Along Came a Symbiote
Author's Note:Sorry for the long wait, you can thank killjoy for giving me the extra omph to finish the chapter.
IMPORTANT: Alright Haku is male, someone said there is no proof but if any of you own or have seen the the collector books, they state that Haku is male. And if you don't you can check Narutopedia, a site that has all the information from the collector books. I have nothing against female Haku being paired with Naruto, I don't like gender bending but I have nothing against it either.
That being said enjoy the chapter and please leave a review. The better quality and more reviews I get, the more I'll feel like working on this story.
Chapter 4:Let the Exams Begin
It had been nearly a month since the events of Wave and Naruto made his way to the psychiatric ward of the hospital. Haku was in room one-forty-two and Naruto was making his weekly visit. When team seven and team ten returned after their A rank mission, Naruto waited till only he and the Hokage were the ones in the room when he made his request.
It was a simple request; give Haku therapy so that hopefully he would one day be able to move on with his life. The Hokage only asked for one thing in return and that was for Naruto to visit Haku's room at least once a week, a request that Naruto easily accepted.
Signing in at the front desk Naruto made his way down a hall before opening a door on his right. Haku registered the door opening and watched as Naruto came in, taking a seat on a chair nearby.
"Hey Haku, how they treating you?" Naruto asked.
Haku looked out of the window, ignoring Naruto's question.
The feminine male's lack of attention didn't discourage Naruto as this had been how Haku had become ever since Zabuza's death. Only one person could get any emotion out of Haku and that was hate, hate for murdering the one he called master.
"Yeah Scarecrow gave us forms to sign up for the Chunin exams this morning." Naruto said while smiling as he saw the angry look on Haku's face form at Naruto new nickname for Kakashi.
Ever since he learned that Kakashi had two healthy eyes, he changed his nickname for the man to something that would fit. In the end he took the meaning of his sensei's name to create his new nickname, much to Kakashi's dismay.
"If all goes well we'll be Chunin soon."
Haku still didn't respond though he removed the snarl from his face. Naruto got up and walked over to Haku's chart.
"Patient refuses to cooperate. We believe a Yamanaka would be more effective at helping." Naruto read off the chart.
Naruto shook his head. "Haku, you don't want a Yamanaka searching through your mind. Once they find out that you killed your parents they will want to discuss it with you."
A frown appeared on Haku's face. "Why did you bring me here? Why did you ask your Kage to put me here, to help me?"
"We were hoping to give you a new start. Possibly a new life. What would you do without Zabuza?"
Haku didn't hesitate with his reply. "What I want to do now. Die."
Naruto let out a sigh before exiting the room. He had tried time and time again to help Haku only to receive either silence or a talk similar to the one he just had.
Once outside Naruto leapt onto the nearest building before making his way through Konoha. After swinging and leaping two miles Naruto spotted team ten heading towards a barbecue restaurant. Seeing them Naruto jumped to a building in front of them before using one of his tendrils to lower himself.
Team ten spotted Naruto and waved towards him. This had been another change in his life after the Wave mission. Shikamaru had taken an odd interest in Naruto and Ino had begun to see what Sakura saw. Choji took a bit longer to warm up to Naruto as he was still sore over Kakashi's copy of Make out Paradise being read out loud during their training.
"Hey Naruto what are you doing here?" Shikamaru asked.
Naruto shrugged his shoulder. "Nothing much. We just got back from visiting Haku."
Ino perked up hearing about the young man. "So any changes in his mood?"
A shake of Naruto's head was all that was needed in response.
Deciding to change the subject Shikamaru spoke once more. "Troublesome. So, is team seven signing up for the Chunin exams?"
Naruto nodded."As far as we know. Then again Sakura could decide she isn't ready."
"Want me to go goad her into participating?" Ino asked.
"Thanks, but no. If Sakura decides she isn't ready to participate then we won't push it."
Ino shrugged her shoulders. "It's your call. Well we were about to eat. Feel like joining us?"
Naruto gave a nod and followed them in.
Once done eating Naruto began heading home as he saw nothing else to do. As usual a meal with team ten involved fighting over food portions as the Akamichi had begun shoveling the food into his mouth the second he thought it was done. Naruto and Choji had almost gotten into a fist fight over the last piece of grilled beef. Just as the thought of slamming the large kids face into the grill occurred, Ino intervened and ate the last piece. The fact that she had taken the last piece had shocked both teens to the point that they hadn't been able to react in time before she swallowed it.
Taking his mind off the meal he just had, a fence surrounded street caught Naruto's attention. There he saw two Suna nins and his teammate Sakura with a few kids. One of the Suna nin, a fifteen year old male, wore what appeared to be a black one piece ninja suit with a cat like cowl over his head while purple war paint crisscrossed over his face. On his back as a bandaged contraption and he held one of the kids off the ground by the scruff of his shirt.
The second Suna nin was a female around the same age as the first that wore a light purple off the shoulder garment that went down to her knees while what appeared like a full body mesh covered her exposed shoulders and stopped at her thighs with one of the legs going a bit further than the other. A red sash wrapped around her waist and a large folded fan was wedged between her back and her sash. Her hair was a sandy blonde and was put in an interesting style of four bushy pony tails in the back while two bushy bangs stopped at her teal eyes.
