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Chapter 5: Memories of Snakes

As I continued down the path near the Konohagakure Village, I waited within an secret path that lead to the secret area where I met up with my two contacts. As I walked down this path, I instructed Haku to remain behind, which she was reluctant to do at first. It wasn't the order itself, I think it was because she really didn't like me so much. It's not as if I could blame the poor girl, I did slaughter the only person she actually cared for in this entire world. But as long as she wanted to remain alive, she would obey my orders without question. She might have have inherited a Kekkai Genkai such as I, but we all know that mine was way stronger. So, as I continued down the path, I waited for the signal that would mean the area was clear. I waited for a few seconds before I seen a small paper bird fly by my face, the signal from one of my contacts to tell me the area was clear. I headed into the area quickly, spotting my two contacts standing against two separate trees that were facing the opposite direction of each other. My first contact, was the deadly beauty Konan of the Akatsuki. Her paper skills mixed along with her ninjutsu was uncanny. The second was the snake princess Anko. She was my contact for the Leaf and Orochimaru, who I was actively watching. After Orochimaru has bestowed Anko with the curse mark, he found out that he had made a miscalculation with her abilities and that the curse mark wouldn't react to her. So with that, he turned her loose, making her a spy for his side. But little did many people know, she wasn't under the control of Orochimaru as he thought she was. She was also the only person to actually find me when I escaped from the village all those years ago. I had been running through the forest all night, the morning had just arrived. Anbu had been alerted that I had escaped my home during the night and were sent into the forest to find me. I was still in the forest, unable to navigate through the huge ass area. I would have surely been caught and returned to the village if I hadn't spotted Anko, who I was first going to kill when I seen her. She had spotted me and looked deep into my eyes, seeing the rage within me. At first I was extremely wary, thinking she was stalling me for the Anbu so that they could ambush me. So as I walked towards her, my kunai was within my grip behind my back. She walked up to me and as I prepared to stab her in the chest, she smiled at me. Yeah, you are probably thinking, that stopped him? But it truly did. I had never been smiled at in my life, people always chucking rocks at me or screaming angry remarks when I passed them. Never had anyone stopped and looked at me with a smile. Maybe that was all I needed, maybe my path wasn't supposed to be this way. But I digress, she smiled and I stopped the attack. After talking for a few minutes, she told me that she had just been instructed by Orochimaru to return back into the village. She told me that if I needed help, that Orochimaru could help me find my way. I decided to follow her as she told me that she would escort me to Orochimaru's hideout. Desperate, tired, and hungry, I followed without much regret. What took place after that was an adventure of it's own right...

Flashback

As I followed this young girl out of the perplexing forest, I began to think of the words that she had spoke. She had sounded like an android when she spoke them, telling me that Orochimaru could help me plus bestow me with unlimited power. This intrigued me, thinking that power like that sounded too good to pass up on. So I followed without asking any questions on the matter, more interested to find out who this mysterious woman was.

"Hey, who the hell are you lady?" I asked in my oh so polite way. The woman smiled again as she turned and flashed me a thumbs up.

"I'm Anko, nice to meet ya," she answered as she looked back at me, expecting me to tell her my name. I continued to run with her, not saying anything of the sort.

"So you are a shy one huh?" Anko asked as I still didn't reply. "That's OK, I was like that at one point as well. But when I found Orochimaru, he trained me and gave me a purpose in this world. I thank him for everything that he did for me..."

"You sure talk about this guy like you worship the guy or something," I replied as Anko looked away, not answering this time. I shrugged as we continued to run, not saying anything to each other.

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki," I finally said as Anko turned to me and smiled again. Her smile made me happy for some reason, but I was still just a naïve young boy so... But as we continued, we finally were setting a good pace. We were hours ahead of where we once were, Anko turning around and telling me that Orochimaru's hideout wasn't too far away. I nodded as she led me deep into some cave, where she knocked on some strange door.

