Naruto and Pokemon: Power of Partnership

by Mhyrloc

Upon graduation, new ninja are presented with a Pokemon. Chosen by Arceus itself, the pokemon support their partners, just as the ninja protect their pokemon. This is the story of a boy as he struggles for acceptance, and the Pokemon who guides his way.

11. Fear filled forest? Forging forward!

I apologize for the very late update, and would rather not go into detail aside from two points: 1: Work has been pissing me off too much to focus on writing easily for the past few weeks, and 2: My entire outline got scrapped for this chapter, since it refused to stick to my plan.

Also... I had to cut the forest in half... Sorry, hehe. I seem to end up doing that a lot.

---

Team Seven arrived at training ground forty-four long before dawn, but still weren't the first to arrive.

Just over a dozen genin were there waiting for the test to begin. Observing the competition and the primal forest that was apparently going to be the setting.

It was one of the rare occasions that Naruto wished he were a bit more like Sasuke. The forest at night was a dozen times more disturbing than any other place he'd ever seen, but the Teme was stone-faced despite that fact.

Roars and whistles, crashes and creaks abounded, not one of which sounded normal in the pre-dawn darkness.

Even more disturbing, that creepy redhead from Suna, Gaara, stood bare feet away from the fence, staring into the forest fascinated by the sounds within.

In fact, the only time he'd seen the boy look away, the foreigner had been staring at him with a look of desire and bloodlust that couldn't be healthy.

Naruto couldn't help but wonder which of them carried the greater health risk though...

Gaara for being so unbalanced?

Or himself for attracting the apparent psychopath's attention?

It certainly wasn't reassuring when Gaara's teammates arrived and seemed more afraid of him than the forest.

People arrived every few minutes in the last hour before the test, with the last few showing up after the chunin assistants, who had appeared via shunshin exactly on time.

Those who were late looked worried, until it became obvious that the assistants weren't interested in their tardiness.

Maybe because the training grounds were a bit difficult to navigate without an experienced guide.

But more likely because the crazy proctor lady was late too.

Anko finally showed up nearly half an hour late, in a manner as spectacular as it was terrifying.

Her arrival was preceded by roaring laughter, shouted taunts, and the crashing of foliage, not from the path towards the village, but from within the training ground itself.

She leapt from the treeline a good fifty feet away, smiling like Naruto at a ramen festival and being chased by three of the biggest tigers anyone present had ever seen.

The smallest of them would have easily outweighed any five genin, even assuming one was Chouji.

Seviper, still wrapped easily around it's partner's waist and facing back as she ran playfully from her pursuers, hissed quietly, and Anko dropped into a roll, throwing herself backwards underneath one of the tigers, who'd thought to pounce her.

Twisting fluidly, despite it's perch's rolling, Seviper called it's name and spat a blob of brown sludge at the airborne beast, which exploded into a sickening miasma upon impact. (Sludge Bomb)

The tiger crashed down writhing, his skin tinging purple from the poisonous detonation.

Anko rolled to her feet and leapt into the air, right before the second tiger, coming in low behind it's packmate, could bowl her over.

Instead, it got hit by the exploding tag Anko had left for it as she rolled, and it was out of the fight as well.

The third, oldest, largest, and most experienced of the three, leapt after Anko on an intercept course, fangs as large as swords poised to rip the life from her.

A mere gesture from Anko was enough to end that intention, as numerous snakes sprang from her sleeves and latched onto the beast's face.

It managed to rip one apart, and bite onto another, before Anko used them to reel herself down and plant her sandaled feet firmly upon it's sensitive nose, then with a chakra enhanced leap, spring away, recalling her serpents and sending the tiger crashing face first into the earth.

Using the airborne cat as a springboard, Anko easily cleared the high fence, spinning into a pattern of twirls and flips an Olympic diver would be proud of, before landing with a flourishing bow in front of the shocked genin.

"Only three today?" One of the assistants asked drily.

"Yeah, just a bit of a warmup," Anko replied. "Don't wanna tire out the natives before the kiddies get to play."

"You cannot be saying you're sending us in there?" Ino asked incredulously.

"Well of course I am," Anko replied. "I did tell you we were getting serious, didn't I?"

"You're sending us into a place with giant tigers... as a test?"A genin from Waterfall asked, just to clarify how insane the woman must be.

"And giant bugs, giant snakes, giant fish... Oh and one really, really big bear. I call him Kumagari!" Anko replied cheerfully.

"You named the bear... What is it, your pet?" A sound ninja asked derisively.

"No, but when I finish learning taxidermy, I'll have the coolest house in Konoha!" Anko answered excitedly.

"That... has to be the biggest bear ever..." Naruto remarked, imagining the size of a bear big enough to turn into a house. Ralts nodded nervously, sharing the mental image Naruto had comparing the giant bear to his own apartment building.

"I know, right!" Anko agreed. "It actually eats the tigers sometimes!"

Most of the genin looked at her like she was nuts, but some looked interested in the challenge, and others looked... otherwise.

"Sounds... Mmm... Exciting..." commented a kunoichi from Grass, licking her lips disturbingly.

"Sounds suicidal," Kabuto countered worriedly.

"Well, we do call it the 'Forest of Death' for a reason," Anko replied sinisterly. "And for the next five days, it's gonna be your new home."

"Five days?" "In there!" "Are you nuts?" Objected a number of contestants.

"What are we gonna do for food!" Chouji demanded, his roar of fear easily beating down the more numerous, if less specific, complaints.

"It's a forest, there's plenty to eat," Anko replied easily. "Just think of it as a culinary adventure, you might discover the next big dish."

"More likely, he'll become the next big dish," Zaku countered meanly. "Just hope some poor snake doesn't choke on all that fat."

"What did you say!" Chouji yelled, turning a berserker glare on the sound ninja.

"I said you're so fat you'll give whatever eats your oversized ass heart disease!" Zaku fired back. "You got a problem with that?"

"Chouji, back off, we'll get 'em later. It'd be way too troublesome to get disqualified right now... especially since this is a combat test, right Miss Proctor?" Shikamaru said, reigning in his friend easily.

"Good guess kid," Anko confirmed. "And it looks like it's gonna be an exciting one, so settle down while I explain the rules, then we can get you going at each other's throats ASAP."

"Rules are simple: Each team will start with one of these scrolls," she said, holding up a black scroll and a white scroll.

"Your goal is to arrive, with your full team, at the tower in the center of the training ground within the five day test duration with both scrolls in hand. There are twenty-three teams present, so a maximum of eleven teams will pass this test."

"Any team that loses their scroll can attempt to get two new ones and still pass, but I don't need to explain the disadvantage you'll be at in that situation."

"Alternatively, any team that loses a member, or has a member incapacitated beyond their ability to continue, cannot proceed, so it's in your best interest to bring your living-impaired teammate to any of the gates and accept disqualification."

"For any of you who are both vicious and cowardly, this will be your only chance to quit from here on."

"Now, for the good news: If you manage to bring both scrolls to the tower, you will be able to stay there, safe, warm, and well fed, until the test is over. While in the tower, fighting is a serious no-go, so get all your revenge stuff done before then, okay?" Anko finished with a wide grin.

"Any questions before we get down to business?" Anko asked after letting her instructions sink in.

"What's in the scrolls?" One of the contestants asked.

"Bad things, including disqualification, if you open them before entering the tower," Anko replied. "I strongly suggest not reading any secure scroll you're ever supposed to carry. It is part of the business afterall."

"What if it gets wet and the adhesive gets unsticky, and then it blows open and you accidentally read it?" Naruto asked.

Anko blinked at him a couple times and replied, ticking points off on her fingers.

"Bad things, disqualification, and... I dedicate an entire day to visit you at the hospital and laugh at you. Seriously, don't open the scrolls anywhere outside the tower."

"Now, if there are no more stupid questions, my minions will hand out some forms for you to fill out. Return them completed, as a team, and you will be handed one of the scrolls."

"There will be eleven of each, with one extra decided by me. Scrolls will be assigned randomly, so good luck guessing which team has which."

"After that, you'll pick one of the forty-four gates surrounding the Forest of Death, which another minion will escort you to, and prepare for the test."

Her chunin assistants, looking less than happy at their new titles, began handing out the waivers, while Anko perched on top of the shack smiling like the cat who ate the canary.

It did amuse her that the entire group were reading through the waiver, though she shot down the predictable complaints that it's only purpose was to protect her own ass.

She was pretty sure she scandalized a few with her claim that an ass as sexy as hers deserved protecting.

---

At Naruto's insistence, Team Seven was one of the first teams to receive their heaven scroll and be escorted to their gate, though not before Chouji and Shikamaru sought out Kabuto and grilled him for what little he knew about the forest.

Upon arrival at gate twelve, which Sasuke insisted on choosing, probably in response to Naruto's unusually persistent demands for haste, Naruto turned to the escort with a question.

"There any restrictions on what we can do to prepare?" he asked, leaning against the chain-link fence casually.

"Contestants are forbidden to enter before the exam begins," replied the chunin. "Beyond that, anything goes."

"Good," Naruto replied, forming a cross with his fingers. "Kage Bushin no Jutsu!"

As usual, the clones appeared from thin air around him, and thanks to his position against the fence, half were inside.

He dispelled the ones outside, and looked over the thirty or so within.

"I want you to head straight for the tower," he ordered. "Every kilometer in, I want a few of you to split off and look around. I want info on anything important: Food, water, shelter, good trap locations, and anything dangerous."

"First group to separate, dispel in half an hour, next group half an hour later and so on for each group except the last. I don't want you to dispel until you reach the tower, now get goin', time's wastin'!"

The group of clones saluted their creator and leapt away.

"...Is that... legal?" Sakura asked in surprise. Naruto had explained the memory transfer aspect of the shadowclone jutsu to the team, much to Sasuke's envy.

The chunin thought for a bit, then smacked Naruto in the back of the head.

The boy stumbled forward with a yelp, then recovered and glared at the chunin, which Ralts mirrored and even his teammate's pokemon growled aggressively.

The chunin shrugged and replied carelessly. "Real one's still here, shadowclone's can't get promoted. Nothing in the rules against it."

"And I bet the Hyuugas are taking a look around too..." Sasuke reasoned.

While in perfect circumstances, the clones would have dispelled at their assigned times, in reality they vanished individually at a staggered timeframe, as they fell prey to the beasts of the forest.

But Naruto being Naruto, derived a fair amount of amusement from the surprise he imagined on the animal's faces when their food vanished unexpectedly.

---

As soon as the door was opened, Naruto and his team took off into the forest, following the clones' path to where one had been dispelled after finding a serviceable, if occupied, shelter.

They found the place easily, and evicted the former occupant, a pit spider the size of a Venusaur, by simple expedient of a pair of fire attacks fanned to an inferno by a two-handed gale palm, directed straight down it's den.

After inspection by a clone, the team settled in to strategize, while the clone took up a sentry position near the entrance, henged into a copy of the deceased arachnid.

Naruto had learned that there were limits to his own ability to henge, which he'd begun experimenting with once he'd learned to make his claws strong enough to support his weight and sharp enough to bite into wood easily... by far the most unusual tree climbing he'd done so far.

He could mimic any person he could think of, or invent a look on the spot, but he couldn't turn into a smaller version of another species.

He'd attempted to henge into Ralts, and had become a four foot tall version of her. Similar things had happened when he tried to imitate Charmander, Charmeleon, and Eevee too.

His clones, on the other hand, suffered no such limitation. They could shrink down to Rattata size if needed without issue.

When he'd brought it up to Kakashi-sensei, the teacher suggested it might be an instinctual block, to prevent him from turning into something too different and 'breaking' his internal systems.

Such an event might be of particular risk when trying to turn into pokemon who were so different biologically, as evidenced by Aron's eating habits or Charmander's ability to breath flame.

The clones, however, had only one vital component: Their skin, and could alter it easily without risking permanent injury.

Not that they didn't suffer their own disadvantages. Naruto had no idea how to move with so many more legs, and neither did his sentry clone.

Thankfully, it was sufficient deterrent to most things just being a giant arachnophobia inducing monster.

They remained in their den, sharing the information gathered by Naruto's clones, until the first one to reach the tower dispelled, giving Naruto a panoramic view of the forest from the tower's peak.

While they waited, Naruto sent off another dozen clones, henged into versions of teams from outside Konoha to find and lure opponents to them, if the clones felt the real team could handle the targets with relative ease.

Unfortunately, that plan didn't work out as well as hoped, since all the teams found either suspected a trap, or were skilled enough to destroy the fragile clones during the chase.

They waited for most of three hours, since the clone they were waiting on had become more and more cautious as his backups had dispelled, despite their initial progress all but eliminating the threat from other ninja.

But by that time, Team Seven had a better mental map of the forest than even Neji Hyuuga could claim, especially after a telepathic conference following the last clones' dispersal.

As a result, they left their temporary hide with a plan that should have been the next best thing to perfect.

But unfortunately, they were to learn a lesson all leaders had to eventually: No plan survives contact with the enemy.

Especially when that enemy is an S-ranked criminal with an eye for eyes.

---

"Hokage-sama!" One of Anko's chunin assistants called, appearing in his leader's office via shunshin.

The aged leader looked up from the village map he's been staring at with a frown and gestured for the man to speak.

"We have discovered evidence of infiltration into the genin exams," he explained. "Three corpses were found this morning matching a team of genin who are currently within the Forest of Death. Preliminary examination places the time of death at some point last night."

"When this disparity was brought to the proctor's attention, Anko Mitarashi demanded to see the corpses, the faces of which were disfigured in a manner she identified as similar to a technique used by her former sensei. As such, she is confident that the perpetrator either is, or is affiliated with, Orochimaru."

"Could this be related to our other mystery?" The masked form of the current Anbu Captain asked from where he stood, overlooking the map with his commander-in-chief.

"It is possible..." Sarutobi admitted, tapping his desk idly as he thought. "Orochimaru and his snake summons are recognizable enough that someone would have identified him after this many repetitions."

Starting eleven days before the first exam, strange chakra had been sensed by the patrolling Anbu, once or twice each night.

The pulses were quickly identified as summoning jutsu, but no matter how swiftly the Anbu arrived, no trace could be found of either the ninja responsible or the beast brought forth.

Even the sharp-eyed Hyuuga hadn't been able to catch the perpetrator.

"It would still be prudent to check though.." Sarutobi muttered. "Take half the available Hyuuga Anbu and assign them to watching the exam for Orochimaru or whomever the infiltrator may turn out to be. I want the rest to search the village for any evidence of his presence, including snakes with overly large chakra signatures."

"Yes, Hokage-sama," The Anbu captain said, straightening into a salute and vanishing the instant his fist struck his chest.

The Hokage didn't truly believe the strange summonings were the snake Sannin's doing, it was too far from his standard practice.

None of the seventeen sites were places where his serpents would be able to cause notable harm or gather significant intelligence within a standard summon duration.

Orochimaru was considered a genius, and with good reason, but his actions were often more direct than one would expect from a ninja of his caliber. Giant snakes were more his style, despite the value a small, highly venomous alternative might offer.

Of course, that the massively powerful, and almost unbelievably proud, serpents would obey him was testament to his strength in it's own way.

Personally, Sarutobi believed the strange summons to be a genin or jounin-sensei attempting to gather information on the competition or village as a whole, both common acts during the exams, and a more subtle part of the game itself, but it never hurt to prepare for the less pleasant alternatives.

Additionally, the locations of the summonings were all off, if it was simply espionage related. Many were scattered among the residential districts for some reason.

But if it were Orochimaru, and he was within Konoha... what might he be after?

"Where is Anko now?" he asked, turning his attention back to the chunin.

"She entered the Forest of death, sir," answered the man. "Presumably to locate and identify the intruder."

"And attempt to kill them if they truly are Orochimaru's pawns," Sarutobi finished. "Tiger-san, Neko-san, I want a squad to enter the testing grounds to find her. Select your members in preparation for the worst, and take as many as you need. I would rather we kill a lesser threat outright than permit our ninja to be slain if it is Orochimaru. Primary mission is to be securing the safety of any contestants at risk from the intruders, followed by locating Anko and supporting her if she hasn't found the targets yet."

"Yes, Hokage-sama," two of the Hokage's guards said before flickering away themselves.

"What would you have of me?" the chunin asked cautiously. The last person on the planet he wanted to confront in a place like training ground forty-four was Orochimaru, though Anko was a fairly close second.

"Return to your duties," Sarutobi ordered, ignoring the man's obvious relief. "Whether this is Orochimaru or not, we must maintain the integrity of the exam itself."

