Chapter 14: The Snake, the Monkey, and the Betrayed

Naruto and his friends from Kumo and Kiri shielded their eyes and bodies as their jutsu made contact with their target, creating a small explosion and sending shock-waves throughout the forest. The Konoha Shoton user winced in pain as a piece of rock hit him on the wrist, leaving a shallow cut. 'Damn it,' he thought, 'I still haven't recovered completely from last time I met him… I should've left a small amount of Kurama's chakra for healing and for my armor. I still have about half of my own left, but I want to save that for later… if there is any later that is.'

Yugito coughed a few times, "Did we get him?"

"Don't count on it," Haku said already holding a few senbon, ready to attack.

"You're right about that, Hyoton user," it came in form of a laugh in the still dust-covered crater. "You really think that a bunch of Genin can take down one of the Sannin? One of the heroes of the Second Shinobi World War? Hah! You must be kidding yourself!" A gust of wind blew the last of the dust away, and uncovering Orochimaru with a face that looked half melted.

Naruto's eyes widened, 'Are you fucking kidding me! All those attacks, and he doesn't a scratch!? And what's up with his face? Must be part of the jutsu he uses to conceal his identity… Even so, even if we're way below his level, he shouldn't be able to go completely unharmed from that!' The rest of his… alliance seemed to react the same way.

Yugito gulped, 'So this is the power of Konoha's Sannin…'

"Where are my teammates? Where is Sakura-chan and Sasuke-teme!?" Naruto asked once again, even though he knew he wasn't on the winning side of the fight.

"Sasuke-kun? You shouldn't worry about them. He will either embrace my gift, or he will die. I have people making sure of it," the Snake said with a wicked grin. Orochimaru dusted off his right sleeve, "Well, now that that's over, let's proceed to the main act." He released a burst of Killer Intent way larger than the one he used before, making them all fall to their knees. The only ones able to withstand it just a bit were Yugito and Naruto. His eyes settled on Naruto as he smirked, "It doesn't matter if you want my gift or not; you're going to get it. I think I'm going to have a lot of fun with you and Sasuke-kun, my dear fox."

His fingers settled in a weird seal – one that looked oddly like the one Haku used when she used her Hyoton – and his neck expanded. Before Naruto or any of the other could blink, it was flying fast towards them – or rather, towards Naruto. He could see it come closer and closer, and he knew no matter what The Snake would do to him, it wouldn't be good. Twenty meters. Ten meters. Eight. Seven. Five.

Five shuriken flew out of the cottage flying towards Orochimaru with blinding speed, forcing him to abort the seal.

"OROCHIMARU! DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH ANOTHER SHINOBI OF KONOHA!"

Orochimaru's head snapped up towards a tree in the clearing, trying to see who the angry voice belonged to. When he saw who it was he couldn't help but smile. "It's been a long time… Anko-chan."

Said Tokubetsu Jounin jumped down from the tree, "Uzumaki, Kiri, Kumo, can you move?"

Naruto stood up with his feet feeling like jelly. He looked around to see to his friends. Only Yugito was standing up, and Haku about to. The other was still on the ground. There was no way that they were getting out of there like that. He turned to Anko, "Mitarashi-san, we won't be able to move for a little bit. And… Thank you."

Anko smirked; this gave her the excuse she wanted to go up against Orochimaru. She turned towards said missing-nin, "You are an extremely dangerous S-class wanted criminal. You have harmed Konoha more than enough, and I won't let you touch any more of her children. That's why I'm going to kill you, even if it costs me my life. It's my job as your former subordinate who learned everything from you," she said and pulled five senbon needles from her coat. "Isn't that right, sensei!?"

"You can't," it came mockingly from the Snake Sannin.

Anko narrowed her eyes and drew her hand back, ready to strike with her senbon. But Orochimaru was faster; his abnormally long tongue shot out of his mouth and struck at Anko's location. She jumped in the last second, getting above the newly made crater, with her senbon still in hand. She quickly gathered chakra at her soles, and began running backwards up the trunk of the tree. Orochimaru's tongue quickly followed. She jumped over to another tree, but to no avail; Orochimaru's tongue was faster, and it soon gripped her wrist, making her drop the senbon. It pulled her down fast, but she flipped over just in time, and landed on her feet and knees.

