Yo, as Kakashi would say. Today, you shall read what shall come to be known as fanfic history! In this chapter, the greatest anime antagonist to ever exist shall die. And it will be done by a 12-year old! Yah! Boo! Read and give your honest opinion.
P.S. Sorry it took so long. My weekends have been pretty hectic lately.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
"Speech"
'Thoughts'
"Animal Speech"
'Kyuubi/Other Demons Thoughts'
"So, any of you want to back out?" Kakashi had assembled the team by the bridge where they usually met. The purpose was to ask them to participate in the Chuunin Exams. As far as they were concerned, it was in the bag. Sasuke was not the same stuck-up brat who graduated. Sakura had been training nonstop, and Naruto was Naruto.
"No? All right then. Meet in room 301 of the Academy tomorrow at 9:00. You'll take the first part of the exam there." Inwardly, Sakura groaned. Leave it to Kakashi to leave everything to the last minute. In a gust of air, Kakashi was gone. 'I have got to learn how to do that.' Sasuke thought in slight envy.
With that, the three of them parted ways. Sakura went home. On her bed, she found a case wrapped with a red bow. Confused, she opened it. Attached to the bow was a note. "Happy Anniversary. May this remind you of who you are inside. You may also find it a great weapon." At the bottom of the note was a picture of a fox. Sakura smiled. She had forgotten. Curious, she opened the case…
Naruto woke up. 'Today's the day. Nothing like doing tasks we could do when you were an infant.' Naruto smiled slightly. 'I was never an infant. No infant has gone through what I had to.' Naruto cut off the connection and got dressed in his voluminous cloak. This time, it wasn't just his fur he was hiding. Over the past week, Naruto had covered his body in a complex summoning seal that didn't interfere with the restricting seal already in place. The seal allowed him to summon Blood Fire from any point on his body, even when it was already in this realm. Naruto planned this would help in case anything actually managed to sneak up on him.
As he passed the kitchen, Sarutobi called out "No using your mind. The test's supposed to be about information gathering!" Naruto rolled his eyes. One tenth of a second later, he was at the academy. Sasuke was there early, and Sakura was approaching as Naruto appeared. He gave them both a nod, lingering on Sakura's. As one, they entered the building.
On the "third" floor, they were met with some resistance. Two Chuunin were blocking the door to the antechamber. Already there was Gai's team: Rock Lee, Tenten, and Neji Hyuuga. Naruto had nearly killed himself from hearing his taijutsu master drone on and on about his "most favorite student." Naruto was shocked, actually shocked, for the first time in years, at seeing Lee. He might as well have been a Mini-me of Gai.
"I told you! Let me in! My youthful energy cannot be used if I am not in the exam room!" The boy even used Gai's philosophy. Naruto silently sent up a prayer to all the gods and demons, known and unknown, that Lee wouldn't make Gai a grandson with one of his students.
The green-spandex wearing youth charged at the door again. And once again he was stopped by the guarding ninja, Kotetsu and Izumo. "If you can't even get past us, you're not worthy to be a Chuunin." The weapon mistress on the team, Tenten, shook her head, muttering "Why do you have to be so loud Lee?" Neji just stood their, impassive.
Impatient to get the exam started so he could pass it, Naruto walked over. "That is true; someone who couldn't get past a simple door doesn't deserve to be a Chuunin. However, this is the wrong door." The other teams waiting by the door looked confused. Sasuke stepped in. "I mean, come on; this is only the second floor." Now the other teams were really stumped. This was the third floor, right? Sakura, whom specialized in Genjutsu, finally spoke up. "If you all fell for such a simple Genjutsu, then passing should be a snap." With barely any effort, all three of them dispelled the jutsu.
The two guards were hardly impressed. 'They have Hokage-sama's son on their team. I'd be insulted if they didn't figure it out.' Leaving the other teams to marvel at their own stupidity, Team 7 took a detour to the third floor. Rock Lee followed them, though only Naruto noticed, as was often the case.
