arisasonoda84: How was I off on his personality? Please tell me how I can improve it!

Chapter 20: Snakes in the Forest

"And I'm going to enjoy spilling your blood."

As soon as those words left Gaara's mouth, the sand went to close around the blonde jinchuriki, attempting to murder him. Naruto's eye widened, quickly using the body flicker technique to get away from the sand. He reappeared across the room with his eye narrowed at the sand genin. At the same time, he saw teams 8 and 11 enter the room. His gaze on them didn't last long as he had to dodge another sand tendril, causing the tendril to hit a random genin behind him. Naruto landed in front of the boy and tried to grab his hands to restrain him and prevent him from using his sand, only for more of his sand to block his grab and attempt to surround him. Naruto cursed as he had to once again body flicker away, but this time landing on the ceiling.

'Shit! What the hell was that?!' He saw the sand circle around the sand genin before trying to wrap around him, forcing him to once again use the body flicker to land on another part of the ceiling. 'I can't get close to other examinees, I don't want me and my team to be disqualified all because this jackass was hitting random genin because I was dodging. But… It looks like he controls the sand mentally.' Naruto frowned as Gaara sent another tendril of sand, making Naruto prepare to body flicker once more.

The doors burst open as clouds of smoke appeared on the sides of the exam room.

"Alright, you baby-faced degenerates! Listen up!" Naruto and Gaara, as well as the rest of the gathered genin, turned to face where the voice came from. When the cloud of smoke disappeared, a large, imposing figure, with a rugged head that was covered by the cloth of his headband, and face covered with old wounds and scars, was standing there and staring down the two fighting genin. "You two! If you don't stand down within the next three seconds, both of your teams will be expelled!"

Naruto paled and immediately cut the chakra that was being channeled to his feet off and landed safely on the floor. Gaara was a bit more reluctant but complied in the end.

"Good." Ibiki turned to face the chunin sentinels. "Pass out their test." After the sentinels finished passing out the test, Ibiki nodded and then turned to address the exam participants. "Alright, find where your test is located then take a seat and wait for further instructions."

Naruto looked towards his teammates and nodded, silently wishing them luck. He went to go look for the test that had his name written on it. He found it on the fourth row in the eighth seat. After sitting in his assigned seat, Naruto closed his eyes, only to be tapped on the right shoulder. He opened his eyes and turned to see Reo smiling at him.

"Wow, what luck getting to sit next to each other, huh?" She whispered out.

Naruto chuckled lightly before nodding. "Yeah, I guess so. You worried about the exams?"

Reo let out a shaky sigh before nodding her head. "Yeah. I'm scared that I'm going to end up holding my teammates back." She turned around to find her male teammates but had to face the front of the classroom as Ibiki started to speak again.

"Don't worry, you'll do fine." Naruto whispered before Ibiki could speak, bringing a soft smile to Reo's face.

"Alright, there are three rules during this test and you better listen because I'm not taking any questions. Ok, rule number one is that the test is conducted on a point reduction system. You'll all begin the test with a total of 10 points. Every time you're caught cheating, that's minus one point. Rule two,"

"Hey, Naruto."

'Yeah?'

"I'm bored, and your mother is annoying me."

'How?'

"She keeps yelling for you to come back into the mindscape so she can coddle you."

'Ughh.' Naruto placed his head on the desk, contemplating if he should or not. He hadn't entered his mindscape since his mom had seen his memories of his disappearance, afraid of what her reaction would be. He also hadn't mixed some of his chakra into his mom's chakra essence, afraid she'll be destroyed. Now, however, he was glad that he hadn't established the mental link yet, otherwise, he'd be constantly hearing his mother's bickering. 'Tell her that I'll head into my mindscape after I finish this exam.'

"Hmph. Fine. However, you better finish fast."

'I'll try Kurama.'

Naruto focused back on Ibiki just as he finished explaining the rules. 'Shit! I didn't hear the other two rules! Well, I'll just fill out my test and see what happens.'

"Begin!"

Naruto flipped his test over and read the first question. He furrowed his brows as he read it, and wrote down what he thought was correct. He looked at the second one and decided to skip it and come back to that one later. The Uzumaki answered the first, third, fifth, sixth, and ninth questions before he decided to look over the other questions. After still not being able to answer them, the Uzumaki shrugged, filled in some random bullshit, and placed his head down. He decided now would be fine to enter his mindscape and talk with his mother, but Ibiki chose then to pipe up.

"Alright pencils down! I hope you all are ready for the tenth question."

Naruto quirked an eyebrow at the man and looked down at his paper. 'There's only nine here though?'

"Before I ask the tenth question, there are some more rules. The first one is that the tenth question is optional, however, if you choose to take it and answer it incorrectly, you'll be banned from taking the chunin exams ever again."

Many shouts of complaints were heard throughout the whole room, while Hinata had thoughts about the logic behind his claim. 'He wouldn't be able to back up that claim. There's genin here from other villages, and I highly doubt that they would be alright with keeping their genin from participating in any more chunin exams.'

Sasuke was thinking along the same train of thought as Hinata, finding Ibiki's words as a bluff.

Naruto, however.

'Kurama, I said I'd talk to her after this exam.'

