Pairings: None at the beginning, but final pairing is SasuNaru, there will be some GaaNaru and there may be other pairings with Naruto throughout the story.

Warnings: Shonen-ai (boy x boy love) at first and then when the characters are older it will become yaoi, so there will be homosexual pairings in this story. If this bothers you then please don't read this story. Mature content, crude language, cursing and sexual references are in this story.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of it's characters. This story is a work of fiction based on the Naruto manga and anime series.

I just want to address some of the reviews that mention Sasuke's attitude. As I said above, the final pairing is SasuNaru, but it's not going to happen for quite a while in this story. The reason being is that, not only are they a little too young now, but Sasuke has some growing up to do, just like Naruto and the other characters do. They will all be growing and changing throughout this story.

This will be a long story. But I will skip years when it is needed. I'm not going to go into details about what will bring Sasuke and Naruto together later, because whatever I have planned for this story now, may change in details as I keep writing it. Sometimes different ideas come into my mind to change what happens in the story from what I had been planning for it. I hope this explanation clears up some of the questions and the doubts about Sasuke's character. I want to thank all the reviewers too. Your encouragement keeps me inspired to keep writing. :)

Thoughts and dreams are represented by italics.

Chapter Four – Kabuto learns something interesting

As they were traveling to the tower, Naruto's stomach started growling. He stopped and the others stopped beside him. "Um, I'm starving you guys. I need to eat before I can go any further."

Sakura felt hungry too. "I'm hungry too."

"Alright, but we need to make it quick. We don't need to be delayed by other teams trying to get our scrolls. I'll go find us something to eat."

Naruto jumped up and down. "Yay! Hurry Sasuke!" Naruto's stomach growled again and he stopped jumping.

Sasuke went off to hunt for food.

Naruto and Sakura leaped down from the tree they were in. Naruto then looked around for wood to use for a fire. Sakura helped him.

"I hope whatever Sasuke finds is really big, Sakura-chan. I'm so hungry that I could even eat one of those large caterpillar thingies we've seen." Even if they look gross, my stomach would be happy.

"Eww gross, Naruto! That's disgusting. But I hope he comes back with something big too. Otherwise you'd steal most of the food and I'd starve." She teased her blond friend.

"I wouldn't do that to you, Sakura-chan!" Well, I might. Naruto looked away trying to hide the guilty look on his face.

Sasuke walked up to them, holding a large rabbit. He tossed it to Naruto. "Here, you skin and gut it."

"You could ask nicely you know!" Naruto got out a kunai and started to work on skinning the rabbit.

"...Hn."

"You got us a great meal, Sasuke-kun. Thank you!" Sakura smiled at him and then watched Naruto as he skinned the rabbit for them.

Sasuke performed his fire jutsu on the wood that his team mates had set up for their fire. Then he sat down across from them, putting his arms on his knees and folding his hands in front of his face.

Naruto skinned and gutted the rabbit and then used water from his canteen to clean it off.

Sakura took the fur and unneeded parts and put them inside a hole she had dug, then covered it all up. She then helped Naruto as he plunged a thick stick through the rabbit and set it up over the fire to cook.

As the rabbit cooked, no one spoke. They were all spending the time thinking.

Naruto was thinking about what he wanted to ask the Hokage when he got to see him.

Sakura was thinking about what would happen in the third test. She wasn't sure if she would be able to beat any of the other people participating in the exams. I'm so weak. Even Ino could probably beat me. I wish I had even a little of Naruto's power. Or even Sasuke's skills. Should I even be a ninja if I can't even contribute to my own team?

Sasuke was thinking about some of the other teams and who they had in them that would be a good challenge for him. That weird red-head seemed very strong. Then there is the Hyuuga. I can not lose to that weird green spandex-wearing boy. Having him beat me in front of my team mates was bad enough, but to lose to him in front of a lot of other people, would be humiliating.

Sasuke looked up at the rabbit cooking over the fire and saw that it was done enough for them to eat. Since they had nothing with them to put the rabbit on while they ate, Sasuke decided to use small sticks to spear parts of the meat off. He, being courteous for a change, and gave each of his team mates a stick of meat for them to eat.

"Thank you, Sasuke-kun!" Sakura was happy that Sasuke was being nice to her.

"Yeah, thanks!" Naruto started devouring his portion right away.

"...Hn."

After they had all ate and cleaned up their temporary camp, they got back up in the trees to continue their travel to the tower.

A few minutes after they had started out, Naruto felt the chakra of someone approaching them from behind. He stopped and the others stopped with him. They looked at him wondering why he had stopped.

"Someone is coming. He should be here in a couple minutes or so." Naruto activated the chakra in his eyes and looked for the person that was approaching them.

"Do you know who it is?" Sasuke questioned him.

"Yeah, it's Kabuto!"

"Is he alone?" Sasuke was suspicious of Kabuto. He had felt that Kabuto was not what he appeared, ever since they had all met him at the beginning of the exams.

"Yep, he's alone." Naruto then deactivated his enhanced eyesight.

"I wonder why?" Sakura was curious, but unlike Sasuke, she liked Kabuto.

Kabuto stopped at a branch on the tree right in front of them. He smiled at them."Well, hello my fellow Leaf nin. I see you are heading to the tower too." Kabuto then stared hard at Naruto. "Who are you? What happened to Naruto-kun?"

Naruto and Sakura smiled back at him. Sasuke only grunted, keeping his expression emotionless.

"Hi Kabuto! Well, you see I am Naruto. Something kinda happened to me the other day. It's a long story and we don't have enough time to go into it right now."

