The Curse Marks

The door to the room opened and light spilled in. It back lit a man of medium height with a large rope belt tied in a bow behind him. As he stepped closer, the lights turned on and she saw his pale skin and slit eyes.

"I have seen you before child. Yes, you are Sensei's pet project. The fool thought he could inspire people with a group of children and make a new Sannin out of them. Sakura-chan, isn't it?"

"Who … who are you?" Sakura stuttered out as he fear cleared her mind slightly.

"Ah, that's right. We were never introduced. I am of the original Sannin. I am Orochimaru."

Sakura was trying her hardest to generate any chakra at all. This guy freaked her out and all she wanted to do was get away from him.

"Oh stop struggling little girl," Orochimaru crooned in his hypnotic voice. "That little drink you had shut down your ability to use chakra for another few hours at least. Now tell me, who knows you are here?"

Sakura could remember all the training she had gone through on how to resist interrogation. She also remembered what Anko had said when you had nothing to hide or are outclassed; sing like a bird! Giving them some information freely would always delay torture. Since it was also likely that a captured genin would break under torture anyhow, keeping herself as physically safe as possible was the over riding issue.

"I'm here on a training exercise with my team. We didn't expect to run into you," Sakura stated.

"Ah, yes. So no one vital knows I am here, that is good, very good," chuckled Orochimaru. "You are being strangely cooperative, child. Why is that?"

Sakura felt Orochimaru's eyes on her and was frightened. "Because I don't think I could keep any information hidden no matter what I do," she replied in a scared voice.

"Yes, that is true child. You couldn't. Now, who is on your team?" Orochimaru got very close to the trembling Sakura. She could feel his hot breath on her neck.

"Anko-sensei, Iruka-sensei and my team," she said flinching badly as far from his breath as she could get.

"Ah, Anko-chan is here. That explains the summonings I felt a few minutes ago. It seems she has lost track of you, Sakura-chan. She is close by but even close is too far away to help you right now."

Kabuto looked through the open doorway, "Orochimaru-sama, everything is ready for us to leave at your command."

"Ah, thank you Kabuto, you are a good servant. Come see the little girl who ruined our plans of adding this place to our network. It seems it was not intentional but that is of no importance right now. She is already missed and that means this base of operations will be found soon enough. The people here will be of no use to us in supplying test subjects discretely."

Kabuto walked over, "Haruno Sakura, second apprentice to Senju Tsunade the Slug Princess. I remember her from the Chunin Exams a number of months back. She is the one that put the scar on the cheek of Sasuke-kun and almost cut his eye."

Orochimaru glanced back to Sakura, "Yes, more interesting however, she bears a passing resemblance to Tsu-hime; right down to her tiny chest. Her luck must be equally bad if she fell into a civilian trap."

Sakura blushed heavily at being compared physically to her teacher. She managed to control her breathing enough to prevent herself from hyperventilating.

"But, I am not sure if I should thank you for helping destroy Sasuke-kun's grip on sanity or hate you for destroying his beautiful face," Orochimaru crooned softly from behind Sakura. Sakura tried but failed to suppress a shiver from Orochimaru being so close to her. "Make a note Kabuto, for when we destroy Konoha. If she lives I want to experiment on this one."

Kabuto waited in silence for Orochimaru to have his fun.

"Anko-chan is getting closer, Kabuto. You had better head off to the meeting point. I will be along shortly. I have a few things left to discuss with this child before I leave. I would have so loved to have given her a seal and see what it became on her." Orochimaru looked to see Kabuto cast his jutsu and disappear into the ground.

Orochimaru looked back at Sakura and felt the need to toy with the girl further. "I have heard that Konoha made my old teammate Jiraiya into the Hokage. Has he sprung all of his perversions on you kunoichi yet?"

"Jiraiya-sensei is a good Hokage," Sakura replied in a quiet voice.

"You do not sound so convinced of that, child. Not convinced at all. No matter, it will not be long for him either. I do want you to bring him a message. Tell him that I send my regards and that I want my pet Uchiha returned to me. I have taken a liking to him and Jiraiya-kun had the boy locked up where I cannot get to him. That is very displeasing to me. Perhaps I should keep you and make a trade? Ah, but then who would deliver my message?"