"Oh my god brat. Just bring your ass in here before I kill your mother again!"

'Hey.'

"...my bad. Shouldn't have said that."

'Whatever. Just tell her I'll be there when I have free time.'

The bijuu let out a sigh before accepting Naruto's plea. The Uzumaki cut the mental link between the two and focused on Ibiki once more. He noticed that the man was looking around the room expectantly and that people were raising their hands before leaving. Naruto tilted his head and turned to look at his teammates for help. Once he made eye contact with Sasuke, he silently asked what was going on, only to see the Uchiha groan before facepalming. Naruto let out a huff before he turned back around to face Ibiki. He raised his hand, before he slammed it back down, getting everyone's attention.

"Hey scar man. Now, I have no idea what's going on," Naruto idly heard Sasuke groan loudly again and what sounded like Hinata choking on air. "But what I do know is that I'll pass this test and make chunin."

The trenchcoat-wearing man scowled as his eyes bore into Naruto. "Are you sure about that you blonde brat? Are you willing to stay a genin forever if you answer the tenth question wrong?"

It finally clicked in Naruto's mind why people were raising their hands and leaving, but Naruto was too stubborn to back down now. "Hmph, of course. Ninja's take risks, this is just another one."

Ibiki smirked as he listened to the boy's words. 'Looks like he understands the hidden meaning behind the tenth question. What an observant brat.'

Sasuke and Hinata were facing Naruto with their eyebrows raised in surprise. Sasuke had originally thought that the blonde idiot wasn't paying attention when he silently asked him what was going on, but now Sasuke's thinking that he was asking why so many people were opting out when it was an empty threat. Hinata had just been surprised Naruto saw through Ibiki's threat as well.

Naruto was thinking something else.

'Oh, man. I'm just talking out of my ass here. Please just tell us the tenth question!'

"Does anyone else wish to leave?" After no one raised their hands, Ibiki let a smirk cross his face. "Hmph, guess you gave others hope you brat. Alright, the remaining participants pass!"

Every genin gathered there was shocked at Ibiki's proclamation, and broke out in yells and shouts, demanding an explanation.

Naruto was internally baffled but kept up an indifferent attitude.

Ibiki smirked once again and gestured towards Naruto. "Why not ask him? He seems to have figured it out."

The blonde felt a chill run down his spine but opted to instead close his eyes before he gave his response.

"Nah, I'm good."

Ibiki chuckled before he explained the meaning behind the whole test. As he was congratulating the genin for passing the first exam, a shadowed figure burst through the window and threw kunai into the ceiling, holding up the banner that was tied to them.

"Hey, brats! This isn't the time to be celebrating! I'm the second proctor for the chunin exams, Anko Mitarashi." A woman with a slender frame with light brown, pupil-less eyes and a violet, short, spiky, fanned-out ponytail. "Let's move on to the next test! Follow me!" She yelled with her fist pumped in the air.

Silence descended over the testing room as the genin just stared, with a few ogling, at Anko in disbelief.

"You're early. Again." Ibiki stated as he moved the banner aside.

Anko nervously chuckled as she quickly scanned over the remaining teams. "78 participants left? Hey Ibiki, how come you passed 26 teams? You're losing your edge Ibiki."

"Or, there's a lot of promising candidates this year," Ibiki said with a scowl.

"Tch. It doesn't matter, I'll drop more than half of them in the second exam." This statement made most of the genin raise their eyebrows from shock. "Alright, I'll give you the details tomorrow. Get the information from your jonin senseis about the location and time of the second test. That's it, you're all dismissed."

Naruto walked into his apartment late at night after a full day of being out, his team had decided to have a celebratory dinner after the first exam had finished. He went and plopped down on his bed, deciding not to make shadow clones to start or finish up fuinjutsu projects. He closed his eyes and relaxed his body, after taking a deep breath he decided that now he'd enter his mindscape and talk to his mother.

After entering his mindscape, he appeared in front of his mother who currently had her arm crossed with her eyebrows furrowed in irritation with her son.

"Mind telling me why you decided to ignore my request for you to come in here?"

Naruto closed his eyes and let out a short sigh of annoyance before answering his mother. "Mom, I was in the middle of taking the first test of the chunin exams."

Kushina's eyebrows raised in surprise. "Really? You're already taking the chunin exams?" Naruto nodded, making Kushina furrow her brows again as well as frown. "Isn't it a little early for you to be taking the chunin exams?"

Naruto pinched the bridge of his nose and took a deep breath. "Mom, we've been over this already."

Kushina rolled her eyes as she bopped Naruto's head. "Don't talk back to your mother."

"How else are we supposed to converse then?" Naruto replied sarcastically, making Kushina bop him in the head again.

"And don't get smart with me either." Naruto opened his mouth to give a reply, but Kushina raised her hand again and gave him a look, daring him to speak again. Naruto wisely shut his mouth but let out a chuckle. "Good. Now Naruto." She bent down and engulfed her son in a hug, tightening it when she thought about her chunin exams. "I want you to be safe, ya hear me? I don't want to see you getting hurt as badly as when you fought those Iwa jonin."

