The Awakened Soul (Naruto SI)

[Welydora]

Barely ten minutes after I was created, I was already hovering over the Village Hidden in the Grass.

Nothing special, really—lots of stone buildings shinobi can slap together fast, worn-out streets, and that's it. Sure, it was way better than the Land of Waves, but it was still nowhere near Konoha.

The country Grass is in sits between the Lands of Fire and Earth. And during one little war—if I remember right—my body's "dad" (the one from before the upgrades) and his genin squad blew up a crucial supply bridge here. Kannabi Bridge. That pretty much put a period on the war.

Also, from my meta-knowledge, there was supposed to be some kind of shinobi prison here with some freaky-ass thing inside… except I never found anything about it in the Leaf's textbooks. No prison. At least, nothing that sticks out.

And now, after flying over the whole damn country, I'm only more convinced there's nothing here from my memories. Just another village like a bunch of others—getting dragged through the Great Villages' wars. This one, specifically, survives by leaning on "diplomacy."

I dropped onto the roof of a prism-shaped building—basically their knockoff Hokage Residence—and the only ninja on duty stared at me like I'd fallen out of the sky.

A guy in the swamp-green uniform they wear here, with a stupid look on his face.

"Uhh…" was all he managed. Truly a master of words.

"I'm an envoy from Konoha. Take me to whoever's in charge. His name's Hayame Juro," I added, remembering who the letter was addressed to.

"Kid, how the hell did you do that?" He pointed at the sky, then dragged his finger down, miming flight.

…

Instead of answering, I just raised an eyebrow and asked, "You're not local, are you? Because you sure as hell don't look like a shinobi from the 'diplomatic village.'"

"Uhh—!" he started to get offended, then finally noticed my Konoha forehead protector. "Huh?! Wait, you're actually from the Leaf?!"

"Yeah. Now move your ass."

Eyes bulging, he spun around, yanked open the door he'd been guarding, and—straight-up forgetting I existed—bolted inside.

Blinking a couple times, I walked in at a normal pace. My sphere-sight sees the whole building anyway; either I'd spot where this weirdo ran, or I'd find someone with a longer attention span on the way.

I didn't. The local chief that shinobi ran to, instead of sending someone to fetch me, started riding his subordinate about what the hell even happened. And when he finally got it on the third try, he immediately started pressing even harder—like, are you sure I'm Uzumaki?

I got there pretty fast and opened the door on the two of them.

A long, skinny old man around sixty, slicked-back gray hair, dressed in the same swampy colors but way neater, was looming over that rooftop guard. The old man's face was pissed as hell.

But the moment I showed up—less than a second—his eyes flicked over my face, went wide like he hadn't actually believed his underling, and then narrowed into flattering little slits.

"Jinchūriki-sama," he said, taking a wide step toward me, away from his shinobi. "What brings you to our humble village?"

"Blood," I snapped.

His eyes widened again for a moment.

Noting the reaction and giving a satisfied little hum, I added, "I'm Uzumaki. I know you've got my relatives living here."

I reached for my bracer, pulled the letter out of a seal, and tossed it onto the floor in front of him.

Those slit-eyes cracked open again.

Yeah. Zero self-control. And this guy calls himself a diplomat.

"Konoha has something to say about this, too."

He lowered his gaze and spotted the Hokage's seal.

Hayame started sweating—half from the irritation of being humiliated like that, half from fear.

As the head of a "diplomatic" village, he understood a lot. Jinchūriki are always dangerous, even the young ones. Yagura became Mizukage around that age, and after getting a tailed beast he should've been even stronger. And on top of that, the kid in front of him was an Uzumaki—whose relatives Grass had apparently been using in a pretty damn inhuman way. If he pissed me off, this could end in a slaughter.

Even scarier: jinchūriki are the balance of the world. Even if Grass somehow managed to get rid of this blond, Konoha would be very likely to start a war Kusa wouldn't survive. They're diplomats; they're used to feeding people bullshit with a smile, not swinging metal around.

Sure, a world war would come later, once the other Great Villages learned a bijū had vanished. But by the time they got moving, Grass would already be ruins.

So, better safe than sorry, the Grass leader decided to fold—he crouched down and picked the letter up off the floor.

Supposedly there were "claims" inside… and Hayame was already screwed before he even read a word. Just by showing up, this Uzumaki had put him on all fours—literally. So what the hell was in that letter?!

Tense, the Grass leader started reading.

While the boss was busy, the rooftop guard—seeing I wasn't stopping him—washed himself out of there, and it was just me and this lanky bastard.

As he read, his face got sadder and sadder. Yeah. Makes sense.

In short, Hiruzen—playing the wise, slick-ass leader—first expressed official "joy" and "concern" about the "recently discovered" fact that surviving Uzumaki were living in the Village Hidden in the Grass. Then he immediately appealed to an ancient, unbreakable treaty between Konoha and Uzushio, according to which the Leaf is the official patron and security guarantor for every clan member. So he moved the whole letter from "a simple request" into "a lawful, legally justified demand," basically shoving Hayame's face into the fact he'd violated an international agreement.

That "agreement with the Uzumaki" was heavily exaggerated, same as its legal weight. But the Grass leader swallowed it—and got impressed.

Next, disguising a threat as friendly concern, the Hokage expressed "regret" over the "inhumane" exploitation of the Uzumaki's healing abilities. He subtly hinted that such desperate methods could be seen by neighbors as a sign of military weakness, dealing a crushing blow to Grass's reputation—the most valuable asset for a village of diplomats. That move pressured him psychologically and also showed Konoha knew about Grass's internal problems, making their position even more vulnerable.

Near the end, Hiruzen offered a "civilized" way out: immediately transferring every Uzumaki into Konoha's jurisdiction and paying "compensation" for years of service, letting the incident get resolved without extra publicity. In other words, an ultimatum—a carefully thought-out diplomatic maneuver that left the Grass leader no choice except to obey. Refusing wouldn't just mean losing face and reputation—it would mean a direct conflict with a Great Village that has both "legal" and "moral" high ground. A nice little diplomatic zugzwang.

And at the very end, Hiruzen added he'd like to see his colleagues in Grass show "nobility." That they'd pay for their mistakes out of their own pockets, not out of innocent civilians' taxes. And for that, Hiruzen would be sending inspectors from Konoha.

That last part the old Konoha fossil added at my request, whining that Ibiki has something to learn from me. I told him it was totally fair, and we, like… we should fuck over the people who aren't us.

"Better start getting your property ready, Juro," I noted with a smile when I saw from his doomed face that he'd finished reading.

"Of course, Uzumaki-sama," he mumbled, eyes lowered, still saying it in a tone like he meant it. But his chakra made it crystal clear how miserable he was.

He got hit with such crushing sadness it felt like if I told him to go to the main square, pull his pants down, and chop off his dick, he'd be less upset. Looks like he doesn't have much to his name, and Konoha demanded a lot. After paying it all, someone's gonna end up out on the street with his colleagues—bare ass, and still with debts.

Though yeah, I lied about the "fairness." In the future, I can imagine Karin and I might get closer. And considering what these devils did to my possible—like, if you look really far into a possible future—mother-in-law… after they pay everything, it wouldn't hurt to write numbers on their foreheads.

But that's future shit. And even if it comes to revenge, I won't be first in line, or even second. I'll be third.

After that we clarified details: the inspection schedule for the near future; I, sensing lies, reviewed the full list of "debtors" so I could point out exactly who to check. Later I also walked through their properties to document everything, so Leaf people could track it and make sure it all goes where it's supposed to.

Meanwhile, while we worked… no, Hayame's people didn't bring me Karin's mother or other Uzumaki—because they weren't here. But the events were tied to that woman.

Secret Shadow Clone Uzumaki Naruto's POV

Walking into the Grass leader's place can, in a lot of cases, put the whole village on alert. While the other clone went to Hayame, I—the clone—went to the Uzumaki mother right away. So Grass shinobi wouldn't have a chance to reach her first and, just in case, grab her as a hostage.

Paranoia. But what if?

In front of me stood a small, old house. This was where I felt chakra similar to Karin's. And inside was a woman with very noticeable red hair.

No guards at all. I walked up, knocked, and the door opened soon after.

