Us or them

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

A/N: Re-branding! Formerly 'Salvation or Damnation', If you hadn't notice by now, I have renamed the story and changed the summary to better fit how this story has progressed. I didn't like the first name I had given the story but now I think this name fits the story better. That's pretty much the only important change I've made that needed immediate attention. More notes to follow at the end of the chapter. Enjoy.

-A Skip Ahead-

Stones rained down on me as I jumped through the many trees around me. I had gotten separated close to a few minutes ago. I was put at the back of the squad again. So when we were ambushed by the rogue Iwa squad I was the first to be hit. The massive pillar of stone hit me dead on my ribs and launched me away from the group.

The shinobi who faced me was trying to go for a death shot with every swing of his fists or sweep of his legs. The ferocity he had brought to me was very surprising. He wasn't going to take me lightly. Never again. He was going all out from the beginning. He must have known who I was. I could barely evaded the shots that seemed to leave craters in their wake.

I kept leaping further and further away as I (shamelessly) ran away. It was all I could manage after being ran ragged by Orochimaru's (torture) training. Bringing out my kunai, I jumped down and threw the kunai blindly behind me and I instantly pushed chakra to my eyes. The world opened up for a few precious seconds before it went back to normal but it was more than enough.

The shinobi had been forced to the ground. While he recovered from his fall, I began to pepper his direction with as many shuriken as I could throw while I made my retreat. After expending my small arsenal of at least 50 shuriken, none had hit their mark. The iwa chunin sped through hand seals and the earth moved all around me. Spikes began to erupt everywhere around me. I was trapped.

Desperation coursed through me and I began to look for where he had disappeared too. Flashing my (almost useless) byakugan, I jumped up into the air as his hands erupted underneath me. Only my instincts allowed me to redirect the strikes that he threw at me. I was thinking of anything that I could do with my chakra reserves. I was currently only near 40 percent. Enough for one Hakke Kusho or two of my new jutsu if I kept the chakra use to it's minimum.

I began to think that playing the waiting game wouldn't work to my favor. I had hoped that Orochimaru would come after he disposed of his opponents. As this fight went on, it became clear that wasn't going to happen any time soon. It has been at least a good ten minutes from the start of the attack. I had to end this quickly.

The iwa shinobi leapt forward and I dropped my guard and let him hit me. He dug his fist into my stomach and that when I grabbed him with both of my arms. The look of panic in his eyes lasted no more than a second as he began trying to free himself from my grip. I twisted my body back and lifted him off the ground and I threw him against his earth spikes.

Those few precious seconds were all I need. "Boar, Ram, Snake, Horse, Dragon"

"Raiton: Jibashi" (Lightning Release: Electromagnetic Murder)

The lightning chakra began to gather from my hands and I slapped my hands on the ground and watched as the lightning ripped through the earth as it ripped it's way to the shinobi. Screams exploded from the man. His body convulsed and shook violently. I continued pumping more chakra into my hands until he stopped screaming. He fell to the floor, no life in his eyes. Smoke came out if his clothes and hair. I grinned as wide as I could before I tried moving toward him to see if he was really dead.

I didn't make it far before I felt my legs begin to shake. "Crap. I over did it. I used to much chakra and it seems my body can't handle producing that much lightning jutsu running through my muscles." I kept walking as shakily as I could. A few feet from his body and it reeked of burnt hair and flesh. I wanted to throw up, but I had to make sure he was dead.

My legs were shaking more and more as I struggled on to the body. I saw him there lying lifelessly. I knew I had won. As much as I wanted for the sweet, sweet darkness to overtake me I had orders and I had to complete them. I began to scavenge his body taking any shuriken he had and I allowed myself a few minutes of rest before I tried to make my way back to where we had faced the ambush.

I looked around and realized I was hopelessly lost. I began to panic. I tried looking all around to see any indication of where I had came from and I realized that everything looked the same. Spikes were in every direction. Kunai and shuuriken were embedded everywhere and there was nothing but tree's surrounding the small clearing we had made for battle.

