Naruto, the Hidden Genius of the Leaf
Chapter 12
Next mourning finds those who passed the first part of the test standing outside the dreaded Forest of Death, and by just looking at it one can tell it deserves its name
"Alright welcome to Training Ground 44, otherwise known as the Forest of Death!" called out Anko cheerfully "Glad you all made it, means more blood to be had"
"Naruto, you've been here before right?" asked Sasuke
"Yeah, I've been going in there for a few years now" replied Naruto "It's a great place to loot the dead and get some new jutsu scrolls and all kinds of weapons, plus any cash they had on them"
"You're the one who's been doing that?!" asked Anko in shock "Man kid you must have balls of steel or something"
"You could say that" replied Naruto as he thought about just how well endowed he was
"*cough* Anyway let me explain what this test is" said Anko "Your objective is to get to the tower in the center of the forest with both a heaven scroll and a earth scroll. Each team will get only one which means there will be fifteen of each scroll"
"Wow that means there's a good chance that we'd make it" Sakura told her teammates
"We also planned something extra this year" continued Anko "There is one ocean scroll hidden in the forest and if you find it, so long as you have one of the other two you can head to the tower. Find and bring back all three and you'll get a special reward"
"What kind of reward?" asked Kankuro
"A jutsu scroll from one of our shinobi's libraries for your team" answered Anko "That means only one scroll, not one for each member"
This got everyone's attention as a new jutsu scroll is very valuable to any ninja worth their salt
"Now on to the rules" said Anko "First off, you have five days to reach the tower. Failure to due to so means you're done, and you have to stay in the forest for the entire five days"
"But what about food and water?" complained Choji
"There's plenty of things to eat in the forest, just watch out for the poisoned plants and animals" said Anko "Now rule number two, you must have all members of your team with you. If one of them dies or becomes incapacitated, you're done. Third, you are not allowed to look in any of the scrolls, as chunin you'll be tasked with carrying classified documents. That's one of the main points of this test, to see of you're trustworthy to carry important and classified documents, the other is survival"
"Man this sounds a lot harder than the first part" said a random genin from the Hidden Waterfall
"That's the point" said Anko "This isn't meant to be a walk in the park. Oh also I'm going to need you to sign these release forms so our village isn't responsible for your deaths, as some of you will die. So if you don't want to possibly die leave"
While a lot of the genin were nervous they all stayed and signed the release forms and then given one of the scrolls. Once everyone was given their scrolls Shade burst out of the forest and walked over to Anko
"Ah there you are" said Anko as she pulled out a blue capped scroll "Here's the ocean scroll, keep it away from these maggots alright?"
"Got it" replied Shade as Anko tied the scroll to his side inside a scroll case. Then ran back into the woods
"Was that a kitsune?" asked Temari
"Sure was, though not entirely sure why its taken to hanging around here" replied Anko "Just know that ya can't kill him no matter what, you'll have to get the scroll from him in another way"
"Why can't we kill it?" asked Sakura
"Because he has some powerful friends who'd get revenge on who ever killed him" answered Anko "Now head to your assigned gate and get ready to start"
(Line Braek)
Everyone headed to the gate that they were assigned to to get ready for the test to begin
"Naruto which scroll did we get?" asked Sasuke
"The heaven scroll" replied Naruto "So, who's going to carry it?"
"Sasuke should have it" said Sakura
"You keep it Naruto, I trust you to keep it safer than I can" said Sauke
"Fair enough" replied Naruto as he sealed the scroll into a storage seal tattoo on his left arm
"I should it get one of those" noted Sauke
"Maybe after we get to the tower" said Naruto "It takes sometime to make them"
"Alright!" called Anko over the speakers "Get ready! Get set! Gooooooo!"
