This AN is mostly to inform you that all stories are now on hold so I can take care of my life. I'm in my junior year in high school and between SATs, APs, and college stuff, I really don't have time for much and maintaining my current quality of living takes alot of effort. So I'm going to stop advancing my other stories for about until September, possibly earlier if I'm lucky. This story is here, though, because a little plot bunny hit me about a month and a half ago and I just couldn't shake it. (Really, I even tried doing a barrell roll!).

Disclaimer: I don't want to be sued by the guys who own Naruto, Gantz, and whatever the hell else appears in this fic.

Black Balls

Chapter 1

Not the Usual Death

Naruto frowned, this was definitely not good. It seemed that Orochimaru, beyond being unquestionably evil and pedophilic, was incredibly persistent as well. The boy, now 18 had already experienced around six of the madman's invasions, and this was not counting the time that Orochimaru had used his first Chuunin exam as a cover. It seemed that the snake sannin had planned at least one invasion a year.

This year, however, it was different. This year, Orochimaru had finally decided to take Sasuke's body. This year, Orochimaru just happened to have attacked while both Tsunade and Jiraiya were out of the village having fun, and there was nothing he could do. Naruto was by all means an exceptional ninja, but by no means was he sannin level. While he could hold off most of the invasion, Orochimaru was impossible for him, and all of the current leaf ninja in service, especially with his newly gained sharingan.

They had already sent summons for support from the Sand, and had attempted to recall Tsunade and Jiraiya, but reinforcements had yet to come. Naruto realized by now that reinforcements may never come, at least for them. After all, their life expectancy was no longer counted in hours, but in minutes.

The blonde sighed. For now, he would have to return to his friends. He ran over to one of the training grounds, and smiled grimly at the hasty fortifications that were erected around the area. The sound ninja seemed to have backed off for now, but his friends were no less wary. That was why he half expected the kunai appearing at his neck the moment he touched down, disappearing a moment afterwards.

"Oh, it's only Naruto. I'm sorry about the kunai, wartime caution and all." Tenten said, smiling apologetically.

Soon, the survivors of the rookie nine (plus three) appeared out of holes dug underground in order to hide themselves in an area with almost no cover. Naruto gave them a once over. All of them were wounded in some way or another, gashes across an arm or a leg, bruises and scrapes, a few even had broken bones or severed limbs.

Even Naruto had sustained injuries. His broken leg was in the middle of re-knitting itself even now and the large sword wound that had almost disemboweled him was already gone, only a scar remained to tell of what had happened.

However, while the majority had survived, there were many who died as well. Sakura, Ino, Chouji, and even lee (who had stayed behind to protect his team's training grounds) had perished. Only Shino, Kiba, Naruto, and Neji were in any shape to fight actively, as one of Tenten's arms were gone, both of Shikamaru's legs were broken, and Hinata had been stripped of her conscious by a severe head wound and was slowly bleeding out in a hole dug for her by her comrades.

Tenten had tried to bandage her head wound, but she only had one set of gauze and had used it almost half an hour ago. Now it was almost completely soaked through and if Hinata didn't receive medical attention soon, she could die.

Naruto sighed, their supplies were so woefully substandard that they could barely mount a decent trap, and the tree barriers with wooden spikes behind them would at most inconvenience the sound ninja enough for a couple of them to sustain wounds. They wouldn't last very long like this.

They exchanged pleasantries and supplies. Naruto asked if any of them had seen any survivors, but as far as any of them knew, they were the last loyal ninja in Konoha. The blonde was in the middle of taking one of Tenten's kunai when he paused. He and everyone else in the clearing could hear footsteps resounding off of tree bark.

They were coming.

------

There was no pause, no quarter. The sound ninja jumped quickly and quietly over the barricade. The first dozen or so fell to thrown weapons, and a couple more caught themselves upon the wooden spikes (probably newly appointed genin, too confused to react properly to the trap). However, the leaf ninja were soon surrounded by dozens upon dozens of skilled ninja from the sound, and more arriving all the time.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, the sound ninja did no more than surround them and hinder their movements. Naruto was wondering why before Orochimaru promptly arrived on top of a giant summoned snake, "Well, well. If it isn't Naruto and his friends. Have you come to join the party?"

Naruto growled and said in a low voice, "We'll never follow you, pedophile."

Orochimaru seemed to stumble over his words at that, "W-What?"

