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Chapter Text

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Most of this chapter is in first-person POV, but the rest of the story will switch to second-person POV. I felt this was necessary to make a difference in this chapter.

This chapter was edited by Gladiusx and Reiter.

The darkness was overwhelming. I did not know who I was, when I was, or where I was, or even what I was. I only knew darkness. It was everywhere, like a vast field of emptiness, where I lingered, incorporeal. It should have been scary, terrifying even, but I felt…at peace. It was welcoming, like a mother's embrace or a lover's kiss.

Then, there was light in the darkness, light at the end of the tunnel. Every instinct of my being screamed that it was dangerous; to return to the safety of the darkness, of ignorance. That I should turn around and go back whence I came…but I came from nowhere and couldn't turn even if I wanted to.

Something deep inside, almost forgotten, like a whisper in the corner of my hearing, told me I needed to go there, to discover what fate held in store for me. To seek knowledge.

I moved, first through darkness but then the light got strong enough that I could see my surroundings. It was an underground complex, with pipes running along the ceiling and various hallways. It almost felt like I was floating, and when I looked down, I saw nothing.

No legs, no hands, no body…yet I knew I was there. That I existed!

I shuddered, memories of a long-gone era flooded my mind. Of a land with buildings tall enough to tickle the clouds, of large flying birds of steel that could take you from one end of the world to the other in less than a day. Smoothly paved roads that could stretch for thousands of miles to no end, and the horseless carriages that could outpace the fastest arrow. Of little boxes emitting light that allowed one to view all sorts of knowledge or communicate with anyone in the world.

Which world, though?

As soon as the memories came, they fled my grasp, seeping through my fingers like water through a sieve. Most of it remained, but my name… my name was gone. My face, or my family, didn't even return, as if they didn't matter. Countless names and faces floated in my mind, yet I had no clue which face to connect the name to. They were all…irrelevant.

Steeling myself, I continued doing the only thing I could—going forward.

The light at the end of the tunnel intrigued me. I moved for what felt like an eternity, yet it did not feel like I was coming any closer to the light.

I persevered, no matter how long it would take, I wanted to see what the light was about. To seek the knowledge just beyond my grasp.

I didn't know if I was even alive in the first place. I existed, but was I alive? Maybe I was a ghost? That could explain why I don't have a body—ah, wait. I glanced down and found myself crawling on all fours with soft and squishy limbs, like a baby. Soon, my hands and feet were splashing on the slightly wet ground. It felt both warm and cool, even as a primal part of my being screamed in terror and begged to turn away, to run while I still could, to return to the safety of the darkness and ignorance.

That instinctive feeling of fear was annoying; Where could I possibly run to? Why would I feel afraid? How could ignorance be safety?

How could I even run when I was but a baby crawling on the ground?

Oh. I wasn't crawling anymore. I wasn't sure when, but I was upright and walking on two feet, albeit small and unsteady; my feet plopped in the water with every step.

Leaving the tunnel, I found myself in a massive room. An ominous and oppressive feeling nearly drowned my very being; I could feel my consciousness somehow slipping away, yet I stubbornly held on.

I was…curious. It was strange, but besides that annoying fear that felt foreign yet intimate, I felt nothing but curiosity. I desired nothing more than to seek the knowledge of what was there.

No joy, no pleasure, no love. There was sadness and loneliness, though…a feeling like having a hole in my heart. And an anger so strong that it boiled in my veins. Veins? I inspected my body, finding it slightly larger. Maybe fitting a three-year-old? I shook my head and tried to understand why I felt anger when I was so young; when I've known nothing but the darkness and moving towards the light.

Was that anger even mine?

I stepped closer and suddenly, fear and terror nearly consumed me. It was a strange feeling, still foreign yet somehow familiar. I stepped further into the room, throwing caution to the wind as the feelings intensified. It was gladdening; at least I felt something. I could feel!

Something told me that feeling sadness and loneliness was far better than apathy. To be apathetic, to not care for anything…it scared me even more than whatever was in this room.

I looked to the side, finding the room stretching for hundreds of meters on each side, the ends covered in darkness—the room might even be stretching for miles and miles. Far ahead of me was a strange wall—it looked like two massive blocks of iron, with a flimsy piece of paper with some kind of symbol on it sticking them both together. I continued walking, approaching the wall with many columns that I realized were bars, even as the oppressive pressure grew heavier and heavier until I suddenly saw clearer. Metal bars…and a metal gate!

A rumbling sound came from beyond the gate, a sound that froze me in place. No matter what I did or how much I tried to force myself, I could not move any further. There were probably a hundred steps between me and the gate when I collapsed to my knees. Knees? I looked down, and yes, I looked ever so slightly older, though my hands looked thin, too thin. It was too dark to see anything more, though, even as I tried to peer at the water in hopes of seeing my reflection.

All I got was darkness.

Shaking my head, I tried forcing myself to stand, to move closer to the gate and satisfy my curiosity in learning what it held. Perhaps I might learn about myself somehow? Or maybe find someone who could tell me who I was? Yet no matter what I did, my legs would not move. Not giving up, I opened my eyes wide, trying to see as much as I could in the darkness.

At first, it seemed like a futile effort, but surprisingly, the massive room became clearer, as if someone turned the lights ever so slightly brighter. It was then that I realized the gate was a prison. It made sense, metal bars, metal gate, closed room leading nowhere, but what kind of creature would need such a massive prison? There was no doubt it was not a person, not with the rumbling coming from within that sounded like a thousand avalanches or a hurricane crashing into a mountain.

I didn't know how long I waited, but it felt like a very long time. The part of me screaming in fear gradually grew muffled, and the oppressive feeling emanating from the cage weakened.

Or was I the one growing stronger and adapting to it?

I did not know when, but at some point, I had managed to stand and slowly made my way further. 99 steps, 98, 97, 96, and then I stopped at 95. I could not move any further. The pressure increased dramatically, and I collapsed once more to my knees. I didn't know how long I stayed, but at some point, my hands seemed to grow bigger…as if years had flown past, yet I remained where I was.

I tried peering into the darkness of the cage, ignoring the steady rumbling sound and the gusts of hot air that followed. I could almost see the outline of something massive lying down, but no more. Sighing in frustration, I looked at the ground only to freeze; the water level had slightly increased, but that did not matter. I could see a face peering back at me from the murky surface.

A face that somehow felt alien yet familiar.

It was a young face, with messy golden hair and a strange pair of eyes; one blue as the sky, while the other was red with darkness surrounding it instead of white. A pale face stared back at me, sporting scars on his cheeks, shaped like whiskers. A cat's—no, a fox's whiskers. I raised my hands and found the reflection following suit. Reaching up to my face, I pinched my cheek.

It hurt. It hurt! I could barely hold in my excitement. I could feel!

I traced the scars on my cheeks, three on each cheek, one over the other. They felt sensitive, which was strange; shouldn't scars be no different from normal skin? Maybe they weren't scars? They certainly were not pale gashes on my cheeks but black markings, almost like something done with ink.

Strangely, the more I inspected myself, the more I felt like I should know myself. That my name was something I knew dearly. Yet no matter what I tried, I couldn't learn my name!

It was frustrating, incredibly so. So much so that I felt hatred brewing in my heart and clenched my teeth. Why? Why couldn't I remember my name?

My thoughts froze; hatred? Ah, a new emotion! And it was definitely my own, not something that felt foreign or alien. Why was I feeling hatred? That infernal feeling of malice and wishing to harm someone, to see them writhe in pain as I carved into their skin with a rusty knife.

It was an unpleasant feeling, somehow making me feel tired yet strong. There was so much of it that seemed to grow and fester in my heart that for a moment, I couldn't feel anything else. Just as suddenly as it appeared, it was gone, but not for good; I could feel it sleeping inside me, ever-growing yet dormant in favor of another familiar feeling.

Loneliness.

It was the most prevalent feeling inside me. It was cold and hollow, like I had never felt a human's touch before. I didn't know how I even knew the differences and how I could explain such feelings, yet I could tell I was missing an important emotion that could soothe this sadness and loneliness in my heart.

Love.

The thought of it was alien, as memories came to me of another life, of faceless parents and siblings smiling and holding me. I could somewhat remember them, but not their names or even their features. Thinking about them didn't evoke anything in me, much to my frustration. Yet, while I knew that such actions would make me feel warm and fuzzy and giddy, I felt nothing, merely a numb feeling of loss.

As if I held no attachments to the memories, as if they were not my own. Or was I broken somehow, incapable of feeling anything positive? Only sadness, loneliness, hatred, despair, betrayal…

I shook my head roughly. I needed a distraction, and the looming shadow of the cage in the distance was the perfect one. Forcing myself to stand, I willed my foot to move even as it stubbornly remained in place, shaking in fear, but I would not give up.

The idea of giving up felt more alien than anything else I've felt so far.

I did not know how long it took, but finally, after what felt like an eternity, I took one more step, and another, then another, even as the pressure grew immense enough that I bit my lips. I could feel something warm yet tasteless in my mouth, yet I did not stop; I could not stop.

I took another step, then collapsed in exhaustion, though not before staggering for one last step.

90 more steps to go.

I stared at my reflection on the ground once more. The darkness in my eye was spreading and growing more vivid. Even the whites in my other eye looked more gray. Even more feelings of hatred simmered in my belly, but more than that was the sadness and loneliness—they came like a dump truck and hit like an elephant herd. As if something had happened that caused me to feel even more like shit than normal.

It was like my heart was hollow, as if it lacked any good memory to cling to. I stared deeply at that red eye before suddenly finding the world collapsing.

"It's him!"

"Damned monster."

"What is he doing here?"

"Shouldn't they keep him leashed somewhere?"

"Go away, monster! Stay away from my kids."

"Why won't you just go and die?! Isn't it bad enough you killed our families?"

Hatred brewed as I glared at the adults whispering and pointing at me, ignoring all notions of subtlety. The scene changed, and I was staring at a group of children I played with just yesterday, who promised me we could play again today.

"Mommy said not to play with you."

"Yeah, Daddy doesn't like you. Says you're a bad apple and I don't want to turn bad too."

I gripped my head in pain as the deluge of memories bombarded my psyche—it was strange, as if I was viewing them from someone else's eyes and feeling their hatred. So many people, all of them glaring at me with a hatred I had never experienced before; I could feel that hatred being buried inside me, coiled like a snake and burning my insides, yet buried deep, so I would not think about it. I looked around, finding myself in a settlement of sorts. The surrounding buildings' designs reminded him of Japan for some reason. Japan? Why did that name sound familiar?

"Die, monster!"

Something hit my head, and I blankly looked down, finding a pebble with a red stain. I picked it up, finding it red on one end, then turned to the one who threw it. It looked like a ten-year-old, a mere brat, throwing stones at me. But why was he taller than I?

Something trickled down my head, and I raised my hand, finding blood. The hatred in my heart that had been simmering and was about to be buried like everything else exploded as I swung the pebble with all my might at the brat, nailing him in the forehead.

"Aieee, the monster has gone mad. RUN AWAY!"

More kids had been jeering, yet they all ran like cowards and abandoned their friend. I ignored the moaning boy on the ground to inspect my surroundings. Why did everything feel so familiar?

There was something in my other hand. It was a ball of rice, onigiri, my mind supplied. Where did I get it? A vague image of a girl with pale yet kind eyes flashed in my mind; she felt familiar, yet I couldn't recall her name.

Feeling hungry, I bit into it with relish but tasted nothing. It was like chewing on air, and even when I swallowed it, I did not feel sated at all.

Sighing sadly, I looked around the strangely designed buildings, as if they were a mix of modern and traditional with a hint of steampunk.

Then my gaze fell on a mountain. It was not really a single mountain but an entire range that stretched as far as the eye could see from horizon to horizon. It was not particularly tall, most likely less than a mile high, yet it was what was carved into the mountain that shook me to the core.

Faces. Faces that I recognized. Faces that should not exist in reality, my old reality. The first face looked plain from being carved into a mountain, but I instinctively knew its true features: long black hair framing a tanned, noble face and dark eyes.

"First Hokage: Senju Hashirama."

The second face, white hair, and red eyes that were colder than my own yet did not hold any of the blind hatred.

"Second Hokage: Senju Tobirama."

The third face, grim and determined, yet I knew the face's owner was old and gray and spotted.

"Third Hokage: Sarutobi Hiruzen."

The fourth face was young and solemn, looking suspiciously like me. My heart beat like a war drum as the impossible seemed to stare me in the face.

"F-Fourth Hokage: Namikaze Minato!"

Why the hell did I recognize those faces when I couldn't even remember my name?! No, I knew my name. I walked to the closest store and stared at my reflection in the glass panes. The people in the memory faded away like a mirage as I stared in shock at a reflection far clearer than the water in the prison could show.

Blonde hair, green goggles on his forehead, blue eyes, and rosy skin. My gaze fell to the black T-shirt he wore with the swirling red symbol in the middle.

"Uzumaki…Naruto."

The world shook, then shattered like glass, and I was back in the massive room. The prison of what I now knew was the Nine-Tailed Fox. I stared in shock at the reflection in the water, one eye still red while the other was a brilliant blue. I looked up at the sound of rumbling, only to relax; despite the shock and incredulity I was feeling, I was glad. I found out who I was.

