XXXIX: Changes

Konoha Forest of Death, One Month Nine Days ago:

"You have got to be kidding me…"

Jiraiya's Camp, Present Day:

"Wait!" Tsunade shouted, "Don't switch back to the kids what happened to Anko?"

"I don't know, she didn't return from the forest."

"Then how do you know what she said? Or if she even found him?"

"I don't actually; it was a bit of conjecture actually. After the kids came back I went into the forest after her I found what looked like the sight of a fight, but knowing anko it could have just been really rough…"

"Don't finish that sentence!" Tsunade clocked Jiraiya over the head, "That's the last thing I want to think about thank you."

Konoha Forest of Death, One Month Nine Days ago:

Naruto sighed, "Put me down and kick their asses."

"These losers found us?" Sasuke grumbled, "Took them long enough."

"You cheated!" The third member of the Ame team shouted, "Dropping into the middle of us and grabbing the scroll isn't fair!"

"And now that we can see you, we'll beat the crap out of you!"

"I'm Sorry," Kabuto interrupted their ranting, "But I can't allow you to do that."

"What are you gonna do about it old man?"

"I do not wish to hurt you." Kabuto's tone was low and menacing, "But if you do not get out of our way I will be forced to."

"I heard you talking before the first exam!" The leader pointed at Kabuto, "This is your seventh test! I'm not afraid of someone so weak!"

"I didn't fail because I was weak." Kabuto said quietly before raising his arms and shifting his legs into an aggressive taijutsu stance, "I failed because I don't like fighting."

All three Ame ninja's shared a look. All three charged Kabuto at once. Kabuto moved like a snake. Each attack slid harmlessly past him and was met with a counter attack that left each ninja on the floor despite being a seemingly light tap.

"Huh. That was fast." Naruto observed, "Was that Juken? I thought you needed a Byakugan to use it effectively."

Kabuto shook his head sadly, "No, it's not Juken," He held the first to fingers of his right hand up towards the light, with the setting sun shining behind them Naruto and Sasuke could see a faint green shimmer, "It's a Chakra scalpel." Kabuto explained, "It's mainly used in field surgeries when you don't have your full kit, or to cut behind something without damaging what's in front of it."

"Wow that's cool!"

Kabuto's face darkened with anger, "No it's not! It's meant to save lives! Not cripple, or kill!"

"I''m sorry Kabuto…"

"No, I didn't mean to shout like that. It's just… I became a ninja to help people, I only know medical ninjutsu and I don't like having to use it to fight."

"Why don't you know more?"

"Like I said I wanted to help people, so I focused on becoming a med-nin as fast as I could. I kind of neglected my other studies…"

"Would you like to train with us after the exams?" Sasuke suggested, "You could teach us some medical justu, and we could show you some fighting moves."

Kabuto smiled, "Yeah, I would like that." He helped Sasuke pick Naruto up again, before picking up the litter, "Come on, let's get you three to the tower before something stupidly random happens again."

Fortunately for Team Seven the last few minutes of the way to the tower were completely uneventful. It had taken them just under ten hours to get there. After saying good bye to Kabuto at the entrance team seven entered the tower and found a small room with a poem carved on the far wall

"If lacking Heaven, seek wisdom. Be prepared.
If lacking Earth, run in the fields. Seek advantages.
With both Heaven and Earth, danger becomes safety.
These are the principles that guide a human."

While Sasuke and Naruto sat trying to figure out the riddle Hinata woke up "Wh-where are we," She asked weakly.

"We made it to the tower with Kabuto's help," Sasuke filled her in on everything that happened while she was unconscious.

When they finished and Hinata had read the wall, she suggested, "Maybe we should open b-both of the sc-scrolls."

"Are you sure?"

"Well… Anko said not to open them before we got to the tower, and the riddle says danger becomes safety with both heaven and earth…"

With a shrug Sasuke said, "I guess you're right," Pulled both scrolls form his pockets and unsealed them. Almost immediately they began to smoke.

"Quick put them together, like this!" Naruto made an 'X' with his arms, "It's a summoning formula!"