The gates opened and everyone ran into the forest to hunt down the other teams as well as Shade as he had the ocean scroll. Team 7 was running along when Naruto suddenly said that he had to go to the bathroom
"Naruto don't do that near me I'm a lady!" cried Sakura
"That's debatable, but I wasn't even going to do in the first place" said Naruto with annoyance before leaving to take care of business
As Naruto was relieving himdelf, he sensed someone landed behind him. He he turned in anger he saw that the guy behind him was staring in shock at how large Naruto was. Naruto didn't waste anytime and quickly killed the pervert by jabbing his clawed hand into his chest before fixing his pants, taking anything of worth off the dead ninja and heading out to find his teammates
"Hey guys you'll never believe what happened to me while I was taking a leak" said Naruto as he came back to the group
"Prove you're the real Naruto" demanded Sasuke as he pulled a kunai
Naruto discreetly showed Sasuke his Sharingan, proving he was the real deal
"Alright, he's the real Naruto" Sasuke told Sakura as he put his kunai away
"How can you be so sure!?" yelled Sakura as she pulled out her own kunai "All he did was look towards you!"
"I have the Sharingan for one, which allows me to see threw a henge" said Sasuke "And second no one can replicate the look in Naruto's eyes when he's serious"
"If you're sure..." said Sakura as she put her kunai away
Suddenly a massive gust blew at them, sending them all flying. Naruto tried to hold his ground and stay with the others, but as he was caught off guard was blown away from them
"Damn it, and I'm a wind type, I should know when one is being used near me" complained Naruto who then sensed that something was eyeing him
What he saw was a very large snake looking down at him as if he was prey
"Don't even think about it" warned Naruto
Either the snake didn't hear him, or didn't care as it lunged at him at high speeds. However Naruto quickly changed into his true form (It's where his tails and ears are shown, it's not when he changes completely into a fox) and blasted the snake with a high dose of Foxfire, completely incinerating it
"Hmmm there aren't any snakes that get that big in this forest, so that means..." said Naruto as he quickly realized that Anko's former master Orochimaru was in the forest, and most likely was the one who used that wind jutsu to separate them "Shit! I gotta find Sasuke and Sakura fast!"
"What's wrong?" asked Shade as he came running over
"It's Orochimaru! He separated me from Sasuke and Sakura!" yelled Naruto "Go get help, this might be the only chance we have of stopping him!"
"Gotcha, just be safe" replied Shade as he ran off, but not before leaving behind the ocean scroll he had
Naruto quickly used a Chakra String to grab it as he dashed off to find his friends. As he ran Naruto sealed the scroll away alongside the one they already had
(Line Break)
Sasuke and Sakura landed hard up high in the trees as the wind knocked them into the air
"Ow, oh man I hope Naruto is alright" moaned Sasuke as he got up
"Lets not do that again" complained Sakura who was in quite a bit of pain as her body wasn't muscular enough to take the lading as well as she should have
"Kukukukukuku what do we have here?" pondered a grass ninja creepily as he and his teammates appeared on the other side of the branches they were on "Leave us, I'll deal with them"
The other two ninjas jumped away leaving only Sasuke and Sakura with the very creepy grass ninja
"What is that you want?" asked Sakura nervously
"This is the scroll you need?" asked the ninja as he held out a earth scroll for them to see, before opening his mouth and swallowing it whole
"Honestly, we don't know" replied Sasuke "Naruto's the one who has our scroll and dealt with a different ninja before we got separated, so we don't know if that guy had the scroll we needed"
Orochimaru didn't like the fact that Naruto was the one who had the scroll and not Sasuke as while not a major issue to his plans, would have made things easier as he was planning on destroying Team 7's scroll to force Sasuke to use the Curse Mark he was going to give him
"I didn't think you'd be foolish enough to give something so important to such a buffoon, but no matter" said Orochimaru "We shall fight to the death for the scroll I have"