"Anko, come in..." a voice hissed as Anko opened the door, bowing as she moved aside to let me walk into the room first. I did this, the room filled with complete utter darkness. As I stepped in, candles suddenly flickered on, a man sitting in the middle of the room with a smirk upon his face. He was a strange one, his face a pale white and his eyes like snake eyes. As I looked at him, I turned and looked back at Anko, who was looking away with a blank expression upon her face.

"Naruto Uzumaki, I have heard many good things from you from my spies within the village," the man spoke out as I shuttered at the sight of this creepy man. "You were quite the person to track down, but I knew I would find you. I am Orochimaru, and I would like to bestow you with power and make you into a true shinobi..."

"What do you know about being a Shinobi?" I interrupted as I chuckled rudely. "You are some weird idiot that holes himself up in caves and tries to obviously lure young children in..." As I continued on my rant, Orochimaru disappeared from the chair, my eyes widening as I looked over my shoulder, where he stood. I backed away slowly as I backed right into someone, Orochimaru somehow. But he was still in front of me, so it made no sense. I looked as the whole room was surrounded with the snake weirdo, no where for me to escape.

"You just don't understand what I can give you, so allow me to give you just a taste," Orochimaru hissed as he motioned for Anko to come to him. "Anko, show him what he could learn if he swears his life to me..." Anko stepped forth, not saying anything as she looked at me with a blank expression. That confirmed it now, Anko was being controlled by this snake asshole. As the clones of Orochimaru disappeared, Anko ran at me without warning, my eyes widening as I was kicked directly in the chest. I coughed loudly as I was then pushed into the wall next to Orochimaru's chair with Anko's palm. I looked up with my eyes red with the slit in the middle of them, meaning Master was obviously awake and encouraging me to fight. Without words I understood, taking off at Anko as she took off at me. As I prepared to swing, she jumped back and made quick hand signs.

"Ninjutsu?" I wondered as Anko used her jutsu.

"Senai Jashuu(Shadow Snake Hand)!" Anko shouted as snakes emerged from out of her sleeves, the snakes coming out and trying to grapple onto me. I didn't know what to do as they did, just standing their as the snakes attacked me and injected me with their venom. As this occurred, I fell to the ground, not expecting the venom's effects to take hold so quickly. Orochimaru chuckled as he removed something within a small tube from his outfit.

"Since it has come to this, how about I make you a deal Naruto?" Orochimaru asked as his smile increased. "I'll give you the antidote for your snake bite if you join me. And trust me, this venom cannot be effected by your healing factor even though you have your little friend within you..." I gasped in surprise that he knew this information, but as I looked down and seen that the snake bites had already disappeared, I knew it wasn't that hard to figure out. But how did he know to use snakes with some kind of special venom? Then I realized the horrible truth: This was a trap from the beginning. Anko was sent for me, probably after Orochimaru heard from his contacts within the village that I was the number one candidate for murdering all of those shinobi. After figuring this out, it was as simple as predicting what I would do after this. This wasn't any ordinary man, he was good. Not just smart, but strong as well. But their was something different in Anko, I could tell that she wasn't trying to obey this idiot. It was just something that I felt deep down in my heart, that I knew that smile was real. Did I want to fool myself into thinking so? Maybe, but I knew that I had to go with my gut feeling. So I did, deciding to tell Orochimaru to go to Hell and focus on getting Anko to snap out of whatever she was in. Orochimaru waited patiently for me to answer, well why wouldn't he? My body was beginning to numb, the poison turning my face slightly blue. I was beginning to fell weaker, so I knew I had to do this quick.

"Anko, please stop this!" I shouted as Orochimaru chuckled softly, thinking of course that this was for naught. "Anko, I haven't known you for long, but I can tell that we are alike! Me and you want to find the reason why we exist in this miserable world, we just took different routes to try to answer that question. I slaughtered the objects of my pain, you teamed up with some psychopath snake guy that doesn't value you or you life!" As these words came from my mouth, I was surprising the hell out of myself. Then again, I was on the verge of death, so anything could happen right?

