was, she was making it awfully obvious she was a bad guy exuding unmistakeable Babidi-vibes like that.

"Oh!" She inhaled an intake of air, delightfully surprised, "Is that so?" She found the enigmatic child piquing her ever increasing interest and smiled, though all members of Kakashi's noob squad felt how utterly wrong it was, even being polite in nature. The undertone evil intent was there, "You'll have to forgive me. I'm afraid it's been quite some time since I've been in the loop of Konoha's dealings."

"What are you talking about?" Sasuke asked/demanded, narrowing his eyes askance. The decided creepy woman lingered a particularly prolong stare of crazed jubilation on him, eyes glinting with razor-eyed intention. A shiver ran down Sasuke's spine, '…What's with that look?' It was like she just sighted him as meat; the look of a predator lurking her prey, and it greatly unnerved Sasuke.

"All in good time." She assured vaguely.

"What do you want from us?" Sakura tried to demand, though it sounded infinitely more like a plead as she stumbled a step back from the Kunoichi's eerie presence, arms held up to her body in a defensive fashion.

"Yeah, jerk!" Naruto agreed, glaring furiously at the creepy Kunoichi.

"Why'd you attack my friends?" Goten glared at her, "Why come? They didn't do anything to you."

"Oh." The masqueraded legendary ninja of the snakes toyed with his intentions, lofting two fingers up to his lips in a methodically slow fashion, putting the Genin on edge, "It's quite simple really. For you see, little one, I only wish to kill them, and you," He hissed a breathless growl like the snake he embodied himself after, but beyond the brief flicker of the eyes that the mention of murdering them evoked, the wild-haired boy looked entirely unfazed by his voodoo-like spell, 'Oh? He's good. It appears he's not affected by Genjutsu. How fascinating.'

"Why'd you hiss like that, Miss?" He blinked, tilting his head. Orochimaru stifled a laugh behind the palm of his hand. Of all the things he could've focused on he chose the most inconsequential feature he really only did for show. It went to show where his thoughts lied. Definitely not in tactics, "Are you a snake?"

"Oh, I suppose you could refer to I, as such." Orochimaru humoured the boy's wonderous thoughts.

Goten nodded before his eyes widened. It was like flicking a switch, he suddenly recalled the Kunoichi's stated intentions for his friends and scowled, baring his teeth like a baby cub trying to protect his injured mother; something Orochimaru found adorable, "Why do you want to kill us for? Why?" He stomped his feet, "We haven't done anything to you."

"Oh. My apologies, little one," The humanoid snake purred sarcastically, "But I'm afraid I'm cursed with uncontrollable bloodlust." He shook his head in mock-pity, "An unfortunate disease, wouldn't you say? Every now and then, at the most inconvenient of times, I come down with the unbearable urge to take a life. Or two. Or three!" He chirruped almost cheerfully, "Depends on what mood I'm in."

Goten felt sickened to his stomach, fists clenched so tightly his knuckles turned white. The ground beneath his feet gave away to the subconscious pressure he was applying to it in his escalating fury of the cold-blooded monster gloating so casually in regard to taking people's lives as if he was merely talking about the weather. Blood heating to a steaming boil, his traumatic perception of black and white morphed the Kunoichi's form to that of a dark-gold skinned coloured imp with the insignia 'M' on his belt and then that of a tall, obese pink blob entity, before it slimmed down drastically to resemble what Goten held as the embodiment of evil.

Super Buu.

'Majin Buu.' His bared teeth elongated into fangs, his rage repressing the overwhelming guilt he held deep in his heart over not avenging his mother's demise at the flick of Super Buu's merciless antenna. His posture tensed, muscles bulging, 'No! Never again!' He assured himself tearfully, 'I won't let anyone die ever again!'

"Oh." Orochimaru said with slight surprise, 'Fascinating. It seems, when the boy's emotions run high his Chakra spikes.'

"G-Goten." The breathless gasp from Sakura jarred him from his deep state of awakening anger, as though she was struggling to even inhale.

