Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Living Behind a Mask ❯ Sasuke & Naruto's True Identities ( Chapter 7 )

 

In a large Grassy Field Just up Ahead:

 

Kimimaro landed and noticed that he had several pursuers. He turned around to see Tenten, Shino, Sakura, Ino and Hinata. Sakura and Hinata were making no effort to hide their fear, their knees shaking, while Shino, Tenten and Ino tried to moderate it. Kimimaro turned to them, looking at them with no expression on his face.

 

“Now, how should I cook these four?”

 

They all noticed that a white knife had suddenly appeared out of his shirt sleave. Tenten was preturbed. She was from Konoha's weapons expert family, yet she'd NEVER seen or heard of a knife like that one. She was shocked when he revealed it fully. It wasn't a knife, at least not in the way one would expect. It was a bone in the shape of a knife. Tenten opened a scroll and bit her thumb before throwing it up in the air, making it spin in a spiral. She jumped up into the middle of it and began dragging her hand over the Kanji to get weapons, which she prompty hurled at Kimimaro. Kimimaro brought the bone up in a defensive position. Tenten smirked. There was no way a bone could deflect-

 

Kimimaro brushed each weapon aside with the bone knife as if he was swatting away flies. Tenten gasped. No matter where the bone originated from, there was no way in hell it could block metal weapons! Kimimaro must have guessed this was what she was thinking.

 

“This is... The limit of my inheritance.”

 

Shino's eyebrows creased in thought.

 

“Gekke Genkai?”

 

“Yes, it is a Bloodline Limit. It allows me to freely control the shape and density of my bones. Observe.”

 

Kimimaro brought his hand out of the sleave and held it up in front of his body. Everyone was awear of snapping and clicking noises and also that Kimimaro's fingers where acting as if they were broken before straighting themselves again and repeating the process again. They also saw lumps moving up his forearm like there was something crawling under his skin. Finally, the movements reached a fevor pitch and bones burst from his forearm, surrounding his arm in dagger like spikes of bone, dripping liquid. Sakura blanched. If they had noticed, the barrel was beginning to fume with purple chakra. Kimimaro looked over his shoulder at the barrel.

 

“It's almost time... The first step of Orochimaru-Sama's ambition...”

 

Now, they all turned to the barrel as the tags on top broke and the barrel exploded. When the dust cleared, they saw Sasuke and Naruto, but it wasn't the way they were used to seeing them. Sasuke's hair was long and purple, spiking out everywhere. Naruto's hair was slightly longer, but it came down in a pony tail to the middle of his back. However, it was not it's usual sun kissed blonde colour. It was blood red. Both of them had claws for finger nails and their skin was a dark brown colour. The changes quickly reverted back to their old forms and their shoulders started to heave as someone would when they laugh. Both of them let out an unusually disturbing laugh before they charged off and continued towards the border. Sakura started towards them, but Kimimaro appeared behind her, ready to slice her head off with a deft stroke of the bone sword.

 

“Pathetic.”

 

Shino grabbed the sword with his bugs and threw Kimimaro away. Kimimaro recovered to see that Tenten and Shino were in between him and Hinata, Ino and Sakura. Shino didn't look over his shoulder, but his body language made it clear he was going to address them, so they listened.

 

“Sakrua, Ino, Hinata. The three of you have a far better chance of stopping them than any of us did. None of us could compare to their levels of power. You were closer to them than we were. Try and delay them until we can back you up. I have just recived a message from my father that several Jounin are on their way to back us up as well.”

 

“D-Demo, Shino-Kun-”

 

Tenten cut her off.

 

“Hinata, we don't have time. They are incredibly close to the Fire/Rice border. Once they cross it, we've lost them for good. Go!”

 

“G-Good luck...”

 

Hinata turned and left her teammate and friend there. Sakura and Ino followed her, dreading what they would find when they caught up.

 

&&&&&&&&&&&&&a mp;&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&a mp;&&&&&

 

At the Valley of the End:

 

Both Sasuke and Naruto had just crossed the statues that marked the Fire/Rice border. Once they got off the statue, they were home free, in a figurative sense. However, fate was not smiling on them today as they felt the presence of three people behind them on the other statue.

 

“Sasuke-Kun! Naruto!”

 

They ignored them and kept going. However, Naruto heard Hinata's remark and it made him stop.

 

“A-Are you running away... Naruto-Kun?”

