"A Demon has plenty of pride, but can a Demon feel remorse? Atone for its sins?
[…] A deeper study of the lore of the Demonology after the advent of the Church of Bethrezen taught us that the life cycle of a Demon –from its creation to its death- is not as one dimensional as Nevendaar initially thought it is. […]
The common knowledge was that Demons were direct creations of Bethrezen, forged in the fires at the centre of Nevendaar, unleashed in our world through rifts. But that is not so – many common demons were indeed created directly that way, but there were also ones who used to be mortals. Upon death, some mortal souls were unlucky enough to not reach the grace of the Highfather, or any other God they worshipped, and instead got snatched by Bethrezen, tempered in the fires of Hell, and reborn as powerful Demons in the service of our God. Others, their souls corrupted and blackened in life, their forms twisted to reflect their connection to the Netherworld.
One such Demon was the Demonic General Haarhus in the 9th Epoch. After the passing of the legendary Avyanna -his daughter- it was revealed that Haarhus, a once mighty Demonic General who lead a quest on behest of Bethrezen to capture the fallen star Inoel, was once a child of Gallean who through trickery and deceit had his soul fractured and corrupted. Having lost his memories and his true Elven form, he now served Bethrezen as a mighty General.
As it's been told in Avyanna's diaries, Haarhus somehow reassembled his fractured soul and restored his memories. While that didn't erase his countless sins, nor it restored his previous form, having remained a Demon, it allowed him to rebel against Bethrezen and lead Inoel to safety, which in turn culminated in salvation of Nevendaar.
So that begs the question – can Demons know remorse and rebel against our God in a moment of extreme willpower? Or is it by design that Demons can do so? After all, despite His countless tries, Nevendaar still stood firm. […]
Perhaps there has always been some love for His creation amidst all the hate."
-The Disciple's Archive
The Cultist
Chapter 8
A Rendezvous in the Forest
"Losers."
"I have to agree with Sai," Sasuke commented "If they can't see through the Genjutsu on the doors then they don't deserve to be in the exams."
"Maybe," Naruto agreed as the party of three climbed another flight of stairs, leaving behind a large group of Genins that were congregated on a floor below. "Or maybe they were just scouting the opposition. I recognised some senior Genins there who I'm sure had significant experience and were just indulging themselves."
"All of them from Konoha. Doesn't look good for the village if foreigners see such a display of incompetence."
Naruto scowled "I have to agree with that."
"Hn." The accompanied wave of satisfaction that emanated from Sasuke for winning an argument was undeniable.
Not that it was an argument in the first place, merely a brief observation on their way to the assigned location for the first part of the Chuunin exams, which they were surprised to discover were to be held in the Konoha Ninja Academy.
"Probably some subtle flex on Konoha's part," Naruto thought to himself "To show off to other nations."
They finally reached the place stated on their individual Chuunin instructions slips and were slightly surprised to see Kakashi waiting by the doors.
"Kakashi-sensei," Naruto greeted "What are you doing here?"
"Why, can't I see my beloved Genins off?" Kakashi sweetly asked as he pocketed his orange book.
"No." Naruto deadpanned.
"How cruel," the man sighed "Well, I'm here just to check that you arrived as a team, otherwise you wouldn't be able to participate."
"What, you were greeting every single team here?"
"Of course not," Kakashi eye-smiled "I'm a ninja."
Understanding that no further explanation was needed, no one else had any questions for the man's presence.
"Either way," Kakashi continued "I'm glad you're here and didn't take long to come to a decision to go through the exams."
"We knew about this for a month." Naruto retorted with a smirk "Just because you 'officially' nominated and informed us two days ago didn't change the fact we already knew we'd be participating."
"Fair enough," the man smiled again as he stepped aside to let Team 7 enter the doors behind him "Well, good luck. I will be rooting for you."
"No luck will be needed." Sasuke said.
Naruto elbowed his teammate and said "Thank you, sensei." and promptly entered the room, quickly followed by Sai and Sasuke.
Immediately the trio were hit with a pitiful amount of killing intent from a room full of diverse shinobi from all walks of life.
Naruto and Sasuke had to restrain themselves from openly laughing at the pathetic attempt for dominance. For Sasuke, he felt much, much worse from Zabuza. And for Naruto… well, he'd met the Kyuubi in person.
The two boys subtly glanced at each other and smirked, before unleashing their own KI into the room. Their combined KI was so much more potent that anything that was thrown at them and it immediately shut down any and all conversations in the room. It was so oppressing and overwhelming that a couple of candidates couldn't help but to drop on their knees from the sheer pressure of it, while others started to visibly shake and sweat.
Deciding that this should be enough flexing for now, they both reigned in their respective killing intents.
Now, normally KI is something that a ninja would develop naturally as part of their duty and life. In layman's term, it was a projection of one's emotions or emotional intent and carried through the space on the waves of chakra. Hence why a civilian could never produce their own KI intentionally or unintentionally.
Well, at least not to the same level as the weakest of Genin could. This is also why, depending on the potency, most people "see" their own deaths when exposed to strong KI. In a way, it's a form of Genjutsu that any ninja could use. And the only counter for it is your own willpower, or to experience something stronger than the KI you're subjugated to – such as pain.
Most shinobi experience their own KI in situations of high negative emotional distress – particularly in moments where they feel a significant amount of anger, hate, resentment, or even dislike. This is because those emotions are naturally easier to channel outwards and direct at someone subconsciously, as opposed to positive emotions which are more often than not channelled inwards.
The potency of said killing intent depends on myriad of factors, none of them exclusive: the potency and amount of chakra in a ninja, their experience, their emotional stability and intensity, their age. This is why there is a clear denominator that the stronger and older a ninja is, the more potent their KI becomes – their KI is naturally channelled with more potent chakra, and they have gone enough through life to know how hate can feel.
This is why veteran shinobi, especially those who have gone through war such as Hiruzen, have an incredibly potent KI that can put anyone in their place even if their physical capabilities might not match up.
The only exception to this are, of course, the Jinchuuriki. Depending on the sealing method and how much the host can access the chakra of their beast, it allows their KI to be much more potent and deadly than what their power and age would allow.
But then there is an argument between ninja scientists that for the Jinchuuriki it becomes chakra pressure, not KI. That is because the bijuu have a distinct characteristics to their chakra, so when the host is flexing their chakra infused with that of the beast, the question is asked: is it chakra pressure or actual KI of the Jinchuuriki. The two are near indistinguishable and scientists still can't come to a general consensus on this topic due to the lack of practical research.
But that is a discussion for another time.
At some point in a shinobi career, you learn how to flex your KI on will. And if you're capable of that, then you're considered an experienced ninja as, technically, only those who have been exposed to KI enough, or have done it enough themselves subconsciously, can learn to do it on command.
But it is not entirely true. While exposure to it can definitely naturally help you learn the skill where you just wake up one day and can hit someone with your own KI, it is actually a skill that you can learn to do at will like any other skill. One only needs to know the theory behind it, but honestly – only about 5% of all Genins even learn the skill themselves as it's not something a budding ninja need to concern themselves with.
In the case of Naruto, he had a very effective teacher of both chakra pressure and KI.
After one of his missions in the past month, the one that turned into B rank, Kyuubi once again pulled him into the seal and said in very specific words that "The Great Kyuubi will not have a pathetic host that can't even intimidate no name ninjas, and who gets laughed at and not taken serious by anyone. It's a complete and utter disgrace!"
"Ok, maybe in not so specific words," Naruto mused as he was recalling the whole thing "But there was definitely a strong sense of egoistical self-importance in the whole conversation."
He could hear an echo of an irritated huff in his mind.