With a startled gasp, Goten hastily whirled his head to Sakura's side, eyes tracking her lowered position on the dirt ground on her knees and expanding in horrified panic, "Sakura!" He cried, shakily stopping half way from grasping her terribly paled cheeks. Overcome with worry, curiosity compound him to check on his roommate and concern racked him to no end to find Naruto on one knee breathing heavily, practically sweating up a river, "Naruto!"

His head turned the other way, to Sakura's other side where Sasuke was also on both knees emptying out the contents of his lunch from his stomach in front of himself, "Mr Sasuke!"

"W-What the hell…?" Sasuke gasped hoarsely. He, like Sakura, had lost the colouring in his skin, resembling something ethereal like a ghost as he sat hunched over on all fours, quivering coal orbs of fossilized fear. His body felt icy cold as though he had been standing outside in the snow lands for hours on end, 'That was the worst thing I've ever seen. Just what the hell is she?'

Goten stared in frightened alarm at his sweat-drenched teammates, two of which were scared yellow until suddenly, a dam of enraged fury swept his worry for them aside. That big jerk. She did something awful to his friends when she hissed and it caused his rage to bubble to the surface like molten lava. The idea that anyone would hurt his friends for their own twisted reasons and cruel gratification, especially Sakura and Naruto, filled him with an explosive fury he hadn't felt since watching his mother crushed by Buu's heel. They had been so kind to him, ensuring he had a place to stay and was well fed.

The fact that anyone would cause harm to such nice people was a sin that could not be forgiven.

He turned, attempting to incinerate the mean-faced lady with his glare, "You!" He thrusts an index finger at her, "Why would you hurt my friends? Why? You didn't have to do that, you big jerk!"

She looked amused by his show of childish anger the equivalent to a child throwing a temper tantrum, folding an arm around her torso and resting the other one upon it to hold her chin in her palm, "I merely showed them a glimpse of what lies in store for them and you. Your deaths."

"What?!" Goten reared back in shock. "You showed them an illusion of them dying!" He dropped his head, shuddering in his emotional anger. He inhaled deeply, sharpening his resolve and lifted his head, wild-eyed gaze fuelled with intention, "I'll kill you!" He rushed him.

The very instance his knees had even bent to indicate sudden movement, he vanished to Orochimaru's dilating eyes, "What!?" He caught a flash of sullen onyx before his head was snapped back like an elastic band. The shattered metal of his headband filled his ears on his forced flight down the beaten pathway, senses broken into pieces, 'What?!' He heard only the brief flicker of teleportation-like movement blurring into his senses before he was blasted skyward by a powerful blow rifled to his back, forcing bile from his mouth.

Again, all he could make out as his cue to his forewarning of being hammered was a swift burst of incomprehensible speed. A visible wave of air pressure accompanied his body being cannon shot vertically, and again. And again. And again, to the point there was a spider web-like maze encasing the suspended rogue ninja with a dashing blur ghosting all around the web produced from sheer air pressure alone. Orochimaru looked pinned to one spot in the air. Hell, he felt trapped, body quaking from the damaging assaults on his person.

He couldn't move; couldn't even react.

Every blow, far too quick for him to initiate the tried-and-true switcheroo.

Every blow bruised his skin, damaged and even broke a rib, set a tooth loose, fractured his jaw and tore open muscle tissues. It was astronomical. He couldn't begin to fathom how a mere shinobi, much less a child shinobi of the lowest rank possible, could move with all the speed of his former village's most proficient body flicker user yet hit as tremendously hard as his former teammate holding back. It was so unfair and created a truly formidable titan.

Orochimaru couldn't even begin to fathom just how his old village could produce such a warrior with both extremely high-levels of strength and speed. He didn't get the chance. Pain flooded his senses from the devastating flurry rushes that he could only concentrate on the agony just to stay conscious.

"Arghhhh!"

Words couldn't express his relief upon being released from the evidently prodigious boy's barrage. With an aerobatic flip, Goten smashed Orochimaru's head with an upside heel kick, sending him plummeting in a downward spiral coated in a shrouded shell of red-hot heated air pressure.

