The Chunin hopefuls stared apprehensively at the gates of the forest. There were all kinds of signs and chains around the fenced gates, and their message was clear: Enter at your own risk.
For Naruto though, it was merely a place with interesting wildlife. Past the fence he saw the tail of a centipede that was at least twenty feet long. If that was the insect life, it would be safe to say that any encounter with the other fauna of the forest would be memorable at the least.
Anko stood on a raised platform overlooking the Genin as she told them the rules, "Okay brats, this is Training Ground #44, primarily known as The Forest of Death. There is a tower in the center of the forest which you will need to get to after obtaining your cargo." she reached into the pocket of her trench coat and pulled out a pair of scrolls, "These are your cargo. Your teams will be given one of these scrolls, labeled either Heaven or Earth, and you must obtain their counterpart by any means necessary, before getting to the tower within a five day time limit. Opening the scrolls before entering the tower will disqualify you, and give you a surprise as well. You will need to sign a waiver that states that if you die, we aren't liable." she said with a smirk before noticing something.
Naruto had stopped paying attention, as he was looking into the forest trying to see anything else one could define as interesting. Suddenly, his senses warned him of danger, and he saw a kunai racing towards him. Instead of dodging like a normal person, he jerked his head towards it and caught it in his teeth. He turned around to show Anko, who had gotten behind him, her kunai in his mouth. He stared at her while clenching his jaws, and the knife cracked before shattering into sharp pieces.
Anko looked at him with a bit more hesitation before smirking, "Heh, seems like we got some crazy ones this year. But don't ignore me when I'm speaking, brat."
Naruto just stared at her with amusement as she walked past him and back to the platform.
"Alright, go up and sign the waivers , then grab your scroll from the same booth." she said while gesturing to said booth.
"Naruto, can you go get our scroll?" Sasuke asked.
Naruto shook his head and pointed at Sasuke, then the booth.
Sasuke raised his eyebrow but went and got the scroll anyway.
He returned and handed the scroll to Naruto, who still hadn't said a word. They moved to their assigned gate, and waited for the gate to open.
After about ten minutes, Anko spoke again, this time over the loudspeakers in the area.
"Alright, get your scrolls, get to the tower, and don't open them before you get there. Also, don't die."
The gates dropped down and Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura ran in like the rest of the Genin.
After a moment of running though, Naruto held up his hand to stop in a clearing.
"What's up, Naruto?" Sakura asked, but his response wasn't what she was expecting.
Naruto held finger up while he reached into his mouth and pulled out shard after shard of bloodied metal. When the last one was out, he looked at his team.
"That's much better." he said before he spit out some more blood.
"If that injured you, why the hell did you do it!?" Sasuke asked loudly.
"It looked cool." Naruto shrugged, "How many people have you even heard of doing that?"
Sasuke pinched his nose, "None, because intelligent life usually keeps sharp objects away from their mouth."
Sakura was still staring at him, "How did you even do that?"
"I work out." he replied cheekily.
"...With your mouth..." Sakura deadpanned.
"Especially with my mouth" Naruto grinned wider, "And I use my tongue to the best of my ability."
Sakura was horrified, "Ugh! Just shut up Naruto!"
Sasuke was looking at him strangely, "The hell is wrong with you?"
After a moment Naruto responded, "There may or may not be a large quantity of different species who all have their mating seasons around this time and area. And it would be ridiculous to suggest that I might be affected by their... emotions."
"My god dobe." Sasuke rubbed his temples, "Let's just stay focused on the task at hand."
Naruto nodded, but never lost his smirk. He looked around, then closed his eyes, extending his senses for something.
"The other teams are all spreading out. There are a lot fewer teams than I would have anticipated, but the numbers even out perfectly. This makes sure that half succeed, and the other half does not." Naruto trailed off as he noticed something, "That's... strange."
"What is it?" Sasuke asked.
"There was a burst of intent and chakra just now, but what's interesting was that not only were both closer to mine in terms of potency, neither the chakra nor the intent belonged to Shukaku. There is someone here who is far beyond the level of Genin." Naruto said.
"Whatever, you're probably making that crap up." Sakura said.
"Plus the fact that I can clearly sense Gaara's bloodlust from here, and it is in the opposite direction." Naruto's eyes widened as he tensed.
"Come on, we're leaving." Naruto commanded before he turned in the direction of Gaara's team.