First confused, then staring in shock at the Konoha forehead protector on my brow, a tall woman appeared—about thirty-five. She wore a white dress and a soft lilac floor-length cloak, tied in a bow at the chest. Gray eyes. Straight hair cut to her chin, parting to either side of her face—kinda like her daughter's. And a tired face.

"Hello. I'm Uzumaki Naruto. Can I come in?" I asked, and at the sound of my last name her eyes widened even more.

After a brief pause, she nodded and let me in. The place looked pretty poor.

"My name is Akane," she said, closing the door. "What brings a child from Konoha to this backwater? Uzumaki… I didn't think any of us were still alive."

Pretty soon she led me—friendly, but not quite—to a low table and poured tea. "Not quite," because Karin's mom kept glancing at me with a blank face, while her eyes stayed sharp as hell.

"Family, I guess. And don't call me a child. I'm already an adult."

For a moment something like Yeah, sure flashed in her eyes, but when she noticed my face twitch, she just nodded.

"Fine. I'll take it as given. You wanted to talk?"

"Not only." I shook my head and held my hand out, bending fingers down one by one. "First I wanted to tell you I know your daughter. Then I wanted to brag about my capabilities. And then I wanted to offer you a move to Konoha. Consider it this way: out of pure kindness and attachment, I decided to solve all your problems. All that's left is picking a little house in the Leaf and packing your stuff here."

"Mhm…" After listening, her face turned thoughtful. Not like she was considering the offer—more like she was doubting my mental health.

"Ahem," I cleared my throat. "Okay. Let's move on to the real arguments."

Focusing for a moment on my link with the clone, under Akane's stunned stare a break opened in space beside me, and a hand stuck out holding a letter.

When I took it and set it on the table in front of her, the break closed.

"That was an S-rank space-time technique," I said calmly. "And I have way more destructive techniques in my arsenal. Also… I'm a jinchūriki."

Akane flinched.

"Y-you said you know my daughter… What do you and Konoha want from us?"

I sighed.

"I didn't want to scare you. But I needed you to take me seriously. And first of all… we're—maybe distant, but family…"

Akane's piercing eyes didn't leave me. But her feelings were a whole storm. She couldn't fully believe me—especially my selfless desire to help. Considering how she lived here, she must've formed the kind of worldview where everyone always wants something from her. Like they wanted her to heal shinobi here. Still, my looks mattered—I didn't look like some hardened politician, I looked like a teen who might actually have some decent feelings.

A faint smile showed on my face.

"Karin wasn't easy to convince either. You raised her well, Akane-san. Read the letter—it's from the Hokage to the local chief."

Her face was still full of contradictions. What exactly I'd convinced her daughter of, and how, wasn't clear, but it was scary anyway. But at the same time, my face, posture—everything was open, like I wasn't about to do anything bad.

She carefully took the letter and read.

While she did, I sipped tea. Tasty, by the way.

"This…" She was practically speechless after finishing.

"Exactly. Grass will pay for your service—and yes, to you specifically. And yeah, I can promise you this: in Konoha nobody will force you to do anything. Same for your daughter. If you want, we can put her through an accelerated course at the Ninja Academy. Or you can stay far away from that craft and just live however you want."

"But… I still don't understand. What's the benefit for you?"

I closed my eyes.

Why is she so damn smart? Always hunting for a catch. I mean, sure—this trait probably helped my relative survive this long. But it makes my life harder. It would be easier if she just believed in my holiness and happily ran after me to Konoha squealing… though honestly, my psyche probably wouldn't have survived that specific kind of cringe.

"I'll repeat it. We're related by blood. And also I… I'm just looking for a circle to hang with. Right now we don't mean much to each other. But in the future that can change."

Her sharp gaze landed on me again, and emotions flickered in it… sympathy and understanding?

"I… understand. Karin needs someone she can just talk to, too. And we accept your offer, Naruto-san."

"Awesome," I said, smiling like a satisfied cat.

Mu-ha-ha-ha! See? Looking like a teenager can actually help. I'm sure she finally saw me as just a kid who lacked companionship. That's a deep enough reason. And it's a reason she gets. Because her daughter, in a strange village, probably didn't make good friends either. So she projected Karin's loneliness onto me.

I waved my hand, and a passage opened next to us. And inside it, under the woman's shocked stare, appeared…

A Little Earlier. Second Shadow Clone Uzumaki Naruto's POV

Walking with Karin holding onto my arm, I felt this kind of tremble coming off her toward me. Still, my relatively plain look seemed to smooth it out. And judging by the looks sliding to our hands, the contact calmed her down.

We'd just left the Konoha department that handles property sales inside the village. With the keys in hand, we were heading to check out a house. I suggested we look at this one first, and my relative agreed.

Most of the time she stayed quiet, gathering her thoughts. Only now did she ask a serious question:

"So… what's going to happen to me and Mom?"

"You'll just live here. Like I said," I shrugged. "We'll buy a house now, maybe. This one looks good."

We walked another dozen meters in silence.

"We don't have that kind of money…" she said.

"Not a problem. I can buy you ten houses. Don't worry."

She looked at me again, still quiet. Then, with resolve, she finally started:

"I don't want to live in debt. How can I be useful to you… or Konoha?"

And she stared at me like: If it won't hurt my mother, and it lets us live here safely, I'll agree to anything.

"Hah." I snorted. "If it's that important to you, you and your mom are already rich enough to buy a few houses and live here your whole lives without working."

"Huh?"

By that point, the first clone had finished the meeting with the Hokage, so I told her how much money her mother was going to get from Grass. So much it'd be enough for grandkids, and even great-great-grandkids, if you don't blow it all like an idiot.

"W-what?!" she blurted, shocked. "But… it hasn't even been half an hour…"

"The power of clones! Ha-ha!"

With my laughter, we reached the place.

"By the way, about why I wanted to check this house first." I pointed with my free hand at a mansion nearby. "My house is right there. You can come over whenever you want. I can even set aside a room for you permanently."

Karin looked where I pointed, then looked back at me.

"Should we go in this one now?" I asked, nodding at a sturdy, reasonably spacious house.

"Yeah…"

I clicked the lock and we stepped into the entryway. Took off our shoes, went into the living room… and with a quiet sound, space split into a diamond shape next to us, then stretched into a doorway about two meters by one and a half.

On the other side, frozen, stood a woman with gray eyes and red hair. The clone, turned into chakra, rushed into me and dispersed.

Slowly turning her head and lifting it a little, Karin asked:

"Naruto… are you a god?"

"More like a shinobi," I answered with a smirk to the younger redhead, then turned to the older one.

She was staring blankly at our joined hands.

"Uh… Akane-san, there's nothing between us. Don't stare like that…"

The woman's eyes widened. She looked back—there was no clone anymore—then looked at us again. Then she stepped uncertainly through the portal, throwing an uncertain glance behind her as it smoothly closed.

Akane looked at her daughter with something like relief.

Karin looked at our hands with a whole cocktail of emotions, then finally loosened her grip, pulled her hand free, and waited with impatience on her face until Akane stepped out fully.

"This…" Akane started, but didn't get to finish.

"Mom!" Karin rushed her and almost knocked her over.

She tried to keep her emotions under control, but here she just snapped.

She jumped onto the woman, clinging tight, and then… relief hit her like a wave. Her mom was here—her own person, someone she could rely on—and it was like a weight fell off her shoulders.

Akane, obviously, hugged her daughter warmly.

They stayed like that for about twenty seconds while I just stood off to the side.

But all good things end, or so Karin probably thought, when Akane finally lifted her head and turned it toward me.

"Sorry, Naruto-san. We're probably holding you up."

"Eh, it's fine." I waved a hand. "I'm a shadow clone, and you're not distracting the original from his exam. Let's check the house—and if you don't like it, we'll go to the next one."

After that… I got hit with a whole flood of gratitude from two Uzumaki. My help before felt unreal to them, but now that they'd reunited, it finally sank in that this was all actually happening.

And then we did what I'd suggested.

The place got approved, and when Karin mentioned I lived nearby, it was bought without much hesitation. Of course, you can't do everything in a day, and Akane would have to mess with paperwork. But with me, it won't take long—we already paid the deposit today, and what's left is just formalities.

Next came the move. Grabbing things with chakra threads and wrapping them in chakra, I worked like a whole crew of movers. So in no time, all their stuff was transferred.