The ground gave way underneath the Genjutsu-subjected trio of Goten's squad, making them bounce a bit whilst a raising steam of debris dust ascended from the deep crater their tormentor's own body had created.

"Whoaaaaaaaaaa!" Naruto echoed, falling back on his rear. He pulled himself to his knees, reaching forward on all fours; childlike fascination compelling him to marvel at the fairly large hole in the ground his roommate had shovelled with the body of another, "…Awesome. Goten is fighting like that time when him and Trunks were that Gotenks-guy against that Zabuza-jerk."

"…I never realized he had that kind of power," Sakura murmured, though just as quickly shook her head, reprimanding herself for her thoughtless comment. She always knew Goten had skill. That was demonstrated with his inclusion into team seven's line up instead of admission into academy, but due to his humility and easy-going nature it was easy to forget just how powerful that bundle of adorable sweetness really was.

Sasuke stared hard, eyes wide and teeth a grit at the crater, more specifically the power shown to create said wide hole, 'Can I even compare?' A feeling of self-doubt sunk in his stomach. After seeing what the boys from another land were capable of as one against a foe even his Jounin instructor had problems with, Sasuke subsequently viewed Trunks and Goten as measuring poles to which to gauge his own growth, feeling if he could just climb the distance separating their power, even only halfway, he would be one step closer to rivalling his brother's power.

He wasn't a sensor. He could only go off their word and display of which to measure their strength, and since they clarified at Tazuna's that their Fusion technique made them significantly stronger, he felt their strength wasn't as unreachable as it was when they were merged.

…Or at least he told himself that to provide himself comfort even when he felt the mighty presence of their Super Saiyan mode. There was such a stark difference over trying to gauge strength and actually seeing displays of raw power itself, essentially the saying of, "You don't know how incredible something is until you see it with your own eyes" could be applied in this context.

Sasuke's confidence was shot to hell.

"How!?" Orochimaru rasped, foaming at the mouth with extended eyes of demented bewilderment, 'How can a mere child have such power!?' He could shred his skin so all wasn't lost yet, but even still, the boy had absolutely decimated him in so few seconds. A prolong fight of attrition was not to Orochimaru's favour. Not only could he not even track any of the boy's movements, ruling out the use of substitution, he couldn't endure the power behind his punches. He could only shred his skin so times before it depleted his chakra after all.

'I have to release them now!' He decided, painstakingly pulling himself to his behind, 'And take Sasuke while they're keeping that child-monster busy!' The situation had changed drastically, in one short interval of a one-sided clash of fists, and it truly terrified Orochimaru. To think, one child could compromise his carefully laid out plans; madness! He couldn't travel to the Sand Village to kill the Kazekage and masquerade as him to ally their villages now. He could no longer risk it.

With his power, he could effortlessly foil his ambush and intercept him from separating the old man from his bodyguards. The realist in Orochimaru couldn't and wouldn't put pass him. His best and likely only shot of getting an Uchiha body since Sasuke's elder brother was way out of his league was now; the perfect case of now or never.

Under his and Konoha's protection, he would realistically never get another opportunity of taking Sasuke.

He found his young antagonist threatening his path to Sharingan brilliance standing at the edge of the pit he sat broken in courtesy of his fists, childishly stomping a foot and stiffening his arms to his sides.

"Take that, you big jerk!" Goten pouted, "-For hurting my friends!"

Orochimaru grimaced, 'What travesty is this? He's just a mere child, speaking of comradery as if it holds any value.' He knocked his head back, fixating his palms on the corners of his mouth. His young opponent watched him rip open and extend his mouth to literal sizes matching the entrance of a cave in horrified shock.

"W-What?" Goten recoiled, stomach churning at the sight of a horribly pale-skinned man spouting out of the tavern entrance of a mouth covered from head to toe in slime, "Ewwwwwwww!" He slapped his palms over his mouth and nose. Of course, being the scatterbrain he was, he just had to focus on the least relevant aspect of Orochimaru's regeneration, 'He was a boy all along.'

