Disclaimer:I don't own Naruto.

Legend:

"Naruto" - talking

'Parents' - thinking

Flashback – Flashbacks

"Kit" – Kyuubi talking

'Naruto' – Kyuubi thinking

Chapter 6: Fight against the Snake

Naruto felt all his muscles relax, as he sat in the hot water of the hot springs. They had gone there to relax one last time, before focusing only on their mission ahead. While it was meant to relax, Naruto had felt anything but relaxed earlier, having his taichou Yamato on one side and his creepy and gay (or at least Naruto thought so) team mate Sai on the other, who made comments about his penis all the time.

So Naruto had been glad when Yamato got up and left, followed not much later by Sai, leaving Naruto all alone in the men's section of the hot springs. Finally being able to relax with both of them gone, Naruto leaned back and closed his eyes, enjoying the feeling of the hot water on his skin.

Just as he was about to snooze off, having felt somewhat tired all day long, he heard a giggle and shushed voices, snapping him back into reality and fully awake. Opening his eyes he turned in the direction he thought the sound had come from and saw the fence dividing the women's section from the men's. Of course, he remembered that he wasn't alone as there were several women on the other side, one of them Sakura if she hadn't already left.

'Sakura-chan' Naruto thought tempted to get up and make his way to the fence and peek through some hole. Just as he was about to get up from his relaxed position he stopped and laid back down, closing his yes once again realizing that somehow he didn't really want to. As he thought about this his thoughts went back to his last visit to a hot springs back in Konoha and instantly started to smile.

'She doesn't even compare in the slightest to Yugao-chan' he thought as he remembered the view he had of the beautiful purple haired woman. At the thought of Yugao with her well endowed breasts and her perfectly shaped private area, Sakura just couldn't compare. Seeing the naked Yugao appear in front of his eyes, Naruto was glad that there was truly nobody in the men's section, as his ember began to harden somewhat.

Opening his eyes startled, he looked around somewhat embarrassed. Sighing gladly that there was truly nobody around Naruto focused his thoughts on different things. Finally his member calmed down and shrank back to its normal size and Naruto leaned back once more trying to relax. But as he closed his eyes again it didn't take long until his thoughts returned to the purple haired beauty. Realizing that it made no sense to stay here like that, Naruto swam across the pool of hot water and got out, wrapping his towel, which he had hung on a chair near the water when they had entered, around him and made his way inside the building.

A few minutes later Naruto, now fully dressed in his usual orange black jumpsuit, exited the building through the front door. No knowing what he should do, as they had the day free to do what they wanted to do, Naruto walked down the street aimlessly. Exiting the small town they were in, Naruto continued for a bit until he found a nice spot.

He settled down, his back against a tree trunk out of the many of the forest that surrounded most of the small town. He was now a bit inside of the forest, wide enough away so that he should have the time for him alone. Sitting there he reached into one of his item bags and took a single scroll out. Eyeing it critically, having once said that he would never read one of these books; Naruto opened the scroll and channelled some chakra into it.

A split second later a few books appeared in a cloud of smoke. Laying the scroll and all but the first book besides him Naruto looked at the cover, a small smile on his face. 'Icha Icha Paradise' he read and opened the book as he leaned back, making himself comfortable sitting on the ground leaning against a tree. Finding a comfortable position Naruto started to read, imagining Jiraiya smiling down on him from the heaven.

It didn't take long until a small blush started to show on his face as he imagined himself being the male. His pants tightened around his member, but for once he didn't care as he continued to read, his mind picturing Yugao in several of these positions; a smile staying on his face.

As the sun began to go down and darkness began to grow under the trees, Naruto finally stood up, having read as much as he could, but not yet finishing reading all the books. He resealed the books in the scroll and stood up, playing with the scroll in his hands, spinning it around as he thought about several of the scenes he had just read in the books.

After a few moments he pocketed the scroll, back into the item bag where he had taken it from earlier and dusted his clothes off, before he began to walk back into town, towards their meeting place, a smile always plastered on his face.

"Here we are" Yamato said to his team when they arrived at their destination, the tenchi bridge.

They had made it here in time, only having stopped to rest and to get to know each other better through sparing. They had made a plan, or better said Yamato had told them the plan, that should be foolproof.

The three teens of the team hid themselves behind a boulder on their side of the bridge, while Yamato made his way to the middle of the bridge, where the Akatsuki spy was already waiting. Yamato had made a perfect disguise in form of Sasori's puppet, which should give him enough time and which should let him get near enough to capture the spy. "Good luck, Yamato-taichou." Sakura whispered besides Naruto, as they observed their team leader approach the Akatsuki spy.