"Right. Should I notify the secondary lead proctor?" The chunin asked.

"That would be wise," the Hokage agreed. "Arceus willing, it will be an unnecessary measure, but it would be best to be ready for the worst."

"Of course, Hokage-sama," the chunin agreed, before leaving himself.

Once more alone, save for his nearly invisible sentries, Sarutobi frowned and looked to the map once more. Jiraiya's last communique had warned him that there were hints of things to come. Unpleasantness centered around the exam itself, and that he had taken some unknown steps to counter the rumored threat.

But studying one mystery while the danger of Orochimaru's presumed presence thrummed through him, Sarutobi couldn't help but imagine himself as part of a shougi game in which Konoha itself would become the game board.

Pulling out one of the scrolls for official orders, he penned up a list of commands. Increasing patrols, ordering inspections of all defensive structures within the village, as well as commanding all ninja of chunin rank and above to remain combat ready at all times, among others.

If Konoha was to become a playing field, he intended to teach anyone foolish enough to make it one, the meaning of the term 'Home field advantage'.

---

Team Seven ran through the treetops in search of a team they could relieve of an earth scroll.

Once again they were following Naruto's lead, as he trailed after a number of clones he'd sent out in groups henged into squirrels, which he'd noticed to be rather common, despite the number of predators in the forest.

He guessed that the normal sized rodents just weren't worth hunting to the huge predators in this freaky place.

Also of note was the general lack of pokemon within the training ground, with obvious reasons.

Aside from a number of inedible species like Geodudes and a large mound inhabited by a Durant colony, he hadn't seen any he could identify.

Currently, Naruto was leading them towards a pair of Grass ninja who seemed to be moving around without their third member.

He was aware that their apparent vulnerability might be a trap, but even after a thorough search, the clones couldn't find any other ninja nearby, and one dispelled itself to notify their creator of the opportunity.

The clones had also notified him of a number of other nearby teams, including Shikamaru's, and the team with Bushy brows and that Teme-among-Temes, but since he'd rather fight a foreign team than one of his own comrades, he'd kept quiet about their presences.

Besides, six against four was much better odds than an even matchup, even with the Grass ninja's pokemon being unknown.

But as skilled at hiding and locating hidden people as Naruto and Ralts were, a ninja of Orochimaru's caliber was still better.

As such, Ralts was still puzzling through the odd sensations within a tree near their path, which they would have actually traveled upon, had Naruto not subconsciously avoided it, thanks to Ralts' confusion, when the snake sannin's attack came.

When Orochimaru melted out of the tree, his emotional presence clarified into a sharp hunger bordering on bloodlust, proving that the topiary giant wasn't one of the predatory plants that destroyed a number of clones.

Even before he'd fully left hiding, Orochimaru drew in a sharp breath and released it in a wall of wind that sent the genin team flying.

---

Eevee, who had been bounding from tree to tree beside Sakura, froze a moment before the attack, as Orochimaru's presence solidified in Ralts' strange senses.

The shivering pokemon drew the attention of her partner and team, and so, only Ralts was aware of the sannin until the attack was released.

The roar of wind and snapping of branches thicker than an average ninja's arm, was the first warning Team Seven had, and Sakura grabbed Eevee in a lunge, holding the terrified pokemon to herself in an attempt to protect it.

When the wall of wind hit, Sakura tried to catch herself on a nearby branch, but it shattered beneath her in the tempest, and she ended up impacting hard on the trunk of a tree instead.

Thankfully, she was able to grab onto it with chakra, saving them from a potentially bone-breaking fall, and providing them with some cover when she managed to circle around the thick trunk.

Sasuke and Charmeleon fared better. With none of their limbs occupied, it was a fairly simple matter to grab onto the tree they would have otherwise slammed into, and swiftly spring away to cover Sakura as she assessed her injury.

It didn't escape the Uchiha's notice that their third teammate was nowhere in sight.

---

Naruto had caught himself both more easily, and more quickly than Sasuke, having gotten used to having to attach himself to the ground to avoid being launched backwards by his own Gale Palm experiments, and he'd done so on instinct the second he'd identified the threat.

But never having been the target of one of his own attacks, he neglected to consider it's effect on his belongings, or his pokemon, and without a way to hold on, Ralts was blown clear out of her carrier.

Naruto's decision to help her was less a decision than an imperative, and he leapt in pursuit, catching her out of the air easily, but surrendering himself to the clashing current.

Between his chakra powered jump and the blasting wind, Naruto and Ralts tumbled through the air for nearly a quarter of a kilometer before they managed to hit solid ground.

He had barely skid to a stop before launching himself back the way he'd come.

There was no way something like that was natural, even in this freaky place, and that meant it had to be an attack.

Which meant they were in trouble, and he had to get back and help his team!

"Look out!" The pint-sized pokemon nearly screamed in his mind.

Ralts' warning came just as he leapt away, and had he not already been in motion, the giant snake's whip-fast strike would have caught him anyway.

As it was, the snake reoriented on him with nearly impossible speed, and struck once again.

Without time to properly visualize a destination, at least one within the forest as opposed to the places she knew by heart, Ralts looked to a tree far enough away that it should put them beyond the interest of the simple, if oversized, beast.

The pair vanished in a flash of blue, as Ralts yanked them through space an instant before they were treated to a fate Naruto preferred to reserve for ramen.

"Thanks, Ralts-chan," Naruto whispered to the pokemon in his arms, once he realized they weren't being eaten horribly.

The pair watched as the giant predator flicked it's tongue inquisitively, testing the air for it's escaped prey.

Ralts was silent as she focused on the animal, confused by the unexpectedly complex emotional presence it possessed.

It wasn't hungry, or angry, or any of the other primitive feelings that non-sentient beasts were limited to.

Instead it exuded a sense of purpose and determination, spiked through with a severe fear of failure.

The snake closed it's eyes, an act which struck Naruto as unusual, (didn't snakes not have eyelids?) and slowly , scales rasping as it moved, rotated it's head in a circle, angling it up and down like some sort of metal detector, searching for him, despite it's apparent blindness.

Before the prudent and obvious option of 'get the hell out of there' occurred to Naruto, the snake's eyes shot open, and Naruto would later swear that he actually felt them lock onto him.

Instantly, the snake sprang into motion, throwing itself after Naruto, who himself took off with a cry of fear and panic.

The snake moved like a river of quicksilver across the ground and through the trees after him, and more than once only a timely teleportation from Ralts kept them from being cornered or eaten.

---

"Where's Naruto?" Sakura asked when Sasuke joined her behind the massive trunk she'd claimed for cover.

Sasuke shrugged silently, as he and Charmeleon searched through the forest warily.

Hoping she had suffered nothing more serious than bruises, she ran through the healing jutsu Kakashi had taught her, hissing in pain as the technique forced days worth on healing into a few brief seconds.

During the heavy training, she had learned the hazards of overworked and bruised muscles, and on a whim had tested the jutsu, learning that it helped.

Didn't do a thing to heal skin or bones, but it was worth the drain if a fight was coming up, especially if their attacker would expect her to be down for the count.

Exhaustion swept over her as the tight muscles loosened, but she ignored the less pressing concern in favor of peering through the trees for Naruto or their unknown attacker.

"Where is he?" She whispered again, wishing it wouldn't be veritable suicide to yell for him, but Naruto, or more accurately Ralts, was the one most capable of finding their attackers before it was too late.

"Right here, Sakura," called Naruto quietly, and she looked to see him crawling up the trunk of the tree towards the rest of the group.

Unnoticed between Sakura and the tree, Eevee whimpered and pressed herself against the bark as Naruto joined the team.

"Where are they?" Sasuke asked, as the blond arrived, his eyes ever scanning the forest.

Charmeleon probed the woods as well, his nostrils flaring as he searched with his superior senses, he knew someone was close, but the scent was somehow... off.

"They?" Naruto repeated in confusion before Sasuke's meaning clicked. "Oh, right. I'll find 'em, just leave it to me!" He said with typical exuberance, closing his eyes and screwing his face into a look of concentration, as Ralts mimed him from within her carrier.

"Well?" Sakura prompted after the wait seemed to stretch on too long.

"I'm tryin', alright?" Naruto replied snappishly. "He's close, I can feel it, but he's so strong I can't pin him down easily..."

"He? You mean only one person did that?" Sasuke asked, eyeing Naruto closely, since when did it matter to Ralts how strong someone was?

"Yeah," Naruto replied. "An' he's so strong... I've never felt this much chakra. Not even from the Hokage!"

'Or felt any chakra but his own,' Sasuke thought. Naruto wasn't a sensor type, but best to be sure.

"What does Ralts think?" Sasuke asked, voice bland to hide his interest and suspicion.

"Ralts thinks he's strong too," Naruto replied absently, before throwing himself away from Sasuke's stabbing attack and Charmeleon's pursuing fireball.

"What the hell was that for!" Naruto shouted before clapping his hands over his mouth in worry.

"You might as well drop the act, impostor," Sasuke sneered. "You might look and sound like the Dobe, but you sure as hell don't act like him."

"Naruto never says Ralts' name without adding 'chan' to it," Sakura added smugly. She hadn't been as fast as Sasuke in putting together the pieces, but the instant he attacked, she figured it out.

"Come to think of it, I've never heard him say 'Sakura' without adding the 'chan' either," Sasuke commented, hoping a little idle banter might incite a useful anger in their opponent.

"I was hoping he'd finally given up," Sakura replied sourly. "But no, it just had to be something more realistic," she sighed.

'Naruto' vanished in a cloud of smoke, replaced by the creepy genin who's been excited to hear about the Forest of Death.

"I suppose next time I should be more observant of what trash I throw away," the kunoichi mused. "But unfortunately, only one of you actually interests me..." she said, leering at Sasuke and licking her lips grotesquely.

"Why am I not surprised?" Sasuke muttered, covering his face with his palm. "Look, if you're here to start chasing me around like the rest of the crazy girls in my life, come back after I avenge my clan, okay? I'm really not looking to move onto the 'restoration' part until then."

The kunoichi actually looked taken aback at that comment.

"I... think you have my intentions confused," she said. "I have no intention of bearing your children..." 'Though breeding Uchiha hosts for the future is an idea with some merit,' she added silently.

"You're not?" Sasuke and Sakura asked in simultaneous surprise, followed by an equally synchronized "Thank Arceus," though for different reasons.

Sasuke really didn't want such a creepy fangirl, especially with how many he already had. He got harassed enough by the civilians and his few remaining ninja stalkers without gaining foreign ones too.

Sakura really didn't want anymore competition, especially from someone with a tongue like that... Who knows what creepy things she could do with it, but Sasuke-kun wasn't a fetish freak who'd be into that sort of thing... right?

"Aren't you worried that I have come for your scroll?" Orochimaru asked, wanting to get the conversation back to where he expected it should be. Kabuto had told him that the Uchiha was serious to the point of dourness.

"Not really, you already told us you were here alone," Sasuke replied dismissively. He was a bit surprised how fun it could be to intentionally annoy people, shame he didn't know as much about this Grass ninja as he did that Hyuuga bastard.

" 'He's close, so close, and stronger than the Hokage!' " Sakura said, paraphrasing the disguised kunoichi's words from earlier in an overly dramatic voice.

"Oh, Sasuke-kun, save me! She's trying to scare me before the big reveal!" She replied to herself, switching to a 'damsel in distress' voice and pretending to swoon.

"We've seen that horror movie before," Sasuke added snidely. "Here's a spoiler: the villain isn't scary, and she doesn't win."

"Well, perhaps this will be more to your liking," the Grass ninja replied crossly, focusing her ever-present desire to kill on the pair. "I came here alone, because I know you cannot hope to defeat me."

"I will take your heaven scroll from you, and I will leave this forest two sharingan eyes richer."

"I care nothing for the pink-haired trash, or your pathetic third member, who I've already dealt with. Only you, Sasuke Uchiha, interest me. If you truly wish to avenge your fallen clan, to even live long enough to return to that worthless village you call home, then you must survive this meeting... If you can."

Sasuke tried to reach for the Uchiha supremacy his father had preached so often before his death, tried to discount the kunoichi's threats as empty promises born of bravado, tried to even look away from her dead-eyed stare, but found himself frozen in fear.

In the soulless gaze of his opponent, Sasuke saw only promises delivered with the surety of prophecy, and with less passion than if an academy student was merely reading them from a history book.

This kunoichi was nothing like Haku. The idea of killing them wasn't just business to her, it was personal, it was like the act of dealing death was her hobby, her fetish, and he was as good a target as anyone.

Better, if she could do it without destroying his eyes.

Unbidden, images of his own death came to mind, along with the memories of his clan's oblivion that had haunted his nightmares, but every corpse wore his face.

A hundred broken bodies. A thousand bloody pieces, an unmeasurable amount of pain, all guaranteed by the emptiness in that woman's eyes.

But unlike on the bridge, there would be no miraculous awakening to save him, no bloodline to rescue him from this fate, for in his fear, he had already activated the eyes of his heritage, and all it did was burn the woman's visage into his mind eternally.

He heard a whimper and thump as Sakura's legs gave out, and worry gave him the strength to finally glance away.

Sakura knelt, muscles slack and a look of surrender on her face. If he hadn't seen her flinch when the Grass ninja looked her way, Sasuke would have sworn she'd fainted.

As it was, only Eevee kept her from falling out of the tree entirely, for despite it's fear, the pokemon had grabbed her partner's dress in her teeth and dug in fiercely, vainly trying to protect her partner.

Stealing a glance at Charmeleon, he could see that his pokemon was as tense as a coiled spring, the fear and excitement warring within him apparent in the wildly fluctuating tail-flame and twitching claws.

Sasuke could tell he was interested in fighting this monster, despite the danger, and knew it would be a bad idea to allow him to attack.

Plus, Naruto and Ralts were still missing, and the kunoichi had claimed responsibility for that too.

Trying to delay her probably wouldn't help anymore, and Sasuke wracked his brain for answers, hating the thought that either of his teammates would have come up with something tactical or random enough to create an opening.

"I must admit, I expected you to be more... impressive, Sasuke Uchiha," the woman said in her slithering voice, as she drew a set of kunai. "Oh well, it works out better this way I suppose. There will be less risk of damaging my precious eyes if I can kill you quickly... Try not to struggle too much."

She tossed the blades with deceptive laziness, and Sasuke knew he had run out of time to think.

Knowing he had bare seconds until the kunai struck, fatally if his sharingan's predictive ability was correct, Sasuke overruled his indecision and blurred into motion.

He spun a kick into Charmeleon's side, and the unexpected attack kicked the pokemon from his perch easily.

Sasuke pushed off the pokemon, both to minimize the harm it would take and to give himself a speed boost as he grabbed Sakura and Eevee and leapt from the branch on the opposite side from Charmeleon.

He bounced off a nearby branch and rocketed over to land near Charmeleon who had caught onto another in the twisted treetops and joined the retreat, though not without making his displeasure known by shortening Sasuke's spiky hair with a blast of flame.

---

Back in the tree, Orochimaru smiled viciously as he saw the four kunai buried deep in the wood where the team would have been standing a few scant seconds before.

It would seem the Uchiha was more interesting than initial assessment suggested, it just took a bit of motivation to get him started.

That he retreated rather than attack, and spent the effort to save his worthless teammate was a minor nuisance. It certainly wouldn't do for the boy to follow that ridiculous 'Will of Fire' nonsense Sarutobi-sensei had always preached, but it could easily be that he would be disqualified without her...

And the retreat? Well maybe he had overdone it a bit, but really, he so rarely got to properly play with his targets. These days they tended to either run the instant they recognized him, or try to catch him in some annoying suicide attack.

Either way it was all very boring.

In hindsight, it was probably a good thing. It would be a shame to end the amusement, and his interest in the actual exams, early because of a little mistake like that, he would have to be more careful not to kill the lesser genin...

Come to think of it, he would also have to free that blond brat too...

After his fun with Sasuke of course. An hour or two in a snake's stomach wouldn't cripple the kid too much.

---

Sakura came back to herself, to find she was in a completely different tree, and Sasuke was keeping watch with a degree of vigilance not far from paranoia.

"W-where are we?" She asked. "What happened to that freaky Grass ninja?"

"She tried to kill us," Sasuke growled in frustration. "Said she wanted my eyes... I managed to get us away, but I would bet she's still looking for us, so keep it down."

"I can't believe I'm saying this... but I wish Naruto were here," Sakura whispered nervously.

