Naruto's Different Path Chapter 21:Curse Seal and Shared Secrets, a naruto fanfic

Chapter 21: Curse Seals and Shared Secrets

"Orochimaru."

Kushina's eyes widened as she turned to face the Nine-tailed fox, silently demanding for him to tell her what happened. The bijuu shook his head and told her about the fight and what the snake had done to Naruto while he was in control, and gestured to the gates in front of them after mentioning the seal Orochimaru had put on him. Kushina turned a tear-filled eye towards Naruto and proceeded to pound on the barrier, letting out yells of protest and pain-filled wails, however, all her attempts were in vain.

"Stop it." Naruto growled out.

"Why are you doing this?!"

"I want to test the limits of the jinchuriki of the strongest bijuu. The amount of power at your disposal, just imagining what I'd be able to do with that power is making me giddy. Although it's a shame that I won't be able to take over your body due to the nine-tails inside you, I can at least find out the limitations you have as a jinchuuriki before I take the bijuu for myself."

Naruto thrashed around even harder than before and glared at the man. "You'll never take Kurama from me! I'd rather die than let my friend be taken by you!"

Orochimaru chuckled as he sliced the boy's wrist open, earning a shout of pain from the boy. "I do believe you're not in a position to shout out proclamations, Naruto-kun." He leaned closer to Naruto's ear before he whispered into it. "But I'll let you yell more proclamations, just to make it even sweeter when I get to see the look of defeat on your face. So please, continue to make false promises."

Naruto lashed out and blew the void of memories away with a swipe of both arms. He locked onto Orochimaru and ran towards him and pinned him on the ground when he reached him. "I've had enough of you! First, you kidnap me and dissect me, and then you have the nerve to go after Sasuke! I'll kill you!"

The other Naruto chuckled as he called the void back, forcing another one of his memories to be replayed. This one had taken a month after his kidnapping, but it was one of Naruto's worse recollections.

Naruto's eyes had a glazed look over them, he had left only the embers of his defiance left, but he would cling onto them with everything he had. The door opened and Naruto turned his head slowly to see who had come in this time, only to spot Orochimaru's silver-haired lackey. The blonde's ocean blue eyes had regained a bit of their color as a small smirk made its way on his face.

"So glasses, what's your boyfriend got for me today-?"

Kabuto backhanded Naruto across the face, earning a grunt from the blonde as the silver-haired man pushed his glasses up in an attempt to hide his annoyance.

"I'm sorry… I forgot that it was supposed to be a secret." The blonde said with another smirk plastered across his face.

Kabuto retaliated by punching the blonde in the nose, his anger with the blonde becoming more and more apparent. As the blonde groaned in pain, Kabuto cleared his throat and addressed the blonde runt.

"Sorry Naruto, but Orochimaru has other matters to attend to. Which means he left the observation task to me." The silver-haired genin smirked widely as he saw the boy wince. "Oh don't worry, I'll be sure to be extra rough." The teenager said as he activated his chakra scalpels and walked towards the boy slowly.

All Naruto could do was face Kabuto with a half-lidded glare, silently telling him to bring it on. The older boy grew aggravated with the blonde and decided to cut off one of the boy's fingers and examined the healing process, all while Naruto was trying to hold back painful yells. The wound closed itself off and didn't grow the finger back as Kabuto was expecting.

"So jinchurikis healing factor is unable to restore cut-off body parts. Let's see if it can reattach lost parts." Kabuto once again cut the wound open and held the finger close. He had a look of awe as he saw the hand reattach the finger rapidly. "On the other hand, it appears that they can reattach limbs… Let's see the extent of your healing factor, Naruto."

Naruto wasn't able to hold back the yells and cries of pain for long, so the empty hallways were filled with a twelve-year-old's screams of pain.

Naruto yelled out in frustration as he threw a punch towards his doppelganger, but he didn't feel the hit register. Instead of hitting the fake, he punched right through nothing and hit the floor of his mindscape, making the sewer of his mindscape shake from the force behind the punch. He growled as he stood up and looked around, trying to where the snake had gone off to. Naruto felt his mindscape try to bring up another memory of his, but he crossed his arms and swung them with as much force as he could. The black void had been blown away partly, revealing Orochimaru's position.

Naruto immediately channeled chakra towards his legs and leaped towards his foe. He cocked his arm back and threw a chakra-enhanced punch towards the doppelganger. The boy went down with a smug smirk on his face the whole time. Orochimaru chuckled as he slowly got onto one knee.

"Yes, Naruto-kun. Fight me." The smirk turned into a wide, maniacal smile on his face. Naruto felt a shiver run down his spine at seeing the smile on his face that the sannin was copying.

"Despise me." Naruto snarled and felt his anger growing.

"Hate me." The blonde clenched his fist tightly, drawing blood from his nails digging into his palm.

"Drive to kill me… and when you fail in the end, the look of despair on your face will be so amazing. I can't wait to see that."

Naruto let out a shout of pure anger before he channeled most of his chakra into his fist as he ran towards the sannin. When he was close to the sannin, he cocked his arm back and threw the punch with all the force he could muster. The force of the punch sent the doppelganger straight towards the floor of his mindscape. However, when Orochimaru made contact with the water, he exploded into a great amount of purple chakra, which soon began to latch and spread all over Naruto.

The one-eyed blonde tried to shake and brush the chakra off of him, but his efforts were futile. Naruto felt a jolt of pain on the base of his neck as black markings began to cover his entire body. He felt his emotions fight for dominance briefly before his anger overtook the rest. All he could feel was anger, his vision and mind became clouded by it and he let out a scream of primal rage before the curse mark shot him out of his mindscape.

10 minutes earlier…

Sasuke ran towards the bandaged boy and threw a kick towards his face, only for the boy to block his attack with a metal gauntlet that was riddled with holes. Sasuke jumped back and a second later he grabbed his ears as hard as he could, attempting in vain to block out the unbearable sound assaulting his ears.

