2 hours had passed since team 7's encounter with the snake sannin, and Sakura had managed to find them all in a secluded area underneath a tree root where she had laid her two teammates down and then gone to get fresh water for their foreheads. Both of them had worked up quite the fever over the past few hours though Naruto's seemed significantly better than Sasuke's for whatever reason.
Unknown to her, there were three pairs of eyes watching her every movement from the bushed a small distance away, "Oi Dozu, why don't we just go in and kill them all now?" asked a boy with black spiky hair. "Because she is still there and on guard, it will be much better to ambush her when she is tired in the morning, understood Zaku?" asked the boy named Dozu, "Tch, fine boss." Answered the spiky-haired kid.
"Shut up both of you, otherwise you'll alarm her." Hissed their only female team member at them both at the same time, "Shut up Kin, you're not doing any better yourself." Hissed Zaku back at her.
Naruto awoke within the confines of his own mind as he felt the liquid flow between his golden locks of hair and the creepy feeling that he didn't get wet from this. He stood up but instantly fell to one knee as his senses were assaulted by waves of pain greater than anything he had ever experienced before in his life "Gah! What the hell is this!?" he yelled as his hand went to his neck and clutched it painfully tight, "Relax yourself Naruto" came to cool and cold voice of the Kyuubi. Turning his head around, Naruto found that he was kneeling in front of the giant cage and looked up into the eyes of the demon fox of nightmares. "Kyuubi! What is happening to me!?" he called out in pain and confusion. "That curse mark which has been placed on you is trying to synchronize with your chakra system to become a part of you like any normal organ. This is a painful process that normally only has a 1/10 chance of success, and if it fails, then you will die a most painful death." The blond only scoffed with a grimace as he fought off the lingering pain in his body as he rose to his feet, "However there is something different about that mark than what I normally know of." Said the giant chakra entity, "What do you mean fox?" Asked the still pained Naruto.
"Well from what I have observed until now, there has been a drastic change to both the seal as well as its functions thanks to you being surrounded by my chakra at the time of which the seal was applied. It seems to have caused a change in the curse mark itself which has caused it to absorb a great deal of demonic chakra from me by now, around one tails worth as a matter of fact. So, in a sense, it is no longer a curse mark, but a demonic mark Hehe." Naruto paled at this information as he began to try and claw it off of his body with his nails, "Relax human, it's not as bad as you think as this mark does a lot of different things from what I can sense."
This made Naruto pause and look up at the giant fur ball, "Like what?" he asked it. "Well for one I know that the main functions of this seal which is power, and addiction has been altered somewhat. The power aspect has in a sense been tied to my presence within your body as the mark has absorbed so much of my chakra into itself to stabilize. The addiction part has all but been burned to ashes along with the small part of that snake's soul. Then there is also the fact that the seal has absorbed a large quantity of my fire-natured chakra which has given you a high affinity toward fire, this affinity will explode to untold levels if you survive the changes to your chakra and body which are bound to happen after this seal has matured."
Naruto sat and pondered about this until something hit him which made him look up at the large fox with a questioning gaze. "What human?" asked the fox with a raised eyebrow. "How come you're telling me this? It's almost as if you're trying to help me in a sense?" Kyuubi smirked a wicked smirk as it answered, "Well you see human, while you are dying right now, I have thought of a perhaps fun way to pass the time in here." The blond raised an eyebrow and stared at the fox with a deadpan. "And that is?" his question caused the fox to chuckle, "Hehe, I have decided to assist you through your life, it would be boring to just sit around in here for the next few decades, and I have never really tried to actively interact with my containers before, so who knows. It might even be fun." The large fox smirked again and released a low chuckle that sounded more like a menacing rumble. "I have never trained a human personally before, but with the help of me and your shadow clones, along with your inhuman amount of chakra, then I think that I could make you into something that transcends humanity by the time you're 20." Despite himself, Naruto couldn't help but let his mind wander at hearing this which lead him to think about him standing on top of Sasuke with Sakura in his arms while the Kage robes were placed over him.
"So human child, do we have an agreement?" Naruto was brought out of his thoughts by the gigantic fox and gave it a wicked grin in return before stretching out his arm in a fist bump motion as if to invite mighty Kyuubi to do the same. "It's a done deal fox, now tell me your name to seal the deal!" That caught the fox off guard for a little before it regained itself and send its own wicked smirk the boy's way, "Kurama... my name is Kurama kit..." The mighty Kyuubi stretched out its own hand and fist bumped its container which immediately got both the pain and everything else within the world to stop for a moment...
On the outside world 10 minutes earlier:
Sakura was in deep trouble now, she was facing down three sound genin alone with them having Sasuke as their target, she could also feel that they were all fairly powerful in their own right and could easily out scale her. It was an annoying reality to her, but one she was forced to swallow, Lee had come to help her 2 minutes ago, but he had fallen to the technique of the mummy ninja that seemed to be the leader of their team. The impulsive and aggressive one named Zaku had beaten her to a bloody pulp using nothing but his bare hands to torture her longer before killing her. It didn't help that the woman was just as deranged as her teammate and spoke about pulling off her skirt and raping her in front of her teammates when they woke up to further make them despair.
She was, of course, terrified of the prospect of getting raped by two guys and a delusional girl that all seemed to get off on torturing others, however, her despair was once again brought down when the sound of bushed rustles giving way for team 10 to come rushing in to save her. "Hey forehead, go help your team while we take care of their chumps." Said her childhood friend Ino, she was a beautiful platinum blond-haired girl with silky smooth pale skin, a generously large C-cup chest, and curves in all the right places unlike Sakura in her own opinion. Her two teammates Nara Shikamaru and Akamichi Chochi were also by her side, Shikamaru was the second tallest guy in their graduation year and belonged to the Nara clan. He was a lazy bump who had a habit of calling everything with a pulse 'Troublesome' at least once a day. He had black hair tied up in a pineapple-style ponytail and was of fair skin with a light muscular build compared to many other civilian families, though nowhere near the same level as someone like Kiba or Sasuke.
