Hey there folks Whitedragon here with another chapter of W.O.F for you. I hope you all enjoy very much! Please read and review!
Sasuke's mornings were usually his time of peace away from others in his small house on the outskirts of Konoha, he'd moved there using the vast sum left to him from his inheritance. He rarely visited the ghost town that was the Uchiha estate. His modest home was surrounded by forestry making it a perfect getaway. Normally, this morning however found his usual training interrupted by a rather obnoxious blonde. "What do you want dobe?" Sasuke growled, annoyed by his comrade's presence.
Naruto stood leisurely on the fence that enclosed his training ground, acting like it was something completely normal, just watching Sasuke from behind that book he was always buried in, he was beginning to look like a mini Kakashi. He'd been there for roughly ten minutes, in that time Sasuke had been hoping the blonde would leave if he was ignored as that was clearly not the case he had to find a new tactic. Shrugging Naruto gave Sasuke a calculating look; he'd been trying to think of a way to approach Sasuke about what he had to say. He knew he had to be tact, so he decided on a forward and blunt method, "We're friends… you and I." His statement left Sasuke looking at him as if he was crazy at the moment but still he pressed on. "I'll prove it when the next chunin exams arrive and we go head to head in the finals. A bet to sweeten the pot too, if I win you have to start coming and hanging out with the other rookies, if you win well you can name whatever you want."
"Naruto there you are! Come on we have to go to the tower to receive our mission!" Tenten appeared looking up at Naruto from the other side of the fence, an annoyed expression on her visage.
Naruto hopped down off the fence without waiting for a response instead calling out as he left, "I'll see you at the finals Teme!"
As he left a small smirk grew on his face, 'that dobe thinks he can win against me? Tch I'll slaughter him in the finals' with that thought in mind he returned to his training and redoubled his efforts. He was going crush the dobe so hard he could never dream of challenging him again.
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Naruto and Tenten walked down the street at a semi-leisurely pace, they did have to be somewhere after all. Naruto looked care-free as ever walking with his hands resting on the back of his head and his eyes closed soaking up the sun. He could safely walk with eyes closed because he had now well on his way too mastering the chakra location jutsu. He used it as much as he could, he'd come to love the sensation of it, and the comfort of knowing exactly where every living thing was in the near vicinity. That and he no longer had to look at the glares and the blatant lack of acknowledgement of his existence. He'd show them all just how awesome he was.
Tenten walked beside him a small smile adorning her features. Yet it started to fade as she realized that she could hear whisperings about the blonde. Not kind things either and sometimes a few angry glares were cast his way too. Like he'd slighted these people personally but that couldn't be possible. His pranks wouldn't garner that much hatred from peoples' eyes. No way in hell. She looked over at the blonde in question who seemed oblivious to it all and as happy as could be. 'Just what secrets surround you Naruto?' she would have to find out later because they had just arrived at the tower. Linking up with their two other squad mates.
"Well good morning you two, it seems we have all arrived together, shall we?" Hiruzen greeted his team warmly, inviting them forwards. Today he had a little bit of a surprise for the teens; he was going to give them a higher ranked mission. He felt they were ready for it after how well they had been performing.
Arriving at the door however, he was greeted with the worried eyes of his two former students. The Kage in him took over at that moment. "What's the situation?" His once relaxed face became all business.
Tsunade was the one to respond, with a worried tone she spoke. "We received a message from one of Anko's snakes not two minutes ago and it delivered this." She shakily handed over a blood stained leaf with the word HELP written in the same blood. Anko's blood, "She was supposed to be patrolling the Hi no Kuni and Ta no kuni border. We're trying to figure out who to send."
"Send us." Naruto's voice broke out, brimming with determination. "Whatever trouble snake ladies in. We can get her out. We're ready for this! it's situations like these that we train for right? Well we can't just leave our comrade to die!" his conviction stirred his two teammates to nod their ascent albeit Shikimaru looked none too happy about it. "Besides we have a supped up Ji-ji with us! We can't possibly lose." He bolstered.
Hiruzen would have smacked the boy for such blatant disrespect. He was not going to allow them to fall into complacency because he was there. "Naruto, while I appreciate your belief in me, realize that I'm not going to coddle you. I can't do ALL the fighting so you best not get lax or I'll kick your ass myself. Move out we're going to save Anko." He commanded.