Naruto smiled as he nodded. He loved and cherished the fact that he had his mother now. Sure she was only in his mindscape, but at least he was able to interact with her now. To hug his mother when he was down was all that he ever wanted to do before he had Iruka and Sasuke. Naruto melted into the hug before letting a tear of pure bliss run down his cheek.

"I will mom."

Kushina had a warm smile on her face as she held Naruto close to her. She soon grabbed his shoulders and pushed him back so she could look him in the eyes. "Ok Naruto, do you want to talk about it?"

Naruto sighed as he nodded his head, finally listening to Kurama's advice. "Alright, mom…"

"Alright, everyone!" Anko yelled towards the gathered genin. "You all better get acquainted with this forest, because you'll be spending five days there. This place is Training Grounds 44, otherwise known as the Forest of Death."

"Why is it called the Forest of Death?"

Naruto turned around and saw that she had an Iwa forehead protector on. His eyes widened as he didn't know that Iwa would be participating, nor their reasons for doing so.

'How come I didn't see them in the last exam? Oh… right. I was arguing with Kurama most of the time. Plus I was fighting with that Suna guy." Naruto looked around, trying to spot the red-haired boy in the massive crowd gathered. 'You'd think it would be easy to find him since he had red hair.' He found a redhead, but the hair was longer as well as being attached to a girl.

Naruto narrowed his eyes a bit after he felt a sudden pull towards the girl, but he ignored the sensation and instead continued to look for the boy. It didn't take long before he laid eyes on the actual redhead that he was searching for, however, when he did, the boy was already staring right at him.

The blonde felt unease begin to grow in his stomach. Knowing, without a single shred of doubt, that Gaara would try to kill him without mercy if he had the chance.

"..and there's plenty of things to eat in the forest! Like for example the animals and bugs that I said would try to kill you. If you kill them first, they'll be yours to eat." Naruto heard Choji mutter something, but as he was far away, he wasn't able to decipher what the plump genin said. "Okay, these forms that I have in my hands will be passed out to everyone here. These are consent forms that state that Konoha is not responsible if you so happened to die here. Everyone will need to sign these forms before you can participate in the second exam. Meaning if you don't sign, you don't get to play."

After all the forms were passed out and signed, Anko had the genin pick one person from their team to go exchange their forms for a heaven or earth scroll. Hinata was chosen to go exchange the forms and came back with an Earth scroll that she immediately had sealed within a tag that Naruto had given her. Team 7 was assigned to be at gate 12 and to wait for Anko to start the second exam.

"Hinata, hand me the scroll. I'll seal it in the seal on my arm." Naruto said as he reached his hand out towards Hinata.

"Alright, you brats! Are you all ready for this? I know I sure am!"

"Ok, here you go, Naruto-san."

"We'll start the exam in 5,"

"Are you guys ready?" Sasuke asked his two teammates, a bit of trepidation seeping into his voice.

"4,"

"Not exactly, but it doesn't matter now." Naruto spoke honestly.

"3,"

"I have to be honest, I'm a bit nervous about this stage of the exam."

"2,"

"Ah, don't worry Hinata. We'll be fine."

"1,"

"Get ready!" Sasuke yelled out with his whole body tensing, getting ready to shoot into the forest. The other two were doing the same, aiming to get their scroll quick as to not spend a long time in the forest.

"Go!"

Team 7 shot off as fast as they could, aiming to finish this exam quickly. Hinata activated her byakugan and started to search for a nearby team with the scroll they needed. It didn't take her long to locate a team.

"There's a team from Amegakure that's holding a heaven scroll. The one with his right eye bandaged is carrying the scroll. They're to our right and we'll meet them in roughly 45 minutes." She deactivated her byakugan and turned around to look at Naruto. "He tried to copy your look, Naruto-san." The joke earned a chuckle from the Uzumaki as they all adjusted their trajectory to collide with the Ame team.

True to Hinata's calculations, the Ame team had been 45 minutes away and were oblivious to Team 7's presence. Hinata used her byakugan to position her and her team in the right spots to be able to handle the team with greater ease. Once they were in position, Hinata unsealed her bow and held it within her hands. She took a deep breath before she placed an arrow on the string. She pulled the string back and aimed for the head of the one carrying the scroll. When she had the boy in her sights, she took a deep breath and released the arrow.

Thuck

The arrow hit true and pierced straight through the ame genin's neck.

"Mubi!" His teammates shouted in horror.

Naruto and Sasuke swooped in and impaled the genin, Sasuke used his sword while Naruto used a kunai. After the two genin's bodies fell forward, Naruto swiftly picked the heaven scroll from the genin with the arrow in his neck and sealed it with the other scroll. With both scrolls now acquired, Naruto turned around and jumped towards Hinata. The blonde was intending to congratulate her on creating an effective plan so quickly but found the girl looking uneasy as she sat staring at nothing.

"Hey Hinata, are you okay?"

The heiress had a glazed-over look in her eyes for a brief second before she focused on her blonde teammate. She stared intently into his single ocean blue-colored eye and felt herself getting lost in them. Hinata shook her head to clear her thoughts, nodding to the blonde after she did so.

"I'm alright Naruto-san. I was just a bit stunned that I had taken the life of a boy, most likely close to our age."

Naruto gave Hinata a small smile as he nodded his head. He stuck out his hand towards Hinata, his smile growing slightly. "Come on, let's get to the tower now."

