Chapter 48 Snake and grass

The grunt and the sound of a leaf genin hitting the ground was heard as the last member of the team fell unconscious. Standing around them was Team 7 as they started to search through the other genin team's stuff.

"Man I feel a little bad roughing them up," Naruto said as he looked through the older boy's pockets. "I mean I know it's every team for themselves but still they're from our village."

"Yeah I know what you mean," Sakura said looking through the pouch on the girl she knocked out. "But still they were the ones that tired to ambush us. Anyone even know who they are?"

"No," Sasuke said not finding the scroll on his opponent. "I think they're a couple of years ahead of us."

"Ha, they're older and yet we still kicked their asses," Naruto smirked as he found a scroll. He took a careful look at it and jumped up for joy. "Alright they had one we needed!"

"You sure it's the real one this time?" Sasuke said as Naruto froze at that moment. Yesterday when they fought a team, Naruto said he got the scroll. Turns out it had been a dummy one with a genjutsu on it, and given Naruto's horrible ability with genjutsu they hadn't figured it out until Sakura took a look at it. By then the other team had long since gone.

"I...think so," Naruto said taking a look at it.

Sasuke sighed, "Sakura."

"On it," She said as she took the scroll and gave it a decent look. "Huh, it's real this time. Good job now we just have to wait out a day and we can make our way to the tower."

"So why can't we just camp out near the tower?" Naruto asked as they left the genin team behind them.

"Because how many other teams do you think would have thought up to stake out that area?" Sasuke said to his friend. "It's better to just wait it out and then make a rush for the tower avoiding everyone else."

"Oh, okay that makes sense to me," the masked boy said as they continued on.

They went on not even aware that they were being followed the entire time. It was starting to get dark when they decided to make camp for the night. They found a decent area where they could sleep inside of a hollowed out part of one of the old giant trees.

"Hey guys I need to go take a leak," Naruto said.

"Jeez could you at least say it a better way than that?" Sakura asked him.

He just shrugged smirking under his mask as he went off to find a place to relieve himself. He didn't want to get too far away because he might get lost or even ambushed. He went behind a few large trees a decent length from their camp. Even though he couldn't go too far he also had to make sure he wasn't too close. If there were any trackers like Kiba out there, then they could find them a lot more easily that way.

He found a decent place and unzipped as he relived himself on a rock. Actually he found it was a very weird looking rock now that he started looking at it. Sure it looked hard like rock but it was kind of a strange color and the surface looked odd too. Then suddenly a piece of the 'rock' lifted up to reveal an eye looking at him. Naruto's eyes widened because he knew that kind of eye but it didn't process until what he thought had been a rock he was peeing on, lifted up into the air.

"Oh crap!" Naruto yelled out as he jumped out of the way of the giant snake striking. "What the hell, if this is because of the crazy snake lady I'll get her back! She never said anything about giant snakes!"

Naruto was focused on trying to keep ahead of the giant snake; thankfully he had plenty of practice avoiding snakes with Anko. Although he had never had to deal with one this big before and it was a challenge to keep ahead of it.

'Man what the hell is going on!? I mean this is insane, crap and on top of that I think I got turned around. I can't tell where camp is. Well with all the noise this guy is making the others should have no problem finding me'

The huge snake crashed through a tree just to get at Naruto and he was wishing he hadn't peed on its face to get it this mad. Naruto had to doge this thing and still trying to get his fly up, he took to the tree branches and finally he managed to get his clothing in line.

"Yes! Alright now you freak I can concentrate on-" Naruto was caught off. When he had been distracted by finally getting his pants right he had lost track of the snake for a bit. It had gone under the branch and came up under him, with its massive jaws it swallowed Naruto whole and the branch he had been on.

Meanwhile back at Team 7's camp the two genin heard the noise in the forest.

"What the hell is going on out there?" Sasuke wondered out loud. It sounded like huge no holds bar brawl was going on in the forest nearby.

"Do you think Naruto is okay?" Sakura asked her teammate. "I mean didn't he go off in that direction?"

Sasuke sighed as he realised that she was right, and knowing Naruto's ability for attracting trouble he wouldn't be surprised if he was in the middle of all of this. "We better go and save the idiot before he gets hurt."

Sakura nodded as they leapt up to the tree tops and traveled among the branches. It wasn't too hard to figure out where to go with the amount of noise that was being made. But then it suddenly stopped and Sakura was getting worried. They only made it a few yards when suddenly a kunai was thrown into their path as they had to avoid it. Both of them looked to see a tall female with a Grass symbol on her forehead protector.