At the time, the Kyuubi proceeded to tell him the exact theory and the practical aspects of both KI and chakra pressure, and then proceeded to demonstrate it a dozen of times on Naruto so that he would "Remember well the feel of it." After which Kyuubi wouldn't let Naruto out of his own mind until he demonstrated that he understood and could perform it himself, citing "If you can do it inside your mind, then doing it outside should be as natural as if you've developed it yourself over the years." Which made sense, Naruto thought, but it was no less terrifying that the Kyuubi had the ability to actually keep him inside his mind. The fox only laughed and said that if Naruto so wished he could easily leave himself. He just needed to learn how to do it, as all the time's he's been in his mindscape in the seal room, he'd only ever been booted out by the fox.
Now, Naruto wasn't dumb either. When he finally managed to perform KI he asked the fox something that fox let slip – if he can learn to do something inside his mindscape and then perform it naturally outside, does it mean he could actually practice all his jutsus inside the mind in the same way?
The Kyuubi was helpful enough to say that something like KI and something like active jutsus were completely different things consisting of vastly different components. KI was merely an intrusive expression of an emotion and intent. The crux of the technique laid in emotional and mental capabilities of the shinobi. Chakra was there only to amplify and "carry" the emotion. Jutsus, on the other hand, was an active usage of chakra. And chakra is what? A combination of physical energy and mental/spiritual energy. One cannot manifest physical energy inside their minds – the person visiting the mindscape is not there physically, after all. They can recreate jutsus just fine, but then it's the same as just imagining things in one's mind's eye.
At best, Kyuubi said, Naruto can improve the mental energy aspects of jutsus before trying them outside. He only needed to experiment. But then Kyuubi furiously said to find a different room in the mindscape to try these experiments as it didn't want its peace disturbed more than it already was.
Naruto was thankful for that piece of information, at least. And it couldn't hurt to try – he knew how to enter the mindscape himself. Time flowed differently inside one's mind so it'd be a boost to his training if he could train jutsus while he mediated or was otherwise occupied.
He actually attempted that several times in his meditation sessions – he entered his mindscape and trained some of his less practiced Katon jutsus for what felt like hours on end (in a separate room from the fox, of course. And he still needed to ask the Kyuubi to kick him out every time he was done, which was irritating the fox).
He was disappointed to learn that the results were marginal at best. It definitely felt like he had practiced the jutsus, but not by much. If he had to put a numerical value to the training he'd done, he'd reckon it was roughly 8 hours inside his mind practising amounted to 2 hours of practice in real life. And if he wanted to make progress where it actually amounted to 8 hours practice, he'd need 3 hours of practicing in real life to get the physical energy aspect of jutsu up to speed. It was not bad considering in 2 or 3 hours that he used for 'sleep' every night, could be done to train inside his mind to save around 3 hours of training time outside overall. All of the variable time maths was making Naruto's head hurt so he wasn't even sure if it was worth the minimal reward.
Kyuubi immediately retorted that he should use what is available to him – being able to access the mindscape the way he was, was unique to Jinchuuriki only. No normal human being could do the same naturally without external help. And with enough practice and meditation and knowledge amassed, Naruto could actually increase the mental capabilities of his mind and thus increase the processing power and speed of the brain. Which in turn meant that time spent inside the mind would be even slower if he so wished, which meant more training. The fox also hinted that he doesn't necessarily has to practice jutsus.
The Kyuubi reiterated that it will not have a weak host if it was to cooperate, and since then it hasn't spoken again, clearly exhausting its interest in Naruto for the time being.
Back to the topic at hand.
After learning how to use KI, Naruto immediately used that in one of his spars with Sasuke. After spectacularly freezing up and losing, Sasuke didn't hesitate even for a second to demand Naruto teach him that. Naruto was more than happy to teach it to his teammate. That is, after he annoyed Sasuke enough that the boy had to change the demand into a polite request.
"Sheesh," an uncertain voice said from their side. Turning around, members of Team 7 saw Kiba and the rest of the Rookie 9 approaching, something that Naruto and Sasuke were surprised about "You sure made an entrance. You didn't have to go that hard, Sasuke…"
"It was mostly me," Naruto deadpanned.
"Yeah, right," Kiba rolled his eyes and Akamaru agreed with him with a bark "As if a dead last could do anything like that compared to the top of our year."
"The rank of the Academy means nothing out there, Kiba" Naruto said with a raised eyebrow. He crossed his hands and once again unleashed his KI but this time aiming it specifically at Kiba. The Inuzuka immediately dropped on his knees and started to uncontrollably shake, the boy even forgot how to breathe. And Naruto was standing there in his dark outfit, his long wild blonde hair swaying from the light chakra in the air, arms crossed, eyebrow raised, with circles under his eyes – a perfect image of some Dark Princeling. "I do not appreciate to be mocked. You'll do well to remember that." He drawled. And then he stopped channelling his KI so suddenly, that all Kiba could was slump to the floor and take shaky breaths with his puppy whimpering in fright.
Even Sasuke was surprised at such display – he's never seen Naruto express anything but patience to any Konohan citizen.
"By the Kami, Naruto," Ino Yamanaka exclaimed as she rushed to help Kiba up "When did you get so scary?"
Naruto shrugged "Childish bullying and fights might have been expected and were even socially acceptable in the academy," he explained "But are utterly unacceptable as official shinobi. A bit of banter is one thing, but dismissing and mocking one's abilities in front of foreign shinobi is completely another. I might not have ego issues or superiority complexes like Sasuke-" "HN!" "-but I do take pride in what I have achieved."
"Uzumaki-san has a point," a stoic voice said and everyone turned to see it was Shino Aburame talking "Why? Because it's logical that as ninja who share the same rank, we are all equal. To mock one is to mock all of us."
While Naruto wouldn't have put it that way as there are exceptions, such as Sakura, Naruto was glad that someone supported him.
Ino humphed, and released Kiba who was now standing on his two feet. Oddly enough, the Inuzuka heir was actively avoiding looking into Naruto's eyes and otherwise looked subdued.
"A-ano," a quiet voice muttered and Naruto looked to see it was Hinata Hyuuga speaking, the very same girl that Naruto has rescued twice now. He shot her a warm smile and the girl blushed before continued, seemingly emboldened by Naruto's attention "Where is Sakura-san? Was she not on your team too?"
"She is," Shikamaru Nara said as he finally joined the conversation "Or at least she was."
"Sakura was such a trash Kunoichi that she got kicked off the team." Sai casually said.
A moment of deafening silence before it was broken by Ino's shriek "What?! You must be joking! Who even are you?"
Sai didn't respond, merely stared at the girl.
Naruto irritably sighed "That's Sai. He's socially challenged, don't mind him. He's a temporary replacement for Sakura."
"What happened to Sakura though?" Choji Akimichi asked again.
"I was getting to that. She was horribly injured in our first A rank mission-"
"A rank mission? Stop lying, you couldn't have done an A rank as a Genin!" Ino shouted again.
"Doubt my words again and you will end up like Kiba, Ino," Naruto warned and that shut the girl up straight away "While I understand how impossible that notion sounds, I do not appreciate being called a liar and my honesty challenged. I've never been dishonest, even in the academy."
"He's not lying." Sasuke finally added.
"Thank you, Sasuke. As I was saying, Sakura got injured in our A rank mission and needed urgent hospitalisation. I made a request for her to be temporarily removed from the team – she wasn't training and wasn't where she needed to be to hold her own. She was not only endangering herself for being slightly stronger than a civilian, but she was endangering Sasuke and I too as we would always need to watch over her." He then shrugged "I asked Hokage to have her removed. Temporarily at least, until she trained enough to be at a point where we wouldn't feel like we were babysitting her on missions."
"You asked for it directly? To a Hokage? You've got some balls, Naruto." Choji muttered.
"Rather cold of you," Shikamaru added.
