Chapter four: Meeting The Demons Long Forgotten
Disclaimer: I do not own the Naruto, Naruto Shippuden or any other world i decide to include in this worlds and character are the product of the imagination of their respective creators and i am simply playing with the characters and i am not making any profit.
Sorry for the delay but my computer is fried and I lost every data and notes on all my stories, I was lucky I had part of this chapter saved on my USB and a friend of mine let me use his computer to complete it but the main point is that there won't be an update until I get a new computer, in about a month or two so enjoy this chapter.
Naruto stared at Orochimaru waiting for him to make the first move and Orochimaru did, by throwing a smoke bomb which nullified the advantage of the Rinnengan, he truly was a genius. Orochimaru appeared behind Naruto with a Body-Flicker and threw a nasty punch aimed at Naruto's head but he found his fist blocked in mid-flight. Naruto turned around and threw a few explosive tags at Orochimaru and then disappeared with a Body-Flicker just before the Tags exploded, Orochimaru having the speed and reflexes of an S-rank ninja escaped with a Body-Flicker as well, only to find the place where he dropped out of the Body-flicker, littered with imploding tags. He disappeared again in a Body-Flicker and then turned to see Naruto standing a few meters from him.
"Your're good but such tricks won't work on me" Orochimaru shouted as the noise that the tags going off made hearing a bit hard.
"Perhaps but I was just testing you" said Naruto nonchalantly before he disappeared in a flash of Yellow.
He appeared in the left side of Orochimaru, who having expected Naruto to appear behind him had launched a kick right behind him, and proceded to stab Orochimaru in his arm, he had initially tried to stab him in the kidney but he had reacted too quickly and the kunai had only stabbed his arm. Naruto flashed again but this time to a more remote location, preparing himself for a battle he couldn't win, although he had a lot of speed and strength, the most powerful Bloodline limit ever and the most feared assassination technique, in an upgraded version, he could at most delay him and hope for Takagi to arrive.
Orochimaru didn't stay idle but quickly flashed through hand seals and said "Earth Release: Crushing Earth Wave" and immediately a large wave of earth rose from the ground and proceeded to increase in size and then it fell down to the ground beneath. With a big explosion an area of a few hundreds meters around Orochimaru was torn apart. Naruto had survived using Kamui and teleporting to a different dimension but he knew he would be vulnerable when he returned so he decided to make a big entrance.
Orochimaru jumped and turned back when he felt a pressure gather behind his back, just like when Tobi decided to "drop by" and he saw two different Naruto's running toward him and yelling "Wind Release: Rasshuriken" and "Fire Release: Spiraling Rasengan" and when the two attacks converged they yelled "Collaboration Technique: Flaming Doom Bringer". The giant flaming shuriken flew toward Orochimaru breaking the sound barrier and then collided, exploding into a massive dome of pure fiery destruction.
Orochimaru felt a thrill run down his spine as he barely made a substitution jutsu with a nearby log, he would have used one a bit farther but somehow there were none, "work of the boy no doubt" though Orochimaru as he felt the fiery backlash of the jutsu used by Naruto slam into him and almost incinerate him but he would survive, he wouldn't fall to him no matter how powerful he was already, only when he would get to the level of his father, only then would he give him the pleasure to actually free him of his earthly vessel.
Clutching at his carbonized arm, his body littered with second and third degree burns, Orochimaru stood in the edge of the crater formed by the attack and broke down in a maniac laughter.
"Well, well it seems that you have inherited something more of your father other than looks" said Orochimaru.
"What can I say, kicking your ass runs in the family" said Naruto as he prepared an "Almighty Push".
"Indeed, but lets see how you handle this" said Orochimaru as he shed his skin and came out of his own mouth in full health.
"Eww, that's gross but then considering your experiments this is normal for you" said Naruto as his eyes brimmed with pure power ready to be unleashed.
Instead of answering Orochimaru lunged forward but was instead meet with two words that made his blood run cold "Almighty Push" and an unstoppable wave of force slammed into him only for Orochimaru to turn into Mud and then he turned around in time to dodge a kick aimed at his head.
"How foolish of you to waste such a technique, now you will need five minutes before you will be capable of using it again" said Orochimaru as he flashed through hand seals and said "Wind Release: Razor Arrow" and what looked like and a transparent arrow of air headed for Naruto.
"That would be correct if I was not a true master of the Rinnengan" said Naruto with a smirk and then he said "Almighty Push" and a massive gravitational force negated the attack of the Sannin and then slammed into him throwing him a few dozens meters away and totally annihilating every tree in that distance.