"Out of our way," Sasuke said annoyed. "We don't have time to play with you."

"Oh but I think you do now," She said in a smirk on her face. "My little pet seems to have caught that mouse of a teammate of yours, so there is no reason for you to hurry."

"What did you do to Naruto!" Sakura shouted out at her.

She only chuckled in amusement at her outburst. "Oh don't worry, I get the feeling you will join him shortly. After all it's the Uchiha that I'm here for."

"I don't know who you are but you're getting out of our way!" Sasuke said as he threw several shurikens at the Grass nin. He was surprised by how easily the other person evaded the deadly weapons, but at any rate that was just the distraction. Sakura came up on the blind side with her tonfas ready to strike, but the female was just too fast and was able to dodge Sakura's attacks.

She snapped out a kick that Anko taught her once while the older woman had been training her with her weapons. She thought that she was going to connect with it but the Grass ninja just caught it and looked at her for a split second, almost like she finally took notice of Sakura.

"Now where did you learn that little move from?" She grinned at her. "Tell me was Anko playing teacher lately?"

"You know Anko-sensei?" Sakura blurted out surprised.

"Of course, I did teach her that kick but you came in at the wrong angle. This is how it's done," with that the Grass nin gave the same kick only this time it hit Sakura.

She felt the power of the kick and was stunned for a moment, while getting up she was trying to piece together what the woman had said. It didn't make sense, as the woman looked too young to have been a teacher to Anko and she wasn't even from this village. As she watched the strange woman fighting Sasuke she couldn't help but notice a few things. A few of the moves looked like what Anko fought with, only more polished and better.

But at any rate the woman's back was to her and so Sakura threw out her kunai at her. But the woman somehow knew and dodge the weapons easily enough.

"I have to admit you two are proving to be slightly entertaining, but I'm still disappointed in you Sasuke. You, I expected better from."

"Fine then, how about this!" Sasuke made the hand seals and suddenly a flaming dragon came at the grass ninja. It was quick and fast and followed with the female ninja's movements until it consumed the other ninja. Both Sasuke and Sakura got together as they watched the chard wood of the large branches they were fighting on.

"Where's the body?" Sakura asked as she got into a fighting stance.

A chuckling sound was heard as out of the trees the figure seemed to step out. "Now that is what I'm talking about, I didn't expect you to know that jutsu. You might just be interesting after all, now let's see what else you can do."

-Elsewhere in the Forest-

Anko and Kakashi were trying their best to find Orochimaru and if possible to check in on the genin teams. So far they couldn't find any trace which was both good and bad. Good because they didn't find any bodies but bad because they still haven't found him.

It was then that she noticed Kakashi's head suddenly snap up a bit.

"What is it?" She knew that his sense of smell and hearing were above what a normal person had. Not as good as someone from the Inuzuka clan but it was one of the reasons she was glad he was along. If anyone could help her track down Orochimaru he could.

"I smell snake," He said and then saw her dirty look. "No not from you, but the fact I smell it means we're close plus I could have sworn I heard something too."

"Then lead the way," she told him as they increased their speed.

It didn't take them long to find the destroyed area of the forest, Anko could see the tell tale signs of a snake and not just any snake. This was a huge one, larger than just any snake that lived in this forest in fact. Only a summoned snake could be this big and she told Kakashi just as much. He didn't seem to like it as much as her.

It was then that they heard the slight noise before the attack, with years of training they were able to avoid the huge snake as it struck out at them.

"Well I would say we found our first clue," Kakashi said getting himself ready. "So since you're the expert how do we fight this?"

Before Anko could answer there were sudden bulges in the snake, even the snake's face started to show some surprise as giant popping sounds were heard and then suddenly there was a series explosions and the entire area had snake guts and pieces raining down. Both Kakashi and Anko were just so suddenly stunned by both what happened and the fact they were now covered in snake guts.

"Oh man maybe I should have just used normal shadow clones instead of the exploding ones," Naruto's voice was heard. He was the worst out of them all as you could hardly make out any other colors than red. Naruto's hears were ringing a bit from the explosions but he thought that the exploding shadow clones would be a sure fire way to get out. He hadn't thought of the after effects it would have though.

"Naruto?"