Naruto smirked at the snake man's loss of composure, "So tell me, how many children have you taken today?"

Orochimaru looked angry beyond belief, but managed to regain composure nonetheless, "Hn. Your pathetic attempt at an insult just shows how desperate you are!" Orochimaru laughed, one hand (palm facing outward) hiding his mouth. Luckily, the laugh didn't last long, "Oh?" He said, amused, "It seems you have some wounded. Why don't I take care of them for you?"

Naruto and the others snapped their heads around, "No!"

They were too late however. Several thrown kunai were already planted firmly inside Hinata's head, and a ninja appeared behind Tenten just as they began to run towards her. Needless, to say, her throat was slit without further ado.

There was still hope for Shikamaru, however. Kiba reached him first, and caught the kunai that was thrown at the helpless Nara, but failed to notice the sound ninja that appeared at his side, and was consequently unable to avoid the punch that took the dog user in the face. The sound ninja then turned around and attempted to stab Shikamaru, but was unwittingly caught in the boy's shadow and had his heart stopped by Neji. Shino and Naruto arrived last along with a recovered Kiba, and stood in a perimeter around the village's resident genius. "We can't let Shikamaru die." Neji whispered, "It's because of his strategies that we even survived this long."

There was a sudden grunt of pain from behind them, and they turned around to see Shikamaru's spine pierced through with a single kunai, and the tree he was leaning on replaced by a sound jounin. The leaf nin gasped collectively, "The tree was a genjutsu?!"

They weren't able to marvel long however, for without giving them any thought of respite, Orochimaru charged forward and impaled Kiba on his kusanagi before the boy could react. Even as the dog user slid off the sword and fell onto the floor, Naruto charged Orochimaru with rage filling his face, "Orochimaruuuuuu!!!!"

The two locked blades, Naruto's kunai against Orochimaru's sword. Even as the snake sannin's subordinates moved to help, Orochimaru barked out his orders, "Move into the village proper and squash any resistance, civilian and ninja alike! I'll take these brats myself." By the end of that sentence, Orochimaru's eyes blazed red with the power of the sharingan.

At that moment, Neji chose to charge forward and meet Orochimaru head on, Shino's bugs in close pursuit. Orochimaru responded with a Katon: Karyuu Endan, stopping Neji in his tracks and blowing away the majority of Shino's remaining bugs in one strike.

Neji's distraction allowed Naruto to land a punch, though, and Orochimaru soon found himself in the air, struggling to right himself. Meanwhile, Neji, almost blinded by rage, charged forward in a bid to juggle the sannin. Naruto noticed that Orochimaru had managed to recover in mid-air, and tried to stop the hyuuga, "No, Neji! It's too dangerous!"

Neji paid the blonde no heed and lashed one of his palms upward, only to find his arm cut off at the elbow. The hyuuga immediately slipped into shock, and it was easy for Orochimaru to cleave him in two once he landed.

Naruto cried out in sorrow as he witnessed yet another of his precious friends die. Shino also lowered his head in mourning, though he had been in hiding since the elimination of more than half his resident colony, so no one witnessed it. Shino knew that with most of his bugs gone, he would be able to do practically nothing to the superior ninja, but his taijutsu was still strong and he refused to die without at least trying to avenge those he had once called comrades. He used the last remaining bugs in his system to make a clone, leaving only the queen inside his body, and reappeared behind Orochimaru.

Naruto witnessed Shino's action and launched himself forward as well in a bid to distract Orochimaru and support Shino. It worked, and Orochimaru focused his attentions on the blonde, blocking the first strike, and attempting to counter with a chakra laced straight kick.

Orochimaru, having put his full power to the kick, was balanced horizontally in its aftermath. This gave Shino clearance to backhand the sannin and slam him into the ground. Shino then attempted to stomp on Orochimaru, but had his foot caught and soon found the positions reversed. Orochimaru wasted no time in impaling the bug ninja with his kusanagi. At that moment, Shino burst into hundreds of bugs, which proceeded to swarm onto Orochimaru and devour his chakra in droves.

Before the bugs were able to drain even half of Orochimaru's chakra capacity, Orochimaru converted a sizeable chunk of what was left into the fire element, and released it through the pores of his skin, "Katon: Naimenteki Karada Bakuhatsu!" The bugs were quickly burned off, just in time for Orochimaru to see the real Shino stab a kunai into his left bicep. Not losing a beat, Shino promptly allocated another kunai into his other hand and slammed it into Orochimaru's face.

