When Kimimaro grabbed Hinata Gohan's first instinct was to rush over and knock him away from her but decided to wait and see how things would play out. If it came down to it he'd directly interfere, but if he could get her out of the pale man's grip without displaying any out of the ordinary skills it would definitely be preferable. His attention was quickly diverted when out of nowhere one of Naruto's clones came rushing out of the forest. That is, it felt like one of Naruto's clones until Gohan felt an anomaly in its energy and upon closer inspection found it to be an imposter. Before he could say anything though Naruto had already called the imposter out and in a puff of smoke the imposter was revealed. When the smoke cleared Gohan had to to stifle a gasp at the aura of utter corruption surrounding the man as well as his predatory appearance. The man wore the same clothing as Kimimaro, and had shoulder length black hair with the complexion of someone who hadn't been out in the sun for years. What truly struck Gohan as frightening however were the man's eyes. Where most people had whites, this man's eyes were yellow and his pupils were black and slitted, reminding Gohan of a snake's eyes. Gohan gasped as when he looked into the man's eyes his immense exhaustion was replaced with a feeling of utter terror, and suddenly he found himself witnessing his own gruesome death at his hands. The man gave the group before him a good looking over and took on an unpleasant smile when he caught sight of Gohan.
"Ah, you must be Gohan-kun. I've heard so much about you." Gohan's terror washed away in that moment, yet when he spoke his voice was raspy and he had a sudden and agonizing thirst. Somehow, he managed not to stutter.
"Who are you?" His response was a cold laugh that brought a shiver down Gohan's spine.
"My name is Orochimaru." He said nothing more as he walked up to Gohan and began circling him, as though scritinizing every inch of his body. "Yes, you are a fine specimen indeed. If I had not already found a body with an ability I need I may have chosen you to be my next container. Although since you've caught my interest after your fight with Itachi I have something I wish to give you, but first I must get us some privacy." He then turned to face the others and made a string of hand signs.
"Futon:Daitoppa! (Wind release: Great Breakthrough!) With startled yells, curses and a barely discernible utterance of troublesome, Naruto, Sasuke and Shikamaru were all sent flying away in different directions. Smirking, Orochimaru turned his attention back to Gohan and motioned to Kimimaro, who pinched a nerve on the back of Hinata's neck which effectively knocked her unconscious.
"Now that those pests have been taken care of we can get down to business. I've been informed by my servant Kabuto that you are seeking power, is that correct?" Gohan narrowed his eyes and clenched his fists.
"What have you done with the others, and why have you taken Hinata hostage?" Orochimaru raised an eyebrow at Gohan and looked as though the question had come as a surprise.
"You don't need to fear for your friends Gohan-kun. I simply sent them away so that they wouldn't interfere. As for the Hyuuga heiress, she will not be harmed either. This is all for the sake of deception Gohan-kun. This mission, as well as Hyuuga Neji's mission have both been set up to keep suspicion away from you. This is all for your benefit." This only served to make Gohan even more suspicious. It wasn't too difficult to figure out that he would be considered a traitor to Konoha if he were to go to Orochimaru willingly, but he didn't understand what it had to do with Hyuuga Neji, or Hinata for that matter. Sensing Gohan's suspicion and curiosity, Orochimaru explained:
"Kabuto has observed that you have grown attached to the Hyuuga heiress, so I had a follower of mine set up a mission that would require Neji-kun's skills with the byakugan while at the same time I set up this mission that would still benefit greatly from the use of a Hyuuga, ensuring that Hinata-chan was sent with you. The original plan was for Kimimaro here to run off with Hinata-chan while threatening her life if anyone but you were to follow. However it looks like my little trap aroused more suspicion that what I had planned for and so it has come to this. I'm sure you are wondering why I even care to bother keeping you out of suspicion correct?" At Gohan's nod he continued.
"As I'm sure you've probably guessed, I have something I need you to do in return for my helping you out should you accept." Before Gohan could say anything he raised a hand up in a placating gesture.