"It had been a long time, Sasori-sama" the spy said as Yamato in disguise reached him on the middle of the bridge. The spy turned to face the disguised Konoha jounin and drew his hood back revealing himself as Yakushi Kabuto, much to the surprise of Sakura and Naruto. "It had been five years."

"Were you followed?" Yamato asked, his voice sounding like Sasori matching the disguise as he acted out his part of the plan, even though he, too, had been somewhat surprised by the spy's identity.

"No it is safe." Kabuto replied simply.

"How are you?" Yamato asked the spy.

"When your jutsu was lifted and I remembered who I really was, I felt somewhat disorientated. I am still somewhat heavy headed." Kabuto said.

"I have some questions for you" the disguised Yamato started.

"I have little time, so please make it brief. It was a great risk to slip away from Orochimaru to come here." Kabuto said sounding somewhat tense and paranoid.

"Tell me about the location of your base and about Uchiha Sasuke" Yamato said saying exactly what they had planned beforehand.

Kabuto looked at the puppet for a second before he replied. "We have many bases, to keep from being discovered we change bases on a weekly basis. There are of course bases in countries besides the sound. But we have various movement methods, which can be cumbersome. Our current base is hidden on a small island in a lake in the north. We will move from there in three days. Uchiha Sasuke is also there."

At this very moment a sound on the side of the bridge caught their attention and Kabuto spun around fearing the worst, only to see a rabbit in the bushes, which quickly vanished again. "What … Just a wild rabbit." Kabuto said as he relaxed again.

On the other side of the bridge Naruto tensed. 'No, that wasn't just a rabbit' he thought trusting his senses. He had after all used natural chakra all the time they had been there, to sense everything that happened and now he felt something wrong. There was defiantly someone on the other side of the canyon, someone strong and not fully human. 'Orochimaru!'

"We have a problem" he whispered to his two team mates, who looked at him perplexed. They obviously hadn't sensed anything and Naruto doubted that the two on the bridge had been able to sense anything, which was proofed when they began to talk again. But Naruto knew better, as one couldn't hide from the nature.

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked in a low voice from besides him, as Sai continued to stare at the interaction between their team leader and the spy, ignoring them.

"You will see it soon." Naruto replied as he thought of ways to turn this mission into a success, even if it was doomed to fail with the traitorous Sanin's arrival.

On the bridge the two jounins began to act their parts again. "Now, about that one task you asked of me, Sasori-sama." Kabuto said much to Yamato's discomfort, as he didn't know anything about the task at all. "Even after his transmigration, Orochimaru cast a protective jutsu on the cellular specimen of the left over corpse. I was unable to perform a data analysis on that specimen."

"I see" Yamato replied calmly, trying not to blow his disguise.

"On that note please hand me the item I'm here for. I can't continue to stay here much longer. If it's found out that I'm meeting with you here like this, then I'll be killed." Kabuto said, his hand extending towards the fake Sasori.

"Very well" Yamato said knowing that he had to act now or never, as he drew a kunai.

"My, My. What an amusing conversation. You wouldn't mind if I were to join in myself, would you?" Orochimaru asked as he appeared behind Kabuto, his back next to Kabuto's, a snake already winding itself around the spy. Acting quickly and before it as too late, Kabuto jumped away, landing next to the disguised Yamato.

"If it weren't for you drawing your kunai, Sasori-sama, I may not have been able to get away in time" Kabuto said much to Yamato's relief, who was quite stressed from the situation, wondering what he should do now that Orochimaru appeared.

On the sidelines two of the teens were surprised by the Sanin's sudden appearance, one showing it openly, while the other managed to keep an impassive face, like he had been trained to do for years. The last member, however, wasn't surprised as he already guessed that the one he had sensed on the other side was Orochimaru.

"That getup of yours, it sure brings back memories, Sasori." Orochimaru said, as his summoned snake disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

"So you followed Kabuto here, then?" Yamato asked trying to keep up the disguise as long as possible.

"I was merely hoping to say a word or two of thanks." Orochimaru told the fake Sasori. "That lovely boy there you bestowed me with. I was able to make quite good use of him. The development of but one jutsu required the bodies of well over a hundred live human test subjects, but thanks to that boy there, I was bale to use the same test subjects over and over again. It's quite hard to come across enough test subjects, after all."

As Yamato used the time to come up with a possible solution to his current situation, Kabuto activated his medical jutsu around his hand and used it to cut through the wooden puppet. Yamato looked surprised, but jumped away instantly wondering what was going on. As he was still airborne, Orochimaru used his Sen'ei ta-jashu, attacking Yamato with the snakes that shot out of his sleeves, only for Yamato to turn into a wooden figure as the snaked wrapped around him and bit him.