Then we went shopping. Basically, it was work for the whole day and then some. But that was already a few hours later, after they received the first funds from Grass… and for that, like for the earlier help, I got a whole lot of thanks from Akane and Karin.

Meanwhile, the original was going through the second stage of the exam.

---

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[Lillie Jones]

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[sergey54321060]

So Naruto is clearly interested in Karin, but would he go for oyakodon as well?

 

[Welydora]

A bit earlier. Original Uzumaki Naruto

We walked up to a training ground I knew. Heh… way back when, I trashed two booths here. Wonder if the wildlife's still just as cocky.

A tall chain-link fence blocked our way to a forest of massive trees. Shi no Mori—the Forest of Death, that's what they called this place. Gigantic trees, nearly a hundred meters tall, and the local fauna matched. Basically, everything was the same as ever.

When everyone finally made it, Anko started her speech, and I got to checking out the crowd.

All my old classmates passed the first stage, same as Guy's team. There were also a few more Konoha teams—one of them had Kabuto with two shinobi I didn't recognize. Suna's team—the one with the Kazekage's kids—made it through too, along with a couple other Suna teams. Then there were teams from Rain, one from Hidden Waterfall, and one from Grass. And in that last one sat a very well-known shinobi who, for now, was disguised and not drawing attention.

But he got mine. I turned my head his way.

Hiruzen's student. One of the Sannin. An S-rank international criminal. Orochimaru. The guy was squatting with his "bros" about ten meters from me. Feminine face, and a Chinese-style straw hat on his head. Right now, with that nasty grin on his face, the three of them looked like some local street hoodlums.

This chunin exam was clearly not your standard one. Not only was Gaara a straight-up monster, according to the intel, but some deserter of this caliber also squeezed his way in here.

My meta knowledge was still with me. And I knew this specific snake was chasing two goals at once.

First: he was looking for a vessel for himself. Orochimaru has a technique where—like I understand it—he swaps bodies with his chakra, grabbing the vessel's chakra and genes along with it. He has to find a new body every three years, because all the bodies he's taken start breaking down over time, eventually rejecting Orochimaru and straight-up rotting. And an exam like this is a perfect place to find a good candidate—maybe someone with strong enough genes not only to be a "spare," but also something interesting to dissect, figuratively and literally.

Second, the main one: he was planning an attack on the Leaf, and Hiruzen's murder. Between him and his teacher—the Third Hokage, Hiruzen—there's old beef. Orochimaru's still pissed his sensei didn't name him successor and didn't make him the Fourth Hokage. Plus, as I know, the old man also didn't let the poor little snake go around gutting Konoha citizens… and the snake didn't listen, which ended with him getting exiled. So from Orochimaru's point of view, this was Big and Righteous Revenge.

For all that, Orochimaru cut a deal with the Kazekage, who also wouldn't mind hitting the Leaf. Right now the Sannin came for the first goal, and also—apparently—to do some recon and keep his finger on the pulse for the second.

That's enough for me to wait until this clown goes deeper into the woods and then, from the bottom of my kind heart, smack him so hard they'd be collecting bits of him all over the Forest of Death. Like, who the hell does he think he is?

But why rush?

I could do the opposite—let him pull off his plans. Because I could squeeze some profit out of him, and it came down to three points.

First, and the biggest one: according to my meta knowledge, Orochimaru—crooked as hell but still—will later, during the third stage of the exam, resurrect the First and Second Hokage to fight Hiruzen. I once looked into Edo Tensei—Impure World Reincarnation—but the technique isn't really polished, and Orochimaru might add some interesting details to the jutsu. I could just steal them by watching and copying from the sidelines. That alone is a nice little bonus. But even more important: his resurrection will 100% work, and it won't bring any backlash onto me.

In this world, dragging the dead back is considered disgustingly vile. If I resurrected the First and Second Hokage of the Leaf myself, they wouldn't exactly be eager to help me. But if Orochimaru does it, and then I help beat him—now that's a whole different story. I'll definitely get at least a shot at finding out something from Hashirama and Tobirama. At minimum, I'll get to see real Mokuton. And maybe, if the stars line up, the First will tell me how he learned Sage Mode—how he managed to absorb natural chakra spread across the entire planet.

Second point: Orochimaru will bring an army with him. The Gato cartel is almost done for. And that army can be taken and burned as expendable resources.

I can always delete Orochimaru—before the exam, after the exam, doesn't matter. I know he's hard to kill. But against my power, he's got nothing… He'll be a puppet in my hands: do what I need, and die when I need.

Thinking all that, I stared right at the disguised snake like he was already my slave, and like some scene out of a gachimuchi vid, I bit my lip and slowly shook my head.

He noticed, and no… he didn't start staring back. Instead, he let out that long tongue and slowly licked his lips.

Heh-heh. This guy's in the know too.

Too bad it wasn't very authentic, since Orochimaru was in a female body right now.

Luckily for my girls—and especially for the integrity of their mental health—they didn't notice. Though some dude standing nearby kept side-eyeing me and the snake like he was thinking:

'Bro, are you even okay? Why are you flirting with that scarecrow? Look at the examiner's tits—she's a goddess compared to that Grass kunoichi!'

After that little performance, my thoughts slid to the third point of my "profit." From my meta knowledge, I'm guessing Orochimaru's currently tied to Danzo—the already-fired elder who's supposedly got no power anymore, since he "doesn't have" Root ANBU operatives. Except I know he does have some. And if he has some, then what? Then he needs to share. Ahem.

I mean, it doesn't massively bother me, but it still annoys me that there's a radical old bastard sitting around with a mini—maybe even a mini-mini—army that he can use to cause trouble. On top of that, that radical old bastard has Shisui's eye, which is supposedly insanely strong, and I wouldn't mind having it myself. And since he's connected to Orochimaru, I'll use the snake to shove both those dangerous elements into the grave—and shove their resources into my pocket.

Honestly, I won't even have to manipulate Orochimaru much. He'll do almost everything himself. The snake's probably already calculating how much force he needs against the Leaf—or rather, since you can't build that overnight, the forces are basically ready already, and this visit is just the final touches and scouting. And to make him mobilize forces he doesn't have, but Danzo does… I was already sketching out a plan.

Putting on a normal face, I gave Sakura a promising look. She immediately flinched and turned to me.

"Um… Naruto, sorry, but I feel like you just thought of something I'm not gonna like."

Holy shit. She's perceptive…

Hinata, reacting to her words, turned to us with interest.

"Don't worry about it," I said, putting a hand on Sakura's shoulder. "I'll tell you later…"

"Hm…" My teammate got super suspicious.

"It'll… help you on your Path," I said, keeping it short.

Sakura thought for a second, then nodded firmly and turned back to the examiner. Hinata, watching this, threw us a weird look, shrugged, and copied Sakura's motion.

Meanwhile, Anko said, "…But before we start, you need to sign this paper." She waved it. "Here you confirm that during the second stage of the chunin exam, the examiners are not responsible for your life! This is serious. Some of you won't leave this forest!"

She finished with a big smile and looked over the crowd. Someone immediately had something to say.

"So the exam is that dangerous…" Shikamaru muttered, unhappy as hell.

Anko took it like a question and answered with obvious glee. "You have no idea how bad it is. This place is full of mutated animals. Not only are they way bigger than normal, a lot of them are extremely poisonous."

"What do we have to do in the exam?" Ino asked, raising her hand next to Shikamaru.

"Yeah, I'm getting to that. Hand these out."

Mitarashi passed sheets to a genin nearby and continued.

"In order. After you sign, your whole team goes to those shinobi over there." She pointed at ninjas in the distance hanging curtains on some beams. "They'll issue you either a Heaven Scroll or an Earth Scroll."

She pulled them from behind her back and showed them off: a light one and a dark one, with kanji in the middle.

"Then you'll be assigned to one of forty-four gates, and at the appointed time, they'll be opened. The exam itself is to obtain two different scrolls," she said, holding them forward so even the dumbest could follow, "and unseal them in the tower in the center of the forest."

Then Anko hid the scrolls behind her back and pulled out a very simple map of the area. Pointing at the target, she continued:

"From the gates to the tower is about ten kilometers. You have five days…"

"Five days?!" Choji blurted, cutting her off. "We're getting fed, right?"

His voice was pure hope.