'You have to admire a deadly woman with style.' thought Naruto.
As Naruto watched what happen from his comfy spot on the roof, his only real question was how he was going to intervene. Sneak up behind the pair and scare the hell out of them or jump down in front of them and scare them none the less. A look at their head bands helped Naruto's decision.
'Must be here for the Chunin exams; better not show anything I don't want them to know.'
"Kankuro let's go, we're going to be late." said the blonde Suna nin.
Kankuro just waved her off. "Just a second Temari, I want to teach this kid a lesson."
Sakura was going to make another attempt to defuse the situation when the little kid began yelling.
"Do you know who I am? I'm the grandson of the Hokage!"
"I don't care who you are kid. You don't go around bumping into others without apologizing." Kankuro replied.
No one saw the slowly growing shadow that appeared in front of Kankuro. Naruto didn't even try to make his landing soft and instead purposely hit the ground as hard as he could. A spider web of cracks appeared beneath his boots and Kankuro fell on his ass from the surprise.
Naruto ignored the make-up wearing nin and looked at the small boy.
"Konohamaru! What have we told you about abusing your status as the Hokage's grandson?"
The now free boy began cowering. "That if you ever c-c-c-caught me doing it again y-y-you wouldn't just dangle me over the Inuzuka hounds pen as you did the last time and would t-t-t-throw me in, c-c-covered in bacon."
"Good, now why shouldn't we keep our promise?" Naruto asked.
At this point Kankuro had gotten back and his feet and pointed at Naruto. "Hey asshole what's the big deal?"
Naruto turned his attention on Kankuro. "Shut it make-up boy, we'll deal with you in a sec!"
Kankuro gave a growl as he prepared to reach for the bandaged contraption on his back only for a rock to smash into his knuckle.
Without look, Naruto point a balled up first towards one of the trees and shot a ball of his symbiote from the back of his hand. All eyes turned towards the tree Naruto pointed at only to find Sasuke on one of its limbs, struggling to get the black goop off of his mouth.
"Sasuke the men are talking right now. Please don't butt in again." Naruto said followed by some laughter.
Sasuke for his part simply glared at Naruto, unable to shout his rage with the black substance covering his mouth, while Sakura attempted to scold Naruto.
"Naruto why did you do that? Sasuke was only trying to help!"
'Yeah, help his ego. If he hadn't decided to act cool we could have seen what make-up boy had hidden away there.' thought Naruto.
A new presence appeared in the tree Sasuke was in and only Naruto seemed to sense him.
"Sasuke get out of that tree NOW!"
Despite his ego, Sasuke obeyed and jumped over to where Sakura was. Everyone gave Naruto a weird look while he simply glared at the tree. His glare suddenly shifted from the tree to the spot behind Temari and Kankuro where a cloud of sand dispersed to reveal a short red headed teen.
Following his gaze, both Suna nins seemed to freeze in fear.
"G-Gaara." said Temari.
Gaara carried a large gourd on his back and wore a full body suit like Kankuro's except short sleeved and brown. A large leather strap that held the gourd up wrapped around his body diagonally while white cloth wrapped around the other side of his body, intersecting with the leather strap. His green eyes had raccoon like rings around them and the symbol for love seemed to have been tattooed in red ink on the left side of his forehead.
Naruto didn't let his guard down one bit, and was ready to defend himself and his team at a seconds notice. He might not have been the nine-tails jinchuuriki anymore, but his symbiote had spent enough time studying the tailed beast to recognize the foul chakra of it and its fellow demons.
Naruto and Gaara stood and stared at each other for a good two minutes before Gaara turned to Kankuro.
"You are pathetic Kankuro." before turning around and walking away Gaara looked towards the Konoha nin. "I'm sorry for my brother's stupidity. Temari, Kankuro, we're leaving."
Kankuro began sputtering in response. "B-But Gaara."
"Kankuro… shut up or I'll kill you." This had succeeded in quieting the make up wearing boy and Gaara turned to the Konoha group once more as if forgetting something.
Pointing towards Naruto, Gaara asked a simple question. "What's your name?"
"We are Naruto. And We will be seeing you soon!" he said, making sure to put emphasis on we.
A manic grin appeared on Gaara's face. "We? Hehehe, yes we will be seeing each other soon."
With that the Suna nins walked off and disappeared from sight. Sakura looked towards Naruto confused. She had never seen him this hostile except for Sasuke and even then he never showed this level of seriousness.
Naruto reached over to Sasuke and ripped off the small piece of symbiote before leaving. Sasuke had managed to hide the pain that was caused from the symbiote being ripped off so abruptly and was wondering the same thing Sakura was wondering.
'What got Naruto so concerned?'
The next day
Sasuke floated in the air for a few seconds before gravity seemed to return to normal and he plummeted to the wooden floor. At the last second Sakura appeared beneath him and broke his fall.
On the wall across from them, Naruto sat stuck to the wall and focused on the one responsible for Sasuke's fall. A teenage boy only a year older than Naruto stood in a green skin tight body suit with orange leg warmers and bandages wrapped from his knuckles up to his forearm. His black hair was in a bowl cut while his eyes took on a circular fashion and his thick eyebrows hovered above them.
His name was Rock Lee, and he had just beat Sasuke in three moves. The only thing that had stopped him from knocking Sasuke out and truly claiming victory was a pinwheel that had been thrown at one of the loose bandages and pegged it to the wall.