"Well, I hope you tell me the whole story when we get to the tower then." Kabuto was very curious about what could have happened to change Naruto's looks. Also, he sensed a difference in the blond's chakra. He sensed great power within Naruto. No, there is no way he was the one that took off Sasuke's seal. He's still a child. And he appeared as an idiot earlier.

"Sure, Kabuto. But why are you alone? Something happen to your team?" Naruto looked at him quizzically.

"Oh, we are supposed to meet up at the tower. I needed a longer break than they did and told them to go on ahead." He grinned embarrassingly at them.

"So you have both scrolls?" This question came from Sasuke.

"Yes, right here." Kabuto patted at the pouch on his hips. "How about you guys? You have both your scrolls too?"

"You bet we do! It was easy!" Naruto grinned happily at Kabuto.

Sakura hit Naruto on his shoulder. "Stop bragging you idiot!" Then she turned to smile again at Kabuto.

"I was just telling him the truth, Sakura-chan." Naruto whined and looked hurt.

"So, you guys have been having an easy time in the forest?" Kabuto needed to find out what happened with Sasuke. He didn't have too much time left before he got to the tower and had to report in to Orochimaru.

"Yes." Sasuke answered him. He didn't want Kabuto to get any more information out of them.

"Well, we did get into a fight with this snake man the other day."

"Dobe." Sasuke said under his breath. Naruto trusts too easily. Why can't he use his brain sometimes!

"You did? Well you all look okay to me. No one got hurt?" Kabuto made sure he had a concerned look on his face.

"Sasuke-kun got hurt. That man bit him and put some kind of a seal on him." Sakura had no idea that Sasuke didn't want Kabuto to know what happened. Since Kabuto was so nice to them when they first met him, she felt he was a friend to them.

Oh God! Now Sakura is being stupid too! Can't they see this man is digging for information? Sasuke stopped himself from showing his disgust with his team mates. He kept his face impassive and just let them talk.

"A seal? Can I see it, Sasuke-kun?" Kabuto looked at Sasuke.

Before Sasuke could answer, Sakura answered for him. "It's not there anymore, Kabuto. Naruto took it off." Sakura smiled happily at Sasuke. She was so glad that Sasuke wasn't hurt anymore. Then she saw he was glaring at her. Why is he glaring at me?

"Yep! I did. But that is part of what I have to tell you later when we get to the tower. We really need to leave now." Naruto wanted to tell Kabuto everything now, but he wanted to get to the tower more. "I hope you don't mind waiting till then."

Oh my god! Did I really hear them both say that it was Naruto that took off the seal? Kabuto was in shock. But he was very good at hiding his emotions, so he kept it from showing on his face. Well, I'm not going to get any more answers right now. I'll have to be patient and wait till I can speak with them again at the tower. Orochimaru is going to be shocked too. How could this little kid know how to take off the curse seal? "Alright, Naruto-kun. I will try to be patient and wait till we get back to the tower. But I am excited to hear your story." He smiled at Naruto.

"Let's go then." Sasuke looked at Naruto and nodded his head towards the direction of the tower.

Naruto nodded back at Sasuke. "Okay." Then Naruto took the lead and the others followed behind him.

When they got to the tower, Kabuto's team mates were waiting by a door for him. Kabuto looked at Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke. "Well I guess this is where we part for the time being. I'll see you later inside." Then he looked at Naruto. "I want to hear all about what has happened to you and your adventure with that snake man you mentioned."

"Sure thing, Kabuto!" Naruto smiled at Kabuto.

"See you later, Kabuto!" Sakura waved at him.

Kabuto smiled at each of them and then opened the door in front of him. He and his team mates went inside and then closed the door behind them. Orochimaru was waiting on them.

"So, Kabuto. What did you find out?"

Kabuto bowed his head to his leader. "You are going to find this hard to believe, Orochimaru-sama, but Uzumaki Naruto was the one that took the curse seal off of Sasuke-kun."

Orochimaru was shocked. But he kept himself smiling normally at his subordinate. "You don't say. Do you know how he did it?" That fox child took off my seal! I should have killed him when I had the chance!

"Not yet. They were in too much of a hurry to get here, so they wouldn't tell me the whole story. But Naruto-kun promised to tell me later. His appearance has changed."

"I know about his appearance changing. It happened when I put a seal on his demon's seal. It was to keep him from being able to use the fox's chakra." Did the seal I put on him have anything to do with how he was able to take off my curse seal? I don't see how that could be. It was supposed to make him weaker, not stronger.

Hmm, I wonder if that is what changed Naruto on the inside too. Allowing him to become something different. This is an interesting twist to things. It would be a shame to kill Naruto without knowing what he is now. "Ahh, so that is why he looks different. It could have done something else to him, too."

"Find out everything you can about Naruto-kun's new abilities. I did want him killed, but it may be that he will be of some use to me, after all."

"I will do as you order, Orochimaru-sama." Kabuto bowed to him, thinking their conversation was now over.

"Aren't you forgetting something, Kabuto?" Orochimaru put his hand out with his palm facing up.

Kabuto mentally slapped himself for forgetting. "Oh, I'm sorry Orochimaru-sama." Kabuto then reached into his pouch and pulled out the deck of cards that he used to record information on. Then he handed it to his leader. "Inside is everything you wanted to know about Sasuke-kun."

"Thank you, Kabuto. As always, you never fail to accomplish the tasks, I request of you." He smiled at his favorite subordinate and then disappeared.

TBC