Naruto…yet there was something else. If I were Naruto, where did those memories come from? They were vague and hard to catch, like the steam wafting out of a ramen bowl. Wait, did I seriously just compare my situation to ramen?

I could go for a bowl of ramen, though…or twelve.

My stomach rumbled, and I wondered what I was even doing here. If I were Naruto, I should have been in the academy by now, not in…what was his name? Something that rhymed with car or karma. Ugh, whatever, the fox's prison. It's been so long since I read the manga or watched the anime, but…fuck, I couldn't remember anything!

Hang on, what was I thinking about again? I tried to calm down, but there were too many emotions inside me right now. They were annoying: hatred, sadness, and loneliness. It's like these were the only three emotions I knew, and I could have sworn they were steadily increasing. I couldn't even taste the damned rice ball; did Naruto not have a sense of taste? Or was I not allowed to feel even the slightest form of joy?

Was that what Naruto felt like growing up? Even though he was always portrayed as this happy-go-lucky fool.

I grimaced as I held my head. Why was I calling Naruto as if he were a different person? I was Naruto, and…memories flashed in my mind of someone watching a show about a ninja who did not at all act like a ninja. About a world that had people who could breathe fire and call meteors from the heavens. A cultivation world masquerading as a shonen setting with more plot holes and retcons than a science book. A boy who craved attention and wanted to become Hokage to force the people of his home to acknowledge his existence.

His existence…those memories were mine. Somehow, I knew the future, though the memories were hazy and difficult to remember. It took me some time until I realized that I was remembering memories of another life, a prior one, where somehow my life here was portrayed in a comic book.

How did I die in my old life? What was my name? How old was I? There were so many questions that I had no answers to at all. No matter how hard I tried to remember, the only thing that came easily was the knowledge, but no attachments, no personal life, no emotions.

It was like I was a ghost in my old life, who did not really live.

Nah, that just sounded insane! There's just no way that could be true. I tried to calm the raging feelings of loss and madness in my heart but failed. What if it were true?

It was simple enough to learn the truth. I only needed to get out of here and wake up in the real world, and then I could perhaps confront Hokage-Jiji about my parents. Jiji…what the hell did that even mean? Ah, gramps. Grandpa Hokage, hmm, no, Hokage-Geezer? Ugh, no, that just sounds even worse.

For some reason, I could not help but feel disappointed whenever I thought of Sarutobi Hiruzen. No, not just disappointed, but outright outraged. I shook my head and slapped my face. These were not Naruto's thoughts but from a memory; something that whispered was filler or fanon, which just confused me even more.

Right, time for me to wake up and confront Jiji.

I looked around expectantly, ignoring the Demon Fox's snoring, before realizing I had no idea how to wake up in the real world. I rubbed my chin thoughtfully and stared at my reflection in the ground; I was older now, around ten years old, complete with the black shirt with the Uzumaki symbol and those cool goggles over my head. How did Naruto leave this, uhh, mindscape? Whatever it was, in the anime. Oh…it was usually the fox who banished him.

I slowly turned around to find the ominous cage in the distance and gulped. I had no idea how, but I knew I was exactly 90 steps away from the entrance of the cage. Maybe I didn't need to approach it and just yell at it to wake up?

I opened my mouth, ready to shout at the fox, only for no sound to come out. I felt sweat pouring down my back, and the fear and terror from earlier threatened to consume me again. This was just an anime, a story for entertainment, and there was no need for me to feel fear. All I had to do was wake up the fox and ask him, politely, to send me back to the waking world.

Then why the hell was I so conflicted?!

Ah, I knew why. This wasn't a story. It wasn't a game. This was real life, my very real life, and for some reason, I had been stuck in this prison with the fox all my life, yet Naruto clearly had memories of the waking world. Of the village and the academy.

How was this possible?

I looked down at my reflection again. The room had become bright enough for him to see my full features. That red eye…it looked far more real than a drawing could ever be, yet I could tell it was not due to the Nine-Tails. There was no chakra in it. I didn't even know how I could tell whether there was chakra or not, probably because I felt so sensitive to the chakra flowing around me. My previous life had no such magical powers, and I could not help but feel extreme curiosity to explore all that chakra had to offer.

Yet there was one thing I noticed about the eye that assured me it had nothing to do with the fox: it had no slits. It was as if my normal blue eye turned dark red, with the sclera turning black. I had a bad feeling about this, yet for the life of me, I could not figure out what was going on, even with my future knowledge that seemed to be slipping away.

A particularly powerful gust of hot air reached me, and I looked up in annoyance at the sleeping fox in the prison. It was still too dark for me to see the Bijū in its entirety, but he was freaking huge! Far larger than I thought from seeing him in the anime, but my memories were already blurry enough as it was.

A stubborn feeling brewed in my belly; I was still so far away from the cage, and I hated the feeling of fear and powerlessness that threatened to consume me from merely being in the presence of the Nine-Tailed Fox.

Heck, he was sleeping, yet why did I feel so much unease from its chakra?

I clenched my teeth and stood up on shaky legs. I lifted my legs and forced myself to take a step, all the while trying to feel the world around me. If I remembered right, there had to be memories of my parents here. I couldn't recall how they appeared, but maybe if they felt their son in here, they would show up. I waited for a few minutes, yet no one appeared, not Minato and not Kushina.

Shame, I wanted to see my parents in the flesh at least once. Not distorted by drawings that were too flimsy and unrealistically smooth. I wondered what imperfections would be on my father's face. Did he have a mole? A scar on his cheek? What about Mother? Were her eyes purple or black? I recalled the anime switching between the two and couldn't help but think purple suited her much better.

The pressure intensified, forcing me to stop. I blinked, realizing I had taken five steps and was now 85 steps away from the cage. The fox could now be seen in his full glory, his form cloaked in red mist that hid most of his figure, and I had to admit, he definitely looked far more massive than he should be. I recalled that iconic moment when Naruto fist-bumped the fox, and his entire body was as long as one of his fingers.

I could clearly see that same finger, and it was twice as long.

This was so confusing! How the hell did a fox have human hands in the first place? Opposing thumbs even? What the hell was the Sage smoking when he created the Bijū the way he did anyway? All kinds of random questions flew through my mind, yet I had no answers to them, only more questions that I neither understood nor felt were necessary to know.

For some reason, I could somehow feel something in the air the closer I got to the cage. Could I be learning to sense chakra? I tried to take another step, only for the pressure to intensify immensely and force me to my knees. I stared at my reflection then, only to gawk…I was no longer ten years old. I could tell by the orange jumpsuit I was wearing, and my body looked slightly older. Maybe twelve years old. More than that, an indescribable feeling of hatred and betrayal flooded my very being. I gripped my head in pain as the emotions felt like they were being forced down my throat to simmer under my skin. All I could do was grit my teeth and stare at my reflection as both my eyes were now red, with the sclera a black so dark it drank the light.

Ah, that was the moment Naruto learned of the truth. And like usual, he was forcing all the hatred, the betrayal, the negativity deep into his psyche.

And into me.

The prison shook terribly, and the fox snorted in his sleep before groaning and continuing to snore. I couldn't help but deadpan: was this guy for real? Shaking my head, I tried focusing on the outside. Yet when I looked at the ground, I found myself staring at dozens, no, hundreds, of reflections showing the same thing from different perspectives.

A clearing that had hundreds of Naruto, Shadow Clones, I instinctively knew, surrounding a ninja with gray hair that had to be Mizuki. The scene moved, and what came next was an epic beatdown that had me wondering if Naruto would kill the traitor. In fact, I was sure that Mizuki was going to die if it wasn't for Iruka stepping in.

Huh, time flew by so fast. Two years had passed since I discovered my identity, yet it did not feel like it, or did it feel even more? Perhaps the concept of time made no sense in this place; it could have been two years or two hundred. No matter what I did, I could not seem to affect the world outside. I stared blankly at the reflection in the water of Outer Naruto, feeling ecstatic at finally becoming a ninja.

It felt…hollow. Why…why was my outer self forgetting all the hatred and scorn directed at us? I clenched my teeth and grabbed my chest as I felt my heart beating painfully. How could he? How dare he forget all the pain and suffering we endured at the hands of these cretins?! All it took for his foolish self to feel satisfied was a kind word, a bowl of ramen, and a battered old headband.

I watched with clenched fists as the world outside became clearer, and events flowed mostly the same as I remembered; my memories of the story became even clearer as time passed. The bell test, doing D-ranks, the Wave mission…and then the Demon Brothers and how Outer Naruto froze. Rationally, I understood that a twelve-year-old with no experience in fighting would normally freeze in his first fight, let alone a life and death battle. Yet the turmoil in my heart would not let me see it that way. I would rather not waste my time on the cringe that was my outer self and focus on the cage in the distance.

85 steps…I wanted more. I wanted to approach the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox more and prove that I was no coward. I took one step, feeling the pressure intensifying again, but ignored it. Another step, and the fear had my hands shaking, yet that quickly morphed into rage, hatred, and disgust. Rage against the village that treated me like shit, hatred towards the world that denied my existence, and most importantly, disgust towards myself for blaming my outer self for my own flaws.

I forcefully took another step, then another, then another. The pressure felt like it would crush my bones, yet I continued moving. My eyes burned, and as I rubbed them, I found tears; I was crying. That only made me angrier, and I forced my legs to move once more, even as I felt like my head was going to explode and my very being would implode.

Suddenly, the world shook, and the water level rose dramatically until it reached my knees. I stared at the reflection, only to find my outer self surrounded by ice mirrors and a black-haired boy bleeding in his arms. Ah, I knew this scene. It was the first time that Uzumaki Naruto used the Nine—

A massive yawn reverberated in the cavern-like prison, and Naruto stared in shock as the Monster Fox woke up from its slumber. Massive crimson eyes full of hatred and malice that would make my own feel pitiful looked around before glazing for a moment, as if going into a trance.

Then, they shined brightly and gained a sharp edge as an ominous chuckle echoed, "Looks like my warden has finally decided to use my powers. Interesting."

Somehow, the fox did not notice me, but I could feel the extremely potent chakra that flowed from the cage and into the water, being dragged by a hidden force stemming from behind me. Crimson chakra, flame-like, flowing like the wind yet as heavy as molten metal, seeped into the water, turning it a fiery orange.

Suddenly, the tug behind me got stronger, and the chakra flew away past where I stood and far behind me, deeper into my body's chakra circulatory system. The chakra felt so corrosive that I thought my legs would burn to ashes, the pain nearly immeasurable that I nearly screamed in agony.

Yet I endured.

There was nothing else to do but endure, even as I dreaded the moment the fox would notice me. So far, the Nine-Tails looked more amused than annoyed at Outer Naruto tapping into his chakra without his permission, but any second now, it could turn its gaze downward at the gnat trying not to scream from its mere presence.

Looking for a distraction, I stared at the reflection in the water, showing the world outside. It was all tinted in red, but the gist of it was his outer self had gone berserk from believing Sasuke had died and was beating the shit out of that ice user. Was it Haru? No, Haku…though I couldn't remember if he was a boy or a girl, but it didn't matter. I knew what would happen next: the mask shattering, Outer Naruto calming down, some ridiculous spiel about protecting your loved ones who didn't give two shits about you, and then Haku asking him to kill him.

I tried my best to connect with my outer self to warn him about what would happen. I didn't understand why I suddenly cared, but after using the fox's chakra, some of the hatred and anger flowing in me dissipated. I would rather not see someone like Haku die, especially as I knew Sasuke was alive.

Alas, it was not meant to be. I watched through my outer self's eyes as Haku blocked Kakashi's Raikiri, Gato arrived with his mob, and then Zabuza's massacre, followed by Sakura finding Sasuke alive.

"Oh, what's this, then?" An enormous pressure fell on my shoulders, forcing me to my knees. I raised my head with difficulty to glare at the grinning fox. "Such anger and malice. I wondered why my warden seemed to be such a disappointment. Even as I went through his memories, none of it made any sense. All that mistreatment and scorn, yet he grows to love his pathetic village? You must be my real warden. Such a powerful Yin presence—you have a strong soul, boy. Let me see what hides underneath."

I didn't get a chance to protest before crimson chakra rushed out of the prison and covered me like a cocoon. I roared in agony as I felt something trying to invade my mind; the pain was unimaginable, far worse than having the chakra merely rush by my feet.

Yet, the pain quickly turned into rage and indignation as I focused everything I could to blast away the intruder in my mind. I didn't know if it would work. Yet the more I resisted, the more I pushed with every grain of my very being to repel the attack, the more I could feel the chakra. A lifetime without chakra and another one here forced to endure the demonic presence of the fox made my tolerance towards chakra far greater than normal.

After what felt like days of struggle, I finally managed to expel the fox's chakra from my mind. I breathed heavily as I found myself in a fetal position, even as the water level receded to barely be at my ankles.

"To think you would manage to hide your mind from the likes of me." Strangely, the fox looked amused, and even grudging respect shone in those crimson eyes. I shuddered as I raised my head to glare defiantly at him. "Such baleful eyes, full of darkness and malice. I wonder how you came to have so much Yin energy. It is almost as if you are truly another soul inside this buffoon. But no, that is impossible...or is it? Regardless, you have intrigued me, and I await the day when you will stop playing coy and take over this vessel."

"So you can escape?" I growled as I rose to my feet, my knees shuddering, but I stubbornly glared at the Demon Fox. "Let me guess, you will promise me power and practically the world, yet the first chance you get, you will break out of the seal and escape."