"You might think that, Shikamaru. But let's see what your reaction would be when your team faces a certain death on a mission. I'd like to see your reaction when Ino is dying on your hands because she couldn't protect herself." Naruto coldly replied "In my eyes, during the battle with enemy shinobi, Sakura died. It's by some miracle that she remained alive."
Everyone remained silent at that.
After a moment, another shinobi garbed in a purple outfit approached them. He flexed his glasses as he amicably peered at Konoha 9 with an easy smile "You guys sure are making a scene. I suggest you tone it down a bit. The competition this year is truly tough, no need to needlessly make yourself a target."
"They didn't impress us much earlier." Sasuke stated.
"The stronger and wiser shinobi didn't deem it necessary to flaunt their power."
The boy had a point but Naruto still internally scoffed at the indirect barb. He didn't see anything wrong in flexing one's prowess if you can back it up, especially in a situation and context like this.
"Who are you anyway?" Ino finally found her voice again "I don't believe I've seen you around." And as the most socially aware and gossipy of their generation, Ino would know everyone around.
"Ah, how rude of me. I am Kabuto Yakushi, fellow Konoha Genin," Naruto noticed the way Sai's posture stiffened and his eyes narrowed. He took a note of it, but otherwise didn't comment at that moment "And you probably haven't seen me as I've been a Genin for a couple of years now."
"Have you attempted Chuunin exam before?" Choji asked.
"I have! This is actually my 7th time."
"He must be really weak." Was left unsaid, but thought about everyone present.
Kabuto smiled "I know that look and exactly what you're thinking. Don't underestimate the Chuunin exams. The villages send their very best for representation, and this season there is the biggest turn out. I am actually surprised all the rookies have been nominated this season."
"You seem to be very well informed, and have lots of experience." Shikamaru piped in "How many villages are participating?"
"Loads," Kabuto answered "Apart from Konoha, there is Suna, Kusa, Ame, Kumo, Oto, and other minor villages…"
Now it was Naruto's turn to narrow his eyes when he heard Kumo is participating. How Konoha even allowed them inside its walls after what they've done was a mystery to him.
"So troublesome… Any advice?"
"Again, don't underestimate your opponents. And that's just not an advice for exams, but your whole shinobi career," He replied and then got out a pack of cards from his pockets "That being said, there might be something more useful I could offer you. Over the years I collected plenty of information while travelling the world on my missions." He flashed the pack of cards "These cards contain information on various ninja. Give me a name and I will see if I have anything on them."
"Gaara of Suna, Naruto Uzumaki of Konoha, and Sai of Konoha." Sasuke immediately stated eliciting a raised eyebrow from Naruto.
Kabuto smirked "That's no fun when you know their names already. Lets start with this Sai," Kabuto kneeled down and put the cards on the floor. He made a ram handseal and then reached out to grab the top card from the deck. Within a blink of an eye, in an impressive burst of speed, Sai had his tanto out and he cut the deck of cards in half in one single stroke.
"I prefer my information to be kept secret."
Wide eyed, Kabuto was surprised at the sudden action "Wha-"
A violent burst of KI and the room was enveloped in a burst of smoke, from which three figures emerged. Two of them were wearing standard Konoha Chuunin uniform, while the man in the lead was wearing a long trench coat on top of his uniform, along with dark bandana adorning his head. The most striking feature of him was the scar covered face and dark, unkind eyes that scanned the whole room, daring anyone to say anything.
"Alright you maggots," he suddenly shouted and intensified his KI for good measure "I am the proctor of the first part of the exams and there will be no fighting here! Understand?" he glared at Sai who slowly sheathed his tanto. "Good. Now, get back to your teams and follow me."
Without waiting for any response, he pivoted on his feet and purposefully marched out of the one of the doors, closely followed by the other ninja that were accompanying him.
The Genins quickly followed suit realising that the wait is over and the exams have finally started.
A couple of hours later, Team 7 and the rest of the Genins who passed the first part were sitting near one of the entrances of Training Grounds 44, infamously known as Forest of Death.
Just hours earlier they were methodically ushered into a classroom with rows and rows of tables, and then seated in pre-arranged places. It just so happened that everyone's team members were split apart and shuffled across the room.
Then the proctor, whose name was Ibiki, explained the rules of the first exam.
At first glance it turned out to be something that Naruto was dreading ever since the Chuunin exams were mentioned - written test.
While it was true that he was much, much smarter than before, most of his knowledge was centred on obscure topics, such as metaphysics, religion, chakra theories, and some advanced geometry here and there. None of those really covered questions such as calculating the speed and power of impact of a thrown standard kunai under the trajectory of an x angle, with wind resistance of y, while also calculating the chance of it hitting the target bearing the mind the variable skill of the enemy shinobi.
He was pretty sure those weren't even Chuunin level questions. Or for any ninja even. From what Naruto knew, it sounded a question aimed towards those who would pursue the more theoretical aspects of shinobi world, such as researchers and scientists.
Thankfully, he was smart enough to quickly deduce that he wasn't supposed to answer these himself. He figured out that the point of the exam was to cheat without being caught. After all, why the point system? Why did those ninjas that entered with Ibiki were sitting and taking the same exam? That, and he saw some subtle ways how various shinobi were trying to cheat. In retrospect, it made sense - he realised it was an exam which was supposed to test their information gathering skills.
Looking back on it, the test was extremely boring. Sai pretty much solved the issue of his lack of information gathering skills - before he could even start formulating a plan, an inconspicuous rat made of ink scuttled on his paper and then morphed into text. Recognising Sai's unique jutsu, he quickly went ahead copying the text with his own ink.
And that concluded the whole part one of the exams. The only exciting thing that happened was the last question which tested their resolve. That was the part that eliminated the most teams. For Naruto, who spent a lot of time with the Hokage and listening to his stories, he didn't even hesitate for a second knowing that rank is not the be all end all of shinobi and if he was forever blocked from advancing then there are other ways of making a name for himself.
That being said, he was relieved when it turned out to be a trick question.
Afterwards, the second proctor by the name of Anko arrived in a flashy manner that would make the old prankster Naruto proud, and announced that she is going to be in charge of the second part of the exams.
Hence why they were all waiting for everyone to arrive so Anko could proceed with telling them about the next part. Judging by the chosen location for it, Naruto mused that the second stage definitely will be more interesting than the first.
"Alright, seems like everyone is present!" Anko shouted over the loud chatter "Now shut up so I can tell you about the next part. I will not repeat myself."
Majority of people immediately quieted while there were still some that were loudly chatting, completely disregarding what the woman said.
Anko seemed to be way too pleased about it, and in an incredible burst of speed she threw a kunai at a random Genin, scraping his cheek, before appearing behind him. She unleashed a burst of KI in her vicinity and bent down to whisper something in the Genin's ear.
The Genin in question, embarrassingly, pissed himself from fright and Anko looked mighty satisfied at that. She stood up and returned to her spot before resuming "Do I have to repeat myself?" deafening silence followed her question. She nodded "Good. Now, listen closely. In a minute you will enter the Forest of Death together as a team. Each team will have its own entrance around the forest, all equal distance away from the centre." Here she took a breath and removed two scrolls from her trench coat - one green and one blue, and lifted them in the air so everyone could see.
"Upon entrance," she continued "Each team will be given either the green Earth scroll, or the blue Heaven scroll. Now pay extra attention - your task is to retrieve the scroll you don't have by any means, and then arrive at the tower located in the middle of the Forest with your whole team present and alive. For all of this you have 5 days. I will repeat it once - in order to pass the second stage," she dramatically paused "within 5 days you have to arrive in the tower at the centre of the forest, together with your team, alive, carrying both Earth and Heaven scroll. Only then will you be allowed to proceed to the final stage. This means that at most only half of you will go further. Any questions?"
"What are we supposed to eat in there? For 5 days?!" Choji shyly shouted from somewhere in the crowd.