As soon as Sasuke had them in the correct position there was a puff of smoke and Iruka emerged from it.

"Um…wow…" Iruka was nearly speechless, "Less than twelve hours… Normally that would be a rec…or…d" He suddenly noticed the condition Team Seven was in, "Kami! What happened to you three?"

"Get Jiraiya," Naruto said weakly, "Orochimaru put a five point seal on me and I can't remove it by myself."

"What? Orochimaru!" Iruka spun around and began to fiddle with the wall, a few seconds later a hidden door swung open, "Come quickly, Jiraiya's already inside waiting for you, I'll send a message to the Hokage while he takes care of you."

"You're late," Jiraiya said as soon as they entered his room. He had his back to them and was writing something on a desk in the far corner. "You should have been the first team through, not the third."

Jiraiya put his brush down and turned around. He jumped out of his chair when he saw how old and ragged Naruto looked, "Kami, what happened to you?"

Naruto gave him a quick summary of what happened, as soon as he said five point seal, Jiriaya interrupted him, "Are you sure? I've never seen that seal do something like this."

Naruto lifted his shirt, "See for yourself."

"Sloppy work," Jiraiya tsk'ed, "RELEASE!" He thrust his hand into Naruto's stomach and with a twist of his wrist he broke the seal.

Almost immediately the color returned to Naruto's skin and hair. "KIT! KIT!" Kurama's voice suddenly echoed loudly in Naruto's head.

'I'm Here.'

"Whatever happened cut me off completely. It damaged the seal too." The fox sounded relived to hear Naruto's voice again,

'What? How bad?'

"Not too bad, but there's some cracks in the bars now. Be careful if it happens again it could shatter the seal."

"Thanks Ero-Sennin, I feel a lot better now."

"Iruka will show you three to your rooms. You should settle in and get some rest." Jiraiya sat back down and began to fiddle with his brush.

"We're not leaving?" Sasuke asked.

"Not until the end of the fifth day. We need to know how many teams pass, if more than ten teams pass we'll need to do an … extra test to whittle the numbers down further."

"An extra test?" Hinata asked worriedly.

"Well…more like a preliminary for test three," Jiraiya replied.

"Preliminary? Is the last test a tournament?" Sasuke, at least, was eager for a chance to see how strong he was in comparison to the other genin. "I hope Rock Lee makes it, I'd love to be able to really cut loose against him."

"Don't worry," Jiraiya reassured Hinata, who looked rather nervous, "As long as you give it your all you'll be fine."

Naruto raised an eyebrow at the platitude, "Somehow I doubt that Ero-sennin, there's three, three, Jonin level ninja in the chunin exam."

"Three?" Sasuke looked confused, "Zabuza yeah definitely, and maybe Haku but who's the third?"

"Fu. At least I'd think she is, she fought your brother for at least an hour during the attack on waterfall."

"She is? She didn't seem that strong when I fou…er…"

"You don't have to worry about Fu, She won't Use her Biju shroud. It is, after all, a state secret that she's a Jinchuriki."

"Oh…" Naruto looked worried, "Does that mean I shouldn't use mine?"

Jiraiya looked thoughtful for a moment, "Not unless you have to, to win. Enough people know where it can't be classified as S-rank anymore, although the injunction still stands I think." Jiraiya smiled," Besides I doubt you'll need it anyway."

Naruto shrugged, "If you say so Ero-Senin."

"I do, now go and get some rest; you three still look half dead."

"What about Orochimaru?" Naruto asked.

"We already knew he was planning something, now we know the where and the when." Jiraiya said "He's definitely long gone. The only question I have is what he wanted with you three."

"He said he wanted to give Sasuke something, But I got knocked out before the end of the fight."

Jiraiay turned expactently towards Sasuke, "Well, what happened?"

"He…um… He bit me?" Sasuke absentmindedly rubbed the spot where, Orochimaru bit him. "at first it really hurt, but it feels a lot better now."

"Let me see."