What Naruto said to Orochimaru was true but that wasn't what he did, because for every use of the "Almighty Push" before a one minute cool down (for someone that has a natural Rinnengan) its cost went up by 5%, and while he had chakra to burn he didn't have that much, instead he simply released only a fraction of the true power of the "Almighty Push", having anticipated such a move and then released the rest when the true Orochimaru tried to attack him. He saw the Health bar of the Sannin drop dangerously low and flash red, such was the power of the "Almighty Push" used by a true heir of the Rinnengan but he didn't let his guard down and he was proven right when the Snake Sannin shed his skin once more and he noted that his Chakra bar dropped by another 10% of his original chakra capacity.
He was being pushed back, he knew it but he wasn't going to give Orochimaru the pleasure of acting like a headless chicken. Naruto hated Orochimaru with every fiber of his being, he had killed his grandfather figure and he had tried to destroy Konohagakure, even more times than just the invasion. He knew that from his father, or more exactly his fathers tether to the mortal plane. Minato Namikaze had been a man who did everything for a reason but not even him anticipated that someone the level of Takagi, made of the remnants of his chakra a tether to allow him temporary respite from being in the Shinigami's stomach and allow him to impart his knowledge to his heir, that being the only reason he could use the Flying Thunder God at all.
Orochimaru had once had the chance to have Minato as his pupil but had passed him in favor of another team, one that had a so called "Prodigy". During The Third Shinobi World War Orochimaru had come to regret missing the chance to shape him as he showed himself as literally the greatest ninja ever produced from Konoha and it was expected of him to achieve a level equal or surpassing that of the likes of Madara Uchiha or Hashirama Senju and he would have had he not died in an effort to stop a fragment of a Primordial.
During the Third Shinobi World War Minato had waged a secret war against Orochimaru denying him the Sharingan time and time again and almost killing him several times, the only thing stopping him was the fact that he was one of the Sannin and his death would have severe repercussions on the morale Konoha army and Orochimaru knew it. During this time Orochimaru arranged for Minato to meet his future rival, A and his brother Killer B accompanied by another borderline S-rank ninja from Kumo in hopes of getting him killed while eliminating serious threats against Konoha and his future plans. The plan failed and it ended with the ninja accompanying the future Raikage and his brother dead while the Jinchuriki was seriously wounded and survived only thanks to his enhanced healing powers, while A was crippled from the battle and was unable of joining any battle for three months. That was the start of their rivalry.
Upon his return he, casually strolled in the village and foiled three different plots from Orochimaru to gain the Sharingan. As revenge Orochimaru sent him to assassinate the Tsuchikage, Onoki, using his success into defeating A and his team as a pretext. Minato again blew his plan by successfully infiltrating Iwa and fighting the Tsuchikage and his personal guard and wining. The battle was fierce as Onoki was quite powerful at the time and the battle was joined by a great number of present jounin and even the two Iwa jinchuriki who, had at the time just returned from a mission. He totally crushed them, thirty jounin lost their lives and twenty could never return to active duty again, the jinchuriki beaten to a pulp and fell into a coma from which they didn't recover for a week despite their advance healing, as for the Tsuchikage, well there was a reason for his broken hip, being unable to heal even through Tsunade herself had tried to heal him.
He left the Tsuchikage alive, in hopes he would understand that war was hopeless but he didn't, in the end he learned it when he singlehandedly killed a thousand Iwa ninja and then casually blew up a heavily guarded bridge on his way home after saving the remains of his genin team. Upon the end of The Third Shinobi World War, the secret war between him and Orochimaru and him reached an all time peak during the election for the fourth Hokage seat. Minato won, outsmarting him in front of all the Jounin corp. After that he proceeded to systematically destroy his labs and making, the finding of test subject, for his experiments, nigh-impossible. He made Danzo practically powerless and made an alliance between Danzo and Orochimaru impossible at the time.
During that cold war between them, Orochimaru came to fear Minato even more than he could fear the Third, although the later could easily defeat him in an all-out fight. That being the reason he didn't resurrect him during the Invasion, although according to Minato, Orochimaru knew the Uzumaki secret technique, for releasing souls from the Stomach of the Shinigami. He feared him because unlike the other S-ranks which came at you with their full power, wrecking as much havoc as they could on their way to you, Minato simply teleported behind you and jammed a kunai to the base of your neck killing you without much fuss and he never showed his full abilities although nobody ever doubted that he could cause as much destruction as any other S-rank, if not more due to his unparalleled mastery of seals, hence the reason he was given the honorary SS-rank, a rank not given even to the likes of Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha.
