"What do you make of this Kakashi?"

The man sighed. "I'm not sure, the only thing I could think of about Naruto that only you and a few people are supposed to know is his parentage… but that doesn't make sense."

The Hokage and Kakashi had been going over the little note Naruto had left for him for a while now. It annoyed Kakashi to no end that he was the one tasked to figuring it all out when it was obvious in the Hokage's face that he knew what Naruto meant.

Thinking he was being made fun of, Kakashi didn't stop to think that maybe asking him what he knew about it was the Hokage's way of finding out if there was a leak of information in his ranks that he had to take care of.

"That's because you're guessing wrong, Kakashi…" Said Hiruzen cryptically. "The only time I can recall ever mentioning Ibiki to Naruto-kun is the night of the Mizuki incident."

"The Mizuki incident?" By now it was common knowledge between Konoha's forces that the man had been found to be a traitor, none other than the people involved however were privy to the full details.

"It was revealed that Mizuki decided to impersonate Naruto in his heist. I, however, kept quiet about the fact that Naruto actually helped us track him after he attempted to flee the village. At the moment I had no knowledge of who Mizuki was working for or why he had chosen Naruto to impersonate. After Ibiki told me about Orochimaru's involvement I decided to keep it secret, hoping he never got word of this." Explained Hiruzen.

"Do you think Yakushi Kabuto is a spy?" Asked Kakashi.

"I'm not certain… it is a possibility we should definitely look into, if he is a spy, we must discover for whom he's spying." That's not to say Hiruzen doesn't have a few guesses on the matter but he thinks it best to wait until more information is available to him.

Kakashi furrowed his brow in concentration "I believe it would be best if you send an ANBU squad to shadow him for a while."

"No." Replied Hiruzen, not bothering to give the notion so much as a second thought.

"No?" Asked Kakashi, a dumbfounded look on his face.

"If he truly is a spy, we must assume he's able to detect a tail of ANBU, I doubt our forces would be able to get close enough to him to make tailing him useful…" Said Hiruzen as he looked out the window.

"However…" He trailed off. "What makes Naruto special is not common knowledge, I'm inclined to believe he is not a target."

It's true that Naruto was the one to detect the leak of information by means of his classified mission but, it just wouldn't make sense for this suspected spy to tip off his subject like that. That made him think it was most likely an accident.

What truly is concerning for the Hokage is the why, why would a suspected spy try and approach a group of random Genin? They hold no valuable information he could get out of them; was he trying to lure them into a false sense of security?

Why?

"I want you to go into the forest, monitor the exams from the tower, if you find anything suspicious I'm giving you free reign to act as you see fit, is that clear?"

"Crystal." Replied Kakashi.

"Then report to Anko in the tower at once."

"It will be done." Kakashi left the Hokage's office via Shunshin. He wasn't sure why, but he was starting to get a bad feeling about all this.

"Gather 'round kiddies!" Yelled out Anko, getting the attention of the Genin "You all better pay attention cuz I'm not gonna tell you twice alright?"

"This is Training ground 44 or like I like to call it… The Forest of Death." Everyone started looking a little hesitant after Anko's statement, well… almost everyone.

Naruto and Kiba were clearly not impressed by what they assumed to be the proctor's scare tactics. The whiskered boy was lucky enough to have a level headed teammate - most of the time - and a good ammount of conseling sessions on his back to stop him from saying something stupid.

Kiba wasn't that lucky.

"Like we're going to be scared by you crazy lady!" Proclaimed Kiba boldly.

His teammates didn't even have time to scold him before the 'crazy lady' decided to take action herself.

Anko threw a Kunai at Kiba so fast he didn't even have time to react, the Kunai passed right by his face, leaving a little scar over the fang mark on his left cheek.

That wasn't enough for her however, she disappeared from their view, fast enough to make it look like she vanished only to emerge embracing Kiba by the back. A wicked smile adorned her face while she slowly licked the blood from Kiba's cheek.

"You're a rude boy aren't you? Rude boys tend to leave their blood all over the f-"

Anko suddenly stopped talking and quickly grabbed a kunai from her coat, she redied her weapon without losing her hold on Kiba and quickly turned her head around.

"I was only giving you back your Kunai." Said the Kusa shinobi - who surprised Anko - still holding the blade on her sickly long tongue.

Without letting her smile leave her face Anko addressed the strange ninja.

