2 things happened.
1. Procrastination happened. Yeah. It was a magical time where I had lost all interest in everything. Productivity was NIL.
2. Life happened, it coldly and mercilessly dragged my happy ass away from my comfy computer chair to dump said ass naked and fearful into the sandy arena of responsibility. It's metaphorically taken weeks to get said sand out of my undercarriage.
So, to keep from losing interest in this story I had to force myself to write this, I enjoyed some of it and some of it I absolutely hated, so if this chapter suffers for it I can only offer my condolences since it's either that or watch this story peter out and die, which I wont allow so I'm going to do it anyway... If there's any mistakes anywhere don't be afraid to tell me, I don't bite...much.
So yeah, that.
Also, due to me reading an absolutely MAGICAL fanfic of a certain pairing... for those of you who wanted a certain person in the harem, yeah she's going to be in the harem, just not right now. It's going to be awhile I can tell you that much. However, I'm just going to let you guys stew on who this certain person may be.
Fic of the day:Tis Femina by Sythe. This is a time travel, gender bender fix fic. It's basically a 26 year old 4th shinobi war veteran Naruto who has nothing left to lose and goes to battle Madara one last time to the death using his most powerful technique to try and save the few humans left alive. Instead, he wakes up around 100 years in the past, groggy, confused and most of all...in a woman's body?
Song of the day: TC - Do You Rock? You know the drill.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, nor do I make any money off it. Kind of obvious by now, don't you think?
-ooo-
"speech"
'Thoughts'
"Kyubi speech"
'Kyubi thoughts'
Jutsu
-ooo-
Chapter 17: Noises in the Forest
Frantic footsteps echoed in the deathly quiet forest. Anko's pace was break neck as she searched the forest for...Him. It had only been minutes since she a team of ninja had found a team of grass ninja's with their faces ripped off; she took off for the forest at once, It was his technique after all. Her teeth grit in frustration as she though of her bastard of a sensei. He was here now, in these exams and possibly after the Uchiha kid...and maybe even Naruto of all things. Her heart caught in her throat as she thought of her husband having that bastards mark. The years that she had spent with the blonde gaki had been some of the happiest moments in her life, and the possibility that it could be taken all away chilled her to the bone.
"Kukukukuku, well if it isn't my old apprentice, come to see me have you?"
Anko's blood ran cold as she landed on a branch, a kunai already in her hands. Her entire body went rigid as she felt a presence behind her. Spinning with the blade of her kunai leading Anko aimed for a debilitating strike right from the off.
Only to have it be stopped by a grasp on her wrist.
"Now now Anko." The snake Sanin hissed, his face only a few inches from hers. "Is that any way to greet your old sensei?"
Anko spat in his face and struck him in the jaw. It was only a glancing blow as the man had twisted his head just slightly to let the punch glance off, losing most of it's strength. Retaliating, he kicked the woman away. "I guess you're not happy to see me then?" His cold mocking tone nearly drove Anko into an unstoppable rage and only the years of patience drilled into her from having to deal with the little ball of annoyance that was Naruto kept her from rushing the bastard.
"As if." She growled. "I'll be the happiest woman in the world when I see you dead at my feet."
"Hmhmhmhmhmm. Interesting choice of words there Anko-chan." The man's piercing, slitted yellow eyes bored into her. "When your little pet Jinchuriki will be kneeling at mine soon enough."
Anko eyes widened for a moment before they narrowed in rage. "What did you do! Why are you even here!?"
"Hmhmhmm. I'm here for a few new prospects, these chunin exams do bring out the best of the best after all." The mans voice turned into a feral purr. "Two participants in particular have caught my eye."
Anko grit her teeth, she was aware of what he meant. "Sasuke and Naruto."
A mocking clap met her words. "Correct Anko-chan, you always were smart, it's a shame you could never be more, my failed little experiment."
Anko saw red, her entire body coursed with fury, adrenaline pumping wildly through her veins as she let out a hoarse scream of rage.
