Author's Notes: Alright, don't fret, I'm still here to write this story, just took a hiatus to care for a broken wrist. But I'm healed up now, so it's back to Born Different and hopefully Blade of the Blizzard by the end of this week. Again, don't hold me to this arrangement, I am practically accident-prone at this point. Regardless, I promised all of you a fight in the last chapter, so I'm here to deliver.

Review Responses

Dragon and Sword Master: Thank you very much, and I can assure you, it'll have a pay-off in this chapter.

biginferno: I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter, and I also am glad that you appreciate the members of the harem that are rarely used in stories. I hope the eventual introduction of these members will not be as disappointing as my schedule.

SPark681: Well... It'd be subjective to say if he is doing the right thing... But, no spoilers.

FenreldStormblade: Indeed, it was a little bit of a throwback to Naruto and Haku's first or second conversation.

Naruto-DXD6996: Welp, hide in fear as Orochimaru makes his appearance in this chapter! As for Hinata, who knows?

ZaeTheWonder: Thank you, I found it very funny when making that joke.

Harem - Fem!Kurama, Anko, Fem!Haku, Temari, Shizuka, Tayuya, Fem!Deidara, Shizune, Amaru, Koyuki, Ryuzetsu, Pakura, Fuka, Samui, Kin, Guren, Konan, Fu and Yugito.

Naruto - 16(altered anatomical structure)
Anko - 23
Kurama -?
Haku - 16
Temari - 16
Kin - 16

"Talking"
'Thinking'
"'Talking or thinking by Kurama or berserk Naruto'"

Well... For the first time in a few months, let's delve right back into Born Different!

-Two Days Before, Early Morning-

"Are you seriously still not willing to go to bed...?" Haku asked as she approached Naruto, who had been messing with a new experimental compound at his desk. "I haven't seen you in a long, long time..."

"But it's light outside... Can't I go to bed when it's dark out...?" Naruto requested as he turned towards Haku after opening the curtains in front of his desk.

"That's because you've been working all night until now!" Haku argued as she splashed a cup of water onto Naruto's face, bringing him right back to reality.

"Look... I... I didn't realize that I had been working for that long..." Naruto mumbled as he slowly stood up from his seat, "I'm so sorry for neglecting you for that long... I... Well, we can do something right this second if you'd like...?"

"Just come here and give me a hug..." Haku requested as she held her arms open, "I haven't had one from you in a while..."

Naruto immediately obliged, walking a step closer to Haku before wrapping his arms around her, something quickly reciprocated by the ice-user, who rested her chin on Naruto's shoulder. Minutes after, the two pulled away from their long hug.

"Well... You feeling better now...?" Naruto asked, stroking her cheek gently to make sure she was fully satisfied.

"Hehe... Much, much better..." Haku replied with a soft giggle, "Now now... Time to get ready for your exams later..."

"Alright, alright... But before that, I have a question..." Naruto replied, holding onto her shoulders as if he had made a great revelation.

"Ummm, yes?" Haku asked, a little surprised by the blond's sudden movement.

"Alright, so... You know how a chemical reaction can be made quicker by the increased concentration of one of the reactants, right...?" Naruto asked, not waiting for a response as he continued, "And it's been proven that putting more chakra into a technique makes it more powerful, but, with a bottle of sodium, for example... You can dump the whole bottle into an experiment and cause a large reaction..."

"What outlandish idea are you coming up with now...?" Haku asked, already dreading Naruto's response.

"What would happen if I were to put all my chakra into a single technique?" Naruto hypothesized. "In particular... There's this new concept that I find viable... In modern physics, we call the coldest possible temperature absolute zero, a temperature that stops an object's atoms from moving at all, which would cause the object to not be able to hold itself together as a physical entity..."

"Let me guess, you want me to try and release all my chakra all at once into a single technique, just to see if it'd achieve that temperature...?" Haku asked, half-jokingly.

"No, I couldn't possibly risk your life or your health..." Naruto asserted as the water that had just been splashed onto his face began to freeze, prompting a small smile from Haku in response.

