dreadix : Kurama and Naruto were only recalling from Sasuke's story. I never said Danzo has sharingan in this time period, Pus even without the Sharingan Naruto is still not powerful enough to defeat him. She can't even defeat Orochimaru if she does not use her the yang part of sage of six path's chakra.

Amaterasu53 : Thank you! I hope you enjoy this update.

A/N: I present my first ever attempt at writing. It is not canon compliant and will be AU since I will be manipulating the timeline as i wish. English is not my first language. Constructive criticism is welcomed but don't be rude. Also my minimum update frequency will by 1 chapter in 6 days. I am writing for fun and hope you enjoy as well.

I don't own Naruto and never will.

"Emphasis"

characters thinking/a simple narration

AN IMPORTANT PART

"characters speaking"

Please note that the chapter names sometimes present a deeper meaning...

If you have any confusion, feel free to ask.

This is a slightly longer chapter. It contains approximately 4K words.

Without further ado, let's continue. Enjoy.

CHAPTER 17: Not yet traitor

They take the roof tops after all they can't keep the Hokage waiting. Naruto knows that Orochimaru is casting glances her way but she is too tired after the encounter with Shino' s dad that she doesn't care to explain herself or maybe it's better if he keeps looking at her for information and not using that genius-devil mind somewhere else. What she does not realize is Orochimaru is also looking at her expression and body language of how she is ahead of him as if she instinctively knows the path to the Hokage tower. To not have any suspicions cast on them, he hurries and gets slightly ahead of her so it seems as if he leading her way. She does notice that and throws him an unimpressed look, she will not have Orochimaru of all people lead her anywhere and increases her pace to walk beside him. In that moment to catch up to Orochimaru she does not register that she momentarily forgot all about her tiredness.

They reach the building-

"Are you not gonna use the window?" Naruto asks when she notes that he was heading towards the standard entrance and not the window like other shinobi.

"I am not one of them" he sneers as if even thinking about going in through the window when you can walk gracefully through a door is beneath him.

"Ah should have known, the epitome of perfection" She says sarcastically or maybe it is true because she can't really imagine Orochimaru jumping through the window to report to Jiji.

So they enter the building through the common entry. Naruto has had time to steel her resolve of meeting the previously dead people (she is actually surrounded by them). She took out her old childhood mask of sunny smile and mischief and donned it with ease, although she cannot hide the cracks that her deep, dark and hollow eyes (acquainted with death, tainted by war, has no one left) made in the previously perfect mask.

Orochimaru gives her a look because he knows she is not all smiles and rainbows she is pretending to be, plus she cannot hide her battle instinct at all-

"Make your footsteps a little louder" he whispers so low that only she will hear.

Naruto shoots a glare at him because I knows that much dammit, I don't need you pointing out. She stomps her foot on his because she knows he cannot retaliate in public and feels a vindictive sort of satisfaction when she sees him suppress his instinct of flinging a kunai. His eye twitches and he sighs, closing his eyes.

"You are behaving like a child" He hisses looking down at her.

"Well reality check Orochimaru, I am a child" she gestures to her body as if she thinks that he is blind and has brain damage. "Plus you keep calling me a child, so there's that" She says offhandedly.

And oh, oh he understands now. He was only calling her Uzumaki when they were alone for the past week and did not want to call her fake name, so he had started calling her 'child' as soon as they had stepped out of the lab. With a gleam in his eyes he smirks-

Naruto can feel his glee even without her emotion sensing. She had thought that she did a pretty good job of hiding her irritation at being called a child-

"Don't you dare-" she warns him because she knows he will now use that to irritate her more.

His smirk widens and he opens his mouth to say something but immediately clamps it shut when he feels too many gazes on him (looking at him with fear and suspicion, it's always suspicion with hostility mixed in between) and notices that it has become too silent. He looks up from where he had been looking at the Uzumaki and all emotions fly off from his face. His face becomes like a stone, no smirk tugging on his lips, no gleam in his eyes and when he doesn't do what Naruto was expecting him to, she looks at what stopped him to do so.

Naruto's mask cracks a bit more when she takes in her surroundings, her smile becoming strained. She was a millisecond behind Orochimaru to look at the source that was giving off fear, suspicion and hostility, since she was only passively sensing emotions (or maybe Orochimaru is more sensitive to suspicious stares).