Lastly, there was Chochi who was a big-boned boy with a log of muscle although his stomach also surpassed everyone else in size, he was a kind and gentle soul that honestly didn't like violence unless you threatened one of his friends by calling him fat. When that happened, he became a raging monster in combat.
"I...Ino." Said the rather weak Sakura with some of her top ripped apart along with many slices in her skintight shorts, luckily her own medium b-cup breasts didn't spill as her bra hadn't been cut open yet, so she still kept her modesty in front of the boys of team 10.
"Ah, Zaku! Dozu! Look at that blond, more rape material! I can't wait to make her scream my name all throughout the forest!" Squealed the deranged sound girl as she had a lust-filled and crazy look on her face as she readied her senbon and prepared to fight. Ino took an instinctive step back though her two teammates took one forward with deep scowls on their faces before Shikamaru spoke, "Let the new Ino-Shika-Cho trio be introduced in these exams!" His two teammates called out in agreement as they all got into battle stance with Chochi in front, while Shikamaru and Ino stood further in the back and acted as support.
"Go!" yelled Dozu as he and Zaku vanished into a sprint toward the big-boned boy while Kin tried to go around him to get to the support. Shikamaru was quick to go into action as he bent in his knees and unleashed his shadows toward the incoming Kunoichi while Ino waited for the perfect opportunity. At the same time, Choji used his human boulder jutsu to become larger and perfectly round as a stone. He then started to roll toward the enemy shinobi to take them down. Both were wise enough to dodge his assault and try to find a way to outmaneuver him with their sound-based attacks.
The longer the battle went on, the longer it seemed to turn in the favor of the sound team as they steadily build up more and more advantages with their superior sound attacks that wore down team 10's senses. The decisive blow came when Dozu managed to punch into Chochi's big form with his sound gauntlet and unleash a loud sound wave that travel up Chochi's body and quickly knocked him out.
Then Ino almost had her purple top taken off completely as the crazy sound kunoichi had almost cut it open with a few thrown senbon ankled perfectly. Lastly there was Shikamaru who had almost run out of chakra by now and was trying to fight off the sound lady with pure taijutsu which wasn't working out for him in the slightest. All in all, right now they were on the path to defeat which would mean the death of the guys while the girls would be suffering a little more before also being killed off.
Finally, Shikamaru fell exhausted to the ground and was forced to watch helplessly as the deranged girl jumped Ino who squirmed to get away. "You're not going anywhere you blond bitch." She cued as she grabbed Ino's top and ripped it off leaving the Konoha kunoichi in only bandages wrapped around her chest. Ino was of course horrified as she tried to get away, only to be grabbed by the long ponytail by Dozu who smirked and pulled her to the ground while Kin straddled her stomach and began fondling her boobs. Ino's horrified scream echoed through the trees as Shikamaru desperately tried to get up, but it was no use, even Sakura had now been stripped of her skintight shorts leaving her only in her pink panties which admittedly showed that she was no longer a little girl. That however worked in a negative way as Zaku was only driven further by this as he started pulling off his pants much to the screaming horror of Sakura.
Up in the trees, Neji and Tenten had just arrived and were preparing to jump down there and help... that is until everyone in the clearing felt a pressure suddenly being forced down upon them. All the sound genin looked around for the source while the leaf girls took this opportunity to try and get away which didn't work very well. Then all of them heard a low growl coming from the roots which Sakura had covered her teammates underneath. All eyes turned to that exact tree with wide eyes as a pair of golden yellow eyes stared back out like a predator searching for its prey.
Sakura momentarily thought back to Orochimaru and went into a panicked state until a sudden blur of white shot out of the darkness toward her. In less than a second, the blur moved over to Zaku and then punched him with such force that it shattered the bones in his left arm and send him crashing through a tree trunk until he landed barely alive some 20 meters away from the clearing.
Now that the thing was in the light for all to see, all genin caught their breath upon laying eyes on it. Where Zaku had stood before, now stood a creature standing 7 foot 3 inches tall with white short soft fur along its back, arms, and what could be seen of its legs beneath the orange pants. 'Wait! Orange pants!' thought Sakura in slight alarm as she knew those clothes, but not the thing in front of her.
A long snow-white tail came out from right above his butt and flowed in the wind like a flower in a light breeze, its short hair was also just as white as the rest of its fur as it started to turn around. Sakura gasped when seeing the golden-slitted eyes of the face that belonged to her teammate Naruto, with the same gentleness as always when he looked down at her. Now she also noticed that his hands and feet held claws instead of nails, and especially his feet had changed so that he now stood on his front stepping pad located directly behind his clawed toes like a wolf standing on two legs.
He had definably become more muscled than most of the others in their graduating class which along with his new height made him look quite exotic and attractive to the female eye. Finally, she noticed that on his chest was a crimson red drawing of a nine-tailed kitsune roaring into the sky, his golden eyes shifted from the sound ninja left, and down to Sakura who was practically naked before him. It seemed like she noticed this and tried to cover herself up with her just her hands which failed spectacularly. With a foxy grin, he held out his left arm and channeled chakra into it to reveal his storage seal where he unsealed his orange shirt and then bent down to Sakura.
For a moment she thought about crawling away in fear, but the gentle and caring look in his eyes told her that she was safe which was why she allowed him to lift her into his arms bridal style. The second her skin touched his fur, she marveled at how soft and pleasant it felt which almost immediately lulled her into sleep while the kitsune Naruto continued on his way back to the tree and the other group of sound ninja who could still only stare at him and the completely defeated form of their teammate.
