A/N: The Cursed Uzumaki Cancelled (Results from poll) and here's the new story.

Sorry for the long delay. Changed the original plot for this new story and got side track in learning how to draw female figures.

Chapter 2 is already done. Waiting to see the reception of this before posting that one.

Anyway enjoy.

"Talk"

Thoughts


Chapter 1

A Girl Wants You


Gasping for air and both hands on his knees, Naruto surveys the dead reptilian carcass. Purple blood ooze from the giant snake, mouth gaping wide as the light fades in its eyes.

Their battle began and ended in brief. Surprised at first, Naruto acted quickly on his feet. Dodging the giant snake—lunging to swallow him whole—Naruto threw some kunai blades wrapped with paper bombs. The reptile swallowed those instead. The explosion, subtle in noise and action, looked devastating; rupturing its skin and grey smoke seeped out from its swollen body. The beast collapsed soon after like timber.

Naruto wipes the sweat on his forehead; relieved from escaping the slimy coils of death. A creature this size, slithering through this forest was quite surprising and terrifying at first. But then again it won't be called the forest of death without something like this roaming around. Naruto stares at the dead snake, praying inside to never face more of its kind.

Several shurikens bursts out from the bushes, flying straight for him and Naruto reacts, jumping in seconds to watch the star blades burrow into the ground he once stood. He backflips and lands on a large branch; senses on edge as he peers into the dark forest for the source.

Someone's out there with a deadly intent; no doubt watching as he took care of that monster snake; waiting till the end to strike just as he lowered his guard in relief. Naruto corrects his stance on the branch, reaching behind into his pouch for weapons; eyes darting back and forth, scanning for any signs of life. No longer training his sights at the direction from where the shurikens came from. The culprit won't be there anymore and who said he came alone; teams of three so his friends will be near somewhere.

Kunai blades streak for him and Naruto pulls his out own and swats them down like flies. He sees a girl in front, walking slowly towards him with a wide grin defacing a very pale face. It wasn't until she steps into the murky light that he catches the glinting headband on her forehead. Sound!

She's a sound shinobi; obviously one of the many foreign genins in this year's exam. "Impressive." She says, gazing at the dead snake below. "I thought you would have trouble with him." She crouches down, looking intently at reptile carcass below and Naruto spots an opening; he slings his blade straight for the skull and she grabs it with such ease that it throws Naruto off for a second. What the….

She rises back up, twirling the blade like nothing had happen; like his attempt to behead her was water under a bridge. "I definitely wasn't expecting you to finish him off so quickly. Maybe I underestimated you Naruto." She turns to him with that devilish grin; bleak eyes that screams run.

Naruto unconsciously takes a step back; drenched from the wave of bloodlust spewing from her; the same eerily feeling he sensed from that snake and then Naruto's face comes alive, like the gears inside his head suddenly clicked together. Her demeanor; the way she eyes the monster; how she speaks of it. She summoned it!

"Who are you?" He barks at her; his body on edge.

"Me?" She sounds hurt, like he should know her. "I'm just here as a friend." She walks towards him. "A long lost friend." She smirks, enjoying the swirl of confusion, agitation, and fear on his expression. "Here me out Uzumaki." She calls him by his clan name and it triggers him.

Naruto pulls out two kunai blades; one in each hand. No one, other than people in the village—actually just his classmates—should know his full name; not some stranger from a Sound village. "Who the fuck are you and how do you know my name?" He squares his legs into a fighting stance; blades in front and serving as a subtle final warning to her. She needs to choose her response carefully or he will launch into his attack. She's no a friend or some long lost acquaintance.

She pauses and stretches out both hands; exposing her chest but Naruto knows not to take her bait. "I come in peace; here to inform you about yourself. You're pretty famous Naruto." She says and Naruto wavers inside. Inform me? She doesn't want his scroll. Sasuke has it anyway.

"What is it you want to tell me?" He asks, a part of him intrigue on what she offers.

A small smile forms on her lips, like his inquiry is her small victory. "I'm glad you're interested in what I have to tell you, Naruto." She says. "But first…." She hesitates. "I need to make you relax." She lunges at him without warning and Naruto throws himself off the branch, narrowly avoiding the fist that splinters that tree bark behind him.

He leaps and bounces off multiple branches to put a distance between her. Landing on a branch that feels far enough, he turns back. She's struggling, trying to pull her arm out of the tree trunk. Buried deep into the trunk, that blow was for him. Naruto gulps, imagining the damage it could have done. He's reminded of Sakura but this person doesn't hold his wellbeing in mind unlike that pink headed Sasuke-obsessed idiot.

With force, she yanks her arm free, peeling some skin off. Grinning maniacally, she turns to Naruto; the blood trickling down her arm not even bothering her. Naruto watches with awe; more alarmed than ever; stunned that she's not even fazed by her injury.

She vanishes and Naruto's eyes widen; his head swiveling widely trying to catch a glimpse of her. He does but it is when she's near. Naruto throws his blades at the blur that is her movement, conjuring up a jutsu after emptying his hands. Several clones pop into existence and she reaches the branch he stands on. She moves like a snake, limbs stretching as she zigzags for him. His clones charge in first with blades in hands, but she makes quick work of them and seconds later they all dispel into white gas.

