AN: Greetings everyone. I am happy because we are leaving what I like to call "Boring Shippuden" and entering into more of the interesting and plot progressing arcs. I would like to once again mention that I do not own anything but my oc and original moves that are featured in this story. Anyway as always I will respond to the comments that I see particularly memorable or relevant. Or in one case completely stupid.

LuffyxRobin-LuffyxNami – Normally I don't care if someone insults or flames this story. If you have your own opinion that's fine. I wrote this knowing I could not please everybody. However if you're going to make a completely inane and pointless remark about this story, do not use bad words that make yourself look like an unintelligent brute. I gave Naruto a new appearance and name to separate himself from his parents and their legacy, if you can't accept that, fine. But do not use foul language.

Azrael-Garm – Your question is one that I have seen a lot. I am not giving Menma/Naruto any of Minato's or Kushina's moves. I want Naruto to be as unlike the original Naruto as possible.

Anime55Kicker – I will admit I have no experience writing any romance and don't claim to be any good at it. And as I said earlier in this series there will be no lemons or limes. I feel as if that cheapens the value of the story.

I also wanted to mention that I will probably skip some arcs in the shinobi world war Arc due to deciding to focus the POVs only on Menma, Sasuke, and Shio. Anyway let's get to the story!

Chapter 26:

End of the Snake

(Orochimaru's Base)

Orochimaru coughed up blood as he lay in bed. His time in this body was nearing its end. He needed to begin the ritual to take Sasuke's body soon or he would die. He had just sent Kabuto to get him more medicine when he sensed a chakra outside the door. He looked up expecting Kabuto but coughed up blood as a pure green spear impaled his chest. The door was blasted apart and Sasuke entered the room, holding a glowing spear over his shoulder. Orochimaru gritted his teeth and spoke angrily "What is this, how could you betray me!?"

Sasuke narrowed his glowing green eyes and spoke "I am not betraying you. I was never on your side. You gave me the perfect resources to hone my ability without the restrictions of Konoha. But now your usefulness is at an end."

Orochimaru scowled "Do you think you can end me! I am immortal!"

Sasuke clenched his hand on his spear and it seemed to glow ominously "The spirits call for your blood Orochimaru. You who have betrayed thousands deserves nothing but hell!" Sasuke readied his spear and pierced Orochimaru's heart.

The Snake Sanin screamed in pain as his body burned from the inside and he exploded from the energy inside of him.

Sasuke stared at the mutilated chunks of meat in the room silently. He was surprised it was so easy to kill the snake sannin, weakened or not. Which was why he was prepared and jumped back the minute a large snake attempted to bite him. Sasuke smirked as he observed the white snake comprised of many smaller snakes and spoke "So your soul has been so twisted it reflects the body. Now you are just a snake. You are not even worthy of a human body so you must steal others."

Orochimaru grew angrier and shouted in his serpent like voice "Be quiet! I am immortal! You ssshall die!"

Sasuke sighed and disappeared, re-appearing after slicing the snake into piece with two short spears. He smelled the toxin the snake was releasing but ignored it. Orochimaru had long made him resistant to almost every poison. He would not test his resistance against his former comrade Menma, but he had enough to shrug off the paralytic poison. He was about to exit the room when the head of Orochimaru laughed. He sighed as he observed the laughing head "What does it take to finally kill you."

Orochimaru spoke, despite having his head disconnected from his lungs "I…am…immortal!" Suddenly Sasuke was transported to what appeared to be the stomach of a snake. He glanced around and saw three people trapped inside the fleshy belly. He immediately understood where he was. He was in the stomach of the White Snake Elder. This was where Orochimaru used his ritual to change bodies because it was supposedly impossible to escape from.

He was not worried, he had been planning a counter for the ritual since he learned of it three years ago. He looked in the distance and saw the real body of Orochimaru, also covered in the fleshy floor. The Uchiha ignored the flesh covering his body and activated the jutsu he had created to counter this technique. His green Sharingan eyes spun hypnotically and he shouted out "Mangekyou Sharingan! Yata Mirror!" This was the second ability of his mangekyou eyes, the power to reflect any attack once per day. Be it the most destructive nature manipulation, or the most subtle genjutsu to even the strongest sword thrust.