"Just hear what I have to say before you make any brash decisions. What I'm going to ask of you is something that would benefit your precious village in the long run. Yes, it benefits me as well which is why I am asking you, but keep in mind that I won't be asking you to do anything that would harm your village." Gohan's instincts were screaming at him to just grab Hinata and run, but this was an opportunity he couldn't just waste. Not if he wanted to get stronger. That didn't mean he trusted Orochimaru though.
"What is it you want?" Orochimaru grinned, glad that Gohan was willing to listen. If he accepted this could make things much easier for him in the future.
"I want you to kill Uchiha Itachi. That man has been a thorn in my side for too long and he must be eliminated. I would do so myself but his organization is already keeping me under close scrutiny as it is. If they were to suspect that I was going to move against them I would be killed. You however are of no importance to them and thus you could catch them off guard. This will be easier for you to accomplish while still a member of Konoha, which is why I went through all of this trouble to keep suspicion off of you. So what do you say?" Gohan closed his eyes and relaxed as he mulled it over in his head for a few minutes.
"So, what can you do to help me? Is it some sort of training? Is it a technique?" He caught a brief glimpse of a gleam in Orochimaru's eye that was gone as soon as he'd noticed it."
"I've been told that you recently had an altercation with Sasuke-kun, is that correct?" Gohan nodded, not sure where this was going.
"I've also been informed that you witnessed strange markings covering his body accompanied by a large leap in power. Is that also true?" Gohan again nodded, though a little more enthusiastically due to his curiosity overriding his prior reservations.
"That is a result of what I call my cursed seal. It is a seal that I would place on you that would increase your power many times over. I would give you that same power." Memories of Sasuke's bloodlust and loss of control sprang into Gohan's mind but he quickly dismissed them. Someone like Sasuke would be more likely to abuse such power, but he wasn't feeding his negative emotions like what Sasuke tended to do, so perhaps he'd be able to control the power better. Gohan still had one more question though.
"What are the risks for this power? Any power that would come this easily has to have some kind of risk to it." Inwardly Orochimaru was surprised that Gohan would ask such a question, but he gave no outward indication.
"Very astute question Gohan-kun. Yes, there are risks and I won't sugar coat it. If your mind is weak the seal will slowly eat away at your personality, turning you into nothing more than a bloodthirsty killing machine. However, judging from what I've heard of your battles that shouldn't be a problem for you. Sasuke-kun's mind is weak from his brother killing his clan off and then subjecting him to Tsukiyomi which is why he lost control when he fought you." Gohan mulled his words over for a minute.
"Okay, I'll do it." Orochimaru licked his lips in anticipation.
"Excellent. But first, I'm afraid we'll have to fight. Your teammates might find it suspicious if you somehow managed to get your friend back without a single scratch. Without warning a horrible weight descended upon Gohan and he suddenly found it difficult to breathe or even move.
'What is this feeling? It's not ki and I haven't learned how to sense chakra yet, so what could he be doing to cause this...pressure?' Without warning Orochimaru's tongue shot out to an unnatural length and wrapped around a stunned Gohan's neck. Orochimaru slowly made his way over to Gohan while chuckling sinisterly.
"What's the matter Gohan-kun? Where's the skill you showed against Itachi?" Gohan ignored him and eyed Kimimaro, who still held onto Hinata. While he didn't think that he'd been lied to, he still didn't trust these two not to try something funny, so he resolved to get Hinata away from Kimimaro before he had a chance to actually harm her. While he was distracted though, Orochimaru took advantage of his lack of attention and threw several kunai at him.
"You shouldn't let your guard down so easily Gohan-kun, you could get hurt." At the last second before impact however, Gohan disappeared from sight, leaving the kunai to embed themselves in a tree behind him and causing Orochimaru to grin in anticipation as he brought his tongue back into his mouth.
"It looks like I'll get to have some fun with you after all." He heard Kimimaro let out a grunt and turned to him only to see that Gohan had knocked him unconscious and had taken Hinata from him. He took Hinata to a safe distance away from the fight and quickly returned to an amused Orochimaru.
"Now that our little distractions are out of the way maybe you can take this fight a little more seriously Gohan-kun. How about we make things a little more interesting?" Gohan could only watch on in horror and disgust as Orochimaru tilted his head back and a snake emerged from his mouth with the hilt of a sword sticking out of the snake. After he'd pulled the sword out, he swung it around a few times to warm up.