Naruto reaches into his pouch and throw outs beads straight in her path. They explode into a steamy hot gas, expanding far around the area and she halts to a sudden stop, feeling a sticky wet substance clinging to her. Interesting! She rubs her fingers together, feeling the wet thick liquid. It seems those beads were filled with oil; flammable I presume. She sniffs her finger, recognizing that gasoline smell.

Naruto doesn't wait. Getting to a safe distance, he throws a kunai, wrapped with a paper bomb, into the gas. It ignites, cascading into multiple and deafening explosions; strong enough that it rocks the dead quiet forest. Birds flew off from nearby trees into the sky.

The large branch burns into a large bonfire. The structure weakens and Naruto hears the cracks from it. The burning tree limb begins to give in to its weight and soon after it breaks off, plummeting to the ground.

Naruto stands unsure as he watches the burning wreck. "Did it work?" He asks and a fist clobbers the side of his face. It hurls him into a nearby tree trunk.

"To answer your question? No!" She stares at her fist; admiring the power in it. "But it was a good try though." She nods her head in agreement. "Pretty impressive filling those beads with fuel and then somehow turning them into a gas. That's actually smart." She clutches her chin; praising him with pure honest.

"The gaseous state allows it to expand rapidly; covering a wide area and the viscosity of that liquid gasoline means it will still be wet enough to stick to any one in it." She elaborates, truly impressed. First time, she's seen this before; something to use later.

Naruto groans as he lifts himself up; his head throbbing like she clobbered him with a hammer instead. His jaw burns and he knows it's broken; if not then cracked. He clutches his chin, massaging it as he yawns to stretch out his jaw. Something inside his mouth cracks and he stops. No need to worsen his state.

Coming back online, he notices her and gawks in shock; stunned. His move definitely did work; it caught her. She stands with a body badly burned; charred clothing and bruised, burned skin peeling off like a snake shedding its dry skin. Is she human? Naruto's eyes enlarges to extreme lengths; face stretched as he stares at her in horror. She doesn't look in pain or distress like it's not even her body.

She notices his gawking and smiles. "Like the new look Naruto?"

"Who…." He stutters. "Who are you?" More like what are you?

She offers no witty remarks, but instead widens her leer. Vanishing, she reappears in front of him in flash. Naruto moves to react but she reacts faster, punching him straight in the gut. The pain bulges his eyes wide and saps all the air out of him. She doesn't let his body fall and instead she grabs him by the neck, strangling high of his feet.

Naruto starts choking, fighting to pry her grip off, but his arms are too weak to move her gorilla grip. "See how easily I can kill you; snap your neck like a twig." She taunts him, sneering at his face.

Naruto only coughs, choking on spit and blood. His vision of her mockery expression starts to fade, blurring as tears fill his eyes. What's going on? He's trying to reach Kurama but nothing is happening; like his beast is dormant, sleeping through all this as he chokes; his life seeping away. Kurama! KURAMA! He yells for help.

She brings her face closer and Naruto fights to pull his head away but he doesn't get far. Next to his ear, she whispers, "The nine-tails can't help you today."

"How…?" Naruto tries to ask, but speaking while choking was hard.

She pulls back. "It doesn't matter how I know. What matters is your choice?" She says and Naruto can only glare at her. "Do you either want to die right now, struggling and choked out, or the other choice which I suggest you pick which is; sit back, relax, and listen to what I have to tell you?"

Naruto grits his teeth, trying to show defiance in the face of her domination. "What do you want to tell me?"

"Nah nah nah…"She wags a finger at him. "You have to choose mister."

He holds only one choice, especially with Kurama bailing on him. How does she know about his beast, he wonders. A genin from the Sound village.

"Okay I'll listen." He yields, relaxing, and she beams him a smile. "But you have to tell me who you are." Naruto adds and she seems to think about it.

"Okay." She agrees and then releases her strangle hold. Naruto plops back down with a thud, coughing and holding his throat. He can feel her imprints on his neck. "See how easy I become when you don't get combative with me?" She says and walks away from him.

Naruto glares dagger at her back. "I never was until you decided to charge at me." He mumbles to himself, but she heard him.

She turns to him. "To prove that I mean you no harm….." She says like everything before never happened. "….I will give you something to help you and your team in this part of the exam." She pulls out an Earth scroll from behind and tosses it in front. It rolls to his face and Naruto eyes it like a lost treasure finally discovered.

"An Earth scroll!" He sounds aghast. Sasuke has their Heaven scroll, which means their objective for this part of the exam is lying right in front of him. This has to be trick. He reasons and then looks up to argue, but she shuts him up in an instant. "It's the real deal. Check the insignia on the bottom."

Naruto gingerly grabs the scroll and spots the spoken insignia; the earth sign that can't be replicated with any jutsu. This is authentic. "Why?" He asks. "What about you?" And her team; the one he still hasn't met. Are they attacking Sasuke and Sakura, he wonders and begins to worry.

She huffs, brushing aside his question like they were childish. "I don't care about these stupid scrolls. In fact I could care less about this whole exam." She says. "I'm only here for you." She adds and Naruto doesn't know what to feel. Not every day he hears a girl wanting him; even one as creepy as this one.

Me! She's here because of me. She stares at Naruto, the skin on her face peeling off, revealing an even paler skin and an eye with a slit pupil. Naruto stares at the eye with amazement and a slight fear. She isn't human; whatever's behind that skin.

She approaches and Naruto crawls back until he hits the tree bark behind. "Do you want to know what happened to your mother Naruto Uzumaki?" Orochimaru speaks.


A/N: Thanks and review.