22Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto
Chapter 1 - Cursed Seal of Earth
Forest of Death
Naruto Uzumaki had just gotten his ass thoroughly kicked by Orochimaru the traitorous Sannin and had a 5 elements seal placed over his 8 sign seal. Orochimaru had just placed the curse seal of heaven on Sasuke when Naruto began screaming in agony even though just moments before he had been completely knocked out. Orochimaru turned to the screaming Naruto and noticed something weird, Naruto's hair had become a silverish white color and instead of being spiky and unruly it laid flat and straight, while Naruto was clutching his left eye with both hands. Orochimaru seeing this got the jist of what was going on right away as he had seen it before in one of his labs when he was experimenting, these symptoms meant that Naruto was unlocking a new never before seen bloodline limit, this very much excited Orochimaru because every time he attempted to cause a new bloodline to emerge his experiments failed, each and everyone dying in the process of awakening and no way to duplicate the bloodline through DNA manipulation. Seeing as this was a completely new bloodline, the boy had some potential, and the kyuubi currently couldn't do anything to help the boy so Orochimaru decided to mark him with the curse seal of earth.
Naruto lay on the ground writhing in agony clutching his left eye when all of a sudden a head attached to a very long neck shot next to him. "W...what the h..ell?" he managed to gasp out through the pain just before a set of fangs bit into his neck and his pain increased ten fold. The extremely long neck attached to the head retracted quick with its owner smirking. "Think of these present as just a small sample of what I can give you Sasuke-kun and Naruto-kun." Orochimaru said before taking his leave. The last thing Naruto saw before passing out was Sakura heading toward him with a panicked look and an unconscious Sasuke on her back.
Slowly Naruto opened his right eye to see the inside of some type tree basin. His left eye for some odd reason wouldn't open, Naruto thought it had something to do with what the snake freak had done to him. Even though he couldn't use his left eye Naruto felt a lot better than he had felt in a long time. He was able to think clearer, remember things more easily, and his chakra felt a thousand time easier to control and far more balanced. As he was contemplating his new sense of self awareness he heard a scream from outside of the tree basin, this is also when he noticed that Sasuke had been sleeping next to him, just as Sasuke ran out of the tree. Naruto felt a surge of chakra run through him similar to when he used Kyuubi's chakra but slightly different and ran out after Sasuke.
"You dare to attack my teammate you worthless fodder." Naruto heard Sasuke say as he was gripping an oto genin that was covered in bandages by the back of the neck with one of his arms broken. Naruto also noticed that Sasuke had some strange black markings running across his skin.
" Let him go or girly gets it." said another oto genin with a hand that had a small metallic hole in it pointed at Sakura. Naruto immediately rushed toward the oto genin to attack before he had the chance to react, but due to his depth perception being off because of his lack of an eye he missed the oto genin by a few inches.
"The hell do you think you're doing!? Decapitating Airwaves!" the oto genin yelled while pointing both of his arms at Naruto and attacking him with a large blast of wind. "Oh Fuck!" Naruto yelled as he was blown back by the attack. After being blown back across the ground Naruto was now lying on his back with most of his clothes torn up, barely wearable and a large amount of cuts all across his body. Naruto began unconsciously pulling on the curse mark of earth that had been placed on him as the marks began to spread on his body much like Sasuke and then with surprising speed he appeared behind the oto genin that had just attacked him and grabbed both his arms, then stomped on his back breaking both his arms.
"Wait if you let us go we'll give you our scroll!" the oto genin with the bandages quickly said when he saw his teammate was about to be killed.
"Hn, what do you think dobe?" Sasuke said smirking seeing that at least one of his teammates was finally becoming competent.
"Huh, yeah sure, that's fine." Naruto said snapping out of his bloodlust. Sasuke quickly took the earth scroll from the bandaged oto genin, who then went and picked up his passed out female teammate. Naruto then released the oto genin whose arms he broke. When the oto genin were out of sight both Naruto's curse seal of earth and Sasuke's curse seal of heaven began retracting and it hurt like hell. Both Naruto and Sasuke fell to the ground just as Sakura had gotten over to the 2 of them.
"Sasuke-kun, Naruto are you guys ok and what was with the marks that were on you guys and Naruto what happened to your hair?" Sakura rapidly asked as soon as she near them.
