AN: Alas, Naruto is still not for sale, so I cannot buy it... If I don't hear any good remarks on the length of this chapter, I'm going to go back to the old length. I'm not going to spend extra time writing this if no one's going to appreciate it. Rant over. Enjoy this chapter!
-demonicnargles
"Speech"
thought / talking in mind
"Demon speech"
Demon thought / talking in mind
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Team seven hurried toward the center of the forest. Now that they had the second scroll, they simply needed to reach the tower before time expired in three days. With any luck, they would arrive early tomorrow.
Sakura was tired beyond belief. She had almost no energy left from the constant running they were doing, but she refused to complain. Although they didn't say anything, she could sense the two boys' annoyance with her paltry abilities as a ninja.
Sasuke continued at the same quick pace that they had been moving at for some time now. We need to get to the tower before the desperate groups at the end of the exam stake it out to take scrolls. Although Sasuke was feeling a little fatigued, he had no intention of stopping. He glanced at the forest floor far below them, checking for any other groups. Seeing none, he relaxed a bit. By running through the trees several hundred feet above the ground, they seemed to be missing all of the other teams. Sasuke wondered when Naruto had gotten smart enough to make such a suggestion.
Kyuubi followed behind, keeping alert with his enhanced senses. He wasn't tired at all. Team seven was moving at just less then half of the speed he ran with in training; he could keep this up all day. The only thing that bothered him was the strange smell of death that he occasionally picked up. Since killing was permitted in the exam, the smell of death was perhaps to be expected, but every time Kyuubi sensed it, the odor was stronger, indicating that the source was nearer. Kyuubi wondered if a different team was carrying a dead body with them, perhaps in hopes that bringing it would allow them to pass despite a slain teammate.
But the strength of the smell meant that the source was close, too close for Kyuubi not to notice. Were they being followed by a jounin? Why would a jounin be carrying a dead body?
Suddenly the smell became much stronger. Kyuubi looked to the side, and gazed upon the strangest sight he had ever seen. A head attached to a horribly elongated neck was moving toward Sasuke at great speed. The black hair waved in the breeze of its own movement, but the things that caught Kyuubi's attention were the pale, ashen skin, and the yellow, slitted eyes.
Kyuubi threw a kunai at it, but the head dodged to the side and kept coming. The kunai hit a tree, causing Sasuke and Sakura to look back. Sakura shrieked. Sasuke immediately formed several seals in rapid succession and launched a large fireball at the head.
The head pulled back and dodged to the side, but another fireball forced it to retreat. Team seven stopped and listened for any sign of the attacker. Sasuke put his ear to a tree. All that could be heard were the sounds of a forest.
But just before they could move on, a man dropped from the canopy of trees, landing on a branch several yards in front of them. He wore a tan shirt with a purple rope tied around it at the waist, purple pants, black shoes, and a large straw hat that he wore tilted forward, covering his face.
"Who are you?" Sasuke yelled. The man pulled back his hat, revealing the head that they had seen just seconds before. The man fixed them with an intense glare, his eyes wide and his mouth stretched in a maniacal grin. The yellow eyes seemed to emit a pulse with an evil energy.
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Kyuubi looked at the odd man, who still stood there grinning. What on earth is wrong with him? Why is he grinning like that? Kyuubi formed a seal and created a dozen shadow clones. The man immediately looked directly at him, with something akin to confusion in his eyes.
The clones attacked, leaping at the man with kunai drawn. But the man slithered away from every stab, and avoided every slash with a serpentine grace. Suddenly his tongue shot out of his mouth, grabbed a clone, and used it as a club to crush several others into a tree. The clones dissipated in a cloud of smoke. The man then wielded his tongue like a whip, and a few violent crack's signaled the demise of the remaining clones.
Kyuubi looked over at Sasuke and Sakura. They were still in the same positions as before, with expressions of mortal fear on their faces.
Distracted, Kyuubi was kicked into a tree trunk by the oddly dressed man. As he fell, Kyuubi created two dozen clones. He and the clones caught on to branches as they fell, and came back to attack, using every bit of their speed and strength.