Sakura was going to argue, but after Sasuke followed wordlessly she did too.
Naruto jumped into the forest and began hurrying in the direction he felt the fear.
"Naruto!" Sasuke shouted as they were running and jumping full speed across branches, "What's wrong? We should just leave that psycho to take out the other teams. Reduce the competition."
"Aside from the fact that most of the competition is from our own village, Hinata is there. And Gaara already killed those weaklings, but he isn't stopping." Naruto said.
"So? We aren't here for them. We're here for us." Sasuke argued.
"We're here to get promoted to better serve our village, of which they are a part of." Naruto stated firmly, "This is not a game. These are lives that hang on the scale, and it doesn't take more than a breeze to shift that balance and lose the weights. I am not so much a coward as to allow pain and death to take hold when I have the power to stop it. Are you?"
Sasuke's eyes hardened, "No."
"What about you, Sakura?" Naruto asked.
Sakura looked to him in surprise, "Well of course not."
"Then we're in agreement." Naruto said before he increased his speed, and the others followed.
After a few more moments of running they came into another clearing, but this one wasn't nearly as clean.
There were three corpses that seemed to have been crushed beyond recognition, and next to them stood Gaara and his siblings. But he wasn't looking at them, he was looking at the battered Team 8, who he was pummeling with whips and strands of sand.
"GAARA!" Naruto shouted as he jumped over the Suna team completely and landed in between them and the panting Konoha team.
"Naruto-kun!" Hinata exclaimed in surprise.
Naruto didn't respond, instead opting to turn and glare at Gaara, who was grinning in excitement. Sakura and Sasuke landed in the forest, and Sakura began helping Team 8, while Sasuke simply watched the scene play out.
"What do you think you're doing, you pathetic runt?" Naruto ground out.
Gaara chuckled, "During the first exam, Shukaku said you had taken an interest in this girl. I didn't believe him at first, but it looks like he was right."
"This is a new low, even for you Shukaku. What exactly made you think I wouldn't break you for attacking someone who I had 'taken an interest in' as you put it." Naruto said.
"Because you can't." Gaara said, "We're still stronger than you."
Naruto chuckled, his voice getting deeper with every breath, "'Still' implies you ever were. Has your madness twisted your mind that much? You were always the runt. The weakest of us."
Gaara's face contorted in pain, "STOP! IT HURTS! Let me kill him for you! It hurts me too much when you do it!"
His face relaxed and he smirked.
Naruto had enough. He began walking towards Gaara, channeling chakra into his right arm courtesy of his tenketsu, and his right arm began vibrating in intensity. After a moment the muscle strands beneath the skin began glowing violet, and the arm looked like it was about to crush itself.
Gaara lost his smirk when Naruto lunged forward, and raised a thick shield of sand to block the punch.
It didn't do a thing.
Naruto brought his arm forward and smashed it into the wall with so much force that the shield was blasted away.
Gaara looked at Naruto in shock and fear, but that feeling was nothing compared to the sensation of terror whenever Naruto's other hand wrapped around his throat. Naruto squeezed, and cracks appeared on his neck where his armor was breaking.
But just like that, it stopped.
Naruto threw him backwards onto his ass and glared at him, "Did you know that I was the reason you are even allowed to participate in these exams? Did you know that I persuaded the shinobi council of this village not to kill you under the premise that you were much stronger than you actually are? I told them that your chakra was comparable to Isobu, and that you were as strong as Son-Goku. You and I both know that you are not. That disgusting seal you created gave you another half a tail at most, and you know it. I made sure that in any event, I would be the only one to fight you. I made sure that, despite the Hokage and Jiraiya of the Sanin being more than enough to dominate you, they would not. Because I had a plan, you see. I created a plan that would not only allow you to be free, but to get rid of that seal as well. But now I think I should just seal you into a teapot again. What kind of basic insect goes after another's Chosen? Not even rats are that pathetic. Give me one reason why I shouldn't aid this village in sealing you permanently by powering a seal with my chakra."
Gaara was speechless and confused, but he realized Naruto wasn't talking to him.
'Gaara.' Shukaku said calmly, 'Perform the Feign Death.'
Gaara's eyes widened, 'But why? He's stronger than us. He'll kill us.'
'I don't want to fight.'
Gaara was completely confused now, but complied.