 

Naruto didn't even complete his step, and neither did Sasuke. They slowly turned around in opposite directions, stopping before the left side of Sasuke's face amd the right side of Naruto's face was revealed. They turned to fully face them, all three girls gasping in horror. The left side of Sasuke's face and the right side of Naruto's face had the cursed seal covering it, but what was the most frightening was their left and right eye. Naruto's right and Sasuke's left eye were completely transformed. The whites were black, and the iris was a sickly yellow. Ino looked at them angrily.

 

“Do you know that our friends sacrificed their lives to get to you?”

 

Sasuke looked bored and held out a hand at his side for effect.

 

“How nice of them.”

 

“Even so, It's only after we pull something like this that we get recognition, and not the kind we want. Our childish games with you and Konoha are over.”

 

“Why does it matter to you? Neither of us will let anyone lead our lives for us. Especially not Konoha. Go home. Now.”

 

The three girls flinched at the words. It was the closest either of them had ever told any of them to get lost. Both Sasuke and Naruto turned to leave, but were aware of a slight displacement in the air, signalling that something was being thrown at them. They turned around and caught the shuriken on their fingers, letting them spin before dropping to the ground. Ino screamed at them.

 

“What about your comrades back in the leaf? Did you forget them?”

 

“Did we get any stronger by staying with those 'comrades' as you call them? We're going to Orochimaru.”

 

Ino jumped across and tried to slap Naruto, but had her hand held onto by Sasuke.

 

“If you hit him, I will kill you.”

 

Ino pulled back and Sasuke let her. The other girls managed to overcome their fears and get next to Ino, staring at the object of their affection. Hinata tried to speak up.

 

“N-Naruto-Kun... Y-You used to try s-So hard at the Academy... W-Why did you change?”

 

Naruto smirked at Hinata.

 

“You really didn't notice? Was Sasuke the only one who was able to notice? And to think that your crush on me had the slighest chance of turning out differently from those trashy Sasuke fan girls. How wrong I was. Hinata, let me tell you something now. Don't get involved in something you cannot fathom. How couldany womanpossibly 'love' a demon? You fell in love with a mask, something that didn't really exist. There was never a 'dobe' Naruto. That was completely a facade I put on to live up to Konoha's extremely low expectations of me. It made my life a hell of alot eaiser when I lived up to their expectations of me to fail everything. I could have past the Academy Genin exam 4 years ago. Hell, I would be a Chunin or possibly even a Jounin now if I really wanted to, however, the villagers would have scorned me more. Get used to it, Hinata. The Uzumaki Naruto you loved never existed.”'Oh my god did that feel good or what? I've always wanted to see Naruto chew Hinata out for her crush on him in a fic. I think this is actually a world first!'

 

Hinata was actually crying when she heard her idol chew her out like that. The other girls went to support Hinata, making Sasuke laugh. They looked at him as he smiled evilly.

 

“You two are exactly the same to me as Hinata is to Naruto. You two were and still are more concerened about who could get me into bed first than my actual feelings. Cupboard love, how pathetic. Sakura, remember that time in the hosptial when Naruto warned you that if you kept it up, I would kill you, and you scoffed at him for it? He was telling the truth. You were blind to my warning signs I was giving off and you insisted you treat me like a baby by attempting to hand feed me. I was so close to using the kunai I had in my hand on you. The only thing that stopped me was Naruto using body language to tell me we could do it later. I think that the 'later' he was referring to is 'now'.”

 

Sasuke punched Sakura in the gut sending her flying into the lake. Ino and Hinata looked at Sasuke in horror at the amount of power he had used. Sasuke looked at his hand with amuzement.

 

“It's great isn't it?”

 

“Yeah... This is what I've been looking for...”

 

Naruto was also looking at his hand with a simmilar look on his face to Sasuke. Sasuke suddenly winced as the cursed seal retreated back to it's position on his neck and his eye returned to normal. Naruto started to go over to Sasuke when he froze and winced as his cursed seal began moving back and his eye also returned to normal. Sasuke started chuckling manically.

 

“If that was how much power I had with just that, I wonder what would happen if I released the seal...”

 

Ino and Hinata were becoming very scared. Naruto looked past them to where they had come from.

 

“Looks like more of them are here.”

 

Ino and Hinata turned around to see a very beaten Tenten and Shino hoping over the monuments to stand next to their friends. Naruto sighed heavily for dramatic effect.

 

“You guys don't get it do you? We're not going back. No matter how many of you there are, you can't win.”

 

Although in most stories, the bad guys always said that and they still lost, this time, it would take more than a mirical for that to come true. Sasuke made some minor body language movements for Naruto. Shino, being the silent type, easily picked these up and sent his bugs at Naruto which he looked amuzed at before he formed a few hand seals and announced his jutsu.