"Thank you Kusa shinobi, I wouldn't ever get this close to me again unless you want to cut your days short." Despite her bravado Anko was immediately weary of this 'girl', there was something unnerving about her.

"I'm sorry Anko-san, I didn't mean to hurt you, it's just that seeing the blood and the way you threw your blade made me feel excited." Said the girl as she walked away.

"That doesn't make sense…" Muttered Naruto.

"What was that?" Asked Sakura.

"That girl's chakra, it's different… I remember her signature from the first test, it wasn't nearly as big and awful." Explained Naruto quietly, Sakura wasn't sure what that meant but she had learned to trust Naruto's sensing abilities, that was another person it was best to avoid.

Unbeknownst to Naruto and Sakura who weren't as quiet as they thought, Anko heard their conversation. A thoughtful look made its way to her face before she replaced it with her usual smirk and addressed the examinees once again.

"Everyone's in a bad mood today… it must be something in the air." She joked effectively getting everyone's attention.

Anko signaled some of the Chunin in the vicinity and they started handing out slips of papers to every team.

"What you're receiving now are consent forms you have to sign if you wish to participate in this part of the exams."

"What exactly are we consenting to?" Asked Sakura.

"Oh… you know, death and stuff like that." Anko was sporting a mischievous smile on her face, she is a big fan of theatrics "From this point forward corpses start emerging you know? If you don't sign your forms it would be my and Konoha's responsibility, we can't have that now can we?"

For some reason, Anko laughing after she said that made Naruto feel nervous. What was it with the Jounin in this village?

"Now I shall explain." Said Anko in a dignified manner.

"This will be a survival exercise." Anko started looking through her coat and got out a map "First let me tell you about the terrain, there's exactly 44 gates around the fenced ground, inside the fence there's a forest of course, a river and a tower. Each gate is exactly 10km away from the tower, once inside the forest, everything goes."

The implications of what Anko just said weren't lost on any of the participants.

Permission to kill.

"Each team will receive either an earth or a heaven scroll, to pass you need to get to the tower carrying both scrolls. Your whole team needs to be there, if you're missing a member or one of the members is incapable of continuing you're out, do I make myself clear?" Asked Anko, receiving yells of 'Yes' all around the clearing.

'So she expects half of us to fail here… troublesome woman'

"I almost forgot, there's a time limit for this exam. You have exactly 120 hours to get to the tower once inside the forest, 5 days if you don't feel like doing your math"

Naruto sighed 'A time limit?'

"What are we going to do about the food?"

Asked a chubby genin.

Anko smirked. "There's different flora and fauna all around this forest you can hunt to feed yourselfs, just make sure you don't turn into the hunted"

"You will now be given a scroll randomly in exchange of your signed consent forms, under no circumstance are you allowed to see through the contents of your scrolls, as chunin you will be expected to handle vital information, make sure to prove you're reliable."

Everyone started gathering around the tents set in front of the fences, after each team had received their respective scrolls they were directed to a different gate each and were now just waiting for them to open.

Naruto and Sakura had gotten an earth scroll after explaining to the chunin in charge of handing them over that they were registered in the exams as a two man cell and were now waiting on their own gate.

The members of team 7 were constantly stealing glances at the other for the better part of 15 minutes while they waited for this test to begin, it was hard not to.

They both liked each other after all.

Naruto had never really fallen out of love with his teammate, he just accepted it as something that can't be and moved on. He was a rather persistent person but even he knew when to give up.

Sakura was… complicated.

She liked Naruto, heck, she might even be in love with Naruto, but she felt wrong about it. After rejecting his advances for so long, what right did she have to feel for his teammate? Especially after how she treated him in the past?

She was truly blind.

Sakura had moved past Sasuke's death, but she wasn't sure that she moved on from Sasuke as a person. It was like Naruto had been slowly taking his place in her heart, growing on her at the same time Sasuke became just a fond memory.

Was that all Naruto truly was?

A replacement?

The whiskered blonde has a way with Sakura that she couldn't quite understand; he makes her feel safe, Naruto has a way of just naturally caring and looking after her that made her feel appreciated.

She felt valid.

And that wasn't fair to him, Sakura knew Naruto still loved her and she knew there was a chance that she loved him back, but she is also sure Naruto deserves better.

So much better.

"We're ready to begin!" Yelled a random chunin snapping Sakura out of her thoughts.

The gates all opened and both Naruto and Sakura looked at each other with a face completely serious, it was time.