When the came into a chamber large enough to have a good fight in, Lee showed himself, with as much flair as Gai would. "Halt! I wish to bout with you! My name is Rock Lee, the Leaf's handsome devil!" Almost lazily, they turned to face the bowl-cut boy. Sasuke smirked. "Do you mean me or Naruto?" Lee jumped down to ground level. "You! The boy in the cloak! You should provide an actual challenge than the pampered Uchiha." Sakura scoffed under her breath "Who in their right mind challenges Naruto or insults Sasuke?"
It seemed that Lee had keen hearing, as he turned his attention to Sakura, and instantly hearts replaced his eyes. "Hello, my love! I shall give my life to free you from these insufficient guards!" A vein throbbed in Sakura's expansive forehead. Love? Guards!' She would have spent a few minutes being pissed off, but at that moment, Lee started shooting air kisses at her. Horrified, she tried to dodge all of them, even practically bending her spine to dodge the last.
Naruto intervened before things got out of hand. "Please stop; she's already taken. And as for your first question, I politely decline." Lee snapped out of it and starred at Naruto incredulously. "Very well then, I shall force you to fight!" With a war cry, Lee charged forward. 'Give the twerp a taste of his own medicine please, Kit!' Naruto almost laughed, Kyuubi had said please perhaps twice in his 10,000 year lifespan. But Naruto complied, downing Lee with his own move: Leaf Whirlwind. When the boy stopped being dizzy, he sat up, a look of anger on his face. "How dare you use my own move to embarrass me in front of my love?"
Naruto shrugged. "Aren't you gonna ask her for her name instead of just calling her 'my love!'" Spots of color appeared on Lee's cheeks. Rushing forward, Lee suddenly disappeared. Allowing a small smile to grace his mouth/nose, Naruto avoided the kick aimed at the spot where his head used to be. In a stunning display of gracefulness and flexibility not meant for humans, Naruto twisted himself into a position to return Lee's move. As he kicked the Taijutsu apprentice into the air, he yelled, just for the heck of it, "Leaf Shadow Counter: Primary Lotus Reflection!" In a second, Naruto was behind Lee in the air, as if he were his shadow. From behind his cloak, Naruto's tails came out and started to wrap around Lee.
"Stop!" Just in the nick of time, Naruto avoided the pinwheels headed in his direction. Though to say they were pinwheels was like saying the shards form a bomb were "fragments." They were thrown at a speed that Naruto would find hard to dodge, short of loosening the seal. Sakura, who had been watching Naruto with a kind of possession, Sasuke, who had been taking mental notes, Lee, who fell flat on his back, and Naruto, who had landed in a way to make swans look clumsy, turned to find a giant red turtle with a Leaf headband around its neck at the other side of the hall.
Then, the turtle spoke. "Naruto! What do you think you're doing? You know you are only allowed to use that counter if the same conditions as the move itself are met: to protect the one you love!" Sasuke raised his eyebrows, but he wasn't too surprised. After seeing Naruto, a talking turtle wasn't too far out of the realm of imagination. Naruto bowed to the turtle. "I was, Nin-Kame. Lee here was moving in on Sakura-chan."
Lee looked to Naruto, then the turtle, then back again. "How do you know Gai-sensei's summoning?" "Because I taught him!" In a puff of smoke and firecrackers, Maito Gai appeared in one of his more ridiculous poses. Sakura's hair stood on end. 'This guy's eyebrows make that boy's look small!' Lee instantly stood at attention. "Gai-sensei!" Naruto laughed. "Really Gai, what possessed you to use that pose? The last time you did, I was numb for a week."
Sasuke looked at Naruto, then Gai. So this was Naruto's Taijutsu master. Sasuke thought he was the most ludicrous man he'd met. "You're one to talk! You attempt the Primary Lotus just because my so- excuse me, student, was flirting with one of your girlfriends?" Despite knowing it would accomplish nothing, Naruto blushed. Something about Gai threw all of Kyuubi's expertise out the door. "Gai-sensei if I may ask, how do you know my new eternal rival?"