"How do you like my sword? It's called the Kusanagi, and it wants to taste your blood." As Orochimaru said this, he slowly melted into the ground and when he next spoke his voice seemed to be coming from all directions.
"Can you defend against my attacks if you can't see me Gohan-kun? Let's see how well you fight against an enemy you can't find." Gohan closed his eyes and relaxed his stance, focusing solely on the energies around him. When he located Orochimaru's energy signature he found him to be...
"Below!" Gohan leapt to the side as the ground beneath his feet exploded outwards in a mess of dirt, leaves and twigs and before Orochimaru could even blink an invisible force slammed into him, sending him through several trees before his momentum ran out and he crashed to the ground in an ungraceful heap. He was instantly on his feet though and with an unnatural show of flexibility bent his back so that his torso was parallel to the ground in order to dodge a vicious right hook that could have shattered his jaw. As soon as Gohan retracted his fist Orochimaru bent his back even farther until his hands were touching the ground, leaving his body in a momentary upside-down U shape until he brought his legs up in an attempt to catch the boy in the chin. It would have worked had Gohan not spun to the side just enough for the leg to pass mere centimeters from his face. Orochimaru wasted no time in pushing off the ground with his hands to leap over the glowing energy sphere which hit a tree and blew it to splinters. Orochimaru turned and gawked at the remains of the tree.
'What sort of attack is that? Was that a blast of pure chakra? No, there's no way for the boy to have enough chakra to be throwing it around like that and I would have sensed it. Yet it has to have been an energy of some sort because I could feel the heat radiating off of it.' So focused on the odd attack was he that Orochimaru failed to noticed a second energy blast until it slammed into his back with concussive force, sending him through the space where the destroyed tree once stood and into another one several feet behind it. Before he could even slump to the ground though Gohan appeared next to him and connected an earth shattering punch directly into his face which sent him crashing through half a dozen trees before he finally came to rest. Gohan once again appeared by him to press the attack further but was shocked and more than a bit disappointed when Orochimaru melted into a pile of mud. Gohan stretched out his senses in an attempt to locate Orochimaru, but to his surprise couldn't find him. His brow furrowed in concentration as he put more and more effort into finding the Sannin's energy signature, but no matter how hard he tried, it almost seemed as though he'd disappeared off the face of the earth.
'Where is he?' Something prickled in the back of Gohan's mind and he focused on it, and to his horror, Hinata had awoken and was quickly closing on his location. He grunted in annoyance.
"Damnit Orochimaru I don't have time for this!" Cruel laughter echoed throughout the forest seemingly from all directions, making it impossible to determine its point of origin.
"What's the matter Gohan-kun, can't you find me? And it seems like your friends are all closing in on us. What will you do?" Gohan narrowed his eyes and scanned over a larger area and cursed again as he realized that the others had finally regrouped and were also heading this way, though it seemed they were performing a large sweep of the area as they moved. He cursed under his breath just as Orochimaru's energy signature once again caught his senses...right below him. His eyes widened in surprise and he jumped into the air in the hopes of avoiding whatever Orochimaru was planning. His jump was executed a little too late though and a fist caught him directly under his chin mere moments before a long tongue wrapped around his waist and threw him into a tree.
"Gohan-kun!" Gohan looked up to see that Hinata had finally reached the battlefield.
"Stay away Hinata! This place is dangerous!" There was a chuckling in his ear.
"You should be more worried about yourself Gohan-kun." Gohan suddenly found himself bound in place and being pushed forward as Orochimaru somehow came out of the tree that had been behind him.
"Go find the others! Hurry!" Anything else he might have said was cut off by a searing pain in his shoulder. He almost didn't hear Hinata shriek over his own agonized scream. He looked to his left shoulder to see that Orochimaru had dug his fangs into the spot where his shoulder met his neck. He screamed again and brought his hand up to clutch the spot where he'd been bitten when Orochimaru let him go and turned him around so they were face to face.
"Wha...wha..." Gohan uttered weakly. Orochimaru licked his lips in anticipation.
