Hey, here's chapter 20 for ya. It's kind of a milestone, but I guess it's lost its effect on me. Anyway, I have some serious plot twists coming up soon, and a few for the not too distant future. I know at least one of these will blow your mind and make you think in a completely different way. So, without further adieu, let's get rockin'!

Last time, on Naruto Estacado…

"D-Damnit… why are you so strong?" Jiroubou asked as Chouji grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him back down to earth, punching him down into the ground. The Akimichi stood over him, glaring at the overweight oto-nin.

"I am strong… because of my friends." Chouji told him. As the sun moved in the sky, a ray of light penetrated the trees and found its way to their clearing. The light reflected off of Chouji's eyes, revealing a yellow glimmer within them, which seemed to glow.

"No… way!"

Chapter 20, Greed And Hunger

"Whoa..." Neji muttered as an ominous wave of dread washed over him. "Did you guys feel that?" He asked the rest of the team as Shikamaru glanced backwards. Naruto simply chuckled and sped up, leading the lazy nin to stare at him in confusion.

"What's so funny, Naruto? Chouji could be in trouble, we should-" He started, but was cut off by another laugh.

"Chouji's fine. More than fine, even. He seems to have found some dormant amount of my power."

"What do you mean?" Shino asked.

"Each of you should have it, as well. If you've hung around with me as much as Chouji has, which you have. And before you ask, yes, Sasuke and Sakura have it, though Sakura to a lesser extent."

"If Sasuke has your power, how are we supposed to beat him?"

"Simple. There are four of us. And, Sasuke's curse seal can't handle my power, so as soon as he got it, he stopped gaining power from me. So you guys have more than him."

"Well, that makes me feel better." Shikamaru spoke sarcastically under his breath.

"If it makes you feel any better, I'll be the one to fight Sasuke. So I'm the one who's gonna hurt."

"Actually yeah, it does."

"Hold up!" Neji said sharply, halting everyone's speech. "Our enemy's up ahead, we'd better keep quiet if we want to surprise them."

"And you think that'll be possible? We're trained Sound ninja, unlike you Leaf pussies." Spoke an irritatingly arrogant voice just before a strange sticky substance flew down from the leaves above them, trapping them against the trees. The dark-skinned sound-nin, Kidoumaru, dropped down and smirked, twirling a golden kunai around the fingers of one of his six hands. Sakon and Tayuya soon followed him, before nodding and speeding off further into the forest. "Now, why don't we have some fun?" He asked, turning back to the leaf-nin, only to find...

They weren't there.

"Looking for someone, spidey?" Asked a cheerful voice from behind him. He turned, to see the leaf nin standing behind him, each pulling pieces of webbing from their clothes.

"But how? How could you break my webs?" He asked incredulously. Neji smirked and raised his right hand. He pushed a small amount of chakra into his finger tips, which began to glow blue. "Of course. A Hyuuga."

"That's not all." Came the reply from the stoic Aburame Shino, just before Kidoumaru felt a small prick on the back of his neck. He slapped the area where he felt the prick, but when he brought his hand back, it was covered in a gooey purple substance.

"An insect? Aburame!" He span around, only to find a cloud of insects, which swarmed him, forcing him to the ground. Shino appeared on a tree branch, looking down at his teammates.

"You three, go. I'll handle it here." Naruto, Shikamaru and Neji nodded and sped off after the other two members of the Sound Four. "Now, it's my time to shine." Shino said, which sounded kinda weird in his monotone.

"You think you can beat me? You're sorely mistaken, bug boy!" A dark form jumped out of the swarm, but the bugs continued sucking chakra. They eventually dissipated, revealing a pile of broken golden wax, pieces of it displaying the features of Kidoumaru, like some kind of doll. The real Kidoumaru appeared right in front of Shino and delivered a powerful spin kick, which Shino was forced to block with a forearm. "I think you'll find..." Kidoumaru said with a smirk, as black spirals began to run across his skin.

"That I'm not such an easy opponent!"

With Chouji...

"You have that power? You're the one my master seeks?" Jiroubou asked incredulously, leaping away from Chouji's increasingly powerful punches, leaving them to crash into the ground and leave large craters. Chouji looked at him, confused, though he did not relent in his assault.

