Chapter Twelve

A giant snake came crashing down on Naruto's little hidden shelter with the force of a freight train, which the snake resembled as far as size was concerned.

Orochimaru had noted the extensive trap network, and been amused. It showed some ingenuity, and from what his spy Kabuto had told him, it was the Uchiha who was the only real performer on this team.

So, the Uchiha had fortified this whole area? Interesting. But of no concern to the sannin, and while he could have darted through the network untouched it was just more fun to knock on their door, so to speak, with a large snake to set the tone for this whole encounter.

The genin team came running out in disorder as their dome collapsed, and the orange one formed a seal, creating a hundred clones. Also interesting.

Well, best to get on with the test. He had to see if his chosen new body was worth his time to occupy.

"Misty Shroud technique!" Naruto cried out loudly, forming the seals before the area got blanketed by a dense and heavy fog. "Okay," he could be overheard instructing his teammates. "Just don't leave the mist and he'll have trouble finding us. Stick together and don't..."

There came a crash as one of the groups fell into a prepared pit trap. "Ow!"

"Don't worry about them!" the blond's voice called out urgently. "Stick to the plan! We've got to..."

His voice trailed off in fear as Orochimaru came looming out of the mist before them. "Kukukukuku, leaving so soon?"

The orange clad genin drew a kunai and threw it at the sannin, but it was off target. Orochimaru caught the weapon in his amazingly long tongue before it had a chance to harmlessly pass him by.

I I I

The REAL Team 7 was racing along an underground tunnel at a full sprinting velocity, two clones carrying each member, while both Sasuke and Sakura were tied up in wires so they couldn't struggle around too much. They'd all left the rock shelter together, but the blond had disguised them all as his copies while summoning his clones, while three of his clones had assumed their places and appearances to impersonate the team.

Why? Because escape tunnels from the underground shelter were too obvious. He'd tried those before, and they never worked, not even when he had a dozen of them.

But no, dig them from one of those pit traps, then fall in cursing loudly...

"Where are you taking us?" Sakura shrieked out through her gag.

"Ten more seconds to minimum safe distance," Naruto said, almost to himself.

"WHAT?" her body arched and she shrieked.

"Quiet down!" he hissed. "Back there my clones are facing Orochi-Bloody-Maru! The SNAKE SANNIN! He's here to steal your broody Uchiha's eyes! Now if you WANT TO HELP HIM by all means go on shrieking! I'll just have to cut your throat so you don't draw him down on us!"

Sakura went white and stilled in fear, not believing the first, but scared of the second. She didn't believe this was Naruto. He'd never talk that way to her. And that meant he could be anyone, who might do anything.

No, the kunoichi went very still and quiet indeed.

Naruto was shaking his head. Really, going into this, neither himself nor Sakura had the skills to take this test. He wondered what Kakashi was thinking, until he thought of Sasuke. It was probably just an attempt to elevate him as quickly as possible. The jonin-sensei of Team 7 was always pandering to the Uchiha.

It probably didn't matter to him that the other two had been so out of their depth as to be almost guaranteed to die. It was an opportunity to promote Sasuke!

Absently, he just went on grumbling at low volume to more fully answer her previous question, "Back there my clones are doing a brilliant job of lowering his expectations before they drop everything they have on him. If only we had more TIME!"

"What do you need time for? You've already got us." Sasuke whined.

"Because that wasn't the Misty Shroud technique." Naruto instructed him. "It was actually the Mist Waltz, a move that covers an area with a flammable gas that explodes when touched by flame. And there is enough of it back there to flatten a wide area AND collapse our tunnels!"

I I I

Orochimaru reached out with his long and flexible tongue to snag the poorly thrown weapon before it went by. Then his eyeballs crossed as the lightning electrical charge contained in the blade grounded through him, and all hell broke loose at once.

Clones standing by touched wires, some producing flames, others producing lightning, all of which raced across those lines trapping the entire camping area in a massive explosion as the huge ball of gas detonated, adding to the blasts of the hundreds of trigger techniques detonating simultaneously, and the pre-arranged groups of exploding tags.