"Now, why would I ever do something like that? You could be great, you know. With such a high Yin affinity, I could teach you powers that none have ever learned. All you need is to allow me in, and let me see what you are hiding in that labyrinthine mind of yours."

The fox's honeyed words sounded hurt, and I almost fell for it; I had to remind myself that this wasn't the same being from the story, but a true thousand-year-old monster that saw me as nothing more than his unjust jailer. I had heard all sorts of stories about the deceitful foxes of Japanese and Chinese myth, yet I knew that this fox was not truly all evil either. It was unjustly imprisoned after being controlled by Uchiha Madara, and just as I had been imprisoned for years in this mindscape, it too craved freedom.

But not at the cost of losing my life. Still, if the damned fox thought it could trick me, then two could play this game.

"You mention I have a high Yin affinity." Naruto's mind raced as I tried to remember what the show said about affinities and bloodlines. "Does it have to do with my lineage?"

"Perhaps. I could tell you who your parents were, but I will need something in return."

"I ain't taking off that seal if that's what you want, Nine-Tails. Heck, I can't even control my body, and I'm pretty sure that piece of paper is merely one of many failsafes to keep you in here."

Besides, I had spent my entire life merely trying to approach that gate. If it were so simple for me to wade through the oppressive aftereffects of the Fox's mere presence, I would have done it ages ago.

"...You are surprisingly knowledgeable about such matters." The Demon Fox narrowed its eyes, even as its grin sharpened, full of teeth, and nine shadowy tails wriggled behind it. "How would you even know?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" I grinned, even as I grimaced inwardly at the mounting pressure coming from the fox. I didn't understand how it could bother me when I literally managed to beat the fox out of my mind, but then I realized the fox had a limit on the amount of chakra it could squeeze through the seal; was its presence different from its chakra? So confusing. "What's wrong, Mr Fox? Looking a little sleepy there."

And it was true; the fox, which had been acting domineering and trying to send chakra through the seal, suddenly looked lethargic. "It's that damned seal! Not only does it restrict the chakra I can send through, but it forces me to go back to sleep."

"Then perhaps you should go to sleep," I reasoned. "I've been stuck here for many years, just like you. My Outer Self has been a disappointment, as you said, but I'm sure I will be able to free myself soon."

Naturally, I had no idea if I could be capable of such a thing, but I couldn't afford antagonizing the Demon Fox. Earlier, it seemed like it was in a good mood, but all my instincts warned me not to push it and avoid making an enemy of this being. At least until I discover a way to meet with my Outer Self.

"Hmmm, yes, I would much prefer dealing with you than the numbskull outside." The Nine-Tails tilted its head as it slowly closed its eyes. "Perhaps sleeping for a bit more isn't such a bad idea."

"Before you go, satisfy my curiosity, if you would. You mentioned I have a high Yin affinity, aren't you mostly Yang chakra? The tales say that you are a creature of fire and hatred; Yang is fire and passion, while Yin is cold and indifference, right?"

The fox chuckled, but the sound was grating and full of ridicule. "I was wondering what you would say, but it was this. You might interest me, boy, yet you are still human and cannot fathom the powers I hold. Yang chakra? I am both Yin and Yang, creation and destruction, apathy and passion. The elements bend to my will, and my powers cannot be fettered by mere designation. Now leave me be; I tire of this conversation."

I stared as the massive fox lowered its head on its hands and soon started snoring again. I couldn't help but gulp as the reality of the situation hit me like a gut punch; this was not the same Nine-Tailed Demon Fox from the story, not the Yang half that was sealed in Naruto while Minato took the Yin half.

This was the real deal, the complete Yin and Yang of the Demon Fox. No wonder he (did it even have a sex? Such power transcends gender, but for my sanity, I will assume the Fox was male) was so massive, and his chakra was not as corrosive as I expected. Yin balanced Yang, but that also meant the creature was far more cunning and resourceful than the passion-driven Yang.

Things just became far more complicated, and I would need to be extra careful when dealing with the fox. I measured the distance to the cage: 70 steps. Slowly, I took one step. It was heavy, but after experiencing the full attention of the Fox, I thought it was becoming easier, even if the pressure continued to intensify with each step.

I needed to become stronger. I didn't know any method to empower myself in this mindscape aside from training my mind and willpower. It took me the hard way to learn that I have been doing that by exposing myself to the heaviest and most potent chakra known in history. I hoped that a chance to escape the prison would come. Whether it meant meeting my outer self and having a long-overdue chat or that I would simply take over our body, I did not care; I needed to get out. This was as much my body as my foolish self, much more so. I gritted my teeth as even more feelings of hatred and sadness were shoved into me by my outer self.

I checked the world outside, finding they had returned to the village. Outer Naruto was brooding after the mission because the Hokage had refused to record their mission as an A-Rank, despite the dangers they faced. Something about politics, or maybe because Tazuna couldn't afford an A-Rank payment, but whatever; what mattered was that they were still paid for a C-Rank, and Naruto got a reminder of how the villagers treated him after a month outside the village, where people respected ninjas.

It was a vast contrast where most people outside would be almost groveling to look at a ninja—some even calling him a Tengu or Immortal or other fantastical names, for we appeared inhuman to them—let alone speak to them, then returning to the village to be treated like shit.

Instead of dwelling on those thoughts, he did what he always did: shoved them deep inside for me to deal with. I felt sick to my stomach as more negative emotions flooded my being, but Outer Naruto did not care; as long as the delusion he found himself in continued, that's all that mattered to him. Why did he get to enjoy life while I was stuck here? I wanted to explore this new magical world, try out the food, eat ramen, sushi, and yakiniku, learn Ninjutsu, and discover what chakra was truly capable of. I wanted to meet new people, make new friends, flirt with hot girls, and maybe even more!

With this being a real world, there had to be differences from whatever Kishimoto came up with that was full of plot holes and retcons; the few glimpses I saw through Outer Naruto's eyes or his clones did not show any major differences, but then I had been too focused on the major events, and those seemed to have been the same.

Heck, I missed the chance to take a closer look at Sasuke or Sakura. To think it would be that femboy, Haku, who would be the first person who I would get to look at up close!

Gotta admit, he almost made me question if I'm straight or not.

I stopped at step 60 and collapsed to the ground. My vision was darkening, and the sudden influx of negative emotions was too much for me, especially as the pressure from the fox seemed to increase tenfold. Perhaps some rest would be good, and I did not remember ever resting from my attempt to approach the fox's cage.

I had barely closed my eyes when they sprang open again as the pressure intensified and the water level rose. Scrambling to my feet, I found the fox also awake as the familiar tug from behind dragged his chakra outside the cage and further into their body.

"What's going on?"

"Your foolish self is in a bind. Perhaps he will get killed and I will be released from here."

The fox's nonchalant way of talking about his death was jarring, especially as I recalled him being far more wary of reforming in the manga. "Wouldn't you also die if we die?"

The ominous chuckle sent shivers down my spine. "It appears your knowledge is not as profound as I thought. You have not even lied to me once since we met, which I find admirable. Very well, I will enlighten you."

The Nine-Tailed Demon Fox lowered his head to the ground and inspected me closely, even as I panicked inwardly as I recalled a special power of the fox: negative emotion sensing, which, among other things, allowed it the ability to detect lies.

Thankfully, I had not told any lies. Thank you mother who I can't remember for raising a good boy who tells no lies.

"A Bijū never dies. We are not mere mortals or living beings, the way you understand them, but manifestations of primordial power given flesh. If our vessel is slain, we merely reform nearby in a few years, for we are creatures made from chakra, intent, and power. Unlike humans like you that need to worry about your earthly vessels, we transcend such limitations."

The fox was once again helpful, but I only felt apprehensive about it, even if every word he said sent gears shifting in my mind to the true nature of this world, though most of the stuff he said I had already either known or suspected, it was good to have actual confirmation. "Is that the Royal We, or are you talking about the other Bijū?"

The fox blinked. "So you know about them? How interesting. You have piqued my curiosity so much, boy."

"I doubt that's a good thing, having the attention of a behemoth the size of a mountain who attacked my home and killed my parents." My brow twitched as, with a thought, I summoned the reflection that showed me the outside world. "Shit, it's that incident."

I watched through Outer Naruto's reddened vision as he mindlessly attacked a Grass-Nin in a vast forest. Soon, his outer self was forced to protect Sasuke as he stopped the massive brown snake, only for Orochimaru to capture him.

"Aren't you going to do something, Mr Fox? That guy is bad news."

"Hmm, I don't think I will. That buffoon in control of your body is quite rude. He had forcefully stolen my chakra twice now, thanks to the way this seal was created, yet did not deign to come greet me or even thank me in his mind. He has no justification for his ignorance, as he was informed of my existence months prior. His thoughts are wide open for me to interpret, unlike you, shy fellow."

The Fox chortled; it was a cold and unfeeling sound that had me gulping. The Nine-Tails truly did not care one whit about my outer self, whether because he did not mind dying and reforming or perhaps because he felt more inclined to deal with me than the idiot.

"Besides, you don't seem surprised about what's happening either. Disturbed, yes. But surprised?" The fox narrowed his eyes. "You knew what was going to happen. Are you a seer?"

"Nope," I replied, a bit too fast, but the Fox merely hummed.

"You speak truly, yet you know the future nonetheless."

"I know a future, not the future."

"How cunningly phrased. You intrigue me so much, boy." The fox chuckled loudly, causing the prison to shake and for vibrations to shake my bones. "Still, that failure of a sage is about to do something even more intriguing."

I glanced at the reflection and found Orochimaru's hands glowing with purple flames on each of his fingers. I could tell they were Yin-based, and tried to focus on how they were formed, but aside from sensing whether the chakra was Yin or not, I couldn't detect anything else from the outside world.

"You do realize whatever he's doing is going to fuck up our prison even more than it is?"

"Perhaps so, but why should I care? You are interesting, and I enjoy speaking to you, but make no mistake, you are but a novelty that alleviates my boredom. If this prison collapses, or you end up being moved elsewhere, then so be it. I shall retreat to the Dream and spend my time there."

"The Dream?" Before I could ask more, Orochimaru struck my outer self's stomach, applying the Five Elements Seal on one of the two Four Symbols Seals that formed the Eight Trigrams Seal that held the Demon Fox.

Suddenly, the chakra oozing from the cage halted, and the water at my feet bubbled and boiled before turning to steam and dissipating. Then, the world shook, even more violently than the few times before, and my vision darkened. The last thing I saw was the Fox's grinning face as the bars holding him seemed to hide him even more, as if the prison cell was becoming tighter and the gate grew distant.

"I only made it to 60 steps, too. How pathetic."

"This might end up being a windfall for you after all. Show me what you can do, and if you entertain me, I might answer more of your questions. Make sure to survive, though, Uzumaki Naruto."

"Ah, he said my name," were my final thoughts before the world collapsed.

I opened my eyes, finding myself in a room of complete whiteness. It was a familiar room, one that I had seen Naruto speak to his father and mother in another lifetime. How did I get here? The last thing I remembered was Orochimaru fucking up the seal, which kicked me out of the Fox's prison. Was this my real mind?

There was nothing but pure white, except for a familiar blonde figure standing in a daze before me.

"It's you." I approached my outer self, but something seemed off. His blue eyes were glazed and unseeing, while drool leaked from his mouth. The seal must have fucked him up good. "Wake up you moron!"

I punched him in the face, grabbing his collar to stop him from reeling. My outer self woke up with a scowl and screamed, "Hey, what the heck—who are you? Why do you look like me? Are you one of my clones? Always trying to gang up on me—wait, why are your eyes red? They look creepy. Let me go, you jerk!"

Eyes? I turned sideways where a mirror appeared to show my face; oh, both my eyes were red, as in completely red, even the sclerae. It was creepy, and I could almost taste the sheer amount of hatred in them.

Looking at our surroundings more, my gaze settled on the idiot before me. His clear blue eyes, exuberant mannerisms, and the pure aura of innocence oozing from him.

It disgusted me.

I finally acknowledged what I had suspected for a long time. I was Dark Naruto rather than another soul inhabiting the body, though I was certain something else must have fused with me to give me knowledge. No wonder the Fox preferred me; my negative emotions must be more palatable to deal with than this retarded bundle of sunshine.

Speaking of, a fist flew at my face, but it was slow, so slow that all I had to do was ram my head into Light Naruto's nose, breaking it and sending him reeling backwards.

"W-What the hell is wrong with you? Why are you hitting me?"

"Because you're a fucking moron, that's why. For years, you bottled up all of that hatred and sadness and loneliness, but have you ever wondered where it went?" I stood over the other boy, whose blue eyes widened in shock. "Yes, I am the amalgamation of all that gloom and betrayal, and you have kept me trapped for a long time."

"B-But—"

"Tell me, Naruto. Did you ever wonder why the Third Hokage never told you the truth about your parents?" The blue-eyed boy froze. "Or perhaps why you, of all people, ended up being the vessel of the Nine-Tails?"

"W-What are you—"

"How about all the scorn and vitriol we endured at the hands of the villagers? Ah, you retaliated against them through childish pranks. How quaint."