Orochimaru then unleashed his Ki upon Sasuke and Sakura, but the effect wasn't what he expected. Sakura passed out entirely while Sasuke only seem mildly fazed
"Naruto's Ki is far worse than this" said Sasuke "He proved that yesterday, it made a massive amount of teams to go running before the first test as they just couldn't handle how potent it was"
Orochimaru blinked owlishly for a few moments as he processed what he just heard, a fresh rookie genin was able to make stronger Ki than he was not something the man was going to believe
Orochimaru then launched himself at Sasuke to engage him in a taijutsu battle, all so he can gauge Saskue's body potential to be his vessel when the time comes. Sasuke quickly realized that he was going to need his Sharingan to have a chance of avoid getting hit and landing his own blows
The fight went on for a few minutes before both ninja jumped back and started preforming handseals
"Fireball Jutsu!" cried Sasuke as he fired off a large fireball
"Water Gun Shots Jutsu!" yelled Orochimaru as he fired off a barrage of high pressured balls of water
The two jutsus clashed, but as water is strong against fire Orochimaru's attack overwhelmed Sasuke's. Sasuke quickly jumped back to avoid getting hit and also threw down some smoke bombs to try to get some cover
"That's not going to to work" mocked Orochimaru as he performed the Wind Style: Breakthrough, a weaker version of the Great Breakthrough jutsu, to blow the smoke away
Sasuke threw a large number of shurakin at Orochimaru that has ninja wire attached to them, allowing Sasuke to bind Orochimaru to the tree behind him
"Take this" said Sasuke as he held the end of the wires in his mouth "Dragon Fire Jutsu!"
Orochimaru was hit head on by the powerful fire attack and was slightly burned by it, but as he switched places with a nearby mud clone he didn't take as much damage as he would have. Not that Sasuke knew that yet
"Did I get him?" pondered Sasuke as he looked around for the enemy
"Get who?" asked Sakura weakly as she started to wake up
"The guy who attacked us" replied Sasuke "Stay down and out of the way"
"Kukukukukuku" laughed Orochimaru "Yes your potential is great Sasuke Uchiha, I think I shall give you a gift"
"Wha?" said Sasuke in confusion, before being hit by Orochimaru's Ki again which caused him to freeze in place. Orochimaru quickly preformed the necessary handseals before elongating his neck to bite Sasuke
"Sasuke!" yelled a fully human Naruto as he shoved Sasuke out of the way, just as Orochimaru went to bite down. Causing him to bite Naruto in the crook of his neck
"Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" screamed Naruto in sever pain as the curse marks of heaven, earth and ocean appeared where Orochimaru bit him
Orochimaru however was hit by a massive dose to Naruto's demonic energy which made him very nauseous, but he still managed to bite the stunned Sasuke before fleeing to throw up and recover
"That boy isn't normal" noted Orochimaru "But with those Curse Seals on him, I'll be able to find out why when he comes to me"
Both Naruto and Sasuke collapsed in pain due to the Curse Marks placed on them
Sakura was left alone to watch over her teammates while they were knocked out in a small cave she found not long after the fight
(Line Break)
Naruto awoke in what appeared to be the center of the village, but with some major differences. One the sky was gray with black clouds, and two there wasn't anyone around
'Where am I?' pondered Naruto as he called out "Kurama are you there? Speak to me!"
"Naruto, be careful that bite did something funny to your chakra!" warned Kurama, but his voice sounded distant and ghostly
"Bite? Damn it I got one of those damned Curse Marks didn't I?" swore Naruto when he realized what happened when he went to save Sasuke from being bitten
"Yes you did" confirmed a dark voice from behind Naruto
Naruto looked over and saw three dark shadowy versions of himself standing not that far away from him
"What's this? Three of you?" questioned Naruto
"Yessss two, for you see you got the seals for heaven, earth and sea" explained both aberrations at the same time "Ssssoooon you'll be consumed by the darknesssss forever!"
