AUTHORS NOTE: Holy skhjfakfhakdfj you guys lots of sorry's all around for not updating in like 192386129360123612097312 years. Omg school is so time consuming. ….. Blegh. School is still raging on hard and there'll be lots of shit bogging me down as this one winds to a close as well, but I tried to find as much time as I could to write at least one chapter.

This is the first part to a 2 part chapter that will be Chapter 22.

Without further ado, Part 1 of Chapter 22!

Chapter 22: Tough Competition

His vision was filled with black.

There was nothing except darkness.

Nothing.

He couldn't sense anything. The only feeling he could detect was in his ears, and it was in the form of a shrill ringing that Naruto would give anything to get rid of. God was it annoying.

As the feeling returned to his body, he became steadily aware that he was lying on the ground. Judging by the grass and rocks he could feel digging into his back, he assumed that he was outside. Naruto couldn't, however, for the life of him remember why he was in such a position. Coming with his awakening sense of touch was a stiffness that caused the blonde genin to emit a pained groan from his lips.

Everything in front of him was a giant potpourri of blurry colors mixed together in a mixture of pure confusion. As his eyes opened more and he became more awake, Naruto's vision began to clear, and his senses began to return.

There was a slight ache on his back from falling unpleasantly. He clambered to his feet, shaking off the remains of the daze that had gripped him earlier. Seeing a large patch of black, scorched grass not too far away reminded him of the explosive tag that had knocked him unconscious. Realizing that he was most probably under attack, he quickly drew a kunai and steadied himself into a guard position.

His shinobi senses having returned, he could faintly make out the clangs typical of a shinobi confrontation in the distance. Deciding it was in his best interest to figure out what was going on, he channeled chakra to his feet like Kurenai-sensei had taught him, and shot up the trunk of a nearby tree, before making a large chakra-enhanced leap in the general direction of the sounds he had heard.

He stopped after passing a couple of large trees, and landed in a clearing. There was a break in the leaf covering above given by the trees so that sunlight filtered through and illuminated partially the area. Looking up, he saw Sasuke on a thick tree branch, bent over and leaning against the trunk, and panting. He was shaking slightly, a kunai gripped tightly in his right hand and his left hand on the tree to stabilize his balance. He looked down, seeing Naruto, and grinned slightly, before quickly changing to a very serious expression and jumping off the branch just in time as it exploded in a loud bang, splinters of wood flying all over the place.

The duck-haired Uchiha landed gracefully on the ground next to Naruto as a pale shinobi landed on the branch above Sasuke's previous spot. He wore a white-gray flowing robe with a large straw and bamboo hat that masked his hair and eyes as he looked down upon his opponents. A purple rope sash was tied tightly around his waist.

They couldn't see the majority of his face, but he licked his lips, an action that greatly disturbed the two Konoha genin. Sasuke and Naruto made eye contact, and wordless communication passed between them. This foe was strong. They would team up together just this once just to take him out.

The grass shinobi, as they deduced from the designs upon his identifying village headband, leapt from his perch on the branch and landed on the ground, meters in front of them. He shifted his head upwards in order to meet their gazes. His bamboo hat moved with the motion of the head, revealing eyes full of malice. These eyes weren't those of a determined genin ready to do whatever it takes to gain Sasuke and Naruto's scrolls. They were eyes of hate and battle hardened, those of a cold-blooded killer.

Sasuke took a step backwards in surprise.

"Nii-san!", an anguished young child screamed in fury and disbelief. His older brother, who turned around in surprise with his blade drawn, relaxed slightly at who he saw. A child Sasuke, hellbent on revenge after the view of his mom and dad being slaughtered as well as the rest of his clan, threw a handful of shuriken at the traitor.

Itachi easily jumped over the assault, landing in front of his brother. They made eye contact. Sasuke did not see the soft eyes that he came to know of his brother throughout their growing up together, but cold, icy eyes he did not recognize.

Something was off.

The grass genin raised an eyebrow at the newcomer, before his mouth curved into a twisted, sinister smile. "Naruto Uzumaki. I'd never expect to see you here." The grass nin's voice was a cross between normal and a snake's hiss.

How did he know his name?

Naruto took a step back in surprise. Why did the strange genin know his name? It was unnerving. His fist clenched tightly around the kunai he held in his grasp, before flinging it at the enemy nin, who bent back and let the projectile sail over him.

"I see.", the grass ninja continued, his smile widening. "I was going to give you the option to run, but it seems you have chosen the more painful option."

"With these unfortunate circumstances", the grass genin noted, "I must kill you. Perhaps if it were another time and place you could have been my target. However, it is Sasuke-kun I want."

Naruto raised an eyebrow at Sasuke, who shuddered and furrowed his brow before releasing a Katon: Fireball Jutsu at the enemy, who launched himself to the side easily. The blonde launched himself after the enemy, not giving him a chance to recover. Swinging a handful of ninja stars at the nin, he was surprised when the ninja took all the shurikens straight on without attempting to dodge.

He was further surprised when the ninja suddenly turned to mud and dirt and melted into the ground before their eyes. Naruto landed, drawing another kunai to be safe.

"Naruto!", Sasuke shouted. Naruto spun around to see a foot sticking out of a tree trunk and connecting with a painful snap with his midsection. He was flung backwards, and he saw the rest of the genin's body come out of the tree. He gave a pained grunt as he slid across the ground.