"Heheheh, I bet you're in a great amount of pain. If you're wondering how it's all thanks to my gauntlet." He gestured towards his gauntlet with clear pride in his eye and body language. "That was my Resonating Echo Drill Jutsu. This gauntlet helps me generate sound for my attacks, which I use to attack the inner ear which causes the target great pain, along with disorientation, vertigo, and nausea. This tool is all I'll need to kill you." The boy had a wide grin on his face that was visible through the bandages that were wrapped around him. He channeled a good portion of his chakra into the gauntlet and as he was preparing to send it towards his foe, he caught sight of two blood-red eyes.

The constant assault on his eardrums finally seized after he placed Dosu under a genjutsu that caused him to fall unconscious. Sasuke let out a sigh of relief before he groggily stood up and looked around. The other boy was watching him warily while Hinata had engaged with the female girl of the group. He saw the girl pull out senbon with a bell attached to one before she threw it towards Hinata, who dodged the thrown weapons and managed to catch the senbon that had the bell attached before she sent it flying back towards her foe. He saw Hinata jump away and unseal her bow before Sasuke had to dodge an attack that was sent his way by the other member of the Sound squad.

"Hey, asshole! Don't forget about me!" The other boy yelled out in anger before he pointed his arms towards Sasuke with his palms up. "Decapitating Airwaves!"

With his Sharingan, Sasuke was able to see the sudden buildup of chakra in the boy's arms and quickly spotted the holes in them. He quickly jumps out of the way of the boy's attack but the attack ended up hitting the boy's partner. Sasuke mentally cursed as the hit would have no doubt been strong enough to knock the bandaged boy out of his genjutsu enforced slumber. 'He must've planned on me jumping out of the way to get his teammate back in the playing field… I can't underestimate these guys.'

Zaku smiled widely as he saw Dosu begin to stir. "Ahh, you're in for it now Uchiha!"

Dosu shook his head to clear the final bit of drowsiness that had been forced on him. When he was fully awake, he glared at the Uchiha. "Don't worry Sasuke Uchiha, I'll be sure to return the favor by making you sleep, permanently."

Sasuke rolled his eyes and began to shake in mock horror. "Oh, I'm so scared." He quickly ran through hand signs and put his hand to his mouth, making a circle with his index and thumb. "Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!"

Both boys were forced to jump away from the attack as the fireball was too fast for Zaku to disperse it with his jutsu. When they both regained their bearings Zaku shot off another Decapitating Airwaves while Dosu shot off another Resonating Echo Drill. Both of the boys' attacks landed… on empty space. Zaku and Dosu were left confused before they saw a log where the Uchiha had been.

"Substitution!" Dosu shouted in surprise. He quickly whipped around and was met with a hard punch directly to his face. He let out a grunt when his body met the floor and was surprised to see Zaku in the same situation. 'What?! How?! Is he just that fast?!'

Sasuke walked closer to Dosu and was going to kill him, but was surprised to see Hinata thrown roughly on the forest floor next to him. "Hinata?! What happened?!"

Hinata activated her byakugan before she chased down the female genin of the Sound team, trying to get close to use her gentle fist. She saw the kunoichi pull out three senbons and threw them at her. Hinata quickly spotted the bell that was attached to one of the senbons and quickly caught that one before she threw it back at her opponent.

Kin quickly dodged the thrown projectile and reached into her bag to throw some more senbon at her target, but she had to quickly roll out of the way to dodge one of Hinata's gentle fist strikes. When she was upright, she threw more senbon towards the Hyuga girl and made the ram hand sign.

'Sound Illusions: Amplified Resonance.'

Hinata felt her eardrums become suddenly assaulted by a sharp ringing that was making her head pound in her skull. She rolled to the left and dispelled the genjutsu just in time to dodge another volley of senbon. Hinata mentally cursed as she jumped back and quickly unsealed her bow when she was hidden from her enemy's view. She nocked the arrow and held it there while she observed her opponent and waited to see her next move.

Kin was growing frustrated as she couldn't find that Hyuga girl she was facing. If she was unable to locate her, then Kin was unable to throw her senbons since there was no target to cast the genjutsu on. She turned to the right and strained her eyes to see that Dosu and Zaku weren't fairing as well as she hoped. Kin mentally cursed as she decided to abandon her fight to go and help her teammates take care of the Uchiha first.

Hinata saw Kin run towards Sasuke's direction and took a second to measure everything.

'Target is running approximately 6.5 miles per hour in a linear direction. There's currently no wind so…' Hinata aimed the arrow precisely where it would hit Kin after she ran for another five seconds. She closed her eyes and took in a breath before she opened them. '...now-'

Hinata was suddenly kicked in the side of her stomach which sent her flying down towards the clearing Sasuke was fighting in. She took a rough landing that managed to break her right arm, which now prevented her from using the bow.

"Hinata?! What happened?!"

"I- ugh- I got kicked in the side and got sent flying down here." She grabbed her bow and arrows which she quickly sealed away to prevent losing them. She turned to Sasuke and spoke in a hushed tone as to prevent her enemies from hearing. "That fall managed to break my arm, so I'm afraid I can't do much Sasuke-san." She spoke with a tad of annoyance at the fact that her arm was once again broken and therefore useless.

Sasuke quickly helped her up and unsealed his chokuto and channeled more chakra into his Sharingan, preparing for a tough battle. Hinata quickly tapped her right shoulder's chakra point, increasing the flow of chakra in that arm to allow her to use it better. She took a deep breath before she slid into her gentle fist stance. This was all that was needed before the fighting broke out.

