Hey There potential readers!
I'm pretty new around here when it comes to writting stuff, so I may not be the best story teller or write with perfect grammer. So please bear with me on this one.
Anyway, I have been thinking about this story idea for a good while and scowered the net to see if there were any good stories that have the plot centered around Naruto recieving a curse mark in the forest of death like Sasuke did. There was a pretty good one, but it was cancled rather quickly, personally i think it could have become great... So now I want to give it a try and write something great to add to the already impressive Naruto folder out here. If any potential readers care to give me some respectable reviews, then I'd greatly appreciate it.
Thanks and enjoy the prolouge to this story!:
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Fate was a funny concept that many people believed in so that they could escape the pain of their daily mundane lives. Even some of the strongest shinobi who had experienced some of the worst things imaginable also believed in the cruel mistress that was fate. There was however one person who discarded the clutches of fate every single day with a bright smile on his face. This person was none other than 15 years old (I'm making them older in this series) Naruto Uzumaki, a local demon sacrifice for the village hidden in the leaves and the greatest pariah since the betrayal of Madara Uchiha about 100 years earlier.
Due to the way that he has lived his life, many would believe that he crossed fate simply by continuing on going his smile despite seeing the worst of the people he cherished was nothing if not awe-inspiring to witness. His unique status as the container of the legendary 9-tailed demon fox, made his everyday life for the first 14 and a half years of his existence, a living nightmare. Neglect from the village, daily beatings simply for being alive, overpriced for everything he wanted to buy, more than one attempt on his life, and even so much as the very Anbu guards that were charged with protecting him having stopped long ago to let the villagers get their revenge.
With all of these experiences during his formative years of living would surely have some sort of effect on the young blond boy... And they sure did, but even he himself hadn't quite realized quite how much that actually had affected his psyche and how a certain event would shape his life continuing forward from this day.
For on this very day, a simple mistake would reshape the life of one Uzumaki Naruto forever and bring unforetold events to the rest of the shinobi world. Whether they were good or bad was up to the boy to go forward with life after this was over.
Location: Chunin exams, the forest of death second round.
Sasuke and Sakura were terrified. That would be the only way to explain what they were both experiencing right about now, in front of them stood a Kusa kunoichi who unleashed such killer intent that it made Sasuke Uchiha remember the massacre that befell his clan when he was 6. Even after so many years of trying to cope with his losses, he still found himself vomiting his breakfast out at the slightest memory of that night.
Sakura wasn't doing much better as she was a simple civilian-born girl who had for the most part neglected her training in the academy and later on when she had graduated as well. This level of ki (killing intent) was far above what she experienced during the mission to the land of waves, and there she had fazed down Zabuza Momochi, The Demon Of The Mist.
"Ku ku ku, dear Sasuke-kun, I finally found you." The crazy woman said as she stared them both down with barely contained glee. Sasuke was panicking, never before had he met a person that reminded him so much of his brother Itachi, that his basic instincts told him to run like a bitch and hide like a coward...
Elsewhere in the forest, another interesting situation was taking place right around the same time, one Naruto Uzumaki was currently being swallowed whole by a snake around the size of a normal house. Down in the gutter, he was contemplating on what the hell he should do, he knew that he had been struck by a powerful wind Jutsu which meant that his team was most definitely in deep shit right now.
He already knew how to get out of the snake's gut but was drawing it out by mentally berating himself for getting swallowed in the first place. Yes, Naruto Uzumaki was not exactly the 'dope' that most people knew him as, no he was by all sense of the word a prodigy of hard work. That meant that he wasn't born with the ordinary natural talent for everything as someone like Sasuke was. No, he was a person that had the ability to learn things at an extraordinary rate which would be proved many times later down the line of his life. However, due to the neglect and constant failings of all his teachers, he had never had the opportunity to exploit his near-unlimited potential.
His thoughts were broken off when he felt a large ki signature off to the south where his team had been located, and in seconds he panicked and made a sea of shadow clones without the use of hand seals.
As he had expected, the snake's gut literally exploded in a shower of guts and gore that painted the forest floor red with blood, and all his clones fell to the ground and dispelled sending their very short memories into the skull of the original who landed gracefully on a branch. Or he would have if his left food hadn't slipped in a stray pool of blood and sent him falling on his back in a very uncool manner.