Hinata smiled back in appreciation for Naruto's gesture and placed her hand in his. The blonde pulled her up and led her towards Sasuke's direction, their hands letting go of each other as they saw the Uchiha.

The Uchiha turned around and quickly looked over Hinata. "Hey, are you feeling alright Hinata?"

"Yes. Thank you for asking, but I think we should start to head towards the tower." Sasuke nodded as he followed behind Hinata with Naruto right beside him.

"Hey, are you okay Sasuke? Wasn't that your first kill?"

Sasuke turned to face Naruto and gave him a nod. "This isn't my first time seeing a dead person. This was my first kill, but I kinda already grew used to seeing dead bodies thanks to Itachi's genjutsu."

"Ah, sorry for reminding you about that."

"Nah, it's fine. I just kinda locked the whole thing away."

"Oh, yeah I have some stuff locked up in my mind too." Naruto gazed towards Hinata before he felt his resolve settle. "I'll tell you guys about it once we get to the tower."

Sasuke turned to look at Naruto with an eyebrow raised. "Is this about why you hate snakes?" Naruto nodded and looked a bit uneasy. "You don't have to tell us if you don't want to Naruto."

"No, I've been meaning to for the longest. Plus Kurama will finally get off my case about not telling you guys."

"Are you sure about this?" After receiving a nod, Sasuke returned it.

Team 7 had been making their way towards the tower at a moderate pace, deciding it'd be unwise to do a full sprint towards the tower as that would just exhaust them faster. And when everyone around you is an enemy, the decision was easily answered. However, after twenty minutes of nothing but running since they took out the Ame team, Naruto felt his hairs stand.

'Something's wrong.'

After Naruto landed safely on the tree branch, he let his chakra out a bit, trying to discreetly locate the cause of his building dread.

"Naruto? What's wrong?" Sasuke asked the blonde, however, no response was given as Naruto was focusing on something else. The Uchiha and Hyuga stopped several branches away from their teammate and watched him in concern.

"Naruto-san? Is everything okay?"

'Could it be Gaara? Is he close by?' He closed his eyes and let his chakra reach out further, but wasn't able to find anything. Frustration and dread were growing at a rapid pace at this point, making Naruto reach out further, desperately trying to find the source of his panicked state.

'No.'

"Naruto, get your teammates and run!"

Naruto turned around to face the direction he felt the person coming from. He took a step back, then two, before he broke out in a full sprint towards his teammates. He leaped towards his teammates, trying to get a grasp on their arms to body flicker away from there. But they were sent flying from a great force of wind.

Naruto was sent flying into a tree and couldn't react in time before he slammed into it with full force. Hinata was sent towards the floor, taking a rough landing as she hadn't expected the sudden assault. Sasuke was sent flying towards a branch but managed to activate his Sharingan in time, allowing him to react in time to channel chakra towards his hands and feet. Once he came close to landing on the branch, Sasuke pumped more chakra into his feet and hands, allowing him to circle the branch twice thanks to the momentum the boy had. Sasuke stood on the branch and watched as Hinata groaned as she stood up as well as seeing Naruto drop towards the ground before he shot up.

The Uzumaki tried desperately once again to reach his teammates but was instead rewarded with a sandal to his chest, pinning him on the floor. Naruto glared at the man in front of him, not allowing himself to show a single shred of fear to this man. He tried to throw the man off of him, but to no avail, and instead only made the man chuckle.

"Kukuku. My my so we meet again. How is my little dissecting toy doing, hmm Naruto-kun? Oh my, it appears you're missing an eye."

Naruto's eyes narrowed from anger. "Orochimaru! You fucking bastard! I'll kill you!"

Orochimaru rolled his eyes at the little genin's claim. "Oh, don't worry Naruto-kun. I no longer have a use for you. You see, the only reason I took you in the first place all those months ago, was because I was bored and curious. I was curious about what having a bijuu, the Nine-Tails no less, sealed inside of a person did to them. So I cut you up to quell my curiosity. Nothing more than that. But now. I came here to give little Sasuke-kun a gift." He turned to face Sasuke's direction before letting a wide grin crossed his face. "One that can even let you kill your dear elder brother."

Sasuke's eyes widened in surprise but narrowed in disbelief. "And what's the cost?"

"Kukuku, there is no cost to get this gift Sasuke-kun. I came here to give it to you for free."

"Don't listen to this bastard Sasuke!"

Orochimaru frowned down at the blonde jinchuriki. "This isn't any of your business Naruto-kun." The sannin channeled chakra into his feet, making the blonde stick to it, and threw him into the forest. After Naruto was out of sight, Orochimaru bit his fingers and started to go through hand signs. "Maybe I'll give you a friend to help distract you. Summoning Jutsu!"

The snake sannin chuckled as he turned to the other two genin present. "Now that it's just the three of us, why don't we-"

Naruto came running through the clearing and straight towards Orochimaru, covered in a one-tail cloak as well as holding a kunai straight out to try and stab the snake. The pale man bent backward at an unrealistic level before he punched the genin in the gut, sending him flying away again.

"I see that you can access the nine tail's chakra now, though I'm afraid you're still far outmatched."

