Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

Posted: 12/18/12

Chapter 5: Orochimaru

If the Kyuubi had been sealed inside Naruto, there is a good chance it would have been unleashed now. Sanding in his dad's office was the one man that had caused Naruto so much pain in his previous timeline. The one who was responsible for the death of his grandfather figure and many other of his comrades. The one responsible for taking his best friend away and turning him down a path of darkness…Orochimaru.

Naruto studied the snake for some hint as to whether this was a different Orochimaru or if this was the same Orochimaru as the one from the original timeline. Sadly, it was easy to tell that this Orochimaru held very little respect for the man he was facing and even a hint of hatred. He had most likely been masking his emotions, but some of it still managed to seep out. This was the Orochimaru who would betray the village and come back, only to try and raze it to the ground.

Naruto wanted to kill this man. He wanted to kill him before anything bad could happen. He didn't want to give Orochimaru another second to scheme and plan his destruction of the village. If it wasn't for the fact that he was still a three-year-old, he would have lunged at the man with all his might and killed him. However, he knew that he currently did not have the power to handle this snake nor could he with his dad around and most likely a half dozen ANBU hiding in the shadows of the room. Naruto knew Orochimaru was due to betray the village any day now. He remembered Jiraiya saying something like this. If he remembered correctly, it would be soon that Orochimaru left. If everything played out as it had in the original timeline, Orochimaru would return during the chunin exams in Konoha, just after he became a genin. If everything worked out correctly, it was there that he'd do away with the snake once and for all, assuming his dad didn't do anything first.

Orochimaru turned and left the office after handing the Hokage a document. Before he left, Naruto caught that grin that he had known meant Orochimaru was up to no good. However, getting worked up would not help and Naruto did his best to calm himself down.

For the rest of the night, Naruto did his best to mask his emotions. He was forcing himself not to act and allow everything to flow naturally. This time travel stuff really was tricky. The more he changed, the less he knew. It was all about choosing the right moment to act. Should he act too early, the future becomes cloudy and uncertain and he would no longer be able to prevent certain things from happening. Would he act too late, the future that he had escaped from would return and his efforts would have been for nothing. And unfortunately, now was not the right time. No, the right time was definitely the chunin exams, when it was just he and Orochimaru in the Forest of Death.

Minato arrived at his office early the next morning, only to have a staff member from the hospital knock on his door. "Hokage-sama. There is something you need to see" said the doctor in an urgent tone. Minato rushed off, following the doctor as he was led to a room in the hospital. On the bed in the room layed a young purple-haired girl who he recognized as Mitarashi Anko, Orochimaru's student. She looked to be in extreme labor and pain as multiple monitors were hooked up to her, monitoring her vitals.

"I see that she is having some sort of medical condition, but why does this involve me?" asked Minato. It was not his duty to see to the affairs of the hospital, even if one of his ninja was hospitalized. That was the duty of Konoha's Surgeon General.

"It's because of what is causing her condition, Sir" said the medic on duty as he rolled Anko's neck over to reveal a bruise that was shaped like three tomoe….Orochimaru's Cursed Seal of Heaven.

"What…?" said Minato in shock. He took a look at the mark and realized that it was indeed some sort of cursed seal. "Wake her up."

"But sir, she's in extreme pain. Waking her up would just be cruel" said the medic.

"I only need a minute to ask a single question. I need to confirm a suspicion" Minato replied. The doctor complied, administering the reagent to her IV that would counteract the anesthesia. A few minutes passed and Anko began to stir, before crying out in pain and clutching her neck.

"It…th-the pain" she creid out.

"Anko, please. I need to ask you one thing" said Minato as the doctors did their best to restrain her. "Where did you get that mark?"

"Or…orochimaru" she said before shutting her eyes at the pain. Minato sighed as the doctors re-administered the anesthesia.

Minato closed his eyes for a moment in thought. He had suspected Orochimaru of doing experiments on this level, but until now, he didn't have proof. He turned to one of the ANBU. "Boar, get the Sandaime and the rest of your company and be in my office in 15."

"Hai, Hokage-sama" the ANBU addressed his leader before taking off.

Fifteen minutes later, Minato, Sarutobi, and a company of four ANBU were inside a sealed office. "For months, I've been suspicious of a certain shinobi's actions. Just last week, one of the ANBU uncovered a laboratory that had been used for human experimentation. Inside, we found the bodies of 14 toddlers. Thirteen of them are already dead with one in critical condition. They were subjects of said experiments. Just minutes ago, Mitarashi Anko was admitted to the hospital in severe condition with what appeared to be some sort of juinjutsu on her neck. It was then that my suspicions into the shinobi's identity were confirmed. The one responsible for these atrocious acts is…Orochimaru" said Minato.

"Minato…are you sure?" said Sarutobi in shock. He did not want to believe that Orochimaru was responsible for such monstrosities, one of his own students. However, in the back of his mind, he knew that it was Orochimaru. He had noticed his student becoming ever more isolated and frustrated with the village ever since Minato was appointed Hokage. In fact, there was a reason he didn't appoint the genius Sanin Hokage and in his mind, he couldn't dismiss the fact that he saw this coming.