She notes 3 people (none of them looking strong) out of the total of 9 radiating hostility towards Orochimaru and she will eat her sandals if she does not find the same "vision" seal on the base of their neck, no doubt handiwork of Danzo (the seal which is making the bearer irrationally hostile towards the person who Danzo wants gone, whenever such person is in the bearer's 'sight' or 'vision'). She snarls in her mind eyes burning with blinding sort of rage when she thinks of all the time such seal could have been used. Kurama also swears, but they both have to keep control of their emotions or their chakra will start leaking.

Naruto tugs on Orochimaru's sleeve, this time cautious of his reaction. Instead of looking at her, he only tilts his head in her direction. She frowns and goes to stand in front of him, her back towards those 9 people (the hairs on the back of her neck stand) so that he can only focus on her. She knows from experience how much those stares hurt, those coldcoldcold eyes looking at her as if she was some kind of monster-

"We look perfect, so why are these people staring at us like that Sensei?" She asks voice low but loud enough for all the 9 shinobi to hear because she has to pretend like a kid who knows nothing and their eyes zero in on her small form looking at her as if she is an alien. Maybe she is, she does not belong here a little voice whispers in her mind but she ignores that. Naruto does not realize that the stares had a touch of disbelief before, which only increased when they understood the meaning of her sentence (the child was smiling at Orochimaru, she got away with stepping on The Orochimaru of the Sanin's feet, she is calling him sensei that means she is his apprentice, she says they look "perfect") They startle when she directly questions the Sanin about their not so subtle stare and hurry on with their work. The 3 shinobi showing hostility are distracted by the other 6 people running about, hiding Orochimaru from their view, hence erasing the usage of the seal for now.

When Orochimaru looked at his future apprentice, it was then he realized her eyes had turned purple and were burning, blazing with something Orochimaru has never seen in her before, or maybe it was never directed at him before. Protectiveness, he thinks, and white hot fury that will lash out at the one responsible for making her upset. Orochimaru is moving before he is conscious of doing it. He reaches forward and taps her on the side of her temple twice. Her heart aches for Sasuke's forehead tap and she cannot help but flinch when Orochimaru taps at her temple no doubt her eyes must have Kurama's chakra mixed within it with all the anger they both are trying to suppress.

Orochimaru watches her suppress a flinch at his touch but is satisfied when he sees understanding shine through her eyes which earns him an unreadable look from those big dark blue eyes that he has become accustomed to. Orochimaru is not aware of his loosening grip on his facial expression but Naruto notices and says nothing. He grips her wrist and Naruto lets him drag her towards the Hokage office. She does not know whether the grip was meant for her to keep her anger in check or for him to keep himself in check. She thinks it was a bit of both and does not know how she feels about that. She now understands that Danzo played a major role in Orochimaru defection (because not anyone can stand to be hated by the very people they are supposed to protect) but that certainly does not excuse his own sins.

"Don't forget it was the third Hokage as well who turned a blind eye to Danzo' deeds, he is equally responsible for this you know." Kurama states grimly and it was as if scalding hot water had been poured on her and she stumbled in Orochimaru's grip because she never thought from that perspective, never had time to consider the actions of her beloved Jiji (he was dead before she could start to understand politics). For the last two years her life consisted of continuous tragic incidents and warwarwar where she never had time to even mourn properly, the actions of the dead people in the past were the last thing on her mind when she was fighting for humanity's freedom. Oh she knew Danzo had ordered the massacre of her brother's clan Sasuke had told her the whole story himself but now that she thinks about it Jiji did not punish him for anything, did not have him executed for using the authority of Hokage to order murdering of an entire clan. She thinks of self-sacrificing Itachi, revenge-driven Sasuke, cold but kind Fugaku, cheerful Shisui and broken Kakashi, his father- the fallen hero Hatake Sakumo and-

She looks at Orochimaru to find him looking at her with furrowed brows because she had stumbled and the tightening grip on her wrist-

Loyal, not yet traitor (never will be) Orochimaru and-

"I don't think the third Hokage is fit to rule the village anymore" She whispers mindful of the surrounding shinobi just as they reached the front doors of the said man's office. Orochimaru's eyes widen a fracrion and he looks frantically to his left and right and up at the ceiling because what is Uzumaki thinking whispering such treasonous words in the Hokage building itself.