"Power? What are you talking about?" He asked, getting closer to Jiroubou with every attack. It seemed the larger nin was beginning to wear out. Jiroubou tried to fight back, but when his fist met Chouji's, a loud crunching sound resonated throughout the clearing as the bones in his hand were not broken, but shattered.

"AGH!" He grunted in pain, clutching his mangled hand. "I mean the Darkness! I know one of your group has it, so it must be you!"

"The Darkness...?" Chouji thought, standing still. He didn't need to defend himself, Jiroubou wouldn't attack. He remembered times during the Chuunin Exams and the invasion when he had seen Naruto grow black tentacles and his eyes would glow yellow. Is that what the guy was talking about? "I think you've gotten me confused with Naruto. He's the one with real power. But that doesn't matter now, because you're going to die." Chouji spoke, calmly, raising his fist, which began to glow yellow.

Jiroubou's eyes widened considerably. 'Holy... If I get hit by that thing in my current state, there's no recovery. I'll be dead in an instant. In that case...' "...IT'S TIME TO STEP THINGS UP A NOTCH!" Jiroubou roared, a maniacal grin appearing on his battered face. Triangular marks, similar to arrowheads, appeared on his skin, and his muscles bulged slightly. He lashed out at Chouji with an arm, using it like a club. Chouji was forced to block, but was pushed back a few feet by the sheer force of the blow.

"How'd ya like the power of my cursed seal, brat? You're not the only one with cursed power!" Jiroubou plunged his fist into the ground and pulled out a large chunk of it, and threw it at Chouji. The plump ninja didn't waste time and threw his fist forward, breaking through the rock easily. But Jiroubou appeared, jumping through the rubble as he used the rock as cover. Chouji tried to dodge, but Jiroubou's sizable hand clasped around his head, and he could feel his chakra being drained and se Jiroubou getting stronger.

"I...can't lose..." Chouji muttered as his strength faded away, and he fell to his knees. "I can't be the only one... to lose..." Jiroubou scoffed.

"Don't worry, you won't be the only one. 'Cause once I'm through here, I'm gonna go find the rest of your friends, and take all their chakra too!" He said cockily. Chouji thought of Naruto and chuckled. "Huh? What's so funny?"

"I was just thinking... it'd sure take you a while." Chouji grabbed onto Jiroubou's wrist, and gripped tight.

"Ugh, haven't you given up yet?" Chouji simply smirked, and Jiroubou suddenly felt a great pain in his arm. He pulled away from Chouji, releasing his head, and looked at his arm. A chunk of the flesh in his forearm was completely missing. He looked at Chouji to see the younger nin holding his hand up to the light inspecting it. As the boy turned his hand, Jiroubou's eyes widened.

His hand... had a mouth.

"What the... What are you?" He yelled, though it seemed that Chouji didn't know that himself. He just stared at his hand in confusion, as if wondering what had grown on him. Jiroubou charged him again, absently noticing that the hand had now finished chewing on the flesh it had taken from his hand, and its jaw was beginning to bulge slightly.

"Unersättlich Blitz (Insatiable Blitz)." Chouji said calmly, and the mouth opened, releasing a neon green beam of energy, which screamed towards Jiroubou and threw him through several trees. Chouji walked slowly over to the fallen form of Jiroubou, his eyes flashing a violent green. Jiroubou tried to scurry away from the obviously more powerful Akimichi, but his body was too battered to obey.

"What are you?" He screamed, and a cruel smile formed on Chouji's face.

"I am... Gluttony."

A pained scream filled the clearing, scaring any remaining birds from the surrounding trees.

With Shino...

"Damnit, Aburame! You're better than you look!" Kidoumaru yelled, as yet another of his webs was bitten through by Shino's chakra-sucking insects. His kunai fell apart before they could reach him, as the chakra that held the enzyme together was taken by those damnable bugs.

"I aim to please." Shino spoke sternly, throwing a kunai at Kidoumaru. The spider-nin looked around, seeing insects all around him. There was no way he could fire a web to stop it in flight, the insects would simply take the chakra and make it fall apart, and it was the same with the kunai. His attacks were useless without his chakra holding them together. All of them, except...