"Not going to happen" said Naruto as he called upon his kitsune powers changing into his true form "You three are nothing more than parts of Orochimaru's soul and corrupt sage chakra, too bad for you my yoki is far stronger"
"We'll see about that!" yelled the three dark Narutos as they called upon the power of the Curse Mark
It wasn't much of a fight as Naruto's yoki and Foxfire burned away the dark vile chakra the three dark Naruto's threw at him. Plus making peace with his own inner darkness shortly before graduating helped to. Thus Natuto vanquished the two wannabe dark Narutos and gained full control over the three Curse Marks, purifying them of Orochimaru's influence
"Hey Kurama, what happens now?" asked Naruto as he found his way to the great kitsune
"In all honesty, not much" answered Kurama "The powers that the Curse Mark would have given you, you already had gained when you became part kitsune. Also congrats on gaining your fifth tail"
"Huh?" said Naruto as he looked behind him and saw that he indeed gained his fifth tail "Sweet I got five tails now"
"Yes and a lot more power to go with it" said Kurama "But back to the topic on hand, the two Curse Marks will make it easier to learn Sage Mode when you are old enough to learn it. As well as a small power boost, but gaining your fifth tail absorbed that boost, so that's a mute point. I guess if anything if you managed to get the second stage of it, you'd gain some freaky transformation that's not kitsune related. But meh who knows"
"You know I just thought of something" said Naruto "Two of the Curse Marks match with two of my nature affinities"
"That is interesting, but you should wake up" said Kurama "I sense you're in danger"
(Line Break)
(Two Days)
And in danger Naruto was as the team from Sound, who barely managed to stay put when Naruto unleashed his Ki yesterday, were trying to get to Sasuke to kill him. But a injured Team 10 was standing in their way, along with Lee and Sakura. But Sakura was dead weight anyway and of no help in the fight to protect Sasuke
"*Huff* *huff* I wish Naruto or Sasuke would wake up" complained Shikamaru "We can't hold these three off forever"
"I know, but they're counting on us to protect them until they do" replied Choji "So keep fighting!"
"Yes we can't let these unyouthful foes take our comrades from us" agreed Lee
"Just die already!" yelled Rin as she tossed more senbon at them
Zaku fired off another blast of Slicing Sound Waves at the group knocking them all to the ground before calling out "It's time to end this little game Supersonic Air Slice!" firing off a far more powerful version of the Slicing Sound Waves at them, dealing a massive amount of damage to them
Just then a powerful dark aura is felt as Sasuke wakes up and comes out of the cave partially covered by the Curse Mark asking his friends in a dark tone "Who did this to do?"
"I did!" brags Zaku "What are you going to do about it?"
"This" answered Sasuke as he suddenly appeared behind Zaku grabbing hold of his arms and began pulling them backwards
"Gah!" cried Zaku in pain
"You seem attached to these arms of yours" said Sasuke darkly "How about we fix that" and began pulling even harder, trying to rip them off
Zaku began crying out even more, when suddenly an even more powerful dark aura erupted as Naruto awoke covered in three different markings as he came out of the cave saying in a calm tone "Sasuke that is enough, this isn't you"
"Who says?" demanded Sasuke "You have this amazing power to right? Relish in it and crush our enemies into oblivion with me!"