Orochimaru smiled before with a pulse of chakra he deactivated a pair of seals and disappeared in a blur and with a kick to the ribs sent Naruto flying through the trees of the forest but was disappointed to find it was just a reinforced clone. Naruto attacked with a combo of chakra enhanced punched and kicks combined with a perfect use of his Lvl. 81 Body-Flicker. Despite all of his effort Orochimaru simply blocked everything he threw at him, keeping at all times a creepy smile that sent chills down Narutos spine. As Naruto retreated to recuperate some chakra, Orochimaru didn't miss a beat and took out Kusanagi and with that he disappeared in a Body-Flicker and appeared in front of Naruto, who was waiting for him as he saw the trail of Chakra, and proceeded to attack him with a speed and fury that he only witnessed from Takagi, although Takagi had been holding, back a lot.
Naruto began to understand why Orochimaru was one of the Sannin, a ninja that all but the most powerful Kages feared, why at the age of thirteen he had been capable of going toe-to-toe with Hanzo the Salamander, a ninja whom only Kages of the highest caliber, could hope to defeat, albeit it was done with the aid of his team. Naruto was being pushed back and wasn't being done by some flashy jutsu or any earth-shattering secret technique, it was being done by a man and his sword, no jutsu being used. As Naruto avoided another swipe from Orochimaru he teleported behind his back and with Chakra enhanced speed he jammed a kunai to the back of his head only for Orochimaru to turn into mud. It was that moment that it hit him, Orochimaru was toying with him, a clone had almost killed him, and for all the resilience and strength of Mud Clones they had but a fragment of the skill and power of the original.
"Just like your dad, a kunai to the base of the neck" said Orochimaru looking at him with the ever present creepy smile.
"Well he did teach me a few tricks" said Naruto hoping to stall him long enough for Takagi to arrive.
"Liar" spat Orochimaru his face contorting in rage as he attacked him "no one can speak to those within the stomach of the Shinigami, I've tried"
"I guess you aren't as good as you think" said Naruto nonchalantly even as he struggled against Orochimaru's assault, even in his enraged state his swordplay and situational awareness was flawless.
"Kuku, to think that you made me lose my composure" said Orochimaru slipping into his calmer attitude after giving Naruto a particularly nasty cut to his abdomen which caused 500 damage and gave him a Kusanagi Poison Status but in a second or two it would disappear thanks to Kurama .
"Well, dad always said, that you had a soft spot for him" said Naruto as he avoided the definitively deadlier sword swipes.
"So how did you do it?" asked Orochimaru increasing the intensity of his attacks.
"What was Chakra meant to do by the Sage of Six Paths?" asked Naruto teleporting around him in a flurry of yellow flashes and giving him a few deep cuts that made his health bar drop to three quarters, damn he was resilient.
"How am I supposed to know that? That's unfair" pouted Orochimaru as launched a volley of snakes toward Naruto, but his eyes gained a calculative look.
"Liar, you know that very well as "the Power of The White Snake", is partially Ninshu" said Naruto dodging a volley of snakes.
"Kuku, you really do know your stuff, well pleasantries aside, where the hell did you find a large enough Chakra sample to create such a connection to him?" asked Orochimaru intrigued.
"That's for me to know and for you to duck" said Naruto as a blur flew toward Orochimaru and he was slammed into the ground by an Asura Path enhanced clone.
Orochimaru easily dispatched the Asura Path enhanced clone and then with a single hand seal he unleashed "Wind Release: Great Breakthrough" and sent an unprepared Naruto sailing through the trees of the surrounding forest, or what was left of it anyway. Naruto felt his broken bones and he knew he had to do this if he wanted to survive long enough. With a though he activated his 'Three Tailed Kyubi Cloak" and he felt his strength and speed increase by a factor of twenty, although that didn't translate in his stats being multiplied by that number as your strength could grow a hundredfold and yet you gained only a few stat points.
Using his newfound speed and strength he attacked Orochimaru who for the first time in the fight took the defensive. Despite his enhanced speed and strength he found himself unable to breach through his defense, the Snake Sannin was to damn agile for a hit to land on him even though he was his superior in raw speed and strength terms. After a few minutes Naruto managed to pin Orochimaru to the ground and prepared to eviscerate him but was rewarded with a seal to the gut. Naruto fell to the ground and on the way down he analyzed the seal, it wasn't like anything he knew, meaning it was a personalized seal. If he did have any time he could have easily picked it apart and undone it but he was out of time so there was only one thing he could do.