"What would you have me do then?!" Naruto shouted as he climbed to his feet. "It worked out in the end, and I became a ninja! I have friends now, like Sakura-Chan, Sasuke, and Kakashi-Sensei. All those bad feelings just make me sad, so of course I won't dwell on them."

I stared sadly at the young boy in front of me, because that was what he was, a little kid with far too much baggage to handle on his own. I remembered a part in the show where Naruto was forced to confront the darkness in him, and while the outcome of it did not make sense (how could one accept the darkness in them and then completely forget all the grievances that formed it in the first place?), I had a feeling that the only way for me to escape this prison was to merge with my foolish counterpart.

I wondered if that would kill me or Light-Naruto or if we would combine to form something more. In any case, I didn't want to return to that prison. If it meant I could piggyback off my outer self, then so be it. To make that happen though, I needed him to accept his darkness—accept me.

But in the end, Naruto was a lucky fool, especially at this age, and I knew how to strike where it hurt the most.

"Are they really your friends, though?" I prodded slyly. "I'm sure you thought a lot about it; we are nothing more than a responsibility for Kakashi, the Last Loyal Uchiha, and the holder of the Nine-Tails. Poor Sakura, thrown in as an afterthought to fill the numbers."

"Hey, don't badmouth Sakura-Chan! She's incredibly smart and the top kunoichi in our class."

"Sure, she's smart, but top kunoichi?" I clicked my tongue at the clueless boy before him. "Who told you that?"

"Iruka-Sensei, of course! He said I'm dead last, so they had to put me in the top students to balance things out."

How he was smiling, as if being the worst student in class was something to be proud of, irked me greatly.

"For your information, Ino was the top student in our class, followed by Hinata, and then it was Sakura. She may have aced the theory work, but aside from that, she is exceedingly mediocre."

Of course, the only reason I remembered that was thanks to many online debates about who was the best girl in the series; those three were always the most discussed topic, and it was an interesting tidbit I learned about the non-existent 'Kunoichi of the year' thing.

Fucking fanon, it was only the top student that mattered, not their sex.

"So what? It doesn't matter at all." The other boy folded his arms petulantly before suddenly looking around warily. "Wait, what was I doing before I came here? Oh crap! My friends are in danger. I have to go help them."

"I'm afraid you can't leave this place until you finish what you were brought here for." I didn't know why my outer self was here in the first place, but I won't look a gift horse in the mouth. "The time to hide and ignore the reality of the world around you has ended. You must come to terms with the shit the world has been throwing at you."

"What?"

"You heard me," I growled out through gritted teeth. "I've watched you for a long time and endured all the shit you felt and suffered, which you ALWAYS dumped on me!" My breathing got harsher as the rage and indignation of having so much hatred and sadness forced into me nearly shattered my soul. "You hate the village just as much as you love it."

"N-No, that's not true. I don't hate the Leaf at all, you lie!"

"Love and hatred are two sides of the same coin. You don't have any real friends; even your teammates still don't fully trust you, and neither do you trust them. It is why you never told them about the Nine-Tails."

Naruto flinched and refused to look me in the eyes. "T-That's—"

"Were you afraid they would hate you? It doesn't matter, you know." I approached my mirror self and gripped his shoulder tightly. "You are but a tool for the village that scorned and hated you all your life, a blunt weapon to be used when they face a foe similar to the Nine-Tails."

I stared at those blue eyes, hoping they would understand me. Whatever my future knowledge or strange thoughts, Light and I were still the same person. All my thoughts and feelings were what my outer self experienced and bottled up. If he couldn't acknowledge them—

"You lie!" His outer self repeated as he pushed him away. "You say I don't have friends, but I do!"

"Oh really? Name one friend who would stand by you through thick and thin, no matter what. Those who would die for you, who would kill for you." I folded my arms in disappointment as a deep sense of betrayal threatened to overwhelm me. "And it's not the other way around; just because you are willing to die for someone does not mean they are your friend. Only that you are foolish enough to cling to the hope that they are."

For a moment, Naruto looked unsure of himself as thoughts whirred in his mind, and I felt hope…only for it to be squashed when angry blue eyes glared at me as if I were his worst enemy.

"I get it now," he said, sounding incredibly proud. "You are the Nine-Tails! Trying to trick me into accepting you? I heard all about ghosts and how they can possess you if you permit them. Well, it's not happening. As expected of the trickster fox, trying to make me doubt my loyalty to my friends. You can go to hell for all I care!"

I was stunned speechless. Uzumaki Naruto was not a simple moron, but an imbecile in denial.

A tremor shook my chest as all the bottled-up feelings of hatred and betrayal coalesced into something terrible. I laughed. For the first time since I woke up here, I laughed. It was not a sound of joy, but something dark, cold, and thick with all my hatred and rage and disappointment.

"What are you laughing at? Stop laughing and get me out of here already."

I couldn't help but laugh even harder at his words, laugh at the sheer foolishness of the brat before me. I wanted to convince myself that he was just a child, that his life was tragic, and he did not know better. Yet, it was because we were both the same person that I could instinctively tell that my outer self did not care for the truth.

He was so deep in denial that he did not care about the truth. He feared the truth, he denied the truth, and he would actively avoid it at any cost. An utter tool of a fool high on copium which I had to handle the consequences of. Hell, this Naruto was so scatterbrained that he never even realized the main advantage of the shadow clone!

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Naruto's loud voice broke me from my stupor. "Darn it, why isn't it working? Get me out of here you damned demon fox."

"I already told you, there is no way for you to get out." I glared at the foolish boy, for whom, despite everything, I felt nothing but pity. Nevertheless, I hardened my heart to do what was necessary. "Even after everything, you refuse to accept me. As always, your go-to method to ignore such difficult situations is to run away. But you must realize, Naruto, that there's no running from me."

Suddenly, I grabbed Light by the neck and choked him, all while focusing the Yin chakra inside me to strike at the practically pure yang of my other self. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry it had to come to this."

Naruto tried to say something, to fight back, but as the fox said, my Yin was exceedingly strong, and as the Dark side of this soul, I was pure Yin while Naruto was pure Yang. Most likely, the reason my Yin was so much stronger than Naruto's Yang was because I remembered my previous life and the knowledge that came with it. Chakra was the combination of Spirit and Physical, Mind and Body, Yin and Yang. It's why I had such a potent Yin that I easily overpowered my other self's Yang.

I could squash that part, that piece of brightness and happiness in my other self, and take over sole control of our body. But what would that make me? It's been so long since I felt anything apart from gloom and doom. Without that Yang part, I would be nothing more than a husk, an unrepentant demon who knew nothing but hatred, even as our body would most likely break down from the lack of Yang, allowing the Fox even more leeway to control me as I would find myself relying on his chakra to compensate.

I didn't want that. I did not remember much of my previous life, but I recalled instances when I was supposed to feel happiness or love or pleasure or ecstasy…all of these were absent, yet I craved them.

An unpleasant realization sank in. To be whole, I needed to accept the foolish part of me. Just as my outer self needed to accept the darkness within to reach enlightenment, so did the darkness need to accept the light without. Embrace it, embrace the knowledge, and accept that the world was not my enemy. People were a mixture of good and bad, and no one was solely just that.

The white world around them shone brilliantly, and I saw nothing but the embodiment of our chakras.

The Yin chakra that was about to snuff the Yang stopped and, instead, circled it protectively, hugging it closely until they coalesced into a Yin-Yang symbol—it felt…natural, as if it was meant to be. The Yin felt heavy, stable, and potent compared to the Yang's whimsical, loose, and fragile form. They continued to rotate until a drop of Yin stuck to the Yang half while a drop of Yang stuck to the Yin half. The Bagua was complete, and I instinctively knew that neither my outer nor inner self existed anymore.

We were both one.

"It is done."

And now…He was Uzumaki Naruto.

As the thought came to him, an indescribable feeling consumed him; was this what it felt like to have a body? Ah, it's been so long since he felt pain and soreness or bodily sensation. His negative emotions were still there, just under the skin along with his positive ones, but there was something else in the chaos of sensations flooding his mind and body that stood out more.

Several bundles of light surrounded him, one in particular reeking of so much Yin that it made him jealous, though there was something else mixed in. Something that was neither Yin nor Yang. It greatly intrigued him.

Naruto tried to open his eyes, but they felt as heavy as mountains, and all he could do was let out a weak moan. Damn, Orochimaru did not hold back with that stupid seal of his. He couldn't remember how he woke up in the manga, but it didn't matter. This wasn't a story anymore.

This was real life.

People were talking near him, but his ears felt like they were clogged with sand. Considering what he had been through, having been swallowed by a giant snake and then beaten like a ragdoll by one of the Sannin, perhaps he suffered more injuries than he expected. But why wasn't the fox healing him?

Oh yeah, this was the complete Yin-Yang Demon Fox who gave no shit about the old Naruto. Even if he seemed to prefer him, there was nothing he could do with the Five Elements Seal blocking his chakra. Nonetheless, Naruto was not sure if he wanted to deal with the Demon Fox in the first place. If he recalled correctly, using his powers and being healed by him was not good for his health or chakra control.

And Naruto's horrendous chakra control was a world of trouble of its own.

A sudden shout and something akin to a sonic boom exploded, and he felt himself being carried by the massive bundle of Yin chakra. There was someone else as well, someone far more pure and warm, and he couldn't help but think she felt nice.

Hang on, she?

Naruto groaned loudly as he was dropped to the ground. Finally, he opened his eyes to find a cute girl who could only be Sakura on her knees beside him, and she stared in shock at something in the distance. Damn, Kishimoto really couldn't draw girls for shit. He always thought Sakura looked plain, but this girl was cute as hell: pale unblemished face, small button nose, big almond-shaped green eyes. Even her messily cut hair didn't take away from her cuteness. How could pink hair look so vibrant? It was weird; it did not at all look like dye…it was simply real.

No wonder Naruto chased her so damn hard. Wait, was he crushing on Haruno Sakura?! Hell no, nope, never! His heart belonged to…to, huh? What was he talking about again? Ugh, he needed to get a hold of himself. He repeated the same mantra he had been telling himself since he realized where he was.

This was not a story anymore. This was real life.

The feelings for Sakura were merely a remnant of the old Naruto, and they did not hold any real substance.

Naruto focused his blurry vision and found Sasuke dislocating some guy's arms. Goddammit, why the heck did he look so handsome and cool?! He was like those Korean models but without the plastic surgeries or feminine vibe. Especially with those flaming tattoos over his face—

Oh, that's the curse mark. And those were the Sound stooges from the second part of the Chunin Exams. Naruto glanced around him, finding several other figures watching the show as if it were some kind of theater play, and sighed inwardly.

He wanted to go back to sleep.

Chapter Text

Join me on Discord  for story discussions, character portraits, and more! Discord code is vN7sTYhEp6.

I will be using the Eastern Asian naming style. The surname comes before the given name.

I will also use suffixes and honorifics, but that's it. I will try to avoid any Japanese terms, even in jutsu, except for a specific few.

Most importantly, you won't see me using 'teme' or 'kuso' or any of the other cringe shit some people come up with.

Still, I think I will alternate between The Leaf Village and just Konoha, along with the other villages, for variety's sake.

Lastly, to stick with the immersion, I will not be using Gregorian calendar months. Instead, I will stick to what the Japanese themselves use; 1st Moon (January), 2nd Moon (February)...etc.

This chapter was edited by Gladiusx and Reiter.

2nd Day of the 7th Moon 63 AF (After Founding of Ninja Villages)

The Forest of Death

"And then, there was one." Sasuke smirked after dropping the kid with vents in his hands and approached the last Sound-nin dressed like a furry mummy. "I hope you're more of a challenge."

Naruto cringed at the one-liner, even as Sakura rushed to their edgy teammate and calmed him down. He groggily stood up, already feeling better, and flexed his arms and shoulders, trying to get the blood rushing to his limbs again. The sheer amount of energy coursing through his veins was unreal, even after the tough day they had yesterday and sleeping on the ground for so long. And he knew it was not the Nine-Tails' chakra but just his normal chakra. Or was it his Uzumaki genes at hand? It was strange, but he could feel it in his veins, almost as if he had an extra circulatory system specifically for it in addition to his blood vessels.

Which he technically had, knowing that the Chakra Network—or the Meridians, as his memory supplied—existed. His chakra urged to be released, to be used, and a jutsu sprang to his mind that had him giddy at how easy it was for him to cast it, even as he grimaced when his chakra was suddenly cut by half. Thankfully, everyone's eyes were on Sasuke and Sakura as Mummy Man offered to surrender and give them his scroll.

Naruto found himself gazing at the bloody face, ruined hair, and wounded body of his female teammate, and anger festered in his heart. Like that would be enough for what they put Sakura through!

Wait, why did he care about Sakura?

"Oi, what are you doing?"

Naruto had made his way to the downed figure of the black-haired Sound kunoichi and rummaged through her pouches, ignoring all the eyes that turned to him at the Sound-nin's indignant shout.

"Naruto," Sakura's voice was thick with relief. "You're awake! Wait, what are you doing?"

Both of his teammates had halted, looking at him with confusion.

"Looting them for all their worth," Naruto said flatly without stopping.

The pouches on the belt were quickly removed, and Naruto paused, judging their worth by their weight before nodding. Then, he placed a kunai to her neck and smiled at the other Sound Shinobi.

"Do you really think a mere scroll is enough to let you go free? Empty all of your pockets, any supplies, and everything of value, or else I will kill your teammate."