 

“Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!”

 

The bugs were surrounded by the flames, being completely disintergrated. Shino jumped out of the way as did the other Konoha Genin. Naruto looked at them.

 

“You know, a man once said to me that you're not ninja until you've been through many life or death experiences. Tell me, how many lives have each of you taken? Not too long ago, I already had my hands stained with the blood of more lives than a platoon of ANBU would in a year.”

 

They froze in fear, which was the effect Naruto desired. Tenten broke out of it and charged Naruto. Naruto made no effort to dodge as she punched him in the face. She siled silently to herself before she realised something. Naruto had absorbed 90 percent of the impact as if it was nothing and looked back at her. Tenten punched him again and again, until her knuckles were covered in his blood. She stopped, realising that this wasn't getting her anywhere and Naruto spoke softly to her.

 

“Is this all you've got? If it is, I won't have to use 'it'.”

 

Tenten looked at him in confusion.

 

“It?”

 

“Kyubi.”

 

“Don't underestimate me!”

 

Tenten aimed another punch but Naruto caught it with his eyes closed.

 

“I'm not underestimating you. I'm probably overestimating you. If I had kept playing games with you-”

 

Naruto threw Tenten away with his hand and shot after her, kicking her with a sickening combo in the gut, before slamming her into the ground, landing lightly beside her.

 

“I would never have gotten this much power.”

 

Sasuke took advantage of the other's momentary distraction to perform a combo on Shino. He knocked him forwards, then proceeded to body flicker around him, smashing every which way before finally kicking him into the far monument of the Shodaime Hokage. Sasuke body flickered back up to the others, as did Naruto. They grinned at them

 

“You can't beat us.”

 

“No, but we can.”

 

Naruto and Sasuke looked up to see a group of four Jounin on the other stone momument. Naruto silently cursed himself for toying with the Genin. Naruto looked at Sasuke and nodded. They engaged the first level of their cursed seals and Sasuke activated his Sharingan, charging at the Jounins, who started using jutsus. Sasuke saw one that looked interesting and copied it, sending it back at him.

 

“KATON: KARYU ENDAN!”

 

The jutsus cancelled each other out, leaving Sasuke to engage his target in Taijutsu. Naruto had gone straight into Taijutsu and began attacking his target. The Genin looked on in wonder as the two of them held their own against four Jounin. However, after a few minutes, it became clear that the Jounins were gaining a slight edge over the two. Naruto didn't like where this was going. They had one option left, considering Kyubi was unable to lend it's chakra to him because it was taken up to prevent the Cursed Seal from taking over his mind. Naruto body flickered behind Hinata and Sasuke behind Ino, they smiled at the girls, who realised they were done for. Sasuke was going to take extreme pleasure in this, but Naruto felt a twinge of guilt, which he quickly crushed.

 

“Sumani, Hinata.”

 

Hinata smiled weakly that Naruto had the decency to feel guilty for what he was about to do, but prepared as Naruto hit her over the back of the neck, thinking he had knocked her unconcious, but she had put enough chakra into her neck to avoid being knocked out. But she would still be immobile. Now that the threat of the Genin taking them out after they used Cursed Seal level two, they looked back at the Jounins. Nartuo noticed that Sasuke now had the third comma in his Sharingan.

 

“It's about time we tried the full extent of our powers.”

 

The cursed seal marks glowed orange and red before expanding and combining, turning their skin brown. Sasuke's hair turned a sickly purple colour while Naruto's turned blood red. Both of their hair extended in size. Sasuke's grew everywhere in long quill like spines while Naruto's hair mostly just lengthened a tiny bit except for the hair on the back of his head, which lengthened into a pony tail. They both grew claws. When they opened their eyes, the Jounins were shocked to see that the whites of their eyes had turned black. Sasuke's Sharingan was still activated while Naruto's irises had turned blood red with snake like pupils. Sasuke had a black cross over his nose while Naruto's ears had lengthened slightly. His whisker marks had darkened like when he lost control. Both of them had extended cainines. Sasuke's lips were purple. They smiled and motioned for the Jounin to come. The four of them charged and slammed Sasuke and Naruto into the wall, smirking. Thinking that the Genin had no chance of surviving such a blow, they waited to inspect their handy work. Once the dust cleared, they got a major shock. Sasuke was covered by what looked like some sort of grey cocoon, while Naruto had deflected the attacks from his two Jounin with a set of red tails. The tails' tips were black. Both Genin's appendages made a movement, alerting the Jounins who tried to jump back, but were far too late. They were slammed out of the way and into the opposite wall. When they recovered, they saw that Sasuke had sprouted a hand like wing. Naruto had sprouted a pair of tails. Both Genins moaned in pain as their other appendages shot out. Sasuke sprouted his other wing while Naruto's remaining seven tails sprouted in quick succession. Naruto fell forward onto all fours while Sasuke crouched. The Jounins looked at them in pure utter horror. Sasuke gritted his teeth as pain courced through his body. Luckily for Naruto, Kyubi took care of that for him. Naruto looked at the Jounin.