He did a few hand seals and whispered "Celestial Release: Sky Guard Eternal Armor" and was immediately wrapped in the azure armor just before the Kusanagi came down on his neck. The blade sank down to the middle of the ethereal armor's neck and even drew blood from Naruto. Naruto didn't stop there but using his Preta Path he drew from the Natural Energy of the land around him and even Orocimaru stopped to stare at the transformation of the armor.
The color of the armor changed to a deeper shade of azure, it also gained six azure wings and all over the armor stripes of shining violet color spread into a mesmerizing pattern. Inside the armor Naruto felt his body grow even stronger than the normal Sage Mode allowed for and his chakra mix with the Nature Energy and the Celestial energy making up the armor. With a smirk he saw a table appear before him (Time to seal destruction: 2:43 min.). Another advantage of the Celestial Sage Mode was that it destroyed any and all seals placed on him, upon its activation, well all except for the seal imprisoning Kurama since that was created by the Death God.
Orochimaru attacked with his maximum speed but to Naruto it was like he was moving in slow motion and he dodged, he couldn't afford to get hit by the Kusanagi because it was a relic of his family and the Age before the Empire fell and it could cut through almost everything, even his Celestial Sage Mode Armor. With a quick spin he turned around and punched Orochimaru in the gut sending him flying through many trees before stopping. Before Orochimaru could touch the ground Naruto appeared above him and hit him with an axe kick, causing him to form a crater when he touched the ground.
When Orochimaru got out of the crater he shed his skin once more and smiled before his body exploded in a pile of snakes and from it a giant white snake with Orochimaru's face on it and holding Kusanagi in his mouth came out. With a speed that was a great deal greater than before he attacked Naruto and managed to score quite a few hits on his armor, leaving a few gashes that started to heal immediately after they were scored. For a few minutes the snake and the armored Naruto fought back and forth but none gained the upper hand until Naruto's armor began to fade and Naruto fell to the ground exhausted.
With a quick motion the snake hit Naruto with his tail and sent him flying and when he touched the ground he formed a crater. The snake collected all the other smaller snakes and it reformed back into the human form of Orochimaru. Brandishing his sword Orochimaru approached the prone form of Naruto.
"You pushed my ultimate form to its upper limits, now I won't be able to use it for another three months" said as he kicked Naruto "Do you know how much it hurts to gather that much Natural Energy in that form"
"A lot, apparently" said Naruto laughing while spitting blood from his mouth.
"Why are you laughing?" asked a curious Orochimaru "you're about to die"
"No, I'm not, you on the other hand are a dead man walking" said Naruto laughing.
"What are you saying?" asked Orochimaru trying to understand if he was bluffing or if was telling the truth.
"The Celestial Sage Mode Armor grants power surpassing that of the Rinnengan although it does drain you of what stamina you have in the end, but the point is that I could have killed anytime during our little fight but I was asked to keep you alive" said Naruto.
"By who?" asked a troubled Orochimaru.
"By the man who has been watching us for the past two minutes and who is currently behind you" said Naruto
Orochimaru made a quick turn and tried to swipe at Takagi but he hit only empty air as Takagi ducked and then grabbed Orochimaru and threw him at a nearby tree, totally disintegrating it and a few other unfortunate trees standing in the way of Orochimaru's flight. Takagi disappeared in a blur and returned a few seconds later with a battered and bleeding Orochimaru. He let Orochimaru fall to the ground where he was bound by a few ethereal ropes and he approached Naruto.
"That was foolish of you using a power with such drawbacks" said Takashi as he shared some of his energy with him which caused Naruto to be fully re-energized.
"Well, he blocked my connection to the Furball and he was going to cut my head so sorry for trying to live" said an irritated Naruto
"That wouldn't have happened if you had become immortal" said Takagi.
"That wouldn't if you had given me permission to kill him" replied Naruto not missing a beat.
"I need to learn something from him and then according to what we learn we decide what to do" explained Takagi.
"What do you need from him? To learn of his soulless experiments or how he planed the destruction of Konoha over and over again?" asked Naruto.
"I know what you feel, I too lost my family at a young age, so I can relate to your need for revenge but we must not be ruled by emotions, I did that mistake once and I lost almost everything" said Takagi with sympathy in his voice.
With a motion of his hand the body of Orochimaru floated in the air right before them and then Takagi spoke a string of words in a language lost to time and Orochimaru's eyes fluttered open. Naruto knew the spell, it made lying impossible, lying to yourself and to others, that spell was one of the ultimate intrusions to privacy but he squashed those thoughts as he though the man before him deserved it.
"How did you escape my sensory powers, they were at their peak during my transformation?" asked a weary Orochimaru.