"This is a kawarimi using Mokuton ninjutsu, don't tell me you're …" Orochimaru trailed off as the snakes retreated back into his sleeve.

"Orochimaru-sama, is that the real Sasori?" Kabuto asked as he got over his annoyance that the person avoided the attack.

"Oh no, not at all." Orochimaru replied. "Kabuto, are you telling me you worked for Sasori but were never shown his real face?"

"Well, he was a reclusive individual after all, always hiding in that puppet of his." Kabuto explained himself to his new master.

"What are you talking about?" Yamato cut in. "Kabuto you're supposed to be an Akatsuki spy. You should have been under the effects of Sasori's jutsu all this time."

"Ah yes, that jutsu" Kabuto replied with a smile. "Orochimaru-sama did me the honour of dispelling it quite some time ago."

"I wasn't expecting you to change sides, acting as though you were still under the effects of Sasori's jutsu." Yamato said bothered by the whole situation he found himself in. "I suppose this means it was Orochimaru's jutsu you fell prey to then." He continued trying to buy some time to come up with a plan to get out of this situation.

"No; not exactly." Kabuto explained smiling at the Konoha jounin. "All I fell prey to was Orochimaru-sama's magnificent way of thinking. I chose this path myself. But tell me, who are you anyway? We came here with the intention of killing Sasori, so this is quite the mishap."

At this Orochimaru decided to cut in. "Kabuto, I'll tell you about this little boy here afterwards. But first things first, why don't you call out those little mice hiding in the bush."

Yamato looked at Orochimaru for a second before he gave the three hiding teens the sign with his hand and they appeared a second later between Yamato and the enemies.

"So it's you again …" Kabuto said as he recognized some of the newcomers, namely Sakura and Naruto.

"Kukuku" Orochimaru chuckled as he too recognized Naruto and Sakura. "I've seen that face several times. I guess that means the Kyuubi boy is here to fight as well. In that case, perhaps I'll play around with the four of you a bit. I'll give you the pleasure of assessing which has gotten stronger, you or Sasuke-kun."

"Give Sasuke back!" Naruto said in a low voice. He could feel the anger rising in him at the sight of these two and he could also feel that the Kyuubi was already getting exited, seeing a way to receive some action.

"There is no giving back, Naruto-kun. Here let me explain it to you." Kabuto said sarcastically trying to get a rise out of the blonde. "Sasuke-kun came to us of his own free will. It's about time you got over it."

"Shut your mouth, four-eyes!!" Sakura yelled from besides Naruto. "You don't know a damned thing about Naruto's feelings! I've had enough of your cool attitude." Besides here Naruto took a quick glance at her thinking about her words. 'But you don't know a damned thing about my feelings, too.'

"If you want to know about Sasuke-kun, why don't you try forcing it out of me?" Orochimaru asked sarcastically. "If you can, that is …"

Naruto realized that Orochimaru was taunting him, trying to anger him so that he would attack, most likely while using the Kyuubi's chakra. Having realized that, Naruto took a deep breath and tried to stay as calm as possible in the situation, but he could still feel the anger in him and from that he could already guess that the Kyuubi was already seeing this as a new chance to get some action.

"Ah, you stayed calm." Orochimaru said surprise showing. "It seems like my stupid team mate was actually able to teach you something." Hearing Orochimaru mention Jiraiya Naruto couldn't resist and flinched. "Oh, did I hit a nerve?" the Snake Sanin said smiling. "Yes, I heard that the idiot died. I always knew he wasn't cut out to be a ninja."

As he heard Orochimaru speaking about his godfather like that, Naruto couldn't stay calm as the anger began to blind him. He launched himself forward Kyuubi's chakra already forming its cloak around him, leaving only an explosion of dust behind. He hit Orochimaru head on his jaw with his fist, sending the treacherous Sanin flying off the bridge and deep into the forest.

As the cloud of dust cleared his team mates stared at him in wonder. "Naruto-kun, I see you've developed very nicely as a Jinchuriki." Kabuto said with a smile knowing his master wouldn't be defeated by a single strike of that calibre.

It took only a few moments until Orochimaru himself stepped out of the forest again and then the Sanin stepped back on the bridge, half of his face-mask torn off. "My oh my. You sure have become quite the Jinchuriki, Naruto-kun."

"And that explains why you were chosen to watch over him. It would appear my experiments were of some help after all. I should think Konoha would be a bit more appreciative." Orochimaru continued looking at Yamato. "Wouldn't you agree dearest guinea pig of mine?"

"Guinea pig?" Kabuto cut in before anyone else could open their mouth. "Just who is this person?"

"Well, you see the First Hokage was a shinobi possessing the most unique of abilities: his Mokuton ninjutsu." Orochimaru said as he covered his face with a new mask. "And what's even, he was able to bend Bijuu to his won will. Oh how I coveted those gifts of his."