They rushed in and ran for 10 minutes straight, after deciding they'd be better off moving through the trees, they climbed the tree closest to them and stopped for a moment to plan their strategy.

"Weird…" Said Naruto.

"What's weird?" Asked Sakura

"The forest, it's full of chakra… I won't be able to scout ahead for teams, don't worry though, I can still feel people approaching, it just means we'll have to track the enemy old school." Said Naruto with a smile.

"Full of chakra… I heard that this whole forest was grown by the Shodaime, the chakra you feel might be coming from the trees." Lectured Sakura earning a 'Wow' face from Naruto.

After some discussion they both decided it was best to stick to the trees while Naruto used Kage Bunshin to create decoys of them that would stick to the ground.

Everything had been going smoothly until three shadows started tailing Naruto and Sakura, waiting for a perfect opportunity to hit.

"Sakura-chan, I need to pee." Said Naruto with a sheepish smile.

Sakura looked at him irritated "Fine! Be quick, we need to get to a team fast"

Naruto went into the woods and left Sakura by herself looking around the clearing where they stopped. She might as well take the time to gather some supplies while she waits for Naruto to be over.

She walked to a nearby bush to gather some edible berries when out of the ground emerged a tall Ame shinobi dressed in a full beige bodysuit. He quickly placed a kunai on Sakura's throat and held her from the back to make sure she couldn't move.

"Give me your scroll and I might just let you live." Said the Genin with a cocky smirk behind his breather.

Sakura started trembling in his hold and the Ame shinobi couldn't hide his joy "Are you scared little girl?" Feeling confident he got even closer to Sakura only to realize there was no fear on her face, but a smirk of her own.

"Gotcha!" She said before bursting into a cloud of smoke.

"What the-"

"SHANNARO!"

From the trees dropped Sakura fist first into the Ame shinobi who managed to jump back in time to avoid the hit. Sakura landed on the floor leaving a small crater and stood up to face her opponent.

She got a kunai out of her pouch and rushed at him, taking the initiative. She swinged at him relentlessly while he did his best to dodge the continuous strikes as he walked back. He bumped into a tree and realized he had been set up when a hand grabbed his feet from the ground.

Doton: Shinjuu Zanshu no Jutsu

He sank into the ground and the Sakura that had been swinging at him dissipated, revealing he had been under the influence of her genjutsu. The real one emerged from the ground and sported a cocky smirk of her own.

She was about to address his buried opponent but the sound of someone charging her from behind interrupted her, she turned around with a kunai in hand only for one of Naruto's electrified staffs to come flying at him from the trees and hitting him on the back of the neck making him drop unconscious with a loud thud that made his buried teammate wince.

Naruto then walked out of the trees carrying the remaining member of the Ame team on his shoulder completely out cold, he dropped him near Sakura's captive opponent and extended his arm.

Futon: Hanpatsu Kaze no Jutsu

A small gust of wind picked up his fallen staff and brought it back to him, he put it on his back and turned to address his teammate who was looking at him with a twitching eye.

"You wanted to look cool didn't you?"

Naruto gave her a sheepish smile and rubbed his nose "Yeah… Kakashi said it looked cooler when I managed to do it without calling out the jutsu."

Sakura decided to ignore the comment and returned her attention to the genin neck deep in the ground.

"Who carries your scroll?" She asked, looking at him with the scariest look she could muster.

"I'm not going to tell you anything you bitch!" Was the kind response of her captive.

Sakura looked at him and a devious smirk formed in her face, she formed a rat seal and called out a jutsu he couldn't quite understand.

Magen: Narukami no Jutsu

All around the Ame shinobi the clearing started going dark, he somehow managed to free his hands enough to perform a jutsu that allowed him to reemerge from the ground, after he did the clearing was visible once again and Team 7 was nowhere to be seen, he walked over to his fallen teammates laying face first on the floor.

He kneeled next to them, set on waking them up only to find them both with a Kunai on their foreheads, he was shocked and started walking back without taking his eyes off of them. Suddenly, a strong presence stopped him from moving forward, he turned around to find his previously pretty captor turned into a monster.

The girl was now a head taller than him, her hair was swaying on her back and blood was dripping from her black eyes and mouth, she then gave him the sickest smile he had ever seen, showing off her incredibly large fangs covered in blood, and put her burning hand on his neck.

"The scroll." She growled.