"I have my ways" answered Takagi cryptically "now tell me the truth why did you arrange the invasion?"
"Because I needed to give the old man …." He forced himself to stop by biting his tongue off.
"Well this will be a bit harder than expected but I have broken mans and demons way more resistant than you, to my interrogation methods" said Takagi as he focused his eyes on Orochimaru's eys and they glowed and suddenly Orochimaru's eyes became a perfect replica of Takagi's eyes.
"You'll never get anything out of me" replied Orochimaru almost breaking the connection between Takagi and him.
"I'm afraid that isn't the truth and you'll see" said Takagi as he focused even more and then after a few minutes he interrupted the connection and said "I see"
"You see nothing, all of you are blind" answered Orochimaru.
"You did all of that as an act of mercy didn't you?" asked Takagi.
"Partially, but also because Konoha needed to be reminded of their decline since Minato was Hokage" replied Orochimaru against his wish.
"What mercy, how could you consider killing jiji as mercy?" asked a distressed Naruto on the verge of tears "is this reminder worth the life of hundreds who died because you couldn't stand the fact that the village was strong despite the fact that you weren't Hokage"
"Foolish boy, I don't think in terms of hundreds or thousand but of millions that would have died if Konoha showed any weakness" replied Orochimaru.
"Nobody is foolish enough to attack Konoha" answered Naruto.
"Right now, that's true because my invasion showed that Konoha was still the strongest and that it took two resurrected Hokage and me to defeat the Old Monkey and even then I suffered "crippling" injuries" answered Orochimaru.
"That is unfortunately true, Hiruzen was dying because of a rare disease, something not even Tsunade could heal and that would have shown a moment of weakness to all when he would be rotting in a bed and then the Fourth Shinobi War would have begun" sad Takagi.
"That can't be true he must have planted those memories there, he can do that you know" said a tearful Naruto.
"There is no way he can deceive me, he is a few thousand years too young to do that" answered Takagi and Naruto knew that to be the truth but still he couldn't accept it.
"Listen, Naruto, I see in you the potential to surpass your father but to do that you must become a man not remain the boy that I now see before me. Do that and you will have the power to change the corruption and the disease that afflicts the shinobi world" said Orochimaru.
"Next up, you worshiped, for lack of a better word, Minato Namiaze, why? And don't give the he outsmarted me bullshit" said Takagi in a stern voice.
"He found a way to save the good in us all, to save the shinobi world from its own corruption, starting from the Leaf and he would have had he not died sealing the Nine Tails" said Orochimaru" do you not see, he found a way to do so without first destroying it but now its too late and it must first be destroyed and then rebuild to our image"
"Do you believe him?" asked Naruto.
"He can't lie, young one, it's hard to believe it but it is the truth" said Takagi.
"What are you going to do now?" he turned to Orochimaru
"I'm going to die" replied Orochimaru.
"I mean if I let you go" corrected Takagi.
"I will proceed with my plan, but do you flatter your self thinking I will reveal it to you" said Orochimaru.
"Last question, why do you need the Sharingan, or more exactly its Magenkyo form" said Takagi.
"To set something or someone free but as to who that someone is I wont tell" answered Orochimaru.
"No need to, I already know" said Takagi freeing him "leave now before I change my mind"
Wit those words Orochimaru disappeared in a Body-Flicker and left Shion unconscious on the ground. The two moved toward the unconscious blonde, Naruto was conflicted about what he learned today. He couldn't believe Orochimaru was one of the good guys well more like grey but until a few minutes ago he believed he was pure evil but right now his world had been turned upside down. He didn't know what he was planning but he knew it would something even bigger than the Akatsukis end game, in fact he was sure that whatever the Akatsukis end game was it would be but a part of this plan of his to destroy the Shinobi World and the rebuild it but he would be damned if he left his friends and loved ones perish because of his mad schemes.
With newfound determination he moved toward the prone form of Shion. He decide that he would get stronger in every way that he could and he would complete this mission and get the means to do so from Takagi. "Orochimaru, your plan is not going to happen, of that I swear on everything I love for it is that what there is at stake". And so he totally ignored the new tabs that had appeared after the end of his battle with Orochimaru
Takagi saw the new fire burning in his eyes and he smiled. Finally a new emperor was born and he was going to change the world and he'd be damned if he didn't help him achieve his new goal that had lit the fire in his eyes. With those thoughts in his head he undid the damage done to the forest during the fight between Naruto and Orochimaru, with but a few words, and then sat down and started to mediate.
A/N: Who can guess what Orochimaru's plan is, gets to know what Takagis eyes can do and what the ultimate cheat is.