Suddenly Dozu roared in anger and shot to his feet while rushing Naruto who didn't even bat an eye at him while only staring at his pink-haired teammate who blushed slightly under his gaze and instinctively snuggled closer to his chest which didn't go unnoticed by the others. When the sound shinobi got close enough, Naruto's clawed arm blurred out of sight for a few seconds in which he had completely torn through Dozu's arm and send it flying into a tree while the sound genin collapsed to the ground in a loud scream of pain. Sakura shivered when hearing it but was silenced when she saw the fluffy tail extending to about 1 and a half meters in length before laying over Sakura's body like a blanket which silenced her immediately.
The others present couldn't really blame her though, not only had she stayed up for nearly 18 hours straight, but she also had to pull both her teammates along for only kami know how long. And on top of that, she was forced to fend off a group of sound genin that was clearly better than her while also having the job of guarding her teammates from harm. Finally, she was nearly raped which alone would take a lot of mental steam out of someone, now she could finally relax in the arms of her teammate who could clearly hold his own easily. And his fur looked as soft as anything in the world while his fluffy tail also functioned as a blanket, finally this transformation of Naruto possessed such a wild and yet calming aura that told all allies that things were gonna be alright while also telling enemies that all hope of survival was crushed.
Arriving over by Kin and Ino, the former of whom was frozen in place after watching her two teammates having been discarded that easily, all he had to do was to level that cold and emotionless gaze at her with his menacing yellow-slitted eyes and his aura effect on her.
Faster than anything she had ever done before, she was off Ino and heading for her two teammates after throwing her scroll on the ground. She was smart enough to know that she never would get out of this alive if she kept the scroll to herself. The kitsunefied Naruto didn't even bother looking at her retreating form as he bent down and picked up Ino in the same gentle arms as he had done Sakura before. "It's all going to be ok now, just sleep you two." They all heard his wild and feral voice that reminded them more of a deep rumbling sound than the upbeat voice of Naruto Uzumaki.
They all shivered involuntarily as he placed both young ladies down by the tree and turned to face Shikamaru and Chochi who were still on the ground along with Lee, "You guys look like shit." He told them evenly as he walked over to the two first boys and pulled them up before placing them near the ladies. That was the point where Neji and Tenten decided to make their presence known by jumping down by the side of the group all while staring at Naruto's new form. They both shivered when the fox boy's eyes moved to them without him moving his head their way, it looked menacing enough without the 'I knew you were there, and I could kill you stare that he sent them both. "I take it that it was the sound genin who took down our teammate?" asked Neji in an as-even tone as he could when facing a creature that was more than a head taller than yourself. "That is correct Neji, now either take your teammate and move or stay here with us, we won't force you to do either." Said Naruto in his deep and growling voice. While Neji was talking to Naruto, Tenten had taken the liberty to go over to Neji and shake him awake with varied success. On the plus side, he did awaken, on the downside he was so dazed that he didn't even know where he currently was located.
"You can keep that scroll, we already have ours, so let us part ways here and meet in the third round," Neji said and extended his hand to Naruto who stared at it for a few seconds before giving the Hyuga a chilling fox-like smirk. "Are you implying that you could have taken the scroll even if you didn't have them both?" Asked Naruto as he shook the Hyuga prodigy's hand and turned to the scroll before picking it up, however just as he was about to turn back to the others, they all felt a malevolent and evil chakra spike in the area. Naruto's newly enhanced predator senses kicked into high gear making him turn toward the stump of a tree that Sasuke laid under, there was an ominous level of sickly purple chakra oozing out of it which had an evil tint to it.
Suddenly a hand shot out of the darkness and grabbed ahold of the trunk before the form of Sasuke dragged himself out with his head turned downward so no one could see his face.
They could however all see the black fire pattern markings that spread from the seal on his shoulder and out over his body, when his gaze finally came up, there was a clear level of insanity in his Sharingan eyes as he searched for a target. His eyes finally fell on Naruto's new form where he rose a crazed eyebrow, "I see you were also blessed by his power eh Dope?" Naruto narrowed his snow-white eyebrow as he spoke out, "Calm yourself Sasuke teme, you are leaking terrible bloodlust and hatred right now." He received a menacing smirk in return as the avenger stepped fully into the light with half his body covered by the black markings and his power increasing every waking moment. Completely ignoring his teammate's words, he let his eyes wander all over the clearing and located Sakura and Ino by his feet with terrified looks on their faces when looking at him. Shikamaru and an unconscious Chochi laid not far from them, and finally, there was Neji with Lee hoisted over his shoulder and Tenten standing by their side.
When the Uchiha's eyes landed on the spandex-wearing Ninja, his evil smirk grew even more, and he stepped toward them. Instantly Tenten was in front of her teammates while Neji narrowed his eyes at the clearly dark and crazy Uchiha. "Wake Lee up so I can test my abilities against him." Said Sasuke in a cold, menacing tone as he kept his walk, "Can't you see that he is in no condition to fight right now you Uchiha bastard!" Yelled Tenten which awarded her a stone-cold glare before the Uchiha smirked wickedly. "Well, then I guess that I will have to wake him up by making you guys scream!" He roared as he rushed toward the pair with the speed that none of the people in the group could keep up with.
"Sasuke Kun stop!" Screamed Sakura and Ino at the same time, this was not like Sasuke's usual self, as a matter of fact, this feeling was the exact opposite of the aura that Naruto gave off. This one spoke of constant dread and darkness of which no light could escape, this cold and dark feeling that could rattle the bones of even the most hardened jonin.