Naruto ran right back into the clearing just as Sasuke blurred through hand signs and sent a Fire Style: Great Fireball towards the man. Orochimaru chuckled as he jumped out of the way of the fireball. When he landed, he saw Naruto launch after him but merely sidestepped the genin and rewarded his effort with a chakra-enhanced backhand, knocking the genin to the floor. As he was about to make a snarky remark, he faintly heard a bowstring being pulled back from a tree branch behind him. The sannin chuckled again as he tilted his head to the side, dodging the arrow in the process. He returned the favor by stretching his arm out towards her and shot a snake in her direction.

The Hyuga responded by quickly sealing her bow, now aware that it'd be no help against someone like the sannin's caliber, and pulled out a kunai before she dug it through the snake's head. She dropped down to the forest floor and regrouped with her team.

"How should we go about doing this?" Hinata whispered to her teammates.

"I-" Sasuke started just to be interrupted by Naruto.

"I'll distract him." He turned to face his teammates for a second before he quickly looked back at the sannin. "I can let Kurama take control. He'll be able to use more of his power without losing control. That should be enough for you guys to get to the tower and inform someone-"

Orochimaru appeared between the genin and kicked Hinata and Naruto away. He landed in front of Sasuke before he smiled at the Uchiha. "However before I give you my gift, I want to see how strong you truly are Sasuke-kun."

Sasuke activated his Sharingan, attempting to jump away from the sannin, however, all he could do was watch a punch slowly come towards his face. When the fist connected, he was shot back and was sent flying into a tree.

Naruto struggled to get up, his stamina was quickly getting drained by getting tossed around. He turned around to see Sasuke getting punched in the face and then watched him fly into a tree. He grunted as he stood up before he made his crossed hand sign, making 20 clones of him pop into existence. He nodded at them as they all ran towards the snake.

Orochimaru turned around when he heard footsteps coming towards him, too many to be the three genin. When he did, he was greeted with twenty Naruto's running straight at him with kunai drawn. He chuckled at the sight and decided to have a little more fun. He opened his mouth and extracted his most prized sword, the Kusanagi blade.

"I wasn't aware you picked up the shadow clone jutsu, Naruto-kun. However, please do try to keep up and not die early."

Orochimaru swung his sword horizontally and cleaved two clones in half. His smirk was wide for a split second until the two clones exploded, enveloping the sannin in a black cloud of smoke. The rest of the clones jumped in and detonated themselves, hoping to kill off the snake sannin with the combined explosion. When all the clones detonated and all the clouds dispersed, Orochimaru was seen lying in the center with one of his arms missing. Naruto let out a breath of relief until he saw the sannin dissolve into mud. He whipped his head around just in time to see Orochimaru emerge from the ground behind him.

"Kukuku. That was a valiant effort, Naruto-kun. Are you actually trying to kill me," The snake blitzed towards Naruto, punching him in the gut and making him spit out blood. "With such weak attacks? I'm honestly offended." The force of the punch finally kicked in and sent Naruto flying back farther than before.

'Exploding clones aren't any help, he'll just substitute out of there. What else do I have? Shuriken shadow clone, and wind blade. Those are the only ones that might hurt this bastard.' Naruto shakily stood up and jumped onto a tree branch, where he made shadow clones and had them surround the sannin. He made two extra clones to grab his teammates and had them put them out of harm's way, attempting to drag them towards the tower. However, his teammates understood the clones' intentions and dispelled them, wanting to help their blonde teammate regardless if they got hurt.

'What is he doing?' Orochimaru thought to himself. When he suddenly heard the sound of metal clinging, he knew that something would be thrown at him. He smiled widely as he guessed what the genin was going to try. 'If he can use shadow clones, then why not the variants of the shadow clone jutsu?' The sannin channeled chakra into the ground, making the earth part underneath him and swallowing him up just as Naruto threw his multiplied shuriken.

Naruto cursed as he swooped in after activating his wind blade, attempting to cut the snake's head off of his shoulders when he would appear. As soon as he landed, Orochimaru erupted out of the ground and threw a punch straight at the genin. Naruto quickly ducked underneath the punch and made a horizontal slash, effectively cutting the sannin in half. The Uzumaki let out a sigh of relief, but it was cut short when he saw snakes protrude out of his torso and waist. When they made contact, they connected his two halves and made his body whole again.

"My my Naruto-kun, I'm a bit offended. After everything I did for you, this is how you repay me?" Orochimaru bent his index and middle finger, which made the Kusanagi come flying into his hand. "I guess I'll just have to return the favor!"

Orochimaru sprung forward and swung at Naruto horizontally. Naruto quickly unsealed a kunai into his hand as he crouched down, managing to deflect the sword up a little before it cut through his kunai, but it was enough to save him from being cut. The Uzumaki jumped back on a tree branch to try and get distance, but the sannin just followed. Naruto unsealed another kunai and channeled wind chakra into it as he leaped forward, clashing blades with the sword. To the blonde's shock and disbelief, the sword still managed to cut through his kunai and managed to cut the boy's arm.