They had been heading to the room where the first part of the Chunin exams would be held when Rock Lee had stopped them and challenged Sasuke to a fight. Sakura had been worried about the time they had to arrive and Sasuke had confidently said that the fight would only take five minutes.
'Yeah! Five minutes to get your ass handed to you!'
A turtle suddenly appeared next to Lee and soon a bizarre scene began as an older carbon copy of him appeared on top of the turtle. At first Lee was punished and then the two began some weird hug.
'We get that it's weird but why do Sakura and Sasuke seem so disturbed?' thought Naruto as he was oblivious to the genjutsu behind Lee and the new man.
After that fiasco they arrived in front of the designated room and found their sensei waiting for them only to be told that if Sakura hadn't decided to join then they wouldn't have been allowed to continue. Which Naruto thought was hilarious by the fact that if she didn't Sasuke would have gotten his ass kicked for nothing.
Once their talk with Kakashi was over they entered the exam room. Instantly everyone in the room turned their gazes towards them. Naruto simply brushed off the stares and instead watched how Ino leapt onto Sasuke's back, much to his and Sakura's displeasure.
"How can he not like the feel of a woman pressing onto him?" Naruto asked out loud.
"Because it's troublesome." Shikamaru stated.
Turning around, Naruto saw Choji and Shikamaru standing nearby. Naruto let out a chuckle before waving them over.
"Glad to see that it wasn't too troublesome for you to come."
Shikamaru shook his head. "Oh it's troublesome alright. It's just more troublesome to deal with the repercussions of not coming."
Naruto let out a laugh. "Typical."
Three new presences approached the group and Naruto smiled as he saw Shino, Hinata and Kiba.
"Well Shino, it's been a long time since we've seen you. How have things been?"
Shino fixed his sun glasses before answering. "Depends on how you look at it. Peaceful would be a word to describe it yet dull fits just as well."
Hinata blushed as she began to speak. "H-H-How ha-have you been N-Naruto?"
Naruto shrugged his shoulders. "Things could be worse. Gotta say, life's been good for us."
The other rookie Genin began to be drawn towards Naruto conversation. Kiba saw all the other rookie Genin and decided to boast.
"Well looks like we're all here. Too bad for you guys we're going to win this."
Sasuke let out a "Hn." before making his reply. "Like we'll lose to you."
While the rookies were conversing, Naruto was looking around the room and noticing all the other participants were beginning to stare at them. One guy wearing purple pants and a matching sleeveless shirt over a white short sleeve shirt. He wore round circular glasses and his hair was gray with two bangs hanging over his leaf head and the rest pulled into a low pony tail.
"You guys should quiet down. You're bringing too much attention to yourself and that's not good. Especially for rookies' fresh out of the academy like yourselves." said the glasses wearing Genin.
"Who are you?" asked Sasuke.
The glasses wearing Genin chuckled. "I'm Kabuto, but that's not what you should be worrying about. Take a look behind you."
The Genin stopped talking and turned their attention to the rest of the room and saw what Naruto saw.
The attention seemed to unnerve them while Naruto didn't even seem affected.
"Almost everyone here is nervous about the exams, so quiet down. Then again I can't blame you clueless rookies, you kinda remind me of how I used to be."
"Um Kabuto, is this your second try at the Genin exams?"
A nervous scratch of his head was his first response. "Actually this is my seventh. There are two exams every year, so this is my forth year trying."
Naruto raised an eyebrow at this, but decided not to comment.
"Wow then you know a lot about these exams." Sakura stated.
Kabuto nodded. "That's right. Here take a look at these." he said as he pulled out a deck of cards.
Pulling one of the cards out, he placed it on the ground before rotating it with his finger and pumping chakra into it.
"These are my ninja info cards. I have over two hundred cards with info on every ninja. Four years of data."
He stopped spinning his card and a puff of smoke appeared and dispersed to reveal a card showing a chart of ninja villages and their statistics. Kabuto then began to talk about the different villages and mentioned a recently started village known as the sound and stated that not much was known.
Sasuke decided to step forward. "Do you have any info on Gaara of the sand and Rock Lee of the leaf?"
"Seeing as you know their names it shouldn't be too hard to find them, though I should warn you that not all the data will be perfect."
Pulling out the two cards, Kabuto proceeded to pump chakra into them till their data was visible and explained their info. Naruto gave Kabuto an odd look.
'Something isn't right. We understand why he would have information on old participants. But why does he have information on participants that have never taken the exams.'
Naruto decided to test something. "We'd like to see the information on Naruto Uzumaki of the leaf."
Everyone gave Naruto an odd look and Kabuto was beginning his procedure. When the card let off a little smoke, Naruto's hand snatched it off the ground before anyone could see it.
'What the hell. There's no way he should know this. This information shouldn't be this accurate.'
The data on the card displayed Naruto immunity to genjutsu and listed his camouflage as a jutsu. Naruto's many escapes from Anbu and other official ninja was stated as well. Various other pieces of information was on the card that while true, Naruto never openly showed it or even revealed it except to the Hokage. The Hokage most likely made a report of his skills and hid it in his desk. So how did Kabuto get ahold of it?