"No, of course not! You eat what you find. And don't interrupt me!" Mitarashi snapped. Then she swept her gaze over everyone again. "A few more rules. Opening the scrolls outside the tower is forbidden. If you reach it without your full team—fail. If one or more of your teammates can't keep fighting—also fail. Questions?"

"What if I want to quit the exam?" Shikamaru spoke up again.

"Nothing. Lie down and wait till you get killed," she said with obvious sarcasm. "You either sign and go take the exam with your team, or you don't sign and you and your team can fuck right off out of here. Any other questions?"

No more questions. The genin started reading the "we're not responsible for your ass" paper, while Leaf chunin kept setting up the scroll handout point.

Soon the teams lined up and exchanged their signed papers for scrolls. Right after that, a Konoha chunin escorted each team to one of the forty-four sealed gates.

My team got gate number nine.

Standing at the fence, my teammates stared into the forest beyond it while the chunin next to us sometimes checked his digital watch. Finally, when it showed 14:30, the shinobi immediately took off the chains holding the gate shut. After a few locks clicked, the chains dropped to the ground, and we moved in.

Jumping from tree to tree, we crossed huge distances in seconds.

After about a kilometer, we stopped in a small clearing. In a rough triangle, almost face to face, my teammates instinctively scanned the area. I didn't bother and went straight into repeating our mini-plan—the one we'd talked through before the exam even started.

"So," I said, "like I told you, I was told to keep an eye on our 'ally's' jinchuriki." I stressed that last word again, making it clear what I thought of that "alliance." I adjusted my hair, paused, and was about to continue when the Uchiha shoved his nose in.

"Naruto, I don't get it. Why are you even getting assignments from the Hokage? Last time you didn't explain shit," Sasuke said, staring like he expected more.

I glanced at him with a bit of irritation, but answered anyway. "Because I can do them. And because of special relations."

…

"Pff." Not getting anything else, the Uchiha's face twitched in annoyance and he looked away.

Still, he stayed, so I continued:

"We're splitting up. My goal is clear. Yours is to get one Heaven Scroll. Priority: take it from a team that's not from the Leaf. Like I told you, the real point of this exam is to show off the village's strength, not to stuff the chunin ranks. Because, basically, our income depends on what regular people think of us. You get it. You don't have to go all-out—do recon, for example. I don't think we'll be split longer than a day. The jinchuriki's team probably won't want to sleep in a forest full of mutated animals and venomous insects, so I'm guessing I'll regroup with you by sunset. And then, quick and easy—if you haven't done it yourselves by then—we take the scroll we need and go sleep in beds without extra 'neighbors.'"

In practice, it meant I was just going to go babysit Gaara, while my teammates tried not to die. And, if possible, do something useful.

At the end, I looked them over.

"Any questions left?"

While I talked, Sasuke kept flicking an annoyed look from Sakura to me and back. Hearing that last line, he finally decided to run his mouth:

"I'm not dealing with this dead weight again." The Uchiha glanced at Haruno.

She glared back, and I raised an eyebrow.

"Take her with you," he said. "I'll get the scroll myself."

And without letting us get a word in, Sasuke turned and bolted into the trees .

…Did piss hit his head or what? Like he trained with Kakashi a lot and now thinks he's hot shit.

Watching Sasuke disappear, my student clenched her fists.

"Naruto, can I go break his jaw?"

Her green eyes flashed.

"Sure," I said, "but it won't help. The Uchiha's useless to you, and you two probably won't be working together much anyway. Beating him up regularly to 'earn respect' isn't exactly efficient."

She grimaced, but looked back at me.

"Then how else can I help?"

Not just "get the scroll," either—she was hinting at whatever I'd thought up that "helps her Path."

"On the way here, I spotted Orochimaru. He's disguised as one of the Grass genin."

Sakura's eyes widened. Crystal clear she knew exactly who I meant.

"How about you test yourself on him?"

"Me?! You're suggesting I fight him?" She sounded seriously shaken, and a little scared.

"Exactly." I smiled to encourage her, then got a bit more serious. "I believe in you and what you can do. But I also see you don't believe in yourself. So I'm offering you a way to prove, in practice, how much you've grown."

Sakura dropped her eyes and hesitated hard.

"I'll be right there."

She looked up at me, thought for a second, then nodded firmly… and immediately got an embarrassing head-pat from me. When she puts on that serious little hamster face, she's so damn cute. I couldn't help it.

And yeah, my faith wasn't just empty words. After the body enhancement, Sakura kept growing fast under my supervision. We sparred a lot, she learned a bunch of techniques. By now, it added up.

"So this'll be after that jinchuriki reaches the tower?" Sakura asked once she got over the embarrassment.

"Yeah," I said. "For now, two options. One: you come with me—the original—and ask about Orochimaru on the way so we build your fight plan. But since we'll be watching Gaara, and he's… a pretty brutal guy, we might see some not-so-nice stuff. So option two: I leave you with a clone, and you plan in a calm setting. Or you can try without extra info, or dig it up yourself."

She thought again, weighing it.

"The first option makes me stronger… so that one," she decided, then glanced at me and looked away.

"Ooh, alright~" I said, making it obvious I knew the other reason too: she just wanted to stick around me longer. That made her get a little flustered again.

Then we moved out after the red-haired Sand shinobi.

While we traveled—hopping across dozens of trees—we didn't jump into tactics right away. Sakura had more questions:

"So if Orochimaru's here, other genin are in danger too. Did you send a clone to watch him?"

"Thinking right," I said, pleased. "But I probably won't need to interfere. I think the snake's here for an interesting specimen. Something with a really strong genome."

"So the ones in danger are you, Hinata, and… Sasuke," she said, and the last name came out with clear disgust.

"Exactly," I said. "But Hinata was the least noticeable back in the Academy. I personally took out Orochimaru's spy there, and I know he knows how our old classmates stack up. And I also know Orochimaru was really interested in the Sharingan. So I'm betting the Sannin goes straight for the Uchiha."

"Good. Serves him right," Sakura tossed out, not even asking if I was gonna save our "teammate."

After that, she finally started grilling me about what Orochimaru actually is. Meanwhile, we followed a few hundred meters behind Suna's team.

I could feel them clearly, and even see them at a distance with focused sphere-vision. With my soul power growing, that ability got way stronger—right now the Sand genin were basically in my palm.

Dozens of minutes of wandering passed. But it couldn't go on forever, and after a bit more time, that team stepped into an open clearing and finally ran into their first enemies.

A Rain genin team. All of them had umbrellas and oxygen tanks. The shortest and the average-height ones wore hoods and had hats on top. The third—biggest, and apparently the leader—only had his head wrapped in bandages.

Instead of fighting, the Sand and Rain teams started talking. I noticed other, more familiar shinobi who'd spotted those six just seconds ago. They were nearby.

Hinata's team—meaning her, plus Kiba, Akamaru, and Shino.

Sakura and I headed over. They were standing on a thick branch (well… not that thick by this forest's standards), arguing whether they should go over to those six or not.

"We'll just look! We won't jump in!" Kiba yelled at Aburame, emotional as hell.

"Bad idea, I'm telling you," Shino replied coldly. "Six of them. No point risking it when we've got plenty of time."

"Kiba-kun, I'm against it too," Hinata said politely. "Like Shino-kun says, we really do have a lot of time left. The exam just started."

"Oh, screw you guys!" Kiba growled. He crouched and jumped in the direction he smelled those genin… but he didn't even make it five meters before something grabbed him right across the back and yanked so hard it knocked the air clean out of him, flinging him back toward the branch.

"You should listen to your teammates' opinion, Kiba," I said from behind him, and then the "something" set him down on the branch.

He turned and saw threads dispersing in the wind, and me looking at him with annoyance.

"One of the teams up ahead will give you a lot of trouble. Pick a weaker target."

"Naruto! What the hell are you doing?!" Inuzuka snapped toward me, recognized me instantly, and rushed me.

He got slapped and flew off the tree.

Sakura was up on the branch with us too, and Hinata's team—meaning besides her, Shino and Akamaru, who I'd placed nearby with a thread earlier—looked at us.

"God, he's so damn rabid," I said, shaking my head. Then I looked at the others. "How's the exam going? Anyone besides those guys?" I pointed toward where something like a fight was happening between Suna and Rain.

"Good." Hinata nodded, turning off her Byakugan. "We already got the scroll we needed," she said, then shyly looked away at the end.