"Same here," Sasuke replied with a chagrined look. "Ralts could get us far enough away that that psycho would never catch up... But she said she 'handled him', so she must have done something to keep him away, or worse."

"N-no way," Sakura objected. "Naruto wouldn't die that easy. He may be an idiot, but no genin is going to catch him, not when he spent so much time giving village patrols the run around!"

Sasuke slapped a hand over her mouth, before looking around rapidly for anything that might have been attracted by Sakura's outburst.

Thankfully, he didn't see anything, so he lowered his hand, rubbing it on the leg of his shorts.

"Look, I'm not saying he is, just that he might be," Sasuke conceded. "I'm not sure that woman even is a genin, at least in ability."

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked quietly.

"I don't know how to explain it, but I have a feeling she's a lot stronger than a genin should be," Sasuke explained. "Her eyes were like Zabuza's. Like she had killed more people than I've ever even met, and she enjoys it."

Sakura shuddered at that thought. She had seen the kunoichi's eyes, and hoped to never meet someone like that ever again.

"What are we going to do?" She asked miserably.

"Whatever it takes," Sasuke said firmly. "We need a plan. Something to let us either kill her or escape, but if we just escape, we'll need to finish the test fast, I don't want to spend longer than I have to anywhere she might be able to reach us."

"We also need to find Naruto, or the exit gates will be our only option..." Sakura reminded him.

"We'll try to find the Dobe then," Sasuke agreed, not sure how they would.

He wouldn't accept failure. Not now, not this close to becoming chunin and taking a step up the ladder of power within the village.

---

"I can't believe we're doing this," Sasuke grumbled as he followed Sakura through the treetops.

"It's the best idea I could come up with on short notice," Sakura replied. "Neither of our pokemon can get in touch with Ralts, and the best way to find out what happened to Naruto is to go find him."

"I know all that," Sasuke replied irritably. "What I don't get is why we're heading right back to where that psycho attacked us."

"The only clue we have to where Naruto is, is where Naruto was when the wind jutsu hit," she explained. "Once we get there, we should be able to track his path, or at least figure out his trajectory, and save him."

"This still seems more like something the Dobe would come up with," Sasuke grumbled.

"Which is why it'll work," Sakura replied cheerfully. "No one will expect the top kunoichi and the rookie of the year to do something as stupid as this, so with a little luck, she won't look for us there until it's too late."

Sasuke just sighed in exasperation. Her explanation made sense, and he was afraid that meant they were spending way too much time with Naruto...

Surprisingly, they made it to their destination easily, and found the 'path' Naruto took easily.

"Did he even try catching himself?" Sasuke wondered, looking through the veritable tunnel of broken branches Naruto had plowed through on his way to wherever he was.

"Maybe not, it looks like there wasn't much big enough to support him..." Sakura observed, looking out over the area.

The treetops were a veritable maze of branches, but every so often there would be dead spots like Naruto had flown through, and the remains of a toppled topiary giant on the ground below illustrated the cause, which couldn't have been more than a year or two old.

In another couple years, as long as another tree didn't fall nearby, odds were strong that it would be just as dense as the majority of the forest.

They were actually running along that fallen giant when they were attacked once more.

A massive snake ripped through the tree beneath their feet, which was hollow and rotted nearly clean through. The pair had considered traveling through it themselves, but decided that being able to see was more important than having the cover, since they were looking for Naruto and Ralts.

The massive reptile ripped upward through the wood, shattering it into massive splinters and launching all four into the air.

The beast turned to Sakura, who had been in the lead, watching for any clue to Naruto's passage, but it hesitated for some reason, giving her time to recover and fling a fistful of shuriken at it.

The snake ducked it's head beneath a loop of it's body, and the thicker scales deflected most of the damage, though one sliced into the thin strip of flesh between them.

The snake hissed angrily and swept it's tail at Sakura, who was still suspended in air.

A streak of white flashed by, slamming into Sakura and knocking her away just before it connected. (Quick Attack)

She laughed as she found her arms full of Eevee, who thrilled her name in an amusingly non-intimitating battlecry and launched herself away again in a beam of white light.

Propelled by the rebound of Eevee's leap, Sakura flipped backwards, drawing another batch of shuriken and landed lightly on the ground, dashing around and trying to anticipate the snake's movements so she could use her weapons most effectively.

Sasuke and Charmeleon started launching attacks the instant they realized the danger, peppering the beast with fire, though it did little good against the creature's tough hide.

The heat did attract the snake's attention though, since it's orders were quite specific as to which human was important.

In fact, it's summoner was quite specific as to the fate it would suffer if the pink one were to die...

Not something it wanted to risk, especially with the binding seal Orochimaru had forcibly applied, preventing them from returning to the Ryuuchi Cave until dismissed.

Accordingly, it turned it's malevolent glare on the Uchiha and his fireballing partner.

The two raced around the snake like two points of a triangle, with Sakura and her stinging knives making the third, lobbing fire and blades at it uselessly, while Eevee continued streaking around in a blur of teeth and claws.

The snake lunged at Sasuke, but the agile Uchiha dodged, sending a fistful of shuriken into the soft lining of it's mouth.

It twitched wildly, unable to pursue as the weapons discharged their cargo of electricity almost directly into the beast's brain.

But while the attack would have surely been enough to send it scampering back to it's home, with the seal trapping it, it merely fell prone as it tried to command it's muscles to obey.

Not willing to let such an opportunity pass, Charmeleon used Hone Claws, and charged the downed pokemon, three glowing, supernaturally sharp claws leading. (Rock Smash)

Rather than deflect the attack as it had so many others, the snake's scales shattered under the assault, leaving a hole in it's natural armor nearly three feet across.

The snake shrieked in pain, a sound no normal reptile would be capable of, and Charmeleon hopped back to do it again.

And again.

And again.

Charmeleon darted in and out, both sets of claws shining with the energy of his attacks, and every hole punched in the serpent's defenses was one more target for the rest of the team to hit.

Fire, steel, tooth and claw. All battered into the beast, subjecting it to more pain than any creature should suffer, let alone a sentient summoned one who would normally have an easy escape.

So great was the snake's torment that it would have gladly fled, eagerly begged for mercy, anything to end it.

But the attackers were merciless, and the serpent couldn't think through the pain well enough to remember human speech.

The genin were driven by fear and desperation, thinking correctly that this might be another of the kunoichi's attacks.

When the serpent's end came, it was a blessing compared to the eternal minutes prior.

Using Dig, Eevee had bored through the thick layer of muscle beneath a patch of broken scales. Once past the protective meat, Eevee had unfettered access to the beast's vulnerable vitals, and it didn't take long for her to put it down permanently.

Eevee emerged from another section of broken scales, gasping for air and covered in gore, after having used Quick Attack to traverse the beast, destroying half the organs within as she looked for it's massive heart.

Eevee shook herself off, and trotted over to her partner, who looked more than a little ill at how her pokemon had turned the snake's size advantage against it.

"Char! Charmeleon, char char!" The strongest of Team Seven's pokemon said, with obvious pride for his mammalian cousin.

Charmeleon's compliment, (for what else would it be?) shook Sakura out of her daze, and she knocked clear the cobwebs of her surprise.

"Yeah... Yeah! Good job Eevee, you really showed that slimy snake who's boss!" She cheered a bit uneasily. "Right Sasuke-kun?"

Sasuke cleared his throat, looking a little green at the way Eevee's normally fluffy tail scattered gore with every happy wag.

"You did well," he said lightly, trying to seem unimpressed. Afterall, she couldn't have done it without Charmeleon's assistance.

"Chaaar," his pokemon hissed, mouth open in a reptilian grin.

The crackle of breaking scales, a familiar sound by now, dragged their attention back to the snake, just in time to see the creepy kunoichi rise though the top of it's skull.

Rather than flee, the four members of Team Seven dropped into fighting stances, their spirits bolstered by the relatively easy victory against her minion.

They had been scared before, but if she'd been controlling the giant snake somehow, as seemed readily apparent, there had to be a reason.

She had found them rather easily the first time, so using the snake for it's better-than-human senses was unlikely.

From what little they knew about the reptiles, the only other qualities that might be of value were it's speed and combat prowess, and any ninja could outrun any simple animal, though some pokemon would still leave them in the dust.

But if it was so easily defeated, then even that was a waste of chakra, unless she was hoping to tire them out killing it... in which case she would be sorely disappointed.

Sasuke and Sakura were both smart enough to do the math in this circumstance, and it added up to one easy fact: The kunoichi was worried that they might fight if she found them again.

Which meant that she was worried that they could hurt her.

And they had every intention of doing just that.

---

Orochimaru was intrigued, amused, and annoyed.

He was annoyed, because despite their defeating his pet, killing it rather than simply forcing it back to it's own plane of existence, Sasuke had revealed very little of his own strength.

A couple fire techniques, some typically flawless projectile attacks, and that simple, if effective lightning jutsu he'd used with his shuriken.

His skin still tingled a bit from when it flashed over him, hidden within the serpent.

The amusement came from the fact that they now seemed to think they could stand against him.

As if defeating one little serpent gave them the confidence to think they could fight off one whom all but the greatest of the snake summons feared.

He who was capable of delivering them to true death.

But intrigue was foremost in his mind, for the genin had fought hard against the summon, but seemed barely winded, and he was certain Sasuke was still holding back the lion's share of his ability.

And to be honest, the pink-haired one and her ruthless little Eevee had proven surprisingly capable.

Nowhere near enough of a pedigree to make a body out of, even overlooking the indignity of being stuck with hair that color, but he'd recruited less promising individuals into his personal village.

Weak ninja were so deliciously grateful to whomever gave them the strength to take what they felt they deserved out of life.

Perhaps he would offer her a place as well, if Sasuke saw fit to bring her along when he inevitable sought him out in his search for power.

"Finally done running are we?" 'She' asked.

"You would just keep looking for us," Sasuke replied coldly. "So we might as well settle it here and now."

"Sasuke-kun's right," Sakura agreed. "That jutsu, or whatever it was, that let you control the snake had to be a high level technique, so we'd be fools to let you get away while you're still weak from using it."

Orochimaru blinked, and them smiled, and though it was a brittle thing that would make all manner of cute things whimper in fear, it was genuine. He was pleased they weren't as stupid as he'd thought.

He did know a few jutsu that would allow him to control subjects in such a manner, but even the most crude would push a strong genin to their limits.

The Yamanaka had their own jutsu to do the same, but theirs had been too well secured for him to steal before fleeing Konoha.

Not that he tried very hard. It was far more satisfying to manipulate his lessers into acting how he wanted... Not that he didn't enjoy using a fair amount of old fashioned threats and pain to do so.

That they were able to identify this potential weakness spoke well for them, and their ability to think through their fear. Had he actually been a genin, they would likely be correct in their theory, and he would be forced to flee for his life.

Of course, if they knew who they truly faced, they might just kill themselves in despair, rather than continue their foolish course.

"So... the little mouse had slain a worm, and now seeks to defeat the dragon, eh Sasuke-kun?" He asked, enjoying the Uchiha's slight flinch at the affectionate suffix.

"I'll show you who's a mouse!" Sakura replied angrily, signing a jutsu and slapping the ground.

A bubble of earth rose beneath her hands, distorting weirdly until with a loud pop, a chunk the size of a dinner plate burst free and rocketed toward him, driven by the force of water pressure she'd built up behind it.

Most ninja would have dodged, or countered with a jutsu of their own, but most ninja weren't Sannin.

Orochimaru lazily lifted a hand and caught the projectile, though it hit with rather respectable force.

He held the stone in place, using it to scatter the jutsu-driven stream of water as well, sighing at the weak attack and shutting his eyes against the spray.

Maybe they would do something interesting with the opening?

Once the water stopped, Orochimaru threw the now conical stone at Charmeleon, foiling the pokemon's attempted charge, though it did release a stream of fire instead of whatever it had initially planned, Orochimaru leapt away from both that, and the gore and dirt covered Eevee who erupted from the ground at his feet, jaws snapping together uselessly.

He flipped through the air in a graceful display that would have beggared Anko's earlier show of agility, and landed on an intact section of the fallen tree, opening his eyes and locking gazes with Sasuke as he bowed tauntingly.

Sasuke stood with a lungful of air and one hand poised before his mouth.

Orochimaru tried not to grin as he awaited the next display of jutsu prowess.

"Phoenix flower jutsu!" Sasuke yelled, firing a continuous line of fireballs at his foe.

Orochimaru nearly cursed aloud. He had already seen that one, and it had felt like the Uchiha was preparing something unusual, at least when he was focused on sensing the boy's chakra.

He twitched out of the way of the attacks, not even particularly large ones, he noted irritably.

Unperturbed, Sasuke kept up his attack, not even looking disappointed that none had connected, or that his foe hadn't bothered to flee more than a few feet in any direction, due to the poorly aimed projectiles.

In fact, he seemed quite pleased with himself, despite the number of fireballs that now smoldered sullenly on the fallen tree around Orochimaru.

He learned why after Sasuke fired off a rapid set of four small ones, before bringing his second hand forward, twisted into an odd claw-like shape.

"Gale Palm!" Sasuke roared, releasing the chakra he'd been diverting into the second attack since starting the Phoenix Flower jutsu.

The wind jutsu overtook the still airborne balls of flame with the speed of a freight train, fanning them into an inferno, which only intensified as it met and consumed the rest that hadn't burned out.

Orochimaru watched the wall of fire approach with something akin to wonder.

Using two jutsu of different elements simultaneously? Simply remarkable, especially at such a young age!

Yes, if he hadn't decided already, this would have clinched it. Sasuke Uchiha had far too much potential to be left in this worthless village.

So involved he was in his scheming, that Orochimaru almost forgot to dodge, only replacing himself with a mud clone at the last instant, and appearing in a nearby tree to watch the carnage.

Orochimaru licked his lips in anticipation as he saw the full scope of the destruction. A line of fire nearly twenty meters long, apparently the limit of his control over the wind jutsu.

Then Charmeleon, who had held back since the fireballs started flying, joined the attack, and Orochimaru drooled at the devastation.

The fire pokemon launched a spiraling line of fire into the center of the conflagration, and within seconds the whole burning mass had become a spinning column of fire laid out along the ground. (Fire Spin)

The combined effort continued until Sasuke was sure anything alive within the attack would have been burned to ash before he and Charmeleon ended it.

The two scanned the damage for a moment, before settling to the ground with a groan.

Orochimaru couldn't believe his luck. This boy had the potential strength to surpass, no crush, Itachi!

A ninja for less than a year and already this strong? Magnificent!

Though he would have to be cautious... permitting him to grow too strong too fast could be dangerous...

It wouldn't do for him to become to powerful to be possessed... but that was a worry for another day.

"Kukukukuku," he laughed loudly, and the ridiculous sound instantly drew the team's eyes to him. "That was most... Exhilarating, Sasuke-kun. You truly are the first among your peers..."

"H-How!" Sasuke cried, rising to his feet unsteadily. "You should be dead!" Sasuke had been confident that particular attack would be able to end anyone!

"Oh Sasuke, I'm hurt that you would think so little of me," Orochimaru replied, putting one hand to his heart in feigned pain. "And after I already told you that I'm stronger than that decrepit old man you call a Kage too."

"Y-yeah right. Why would someone that strong be stuck taking the genin exams then?" Sakura asked pointedly.

"Why?" Orochimaru repeated. "Because I'm looking for something of course... I'm searching for special ninja... Ninja who can benefit from my... unique... form of training."

As he spoke, he looked right into Sasuke's eyes, letting some of his disguise drop, and watching for a spark of interest in the boy.

He wasn't disappointed.

Look out below!" A voice shouted, breaking the moment, and the curiosity in Sasuke's eyes turned to recognition and smug satisfaction in a blink.

"Hurry up lady, we gotta get out of here!" The voice continued from the branch beside him.

Orochimaru turned to the person with a snarl, but caught only a glimpse of yellow and orange before being blinded by a flash of bright blue light, which became an odd, damp, darkness.

---

Minutes Earlier:

Sasuke saw his chance when the kunoichi shut her eyes, and he grabbed it.

With one hand, he formed Haku's bird seal, molding chakra for the jutsu he'd 'borrowed' from Naruto with the sharingan.

With the other, he'd formed the seals for the Phoenix Flame jutsu.

He'd avoided the problem of confusing the seals for that particular jutsu by only practicing it with the one handed ones.

So, while the Grand Fireball, which he'd being using since childhood, still gave him trouble, he had all but perfected the more complicated Phoenix Fire.