That's when it hit me. I felt all of the negative emotions melted away and relief filled my heart. I flushed as much chakra as I could into my eyes and the beautiful world opened up to reveal the way. 2 or 3 kilometers west from me were shinobi still flushed in battle. I vaulted over the spikes and made my way to my team.

My mind and body were reacting at faster than my normal pace. My legs were still not feeling like they usually did. Every step felt like I was walking with my legs asleep. My leaps increased in power and speed. I thought that maybe I was being delusional for having overtaxed myself but I couldn't be to sure. My chakra use had dropped me more than I had expected to use but it wasn't abnormal for that to happen.

The last few leaps gave me enough view in front of me to that there were multiple bodies strewn all over the floor. It was clear on who or what had died. There was simply too much blood. That's one of things I made a big mental note of in this world. There was too much blood. I guess that they had to censor it for it to make it as a show.

I stayed hidden in the canopy of the tree's as I watched a battle. I couldn't who was who until I saw a peak of the pale face. He was facing two ninja. In my first action of what some would call a real shinobi move, I readied two kunai and pushed my chakra into them. I launched them as hard as I could and they flew from my hands and that's when I noticed they were emitting small amount of electricity. They flew in a straight path right into the back of Orochimaru.

I had mistimed the throw. My heart sank. Orochimaru fell straight down like a rock. The shuuriken had punched through Orochimaru and hit the shinobi he had been fighting.

I'm ashamed to admit it but I froze. I was responsible for the death of one of the strongest ninja in the entire world. Someone who would become a terrible monster in his scientific pursuit. I might have saved the shinobi world countless lives but my heart had shattered. I felt an immense pain in my chest. I couldn't breathe.

Present Time

No one breathed easily through the rough desert. That's why I had to wear a bandana across my face. It was primarily to keep the sand out of my nose and mouth. Then again, if it made me look far more menacing than it could only help..right?

It had only been a few days since arriving in Suna and Orochimaru had not wasted any time. He was a true slave driver. Pushing me far beyond my limits. True to his word, I was stuck outside while his mud clone trained me.

On the first day he simply had me go over the proper hand seals as fast as I could while I dodged his kunai and shuuriken. If I even slowed down from the set pace he would begin to throw faster and faster until he would eventually hit me. He reasoned that I needed to be able to do hand seals without even having to wait for an opening. He had me practice a new jutsu he thought would be handy in the battlefield. When the night finally arrived he began to teach me more advanced chakra theory and it's practice's in combat.

The second day, I was forced to show him my jutsu repertoire. After disappointing him greatly, he had noticed that I didn't need to use any hand seals with the basic jutsu or in any of the few hyuuga techniques. That had peaked his interests. By noon, he had me test out the new jutsu. Raiton: Jibashi. A lightning jutsu that spread out from the hands made for versatility. It could simply shock and temporarily paralyze the opponent or could become deadly with enough chakra.

After I was instructed to watch him do it he made me turn on my basically useless byakugan. He wanted me to see him do the seals and see how his chakra built up and spread out through his chakra network. I watched him do the jutsu and followed after him with slow hand seals. I let the chakra build up like he had and I unleashed it out my hands. The feeling of electricity was exhilarating.

The chakra that course through my body made me feel close to invincible. Like I could do anything. What came out of my fingertips were rather pathetic in comparison to Orochimaru's massive lightning storm. BUT. I was proud. I had managed to get a few sparks to come out of my hands.

I just knew Orochimaru would begin to bitch me out when he saw how little came out but to my surprise he smirked. "Kukuku. Well done, Hiro-kun. You're not as useless as you appear." I looked up in shock. That had to have been the first time he didn't completely trash my skills. I tried to suppress the huge grin coming onto my face, Thank Kami for the bandana.