The Mummy Man—Dosu—glared murderously at him. But even a stubborn fool like him would know that if they lost a teammate, they couldn't proceed to the next round. Naruto was not sure if they truly cared about the exam, or even for each other, and even then, he was pretty sure they were only following Orochimaru's orders to kill Sasuke as some twisted little test for his teammate, but he was not losing anything with this gamble.

Eventually, he clenched his jaw and hissed out, "Are you a bandit or a Leaf Ninja?" His eyes flicked to Sasuke. "Does he speak for you, Uchiha? I already offered our scroll and any further—"

"Hey, toilet wrap." Naruto lifted the girl by her hair and pressed the kunai enough to draw blood. She woke up with a yelp and tried to struggle, only for Naruto to focus the worst of his emotions, his Yin energy, on both her and Dosu, freezing them in place. "You think I'm playing? You came here to kill, and now that the tables have turned, you have the gall to beg for mercy? Do you think we Konoha ninja are spineless fools who can't hurt a fly?"

Dosu visibly shook, and his lone eye widened.

"W-Will you let us go if we obey?"

"Only because you just might prove useful by taking out some of the other competitors," Naruto said, not bothering to hide the disdain in his voice. "But this is as far as my mercy goes. Make no mistake, though, I lose nothing by keeping you alive but gain a cool new gadget to tinker with if I kill you. Don't worry, though; I keep my word."

He did not expect this method, using his Killing Intent like an Aura Farmer in a Manhwa, to work, yet he could see the sweat pouring from the older boy's forehead. Keeping the trick active was tiring; he had to focus on the ball of flame behind his navel that he somehow knew was a ninja's chakra core. If he let his focus go, he could end up blasting his killing intent all over the clearing, freaking out his teammates, and most likely turning his already exhausted brain into mush.

Thankfully, Sasuke had his back as he also brandished his kunai, which was the straw that broke the camel's back. Dosu looked unwilling, yet reluctantly removed his pouches and left them on the ground. Only for the shadow clone of Naruto that he created earlier to rush in and nab the pouches of Zaku along with the two on the ground as well as the scroll. He inspected them for traps, checked their contents, nodded to him, then tossed them to Sakura and Sasuke.

"Good." Naruto was about to push the girl when he noticed Sakura's torn hair, and he suddenly felt a wave of pettiness take over him. He grabbed the girl's hair and bundled it in his hand, causing her to cry out in pain. "You know, you have really pretty hair, so long and silky smooth. Didn't anyone ever tell you it's dangerous to have such long hair in battle? Here, let me help you."

"N-No, wait—"

Naruto swung his kunai, shearing through the girl's long hair and leaving just enough for it to reach her neck.

"See, that's much better." He threw her hair to the ground and gave a friendly smile. "Heck, you look even cuter that way."

Before Kin could curse or scream, he pushed the girl towards her teammates, giving her a kick to her butt for good measure. She stumbled a little before turning to him, her hand flying to her hip, only to grimace as she found nothing and only received a smirk from him. He remembered how she was a Genjutsu-type and made sure to take away her bells and wires—including her hair. He wasn't cruel enough to have the other two boys give up their kunai—if they played it smart, they could still make it out of these exams alive.

"You can go now." A thought came to Naruto, and he gave a grin full of teeth. "Unless you're willing to forsake that shithole of a village you call home and swear to be my minions? I know the Hokage personally, you know. Could see if he could buy you off your master…then again, if your master really is that snake summoner, then you're better off running as far away from him as possible."

Surprisingly, Dosu looked thoughtful, almost as if he was really thinking about it seriously. Naruto recalled in the manga that Mummy Man was not really loyal to Orochimaru and was even hinted to have his own character arc of sorts. It went nowhere, though, as he ended up committing suicide by Gaara.

Nevertheless, it didn't take long for Dosu to shake his head and scowl at him. "Swear myself to a weakling like you? Don't make me laugh; you have no idea who you are messing with. Orochimaru-sama is not someone to be messed with, especially not by a mere Genin whom he already trounced."

The temperature in the clearing fell as Naruto glared at the trio. "I offer you mercy and a better life, and you spit in my face? I should kill you for that, but I'll let the forest do it for me. Now, fuck off!"

His Yin energy skyrocketed, and he could feel a harsh migraine in his head even as his anger intensified. Yet it was worth it to see the duo scrambling away in retreat, dragging their unconscious teammate with them, while the girl glanced behind her back every third step, as if he would change his mind and kill them.

He had to hand it to the Fox; he had one hell of a presence, and Naruto had learned a lot from merely being subjected to it for so long. Targeting someone with his Yin energy was similar to what he did to his Outer Self, though it was harder in the real world, especially as he was not familiar with the targets' chakra—he needed to develop his budding sensor abilities more, something he was surprised he even had.

Yet another difference from what he remembered in the anime. But in the end, this was an actual world with living beings inside, not a story that Kishimoto eventually botched up under pressure from his editors. But now, he had to wrestle with a dull pain pulsing in his head. That trick was not chakra-intensive, but very mentally demanding—even for him. As Naruto kept his glare at the retreating Sound ninja, he wondered how much more potent it would have been to use the Fox's chakra as an intimidation tactic.

He only barely managed to stay upright and keep his bravado, waiting until they were gone from sight, before collapsing on his bum with a loud groan as he held his aching head. It felt like someone was hammering it from the inside, and his mind felt like a scrambled egg left on the fire for too long.

"Naruto!" Sakura hurried to him, Sasuke leaning heavily on her shoulders as they approached him. "Are you alright?"

He stared in wonder at his teammate's genuine concern before shaking his head; this wasn't an anime character that descended into slapstick comedy or other comic relief gags, but a real person. "As good as I can be."

"Hey, how could you act so shamelessly, Naruto! Not just shameless but almost treason-like behavior."

An annoyed voice yelled from behind, and he turned around, finding Choji approaching with Shikamaru behind him; Ino followed, holding an unconscious Lee. Choji's chubby face was frowning and judgmental, while Shikamaru had his permanent scowl. Ino, on the other hand, narrowed her eyes at him, and Naruto thought he felt something brush over him for a second before it was gone. What the heck?

"Oi, are you listening to me? Lying about knowing the Hokage and offering foreign ninja asylum—who do you think you are? What if they were spies?"

"Huh? You say something, Choji?" Naruto yawned; he was so tired and hungry and could not bring himself to answer the chubby boy's questions. Somehow, his innocent question pissed the pleasantly plump boy off enough that he stomped towards him.

"Why you—"

"Forget it, Choji. It's no use arguing with that impulse-driven moron," Shikamaru grumbled, dragging his teammate away by his scarf and staring at him weirdly. "You know, it always pissed me off watching you mouth off like you do. What was the point of provoking an unknown ninja when they were ready to leave? And for what? Some extra supplies? Taking them as underlings? Are you mad? Do you have any idea how that could have been misunderstood by the village?"

Naruto frowned at the know-it-all tone. A part of him knew that these were all genuine questions, and Naruto did not really know how Konoha handled turncoats. Still, he was certain other villages engaged in that kind of espionage, so what was the big deal?

He stood up, shoulders hunching defensively, though he really was too tired to fight. He had a different impression of Nara Shikamaru, one of a lazy genius who had a good heart behind all the moody shit and one of Naruto's closest friends in the future, but sifting through Naruto's memories showed him a different story. He was not Naruto's friend, at least not yet. Neither was Choji. While they did not go out of their way to bully him or make his life miserable in the Academy, they never tried to befriend him.

He could hardly judge when Naruto had been a piece of work in the academy. Still, neither he nor his past self ever saw them as friends; Shikamaru was a lazy fool who could only complain, while Choji was the fatass idiot who followed along.

Then again, he could have sworn he saw a familiar fat ninja in the very first chapter of the manga calling for Naruto's head after he stole the Forbidden Scroll of Seals. Like father like son, he supposed.

"Shikamaru." And yet, despite knowing that it was foolish to make enemies when there could be friends, Naruto could not, would not, accept any indignities from anyone. The bright-eyed half of him had done so for years, and for what? No, he would not follow in that moron's footsteps. "I must have missed the part where I gave a fuck about how you feel about me. Don't presume to know anything about me. I do not lie."

Shikamaru's eyes widened, even as he let go of Choji's scarf, the fat boy going purple in the face as he grabbed his collar. "Watch your language, Naruto! It's bad enough you make Leaf-nin look bad everywhere by acting like a bandit and a thief, but how could you say that to Shikamaru?"

"I don't expect you rich clan kids to understand being too poor to even buy proper ninja supplies. To know what it's like to grab every opportunity you can to gain an advantage." Naruto sneered as he clenched the kunai still in his hand; he doubted he would have the strength to shrug off Choji, and he really didn't want to hurt him or their fellow classmates. "Unhand me, Choji."

The Akimichi boy clenched his teeth, his hands shaking in anger. Just as he thought he would throw a punch, help came from an unexpected source.

"Hey, let him go, now!" Sakura pushed the fat boy away. "I'm grateful for your help, I really am, and owe you guys a debt, but that's my teammate you're attacking. And for what? Because he outsmarted the enemy?"

For a moment, Naruto felt as if he was struck dumb. He had not expected that—not from Sakura. It was…heartwarming that she actually cared about him—a truly novel feeling and not in a bad way. Someone else stood beside him; Sasuke had his trademark frown as he glared at Choji and Shikamaru as if they were bugs on his sandals.

The taller boy whispered, "We need to talk," just as another girl landed next to Ino and grabbed Lee from her, allowing the blonde girl to approach and grab her two teammates by the ears.

"Sorry about these numbskulls. Good job scamming those idiots of their belongings, Naruto. Even making them question their loyalty to their village. That was impressive. I noticed that the bandaged ninja hesitated and actually gave it some real thought."

The stylish blonde girl, with vivid blue eyes that he was sure were supposed to be pupilless but were very clearly not, grinned at him for a moment before tutting her tongue in disapproval. "Though I have to say, I never knew you had such a foul mouth on you."

All eyes turned to him, and now Naruto felt his face grow hot as he rubbed his head; he had no idea how the insults translated so well to whatever language they were speaking, and he was pretty sure it was not exactly Japanese but something very close to it. Though there was no doubt that the culture itself was inherently Japanese, even if half the people he knew looked Caucasian, being foul-mouthed was heavily frowned upon.

Gotta be polite when you're threatening or gutting someone; it's a courtesy thing.

Having a cute girl judge him for it made it feel even worse than if it were an adult doing it; hell, he was pretty sure she looked like she could easily be fourteen or fifteen. Naruto swiftly scanned his memories, wondering if they were all older, but nope, they were all twelve, yet it seemed chakra or just the food here had a way of making them mature faster. No doubt that would explain how they could go to war at such young ages…and as a side effect, it made them grow faster.

Seriously, he really should stop comparing them to mere drawings. The real thing was far better…even if Naruto was still the shortest one in the Konoha twelve.

"Anyway," he said quickly, gaze shifting to Sakura. "They really saved us?"

At her nod, Naruto ignored the stab of pain in his back and bowed. "Then please excuse my rudeness. We just had a really tough fight with someone powerful pretending to be a Genin yesterday, and I am still on edge."

Somehow, that only made their eyes more guarded as they studied him as if they had never seen him before. Naruto inwardly cursed his past self, who always defaulted to being loud and annoying whenever he talked. Thankfully, a distraction came in the form of a girl wearing a pink shirt and having her hair tied in two buns. That could only be Tenten, and she led a now-awake Lee to them.

"Ah, Lee-san. Thank you so much for saving us." Sakura approached the older boy and bowed to him. As they talked more, with Ino joining in and offering to fix Sakura's hair, Sasuke grabbed his shoulder and led him away from the others.

"What is it?" Naruto asked quietly as they settled between the roots of an oak that was far bigger than any tree had the right to be, and his teammate emptied the contents of the pouches his clone gave him on the ground before rearranging them, prompting Naruto to do the same. His clone silently joined them, and together, they separated and organized what they acquired before dividing it into three portions for the three of them.

"What was that just now?"

"You gotta be more specific, Sasuke."

"Hn." Oh, it appeared! The legendary Sasuke grunt! "How did you scare those idiots?"

"Easy, I'm badass like that."

Sasuke grunted again. Naruto nodded inwardly as he realized the term translated well.

"Cut the crap, dumbass. That was clearly a jutsu of some kind."

Naruto ignored the insult, letting it flow like water on a duck's back. "If it were a jutsu, why didn't you use your Sharingan to learn what it is?" Sasuke turned away, causing Naruto to grin smugly. "Oh? Did you try and fail to see anything? Or were you low on chakra?"

"It was both." His teammate sighed, and they remained silent for a minute as they sorted their loot. "Yesterday, how did you stop that massive snake? Why were your eyes red? What did that man do to you?"

Naruto blinked. He was absolutely certain Sasuke never asked him any of these questions in the manga. The previous ones about his Yin energy made sense, but Sasuke asking about the Nine-Tails chakra never happened.

…Was that the legendary plot hole in action? But this was no longer an anime but a real world. Some would chalk it up to Sasuke being aloof and falling into his loner mentality to the point of never asking questions. But he was supposed to be equally inquisitive, eager to learn more, especially about powers that could help him in his revenge.

"That woman who attacked us, what was her name again?" Naruto asked instead.