Temari and Kankuro started freaking out when he started performing a certain set of hand seals they knew intimately, but Naruto looked at them and raised a hand.
Gaara slumped and was still for only a moment, before he looked up at Naruto with golden eyes.
"Hello, Kurama." Shukaku said as he stood up with Gaara's body.
"Hello, Shukaku." Naruto said, "It's been quite a while."
"Yeah, but you don't care about that." Shukaku said.
"That's right. I need a reason." Naruto said.
"I don't have what you're looking for." Shukaku stated, "Even now it is taking everything to focus. I'm a lost cause. Go ahead and seal me, while I'm still alright. You won't be able to remove the seal, and you won't be able to free me. If I get out I'll either get captured again, or I'll go after one of you and get sealed then. Either way, I'd rather die, and a permanent sleep is the closest I can get to that."
Naruto smiled, "You are one of us, Otouto. That sliver of remorse when you spoke of attacking your siblings was all the reason I needed."
"What do I do? I can't stay like this forever. Eventually I'll lose it again." Shukaku said.
"I am going to have to charge your seal, at least until we have a solution to your curse." Naruto said seriously.
"...Fine, just do it. I'll be waiting." Shukaku said.
Gaara's eyes turned back to their teal color, and he collapsed. His eyes closed for only a second before they shot back open and he scrambled away, staring at Naruto fearfully the whole time.
"Gaara, calm down." Naruto said, "I need to see your seal."
"Why should I let you!? You can kill me! I should kill you first!" he screamed before he raised his hands to attack with his sand.
But the sand didn't move.
Gaara tried again, and the sand once again didn't respond. His eyes grew wide and he started hyperventilating, before his teal irises rolled up into his head and he passed out solely due to fear.
Naruto sighed, and reached down to pull off Gaara's shirt so he could access the seal.
He was stopped, however, when Temari held a kunai to his neck. He ignored her, however, and leaned forward regardless of the fact that the knife was biting into his neck. Temari pulled the knife away after she realized it wouldn't do anything.
Naruto lifted Gaara's shirt and searched for the powered portion of the seal on his stomach. He found it, and placed his finger on it to channel some of his chakra into it. The seal shone brightly for a moment, before dimming to a soft purple glow.
"He'll wake up in after a while. My team will accompany yours to the tower, we can talk there." Naruto said to Temari and Kankuro.
Kankuro scoffed, "What makes you think we won't just take your scroll too? It wouldn't hurt to have an extra one."
"Besides the fact that I would destroy you? We would have no problem taking out any other team in the forest, and there was another chakra signature I felt that was even more powerful than your brother's. Unless of course you would like to face someone stronger than Gaara, with Gaara knocked out. It's really up to you." Naruto said mockingly.
Kankuro went to argue further, but he was interrupted by Temari, "We accept. Everything you just said is a valid point, and we don't have much choice."
Naruto nodded, and turned to Team 8, "You follow as well. I'm not in the mood to waste energy on weaklings. With this many people there shouldn't be a problem.
Kiba nodded, grateful for Naruto's aid and just as spooked. He was, however, not keen on helping the Suna team for obvious reasons. Shino just looked at Naruto before moving on, making a mental note to have a conversation with him later.
Hinata was looking at Naruto with an unreadable expression. She just eventually decided to go stand with her team.
Naruto noticed, "Hinata, may I speak to you?"
Her head jerked her head back to him, before looking at the ground.
"Yes." she said almost sullenly, following him off into the forest.
Kiba and Shino exchanged a look. "Do you think we should follow them?" asked Kiba.
"No." said Shino, "I doubt Naruto would take lightly to our intrusion. And we don't want to upset him, given the newfound capability he just displayed." He looked into the forest where they left, "Besides, given the conversation he just had with that Suna nin, I don't think he'll do anything to harm her."
Naruto turned around and looked at Hinata, who was still staring at the ground.
"What's wrong, Hinata." he asked.
She stayed silent at first, before Naruto walked up to her and sat down so he was looking up at her. She took a step back, but Naruto grabbed her hand and stopped her retreat.
"Hinata. Tell me." Naruto said.
She stared at him for a moment, wondering whether she should tell him or not. But she pulled up her confidence and decided it was the best time to do so, "I... I'm confused, and conflicted."
Naruto remained silent, waiting for her to continue.