The man was good. No, he was very good. But he couldn't help but receive a few nicks here and there as a dozen clones closed in for close combat and another dozen flung kunai from a distance.
The oddly dressed ninja no longer smiled. His face was contorted in anger. His eyes shone with a fierce, sickly light. He suddenly drew a kunai and destroyed every clone within several feet of him in a blur of steel and smoke. The smoke hid the man for a moment. Then kunai shot out of the cloud and impaled every clone, instantly removing them from the fight. Kyuubi himself narrowly avoided a kunai.
The man turned to face Kyuubi. The demon looked into those yellow eyes, and, perhaps these mortal senses were deceiving him, but again, he thought he felt a pulse of energy come out of those slitted pupils. But there did not seem to be any effect from it, so Kyuubi sprang into action. Jumping from his perch on a branch, he made 50 clones, and he and all of his copies threw their kunai at the man.
The pale ninja dodged in an eerily flexible way, like he didn't have a bone in his body, and avoided almost every blade thrown at him. A single kunai lodged itself in his right calf. Suddenly it became apparent that this ninja had been toying with Kyuubi up 'till now. In a second, he threw hundreds of kunai, whether real or cloned, in every direction around him. Clones vanished in puffs of smoke.
Kyuubi, who was still in mid-air after jumping to attack, twisted in the air to dodge the knives, and used his weights to block what he could not dodge. The blocked kunai fell away with muffled clang's.
Kyuubi landed heavily on a branch, and turned to face his opponent. To Kyuubi's chagrin, the ashen-skinned ninja was already upon him. Kyuubi flew into a tree after a powerful kick, and fell onto a branch. He slowly got up, and looked at the strange ninja.
Kyuubi saw the pale ninja form several seals, bite his thumb, and wipe the blood onto his arm. Before Kyuubi could do anything, a giant snake appeared just in front of the strange man, its head even with the branch the man was standing on. The man stepped onto the snake's head, and smirked at Kyuubi.
"You obviously have no idea with whom you are dealing. I am Orochimaru, one of the legendary sannin. No genin could ever hope to defeat me, even if they are ready for promotion. Now, I am a nice man, and I did not come here for you. So if you wish to live, I suggest you move aside and let me... talk... with Sasuke-kun."
Kyuubi thought for a moment, then dropped his fighting stance. This Orochimaru is way out of my league.
Kyuubi watched disinterestedly as Orochimaru walked over to Sasuke and bit his neck. This startled Sasuke out of his stupor, but something about the bite knocked seemed to knock him back out. Orochimaru grabbed Sasuke before he could fall off of the branch, and set him onto the branch in a balanced position.
Sakura suddenly flinched, and jumped to her feet. She turned and looked at Orochimaru, and moved to draw a kunai, but before she could complete the action, the snake-nin karate-chopped her in the neck without even looking. Sakura fell unconscious to the ground several hundred feet below.
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Naruto had been watching the fight with interest from within his own mind. But he was troubled by Kyuubi's sudden surrender. Naruto thought to himself, I know that Orochimaru is strong, but it's... wrong to just abandon Sasuke like that. But we do what we must to survive.
Naruto watched as Orochimaru bit Sasuke, and then as he knocked Sakura unconscious in one blow. Kyuubi! We need to do something about this! He just took out our team!
No, Kyuubi replied. We need to survive, and this guy is strong. If I don't have to fight him, I won't.
Kyuubi, you saw what he just did! What if he comes for us later! You barely caught him the first time, and if he comes again, you might not see him in time!
Kyuubi was about to speak, but he was cut off by Orochimaru.
"Now then, you didn't really think that I'd let you live after you put me through all that trouble, did you?"
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Kyuubi dodged the giant snake as it tried to eat him, and was caught by Orochimaru with a strong kick. The demon flew into a large tree, leaving a dent in the trunk after he fell onto the branch below. Kyuubi couldn't keep up with Orochimaru if things stayed like they were now.