The idea of blending two jutsu was a result of one of Kakashi's lessons, demonstrating his philosophy of 'The team is stronger than the individual' by getting the boys to combine their jutsu, resulting in an attack that literally took Sasuke's breath away.

Predictably, Sasuke had asked if it was possible for one ninja to do both sides of the combo, though he hadn't actually admitted to already knowing the Gale Palm.

Kakashi had explained that it was possible, but the required focus made it unrealistic for most genin to achieve, despite the potential advantages they would have using Haku's seals.

Of course, then he mentioned that it was one of the things the Sandaime was famous for.

That caught the Dobe's attention, and he managed to make his first two handed Gale palm in just over a week.

Kakashi had been impressed, but not significantly, due to the fact that using the same jutsu twice really wasn't what he meant, since it was arguably just splitting one jutsu into two parts.

But he did advise Naruto to find ways to use the tactic, leading to a number of odd experimental tangents, and a few actual gems.

Sasuke took Naruto's success as a direct challenge. If the dead last could do it, then the rookie of the year could top it, easily.

So, rather than learn the Dragon Flame jutsu as he'd intended, he set about learning to harness the more powerful, if less manipulable, elemental combo.

It had taken weeks. Long, frustrating weeks, especially with the effort he'd put in to keeping it secret, but he eventually managed to create one.

By forming the Gale Palm first, and holding it back in a manner similar to how he stored the Suji Jiinto, he could divert his attention towards the Phoenix Flame jutsu, and release the wind while the attack was still in the air.

It wasn't nearly as powerful as the kind he could make with Naruto's assistance, and it was still too slow to use an any but the most desperate of circumstances, but this overly proud kunoichi would be the perfect test for it.

She avoided the team's attacks with contemptuous ease, including the first deceptively aimed fireballs, but the surprise on her face when he called out the name of Naruto's wind technique...

He hoped Itachi's final expression was half as satisfying.

Sasuke nodded to Charmeleon, and the pokemon launched a vortex of flame into the inferno, using his Fire Spin to impart a similar rotation to the larger column, mimicking the effect Naruto could achieve with one of his Twin Gale Palm variations.

They had learned that the spinning motion enhanced the attack, making it burn hotter and longer thanks to the vacuum it caused, while simultaneously preventing anything within from escaping easily.

They continued the attack for more than a minute, as Sasuke drained his chakra as far as he felt he could risk, wanting to ensure the horrid kunoichi was truly dead.

Sasuke watched for a long moment, searching for any movement that might signify survival, but when nothing happened, save the crackle of burning wood, he sat down heavily.

It would be a bad idea to remain here long, especially after the attack, which anyone within a kilometer probably noticed, but he needed to catch his breath.

"Kukukukuku," eerie laughter rang out, neither voice nor direction disguised as the kunoichi taunted them once again.

Sasuke locked eyes with her as she continued.

"That was most... exhilarating, Sasuke-kun. You truly are the first among your peers," she said, leering down at him creepily.

"H-how!" He asked, cursing himself for being intimidated by her. "You should be dead!"

"Oh Sasuke, I'm hurt that you would think so little of me," she replied, pressing her hand to her heart in a mockery of real pain. " And after I already told you that I'm stronger than that decrepit old man you call a Kage too."

"Y-yeah right," Sakura said, trying to hold onto her courage as she argued the woman's claim. "Why would someone that strong be stuck taking the genin exams?"

"Why?" The grass ninja repeated, locking eyes with Sasuke once more. "Because I'm looking for something of course... I'm searching for special ninja... Ninja who can benefit from my... unique... form of training."

As the kunoichi spoke, her voice changed, becoming slightly more masculine, though it still seemed to slither through the air unpleasantly.

Her eyes changed as well. Rather than the dead gray eyes he'd seen so many times today, they became yellow, like dirty gold, and the cat-like slits grew more defined.

Despite himself, despite this... person's threats to steal his eyes, Sasuke couldn't deny a degree of interest in the offer.

"Look out below!" A familiar voice called, as Naruto landed next to the grass ninja, and Sasuke knew they would be able to escape easily with his help.

"Hurry up lady, we gotta get out of here!" Naruto said, reaching out to grab the feminine looking ninja's arm.

Sasuke wanted to slap the Dobe.

Did he not realize who he was trying to help?

The ninja's pale face twisted in anger as they turned to Naruto, and Ralts proved yet again who was the brains in that particular duo by teleporting them away an instant before they touched.

Half a breath later, a giant snake, frustrated and angry, swallowed their foe whole.

It had been so focused on the irritating blond, that it never noticed the second person, only taking a sense of personal satisfaction in finally catching the brat.

The first warning it had of the mistake was when it heard the kid start yelling from outside if it's belly.

It's second was Orochimaru's rather forceful exit from said belly.

Only two good things came of these facts: First, it didn't have time to actually realize it's imminent demise.

And second: Orochimaru didn't think to leave the snake alive so he could properly repay it for the indignity of being eaten by his own summon.

---

"What the hell?" Naruto exclaimed when he realized what Ralts had done. "Why'd you do that? Now she's gonna get eaten!"

He was prevented from rescuing the victim when both Sasuke and Sakura grabbed him.

"She was going to hurt you," Ralts replied simply. "Now she cannot."

"And that's not even counting the stuff she's been trying to do to us," Sakura added tartly. "Feeding that bitch to a giant snake is better than she deserves, even if it is poetic justice."

"But now we can't take her scroll," Sasuke pointed out sourly.

"Believe me, I'd rather have to take one from Kakashi-sensei than deal with that Psycho again," Sakura replied with a shudder.

Before Naruto could ask what they were talking about, he was answered, as the snake, which had just realized it's mistake, exploded into a shower of meat, organs, and blood.

In the center of the bloody rain that was all that remained of one of the snake clan's swiftly rising hunters, stood Orochimaru, disguise fully abandoned and a look of anger on his face.

"I am no longer amused." Orochimaru stated coldly.

Standing there in all his dark glory was one of the three legendary sannin, and the only leaf traitor more notorious than Itachi, and Sasuke no longer doubted his boasts of strength.

Power encircled him like a cloak, and they had been foolish enough to anger him.

"You're okay!" Naruto called happily, earning shocked looks from every ninja and pokemon present, including Ralts, who could now sense the man's vile nature, and Orochimaru himself, who hadn't received such a reaction to his presence since abandoning the Leaf twenty years before.

"Naruto, you idiot!" Sasuke swore, at the same time Sakura exclaimed "That person is evil!"

---

'Naruto? Now where have I heard that name before?' Orochimaru wondered, as he let the genin argue out their differences.

The boy's sheer audacity had drained a large amount of his anger, leaving curiosity in it's wake.

Well, obviously it had been mentioned in the report he'd received from Kabuto, which he hadn't bothered to read all the way through.

Kabuto was an excellent spy, but really, why would anyone need a report of over a hundred pages just for three genin?

Even reading only Sasuke's, it was still over forty pages of mostly useless information, including birth records and vaccination reports.

Being thorough is all well and good, but damn, he didn't care about an ear infection Sasuke had when he was two, though the case of pinkeye he'd had at six might have been more worrisome.

In contrast, the training reports had been most satisfying, if less detailed and frequent than he would have preferred after the boy left the academy.

And his Psychological profile marked him as quite nearly the perfect recruit for Sound's 'Accelerated Learning Program'.

But the other two?

He'd never bothered to read beyond the first couple paragraphs of each.

A kunoichi with excellent theoretical skills and sub-par practicals, and a dead-last near dropout.

Hell, the boy wouldn't have even passed if he hadn't stopped some traitor...

Orochimaru's eyes narrowed in realization as a few memories connected properly.

Of course! Mizuki had wanted to kill some 'Fox brat' before leaving Konoha, and this brat just happened to be promoted in an unusual manner at the same time as Mizuki's arrest.

Years of subtle searching with Akatsuki, and only when he'd put that wretched organization behind him did he find Kyuubi's jinchuuriki.

The world must have an amazing sense of irony.

He considered killing the boy as a final 'Fuck you' to that delusional deity wanna be, but such petty vengeance would only cause trouble in the long run.

If they found out, the current members of Akatsuki could be... inconvenient to avoid.

Not to mention it would disqualify poor Sasuke-kun.

Which actually might be a good push towards his decision to seek out the power he'd been offered, but that might backfire if the emotionally unstable boy blamed the wrong person...

Besides, fighting people he could actually beat would be a good test for the boy's skills.

Oh well, the identity of the Kyuubi's jinchuuriki might be worth a favor or two, if he contacted his old comrades. He would have to look into it.

Though it was hard to believe a perceptive former Anbu like Itachi wouldn't have already identified the boy, even before leaving Konoha...

Most curious...

'Oh look, the brat finally looks like he's getting it through his head who the enemy is. Might as well get the show going... So much to do today...'

---

"I must admit, when I sent that snake after you, I didn't expect to see you again so soon... or to see the snake again in such an... unpleasant manner," Orochimaru taunted blandly, flicking a loose scrap of flesh from his shoulder. "I commend you for finding such an unexpected method in which to eliminate an opponent."

"That was you!" Naruto yelled in reply. "That thing almost ate Ralts-chan!"

"It almost ate you too, moron!" Sasuke said, since Ralts was too busy slapping her forehead,

Her partner was getting smarter, but he still didn't have the good sense of a Psyduck some days.

"Well, that is what I sent it to do," Orochimaru replied easily. "And I am most displeased that it failed so utterly in so simple a task, but I suppose death is a sufficient punishment..."

"A bit late if it wasn't," Sasuke muttered callously.

"You wanted it to eat me an' Ralts-chan?" Naruto asked in surprise.

"Yes." Orochimaru confirmed, seriously questioning how this kid managed to graduate in the first place. "I also planned to have it eat the pink trash and her pokemon as well, but that tree got in the way..." He added, glaring at Sakura.

"Here's the cliff notes, Naruto: He's evil, we need to beat him or get the hell out of here," Sakura said in an aggrieved tone.

"And he's a crossdresser," Sasuke added, earning a glower from Orochimaru, and a snicker from Sakura.

Naruto blinked at Sasuke like he'd grown a second head. Since when did the Teme banter with people?

"Stop gawking and get us the hell out of here!" Sasuke whispered harshly.

Not even waiting for her partner's cue, Ralts began to glow blue, obviously eager to be away.

But of course, Orochimaru wasn't about to let his prey just leave without saying goodbye, and so he offered them a parting gift in the form of a kunai, launched straight at the little psychic type's head.

Careful not to break contact with the group, knowing it would leave him stranded when the teleport activated, Sasuke fired off a weapon of his own to intercept the Sannin's.

The opposing kunai got tangled in the air, spinning wildly and revealing two more, flying side by side in the first's shadow.

Before Sasuke or the others could act, the pair of kunai struck the spinning blade of one of the clashing weapons, forcing them apart and down as the edge cut through the slight space between them.

The twinned kunai flashed by on opposite sides of Sasuke's head, so close he felt the wind of their passing, and struck with heavy thumps behind him.

"Naruto!" Sakura shouted, an instant after the blond cried out in pain, and an instant before the blue light signifying Ralts' teleport filled the battlefield.

But when the light faded, Sasuke was still staring into the smug eyes of Orochimaru.

He glanced back to see Naruto, still standing with his teeth clenched against the pain, and his hand still tightly gripping Sakura's hand and Charmeleon's horn.

The two kunai had stabbed into his shoulders, just below his collar bone, and right where the straps for Ralts' carrier usually were.

Of the pokemon and her modified backpack, there was no sign.

"I certainly hope you have a plan B," Orochimaru taunted conceitedly.

"Sakura, help Naruto. Charmeleon and I will try to buy some time for Ralts to get back," Sasuke said grimly, reactivating his sharingan.

"But... wouldn't it be better if we all fight? We've seen how strong he is..." She replied, though she did begin seeing to Naruto's stab wounds.

"No, I think the only chance we have is distracting him, and he's been targeting me this whole time," Sasuke replied.

"Yeah, because he wants to gouge out your eyes!" Sakura countered.

"If that was all he wanted, we'd have been dead a long time ago," Sasuke explained. "After our little mishap in Wave, I got my hands on a bingo book, so I'd be prepared if it ever happened again."

"That," he continued, gesturing to his opponent, "is Orochimaru, one of the legendary Sannin. Every genin in this forest could attack him at once and he wouldn't even break a sweat."

"Guilty as charged," Orochimaru confirmed, with a superior smile and taunting bow. "But please, make it more interesting: Every genin and chunin in Konoha."

"But the jounin would make you work?" Sasuke replied questioningly.

"Oh, not at all, but it would be unpleasant to end so many mature bloodlines. It's always such a tragedy when a powerful kekke genkai ceases to be, wouldn't you agree, Sasuke?"

The second to last Uchiha flinched, and neither Sakura nor Orochimaru missed it, but despite the well aimed barb, or perhaps because of it, Sasuke didn't hesitate to attack.

Though as he did, he hoped he wasn't making a huge mistake.

---

Sakura frowned as she focused on treating Naruto's wounds, and tried to ignore the sounds of fighting around her.

The stabs weren't as deep as they could have been, probably because they'd had to punch through the heavily reinforced straps of Ralts' carrier first.

One thing she had to admit about Naruto: He didn't skimp on his friends' safety.

The pack cost more than his entire camping set, but it had the "Guy Might seal of approval', which apparently meant it was the next best thing to indestructible, during normal use anyway.

Unfortunately, her discoveries weren't all of the pleasant sort, if the angrily inflamed skin around the wounds meant what she thought it did.

It didn't take a genius to recognize the silvery sheen on the two kunai as a toxin of some sort, and she silently thanked Naruto for his obsessive desire to be prepared for every eventuality that he learned of from Iruka-sensei.

Specifically, it was only because of a recent lesson about poison techniques, which was apparently inspired by a discussion on the defensive potential of wind jutsu, but as a result, Naruto had added a stock of simple antitoxin to his first aid kit, which he'd shared with his team when they realized the snakes the crazy proctor lady mentioned might be venomous.

Using her kunai, she carefully sliced the wound open a bit more, and tried sucking out some of the poison, though she wasn't sure how much good it would do, especially since a tourniquet wasn't really possible, given the placement of the injuries.

But anything was better than sitting on her thumbs while Sasuke risked life and limb fighting one of the strongest ninja she'd ever heard of.

When she was confident she's done as much good as she could with that method of treatment, she broke the seals on two of the three antidote vials Naruto had given her, and applied one to each wound.

They were designed in such a way that the contents could be forced into the bloodstream with a bit of chakra, and that was child's play for someone with her control, so the chemical cocktail was injected in seconds.

She only hoped the unknown poison Orochimaru had used wouldn't be resistant to such a commonplace treatment.

---

Within the drug induced haze of Orochimaru's neurotoxin, Naruto woke in his own bed and staggered to his feet.

Never one to do things simply, Orochimaru had used a combination paralytic and hallucinogen, which would force his victim's allies to help them, thereby eliminating two targets with one weapon, at least against all but the most ruthless of attacking teams.

Plus, while the paralytic was potent enough to be eventually fatal, it usually took long enough for him to collect and treat any interesting test subjects before such an unfortunate loss occurred.

The hallucinogen was usually just a backup plan for anyone who might go through the effort of building up a tolerance to more standard poison types, though it was always so amusing to watch an effected ninja attack his own allies while trapped in the ultimate drug trip.

And in this case it should keep the brat from focusing enough to use his biju's chakra to purge the poisons.

Of course, Naruto didn't know any of this, as he stumbled drunkenly to his door, knowing he had to be somewhere, and doing something, important, but unable to remember what.

He threw open the door, silently apologizing to his old friend as he fell against the balcony rail to look out at a Konoha that was somehow... wrong.

His sense of unease growing, Naruto rushed back inside, searching for Ralts.

Her carrier hung on the hook by Door, but the little pokemon was nowhere to be found, and his frantic cries went unanswered.

In a panic, he fled his home, racing full tilt through the deserted streets and over silent rooftops towards the Hokage's tower.

He arrived to find an equally worrying sight: The tower was completely devoid of life.

No guards. No secretaries. No Jiji.

There wasn't any sign of struggle either. Not a single piece of paper was out of place, as far as he could tell anyway, though Jiji's desk was unusually clean. It was as if everyone just got up and walked away.

Everywhere he went was the same: Iruka-sensei's house, Touji's Shop, the Hughes' house, even Ichiraku's stall, though he did help himself to a to-go bowl of the deliciousness simmering on the stove, promising to pay them back when he found them.