The ritual was completely reversed and Sasuke absorbed Orochimaru instead of the other way around, adding the power of the man to his own.

Back in the snake's room he left, briefly conversing with Kabuto before exiting the base, he had subordinates to recruit.

(Konoha)(2 Weeks later)

Team cloud hunter stood in the Hokage's office after hearing some shocking information.

Shio could barely believe her ears "Orochimaru is dead…killed by Sasuke!?"

Jiraiya nodded "Yes, all my spies in Orochimaru's ranks tell the same thing, the man is dead."

Menma frowned "That is all well and good but we need to focus on the Akatsuki, not the betrayer."

Shio rounded on Menma, frustrated. Just because Sasuke was not a part of the Akatsuki did not make him unimportant.

Menma noticed the look and spoke "Sasuke's goal in life is to murder Itachi, so ignoring him is the best method to take down the Akatsuki."

Shio bit her lip, she wanted to go after Sasuke to try and convince him to come home since he killed Orochimaru, but she also wanted to see the Akatsuki dead. She also knew Sasuke had the best chance of defeating Itachi due to his Sharingan. She sighed and nodded, accepting her former brother's logic.

Minato continued "Now, we are keeping Sasuke in the bingo book as an A-class missing nin, but I have secretly ordered the ANBU and hunter-nin to stop searching for him until he has either been killed or kills Itachi. If Sasuke returns to the village after killing Itachi he will be pardoned for his actions. However for now I have your next two targets. Your targets are Deidara of the Explosive palms and Tobi the phantasmal joker."

Menma nodded and once again entered into the spider consciousness.

(Land of Fire)(Forest Path)

Menma looked through a spiders eyes and saw Dediara and a masked man walking down the road. He remembered the blond ninja from the land of rivers. It turns out he was actually alive despite blowing himself up.

(Hokage's Office)

Menma opened his eyes and looked at the Hokage "They are currently near the town of Tanzuka Gai."

Minato nodded "Then you are to find and kill the Akatsuki before they find another Jinchurriki!"

Everyone nodded and disappeared to the village gates, each preparing for the fight ahead.

(Sasuke's POV)

Sasuke frowned as he observed the room of his first ally. He only knew this person in passing from reading Orochimaru's notes. Apparently Haku was not the last of the Hyoton wielders. The person behind this vault door was so skilled with the ice jutsu at an early age she attracted the attention of Orochimaru before the purge. Apparently she mixed managed to turn her ice black, similar to black lightning. This caused her clan to fear her and sell her to Orochimaru. She understood betrayal and would be perfect on his team. He conjured a small spear and used it to blast the door open. Upon entering he was assaulted by the freezing cold room. The vault was covered in black ice and sitting upon a frozen throne was a girl with white hair and icy blue eyes. She was so pale anyone who didn't know better would think she was a corpse.

The girl glared at the black haired intruder and spoke "Who are you and why have you entered my room?"

Sasuke shivered a bit at the emotionless voice. The girl could give Itachi a run for his money on the emotionless scale. He stepped forward and spoke "I require assistance against my brother, Itachi Uchiha. I am offering you freedom from this vault. After my brother is dead you can do what you want."

The white haired girl studied the Uchiha in front of her for a few minutes before nodding and stood up from her chair "That sounds like an acceptable deal. My name is Mikomi Yuki. I assume you're the Sasuke I heard my guards talk about?"

Sasuke nodded and they exited the lair together. He freed the other experiments and prisoners but none of them interested him enough to join his team.

They walked together for a time before Mikomi glanced at Sasuke "I know you're the type not to do things without a plan. I assume you already know the two other members of this team?"

Sasuke nodded "Yes, the two that I am interested in are Jugo and Karin. Jugo has a unique bloodline limit that forces him to transform into monstrous forms. Karin is a medic and one of the best sensors in Orochimaru's arsenal."

Mikomi nodded "Wise decisions. With your Sharingan you will be able to control Jugo's rage and Karin will act as the support to our group."

Sasuke grunted in agreement, happy that his first companion understood his reasoning.

(Land of Fire)(Akatsuki's Location)

Team cloud hunter arrived at a clearing where Shio sensed the chakra of the two Akatsuki members. The sensor looked around before looking up and widened her eyes "Dodge!" Everyone jumped away as a clay bird flew to the ground and exploded.