"Are you sure that's such a good idea old man?" Jiraiya spoke up for the first time. "They're only gennin, this has got Orochimaru all over it. I know he's dead but that bastard is slimy, he might have had a contingency plan."
Sarutobi was no fool, Anko suddenly getting attacked and beaten to the point she called for help? Fat chance of that being regular, she was a damn good shinobi and no slouch in combat. That's why he was going, if he couldn't handle it who could? "Just to be safe then…" The Hokage trailed off subtly doing hand signs that only Anbu would know. Within a minute a woman with purple hair arrived on the scene, dressed in Jounin attire and a katana on her back. "Team this is Yugao she will be joining us, if I am preoccupied you will take directions from her understood?" with a round of nods to confirm understanding the ninja's got under way wasting no time and hopping along the roof's.
"So still think we're pathetic lady?" Naruto taunted Yugao.
"Very much so, you probably rely on the Hokage heavily when the real fighting starts." She taunted right back with absolute indifference in her voice.
"Stop fighting you two! Naruto do I even want to know how you two know each other?" Hiruzen barked. Naruto shrugged and continued following him at high speeds. Within minutes they shot past the gate and took to the trees and the giant limbs that they sped across. "Naruto can you start stretching your senses to see if you can't locate Anko? Tenten, Shikimaru keep an eye out in the immediate vicinity for any surprises along the way. Yugao take the rear guard I need your sword skills defending our backs."
"Already on it boss." Naruto chimed in as they readjusted their positions. His eyes closed in concentration Naruto stretched his senses out as far as he could. Having met her and physically touched her only recently her chakra was somehow still fresh in his mind. Again his consciousness was rushed out of his body this time thousands of tiny whispers of 'hurry' sounded like the static of electricity in his brain. He finally sensed her ways out. Her chakra was faint and two stronger, darker chakras were heading towards her. "Umm boss, we need to go faster, she's got two pursuers who seem to want to do more than ask for directions and they're gaining on her."
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Anko cursed that bastard a thousand times over; she knew it was weird that she got put on border patrol with some guy named Kabuto Yakushi. Then she gets attacked by some white haired bone freak, and instead of helping her fight the bastard, the backstabbing S.o.B Kabuto tried taking her out of the fight via medical jutsu, a very nasty and painful process that would undoubtedly be. He had only been able to disable her left foot and right hand. On top of that her curse seal was flaring up violently wracking her body with spasms and pains. The damn snake's mark still had to fuck with her. Needless to say Anko was not very happy at the moment.
Currently she was holed up in the roots of a giant tree, hiding her from view completely. She had dodged her pursuers and managed to earn a brief respite. That is till she felt the spike of chakra, rolling forward just in time as she heard the sound of sharp objects flying over her head followed by a rapid, 'Thunk thunk thunk'. "You shit-stains can't even give me a minute to myself! Jeeze haven't you heard of chivalry!"
"Chivalry died a long time ago Anko." Kabuto's slimy-smooth voice chuckled slashing downwards with a chakra scalpel activated. She jumped to the left but he still managed to cut her femur. With a piercing scream Anko fell down, but she refused to yield and rolled into a thicket bushes before anything else could happen. Thousands of sharpened bone fragments rained down on the bush demolishing it revealing there to be nothing underneath. "Clever woman, using the Doton: Moguragakure no Jutsu. It seems she has escaped us once again." A slow, sadistic, and very evil smile spread across his lips. "Let's go snake hunting."
"We must find and capture her soon or more will come." Kimimaro said apathetically, but there was agitations in his eyes towards his compatriots need to play with his prey. "We should knock her out quickly be done with it and be on our way."
"Calm yourself she did not get far and we are much faster than she is at this point. Quit whining and just do your job." He replied smoothly. Though his tone was firm and implied danger should he not do as requested.
Anko cursed under her breathe as she finished bandaging her newest injury. She didn't have much time, she could only go so far with her jutsu. Once more her curse seal flared in pain, gnashing her teeth to keep from crying out in pain. It hadn't acted up like this for years. It seems Orochimaru could be a pain even from the grave. He was supposedly dead after all, she still refused to believe he was gone for good. Hearing movement in her vicinity she froze, using every one of her senses to scan the area. They couldn't have caught up to her yet. It just wasn't possible! "Boo" was the last thing she heard before her world went black.