"Well, I'm extremely exhausted and in some pain from this stupid seal that creepy snake guy placed on my neck, also I'm like 90 percent sure it's why those weird markings showed up and what do you mean what happened to my hair." Naruto said answering her in a low and calm tone that he wasn't usually known for both Sasuke and Sakura chalked up to everything that they had been through though.
"Hn. It turned white and it's not spiky any more, dobe" Sasuke hn'd in agreement to what Naruto had just said and explained what Sakura was talking about.
"Yeah, it's the same color as Kakashi-sensei's hair now and it's laying flat." Sakura said which made naruto frown he liked his blonde hair.
"How the hell should I know it was probably caused by that stupid seal the creepy snake guy used!" seeing that the topic upset Naruto and that it was probably caused by the seal Sakura decided to change topics.
"Well now that we have both a heaven and an earth scroll we should probably get the tower, so that the both of you can get some medical attention." Sakura said while pulling out the heaven scroll that Sasuke had almost convinced her to give to Orochimaru earlier.
"Sounds like a plan to me." Naruto said jovially throwing the previous talk to the back of his mind but he also began talking with that smooth calm tone again, that his teammates still didn't question but were a little estranged by coming from Naruto the loudest ninja in all of Konoha.
"Hn." and again Sasuke hn'd in agreement.
Tower
They had just reached the tower after about an hour of running through the forest on the second day of the exams.
"So, now that we're here what do you suppose we're supposed to do now." came a very redundant sentence from Naruto, yet still in that calm smooth tone of his. Both Sasuke and Sakura just chose to ignore Naruto's question.
"Hey look there's some writing on the wall over there." Sakura said noticing and quote written on the wall. Naruto walked over to it and began to read in his new smooth voice.
"If qualities of heaven are your desire acquire wisdom to take your mind higher, if earthly qualities are what you lack train your body and prepare to attack. When heaven and earth are open together the perilous path will become righteous forever this " " is the secret way that guides us from this place today." "I think this means we need to open the scrolls to pass the test" Naruto said pretty much understanding that meant only by having both body and mind strong together can one succeed which was a surprise to even him that he figured it out. "Hn." Sasuke hn'd an agree, while being surprised that the dobe could actually figure out the analogy. Naruto and Sakura each grabbed a scroll and opened it, soon smoke started coming from both and they threw them to the ground, both scrolls crossed and a seal appeared and summoned Kakashi.
"Nicely done team going through the Forest of Death in only 2 days I'm impressed." Kakashi said with an eye smile before looking over the state of his students. He quickly noticed that Naruto's hair color was strikingly the same as his and that his left eye was closed shut with extremely light marks above and below it that most people wouldn't be able to see, but what really alarmed the Copy ninja were the curse marks clearly visible on both Naruto and Sasuke's necks. Not to mention Naruto's utterly destroyed clothing and the wounds on all 3 of his students.
"Naruto, Sasuke where'd those marks on your necks come from?" Kakashi asked in a completely serious tone that none of his students had ever heard before.
"This creepy snake guy attacked us in the forest and bit me and Sasuke on the neck and left these weird seals." Naruto immediately answered after hearing Kakashi be serious for the first time ever.
"Naruto, Sasuke the person that left those marks on you is most likely Orochimaru of the Sannin, we need to go see Hokage-sama about this." Kakashi said still using a serious tone as he grabbed both boys' shoulders and Body Flickered to the Hokage's room in the tower.
"Hokage-sama Orochimaru has infiltrated the exams and marked both Sasuke and Naruto." Kakashi said as soon as they arrived in the Hokage's room, but before the Hokage could say anything Anko along with a team of Anbu appeared in the room as well.
"Hokage-sama I fought Orochimaru in the Forest of Death but he escaped!" Anko practically yelled as she appeared.
"Everyone calm down." the Hokage said in a deep commanding voice that caused everyone to shut up and wait for him. "Now first Kakashi tell me what happened to young Naruto-kun and Sasuke-kun." The Hokage and everyone else directed their attention to the cyclops.
"In the Forest of Death Orochimaru the traitorous Sannin attacked and marked Sasuke with the curse mark of heaven and Naruto with the curse mark of earth. That was all I was able to get from them before bring them directly to you, I still don't know why Naruto looks the way he does now." Kakashi said telling the Hokage everything that he knew. Anko's face contorted to a look of pure hatred upon hearing what Orochimaru did to Kakashi's students and the Hokage had a look of sadness and anger before turning his attention to Naruto.