The sudden cut managed to stun the blonde enough for Orochimaru to get in close and stab the sword through the boy's stomach. "I hope you see the difference between us now Naruto-kun. No matter what you do," Orochimaru leaned in close to Naruto and whispered into his ear. "You'll never be able to kill me." With his statement finished, the sannin pulled his sword out of Naruto and kicked the boy hard, sending him falling towards the forest floor. The traitor cackled in delight at what he had done as he turned around and went to go look for the blonde's teammates.

Laying on the forest floor with his wound gushing out blood, Naruto felt his eyelids grow heavy. However the blonde had on more trick left up his sleeve, and now was the time to use it.

The blond let out a shaky sigh before he contacted Kurama.

'Kurama. I need you to take over and kill this bastard. Use as much chakra as you need, just protect my teammates.'

"Of course Naruto. I'll protect your teammates as well as kill the damn snake."

Kurama immediately sent out chakra, making Naruto's body gain a two-tailed cloak. After feeling the boy's pathways for a couple of seconds, Kurama sent another tail's worth of chakra before he frowned. 'His body can't handle anymore chakra… Dammit, it's barely handling this much. I won't be able to use the bijuu dama in a three-tailed cloak, I need at least four tails worth of control to be able to split the positive and negative chakra to make one.'

Kurama shook his head and sent a sliver of his chakra towards the wound on the boy's stomach, it merely takes a second before it healed completely. He would just have to use his cloak to kill the damn bastard that had taken the boy's innocence from him. He looked back to where the snake had walked away and saw that he was toying with the other two. Kurama growled as he struggled to get up with Naruto's body being as sore and as battered as it was, but he would follow the boy's wish till the end if he had to.

Though he would do everything in his power to prevent that end.

The possessed boy stretched his limbs before he ran towards Orochimaru, intending on finally getting rid of the pain in Naruto's and his ass.

Orochimaru cackled as sidestepped another one of Hinata's gentle fist strikes, rewarding the girl with a roundhouse kick to her back for her troubles. The girl was quickly losing her will to fight and the hope for victory or retreating was being quickly snuffed out. She laid there with her eyes half-lidded, her body and chakra beyond its limit, however, she refused to give up. She struggled to get up, managing to get on one knee before she suddenly came face to face with the sannin again.

"Kukuku, I don't recall saying you can get back up Hyuga Princess." Orochimaru said as he threw a punch, aiming for the girl's nose. Hinata shut her eyes closed in a useless attempt to lessen the pain she knew she'd be in.

But the pain never came.

She opened her eyes to see her blonde teammate encompassed by the bijuu cloak and was holding the sannin's outstretched fist. She idly noticed that the cloak had three tails swaying erratically behind the boy.

"Grab the Uchiha and get out of here."

"Wha-?"

"Dammit, girl!" Kurama had to crouch to avoid a swing from the blasted snake and retaliated by sending out a chakra arm swipe, intending on ripping the snake to ribbons. Only for the sannin to jump back, creating distance between the two. "I'll make sure nothing happens to Naruto. He made me promise to make sure you two get away safely. So take the Uchiha and run! I'll hold him here until you guys can get away safely."

Hinata stood up quickly and glared at the Kyuubified Naruto. "And then what? What will happen to Naruto-san?!"

The jinchuriki let out a half groan, half growl. "I'll make sure he's fine! Now run!"

"Kukuku. You don't think you'll be able to hold me off can you?" Orochimaru smirked as he ran through signs as he slammed down his hand, summoning three more gigantic snakes that dwarfed the jinchuriki. "Naruto-kun may have dealt with my last summon, but these are far larger and there are three this time. While you-"

The possessed jinchuriki didn't let the sannin finish his sentence, instead, he opted to shoot out his chakra arms and crushed the snakes' heads. Kurama let a smirk cross his face as he saw the snake frown in annoyance. He charged straight for the sannin, who had been standing behind the summoned snakes, and attempted to grab the snake with his chakra arms to end his life once and for all.

Orochimaru body flicked away from the sprinting blonde. The boy's speed had increased dramatically, but he was still slow enough for the sannin to quickly react to the boy's moves. When he saw the blonde quickly change directions towards him, Orochimaru quickly pulled out his sword one more time and swung towards the boy. He planned for Naruto to dodge and when he did, Orochimaru smirked and kicked the boy's chin which sent him sprawling towards the ground. With him briefly stunned, he sent snakes to wrap around the boy to hold him down, only for his snakes to burn just from getting close to the boy.

Kurama shook his head and jumped back to gain some distance between the two of them. He turned around to make sure that his teammates were gone, but became infuriated when he saw them merely in the trees.

"What are you brats still doing here?!" The two didn't get to answer as Orochimaru had gotten right in front of Kurama, with all five of his fingers lit in tiny blue flames. 'Shit-!'

Orochimaru smirked victoriously as he slammed his fingers into the boy's stomach, making his eyes quickly revert into an ocean blue color. Naruto let out a silent scream of pain before he fell on his back with his eye wide. Orochimaru chuckled at seeing the jinchuriki still awake after having the bijuu chakra forced back into the seal.

"My my, looks like our time together has given you an impressive pain tolerance, hasn't it Naruto-kun?"

Naruto couldn't answer, as he was in an immense amount of pain. He tried to contact Kurama to ask what happened, but he couldn't even sense his bijuu friend. All he could do was stare blankly at the treetops in the forest.