'This guy is a nutjob,' Sakura thought

The sound of a breaking door nearby made Orochimaru look away from Sakura, who slid further away from the Snake Sannin. The crash was replaced by a shout she recognized as Anko's voice, "WHERE IS SHE?"

Anko screamed out her anger and saw several teens and a few older men scatter. Her first impression of the place was a slavery operation. She thought Sakura was trained better than to fall for something like getting drugged. Her snakes had followed Sakura's scent right to the building she had just kicked open. Now her own senses were telling her that something even worse was going on here than slavery. She could smell HIM.

'Dammit, none of us are prepared to face that bastard. No weapons, and not enough manpower. If we can get Sakura out and retreat that would be the best I could hope for today.'

A silky voice sounded from the shadows ahead, "Ah, my wayward apprentice has come for a visit. If you had only called ahead I would have had tea waiting. I remember how much you love tea, Anko-chan."

Anko flinched as being reminded of her past and knew she did not make a very intimidating person in her sandals and '2 Good 4 U' t-shirt over a string bikini. "Just give me the girl and I will leave, Orochimaru," she said as calmly as she could.

"I am saddened; Anko-chan. Showing concern for another is not what I taught you."

"I've learned better things since I was your apprentice," she hissed in reply. She had to play for time. Iruka would be following soon with Hinata and Naruto. If Naruto tapped into the Kyuubi chakra; that would set off an alert seal in Konoha so Jiraiya would know something was going wrong on the trip.

"So, I thought you were busy raiding villages in Rice Fields for test subjects, not the vacation spots of the Fire Country. The Rice daimyo growing a spine against you cut into your playtime?"

Orochimaru narrowed his eyes at Anko with her taunt. "Mind your tongue, apprentice. I shall deal with that turncoat in due time. The fool feared the full weight of the Fire Country's military more than Me."

"Well, I guess getting new recruits was tough after your village got beaten so badly. Your side had over 800 dead and captured. Konoha lost less than half that many ninja."

Orochimaru had regained him calm demeanor. He recognized Anko was playing for time now. "Are your reinforcements running late, Anko-chan? As far as the losses Sound incurred, we both know a few genin will not make a difference in battle other than to increase the body count. Their only purpose was to divert attention with numbers while the Sand village did the real damage. Those cowards could not even storm a captured gate. Alas, good help is hard to find. They shall suffer as well, in time."

The sound of more people arriving and beating up the slavers that were trying to escape make both Orochimaru and Anko glance over at another door. "Ah, your friends have caught up, Anko-chan. Since I am just passing through and I need to keep a low profile for the moment, I will just take my leave."

Anko remained in a defensive stance as the other door in the room opened to show Iruka holding a weapon with Hinata and Naruto guarding his flank each holding kunai and standing in a defensive taijutsu stance.

Orochimaru chuckled, "Oh no, I am surrounded," he said sarcastically. "Whatever shall I do?"

Anko almost reacted in time when Orochimaru focused his killing intent in the group, causing all of them to freeze up under its power. The Sannin made a few hand signs and his neck extended to bite Anko over her original curse mark. She screamed and fell to the ground as Orochimaru slid past her saying, "A small gift Anko-chan. Since I have learned so much more on how my curse seals work since you got yours, I decided to upgrade and activate it for you. No need to thank me. Make sure your pink haired friend delivers my message to Jiraiya-kun."

The Snake Sannin then disappeared into the ground as Anko was writhing on the ground in pain, holding her neck.

Naruto created a dozen shadow clones to bind the fallen slavers with whatever was at hand as Iruka picked up Anko. Hinata got Sakura and the group headed outside to wait for the local police.

Within minutes, the slaver hideout was swarming with police as Iruka was tending to Anko outside. The jonin was getting short on breath and began gasping for air as her moan lessened.

Iruka growled as he told the team, "The curse seal she had for years is reacting with that bite. It's killing her."

Tsunade was sitting back drinking saucers of sake as she leaned back from her desk. For once, all of her work in the hospital was done and she was free for the rest of the day. No students to worry about teaching and no patients needing her attention. Life was good.

Shizune knocked on her door and entered. "Tsunade-sama, you shouldn't be drinking in your office!"