Kabuto smirked down at his fallen foe. "Too easy, happy now Kimimaro?" The medical ninja called tauntingly to his partner. Said partner chose to stay silent and instead flipped him off. Pushing his glasses higher on his nose Kabuto grabbed Anko by her caller and started dragging her away. "Come on Kimimaro, it's time to revive your master."
"He's your master as well, done forget that peon."
"Of course, but it's humorous that a pawn is calling me a peon. Say that to me again and I'll skin you alive right now and take your Kekkei Genkai for myself." The small murderous glint in Kabuto's eyes told the bone warrior all he needed to know. If they had to work together he could at least do it in silence. While this slimy individual was nothing but a worm he was knowledgeable and had his uses.
"Fine but let's just get this over with. I tire of this quickly." His agitation and impatience were certainly high today, perhaps it was because they had pursuers and the longer it took to revive their master the slimmer the chance to do so became.
"Patience is a virtue, I have to set up the seals necessary to do so. Recalling Orochimaru's soul fragment is no easy task. Take Anko somewhere safe while I set them up." Kabuto set to work as Kimimaro wordlessly did as requested, being none to gentle with their prisoner. It certainly didn't bother Kabuto any, it didn't matter what condition Anko was in so long as she was still alive. She would be dead soon enough.
After making sure his supplies were in order he set to work, his pace was feverish as he didn't have much time to complete them and he knew that full well. He could sense the rapidly approaching shinobi, it was no matter he'd practiced these particular strokes many many times in the event of something like this happening. Orochimaru always had a backup plan. His death at this point in time was pre-mature. Kabuto still needed things from the man thus his reason for taking the time to revive him.
Within record time Kabuto had finished, standing and wiping his sweat glistened brow. "Kimimaro I'm finished!" Kabuto called knowing the boy would stay within ear shot.
"Took long enough," Kimimaro stated as Anko was dumped unceremoniously in the middle of the seals.
A chuckle was the spy's response. "You have absolutely no tact, I finished in an amazingly short amount of time. Now stand back this is going to get noisy and dangerous." With a grin that promised nothing but pain Kabuto set his hands down on the lines of the seal and ushered chakra into it. The seal instantly started glowing and rushed off the paper, snaking onto Anko's skin, and raced to the seal on her neck. Anko's eyes snapped open as an unearthly screech harrowed through the forest. "Hold her down Kimimaro! She'll be writhing in pain any second!" As if on cue Anko's body started convulsing violently as the seal on her neck grew brighter and brighter.
Responding quickly Kimimaro grabbed his spinal cord and pulling out of his skin he commanded it to restrain the snake woman. With gleeful speed the long bone curled itself around the woman robbing her of even the slightest of movements. Ah the pleasure of being able to manipulate bone stronger than anything known to man. At this point a shining white figure started sprouting from Anko's shoulder bone.
Chakra whipped around violently, snapping around and tearing chunks out of the earth and stripping the bark off surrounding trees. Through it all Kabuto's grin never wavered, the fools in Konoha really thought that Orochimaru would die so easily. How blind they really were, ninja's were denizens of the dark. To be called upon to do the deeds humanity couldn't. They were devils and monsters that preyed upon the weak and felled the mightiest and the undefeatable. Their name struck fear in the hearts of even the most battle hardened samurai.
Finally the figure was complete and the violent chakra suddenly caved inward being sucked up by the now completely revived Orochimaru. The Sannin stood there for a second looking at his hands and just being lost within his own thoughts. His trademark evil smirk taking its place as he looked towards his right hand man that was responsible for reviving him. "You did well Kabuto, your service this day shall be rewarded." Orochimaru his words slithering out of his mouth with a tainted quality to them. 'You have no idea Orochimaru. You're the most blind of them all. You of all people should know not to trust anyone' Kabuto inwardly thought.
