29 Chapter 29: Naruto vs Orochimaru

After creating the nine clones, Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura took off. The trip delved deeper and deeper into the forest, making their way through toward the tower at the center. Suddenly, Naruto halted in front of Sasuke and Sakura.

"What's wrong Naruto?" Sakura asked.

"We're being followed right now, I don't know when they're going to strike, but keep your guard up. Also, on the chance we somehow get separated, we need something to confirm who we really are when we meet back up." Naruto informed the other two.

They nodded their heads together as they listened.

"Then how about a password?" Sasuke suggested.

"No, if someone was listening in right now, then they'd know it as well." Naruto refused.

After hearing his words, the other two tensed up and looked around. Just thinking about the idea of someone watching them at that moment put the two on edge.

"Instead of a password, we'll ask something about each other, something that only we would know." Naruto said.

"Like what?" Sakura asked.

"The fight in the Land of Waves." Naruto answered.

The two of them looked at Naruto as they thought about it. Then they nodded their heads as they realized that Naruto was right, out of everyone participating in the chunin exams, only their team knew what really happened in the Land of Waves. The only other people who would also know were Kakashi, and the Hokage because of Kakashi's report about the mission.

"Alright, then what do we say exactly?" Sakura asked.

"Just ask what happened on the bridge." Naruto replied.

The two of them nodded and they started rushing deeper into the woods again. As they made their way through, one of Naruto's clones dispersed and he received the experience that it had accumulated. Looks like they ran into that masked guy who tied me up last time, Naruto thought. He smirked a little bit at the fact that his plan had already proving to be successful, they had yet to run into anyone so far. But the one person who Naruto was placing his focus on still hadn't made a move yet. So he still couldn't let his guard down just yet.

"Looks like one of my clones already ran into some trouble along the way." Naruto called back to the other two.

Sasuke and Sakura glanced at each other as they breathed a sigh of relief. Looks like Naruto's plan had worked on drawing away some unwanted attention to them.

"We can't relax just yet, as we get closer to the tower, we'll run into more and more enemies, and it'll become more difficult to hide from them." Naruto reminded the two.

"Naruto? What's wrong?" Sakura hesitantly asked, after seeing the serious look on Naruto's face.

"We need to keep moving, I'll create another clone." Naruto answered.

He then crossed his fingers together and created another clone. Then, one Naruto went in the direction he stared at while the other Naruto continued on with Sasuke and Sakura. Sorry you guys, he thought, but I can't leave this up to a clone. Hopefully, you guys won't run into any issues while I'm gone.

Naruto had his clone leave with Sasuke and Sakura while he rushed toward the spot that his clone had dispersed from. He couldn't let Orochimaru get any chances of escaping after discovering his clones weren't Sasuke and Sakura. He had to ensure that Orochimaru didn't get to Sasuke this time.

After running for some time, Naruto felt his clones dispersed and gained the experience from them. Now he knew exactly where Orochimaru was, hopefully, things worked out as he planned.

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Orochimaru stared at the two figures in front of him with a hungry gaze. He licked his lips as he grinned creepily at them. The two in front were Naruto's clones that had transformed into Sasuke and Sakura respectively. While they knew who was standing in front of them and had prepared themselves, they still found it extremely difficult to remain calm after being hit by Orochimaru's blood thirst.

They found themselves transfixed in place with fear, Naruto thought back to when he first encountered Orochimaru and remembered that both Sasuke and Sakura had faced Orochimaru before he did. So this is what they experienced before I showed up? He thought, no wonder Sasuke acted like such a coward when I finally arrived. Naruto grit his teeth as his anger toward's Orochimaru bubbled up, causing a slight trickle of blood to fall from his clenched fists as his finger nails dug into his palm.

"Can't move already...?" Orochimaru smirked.

The two clones struggled to get themselves together as Orochimaru stared them down like a predator. One of the clones managed to pull out a kunai despite his hand shaking.

"Hoh? What are you going to do with that?" Orochimaru asked.

The clones stared at Orochimaru as he began to slowly walk toward them. Orochimaru pulled out two kunais casually as he walked.

"Don't worry... this'll be over in a second.." Orochimaru smirked.

After getting to a certain distance, he stopped and slowly brought his arm up to throw the two kunai. The two clones grit their teeth as they forced themselves to move. Orochimaru threw the kunais, and one of the clones threw their kunai and deflected one of Orochimaru's. Then the two of them jumped out of the way and dodged the remaining kunai. Orochimaru grinned as he found enjoyment from hunting down week prey that thought it could escape. The two clones made their way deeper into the forest and hid by a large tree.