Orochimaru blocked the first punch, before his eyes widened imperceptibly. "You've gotten a bit stronger since the last time Anko-chan." The next punch went low only to be blocked as well. Then a kick, which he couldn't block so he had to bend his body almost vertical to dodge. Not like it was hard after all since his body was one of the most flexible things around, like a human slinky he bent over backward, planting a kick into Anko's stomach, launching her into the air.
Anko recovered quickly, landing on the side of a tree trunk before launching a volley of shuriken at her former master.
"You'll have to do better than that." He mocked, dodging the feeble attack, but that had merely been a feint as Anko came in from the sides.
"How about this then!" Another kick to the head, only barely dodged this time.
'She's speeding up...' grabbing another punch and diverting it to the side he surprisingly caught an elbow to the jaw from an in close cross strike. 'That wasn't Snake Style.' He smirked. "So you've been doing a little tinkering with my style while I was away as well? How naughty of you Anko-chan, and here I thought you'd try and beat me at my own game." Dodging a punch he caught another elbow to the ribs. 'She's gotten strong in my absence, interesting.'
Anko leapt back and lifted her arm up level with the snake Sanin's face "Striking Shadow Snakes!"
"You think you can defeat me with my own technique? Striking Shadow Snakes!" The two attacks collided, both swarms of snakes biting and tearing at each other as they all at once dispelled, leaving behind a cover of smoke, which Anko plowed through, Kunai leading.
Orochimaru pulled a Kunai of his own to block. Sparks flew as the blades met, their shining surface reflecting the eyes of each in the reflective metal.
"You cant beat me like this Anko, even you know this." The Sanin deflected the next slash of a kunai. "You don't have the skill to best me, only time and age can a student overcome the master, but we both know that age holds know meaning for me." Orochimaru chuckled at his little joke, while many didn't know of his body swapping jutsu, Anko had known about some of his plans before he had left Konoha and her behind, the body swap being one of them. The grinding sparks of metal on metal flashed again as the two struck with kunai, fists, elbows, knees and feet. A kick to the head being diverted here and a slash to the midsection blocked and pushed harmlessly to the side, only a few nicks and strikes ever got through to do any lasting damage.
It truly was a dance to any outside observer, like most Jonin level fights where both combatants were soft style taijutsu experts. Another flurry of punches were sent Orochimaru's way, only one or two got through to do any significant damage though, and only one of those was even serious as she had held a Kunai in her hand while she had inflicted it. But no matter, for every hit she got in Orochimaru would give her five in return, by the end of their little warm up the woman had far more many cuts and bruises than Orochimaru did.
"You're slowing down Anko-chan, how about I hold one hand behind my back, that might make things interesting." He continued to mock and berate her until the snake woman had reached her snapping point, summoning up a fair amount of her chakra she created two sealless Kage bunshin, a bit of a gift that teaching that chakra powerhouse of a husband of hers and had them approach the Sanin from the sides as she struck from the front. "You think these doll's can defeat me?" He sounded amused. "Foolish." The two clones fell upon Orochimaru with a vengance using their shadow kunai to add pressure to their assault.
Orochimaru was playing with Anko for the most part as he dispelled her two clones, taking a few hits in return, that is until Anko had used the slight opening her clones had made to grapple the man against a tree and pinned his hand and her own through with a kunai after knocking his blade away.
"Now this is a compromising situation don't you think?" The Snake Sanin chuckled.
"Tell me why you're here you bastard, she pulled another kunai from her pouch and placed it at the man's neck.
"Kukukuku, you think that this can stop me?" He Grabbed Anko's wrist before she could move to slit his throat, pulling it to the side and away from the blood pumping veins. "As for why I'm here, I told you earlier, I'm here to look for some amusing tools, I found those two in particular to be most amusing. I even gave them my mark." The sickening smile he gave her nearly made the woman gag, then what he said hit home.
"You bastard!" Just the thought that her husband had been poisoned by this fucker set her blood boiling again.