'Oh, great. Now I get to see how Kakashi lives day by day.' A smile broke out on Gai's face. "You're new eternal rival, and I'm so proud you found one, is none other than Naruto no Kitsune!" Lee turned to Naruto with a mixture of apprehension and awe. "You mean this is the one who trained harder than I did when he was just 4 years old? This is the one who mastered your style and whom you helped create his own?" Lee instantly threw himself to the ground in a bow. "I am so sorry, Naruto-sama. I had no idea who you were when I challenged you! I beg you forgive me for intruding in your love life and forcing you to degrade yourself to my own lesser style! Your style is stronger than the Iron Fist, more graceful than the Gentle Fist, and all together too great for even me to attempt!"
Sasuke was thoroughly confused by now. 'One minute he's Naruto's rival, the next he's his personal worshiper.' Naruto sighed. "Please get up. I am no greater than you. I trained for years with a few advantages until I reached the level you're at. You reached it by overcoming countless hardships, and all in less than a year." Lee stood up, though a look of wonder still held dominant over his face.
"Sasuke, Sakura, let's get to the exam room. We're going to be late." Sakura broke her gaze from Gai's eyebrows and Sasuke snapped out of it. Without another word, they ascended the stairs and made their way into the waiting chamber. Over 100 ninja looked up at the sound of the door. Some of them looked like they slept with death on a daily basis. Sakura gulped. 'There are a lot of people.'
"Hey Naruto!" Naruto turned to see Chouji and Shikamaru approaching him. The next thing he heard was "Sasuke-kun!" Naruto turned, seeing, without a whit of surprise, Ino practically draping herself over Sasuke. Despite extensive training with a Satanist like Naruto, Sasuke looked like he didn't have the slightest chance of getting Ino off of him. "Hello Naruto-kun. Thanks for the Anniversary present." Naruto hugged the newly appeared Hinata, while Kiba gave an extremely life-like wolf whistle. Akamaru gave a friendly "What's up?" Shino, as always, was silent.
"Well, well; looks like we have some fresh competition." The whole Rookie 9 turned to face the speaker. He was a silver-haired boy, nearly a man, with glasses, and clad in blue pants and a shirt, with bandages covering the rest. Naruto saw through the Genjutsu on the headband. This was an agent of Otogakure. Naruto decided to let it play out instead of confronting him.
"Who are you?" Sasuke asked, giving the aged teen a ninja's once-over. Naruto had been training Sasuke, among several other things, how to activate his Sharingan without letting it fully "turn on." Judging from the concentration of chakra in the hands (the Sharingan can see chakra, though mainly to predict movements); Sasuke guessed the ninja either used chakra to increase strength or heal.
"I'm Kabuto. I've taken this test before. Seven times in fact. If you want some information, I'm your guy." So saying, Kabuto pulled out a deck of cards. "These cards contain info on ninja stats, the Shinobi villages, and ratios of ninjas to total village population. Anyone you want to know in particular?" Naruto already knew this stuff like the back of his hand, so he let Sasuke have his turn.
"Tell me about Gaara no Subaku, and how about yourself?" Sasuke would have asked about Rock Lee, but Naruto could tell him that. "Very well." Kabuto, with the air of someone who practiced it many times, drew two cards from the deck. They were blank until he poured chakra into them. "Gaara no Subaku, son of the Yondaime Kazekage. On a team with his older brother and sister. He's had several A-rank missions, as well as B-ranks and even some S-ranks. According to my data, he's come through it all without a scratch." Then he showed them the next card. "Kabuto Yakushi, yours truly. Over 100 D-rank missions with some C-ranks. My specialties are the healing arts and Genjutsu."
Naruto decided to rattle this four-eyed man's cage. "Tell me about Otogakure, the Village Hidden in the Sound." If Kabuto was surprised, he didn't show it. He pulled out another card. It revealed a 3-D diagram. "The Village Hidden in the Sound; it's a relatively new village. As far as I know, they've only sent one team. In my opinion, they won't last the first round." Naruto was impressed how good Kabuto was at keeping his disguise. The Sound team, within hearing distance, would now probably attack Kabuto.