The blonde looked up to see Kakashi and Anko there, "Oh hey dad, what are you two doing here?"

Both adults were at a lose for words, here was a kid that blew up a snake from the inside and he acted like nothing had happened. Both Anko and Kakashi could feel things slipping through a few places in their clothing and would need a shower after this.

"Naruto, where is your team?" Kakashi finally asked him.

"Uh," Naruto looked around but he had no idea where he was now. "Sorry the snake moved after it ate me, but I think it might be over that way, I think."

"Well better than nothing," Kakashi sighed hoping they would arrive in time.

Meanwhile both Sakura and Sasuke were breathing hard, the battle had been totally one sided in this fight as the Grass nin was just playing with them it seemed. It was painfully apparent that this was no genin this had to be at least jonin level. But for Sasuke he was having trouble thinking of why someone of this calibre was posing as a genin, and why was she going after him personally?

It didn't matter anyway as they had to concentrate on surviving this battle.

"Well I have to thank you, it's been awhile since I've enjoyed myself like this," the strange nameless woman taunted them. "But I think it's time to see just how strong you are."

With that the person actually started to peal away part of her face, there was pale skin under it that was practically white. But it was the eyes that caught both genins attention, they were yellow and looked like a snake. They were drawn to those eyes and it felt like they were caught in the grasp of a predator. Then they felt it, a wave of killing intent unlike anything they had felt before. It was more than what they experienced with Zabuza this was far beyond that they couldn't even move. Their bodies were frozen in place from just the fear they were feeling.

Sakura had never felt anything like this before, she wanted to scream but couldn't. For Sasuke this was even worse than that day his search brother killed his family.

The grass ninja laughed at this, "Too bad. I didn't really expect you to fight through this technique of mine as only the truly strong can. But maybe just once more test to see if you're worthy Sasuke." A few hand seals and suddenly there was a giant snake come into existence. "If you can force yourself to move before he attacks then it should prove all that I need. Sadly I doubt the girl will survive but he can eat her anyway, I don't need her."

Sasuke's eyes widened as he saw the huge animal coming at them, he was still trying to move but the fear kept his body frozen in place. It was like time was slowing down as the giant animal came down at him it opened its mouth as the beast was going to eat him and Sakura. Then there was a sound like a large number of birds.

"Chidori!"

Kakashi came out of nowhere as he slammed his original jutsu into the head of the summon animal. When a summon was injured it would go back to where it came from, but if someone was fast enough to give a lethal blow that would kill the animal. The snake had been so focused that it hadn't noticed the copy ninja until the lightning attack had rammed through its head. There was a sizzling sound at it started to fry the snake's head. The large animal thrashed around before falling to the forest floor below with a huge crash as it died.

Kakashi jumped off the head onto a branch between the two genins and the enemy, while Anko jumped in on the large branch that the other ninja was on.

"Well isn't this a surprise," the Grass ninja said seeing Anko. "I had hoped to run into each other again but I'm a little busy at the moment, although I must admit I like the new look with all the blood and gore."

"Damn you, you bastard!" Anko yelled at him ignoring the comment on her appearance. "I've been waiting to rip you apart for what you did to me!"

"Oh so it's only about you and not all the other things I've done? Well isn't that just selfish of you."

"Shut the hell up Orochimaru!" Anko yelled as she charged towards the missing ninja.

Naruto meanwhile managed to jump down to his teammates. He could see that after the snake thing was killed and Anko was taking on the weirdo they dropped to their knees.

"Guys are you two alright?" Naruto asked them, both of them seemed to be shaking.

"Naruto?" Sakura asked looking up at him and then saw how he looked. "Naruto, are you okay!?"

"Huh?"

"You're covered in blood," Sasuke managed to get out.

Naruto looked down and forgot his looks and just shrugged, "It's okay it's not mine. I got eaten by a snake and had to blow it up from the inside, that was kind of cool but I really need a shower, I think there's some guts in my pant leg."

Both of them just stared at him for a moment just trying to process what had just happened between the crazy Grass nin and Naruto's looks and his statement.

"I'm not bothering to comment," Sasuke muttered as he felt his nerves coming back to him.

"Who is that woman anyway," Sakura asked Naruto hoping he might have some answers. "She was pulling off her face."

"Dad and Aunty Anko told me that it's really Orochimaru," Naruto said. He knew all about him from Anko plus they had told him a bit more about him on their way here.

