Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any other anime or movie referenced here.

Hey guys thanks for the reviews and the support you give to this story. It feels me with motivation to go on with the story and my other one.

Anyway let's get going with the show.

Chapter 20

Previously

Sakura looked relived as Naruto landed in front of her. He took at glance at the crying kunoichi and the unconscious Uchiha before he looked at a certain direction.

"You can come out now I know you are there!" he shouted. From one of the trees the enemy materialised. Sakura looked horrified. She thought that the enemy was dead but she was wrong.

"Well well well so the rat has survived the snake only to face another one kukuku"

"Just shut up and let me make a wallet out of you since your pet is in chunks right now"

And with that another battle started.

Now

Hokage tower

The 3rd Hokage was doing his usual routine which was reading porn eh no I mean doing paperwork although reading porn come close to being his usual or being a walking chimney ("Hey not cool man" shouted one Sarutobi but I don't care). The chunin exams were underway so that meant double the paperwork and double the stress. He couldn't wait to rest while he watches the youngsters duck it out. But for now he could only hope things don't go wrong since this time was when the village was at its most vulnerable until the exams end since there will be a huge inflow of foreign visitors.

There was a knock on the door and Ibiki came in glued to a small notebook while flipping it rapidly followed by occasional giggles. Okay that is disturbing to say the least. Something was definitely wrong with this picture. Maybe it is that Ibiki was trying to imitate Kakashi, no not possible. And IBIKI IS GIGGLING! That's so wrong on so many different levels. Maybe it's an imposter. Again that's wrong as he was feeling Ibiki's signature. So what the hell is going on? Ibiki doesn't giggle not even if you put up the best comedy or combine all the best comedians you can find. He would just scare them to death.

He decided to get the man's attention. "Hello earth to Ibiki"

Ibiki immediately put his little treasure away and had the decency to look sheepish in front of his leader. Said leader and the hidden ANBU just seat dropped.

"Sorry about that Hokage-sama. I came with some disturbing news about a tip one of our genin gave us" Ibiki said in his usual serious voice. At this the Hokage straightened up and waited for the man to continue.

"It appears we had a spy in our ranks for a long time and he seems to be having assistance from the inside." The man finished and waited for his leader's response.

Said leader took a huge drag from his pipe and poofed the smoke before he sighed. So much for hoping for no trouble. This is going to be a pain.

"Did you identify who the spy is?"

"Yes sir. It's one supposed genin Kabuto Yakushi. He has been in our ranks for 5 years now as his file states but we suspect he has been here for two years now from his activities we could track." Ibiki replied.

"Mmmh that's a long time for a spy to get a lot of things to his employer especially if he has help from the inside. So we will have to track down whatever possible was leaked out and also change a lot of our security protocols. Any ideals as to who is colluding with our spy?"

"No sir but all we know is that it's someone high up the food chain possibly in the council" Ibiki replied. This piece of information was troublesome indeed and he didn't like it one bit and judging by the reaction from the Kage he doesn't like it either.

The 3rd sighed again. He was too old for this. Why didn't he look for a successor? Oh yah he bit the dust 12 years ago. He turned hi his chair and looked at the previous Kage's pictures. These people gave so much and they died young while he was an old man. Good for them as they don't have to deal with this shit. Lucky bastards.

"Okay we will meet up with Shikaku Nara and formulate a plan to weed out the traitor. And who gave you the tip? You said it was a genin correct" the 3rd asked.

"Yes sir it was one Naruto Uzumaki." This piece of information surprised the Hokage. Naruto found the spy? And he have them a heads up instead of letting the spy destroy the village by leaking important intel? He thought the boy hated the village with a passion. Mmmh maybe the Naruto situation isn't hopeless after all.

"And he also gave me this sir:" Ibiki said as he fished out the small booklet and came close to the Kage. The Kage looked at the book confused until Ibiki flipped it showing some interesting graphic scenes. Both men began to laugh their guts out.

The hidden ANBU got curious and poked their heads over Ibiki's shoulders before they also fell down laughing. Screw staying in the shadows and being silent. This is too good to pass up. Wait till their shift is over Kakashi is so gonna get burnt.

Meanwhile a shiver ran down Kakashi's spine. It seems something bad was going to happen to him but what?

Forest of death entrance

Anko had just entered the forest and began her search. She had been enjoying her sweet dango when she was disturbed by a chunin who showed her the bodies of a team from Kusa. The genin were dead and their faces were missing. She had seen a particular person do this and she feared he is in the forest. She told the chunin to go report to the Hokage that Orochimaru was in the village.