 

“Let me tell you something. We're going to let you live, however, we want you to convey a messange to Konoha for us. If you ever send people to retrieve us or attack us, we'll kill them.”

 

Naruto bounded at the Jounin while Sasuke flew at them. They proceeded to beat their happles targets with brutal punch-kick combos, keeping them alive enough to return their message, but not alive enough to give chase. Once they had knocked all of them unconcious, they reverted back to their normal forms. Naruto and Sasuke slowly walked up the side of the monument with the last of their chakra and trudged into the Country of Rice Fields, leaving nothing but painful memories behind. Moments later, it began raining heavily and Kakashi arrived to survey the damage. He saw people scattered everywhere, but with minimal blood loss. He thanked which ever god was listening that Sasuke and Naruto had let them live and waited for the medical squads to arrive.

 

&&&&&&&&&&&&&a mp;&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&a mp;&&&&

 

The Next Day:

 

Both Sasuke and Naruto had trudged slowly down the beaten path into the Rice Field Country. Early the next morning, they were spotted by a platoon of Oto nins, who when they saw them, made a bee line for them. Naruto and Sasuke looked up at them. The nins bowed politely before conversing with them.

 

“Sasuke-Sama, Naruto-Sama. All Oto nins were told to be on the look out for you. Anyone who encountered them was to immediately take them back to the Village. Are you able to walk?”

 

“We're fine. Just lead the way...”

 

The Oto nin nodded and they took up flanking positions around the two. They led them through the closest town where they stopped for a quick meal before pressing onwards. The Oto nins lead them out of the town and off the road. Naruto and Sasuke became wary as they left the road, but they were put at ease when they saw a second group of Oto nins jump out of the trees. The leaders of the platoons conversed quickly before the newcomers looked at the two boys.

 

“Orochimaru-Sama is expecting you. The village is just up ahead.”

 

The platoon that was initially guarding them exchanged places with the new ones, which led them for another 30 minutes before they arrived at a set of stairs sunken into the ground which ended at a door. The Oto nins at the door nodded and waved them through. They lead them down the stairs and through a maze of corridors before they got to a room where the Oto nins stopped. The leader looked at them.

 

“We are not permitted to come in here unless in the case of an emergency. This is Orochimaru-Sama's sitting room. Please go in.”

 

The Oto nin opened the door, letting Sasuke and Naruto inside before quiety shutting it. They saw Kabuto standing next to a man who they could tell was Orochimaru, despite his different look. Naruto looked at Kabuto.

 

“I had a feeling there wasn't something quite right about you.”

 

Kabuto smiled uneasily as Oroachimaru laughed.

 

“It's been a while, Sasuke-Kun. Nartuo-Kun.”

 

Kabuto turned around, grabbing robes from behind him and handing them to Sasuke and Naruto. They both gladly put them on and turned back to Orochimaru.

 

“Sasuke-Kun. You are my chosen one-”

 

“I don't care. Hurry up and give me power.”

 

Kabuto made his way over to Sasuke and whispered in his ear.

 

“Even though his appearance may be different, the person before you is THE Orochimaru-Sama. If you don't want to die, watch your mouth.”

 

Both Sasuke and Naruto let of an incredible spike of chakra which caught Kabuto comeptely by suprise. He recoiled and stared in dibelief at the boys. Orochimaru looked at them in the sort of way a person would look at the prize of a competition they had just won. Orochimaru had Kabuto give them a meal and showed them to their future sleeping chambers.

 

&&&&&&&&&&&&&a mp;&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&a mp;&

 

First Year:

 

Nothing much unexpected happened during the first year. They trained, ate, slept and studied while they were changing locations regularly. Orochimaru had insisted they both learn how to handle a sword properly, and so they were taught Kenjutu by a host of different people. After some training with the level two seal, he formulated his plan to get Sasuke's free will back. To any regular person, Sasuke would have appeared as if he had free will, however, on much closer inspection, Sasuke had lost only a fragment, the part that would let him do anything to Orochimaru more serious than back chat him. Most of his free time was spent trying to fugure out how to modify the kunai so he could use Hiraishin. After their first month, Naruto opproached Orochimaru.