"I will not be denied an Uchiha body this time!" Orochimaru insisted in a crazed tone. He ignored the boy's befuddled expression and instead slammed his palms together, "Summoning, Reincarnation to the impure world."

"Reincarnation what-?" The ground impulsively quaked from under him, causing him to stumble slightly, "W-What?"

"What's going on?!" Naruto yelped.

"I-I don't know!" Sakura stuttered, entwining her hands in an audible clap, 'Please be careful Goten.' Beside her, Sasuke tensed, fingers curling into the dirt below them.

The ground rumbled like the world's largest electric chair and team seven saw a sinister purple glow illuminating the crater their adversary was in, allowing entry to two tall, golden caskets marked with the kanjis for first and second.

A feeling of dread plummeted in Naruto's gut like an anchor, "I got a bad feeling about this."

And so, it appeared the Jinchuuriki's gut instincts were justified. The front of the caskets fell forward, dropping on the edge of the pit to offer the most unconventional of slides ever to send a tremor through the ground, releasing two ghostly figures of living legend that Sakura and Sasuke recognized from their history lessons from their time in the academy.

Sakura gasped, hands flying to her mouth, "Lord First and Lord Second?"

Naruto recoiled, head snapping to her, "What!? You mean like the first and second Hokages!"

Sakura dropped her hands from her mouth to give Naruto a grim nod, and the sullen gaze of the Kunoichi caused the whiskered-cheeked boy's skin to bristle, "Yes, I'm not sure how that person has done it, but he's somehow found a way to bring people back from the dead!"

Naruto whirled back to the armoured Hokages lifelessly stepping out of their caskets allowing the twin coffins to plummet like weights, scowling in agitation, "Damn it!"

"Unless they're imitations," Sasuke offered, a bead of sweat rolling down his cheek.

Sakura spared her crush a look of understanding before shaking her head with a sigh.

"I hope so."

"What's going on?" Goten tried to innocently ascertain just how the ghostly-paled man could summon two lifelessly looking people. It seemed to click though when he pieced together just how… dead they appeared and what they were encased in before walking out in a manner resembling zombies, "Did you bring back the dead!?" He pouted, "Because you're not allowed to do that without permission from Miss Baba!"

"Kukukukuku!" Goten ceased his temper tantrum to stare hesitantly at the man's villainous cackle, "Well, it seems you're smarter than you appear, child." He produced two yellow slips from his sleeves, lining them up with the back of the armoured duo's heads, "Meet the first and second Hokages, brought back from the dead to keep you entertained."

The admittance made Goten gasp in horror, but also strengthen his narrow-minded belief of Orochimaru's inhumanity. In his mind, in his viewpoint, the necromancer was no more human than Badibi or Buu and just as evil too at this point. He wouldn't let him cause any more harm to the likely countless lives he had ruined already. A sense of duty, manufactured from his remorse over not ending Buu when they had the opportunity, overcame the Saiyan boy.

This time would be different.

This time he wouldn't let his friends suffer.

He tensed, growling like a cat ready to poach with clenched fists, "You!"

With a fiendish grin of the devils, Orochimaru sunk the kanji seals within the heads of the Senju brothers, returning life to them, though their complexions were still terribly cracked and they didn't have eyeballs. Just two black holes with little dots floating within them for eyes.

"Now," Orochimaru cackled, thrusting a finger forward at Goten's serious posture, "Get that child!"

Hashirama slammed his palms together, roaring all with the intensity of a caveman, "Ahhhhh!" From every side of him, multiple enlarged roots grew instantaneously, slithering out of the ground in curly waves, "Wood Style: Deep Forest Emergence!"

Orochimaru smirked in absolute pleasure, 'Ah! Such a magnificent Kekkei Genkai.' With it, it was a no brainer why the leaf's village's very first Hokage was considered the God of Shinobi. It was brilliantly effective and magnificently versatile, even capable of restraining the nine tailed beasts. Brilliant. Hashirama's DNA was coveted for these very reasons. Sadly, not everyone's body was compatible with such powerful cells. That was why he used children to experiment and ascertain which body was most compatible with Hashirama's V.I.P cells, but unfortunately, most of them died and he was forced to abandon Konoha and his research when he was discovered.