The assumption came true. The Sound team, dressed mainly in lavender and bandages, came forward. The leader's head was so covered you could only see one eye. He was wearing a brace with holes on his right arm. The other male looked arrogant, and for reasons Naruto couldn't guess, he had a hole in each palm. The Kunoichi had raven-black hair and had a senbon holster. "Are you insulting our village? You'll learn to stop that!" the leader said. He swung his brace at Kabuto, who dodged. Naruto heard a high-pitched tone, too high for human ears to hear. It escaladed whenever the brace was swung.
After two or three swipes, Kabuto was chuckling, until his glasses cracked and he started coughing up blood. Sasuke, whose eyes were still on "half-way Sharingan", had seen the sound waves, while Sakura just used her smarts to figure it out. Everyone else was left out of the loop. Before Kabuto could recover, a voice Naruto knew yelled out, scaring the shit out of everyone within a 100-yard radius. "Listen up you maggots; from now on your lives are mine!" Everyone turned to see a scared man wearing his headband like a bandana standing in front of about 10 or 20 Chuunin. "I'm Ibiki Morino, and I'm the proctor for the first third of the Chuunin Exam. Each of you shall draw a number and sit in the corresponding seat in the next room. I'll explain in there."
Eventually, everyone was seated in the next room. Naruto was sitting next to Hinata, who curled her leg around Naruto's. Naruto just let Hinata have her fun, since he had been seeing more of Sakura lately. Ibiki walked up to the chalkboard and wrote out the rules as he spoke. "The first stage of the Chuunin Exam is a 10-question test. For every wrong answer, you lose a point. If you are caught cheating by one of my sentinels, you will lose 2 points. You must have at least 5 points to pass. If any members of your team fail, you fail along with them. I will not give the tenth question until the last 15 minutes of the hour I give you. As soon as you receive your test, you may begin."
Naruto took his test and looked it over. For him, Sakura, and Shikamaru, this could be done by brainpower alone. For everyone else, they would have to puzzle out Ibiki's message and cheat without being caught. Apparently Kiba was smarter than he looked, because Akamaru was already barking "The answer to the first question is 13x5y/z" Naruto grinned, and then closed his eyes. He smelled the ink around the room. He focused his chakra to his nose, singling out a specific area. He fine-tuned it until he could read the characters the hidden Chuunin was writing through scent alone. Naruto smiled, and copied the answers. This was a breeze.
45 minutes later, Ibiki stopped the test for the tenth question. Naruto had alternated between amusing himself with everyone's cheating methods and making things more fun for Hinata. Kyuubi's mating season lasted 4 months, so Naruto was maybe a bit more aggressive than he meant to be. Luckily, Sakura didn't mind, since Hinata had hogged Naruto in the past, and Sakura had taken special alone time payback as well.
Around half of the teams had been eliminated by too obvious cheating. During a free moment, Shukaku sent a private message to Kyuubi. 'I've let him sleep, and have stopped messing with his head. Am I all clear?' Kyuubi sent a silent 'Maybe.' You could practically feel the anxiety rolling off Gaara.
"Okay, before I hand out the tenth question, there's something you should know. If you get it wrong, you automatically fail and your team cannot take the test or even apply of the Chuunin Exam ever again." Temari was too snappy to just mumble in shock. "What do you mean we can't take the test again? There are lots of people here who've taken the test before!" Ibiki smiled a smile that could make even Orochimaru's spine crawl. "The other times, I wasn't the proctor. Now, you can leave now or you can stay and risk being a Genin for the rest of your natural life."