"Heh, you may be able to steal my chakra, Aburame, but I can attack without chakra! You forget, I have six arms!" Kidoumaru rushed Shino, launching a relentless assault on the bug-user with his six arms, and Shino himself was having trouble in dodging. One punch found its mark, and buried itself into his midsection, before launching him backwards into the trees. Kidoumaru appeared in front of him again, this time the spirals covering more of his skin, and gave one final punch, blasting away both Shino and several of the trees around him. Kidoumaru stalked over to him, flipping a kunai.

"Heh, I guess you just couldn't cut it. I'll admit, you were a good opponent, but you had no hope. Now, DIE!" He roared, swinging the kunai down. Shino, in desperation, threw up an arm and closed his eyes, bracing himself for death.

"Huh? What the hell?" He heard Kidoumaru yell in frustration, and opened his eyes. There, in his hands, was a staff made out of a human spine, topped with a skull, blocking his kunai. The skull's eyes glowed a menacing red, and his attacker was forced off by a shockwave that filled his body with dread. Shino stood, and the skull's mouth opened. It shot out a strange, white substance which solidified into a necklace of skulls around his neck. His mouth opened and began spewing out purple smoke, while a pair of insect wings with a skull and crossbones on each sprung out of his back. He raised a hand to his face and removed his glasses, revealing that they had become compound, like an insect, and that they were now glowing red.

"Hmm... is this what he was talking about?" Shino said, a deeper, more demonic voice echoing his own. Kidoumaru didn't say anything. The aura that Shino was subconsciously putting out was filling his mind with fear, and he couldn't form a comprehensible sentence. And then there was the ethereal form hovering behind the bug-user: a large blue fly, with a yellow bone-like crest on its head and large wings with the same insignia as the boy's. It held the same bone staff, and the same necklace was hung around its armoured neck. "Ah, yes. I still have to dispose of you. But first... you chakra, if you please."

"What the-?" Was all the spider-nin managed to say before a swarm of blue flies descended upon him, intent on sucking him dry. They bit into his skin with ease, and began eating away at his chakra at a much faster rate than before. "What the hell's going on?"

"Greet Beelzebub on you path, for you shall soon be in hell." Shino said, walking away, but a wave of killing intent stopped him in his tracks. He turned, and his eyes widened. "Impossible!"

With Naruto and Co...

"There it is again, another wave of that weird feeling." Neji complained, feeling a shiver run over his skin. Naruto smiled and sped up.

"Looks like it's Shino's turn. I wonder what kind of power he'll recieve?" He asked himself, pulling his sword from his back as he felt the presence of the other two Oto-nin closing in. "Neji, can you help us get the drop on them?"

"Sure thing." The stoic Hyuuga said, activating his Byakugan. "It shouldn't be too hard, they're just sitting there." Neji stopped on a branch, and took a look around, finding a good place to attack from.

"Is it just me," Shikamaru asked, turning to Naruto, "Or does something seem very wrong?" Naruto shook his head in response, indicating that he thought Shikamaru was over-thinking this. Once Neji had found the perfect place, they jumped down, weapons at the ready, and attacked the two remaining members of the Sound Four. But when they attacked, their weapons passed straight through them, as if they weren't there.

"Shit, you leaf fuckers are gullible, huh? That wasn't even one of my strong genjutsu, but still you got trapped like a bunch of fucking rats!"

And Cut! A few points added in this chapter. Power-ups for Chouji and Shino, and the beginning of a battle between Tayuya, Sakon and the leaf ninja. I have reasons for giving Chouji and Shino the powers I did, and the rest will be getting powers as well, in keeping with a plan I have for them all after Sasuke's gone. The 'Gluttony' thing is a hint. If anyone can figure it out, they get an e-cookie. And if anyone can figure out who I'm giving powers to and their theme, they get another e-cookie.

Next Time, on Naruto Estacado:

Naruto and Co. have fought their way past two of the Sound Four so far, but have had to leave behind Shino and Chouji in the process! But never fear, it appears they have each unlocked a new power given to them by Naruto, and are using it to thoroughly pummel the Oto-nin! But what happens when Kidoumaru and Jiroubou use the true power of Cursed Seal? What is happening to Naruto's friends? How do the Leaf-nin plan to defeat the remaining two members of Orochimaru's elite guard, and what is waiting for them after that? Find out next time, on Naruto Estacado! (Rolls credits, with Blood Hunger Doctrine by Dimmu Borgir playing in the background)