AN: Got a request for y'all. I've been in the mood to read some fics where Sasuke isn't a raging jackass, where he and Naruto actually are good friends. Non slash please. If you know any you'd recommend please mention them in the reviews or shoot me a PM please and thank you!

Trickshot

Chapter 24

-Naruto-

Letting loose a primal roar, Naruto surged forward, Kubikirihocho appearing in his hand as he swung with intent to decapitate the snake. Or attempted to at least, the pale sinewy neck of Orochimaru retracting back at rapid speed.

"Oho, naughty naughty little boy." Orochimaru smirked as Naruto felt his blood boil, the Kyuubi roaring within his mind "Were you trying to give me a little papercut?" Naruto let out a bestial roar, feeling the unrelenting hatred of the Kyuubi surging through him much like it had in Wave. The corrosive orange chakra dripped off of him like molten glass, sizzling as it hit the forest floor.

Through the fury however, Naruto noted something important.

Back in Wave, the bloodlust had been overwhelming to the point he could barely think. It had urged him to kill everything and everyone around him, including those he cared about. It had been unfocused, a universal hatred at all life in the area.

Now though all that hatred was directed, focused entirely on Orochimaru. The rage was still there but it wasn't clouding his mind. He didn't feel any urge to attack his friends. And while he still heard the Kyuubi roaring it was demanding he slaughter the Snake Sanin. The Kyuubi and him were complete agreement for once.

A swing of his sword had the blade passing through a thick trunk that Orochimaru had been standing in front of only a moment before, the acidic chakra letting the sword burn though without any resistance.

"I must say I'm starting to grow bored." Orochimaru sighed in mocking fake disappointment before becoming a blur. The S ranked missing Nin slammed a fist into Naruto's gut as he choked out a pained gasp, the air being driven from his lungs even as Orochimaru ignored the burnt flesh from the first that hid the Biju chakra.

Ignoring the searing pain of what felt like at least three cracked ribs, Naruto tried to swing his blade, seeing the others holding down a thrashing and screaming Sasuke. Tried, as Orochimaru stomped downward, breaking Naruto's wrist with a loud crack.

"Don't worry." Orochimaru smirked with sadistic glee as his eyes looked over Naruto in a way that made him feel unclean, "You're not going to die. Not yet anyway. I plan to make you suffer for those little 'pranks' of yours earlier." The snake sanin looked up towards the tree line, grin growing "Ah, little Anko is coming to play! Do be sure to survive here children, I have someone much more fun to play with right now." As the Snake Sanin shot off in a blur of motion the pain, and sudden loss of the Biju Chakra energy, had Naruto collapse, vision going black.

And in an instant, he wasn't in the forest. He couldn't feel the pain of his broken bones, or feel the weight of his sword.

"Where…am I?" Naruto blinked in confusion as he found himself in a dimly lit labyrinth of stone. Feeling a disturbingly familiar feeling further in, Naruto followed the sensation, feeling drawn deeper and deeper into the maze as he followed its twists and turns.

Eventually he came face to face with a corridor that ended in a set of iron bars, seals marking their surface.

"The Kyuubi's prison." Naruto whispered in shock as he realized just where he was.

"So…my jailer comes to visit me at last." From the darkness, a glowing orange eye opened, the voice dripping with anger and bitterness.

"I…" Naruto trailed off, not really sure what to say in response to that. He was technically the jailer of the Kyuubi but he'd never really taken the time to think about what that meant before. He'd known that his mother was a Jinchuriki before him, and so was the First Hokage's wife before her, but that meant that apart from the night of his birth the Kyuubi had been locked away in what looked like a tiny room for decades.

He wasn't even sure why the Biju had been locked up in the first place.

"What's wrong brat?" the Kyuubi snarled, scorn and bitter hatred dripping from the Biju's voice "Got nothing to say to your prisoner?"

"Why did you back me up against Orochimaru?" Naruto asked the question without thinking, not wanting to admit to himself that he was running away from the more complicated questions. The more uncomfortable ones that he wasn't sure how to address.

"That cur?" the Kyuubi growled, the killing intent flooding out thick enough that Naruto felt he could cut it with a knife, "I may be a 'monster', but even I have standards you stupid human. That worm crosses several lines."

"I…I see." Naruto frowned, feeling like he should say something else. Ask something else. He felt so many confusing conflicting things in his gut that they broiled together like a nest of writhing snakes. The choice was taken from him as the labyrinth became blurry around him, the real word taking focus as he shot up with a gasp.

His gasp was being drowned out by the sound of screaming.

-Dosu-

"There he is." Zaku had a manic grin on his face, fingers twitching erratically while Kin smirked, both of them looking eager for blood as they observed the clearing ahead. Their target was passed out inside a hollowed out tree along with the blond Uzumaki that wielded one of the Seven Swords of the Mist.