"I think not" said Naruto as he moved incredibly fast and knocked Sasuke out, which caused the Curse Mark to recede
"Please don't kill us" begged Dosu "Just take our scroll and let us go"
"Fine, toss it over and get out of my sight" snapped Naruto
Dosu quickly complied and left with his two teammates as fast as they could
Naruto then sent out a pulse of yoki to remove the remaining influence Orochimaru might have had still, this caused the dark aura around him to turn dark red and the markings to merge into a large tattoo around where the three Curse Marks are located that reached down to just past his left elbow, and covered his entire left shoulder/pectoral. Not that anyone noticed yet as it was under his clothing where no one could see it
"You okay Naruto?" asked Shikamaru with worry "You had similar markings on you as well and that dark aura, before that dark red appeared and replaced it"
"Yeah, I'm fine" replied Naruto as he recalled the aura "Those markings force those who are cursed by them to face their inner darkness, only it's empowered by the Curse Mark and much harder to defeat"
"I take it you won?" asked Choji
"I made peace with my inner darkness before I was cursed, so what appeared to try to take control over me was hopelessly overpowered. Especially due to a particular set of circumstances that gave me another source of power to call upon to help get rid of that foul darkness"
"Any idea type of energy that darkness was?" asked Shikamaru "It'd help in finding a way to counter it"
"You know how Lord Jiraiya is known as the Toad Sage?" asked Naruto
"Yeah" replied Shikamaru
"Well it's not just because he can summon toads, no it's because the toads taught him how to harness Narture Chakra threw Sage Mode" explained Naruto "That's the type of energy the Curse Marks use, but twist and corrupt it into something dark and foul"
"Man I hope Sasuke can either get rid of the Curse Mark, or gain control over it" said Choji
"How did you two get them in the first place?" asked Ino
"We were attacked by Orochimaru, and I shoved Sasuke out of the way when he tried to bite him the first time" answered Naruto "Only that's how he places the Curse Mark on someone, so that's how I got it and he must have bitten Sasuke after I passed out"
"If Orochimaru is around, then we really need to get out of this forest" said Shikamaru with panic in his voice
"He's already gone" said Naruto "I may not have sensed him when he attacked us, but now that I know what his chakra signature is he can't hide from me anymore"
"How far can you sense someone?" asked Ino
"If I stood in the middle of the village, I could sense someone up to the gates easily and know who exactly it is" answered Naruto "Pass that, it gets harder to tell the difference between the different chakra signatures"
"That's impressive" noted Choji
"Yes, but we should get moving" said Shikamaru
"Let me wake Sasuke first" said Naruto as he brought out some smelling salts and held them under Sasuke's nose
"Ugh... what happened?" asked Sasuke as he came to "The last thing I remember is feeling this dark power overwhelm me and then nothing"
"I'll explain fully latter" said Naruto "But just know that when we got bit by Orochimaru, we got that dark power you felt"
"Dear Kami, I didn't hurt anyone we know did I?" asked Sasuke with fear in his eyes
"No, but you almost ripped someone's arms off" answered Lee who everyone seemed to forget was still there "It was a very unyouthful thing to see, but even more so to hear how you got it"
"I fear something big is coming" said Naruto "But I just don't know what"
"Hey Naruto, did that ninja that tried to jump you have the scroll we needed?" asked Sasuke
"He sure did, the moron" answered Naruto "I mean his team is out of the exam due to the fact that got their scroll and killed their teammate in one fist to the chest"
"Jeez Naruto, did you really have to kill someone?" asked Ino who was shocked that Naruto killed someone
"Less competition that way, plus I've already killed people before. Right Sasuke?" said Naruto
"Yeah, all those bandits that had stayed on the bridge were burned to ashes with that blue Foxfire of yours" confirmed Sasuke "It was one of the most impressive things I've ever seen"
"Foxfire? What's that?" asked Ino
"Think of it as a bloodline ability, except it's not" answered Naruto "I can summon it using that other energy I have along with my chakra"
"Can I see it?" asked Ino
"Maybe when we get to the tower, which we should be doing right now" answered Naruto
Everyone then stopped the conversation, grabbed Sakura and headed out to the tower
Note: Someone asked if Naruto was going to get the Curse Mark or not, well yes he clearly is. But as I said, they're aren't really going to give him any benefits due to him being part kitsune already gave him similar powers. There is something that they will do something for him latter on that his kitsune powers can't. They will also make learning Sage Mode easier for Naruto when he does learn it, how much is yet to be seen
Also if you haven't noticed Sasuke isn't a antisocial emo like in cannon and wants friends and people close to him to help fill the void left by the death of most of his clan. But he still has that darkness within him like in cannon, how that'll play out in time you all will have to wait and see