Sasuke ducked underneath Dosu's strike and retaliated by slashing his back when his momentum carried him further but had to quickly raise his sword in front of his face to block some senbon that was thrown his way. While he was doing that, he wasn't able to see Zaku get behind him and then shoot out his signature attack. As a result, Sasuke was blown off his feet and sent straight towards the now recovered Dosu and was rewarded a strong haymaker to the side of his face, effectively knocking him down onto his hands and knees. Sasuke spit out blood from his mouth as he glared at the sound trio and tried to stand up, but suddenly became dizzy when he heard a bell chime.

Dosu capitalized on the Uchiha's falter and kicked him with all the force he could muster, making the Uchiha fall flat on his back. Kin sent another volley of senbon towards her opponent but was shocked when he barely managed to dodge them all. Sasuke kicked away Dosu and sent chakra into his legs as he jumped high to avoid Zaku's Decapitating Airwave. At this point, Sasuke was breathing heavily and was almost running low on chakra.

'I can only manage about two more fireballs before I'm too low on chakra to do any more ninjutsu, so what do I do?'

When Sasuke landed from his jump, the sound team rushed towards him to not allow him time to plan or recover. Sasuke cursed as he had to sidestep another punch from the bandaged one and jump out of the way of another blast of air. His annoyance with the whole situation grew to a boiling point as he managed to weave himself out of harm's way and ran towards Hinata with the sound team following close behind him.

Hinata herself wasn't faring against the Iwa team as well as Sasuke was against the Sound team. She was forcing her broken arm to be used against her opponents which would only worsen the state of her arm as the fight progressed. She ducked and maneuvered her way out of any attack the Iwa team threw at them at they were sticking to attacking from a distance, but she wasn't able to land a strike on her opponents either. If this lasted longer, Hinata had no doubt she'd be the one to falter first as she was already beginning to feel weary. Hinata bit her lip and ran towards the Iwa team, throwing caution in the wind.

Anaru's eyes widened in surprise but she pulled out a kunai, preparing to fight the girl in a taijutsu fight. Part of the girl told her that fighting a taijutsu fight would be terrible for her as she wasn't the best at close quarters, but she ignored that logical side of her for the moment. When Hinata got close enough to Anaru, the Iwa girl threw her kunai and performed a set of hand signs. "Earth Style: Mud Bullet!"

Hinata dodged the kunai and with her byakugan activated, she was able to see the girl run through hand signs. She was tensing her legs, ready to jump back at any moment, but then she saw the hue of the girl's chakra change. She saw for a moment that the girl's chakra became barely dyed with a brown hue. The change in hue was so minuscule that if Hinata hadn't been focusing on the girl, she wouldn't have noticed the change. However, since she was momentarily stunned and awed at the sudden change in hue, Hinata was unable to dodge the mud bullet that came racing towards her.

"Haha! Take that Hyuga!" The new third member of the Iwa team shouted. He had been out on the reserves after his whole team was killed by a squad of Leaf jonin that were on a mission to kill their sensei for murdering one of Konoha's officials. He sensei died along with his other two teammates that were caught in the crossfires trying to protect him. Sui was only left alive because he froze up in fear and the Leaf team decided to take pity on him. Ever since that day, his hate and the want for Konoha's destruction became his driving force.

When Kyua came in and chose him to be her team's final member, he had been ecstatic about the chance to get out on the field again. After all this time spent training and running drills, Sui was finally in Konoha and allowed to kill whoever he wanted thanks to Konoha's own rules. When he saw Anaru hit the Hyuga dead on and left her covered in mud, he couldn't sit back and just watch anymore. He had to join in on the action. Sui sprinted towards the still recovering Hinata and when he was upon her, he raised his sword over his head and was going to strike down the girl. Luckily for the Konoha team, Sasuke was there to kick away the bastard.

"You okay Hinata?"

She stood up on her two feet and nodded her head while glaring at the Iwa team in front of her. "What do you want with us?" Hinata asked with venom in her voice, and Niton was the one to answer her.

"We're here to kill the Namikaze's son. Please step aside and you won't have to get hurt."

Sasuke scowled at the Iwa team for wanting to kill Naruto, and his frown deepened when he saw that the Sound team appeared. "We won't let you."

"We weren't asking for permission."

"Hey!" Zaku shouted out to the new team. "Don't you dare kill the Uchiha, he's our target!"

"We don't care for the Uchiha. We just want to kill the blonde-haired boy."

"Well alright. Just don't get in our way!" Zaku yelled as he started to run towards Sasuke.

Sasuke tensed and waited to retaliate against the Sound team but out of the corner of his eye, he saw that the Iwa team was sprinting towards the tree that Naruto was staying under. He scowled and pivoted his body to run towards them. That simple motion had been a great error on his part since it made him open to the Sound team.

Dosu saw the Uchiha glance towards the Iwa team and a smirk came across his face. He closed in and punched the boy hard across the jaw all while channeling chakra into his melody gauntlet. Sasuke was left laying flat on his chest with a pulsating headache that left him feeling delirious and on the brink of consciousness. He forced himself to look in Hinata's direction and managed to see her trying to chase after the Iwa team before he lost the battle to stay awake.

Hinata grounded her teeth and charged after the three genin that were after Naruto. She pumped chakra into her legs and lunged after them with all the force she could muster and managed to collide with the stoic boy in the team, forcing the both of them to take a rough landing.

"Ugh! You dare-!"

Hinata sneered as she quickly sat up and struck the boy's chakra points in the chest, restricting him from using most of his chakra. The action made the boy holler out in pain and in reaction to the screams, his teammates quickly threw her off of him before she had a chance to make any further strikes.

The Hyuga felt herself losing her internal battle against her exhaustion as she hadn't fully recovered from her fight against the snake sannin. However, despite how tired she was, she forced herself to stand back up and to try and prevent them from hurting Naruto. Hinata was left panting hard and tired, unable to dodge the Mud Bullet that Anaru had sent her way once again. This time though, she was unable to get up. Hinata realized that the first mud bullet had been a two-staged attack. After the damage of being hit, the mud left on her would drastically sap her stamina as it would be moving while being weighed down by the mud all over her.