"Oh yeah? You're fast. Nice work," I said with a smile, stepping in and ruffling Hinata's hair.

"So why'd you show up?" Shino asked. "To visit your girl… or?"

"The first," I said, reassuring Aburame. Then I turned my head a little to the side and down, where there were already thumps of someone climbing.

A second later, a battered Kiba jumped back onto the branch. He was breathing a bit hard now, not as furious—but his eyes still said he wanted me dead.

"So," I said, "in the direction your short-sighted teammate was about to run to, there's an execution of the Rain team happening right now. One of them—like I can feel—was literally just ground into a pulp and splattered all over the clearing. The same thing's about to happen to the other two."

"…Sounds like some kind of shit. Why the hell should we believe you?!" Kiba spat, voice full of anger.

"You don't have to," I said, shrugging. "Give it a couple minutes and you'll see for yourself. Suna's team has the One-Tail's jinchuriki. If you walked into that, you could've died just as easy. That's also why I'm here."

My eyes flicked to Hinata, careful.

After my words, said in a lazy, almost melancholic tone, Kiba clenched his fists and was about to move again—but froze in place.

"The blood smell's already here," I said with a snort, sensing the air fill with that iron stink. "You feel it just fine, don't you? Anyway, I wasn't trying to put you down. I'm just stating facts. If you wanna go look, go ahead—the Sand team already left." I glanced at the stunned Inuzuka with his eyes wide open, then turned to Hinata and Shino. "Alright, good seeing you again. I'm kinda busy. We can talk about it tomorrow at the tower. I suggest you head there now. I've still got stuff to do. Bye-bye."

I waved, nodded to Sakura, and we left Team Eight alone.

After that, they still decided to check what happened to the Rain team. But when they got closer, Kiba ditched the idea—because it reeked too much of blood. The others weren't exactly dying to go stare at corpses either, so they all went straight to the destination together. Right call. The sight really wasn't pleasant. At least they'd sleep without nightmares tonight.

After that, nothing interrupted mine and Sakura's path, same as nothing interrupted Suna's. Except we ran into a weird big tiger that looked familiar. It stared at me, eyes bulging, then—clamping its hind legs onto a tree—arched its whole body and played "I'm a branch." The camouflage was pretty trash, but since it didn't touch us, we left it alone.

All in all: 118 minutes to finish the second stage. Suna's team cut the previous record in half, and Gaara reached the building without a single scratch. The examiner and ANBU would have plenty to be shocked by today.

Though Anko still hadn't made it to the designated spot yet—she was destined to show up later.

Sakura and I just stayed in the woods, kept talking about one multi-gender snake, and waited.

And it didn't even take half an hour before the snake reminded us he existed. The Sannin ran into Sasuke, and Sakura and I moved in closer so I could watch the meeting.

---

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[Lillie Jones]

thanks for the chapter

 

[Welydora]

Nearby. Third-Person POV

Uchiha Sasuke, bouncing off one tree to the next, just couldn't find a damn opponent. Hours went by, but the only things in his way were animals so fucking brazen they were basically asking to get smacked.

And yeah—Sasuke smacked them. Hard. But no scroll showed up… and the wildlife itself was usually annoying as hell, and sometimes straight-up disgusting.

Like those huge leeches—hiding behind the leaves, they'd literally drop from above the second they felt someone's chakra.

Sasuke got unlucky enough to run into a whole damn "rain" of those slimy freaks. Thank god his reflexes were good enough to dodge that filth—things like giant maggots, the size of a medium dog.

So, moving through the upper routes in the canopy, the guy kept searching for opponents. Not just to take their scroll anymore, but also to dump the anger he'd been stacking up.

Stopping by a river, Sasuke crouched down to drink. Dropping all caution, he cupped his hands and dipped them into the water. After gulping down the slightly muddy but fresh water from his dirty hands, he only then bothered washing them. And right when he was about to splash his face, he sensed someone not far off.

He sprang up. Spinning mid-jump, the Uchiha locked his eyes on the trees ahead—only for a familiar blond to step out a second later. Except something about this meeting felt sketchy.

"Oh, Sasuke-kun, you're here too?" the blond said, scratching the back of his head awkwardly. "I still couldn't get a scroll, haha. How's it going for you?"

Sasuke smelled bullshit from the first second. The way his "teammate" moved was different—not a lot, but enough. But the second he finished talking, it was obvious: that wasn't Naruto. That was a disguised enemy.

First, Naruto went to tail the Sand jinchūriki, so he should've been busy right now. Second, even if he'd somehow finished, Sasuke would never in his life believe that blond monster—somehow listed as his former classmate for god knows what reason, and who'd been beating Uchiha's ass for a third of his goddamn life—couldn't snag a scroll in a minute.

So instead of answering, the black-haired boy didn't hesitate. He flashed through six hand seals and finished on Tiger.

"Katon: Phoenix Flowers!" Sasuke roared, lungs full, and spat out a dozen small, fast fireballs at his target.

"The hell are you doing?!" the blond yelped, hopping back.

The fire shots zipped by within inches of his body, and twisting like a like a cat on a hot tin roof, he barely dodged them in time.

But for Sasuke it was just a feint to close the gap. Even while moving in, he started another set of seals, and once he hit the right distance, he barked out the next technique:

"Katon: Fireball!"

The blond didn't get to jump away in time. A torrent of roaring flame swallowed him and slammed into the ground with a heavy thud. For a few seconds, a five-meter patch was nothing but fire—until it died out, leaving a small crater of scorched earth… and in the center stood a humanoid figure made of burned clay.

"A clone?" Sasuke asked, staring at the charred spot.

"Curious… and what gave me away?" a quiet, hissing female voice sounded from behind him.

He jolted and turned.

"You think I'm gonna answer you?"

In front of him stood a kunoichi with long black hair and a Grass forehead protector. Black clothes, a beige tunic over it, cinched in a weird way with a purple sash. She was standing by a massive tree.

Pissed off his attack didn't land, Sasuke went straight to the next one.

His eyes went red, two tomoe spinning in each.

Forming a concentration seal, the Uchiha met her gaze—and with his dōjutsu, instantly slammed a genjutsu onto her mind.

The enemy froze.

Sasuke used it immediately.

He pulled thick metal wire from his sleeves, one end hooked to shuriken, and with wide swings launched it forward—snaring the kunoichi and pinning her to the tree.

Then he clamped the free end of the wire in his teeth and started another series of seals… when he noticed, surprised, how his opponent's mouth suddenly opened way too wide.

Not that she managed to do anything else.

"Katon: Dragon Flame!" A stream of fire, a couple meters thick, raced along the wire. It engulfed the kunoichi in scorching flame, turning her to ash in a second, and in just moments burned a massive hole straight through the tree—five meters across.

Breathing hard, Sasuke shut off his Sharingan. His chakra had dropped noticeably, and there was no point wasting more when the fight was obviously over.

Only—holy shit.

From above, from that same tree—nearly burned through at the base but still standing—came the sound of clapping.

"Not bad, not bad," the same hissing voice said, rougher now, after the claps.

Sasuke looked up and saw a figure that looked a lot like the enemy he'd just "burned." Except the skin was paler, purple stripes ran under the eyes, the irises had turned gold, and the pupils were stretched into snake-like slits.

"But you're still too weak," he said coldly, and then…

A terrifying pressure of chakra dropped onto the forest. The ground shuddered low, the air went icy, filling with a freezing purple aura.

For a second, Sasuke's heart felt like it stopped—then clenched painfully. Unstoppable horror seized his whole body, forced him to his knees, and wouldn't let him move. His head dipped on its own, like it wouldn't even allow him to look forward.

Only now did Sasuke realize that before this, his opponent had just been pretending to be some ordinary genin—hiding the nature of a monster whose power didn't even compare.

Orochimaru jumped down. And yeah—it was him. Sasuke recognized him from the Academy textbooks.

"You're still young, Sasuke-kun," he said in a voice that crawled under your skin. "I'm giving you a trial. At the end, you'll get a crumb of power." Orochimaru's long tongue slid across his lower lip, slow and nasty. "You just have to endure…"

His steps came closer.

"And then, if you can, come to me. I'll give you true power!"

Finishing all fired up, the Sannin formed a seal—then his neck shot forward insanely fast. His head flew the last few meters and sank its fangs into Sasuke's neck, leaving a mark near the bite: a seal shaped like three tomoe.