"Having obtained data on the First's genome from his remains, I carried out an experiment in which his genetic traits were spliced into the cells of 60 different children, my test subjects." Orochimaru went on with his explanation. "But their bodies didn't seem to like the foreign DNA. They died one after another."

"And here I thought they'd all shared the same fate." He said as he looked straight at Yamato. "To think there was a lone survivor."

"Well then, it seems you'll be able to get your hands on what one might call a long overdue research sample." Kabuto said to his master.

"Yes, but before that, I would wish to see our Sasuke-kun fight the Kyuubi boy once." Orochimaru said directed at Naruto. "I wonder which has gotten stronger: my Sasuke-kun or my idiotic team mate's apprentice."

He was however cut off by Naruto, who let out a loud growl, as more tails began to form behind him. "Don't you dare talk about him like that in my presence!"

The violent chakra began to whip around him, wind beginning to spin and lashing out in every direction. To Orochimaru it seemed like the Kyuubi itself was standing in front of him for a second, growling at him as the pressure began to rise even further, as the bridge's railing was destroyed by the wind's pressure.

It didn't take long until Kabuto rushed forward, chakra formed around his hand as a weapon, but he was pushed back by an explosion of chakra coming from Naruto, sending the medic nin across the bridge and into a tree. The bridge itself was destroyed by the explosion of chakra, the middle of it, where Naruto was standing on all his four, was blown out of existence and the rest of the bridge was unable to support itself without the middle part.

To Naruto all that didn't matter as he only had eyes for his prey, Orochimaru, in his anger. Orochimaru leaped back into the forest avoiding a hand made of chakra by mere inches as Naruto persuaded him. Naruto didn't care for a thing as rage began to control him, as the Kyuubi tried to exploit this and once again tried to gain full control. Naruto, heavily influenced by the Kyuubi and not being able to think straight anymore, launched attack after attack at Orochimaru, destroying huge parts of the forest, as Orochimaru evaded them once and again.

"You're using the power of a Jinchuriki and that's all you have to show?" the snake Sanin asked in a mocking tone, as he dodged yet another attack. "You still have way to go to catch up to Sasuke-kun."

Naruto attacked again as an arm made of red chakra rushed forward. Orochimaru leaped away, but the arm changed its direction just as fast. Reacting instinctually the Sanin was able to evade the attack as it just nicked his arm, drawing a bit of blood much to the Sanin's annoyance. "But you don't care about that anymore, do you?" the Sanin asked, his voice this time not lanced with his mocking tone for once. "I've heard rumours after all, that it was you that killed my idiot of a team mate. Is it true?"

"Kill" A loud voice boomed inside his mind.

Growling in response Naruto launched another set of attacks, triggered by his fury they were also easy to dodge for an experienced fighter such as Orochimaru. "So it is." Orochimaru drawled out. "So I guess I gotta thank you." He said as he jumped to the ground, Naruto taking after him.

"Kill" The Kyuubi growled once again inside his mind.

Hearing the traitorous Sanin's words Naruto became even angrier and more of the Kyuubi's chakra began to pour out, beginning to form a fourth tail. As the tail began to form Naruto's skin began to burn from the demonic chakra, as it wasn't used to such quantities of it.

"Stop it." Naruto screamed inside his mind, as he appeared in a large room, illuminated by red light coming from behind the large cage and the chakra that was streaming out of the cage and surrounding Naruto. The source of the light was of course the chakra of the Kyuubi no Kitsune, as it pushed it through the cage and into Naruto's chakra coils, trying to take control.

"I said stop it!" Naruto said determined to get full control back and to force the Kyuubi back. But the Kyuubi didn't listen and pushed more chakra through the cage. Naruto leaped back as the chakra came nearer, not wanting it, knowing that he was nearing the point of losing his last bit of control. "Are you deaf, you dumb fox? I said stop it. I don't need your chakra!" Naruto growled out, trying to sound as intimidating and determined as possible.

A loud growl erupted from behind the bars of the cage and for the first time Naruto saw the demon's whole appearance, illuminated by the glowing red chakra. "Don't make me laugh, flesh-bag. You are weak. You are pathetic!" the Kyuubi growled out, its voice lanced with animalistic rage. "Without me you are nothing."

Repressing the urge to run away that was inspired by the demon's fury directed at him; Naruto stood still his eyes narrowing at the demon. "I don't need you!" Naruto said determined, as the red chakra, which was still streaming out of the cage, caught him and began to engulf him.

"Let me show you what real power is." The Kyuubi said as it growled dangerously once again.