Hinata watched with half-lidded eyes as the Iwa team shot past the Sound team, clearly heading towards the hollowed-out tree. She tried to move, desperately trying to use the energy she knew she didn't possess at the moment. All she could do was watch the team enter the tree.

'Please wake up Naruto-san.'

A sudden burst of chakra sent the Iwa team flying out of the hollowed-out tree, making them land on the ground harshly. The team struggled to get up as the sudden attack caught them off guard. When they were on their feet, they turned around and saw the blonde they were targeting step out into the clearing with what appeared to be flame-like markings were spreading across his body.

This was the last thing Hinata saw before she became unconscious.

Naruto's eye scanned over the clearing while rolling his shoulders, the dead silence helped make the boy's actions louder than they should have been. The Iwa team was crouched low, ready to either run away or strike their target down. Zaku merely scoffed at the blonde as he aimed his palms towards him.

"Listen, kid, we're not stopping till that Uchiha is dead! Decapitating Air Wave!" Zaku shot out tunnels of wind chakra towards Naruto, intending on sending the boy flying to his death. He smirked when the blonde hadn't moved an inch. 'Take that you cocky bastard! Now you and your friends are gonna die because you didn't let us have the Uchiha!' As the jutsu was about to touch Naruto, he disappeared in an act of pure speed.

"Wha-"

The Uzumaki appeared behind the black-haired boy and grabbed his head. His single blue eye was shining brightly and bore into everyone present.

"I'm not in the mood."

After that single sentence was spoken, Naruto channeled a lot of chakra into the palm of his right hand and squished the boy's head. He then body flickered behind Kin and pulled her hair back, slitting her throat with a kunai he had just unsealed from his arm. He let go of her and started to walk towards the last remaining member of the sound genin. Dosu put his arms out in an attempt to show that he was no threat to the blonde and was about to beg for him to spare his life, only for the boy to body flicker right in front of him. The Iwa genin jumped away and hauled ass towards the tower before the blonde could aim his sights on them.

Naruto stared down at Dosu with his single ocean blue eye. The boy was still pleading for the blonde to spare his life, and Naruto was starting to get annoyed. The newly placed seal was starting to make his emotions hard to control which just made his anger unruly. Naruto's fists tightened in irritation, making the kunai in his hand groan from the pressure. The Uzumaki quickly swiped the kunai across the boy's neck, and let out a sigh of relief when the body fell lifelessly to the floor. With the source of his annoyance and anger gone, the curse seal reverted to the base of his neck.

Naruto fell to one knee, the pain the cursed seal had left behind momentarily surprising the blonde and catching him off guard. After a second, Naruto got used to the pain and stood up. He walked towards his teammates and picked up Hinata bridal style. He took her to where Sasuke had been knocked out. He gently placed her down and created two shadow clones to watch over them while he went to take the sound team's scroll.

After checking over Zaku's and Dosu's bodies, he found the Heaven scroll in Kin's pouch. He grabbed it and sealed it with the other two scrolls before he walked back towards his unconscious teammates. When he arrived there, Naruto decided to carry Hinata and Sasuke on a piggyback ride.

"Alright, let's go find a lake or stream so we can rest there." Naruto looked down at himself before addressing his clones once more. "And so I can wash all the blood out."

"Yes sir!"

After 15 minutes of running, and 5 more minutes of the blonde experimenting, Naruto and his clones came across a river that was next to a clearing hidden behind shrubbery. He landed on the ground next to the river and walked through the shrubbery into the clearing where he and his clones carefully laid down his teammates. He quickly checked over them and made sure that his teammates weren't bleeding anywhere before he decided to go bathe in the river.

"Hey, watch over these guys while I go clean myself up in the river." His clones nodded and gave him the thumbs up. As he was about to leave, Sasuke started to stir.

"Ughh, my head is killing me."

"Oh hey Sasuke, how ya feeling?"

Sasuke scrunched his eyes as he sat up. He was able to feel all the damage and bruising that was done to his body. He let out a deep sigh before he faced Naruto and opened his eyes. "Naruto! What the hell happened to you?!"

"Huh?" Naruto looked down at himself before he realized what Sasuke meant. "Oh, this isn't my blood, calm down."

"What do you mean it isn't your blood?"

Naruto rolled his eye as he answered his closest friend. "Sasuke, this blood is from those Sound guys. I killed them and took their scroll." He pulled out an extra heaven scroll to show Sasuke proof of his claim.

"What about those Iwa guys?"

"Hm? Oh… they ran away after I killed two of the sound guys. It's a good thing too because otherwise, I might have killed them as well." Naruto said while rubbing the back of his head from embarrassment.

"You used Kurama's chakra?"

Naruto chuckled as he stood up. "I'd rather not answer that. I'll be back though, I'm going to go wash myself and my clothes."

Sasuke watched Naruto walk away into the shrubbery before he disappeared behind it. He turned to face the Naruto clones and when they made eye contact with him, they shook their heads, dismissing any thoughts about them answering his question. Sasuke let out a sigh before he looked around.

"Hey, did you guys get-"

"Yeah, here ya go." One of the Naruto shadow clones tossed Sasuke his chokuto that he had picked up before he left the clearing where they fought the sound team. "You were knocked out so I sealed up your sword before I left."

Sasuke examined his weapon and frowned when he spotted some chips and damage on his sword. He let out a sigh before he slid it back into his scabbard. "Thanks."

The clone nodded with a small smile. "Hey, I'm going to go find some firewood. My other clone will go look for some food for everyone. You'll make the fire and cook the food since, well we can't cook."

"Yeah yeah, just go get the supplies."

After he walked through the shrubbery, Naruto took off his jacket and pants. He placed his black shirt on a rock that was close to the shrubbery while he placed his pants and jacket at the edge of the ground. He took in a deep breath before he hopped into the water and when he resurfaced above the water, he brushed his hair back to get it out of his eyes.