Naruto had to give Ibiki his props; he played with your mind until it was you torturing yourself. Several teams left, not wanting to take the risk. Naruto was glad no one he knew raised their hand. After everyone who was going to leave left, Ibiki closed the door and smiled, this time in a kind way. "Congratulations, you all pass." Exclamations exploded all around the room. While Ibiki explained about how a ninja must gather information and think about his team first, Naruto went through a countdown in his head. '3…2…1…' At that moment, the window exploded. Four kunai shot out, pinning up a sign that said "Hello, I'm the proctor for the second part of the Exam."
Accompanying the sign was the infamous Anko Mitarashi. She wore a tan jacket; open, over fish-net covering. Her hair was in a short ponytail and was a dark purple color. She also wore one of the shortest skirts Naruto had ever seen. Before Kyuubi could even think, Naruto thought 'No way in Hell or Earth, you pervert fox.' Kyuubi just growled. Snakes weren't his type anyway.
"Hello, I'm Anko Mitarashi, and you're all dead." Then she actually surveyed her audience. "Ibiki, what did you do wrong? There must be 70 Genin still left." Ibiki sighed. "Anko, for once, could you pull off an entrance that didn't draw every eye for miles?" Anko just shrugged, making the free guys in the room stare even more at her assets as they bounced. Naruto shook his head, glad he was already taken.
"Listen, you little twerps: when I'm done with you there will be less than half of you surviving. Meet me at Training ground 44 tomorrow at 9:00." With that, she left the room out the gaping hole in the wall. Ibiki dismissed them, but not before showing them the scars his bandana covered. Naruto was glad he had hundreds of memories of carnage, or he would have been sick.
The next day, the remaining teams were assembled outside a large forest near Konoha. Naruto was just waiting when Temari walked up to him. "Um, listen. Whatever you did to Gaara, I'd like to thank you. He's practically a saint now, always helping us and trying to be nice. I just wanted to show my thanks for bringing me the brother that I should have had, instead of…" Temari stopped herself from revealing Gaara as a Jinchuriki. Then she leaned forward and kissed Naruto. He would have dodged, but that would have been inexcusably rude. Temari touched her lips, having felt the fur, but then she nodded, as if she had finally realized exactly what Naruto was.
When she walked away, Sakura walked forward. "Not thinking of leaving me and Hinata for her, are you?" There was an unmistakable tone of bitterness in her voice. "Never. Besides, I turned her brother from a killing machine to a kind person. A thank-you kiss is hardly going to steal me away." Sakura was silent, and then she said "If you can date both me and Hinata and still be the perfect guy, one more girl couldn't hurt." Naruto went hot, and then felt fuzzy, because Temari's kiss had the same spark as Sakura's and Hinata's. "Thank you for permission, but she's from the Sand. I can hardly date across countries." Sakura smirked, and said under her breath "It you can cross the village in the blink of an eye, a country shouldn't take more than 2 heartbeats."
This discussion of Naruto going from a 2-girl man to a 3-girl would have continued, had not a kunai just then been thrown at Naruto. He dodged as if this happened every day, and it did. Several times. Still, it served the purpose of drawing Naruto's attention. He turned, and then jumped away as Anko appeared, pressing herself to Naruto's back. Naruto said, once he recovered, "Bad form, Anko. I know you're the physical torture expert, but aren't the facts that I'm 12, the Hokage's adoptive son, and a boyfriend protection?"
Anko laughed. She didn't seem to mind the first-name terms. "I'm trained to do my job without caring about any of those barriers. But anyway, I was speaking, and you weren't paying attention." Naruto would have retorted that in fact he had been, and was simply able to talk to Sakura at the same time, but he kept his mouth shut. "As I was saying, this training ground is known as the Forest of Death." She stopped then, because she was being handed back her knife by a tongue. The tongue belonged to a Genin from the Grass country, or so they appeared.
Naruto instantly froze. It was just an outline, but Naruto saw through the jutsu to see the real person underneath. Orochimaru. The man who had killed over 100 Shinobi and experimented with their bodies. The man who had left the village. The legendary Snake Sannin. Anko took the kunai, apparently not seeing the "woman" for her old sensei. Naruto calmed himself, and resolved to report to Sarutobi as soon as possible. If he attacked him then and there, it would look like he was attacking a fellow Genin outside the Exam.