But they didn't stay like that. The next time that Orochimaru jumped toward him, Kyuubi spun around quickly and released his weights, flinging them at Orochimaru or right around him. The sannin blocked a forearm weight and a calf weight, and dodged all of the others, except for the second forearm weight, which struck him in his right calf.
The heavy weight, aided by the kunai lodged in the leg from before, snapped Orochimaru's leg-bones in half, rendering his right leg all but useless. The weight also caused Orochimaru to spin in the air as he flew, prohibiting him from doing anything until he landed. Kyuubi used this to his advantage, and punched the snake-nin with all of his weight-enhanced strength.
Orochimaru flew towards another tree, but caught onto a branch before he hit the trunk.
The snake summon chose this time to attack, sending Kyuubi dodging the furious strike that left fang-marks in the tree that was unfortunate enough to get in the way.
Orochimaru used this time to get onto the branch he had grabbed, and set his leg with a branch. He tested it out while Kyuubi fought the snake.
The snake charged at Kyuubi yet again. The demon dodged to the right, raking a kunai across the snake's side as it passed. The snake reared up in pain, and struck down on Kyuubi. The black-clad boy jumped to the left, flinging a kunai at the snake as he left the tree.
The blade pierced the snake's eye and lodged itself in the brain. The enormous snake writhed in agony, crashing into trees for a few seconds before it disappeared in a cloud of ninja-smoke.
Orochimaru leapt silently into the air, kunai drawn, toward Kyuubi, who had just landed on a large branch just out of reach of the snake's death throes. Kyuubi assumed that Orochimaru was still tending his leg, and so was unaware of the snake-nin's presence until a kunai was stabbed into his back.
Kyuubi screamed in pain, falling off the branch onto another below. Orochimaru dropped onto the branch, and looked at the dark ninja that was curled against the trunk of the tree in the fetal position. Pathetic. Is this what I was fighting?
Kyuubi turned and looked at the snake-nin, who was framed from behind by a giant, ancient tree. The demon realized that he was outmatched. I'm going to die... WHAT! I CANNOT DIE! I WILL NOT ALLOW IT!
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The tree stood almost a thousand feet high, with hundreds of larger branches, and thousands of smaller ones. It had sprung from a seed long before the founding of Konoha. It's proud trunk grew straight up, without a single bend and without any scars of missing branches. It had been growing for over two hundred years. In fact, it kept growing until the second part of a certain chuunin exam.
The giant ball of fiery demonic chakra smashed Orochimaru against the tree, completely annihilating that part of the trunk in a blaze of destruction. Splinters and chunks of wood flew everywhere, embedding themselves in nearby trees, or flying far out into the forest.
The upper part of the tree, no longer anchored to the ground, flipped over with the force of the blast, then fell into the forest, partly on fire.
Kyuubi's genjutsu had vanished, revealing his blood-red eyes that shone with an inner fury. His body was covered in demonic chakra, in a shape that resembled nothing so much as a humanoid fox, complete with large, fearsome claws. Four large, orange tails of chakra writhed behind him.
And then Kyuubi's image flickered, and was gone.
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Orochimaru had left before the Kyuubi had arrived at Konoha. He had never felt particularly grateful for having missed that event until now.
Orochimaru screamed in pain, his false skin burning and flaking off in the intense heat. His scream was momentarily interrupted when he struck that ancient tree, before the force of his body and the power behind that monstrous sphere of demonic chakra obliterated the tree and propelled him onward.
But before he could strike a second tree, he saw a pair of angry, red eyes with slitted pupils. Kyuubi suddenly appeared in front of him, right hand (or was it a paw?) uplifted, with long claws extended. Kyuubi slashed Orochimaru across the face, leaving long, scorched claw marks from the top left of Orochimaru's forehead to the bottom right of his face. AN: Those right/left directions were from Orochimaru's perspective, if anyone cares
Orochimaru didn't have time for the pain of that injury to register before Kyuubi slashed with his left hand across the snake-nin's stomach. Shreds of tan cloth flew from the slash, and the pale ninja was propelled back into a tree trunk.