Shino allowed himself a brief moment to smile behind his collar, which quickly disappeared as the Orochimaru he 'killed' dissolved into mud and fell to the ground in a lump. Before the clone was even completely gone, though, an intense pain blossomed in Shino's chest. The bug user looked down to see the kusanagi wedged in the midst of his ribcage. The Aburame tried to say something, but it only came up as a wet gurgle, blood splattering from his mouth and onto his collar.

Naruto, who had been previously slammed into a tree and spent the time trying to regain his bearings, was able to see Orochimaru smirk widely at him as the sannin wrenched his accursed sword upward, splitting his friend's upper torso in half.

In his anger, Naruto attempted to access the Kyuubi's chakra, only to find out that he couldn't. The blond looked bewildered until he noticed Orochimaru's smirk grow even wider. He then saw that the snake sannin's foot was glowing purple, as Orochimaru said in his usual deceptive and sinuous voice, "Contrary to popular belief, my Gogyou Fuuin does not have to be applied with my hand."

Naruto immediately understood the implications of that statement and attacked without pretenses, realizing that there were no more trump cards to be had in this battle, and his survival would depend on the meager combination of his skill and whatever luck he had.

The blonde was almost completely exhausted at this point, but it was obvious that Orochimaru was beginning to drop as well, after being attacked by Shino's kikaichuu. Naruto was still able to conjure a couple hundred kage bunshin to attack the snake sannin with.

Orochimaru summoned another snake (the one earlier was dismissed as he impaled Kiba) and attacked the mass of clones, throwing a Karyuu Endan here and there to support the efforts of his summoned charge.

It soon became clear to Naruto that now that he was the only one left, Orochimaru was taking his time and playing with him. Angered, he ordered the fifty or so clones that were left to start their jutsu. Orochimaru saw his clones sealing, and clearly had no intentions of letting them finish, and so he attacked the snake sannin's backside to protect his clones. Naruto's first rasengan (one-handed) hit the summoned snake, which disappeared quickly. Orochimaru had already unsheathed his sword and was about to cleave Naruto in two when the clones he had ignored finished sealing.

An enormous cry of, "Doton: Yomi Numa!" mixed in with calls of, "Raiton: Raijin!" and, "Katon: Karyuu Dan!" Naruto leapt away in time, but Orochimaru was caught within the conjured swamp, and was consequently hit with dozens upon dozens of blue-hot fire bullets before a giant conjured suit of armor (made of lightning) slammed into him from above, resulting in a massive explosion.

Naruto sighed happily as he slumped towards the ground. He figured he deserved to rest all he could after killing Orochimaru, especially since his minions would probably be here any minute now after an explosion of that magnitude.

The blonde found a tree that was still strong enough to be leaned against, and eased himself onto it. Naruto closed his eyes for a second and took a deep breath, which caught in his throat as he felt a killing intent more massive than any he had previously felt (Kyuubi didn't count). Naruto's eyes snapped open as he rolled to the side, causing Orochimaru's sword to bury itself a couple mere centimeters from the blonde's face.

Orochimaru was bloody all over, and a large amount of his skin had severe burns on it. The snake sannin's clothes were in tatters. Where the cloth persisted in hanging on to his body it was either blackened with soot or soaked in blood. The otokage's eyes were completely bloodshot and spoke of a crazed mindset, clouded with indignation and rage.

Naruto, being on the ground, was in a very disadvantageous position. Before the blonde could get up, Orochimaru roared and charged his prone form, slashing wildly. Naruto didn't even have time to draw a kunai, lest his vitals be exposed. He covered himself as best he could with his arms and could only watch as the crazed sannin hacked large gashes into his form.

Naruto was not completely defenseless, however, as he formed seals while blocking. Just before Orochimaru hacked off an arm, Naruto finished his seals and called out, "Katon: Goukakyuu no jutsu!"

Orochimaru just pierced Naruto's heart with the kusanagi as the blonde exhaled his gathered chakra in the form of a massive fireball. Naruto died quickly, but Orochimaru's face was literally melted off. The heat of the jutsu fused his jaw and voice box shut and burned away his nose, mouth, and ears. By the time the jutsu passed over, Orochimaru's cheekbones and frontal skull was showing, while his eyes were simply boiled masses of flesh and his nose gone to the cheekbone. The snake sannin couldn't even scream in pain because his entire lower and upper jaw was one large lump of flesh, throbbing painfully in the aftermath of the jutsu.