Naruto felt the hot demonic chakra push into him, already beginning to destroy his chakra coils. His body felt like it was burning up from the inside, as the chakra circulated through his entire body, pain washing over his mind. Naruto recognized it instantly, as it was exactly the same pain he had felt that time. 'That time. Yes, it's exactly the same' he thought and his thoughts witched to his dead sensei. '"Never again will I lose control like that. Never again will the Kyuubi control my actions."' The vow he had made that day, over his sensei's dead body came to his mind, which only made his determination stronger and with all his might he pushed against the Kyuubi's chakra trying to force it back and out of his body.

Hearing a loud growl of fury, Naruto knew that he was succeeding, which was proved a moment later as the scene inside his mind began to fade away and reality returned as he once again saw the world through his own eyes, only to see next to nothing as a cloud of dust surrounded and engulfed him and the whole area.

On the outside more and more chakra had poured out of Naruto and began to swirl around him, as his skin was burned more and more. The chakra grew and grew until it finally stopped and was pushed away in a huge explosion, creating a huge crater, destroying the forest that had been there completely. In his position on the ground Orochimaru looked at the scene with amusement. "Honestly, this boy amuses me to no end" he whispered, the humour showing in his voice as he waited for the dust to clear.

In his position in the middle of the crater, Naruto could hear Orochimaru's whisper even through the sound of debris falling on the ground. He knew that he needed to do something if he wanted to win this fight. Gathering chakra, mostly the remains of the Kyuubi's massive chakra still inside his coils, Naruto slammed his bloody hand on the ground. "Kuchiyose no jutsu." He said and a cloud of white smoke appeared in the slowly settling cloud of dust.

As the cloud of smoke and dust finally settled completely Naruto stood completely still gathering natural energy to enter the sage mode. Behind him were four human-sized toads, back to back with only a small distance between them, forming a defensive ring around four Naruto clones. The clones looked like they were meditating, but they like the real Naruto were gathering natural energy.

In front of Naruto stood a single toad, which was bigger than the ones behind him. It wore samurai armour and had two swords strapped to its back. Looking back at Naruto the toad understood and drew his two swords, before it sprung forward. Cursing silently Orochimaru simply sprung to the side dodging the toad.

Biting his thumb, the Sanin let a drop of blood fall on his summoning seal and instantly a huge snake appeared and attacked the big toad. Not waiting Orochimaru rushed forward towards Naruto, while his snake was impaled by two swords and disappeared in a cloud of smoke. The toad saw Orochimaru rushing at the still natural energy gathering Naruto and jumped in the Sanin's way, its sword impaling the ground just inches in front of the Sanin.

Rushing through hand seal the Sanin attacked again. "Fuuton: Daitoppa" the Sanin said and blew out his breath creating a huge storm. The wind hit the toad head on and it was pushed back even though it was heavy as hell. Having taken the whole force of the attack, the toad was forced to dispel, but it had shielded Naruto and the other toads from the whole force of the attack.

Opening his eyes, Naruto looked at the traitorous Snake Sanin with his now yellow eyes, ready to begin the battle, now with a clear head and in full control. Thanking the toad silently that had bought him the time he had needed Naruto readied himself.

Not knowing what to make of this new development in the young blonde shinobi, Orochimaru lowered his head down to the ground and snakes began to slitter out of the Sanin's mouth. A lot of snakes.

Naruto saw a huge wall of small snakes making their way in his direction and dashed forward, a huge Rasengan forming in his right hand. As he reached the wall of attacking snakes Naruto thrust the huge Rasengan forward tearing through the snakes like butter, not bothering for the snakes on his left or right, he made his way directly for the Sanin, as two kage bunshin appeared behind him each with a huge Rasengan in a hand as they obliterated the rest of the snakes.

Covering the short distance in a moment Naruto knocked a normal Rasengan in the Sanin's head, shreddering it, remains spraying in every direction only to turn into mud. Growling Naruto reached out with his senses finding the Sanin not much away underground. With a short look back Naruto dispelled his two clones seeing them done with the snakes and instantly felt their remaining natural chakra entering his system giving him another few seconds to use the sage mode.

Reaching the spot where he sensed the Sanin Naruto used all his now through sage mode enhanced strength and brought his fist down, shattering the ground much like Tsunade always did, much to the surprise of the Snake Sanin hiding underground. Leaping away from the destructive blow the Sanin was once again surprised to find a Naruto standing in his escape way. Growling under his breath for underestimating his opponent, Orochimaru hammered his fist into the clone's head, destroying it.

Seeing the real Naruto still standing where he had shattered the ground, Orochimaru reached his hand in that direction and snakes began to fly towards the young Konoha shinobi. Reacting just in time Naruto gathered the chakra for a Rasengan in his hand, spinning the chakra around just as the snakes reached him shreddering their heads, along with most of their upper bodies, before they dropped dead to the ground between him and the Snake Sanin.