 

“What seems to be the problem, Naruto-Kun?”

 

“I want to try and find a way to allow our Cursed Seals to partially activate at level two without the masive chakra drain and other side effects.”

 

“Why would you want to do that?”

 

“I personally like having my tails, lengthened ears and a few of the other physical attributes of the Cursed Seal level two. I also know Sasuke like it to. If it is possible, it would help intimidate oppenents, and theoretically it would only require a small portion of the chakra it usually does. It might even require less chakra to use the Cursed Seal should I be successful.”

 

Orochimaru thought over it for a moment before smiling behind the bandages.

 

“Very well, Naruto-Kun. If you are successful in your research, please report to me before you use it. Ask Kabuto for acces to the research records.”

 

“Sure.”

 

After that, Naruto had dedicated his time to both modifying the kunai and researching the cursed seal when he wasn't required to do other things. Kyubi had managed to get the cursed seal to stop growing to the point where it only couldn't talk when Naruto activated either level one or two of the seal, which was when it would start trying to regrow. Having a demon that had been around for eons helped dramatically increase the speed of both research. Naruto could only thank the gods that Orochimaru had no clue why he was REALLY researching it. Orochimaru probably thought that since Naruto had been forced to the second stage of the cursed seal, he really was brainwashed. Naruto tested out the limits of Sasuke's free will very carefully before he determined that the loss of free will would not make Sasuke turn against Naruto if he told him what he was doing. It seemed that only direct threats to Orochimaru were taken seriously, so Naruto told Sasuke about half a year into their stay as best he could through body language. The parts he couldn't, he expressed in one or two words. Sasuke smiled at him, which Naruto took as a good sign. Naruto was extremely worried for days after that episode to see if Sasuke would snitch on him, but he hadn't. Sasuke could tell Naruto was fearful and made one of their blood promises. Naruto had found out that even Orochimaru's attempt to break Sasuke's free will would not break Sasuke's will to keep his blood promises. Naruto dilligantly kept up the research well into the next year.

 

&&&&&&&&&&&&&a mp;&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&a mp;&&&

 

Year Two:

 

Halfway though their second year under Orochimaru's tutalage, Naruto made an amazing break through. Naruto had thought that he would have to somehow make a second alteration to gain back Sasuke's free will, but amazingly, the cursed seal relied on short sharp bursts of corrupted chakra to steadily corrupt the mind. Naruto had known this for a long time when he made the discovery with majot input from Kyubi. They had found that the Cursed seal can only corrupt the mind if the person continuously subconciously submits to it. The seal seems to somehow make people continually give in, however, that was only during the first 2 years of use of the second level of the cursed seal at level tow. After that, there was no escape. Naruto worked frantically to find some sort of way to reverse that. He silently wished he had dragged Ino here with him so she could do it, however, he had only his and Kyubi's power to work on. Naruto raced against the clock, slowly formulating a overlapping seal to do what he needed. The problem was that the seal needed to be strong enough to break the stranglehold over a person's will, but be subtle enough to avoid detection. The answer came from a suprising source. On one particular evening, Naruto wass looking back over the previous versions of the cursed seal. Naruto noticed that the way each seal got it's bearer to subconciously submit was different. The very early version of the seals practically ripped all forms of free will away. Each version after that made the removal of the free will far less noticable. The 'Heaven' Seal, which both Naruto and Sasuke had had one minor flaw in it. Each 'Heaven' Seal had a small piece of Orochimaru's soul in it, and if the piece of the soul itself was sealed, the stranglehold over the seal's bearer would be broken, and Orochimaru would be none the wiser. Kyubi wracked it's brains for a possible seal to use and told Naruto to do his own research.

 

With several months left until the deadline, Naruto found all the parts he needed. The way to get the Cursed Seal level two to stay partially active at all times and the seal to seal the part of Orochimaru's soul. The final problem was combining them into a new seal. Naruto worked at it for the next month before he found the answer. He approached Orochimaru with the seal as he looked over it. He dismissed Naruto, saying he would think about it overnight. The next morning, Orochimaru gave the go ahead on one condition. That he watch the jutsu. Naruto agreed and led Sasuke, Orochimaru and Kabuto into the dojo and sat Sasuke down, telling him to release the cursed seal level 2. Naruto instructed Sasuke to think clearly about the parts he wanted to keep active, telling him that he would have to unseal it and then reseal it with any new changes. Naruto began forming a long chain of and seals before placing his palm on the cursed seal.

 

“Partial Cursed Seal Release!”