"Orochimaru, of the Sanin?" Sakura asked him. She remembered reading about the legendary Three Ninja. There wasn't much on Orochimaru only that he was criminal that left the village years ago. Although the first thought was that Orochimaru was a man not a female. Then she noticed the fighting and then it became clear.

Anko was battling her old mentor, for years she wanted this. She had thought of this moment and it was finally here. She was trying her best against him but she had never really fought him. Sparred with him when she was a young girl, but never fought in a life or death battle with him before and she was learning that there was a major difference between the two.

She cried out as she got a kick to her gut sending her into the trunk of the tree. She held her rips as the air was sent out of her lungs for a bit, she wanted to try and use this one technique that used snakes she had learned. She had never used it for the purpose that it would kill her as well as her target, a year ago she would have used that without hesitation. But things were different now, now she actually found that she actually wanted to continue on living.

She liked her life and didn't want to end it.

Orochimaru stood over her as he pulled off his face to reveal his real one. "Now I know something is off, where is the killer I helped to raise? Normally you should be trying to fight without worrying for yourself or your safety, I have to wonder what changed? I guess you were too soft anyway."

He raised his arm ready to strike her down, "I think I'll just put you out of your misery then, you always were a failure."

"Get away from her!" Kakashi yelled out at he slashed at him from behind. He had seen he was about to do something to her and he wouldn't allow it. This man had attacked his genin team, made a snake eat his son and now was trying to kill his girlfriend. Sure he knew that he didn't stand a chance against someone of that level but he also couldn't sit by and let him get away with this anymore.

Orochimaru smirked as he dodged the kunai. "Ah, well so little Anko-chan has finally found herself a man and Hatake Kakashi no less." He grinned at the man before him. "I will have to admit I didn't see that coming. I figured her hate would have eaten her up inside for all her life."

"You have no right to say anything about her or anyone after the things you've done." Kakashi said coldly as both his eyes were now focused on the man.

"Well defending your woman's honor is it?" Orochimaru chuckled at the man. "But I doubt it will matter in the end. I'm here for a purpose and you two are in my way so I guess I'll just have to deal with you both."

Orochimaru launched himself at the masked man and Kakashi just managed to get out of the way of his swing. Anko seeing an opening decided to attack from behind launching her own snake attack. A long black snake came shooting out of her coat to bite the other man. Orochimaru somehow twisted his body in a way that no human body was designed to twist while leaning back. He grabbed the snake by the neck and pulled with monstrous strength, pulling her off her feet and he swung her around into Kakashi.

Naruto saw this and was anxious to get into fighting, "Hey you creep leave them alone!"

"Naruto, no!" Kakashi said as he and Anko pulled each other apart. "Don't get involved in this I want you all to run as far away are you can!"

"What, you can't ask us to leave you behind!"

"Naruto I'm telling you as your sensei to run, this man is too powerful for you three alone!" Kakashi said to them hoping they would run. He didn't want to see them hurt, and also if he was after one of them then it wouldn't be good no matter what the reason was.

"Sorry but I can't have them running off," Orochimaru smirked as he raised both arms as a large number of snakes came shooting out of the sleeves. Both Anko and Kakashi were put onto the defensive as they had to constantly dodge the poisonous vipers. Anko had a better time as she knew what to look for in a snake, how it moved when he stalked and attacked. Kakashi stayed ahead thanks to his experience and his sharingan eye. He managed to get behind a trunk as he took a breather.

Kakashi knew that they would need to take him by surprise, Orochimaru was above their level so they would have to get in one good shot and then capitalize on it. He had a move that could work, the only problem was that it could drain him of a lot of chakra. He didn't use this move often because of that drawback but he needed to use that technique now because he wasn't sure how much longer they could keep on the defensive.

Anko had managed to get behind a trunk as well as she tried to plan out an attack of her own. She didn't get far as the bark seemed to explode next to her. She felt small bits and pieces cut against her skin but she kept on moving, only to realize too late that it had been to get her to move in that direction. Orochimaru came out from behind and she felt fangs bit he thigh.

She saw a snake had bit her thankfully from her training with Orochimaru she was immune to most of his poisons. After all handling snakes it was important to have an immunity to it in case of accidents. But she felt the numbing effect in her leg. It was a toxin but it wasn't fatal it would just slow her down and that was a bad thing in a fight with him.