Everyone waited for Naruto to reveal his card, but instead he pocketed it in his jacket and walked away.
"I guess I won't be getting that card back." Kabuto stated.
Naruto suddenly sensed three people quickly pass by him and head straight towards Kabuto. He did nothing and watched as the sound nin attack. One boy threw two kunai at Kabuto's feet, an obvious distraction as another teenage boy with bandages dashed forward and swung his fist in a hook. Kabuto dodged this only to fall over and puke.
Luckily everyone was too focused on Kabuto to notice the grimace that formed on Naruto's face. When the sound nin swung his arm and the contraption let off a high pitched whistle. Naruto felt his skin crawl or to be more specific his symbiote, the sound wasn't strong enough to really hurt him, just sting.
Naruto knew he had two weaknesses that revolved around his symbiote. Fire which was his lesser weakness and high frequency sounds, his larger weakness.
Shortly after the attack, a loud voice boomed over the room and several Konoha nins appeared in front of the room.
"Quiet down you bastards! I'm Morino Ibiki, the examiner for the first part of the exams." said a black trench coat wearing nin.
The Genin had been randomly placed at desks in the room and each handed a written test. Ibiki explained the rules before giving them the go ahead to begin. Ten minutes into the test Naruto had already discovered the hidden meaning in Ibiki's words and soon turned his test over.
The next second Naruto jumped from his desk to the desk in front of Ibiki, standing in a squat in front of said man so they were at eye level. The Chunins in the room all tried to move but Ibiki's raised hand told them to do nothing.
All the Genin stopped working on their test and watched as the two in the front of the room simply stared at one another for what seemed like forever.
Sasuke and Sakura were too shocked at their team mate's actions to even form thoughts. He had done some brazen acts before, but never something like this.
After a while Naruto's mask seemed to grin. "Does this count as an offense to your rules?"
Ibiki returned the grin. "Well seeing as I don't have the answers I don't think so. If you chose to waste your time, that's your business."
"It's a good thing we're done then isn't it." Naruto stated.
"How'd you finish so quickly?" Ibiki asked.
Naruto snickered. "Cheated."
A few Genins simply looked at Naruto dumbly, especially his team mates.
'Did he just admit to cheating?' was the collective thoughts.
Ignoring the stares at his back, Naruto continued. "You know the old man once threatened us with you."
Ibiki raised an eyebrow. "Old man?"
"The Hokage. He promised that if we didn't calm down when we were young, he'd set up a meeting between me and you."
"You're Naruto Uzumaki, aren't you?" Ibiki asked.
A nod was his response.
"Well I've heard plenty about you."
"Have you heard that we don't play other people's games?" Naruto asked, his voice full of mirth.
"I've heard that you like to step on some toes."
Naruto chuckled. "More like stomp."
Some of the Chunins began calling names and removing Genins from the room as they had been caught cheating five times.
Naruto gave a brief glance behind him before continuing his talk with Ibiki.
"We've heard that you're an interrogator. Got anymore scare tactics other than the ones you've presented so far?"
Ibiki just grinned. "Sure, maybe you will get to experience some of them when you screw up in the future."
"Ha, highly unlikely considering we've never been caught unless we've allowed ourselves to." Naruto stated.
One of the Chunins threw a kunai at a Genin's test paper. "That's five times; you and your team are disqualified."
"What, do you at least have proof that I cheated?" yelled the Genin.
Suddenly the Chunin appeared next to the Genin and slammed him against the wall while saying a few condescending words.
Naruto shook his head. "You know he has a point. If you're going to accuse him of cheating you should at least have proof. It would only be right that the Chunins set an example for us Genins. "
Another Chunin disappeared before everyone's eyes and appeared next to Naruto hoping to repeat the action of his colleague. Unfortunately as he made a grab for Naruto, the blonde Genin ducked at the last minute allowing the Chunin's grab to pass over him. Without missing a beat Naruto's hand grabbed the back of the Chunins head and slammed it into the desk, knocking him out cold.
"Speed doesn't mean anything if you are predictable. So Ibiki, does that count as an offense?"
Ibiki chuckled. "I guess I should count that as strike one."
Looking around the room, Ibiki began noticing how several of the Genins were sending Naruto cautious looks. He began rubbing his chin as he thought over Naruto's actions.
'I know enough about you Naruto to know you're not stupid. So why have you been doing this?'
A few more minutes of thinking and Ibiki openly laughed. Confusing many in the room.
'I can't believe what you did. So simple, yet effective. You've managed to shift the fear I've created here onto yourself. It's not like you won't see the other participants in the later parts of this exams. By staring me down and challenging my authority, you've shown that you have the guts to take on stronger, older opponents. I bet you even backed up that Genin's protest in order to get one of the Chunins to attack you.'
Checking the clock, Ibiki realized that it was forty-five minutes into the test.
"Alright it's time to answer the last question. But before that we need to determine whether or not you'll take it."
Temari stood up and asked the question everyone was wondering.
"What happens if we don't take it?"
"Then your points will be reduced to zero and you will be removed from the exams."
"Then of course we'll take it!"
An evil grin appeared on Ibiki's face hearing this. "But if you take the test and get it wrong, then you will never be allowed to take the Chunin exams again and will forever be a Genin."
There were several protests from random Genin.
"You lot got unlucky to have me as an examiner!"