"Well, I think I'll go give Sasuke-kun my gift now. It's been a pleasure seeing you again Naruto-kun." The Sannin said as he turned around and started to walk away.

Naruto watched him depart and after a few seconds, he tried to mold his chakra into making a couple of shadow clones, only to feel his chakra being erratic and unruly. 'Dammit.' A tear slid down Naruto's left eye, born out of frustration for him still being weak. He turned to see how his teammates were faring, and watched as Orochimaru hit Hinata in the back of her neck, and tossed her into a tree after she was knocked out. Naruto felt a fire begin to burn within him, and it grew bigger and faster as he saw Orochimaru approaching Sasuke. Naruto closed his eyes in frustration and he started to try and stand up.

"Kukuku, well it looks like it's just the two of us, Sasuke-kun. I can finally give you my little present."

Sasuke backpedaled and threw a Fire Style: Flame Bullet and a Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu. He jumped onto a high tree branch and took in a deep breath before releasing his Fire Style: Fire Streak. He took a deep breath to calm down his heartbeat and felt his remaining chakra. He now had a fifth of his chakra remaining, and his foe just swatted away his flame bullet and merely sidestepped his other two attacks. He mentally cursed as he tried to jump to another tree branch, but was unable to as the sannin had a hold of his leg.

"Tsk tsk, where do you think you're going Sasuke-kun? I haven't given you your present yet." Orochimaru smirked as he pulled the boy's leg and threw him onto the ground hard. The Uchiha tried to stand, but the sannin jumped down and kicked the boy into a tree, and finally managed to drain the last remnants of the boy's defiance. The snake summoner smirked as he approached the genin, but froze for a second when the boy looked up and stared at him with a pair of three tomoe Sharingan.

Sasuke shakily made the tiger hand sign and put a majority of his remaining chakra into making one of the largest fireballs he's ever made. "Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!" The size of the fireball surprised the sannin, but not enough to take it seriously. He stood there, channeled chakra around his body, and took the full brunt of the attack. Sasuke let a tired smile across his face as he tried to stand and go get his teammates, but was surprised when he saw the pale man clear the smoke from his jutsu with just a swipe of his arm. The tired smile on his face turned into a look of defeat across his face. He had used up most of his chakra with that last jutsu.

"Kukuku, so you've finally managed to mature your Sharingan? Excellent, Sasuke-kun. You really are amazing." Orochimaru said as he cleared away to smoke. He turned to face Sasuke and saw the boy looking at him with a half-lidded gaze. "Oh, don't look so down Sasuke-kun, I'm here to give you a taste of the power I can give you."

Naruto was on one knee as he saw the man start to walk towards Sasuke as he made the ram hand sign, making his fangs grow longer and his mouth open wider. He cursed as he started to go through hand signs slowly.

'Tiger.' He felt the seal try to mess up the flow of his chakra. He closed his eyes tighter in concentration as he forcibly molded his chakra to his desire. 'Boar.'

"All I ask for in return," Orochimaru's headshot towards Sasuke.

'Ox.' He closed his eyes tighter, focusing on enveloping his target with his chakra. 'Dog.'

"Is for you to follow me!" The sannin's mouth was now centimeters away from Sasuke's neck. The action was too fast for Sasuke to follow, so he was unable to react. As Orochimaru closed his eyes as his mouth had opened wider, Naruto's eye opened as he made the final hand sign.

'Snake.'

Orochimaru's fangs pierced flesh, releasing all the chakra stored within them. He smirked widely and began to chuckle softly, believing he was so much closer to achieving his life's sole purpose. He heard the predictable cry of pain that followed after the marking finished, but the cry sounded off. It sounded like it came from a different person. Orochimaru pulled his teeth out of the bitten boy and turned to look at him in the voice and became angered when he saw the Uzumaki standing there instead of Sasuke.

"What have you done?!" The sannin yelled as he kicked the boy hard enough to break through two thick tree branches before landing harshly on the floor. Orochimaru turned around and saw Sasuke standing where he left Naruto. 'So the blonde brat was the one who used the body replacement with Sasuke.' He landed in front of the boy and picked him up with one arm with he used the other to punch the blonde with his full force, sending him flying into the forest.

Orochimaru was beyond furious with the Uzumaki for ruining his plans. He had to wait several weeks to gather up the necessary senjutsu chakra from juugo before he could give out another curse seal. He turned to face Sasuke, and the brief thought of kidnapping the boy crossed his mind before he threw out the idea completely. It'd take another couple of months before his Immortality Jutsu: Transference Ritual would allow him to swap his soul into another body, and if he took the boy now, his jutsu would fail as the boy's will would be sorely aimed at hating him. So with heavy reluctance, Orochimaru would have to let Sasuke slip out of his grasp, for now, this experience no doubt tainting Orochimaru in the Uchiha's eyes.

"I'm sorry my dear Sasuke, but it appears that I have to let you go for now. It's a pity that the container decided to be greedy and take my gift to you for himself, but worry not Sasuke for I will always be ready to welcome you with open arms."