"Awww... You cheeky fox..." Haku teased as she took a step forward and placed a hand on Naruto's cheek, "You never told me..."

"Maybe?" Naruto asked jokingly as he stood up and grabbed one of his white coats from the hangers next to him, whilst grabbing a pair of goggles at the same time. "I'll try it on my own time, that all-or-nothing move or whatever I decide to call it... Right now..."

"I think we should probably leave quickly... Else I might get lost in your eyes again..." Haku joked as she ran upstairs to get dressed in a more Konoha-Esque attire, returning a few minutes later.

"Well, Ms. Assistant Proctor, don't you have a job to get to...?" Naruto joked as he opened the door.

"Yeah, well, don't make me disqualify you right here..." Haku warned in an equally joking tone as the two left their home. "And remember Naruto... That theoretical technique is possible, but... Would it be worth it?"

-Present Time, Forest of Death-

Naruto leaped across the forest, breaking several rotting branches along the way as he tried to regroup with his team as soon as possible, only for the very conversation with Haku he had before the exams to resurface in his mind.

'Would it be worth it...?' Naruto pondered to himself, cyan sparks of chakra cackling in his right palm, only stopping upon the closing of his right hand into a fist. 'I suppose we'll all find out.'

Upon arriving at their designated meeting spot, Naruto found a faceless shinobi lying on the ground, wearing the clothes of one of the Ame Shinobi from earlier, before his body dispersed into a cloud of smoke to dodge an incoming kunai from behind, reconstituting his body in front of Sasuke soon after.

"Alright, this one is Naruto..." Sasuke commented as he slowly stepped forward, followed shortly after by Sakura.

"I assume you used my gift from earlier...?" Naruto joked as he looked at the defeated shinobi's body.

"Well, it worked better than you described, so thank you for that," Sasuke replied, his tone remaining mostly serious as he looked around, the environment silent save for the whistling of the birds in the trees.

"Alright, we have to move now..." Naruto warned as he did the same thing, both of them showing a similar sense of panic.

"What...? What's going on?" Sakura asked, Naruto and Sasuke's panic quickly causing her to panic.

"Smells... Smells just like snakes..." Naruto mumbled.

Naruto looked down at the ground for a moment, before springing back into action as he and his teammates were suddenly bombarded with a large gust of wind, something akin to the force of a hurricane as many surrounding trees were uprooted.

'I could turn into smoke right now... But... What would happen if I get blown away in that form... And some of the smoke goes to the left, whilst the rest goes to the right...?' Naruto pondered to himself, before shaking his head of the thought, eventually being forced to yield to the force of the wind and retreating to another part of the forest, now separated from Sasuke and Sakura.

"You guys go make sure no one bothers us..." A sinister voice whispered as three figures could be seen, "I'll deal with the runts here on my own..."

-Naruto-

'Owww... That one hurt...' Naruto thought, laying in a pile of leaves until he decided to stand back up. "Where am I...?"

The blond quickly brushed himself off, looking around and determining that he was currently in a more secluded part of the forest. Seemingly unbeknownst to Naruto, a giant snake loomed over him from behind, its tongue extending for a moment before it unhinged its jaw and chomped down on the blond, only for smoke to slowly exit through the gaps of the snake's mouth.

'Never would I have thought I'd come across such a specimen... But such an opportunity weighs less to the danger that Sasuke and Sakura may currently be in...' Naruto thought to himself as he pulled out his pair of scalpels. 'No matter how much I may resent the overbearing nature of social interactions...'

The blond glared at the snake, before flicking his head down to place his goggles over his eyes, and dashing forward, cutting right through the snake with his scalpels and landing back behind the serpent, with it being now dismembered from its head to the tip of its tail.

'They've undoubtedly become important to me...' Naruto determined as he quickly set off to his intended location, 'And I must be able to provide the same amount of protection I provide to say, Haku-chan or Anko-chan... Well... Maybe not to that extent...'

