Chapter III
Disclaimer: I do NOT own Naruto.
Hey everyone, I'm back with a new chapter. Thank you for the positive reviews, it's was pleasure to read them. As for those spitting flames… your criticism has been noted and disregarded. I apologize for the long hiatus (and possible drop in quality) as I'm now doing my story on my phone. (crashed computer and all that) We are continuing the story with Team 7 in the second phase of the Chunin Exams and continues their battle against Orochimaru with Naruto taking centre stage. Will Sasuke get the Curse Mark? And how will Naruto fare against a S-rank shinobi? Find out next!
Orochimaru was looking at Naruto with displeasure, and gave a wry smile as he heard Sasuke warning to the young shinobi, "My compliments on your stunning defeat of the giant snake and your new outfit… Naruto," Naruto looked him and replied, "Spare me the theatrics. Tell me what is a rogue ninja doing here knowing full well that death awaits you?" "Heh heh, I'm only here to secure my future," answered Orochimaru cryptically. Meanwhile Sasuke was taking this time to plan an escape for them, knowing that Naruto usually make things worse since he did not believe that a new outfit would change things, especially now armed with the knowledge of who they were truly facing.
Sasuke deactivated his Sharingan and proceeded to offer their scroll in exchange for a safe retreat for Team 7. Naruto merely looked on as Orochimaru replied, "Well done, you're obviously natural-born prey… instinctively knowing that your only hope lies in the chance of the predator being distracted by some tastier bait!" "Come and get it!" Sasuke replied as he threw the scroll towards their enemy, however midway through its flight, a golden chain emerged from a tree branch ensnaring the scroll mid-flight. The chain proceeded to flick it in Naruto's direction who caught and sealed the scroll away on a storage seal on the left sleeve of his light orange hoodie (omniverse) with the uzumaki symbol on the left pec, a mesh shirt underneath a black tshirt , he was also wearing brown cargo pants with black sole'd white sneakers, and dark blue fingerless gloves.
Sasuke looked at Naruto with a angry face and yelled at him to stay out their current predicament, "The Sasuke I know isn't a coward, so you must be an imposter." Orochimaru looked on with mild intrigue, 'It seems that intel on him is outdated, who would've thought that he would inherit Kushina's Adamantine Sealing chains… then again there's no telling what other abilities he might have since that watch seems like a new addition, I've never seen it before… I wonder what it does. Well there's no time like the present to find out.' as he got to his feet on the branch and flared his chakra which got everyone's attention.
This prompted Naruto to get ready as he created 15 shadow clones and spoke, "Sasuke, take Sakura and go. I'll hold him off and catch up later." He pressed the dial of the Omnitrix and made his selection, knowing that wasting time would be to his detriment. He pressed down the core and transformed into Eye Guy. This occurrence shocked all parties involved as they've never seen something like this. Three shadow clones stayed behind as the rest ferried away the remains of Team 7 in a smoke cloud, with various factions going in different directions to keep their true direction a secret.
"Time to get an eye for an eye Orochimaru," said Eye Guy as he fired and energy beam that forced Orochimaru to dodge midair, who proceeded to summon another snake. The clones stepped in and overwhelmed the snake with a barrage of shurikens and kunai's, which led to it's demise. The three clones charged at Orochimaru with Eye Guy firing a powerful energy beam from his massive chest eye as Orochimaru allowed himself to get hit and promptly used an explosive substitution jutsu mere seconds before getting hit with the debri dispelling two of the clones.
He then emerged on a tree branch behind Eye Guy and spoke, "While you have become very intriguing Naruto, you are not my prize. Until we meet again, be sure to get stronger. Kukuku." The legendary ninja proceeded to disappear into the tree branch in pursuit of Sasuke, Sakura and the clone. Eye Guy cursed under his breath as he took a random direction waiting for the Omnitrix to time out, which happened a few seconds later. This timeout forced Naruto to steady himself on a branch as he got a small headache due to simultaneously receiving the memories of the other clones as they were all destroyed.