Sasuke quirked an eyebrow at the deflection but answered reluctantly. "Orochimaru, and it was a man disguised as a woman."

"And the Sound-nin mentioned their master was Orochimaru," Naruto said, giving Sasuke a knowing smile. "Name ring any bells?"

"Not really, but it would make sense for that man to be Jonin level. I think he could even beat Kakashi in a straight fight."

Naruto let out a long sigh. Why?

How does someone like Sasuke fail to recognize the Sannin?

Even so, if Sasuke knew who Orochimaru was, he would also know the rogue-nin had held back. A lot.

His memories of the Academy were blurry, especially as Naruto didn't care for history class, but he still recalled the teachers going over some of the greatest heroes of the village as well as their worst traitors. At one point, Orochimaru was one of the former before becoming the latter. He could excuse their ignorance in the manga as a case of the author wanting to inform the readers instead of using an info dump, but really, how could they not know the name of one of the Legendary Sannin?

"Have you heard of the Sannin?" Sasuke's hands froze as he picked up a spool of ninja wire, and his eyes widened. "I suppose I don't need to say more; there's only one of them who has betrayed the village and uses snakes for summons."

His teammate's shoulders slumped as he rubbed his neck where the Curse Mark was. "Fuck."

Naruto let out a low chuckle. So the emo boy could cuss, too. He had never been one for excessive politeness, but hearing Sasuke swear… it was refreshing.

A few minutes later, they were nearly done organizing their things and were equipping their pouches.

There were several things that Naruto found that interested him, mostly in his own pouch that he had forgotten about, such as ninjutsu manuals, poison recipes, blank scrolls, ink, and brushes. He had packed them out of habit but never actually touched any of them before. He was really glad to have looted the Sound-nin; they had a lot more useful supplies like dried rations, bells, wires, kunai, shuriken, and, most importantly, two bottles of pills.

Naruto recognized soldier pills, basically an entire meal condensed into the form of a round brown pill the size of a ping-pong ball, that nourished the body and replenished one's chakra. Considering chakra combined physical and spiritual energy, he reckoned it would not be practical to rely on it unless you had a deficit in Yang energy. Which he most definitely did as he popped one in his mouth and chewed thoughtfully as he thought about Sasuke's question; it tasted bland, like he was chewing on cardboard.

"So, what's happened to you?" Sasuke suddenly asked once they were done.

"What do you mean?"

"You're a lot more…tolerable." Sasuke grimaced as he saw him eating a second pill. "You know, this isn't healthy for you."

"I'm hungry and out of chakra." Naruto ate a third before closing the bottle; there were only seven more, and he needed to be frugal since they had yet to finish this stage of the exam. He gave Sasuke most of the shuriken and ninja wire since he was far better at them than he was. In return, Naruto grabbed all the kunai and exploding tags, as well as the other bottle. "Any idea what these are?"

There were only five pills in the small bottle. Sasuke frowned at the tiny black pill in his palm before shaking his head. "Sakura would know. Now answer my question."

"Could ask the same about you." Naruto shrugged as he stood and sent his clone to scout ahead; he could already feel his chakra recovering, though his body still ached. "Coming face-to-face with death does that to you."

"That's nonsense; if that were the case, you would have changed after Wave."

"Who says I didn't?" Naruto bit back, tone sharper than he intended. Memories of a pretty face with a kind and contented smile, even as a lightning-clad arm was shoved into his chest, flooded his mind. "I'm not stupid enough to not realize that I need to get my act together. Thinking that everything would work out if I just wing it is suicide. For fuck's sake, I got eaten by a giant snake before I found you guys, and the only way I could think of at the time to escape was the Mass Shadow Clone to explode it from the inside!"

Sasuke's smirk was annoying, and Naruto could totally understand why his past self was easily provoked by him. This was the most punchable face ever!

"Sounds like a brainless solution for a dumbass like you."

"If it sounds dumb yet works, then it ain't dumb." Naruto shrugged before perking up as Sakura approached, and he handed her the pouch of supplies he had prepared for her. "Hey, Sakura-chan. You're looking better. Even cuter than normal, if possible. Totally rocking the short hairstyle. Right, Sasuke?"

Sakura, who at first looked happy at his compliment and accepted the pouch demurely, frowned as he laid it on a bit thick, but then blushed and perked up as he elbowed Sasuke, who just stared blankly at her. "You're better. Do you know what these are?"

Their more knowledgeable teammate sagged a little, but she still inspected the bottle. Naruto glanced beyond her, finding Lee and Tenten had already left, probably to rejoin their stick-in-the-mud teammate. Ino was arguing with her team but caught his eye. The minx pulled her tongue out and winked at him before waving goodbye as they left the clearing. Strangely, Ino was acting much nicer than he thought…then again, aside from Hinata, she was one of the few girls who never really bothered him. Pity or something else, it was a hundred times better than how most had treated him..

Of course, when Sasuke was involved, she turned into a love-struck idiot who could give dogs in heat a run for their money.

"Oh wow!" Sakura held up a pill before her eye and smiled. "I think these are blood-replenishing pills, also called Plasma Pills. They're quite expensive and not something the average Genin would carry around."

"Well, those Sound-nin certainly weren't your average Genin." Naruto inspected the pink-haired girl's wounds; she and Ino had applied first aid, but he was pretty sure she had lost quite a bit of blood. The same for Sasuke as well; his thigh was bleeding from a stab wound, even though Sakura bandaged it. "I think you should each take a pill, Sakura-chan. And one of these as well," he added as he handed her a soldier pill. "You've been awake all night, right? We still have a long way to go to the tower, not to mention finding another scroll."

"Look at you, since when did you get so dependable?" Sakura elbowed him jokingly before swallowing both pills. Sasuke inspected the plasma pill for a moment before also swallowing it. "I wish I had something to drink, though—" Naruto silently handed her a metal canteen he took from the bell girl. "Thanks. For the soldier pill as well. You both should eat one as well."

"Already had three."

Sakura, who was drinking from the canteen, choked and went into a coughing fit. Sasuke glanced at him for a moment before simply stepping away as he ate his soldier pill.

"Are you out of your mind?!" Sakura finally exploded, looking like she really wanted to give him a smack, but instead opted to shake his collar frantically. "Quickly! You have to puke it out before your heart explodes or worse, you get food poisoning that would have you shitting blood for a week!"

"You need to set up your priorities." Naruto deadpanned at her and gently removed her hands from his collar. "Don't worry about it; I'm built different and can handle it."

"What do you mean built different? This isn't a game, Naruto."

"Give it a rest, Sakura," Sasuke grunted. "He looks fine, and I can tell his chakra is steadily rising again. He was always more durable and could take thrice the amount of beatings others could and stand again with no sweat."

"Yep, like I said, I'm built different." Naruto grinned then burst out in laughter at Sakura's indignant scowl—man, she was so much fun to tease. "Which scroll did we get, Sasuke?"

"Earth."

"Cool." A flood of memories poured into his mind as his Shadow Clone burst along with a good portion of the chakra he gave it. His excitement at discovering that the Shadow Clone trick worked perfectly was subdued at learning how his clone died. "I might have found a team with a heaven scroll."

"How?"

"Shadow Clone. I sent one ahead to scout, and he found a team that needed an earth scroll." Naruto shrugged as he bit his nail in thought. "Problem is, they discovered me and would be wary of an ambush now."

"Wait, how did you know about what your shadow clone saw?" Sakura asked in confusion.

"Doesn't matter, point me to where they are." Sasuke grimaced as he rubbed his neck. "I would rather we finish this part of the exam quickly, then head to the tower. This thing in my neck…it's irritating me."

"I recommend we find somewhere to rest first. I can send more clones to keep an eye on them, at least until they lower their guard again," Naruto reasoned, only to narrow his eyes at his teammates gawking at him. "What is it?"

"Sasuke-kun, are you sure he isn't an impostor?" Sakura asked seriously, and even Sasuke rubbed his chin in thought. "I don't think Naruto would threaten to kill others either."

"Oh, come on! You are the one who told us we have to be prepared to kill yesterday, Sasuke." Naruto scowled at his teammates' wary eyes. "You said that when you stabbed that Rain-nin, and guess what? That same ninja is the one I discovered with his team."

"Yeah, that's definitely Naruto. No one else was around us at the time to know I said that. Besides, his attempt at recruitment isn't that odd. Didn't you say he had those three snot-nosed brats following him around, calling him boss?" Sasuke nodded, and Sakura naturally followed his reasoning, even as Naruto cringed at the reminder of Konohamaru and his tagalongs. The Uchiha still had the gall to smirk at him, "If I had known that all it would take to beat the dumbass out of you was to give you a gut punch, I would have done that ages ago."

"It was not a simple punch, you scaredy-cat. If I had known all it would take to make your cowardly ass fight better was to risk my life, I would still not do it."

Sasuke's scowl returned, but Naruto's words had no heat. The stupid seal had indeed messed up his chakra control, and there was nothing he could do until Jiraiya came around to remove it. The handicap could be lethal here, and that knowledge kept him on edge. Perhaps…Kakashi knew enough to deal with it?

He had sealed Sasuke's Cursed Mark, after all.

Not to mention, he was still tired, and his reserves had barely recovered to a fifth of their total, and that's with the clone sending back its chakra. It was still more than Sasuke and Sakura's capacity combined. If even Naruto still felt tired, with all the Uzumaki blood and the Kyuubi's chakra coursing through him, he was not sure how his teammates would fare against that team. His memory was spotty, but he recalled they relied heavily on Genjutsu and Earth Style Ninjutsu.

Nevertheless, Sasuke's reasoning had merit; they should try to avoid staying in this forest longer than necessary. The sooner they got to the tower, the better; he could have someone take a look at his seal and maybe read some of the scrolls that looked like they had never been opened in their life.

Naruto grimaced inwardly as he remembered how those theory scrolls came into his possession; Iruka gifted him a standard ninja kit that included them, in the hopes he would read them and expand his knowledge. Naturally, like the utter dumbass he was, he ecstatically accepted them, promised to always keep them close, then promptly forgot all about them.

Most importantly, if they made it to the tower early, they would hopefully completely dodge that snake, Kabuto, and his team. He was not sure if he was a spy or not yet; at first, the anime made it seem like he had his own agenda separate from Orochimaru, but then all the retcons came in, and it turned out he had always been loyal to Orochimaru, ever since he met him in the Earth Country or something and broke him from Danzo's control.

No matter what, he did not want to be in that traitor's sights. For fuck's sake, he was twenty years old yet still referred to himself as 'Boku.' How was he expected to take him seriously? Naruto was definitely in team 'Ore' which was the only way to refer to yourself as a man.

Don't ask him how he could tell the difference with the language barrier or how he could remember such weird things but not even his old name. As Todd Howard once said: It Just Works!

And who the fuck was that anyway?! Ugh, forget it. Back to Kabuto and his team. While Kabuto was strong, his teammates were utter pushovers. Something-something chakra drain and discount Mr Fantastic? Maybe he could do something about them during the exam.

"So what should we do next?" Sakura was saying slowly. Her eyelids were drooping, and she looked ready to fall asleep on the spot. "I agree with Naruto; we should find a place to rest. It's barely eight in the morning, the day is long, and it's only the second day. We still have three more days, so we should rest and allow time for the pills to properly work."

Sasuke looked displeased, but after Naruto folded his arms and stood next to the groggy Sakura, showing his stance on the matter, he finally relented. "Very well. Let's find some place to rest, but you will have your clones monitoring that team."

Naruto nodded and led them to a burrow dug underneath a tree, about half a kilometer from where he discovered the Rain team. Its previous occupant, a particularly vicious boar the size of a bear, was permanently evicted before they made themselves comfortable.

Without wasting time, Naruto created a dozen clones to scout and keep watch outside; it was the maximum he could create with his botched control and low reserves. His knees buckled, and he just lay down in a groove and closed his eyes. It took him a few minutes of concentration to recall their exact tricks, and a plan began to form in his mind to take on the Rain team.

Unbidden, his mind strayed to his past self's memories, and before he knew it, Naruto had entered a meditation trance and was living through many of the memories he had missed while imprisoned.

Most things were as he expected, but there were several discrepancies with what he called canon logic. He cursed himself for never focusing in class or simply bothering to read; the number of times Iruka had tried to get him into reading over the years spoke of the man's patience despite his previous dislike of him. He even gave him a library card that Naruto tossed under his bed, and the rats had probably eaten through it by now. And no, Naruto was not ostracized by the academy teachers (aside from Mizuki); he was just lazy as fuck when it came to studies—especially everything that involved reading.

This just made him even more excited to learn all there was about this new world. He shifted his focus to his jutsu repertoire as he planned an attack on those Rain stooges. He couldn't help but wonder if they were sent by Hanzo or Pain; he was not sure and couldn't remember who was in charge now. The Akatsuki were definitely around for a long time, but when did Nagato take over after Danzo and Hanzo ganked them? Man, those two names rhyme well together…he wondered what that old cripple was up to and if he would show his ugly mug even though he was in 'Part One' when Danzo was not even conceptualized by Kishimoto?

Ugh, Naruto hated all of these uncertainties. He hated that he couldn't even see the sky above them from the thick canopy of green and brown. Hated that he was going into the unknown blind with no special powers. Shouldn't every isekai come with a power-up?