"I'll be waiting, Sasuke-kun," the rogue hissed one last time before his body merged with the ground and vanished.

The chakra pressure and bloodlust disappeared.

"…aAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!" Still on his knees, Sasuke took the seal like a fresh jolt of energy. He grabbed the bite spot and a gut-tearing scream ripped out of his throat.

Collapsing fully, he kept screaming from unbearable, never-ending pain. No matter how hard he clutched his neck, no matter how much he tore his voice up, it didn't ease. It felt like red-hot spikes were slowly burning through his whole body—starting at the neck and reaching all the way down to his toes. Agony swallowed his mind, dragging him into despair that got more and more unavoidable with every second.

Uzumaki Naruto's POV

Even standing a kilometer south, the distance didn't stop me at all from watching the whole Orochimaru-vs-Sasuke scuffle from start to finish. Gotta say, the Uchiha did pretty decent.

Sure, if the Sannin took him seriously, the "fight" wouldn't have happened in the first place. But watching Orochimaru get caught in a genjutsu by a twelve-year-old snot—even if only for a couple seconds—had to punch his ego right in the teeth, heh.

Sakura and I headed to our teammate and soon found him already knocked out from the pain. He'd fallen onto his back in a pretty weird kneeling-but-bent-the-other-way pose.

"What's wrong with him?" Sakura asked curiously. Then she walked up and nudged Sasuke's head with her tabi-clad foot so she could see the seal, the bite holes, and a small puddle of blood.

"It's a gift!" I announced happily. I stepped in and cheerfully lifted Sasuke up with threads, turning him with his back to me so I'd have easy access to the mark.

"A gift?"

"Yeah. Not so much for this brunette, more for me—and, by extension, you."

I slapped my palm onto the skin where the seal still was, immediately pushed chakra into his body and the fūin, and started analyzing.

"Alright, alright… the properties are slapped in rough as hell… this 'construct work' is about as close to polished as Konoha is to Suna. Mm-hm, and Orochimaru's chakra here messes with the host's mind… ah, nope, that's fine—meant to be like that. Smart, smart: angry and stupid are easier to control. So it does a brain rewrite too! And this genome's pretty interesting… no—this genome's really interesting!"

I was thinking out loud while I poked through it. Then I stopped, looked at Sakura, and realized she didn't really get it.

"Ahem. Basically, Orochimaru slapped a Cursed Seal on Sasuke. There's a genome in it that's eating his life energy right now and partially reshaping parts of his body in its own image. Later that genome will start absorbing natural chakra! But in a janky way. And the Jūin also has Orochimaru's chakra in it—it'll corrode the host's personality and make it easier for that snake to manipulate the Uchiha. So yeah. Interesting! Right?"

To that speech, she just gave me an awkward, weirdly encouraging nod.

In this version of the world, Sakura under my guidance had barely studied any iryō-ninjutsu. Genjutsu, tai, Water Release—yeah, and even Wind Release these last weeks. But medicine? Not her thing. What felt weird to her was me treating a whole Cursed Seal—one that's apparently draining the life out of our poor "teammate," and on top of that is tied to something as legendary as natural energy, and was planted by a straight-up legendary ninja—like I'd just been handed a bag of candy. Still, when Sakura seemed to remember the stuff I'd pulled before, like body enhancements, the weirdness in her eyes vanished and got replaced with: 'Okay, I guess that's normal for him.'

After that little field study—literally in the field—I wiped the blood off my hand on Sasuke's clothes with a blank face, then sent Sasuke off with a clone to my lab. The shadow clone would keep analyzing him on the analyzer in better conditions, while I stayed at the exam.

"Uh… is that even allowed?" Sakura asked, basically meaning: won't we get disqualified for, well, one of our team members leaving the Forest of Death?

"Probably not. But we're not telling anyone," I said with a grin, shrugging. Then we started prowling the forest—finishing the last touches of the plan (which Sakura built herself, just using my info), and looking for a scroll.

The scroll part was the easiest: found a team of some Suna guys, took it, and that was that. Sakura got a bit jittery about what was coming up… but she crushed it fast.

To prep, she used a B-rank technique that, in a radius of a couple kilometers right above where Orochimaru was, gathered clouds and made it rain.

Soon enough, we were getting close to the goal…

Right now, with my sphere-vision, I saw Orochimaru run into his former student—Anko, one of the proctors. I wasn't tracking her, but from my meta-knowledge I remembered she was supposed to find the bodies of those genin "from Grass" with their faces cut off, and instantly recognize her teacher's disguise method. Orochimaru was a very kind snake, yeah—just like me. After that, Mitarashi ignored her assistants' warnings and immediately went hunting for the Sannin. And only recently she'd finally met him.

When Sakura and I got there, we saw Anko standing still on a big tree branch with an injured arm—and Orochimaru right next to her.

Before we arrived, in response to Anko asking what he was doing here, the snake said the Leaf was too boring and it was time to move some pieces around. Then Orochimaru started bragging to Anko that he didn't need her anymore—he'd found himself a new heir and toy: Uchiha Sasuke. And also how pretty this Uchiha kid was, and how he was better than her at everything. Then Mitarashi, apparently getting seriously hurt by it, tried to use the forbidden technique Mutual Death of Two Snakes to kill both herself and Orochimaru. But Orochimaru easily dodged using Body Replacement, wounded Anko's arm, and activated the Cursed Seal that had been sealed on her earlier so she couldn't do anything else. They ended their talk with Orochimaru basically saying she should've brought a whole ANBU squad if she wanted even a chance—after which he started slowly sinking straight into the tree.

Whoosh-whoosh.

With a light rush of air, Sakura and I landed behind Anko. That made Orochimaru stop sinking—and even pull his legs back out onto the branch where all of us were standing.

Because of Sakura's technique, rain started falling. Before, the canopy blocked it. But she tuned the jutsu so that with our arrival, the clouds dropped lower, right into the treetops—so right now water started smacking down on us with a loud patter.

"Or you could've called one of us," I said. Then I put a hand on Anko's shoulder and sent her straight to the Hokage's office with something like Hiraishin.

"Interesting…" Orochimaru said, watching what I did.

"Your little reunion is over. Now we're gonna beat your ass."

Orochimaru paused for a second, like he was checking if he heard that right. Then his mouth stretched into a snake grin.

"Turns out you, jinchūriki, are a more interesting specimen than I thought." His eyes flashed as he glanced at the spot where Mitarashi had been standing. And yeah, no surprise he knew who I was. "But even if you do have some… talent… that's a pretty arrogant statement for such a young shinobi."

"Hmph. Nah. You're just a stepping stone for my student, so don't run your mouth at us."

Orochimaru only raised an eyebrow.

"Sakura. Go smash his face in."

---

If you enjoyed my work, feel free to check out my Patreon. There you can read up to 20 chapters ahead and get early access to any new stuff that I publish

 

[sergey54321060]

Then Mitarashi, apparently getting seriously hurt by it, tried to use the forbidden technique Mutual Death of Two Snakes to kill both herself and Orochimaru

Click to shrink...

Ahh, the "Bitch, you think I'm losing? No, WE losing" technique... Shame that we never got to see this one successfully used, even if Kishimoto sorta re-used the idea later with shinigami's seal

 

[Welydora]

The girl behind me nodded and stepped forward. I watched her go with particular satisfaction.

Up until then, my relaxed—almost downright mocking—attitude toward Orochimaru had let her completely loosen up, so now she could just as completely focus on what was coming.

When Sakura took a stance to move in, the Sannin didn't do a damn thing. But when she rushed him at a straight-up insane speed, to Orochimaru's credit, he didn't freeze. He snapped an arm out toward her, and several thick snakes with open maws shot out of his sleeve.

Sakura—and me along with her—jerked away in opposite directions from the snakes flying at us. Only when I vanished behind the trees, Haruno, in a sharp chain of jumps that even Orochimaru could barely keep track of, got behind him and swung a Wind-chakra-charged hand.

A visible white cutter burst from her palm just a couple meters from the target. But at that exact moment Orochimaru, turning his torso into something like an endlessly stretching snake, shot his upper body up into the air.