 

Sasuke gritted his teeth as throbs of pain shot through his body. The skin colour returned to normal, the hair size and shape returned to normal, still retaining it's purple hue the black cross on his nose dissapeared, the whites of his eyes returned to white, his lips returned to their normal colour and his wings withdrew. All Sasuke had really kept was his hair colour, fangs and nails. Orochimaru inspected the seal to find that in between the three comma marks a small blue circle had formed. After inspecting it, he found it to his satisfaction.

 

“Very well done, Naruto-Kun. I assume you would want to perform it on yourself?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Then please do.”

 

Naruto nodded releasing his cursed seal level two. Naruto concerntraited as he formed the long chain of hand seal and placed his hand on the seal.

 

“Partial Cursed Seal Release!”

 

Naruto girtted his teeth as his eyes retuned to normal apart from the snake like pupils, as did his skin colour and hair colour. He had basically retained most of it. It indeed made him look like a demon Naruto panted and described how to do activate the changes and also deactivate them. Orochimaru smiled and looked at Naruto.

 

“Naruto-Kun-”

 

Naruto interruped Orochimaru.

 

“No can do. We're the only ones you gave the Heaven seal to, and this will only work on the heaven seal. The others are far too different to use this on.”

 

“I see. Continue your theoretical studies for the rest of today.”

 

Naruto and Sasuke retired to the library where they each worked on perfecting what they hoped would be their signature moves. Nartuo's was obviously the Hiraishin. Sasuke was trying to modify the Chidori. Naruto looked up at Sasuke who looked at him. Sasuke already knew what Naruto wanted to know, smiled and gave a tiny nod. Naruto's heart lept. They could begin the next stage of their plans at will. However, Orochimaru was still more useful alive than dead. By the end of the year, Naruto had worked out how to change three quarters of the tag for the Hirashin over the last two years. Nartuo was looking at the seal and at the book of scrolls on his lap. Nartuo almost choked, catching Sasuke's attention.

 

“Holy...”

 

“Find another part?”

 

“No... I found the rest of it.”

 

Sasuke boggled at Naruto. He'd found the last quarter of the tag in a single seal? Sasuke leaned over his arm chair and saw what Naruto was looking at. The double page contained seveal seals of differing variaties. When Sasuke looked at the tag on the kunai and then at the pages, he didn't see the connetion. He looked up at Naruto. Naruto smiled back.

 

“The last quarter is the physical appearance and personalisation of the tag. Look at the pages carefully.”

 

Sasuke did and noticed something. The physical appearance on the tag meant the physical manifestation of the jutsu. However, no seals on the page had anything to do with manifesting, until Sasuke saw half way down the page as his eyes past over the theoretical part of a nondescript seal the explination of changing physical appearances of objects through the use of seals. Sasuke looked back at the tag and then at the page again, confirming it. Naruto then pointed to something on the other page, which Sasuke read was a theoretical exercise on how summoing contract signing worked. Sasuke looked up as Naruto withdrew a caligraphy brush and ink bottle, pulling out his own unique tag that was almost finished. Looking carefully at the book, Naruto finished the tag and wrapped around the kunai he had a smith make for just this moment. Naruto looked at Sasuke, nodded and threw the kunai at the wall. He felt himself being pulled to the Kunai by some mysterious force and before he knew it, he was at the wall. He hadn't even seen himself move. He looked back at Sasuke who stared wide eyed in disbelif. Just then, the door burst open and Kabuto charged in.

 

“What are you doing summoning in-”

 

Kabuto took stock of the situation, seeing their faces and turned to Naruto.

 

“So, you completed it, did you, Naruto-Kun? Congratulations.”

 

Orochimaru made his way into the library, obviously drawn there by the chakra spike. Kabuto turned to Orochimaru.

 

“Orochimaru-Sama, Nartuo-Kun just completed the Hiraishin...”

 

Orochimaru smiled.

 

“Show me.”

 

Naruto took the kunai out of the wall and threw it at the far wall, flashing over to the wall in a streak of red light. Orochimaru smiled widely.

 

“Well done, Naruto-Kun.”

 

&&&&&&&&&&&&&a mp;&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&a mp;&&&&&&

Third Year:

 

Early during the third year, Kyubi had called Naruto to the cage for a talk. These talks weren't exactly common, nut they were'nt extremely rare either. Naruto got down to the cage and saw the fox had a rather unusual look on it's face. It had the usual smile plastered to it's chops, so Naruto stood in front of it.

 

“What is it this time?”

 

“Straight to the point, hm? Remember during the fight with Shukaku, he addressed me as Kyubi-Hime?”