"I am. Prepare yourselves. I've learned of the location of one of his secret laboratories and I intend to end his experiments once and for all" said Minato. He turned towards the door with the four ANBU in his trail.

"Minato…wait" called out the Sandaime. "I'm coming with you. Orochimaru was my student and it is my responsibility to see that he is punished for his crimes." The Sandaime ripped off his clothes, revealing his black battle armor underneath.

The ANBU who Minato had appointed to trail Orochimaru and investigate these laboratories let the company of six deep into the tunnels and catacombs beneath Konoha. At the end of the damp tunnel, there was a door that was cracked open.

The six took positions outside the door before bursting into the room. The sight was not pretty. Orochimaru was standing over a table that had what looked to be the remnants of a dissected human body. Blood covered the table and around the room were bodies practically sewn to the wall.

"Heh, it looks like you've finally found me" hised the snake. "How unfortunate."

"Orochimaru! What's the meaning of this?!" exclaimed the shocked Sandaime. All six of the ninja were stunned at the scene that was before them. They had prepared themselves for anything, but this was still just too much.

"I was surprised someone made it through all my traps, but considering who's here, I'm actually not surprised" said Orochiamru.

"So you're the one responsible for the disappearance of many ninja and children alike" said Minato, glaring at Orochimaru. "And this explains your strange behavior as well."

"Orochimaru…why would you of all shinobi do a thing like this?" asked one of the ANBU. The ANBU was silenced when Orochimaru mentioned killing the ANBU.

"Speak! What were you doing here?" demanded the Sandaime.

"Well, it's useless to play dumb I suppose. I've been working on developing a jutsu!" explained Orochimaru.

"You've been experimenting on humans for a purpose of developing a jutsu?!" exclaimed a disgusted Minato.

"Kinjutsu, huh…" sighed the Sandaime. "What on earth did you hope to achieve?"

"Everything there is" explained the Sanin. "I want to obtain all the jutsu and gain a true understanding of everything in this world…the first person to mix blue and yellow named that color green…I only want to do the same thing. If blue is the chakra and yellow is the seal, then green is the jutsu. But, in order to obtain every possible jutsu and truth, it would require an eternity, you see…only the one who understands everything after spending such time on this can be fittingly call the 'ultimate being'. Sadly, the life of the body is too short. When you die, everything ends there…"

"Orochimaru…you can't…that jutsu can't be…" said the Sandaime.

"Yes, it's what you think…" said the Sanin. "The 'Spell of Immortality'."

Minato disappeared in a flash and reappeared behind Orochimaru, digging his own kunai into the back of the snake's chest. "What you've been doing is wrong by all means. It violates the very foundations of humanity and morals. Your ambitions will end here…huh?" Minato stopped his talking with the sound of Orochimaru's laughter.

"Oh I will live on. And I will perfect my immortality. Once I do, I'll be back and the village you've come to know and love will be at the mercy of my will. When I return…the Leaf will burn" said Orochimaru as he slumped over and a plaster-like substance peeled away from his face.

"Another body?" said Minato.

"Orochimaru…what path are you going down, what are you becoming?" growled Hiruzen.

The four ANBU and two Kages surrounded the body that they had originally thought of as Orochimaru. A quick examination revealed it to be nothing more than a corpse that Orochimaru had been manipulating in his place. It was clear that Orochimaru had already left and no one knew where he had disappeared to.

The six of them returned to Minato's office going over what they had just seen. One thing was clear, Orochimaru had abandoned the village in pursuit of his own selfish ambitions. From now on, he would be classified as an S-class criminal, which practically amounted to a kill-on-sight order for the Sanin.

A knock was heard on the office of the door. "Hokage-sama, come quickly! Jiraiya-sama's at the village gates and he appears injured!"

Minato and Hiruzen rushed to the village gate to find Jiraiya receiving medical attention to his injuries, in particular an arm. He looked over at his student and sensei with a regretful look. "I'm sorry. I couldn't stop him. Orochimaru…is gone, abandoned the village."

A few people who had gathered gasped. Orochimaru, one of the heroes of two wars…abandoned the village? Minato stood up to speak. "Yes. We recently learned that Orochimaru had been conducting underground experiments that defy the very principals of humanity for atleast the past few months. When we confronted him earlier, we saw that he was no longer the Orochimaru that you looked up to in during the war. He has abandoned the village and he has threatened to return only to destroy the Leaf" said Minato. A few people gasped in horror. "But do not fear. Do not worry. We, the Leaf, are strong. Orochimaru cannot break us and he will pay dearly for his crimes against humanity! As of today, Orochimaru is considered a traitor of Konoha and will be treated as one. Should he ever dare come near the Leaf again, I will do everything in my power to ensure that he is the one who breaks, not Konoha!" Many of the people cheered at the Yondaime's declaration. In the back of the crowd was Kushina, holding Naruto. They were at the park when they saw Minato rush down the street and as a result followed. Naruto was practically beating himself up inside. He should have killed that snake when he had the chance, but from what he overheard from the conversation between his parents later than night, Orochimaru had left days ago, leaving behind a corpse copy of himself to deliver the message to his dad and Jiji.