The Sannin's body got cut in half, but his upper half snagged on a big branch a good ten meters up. His mouth stretched to unnaturally huge proportions. A horrifying purple chakra washed over the area. And then, with a nasty crunching and wet squelching, a whole Orochimaru crawled out of that maw in yellowish slime. The bloodlust coming off him made it crystal clear: he was pissed as hell about what just happened, and he was trying to scare his opponent with sheer pressure.

Sakura didn't react to the chakra pressure at all, and she didn't release her own either. While the snake was still crawling out, she just held a concentration seal and prepared a technique. And only when Orochimaru got back on his feet did he notice that under and above him hung a whole bunch of water droplets, with little glinting spheres inside them.

One moment—and Orochimaru, on pure instinct, turned his body into hundreds of small white snakes that instantly rushed in all directions, dropping off the branch. Another moment—and the droplets, which apparently held concentrated Wind cores, shot out as hundreds of laser-like lines across the forest, wiping out almost all the snakes. Feeling no resistance, the beams went right through the ground and the trees too, peppering the whole area for hundreds of meters with holes.

Trees started collapsing with loud cracking, smashing into each other and the earth, opening up a patch of sky they'd been hiding.

In the noise of the heavier rain, Sakura checked the epicenter of her last attack and didn't find her enemy. That made her tense up hard, and she started looking around. She was expecting an attack from anywhere, while at the same time concentrating Water chakra in her mouth.

All so that when, after about ten seconds, Orochimaru finally showed himself, she could shoot him with an insanely fast, thin stream that—when she flicked her head—once again cut the Sannin diagonally in half.

Orochimaru was burning a lot of chakra on his techniques, especially the ones that rebuilt his body, and he couldn't keep that pace up for long. But Sakura could pretty clearly see the deserter's urge to kill her right now—an enemy who could mess with his plans later. That's what she was counting on when she prepped the technique in her mouth and waited for him to appear. What Sakura forgot in the heat of a fight against someone above her, though, was that Orochimaru is an experienced, slippery bastard in every sense, and he's got enough sneaky, asshole tricks for a whole lot of maneuvers.

She didn't immediately get why the bisected shinobi's mouth didn't open again to spit out a whole body like before, when something suddenly touched her belly from behind, near her spine. Moving insanely fast, she shifted slightly to the side and up—only to see, in shock, a long sword blade erupt from her insides, stretching out more than ten meters.

A jab of pain punched through Sakura's mind, and, grimacing, she watched as she got straight-up lifted on that blade, which whistled off into the distance. It moved faster than sound, which is why she couldn't track it by sound—well, not that she could've anyway, because the noise of the stream blasting from her own mouth drowned everything out.

Orochimaru, in his real body, watched the blade spear into a distant tree while the clone fell apart into mud. He pulled the decorated hilt out of his mouth—the blade had stretched all the way to that unremarkable spot. A snake's long tongue slid across his lips in satisfaction as he thought that was it, the unexpected splinter was dealt with. But the Sannin's face turned interested when the kunoichi, instead of just blacking out from the pain, or at least slowly bleeding out and dying, grabbed the blade.

Run through completely, she yanked herself along the edge and simply ripped her body free—making the wound way bigger, but getting loose.

Suicidal? flashed through the snake's mind as he watched her drop down toward the fallen trees. With her stomach ripped open, she should die in the next few minutes from blood loss.

Orochimaru jerked the sword back out of the wood, and under his will it quickly shrank back down to a normal hand-and-a-half sword. At the same time, with growing interest, the Sannin watched the kunoichi land and clutch her wound. From it, instead of a flood of blood, not a single drop leaked out—to the snake's surprise—and the wound even started hissing steam like it was regenerating.

"What capabilitiess-s…" Orochimaru muttered, his tongue sliding across his lips again, showing just how hooked he was.

Right then, seeing what was in front of him, the Sannin was torn between grabbing this kunoichi now and studying her clearly unique abilities and genome in his lab later… or putting the Heavenly Seal on her. Like Sasuke. So he'd have influence over her during the attack on Konoha he was planning.

All shinobi chase power one way or another—especially young ones like this specimen—Orochimaru was sure of it. How many had he fooled by dangling strength in front of them? Promise her more power, and there's a good chance she'd betray the Leaf for more strength and authority under the snake's wing. And her genome could be studied later. Of course, the Sannin wouldn't keep her for long anyway—most likely he'd take her body after Sasuke's. But who said he'd tell her that?

Hesitating, Orochimaru still decided to capture her. Right now the pink-haired kunoichi should be weakened from the wound and might not survive the seal. Better to place it under more controlled circumstances. And she could still serve as support after leaving Konoha. If she acted from the inside, she could pull off way more complex operations—but the risk wasn't worth it. Her genome was too interesting, and it wasn't clear how to deal with her after putting the cursed seal on.

Hiruzen, sure, wouldn't kill his own shinobi. But who knows what the ANBU probably already rushing here would do. Those guys aren't exactly friendly or soft-hearted. And this kunoichi isn't from one of the Village's famous founding clans like the Uchiha, and maybe her bloodline hasn't proven itself enough with the masses for operatives to tolerate a potential future traitor. And… the jinchuriki is somewhere around here too, probably waiting for a good moment, and they're not exactly known for being kind by nature. Meaning that blond might kill his own teammate with his own hands.

Quickly running it all through his head, Orochimaru rushed the girl, aiming to injure her more and grab her fast.

Closing in, he lengthened the blade, planning to skewer her again, but she reacted surprisingly fast—formed a couple hand seals and slammed her palm into the fallen tree she was standing on. Instantly, a sphere of water spun up around her from the rain and knocked the blade aside. And right after that, the water blasted outward, and an air battering ram burst from it, smashing into Orochimaru.

Under the heavy elemental pressure, the Sannin's body got dragged like a doll for ten meters, slamming into trees with loud impacts and snapping them. In under a second Orochimaru's body was wrecked—only for a new body to burst out of his maw immediately, his chakra clearly sagging.

"A wounded tiger's still a tiger," Orochimaru might've thought bitterly if he were some kind of cultivator. But right now, still blasting rage through his chakra pressure, he was just cursing his opponent in his head with every insult he knew.

The snake, surviving yet another hit, breathed hard. This too-young kunoichi was pissing him off way beyond her age. He yanked his sword out of the hand of his empty shell and turned back to the girl.

The fight was still going. Sakura, forming a few more hand seals, turned droplets of water into thousands of needles, which instantly started shredding the spot where Orochimaru had stopped, forcing him to quickly sink underground.

After that, with a big—if slightly crooked—jump, she landed on a branch a couple dozen meters up. Her hand touched her stomach, and her face twisted again. Then, nodding to herself, she formed a long series of hand seals, and around her legs, legs of water with long blades began to form.

It was a technique she'd modified: those Water Mantis Arms she'd just used, turned into legs. She'd made it so she could immediately use the long sharpened limbs to jump and bolt off into the distance.

For about fifteen seconds, Sakura just ran from Orochimaru while he chased her underground, at least according to my sphere-sight.

"Retreating?" I asked, quickly catching up and jumping alongside her. From the side, her long water legs looked pretty damn funny, launching her far ahead with rare pushes.

"Temporarily," she said. "Mobility will be back in a couple minutes."

"Good call," I nodded approvingly. "But pointless now."

After my words, under Sakura's confused look, people in ANBU masks pulled level with us through the wind noise.

We all stopped, and the mask-wearers stared at me like they were waiting.

"Orochimaru spotted you and left," I said. "So you can leave too."

They started exchanging awkward glances.

"Yeah, yeah, all of you. Shoo." I waved my hand. "We've got a Chunin Exam here, don't get in the way. What if they count you as outside help and we don't get promoted?"

One of the masked guys stepped forward, looking skeptical as hell, like he wanted to say something—but in the end he changed his mind. He nodded, and the ANBU left.

"Let me just do it faster," I said when we were alone. I walked up to Sakura, put my hand on her stomach, and in a few seconds healed the nasty wound.

"Thanks," she said, nodding gratefully when it was over.

"Sure. You did really damn well!" I said. "Of course, not without mistakes… a lot of them. But the main thing is the end result. Still, tell me: why didn't you use a Clone-and-Substitution combo?"

Sakura went quiet and looked incredibly awkward. It was obvious she could've gotten away with a serious, but only through-and-through wound, which would've bothered her way less and healed faster. Instead, she, showing off… toughness? dragged the blade out literally through her side.