"Anyway, your job is to make your way to the temple at the center of the forest. You have a 5-day time limit, and you must reach the temple with both of these scrolls." She produced two scrolls, one dark blue and the other white, each with the kanji for either "Heaven" or "Earth". "You will be given either a Heaven or Earth scroll. You'll have to steal the other type of scroll from another team. If you open the scrolls at any point during the Exam, you will be instantly disqualified. Go to that stall over there to sign the waivers and receive your scroll as well as the number of the gate you will go through."
The waivers were pretty straightforward. Konohagakure was in no way responsible for any injuries or deaths that may occur during the Exam. When they turned them in, they received a Heaven scroll and the number 18. They went to the appropriate gate, and waited. Naruto kept his guard up, waiting for when Orochimaru struck. After a while, the Chuunin at the gate opened it and said "Good luck."
They stepped into another world. Everything seemed larger-than-life. The trees, the plants, the insects. That last part gave way for concern, as that implied the animals were gigantic as well. The team walked slowly, watching for disturbances. After about 10 minutes walking, Naruto detected a presence behind them in the trees. Reacting immediately, Naruto used his seal and flung Blood Fire at what he sensed. A Rain ninja popped out, barely avoiding the blade. Naruto used the seal again, and Blood Fire flamed into his hand.
"Nice trick, but I'm still gonna get your scroll!" Apparently the boy was confident he could do this alone, because Naruto didn't sense anyone else. Sasuke activated his Sharingan and drew a kunai while Sakura reached into her pouch…
(Flashback)
Sakura opened the case to find that a beautiful 20-petal Sakura blossom was inside. Next to it was another card. Sakura picked it up and read it. "I grew this specifically for you. You can control the petals with chakra, as well as replicate and harden them. Basically, it's an endless supply of shurikan by itself. Love, Naruto.' Sakura picked up the delicate flower. Experimentally, she poured some chakra into it. Instantly, the petals straightened, looking sharper than before. After a little trying, she separated the petals and controlled them in the air. Sakura smiled. "Thank you, Naruto."
Sakura pulled out the Sakura Shurikan, as she had named it. She separated the petals and sent them all towards the Rain ninja, making them split in half for double the projectiles. Without a prayer of escape, the Rain ninja was run through with 40 "shurikan" Sasuke delivered the coup de grace by ramming his knee into the Genin's face as he fell. He felt the cartilage give way.
Naruto reeled Blood Fire back into the seal. "Well done. See if he has an Earth scroll." Sasuke walked forward while Sakura reassembled the blossom. "Do you like it?" he asked her, with the air of one hoping he got the right gift. "It's perfect, just like you." Sasuke interrupted this little flirt session. "He has a Heaven scroll; we don't need him." The team walked forward, more cautious now.
After an hour of avoiding bugs and poisonous plants, it happened. Orochimaru showed up, still under the guise of a Grass ninja. "Well, well, I had hoped to pick you off one by one, but you seem to avoid all my traps." Naruto heard, like an undercurrent, the tenor of Orochimaru's real voice, while the soprano of his disguise held true. Naruto summoned Blood Fire, putting Sasuke and Sakura on alert. "I know who you are, so why don't you just drop the disguise."
Orochimaru seemed surprised, and then he grinned. He pulled off the woman's face, revealing his own, and ran a hand over his headband, revealing the Sound headband. "I must say I'm impressed. I was planning on taking the Uchiha, but maybe Sarutobi-sensei's adoptive son would be a prize too." Sasuke gripped his kunai tighter; he had resolved to right his clan's bloody ways, but he was still classified as merely "the Uchiha" instead of his own person.
"Well, let's begin." Orochimaru vanished into the trees. The team followed, staying in a defensive position. Out of nowhere, a giant snake appeared. Naruto and Sasuke impaled it with their weapons, but it disappeared in a puff of smoke. Naruto turned around, hoping his hunch was wrong. It was right; Orochimaru had Sakura by the neck with a kunai. "Move and she dies." Naruto gathered his speed, and snatched Sakura away before Orochimaru could react.
