Before we begin this tale of awesomeness and what-not, I have a review I'd like to reply to. Usually, I reply to reviews through the PM system, but I couldn't reply to this one for some reason.
For the reviewer that sued the name Daniel, Shikamaru fought Temari solely because the Sandaime is favoring his own shinobi. I had forgotten kin had won her fight, but the sandaime would have found out during the month that kin was a slave anyway. I'll likely do a flashback at some point using the infamous, eye problem causing, Gai fixing jutsu called the Flashback no Jutsu! Bear in mind that the Sandaime doesn't really feel that Naruto has any rights, and only uses the grandfather persona as a facade to endear Naruto to Konoha.
The invasion was not going well. Orochimaru was finding that the Sandaime seemed to have some new abilities, and was taking great pleasure in using Orochimaru and his summons as a guinea pig. Even summoning the old man's former teachers didn't seem to change the situation any. Instead of having them be astonished at how the old man had become, they failed to even notice.
Orochimaru suspected genjutsu. But he wasn't aware of any genjutsu that caused that exact effect, and he hadn't seen his teacher perform anything of that sort. He of course, ignored the old man's age and experience in combat. He ignored that the old man could be so skilled at the art of genjutsu that he could perform at least some genjutsu seal-less.
All the same, this fight was not going well. The roof tiles themselves had been turned into some form of sand, and this proved problematic. While the Nidaime's water jutsu certainly helped against the sand, they did little good if they couldn't even touch the sand. And while the Mokuton of the first certainly helped the fight a lot, it did little good to actually pin the old man down.
He moved like a monkey, leaping through the branches and slipping around the jutsu and taijutsu attacks with ease. Orochimaru had learned something from the fight though. He was really bad at kenjutsu! It wasn't that he had no skill, it was that he had no experience against unfavorable odds. He had always avoided them, instead of going for them when he thought he might win.
And the Sandaime had proved to be able to manipulate his sand and use his staff at the same time. Not to mention his numerous other jutsu thrown into the mix. Instead of being frail and weak as Orochimaru had expected, the old man was instead as energetic and powerful as he had been in his prime! Orochimaru had to admit, he was intrigued. And frightened. Though he would never admit the last one.
Naruto was moving behind Sakura at a swift pace. For her at least. For Naruto, this pace was far to slow. Instead of leaping through the trees like ninja, they were leisurely walking along the ground, like civilians. When Naruto had suggested moving through the trees to move along quicker, Sakura had scoffed at him and called him out for having bad manners.
Eventually, they came across the sound ambush. But, instead of moving around them, Sakura walked straight up to them ,tossing an order to Naruto over her shoulder. 'Let me handle this!'. Her handling of the matter was her asking what they were doing there. Of course, this led to her being caught and the sound shinobi laughing. Before they could do anything more to her though, they found themselves down a few men due to shuriken to the necks.
This set them on guard, but Naruto chose not to reveal himself so easily. Instead of staying in the same spot, he teleported to the other side of the clearing, hiding behind some bushes. This didn't last long.
"NARUTO! GET OUT OF THAT BUSH AND GET ME OUT OF HERE!" Of course, since it was one of the few bushes in the area, it was quickly bombarded with kunai and shuriken, forcing Naruto to leap out of it and back into the tree line. Once in the trees, he once again teleported to the other side of the clearing, before quickly moving through hand seals to fire a horizontal blade of wind. Since he was only recalling the jutsu from an old memory, he found the technique failing to work properly. Somehow, it managed to take out an enemy though, via slashing the neck of that poor, poor soul.
Naruto found himself face to face with the apparent leader the next second though, and had to duck back from the straight punch to his face. He countered with a knee strike to the nuts, and watched as the leader sank to his knees. Taking a couple steps back, he spun around and unleashed a devastating kick to the temple that resulted in the poor sound ninja's neck being broken. Of course, there is no such kill as overkill. Naruto focused his mind and power to one task and one task alone, summoning fire on the very skin of the remaining ninja. They had no time to react more than a small glare before their clothes were lit aflame and they learned what burning to death feels like. Of course, they also learned what utter agony is like. Fire does that.
Sakura had frozen due to the mass killing, and was looking at Naruto with pure fear in her eyes. When Naruto untied her, she leapt away from him, drawing a kunai in the process.
"What are you, killing them like that?! They didn't deserve to die!" she screamed as loudly as she could. Of course, this meant it was nearly loud enough to pierce the sound barrier, and alerted several nearby shinobi, most of them luckily Konoha shinobi.
Kin was finding that battle could be fun. She had been intercepted by several of her former comrades before she could move to follow her master. This particular group was one she knew however. They were known to be rowdy and wild, and were also known as rapists in sound. They often escaped punishment from Orochimaru solely by insuring that the ones they raped weren't recently experimented on. As a result, Orochimaru simply didn't care about their actions.
Kin had of course been one of their targets at one point, but she had been well informed and managed to avoid their advances until they found another target. Now, it seemed she would have to actually fight. No matter.
Ducking and weaving around their taijutsu proved easy, and a smart thing to do. Instead of having to pin them down with genjutsu from afar like she usually did, she was able to cut their wrist or throats up close and personal. Their form was so sloppy that they had little time to react, and the first round ended up with two of five dead, and the other three unable to use at least one of their hands.