 

Naruto had completely forgotten about it.

 

“Yeah. So, gonna tell me the story?”

 

Kyubi looked thoughtful for a moment.

 

“There really isn't much of a story. I just love destroying things. The fact is that all of us had to prove we were worthy as one of the nine demon lords, so we were occassionally tasked with taking out a human village or two. Severed two purposes. One was to prove we still had what it takes, and the other was to stop you humans from overpopulating.”

 

“Why the hell would that matter to you?”

 

“Kit, we have reasons for everything. Do you really think weare completely self sufficient in hell?”

 

Naruto had never thought of that.

 

“Well, we aren't. Every now and then, Hell starts running out of souls to tourture. I don't know why humans think once you go to Hell you stay there for all eternint. What crap. Once you serve your sentence, we kick you out and you're, as you humans call it, reincarnated. Unfortunately, the rate of those getting reincarnated is more than those who come to hell naturally, so we... Speed the intake up. As for the `Hime' joke, it is true that I am actually female, the first to ascend the demonic throne in over 20,000 years.”

 

Kyubi let this settle for a minute, waiting for Naruto's answer. She didn't get the one she expected.

 

“The only thing I have to say is I'm kind of pissed off that you didn't tell me earlier.”

 

“Not going to mock me?”

 

“Why the hell would I do that? I've seen what you can do. The fact that you're female, or that you go on destruction binges doesn't change much.”

 

The Kyuubi looked down at the boy with renewed interest. Most of the humans she had introduced herself to as a female in ages past just scoffed at her. Yet, he was only annoyed that she had hi d the fact? For once, the Kyuubi didn't have a smart reply. One just didn't seem necessary.

 

“Just don't go spreading that around, I don't need my reputation ruined.”

 

“Sure thing. Later.”

 

Kyubi didn't get to say anything as Naruto dissapeared from his mindscape. Naruto had quickly tod Sasuke what had happened, who looked at him like he had grown an extra head. Sasuke was rather amused by the whole truth or dare incident. Naruto didn't reveal the truth to anyone else, and they continued on with life. Kyubi had called Naruto down to the cage with incresing regularity. They talked of a lot of things. Their relationship grew slowly beyond a prisoner/jailor relationship and into one of mutual understanding. Sasuke and Naruto had been planning their escape for the last year. Orochimaru was well guarded at all times. The only way they could catch him off guard would be if someone were to invade. Luckily, they got their wish half way through the year. Orochimaru and Kabuto said they were going to 'tidy up some lose ends'. Naruto and Sasuke decided to sleep in for once, having nothing better to do. What they weren't expecting was one of them to open the door and try to make an advance on Sasuke. Sasuke growled.

 

“What do you want?”

 

“I've been exposed, haven't I? However... I have already made the first move.”

 

Naruto sighed.

 

“What is your objective?”

 

“I am here to... Rescue you and return to Konoha.”

 

“...”

 

“Although in the beginning, I was supposed to come here and kill you. I am going to protect Sakura-Chan's bonds.”

 

“Bonds? You woke us up... To talk about bonds?”

 

That did it. They were 'woken up' to have a chat about bonds? Both Naruto and Sasuke grabbed their swords and demolished their room with a simple jutsu, standing on top of the demolished room in the daylight. Soon enough, Sakura, another black haired Jounin and some other white haired boy appeared. Sakura was on the verge of tears. Naruto sighed. Sakura really hadn't changed much. Naruto began activating the partial cursed seal, releasing his tails, lengthening his hair and growing fangs and claws. Sasuke released his partial cursed seal as well. Naruto's tails waved in the wind, twitching in what Sasuke recognised as excitement.akura spoke first.

 

“Sasuke-Kun...”

 

Naruto couldn't stop himself from slapping his forehead.

 

“You haven't learnt after three years have you? He was never the precious 'Sasuke-Kun' you knew. For the supposed smartest person of our year, you're pretty dense, you know?”

 

Sasuke backed him up.

 

“Naruto's right. Even he's smarter than you, the 'dobe' of the class. We don't have time to mess with you.”

 

Naruto picked one of his special kunai out of his pocket and hurled it near the front of them. They looked at it and then at Naruto. Naruto smiled and turned into a red streak that flashed down in front of the white haired boy, who was trembling.

 

“Was that...”

 

“Yes and no. Yes it was the Hiraishin, but no it wasn't the Yondaime's version. So, you're supposed to be my replacement? You fail.”

 

Naruto began unsheathing his sword.

 

“Shi-ne.”

 

Naruto brought the sword down, only to have the one who had disturbed them block it with his sword. Sasuke smirked.