-Elsewhere: Forest of Death-
The remaining members of team 7 were paralyzed by the killer intent of Orochimaru, who laughed maniacally, stretched his neck to inhuman proportions and bit Sasuke in the neck. A three tomoe mark manifested as Orochimaru reminisced, 'a heaven seal, very interesting.' "I would love to test your power Sasuke but unfortunately little Naruto might be here any moment, and I don't want to deal with another of those transformations of his… yet. I look forward to seeing you again Sasuke. In the quest for POWER."
Afterwards, Sasuke screamed in pain, trying to grit through the pain which did not help. Before Sakura could yell, Naruto showed up, with an annoyed and irate expression on his face while watching the Uchiha scream in pain. He decided to knock him out and look at the mark on his neck, "Hmm, I was afraid of this, Orochimaru always has this nasty habit of leaving problems in his wake." As he took out a sheet of paper, proceeded to copy the seal and put it on a blank scroll. 'I'll have to study this further at a later date, for now we just have to hope that he will eventually pull through.'
Naruto then picked up Sasuke and told Sakura to follow him to a hiding spot as they need to wait for Sasuke to recover.
-Elsewhere-
Anko was busy travelling through the forest in search of Orochimaru, after discovering the corpses of three Grass genin with their face stolen. A few minutes later she found him melted with a tree, summoned four senbon from her coat sleeves. However any attempt to attack was thwarted by the snake ninja using his long tongue to halt her arm. In a counter move Anko used said appendage to rip Orochimaru from the tree, stabbing both their hands together with a kunai in an attempt to use a suicide jutsu. However another Orochimaru spoke from above her, "You mean to commit suicide? How precious! But that's a clone…' the clone dispelled as Orochimaru formed a hand seal that activated a similar mark on Anko's neck.
"Why are you here, why now?" asked Anko in a strained voice. "My targets are any ninja of the village who display extraordinary abilities. I found two of them, in fact I just left my mark on one as a parting gift. I foresee interesting times… assuming he survives. And don't get any clever ideas about trying to end this exam. Three of my followers are also participating, if something should happen to rob me of my enjoyment, it will spell the end of the Leaf." Orochimaru disappeared in a puff of smoke as three giant tigers appeared a few seconds later with Anko struggling to get up however before they could pounce, it seemed that they were paralyzed. Members of the elite unit, ANBU, appeared a few seconds later.
Anko debriefed them on the situation as they proceeded to take her to the Hokage so that she can report it.
With Team 7
Sakura was looking over Sasuke in between overlapping roots of a massive tree, with a determined face, vowing to protect Sasuke. Naruto has left her to obtain more scrolls, so they can pass this exam. Whilst this was happening a team of Sound Genin was looking on from a distance as the one called Dosu spoke, "As Lord Orochimaru commanded, We'll strike at dawn and our target is Sasuke Uchiha."
"Where is their other loud-mouthed teammate? And can we take out the other two if they get in our way?" asked Zaku. "I don't know where he is. Best guess, he got lost. If they interfere we can eliminate them," replied Dosu.
Day Three, Dawn
Sakura was dozing off, fighting against the sleep that wants to claim her. Naruto still hasn't returned since he left, she proceeded to pour some water on a cloth and placed it on Sasuke's forehead. She then looked out and saw a squirrel running towards her as she threw a kunai to scare it away.
Meanwhile, the sound team conversed on whether she saw the explosive tag on the animal and concluded it to be in the negative, and decided to get closer to find out. Elsewhere the squirrel was rescued by Rock Lee, before the tag could explode and wondered who would be so cruel to animals. Team 10 had an encounter with Neji Hyuga which he allowed them to escape deeming them to be losers, and beneath him to steal a scroll from.
At Sakura's location, the sound team finally emerged, demanding from her to wake up Sasuke as they wanted to fight him. They got a big shock as she revealed their encounter with Orochimaru, the mark he left on the Uchiha's neck and demanded answers from them. However Zaku wanted to take Sasuke out either way, but he was stopped by Dosu who discovered her traps. Sakura was forced to initiate both traps which did little good as the team easily countered those traps, finding it insulting to be underestimated like that and spoke of killing Sakura.