Even Sakura and Sasuke weren't at their homes, or they were really determined to ignore his pounding on their doors.

He had just reached their training ground, hoping against expectation that somebody he knew would be there, when he realized something that must be important: He didn't remember the trip from Sasuke's place.

Running back to the Hokage's tower was the same way. A trip that should have taken nearly twenty minutes was over in a blink...

Leaping to the top of the Tower, he looked around. All the important places were in their rightful spots, but the space between those few precious locations was somehow wrong.

There was nothing he could point at and say 'There, that's the problem', but it was still there.

It was as if all the streets and houses he passed each day had become fuzzy and indistinct, like they had forgotten what they should look like.

Inoichi Yamanaka, or any other mind-delving ninja could have explained it to him, but they were few and far between.

Naruto now looked upon his mindscape, as it had formed naturally within his psyche, revealing truths he'd normally be uncomfortable admitting.

Konoha was his life, even at his core, but he had willfully blinded himself to all but that which most exemplified his love of the village.

That which he adored existed as real as life, but the things which represented the gloomy side of his home, and childhood, had been subconsciously pushed away, until he had a mental map which was imperfect and unsettling.

Deciding he needed a better view, one which he'd nearly burned into his memory over the years, Naruto headed for the Hokage Monument, again arriving in too-short a time.

He drew to a stop upon the giant carved depiction of the Yondaime, gaping at the massive crevice leading down into the stone behind the spikes of petrified hair.

This was definitely not here the last time he'd visited, so it had to relate to the mystery at hand.

Dismissing his initial reason for coming, not that viewing the misty, shifting streets he'd have seen would have helped, Naruto descended into the cavern beyond the narrow crack.

As he traveled, the cave's walls smoothed out into what looked more like a giant pipe, which combined with the strangely damp conditions gave him the impression of a labyrinthine sewer.

The sense of the forbidden was oppressive, and his breath came with more and more difficulty as time passed, though he learned that if he followed the right pathways, it became easier to bear.

He would have worried more, if he knew the cause of this contradictory comfort, but instead he was just grateful that the 'correct' tunnels were easily identified, due to their strange illumination, lit as they were with light that shifted from blue to purple to red as he progressed deeper.

He sighed in relief when he finally reached what he decided must be the heart of the strange maze, a plain looking room who's only distinguishing characteristics were the sheer scale it was built to, and the series of thick bars cutting across the room a few meters in.

It was hard to be certain in the uneven light, but he had a sneaking suspicion that the room was taller than the mountain that apparently housed it, which paired unpleasantly with the feeling he'd had that the tunnels he came through went further than the mountain was thick as well.

Curious, and feeling that strange shortness of breath building up once again, Naruto moved further into the room, creeping up to the bars and peering through warily.

Within, he could make out something that looked like a large hill, which seemed to be the origin of the oddly rhythmic rushing sound that he'd decided was the sound of water moving through pipes.

Naruto watched, trying to decipher what he was seeing, wondering at one point if he'd found one of those underground springs that water bottles always claimed to come from.

That would explain the pipes he'd seen, but they started looking really dirty once the light turned red, certainly not the sort of things he would want to drink from.

But then the hill moved.

One long, sinuous tail lifted from the mound, moving to scratch lazily at another spot.

Once he realized it wasn't yet another snake, Naruto tried to determine what it might be, and how it got stuck in a cage in the mountain.

The proctor said something about a bear as big as a house, and this was certainly big enough to qualify, but bears had stubby tails. Maybe it was a dog or something? Inuzuka Ninja dogs had to come from somewhere, and some got really big too, right?

Remembering the crazy proctor kick-started his memory of the forest, and the events immediately prior to waking up in his bed in this freaky version of Konoha.

Could that freaky guy have hit him with a genjutsu or something? He remembered kunai, and thinking he should fire a gale palm at them, but not sure how without his hands free, and not willing to release one and risk leaving his friends stranded.

And then there was pain... and then he woke up in his bed in this weird version of Konoha...

As he was puzzling through the events, and before decide if this most unusual circumstance actually was a genjutsu, the beast shifted in it's sleep.

It stretched lazily, yawning with a canine mouth full of huge teeth, and a mass of extra tailed rose up around it, extending to truly unbelievable lengths in the apparently huge room before wrapping back around it.

Naruto wanted to scream, but couldn't force it past his tightened throat.

Naruto wanted to run, but was pretty sure that if he tried to move away from the bars he was leaning against, his fear-jellied legs wouldn't support him.

"K-K-Kyuubi!" Naruto stammered, dread and that odd pressure he'd been outrunning making the title come out as a whispered croak.

Despite the weakness of the call, the Kyuubi responded, eyes flashing open and locking on Naruto.

Never breaking eye contact, the immense Biju rose, and regally stepped closer to the bars, sitting on it's haunches far enough away that Naruto could tell it wouldn't be able to reach him easily with claw, jaw or even tail.

"So... My newest jailor has finally sought me out... To what do I owe this displeasure?" It said in a tone of strained tolerance. The boy's arrival in his mindscape caused enough of a disturbance to draw it from it's slumber, but it wouldn't do to let the jinchuuriki know he'd been expected.

Naruto, looking up to the monster, which was taller than anything he'd ever seen, tried to step away, to turn and run, but his legs had turned to rubber, and he collapsed to the ground a bare stride away from the bars.

Instantly, the oppressive weight slammed into him, stealing his breath and leaving him prone and twitching.

The Kyuubi eyed him, gaze calculating, before sighing and sweeping one majestic tail in his direction.

A miasma of red energy surged through the bars and crashed into, and through, Naruto, obliterating the pressure and leaving new strength in it's wake.

"What did you do to me?" Naruto asked suspiciously after a few deep breaths and a cursory inspection for fox-like influence.

"Saved your contemptible hide, I would think," Kyuubi replied condescendingly. "Unless you simpering simians have finally overcome your ridiculous dependence on air."

"I-I'm dying?" Naruto asked frightfully. "How? Why? Is that why I'm here?"

"You were dying," Kyuubi corrected. "Some crude poison or other. Hardly worthy of notice for one such as myself. And yes, in a sense, it is why you are here."

"And where is 'Here'?" Naruto continued asking. "And how the heck do I get back? I gotta help the others!"

"Do you know nothing? This is your mind, fleshling. Vacuous as is may be, this place represents all that you know and are," Kyuubi explained frustratedly.

"My mind?" Naruto repeated, more to affirm the idea to himself... it was a pretty major concept afterall. "Wait, why the heck are you here? You're supposed to be in my belly!" He realized quickly.

"The seal which binds my exalted strength does not lead to your soup soaked stomach, it leads to your chakra core, which itself is tied to your body and mind equally. You were only able to find this place by following those mental pathways to me." Kyuubi growled at the boy's incompetence.

Not that humans truly understood, or cared to learn, about the specifics of sealing a biju within one of their own.

"That better not mean you can poke around in my mind! Or do any weird stuff to my body!" Naruto said angrily.

"As if I'd want to," Kyuubi scoffed. "And even if I were bored enough to try, those same pathways serve to dilute my presence until barely a wisp of my Self remains in the chakra you steal from me."

The Biju conveniently ignored the fact that he was skimming through the boy's memories at just that moment, thanks to the unfiltered chakra he was able to force through the seal in response to the poison.

"Wow! The Yondaime thought of everything!" Naruto replied in awe, himself ignoring the accusation of theft.

"Yes, yes... The toad lover was a magnificent member of your wretched species," Kyuubi admitted, before aiming a vicious smile at his jinchuuriki. "But that seal is still a temporary restraint, nothing more. Eventually, it, or you, will cease to be, and I will be free once more."

"Then why did you save me?" Naruto asked, genuinely curious.

"It would be... inconvenient for me if you were to die at this moment. Besides, I would prefer to be the cause of your demise, child of Kushina, since I lost my chance to eat that insufferable woman," he added with a feral grin.

Actually, he had considered letting the poison run it's course, at least until a few minutes of suffocation ended the higher brain functions, but it was a risk he couldn't really take, since he could tell the boy's teammate had been trying to counter the paralytic manually.

In truth, Naruto's death would cause his own as well, at least temporarily, and like any of the greater Biju, he wished to avoid that if at all possible.

For some unknown reason, when a jinchuuriki was killed, at least by anything other than their Biju, they would be... reborn, for lack of a better word, a period of years later. But something in the process was inherently flawed, as the returned Biju wasn't truly the same being as they had been before.

This was most evidenced by Shukaku, the theoretical weakest of his brethren, who had been driven nearly insane by the repeated 'deaths' he'd suffered at the hands of humanity, until it had become firmly set in his mind that his only way to survive for any length of time was to kill any and all potential threats, a belief it often imposed on it's own jinchuuriki.

The Kyuubi was one of those few to have never experiences that peril, though he understood that he might actually be the only one by now.

Decades of imprisonment within these Uzumaki monkeys certainly kept him out of the loop in his kin's lives.

Naruto had been told of his mother's status as a jinchuuriki, a decision the Hokage made when he learned that Kakashi had talked to him about Kushina.

Sarutobi had hoped that the knowledge, paired with Kakashi's colorful stories about her life, would reassure Naruto, showing him that he had as much chance at a normal and happy life as any other ninja, for however long that life lasted.

Unfortunately, neither one could tell Naruto why Kushina had died, or how the demon fox got past the Yondaime's carefully prepared precautions.

That was another story Naruto was proud of. The freaking Yondaime himself was present for his birth. How awesome was that?

The only real clue they even had were the rumors of a masked sharingan wielder spotted during the conflict, and the knowledge that Madara Uchiha could somehow manipulate the Kyuubi due to a quirk of his dojutsu.

But the odds of even a Senju living as long as Madara would have had to to be present for Naruto's birth were nearly incalculable, even ignoring the reports of his death at the Valley of the End.

"Do you know who killed my mom?" Naruto asked sharply, moving back to the bars eagerly. He may never have known her, but if he could find the person who killed his mother, he felt it was his obligation to do something about it.

It wasn't really revenge... right?

The Kyuubi had a malevolent grin at the spike of anger he felt from Naruto at that question. It wasn't as potent as he had hoped, especially from the son of a woman known as 'The Hot-Blooded Habanero', but it was the only crack he'd felt in the boy's emotional defenses, other than the fear, which was of limited use.

"Of course I know, I was there wasn't I?" The Biju replied dismissively, funneling as much unfiltered youki into Naruto as he could under the influence of the boy's anger. "I may even eat him when I get out, if only for the insult of stealing my chosen prey."

"Who did it?" Naruto asked, his voice surprisingly calm and barely quivering with repressed anger. Honestly, when he asked, he had expected Kyuubi to claim responsibility, but he got the feeling that the demon wouldn't deny it if it had.

"And why should I tell you?" Kyuubi replied, yawning theatrically, and scratching his chest with one claw. "What possible reason would I have to enlighten the person keeping me imprisoned?"

"You owe me for letting you live inside me all these years! Rent's due Furball, so tell me!" Naruto replied harshly.

"Rent? What a ridiculously human concept. I refuse to pay, are you going to evict me now?" The Kyuubi asked with a toothy smile.

Naruto winced, he really didn't expect that to work. He had nothing to threaten or bargain with, other than his own death, which he had a feeling would somehow hurt the Biju, despite it's nonchalance about the poison.

"I thought not," the Kyuubi said, settling back down to sleep. "Go on back to your forest game, and if you let something kill you, try to at least make it something that won't shame me by association."

Anger draining from him, Naruto went slack, leaning his head against one of the bars he'd been bracing himself with. This was his first real taste of vengeful desire, and he could now understand some small part of Sasuke's obsession, and it was a miserable feeling.

The Kyuubi watched Naruto, eyes narrowed to mere slits.

Between the poison, the boy's proximity, and his woefully short-lived anger, he had more pure youki flowing through him than he'd ever had before, but it still wasn't enough to allow the Biju to influence the jinchuuriki sufficiently.

And unfortunately, he'd learned enough about this accursed seal from the inside to know that there were no weaknesses to exploit while he was still entrapped.

His best bet at freedom would be to explore the seal from the other side, where there were bound to be flaws, oversights, or even exploitable processes included.

Hells, just finding a way to bypass than damn filter would change things immensely.

But in order to see, or act, from that side, he'd have to force enough unfiltered chakra through to displace the boy for possession of the flesh they shared.

"You know..." Kyuubi said sleepily, when he noticed the boy preparing to leave, assuming he could figure out how. "I suppose there is something I should tell you about Kushina, and her predecessor."

"What's that?" Naruto asked suspiciously.

"Just a rule my first jinchuuriki told Kushina, to help keep her safe when she used my power... Much as I despised the woman, she would want you to know it as well... and it might keep you alive long enough for me to kill you..." Kyuubi replied, sounding half asleep already.

Naruto perked up, leaning in to hear better. Something like that would be important, even if it came from the big furry monster in his belly.

"No matter what you see... No matter what you hear..." Kyuubi said, his voice trailing off as he moved closer to full slumber. "No matter how badly you need the power of the Nine-tailed Fox... Never..."

"Never... ..."

"Never... ... ..."

Naruto leaned in more, straining to hear what the fox was saying, until with an almost audible click, it's eyes shot open.

"Never Pass between the bars of the cage!" It roared, as a wave of red energy surged from the water beneath Naruto and wrapped around his head and shoulders, preventing the boy from pulling the empty gourd he called a head back to the other side.

Kyuubi tugged on him, not expecting to draw him within where he would be vulnerable, in his own mindscape, the boy would eventually outmatch him in a contest of simple force of will, but as long as he remained stuck across the seal-barrier's threshold, his Self could act as a bridge across it.

Youki poured across that bridge as fast as Kyuubi could manage, forming a smaller copy of the Biju as it did.

From the free side, the seal was laughably easy to understand, and destroying it utterly would be the work of mere seconds.

The smaller Kyuubi locked eyes with it's larger self, then nodded at their decision and slashed at the flimsy paper seal with claws, which even so much smaller than they should be, could easily eviscerate an Aggron.

Before the claws connected, a dome of golden energy sprang into being around the seal, destroying the chakra beast's arm as it passed through, and drawing the formerly solid energy into itself.

Kyuubi, both of him, snarled in pain as the relatively insignificant portion of itself simply ceased to be.

Perhaps that toad loving wretch had thought of everything afterall... or at least he'd considered enough to make escape more difficult than it appeared.

Especially since he would never manage to trick the brat into surrendering control this easily again.

It wouldn't have worked at all on Mito or Kushina, one blast of chakra and Naruto would be free, and back in control.

Even the battle of will Kyuubi had forced was swiftly shifting in the brat's favor, slowing the transfer of youki considerably.

Jinchuuriki had too much of an advantage in their own mindscapes, Kyuubi admitted bitterly... Though he wasn't out of tricks himself...

If he couldn't free himself by destroying the seal, then he would do so by destroying the prison itself.

With a thought, Kyuubi used his external self to alter the perception of time within the mindscape.

Even enforcing his will on the boy's mindscape in this limited way was an effort, but a worthwhile one, if it bought him more time on the outside.

Now he just needed to knock a few of the boy's psychological pillars out from under him... How lucky that two of them were so near at hand...

---

Sakura sighed in relief when she saw Naruto coming around.

She wasn't sure what Orochimaru had put on those kunai, but it was effective. If she hadn't been here to help, he'd have died from simple suffocation when the poison paralyzed his diaphragm.

She just hoped Naruto never found out she'd given him CPR, or he would never let her live it down...

The entire time she'd been stuck keeping Naruto alive, Sasuke and Charmeleon fought against that creepy guy, though with just the three of them, it seemed more like an intense spar at speeds she could barely even see.

"Are you okay?" Sakura asked, helping her teammate sit up.

"Indeed I am, Sakura," Kyuubi replied, a bit of a growl in Naruto's voice as he said it. "In fact, I would say I almost feel... free."

Sakura stepped away from Naruto nervously, she wasn't sure if it was the growling syllables or the lack of 'chan' again, but she knew something was wrong.

"Naruto... Why are your eyes red?" She asked, noticing the obvious difference when he smiled at her oddly.

"Haven't you heard? Eyes are the windows to the soul," 'Naruto' replied, flexing his borrowed body, trying to adjust to it's unfamiliar movements.

"You aren't Naruto," Sakura realized.

"My, you really are a genius, Sakura-chan," Kyuubi replied tauntingly. "But enough idle gossip. I am a very busy being, and I'm afraid you have to die now."

'Sakura-chan! Run!"