"It will do you no good, now swear you loyalty before you die!" Orochimaru shouted in a rather desperate way. I then realized something else: He needed me alive. He expected me to succumb to his demands after he poisoned me, but I wasn't budging. All of this was pure bluffing, knowing that I would never side with him easily.

"Fuck off snake man," I replied as Orochimaru looked at me angrily.

"You will die child if you don't obey my demands!" Orochimaru pointed out the obvious, a smile crossing my face.

"Well, I guess you wouldn't be able to experiment on me or whatever you want to do huh?" I replied as Orochimaru's hands shook as if he was about to explode. I obviously had rained all over his smug ass parade, and it was pissing him off to no end. I began to kneel down to the ground, my vision growing blurry. My legs felt like rubber, my body so heavy all of a sudden. I felt as if I wanted to take a long nap, but I knew that I must stay awake, for my life depended on it. As I began to slowly perish, I looked up at Anko with the smile that she had given me, Anko looking back at me with widened eyes. As this occurred, I fell face first onto the ground, hearing Master within me screaming for me to survive.

"Sorry, no can do this time," I muttered as my vision began to immediately go out. As I looked up for what I thought was the final time, Anko gave me something, shoving it into my mouth as I passed out. As she gave it to me, my eyes fluttered back open, the poison beginning to dilute thanks to whatever Anko gave me.

"You are too precious at this time to allow you to perish," I heard Orochimaru mutter. "The time will come when you will join me, mark my words Naruto Uzumaki. Anko, drop this fool off where you found him for now... He's conscious, so I can't do anything with him..." I felt myself get picked up, the poison still paralyzing me. As Anko carried me away from Orochimaru's hideout, she laid me down upon the ground and looked at me as I began to be able to control my movement. Without any warning, she kissed me upon the lips, my eyes widening as this occurred. I kissed her back as she looked at me, me looking back at her.

"I don't know how you done it, but you freed me from Orochimaru's control," she whispered within my ear as I grinned. "But I am forever within your debt from now on Naruto Uzumaki. I wish to be of use to you, in any way that I possibly can..."

"Be my informant," I whispered within her ear as her eyes widened. "I am going to be on the run for a while, and I need to watch Konohagakure and this Orochimaru character while I'm away. So I need you to report back to me everything that you discover. But if you betray me and are trying to fool me, I will kill you without any regret."

"I understand," Anko replied as she looked at me. "But why Orochimaru? That would mean I have to return to him..."

"I need you to pretend to be in his control, do whatever he says for the time being OK? Also, you need to report back to the village and make yourself useful," I replied as Anko nodded with an uncertain look upon her face. I smiled at her as she did this, Anko smiling back as she got off the top of me.

"You will know when I need to get into contact with you," Anko said as she prepared to walk back. "How often?"

"Every month, sooner if important news arises," I responded as Anko nodded. At that, we took our separate ways for the time being...

Flashback end

"Naruto, good to see ya!" Anko said as she spotted me, a smile on her face. I grinned back, smiling as Konan watched with silence.

"So girls, where are my hugs and kisses?" I asked as I got two snickers in response.

"Your still way to young Naruto," Konan replied as Anko nodded in agreement. "Besides, you know our agreement right?" I nodded, remembering that agreement. It was interesting, after leaving Anko all that time ago, I had met Konan later that day as I was wondering around, wondering what I do next with my life...

As I continued to walk where it felt like nowhere, I was lost and still starving. I hadn't eaten since I had found a few edible berries earlier, but that definetly wasn't enough to fill me. I continued to walk, hoping I would find something, anything, that would lift my spirits at this point. I did, finding a girl next to what looked like a river. She was just standing near the water, throwing what seemed like small paper flowers within the river. They floated for a while before sinking deeper into the water. I watched with interest for some reason, her just making the flowers was astounding. She was so good at it, just making them in a flash and then throwing them within the water. As I watched, she finally turned and spotted me, dirty and tired, looking as if I could pass out right now. She smiled at me, motioning me to come over to her, which I did in a hurry.