'Such a pity,' He purred, gliding up and out of the crater he was in. Oh well. With the God of Shinobi, even suppressed in power, on his side that child shouldn't be able to get in his way, even with his unnatural combination of super strength and speed-.

A devastating explosion rocked Orochimaru to the core, sending barks of trees flying into his jarred face.

"What!?" He exclaimed, a turning wide-eyed gaze of abject horror to his puppets only to find a destructively bright beam washing over them explosively, tunnelling through the ground for miles before finally, bouncing up and soaring off to the sky where it dissipated harmlessly, leaving nothing other than a long gouged out trail of which it had ploughed through the ground better than any digging machine ever could, "Impossible!"

His following actions were instinctual, even incomprehensible to him, but then again, the occurrence that just played out was something well beyond human comprehension surpassing the limits of what humans, even super powered ones, should be capable of. He scampered, near clumsily scurrying to the exact space that he summoned the undead. What once was a crater was now just a part of the dug up pathway.

"But how!?" He hopelessly asked himself, wild-eyed gaze of unhinged puzzlement searching every speck of dirt frantically for any hint of a sign of even one of the undead's composed bodies reassembling, but try as he might, the terrified snake man of legend couldn't even find a mere scarp from one of the Senju brothers' artificial bodies. The boy's blast decomposed every last speck of them, leaving nothing to regenerate from.

He whipped his head to the boy he now saw in a new light; one that was heavenly and transcendent: something that just couldn't be comprehended by mere mortals thriving to reach his transcendence in deranged horror, "What are you?!" Orochimaru rasped, shiver flying from his mouth.

Goten stared him down, onyx eyes judging him for the monster he viewed him as, fists clenched tight at his sides, "It's over, Mr bad guy!"

Orochimaru's silted eyes widened, realization zapped him even worse than two-hundred volts of electricity, and the fear of legitimately losing the very thing he sought to extend for eternity sent his mind into a panicked frenzy, unable to cope with the startling reality that he – Lord Orochimaru: the personification of malevolence – was feeling fear, and not just the flinching variety of being jumped, but the kind of deep apprehension that made his heart drum audibly against his chest.

He could hear his heart; feel the bead of sweat dripping agonizing down his paled cheek and even air entering his gaping mouth. This boy had the power to achieve one of his many goals beside living forever and obtaining all jutsu: he could eradicate all of Konoha hundreds of times over. Orochimaru knew this to be true even without being a measure of power levels, because only a power capable of evaporating matter could destroy an Edo Tensei much less two at a cellular level.

"Get away from me!" Orochimaru pleaded, though in his hysterical tone it sounded more like a desperate demand than anything else. Goten's teammates were jarred from their state of extended lifeless shock at seeing Goten's vast amount of sheer destructive power, comically blinking and watching this unmistakeable evil man literally run for the hills with his proverbial tails between his legs.

"Eh!?" Naruto uttered, dumbfounded. It was the complete contrary of the pale-skinned man's villainous demeanour. From an imposing big bad to a fleeing coward in the duration of a few minutes, and Naruto didn't know how to make heads or tails out of the revolutionary change in character, "O… kay, then. We win?"

"I… think." Sakura said, also at a loss for words. She flinched to Goten's change of stances, "Goten?"

He wasn't done. Unfortunately for Orochimaru, he wasn't as merciful or as forgiving as his father nor as open-minded. He had a very simplistic view of the world. There were good guys and there were bad guys, and the good guys like his world's special defence force dubbed "Z-warriors" existed solely to punish and purge the world of those very bad guys, to purify Mother Earth of their tainted evil.

The rage lying dormant in his heart from witnessing his mother's death compounded his sense of duty to rid the world of another Super Buu. He slid his left leg circularly behind his right one, bringing his front wrists together and curling his fingers before lowering his cupped palms to his side. A brilliant shade of azure blue materialized in between his hands, illuminating the gawking expressions of his teammates.