In a blur of white, Sasuke found his wrist caught hard to the point that it almost broke by the sheer pressure. Looking up, Sasuke was slightly surprised to see the dope standing taller than him and looking down with cold yellow-slitted eyes. "That's enough Sasuke, they're not your enemy." This only seemed to stir the crazy Uchiha as he wrestled his wrist free and laughed maniacally as he stared down his teammate, "What gives Dope! Do you forget that this is a free for all test where killing worthless insects like everyone in the clearing is allowed!?"
Everyone was taken aback by his words as they unconsciously shuffled a few feet away from him, Naruto simply narrowed his feral eyes and spoke his opinion to the Uchiha. "Just because the rules say that we can do anything we want in this forest, that doesn't mean we should just go do it for the fun of it. You're better than that teme." Sasuke seemed to stop after hearing that and scoffed before turning to look at the others who were still terrified of him. They all saw the crazy look in his eyes, however before anyone could warn the former blond, Sasuke had already spun around and delivered the mother of all haymakers to the blond's stomach which sent him barreling through multiple trees and impacting a large boulder a little ways off from the clearing. "Hehehe... HAHAHA! Don't you talk down to me like I am some child Dope! I am an Uchiha Elite and I am above you in everything, do you understand that you loser!?" roared the crazy Uchiha as his lunatic laughter reverberated throughout the clearing. Out of the corner of his eye ne noticed movement and spun around with a backhand that nailed Sakura straight in the cheek which sent her flying back into the tree by Ino's side. "Don't come near me, you useless woman." His words cut deep, especially with his cold and uncaring tone added to the mix.
His past classmates could only stare at him in what amounted to shock, anger, and fright at the same time, Shikamaru was already going over multiple plans that he could put into practice with the people here to take Sasuke down. It was all for naught however as Sasuke once again charged Lee's team with Tenten summoning twin swords to fight against him. It was unnecessary as he simply dodged both sword strikes and punted her across the clearing in one hit. Next, he moved to Neji in order to do the same to him, however before he could reach the slightly panicking Hyuga, something solid connected with his left abdomen and sent him flying into a tree.
In his place stood Naruto with his emotionless face while holding Tenten who he had caught before she could land on the ground or impact any of the many trees around them. Quickly he let her down and turned back to Sasuke who was getting back to his feet with a wide smirk on his face, "Heh, seems like you can actually hit a little harder than usual eh Dope?" Naruto stood impassively and ignored the Uchiha's taunts while letting out a held breath which resulted in a slight steam coming from his mouth which surprised the others. "Stop right now Sasuke or face the consequences of your actions." For the first time since he awoke, Sasuke dropped the smirk and instead put on a scowl that looked good with the infuriated look in his eyes. "Don't you dare to tell me to calm down dope!" he roared before taking off and throwing a punch aimed at Naruto's face.
The former blond caught the attack with one hand and threw the Uchiha to the side, he however underestimated the nimbleness of Sasuke who held on to Naruto's arm and used the momentum to flip around in the air and land a solid knee in Naruto's face. The blow sent Naruto staggering back in surprise which was all Sasuke needed to perform several hand seals and call out his Jutsu. "Fire Style: Fire Ball Jutsu!" he called out and shot a 4-meter in diameter fireball toward Naruto who stared it down impassively.
The former blond flexed his muscled arm and made his claws grow slightly longer as he bent down, in a flash he was gone and had used his sharp claws along with his natural chakra affinity to slice directly through the fireball, causing it to implode and then explode.
"Oi Naruto, can you hear me?" asked Kurama from inside Naruto's mind, "What is it Kurama?" spoke Naruto in his mind. "I just wanted to test something ya see, it won't kill the Uchiha but most likely hurt him pretty badly. However, he would be knocked out so we can move to the tower already." Naruto didn't show anything, but a mental nod gave Kurama the get-go to tell the kitsunefied boy of his plan.
To the others watching, this was a one-sided match with Sasuke trying desperately to land a solid hit that could do some damage, while Naruto simply danced around every attempt like some veteran jonin who had fought for years on end. Sakura who was now back from unconsciousness felt slightly conflicted when seeing her two teammates fighting amongst themselves. On one hand, she didn't want to see the two most important guys in her life fighting when they were supposed to be working together in this event, especially when she saw how much damage that Naruto could dish out in this new form when actually trying to do so.
And Sasuke was clearly moving with the intention to either kill or maim their blond teammate so badly that they would have to drop out of the exam. On the other hand, she felt slightly bitter toward the Uchiha for not only ignoring her for so long and acting like she was just a hindrance but also for the hurtful words he just spoke to her as well as literally slapping her unconscious.
In the end, she opted to just stay silent, and only do something if things got too much out of hand between them.
Everyone raised an eyebrow when seeing Naruto's emotionless eyes momentarily widening in what looked to be shock until his face morphed into a foxy grin that spelled trouble for Sasuke. In one move, Naruto sidestepped a punch from Sasuke and planted an uppercut fist in his stomach causing the last loyal Uchiha to cough up saliva and blood. Next came a 360-degree spin that ended with a roundhouse kick that at least broke Sasuke's jawline badly and sent him flying into the trees.
Naruto's smirk turned into a full-blown grin as he went through a few hand seals which surprised teams 7 and 10 since they thought that he couldn't perform any Jutsu other than shadow clones. They weren't exactly wrong either, this was less of a Jutsu and more of an overwhelming force that was fueled by his chakra and how much chakra he pumped into it. "Ninja Art: Kitsune Roar" Naruto roared the name of his technique out and did exactly that. He bent down to build up momentum and then unleashed a roar that literally rocked the surrounding area and sent waves of chakra all throughout the forest. If any shinobi in here were old enough to remember the Kyuubi, then they would have shit themselves brown by now as the roar sounded exactly like that of the demon fox.
And the levels of chakra far surpassed any genin perhaps with the exception of Gaara, even the genin the farthest away, stopped in their tracks and made a mental acknowledgment of not fucking with whatever was making that chakra signal.