Looking down towards his captive Orochimaru was shocked to see one smiling blonde haired Naruto with a sizzling explosive kunai in his mouth. "Boom" Naruto said as the kunai exploded with a deafening roar, and causing a massive explosion to boot. They weren't done however as in the next instant a giant river of mud crashed through the area destroying a good swath of forest. After the dust settled, Hiruzen stood atop his mud river. His team behind him, with an unconscious Anko being in Naruto's shadow clones arms. "Ji-ji their trying to attack us from underground." Naruto stated, his eyes closed.
Hiruzen smirked, he loved Naruto's sensing ability it was ever so useful. Going through a short string of hand seals he placed his palms on the ground. Within seconds the ground underneath them started shaking violently. Not long after their adversaries shot out of the ground a few yards ahead of them. "Team your task is to get Anko to Konoha as fast as possible. Go now!" He commanded as they obeyed without question.
The looks on their faces however told him they weren't happy with being asked to flee. He wouldn't risk their lives in a battle of this scale though. Strolling forward casually as if he had nothing to worry about facing Orochimaru and his two cronies at the same time. He struck up a conversation to give his team time to get ahead. "You know Orochimaru, I can't believe you've fallen so far. This is demonology of the highest caliber. Fragmenting your soul in such a manner, you can't even be considered human."
Orochimaru smiled, there was nothing pure or good about it however, "You're right sensei, I'm no longer human. I have transcended into being a god. You can try to kill me all you want I will eternally plague Konoha and you till I see BOTH of you turned to dust!" Orochimaru snarled, his true face being revealed.
'Are you so consumed by rage at being passed up for Hokage that you truly cannot rest in peace until you've destroyed everything?' The Hokage thought to himself. "So how about we get this started then shall we? It seems as though you actually managed to get a numbers advantage on me this time, let's see just how helpful that is."
"Numbers advantage? Poor Sarutobi, being fooled by mere Bunshin. Then again such a simple jutsu is often overlooked in the heat of the moment." Orochimaru slithered sadistically as the two images of Kabuto and Kimimaro disappeared. "I knew you would send your children away from the fight so I sent Kimimaro to deal with them."
"What about the other?"
Orochimaru smirked, "His use is elsewhere." It seemed the conversation was over as the Snake Sannin unhinged his lower jaw and a giant stream of snakes swam through the air at high speeds intent on skewering the Kage. When they found they couldn't sink their teeth in it was already far too late. Sarutobi Hiruzen was mad, no not just mad he was seeing red. Only being a Kage for two bloody wars tended to focus that rage into a deadly weapon.
There was only one person in all of the shinobi nations whose temper scared even Hanzo the salamander Kage of the hidden rain village, that person being one Sarutobi Hiruzen when he was wearing his current expression. Stone cold, unbridled fury. "You'll be regretting ever coming back to life. I'm going to make your life hell" Hiruzen's words seared even the very air. The true battle began at this point as the two high class shinobi amped up their battle.
Jutsu, weapons, and curses echoing through the air.
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"Shit! We've got a bogie guys, he's gaining fast too. We can either put on the speed or turn and fight." Naruto announced to his teammates. Right after a vicious boom cracked through air before a large blast of wind tore through the trees.
"Run!" They all shouted at the same time. That blast had come from the fighting being done by their sensei and Orochimaru, if they were going to have to fight they wanted to be as far away from the two masters as possible. Even being near a fight of that level was liable to get you killed in the back lash. After putting on the speed Naruto was pleased to learned that their pursuer had ceased to gain any ground on them. Creating a few Bunshin he commanded them to go slow their attacker down. Unfortunately there lives were swiftly and mercilessly ended, he urged his friends to speed up further.
He then felt their pursuer's chakra jump to levels past his own current reserves. Shortly thereafter he could feel the signature shoot forward faster than was humanly possible, they could not outrun Orochimaru's crony. One of them had to stay behind and he wasn't even going to ask them. He knew he was the only one who could last, after all he was the man made weapon wasn't he? If he couldn't defeat one super powered idiot what use was he to his friends, however they would not simply let him make this choice and he didn't have time to hash it out with them. He had to trick them into; slowly a plan came to form within the blondes mind on just how to do this.