"Ah, don't be such a mother hen, Shizune. I earned it. The last patient from the Invasion left the hospital today. Things will be quieter for us now. Only routine ninja injuries and the medics can handle those."

"I have the medical reports on the team Jiraiya-sama plans to send to Cloud for the Chunin Exams. He asked if you could bring them over before heading home."

Tsunade grumbled as she was forced to stop her second favorite habit and took the files from Shizune. She practically stomped over to the Tower like a child and walked into Jiraiya's office without knocking. Jiraiya scrambled to hide his notes and shut off the crystal ball he inherited with the ugly hat.

Tsunade raised an eyebrow as she waited for Jiraiya to stop scrambling. "Remind me to take that away from you when I go to use the hot springs. If you weren't Hokage, I would be punting you across town right now." Tsunade sighed. "At least you had the door closed and were not out by the springs like you used to be."

Jiraiya chuckled lamely and rubbed the back of his head. "So what brings you by this afternoon, Tsunade-hime?"

She dropped the files on his desk. "Final medical clearances for the teams going to the Chunin Exams in the Cloud. Shizune brought up an interesting point most of us missed. The Cloud had tried to kidnap Hinata when she was 3. I know there is a new Raikage since then and he returned the body of Hyuuga Hizashi intact but I think we should be nervous about it."

Jiraiya smiled, "For once I am ahead of you on this." He pulled out a letter from the daimyo of the Lightning Country. "It seems his son and daughter are going to be on a pilgrimage to visit various religious sites in both the Wave and Fire Countries during the Exams. He did suggest that we provide an 'escort' to accompany the official one his children will be having. The official wording is 'to provide assurance of safety return home in the event of any ill feelings during their journey in the Fire Country.'

"So, he is basically offering his children as hostages if Cloud pulls something."

"Yup, but not officially. We don't deal with hostages but his courier said something about, insuring the peace by putting something of value within our reach while something of value to Konoha was in theirs."

Before either Sannin could say more a seal on the desk flashed red and remained lit for a few seconds before going out once more.

Hinata activated her Byakugan and looked at Anko. The curse seal on her neck was pulsing between violet and black as it tried to overcome the sealing Jiraiya had made soon after Anko had been recovered after leaving Orochimaru.

"The containment seal around the curse seal is drawing on dangerously high amounts of Anko-sensei's chakra to remain intact," she explained as Anko continued to gasp. "She is draining quickly and will be depleted in minutes. That is why she is having trouble breathing."

"Can't we just destroy it? I mean its just chakra like any other seal isn't it?" Naruto asked.

Iruka looked at Naruto, "It's not that simple, Naruto. We don't know what rupturing it will do to Anko or us if there is a backlash."

Hinata looked up, "But if we do nothing, Anko-sensei will die when she runs out of chakra. If we try something and fail, she will die. But if we try something and succeed, she could live."

Sakura spoke up, "Hinata's Gentle Fist disrupts chakra flow. Could that do something to the curse seal?"

Iruka looked down at Anko. Her movements were slowing as the color began to drain from her face. The purple light coming from the seal on her neck cast a baleful glow.

"I'll hold her still, Hinata. Do it," Iruka said.

Hinata nodded once and focused chakra into the first two fingers of her right hand and struck the seal.

Purple chakra lightning arced out of the seal and pushed Hinata's hand back after it struck. Iruka screamed as the lightning ran over both his and Anko's bodies. The curse mark slowed its pulsing for a moment before resuming at the original pace.

Hinata stared at the seal probing as hard as she could with her eyes. "It was not enough. I can see that I disrupted it slightly, but my chakra is not potent enough to rupture it completely."

Naruto muttered, "More potent chakra." He looked at Hinata then at Sakura. He would be forced to let Sakura know about his burden to do this.

"I think I can get you some more potent chakra, Hinata-chan. From It."

Sakura was puzzled, "It? What It?"

Naruto looked down and couldn't meet Sakura's eyes, "From the demon I have trapped inside of me."

Sakura was about to ask more questions when Hinata touched her arm.

"Please Sakura. Ask later, we are running out of time. Anko-sensei is running out of time," Hinata said.

Sakura just nodded as Naruto sat down in a meditation pose. He had done this before but he would always stop himself before going that far down into his mind; where the Kyuubi lay trapped.