The beige-clad genin started sweating and trembling in fear, the rational part of his mind screaming at him to snap out of it completely overwhelmed by the immense fear he felt. He swiftly reached for his scroll and slowly gave it to his captor, making her smile.

His surroundings started changing again and he could see his teammates still knocked out but safe on the ground, the girl in front of him reverted back to normal and winked at the same time a strong chop on his neck sent him to the land of unconsciousness.

Sakura looked at the earth scroll she just got and sighed. "Not the one we need." She said as she pocketed the scroll on her pouch, thinking it might come in handy later.

Naruto walked towards her and said "That wasn't really necessary y'know?"

Sakura smirked at him. "I wanted to look cool too."

"Weak…"

"You already took their scroll Neji, no need to trash talk them even more." Said Tenten, making the Hyuga scoff.

Team 9 had found a Suna team a few hours after entering the forest thanks to the Hyuga's all seeing eye and decided to ambush them.

Beating them had been fairly easy, Lee and Tenten didn't do much other than watch as their teammate trashed their opposition around the clearing, it almost made Lee and Tenten feel sorry for them.

Lee hated how Neji treated everyone he deemed inferior, especially because that's how Neji treated him. Lee was born with a special condition making him incapable of performing Ninjutsu or Genjutsu, he was considered a failure who only had mediocre Taijutsu to rely on.

It all changed when Maito Gai discovered him training alone one day after team assignments and gave him the advice that would set his life on the right path.

Youthfulness

Lee dropped to the ground sweating and crying after failing to meet his own expectations… again.

"All that hard work doesn't mean anything…" Called out a voice that Lee recognized as his sensei.

"You believe that too? Am I not working hard enough? Will I never be good because I wasn't born a natural Genius like Neji?" The boy cried.

"All that hard work doesn't mean anything… if you don't believe in yourself first" Finished Gai.

Lee's trembling form looked up from the ground to meet his sensei's eye.

"Can I really do it, Gai-sensei?" He asked between sobs.

Gai gave the boy a warm smile and dropped his boisterous attitude for a moment. "I believe you can do it, yes."

Lee looked surprised to finally have someone actually believe in him for the first time in his life.

"Do you know why I think that, Lee?" The boy shook his head.

"It's because you have a gift not even Neji has…" Said Gai, surprising Lee.

"Not even Neji?" He asked.

"That's right…" Said Gai. "You have a gift not even Neji's Byakugan can beat… Perseverance."

"Perseverance?"

"Few people have the will to fight against adversity, Lee. You fight to reach your dream even against the Destiny you were imposed on at birth." His sensei's words rang deep in Lee's head as some form of realization settled in. "You persevere everyday, that makes you a true Genius… a Genius of Hard Work."

"Hard work can overcome any obstacle Neji, even you."

Neji turned to look at his teammate only to find him not really looking at him but the horizon.

That annoyed him even more for some reason.

"Hard work means nothing, it was their fate to meet their match in me." Declared Neji, again with full certainty.

Normally Lee is all up for standing up to Neji and his belief in fate, he just can't convince him that no one's fate is sealed in stone no matter how hard he tries. He decided to skip the argument this time, better not to argue with your team in the middle of an exam.

"Let's just go." Interrupted Tenten before the argument escalated.

Tenten was always in the middle of her teammate's arguments and she was always torn. If you asked her before she would've told you that Lee spoke nonsense, but she had witnessed Lee's growth, she knew he was the fastest Genin in the village if not one of the fastest period.

His Taijutsu was excellent, beat only by their sensei's own, she knew Lee was right but… she didn't want to be on Neji's bad side.

She fails to notice everyone is on Neji's bad side.

After another argument about the team's difference in beliefs Team 9 started making their way to the tower; they came up with a system to stay out of danger as much as possible.

Neji would periodically turn his Byakugan on and off to scout their surroundings without tiring the Hyuga too much if a battle were to take place. He never let his all seeing eye rest for more than a minute, there was no way someone would be fast enough to avoid detection.

Right?

A figure rushed them at full speed between one of the Hyuga's resting intervals without them even feeling it, when Neji activated his Byakugan he saw the figure of a girl finishing a set of hand seals.

He didn't even have the time to warn his teammates.

A gigantic gush of wind powerful enough to tore a few trees from the air came at them and hit full force. Lee was sent flying for miles while both of his teammates were slammed against the trees.