"I h-heard what you and that person from Suna said, and..." she trailed off, gathering her confidence, "And I'm happy. I admire you. You have been my i-inspiration. I watched you work so hard, even when you were pushed down, over and over. Nobody wanted to deal with you, but you decided to make them see. And when that didn't work, you just tried harder."
She looked down again, "But you're different now. You haven't been acting like Naruto-kun, it's like you're a different person. You're stronger now, but colder too."
Naruto listened, expecting this.
"You called me your 'Chosen'. Am I kidding myself, or was the meaning to that as obvious as it seemed?" Hinata asked.
"It was. It was in the moment, but I made the decision then and there."Naruto said, "I have gone through Naruto's memories, and I saw the way I affected you. I saw you watch me in class, I saw you get 'sick'." Naruto chuckled, "It seems like I was just stupid, but that wasn't it."
"That's what I mean. How can you say Naruto like you aren't him, but then switch to I as if you are?" Hinata asked.
Naruto hesitated for a bit, before gesturing for her to sit. She complied, and he started his story.
"What I am about to tell you is an S-Ranked village secret, and can not be passed on to those who do not already know. The only exceptions to this rule are the Hokage and myself." Naruto warned.
Hinata's eyes widened, "This has to do with the Kyuubi?"
Naruto started, "How do you know about that?"
Hinata looked down and blushed, now she had to tell him. So stupid she thought, "I sorta... followed you... a lot. I was able to figure it out because of all the horrible things they said to you."
Naruto raised an eyebrow, "Then you know that I'm the Kyuubi?"
Hinata's eyes sharpened at him, then she shook her head and said strongly, "You are not the Kyuubi. You didn't kill all those people. It might be inside you, even if I can't figure out how, but that doesn't mean that you are the demon."
Naruto smiled, "That makes me happy, even if you're wrong now."
Hinata was confused, "What do you mean?"
"While Naruto wasn't the Kyuubi before, I am now." he said.
Hinata's face showed surprise, "But how is that possible?"
"I am not too sure about what happened exactly, but there was a malfunction in the seal then Kurama no Kyuubi and Naruto Uzumaki were fused into one person." Naruto explained, "I am still Naruto, but I am just as much Kurama. This is the reason for my behaviour, and why I just now noticed your feelings. Naruto never had anyone to teach him what affection like that should feel like, or what the signs to look for were, and denial also came into play. Naruto had a suspicion once or twice, but he couldn't believe it. I am getting good at categorizing the emotions I feel however, and I can tell you that Naruto was the cause of what I said to Gaara."
Hinata's head was spinning, "This is... a lot bigger than I thought it would be."
"We can speak more whenever you want, but right now we need to keep moving. I believe the only reason we have not been attacked is due to the three teams of shinobi in the area." Naruto said as he got up, offering a hand to Hinata.
Hinata nodded and took his hand with a blush as he pulled her up.
"You done fraternizing?" Kankuro asked, causing Hinata to blush and Naruto to glare.
"You know," Naruto said, "I think you are quite possibly one of the most annoying beings I have ever encountered."
Kankuro grit his teeth and was about to respond when Naruto pointed at the corpses and asked Temari, "What scroll did that team have?"
"Earth." she replied.
"And you?"
"Heaven."
"I see," Naruto said, "Hinata, what scroll does your team have?"
"Ano, we have Earth." said Hinata.
Naruto nodded, "Alright, Suna gets this scroll, we need to find two more Heaven scrolls then."
Sasuke grunted, "Don't be so bossy, nobody put you in charge."
Naruto ignored him, instead opting to focus on the emotions in the forest.
"There is an enemy team that way," he said, "They are not from Konoha. I have learned all of our Genin's patterns."
With that, the veritable army of shinobi followed Naruto in the direction he had indicated.
On the way he couldn't help but think about what he had said with Hinata. It was a very sudden decision on his part, declaring her his Chosen. It was irrational, and even stupid. It felt like he just walked in and said, "Hey, you're with me". Yet he couldn't figure out why he didn't feel it mattered. Perhaps it was due to how easy she seemed to accept it, though he figured she would react differently once she was given time to relax and think about it. Or maybe she didn't realize the full implications of that word. What was he thinking, of course she didn't! She wasn't a Tailed Beast or Chakra Animal, how could she possibly understand the ramifications of the statement? She was thinking in terms of human emotions.