Kabuto chose this moment to leap into the clearing along with a full regiment of 16 jounin ninja (four squads of four Nin to a squad). He spotted Orochimaru's mangled form and immediately started emergency field aid and surgery, pumping all the chakra he dared to speed the healing and replacement of dead and ravaged cells.

It was a few hours until Kabuto finished, sighing in relief. He ordered the jounin he brought with him to carry Orochimaru back to his base. Orochimaru would live, but he would be bedridden and useless for three years until he will be able to change bodies. Kabuto would have to take charge of the sound in the meanwhile.

------The next day------

Tsunade, Jiraiya, and the forces of Sand arrived early in the morning, only to find the entire village completely destroyed, bodies of hundreds of leaf ninja scattered wide and far, and all the civilians either dead or taken to the sound.

The collected ninja walked through the ruins, letting the full gravity of the situation hit them. Before long, Tsunade, Jiraiya, and the sand siblings were looking around for Naruto and his friends while the other sand ninja were sent to clean up.

Tsunade and the rest found Naruto lying face up in the middle of a training ground, vicious gashes all over him, as well as one stab wound to his heart. When they saw this, Tsunade started to cry, clinging to Jiraiya's shoulder while he himself cried silently. Kankuro and Temari averted their eyes and made to clean him up and even Gaara looked extremely serious and depressed.

Tsunade's sobs slowly died down, "We were too late, dammit! We were too late…"

Gaara simply summoned one of his ninja and gave him orders, "Gather the men and request reinforcements from the sand."

Tsunade heard what the kazekage said and wondered, "What are you planning to do?"

"We are going to destroy the sound, just as they have destroyed the leaf. And afterwards, the sand will help you rebuild Konoha, if it's fine with you." Gaara replied.

Tsunade wiped a tear and stood, "Yes, it's what he would have wanted."

With the help of the sand ninja, the bodies of the leaf were gathered and burned, their ashes spread throughout Konoha. Using whatever supplies were left over, they built temporary camp housing for the ninja to rest in and wait for reinforcements to come. In the meantime, the official funeral service would be held on the morrow.

------??????------

Naruto's eyes fluttered open and he immediately started to take stock of his surroundings. He was in a very well lit but unfurnished apartment room of decent size. He appeared to be in the master bedroom, and there was a panoramic window to his right, which showed a large city glowing with lights and extremely tall buildings. Beyond that, he could see a large body of water. He also noticed that it was currently night time.

There were two doors behind him, which he assumed one led to a closet and the other to the other rooms. All in all, the place looked completely normal, except for what populated the room he was in. He noticed all his friends, who were supposed to be dead, as well as a few others who wore strange clothing. On top of it all, there was a large black ball, which appeared to be made of metal, at the other end of the room. "Hey," Naruto greeted his friends, "Where are we? Is this the afterlife? Cuz if it is, it's not very nice at all."

Kiba smirked at his comment, but the rest of them either shrugged or muttered an uncommitted, "dunno."

Naruto addressed the others in the room, "Do any of you have an idea as to why you're here?"

Two of the four people, who wore black gi with matching hakama, shrugged but remained quiet. The other two, a short blonde and one dressed in a large suit of armor spoke in unison, "We don't know, either. By all means we should be dead."

Naruto scoffed in disappointment and turned around to try and open one of the doors. He wasn't able to, though.

And that was because, for lack of a better word, the ball turned on.

Katon: Naimenteki Karada Bakuhatsu (fire element: inner body explosion): the user explodes chakra from the pores of his body to expel anything clinging to it. In this case, the explosion is of the fire element. There was a water element version seen of this jutsu in my other fic: the beauty of blue eyes.

Raiton: Raijin (Lightning element: God of thunder and lightning): Pure Lightning is summoned as a large suit of samurai armor over 20 meters tall. This can be used to crush, squish, punch, or even slash at the enemy.

Just a warning, I probably won't be covering the war between the sand and sound, as that's not the purpose of this story, though it may be covered in a side/filler story sometime.

and there you have it. Hope you found the fight scene acceptable. R&R, if you will.