"Has physically de-aging reduced your mental capacity as well?" He whispered lowly.

She meant to snatch her wrist out of his grip to fold in-front of her defensively and explain her reason but the doors to the office had opened and she missed her timing because her sight was suddenly filled with bright green. The same green to which she had once upon a time reached out and her hand had been slapped away saying-

"Are you underestimating Gai-sensei's protégé Naruto?" She shook her head in a 'no' because she was not able to speak past the lump in her throat, she knew he will not be coming back, Lee was going to sacrifice himself. He gave her a blinding smile and a thumbs up-

"eighth gate of-"

The painfully tightening grip on her wrist brought her back from the horror of watching her friend burn out in front of her eyes. She had forgotten where she is, when she is, what she had said, so she vacantly looks at her hand to see a pale hand wrapped around her wrist. She follows the path and dimly looks into the amber colored eyes. She does not understand the reason of relief swimming in those eyes when she made eye contact. So she keeps looking at them, it's easier than looking at the bright green that is getting splashed with dark-red, fighting with hoards of white Zetsu alone, burning her heart. Those amber snake-like eyes also keep looking at her as if searching for something (Orochimaru's mind is coming up with constant questions. Who was the result for this mental breakdown? Are they important? They are allies right? He can't tell by the empty look in her eyes. What does that mean? He does not like that he can't understand her emotions very well. Well at least she is focusing and maintaining eye contact and not having another panic attack)

He knows that it is very important right now to get her out of whatever funk she has landed herself in. He only hopes the nine tails is also helping her deal with it, because they can't have her chakra leaking here. He remembers how she can get trapped in her past. Only an unpredictable question may bring clarity to her.

Flashback

Kurama was resting/sleeping gathering his chakra while Naruto was training in chakra control with approximately 100 shadow clones when her stomach growled. She instinctively reached for a ration bar in the pouch tied around her left thigh. Her hand passed through air. Irritated, she looked down and there was nothing except some last remaining vestiges of a burnt cloth. She sighs "Sakura-chan will scold me for eating this again, but I don't have any other option ya'know!" Talking to herself she summons a high energy bar; a personal concoction prepared by Sakura from her storage seal on her right wrist where she keeps food, an extra pair of clothes for emergency and first aid supplies. (All weapons go in the storage seal on her left wrist). Orochimaru is approaching her from behind but something in his chakra is different. (She is so lost in concentration that she forgets where or rather when she is) She tenses ZETSU, she mentally snarls.

"You are not going to be living off that stuff. Store it back wherever it came from. You need to build more muscle mass if you want to even stand a chance against those opponents that you told me about." He comments and she blinks, not processing what the context behind those words are because Zetsu should have copied his personality to the T, so why did he seem concerned about her eating habits. So she forces herself to relax and asks a question, she would have asked real Orochimaru to fool the clone standing behind her.

"Any progress with the jutsu reversal?" She asks him because he was working on that aspect when she last heard from Tsunade-baa-chan. She feels him pause. Now she is sure that he is Zetsu.

Naruto applies chakra on her left wrist, the weapon's one and summons a hirashin kunai secretly. She can sense the markers; she has put in her surroundings. She doesn't give away anything or whatever she is thinking. She has become too proficient in this. A far cry from the loud ninja she used to be.

"What jutsu" the clone asks coming to stand near her-

-she jumps aiming at his throat but only reaches his chest (what? She thinks) and is parried with a Kunai easily. She growls, Kurama's chakra starts leaking and looks in his eyes and-

"What the fuck? Is this another one of your tricks Zetsu? Huh? Or have you simply forgotten what Orochimaru looks like?"

"Snap out of it Uzumaki. You are leaking too much of the nine-tails chakra. It will overload the sensory barrier of my lab."

She bears her teeth at him and doesn't listen to a word he is saying because it is always always about handing them the 'nine-tails' and his 'chakra' which will be used for bringing peace to the world. (she heard what he said but only part of it, her mind was still in her own past)

"You don't get to have him, you bastard even Orochimaru is not interested in his chakra."