Orochimaru quickly stood up on his good leg, holding one hand behind him. One by one, the fingers of that hand were capped with a small tongue of purple chakra. The snake-nin waited for the demonic genin to attack.
He didn't have to wait long. Kyuubi jumped just off of his branch, and then pushed off of the tree trunk. He flew directly at the ashen-skinned ninja, right hand held back.
Orochimaru smirked. But before the he could attack, the demon flung his right hand forward, firing a smaller sphere of fiery chakra. Orochimaru dodged to Kyuubi's left and slammed his five chakra-covered fingertips just off-center into the demon's stomach.
Kyuubi flew past that tree and crashed into a branch. The demon had barely had time to grab onto the branch before he had begun to fall. Why couldn't I grab it with my other hand? Then, when Kyuubi tried to move his other hand, he discovered why. The left side of his body was paralyzed.
What's going on!
Kyuubi! Naruto called from within his/their mind. Something's wrong! Half of that chair is covered with weird purple seals, and it sort of repels your chakra. Can you move your left side at all?
No.
Then I'll control this half. I think if I sit just on this half, I can just control the left side of the body.
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Orochimaru smirked. Now that that was taken care of, he could move on to more important. The snake-nin looked back at the branch the boy had hit.
What on earth?
Orochimaru moved to the side just in time to avoid a third slash from the demon's orange claws. Kyuubi landed on a branch, and turned around, revealing a figure, that, if it was possible, was even more intimidating than before. The right side of Naruto's body was covered in the same fiery chakra, while the other was completely normal. The boy's eerie gaze, with one red eye and one blue eye, would give most people the creeps.
Orochimaru was not most people. He was intrigued at the strange failure of the Five-season Seal. It seems that I did not strike the middle of his stomach. Having to dodge to the side threw my aim off by just a hair, but that was apparently far enough off to cause the seal to lose much of its effect.
Naruto awkwardly drew a kunai from the pouch on the opposing leg. He and Kyuubi slowly tried to adjust to this new way of moving.
Orochimaru looked at the strange sight of the half-empowered boy. It was only by luck that he managed to break my leg, and it was only that which prevented me from killing him. Oh well, I've spent too much time playing here. I think I'll leave before I have to entertain Konoha's ANBU as well.
Orochimaru turned to leave.
"And where do you think you're going" Naruto/Kyuubi shouted in a voice that sounded like two people speaking at once, one voice a deep growl, the other a cold, high voice.
Orochimaru looked back at the demon/boy. "I'm done playing with you. I have... other things to do."
Kyuubi roared and charged at Orochimaru. But when he slashed across the snake-nin's retreating back, the pale ninja's form dissolved into mud. Orochimaru had already left.
Kyuubi growled in frustration, then fell unconscious to the ground below, having pushed this frail human body to the limits of its tolerance to demonic chakra.
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Kyuubi scowled from within his cage. What had that pale freak done to them? What sort of technique could keep him from manifesting his chakra?
Naruto had already told him that the seal only seemed to affect demonic chakra. Naruto walked up and touched the chair, and moved his hands over the seal, but couldn't feel anything. It looked like Naruto was going to have to take the body for a long time.
Hey, don't be so unhappy. We might be able to get the seal removed by someone in Konoha?
Think, Naruto! What would someone say if you walked up and asked them to remove a seal so that you could use demonic chakra again? Anyone who would know how to remove the seal would already know about me? Who on earth would intentionally allow my chakra better access to your body?
Miles away, just outside a women's bathhouse, Jiraiya sneezed.
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Sakura woke up with a start. Where was that strange ninja? Sudden pain from new bruises told her that she must have fallen to the ground after that ninja struck her.
She jumped up and looked around. She didn't see him. There was nothing but the darkness of night, broken only by the soft glow of the moon. Sakura relaxed, but then stiffened as she realized that she did not know where her team was, either. Then she saw a blue sandaled foot sticking out from a bush. Rushing over, she almost cried when she saw Sasuke lying unconscious. But once she had gotten there, she could also see around a large tree, and thus she noticed something else.
The Forest of Death was on fire.