She seemed surprised – but just for a moment. She quickly got back into the game. With her right hand restricted, she pointed her left hand at Orochimaru with the back towards the ground.

"Sen'eijashu!" Four snaked emerged from or yellow coat and shot towards Orochimaru. He wasn't able to dodge, as he was currently tied to Anko via his tongue, so he couldn't do a thing as the snakes wrapped around him. "I won't let you get away again!" She pulled back so Orochimaru lost his footing, and threw him through the air, into the trunk behind Anko, and wriggled her hand out of his tongue in the process. Not one to miss an opportunity, she quickly retracted the snakes, laid her hand upon his, and drew a kunai through both their hands. She made eye contact with the Snake Sannin

"I got you. Orochimaru, I'm going to borrow your left hand," she said, and made a seal.

The Snake Sannin's eyed widened, 'That seal is…'

Anko smirked, "That's right. You and I are going to die here." She took a deep breath to prepare herself for her death, "Ninpo: Sojasosai no Jutsu." With that said she closed her eyes to let the sweet embrace of revenge and death sweeps her away. Or so she thought.

"Mitarashi-san! Watch out!" the girl from Kiri screamed at her, making Anko's eyes snap open.

Orochimaru's creepy laughter erupted from everywhere and nowhere, "Are you trying to commit suicide, my sweet, dear Anko-chan?" He emerged a few meters behind Anko, drawing her look to him. He ripped of his 'face' revealing the real one. "That's a Kawarimi."

She looked back at what she thought to be Orochimaru in horror, only to see it melt into mud. 'No! It can't be! I was so close!' she screamed in her mind.

"You're one of the village's Tokubetsu Jounin, dear Anko-chan, so don't walk around and use Kinjutsu – Kinjutsu that I taught you nonetheless – like they were nothing," the Snake Sannin said while walking closer and closer to Anko.

Naruto tried to take a step, but fell to his knees the second he did. He looked back at his friends, only to see them in same or worse condition than himself. 'Damn it! I can't let her die for me – for us. Even if she is a Shinobi. I won't let that happen!'

"Don't worry Naruto-kun, you will get your gift in time. Just let me take care of our little problem here first." Naruto just glared at Orochimaru in response – it was all he could do at the moment.

Anko pulled out the kunai she had punched through her hand and threw it at the other snake summoner. He simply caught it with two fingers, inches before his face. "I told you that it's useless," he said as he stopped and settled in half a Ram hand seal. Naruto felt a fast chakra spike from him, which then… upset something on Anko.

Anko froze up, and could do nothing as Orochimaru stepped closer, step by step. It felt like an eternity to Anko, but soon he stood right in front of her – the man she hated most in the world. She glared up at him, "I won't let you touch any Shinobi of Konoha – not even that Emo-brat of an Uchiha!"

Orochimaru laughed again, "We haven't seen each other in so long time, but you're treating me so coldly. And you're too late. Partly anyway. You interrupted me giving Naruto-kun here my gift, but I already gave Sasuke-kun it."

Anko's eyes widened: She was too late. "No," a whisper escaped her as she collapsed on her knees, a hand clasping between her right shoulder and neck.

"That's right," Orochimaru said as he kneeled down to Anko and held up the kunai she threw at him, "but you won't have to worry about that anymore. For you're going to die. Goodbye my dear Anko-chan." Anko closed her eyes and got ready for death once more – just this time around it wasn't so sweet.

Orochimaru drew his hand back and aimed. He moved his hand forward again, and-

"Orochimaru… You have really fallen a long way from grace, haven't you… my old student?"

All the shinobi present turned their heads to see none other than the Shinobi no Kami – The Sandaime Hokage. And he wasn't alone: There was ten ANBU with him – two full squads.

"JIJI," Naruto said strained, though still in his same cheered voice. The six shinobi beside Naruto looked at him with shock and horror across their faces – he had just called one of the most powerful shinobi in all of the elemental nations an old man. If anything like that happened in their respective villages, there would have been severe consequences.