Back in the clearing, all of the genin had to hold their hands to their ears or go deaf while the force exerted made the ground crack like a spider web, and small rocks and tons of dust be blown all paths into the forest. This force was however mostly focused on the area in front of Naruto where Sasuke was located, and it resulted in several of the large trees being either blown away or blown apart like only a concentrated wind Jutsu could do.
When it finally stopped, everyone looked back at Naruto and gaped at the path of destruction he had carved into the forest in front of him, without a word the kitsunefied Naruto walked into the trees and picked up an unconscious Sasuke before walking back to the group.
Then finally his form started to steam as the fur retracted back from his body and toward the now visible, white seal on his neck, the seal was in the form of a kitsune mask with big pupilless eyes and, no mouth and a large snout. When the fur and fox-like parts were finally fully retracted, they all noticed some key differences from before. Naruto was taller than before, he stood 6 feet 2 inches which were now taller than everyone else In his class, his build seemed as solid as steel with his muscles still primarily focused on athletics and speed more so than pure power. It gave him the look of a seasoned swimmer, his eyes were back to their sapphire blue, but his iris were turned into thin black slits instead of the usual black balls. His whiskers were also darker and more pronounced while his hair was in a sense wilder and more feral looking, lastly, they noticed that his fangs had grown out to look more like the fangs of a predator than that of a human.
All in all, he looked like a more feral, taller, muscular, exotic, and dangerous version of his former self, that and there were faint streaks of white hair in his golden locks which made him look slightly weird since the colors didn't mix all that well with the white being repressed.
He carried Sasuke underneath his left arm as he made his way over to Sakura and knelt down to eye level with a concerned look in his eyes. "Are you ok Sakura-chan?" he asked innocently, however all he got in return was silence as everyone simply stared at either him or the mark on his shoulder from which the power had come from. Finally, the pink let found her voice and asked the only question on her mind at the time, "What happened to you?" Her question was innocent in nature, and the concern in her voice didn't go unnoticed by him or the others as she placed a hand on his whiskered cheek and gave it a slight rub.
Much to Naruto's horror and the girl's delight, he purred slightly at the affectionate touch but quickly shot back with a flaming tomato of a head in embarrassment. Finally, the tense atmosphere vanished as everyone except Neji and the unconscious Chochi, burst into laughter at Naruto's adorable reaction to getting his whiskers rubbed. The kitsune man himself was blushing up a storm as he tried to calm his mind down from how embarrassed he felt right now, and the booming laughter in his head from a certain fox wasn't helping him at all in this situation.
When Sakura finally got over her laughter she smiled a megawatt smile at somehow knowing that Naruto was not only ok, but he was also still just as loveable as he always was. Wait... when has she thought that he was loveable?
She didn't have long to ponder as Shikamaru acted like the responsible adult and got himself under control, "Alright, Naruto's purring aside, have you guys got both scrolls now?" He pointed to the scroll on the ground a few meters away while not making eye contact with Naruto out of fear that he would crack up again if he did. "Yes, we have both scrolls now." Said Naruto as he much to the other's wonder, got into business mode, dropping all happy-go-lucky attitude signs, and walked over to the scroll before picking it up and placing it in his arm storage seal.
Walking back over to Sakura, he knelt down to her level and flashed her a grin that actually made her blush slightly, he however didn't even notice it and instead opted to just bring show her his back and tell her to get on. Much to her embarrassment, she actually followed his instructions without hesitation and soon found herself sitting strangely comfortably on his back with her arms around his strong neck while her legs were crossed around his toned stomach.
He turned his attention back from the heavenly feeling of Sakura pressing into his back, and toward the other teams in the clearing, "So you guys wanna come along or stay here?" he asked nonchalantly, Neji shook his head and answered the question for his team. "No thanks Uzumaki, we will go our own way to the tower." The pale eyes teen received a nod in return before he and his team vacated the area, next he turned to team 10 who seemed like they were ready to come along. Shikamaru had already hoisted Chochi onto his back while Ino got up but pouted when looking at Sakura clung to the now relatively hunk man that was Naruto's new form.
Admittedly she had found it absolutely adorable when Naruto had purred from Sakura's ministrations, and she had wanted nothing more than to bring Naruto back home and then lay in the bed and stroke his cheek to get that sound out of him some more. But now she stood on the ground with no one to carry her like the damsel she was, and of course, billboard brow had to be the one to once again get lucky with the guys as she was now in a prime position to pat Naruto's cheeks. And she could clearly see the way that Sakura clung to the blond's frame like he was the most precious thing in the world, honestly, it annoyed her to no end, and she wanted to smack her rival upside down right now. She sighed and figured that she wasn't going to get outdone that easily by her rival, besides, there would be plenty of opportunities to get closer to her fellow blond over the next couple of days. That much she was certain of, and by the end of this exam, she would have touched those whiskers at least once and sat in his lab while he held her like he had done it before.
Somehow Sakura had the same thoughts at the moment, she had felt so safe, so calm, and warm when she had been in the arms of Naruto before, it had been the complete opposite of what she felt coming from Sasuke. And it couldn't just be because of the curse mark since they both possessed it, however, they couldn't produce more different results in the end.
It was amazing to be situated in his arms like that and have that bushy tail as a blanket when she almost fell asleep, and somehow she wanted to feel that again. Never before had she felt like this when Sasuke was around, he never paid attention to her or what she did for him, Naruto on the other hand always made it a point to boost her morale when she felt down, make her laugh in tough times, and make her feel special.
She wanted to feel that calm and relaxed again, and she would do a lot to make it happen, for now however she would just smile her brightest smile and relax on the back of the man in her thoughts while basking in the warm and relaxing aura that he emanated.