This of course, made them angry. These were men who were used to having power over their victims, and couldn't handle losing that power well. In turn, they got angry, which was never a smart thing to do. Instead of focusing that anger, they let it consume them, and within minutes, Kin found herself on the defensive, cutting and slashing through their pitiful offense with a smirk on her face.
The ease with which she killed them only spurred them on more, and caused them to make more and more careless mistakes, until they fell down, never to get back up again. Within the space of ten minutes, Kin had killed three jounin ranked Sound Ninja, and moved to catch up with her master. She didn't have far to move, but did find an interesting development.
Naruto had, of course, tried to explain to Sakura that they were in the middle of being invaded, and that the ones doing the invading weren't just knocking people out. But instead of accepting that simple truth, Sakura was throwing it back at him. Instead of accepting the situation, she dove further and further into denial. She didn't even notice when a sound jounin appeared behind her and knocked her out with a swift chop to the back of the neck.
Naruto however, did, and was immediately on the defensive. This man was different. While he also had a melody arm, his was different from Dosu's. It looked to made in such a way that it would instead shoot blades, instead of distorting the air with bullet like marks. The man also had a five foot long katana strapped to his side. His relaxed demeanor did not fool Naruto.
"Finally, she shuts up. I can't believe I heard her on the other side of the village!" His voice was also relaxed, and seemed to hold a note of amusement within it. He looked at Naruto suddenly, his eyes growing sharp and focused. "And to think she brought me right to my target too. Oh the joy." He quickly appeared in front of Naruto, surprising the somewhat overpowered genin.
Naruto swiftly learned what trees felt like when you collided with them at high speed, and just as quickly decided he didn't like that feeling. When he stood up though, the man was once again his face, another punch flying straight and true. This time, he went through the tree.
It took several minutes of being knocked around before Naruto noticed a pattern to the man's movements. He seemed to rely on high speed movements and the momentum gained from them. Naruto waited until the man had just appeared before him before teleporting to the other side of the field. However, he found the man waiting there, and received a harsh kick for his trouble.
"Nice try kid! I've lived long enough to know the weaknesses to my style. You'll have to try harder than that if you want to beat me." The Man kept his hands in his pockets the entire time, and his entire stance screamed openings. Naruto slowly got up, and prepared himself for the harsh battle ahead. Before he could do much of anything however, he received a strong punch to the back of the head. Strong enough to send him flying past the man, and into another tree. Looking behind him revealed Sakura Haruno, fist outstretched, and a furious flame in her eyes. Her entire expression screamed murder.
The Sandaime was having a blast. While his new sand techniques didn't work as intended, they did work. He still hadn't figured out the automatic shield that Gaara had demonstrated, but he had learned to use the sand to make more. He preferred the smaller amount though. It was easier to control with his chakra.
His old student was having an obviously bad time too. It was always amusing to beat up someone that thought they were untouchable, and the Sandaime was making it even more fun for himself. While battling his former teachers wasn't what he expected, he found it to be a lot of fun. Even if they couldn't see what he had become now, he found himself having quite a blast. Of course, he knew that if they could see what he was doing, they would recognize it. This would result in them smiting him down with their full power. Which was why he had placed a small genjutsu on them when they were brought forth. It only caused them to fail to put the pieces together.
It wasn't much, but it had been enough. Of course, the Sandaime had stopped the fourth from being resurrected. While he had little respect for the boy, he knew the young man had been quite exceptional. He also knew that Minato Namikaze would be able to throw off such a simple genjutsu with ease. Hence, why the man couldn't be brought forth. Hiruzen didn't feel like dealing with the boy right now.
After knocking his teachers away, he subtly ripped some of their chakra from them, placing it within a small compartment of the seal for further study. Maybe, he would be able to get the mokuton after all. And of course, the water manipulation abilities of the second would be very welcome.
After doing what he wanted, he decided it was time for the final push. He quickly determined that for now, Orochimaru should simply be allowed to live. The man seemed to find the more interesting powers of the world with ease, and would likely rake up some new toys for the Sandaime. No, instead of dying, Orochimaru would be taught a new lesson. Fear.
This was a great deal of fun to write. At least, it started off that way. And don't worry, I actually have a plan for Sakura. Someone pointed out that all I'm really doing is bashing the characters I don't like, and while I agree with this, I do want it to have a point to it. I'm taking a serious look at the characters as they are now, and using the bashing as a way to not only change their characters, but change the outcome of the story. Both Sasuke and Sakura are important to the final end of the story. Both will play very different roles for different sides, but neither is unimportant in the end. I do have plans! Even if I can't remember them half the time. Or at all.
I had also been eager to finally play with Kin again. I'm glad to have been able to put her in. She'll play an important role as well, though a little different from what's expected.
I do so hope you guys are enjoying the story so far! Just remember, while I don't care if you flame or not, I'd rather receive a descriptive view of what you find wrong than a simple two word review of 'this sucks' or something along those lines. Reviewing that the story sucks doesn't make me take a look and see your point. It makes me read the next review. That's all.