However during their leap to eliminate Sakura, all three of them was kicked away by Rock Lee using his Konoha Hurricane Technique. His appearance brought great relief to Sakura as the genin reiterated his vow to protect her. As Lee engaged in battle with them, Team Guy was wondering where Lee was and Team 10 was debating on a team to steal a scroll from with Ino refusing to take one from Sasuke's team as he was 'the best'. Choji ended this debate as he bought their attention to the battle.
Back to said battle, Lee used the Front Lotus Technique, but it was in vain as Dosu's teammate softened the ground around the impact zone to save him. Lee started to feel the aftereffects of using said technique as the Sound team then revealed the true might and fright of their ninjutsu abilities, which were sound-based. He used an sound-amplifying gauntlet and Zaku utilized sound waves implanted in his arms, with exit points in his palms, which used to repelled Sakura's shuriken as she tried to save Lee from further harm. Kin appeared behind her and grabbed Sakura's hair as Zaku called for her end. Sakura had a life flashing before her eyes moment she took out a kunai whilst Kin was telling her that it was not gonna work on her, and Sakura proceeded to cut off her hair, which surprised Kin.
Sasuke's mark started to steam as Sakura's attempt to launch a counter was countered easily, but she managed to stab Zaku's right arm with a kunai bit on their left and proceeded to hold on as he was punching her in the face. While this was happening, Ino was having a flashback of when they first met with tears welling in her eyes. Zaku eventually got Sakura off him, and before he could blast her and Team 10 intervene, the environment around them shimmered as Naruto appeared with three clones, two forming a defensive formation in front of Sakura and one next to Sasuke, who noticed the mark on Sasuke's neck emitting a type of chakra steam and proceeded to draw a suppression season over it, which made the mark go dormant again, "Sorry, I'm late, Sakura. So it seems that Orochimaru has a hidden village if the three of you are wearing the same headband as him. This is quite a concerning development. One that demands attention, but for now… let's deal with you."
Naruto, drew two kunai as he flared his chakra, disappearing in a body flicker as the Sound team was temporarily stunned at his massive amount of chakra. For a few moments, it was only the forest making noise as everyone waited with baited breath. He suddenly appeared behind Kin and knocked her out with the handle of his kunai and disappeared before Zaku could blast him.
"Back to back," called Dosu as both did so and looked around preparing for the attack.
Two clones appeared a few metres away from both as both Sound Genin broke formation and attacked with the clones exploding, throwing Zaku and Dosu back from which they came. Two more clones appeared and knocked them out before they could recover from the blast. Naruto emerged from the ground as he walked to them and after ensuring they are out cold, canceled his clones, went through their belongings for their scroll as he also transferred some of their chakra's into a sealing scroll.
When finished, Naruto looked at Sakura and a bewildered Lee and gave a small smile, "Thank you Rock Lee for assisting my teammate. She still has a long way to go until she is a proper shinobi." Lee could only weakly give a thumbs up, as Naruto walked towards him and put a glowing hand of chakra on his shoulder, and did the same for Sakura after which both were revitalized, with all of Sakura's face injuries healed. "Just a chakra transference technique and some healing for Sakura," Naruto replied.
He looked into the brushes and called for team 10 to emerge, with Tenten of Team Guy landing few moments later with worried look on her face, which relaxed upon seeing that Lee was fine. He also gave her a rundown of what happened whilst Ino was busy giving Sakura a makeover with Neji looking from the trees and sizing up both Naruto and recently woken up Sasuke as he considered Sasuke to be a worthy foe due to his bloodline limit whilst having unsure feelings on this new Naruto.
-Chapter End -
Author's note: Apologies to everyone for the long time in between chapters. My creative juices temporarily got slowed as life got so busy, but I managed to gain balance. In any case, thank you for reading, please review and enjoy it, keep it up with giving your honest thoughts, it will help in the long run.
Until next time!