Kyuubi staggered suddenly from the force of Naruto's silent plea, and it took his greater half much too long to reinforce their link once more. There was no way that was all the brat's doing, that damnable seal had to be helping him somehow.

"Not much time..." Kyuubi growled, feeling the strain of containing the boy's mind. "But still more than enough for someone like you!"

With a roar, Kyuubi converted a large portion of his unbound youki into a chakra cloak, claws and fangs growing from the boy due to the unleashed energy.

The instant it was complete, he charged the girl, claws poised to tear her in half.

But even he could be outrun, and Eevee shoved her out of the way with a Quick Attack.

Not completely used to the small body, let alone a bipedal one, Kyuubi had some trouble stopping, and had to slash through a fair sized tree to avoid shattering it or his face in an unpleasant impact.

How something as frail as humanity ever became a dominant species, was a question that had bugged him since his creation.

A number of knives slammed into his cloaked backside, targeting his arms and legs in an obvious attempt to disable him, but mere steel posed no threat to a biju's youki.

"I had thought to end you swiftly. As a kindness," Kyuubi snarled, turning to face the pair once more. "But for that... insolence... I will now kill you slowly."

"I don't know who you are, but you aren't Naruto! Let him go!" Sakura countered bravely, brandishing yet more worthless weaponry.

Kyuubi actually laughed at that, a cruel sound far removed from actual mirth. A weakling such as this thought to threaten him? Greatest of the Biju?

He'd eaten Happiny more intimidating.

"Child, you know not to whom you speak. Submit quietly, and perhaps I will enlighten you, as I tear out your throat," Kyuubi stated, cold promise lacing his words.

The impudent girl's response was to launch her weapons and form a jutsu, and she used the mudwall technique to liquefy the ground beneath Naruto's feet, hoping to contain him long enough to force whoever had possessed him out.

Kyuubi didn't even bother defending, letting the weapons bounce off his cloak even as he sunk to his knees in the muck.

He gave no more attention to the girl, as she reversed her jutsu's effect, drawing the water away and compressing the ground left behind, leaving his legs encased in something not far from sandstone.

A mere thought, and his chakra shattered the trap like cheap porcelain.

"You'll have to do much better than that," Kyuubi advised as he stepped free from the shallow pit left behind. He could sense enough distress from his own prisoner (Oh how joyful a term to think!) at even that simple attack, that he knew the brat might break completely if his precious 'Sakura-chan' were to attack with lethal intent.

Now he was just left to decide which were the surer path to freedom: The girl's murder, which might backfire if the brat became enraged enough to strike back properly, or the depression likely to arise if the girl tried to kill him herself.

Ah, but why not both?

The wretched Uchiha was nearly as vital a touchstone to the brat's sanity, and the Pink-haired harpy would most assuredly fight to protect, or avenge, her obsession.

"Mud Bullet Jutsu!" Sakura called, launching a number of orbs at Naruto.

Kyuubi just rolled Naruto's eyes and moved his cloak's tail to intercept the balls of gunk.

They actually stuck to the energy creation, until the corrosive youki eroded the chakra binding the attack together, at which point the objects fell away, landing with a squelching sound.

"Such pathetic ability," Kyuubi sneered derisively. "It would seem the pale freak has the right idea, or at least the right opponent. I wonder if killing the revered Uchiha will be more of a challenge,"

Kyuubi-Naruto vanished, consuming a measure of his limited chakra to move at a speed which would rival a shunshin.

"And I wonder... do you think Naruto will thank me for eliminating his rival for your empty affections?" Kyuubi whispered in her ear from behind her, disappearing again as she spun a wild slap at him.

"No! Naruto don't! You have to fight it!" Sakura cried into the forest towards where the two pale males fought.

The explosion of youki that formed Naruto's cloak didn't go unnoticed, and neither did his rush towards Sasuke.

When Naruto appeared before the Uchiha, one set of claws aimed to disembowel him, and the other on a path to tear through those hated eyes, it was Orochimaru who stopped him.

Before Kyuubi could make good on the attack, the one true threat to him within the forest grabbed his leg with a hideously long tongue, and swung him through yet another tree, and into a second, where he stuck.

"I'm afraid I still have plans for this one," Orochimaru said smoothly, hiding his disgust at the taste of biju chakra. Diluted as it was, the cloak wasn't able to actually hurt Orochimaru, but it wasn't exactly tasty.

"What makes you think I care?" Kyuubi replied, yanking one arm free of the tree and thrusting it towards Sasuke.

"Get over here!" He roared, as a translucent orange paw shot towards the boy.

The youki claws tore through the log Sasuke had replaced himself with easily, but Kyuubi was forced to forgo further pursuit when Orochimaru attacked him.

"What the hell is Naruto doing?" Sasuke asked, appearing near Sakura, who had chased after the blond.

"I... I don't think it's Naruto," Sakura replied. "Naruto would never act like this. It has to be a mind-transfer jutsu or something that poison did to him. Whatever it is, we have to help!"

"Dammit. As if things weren't bad enough already..." Sasuke cursed.

---

Ralts forced herself to focus harder, Naruto was in trouble, she could feel it!

But whenever she tried to pull his location from his mind, she only got the mental equivalent of static, and the few mental calls she received were disjointed and troubling.

Desperate for some connection, some link, she cast her mind towards the rest of her team.

Confusion, worry, anger, fear.

All four of them were full of these emotions, too much so for her to pierce, but she was able to glean enough information to get an idea of what was happening.

Quickly, using what she had learned, Ralts teleported, she had to save her partner, no matter the cost.

---

Kyuubi roared in anger and pain.

His plan was falling apart around him, as the Sannin and the damnable children fought him off.

And to make matters worse, their insistence on fighting to capture, rather than destroy, was inspiring the brat himself into greater efforts to break free.

Only the idiot's growing anger at Kyuubi itself gave the biju enough of an anchor to maintain control even this long.

Kyuubi dodged a sword slash from Orochimaru, and where the freak had found a blade capable of not only cutting through his cloak, but actually shearing portions of it away, leaving chunks of himself to fade away rather than return as was proper, was a question for another day.

The dodge sent him straight into a big ball of fire from the Uchiha, an attack almost laughable in it's uselessness.

It was more than enough to surround the more intense ball of blue flame launched by Charmeleon though, and Kyuubi yowled as the napalm-like fire stuck to his cloak, consuming it as easily as kindling. (Dragon Rage)

Before he could recover, Eevee slammed into him, her Quick Attack pounding him into the ground mercilessly.

And to make matters worse, it was another of the pink-haired misfit's bogs, though the sticky sludge did manage to douse the blue flames of Charmeleon's attack.

He lay in the hardening mush, only his face and toes free, and cursed silently.

These insects wouldn't pose even the slightest trouble had he been free to use all his power, but bound as he was within inefficient flesh, and with the vast majority of his power sealed away, he was draining his meager reserve more swiftly than he could restore it through the dwindling connection to his greater self.

At this rate, fighting on both a physical and mental front, defeat was inevitable.

Such a turn of events was... distasteful at best.

Very well then. No more kit gloves. It was time to show these vermin what a biju could really do, not that they would live long enough to appreciate the lesson.

A metaphorical drop of youki was enough to shatter his bonds again, and he rose to his feet once more, youki whipping around him like a living thing.

By unspoken assent, his five opponents held back, waiting for his next move... How utterly foolish.

Kyuubi held Naruto's hands out before him, leaving a space of a few inches between them, and fingers spread to form a cage of sorts. The stubby digits weren't as good at directing his energy as proper tails would be, but there was little choice in the matter.

A bit of focus, and Kyuubi's protective cloak exploded in a glorious display, separating into orbs of his own Yang chakra and Naruto's Yin chakra, orbs which streaked down and gathered between his hands.

Truthfully, he wasn't sure how powerful this imperfect Biju Bomb would be, but it should be at least sufficient to destroy these five...

At the moment, he wasn't sure if he even cared whether his prison survived or not.

Easily identifying the aggressive actions, and his current vulnerability, the genin and pokemon resumed their attacks.

Sakura launched more of those sticky blobs of muck, but the ones aimed at his hands were shredded by the curtain of orbs joining the attack's formation.

Eevee darted in with yet another Quick Attack, but at the last moment latched onto his lower hand with her jaws, hanging there kicking her legs and worrying at the limb like it was a favorite bone. (Bite)

Charmeleon followed her close, claws shifting to the color of steel opening multiple, but superficial wounds across the borrowed body. (Metal Claw)

The Uchiha, as expected from his damnably sneaky clan, slipped away from the group, and Kyuubi could sense the 'Teme' coming in behind him, no doubt planning to stab him in the back.

But Kyuubi couldn't afford to focus on the weaklings. What little attention he could spare from controlling the blend of chakra was dedicated to Orochimaru, the only mortal present who had a chance of stopping him.

Of course, the intellectually gluttonous Sannin was too torn to act.

On one side, he knew he should stop the possessed boy, or flee, since he recognized the fledgling mass of energy as one of a biju's most devastating abilities.

But another side of him really really wanted to see it in action... and then find a way to duplicate it... Jinchuuriki or not, a genin couldn't kill a Sannin, right?

The rest of him was scattered among a number of other thoughts, such as recruiting the kid for Sound, or at least somehow getting him to help destroy Konoha, and wondering if he might be able to get Pein to help him take Itachi's body if he just nabbed the kid and delivered him gift-wrapped.

That would almost be worth doing, just to see the surprise on the deluded deity's face.

Before Orochimaru could decide. Before Sasuke's attack connected. Before Naruto's attack completed... Ralts returned, hovering before her partner's body somehow, and glaring at him.

"You will not hurt Naruto. Not himself, or by harming his precious people." She said, righteous fury ringing for all to hear.

"You think you can stop me?" Kyuubi replied snidely, knowing that this puny pokemon was the brat's ultimate weakness. "You can just die with the rest of the worms!"

Without a word, Ralts linked her mind with Naruto's, and the barriers Kyuubi tried to erect to keep her out blew down as the affinity she shared with Naruto overruled his stolen control.

Ralts' will slammed into him, stronger than expected, and growing by the moment.

Kyuubi lashed out at her, expending more youki trying to bend her anger towards his use, trying to sever the psychic pathways she traveled upon, anything to stop her encroachment.

But as old and powerful as the Kyuubi was, Ralts and her ancestors were more closely linked to emotions and the mind than even he, and she blocked him at every turn.

The only thing his blind attack managed to do was shift his hosts' anger from hateful to protective, and Naruto broke free of Kyuubi's greater half in a burst of rage and chakra, severing the lesser completely from the rest.

Lesser Kyuubi burst into the Cage room in Naruto's mind, propelled by a red eyed being coated in blue energy, an exact copy of Ralts' physical appearance at that moment.

The weakened biju portion, now not much larger than Akamaru, due to the amount of energy it had consumed to power the battle, dashed towards the cage, hoping to reunite with his larger self, but fled in another direction when Naruto lunged at it.

It went down with a yelp when a line of electricity snaked it's way across the damp floor, winding around it like a living lightning bolt. (Thunder Wave)

Naruto stepped on it's tails, pinning it to the floor as the mini-biju looked to his caged self entreatingly.

A little effort is all it would take for Kyuubi to reclaim the trapped cub. Just by reaching out with some of it's own youki, and the lesser could revert to that energy form and be reclaimed by the original.

But the Kyuubi made no such effort.

The instant the line of youki between them snapped, the creature ceased to be part of the glorious essence known as Kyuubi, and became a newborn demon in it's own right.

Had such a thing happened outside the realm of this boy's mind, the newborn would have either manifest it's own form, or 'infected' an animal and converted it into a demon, rather than remaining trapped in the diminished imitation it wore.

It wasn't impossible to 'reclaim' the energy that formed the newborn, but such things were nearly unheard of, both because it was far too vulgar a deed to consume one's own offspring, and because the personalities of energy based beings tended to meld rather than be diluted.

And even without the implied cannibalism, the Kyuubi wanted nothing to do with a being that stank so much of fear and failure.

The Kyuubi was a being without fear, and nothing would ever change that if he had his way.

"Well, well, well. What are we gonna do with you?" Naruto said, picking up the mini-Kyuubi by the scruff of it's neck.

The former monster locked it's limbs, quivering fearfully as it squeezed it's eyes shut and waited for death. It lacked it's parent's ability to feel negative emotions, but that in no way hindered it's ability to understand the threat in the boy's voice.

In fact, very little of the biju's power or nature continued beyond the newborn's creation, only having been granted the knowledge and skills required for it's rather limited purpose during creation, and having lost access to everything else that was part of the Kyuubi when their link broke.

"You could always feed it to the seal," the caged Kyuubi suggested offhandedly, causing the fox in Naruto's hand to yelp and look at it's creator in dismay.

"Feed it to the seal? What does he mean?" Ralts asked, her voice the same as ever, aside from an odd little echo, which Naruto figured he should ask about when things were a bit less pressing, and the glowing, he would definitely have to ask about the glowing.

"That seal," Naruto said, gesturing towards the simple looking slip of paper. "It would destroy it... unless this is some kinda trick..."

"The little one does not believe it to be," Ralts said, sensing the smaller beast's emotional turmoil easily. "You would wish death upon your own offspring?" She asked, the abhorrence in her voice a clear sign of her opinion on the matter.

"No spawn of mine would show fear for so lowly a pair as yourselves," the Kyuubi replied dismissively. "But enough of this farce. I concede the day to you, human. Enjoy your temporary reprieve, for the next time will not be a reiteration."

"Next time?" Naruto replied, anger sparking enough to draw the Kyuubi's attention, but not enough to grant him a second chance so soon. "There ain't gonna be a next time you furry son of a bitch! You tried to hurt my friends, and I'm never gonna let you try that shit again! You might as well get comfortable, cause if I have anything to say about it, you are never leaving this seal! Ever!"

"Come on Ralts-chan," Naruto said more quietly, turning to leave. "Let's deal with this thing and figure a way to get outta this place... And why you're so glowy..."

Ralts turned away from her study of the Kyuubi, who had settled down to sleep with a gloomy aura, and chased after her partner.

"Glowy?" She repeated curiously, looking at herself in amazement. If she had possessed a mouth at that moment, it would have been stretched into a wide grin.

She had called on all the power she possessed, worried that it might be needed to rescue Naruto from the Kyuubi, and apparently ended stronger for the effort.

It was odd that she seemed to be stuck between forms, but the realm of the mind was an unusual place, and the flow of time so inconsistent within, that they might have only been within a fraction of the time it seemed to be.

"Do as you like, and dispose of that however you please," Kyuubi said coldly. "I renounce all association with the wretch."

The tiny fox seemed hurt by the callous remark, but the flash of discomfort from Kyuubi itself caught Ralts by surprise.

"Yeah? Well, I'm sure it doesn't wanna have anything to do with you either!" Naruto yelled defensively. "Lets go Ralts-chan, the company here stinks!"

Naruto turned and stomped out of Kyuubi's prison area, and into his own living room.

He stopped in surprise, and looked behind him, but only Ralts and Door, or at least it's mental replica, were there.

"Okay... that was weird," Naruto muttered.

"How so?" Ralts asked carelessly. "It's your mind, why shouldn't it respond to your wish to leave quickly?"

"Huh?" Naruto questioned eloquently.

"Your mind, your world," Ralts simplified. "What you will, is. If you didn't know that, it's no wonder the Kyuubi caught you."

Naruto looked crestfallen at that fact, but it didn't last long as a thought occurred to him.

"Big bowl of ramen!" He said, pointing at his table, which instantly vanished, leaving a bathtub sized bowl of the delicious soup in it's place.

Ralts giggled at the wonder in his expression as he dashed over and inhaled a lungful of steam.

"This is the best place ever!" He said, eyeing the giant bowl hungrily. "It is real, right?" He added hopefully.

"As real as a memory, as mutable as a dream," Ralts replied cryptically.

Naruto pondered that a moment, then asked plainly.

"If I eat this, I'm still gonna be hungry when I get out, aren't I?"

"Afraid so," Ralts replied laughingly.

"Damn," Naruto said, plopping to his butt and trying to cross his arms in a huff.

And whacking himself in the face with the fox pup.

He eyeballed the animal sourly, not liking how fearful it seemed. Demon or not, it made him feel like a darn bully.

"What will you do with it?" Ralts asked, sensing his distress.

Naruto stared at it so long and intensely, that he didn't notice when Ralts vanished from his mindscape, fading instantly without a sound.

After a few mental minutes, Naruto hopped to his feet and opened the door leading to his small balcony.