"Naruto-kun please tell me exactly what happened in the forest and why you look like that." the hokage said to Naruto hoping that boy would be able to tell the story without his usual brand of enthusiasm (read idiocy).
"Well, it started when we were attacked by a wind jutsu that blew me away from Sasuke and Sakura. I got attacked and eaten by a large snake right when I landed but luckily I was able to make the snake explode by making a large number of Shadow Cones inside of its belly." at this everyone sweat dropped. "I quickly went back to help Sasuke and Sakura, when I got there I saw Orochimaru beating up Sasuke and Sakura, I got angry and started using its chakra, but Orochimaru easily kicked my ass and then he placed this seal on my stomach that made me pass out. A few moments later I woke up to see Orochimaru bite into Sasuke's neck before I felt a horribly indescribable pain in my left eye. As I was on the ground writhing in agony Orochimaru stretched over and bit me too. I passed out right after that and when I woke Sakura was being attacked by some oto genin, which caused me and Sasuke to use the power of our curse seals, which hurt like hell by the way, to save her. We defeated them took their scroll, then the curse marks retracted and we came straight here." by the end of Naruto talking everyone was surprised Naruto was able to have such a focused report without to many other random things said here or there.
"Anbu!, Jiraiya is currently in the village tell him to get here as fast as he can!" the Hokage said in a commanding voice that left no room for argument. Within 2 minutes Jiraiya was in the room with everyone else.
"What is it old man I was in the middle of my research." it was after saying that Jiraiya took note of the others in the room, when he saw Naruto and the state he was in he dropped the notebook he was carrying and turned back to the Hokage.
"What the hell happened to him?" Jiraiya said with clenched fist and grit teeth.
"He had a run in with Orochimaru in the Forest of Death and had 2 seals placed on him, I need you to take a look at the seals." the Hokage said with a slightly guilty tone that most wouldn't catch.
"Come here and let me see the seals kid I need to check them over to see if we can remove them." Jiraiya said now completely pissed and thinking of ways to kill Orochimaru. Naruto immediately complied removing his ruined jacket and shirt, then began to channel some chakra to show the seal that was on his stomach. Jiraiya easily recognized it as the 5 elements seal and swiftly removed it but as soon as Jiraiya removed the seal a large amount of chakra surged straight to Naruto's left and he fell over screaming in pain which startled everyone in the room, but as quickly as it began that's how quickly it ended. Naruto pushed up from the ground he had fallen on a moment earlier and noticed something incredibly strange, everyone around him had some kind of ball like light hovering above their head. Everyone else was stunned silent because of Naruto's left eye. He had a jagged scar over his eyelid that lead down his cheek and to a pentagram scar on his forehead and his sclera had become pitch black, the pupil was black and the iris was crimson red with a with a black ring in the center. Everyone had just witnessed Naruto unlocking his bloodline limit.
"What the hell what are those floating lights over everyone?" Naruto said very confused about what was going on.
"Um, Naruto there are no floating lights." right after Kakashi said that realised that it might be Naruto's bloodline letting him see those lights. "Hey Naruto close you left eye and tell me if you still see those lights, ok?" Naruto nodded and did as Kakashi said, as soon as he closed his left eye all of the lights instantly disappeared.
"The lights disappeared when I closed my left eye, how'd you know that'd work Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto said slightly confused about what was going on. "Here." Kakashi said pulling out a mirror and handing it to his former blonde student. Naruto was so surprised when he saw his own reflection that he almost fainted, but then he noticed something he could see the floating lights in his reflection there was one over his head, a small one over the seal on his shoulder, and a really big one right in front of his stomach.
"Naruto-kun I believe that you have a dojutsu bloodline limit that allows you to see these lights, can you describe them to us so we can figure out what they are?" the Hokage said after coming out of his stupor from seeing the former blonde unlock a never before seen bloodline.
"Sure Hokage-jiji, everyone has a orb like light floating above their head and each one has a different feel to it, it's kinda hard to explain but it kinda feels like it's the person themselves, but me, Sasuke and the crazy snake lady have more than one light." Naruto said to the Hokage and everyone listening thought his new bloodline would come in handy for sensing.
"Naruto-kun can you tell us more about the extra light orbs you see?" the Hokage asked trying to inquire more information.