Anko shrugged "The Forest is full of wildlife. Massive spiders, tigers, snakes, bears, insects. You can eat whatever you find…" here she smirked "If it doesn't eat you first."
"What does that mean?" someone else asked.
"This specific forest has been a victim of chakra saturation… which means chakra mutation in the local fauna," Anko explained "What I mean is that a centipede might be in the size of a horse if you're lucky." several Genins paled "Now, no more questions. I think I was clear enough."
Most Genins sweat dropped, the woman only answered one question.
"Earlier when you arrived you were handed out some papers you had to sign. Hand them to the Chuunin at the gates. If any single member hasn't signed theirs, then the whole team won't be allowed to proceed and will automatically forfeit the exam."
"What are these slips about?"
"Did you sign them?" Anko asked back.
"Yes."
"And you didn't read them?"
"Erm, no?" the random Genin answered "Whatever was on there, I'd need to participate anyway."
"If you were stupid enough to sign something without reading it first then I am not going to tell you. Be it on your head." Anko said and completely dismissed the question before shouting "Alright, everyone to your gates! The number should be shown on the slips of paper that you need to hand in!"
All the teams began to quickly scramble towards their assigned gates where a single Chuunin was already stationed and awaiting.
Team 7 did so in a calm manner and got to Gate 15 where they handed in their paper slips and received the Heaven scroll. They were instructed to wait until everyone was ready.
"So what's the plan?" Naruto voiced "I rather not spend 5 days out there in the wilds."
Sasuke shrugged "Ambush another team and get Earth scroll as quickly as possible. From there, get to Tower while eliminating anyone on the way."
"Well, I agree with that," Naruto rolled his eyes "Though I meant some specific plan. I guess I will keep my blood sensing on the point. It doesn't have a large radius but it will help pin point any nearby sources of life. Now, who wants to carry the scroll?"
Sai extended his hand "I will carry the scroll."
Naruto narrowed his eyes - he could admit that scroll would be as safe with Sai as with him or Sasuke in terms of fighting ability, based on what little he's seen on missions, and the displayed speed before the first stage with Kabuto… but Naruto still largely distrusted the guy.
"And why is that, Sai?" Naruto questioned "I don't really trust you and you full well know it. How do I know you won't just run off with the scroll given the opportunity?"
With the same emotionless face expression Sai answered before he smiled "It's in my best interest that we all pass, dickhead. Especially you and Sasuke. Besides, from the three of us I'm the best at stealth. If needed, I can hide myself and the scroll if we get ambushed."
"That doesn't give me a sense of reassurance." Naruto muttered under his breath but decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. Worst case scenario they can get another Heaven scroll from opposing teams. "You're a fellow Konoha shinobi so I shouldn't really doubt you. Here."
He handed the pale ninja the scroll who quickly pocketed it.
"Prepare yourselves," the Chuunin at the gates suddenly said "The gates will open shortly."
Sasuke and Naruto nodded and approached the gates. Shortly after, the gates clicked and automatically opened after which the Chuunin stepped aside. Getting the message, the trio rushed in. Last thing they heard before they were enveloped by the silence of the canopy, was the Chuunin whispering them good luck and the gates clicking closed.
They ran full speed in silence, with Naruto leading and Sasuke and Sai on either side of him, hot on his heels. Suddenly Naruto signalled for them to stop.
"Enemies?" Sasuke immediately asked.
Naruto shook his head. "No. I just wanted to discuss our strategy. I haven't sensed anyone so far which mean either everyone is very adept at masking their life force, or the forest is much bigger than we thought."
"And?"
"Aaaand," Naruto irritably sighed "We need a strategy of how to find a team."
"Rush to Tower and set an ambush for another team." Sasuke stated confidently
"No." Naruto firmly stated "If that was your first suggestion, then likely the other teams had thought the same. As strong as I think we are, we can't fight an unknown amount of teams at the same time, or get ambushed in turn by villages banding together."
"We just get there first then."
"Don't be stupid, Sasuke. Can you say with certainty that we are the fastest shinobi in the exams?"
Sasuke scowled at that. He wasn't stupid, he knew full well that rushing in without valuable information was dangerous. But he just wanted to fight and test himself. "What do you propose then?"
Naruto was just glad Sai hasn't said anything and opted to just listen.
He crouched down and quickly started drawing a rough map of the Training Ground 44 on the ground with his finger. "We know that Training Ground 44 is circular in shape and we know that at the centre there is a tower we must reach. Let's consider the tower as relative North." he drew a straight line between the edge of the circle and the centre "Currently we are going in a straight line North and we can assume that majority of the teams will do the same, so the chances of us safely encountering an enemy are low. And we must also consider that whoever we encounter might not have the scroll we need which further will complicate our time here." now he drew a diagonal line from their assumed current position "So I suggest we go in a diagonal here, roughly North-West. Higher chances of actually finding another team. None of us have long distance tracking skills to find someone so this is our best bet I think."
"I concur." Sai agreed which surprised the other two member of the team "I can scout ahead and relay messages to you with my ink jutsu too."
Naruto shook his head ahead "You're probably have the best skillet for scouting and relaying messages long distance, but I don't think it will be appropriate here."
"Why?"
"Firstly, because we need to assume that we are potentially surrounded by multiple shinobi. Splitting up, even temporarily, will weaken our formation and fighting power in case we get ambushed while you're away. And secondly, we aim to reach the tower as soon as possible. Coordinating each others position distantly in this situation seems counter productive, not to mention that the two of us will be sitting ducks waiting for you. And if we move around too then it's all the more difficult for us to find each other later. No, it's still only the first hour out of five days, it's best if we stick together for now."
Sai nodded and Naruto swore he saw something akin to approval in those eyes. "Must've imagined it."
"Sasuke?" he called.
The Uchiha reluctantly agreed with the plan too.
And so they destroyed the drawing Naruto made, and with quick check of their relevant position, the trio dashed off North West from their initial route.
"I'm so tired!"
"We know, Ino."
"I'm so hungry! I ran out of food!"
"We know, Choji. This is so troublesome."
"We know, Shikamaru."
An insufferable sigh from the three members of Team 10 was a clear indication it was time for a break. Their second one so far, something that no one complained about. So they sat down on the ground, with Ino carefully sitting on a nearby fallen log.
They took out their respective canteens to freshen up and catch their breath. They were running what felt like non stop at moderate pace for nearly two hours with nothing but green thicket surrounding them. The forest was so dense and looked the same everywhere they looked that they genuinely felt like they haven't moved from the entrance at all.
"We need to think of a plan," Ino finally said when she caught her breath "We can't just blindly run ahead."
"How troublesome… can we just forfeit?"
"Absolutely not! Stop being lazy for once!"
Shikamaru rolled his eyes "Fine. We should get to the tower as quickly as possible-"
"Isn't that dangerous?" Choji butted in.
"-but aim to get a scroll before that. As I was saying, Choji," he threw his teammate a look at which Choji abashedly looked away "Other teams probably have similar ideas of getting to Tower quickly and ambushing someone there. Which will make the whole area a bit too busy for my liking and make acquiring a scroll more difficult."
"So what we should do then?" Choji asked.
After a brief moment or silence during which Shikamaru sat in deep contemplation, he finally spoke "We should still go towards tower's direction, but not in a straight line…" he then point slightly to the side from the direction they were headed "Make a slight detour and try to catch some team en route to Tower. However, let's make priority on the way to hunt for some game. We will most likely end up camping outside so better be prepared. Our water should last us a while too."
"Ugh, we better reach the tower today. I'd hate to camp outside in this damp." Ino complained.
Shikamaru shrugged as he stood up and beckoned others to follow "Always prepare for the worst case scenario, Ino."