"Why do you look such a mess for a young child?" she asked as I shrugged, not really knowing what to say to this. "You seem as if you have been through so much in your short lifetime, we are one of a kind."

"So there are more that are like me huh?" I asked as she nodded in agreement, looking back within the water.

"This world is impure, it will be the downfall of humanity," the woman stated as I looked at her with surprise. "You know probably nothing of what I'm speaking of, but don't be like the other men that are around you. Be strong, fight for something that truly means something in this world. Don't fight for pointless cause, fighting useless battles for the benefit of fools. Be your own man and walk your own path. A child's eyes can be so pure, yet they are the gateway into what the child shall become. I was once a cheerful child, but my eyes only showed me hate, betrayal, and death. Someone I loved was killed due to this, making me into the woman I am today. I don't honestly know why I spouting on about this, but it's just one of those rare occasions where I can just talk I guess."

"I understand everything that you just spoke of to me," I replied as the woman looked at me in surprise. "I was once that pure child, but my eyes showed me the same thing, besides the death part. And that is what I wanted to truly see the most after years of pain and suffering. But my wish wasn't fulfilled until I took it upon myself to kill those who looked upon me with hate because of the monster within me. I killed them all, making the last thing they seen with their eyes was the birth f a true demon. Something stronger than any fool, stronger than any Hokage. I truly don't know my place in this world, I don't know what I will truly do at this point besides two things: Kill anyone who I deem pointless and destroy Konohagakure for the betrayal against me... So yeah, I once was pure and dreamed of becoming the Hokage. But after so much hate and foolishness, I walk my own path as a nine year old child."

The woman didn't say anything at first, her eyes just looking at me as she smiled at me. She handed me one of the flowers, pointing to the river before us.

"Throw that flower within the water, with the wish that your dreams shall come true," the woman said as I did this, a smile crossing my face.

"So who are you?" I asked as she looked up at the sky and then back at me.

"I'm Konan, and I'm also a rogue shinobi like you," she replied as she looked down at a ring upon her finger. "I would like you to meet some associates of mine, we could use someone like you within our organization... Trust me, everyone their will agree with your ways, I promise this. And one thing I want you to promise me."

"What is that?" I asked curiously as Konan smiled knowingly.

"When you are able to touch my nose without being on your tippy toes, I want to fuck you," she replied as I coughed a bit, knowing dam well what she meant.

"Uh, yeah I promise!" I shouted as I wondered why she said fuck you and not fuck me. Something told my young self somehow, someone who shouldn't know jack shit about sex, that she would dominate me in bed. I grinned at the thought of this as I followed Konan away from the area. As we walked, she looked at me with concern.

"Thirteen isn't fucking young Konan, and I'm only a few inches away from being able to touch your nose," I replied crossly as Anko laughed at this. She already knew this little secret, so it wasn't new to her. We have met several times before this, Konan becoming my contact after she basically allied with me instead of the Akatsuki. I was affiliated with the Akatsuki, but I wasn't an official member, so I had to watch these assholes. Especially since they have certain missions that I'm in the dark about, leading to something sinister I sense. But as I met up with the girls, I wasn't thinking any of this shit until Anko told me something that shocked the fuck out of me.

"Orochimaru wants to have an audience with you," Anko reported as I snickered.

"You got to be kidding me," I replied as Anko shook her head no.

"He has been asking about you and sent me to find you actually," Anko responded as I laughed.

"You can't trust that bastard," Konan chimed in as I nodded.

"Obviously, he already almost killed me," I replied sarcastically as I paced around the area. "What the hell could he possibly want with me? This guy just doesn't give up does he?"

"So, what are you going to do Naruto?" Anko asked as Konan looked at me, waiting for me to answer her.

Naruto is in a bind! Will he meet up with Orochimaru? What will Orochimaru want with him? Will he be able to find a worthy opponent to test the limits of his Sharingan? Find out next chapter! Be sure to review! See ya!

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