This is why she is in the forest. She was searching for the bastard that ruined her life. She trusted him and he used her and discarded her. When she finds him she was going to kill him as her revenge even if she has to die in the process. She touched her neck were a certain seal was located which only further motivated her to find him.

Back with Team 7

Naruto was looking at his opponent with a calm face but on the inside he was freaking out.

'Oh man that's one enormous dark chakra he has. What the hell did he do to himself to get so dark?'

"Humans from my experience would do anything despicable to gain power. Becareful with this one and don't hold back kit" the 9 tails cautioned his vessel. The human he was about to face was strong and twisted from what they could see. Oh yah Naruto saw the whole fight with the freak while he was hiding. All he had to do was make an exploding clone and switch with it. Said snake wanting a sneak got a bad case of explosive food hehehe.

'Yah I will. We just need to get rid of Sakura here otherwise she would raise a lot of questions' Naruto replied to his partner. If he was going to go all out then Sakura should be out of the way both for her safety and keep his secrets safe.

"So what the hell are you anyway? I have heard of gender confused but this is a whole new level of confused" Naruto asked with a confused look on his face. He was almost done flooding the area with his chakra so has to buy time.

Said gender confused creature looked at Naruto with a twitching brow. He heard this kid liked to insult people but being on the receiving end of the insults was very annoying.

"Kukuku Naruto Uzumaki. It's a pleasure to meet the son of the man who took what was supposed to be mine. I heard you like to talk too much but no power to back it up. And I am a man I will have you know." The statement raised a lot of flags. It put Naruto on edge on whether he was going to reveal his parentage with the harpy around or worse reveal what he is. Either way if he will reveal those two things then he will just put a seal on Sakura to wipe out that particular information even though he doesn't like using those seals.

Sakura on the other hand was surprised that the enemy knew who Naruto was and his father. Does that mean that Naruto's father came across this individual and why isn't Naruto surprised about this? He is an orphan after all and his parents are not known so it's only natural that he jumps at the opportunity to know more about his parents. Unless he already knew about his parents and he didn't tell anyone!

'Shanaro I am going to kill him!' Sakura raged in her head.

"If you say so but I doubt that" Naruto said as he tried to keep the enemy from revealing too much.

The enemy then began to peal his remaining face to show his real face. "There are you happy now"

Naruto blinked then blinked again. He then looked at Sakura and asked. "Hey Sakura do you see any change from the previous face because its face looks like a female than a male"

Sakura just face planted before she herself looked at what Naruto was saying. The pale skin, the long flowing hair and the feminine features. "Yah know that you mentioned it does look like a female"

"HA you see gender confused!" Naruto shouted as he dramatically pointed at the enemy.

Said enemy face faulted hard before jumped up and fired back. "I am a male okay. So what if my face looks like a female. And stop calling me an it!" the enemy shouted before he calmed himself down. Okay this kid is good at getting under people's skin. Maybe revealing his name would do the trick.

"Do you know who I am? I am Orochimaru one of the legendary Sanin"

Sakura paled as she heard the name of the enemy. If he is Orochimaru then there was no way they would make it out alive. Naruto on the other hand was a different story. He was wearing the confused Saitama face and you could hear crickets sounding in the background.

"Orochi who know?" Both Sakura and Orochimaru face faulted and the unconscious Uchiha just sweat dropped (How is that even possible).

"Naruto he was the genius student of the 3rd along with Tsunade-sama and Jiraiya-sama before he defected!" Sakura shouted.

Naruto scratched his chin as he struck a thinking pose before a light bulb lit above his head.

"Oh you mean the Legendary Fetish Trio. Yah I know him know. He is the one who is into little boys and snakes. So what do you want and what the hell did you do to Sasuke" Okay what the hell is going on in that boy's head. No need to get worked up by this idiot.

"Your name calling is superb I have to admit. As for Sasuke-kun well I just gave him a little power and when the time is right he will come and seek me out Kukuku"

"Okay you know what you just proved your fetish to us. You sound like those old men who lure children with candy just so they can have their way with them. Oh poor Sasuke's butt" Naruto lamented as he shivered at the thought (yah no need to be graphic otherwise I will buff myself).

Orochimaru couldn't take it anymore. He sped at the insolent fool only to be met by a kunai mid-point which exploded causing him to be blown back a bit with some burn marks.

"Sakura take Sasuke and go I will catch up" Naruto commanded to Sakura who took the Uchiha and fled. When she was out of range Naruto sighed in relief. Good she is gone know to fight seriously. He began to go through a set of complicated hand seals as Orochimaru watched in fascination. Oh looks like things are about to get interesting.