Tenten was the first person to react, she stood up and found a girl she identified as a Kusa shinobi walking towards them. Tenten was no fool and knew from the first time she set her eyes on their attacker that this was no ordinary shinobi.

"What scroll do you need?" She asked, looking for a peaceful resolution to the conflict she knew she had no way of winning.

The Kusa shinobi seemed amused by the girl's question "What scroll do I need? Uhmm, what about both?"

Tenten didn't even have time to be confused about the cryptic response due to the Kusa girl running to her so fast she didn't even have to blink, and buried a fist on her stomach.

She dropped to her knees with the air completely blown out of her, she started coughing blood desperately trying to catch a breath, the Kusa-nin smirked and licked the blood she had spit on her arm.

Hakke Kusho!

Neji jumped right in front of her and sent a strong gust of condensed wind from his extended palm that sent the Kusa shinobi flying and crashing in a tree. Not even looking like she had even felt the impact, she stood up like nothing happened and gave Neji a sick smile.

"Why don't we make this more interesting?" She asked playfully, licking her lips and giving Neji a stare that was succeeding in making uncomfortable.

On her hands were both of the scrolls their team had gotten, she used a small katon jutsu to burn the earth scroll much to the shock of Tenten and opened her mouth wide open, her immensely large tongue swirled around the scroll and pushed it down her throat.

"Only one way to get it now." It was possible for them to see how the scroll was swallowed as it made its way down to her stomach.

Not really minding the disgusting display of abilities, a confident smirk graced Neji's features "You made a mistake coming here without your teammates."

The Hyuga boy got in his Jyuken stance and rushed his opponent. He started placing fast paced hits on her body, all intending on shutting her tenketsu down.

After he was done Neji took a step back only to watch his enemy turn into mud.

"Agh!"

A kick from his left side sent Neji crashing towards a tree, a sickening crunch was heard with the impact and Neji was certain it hadn't been the tree.

"Kukuku…" A dark and sickening chuckle filled Neji's ears, he looked at the perpetrator and started seething at how easy it had been to manhandle him.

"I was told you were some kind of prodigy, I must confess, you're quite disappointing." Fake hurt was clear in her voice and it only showed how incredibly amusing this whole situation is for her.

Neji started gritting his teeth in anger at being toyed with by this no-name shinobi.

He stood up and rushed at her recklessly with quick Jyuken jabs once again but much to Neji's surprise, she dodge them all in a show of pure speed he only knew his sensei capable of.

The Kusa shinobi got past Neji's defence and immobilized him with a well placed kick in the gut, if she hadn't been interrupted, she would've ended the job right there and there.

Sogu: Baku Ryusei!

A Kusarigama came out of one of Tenten's many scrolls and tied around the Kusa shinobi's body, she tightened the hold of the chain and out of the same scroll she started unsealing and throwing a barrage of weapons in a set of moves so gracious it looked like she was dancing.

The Kusa shinobi was hit by multiple projectiles and dropped to the ground bleeding profusely, Tenten dropped to the ground tired and sighed in relief, she was about to make her way to her teammate when a maniacal laugh invaded the forest.

Neji and Tenten looked stunned as out of the body's mouth a pale white man emerged. He looked at them and gave them a vicious smile that froze them both in place.

"To think I would be forced out by mere Genin." Spat the man.

"W-Who are you?" Tenten had been right to suspect landing that attack was a bit too easy, the fear in her voice was clear and no matter how much she tried to hide her emotions everyone could see how terrified she was.

Only one thing is clear for her, this man is no Genin.

"Oh… how rude of me." Said the man in mock surprise. "It seems I failed to introduce myself, my name is Orochimaru."

"O-Orochimaru of the Sanin?" She asked only to receive a smirk as an answer.

"Oh my! And here I thought Sarutobi-sensei didn't like people talking about me anymore." Finding the situation amusing, he brought his hand to his forehead and adopted a dramatic pose "... I'm surprised someone so young knows about me."

Tenten knew everything about the Sanin, at least everything that could be found in history books. She dreams of one day becoming a legendary Kunoichi like Senju Tsunade after all.

Before any of them had the time to run or do anything, Orochimaru released a sickening aura that completely shocked the Genin to their core, images of their deaths started feeling their minds and Tenten couldn't stop herself from vomiting her guts out. The fallen Sannin took it as an opportunity to make a move on his precious target but was interrupted once again.