"That is my gift to you Gohan-kun. I hope you enjoy it." He watched with glee as the seal started to take shape. Suddenly the pain in Gohan's shoulder increased tenfold and he fell to the ground and started rolling around.
'It hurts!' Another tortured scream tore itself from his throat as liquid fire ran through his veins. He rolled back and forth, smacking at himself in a desperate attempt to put out the fire that singed his insides. Ignoring Orochimaru, Hinata ran over to Gohan's side and tried to look him over to see what was wrong. She called out to him, desperately trying to get him to tell her what was wrong but he couldn't even hear her, couldn't see her. Noting existed to Gohan but the white hot fire that threatened to consume him whole. He could almost feel his bones turning to ash and his organs liquefying as his blood boiled. Then it all stopped.
"Hinata watched with relief as Gohan finally stopped thrashing around when the pain finally became too much and he passed out. Knowing she wouldn't get far carrying him, she sat down in the grass and put his head in her lap, trying to make him as comfortable as she could until the others found them. To aid them in their search, she pulled out a smoke bomb and tossed it as high as she could, followed by a shuriken that upon impact ruptured the smoke bomb and detonated it., hopefully alerting the others to her location. She gasped when she realized that she'd forgotten about Orochimaru and made a quick scan of the area, but to her surprise, she and Gohan were alone.
Shikamaru was annoyed when one of Naruto's clones interrupted his searching.
"What do you want Naruto, we don't have time to waste you know." The clone rolled its eyes but relayed the message it had been sent to deliver.
"The boss spotted a smoke cloud about half a mile in the direction we're heading. He's already sent another clone out to let Sasuke know." Shikamaru nodded his thanks and picked up the pace as he sighed inwardly.
'This mission has turned out to be more troublesome than it's worth. I just hope Gohan and Hinata are alright.'
It only took him about two minutes to find Hinata and Gohan, with Naruto and Sasuke arriving shortly after. Immediately upon seeing Gohan's condition, everyone gathered around him and Hinata.
"What happened here?" Shikamaru nearly flinched at the worried expression on Hinata's face.
"I...I don't know. I was knocked out and...when I woke up he was fighting Orochimaru a..and he b...bit him. If I had been stronger..." Naruto was quick to cut her off.
"No Hinata, this isn't your fault. Orochimaru is a Sannin, there's nothing you could have done." Hinata nodded slowly, but it was clear she was struggling to hide her worry.
"W...we have to hurry back to Konoha, h..he's got a really high fever." Shikamaru cursed under his breath.
"I wish there was a way to get a message back so they'd know to be ready." That's when Naruto got an idea. Shikamaru and Sasuke looked at him strangely when he bit his thumb and went through several hand seals. He placed his bit hand on the ground and with a puff of smoke a human sized toad appeared, earning a stare from Shikamaru, who hadn't seen Naruto fight Gaara and a glare from Sasuke who was being reminded that Naruto was no longer inferior to him. Shikamaru quickly recovered and pulled out a scroll, writing down the situation before handing it to Naruto who sent the toad to Konoha at top speed to deliver the message to the gate keepers. The toad was already out of sight after several seconds had passed.
"Let's get going guys, Gohan's not going to get better from us just sitting here gawking." The others nodded and after Naruto summoned two clones to carry Gohan they set off for Konoha as quickly as they could.
Izumo and Kotetsu were bored. No, even bored wouldn't begin to describe the monotony of watching the gate all day long while various Konoha nin left and entered the village as they set out for or completed their missions. Their peace was about to be disturbed however. Looking up from a book he was reading, Izumo looked out into the forest to see a blurry figure approaching. He nudged Kotetsu, who'd fallen asleep. The chunin was instantly alert and looking about to make sure he hadn't been caught by the wrong person. Izumo chuckled a bit at his alarm but pointed him towards the forest.
"Looks like someone's in a hurry." His partner just shrugged his shoulders indifferently.
"It's probably just another jounin returning from a mission. No reason to get all worked up." Izumo shook his head as he strained to see the still blurry figure as it came farther and farther into focus.
"I don't think so. I can't really tell from this distance but the form doesn't look human." After a few moments of staring, his eyes widened in surprise.