"What the…" Orochimaru looked shocked that anyone could move so fast. And that was pre-tail speed. With his guard down, Sasuke thrust his kunai into Orochimaru, but he dissolved into mud. The real Orochimaru appeared behind Sasuke, and bit him on the neck. Naruto's eyes widened and his muscles stiffened as he say Sasuke scream in pain and the curse seal that Naruto knew was Orochimaru's most powerful appeared on Sasuke's neck. Somewhere inside Naruto, something snapped. "He will come to me, seeking po—"He was interrupted by the chakra equivalent of the Big Bang.
In his office, Sarutobi was having a private smoke when it happened. A MASSIVE flare of chakra came from the Forest of Death. And then the shockwave hit. The chakra hit him almost as a physical blow, blowing him out of the chair and breaking every window in the office. Sarutobi was kept down under the pressure. He was sure the entire planet could feel this chakra. Finally, it went away, but only to group more heavily in a spot not too far from the village. "Naruto!" Sarutobi cried out.
For 50 yards around, every tree, big or small, had capsized from the brunt of Naruto's chakra. Of course, he wasn't really Naruto anymore. Unless a blindingly bright form that looked like Naruto made out of purple chakra counted as just plain Naruto. Orochimaru, who had been temporarily buried by the "explosion", got to his feet, his eyes wide at the feeling of all this chakra. It felt like a planetoid had hit Earth and decided to turn every square inch into chakra.
"W-What is this power?" Naruto laughed, and the sound echoed as far away as Konoha. "THIS IS THE POWER OF NARUTO NO KITSUNE, AFTER HE HAS COMPLETELY RELEASED THE SEAL HOLDING BACK 9/10 OF HIS CHAKRA!" Orochimaru's eyes widened. The boy would have been on par with him before, and now it was revealed that the boy had been at a tenth of his strength. Sakura, who had emerged with Sasuke in her arms, looked at Naruto with something akin to terror. 'What's happened to him?
Naruto summoned Blood Fire, and then turned to Orochimaru. "YOU PUT A CURSE SEAL ON SASUKE! FOR THAT, YOU SHALL PAY!"
(Octillionth of a second by octillionth of a second)
Naruto dashed to Orochimaru. He felt as if he didn't have a physical body anymore, that he was simply an embodiment of pure power. 'Careful Kit, you need to stay alive.' Naruto took what Kyuubi said and took a moment to consider how to banish Orochimaru to oblivion without disappearing into the ethers afterward. Finally, he decided on how to do it without scattering himself to the winds.
Instead of merely pushing all his power into Orochimaru and thereby destroying him, Naruto took a different approach. He came up before the snake, and then used the most powerful move he would do in his life. He flamed up Blood Fire and delivered 1000 strikes at a power level that would make a Kage's look like kid stuff. Then he doubled the power and brought down 2000 slashes. It continued in this fashion until Naruto had delivered 45,000 blows in all and had used enough power to destroy a planet, let alone one man. For all intents and purposes, Orochimaru was destroyed down to the subatomic level.
Naruto collapsed, having expended all his power in the assault. The last 100 slashes or so might actually had been slow enough to be seen. He heard Sakura cry out his name, but he had already retreated into the cold blackness that was the sanctuary of unconsciousness.
Sakura didn't know what had happened. One second Orochimaru was there, and the next he wasn't. She rushed over to Naruto. His cloak was gone, so she saw his full form. She was too worried to even process the fact that his only article of clothing was gone. She checked his pulse, and thanked every god in Heaven that there was one. Struggling, she picked him up, along with Sasuke, and fled for a place to rest.
Au revoir, Orochimaru. You are gone completely. Just a reminder, this was the result of the poll, 6-to-1. My update won't be for a while, as I will be busy with 3 other fics. Check for those, and review, as I really love it when you do.