With that said, the snake sannin chuckled as he body flickered away, his chuckles echoing all around the boy as he departed. Sasuke stayed standing still, too terrified to move for another couple of minutes before he snapped out of it. He looked around and saw Hinata unconscious on the floor. He ran towards her and picked her up, managing to maneuver her to be on his back. With Hinata now being carried, Sasuke followed the direction Naruto was kicked in and found the boy writhing in pain, letting out whimpers and shouts of pain. Sasuke gently laid Hinata down as he tried to help his friend out, but he couldn't do anything for him. All he could do was watch Naruto yell out in pain before passing out.

Sasuke was left as the only conscious Team 7 member and was left to find a place for his team to rest and recover safely. He rummaged through his kunai pouch until he found some food pills. He let out a sigh before he popped it into his mouth and ate it, feeling his chakra getting instantly replenished at the cost of straining his chakra pathways a bit. He created a shadow clone to help carry Hinata while he carried Naruto.

'I have to find a place for them to recover safely.' Sasuke looked around, deciding on which direction he should go in. After fifteen minutes of quickly but quietly searching for a place to rest, Sasuke found a giant hollowed-out tree. He briefly activated his Sharingan and quickly scanned around the area to see if there was anyone nearby and let out a sigh of relief when he found no one. He went and gently placed the two down and left the clone to watch over them while the real Sasuke went out to prepare traps. After finishing the traps, Sasuke went back into the tree and started to make a small fire to cook the two rabbits he found after he dispelled the clone.

While he was cooking the food, Hinata woke up with a pounding headache. 'Ugh. My head feels like it is about to explode.' The Hyuga let out a hiss of pain when she touched her arm. She quickly used her rudimentary medical ninjutsu knowledge to heal and lessen the pain, after she finished healing the bruise, she eased her headache as well. Just as she put her arm down, Sasuke offered her a piece of meat that was cooked on a stick.

"Hungry?"

She nodded and took the offered food. After taking a couple of bites, Hinata swallowed her food and asked Sasuke something. "Sasuke-san, where are we, and what happened?"

Sasuke let out a sigh as he poked the firewood he gathered. "That guy was toying with me and then tried to convince me to go with him. He then extended his neck long enough to reach me and was about to bite me, but Naruto used the body replacement jutsu to swap positions with me and took the bite. Orochimaru then kicked him through several trees and when I found him, he was writhing in pain and passed out not long after that."

Hinata's eyes widened and she turned to look at the blonde, who was still showing signs of discomfort and pain. Her gaze turned into a sorrowful one, regretting that she wasn't able to help against their opponent more. After she finished eating her food, Hinata made her way over to the blonde and sat down. She held her hands above the boy's forehead as she activated her diagnostic jutsu.

She didn't find anything out of the ordinary except that his chakra was currently unruly. Hinata proceeded to heal his cuts, scrapes, bruises, and some of the smaller gashes on his back that he received from being thrown into trees. After she finished, Hinata just sat there and stared at her whiskered teammate. She smiled melancholy as she placed her hands on his cheek, running her thumb through his whiskers before letting out a sigh.

'Please wake up soon Naruto-san.'

Sasuke saw Hinata's actions and decided to go outside to do a perimeter check, to give the girl some privacy. As he walked out, he caught sight of a glint of light before he reflexively jumped out of the way. "Hinata! We've got company!"

Hinata quickly rushed out of the tree and stood next to Sasuke, prepared to assist him in driving away their foes. She turned to face their opponents and saw that they were wearing headbands with a musical note. 'They must be from the new sound village.'

"We're just here for the Uchiha." The boy with the beige shirt said. "If you don't get in our way, then we won't have to hurt you, little girl."

Hinata scoffed at the boy's words and slid into a taijutsu stance. Not a second after that and the two teammates engaged against the sound trio.

Back in the tree's caved-in trunk, Naruto was lying there with a scrunched-up face from the pain. Three black tomoe-shaped marks, that were left behind after Orochimaru bit the blonde, started to leak out a thin line of purple chakra. The five elemental seal that Orochimaru had placed over Naruto's eight trigram seal started to glow orange before turning red and finally black again.

In Naruto's mindscape, his whole mindscape became shadowed and became fogged. Kushina is looking around and quickly decides to look within Naruto's memories, but something stops her from doing so. She turned to ask Kurama what happened, only to suddenly see giant gates appear out of nowhere. It was made out of a pure black substance and had all elemental natures running through it. Kushina also saw a figure start to fade into Naruto's mindscape outside of the gate. When she strained her eyes to get a better look, she saw that the figure appeared to look like Naruto, but his golden and slitted two eyes told her it wasn't him. She remained quiet and opted to watch what the figure was doing in Naruto's mindscape, praying that it would resolve itself as she was unable to do anything from behind the caged gate.

The actual Naruto woke up in a different part of his mindscape, the area still being dark and foggy alerted him that something was wrong. He was confused as to what was going on and went out to wander his mind's mental halls. He eventually came across where Kurama usually was, only to find that there was a giant black cage door that also prevented him from seeing inside. He was about to charge towards it until he saw something move out of the corner of his eye. He turned around when he heard footsteps approaching him, and came face to face with an almost identical copy of him, except for the two golden slitted eyes.

"Hello, Naruto-kun."

The blonde narrowed his eyes in disgust as he spoke the doppelganger's actual name.

"Orochimaru."