Feeling the last of the natural energy dissipate, leaving his body as he moved, Naruto winced as the pain of his burned off skin reached his brain. Giving the Snake Sanin a quick look with his now blue eyes, Naruto dispelled one of his clones which were still gathering natural energy and immediately felt the chakra enter his system, washing the pain away as his strength returned.

Leaping forward intending to finish the fight as fast as possible, as Naruto knew it was only a matter of time until the Sanin saw through all of it and went after his clones, destroying even the smallest chance for Naruto to fight on even ground with the Sanin. As he reached the Sanin Naruto tired to punch him, but this time the Sanin had been prepared and dodged to the side, deep in thought trying to figure out how the clone's dispelling and Naruto's power boost were tied together.

Growling in anger when he found out what the blonde was doing with the clones, knowing their effect only to well, the Sanin was still not sure where all that power came from as he couldn't feel any difference in the blonde, but it had to be there seeing the blonde fight like that and his change of appearance. Coming up with a quick plan the Sanin sent a lot of his snakes out of his sleeve and at the blonde, only to have him shredder them with another of his annoying Rasengan's.

Just as predicted the blonde dashed forward to attack the Sanin, hitting him with a Rasengan in the stomach shreddering the Sanin's innards. But before the body dropped dead to the ground like it should, it opened its mouth and a snake-like Orochimaru flew out of it and in the direction of the clones. Moving like a normal human again half way, Orochimaru ran at the nearest toad, which readied itself for the assault. Just as he was about to reach the first toad in his line of direction, Orochimaru smeared a bit of his blood over his summoning tattoo and gathered the necessary chakra. As he did so a large purple snake appeared out of nowhere and struck the first toad, nearly swallowing it fully.

Making use of it's momentum the snake made its way forward, destroying both kage bunshin's in its way before slamming with its full force into the toad at the end of the line. Using its tail, the snake hit the toad to its right, the only toad that was now without a clone to protect as Naruto had it already dispelled, just as the toad was about to ram its dagger into the snakes head. Hitting the toad with the last of its strength, the summoned snake disappeared in a cloud of smoke, taking its three preys with it.

Orochimaru having moved just behind the snake made his way to the last unmoving clone, but was intercepted by its guardian toad. Growling in anger his sword, the kusangi, appeared I his hand as it moved out of his sleeve and slammed it into the toad's head, full way in, up to the guard sending the toad back to where ever it came from.

As soon as Naruto realized what Orochimaru had done, he cursed under his breath and took after him as fast as he could but before he could catch up it was already too late and he felt two of his clones getting destroyed and their chakra entering his system, giving him another boost. Seeing Orochimaru going after his last clone, Naruto went through a couple of hand seals and slammed his hand on the ground.

Just as Orochimaru was about to impale the clone a long tongue wrapped itself around the kage bunshin and drew it back, so that the toad, where the tongue had come from, took the clone in its mouth. Naruto, glad that his plan worked nodded towards the toad which began to shrink and jump away, trying to reach the forest as it meant safety.

Orochimaru acting fast threw his sword and impaled the toad in mid-jump, destroying it along with the clone hidden inside of it.

Feeling another small boost of natural energy enter him and having Orochimaru at a disadvantage with his sword not in his reach, Naruto blindly dashed forward, forcing the Sanin in an exchange of blows with the help of a few well used clones.

Using a few clones as distraction Naruto powered a Rasengan up, intending to finish this fight once and for all. Reaching the Sanin Naruto pushed the Rasengan forward, trying to hit Orochimaru's chest. Just as Naruto thrusted his Rasengan forward a single snake slithered down Orochimaru's arm and transformed back into the kusagi upon reaching the Sanin's hand. Just as Naruto's Rasengan hit the first layer of skin, Orochimaru brought his hand forward impaling the blonde haired teen straight through his chest.

Gritting his teeth from the pain in his nicked chest, Orochimaru brought his unoccupied arm with all his might forward and punched Naruto straight in his disbelieving face, sending him backwards with the kusagi still sticking inside his chest and into a tree of the surrounding forest. Hitting the tree with a breaking sound as the tree trunk splintered, Naruto slowly slid to the ground, unmoving.

In the destroyed area of their battlefield Orochimaru dropped to his knees and opened his mouth, another fully healed Orochimaru making his way out. As he was about to follow the young Konoha shinobi, he felt pain erupt inside of him as the full effect of his body's reaction of trying to fight against his soul hit him. 'Patience … patience, Sasuke-kun awaits!' he thought as he fought against the pain having given up the thought of following the blonde shinobi.