"Release Transformation Illusion. Training seals set to Zero. Release Chakra Limiters" and with that Orochimaru witnessed an amazing sight. The scrawny looking orange wearing boy was replaced by a boy who was two heads taller than Sasuke and looked a bit muscular but not too much to hinder flexibility. He was wearing a black and blue jacket with the Uzumaki symbol on the left side of his chest and a big one in the back. He was also wearing black and blue combat shorts and a blue shirt. His chakra spiked to a little above his own which surprised Orochimaru.

His face had the most noticeable change. His hair was still spiky and longer only being held back by his head band. He still had his whisker marks which were more defined now. His face was that of a veteran shinobi ready for battle. Overly the boy looked like a real shinobi. This begs the question. Was the boy deceiving everyone all along? He heard there was another Uzumaki in the village and the Uzumaki shrine could not be infiltrated judging by the bodies of his and Danzo's men. So maybe he trained the boy. So what skills has the boy been hiding?

"Kukuku looks like you have become more interesting. Let's see what you've got boy" Orochimaru said as he sped again at the boy hoping to engage him in taijutsu. He was surprised when the boy matched his own speed utilising a taijutsu style he has never heard of before. The boy's physical strength was extraordinary for him to block his attacks while dishing out his own blows which were heavy. Orochimaru utilizing the Hebi style was nimble as a snake avoiding attacks by bending in impossible angles. But that did nothing for him as the boy seemed to be one step ahead of him. It was like he was predicting his moves.

The two traded blows for a while before they separated neither one able to land a hit. Their breathing was steady and they didn't look winded. With Naruto's style and Sensory Zone he was able to predict, feel and counter Orochimaru's attacks. Orochimaru just smirked at how good the child was. Both fighters knew that they were not utilising the full extent of their abilities for obvious reasons. If they did the entire village would come bearing down on them which Orochimaru didn't want. Naruto contemplated on doing this but he would be grilled by the Hokage about his abilities.

"Kukuku it seems your taijutsu is good boy. Let's kick things up a notch shall we" exclaimed the pedo with a weird grin that send shivers down Naruto's spin.

Orochimaru came at Naruto again this time with more force and speed. He started to rain blows at Naruto hoping to break down his defences and overwhelm him. The boy much to his annoyance seemed to be doing great stopping his attacks and his hands sort of had a golden shining to them every time they moved. Naruto had realised the gravity of the situation in taijutsu thus he employed the full force of his 18 Dragons Slaying Plague style.

The two went at it until Naruto managed to break through Orochimaru's defences and landed a double palm to the chest launching the man through a few trees. Said man when he finally stopped was in a world of pain. His chest felt like it had been hit by an Akimichi on steroids. He coughed up blood as he tried to support himself by his hand only to find his hand rebelling against his commands. His hands were numb with purple bruises that looked like hand prints

'What the hell! What is that weird taijutsu that he is using? I didn't notice it until know but his hits carried more power than they let on. It's like fighting a Hyuuga only way more powerful. I have to keep my distance until my hand recover' Orochimaru raged in his head. He wouldn't have imagined that this kid would do this to him. Not even the Uchiha was this impressive and he had the sharingan!

Orochimaru stood up with some difficulty as the young teen approached him. It seems the boy was cautious that's for sure. He then commanded his snakes to attack the boy who jumped out of the way of the snakes.

Naruto on the other hand just smirked as he realised his enemy hasn't noticed his plan. He kept track of the pedo with his sensory abilities while he dodged the snakes with ease. He then took out two of his trusty kunai and threw then aiming at the snakes' heads. The snakes dodged the kunai but the kunai exploded killing the snakes. The explosion itself was three times the power of a normal exploding tag which prompted Orochimaru to question whether the village had new explosive tags.

Well at least the snakes bought him time to switch with a mud clone he created before the fight. He already has what he wanted which was marking the Uchiha but maybe marking the boy would be an added bonus. So jutsu time.

He speeds through some hand seals before shouting "Wind style: Great breakthrough"

A huge gust of wind was launched at Naruto who also went through similar hand seals and launched the same jutsu. The two techniques met in the middle and battled for dominance before the cancelled each other out. The Orochi-clone was surprised by this but it had to duck from a kunai which was launched by an airborne Naruto. The kunai then exploded taking the clone out.

From his hiding place Orochimaru just sweat dropped at how much this kid loved explosions. It reminded him so much of a certain homicidal terrorist from Iwa who loved explosions. And speaking of explosions…. BOOM

The place Orochimaru was occupying exploded with him narrowly escaping. He looked and saw Naruto smiling while holding more kunai in his hands. Okay now Orochimaru was regretting not just leaving after marking the Uchiha.