'Where's my system?! Status? Golden Finger, hello?' Nope, nothing. 'Fuck, guess I'm stuck with good old Uzumaki genes. Even the fox is playing coy, and all I got was the passive leakage from Minat—Dad's seal.'

The thought that his hero, the Fourth Hokage, was his father brought him mixed feelings. On the one hand, it was cool as heck that the fastest shinobi in history was his father. On the other hand, he did seal the Nine-Tails in his guts when he could have had an alternative. Like maybe seal him back in Mom? He would have had a kind and powerful mother to raise him and properly prepare him for the madness that awaited them.

Naruto sighed. It was no use wondering about any of this. None of it mattered, so long as he was stuck in this forest and could very well get killed by some random schmuck because he let his guard down, and Sasuke wasn't there to cover his ass.

The real question now was whether he should try to keep things as close to canon as possible.

It did not take Naruto more than two seconds to snort and say, 'Fuck no!' Canon was already fucked with the Fox being whole in his seal; no Edo Tensei Minato with the Chakra Cloak meant the entire war arc was fucked.

So what should he do now?

…Hoping for the best and preparing for the worst, like normal people do.

He already died once, though he had no memory of it, and ended up here. A world of magic where the possibilities were endless. Naruto had so many paths ahead of him, and constraining himself to what his canon counterpart did was not an option. If Uzumaki Naruto could be strong…why not be the strongest?

People thought he had large chakra reserves? Even at the height of his power, with the Kyuubi's cloak, Naruto could not hold a candle to the likes of Madara or Hashirama without the fox fully cooperating, and even then, it would just be a stalemate. He wanted to live life to the fullest and enjoy all it had to offer, do his damndest to protect himself and his friends, but still not go full power-hungry moron like Orochimaru or Sasuke at his worst.

No, his path to gaining absolute strength starts here; Naruto had great potential. The shadow clones, chakra reserves, and recovery alone were an absolute game-changer, but this could wait until he got out of the forest.

He needed to plan for the future, and to do so, the first step was to gather information. He needed to learn how different this world was compared to what he knew, and those Rain ninjas could give him a hint of what was going on in the Land of Storms.

'Who knows, maybe they would also have some nice loot.' Naruto thought with a grin as he sank deeper into his trance and assimilated all the knowledge and memories his past self had gathered so far.

It was not much, but better than nothing.

Chapter Text

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This chapter was edited by Gladiusx and Reiter.

"..ruto!"

Someone was shaking his shoulders, and Naruto groaned as he tried to go back to sleep. The last thing he remembered was him meditating in that burrow in the Forest of Death, while trying to assimilate all the knowledge scattered in his brain.

And what knowledge it was! Man, he couldn't believe some of the things in this world that were not shown in the anime. Too many things to count were different, like how utterly chaotic the technological advancement was in the world. Naruto already knew of the existence of cameras, even if they looked archaic, but they still made colored photos somehow, and there were even surveillance cameras, videotapes, and radios, even if their range was terribly short. Some of the main roads had power lines, but they were rare and did not lead to every village or town he came across. They also looked clunkier and less practical than he thought they should.

Did they have telegrams? Naruto did not know, but as far as he could tell, there were no landlines, which made no sense. Didn't the telegram come before electricity? How could there be TV but no phones? Or maybe it was just Naruto who didn't focus on these things. He did recall in the anime the villages communicating long distances through messenger hawks or Yamanaka's super complicated technique. Still, while the outside world did not have many amenities, Konoha had plenty that would not look out of place in the 1960s (what that year meant he had no idea). Naruto's apartment definitely had electricity to power the fridge and TV.

There was even a gas stove, water boiler, and running water in his rundown apartment!

That was a relief, Naruto would not have been able to survive this savage world without a bidet. Already, the past couple of days here had been a nightmare. Which was unfortunate because, as a ninja, he was supposed to travel the entire world. Then again, it was quite the surprise to learn that despite this nation being a feudal society where nobles held all the power and there were poor peasants aplenty, traveling long distances would not be a big issue.

Because they had freaking trains here!

Naruto already knew trains existed in this world from the show, though he couldn't remember if that was canon or not. He always wondered how Team 7 made it to Wave on foot in less than a month with Tazuna forcing them to go at a snail's pace—and Wave turned out to be far to the south rather than to the east and well over a thousand kilometers away. Actually, it didn't even take a week because here, Team 7 walked for a couple of days to the nearest town with a train station, then hopped on the train for the rest of the way, where they met the demon brothers at the final stretch instead of close to the village like in the anime. It at least explained Kakashi's decision to ultimately continue the mission; they were already so close to their destination anyway.

Apparently, while trains were expensive and usually reserved for the nobility, merchants, the filthy rich, or government officials transporting taxes, Konoha-nin received special treatment and got to ride for free when on missions, though usually not with their clients. Thankfully, Kakashi-Sensei was such a big shot that he just asked the conductor to give them a room, and they were all accommodated!

Having a big shot as a sensei was so convenient, even if he was a lazy ass.

Naruto couldn't help but smile at his past self's sheer joy as he remembered sticking his head out of the window and watching as the fields flew by them, with thousands of peasants toiling on the land—even Sakura and Sasuke watched in excitement and interest, respectively. It was early spring in that memory, and the sheer size of Fire Country astounded him, as well as the thousands of peasants—no, serfs, as Kakashi explained—working the fields, harvesting the winter crops, and tending to the growing seeds. They were not allowed to leave the fields of their masters, basically slaves in all but name, and there were millions of them. Konoha was a large city, and yes, there was no doubt it was a city of hundreds of thousands rather than a village, but it was minuscule compared to the world outside.

This motivated Naruto even more to advance through the ranks of the shinobi system and go on a pilgrimage of sorts to explore the world. He wanted to meet more people, more ninjas, and perhaps hunt some of the monsters that were said to plague the world.

As for changing the unfair system? Naruto didn't care about that. He did remember that the world he was in was just as unfair. And big change…came hand in hand with blood and countless deaths. Perhaps if he were the strongest—

"Naruto, wake up!"

He flinched awake, finding Sakura's emerald eyes gazing worriedly at him from above. "Sakura-chan?"

Wait, chan? Why did he attach such an honorific to Sakura again?

"Naruto, quickly; something is wrong with Sasuke-kun."

He jumped to his feet, thanking his short ass that he didn't have to stoop in the burrow, and hurried to Sasuke's side, finding him grimacing and grunting in his sleep. Naruto inspected his own chakra reserves and was surprised to find himself nearly at full strength.

"How long has it been since we slept?"

"About six hours."

Naruto nearly gawked; six hours to get his chakra reserves from a tenth to nearly full?! And with that stupid seal messing up both his control and recovery? He shook his head. Why was he even surprised? It made total sense, especially as he had not suffered chakra exhaustion; his chakra was low mostly from using the Fox's chakra, which combined with his own when used and ended up being almost completely dissipated by Orochimaru's seal. It's why he was knocked out in the first place; his chakra reserves had technically hit zero, shutting down his body, and would have killed any person if they were not him—he was simply built different.

His chakra coils, however, were in perfect condition, allowing Naruto to recover as fast as normal even while unconscious.

He blinked. Huh, so that was Naruto's normal. No wonder people thought him a monster. Hell, Kakashi had to rest for a whole week after exhausting his chakra, and even then, he was not at full strength when they fought Zabuza and Haku at the bridge. His meeting with Zabuza had lit a fire in him, and Naruto couldn't help but think back on the rogue ninja and his life philosophy.

Ninjas were tools, but that did not mean they were emotionless. They could be tools to their village and masters, but they could also be their own masters. It made Naruto wonder about his dream to become Hokage and—

Sakura knelt beside him, causing him to shake his head and focus, then inspected the curse mark. "What's happening to him?"

Naruto couldn't resist quipping, "Wow, Sakura." He had to bite his tongue to drop the honorific that almost came out by habit. He refused to be the same as that blind, love-struck moron. "Asking me about something instead of the other way around? You must be very desperate to come to me of all—"

Predictably, she punched his shoulder, but it was light and playful, not at all the malicious violence he expected from watching the anime. Was she like that in the manga? Hmm, yes, going over his memories, he certainly remembered her punching the living daylights out of him shortly before they met Gaara.

Damn girl, he wanted to blame Studio Pierrot for butchering her character, but Sakura definitely had issues regardless.

"This is no time to joke, Naruto," Sakura grumbled, clenching her teeth before sniffing as she stared at Sasuke. "I don't know what's wrong with him, and I just feel so useless!"

Naruto stared at his teammate, her words echoing in his mind. Useless…was that not what defined Haruno Sakura in the fan community? Utter bullshit, of course; the girl turned out to be an absolutely vital member of the cast and one of the most powerful ninja in the world.

She was only thirteen with a long life ahead of her, even if she looked slightly older, what with chakra causing ninja to mature faster—the kunoichi was taller than him by nearly half a head and even taller than Sasuke, but height never really mattered to a ninja, as the Hokage proved. Anyway, he knew the potential was there; all he needed was to help her along, and she would reach it, feeling grateful for the help he would provide.

A win-win situation.

But was it truly worth it? At the height of her power in the manga, Sakura was not truly that impressive, all things considered. She might have become an excellent healer, but when it came to fighting, the best she could do was cast Fist!

Yeah…did Sakura ever use any kind of Ninjutsu or Genjutsu? Even her Taijutsu looked amateurish compared to some of the other users around, even if every hit guaranteed instant death. Hmmm, that's still better than nothing, he supposed, and being a healer was a great boon considering how many times Sakura saved Naruto's ass in canon.

A small part of him, the edgy part that had been trapped in the seal for so long, grumbled about helping out the girl who insulted him for being an orphan or gave him too much of a hard time when he asked her out on dates, but Naruto eventually shrugged it off; she was a bratty girl who regretted what she said, and he had long forgiven her.

Besides, how was he supposed to know the difference between romantic dates and just hanging out with friends? Sakura rejecting him because he was acting like a brat asking her out all the damn time when he didn't even understand what a date meant made sense. When Naruto thought about it, he didn't really think of the girl romantically—he just wanted to hang out, whether with her or even Sasuke.

No more calling her Sakura-chan, though. He was not a simp.

He frowned inwardly; was that his yang part talking about forgiveness and excusing his teammates' attitudes so easily? Naruto shook himself; it didn't matter. What mattered was for him to maintain a good balance between his overtrusting and suspicious natures, his instincts and rationale; all of them were important and a part of him. Sasuke and Sakura were not perfect; they had their flaws, but they were still his teammates and had their uses. Trusting them in a combat mission was a must, lest they risk disunity and cause injury to themselves or even death.

He and Sasuke had been at each other's throats since the Wave mission, with Sakura acting as mediator. While Naruto believed he was in the right and Sasuke was a condescending asshole, he realized that someone had to give and compromise, and in this instance, it was simply not worth holding grudges…at least not now.

What mattered the most now was to focus on the exams, keep the peace between them, and aim for the Chunin promotion. Then, Naruto can form his own team or go solo; heavens know he had enough chakra to form a platoon of clones at any moment, let alone a team.

Naruto sighed as the pink-haired girl moped; for now, though, he should help her a little. Who knows? Maybe Sakura would mature early and get rid of the stigma of being useless before Tsunade enters the scene. "Hey, don't worry about it. There's nothing we could have done against Orochimaru of all people."

"Orochimaru…Sasuke-kun mentioned he was one of the Legendary Sannin. Why would he target Sasuke-kun?"

"Why do bad people do bad things? I heard the snake man was quite the creepy bastard, even if I don't know the full details." Something about experiments and stuff, but he couldn't remember much aside from Hashirama Cells and an unhealthy obsession with the Sharingan. "Did he say anything during the fight?"

Sakura looked hesitant, hugging her knees and staring at Sasuke, but at his encouraging nudge, she gave a wan smile. "Orochimaru said this was all a test for Sasuke-kun. He claimed he would seek him out for power. Sasuke-kun wouldn't do that, right? Abandoning the village for a traitor, I mean."

"I hope not, but I'd like to think Sasuke is too smart to run off to the first moron who dangles a treat in front of him." Naruto shrugged, unwilling to lie but not telling the truth either. "Don't think too much about it, Sakura. We will let the Hokage know, and he will deal with his former student. Now let me see what's up with Sleeping Beauty here. It's time to pull out all the stops and let my expertise shine!"

Sakura giggled, and Naruto moved Sasuke's collar out of the way to inspect the seal better; he honestly had no idea what he was doing but was unwilling to tell the girl. That would be super lame after all he said to her.

Looking at the curse mark, Naruto could definitely feel an ominous presence from it. More Yin energy was to be expected, but there was more to it that he was far too unskilled to understand. He recalled the origins of the Cursed Seal of Heaven; Orochimaru used the genes of that big orange-haired kid who was in love with the bone guy or something as the basis for his cursed seals. What was his name again? Ah, whatever. What mattered was what Naruto remembered about him; he was from some kind of clan that had a bloodline that allowed them to constantly absorb nature energy, which forced them to transform into monstrosities because they couldn't handle it.

Orochimaru, being a failure of a sage as the Nine-Tails called him, used that in combination with the curse mark to give its user a discount version of sage mode. It made them far uglier than the classical sage mode that Naruto and Hashirama achieved, while also turning them into lunatics.

Charming man, that snake summoner.