"Alright, I think one of us should disperse to alert the original where we are." One of the clones suggested.

"Right!" The other replied and then dispersed while the remaining clone stayed vigilant toward any kind of ambush.

Suddenly a large snake appeared and went to swallow the clone. Shit! He thought and quickly threw several shurikens at the snake before jumping away again. The snake reeled back in anger after getting hit by the shurikens. It then swung it's lower body and wrapped it around the clone. Dammit! The clone thought in frustration, he then pulled out several explosive tags and lit them up. Causing a large explosion to ensue, killing the large snake. Orochimaru slowly emerged from the snake's corpse and glared at the point of origin where the explosion was.

So what I was playing with was a shadow clone... Orochimaru thought as he narrowed his eyes. He didn't like the idea of being played for a fool, so the situation angered him greatly as he frowned in displeasure. Suddenly, a kunai came flying out behind him forcing him to dodge out of the way. When he turned and look, he saw a kid with blonde hair and blue eyes.

"Yo! I see you've been having fun with my clones." Naruto said as he glared at Orochimaru.

"I see, so these were your clones, that you disguised as your teammates..... in order to lure away unwanted attention.... quite ingenious, but then why have you come over here?" Orochimaru inquired.

"Well, that's not really your business, but I figured leaving you to yourself would bring more harm than good." Naruto replied.

"I see, so you decided to turn the hunter into the hunted.." Orochimaru said.

"You could say that." Naruto grinned.

Orochimaru was silent for a moment before suddenly smiling widely and began laughing. He laughed for a few moments before finally calming down enough to bring himself under control.

"Interesting, very interesting!" Orochimaru said as he gazed at Naruto with an intense glare.

"To think I would find myself in the position of being hunted, it's an amusing situation, especially when the one hunting me is so much weaker than myself!"

Naruto frowned as he listened to Orochimaru talk, this guy really does make my skin crawl when I'm around him. Naruto decided that he'd listened enough to Orochimaru's words and started forming hand seals quickly.

Tiger → Ox → Dog → Rabbit → Snake

<Wind Release: Great Breakthrough Jutsu>

Suddenly, from multiple directions, large gusts of wind came flying out toward Orochimaru who was at the center of it all. Orochimaru frowned as he prepared himself, however, the ground below him suddenly gave way as another Naruto came hurtling out with a rasengan in hand as he thrust his rasengan into Orochimaru's chest. Orochimaru barely had any time to react before he was sent flying into the sky, only to be sent flying back into the ground as he got hit by the large gusts of wind coming down from above.

Naruto body flickered down onto the ground and and summoned his bo staff. Then he spun and built up moment before swing the staff and hitting Orochimaru square in the chest before he hit the ground and sent him flying away. Naruto brought the staff up to his shoulders as he gazed at Orochimaru. He breathed in deeply and slowly as he started calming his mind and bringing his awareness to the maximum. He stretched his senses outward and closed his eyes, he emptied his mind of any distracting thoughts and focused. Suddenly his body reacted as he dodged out of the way as another large snake came crashing onto the ground where he used to be standing.

Orochimaru gazed at him while wearing a confident smile and showing no signs of any injuries from Naruto's previous attacks. He then stretched out his arm as he reached to grab onto Naruto. Naruto quickly swung his staff deflecting Orochimaru's arm and then he pinned it onto the ground. Using it as a foot hold, he shoved the staff into the ground and launched himself toward Orochimaru by jumping. He threw several shurikens before pulling his arm back and charging a rasengan.

Orochimaru threw several of his own shurikens to deflect Naruto's and then with his other arm sent out several snakes from within his sleeve. Naruto finished charging the rasengan and thrust it forward, hitting the snakes and crushing their heads as they collided with the swirling ball of chakra. Blood splattered everywhere as the snakes were destroyed and Naruto summoned two clones to throw him up above.

Orochimaru smiled widely as he waited for Naruto to continue attacking, intent on toying with him for as long as he wished. Naruto knew that nothing he threw at the old snake was working, and while practicing the new fighting technique he learned from Hateshi helped with keeping him safe so far, there was only so much he could do to close the gap. He still wasn't strong enough to face Orochimaru head on just yet. But now that he was here, there was no way for him to escape so easily.