They took there stances when they saw the two Akatsuki members. Deidara put his hands in his pouches and spoke arrogantly "Well if it isn't the Konoha ninjas from the Land of Rivers. I still need to get revenge for cutting off my arms!"

He would have continued to taunt them but Shio appeared before them and slashed through Tobi. She was about to attack Deidara when she had to retreat from several small bombs. Kakashi looked at the downed form of Tobi and questioned Shio "Did you get him?"

Shio frowned as she thought back to what she sensed when she slashed through Tobi. From Orochimaru's reports the strange man had the ability to survive any attack through unknown means. Orochimaru had many theories from him being a genjutsu master to having a special bloodline limit. When she had cut through the man she felt no resistance and felt the chakra in his chest area disappear. She turned to her team and ignored Tobi's annoying voice arguing with Deidara and explained what she sensed "He seems to be able to turn insubstantial somehow. I would have detected an illusion. He can also make his chakra disappear so I assume he either can turn his entire body to nothing, or he transports his body parts somewhere else to avoid damaging himself."

Everyone nodded and Menma spoke "We should focus on Deidara while half our group focuses on Tobi. Do not use taijutsu against him, it seems to be ineffective against him."

Everyone nodded and split up.

(Menma, Shio, Lee, Mito vs Deidara)

Menma jumped back and spoke to his teammates "Distract him, ill end this quickly with senjutsu." The three Konoha ninja nodded and turned to Deidara. Shio began to swing her sword elegantly, sending waves of cutting wind at Deidara.

Lee stayed back and prepared his Turtle stance abilities to defend his allies. Mito jumped forward after the waves of wind to engage Deidara at close range.

Menma entered the tree lines and wrapped himself inside a chakra cocoon and began absorbing nature chakra for his transformation. He would be going up to level two this time.

10 seconds

Lee had to create a large dome of panels to defend the two swordswomen against Deidera's bombs.

Shio continued to use her wind abilities to counter Deidera's explosions and try and cut down the effeminate man. Mito used her natural sword style to jump around the explosions while trying to cut down the rapidly dodging man.

30 seconds

The fight continued until Deidara took to the sky and rained bombs down on the three ninja. The Konoha team were protected by Shio's wind wall and Lee's shields.

50 seconds

The fight had escalated to the point where Deidara was now riding a dragon against the three Konoha genin. However thanks to Lee's stances and Shio's wind wall nearly every single one of Deidara's attacks are negated.

1 minute

Both Deidara and the three Konoha genin paused when they felt a massive power coming from the forest.

Deidara looked to the forest confused before he widened his eyes as a large amount of spider silk emerged from the forest and pulled his dragon to the ground. He barely managed to get off it in time to avoid the collision. He struggled to stand up from the jarring landing and his eyes widened as he saw his new opponent. The Konoha genin had transformed into half man half spider. His upper torso was the same except for black tribal lines following his veins. However the strange aspect of his transformation is that his lower body was now a spider. He prepared bombs in his hands but was shocked when he blinked and the half spider was already in front of him and pierced both his shoulders with its blade like legs. He looked up at the face of his opponent and knew he was going to die.

(With Menma)

As soon as Menma wrapped himself in a cocoon he felt his body shift and expand due to his metamorphosis. The pain was intense but he had been extensively trained to resist the pain of the transformation. The toxin in his blood began pumping faster, making it appear as if he had tattoos where his veins are.

After a minute of gathering the necessary energy he sent his chakra in a wave around him to blast the cocoon apart. He looked up to the sky to see the blond Akatsuki member flying on a white dragon he shot dragons of spider silk from his chakra and brought it to the ground. With his enhanced legs he shot at the Akatsuki member at fast speeds, piercing the man's shoulders and injecting him with one of his strongest toxins, his own blood.

Deidara knew he was dying. He felt the poison course through his veins so he knew he had only one option "If I'm going to die I'm taking you all with me fuckers!" He released a storage seal on his tonge and swallowed his suicide bomb sculpture. Soon black lines emerged all over his body and he was absorbed into a pac man like disk that shown with intense light.

Menma realized the danger and quickly grabbed all of his allies and disappeared into a plume of smoke, using the seals on his allies fighting further away to evacuate them as well.