Naruto opened his eyes to the dim red light of his mindscape. The cage rose up into darkness before him with the paper reading 'Seal' holding the gates closed.

"Ah, my jailor returns."

"I need some of your chakra, Kitsune."

"No."

"I need it to save my teacher."

"Still No."

"Don't you even care?"

"Not really. Helping your teacher provides no benefit to me."

"But she'll die!"

"Yeah? And?"

Naruto was getting angry at the Kyuubi's outright refusal to help. He saw the blue glow of the bars lessen slightly and the water he was standing in get darker. 'I need to avoid getting angry. Jiraiya-sensei said that give the Kitsune some power over me as its chakra mixes into me. So if I get angry but remain in control of myself, I should be able to get some chakra and use it.'

Naruto looked at the cage once more and thought back. He remembered Hinata get struck down by the senbon. He remembered Sakura get struck down by Sasuke. He recalled his rage at those events and the feeling of him simply pulling chakra out of the seal. But this time he kept himself under control and saw what he had done on instinct. Now he did it deliberately, with a strict focus on drawing the chakra without letting the Kyuubi influence him at the same time. The meditations Jiraiya and Tsunade had made him do helped him keep his focus and he felt the chakra move.

Naruto's eyes flew open. The normal pools of blue were a bright purple and had slits within them. Sakura leaned away in fear and Iruka paled at seeing him like that. Naruto moved his hands into the sign of the ram.

"Hinata, I need your help. I have to focus this red chakra to my fingers. Please tell me when I gather it there," Naruto said in an altered voice.

Naruto broke out into a sweat as he spent the next few seconds trying to draw the red chakra to his fingers.

"It's moving, Naruto. There is a large amount gathering in your fingers now," Hinata said. The red chakra hurt her eyes to be staring at it. The amount increased slowly as Iruka moved Anko closer to Naruto. She was gasping harder as her eyes were clenched shut.

"I am going to lose control of this soon. Is it enough Hinata?" Naruto asked.

"It should be, Naruto. Most of the red chakra in your body is in your hands now."

Naruto slowly turned his hands while keeping the hand sign intact so that his fingers were pointing away from his body and touched them to the seal on Anko's neck. Once he made contact, he pushed the red chakra out of his hands and into the cursed seal.

The light from the seal began pulsing faster as the red chakra invaded it. The black tome marks began to dissolve under the effects of the red chakra as Naruto fell back passed out from his effort. Hinata focused her Byakugan on the seal once more as the tome marks were slowly consumed. But the caustic red chakra continued to eat at the blue chakra containment seal. Hinata's fingers flashed down once more and jabbed. The red chakra exploded out and took the form of a fox head before dispersing.

Anko fell still and began to breathe much easier as the containment seal was no longer drawing in her chakra. Iruka sat with her head on his lap as Sakura pulled Anko's shirt back down over her body. 'No sense in giving everyone a free show,' Sakura thought. 'Anko-sensei isn't awake to see them drool.'

Orochimaru flinched as he felt one of his curse seals stop. The small bit of his own life force within it was extinguished. 'Anko-chan. A pity you did not survive.'

Sasuke cried out in his sleep. His seal throbbed for a reason he didn't understand. He felt somehow diminished. 'I need to get out of here. I'm getting weaker.'

The police took the five ninja to the station for statements. They had broken a slavery ring that had taken several dozen female runaways and tourists over the past year. Word of it had been suppressed to avoid hurting tourism because they had no actual proof of its existence. The drink vendor was the piece they were missing when they would send out undercover agents to find them. The man would be able to decide who got taken and who didn't. If a person seemed too observant or suspicious, the target was not given a drugged drink. This allowed the boys out looking to not get caught as more than guys hitting on the girls.

Anko had not woken up yet. Once Sakura was able to use her chakra, a few mystic palm passes confirmed she was simply chakra exhausted. The police involvement had let Sakura off the hook for falling for the trap. Iruka was upset but when he talked to her, he saw the mark of a professional and talented organization behind it. He wrote down a few notes to submit to Konoha's list of items to use on missions.

Naruto kept to himself the whole time and spoke as little as possible. Hinata just sat with him and gave him quiet encouragement.

When the police got word from the capital, the group was allowed to leave. The Daimyo's seal on a message was enough to let the ninja go. They were 'requested' to stop in the capital on their way back to Konoha.