He shook himself out of his thoughts when he realized that they had come to the location he had sensed the enemy Genin preparing a trap. There was nothing here though, and he got an ominous feeling as he looked around. The area was blanketed in the smell of fresh blood.
"Bringer of Darkness!" a voice called, and the entire group lost their sight. Naruto spun around when he heard several whistles before the sound of dropping bodies followed his comrade's cries of shock.
Naruto sent chakra rushing through him, and the shroud of black over his vision rent apart to reveal that most of his teammates were on the ground with senbon in their necks. The only ones who managed to dodge were Kankuro, Hinata and Sasuke.
He felt four malicious presences surrounding them, and he looked around to see the team from Oto plus one tall Kusa nin standing around him, with the three Oto holding senbon. Naruto growled deeply before readying himself.
The Oto shinobi paled and made to retreat, but one look to the Kusa nin made them rush in fearfully.
Dosu, the Genin covered in bandages, went after Kankuro. He figured the Suna nin was the strongest because he was the largest.
The girl, Kin, went after Hinata. She saw how delicate the Hyuuga heiress appeared to be and would take great pleasure humiliating and killing her.
Zaku, essentially Dark Kiba, went after Sasuke, as he wanted to prove his strength to his master and thought the best way to do that would be to beat the one who held his master's interest.
Naruto went to jump in, but was blocked by the Kusa shinobi. Naruto gave him a once over before realizing that this person was the source of the strange malice-ridden chakra he felt earlier.
He sighed, This isn't going to be simple.
Kankuro was dodging Dosu's attacks with an inhuman flexibility and methodic grace that was unexpected. The bastard seemed to be ignoring his gauntlet as well somehow.
Dosu glared at him, "You're doing well at this range. I'll just have to increase the power!" he shouted before pulling out a kunai and slamming the pommel into the gauntlet.
Kankuro raised his brow when the air around the gauntlet seemed to shimmer, but rushed Dosu anyways.
Dosu smirked past his bandages, and swung his arm at Kankuro.
A god-awful sound like an earthquake of rending copper tore through Kankuro's skull and sent him collapsing. He began contorting into different shapes impossible for a human skeleton to form, before 'Kankuro' stopped moving and his skin seemed to crumble off. The wrapped package previously on his back had started moving around before two hands ripped the bandages open and the real Kankuro rolled out of it.
Dosu got kinda freaked by his opponent when he collapsed, but then he saw Kankuro tear his way out of the package he was in and he realized he must have been fighting some sort of clone. Kankuro stood up and shivered, but didn't react otherwise, alarming Dosu.
"Ugh! That was horrible, what the hell hind of weapon is that?" Kankuro shouted.
Dosu narrowed his one visible eye, "Why are you not affected?"
"Oh I was." Kankuro said, "Were you doing that the whole time? Holy crap! now I'm really grateful for the seals on the wrapping, though I've got to replace it again."
"You have seals for suppressing sound?" Dosu asked. Was this Genin somehow informed about his abilities?
"Chakra absorbers mostly, but there's one or two sound dampeners as well, I cant have major distractions when I'm controlling Karasu." Kankuro said.
"Karasu?" Dosu repeated.
The puppeteer held out his hands and chakra threads shot from his fingertips and attached to the puppet that had been masquerading as him earlier, "Lets see how you do against a Bunraku wielder!
Sasuke was getting really annoyed. He was just dodging, he just couldn't get close to the prick. Every time he tried he would have to dodge a massive cylindrical blast of wind and sound that kept making the ground uneven, thus making it harder to dodge properly. Sasuke was thinking for a way around that attack when he had to dodge again.
"Come on Uchiha, is that all you got? You're way weaker than I was expecting, I won't even get a good challenge at this point!" Zaku taunted.
Sasuke grit his teeth and dodged once more, throwing an explosive kunai at Zaku who merely blasted it away with his arm cannon. The kunai exploded, the flames heading in Sasuke's direction.
Sasuke growled as he dodged his own attack, this was seriously frustrating. And embarrassing! He glanced at the damage his kunai dealt and did a double take. There was no way the tag he had wrapped around the handle of that knife was that powerful. when a scorched tree collapsed he realized what had happened. The wind technique had aided the explosion.
Sasuke adopted a manic grin as an idea hit him. He ran back out into the open and stood still in front of Zaku, who smirked at the 'easy prey'.