Naruto then focused internally as he consciousness to his mindscape where Kurama stayed. Once he was there he saw Kurama was already awake and staring at him.

"Yo, enjoying the show?" Naruto asked.

"Hah, what show? You're just prolonging your death!" Kurama laughed.

"Then how about you help me out here. I know I don't stand a chance, but if I die, then that doesn't work out too well for you!" Naruto replied.

Kurama was quiet as he stared at Naruto.

"better decide quickly, because I don't have a lot of time here!" Naruto urged.

"Alright, I'll give you a hand this time!" Kurama grinned.

Then he released his chakra which gathered around Naruto before surging toward him and covering his body in it. Naruto then drew his consciousness out of the mindscape and gazed at Orochimaru as Kurama's chakra began to surge around him. His eyes turned red, his nails turned into claws, and his teeth grew sharp. Naruto focused his wind nature as he executed the body flicker technique again. This time, a large gust of wind rampaged around as he appeared behind Orochimaru's back and sent a punch, launching him forward.

Orochimaru stared in surprise as he gazed at the changes that appeared on Naruto. So this is the Nine-Tails brat! Orochimaru thought as he recognized the chakra surging around Naruto. His lips pulled into a wide smile as he licked his tongue across them, this has gotten very interesting! The two of them then began engaging in battle as the skies above began to darken.

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As the skies grew dark, each team began looking toward it in confusion. For most, it looked like it was just going to start raining. But to a few individuals, they knew that something wasn't right about the sky. Both Sasuke and Sakura recognized the appearance the sky had taken from the time on the bridge in the Land of Waves. They glanced at Naruto who had a serious expression on his face. Suddenly, Sasuke stopped moving forward.

"The real Naruto went off, didn't he?" Sasuke asked.

Naruto was silent after hearing Sasuke's question, but it only confirmed Sasuke's suspicions.

"That means, you're just a clone, what's happening right now? Is Naruto involved?" Sasuke questioned.

Clone Naruto sighed as he turned and faced Sasuke. "Sasuke, right now, it would be better if we just continued on and left things to the real me."

Sasuke frowned as he stepped toward the clone and grabbed him by the shirt. "So you're saying that we're just dead weight?"

Sakura frowned as well, especially since she had already told Naruto that this time, she would be the one to protect him. This whole situation left her feeling more than frustrated with Naruto's reckless behavior of handling things by himself. She grit her teeth in frustration as she also took a step forward and stood beside Sasuke.

"Tell us what's going on Naruto!" Sakura demanded.

Clone Naruto sighed as he raised his hands in surrender. "Alright, I'll tell you guys, but you have to promise to not go rushing off."

The two of them frowned but slowly nodded, seeing that the only way to hear would be to agree. Clone Naruto scratched the back of his head as he thought about how he would explain everything.

"Well, after the real me created the nine decoy clones, several of them were dispersed. One of them dispersed voluntarily to inform the others of them getting into contact with a single ninja from the Hidden Mist Village, but after they had defeated them. Then an entire team of them got dispersed after coming into contact with another guy." Clone Naruto explained.

Sasuke and Sakura nodded, and when they heard that three of Naruto's clones were forcefully dispersed, they couldn't help but be surprised. Out of all of the genin they saw, Naruto was one of the strongest if not the strongest there. So who could it be that could handle three Clones of Naruto.

"Which direction are they in?" Sasuke asked suddenly.

He knew that Naruto had gone in that direction himself, since anyone that could handle three of his clones single handily was probably a very strong opponent. Sasuke didn't know who it was, but he couldn't let Naruto handle it all by himself. He had a bad feeling about the whole situation, especially with the way the sky was getting. Sakura had the same feeling and couldn't help but glance at the sky again, only to see that it was getting worse.

"I can't tell you that, because I know you'll head into that direction!" Clone Naruto protested.

Suddenly, the three of them heard a large explosion and when they looked over, they saw a large dust cloud rising into the sky.

"That must be where they are!" Sasuke said as he bolted in that direction.

Sakura followed after him, while Clone Naruto felt slightly dumbfounded, he had just told them he wouldn't tell them, and then suddenly they already had the direction. Then what was the point of him refusing in the first place? He then quickly snapped out of his thoughts and began chasing after Sasuke and Sakura as well. When he glanced up at the rising dust cloud, he couldn't help but have a bad premonition rise up into his mind as he hoped for the best.