Flames from the most ancient of trees had spread to others, and now the forest was beginning to catch on fire. Sakura shook Sasuke, trying to wake him up. Sasuke murmured in his sleep, but nothing more. Then Sakura saw Naruto laying another few yards away. She ran over and shook him.
"Wake up Naruto! We need to get out of here!"
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Naruto opened his eyes, then groaned as a wave of pain hit him. Half of his body no longer had the phenomenal healing rate that he was used to having.
"Come on, Naruto! You need to carry Sasuke-kun, and we need to get out of here before the fire spreads!"
Fire? Oh... Kyuubi.
Don't blame me, that snake freak started the fight.
Kyuubi, that sounded... childish.
Don't lecture me, kit!
That's better.
Naruto got up, trying to ignore the stabbing pain in the entire left side of his body. He hurried around the area, picking up his weights and replacing them into their proper positions, then walked over and picked Sasuke, slinging the boy over his good shoulder. With his left hand, Naruto readjusted his mask, which was almost in tatters after the fight. Kyuubi's fiery aura hadn't helped, either.
Naruto followed behind Sakura as she navigated her way to the tower, using the stars to find her way.
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Not long after, Sakura had a most unpleasant surprise. She and Naruto had been running along the ground to save energy, and had hoped that they would not run into anyone. But this was not to be.
Suddenly, they entered a clearing, where another team was sitting around a fire. Sakura and Naruto stopped dead in their tracks. The other team looked their way.
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Gaara looked at the leaf-nin that had just come into the clearing. We already have both scrolls, so fighting is pointless.
Kill them anyway! Kill them! Drink their blood!
Gaara ignored the voice in the back of his head, and kept his stoic gaze directed at the pale, pink-haired ninja and the disheveled, battered boy dressed in black.
Temari looked up at the newcomers. What kind of ninja are they, if they aren't paying enough attention to notice our fire before they stumble into the clearing?
Kankurou glanced at the leaf-nin, then looked back at the fire. "Oi, who do you think you are, barging into our campsite like that? You're lucky we already have both scrolls, or you'd be in a lot of trouble right now."
The pink-haired genin smiled nervously. "Sorry to bother you. We'll be leaving now."
"No."
Everyone looked at the small, red-haired boy who had just spoken up.
Look at the pretty moon. It will make such a good background for a little slaughter. Kill them!
Not yet.
Just one, then. Kill that stupid girl! Make her scream! Cover the grass in her blood!
Gaara tuned out the voice. "What are you running from?"
Sakura paused, but decided that she could answer that. "We ran into a strange guy with pale skin and yellow eyes. He looked at us, and then all of the sudden, I felt like I was dying, over and over. When I woke up, we were all on the ground, and it was night."
Gaara's mouth moved slightly, forming a bit of a frown. Obviously, these two hadn't seen the demon whose energy he had felt. Sand leaked out of his gourd.
Naruto saw the expressions that the other two sand-nin wore when they saw the sand coming out of the gourd, and grabbed Sakura's arm, pulling her back the way they had come.
Sand poured out of the gourd even faster.
Naruto formed a seal, and created thirty clones. Many of these henged, and soon copies of Naruto and Sakura were running around the clearing, with one or two occasionally disappearing in a puff of smoke as Gaara's sand caught up to them.
Naruto and Sakura ran towards the tower, glad to have gotten out of that situation, when the same strange redhead appeared in front of them, materializing out of sand that had sprung up from the ground.
Naruto gave Sasuke limp body to Sakura. Sasuke occasionally groaned, and a small wisp of purple chakra would come from the mark on his neck. Sakura hefted the raven-haired boy to her shoulders, then jumped back into a tree, hoping that Naruto would get them through this.
Gaara looked at the dark boy. Obviously, he had no idea who he was dealing with if he was foolish enough to stop running from Sabaku no Gaara.
Naruto dropped into a fighting stance. He was tired, and would have to take his weights off again if this fight was going to last very long. Thanks to Kyuubi, however, the right side of his body was in perfect condition, lessening the effects from his last battle. The left side of his body was the worse for wear, but would hold up.
