Disclaimer: See chapter 1
The Next Morning:
Naruto pants heavily and glances out from behind a tree. He ducks back just in time to dodge a concentrated blast of air. He jumps up the tree and the base of it crumples under another blast of air. He leaps out of the tree and rolls under another blast. He grabs a kunai and runs in close but gets thrown back by a lighter blast of air. "Enough, Zaku," Orochimaru orders. "Get back to your team. They have orders to kill you if you show behavior unfitting for one of my shinobi." The boy bows and runs away quickly.
Orochimaru towers of Naruto with his arms crossed. "Do you know what you did wrong, Naruto?" The blonde shakes his head quickly. "You hesitated and were afraid of killing him. Killing is the life blood of a ninja." Naruto frowns but nods. "You must learn to kill," Orochimaru states.
Jiraiya staggers into the clearing, holding his head. "What a hangover," he grumbles. Tsunade walks up beside him and casually flicks him in the arm, sending him flying through four trees.
Orochimaru sighs and approaches his teammates. He says quietly, "The boy's training is to begin now. Tsunade, you teach him what you will. Jiraiya, find something useful to teach him after you get over your hangover. I will teach him my own style."
"Will he get one of those bloody curse marks?" Jiraiya asks as he staggers to his feet.
Orochimaru snorts, "Of course not! I want him to be the next Sannin, not a servant. He must rely on his own strength to stand up against his upcoming enemies." His fingers snap and four young ninja appear around him. "These are the Sound Four. Children, teach Naruto what it takes to be a ninja without your curse marks."
Ukon and Sakon rush at him. The blonde barely dodges the first fist but is caught in the follow up kick. Tayuya jumps into the air and clubs the boy in the head with her thick metal flute. He falls to the ground, rubbing his head and groaning. "Again," Orochimaru orders. Naruto climbs to his feet and looks around at the four children warily. He forms shadow clones and rushes at all of them at once. Kidomaru forms yellow sticky web clubs in his six hands and leaps onto the clones, swinging and bashing in every direction. Sakon and Ukon punch and kick in all directions, which catches the Narutos off guard when a fist comes out of his shoulder and a foot comes out of his lower back. The clones all poof out of existence and Naruto falls back to the ground, covered in bruises.
The four stand over him and chuckle quietly. Orochimaru states, "That is enough. You have shown the extent of his abilities. Naruto, where did you learn the Shadow Clone Jutsu?"
"Pervy Sage taught it to me awhile ago to help get away from villagers," he pants heavily.
Orochimaru glances at his teammate sharply. The Toad Sage puts his hands up defensively, "He needed it!"
"You are fortunate he has an abundance of chakra," Orochimaru hisses.
Tsunade pummels Jiraiya over the head harshly, "You could have killed him by teaching him that jutsu if he used up all his chakra!"
Jiraiya rubs the back of his head and scowls, "Hey! It worked out didn't it?"
"We will discuss such carelessness later," Orochimaru states. He turns back to Naruto. "Anko will be out here shortly to teach you. Until then, see how long you can last against the Four. Continue when you are ready, Naruto."
The Sound Four crouch and get ready to pounce on him. Naruto stumbles to his feet and gets into a defensive stance. "Come on then!" he shouts. He jumps over Jirobo's shoulder but the large boy grabs onto his ankle and throws him to the ground, making him explode in a poof of smoke.
"Another clone? When did he make that?" Kidomaru inquires quickly, looking around for their prey. Naruto leaps out of the nearest bushes and slugs the spider boy across the jaw before tackling Tayuya. Her flute barely stops his kunai before he is kicked aside by Jirobo. Sakon catches him and punches him in the stomach, face, and legs before dropping him. They spread out to a circle formation again and wait for him to get up.
The Sannin slowly walk away. "How did you rest, Tsunade?" Orochimaru asks politely.
She grumbles, "Good enough. Where's Shizune?"
"Probably either feeding Tonton or sparring with Kabuto," he responds.
Jiraiya rubs his eyes and looks around. "Building training grounds with grass and trees underground is quite clever of you, Orochimaru. How did you manage it?"
Orochimaru smirks, "A good ninja never reveals his secrets." Jiraiya snorts and takes a gulp of the nearly empty sake bottle around his belt. "How is your research coming along, Jiraiya?" the snake Sannin hisses.
Jiraiya grins perversely and answers, "If I have cooperation like last night, books should be rolling out in no time!"
Tsunade rolls her eyes at his antics and inquires, "So what about the hospital you promised me?" Orochimaru gestures to a large building up ahead.
"That will be the start of it. As you gain more information and jutsu, you will be given the required space and instruments," Orochimaru explains. "You will also have your pick of assistants."
Tsunade glances around at passing shinobi. "Her, him, him, her, and her," she says while pointing out random people.
Orochimaru snaps his fingers to get their attention and draws the selected people to him. "You are all now Tsunade's assistants," he states. They hurriedly follow her to the hospital, lest they draw their master's wrath. Orochimaru glances over at Jiraiya, "Come on, dobe. We have some training to do."
"But I want to do more research!" declares Jiraiya.
Orochimaru glares, "You can do your 'research' after you get back into shape. We all need to stay in our peek physical conditions if we are going to survive with Konoha and other villages after us."
Jiraiya frowns but nods reluctantly. "Defend yourself," Jiraiya grunts. He smashes through Orochimaru, turning him into mud. He spins around and forces Orochimaru to dodge a punch. Orochimaru slowly grins as his teammate becomes more serious. Nearby ninja go to the nearest light posts and activate seals which automatically make a barrier around them to contain their jutsu and fighting to prevent them from destroying the village.
On the other side of the underground village:
Kabuto dodges another flurry of needles and jabs with his chakra scalpel, only to be blocked with a chakra-channeling kunai. "Tired already, Shizune?" he chides. She kicks in his knee and jabs him in the throat with her elbow.
"Not quite yet," she retorts, pushing him back. He severs her left arm's chakra network and jumps back. She reconnects the network with a small healing jutsu and continues the attack. "You're good."
He admits, "Yeah, so are you." He dodges another attack and counters it. "You don't get trained by Sannin without knowing a few tricks." She spits out a plume of poisonous gas at him and fires another flurry of needles from her sleeves. He inhales just a whiff and falters under her follow up punch to the stomach. He falls back and reattacks, only to be slashed across the headband. He frowns darkly, "This was my new sound headband."
She smirks, "My deepest sympathies." He growls and jumps at her furiously. She sidesteps and kicks him in the side. The silver-haired boy grabs her foot and severs the nerves in her knee before yanking on it. She falls and does a back hand plant before landing on her good knee and hopping back a few steps. Her arm needle launcher rearms itself with a new supply and she fires it, giving her enough time to fix her knee enough to continue fighting. He gets hit by one of the needles, but he heals himself while she fixes her knee. They gaze at each other angrily.
Kabuto says slowly, "This is going to be a long day."
"You read my mind," Shizune replies dryly. Without another word, they lunged at each other again; the time for words is past.
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