Accepting their fates, some Genin began leaving. Naruto simply let out a laugh.
Ibiki turned his attention from the Genin still in their seat to Naruto, who was still on his desk.
"What's so funny?"
"We'll wait for a few more to leave before telling you."
More teams began to leave and Ibiki kept glancing at Naruto waiting for him to spill it. It was only after twenty-six teams remained Naruto decided to talk.
"I highly doubt any Kage throughout the lands would follow your rule Ibiki."
Several Genin's eyes widened in realization. A quick scan through the room showed Ibiki that no one was leaving. He smirked before shocking many by congratulating them. Naruto ignored Ibiki's explanation of the exam and the meaning behind it. Being told what he already knew was boring and pointless.
A sudden whizzing sound caught his ears and Naruto leapt up and stuck himself to the ceiling in time to dodge a large black projectile that shot through the window. The projectile unrolled into a large banner and kunai's flew out to stab the corners in place.
Naruto didn't pay attention to what was written on the banner and instead focused on the women standing before it. The back of her medium purple hair was tied in a wild high pony tail and her eyes were light brown. The tan trench coat failed at hiding her slender curves and her modest bust, especially when the only thing hiding them from view was a short sleeved body mesh similar to Temari's and a short rust orange min-skirt.
The feral grin and seductive look in her eyes told Naruto she knew full well what her outfit did to the male population. A few other accessories was present on her body such as grey shin guards on her legs, a blue belt wrapped around her skirt, and a peculiar necklace hung from her neck. It looked like a fang of some sort was the necklaces weight yet Naruto couldn't tell what kind.
The fanged necklace brought Naruto's focus back to her bust and he couldn't help but openly comment.
"Damn, what a view." he whispered.
Despite his whisper, the woman known as Anko heard him and looked up to see Naruto with his back towards the ceiling, using his hands and feet to stick to the surface.
"Like what you see?" she asked in a slightly seductive tone.
Naruto only nodded before an alarm went off in his head and he proceeded to disappear from his spot as a few kunai took his place. Anko looked over to a corner of the room and gave Naruto a grin that promised pain.
"Here's a warning to any teenage boy's with raging hormones. I. Hate. Perverts."
Ibiki watched with much amusement as Anko led the group of Genins away. Walking around the room, he began gathering the tests. Picking up one of the tests he saw Naruto's name on it. A blank look formed on his face.
"That little bastard didn't even answer a single damn question!"
After Anko had given her warning and led the group out to a fenced area, she began to explain the objectives and rules of her exam much like Ibiki did. Turned out that it was a survival exercise along with another main objective that included the gathering of two different scrolls.
Before the exams began Anko began handing out forms that alleviated Konoha of being responsible for the deaths that could occur inside exam or to be more specific the training area forty-four, AKA The Forest of Death.
Naruto looked at the forest and gave a chuckle as he was more than pleased with the newest exam. Mistaking Naruto's chuckle as a mockery of the forest, Anko threw yet another kunai at him. Naruto for his part didn't bother dodging and instead allowed the kunai to graze his cheek. A small sliver of blood spilled from his slashed mask but was soon removed by Anko.
"It's care free guys like you that end up spilling that delicious blood all over my forest." Anko stated.
Naruto felt a shiver crawl down his spine. The shiver wasn't from fear, rather it was from excitement. While he predicted that Anko would appear behind him, he never sensed her nor did he expect her to clean the blood off his cheek using her tongue.
'Wow that was rather hot.' he thought as he began to notice other things, such as the closeness of her body and her breathe tickling his ear.
Anko suddenly shifted her body so that she brandished a kunai towards a grass nin behind her. The grass nin was an odd one, odd because her tongue had stretched to unbelievable lengths, which held Anko's thrown kunai in it.
"You shouldn't sneak up behind me." stated Anko in an overly friendly voice.
The grass nin chuckled. "Sorry but I just wanted to give your kunai back, it cut my hair. And I love the sight of blood."
Anko forced a friendly smile. "Thank you, quiet a blood thirsty bunch we have this year."
Afterwards Anko left and Sakura walked over to Naruto. "Geez she's such a weirdo. You alright Naruto?"
Naruto was still watching Anko walk away. "We like her!"
Sakura shook her head and only sighed. It would only be natural for Naruto to like someone as odd as their present examiner. Once everyone had turned in their forms, each team was guided behind a curtain before being given their scroll and guided to a gate.
While they waited, Sasuke decided to try and gain authority.
"Alright I'll hold onto the scroll. We should focus on at least reaching the halfway point first and then set up an ambush."
"We have no problem with your plan, but we'll hold onto the scroll." said Naruto.
Sasuke held onto the scroll of heaven tightly, obviously not prepared to give it up.
"I'm the strongest all around in this group Naruto. You might have me beat at taijutsu, but you have no genjutsu, and your ninjutsu is academy basic. If the enemy were to discover that I had the scroll I'd be able to defend it better."
Naruto was about to argue, but Sakura chose to step in. "We have to be able to trust each other. How else are we going to get through this?"
"We trust Sasuke to save his own ass when the going gets tough and you to help him in his time of need." said Naruto.
Sakura flinched at the way Naruto saw her. When Naruto saw that Sasuke didn't have any plans of giving up the scroll, he dropped the subject.