"Yeah the extra lights are near the seals on our necks and they kinda feel like Orochimaru." as soon as Naruto said that Jiraiya instantaneously realized exactly what those light orbs were, they were a person's soul, but if that was true Orochimaru had found a way to split his soul and apparently for quite sometime now.
"Naruto I'm pretty sure what you're seeing is people's souls." Jiraiya said shocking every inhabitant of the room beyond belief.
"Wait if that's true doesn't that mean that Orochimaru sealed a part of his soul into me, Sasuke, and the snake lady." Naruto said shocking everyone that he had figured that out before most of them even thought about that.
"Jiraiya do you think you would be able to remove Orochimaru's soul from the seals." the Hokage instantly asked.
"I might be able to but from all of my research on the curse seal I've found that it's actually 3 different seals that are dependent on each other. If I try to remove the seal with Orochimaru's soul in it could cause the array to break and kill the host." this was truly a troubling matter indeed with no hope for a solution anytime soon. Well that was until Naruto decided to say something extremely insightful.
"Hey Jiraiya couldn't you just switch out the soul that's sealed in that part of the array." as soon as Jiraiya heard that he thought Naruto was a genius, but then he realised a huge hole in Naruto's solution, where the hell was he going to get a soul fragment.
"That's a brilliant idea except for the fact that we don't just have a bunch of extra souls lying around." Jiraiya said his voice just dripping with sarcasm.
"Why not just use a Shadow Clone it does split the user's soul right?" Jiraiya just stood there gaping at Naruto after he said that like it was the simplest thing in the world. Jiraiya was wondering why the hell he didn't think of it.
"Well, um, yeah that'd probably work I'll get started on the seal for transferring the souls right away, it will probably take 4 or 5 days to finish. Kakashi for now apply the evil sealing method on them." Jiraiya said as he walked off to work on the new seal Naruto had given him the idea for.
"Naruto-kun I want you to keep your bloodline hidden for now and I also want you to come up with a name for it. Now go off with Kakashi to the sealing room." after the Hokage finished speaking Naruto quickly ran off after his sensei to the sealing room.
In the sealing room. "Ok, Naruto, Sasuke are you both ready for the sealing." Naruto nodded and Sasuke gave a slight head tilt signifying they were ready. Kakashi quickly performed the sealing and decided to send them back to their team quarters. Sasuke left right away to get a shower and some sleep after Kakashi dismissed them, but Naruto stayed. Seeing that his student wanted to talk Kakashi walked over to Naruto.
"What's the matter Naruto?" Kakashi asked his now silver haired pupil.
"Um, Kakashi my clothes were kinda shredded in the Forest of Death and I have nothing to change into and I'm also trying to think of a way to hide my bloodline." Naruto said a little embarrassed at his predicament.
"Hm, I think I have a solution to both your problems, go back to room for now I'll you there in half an hour with a change of clothes and way to hide your bloodline." Kakashi said before Body Flickering off somewhere. Seeing as Kakashi was going to help him Naruto just went back to his room and took a shower. Shortly after Naruto had gotten out of the shower Kakashi had appeared in a Body Flicker. Kakashi unceremoniously dropped 10 identical outfits onto Naruto's bed consisting of a his special made eyepatch forehead protector with a navy blue cloth, a navy blue half face mask, a navy blue short sleeve shirt with grey stripes going down the shoulders and sleeves, navy blue arm cloths with metal bracers over top, an x shaped black buckle belt for his chest, a pair of navy blue shinobi pants, a grey belt, 2 black kunai holsters one for each leg, blue shinobi sandals, and white tape for the bottoms of his pants.
"Here, you go I got you some clothes like I wore when I was a genin and some of my special made forehead protectors to hide your left eye." Kakashi said as he dumped the clothes onto Naruto's bed with a scroll left on top for storing the extras.
"Thanks alot, Kakashi-sensei it may not be orange but it's definitely better than nothing and I've always wanted to wear a mask like yours." Kakashi honestly thought that Naruto was going to complain about not getting anything orange but he barely even mentioned it. After that Kakashi went off find somewhere to read his book in peace. Naruto tried on his new clothes and had to say that his new outfit made him look totally badass and decided that he would stick with the new clothes even after they got out of the Forest of Death, but was planning to get at least one thing in orange for his outfit later. Naruto decided to end his day by jumping into bed and sleeping for the next 3 days.