Yamato's wood clone reached Naruto's unmoving body, just as a single snake slithered off the blonde's body and back to his master. Quickly doing a first medical check Yamato realized that Naruto was in a critical condition and would most likely not survive if not treated immediately. Taking a quick glance at Orochimaru and the now approaching Sai, Yamato took Naruto as gently as possible and made his way back to the bridge were Sakura could help him.

"Sakura-san. He needs first-aid, quickly" the wood clone said as soon as he reached the real Yamato and Sakura standing on the side of the destroyed bridge. Setting Naruto gently to the ground, Sakura began to work immediately, doing a quick check on her own realizing the real danger Naruto was in instantly. Working on her team mate with her full concentration, Sakura didn't even notice the wood clone leaving again.

Yamato looked at Sakura working, just barely able to follow what she was doing as medical jutsu weren't his strong point. She was removing poison, not even bothering to heal all the bad burns on Naruto's skin yet. Only then Yamato really realized how close the young teen was to dieing, even if he had gotten a message of his clone's first check, which hadn't sounded nearly as bad as it looked now.

Yet, as he watched Sakura working, now moving to close the chest wound, he wondered how the blonde had managed to last that long against Orochimaru. Of course Naruto had used the Kyuubi's chakra in the beginning, but then suddenly he felt it vanish, leaving only traces in the air behind. From then on he had only been able to sense Naruto using normal chakra. But from his clone's reports Naruto had been nearly on par with the Sanin for a while, even if he had been dangerously wounded at the end, it was still impressing. He had watched the spars they had on their way here as close as possible and with that information he came to the conclusion that Naruto must have been hiding a lot of his true strength.

Receiving a new report from his clone, telling that Orochimaru had left with Kabuto and with Sai, Yamato thought about the coming time, trying to figure out what to do.

Cutting his thoughts close as he saw Sakura look up at him, sweat running down her face, obviously exhausted he saw her looking more than worried. "Yamato-taichou, we have to go back immediately. I can't heal everything and there are still traces of poison inside of him, which I can't remove at the moment." Sakura said in an exhausted and worried voice.

Realizing that what he had feared came through, Yamato was about to speak when another voice cut in.

"No" Naruto whispered from his spot on the ground, his voice weak as his whole body ached from the pain he felt. "Don't worry about me. I will be good to go in a second."

"Don't be dumb, Naruto" Sakura said to him, her strong medical side showing. "You are in no condition to move and even if you were there is still poison in your system."

"It will take care of it" Naruto said trying to sound confident even with his weak voice, even if he didn't feel confident about that fact at all. As soon as his words left his mouth, he saw understanding flash over Yamato's face and Sakura looked like she knew what he meant, too, a second later. 'Of course, she must have looked through some files as baa-chan's apprentice.' He realized after a second of confusion about her understanding.

"What are you doing, lay back down!" Sakura yelled as she moved to force the blonde back down, but was stopped when Yamato held her and spoke up before she could continue her medical rant.

"If you think so then I will let you come with us, but if you aren't up to it" Yamato said fully focused on Naruto who struggled to his feet, wincing from the pain. As he did so he gathered a tiny bit of demonic chakra and let it circulate through his body and immediately regretted it as his chakra coils felt like they were on fire as soon as the demonic chakra entered them. 'Damn, I guess I will have to wait a while before I can use any of the Kyuubi's chakra to heal my wounds.' He thought. "We'll leave you behind. You should have enough strength to get back to the village on your own."

As she heard it Sakura looked at her taichou totally surprised. "Kakashi-sensei would never …" she began to yell, but was cut off by Yamato.

"I was teamed up with Kakashi in the ANBU. I'm well aware of how he is." Yamato said even as he saw Naruto nod in understanding of what he had said earlier. "It's true I'm filling in for him, but we're different, he and I. I'll pass on saying "I won't let you guys get hurt!" with a smile. You're no longer apprentice ninja to be protected. You're shinobi who'll sooner or later have to surpass Kakashi and sustain Konoha on your shoulders."

He paused for a few seconds before he continued. "If we didn't follow now, we're not catching Orochimaru again. We hesitate now and it's over. With Orochimaru there are no second chances."

Naruto fully understood what Yamato wanted to say, but there was no chance in hell he would back out now and return to the village, even if he was hurt. Drawing in a bit of natural energy to numb the pain, but not enough to enter the sage mode, Naruto stretched his muscles slowly before he stood straight up. "Well, what are we waiting for?" he asked, his voice full of determination again.

"You are in no condition to move!" Sakura exclaimed, but Naruto was already moving, going through some stretches while standing.

"See." He simply said to Sakura as he continued to stretch, ignoring the pain that remained even through the natural energy that was numbing it. Also ignoring Sakura's glare, as she didn't believe what she was seeing, having learned different during her medical education.