DYNAMIC ENTRY!

Out of the blue came their green clad teammate and with an incredibly strong kick sent Orochimaru flying away from his prey.

"LEE!"

Moments Earlier.

A tree in the middle of a clearing stopped Lee's advance, the green clad genin hit the bark of the tree hard with a sickening crunch of his back. He dropped limp to the ground and laid there for a few minutes until he gathered enough strength to stand up once again and make his way to his teammates as fast as he could.

He was just starting to walk when a giant snake came rushing at him. He managed to sidestep it and send it crashing towards the tree he had hit before and tried to run away from it but the snake recovered quickly, way too quickly.

It rushed at him once again and this time managed to swallow him in one bite. Lee started struggling inside the body of the snake, he could feel it moving and slowly working on digesting him. Not seeing any other option he brought both arms together and started molding the little chakra in his body.

"First Gate of Opening: Kaimon!" The restraint his brain puts on his muscles stopped.

"Second Gate of Healing: Kyumon!" The strength of his body increased.

"Third Gate of Life: Seimon!" The skin of Lee turned red from the increased flow of blood on his body.

"Four Gate of Pain: Shomon!" An explosion of green chakra surrounded Lee.

From the inside of the Snake's stomach Lee used his empowered state to perform one of his Taijutsu techniques to rip open his flesh prison.

Konoha Senpuu!

The spinning kick ruptured the snake's stomach causing an explosion of blood and flesh, out of it came Lee at full speed with complete disregard of the gory scene he left behind.

Present Time

Orochimaru stood up looking annoyed, he didn't have much time to think about it; the same kid that was supposed to be eaten alive by his summon came flying at him at high speeds.

'Hachimon?!' Thought the Sannin as he stood up once again.

Lee started a powerful Taijutsu bout with the wayward Sannin, he threw a hard fist to the older man's head only for him to duck under it and try to punish the powerful Genin's stomach. Being fast enough to react Lee grabbed the man's hand and placed a strong knee on his stomach that had him spitting blood, he then backed off a little and placed a powerful spinning kick in the back of his head that sent him flying.

Lee ran with an extended fist set on knocking him out but much to his surprise, the sannin side stepped it and grabbed Lee by the neck painfully, stopping his momentum completely in a single move.

"You annoying little pest!" He said, as he placed knee strike after knee strike on the boy's stomach, enjoying the sickening sound of flesh being ruptured with each hit.

Orochimaru was aware that Lee wasn't using Ninjutsu, but… while the Hachimon formation didn't need the use of chakra to be activated, it was a chakra based technique and that meant it could be shut down.

Orochimaru extended his arm backwards and each of his fingers started glowing in a sickly purple. He used his tongue to rip open Lee's jumpsuit and exposed his bare skin.

Gogyo Fuin!

Orochimaru struck Lee's stomach hard and placed the seal on him, the gates closed and Lee was rendered useless and unconscious. The Sannin placed a knee on his face hard for good measure and let him fall from the tall tree to his certain death.

The knocked out genin was falling at high speeds but was stopped by Tenten who tied a kunai with ninja wire and threw it at him, managing to tie Lee around the bark of a tree.

Orochimaru jumped to the tree she and Neji were standing in and slapped her face like she was nothing as he walked towards Neji and licked his lips while looking sickly at him.

"What do you want?" Asked Neji through gritted teeth, not enjoying the fact that he and his team had been beaten the way they had.

"Isn't it obvious?" Orochimaru chuckled. "I want you."

Neji jumped back just in time to avoid Orochimaru stepping on him, he got in his Jyuken stance once again and smirked confidently at him. "You're within my range of divination."

Hakke Sanjuni Sho!

"2 palms!" He hit 2 of the Sannins Tenketsu on his arms much to his surprise.

"4 palms!" He yelled as he hit some of the Tenketsu on his stomach and made the sannin cough a little blood on him.

"8 palms!" He managed to seal some of the Tenketsu in both of his arms to stop him from using any jutsu.

"16 palms!" Neji struck most of the remaining Tenketsu on Orochimaru's stomach.

"32 palms!" The Hyuga prodigy completely shut the Tenketsu on the man's chest effectively stopping his heart, ending with an open palm that sent the man flying.

The limp body of Orochimaru hit a tree and fell on it's branch, but, to the complete and utter shock of the stoic boy the Sannin dissolved into a puddle of mud again and re-emerged from the branch of the tree they were both standing in.