"Yeah yeah, whatever." Ino rolled her eyes. "Lets go already. The sooner we go, the sooner we'll be in comfortable rooms."
"Assuming the tower even has rooms. We might be sleeping on cold floor." Choji commenter.
Ino quickly developed a tick mark "Don't ruin my fantasy!"
"Sorry!"
At the same time, in the Hokage's office, Hiruzen was fighting a losing battle with never-ending paperwork, his eyelids growing suspiciously heavy.
"Hey old man!" a mature voice boomed behind the old Hokage.
Hiruzen jolted awake and dropped the pipe from his lips in startled fright. He managed to nimbly catch it before it hit the table.
Calmly, this time, he reignited the pipe with a mild Katon jutsu and took a deep drag of the sweet tobacco. Slowly swivelling on the prestigious Hokage chair, he faced the sudden company which was lazily sitting on the windowsill.
"Jiraiya-kun," he greeted "Would it pain you so much to use the front door? Almost gave me a heart attack."
The legendary Sannin just rolled his eyes and hopped off his place and moved to sit on the cosy couch in the office. "You ask me this every time, and the answer is the same every time too - no," he parroted "You only do this for my benefit anyway, you felt me approach a while ago. I wasn't really hiding."
Hiruzen exhaled a puff of smoke "Would it be so hard to amuse an old man?"
"Yes." the white haired man deadpanned "I'm too old for that."
"Didn't think you'd ever refer to yourself as old."
"Different context." Jiraiya waved his hand in dismissal "Anyway, why did you call me? It wasn't easy to extract myself from my current mission."
"By the by, what is your current mission? I am never sure of your whereabouts."
Jiraiya nodded mighty pleased at that "And that's how I'd intend and prefer it. Would defeat the purpose of being a spymaster."
"A Hokage should know."
"If the Hokage knows, then someone else does too. And then it spirals from there. I send you regular reports, and that should be enough to assure you I'm doing what I'm supposed to." he replied. A second later the whole mood shifted in the office and a lecherous grin spread across Jiraiya's face. "That being said I always make sure to do my research wherever I travel." He took out an inconspicuous little book from his pouch which had a suspicious title of 'Icha Icha', and then threw it at Hiruzen. "Here's my latest edition. It's not released to the public yet, so you're getting a full preview of the final draft."
Hiruzen deftly caught the small book and in the speed of a veteran shinobi he quickly hid it in one of the hidden drawers in his desk. "Not during the office hours," he muttered.
Jiraiya let out a boisterous laugh "Whatever you say! So, why did you call me back? The missive sounded urgent if you sent it through the toads."
Hiruzen adopted a serious expression. "Serious indeed. We might have a situation of unknown danger to the security of the village on our hands. But before we get to that, I wanted to ask if you managed to collect any information during your travels that I asked you about some years ago?" he asked. And then quickly clarified seeing slightly confused frown on his student's face "About the cults and the like."
Jiraiya's face lit up in understanding "It was an odd request, but a very curious one, I admit." he leaned further into the couch, relaxing "Enough for me to actually go out of my way to investigate. I didn't have many-if any- leads, so it was invigorating for a while to discover something new."
Hiruzen could relate to that statement. In his age he could boast with confidence that he's pretty much seen the majority of what the Elemental Nations had to offer, especially considering he's lived through wars. And his position as the Hokage gave him access to any and all Intel and information that he could desire for.
"There are several locations I visited. The first place I went to, of course, was the Fire Temple in our own lovely Hi No Kuni-"
"You were so close to the village and didn't bother to drop by?" Hiruzen raised an inquisitive eyebrow and looked at Jiraiya in a non judgmental way.
The man only shrugged "Didn't have a reason to, was busy as it is. Anyway. I knew nothing of religion or its worship, only the small bits of general mythology. So I went to the Fire Temple to speak with the priests there worshipping Kami. That was the most logical place to visit as I thought priests would have more knowledge and would be willing to share. And I was right," he grinned "Being the famous Jiraiya of the Sannin has its perks. Not to mention all those priests are closeted perverts, I was rather proud of seeing some of my books there that I'm sure they thought were hidden well enough!"
Hiruzen coughed.
"Right, right. Well, I had a nice little chat with a head monk who was very informative. To skip the boring parts, apparently what us shinobi do is a weaponised form of religion."
Hiruzen puffed out a perfect circle of smoke from the pipe as he contemplated that statement.
"You know the myth and tale of the Sage of the Six Paths, correct?" Hiruzen nodded and Jiraiya continued "According to the priest, Ninjutsu, Genjutsu and all other jutsus came from the teachings of Ninshu. That's something the followers of Kami try to imitate - peace and the connection of all things, something that I personally relate to.
The head monk also revealed that Kami blesses them too. He didn't give details but he did provide a demonstration. Smashed a boulder into dust with a single hit."
"Is that so?" Hiruzen definitely heard and had suspicions that the priests of the fire temple were not as harmless as they present themselves. After all, how does a temple of peace preaching clerics survive the harsh shinobi world and don't get raided by criminals. "And they didn't use chakra?"
"They did," Jiraiya frowned "At least I think they did. It was definitely chakra but there was something… off about it. You know I've never been the best of sensors so I can't tell further. And it didn't seem they had any formal chakra training either, their reserves felt abysmal so I'm still rather perplexed about it."
If Hiruzen was having this conversation several years ago he'd dismiss all of this as nonsense. But now, having spent so much time with Naruto, he could take an educated guess as to what is it that his student was describing.
Jiraiya continued "Either way, I learnt of some other tales of other gods worship which led me to travelling to Tsuchi no Kuni."
"The Earth country? It's not often anything leads there."
"Just so," Jiraiya agreed "As large as a country it is, it's surprisingly secretive. In the far west of it there's a small village that houses the cult of worshippers of Izanami."
"Izanami? The Goddess of Creation and Death?" Hiruzen asked as he leaned forward in his seat, intrigued. He'd never in million years think that a rigid country as Tsuchi no Kuni would house any religious pact, let alone of such a prevalent goddess of the Shinobi myths.
"Yes. It was an odd little village, surrounded by moss covered rocks, thick trees, and dried out vegetation. People themselves lived in wooden huts. It honestly looked like century old backwards community. They were quite distrustful, but respectful enough. I think they were afraid of me. In the middle of the small village there was some sort of tall structure decorated with fetishes and baubles. It resembled something akin to a totem or obelisk, but nothing that you'd associate with Izanami. I tried to talk with some people but no one would want to have even a word with me and I was prepared to leave when some sort of ceremony began at the entrance."
"What kind of ceremony?"
"What I later learnt to be a funeral rite. Some days prior a couple of citizens of Iwa specifically travelled to this village to request a ceremony of some sort to be performed, something that the locals were too happy and eager to do, and it seemed I was lucky enough to arrive during the last stage of it.
The ceremony itself was interesting to witness. Fresh leaves and fruits were scattered around the totem I mentioned, and the corpse which was wrapped all in bandages was placed on a small stone pedestal at the base of it. A straw like doll placed on top of the corpse. Three locals started to prostate themselves around the totem, and someone who looked like a head priest ignited the bandages which quickly overtook the whole corpse. The speed at which the fire spread made me think some chemicals were involved. Then all four of them started an eerie hum that turned into a song." Here Jiraiya paused and frowned as if recalling rather puzzling discovery.
"And?" Hiruzen prodded.
"The vegetation they placed dried up and there was a… sort of heaviness in the air…" Hiruzen saw the struggle that his student was going through of trying to describe the Power a religious ceremony produced, but didn't offer his own insight "It was something like chakra but at the same time it wasn't. It's honestly quite hard to explain. It was similar to what I felt with the priests at the Fire Temple, but at the same time slightly different. I felt uncomfortable there watching the ceremony. But I soon forgot about that, as at the crescendo of their song the fire ignited in pale green colour and quickly consumed the whole corpse only leaving fine ash behind which was quickly scooped into an urn provided by the Iwa visitors.