Zaku aimed both arms and fired an enormous blast three times the size of his others, and Sasuke went through hand seals quickly before aiming a compressed but no less powerful fireball at the center of the wind tunnel.
The flames accelerated and expanded in the tube, rushing towards Zaku and giving him barely enough time to widen his eyes before the firestorm blasted around him.
Then over him.
Then through him.
The smoke of the explosion cleared after a moment to reveal a huge elongated crater, everything within blackened beyond recognition. At the end of the trail of destruction opposite of Sasuke laid the desiccated corpse of Zaku, who's charred bones were all that were left behind.
Sasuke felt ill for a moment before forcing the feeling down, opting to put it off until later.
He heard a shrill scream then silence, and immediately ran to where he remembered Hinata had been.
Kin was growing frustrated, the girl kept dodging all of her attacks with her Byakugan. She had made the mistake of assuming that Hinata's soft features and softer hair would mean she was an incapable kunoichi.
Obviously she was wrong.
Hinata wasn't completely unscathed, however. She took a senbon in her right forearm, rendering Juken useless with that hand. Added to the fact that was her dominant hand, and Hinata was focused primarily on defense.
Kin was getting tired of wasting her energy, so she pulled out a senbon with a bell on it. She palmed the bell so as to hide it from Hinata before throwing it in with a fistful of standard needles towards Hinata's right.
Hinata saw the wire attached to the needle with the bell, but didn't have time to intercept it due to her useless limb. She dodged the remaining needles before she heard a high-pitched ringing.
The sound was nauseating, and it was interfering with her Byakugan's sight.
She saw multiples of everything, and when the color was washed out and chakra was visible in a 359 degree angle, it was extremely disorienting.
She saw a blue blur racing towards her, and due to the bell's interference with her chakra she overloaded her left arm to make sure she did some actual damage.
She had aimed the open palm strike at where she assumed her opponent's heart was, but she missed and hit beneath her target.
Hinata's glowing palm crashed into Kin's solar plexus, and the overload of chakra was enough to rip apart her liver and stomach on the inside, and snap her spine.
Kin let out the loudest scream Hinata had ever heard, before falling to the ground and jerking in spastic motions. Then she stopped, and stared the the canopy of the forest with lifeless eyes.
After a few moments Hinata's eyes cleared up for her to see what she had done. Her Byakugan was still active, and she could see all of the damage in detail.
She froze and stared wide-eyed at Kin's face before collapsing to the ground with tears flowing.
Sasuke jumped out of a scorched area of forest, "Hinata!"
She made no move to respond, still staring at Kin's lifeless body.
Sasuke came up to her and saw what she was staring at. His eyes widened before he pulled her away, and even though she tried to turn back he turned her to face him, "Hinata, look at me!"
She looked at him when she heard his tone, and then she broke down and hugged him. She started bawling into his shirt, and he had no idea what to so. After a moment he hugged her back.
She calmed down after a bit and looked at her hands, "I murdered her." she sobbed.
"Before she could murder you." Sasuke said firmly, "If you wouldn't have killed her she would have killed you, and then that would have hurt everyone who cared about you. It would have weakened Konoha, and maybe damaged it. You killed her for your family, and your village."
Hinata was about to respond when a massive chakra pressure weighed on everyone in the area. An inhuman roar was heard immediately after, and Hinata was the only one who recognized the undertones of Naruto's voice.
She immediately bolted in that direction, and Sasuke shouted after her before following.
The puppet's hand was wrapped around Dosu's neck, and he struggled against it's iron grip before Kankuro curled his index finger sharply, and Dosu's neck snapped.
He had Karasu toss the body aside, and he immediately ran to help his sister and the others of the group.
When he got there he heard a loud scream some distance away. He opted to ignore it and went about removing the needles embedded in his sister.
She coughed and sat up, immediately moving over to help the others.
"What are you doing? We should just take Gaara and leave them." Kankuro said while gesturing to their brother's prone form.
"You're an idiot, you know that?" Temari snapped, "First of all, we agreed to help them. Second, do you seriously not feel that intent? We're going to need everyone to fight whatever the hell that is."
They heard a loud roar, as well as an intense chakra that flooded their senses.
The siblings shared a look before Kankuro nodded and they began to work quickly on the others.
The Kusa nin had a strange smirk on her face, it almost looked like it was meant for a different face.