Funnily enough, neither of the two most hardcore Sasuke fan girls didn't even think about their now former crush once during the whole trip toward the tower but instead had it centered around a certain blond who had the power to calm them down and at the same time raise their body temperatures with a simple smile.
After traveling for nearly two hours, they arrived near the tower with team 10 on their heels. Before walking inside, they saw team Gai entering one of the doors where Lee apparently had gone back to be in perfect condition, he gave all of them a blinding smile and a thumbs up to Sakura. Despite herself, Sakura could only manage a real smile before promptly hiding her face in Naruto's shoulder much to said boy's surprise and Ino's annoyance. Team 10 decided to go inside before team 7 and wished them good luck as they entered through the doors, as Naruto and Sakura waved them goodbye, the blond felt Sasuke stir in his grasp.
"Wha... where the hell am I, what the hell happened?" Asked the dazed and confused Uchiha as he looked around and found himself unceremoniously dropped onto the ground with a thumb. He laid still for a moment before lifting his head to glare at Naruto, "Dope... what the hell is go-" He stopped himself mid-sentence for several reasons, the first of which was that he saw the tower in front of him which was a surprise in of itself. Second, he found that Naruto of all people glared down at him with a menacing gleam, and finally was the fact that Sakura clung to Naruto in his presence like it was the most obvious and the best thing to do In the entire world as she actually glared lightly down at him... at him! Sasuke Uchiha fangirl number 1 was glaring at him.
"So... you wanna fill me in here instead of glaring at me all day?" he said nonchalantly as he got back to his feet and was surprised when he noticed that Naruto was almost half a head taller than him now.
Now he really wanted to know what the hell happened out in that forest but by the looks on Naruto and Sakura's faces, that would have to wait until they had completed their assignment. "For now, we will just enter the tower and complete the second part of the exam, then we can talk and get things under control again." Now Sasuke was panicking inwardly, Naruto Uzumaki was talking about calm and control, that would be the day Sasuke announced his unconditional love for Itachi Uchiha and his gay status, it simply wasn't realistic in Sasuke's mind for this to occur.
He went to great lengths however to keep himself in check and just go with the flow in his usual 'hn' way of dealing with things, "Then let's go and complete the damn exam." He said and walked over to open the door, after he went inside, Naruto looked up at Sakura who still clung to his frame. "Eh Sakura, you don't have to stay up there any longer ya know..." He got a huff and a pouty cheek in return before Sakura just tightened her grip on her blond teammate and buried her face in his neck as if to hide herself from his gaze. He waited a minute for an answer before he simply shrugged and entered the building as well, Sasuke was waiting on them at the door and stood against the wall to their left with his eyes closed. "It's a riddle that we most likely are going to find inside the scrolls." He pointed out which made Naruto nod, he stopped holding up Sakura with his right arm and held it out before channeling chakra into the seal which popped out two scrolls.
One he caught with the same hand while he lightly kicked the other one over to his teammate who caught it with equal ease, shortly Naruto pondered how he would be able to open the scroll while Sakura was still latched onto him. His answer came when he felt Sakura move her legs, so they were wrapped around his stomach instead of being held up by him.
If Naruto wasn't so confused at her behavior towards him during this entire trip inside the forest, then he would have thought this scenario super-hot and very arousing which would have caused all sorts of problems since his tool was rather large and therefore difficult to hide from prying female eyes. Instead of thinking too much about it he simply turned his head to see Sakura once again looking away with a minor blush on her face while nodding absentmindedly. He gave her a heartwarming smile as he used both hands to open the scroll and read its contents, when his focus shifted to the scroll, Sakura looked back around still with her minor blush and peered over his shoulder.
While they were doing this, Sasuke was staring them both down with a deadpan expression, is he hadn't been such an avenger and hardass toward everything with a pulse, then he would have thought the scene in front of him to be completely adorable. Naruto stood tall and read the contents of the scroll like a grown man while Sakura strapped to his back using her own arms and legs to hold on, was looking over his shoulder like a curious child would do with their father. Also, absentmindedly he prayed that Sakura's sudden shift in personality could make her focus on her ninja training instead of himself, hell with the way she was acting right now, she was most likely attracted to his blond teammate which was a blessing to him.
When looking down into his own scroll, he noticed that the patterns were set up in a reverse way that would suggest a reverse summoning. "Hey dope, it's a reverse summoning scroll, throw it on the ground or you'll get caught!" he called out to his teammate who instantly threw it to the ground followed shortly by Sasuke's. When both scrolls had hit the ground there was an explosion of smoke, and suddenly a figure came out of the smoke, shocking all the genin.
"Iruka Sensei!?" yelled Naruto with a broad smile on his face, and he was right on point, in the middle of the room now stood their former academy class instructor named Umino Iruka. "Ah hello, Naru-" his words fell flat in his mouth as he stared at team 7 once more as if to confirm something for himself. Most of his attention was placed on Naruto's new appearance being taller than himself and all that, as well as the fact that Sakura Haruno was acting like she was his girlfriend on a date with her former crush standing not 1 meter from them. He chalked it up to the simple sentiment ' what happened in the forest of death, stays in the forest of death' and shrugged his shoulders before putting on his best smile. "Good to see that all of you made it here safely, and with a whole day to spare as well, good job kids." He said with a broad grin before opening the door that lead into the tower where he then proceeded to guide them to their team room for the exams.
When they arrived, Sasuke was the one to open the door now that Naruto had gone back to using his hands to hold up Sakura. The blond forced himself to not whistle when seeing their room or more like an apartment since it seemed to be around the size of his own dump hole of a home. The room consisted of two rooms, a couch, a television, a table, and finally a small kitchen if anyone wanted to cook their own food even though there was a cafeteria that supplies all the necessaries.