"Hehehe. I'll definitely get it bigger next time Orochimaru-sensei!" I had said it with big confidence then I noticed what I had done. I mimicked his laugh! Oh, kami he was beginning to rub off on me. Orochimaru didn't notice and if he did he didn't say anything about it. He just continued to tell me everything I had done wrong and told me to wait longer while building up the chakra. Apparently, since I was a beginner of Raiton Jutsu, my body had to work harder and not nearly as fast to convert the regular chakra into the one I wanted.

Telling me that it would only get stronger and faster with practice was a big drive for me. I wanted to show this smug bastard that I wasn't useless!

The third day had gone rather poorly. Orochimaru hadn't shown up for over an hour. I would have trained but he had forbidden me from doing anything without his supervision. The bastard probably thought I would kill myself or something. After maybe waiting until mid-afternoon, Baki the Suna-nin showed up.

"Hey kid. Follow me." He turned away and began to walk the kilometer to the main gate. I just stood there watching him leave. I wasn't just randomly go with this stranger. I looked over at the ANBU and he simply shrugged at me. I went back and sat down in the sparse shade of the dune behind us.

Baki turned around and saw me sitting down again. He sighed and yelled, " By the order of the KazeKage, you must come with me." This time I reluctantly get up and begin walking toward baki. I had begun to get annoyed with the amount of people who had power over me. It seemed like everyone could just order me around to do whatever they wanted.

After a few dozen minutes, we arrived at the Kazekage's tower. Baki didn't bother waiting to be let through the waiting room seemingly full of shinobi and citizens. He walked through a door and lead us down a hallway. At the end of the hallway we finally reached the doors to his office. We entered and there he was.

Sitting on his chair with his robes and hat on, the Kazekage was signing papers at an alarming rate. Even as fast as he was going he hadn't made a dent in the mountain stack of paper. After a minute of uncomfortable silence, Baki cleared his throat and the Kazekage looked up. He stopped writing, and put his attention on us. "Ah, Baki how can I help you?" He said in a loud, stern voice.

"This is the child I was telling you about." he pushed me to the front and center of the room. Needless to say the man had an aura of pure respect and intimidation. His face was young but showed the power he commands. I was beginning to sweat under the intense gaze that the Kazekage was giving me.

He held his stare and began to talk. "What's your name?"

I stumbled with my words. "Hiroaki."

"How old are you?"

"Six." I manage to whisper out.

"Baki tells me that you are a Hyuuga?"

I look questioningly toward baki and look back at the Kazekage. "Formerly."

"Formerly?" he asked with a confused face. He glanced at Baki who simply gave off a small shrug.

"I am no longer apart of the Hyuuga clan." I didn't match his stare this time, electing to look at the floor with a sense of shame.

He didn't speak for what seemed to be an eternity. "I've heard you are Orochimaru's apprentice." He stated matter of factly. He stood up and walked around his desk and stood in front of me. He gave me another once over and his gaze caught my blade.

His stare didn't leave from my blade when I finally asked him something. "Why am I here, Lord Kazekage?"

He finally went and broke his gaze from the Tanto and stared into my eyes. He made a small gesture indicating for Baki to leave. He returned his hand next to him and he just stared until baki left.

"I just wanted to introduce myself. I have met with the rest of the team but you." He lifted his right hand slowly and extended it in front of me.

Not knowing what to do I just stared at his hand before I noticed a small amount of sparkling dust wrapped around my wrist and extended it to met his hand. He shook our hands and spoke up again. "My name is Rasa. Nice to finally meet you, Hiroaki."Orochimaru stood in his room writing up a quick messenger hawk to send back to the Hokage. The terms presented for help seemed very obscure and slightly confusing as to why he would ask for that. He had almost lost his cool when the Kazekage presented his demands and he was shocked to say the least. He had already taken measures to make sure that Hiroaki couldn't be identified in this village.

When the Kazekage had asked him about his student by name, he was surprised that the Kazekage had even learned about it. It had to have been that damned Suna kazekage had appeared upset that he hadn't been allowed to meet the young genin for whatever reason and had practically demanded to meet the boy before an further discussions could be made.