And so the game of dodge exploding kunai for your life began. Naruto kept finding him whenever he tried to hide or switched with a clone. Every time thought he would rest and strategize a kunai would land near him and explode. So yah that's one hell of a bad day.

"How many of those things do you have anyway" Orochimaru shouted. It's like the kid brought the whole stash of those cursed things.

"Oh you have time to talk. Guess I am giving you too much time to rest. Now run bitch" Naruto said before he started to increase the tempo of his throws. The whole forest was field with noises of explosions making some wonder what was going on while some felt sorry for the poor sod that was on the receiving end of those explosions.

Orochimaru was officially annoyed by this kid. Everywhere hid the kid would always find him. He guessed the kid's sensory abilities were top notch like Karin's. Well he would make a perfect addition to his army. The only problem was to get close to him to mark him without being blown to bits.

"What's with you and explosions anyway? We are shinobi we fight using stealth!" Orochimaru shouted as he dodged more exploding kunai.

"Hehehe explosions are the best. No one appreciates explosions but only a select few. And call me Lord Explosion Murder. Now keep running bitch!"

Elsewhere a certain Iwa bomber and a certain crimson demon felt proud that another who appreciated the art of explosions just appeared while a certain villain looking hero in training brooded that someone just ripped off his awesome hero name.

After dodging a few of those explosions Orochimaru got the drop on Naruto when his head shot past the smokescreen at neck breaking (hehehe neck breaking you know with his freaky neck extending) speeds surprising Naruto. He then sank his fangs into Naruto's hand when Naruto tried to put up some defence marking him.

"Kukuku foolish child you should have noticed that you were chasing mud clones the whole time. Now you are mine"

"No way dude I am straight. And you are not the only one who can use clones. Although mine are much cooler than yours" Naruto replied with a cheeky grin as he began to shine before BOOM.

Elsewhere Far away from the battle ground

"And that's how you outsmart a pedo" said the real Naruto. He has switched with his clone during the fight and went to pick up Sakura who hadn't gone that far with Sasuke. Naruto grabbed both of them and speed through the forest as far away from the pedo as possible.

"He went easy on you and at the same time you didn't reveal much. Why didn't you try to kill him?" said the 9 tails to his container. With Orochimaru supressing his chakra Naruto if he went all out could have killed the freak

"I am not experienced enough to take on someone of his calibre and the fight would have destroyed the whole forest attracting the entire shinobi squads and killing some poor genin. Beside Orochimaru is a test for the teme" Naruto reasoned.

"A test for the Uchiha?" the 9 tails asked. Why test that despicable human.

"Yah the guy is so hung up on obtaining power to kill his brother so I want to see that if he is presented with the opportunity to gain power would he betray his home and team for it" Oh so that's why. It was a good plan too. It was to see were the Uchiha's loyalties lay and how far would that brat go for power to satiate his revenge driven anger.

He caught up with (with his transformation back on) Sakura and they both travelled for a while before they decided to rest. They set up camp in a cave were Naruto proceeded to analyse the seal on his team mate. It looks like a cursed seal and a nasty one at that. It had various functions but it seems that it was a perfected version from the one placed on their female proctor Anko. Oh one of his clones ran into her while shadowing Orochimaru to make sure he wasn't following them.

Long story short, Naruto left a few clones to make sure that the pedo wasn't following them. The pedo seemed to be licking his wounds while cursing him and promising to do unspeakable things to him que shiver. Anko the arrived and was surprised to see Orochimaru in such bad shape. She then tried to kill him but the pedo subdued her by activating her cursed seal. When he was about to go for the kill the Naruto clone intervened and got Anko out of there. When they were far enough the clone had a chance to analyse the seal even though Anko refused. The clone promised that there is a seal master who could remove it to which Anko stated that Jiraiya failed to.

But when Naruto mentioned that Jiraiya is not an Uzumaki this news brought hope to the poor girl. And that's how Naruto knew about the cursed seal. Well for now what Naruto did was to make sure that it doesn't kill Sasuke or influence him too much to go Hulk smash. From what he could see and feel the Uchiha was about to wake up with a massive power boost but for now time to rest while keeping an eye on the intruders.

About an hour into the night the intruders decided it was time to strike. The three genin from the Sound village were confident that they could win. They got past Sakura's traps which further boosted their egos and assured them of victory.

"Ha those are some poor traps if I do say so myself" said the male who seemed to be the leader of the leader of the little outfit.

"Yah and they led you right into the one that you just stepped in" came a voice from behind the genin who turned to see Naruto and Sakura smirking at them. When they tried to move they found out that they couldn't. The ground suddenly was covered with an intricate seal that came from a kunai that was stuck near them in the ground. The seal was circular and covered about a metre and a half in diameter meaning that all of them were inside the seal.