Before the blond could enter the room, he heard a sound coming from behind him and turned his head to see Sakura already asleep on his back with her head buried in his shoulder. He smiled at the display before gently hoisting her off of his back and into his arms instead as he walked toward one of the rooms and used his feet to open it. Walking inside he saw a simple bedroom with a normal-sized bed, a nightstand on the left, a mirror hanging on the wall, and finally a small window that gave a view over what could be seen of the forest from the second floor. Sasuke came into the door as Naruto made his way over to the bed and gently laid Sakura down on her back while she immediately shot out her hands to try and grab ahold of him.
Luckily for his health, he managed to dodge it in time and quickly made a shadow clone which she violently caught the wrist off and pulled back to her bed where she then proceeded to use it like a giant teddy bear. Naruto smiled gently at her as he rose to his feet and turned to see that even Sasuke had a small tug on his lips, "Alright Sasuke, time to sit down and talk this thing over..."
Half an hour later and Naruto was finished retelling everything that happened to the two of them minus the part where the fox was involved and how that changed his curse mark. It was safe to say that even the Uchiha's boundless pride had a hard time swallowing the fact that he openly attacked his comrades like that and was controlled so badly that he actually thought about killing team 10. Sure, he didn't care much about them, but they were still comrades of the leaf, and thus he wasn't supposed to be that aggressive towards them altogether.
Finally after a full two minutes of thinking the information over did he speak, "So you have a mark as well?" he asked, "Yes after I tried saving you from it, I ended up receiving it... though it didn't really matter in the end seeing as you also got one after I had already fallen."
Their talk was interrupted by a knock on the door, Naruto was the one to stand up and answer it, to which he found a female anbu agent with long purple hair and a Neko mask. Sasuke immediately got up and into guard mode while Naruto simply narrowed his eyes at the agent, however before he could talk, she spoke up. "Genin Naruto Uzumaki and Genin Sasuke Uchiha, you two have been summoned to the makeshift Hokage office here in the tower." Naruto nodded without hesitation and created a shadow clone to relay the information to Sakura should she wake up, and Sasuke followed suit after slight hesitation, Neko quickly got them both in her grip and used shunshin to teleport up the tower.
Seconds later they appeared in a small office with a nice view over the forest of death, standing by the wall to their left, stood Kakashi with his book out, beside him stood the proctor of the second exam Anko, and finally, there was Hiruzen Sarutobi sitting at a makeshift office table at the back of the room. "Ah Naruto, Sasuke, good to see you two made it through the forest in one piece, congratulations." Spoke the aged man with a gentle smile. Naruto and Sasuke bowed in respect for only a moment before standing back up with serious game face on.
Then Hiruzen switched from grandfather to Hokage mode and stared the two genin down before he spoke, "Now then... tell me everything." He said in a professional voice that left no room to argue. Naruto then proceeded to tell him all about their encounter with the snake sannin and how they both received a curse mark which made Anko visibly flinch, Kakashi stash his porn away, and Sarutobi to scowl. Naruto had also hinted toward the fact that there was something different about his seal which the old man luckily caught and understood the meaning behind rather quickly. With a single hand gesture, all people except for Naruto and Kakashi had left the room, even though Sasuke wasn't happy about being left out.
"Now then Naruto, tell me what you know." His answer was a nod from a serious-faced Naruto which by the looks of Kakashi and Hiruzen, was a new experience for them. "Alright old man." At that he heard a sigh of relief come from the two older men in the room, he was confused as to why they would be relieved but decided not to question it. "Now then, what I wanted to inform you is that there were some changes that occurred to the curse mark after it was given to me." Hiruzen narrowed his eyes at this new information while Kakashi simply stared at his student, "What do you mean?" asked Hiruzen carefully. "Well to be simple... it mutated thanks to its reaction to the Kyuubi's chakra and... I would say evolved, into something else that still is based on the principles of the cursed seal but at the same time has several of the core components removed."
No matter how serious the situation currently was, neither adult would ever believe that Naruto Uzumaki could speak such advanced sentences as if he had done so his whole life. Just to be sure, Hiruzen had tried sensing for traces of Kyuubi's chakra but came up with nothing which meant that he wasn't influenced by that at least. "Can you explain how the changes occurred and specifically what changes there is my boy?" asked the aged Hokage.
"Of course, old man, to start us off I know how to access small amounts of the Kyuubi's chakra, I met him personally on the mission to wave country, and we established a sort of... delicate partnership. He would offer me knowledge of whatever my desire was, and in return, he wanted to have partial access to my senses so that he could feel the real world around him again instead of the cold emptiness of the seal." Hiruzen could understand the want to feel the world as he was always stuck in his office and couldn't even begin to feel the way that Kyuubi must be feeling on the other hand there was still something that caught his attention. "You said that the Kyuubi gave you knowledge correct, then how did you learn to access a small amount of its chakra?" Naruto's smile never faded as he answered the question, "Trial and error." Hiruzen deadpanned at his surrogate grandson who had the biggest smile that he had ever seen on his face, however before he could ask further, Naruto spoke again.
"Well back to the story... when we were inside the forest we ran into Orochimaru himself and fought against him, when he tried to mark Sasuke I moved on pure instinct and jumped in front of him while my chakra cloak was activated." Hiruzen raised an eyebrow. "Chakra cloak?" Naruto nodded and asked, "Do you have chakra blocking seals in the office old man?" With a nod, Naruto smirked and closed his eyes for a short moment, in the next he reopened them to show two blood-red slitted eyes, and seconds later a bubbling red chakra cloak formed protectively around his body with a single tail flowing gently around behind him.
