บท 25: ANBU is late

Soon Anko and the second examiner arrived at the graveyard

"I checked their possessions and identifications"

"They are ninjas from Grass Village registered in the Chuunin Exam, but..."

"As you can see….." The first examiner reported to Anko

"They have no faces." Anko filled in

"Eh….They're smooth and flat like they melted away."

Anko felt her neck heavy as she lifted her hand to feel the area where she had her curse mark.

Soon she started sweating at the sight as she continued to observe the corpses.

"Without a doubt..."

"This jutsu is…."

"That man's…..."

"Why is he at this test?" Anko thought anxiously.

"Show me the ID photos of these Grass Village Ninjas"

"It's on their applications right?" Anko asked.

"Yes!" The second examiner affirmed as he provided the IDs

…

Anko took a look at the photos as she focused on the one with the woman.

"So, this one's face was robbed" Anko concluded as she turned back towards the examiners around her and ordered….

"Communicate this to Lord Hokage right away!"

"Make a call for action to the ANBU Black Ops to assemble more than two squads to the forest of Death!"

"That Guy…."

"Has come to the Leaf Village!"

….

…

Meanwhile back in the forest of death

Naruto faced Orochimaru as he kept dodging the attacks one after another.

("Damn it! this is getting troublesome, I don't want to reveal to him, that I am from the future but at this rate I don't know how I will be able to corner him regarding Sasuke.") Naruto thought as he kept dodging.

"Though, you are quite the unexpected development, you are quite interesting as well"

Orochimaru said as he kept chasing.

Naruto found the comment rather repulsive

("He is not aiming for my body is he…..") Naruto thought due to how Orochimaru used to be obsessed to take over bodies to maintain his soul

"I don't find you interesting!" Naruto shouted as he kept dodging.

Orochimaru frowned, the comment had ticked him off. He got up and stretched his neck until it was some metres long and then opened his mouth. Soon, a snake came out as it opened its mouth as well revealing a sword-tip.

Orochimaru then aimed with his face as the sword chased Naruto along a straight path.

Almost when the sword reached his body Naruto caught hold of it using his chakra hands and the sword continued to drive till they hit a tree.

"Impossible, don't tell me you have a full control over the Nine tails chakra" Orochimaru exclaimed.

"What about it?" Naruto asked as he shove the sword aside causing Orochimaru to feel the tremors after it had struck a nearby tree, almost cutting it down.

Naruto then ran towards Orochimaru.

("This troublesome kid, is changing all of my plans….. I need to find Sasuke fast") Orochimaru thought.

Orochimaru withdrew the sword and came out of his own mouth as he escaped the other direction.

Naruto chased after Orochimaru after which they came to a standstill.

"Tell me where that boy is, Or I shall kill you for real…." Orochimaru threatened.

"There's no way I am telling you where Sasuke is..." Naruto countered.

Orochimaru thought for a bit, while Naruto stood by.

Orochimaru had extended one of his hands causing five snakes to shoot out.

Naruto almost fell from the tree being caught off his guard, but he instantly reacted by sending his chakra hand to grab hold of the snakes as it burned them off.

As soon as Naruto had recovered, he almost had his eyes pop off

"Where did he go?" Naruto searched around.

("It couldn't be that he went there now, would he?") Naruto thought.

Naruto instantly teleported just to see Orochimaru slither his way over.

Two of his clones woke up as they sensed the commotion.

The clones nodded to each other as they grabbed both Sasuke and Sakura and teleported to the location of the Kunai.

Orochimaru frowned at this development as he summoned a giant snake, the same size which had attacked Naruto.

The giant snake crawled its way to the direction the clone went in while Orochimaru ran towards Naruto.

"Why do you want Sasuke so badly?" Naruto asked.

"I need his body so that I can use it as my vessel." Orochimaru replied.

"Then won't just any other body work well, in its place…."

"No…. It has to be an Uchiha's body" Orochimaru argued as he stopped for a moment and bit a finger from both hands

(Poof!)

A smoke appeared after which a horde of thousands of snakes advanced towards Naruto.

Naruto bent down towards the ground as he stood on all four limbs, The cloak expanded as ten extra arms extended each having small rotating chakra orbs.

<Rasengan!>

….

…

….

Meanwhile

The Giant Snake appeared a few metres away from the group of four.