She vanishes and re-appears behind him where she had thrown her Hirashin Kunai and kicks him in the shin with chakra enhanced limbs, but he jumps at the last moment and whirls a kunai at her which she also dodges with ease. She jumps and sparks fly off his kunai as he parries the shuriken she threw his way, She smirks landing on her feet, as one of the shuriken poofs into a clone of her and goes to attack white Zetsu. But something is wrong, she realizes that her clone is of the wrong height, the millisecond in which she was caught up with the failure of her favorite jutsu was all that was needed and Orochimaru flung a Kunai at ridiculous speed and it lodged on her shoulder immediately oozing blood. She snarled as the pain registered, the haze in her eyes clearing a bit and removed it with one hand and saw him furrowing his eyebrows because that was not how one removes a kunai what is he doing? The memories from her clone registered and she realized that he had tapped her ribs and her left thigh where he could have easily killed the clone, but instead pointed out the mistakes in her stance. He was not attacking her vitals she realized; he was just defending himself and…. training her? He was also waiting for her to attack him. She was getting confused and the static in her ears was decreasing, or was it the adrenalin?

"NARUTOOOOOOOOOO-" she winced at the loud roar in her mind and Kurama's cloak vanished. Huh? When did I draw his chakra? I swear I was just gonna use my chakra to kill white Zetsu.

She gasped and fell to her knees, pain wrecking her whole body and blearily saw Orochimaru making his way towards her cautiously with the previous furrow of his brows deepening. She remembers now-

"What are the hand seals for time travel?" he asks-

And oh she wants to laugh hysterically because that question is so Orochimaru.

"You will never be able to get that information out of me, you know that right?" She states when the pain finally receded a bit.

"You idiot…don't block me out-"

She cuts Kurama from going into a rant- "I may have done that subconsciously seeing you are still in your chibified form and extracting chakra from your past self"

"I have enough to help you right now, plus I know how to be careful…I won't let you absorb all my chakra you know?" (I won't leave you alone again went unsaid) Kurama huffs and grumbles.

"Oh I was just trying to see if you remember something important in your unhinged state" Orochimaru comments as am answer to her previous rhetorical question.

"Don't mess with me" She growls at the insult.

"Well at least now we know that aside from chakra control you need to work on your emotional control as well. You start leaking the nine-tails chakra whenever you are emotional. Plus your taijutsu is a mess. It would have been good if you were your previous height but right now as a child you are over-reaching in every punch and kick, although your aim is satisfactory."

She blinks at his observation and nods slowly.

"Get up we are going hunting"

"What? Why?"

"Do I need to repeat myself every time I am going to talk to you?" He sighs

Naruto grinds her teeth and opens her mouth to retort-

"Because you need to build more muscle mass and have a fulfilling meal because you are in the body of a child, if you perhaps forgot again" He shakes his head as if disappointed and Naruto loathes the man for being correct because she did forget about that part.

She swallows her pride and glares at him. She does not realize that her glare was lacking in any suspicion or venom that is usually directed at him. Orochimaru however sees it and cannot help but think that she is looking like a drowned cat with big dark blue eyes. He blinks at the analogy his brain supplied him with and wills the image to disappear. (It does not, he cares not)

Flashback ends

Someone clears their throat and Orochimaru reluctantly breaks eye contact with Uzumaki. He does not let go of her wrist though and tightened his hold some more to the level where he can feel her bones creaking on her too think wrist. However he knows from his previous experience with the Jinchuriki that pain works as an anchor to the reality for her, but due to her high tolerance, he has to inflict such pain on her than any other child of the same age would find it intolerable.

Orochimaru moves forward to cover Uzumaki's view of the boy she was intently looking at. He does not want her shutting down before Sensei. He tugs on her wrist and she her dim eyes shift on their joined hands. She is starting to frown, that's good because that means she is coming to; recovering from whatever triggered her again. He realizes that the Kyuubi is helping her again because the cold clammy wrist is starting to get warm again.

And Orochimaru registers the huge sense of relief that came upon him as the haze is lifted from Uzumaki's eyes and brushes it off as simply not wanting to explain to sensei what the child could possibly have done.

Emotions are only an hindrance after all.

TBC

Well did you expect this encounter? Answer me in the comment section.

Signing out

Yuki Race