-Sasuke and Sakura-

Looking around for a bit, Sakura quickly ducked into a bush that obscured herself from her team's assailant, only to find Sasuke there as well. Right before she was able to speak, Sasuke slapped a hand over her mouth, whilst making a silencing movement with a finger in front of his mouth.

"Shhh... We don't want them to know..." Sasuke whispered, making sure to stay as silent as possible as the shinobi from earlier assumingly stalked around the area.

'That's right...' Sakura thought to herself, her heart beating fast as she looked around, not realizing as a large snake came up from behind them, bearing its massive fangs on the two of them.

As the snake hissed slightly, Sakura was quickly pushed away by Sasuke, the latter jumping aside as well to avoid the snake's slide, landing next to a vial assumingly dropped by Naruto earlier. Seeing no other alternative, the raven-haired boy flung the vial at the snake with all his might, smashing it against it and causing the liquid to be splashed upon the serpent. Miraculously, the snake spontaneously combusted into flames, burning for a bit before it fell to its side, presumably dead.

"That... That was something I did not expect to see today..." Sasuke commented as he landed on his feet, joined soon after by Sakura.

"Is it over...?" Sakura asked cautiously, making sure to not make any sudden movements.

"Hopefully... Let's try to regroup with Naruto-" Sasuke began to say, only for a sudden hissing to cut him off.

"You two shouldn't drop your guard for even a moment..." A voice hissed as the snake's stomach burst open, revealing a shinobi with long black hair, with a long tongue flowing out of her mouth, "You seek the heaven scroll...?" Before revealing her heaven scroll, the shinobi stated only to devour it whole.

'Now that's just fucking disgusting...' Sasuke thought to himself, still not letting his guard drop for a moment.

'And here I thought Naruto was the strangest person I've ever seen...' Sakura commented mentally.

"I wouldn't relax if I were either of you, prey should be on their feet and ready to seek opportunities to run..." The shinobi stated as she extended her body forward, circling the tree towards the two genin, only to stop in her tracks as a kunai introduced itself in her path on the tree's trunk.

"Orochimaru!" Naruto declared, announcing the shinobi's identity to his teammates as he dropped the bodies of Orochimaru's two teammates next to him, with their vocal cords all slashed up.

'So that's why I heard no screams from them when they died...' Orochimaru thought to himself, before looking up at the blond. "Ah, you have no idea how pleased I am that you could join us-"

"Be quiet you perverted degenerate," Naruto scoffed as he leaped in front of Sasuke and Sakura.

"Naruto... I think we should just give the scroll to... Him? I think?" Sasuke whispered, "Whatever the case... It's gonna kill us all..."

"Ah... You see... There's an issue with that..." Naruto mumbled as he slowly held up the scroll, "We need his scroll to complete this section... So I say..."

"Wait, how do you know it's a he?!" Sakura yelled in shock.

"Just trust me! I have my sources!" Naruto yelled back, not wanting Sakura to know of a multitude of things, such as his conversation with Kin, his prior conversations with Anko, and definitely not the conversations he had with Kurama.

"Not the time! He's fucking gone!" Sasuke yelled at the two of them.

"Point is, there's no guarantee he's going to let us go just for giving him the scroll!" Naruto argued, looking around for Orochimaru, before seeing the former sannin standing atop a large branch.

"Fufufu... That's right, Naruto..." Orochimaru stated, drawing a dash of blood on a bizarre-looking tattoo on his arm, "After all... I can just kill all three of you right where you stand..."

"Not on my watch," Naruto stated, pulling out his scalpels once again, activating his Sharingan before launching himself off of the ground.

Right as he was an inch away from digging his blades into Orochimaru's flesh, a large cloud of smoke emerged before the blond, before four snakes wrapped themselves around each of his limbs, seemingly rendering him immobile.

"All bark and no bite, are- Orochimaru began to say, only for the blond to dissipate into a cloud of smoke. "What the-"

Before anyone could react, Naruto reconstituted his body behind the former sannin, before launching his body forward, intent on plunging his scalpels into Orochimaru's back, successfully doing so as he rested for a second.