'My hair is getting pretty long… should I cut it Kurama?' After a couple of moments of nothing but silence in his mental space, Naruto let out a sigh. 'I need to fix whatever that bastard did to me… but first I'll clean up.'

Naruto took off his pants and his jacket and tried to rinse the blood out, but found the task more difficult than he originally thought.

"Ughhh, come on." Naruto tried to rub the blood out of his jacket but his efforts were in vain.

"You know, it'll be better if you wash it in really cold water." Naruto looked up to see the female genin of Team Gai sitting on a tree branch while twirling a kunai in her hand. He tensed and waited for her next move, only for her to put the kunai in her pouch. "Bleach is also useful for cleaning blood out. Better even."

Naruto shrugged and went back to work. "Well I don't have bleach on me at the moment, plus this water is cold enough. I just need to rub it out."

Tenten nodded and decided to chat with the blonde as she hadn't found any other team, so she was going to take a short break. "So blondie, how's the exam going for your team?"

"We already have both scrolls."

Tenten raised an eyebrow in shock. "That fast?"

"Yeah, we got an extra too. What scroll do you need?"

"We need an earth scroll."

Naruto stood there and thought for a few seconds before he unsealed and tossed the extra heaven scroll he had. "Use that to trade with someone if you want."

Tenten caught the scroll and looked it over before she nodded and said her thanks. She stood up and said her farewell before she departed on a search for her team. Naruto himself stayed trying to wash the blood out, but only managed to get a little out before he gave up and sealed the wet and bloodied clothes. He pulled himself out of the water and slid on his black shirt before he unsealed an extra set of clothes. He quickly changed into his new set before he climbed back through the shrubbery. When he came into the clearing, Naruto saw Sasuke cooking what appeared to be a boar over a campfire while Hinata was awake and looking over her supplies.

"Hey Hinata, you alright?"

Hinata turned to face Naruto and nodded but had to cradle her arm as it was broken. "I'm fine but I think I have fractured my right arm. It will take me some time to heal it as I currently don't have the chakra to heal myself."

"All you need is chakra?" After seeing Hinata nod, Naruto pulled out a single tag and drew the desired seal that he wanted. When he finished, he placed the tag on his chest and activated it. A few moments later and the seal glowed bright yellow before Naruto handed it to Hinata. "Place that on your stomach, directly above your chakra pool as that's where it'll enter."

Hinata hesitantly took the tag and looked down before unzipping her sweater. She looked up, blushing lightly, and saw Naruto and Sasuke watching her. "Uhm, can you two turn around?"

Naruto blinked twice before he came back to reality and stammered out a response. "Oh! Uh, sorry about that Hinata! Uhm, Sasuke is the food done?"

"Uh, yeah. Come on, let's eat." Sasuke stammered out as well. After the two boys turned around and began to eat, Hinata faced the other way and placed the seal on top of her stomach, and activated the seal.

She instantly felt her chakra reserves begin to fill themselves rapidly. She was going to thank Naruto and compliment him on such a useful seal when she noticed that she was quickly getting close to being overfilled with chakra. She hastily made some shadow clones and felt the seal run out of chakra. She left out a breath of relief as the tag burned itself.

"Ok, I'm done. Naruto-san that seal contained more chakra than I can, how much did you put in?"

Naruto turned around and titled his head to the left when she heard her question. "I put roughly about 5 shadow clones worth of chakra in that seal since I wanted you to have more than enough to heal yourself. Guess I overdid it huh? My bad Hinata."

"It's alright Naruto-san. It just caught me by surprise, but my shadow clone should be able to fully heal me now."

The original Hinata dispelled all but one clone and had to wince as she felt the excessive chakra force its way into her chakra pool. After her face relaxed, her clone activated the diagnostics jutsu and found that she only had a fractured radius. The clone gave the original a kunai to bite on when she would hold it in place as she healed it. Hinata bit onto the kunai and winced as she felt the clone tightly wrap her hands around her arm as she began healing. After a couple of seconds, the injury was healed and the clone dispelled. The girl let out a deep sigh as she laid back down to rest for a bit.

"You feeling okay Hinata?"

Hinata sat up a bit to see Naruto holding out some cooked food with a slightly worried face. "I'm fine. I'm just resting for now, but thank you for the food Naruto-san."

Naruto smiled as he nodded. "Yeah. no problem."

"Hey guys, what are we going to do now?"

Naruto and Hinata turned to face Sasuke who was idly prodding the fire. "What do you mean? We go to the tower since we have both scrolls."

Sasuke placed his prodding stick down and looked at Naruto with an eyebrow raised. "What about all the other teams out there? They're not just gonna let us walk through and into the tower."

"Then we'll fight them. Here, I'll write you chakra transfer seal too Sasuke."

"Uh, I'm good-"

"You'll use it if we need to fight and when you're low, that way you get the most out of the seal."

"What about you Naruto-san? You're using a lot of chakra by giving us some of yours."

Naruto turned around and smiled at her. "Well, I can't use my chakra all that well at the moment. I'm limited to only shadow clones at the moment, so it's giving you guys some of my chakra is the smarter play."

"How are you limited?" Sasuke asked with a disbelieving tone.

Naruto lifted his jacket and shirt, channeled chakra, and showed his seal to his teammates. "Orochimaru placed this seal over my regular seal, the one holding Kurama. When he did this, he messed up my chakra flow and inhibited me from using my chakra normally."

To back up his claims, Naruto flashed through hand signs and slapped his hands on the ground, making a clump of earth begin to rise out of the ground just for it to fall back to normal. He suddenly felt the pain coming from the mark that Orochimaru had given him, but he held his reaction back as he did not want his teammates to find out about it.