A random local then finally decided to talk with me and explained that the point of the ceremony was to provide a safe passage to the next life to a recently deceased soul. They rarely received requests as they were quite secluded but they also had active relationship with surrounding small villages for trade reasons - the forest in a rocky country did not provide all the life necessities they needed. And so they spread the word, but it's mostly only the old traditionalists that reached out to them. Family fulfilling the requests of their grandparents and such sort.
He didn't want to talk any further than that and politely asked me to leave as quickly as possible as I was making everyone extremely uncomfortable. But not without giving me another clue. The reason why they were on edge with me around is because not too long ago they were raided by another ninja. He said it was some sort of Jashin fanatic by the name of Hidan. No one died and nothing was stolen but this Hidan definitely thrashed the place around. For what purpose no one quite knows. The local was quite helpful with pointing out that Jashinism had deep roots in the Hot Spring Village which I was more than happy to visit!"
Hiruzen snorted at that "Of course."
"Don't give me that look! The actual hot springs there gave me ample material for the books in your drawers!" he huffed. "Anyway, I learnt quite a lot from the older generation there. Years ago there used to be a small settlement, just few houses large, that housed Jashinists. It was outside the Yukagakure while still technically remaining part of it. They were sadistic and, shockingly, cannibalistic bunch of people but no one really knows what happened. Apparently one day the whole settlement was found out dead, murdered over night. Sounds familiar?"
"Quite so." Hiruzen recalled the Uchiha Massacre with a pained expression.
Jiraiya nodded "Something didn't seem right. I tried to investigate but couldn't find a single trace of anything. I can say for sure that the whole thing was meticulously covered up, but it's unclear why or for what purpose. But this Hidan… I found him in a bingo book - he's marked as an S rank shinobi." Hiruzen raised an eyebrow in surprise. There are only a handful of ninjas in the world bearing that rank. "Exactly. Even without your request it made me extremely curious. Unfortunately I couldn't discover any of the mystery. The most I managed to do is is get my hands on one of the Jashinism books, and even then I had to beat it out of some underground yakuza group that was operating in the same area. They somehow managed to acquire it and, surprisingly, it was fetching a nice sum in the black market. Not sure why though - I tried to read it and it all went over my head so my guess is it could only be a collectors item."
"Do you still have the book?"
Jiraiya nodded and retrieved it from the pouch and threw it towards his old sensei who deftly caught it. Briefly inspecting the book he saw it was quite nondescript - simple black leather cover with no illustration but a small symbol adorning one of the corners. An upside down triangle surrounded by a circle. Deciding to peruse it later, he brought his attention back to Jiraiya "Anything else?"
The man shrugged "Not really. That's all I could uncover, really."
"I see. Anything else in regards to my request?"
"Yes. There's a lot I learnt over the years. Theories, techniques, religious practices. I've never realised how much diversity there is outside of ninja lifestyle. Some things I could even apply in my own chakra usage." Jiraiya shrugged "Not all these so called religious ceremonies were bizarre as the one of the Izanami cult. If anything, most of them used self taught chakra techniques to obtain various effects and then claim those to be godly interventions. The ones I described are just the most interesting ones of them all."
Hiruzen nodded in agreement "Indeed. I learnt over the years to be very careful with such reports. There's an extremely thin line between common chakra application and divine boons amongst the uneducated, common folk."
"So why did you want me to look into these? Seems like pointless knowledge to me."
Hiruzen openly smirked, which put Jiraiya on edge. It's not every day the Hokage shows that kind of expression so easily. "No knowledge is pointless regardless of how one might perceive it." he mysteriously stated "You'll learn why in due time, so make sure to keep what you learnt in mind. Come, sit at the desk." Jiraiya stood up and moved from the couch to the chair in front of the Hokage's desk. Hiruzen shuffled some papers around looking for a specific document. After few frustrating moments, the old Hokage triumphantly whipped out a thick stack of papers and shuffled them towards Jiraiya. "Now for the serious matter as to why I called for you.. What do you know of Kazekage's children?"
"Do you feel it?" Naruto whispered to his teammates.
Sasuke and Sai silently nodded.
There was an unnatural stillness in the air that reminded two members of the team their first encounter with Zabuza in the Wave Country. The natural sounds of the forest quietened to an uncomfortable lull, even the rustles of the leaves didn't dare to make too much noise in the soft wind.
There was danger about which made the three Genin uncomfortable. They continued to hop from tree to tree in their pre-set direction which they've been following for the past hour.
"I find it hard to believe that we haven't encountered anyone yet."
Naruto silently agreed with Sasuke. They should've met at least someone. The forest was big and thick, but not enough to hide about 100 ninjas from each other for so long.
Naruto suddenly looked up and signalled for his teammates to stop. He heightened his senses and looked forward. The rustle in the leaves was slightly sharper and there was an occasional crack of branches. Some disturbance in the air followed and Naruto widened his eyes.
"Down!" he shouted and followed his own command and jumped off the tree they were on.
Not a moment later the soft rustles turned into deafening boom and a literal wind vortex passed over their heads obliterating part of the canopy.
Taking that head on would've left them with several fractured bones at the least.
"Kukuku," a slimy laugh escaped from the shadow of a particularly thick tree. A tall woman garbed in nondescript shinobi gear stepped out of it. Her forehead protector was adorned with the symbol of Kusa, but Naruto chose to ignore that. Instead he couldn't stop staring at those dim yellow eyes that seemed so unnatural on the woman's face. "I must congratulate you on avoiding being hit with that. Not what I had planned but I suppose getting rid of the two of you shall be easy enough and then I can proceed with my original plan." Her voice sounded like sandpaper scraping across their eardrums and she gave a creepy look to Sasuke.
Naruto truly didn't like that look on the woman's face and every sense in his body screamed warnings at him of unparalleled danger.
And then, the woman moved. One moment she was standing there, the next she was on top of them with raised fist. She was faster than Zabuza and only their experience with The Demon of the Mist allowed them to react to their instincts and scatter, barely dodging the punch that created a small crater where they just stood.
Without hesitation the three members of Team 7 instantly jumped into action and got ready to fight - Naruto already had his knife out and slashed his palm, Sasuke was already chaining handseals for a Katon jutsu, and Sai leaped back and threw some shuriken, ready to support from a distance.
The Kusa shinobi casually leaned back and dodged the shuriken but then a momentary sense of overwhelming fear surprised her and made her freeze in the spot. She recovered a split second later and just barely dodged a giant fireball courtesy of Sasuke. However, the momentary lapse in her concentration cost her. The fireball still clipped her on the side and the smell of burnt flesh and hair permeated the air. Her hair and left hand were singed, and small portion of her face seemed to be melting off.
"What was that?" she thought, completely unbothered by the damage.
A moment later she had to avoid claw sweeps from a black and white tiger that seemed to be made of… ink? Testing her theory, she casually ducked under another sweep and backhanded the belly of the beast with minimal force. It effectively lost shape and burst into black ink.
"Interesting jutsu."
Again, her senses tickled and she dodged more projectiles, these ones seemed to made out of blood. On impact with a surface they left behind a tiny puddle of blood. A double flash of blue and she leaned her head to the side, effortlessly letting two sparks of lighting shoot past her. Recognising the jutsu, she lazily turned around and with a minimal chakra application to her hand she batted away the now sharper sparks of lighting that were travelling back towards her.
There was a spike of Power that she was vaguely familiar with, and suddenly she needed to put a bit more effort into dodging the bloody spears that shot out from the previously unsuspecting blood puddles.
"Blood Release Kekkei Genkai?" she thought surprised "No, not quite…"
Suddenly, Sasuke was on her, his developed Sharingan blazing in fury and engaged her in fierce taijutsu exchange.