After that I picked apart another couple dozen mistakes—less noticeable, but important—and she started looking downright mega-awkward.

"Still, experience is built on mistakes," I finished in an encouraging tone. "Even if your path's only just started, you felt for real how high your level is. A legendary shinobi could've died by your hand several times today. And now that you understand his battle "handwriting" even better, your chances in the next fight only go up. Sakura, you've grown a lot, and you'll get way better. And I'm really proud of you."

After my words, her mood became not just awkward, but seriously embarrassed. Still, I saw her shoulders straighten just a little.

Her path and effort now showed, in real life, that they actually meant something. She clearly got more confident, and the gratitude in her eyes toward me became even deeper.

Sakura didn't find words to say back. But her expression said everything that needed saying.

And after that, we… No, we didn't go to the Forest of Death tower. Sakura went for a walk through the forest itself, to see how our former classmates were doing, while I personally went to the lab to see what the clones had dug up.

The data turned out… not very clear.

The cursed seal is tied pretty hard to how senjutsu works, and I don't know that stuff that well. And there wasn't much data on that art at all, so there wasn't much to study. Natural energy is powerful, but dangerous. And usually only a tiny number of people—literally, a handful on the whole planet—can master it, so it's not surprising the info is scarce.

Still, I managed to understand the gist and almost all the operating principles of the Heavenly Seal. And I also figured I could remove a certain piece of it—something that, in my opinion, is basically a vestigial bit.

With that data, I woke the Uchiha on the same cot where not that long ago I'd treated Guy too.

"How'd you sleep?" I asked bluntly from beside him, and Sasuke, opening his eyes, immediately grabbed his neck where the Juin was.

"…Fine," he said, almost surprised.

"What's the last thing you remember?"

"A fight with some shinobi. A bite. Darkness."

"Got it. Well, I've got good news for you!" I said, cheerfully raising my hands like I was congratulating him on a holiday. "You ran into Orochimaru, one of the three legendary ninja of the Leaf! And not just ran into him—you were lucky enough to clash with him and somehow survive. But your luck didn't end there! A kind Uncle Snake gifted you his cursed seal, and you were lucky enough to survive the installation too! Thing is, from this point on it's not so good for you anymore… Interested?"

I blinked innocently and lowered my hands.

From the start of the talk, little sparks of understanding started showing up in the Uchiha's gaze. Now his emotions shifted from confusion to worry, and then—after he realized who exactly he'd run into—to a very tense anticipation of what they'd shoved into him.

Sasuke knew perfectly well what a cursed seal was and that they're used first and foremost to control people. So no, positive expectations didn't even crawl into his head.

"So," I said. "If we really simplify it: this Juin, like any other, you can instinctively release to different degrees, and also suppress. It's based on a really damn cool genome that will absorb natural energy instead of you. First, the pros. The more of your body the released seal covers, the more chakra it absorbs and crams into you. That gives a serious boost to your body—speed, strength—and also your techniques. If you learn to use it properly, the effect gets straight-up multiplied."

After that, Sasuke looked surprised, even thoughtful. But he still asked, "What are the cons?"

"The first and most obvious: not every body can handle absorbing sen-chakra. The fact you survived is big luck. Or rather, anyone can handle it—but only to a certain extent. Figuring out that extent isn't the seal's job, it's the job of a crooked kekkei genkai. It tuned itself to you, and now even if you absorb too much sen-chakra, that leads to the second con. And even if your chakra power grows, the limit will follow it. But this genome isn't perfect. The excess sen-chakra that would turn you to stone, it converts into aggressive Yin, which lets you live, but also makes you go berserk. And besides that, sen-chakra consumes your chakra, so the boost isn't eternal. You drain yourself—you die anyway. And now… ready for the biggest con?"

The Uchiha, already not in the best mood, nodded uncertainly.

"There's a piece of Orochimaru's consciousness in the seal!" I said. "And while you use the seal, you'll be going insane! Your personality will dissolve under Orochimaru's Yin! Your values will crumble. Your goals will become nothing. Only the desire to obey Orochimaru will become your main landmark, and the center of the world!"

Sasuke opened his mouth, and despair started crawling over his still-aristocratic face.

Still, soon I cheered him up.

"Of course, for you specifically, you'd need to use the seal a whole damn lot for that," I said. "For years. But yeah, in general, that's the result."

"Uh…" Sasuke stumbled. "Can this be… fixed somehow?"

And he stared at me with hope. Nothing surprising—because I was always above him, better, so I could know what he didn't.

"It can," I said, nodding properly. "But for now—partially. Removing Orochimaru's consciousness isn't a problem. I checked the Juin, and that Sannin tied a lot of it to himself. But I can retie stuff way worse than that, and set it up so everything's fine. We'll just shift those processes onto your own Yin—then it'll even be easier for you to activate and suppress it. As for the berserk thing from excess sen-chakra… that's a problem, but you, fuck, got lucky again. Because unlike the carriers of that genome, by controlling the Juin, you control how much sen-chakra gets absorbed. And as long as it's not too much, with practice you'll be able to keep yourself under control."

After my explanation Sasuke thought. Like, really thought. His face went shadowed. His fingertips twitched. And then, about ten seconds later, with a loud exhale, he turned his head to me and… asked:

"Could you do it… for me? Remove Orochimaru's consciousness."

A grin appeared on my face. "And what can you offer me for it?"

"I…" He opened his mouth and froze.

Suddenly Sasuke's eyes widened as he realized that, yeah, he's the heir of a clan and all that, but basically a bum. Uzumaki has money, and Sasuke doesn't have, like, a whole lot more. And services like that usually aren't done for cash. Selling off clan techniques… does he even need them? I mean, I specialized in fuinjutsu and medical ninjutsu, not Fire Release and genjutsu. Or… do I still need them?

There was also the option of asking the village for help. But unlike me, Sasuke wasn't on that kind of close terms with the local bosses. And in general, considering what I'd already pulled—like using Hiraishin, an S-rank technique—there was a really good chance I actually could remove the Juin of an S-rank missing-nin. While the village… Sasuke, even when he was little, still felt the villagers' contempt toward his clan, and because of that he didn't really trust them. Plus the thought that the Leaf could demand way more than I would just kept pushing into his head.

On that last one, if Hiruzen could hear Sasuke's thoughts, he'd laugh himself sick. But overall Sasuke's logic was sound.

"I… can offer you access to the clan library," Sasuke finally said. "But with one condition."

"Oh…" I said, surprised. "Selling secret knowledge that generations of your ancestors spilled other people's—and, more importantly, their own—blood for is… immoral. What's the condition?"

"You mustn't spread that knowledge."

"No."

"…No?" Sasuke blinked.

"Exactly," I said. "I'm not going to clutch every fact just to 'stay the best of the best.' I don't need it, and it's actually harmful. It would only get in the way of humanity's future progress. I'm planning something like taking over the world, and there are a lot of smart people besides me. With that condition I'd just be tying my own hands if I ever wanted to turn that knowledge into something bigger. Even if it's far in the future. And as for your payment—that's not enough. But fine, since you're my worst, but technically still a teammate, I'll give you a discount, and besides the library I'll demand just one favor in the future. Deal?"

Sasuke's face twitched. It felt like they were about to screw him. So hard that when he gets screwed here, his ancestors in the afterlife will run him through the circle again. But… revenge.

"If the favor won't be connected to Itachi," he said, "I agree."

"Do whatever you want with your brother. Deal." Instead of a handshake, I smacked him on the top of the head.

Sasuke shot me an unhappy look.

"And don't look at me like that," I said. "By the way, I'll make you happy: the Juin has two stages. The second gives an even bigger boost because it absorbs more sen-chakra. And it'll cause some metamorphoses too. But your body isn't ready for that—you'll die. For now, get used to the first stage. Let your body learn to work with more sen-chakra and resist it. Do it gradually. And eat a lot, and sleep, so you recover. Like during training."

This time Sasuke's face turned thoughtful, and then he nodded seriously.

A few minutes of my work, and everything extra was removed from Sasuke's Juin.

And only after we dealt with the most important thing did we move to the practical questions.

"Naruto, so… where are we?" he asked, looking around, confused, and I smirked.

I just said, in short, "At my place," and then teleported us into the Forest of Death, near Sakura. After that, we headed for the tower together.

---

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[Lillie Jones]

thanks for the chapter