The signal went off for them to begin and team seven began their mad dash for the halfway point. The forest was like many that surrounded Konoha. Large trees, plenty of shadows, only difference Naruto could find was the sound of abnormal animals and insects. A few screams echoed through the area and Naruto snickered.
'Guess there have been a few unlucky encounters.'
A bit later team seven had their first encounter with a foreign team. After Naruto went to relieve himself of his bodily fluids, a fake came by and tried to attack the team. Naruto returned in time to see Sasuke chase away the imposter.
After this little event Sasuke had decided to come up with a password that Naruto called asinine. Shortly after the creation of the password a torrent of wind blew across the area threatening to send all in its path flying.
With interest Naruto noticed that the wind was solely focused on him. So when the piece of ground he glued himself to was beginning to give, Naruto decided to humor who ever was so determined to split him from the group and see what was planned for him.
The powerful wind sent him soaring several miles away. Deciding he had enjoyed the free ride enough, Naruto grabbed a passing branch and allowed his momentum to send him somersaulting to the ground. Once standing , he allowed his awareness to spread through the forest. The sound of kunai's whistling through the air was the greeting he got. As soon as he leapt back to dodge the simple weapons, an image of another person with his palms pointed forward entered his peripheral vision.
"Decapitating –"
The teenage boy was cut off as Naruto dashed from his current spot to in between his arms. Suddenly Naruto wrapped his arms around his fellow teenagers, preventing him from moving away. Naruto recognized the sound nin in front of him and quickly proceeded to lift his legs off the ground and plant them on the nins chest. Allowing gravity to take effect, Naruto fell on his back only to roll back and used his legs to send the nin flying towards the female of the group, who was trying to sneak up behind him.
Predicting the third members attack approaching, Naruto wasted no time in flipping back on his feet. Sure enough a third member was dashing towards him. Naruto back flipped just in time to kick the mummified nin in the jaw. Unfortunately the kick wasn't enough to stop the contraption on his opponents arm from ringing and Naruto landed on his knees with his symbiote shaking.
The pain he felt this time was far worse and he had to shakily get up. The three sound nins stood a few feet away from him and Naruto instincts forced him to take in more details of them.
The sound ninja seemed to have a dress code of sorts as all three wore urban camo scarves around their necks with matching baggy pants. Instead of just regular blue shinobi sandals the group wore black ones that seemed to have shin guards attached to them and their sound head bands tied across their foreheads.
Naruto listened carefully as they conversed and picked up on their names.
The one who stood in the middle was Dosu, the apparent leader. His head was all wrapped in bandages except for the spot around his left eye. A lavender shirt with overly long sleeves was his choice of upper wardrobe and for some unforeseen reason he wore a shaggy fur on his back.
The second male of the team was Zaku, the one Naruto had tossed. His black hair resembled Kakashi and two metal plates bordered his jaw line. A beige short sleeve shirt with the kanji for death on it adorned his upper body while two black pieces of cloth covered his forearm tightly. A closer look at his hands revealed two pipes sticking out of the middle of his palms.
The last member of the team was Kin, The female of the team. Her forehead protector kept her long black hair out of her face while it ran down her back. Unlike her male teammates she wore some armor in the form of a pale green flak jacket. Just as Zaku did, she wore a similar pair of black cloths around her forearm.
Finally the sound nin had decided to strike and Naruto had been given enough time to recover. Kin started off by acting as support and began throwing senbon. She formed the perfect distraction, especially with the bells tied to some of the senbon to make Naruto focus on them.
Though these projectiles distracted him it didn't prevent Naruto from dodging Zaku's Decapitating Airwaves. These two were not the ones Naruto was concerned with as he was waiting on Dosu to strike the entire time.
Finally Dosu decided to make his move and appeared in Naruto's blind spot. Sensing a presence behind him Naruto spun around and aimed to back hand Dosu. A mistake that Naruto regretted making as Dosu simply blocked with his sound device, the melody arm as Naruto learned it was called.
The instant his hand hit the melody arm, a loud reverberating ringing was let loose. The portion of his symbiote covering his arm was blasted away and Naruto entire suit shook violently as Naruto covered his ears and screamed.
He took a few steps back as he tried to gain control over his symbiote. While this happened the sound nins watched Naruto with confused faces. Dosu gave his melody arm a quick glance before a smile could be seen through his wrappings.
"Zaku blast him." Dosu ordered.
Said sound nin didn't hesitate as a vicious grin appeared on his face. "Decapitating Airwaves!"
A large blast of air was shot from Zaku's hands and headed towards Naruto. Despite Naruto's pain, he leapt back in time to only be nicked. The nick sent him hurtling and Kin decided to follow up with a few senbons. Naruto shrugged off the thrown projectiles as he decided to focus on his real threat, Dosu.
Unfortunately the sound nin predicted this and used his other two teammates as a means to keep his distance. Seeing that Naruto wasn't slowed down enough, Dosu slammed his melody arm against a nearby tree and used his chakra to magnetize the sound created.
Once more Naruto's symbiote shook violently and Naruto himself began screaming in pain. Small pieces of his symbiote fell off as dead cells, leaving Naruto's clothes looking torn. The pattern repeated once more before one of Zaku's air blasts hit home and sent Naruto flying away through several branches.