"Paralysis seal. It's a simple seal but a pain in the ass. You can't move for about three hours so you are at our mercy. So please cooperate or it won't end well for you especially with the creatures in this forest that are looking for an easy meal" and with that threat the leader spilled the beans (Who would want to be left with those creepy crawlies without the ability to defend yourself). He explained that they were sent by Orochimaru to kill Sasuke which confused Naruto. Why would he want to kill someone he had just marked?

The answer came when Sasuke emerged from the cave with dark marking across his face emitting a large amount of negative energy. Oh so Orochimaru wanted Sasuke to use the power of the seal so that he could win and want more. It's sort of like a test run, you use the sample and when you see it's results you will come back wanting more. Oh that's one devious snake and these poor suckers fell for it.

Sasuke being all evil and high on power, his mind was clouded so the only thing that came to mind was power and find someone to test it on. Oh Come on and Naruto dialled down the effects of the seal and the guy still goes nuts.

Sasuke used his speed to get to his victims after he noticed they belonged to a different village. The poor genin were paralysed so they couldn't protect themselves. When Sasuke was about to rip apart the first victim Naruto decided to interfere. Even though Sasuke received a massive power boost it was still meagre compared to what Naruto got. He was totally outclassed so the guy got knocked out in less than 2 minutes.

After warning the sound genin that their master was only using them to test the Uchiha and that they were sacrificial pawns they decided to leave while the going was still possible. That was mainly because of the damn seal that was paralysing them. Of course they didn't believe that their master would sacrifice them although the leader was thinking more about it.

So team 7 arrived at the tower the next day opened the scrolls, Iruka appeared, they told him what happened which led them to be questioned by the Hokage as to the whereabouts of Orochimaru and what he was after. The Hokage then decided to continue with the exams which was both a good and stupid decision. To make the decision even more stupid he decided to let the Uchiha participate against Anko's advice. He reasoned that the crowds would want to see the Uchiha being representing the village and that when the boy makes it to the finals a lot of people would want to see him fight.

And so here we are three days later, the teams that had made it were assembled in an arena located in the tower. The Hokage addressed them about the real meaning of the exams which to Naruto sounded more like an international dick measuring contest among old men who should have retired long ago. Who in the hell would use an exam for kids as a substitute for war. And this is why he was starting to hate the shinobi way of life. Its full of conflict and competition to see who is the best even in a damn exam.

The Hokage was then interrupted by a sickly looking shinobi who was coughing after every few words. So Naruto being Naruto decided to dub him Sir Coughster or The cough master. Though he had to give it to the guy for cutting the Hokage's speech short. He was about to fall asleep while standing from all the nonsense he was saying. The cough master declared that he was their proctor and that because of the numbers they were to hold a preliminary to cut the numbers down.

Okay what? This is stupid. This means that only those making it to the finals have a shot at being chunin. The rest are just unlucky. Well this is a waste of talent and this is the stupidest exam he had ever seen. Exams are supposed to test everyone on equal footing meaning each and every genin was supposed to be judges on his capabilities to become a chunin. From what he could see this exam was meant to provide entertainment for the spectators from the best (or lucky one) that made it through the preliminary. Again he was starting to hate the shinobi way of life.

The proctor then asked if there were those who wanted to forfeit before the matches started. Kabuto raised his hand stating that he was out of chakra which was a blatant lie. The Hokage and Ibiki narrowed their eyes at this when Kabuto walked out. If anyone noticed there were a few shadows that followed Kabuto. Also Naruto could feel a certain snake among the Jounin senseis which made him wonder what he was doing here since he had already done what he wanted.

After Kabuto left the proctor announced the first match which was Sasuke vs Yoroi Akado. Mmmh something fishy is going on here Naruto thought. His suspicions were further increased when the so called Leaf genin looked in the direction of his sensei who felt like the pedo. What the hell? How is the pedo walking in broad daylight and no one noticed that? It seems the pedo is up to something. Whatever it is there was one thing to say.

Poor Sasuke it seems the pedo is very much invested in your ass.

And done.

So next we will see the matches although I will focus on two matches. The others will be of no consequence.

Now can Naruto beat Orochimaru. In the state that Orochimaru was in maybe Naruto can beat him. Orochimaru can beat him using battle experience but in terms of power and cunningness Naruto has him beat. Skill wise Orochimaru can make up with his forbidden Justu but as mentioned at the time he couldn't use them so as not to blown his cover. Plus Naruto could always use the Kyuubi's chakra if things go sideways.

Until next time see you guys Later.