The Pathless Sage

EDIT: The previous nonsense with the jumbled writing was a formatting error caused by transferring the text from Google docs to here.

A/R: Been a while since I last updated, and that's because a) I have been busy with some school work and some tests that I had to devote some time to, b) I have been training like a madman. I have a badminton tournament coming up and the cricket season is almost upon us, and c) I am having problems with my keyboard. It's being an utter biatch. Maybe I should ask my brother to get a new one?

On with the story!

Naruto tensed as he sensed a very familiar and a very large Chakra signature flare up close by. He didn't want to believe it, but it seemed like the snake was back, and he was up to his scheming ways if the violent energy being emitted was anything to go by.
Of course, Kiba and Shino weren't as attuned to Chakra as he was, even Hinata wasn't, so of course, none of them noticed anything. Naruto discretely created a Shadow Clone in the shadows, and after a quick Kawarimi, he took off into the woods. No one saw anything suspicious, but Hinata did look a little worried.

-TT-

"You would do well to assume nothing. Who said I am any less dangerous than Itachi?" As he said this, he began to feel off the skin from his face, revealing a chalk white, pasty face underneath.

It took all her resolve for Sakura not to puke at the horrific sight, and Sasuke barely held his own stomach in. He wasn't any stranger to the gruesome, he was a ninja, but even he had his limits. And tearing your own face off was as far as he could go before he had to draw a line. Of course, Zaraki wasn't fazed in the slightest. He had seen that routine before, and knowing the man with that sickly face, that was nowhere near the goriest he could produce. After all, Orochimaru of the Sannin specialised in the horrific.

"Who are you?" Sasuke asked. He had never seen a Bingo Book in his life, but he had his suspicions. The only one he knew of in this world that had that shade of white as a skin colour was Orochimaru, but he didn't want to believe he was up against a man regarded as the best of his generation.

Again, the stranger only let out an amused laugh. Sasuke bristled. "What's so funny? I asked who you are, now answer me!" The stress of the situation was forcing back some of Sasuke's old, arrogant habits. It was a part of him, despite all the effort he had put into changing, and all the beatings he had taken at the hands of Naruto and Zaraki. It was mostly facetious, but a beating was a beating.

"My name is Orochimaru. I am here to give you a present." Orochimaru said, a sick grin plastered across his face.
Sasuke knew he was going to regret it. He knew it. A present from someone like Orochimaru couldn't be a good thing, but he just couldn't stop the words from coming out of his mouth. "Fine then, just give me the damn present and get out of here!"

When he saw the fangs sticking out from a head attached to a rather long neck, he knew he was screwed. The man was too fast for him, even with his Sharingan. He had just blinked, and Orochimaru crossed well over a hundred feet of forest in all the time it took for him to open his eyes. And that was with just his neck!
Luckily for him, Zaraki had reacted the instant he had heard the words coming out of the other boy's mouth. Was he trying to get himself killed?

Zaraki let the serrated edge of his blade rip through the man's neck without a second though. He wasn't adverse to killing people, but he at least had a delighted look on his face when he killed someone strong. There was none of that now, because he knew killing Orochimaru wouldn't be that simple. A beheading had never stopped that particular Sannin.

While it wasn't enough to put the man out of commission permanently, there certainly was enough time for them to put some distance between them again. Sasuke and Zaraki did just that.

"What's wrong Sasuke-kun? I thought you wanted my present?" Orochimaru asked, even as his head was reattached to his neck by black pythons.
Sasuke looked on in abject horror. "There is no way I want a 'present' that involves you biting my neck!" Sakura would have screamed something about someone else trying to 'kiss' her Sasuke-kun, under normal circumstances, but it hardly seemed like the appropriate time to draw attention to herself. She didn't want to get killed, after all. Zaraki, for his part, just took off his eyepatch and put it into an unseen pocket in his trousers. His demonic Chakra flared out like usual, but it seemed more controlled somehow. Like violence under the surface that was waiting to burst out, rather than raw violence itself. It stopped the feeling of oppression from the Chakra from spreading out too far, so hopefully, the other teams wouldn't notice too much of a difference.