"This is my chakra cloak old man, the power is good though it hurts like a bitch if I use too much or use it for too long. Kyuubi tells me that it is because of my body's immaturity and lack of proper resistance to its malevolent and malicious chakra nature. That and before there were also problems due to the extreme level of fire-natured chakra it possessed which literally burned my coils because of its potency." Hiruzen was surprised that the Kyuubi would be willing to part with such information but also found something else intriguing with what was said. "What do you mean 'before'?" Naruto had to stifle a smirk at how well the old man paid attention to the single words in his sentence. "Ah that has to do with the mutation of the curse mark on my shoulder... or one could rather call it the Kitsune mark now instead, or even demon mark. To make a long story short, the curse mark absorbed a great deal of Kyuubi's chakra, about a single tail which is a lot by our standards, and that chakra possessed high fire affinity which makes it so that my normal chakra now possesses a high level of fire affinity along with my very powerful wind affinity. However, if I were to access the curse mark again, then that fire affinity would shoot through the roof and probably the be strongest fire affinity in the entire world, many times more powerful than that of an Uchiha."
Hiruzen had many thoughts running through his head, but one seemed to be the most prominent. "Can you control that mark?" the question was simple, but the meaning behind it was heavy. "From what I have gathered while making our way through the forest, the mark influences my instincts and natural human side, that means that I am at least slightly more aggressive and also a little more sadistic. But not to a level of which I cannot control it, however, I don't know about the last level as I have yet to access it." Hiruzen nodded with a satisfied smirk on his lips, however once again he caught what Naruto said and what that implicated. "So, there is more than one level?" he asked.
"Yeah, the fox has told me that there generally are two levels of the cursed seal on a normal target although one has to do something special to gain access to the second stage. My curse mark is once again a little different than normal as I have access to three levels from what I and Kyuubi have managed to understand. I can use up to level two by myself but have yet to find out anything on level three other than what Kyuubi have told me might be the case with it." Answered the blond. "Can you perhaps show me?" asked the old man with narrowed eyes. "Sure, old man." Said Naruto. Stepping back from the two men, he closed his eyes and concentrated on drawing the chakra from the mark on his shoulder.
Hiruzen sat pensively in his chair and observed everything about Naruto to notice any small details that he could possibly figure out, the first sign was that Naruto's blond hair became even wilder than before and he grew a little more buff. Next came that his nails became claws, his hands and forearms were covered in snow white fur, and his whisker marks became darker and more pronounced. Finally, the blond opened his eyes and revealed that they had changed into golden yellow-slitted eyes. "This is my first form... from what I have gathered it has supercharged my natural senses to at least Inuzuka levels, my physical strength has increased several times over and my speed, dexterity and durability have all been equally increased as well to accommodate my physical change. However, I am still built more for speed and nimble movements, rather than pure power."
Hiruzen observed the changes intently and eventually nodded which meant for Naruto to continue, "And this is my second form." Naruto said as he began channeling even more chakra to the seal, now the fur began to spread again from the seal area and travel all over his growling form until he stood 7 foot 3 and stared down at the Hokage and Kakashi like they were mere kids standing next to an adult. His shirt had ripped itself apart, and his pants were definitely strained from the look of things, when the ripped shirt fell to the ground it became clear that it wasn't only his height that had grown. His entire chest and torso were covered in white fur that was just short enough to show off his rock-hard muscles, but at the same time made him look so soft and squishy. Instead of standing on his feet like a normal person, his front stepping pad had instead become the base where his foot would connect to the ground, in other words, he looked like some kind of werewolf. Lastly, he possessed a single fox-like tail that had sprouted from his pants which he had hung loosely so it could shoot right out instead of piercing through his pants first to show off his ass to the world.
"This is my second form..." the two men in the room were initially taken aback by the deep rumbling voice that came from the normally cheerful Naruto. "Ah, yes Naruto, its good to see that you have control over yourself for now. You can turn back to normal now and go back to your friends..." The kitsunefied Naruto nodded his head and started to revert back to his normal form again, however his shirt was still ripped the shreds, so Hiruzen quickly called an Anbu agent to take Naruto out to get a set of new clothes and a custom order that could stretch itself. However, before they could leave Hiruzen forgot something that he wanted to see for himself before the youth left. "Ah wait for a second Naruto, before you go, could I check to see if your affinity is as you said it to be?" asked the Hokage innocently. Naruto gave him a foxy grin and nodded his head before walking back to the desk where he received a chakra paper from the elder man.
He channeled his chakra through the paper per the instructions of Hokage Jiji, and as he had expected, the paper was torn to shreds before he remains lit ablaze and burned within seconds. The old man was stunned as he had never seen a wind affinity that high before, and even the fire affinity was nothing to scoff at either, now he would only need to see his fire affinity in the kitsune form as Naruto had dubbed it. He relayed the info to Naruto who happily transformed back to his kitsune form and grabbed the paper again, this time however it didn't even get the chance to show wind affinity as the paper heated up to such a degree that it never even caught fire. No instead the paper actually melted in his hand, MELTED, safe to say that everyone in the room could only stare in awe and wonder when the show was over, and the paper was completely destroyed. After a full minute of silence, Hiruzen finally regained his way of speech, "Ah, thank you for the demonstration Naruto, you may go now..." Naruto bowed and went on his way with the nice Anbu.
When the two had left, Hiruzen allowed a sigh of relief as well as worry for the boy he thought of as a grandson, "Say lord Hokage, do you think we should seal the mark?" asked the white-haired jonin of team 7. "...Not yet Kakashi, we have yet to see him do anything with the mark that could prove a threat to the village or his team, however, I would like to ask you to inform him later on today that he shouldn't use that power lightly as the villagers and civilian council surely would trial for his execution should they find out." Said the old fire shadow to his jonin, "Very well lord Hokage, it shall all be done." Said the white-haired man with a salute, before vanishing in a swirl of leaves, finally, he was alone and fell back into his chair while heaving his breath for what was to come and how much of a vital role, Naruto would play in the upcoming time...