章 123: Chapter 123

Naruto stiffened in surprise; he turned just in time to receive two fists to the chest. Naruto felt his a few of his ribs compress under the pressure of the hit before breaking. Time seemed to stand still for those few seconds as Naruto's ribs buckled and caved under the strength of the attack. It restarted itself and Naruto found himself smashing into a tree trunk hard enough to leave an imprint of himself before he slid down it.

"Well that was certainly an amusing battle, ku ku ku," Orochimaru smiled as he turned to Sasuke and Sakura who had not left like Naruto told them to. "Now I wonder if you can do any better Sasuke-kun."

Sasuke's eyes widened as the S-class criminal walked towards him at a sedate pace. "No! Stay back!" He threw several shuriken and kunai at Orochimaru, but the man merely weaved in between them like they were not even there.

"Ku ku ku, it seems you still hold fear child," Orochimaru bit his thumb and began doing a few hand seals. "What a disappointment. If this is all you're capable of I'll just let my pet deal with you," "Kuchiyose No Jutsu (Summoning Jutsu)!" Orochimaru slammed his hand onto the branch, causing seals to appear on the tree branch under it. There was a puff of smoke and Sasuke and Sakura found themselves staring at a large snake. "Time to feast my pet," Orochimaru chortled from atop the snake.

The reptile hissed as it bared its fangs at Sasuke, right before lunging down to devour the boy whole. Sasuke could do absolutely nothing as the snake closed in on him, too busy dealing with the shock of Naruto's decision to protect him, and the fear he felt of Orochimaru.

However, before the snake could swallow the two genin whole, Naruto appeared in front of it, letting the creature hit him in the back as he channeled chakra to his feet. The giant snake was stopped by Naruto right in front of Sasuke, who stared at the blond in shock.

Outside of the Forest of Death one Mitarashi Anko was happily drinking her red bean soup and munching on some Dango. "Mmmm. There ain't nothing better than dango and red bean soup…once I'm done eating I guess I'll head over to the tower. It's been about twenty-four hours, so the fast ones should be finishing up."

Anko finished eating all of the dango on threw the pointy toothpick at the tree. "There, a perfect leaf symbol." She exclaimed as she finished making the symbol of Konoha from the toothpicks she had been throwing that had held her dango.

There was a sudden puff of smoke and one of the Chunin proctors appeared in front of her, "There's big trouble Anko-san! We need you right away!"

Anko stared at the Chunin with a blank expression as she chewed on her dango, "What is it?"

"Bodies, three of them. There's something wrong with them, something I think you need to see."

Anko tapped her chin in thought before deciding to follow the Chunin. When she got to the bodies it was to discover something that rather shocked her, especially since she had seen it before.

"After examining their papers and personal items, they seem to be from Kusagakure who were entered into this exam but…" The Chunin who was looking at the information on the team shook his head. "As you can see they have no faces. They're blank, as if they've been completely melted off."

There's no mistaking it, this jutsu is Orochimaru's work! Anko thought frantically. But why is he here? And why now?

"Show me the pictures of these three?" Anko demanded. When she got to see the photo id's it was to see the face of the woman who had grabbed Anko's kunai with her tongue.

I should have realized this from the beginning! He was already in disguise at the time, the Snake mistress swore as her mind became a whirlwind of activity.

Anko whirled on the three chunin who were at the scene, "I need you to report this to Hokage-sama! Get him to send in some ANBU teams into the Forest of Death! I'm going after them right now!"

Anko did not bother to wait for a reply as she ran towards the gate and jumped over it, heading into the Forest of Death to confront her old sensei.

Naruto's head was looking down, casting his eyes in shadow as he spoke. "What the fuck is wrong with you!" The voice was different, more guttural and raspy then it had been. "I asked you a question teme!" Naruto lifted his head up to reveal red eyes with black slits running down the middle. His whisker marks were thicker, more jagged than the standard lines they normally were. And his canines had elongated, jutting from his upper lip.

"What's the matter pussy! Too scared to even run away!" Naruto glared at Sasuke. "Tch. This isn't the teme I know, that Sasuke may have been a prick, but he was never this weak and cowardly!"

Naruto reared his fists and then slammed them into the snake behind him, leaving two decently sized imprints on the creature's face. The snake hissed out in pain before being forced back the summoning world.

"I guess I'll just have to take care of this myself!" Naruto glared at Orochimaru as he landed on the branch.

Now this is interesting, the snake Sannin thought to himself as he began to dodge and weave in between Naruto's renewed assault. His speed, reflexes and strength seems to have doubled. The boy is quite the surprise.

Naruto jumped into the air and descended on Orochimaru with an axe kick. The Snake Sannin jumped back, letting Naruto's heel hit the tree, creating a small crater on the branch. Naruto appeared in front of Orochimaru and attempted to claw the Sannin's eyes out. Orochimaru ducked and weaved under the attack, coming into the blonds guard and hitting him numerous times in the torso. However, this time, all they did was make Naruto stumble back a little.

Glaring Naruto came in again, this time with a low kick high kick combo. When Orochimaru dodged all of them Naruto shot a wind blade at him from point blank. To Naruto's surprise, Orochimaru was able to dodge the attack enough that it only left a light wound on his left arm.