"Let's get him." Kin readied her Senbon, the two of them about to shoot forward when he grabbed their wrists.

"Wait you idiots." Dosu hissed quietly, "Have you already forgotten that it only took one of them to stop you both last time?"

"That tree fucker just got lucky." Zaku snarled, "Besides, the blond bastard is passed out. It'll only take one blast to blow all of em away!" Dosu managed to keep from rolling his eyes in front of his teammates, even if only barely. Of the three of them Zaku was arguably the weakest. Everyone from Otogakure had some form of special weapon or, more commonly, body modification that was given or done to them by Orochimaru. Zaku relied almost exclusively on that modification which was a glorified gale force palm jutsu.

"There are four awake and alert Shinobi in that camp." Dosu tried another tactic, "Six if they wake up our target and the blond who stopped you before. That's two to one odds against us and we have minimal information on their capabilities."

"So, it's just a number's issue?" Zaku grinned as Dosu felt a stonelike weight settle into his gut, "THEN LET ME EVEN THE ODDS!" Zaku burst from the tree line, Kin hot on his heels as he charged at the redhaired girl, likely seeing her as a weak link, "DECAPITATING-" the jutsu's name was cut off by a blast of water slamming into Zaku while he was still in midair, completely drenching Dosu's hotheaded teammate.

"Thank you for warning us of their presence Karin." An eerily calm shinobi with a half mask, one hand resting on a blade at their hip, the other still in a one handed hand sign.

"T-there's another one in the trees." The redhead stammered nervously, the girl's stance as she held a kunai clearly speaking of a lack of proper training despite her apparent skill as a sensor. Stepping out, Dosu narrowed his eye, taking in the situation even as Zaku tossed off Kin's arm when she helped him up.

"You stupid little bitch!" Zaku snarled, the brash fighter pouring out his best killing intent in an attempt to intimidate the group who, for the most part, didn't even seem to notice the killing intent Zaku managed to leak out. Someone clearly noticed though, as a Killing Intent so foul that Dosu could see it like a heat haze in the air began to come from the hollow tree.

Slowly, like a reanimated corpse rising from the grave, Sasuke Uchiha sat up. The Three dark tomoe of each eye standing out against the blood red pupil as the sclera bled black. Standing out on the Uchiha's pale skin was the Curse Seal of Heaven, the mark spreading across the Uchiha's skin even as the Sharingan user's Killing Intent flooded out, dwarfing anything Zaku could ever hope to produce.

"How the hell do you have a curse seal?!" Kin took a shocked step back at the sight while Zaku only grew further enraged. Orochimaru had ordered them to kill Sasuke Uchiha. The Snake Sanin wouldn't bother gifting someone a seal after already ordering a team to kill that person. They weren't supposed to succeed, they were just a test for Sasuke to use his seal on. Zaku wouldn't realize that though, not with how desperately the air wave user coveted the dream of being gifted a curse seal.

"You know what this is?" Sasuke Uchiha's voice was cold as he moved faster than he should have been able to, a dark miasma of chakra forming around the Konoha Genin, a backhand sending Kin flying before their 'target' grabbed Zaku by the throat, "That means you work for him." As he spoke, Sasuke Uchiha's hand flared to life with lighting chakra, the still dripping wet Zaku screaming in pain.

"Zaku!" Kin moved to try and save Zaku before he could stop her, a single sword swing shattering her senbon and their bells.

"You stay put." The last Uchiha of Konoha snarled, hate dripping from his voice as the Curse Mark continued to spread, "I'll be over there to test this out on you in a moment."

"That so?" in the midst of Zaku's continued screams and Dosu's frantic attempts to think how he could get the three of them out of this alive, the blond Uzumaki had woken up. The redhead was helping support him as the blonde scowled at his dark haired comrade, "Since when did Sasuke fucking Uchiha take shortcuts? Since when did you rely on the power of traitors?"

"I…" the Uchiha blinked, confusion warring with the rage that always seemed to coincide with the first uses of the Curse Seal.

"That's right, you DON'T!" Uzumaki took another step towards the dangerous curse sealed genin, "I know my friend, I know you're too strong to let that snake bastard win!" the words were apparently the right thing to say, the Uchiha gritting his teeth as the curse seal began to recede as did the lightning Chakra.

But even without that seal active they were still outnumbered, "I offer a trade." Dosu brought out their scroll "Let us go without any further fight, and you can have our scroll."

"THE HELL DOSU?!" Zaku gasped, the Uchiha having tossed him over to Kin "WE CAN TAKE THEM!"

"No, we can't." Dosu hated to admit it, but they were outmatched here. He might be able to take out some of the group in a one on one but those six against him and his teammates would only end in their deaths.

"Deal." The blond said, eyes calculating as he sent a solid clone to collect the scroll, clearly not going to give Dosu any chance to backstab, "Now get lost."