Sasuke pulled his collar back so Jiraiya, could see mark. Naruto peered closely at the strange triple Tomoe mark. "It kinda looks like a Sharin…" He trailed off in the middle of his sentence, "Hey Sasuke, Do you feel any different now?"

"Actually, it's starting to feel pretty good…"

"What's the matter Naruto?"

"That mark, I think it's a seal."

"It looks like Anko's," Jiraiya said, "She called it a Cursed Seal of Heaven. I never was able to figure out what he was trying to do, or how to get the damn thing off."

"It's pumping him full of chakra… but… I have no idea where it's coming from…"

Jiraiya leapt out of his chair" It can't be!" He took a closer look at the seal, "that sneaky bastard…"

"What'sgoing on?"

"I never even considered the possibility of it doing that." Jiraiya mumbled to himself, "That explains so much."

"Mind filling me in here, it's on my neck…"

"The anger, the aggression the seemingly endless supply of chakra…" Jiraiya finally noticed Sasuke glaring at him, "Oh…well, Anko reported that whenever she let the seal activate in combat she felt like she would never run out of chakra. All Her teammates noticed was that she became increasingly violent and erratic under the effects of the sea. In the end it was deemed to dangerous and she was forbidden from using it.

"I tried to figure out how it worked but Orochimaru's seal work was uncharacteristically sloppy and I couldn't make heads or tails of It, Honestly I'm surprised it didn't explode.

"But if What Naruto said is true…" He pulled a magnifying glass out of a pocket and took a closer look at the seal, "I would say that's impossible…But the seal takes Nature Chakra

And forcibly converts it to normal chakra."

"Nature chakra? What's that?" Naruto had never heard of it before.

"Well there's two main types of chakra, Elemental and Natural. Nature chakra is produced by every living thing, It is much stronger than the normal elemental chakra found in your bodies"

"How do you know that? Is it possible to use it?"

"Yes, but it takes years and years of practice to be able to gather the chakra without killing yourself, too little and it's useless, too much and you die... I myself cannot use it without help."

"So this seal lets me use it?"

"No as far as I can tell, now that I'm sure, what it does, Is transform Nature Chakra to Elemental. In theory you would never run out of chakra with a seal like that, but it's not complete."

"It's not?"

"There's nothing in the seal that would make you more violent like Anko's team reported. I think it doesn't fully transform all of the chakra, and some of it is stuck somewhere between Nature and Elemetnal type."

"Which explains why it's purple." Naruto said.

"Purple? What does chakra color have to do with anything?" Jiraiya asked.

"Well it's the only purple chakra I've seen before."

"Purple isn't that uncommon a color."

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "Well all I've ever seen are red, green, brown, dark blue and light blue."

"That's all? What about white? Kakashi's chakra is white."

"No it's not. Its Dark blue, light blue and brown."

"Next you'll be telling me that our chakra isn't blue."

"Ours?"

Jiraiya rolled his eyes, and made a Rasengan. "See blue, same color as you."

"But the chakra I see in you isn't blue, It's red and brown."

"What's the problem?" Sasuke interrupted, "Isn't it obvious he can see the elements you can use?"

Naruto did a quick mental calculation. "That can't be right." Naruto said, "I can see brown chakra inside me, but I don't have an earth affinity."

JIriaya frowned, "Take this," he pulled a piece of chakra paper out of his pocket and handed it to Naruto, "Use it."

With a shrug Naruto poured chakra into the paper. First it shredded, then it darkened, before crumpling up into little balls. "See no Earth affi…" Then the balls crumbled into dust.

"What just Happened?

A/N: Yeah still no internet, sorry about the missed chapter on Wednesday (And this chapter being a day late) I appreciate all of the offers for beta reading, but until I have my internet back I'm going to have to wait to get back to you….Sorry :(

And in Manga news; if Sasuke becomes Hokage I will regret every second I spent readin NAruto and will probably never read anything Kishimoto writes again. I won't abandon the story but I probably will all of my interest in Canon Naruto. (On the bright side, the Konoha 12's reactions were hilarious, and Minato having the other half of the Kyuubi in him is a) not my plot (So yay no idea theft) and B) mildly interesting)