"See? When I tried my fire and wind jutsus, they just exploded in my face before I could fully cast them." He rubbed his right cheek as phantom pains began to rise. "But the point is, I won't be much help in a fight so I'm giving my chakra to you two who can use your whole arsenal."

Sasuke nodded and had a pensive look on his face for a couple of seconds before he said what was on his mind.

"Naruto…"

"Yeah?"

"What happened between you and Orochimaru?"

"... I guess there's no avoiding this huh?" Naruto let out a heavy sigh before he looked at Sasuke and Hinata. "Alright… alright alright. Remember my six-month disappearance?" At receiving two nods, he continued. "I was kidnapped by that bastard. This guy named Kabuto was the one who took me from the village, but he had help from Mizuki. After the two knocked me out, Kabuto took me to Orochimaru in this underground base. That's when I woke up."

"What happened next?"

Naruto turned to face Hinata after she asked the question and let out a dry chuckle. "They cut me open and toyed around with my insides to see what my healing limits were. They cut off body parts to see if I could regrow them or not. They poisoned me, they added some DNA from other people, and they did plenty of other stuff that I cannot and will not remember."

Sasuke managed to look both red from anger and green from disgust. Hinata had tears begin to well up in her eyes. He looked down at the ground and felt the weight on his shoulders lighten just a bit, so he kept going.

"I spent six months in complete and utter hell until some leaf Anbu saved me. They chose to fight and risk their lives just for the chance that I could stay alive and make it back home. And when I made it outside, I was surrounded by Orochimaru's guys. I felt all the hope that had been built up since I saw the Anbu slice Kabuto's head in half, snuffed out. They were still busy inside trying to safely get out while doing as much damage to them as possible, so I knew they wouldn't be able to reach me in time. But then, my hopes and dreams of seeing the village, of you and Iruka and the old man began to raise as I saw one person slay the enter group of his lackeys that surrounded me. Jiraiya of the sannin came down on a toad and killed all of the men surrounding me in one move. He used one fire jutsu and managed to wipe out the entire army that surrounded me. As I was about to pass out from everything that had happened, he told me that he was going to take me back to Konoha."

"So you met two of the sannin. One kidnapped and tortured you, while the other one saved you from that hell." Hinata summarized.

"Heheh, yeah I guess so." Naruto stood up and looked around him. "Well, I guess we should start heading to the tower now."

"Naruto-san, since you told us about the skeletons you wanted to keep in the closet, I'd like to tell you two about my own."

Naruto and Sasuke quirked an eyebrow. "You don't have to Hinata-chan, I told you two because I trusted both of you and because that bastard showed up."

Hinata looked at Naruto directly in his eye. "I also trust the both of you, and my secret isn't as big as yours was."

"Naruto and Sasuke turned to look at the other's reaction before Sasuke spoke. "You can go ahead and tell us if you want Hinata, but you don't have to."

"Yes, I want to." She looked at the ground for a couple of moments before she took in a deep breath. "Do you two recall the peace treaty that was supposed to happen between the Leaf and Cloud?"

"Yeah, but all I know is that something happened that made us on the verge of war between us until something happened that made the Cloud back down." Naruto said as he put a hand to his chin.

Hinata nodded and looked up to face her teammates. "Not many knew about the truth of what happened because the Hyuga clan and Hokage-sama kept it under wraps… but the truth was that Cloud's ambassador tried to kidnap me, and he almost succeeded."

Naruto's eye and Sasuke's eyes widened. Their friend had almost been kidnapped when they had a clan full of people who could see through anything. Sasuke managed to find his voice first and asked her a question. "W-what happened?"

"The ambassador snuck into my room when I was five and successfully managed to sneak me outside after stuffing me into a bag. I'm only here due to being lucky that night."

"Lucky?"

Hinata nodded her head and explained what happened. "Earlier that day was one of my first practices with my gentle fist. I was taught how to activate my byakugan and strike the chakra points, but since that was one of my first times using my dojutsu, I was only able to locate a few chakra points. The most fatal ones."

Naruto's eye widened as he made the connection. "You killed the ambassador after he kidnapped you, didn't you?"

Hinata slowly nodded her head again. "Yes. Since I was in the bag that he was carrying over his shoulder, I was able to see the chakra point located at the heart and struck it. He immediately fell over dead and I was left watching in horror as his heart stopped beating because of what I had done. I was so out of it that I didn't notice my father nor my uncle had come out to save me, only to be stunned at what I had done. My father snatched me up and held me close to him as I cried my eyes out that night. When the elders heard of what I had done, they praised me for my skill and had been throwing hard obstacles that I was forced to overcome. Ever since that night, I had to struggle and fight hard to become the person I am today." She looked up into the tree canopy and let out a sigh. "Sometimes I wish that I was born into a different family, to be free of all my responsibilities and everything that comes with being the Hyuga Heiress."

Naruto looked at the ground for a second before he stood up and walked over to Hinata. He sat down next to her and placed a hand on her shoulder, causing her to look at him in his single eye. "I sometimes wished that I wasn't made a jinchuriki or all the stuff that came with the job. But then I realize that if not for me being a jinchuriki, I wouldn't have met Kurama. He's my closest friend and is like a brother to me. I'd never give him up just for a life of comfort."

"So you're saying I should just stay with my family even though they bring me pain?"

"I'm saying do what makes you happy. Being a jinchuriki makes me happy because I have Kurama with me."

Hinata stared at her blonde teammate for a couple of seconds before she felt a warmth grow in her chest, causing her to smile at her friend. She hugged him as she spoke. "Thank you Naruto-san. I needed to hear that."

Naruto returned the hug as he chuckled. "No worries, what are friends for anyway?"

After the two released their hug, they turned to face Sasuke, expecting him to talk about the traumas that he hid in the closet.

Sasuke held up his hands as he widened his eyes. "Woah Woah, both of you already know my trauma. My brother killed my clan so I want him dead to avenge my clan, that's public information."