Suddenly sand shot out from Gaara towards Naruto. The leaf-nin dodged to the side and rushed at the boy who looked at him with such a cold expression. His punch, however, was blocked by a wall of sand that sprang up just before he could make contact.
Naruto punched and kicked and stabbed, but every attack was deflected by a new wall of sand that would appear, take the hit, and dissipate.
Gaara was getting tired of this. He flung sand in every direction, sending the dark ninja back several yards. Then the sand made it way as a huge wave toward the unfortunate leaf-nin.
Goodbye, ninja of Konoha, Gaara thought.
Finally! Make his blood splatter on the trees! I want to smell his blood!
But Gaara was surprised and alarmed when he saw the wall of sand pierced by several small, flaming objects. What!
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Naruto saw the wall, and could think of only one way to get out of this situation. Kyuubi!
Kyuubi quickly took over the right side of the body, half-immolating Naruto's body once more, and catching the grass around his right foot on fire. He poured his demonic chakra into the weights on the right side, then flung them at the wall of sand.
The weights were so charged with evil chakra that they glowed red-hot, catching the air around them on fire. They sailed into and through the wall of sand, melting a path for themselves. Naruto dropped the weights on the left side to the ground, then shifted so that Kyuubi's half of the body would take the blow from the sand.
The sand crashed into the semi-flaming boy, but continued past him, and the hot chakra melted any sand that got too close. Once the wave was past, Kyuubi/Naruto stepped out of the glass shape that had formed in front of them, and ran around it straight at the redheaded boy.
In the back of his mind, Kyuubi felt that he should know who this boy was, or at least why he could control sand, but paid little attention to that. There were more pressing matters at hand.
Gaara stared in wonder at the strange, fiery ninja that had penetrated through a wall of sand over five feet thick. The sand was coming back to him quickly, but the boy was far faster than any normal genin.
Move! That is the Kyuubi no kitsune! The nin-tailed fox demon! Run, you fool! You have angered him!
Without your sand to protect you, you are nothing but a coward, Shukaku.
So do you have better in mind! If he reaches us, your Armor of Sand will be useless! He could kill you!
Gaara conceded this point, and drew up sand from the ground. He floated up, out of the angry half-demon's reach on a cloud of sand. "Until the next time we meet, fellow jinkuurichi."
Gaara's remaining sand returned to him, reforming the gourd on his back, and Gaara floated back towards his campsite.
Naruto/Kyuubi watched him fly out of sight. Then Kyuubi released control of the right side, which Naruto took back without only a bit of a stumble. Finally did that without falling over, even if it was only half of the body.
Sakura dropped from the trees, but felt... afraid of Naruto. Who would have thought the day would come when anyone would fear the ninja who used to run around in an orange jumpsuit, screaming his ambition to be Hokage?
Naruto went around and collected his weights for his left side, replacing them on his arms legs, and torso, then went to retrieve the ones for the right side. He heard the trickles of a small stream, and kicked the weights over in that direction, until he finally reached it. Sakura followed behind him, keeping her distance.
Naruto kicked his weights into the water, which they entered with a large hiss of steam, waited a few seconds, then grabbed them back out of the stream. They were still warm, but bearably so.
He put them into their assigned places, then turned to Sakura. "I can carry Sasuke now."
Sakura just stared at him, then handed over the limp Sasuke. Naruto slung the boy over his right shoulder.
He stared at Sakura, until she realized that she was the one who knew how to get to the tower. She checked the stars, then headed off at a jog. Naruto followed not far behind, hoping he would not collapse from exhaustion until they reached the tower.
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End of chapter. You had better freaking' review after I wrote a chapter this long. I listen to you guys, and I got enough suggestions for longer chapters that I decided write them longer. This is about twice as long as any chapter before, and almost three times as long as some of the shorter ones. I can write them this long from now on, but I demand tribute in the form of review! This may or may not mean a slightly longer wait for chapters, but I'll try to keep sending them out on a weekly basis, if I can. But seriously, please review!