Another few months passed, making it about three and a half years since Naruto had returned from the future and was born. The only thing he had dared to change, besides the Kyuubi attack, was the survival of Neji's father.

The training his parents had him doing was still nothing special, but it was better than nothing. Naruto knew that they didn't want to start training him right away, giving him some time to be a kid before entering the life of a shinobi, but they had decided to work with him a little until he turned 5. It was then that they would increase his training and really begin to work with him before he entered the academy in the spring of his sixth year.

All children desiring to be shinobi entered the academy at age six. This was a newer regulation put in place after the wars to ensure that shinobi weren't being pushed in and out of the academy system to a point where they were not ready to handle the responsibilities of being a shinobi. They would then remain in the academy for a total of six years with the first two years being basic schooling, such as mathematics, literature, and physics, with the true shinobi academy taking over in the third year of the academy and going for four years.

While this was not entirely what Naruto had planned, he couldn't argue with finally being able to be a kid for once. In his past timeline, he was practically neglected at the orphanage, being given the bare minimum to survive, until he was kicked out at age five. It was then that the Sandaime gave him an apartment and Naruto began to live on his own, living mainly off of instant ramen and a monthly allowance. He wanted to get to training as there was a lot he had to prepare for. For now, his training consisted of just some simple physical conditioning exercises and some very basic chakra exercises, supervised mainly by his mother, who was on standby in Konoha's shinobi forces for a few more years, until Naruto joined the academy. She had also begun introduction martial aspects to the training, teaching him the very foundations to the Uzumaki taijutsu style. He remembered that back in the academy, he had always been passable in tajutsu, but he was still never that good at sparing and his taijutsu form had always been rather sloppy. Now with his mom teaching him taijutsu, he was excited that he could shine a bit in class, instead of getting his but kicked every time.

Naruto had come to the park, and had surprisingly found a young Shikamaru and Chouji there. These two had always been some of Naruto's closer friends and a few of the people who had actually played with Naruto as a child. It felt good to be hanging out with the guys again and he was hoping everything between them would turn out the same as it did in the original timeline. So far, everything was looking good as Shikamaru was still as lazy as ever and Chouji was never without some sort of snack at hand.

Sitting over on a bench were the mothers of the three boys: Kushina, Akamichi Katani, and Nara Yoshino. They were giggling between one another, so they were most likely gossiping about something. As Shikamaru would say…troublesome.

The time came though and the three were forced to part ways as it came close to dinner time. Naruto enjoyed his brief time with some of his old friends and would have to try to become good friends with them sometime soon as they had always been two people he could count on in the past.

On the way back to the house, Naruto and Kushina ran into someone Naruto had actually been hoping to meet soon…Sasuke.

"Hello Mikoto" Kushina greeted with a warm and friendly voice.

"Kushina" Mikoto replied, equally warm. Both women were holding the hands of two three-year old boys. "And I guess this is Naruto? Boy has he grown."

"Nah, deep down, he's still my baby boy" said Kushina, deeply embarrassing Naruto. Sasuke laughed at this…wait, Sasuke laughed?

"Sasuke, he's laughing? Wow that's weird" thought Naruto. This definitely wasn't the Sasuke he remembered.

"Aww, and this must be Sasuke" said Kushina, moving her hand closer to Sasuke's face. Naruto knew what was coming and he was tempted to save the boy, but this is what he gets for laughing at his misfortunes. Kushina began pinching Sasuke's cheeks, causing Mikoto to laugh just a little and embarrassing Sasuke as well. Now both boys had been embarrassed by their mothers.

"Oh, I don't think you two have met" said Mikoto.

"Well, we kind of have met, but none of you know that" thought Naruto.

Naruto smilled and offered his hand to Sasuke. "Namikaze Naruto, nice to meet you."

"Hn. Uchiha Sasuke, same here" said Sasuke. The two boys shook hands. This first meeting was much smoother than the first meeting between the two boys in the previous timeline.

"'Hn'? I guess some things never change" thought Naruto.

"Hey Kushina, why don't you bring Naruto over to play some time. Sasuke doesn't have a lot of boys in the family that are his age and I think it would be nice for the two of them to get to know each other better" suggested Mikoto.

"Well, what do you think, Naruto" said Kushina. Naruto looked up at his mom and smiled with a look in his eyes that said 'really?! Can we please?' "Well, looks like Naruto wants to, how about I bring him over Saturday and they can spend the day getting to know each other?"

"Saturday works just fine. I'll see the two of you then" said Mikoto. The two women took their sons and walked away from each other.

"Sasuke…this time it will be different. I won't let Orochimaru take you. I won't let you go down that path again. I will save you" thought Naruto, more determined than ever.

Author Notes

So, I was never sure as to when exactly Orohcimaru left the village. It could have been the moment Minato was named Hokage or it could have been years later, but I was never sure of the exact time and I couldn't find too much evidence that gave the exact time of Orochimaru's defection.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter.

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