 

“One guard passes.”

 

Sasuke body flickered down in the middle of the group and smirked.

 

“Chidori Nagashi!”

 

Sasuke's entire body was covered by an extended Chidori. Sakura, the Jounin and the two boys were fried and thrown away, smoke coming off their clothing.

 

Sasuke started forming a hand seal. Naruto liked where this was going. Just as Sasuke raised his hand to activate the jutsu, Orochimaru appeared and grabbed his hand. Nartuo had to stop his smile widening.

 

“Don't use that jutsu.”

 

“Let go. Now.”

 

Unfortunately, Kabuto had decided to join the party.

 

“Hey, you're speaking like that to Orochimaru again.”

 

“I've got no reason to be stopped.”

 

“You also know what Akatsuki is doing. We want these people to manage Akasuki for us. Every little bit helps. If they hinder the other Akatsuki, your revenge will alos get easier.”

 

“What a pitiful reason.”

 

“It's to help with your revenge, isn't it? It's to improve your succes rate by 1 percent, isn't it?”

 

Sasuke relaxed and Orochimaru dropped his hand. Nartuo turned to the Konoha ninjas.

 

“We'll meet again.”

 

Orochimaru brought forth a wall of purple flames to hide their escape. They had started running to their next appointed hide out. Luckily, it was only the four of them. Nartuo made a slight twitch of his head to indicate they should start. Nartuo increased his speed slightly, using a special Kinjutsu to stab his sword through Kabuto's back. Kabuto tried to futily block it with a kunai, however, both of their swords could not be blocked due to their design. It shattered the kunai and punctured Kabuto's lung. Orochimaru stopped, looking at them in interest. Naruto decided not to underestimat Kabuto's healing abilities and cut off his head. This is where the fight would really start. Orochimaru attempted to make them both submit via the cursed seals, but was shocked when the seals didn't respond.

 

“Impossible!”

 

“Do you really think my modification of the cursed seals was only for looks? You're pretty stupid for the genius of the Sannin.”

 

Both Naruto and Sasuke charged. Nartuo brought out a good deal of his special kunai and littered the area with them. Orochimaru had brought out his own sword and had begun engaging Sasuke in Kinjutsu. Naruto flashed towards a kunai that Orochimaru was being forced back to and tried to attack from behind. Orochimaru deflected the attack and then went back to attacking Sasuke. Although Orochimaru had taught both of them, he was still far better than either one of them. Together though, they had unrivalled co ordination. Swords danced though the air, clanging against each other before the wielders moved back into ready stances for the briefest moment before going into another strike. Orochimaru went in for a strike when he saw an opening that Sasuke had intentionally made. Sasuke parried and redirected the blow, causing Orochimaru to lose balance for a moment. A moment was all Naruto needed. He body flickered forward and slashed Orochimaru's head cleanly off. Nartuo stared at the body, which was still twitching.

 

“Your spirit may be immortal, but even if you lose your head, you'll still die, right?”

 

The only answer Naruto got was the body stopped twitching. Both Naruto and Sasukenoticed thattheir cursed seals pulsed and the small sealed part of Orochimaru's soul died, leaving them with thecursed seals with nobrainwashing attempts.Naruto picked up Orochimaru's head while Sasuke picked up Kabuto's. They placed a special sealing jutsu they had been taught on th heads to stop the DNA from self destructing as it did when the body died. They had carried out many assassinations in their stay with Orochimaru, so learning this jutsu was essential. Naruto pulled out two duffel bags, handing one to Sasuke, which he put Kabuto's head in. Naruto put Orochimaru's head in the other and they both sealed them. Naruto sighed. They had more than enough money to survive a year without doing missions, but the price on these two would extend that further. IT was only a matter of who would pay the most for it. Naturally, since Orochimaru had a hatred for Konoha, and showed it with his history of picking off Konoha nins at whim, they would most likely pay the highest price. Naruto and Sasuke knew there was a town close to here, where they could get a messenger bird to takke the message of Orochimaru's death there. Naruto turned to Sasuke who was thinking the same thing.

 

“First thing though, we seriously gotta get some new clothes.”

 

Sasuke smirked. It was settled. The second phase of their plans had been completed. Naruto quickly collected his special kunai from around the area and then followed Sasuke through the light forest towards the village.

 

&&&&&&&&&&&&&a mp;&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&a mp;&&&&&

 

A/N: Sorry if this chapter was vague, but I did say I would only include the most important parts of their three years with Orochimaru. Also, sorry if the fight scenes were a bit undescriptive.