The sound nin quickly followed after, only to find nothing.
"Where'd he go?" asked Zaku.
Dosu looked around, studying the surrounding forest with sharp eyes while Kin was busy listening for the tiniest sound. Having experiences with different sound based jutsu she could hear the breathing of a living person and even their heart beat if she was close enough.
Unknown to them, Naruto was only a few feet away. He stuck to one of the trees using his back and limbs. One his hands were held forward and the majority of his symbiote extended from it leaving him nearly nude except for a few small bits of black ooze. His symbiote had formed a small dome over him and was camouflaging them as merely a part of the tree. Luckily the dome also served as to prevent any noise from escaping though Naruto could hear the sound nin perfectly through his symbiote.
"Come out here you freak!" yelled Zaku as his bloodlust was getting the better of him.
Dosu seemed to give up. "Let's go. Orochimaru told us to only stall him."
Warning bells went off in Naruto's head. 'Orochimaru! Why would he try to have us ambushed, better yet, what does he want with our team? Gotta get back and help.'
The female shook her head. "You sure about that Dosu? This could easily come back to bite us in the ass."
"Don't worry Kin. If he decides to face us again we'll kill him easily." Dosu brandished his melody arm. "We know his weakness."
Kin didn't feel any better about the situation but didn't argue.
"Damn! Just when I was enjoying myself!" stated Zaku before following his team.
Once Naruto was sure they were gone he allowed himself to slide down the tree he was on. The symbiote slowly began returning to him and formed his clothes again. Due to the damage done to him and his symbiote, several holes and tears littered his clothes.
'Have to rest first, we can't help anyone in this condition.'
Naruto leaned against a tree as he waited for his strength to return.
The second he could begin jumping from tree to tree, Naruto took off. Unfortunately this had only given him around five minutes of rest. He was still slightly shaking but he wasn't letting that stop him from being cautious and stealthy. A piercing scream filled the forest and Naruto decided to trade in a little stealth for more speed.
He arrived in time to see Sakura crouching protectively next to a kneeling Sasuke, a figure standing on a branch parallel from them. Sasuke was screaming in pain while one of his hands was grasping the side of his shoulder.
A better look at the other figure revealed him to be none other than Orochimaru. Naruto merely thought the title snake charmer referred to his snake like abilities, but a first hand look at him revealed that the man resembled a snake in many ways. The best way to describe his skin was to compare it to the pale under belly of many snakes and his eyes were yellow and slit. Orochimaru's body was thin and his face narrow with a barely visible nose. So far his only human looking quality was the long black hair that covered his scalp.
"What did you do to Sasuke?" Sakura yelled.
"Kekeke, I've merely given him a gift. Soon he will seek me and then I will teach him how to use it." said Orochimaru before sinking into the limb of the tree and disappearing.
Naruto thought on the choices present before him. He could either tail Orochimaru or look after his team. Looking down at Sakura he couldn't help but feel for her. She looked helpless and the realization that dawned on her face only increased her grieve. Despite this he felt that tailing Orochimaru was more important. He hated leaving her like that, but he trusted her enough to protect Sasuke.
With that thought in mind Naruto left.
Despite having disappeared, Orochimaru wasn't untraceable. Naruto jumped from tree to tree soundlessly as he followed the sound of the snake charmer slithering from tree to tree. By now he and his symbiote had recovered from the sound attacks and Naruto could move once more without worry.
Naruto made sure to keep a distance from Orochimaru without losing him. Some would wonder how an S rank missing nin could not detect a Genin such as Naruto. The secret behind this mystery was once again because of the symbiote.
It couldn't just make Naruto soundless, but it did give him a sensitivity that allowed him to feel the different tempature degrees that flowed from spot to spot. Much like a bird used pockets of hot air to fly, Naruto would use these same pockets to move through more quiet as the warmer air molecules passed around him with more ease than cooler ones.
This alone didn't allow Naruto to travel silently but it did help give him an advantage over others.
Naruto suddenly stopped when a new figure entered his vision.
'Anko?'
Sure enough the purple haired proctor stood on one of the thick tree limbs. Naruto was confused at the sight and merely considered her appearance as a coincidence until Anko began talking to Orochimaru and soon began fighting him.
At first Anko seemed to have a chance of fighting on equal ground, but soon the fight turned sour when she was assaulted by some unknown pain, kneeling on the tree limb. The similarity between how Anko was in pain in front of him and how Sasuke was moments ago wasn't missed by Naruto.
He cursed as he moved closer to the two and prepared to strike. When he tailed Orochimaru he hadn't planned on fighting the missing nin. Naruto was confident in his skills, but he wasn't stupid enough to think he could actually take on a ninja of Kakashi's caliber or above. He had merely wanted to tail him and report his findings to the Hokage.
A tree limb above Orochimaru's and Anko's was Naruto's current position. As if preparing to jump to another tree limb, Naruto ran towards the edge of the limb before jumping. While still mid-air he shot a line of symbiote onto the tree branch he had just jumped from. The line stuck and instantly stretched as Naruto hovered in the air for a few seconds before gravity took affect.
Orochimaru had heard the sound of air being displaced but hadn't reacted in time before Naruto thrust both of his feet forward and kicked him off the large branch. Anko eyes widened as she recognized Naruto.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Anko growled out between gritted teeth.