"Oh don't worry, I'm sure they'll both beat the odds and survive, if not...oh well."
"Why did you even mark Naruto, we both know you can't change bodies with a Jinchuriki."
"Hmhmhmhm." Orochimaru lifted his head and laughed upward in mirth. "Ahh, but that's the magical part of science my dear, it's amazing what one can do with a few samples of DNA and bit of time and loving effort." He smirk at her confused expression. "I can easily have an army of loyal vessels cloned and bred to my exacting specifications with both boy's bloodlines Anko-chan, can you just picture it? The perfect body." He leered at her. "And to think I once considered you for a vessel, how foolish of me.
Anko nearly gagged.
In another time and another place the woman might have actually tried to kill her sensei along with herself with the Twin Snake Sacrifice Jutsu , but frankly speaking the woman had too much to lose by doing that, and she was also Pissed. The Fuck. Off. So she did what her perfectly sexy husband would have done in that situation.
She slammed her forehead and by extension her forehead protector into her former masters fucking nose.
Blood flew, as the sharp sound of cartilage breaking could be heard, along with a sharp intake of breath from the Sanin.
It was a tactic that Naruto had used during his spars with her back when he had no skill to speak of. He had a hard as hell head, even harder then most headbands and he put the thing to use many, many times during their spars. Hell, even now Naruto was a brawler at heart and when push came to shove that little brat would fight dirty, like dirtier than two women in a lesbian mud wrestling competition, dirty.
"Did you just headbutt me?" The snake Sanin asked in an almost novel curiosity. "I thought I taught you better than that."
Not one to ever be outdone by her hubby Anko ignored her ex-sensei's words and struck the bastard again...and again...and again...
In fact after the next 10 or so consecutive strikes, Orochimaru's face was beginning to take on a nice purplish hue, like that of the markings around his eyes actually, so much was the facial beating that the man actually started cursing her.
"Would you- *Smack* "Stop Dam-" *Smack* "Fucking sto-" *Smack* QUIT HEAD BUTTING ME YOU CRAZY BIT-" *SMACK*
In hindsight he probably should have created a mud clone to take his place during that beating but he was actually rather tired after facing both Naruto and Sasuke, and then on top of that his surprisingly skilled former apprentice. It was most likely due to this new body of his, he had switched only the month before and it hadn't been as responsive as he'd hoped it would be... not to mention he was reeling from the first few headbutts to really get enough concentration to do so.
Anko's forehead meanwhile was beginning to hurt even by Naruto's pain threshold standards and she couldn't really break the hold she had on her sensei to give her enough room to work with, so opting to do as much damage as physically possible before they separated the woman decided a bit of feminine wrath was in order and repeatedly slammed her knee into the Snake Sanin's crotch.
Orochimaru's eyes crossed for but a moment before he let out an unmanly howl of pain, working on an adrenaline and sense of self preservation he hadn't known he had, the man threw Anko off him to the ground, causing her to strike her head and knock her senseless for a moment. As he staggered to the side with a distinctly noticeable limp he cursed the fact that while he may have had the body of a female at that current point in time, through his jutsu which changed the outward parts of his body, he remained distinctly 'male' in certain areas, and now wasn't exactly a good time to be a guy, or even a woman for that matter, since getting hit there hurt like a motherfucker regardless.
Letting out a gasp of air as his stomach nearly emptied itself the man decided it was best to cut his losses and just get the hell out of there before that crazy bitch of a student of his decided to abuse his body and man parts in some other viscous way.
"Well this*Wheeze* has been fun" No it hasn't "But time *Wheeze* is short, I'll be *Wheeze* seeing you again *Wheeze* Anko." The man turned and slipped into trunk of the tree he was standing next to, actually giving a bit of thought if he actually 'did' want to meet that crazy bitch again.