'It can't be... There's no way it's this easy...' Naruto thought to himself, but not reacting quick enough to pull away.

As his teammates looked on, Naruto tried his best to pull away from Orochimaru, only for the former sannin's body to dissipate into a dark brown form, one that quickly shed its solid shape and quickly slump over, causing Naruto to be held in place.

'A mud clone?!' Naruto thought to himself.

Unable to move out of the way in his current state, Naruto focused his efforts, before turning toward the mud, his cheeks puffing up slightly.

'What the...' Sasuke pondered, observing Naruto's strange behavior alongside Sakura, not realizing Orochimaru slowly creeping up on the two of them.

'Not good!' Naruto thought to himself.

Beginning to nearly panic as he exhaled, Naruto opened his eyes wide whilst performing a seal with his free hand, assimilating himself into the mud, using the mud to slide through the ground and reappear behind Sasuke, a cut forming on his face as he held onto Orochimaru's blade with his bare hands, allowing the snake sannin to get a good look at his pair of Sharingan.

"Oh my... Full of surprises, aren't you...?" Orochimaru taunted, pushing down on his sword as the blade inched closer to the blond's face, drawing blood from his sliced palms. "First the Iburi Clan's Kekkei Genkai... Next Mud Release... And now the Sharingan... You'd make a fine addition to my forces... Or as a perfect biological blueprint..."

"Neither tickles my fancy, as one of my... Acquaintances... Would probably say..." Naruto growled, shaking slightly to drop a container from his coat, one that would soon be picked up by Sasuke. "Do it now!"

Nodding immediately, Sasuke held up the container, only to hesitate slightly upon seeing Naruto in the way of Orochimaru.

"Sasuke-Kun! Don't!" Sakura yelled, seeing how dangerous of a position Naruto was in.

"I'm so sorry... But it's the only way!" Sasuke yelled, before flinging the container at Naruto and Orochimaru, before flipping through his seals.

Not wanting the container to fall to the ground, Naruto held onto the container with his right hand, before moving his left arm to block the sword, the blade digging straight through his flesh, only to come to a stop upon contact with his ulna.

"Interesting... You've managed to incorporate the Kaguya Clan's Kekkei Genkai as well..." Orochimaru murmured, "I should've known... That damned Forth Hokage... His test-tube-created son would've easily survived, with all the DNA he tried to infect himself with leaking into that son... Acting as the hallmark of all my failures!"

"Unfortunately for you... That's not all I've inherited from the devil of my father..." Naruto stated.

Before Orochimaru was able to react, Naruto crushed the container, right as Sasuke exhaled a large blast of flames, encapsulating both Naruto and Orochimaru, only for the gas leaking out of the container to react with the fire and combust immediately, setting the two of them on fire.

"So is this your plan?!" Orochimaru taunted, still not showing too much of a reaction to the flames. "To coat us with a layer of fire?!"

"Well... Disodium Laureth-9 Sulfosuccinate doesn't just catch fire..." Naruto began to say, only for him to dissipate into smoke again, leaving only his lab coat behind, before a large explosion swallowed Orochimaru. "It explodes..." Naruto stated, before reconstituting his body behind Sasuke and Sakura, panting greedily for air.

"Is it over yet?" Sakura asked, slightly relieved as she turned towards Naruto.

"No one could possibly have survived that..." Sasuke mumbled, before tossing a kunai with an explosive tag into the ball of flame, "Although... Just to be sure."

Right before Naruto could have a chance to even formulate a response, Orochimaru slowly stepped out of the fire, before launching past Sasuke and Sakura and at Naruto, his face and clothes still consumed in flames as he slammed his palm into Naruto's stomach, causing the blond to reel in pain.

"Clever, aren't you?" Orochimaru asked rhetorically, holding Naruto up by the throat before plastering the explosive tag to the blond's face, "Had you not contained that pest within you... I'd have marked you as my vessel without hesitation."