That section of forest vaporized in a colossal fireball while Orochimaru's nerves were still all jangled up by having the lightning jutsu stored in the kunai jolt down his tongue.

The ground actually jumped and buckled under the force of that blow. But that blast only served as a prequel to the main event as thousands of clones emerged from where they had been hiding underneath the ground in a wide circle around the campsite, at a carefully calculated distance to survive the massive explosion.

All across the forest, pairs of concealed Naruto clones awoke. Both snapped to attention, one transformed into an old air raid siren that he'd seen in the ancient, unplumbed depths of Konoha's museum, and the other began turning the hand crank, raising a loud and unmistakable alarm, while speaking through a microphone to call out a meaning to the alert message.

"ATTENTION! EMERGENCY! ALL GENIN TEAMS MUST EVACUATE THE TESTING AREA IMMEDIATELY! AN S-CLASS MISSING NINJA HAS ENTERED THE ZONE AND BEGUN ATTACKING STUDENTS! ALL GENIN TEAMS ARE INSTRUCTED TO FALL BACK UNTIL REINFORCEMENTS ARRIVE!"

Considering that there were hundreds of alarm teams like this one, the alarm began blaring at huge volume across all of the forest at once.

Then they began to repeat it.

Orochimaru Body Flickered out of the expanding fireball hurt but not seriously injured, only to fall directly into the laps of clones who had been waiting for him, his feet sticking to the branch he'd landed on as they hit him with everything they had, a dozen different Dragon Flame Projection streams struck him all at once, with lightning coursing in from all directions along wires and through the air.

How had the kid known where he'd be?

The Snake Sannin flickered twice more, each time receiving the same instant assaults upon his arrival, before he cleared the area around him with a mass, wide area technique and called Manda, the boss of the snake summons.

Crowds of Naruto came charging at him, each wielding twin whips composed of solid lightning. Others charged forward above their heads spinning wires about like mad, demented spiders, trying to catch or lead other attacks to him. While elsewhere, hundreds of Narutos standing on tree branches drew back bows and let loose a hailstorm of arrows, each being guided to track and follow their target by more wires.

Multiplying himself with his own clones, Orochimaru began to counterattack.

Massive explosions and cutting winds scythed through the orange wave, but always some survived and hails of thrown weapons came back in return over the heads of the jutsu wielding close assault fighters.

He raised his arms, flashing through handseals, and the ground rose up and began churning the assault force into ruins. Then the ground turned to mud beneath his own feet just at the same time as a tremendous cutting force of wind came rushing toward him.

Orochimaru Flickered, placing himself at what he thought to be a safe distance from the battlefield, only to get caught on arrival by a lightning whip wrapping around his right hand and severing it.

Then the tree he was on exploded, already primed with a hundred explosive tags.

Out of the corner of his eye Orochimaru caught sight of Manda, his boss summon, caught up in a tornado being cut apart by winds and assaulted with a barrage of lightning sustained by close to six hundred Narutos standing on the ground maintaining that arm of this assault.

Actually injured, the sannin gave a feral grimace before shedding his skin and in the process healing all of those accumulated wounds, restoring his hand.

Then he drew his sword.

Clones began to die by hundreds and thousands. Before they'd been quite cut down by half, however, through the hail of kunai and arrows, a blizzard web of wires and a constant barrage of all five elements out of all sides at once, the sannin heard a tremendous noise and saw an enormous tree bearing down on him, dozens of orange clad genins perched upon its limbs as they animated the entire forest giant as one massive puppet.

Then a second and a third, then a fourth forest giant strode out of the haze of explosions, all controlled by Naruto clones perched upon them.

Kankuro had been very helpful, chatting about his profession, and had let his audience learn far more than he probably would've felt was wise, if he'd been aware that he'd been doing so much of it.

The ground shuddered and shook as a two hundred foot tall forest giant slammed a fist down atop the Snake Sannin's head.

As he reappeared on another part of that battlefield, where two of his mud clones had just seconds before become pincushions under the barrage of guided arrows, Orochimaru had to admit, he was actually impressed.

That was before the tree he was on exploded again.