Deidara barely could form a sentence with all his chakra being pumped into the explosive but he managed to shout out his belief to the world one last time "ART IS AN EXPLOSION!"

Many outlying villages would report a massive blue explosion that could be seen and felt for miles on end. In his final moments Deidara made his mark on the world. The scar his explosion left would never heal and would be known as the dead scar.

(Forbidden forest)

Kakashi, Shio, Mito, Yakumo, Lee, and Yamato opened their eyes to see a large expanse of forest covered in spider webs. They were in the middle of what appeared to be a city made of the silken strands. Menma was back to normal except his shirt was completely shredded.

Kakashi looked around and put his headband back over his eye before speaking "Where are we?"

Menma answered after unsealing a black turtleneck and putting it on "The summoning realm of the spider clan. Deidara was planning on blowing up that entire area in a suicide bombing. What happened with you four? Did you manage to kill Tobi?"

Yakumo growled as she spoke up "No, the annoying bastard was slippery. Every time we attacked he would somehow get away or turn intangible. The only attack that even made him worried was Kakashi's Mangekyou Sharingan."

Menma frowned "I see, then we cannot conclude if he is alive or dead from Deidara's explosion then."

Before anyone else could respond the Konoha ninja heard a voice "It has been a long time that a human not a part of our summoning contract has set foot in this sacred forest. I hope you do not make this a common occurrence, Menma."

Team cloud hunter looked around and saw a beautiful black haired woman in a black dress with silver web designs. Menma stepped forward and bowed slightly "Lady Arachne. I am sorry for bringing them here but there was no other choice. The enemy we were fighting used a large ranged technique that would have killed them all."

Arachne nodded in understanding "Yes, I sensed the death of many spiders in your area. It is a tragic loss."

Shio walked forward "I remember you, I fought against you three years ago."

Arachne turned around "Ah yes, you were that girl. I would say it is nice to see you again but humans besides our summoner are normally not welcome here. Since the explosion has passed I will ask you to leave, or the others will grow restless."

Everyone but Menma tensed slightly as they heard the scuttling of thousands of arachnids. Menma however remained calm and nodded his head "I thank you for your hospitality Arachne-sama. We will be leaving."

Arachne smiled kindly at her summoner "Yes, go. But do return for a visit Menma. It is so nice to be able to chat with a person who can talk back."

Menma nodded and they disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Arachne frowned as she watched the spider summoner disappear. Soon it would be time for Menma's final test with the spider clan. She hated deceiving her summoner but it was necessary for the continuation of the spider clan.

He would have to pass the final trial just as she did so long ago.

(Konoha)

After re-appearing near the village they reported to the Hokage.

Minato read the report and smiled at the team. He was right to assign team 7 and 9 to track down the Akatsuki. They were becoming one of the strongest teams he had available in Konoha. He put down the report "Congratulations everyone. You have defeated another member of the Akatsuki and retrieved another one of the rings. It is a shame that Tobi escaped but you have retrieved vital information on his abilities which will help us the next time we run across him. You will be awarded the mission payment and a week's rest."

Everyone smiled at the news, feeling optimistic for the future.

However, little did they know that another team had just formed with the same goals. The destruction of the Akatsuki.

(Unkown location)

Sasuke stood before the three ninja he had picked. Mikomi Yuki, Jugo, and Karin Uzumaki. He evaluated each before speaking "For now we will move as a single unit. We will be known as team Hebi. Our goal is the death of Itachi Uchiha and anyone associated with him. If you follow me we will work to accomplish your own goals as well after Itachi is dead."

Everyone nodded and they began jumping through the forest to a nearby town to gather information on Itachi.

As they traveled Sasuke's eyes glowed green 'Soon brother, vengeance shall be mine!'

AN2: And that's that for chapter 26. I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter. Now I want to address my latest OC in this chapter. I replaced Suigestsu with Mikomi because I just didn't get why Sasuke included him in the group. His personality does not mesh well with the team at all, he has no special power besides his water body technique (Which can be countered easily with lightning). I decided to make my own character slightly inspired by Lissandra. Mikomi Yuki will use powers similar to my MC in the Frozen Mask. Anyway if you have any comments feel free to let me know.