Orochimaru had to promise that he would get to meet the boy after they finished discussing the terms of the aide. That's when Rasa laid down that he wanted the boy to stay in Suna as an ambassador between the villages while his forces went to assist Konoha. He had also demanded that Konoha not take any missions from the Wind Daimyo for the next three years. He had also demand a few other trivial things that could be handled.

Orochimaru scribbled down the demands in code and sent it flying toward Konohagakure. He hoped that it would reach back by the end of the week. They were close to being behind schedule in arriving at the rendezvous point. He knew that if he were in charge, he would have instantly denied the inexperienced kage. He knew that there was more intentions that the kazekage had toward his student but couldn't seems to put his finger in his motivations for wanting to meet the boy.

He knew it must have been what that Suna-nin had told the Kazekage. Baki had seemed too interested in the boy along their journey. He knew something was up when baki mentioned knowing Hiroaki's mother. Now he had to wait in his room while the Kazekage meet with his charge in private. Orochimaru hated not knowing what was happening.

Hiro stood there staring at his hand in awe as the sparkling dust revolved around his hand and wrist. "W-what is t-that?" He asked in awe.

Rasa laughed and twitched his fingers and called forth more of the sparkling dust. It continued to revolve around the boy's wrist before the kazekage squeezed and shaped the dust into a golden medallion. "It's gold" He said as he smirked at the obviously impressed boy.

Hiro looked at the medallion and began to inspect it closely. He saw that it was impressively solid. One side had the Kanji for Wind and the other had his and his mother's name inscribed in it. He was thoroughly impressed with the amount of detail in it. The ridges of the medallion curved with intricate designs. He was getting a fuzzy recollection of the man standing before him. He knew that his foreknowledge was getting worse as time went on. He had to write it down before he forgot more of the important things.

That's when it hit Hiro. The man standing before him was the RASA! The same Rasa that had written that letter to his uncle! Then he looked down at his tanto hanging off his hip. He saw the golden accents on the weapon and began to experience real panic. "Gift from your Father…" He heard the voice echoing in his brain get louder and louder. He stared wide-eyed at the man in front of him who had been saying things to him.

The pounding in his chest thumped harder and harder. His hands began to grow sweaty. He stumbled back and he couldn't begin to even breathe. Rasa rushed to try and keep the boy steady, losing his Kage hat off his head. That's when he noticed it. The same set of hair that he held on his head, albeit smaller and spiker. That was all it took before he was sent over the edge and he blacked out.

Orochimaru was going through a few things in his pack when both ANBU guards burst into his door. "Sir, we have been informed that Hiroaki was taken to the hospital roughly, an hour ago." With that, Orochimaru leapt off the bed and smashed through the window in front of him. He raced down to the hospital as fast as he could go. He arrived there a few minutes later.

He reached the lobby floor before he slammed his hands down on the counter and demanded to know where they were keeping his student. "R-r-roo-m 307" the young lady told the snake. Orochimaru disappeared in a blur and finally stopped in front of the room before he burst through the door. He saw the Kazekage sitting in a corner of the room.

Orochimaru began charging at him and grabbed and lifted the man up by the neck. ANBU flooded into the room waiting to strike down the intruder. "What did you do to him?" He managed to growl through his clenched teeth. Orochimaru squeezed slightly harder. Rasa remained calm with a stoic face.

"Nothing. He simply collapsed when we were talking. It must have been exhaustion. Our med-nin examined him. They said he had low chakra reserves and needed to rehydrate." Rasa said with a calm tone that seemed to get rougher and louder as he went on.

As they both stared each other down a nurse, came into the room. "Kazekage-dono, the DNA results are complete." She stated as she seemingly stumbled into the current situation.

"Thank you. Hand the papers to one of my ANBU." She went forward shakily and handed one of the men the papers. "You may return to work." he stated calmly. The woman began to exit cautiously out the door. Finally, silence returned back into the room.