"Aww that was so uncool..." the blond whined to himself as he heard the irritating sound of something roaring with laughter inside his mind, he cursed the damn thing for all that it stood for as he very well knew what he was and who it was inside his mind. "Damn fox" he muttered and thought back to the time when the two had met for the first time, that had been back during the battle of the great Naruto bridge. When he thought that the silent Assassin of the mist, Haku had killed Sasuke and he had gone on a minor rampage, he was forced into his mindscape where he had met the fox and struck a small deal with the giant being.
He would be allowed to get knowledge and a good training regiment from the fox, and in return, he would allow the fox to sense the world around him through Naruto's own.
"Ah relax brat, I'm just messing with you." "Oi, it still not nice to laugh when someone falls on the ground ya know." Said Naruto in his mind. "Chill human, besides, you have bigger things to worry about right now and you know it."
As much as he hated to admit it, but the fox was right, and his team was in deep trouble if what he sensed was anything to go by. In a flash, he dropped the upper part of his orange jumpsuit which left him in a fishnet skintight t-shit that showed off his muscles that had definitely begun kicking into high gear as puberty had struck him at 14. He stood 5 feet 4 which made him one of the shortest of his class, additionally, he wasn't the buffest since his muscles were leaner and more focused on increased speed and durability instead of pure power. That however didn't mean, he couldn't deliver one hell of a punch or kick for that matter, it just wasn't what his body build was focused toward. Despite many protests from the Kyuubi however, he still couldn't discard his orange jumpsuit since most people wouldn't sell him anything that made him look remotely ninja-like. That of course made his clothes strained as his body grew more and more, by now his shirt would tear and rip slightly more every time he got into real fights with either enemies or Sasuke.
Standing tall he willed a little chakra to his arm and made a small seal appear on his arm, within seconds there was a poof of smoke, and his orange shirt was gone so he wouldn't have to fight with it in his hands. His sight became sharper as the red eyes with slits made themselves known, his fingernails turned into small claws and his features became more feral and wilder along with his whiskers becoming more pronounced and darker. Finally, a thin sliver of red chakra surrounded his body as his eyes moved to the battlefield, and within the next moment, the blond ninja was gone and heading for the fight that he could both sense and hear raging on.
Back on the battlefield, Sasuke and Orochimaru were hot In battle with each other at the moment, the Uchiha had initially been scared out of his mind when he had met and tried to escape from the crazy lady. However, when the mention of this person knowing his brother came up, he went on a minor rage indused berserker spree, and tried everything he could to land a strike on the enemy.
Sakura on the other hand was sitting silently a small distance away on a branch shaking in her boots with how scared she was, never in her wildest dreams had she imagined herself in a situation like this one where her lived was barely the concern of her black haired teammate, sure she had been in a similar situation back in wave country, but back then Sasuke had at least seemed a little concerned with her actions unlike now where he was nothing more than a raging berserker. It scared her even more than the snake lady to see her love acting like this.
She was brought out of her thoughts at the sight of Sasuke getting thrown into a tree branch and staying embedded which spurred her into action. "Sasuke kun!" she called as he started falling from the branch and she knew that she wouldn't catch him in time. Orochimaru saw this too and was about to move in to at least save the boy's life so he could get ahold of him later on. However, before either of them could get to him, an orange and red blur shot past them both and caught Sasuke before landing firmly on a tree branch with its back turned to them both.
Initially, Sakura panicked at a potentially new threat, though his worries were washed aside immediately when seeing the tell-tale orange pants and the wild blond hair that gently blew in the wind. Wait... wild blond hair? Naruto always had orange and stiff hair so could this guy really be him, she couldn't be sure with so many enemies around them all at once. "N... Naruto, is that you?" she called but received no response, instead, there was a sudden puff of smoke beside the Naruto look alike, and a brand new Naruto suddenly appeared on the branch.
Sakura looked slightly confused while Orochimaru narrowed his eyes, 'A Shadow clone without hand seals? Kabuto didn't tell me that this boy could do seal-less Jutsu...' The clone already knew what to do as it picked up Sasuke and turned to Sakura before jumping down to her, she was unsure until she saw those azure blue eyes that reminded her of sapphires which was a tell-tale Naruto sign. "Sakura-chan, we need to move some distance away while the boss fights this snake creep." Sakura could only muster a small nod in reply as she gazed back at the original Naruto to see that he still had his back turned to them both while the snake lady or man, was observing him.