All of the foreign shinobi had immediately got on alert as soon as the Hokage had appeared. While they knew that the old and powerful Hokage was most likely there to help them, he still was the leader of a rivaling village, and they knew nothing about him other than what they had read or been told. Because of that, they were nowhere near prepared for what their new friend had just said.

But the Sandaime seemed to smile lightly just a second as he nodded to Naruto, before he turned his attention towards their enemy, "Orochimaru, drop the kunai."

The Sandaime's old student just chuckled. "And why would I do that? I was just having a little chit-chat with an old disciple of mine. But if you insist." Orochimaru drew his hand back one last time and threw the kunai at the defenseless Anko.

She closed her eyes yet another time, only not to feel the stabbing pain. But maybe death didn't hurt? No, that couldn't be right. She opened her eyes slowly only to see the Hokage himself standing in front of her, the kunai nowhere to be seen.

"You will not take another life today, Orochimaru. I will make sure of that!" the old Hokage sneered to his old student.

The Snake Sannin looked around the clearing, waging his options. First, he was alone. Second, his opponents where many – seven Genin, ten ANBU, one tokubetsu jounin, and a Kage. He needed to get out of there now. He cracked a smile, "Well, not because this hasn't been delightful, but I will have to get going now. Too bad that I didn't get to give my gift to you, Naruto-kun." Faster than any of them could react he had made a seal-less Shunshin, disappearing in a puff of white smoke.

"Hotaru! Take command over Taka and Hato and pursuit Orochimaru! Usagi, you and the remainder of your team will scour this area. Make sure that there aren't any traps left from Orochimaru!" the Sandaime Hokage ordered and turned his attention to Anko.

"Hai," it came from the ANBU before they all disappeared in blurs.

While the Hokage was taking care of Anko, Naruto turned around and checked on his friends.

"Are you all ok?" he asked with concern in his voice. His eyes ran over the six people. None of them seemed to have any major injuries. Good. And they were slowly but surely recovering from Orochimaru's killer intent. Which meant that they could go find Sakura and Sasuke soon enough.

"I think I'm alright," said a slightly exhausted Yugito. She turned to her team, "Are you two managing?"

"Hai, Hai," Karui said.

"I am now, but what if-" Omoi began, but shut up as he saw the looks he was getting from the six other shinobi. "Hai, I'm fine."

"We're alright too. Right?" Haku half said, half asked Naruto and her teammates.

Chojuru stood up and fastened his broad sword to his back. "H-Hai. I'm a little low on chakra, but nothing else."

"It could be discussed what 'fine' is, but I suppose that I could be worse for wear." Kouhei snorts.

Naruto nodded, "Good, then we ne-." Naruto swayed a bit as flashing images came flashing through his mind. It took him a few seconds to place two and two together, remembering it was the shadow clones. He frowned: it hadn't found his teammates. But it had found the Oto Genin team.

"Naruto-kun, are you ok?" Haku asked with concern

"Yeah. It was just one of my clones that dispelled," he replied.

"Did it find your team?" the redheaded Kumo Genin asked.

"No, it didn't." Naruto could see the disappointment in their eyes. "But it did find the Oto Genin's – it saw which way they were headed. And Orochimaru said that he had send people after them…"

"Are you sure they will lead us to them? Or even tell us? For all I know, we could be wa-" Kouhei began complaining, but then stopped for some reason. Naruto thought it odd, until he saw the faces on the other Genin. He turned around to see the old Hokage coming towards him.

"Naruto-kun, are you all right?" Hiruzen asked with concern, not caring that the foreign shinobi saw him like this.

"Yeah, I'm fine Jiji," the blond boy answered. As he looked at his grandfather, he remembered all the times that he had asked about his parents. And the answers he had longed for. Now that he thought about it, they had all been vague, or even avoiding the question that had been asked. And then he remembered the… episode, dream – whatever it was – he had seen while he had been out. The Yondaime Hokage, the red-haired woman, the baby-Naruto…

"Ojisan." Naruto said. Hiruzen was taken back at the change of tone. "When we get to the tower, I need to talk with you."