Anko, despite the pain in the back of her head and the thought that her husband was possibly dying in this gods forsaken forest was grinning up a storm, she had made that bastard run away, she'd struck him where it hurt, a place she'd never had been able to strike him before, dealing damage she'd never dealt to him before. It wouldn't be till much later that she realized the significance of that moment.
-ooo-
Three sets of eyes watched quietly over a clearing, a single, large hollow tree being it's only distinguishing feature along with the trio of ninja taking shelter inside; Two of them asleep, the other watching over their sleeping forms.
"The pink one looks dead on her feet, we'll wait till morning, then we strike." The bandaged Dosu muttered the command just loud enough for his teammates to hear.
"Got it." Zaku nodded before turning to Kin. "Don't fuck this up" He growled quietly. "Or you'll pay for it later."
Kin scoffed. "We wont fail against a little brat like that." That seemed to appease him as he turned back to glare at the three konoha genin. 'Asshole' Kin mentally cursed the man as she to turned her attention back to the clearing.
-Morning-
Sakura's eyes blinked several times as she fought to stay awake. She had spent several hours in a meditative like state to get as much rest as she could for what was to come.
A slight rustle of branches alerted the young girl.
A slight flick of the wrist and a single senbon flew out to strike the ground right next to a small squirrel.
Sakura sighed in relief, keeping up the ruse. As the little animal ran off another rustle got her attention. A small smirk crossed her lips.
Three forms jumped from the bushes to land a few dozen yards from Sakura
"You've been up all night guarding the two brats little girl." Dosu walked forward a step. "But it isn't you we're after. Wake up the Uchiha, we have a bone to pick with him."
"No." She glared at the three. "He's injured, he couldn't fight you even if he wanted to.
"Ain't that a damn shame." Zaku laughed, before his eyes turned deadly serious. "We could care less, Either you wake him or we'll kill all three of you right now."
"Screw you asshole." Sakura growled, flipping him off.
"You bitch!" Zaku made a move to rush her.
'That's right, walk right into my trap.' Sakura mentally prodded him, she could tell the guy was a hothead and a little provoking was called for.
A hand shot out and grabbed Zaku before he could make a move thought. "Don't be a fool Zaku." Dosu pulled the volatile boy back and walked forward stopping in front of a patch of grass. "You might have gotten us with this girly, but you made one crucial error" He reached down and lifted up the patch of grass, ."This kind of grass doesn't grow here."
While Dosu was disarming Sakura's trap, Kin was watching the girls facial expressions intently. 'She's not scared?' Was the first thing she noticed, besides a small frown at how easily Dosu had found her trap the girl hadn't made a move to do anything yet. 'She's got guts I'll giver her that. Kinda wish we didn't have to kill her.' Shrugging, such was life she'd just have to deal with it.
Dosu stood up from his crouch and dusted his hands off. "Go." he ordered, leaping through the air, his teammates not far behind. As the air rushed past them Dosu noticed something strange, Sakura hadn't moved an inch...and she seemed to be...smirking.
Yeah, Sakura smirked, all the while slicing a small wire hidden behind her, releasing an absolutely MASSIVE log from the tree tops, swinging like a pendulum straight for the three Sound nin.
Dosu's only visible eye widened "A trap from above!?" only for a scoff to escape his lips. "Amateurish." He pulled the sleeve back on his right arm, exposing a large metal gauntlet with holes all along its surface. Placing a hand on the logs surface, a wave of pressure blasted through the hollow log. Dosu's bandage covered smirk of triumph was however stalled when he again made eye contact with Sakura. 'She's still smiling?' A small sliver of white entered his vision, barely perceptible except for a momentary flash of morning sunlight off it's colorless surface.
Dosu's eye widened in horror as he noticed many other flecks of white all around him. He had just enough time to witness Sakura hold up a single handsign before his entire world filled with white and all sound left him.
-ooo-
Eyes all around the forest turned toward the large explosion echoing through the forest around them.
Tenten raised an eyebrow at the sheer pressure the explosive wave exuded. "Sounds like someone was on the wrong end of an explosive tag...and a lot of them at that."