"Naruto! Just call and I'll come alright!" she called out to reassure her teammate of her support even though she was scared shitless in the snake teme's presence. For the first time since he had gotten there, Naruto turned around causing Sakura to gasp. In place of his sapphire blue eyes now were a pair of blood-red eyes with black slits going vertically down like a feline of some kind, perhaps a cat or maybe a fox. "Thank you Sakura-chan, but you need to move now."
Once again she was taken by surprise, Naruto just spoke to her in such a serious and cold tone that she almost wondered if this was Naruto that she saw in front of her right now. However, one glare from him was enough to send shivers down her spine and make her run after the clone. When she was gone the blond heard the sound of his opponent cackling. "Kukuku Naruto-kun, you shouldn't glare at your allies like that you know." He received a snarl in return as the blond's gaze hardened further into a deep frown, "What are you doing here Orochimaru?"
At that the snake sannin raised an eyebrow, 'how did he know who I am, I haven't even sed my skin yet to reveal my true face...' As if reading his opponent's mind, Naruto spoke his mind, "I know it's you because of my sense of smell, I can tell that you smell heavily of snakes, and very heavily at that. Not even lady Anko smells that heavily of snakes and she is their summoner so that only leaves one viable option that could smell more of snake than her which would be you." His answer made the snake sannin grin as he reached up and ripped off his snake mask to reveal his true pale face to the world, "Ah what a clever one you are Naruto-Kun, but you shouldn't stick your nose in business that has nothing to do with you."
Naruto's snarl turned into a low growl as he spat his next words, "When you target my team, then it becomes my business snake teme." "Kukuku and I should surmise that you're surrounded by the Kyuubi's chakra right now correct?" Asked the snake to which Naruto frowned and sent a large dose of killing intent toward Orochimaru who wasn't even faced by it. "Is that all you can do Naruto Kun, or do we have to throw down to find out everything?"
Naruto lowered himself into a taijutsu stance that Orochimaru hadn't seen before which intrigued him slightly, which was shown with a barely raised eyebrow.
"Let's go teme!" the blond container roared as he launched himself forward with enough force to shatter the branch he stood on, of course, this was nothing to Orochimaru who simply stepped to the side and allowed the blond missile to impact the wood he stood on. Barely half a second later the blond came out on all four and threw punches, claw slashed, and supported sidekicks at the snake who simply blocked, parried, or sidestepped every attempt. Naruto was already slightly influenced by the demonic chakra that flowed through his veins which made him a little more animalistic and aggressive by nature. This of course led him to be more prone to anger and aggressive outbursts when using this chakra, so seeing someone toying with him like this made his blood boil and anger shine through.
Landing on all fours on a tree trunk that was facing the teme, he launched himself forward and made to punch Orochimaru in the face. He was however sidestepped and forced to try and wiggle his way around in the air to avoid a high kick from the teme right afterward. Luckily for the blond, he managed to get one of his hands on the branch that they were fighting on, and used it along with his upper body strength, to pull him out of the way of Orochimaru's attack. Then using his pure battle instincts, he lashed out with a dropkick while only balancing himself with one arm on the branch while the other swung in the air.
Orochimaru however wasn't a sannin for nothing and dodged the attack with ease before spinning 360 degrees around and sending a powerful roundhouse kick into the blond's spine which made it crack as he was sent flying into another tree where he stayed stock still. "Kukuku, what a disappointment you are boy. Now let's see about giving that gift to Sasuke Kun." The pale man said before vanishing into the tree trunk and likely going toward the Uchiha and Sakura. "No... I have to move... Come on body!MOVE!" he roared in a feral voice as his body exploded with red chakra that sent a shockwave of demonic chakra through the immediate 1 kilometer on all sides of him. In an explosion of red and fury, the blond with crimson eyes propelled himself into the direction where Orochimaru went after his team, with a red cloak of 1 tail flowing behind him In a shroud of pure demonic chakra.
Sakura was terrified again before she had seen the look in her blond teammate's eyes and knew that her leaving wasn't up to her any longer. Therefore, she had left with the clone and Sasuke to run some distance away from the battlefield, and when they finally stopped their run so she could ask some of her questions to the clone, it held up a hand and just said "Don't." After that it went quiet and looked around to see if it could trace its creator and the opponent, she had never seen Naruto act like this, he almost felt like the leader of their group with the decisive way he just told her and Sasuke off within the span of a few minutes.
