Naruto: Jinchuriki of the Six Paths by X009

Chapter 9

The hearts of the members of Team Seven sank as they stared in horror as the one who'd been hunting them through the forest was revealed to be none other then Orochimaru, one of the most infamous, and powerful traitors in the history of the village. The snake Sannin smiled maliciously at the dread in their eyes.

Naruto took a deep breath, knowing that fear would do him no good, and did his best to calm himself, and went back to his original plan: keep him talking and stall for time.

"Orochimaru..." The blond said warily. "Why would someone like you come out here yourself? What's wrong, can't find anyone stupid enough to follow you?" He didn't know much about the snake Sannin, but he knew enough to know he was the kind of person who would use people and then throw them away without hesitation or remorse.

Orochimaru chuckled, the sound even more malicious in his true voice, as he brought his hand to his forehead protector.

"Oh, quite the contrary. I have many pawns who would gladly give their lives to help me accomplish my goals." He swept his hand over the metal object and when the headband could be seen again, the grass blade symbol of Kusa had been replaced with the musical note symbol of Oto. "The new village 'Otogakure'? It's mine, you see, I created it. It's just that I like to take a more hands on approach for anything that really catches my eye."

Naruto's expression shifted to shock, briefly recalling the three sound genin, and then suspicion. He'd dropped a major bombshell so casually, and to genin no less. Was it because he no longer cared if anyone found out... or because he didn't plan on letting them live to tell anyone? Knowing dwelling on that wouldn't do any good, the blond continued his questioning.

"And just what is it about three genin you find so fascinating that you would come out here in person?" He asked, his body tense and ready to spring into action at any moment.

"I already told you, you have something that I want." Orochimaru responded as he removed his forehead protector and allowed it to fall to the forest floor. It just wasn't him to wear one, never was.

Though it wasn't what he'd originally come for, the blond was beginning to catch his interest. He'd been watching them for some time and it seemed the three had truly grown, more so than his informant's most recent reports suggested, especially Naruto. "Now, as interesting as this conversation is, I'm afraid I didn't come here for idle chit chat."

With that, he took a step forward, making the three genin fell into defensive stances more geared for flight than fight. Orochimaru's grin widened.

"Now show me... give me a glimpse... of your true potential."

Before the members of Team Seven could respond, the snakes coiled around the Sannin suddenly shot out, lunging towards them, causing the three to leap backwards to evade.

Naruto brought his right hand to the wristband on his left arm and focused his chakra into it. With a burst of smoke, a fuma shuriken was revealed as one of the serpents neared him. He sliced the weapon through the air, cutting the head off the snake in front of him before unfolding and throwing it, sending the over-sized shuriken flying, spinning at such a speed the weapon almost appeared to be a solid, spinning disc, and slicing through the snakes. When he landed, he took a brief glance at his teammates.

Sakura was clearly terrified, eyes wide and trembling slightly. While she had grown a great deal from her training, she wasn't prepared for something like this. Sasuke looked nothing like the cool and confident boy he knew, one could easily read the panic he was feeling. Of course, he didn't feel particularly confident about their odds either.

But that didn't mean he would just roll over and let Orochimaru get... whatever it was he came for.

His gaze returned to Orochimaru just in time to see the serpentine man burst into motion, blurring out of slight and vanishing into the foliage. One could make out the sound of him moving through the branches, slithering through them like the serpents he was associated with.