Naruto ignored her question as he was more focused Orochimaru was. He couldn't see him, but he knew better than to assume that Orochimaru would leave after only one kick.
Several snakes extended from a bush of leaves and wrapped around Naruto's torso. Orochimaru had tried to pull Naruto off the tree limb, but the chakra on his feet kept him glued to it.
A quick spin of one of Naruto's hand had gathered all the snakes in his grip. He thought about using his superior strength to yank Orochimaru, but threw the idea away in favor of ripping the snakes apart. Naruto wanted to stall Orochimaru and trying to fight the man in an obviously lost battle wouldn't help.
A piece of bark a few steps away from Naruto began morphing and Orochimaru rose from the limb.
"So tell me Naruto. Did you enjoy the welcoming party I sent you?" said Orochimaru, a smug sense of amusement filling his voice.
"Your guests were most unwelcomed. And we plan to make you pay!" Naruto replied with partial anger.
He could only blame Orochimaru for setting up the hornet's nest, it was himself who knew of it and decided to kick it regardless. His main concern at the moment was to make Orochimaru believe he was just an angry Genin. Hopefully the image would make Orochimaru not take him seriously.
The snake Sanin turned into a blur and Naruto tilted his body just in time to dodge a two finger strike to his shoulder. Orochimaru's assault didn't end there as he followed up with several more kicks and strikes. Naruto stayed on the defense, hoping to be able to throw in a counter-strike, but with how odd and unpredictable the strikes were he was finding himself unable.
An over powered sweep kick left Orochimaru open and Naruto flipped forward, slamming his heel on top of Orochimaru's skull. Naruto wasn't surprised when a long tongue suddenly wrapped around him, especially with how Orochimaru's body in front of him turned to mud.
Lifted off the ground, Naruto was brought to a branch higher up and met face to face with the real Orochimaru.
"You did better than I thought you would." Orochimaru admitted as he began performing hand seals.
Not wanting to find out what the hand seals were intended for Naruto began trying to rip the tongue off of him. Unfortunately the tongue was too slippery for him to grab. Feeling himself brought closer to Orochimaru, he looked at the man and watched as he the Sanin's digits were covered purple flames.
The hand was thrust forward and connected with Naruto's stomach. A blinding pain was expected by both parties and Naruto was surprised that the worst that happened was having the wind knocked out of him. He looked down at the hand that was still connected with his stomach and waited for something else.
"That should take care of the nine-tails." Orochimaru stated with a chuckle.
With Naruto staring at his hand, Orochimaru was unaware of Naruto's consciousness and was unprepared when Naruto acted. Two hands clamped down on his shoulders and a knee slammed his mouth close, causing his teeth to sever his elongated tongue.
With the tongue severed, Naruto began falling towards the forest floor. He used his freedom to remove the no longer living bindings and shot out a tendril of symbiote. His thread carried him to a nearby tree where he immediately hid himself.
Orochimaru's curses could easily be heard, how he wasn't dying from blood lose was beyond Naruto.
"I will get you for this you damn brat! Fortunately for you I don't have anymore time to play, but know this,we will meet again and I will make you suffer!"
Silence filled the air and a few minutes passed before Naruto began making his way back to Anko. He did not find her on the branch he originally saw her on and instead found her on the forest ground.
He dropped down and landed in front of her, causing her to jump into a sluggish fighting style before she recognized him.
"Geez, don't just surprise me like that." she said as she dropped her stance.
Naruto couldn't help but chuckle. "We apologize for scaring you."
Anko scoffed. "Don't kid yourself, you didn't scare me. So what happened with Orochimaru?"
"He retreated. We assume you've warned Anbu considering you decided to take him on." Naruto stated.
Anko nodded in response and was going to explain the situation when a thought occurred to her.
"Hey! Where's your team?"
"I left them back a mile or so. Decided that tailing Orochimaru was more important than this exam." Naruto replied.
"Look you should get back to your team. Orochimaru mentioned….. doing something to Sasuke. Chances are he's in no condition to fight and with you here that only leaves bubblegum to protect him. Anko stated.
Naruto laughed at Anko's nickname for Sakura. "Sure you'll be ok on your own?"
Anko raised an eyebrow. "What, you concerned about me?"
"We don't know how bad the pain that mark on your shoulder causes, but from our point of view it isn't the most pleasant." Naruto pointed out.
She unconsciously raised her hand over her curse mark. "I'm ok, you should worry about yourself. You're hiding it well but I can see that you're favoring your right side."
"We'll be fine in a few minutes, wasn't able to dodge all of his attacks. You sure you'll be ok?"
Anko gave a short laugh but haughty laugh. "I'll be fine. I'm a Tokubetsu Jonin, a little pain in my neck isn't going to leave me defenseless."
"In that case we guess we'll see you at the tower." Said Naruto before leaping away, leaving no sound to indicate he was even there.
Author's note: I had trouble with this chapter. I wanted Naruto to be strong, but at the same time I didn't want to over power him. I never really like it where Naruto can take on ninja like Orochimaru this early.
On another note, I've been considering having Naruto take on the name of Venom as a nickname of sorts and I would like it if people would let me know if they think it's a good idea. I already know how I would set it up for him to gain it, but I want to know if the readers would like Naruto to refer to himself as Venom.