"Whoa. What is that?" Naruto murmured in awe.

"I don't know," Sakura whispered.

Abruptly, the small orb within their teammate's entwined hands enlarged, casting a azure curtain of luminescence over the immediate terrain.

"It's getting bigger!" Sasuke noted with urgency.

"Kaa." Goten began, taking a steady breath.

Orochimaru horrifyingly noticed the spike of such power from a large Chakra capacity, hastily looking over his shoulder. The phase 'don't look into the light' immediately came to his mind gawking at the glowing beam within his tormentor's hands, 'This could be bad!' He twirled like a yo-yo, biting down on his thumbs with exceeding amounts of haste before slamming his hands, palms-up, down on the surface of the ground, crouched.

Orochimaru grimaced, realizing with grudging acknowledgement that this was the first time he legitimately prayed one of his collected jutsu would be enough to withstand the explosive onslaught from a power no one man, let alone child, had a right to bear. He was always someone who relied on his skill and wits to get by, disregarding other non-talent factors like luck and determination. If a shinobi wasn't naturally blessed with talent then he likely wouldn't amount to much, if anything, in his career, because the world favoured the gifted.

This was Orochimaru's realist mentality, and that boy charging up an atomic blast of such potent proportions truly embodied his ideals of humans being strong because they were blessed at birth with good genes or ambitions to take what they felt was theirs by any means necessary. So young yet so powerful. One simply didn't get that kind of power from training endlessly, not unless they trained until they were fifty, and even then, rarely.

He was without a shadow of a doubt a prodigy among prodigies and Orochimaru had to swallow his pride and hope above everything that he couldn't overpower his best line of defence.

"Meee."

…Otherwise it surely be his end.

The cratering of the ground beneath the feet of the epitome of talent itself and enlarging of the brightly-lit star-shaped orb in his hands cemented Orochimaru's grim belief of his inevitable death should his last line of defence fail to endure the incoming beam of devastation.

He could NOT die here.

"Triple Rashomon!"

The gates of hell rose up from the ground as if ushered by the devil's hand.

One after the other.

Three gigantic Cliff-sized demon-faced doors quaked the ground with their entry, cutting off direct line of sight between the two combatants. Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke gaped at the magnitude of such defensive walls generated from sheer Chakra capacity. Goten, however, didn't look fazed in the slightest, stony-faced as the spherical orb in his hands eclipsed his body.

xXx

(Elsewhere in the Forest)

xXx

Kabuto, having broken off from his team, halted in his tracks when he felt the ground vibrate from under him, turning his head when a gigantic shadow eclipsed his body, "No way." He breathed, staring in abject shock to his master's signature defence, "That's Lord Orochimaru's triple rashomon!"

He scowled, sweat beading from his forehead, "This is bad," He sprinted toward the three gates of hell, "I didn't think one of those kids would give him this much trouble as to force him to use one of his trump cards. At this rate, reinforcements are inevitable." As much as it annoyed him. No one was missing Cliff-sized gates, "Which means we likely won't get Sasuke if Lord Orochimaru hasn't marked him already." He frowned.

That was a serious possibility, especially if he was being pushed to the extent he felt it was necessary to draw upon one of his trump cards to protect himself from his adversary's onslaught.

"Damn it! I have to hurry!"

And Kabuto quickened his pace to his lord's side.

xXx

(Goten vs Orochimaru)

xXx

"Haaaaaaa!" With a war cry, he pushed his arms forward, and the condensed orb humming within his palms cannoned toward the gates in a explosive wave producing such mighty winds, it curled the pointy locks of his hair back and sent his team tumbling in frenzy rolls just from the mere shockwave.

"Ahhh! Goten!" Sakura screamed over the roaring the sweet boy's explosive attack produced in the aftermath of her forced barrel rolls behind Goten.

"Holy crap!"

"What is he!?"