I I I

All of Konoha looked up to see the tower of fiery destruction as that initial trap had gone off. Then the dark forest, black at night, lit up with flash after flash of techniques going off over a wide area. Trees began to explode, one every few seconds, lighting the night as brilliant torches.

That was no genin match in there. Something was wrong, as that looked more like a full on shinobi WAR!

Shaken out of his bed, the Hokage rushed over to his crystal ball, and when he peered within saw the face of his orange clad little friend battling his former student Orochimaru out in the forest.

He left to lead a relief column of reinforcements at once, hundreds of jonin and chunin rushing ahead or forming up behind him as the town's regular genin raced to their guard posts and aid stations.

Jiraiya silently joined the group leading the counterassault.

They were not far away before the voice over the sirens began to make sense. "ATTENTION! EMERGENCY! ALL GENIN TEAMS MUST EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY! OROCHIMARU HAS ENTERED THE FOREST! PLEASE FALL BACK UNTIL REINFORCEMENTS ARRIVE!"

Grim faced, the ninja flowed into the burning forest towards the center of the commotion, where a blazing giant tree puppet fell to smash, wreathed in flames, upon the earth, while another tree behind it exploded, visible even at several kilometers range, as was the twisting serpent caught in a tornado.

That snake was all the confirmation anyone even vaguely informed needed.

Now grim faced himself, Jiraiya paused long enough to summon Gamabunta, his own boss summon, before racing ahead of the pack.

The normally recalcitrant summon made no objections at all as it saw the scope of the destruction it had been called for.

I I I

Naruto dragged himself painfully out of the mud just as the local alarm box got silenced in an awful "SQUAWK!" of abused and presumably destroyed equipment, almost certainly accompanied by the operator clones.

Their tunnel had collapsed, but a swift Underground Move jutsu had saved them. It had not, however, made the save a pleasant one.

The area was a scene out of hell, trees ablaze all around them. Smoke filled the air and shards of nearby explosions littered the ground while rains of burning embers drifted down to coat the broken, ash covered surface.

The air was hot and heavy, so Naruto transformed three of his escort clones into horses, piling his team onto their backs, under precautionary illusions as completely unrelated Konoha ninja, they took off racing as fast as they could go toward the borders around the forest.

The horses would choke to death on this smoky fog before long, but it would save his own team's lungs not to be forced to breathe it in the great gulping lungfuls they'd need if they were the ones running.

As it was, they were just another anonymous genin team among hopefully scads of those escaping.

They got almost half a mile out of the destruction zone before Orochimaru had finished off enough of his clones to start looking around, and saw the team racing purposefully away.

They were not the only mounted ones, another team was racing away riding weasels, but they had an unusual drive and determination to make speed that caught the veteran ninja's attention.

When he appeared ahead of them, however, the boy on the lead horse formed a seal and another four thousand damnable clones appeared! What was worse was that fully half of them transformed and began running every which way!

Calling up an enormous amount of chakra, Orochimaru summoned up half a dozen of his largest snakes and set them to battling the interminable horde!

The area began to fog and he immediately flickered out before it all blew up in one, great mushrooming fireball of explosions, only to be met by throwing weapons on wires, guided arrows, and homicidal clones flinging about dozens and hundreds of lightning, fire, earth, wind and water techniques!

But the selection was poor, and knowing what they used he began to counter it far more effectively, conserving his chakra and getting less distracted.

There! Out of the hordes of clones who'd transformed, fallen back, then transformed and charged again only a few teams had kept running, but he was able to spot the ones most likely to be the real prey.

It was not his first, his second, or even his third guess as to which was correct, however he did soon make a successful intercept, making sure of those others by slaughtering them all in turn.

It was long past the time for playing games.

Orochimaru had been getting progressively more upset, and now he was downright mad. This had all started as a simple test of the abilities of the Uchiha, and he'd yet to see the genin he'd come for throw so much as a punch! All the time it had been this orange swarm interrupting his plans, while his teammates got carried as cargo towards safety!

At this point Sarutobi could not fail to be forewarned of his presence and his plans. So there was nothing left but to nab the Uchiha boy and make haste out of town, hoping that the precious Sharingan eyes were enough to offset whatever weaknesses lay in the body itself.