She paused as she had to regain her balance but felt a vibration in the trunk she turned and threw out several shurikens at Orochimaru as he ran at her. He dodged the weapons and Anko tried to get ready for his attack. But then Kakashi jumped out in front of her.

"Kakashi! Get out of the way!" Anko yelled at him in warning but it came too late.

Orochimaru's fist hit Kakashi but there was a sudden flash as 'Kakashi' literally exploded into electricity. There was a large bright flash that blinded Anko for a few seconds but there was just a scorch march left where Kakashi and Orochimaru had been. It was then that the real Kakashi stepped out behind a tree panting as he was sweating and tired. That technique took a lot out of him and he wouldn't be able to do anything else for a bit. He leaned against the trunk of the tree to catch his breath.

"What the hell was that?" Anko asked as she limped over to him.

"Lighting clone," Kakashi said with some effort. "But don't ask me to do that again, I'm lucky to get through two a day but after using a Chidori and a few other things I don't have the energy."

Anko grinned at him, "That was a pretty badass move, maybe I can pull something like that off with fire."

"Hmm, that could be interesting," Kakashi grinned at her under his mask.

"So touching," Orochimaru's voice was heard as he appeared seemingly out of nowhere, he looked slightly chard as his arm had electrical burns on it. "I have to admit that one nearly got me."

It wasn't a joke either, when he had attacked he felt a bit of that energy in him before he was able to slip out of it. His arm felt bad and if he hadn't used a special escape jutsu of his own design he might have been greatly injured by that move. He would have to perform the Oral Rebirth jutsu when he could. That was a technique he also came up with that allowed him to 'shed' his damaged body as a refreshed one came out of his mouth, although it took some energy to regenerate the cells of his body to make that new copy.

Orochimaru's opened up as a snake came out of it and then that snake opened its mouth as a sword came out. This was The Kusanagi Sword: Long Sword of the Heavens, a legendary sword that was said to be able to cut through anything.

The sword shot out as it kept on increasing its length as it came at the two ninja. They dodge the attack as it cut the large top of the tree like it was paper. The large mass came down in a mass of destruction as braches broke in loud snaps, sending wood, splinters and leaves everywhere. A falling tree was dangerous as any woodcutter can tell you, but with the huge trees in around Konoha that was even more dangerous. Wood that size being thrown around with that kind of force could cut off limbs or impale a person.

Kakashi lost sight of Anko in the confusion as he tried to dodge as much as he could but his body was tired. He was too drained of energy from the lightning clone and with his sharingan he was running too low on chakra. He was literally running on fumes and it felt that at any second he would collapse. Kakashi shook his head as his vision blurred, he couldn't stop. There were too many lives on the line that he cared about. He had already lost everyone that meant something to him once and he wouldn't let it happen again.

Unfortunately for him he was too tired and focused on staying awake to see Orochimaru until it was too late. He felt the man's hand on his face as he was shoved back into a trunk of another tree. His body made a dent into the wood as Orochimaru slammed his head into the wood a few times until he saw a stain of blood on it. He grinned as he now had a way to get Anko out in the open, he threw the limp form of Kakashi away letting him freefall to the ground below.

As Kakashi fell off the branches towards the ground, he also slammed against a couple of the thick branches bouncing off them before being caught by Anko. She had seen him falling and couldn't let him hit, at that height it would kill him if he landed like that. So she got out of her hiding spot and went to save him.

She managed to get him onto the ground and saw that his eyes were closed and blood from his head. He had hit his head pretty bad, there was a lot of blood but that wasn't a bad thing, scalp wounds just bleed out a lot. Most likely he just had a cut and it would stop bleeding soon. But with using up all that chakra and the head injury it wasn't a good thing.

"You should have been more careful of your surroundings," Orochimaru said as he appeared behind her.

She tried to move against him but suddenly the seal on her neck flared up in pain.

"N-No not now!" Anko said through gritted teeth.

"Too bad you never embraced that power, if you had then my seal wouldn't be your weakness," Orochimaru gloated over her. "Then again it's because you lack the desire for power that you were useless to me. All that training I did to shape you into what you are was all a waste. Oh well, you were helpful in testing out my new curse mark so it wasn't all a waste."

"B-Bastard!" She managed to get out. She tried to move but her body wouldn't respond it was locked up and she hurt all over.

Then she felt a strong punch to her rips and not only felt but heard the ribs crack. She fell backwards as Orochimaru grabbed her leg and threw her face forward into the tree; she cried out in pain and slumped to the ground unmoving.