"I think it's a toad!" Now this caught Kotetsu's attention.
"Is it one of Jiraiya-sama's summons?"
"I don't know, but we'll find out soon enough." Within another minute the toad landed harshly in front of their guard shack, kicking up a cloud of dust that sent the two chunin into a coughing fit. When the dust cleared, they saw that it was an orange human sized toad with blue spots and battle armor. It turned to them and lowered its head so they could see the scroll it was carrying. Kotetsu got up and approached it cautiously, wary in case it turned out to be a trap. He took the scroll from the toad's back, after which it dismissed itself in a puff of smoke. Kotetsu took it back into the shack and he and Izumo scanned it for foreign chakra or anything else that might mean a trap. Kotetsu slowly opened the scroll and upon reading it his eyes widened and he turned to Izumo.
"I've got to get this scroll to Hokage-sama!" At Izumo's curious look he showed him the scroll and Izumo ushered him out of the shack.
"You get that scroll to Tsunade-sama! I'll wait here for them." Kotetsu nodded and with a hand sign body flickered out of the area.
Tsunade stamped probably the thousandth paper of the day and had just started reading the next one with a depressed sigh when Kotetsu suddenly barged into her office, nearly shaking the entire room from the force he'd put into throwing the door open. Her first instinct was to yell at him and start throwing things at him for just barging in like that but that died when she saw the serious look on his face and the scroll in his hand. He hurried up to the desk and sat the scroll down. She frowned up at him.
"What's the meaning of this Kotetsu?" He bowed to her in apology.
"My apologies for my abruptness Godaime-sama, but Izumo and I just received this scroll via messenger toad. It relates to team Shikamaru and their mission to escort Orochimaru's escaped prisoner." Tsunade nodded and her eyes widened in shock at the message.
"Shizune!" It only took a moment for Shizune to make it to her master's office.
"What do you need Tsunade-sama?"
"Find Jiraiya and tell him to meet me at the west gate as soon as possible. It looks like our old teammate has struck again." Shizune wanted to argue that as Hokage she shouldn't just leave the village like that but the look in Tsunade's eyes brooked no argument so she quickly bowed and hurried off in search of the only other Sannin still loyal to Konoha. After she left, Tsunade stood and walked over to the window behind her desk to peer out over the village.
'Just what are you planning Orochimaru?' She stood there watching the village for a moment longer before turning and leaving the room. She had medical supplies to gather, after all.
Fifteen minutes later found Tsunade approaching the west gate with a confused looking Jiraiya waiting for her.
"What's with the rush? Shizune interrupted my research and told me to meet you here and that it was urgent. Care to elaborate?" Tsunade developed a rather nasty looking facial tick but managed to refrain from pounding her former teammate into the dirt. Taking a breath, she explained the situation.
"I just got a scroll from Shikamaru. Apparently the mission his team was sent out on turned out to be a trap, and our possible informant turned out to be one of Orochimaru's subordinates. It said that Orochimaru took Hinata captive and separated all of the team members save for Gohan, who he attacked and is now suffering extreme pain and a high fever." Jiraiya's face turned grim.
"But those are..." Tsunade nodded.
"The very same symptoms Sasuke was reported as having when he received the cursed seal." Jiraiya cursed.
"We'll have to prepare for anything then. When Sasuke got his cursed seal, it was around the same time that Orochimaru attacked the village." Tsunade nodded gravely.
"I've had Shizune order all Chunin and above ninja to be on high alert for suspicious activity. If he is planning something in the village, we'll find it before he even thinks about trying it. Also, we're going to have to keep this under wraps. If the village found out that he's on the move again it could destroy morale and possibly leave us vulnerable to attack." Jiraiya nodded and they both took off at top speed toward the valley of the end.
Well, after a little more than two months here it is. I know this chapter isn't quite as long as some of my others but this just seemed like a good spot to leave off. As always, please let me know what you think.
Also, for those of you who actually like this story, I would recommend reading Gohan's dilemma by WingedFreedom622. Gohan's dilemma is another DBZ/Naruto x-over that is leauges better than mine. Anyways, I've got another chapter to write, so see you then!