"Inuzuka Kennel," He said, thinking of the dog pens he'd cleaned a few times as D rank missions, and a lot more often as punishment for things he and Kiba had done in the academy.

The waist high fence surrounding the balcony grew into a box, forming a roof over the small area.

Naruto eyed the fox again calculatingly.

"Bigger," he decided. "Bars closer together too."

The mentally projected enclosure responded to his demands swiftly, and when he was satisfied, Naruto tossed the fox inside and closed the cage door, which had grown along with the roof.

"Lock," He said grimly, and one sprang into existence, sealing the cage shut. "Lock, lock, lock."

Naruto nodded in satisfaction. He may not know a whole lot about this mindscape stuff yet, but he figured it was pretty obvious that he would know if the demon managed to escape, and it shouldn't be too tough to get it back under control with Ralts' help.

"This should hold ya," Naruto decided. "I'll figure out what to do with you later, but try to escape and I might just take the big bastard's advise and stuff you into the seal, so don't try anythin' funny."

The fox nodded sullenly, not looking up at it's captor.

"Good," Naruto said sternly, though his gut twisted at how beaten the animal looked.

Impulsively, he pointed at the fox, which popped into the air a few inches as a simple dog bed appeared beneath it.

"I'll be back when I can. Don't make me regret lettin' you stick around for a while," Naruto said before slamming the balcony door shut.

"Okay Ralts-chan, how do we get outta here? Ralts-chan?" Naruto called, peering around in search of his partner.

When he couldn't find her, he went looking, coming up empty.

"Now what the heck do I do?" He muttered in annoyance. He still didn't know how to get out.

Well, when in doubt...

"I wanna go home!" He shouted, and as with everything else non-demonic in this place, his will was made manifest, and he vanished.

In the mindscape, the newborn demon curled up on the bed and wondered what would become of itself...

---

Sakura gaped as Ralts did... something, and Naruto froze, not even blinking as the gathered chakra he held lost cohesion and fell apart under the strain of it's own rotation.

She had no idea what the little pokemon was doing, but from the intense light coming off her, it had to be something big, and successful apparently, since Naruto's eyes were back to their pleasant blue hue.

"Mmreeph!" Eevee yelped as she hit the ground, still hanging from Naruto's now limply hanging arm.

"Chaar?" her fire-typed teammate hissed questioningly, ceasing his attacks, but not releasing the steel-type enhancements.

Even Sasuke-kun hesitated, looking to Sakura, as if she had any better idea than him what was going to happen now.

The respect was nice and all, but she really didn't need, or want, that kind of pressure.

Such was the unspoken downside to being the test acing, encyclopedia reading top kunoichi of the year: Everybody expects you to know everything... Even weird stuff like this.

She lifted her shoulders in a barely visible shrug, the flicked her eyes to Ralts' glowing form and mouthed the word 'wait'.

Sasuke nodded, and turned his attention from the apparently handled Naruto, to the ever-present threat of Orochimaru, as the twin Suji Jiinto he had prepared to disable his teammate continued to spark dangerously.

"I would thank you for the assistance, but I'm pretty sure you caused this mess in the first place," He said, glaring at the vastly superior ninja, who was watching with only half-hearted interest, now that the unique attack had been disrupted.

"Hmm... That may be true, in a sense," Orochimaru admitted. "But that pitiful power was nothing compared to what I would offer you, Sasuke."

"Are you sure you aren't just some really creepy fangirl?" Sasuke asked. The guy just kept harping on that whole 'I'll give you power' thing, and he was damned if he was going to accept without knowing the details.

Creepy cross-dressing bastard might expect compensation he really wasn't willing to pay.

"Do I look like a damn fangirl!" Orochimaru fired back. Seriously, did the Uchiha think he was the only guy who'd ever had to deal with those annoying bitches?

Hell, during the war he'd had to deal with military-grade fangirls, who knew that a pregnancy was the fastest way out of a front-line combat zone.

Half of his early evasion techniques were developed just so he could avoid getting raped in his own camp.

Didn't help his view of things that perverted jackass Jiraiya just laughed when he complained about the assaults, and Sarutobi-sensei just suggested he needed to 'loosen up and live a little'.

As if he wanted anything to do with those...

Well, he did get his own revenge on them eventually, and damn if it wasn't worth developing the uterus-rotting toxin he'd arranged to infect them with...

"A little bit, yeah," Sasuke replied, words which brought him closer to death than he would ever realize. "Though, I will admit you'd be one of the ugliest stalkers I've ever had."

With considerable effort, and the reminder that Uchiha charcoal would be of no use to him, Orochimaru swallowed his anger.

"Let it be known," the Sannin hissed menacingly, "that Orochimaru fawns over no one! I have neither need, nor use, for such paltry things as whatever those hapless harlots you call fangirls consider you."

"The only interest I have in you is that of a professional exchange," Orochimaru continued more calmly, it wouldn't do to lose his composure over such minor unpleasantness. "I can supply what you desire: Power, revenge, and a superior village in which to grow your clan to new heights, and in a position of control second only to myself, as Kage."

"In turn, you will supply a number of things I desire: A clan who's reputation will accelerate my village's growth, as well as it's jutsu library, and revenge on Itachi Uchiha, which I have been pursuing myself for some time now."

"Why would you want to kill Him?" Sasuke asked suspiciously.

"My reasons are... my own to know, but rest assured, I would like nothing better than to rip out his eyes, destroy his soul, and watch the flesh rot from his bones." Orochimaru replied seriously. "But without the sharingan, I am at something of a disadvantage, and while just taking your eyes might be enough to span that gap, it would necessitate ending your prestigious lineage."

"And so, here I am, offering an exchange of sorts, though I had to be certain you had the strength and potential to benefit from my rigorous training methods," Orochimaru finished, spreading his hands and shrugging in an appearance of self conscious embarrassment. Everything he had said was true, or at least not a blatant lie.

"And if I were to refuse?" Sasuke asked, watching close for any sign of deception.

"Sad though it would be, the decision is yours to make," Orochimaru replied smoothly. He had fooled wiser and more experienced people than Sasuke could ever hope to become, and though the boy might not realize it yet, there was a gleam of interest in his eyes.

"And if I accepted?" Sasuke asked, ignoring Sakura's startled protest as he did so.

"Then you would need to come to my village," Orochimaru explained. "I'm afraid it would be impossible to teach you while you remain a Konohagakure ninja, both because of my own... notoriety, and due to the covert nature of my lessons."

"Sasuke! You can't really be considering something like that! You'd be a missing-nin!" Sakura shouted, appalled at the very idea.

"It is a dangerous life," Orochimaru agreed. "One which often either breaks a ninja completely... Or drives him to elevate himself beyond his wildest dreams."

Sasuke frowned as he pondered that argument. The slithery bastard certainly had a point, there were only two kinds of missing-nin: Strong ones, and dead ones.

Their experience in Wave illustrated that point quite clearly.

Sasuke was conflicted, it was obvious to everyone, but especially so to Orochimaru, who had made similar offers many times, to many gifted children.

But unexpectedly, he could tell that the boy was planning to refuse.

There were distinct signs when someone was trying to convince themselves to abandon all they knew for the promise of a better future, no matter how risky that promise might be, and there were just as many signs when someone was trying to convince themselves to stay.

Sasuke was apparently one of the latter, and not one who was having to argue all that hard either...

Of course, it wasn't too surprising, considering how much good his training had done so far, since the boy easily had chunin level combat ability, but the promise of being trained by a living legend was enough to tempt anyone.

"There is no reason to answer immediately," Orochimaru said, as he saw Sasuke come close to refusing outright. "I have something of a vested interest in the exams, so I will seek you out in a month or so, before I return to my village. You can give me your answer then."

Sasuke nodded grudgingly, though he was essentially already set on refusal, it would probably be better to do so somewhere other than the center of an old forest, like the middle of the Anbu barracks, or the Hokage's office, just in case the Sannin didn't take rejection well.

"I thank you for considering my proposal, Sasuke," Orochimaru said, bowing respectfully. "And as a sign of my gratitude, offer you this gift."

Like the snakes he summoned, Orochimaru struck in a blink, his neck extending to ridiculous length to let him bite the boy.

"What did you do to me!" Sasuke groaned, as his muscled locked up and his still sparking jutsu dispersed with a pair of loud pops.

Radiating from his neck were waves of hot and cold, sending lines of pain through every nerve in his body.

"Well, I can hardly expect you to decide without a proper demonstration, could I?" the Sannin replied, sounding offended. "And what better way than to give you the first stage of the training now? I would have had to do so anyway, since all my ninja of chunin rank and above have gone through the process."

"It... Hurts!" Sasuke growled, falling to the ground as his limbs went numb from whatever that bite had done.

"No pain, no gain," Orochimaru replied coldly. "There is some risk of death as well, but I have complete faith in your abilities. I wouldn't have wasted my time seeking you out if I thought you were a weakling."

Orochimaru was pretty sure the Uchiha hadn't heard that last part, if the ear-shattering scream and descent into unconsciousness was any indication.

But it was still a good sign for his chances of survival. Most of the failures hadn't even waited for him to let go before screaming.

Right into his ear, the ungrateful bastards.

No longer bothering to restrict his movements to speeds within the realm of 'possible but unlikely for chunin aspirant's, Orochimaru blurred into motion, snatching Eevee out of the air in the middle of one of her repetitive Quick Attacks and launching the unlucky pup face first into the blast of flame Charmeleon had launched, racing after it as he and Sasuke had practiced.

The speed of her passage was a potential lifesaver, however, as she blew through the attack and slammed into the reptilian pokemon too quickly for the flames to do more than singe her fur.

Not expecting the peculiar projectile, Eevee hit Charmeleon hard, and both went down in a dazed tumble.

With his free hand, Orochimaru grabbed Sakura by the throat, interrupting her jutsu attempt from a dozen feet away.

His arm retracted, ripping Sakura forward, as well as a fair portion of the ground she had tried to anchor herself upon, and held her in the air in front of him, ignoring her frantic and futile attempts to escape.

"What... did you... do... to Sasuke?" She gasped with what little air she could pull in.

"I don't repeat myself to trash, so if you weren't paying attention the first time, it's your loss," Orochimaru replied. "But I suggest you listen this time, because it could mean life and death for your precious obsession, and a great many other people."

Sakura stilled, looking at him fearfully, and he eased up on her airflow as a reward.

Finally, proof that a fangirl can be trained, if you have the right carrot and stick to use.

"The village I lead is known at the Village of Sound, " he said, noting the recognition in her eyes. Apparently his genin had made an impression during the first test, good.

"One of my genin teams has been ordered to locate and fight this team. They will come bearing both scrolls, theirs and mine, so confronting them is to your benefit. Defeat them, and you can have that little glow-worm drop you right at the tower for an easy win."

"Avoid them, or abandon the exam, and I will kill you, but not before you watch me kill those precious to you, as well as those precious to the blond brat."

"Why are you doing this? Haven't you done enough!" Sakura protested, panicky as she worried about her parents, who would have no chance against a monster like him.

"My dear girl, what I do I do out of love... For science, for power, for jutsu, for an eternal existence. And as with so many other things worth having: There is no such thing as 'enough'," Orochimaru replied with a cruel smile.

"You have a really twisted idea of love," Sakura growled out, eliciting a chuckle from the evil man.

"Yes, you may be right... but then I would have creatures like you to thank for that, wouldn't I?" Orochimaru released the girl contemptuously, letting her crash to the ground roughly.

"I'm through with you, I suggest you take your teammates somewhere safe, so that you have some small chance of living long enough to face my chosen genin," He said, turning as if to leave.

"Well, I'm not through with you!" Sakura shouted, rising to her feet painfully. Her throat and almost her entire backside were bruised by the day's efforts, but she had to protect her teammates, no matter the risk.

"What did you do to Naruto? And how do we fix it?" She asked. The creep had already said that he needed Sasuke alive, but once Ralts stopped her partner, it was almost as if he'd forgotten about the boy, and she couldn't risk letting him leave if whatever he'd done was potentially fatal.

"I picked the wrong poison to use," Orochimaru replied casually, though he turned to look at the still boy critically.

"Should have realized the old fool wouldn't have trained a jinchuuriki to use his power properly..." He thought.

It didn't take a genius to figure out that the biju had taken advantage of the hallucinogen somehow, which implied that other mind altering techniques might cause unexpected effects, which might have negative impact on his own plans.

Of course, Orochimaru was a genius, so figuring out a long term solution for such an eventuality was rather simple.

"But, since it seems to worry you so much, 'We' fix it like this," He said, as a kanji formed of purple flame flared to life on the fingertips of one of his hands, the instant the technique was ready, Orochimaru charged at the incapacitated jinchuuriki.

"Five Pronged Seal," he hissed, driving the technique towards Naruto's gut.

The mass of flickering energy that had been Ralts flared to life as the spiteful man attacked her partner, and she her eyes whipped towards the Sannin.

"No," She said simply, thrusting one arm towards Orochimaru.

The evolutionary process, which had been arrested when her Self left her body to enter Naruto's mindscape, returned to it's natural progression with a vengeance, as the glow flowed towards that arm from the rest of her body, revealing her new form as it slipped away.

The energy pulsed in her hand, and she spread her new fingers wide, redirecting it into a shell of force around herself and Naruto. (Reflect)

Orochimaru's jutsu hit that wall of energy, intending to tear through it like rice paper, but neglected to consider the extra well of power available to a newly evolved pokemon.

Or the fact that not all walls are meant to merely contain.

The Reflect 'attack' overwhelmed Orochimaru's control of his own jutsu, turning it upon him, albeit imperfectly.

Orochimaru cursed and leapt away, glaring at the pokemon, which chirped a sassy 'La-lia!', before pulling down one eyelid and blowing a raspberry at him.

Well.

He briefly considered repaying the insult with blood, but decided to let it go, for a number of reasons.

First, he was getting really bored of fighting weaklings, and despite their relatively developed abilities, they were still genin.

Second, he knew of the creature's ability to teleport, and was counting on it to ensure that Sasuke made it to the tower intact after the fight against his own genin team, and to get the group back to their 'hidden cave' while Sasuke recovered.

Third, he had been sensing a number of much larger chakra signatures hopping around in the distance for a while now, and was mildly surprised the obvious searchers hadn't tracked him down yet.

Just further evidence of how far Konoha had fallen since the war, even hiding so much of his chakra signature, it would have taken an hour at most to locate him in an area this size back then.

And honestly, the little pokemon did have some room to be proud of itself, even for so minor and temporary a victory, for while he couldn't remove the seal himself, due to it's design, any of his allies could remove it with a little effort and a fuinjutsu release tag, which would take him a few minutes to sketch out, at most.

The Five Pronged Seal was painless, and when applied properly, was nearly undetectable for any ninja with below average chakra control.

But Orochimaru had 'perfect' control, not that he didn't work to improve upon even that pinnacle of ability, and he could feel the sigils burned into his fingertips, disrupting the flow of chakra through his hand and arm.

He unconsciously tried wiping the odd feeling away, a numbing sensation not dissimilar to having his fingertips coated in dried glue.

"I'll deal with you later," he promised, deciding to simply delay his payback until after his more important concerns had passed. He hoped the pokemon was properly terrified by that vow, but with how pale she was already, it was impossible to tell at a glance.

Without another word, he dissolved into a puddle of mud and was gone.

"Can you still teleport?" Sakura asked quickly, wanting to be gone before Orochimaru returned, or his minions, or even another genin team, found them.

"Of course," Ralts' new form replied happily, hopping over to Sakura with a dance-like step and twirling in place. She couldn't help it, it just felt so good to move so freely!

"O...kay," Sakura said, not sure what to think of the pokemon's cheerful attitude. "We need to find somewhere safe to recover, and much as I hate the idea of going back there, the spider pit is probably the best bet. It's far enough from the tower that most genin won't stumble across it, and we already know it's safe.

"Be there in a flash!" the pokemon replied, grabbing Sakura and the unconscious Sasuke and popping over to Naruto in the fastest teleport she'd ever used.

She did it again, popping over to, and bringing Eevee and Charmeleon back, with the same lack of ceremony.

She then grabbed a fistful of each insensate boy's shirt, and began to glow softly.

Not sure if it was a sign of preparation, or a warning for mere courtesy, Sakura grabbed Eevee with one arm and Naruto with the other, since he was somehow still standing, despite his thousand-yard stare.

She would have grabbed Charmeleon as well, but the pokemon had already joined them, sitting sullenly on Sasuke's chest, resting his scaled chin in one clawed hand and muttering what could only be an unpleasant assessment of the last battle in his own language.