Without a response from Naruto, the snake sannin tossed the blond into the deeper parts of the forest, the explosive tag causing a large explosion as Orochimaru turned towards Sasuke and Sakura, only to find them no longer standing there.

"Fufu... Clever indeed..." Orochimaru sneered, before tearing apart the skin of the face that had been consumed in flames, revealing a more serpentine face underneath.

-A Fair Distance Away-

"Where are we going?!" Sakura asked, hurriedly leaping across the forest to try and evade Orochimaru.

"Nowhere near him!" Sasuke replied, no longer caring about being discovered by any other team, "We stand no chance!"

"What about Naruto?!" Sakura asked again, tears slowly forming in her eyes, "What about him?! How's he going to-!"

"He's going to survive, damn it!" Sasuke snapped back, revealing the earth scroll to be in his possession. "He's going to survive... All we need to do now... Is wait-"

"Going somewhere?!" Orochimaru sneered, causing the two genin to stop on a tree branch, as the snake sannin emerged from behind an opposing branch. "At least that dead teammate of yours wasn't a coward."

"And from what I know... He isn't dead either!" Sasuke yelled, throwing a kunai at Orochimaru, one that was caught an inch away from the snake sannin's face.

"Oh? Is that an admission of cowardice...? Not a smart move..." Orochimaru taunted, catching two more kunai with the same hand whilst three other kunai dug themselves into the tree next to him. "Among many others..."

"Or are they?" Sasuke asked back, pulling on a chakra string that had been connected to each of the kunai and restraining Orochimaru's right arm.

Seizing their temporary opportunity, Sasuke and Sakura quickly fled the scene, leaving a smirking Orochimaru there, one who broke out of the restraints soon after.

-Naruto's Mindscape-

Having been defeated by Orochimaru moments prior, Naruto would lay motionless in the lush forests that were his mind, even if the sun had been dimmed ever so slightly. In his blurred vision, the blond could see a familiar figure slowly approach his position, crouching down to check up on him as he attempted to stand back to his feet.

"Easy there, Naruto-Kun..." Kurama murmured as she slowly carried Naruto up in her arms, walking into the small cottage that he had once built for her.

"You... Sound familiar... And with this fluffy thing that's here..." Naruto mumbled deliriously as he held onto her tail, "You're a fox... That's standing upright... Is this what people call heaven...? I don't know... Religion's not an interest of mine... I did know a fox like this back when I was alive, though..."

"Silly, you're not dead, you're in your mind," Kurama joked before gently kissing Naruto on the forehead.

"Oh... My apologies, Kurama-chan..." Naruto replied, still unable to move, "Would it be a fair hypothesis... for me to believe that whatever Orochimaru did to me... Is the reason you can't really pass much of your chakra to me...?"

"Hehe... You can call it a conclusion, Naruto-Kun..." Kurama replied with a soft giggle as she tried her best to heal the blond, "I'm working on breaking the seal, but for now, we'll have to settle with me not being able to heal you... Or supply you with my chakra..."

"Well... That sounds fine..." Naruto mumbled, seemingly having something on his mind as he looked up at Kurama.

"You know you can't hide anything from me, right, Naruto-Kun?" Kurama asked jokingly, as the blond slowly sat upright next to her. "Come on... Tell me what's occupying your mind..."

"I... I felt scared... Like you said I felt the first time I met you..." Naruto replied in earnest, looking down at his scarred hands that were currently on his legs, "I... I do apologize if this sounds... Rather different from what I'd usually say, but... I was really afraid, the moment I felt your chakra connection cut off from mine..."

"Aww... Don't worry, Naruto-Kun... I'm here to protect you if anything comes for you..." Kurama assured, gently petting Naruto on the head and ruffling his hair.

"I was terrified that... When I felt your chakra vanish... I thought the one connection that seemed impossible to sever was severed..." Naruto murmured, "The day I met you... It was the best day of my life... The day I was liberated from the darkness of isolation by your warm, and kind light..."