"Now then where are those children?" Orochimaru smirked.

"Wind Blade Jutsu!"

"Grand Fire Ball Jutsu!"

Orochimaru turned to see a fire jutsu coming at him but when the wind jutsu hit it, the fire moulded with the other. It looked like a giant arrow made of fire as it came at him. The missing nin jumped out of the way to look to find all three kids were still there.

"Wow, how did that happen?" Naruto asked surprised.

"Wind makes fire stronger Naruto," Sakura said to him. "So they complimented each other and kind of merged to form something new."

"Oh man, we really need to try that out later Sasuke," Naruto grinned.

"We still have a problem," Sasuke said looking at the paled faced man.

"Weren't you three supposed to run away?" Orochimaru grinned at them, this would make things so much easier now than chasing them down. Plus with all the fighting it would only take ANBU time to lock in on the location. Sure the forest was large but with all the battle damage they caused it would leave an obvious trail for trained ANBU agents.

"A man who breaks the rules is trash," Naruto said with a bit of steel in his voice. "But a man that abandons his friends is worse than trash. So what's that way about someone that abandons their family?"

"Such sentimentality," The man said with a sneer. "It's garbage like that, which is one of the reasons I can't stand this village anymore. Such weakness will only lead to pain and death, here let me show you."

With that Orochimaru picked Anko up by her neck, she was still stunned but cried out in pain. She felt a lot of pain in her upper chest, maybe a broken collar bone which being lifted up like that was one of the last things she needed. Orochimaru started to squeeze her throat cutting off her cries of pain in a choking-gagging sounds.

"Let her go!" Naruto roared at him. The others noticed something strange about Naruto just then they were feeling a killing intent from him that wasn't normal. In fact they never felt anything like it before, Sakura was shocked when she looked at him. His eyes had changed they were blood red with slits in them. Before she could process any further the dark feeling from Naruto increased causing her to freeze up. Sasuke wasn't much better whatever was coming off of Naruto was evil, which didn't make sense as Naruto was the least evil person he knew.

Sure they argued, fought and were rivals but he had grown to respect Naruto and after being put on a team with him he learned to actually like the guy in some strange way. So feeling this strange malevolent force coming off of Naruto was just too much of a shock to his system. Maybe if he had been prepared for it, but this was the first time feeling something like this-actually maybe it wasn't.

He wasn't sure but this strange feeling was familiar, for some reason a long forgotten memory of waking up in bed years ago as a small child came back to him. He felt like he had some kind of panic attack in the middle of the night. He didn't remember much only that the next day people had been nervous, this was back when his search brother was still in ANBU.

Before either of the two team mates could shake off the shock of the evil killing intent coming off Naruto he moved, in fact he moved faster than ever. Naruto was nearly a blur as he came at Orochimaru but the man just stood there smiling.

'So predictable,' Orochimaru thought to himself. 'The boy's feelings are letting the demon within gaining some search control. Just like that Gaara boy, but I can't let this boy as he is. He's too interesting to kill just yet, maybe I should save him for later after all 'they' will be after him soon enough and if they find out that I killed the host, they will come after me. So I'll just take him off the board for now, a counter seal should be enough.'

Orochimaru waited until Naruto was close enough and threw Anko aside as he readied his hand; his other one was too damaged to move properly so he had to time this just right. His fingers started to glow as different seal words showed on each finger. He quickly came forward under Naruto's swing and slammed his fingers into where he knew where the seal was. Naruto cried out in pain and shock as the demon's chakra was suddenly sealed off from him.

The pain was so intense that Naruto passed out.

"Naruto!" Sakura yelled out as she jumped forward with her own weapons, Sasuke right behind her.

"Enough games for today," Orochimaru said to himself as he moved so fast it was like a blur to the genins. Sakura felt a hard blow to her head before hitting the ground and passing out. Sasuke looked around for the man his sword ready. But Orochimaru had fought sharingan users before, especially Itachi and he knew how best to fight them, he came up from behind as his neck extended and fangs bared he bit into Sasuke's neck. The boy howled in pain as it was like someone was pouring fire into his veins.

He let the boy fall to the ground and stood amongst the bodies grinning now it was only a matter of time before the boy would seek him out for power. He chuckled to himself as he melted into the shadows of the forest to repair the damage done to his body and to get ready for the next part of his plan.

NEXT UP CHAPTER 49: SAKURA'S COURAGE