Hiruzen looked at Naruto with a slight frown of concern. What could have happened in here that he needed to talk about? It couldn't be about Orochimaru, so what. He wasn't going to get the answer here, so he settled with a nod, "All right, my dear boy, I'll see you at the tower. But if all of you are all right, then I need to go. Orochimaru have caused much trouble in Konoha in the short time he has been back…"

XxX ~ xx ~ XxX

Sakura was sitting beside Sasuke. He was laying on the ground groaning and moaning in pain. Somehow after the fight with that weirdo. 'What was his name again?' she asked herself as she wiped sweat off of Sasuke's forehead. 'Orochimaru… That was what he said his name was… It sounds familiar… C'mon Sakura! You're the brightest of your year! You should be able to remember a name!' she berated herself. But no matter how much she tried, she couldn't think of it. She sighed and looked outside.

She and Sasuke were currently in a 'cave'. It wasn't really a cave, as it was under one of the larger trees. Somehow the tree had lifted, or the earth had been corroded away, leaving a well sized hollow beneath it. She didn't really care how it had been created, she was just happy she had found it.

After the fight with Orochimaru she had picked up Sasuke – boy had she been happy she had been training – and looked for a shelter as fast as possible. She had come by multiple places she could have hid, but none of them were defendable by one person. This place was: while it had three entrances – two of them rather small – they were all fairly close to each other, making it easier to watch them all at once. She had put traps outside the larger entrance and one of the smaller. She just hoped it was enough…

Sasuke groaned again, bringing Sakura back from whatever world she was thinking off. She looked at him with concern as his eyes moved rapidly beneath his eyelids. She laid her hand upon his forehead. 'His fever has gotten somewhat back to normal, but his fever… it just won't break. It's as high as ever.' She took out her water canteen and poured some new water over the cloth, 'I wish I could do more for him. For him and for Naruto. I have to become chūnin – that way they will start giving me lessons at the hospital. If I become a medic-nin I will be able to help both Sasuke-kun and Naruto much better.'

She looked over the 'cave' and the entrances, hoping to see a mess of yellow hair either sit here with her, or entering from being on lookout. 'Naruto… Please be Ok.' She was having a lot of mixed feeling about her blond teammate. Most of them being regret. The last few weeks, months even, since they graduated and became a team, the whiskered boy had really grown on her. 'Boy…' she mockingly thought to herself, 'I talk like I am way older and more mature than him. In truth, he is probably the most mature of us all…'

Anyway, as she had learned to know him, her regret had grown, just as her friendship with him had. She suddenly found out that he wasn't such a pain – that he actually was a funny guy, who cared deeply for his friends. She had seen that first-hand the way he was around that girl Tenten…

And one day it had hit her how miserable she must have made his life. And how many times she had actually wished someone dead. A fellow citizen, and now shinobi, of Konoha. It was even worse when it was a real possibility now. First in Nami no Kuni, and now here in the forest.

'No,' she told herself sternly. 'Naruto is alive. He is probably the strongest Genin in Konoha. No matter how strong that Orochimaru-guy is, Naruto will find a way to survive!' She felt herself brighten just the slightest. She knew that it was true, but the nagging feeling in her stomach just wouldn't go away…

In a tree, not long from where Sakura was sitting and nursing Sasuke, were three shadowy figures – two males and a female. The shorter male, but by far the largest too, brushed some branches away, making sure to make as little noise as possible. Now he had a clear lookout to the pink-haired girl.

The bandages across his face stretched as he smile, "I found you. We're going to strike at daybreak, just like Orochimaru-Sama ordered us to do. Our target is strictly Uchiha Sasuke."

"But if the other one gets in the way, we can kill her, right?" the other male asked.

"Please, she won't be a problem. Look at her: She is one of those fan girls that give Kunoichi such a bad name. You can see it by her hair. She probably use more time on it than she does on training," the Kunoichi said mockingly.

"No matter," the shorter male said, "if she gets in the way, kill her. But if not, just stick to our target."

XxX ~ xx ~ XxX

"Are we closing in on them?" it came once again from a very impatient Kouhei.