Once Anko had woken up, the real explaining began. She vanished into the bathroom for about a half hour before returning to get a full explanation from each perspective. The oppressive taint she had felt in her mind since her pre-teen years was gone. The only sign of the curse seal was a discolored patch of skin that looked like a tattoo had been there and later removed.

After she had everything written down, she made Naruto summon a toad to carry the written out information to Jiraiya. She did not want to summon snakes just yet. It would take the toad over a day to make the trip to Konoha so they had at least two before they could be recalled if that was what Jiraiya decided. This gave the team a chance to discuss the issue that Sakura was pushing them to finish telling her about.

Naruto looked nothing like himself as Sakura sat on the couch in the suite. She listened as he told her about how the village lied on what happened the day he was born. The fact that the Yondaime had sealed the Kyuubi into the newborn Naruto instead of killing it was difficult for Sakura to accept. She had seen the chakra so she knew it was true. She was having trouble reconciling the fact that Naruto was the jailor of the most powerful demon in history. It took Hinata pulling out the scroll containing all of their ninja gear to finally get the point across to the pink haired girl. Ninja sealed may things inside of scrolls and other objects. The demon was simply one more. Gaara and that woman from Cloud were the same way as Naruto but their demons were less well sealed.

"As near as I can tell, it is sleeping inside of me most of the time. That is why I am not always fighting with it. I have talked to it once on purpose and a few times when I didn't want to. When I got burnt, I saw it for the first time. It was because of the Kyuubi that I healed so well from the burns. The same with my legs. The chakra that seeps through the seal supercharges my own naturally accelerated healing."

"Some private talks I have had with Jiraiya-sensei about it make us think if my life was in mortal danger it would act to prevent my dying to save itself. All it wants is from me to release it. Jiraiya-sensei figures the 'cage' itself was constructed inside my soul by the death god's seal and that my chakra keeps it closed."

"The seal 'cage' is buried so far down in my subconscious that I needed to be in a coma to see it the first time. Later on, I was able to reach the chakra when I thought Hinata got killed and again when I thought you did, Sakura. This time I was able to use the meditation Jiraiya-sensei and Tsunade-sensei had us learn to reach it. I figure with enough practice I could speak to it more often but I don't want to. It's a not a kind creature. It refused to let me free access to its chakra to help Anko-sensei."

"I don't want to use its power unless I have no other choice. It's evil. It makes Hebi-teme look like baby evil. I have been thinking about it. It took all I had to pull out the chakra I used to help Anko-sensei. The amount of power I used was so small compared to what was there. Think of a mountain. I managed to move one grain of sand of that mountain. The rest of it is still there, not moved."

Both Sakura and Hinata shuddered at Naruto's comparison.

Anko got tired of waiting for the toad to return. "That critter is going to return to where Naruto is, so how about we go spend a few hours at the beach waiting. Jiraiya is likely going to order us home so we might as well get in some vacation while we can. No wandering off with anyone. Got it, Pinkie?"

The group spent the day playing in the water and beach. Hinata and Naruto spent a lot of time holding hands while Anko teased Iruka to several nosebleeds. Sakura remained close by to keep the poor teacher from passing out too often from blood loss.

That night, Anko strolled into the boy's room and kicked out Naruto. He spent the night on the couch hearing a lot of noise from the bedroom and muttering to himself, "I am not a pervert, I am not a pervert."

His dreams however were disturbing. In them he dreamed of having the choice of giving Hinata a kiss or having all the ramen he could eat. His dream ended when he woke up before he could decide. For some reason the last thing from his dream he remembered was the taste of peppermint on his lips. The toad messenger was waiting outside and he did have a message for them to return to Konoha as soon as possible after their stop at the Daimyo.

The team left the resort in full gear and rapidly made their way back toward the capital and Konoha. The Daimyo was happy to see them and only made them wait for a half hour as he cleared his schedule. The man was happy that the team had flushed out the traitor Sannin and exposed a slavery ring. The men involved had given a lot of information to save their own necks and several layers of the organized crime ring had been captured. A number of police in the resort town had been implicated and would be charged as well. The Daimyo himself presented a reward to the team, Anko, and Iruka. Konoha would be getting something later on but this reward was for them personally. He also wished them luck in the Chunin Exams in Cloud.