A flash of blue light, which seemed somehow less piercing than it had been before, and the group was back in the spider's former lair.

"Great job... Ralts?" Sakura said, looking to the pokemon and hoping for a prompt as to her new name.

The pokemon just smiled at her, before dancing away to help settle Naruto in a sitting position, surprised that he hadn't fallen upon arrival, and somewhat concerned that he hadn't returned to himself yet.

"...Okay then," Sakura remarked, puzzled.

Dismissing the strange pokemon's actions as a natural side effect of spending so much time with Naruto, Sakura pulled Sasuke deeper into the hideout.

She managed it rather easily, once she managed to shoo Charmeleon off him and Eevee badgered it into helping.

She then used her mud wall to sculpt the burrow a bit, since it was likely they would be stuck there for a while, she wanted it as defensible as possible.

Within minutes, the cave had a false end, sculpted with perforations to allow air flow to continue, and a pair of opposed blind turns behind it to foil anyone who might try to clear the den the same way team seven had.

The structures did cramp things a little bit, leaving the team with a rather narrow tunnel, about fifteen feet long and half as wide, in which to wait.

The close quarters didn't bother Sakura as much as the lack of light, since a fire would be a bad idea with such low air flow, and most of the more situational camping supplies had been in Naruto's pack, including chakra-powered light seals. As a result, only Charmeleon's tail-flame provided their limited illumination.

On her way back from construction, Sakura checked on Naruto.

He was still unresponsive, but it looked more like he was lost in a daydream than hurt. Plus, Ralts... or whatever her name was now, didn't look too worried.

She was just standing in front of him, eyes alight with excitement and bouncing in place, looking for all the world like a little kid who'd just found the 'best present ever' for a loved one.

Which was probably true in this case, Sakura had to admit.

Leaving them to their... whatever, Sakura moved over to Sasuke, finding a reason to appreciate the lack of light, as the flickering flames softened his severe countenance.

Not that she didn't love his darkly handsome brooding, but she wanted to see the full range of his emotions.

She wanted to see his smile, a real smile, rather than the one he occasionally wore because he felt he was supposed to.

Would his smile be big and bright like Naruto's? Or small and confident like Iruka-sensei's? Or would it be silly and secretive like the ones she knew Kakashi-sensei hid behind his mask?

And not just his smiles, she wanted to see his every expression.

He groaned in pain, and grimaced severely as he writhed, and Sakura amended her thoughts. She had no desire to see Sasuke in such pain.

Retrieving her canteen and a bandage, she set a cold compress on his head, in an attempt to help however she could.

She wasn't sure what to think of Orochimaru's offer, or Sasuke's apparent consideration of it, but she was confident he would refuse in the end.

Thanks to her time on team seven, and their growth as comrades, she understood far more than she had ever hoped to about him.

Even his goals weren't as simple as they had seemed on the surface.

It wasn't enough for him to just kill his brother. Not enough to be the stronger ninja, the better killer. If it were, he would probably focus his efforts on just assassinating the man in his sleep.

For some reason, it mattered that he confront his clan's killer directly. Fight and defeat him at his best, and put the spirits of his fallen family to rest.

Sasuke didn't just want to be the better ninja, he wanted to be the better Uchiha, the better man.

And he could never be that if he followed his brother's path as a traitor.

Movement and a questioning sound drew her attention away from her pondering of Sasuke's hidden depths, and back to Naruto, who was blinking rapidly and shaking his head in disorientation.

Serves him right for staring like that. He could have given Tora a run for her money, going so long without blinking.

"What happened? An' why is it so dark?" Naruto mumbled, rubbing at his eyes.

"The creep ran away," Sakura replied, her voice subdued. "We're safe for now, but Sasuke is hurt."

"Sasuke's hurt?" Naruto yelped, jumping to his feet and stumbling towards Sakura blindly. "I'm sorry! I tried to stop him, really I did!" He claimed, nearly beside himself with worry.

"Oh please, we kicked your butt easy," Sakura replied flippantly. "Even before Ralts showed up and kicked whoever that was out of you. You should be more sorry that you let someone do something like that to you."

Naruto had never been so relieved to hear about himself getting beaten up.

"Sakura-chan, you have no idea how glad I am to hear that, and I sure as hell ain't lettin' it happen again, but how'd the Teme get hurt?" Naruto asked.

"Orochimaru bit him," Sakura said glumly.

"You're kidding, right?" What really happened? It's gotta be pretty embarrassing if that's the best you could come up with." Naruto said, looking at Sakura pointedly.

"Does this look like I'm kidding?" Sakura asked, rolling Sasuke's head and showing Naruto the spot.

"Are we sure that guy wasn't a vampire or somethin'?" Naruto asked, as he inspected the half-healed punctures and the strange mark that had formed between them.

"Vampires aren't real, moron," Sakura replied sourly. "Besides, the sun's still up, remember?"

"Good point. Should we take him to get help?" Naruto asked. "A doctor or somethin'?"

"No, I wish we could, but I don't think it's a good idea," Sakura replied. "Orochimaru said if we left the forest, or avoided the genin he sent after us, he'll kill the people we care about, and then us."

"Dammit," Naruto cursed. "You think he'd really do it?"

"I don't doubt it at all, And that's not all..." Sakura replied, shivering at the remembered look in the Sannin's eyes.

Sakura went on to explain the team that Orochimaru had tasked with hunting them down, as well as her suspicion that the team would fight a lot more seriously than Orochimaru obviously had, and the fact that they would be carrying both scrolls when they arrived.

"Then we'll have to beat then," Naruto remarked when she finished. "Even if they track us down, we'll have some time to prepare, and we can't risk dragging Sasuke around like this. But once we got both scrolls, we can get to the tower and get him the help he needs."

"I've done a little preparation already," Sakura agreed. "Not much, but it should help hide us if someone wanders by.

Naruto looked toward the entrance and nodded in appreciation of her efforts.

"Good work, Sakura-chan, But where's Ralts-chan? She keepin' watch or somethin'?" He wasn't sure how he felt about that idea... Yeah, she'd know if someone was coming from a fair distance, and she could escape most enemies with ease thanks to teleport, but he still didn't want her taking too many risks she didn't have to.

"Why don't you ask her?" Sakura replied, sounding a bit odd and looking past him.

Naruto turned to see a pale girl with green hair held in pigtails by two large red clips, wearing what looked like a an odd white dress over green tights.

She also looked very annoyed with him.

Naruto's first impulse was to take Sakura's suggestion at face value and ask the girl where Ralts was, but good sense asserted itself before he could do so.

Afterall, how many people had really really white skin, green hair, and red eyes?

"Um... Ralts-chan?" He said hopefully, though a large portion of that hope was his desire to not be hit if he didn't get the apparent test right.

The girl shook her head, though a lot of the annoyance left, and she smiled mischievously.

"Kirlia!" She said, after letting Naruto stew a bit, and Naruto felt pleasure flood through the emotional link as she released the hold she's established, first to hide her excitement, then her disappointment and frustration.

"Kirlia-chan!" Naruto replied joyfully, his own happiness nearly eclipsing hers.

Kirlia bounced into Naruto's spread arms as he cheered, sharing the joy of their achievement.

Eevee slunk over to Sakura, who was covering her ears to protect herself from the overly exuberant celebration.

She looked down when her partner nosed her, meeting eyes with Eevee and easily seeing the worry in them.

"Hey, don't worry," She said soothingly, pulling Eevee into her lap. "Someone has to the last on a team to evolve, right? You'll evolve when you're good and ready. Until then, we'll just keep getting stronger, and show 'em all what a couple of commoners can do!"

"Vee!" The pokemon agreed proudly.

And 'Vee' is right, Sakura decided. Vee for victory, because no matter what, they were leaving this forest on top.

All of them, she reiterated, looking towards Sasuke.

---

AN:

I hope the read was worth the wait.

I apologize again for the seriously late update, I'm afraid it's highly unlikely that there will be one on the first of June, but I'll get it up as soon as possible.

To expand a bit on the note at the start, my outline didn't include half the stuff Orochimaru talked about, and the entire Kyuubi event was unexpected, and quite frankly, I now have to figure out what to do with the 'Lesser Kyuubi', since killing it off without reason would be rather wasteful.

To explain a bit more about how I see it's creation, the Biju are masses of living energy, which grow at a rate not dissimilar to other living things. Due to this, a jinchuuriki cannot drain a Biju dry, since it's generating energy at a rate faster than any human could absorb it.

Biju can however sacrifice a portion of their energy to create 'true demons', such as Kitsune, Kappa, Oni and the like, which are inherently indebted to the Biju who formed them. A fact they discovered while attempting to create their own version of pokemon.

Though, with Kyuubi's official abandonment of it, Lesser Kyuubi would owe no true allegiance to it's creator, a fact which makes it's long-term survival more likely, since Naruto wouldn't likely hesitate much if it tried helping Kyuubi get out again..

Anycase, that's a short summary of the thoughts that came to me while writing that section, and now I gotta figure out what to do with it... Sorry for the strange twist of events, hehe.

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For those curious, the fight against Orochimaru has been my planned trigger for Ralts' evolution since before I even started writing this, it was too appropriate in my mind to have it be otherwise. (Regardless of how much easier it'd have been to evolve her early and let her actually travel on her own)

I chose to use Reflect's Anime effect rather than it's fairly weak game effect because it's more interesting from a story perspective. It's not going to be a total stop for all attacks, (though Protect may be, it will have a few downsides when she learns it) and the only reason Kirlia was able to stop Orochimaru from shattering it was because of the extra power it held from 'Evolution overload' which is what I've decided to call the extra power pokemon seem to have if they evolve during a fight in the anime.

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Sasuke's goals: It's how I see his odd obsession with facing everyone he wants to kill head on rather than killing them via more easy methods, even after he gains the ability to Tsukiyomi anyone he doesn't like into a coma and slit their throat.

Additionally, this is from Sakura's perspective, so take it with a grain of salt. I'm not demonizing Sasuke, but he's still the type who will do almost anything if the potential gain is great enough. His decision making is just a bit more balanced at this point I believe.

---

Nakagakure:

A couple of reviewers pointed out that I hadn't said too much about the people of Nakagakure, so I'll do that now.

During the first Ninja World War, the various clans were scattered and generally solitary.

As is human nature, many of the more... unusual clans, be they aggressive or not, were harassed, abused, and in some cases, entirely obliterated by the more 'normal' ninja clans. (Think Kisame, Kidomaru, Jugo, and others who are visibly different, including the Hyuuga potentially.)

After coming across a clan of non-ninja which had been attacked unprovoked, a certain clan leader decided to bring their members into his own, and as this clan was nomadic in nature, they continued to wander the land collecting survivors as they moved around.

As more and more varied groups joined their group, they formed what would eventually become an organized tribe of various bloodline-bearing warriors dedicated to protecting each other as family.

Eventually, this group gained some notoriety, and Hashirama Senju, possessor of the Mokuton bloodline and leader of his own clan, decided to try creating his own version of the same, creating the first true village of clans bound by a pact of mutual protection.

While Hashirama, as well as a number of the other copycat village leaders tried to recruit the Nomads, the mistrust held by these survivors was too great for such an alliance to work, and eventually they ceased their nomadic ways, and created their own Hidden Village to protect themselves from the rest of the ninja world.

In their case, the village is truly hidden, with subterranean pathways being the only routes to and from the village. Those who have traveled there once, and are foolish enough to attempt it again uninvited often find themselves helplessly lost due to the Rock-type specialists who maintain the labyrinthine passages.

The village acts as mercenaries, often to the other ninja villages for projects that they cannot risk being linked to, or for tasks which are uniquely suited to the unusual inhabitants of the Nakagakure. Nakagakure has an operative or two in most villages, who accept missions for their ninja, and who seem to have no trouble contacting their home at a moment's notice.

As a result of their formation, and the founder's philosophy, children born to the village are raised communally, and while the child's heritage, parentage and bloodline are acknowledged, every member of the village is considered family by every other member.

This makes them very dangerous to doublecross, because they take such offenses very personally, especially one of their own is injured or killed as a result.

Citizens of Nakagakure are named three times. Their first, given name, is what they are called as a child by their caregivers. Their second, earned name, is awarded according to their skills when they are declared proficient in the basics of their chosen career (genin rank for ninja). And their third, chosen name, they pick themselves when they are declared adults (chunin rank, or age of adulthood, whichever comes first.)

However, it isn't unheard of for a person to prefer an earlier name. For reference, Shugorei and Kaeru use their Earned names, while Ao uses his Given name. The reason for this is that an Earned name usually says something about the bearer's nature or skills, and Ao prefers that the only information he shares be that which he chooses to.

Nakagakure has no native Legendary, and due to the rarity of genin from the village leaving their home for long, it is unusual for a Naka ninja to have a pokemon, and the quest to obtain one is often a solitary task undertaken by Tokubetsu or higher ninja.

The headband for Nakagakure is the Kanji for Naka within a circle. (A rectangle with a downward slash through it, to simplify)

I think that's enough about Naka for now, and probably more than will need to be known for a long while. The core inspiration for the village came from the Barbarois village in Vampire Hunter D, as did Benge, who is a member of that village in the movie.

My main desire for this village is a place from which to base characters that I think will be fun to play with, such as the genin trio, who are based on game characters. Pathfinder, Everquest, and a blend of various sources for the trio.

---

Review Response:

Sorry if this is a bit more sparse than the rest of the AN, been working on finishing this chapter up for about the last nine hours, so I may miss a review, or have thought I replied via PM, which I try to do when I can, if I do miss someone, throw something at me via PM and I'll reply there, or edit it in, hehe.

First off, I should thank you all for your input regarding Sakura and Lee's evolutions, I'm not sure when it'll happen, but I'm definitely keeping the crockpot of ideas cooking in the back of my head.

Kitsunedragon: Rest assured, I miss a fair number of grammar mistakes, and that's even with my tendency to go over the chapter at least twice after finishing it and before posting. But so long as I don't plothole myself into the next dimension, I'm mostly satisfied... Would the next dimension be the Digimon world? Never really watched that, so I hope not...

But to answer your question, essentially I'm using the 'Naruto world is the Pokemon world after a massively bad event' schtick. How bad? It's what led to Juubi's creation. I do plan to address that in a flashback chapter, so I won't leave ya hanging forever on that one, but it's a sub-arc in a post-Tsunade-retrieval arc, so it'll be a bit.

Anon: Eevee's current Moveset is 'Return', Helping Hand, Sand Attack, Double Team, Quick Attack, Bite, Work Up, and Dig.

She only has three more moves in her level list before I'll need to evolve her, which is why I asked for the recommendations last chapter. I really thought Eevee had more to learn... but apparently not, hehe. (Excluding six 'when appropriate' moves that I think would need certain criteria to use, Retaliate and Rest for example)

In comparison, Kirlia knows 12/29 of her potential moves, with eight criteria locked ones. And Charmeleon knows 15/37, with 5 criteria locked.

As you can probably guess, not every move they know has been used yet, and this only counts moves from 'In-game' that they learn naturally, and TM's which I think suit the pokemon in question.

Dunedain: Kabuto is still working for Orochimaru, but beyond that I'm not sure yet. I find him to be a fascinating character, but not one I would trust further than I could throw Chouji.

I do have a few ideas for Karin, but unfortunately I wasn't able to get to her return scene yet, next chapter though...

Csuperfish: Itachi is a secret good guy, same as in Canon, and it is possible that a Legendary will assist a ninja if their goals mesh, and given the Izanami/Izanagi 'My dreams are real' stuff, I wouldn't be too surprised if Darkrai and Cresselia had some connection to the Uchiha.

I do have a couple of ideas where such alliances will, or may, happen, and I look forward to writing them.

Rizaidym: I do hope to be able to use Kirlia's Telepathy in manners similar to it's in-game effect, just gotta find a way to do so that doesn't make me feel like I'm ripping off the rinnegan or something. It'll probably be something that's just now becoming viable too, since Ralts would have had trouble maintaining a constant link wide enough for that to work... Definitely something I need to focus more thought on soon, it'll become more valuable as they learn more techniques.

See above about Legendary partnerships, it may happen at some point in the future, especially if their ideals are a major factor in their natures. I do need to track down and watch that movie in the near future... Or is it Movies? Isn't that the paired one?

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Alrighty, I think that settles that, and I thank you all for reading and your kind reviews (and the occasional boot to the ass telling me to hurry up, odd as it may sound, it helps when work is being a bugger)

Hope you enjoyed,

-Mhyrloc