"Yes, Kouhei, my clone was dispelled just up ahead," Naruto said with irritation plain visible in his voice. And for a good reason: the Kiri Genin had been like all through the night. Apparently Kouhei didn't think they were going fast enough. 'Not that it can be helped' Naruto though. And it was true: while they were all shinobi, they had grown up in three different nations, and every nation had trained their shinobi with minor and major differences. The biggest was probably how to travel.

The shinobi in Suna was masters of traveling in hot and sandy area, knowing how to run the longest while not losing too much water. Kumo shinobi were had a major advantage in higher altitude, with them growing up in Kumogakure high in the mountains. Iwa were great mountain travelers, knowing how to avoid the rocky areas that could crumble and cause landslides. Then there was Kiri who were well trained to travel through damp area. And finally Konoha – no shinobi of the same level, from another village, could outrun a Konoha shinobi through the forest. Hell, the students at the Shinobi Academy were trained in navigating the forest before learning how to throw a kunai.

And that Naruto and his companions couldn't go faster: Haku's and Yugito's teams simply wasn't used to the forest. Sure, they were fast, but they weren't Konoha shinobi. Kouhei was clearly better than the rest, and thus was the cause of his complaints. Naruto suspected that he wanted to find Sakura and Sasuke as soon as possible, so he could get away from Naruto. And while Naruto enjoyed his new friends company, Kouhei were a big pain in the ass…

"And what then?" Kouhei asked, causing groans from almost everyone else in the group. Even the quite Chojuru. "What!?" he sneered, "we may soon be where he saw them, but that is hours ago, since we have gone so slowly! They could be miles away! They cou- Watch out!"

They all turned in midair only to see several dozen shinobi tools flying towards them. Naruto thought fast and went through hand seals, "Kessho: Rokkaku Shuriken: Ranbu!" The air shimmered around the Konoha Jinchurriki. Then the crystals formed. Less than half a second after he had finished the seals, crystal shuriken was flying towards the shinobi-weapons, annulling them.

Naruto and Haku's and Yugito's teams landed on the next branch, drawing their weapons, and looked for their opponent. They all knew that if it was Orochimaru, or another maniac running the forests, they would be done. They all had some chakra left, but they hadn't really had a chance to rest since Naruto's blackout. And Naruto didn't even fully recover from that. They drew their weapons back as three spots of the forest began to move, beginning to come out from the shadows. When Naruto saw who was standing in front of him a large smile plastered itself on his face.

Team Gai had finally found Uzumaki Naruto.

XxX ~ xx ~ XxX ~ xx ~ XxX

Sen'eijashu - Hidden Shadow Snake Hands: This technique allows the user to eject snakes from their wrist or sleeve, usually after a punching motion. The snakes are used primarily to attack from a distance and, being snakes, can inflict multiple poisonous wounds on the victim's body or hold them in place. The snakes can also open their mouths to extend Kusanagi-like blades.

This technique can also be classified as a variation of the Kuchiyose no Jutsu. This technique can also produce snakes from different parts of the user's body, as seen when Orochimaru summoned a snake from his mouth to attack the Sandaime Hokage during their battle.

Ninpo: Sojasosai no Jutsu – Ninja Art: Twin Snakes Mutual Death Technique: This forbidden technique is a murder-suicide attack, killing both the user and the target. The user makes a one-handed seal with both their hand and the intended victim's. Two snakes are then summoned from the user's sleeve, biting both their wrists and killing them with deadly venom. When Anko Mitarashi used this technique against Orochimaru, he replaced himself with a clone to avoid harm, leaving Anko unable to finish the technique.

(Anbu Masks)

Hato – Dove

Ondori - Rooster

Raku-N - Raccoon

Tori - Bird

Mausu - Mouse

Raion - Lion

Shinobi no Kami – God of Ninja: A nickname given to the Sandaime Hokage – Sarutobi Hiruzen.

Kessho: Rokkaku Shuriken: Ranbu – Crystal: Hexagonal Shuriken: Wild dance: The user conjures several Hexagonal Shuriken, and shoots them at the target. More powerful than Kessho: Rokkaku Shuriken.

My turn…