Naruto chuckled as he nodded his head. "Yeah, I guess so. Well, could we start heading towards the tower now? I kinda want to shower and sleep properly."

His teammates nodded and they gathered their supplies as they removed all evidence that they were there. After the team all shared a nod, they jumped on a tree branch and raced towards the tower.

Team 7 was close to arriving at the tower when suddenly Sasuke and Hinata felt something off. Sasuke activated his Sharingan and Hinata activated her byakugan, it didn't take long for the both of them to spot the genjutsu that was placed over them. They released the genjutsu and turned to face Naruto, preparing to release him as well, only to find him heading straight to the tower like he wasn't affected by the genjutsu at all. The two shrugged before following their friend.

When the genjutsu was placed over Naruto, he felt a sudden itch before the genjutsu was torn apart by the curse seal and his five elemental seal as they were constantly making his chakra chaotic. The blonde never knew what happened and continued straight forward without delay and was soon followed by his teammates.

Team 7 barged into the tower's doors and Naruto quickly unsealed his scrolls as he looked around. It was mainly empty excluding a board hanging on the wall in front of them, causing Naruto to become relaxed.

"Alright, what do we do now you guys?"

But Hinata and Sasuke were too busy staring at the board, trying to decipher its hidden message.

"If qualities of heaven are your desire, acquire wisdom to take your mind higher. If earthly qualities are what you lack, train your body and prepare to attack. When heaven and earth are opened together, this perilous path will become righteous forever. This… something is the secret way that guides us from this place today."

"The hell does that mean?" Naruto asked a bit aggravated. He was tired and wanted to shower, not solve any riddles right now.

"It has something to do with the scrolls," Sasuke answered his friend.

"I believe they want us to open the heaven and earth scroll now. Maybe the answer is inside the scrolls." Hinata chimed in. She looked towards her teammates with a hesitant look before Naruto shrugged and handed one to Sasuke.

"Well, let's see." Naruto opened his scroll and Sasuke soon followed his friend's lead.

Smoke soon started to come out of the scroll, causing Naruto and Sasuke to panic. Sasuke threw his scroll on the other side of the room while Naruto took a second to take a closer look at the fuinjutsu. He realized what it was supposed to do immediately and lazily threw it towards Sasuke's scroll. After a second later, Iruka was summoned from the scrolls and was now standing in front of Team 7 with a smile on his face.

"Congratulations Team 7, you three pass the second part of the Chunin Exams. I can't tell you how proud of you all I am. To make it this far in your very first chunin exams, I knew you three were skilled but this still surprised me. Please, continue surprising me as you continue to grow."

Sasuke and Hinata smiled softly at being praised but only Naruto was beginning to tear up at his words. "Thanks, Iruka-sensei! I'll be the strongest ninja in no time."

After a few more moments of them all chatting with their old teacher, Team 7 was led inside to rest and recover from their time in the forest. Each team member had taken a room for themselves and Naruto was currently in his bathroom taking a shower. His head was down as he stared at the shower drain, contemplating on everything he had learned and been through.

'That bastard was after Sasuke, he wanted to give him the mark that I have now… so why is his consciousness inside the mark constantly trying to get me to follow him?'

Naruto cut off his train of thought and looked up at the showerhead to let it wet his face. He let out a sigh and harshly rubbed his face before he turned around, letting the water hit his hair and his back.

'After these exams, I'll have this mark checked out and see if I can get someone to remove the five elemental seal over my seal.' After that thought finished, he turned off the shower and proceeded to dry himself after stepping out of the shower. When he stepped into his room, he unsealed his clothes from the scroll he had kept spare ones in and was about to change when suddenly Sasuke and Hinata knocked and entered his room.

They stared at one another for a couple of seconds in shocked silence before Hinata suddenly grew a blush that spread all over her face and turned around to face the opposite direction. Sasuke just apologized as he walked in, earning a groan from Naruto.

"Can't you at least let me change first you bastard?"

Sasuke shrugged and pointed to the bathroom. "Why don't you change in your bathroom? That's what I do."

Naruto rolled his eyes and answered Sasuke as he was walking towards the bathroom. "Because this is my room you jackass. What do you guys want anyway?"

As Naruto entered the bathroom and locked the door behind him, Sasuke called out to Hinata, letting her know that Naruto was in the bathroom. She hesitantly stepped into his room and sat on Naruto's bed while Sasuke sat on a chair that was next to a small table.

"We're here to discuss what we'll do next." Sasuke shouted towards the bathroom so Naruto would hear.

The two teens heard some mumbling and clothes shuffling until Naruto came out of the bathroom fully dressed in his black shirt with orange pants.. 'Damn, I'm going to need to buy more spare clothes.' He looked at his teammates and laid down on his bed. He saw Hinata begin to stand up but he stopped her with a shake of his head. "You don't have to move Hinata. And what do you mean what will we do next, Sasuke?"

"What will we do for the next part of the chunin exams?"

"Do you know what it'll be?" After Sasuke shook his head, he turned to face Hinata only to receive one from her as well. "Well then, we'll have to wait and see what comes next. Nothing more we can do now."

Sasuke let out a sigh before he nodded his head. "I guess so… what do you guys want to do until the second part is over?"

"Sleep." Naruto replied immediately. He closed his eye and soon his face took on a more pained expression before he rolled to his side.

"Naruto-san, are you alright?"

The blonde sighed and nodded his head as he sat up. "Yeah… it's just I'm a little sore from everything."

Hinata's hands began to glow green as she moved closer to Naruto. "Would you like me to heal you Naruto-san?"

He grabbed her wrist gently and shook his head. "No, I'll be fine. Besides, I don't want you guys wasting much chakra just in case the second exam finishes suddenly. You guys should go get some rest too."