Orochimaru still held the Kazekage by the throat but his anger was beginning to dissipate. He let the man down, and stepped back. Rasa waved his guard away leaving them both alone with the child. Rasa moved forward and picked up the file that the ANBU had left behind on a small desk. Rasa opened the file and began to review the information inside. With a twitch of anger, his eyebrows furrowed forward and he set himself at staring at the papers in his hand.

Killing intent began to fill the room. Orochimaru who had been staring at the young boy looked over at the now enraged man. Rasa was visibly shaking with the amount of anger that was circulating through him. Rasa looked over at Orochimaru and snarled. He threw the papers at him and stormed out of the room. Orochimaru could hear the yelling of the now distant kazekage.

Orochimaru picked up the papers and began to read them. He began to go through the possible ramifications of what these papers meant. They confirmed that the two DNA samples taken were infact related. Sample #1 was from Hiro. The second sample came from the Kazekage. Orochimaru knew he had to leave the village before anything else happened. He knew that his previous mission had to be abandoned.

So that's how I woke up, being carried while we fled at high-speed back toward Hi no Kuni. As I first opened my eye's I thought I was being abducted again. All I could see were brown and green blurs underneath us as the person who carried me continued to leap from branch to branch. That's when I decided to make my own soon as he stepped for the next branch I would seing my weight back and he would be forced to let go or drop to the floor with me.

The next step came and then nothing. I had tried to shove my way back but He didn't even let go. His step never faltered and he continued leaping. "Kami, I'm so weak." I had to give myself a mental slap to the face. I began to take in my surroundings again and noticed he had his tool pouch in front of my face. I gave my smirk and reached into it and pulled out the first thing I could grab.

I looked at it in confusion. The flask I had grabbed had a small symbol carved into it. The symbol of the leaf. I didn't know whether to be relieved or terrified. Relieved because it meant I was in the hands of my comrades or terrified because I could have been in the clutches of root. Maybe I was being kidnapped and sold by traitorous shinobi.

Some people would have been relieved to see that symbol but not me. I'm a pessimist at heart. I always believed in the worst things of people. That's why a small panic settled into me. That's also why I slammed the flask into the back of this man's knee. That's why I also headed straight into the ground with alarming speed. Not to worry though, my neck would break the fall for me.

Orochimaru was highly agitated. It had been three days since he had left Suna in haste. He had been forced to send back a message to Konoha detailing his mission failure and escape. In this time, Hiroaki hadn't woken up. He had been unconscious for most of the journey.

Most of the journey. When hiroaki had awoken it wasn't for that long. They were in the last leg of the journey back to Konoha when he suddenly felt a small tug backwards. He didn't really pay it any attention thinking that,Hiro was moving in his sleep again. Orochimaru just planted his feet with a tad bit more chakra and launched himself off again. What really took him by surprise was when he went to land again, there a sharp pain in his knee.

Without thinking, Orochimaru had dropped hiroaki to grab his knee. Then he heard the scream coming from the falling boy. Then loud crashing sound the boy made when he hit a branch on the way down. Thankfully the ANBU guards had gone down to grab the boy. The bad thing was that they grabbed him a split second too late.

The boy hit another branch and was knocked out cold again. They had stopped moving forward and Orochimaru simply sighed. "Tell no one of this." He firmly told the two guards. They both nodded and began to leap up to the higher branches with Hiro in tow.

As they picked up their journey, they began to pick up their high speed. Just in case they were being followed by suna pursuers. Not long after he arrived back in Konoha. With the sun rising and peaking out of the east, they didn't stop at the gate, they continued their pace toward the Hokage Tower. Not bothering to check in with the Gate Guards.

After a long day of tree-hopping they finally made it into the office, bursting through the Hokage's window. The hokage stood up and yelled, "What's the meaning of this?!" Then he recognized who it was and he sighed back into the chair. "I'm not sure how you managed on fucking this up so badly Orochimaru. Where you forced to engage any of their shinobi?"

Huffing and puffing Orochimaru spat out. "No, as far as I can tell we lost them before we entered Hi no Kuni."