"It matters not." Neji dismissed the explosion, they already had their scroll. "Let's find Lee and get to the Tower."
"Hai."
Kiba landed on a tree limb, flattening his ears to his head with his hands as the loud report of the explosion blew past his team, popping the ears of all three members. "Ow, what the hell was that." Akamaru whined in his hoody flattening his ears as well.
"It sounded like an explosive tag." Hinata pointed out landing next to his left side.
"Many of them." Shino agreed, landing on his right.
"Yeeeah, whoever would use that many explosive tags I certainly don't want to meet 'em." Kiba altered his trajectory as he hopped from tree to tree to get to the tower while avoiding whatever or whoever had tripped those tags.
"What was that?" Temari stopped pre leap to stare off into the distance as a loud bang filled the forest.
"It is unimportant." Gaara droned. "Keep moving."
"You heard the man." Kankuro leapt past her. "Chop chop."
Temari pouted and hurried to catch up to her two brothers.
"Man, what the heck was that?" Shikamaru lowered his head as a gust of wind and noise passed over his head, he quickly ducked into some bushes to get out if sight.
"Sounded like explosive tags." Choji whispered, taking refuge in the bush next to him.
"I say we go check it out." Ino voiced next to them.
Both boy's heads snapped to her.
"Are you crazy Ino? There's no telling who could have set those tags off. Do you HAVE a death wish?"
"Yeah, what Shikamaru said, we don't need to be caught up in anything like that." The pudgy Akamichi stared uncertainly in the direction the explosion came from.
Ino huffed at the two's response. "You two need to get a backbone, Naruto-kun would have gone."
"We're not Naruto." Shikamaru groaned. "And since when have you been so gung ho?"
Ino lifted her nose in the air haughtily. "Naruto-kun likes outgoing and strong kunoichi, so I'm going to become stronger so I can get him to notice me." Little hearts appeared in her eyes as she let out a little perverted giggle.
"Troublesome..."
"Come on, let's go, maybe they killed each other and we can have two scrolls to barter with." Ino grabbed ahold of her two teammate's collars and proceeded to drag them towards the epicenter of the explosion.
"Hmm?" One of Kabuto's teammates grunted, hearing the far off explosion.
"Ignore it." Kabuto ordered. "Lord Orochimaru wants us to study the competition and weed out the weaklings."
"Right." he nodded.
"OH." Rock Lee's eyes lit up. "Someone must have allowed their youth to explode!" He yelled in a hushed whisper. Guy had at least had the intelligence to keep his youthful student from screaming at the top of his lungs in a search and capture style mission, preferring to spread their use or youth through their actions in those situations. "This seems interesting, I wonder what could have caused such an explosion?" As the youngest of the two green beasts followed the direction of the blast to investigate. At ground zero we find Sakura leaning against the back of the inside of the tree, rubbing the back of her head where the outer edge of the blast had launched her into the tree.
"Miiight have used one too many explosive tags." Sakura chuckled to herself, before an arm went up, the metal of the gauntlet Naruto had gotten her blocking a senbon that nearly took her between the eyes.
"You're going to pay for that girl." An angry voice growled as the smoke cleared from the clearing , the forms of the three sound ninja came into view. All of them were burned in various places and their clothing was singed and torn in several areas, including a metal gauntlet on the mummified man, which had cracked into several pieces and lay on the ground at his feet.
In response Sakura pulled another Kunai from her pouch. "You wouldn't be like that if you'd just left us alone." Not budging an inch Sakura stood up, this time intent of physically defending herself. She still had a couple traps set up around the clearing, but nothing between herself and the sound trio, she'd have to lure them in if she was going to beat them.
Zaku took a step forward shakily, he was by far the most injured, but at the same time he was the angriest of the three and that gave him just enough power to fuel his next attack. Raising both of his hands up to point the at Sakura he screamed out his jutsu. "Zankūha!" He his roar was drowned out by the sound of his own jutsu.