Now, however, that snake lady who was apparently a guy had suddenly appeared in front of them with that twisted smirk on his face which told her that he had either crippled or killed her teammate. "W... Where is Naruto!" she yelled out to him but only received a low chuckle in return as the snake sannin turned its head toward the clone that had Sasuke behind him. With the simplest flick of his wrist, Orochimaru had then dispatched the clone and now stared down at Sasuke, he opened his jaws and extended his neck forward like a slivering snake. Then everything went to shit for the sannin as he felt the air tremble, and the distinct feeling of the Kyuubi's demonic chakra rush in all directions. However, that paled In comparison to the crimson missile he felt rushing their way which would arrive before his fangs reached the Uchiha's neck.
He desperately attempted to make his neck go faster to try and mark the Uchiha before he would have to face down the enraged container again. That was when things went to shit however, the crimson cloaked blond flashed past his location and covered his teammate with his body and thus received the bite on his neck instead. Now Orochimaru found himself in a dangerous position as he knew that there were three main worries now for him and his plan.
1. The boy died from the curse mark having been applicated to his system, and thus the snake sannin would find himself targeted by a fury so potent from the third Hokage, that even he figured that he would die before he left the country.
2. The boy died and then the Kyuubi was unleashed and killed him and everything else within the next 50 miles.
3. The boy survived and tried to come to him for power since the curse mark was designed like a drug that only the snake sannin could sate. That would lead to both the Akatsuki and Third Hokage coming after his ass with all their might which would mean certain death for him.
Naruto's senses were a little dull when he was in the 1 tailed cloak form, however, the sudden burst of pain emanating from his shoulder was the greatest he had ever experienced before. Before he even knew it his chakra ran rampant and burst out from his body like a title wave that would have sent Sasuke and Sakura flying, had it not been for the snake also biting down on Sasuke mere seconds later, and Sakura having ducked behind a tree.
His pain receptors were overloading and shutting his body down from the inside which quickly rendered him completely unconscious on the outside while his struggle for life continued to rage on from the inside.
The Kyuubi knew what was going on, and yet he was not quite prepared to handle what was happening to his container.
He had heard of the curse mark is given to people from Orochimaru through his last container sometimes speaking about it, he knew that the boy would normally only have 1/10th chance of making it out of this alive. However, with Kyuubi's help, that chance had been boosted to about 6/10th chance instead which were much better odds than before.
Suddenly the fox felt something strange, however, his chakra was starting to be sucked out in small doses and absorbed into the curse mark on the blond's neck. That was something he hadn't expected at all to happen, and it worried him somewhat to feel the properties of the curse mark change slightly, the normally corrupt power within the mark was somehow tainted by absorbing the demonic chakra which changed it somewhat.
He could feel the small doses of Orochimaru's spirit being burned to ashes as his own chakra made contact with it, speaking of ashes, he could also feel a significant portion of his very potent fire nature chakra flow into the seal and thus into the boy's body. This could potentially result in an abnormally high fire affinity along with the already ridiculously powerful wind affinity that the boy already possessed to begin with.
This piqued the kitsune's interest as this could potentially make for a both destructive and ridiculously powerful combination if used correctly with the correct amount of work which he knew that the boy could achieve with the correct guidance That thought made the mighty Kyuubi stop in its tracks, and a new and interesting plan slowly started to form in the mighty bijuu's head, however, its container would need to survive before anything could be done about that...
Sakura was once again both terrified and at a loss for words at what was going on, the legendary snake sannin had appeared out of nowhere and attacked her team. First Sasuke had fallen, and then Naruto followed suit while she sat still and could do nothing to stop this from happening. Now the snake had disappeared after biting both Naruto and Sasuke in their necks and then proceeded to tell her that Sasuke would come to him to seek power, and Naruto would most likely be consumed by the hatred inside his very core that had threatened to spill for many years now.
Honestly, she didn't know what was scarier and more confusing, the fact that the snake sannin had warned her that Sasuke would be tainted and come to him for power. Or the fact that he told her that Naruto fostered a hatred so powerful that it would consume his entire being and then make him lash out at everything around him.
One thing that she did know however was that right now she was all alone in the forest of death with two teammates who had passed screaming out from the pain of whatever Orochimaru had done to them. She would have to protect them both right now or die trying, that would be her first step to no longer be useless in her own opinion...