One of the clones ran towards the snake

(Boom!) the ground reverb-ed causing such commotion that Sasuke and Sakura almost felt their consciousness kick in.

"Uh!...." Sasuke's expression twisted as he felt like waking up from a nightmare.

Naruto (clone) nearby almost felt his heart jump out as he rushed towards Sasuke and hit him on the nape again knocking him straight out.

"That was close…." Naruto said as the other clone walked towards the trio.

…

The battle between Naruto and Orochimaru continued as Naruto launched a barrage of rasengans causing the snakes and the nearby trees to be wrecked.

…

At this moment

(Bang!)

Shikamaru heard a sound as he turned towards the place it had originated from.

"Shikamaru what was that?" Ino asked.

(num)

Chouji kept eating chips as if not being bothered at all.

"Probably some battle between the other teams, best not get involved with it….." Shikamaru said as he tried to walk away.

As he was walking Shikamaru stopped as he looked towards the battle again.

("What is this uneasy feeling?") Shikamaru thought.

…

("This is bad, the battle is causing too much commotion, I can't have people stop me right now, before I have even planted the curse mark on him.....I am sure someone must have noticed those three corpses by now, they would have probably sent more than just one team of ANBU Black Ops") Orochimaru thought as he kept fighting Naruto.

They had been in a stalemate for almost an hour.

Naruto kept fighting, hiding his other abilities as he wanted to hold them secret for any unexpected situations. Revealing Sage mode to Orochimaru who knew it too well and even the sage of six paths mode might either make him insane or retreat in fright.

The duo could not unleash any large scale abilities like Summoning Manda or Gamma-bunta or Naruto using his beast for Nine tails mode as it might alert those nearby and suspect over Naruto for even being able to stand up to a legendary sanin at the age of 14.

Naruto and Orochimaru breathed heavily as they stood on a tree top.

"Who is your sensei?, It is supposed to be Hatake Kakashi right?" Orochimaru asked.

"Orochimaru,..you'd better leave Sasuke alone" Naruto said.

"Damn it!" Orochimaru frowned. He looked towards Naruto before sinking into the ground.

"Sasuke will eventually be mine….." Orochimaru snickered as he left

Naruto heaved a sigh of relief knowing that the battle for today was finally over, as he turned around stunned to find Shikamaru looking at him.

"I see you had a troublesome day….."

"Shikamaru!" Naruto said as descended and walked over.

"You heard what we spoke just now?"

"Yes."

"Shikamaru I cannot explain this right now, how about we meet up tomorrow by the river or maybe at the tower, I'll tell you then"

"Your wish, but let me know, if it is a burden for you" Shikamaru said as he walked back.

Naruto stood at the same place for a few minutes more as he thought

("Shikamaru was my adviser back in that world, should I tell him about me having reincarnated?")

(Whoosh!) Three men wearing ANBU uniform appeared in front of Naruto.

"You there, state your name" One of the men ordered.

("What lousy ANBU, first they arrive late and miss the culprit, Now they question me the victim….")

At this instant Anko also appeared.

Naruto took a deep breath as he said

"Reporting to the ANBU, I am Uzumaki Naruto of squad 7 led by Hatake Kakashi…."

Naruto said.

While Anko kept frantically searching for Orochimaru around the area

"Where is that woman?" Anko asked

"Which woman?" Naruto asked in return.

"The woman from grass village wearing a big purple rope around her hip." Anko described.

"Oh you mean the guy.." Naruto said upon which she jumped over and pulled Naruto's cloth trying to lift him into the air.

"Why are you so...heavy?" she asked.

"I am wearing about 70kgs of dead weight."

"...." Anko and the ANBU

"WHATTTTT??????"

"Are you kidding me….." Anko asked almost feeling like losing her mind.

"Forget that how did you meet him, How did you survive in the first place after meeting him….Where did he go?" Anko kept asking questions after questions.

"Hey lady, I am the victim here, Why did you guys take such a long time? I fought him for almost an hour you know?"

"He just suddenly escaped by disappearing into the tree branch there" Naruto said as he pointed towards the branch.

At this point Anko knew it was hopeless.

Anko turned around as she looked at Naruto

"You said you fought him over an hour?" Anko asked feeling like the world was not making sense anymore.