Smiling at the blonde Yamato looked at Sakura, who had stood up, too, still obviously exhausted. "Follow me" he said as he slowly walked through the remaining forest towards the totally destroyed are of the fight earlier. Sakura looked at the scene totally surprised, never having seen such destruction before, while Naruto looked on calmly, already having seen it earlier in his fight, after he had full control back.

As they stepped nearer Naruto saw Sai's things laying on the ground, next to a puddle of ink. Obviously his team mate had some dealings with the traitorous Sanin; Naruto realized gritting his teeth at the realization.

"Sai's things are scattered on the ground" Sakura said as she bent down and picked Sai's drawing book up.

"He dropped those things and left with them there. That's all. I guess even he couldn't keep his cool standing before Orochimaru" Yamato said calmly.

"You know what happened, right?" Sakura asked her taichou.

"A Moku Bunshin of mine was here most of the time." Yamato said as his eyes flicked slowly to Naruto. "We'd been communicating through a radio transmitter I hid in here." He continued pointing at his specialised hita-ate. "From when my clone returned they talked for a short time, before Sai followed them. I haven't been able to understand their conversation. But he handed Orochimaru something. It was almost as if he was trying to get on Orochimaru's good graces."

"Yamato-taichou, this Danzo person … " Sakura began but trailed off, remembering what Tsunade had said to her before the mission.

"I know him." Yamato said, as his tone darkened slightly. "The hawkish leader, who stood in opposition to the Sandaime Hokage."

"Who is he?" Naruto cut in, not having heard that name ever before.

"Sai's superior." Sakura answered him. "An old geezer who thought poorly of the Third's ideals."

"It's quite possible Danzo's relying on Sai to set plans of his own into motion." Yamato said thinking hard about the whole situation. "Perhaps Danzo entrusted Sai with a top secret mission, that has nothing to do with our own."

Complete silence settled between them and was only broken by a bird screeching far away. "What I'm about to tell you is no more than conjecture upon conjecture, but it's not out of the realm of possibility. So brace yourselves." Yamato said breaking the silence, before pausing for the effect. "Danzo could well be intending to destroy Konoha as we know it."

Gritting his teeth in anger as he heard this, Naruto was more determined to continue with this mission than ever. There was no chance he would let these wounds get in his way, when Konoha might be in serious danger.

There was no way he would let that happen; no way that that old geezer would destroy Konoha, if he could prevent it. 'I will save Konoha, no matter what.' Naruto swore to himself, more determined than ever.

End Of Chapter

Author's Note (A/N):

Well there you have it, as I promised a lot faster than the last update. But now my holidays are over, so I don't have as much free time now, so the next update will once again take longer. Also I decided to plan ahead until the fight against Pein, before I will begin to write the next chapter, so it might take even longer.

As for this chapter: The first scene, I'm sure you all figured out what I wanted to say with it. First that his interest in Sakura isn't really there anymore (A/N: Finally) and of course that he is a normal teenager with reading Jiraiya's books.

I hope you all liked my version of the fight Naruto vs Orochimaru. I wanted him to use the Kyuubi's chakra, because he had to stand just inches away from losing control another time, to really take his vow serious. (That's my opinion at least.) As you can see he didn't lose control fully, as he got it back before he got the fourth tail, but even then he was so near to losing control that from now on he will take his vow more serious.

As for his strength level: In my opinion is the sage mode just a boost of his normal abilities, so even if he is Kage level in terms of power through the sage mode he still doesn't stand a chance against a Kage level enemy. I hope you all saw that he only really had a chance while Orochimaru was underestimating him and Naruto' trick with the Kage Bunshin was seen through very quickly, as expected of a genius like Orochimaru.

Now I hope you all saw what I meant to tell you at the end of the fight: Naruto sees the snake, but doesn't think anything of it, which is his downfall at the end. At the end he underestimated Orochimaru and thought that the Sanin didn't have a trick up his sleeve, which he paid in blood.

Well enough said about this chapter, I hope you all liked it and don't forget to leave a review if you did.


Now on to the poll on my profile I told you about on the last chapter.

At the moment most of you want him to get a toad mask, followed closely by the fox mask. But I have also got a few of you who want him to take another mask. I'm not sure what mask I will give him eventually and the final poll result won't be it for sure. Some of you have sent me some nice ideas (and I thank you for that) and I myself have some other ideas aswell, so you will just have to wait and continue to read the story to see what mask he will get.

If I end up deciding to not use some of the other ideas, I will use the poll winner, so please continue to vote.


The next chapter as I'm sure you all can guess will be the infiltration of Orochimaru's base and as such the encounter with Sasuke.