Sakura's eyes widened in fear as the wave approached. A scream rang out over the roar of the wind.
-ooo-
"Ugh...my head, Kami that seal sucks." Naruto sat up in the middle of his forest like mindscape, the sky around him giving off a slightly ominous gray clouds that Naruto took note of, he also noticed many of the trees around him looked sickly and dying. "What the heck is going on?"
"It's Orochimaru's seal." Kyubi spoke up behind him.
Naruto glanced to the side to see the fox woman leaning against one of the trees with her arms crossed, where her body touched the tree it looked far more healthy than the rest.
Naruto glanced around and saw many of the trees were the same way. "I take it the curse mark is trying to corrupt my mind?"
Kyubi nodded, frowning slightly. "Yeah it's kind of irritating, it's taking chakra from your system and corrupting it, then sending it back into you to warp your coils so you'll become dependant on the thing." She let out a sigh. "Luckily for you I'm mitigating the damage with a few spikes here and there with my chakra, seems like snake face doesn't like biju chakra jammed into his soul that much."
Naruto's eyes widened. "His SOUL!" His voice was filled with incredulous anger "The motherfucker pumped a piece of his soul into me?"
"Yeaaah, about that." She chuckled a little. "You're going to enjoy this." She turned on her heel, breaking contact with the tree behind her, which immediately started turning a slight grayish tint like the others. Naruto fell into step behind her, his head still throbbing from the previous battle, his overuse of Kyubi's chakra and Pedomaru's wonky seal screwing with his coils. After a few minutes Kyubi and Naruto arrived in a clearing where a ring of dead looking trees with purple leaves stood sickly in a ring; A wall of semi-clear red energy encircled said ring.
"I take it this is where my neck is in my mindscape?" A nod answered his question. "So where's snake fuck at?"
"Over there." The fox woman pointed to a deformed looking...thing that was undulating on the ground.
"Helloooo Naruto-chan!" An insane and strangely ...off...tone of voice greeted him. The humanoid like creature reared up on its haunches and smiled a wicked smile with a face too chibified to be threatening. the things body was completely out of proportion with the rest of its body and looked like a Buddha statue with overly large, comically snake like eyes. "Give me your body Naruto-chan, we can have so much fun together nyoro nyoro!" At the end of the strange verbal tic the...thing started undulating on the ground.
"What...in the hell...is that?" Naruto drawled out, staring at the abomination in front of him.
"Yes...well...I studied the make up of the seal as it was setting in and several thing raised a warning flag for me." She pointed to the fat malformed thing. "Orochimaru's seal corrupts the chakra network allowing it to weaken your mental defenses, after it does that it slowly drives you crazy, allowing the piece of Orochimaru's soul to easily take over your mind, from what I can tell it's so the rest of his soul can take full control of your body later on."
"That still doesn't answer my question as to why he looks like a pedophile Akamichi that used the human bullet technique through a woman's beauty salon."
"Ah..." Kyubi blinked owlishly as she chuckled, rubbing her head in embarrassment. "Well, the only way I could keep Orochimaru's mental intrusions from influencing you was to use my chakra to make his appearance and message so ridiculous that you could never take him seriously. The seals power is based on verbal consent after all, if you give in to him he can take control more easily."
"So...you turned the piece of his soul that was injected into me into a total retard?" A hesitant nod answered him. "Kyu, have I ever mention how awesome you are?" He literally glomped the kitsune woman, laughing all the while. "Oh Kami this is hysterical."
Kyubi chuckled under him. "Indeed it is, but now we have to do something about him, before he can come back from his senility"
"WE SHOULD BECOME ONE, COME TO ME MY BELOVED! NYORO NYORO!"
"Can't we just kill it?" Naruto offered, ignoring the abomination and it's heresy
Kyubi sighed. "I've already tried that, the best I can think is either you remove his soul from outside the seal through some form of counter seal, or push his soul out from the inside, killing it in the process."