Orochimaru made eye contact with Neji and used the Kanashibari no Jutsu on him without having to even use hand signs.

"You did good, Neji-kun, you definitely live up to expectations." He said

Orochimaru made a modified ram seal and his Neck extended towards Neji, he opened his mouth and bit on the boy's neck. A black mark in the form of three tomoe appeared on Neji's shoulder as he dropped to the ground screaming in pure agony before passing out.

"What did you do to him?" Asked Tenten in worry.

"I gave him a gift…" Said the Sannin turning to look at Tenten, he opened his mouth and out came the heaven scroll he swallowed before. "Make sure to pass, it'll be a shame to have my gift go to waste."

The treacherous Sannin walked towards the bark of the tree and quite literally merged into it, leaving a worried and tired Tenten with two unconscious teammates.

'Soon Neji-kun, you will come to me begging for power and I'll be happy to comply…'

"I have to admit…" Anko smirked. "This is way more fun than I thought it would be."

"Fun?" Asked Kakashi.

"You know…" Continued Anko. "The joy of tormenting young souls and scaring children to death."

"You're peculiar Anko." Said Kakashi with a chuckle.

"You're no fun Kakashi-kun." Said Anko lodging on Kakashi's shoulder and giving him a seductive wink.

Kakashi had joined Anko in the tower as per the Hokage's orders, he had been there for a while now and as of yet nothing much had happened.

Only one team had made it to the tower in record time and Kakashi had the pleasure of watching theperformance of that red-haired boy in the suna team. He made it a point to talk with his students about him when they reached the tower.

The tower was equipped with a surveillance set that allowed the exam's proctor and in this case Kakashi to watch the exams from an advantageous point of view through the use of cameras.

The Genin he was sent here to investigate hadn't done anything that would raise suspicions yet and that had Kakashi thinking hard.

Was he just a normal Genin?

Did he just casually hear about Naruto's mission record from someone?

Had Naruto misheard what he said?

"Anko! Kakashi-senpai!" The voice of a frantic Chunin rushing through the doors of the room to get to them shook Kakashi out of his thoughts.

"What is it?" Anko asked.

"We found something in the outskirts of the forest, you need to see it for yourselves"

Kakashi and Anko nodded to each other and left with the Chunin, each of them leaving a Kage Bunshin in their place to keep on monitoring the test.

The group of Shinobi ran through the forest the fastest they could and reached the gates in half an hour. What they found when they got to their destination wasn't what they were expecting at all.

Being guarded by a squad of ANBU and a pair of Chunin was the lifeless body of the Kusa shinobi Anko had met at the start of the exams. What immediately caught their attention was the face of the girl or rather… the lack of it.

"Orochimaru." Snarled Anko, getting everyone's attention.

"I would recognize that bastard's handiwork anywhere, it's him, he's here." She continued.

The squad of ANBU sealed behind the body and turned to look at the highest ranking shinobi among them for Instructions.

"Tora!" Called Kakashi, getting the attention of a brown-haired man with a lion mask on his face "Report this to Hokage-sama immediately."

"Kakashi!" She interrupted. "We have to go in." Anko wasn't thinking clearly and he was very aware of it, he however, knew the presence of the Sannin presented a great risk to every genin team there and he couldn't just let him roam free around them while he waited for the Hokage.

Especially not his team.

Kakashi nodded and instructed the remains of the ANBU squad to go in with them, they were just making their way through the forest again when the Kage Bunshin they left behind both dispelled to inform them of what they had seen through the screens.

Orochimaru playing with Neji and his team.

"We have to go now!" Yelled Anko, fastening her pace.

When they got to the spot where the battle took place everyone was long gone, Anko managed to pick up a trail and they pursued for a while longer.

After what felt like hours their pursuit brought fruits and they were now face to face with the snake sannin himself. Anko was about to jump in and get rid of that condescending smirk of his but Kakashi stopped her.

"What are you doing here?" Asked Kakashi with a commanding voice.

Orochimaru brushed off Kakashi's tone and chuckled at him "My my Kakashi-kun, you're going to make me think you're not happy to see me."

"Just tell us what you want you bastard, what did you want with that team?!" Demanded Anko.

Orochimaru slumped his shoulders in fake defeat and replied. "And here I thought holding back on them would allow me to go unnoticed."