Sasuke nodded as he stood up and left Naruto's room. Hinata watched Sasuke leave and turned to face Naruto again, silently asking if he was sure he didn't want any healing. Naruto just smiled warmly at Hinata and nodded his head. The Heiress just nodded back and left his room quietly, leaving Naruto alone to his thoughts.

"You didn't want her to heal you just in case she could feel the curse mark in your chakra system, right Naruto-kun?"

Naruto squeezed his eye shut and laid back down, desperately trying to ignore the snake's words and attempting to sleep instead.

While Team 7 had made it into the tower as fast as they could, other teams weren't as fortunate at acquiring the other scroll they required so fast.

Team 8 initially had trouble locating any other team in the first two days but on the third day, they managed to find and acquire the earth scroll they needed. On their way towards the tower, they encountered one of the teams that the Village Hidden in the Sands had sent to the exams. The sand team had tried to ambush them and steal their scrolls, but Kiba and Shino had quickly dispatched them after Sakura had placed the team under a genjutsu.

On the fourth day, Team 10 had found a knocked-out team that was from grass country and didn't hesitate before taking their scrolls and booking it towards the tower.

Team 11 stared in horror at the scene in front of them. Crushed, bleeding and mangled bodies lay in front of them, and the reason for their state was standing in the clearing ahead. They locked eyes with the red-headed boy Suna boy and were frozen in fear. His blonde female teammate let out a sigh as she turned around with the boy covered in black following her league after snickering at the other genins misfortune. Reo was trying to plead for her and her teammates' lives, but she was unable to find her voice.

Gaara stared at the team impassively and let his sand inch closer and closer to them. As the sand was slowly closing in on the team, Gaara looked into the first boy's eyes. They were colored hazel brown and the only thing Gaara could see was the fear portrayed through them. Feeling a bit of pride in making… Maaravi, if he recalled correctly, froze up in fear caused Gaara to look into the next boy's eyes. Primal fear shone in black-colored eyes, with the boy's now pale face, the eyes now stood out way more. Smirking, he turned to face the last member of the team when he suddenly felt as if he was doused in cold water, which caused his sand to stop their advances.

Staring back at him with nothing but fear written all over them, was a pair of two beautifully deep violet-colored eyes that were attached to a tan sunkissed, black-haired girl. He felt his throat begin to tighten and his mouth suddenly became dry. Gaara was left confused and wanting to get rid of this girl since she was bringing up these new and uncomfortable feelings to him, but a larger part of him refused to bring harm to the girl. He was starting to get frustrated and decided to turn away, leaving Team 11 confused as to why only they were spared from the red-haired boy's massacre.

"Kankuro, Temari. Let's go. It's the second day and I want to go to the tower now."

Kankuro rose an eyebrow and turned around to look back at the three, still alive, genin. "Hey, uhh Gaara, how come you didn't kill those brats? I thought you wanted to?" His question was met with silence from his little brother. Kankuro let out a sigh and smirked as he stopped walking. "Well, guess I'll take care of these kids then."

Kankuro was about to turn around and engage when suddenly Gaara's sand erected a wall in front of Kankuro. "Leave them."

"Why?"

Gaara glared at him instead of giving him an answer until Kankuro listened to him. When he did back off and started to walk with them, Gaara's mind began to repeat Kankuro's question over and over in his head.

'Why did I not kill them?' Suddenly two deep violet eyes appeared in his mind causing him to alter his question. 'Why did I spare them because of her?'

After the Sand team left, Taavi quickly ran towards one of the dead bodies and quickly searched through their belongings. After he couldn't find what he was looking for, he quickly went to search the next corpse.

"Taavi! What are you doing?!"

The boy ignored his teammate's hushed yells and focused on his task. He finally found the heaven scroll they needed and quickly ran back towards his teammates. "We have the scroll. Let's get out of here before the guy changes his mind."

Maaravi quickly nodded and followed his teammate and pulled his female teammate, leading her towards the tower. Reo looked back at the red-haired boy once more before she ran towards the tower with her teammates.

Alright! How'd you guys like that chapter? Please leave a review to let me know, I appreciate the criticism!

Also thank you to everyone who took time out of their day to review this story! Here's a small Omake for you all.

Omake

"It has something to do with the scrolls," Sasuke answered his friend.

"Well, let's see." Naruto opened his scroll and Sasuke soon followed his friend's lead.

Wearing nothing but his black boxers and a white t-shirt with a ball gag in his mouth with his eyes half-lidded.

Oh, and his arms were tied behind his back.

Team 7's eyes widened as they saw their old sensei's appearance. Naruto looked like he was about to die from embarrassment, Sasuke turned around and quickly tried to think of something else, and Hinata looked at the ground with a giant blush on her face.

Iruka let out several pants of pleasure before his glazed-over eyes looked around the room he was in. When he spotted the three genin, it took a couple of moments before his brain rebooted. His eyes widened drastically before quickly realized his dilemma. He quickly managed to break the rope by reinforcing his arms with chakra and quickly did a transformation to appear clothed.

After a couple of seconds of nothing but silence, Iruka coughed into his hand in an attempt to get their attention. "Sorry about that you guys. I didn't think you'd make it in the tower that early." His statement did not earn any reply from Team 7. "Uhhm, congratulations on making it to the tower and officially passing the second part of the chunin exams. I'm certain that all of you will make splendid ninjas." He said a little awkwardly.

Sasuke and Hinata muttered words of thanks under their breath while Naruto still looked like he wanted to die.

"..."

"...Uh, you know you guys can enter the tower now, right?"

Sasuke didn't hesitate to quickly walk towards the doors and walk inside, desperate to get away from his old sensei at the moment. Hinata, still looking at the ground, half-heartedly bowed and dragged Naruto along with her towards the tower, leaving Iruka left alone in the room. He let out a long sigh before looking around.

"I'll have to properly apologize to them for making them see that... but for now..." Iruka grew a perverted smile on his face and he gained a far-off look in his eyes. "Anko in a tight school girl uniform awaits."