Naruto glanced over his shoulder at the deformed Orochimaru then back at Kyu. "What are the odds of removing it from the outside with a counter seal?"
The fox woman tapped her chin errantly in thought. "Since Anko still has hers and that fool of a godfather of yours hasn't removed it yet I can say with certainty... fairly close to zero..."
"And pushing it out from within?"
"Alone? Maybe 50/50. With me here though, we could probably do it easily, I just need your help?
Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Just how hard could it be to remove that jackass?" he pointed over his shoulder at Orochimaru's soul which had started masticating on a tree root.
"You'd be surprised" She glanced over at the man in question who had moved on from eating tree bark and had stared humping a lemon tree, which caused Naruto's eyes to twitch for a moment since that tree was technically a part of his mind, so Orochimaru was technically mindfucking him at the current time. "The bastard is a crafty one I can tell you that." Ignoring the grunting and nyoro's the crazy bastard in question was making. "Even with me poking holes in his mentality with my chakra he's still a competent fighter, he's just much, much slower and less flexible than his true self." The two of them watched as the abomination of a snake finished doing whatever it was he was doing, which disgusted them both. "And with most of my power devoted to containing the cursed seals corrupting influence and...that...I don't really have the strength to hold both back and push him out at the same time, which is where you come in."
Naruto frowned a bit as he went over his options, what few there were anyway. Coming to a decision quickly, Naruto slammed a fist into his palm. "Alright, let's kick this snake bastard ass out of my head."
Nodding in agreement Kyubi place a hand on the blonde's shoulder. "Listen closely then Naruto-kun." She pointed to the snake man. "I'm going to lower the barrier I set up, the moment I do this he's going to try and attack you, I want you to hit him with the strongest jutsu you know of, he's slower now so he can't dodge it as easily but he's still just as strong so don't stop until you destroy his soul."
Naruto nodded, turning towards the soul fragment before flicking a two fingered salute over his shoulder as he focused all of his attention on the Snake Sannin. "Can do Kyu." moving his hands into his patented cross handseal the Uzumaki formed six shadow clones in a line, three to either side of the original. Flying through several hands seals each the six clones original breathed deeply.
"Now!" The barrier of energy holding back the corrupted trees was lowered and almost immediately the trees surrounding that ring started to decay as well. Naruto didn't pay attention to that. No, he focused all his concentration on the rotund Snake Sanin rushing him, trying to force his will on the blonde's mind.
Naruto would have none of that. Three clones brought a hand to their mouth and blew. "Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!"
While those three clones blew a massive wave of fire the other three clones exhaled sharply. "Wind style:Daitoppa!"
Finally the original slammed his palms together, pulling both sets of jutsu together. "Hidden art: Great Firestorm!"
The two sets of three jutsu, collided on a single focal point, striking each other, each wrestling for supremacy. Until both gave way at the same time, the wind spiraled around the fireball and the core of the flames compressed under the winds power causing the entire thing to heat up from friction and burn even hotter and larger.
The spiraling vortex of doom bore down upon to the corrupted soul fragment, who didn't even have time to squeal out a 'nyoro' before he was struck by the ball, knocking the wind out of him and sent spiraling upward, being torn limb from limb by the churning flames.
Within moments the conflagration stuck an invisible ceiling after a hundred or so yards of upward travel before the space the fireball was occupying seemed to flex.
"I'll be back!" The fragment screamed. "Your body will be mine NYORRRRRO!" His scream extended as his soul was forced from Naruto's mindscape, eviscerating the thing as it went, only stopping when the fireball reached its maximum height and exploded, clearing the sky of all the dark clouds that had cast such a dark shadow on Naruto's mind.
"There, that should take care of him." Naruto nodded, glancing around at several of the trees which had regained some of their luster, though a frown formed on his face moments later when he noticed that there was still some corruption leeching its way through his body.
Kyu noting this filled him in. "You took care of Orochimaru's soul but the corrupting influence of the seal remains. It's only bought you more time to remove the thing."