The squad of ANBU all surrounded Orochimaru and got ready to attack him just like Kakashi and Anko. The copycat revealed his sharingan eye and carefully studied Orochimaru.

The man smirked at them and made a half ram seal. The curse mark on Anko reacted and she dropped to the ground, thrashing around and screaming in agony.

"Konoha shinobi have become so rude ever since I left…" Joked Orochimaru. "Let me go quietly and I might let little Anko-chan live."

To the untrained eye it might seem like Orochimaru was scared of Kakashi, he wasn't, he could take down everyone present at the same time if it came to it, and they all knew it, what Orochimaru wanted to avoid was his own former sensei who the Sannin knew was most likely already informed of his presence.

Kakashi had trained his ass off the past few months ever since returning from his mission in Nami, he knows he has what it takes to give the Sannin a decent fight, but he was sure it wouldn't be enough to beat him, he relented and stood down, allowing the traitor to vanish once again, after the Sannin left Anko stopped screaming and fell unconscious.

"I'm taking her back to the tower, someone tell the Hokage to meet me in the infirmary." Said Kakashi as he vanished in a swirl of leaves carrying the purple haired woman in his arms.

"Is that boy truly worth the trouble Orochimaru-sama?"

"I don't like being questioned, Kabuto." Replied the man menacingly.

"I didn't mean to question your judgement, Orochimaru-sama, I'm merely curious." Replied the teen without a hint of fear in his voice.

The Snake Sannin chuckled at his lack of respect and addressed his protege "Kago no Tori no Juin, the Caged Bird Seal. It truly is a magnificent creation."

Kabuto looked at him with questioning eyes asking him to elaborate further.

"Working around the Caged Bird Seal is hard, but not impossible… I could get a Main House member without much trouble but, this boy is not only a prodigy… he's full of hatred, hatred I can use." Said the Sannin.

"Aren't you worried that the Hyuga might use the seal to get rid of him before you can take him?"

Kabuto's question was beyond amusing to the Sannin, if his loud laughter was anything to go by. "You think my foolish sensei would allow the Hyuuga to kill a child of the leaf?"

"I thought the Hokage didn't have the power to get involved in clan affairs." Commented Kabuto.

"He doesn't… but, my involvement in this is a matter of village security, he can and will overrule them without thinking twice about it to save the child." The Hokage is the maximum authority in the village, the clans only had such liberties because the Shodaime allowed them to when he founded the village.

No clan was dumb enough to go against the Hokage these days anyway.

Not anymore.

"It truly is a shame." Said the sannin, snapping out of his own thoughts. "Imagine what I could've done with Sasuke-kun…"

AN: Hello again everyone!

It was pretty obvious Orochimaru would go after the Byakugan from the way I worded it (and because there's no other Dōjutsu in the village too).

I would like to remind everyone that at this point in the story, the knowledge of Naruto's Sharingan is still a well guarded secret to ensure Naruto's protection, it will become public knowledge once Naruto uses it publicly of course but that is yet to happen, hence why Orochimaru isn't interested in him.

He won't be interested in him even when he finds out though, it's pretty common knowledge that an implanted Sharingan eye isn't as good as the natural one, but that will be addressed in time.

I would like to inform everyone of something that's important for this story, when I started writing this I wasn't set on a pairing yet and I made it very clear that it could either be a straight pairing or a yaoi/slash one. I've thought about it a lot and I've come to a decision.

This story's pairing for Naruto will be with another guy, meaning yaoi/slash. I would like to reiterate that romance won't be a main focus for this story though and the ship itself won't start until we reach the Shippuden part of the story, I understand some may not like my decision and I respect it if you abandon the fic (though I did say this was a very possible outcome so it shouldn't come up as a surprise, if I ever do write another Naruto fic I will probably do NaruIno, that ship is criminally underrated), this is something I write mostly for me and I want it to be something I'm at least somewhat satisfied with.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed the chapter and what is to come.

Glossary:

Doton: Shinjuu Zanshu no Jutsu
Earth Release: Headhunter Jutsu

Futon: Hanpatsu Kaze no Jutsu
Wind Release: Retrieving Wind Jutsu

Magen: Narukami no Jutsu
Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Technique

Hakke Kusho
Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm

Sogu: Baku Ryusei
Manipulated Tools: Binding Meteor

Konoha Senpuu
Leaf Whirlwind

Gogyo Fuin
Five Element Seal

Kanashibari no Jutsu
Temporary Paralysis Technique