"Kukuku, Sasuke-kun," she sweetly laughed, her voice akin to snakes slithering in their ears "You have no idea how happy it makes me to see you with such developed Sharingan already."
The Kusa shinobi felt another pulse of Power so she pivoted away from a vicious strike and in one smooth motion delivered a devastating kick that Sasuke was not prepared for. Sasuke was sent flying and he was sure that something in his body broke.
Naruto immediately replaced Sasuke and started assaulting the woman with his Infernal Whip at medium distance.
"You know, Naruto-kun," she initiated a conversation while casually slithering between the whip's strikes "I admit I haven't paid much attention to you, having dismissed you as a failure who never could live up to the potential of your parents." Naruto dangerously narrowed his eyes but remained cool and continued his assault "But I certainly have heard things… maybe I was wrong to have dismissed you so."
Here she leaned away from another strike and suddenly rushed Naruto in considerably lower speed, something that he actually expected.
So in response he jumped back with the same force as the woman, while also recalling his whip in a zigzag way along the face of his enemy. The woman absentmindedly averted being struck by minimally shifting to the right, but here Naruto executed his new trick he's been practicing.
He quickly commanded his whip to split in two, but unlike the usual, this time it started splitting from the opposite end rather than at his hands. And so, with a quick yank he managed to brutally strike the woman's face with the splitting end, forcing her to stumble to the side.
Immediately, while Naruto started preparing his next Infernal Arts technique, Sai displayed incredible burst of speed and appeared next to the woman, his tanto mid swing. Only the unnatural flexibility saved her from being decapitated as she bent her neck in a way that would snap it for normal people. Sai wasn't discouraged however, and adjusted his grip and lunged again with a follow up slash.
Briefly after, there was another pulse of Power and Naruto transformed his two whips into thin javelin like projectiles. He threw one, and ignited the other before throwing it too.
The Kusa shinobi, sensing danger, quickly caught Sai's wrist and casually threw him away from her before in the same motion she did a cartwheel to dodge the first javelin. In doing so, she landed exactly where Naruto predicted and the fire imbued javelin was already on her. All she could do was to swiftly leap backwards. The javelin impacted the earth where she was a split second ago and it exploded in a small flash of fire. While that in itself wouldn't cause much damage, it was enough cover for the follow up fireball courtesy of Sasuke who seemed to have recovered. The creepy Kusa kunoichi immediately had to cross her arms to defend herself against a giant fireball that surprised and hit her head on.
"Did we get her?" Sasuke asked as him and Sai joined Naruto. Surprisingly, none of them were worse for wear. The worst damage was to Sasuke and even then he had suffered worse while training.
"No." Naruto resolutely said. As if on cue, the fire died down and all they saw was a pile of charred earth and dust.
"Iwa Bunshin," Sai helpfully supplied.
"Kukuku, that was most impressive!" the same creepy voice rang out and they looked up and saw the same woman walk out of a shadow of another tree. This time, half of her face was charred and melting, revealing an extremely pale and unblemished skin underneath, with purple tribal marking under one eye. "The three of you make a formidable team and even managed to land few hits on me that would've been debilitating if not for Kawarimi… Ahh, brings back memories. But of course, I was only holding back." she evilly grinned and unleashed her full Killing Intent.
All three of them immediately dropped to their knees in the sudden shock and fear, but thanks to their training and past experiences they managed to quickly get back on. But that didn't stop the slight shake in their legs and the beads of cold sweat running down their backs. The Kusa kunoichi was rather surprised at their quick recovery.
"Who are you and what do you want?" Naruto finally voiced "You clearly are not a Genin."
The Kunoichi evilly grinned again and slowly reached up with her hand to her face and started peeling off the burnt flesh off of her. It came off slowly and deliberating, like a snake shedding its skin revealing a long haired man underneath it with no damage to his physique from earlier fight.
He wore a pale beige outfit fastened in place by a purple rope, and had striking yellow eyes with a slit pupil.
"Kukuku, it matters not who I-"
"Orochimaru of the Sannin, an S rank nuke nin, former student of the Sandaime Hokage." Sai emotionally recited and got into a fighting stance.
Naruto's and Sasuke's eyes widened and they looked at the now named Orochimaru with open fear, something that the man relished in.
"We have to run!" Naruto urgently said. Sasuke silently agreed.
Orochimaru narrowed his eyes "You are not going anywhere until I get what I came for. While your jutsu are certainly interesting, Naruto-kun, and Danzo's dog here has unique form of jutsu too, that pales in comparison with the Sharingan that dear Sasuke-kun seems to have developed. So you two pests can run along while I play with the Uchiha." he grinned again and licked his lips with an awfully unnaturally long tongue that sent shivers down everyone's spines. "So come, Sasuke-kun… while you might not be as good as Itachi was at your age, I do want to see your potential."
That statement sent Sasuke into a state of rage and Naruto had to applaud his newly developed control. All it elicited, was angry shaking of Sasuke's body and his hatefully blazing Sharingan reactivated. He was firmly standing his ground and not rushing in as Orochimaru thought he would.
Likewise, Orochimaru too was impressed with Sasuke's control "My my, what willpower! Certainly not the reaction I was expecting, Itachi would've been proud that his weakling of a brother developed some control!" Orochimaru's grin only widened when even that taunt didn't make Sasuke attack him.
"Sasuke, Sai," Naruto softly called, his mind quickly formulating a plan. He passed a kunai to each of them "Slice your hand with these and give it back. I need your blood, now!" his teammates were slow to comply, Sai just staring at him so he forcefully said "Don't question it; not now!" Sasuke just followed the command, his eyes never leaving Orochimaru's who was watching the proceeding with amusement.
A barely noticeable twitch in Sasuke's eyes was the only indication of the mild pain that shot from the slice, while Sai didn't even blink. Both boys were careful to make the cut shallow enough not to impede their fighting capability, but deep enough to draw some blood. They handed the bloody kunai back.
Naruto nodded in thanks "It's clear he is toying with us and wants Sasuke for some reason, I don't think he will try to kill him… At least I hope not. Sasuke, go at him with everything you've got. Sai, cover and protect me!"
"This is not a good idea." Sai stated.
"Unless you can magically get us out of here, we are out of options."
"I might have a technique, but I have never successfully performed it."
"Do it as a back-up then, but make covering me a priority."
Sai nodded.
"Sasuke, go!" Naruto said as he chakra leaped backwards, Sai quickly followed with his tanto at the ready.
Sasuke didn't have to be told twice and he rushed at Orochimaru full speed with full intent to release all the rage he was feeling.
Naruto landed and quickly started preparing his techniques while trying very hard to ignore Sasuke's fight. The battle ritual he was about to do is the most complex he's ever done consciously which will put all his knowledge to the test as half of it will be adapted on the spot.
Sai landed near him and quickly withdrew another blank scroll and a brush, preparing his own technique. Unlike Naruto, his eyes never left Sasuke's fight.
Thankfully, Orochimaru dismissed them as minor threats and fully focused on Sasuke. This only made Naruto work faster as he felt whatever the nuke nin had planned was bound to be a disaster for them, and Konoha.
Naruto held the two bloody kunai from his teammates in one hand, and withdrew his own ritual knife that he used to quickly slice the top of his wrist, letting the blood freely flow on to the ground uncaring at the amount of it, knowing that his body is more than capable of dealing with it.
With a flick of his hand that still held the knife, he commanded his blood to create a rather large circle with him in the middle. He was still careful enough to keep Sai out of the circle.