Naruto frowned as he felt the chakra rolling off of this person. How the hell did she manage to hide that much chakra from him?
The woman laughed, "My, Naruto-kun. You certainly have changed since I last saw you. Why, you were only a baby at the time."
Naruto's brow furrowed before his eyes widened, "Orochimaru!"
The 'woman' lost it's grin, "What? How did you recognize me? You were far too young to remember when I was still a part of this village."
Naruto grinned, "Not telling."
"Whatever." Orochimaru said, "However you know, it won't matter once you're dead."
Naruto glared, "Hmph. Let's see if you can accomplish that, snake.
Naruto exploded with violet chakra, the energy quickly forming a tail and cloak around him.
He wasted no time in lunging at the older shinobi, sweeping with his claws after the Sanin's throat.
Orochimaru was caught off guard, and barely dodged the swipe with a backflip.
He stared at Naruto, wondering how he managed to pull up that much of the Kyuubi's chakra that quickly. He noticed the violet hue, and he looked at it intently. What the hell is going on here?
Naruto formed another tail, throwing a long claw of chakra at the White Snake.
Orochimaru dodged , but the claw turned around and tried to catch him in the back. He jumped up into the trees, and went through several hand seals.
"Wind Release: Razordarts!" he shouted, firing visible but thin darts of green chakra out of his mouth. They flew at Naruto, and he dodged all except one.
One of them went straight through his cloak and impaled his right collarbone, slicing it in two.
Naruto cursed, but it didn't take long to heal. The area was still sore, but he would live.
He looked around for Orochimaru, and became nervous when he couldn't find him. Snakes strike best from the shadows, after all.
He was proven right as an arm shot out of the dirt in front of him, glowing fingers slamming into his gut.
Naruto's eyes widened, and he gave an earth-shattering roar of rage.
One of the tails behind him sharpened and swung down, severing Orochimaru's arm at the elbow.
Naruto jumped away as far as he could. Random arms, tails, and faces of chakra began appearing on different parts of Naruto's cloak. Rather than a cloak with two tails, the mass of chakra surrounding him was an amalgamation of various body parts without form.
Suddenly each limb stopped moving and reshaped into very long tails. Naruto screamed, and these tails turned upwards, wrapping around each other in a spiral pattern before melting into one another and taking the shape of a very large arm.
Orochimaru, with his arm regenerated, watched in fascination as the giant arm began growing bones at it's core.
Hinata ran to where she heard the second scream, and her eyes widened as she saw a giant skeletal arm covered in violet chakra forming from where she could see Naruto standing.
"Naruto!" she shouted.
Sasuke ran up behind her and saw the same thing, "Holy shit!"
Orochimaru turned when he heard Hinata's voice, and smirked happily when he saw Sasuke run up behind her.
He channeled chakra to his legs and shot towards the Uchiha. Both Sasuke and Hinata had their Dojutsu's active, so they saw him coming.
That didn't mean they could stop him though.
His neck extended and his mouth produced fangs. His jaws opened wide and he relished the look of terror in Sasuke's eyes.
Right before his sight turned purple and a human arm blocked his path.
He accidentally bit into the arm instead of Sasuke's neck, and felt the seal formula leave his teeth and inject into the arm.
His eyes widened when he felt something grip his entire body. His neck retracted, and he struggled to escape the grip of the giant arm. It had grown muscles on it, and it squeezed with all it's might.
Orochimaru's body was crushed, his head lolling to the side lifelessly as the hand dripped with blood.
Naruto grunted with exertion as he forced the arm to disintegrate. All of his chakra returned to him, and he used the excess to isolate the seal on his arm. Two glowing white crescent-moon shapes encased the seal.
Naruto stood there for a moment, before passing out completely.
So what do you think? This one took me a while because I had so much to do in this one, and I was finishing moving while going to college. My schedule this last week had allowed for a maximum of four hours of sleep, with an average of two.
I am very aware that some people will feel like I put too much into this chapter, but I have looked over it several times and I love how it turned out.
So I won't be changing it.
On a side note, I've had this gift card to Walmart in my wallet for four years, and I kept thinking, 'There's no way there's money on that' so I ignored it. I was bored and decided to check the balance on it.
I am now fifty dollars richer.
Please leave reviews, I take every single one into account when I'm writing. It's nice to know what people think.