The greatest move that Master Roshi had ever crafted didn't stop for anything, Cliff-sized gates of hell be damned. The signature attack of the Son family of Saiyan wonders steamrolled through Orochimaru's triple rashomon, instantly expanding to mountain-sized proportions to swallow the defensive walls whole like they weren't even there. The violent sounds of crushing metal assaulted the petrified sannin's ears, but no more so than the blinding wall of luminescence looking to engulf him.

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!" He rasped in despair, recklessly thrusting his palms upon the enormous blast of death, instantly losing his hands as a searing pain assaulted his brain. There was brightness and then there was darkness; the orb of destruction pressed against his cheek burning away his eyelid, "I'M LORD OROCHIMARU! I WILL NOT DIE HERE! I'M MEANT TO LIVE ON FOR ETERNITY!"

His last words, spent lamenting his mortality, were lost in the great roar of the Kamehameha wave, as was he. Every piece of the once former Snake sannin was disintegrated from the face of the planet.

xXx

There was a pregnant pause; an eerie silence whilst Kabuto looked on in horror to the enormous beam ploughing through his master's most effective defensive technique as though they were no more than mere logo blocks.

"No…" He whispered, a feeling of absolute dread tightening his heart in knots. Time stilled, his frantic running seemingly slowed to slow-motion steps; a million thoughts of anguish spinning around his head like a washing machine on the fritz.

How could this happen?

How a mere Genin wield such power capable of overpowering his lord?

Could this really be the end?

What was he to do without him?

The last thought-provoking question snapped him back to reality and the deafening sound of the explosive wave roared with so much intensity, he fell hopelessly to his knees, gasping, petrified in panic as he watched the powerful winds generated from the shockwave of the mighty blast bend and upheave nearby trees before shooting off to the sky where it detonated explosively, casting a massive shadow over the entirety of the Forest of Death.

"Lord Orochimaruuuuuuuuu!"

XxX

"What the hell?" Anko breathed slowly, staring up in abject shock to the massive shadow casted over an immeasurable length of the terrain.

Just right after a squadron of ANBU had escorted her to three literally faceless corpses to inform her of the potentially suspicious figure in the exam, this occurs. She didn't think she could ever relay the sight accurately unless they had seen it with their own eyes first. It was a view to be behold and to fear; a nuclear blast from the largest Chakra capacity she had ever witnessed eclipsing the entirety of the village. Had that detonated anywhere on the ground and not in the sky, she was positive it would've eradicated not only her, but everything within radius, including the village.

"What freak can eve-. ARGH!" An impulsive but familiar wave of pain flaring up on her shoulder cut her off mid-sentence, though quickly subsided before she could fall to her knees like she usually does whenever her hickey mark flared up, leaving her floored. Wordlessly, she brushed her fingers over her shoulder blade, a tinge of hope crawling in her heart, "Can't be…"

With uncharacteristic hesitation supremely at odds with her usually ballsy demeanour, Anko stretched her neck over to look past her shoulder; just a glimpse, but it was all she needed to ascertain the tremendous relief from the expelling of agony. She couldn't see even a bit of the tear-like markings she had grown used to finding on her shoulder in the mirror.

Which just meant…

"No way… Orochimaru… he's."

Gone.

Gone from this world.

And Anko couldn't be happier.

Couldn't be happier and profoundly confused.

Lemme just say, "SIKEEEEEEE!" With a big Yusuke-like troll face. You didn't think I was actually going to let Orochimaru mark Sasuke and Goten, did ya? Heh-heh. Anyway, Snake-face is DEAD! He's fucking gone and a MAJOR element of canon has been blown out of the waters. No Orochimaru equals no invasion, no search for Tsunade, no runaway Sasuke, no-no-no. Canon goes bye-bye from here folks. Orochimaru, love ya, you, like Dr Jackal from Getbackers, were inspired by the amazing Hisoka but you just had to go, I'm afraid, so yh.

Looking forward to the things to write.͡° ͜ʖ ͡°(ಥ ͜ʖಥ)(ಥ ͜ʖಥ)