Hinata had a mild panic attack hearing that but the Daimyo reassured her that the daimyo of Lightning personally guaranteed her safety by sending his own children on a 'pilgrimage' to various shrine in the Wave and Fire Countries. Even Cloud would not risk a war over a single girl this time.

The rest of the trip back to Konoha was boring. The group tree ran at their best pace. Anko was reveling in the fact she did not have to worry about control for once in her life. She would continue her normal self control once they returned but this time it would be from choice, not from need.

Jiraiya looked as the team stood in the office. "I wish I was able to let your vacation go longer but you running into Orochimaru was too much. You will get the last week of it as time off inside the village. We do need to talk about what you did with Anko's curse seal. No one had considered that method of removal for it. It was an inspired bit of thinking."

"More like desperate thinking. If we did nothing, Anko-sensei would have died. We got lucky we didn't kill her ourselves with what we did," Hinata told him.

Jiraiya nodded. "But it did work for her. Unfortunately, we asked Hiashi to look over Sasuke's seal. It is amuch more powerful seal but it was also active in his system before being locked away. There are traces of the seal's chakra in most of his body so even if we remove the main seal itself, the poisoned chakra would remain behind."

All the genin looked a bit saddened at that news but accepted it with a nod.

Jiraiya continued, "Sakura, the information about Naruto keeping the Kyuubi contained is a Class S secret. You cannot tell anyone about it."

Sakura nodded, "I understand."

"Are you okay with the situation?" Jiraiya asked.

"Yes, Hokage-sama. Naruto is too much of a goofball to be a killer demon." At her comment everyone nodded while Naruto fumed and grumped. He relaxed when Hinata squeezed his hand.

Sakura told Jiraiya what Orochimaru had said regarding Sasuke. Jiraiya merely nodded and told everyone that Sasuke would not be going anywhere. He was not cooperating with the wardens and showed no improvement mentally. Jiraiya dismissed the group but Naruto asked for a few minutes in private now that all the business was taken care of.

"Jiraiya-sensei, you know how the Old Man was helping me with my money?"

Jiraiya nodded, "You mentioned it once."

"Well, I just wanted to ask if you could help me with it now. The lawyer told me how much I got from the Old Man's will. I own my apartment building, one other building that makes rental income and I wanted to invest it in a few other places. I also got the reward from the Daimyo on our short vacation. I know what I want to do with it, but some of the people involved are civilians and don't see me favorably."

"What did you want to do with it, Naruto?"

"I want to buy some land so that I can start my own family someday."

Next Chapter: On the Road to Lightning

End Notes:

The whole run in with Orochimaru was not so much a full out thing as it was a chance encounter while he was scouting out new sources of test subjects since Sound was destroyed 'off camera' when it was weakened. But Anko is freed from the last remnant Orochimaru had hanging over her. I only have one last thing to say on that, Poor Iruka.

Naruto and Hinata are 'together' but not to the point of declaring status of boyfriend/girlfriend out loud. Both still retain that shyness that makes up a large part of their true personalities, as both are still uncomfortable and only just 13 years old.

Sakura knows about the Kyuubi inside Naruto now but I did not waste a lot of time on that point. She has become a true friend to Naruto and Hinata since Academy days and will not hesitate to tell Naruto when he is being stupid on something but she does not hit him like she does in canon and in many stories. She has also developed a playful side and her 'inner self' has little reason for conflicting with her maturing personality since she does not hide who she is to gain the attention of Sasuke as in canon.

My Cloud version of the Chunin Exams will be something totally original for people, I hope. I am cutting out a lot of the Naruto filler episodes since most of them were lame or centered around trying to find out how to get Sasuke back

Review Notes:

I truly appreciate the reviews. A few people comparing my character development to canon but I have beaten that horse to paste with explanations over the past year.

My other stories have gotten some really constructive ones recently that made me rethink a few plot points and made me go back and re-read my story here from the beginning. I noticed a lot of places I could use some serious editing as far as grammar and such but as far as storyline content I remain pleased. My story remains character driven more than action driven but there will be more action coming up as new tests await the team

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I thank everyone who has looked at my efforts and I am grateful that so many enjoy it.