"Honestly... That was the most beautiful thing that I've ever heard you say..." Kurama admitted, wiping a tear from her eye, "Thank you, Naruto-Kun... Thank you so much..."

"You're very welcome, Kurama-chan... But... I can't stay here too long... I need to-" Naruto began to say, only for Kurama to pull him into a deep and sensual kiss.

"Don't worry, Naruto-Kun, I know..." Kurama replied with a soft smile as she pulled away, "I'll be rooting for you, even if I can't constantly push chakra into you... I know you can do this."

Not knowing what to say in response, Naruto gave a smile in return, before leaving his mindscape and back to the real world.

-Real World-

Still reeling from the pain, finding no remaining chemicals that can be salvaged, Naruto dropped his charred pouch, before beginning to leap towards where he assumed his team had gone. Before long, as the day grew dark, Naruto picked up a rather familiar scent.

'Anko-chan...?' Naruto thought to himself, sniffing through the air and going to where he assumed Anko was, 'I need to tell her about Orochimaru being here... She'll tell Hokage-sama...'

Now growing slightly more urgent in his result, Naruto refused to stop for a moment, shaking off all pain from his wounds as he continued on his way, landing on a tree branch that overlooked a small opening, where some of his greatest nightmares would show themselves. As the moonlight shined through a small hole in the leaves, Anko knelt before Orochimaru, seemingly defeated as the sannin held a kunai to her neck, one which had many tomoe originating from the Curse Mark covering it.

'No... No... No! Damn it! I- I'm too late!' Naruto thought to himself, his rage growing, even if Kurama's chakra was currently inaccessible to him. 'I... I can't... I can't save her... Unless...'

Not being able to hear what Orochimaru was saying to Anko, Naruto took a deep breath, before holding onto his right wrist. Channeling as much chakra to it as he could, a blue, cryogenic spark of chakra appeared on his right palm, before it formed into a large pulse and spread throughout his arm.

'That theoretical technique is possible... But... Would it be worth it?' Haku's words rang through Naruto's ears, trying their best to reassure him before he made a choice.

'In this case, it is worth it, every possible option would be worth it,' Naruto thought to himself, before leaping down behind Orochimaru, alerting the snake sannin to his presence.

"Naruto-Kun?!" Anko asked in shock.

"Ah, welcome bac-" Orochimaru began to say, only to be cut off.

"Leave her alone!" Naruto bellowed, before releasing all the ice chakra built up within his jutsu, 'Ice Style... Absolute Zero Cannon!'

Before the snake sannin had been allowed to react, Naruto poured all of his chakra remaining into the attack, a blue beam of energy launching itself from his palm into Orochimaru's right shoulder, freezing his entire arm completely, before it shattered into pieces.

"Y-you brat! What did you do?!" Orochimaru practically screamed.

Naruto smirked at Anko one last time before he fell unconscious. Intent on seizing his vengeance upon the blond, Orochimaru marched towards the unconscious Naruto, only for both the blond and the snake mistress to be dragged into different ice mirrors, moments before the same mirrors evaporated.

-Forest Outskirts-

"Anko-chan! Naruto-Kun!" Haku exclaimed, dispelling her mirrors before running over to check on the two of them, only to find Naruto unresponsive. "No... H-he didn't..."

"I... Haku-chan... He... He's going to survive... Trust me..." Anko assured, her strength slowly returning as she moved to hug Haku.

Whilst this was all going on, Naruto had faded back into his mindscape, where Kurama once again held him, this time cuddling him whilst he slept, Anko's words slowly fading out.

"He's going to be just fineeeeee..." Anko assured, kissing Haku on the forehead.

Author's Notes 2: This seems like a good place to end it, else this chapter may get dragged on too much. I seem to have a good momentum going with writing as of this month, so let's all hope it remains. If I'm lucky, I'll be able to update Blade of the Blizzard this week, as mentioned above.

Regardless, tell me what you guys thought about this chapter in the reviews down below! I'm eager to see what you guys have to say!