Naruto stared for a moment before sighing heavily. "I see, I guess I can take some time out after the Chunin exams to see how this thing works, now that we have all the information on how the thing set's in I can finally..." Naruto body went taunt as a thought came to him. "What about Sasuke's curse mark?" He glanced over at Kyu. "You think he can force Orochimaru from his seal like I did?"
The fox woman's expression mimicked his own. "I don't know, he could probably hold it back thanks to your seal but I don't think he can do what you just did so easily."
"Is there any way I can help him with that?" Naruto asked curiously, it wasn't like he was going anywhere soon.
Kyubi brought a thoughtful hand to her chin, scratching an errant itch in thought. "It's possible, I have a connection to him with my chakra in the seal of his, I could send some of your chakra through to help him a bit, but not much, too much of yours an my chakra in his system could kill him, so only enough for a quick chat."
"That's all I'll need." Naruto growled, he wasn't going to let that snake bastard have his way.
"Alright then." The fox woman placed a hand on Naruto's head and closed her eyes, connecting herself to her distant chakra. "This may sting a bit."
Naruto snorted. "When does it ever not?" A small twitch of a smirk touched Kyu's face as she gathered both her and Naruto's energies.
"Good luck." Kyu wished him before his mental representation disappeared in a flash of white light.
-ooo-
Sakura held her arms crossed in front of her face, hoping and praying that her end came swiftly. But when the end never came and a loud meaty thwack registered to her ears, the pinkette slowly lowered her arms to see the strangest thing she'd ever though she'd see.
An ass, covered in green spandex, crouched in a battle ready stance only a dozen paces in front of her, facing two of the three Sound nin. A shallow trench was carved in the ground to his right, the angle of which barely missed the tree that she was standing in. A shocked realization came to her when she saw the Sound Nin that had tried to kill her laying on his back several yards away from the trench, a dark red mark slowly starting to bruise on his chin.
Rock Lee, rose from his crouch after having used a Dynamic Entry on Zaku, slowly taking his Goken stance, with his left hand folded behind his back, right hand held out with palm facing inward.
"Attacking one of my comrades when she is unable to fight back." The boy's large eyes narrowed just slightly at the three Sound nin. "I wont condone such unyouthful actions."
"Who the hell are you?" Zaku growled, eying the...thing in front of him in the horrendous green spandex.
Lee stood a little straighter at the question, before a small smirk crossed his lips, his stance shifting just slightly, muscles preparing to push him forward. The three sound nin tensed at this but Lee ignored them in favor of yelling out his name to them. "I am Konoha's Beautiful Green beast! ROCK LEE!" His eyes narrowed again, this time showing a dangerous glint. "And I shall be your opponent."
-ooo-
FINALLY DONE WITH THIS CHAPTER UGGGH.
I checked the reviews of last chapter and it was fairly even on the yay and nay on the Sharingan, I'm actually surprised by some of the responses to it actually. Several of the really good Nay comments convinced me though, so I've decided NOT to give Naruto the Sharingan. BUT that doesn't mean I'm not going to play with the idea I had to actually give Naruto the eyes, I'll give you a hint. it involves the cursed mark.
Also for those who said the Orochimaru fight was lacking last chapter... well, fine then, I guess it kinda was to some, I'm not that great at describing fight scenes but even I can tell it was a bit smaller than what I wanted it to be. You will just have to make do with Anko rearranging his face and kneeing the man in his twig and berries this chapter.
As you can see I used the English tv translation of the shadow snake attack that Anko and Orochimaru use, mainly because I like the name, some of my friends and cohorts (As I like to call them) criticized the English name because they thought it was cheesy.
Sit and spin is my response to those who think Striking shadow Snakes doesn't sound badass.
As for the rest of the chapter, how did you like the humor of this one, it sort of hit me that with Naruto's influence Anko has become even more crude and devious, they basically propagate their own bad behavior, which is why Naruto is a bit of a pervert :3