Sasuke grimaced again in his sleep, and Naruto decided to try something a bit, no, definitely reckless and stupid.

He channeled chakra to his fingertip and poked the seal.

"YOLO!"

Instantly, a strong tug came from his fingertip, and darkness consumed Naruto, just as he felt Sakura shouting his name and grabbing his body. It didn't take long for the spiraling darkness to dissipate, and Naruto found himself standing in a traditional Japanese room overlooking a serene garden. A sniffle had him turn, finding a young boy crying over two corpses. It was a man and a woman, both looking strangely tranquil in death, with soft smiles on their faces. It didn't take long for Naruto to realize he was staring at Uchiha Fugaku and his wife, Mikoto.

A silly part of him couldn't help but notice that Sasuke's mom was an absolute hottie, but for the most part, he couldn't stop himself from staring transfixed at their bleeding forms. It was not the first time he had seen dead people, yet Sasuke's cries of anguish made it so much worse, and Naruto couldn't help but feel sorry for the emo kid.

"You're a weakling." A voice suddenly called from the side, and Naruto turned to find a twin of Sasuke, though somehow uglier, brattier, with a smug smirk and evil eyes as it gloated over the boy. "Father and Mother did not need to die. It is because of you! Because you are a weakling, you let them die. Without strength, there's nothing you can do. Only I can—"

Naruto punched Brattymaru so hard he knocked out a tooth, and instantly, the world faded as he found himself in a cave.

"What the hell?" Brattymaru morphed into Orochimaru and the snake fucker wiped his torn lips as he stared at him strangely before chuckling in that creepy way of his. "I wondered who it was, but it was just you, Naruto-kun. Forgive me, for you are such a non-factor that I didn't acknowledge—"

Naruto threw another punch, but Orochimaru grabbed his fist easily and glared at him, lifting him off the ground to face him properly, as snakes flowed out of his sleeves and bound him. "Such a bold brat, aren't you? To so foolishly invade my cursed seal and even attack me? I thought sealing your demonic chakra would cool your head, but it appears another lesson is necessary for it to sink in!"

Suddenly, a vile and evil pressure descended on Naruto as Orochimaru sneered at him, his eyes sharpening into slits. The rogue ninja smirked, no doubt expecting him to shit his pants at the obscene amount of killing intent he was throwing at him.

Only to get a headbutt to the nose. This time, the attack was so unexpected that the snake summoner cried out in pain as Naruto enjoyed the feeling of bones and cartilage breaking beneath his forehead protector. He lifted his head back and stared in disdain at the pathetic bug before him.

"Perhaps if you were the original Orochimaru, I would have felt a modicum of wariness to such killing intent. Yet after years of being in the Nine-Tails' presence, such pressure from a mere horcrux feels…lacking."

"Why you little—" Orochimaru raised his head angrily, only to take the full brunt of all of Naruto's Yin-infused killing intent, fueled by all the hatred, anger, and sheer despair he had felt throughout his life. All the hatred from the villagers, the anger at his mistreatment, the unfairness of the world that would not acknowledge his existence, and, most importantly, the despair of the insurmountable pressure between him and the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox.

That last one was what he focused on the most, channeling his Yin affinity at the tiny shard of the monster that was Orochimaru. The horcrux, whatever the hell that meant, gaped and stood frozen in shock as the world shook around them. Stalactites fell from the cave, shattering into pieces as they crashed around them. Naruto increased the pressure, calling upon the full might of his chakra reserves to crash on the tiny sliver of the shinobi whom he was sure could crush him like a gnat in the real world.

"It seems a mere shard like you is far weaker than the real thing. Though perhaps it's because you are newly formed?" He recalled this part of Orochimaru was strong enough that Itachi had to use Susanoo to seal him, but perhaps, like a parasite, it needed time as it fed from the host's chakra and life force to grow so strong.

Naruto also recalled Sasuke needing to eat some kind of pill to further empower the cursed seal, which meant this seal was at its weakest. "You let your guard down, Snake. This might be my chance to permanently remove you from my friend."

Naruto cocked his head as the snakes binding him melted away and Orochimaru fell to his knees, sweat poured in droves from his forehead, and he could feel the horcrux trying to banish him from his mind. He grimaced as he felt something trying to drag him away, a tug of war he knew he would eventually lose. The world shook even harder, and Naruto worried if this was also affecting Sasuke. Dammit, this was his chance to rid Sasuke of the damned seal that would cause him to defect from the village.

Feeling the pressure to kick him out intensifying, he stubbornly held on as he glared at the panting Sannin, even as Orochimaru smirked weakly. "Remove me? I will admit that in my hubris, I underestimated you. Heavily so. To think you would have such darkness in you. Your Yin chakra would make even my main body pause, and I don't sense the Nine-Tails at all in it. But this is your limit."

Orochimaru struggled as he tried to stand, raising his hands and trying to form a seal. Naruto instinctively knew that he could not allow him to let his hands connect; otherwise, he would surely be driven off or worse. Panicking slightly, and not knowing what else he could do, he did the only thing that seemed to have worked so far.

Kick the fucker in the crotch.

The horcrux squealed like a bitch, and as Orochimaru's eyes widened in shock and pain, Naruto focused his Yin energy the same way he did when he consumed his Yang half, then slammed into the parasite's mind with all that remained of his chakra. Miraculously, Orochimaru was so shocked by the low blow that Naruto somehow managed to peek into his mind, ignoring all the fucked-up shit the bastard had done that would make even the worst shit he had seen online seem tame. It took all his focus as he tried to find something, anything, in the wretch's mind that could help him understand the cursed mark better, but as expected from Orochimaru's mind.

It was far too chaotic.

Aside from thousands of mirrors that showed events from the madman's past, there was something more interesting. Ethereal scrolls floated in the dark space that was Orochimaru's mind, and they reminded Naruto of jutsu scrolls, yet they flew with extreme speed, not allowing him to have more than a cursory glance over them.

Just as Naruto felt the pressure to expel him from both the horcrux's and Sasuke's minds, he gave a proverbial shrug and once again threw caution to the wind, spreading his awareness and chakra all over the mindscape and willing it to stick to any of the flying scrolls at complete random. The damned things tried to dodge, but luckily, his chakra grabbed onto one like a dog would a bone, even as the rest flew away, though he managed to grab another scroll at the last second before the pressure became too much, and he was blasted out of Orochimaru's mind.

"GET OUT!"

Naruto flew away, his head ringing from the Snake Sannin's angry cry, and only stopped when he crashed into something solid.

"Naruto!" Sakura was instantly beside him and shook his shoulder, only for him to groan in pain. "Are you alright? You suddenly went stock-still before releasing so much chakra."

"Ughhh, my head." The pounding in his head was terrible, and something warm and metallic flowed from his nose to his lips. He groggily sat up, rolling on all fours as he coughed as hard as he could while spitting out blood. It didn't feel like it came just from his nose; he was actually coughing up blood for some reason. "W-Water…"

"Here." Sakura handed him his canteen, and Naruto squeezed a sip into his mouth, swirled it, then spat it before drinking another sip, soothing his dry throat. "How long was I out?"

"Maybe ten minutes?" Sakura fidgeted in concern. "Are you sure you're alright?"

"I've been better," Naruto groaned as he tore off his headband and poured water over his head, sighing in relief as the cool wetness soothed his burning head. "How's the princess doing?"

"Princess?" Sakura tilted her head in confusion before her eyes shone in understanding. "Ah, Sasuke-kun suddenly slept much better once you did whatever you did. Also, don't call him princess!"

"Call who a princess?" another groggy voice came from behind them, and Sakura squeaked in shock before instantly jumping to their teammate's side as she fussed over him. "Hnn, I feel like I was bashed in the head by an angry boar."

"Oh yeah? I feel like I've gone a few rounds with Zabuza myself." Naruto groaned as he inspected his chakra. "And I lost half of my chakra while I was at it."

It was strange; his chakra reserves had definitely dwindled, yet his body was still brimming with vitality and energy. Upon further inspection, he found out why; it was his Yin energy that had been strained nearly to the maximum while his Yang was raring to go. No wonder his head felt like it would explode, and his brain was mush. Separating the core of what made his chakra like this was dangerous, as he felt his chakra core struggling to reform the mixture of energies to give him the complete and balanced power that was chakra.

And all he got from that was—

He blinked before sitting in the lotus position and closing his eyes, ignoring Sasuke's question as he focused on the new knowledge that flowed into his mind. Specifically, knowledge of a jutsu that he managed to steal from Orochimaru.

A jutsu from the freaking Snake Sannin himself! The guy who coveted jutsus above all else! Naruto had no idea how he managed to mind-rape the fucker the same way the Yamanakas did their victims, but then he recalled their clan jutsu was Yin-based; did he accidentally figure out a bastardized version of their jutsu? A term surfaced in his mind about what he did: Legilimency.

What did that even mean? It was not at all Japanese, so not a jutsu…Naruto shelved that thought for later in favor of inspecting his new gains.

First, there was the scroll he grabbed at the last second, and as he inspected what he gleaned from it, he frowned; it was just the Temporary Paralysis Technique, a D-Rank jutsu that was more akin to a prank or a method for adult ninjas to bully younger ones who have less—

Oh? Naruto smirked inwardly. A jutsu made for adults who usually have more chakra to discipline rowdy children? Coincidentally, Naruto had more chakra than most adults, and he had already done something similar with his amateur way of blasting his yin energy. While he did not have the full knowledge of the jutsu, he had seen a few shinobi use it, and Orochimaru definitely used that against Sakura and Sasuke in their fight.

Still, having killing intent or other negative emotions was not enough—even a vast chakra reserve was not enough—it was the potency and quality of the chakra that mattered more than the quantity. It was how people with low chakra reserves like Kakashi or Itachi could still punch above their weight; the sheer weight of their experiences and training made their chakra heavier, somehow denser.

Naruto blinked again; odd, how the hell did he know of that? That's the first he ever heard of something like this. Chakra Efficacy, his mind suddenly supplied, and upon further introspection, Naruto realized he gained a bit more from the snake than just a jutsu, as Orochimaru's own experience with it flowed into his mind.

He skimmed over the Sannin's experience with the D-Rank jutsu and imagined he should be capable of using the paralysis jutsu easily enough, though how useful it would be against powerful foes, he would find out. He then moved to the next jutsu, hoping it actually was a jutsu and not just a random memory of that freak fucking a corpse or some—

Naruto blinked before gasping in shock. This…this jutsu!

"What's wrong with you?"

He opened his eyes, only to find Sasuke staring at him from a few inches away. "Bwahh, what the hell, man? Don't get so close!"

"I've been calling for you for the past few minutes, yet you wouldn't answer." Sasuke stood, and Naruto noticed he seemed better, healthier, and in a better mood. "Sakura said you did something to this thing. What was it?"

"Why do you ask? Did it help?" Sasuke averted his eyes, looking aloof, but Naruto had known him long enough to know when he was being shy. He grinned mischievously and stood, hopping towards the watching Sakura, and nudged her elbow. "Look, look, Sakura! Sasuke-chan is acting all shy and coy."

"Can it, you!" Sasuke glared at him, only for Naruto to laugh aloud while Sakura did her best to hide her giggles, even as she stared weirdly at him. Ah, she must have noticed the different way he called her. "Can you do it again, whatever it is you did?"

Ignoring Sakura's confused look and deciding he had teased Sasuke enough, Naruto gestured for him to bend down and tried to invade the seal again, only to get shocked and for Sasuke to grunt in pain and push him away. "What the hell was that, dumbass?"

"Oh, shut it, pretty boy." Naruto shook his hand to get the static out. "The damned thing seemed to have learned from its mistake. There's a literal piece of Orochimaru's soul in that seal. It underestimated me earlier, so I managed to get the drop on it, but now it's wary. I would not let its thoughts get to you if I were you. Who knows what that freak wants from you."

Sasuke blinked before his face gradually turned green as he gripped his neck tightly. Meanwhile, Sakura looked absolutely outraged.

"WHAT?! THAT FUCKING SNAKE DID WHAT TO MY SASUKE-KUN?!"

"Ah, there it is, the legendary banshee." Naruto couldn't help but burst out in laughter as Sakura utterly freaked out, practically breathing fire from her mouth as she withdrew a handkerchief and soap (where the hell did you hide that, girl?), grabbed Sasuke's collar, and violently scrubbed at his neck with all her might, even as Sasuke tried in vain to push her away.

It was several minutes later when they discovered that no amount of wiping removed the curse mark. Even when Sakura recklessly tried to pour chakra into it like he did (much to his shock), she and Sasuke got the same shock treatment he got. Thankfully, Orochimaru's horcrux was far too wary to entertain any invader, which was probably the only reason Sakura was still alive.

"That's enough, Sakura." The Uchiha clicked his tongue in annoyance, though he didn't sound that annoyed. He stared strangely at their pink-haired teammate as he rubbed his neck, grunted, and then headed out of the burrow. "It doesn't matter. I'll figure something out about it. Let's get moving. I want to be done with this exam soon."

Naruto exchanged glances with a worried Sakura before shrugging and following their teammate outside—it's a shame he would not be able to steal some more knowledge from the horcrux, even if he thought that with time he could learn to wear it down, break its will and defenses before subsuming it for all its worth. That would most likely result in Sasuke's death, however, and he would rather not kill his friend.

At least not until he goes all cray cray and power hungry.