"Well, it doesn't matter if you want to or not, you are getting my present one way or another. Whether I have to use force or not is completely up to you..." Orochimaru settled into a more grounded stance, preparing himself for a battle of attrition.

-TT-

Naruto arrived on the scene just in the nick of time to see Sasuke get bitten on the neck by Orochimaru. Sakura was nowhere to be seen, presumably in hiding, fearing for her own life. It seemed the girl had grown a brain at the wrong time. Zaraki was a little ways away, his back draped across a thick tree branch. Sasuke's face was contorted in pain, even as Orochimaru's fangs left his skin.

"You will seek me out, Sasuke-kun. To seek power, the power to kill your brother, to restore your family name. You will come to me, and you will beg for my power." Orochimaru said, before preparing to leave. Naruto intervened.

Jumping down from his perch, he landed neatly between Sasuke and the Sannin. Said Sannin turned his head a little, but made no gesture of acknowledgement. "What have you done to him, you slimy bastard?" Naruto's voice held no fear, despite the calibre of shinobi that he was standing in front of. If he were a weaker man himself, he might have quivered in fear, but he knew that fear had no place in a battle between shinobi.

"Me?" Orochimaru's voice sounded innocent, almost innocent. It was sickening to hear such a tone come out of his mouth. "I just gave him a little present, that's all." Naruto's blood boiled. He knew all too well what that would mean, he had heard enough about the sick man's experiments to make a rather educated guess about what he had done. Naruto just hoped that his 'best friend' survived. Well, his only real friend. Zaraki and he were more like brothers in arms than friends. Their relationship was one of pure survival instincts, but that's a story for another time.

"Don't screw with me Orochimaru," Naruto's voice dripped with venom. It would have been obvious to a newborn that he was mad, very mad. "What are his chances of survival? If it's anything under 100%, I might decide to kill you."

Orochimaru only laughed, before exerting a hefty amount of his KI. Naruto shrugged it off. "Don't overestimate yourself, Gennin! You are still a century too young to take on me, let alone kill me!" Orochimaru would have said more, if not for the pain that shot up from his torso. Looking down, he confirmed his suspicions. There was a massive hole where his heart was supposed to be.

"Don't underestimate me, Sannin. I am not the same Gennin as Zaraki and Sasuke," there was a crater near where Naruto was standing before, formed by a set of weights that were thrown down haphazardly. He figured he could collect them later, and a few craters wouldn't cause any problems in a forest.
"No, you are definitely overestimating yourself, Gennin," the voice came from behind him. Looking down, he saw that 'Orochimaru' had dissolved in a pool of mud. Naruto scraped the mud off his hands and turned around to face his adversary.

Orochimaru was not thrilled to be fighting Naruto. Outwardly, he was taunting him to make him think the difference in their skill was bigger than it actually was. Orochimaru knew it wasn't working, but he had to try it anyway. Despite his bravado, the ease with which Naruto put a hole through his torso was not lost on him.
Naruto sighed. There was no way for him to win. At least, not without telling Orochimaru of things that would come to bite him in the ass later or, worse still, sacrificing his life or the ones of those around him. After all, it was only Sasuke that Orochimaru wanted alive, the other two were disposables. "How about this? We both have better things to be doing, and you have already fulfilled your purpose. Let's call this a draw and we go our own ways. We meet each other again, and it's open hostilities?"

Orochimaru sighed too, but his was mental. He couldn't fight Naruto without alerting others of his presence, if he hadn't already. "Alright, we will call ceasefire for now. I will find more about you, rest assured, for you are too interesting to leave alone." Naruto only nodded, and made sure the Sannin was far out of the area before relaxing. A quick scan of the area revealed Sakura to be passed out behind a tree. Naruto collected up all the bodies and his weights, put them on and loaded up the bodies on Shadow Clones and set off towards the middle tower. He also set off a team of Shadow Clones to collect an Earth scroll for Team 7.
For the umpteenth time in the day, Naruto heaved a sigh.

A/R: Excuse me for the late update, and the short one. I am sorry for the inconvenience, but there is a lot to cover next chapter, and I am starting on it right now. So rest assured, the next chapter will be long and coming along shortly.
Please leave a review, it puts a big grin on my face.