Hiruzen couldn't stand to look at his prized pupil. He kept his stare on the other three in the room and finally gave a small nod. "Saru and Tori, you are dismissed."

The two anbu disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Why is he unconscious, Orochimaru?" Hiruzen asked.

"He had an accident, sensei. He should wake up soon."

Hiruzen sighed. "You only have one day to rest before you will be sent to back up Minato-kun. You will go and provide the now missing support we would have gotten from Suna."

"Yes sensei. May I ask what you plan on doing about the Kazekage's demands?"

"He has already sent a messenger hawk detailing the immediate release and transfer of his son. He threatens to backtrack out of our alliance."

Orochimaru looked at his old sensei's face and could instantly tell that he was considering giving up the boy. "You can't actually be considering giving him up are you?" Orochimaru exclaimed with shock on his face.

"You've left me no other option! We are on the brink of finally ending the kami-damn war and here you go causing international incidents! You could have jeopardized everything we have all worked so hard for. As we speak thousands of my shinobi could be walking into their destruction because you couldn't properly handle the situation that came up! Get out of my sight!" Hiruzen practically screamed. Killing Intent forcing it's way out of the old man.

With betrayal and disgust on his face, Orochimaru turned and headed for the door still carrying Hiroaki.

"Leave the boy."

Orochimaru stopped in his tracks and clutched his fist in anger. He turned and set the boy on the couch. He took one last look at the sleeping boy and left.

Later that Day

Hiroaki was feeling groggy and uncomfortable. Whatever it was that he was laying on was NOT comfy whatsoever. Even if it wasn't to his liking he still stayed there. "Hm. Maybe Orochimaru-sensei will teach me something new today. At least it doesn't feel anywhere near as hot as it usually does here." That's when he started to remember what had happened. His heart pounded in his chest and he tried to listen.

Focusing intently he heard someone grumbling something about paperwork. He clutched the sides of his shirt. He knew he had to act. Without another thought, Hiro sprung into action. He jumped out of the couch and grabbed the closest thing next to him and threw it to where he had briefly heard the man.

As he was twisting his body and releasing the object in his hand he saw who it was. He was staring at the Sandaime Hokage. Hiro glanced back at his hand but it was far too late to stop the pillow he had just released at his full force. His eye's widened and knew he would probably struck down by the Sandaime's ANBU guard any second now. Hiro closed his and waited.

The pillow flew from his hands at full force and skyrocketed across the room in a white blur. Flipping through the air it traveled closer and closer to the unsuspecting man. Hiruzen finally looked up from the paper he had been stamping and WHAM.The sandaime flew from his chair and desk, landing awkwardly on his back.

Hiro had heard the loud noise that the pillow had created and he didn't dare open his eye's. After what seemed like an eternity Hiroaki thought he heard snickering from within the walls. Hiro fearfully opened his eye's and saw the Sandaime's body on the floor. He walked forward cautiously with small, small steps.

He finally reached the desk and decided to peek behind it. That's where he saw the crumpled body of his leader. Fearing the worst, Hiro carefully kneeled down next to the poor man and whispered his name. "Pst. Ho-ho-kage-sa-sama...Are you o-oka-y?" He saw that the Sandaime hadn't moved from the floor. Then he noticed a puddle of liquid coming from behind the Hokage's head. "Oh Kami, I Killed Him!"

A/N: I lied. I know I said that I would finish this arc up within the chapter, but I felt that I had took too much time to update. So I decided to split this chapter in two. I will be releasing the next chapter MUCH faster than I did with this one. Sorry it took me almost a month to finally update the story but I had my reasons. I got stuck on what direction I wanted to take the story and what I wanted to do with this character. Finally, deciding on all of the plot for the distant future, I began to write. Along with this chapter I have written out a few scene's. Hopefully this chapter wasn't to boring or my fight scene wasn't too awful. Until next time!

Please leave your thoughts or questions! Any review is greatly appreciated.