This takes the world of Naruto into a different direction, with different foes, a different storyline, and different jutsu. This Fan Fiction attempts to maintain the personalities of the characters from the Anime, thus making the story much more believable and easier to picture in the reader's mind while they enjoy the story.

Below is the prologue to the story. I felt it was needed to explain exactly how it forks away from the original storyline, rather then just stating facts that explained why things were different. It has all the scenes and dialogue from the actual episode until it branches away into my own design. Those who have seen that particular episode should recall it all.

But wait, didn't I already upload this story before? Yes, but I felt is needed a total makeover for the better. If anyone here has actually read the original story when it was originally written, thank you for taking the time to read it again, you should be pleased by how much better it is.

Prologue

'It's time.'

A voice quietly echoed within the owner's mind as a man in a dark hood and an ANBU mask formed a hand sign. What was once leaves became feathers as they fluttered in the breeze of the air. Many of the people around couldn't understand why there were feathers in the air. They didn't even understand why the leaves became feathers in the first place.

The only thing they knew was that just looking at the feathers made them tired. So tired that they couldn't think straight enough to figure out that such a thing was physically impossible. So tired that they began to fall asleep, one by one. So tired...

It was that time of the year, the Chunin Exams. Twice every year, squads of Genin, or low-level graduates from their village's ninja academy, go to one of the five great shinobi to prove the strength of their own villages. At the same time, their skills and abilities are examined by Jonin and Special Jonin, or elite ninja with deadly skills, from all the five great shinobi villages. The combined decisions from these ninja determine if any of these Genin are worthy of the next ninja rank, Chunin.

And it was that rank that many Genin were fighting for today. Today was the finals of the Chunin Exams, where individual Genin that have passed the previous tests as a team would battle one-on-one against randomly drawn opponents.

And these fights took place in a large stadium, each of the five great shinobi villages has one similar to one another. And in these stadiums large audiences gather from all villages who enjoyed watching these fights and betting on who would win in each battle. But most importantly, they come to see what power and abilities the next generation of the rival villages possess. This was a public and encouraged gathering of spies.

'A Genjutsu!'

'What the... what's going on...?'

'Release!'

And it was in this place of battle and gambling and spying where plots and plans were going down. It was here where the Sound and Sand villages had planned to begin an invasion of the Leaf village, to catch them off-guard while many of their forces were gathered at this place, enjoying the battles.

'The operation has begun!'

Only a select few skilled in the art of illusion was able to understand what was going on. Someone had cast a Genjutsu to put the audience to sleep, to prevent them from interfering and to kill them without a fight when the invasion was finished.

'Am I seeing things...?'

'Naruto, you idiot!'

But even with the Genjutsu cast, Sasuke of the Uchiha clan and Gaara of the Desert were able to continue to fight. That doesn't mean the Sand ninja allowed it.

"Stop it, Gaara!"

"I must kill him!"

"There's no point in continuing this fight!"

"That's right!"

"Out of my way!"

"What are you three doing now? Can't you see the operation is already underway?!"

Two Sand Genin and their squad leader came down from the stands to protect Gaara from the Leaf ninja that were unaffected by the Genjutsu.

"Oh no! His wound is worse then I thought! And his chakra is almost completely drained away!"

"Wait, what about using that-?"

"That's impossible right now."

"You fool, it's all because you tried to transform before the signal was given."

"So what do we do now? We need Gaara for this!"

"Gaara's the trump card of the village hidden in the Sand. We have to get him to play his part no matter what. Alright, for now you two take Gaara and tend to his wounds. As soon as his chakra has been restored, the operation will continue."

"I don't think so."

Just before the squad leader could send his Genin on their way, a figure appeared right behind him. The voice ringing in his ear was a familiar one. "What do you mean by that, Kabuto?"

In a split second, the voice just chuckled to himself. And then in the rest of the second, blood was spilled. The squad leader fell to the ground, a Kunai embedded deep into his back where his heart was.

Then he turned to the Sand Genin as they looked on in fear, minus the one with bloodlust that couldn't concentrate on anything more then the fact he wanted to kill his prey, the Uchiha. "Wh-What are you doing, Kabuto? The Sand and the Sound are in this together! Why did you kill sensei like that?" Asked the Konoichi

The man just looked down at them with the same look he gave Kakashi as he lept from the hospital window. "Gaara's power is a great one, too great. It's unimaginable what he could do should he ever go completely out of control, or if he should learn to control himself. If the Sand decided to attack the Sound after that happened, we might not be able to stop him."

"But we're your ally!" The puppet user argued. "We joined forces with you because that was the will of the Lord Kazekage!"

Again, the man chuckled. "Your precious Lord Kazekage is dead. He's been dead for over a month now. If your Sand ninja were as competent as you make yourselves out to be, you might have figured out yourselves that the Kazekage up there with the Hokage right now is a fake."

"What?!" The puppet user snapped.

"And even right now, the Sand ninja that performed our snake summonings should be dead from our Sound ninja. The Sand is pathetic, to be willing to give up a completely peaceful treaty because of the will of one man."

He would have continued to mock the Sand Genin before killing them, had it not been for an explosion that came from the rooftop of the building the Hokage and the Kazekage impostor were at. At that very moment, a small snake appeared in front of Kabuto, which he saw as a signal. "So the Four failed. I can at least complete one part of this plan and kill Gaara while he's weak!"

The man pulled out needles to throw at the Sand Genin, to distract them and catch them off guard, but his hands were met by the hands of another. "It's about time you show yourself again, Kabuto. Now how about explaining our last visit?"

"It would seem that nothing in our plan was able to be fulfilled." The man sighed without losing the hint of enjoyment in his voice. "But there's no need for me to die today. Sorry I can't stick around, Kakashi, but I really must be going."

"No!" The Sharingan user exclaimed as the man disappeared in a cloud of smoke. "It was a clone the whole time."

"What do we do now?" The Sand Genin asked each other as they looked at their unstable brother. He had continued to grumble about wanting to kill Sasuke during the whole scene, not even noticing the event that just took place.

"That, is for the Hokage to decide. From what Kabuto mentioned and from what I saw, Lord Kazekage is dead, and Orochimaru was impersonating him." The famous ninja spoke as he stood before him. "Guy was able to get him away safely before the Sound could put their plan to fruition, he'll decide what to do about the relationship between the Leaf and the Sand when he's ready."

From there, he performed his duty as a Leaf shinobi, helping his own squad get to a safe place to recooperate and driving away the remaining Sound ninja with the other Leaf ninja. It was a dark day in the Leaf village, but now began a dark time for the Sand.

Here it is, the complete Prologue! Please review! But also read Chapter 01, please!