And then he started chanting, a soft continuous plea for protection. He slashed his knife in a cross, and a square formed inside the circle. Another flick, and a straight line ran through the middle of the circle. He then bent down and stabbed the knife on the straight line, the soft whispers of plea turning into rough demands. The bloody line wavered where the knife was embedded, and then turned into and upside down triangle. Naruto quickly stood up and threw the kunais with his teammate's blood into either side of him on the edge of the circle. A round motion with his hands, a pulse of Power, and he spread what little blood was on there to make two additional circles.
Now there were three overlapping circles, all of them slightly pulsing crimson red, as if the blood was still running fresh through the veins.
All of this within several seconds. Naruto chanced a glance at Sasuke and saw that Orochimaru was completely annihilating him in taijutsu and mocking him at the same time.
Resolved to finish this quicker, Naruto started chanting with more fervour, demanding Bethrezen to give him power, speed, and the control of physical plane so they might escape from overwhelming odds and fight another day.
Naruto performed three handseals, and blew out a small stream of fire in between two verses and hit the centre of the two smaller circles created from Sasuke's and Sai's blood, igniting them.
With a final, resolute clap of his hands, the two smaller circles merged and ignited the blood of all the shapes of the main circle. He then crossed his arms and threw them wide open in quick succession. The fiery ritual circle followed the command, twisted, and gnarled, and spasmed in on itself, combining all the shapes before finally settling into a rather large five pointed star – a shape Naruto learnt was called a pentagram. And he stood there in the middle of the burning shape, arms spread wide with a slightly manic grin on his face.
His voice turned into a shout, his prayer more fervent, more demonic, an underlying tone of supernaturalness colouring his vocal cords.
It was ready.
His most grand combo ritual he's ever performed and he just felt so exhilarated, so excited, riding on such a high from the Power that was swirling around him, powered by the blood freely given. For there are two most powerful ways of obtaining ritual blood, he learnt from his texts, - freely given by allies, and forcibly taken from the enemies. And he got two such samples, performed in one ritual, mixed with his own blood. Pure ecstasy of cosmic Power.
A small pause, an unnatural stillness in the air that suffocated even the noises of the fight.
He saw that Sasuke lost – one of his legs had a kunai sticking out of it, and he was on his knees, completely paralysed by some jutsu. Orochimaru was making hand seals in rapid succession.
This was the pivotal moment, he had to unleash his techniques now or never.
Naruto broke the suffocating silence with a sharp, guttural command "Sai!"
Without waiting any further, he unleashed all the Power of the technique.
The Power… Oh the Power that rolled into gargantuan, invisible cascades from the Naruto and the burning pentagram that exploded into crimson fire. So beautiful, so dangerous, so intoxicating!
Orochimaru's neck already started to unnaturally extend like a snake's, his teeth turned into black fangs, when he was suddenly hit with a wave of Power that made his knees slightly shake, his neck vibrate, and that changed the trajectory of his momentum ever so slightly.
And then Naruto threw his arms forward and bellowed his techniques one after another in a seamless chain, words of command in an ancient tongue:
Demonic Barrier Wave: Physical Plane!
Greater Demonic Boon of the Hare!
Greater Demonic Boon of the Stag!
Incineration of Nevendaar!
Immediately, a crimson black, transparent wall adorned with arcane sigils emerged from the pentagram and rushed forward to Sasuke where Orochimaru's neck and fangs were almost upon the Uchiha's neck. One fang just barely managed to nick the unblemished skin of Sasuke, leaving behind a tiny puncture that was leaking black ink. That was all Orochimaru managed to do, as before he could fully sink his fangs into Sasuke, his face met an immovable force of a moving brick wall, his head and neck ricocheting back like a ball against a hard surface, making his whole body stumble backwards. Whatever Orochimaru did, got Sasuke out of his stupor who elicited a small scream of pain.
The crimson black wall dissipated into air, quickly followed by the next set of techniques. A small, red, glowing circle materialised on all of Team 7's foreheads and glowed, making their whole body spasm for a split second, before being reinforced with such vigour they never felt before.
Sasuke fought through the mild pain and removed the kunai in his leg before leaping behind Naruto in such speed he's never experienced until now, Sai following suit.
And then Naruto inhaled, and threw his arms forward and exhaled to a devastating effect. The burning pentagram exploded forward in a gargantuan wave of fire and Power that expanded and rolled forward in a destructive wave, incinerating and burning everything in a wide arc.
"Run!" Naruto commanded, trying to get both Sai and Sasuke from the dazed state of awe.
Not needing to be told twice, the three of them bolted away in a random direction in mid Jonin speeds, trying really hard not to hit any trees on the way from the tunnel vision they started to experience.
"I think he's chasing us!" Sai stated.
"Fuck!"
"That should do it." Sai said again and performed a long chain of handseals in speeds like he's never done before, thanks to the Demonic Blessing. At the end of his chain, in one smooth motion while still being on the move, he threw the scroll he was working on earlier in the air. "Ninpo: Choju Giga: Taka! Jump on its back."
A massive, black and white bird-like being splurged out of the scroll and hovered in the air on extended wings. Without hesitation, the three of them jumped on its back.
"To the tower!" Naruto shouted, and Sai quickly commanded the bird to follow that order.
This was a moment they all could catch their breaths, but they remained highly alert.
Naruto could see now what Sai meant when he said he hadn't successfully perfected this variation of the jutsu yet. The bird was supposed to reflect a hawk, but instead it just looked like an uneven black and white mass barely resembling a bird. It looked unstable, with ink dripping off its form.
Suddenly, Sasuke lost consciousness and only thanks to Naruto's quick reflexes catching him was he saved from plummeting down to death. Naruto observed that something weird was going on where Orochimaru seemingly scratched Sasuke with his one fang. Black squiggles were forming in and out of shape vaguely resembling Fuuinjutsu, struggling to take and keep form.
"We have to go back down," Sai drew Naruto's attention "The technique will collapse any second now."
Naruto nodded "We should've made enough distance for now. Orochimaru did something to Sasuke too. We should rush to tower, exam be damned."
And so they rapidly started to lower their latitude and entered back into the canopy of the forest. They haven't travelled far in comparison to the size of the Training Ground 44, but they definitely were much closer to the tower at the centre now than before. But most importantly, the sense of overwhelming danger seemed to pass for now.
The high of his ritual and its effects have evaporated now, only leaving a grim face of determination and anger on Naruto's face.
Once again, an enemy of Konoha tried to harm one of their own for no other reason than because they could.
He couldn't help but reflect on Danzo's words from days prior. His words rang truer now that he had clear example – Orochimaru used to be a shinobi of Konoha, but now was one of its most notorious nuke nin. Why? And what did he want with Sasuke? From what brief titbits he could piece together from Orochimaru's arrogant gloating, it was clear it was something to do with Sharingan and it definitely wasn't going to be for the benefit of the village.
What did make a powerful shinobi like him defect and start working against the village?
As they shakily kept descending, now closer to the ground, Naruto narrowed his eyes at the sounds that were reaching them.
They just barely managed to escape one conflict.
And it seems they somehow landed in the heart of another one.
Scene!
As you saw, I slightly expanded and twisted the lore of Religious sects within the Elemental Nations. I always thought it a bit odd that despite there being Jashinism - a ritualistic ninja techniques rooted in religion, there were no other mentions of anything like that in whole Shinobi World, even from civilian side (not counting the Shinigami stuff, of course). Japanese mythology is rich in Gods and Spirits and most of their depictions in Naruto were jutsu names. So I decided to add my flavour to expand the lore for the purpose of this story, and to give a set up to introduce Jiraiya to Naruto.
That being said, I know that the Monks of the Fire Temple use Senzoku no Sai, which is achieved through "unrelenting training", but I thought it'd be interesting to give the "Temple" a bit more religious nature.
Also, this chapter is long! Initially I planned for this to cover everything until Preliminaries, but then I realised I was getting to 12k words and decided to split it so it's a bit easier to read.
Until next time!