Lunging at the orange obstacle to his plans, Orochimaru succeeded only in sinking his precious blade hilt deep in a stumpy log the boy had Switched out with, not even a flicker ahead of time to warn of the technique!

The boy was astonishingly good, and under better circumstances the sannin would have felt pleased to pervert the youngster away to join his own village. But now, it was time for him to DIE!

I I I

Naruto knew well that he had a ridiculous amount of chakra. It had been huge even before he'd begun the resets, and had only grown larger as he'd gained knowledge. Also, what he had seemed even larger yet as his control expanded to where he was not nearly so wasteful of that precious energy.

Still, having fought Orochimaru before, he knew he had his limits, and the boy was coming pretty close to those now. It would not be long before the sannin sank his sword into his chest again.

But then he heard a voice that chilled his blood, crying out in fear - not for her sake, but for his own!

"Naruto!"

Almost before he was aware of it, Rock Lee with all five of the Celestial Gates he could open thrown wide smashed into the side of the sannin and began to beat the tar out of him!

Naruto's eyes got wrenched around to where they'd somehow caught up to other Konoha teams who'd been making their escape, and saw Hinata there staring at him with wide and fearful eyes.

Right before Orochimaru cleared the area with another one of those devastating wide area techniques.

"YOU KILLED HINATA!" Veins bulged on Naruto's forehead and teeth grew clenched as an aura of red energy swirled up around him.

Lee was still pressing the assault, mauling Orochimaru badly as the snake sannin had underestimated the unassuming genin until the martial artist had closed to deadly ranges - and not let up a second since then. Dozens of techniques got tried by the sannin, most of which got interrupted rather rudely as the green clad boy pounded him with enough force, from enough angles, to send him careening around like a pinball, only to get met and pounded on again by the dangerously supercharged genin.

But Naruto was seeing none of it. Hinata was dead, killed by Orochimaru. He'd learned to accept, even find humor in the deaths of his own teammates, but Hinata was special.

Hinata must never again be allowed to die!

The boy was already in the sewer of his mind, noting that the water had drained to where they were now merely moist tunnels. But he didn't care. He raced until he stood before the fox's cage, and shouted to his prisoner, "YOU! Yes, you! Do you swear to destroy my enemies? To avenge Hinata's murder and chase down Orochimaru no matter where he goes or tries to hide?"

"Why should I?" came the demon's mocking reply.

With an angry leer of his own, Naruto leaned in close to the bars, putting his hand on the flimsy paper seal that kept that door locked. "Because if you do, then I'm pulling this off."

"YES!" The demon instantly agreed. "I SO SWEAR!"

And then Naruto ripped off the paper seal.

Outside, where Orochimaru had just finished off Lee, having barely survived the boy's mauling on top of all that had been done to him previously, the blond boy's body rippled and swelled, changing as it grew and transformed into the Nine Tailed Demon Fox, which roared as it finally got free!

Orochimaru wet himself.

Then it was as if a nuke went off in the Forest of Death as the demon beast unleashed its full power.

I I I

Naruto yawned and rolled over in bed, sitting up to rub at his eyes. Well, that was one experience he wasn't of a mind to repeat any time soon. Stomping all over Konoha after eating the Third Hokage, trapped in his own mind all that time, watching as a mere passenger while the demon fox used his body.

He came to a sudden halt as he entered his bathroom and noticed he had acquired a set of foxy accessories, a pair of red fox ears and a tail gently swinging out behind, while his whiskers stood out as actual stiff hairs instead of the facial lines they'd always been before.

"Well, that was interesting," came a voice within his mind. "We've got to do that again sometime."

"No way!" The boy suddenly shouted. "No! You were NOT supposed to EAT MY FRIENDS!"

"What did you expect?" the demon's voice mocked in reply. "That was never a part of our bargain. Only to destroy your enemies, not to preserve your friends. Besides, your mate was already dead anyway. You recall that part about avenging her murder?"

"Didn't I do such an excellent job?" the demon's voice turned to laughter.