Sasuke leapt up, sucking in air, before twirling and releasing his signature Phoenix Flower Jutsu at the genin, who responded by doing a chakra enhanced leap upwards and out of the way. He smirked.

"Good, very good Sasuke.", the genin said to which Sasuke huffed, growling out, "What is this – some kind of stupid joke to you?", and firing another Fireball Jutsu.

The Grass ninja sidestepped the fireball, smirking at the destruction it caused to the unfortunate tree behind him. He twirled a kunai out of his pouch and stabbed an airborne Naruto in the throat, causing it to poof and dispel away. He twirled past another fireball, all the while gracefully slashing through synchronized Naruto clones with the kunai in hand.

"Who are you?", Sasuke shouted angrily, firing more fire jutsus at the opponent who just wouldn't stay still.

The grass genin suddenly paused fighting, leaping backwards, landing on an overgrown branch and started grinning hugely. He pointed himself, proclaiming, "I am Orochimaru, one of the Legendary Konoha Sannin." Sasuke and Naruto watched in horror as the face of the grass nin literally began to melt off, revealing an even more sinister adult face than the first.

"I don't care who you are!", Naruto exclaimed suddenly, charging forward while throwing a line of kunai. The sannin smiled at the effort, ducking under the kunai and then pulling back his sleeve on his right arm, revealing a complicated painted on tattoo. Orochimaru quickly bit his thumb hard enough to draw blood, and then wiped droplets onto the tattoo before making hand seals and then becoming completely enveloped in smoke.

There was a giant bang as a pillar of smoke erupted from where Orochimaru stood, completely masking him. When the smoke cleared, a giant deadly looking serpent was present, with the sannin standing on his summon's head looking smug.

"This is the end.", Orochimaru said in a rather bored fashion, before throwing a kunai in between Naruto and Sasuke. They didn't have to even turn to hear the sizzle and crackle of an explosive tag that was lit, and they jumped in opposite directions away from the ticking bomb. Orochimaru leapt off the snake's head in the direction that Sasuke took, while the snake itself turned to take care of Naruto.

'Shit. I'm separated.' Sasuke realized as he dodged explosion tag equipped kunai one after another. The sannin was smart. He was keeping Sasuke from rejoining with Naruto with well-placed explosions. Seeing that Orochimaru was not on his snake, he could take a good guess as to what Naruto was up against at the moment. 'Naruto, be safe.' He didn't have much more time to ponder how Naruto was faring as he leapt up from the ground to clasp onto the bottom of a branch right as a wave of kunai punctured deep into the ground where he was just standing.

Somewhere in the center of the forest, inside the Tower…

Shortly after the explosion took place, the screen had fizzed out from showing the battle between the two Konoha teams. The image was replaced then with two relatively weaker teams from smaller villages battling it out.

"Hmph.", Kurenai and Kakashi both grunted, refusing to speak to each other. They both, in their minds, thought the other had spied on their students in order to gather information on how they fought.

"Now, now, we're all friends here…", Asuma said lightly, trying to dissolve the thick tension that had erupted, but cold glares from both of the jounin-senseis in question was enough to shut him up.

For a damn large snake, it sure was damn fast. Naruto cursed as he was forced to leap to another tree right as the serpent lunged forward, its jaws and terribly sharp fangs smashing through the trunk of his previous spot as if the tree was made out of the flimsiest paper in the world. He threw explosion tag kunais at the snake, watching as they detonated. To his dismay, there was no visible effect on the snake.

As he continued to bounce between trees, he was now audibly swearing. "Damn this! How am I supposed to kill this snake? I can't break through the skin!"

And that's when he got inspiration for an idea so strange that he prayed it would work. He grinned, anticipating the next lunge of the snake. As it opened its jaws to clamp down on the branch he was standing on, instead of jumping away to another branch, he leapt forward and into the serpent's mouth, and jammed himself down its throat before it could bite him.

Inside the serpent's body it was damp and uncomfortably alive. The walls pulsed as the snake's body desperately tried to find a way to digest its sudden new meal. Sighing in relief as he realized that the first part of his plan was successful, Naruto wasted no time in creating a shadow clone next to him in the stomach of the snake.

From the outside, the snake felt a strange gathering of chakra inside of it, but couldn't for the life of it figure out why. Suddenly its eyes jolted wide open, its jaw shooting open, and it keeled over and slammed on the ground, dead. On the interior, a Rasengan-sized hole had been made through its stomach and internal organs.

The entire snake dissipated in a cloud of smoke, and Naruto was left on the ground with his shadow clone, panting for breath. He was covered in disgusting saliva and he had a disgusting stench on him, but the important part was that he had survived the ordeal.

"Boss.", the shadow clone said in a miffed manner, trying desperately to wipe some of the stuff off of his clothes. "Next time come up with a better plan. Yeech."

Naruto noted a stream nearby by hearing running water, but knew that helping Sasuke with the main problem was a higher priority. He sped off back.

"Sasuke, you had better still be alive."

This concludes only part one of Chapter 22! Stay tuned and the next part will be updated shortly.

You'll be able to see the battle between Sasuke and Naruto and Orochimaru! Dun nun nunnn…

(sorry for the wait you guys, R&R :P)