The first attack came from a literal hail of sharpened bone descending from the sky like angry wasps. Naruto, sensing the attack even during their head long rush, created three shadow clones and pushed his clone and two teammates ahead of the fire. At this point his team still thought the clone holding Anko was the original Naruto. Well he was fine with that, "Tch if that's the best you got your not going to last long" Naruto spoke to his assailant. "The names Uzumaki Naruto, the man who's going to stomp your ass into the ground." He called now casually walking out into the open, a kunai twirling lazily on his finger. "At least come down here and face me like a man, teme!" He growled, with a flick of his wrist the kunai in his hand shot forward like an arrow into the surrounding foliage, a faint 'thunk' followed by the soft shuffling of feet let Naruto know he'd only barely missed.
The taunt worked however as the enemy ninja chose to appear for the first time, Descending upon Naruto from the skies with a sword comprised of bone poised to slice him in half. The teen had long silver hair with two dots in the middle of his forehead, he wore a light lavender, loose-fitting, long-sleeved, zip-up shirt, black pants cut off around mid-calf, bandages wrapped around his ankles, traditional shinobi sandals, and a purple, rope-like belt tied in an inverted bow around his waist. He also wore two red, tube-like hair ornaments; one on either side of his head, securing two locks of his silvery-white hair. Dodging by a hairs breath Naruto retaliated with a very powerful upper cut directly underneath Kimimaro's chin. Once in the air Naruto quickly spun and lashed out with a kick that smashed into his nose, and surprisingly didn't break it, causing the teen to go flying several feet away. If this bastard wanted to go with weapons well than he was going to get what he gave, reaching behind him and slipping into the falcons talons while his enemy got to his feet.
"My name is Kimimaro, and I am going to kill you for that. Slow and painfully." His voice was cold as steel, with lightning quickness he dashed forward, his bone sword leaping forward trying to skewer the blonde, ducking the strike Naruto sprang backwards with a flip kick that, had Kimimaro not jumped backwards so quickly, would have given more than just a scratch bisecting the middle of his forehead. It seems the blonde was not someone to simply overlook as nothing. "You have minor skill at least."
Naruto flipped him the bird. "Your attacks are far too slow to ever hit me. Training with Sarutobi Hiruzen tends to teach you not to get hit. You think your fast? I'll show you real speed. You've attacked me twice now." He grinned, his muscles tensing readying for what he was about to do. "It's my turn!" Naruto shouted as he shot forward.
"A straight on attack will never work on me, and a peasant such as you could never beat the likes of me." Kimimaro sneered, readying to strike the upstart down however before he got in striking distance Naruto suddenly shifted direction and with a speed Kimimaro couldn't keep up with lashed out with a hard and fast right. Kimimaro dodged but a deep gash was torn in his abdomen, his blood flowing freely. "You'll need more than a few scratches to beat me a member of the Kaguya clan." Bone then protruded in sharp spikes from his skin, not just in one place, everywhere from his shoulders down to his elbows, even out of his abdomen! the sight of it chilled Naruto to the bone despite making him look very similar to some dinosaurs from ancient times. Along with physical mutation Naruto felt his chakra spike higher yet again.
Kimimaro leapt forward with a strong kick to Naruto's abdomen before the blonde had time to react. He followed up with a slash across the teen's chest, then a flipping heel kick that caused cracks in the ground upon impact. Blood and spit flew from Naruto's mouth but he tilted his head to the left avoiding his head being impaled and with a swipe of one of his claws got the bone-ified ninja to quickly vacate his personal space. Rolling onto his feet, Kimimaro was already on him again, only this time his other arm was now a giant bone drill. 'Seriously a fucking drill made of out bone, who the fuck is this guy!' Kimimaro's combo was only barely avoided, with only minor injuries.
However as Naruto tried to get some range Kimimaro lashed out with a spin kick that twirled Naruto around; the next thing Naruto saw was Kimimaro's sword of bone protruding from his midsection.
Well there you have it folks. Will Tenten and Shikimaru figure out Naruto's ruse and if so, what will they do about it? What will happen to Naruto now? and what will become of the fight between Orochimaru and Sarutobi! and where the hell did Yugao go? shouldn't she be fighting kimimaro? Find out next time :) i don't currently have a beta so if there are grammatical errors please inform me. And review! with compliments or review either would be greatly appreciated.